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PRINCETON. N. J.
Part of the ADDISON ALEXANDER LIBRARY which was presented by Uessus. P L. Juvd A. Stuam. . .
I
BX 5037 .H6 1825 v. 2 Hooker, Richard, 1553 or 4
1600. The works of Mr. Richard
Hooker
4
V
J* . «
THE
£y>Ynt<2r/£s ^?'.
■^~t
WORKS
OF /
MR. RICHARD liOOKER;
WITH
A GENERAL INDEX:
ALSO,
MR. ISAAC WALTON'S LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
EDITED
By THE REV. W. S. DOBSON, M. A.
OF ST. PSTER'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II.
J. F. Dove, Printer to tlie United University Club,
LONDON:
G. COW1E AND CO. POULTRY ; BAYNES AND SON, PATERNOSTER-ROW, HATCHARD AND SON, PICCADILLY; SMITH, ELDER, AND CO. CORNHILL, R. BAYNES, PATERNOSTER-KOW J DEIGHTON AND SONS, CAMBRIDGE; 3. CUMMTNG, M. KEENE, AND R. M. TIMS, DUBLIN; AND H. S. BAYNES, EDINBURGH.
1825.
LAWS
OF
ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
BOOK V. [CONTINUED.]
K.tc la- ment of the body and
blood of Christ.
67. The grace which we have by the holy Eucharist doth oh, not begin, but continue, life. No man therefore receiveth this Sacrament before Baptism, because no dead thing is capable of nourishment. That which groweth must of ne- cessity first live. If our bodies did not daily waste, food to restore them were a thing superfluous. And it may be that the grace of Baptism would serve to eternal Lite, were it not that the state of our spiritual being is daily so much hindered and impaired after Baptism. In that life there- fore, where neither body nor soul can decay, our souls shall as little require this Sacrament, as our bodies cor- poral nourishment. But as long as the days of our war- fare last, during the time that we are both subject to dimi- nution and capable of augmentation in grace, the words ot our Lord and Saviour Christ will remain forcible, " Except W; ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." Life being therefore proposed unto all men as their end, they which by Baptism have laid the foundation, and attained the first beginning of a new life, have here their nourishment and food prescribed for continuance of life in them. Such as will live the life of God, must eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man; because this is a part of that diet, which if we want we cannot live. Whereas therefore in our infancy we are incorporated into Christ, and by Baptism receive the grace of his Spirit without any sense or feeling of the
VOL. II. B
vi. 53.
2 ECCLESIASTICAL TOLITV.
gift which God bestoweth ; in the Eucharist we so receive the gift of God, that we know by grace what the grace is which God giveth us; the degrees of our own increase in holiness and virtue we see, and can judge of them ; we un- derstand that the strength of our life begun in Christ, is Christ; that his flesh is meat, and his blood drink, not by surmised imagination, but truly, even so truly, that through faith we perceive in the Body and Blood sacramen- tally presented the very taste of eternal Life ; the grace of the Sacrament is here as the food which we eat and drink. This was it that some did exceedingly fear lest Zuinglius and CEcolampadius would bring to pass, that men should account of this Sacrament but only as of a shadow, destitute, empty, and void of Christ. But see- ing, that, by opening the several opinions which have been held, they are grown, for aught I can see, on all sides at the length to a general agreement concerning that which alone is material, namely, the real participation of Christ, and of life in his Body and Blood, by means of this Sacra- ment ; wherefore should the world continue still distracted, and rent with so manifold contentions, when there remain- eth now no controversy, saving only about the subject where Christ is ? Yea, even in this point, no side denieth, but that the soul of man is the receptacle of Christ's pre- sence. Whereby the question is yet driven to a narrow issue, nor doth any thing rest doubtful but this, whether, when the Sacrament is administered, Christ be whole with- in man only, or else his Body and Blood be also exter- nally seated in the very consecrated elements themselves. Which opinion they that defend, are driven either to con- substantiate and incorporate Christ with elements sacra- mental, or to transubstantiate and change their substance into his; and so the one to hold him really, but invisibly, moulded up with the substance of those elements, the other to hide him under the only visible show of Bread and Wine, the substance whereof, as they imagine, is abolished, and his succeeded in the same room. All things consi- dered, and compared with that success which truth hath hitherto had by so bitter conflicts with errors in this point, shall I wish that men would more give themselves to me- ditate with silence what we have by the Sacrament, and less to dispute of the manner how ? If any man suppose
BOOK V.
that this were too great stupidity and dulness, let us see whether the Apostles of our Lord themselves have not done the like. It appeareth by many examples, that they of their own disposition were very scrupulous and inquisi- tive, yea, in other cases of less importance, and less diffi- culty, always apt to move questions. How cometh it to pass, that so few words of so high a mystery being uttered, they receive with gladness the gift of Christ, and make no show of doubt or scruple ? The reason hereof is not dark to them which have any thing at all observed how the powers of the mind are wont to stir, when that which we infinitely long for presenteth itself above and besides ex- pectation. Curious and intricate speculations do hinder, they abate, they quench such inflamed motions of delight and joy as divine graces use to raise when extraordinarily they are present. The mind therefore, feeling present joy, is always marvellous unwilling to admit any other co- gitation, and in that case casteth off those disputes where- unto the intellectual part at other times easily draweth. A manifest effect whereof maybe noted, if we compare with our Lord's Disciples in the twentieth of John, the people that are said in the sixth of John to have gone after him to Capernaum. These leaving him on the one side of the Sea of Tiberias, and finding him again as soon as them- selves by ship were arrived on the contrary side, whither they knew that by ship he came not, and by land the jour- ney was longer than according to the time he could have to travel, as they wondered, so they asked also, " Rabbi, John when earnest thou hither ?" The Disciples, when Christ vu 2 appeared to them in far more strange and miraculous man- ner, moved no question, but rejoiced greatly in what they saw. For why? The one sort beheld only that in Christ which they knew was more than natural, but yet their affec- tion was not rapt therewith through any great extraordi- nary gladness; the other, when they looked on Christ, were not ignorant that they saw the wellspring of their own everlasting felicity ; the one, because they enjoyed not, disputed ; the other disputed not, because they enjoyed. If then the presence of Christ with them did so much move, judge what their thoughts and affections were at the time of this new presentation of Christ, not before their eyes, but within their souls. They had learned before, that his
4 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Flesh and Blood are the true cause of eternal life ; that this they are not by the bare force of their own substance, but through the dignity and worth of his Person, which offered them up by way of sacrifice for the life of the whole world, and doth make them still effectual thereunto; finally, that to us they are life in particular, by being particularly received. Thus much they knew, although as yet they understood not perfectly to what effect or issue the same would come, till at the length being assembled for no other cause which they could imagine but to have eaten the Passover only that Moses appointed, when they saw their Lord and Master, with hands and eyes lifted up to Hea- ven, first bless and consecrate, for the endless good of all generations till the world's end, the chosen elements of Bread and Wine ; which elements, made for ever the in- struments of life by virtue of his divine benediction, they being the first that were commanded to receive from him, the first which were warranted by his promise, that not only unto them at the present time, but to whomsoever they and their successors after them did truly administer the same, those mysteries should serve as conducts of life, and conveyances of his Body and Blood unto them; was it possible they should hear that voice, " Take, eat, this is my Body ; drink ye all of this, this is my Blood ?" pos- sible, that doing what was required, and believing what was promised, the same should have present effect in them, and not fill them with a kind of fearful admiration at the heaven which they saw in themselves ? They had at that time a sea of comfort and joy to wade in, and we by that which they did are taught that this heavenly food is given for the satisfying of our empty souls, and not for the exer- cising of our curious and subtile wits. If we doubt what those admirable words may import, let him be our teacher for the meaning of Christ, to whom Christ was himself a schoolmaster; let our Lord's Apostle be his interpreter, content we ourselves with his explication ; my Body, the communion of my Body: my Blood, the communion of my Blood. Is there any thing more expedite, clear, and easy, than that as Christ is termed our life because through him we obtain life ; so the parts of this Sacrament are his Body and Blood, for that they are so to us, who receiving them, receive that by them which they are termed ? The
BOOK V
Bread and Cup are his Body and Blood, because they are causes instrumental upon the receipt whereof the partici- pation of his Body and Blood ensueth. For that which produceth any certain effect, is not vainly nor iraproperly said to be that very effect whereunto it tendeth. Every cause is in the effect which groweth from it. Our souls and bodies quickened to eternal Life are effects, the cause whereof is the Person of Christ; his Body and Blood are the true wellspring out of which this life floweth. So that his Body and Blood are in that very subject whereunto they minister life ; not only by effect or operation, even as the influence of the heavens is in plants, beasts, men, and in every thing which they quicken ; but also by a far more divine and mystical kind of union, which maketh us one with him, even as he and the Father are one. The real presence of Christ's most blessed Body and Blood is not therefore to be sought for in the Sacrament, but in the wor- thy receiver of the Sacrament. And with this the very order of our Saviour s words agreeth, first, - Take and J^ cat-" then "This is my Bodv which was broken for you:' 26-2 first « Drink ye all of this;" then, followeth, - This is my Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." I see not which way it should be -athered by the words of Christ when and where the Bread is his Body, or the Cup his Blood; but only in the very heart and soul of him which receiveth them. As for the Sacraments, they really exhibit, but for aught we can ga- ther out of that which is written of them, they are not really, nor do really contain in themselves, that grace which with them, or by them, it pleaseth God to bestow. If on all sides it be confessed, that the grace of Baptism is poured into the soul of man ; that by water we receive it, although it be neither seated in the water, nor the water changed into it; what should induce men to think, that the grace of the Eucharist must needs be in the Eucharist before it can be in us that receive it ? The fruit of the Eucharist is the participation of the Body and Blood of Christ. There is no sentence of Holy Scripture which saith, that we cannot by this Sacrament be made partakers of his Body and Blood except thev be first contained in the Sacrament, or the Sacrament converted into them. " This is my Body,' and " This is my Blood," being words of promise, sith we
G ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
all agree, that by the Sacrament Christ doth really and truly in us perform his promise, why do we vainly trouble ourselves with so fierce contentions, whether by Consub- stantiation, or else by Transubstantiation, the Sacrament itself be first possessed with Christ, or no ? A thing which no way can either further or hinder us, howsoever it stand, because our participation of Christ in this Sacrament de- pendeth on the co-operation of his omnipotent power which maketh it his Body and Blood to us ; whether with change or without alteration of the element, such as they imagine, we need not greatly to care or inquire. Take therefore that wherein all agree, and then consider by itself what cause why the rest in question should not rather be left as super- fluous than urged as necessary. It is on all sides plainly confessed, first, that this Sacrament is a true and real participation of Christ, who thereby imparteth himself, even his whole entire Person, as a mystical Head, unto every soul that receiveth him, and that every such re- ceiver doth thereby incorporate or unite himself unto Christ as a mystical member of him, yea, of them also whom he acknowledgeth to be his own. Secondly, that to whom the Person of Christ is thus communicated, to them he giveth by the same Sacrament his Holy Spirit to sanctify them, as it sanctifieth him which is their Head. Thirdly, that what merit, force, or virtue soever, there is in his sa- cred Body and Blood, we freely, fully, and wholly, have it by this Sacrament. Fourthly, that the effect thereof in us, is a real transmutation of our souls and bodies from sin to righteousness, from death and corruption to immortality and life. Fifthly, that because the Sacrament being of itself but a corruptible and earthly creature, must needs be thought an unlikely instrument to work so admirable effects in man, we are therefore to rest ourselves altogether upon the strength of his glorious power, who is able and will bring to pass, that the Bread and Cup which he giveth us shall be truly the thing he promiseth. It seemeth there- fore much amiss, that against them whom they term Sacra- mentaries so many invective discourses are made, all run- ning upon two points, that the Eucharist is not a bare sign or figure only, and that the efficacy of his Body and Blood is not all we receive in this Sacrament. For no man, having read their books and writings which arc thus tra-
BOOK V. 7
duced, can be ignorant that both these assertions they plainly confess to be most true. They do not so interpret the words of Christ, as if the name of his body did im- port but the figure of his body ; and to be, were only to signify his blood. They grant that these holy mysteries, received in due manner, do instrumentally both make us partakers of the grace of that Body and Blood which were given for the life of the world, and besides also impart unto us, even in true and real, though mystical, manner, the very Person of our Lord himself, whole, perfect, and entire, as hath been shewed. Now whereas all three opinions do thus far accord in one, that strong con- ceit which two of the three have embraced, as touching a literal, corporal, and oral manducation of the very sub- stance of his flesh and blood, is surely an opinion no where delivered in Holy Scripture, whereby they should think themselves bound to believe it ; and (to speak with the softest terms we can use) greatly prejudiced in that, when some others did so conceive of eating his flesh, our Saviour, to abate that error in them, gave them directly to under- stand how his flesh so eaten could profit them nothing, because the words which he spake were Spirit ; that is to say, they had a reference to a mystical participation, which mystical participation giveth life. Wherein there is small appearance of likelihood that his meaning should be only to make them Marcionites by inversion, and to teach them, that as Marcion did think Christ seemed to be man, but was not ; so they contrariwise should believe that Christ in truth would so give them, as they thought, his flesh to eat ; but yet, lest the horror thereof should offend them, he would not seem to do that he did. When they which have this opinion of Christ in that blessed Sacrament, go about to explain themselves, and to open after what manner things are brought to pass, the one sort lay the union of Christ's Deity with his Manhood, as their first foundation and ground : from thence they infer a power which the Body of Christ hath, thereby to present itself in all places, out of which ubiquity of his Body they gather the pre- sence thereof with that sanctified bread and wine of our Lord's Table ; the conjunction of his Body and Blood with those elements they use as an argument to shew how the bread may as well in that respect be termed his
8 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Body, because his Body is therewith joined, as the Son of God may be named Man, by reason, that God and Man in the Person of Christ are united ; to this they add, how the words of Christ commanding us to eat must needs import, that as he hath coupled the substance of his flesh and the substance of bread together, so we together should receive both; which labyrinth as the other sort doth justly shun, so the way which they take to the same inn is somewhat more short, but no whit more certain. For through God's omnipotent power they imagine that transubstantiation followeth upon the words of consecra- tion: and, upon transubstantiation, the participation of Christ's both Body and Blood, in the only shape of sacra- mental elements. So that they all three do plead God's omnipotency : Sacramentaries, to that alteration which the rest confess he accomplisheth ; the Patrons of Tran- substantiation, over and besides that, to the change of one substance into another; the Followers of Consub- stantiation, to the kneading of both substances, as it were, into one lump. Touching the sentence of antiquity in this cause ; first, forasmuch as they knew that the force of this Sacrament doth necessarily presuppose the verity of Christ's both Body and Blood, they used oftentimes the same as an argument to prove, that Christ hath as truly the substance of Man as of God ; because here we receive Christ, and those graces which flow from him, in that he is Man : so that, if he have no such being, neither can the Sacrament have any such meaning as we all confess it hath. Thus Tertullian,* thus Irenaeus,t thus Theodoret4 disputeth. Again, as evident it is how they teach that Christ is personally there present, yea present whole, albeit a part of Christ be corporally absent from thence ;
* Acceptum panem et distributum discipulis Corpus suum ilium fecit, ' hoc est Corpus meum' dicendo, idest figura corporis mei. Figuraautem non fuisset, nisi veritatis esset Corpus, cum vacua res, quod est phantasma, figuram capere non possit.' Tertull. contra Marc. lib. iv. cap. 40.
t ' Secundum h;ec (that is to say, if it should be true which Heretics have taught, denying that Christ took upon him the nature of man) nee Dominus san- guine suo redemit nos, neque calix Eucharistise communicatio sanguinis ejus erit, nee panis quern frangimus communicatio corporis ejus est. Sanguis enim non est, nisi a venis et carnibus et a reliqua quas est secundum hominem substantia.' Iren. lib. v. cap. 2.
| Ei toivuv toD ovtoj e-uifjcaTos aVTirwma. ig-ti ra flsia [A-va-rhfut., aSif*a itpa hfri xtu liuv tou demoTou to aSifjui, ovx. el; SsoTDToj (pCriv jUETa/Jx^iStv, aXXa Seia; So'fo; ava7rXno-&£v. Theodor. 'Ac-vyxyro;, [Dial. ii. p. 84.]
BOOK V. »
that Christ,* assisting this heavenly banquet with his personal and true presence,* doth by his own divine power add to the natural substance thereof supernatural efficacy, which % addition to the nature of those conse- crated elements changeth them, and maketh them that unto us which otherwise they could not be, that to us they are thereby made such instruments,§ as mystically yet truly, invisibly yet really, work our communion or fellowship with the Person of Jesus Christ, as well in that he is Man as God, our participation also in the fruit, grace, and efficacy of his Body and Blood ; whereupon there ensueth a kind of transubstantiation in us, a true change H both of soul and body, an alteration from death to life. In a word, it appeareth not, that of all the ancient Fathers of the Church any one did ever conceive or
• ' Sacramenta quidem, quantum in se est, sine propria virtute esse non possunt, nee ullo modo se absentat majestas mysteriis.' Cypr. de Cam. cap. 7.
t ' Sacramento visibili ineffabiliter divina se infundit essentia, ut essetKe- ligioni circa Sacramenta devotio.' Idem cap. 6. ' lnvisibihs sacerdos visibiles creaturas in substantiam corporis et sanguinis sui verbo suo secreta potestate convertit. In spiritualibus Sacramentis verbi praecipit virtus et servit effectus. Euseb. Emissen. Horn. 5. de Pasch. [p. 560. par. i. t. v. Biblioth. Patr. Lat.] _ t [Eran.] Ts o-CpGoXa. toD Ssswr!xoD| e&patk te *ai afcaro? aXXa. fxiv utrt n^o t« hfanmt IwiaXimaif, fxi-ra. Ji yi -rijv ETrocXncrfV ^ETagaXXETat xa.1 srapa yinrat. [Orth.] ' AXX' cm oiwia? i^is-rarai <+>v<nce<;. Msve« yaj im ns wpoT£?a? oim'aj xcu rod (T^aro? nai toZ eiSouj, Jtai opara Is"ri Jtai anrk, oU xai TrgOTE^v h- vosTrai U awEp iysvE-ro xai Tru-rEu- et*» xal tr^uKumtai ax; Ustva ov-ra amp wrivna.L Theodor. [Dial. 11. p. 85.] « Ex quo a Domino dictum est,'; Hoc facite in meam commemorationem, Haec est caro mea, et Hie est sanguis meus, quotiescunque his verbis et hac fide actum est, panis iste supersubstantialis, et calix benedictione solenni sacratus, ad totius hominis vitam salutemque proficit.' Cypr. de Coen. cap. 3. ' Immortahs alimoma. datur, a communibus cibis differens, corporalis substantia retinens speciem, sed virtutis divinee invisibili efficientia probans adesse praesentiam.' Ibid. cap. 2.
§ < Sensibilibus sacramentis inest vitae aeternae effectus, et non tarn corporah quam spirituali transitione Christo unimur. Ipse enim et panis et caro, et san- guis, idem cibus, et substantia et vita factus est Ecclesiae suae quam corpus suum appeliat, dans ei participationem spiritus.' Cypriau. de Coen. cap. 5. ' Nostra et ipsius conjunctio nee miscet personas, nee unit substantias, sed effectus consociat et confoederat voluntatis.' Ibid. cap. 6. ' Mansio nostra in ipso est manducatio, et potus quasi quasdam incorporatio.' Ibid. cap. 9. ' Me est in Patre per na- turam divinitatis, nos in eo per corporalem ejus nativitatem, ille rursus in nobis per Sacramentorum mysterium.' Hilar, de Trin. lib. viii. [§. 15.]
|| < Panis hie azymus cibus verus et sincerus per speciem et sacramentum nos tactu sanctificat, fide illuminat, veritate Christo conformat.' Cypr. de Coen. c. 6. ' ' Non aliud agit participatio corporis et sanguinis Christi, quam ut in id quod su- mimus transeamus, et in quo mortui et sepulti et corresuscitati sumus, ipsum per omnia et spiritu et came gestemus.' Leo de Pasch. Serm. 14. [c. 5. fin.] ' Quem- admodum qui est a terra panis percipiens Dei vocationem (id est facta invo- cation divini numinis) jam non communis panis est, sed Eucharistia, ex duabus rebus constans, terrena et coelesti : sic et corpora nostra, percipientia Luchan- stiam, jam non sunt corruptibilia, spem resurrectionis habentia.' Iren. lib. iv. cap. 34. ' Quoniam salutaris caro verbo Dei quod naturaliter vita est conjuncta, vivifica effecta est ; quando earn comedimus, tunc vitam habemus in nobis, llu carni conjunct!, quae vita effecta est.' Cyril, in Iohan. lib. iv. cap. 14.
10 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
imagine other than only a mystical participation of Christ's both Body and Blood in the Sacrament; neither are their speeches concerning the change of the elements them- selves into the Body and Blood of Christ such, that a man can thereby in conscience assure himself it was their meaning to persuade the world, either of a corporal con- substantiation of Christ with those sanctified and blessed elements before we receive them, or of the like transub- stantiation of them into the Body and Blood of Christ. Which both to our mystical communion with Christ are so unnecessary, that the Fathers, who plainly hold but this mystical communion, cannot easily be thought to have meant any other change of sacramental elements, than that which the same spiritual communion did require them to hold. These things considered, how should that mind which, loving truth and seeking comfort out of holy mys- teries, hath not perhaps the leisure, perhaps not the wit nor capacity, to tread out so endless mazes as the intricate disputes of this cause have led men into, how should a virtuously disposed mind better resolve with itself than thus? ' Variety of judgments and opinions argueth ob- scurity in those things whereabout they differ : but that which all parts receive for truth, that which every one having sifted, is by no one denied or doubted of, must needs be matter of infallible certainty. Whereas, there- fore, there are but three expositions made of, " This is my Body:" the first, This is in itself before participation really and truly the natural substance of my Body, by reason of the coexistence which my omnipotent Body hath with the sanctified element of bread, which is the Luthe- ran's interpretation ; the second, This is in itself and be- fore participation the very true and natural substance of my Body, by force of that Deity, which with the words of consecration abolisheth the substance of bread, and sub- stituted in the place thereof my Body, which is the Popish construction ; the last, This hallowed food, through con- currence of divine power, is, in verity and truth, unto faithful receivers, instrumentally a cause of that mystical participation, whereby as I make myself wholly theirs, so I give them in hand an actual possession of all such saving grace as my sacrificed Body can yield, and as their souls do presently need, this is to them, and in them, my
BOOK V. 11
Body : of these three rehearsed interpretations, the last hath in it nothing but what the rest do all approve and acknowledge to be most true; nothing but that which the words of Christ are, on all sides, confessed to en- force ; nothing but that which the Church of God hath always thought necessary ; nothing but that which alone is sufficient for every Christian man to believe concern- ing the use and force of this Sacrament; finally, no- thing but that wherewith the writings of all antiquity are consonant, and all Christian Confessions agreeable. And as truth, in what kind soever, is by no kind of truth gainsayed ; so the mind, which resteth itself on this, is never troubled with those perplexities which the other do find, by means of so great contradiction between their opinions and true principles of reason grounded upon experience, nature, and sense : which albeit, with bois- terous courage and breath, they seem oftentimes to blow away ; yet whoso observeth how again they labour and sweat by subtilty of wit to make some show of agreement between their peculiar conceits and the general edicts of Nature, must needs perceive they struggle with that which they cannot fully master. Besides, sith of that which is proper to themselves, their discourses are hungry and un- pleasant, full of tedious and irksome labour, heartless, and hitherto without fruit; on the other side, read we them or hear we others, be they of our own or of ancienter times, to what part soever they be thought to incline, touching that whereof there is controversy, yet in this, where they all speak but one thing, their discourses are heavenly, their words sweet as the honeycomb, their tongues melodiously tuned instruments, their sentences mere consolation and joy, are we not hereby, almost even with voice from Heaven, admonished which we may safeliest cleave unto? He which hath said of the one Sacrament, 1 Wash and be clean,' hath said concerning the other likewise, ' Eat and live.' If, therefore, without any such particular and solemn warrant as this is, that poor distressed woman coming unto Christ for health could so constantly resolve herself, ' May I but touch the skirt of his garment, I shall be whole,' what moveth us to argue of the manner how life should come by bread, our duty being here but to t^kc what is offered, and most assuredly to rest persuaded of this, that can we but cat, we are safe ? When I behold
12 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
with mine eyes some small and scarce discernible grain or seed, whereof Nature maketh a promise that a tree shall come, and when afterwards of that tree any skilful artificer undertaketh to frame some exquisite and curious work, I look for the event, I move no question about performance either of the one or of the other. Shall 1 simply credit Nature in things natural ? shall I in things artificial rely myself on art, never offering to make doubt? and in that which is above both Art and Nature refuse to believe the Author of both, except he acquaint me with his ways, and lay the secret of his skill before me ? Where God himself doth speak those things which, either for height and sub- limity of the matter, or else for secrecy of performance, we are not able to reach unto, as we may be ignorant without danger, so it can be no disgrace to confess we are ignorant. Such as love piety will, as much as in them lieth, know all things that God commandeth, but especially the duties of service which they owe to God. As for his dark and hidden works, they prefer, as becometh them in such cases, simplicity of Faith before that knowledge, which curiously sifting what it should adore, and disputing too boldly of that which the wit of man cannot search, chilleth for the most part all warmth of zeal, and bringeth sound- ness of belief many times into great hazard. Let it there- fore be sufficient for me, presenting myself at the Lord's Table, to know what there I receive from him, without searching or inquiring of the manner how Christ performeth his promise ; let disputes and questions, enemies to piety, abatements of true devotion, and hitherto in this cause but over patiently heard, let them take their rest; let curious and sharp-witted men beat their heads about what questions themselves will; the very letter of the Word of Christ giveth plain security, that these mysteries do, as nails, fasten us to his very Cross, that by them we draw out, as touching efficacy, force, and virtue, even the blood of his gored side ; in the wounds of our Redeemer we there dip our tongues, we are dyed red both within and without; our hunger is satisfied, and our thirst for ever quenched ; they are things wonderful which he feeleth, great which he seeth, and unheard of which he uttereth, whose soul is possessed of this Paschal Lamb, and made joyful in the strength of this new Wine ; this Bread hath in it more than the substance which our eyes behold, this
BOOK V.
13
Cup hallowed with solemn benediction availeth to the endless life and welfare both of soul and body; in that it serveth as well for a medicine to heal our infirmities and pur-e our sins, as for a sacrifice of thanksgiving; with touching it sanctifieth, it enlighteneth with belief, it truly conformeth us unto the image of Jesus Christ. What these elements are in themselves it skilleth not ; it is enough, that to me which take them they are the Body and Blood of Christ ; his promise in witness hereof sufficeth ; his word he knoweth which way to accomplish; why should any cogitation possess the mind of a faithful communicant but this, O my God, thou art true ; O my soul, thou art happy !" Thus, therefore, we see, that howsoever men's opinions do otherwise vary ; nevertheless, touching Bap- tism and the Supper of our Lord, we may with one consent of the whole Christian world conclude they are necessary, the one to initiate or begin, the other to consummate or make perfect, our life in Christ.
68. In administering the Sacrament of the Body and «*» Blood of Christ, the supposed faults of the Church of Eng- a,. *«* land are not greatly material, and therefore it shall suffice to °ais^e touch them in few words. " The first is, that we do not use £*J in generality once for all to say to Communicants, 'Take, ««»». eat, and drink ;' but unto every particular person, ' Eat thou, drink thou,' which is according to the Popish manner, and not the form that our Saviour did use. Our second over- sight is, by gesture ; for in kneeling there hath been Su- perstition : sitting agreeth better to the action of a supper ; and our Saviour using that which was most fit, did himself not kneel. A third accusation is, for not examining all Com- municants, whose knowledge in the mystery of the Gospel should that way be made manifest ; a thing every where, they say, used in the Apostles' times, because all things necessary were used ; and this in their opinion is neces- sary, yea, it is commanded, inasmuch as the Levites are so.™, commanded to prepare the people for the Passover ; and ex- amination is a part of their preparation, our Lord's Supper being in place of the Passover. The fourth thing mishked is, that against the Apostle's prohibition, to have any fa- ^ miliarity at all with notorious offenders, Papists being not ' of the Church are admitted to our very Communion, be- fore they have by their religions and Gospel-like behaviour
lCor. v. 11.
cap. 8S.
14 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
purged themselves of that suspicion of Popery which their former life hath caused. They are dogs, swine, unclean beasts, foreigners and strangers from the Church of God ; and therefore ought not to be admitted, though they offer themselves. We are, fifthly, condemned, inasmuch as when there hath been store of people to hear Sermons and Service in the Church, we suffer the Communion to be mi- nistered to a few. It is not enough, that our Book of Com- mon Prayer hath godly exhortations to move all thereunto which are present. For it should not suffer a few to com- municate, it should by Ecclesiastical discipline and civil punishment provide that such as would withdraw themselves might be brought to communicate, according both to the Num. Law of God and the ancient Church-canons. In the sixth can. ix. and last place, cometh the enormity of imparting this Sacra- concil. ment privately unto the sick." Thus far accused, we an- Brac. swer briefly to the first,* that seeing God by Sacraments doth apply in particular unto every man's person the grace which himself hath provided for the benefit of all mankind, there is no cause why administering the Sacraments we should forbear to express that in forms of speech, which he by his Word and Gospel teacheth all to believe. In the one Sacrament, * I baptize thee,' displeaseth them not. If ' Eat thou,' in the other offend them, their fancies are no rules for Churches to follow. Whether Christ at his last Supper did speak generally once to all, or to every one in particular, is a thing uncertain. His words are recorded in that form which serveth best for the setting down with historical bre- vity what was spoken ; they are no manifest proof that he spake but once unto all which did then communicate, much less that we in speaking unto every Communicant severally do amiss, although it were clear that we herein do otherwise than Christ did. Our imitation of him con- sisted not in tying scrupulously ourselves unto his sylla- bles, but rather in speaking by the heavenly direction of that inspired divine wisdom, which teacheth divers ways to one end ; and doth therein control their boldness, by
* ' Besides that it is good to leave the Popish Form in those things, which we may so conveniently do, it is best to corneas near the manner of Celebration of the Supper which our Saviour Christ did use, as may be. And if it be a good argu- ment to prove that therefore we must rather say, Take thou, than Take ye, because the Sacrament is an application of the benefits of Christ, it behoveth that the Preacher should direct his admonitions particularly one after another, unto all those which hear his Sermon, which is a thing absurd.' T. C. lib. i. p. 166.
BOOK V. 15
whom any profitable way is censured as reprovable, only under colour of some small difference from great examples going before. To do throughout every the like circum- stance the same which Christ did in this action, were, by following his footsteps in that sort, to err more from the purpose he aimed at, than we now do by not following them with so nice and severe strictness. They little weigh with themselves how dull, how heavy, and almost how without sense, the greatest part of the common multitude every where is, who think it either unmeet or unnecessary to put them, even man by man, especially at that time, in mind whereabout they are. It is true, that in Sermons we do not use to repeat our sentences severally to every par- ticular hearer; a strange madness it were if we should. The softness of wax may induce a wise man to set his stamp or image therein; it persuadeth no man, that be- cause wool hath the like quality, it may therefore receive the like impression. So the reason taken from the use of Sacraments, in that they are instruments of grace unto every particular man, may with good congruity lead the Church to frame accordingly her words in Administration of Sacraments, because they easily admit this Form ; which being in Sermons a thing impossible, without apparent ridi- culous absurdity, agreement of Sacraments with Sermons in that which is alleged as a reasonable proof of conve- niency for the one, proveth not the same allegation imper- tinent, because it doth not enforce the other to be admi- nistered in like sort. For equal principles do then avail unto equal conclusions, when the matter whereunto we ap- ply them is equal, and not else. Our kneeling at Com- munions is the gesture of piety.* If we did there present ourselves but to make some show or dumb resemblance of a spiritual Feast, it maybe that sitting were the fitter cere- mony ; but coming as receivers of inestimable grace at the hands of God, what doth better beseem our bodies at that hour, than to be sensible witnesses of minds unfeignedly humbled ? Our Lord himself did that which custom and *ong usage had made fit; we, that which fitness and great ^cency hath made usual. The trial of ourselves, before eat of this Bread, and drink of this Cup, is, by express
oiCneelingcarrieth a show of worship : Sitting agreeth better with the action >pper. Christ and his Apostles kneeled not.' T. C. lib. i. p. 165.
16 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
commandment, every man's precise duty. As for neces- sity of calling others unto account besides ourselves, albeit we be not thereunto drawn by any great strength which is in their arguments, who first press us with it as a thing ne- cessary, by affirming that the Apostles did use it,* and then prove the Apostles to have used it by affirming it to be necessary ; again, albeit we greatly muse how they can avouch that God did command the Levites to prepare their brethren against the Feast of the Passover, and that the examination of them was a part of their preparation, when the place alleged to this purpose doth but charge the Le- vite, saying, "Make ready Laahhechem for your brethren," to the end they may do according to the word of the Lord by Moses : wherefore in the self-same place it followeth, how lambs, and kids, and sheep, and bullocks, were deli- vered unto the Levites, and that thus the Service was made ready ; it followeth likewise, how the Levites having in such sort provided for the people, they made provision for themselves, " and for the Priests, the sons of Aaron:" so that confidently from hence to conclude the necessity of examination, argueth their wonderful great forwardness in framing all things to serve their turn ; nevertheless, the examination of Communicants when need requireth, for the profitable use it may have in such cases, we reject not. icor. Our fault in admitting Popish Communicants, is it in that t.cV we are forbidden to eat, and therefore much more to com- lib1^ municate with notorious malefactors ? The name of a Pa- pist is not given unto any man for being a notorious male- factor : and the crime wherewith we are charged, is suf- fering Papists to communicate ; so that, be their life and conversation whatsoever in the sight of man, their Popish opinions are in this case laid as bars and exceptions against them ; yea, those opinions which they have held in former times, although they now both profess by word, and offer to shew by fact the contrary.t All this doth not jus-
* ' All things necessary were used in the Churches of God in the Apostles' times ; but examination was a necessary thing, therefore used. In the Book of Chroni- cles (2 Chron. xxxv. 6.) the Levites were commanded to prepare the people to ♦' receiving of the Passover, in place whereof we have the Lord's Supper. Now e ruination being a part of the preparation, it followeth that here is commandr of the examination.' T. C. lib. i. p. 164.
t ' Although they would receive the Communion, yet they ought to be kerecf until such time as by their religious and Gospel-like behaviour, theyhavcion themselves of that suspicion of Popery which their former life and cor hath caused to be conceived.' T. C. lib. i. p. 167.
BOOK V. 17
tify us, which ought not (they say) to admit them in any wise, till their Gospel-like behaviour have removed all sus- picion of Popery from them, because Papists are " dogs, swine, beasts, foreigners and strangers from the House of God;" in a word, " they are not of the Church." What the terms of the Gospel-like behaviour may include is ob- scure and doubtful ; but of the visible Church of Christ in this present world, from which they separate all Papists, we are thus persuaded. Church is a word which art hath devised, thereby to sever and distinguish that society of men which professeth the true Religion, from the rest which profess it not. There have been in the world, from the very first foundation thereof, but three Religions : Pa- ganism, which lived in the blindness of corrupt and de- praved nature; Judaism, embracing the Law which re- formed heathenish impieties, and taught salvation to be looked for through one whom God in the last days would send and exalt to be Lord of all ; finally, Christian Belief, which yieldeth obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and acknowledgethhim the Saviour whom God did promise. Seeing then that the Church is a name, which art hath given to professors of true Religion; as they which will de- fine a man, are to pass by those qualities wherein one man doth excel another, and to take only those essential pro- perties whereby a man doth differ from creatures of other kinds, so he that will teach what the Church is, shall never rightly perform the work whereabout he goeth, till in matter of Religion he touch that difference which severeth the Church's Religion from theirs who are not the Church. Religion being therefore a matter partly of contemplation, partly of action ; we must define the Church, which is a re- ligious Society, by such differences as do properly explain the essence of such things, that is to say, by the object or matter whereabout the contemplations and actions of the Church are properly conversant. For so all knowledges and all virtues are defined. Whereupon, because the only object, which separateth ours from other Religions, is Jesus Christ, in whom none but the Church doth believe, and whom none but the Church doth worship ; we find that ac- cordingly the Apostles do every where distinguish hereby the Church from Infidels and from Jews, " accounting them which call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to vol. ii. c
18 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
be his Church." If we go lower, we shall but add unto this certain casual and variable accidents, which are not properly of the being, but make only for the happier and better being, of the Church of God, either in deed, or in men's opinions and conceits. This is the error of all Po- pish definitions that hitherto have been brought. They define not the Church by that which the Church essentially is, but by that wherein they imagine their own more per- fect than the rest are. Touching parts of eminency and perfection, parts likewise of imperfection and defect, in the Church of God, they are infinite, their degrees and differ- ences no way possible to be drawn unto any certain ac- count. There is not the least contention and variance, but it blemisheth somewhat the unity that ought to be in the Rom. Chuech 0f Christ, which notwithstanding may have, not icor. only without offence or breach of concord, her manifold varieties in Rites and Ceremonies of Religion, but also her strifes and contentions many times, and that about matters of no small importance ; yea, her schisms, factions, and such other evils whereunto the body of the Church is sub- ject, sound and sick remaining both of the same body, as long as both parts retain by outward profession that vital substance of truth, which maketh Christian Religion to dif- fer from theirs which acknowledge not our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Saviour of mankind, give no credit to his glorious Gospel, and have his Sacraments, the seals of eternal life, in derision. Now the privilege of the visible Church of God (for of that we speak) is to be herein like the Ark of Noah, that, for any thing we know to the con- trary, all without it are lost sheep ; yet in this was the Ark of Noah privileged above the Church, that whereas none of them which were in the one could perish, numbers in the other are cast away, because to eternal life our profession is not enough. Many things exclude from the Kingdom of God, although from the Church they separate not. In the Church there arise sundry grievous storms, by means whereof whole kingdoms and nations professing Christ, both have been heretofore, and are at this present day, divided about Christ. During which divisions and conten- tions amongst men, albeit each part do justify itself, yet the one of necessity must needs err, if there be any contra- diction between them, be it great or little ; and what side
BOOK V. 19
soever it be that hath the truth, the same we must also ac- knowledge alone to hold with the true Church in that point, and consequently reject the other as an enemy, in that case fallen away from the true Church. Wherefore, of hypocrites and dissemblers, whose profession at the first J^J was but only from the teeth outward, when they afterwards took occasion to oppugn certain principal articles of Faith, the Apostles which defended the truth against them, pro- nounce them gone out from the fellowship of sound and sincere believers, when as yet the Christian Religion they had not utterly cast off. In like sense and meaning, throughout all ages, Heretics have justly been hated, as branches cut off from the body of the true Vine ; yet only so far forth cut off as their Heresies have extended. Both Heresy, and many other crimes which wholly sever from God, do sever from the Church of God in part only. The mystery of piety, saith the Apostle, is without peradven- ture great : " God hath been manifested in the flesh, hath 1Tiin been justified in the Spirit, hath been seen of Angels, hath »*■ l6- been preached to nations, hath been believed on in the world, hath been taken up into glory." The Church is a pil- lar and foundation of this truth, which no where is known or professed but only within the Church, and they all of the Church that profess it. In the meanwhile it cannot be de- nied, that many profess this, who are not therefore cleared simply from all either faults or errors, which make separa- tion between us and the wellspring of our happiness. Ido- latry severed of old the Israelites, iniquity those Scribes and Pharisees, from God, who notwithstanding were a part of the seed of Abraham, a part of that very seed which God did himself acknowledge to be his Church. The Church of God may therefore contain both them which indeed are not his, yet must be reputed his by us that know not their inward thoughts, and them whose apparent wickedness testifieth even in the sight of the whole world that God abhorreth them. For to this and no other purpose are meant those parables, which our Saviour in the Gospel Matt hath concerning mixture of vice with virtue, light with darkness, truth with error, as well an openly known and seen, as a cunningly cloaked, mixture. That which sepa- rateth therefore utterly, that which cutteth off clean from the visible Church of Christ, is plain apostacy, direct de- c 2
XUl.
24. 4T.
20 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
nial, utter rejection of the whole Christian Faith, as far as the same is professedly different from Infidelity. Here- tics, as touching those points of doctrine wherein they fail; Schismatics, as touching- the quarrels for which, or the duties wherein they divide themselves from their brethren ; loose, licentious, and wicked persons, as touching their several offences or crimes, have all forsaken the true Church of God : the Church which is sound and sincere in the doctrine that they corrupt ; the Church that keepeth the bond of unity which they violate; the Church that walketh in the laws of righteousness which they trans- gress ; this very true Church of Christ they have left, howbeit not altogether left, nor forsaken simply the Church; upon the main foundations whereof they con- tinue built, notwithstanding these breaches whereby they are rent at the top asunder. Now, because for redress of professed errors and open schisms it is, and must be, the Church's care that all may in outward conformity be one ; as the laudable Polity of former ages, even so our own to that end and purpose hath established divers Laws, the moderate severity whereof is a mean both to stay the rest, and to reclaim such as heretofore have been led awry. But seeing that the offices which Laws require are always definite, and when that they require is done they go no farther, whereupon sundry ill-affected persons, to save themselves from danger of Laws, pretend obedience, al- beit inwardly they carry still the same hearts which they did before ; by means whereof it falleth out, that receiving unworthily the blessed Sacrament at our hands, they eat and drink their own damnation : it is for remedy of this mischief here determined,* that whom the Law of the
* ' If the place of the fifth to the Corinthians do forbid that we should have any familiarity with notorious offenders, it doth more forbid that they should be received to the Communion ; and therefore Papists being such, as which are noto- riously known to hold heretical opinions, ought not to be admitted, much less compelled to the Supper. For seeing that our Saviour Christ did institute his Supper amongst his Disciples, and those only which were, as St. Paul speaketh, within ; it is evident, that the Papists being without, and foreigners and strangers from the Church of God, ought not to be received if they would offer themselves ; and that Minister that shall give the Supper of the Lord to him which is known to be a Papist, and which hath never made any clear renouncing of Popery with which he hath been defiled, doth profane the Table of the Lord, and doth give the meat that is prepared for the children unto dogs ; and he bringeth into the pas- ture, which is provided for the sheep, swine and unclean beasts, contrary to the faith and trust that ought to be in a steward of the Lord's house, as he is. For albeit, that 1 doubt not, but many of those which are now Papists pertain to
BOOK V. 21
Realm doth punish unless they communicate, such, if they offer to obey Law, the Church notwithstanding should not admit without probation before had of their Gospel-like behaviour. Wherein they first set no time, how long this supposed probation must continue ; again, they nominate no certain judgment, the verdict whereof shall approve men's behaviour to be Gospel-like; and, that which is most material, whereas they seek to make it more hard for dissemblers to be received into the Church than Law and Polity as yet hath done, they make it in truth more easy for such kind of persons to wind themselves out of the Law, and to continue the same they were. The Law re- quireth at their hands that duty which in conscience doth touch them nearest, because the greatest difference be- tween us and them is the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, whose name in the Service of our Commu- nion we celebrate with due honour, which they in the error of their Mass profane. As therefore on our part to hear Mass were an open departure from that sincere profession wherein we stand ; so if they on the other side receive our Communion, they give us the strongest pledge of fidelity that man can demand. What their hearts are, God doth know. But if they which mind treachery to God and man, should once apprehend this advantage given them, where- by they may satisfy Law in pretending themselves con- formable (for what can Law with reason or justice re- quire more ?), and yet be sure the Church will accept no such offer till their Gospel-like behaviour be allowed, after that our own simplicity hath once thus fairly eased them from the sting of the Law ; it is to be thought they will learn the mystery of Gospel-like behaviour when leisure serveth them. And so while without any cause we fear
the election of God, which God also in his good time will call to the knowledge of his truth: yet, notwithstanding, they ought to be unto the Minister, and unto the Church, touching the ministering of the Sacraments, as strangers, and as un- clean beasts. The ministering of the holy Sacraments unto them, is a declaration and seal of God's favour and reconciliation with them, and a plain preaching, partly, that they be washed already from their sin, partly, that they are of the house- hold of God, and such as the Lord will feed to eternal life; which is not lawful to be done unto those which are not of the household of faith. And, therefore, I conclude, that the compelling of Papists unto the Communion, and the dismissing and letting of them go, when as they be to be punished for their stubbornness in Popery (with this condition, if they will receive the Communion), is very un- lawful ; when as, although they would receive it, yet they ought to be kept back, till such time as by their religious and Gospel-like behaviour, &c* T. C. lib. i. p. 167. *
22 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
to profane Sacraments, we shall not only defeat the pur- pose of most wholesome Laws, but lose or wilfully hazard those souls, from whom the likeliest means of full and per- fect recovery are by our indiscretion withheld. For nei- ther doth God thus bind us to dive into men's consciences, nor can their fraud and deceit hurt any man but them- selves. To him they seem such as they are ; but to us they must be taken for such as they seem. In the eye of God they are against Christ that are not truly and sin- cerely with him ; in our eyes they must be received as with Christ, that are not to outward show against him. The case of impertinent and notorious sinners is not like unto theirs, whose only imperfection is error severed from per- tinacy ; error in appearance content to submit itself to better instruction ; error so far already cured, as to crave at our hands that Sacrament, the hatred and utter refusal whereof was the weightiest point wherein heretofore they swerved and went astray. In this case therefore they cannot reasonably charge us with remiss dealing, or with carelessness to whom we impart the mysteries of Christ ; but they have given us manifest occasion to think it requi- site that we earnestly advise rather, and exhort them to consider as they ought their sundry oversights : first, in equalling indistinctly crimes with errors, as touching force to make uncapable of this Sacrament; secondly, in suffer- ing indignation at the faults of the Church of Rome to blind and withhold their judgments from seeing that which withal they should acknowledge, concerning so much, neverthe- less, still due to the same Church, as to be held and reputed a part of the House of God, a limb of the visible Church of Christ ; thirdly, in imposing upon the Church a burden to enter farther into men's hearts, and to make a deeper search of their consciences, than any Law of God or reason of man enforceth ; fourthly and lastly, in repelling, under colour of longer trial, such from the mysteries of heavenly grace, as are both capable thereof by the Laws of God, for any thing we hear to the contrary, and should in divers consi- derations be cherished according to the merciful examples and precepts whereby the Gospel of Christ hath taught us towards such to shew compassion, to receive them with lenity and all meekness; if any thing be shaken in them, to strengthen it; not to quench with delays and jealousies
BOOK V
23
that feeble smoke of conformity which seemeth to breathe from them, but to build wheresoever there is any founda- tion ; to add perfection unto slender beginnings ; and that, as by other offices of piety, even so by this very food of life which Christ hath left in his Church, not only for pre- servation of strength, but also for relief of weakness. But t-.c- to return to our own selves, in whom the next thing se- P. w. verely reproved is the paucity of Communicants. If they require at Communions frequency, we wish the same, know- ing how acceptable unto God such service is, when mul- 2 chron. titudes cheerfully concur unto it; if they encourage men p**1# ' thereunto, we also (themselves acknowledge it) are notcxxiil- utterly forgetful to do the like; if they require some public coaction for remedy of that, wherein by milder and softer means little good is done, they know our Laws and Sta- tutes provided in that behalf, whereunto whatsoever con- venient help may be added more by the wisdom of man, what cause have we given the world to think that we are not ready to hearken to it, and to use any good means of sweet compulsion to have this high and heavenly banquet Lake largely furnished ? Only we cannot so far yield as to xlv' 2 judge it convenient, that the holy desire of a competent number should be unsatisfied, because the greater part is careless aand indisposed to join with them. Men should not (they say) be permitted a few by themselves to com- municate when so many are gone away, because this Sa- crament is a token of our conjunction with our brethren; and therefore, by communicating apart from them, we make an apparent show of distraction. I ask then, on which side unity is broken, whether on theirs that depart, or on theirs who being left behind do communicate 1 First, in the one it is not denied but that they may have reason- able causes of departure, and that then even they are de- livered from just blame. Of such kind of causes two are allowed, namely, danger of impairing health, and neces- sary business requiring our presence otherwhere. And may not a third cause, which is unfitness at the present time, detain us as lawfully back as either of these two ? True it is, that we cannot hereby altogether excuse our- selves, for that we ought to prevent this, and do not. But, if we have committed a fault in not preparing our minds before, shall we therefore aggravate the same with a worse ;
24 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
the crime of unworthy participation? He that abstaineth doth want for the time that grace and comfort which re- ligious Communicants have ; but he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, receive th death ; that which is life to others, turneth in him to poison. Notwithstanding, whatsoever be the cause for which men abstain, were it reason that the fault of one part should any way abridge their benefit that are not faulty? There is in all the Scripture of God no one syllable which doth condemn communicating amongst a few, when the rest are departed from them. t. c As for the last thing, which is our imparting this Sacra- p. 146. ment privately to the sick, whereas there have been of old (they grant) two kinds of necessity wherein this Sacra- ment might be privately administered; of which two, the one being erroneously imagined, and the other (they say) continuing no longer in use, there remaineth unto us no necessity at all for which that custom should be retained. The falsely surmised necessity is that whereby some have thought all such excluded from possibility of Salvation, as did depart this life, and never were made partakers of the holy Eucharist. The other cause of necessity was, when men which had fallen in time of persecution, and had af- terwards repented them, but were not as yet received again unto the fellowship of this Communion, did at the hour of death request it, that so they might rest with greater quiet- ness and comfort of mind, being thereby assured of depar- ture in unity of Christ's Church ; which virtuous desire the Fathers did think it great impiety not to satisfy. This was Serapion's case of necessity. Serapion, a faithful aged person, and always of very upright life, till fear of persecution in the end caused him to shrink back, after long sorrow for his scandalous offence, and suit oftentimes made to be pardoned of the Church, fell at length into grievous sickness, and being ready to yield up the ghost, was then more instant than ever before to receive the Sa- crament. Which Sacrament was necessary in this case, not that Serapion had been deprived of everlasting life without it, but that his end was thereby to him made the more comfortable. And do we think, that all cases of such necessity are clean vanished ? Suppose that some have by mispersuasion lived in Schism, withdrawn themselves from holy and public assemblies, hated the Prayers, and
BOOK V.
25
loathed the Sacraments of the Church, falsely presuming them to be fraught with impious and Antichristian corrup- tions ; which error the God of mercy and truth opening at length their eyes to see, they do not only repent them of the evil which they have done, but also in token thereof desire to receive comfort by that whereunto they have offered disgrace (which may be the case of many poor seduced souls, even at this day) : God forbid we should think that the Church doth sin, in permitting the wounds of such to be supplied with that oil which this gracious Sacrament doth yield, and their bruised minds not only need but beg. There is nothing which the soul of man doth desire in that last hour so much as comfort against the natural terrors of death, and other scruples of con- science which commonly do then most trouble and per- plex the weak ; towards whom the very Law of God doth exact at our hands all the helps that Christian lenity and indulgence can afford. Our general consolation departing this life is, the hope of that glorious and blessed Resur- rection which the Apostle St. Paul nameth l^avaaramv* 1 cor. to note that as all men should have their avaaTamv, and be ^n. ' raised again from the dead, so the just shall be taken up iii,n- and exalted above the rest, whom the power of God doth but raise, and not exalt. This Life, and this Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, is for all men, as touching the sufficiency of that he hath done ; but that which maketh us partakers thereof, is our particular communion with Christ; and this Sacrament a principal mean, as well to strengthen the bond, as to multiply in us the fruits of the same communion. For which cause St. Cyprian f termeth it ' a joyful solemnity of expedite and speedy resurrec- tion ;' Ignatius,| '■ a medicine which procureth immortality and preventeth death ;' Irenaeus,§ ' the nourishment of our bodies to eternal life, and their preservative from cor- ruption.' || Now because that Sacrament, which at all times we may receive unto this effect, is then most acceptable
* Aii rhv in t>j? yr,s eirapo-tv. Theophyi. ITaVTEj d avQgaiTtoi aviVravrai, y.ovoi 51 irte-rdi a.%ioZvrai tuv ayaQZv. Ammon. Vide 1 Thess. iv. 17.
t ' Maturats resurrectionis Itetabunda solemnia.' Cypr. de Ccen. Dom. cap. 10.
f <t>i.?[Aa.m>v aQavas-i'a;, avn'SoTov fxh Savt"v. Ignat. Epist. ad Ephes. [c. 20.]
§ Iren. lib. iv. cap. 34.
|| ' Etsi nihil facile mutandum est ex solemnibus, tamen ubi squitas evidens poscit, subveniendum est.' Lib. cxxxviii. ff. de Reg. Jur.
26 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
and most fruitful, when any special extraordinary occa- sion, nearly and presently urging, kindleth our desires to- wards it, their severity, who cleave unto that alone which is generally fit to be done, and so make all men's condi- tions alike, may add much affliction to divers troubled and grieved minds, of whose particular estate particular re- spect being had, according to the charitable order of the Church wherein we live, there ensueth unto God that glory which his righteous Saints, comforted in their greatest dis- tresses, do yield, and unto them which have their reason- able petitions satisfied, the same contentment, tranquillity, and joy, that others before them, by means of like satis- faction, have reaped, and wherein we all are or should be desirous finally to take our leave of the world, whensoever our own uncertain time of most assured departure shall come. Concerning, therefore, both Prayers and Sacra- ments, together with our usual and received Form of admi- nistering the same in the Church of England, let thus much suffice. of Fes- 69. As the substance of God alone is infinite and hath days, no kind of limitation, so likewise his continuance is from nafuSi everlasting to everlasting, and knoweth neither beginning causes nor emj. Which demonstrable conclusion being presup-
ot their
conveni- posed, it followeth necessarily, that besides him, all things '" are finite both in substance and in continuance. If in sub- stance all things be finite, it cannot be but that there are bounds without the compass whereof their substance doth not extend ; if in continuance also limited, they all have, it cannot be denied, their set and their certain terms, be- fore which they had no being at all. This is the reason why, first, we do most admire those things which are greatest ; and, secondly, those things which are ancientest ; because the one are least distant from the infinite sub- stance, the other from the infinite continuance, of God. Out of this we gather, that only God hath true immortality or eternity, that is to say, continuance wherein there groweth no difference by addition of hereafter unto now, whereas the noblest and perfectest of all things besides have continually, through continuance, the time of former continuance lengthened ; so that they could not heretofore be said to have continued so long as now, neither now so long as hereafter. God's own eternity is the hand which
ent insti- tution.
BOOK V.
27
leadeth Angels in the course of tbeir perpetuity ; their perpetuity the hand which draweth out celestial motion ; the line of which motion, and the thread of time, are spun together. Now as Nature bringeth forth time with motion, so we by motion have learned how to divide time, and by the smaller parts of time both to measure the greater, and to know how long all things else endure. For time, con- sidered in itself, is but the flux of that very instant wherein the motion of the Heaven began; being coupled with other things, it is the quantity of their continuance measured by the distance of two instants ; as the time of a man, is a man's continuance from the instant of his first breath, till the instant of his last gasp. Hereupon some have defined time to be the measure of the motion of Heaven ; because the first thing which time doth measure is that motion wherewith it began, by the help whereof it measureth other things ; as when the Prophet David saith, that a man's continuance doth not commonly exceed three- score and ten years, he useth the help both of motion and number to measure time. They which make time an effect of motion, and motion to be in nature before time, ought to have considered with themselves, that albeit we should deny, as Melissus did, all motion, we might notwithstand- ing acknowledge time, because time doth but signify the quantity of continuance, which continuance may be in things that rest and are never moved. Besides, we may also consider in rest both that which is past, and that which is present, and that which is future; yea, further, even length and shortness in every of these, although we never had conceit of motion. But to define, without motion, how long or how short such continuance is, were im- possible. So that herein we must of necessity use the benefit of years, days, hours, minutes, which all grow from celestial motion. Again, forasmuch as that motion is circular whereby we make our divisions of time, and the compass of that circuit such, that the heavens, which are therein continually moved and keep in their motions uniform celerity, must needs touch often the same points, they cannot choose but bring unto us by equal distances frequent returns of the same times. Furthermore, whereas time is nothing but a mere quantity of that continuance which all things have, that are not, as God is, without be-
28 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
ginning, that which is proper unto all quantities agrecth also to this kind ; so that time doth but measure other things, and neither worketh in them any real effect nor is itself ever capable of any. And, therefore, when com- monly we use to say, that time doth eat or fret out all things ; that time is the wisest thing in the world, because it bringeth forth all knowledge ; and that nothing is more foolish than time, which never holdeth any thing long, but whatsoever one day learneth, the same another day for- getteth again ; that some men see prosperous and happy days, and that some men's days are miserable : in all these, and the like speeches, that which is uttered of the time is not verified of time itself, but agreeth unto those things which are in time, and do by means of so near conjunction either lay their burden upon the back, or set their crown upon the head, of time. Yea, the very opportunities which we ascribe to time,* do in truth cleave to the things them- selves wherewith the time is joined. As for time, it neither causeth things, nor opportunities of things, although it comprise and contain both. All things whatsoever having their time, the works of God have always that time which is seasonablest and fittest for them. His works are some ordinary, some more rare ; all worthy of observation, but not all of like necessity to be often remembered ; they all have their times, but they all do not add the same esti- mation and glory to the times wherein they are. For as God by being every where, yet doth not give unto all places one and the same degree of holiness ; so neither one and the same dignity to all times, by working in all. For if all either places or times were in respect of God alike, wherefore was it said unto Moses by particular de- Exod. signation, " That very place wherein thou standest is holy iU 5- ground ?" Why doth the Prophet David choose out of all the days of the year but one, whereof he speaketh by way psai. of principal admiration, " This is the day the Lord hath 24.V1"' made?" No doubt, as God's extraordinary presence hath hallowed and sanctified certain places, so they are his extraordinary works thathave truly and worthily advanced certain times ; for which cause they ought to be with all men that honour God move holy than other days. The
* X^ovo? ianrh h a) xcu£0f, jcai Jtaigoj h u> pcgovoc ou ttoXu;. Hippoc. lib. qui Prccccptiones inscribitur. [in iuit.J
BOOK V. 29
Wise man, therefore, compareth herein not unfitly the times of God with the persons of men. If any should ask how it comes to pass that one day doth excel another, seeing the light of all the days in the year proceedeth from one sun; to this he answereth, " That the knowledge of the Eccius, Lord hath parted them asunder, he hath by them disposed £*j£ the times and solemn Feasts ; some he hath chosen out and sanctified, some he hath put among the days to num- ber :" even as Adam and all other men are of one sub- stance, all created of the earth : " but the Lord hath di- vided them by great knowledge, and made their ways divers ; some 'he hath blessed and exalted, some he hath sanctified and appropriated unto himself, some he hath cursed, humbled, and put them out of their dignity." So that the cause being natural and necessary for which there should be a difference in days, the solemn observation whereof declareth religious thankfulness towards him, whose works of principal reckoning we thereby admire and honour, it cometh next to be considered, what kinds of duties and services they are wherewith such times should be kept holy.
70. The sanctification of days and times is a token of The that thankfulness, and a pattern of that public honour, ofa"eu- which we owe to God for admirable benefits, whereof it Jjjj*,. doth not suffice that we keep a secret calendar, taking days. thereby our private occasions as we list ourselves to think how much God hath done for all men ; but the days which are chosen out to serve as public memorials of such his mercies, ought to be clothed with those outward robes of holiness, whereby their difference from other days may be made sensible. But because time in itself, as hath been already proved, can receive no alteration; the hallowing of Festival-days must consist in the shape or countenance which we put upon the affairs that are incident unto those days. " This is the day which the Lord hath made (saith the Prophet David); let us rejoice and be glad in it." So that generally offices and duties of religious joy are that wherein the hallowing of Festival times consisteth.* The
* ' Grande videlicet officium, focos et choros in publicum educere, vicatim epulati, civitatem tabernre halitu abolefacere, vino lutum cogere, catervatim cur- sitare ad injurias, ad impudicitias, ad libidinis illecebras. Siccine exprimitur publicum gaudium per publicum dedecus?' Tertull. Apol. cap. Sb. ' Dies festos, Majestati altissimas dedicatos, nullis volumus voluptatibus occupari.' C. 1, xii.
30
ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
most natural testimonies of our rejoicing in God, are, first, His praises set forth with cheerful alacrity of mind ; se- condly, Our comfort and delight expressed by a charitable largeness of somewhat more than common bounty ; thirdly, Sequestration from ordinary labours, the toils and cares whereof are not meet to be companions of such gladness. Festival solemnity, therefore, is nothing but the due mix- ture, as it were, of these three elements, Praise, Bounty, and Rest. Touching Praise, forasmuch as the Jews, who alone knew the way how to magnify God aright, did commonly (as appeared by their wicked lives) more of custom and for fashion's sake execute the services of their Religion, than with hearty and true devotion (which God especially requireth), he therefore protesteth against their Tsa- Sabbaths and solemn Days, as being therewith much offended. Plentiful and liberal expense is required in them that abound, partly as a sign of their own joy in the good- ness of God towards them, and partly as a mean whereby Deut. to refresh those poor and needy, who being especially at Nehem! these times made partakers of relaxation and joy with viii- 9- others, do the more religiously bless God, whose great mercies were a cause thereof, and the more contentedly endure the burden of that hard estate wherein they con- tinue. Rest is the end of all motion, and the last per- fection of all things that labour. Labours in us are jour- neys, and even in them which feel no weariness by any work, yet they are but ways whereby to come unto that which bringeth not happiness till it do bring rest. For as long as any thing which we desire is unattained, we rest not. Let us not here take rest for idleness. They are idle, whom the painfulness of action causeth to avoid those labours whereunto both God and Nature bindeth them ; they rest, which either cease from their work when they have brought it unto perfection, or else give over a meaner labour, because a worthier and better is to be un- dertaken. God hath created nothing to be idle or ill employed. As therefore man doth consist of different and distinct parts, every part endued with manifold
tit. 12. lib. 1. 'avtI tnt tsrct^awofxireiat; koX ala-yjovpyiai; x.a) a\s-y^p\ip'pnfxoo-\j\y\^ irdfyoves iografyvral Ttaynyvput;, oh jui&w eyjiuo-ai uai x.Zy,ov xai y'ikwra, aX\' v(Mov<; Ssi'ouj xai U%£>v Xoyeov axpoao-iv, Jtai <!tgoo~tvyJiv afyvrramti; xoa-ft.ovfji.ivnv Saxfuoi?. Theod. ad Grasc. Infidel, ser. [8. de Martyr, ad fin. vol. iv. p. 607.] TiJ? yap ahrni tyvsreJit; io-nv tva-t@>i ts eTv«i xai <\>i\av$pcu<&ov. Philo de Abraha. [vol. ii. p. 30. ed. Mang.]
BOOK V. 31
abilities, which all have their several ends and actions thereunto referred; so there is in this great variety of duties which belong to men that dependency and order, by means whereof the lower sustaining always the more excellent, and the higher perfecting the more base, they are in their times and seasons continued with most ex- quisite correspondence. Labours of bodily and daily toil purchase freedom for actions of religious joy, which be- nefit these actions requite with the gift of desired rest ; a thing most natural and fit to accompany the solemn Festival duties of honour which are done to God. For if those principal works of God, the memory whereof we use to celebrate at such times, be but certain tastes and says, as it were, of that final benefit wherein our perfect felicity and bliss lieth folded up, seeing that the presence of the one doth direct our cogitations, thoughts, and desires, towards the other, it giveth surely a kind of life, and addeth inwardly no small delight to those so comfortable expectations, when the very outward countenance of that we presently do, representeth after a sort that also where- unto we tend ; as Festival-rest doth that celestial estate, whereof the very Heathens themselves,* which had not the means whereby to apprehend much, did notwithstand- ing imagine that it needs must consist in rest, and have therefore taught that above the highest moveable sphere there is nothing which feeleth alteration, motion, or change, but all things immutable, unsubject to passion, blest with eternal continuance in a life of the highest per- fection, and of that complete abundant sufficiency within itself, which no possibility of want, maim, or defect, can touch. Besides, whereas ordinary labours are both in themselves painful, and base in comparison of Festival- services done to God, doth not the natural difference be- tween them shew that the one, as it were by way of sub- mission and homage, should surrender themselves to the other ; wherewith they can neither easily concur, because painfulness and joy are opposite, nor decently, because while the mind hath just occasion to make her abode in the house of gladness, the weed of ordinary toil and travel becometh her not? Wherefore, even Nature hath taught
xai aTraQij riiv apiVmv sxpvra £dw x.al rr,v aurafxsyrarnv XiaTEXsi- tov aTTavra alxva. Arist. [de Ccelo, 1. i. c. 9. t. 100.]
32 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
the Heathens, and God the Jews, and Christ us, first, That Festival-solemnities are a part of the public exercise of Religion ; secondly, That praise, liberality, and rest, are as natural elements whereof Solemnities consist. But these things the Heathens converted to the honour of their false gods ; and, as they failed in the end itself, so neither could they discern rightly what form and measure Reli- gion therein should observe. Whereupon, when the Israelites impiously followed so corrupt example, they are in every degree noted to have done amiss ; their Hymns or Songs of Praise were Idolatry ; their bounty, excess ; and their rest, wantonness. Therefore, the Law of God, which appointed them Days of Solemnity, taught them likewise in what manner the same should be celebrated. According to the pattern of which institution, David, establishing the state of Religion, ordained praise to be i chron. given unto God in the Sabbaths, months, and appointed kiu.30. times, as their custom had been always before the Lord. Now, besides the times which God himself in the Law of Moses particularly specified, there were, through the wisdom of the Church, certain others devised by occasion of like occurrents to those whereupon the former had risen; as namely, that which Mordecai and Esther Esther did first celebrate in memory of the Lord's most
ix °7 .
wonderful protection, when Haman had laid his in- evitable plot, to man's thinking, for the utter extirpation of the Jews, even in one day. This they call the Feast of Lots, because Haman had cast their life and their death, as it were, upon the hazard of a lot. To this may be added that other also of Dedication, mentioned John in the tenth of St. John's Gospel, the institution whereof is iMac. declared in the history of the Maccabees. But forasmuch iv,w as their Law by the coming of Christ is changed, and we thereunto no way bound, St. Paul, although it were not his purpose to favour invectives against the special sanctifica- tion of days and times to the service of God, and to the honour of Jesus Christ, doth notwithstanding bend his forces against that opinion which imposed on the Gentiles the yoke of Jewish legal observations, as if the whole world ought for ever, and that upon pain of condemnation, to keep and observe the same. Such as in this persuasion hallowed those Jewish Sabbaths the Apostle sharply re-
BOOK V. 33
iv. 10.
proveth, saying, " Ye observe days, and months, and aa times, and years ; I am in fear of you, lest I have bestowed iv' upon you labour in vain." Hovvbeit, so far off was Tertul- lian from imagining how any man could possibly hereupon call in question such days as the Church of Christ doth observe,* that the observation of these days he useth for an argument whereby to prove, it could not be the Apos- tle's intent and meaning to condemn simply all observing of such times. Generally therefore, touching Feasts in the Church of Christ, they have that profitable use whereof St. Augustine speaketh, " By Festival-solemnities and Set- Auf- ** days we dedicate and sanctify to God the memory of his £?" benefits, lest unthankful forgetfulness thereof should creep ^bpxf upon us in course of time." And concerning particulars, their Sabbath the Church hath changed into our Lord's day ; that as the one did continually bring to mind the for- mer world finished by creation ; so the other might keep ns in perpetual remembrance of a far better world, begun by him which came to restore all things, to make both Hea- ven and Earth new. For which cause they honoured the last day, we the first, in every seven throughout the year. The rest of the days and times which we celebrate have relation all to one Head. We begin therefore our Ecclesi- astical year with the glorious Annunciation of his Birth by w» Angelical embassage. There being hereunto added his1,26" blessed Nativity itself; the mystery of his legal Circumci- iuke sion ; the testification of his true Incarnation by the Puri- ii,sl* fication of her which brought him into the world, his Resur- rection, his Ascension into Heaven, the admirable Sending down of his Spirit upon his chosen, and (which conse- quently ensued) the notice of that incomprehensible Trinity thereby given to the Church of God. Again, forasmuch as we know that Christ hath not only been manifested great in himself, but great in other his Saints also, the days of whose departure out of the world are to the Church of Christ as the birth and coronation days of Kings or Emperors ; therefore especial choice being made of the very flower of all occasions in this kind, there are annual
• ' Si omnem in totum devotionem temporum et dierum et mensium et annorum erasit Apostolus, cur Pascha celeb ramus annuo circulo in mense primo? Cur quinquaginta exinde diebus in omni exultatione decurrimus?' Lib. advers. Psych.
VOL. II. D
34 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
selected times to meditate of Christ glorified in them which had the honour to suffer for his sake, before they had age and ability to know him ; glorified in them, which knowing him as Stephen, had the sight of that before death, where- into so acceptable death did lead ; glorified in those Sages of the East, that came from far to adore him, and were conducted by strange light ; glorified in the second Elias of the world, sent before him to prepare his way; glorified in those Apostles whom it pleased him to use as founders of his Kingdom here ; glorified in the Angels, as in Mi- chael ; glorified in all those happy souls that are already possessed of Heaven. Over and besides which number not great, the rest be but four other days heretofore an- nexed to the Feast of Easter and Pentecost, by reason of general Baptism usual at those two Feasts ; which also is the cause why they had not, as other days, any proper name given them. Their first institution was therefore through necessity, and their present continuance is now for the greater honour of the principals whereupon they still attend. If it be then demanded, whether we observe these times as being thereunto bound by force of divine Law, or else by the only positive Ordinances of the Church? I answer to this, that the very Law of Nature itself, which all men confess to be God's Law, requireth in general no less the sanctification of times, than of places, persons, and things, unto God's honour. For which cause it hath pleased him heretofore, as of the rest, so of times likewise, to exact some parts by way of perpetual homage, never to be dispensed withal, nor remitted : again, to require some other parts of time with as strict exaction, but for less conti- nuance ; and of the rest which were left arbitrary, to accept what the Church shall in due consideration consecrate vo- luntarily unto like religious uses. Of the first kind, amongst the Jews, was the Sabbath-day; of the second, those Feasts which are appointed by the Law of Moses ; the Feast of Dedication, invented by the Church, standeth in the num- ber of the last kind. The Moral Law requiring therefore a seventh part throughout the age of the whole world to be that way employed, although with us the day be changed, in regard of a new revolution begun by our Saviour Christ; yet the same proportion of time continueth which was be- fore, because in reference to the benefit of creation, and
BOOK V. 35
now much more of renovation thereunto added by him which was Prince of the world to come, we are bound to account the sanctification of one day in seven, a duty which God's immutable Law doth exact for ever. The rest, they say, we ought to abolish, because the continu- ance of them doth nourish wicked superstition in the minds of men ; besides, they are all abused by Papists, the ene- mies of God ; yea, certain of them, as Easter and Pente- cost, even by the Jews.
71. Touching Jews, their Easter and Pentecost have ExceP- with ours as much affinity as Philip the Apostle with Philip a^iLt the Macedonian Kinar. As for imitation of Papists and ourk"P-
» sr ing of
the breeding of Superstition, they are now become such other common guests, that no man can think it discourteous to j^sTe- let them go as they came. The next is a rare observation g^^j! and strange ;* you shall find, if you mark it (as it doth de- serve to be noted well), that many thousands there are, who if they have virtuously during those times behaved themselves, if their devotion and zeal in Prayer have been fervent, their attention to the Word of God such as all Christian men should yield, imagine that herein they have performed a good duty ; which notwithstanding to think is a very dangerous error, inasmuch as the Apostle St. Paul hath taught that we ought not to keep our Easter as the Jews did for certain days, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth to feast continually : whereas the re- straint of Easter to a certain number of days, causeth us to rest for a short space in that near consideration of our duties, which should be extended throughout the course of
* ' If they had been never abused neither by the Papists, nor by the Jews, as they have been, and are daily ; yet such making of Holidays is never without some great danger of bringing in some evil and corrupt opinions into the minds of men. I will use an example in one, and that the chief of Holidays and most ge- nerally and of longest time observed in the Church, which is the Feast of Easter, which was kept of some more days, of some fewer. How many thousands are there, I will not say of the ignorant Papists, but of those also which profess the Gospel, which when they have celebrated those days with diligent heed taken unto their life, and with some earnest devotion in praying, and hearing the Word of God, do not by and by think that they have well celebrated the Feast of Easter ; and yet have they thus notably deceived themselves : for St. Paul teacheth (1 Cor.v. 8.), that the celebrating of the Feast of the Christians' Easter is not, as the Jews' was, for certain days ; but sheweth that we must keep this Feast all the days of our life in the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth. By which we see, that the observing of the Feast of Easter for certain days in the year, doth pull out of our minds, ere ever we be aware, the doctrine of the Gospel, and causeth us to rest in that near consideration of our duties, for the space of a few days, which should be extended to all our life.' T. C. 1. i. p. 151. D 2
36 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
our whole lives, and so pulleth out of our minds the doctrine of Christ's Gospel ere we be aware. The doctrine of the Gospel, which here they mean, or should mean, is, that Christ having finished the Law, there is no Jewish Paschal solemnity, nor abstinence from sour bread, now required at our hands ; there is no leaven which we are bound to cast out, but malice, sin, and wickedness ; no bread but the food of sincere truth wherewith we are tied to celebrate our Passover. And seeing no time of sin is granted us, neither any intermission of sound belief, it followeth, that this kind of feasting ought to endure always. But are standing Festival-solemnities against this? That which the Gospel of Christ requireth is the perpetuity of virtuous duties ; not perpetuity of exercise or action, but disposi- tion perpetual, and practice as oft as times and opportuni- ties require. Just, valiant, liberal, temperate, and holy men are they, which can whensoever they will, and will when- soever they ought, execute what their several perfections import. If virtues did always cease to be when they cease to work, there should be nothing more pernicious to virtue than sleep ; neither were it possible that men, as Zachary and Elizabeth, should in all the commandments of God walk unreprovable ; or that the chain of our conversation should contain so many links of divine virtues, as the Apostles in divers places have reckoned up, if in the exercise of each virtue perpetual continuance were exacted at our hands. Seeing, therefore, all things are done in time, and many of- fices are not possible at one and the same time to be dis- charged ; duties of all sorts must have necessarily their several successions and seasons ; in which respect the Schoolmen have well and soundly determined, that God's affirmative Laws and Precepts, the Laws that enjoin any actual duty, as Prayer, Alms, and the like, do bind us ad semper velle, but not ad semper agere ; we are tied to iterate and resume them when need is, howbeit not to continue them without any intermission. Feasts, whether God him- self hath ordained them, or the Church by that authority which God hath given, they are of Religion such public Services as neither can nor ought to be continued other- wise than only by iteration. Which iteration is a most effectual mean to bring unto full maturity and growth those seeds of godliness, that these very men themselves
BOOK V. 37
do grant to be sown in the hearts of many thousands, dur- ing the while that such Feasts are present. The constant habit of well doing is not gotten without the custom of do- ing well, neither can virtue be made perfect but by the ma- nifold works of virtue often practised. Before the powers of our minds be brought unto some perfection, our first essays and offers towards virtue must needs be raw ; yet commendable, because they tend unto ripeness. For which cause the Wisdom of God hath commanded, espe- cially this circumstance amongst others in solemn Feasts, that to children and novices in Religion they minister the first occasion to ask and inquire of God. Whereupon, if there follow but so much piety as hath been mentioned, let the Church learn to further imbecility with Prayer; " Preserve, Lord, these good and gracious beginnings, that they suddenly dry not up like the morning dew, but may prosper and grow as the trees which rivers of waters keep always nourishing." Let all men's acclamations be, " Grace, grace unto it," as to that first-laid corner-stone in Zerub- babel's buildings. For who hath despised the day of those things which are small? Or, how dare we take upon us to condemn that very thing which voluntarily we grant maketh us of nothing somewhat ; seeing all we pretend against it, is only, that as yet this somewhat is not much ? The Days of Solemnity, which are but few, cannot choose but soon finish that outward exercise of godliness which properly appertaineth to such times ; howbeit, men's inward dispo- sition to virtue they both augment for the present, and by their often returns, bring also the same at the length unto that perfection which we most desire. So that, although by their necessary short continuance, they abridge the present exercise of piety in some kind ; yet, because by repetition they enlarge, strengthen, and confirm the habits of all virtue, it remaineth, that we honour, observe, and keep them as Ordinances many ways singularly profitable in God's Church. This exception being taken against Holidays, for that they restrain the praises of God unto certain times, another followeth condemning restraint of men from their ordinary trades and labours at those times. It is not (they say) in the power of the Church to command rest,* because God hath left it to all men at
* 'I confess, that it is in the power of the Church to appoint so many days in
38 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
liberty, that if they think good to bestow six whole days in labour, they may; neither is it more lawful for the Church to abridge any man of that liberty which God hath granted, than to take away the yoke which God hath laid upon them, and to countermand what he doth expressly enjoin. They deny not, but in times of public calamity, that men may the better assemble themselves to fast and pray, the Church, because it hath received commandment from God to proclaim a prohibition from or- dinary works, standeth bound to do it, as the Jews afflicted did in Babylon. But without some express command- ment from God there is no power, they say, under Heaven, which may presume by any degree to restrain the liberty that God had given. Which opinion, albeit applied here no further than to this present case, shaketh universally the fabric of government, tendeth to anarchy and mere confusion, dissolveth families, dissipateth Colleges, Cor-
the week, or in the year (in the which the congregation shall assemble to hear tne Word of God, and receive the Sacraments, and offer up Prayers unto God), as it shall think good, according to those rules which are before alleged. But that it hath power to make so many Holidays as we have, wherein men are commanded to cease from their daily vocations of ploughing and exercising their handicrafts, that I deny to be in the power of the Church. For proof whereof I will take the Fourth Commmandment, and no other interpretation of it, than Mr. Doctor allow - eth of, which is, that God licenseth and leaveth it at the liberty of every man to work six days in the week, so that he rest the seventh day. Seeing, therefore, that the Lord hath left it to all men at liberty, that they might labour, if they think good, six days ; I say, the Church, nor no man, can take this liberty away from them, and drive them to a necessary rest of the body. And if it be lawful to abridge the liberty of the Church in this point ; and instead, that the Lord saith, Six days thou mayest labour, if thou wilt, to say, Thou shalt not labour six days ; I do not see, why the Church may not as well, whereas the Lord saith, " Thou shalt rest the seventh day," command that thou shalt not rest the seventh day. For if the Church may restrain the liberty which God hath given them, it may take away the yoke also which God hath put upon them. And whereas you say, that notwithstanding this Fourth Commandment, the Jews had certain other Feasts which they observed; indeed, the Lord, which gave this general Law, might make as many exceptions as he thought good, and so long as he thought good. But it followeth not, because the Lord did it, that therefore the Church may do it, unless it hath commandment and authority from God so to do. As when there is any general plague or judgment of God either upon the Church, or coming to- wards it, the Lord commandeth in such a case (Joel ii. 15.). that they should sanctify a general Fast, and proclaim Ghnatsarah, which signifieth a prohibition or forbidding of ordinary works ; and is the same Hebrew word wherewith those Fast-days are noted in the Law, wherein they should rest. The reason of which commandment of the Lord was, that as they abstained that day as much as might be conveniently from meats, so they might abstain from their daily works, to the end they might bestow the whole day in hearing the Word of God, and hum- bling themselves in the congregation, confessing their faults, and desiring the Lord to turn away from his fierce wrath. In this case the Church having com- mandment to make a Holiday, may, and ought to do it, as the Church which was in Babylon did during the time of their captivity ; but where it is destitute of a commandment, it may not presume by any decree to restrain that liberty which the Lord hath given.' T. C. 1. i. p. 152.
BOOK V. 39
porations, Armies, overthroweth Kingdoms, Churches, and whatsoever is now through the providence of God by au- thority and power upheld. For whereas God hath fore- prized things of the greatest weight, and hath therein pre- cisely defined, as well that which every man must perform, as that which no man may attempt, leaving all sorts of men in the rest, either to be guided by their own good dis- cretion, if they be free from subjection to others, or else to be ordered by such Commandments and Laws as proceed from those superiors under whom they live ; the patrons of liberty have here made solemn proclamation that all such Laws and Commandments are void, inasmuch as every man is left to the freedom of his own mind in such things as are not either exacted or prohibited by the Law of God. And because, only in these things, the positive precepts of men have place ; which precepts cannot pos- sibly be given without some abridgment of their liberty to whom they are given ; therefore, if the father command the son, or the husband the wife, or the lord the servant, or the leader the soldier, or the Prince the subject, to go or stand, sleep or wake, at such times as God himself in particular commandeth neither ; they are to stand in defence of the freedom which God hath granted, and to do as themselves list, knowing that men may as lawfully command them things utterly forbidden by the Law of God, as tie them to any thing which the Law of God leaveth free. The plain contradictory whereunto is infallibly certain. Those things which the Law of God leaveth arbitrary and at liberty, are all subject to the positive Laws of men; which Laws, for the common benefit, abridge particular men's liberty in such things as far as the rules of equity will suffer. This we must either maintain, or else overturn the world, and make every man his own commander. Seeing, then, that labour and rest upon any one day of the six throughout the year are granted free by the Law of God, how exempt we them from the force and power of Ecclesiastical Law, ex- cept we deprive the world of power to make any Ordi- nance or Law at all? Besides, is it probable that God should not only allow, but command concurrency of rest with extraordinary occasions of doleful events befalling, peradventure, some one certain Church, or not extending unto many ; and not as much as permit or license the like,
40 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
when piety, triumphant with joy and gladness, maketh solemn commemoration of God's most rare and unwonted mercies, such especially as the whole race of mankind doth or might participate? Of vacation from labour in times of sorrow the only cause is, for that the general pub- lic Prayers of the whole Church, and our own private busi- ness, cannot both be followed at once ; whereas of rest in the famous Solemnities of public joy, there is both this consideration the same, and also further a kind of natural repugnancy, which maketh labours (as hath been proved) much more unfit to accompany Festival-praises of God, than offices of humiliation and grief. Again, if we sift what they bring for proof and approbation of rest with fast- ing, doth it not in all respects as fully warrant and as strictly command rest, whensoever the Church hath equal reason, by Feasts and gladsome Solemnities, to testify public thankfulness towards God? I would know some Joei cause why those words of the Prophet Joel, " Sanctify a Fast, call a solemn Assembly," which words were uttered to the Jews in misery and great distress, should more bind the Church to do at all times after the like in their like per- plexities, than the words of Moses to the same people in a Exod. time of joyful deliverance from misery, " Remember this day," may warrant any annual celebration of benefits no less importing the good of men; and also justify, as touch- ing the manner and form thereof, what circumstance soever we imitate only in respect of natural fitness or decency, without any Jewish regard to Ceremonies, such as were properly theirs, and are not by us expedient to be con- tinued. According to the rule of which general directions taken from the Law of God, no less in the one than the other, the practice of the Church, commended unto us in Holy Scripture, doth not only make for the justification of black and dismal days (as one of the Fathers termeth them), but plainly offereth itself to be followed by such . Ordinances (if occasion require) as that which Mordecai did sometimes devise, Esther what lay in her power help forward, and the rest of the Jews establish for perpetu- ity ; namely, that the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar should be every year kept, throughout all ge- nerations, as days of feasting and joy, wherein they would rest from bodily labour, and what by gifts of charity be-
ii. 15.
xiii.3.
BOOK V. 41
stowed upon the poor, what by other liberal signs of amity and love, all testify their thankful minds towards God, which almost beyond possibility had delivered them all, when they were all as men dead. But this Decree, they say, was Divine, not Ecclesiastical,* as may appear in that there is another Decree in another Book of Scripture? which Decree is plain not to have proceeded from the Church's authority, but from the mouth of the Prophet only ; and as a poor simple man sometime was fully per- suaded that if Pontius Pilate had not been a Saint, the Apostles would never have suffered his name to stand in the Creed, so these men have a strong opinion that be- cause the Book of Esther is Canonical, the Decree of Esther cannot be possibly Ecclesiastical. If it were, they ask how the Jews could bind themselves always to keep it, seeing Ecclesiastical Laws are mutable ? As though the purposes of men might never intend constancy in that, the nature whereof is subject to alteration. Doth the Scrip- ture itself make mention of any divine commandment? Is the Scripture witness of more, than only that Mordecai was the author of this custom, that by letters written to his brethren the Jews, throughout all provinces under Darius the King of Persia, he gave them charge to celebrate yearly those two days, for perpetual remembrance of God's miraculous deliverance and mercy; that the Jews here- upon undertook to do it, and made it with general consent an Order for perpetuity ; that Esther, secondly, by her let-
* ' The example out of Esther is no sufficient warrant for these Feasts in ques- tion. For first, as in other cases, so in this case of days, the estate of Christians under the Gospel ought not to be so ceremonious, as was theirs under the Law. Secondly ,'that which was done there was done by a special direction of the Spirit of God, either through the ministry of the Prophets which they had, or by some other extraordinary means, which is not to be followed by us. This may appear by an- other place (Zech. viii.), where the Jews changed their Fasts into Feasts, only by the mouth of the Lord, through the ministry of the Prophet. For further proof whereof, first, I take the twenty-eighth verse of Esth. ix., where it appeareth, that this was an Order to endure always, even as long as the other Feast-days which were insti- tuted by the Lord himself. So that what abuses soever were of that Feast, yet as a perpetual Decree of God it ought to have remained ; whereas our Churches can make no such Decree, which may not upon change of times, and other circum- stances, be altered. For the other proof hereof I take the last verse : for the Prophet contenteth not himself with that, that he had rehearsed the Decree, as he doth sometimes the Decree of profane Kings, but addeth precisely, that as soon as ever the Decree was made, it was registered in this Book of Esther, which is one of the Books of Canonical Scripture, declaring thereby in what esteem they had it. If it had been of no further authority than our Decrees, or than a Canon of one of the Councils, it had been presumption to have brought it into the Library of the Holy Ghost. The sum of my answer is, that this Decree was Divine, and not Ecclesiastical only.' T. C. lib. iii. p. 193.
42 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
ters confirmed the same which Mordecai had before de- creed ; and that, finally, the Ordinance was written to re- main for ever upon record ? Did not the Jews in provinces abroad observe at the first the fourteenth day, the Jews in Susis the fifteenth? Were they not all reduced to a uni- form order by means of those two Decrees, and so every where three days kept ; the first with fasting, in memory of danger ; the rest, in token of deliverance, as festival and joyful days ? AVas not the first of these three afterwards, the day of sorrow and heaviness, abrogated, when the same Church saw it meet that a better day, a day in memory of 2 Mac. like deliverance out of the bloody hands of Nicanor, should succeed in the room thereof? But forasmuch as there is no end of answering fruitless oppositions, let it suffice men of sober minds to know, that the Law both of God and Nature alloweth generally days of rest and Fes- tival-solemnity to be observed by way of thankful and joy- ful remembrance, if such miraculous favours be shewed towards mankind as require the same ; that such graces God hath bestowed upon his Church, as well in latter as in former times ; that in some particulars, when they have fallen out, himself hath demanded his own honour, and in the rest hath left it to the wisdom of the Church, directed by those precedents, and enlightened by other means, al- ways to judge when the like is requisite. About questions therefore concerning days and times, our manner is not to stand at bay with the Church of God, demanding where- fore the memory of Paul* should be rather kept than the memory of Daniel :f we are content to imagine, it may be perhaps true, that the least in the Kingdom of Christ is greater than the greatest of all the Prophets of God that have gone before ; we never yet saw cause to despair, but that the simplest^ of the people might be taught the right construction of as great mysteries as the §name of a Saint's
* * Commemoratio Apostolicae Passionis, totius Christianitatis magistra, a cun- ctis jure celebratur.' Cod. lib. hi. tit. 12. 1. 7.
t ' Forsomuch as the old people did never keep any Feast or Holiday for re- membrance, either of Moses, &c.' T. C. lib. i. p. 153.
$ ' The people, when it is called St. Paul's day, or the blessed Virgin Mary's day, can understand nothing thereby, but that they are instituted to the honour of St. Paul, or the Virgin Mary, unless they be otherwise taught. And if you say, let them so be taught, 1 have answered, that tbe teaching in this land cannot, by any order which is yet taken, come to the most part of those which have drunk this poison, &c.' T. C. lib. i. p. 153.
§ ' Scilicet ignorant nos nee Christum unquam relinquere, qui pro totius ser- vundorum mundi salute passus est, nee ahum quempiam colere posse. Nam
1 Mac. iv. 05.
BOOK V. 43
day doth comprehend, although the times of the year go on in their wonted course ; we had rather glorify and bless God for the fruit we daily behold reaped by such Ordi- nances, as his gracious Spirit maketh the ripe wisdom of this national Church to bring forth, than vainly boast of our own peculiar and private inventions, as if the skill of pro- fitable regiment had left her public habitation* to dwell in retired manner with some few men of one livery ; we make t. c. not our childish appeals, sometimes from our own to fo- J; \'54 reign Churches, sometimes from both unto Churches an- cienter than both are, in effect always from all others to our own selves ; but, as becometh them that follow with all humility the ways of peace, we honour, reverence, and obey, in the very next degree unto God, the voice of the Church of God wherein we live. They whose wits are too glorious to fall to so low an ebb, they which have risen and swollen so high that the walls of ordinary rivers are unable to keep them in, they whose wanton contentions in the cause whereof we have spoken do make all where they go a sea, even they, at their highest float, are constrained both to see and fgrant, that what their fancy will not yield to like, their judgment cannot with reason condemn. Such is evermore the final victory of all truth, that they which had not the hearts to love her, acknowledge that to hate her they have no cause. Touching those Festival-days therefore which we now observe, their number being no way felt}: discommodious to the Commonwealth, and their grounds such as hitherto have been shewed ; what remain- eth, but to keep them throughout all generations holy, severed by manifest notes of difference from other times, adorned with that which most may betoken true, virtuous, and celestial joy ? To which intent, because surcease from labour is necessary, yet not so necessary, no, not on the Sabbath or seventh day itself, but that rarer occasions in
hunc quidem tanquam Filium Dei adoramus, martjrres vero tanquam discipulos et imitatores Domini digne propter insuperabilera in Regem ipsorum ac Praeceptorem benevolentiam diligimus, quorum et nos consortes et discipulos fieri optamus.' Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. 15.
* ' As for all the commodities, &c.' T. C. lib. i. p. 153.
t ' We condemn not the Church of England, neither in this, nor in other things, which are meet to be reformed. For it is one thing to mislike, another thing to condemn ; and it is one thing to condemn something in the Church, and another thing to condemn the Church for it.' T. C. lib. i. p. 154.
J noXXa; [avi Sua-itt;, woXXaf Si xai UfOfjvmittf iTtavav ro te ya.% 7r\e7a-roV rov etouj Ei? «uTaj dvuXiVxE-ro, x.al to h/Jioj-i'ji ^fxia ovk Ixa^i'o-Tn iyiyvETo. De Claudio dictum apud Dion. lib. Ix. [c. 15 p. 676. ed. Han. 1606.]
44 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
men's particular affairs, subject to manifest detriment un- less they be presently followed, may with very good con- science draw them sometime aside from the ordinary rule, considering the favourable dispensation which our Lord Mark an(j Saviour groundeth on this axiom, " Man was not Mnrab. made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath ordained for man," xv" 32, so far forth as concerneth Ceremonies annexed to the prin- cipal sanctification thereof, howsoever the rigour of the Law of Moses may be thought to import the contrary ; if we regard with what severity the violation of Sabbaths hath been sometime punished, a thing perhaps the more re- quisite at that instant, both because the Jews, by reason of their long abode in a place of continual servile toil, could not suddenly be weaned and drawn unto contrary offices, without some strong impression of terror; and also for that there is nothing more needful, than to punish with extremity the first transgressions of those Laws that re- quire a more exact observation for many ages to come ; therefore, as the Jews, superstitiously addicted to their Sabbaths' rest for along time,* not without danger to them- selves and obloquy to their very Law, did afterwards per- ceive and amend wisely their former error, not doubting that i Mac. bodily labours are made by necessity venial, though other- wise, especially on that day, rest be more convenient ; so at all times, the voluntary scandalous contempt of that rest from labour, wherewith publickly God is served, we cannot Neii. too severely correct and bridle. The Emperor Constantine cod. ' having with over-great facility licensed Sundays' labour in lib. m. country villages, under that pretence, whereof there may i- s. justly no doubt sometime consideration be had, namely, lest any thing which God by his providence hath bestowed should miscarry not being taken in due time ; Leo, which after- wards saw that this ground would not bear so general and large indulgence as had been granted, doth by a contrary Leo edict both reverse and severely censure his predecessor's re- ji°#DS ' ' missness, saying, " We ordain, according to the true mean-
* ' Hi vacare consueti sunt septima die, et neque anna portare in prsedictis diebus, neque terras culturam contingere, neque alterius cujuspiam curam habere patiuntur, sed in templis extendentes manus adorare usque ad vesperam soliti sunt. Ingrediente vero in civitatem Ptolemaeo Lago cum exercitu et multis homi- nibus, cum custodire debuerint civitatem, ipsis stultitiam observantibus, provincia quidem dominum suscepit amarissimum ; Lex vero manifestata est malam habere solennitatem.' Agatharchid. apud Joseph, lib. i. contra Appion. [c. 22. ad fin.} Vide et Dion. lib. xxxvii.
BOOK V. 45
ing of the Holy Ghost and of the Apostles thereby directed, that on the sacred day, wherein our own integrity was restored, all do rest and surcease labour; that neither husbandman, nor other, on that day put their hands to forbidden works. For, if the Jews did so much reverence their Sabbath, which was but a shadow of ours, are not we which inhabit the light and truth of grace, bound to honour that day which the Lord himself hath honoured, and hath therein delivered us both from dishonour and from death ? Are we not bound to keep it singular and inviolable, well contenting ourselves with so liberal a grant of the rest, and not encroaching upon that one day which God hath chosen to his own honour? Were it not reck- less neglect of Religion to make that very day common, t.c. and to think we may do with it as with the rest?" Imperial tLl"' Laws which had such care of hallowing, especially our £^s Lord's-day, did not omit to provide that other Festival- times might be kept with vacation from labour, whether they were days appointed on the sudden, as extraordinary occasions fell out, or days which were celebrated yearly for politic and civil considerations ; or, finally, such days as Christian Religion hath ordained in God's Church. The joy that setteth aside labour, disperseth those things which labour gathereth. For gladness doth always rise from a kind of fruition and happiness, which happiness banisheth the cogitation of all want, it needeth nothing but only the bestowing of that it hath, inasmuch as the greatest felicity that felicity hath, is to spread and enlarge itself. It cometh hereby to pass, that the first effect of joy- fulness is to rest, because it seeketh no more ; the next, because it aboundeth, to give. The root of both is the glorious presence of that joy of mind, which ariseth from the manifold considerations of God's unspeakable mercy, into which considerations we are led by occasion of sacred times. For, how could the Jewish congregations of old be put in mind by their weekly Sabbaths what the world reaped through his goodness, which did of nothing create the world ; by their yearly Passover, what farewell they took of the land of Egypt ; by their Pentecost, what Ordi- nances, Laws, and Statutes their fathers received at the hands of God ; by their Feast of Tabernacles, with what protection they journeyed from place to place, through so
46 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
many fears and hazards, during the tedious time of forty years' travel in the Wilderness ; by their annual Solemnity of Lots, how near the whole seed of Israel was unto utter extirpation, when it pleased that great God, which guideth all things in Heaven and earth, so to change the counsels and purposes of men, that the same hand which had signed a Decree, in the opinion both of them that granted and of them that procured it, irrevocable, for the general mas- sacre of man, woman, and child, became the buckler of their preservation, that no hair of their heads might be touched ; the same days which had been set for the pour- ing out of so much innocent blood, were made the days of their execution whose malice had contrived the plot thereof; and the self-same persons that should have en- dured whatsoever violence and rage could offer, were em- ployed in the just revenge of cruelty, to give unto blood- thirsty men the taste of their own cup ; or how can the Church of Christ now endure to be so much called on, Matt, and preached unto, by that which every Dominical day Mark -1' throughout the year, that which year by year so many *^e1. Festival-times, if not commanded by the Apostles them- xxiv. i. selves,* whose care at that time was of greater things, yet x°. i. instituted either by such universal authority as no man,f * S°£ or at the least such as we with no reason may despise, Apoc doth, as sometime the holy Angels did from Heaven, sing, Luke' " Glory be unto God on high, peace on earth, towards men good will" (for this in effect is the very song that all Christian Feasts do apply as their several occasions re- quire); how should the days and times continually thus inculcate what God hath done, and we refuse to agnize the benefit of such remembrances; that very benefit which caused Moses to acknowledge those guides of day and night, the sun and moon, which enlighten the world, not more profitable to Nature by giving all things life, than they are to the Church of God by occasion of the use they have in regard of the appointed Festival-times? That which
• ' Apostolis propositum fuit, non ut leges de festis diebus celebrandis san- cirent ; sed ut recte vivendi rationis et pietatis nobis auctores essent.' Socrat. Hist. lib. v. cap. 21.
t ' Qu<e toto terrarum orbe servantur, vel ab ipsis Apostolis, vel Conciliis gene- ralibus quorum est saluberrima in Ecclesia auctoritas, statuta esse intelligere licet ; sicuti quod Domini Passio, etResurrectio, et in caelum Ascensns, et Adven- tus Spiritus Sancti, anniversaria solennitate celebrantur.' August. Epist. cxviii. [al. liv. c. 1.]
21. 14.
BOOK V. 47
the head of all Philosophers hath said of women, " If they be good, the half of the Commonwealth is happy wherein they are ;" the same we may fitly apply to times ; well to celebrate these religious and sacred days, is to spend the flower of our time happily. They are the splendour and outward dignity of our Religion, forcible witnesses of ancient truth, provocations to the exercises of all piety, shadows of our endless felicity in Heaven, on earth ever- lasting records and memorials ; wherein they which can- not be drawn to hearken unto that we teach, may only by looking upon that we do, in a manner read whatsoever we believe.
72. The matching of contrary things together is a kind of da>s of illustration to both. Having therefore spoken thus edTs" much of Festival-days, the next that offer themselves to *e,[}nf°.r hand are the days of pensive humiliation and sorrow. ry>asfor Fastings are either of men's own free and voluntary accord, "wry as their particular devotion doth move them thereunto ; or fnast|,sein else they are publickly enjoined in the Church, and required Cliurch at the hands of all men. There are which altogether dis- ° allow not the former kind;* and the latter they greatly commend, so that it be upon extraordinary occasions only, and after one certain manner exercised. But yearly or weekly Fasts, such as ours in the Church of England, they allow no further than as the temporal state of the land doth require the same, for the maintenance of seafaring men and preservation of cattle ; because the decay of the one, and the waste of the other, could not well be prevented but by a politic order appointing some such usual change of diet as ours is. We are, therefore, the rather to make
* ' I will not enter now to discuss, whether it were well done to fast in all places according to the custom of the place. You oppose Ambrose and Augustine ; I could oppose Ignatius and Tertullian ; whereof the oue saith, It is vefas, a detestable thing to fast upon the Lord's day; the other, that it is to kill the Lord. Tertull.de Coron. Mil. [c. 3.] Ignatius, Epist. ad Philippen. [c. 13.] And al- though Ambrose and Augustine, being private men at Rome, would have so done; yet it follow eth not, that if they had been Citizens and Ministers there, they would have done it. And if they had done so, yet it followeth not, but that they would have spoken against that appointment of days, and vopoQetriav of fast- ing, whereof Eusebius saith, that Montanus was the first author. I speak of that which they ought to have done. For otherwise I know, they both thought cor- ruptly of Fasting ; when as the one saith, it was a remedy or reward to fast other days, but in Lent not to fast was sin ; and the other asketh, what salvation we can obtain, if we blot not out sins by fasting, seeing that the Scripture saith, That Fasting and Alms do deliver from sin; and therefore calleth them new teachers, that shut out the merit of Fasting. August, de Temp. lxii. Serm. [al. serm. 142. §. 1. Append.] Ambr. lib. x. Epist. [al. ep. 63. $. 16. 17.]' T. C. lib. i. p. 30.
48 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
it manifest in all men's eyes, that set times of Fasting, appointed in spiritual considerations to be kept by all sorts of men, took not their beginning either from Mon- tanus, or any other whose Heresies may prejudice the credit and due estimation thereof, but have their ground in the Law of Nature, are allowable in God's sight, were in all ages heretofore, and may till the world's end be ob- served, not without singular use and benefit. Much hurt hath grown to the Church of God through a false imagina- tion that Fasting standeth men in no stead for any spiritual respect, but only to take down the frankness of nature, and to tame the wildness of flesh. Whereupon the world being bold to surfeit, doth now blush to fast, supposing that men when they fast, do rather bewray a disease than exercise a virtue. I much wonder what they who are thus persuaded do think, what conceit they have concern- ing the Fasts of the Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Apostles, our Lord Jesus Christ himself. The affections of joy and grief are so knit unto all the actions of man's life, that whatsoever we can do, or may be done unto us, the sequel thereof is continually the one or the other affection. Wherefore, considering that they which grieve and joy as they ought, cannot possibly otherwise live than as they should, the Church of Christ, the most absolute and perfect school of all virtue, hath, by the special direction of God's good Spirit, hitherto always inured men from their infancy, partly with days of Festival-exercise for the framing of the one affection, and partly with times of a contrary sort for the perfecting of the other. Howbeit, over and besides this, we must note, that as resting, so Fasting likewise, attendeth sometimes no less upon the actions of the higher than upon the affections of the lower part of the mind. Fasting (saith Tertullian) is a work of reverence towards God. The end thereof, sometimes elevation of mind ; sometimes the purpose thereof clean contrary. The cause why Moses in the Mount did so long fast, was mere divine speculation ; the cause why David, humiliation.* Our life is a mixture of good with evil.f When we are
* ' Neque enim cibi tempus in periculo : semper inedia moeroris sequela est.' Tertull. de Jejun. [c. 7.]
t MnhU y biroXaQiru) rr.v axja-rov xai afxiyn XiIttm? ^ajav ait ovpavou xaTa&t/viiv !jr£ tw yijv, dxx' iyxeXfttTttl 1£ a(ji$t>~v. ov yaf i'aatv i Tra-rwp to avflpaJTnwv yivo; Xutfaij not oWvajj xai a^Qsa-iv «vi*to»5 ipyfytg-Qai, irafe^t U xai t«; a/uei'vovoj <f>u«a>j, EvoWat
BOOK v. 49
partakers of good things, we joy; neither can we but grieve at the contrary. If that befall us which maketh glad, our Festival-solemnities declare our rejoicing to be in hiui, whose mere undeserved mercy is the author of all happiness ; if any thing be either imminent or present which we shun, our watchings, fastings, cries, and tears, are unfeigned testimonies that ourselves we condemn as the only causes of our own misery, and do all acknowledge him no less inclinable than able to save. And because as the memory of the one, though past, reneweth gladness ; so the other, called again to mind, doth make the wound of our just remorse to bleed anew ; which wound needeth often touching the more, for that we are generally more apt to calendar Saints' than sinners' days ; therefore, there is in the Church a care not to iterate the one alone, but to have frequent repetition of the other. Never to seek after God saving only when either the crib or the whip doth constrain, were brutish servility, and a great derogation to the worth of that which is most predominant in man, if sometime it had not a kind of voluntary access to God, and of conference, as it were, with God, all these inferior considerations laid aside. In which sequestra- tion, forasmuch as higher cogitations do naturally drown John and bury all inferior cares, the mind may as well forget"' natural both food and sleep, by being carried above itself with serious and heavenly meditation, as by being cast down with heaviness, drowned and swallowed up of sorrow. Albeit, therefore, concerning Jewish abstinence from certain kinds of meats as being unclean, the Apostle doth teach, that " the Kingdom of Heaven is not meat nor Rom- drink," that " food commendeth us not unto God," whether x'v we take it, or abstain from it ; that if we eat, we are not thereby the more acceptable in his sight ; nor the less, if we eat not; his purpose, notwithstanding, was far from any intent to derogate from that Fasting, which is no such scrupulous abstinence as only refuseth some kinds of meats and drinks, lest they make them unclean that taste them ; but an abstinence whereby we either interrupt or otherwise abridge the care of our bodily sustenance, to shew by this kind of outward exercise the serious intention
wote xai yaXuviatrat rhv {%!iv Swat^a-a?. Philo de Abraham [vol. ii. p. 29. ed. Mang.]
VOL. II. E
50 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
of our minds fixed on heavenlier and better desires, the
earnest hunger and thirst whereof depriveth the body of
those usual contentments, which otherwise are not denied
unto it. These being in nature the first causes that induce
Fasting, the next thing which followeth to be considered, is
the ancient practice thereof amongst the Jews. Touching
whose private voluntary Fasts the precept which our
Matt Saviour gave them was, " When ye fast, look not sour,
as hypocrites: for they disfigure their faces, that they
might seem to men to fast. Verily I say unto you,
they have their reward. When thou fastest, anoint
thy head, and wash thy face, that thou seem not unto
men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret;
and thy Father which seeth in secret, will reward thee
openly." Our Lord and Saviour would not teach the
manner of doing, much less propose a reward for doing
that which were not both holy and acceptable in God's
sight. The Pharisees weekly bound themselves unto
double Fasts, neither are they for this reproved. Often
Fasting, which was a virtue in John's Disciples, could
not in them of itself be a vice ; and, therefore, not
the oftenness of their Fasting, but their hypocrisy there-
"Ci.ron. jn> was blamed. Of public enjoined Fasts, upon causes
xxxvi. ' extraordinary, the examples in Scripture are so far fre-
vm.a quent, that they need no particular rehearsal. Public
isam. extraordinary Fastings were sometimes for one only
j"dg. day, sometimes for three, sometimes for seven. Touch-
2Mac'. *nS Fasts not appointed for any such extraordinary
xiii. 12. causes, but either yearly, or monthly, or weekly observed
xnTiik and kept ; first, upon the ninth day of that month,* the
x.Tc"0"' tenth whereof was the Feast of Expiation, they were com-
Levit- manded of God that every soul, year by year, should afflict
i,evit. itself. Their yearly Fasts every fourth month, in regard
XV1' of the city of Jerusalem entered by the enemy ; every fifth,
for the memory of the overthrow of their Temple ; every
seventh, for the treacherous destruction and death of
Gedaliah, the very last stay which they had to lean unto
in their greatest misery ; every tenth, in remembrance of
* Philo de hujus festi jejunio ita loquitur : Ov <rmov, ov itorh e^ej-ti Ttooo-enynao-Qai , Ka.9apa.~i; otfioc Jiavoi'aij, /wnSsvo? Ivop^XoyVTo; ^jjSe l/ji.7ro$l£t>VTo<; (j-oofjiarMo'j iradous, owoia <f>fXE~ o-i/fA.(2aivtiv ex TTXric-fjiovni;, io^ra^aiiriv lXairx.ifji.evoi tov Ttatipa. rov nainoi; o<rtai; iv-^atq . Si' Sv ay.mcrritt,v (xlv Tra\aiSiv ajc*agT»jdttTWV, XTJ]0-iv Se xal awiXctva-iv viaiv ayaBwv tludao-iv ahiTa-Sai. P. 447.
BOOK V. 51
the time when siege began first to be laid against them : all these not commanded by God himself, but ordained by a public Constitution of their own, the Prophet Zachary Zach- expressly toucheth. That St. Jerome, following the tra- Exo'd. dition of the Hebrews, doth make the first a memorial of ™£b. the breaking of those two Tables, when Moses descended xiv- from Mount Sinai ; the second, a memorial as well of God's indignation, condemning them to forty years' travel in the Desert, as of his wrath in permitting Chaldeans to waste, burn, and destroy their city; the last a memorial of heavy tidings, brought out of Jewry to Ezekiel and the rest, which lived as captives in foreign parts : the difference is not of any moment, considering that each time of sorrow is naturally evermore a register of all such grievous events as have happened either in, or near about, the same time. To these I might add sundry other Fasts, about twenty in vide number, ordained amongst them by like occasions, and ob- n*"" served in like manner, besides their weekly abstinence, cap- S1, Mondays and Thursdays, throughout the whole year. When men fasted, it was not always after one and the same sort ; but either by depriving themselves wholly of all food during the time that their Fasts continued, or by abating both the quantity and kind of diet. We have of the one a plain example in the Ninevites' fasting, and as plain a precedent for the other in the Prophet Daniel ; " I was Da°- *• (saith he) in heaviness for three weeks of days ; I ate no '' 3' pleasant bread, neither tasted flesh nor wine." Their ta- bles, when they gave themselves to fasting, had not that usual furniture of such dishes as do cherish blood with blood ; but for food,* they had bread ; for suppage, salt ; and for sauce, herbs. Whereunto the Apostles may be thought to allude, saying, " One believeth he may eat all Rom- things, another which is weak (and maketh a conscience of mom. keeping those customs which the Jews observe) eateth "^ "; herbs." This austere repast they took in the evening after *°vi™™. abstinence the whole day : for to forfeit a noon's meal, and [i'
211.]
th
then to recompense themselves at night, was not their use ; jjld' nor did they ever accustom themselves on Sabbaths, or JHj£ Festival-days, to fast. And yet it may be a question, ibmihm
* ' Puram et sine animalibus ccenam.' Apul. in Asclep. in fin. ' Pastum et potum pura nosse, non ventris scilicet, sed animee causa.' Tertul. de Pccnit. [c. 9.] Vide Phil. lib. de vita contempl.
e2
Tora. lib. iii. Qui est
de tem- por.cap.
52 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
whether in some sort they did not always fast the Sabbath. Their Fastings were partly in token of penitency, humili- ation, grief, and sorrow, partly in sign of devotion and de sab. reverence towards God. Which second consideration (I dejeju'n. dare not peremptorily and boldly affirm any thing) might induce to abstain till noon, as their manner was on Fasting- days to do till night. May it not very well be thought, Nehem. that hereunto the sacred Scripture doth give some secret 12. kind of testimony? Josephus is plain, that the sixth hour* (the day they divided into twelve) was wont on the Sabbath always to call them home unto meat. Neither is it impro- bable, but that the Heathens did therefore so often upbraid them with fasting on that day.f Besides, they which found so great fault with our Lord's Disciples, for rubbing a few ears of corn in their hands on the Sabbath-day, are not un- likely to have aimed also at the same mark. For neither was the bodily pain so great, that it should offend them in that respect, and the very manner of defence which our Saviour there useth, is more direct and literal to justify the breach of the Jewish custom in Fasting, than in working at that time. Finally, the Apostles afterwards themselves, when God first gave them the gift of tongues, whereas some in disdain and spite termed grace drunkenness, it being then the day of Pentecost, and but only a fourth part of the day spent, they use this as an argument against the other cavil, n%. " These men (saith Peter) are not drunk, as you suppose, since as yet the third hour of the day is not overpast." Howbeit, leaving this in suspence, as a thing not altogether certainly known, and to come from Jews to Christians, we icor. fm(j tiiat 0f private voluntary Fastings the Apostle St. e cor. Paul speaketh more than once. And (saith Tertullian) x'f. 2T. they are sometime commanded throughout the Church, cok « £x aijqUa sollicitudinis Ecclesiastical causa," the care and fear of theChurch so requiring. It doth not appear, that the Apostles ordained any set and certain days to be generally kept of all. Notwithstanding, forasmuch as Christ hath foresignified, than when himself should be taken from them, his absence would soon make them apt
* ' Hora sexta, qua; Sabbatis nostris ad prandium vocare solet, supervenit.' Joseph, lib. de Vita sua [§. 54.]
t ' Sabbata Juda;orum a Mose in omne rcvum jejunio dicata.' Justin, lib. xxxvi. [c. 2.] ' Ne Judaeus quidem, mi Tiberi, tarn libenter Sabbati jejunium servat, quam ego bodie servavi.' Sueton. in Octav. cap. 76.
ROOK V. 53
to fast, it secmcth, that even as the first Festival-day ap- pointed to be kept of the Church was the day of our Lord's return from the dead, so the first sorrowful and mournful day was that which we now observe in memory of his de- parture out of this world. And because there could be no abatement of grief till they saw him raised, whose death was the occasion of their heaviness ; therefore, the day he lay in the sepulchre hath been also kept and observed as a weeping day. The custom of Fasting these two days before Easter, is undoubtedly most ancient: insomuch that Igna- Igna- tius, not thinking him a Catholic Christian man which did rhiiip.' not abhor, and (as the state of the Church was then) avoid [c> 13] fasting on the Jews' Sabbath, doth notwithstanding except for ever that one Sabbath or Saturday which falleth out to be the Easter-eve, as with us it always doth, and did some- times also with them which kept at that time their Easter the fourteenth day of March, as the custom of the Jews was. It came afterwards to be an Order, that even as the day of Christ's Resurrection, so the other two, in memory of his death and burial, were weekly. But this, when St. Ambrose lived, had not as yet taken place throughout all Churches, no not in Milan, where himself was Bishop. And for that cause he saith, that although at Rome he ob- served the Saturday's Fast, because such was then the custom in Rome, nevertheless in his own Church at home he did otherwise. The Churches which did not observe that day, had another instead thereof, which was the Wed- nesday, for that when they judged it meet to have weekly a day of humiliation, besides that whereon our Saviour suf- fered death, it seemed best to make their choice of that day especially, whereon the Jews are thought to have first con- trived their treason, together with Judas, against Christ. So that the instituting and ordaining both of these, and of all other times of like exercise, is as the Church shall' judge expedient for men's good. And concerning every Christian man's duty herein, surely that which Augustine and Ambrose are before alleged to have done, is such as all men favouring equity must needs allow and follow, if they afiect peace. As for their specified errors, I will not in this place dispute, whether voluntary Fasting with a vir- tuous purpose of mind, be any medicinable remedy of evil, or a duty acceptable unto God, and in the world to come
54 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
even rewardable as other offices are which proceed from Christian piety ; whether wilfully to break and despise the wholesome Laws of the Church herein, be a thing which offendeth God ; whether truly it may not be said, that pe- nitent both weeping and fasting are means to blot out sin, means whereby through God's unspeakable and undeserved mercy we obtain or procure ourselves pardon; which at- tainment unto any gracious benefit by him bestowed, the phrase of antiquity useth to express by the name of Merit; but if either St. Augustine or St. Ambrose have taught any wrong opinion, seeing they which reprove them are not alto- gether free from error, I hope they will think it no error in us so to censure men's smaller faults, that their virtues be not thereby generally prejudiced. And, if in Churches abroad, where we are subject not to power or jurisdiction, discretion should teach us for peace and quietness' sake to frame ourselves to other men's example, is it meet that at home, where our freedom is less, our boldness should be more? Is it our duty to oppugn, in the Churches whereof we are Ministers, the Rites and Customs which in foreign Churches piety and modesty did teach us as strangers not to oppugn, but to keep without show of contradiction or dislike ? Why oppose they the name of a Minister in this case unto the state of a private man? Doth their Order exempt them from obedience to Laws ? That which their office and place requireth, is to shew themselves patterns of reverend subjection, not authors and masters of contempt towards Ordinances; the strength whereof when they seek to weaken, they do but in truth discover to the world their own imbecilities, which a great deal wiselier they might conceal. But the practice of the Church of Christ we shall by so much the better both understand and love, if to that which hitherto hath been spoken there be somewhat added for more particular declaration, how Heretics have partly abused Fasts, and partly bent themselves against the lawful use thereof in the Church of God. Whereas therefore Ig- natius hath said, if any keep Sundays'or Saturdays' Fasts* (one only Saturday in the year excepted), that man is no better than a murderer of Christ; the cause of such his earnestness at that time was the impiety of certain Here-
* Ei' t{; Kvptanh h traBQarov vnavevsi TtXhv ivo; s-a.BQa.tcv, «Ito; ^is-tokto'voj ie-ti. Epist. ad Philip, [c. 13.]
BOOK V. 55
tics, whicht bought that this world being corruptible could Vi<ie not be made but by a very evil author. And therefore as lib. i, the Jews did, by the Festival-solemnity of their Sabbath, 1^1^ rejoice in the God that created the world, as in the author epjp^- of all goodness ; so those Heretics, in hatred of the Maker co-24! of the world, sorrowed, wept, and fasted on that day, as «,*&ei being the birthday of all evil. And as Christian men of ™*on sound belief did solemnize the Sunday in joyful memory of Apost. Christ's Resurrection, so likewise at the self-same time such Heretics as denied his Resurrection did the contrary to them which held it; when the one sort rejoiced, the other fasted. Against those Heretics which have urged perpetual abstinence from certain meats, as being in their very nature unclean, the Church hath still bent herself as an enemy ; St. Paul giving charge to take heed of them, which, under any such opinion, should utterly forbid the use of meats or drinks. The Apostles themselves forbade some, as the Order taken at Jerusalem declareth ; but the cause of their so doing we all know. Again, when Tertullian, together with such as were his followers, began to Monta- nize, and pretending to perfect the severity of Christian Discipline, brought in sundry unaccustomed days of fast- ing, continued their Fasts a great deal longer, and made them more rigorous than the use of the Church had been ; the minds of men being somewhat moved at so great and sudden novelty, the cause was presently inquired into. After notice taken how the Montanists held these additions to be supplements of the Gospel, whereunto the Spirit of Prophecy did now mean to put, as it were, the last hand, and was therefore newly descended upon Montanus, whose Orders all Christian men were no less to obey, than the Laws of the Apostles themselves ; this abstinence the Church abhorred likewise, and that justly. Whereupon, Tertullian proclaiming even open war to the Church, main- tained Montanism, wrote a book in defence of the new Fast, and entitled the same, A Treatise of Fasting against the Opinion of the Carnal Sort. In which treatise, never- theless, because so much is sound and good, as doth either generally concern the use, or in particular declare the cus- tom of the Church's Fasting in those times, men are not to reject whatsoever is alleged out of that book for confirma- tion of the truth. His error discloseth itself in those places
Jej
50 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
where he defendeth his Fasts to be duties necessary for the whole Church of Christ to observe, as commanded by the Holy Ghost, and that with the same authority from whence all other Apostolical Ordinances came, both being the Laws of God himself, without any other distinction or difference, saving only, that he which before had declared his will by Paul and Peter, did now further reveal the same by Mon- [De tanus also. " Against us ye pretend (saith Tertullian), that the public Orders which Christianity is bound to keep, were delivered at the first, and that no new thing is to be added thereunto. Stand, if you can, upon this point ; for behold, I challenge you for fasting more than at Easter yourselves. But in fine ye answer, that these things are to be done as established by the voluntary appointment of men, and not by virtue or force of any divine command- ment. Well then (he addeth) ye have removed your first footing, and gone beyond that which was delivered, by doing more than was at the first imposed upon you. You say, you must do that which your own judgments have allowed : we require your obedience to that which God himself doth institute. Is it not strange, that men to their own will should yield that, which to God's commandment they will not grant ? Shall the pleasure of men prevail more with you, than the power of God himself?" These places of Tertullian for Fasting have worthily been put to silence ; and as worthily Aerius condemned for opposition against Fasting. The one endeavoured to bring in such Fasts as the Church ought not to receive ; the other, to overthrow such as already it had received and did observe : the one was plausible unto many, by seeming to hate carnal looseness and riotous excess much more than the rest of the world did ; the other drew hearers, by pretending the maintenance of Christian liberty : the one thought his cause very strongly upheld, by making invective declamations with a pale and withered countenance against the Church, by filling the ears of his starved hearers with speech suit- able to such men's humours, and by telling them, no doubt, [Tertuii. to their marvellous contentment and liking, " Our new c'S ""' prophecies are refused, they are despised. Is it because Montanus doth preach some other God, or dissolve the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or overthrow any Canon of Faith and Hope ? No, our crime is, we teach that men ought to
5. c.
BOOK V. 57
fast more often than marry ; the best feast-maker is with them the perfectest saint, they are assuredly mere spirit ; and therefore these our corporal devotions please them not:" thus the one for Montanus and his Superstition. The other in a clean contrary tune against the Religion of the Church : " These set Fasts away with them, for they jgp£ are Jewish, and bring men under the yoke of servitude ; if p I will fast, let me choose my time, that Christian liberty be not abridged." Hereupon their glory was to fast espe- cially upon the Sunday, because the Order of the Church was on that day not to fast. " On Church Fasting-days, LIbid and especially the week before Easter, when with us (saith Epiphanius) custom admitteth nothing but lying down upon the earth, abstinence from fleshy delights and pleasures, sorrowfulness, dry and unsavoury diet, prayer, watching, fasting, all the medicines which holy affections can minister ; they are up betimes to take in of the strong- est for the belly, and when their veins are well swollen, they make themselves mirth with laughter at this our service, wherein we are persuaded we please God." By this of Epiphanius it doth appear, not only what Fast- ings the Church of Christ in those times used, but also what other parts of Discipline were together therewith in force, according to the ancient use and custom of bring- ing all men at certain times to a due consideration and an open humiliation of themselves. Two kinds there were of public penitency : the one belonging to notorious offend- ers, whose open wickedness had been scandalous ; the other appertaining to the whole Church, and unto every several person whom the same containeth. It will be answered, that touching this latter kind, it may be exercised well enough by men in private. No doubt but penitency is, as prayer, a thing acceptable unto God, be it in public or in secret. Howbeit, as in the one, if men were wholly left to their own voluntary meditations in their closets, and not drawn by Laws and Orders unto the open assemblies of the Church, that there they may join with others in prayer; it may be soon conjectured what Christian devotion that way would come unto in a short time : even so in the other, we are by sufficient experience taught, how little it booteth to tell men of washing away their sins with tears of repentance, and so to leave them altogether unto themselves. O Lord, what
58 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
heaps of grievous transgressions have we committed, the best and perfectest, the most righteous amongst us all; and yet clean pass them over unsorrowed for, unrepented of, only because the Church hath forgotten utterly how to be- stow her wonted times of discipline, wherein the public example of all was unto every particular person a most effectual means to put them often in mind, and even in a manner to draw them to that which now we all quite and clean forget, as if penitency was no part of a Christian man's duty! Again, besides our private offences, which ought not thus loosely to be overslipped ; suppose we the body and corporation of the Church so just, that at no time it needeth to shew itself openly cast down, in regard of those faults and transgressions, which though they do not properly belong unto any one, had notwithstanding a spe- cial sacrifice appointed for them in the Law of Moses; and being common to the whole society which containeth all, must needs so far concern every man in particular, as at some time in solemn manner to require acknowledgment with more than daily and ordinary testifications of grief. There could not hereunto a fitter preamble be devised, than that memorable Commination set down in the Book of Common Prayer, if our practice in the rest were suit- able. The head already so well drawn doth but wish a proportionable body. And by the Preface to that very part of the English Liturgy it may appear, how at the first set- ting down thereof no less was intended. For so we are to interpret the meaning of those words, wherein "restitution of the primitive Church-discipline is greatly wished for," touching the manner of public penance in time of Lent. Wherewith some being not much acquainted, but having framed in their minds the conceit of a new Discipline far unlike to that of old, they make themselves believe, it is undoubtedly this their Discipline which at the first was so much desired. They have long pretended, that the whole Scripture is plain for them. If now the Communion-book make for them too (I well think the one doth as much as the other), it may be hoped, that being found such a well- wisher unto their cause, they will more favour it than they have done. Having therefore hitherto spoken both of Festi- val-days, and so much of solemn Fasts, as may reasonably serve to shew the ground thereof in the Law of Nature; the
BOOK V.
59
practice partly appointed and partly allowed of God in the Jewish Church; the like continued in the Church of Christ; together with the sinister oppositions, either of Heretics erroneously abusing the same, or of others thereat quarrel- ling without cause, we will only collect the chiefest points as well of resemblance as of difference between them, and so end. First, in this they agree, that because Nature is the general root of both, therefore both have been always common to the Church with Infidels and Heathen-men. Secondly, they also herein accord, that as oft as joy is the cause of the one, and grief the wellspring of the other, they are incompatible.* A third degree of affinity between them is, that neither being acceptable to God of itself, but both tokens of that which is acceptable, their approbation with him must necessarily depend on that which they ought to import and signify; so that if herein the mind dispose not itself aright, whether we rest or fast, we offend. A fourth thing common unto them, is, that the greatest part of the isai. world hath always grossly and palpably offended in both; Iviuis. Infidels, because they did all in relation to false gods; godless, sensual, and careless minds, for that there is in them no constant, true, and sincere affection towards those things which are pretended by such exercise ; yea, certain flattering oversights there are, wherewith sundry, and they not of the worst sort, may be easily in these cases led awry, even through abundance of love and liking to that which must be embraced by all means, but with caution, inas- much as the very admiration of Saints, whether we cele- brate their glory, or follow them in humility ; whether we laugh or weep, mourn or rejoice with them, is (as in all things the affection of love) apt to deceive; and doth there- fore need the more to be directed by a watchful guide, see- ing there is manifestly both ways, even in them whom we honour, that which we are to observe and shun. The best have not still been sufficiently mindful, that God's very An- gels in Heaven are but Angels ; and that bodily exercise, 1 Tim. considered in itself, is no great matter. Finally, seeing"' that both are Ordinances well devised for the good of man, and yet not man created purposely for them as for other feccies. offices of virtue, whereunto God's immutable Law for ever Jj|^M* tieth; it is but equity to wish or admonish that where, by iviii.6,7
* ' Vetat NaUlitia Martyrum in Quadragesima celebrari.' Cone. Laod. e. 51, 62.
i.27
Heb. xii. U Ephes. ii. 10. Euseb. Eccles.
lib. c. 23. Matt. ix. 14.
Col. ii. 16.
60 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Rom. uniform order, they are not as yet received, the example jibes' of Victor's extremity in the one, and of John's Disciples' curiosity in the other, be not followed ; yea, where they are appointed by Law, that notwithstanding we avoid Judaism: and, as in Festival-days, men's necessities for matter of la- bour, so in times of Fasting, regard be had to their imbe- Hbt. cilities, lest they should suffer harm, doing good. Thus, therefore, we see how these two customs are in divers re- spects equal. But of Fasting the use and exercise, though less pleasant, is by so much more requisite than the other, as grief of necessity is a more familiar guest than the con- trary passion of mind, albeit gladness to all men be natu- rally more welcome. For, first, we ourselves do many more things amiss than well, and the fruit of our own ill-doing is remorse, because Nature is conscious to itself that it should do the contrary. Again, forasmuch as the world over- aboundeth with malice, and few are delighted in doing good to other men, there is no man so seldom crossed as plea- sured at the hands of others ; whereupon it cannot be chosen but every man's woes must double in that respect the number and measure of his delights. Besides, con- cerning the very choice which oftentimes we are to make, our corrupt inclination well considered, there is cause why Mat*, our Saviour should account them the happiest that do most Eccies. mourn, and why Solomon might judge it better to frequent mourning than feasting houses : not better simply and in it- self (for then would Nature that way incline), but in regard of us and our common weakness better. Job was not igno- rant that his children's banquets, though te ndingto amity, needed sacrifice. Neither doth any of us all need to be taught, that in things which delight we easily swerve from medio- crity, and are not easily led by a direct line.* On the other side, the sores and diseases of mind which inordinate plea- sure breedeth, are by dolour and grief cured. For which cause as all offences use to seduce by pleasing, so all punishments endeavour by vexing to reform transgressions. We are of our own accord apt enough to give entertain- ment to things delectable ; but patiently to lack what flesh and blood doth desire, and by virtue to forbear what by nature we covet, this no man attaineth unto but with
* *Ev awn Se /xaKia-ea. >j>uXctjtTS0V to ijJu xal rhv JjScvnv ov ya£ aSuaffioi xpi'vojWEV *u- rriv. Arist. Eth. ii. cap. 9.
vii. 2.
BOOK V. 61
labour and long practice. From hence it ariseth that, in former ages, abstinence and fasting more than ordinary was always a special branch of their praise in whom it could be observed and known, were they such as continu- ally gave themselves to austere life; or men that took often occasions, in private virtuous respects, to lay Solomon's counsel aside, "Eat thy bread with joy," and to be follow- fxcc7les' ers of David's example, which saith, " I humbled my soul p^i. with fasting;" or but they who, otherwise worthy of no xx> great commendation, have made of hunger, some their gain, some their physic, some their art, that, by mastering sensual appetites without constraint, they might grow able to en- dure hardness whensoever need should require : for the body accustomed to emptiness, pineth not away so soon as having still used to fill itself. Many singular effects there are which should make Fasting, even in public con- siderations, the rather to be accepted : for I presume we are not altogether without experience, how great their ad- vantage is in martial enterprises, that lead armies of men trained in a school of abstinence. It is therefore noted at this day in some, that patience of hunger and thirst hath given them many victories ; in others, that because if they want, there is no man able to rule them, nor they in plenty to moderate themselves, he which can either bring them to hunger or overcharge them, is sure to make them their own overthrow. What nation soever doth feel these dan- gerous inconveniences, may know that sloth and fulness in peaceable times at home is the cause thereof, and the remedy a strict observation of that part of Christian Dis- cipline, which teacheth men in practice of ghostly warfare against themselves, those things that afterwards may help them, justly assaulting or standing in lawful defence of themselves against others. The very purpose of the Church of God, both in the number and in the order of her Fasts, hath been not only to preserve thereby, throughout all ages, the remembrance of miseries heretofore sustained, and of the causes in ourselves out of which they have risen, that men considering the one might fear the other the more, but further also to temper the mind, lest contrary affections coining in place should make it too profuse and dissolute; in which respect it seemeth that Fasts have been set as ushers of Festival-days, for preventing of those disorders
62 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
as much as might be ; wherein, notwithstanding, the world always will deserve, as it hath done, blame;* because such evils being not possible to be rooted out, the most we can do, is in keeping them low, and (which is chiefly the fruit we look for) to create in the minds of them a love towards a frugal and severe life; to undermine the palaces of wantonness ; to plant parsimony as nature, where riotousness hath been studied ; to harden whom pleasure would melt; and to help the tumours which always fulness breedeth ; that children, as it were in the wool of their infancy dyed with hardness, may never after- wards change colour; that the poor, whose perpetual Fasts are of necessity, may with better contentment endure the hunger which virtue causeth others so often to choose, and by advice of Religion itself so far to esteem above the con- trary; that they which for the most part do lead sensual and easy lives, they which, as the Prophet David describ- Psai. eth them, " are not plagued like other men," may, by the public spectacle of all, be still put in mind what them- selves are ; finally, that every man may be every man's daily guide and example, as well by fasting to declare humility, as by praise to expres joy in the sight of God, although it have herein befallen the Church, as sometimes David, so that the speech of the one may be truly the voice Psai. of the other, "My soul fasted, and even that was also
turned to my reproof."
hbraCe ^* *n **"s wor^ there can be no society durable other-
tioAf wise than only by propagation. Albeit therefore single
^on". life be a thing more angelical and divine, yet sith the re-
T •£■'•'• plenishing first of earth with blessed inhabitants, and then of
Heaven with saints everlastingly praising God, did depend
upon conjunction of man and woman, he which made all
things complete and perfect, saw it could not be good
to leave man without a helper unto the fore-alleged end.
In things which some farther end doth cause to be desired,
choice seeketh rather proportion than absolute perfection
of goodness. So that woman being created for man's sake
to be his helper, in regard to the end before-mentioned ;
namely, the having and bringing up of children, whereunto
it was not possible they could concur, unless there were
* * Valde absurdum est nimia saturitate velle honorare martyrem, quem scias Deo placuisse jejuniis.' Hier. Epist. ad Eust.
BOOK V. 63
subalternation between them, which subalternation is natu- rally grounded upon inequality, because things equal in every respect are never willingly directed one by another: woman therefore was even in her first estate framed by Na- ture, not only after in time, but inferior in excellency also unto man, howbeit in so due and sweet proportion, as being presented before our eyes, might be sooner perceived than defined. And even herein doth lie the reason why that kind of love, which is'the perfectest ground of wedlock, is seldom able to yield any reason of itself. Now, that which is born of man must be nourished with far more travel, as being of greater price in Nature, and of slower pace to perfection, than the offspring of any other creature besides. Man and woman being therefore to join themselves for such a purpose, they were of necessity to be linked with some strait and insoluble knot. The bond of wedlock hath been always,more or less, esteemed of as a thing religious and sacred. The title which the very Heathens themselves do hereunto oftentimes give is, Holy.* Those Rites and Orders, which were instituted in the Solemnization of Marriage, the He- brews term by the name of Conjugal Sanctification.t Amongst ourselves, because sundry things appertaining unto the public Order of Matrimony are called in question by such as know not from whence those customs did first grow, to shew briefly some true and sufficient reason of them, shall not be superfluous ; although we do not hereby intend to yield so far unto enemies of all Church-orders saving their own, as though every thing were unlawful the true cause and reason whereof at the first might hardly perhaps be now rendered. Wherefore, to begin with the times wherein the liberty of Marriage is restrained ; " There Eccies. is (saith Solomon) a time for all things, a time to laugh, "'" 1" and a time to mourn." That duties belonging unto Mar- joei riage, and offices appertaining to penance, are things un- "'^ suitable and unfit to be matched together, the Prophets vii-5- and Apostles themselves do witness. Upon which ground, as we might right well think it marvellous absurd to see in a Church a wedding on the day of a public Fast, so like- wise in the self-same consideration, our predecessors thought it not amiss to take away the common liberty of Marriages during the time which was appointed for pre-
* Touc if£ol>? yafxwi;. Dionys. Antiq. lib. ii. [c. 25.] t Kidduschin de Rituali Heb. benedictione nuptiarum,
64 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
paration unto, and for exercise of, general humiliation by fasting and prayer, weeping for sins. As for the delivering up of the woman either by her father or by some other, we must note that in ancient times* all women, which had not husbands or fathers to govern them, had their tutors, without whose authority there was no act which they did warrantable ;f and for this cause, they were in marriage delivered unto their husbands by others. Which custom retained hath still this use, that it putteth women in mind of a duty whereunto the very imbecility of their nature and sex doth bind them; namely, to be always directed, guided, and ordered by others, although our positive Laws do not tie them now as pupils. The custom of laying down money seemeth to have been derived from the Saxons, whose manner was to buy their wives. But, seeing there is not any great cause wherefore the memory of that cus- tom should remain, it skilleth not much, although we suffer it to lie dead, even as we see it in a manner already worn out. The ring hath been always used as a special pledge of faith and fidelity; nothing more fit to serve as a token of our purposed endless continuance in that which we never ought to revoke. This is the cause wherefore the Heathens themselves did in such cases use the ring, whereunto Tertullian alluding, saith, that in ancient times, " No woman was permitted to wear gold, saving only upon one finger, which her husband had fastened unto himself, with that ring which was usually given for assurance of future marriage."! The cause why the Christians use it, isidor.de as some of the Fathers think, is either to testify mutual offic"'. love, or rather to serve for a pledge of conjunction in heart ii. c 19. and mjn(j agree(j upon between them. But what rite and custom is there so harmless, wherin the wit of man, bending itself to derision, may not easily find out some- what to scorn and jest at? He that should have beheld Hias . the Jews, when they stood with a four-cornered garment diet! m spread over the heads of espoused couples, while their
• ' Mulieres antiquo jure'tutela perpetua continebat. Recedebant vero a tutoris potestate quae in manum convenissent.' Boet. in Topic. Cic. [1. ii. p. 781. ed. Basil. 1570.]
t ' Nullam ne privatam quidem rem foeminas sine auctore agere majores nostri voluerunt.' Liv. lib. [xxxiv. c. 2.] The reason yielded by Tully is this, * propter infirmitatem consilii.' Cic. pro. Mur. [c. If.] Vide Leg. Saxon, tit. 6. et 17.
t ' Aurum nulla norat, prater unico digito quern sponsus oppignerassetpronubo annulo.' Tertull. Apol. cap. 6.
BOOK V. Go
espousals were in making ; he that should have beheld HuPha- their praying over a cup, and their delivering the same at a" «ub* the Marriage-feast, with set forms of benediction, as the °*dit£ Order amongst them was— might, being lewdly affected, rum- take thereat as just occasion of scornful cavil, as at the use of the ring in wedlock amongst Christians. But of all the things the most hardly taken is the uttering of these words, "With my body I thee worship;" in which words when once they are understood, there will appear as little cause as in the rest for any wise man to be offended. First, therefore, inasmuch as unlawful copulation doth .R°m- pollute and dishonour both parties, this protestation that we do worship and honour another with our bodies, may import a denial of all such lets and impediments to our knowledge as might cause any stain, blemish, or disgrace that way ; which kind of construction being probable, would easily approve that speech to a peaceable and quiet mind. Secondly, in that the Apostle doth so ex- i cor. pressly affirm that parties married have not any longer™'4* entire power over themselves, but each hath interest in other's person, it cannot be thought an absurd construction to say, that worshipping with the body is the imparting of that interest in the body unto another, which none before had, save only ourselves. But, if this were the natural i» peu- meaning, the words should perhaps be as requisite to be "oncub. e used on the one side as on the other; and therefore a third sense there is, which I rather rely upon. Apparent it is, that the ancient difference between a lawful wife and a concubine, was only in the different purpose of man betaking himself to one or the other. If his purpose were only fellowship, there grew to the woman by this means no worship at all, but the contrary. In professing that his intent was to add by his person honour and wor- ship unto hers, he took her plainly and clearly to wife. This is it which the Civil Law doth mean, when it maketh a wife i- item to differ from a concubine in dignity ; a wife to be taken lect!" where conjugal honour and affection do go before. The wor- p*™]'- ship that grew unto her being taken with declaration of 'eg- 3. this intent was, that her children became by this means nations legitimate and free ; herself was made a mother over his J;ndaeti family; last of all, she received such advancement ofo»it>uS. state, as things annexed unto his person might augment VOL. 11. f
66 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
her with ; yea, a right of participation was thereby given her both in him, and even in all things which were his. This doth somewhat the more plainly appear, by adding also that other clause, " With all my worldly goods I thee en- dow." The former branch having granted the principal, the latter granteth that which is annexed thereunto. To end the public Solemnity of Marriage with receiving the blessed Sacrament, is a custom so religious and so holy, that if the Church of England be blameable in this respect, it is not for suffering it to be so much, but rather for not providing that it may be more, put in use. The Laws of Romulus concerning Marriage* are therefore extolled above the rest among the Heathens which were before, in that they established the use of certain special Solemnities, whereby the minds of men were drawn to make the greater conscience of wedlock, and to esteem the bond thereof a thing which could not be without impiety dissolved. If there be any thing in Christian Religion strong and effec- tual to like purpose, it is the Sacrament of the holy Eucha- rist ; in regard of the force whereof Tertullian breaketh out in these words, concerning Matrimony therewith sealed : Tertui. " Unde sufficiam ad enarrandam felicitatem ejus Matri- monii, quod Ecclesia conciliat, et confirmat Oblatio ? — I know not which way I should be able to shew the happi- ness of that wedlock, the knot whereof the Church doth fasten, and the Sacrament of the Church confirm." Touch- ing Marriage therefore let thus much be sufficient. church- 74. The fruit of Marriage is birth ; and the companion of women, birth, travail ; the grief whereof being so extreme, and the danger always so great, dare we open our mouths against the things that are holy, and presume to censure it as a fault in the Church of Christ, that women after their de- liverance do publickly shew their thankful minds unto t.c. God ? But behold what reason there is against it ! " For- p.'iso. sooth, if there should be solemn and express giving of thanks in the Church for every benefit, either equal or greater than this, which any singular person in the Church doth receive, we should not only have no preaching of the Word, nor ministering of the Sacraments, but we should
* Outo? o vofxot; tix? te ywaXxat; rtia.yM.aa-i Ta? ya/nira;, oTa /A,r,^e{A.iav iyoia-ae irepav «wo<TTfo<f>w, Trpoj ha tqv rov yeya/Armivoi £w TpoVov, xai roiif avl^at;, a>? Zvayxaiov te xa» urafaifircv •^ripa-roc, , rifc yvvamog xpartTv. Dionys. Hal. Antiq. lib. ii. [c. 25.]
lib
ad Uxor.
[c 9-]
BOOK V. 67
not have so much leisure as to do any corporal or bodily work, but should be like those Massilian Heretics which do nothing else but pray." Surely, better a great deal to be like unto those Heretics which do nothing else but pray, than those which do nothing else but quarrel. Their heads it might haply trouble somewhat more than as yet they are aware of, to find out so many benefits greater than this, or equivalent thereunto, for which if so be our Laws did re- quire solemn and express Thanksgivings in the Church, the same were like to prove a thing so greatly cumbersome as is pretended. But if there be such store of mercies, even inestimable, poured every day upon thousands (as in- deed the earth is full of the blessings of the Lord, which are day by day renewed without number and above mea- sure), shall it not be lawful to cause solemn thanks to be given unto God for any benefit, than which greater, or whereunto equal are received, no Law binding men in re- gard thereof to perform the like duty ? Suppose that some bond there be that tieth us at certain times to mention pub- lickly the names of sundry our benefactors. Some of them, it may be, are such, that a day would scarcely serve to reckon up together with them the catalogue of so many men besides, as we are either more or equally beholden unto. Because no Law requireth this impossible labour at our hands, shall we therefore condemn that Law where- by the other, being possible and also dutiful, is enjoined us ? So much we owe to the Lord of Heaven, that we can never sufficiently praise him, nor give him thanks for half those benefits for which this sacrifice were most due. Howbeit, God forbid we should cease performing this duty when public Order doth draw us unto it, when it may be so easily done, when it hath been so long executed by devout and virtuous people. God forbid, that being so many ways provoked in this case unto so good a duty, we should omit it, only because there are other cases of like nature, wherein we cannot so conveniently, or at leastwise do not, perform the same most virtuous office of piety. Wherein we trust that as the action itself pleaseth God, so the order and manner thereof is not such as may justly offend any. It is but an overflowing of gall, which causeth the woman's absence from the Church during the time of her lying-in to be traduced and interpreted, as though she f 2
68 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
were so long judged unholy, and were thereby shut out or sequestered from the House of God, according to the an- cient Levitical Law. Whereas the very Canon Law itself doth not so hold, but directly professeth the contrary;* she is not barred from thence in such sort as they interpret it, nor in respect of any unholiness forbidden entrance into the Church, although her abstaining from public assem- blies and her abode in separation for the time be most convenient. To scoff at the manner of attire,f than which there could be nothing devised for such a time more grave and decent, to make it a token of some folly committed, for which they are loth to shew their faces, argueth that great Divines are sometimes more merry than wise. As for the women themselves, God accepting the service which they faithfully offer unto him, it is no great disgrace, though they suffer pleasant-witted men a little to intermingle with zeal scorn. The name of Oblations, applied not only here to those small and petit payments which yet are a part of the Minister's right, but also generally given unto all such allowances as serve for their needful maintenance, is both ancient and convenient. For as the life of the Clergy is spent in the service of God, so it is sustained with his revenue. Nothing, therefore, more proper than to give the name of Oblations to such payments, in token that we offer unto him whatsoever his Ministers receive.
of the 75. But to leave this, there is a duty which the Church doth owe to the faithful departed, wherein forasmuch as the Church of England is said to do those things which
p-236- are, though not unlawful, yet inconvenient, because it appointeth a prescript Form of Service at burials, suf- fereth mourning apparel to be worn, and permitteth funeral
* • In lege praecipiebatur, ut mulier si masculum pareret, 40., si foeminam, 80. diebus a templi cessaret ingressu. Nunc autem statim post partum Ecclesiam ingredi non prohibetur.' Diet. 5. cap. Ilasc quae.
t ' Quod profecto non tarn propter muliebrem immunditiem, quam ob alias causas in intima legis ratione reconditas, et veteri prohibitum esse lege, et gratis tempus traditionis loco suscepisse puto. Existimo siquidem sacram legem id praescripsisse, quo protervam eorum, qui intemperanter viverent, concupiscentiam castigaret ; quemadmodum et alia multa per alia praecepta ordinantur et prasscri- buntur, quo indomitus quorundam in mulieres stimulus retundatur. Quin et haec providentiae quae legem constituit voluntas est, ut partus a depravatione liberi sint. Quia enim quicquid natura supervacaneum est, idem corruptivum est et inutile, quod hie sanguis superfluus sit, qua; illi obnoxiae essent in immunditie, ad id temporis vivere ilia lex jubet, quo ipso etiam nominis sono lascivi concupiscentia ad temperantiam redigatur, ne ex inutili et corrupta materia ipsum animans coagmentetur.' Leo Constitut. 17.
Kites of Burial. T. C. lib. iii
BOOK V. 69
Sermons ; a word or two concerning this point will be necessary, although it be needless to dwell long upon it. The end of Funeral-duties is, first, to shew that love towards the party deceased which Nature requireth ; then, to do him that honour which is fit both generally for man, and particularly for the quality of his person ; last of all, to testify the care which the Church hath to comfort the living, and the hope which we all have concerning the resurrection of the dead. For signification of love to- wards them that are departed, mourning is not denied to be a thing convenient; as in truth the Scripture every where doth approve lamentation unto this end. The Jews by Mm our Saviour's tears therefore gathered in this case, that 36*. ' his love towards Lazarus was great. And that as mourning at such times is fit, so likewise that there may be a kind of attire suitable to a sorrowful affection, and convenient for mourners to wear, how plainly doth David's example shew, asam. who, being in heaviness, went up the mount with his head xv covered, and all the people that were with him in like sort ? White garments being fit to use at Marriage-feasts, and such other times of joy, whereunto Solomon alluding, when he requireth continual cheerfulness of mind, speaketh in this sort, " Let thy garments be always white :" what **[«■ doth hinder the contrary from being now as convenient in grief, as this heretofore in gladness hath been ? " If there be no sorrow, they say it is hypocritical to pretend it ; and if there be, to provoke it by wearing such attire is dan- gerous." Nay, if there be, to shew it, is natural ; and if there be not, yet the signs are meet to shew what should be, especially, sith it doth not come oftentimes to pass, that men are fain to have their mourning gowns pulled off their backs for fear of killing themselves with sorrow that way nourished. The honour generally due unto all men maketh a decent interring of them to be convenient, even for very humanity's sake. And therefore, so much as is mentioned in the burial of the widow's son, the " carrying Luke of him forth upon a bier," and the accompanying of him v"12- to the earth, hath been used even amongst Infidels; all men accounting it a very extreme destitution not to have at the least this honour done them. Some man's estate may require a great deal more, according as the fashion of the country where he dieth doth afford . And unto this appertained
70 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
p»ai. the ancient use of the Jews, to embalm the corpse with sweet jbhn" 3 odours, and to adorn the sepulchres of certain. In regard xix.4o. 0f the quality of men, it hath been judged fit to commend xxiii.27. them unto the world at their death, amongst the Heathen 2 sam. jn funeral Orations, amongst the Jews in sacred Poems;
i. 19. » o y
and why not in funeral Sermons also amongst Christians? Us it sufficeth, that the known benefit hereof doth counter- vail millions of such inconveniences as are therein sur- mised, although they were not surmised only, but found therein. The life and the death of Saints is precious in God's sight. Let it not seem odious in our eyes, if both the one and the other be spoken of then especially, when the present occasion doth make men's minds the more ca- pable of such speech. The care, no doubt, of the living, both to live and to die well, must needs be somewhat in- creased, when they know that their departure shall not be folded up in silence, but the ears of many be made ac- quainted with it. Moreover, when they hear how merci- fully God hath dealt with their brethren in their last need, besides the praise which they give to God, and the joy which they have or should have by reason of their fellow- ship and communion with Saints, is not their hope also much confirmed against the day of their own dissolution ? Again, the sound of these things doth not so pass the ears of them that are most loose and dissolute in life, but it causeth them one time or other to wish, " O that I might die the death of the righteous, and that my end might be like his!" Thus much peculiar good there doth grow at those times by speech concerning the dead, besides the benefit of public instruction common unto funeral with other Sermons. For the comfort of them whose minds are through natural affection pensive in such cases, no man can justly mislike the custom which the Jews had to end their burials with funeral banquets, in reference where- unto the Prophet Jeremy spake, concerning the people whom God had appointed unto a grievous manner of de- struction, saying, "That men should not give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father, or for their mother," because it should not be now with them as in peaceable times with others, who bringing their ancestors unto the grave with weeping eyes, have notwithstanding means wherewith to be recomforted. " Give wine (saith Solo-
Jer.
xvi. 7.
BOOK V. 71
mon) unto them that have grief of heart." Surely, he that *w ministereth unto them comfortable speech, doth much more lChroii, than give them wine. But the greatest thing of all other j'oxb"2- about this duty of Christian burial, is an outward testifi- ■>• «■ cation of the hope which we have touching the Resurrec- tion of the dead. For which purpose let any man of rea- sonable judgment examine, whether it be more convenient for a company of men, as it were, in a dumb show, to bring a corpse to the place of burial, there to leave it covered with the earth, and so end, or else have the Exequies de- voutly performed with solemn recital of such Lectures, Psalms, and Prayers, as are purposely framed for the stirring up of men's minds unto a careful consideration of their estate both here and hereafter. Whereas therefore it is objected, that neither the people of God under the Law, nor the Church in the Apostles' times, did use any Form of Service in burial of the dead ; and therefore, that this Order is taken up without any good example or pre- cedent followed therein : first, while the world doth stand they shall never be able to prove, that all things, which either the one or the other did use at burial, are set down in Holy Scripture, which doth not any where of purpose deliver the whole manner and form thereof, but toucheth only sometime one thing, and sometime another, which was in use, as special occasions require any of them to be men- tioned or insinuated. Again, if it might be proved that no such thing was usual amongst them, hath Christ so deprived his Church of judgment, that what Rites and Orders soever the latter ages thereof have devised, the same must needs be inconvenient ? Furthermore, that the Jews before our Saviour's coming had any such Form of Service, although in Scripture it be not affirmed ; yet neither is it there de- nied (for the forbidding of Priests to be present at burials letteth not but that others might discharge that duty, seeing all were not Priests which had rooms of public function in their Synagogues), and if any man be of opi- nion that they had no such Form of Service ; thus much there is to make the contrary more probable. The Jews at this day have, as appeareth in their Form of funeral Prayers, and in certain of their funeral Sermons published; neither are they so affected towards Christians, as to bor- row that Order from us; besides that, the Form thereof is
72 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
such as hath in it sundry things which the very words of the Scripture itself do seem to allude unto, as namely, after departure from the sepulchre unto the house whence the dead was brought, it sheweth the manner of their Bu- rial-feast, and a consolatory Form of Prayer, appointed for the Master of the Synagogue thereat to utter ; albeit I may not deny, but it hath also some things which are not perhaps so ancient as the Law and the Prophets. But whatsoever the Jews' custom was before the days of our Saviour Christ, hath it once at any time been heard of, that either Church or Christian man of sound belief did ever judge this a thing unmeet, indecent, unfit for Chris- tianity, till these miserable days, wherein, under the colour of removing certain superstitious abuses, the most effectual means both to testify and to strengthen true Religion are plucked at, and in some places even pulled up by the very roots 1 Take away this which was ordained to shew at burials the peculiar hope of the Church of God concerning the dead ; and in the manner of those dumb funerals what one thing is there whereby the world may perceive we are Christian men 1 of the 7(jt I come now unto that function which undertaketh the
nature
ofthat public ministry of holy things according to the Laws of Christian Religion. And because the nature of things, con- sisting as this doth in action, is known by the object where- for per- about they are conversant, and by the end or scope where- anceof unto they are referred, we must know that the object of duuesin tms function is both God and men : God, in that he is pub- «ie lickly worshipped of his Church ; and men, in that they are of God; capable of happiness by means which Christian Discipline najphi-°w appointeth. So that the sum of our whole labour in this ness.uot kind, is to honour God and to save men. For whether we
eternal
only, severally take and consider men one by one, or else ga- te^0 tner tnem mto one society and body, as it hath been before d^'etc?1 declared, that every man's Religion is in him the well- upon it. spring of all other sound and sincere virtues, from whence both here in some sort, and hereafter more abundantly, their full joy and felicity ariseth; because while they live they are blessed of God, and when they die their works fol- low them : so at this present we must again call to mind how the very worldly peace and prosperity, the secular happiness, the temporal and natural good estate both of
M try,
which serveth
BOOK V. 73
all men and of all dominions, hangeth chiefly upon Reli- gion, and doth evermore give plain testimony, that, as well in this as in other considerations, the Priest is a pillar of that Commonwealth wherein he faithfully serveth God. For, if these assertions be true, first, that nothing can be en- joyed in this present world against his will which hath made all things ; secondly, that albeit God doth sometime permit the impious to have, yet impiety permitteth them not to enjoy, no not temporal blessings on earth ; thirdly, that God hath appointed those blessings to attend as hand- maids upon Religion ; and, fourthly, that, without the work of the Ministry, Religion by no means can possibly con- tinue, the use and benefit of that sacred function even to- wards all men's worldly happiness must needs be granted. Now, the first being a theorem both understood and con- fessed by all,* to labour in proof thereof were superfluous. The second perhaps may be called in question, except it be perfectly understood. By good things temporal, there- fore, we mean length of days, health of body, store of friends and well-willers, quietness, prosperous success of those things we take in hand, riches with fit opportunities to use them during life, reputation following us both alive and dead, children, or such as instead of children we wish to leave successors and partakers of our happiness. These things are naturally every man's desire, because they are good. And on whom God bestoweth the same, them we confess he graciously blesseth. Of earthly blessings the meanest is wealth, reputation the chiefest. For w ich cause we esteem the gain of honour an ample recompense for the loss of all other worldly benefits. But forasmuch as in all this there is no certain perpetuity of goodness, Nature hath taught to affect these things, not for their own sake, but with reference and relation to somewhat inde- pendently good, as is the exercise of virtue and specula- tion of truth. None, whose desires are rightly ordered, would wish to live, to breathe, and move, without performance
* ' Si creatura Dei, merito et dispensatio Dei sunius : Quis enim magis diligit, quam ille qui fecit ? Quis autem ordinatius regit, quam is qui et fecit et diligit ? Quis vero sapientius et fortius ordinare et regere facta potest, quam qui et facienda providit et provisa perfecit ? Quapropter omnem potestatem a Deo esse omnemque ordinationem, et qui non legerunt sentiunt, et qui legerunt cognoscunt.' Paul. Oros. Hist, advers. Pagan. lib. 2. [c. 1 .]
Oiiroi Tax ^piijUar' i'Jia xextwtoi SpoTol, T»r£v6tZvy txovrts iiti(*thoC(A&a. Eurip. Phceniss. [ver. 565.]
Fsal.
lv. 23.
74 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
of those actions which are beseeming man's excellency. Wherefore, having not how to employ it, we wax weary even of life itself. Health is precious, because sickness doth breed that pain which disableth action. Again, why do men delight so much in the multitude of friends, but for that the actions of life, being many, do need many helping hands to further them? Between troublesome and quiet days we should make no difference, if the one did not hinder and in- terrupt, the other uphold, our liberty of action. Furthermore, if those things we do succeed, it rejoiceth us not so much for the benefit we thereby reap, as in that it probably argueth our actions to have been orderly and well guided.* As for riches, to him which hath and doth nothing with them, they are a contumely. Honour is commonly presumed a sign of more than ordinary virtue and merit, by means whereof when ambitious minds thirst after it, their endeavours are testimonies how much it is in the eye of nature to possess that body, the very shadow whereof is set at so high a rate. Finally, such is the pleasure and comfort which we take in doing, that when life forsaketh us, still our desires to con- tinue action and to work, though not by ourselves, yet by them whom we leave behind us, causeth us providently to resign into other men's hands the helps we have gathered for that purpose, devising also the best we can to make them perpetual. It appeareth, therefore, how all the parts of temporal felicity are only good in relation to that which useth them as instruments, and that they are no such good as wherein a right desire doth ever stay or rest itself. Now temporal blessings are enjoyed of those which have them, know them, " esteem them according to that they are in their own nature." Wherefore of the wicked, whom God doth hate, his usual and ordinary speeches are, that " blood-thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days ;" that God shall cause a pestilence to cleave unto the wicked, and shall strike them with consuming grief, with fevers, burning diseases, and sores which are past cure ; that when the impious are fallen, all men shall tread them down, and none shew countenance of love to- wards them, as much as by pitying them in their misery ;
- olofjuaSa yap
Eurip. Heracl. [rer. 741.]
BOOK V. 75
that the sins of the ungodly shall bereave them of peace ; that all counsels, complots, and practices against God shall come to nothing ; that the lot and inheritance of the unjust is beggary; that the name of unrighteous persons rrov shall putrefy, and the posterity of robbers starve. If any think that iniquity and peace, sin and prosperity, can dwell together, they err, because they distinguish not aright between the matter, and that which giveth it the form of happiness, between possession and fruition, between the having and enjoying of good things. The impious cannot enjoy that they have, partly because they receive it not as at God's hands, which only consideration maketh temporal blessings comfortable ; and partly because through error, placing it above things of far more price and worth, they turn that to poison which might be food, they make their prosperity their own snare, in the nest of their highest growth they lay foolishly those eggs out of which their wo- ful overthrow is afterwards hatched. Hereby it comethto pass, that wise and judicious men, observing the vain be- haviour of such as are risen to unwonted greatness, have thereby been able to prognosticate their ruin. So that in very truth no impious or wicked man doth prosper on earth, but either sooner or later the world may perceive easily, how at such time as others thought them most for- tunate, they had but only the good estate which fat oxen have above lean ; when they appeared to grow, their climb- ing was towards ruin.* The gross and bestial conceit of them which want understanding is, only that the fullest bellies are happiest. Therefore the greatest felicity they wish to the Commonwealth wherein they live is, that it may but abound and stand ; that they which are riotous may have to pour out without stint ; that the poor may sleep, and the rich feed them ; that nothing unpleasant may be commanded, nothing forbidden men which themselves have a lust to follow; that Kings may provide for the ease of their subjects, and not be too curious about their manners; that wantonness, excess, and lewdness of life may be left free ; and that no fault may be capital, besides dislike of things settled in so good terms. But be it far from the just to dwell either in or near to the tents of these so miserable
* ' Ante ruinam elatio.' Prov. xvi. 18. <tixht o$tk t<» int^xpyra mana x&outiv. »v yap \a <f>p'»vE{(v (A.iya i Sio; aXKov h iteuriv. Herod, lib. vii. [c. 10, 6. J
76 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
felicities. Now whereas we thirdly affirm, that Religion and the fear of God as well induceth secular prosperity as everlasting bliss in the world to come, this also is true. For otherwise godliness could not he said to have the pro- mises of both lives ; to be that ample revenue wherein there is always sufficiency; and to carry with it a general discharge of want, even so general, that David himself should protest, he " never saw the just forsaken." How- beit, to this we must add certain special limitations ; as, first, that we do not forget how crazed and diseased minds (whereof our heavenly Physician must judge) receive often- times most benefit by being deprived of those things which are to others beneficially given, as appeareth in that which the Wise man hath noted concerning them whose lives God mercifully doth abridge, lest wickedness should alter their understanding ; again, that the measure of our outward pros- perity be taken in proportion with that which every man's estate in this present life requireth. External abilities are instruments of action. It contenteth wise artificers to have their instruments proportionable to their work, rather fit for use, than huge and goodly to please the eye. Seeing then the actions of a servant do not need that which may be ne- cessary for men of calling and place in the world, neither men of inferior condition many things which greater per- sonages can hardly want, surely they are blessed in worldly respects that have wherewith to perform sufficiently what their station and place asketh, though they have no more.* For, by reason of man's imbecility and proneness to elation of mind, too high a flow of prosperity is dangerous,f too low an ebb again as dangerous, for that the virtue of patience is rare, and the hand of necessity stronger than ordinary virtue is able to withstand. Solomon's discreet and moderate desire we all know; " Give me, O Lord, neither riches nor penury." Men over high exalted either in honour, or in power, or in nobility, or in wealth ; they likewise that are as much on the contrary hand sunk either with beggary, or through dejection, or by baseness — do not easily give ear to reason ; but the one exceeding apt unto outrages, and the other unto petty mischiefs. For great-
* 'Ettei rcZy apKov^y Ixava. rotat trdtyos-iv. Eurip. Phrenis. [ver. 564.] t TawEivoTEgoJV o 'Koyic y.lq Xcaoz, aX\' oijv a.3"<f>ttXEc-rs(>ajv, Itrov a.ts'i'/i^l xai Z\wq nai ibttui- fx.a-roq. Greg. Nazian. Apol. 3. They may seem haply to be the most deject, but they are the wisest for their own safety which fear climbing no less than falling. Vide Arist. Polit. lib. iv. cap. 11.
BOOK v. 77
ness delighteth to shew itself by effects of power, and base- ness to help itself with shifts of malice. For which cause, a moderate, indifferent temper, between fulness of bread and emptiness, hath been evermore thought and found (all circumstances duly considered) the safest and happiest for all estates, even for Kings and Princes themselves. Again, we are not to look that these things should always concur, no not in them which are accounted happy, neither that the course of men's lives, or of public affairs, should con- tinually be drawn out as an even thread (for that the nature of things will not suffer), but a just survey being made, as those particular men are worthily reputed good, whose vir- tues be great and their faults tolerable ; so him we may re- gister for a man fortunate, and that for a prosperous and happy state, which having flourished doth not afterwards feel any tragical alteration, such as might cause them to be a spectacle of misery to others. Besides, whereas true felicity consisteth in the highest operations of that nobler part of man, which sheweth sometime greatest perfection, not in using the benefits which delight nature, but in suffer- ing what nature can hardliest endure ; there is no cause why either the loss of good, if it tend to the purchase of better, or why any misery, the issue whereof is their greater praise and honour that have sustained it, should be thought to impeach that temporal happiness wherewith Religion, we say, is accompanied ; but yet in such measure as the several degrees of men may require by a competent esti- mation, and unless the contrary do more advance, as it hath done, those most heroical Saints whom afflictions have made glorious. In a word, not to whom no calamity fall- eth, but whom neither misery nor prosperity is able to move from a right mind, them we may truly pronounce fortunate ; and whatsoever doth outwardly happen without that precedent improbity, for which it appeareth in the eyes of sound and impartial judges to have proceeded from divine revenge, it passeth in the number of human casual- ties whereunto we are all alike subject. No misery is reckoned more than common or human, if God so dispose that we pass through it, and come safe to shore ; even as contrariwise, men do not use to think those flourishing days happy, which do end with tears. It standeth therefore with these cautions firm and true, yea, ratified by all men's
78 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
unfeigned confessions, drawn from the very heart of expe- rience, that whether we compare men of note in the world with others of like degree and state, or else the same men with themselves ; whether we confer one dominion with an- other, or else the different times of one and the same domi- nion; the manifest odds between their very outward con- dition, as long as they stedfastly were observed to honour God, and their success, being fallen from him, are remon- strances more than sufficient how all our welfare, even on earth, dependeth wholly upon our Religion. Heathens were ignorant of true Religion : yet such as that little was which they knew, it much impaired or bettered always their worldly affairs, as their love and zeal towards it did wane or grow. Of the Jews, did not even their most mali- cious and mortal adversaries all acknowledge, that to strive against them it was vain as long as their amity with God continued, that nothing could weaken them but apostacy ? In the whole course of their own proceedings did they ever find it otherwise, but that during their faith and fidelity to- wards God, every man of them was in war as a thousand strong, and as much as a grand senate for counsel in peace- able deliberations? contrariwise, that if they swerved as they often did, their wonted courage and magnanimity for- sook them utterly, their soldiers and military men trem- bled at the sight of the naked sword ; when they entered into mutual conference and sate in council for their own good, that which children might have seen, their gravest Senators could not discern ; their Prophets saw darkness instead of visions ; the wise and prudent were as men be- witched, even that which they knew (being such as might stand them in stead) they had not the grace to utter, ot if any thing were well proposed, it took no place, it entered not into the minds of the rest to approve and follow it, but as men confounded with strange and unusual amazements of spirit, they attempted tumultuously they saw not what ; and by the issues of all attempts they found no certain con- clusion but this, " God and Heaven are strong against us in all we do." The cause whereof was secret fear, which took heart and courage from them ; and the cause of their fear, an inward guiltiness that they all had offered God such apparent wrongs as were not pardonable. But it may be the case is now altogether changed, and that in Chris-
BOOK V. 79
tian Religion there is not the like force towards temporal felicity. Search the ancient records of time, look what hath happened by the space of these sixteen hundred years, see if all things to this effect be not luculent and clear, yea, all things so manifest, that for evidence and proof herein, we need not by uncertain dark conjectures surmise any to have been plagued of God for contempt, or blest in the course of faithful obedience towards true Religion, more than only them, whom we find in that respect, on the one side, guilty by their own confessions, and happy on the other side by all men's acknowledgments ; who, beholding the prosperous estate of such as are good and virtuous, impute boldly the same to God's most especial favour, but cannot in like manner pronounce, that whom he afflicteth above others, with them he hath cause to be more offended. For virtue is always plain to be seen, rareness causeth it to be observed, and goodness to be honoured with admira- tion. As for iniquity and sin, it lieth many times hid ; and because we be all offenders, it becometh us not to incline towards hard and severe sentences touching others, unless their notorious wickedness did sensibly before proclaim that which afterwards came to pass. Wherefore the sum of every Christian man's duty is, to labour by all means towards that which other men seeing in us may justify; and what we ourselves must accuse if we fall into it, that, by all means we can, to avoid ; considering especially, that as hitherto upon the Church there never yet fell tempestuous storm, the vapours whereof were not first noted to rise from coldness in affection, and from backwardness in duties of service towards God; so, if that which the tears of antiquity have uttered concerning this point should be here set down, it were assuredly enough to soften and to mollify a heart of steel. On the contrary part, although we confess with St. Augustine most willingly, that the chiefest happiness for which we have some Christian Kings in so great admi- ration above the rest, is not because of their long reign ; their calm and quiet departure out of this present life ; the settled establishment of their own flesh and blood succeed- ing them in royalty and power ; the glorious overthrow of foreign enemies, or the wise prevention of inward danger, and of secret attempts at home; all which solaces and comforts of this our unquiet life it pleaseth God oftentimes
80 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
to bestow on them which have no society or part in the joys of Heaven, giving thereby to understand that these in comparison are toys and trifles, far under the value and price of that which is to be looked for at his hands : but in truth the reason wherefore we most extol their felicity is, if so be they have virtuously reigned, if honour hath not filled their hearts with pride, if the exercise of their power hath been ser- vice and attendance upon the Majesty of the Most High, if they have feared him as their own inferiors and subjects have feared them, if they have loved neither pomp nor pleasure more than Heaven, if revenge hath slowly proceeded from them and mercy willingly offered itself, if so they have tem- pered rigour with lenity, that neither extreme severity might utterly cut them off in whom there was manifest hope of amendment, nor yet the easiness of pardoning offences em- bolden offenders ; if, knowing that whatsoever they do, their potency may bear it out, they have been so much the more careful not to do any thing but that which is commendable in the rest, rather than usual with greatest personages ; if the true knowledge of themselves hath humbled them in God's sight, no less than God in the eyes of men hath raised them up ; I say, albeit we reckon such to be the happiest of men that are mightiest in the world, and albeit those things alone are happiness, nevertheless, considering what force there is even in outward blessings to comfort the minds of the best disposed, and to give them the greater joy when Religion and Peace, heavenly and earthly happiness, are wreathed in one crown, as to the worthiest of Christian Princes it hath by the providence of the Al- mighty hitherto befallen ; let it not seem to any man a needless and superfluous waste of labour, that there hath been thus much spoken, to declare how in them especially it hath been so observed, and withal universally noted, even from the highest to the very meanest, how this parti- cular benefit, this singular grace and pre-eminence, Reli- gion hath, that either it guardeth as a heavenly shield from all calamities, or else conducteth us safe through them, and permitteth them not to be miseries; it either giveth ho- nours, promotions, and wealth, or else more benefit by wanting them than if we had them at will ; it either filleth our houses with plenty of all good things, or maketh a sal- lad of green herbs more sweet than all the sacrifices of the
BOOK V. 81
un godly. Our fourth proposition before set down was, that Religion, without the help of spiritual ministry, is unable to plant itself; the fruits thereof not possible to grow of their own accord. Which last assertion is herein as the first, that it needeth no further confirmation : if it did, I could easily declare how all things which are of God, he hath by wonderful art and wisdom sodered as it were together with the glue of mutual assistance, appointing the lowest to re- ceive from the nearest to themselves what the influence of the highest yieldeth. And therefore the Church, being the most absolute of all his works, was in reason to be also ordered with like harmony, that what he worketh might, no less in grace than in nature, be effected by hands and instruments duly subordinated unto the power of his own Spirit. A thing both needful for the humility of man, which would not willingly be debtor to any but to himself; and of no small effect to nourish that divine love, which now maketh each embrace other, not as men, but as Angels of God. Ministerial actions, tending immediately unto i-ute God's honour, and man's happiness, are either as contem- i c'or!' plation, which helpeth forward the principal work ofthe£;l:T ministry, or else they are parts of that principal work of ?»* administration itself, which work consisteth in doing the EPi service of God's House, and in applying unto men the so- lu" 2' vereign medicines of grace, already spoken of the more largely, to the end it might thereby appear, that we owe to the guides of our souls* even as much as our souls are worth, although the debt of our temporal blessings should be stricken off.
77. The Ministry of things divine is a function, which as o; power God did himself institute, so neither may men undertake unto"1 the same but by authority and power given them in lawful °en t0 manner. That God, which is no way deficient or wanting thathea- unto man in necessaries, and hath therefore given us the fiT'* light of his heavenly truth, because without that inestima- 0hf th( ble benefit we must needs have wandered in darkness to IIo,j our endless perdition and woe, hath, in the like abundance old" of mercies, ordained certain to attend upon the due execu- ?£> tion of requisite parts and offices therein prescribed for whether the good of the whole world, which men thereunto assigned Sy
* Kai aiaurivfAoi VMrtfateif. Epist. ad Philem. [ver. 19.] VOL. II. G
fice; of the gift
Ghost in
82 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
the do hold their authority from him, whether they be such as 0^1" ° himself immediately, or as the Church in his name, invest- ^ught6 etn 5 it Demg neither possible for all, nor for every man or sued vvithout distinction convenient, to take upon him a charge of so great importance. They are, therefore, Ministers of God, not only by way of subordination, as Princes and civil Magistrates, whose execution of judgment and jus- tice the supreme hand of divine Providence doth uphold ; but Ministers of God, as from whom their authority is derived, and not from men. For in that they are Christ's ambassadors and his labourers, who should give them their commission, but he whose most inward affairs they manage ? Is not God alone the Father of spirits ? Are not souls the purchase of Jesus Christ? What Angel in Heaven could have said to man, as our Lord did unto Peter, " Feed my sheep ? Preach ? Baptize ? Do this in remembrance of me? Whose sins ye retain, they are retained ; and their offences in Heaven pardoned, whose faults you shall on earth forgive?" What think we? Are these terrestrial sounds, or else are they voices uttered out of the clouds above ? The power of the Ministry of God translateth out of darkness into glory; it raiseth men from the earth, and bringeth God himself from Heaven; by bless- ing visible elements, it maketh them invisible grace ; it giveth daily the Holy Ghost; it hath to dispose of that flesh which was given for the life of the world, and that blood which was poured out to redeem souls ; when it poureth malediction upon the heads of the wicked, they perish ; when it revoketh the same, they revive. O wretched blindness, if we admire not so great power ; more wretched, if we consider it aright, and notwithstanding imagine that any but God can bestow it! To whom Christ hath im- parted power, both over that mystical body which is the society of souls, and over that natural which is himself, for the knitting of both in one (a work which antiquity doth call the making of Christ's body), the same power is in such not amiss both termed a kind of mark or character, and acknowledged to be indelible. Ministerial power is a mark of separation, because it severeth them that have it from other men, and maketh them a special Order conse- crated unto the service of the Most High in things where-
Heb. ii.17.
BOOK V. 83
with others may not meddle. Their difference, therefore, from other men is in that they are a distinct Order. So Tertullian calleth them. And St. Paul himself, dividing Teriui
° cle Ad
the body of the Church of Christ into two moieties, nameth hort. the one part iBiwrag, which is as much as to say the Order [e"yj of the Laity, the opposite part whereunto we in like sort term the Order of God's Clergy, and the spiritual power which he hath given them, the power of their Order, so far forth as the same consisteth in the bare execution of holy things, called properly the affairs of God. For of the power of their jurisdiction over men's persons we are to speak in the Books following. They which have once re- ceived this power may not think to put it off and on like a cloak, as the weather serveth, to take it, reject and resume it as oft as themselves list ; of which profane and impious contempt these latter times have yielded, as of other kinds of iniquity and apostacy, strange examples. But let them know, which put their hands unto this plough, that once consecrated unto God, they are made his peculiar inherit- ance for ever. Suspensions may stop, and degradations utterly cut off, the use or exercise of power before given ; but voluntarily it is not in the power of man to separate and pull asunder what God by his authority coupleth. So that although there may be through misdesert degradation, as there may be cause of just separation after Matrimony; Matt. yet if (as sometimes it doth) restitution to former dignity, ^ or reconciliation after breach, doth happen, neither doth the one nor the other ever iterate the first knot. Much less is it necessary, which some have urged, concerning the Reor- dination of such, as others in times more corrupt did con- secrate heretofore. Which error, already quelled by St. Jerome, doth not now require any other refutation. Ex- amples I grant there are which make for restraint of those men from admittance again into rooms of spiritual func- tion, whose fall by Heresy, or want of constancy in pro- fessing the Christian Faith, hath been once a disgrace to their calling. Nevertheless, as there is no Law which bindeth, so there is no case that should always lead, to shew one and the same severity towards persons culpable. Goodness of nature itself more inclineth to clemency than rigour. And we in other men's offences do behold the plain image of our own imbecility. Besides also them
H
Eccles lib. cai
84 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
that wander out of the way* it cannot be inexpedient to win with all hopes of favour, lest strictness used towards such as reclaim themselves should make others more ob-
Roffin. stinate in error. Wherefore, after that the Church of Alexandria had somewhat recovered itself from the tem- pests and storms of Arianism, being in consultation about the re-establishment of that which by long disturbance had been greatly decayed and hindered, the ferventer sort gave quick sentence, that touching them which were of the Clergy, and had stained themselves with Heresy, there should be none so received into the Church again as to continue in the Order of the Clergy. The rest, which considered how many men's cases it did concern, thought it much more safe and consonant to bend somewhat down towards them which were fallen ; to shew severity upon a few of the chiefest leaders, and to offer to the rest a friendly reconciliation without any other demand saving only the abjuration of their error; as in the Gospel that wasteful young man, which returned home to his father's house, was with joy both admitted and honoured, his elder brother hardly thought of for repining thereat ; nei- ther commended so much for his own fidelity and virtue, as blamed for not embracing him freely, whose unex- pected recovery ought to have blotted out all remembrance of misdemeanours and faults past. But of this sufficient. A thing much stumbled at in the manner of giving Or- ders, is our using those memorable words of our Lord and Saviour Christ, " Receive the Holy Ghost." Thef Holy Ghost, they say, we cannot give, and therefore we foolishly bid men receive it. Wise men, for their authori- ty's sake, must have leave to befool them whom they are able to make wise by better instruction. Notwithstanding, if it may please their wisdom, as well to hear what fools can say, as to control that which they do, thus we have
Eccies. heard some wise men teach, namely, that the Holy Ghost may be used to signify not the Person alone, but the gift of the Holy Ghost ; and we know that spiritual gifts are not
* ' In XII. Tabulis cautum est, ut idem juris esset sanantibus quod fortibus, id est bonis et qui nunquam defecerunt a populo Romano.' Fest. in ver. Samnites.
f ' Papisticus quidam ritus, stulte quidem ab illis et sine ullo Scripturae funda- mento institutus, et a discipline nostra auctoribus (pace illorum dixerim) non ma- gnoprimum judicioacceptus, minoreadhuc in Ecclesia nostra retinetur.' Ecclesiast. Discip. p. 53.
Discip. fol.52 p. 2.1.
BOOK V. 85
enly abilities to do things miraculous, as to speak with tongues which were never taught us, to cure diseases with- out art, and such like ; but also that the very authority and power which is given men in the Church to be Ministers of holy things, this is contained within the number of those gifts whereof the Holy Ghost is author ; and therefore he which giveth this power may say, without absurdity or folly, " Re- ceive the Holy Ghost," such power as the Spirit of Christ hath endued his Church withal, such power as neither Prince nor Potentate, King nor Caesar, on earth can give. So that if men alone had devised this form of speech, thereby to express the heavenly wellspring of that power which Ecclesiastical Ordinations do bestow, it is not so foolish but that wise men might bear with it. If then our Lord and Saviour himself have used the self-same form of words, and that in the self-same kind of action, although there be but the least show of probability, yea, or any pos- sibility that his meaning might be the same which ours is, it should teach sober and grave men not to be too venturous in condemning that of folly, which is not impossible to have in it more profoundness of wisdom than flesh and blood should presume to control. Our Saviour, after his resur- rection from the dead, gave his Apostles their commission, saying, " All power is given me in Heaven and in earth : Matt. Go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the *£ '"' name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." In sum, " As my Fathersent me, so send I you." Whereunto St. John doth add further, that "having thus spoken, he breathed on them and said, Re- J°hn ceive the Holy Ghost." By which words he must of like- **' lihood understand some gift of the Spirit which was pre- sently at that time bestowed upon them, as both the speech of actual delivery in saying, Receive, and the visible sign thereof, his breathing, did shew. Absurd it were to ima- gine our Saviour did both to the ear, and also to the very eye, express a real donation, and they at that time receive nothing. It resteth then that we search what special grace they did at that time receive. Touching miraculous power of the Spirit, most apparent it is, that as then they received it not, but the promise thereof was to be shortly after performed. The words of St. Luke concerning that
■AX.
86 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
power arc therefore set down with signification of the time iuke to come : " Behold, I will send the promise of my Father xxlir'49'upon you, but tarry you in the City of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." Wherefore, undoubt- edly, it was some other effect of the Spirit, the Holy Ghost in some other kind, which our Saviour did then bestow. What other likelier than that which himself doth mention, as it should seem of purpose to take away all ambiguous constructions, and to declare that the Holy Ghost which he then gave, was a holy and a ghostly authority, authority over the souls of men, authority, a part whereof consisteth John in power to remit and retain sins? "Receive the Holy *• "' Ghost : whose sins soever ye remit, they are remitted ; whose sins ye retain, they are retained." Whereas, there- fore, the other Evangelists had set down, that Christ did before his suffering promise to give his Apostles the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and being risen from the dead promised moreover at that time a miraculous power of the Holy Ghost ; St. John addeth, that he also invested them even then with the power of the Holy Ghost for castigation and relaxation of sin, wherein was fully accomplished that which the promise of the keys did import. Seeing, there- fore, that the same power is now given, why should the same form of words expressing it be thought foolish? The cause why we breathe not, as Christ did on them unto whom he imparted power, is, for that neither Spirit nor spiritual authority may be thought to proceed from us, who are but delegates or assigns to give men possession of his graces. Now, besides that the power and authority de- livered with those words is itself yapiafxa, a gracious do- nation which the Spirit of God doth bestow, we may most assuredly persuade ourselves, that the hand which im- poseth upon us the function of our Ministry, doth under the same form of words so tie itself hereunto, that he1 which receiveth the burden is thereby for ever warranted to have the Spirit with him, and in him, for his assistance,* aid, countenance, and support, in whatsoever he faithfully doth to discharge duty. Knowing, therefore, that when we take
* ' Et si necessarium est trepidare de merito, religiosum est tamen gaudere de dono : quoiriam qui mihi oneris est auctor, ipse fiet administrationis adjutor ; et ne niagnitudine gratiae succumbat infirmus, dabit virtutem qui contulit dignitatem.' Leo ser. 1. in anniver. die Assumpt. To Zlvtv/Aa to ayiov eSsts >)/t*aj si? tbv fcaxcviav tol'tw. Greg. Nazian. [Orat. 5. ad fin.]
BOOK V. S7
Ordination, we also receive the presence of the Holy Ghost, partly to guide, direct, and strengthen us in all our ways, and partly to assume unto itself for the more autho- rity those actions that appertain to our place and calling, can our ears admit such a speech uttered in the reverend performance of that Solemnity ; or can we at any time re- new the memory, and enter into serious cogitations thereof, but with much admiration and joy ? Remove what these foolish words do imply, and what hath the ministry of God besides wherein to glory ? Whereas, now, forasmuch as the Holy Ghost, which our Saviour in his first Ordinations gave, doth no less concur with spiritual vocations through- out all ages, than the Spirit, which God derived from Moses Numb. to them that assisted him in his government, did descend "" from them to their successors in like authority and place, we have for the least and meanest duties, performed by virtue of ministerial power, that to dignify, grace, and au- thorize them, which no other offices on earth can challenge. Whether we preach, pray, baptize, communicate, condemn, give absolution, or whatsoever ; as disposers of God's mys- teries, our words, judgments, acts, and deeds, are not ours but the Holy Ghost's. Enough, if unfeignedly and in heart we did believe it, enough to banish whatsoever may justly be thought corrupt either in bestowing, or in using, or in esteeming, the same otherwise than is meet. For profanely to bestow, or loosely to use, or vilely to esteem of, the Holy Ghost, we all in show and profession abhor. Now because the Ministry is an office of dignity and ho- Auct. nour, some are doubtful whether any man may seek for it DisciP.e without offence; or, to speak more properly, doubtful they are not, but rather bold to accuse our Discipline in this respect, as not only permitting, but requiring also ambi- tious suits, or other oblique ways or means, whereby to obtain it. Against this they plead, that our Saviour did stay till his Father sent him, and the Apostles till he them ; that the ancient Bishops in the Church of Christ were ex- amples and patterns of the same modesty. Whereupon in the end they infer, " Let us therefore at the length amend that custom of repairing from all parts unto the Bishop at the day of Ordination, and of seeking to obtain Orders ; let the custom of bringing commendatory letters be removed ; let men keep themselves at home, expecting there the voice
Eccle- siast.
OS ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
of God, and the authority of such as may call them to un- dertake the charge." Thus severely they censure and control ambition, if it be ambition which they take upon them to reprehend. For of that there is cause to doubt. Ambition, as we understand it, hath been accounted a vice which seeketh after honours inordinately. Ambitious minds, esteeming it their greatest happiness to be admired, reve- renced, and adored above others, use all means lawful and unlawful which may bring them to high rooms. But as for the power of Order considered by itself, and as in this case it must be considered, such reputation it hath in the eye of this present world, that they which affect it, rather need en- couragement to bear contempt, than deserve blame as men that carry aspiring minds. The work whereunto this power serveth is commended, and the desire thereof allowed by the Apostle for good. Nevertheless, because the burden thereof is heavy, and the charge great, it cometh many times to pass, that the minds even of virtuous men are drawn into clean contrary affections, some in humility de- clining that by reason of hardness, which others in regard of goodness only do with fervent alacrity covet. So that there is not the least degree in this service, but it may be both in reverence shunned,* and of very devotion longed for. If then the desire thereof may be holy, religious, and good, may not the profession of that desire be so likewise ? We are not to think it so long good as it is dissembled, and evil if once we begin to open it. And allowing that it may be opened without ambition, what offence, I beseech you, is therein opening it there, where it may be furthered and satis- fied, in case they to whom it appertaineth think meet? In vain are those desires allowed, the accomplishment whereof it is not lawful for men to seek. Power, therefore, of Ec- clesiastical Order may be desired, the desire thereof may be professed, they which profess themselves that way in- clined may endeavour to bring their desires to effect, and in all this no necessity of evil. Is it the bringing of testi- monial letters wherein so great obliquity consisteth? What more simple, more plain, more harmless, more
* TaJv touXaioJv Tol; lv$!iA.i[J.aiTarws avaa-KOTrZv EupiVxa), SVouj irtlrtfo'rt £<? Munaaiav h <rtpo$VTiiaM h X*?l)> wpw/SaXETO, touj fj.lv t'l^avra^ ?rgo5v[jt.a>; t» xXna-ti, tovs Ji avaBa\\oy.i- von? to •vasuTu.a, xal o£j$£T£fa)V fxiynhv ovrt t£iv htso-zjiiprsuavtaiv nrnv SeiXuiv, outE Tail o§/>ciiravT4)v rhv TrpoSvfxiav, ol fj.lv yap tv; haxwiat to fjciyzbot vvXaBriSvo-av, ol it tco *«Xoim wia-TSucravTE; SneoXoiJ&»i«iv. Greg. Nazian. Apologet. [p. 44.]
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agreeable with the Law of common humanity, than that men, where they are not known, use for^their easier access the credit of such as can best give testimony of them ? Letters of any other construction our Church-discipline alloweth not; and these to allow, is neither to require am- bitious suings, nor to approve any indirect or unlawful act. The Prophet Esay, receiving his message at the hands of God, and his charge by heavenly vision, heard the voice of the Lord, saying, " Whom shall I send ; who shall go for isaiab us?" Whereunto he recordeth his own answer, " Then vu8' I said, Here, Lord, I am ; send me." Which in effect is the Rule and Canon whereby touching this point the very Order of the Church is framed. The appointment of times for solemn Ordination is but the public demand of the Church in the name of the Lord himself, " Whom shall, I send ; who shall go for us V The confluence of men, whose inclinations are bent that way, is but the answer thereunto, whereby the labours of sundry being offered, the Church hath freedom to take whom her agents in such case think meet and requisite. As for the example of our Saviour Christ, who took not to himself this honour to be made our High-priest, but received the same from him which said, " Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec," neb. his waiting and not attempting to execute the office till v" God saw convenient time, may serve in reproof of usurped honours, forasmuch as we ought not of our own accord to assume dignities, whereunto we are not called as Christ was. But yet it should be withal considered, that a proud usurpation without any orderly calling is one thing, and another the bare declaration of willingness to obtain ad- mittance ; which willingness of mind, I suppose, did not want in him, whose answer was to the voice of his hea- venly calling, " Behold, I am come to do thy will." And Heb- had it been for him, as it is for us, expedient to receive his commission signed with the hands of men, to seek it might better have beseemed his humility, than it doth our bold- ness to reprehend them of pride and ambition, that make no worse kind of suits than by letters of information. Him- self in calling his Apostles prevented all cogitations of theirs that way, to the end it might truly be said of them, " Ye chose not me, but I of my own voluntary motion made choice of you," Which kind of undesired nomination to
90 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Ecclesiastical places befell divers of the most famous amongst the ancient Fathers of the Church in a clean con- trary consideration. For our Saviour's election respected not any merit or worth, but took them which were furthest off from likelihood of fitness : that afterwards their super- natural ability and performance, beyond hope, might cause the greater admiration : whereas, in the other, mere admi- ration of their singular and rare virtues was the reason why honours were enforced upon them, which they of meekness and modesty did what they could to avoid. But did they ever judge it a thing unlawful to wish or desire the office, the only charge and bare function of their Ministry? To- wards which labour, what doth the blessed Apostle else but encourage, saying, ' * He which desireth it, is desirous of a good work V. What doth he else by such sentences but stir, kindle, and inflame ambition ; if I may term that de- sire ambition, which coveteth more to testify love by pain- fulness in God's service, than to reap any other benefit ? Although of the very honour itself, and of other emoluments annexed to such labours for more encouragement of man's industry, we are not so to conceive neither, as if no affec- tion can be cast towards them without offence. Only, as Eccius. theWise man giveth counsel, "Seek not to be made a Judge, lest thou be not able to take away iniquity, and lest thou, fearing the person of the mighty, should est commit an of- fence against thine uprightness ;" so it always behoveth men to take good heed, lest affection to that, which hath in it as well difficulty as goodness, sophisticate the true and sincere judgment which beforehand they ought to have of their own ability, for want whereof many forward minds have found, instead of contentment, repentance. But for- asmuch as hardness of things in themselves most excellent cooleth the fervency of men's desires, unless there be some- what naturally acceptable to incite labour (for both the method of speculative knowledge doth, by things which we sensibly perceive, conduct to that which is in nature more certain, though less sensible, and the method of virtuous actions is also to train beginners at the first by things ac- ceptable unto the taste of natural appetite, till our minds at the length be settled to embrace things precious in the eye of reason, merely and wholly for their own sakcs), howso- ever inordinate desires do hereby take occasion to abuse the
vii.6.
BOOK V. 91
Polity of God and Nature, either affecting without worth, or procuring by unseemly means, that which was instituted, and should be reserved, for better minds to obtain byjmore approved courses : in which consideration the Emperors Anthemius and Leo did worthily oppose against such am- bitious practices that ancient and famous Constitution, wherein they have these sentences : " Let not a Prelate be ordained for reward, or upon request, who should be so far sequestered from all ambition, that they which advance him might be fain to search where he hideth himself, to entreat him drawing back, and to follow him till importunity have made him yield. Let nothing promote him but his excuses to avoid the burden. They are unworthy of that vocation, which are not thereunto brought unwillingly:" notwith- standing, we ought not therefore with the odious name of ambition, to traduce and draw into hatred every poor re- quest or suit, wherein men may seem to affect honour ; seeing that ambition and modesty do not always so much differ in the mark they shoot at, as in the manner of their prosecutions. Yea, even in this may be error also, if we still imagine them least ambitious, which most forbear to stir either hand or foot towards their own preferments. For there are that make an idol of their great sufficiency, and, because they surmise the place should be happy that might enjoy them, they walk every where like grave pageants, observing whether men do not wonder why so small account is made of so rare worthiness ; and in case any other man's advancement be mentioned, they either smile or blush at the marvellous folly of the world, which seeth not where dignities should offer themselves. Seeing, therefore, that suits after spiritual functions may be as ambitiously for- borne as prosecuted, it remaineth, that the evenest line of moderation between both is,* neither to follow them with- out conscience, nor of pride to withdraw ourselves utterly from them.
78. It pleased Almighty God to choose to himself,f for ™£ discharge of the legal Ministry, one only tribe out of twelve wl>ereby others, the tribe of Levi ; not all unto every divine service, of order
* Mecto; tlfti T«« tSv ts ayav ToX^npiy jtaj ruv Xi'av JsiXaiv, tZv y.h iraa-atq ImTtMvruv (itfoffraa-iai^) SeiAoTSpof, t£v 5s tyivyovruv nta.Ta.$ SttgiraXEwTEpof. Greg. Nazian. Apo- loget. [p. 43.]
t n^oj SwrfyiKTiv xal <f uXaxiiv os-io-nj-roj Kal iiz-iviU; xal tertovpytuv at TTpoj rhv tou QioZ 7i(A,hv ava<f>£pVTttt. Philo, p. 297.
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is distin- but Aaron and his sons to one charge, the rest of that sane- fnd'eon-'" tified tribe to another. With what solemnities they were thTaufre admitted into tneir functions ; in what manner Aaron and of Mi- his successors the High-priests ascended every Sabbath and Festival-day, offered and ministered in the Temple ; with what sin-offering once every year they reconciled first themselves and their own house, afterwards the people unto God ; how they confessed all the iniquities of the children of Israel, laid all their trespasses upon the head of a sacred goat, and so carried them out of the city ; how they purged the Holy Place from all uncleanness; with what reverence they entered within the Veil, presented themselves before the Mercy-seat, and consulted with the Oracle of God ; what service the other Priests did continually in the Holy Place ; how they ministered about the lamps, morning and evening ; how every Sabbath they placed on the table of the Lord those twelve loaves with pure incense, in perpe- tual remembrance of that mercy which the Fathers, the twelve tribes, had found by the providence of God for their food, when hunger caused them to leave their natural soil, and to seek for sustenance in Egypt ; how they employed themselves in sacrifice day by day ; finally, what offices the Levites discharged, and what duties the rest did exe- cute— it were a labour too long to enter into it, if I should collect that which Scriptures and other ancient records do mention. Besides these, there were indifferently out of all tribes from time to time some called of God as Prophets, foreshewing them things to come, and giving them counsel in such particulars as they could not be directed in by the Law; some chosen men to read, study, and interpret the Law of God, as the sons or scholars of the old Prophets, in whose room afterward scribes and expounders of the Law succeeded. And because, where so great variety is, if there should be equality, confusion would follow, the Le- vites were in all their service at the appointment and direc- tion of the sons of Aaron, or Priests; they subject to the principal guides and leaders of their own Order; and they in obedience under the High-priest. Which difference doth also manifest itself in the very titles that men for honour's sake gave unto them, terming Aaron and his successors, High or Great ; the ancients over the companies of Priests, Arch-priests; Prophets, Fathers; Scribes and Interpreters
BOOK V. 93
of the Law, Masters. Touching the Ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the whole body of the Church being di- vided into Laity and Clergy, the Clergy are either Presby- ters or Deacons. I rather term the one sort Presbyters than Priests,* because in a matter of so small moment I would not willingly offend their ears, to whom the name of Priesthood is odious, though without cause. For as things are distinguished one from another by those true essential forms, which being really and actually in them do not only give them the very last and highest degree of their na- tural perfection, but are also the knot, foundation, and root, whereupon all other inferior perfections depend ; so, if they that first do impose names did always understand exactly the nature of that which they nominate, it may be that then, by hearing the terms of vulgar speech, we should still be taught what the things themselves most properly are. But because words have so many artificers by whom they are made, and the things whereunto we apply them are fraught with so many varieties, it is not always appa- rent what the first inventors respected, much less what every man's inward conceit is which useth these words. For any thing myself can discern herein, I suppose that they which have bent their study to search more diligently such matters, do, for the most part, find that names advi- sedly given had either regard unto that which is naturally most proper; or, if perhaps to some other speciality, to that which is sensibly most eminent in the thing signified ; and concerning popular use of words, that which the wisdom of their inventors did intend thereby is not commonly thought of, but by the name the thing altogether conceived in gross ; as may appear in that if you ask of the common sort what any certain word, for example, what a Priest doth signify : their manner is not to answer, a Priest is a Cler- gyman which offereth sacrifice to God, but they shew some
• ' For so much as the common and usual speech of England is to note by the word Priest, not a Minister of the Gospel, but a Sacrificer, which the Minister of the Gospel is not, therefore we ought not to call the Ministers of the Gospel Priests. And that this is the English speech, it appeareth by all the English translations, which translate always Ugiis, which were Sacrificers, Priests ; and do not on the other side, for any that ever I read, translate irpeo-QvTegoi;, a Priest. Seeing, there- fore, a Priest with us, and in our tongue, doth signify both by the Papists' judg- ment, in respect of their abominable Mass, and also by the judgment of the Pro- testants, in respect of the beasts which were offered in the Law, a sacrificing office, which the Minister of the Gospel neither doth nor can execute ; it is manifest, that it cannot be, without great offence, so used.' T. C. lib. i. p. 198.
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particular person whom they use to call by that name. And, if we list to descend to grammar, we are told by mas- ters in those schools, that the word Priest hath his right Etym. place £7Ti tov i//tXwc 7rpo£orwroe tjjc Sspcnrdas tov Qeov, ' in [s. y.' him whose mere function or charge is the service of God.' "(*"?.] Howbeit, because the most eminent part both of Heathen- ish and Jewish Service did consist in sacrifice, when learned men declare what the word Priest doth properly signify, according to the mind of the first imposer of that name, their ordinary schools do well expound it to imply sacrifice.* Seeing then that sacrifice is now no part of the Church-ministry, how should the name of Priesthood be thereunto rightly applied? Surely as even St. Paul applieth the name of fleshf unto that very substance of fishes, which hath a proportionable correspondence to flesh, although it be in nature another thing. Whereupon, when Philoso- phers will speak warily, they make a difference between flesh in one sort of living creatures,^ and that other sub- stance in the rest which hath but a kind of analogy to i cor. flesh : the Apostle contrariwise, having matter of greater importance whereof to speak, nameth indifferently both flesh. The Fathers of the Church of Christ, with like se- curity of speech, call usually the Ministry of the Gospel Priesthood, in regard of that which the Gospel hath pro- portionable to ancient sacrifices ; namely, the Communion of the blessed Body and Blood of Christ, although it hath properly now no sacrifice. As for the people, when they hear the name, it draweth no more their minds to any cogita- tion of sacrifice, than the name of a Senator or of an Alder- man causeth them to think upon old age, or to imagine that every one so termed must needs be ancient, because years were respected in the first nomination of both. Wherefore to pass by the name, let them use what dialect they will, whether we call it a Priesthood, a Presbytership, or a Ministry, it skilleth not : although in truth the word Pres- byter doth seem more fit, and in propriety of speech more agreeable than Priest with the drift of the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ. For what are they that embrace the Gos-
* 'lsetvtra.1, Qvtriatrai. Hesych. [s. v. lEjEua-ai.]
t ' Christus homo dicitur, quia natus est ; Propheta, quia futura revelavit ; Sa- cerdos, quia pro nobis hostiam se obtulit.' Isid. Orig. lib. vii. cap. 2.
t "E^si S' aTroglav rt to alaSnrnpiov to rov amov anriniv, wirtgov h ?&[■£- »«t iv molt aXK<ni to avaXoyov n w. Arist. de Aniiu. lib. ii. c. 11.
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95
pel but sons of God \ What are Churches but his families'? Seeing therefore we receive the adoption and state of sons by their Ministry, whom God hath chosen out for that purpose ; seeing also that when we are the sons of God, our continuance is still under their care which were our progenitors, what better title could there be given them than the reverend name of Presbyters, or fatherly guides ? The Holy Ghost, throughout the body of the New Testa- ment, making so much mention of them, doth not any where call them Priests. The Prophet Esay, I grant, doth ; isaiah but in such sort as the ancient Fathers, by way of analogy. xv A Presbyter, according to the proper meaning of the New Testament, is 'he unto whom our Saviour Christ hath communicated the power of spiritual procreation.' Out of twelve Patriarchs issued the whole multitude of Israel ac- cording to the flesh. And, according to the mystery of heavenly birth, our Lord's Apostles we all acknowledge to be the Patriarchs of his whole Church. St. John there- »**• fore beheld sitting about the throne of God in Heaven four- ni.k and-twenty Presbyters, the one half Fathers of the old, the JJj^ other of the new Jerusalem. In which respect the Apo-lPet- sties likewise gave themselves the same title, albeit that name were not proper, but common unto them with others. For of Presbyters, some were greater, some less in power, and that by our Saviour's own appointment ; the greater they which received fulness of spiritual power, the less they to whom less was granted. The Apostles' peculiar charge was to publish the Gospel of Christ unto all nations, and to deliver them his Ordinances received by immediate revelation from himself.* Which pre-eminence excepted, to all other offices and duties incident unto their Order, it was in them to ordain and consecrate whomsoever they thought meet, even as our Saviour did himself assign se- venty other of his own Disciples inferior Presbyters, whose commission to preach and baptize was the same which the Apostles had. Whereas, therefore, we find that the very first Sermon which the Apostles did publickly make, was Acts n. the conversion of above three thousand souls, unto whom there were every day more and more added, they having no open place permitted them for the exercise of Christian Religion, think we that twelve were sufficient to teach and
* o! tx'v titfh Ss»9r«pa$oT»>f vop&irai. Dionys. Areop. p. 110.
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administer Sacraments in so many private places, as so great a multitude of people did require ? This harvest our Saviour (no doubt) foreseeing^provided accordingly la- bourers for it beforehand. By which means it came to pass that the growth of that Church, being so great and so sudden, they had notwithstanding in a readiness Presbyters enough to furnish it. And therefore the history doth make no mention by what occasion Presbyters were instituted in Jerusalem, only we read of things which they did, and how the like were made afterwards elsewhere. To these two de- grees appointed of our Lord and Saviour Christ, his Apo- stles soon after annexed Deacons. Deacons, therefore, must £yp£ know, saith Cyprian, that our Lord himself did elect Apo- i. 3. ad. sties ; but Deacons, after his ascension into Heaven, the nu°m! "" Apostles ordained. Deacons were stewards of the Church, unto whom at the first was committed the distribution of Church-goods, the care of providing therewith for the poor, and the charge to see that all things of expense might be religiously and faithfully dealt in. A part also of their office was attendance upon their Presbyters at the time of iguat. divine Service. For which cause Ignatius, to set forth the adxr'ai. dignity of their calling, saith, that they are in such case to [c-7 ] the Bishop, as if Angelical powers did serve him. These only being the uses for which Deacons were first made, if the Church hath sithence extended their Ministry farther than the circuit of their labour at the first was drawn, we are not herein to think the Ordinance of Scripture vio- lated, except there appear some prohibition which hath abridged the Church of that liberty. Which I note chiefly in regard of them to whom it seemeth a thing so monstrous that Deacons should sometime be licensed to preach, whose institution was at the first to another end. To charge them for this as men not contented with their own vocations, and as breakers into that which appertaineth unto others, is very hard. For, when they are thereunto once ad- mitted, it is part of their own vocation, it appertaineth now unto them as well as others ; neither is it intrusion for them to do it, being in such sort called, but rather in us it were temerity to blame them for doing it. Suppose we the office of teaching to be so repugnant unto the office of Deacon- ship, that they cannot concur in one and the same person ? What was there done in the Church by Deacons, which the
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Apostles did not first discharge being teachers ? Yea, but the Apostles found the burden of teaching so heavy, that they judged it meet to cut off that other charge, and to have Deacons which might undertake it. Be it so. The multitude of Christians increasing in Jerusalem, and wax- ing great, it was too much for the Apostles to teach, and to minister unto Tables also. The former was not to be slacked, that this latter might be followed. Therefore unto this they appointed others. Whereupon we may rightly ground this axiom, that when the subject wherein one man's labours of sundry kinds are employed doth wax so great, that the same men are no longer able to manage it sufficiently as before, the most natural way to help this is by dividing their charge into slips, and ordaining of under- officers ; as our Saviour under twelve Apostles, seventy Presbyters; and the Apostles, by his example, seven Deacons to be under both. Neither ought it to seem less reasonable, that when the same men are sufficient both to continue in that which they do, and also to undertake somewhat more, a combination be admitted in this case, as well as division in the former. We may not therefore disallow it in the Church of Geneva, that Calvin and Beza were made both Pastors and Readers in Divinity, being men so able to discharge both. To say they did not con- tent themselves with their pastoral vocations, but brake into that which belongeth to others ; to allege against them, "He that exhorteth on exhortation," as against us, "He*™. that distributeth in simplicity," is alleged in great dislike of granting licence for Deacons to preach, were very hard. The ancient custom of the Church was to yield the poor much relief, especially widows. But as poor people are always querulous, and apt to think themselves less re- spected than they should be, we see that when the Apostles did what they could without hinderance to their weightier business, yet there were which grudged that others had too much, and they too little, the Grecian widows shorter com- mons than the Hebrews. By means whereof the Apostles saw it meet to ordain Deacons. Now, tract of time having clean worn out those first occasions for which the Deacon- ship was then most necessary, it might the better be after- wards extended to other services, and so remain, at this present day, a degree in the Clergy of God which the
VOL. II. H
xii. 8.
98 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Apostles of Christ did institute. That the first seven Deacons were chosen out of the seventy Disciples, is an Ep'pii. error in Epiphanius. For to draw men from places of ai!" °' weightier, unto rooms of meaner labour, had not been fit. The Apostles, to the end they might follow teaching with more freedom, committed the Ministry of Tables unto Deacons. And shall we think they judged it expedient to choose so many out of those seventy to be Ministers unto Tables, when Christ himself had before made them Teach- ers ? It appeareth therefore how long these three degrees of Ecclesiastical Order have continued in the Church of Christ ; the highest and largest that which the Apostles, the next that which Presbyters, and the lowest that which Deacons, had. Touching Prophets, they were such men as, having otherwise learned the Gospel, had from above bestowed upon them a special gift of expounding Scrip- tures, and of foreshewing things to come. Of this sort Acts Agabus was, and besides him in Jerusalem sundry others, Acts10' who notwithstanding are not therefore to be reckoned with "• '-'• the Clergy, because no man's gifts or qualities can make him a Minister of holy things, unless Ordination do give him power. And we no where find Prophets to have been made by Ordination ; but all whom the Church did ordain, were either to serve as Presbyters or as Deacons. Evan- gelists were Presbyters of principal sufficiency, whom the Apostles sent abroad, and used as agents in Ecclesiastical affairs wheresoever they saw need. They whom we find to have been named in Scripture Evangelists, Ananias, Apollos, Timothy, and others, were thus employed. And 2Tim24' concern*ng Evangelists, afterwards in Trajan's days, the iv.s. 9. History Ecclesiastical noteth, that many of the Apostles' disciples and scholars which were then alive, and did with singular love of wisdom affect the heavenly Word of God, Euseb. to shew their willing minds in executing that which Christ first of all requireth at the hands of men, they sold their possessions, gave them to the poor, and betaking them- selves to travel, undertook the labour of Evangelists, that is, they painfully preached Christ, and delivered the Gospel to them who as yet had never heard the doctrine of Faith. Finally, whom the Apostle nameth Pastors and Teachers, what other were they than Presbyters also, how- beit settled in some charge, and thereby differing from
Acts. is. 17- Acts
1 Tim iii. 15. v. 14.
Eccles.
11
1.
BOOK V. 99
Evangelists? I beseech them, therefore, which have hitherto troubled the Church with questions about degrees and offices of Ecclesiastical calling, because they prin- cipally ground themselves upon two places, that, all par- tiality laid aside, they would sincerely weigh and examine whether they have not misinterpreted both places, and all by surmising incompatible offices, where nothing is meant but sundry graces, gifts, and abilities, which Christ be- stowed. To them of Corinth his words are these : " God *..Co^ placed in the Church first of all, some Apostles; secondly, Prophets; thirdly, Teachers; after them powers, then gifts of cures, aids, governments, kinds of languages. Are all Apostles ? Are all Prophets ? Are all Teachers ? Is there power in all ? Have all grace to cure 'I Do all speak with tongues? Can all interpret? But be you desirous of the better graces." They which plainly discern first, that some one general thing there is, which the Apostle doth here divide into all these branches, and do secondly con- ceive that general to be Church- offices, besides a number of other difficulties, can by no means possibly deny but that many of these might occur in one man, and perad- venture in some one all ; which mixture, notwithstanding, their Form of Discipline doth most shun. On the other side, admit that communicants of special infused grace, for the benefit of members knit into one body, the Church of Christ, are here spoken of, which was in truth the plain drift of that whole discourse ; and see if every thing do not answer in due place with that fitness which sheweth easily what is likeliest to have been meant. For why are Apostles the first, but because unto them was granted the revelation of all truth from Christ immediately ? Why Prophets the second, but because they had of some things knowledge in the same manner? Teachers the next, because whatsoever was known to them, it came by hearing ; yet God withal made them able to instruct, which every one could not do that was taught ? After gifts of education, there follow general abilities to work things above nature, grace to cure men of bodily diseases, supplies against occurrent defects and impediments, dexterities to govern and direct by counsel; finally, aptness to speak or interpret foreign tongues. Which graces, not poured out equally, but diversely sorted and given, were a cause why not only they h 2
Psal Ixviii lxviii 18.
100 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
all did furnish up the whole body, but each benefit and help other. Again, the same Apostle otherwise in like Ephes. S0Itf « To every one of us is given grace, according to the 1,12. measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. He therefore gave some Apostles, and some Prophets, and some Evangelists, and some Pastors and Teachers, for the gathering together of Saints, for the work of the Ministry, for the edification of the body of Christ." In this place none but gifts of instruction are ex- pressed. And because of Teachers some were Evangelists, which neither had any part of their knowledge by revela- tion, as the Prophets, and yet in ability to teach were far beyond other Pastors, they are, as having received one way less than Prophets, and another way more than Teachers, set accordingly between both. For the Apostle doth in neither place respect what any of them were by office or power given them through Ordination, but what by grace they all had obtained through miraculous infusion of the Holy Ghost. For in Christian Religion, this being the ground of our whole belief, that the promises which God of old had made his Prophets concerning the won- derful gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost, wherewith the reign of the true Messias should be made glorious, were immediately after our Lord's Ascension performed, there is no one thing whereof the Apostles did take more often occasion to speak. Out of men thus endued with gifts of the Spirit upon their conversion to Christian Faith, the Church had her Ministers chosen, unto whom was given Ecclesiastical power by Ordination. Now, because the Apostle, in reckoning degrees and varieties of grace, doth mention Pastors and Teachers, although he mention them not in respect of their Ordination to exercise the Ministry, but as examples of men especially enriched with the gifts of the Holy Ghost, divers learned and skilful men have so taken it, as if those places did intend to teach what Orders of Ecclesiastical persons there ought to be in the Church of Christ ; which thing we are not to learn from thence, but out of other parts of Holy Scripture, whereby it clearly appeareth that Churches Apostolic did know but three degrees in the power of Ecclesiastical Order ; at the first, Apostles, Presbyters, and Deacons ; afterwards, instead of
BOOK V. 101
Apostles, Bishops, concerning whose Order we are to speak in the seventh Book. There is an error which beguileth many who do much entangle both themselves and others, by not distinguishing Services, Offices, and Orders Eccle- siastical. The first of which three, and in part the second, may be executed by the Laity ; whereas none have, or can have, the third, but the Clergy. Catechists, Exor- cists, Readers, Singers, and the rest of like sort, if the nature only of their labours and pains be considered, may in that respect seem Clergymen, even as the Fathers for that cause term them usually Clerks ; as also in regard of the end whereunto they were trained up, which was to be ordered when years and experience should make them able. Notwithstanding, inasmuch as they no way differed from others of the Laity longer than during that work of service, which at any time they might give over, being thereunto but admitted, not tied by irrevocable Ordina- tion, we find them always exactly severed from that body whereof those three before-rehearsed Orders alone are na- tural parts. Touching Widows, of whom some men areT.c.u persuaded, that if such as St. Paul describeth may be got- Si ten, we ought to retain them in the Church for ever ; certain v-9- mean services there were of attendance, as about women at the time of their Baptism, about the bodies of the sick and dead, about the necessities of travellers, wayfaring men, and such like, wherein the Church did commonly use them when need required, because they lived of the alms of the Church, and were fittest for such purposes : St. Paul doth therefore, to avoid scandal, require that none but wo- men well experienced and virtuously given, neither any under threescore years of age, should be admitted of that number. Widows were never in the Church so highly es- teemed as Virgins. But seeing neither of them did or could receive Ordination, to make them Ecclesiastical persons were absurd. The ancientest therefore of the Fathers mention those three degrees of Ecclesiastical Order speci- fied, and no more: "When your Captains (saithTertullian), Tertui. that is to say, the Deacons, Presbyters, and Bishops, fly, se^u" who shall teach the Laity that they must be constant ?" tc- 11] Again : " What should I mention Laymen (saith Optatus), optat. yea, or divers of the ministry itself? To what purpose {c]i$.] Deacons, which are in the third, or Presbyters in the se-
102 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
cond, degree of Priesthood, when the very Heads and Princes of all, even certain of the Bishops themselves, were con- tent to redeem life with the loss of Heaven V Heaps of allegations in a case so evident and plain are needless. I may securely therefore conclude, that there are at this day in the Church of England, no other than the same degrees of Ecclesiastical Orders, namely, Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons, which had their beginning from Christ and his blessed Apostles themselves. As for Deans, Prebenda- ries, Parsons, Vicars, Curates, Archdeacons, Chancellors, Officials, Commissaries, and such other like names, which being not found in Holy Scripture, we have been thereby through some men's error, thought to allow of Ec- clesiastical degrees not known, nor ever heard of in the better ages of former times ; all these are in truth but titles of Office, whereunto partly Ecclesiastical persons, and partly others, are in sundry forms and conditions ad- mitted, as the state of the Church doth need, degrees of Order still continuing the same they were from the first be- ginning. Now what habit or attire doth beseem each Order to use in the course of common life, both for the gravity of his place, and for example's sake to other men, is a matter frivolous to be disputed of. A small measure of wisdom may serve to teach them how they should cut their coats. But seeing all well-ordered Polities have ever judged it meet and fit by certain special distinct ornaments to sever each sort of men from other when they are in public, to the end that all may receive such compliments of civil honour as are due to their rooms and callings, even when their persons are rot known, it argueth a disproportioned mind in them whom so decent orders displease. of oua. 79, We might somewhat marvel what the Apostle St. Paul Founda- should mean, to say that " Covetousness is idolatry," if the Endow- daily practice of men did not shew, that whereas Nature ments, requireth God to be honoured with wealth, we honour for
Tithes, ^ '
aii in- the most part wealth as God. Fain we would teach our- for^et- selves to believe, that for worldly goods it sufficeth frugally PfReii anc* noriestly to use them to our own benefit, without de- gion; triment and hurt to others; or if we go a degree further, purpose and perhaps convert some small contemptible portion churl thereof to charitable uses, the whole duty which we owe fulfilled unto God herein is fully satisfied. But forasmuch as we
BOOK V. 103
cannot rightly honour God, unless both our souls and bo- g *e dies be sometime employed merely in his service ; again, certain sith we know that Religion requireth at our hands the taking n"fen"f' away of so great a part of the time of our lives quite and ™an'^e- clean from our own business, and the bestowing of the must same in his : suppose we that nothing of our wealth and SJ£JLJ substance is immediately due to God, but all our own to |j™°j bestow and spend as ourselves think meet? Are not our livings riches as well his, as the days of our life are his ? Where- frustrate, fore, unless with part we acknowledge his supreme domi- nion by whose benevolence we have the whole, how give we honour to whom honour belongeth, or how hath God the things that are God's? I would know what nation in the world did ever honour God, and not think it a point of their duty to do him honour with their very goods. So that this we may boldly set down as a principle clear in Nature, an axiom that ought not to be called in question, a truth mani- fest and infallible, that men are eternally bound to honour God with their substance, in token of thankful acknowledg- ment that all they have is from him. To honour him with our worldly goods, not only by spending them in lawful manner, and by using them without offence, but also by alienating from ourselves some reasonable part or portion thereof, and by offering up the same to him as a sign that we gladly confess his sole and sovereign dominion overall, is a duty which all men are bound unto, and a part of that very worship of God, which, as the Law of God and Na- ture itself requireth, so we are the rather to think all men no less strictly bound thereunto than to any other natural duty; inasmuch as the hearts of men do so cleave to these earthly things, so much admire them for the sway they have in the world, impute them so generally either to nature or to chance and fortune, so little think upon the grace and providence from which they come, that, unless by a kind of continual tribute we did acknowledge God's dominion, it may be doubted that in short time men would learn to forget whose tenants they are, and imagine that the world is their own absolute, free, and independent inheritance. Now, concerning the kind or quality of gifts which God receiveth in that sort, we are to consider them, partly as first they proceed from us, and partly as afterwards they are to serve for divine uses. In that they are testimonies of
104 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
our affection towards God, there is no doubt but such they should be as beseemeth most his glory to whom we offer them. In this respect the fatness of Abel's sacrifice is commended ; the flower of all men's increase assigned to God by Solomon; the gifts and donations of the people rejected as oft as their cold affection to God-ward made their presents to be little worth. Somewhat the Heathens saw touching that which was herein fit, and therefore they unto their gods did not think they might consecrate any thing which was * impure or unsound, or already given, or else not truly their own to give. Again, in regard of use, forasmuch as we know that God hath himself no need of worldly commodities, but taketh them because it is our good to be so exercised, and with no other intent accepteth them, but to have them used for the endless continuance of Religion; there is no place left of doubt or controversy, but that we in the choice of our gifts, are to level at the same mark, and to frame ourselves to his known intents and pur- poses. Whether we give unto God therefore that which himself by commandment requireth, or that which the pub- lic consent of the Church thinketh good to allot, or that which every man's private devotion doth best like, inas- much as the gift which we offer proceedeth not only as a testimony of our affection towards God, but also as a means to uphold Religion, the exercise whereof cannot stand without the help of temporal commodities ; if all men be taught of Nature to wish, and as much as in them lieth to procure, the perpetuity of good things; if for that very cause we honour and admire their wisdom, who, having been founders of Commonweals, could devise how to make the benefit they left behind them durable ; if, especially in this respect, we prefer Lycurgus before Solon, and the Spartan before the Athenian Polity, it must needs follow, that as we do unto God very acceptable service in honouring him with our substance, so our service that way is then most acceptable when it tendeth to perpetuity. The first per- manent donations of honour in this kind are Temples. Which works do so much set forward the exercise of Reli- gion, that while the world was in love with Religion, it gave to no sort greater reverence than to whom it could point and say, "These are the men that have built us
* Purum, probum, profanum, mum. Fest. lib. xiv. [s. v. Puri.]
BOOK v. 105
Synagogues." But of Churches we have spoken suffi- ciently heretofore. The next things to Churches are the ornaments of Churches, memorials which men's devotion hath added to remain in the treasure of God's House, not only for uses wherein the exercise of Religion presently needeth them, but also partly for supply of future casual necessities, whereunto the Church is on earth subject, and partly to the end that while they are kept, they may con- tinually serve as testimonies, giving all men to understand that God hath in every age and nation such as think it no burden to honour him with their substance. The riches first of the Tabernacle of God, and then of the Temple of Jerusalem, arising out of voluntary gifts and donations, were, as we commonly speak, a Nemo scit, the value of them above that which any man would imagine. After that the Tabernacle was made, furnished with all necessaries, and set up, although in the wilderness their ability could not possibly be great, the very metal of those vessels, which the Num.va. Princes of the Twelve Tribes gave to God for their first pre- ' sents, amounted even then to two thousand and four hundred shekels of silver, a hundred and twenty shekels of gold, every shekel weighing half an ounce. What was given to the 1 drou. Temple which Solomon erected we may partly conjecture, fexod. when, over and besides wood, marble, iron, brass, vest- *"'vle®" nients, precious stones, and money, the sum which David w- delivered into Solomon's hands for that purpose, was of gold in mass eight thousand, and of silver seventeen thou- sand cichars, every cichar containing a thousand and eight hundred shekels, which riseth to nine hundred ounces in every one cichar, whereas the whole charge of the Taber- nacle did not amount unto thirty cichars. After their re- gr»!i- turn out of Babylon, they were not presently in case to Hag. make their second Temple of equal magnificence and glory ^ with that which the enemy had destroyed. Notwithstand- viii-26- ing, what they could they did. Insomuch that, the build- ings finished, there remained in the coffers of the Church, to uphold the fabric thereof, six hundred and fifty cichars of silver, one hundred of gold. "Whereunto was added by Nehem. Nchemias, of his own gift, a thousand drams of gold, fifty vessels of silver, five hundred and thirty Priests' vestments; by other the Princes of the Fathers twenty thousand drams of gold, two thousand and two hundred pound of silver;
106 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
by the rest of the people twenty thousand drams of gold, two thousand pound of silver, threescore and seven attires of Priests. And they furthermore bound themselves to- wards other charges to give by the poll, in what part of Nehem. the world soever they should dwell, the third of a shekel, that is to say, the sixth part of an ounce yearly. This out of foreign provinces they always sent in gold.* Whereof Joseph. Mithridates is said to have taken up by the way before it lx\v'. could pass to Jerusalem from Asia, in one adventure, eight c7,§2' hundred talents ;f Crassus after that, to have borrowed of the Temple itself eight thousand ; at which time Eleazar having both many other rich ornaments, and all the tapes- try of the Temple under his custody, thought it the safest way to grow unto some composition ; and so to redeem the residue by parting with a certain beam of gold about seven hundred and a half weight, a prey sufficient for one man, as he thought, who had never bargained with Crassus till then, and therefore, upon the confidence of a solemn oath that no more should be looked for, he simply delivered up a large morsel, whereby the value of that which re- mained was betrayed, and the whole lost. Such being the casualties whereunto moveable treasures are subject, the Num. Law of Moses did both require eight and forty cities, Levit. together with their fields and whole territories in the land Kviifsa of Jew|y> to De reserved for God himself, and not only provide for the liberty of further additions, if men of their own accord should think good, but also for the safe pre- servation thereof unto all posterities, that no man's avarice or fraud, by defeating so virtuous intents, might discourage from like purposes. God's third endowment did therefore of old consist in lands. Furthermore, some cause no doubt there is why besides sundry other more rare dona- tions of uncertain rate, the tenth should be thought a re- venue so natural to be allotted out unto God. For of the spoils which Abraham had taken in war, he delivered unto Gen. Melchisedec the Tithes. The vow of Jacob, at such time as he took his journey towards Haran, was, " If God will be with me, and will keep me in this voyage which I am to
* ' Cum aurum Judaeorum nomine quotannis ex Italia et ex omnibus veslris provinciis Hierosolymam exportari soleret, Flaccus sanxit edicto, ne ex Asia exportari liceret.' Cic. Orat. pro L. Flac. [c. 28.]
t Every talent in value six hundred crowns.
CO. xxviii
BOOK V. 107
go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothes to put on, so that I may return to my father's house in safety, then shall the Lord be my God; and this stone which I have set up as a pillar, the same shall be God's House ; and of all thou shalt give me I will give unto thee the Tithe." And as Abraham gave voluntarily, as Jacob vowed to give God Tithes, so the Law of Moses did require at the hands of Dent all men the self-same kind of tribute, the tenth of their com, wine, oil, fruit, cattle, and whatsoever increase his heavenly providence should send. Insomuch, that Painims pi*, being herein followers of their steps, paid Tithes like- ™£ wise. Imagine we that this was for no cause done, or that '• *»■ there was not some special inducement to judge the tenth of our worldly profits the most convenient for God's por- tion ? Are not all things by him created in such sort, that the forms which give them their distinction are number, their operations measure, and their matter weight ? Three being the mystical number of God's unsearchable perfec- tion within himself; Seven the number whereby our own perfections, through grace, are most ordered ; and Ten* the number of Nature's perfections (for the beauty of Nature is order; and the foundation of order, number; and of number, Ten the highest we can rise unto without iteration of numbers under it), could Nature better acknowledge the power of the God of Nature, than by assigning unto him that quantity which is the continent of all she possesseth 1 There are in Philo the Jew many arguments to shew the great congruity and fitness of this number in things con- secrated unto God. But because over-nice and curious speculations become not the earnestness of holy things, I omit what might be further observed, as well out of others, as out of him, touching the quantity of this general sacred tribute ; whereby it cometh to pass, that the meanest and the very poorest amongst men yielding unto God as much in proportion as the greatest, and many times in affection more, have this as a sensible token always assuring their minds, that in his sight, from whom all good is expected, they are concerning acceptation, protection, divine privi- leges, and pre-eminences whatsoever, equals and peers with them unto whom they are otherwise in earthly respects
* Aexa? cl^iax-j rZv aid /itovafos Io-ti Tti(aq rtteioTUTov. Philo [de Congress. f]U2er. erud. gtat. p. 532. ed. Mang.]
108 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
inferiors; being furthermore well assured, that the top, as it were, thus presented to God, is neither lost nor unfruit- fully bestowed, but doth sanctify to them again the whole mass, and that he by receiving a little undertaketh to bless all. In which consideration the Jews were accustomed to name their Tithes, the hedge of their riches.* Albeit, a hedge do only fence and preserve that which is contained ; whereas their Tithes and Offerings did more, because they procured increase of the heap out of which they were taken. God demanded no such debt for his own need, but for their only benefit that owe it. Wherefore detaining the same, they hurt not him whom they wrong; and them- selves, whom they think they relieve, they wound ; except men will haply affirm, that God did, by fair speeches and large promises, delude the world in saying, u Bring ye all the Tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house (deal truly, defraud not God of his due, but bring all) ; and prove if I will not open unto you the win- dows of Heaven, and pour down upon you an immea- surable blessing." That which St. James hath concerning the effect of our Prayers unto God, is for the most part of like moment in our gifts : we pray and obtain not, because he which knoweth our hearts, doth know our desires are evil. In like manner we give, and we are not the more accepted, because + he beholdeth how unwisely we spill our gifts in the bringing. It is to him, which needeth no- thing, all one, whether any thing or nothing be given him : but for our own good, it always behoveth that whatsoever we offer up into his hands, we bring it seasoned with this cogitation, " Thou, Lord, art worthy of all honour." With the Church of Christ, touching these matters, it standeth as it did with the whole world before Moses. Whereupon, for many years, men being desirous to honour God in the same manner as other virtuous and holy personages before had done, both during the time of their life, and, if further ability did serve, by such device as might cause their works of piety to remain always ; it came by these means to pass, that the Church from time to time had treasure, pro- portionable unto the poorer or wealthier estate of Chris-
* ' Massoretli sepes est legis ; divitiarum sepes Decimae.' R. Aquiba in Pirk. Aboth.
JVemo libenter dedit quod non accepit sed expressit.' Sen. de Benef. lib. i. c. 1 .
BOOK v. 109
tian men. And as soon as the state of the Church could admit thereof, they easily condescended to think it most natural and most fit that God should receive, as before, of all men his ancient accustomed revenues of Tithes. Thus, therefore, both God and Nature have taught to convert things temporal to eternal uses, and to provide for the perpetuity of Religion, even by that which is most tran- sitory. For to the end that in worth and value there might be no abatement of any thing once assigned to such pur- poses, the Law requireth precisely the best of what we possess ; and to prevent all damages by way of commuta- tion ; where, instead of natural commodities or other rights, the price of them might be taken, the Law of Moses deter- mined their rates and the payments to be always made by the shekel of the Sanctuary, wherein there was great ad- ^'If* vantage of weight above the ordinary current shekel. The truest and surest way for God to have always his own, is by making him payment in kind out of the very self-same riches which through his gracious benediction the earth doth continually yield. This, where it may be without in- convenience, is for every man's conscience' sake. That which cometh from God to us, by the natural course of his providence, which we know to be innocent and pure, is perhaps best accepted, because least spotted with the stain of unlawful or indirect procurement. Besides, whereas prices daily change, Nature, which commonly is one, must needs be the most indifferent and perma- nent standard between God and man. But the main foundation of all, whereupon the security of these things dependeth, as far as any thing may be ascertained amongst men, is, that the title and right which man had in every of them before donation, doth by the act, and from the time, of any such donation, dedication, or grant, re- main the proper possession of God till the world's end., unless himself renounce or relinquish it. For, if equity have taught us, that every one ought to enjoy his own; that what is ours no other can alienate from us, but with our own deliberate consent ;* finally, that no man, having J-ib. xi. passed his consent or deed, may change it to the prejudice jur.
* ' Cujus errorem dati repetitio est, ejus consulto dati donatio est.' Lib. i. D. de cond. indeb. This is the ground of consideration in alienations from man to man.
110 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
of any other,* should wc presume to deal with God worse than God hath allowed any person to deal with us? Albeit, therefore, we he now free from the Law of Moses, and consequently not thereby bound to the payment of Tithes; yet, because Nature hath taught men to honour God with their substance, and Scripture hath left us an example of that particular proportion, which for moral considerations hath been thought fittest by him whose wisdom could best judge; furthermore, seeing that the Church of Christ hath long sithence entered into like obligation, it seemeth in these days a question altogether vain and superfluous, whether Tithes be a matter of divine right: because, how- soever at the first it might have been thought doubtful, our case is clearly the same now with theirs unto whom ^c*5 St. Peter sometime spake, saying, " While it was whole, it was whole thine." When our Tithes might have pro- bably seemed our own, we had colour of liberty to use them as we ourselves saw good. But having made them his whose they are, let us be warned by other men's ex- ample what it is voafyiaaoSai, to wash or clip that coin which hath on it the mark of God. For that all these are his pos- sessions, and that he doth himself so reckon them, appear- eth by the form of his own speeches. Touching Gifts and Exod. Oblations, " Thou shalt give them me ;" touching Orato- 3o.'i- ~9' ries and Churches, " My House shall be called the House ™fi's. of prayer;" touching Tithes, "Will a man spoil God?" Mi1 yet behold, even me your God ye have spoiled,+ not- withstanding ye ask, Wherein, as though ye were ignorant, what injury there hath been offered in Tithes; ye are heavily accursed, because with a kind of public consent ye have joined yourselves in one to rob me, imagining the commonness of your offence to be every man's par- ^zek- ticular justification ; touching lands, " Ye shall offer to the Lord a sacred portion of ground, and that sacred por- tion shall belong to the Priests." Neither did God only thus ordain amongst the Jews ; but the very purpose, intent, and meaning of all that have honoured him with their sub- stance, was to invest him with the property of those bene- fits, the use whereof must needs be committed to the hands
* ' Nemo potest mutare consilium suum in alterius prsejudicium.' Lib. lxxv. de Reg. Jur.
t ' Non videntm rem amittere quibus propria non fuit.' Lib. xxxriii, de Reg. Jur.
COOK V. Ill
of men. In which respect the style of ancient grants and charters is, u We have given unto God both for us and Ma§- our heirs for ever :" yea, " We know (saith Charles the c. 1." Great) that the goods of the Church are the sacred endow- {JSi ments of God ; to the Lord our God we offer and dedicate >■ •*• whatsoever we deliver unto his Church." Whereupon the Laws Imperial do likewise divide all things in such sort, that they make some to belong by right of nature indiffer- ently unto every man, some to be the certain goods and possessions of Commonweals, some to appertain unto several corporations and companies of men, some to be privately men's own in particular, and some to be sepa- rated quite from all men ;• which last branch compriseth things sacred and holy, because thereof God alone is owner. The sequel of which received opinion, as well without as within the walls of the House of God touching such possessions, is, as hath been ever, that there is not an act more honourable than by all means to amplify and to defend the patrimony of Religion, not any more impiousf and hateful than to impair those possessions which men in former times, when they gave unto holy uses, were wont at the altar of God, and in the presence of their ghostly superiors, to make as they thought inviolable, by words of fearful execration, saying, " These things we offer to God ; from whom if any take them away (which we hope no man will attempt to do), but if any shall, let his account be without favour in the last day, when he cometh to receive the doom which is due for sacrilege against that Lord and God unto whom we dedicate the same." The best and most renowned Prelates of the Church of Christ have in this consideration rather sustained the wrath, than yielded to satisfy the hard desire, of their greatest commanders on earth coveting with ill advice and counsel that which they willingly should have suffered God to enjoy. There are of Martyrs, whom posterity doth much honour, for that having under their hands the custody of such treasures,^ they could by virtuous delusion invent how to save them
* ' Nullius autem sunt res sacra et religiosae et sanctse. Quod enim divini juris est, id nullius in bonis est.' Inst. lib. ii. tit. 1.
t ' Soli cum Diis sacrilegi pugnant.' Curt. lib. vii. [c. 23.] ' Sacrum sacrove commendatum qui dempserit rapseritve, parricida esto.' Leg. xii. Tab. Capit. Carol, lib. vi. c. 285.
X ' Deposita pietatis.' Tertul. Apologet. [c. 39.]
112 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
from prey, even when the safety of their own lives they gladly neglected ; as one, sometime an Archdeacon under Xistus the Bishop of Rome, did, whom when his Judge un- derstood to be one of the Church-stewards, thirst of blood began to slake, and another humour to work, which first by a favourable countenance, and then by quiet speech, prudent, did thus calmly disclose itself: "You that profess the Laurent." Christian Religion make great complaint of the wonder- ver.57. fui cruelty we shew towards you: neither peradventure altogether without cause. But for myself, I am far from any such bloody purpose. Ye are not so willing to live, as I unwilling that out of these lips should proceed any capi- tal sentence against you. Your Bishops are said to have rich vessels of gold and silver, which they use in the exer- cise of their Religion ; besides the fame is, that numbers sell away their lands and livings, the huge prices whereof are brought to your Church-coffers ; by which means the devotion, that maketh them and their whole posterity poor, must needs mightily enrich you, whose God we know was no coiner of money, but left behind him many whole- some and good precepts, as namely, that Caesar should have of you the things that are fit for and due to Caesar. His wars are costly and chargeable unto him. That which you suffer to rust in corners, the affairs of the Common- wealth do need. Your profession is not to make account of things transitory. And yet if ye can be contented but to forego that which ye care not for, I dare undertake to warrant you both safety of life, and freedom of using your conscience, a thing more acceptable to you than wealth." Which fair parley the happy Martyr quietly hearing, and perceiving it necessary to make some shift for the safe con- cealment of that which being now desired, was not unlikely to be more narrowly afterwards sought, he craved respite for three days to gather the riches of the Church together, in which space against the time the Governor should come to the doors of the Temple, big with hope to receive his prey, a miserable rank of poor, lame, and impotent per- sons was provided, their names delivered him up in writing as a true inventory of the Church's goods, and some few words used to signify howr proud the Church was of these treasures. If men did not naturally abhor sacrilege, to resist or to defeat so impious attempts would deserve small
BOOK V. 113
praise. But such is the general detestation of rapine in this kind, that whereas nothing doth either in peace or war more uphold men's reputation than prosperous suc- cess, because in common construction, unless notorious improbity be joined with prosperity, it seemeth to argue favour with God ; they which once have stained their hands with these odious spoils, do thereby fasten unto all their actions an eternal prejudice, in respect whereof, for that it passeth through the world as an undoubted rule and principle that Sacrilege is open defiance to God, whatso- ever afterwards they undertake, if they prosper in it, men reckon it but Dionysius his navigation ; and, if any thing befall them otherwise, it is not, as commonly, so in them ascribed to the great uncertainty of casual events, wherein the providence of God doth control the purposes of men oftentimes much more for their good, than if all things did answer fully their hearts desire, but the censure of the world is ever directed against them both bitter and pe- remptory.* To make such actions therefore less odious, and to mitigate the envy of them, many colourable shifts and inventions have been used, as if the world did hate only wolves, and think the fox a goodly creature. The time it may be will come,f when they that either violently have spoiled, or thus smoothly defrauded God, shall find they did but deceive themselves. In the meanwhile there will be always some skilful persons, which can teach a way how to grind treatably the Church with jaws that shall scarce move, and yet devour in the end more than they that come ravening with open mouth, as if they would worry the whole in an instant; others also who, having wastefully eaten out their own patrimony, would be glad to repair, if they might, their decayed estates with the ruin they care not of what nor of whom, so the spoil were theirs ; whereof in some part if they happen to speed, yet
* ' Novimus multa regna et reges eorum propterea cecidisse, quia Ecclesias spoliaverunt, resque earum vastaverunt, alienaverunt vel diripuerunt, Episcopis- que et Sacerdotibus, atque, quod majus est, Ecclesiis eorum abstulerunt, et pu- gnantibus dederunt. Quapropter nee fortes in bello nee in fide stabiles fuerunt, nee victores exstiterunt ; sed terga multi vulnerati, et plures interfecti verterunt, regnaque et regiones, et, quod pejus est, regna coelestia perdiderunt, atque pro- priis haereditatibus caruerunt, et hactenus carent.' Verba Carol. Mag. in Capit. Carol, lib. vii. c. lOi.
t ' Turno tempus erit, magno cum optaverit emptum Intactum Pallanta, et cum spolia ista diemque Oderit.' Virg. JEn. lib. x. 503.
VOL. II. I
114 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
commonly they are men born under that constellation which maketh them, I know not how, as unapt to enrich themselves as they are ready to impoverish others ; it is their lot to sustain during life both the misery of beggars and the infamy of robbers. But though no other plague and revenge should follow sacrilegious violations of holy things, the natural secret disgrace and ignominy, the very turpitude, of such actions in the eye of a wise understand- ing heart,* is itself a heavy punishment. Men of virtuous quality are by this sufficiently moved to beware how they answer and requite the mercies of God with injuries, whe- ther openly or indirectly offered. I will not absolutely say concerning the goods of the Church, that they may in no case be seized on by men, or that no obligation, commerce, and bargain, made between man and man, can ever be of force to alienate the property which God hath in them. Certain cases I grant there are, wherein it is not so dark what God himself doth warrant, but that we may safely presume him as willing to forego for our benefit, as always to use and convert to our benefit whatsoever our Religion hath honoured him withal. But surely under the name of that which may be, many things that should not be are often done. By means whereof the Church most commonly for gold hath flannel ; and whereas the usual saw of old was, " Glaucus his change," the proverb is now, " A Church- bargain." And for fear lest covetousness alone should linger out the time too much, and not be able to make havock of the House of God with that expedition which the mortal enemy thereof did vehemently wish, he hath by certain strong enchantments so deeply bewitched Religion itself, as to make it in the end an earnest solicitor, and an eloquent persuader of sacrilege, urging confidently that the very best service which all men of power can do to Christ, is without any more ceremony to sweep all, and to leave the Church as bare as in the day it was first born ; that fulness of bread having made the children of the household wanton, it is without any scruple to be taken away from them, and thrown to dogs ; that they which
* 'H tojv Trgay/AaTW aXayym ovfcfxiat; IXaTToiv ^n/xia; toij ye cti^oai. Demosth. [Olynth. i. ad fin.] 'Pcenam non dico legum quas sacpe perrumpunt, sed ipsius turpitudinis quae acerbissima est non vident.' Cic. Offic. lib. iii. [c. 8.] ' Impu- nita tu credes esse quae invisa sunt? aut ullum supplicium gravius existimas publico odio ?' Sen. de Benef. lib. iii. c. 17.
BOOK V. 115
laid the prices of their lands as offerings at the Apostles' feet, did but sow the seeds of Superstition ; that they which endowed Churches with lands, poisoned Religion; that Tithes and Obligations are now in the sight of God as the sacrificed blood of goats ; that if we give him our hearts and affections, our goods are better bestowed otherwise ; that Ireneeus, Polycarp's Disciple, should not have said, " We offer unto God our goods as tokens of thankfulness J™- for that we receive ;" neither Origen, * He which worship- c.34. peth God, must by gifts and oblations acknowledge him S.Num. the Lord of all;" in a word, that to give unto God is hom xu error ; reformation of error, to take from the Church that which the blindness of former ages did unwisely give : by these or the like suggestions, received with all joy, and with like sedulity practised in certain parts of the Christian world, they have brought to pass that as David doth say of man, so it is in hazard to be verified concerning the whole Religion and service of God: "The time thereof ^-'^ may perad venture fall out to be threescore and ten years, or if strength do serve unto fourscore, what followeth is likely to be small joy for them whosoever they be that behold it." Thus have the best things been overthrown, not so much by puissance and might of adversaries, as through defect of counsel in them that should have upheld and defended the same.
80. There are in a Minister of God these four things to be considered : his Ordination, which giveth him power to meddle with things sacred ; the charge or portion of the Sie,°wid Church allotted unto him for exercise of his Office ; the without
7 any po-
performance of his duty, according to the exigence of his p«iar charge; and, lastly, the maintenance which in that respect p^ce'0" he receiveth. All Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons, which fne"e;but either concern the bestowing or the using of the power of <**e ministerial Order, have relation to these four. Of the first rVga'rd we have spoken before at large. Concerning the next, for :°^r"e more convenient discharge of Ecclesiastical duties, as the *£«<»> body of the people must needs be severed by divers pre- their cincts, so the Clergy likewise accordingly distributed, g^jjjj Whereas, therefore, Religion did first take place in cities, ^rint0 and in that respect was a cause why the name of Pagans, orders. which properly signifieth a country people, came to be used in common speech for the same that Infidels and
nations
116 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Unbelievers were; it followed thereupon that all such cities had their Ecclesiastical Colleges , consisting of Deacons and of Presbyters, whom first the Apostles or their delegates the Evangelists did both ordain and govern. Such were the Colleges of Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Rome, Corinth, and the rest, where the Apostles are known to have planted our Faith and Religion. Now be- cause Religion and the cure of souls was their general charge in common over all that were near about them, neither had any one Presbyter his several cure apart, till Evaristus, Bishop in the See of Rome, about the year 112, began to assign precincts unto every Church or Title which the Christians held, and to appoint unto each Presbyter a certain compass whereof himself should take charge alone, the commodiousness of this invention caused all parts of Christendom to follow it, and at the length among the rest our own Churches about the year G36 became divided in like manner. But other distinction of Churches there doth not appear any in the Apostles' writings, save only, ac- Acts cording to those cities wherein they planted the Gospel of *v. 36. £jjrjstj an(j erected Ecclesiastical Colleges. Wherefore to Tit. i.5. ordain Kara ttoXiv throughout every city, and Kara ekkAtjo-iW fiv!Sss. throughout every Church, do in them signify the same thing. Churches then neither were nor could be in so con- venient sort limited as now they are ; first, by the bounds of each state, and then within each state by more particular precincts, till at the length we descend unto the several congregations, termed Parishes, with far narrower restraint than this name at the first was used. And from hence hath grown their error, who as oft as they read of the duty which Ecclesiastical persons are now to perform to- wards the Church, their manner is always to understand by that Church, some particular Congregation or Parish Church. They suppose that there should now be no man of Ecclesiastical Order, which is not tied to some certain Parish. Because the names of all Church-officers are words of re- lation, because a shepherd must have his flock, a teacher his scholars, a minister his company which he ministereth unto, therefore it seemeth a thing in their eyes absurd and unreasonable, that any man should be ordained a Minister, otherwise than only for some particular Congregation. Perceive they not how by this means they make it un-
BOOK V. 117
lawful for the Church to employ men at all in converting nations ? For if so be the Church may not lawfully admit to an Ecclesiastical function, unless it tie the party ad- mitted unto some particular Parish, then surely a thankless labour it is, whereby men seek the conversion of Infidels, which know not Christ, and therefore cannot be as yet divided into their special congregations and flocks. But, to the end it may appear how much this one thing among many more hath been mistaken, there is first no precept requiring that Presbyters and Deacons be made in such sort, and not otherwise. Albeit therefore the Apostles did make them in that order, yet is not their example such a Law, as without all exception bindeth to make them in no other order but that. Again, if we will consider that which the Apostles themselves did, surely no man can justly say, that herein we practise any thing repugnant to their ex- ample. For by them there was ordained only in each Christian city a College of Presbyters and Deacons to administer holy things. Evaristus did, a hundred years after the birth of our Saviour Christ, begin the distinction of the Church into Parishes. Presbyters and Deacons having been ordained before to exercise Ecclesiastical functions in the Church of Rome promiscuously, he was the first that tied them each one to his own station. So that of the two, indefinite Ordination of Presbyters and Deacons doth come more near the Apostles' example, and the tying of them to be made only for particular Congrega- tions may more justly ground itself upon the example of Evaristus, than of any Apostle of Christ. It hath been the opinion of wise and good men heretofore, that nothing was ever devised more singularly beneficial unto God's Church, than this which our honourable predecessors have to their endless praise found out, by the erecting of such Houses of study, as those two most famous Universities do contain, and providing that choice wits, after reasonable time spent in contemplation, may at the length either enter into that holy vocation for which they had been so long nourished and brought up, or else give place and suffer others to succeed in their rooms, that so the Church may be always furnished with a number of men, whose ability being first known by public trial in Church-labours there where men can best judge of them, their calling after-
lib,
118 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
wards unto particular charge abroad may be accordingly. All this is frustrate, those worthy Foundations we must dissolve, their whole device and religious purpose which did erect them is made void, their Orders and Statutes are to be cancelled and disannulled, in case the Church be forbidden to grant any power of Order unless it be with restraint to the party ordained unto some parti- cular Parish or Congregation. Nay, might we not rather affirm of Presbyters and of Deacons, that the very nature of their Ordination is unto necessary local restraint a thing opposite and repugnant? The Emperor Justinian just, doth say of tutors, " Certse rei vel causa? tutor dari non po- test, quia personae, non causas vel rei, tutor datur." He that should grant a tutorship, restraining his grant to some one certain thing or cause, should do but idly, because tutors are given for personal defence generally, and not for managing of a few particular things or causes. So he that ordaining a Presbyter or a Deacon should, in the form of Ordination, restrain the one or the other to a certain place, might with much more reason be thought to use a vain and a frivolous addition, than they reasonably to require such local restraint, as a thing which must of necessity con- cur evermore with all lawful Ordination. Presbyters and Deacons are not by Ordination consecrated unto places, but unto functions. In which respect, and in no other, it is, that sith they are by virtue thereof bequeathed unto God, severed and sanctified to be employed in his service, which is the highest advancement that mortal creatures on earth can be raised unto, the Church of Christ hath not been acquainted in former ages with any such profane and unna- tural custom, as doth hallow men with Ecclesiastical func- tions of Order only for a time, and then dismiss them again to the common affairs of the world. Whereas, contrariwise, from the place or charge where that power hath been ex- ercised, we may be by sundry good and lawful occasions translated, retaining nevertheless the self-same power which was first given. It is some grief to spend thus much labour in refuting a thing that hath so little ground to uphold it, es- pecially sith they themselves that teach it do not seem to give thereunto any great credit, if we may judge their minds by their actions. There are amongst them that have done the work of Ecclesiastical persons, sometime in the families of
BOOK V. 119
noblemen, sometime in much more public and frequent congregations ; there are that have sucessively gone through perhaps seven or eight particular Churches after this sort ; yea, some that at one and the same time have been, some which at this present hour are, in real obligation of Ecclesi- astical duty, and possession of commodity thereto belong- ing, even in sundry particular Churches within the land ; some there are amongst them which will not so much abridge their liberty, as to be fastened or tied unto anyplace; some which have bound themselves to one place only for a time, and that time beingonce expired, have afterwards voluntarily given unto other places the like experience and trial of them. All this I presume they would not do, if their persuasion were as strict as their words pretend. But, for the avoiding of these and such other the like confusions as are incident unto the cause and question whereof we presently treat, there is not any thing more material, than first to separate exactly the nature of the Ministry from the use and exer- cise thereof; secondly, to know that the only true and pro- per act of Ordination is to invest men with that power which doth make them Ministers, by consecrating their persons to God and his service in holy things during term of life, whether they exercise that power or no ; thirdly, that to give them a Title or Charge where to use their Mi- nistry, concerneth not the making, but the placing of God's Ministers ; and therefore the Laws which concern only their election or admission unto place of charge, are are not appliable to infringe any way their Ordination ; fourthly, that as oft as any ancient Constitution, Law, or Canon, is alleged concerning either Ordinations or Elec- tions, we forget not to examine whether the present case be the same which the ancient was, or else do contain some just reason for which it cannot admit altogether the same rules which former affairs of the Church, now altered, did then require. In the question of making Mi- nisters without a Title, which to do they say is a thing un- lawful, they should at the very first have considered what the name of Title doth imply, and what affinity or cohe- rence Ordinations have with Titles ; which thing observed would plainly have shewed them their own error. They are not ignorant, that when they speak of a Title, they handle that which belongeth to the placing of a Minister in some
120 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
charge ; that the place of charge, wherein a Minister doth execute his office, requireth some House of God for the people to resort unto, some definite number of souls unto whom he there administereth holy things, and some certain allowance whereby to sustain life ; that the Fathers at the first named Oratories, and Houses of Prayer, Titles ; thereby signifying how God was interested in them, and held them as his own possessions. But, because they know that the Church had Ministers before Christian Temples and Ora- tories were, therefore some of them understand by a Title, a definite congregation of people only, and so deny that any Ordination is lawful which maketh Ministers that have no certain flock to attend : forgetting how the Seventy, whom Christ himself did ordain Ministers, had their calling in that manner, whereas yet no certain charge could be given them. Others, referring the name of a Title especially to the maintenance of the Minister, infringe all Ordination made,* except they which receive Orders be first entitled to a competent Ecclesiastical Benefice, and (which is most ridiculously strange) except besides their present title to some such Benefice they have likewise some other title of annual rent or pension whereby they may be relieved, in case, through infirmity, sickness, or other lawful impedi- ment, they grow unable to execute their Ecclesiastical function. So that every man lawfully ordained must bring a bow which hath two strings, a Title of present right, and another to provide for future possibility or chance. Into these absurdities and follies they slide, by misconceiving the true purpose of certain Canons, which indeed have for- bidden to ordain a Minister without a Title ; not that simply it is unlawful so to ordain, but because it might grow to an inconveniency, if the Church did not somewhat restrain that liberty. For, seeing they which have once received Or- dination cannot again return into the world, it behoveth them which ordain to foresee how such shall be afterwards able to live, lest their poverty and destitution should re- dound to the disgrace and discredit of their calling. Which evil prevented, those very Laws, which in that respect for-
*' Unlawful to ordain a Minister without a Title.' Abstract, p. 243. 'The Law requireth , that every one admitted unto Orders having for his present relief some Ecclesiastical Benefice, should also have some other title unto some annual rent or pension whereby he might be relieved, in case he were not able, through in- firmity, sickness, or other lawful impediment, to execute his Ecclesiastical office and function.' Ibid. p. 246.
BOOK V. 121
bid, do expressly admit Ordinations to be made at large, and without Title ; namely, if the party so ordained have of his own for the sustenance of this life ; or, if the Bishop which giveth him Orders will find him competent allowance, till some place of ministration, from whence his mainte- nance may arise, be provided for him ; or, if any other fit and sufficient means be had against the danger before-men- tioned. Absolutely therefore it is not true, that any an- cient Canon of the Church, which is or ought to be with us in force, doth make Ordinations at large unlawful ; and as the state of the Church doth stand, they are most necessary. If there be any conscience in men touching that which they write or speak, let them consider as well what the pre- sent condition of all things doth now suffer, as what the Ordinances of former ages did appoint; as well the weight of those causes for which our affairs have altered, as the reasons in regard whereof our fathers and predecessors did sometime strictly and severely keep that, which for us to observe now is neither meet nor always possible. In this our present cause and controversy, whether any not having Title of right to a Benefice may be lawfully ordained a Mi- nister, is it not manifest in the eyes of all men, that whereas the name of a Benefice doth signify some standing Eccle- siastical revenue, taken out of the treasure of God, and allotted to a spiritual person, to the end he may use the same and enjoy it as his own for term of life, unless his de- fault cause deprivation, the Clergy for many years after Christ had no other benefices, but only their Canonical portions, or monthly dividends allowed them according to their several degrees and qualities, out of the common stock of such Gifts, Oblations, and Tithes, as the fervour of Christian piety did then yield ? Yea, that even when Mi- nisters had their Churches and flocks assigned unto them in several, yet for maintenance of life, their former kind of allowance continued, till such time as Bishops and Churches Cathedral being sufficiently endowed with lands, other Presbyters enjoyed, instead of their first Benefices, the Tithes and profits of their own congregations whole to themselves? Is it not manifest, that in this Realm, and so in other the like dominions, where the tenure of lands is altogether grounded on military Laws, and held as in fee under Princes which are not made Heads of the people by
122 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
force of voluntary election, but born the sovereign lords of those whole and entire territories, which territories their famous progenitors obtaining by way of conquest, retained what they would in their own hands, and divided the rest to others with reservation of sovereignty and capital in- terest ; the building of Churches, and consequently the as- signing of either Parishes or Benefices, was a thing impos- sible without consent of such as were principal owners of land ; in which consideration, for their more encourage- ment hereunto, they which did so far benefit the Church had by common consent granted (as great equity and reason was) a right for them and their heirs till the world's end, to nominate in those Benefices men whose quality the Bishop allowing might admit them thereunto ? Is it not manifest, that from hence inevitably such inequality of Parishes hath grown, as causeth some, through the mul- titude of people which have resort unto one Church, to be more than any one man can wield, and some to be of that nature by reason of Chapels annexed, that they which are Incumbents should wrong the Church if so be they had not certain Stipendiaries under them, because, where the corps of the profit or benefice is but one, the Title can be but one man's, and yet the charge may require more ? Not to mention, therefore, any other reason, whereby it may clearly appear how expedient it is and profitable for the Church to admit Ordinations without Title, this little may suffice to declare how impertinent their allegations against it are out of ancient Canons ; how untrue their confident asseverations, that only through negligence of Popish Pre- lates the custom of making such kind of Ministers hath prevailed in the Church of Rome against their Canons, and that with us it is expressly against the Laws of our own government when a Minister doth serve as a stipendiary Curate, which kind of service nevertheless the greatest Rabbins of that part do altogether follow. For howsoever they are loth peradventure to be named Curates, Stipen- diaries they are, and the labour they bestow is in other men's Cures ; a thing not unlawful for them to do, yet un- seemly for them to condemn which practise it. I might here discover the like oversight throughout all their dis- courses, made in behalf of the people's pretended right to elect their Ministers before the Bishop may lawfully
BOOK V. 1^3
ordain. But because we have otherwhere at large dis- puted of popular elections, and of the right of patronage, wherein is drowned whatsoever the people under any pre- tence of colour may seem to challenge about admission and choice of the Pastors that shall feed their souls, I cannot see what one duty there is which always ought to go before Ordination, but only care of the party's worthi- ness as well for integrity and virtue, as knowledge ; yea, for virtue more : inasmuch as defect of knowledge may sundry ways be supplied, but the scandal of vicious and wicked life is a deadly evil.
81. The truth is, that of all things hitherto mentioned, g^ the greatest is that threefold blot or blemish of notable that^ ignorance, unconscionable absence from the Cures whereof bein men have taken charge, and insatiable hunting after spiri- Jj™"^ tual Preferments, without either care or conscience of the ■"««•. public good. Whereof, to the end that we may consider, number as in God's own sight and presence, with all uprightness, £*£ sincerity, and truth, let us particularly weigh and examine in every of them; first, how far forth they are reprovable by reasons and maxims of common right ; secondly, whe- ther that which our Laws do permit be repugnant to those maxims, and with what equity we ought to judge of things practised in this case, neither on the one hand defending that which must be acknowledged out of square, nor on the other side condemning rashly whom we list for what- soever we disallow. Touching arguments therefore taken from the principles of common right to prove that Minis- T.C1, ters should be learned, that they ought to be resident upon J^pjW their Livings, and that more than one only Benefice onim.. spiritual Living may not be granted unto one man; ftontnsi. first, because St. Paul requireth in a Minister ability to J?J- teach, to convince, to distribute the Word rightly ; because d» also the Lord himself hath protested they shall be no mm. Priests to him which have rejected knowledge, and because, if the blind lead the blind, they must both needs fall into « the pit : the second, because Teachers are shepherds whose x flocks can be no time secure from danger ; they are watch- L 19. men whom the enemy doth always besiege ; their labours J *™ in the Word and Sacraments admit no intermission ; their John duty requireth instruction and conference with men in pri- J'pii vate ; they are the living Oracles of God, to whom the J* people must resort for counsel ; they are commanded to be **• «
xv. 14.
Acts x. C.
1 The;,. ii. 17. Coocil. Nic. cap. 15. Matt, vi. 24. 1 Cor. vii. 24.
124 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
patterns of holiness, leaders, feeders, supervisors, amongst their own ; it should be their grief, as it was the Apostles' to be absent, though necessarily, from them over whom they have taken charge : finally, the last, because plurality and residence are opposite ; because the placing of one Clerk in two Churches is a point of merchandise and filthy gain ; because no man can serve two masters ; because every one should remain in that vocation whereunto he is called ; what conclude they of all this? Against ignorance, against nonresidence, and against plurality of Livings, is there any man so raw and dull, but that the volumes which have been written both of old and of late may make him in so plentiful a cause eloquent ? For, if by that which is generally just and requisite we measure what knowledge there should be in a Minister of the Gospel of Christ ; the arguments which light of Nature offereth ; the Laws and Statutes which Scripture hath; the Canons that are taken out of ancient Synods ; the Decrees and Constitutions of sincerest times ; the sentences of all antiquity ; and, in a word, every man's full consent and conscience, is against ignorance in them that have charge and cure of souls. Again, what availeth it if we be learned and not faithful? or, what benefit hath the Church of Christ, if there be in us sufficiency without endeavour or care to do that good which our place exacteth? Touching the pains and industry, there- fore, wherewith men are in conscience bound to attend the work of their heavenly calling, even as much as in them lieth bending thereunto their whole endeavour, without either fraud, sophistication, or guile ; I see not what more effectual obligation or bond of duty there should be urged, than their own only vow and promise made unto God him- self at the time of their Ordination. The work which they have undertaken requireth both care and fear. Their sloth, that negligently perform it, maketh them subject to male- diction. Besides, we also know that the fruit of our pains in this function, is life both to ourselves and others. And do we yet need incitements to labour ? Shall we stop our ears both against those conjuring exhortations which Apostles, and against the fearful comminations which Pro- phets, have uttered out of the mouth of God, the one for prevention, the other for reformation, of our sluggishness in this behalf? St. Paul, "Attend to yourselves and to all the flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made you over
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seers, to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood." Again, " I charge thee before God, *vT;m- and the Lord Jesus Christ, which shall judge the quick and the dead at his coming, preach the Word ; be instant." Jere- miah, " Wo unto the Pastors that destroy and scatter the ,5l i. sheep of my pasture ; I will visit you for the wickedness of your works, saith the Lord ; the remnant of my sheep I will gather together out of all countries, and will bring them again to their folds ; they shall grow and increase, and I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them." Ezekiel, " Should not the shepherds, should they not, feed the flocks? xZiv.? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe yourselves with the wool, but the weak ye have not strengthened, the sick ye have not cured, neither have ye bound up the broken, nor brought home again that which was driven away ; ye have not in- quired after that which was lost, but with cruelty and rigour have ruled." And verse 8 — 10. " Wherefore, as I live, I will require my sheep at their hands," &c. Nor let us think to excuse ourselves, if haply we labour, though it be at random, and sit not altogether idle abroad. For we are bound to attend that part of the flock of Christ, whereof the Holy Ghost hath made us overseers. The residence of Ministers upon their own peculiar charge is by so much the rather necessary, for that absenting them- selves from the place where they ought to labour, they neither can do the good which is looked for at their hands, nor reap the comfort which sweeteneth life to them that spend it in these travels upon their own. For it is in this, as in all things else which are through private interest dearer than what concerneth either others wholly, or us but in part, and according to the rate of a general regard. As for Plurality, it hath not only the same inconveniences which are observed to grow by absence ; but over and be- sides, at the least in common construction, a show of that worldly humour which men do think should not reign so high. Now from hence their collections are, as followeth : first, a repugnancy or contradiction between the principles of common right, and that which our Laws in special con- siderations have allowed ; secondly, a nullity or frustration of all such acts as are by them supposed opposite to those principles, an invalidity in all Ordinations of men unable to preach, and in all Dispensations which mitigate the Law
126 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
of common right for the other two. And why so 1 Forsooth, Abstract, because whatever we do in these three cases, and not p m- by virtue of common right, we must yield it of necessity done by warrant of peculiar right or privilege. Now a privilege is said to be that, that for favour of certain persons cometh forth against common right ; things pro- hibited are dispensed with, because things permitted are dispatched by common right, but things forbidden re- quire dispensations. By which descriptions of a pri- vilege and dispensation it is (they say) apparent, that a privilege must license and authorize the same which the Law against ignorance, nonresidence, and plurality doth infringe ; and so be a Law contrariant or repug- nant to the Law of Nature, and the Law of God, because all the reasons whereupon the positive Law of Man against these three was first established, are taken and drawn from the Law of Nature, and the Law of God. For answer here- unto, we will but lead them to answer themselves. First, therefore, if they will grant (as they must) that all direct oppositions of speech require one and the self-same subject to be meant on both parts where opposition is pretended, it will follow that either the maxims of common right do enforce the very same things not to be good which we say are good, grounding ourselves on the reasons by virtue whereof our privileges are established ; or, if the one do not reach unto that particular subject for which the other have provided, then there is no contradiction between them. In all contradictions, if the one part be true, the other eter- nally must be false. And therefore, if the principles of common right do at any time truly enforce that particular not to be good which privileges make good, it argueth in- vincibly that such privileges have been grounded upon some error. But to say, that every privilege is opposite unto the principles of common right, because it dispenseth with that which common right doth prohibit, hath gross absurdity. For the voice of equity and justice is, that a general Law doth never derogate from a special privilege ; whereas, if the one were contrary to the other, a general Law being in force should always dissolve a privilege. The rea- son why many are deceived by imagining that so it should do, and why men of better insight conclude directly it should not, doth rest in the subject or matter itself; which matter,
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indefinitely considered in Laws of common right, is in pri- vileges considered as beset and limited with special cir- cumstances; by means whereof, to them which respect it but by way of generality, it seemeth one and the same in both, although it be not the same, if once we descend to par- ticular consideration thereof. Precepts do always propose perfection, not such as none can attain unto, for then in vain should we ask or require it at the hands of men, but such perfection as all men must aim at; to the end that as largely as human providence and care can extend it, it may take place. Moral Laws are the Rules of Politic ; those Politic, which are made to order the whole Church of God, rules unto all particular Churches; and the Laws of every particular Church, Rules unto every particular man within the body of the same Church. Now, because the higher we ascend in these Rules, the further still we remove from those specialties, which, being proper to the subject where- upon our actions must work, are therefore chiefly consi- dered by us, by them least thought upon that wade alto- gether in the two first kinds of general directions, their judgment cannot be exact and sound concerning either Laws of Churches, or actions of men in particular, because they determine of effects by a part of the causes only out of which they grow ; they judge conclusions by demi-pre- mises and half-principles; they lay them in the balance stripped from those necessary material circumstances which should give them weight; and by show of falling uneven with the scale of most universal and abstracted Rules, they pronounce that too light which is not, if they had the skill to weigh it. This is the reason why men altogether conversant in study do know how to teach, but not how to govern ; men experienced contrariwise govern well, yet know not which way to set down orderly the pre- cepts and reasons of that they do. He that will therefore judge rightly of things done, must join with his forms and conceits of general speculation the matter wherein our actions are conversant. For by this shall appear what equity there is in those privileges and peculiar grants or favours which otherwise will seem repugnant to justice; and because in themselves considered they have a show of repugnancy, this deceiveth those great Clerks, which hear- ing a privilege defined to be " an especial right brought in
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by their power and authority that make it for some public benefit against the general course of reason,"* are not able to comprehend how the word against doth import excep- tion without any opposition at all. For, inasmuch as the hand of justice must distribute to every particular what is due, and judge what is due with respect had no less of particular circumstances, than of general rules and axioms; it cannot fit all sorts with one measure, the wills, counsels, qualities, and states, of men being divers. For example, the Law of common right bindeth all men to keep their promises, perform their compacts, and answer the faith they have given either for themselves or others. Notwith- standing, he which bargaineth with one under years can have no benefit by this allegation, because he bringeth it against a person which is exempt from the common Rule. Shall we then conclude, that thus to exempt certain men from the Law of common right is against God, against Nature, against whatsoever may avail to strengthen and justify that Law before alleged; or else acknowledge (as the truth is) that special causes are to be ordered by special Rules; that if men grown unto ripe age disadvantage them- selves by bargaining, yet what they have wittingly done is strong and in force against them, because they are able to dispose and manage their own affairs ; whereas youth, for lack of experience and judgment, being easily subject to circumvention, is therefore justly exempt from the Law of common right whereunto the rest are justly subject ? This plain inequality between men of years and under years, is a cause why equity and justice cannot apply equally the same general rule to both, but ordereth the one by common right, and granteth to the other a special privilege. Pri- vileges are either transitory or permanent: transitory, such as serve only some one turn, or at the most extend no further than to this or that man,f with the end of whose natural life they expire ; permanent, such as the use whereof doth continue still, for that they belong unto cer- tain kinds of men and causes which never die. Of this nature are all immunities and pre-eminences, which for just considerations one sort of men enjoyeth above an-
* ' Jus singulare est, quod contra tenorem rationis propter aliquam utilitatem auctoritate constituentium introductum est.' Paulus ff. de Legib.
t ' Privilegium personale cum persona exstinguitur, et privilegium datum actioni transit cum actione.' Op. de Regulis, p. 1. '.227.
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other both in the Church and Commonwealth, no man sus- pecting them of contrariety to any branch of those Laws or reasons whereupon the general right is grounded. Now there being general Laws and Rules whereby it cannot be denied but the Church of God standeth bound to provide that the Ministry may be learned, that they which have charge may reside upon it, and that it may not be free for them in scandalous manner to multiply Ecclesiastical Livings ; it remaineth in the next place to be examined, what the Laws of the Church of England do admit, which may be thought repugnant to any thing hitherto alleged and in what special consideration they seem to admit the same. Considering, therefore, that to furnish all places of cure in this Realm, it is not an army of twelve thousand learned men that would suffice, nor two Universities that can always furnish as many as decay in so great a number, nor a fourth part of the Livings with cure, that when they fall are able to yield sufficient maintenance for learned men, is it not plain that unless the greatest part of the people should be left utterly without the public use and exercise of Religion, there is no remedy but to take into the Ecclesiastical Order a number of men meanly qualified in respect of learning ? For whatsoever we may imagine in our private closets, or talk for communication's sake at our boards, yea, or write in our books through a notional conceit of things needful for performance of each man's duty, if once we come from the theory of learning, to take out so many learned men, let them be diligently viewed out of whom the choice shall be made, and thereby an esti- mate made what degree of skill we must either admit, else leave numbers utterly destitute of guides, and I dou not but that men endued with sense of common equity will soon discern, that, besides eminent and competent know- ledge, we are to descend to a lower step, receiving know- ledge in that degree which is but tolerable. When we commend any man for learning, our speech importeth him to be more than meanly qualified that way; but when Laws do require learning as a quality which maketh ca- pable of any function, our measure to judge a learned man by must be some certain degree of learning, beneath which we can hold no man so qualified. And if every man that listeth may set that degree himself, how shall we ever
VOL. II. k
130 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
know when Laws are broken, when kept, seemv; one man may think a lower degree sufficient, another may judge them insufficient that are not qualified in some higher de- gree. Wherefore of necessity either we must have some judge, in whose conscience they that are thought and pro- nounced sufficient, are to be so accepted and taken, or else the Law itselfis to set down the very lowest degree of fitness that shall be allowable in this kind. So that the question doth grow to this issue. St. Paul requireth learning in Presbyters, yea, such learning as doth enable them to ex- hort in doctrine which is sound, and to disprove them that gainsay it. What measure of ability in such things shall serve to make men capable of that kind of office, he doth not himself precisely determine, but referreth it to the con- • 9- science of Titus, and others which had to deal in ordering Presbyters. We must therefore of necessity make this demand, whether the Church, lacking such as the Apostle would have chosen, may with good conscience take out of such as it hath in a meaner degree of fitness, them that may serve to perform the Service of public Prayer, to minister the Sacraments unto the people, to solemnize Mar- riage, to visit the sick, and bury the dead, to instruct by reading, although by preaching they be not as yet so able to benefit and feed Christ's flock. We constantly hold, that in this case the Apostles' Law is not broken. He requireth more in Presbyters than there is found in many whom the Church of England alloweth. But no man being tied unto impossibilities, to do that we cannot we are not bound. It is but a stratagem of theirs, therefore, and a very indirect practice, when they publish large declamations to prove that learning is required in the Ministry, and to make the silly people believe that the contrary is maintained by the Bishops, and upheld by the Laws of the land; whereas the question in truth is not, whether learning be required, but whether a Church, wherein there is not sufficient store of learned men to furnish all congregations, should do better to let thousands of souls grow savage, to let them live with- out any public Service of God, to let their children die unbaptized, to withhold the benefit of the other Sacrament from them, to let them depart this world like Pagans, with- out any thing so much as read unto them concerning the way of life, than, as it doth in this necessity, to make such
BOOK V. 131
Presbyters as are so far forth sufficient, although they want that ability of preaching which some others have. In this point therefore we obey necessity, and of two evils we take the less ; in the rest a public utility is sought, and in re- gard thereof some certain inconveniences tolerated, be- cause they are recompensed with greater good. The Law giveth liberty of nonresidence for a time to such as will live in Universities, if they faithfully there labour to grow in knowledge, that so they may afterwards the more edify and the better instruct their congregations. The Church in their absence is not destitute, the people's salvation not neglected for the present time, the time of their absence is in the intendment of Law bestowed to the Church's great advantage and benefit ; those necessary helps are procured by it, which turn by many degrees more to the people's comfort in time to come, than if their Pastors had continu- ally abidden with them. So that the Law doth hereby pro- vide in some part to remedy and help that evil, which the former necessity hath imposed upon the Church. For, compare two men of equal meanness, the one perpetually resident, the other absent for a space in such sort as the Law permitteth. Allot unto both some nine years' con- tinuance with cure of souls. And must not three years' absence, in all probability and likelihood, make the one more profitable than the other unto God's Church, by so much as the increase of his knowledge, gotten in those three years, may add unto six years' travel following? For the greater ability there is added to the instrument, wherewith it pleaseth God to save souls, the more facility and expedition it hath to work that which is otherwise hardlier effected. As much may be said touching absence granted to them that attend in the families of Bishops; which schools of gravity, discretion, and wisdom, prepar- ing men against the time that they come to reside abroad, are, in my poor opinion, even the fittest places that any inge- nuous mind can wish to enter into, between departure from private study, and access to a more public charge of souls; yea, no less expedient for men of the best sufficiency and most maturity in knowledge, than the Universities them- selves are, for the ripening of such as be raw. Employment in the families of Noblemen, or in Princes' Courts, hath another end for which the self-same leave is given, not k2
/
132 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
without great respect to the good of the whole Church. For assuredly, whosoever doth well observe how much all inferior things depend upon the orderly courses and mo- tions of those great orbs, will hardly judge it either meet or good, that the Angels assisting them should be driven to betake themselves to other stations, although by nature they were not tied where they nowr are, but had charge also elsewhere, as long as their absence from beneath might but tolerably be supplied, and by descending their rooms above should become vacant. For we are not to dream in this case of any platform which bringeth equally high and low unto Parish Churches, nor of any constraint to main- tain at their own charge men sufficient for that purpose ; the one so repugnant to the majesty and greatness of English Nobility ; the other so improbable and unlikely to take effect, that they which mention either of both, seem not indeed to have conceived what either is. But the eye of the Law is the eye of God ; it looketh into the hearts and secret dispositions of men, it beholdeth how far one star differeth from another in glory, and, as men's several degrees require, accordingly it guideth them; granting unto principal personages privileges correspondent to their high estates, and that not only in civil but even in spiritual af- fairs, to the end they may love that Religion the more,which no way seeketh to make them vulgar, no way diminishes their dignity and greatness, but to do them good doth them honour also, and by such extraordinary favours teacheth them to be in the Church of God, the same which the Church of God esteemeth them, more worth than thousands. It appeareth therefore in what respect the Laws of this Realm have given liberty of nonresidence to some, that their know- ledge may be increased, and their labours by that mean be made afterwards the more profitable to others, lest the houses of great men should want that daily exercise of Religion, wherein their example availeth as much, yea many times peradventure more than the Laws themselves with the common sort. A third thing respected both in permitting absence, and also in granting to some that liberty of addition or plurality, which necessarily enforceth their absence, i a mere both just and conscionable regard, that as men are in quality, and as their services are in weight for the public good, so likewise their rewards and encourage-
BOOK V. 133
merits, by special privilege of Law, might somewhat declare how the State itself doth accept their pains, much abhor- ring from their bestial and savage rudeness, which think that oxen should only labour, and asses feed. Thus to Readers in Universities, whose very paper and book-ex- penses their ancient allowances and stipends at this day do either not, or hardly, sustain ; to Governors of Colleges, lest the great overplus of charges necessarily enforced upon them, by reason of their place, and very slenderly supplied, by means of that charge in the present condition of things which their Founders could not foresee ; to men called away from their cures, and employed in weightier business either of the Church or Commonwealth, because to impose upon them a burden which requireth their ab- sence, and not to release them from the duty of residence, were a kind of cruel and barbarous injustice ; to Residents in Cathedral Churches, or upon Dignities Ecclesiastical, forasmuch as these being rooms of greater hospitality, places of more respect and consequence than the rest, they arc the rather to be furnished with men of best quality, and the men for their quality's sake to be favoured above others — I say unto all these, in regard of their worth and merit, the Law hath therefore given leave, while themselves bear weightier burdens, to supply inferior by deputation, and in like consideration partly, partly also by way of honour to learning, nobility, and authority, permitteth, that men which have taken theological degrees in schools, the Suf- fragans of Bishops, the household Chaplains of men of honour or in great offices, the brethren and sons of Lords temporal, or of Knights, if God shall move the hearts of such to enter at any time into Holy Orders, may obtain to themselves a faculty or licence to hold two Ecclesiastical Livings though having cure ; any spiritual person of the Queen's Council, three such Livings; her Chaplains, what number of promotions herself in her own princely wisdom thinketh good to bestow upon them. But, as it fareth in such cases, the gap which for just considerations we open unto some, letteth in others through corrupt practices, to whom such favours were neither meant nor should be communicated. The greatness of the harvest, and the scarcity of able workmen, hath made it necessary that Law should yield to admit numbers of men but slenderly
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and meanly qualified. Hereupon, because whom all other worldly hopes have forsaken, they commonly reserve minis- terial vocation as their last and surest refuge ever open to forlorn men; the Church, that should nourish them whose service she needeth, hath obtruded upon her their service that know not otherwise how to live and sustain themselves. These finding nothing more easy than means to procure the writing of a few lines to some one or other which hath authority, and nothing more usual than too much faci- lity in condescending unto such requests, are often re- ceived into that vocation, whereunto their unworthiness is no small disgrace. Did any thing more aggravate the crime of Jeroboam's profane apostacy, than that he chose to have his Clergy the scum and refuse of his whole land ? Let no man spare to tell it them, that they are not faithful towards God that burden wilfully his Church with such swarms of unworthy creatures. I will not say of all degrees in the Mi- chry- nistry, that which St. Chrysostom doth of the highest, " He sacerd. that will undertake so weighty a charge, had need to be a c.tf'rt, man of great understanding, rarely assisted with divine grace, for integrity of manners, purity of life, and for all other virtues, to have in him more than a man:" but surely this I will say with Chrysostom, "We need not doubt whether God be highly displeased with us, or what the cause of his anger is, if things of so great fear and holiness as are the least and lowest duties of his service, be thrown wilfully on them whose not only mean, but bad and scandalous, quality doth defile whatsoever they handle." These eyesores and ble- mishes in continual attendance about the service of God's Sanctuary, do make them every day fewer that willingly resort unto it, till at length all affection and zeal towards God be extinct in them, through a wearisome contempt of their persons, which for a time only live by Religion, and are for recompence, in fine, the death of the nurse that feedeth them. It is not obscure, how incommodious the Church hath found both this abuse of the liberty which Law is enforced to grant; and not only this, but the like abuse of that favour also which Law, in other considera- tions already mentioned, afibrdeth touching Residence and Plurality of Spiritual Livings. Now that which is prac- tised corruptly to the detriment and hurt of the Church against the purpose of those very Laws which notwith-
BOOK V. 135
standing are pretended in defence and justification thereof, we must needs acknowledge no less repugnant to the grounds and principles of common right, than the fraudu- lent proceedings of tyrants to the principles of just sove- reignty. Howbeit, not so those special privileges which are but instruments wrested and forced to serve malice. There is in the Patriarch of Heathen Philosophers this pre- cept, " Let no husbandman, nor no handicraftsman, be a Priest."* The reason whereupon he groundeth is a maxim in the Law of Nature ; " it importeth greatly the good of all men that God be reverenced," with whose honour it standeth not that they which are publickly employed in his service should live of base and manuary trades. Now compare herewith the Apostle's words, " Ye know that these hands Acts have ministered to my necessities, and to them that are with i cor.' me." What think we? Did the Apostle any thing oppo- Z'Sess. site herein, or repugnant, to the rules and maxims of the "^^ Law of Nature ? The self-same reasons, that accord his m. e. actions with the Law of Nature, shall declare our privi- leges and his Laws no less consonant. Thus, therefore, we see, that although they urge very colourably the Apo- stle's own sentences, requiring that a Minister should be able to divide rightly the Word of God, that they who are placed in charge should attend unto it themselves, which in absence they cannot do, and that they which have divers cures, must of necessity be absent from some, whereby the Law Apostolic seemeth apparently broken, which Law requiring attendance cannot otherwise be understood than so as to charge them with perpetual residence : again, though in every of these causes they indefinitely heap up the Sentences of Fathers, the Decrees of Popes, the ancient Edicts of imperial authority, our own national Laws and Or- dinances prohibiting the same, and grounding evermore their prohibitions partly on the Laws of God, and partly on rea- sons drawn from the light of Nature, yet hereby to gather and infer contradiction between those Laws which forbid indefinitely, and ours which in certain cases have allowed the ordaining of sundry Ministers whose sufficiency for learning is but mean ; again, the licensing of some to be absent from their flocks, and of others to hold more than
* Outs yaugyh outs. Bavaufov Upia. x.a.'ra.vra.tior vita yip rSiv noXtruv TT^ewEl T^asr&ai tsuj &£oi3f, Aribt. Polit. l.vii. c. 9.
136 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
one only Living which hath cure of souls ; I say, to con- clude repugnancy between these especial permissions and the former general prohibitions which set not down their own limits, is erroneous, and the manifest cause thereof ignorance in differences of matter which both sorts of Law concern. If then the considerations be reasonable, just, and good, whereupon we ground whatsoever our Laws have by special right permitted, if only the effects of abused privileges be repugnant to the maxims of common right, this main foundation of repugnancy being broken, whatso- ever they have built thereupon falleth necessarily to the ground. Whereas, therefore, upon surmise or vain sup- posal of opposition between our special and the principles of common right, they gather that such as are with us or- dained Ministers before they can preach, be neither lawful, because the Laws already mentioned forbid generally to create such, neither are they indeed Ministers, although we commonly so name them, but whatsoever they execute by virtue of such their pretended vocation is void ; that all our grants and tolerations as well of this as the rest, are frustrate and of no effect ; the persons that enjoy them possess them wrongfully, and are deprivable at all hours ; finally, that other just and sufficient remedy of evils there can be none, besides the utter abrogation of these our mitiga- tions, and the strict establishment of former Ordinances to be absolutely executed whatsoever follow : albeit the an- swer already made in discovery of the weak and unsound foundation whereupon they have built these erroneous collections, may be thought sufficient; yet because our desire is rather to satisfy, if it be possible, than to shake them off, we are with very good will contented to declare the causes of all particulars more formally and largely than the equity of our own defence doth require.
There is crept into the minds of men, at this day, a secret pernicious and pestilent conceit, that the greatest perfec- tion of a Christian man doth consist in discovery of other men's faults, and in wit to discourse of our own profession. When the world most abounded with just, righteous, and perfect men, their chiefest study was the exercise of piety, wherein for their safest direction they reverently hearken- ed to the readings of the Law of God, they kept in mind the oracles and aphorisms of wisdom which tended unto
BOOK v. 137
virtuous life ; if any scruple of conscience did trouble them for matter of actions which they took in hand, nothing was attempted before counsel and advice were had, for fear lest rashly they might offend. We are now more confident, not that our knowledge and judgment is riper, but because our desires are another way. Their scope was obedience, ours is skill ; their endeavour was reformation of life, our virtue nothing but to hear gladly the reproof of vice ;* they in the practice of their Religion wearied chiefly their knees and hands, we especially our ears and tongues. We are grown as in many things else, so in this, to a kind of intemperancy, which (only Sermons excepted) hath almost brought all other duties of Religion out of taste. At the least they are not in that account and reputation which they should be. Now, because men bring all Religion in a manner to the only office of hearing Sermons, if it chance that they who are thus conceited do embrace any special opinion different from other men, the Sermons that relish not that opinion can in no wise please their appetite. Such, therefore, as preach unto them, but hit not the string they look for, are respected as unprofit- able, the rest as unlawful ; and indeed no Ministers, if the faculty of Sermons want. For why ? A Minister of the Word should, they say, be able rightly to divide the Word. Which Apostolic Canon many think they do well observe, when in opening the sentences of Holy Scripture they draw all things favourably spoken unto one side; but whatsoever is reprehensive, severe, and sharp, they have others on ;the contrary part whom that must always con- cern ; by which their over-partial and unindifferent pro- ceeding, while they thus labour amongst the people to di- vide the Word, they make the Word a mean to divide and distract the people. " 'OpS-oro/ieti/, to divide aright," doth note in the Apostles' writings soundness of doctrine only ; and in meaning standeth opposite to " Kaivorofinv, the broaching of new opinions against that which is received." For questionless the first things delivered to the Church of Christ were pure and sincere truth; which whosoever
• 'AXX' oi woXXoi raZta (Atv oh irparTovTiv, itm Se tov Xoyov xaTtt<J>£uyovT£f ciWai <f>iXo- trotyiiv, xai out*); laia-Qai aitovtaioi- 'o'fxiioi ti "EtoiouVtej to"? xa/xvovs-iv, of t5v lanr^Zv axov- cua-i ph iirtfJ.t'hSx;, noiouo-i Se ovBiv rSsv npoa-Ta.Trofjt.ivoM. uHnrtg out ovSb Ixeivoi eu ifyviri to a-Zfjia outoj Stpa'/izvofAivoi, ou5e outoi tsv -Xtip^^v o:Jth 4>iXwo<j!Si;vTe:. Arist. Eth. lib. ii. cap. 3.
138 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
did afterward oppugn, could not choose but divide the Church into two moieties: in which division, such as taught what was first believed, held the truer part; the contrary side, in that they were teachers of novelty, erred. For prevention of which evil, there are in this Church many singular and well-devised remedies ; as namely, the use of subscribing to the Articles of Religion before admission to degrees of learning, or to any Ecclesiastical Living ; the custom of reading the same Articles, and of approving them in public assemblies, wheresoever men have Benefices with cure of souls ; the order of testifying under their hands al- lowance of the Book of Common Prayer, and the Book of Ordaining Ministers ; finally, the discipline and moderate severity which is used, either in otherwise correcting or silencing them that trouble and disturb the Church with doctrines which tend unto innovation; it being better that the Church should want altogether the benefit of such men's labours, than endure the mischief of their inconformity to good Laws ; in which case, if any repine at the course and proceedings of justice, they must learn to content themselves vaier. with the answer of M. Curius, which had sometime occa- c. 3.'' sion to cut off one from the body of the Commonwealth ; in whose behalf because it might have been pleaded that the party was a man serviceable, he therefore began his judicial sentence with this preamble, " Non esse opus Reip. eo cive, qui parere nesciret : The Commonwealth needeth men of quality, yet never those men which have not learned how to obey." But the ways which the Church of Eng- land hath taken to provide, that they who are Teachers of others may do it soundly, that the purity and unity as well of ancient Discipline as Doctrine may be upheld, that avoiding singularities we may all glorify God with one heart and one tongue, they of all men do least approve that do most urge the Apostles' Rule and Canon. For which cause they allege it not so much to that pur- pose, as to prove that unpreaching Ministers (for so they term them) can have no true nor lawful calling in the Church of God. St. Augustine hath said of the will of man, that " simply to will proceedeth from Nature, but our well- willing is from Grace." We say as much of the Minister of God, " publickly to teach and instruct the Church is ne- cessary in every Ecclesiastical Minister, but ability to
BOOK V. 139
teach by Sermons is a grace which God doth bestow on them whom he maketh sufficient for the commendable dis- charge of their duty." That, therefore, wherein a Minister ox.Ma* differeth from other Christian men is not, as some have P" childishly imagined, the " sound preaching of the Word of God ;" but, as they are lawfully and truly Governors to whom authority of Regiment is given in the Commonwealth according to the Order which Polity hath set, so Canonical Ordination in the Church of Christ is that which maketh a lawful Minister " as touching the validity of any act which appertained to that vocation." The cause why St. Paul willed Timothy not to be over hasty in ordaining Minis- ters, was (as we very well may conjecture) because Impo- sition of Hands doth consecrate and make them Ministers, whether they have gifts and qualities fit for the laudable discharge of their duties or not. If want of learning and skill to preach did frustrate their vocation, Ministers or- dained before they be grown unto that maturity should re- ceive new Ordination whensoever it chanceth that study and industry doth make them afterwards more able to per- form the office; than which what conceit can be more ab- surd ? Was not St. Augustine himself contented to admit an assistant in his own Church, a man of small erudition ; considering, that what he wanted in knowledge was sup- plied by those virtues which made his life a better orator than more learning could make others whose conversation was less holy ? Were the Priests sithence Moses all able and sufficient men, learnedly to interpret the Law of God ? Or was it ever imagined that this defect should frustrate what they executed, and deprive them of right unto any thing they claimed by virtue of their Priesthood ? Surely, as in Magistrates the want of those gifts which their office needeth is cause of just imputation of blame in them that wittingly choose insufficient and unfit men when they might do otherwise, and yet therefore is not their choice void, nor every action of magistracy frustrate in that res- pect ; so whether it were of necessity, or even of very care- lessness, that men unable to preach should be taken in Pastors' rooms, nevertheless it seemeth to be an error in them which think the lack of any such perfection defeatcth utterly the calling. To wish that all men were qualified as their places and dignities require, to hate all sinister
140 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
and corrupt dealings which hereunto are any let, to covet speedy redress of those things whatsoever whereby the Church sustaineth detriment, these good and virtuous de- sires cannot offend any but ungodly minds. Notwithstand- ing, some in the true vehemency, and others under the fair pretence, of these desires, have adventured that which is TheAu- strange, that which is violent and unjust. There are which, theAb- in confidence of their general allegation concerning the stracf. knowie(jge) the residence, and the single Livings of Minis- ters, presume not only to annihilate the solemn Ordinations of such as the Church must of force admit, but also to urge a kind of universal proscription against them, to set down articles, to draw commissions, and almost to name themselves of the Quorum, for inquiry into men's estates and dealings, whom at their pleasure they would deprive and make obnoxious to what punishment themselves list ; and that not for any violation of Laws either Spiritual or Civil, but because men have trusted the Laws too far, because they have held and enjoyed the liberty which Law granteth, because they had not the wit to conceive as these men do, that Laws were made to entrap the simple, by per- mitting those things in show and appearance, which in- deed should never take effect, forasmuch as they were but granted with a secret condition to be put in practice ' if they should be profitable and agreeable with the Word of God ;' which condition failing in all Ministers that cannot preach, in all that are absent from their Livings, and in all that have divers Livings (for so it must be presumed, though never as yet proved), therefore, as men which have broken the Law of God and Nature, they are depri- vable at all hours. Is this the justice of that Discipline whereunto all Christian Churches must stoop and submit themselves 1 Is this the equity wherewith they labour to reform the world ? I will no way diminish the force of those arguments whereupon they ground : but if it please them to behold the visage of these collections in another glass, there are Civil as well as Ecclesiastical insuffi- ciencies, nonresidences, and pluralities ; yea, the reasons which light of Nature hath ministered against both are of such affinity, that much less they cannot enforce in the one than in the other. When they that bear great offices be persons of mean worth, the contempt whereinto their au-
BOOK V. 141
thority groweth vveakcneth the sinews of the whole State.* Notwithstanding, where many Governors are needful, and they not many whom their quality can commend, the pe- nury of worthier must needs make the meaner sort of men capable.f Cities, in the absence of their Governors, are as ships wanting pilots at sea : but were it therefore justice to punish whom superior authority pleaseth to call from home,;}; or alloweth to be employed elsewhere ? In com- mitting many offices to one man§ there are apparently these inconveniences : the Commonwealth doth lose the be- nefit of serviceable men, which might be trained up in those rooms ; it is not easy for one man to discharge many men's duties well ; in service of warfare and navigation, were it not the overthrow of whatsoever is undertaken, if one or two should engross such offices, as, being now divided into many hands, are discharged with admirable both perfec- tion and expedition? Nevertheless, be it far from the mind of any reasonable man to imagine, that in these con- siderations Princes either ought of duty to revoke all such kind of grants, though made with very special respect to the extraordinary merit of certain men, or might in honour demand of them the resignation of their offices with speech to this or the like effect: " Forasmuch as you A. B. by the space of many years have done us that faithful service in most important affairs, for which we, always judging you worthy of much honour, have therefore committed unto you from time to time very great and weighty offices, which hitherto you quietly enjoy ; we are now given to under- stand, that certain grave and learned men have found, in the books of ancient Philosophers, divers arguments drawn from the common light of Nature, and declaring the won- derful discommodities which use to grow by dignities thus heaped together in one : for which cause, at this present, moved in conscience and tender care for the public good,
* MsyaXouv KvflOl xa&so-TwTEf iv euteXei? <b<tj piyaXa. (SXawrowi. AristOt. Polit. ii. cap. 11.
t ' Nee ignoro maximos honores ad parum dignos penuria meliorum solere deferri.' Mamertin. paneg. ad Julian.
J ' Neque enim sequum visum est absentem Reipub. causa inter reos referri, dum Reipub. operator.' Ulpian. [Digest. I. xlviii. tit. v. leg. 15.] Si maritus ad legem Julian, de adulter.
§ Arist. Polit. lib. ii. cap. 11. Seethe like preamble framed by the Author of the Abstract, where he fancieth a Bishop deposing one unapt to preach, whom him- self had before ordained.
142 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
we have summoned you hither to dispossess you of those places, and to depose you from those rooms, whereof in- deed by virtue of our own grant, yet against reason, you are possessed. Neither ought you, or any other, to think us rash, light, or inconstant, in so doing ; for we tell you plain, that herein we will both say and do that thing which the noble and wise Emperor sometime both said and did in a matter of far less weight than this : ' Quod inconsulto fecimus, consulto revocamus: That which we unadvis- edly have done, we advisedly will revoke and undo'." Now, for mine own part, the greatest harm I would wish them who think that this were consonant with equity and right, is, that they might but live where all things are with such kind of justice ordered till experience have taught them to see their error. As for the last thing which is incident unto the cause whereof we speak, namely, what course were the best and safest whereby to remedy such evils as the Church of God may sustain, where the present li- berty of the Law is turned to great abuse, some light we may receive from abroad, not unprofitable for direction of God's own sacred house and family. The Romans being a people full of generosity, and by nature courteous, did no way more shew their gentle disposition, than by easy condescending to set their bondmen at liberty. Which benefit, in the happier and better times of the Common- wealth, was bestowed for the most part as an ordinary reward of virtue, some few now and then also purchasing freedom with that which their just labours could gain, and their honest frugality save. But as the empire daily grew up, so the manners and conditions of men decayed, wealth was honoured, and virtue not cared for ; neither did any thing seem opprobrious, out of which there might arise commodity and profit, so that it could be no marvel in a State thus far degenerated, if when the more ingenuous sort were become base, the baser, laying aside all shame and face of honesty, did some by robberies, burglaries, and prostitution of their bodies, gather wherewith to re- deem liberty ; others obtain the same at the hands of their lords, by serving them as vile instruments in those attempts, which had been worthy to be revenged with ten thousand deaths. A learned, judicious, and polite Historian, having mentioned so foul disorders, giveth his
BOOK V.
143
judgment and censure of them in this sort: "Such eye- Dionys. sores in the Commonwealth have occasioned many vir- Rom'"' tuous minds to condemn altogether the custom of granting j£*j£ liberty to any bondslave, forasmuch as it seemed a thing [<=• «*•] absurd, that a people which commands all the world, should consist of so vile refuse. But neither is this the only custom wherein the profitable inventions of former are depraved by latter ages ; and for myself I am not of their opinion that wish the abrogation of so grossly used customs, which abrogation might peradventure be cause of greater inconveniences ensuing : but as much as may be, I would rather advise that redress were sought through the careful providence of chief rulers and overseers of the Commonwealth, by whom a yearly survey being made of all that are manumised, they which seem worthy might be taken and divided into tribes with other citizens, the rest dispersed into colonies abroad, or otherwise disposed of, that the Commonwealth might sustain neither harm nor disgrace by them." The ways to meet with disorders growing by abuse of Laws are not so intricate and secret, especially in our case, that men should need either much advertisement or long time for the search thereof. And if counsel to that purpose may seem needful, this Church (God be thanked) is not destitute of men endued with ripe judgment, whensoever any such thing shall be thought ne- cessary. For which end, at this present, to propose any special inventions of my own, might argue in a man of my place and calling more presumption perhaps than wit. I will therefore leave it entire unto graver consideration, ending now with request only and most earnest suit: first, that they which give Ordination would, as they tender the very honour of Jesus Christ, the safety of men, and the endless good of their own souls, take heed lest unnecessa- rily, and through their default, the Church be found worse or less furnished than it might be : secondly, that they which by right of patronage have power to present unto Spiritual Livings, and may in that respect much damnify the Church of God, would, for the ease of their own ac- count in the dreadful day, somewhat consider what it is to betray for gain the souls which Christ hath redeemed with blood, what to violate the sacred bond of fidelity and solemn promise given at the first to God and his Church
144 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
by them, from whose original interest, together with the self-same title of right, the same obligation of duty likewise is descended : thirdly, that they unto whom the granting of Dispensations is committed, or which otherwise have any stroke in the disposition of such Preferments as apper- tain unto learned men, would bethink themselves what it is to respect any thing either above or beside merit ; con- sidering, how hardly the world taketh it, when to men of commendable note and quality there is so little respect had, or so great unlo them whose deserts are very mean, that nothing doth seem more strange than the one sort because they are not accounted of, and the other because they are ; it being every man's hope and expectation in the Church of God especially, that the only purchase of greater rewards should be always greater deserts, and that nothing should ever be able to plant a thorn where a vine ought to grow : fourthly, that honourable personages, and they who by virtue of any principal office in the Common- wealth are enabled to qualify a certain number, and make them capable of favours or faculties above others, suffer not their names to be abused, contrary to the true intent and meaning of wholesome Laws, by men in whom there is nothing notable besides covetousness and ambition : fifthly, that the graver and wiser sort in both Universities, or whosoever they be, with whose approbation the marks and recognizances of all learning are bestowed, would think the Apostle's caution against unadvised Ordinations not impertinent or unnecessary to be borne in mind, even when they grant those degrees of schools, which degrees are not gratice gratis data, kindnesses bestowed by way of humanity, but they are gratia gratumfacientes, favours which always imply a testimony given to the Church and Commonwealth concerning men's sufficiency for manners and knowledge ; a testimony upon the credit whereof sundry Statutes of the Realm are built ; a testimony so far available, that nothing is more respected for the warrant of divers men's abilities to serve in the affairs of the Realm ; a testimony wherein if they violate that Religion where- with it ought to be always given, and do thereby induce into error such as deem it a thing uncivil to call the credit thereof in question, let them look that God shall return back upon their heads, and cause them in the state of their
BOOK V. 145
own corporations to feel either one way or the other the punishment of those harms which the Church through their negligence doth sustain in that behalf: finally, and to conclude, that they who enjoy the benefit of any special indulgence or favour which the Laws permit, would as well remember what in duty towards the Church, and in conscience towards God, they ought to do, as what they may do by using to their own advantage whatsoever they see tolerated ; no man being ignorant, that the cause why absence in some cases hath been yielded unto and in equity thought sufferable, is the hope of greater fruit through industry elsewhere; the reason likewise wherefore Pluralities are allowed unto men of note, a very sovereign and special care, that as Fathers in the ancient world did declare the pre-eminence of priority in birth by doubling the worldly portions of their first-born, so the Church by a course not unlike in assigning men's rewards might testify an estimation had proportionably of their virtues, according to the ancient Rule Apostolic, "They which excel in labour, ought to excel in honour ;" and, therefore, unless they answer faithfully the expectation of the Church herein, unless sincerely they bend their wits day and night, both to sow because they reap, and to sow so much more abundantly as they reap more abundantly than other men, whereunto by their very acceptance of such benignities they formally bind themselves, let them be well assured that the honey which they eat with fraud shall turn in the end into true gall, forasmuch as Laws are the sacred image of his wisdom who most severely punisheth those colour- able and subtle crimes that seldom are taken within the walk of human justice.* I therefore conclude, that the grounds and maxims of common right, whereupon Ordina- tions of Ministers unable to preach, tolerations of absence from their Cures, and the multiplications of their Spiritual Livings, are disproved, do but indefinitely enforce them unlawful, not unlawful universally and without exception ; that the Laws which indefinitely are against all these things, and the privileges which make for them in certain cases, are not the one repugnant to the other ; that the Laws of God and Nature are violated through the effects
* For the main hypothesis or foundation of these conclusions, let that before set down in the ninth, be read together with this last, the eighty-first paragraph. VOL. II. L
14G ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
of abused privileges ; that neither our Ordinations of men unable to make Sermons, nor our Dispensations for the rest, can be justly proved frustrate, by virtue of any such surmised opposition between the special Laws of this Church which have permitted, and those general which are alleged to disprove, the same ; that when privileges by abuse are grown incommodious, there must be redress ; that for remedy of such evils, there is no necessity the Church should abrogate either in whole or in part the spe- cialities before-mentioned ; and that the most to be de- sired were a voluntary reformation thereof on all hands which may give passage unto any abuse.
BOOK VI.
Containing their fifth Assertion, that our Laws are corrupt and repugnant to the Laws of God, in matter belonging to the power of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, in that we have not throughout all Churches certain Lay-elders established for the exercise of that power.
The The same men which in heat of contention do hardly between either speak or give ear to reason, being after sharp and lis, whe- bj^er conflicts retired to a calm remembrance of all their
tlier all
congre- former proceedings; the causes that brought them into or Pa" quarrel, the course which their striving affections have ought followed, and the issue whereunto they are come, may to have peradventure, as troubled waters, in small time, of their uersin- own accord, by certain easy degrees settle themselves withd again, and so recover that clearness of well-advised judg- ofTuris men^ whereby they shall stand at the length indifferent diction both to yield and admit any reasonable satisfaction, where ritual before they could not endure with patience to be gainsayed. causes. Neither will I despair of the like success in these unplea- sant controversies touching Ecclesiastical Polity; the time of silence, which both parts have willingly taken to breathe, seeming now as it were a pledge of all men's quiet contentment to hear with more indifferency the weightiest and last remains of that cause, Jurisdiction, Lil>- V.V: Dignity, Dominion Ecclesiastical. For, let not any imagine, ' that the bare and naked difference of a few Ceremonies could either have kindled so much fire, or have caused
BOOK VI.
14'
it to flame so long; but that the parties which herein laboured mightily for change, and (as they say) for reformation, had somewhat more than this mark whereat to aim.
Having therefore drawn out a complete Form, as they suppose, of public Service to be done to God, and set down their plot for the Office of the Ministry in that behalf, they very well knew how little their labours so far forth bestowed would avail them in the end, without a claim of Jurisdiction to uphold the fabric which they have erected ; and this neither likely to be obtained but by the strong hand of the people, nor the people unlikely to favour it ; the more, if overture were made of their own interest, right, and title thereunto. Whereupon there are many which have conjectured this to be the cause, why in all their projects of their Discipline (it being manifest that their drift is to wrest the key of spiritual authority out of the hands of former Governors, and equally to possess therewith the Pastors of all several congregations) the people, first for surer accomplishment, and then for better defence thereof, are pretended necessary actors in those things, whereunto their ability for the most part is as slen- der as their title and challenge unjust.
Notwithstanding (whether they saw it necessary for them to persuade the people, without whose help they could do nothing, or else, which I rather think, the atfection which they bear towards this new Form of Go- vernment made them to imagine it God's own Ordinance) their doctrine is, that, by the Law of God, there must be for ever in all congregations certain Lay-elders, ministers of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, inasmuch tas our" Lord and Saviour by testament (for so they presume) hath left all Ministers or Pastors in the Church executors equally to the whole power of Spiritural Jurisdiction, and with them hath joined the people as colleagues. By maintenance of which assertion there is unto that part apparently gained a twofold advantage, both because the people in this respect are much more easily drawn to favour it, as a matter of their own interest ; and for that, if they chance to be crossed by such as oppose against them, the colour of divine authority, assumed for the grace and countenance of that power in the vulgar sort, furnisheth l2
148 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
their leaders with great abundance of matter behoveful for their encouragement to proceed always with hope of fortunate success in the end, considering their cause to be as David's was, a just defence of power given them from above, and consequently, their adversaries' quarrel the same with Saul's, by whom the Ordinance of God was withstood.
Now, on the contrary side, if their surmise prove false ; if such, as in justification whereof no evidence sufficient either hath been or can be alleged (as I hope it shall clearly appear after due examination and trial), let them consider whether those words of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram against Moses and against Aaron, " It is too much that ye take upon you, seeing all the congregation is holy," be not the very true abstract and abridgment of their published Admonitions, Demonstrations, Supplica- tions, and Treatises whatsoever, whereby they have la- boured to avoid the rooms of their spiritual superiors before authorized, and to advance the new fancied sceptre of Lay-presbyterial Power.
The nature of Spiritual Jurisdiction.
But before there can be any settled determination, whe- ther truth do rest on their part or on ours, touching Lay- elders, we are to prepare the way thereunto by explication of some things requisite and very needful to be considered ; as, first, how besides that Spiritual Power which is of Order, and was instituted for performance of those duties whereof there hath been speech already had, there is in the Church no less necessary a second kind, which we call the Power of Jurisdiction. When the Apostle doth speak of ruling the Church of God, and of receiving accusations, his words have evident reference to the Power of Juris- 19- diction. Our Saviour's words to the Power of Order
Mark when he giveth his Disciples charge, saying, " Preach :
baptize : do this in remembrance of me." A Bishop
saith Ignatius) doth bear the image of God and of Christ;
i'cor. of God in ruling, of Christ in administering, holy things.* By this therefore we see a manifest difference acknowledged
* Tifxa [Atv tov ©Eov, i; aiTiov t£v oXjdv xcu xilpiov 'ettiVxcttov Ss, ou; ao^iEpla, ©eoS va qipovra, Kara ph to apxsiv, &ioZ,naTa Ss to Uparivw, Xpis-Tou. Epist. ad Smyrn.
1 Tim.
xvi. 15.
Wat
J'.'.
BOOK VI. 149
between the Power of Ecclesiastical Order, and the Power of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical.
The Spiritual Power of the Church being- such as neither can be challenged by right of nature, nor could by human au- thority be instituted, because the forces and effects thereof are supernatural and divine, we are to make no doubt or question but that from him which is the Head it hath descended unto us that are the body now invested there- with. He gave it for the benefit and good of souls, as a mean to keep them in the path which leadeth unto endless felicity, a bridle to hold them within their due and conve- nient bounds, and, if they do go astray, a forcible help to reclaim them. Now although there be no kind of Spiritual Power, for which our Lord Jesus Christ did not give both commission to exercise, and direction how to use the same, although his Laws in that behalf, recorded by the holy Evangelists, be the only ground and foundation where- upon the practice of the Church must sustain itself; yet, as all multitudes, once grown to the form of societies, are even thereby naturally warranted to enforce upon their own subjects particularly those things which public wis- dom shall judge expedient for the common good ; so it were absurd to imagine the Church itself, the most glorious amongst them, abridged of this liberty, or to think that no Law, Constitution, or Canon can be further made either for limitation or amplification in the practice of our Saviour's Ordinances, whatsoever occasion be offered through variety of times and things, during the state of this inconstant world, which bringeth forth daily such new evils as must of necessity by new remedies be redressed, and did both of old enforce our venerable predecessors, and will always constrain others, sometime to make, sometime to abrogate, sometime to augment, and again to abridge some- time; in sum, often to vary, alter, and change customs incident unto the manner of exercising that power which doth itself continue always one and the same. I therefore conclude that Spiritual Authority is a power which Christ hath given to be used over them which are subject unto it for the eternal good of their souls, according to his own most sacred Laws and the wholesome positive Constitu- tions of his Church.
In doctrine referred unto action and practice, as this is which concerns Spiritual Jurisdiction, the first sound and
150 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
perfect understanding is the knowledge of the end, be- cause thereby both use doth frame, and contemplation judge, all things.
Of Penitency, the chiefest end propounded by Spiritual Jurisdiction. Two kinds of Penitency ; the one a private duty towards God, the other a duty of external discipline. Of the virtue of Repentance, from which the former duty pro- ceeded ; and of Contrition, the first part of that duty.
Seeing that the chiefest cause of Spiritual Jurisdiction is to provide for the health and safety of men's souls, by bringing them to see and repent their grievous offences committed against God, as also to reform all injuries offered with the breach of Christian love and charity to- ward their brethren in matters of Ecclesiastical cogni- zance ; the use of this Power shall by so much the plain- lier appear, if first the nature of Repentance itself be known.
We are by Repentance to appease whom we offend by sin. For which cause, whereas all sin deprives us of the favour of Almighty God, our way of reconciliation with him is the inward secret Repentance of the heart ; which inward Re- pentance alone sufficeth, unless some special thing, in the quality of sin committed, or in the party that hath done amiss, require more. For besides our submission in God's sight, Repentance must not only proceed to the private con- tentation of men, if the sin be a crime injurious; but also further, where the wholesome Discipline of God's Church cxacteth a more exemplary and open satisfaction.* Now the Church being satisfied with outward Repentance, as God is with inward, it shall not be amiss for more perspi- cuity, to term this latter always the Virtue, the former the Discipline of Repentance, which Discipline hath two sorts of penitents to work upon, inasmuch as it hath been accus- tomed to lay the offices of Repentance on some seeking, others shunning them ; on someat their own voluntary re- quest, on others altogether against their wills, as shall hereafter appear by store of ancient examples. Repent- ance being, therefore, either in the sight of God alone, or
* ' Poenitentize secundas, et unius, quanto in actu negotium est, tanto potior pro- batio est, ut non solaconscientia proferatur, sed aliquo etiam actu administretur.' ' Second Penitency, following that before Baptism, and being not more than once admitted in one man, requireth by so much the greater labour to make it manifest, for that it is not a work which can come again in trial, but must be therefore with some open solemnity executed, and not to be discharged with the privity of con- science alone.' Tertull. de poenit. fc. 9.]
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else with the notice also of men, without the one, sometimes thoroughly performed, but always practised more or less in our daily devotions and prayers, we can have no remedy for any fault ; whereas the other is only required in sins of a certain degree and quality : the one necessary for ever, the other so far forth as the Laws and Order of God's Church shall make it requisite. The nature, parts, and effects of the one always the same ; the other limited, ex- tended, and varied by infinite occasions.
The Virtue of Repentance in the heart of man is God's handy-work, a fruit or effect of divine grace, which grace continually offereth itself even unto them that have for- saken it, as may appear by the words of Christ in St. John's Revelation, " I stand at the door and knock :" nor doth he [Rev. only knock without, but also within assist to open, whereby " access and entrance is given to the heavenly presence of that saving power, which maketh man a repaired temple for God's good Spirit again to inhabit. And albeit the whole train of virtues which are implied in the name of grace be infused at one instant ; yet because, when they meet and concur unto any effect in man, they have their distinct ope- rations rising orderly one from another, it is no unnecesary thing that we note the way or method of the Holy Ghost in framing man's sinful heart to Repentance. A work, the first foundation whereof is laid by opening and illuminating the eye of Faith, because by Faith are discovered the principles of this action, whereunto unless the understanding do first assent, there can follow in the will towards Penitency no in- clination at all. Contrariwise, the resurrection of the dead, the judgment of the world to come, and the endless misery of sinners, being apprehended, this worketh fear ; such as theirs was who, feeling their own distress and perplexity in that passion, besought our Lord's Apostles earnestly to give them counsel what they should do. For fear is impotent and unable to advise itself; yet this good it hath, that men are thereby made desirous to prevent, if possibly they may, whatsoever evil they dread. The first thing that wrought the Ninevites' Repentance, was fear of destruction within forty days: signs and miraculous Avorks of God, being ex- traordinary representations of divine power, are commonly wont to stir any the most wicked with terror, lest the same power should bend itself against them. And because tract-
xix. 17, 19.
152 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
able minds, though guilty of much sin, are hereby moved to forsake those evil ways which make his power in such sort their astonishment and fear, therefore our Saviour denounced his curse against Chorazin and Bethsaida, saying, that, if Tyre and Sidon had seen that which they did, those signs which prevailed little with the one would have brought the others to Repentance. As the like thereunto did in the men given to curious arts, of whom the Apostolic History saith,
Acts that " fear came upon them, and many which had followed vain sciences, burnt openly the very books out of which they had learned the same." As fear of contumely and dis- grace amongst men, together with other civil punishments, are a bridle to restrain from any heinous acts whereinto men's outrage would otherwise break; so the fear of divine revenge and punishment, where it takes place, doth make men desirous to be rid likewise from that inward guiltiness of sin wherein they would else securely continue. How- beit, when Faith hath wrought a fear of the event of sin, yet Repentance hereupon ensuethnot, unless our belief conceive both the possibility and means to avert evil : the possibility, inasmuch as God is merciful and most willing to have sin cured ; the means, because he hath plainly taught what is re- quisite and shall suffice unto that purpose. The nature of all wicked men is, for fear of revenge to hate whom they most wrong ; the nature of hatred, to wish that destroyed which it cannot brook ; and from hence arise the furious endeavours of godless and obdurate sinners to extinguish in themselves the opinion of God, because they would not have him to be, whom execution of endless wo doth not suffer them to love.
Every sin against God abateth, and continuance in sin extinguished, our love towards him. It was once said to
[Rev. the Angel of Ephesus having sinned, "Thou art fallen away from thy first love ;" so that, as we never decay in love till we sin, in like sort neither can we possibly forsake sin, un- less we first begin again to love. What is love towards God, but a desire of union with God ? And shall we ima- gine a sinner converting himself to God, in whom there is no desire of union with God presupposed? I therefore con- clude, that fear worketh no man's inclination to Repentance, till somewhat else have wrought in us love also : our love and desire of union with God ariseth from the strong con-
ii. ■!.]
BOOK VI.
153
ceit which we have of his admirable goodness the good- ness of God which particularly moveth unto Repentance is, his mercy towards mankind, notwithstanding sin : for, let it once sink deeply into the mind of man, that howsoever we have injured God, his very nature is averse from revenge, except unto sin we add obstinacy, otherwise always ready to accept our submission as a full discharge or recompence for all wrongs; and can we choose but begin to love him whom we have offended? or can we but begin to grieve that we have offended him whom we love ? Repentance con- sidered sin as a breach of the Law of God, an act obnoxi- ous to that revenge, which notwithstanding may be pre- vented if we pacify God in time.
The root and beginning of Penitency, therefore, is the con- sideration of our own sin, as a cause which hath procured the wrath, and a subject which doth need the mercy, of God. For unto man's understanding there being presented, on the one side, tribulation and anguish upon every soul that doth evil; on the other, eternal life unto them which by continuance in wrell-doing seek glory, and honour, and im- mortality: on the one hand, a curse to the children of dis- obedience ; on the other, to lovers of righteousness all grace and benediction : yet between these extremes that eternal God, from whose unspotted justice and undeserved mercy the lot of each inheritance proceedeth, is so inclinable ra- ther to shew compassion than to take revenge, that all his speeches in Holy Scripture are almost nothing else but en- treaties of men to prevent destruction by amendment of their wicked lives ; all the works of his providence little other thanmere allurements of the just to continue stedfast, and of the unrighteous to change their course ; all his deal- ings and proceedings towards true converts, as have even filled the grave writings of holy men with these and the like most sweet sentences : Repentance (if I may so speak) cassian. stoppeth God in his way, when being provoked by crimes JJ 20" past he cometh to revenge them with most just punish- ments ; yea, it tieth as it were the hands of the avenger, and doth not suffer him to have his will. Again,
* The merciful eye of God towards men hath no power
* Basil. Epist. Seleuc. p. 106. OiXavSpaJOTcv £fai/«pee it^unoua-av alterai pnantav. Chr. in 1 Cor. Horn. 8. Ou to T^aiSwii outm Ssivov, w; tl-r^mbivra. f*i gouXirQai diga ■ wEuEfl-fltfi. Marc. Erem. OuS»? xaTExpiflM, ei y.h (Airavoiai; jursfgfaira, xal oiifcis sh-
154 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
to withstand Penitency, at what time soever it comes in presence. And again,
God doth not take it so in evil part, though we wound that which he hath required us to keep whole, as that after we have taken hurt there should be in us no desire to re- ceive his help. Finally, lest I be carried too far in so large a sea, There was never any man condemned of God but for neglect, nor justified except he had care, of Repentance.
From these considerations, setting before our eyes our in- excusable both unthankfulness in disobeying so merciful, foolishness in provoking so powerful, a God, there ariseth necessarily a pensive and corrosive desire that we had done otherwise ; a desire which suffereth us to foreslow no time, to feel no quietness within ourselves, to take neither sleep nor food with contentment, never to give over supplications, confessions, and other penitent duties, till the light of God's reconciled favour shine in our darkened soul. Fuig.de Fulgentius asking the question, why David's confession jJJ should be held for effectual Penitence, and not Saul's ; an- iib. ii. swereth, that the one hated sin, the other feared only ' punishment in this world: Saul's acknowledgment of sin was fear; David's, both fear and also love.
This was the fountain of Peter's tears, this the life and spirit of David's eloquence, in those most admirable Hymns entitled Penitential, where the words of sorrow for sin do melt the very bowels of God remitting it ; and the comforts of grace in remitting sin carry him which sor- rowed rapt as it were into Heaven, with ecstasies of joy and gladness. The first motive of the Ninevites unto Re- pentance, was their belief in a sermon of fear, but the next jonah and most immediate, an axiom of love ; " Who can tell whether God will turn away his fierce wrath, that we perish not?" No conclusion such as theirs. Let every man turn from his evil way, but out of premises such as theirs were, fear and love. Wherefore the well-spring of Repent- ance is Faith, first breeding fear, and then love; which [Luke love causes hope, hope resolution of attempt ; " I will go xv- 18-1 to my Father, and say, I have sinned against Heaven, and against thee ;" that is to say, I will do what the duty of a convert requireth.
jMwwflii, ei (jA rctirm; hirtpftrxraTo. [de Pocnit. p. 915. vol. i. Biblioth. Patr. Graec. ed. Par. 1624.]
BOOK VI. 155
Now in a penitent's or a convert's duty there are included : first, the aversion of the will from sin ; secondly, the sub- mission of ourselves to God by supplication and prayer ; thirdly, the purpose of a new life, testified with present works of amendment : which three things do very well seem to be comprised in one definition by them which handle Repentance, as a virtue that hateth, bewaileth, and sheweth a purpose to amend sin. We offend God in thought, word, and deed : to the first of which three, they make Contrition ; to the second, Confession ; and to the last, our works of Satisfaction, answerable.
Contrition doth not here import those sudden pangs and convulsions of the mind which cause sometimes the most forsaken of God to retract their own doings ; it is no natu- ral passion, or anguish, which riseth in us against our wills, but a deliberate aversion of the will of man from sin; which being always accompanied with grief, and grief oftentimes partly with tears, partly with other external signs, it hath been thought, that in these things Contrition doth chiefly consist : whereas the chiefest thing in Contri- tion is, that alteration whereby the will, which was before delighted with sin, doth now abhor and shun nothing more. But forasmuch as we cannot hate sin in ourselves without heaviness and grief, that there should be in us a thing of such hateful quality, the will averted from sin must needs make the affection suitable ; yea, there is great reason why it should so do: for since the will by conceiving sin hath deprived the soul of life ; and of life there is no recovery without Repentance, the death of sin ; Repentance not able to kill sin, but by withdrawing the will from it ; the will unpossible to be withdrawn, unless it concur with a con- trary affection to that which accompanied it before in evil ; is it not clear that as an inordinate delight did first begin sin, so Repentance must begin with a just sorrow, a sorrow of heart, and such a sorrow as renteth the heart; neither a feigned nor slight sorrow ; not feigned, lest it increase sin, nor slight, lest the pleasures of sin overmatch it.
Wherefore of grace, the highest cause from which man's Penitency doth proceed ; of faith, fear, love, hope, what force and efficiency they have in Repentance ; of parts and duties thereunto belonging, comprehended in the School- men's definitions; finally, of the first among those duties,
156 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Contrition, which disliketh and bewailcth iniquity, let this suffice.
And because God will have offences by Repentance not only abhorred within ourselves, but also with humble sup- plication displayed before him, and a testimony of amend- ment to be given, even by present works worthy Repent- ance, in that they are contrary to those we renounce and disclaim ; although the Virtue of Repentance do require that her other two parts, Confession and Satisfaction, should here follow ; yet seeing they belong as well to the Discip- line as to the Virtue of Repentance, and only differ for that in the one they are performed to man, in the other to God alone, I had rather distinguish them in joint-handling, than handle them apart, because in quality and manner of practice they are distinct.
Of the Discipline of Repentance instituted by Christ, practised by the Fathers, converted by the Schoolmen into a Sacrament ; and of Confession, that which belongeth to the Virtue of Repentance, that which was used among the Jews, that which Papacy imagineth a Sacrament, and that which ancient Discipline practised.
Matt. Our Lord and Saviour in the sixteenth of St. Matthew's Gospel giveth his Apostles regiment in general over God's Church. For they that have the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are thereby signified to be stewards of the House of God, under whom they guide, command, judge, and cor- rect his family. The souls of men are God's treasure, committed to the Irust and fidelity of such as must render a strict account for the very least which is under their cus- tody. God hath not invested them with power to make a revenue thereof, but to use it for the good of them whom Jesus Christ hath most dearly bought.
And because their office therein consisteth of sundry functions, some belonging to Doctrine, some to Discipline, all contained in the name of the Keys ; they have for mat- ters of Discipline, as well litigious as criminal, their Courts and Consistories erected by the heavenly authority of his
Matt. ^ most sacred voice, who hath said, Die Ecclesice, Tell the Church; against rebellious and contumacious persons which refuse to obey their sentence, armed they are with power to eject such out of the Church, to deprive them of the honours, rights, and privileges of Christian men, to
xviii. 17.
BOOK VI. 157
make them as Heathens and Publicans, with whom society was hateful.
Furthermore, lest their acts should be slenderly ac- *Ia«- counted of, or had in contempt, whether they admit to the ToZ' fellowship of Saints or seclude from it, whether they bind * ^j;^ otfenders or set them again at liberty, whether they remit i~3- or retain sins, whatsoever is done by way of orderly and u.e.' lawful proceeding, the Lord himself hath promised to ratify, jj™' This is that grand original warrant, by force whereof the Guides and Prelates in God's Church, first his Apostles, and afterwards others following them successively, did both use and uphold that Discipline, the end whereof is to heal men's consciences, to cure their sins, to reclaim of- fenders from iniquity, and to make them by Repentance just.
Neither hath it of ancient time, for any other respect, been accustomed to bind by Ecclesiastical censures, to re- tain so bound till tokens of manifest Repentance appeared, and upon apparent Repentance to release, saving only be- cause this was received as a most expedient method for the cure of sin.
The course of Discipline in former ages reformed open transgressors by putting them into offices of open Peni- tence, especially Confession, whereby they declared their own crimes in the hearing of the whole Church, and were not from the time of their first convention capable of the holy mysteries of Christ, till they had solemnly discharged this duty.
Offenders in secret knowing themselves altogether as unworthy to be admitted to the Lord's Table, as the other which were withheld, being also persuaded, that if the Church did direct them in the offices of their Penitency, and assist them with public Prayers, they should more easily obtain that they sought, than by trusting wholly to their own endeavours ; finally, having no impediment to stay them from it but bashfulness, which countervailed not the former inducements, and besides was greatly eased by the good construction which the charity of those times gave to such actions, wherein men's piety and voluntary care to be reconciled to God did purchase them much more love than their faults (the testimonies of common frailty) were able to procure disgrace, they made it not nice to use
158 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
some one of the Ministers of God, by whom the rest might take notice of their faults, prescribe them convenient reme- dies, and in the end, after public Confession, all join in prayer unto God for them.
The first beginner of this custom had the more followers, by means of that special favour which always was with good consideration shewed towards voluntary penitents above the rest.
But as professors of Christian Belief grew more in num- ber, so they waxed worse ; when Kings and Princes had submitted their dominions unto the sceptre of Jesus Christ, by means whereof persecution ceasing, the Church imme- diately became subject to those evils which peace and se- curity bringeth forth ; there was not now that love which before kept all things in tune, but every where schisms, discords, dissensions amongst men, conventicles of Here- tics, bent more vehemently against the sounder and better sort than very Infidels and Heathens themselves ; faults not corrected in charity, but noted with delight, and kept for malice to use when the deadliest opportunities should be offered.
Whereupon, forasmuch as public Confessions became dangerous and prejudicial to the safety of well-minded men, and in divers respects advantageous to the enemies of God's Church, it seemed first unto some, and afterwards generally, requisite, that voluntary penitents should sur- cease from open Confession.
Instead whereof, when once private and secret Confes- sion had taken place with the Latins, it continued as a pro- fitable Ordinance till the Lateran Council had decreed that men once in a year at the least should confess themselves to the Priest.
So that being a thing thus made both general and also necessary, the next degree of estimation whereunto it grew, was to be honoured and lifted up to the nature of a Sa- crament ; that as Christ did institute Baptism to give life, and the Eucharist to nourish life, so Penitence might be thought a Sacrament ordained to recover life, and Confes- sion a part of the Sacrament. scot, in They define therefore their private Penitency to be a Sa- d!"i4!° ' crament of remitting sins after Baptism : the Virtue of Re-
BOOK VI. 159
pentance, a detestation of wickedness with full purpose to <i- 1- amend the same, and with hope to obtain pardon at God's hands.
Wheresoever the Prophets cry Repent, and in the Gospel In ead- Saint Peter rnaketh the same exhortation to the Jews as yet q. e. unbaptized, they would have the Virtue of Repentance only art1' to be understood; the Sacrament, where he adviseth Simon Magus to repent, because the sin of Simon Magus was after Baptism.
Now although they have only external Repentance for a SacrauienJ, internal for a Virtue, yet make they sacramental Repentance nevertheless to be composed of three parts, Contrition, Confession, and Satisfaction. Which is ab- surd ; because Contrition, being an inward thing, belongeth to the Virtue and not to the Sacrament of Repentance, which must consist of external parts, if the nature thereof be external. Besides, which is more absurd, they leave scot. out Absolution, whereas some of their School-divines, ?.""▼.' handling Penance in the nature of a Sacrament, and being d- *4, not able to espy the least resemblance of a Sacrament save only in Absolution (for a Sacrament by their doctrine must both signify and also confer or bestow some special divine grace), resolved themselves, that the duties of the penitent could be but mere preparations to the Sacrament, and that the Sacrament itself was wholly in Absolution.* And albeit Thomas with his followers have thought it safer to maintain, as well the services of the penitent, as the words of the Minister, necessary unto the essence of their Sacrament: the services of the penitent, as a cause material ; the words of Absolution, as a formal, for that by them all things else are perfected to the taking away of sin ; which opinion now reigneth in all their schools, since the time that the Council of Trent gave it solemn approbation, seeing they all make Absolution, if not the whole essence, yet the very form whereunto they ascribe chiefly the whole force and operation of their Sacrament; surely to admit the matter as a part, and not to admit the form, hath small congruity with reason.
* 'Docet Sancta Synodus Sacramenti Poenitentiae formam, in qua prwcipue ip- sius vis sita est, in illis Ministri verbis positam esse, Ego te absolve Sunt autem quasi materia hujus Sacramenti ipsius pcenitentis actus, nempe Contritio, Confes- sio, et Satisfaction Sect. xiv. c. 3.
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Again, forasmuch as a Sacrament is complete, having the matter and form which it ought, what should lead them to set down any other parts of sacramental Repentance, than Confession and Absolution, as Durandus hath done ?
For, touching Satisfaction, the end thereof, as they un- derstand it, is a further matter which resteth after the Sa- crament administered, and therefore can be no part of the Sacrament.
Will they draw in Contrition with Satisfaction, which are no parts, and exclude Absolution (a principal part), yea, the very complement, form, and perfection of the rest, as themselves account it ? But for their breach of precepts in art it skilleth not, if their doctrine otherwise concerning Penitency, and in Penitency touching Confession, might be found true.
We say, let no man look for pardon, which doth smother and conceal sin where in duty it should be revealed.
The cause why God requireth Confession to be made to him is, that thereby testifying a deep hatred of our own ini- quity, the only cause of his hatred and wrath towards us, we might, because we are humble, be so much the more ca- pable of that compassion and tender mercy which knoweth not how to condemn sinners that condemn themselves. Luke If it be our Saviour's own principle, that the conceit we have of our debt forgiven, proportioneth our thankfulness and love to him at whose hands we receive pardon; doth not God foresee that they which with ill-advised modesty seek to hide their sin like Adam, that they which rake it up under ashes, and confess it not, are very unlikely to requite with offices of love afterwards the grace which they shew themselves unwilling to prize at the very time when they sue for it ; inasmuch as their not confessing what crimes they have committed is a plain signification how loth they are that the benefit of God's most gracious par- don should seem great ? Nothing more true than that of Tertullian,* " Confession doth as much abate the weight of men's offences, as concealment doth make them heavier. For he which confesseth hath purpose to appease God; he, a determination to persist and continue obstinate,
* ' Tantum releyat confessio delictorum, quantum dissimulatio exaggerat. Confessio enim satisfactionis consilium est, dissimulatio contumaciam' Tertull. de Poenit. [c. 8. fin.]
vii.47.
BOOK VI. 161
which keeps them secret to himself. St. Chrysostom, almost in the same words, "Wickedness is by being acknowledged Hom- lessened, and doth but grow by being hid." If men having "iipist. done amiss let it slip, as though they knew no such matter, adHebr* what is there to stay them from falling into one and the same evil? To call ourselves sinners availeth nothing, except we lay our faults in the balance, and take the weight of them one by one. Confess thy crimes to God, disclose thy transgressions before thy Judge, by way of humble supplication and suit, if not with tongue, at the least with heart, and in this sort seek mercy. A general persuasion that thou art a sinner will neither so humble nor bridle thy soul, as if the catalogue of thy sins examined severally be continually kept in mind.
This shall make thee lowly in thine own eyes; this shall preserve thy feet from falling, and sharpen thy desires to- wards all good things. The mind, I know, doth hardly ad- mit such unpleasant remembrances; but we must force it, we must constrain it thereunto.
It is safer now to be bitten with the memory, than here- after with the torment of sin.
The Jews, with whom no repentance for sin is available Levo without Confession either conceived in mind or uttered *" (which latter kind they call usually »m confession delivered by word of mouth), had first that general Confession which once every year was made both severally by each of the people for himself upon the Day of Expiation, and by the Priest for them all.* On the Day of Expiation the High- priest maketh three express Confessions, acknowledging unto God the manifold transgressions of the whole nation, his own personal offences likewise, together with the sins, as well of his family as of the rest of his rank and order.
They had again their voluntary Confessions, at the times and seasons when men, bethinking themselves of their wicked conversation past, were resolved to change their course, the beginning of which alteration was still Confession of sins.
Thirdly, over and besides these, the Law imposed upon them also that special Confession, which they in their book
* ' All Israel is bound on the Day of Expiation to repent and confess.' R.Mos. in lib. Mitsworth haggadol. par. 2. prre. 16.
VOL. II. M
]G2 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
called nnn*D "py ty »VTI Confession of that particular fault for which we namely seek pardon at God's hands.
Num. The words of the Law concerning Confession in this kind are as followeth : When a man or woman shall com- mit any sin that men commit and transgress against the Lord, their sin which they have done (that is to say, the very deed itself in particular) they shall acknowledge.
Lev. In Leviticus, after certain transgressions there mentioned,
we read the like : When a man hath sinned in any one of these things, he shall then confess, how in that thing he hath offended. For such kind of special sins they had also spe- cial sacrifices ; wherein the manner was, that the offender should lay his hands on the bead of the sacrifice which he brought, and should there make Confession to God, saying,
Misne « Now, O Lord, that I have offended, committed sin, and
Tora . , .
rractatu done wickedly in thy sight, this or this being my fault ; craepsh1uba behold I repent me, and am utterly ashamed of my doings ; fn m,M' my PurPose *s> never to return more to the same crime." Misnoth. None of them, whom either the House of Judgment had c^p". 6. condemned to die, or of them which are to be punished
with stripes, can be clear by being executed or scourged,
till they repent and confess their faults.
* Finally, there was no man amongst them at any time, either condemned to suffer death, or corrected, or chas- tised with stripes, none ever sick and near his end, but they called upon him to repent and confess his sins.
Of malefactors convict by witnesses, and thereupon either adjudged to die, or otherwise chastised, their custom was josh.^ to exact, as Joshua did of Achan, open Confession ; " My son, now give glory to the Lord God of Israel ; confess unto him, and declare unto me what thou hast committed ; conceal it not from me."
Concerning injuries and trespasses, which happen be- tween men, they highly commend such as will acknow- ledge before many.
It is in him which repenteth accepted as a high sacri- fice, if he will confess before many, make them acquainted with his oversights, and reveal the transgressions which have passed between him and any of his brethren ; saying,
• « To him which is sick and draweth towards death, they say, Confess.' Mos. in Misnoth, par. 2. pra;.16.
Mos. in Misuoth par. 2. prse. 16.
vii. 19.
BOOK VI. 163
I have verily offended this man, thus and thus I have done unto him ; but behold I do now repent and am sorry. Contrariwise, whosoever is proud, and will not be known of his faults, but cloaketh them, is not yet come to perfect repentance ; for so it is written, " He that hides his sins [p°v- shall not prosper :" which words of Solomon they do not i3.V]"' further extend than only to sins committed against men, which are in that respect meet before men to be acknow- ledged particularly. But in sins between man and God, there is no necessity that man should himself make any such open and particular recital of them ; to God they are known, and of us it is required, that we cast not the me- mory of them carelessly and loosely behind our backs, but keep in mind, as near as we can, both our own debt, and his grace which remitteth the same.
Wherefore, to let pass Jewish Confession, and to come unto them which hold Confession in the ear of the Priest commanded, yea, commanded in the nature of a Sacra- ment, and thereby so necessary that sin without it cannot be pardoned ; let them find such a commandment in Holy Scripture, and we ask no more.
John the Baptist was an extraordinary person ; his birth, his actions of life, his office extraordinary. It is therefore recorded for the strangeness of the act, but not set down as an everlasting Law for the world, That to him Jerusa- Matt. lem and all Judea made Confession of their sins ; besides, "'* ' at the time of this Confession, their pretended Sacrament of Repentance, as they grant, was not yet instituted ; neither was it sin after Baptism which penitents did there confess. When that which befell the seven sons of Sceva, for using the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in their con- A<=ts jurations, was notified to Jews and Grecians in Ephesus, M,1< it brought a universal fear upon them, insomuch that di- vers of them, which had believed before, but not obeyed the Laws of Christ, as they should have done, being terri- fied by this example, came to the Apostle, and confessed their wicked deeds. Which good and virtuous act no wise man, as I suppose, will disallow, but commend highly in them, whom God's good Spirit shall move to do the like when need requireth. Yet neither hath this example the force of any general Commandment or Law, to make it necessary for every man to pour into the ears of the Priest m 2
164 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
whatsoever hath been done amiss, or else to remain ever- lastingly culpable and guilty of sin ; in a word, it proveth Confession practised as a virtuous act, but not commanded as a Sacrament. iam. Now concerning St. James's exhortation, whether the
lh. ' former branch be considered, which saith, " Is any sick among you ? let him call for the Ancients of the Church, and let them make their prayers for him ;" or the latter, which stirreth up all Christian men unto mutual acknow- ment of faults amongst themselves, " Lay open your minds, make your Confessions one to another ;" is it not plain, that the one hath relation to that gift of healing, which our M*rk Saviour promised his Church, saying, " They shall lay their hands on the sick, and the sick shall recover health ;" relation to that gift of healing, whereby the Apostle impo- Acts sed his hands on the father of Publius, and made him mi- 8.xvl"* raculously a sound man ; relation, finally, to that gift of healing, which so long continued in practice after the Apostles' times ; that whereas the Novatianists denied the power of the Church of God in curing sin after Baptism, Ambros. St# Ambrose asked them again, " Why it might not as well tentia, prevail with God for spiritual as for corporal and bodily ^'g1* health ; yea, wherefore (saith he) do ye yourselves lay hands on the diseased, and believe it to be a work of bene- diction or prayer, if haply the sick person be restored to his former safety ?" And of the other member, which toucheth mutual Confession, do not some of themselves, as namely Cajetan, deny that any other Confession is Annot. meant, than only that " which seeketh either association of
Rhem. J
injac 5. prayers, or reconciliation, or pardon of wrongs V Is it not confessed by the greatest part of their own retinue, that we cannot certainly affirm Sacramental Confession to have been meant or spoken of in this place ? Howbeit, Bellarmine, delighted to run a course by himself where colourable shifts of wit will but make the way passable, standeth as formally for this place, and not less for that in
i John St. John, than for this. St. John saith, u If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness :" doth St. John say, If we confess to the Priest, God is righteous to forgive ; and, if not, that our sins are unpardonable ? No, but the titles of God just and righteous do import that he par-
BOOK VI.
165
donetli sin only for his promise-sake ; " And there is not (they say) any promise of forgiveness upon Confession made to God without the Priest ;" not any promise, but with this condition, and yet this condition no where ex- pressed.
Is it not strange, that the Scripture, speaking so much of Repentance and of the several duties which appertain thereunto, should ever mean, and no where mention, that one condition, without which all the rest is utterly of none effect ? or will they say, because our Saviour hath said to his Ministers, " Whose sins ye retain," &c. and because they can remit no more than what the offenders have con- fessed, that therefore, by the virtue of his promise, it stand- eth with the righteousness of God to take away no man's sins until, by auricular Confession, they be opened unto the Priest.
They are men that would seem to honour antiquity, and none more to depend upon the reverend judgment thereof. I dare boldly affirm, that for many hundred years after Christ the Fathers held no such opinion ; they did not gather by our Saviour's words any such necessity of seek- ing the Priest's Absolution from sin by secret and (as they now term it) Sacramental Confession. Public Confession they thought necessary by way of Discipline, not private Confession, as in the nature of a Sacrament, necessary.
For, to begin with the purest times, it is unto them which read and judge without partiality a thing most clear, that the ancient l^ofioXoynaig or Confession, designed by Ter- tullian to be a discipline of humiliation and submission, framing men's behaviour in such sort as may be fittest to move pity ; the Confession which they used to speak of in the exercise of Repentance was made openly in the hearing of the whole, both Eccclesiastical Consistory and Assembly.
* This is the reason wherefore he perceiving that divers were better content their sores should secretly fester and eat inward, than be laid so open to the eyes of many, blameth greatly their unwise bashfulness ; and, to reform the same, persuadeth with them, saying, "Amongst thy
• ' Plerosque hoc opus ut publicationem sui aut suffugere, aut de die in diem differre, pnesumo pudoris magis memores quam salutis ; velut illi qui, in partibus verecundioribus corporis contracta vexatione, conscientiam medentium vitant, et ita cum erubescentia sua pereunt.' Tertull. de poenit. [c. 10.]
166 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
[Tertuii. brethren and fellow-servants, which are partakers with c.eio!]nit thee of one and the same nature, fear, joy, grief, sufferings (for of one common Lord and Father we have all received one spirit), why shouldest thou not think with thyself, that they are but thine ownself? wherefore dost thou avoid them, as likely to insult over thee, whom thou knowest subject to the same haps ? At that which grieveth any one part, the whole body cannot rejoice, it must needs be that the whole will labour and strive to help that wherewith a part of itself is molested."
St. Cyprian, being grieved with the dealings of them who in time of persecution had through fear betrayed their Faith, and notwithstanding thought by shift to avoid in that case the necessary Discipline of the Church, wrote for their better instruction the book entitled De Lapsis ; a treatise concerning such as had openly forsaken their Religion, and yet were loth openly to confess their fault in such manner as they should have done : in which book he compareth with this sort of men, certain others which had but a pur- pose only to have departed from the Faith ; and yet could not quiet their minds, till this very secret and hidden fault [de Laps, was confessed : * " How much both greater in Faith (saith c' 14'3 St. Cyprian), and also as touching their fear, better are those men who although neither sacrifice nor libel could be objected against them, yet because they thought to have done that which they should not, even this their intent they dolefully open unto God's Priests? They confess that whereof their conscience accuseth them, the burden that presseth their minds they discover ; they foreslow not of smaller and slighter evils to seek remedy." He saith they declared their fault, not to one only man in private, but revealed it to God's Priests ; they confessed it before the whole Consistory of God's Ministers.
Salvianus (for I willingly embrace their conjecture, who ascribe those Homilies to him which have hitherto by com- mon error passed under the counterfeit name of Eusebius Emisenus), I say, Salvianus, though coming long after Cyprian in time, giveth nevertheless the same evidence for this truth, in a case very little different from that before alleged. His words are these : " Whereas, most dearly
* ' Qui necessitatem sacrificandi pecuniaapudmagistratumredimebant, accepta securitatis syngrapha Libellatici dicebantur.'
BOOK VI. 167
beloved, we see that Penance oftentimes is sought and Hom. 1. sued for by holy souls, which even from their youth have Qua" ' bequeathed themselves a precious treasure unto God, let ^„"v. us know that the inspiration of God's good Spirit moveth Par- 1- them so to do for the benefit of his Church, and let such as BibUoth. are wounded learn to inquire for that remedy whereunto coined?*' the very soundest do thus offer and obtrude as it were A?r'pp- themselves, that if the virtuous do bewail small offences, the others cease not to lament great." And surely, when a man, that hath less need, performeth, sub oculis Ecclesite, in the view, sight, and beholding of the whole Church, an office worthy of his Faith and compunction for sin, the good which others thereby reap is his own harvest, the heap of his rewards groweth by that which another gaineth, and, through a kind of spiritual usury, from that amend- ment of life which others learn by him, there returneth lucre into his coffers.
The same Salvianus, in another of his Homilies, "Ifnom.io. faults haply be not great and grievous (for example, if a Lch ° man have offended in word, or in desire, worthy of re-[p587,1 proof, if in the wantonness of his eye, or the vanity of his heart), the stains of words and thoughts are by daily prayer to be cleansed, and by private compunction to be scoured out : but if any man, examining inwardly his own conscience, have committed some high and capital offence, as, if by bearing false witness he have quelled and betrayed his Faith, and by rashness of perjury have violated the sacred name of truth ; if with the mire of lustful unclean- ness he hath sullied the veil of Baptism, and the gorgeous robe of virginity ; if, by being the cause of any man's death, he have been the death of the new man within him- self; if, by conference with soothsayers, wizards, and charmers, he hath enthralled himself to Satan : these and such like committed crimes cannot thoroughly be taken away with ordinary, moderate, and secret Satisfaction; but greater causes do require greater and sharper reme- dies, they need such remedies as are not only sharp, but solemn, open, and public."* Again, " Let that soul (saith Hom.s. he) answer me, which through pernicious shamefaced ness naclu is now so abashed to acknowledge his sin in conspectu^-585-] fralrum, before his brethren, as he should have been
* ' Graviores et acriores, et publicas curas requirunt.'
lie pec nitenti; c 9.
168 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
abashed to commit the same, what will he do in the pre- sence of that Divine tribunal, where he is to stand ar- raigned in the assembly of a glorious and celestial host?" I will hereunto add but St. Ambrose's testimony ; for the places which I might allege are more than the cause Lib. i>. itself needeth : " There are many (saith he) who, fearing the judgment that is to come, and feeling inward remorse of conscience, when they have offered themselves unto Pe- nitency, and are enjoined what they shall do, give back for the only scar which they think that public supplication will put them unto." He speaketh of them which sought voluntarily to be penanced, and yet withdrew themselves from open Confession, which they that are penitents for public crimes could not possibly have done, and therefore it cannot be said he meaneth any other than secret sinners in that place. Gennadius, a Presbyter of Marseilles, in his book touching Ecclesiastical Assertions, maketh but two kinds of Confession necessary : the one in private to God alone for smaller offences; the other open, when [c 53.] crimes committed are heinous and great: "Although (saith he) a man be bitten with conscience of sin, let his will be from thenceforward to sin no more ; let him, before he communicate, satisfy with tears and prayers, and then putting his trust in the mercy of Almighty God (whose wont is to yield to godly Confession) let him boldly receive the Sacrament. But I speak this of such as have not bur- dened themselves with capital sins. Them I exhort to sa- tisfy first by public Penance, that so being reconciled by the sentence of the Priest, they may communicate safely with others." Thus still we hear of public Confessions, although the crimes themselves discovered were not pub- lic ; we hear that the cause of such Confessions was not the openness, but the greatness, of men's offences ; finally, we hear that the same being now held by the Church of Rome to be Sacramental, were the only Penitential Con- fessions used in the Church for a long time, and esteemed as necessary remedies against sin. cypr. ^ They which will find Auricular Confessions in Cyprian, [ah 17. therefore, must seek out some other passage than that Beiia^' which Bellarmine allegeth ; " Whereas in smaller faults min. de wuich are not committed against the Lord himself, there is
Pcenit. I. . ° '
iii.c.7.] a competent time assigned unto Pemtency, and that Con-
BOOK VI. 169
fession is made, after that observation* and trial had been had of the penitent's behaviour, neither may any commu- nicate till the Bishop and Clergy have laid their hands upon him ; how much more ought all things to be warily and stayedly observed, according to the Discipline of the Lord, in these most grievous and extreme crimes V* St. Cyprian's speech is against rashness in admitting Idolaters to the holy Communion, before they had shewed sufficient Repentance, considering that other offenders were forced to stay out their time, and that they made not their public Confession, which was the last act of Penitency, till their life and conversation had been seen into, not with the eye of auricular scrutiny, but of pastoral observation, accord- ing to that in the Council of Nice, where thirteen years being set for the Penitency of certain offenders, the se- verity of this decree is mitigated with special caution : " That, in all such cases, the mind of the penitent, and the Con- manner of his Repentance, is to be noted, that as many as e. c! 12.' with fear and tears, and meekness, and the exercise of f™"6
good works, declared themselves to be converts indeed, versa- • 1 • -, 1 ill tione
and not in outward appearance only, towards them the pceniten-
Bishop at his discretion might use more lenity." If the tlum'
Council of Nice suffice not, let Gratian, the Founder of the ^p^"'
Canon Law, expound Cyprian, who sheweth, that the i. cap.
stint of time in Penitency is either to be abridged, or en- ™"_su"
larged, as the penitent's faith and behaviour shall give
occasion. " I have easilier found out men (saith St. Am- Ambros.
brose) able to keep themselves free from crimes, than tenua,""
conformable to the rules which in Penitency they should ^ "-0
observe." St. Gregory, Bishop of Nice, complaineth and
inveigheth bitterly against them, who in the time of their
Penitency lived even as they had done always before :
" Their countenance as cheerful, their attire as neat, their Gree-
Nyss.
diet as costly, and their sleep as secure as ever, their orat. in worldly business purposely followed, to exile pensive l°^ai thoughts from their minds, Repentance pretended, but in- a^^nt deed nothing less expressed." These were the inspections [tom. a. of life, whereunto St. Cyprian alludeth ; as for auricular ed!par. examinations, he knew them not. l638]
Were the Fathers then without use of private Con- fession as long as public was in use I I affirm no such
* ' Inspecta vita ejus qui agit poenitentiam.'
170 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
thing. The first and ancientest that mentioneth this Con- fession is Origen, by whom it may seem that men, being loth to present rashly themselves and their faults unto the view of the whole Church, thought it best to unfold first, their minds to some one special man of the Clergy, which might either help them himself, or refer them to a higher origen. court, if need were. "Be therefore circumspect (saith xxfvTi!' Origen) in making choice of the party to whom thou meanest to confess thy sin; know thy physician before thou use him : if he find thy malady such as needeth to be made public, that others may be the better by it, and thy- self sooner helped, his counsel must be obeyed." That which moved sinners thus voluntarily to detect themselves both in private and in public, was fear to receive with other Christian men the mysteries of heavenly grace, till God's appointed Stewards and Ministers did judge them worthy. It is in this respect that St. Ambrose findeth fault with certain men which sought imposition of Penance, and were not willing to wait their time, but would be presently Ambros. a(jmjtted Communicants. *" Such people (saith he) do
de poeni- .
tentia, seek, by so rash and preposterous desires, rather to bring cap.'g. the Priest into bonds than to loose themselves." In this Aus- respect it is that St. Augustine hath likewise said, "When de ' the wound of sin is so wide, and the disease so far gone, [seT4.' that the medicinable Body and Blood of our Lord may *51- not be touched, men are by the Bishop's authority to se- quester themselves from the altar, till such time as they have repented, and be after reconciled by the same au- thority."
Furthermore, because the knowledge how to handle our own sores is no vulgar and common art, but we either carry towards ourselves, for the most part, an over-soft and gentle hand, fearful of touching too near the quick ; or else, endeavouring not to be partial, we fall into timo- rous scrupulosities, and sometimes into those extreme discomforts of mind, from which we hardly do ever lift up our heads again ; men thought it the safest way to disclose their secret faults, and to crave imposition of Penance from them whom our Lord Jesus Christ hath left in his Church to be spiritual and ghostly Physicians, the Guides and Pastors of redeemed souls, whose office doth not only con-
* 'Si uon tam se solvere cupiuut quain Sacerdotem ligare.'
BOOK VI. 171
sist in general persuasions unto amendment of life, but also in private particular cure of diseased minds.
Howsoever the Novatianists presume to plead against the Church (saith Salvianus) that " every man ought to be Hom.de his own Penitentiary, and that it is a part of our duty to Lnidw. exercise, but not of the Church's authority to impose or [pt°rm;v- prescribe, Repentance ;" the truth is otherwise, the best p- sfig-l and strongest of us may need, in such cases, direction: " What doth the Church in giving Penance, but shew the [ibid.] remedies which sin requireth ? or what do we in receiving the same, but fulfil her precepts 1 what else but sue unto God with tears, and fasts, that his merciful ears may be opened V St. Augustine's exhortation is directly to the same purpose ; " Let every man whilst he hath time judge jjjjs- himself, and change his life of his own accord; and when pomit. this is resolved, let him, from the disposers of the holy ^°™! Sacraments* learn in what manner he is to pacify God's *• 9 "J ci-
, tatura
displeasure." But the greatest thing which made men Grat. forward and willing, upon their knees, to confess whatso- Edicts!' ever they had committed against God, and in no wise to be withheld from the same with any fear of disgrace, con- tempt or obloquy, which might ensue, was their fervent desire to be helped and assisted with the prayers of God's Saints. Wherein, as St. James doth exhort unto mutual J"^ Confession, alleging this only for a reason, that just men's devout prayers are of great avail with God ; so it hath been heretofore the use of penitents for that intent to un- burden their minds, even to private persons, and to crave their prayers. Whereunto Cassianus alluding, counselleth : " That if men possessed with dulness of spirit be them- cassian. selves unapt to do that which is required, they should in 1%?°' meek affection seek health at the least by good and vir- tuous men's prayers unto God for them." And to the same effect Gregory, Bishop of Nice : " Humble thyself, Gres- and take unto thee such of thy brethren as are of one o/atione mind, and do bear kind affection towards thee, that they ™J™ios may together mourn and labour for thy deliverance. Shew acerbe me thy bitter and abundant tears, that I may blend my [ad fin. own with them." pl37]
But because of all men there is or should be none in that respect more fit for troubled and distressed minds to
* ' A praepositis Sacrameatorum accipiat satisfactionis sua; modum.'
172 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
repair unto than God's Ministers, he proceedeth further : tibid] « Make the Priest, as a father, partaker of thy affliction and grief; be bold to impart unto him the things that are most secret, he will have care both of thy safety and of thy credit." Leo Ep. " Confession (saith Leo) is first to be offered to God, Episcop. ana* then to the Priest, as to one which maketh supplica- campan. tjon for tne s[ns 0f penitent offenders." Suppose we, that citat. a men would ever have been easily drawn, much less of their pden'. a? own accord have come, unto public Confession, whereby they knew they should sound the trumpet of their own disgrace ; would they willingly have done this, which na- turally all men are loth to do, but for the singular trust and confidence which they had in the public prayers of A,nbr. God's Church ? " Let thy Mother, the Church, weep for
1, c.
sufticit
1. ii.de
poenit. thee (saith Ambrose), let her wash and bathe thy faults
c. 10.
dePamit [C 10.]
with her tears : our Lord doth love that many should be- come suppliant for one." In like sort, long before him,
Tertuii. Tertullian ; " Some few assembled make a Church, and the Church is as Christ himself; when thou dost therefore put forth thy hands to the knees of thy brethren, thou touchest Christ, it is Christ unto whom thou art a sup- plicant : so when they pour out tears over them, it is even Christ that taketh compassion ; Christ which prayeth when they pray : neither can that easily be denied, for which the Son is himself contented to become a suitor."
Whereas in these considerations, therefore, voluntary penitents had been long accustomed, for great and grievous crimes, though secret, yet openly both to repent and con- fess as the Canons of ancient Discipline required; the Greek Church first, and in process of time the Latin, altered this Order, judging it sufficient and more conve- nient, that such offenders should do Penance and make Confession in private only. The cause why the Latins
LeoEp. did, Leo declare th, saying, " Although that ripeness of Faith be commendable, which for the fear of God doth not fear to incur shame before all men; yet because every one's crimes are not such, that it can be free and safe for them to make publicationof all things wherein Repentance is necessary ; let a custom, so unfit to be kept, be abro- gated, lest many forbear to use remedies of Penitency, whilst they either blush or are afraid to acquaint their
w,
BOOK VI. 173
enemies with those acts, for which the Laws may take hold upon them. Besides, it shall win the more to Repent- ance, if the consciences of sinners be not emptied into the people's ears." And to this only cause doth Sozomen im- pute the change which the Grecians made, by ordaining throughout all Churches certain Penitentiaries to take the Confessions, and appoint the Penances of secret offenders. Socrates (for this also may be true, that more inducements than one did set forward an alteration so generally made) affirrneth the Grecians (and not unlikely) to have spe- cially respected therein the occasion which the Nova- tianists took at the multitude of public penitents, to insult over the Discipline of the Church, against which they still cried out wheresoever they had time and place, " He that sheweth sinners favour, doth but teach the innocent to sin :" and therefore they themselves admitted no man to their communion upon any Repentance which once was known to have offended after Baptism, making sinners thereby not the fewer, but the closer and the more obdu- rate, how fair soever their pretence might seem.
The Grecians' Canon for some one Presbyter in every Church to undertake the charge of Penitency, and to re- ceive their voluntary Confessions which had sinned after Baptism, continued in force for the space of above some hundred years, till Nectarius, and the Bishops of Churches under him, began a second alteration, abolishing even that Confession which their Penitentiaries took in private. There came to the Penitentiary of the Church of Constantinople a certain gentlewoman, and to him she made particular Confession of her faults committed after Baptism, whom thereupon he advised to continue in fasting and prayer, that as with tongue she had acknowledged her sins, so there might appear likewise in her some work worthy of Repentance : but the gentlewoman goeth forward, and de- tecteth herself of a crime, whereby they were forced to dis- robe an Ecclesiastical person, that is, to degrade a Deacon of the same Church. When the matter by this mean came to public notice, the people were in a kind of tumult of- fended, not only at that which was done, but, much more, because the Church should thereby endure open infamy and scorn. The Clergy was perplexed and altogether doubtful what way to take, till one Eudaemon, born in
174 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Alexandria, but at that time a Priest in the Church of Constantinople, considering that the cause of voluntary Confession, whether public or private, was especially to seek the Church's aid, as hath been before declared, lest men should either not communicate with others, or wit- tingly hazard their souls if so be they did communicate, and that the inconvenience which grew to the whole Church was otherwise exceeding great, but especially grievous by means of so manifold offensive detections, which must needs be continually more, as the world did itself wax continually worse (for antiquity, together with the gravity and severity thereof (saith Sozomen), had already begun by little and little to degenerate into loose and careless living, whereas before offences were less, partly through bashfulness in them which open their own faults, and partly by means of their great austerity which sate as judges in this business), these things Eudasmon having weighed with himself, resolved easily the mind of Necta- rius, that the Penitentiaries' office must be taken away, and for participation in God's holy mysteries every man be left to his own conscience ; which was, as he thought, the only means to free the Church from danger of obloquy [sow. an(j disgrace. " Thus much (saith Socrates) I am the Ewies. bolder to relate, because I received it from Eudaemon's own mouth, to whom mine answer was at that time ; Whe- ther your counsel, sir, have been for the Church's good, or otherwise, God knoweth. But I see you have given occa- sion, whereby we shall not now any more reprehend one another's faults, nor observe that Apostolic precept which saith, Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather be ye also reprovers of them." With [sozom. Socrates, Sozomen both agreeth in the occasion of abo- lishing Penitentiaries ; and, moreover, testifieth also, that in his time, living with the younger Theodosius, the same abolition did still continue, and that the Bishops had in a manner every where followed the example given them by Nectarius.
Wherefore, to implead the truth of this history, Cardinal Baronius allegeth that Socrates, Sozomen, and Eudaemon were all Novatianists; and that they falsify in saying (for so they report), that as many as held the consubstan- tial being of Christ, gave their assent to the abrogation of
I. V.
c. 19.
fin.l
Hist, Eccles l.vii. c.16.1
book vr. 175
the fore-rehearsed Canon. The sum is, he would have taken it for a fable, and the world to be persuaded that Nectarius did never any such thing. *Why then should Socrates first, and afterwards Sozomen, publish it? To please their pew-fellows, the disciples of Novatian? A poor gratification, and they very silly friends that would take lies for good turns. For the more acceptable the matter was, being deemed true, the less they must needs (when they found the contrary) either credit, or affect him which had deceived them. Notwithstanding, we know that joy and gladness, rising from false information, do not only make men so forward to believe that which they first hear, but also apt to scholy upon it, and to report as true whatsoever they wish were true. But, so far is So- crates from any such purpose, that the fact of Nectarius, which others did both like and follow, he doth disallow and reprove. His speech to Eudaemon, before set down, is proof sufficient that he writeth nothing but what was famously known to all, and what himself did wish had been otherwise. As for Sozomen's correspondency with Here- tics, having shewed to what end the Church did first ordain Penitentiaries, he addeth immediately, that Novatianists, which had no care of Repentance, could have no need of this office. Are these the words of a friend or enemy ? Besides, in the entrance of that whole narration ; " Not [i. vii. to sin (saith he) at all, would require a nature more divine c' l6] than ours is: but God hath commanded to pardon sin- ners ; yea, although they transgress and offend often." Could there be any thing spoken more directly opposite to the doctrine of Novatian? Eudaemon was Presbyter under Nectarius.
To Novatianists the Emperor gave liberty of using their Religion quietly by themselves, under a Bishop of their
* « Tanta h<ec Socrati testanti prsestanda est fides, quanta ceteris Hrereticis de suis dogmatibus tractantibus ; quippe Novatianus secta cum fuerit, quam vere ac sincere hsec scripserit adversus prenitentiam in Ecclesia administrari solitam, quemlibet credo posse facile judicare.' Baron, vol. i. an. Chr. 56. [c. 26.1
« Sozomenum eandem prorsus causam fovisse certum est. Nee Eudsmonem ilium alium quam Novatians sectoe hominem fuisse credendum est.' Ibidem.
' Sacerdos ille merito a Nectario est gradu amotus ofBcioque depositus, quo facto Novatiani (ut mos est Haereticorum) quamcunque licet levem, ut sinceris dogmatibus detrahant, accipere ausi occasionem, non tantum Presbyterum poeni- tentiarium in ordinem redactum, sed et pcenitentiam ipsam una cum eo fuisse proscriptam, calumniose admodum conclamarunt, cum tamen ilia potius theatralis fieri interdum solita peccatorum fuerit abrogata.' Ibidem, [c. 33.]
176 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
own, even within the city, for that they stood with the Church in defence of the Catholic Faith against all other Heretics besides. Had therefore Eudaemon favoured their Heresy, their camps were not pitched so far off but he might at all times have found easy access unto them. Is there any man that hath lived with him, and hath touched him that way? if not, why suspect we him more than Necta- rius ? Their report, touching Grecian Catholic Bishops, who gave approbation to that which was done, and did also the like themselves in their own Churches, we have no rea- son to discredit without some manifest and clear evidence brought against it. For of Catholic Bishops, no likelihood but that their greatest respect to Nectarius, a man ho- noured in those parts no less than the Bishop of Rome himself in the Western Churches, brought them both easily and speedily unto conformity with him ; Arians, Eunomi- ans, Apollinarians, and the rest that stood divided from the Church, held their Penitentiaries as before. Novatianists from the beginning had never any, because their opinion touching Penitency was against the practice of the Church therein, and a cause why they severed themselves from the Church : so that the very state of things, as they then stood, giveth great show of probability to his speech, who hath [socrat. affirmed, " That they only which held the Son consub- Ecdes. stantial with the Father, and Novatianists which joined c 19] w*tn tnem in tne same opinion, had no Penitentiaries in their Churches, the rest retained them." By this it appear- eth, therefore, how Baronius, finding the relation plain, that Nectarius did abolish even those private secret Con- fessions which the people had been before accustomed to make to him that was Penitentiary, laboureth what he may to discredit the authors of the report, and leave it imprinted in men's minds, that whereas Nectarius did but abrogate public Confession, Novatianists have maliciously forged the abolition of private ; as if the odds between these two were so great in the balance of their judgment, which equally hated or contemned both, or, as if it were not more clear than light, that the first alteration which established Penitentiaries took away the burden of public Confession in that kind of penitents ; and, therefore, the second must either abrogate private, or nothing.
Cardinal Bellarmine, therefore, finding that against the
BOOK VI
177
writers of the History it is but vain to stand upon so doubt- ful terms and exceptions, endeavoureth mightily to prove, even by their report, no other Confession taken away than public, which Penitentiaries used in private to impose upon public offenders: " For why? It is (saith he) very [Beiiarm. certain, that the name of penitents in the Fathers' writings ,.eiii.<BM sig-nifieth only public penitents ; certain, that to hear the c- w-] Confessions of the rest was more than one could possibly have done ; certain, that Sozomen, to shew how the Latin Church retained in his time what the Greek had clean cast off, declareth the whole Order of public Penitency used in the Church of Rome, but of private he maketh no mention." And, in these considerations, Bellarmine will have it the meaning both of Socrates and Sozomen, that the former Episcopal Constitution, which first did erect Penitentiaries, could not concern any other offenders than such as publickly had sinned after Baptism ; that only they were prohibited to come to the Holy Communion, except they did first in secret confess all their sins to the Penitentiary, by his ap- pointment openly acknowledge their open crimes, and do public Penance for them ; that whereas, before Novatian's uprising, no man was constrainable to confess publickly any sin, this Canon enforced public offenders thereunto, till such time as Nectarius thought good to extinguish the practice thereof.
Let us examine, therefore, these subtle and fine conjec- tures, whether they be able to hold the touch. " It seem- eth good (saith Socrates) to put down the office of these Priests which had charge of Penitency ; what charge that was, thekinds of Penitency then usual mustmake manifest."* There is often speech in the Father's writings, in their books frequent mention of Penitency, exercised within the cham- bers of our heart, and seen of God, and not communicated to any other, the whole charge of which Penitency is im- posed of God, and doth rest upon the sinner himself. But if penitents in secret, being guilty of crimes whereby they knew they had made themselves unfit guests for the Table of our Lord, did seek direction for their better per- formance of that which should set them clear, it was in this case the Penitentiary's office to take their Confessions, to advise them the best way he could for their souls' good,
• Toi/; utto t«? |UE-ntvoi'«c ntpiiXtw w{£9-/?ut6|>0!;;. [Hist. Eccles. I. v. c. 19.] VOL. II. N
178 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
to admonish them, to counsel them, but not to lay upon them more than private Penance. As for notorious wicked persons, whose crimes were known, to convict, judge, and punish them was the office of the Ecclesiastical Consistory; Penitentiaries had their institution to another end. But unless we imagine that the ancient time knew no other Repentance than public, or that they had little occasion to speak of any other Repentance, or else that in speaking thereof they used continually some other name, and not the name of Repentance, whereby to express private Penitency, how standeth it with reason, that whensoever they write of penitents, it should be thought they meant only public penitents ? The truth is, they handle all three kinds, but private and voluntary Repentance much oftener, as being of far more general use ; whereas public was but incident unto few, and not oftener than once incident unto any. Howbeit, because they do not distinguish one kind of Penitency from another by difference of names, our safest way for construction is to follow circumstance of matter, which in this narration will not yield itself applicable only unto public Penance, do what they can that would so ex- pound it.
They boldly and confidently affirm, that no man being compellable to confess publickly any sin before Novatian's time, the end of instituting Penitentiaries afterwards in the Church was, that by them men might be constrained unto public Confession. Is there any record in the world which doth testify this to be true ? There is that testifieth the plain contrary : for Sozomen, declaring purposely the cause [sozom. of their institution, saith, " That whereas men openly crav- Ecci'es. ing pardon at God's hands (for public Confession, the last l' i6 1 act of Penitency, was always made in the form of a contrite prayer unto God), it could not be avoided, but they must withal confess what their offences were." This, in the opinion of their Prelate, seemed from the first beginning (as we may probably think) to be somewhat burdensome ; that men, whose crimes were unknown, should blaze their own faults, as it were, on the stage, acquainting all the people with whatsoever they had done amiss. And, therefore, to remedy this inconvenience, they laid the charge upon one only Priest, chosen out of such as were of best conversa- tion, a silent and a discreet man, to whom they which had
book vr. 179
offended might resort, and lay open their lives. He, ac- cording to the quality of every one's transgressions, ap- pointed what they should do or suffer, and left them to execute it upon themselves. Can we wish a more direct and evident testimony, that the office here spoken of was to ease voluntary penitents from the burden of public Con- fessions, and not to constrain notorious offenders there- unto ? That such offenders were not compellable to open Confessions till Novatian's time, that is to say, till after the days of persecution under Decius the Emperor, they of all men should not so peremptorily avouch ; with whom, if Fabian, Bishop of Rome, who suffered martyrdom in the first year of Decius, be of any authority and credit, it must enforce them to reverse their sentence ; his words are so plain and clear against them. " For such as commit those Fab. crimes, whereof the Apostle hath said, They that do them ^,CT' shall never inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, must (saith he) l°m- ■• be forced unto amendment, because they slip down into P. 35s. Hell, if Ecclesiastical authority stay them not." Their conceit of impossibility, that one man should suffice to take the general charge of Penitency in such a Church as Con- stantinople, hath risen from a mere erroneous supposal, that the ancient manner of private Confession was like the Shrift at this day usual in the Church of Rome, which tieth all men at one certain time to make Confession ; whereas Confession was then neither looked for, till men did offer it, nor offered for the most part by any other than such as were guilty of heinous transgressions, nor to them any time appointed for that purpose. Finally, the drift which Sozo- menhad in relating the Discipline of Rome, and the Form of public Penitency there retained even till his time, is not to signify that only public Confession was abrogated by Necta- rius, but that the West or Latin Church held still one and the same Order from the very beginning, and had not, as the Greek, first cut off public voluntary Confession by ordain- ing, and then private by removing Penitentiaries. Where- fore, to conclude, it standeth, I hope, very plain and clear, first, against the one Cardinal, that Nectariusdid truly abro- gate Confession in such sort as the Ecclesiastical History hath reported ; and, secondly, as clear against them both, that it was not public Confession only which Nectarius did abolish.
n2
180 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
The paradox in maintenance whereof Hessels wrote purposely a book touching this argument, to shew that Nectarius did but put the Penitentiary from his office, and not take away the office itself,* is repugnant to the whole advice which Eudaemon gave, of leaving the people from that time forwards to their own consciences ; repug- nant to the conference between Socrates and Eudaemon, wherein complaint is made of some inconvenience which the want of the office would breed ; finally, repugnant to that which the History declareth concerning other Churches, which did as Nectarius had done before them, not in deposing the same man (for that was impossible), but in removing the same office out of their Churches, which Nectarius had banished from his. For which cause, Bel- larmine doth well reject the opinion of Hessels, howsoever it please Pamelius to admire it as a wonderful happy in- vention. But in sum, they are all gravelled, no one of them able to go smoothly away, and to satisfy either others or himself with his own conceit concerning Nectarius.
Only in this they are stiff, that Auricular Confession Nectarius did not abrogate, lest if so much should be ac- knowledged, it might enforce them to grant that the Greek Church at that time held not Confession, as the Latin now doth, to be the part of a Sacrament instituted by our Saviour Jesus Christ, which therefore the Church till the world's end hath no power to alter. Yet seeing that as long as public voluntary Confession of private crimes did not con- tinue in either Church (as in the one it remaineth not much above two hundred years, in the other about four hundred), the only acts of such Repentance were; first, the offender's intimation of those crimes to some one Presbyter, for which imposition of Penance was sought ; secondly, the undertaking of Penance imposed by the Bishop ; thirdly, after the same performed and ended, open Confession to God in the hearing of the whole Church ; whereupon, fourthly, ensued the Prayer of the Church ; fifthly, then the Bishop's Imposition of Hands ; and so, sixthly, the party's reconciliation or restitution to his former right in the holy Sacrament : I would gladly know of them which
* 'Nee est quod sibi blandiantur illi de facto Nectarii, cum idpotius secretorum peccatorum Confessionem comprobet, et non aliud quamPresbyterum poenitentialem dlo officio suo movent; uti amplissime deducit D.Iohannes Hasselus.' Pamiel.in Cypr. lib. de annot.98. etin lib. Tertull. de Pccnit. annot. 1.
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make only private Confession a part of their Sacrament of Penance, how it could be so in those times. For where the Sacrament of Penance is ministered, they hold that Confession to be Sacramental which he receiveth who must absolve ; whereas during the fore-rehearsed manner of Penance, it can no where be shewed, that the Priests to whom secret information was given did reconcile or absolve any ; for how could he, when public Confession was to go before reconciliation, and reconciliation likewise in public thereupon to ensue ? So that if they did account any Con- fession Sacramental, it was surely public, which is now abolished in the Church of Rome ; and as for that which the Church of Rome doth so esteem, the Ancients neither had it in such estimation, nor thought it to be of so absolute necessity for the taking away of sin ; but (for any thing that I could ever observe out of them) although not only in crimes open and notorious, which made men unworthy and incapable of holy mysteries, their discipline required first public Penance, and then granted that which St. Jerome mentioneth, saying, "The Priest layeth his hand upon the penitent, and by invocation entreateth that the Holy Ghost may return to him again ; and so, after having enjoined solemnly all the people to pray for him, reconcileth to the altar him who was delivered to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit might be safe in the day of the Lord."* — Although I say not only in such offences being famously known to the world, but also, if the same were committed secretly, it was the customs of those times both that private intimation should be given and public Confes- sion made thereof; in which respect whereas all men did willingly the one, but would as willingly have withdrawn themselves from the other had they known how ; " Is it Ambros. tolerable (saith St. Ambrose) that to sue to God thou lT^"' shouldest be ashamed, which blushest not to seek and sue c- 10, unto man ? Should it grieve thee to be a suppliant to him from whom thou canst not possibly hide thyself; when to open thy sins to him, from whom, if thou wouldest, thou mightest conceal them, it doth not any thing at all trouble thee ? This thou art loth to do in the Church, where, all
• ' Sacerdos imponit manum subjecto, reditum Spiritus Sancti invocat, atque ita eum, qui traditus fuerat Satanse in interitum carnis, ut Spiritus salvus fieret, in- dicta in populum oratione, altari reconciliat.' Hier. adders. Lucif. [§. 5. col. 291. vol. iv.]
182 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
being sinners, nothing is more opprobrious indeed than concealment of sin, the most humble the best thought of, and the lowliest accounted the justest." All this not- withstanding, we should do them very great wrong to father any such opinion upon them, as if they did teach it a thing impossible for any sinner to reconcile himself unto God without Confession unto the Priest.
* Would Chrysostom, thus persuaded, have said, " Let the inquiry and punishment of thy offences be made in thy own thoughts; let the tribunal whereat thou arraignest thyself be without witness ; let God, and only God, see thee and thy Confession ?
-oiut "' Would Cassianus, so believing, have given counsel, " That to. c Is. if any were withheld with bashfulness from discovering their faults to men, they should be so much the more instant and constant in opening them by supplication to God himself, whose wont is to help without publication of men's shame, and not to upbraid them when he pardoneth ?"
Finally, would Prosper, settled in this opinion, have made it, as touching reconciliation to God, a matter indifferent, prosper. " Whether men of Ecclesiastical Order did detect their cecJ.lta crimes by Confession, or leaving the world ignorant thereof, tempi, would separate voluntarily themselves for a time from the altar, though not in affection, yet in execution of their Mi- nistry, and so bewail their corrupt life?" Would he have willed them as he doth " to make bold of it, that the favour of God being either way recovered by fruits of forcible Repentance, they should not only receive whatsoever they had lost by sin, but also, after their new enfranchisement, aspire to endless joys of that supernal City ?" To con- clude, we every where find the use of Confession, especi- ally public, allowed of and commended by the Fathers ; but that extreme and rigorous necessity of auricular and private Confession, which is at this day so mightily upheld by the Church of Rome, we find not. First, it was not then the Faith and Doctrine of God's Church, as of the Papacy at this present. Secondly, that the only remedy for sin after Baptism is Sacramental Penitency. Thirdly, that Confession in secret is an essential part thereof.
* Chrys. Horn. H&pl /ai-ravota; xai i^o^nXoyniriooi;. Tlaga, toij Xoyarfjiotg ymo-Qu rav •*67rX!iiU|aEX"/<*wuv h i^itarti, ay,iprvpov eVto> to XiKao fipior o ©so; bpk-rce fxomt I£y*oXo- yov(xtvw.
BOOK VI. lb>3
Fourthly, that God himself cannot now forgive sin with- out the Priest. That, because forgiveness at the hands of the Priest must arise from Confession in the offenders, therefore to confess unto him is a matter of such necessity, as being not either in deed, or, at the least, in desire per- formed, excludeth utterly from all pardon, and must con- sequently in Scripture be commanded wheresoever any promise of forgiveness is made. No, no; these opinions have youth in their countenance, antiquity knew them not, it never thought nor dreamed of them.
But to let pass the Papacy. Forasmuch as Repentance doth import alteration within the mind of a sinful man, whereby, through the power of God's most gracious and blessed Spirit, he seeth and with unfeigned sorrow ac- knowledged former offences committed against God, hath them in utter detestation, seeking pardon for them in such sort as a Christian should do, and with a resolute purpose settleth himself to avoid them, leading, as near as God shall assist him, for ever after, an unspotted life ; and in the Order (which Christian Religion hath taught for pro- curement of God's mercy towards sinners) Confession is acknowledged a principal duty, yea, in some cases, Con- fession to man, not to God only : it is not in reformed oiv. Churches denied by the learneder sort of Divines, but that ?™e.*. even this Confession, cleared from all errors, is both lawful sect-7 and behoveful for Gods's people.
Confession by man being either private or public, private Confession to the Minister alone touching secret crimes, or Absolution thereupon ensuing, as the one, so the other is neither practised by the French Discipline, nor used in any of those Churches which have been cast by the French mould. Open Confession to be made in the face of the whole Congregation by notorious malefactors they hold necessary; howbeit not necessary towards the remission of sins,* but only in some sort to content the Church, and that one man's Repentance may seem to strengthen many, which before had been weakened by one man's fall.
Saxonians and Bohemians in their Discipline constrain Harm. no man to open Confession. Their doctrine is, that whose se°".'
• ' Sed tantum utEcclesiae sit aliqua ratione satisfactum, et omnes unius poeni- tentia confirmentur, qui fuerant unius peccatis et scandalis vulnerati.' Sadeel. in Psal. xxxii. ver. 5.
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viii. faults have been public, and thereby scandalous unto the exa 5 world, such, when God giveth them the spirit of Repentance, confess, ought as solemnly to return, as they have openly gone astray : first, for the better testimony of their own un- feigned conversion unto God ; secondly, the more to notify their reconcilement unto the Church ; and lastly, that others may make benefit of their example.
But concerning Confession in private, the Churches of Germany, as well the rest as Lutherans, agree, that all men should at certain times confess their offences to God in the hearing of God's Ministers, thereby to shew how their sins displease them; to receive instruction for the warier car- riage of themselves hereafter; to be soundly resolved, if any scruple or snare of conscience do entangle their minds; and, which is most material, to the end that men may at God's hand seek every one his own particular pardon, through the power of those Keys, which the Minister of God using according to our blessed Saviour's institution, in that case it is their part to accept the benefit thereof as God's most merciful Ordinance for their good, and, without any distrust or doubt, to embrace joyfully his grace so given them according to the word of our Lord, which hath said, [joim " Whose sins ye remit they are remitted." So that ground- cap, s. ing upon this assured belief, they are to rest with minds en- Bonem! couraged and persuaded concerning the forgiveness of all their sins, as out of Christ's own word and power by the Mi- nistry of the Keys.
It standeth with us in the Church of England, as touch- ing public Confession, thus:
First, seeing day by day we in our Church begin our public Prayers to Almighty God with public acknowledgment of our sins, in which Confession every man, prostrate as it were before his glorious Majesty, crieth against himself, and the Minister with one sentence pronounceth universally all clear whose acknowledgment so made hath proceeded from a true penitent mind ; what reason is there every man should not, under the general terms of Confession, repre- sent to himself his own particulars whatsoever, and adjoin- ing thereunto that affection which a contrite spirit worketh, embrace to as full effect the words of divine grace, as if the same were severally and particularly uttered with addition of Prayers, Imposition of Hands, or all the Ceremonies and
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Solemnities that might be used for the strengthening of men's affiance in God's peculiar mercy towards them ? Such complements are helps to support our weakness, and not causes that serve to procure or produce his gifts, as David speaketh. The difference of general and particular Forms in Confession and Absolution is not so material that any man's safety or ghostly good should depend upon it.
And for private Confession and Absolution it standeth thus with us :
*The Minister's power to absolve is publickly taught and professed, the Church not denied to have authority either of abridging or enlarging the use and exercise of that power, upon the people no such necessity imposed of opening their transgression unto men, as if remission of sins otherwise were impossible ; neither any such opinion had of the thing itself, as though it were either unlawful or unprofitable, save only for these inconveniencies which the world hath by ex- perience observed in it heretofore. And in regard thereof, the Church of England hath hitherto thought it the safer way to refer men's hidden crimes unto God and themselves only ; howbeit, not without special caution for the admoni- tion of such as come to the holy Sacrament, and for the comfort of such as are ready to depart the world. First, because there are but few that consider how much that part of Divine Service which consists in partaking the holy Eu- charist, doth import their souls ; what they lose by neglect thereof, and what by devout practice they might attain unto : therefore, lest carelessness of general Confession should, as commonly it doth, extinguish all remorse of men's particu- lar enormous crimes, our custom (whensoever men present themselves at the Lord's Table) is, solemnly to give them- selves fearful admonition, what woes are perpendicularly hanging over the heads of such as dare adventure to put forth their unworthy hands to those admirable mysteries of life, which have by rare examples been proved conduits of irremediable death to impenitent receivers ; whom there- fore, as we repel being known, so being not known, we can- not but terrify. Yet, with us, the Ministers of God's most Holy Word and Sacraments, being all put in trust with the custody and dispensation of those mysteries wherein our Communion is, and hath been ever, accounted the highest
* ' As for private Confession, abuses and errors set apart, we condemn it not, but leave it at liberty.' Jewell, Defen. part 156.
1BG ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
«Tace that men on earth are admitted unto, have therefore all equally the same power to withhold that sacred mysti- cal food from notorious evil-livers, from such as have any way wronged their neighbours, and from parties between whom there doth open hatred and malice appear, till the first sort have reformed their wicked lives, the second re- compensed them unto whom they were injurious, and the last condescended unto some course of Christian reconci- liation, whereupon their mutual accord may ensue. In which cases, for the first branch of wicked life, and the last, which is open enmity, there can arise no great difficulty about the exercise of his power ; in the second, concerning wrongs, they may, if men shall presume to define or mea- sure injuries according to their own conceits, be depraved oftentimes as well by error as partiality, and that no less to the Minister himself, than in another of the people under him. The knowledge, therefore, which he taketh of wrongs must rise, as it doth in the other two, not from his own opinion or conscience, but from the evidence of the fact which is committed; yea, from such evidence as neither doth admit denial nor defence. For if the offender, having either colour of Law to uphold, or any other pretence to excuse, his own uncharitable and wrongful dealings, shall wilfully stand in defence thereof, it serveth as bar to the power of the Minister in this kind.* Because (as it is observed by men of very good judgment in these affairs,) although in this sort our separating of them be not to strike them with the mortal wound of excommunication, but to stay them rather from running desperately headlong into their own harm ; yet it is not in us to sever from the holy Communion but such as are either found culpable by their own Confession, or have been convicted in some public Secular, or Ecclesiastical court. For who is he that dares take upon him to be any man's both accuser and judge ?+ Evil persons are not rashly, and as we list,
* ' Nos a Communione quenquam prohibere non possumus. Quamvis haec pro- hibitio nondum sit mortalis, sed medicinalis, nisi aut sponte confessum, aut aliquo sive seculari sive ecclesiastico judicio accusatum atque convictum. Quisenim sibi utrumque audet assumere, ut cuiquam ipse sit et accusator et judex ?' [Rhenan. admon. de dogm. Tertull. inter Opp. Tertull. p. 903. ed. Par. 1635.]
t 'Non enim temere et quodammodo libet, sed propter judicium, ab Ecclesia? Communione separandi sunt mali, ut si propter judicium auferri non possint, tole- rentur potius, velut paleae cum tritico. Multi corriguntur, ut Petrus ; multi tole- rantur, ut Judas ; multi nesciuntur, donee veniat Dominus, et illuminabit abscon- dita tcnebrarum.' Rhenan. admonit. de dogmat. Tertull. [Ibid.]
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to be thrust from Communion with the Church. Insomuch that, if we cannot proceed against them by any orderly course of judgment, they rather are to be suffered for the time than molested. Many there are reclaimed, as Peter; many, as Judas, known well enough, and yet tolerated; many which must remain undescried till the day of his ap- pearance, by whom the secret corners of darkness shall be brought into open light.
Leaving therefore unto his judgment them whom we cannot stay from casting their own souls into so great hazard, we have, in the other part of Penitential Jurisdic- tion in our power and authority to release sin, joy on all sides, without trouble or molestation unto any. And if to give be a thing more blessed than to receive, are we not infinitely happier in being authorized to bestow the trea- sure of God, than when necessity doth constrain to with- draw the same ?
They which, during life and health, are never destitute of ways to delude Repentance, do notwithstanding often- times, when their last hour draweth on, both feel that sting which before lay dead in them, and also thirst after such helps as have been always, till then, unsavoury. St. Am- brose's words touching late Repentance are somewhat hard, " If a man be penitent and receive Absolution (which Lit cannot in that case be denied him), even at the very point of death, and so depart, I dare not affirm he goeth out of the world well; I will not counsel man to trust to this, because I am loth to deceive any man, seeing I know not what to think of it. Shall I judge such a one a castaway? Neither will I avouch him safe : all I am able to say, is, let his estate be left to the will and pleasure of Almighty God. Wilt thou be therefore delivered of all doubt? Repent while yet thou art healthy and strong. If thou defer it till time give no longer possibility of sinning, thou canst not be thought to have left sin, but rather sin to have forsaken thee." Such admonitions may in their time and place be necessary, but in no wise prejudicial to the ge- nerality of God's heavenly promise, " Whensoever a sinner doth repent from the bottom of his heart, I will put out all his iniquity." And of this, although it hath pleased God not to leave to the world any multitude of examples, lest the careless should too far presume, yet one he hath given,
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and that most memorable, to withhold from despair in the mercies of God, at what instant soever man's unfeigned conversion be wrought. Yea, because to countervail the fault of delay, there are in the latest Repentance oftentimes the surest tokens of sincere dealing; therefore upon spe- cial Confession made to the Minister of God, he presently absolveth in this case the sick party from all sins by that authority which Jesus Christ hath committed unto him, knowing that God respecteth not so much what time is spent, as what truth is shewed in Repentance.
* In sum, when the offence doth stand only between God and man's conscience, the counsel is good which St. Chry- sostom giveth : " I wish thee not to bewray thyself pub- lickly, nor to accuse thyself before others. I wish thee to obey the Prophet, who saith, Disclose thy way unto the Lord, confess thy sins before him; tell thy sins to him that he may blot them out. If thou be abashed to tell unto any other wherein thou hast offended, rehearse them every day between thee and thy soul. I wish thee not to confess them to thy fellow-servant, who may upbraid thee with them ; tell them to God, who will cure them ; there is no need for thee to in the presence of witnesses to acknow- ledge them ; let God alone see thee at thy Confession. I pray and beseech you, that you would more often than you do, confess to God eternal, and, reckoning up your tres- passes, desire his pardon. I carry you not into a theatre or open court of many of your fellow-servants, I seek not to detect your crimes before men; disclose your con- science before God, unfold yourselves to him, lay forth your wounds before him the best physician that is, and desire of him salve for them." If hereupon it follow, as it did with David, " I thought, I will confess against myself my wickedness unto thee, O Lord, and thou forgavest me the plague of my sin," we have our desire, and there re-
* ' Non dico tibi, ut te prodas in publicum, neque ut te apud alios accuses, sed obedire te volo Prophetas dicenti, ' reveia Domino viam tuam.' Ante Deum con- litere peccata tua ; peccata tua dicito, ut ea deleat ; si confunderis alicui dicere quae peccasti, dicito ea quotidie in anima. Non dico ut confitearis conservo qui exprobret ; Deo dicito qui ea curat ; non necesse est praesentibus testibus confiteri ; solus te Deus confitentem videat. Rogo et oro ut crebrius Deo immortali confi- teamini, et, enumeratis vestris delictis, veniam petatis. Non te in theatrum con- servorum duco, non bominibus peccata tua conor detegere. Repete coram Deo conscientiam tuam, te explica, ostende medico prasstantissimo vulnera tua, et pete ab eo medicamentum.' Chrysost. Horn. 31. ad Hebr. et in Psal. 59. Horn, de pocu. et confess, et Horn, o.de incarn. Dei natura, Homil, itemque de Lazaro.
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maineth only thankfulness accompanied with perpetuity of care to avoid that, which, being not avoided, we know we cannot remedy without new perplexity and grief. Con- trariwise, if peace with God do not follow the pains we have taken in seeking after it, if we continue disquieted and not delivered from anguish, mistrusting whether that we do be sufficient; it argueth that our sore doth exceed the power of our own skill, and that the wisdom of the Pastor must bind up those parts, which being bruised are not able to be recured of themselves.
Of Satisfaction.
There resteth now Satisfaction only to be considered, a point which the Fathers do often touch, albeit they never aspire to such mysteries as the Papacy hath found enwrap- ped within the folds and plaits thereof. And it is happy for the Church of God, that we have the writings of the Fathers to shew what their meaning was. The name of Satisfaction, as the ancient Fathers mean it, containeth whatsoever a penitent should do in the humbling himself unto God, and testifying by deeds of contrition the same which con- fession in words pretendeth; " He which by Repentance J*rt^";t for sins (saith Tertullian, speaking of fickle-minded men) [c 5.] had a purpose to satisfy the Lord, will now by repenting his Repentance make Satan Satisfaction; and be so much the more hateful to God, as he is unto God's enemy more acceptable." Is it not plain, that Satisfaction doth here include the whole work of Penitency, and that God is satis- fied when we are restored through sin into favour by Re- pentance? " How canst thou (saith Chrysostom*) move God to pity thee, when thou wilt not seem as much as to know that thou hast offended?" By appeasing, pacifying, and moving God to pity, St. Chrysostom meaneth the very same with the Latin Fathers, when they speak of satisfying God. "We feel (saith Cyprian) the bitter smart ofhisCypr. rod and scourge, because there is in us neither care to[ai.'ii. please him with our good deeds, nor to satisfy him for our c< 2] eviL" Again, " Let the eyes which have looked on idols, f**' sponge out their unlawful acts with those sorrowful tears, c 5.1 which have power to satisfy God." The Master of Sen- tences allegeth out of St. Augustine that which is plain
* Chrysost. in 1 Cor. Horn. 8. Tov ©sov t^Xswa-aa-Sai.
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Bonav. enough to this purpose : " Three things there are in per-
f.Ti feet Penitency, Compunction, Confession, and Satisfac-
dis. 16. tjon . ^na^. ag we tnree wayS offend God, namely in heart,
word, and deed, so by three duties we may satisfy God."
Satisfaction, as a part, comprehended only that which
the Papists meant by worthy of repentance ; and if we
speak of the whole work of Repentance itself, we may in
the phrase of antiquity, term it very well Satisfaction.
Satisfaction is a work which justice requireth to be done for contentment of persons injured : neither is it in the eye of justice a sufficient Satisfaction, unless it fully equal the injury for which we satisfy. Seeing then that sin against God eternal and infinite must needs be an infinite wrong; justice, in regard thereof, doth necessarily exact an infinite recompense, or else inflict upon the offender infinite punishment. Now, because God was thus to be satisfied, and man not able to make Satisfaction in such sort, his unspeakable love and inclination to save mankind from eternal death ordained in our behalf a Mediator to to do that which had been for any other impossible. Bonav. Wherefore all sin is remitted in the only Faith of Christ's «nsent. passi0Ilj an(i no man without belief thereof justified. Faith
dist. xv. aione maketh Christ's Satisfaction ours, howbeit, that Faith 9. 9.
alone, which after sin maketh us by conversion his.
For inasmuch as God will have the benefit of Christ's Satisfaction both thankfully acknowledged, and duly es- teemed of all such as enjoy the same, he therefore im- parteth so high a treasure unto no man, whose Faith hath not made him willing by Repentance to do even that which of itself, how unavailable soever, yet being required and accepted with God, we are in Christ thereby made capable and fit vessels to receive the fruits of his Satisfaction : yea, we so far please and content God, that because when we have offended he looketh but for Repentance at our hands ; our Repentance and the works thereof are therefore termed satisfactory, not for that so much is thereby done as the justice of God can exact, but because such actions of grief and humility in man after sin are illices divinte misericordice [De (as Tertullian speaketh of them), they draw that pity of mI?" God towards us, wherein he is for Christ's sake contented, upon our submission, to pardon our rebellion against him, and when that little which his Law appointeth is faithfully
BOOK VI. 191
executed, it pleaseth him in tender compassion and mercy to require no more.
Repentance is a name which noteth the hahit and opera- tion of a certain grace or virtue in us : Satisfaction, the effect which it hath, either with God or man. And it is not in this respect said amiss, that Satisfaction importeth ac- ceptation, reconciliation, and amity ; because that, through Satisfaction on the one part made, and allowed on the other, they which before did reject are now content to receive, they to be won again which were lost, and they to love unto whom just cause of hatred was given. We satisfy therefore in doing that which is sufficient to this effect ; and they towards whom we do it are satisfied, if they accept it as sufficient, and require no more : other- wise we satisfy not, although we do satisfy. For so be- tween man and man it oftentimes falleth out, but be- tween man and God never. It is therefore true, that our Lord Jesus Christ by one most precious and propitiatory sacrifice, which was his Body, a gift of infinite worth, offered for the sins of the whole world, hath thereby once reconciled us to God, purchased his general free pardon, and turned divine indignation from mankind. But we are not for that cause to think any office of Penitence either needless or fruitless on our own behalf : for then would not God require any such duties at our hands. Christ doth remain everlastingly a gracious Intercessor, even for every penitent. Let this assure us, that God, how highly soever displeased and incensed with our sins, is notwith- standing, for his sake, by our tears, pacified, taking that for Satisfaction which is done by us, because Christ hath by his Satisfaction made it acceptable. For, as he is the High-priest of our salvation, so he hath made us Priests i.P6°.C' likewise under him, to the end we might offer unto God praise and thankfulness while we continue in the way of life ; and when we sin, the satisfactory or propitiatory sa- crifice of a broken and contrite heart. There is not any cassian. thing that we do that could pacify God and clear us in^s". his sight from sin, if the goodness and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ were not; whereas now, beholding the poor offer of our religious endeavours meekly to submit our- selves as often as we have offended, he regardeth with in- finite mercy those services which are as nothing, and with
192 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
words of comfort reviveth our afflicted minds, saying, " It is I, even I, that taketh away thine iniquities for mine own sake." Thus doth Repentance satisfy God, changing his wrath and indignation unto mercy.
Anger and mercy are in us passions ; but in him not so. " God (saith St. Bazil*) is no ways passionate, but be- cause the punishments which his judgment doth inflict are, like effects of indignation, severe and grievous to such as suffer them, therefore we term the revenge which he taketh upon sinners, anger ; and the withdrawing of his plagues, mercy." — " His wrath (saith St. Augustinef) is not as ours, the trouble of a mind disturbed and disquieted with things amiss, but a calm, unpassionate, and just assigna- tion of dreadful punishment to be their portion which have disobeyed ; his mercy a free determination of all felicity and happiness unto men, except their sins remain as a bar betwixt it and them." So that when God doth cease to be angry with sinful men, when he receiveth them into favour, when he pardoneth their offences, and remember- eth their iniquities no more (for all these signify but one thing), it must needs follow, that all punishments before due in revenge of sin, whether they be temporal or eternal, are remitted.
For how should God's indignation import only man's punishment, and yet some punishment remain unto them towards whom there is now in God no indignation remain- ing ? " God (saith TertullianJ) takes Penitency at men's hands ; and men at his, in lieu thereof, receive impunity ;" which notwithstanding doth not prejudice the chastise- ments which God, after pardon, hath laid upon some of- isiumb. fenders, as on the people of Israel, on Moses, on Miriam, lZ\s. Gn David, either for their own§ more sound amendment, 2 sam or ^or I' example unt° others in this present world (for in *ii. H. the world to come punishments have unto these intents no
* Basil, hom. in Psalm. 37. TlavTot; yap Tri&ou? aWorpiov to ©e"ov.
+ ' Cum Deus irascitur, non ejus significatur perturbatio qualis est in animo irascentis hominis ; sed, ex humanis moribus translato vocabulo, vindicta ejus, quae non nisi justa est, irae nomen accepit.' Aug. Ench. cap. 33.
X ' Poenitentiae compensatione redimendam proponit impunitatem Deus.' Ter- tull. de Pceniten. [c. 6.J
§ ' Cui Deus vere propitius est, non solum condonat peccata ne noceant ad fu- turum seculum, sed etiam castigat, ne semper peccare delectet.' Aug. in Psal. xcviii. [§. 11.]
|| • Plectuntur quidam, quocaeteri corrigantur ; exempla sunt omnium, tormenta paucorum.' Cypr. de Lapsis. [c. 1.3. J
BOOK VI.
193
laa.
i. 18.
use, the dead being not in case to be better by correction, nor to take warning by executions of God's justice there seen) ; but assuredly to whomsoever he remitteth sin, their very pardon is in itself a full, absolute, and perfect dis- charge for revengeful punishment, which God doth now here threaten, but, with purpose of revocation if men re- pent, no where inflict but on them whom impenitency maketh obdurate.
Of the one therefore it is said, " Though I tell the wicked JJSj; thou shalt die the death, yet if he turneth from his sin, and 14- do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live and not die." Of the other, " Thou, according to thine hard- *°™ ness, and heart that will not repent, treasurest up to thy- self wrath against the day of wrath, and evident appear- ance of the judgment of God." If God be satisfied and do pardon sin, our justification restored is as perfect as it was at the first bestowed. For so the Prophet Isaiah wit- nesseth, "Though your sins were as crimson, they shall be made as white as snow ; though they were as scarlet, they shall be as white as wool." And can we doubt concerning the punishment of revenge, which was due to sin, but that if God be satisfied and have forgotten his wrath, it must be, even as St. Augustine reasoneth, <t # What God hath covered he will not observe, and what he observeth not he will not punish." The truth of which doctrine is not to be shifted off by restraining it unto eter- nal punishment alone. For then would not David have said, " They are blessed to whom God imputeth not sin ;" [psai blessedness having no part or fellowship at all with ma- *xx" lediction ? Whereas to be subject to revenge for sin, al though the punishment be but temporal, is to be under the curse of the Law : wherefore, as one and the same fire con- sumeth stubble and refineth gold, so if it please God to lay punishment on them whose sins he hath forgiven ; yet is not this done for any destructive end of wasting and eating them out, as in plagues inflicted upon the impeni- tent, neither is the punishment of the one as of the other proportioned by the greatness of sin past, but according to that future purpose whereunto the goodness of God referreth it, and wherein there is nothing meant to the
* ' Si texit Deus peccata, noluit advertere ; si noluit advertere, noluit animad- vertere.' August.
VOL. II. O
194 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
sufferer but furtherance of all happiness, now in grace, and hereafter in glory. St. Augustine, to stop the mouths of Pelagians arguing, " That if God had imposed death upon Adam, and Adam's posterity, as a punishment of sin, death should have ceased when God procured sinners their pardon ;" answereth, first, " It is no marvel, either that bodily death should not have happened to the first man, unless he had first sinned (death as punish- ment following his sin), or that after sin is forgiven, death notwithstanding befalleth the faithful ; to the end that the strength of righteousness might be exercised by overcom- ing the fear thereof/'* So that justly God did inflict bodily death on man for committing sin, and yet after sin forgiven took it not away, that his righteousness might still have whereby to be exercised. He fortifieth this with David's example, whose sin he forgave, and yet afflicted him for exercise and trial of his humility. Briefly, a general axiom he hath for all such chastisements, " Before forgiveness, they are the punishment of sinners ; and after forgiveness, they are exercises and trials of righteous men."f Which kind of proceeding is so agreeable with God's nature and man's comfort, that it seemeth even injurious to both, if we should admit those surmised reservations of temporal wrath in God appeased towards reconciled sinners. As a Father he delights in his children's conversion, neither doth he threaten the penitent with wrath, or them with punishment which already mourn ; but by promise assureth such of indulgence and mercy, yea, even of plenary par- don, which taketh away all, both faults and penalties : there being no reason why we should think him the less just because he sheweth himself thus merciful ; when they, which before were obstinate, labour to appease his wrath with the pensive meditation of Contrition, the meek humi- lity which Confession expresseth, and the deeds wherewith Repentance declareth itself to be an amendment as well of the rotten fruit, as the dried leaves and withered root of
* ' Mirandum non est, et mortem corporis non fuisse eventuram homini, nisi praecessisset peccatum, cujus etiam talis poena consequeretur, et post remissionem peccatorum earn fidelibus evenire, ut ejus timorem vincendo exerceretur fortitudo justitiae. Sic et mortem corporis propter hoc peccatum Deus homini inflixit, et post peccatorum remissionem propter exercendam justitiam non ademit.' Aug. de pecc. mer. et rem. lib. ii. c. 54.
t * Ante remissionem esse ilia supplicia peccatorum, post remissionem autem certamina, exercitationesque justorum.' August. Ibid. Cypr. epist. 53.
BOOK VI. 195
the tree. For with these duties by us performed, and pre- sented unto God in Heaven by Jesus Christ, whose blood is a continual sacrifice of propitiation for us, we content, please, and satisfy God. Repentance therefore, even the sole virtue of Repentance, without either purpose of Shrift or desire of Absolution from the Priest ; Repentance, the secret conversion of the heart, in that it consisteth of these three, and doth by these three pacify God, may be without hyperbolical terms most truly magnified, as a recovery of the soul of man from deadly sickness, a restitution of glo- rious light to his darkened mind, a comfortable reconcilia- tion with God, a spiritual nativity, a rising from the dead, a day-spring from the depth of obscurity, a redemption from more than Egyptian thraldom, a grinding of the old Adam even into dust and powder, a deliverance out of the prisons of Hell, a full restoration of the seat of grace and throne of glory, a triumph over sin, and a saving victory.
Amongst the works of Satisfaction, the most respected have been always these three, Prayers, Fasts, and Alms- deeds : by Prayer, we lift up our souls to him from whom sin and iniquity have withdrawn them ; by Fasting, we reduce the body from thraldom under vain delights, and make it serviceable for parts of virtuous conversation ; by Alms, we dedicate to charity those worldly goods and pos- sessions, which unrighteousness doth neither get nor be- stow well: the first, a token of piety intended towards God ; the second, a pledge of moderation and sobriety in the carriage of our own persons ; the last, a testimony of our meaning to do good to all men. In which three, the Apostle, by way of abridgment, comprehendeth whatsoever may appertain to sanctimony, holiness, and good life : as contrariwise, the very mass of general corruption through- out the world, what is it but only forgetfulness of God, car- nal pleasure, immoderate desire after worldly things, pro- faneness, licentiousness, covetousness ? All offices to Re- pentance have these two properties ; there is in perform- ance of them painfulness, and in their nature a contrariety unto sin. The one consideration causeth them both in Holy Scripture and elsewhere to be termed judgment orecor. revenges taken voluntarily on ourselves, and to be further- v"- H' more also preservatives from future evils, inasmuch as we o 2
196 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
commonly use to keep with the greater care that which with pain we have recovered.* And they are in the other respect contrary to sin committed : Contrition, contrary to the pleasure ; Confession, to the error, which is the mother of sin ; and to the deeds of sin, the works of Satisfaction contrary : therefore they are the more effectual to cure the cypr.de evil habit thereof. Hereunto it was that St. Cyprian re- [c uit.'] ferred his earnest and vehement exhortation, " That they which had fallen, should be instant in prayer, reject bodily ornaments when once they had stripped themselves out of Christ's attire, abhor all food after Satan's morsels tasted, follow works of righteousness which wash away sin, and be plentiful in Alms-deeds wherewith souls are delivered from death." Not, as if God did, according to the manner saw. ad of corrupt judges, take some money to abate so much in cath. the punishment of malefactors. " These duties must be [pb*367. offered (saith Salvianus) not in confidence to redeem or tom. v. DUy out s\n> Dut as tokens of meek submission ; neither are Bibiioih. they with God accepted, because of their value, but for Laq our affection's sake, which doth thereby shew itself." Wherefore, concerning Satisfaction made to God by Christ only ; and of the manner how Repentance generally, parti- cularly also, how certain special works of Penitency, both are by the Fathers, in their ordinary phrase of speech, called satisfactory, and may be by us very well so acknow- ledged, enough hath been spoken.
Our offences sometimes are of such nature as requireth that particular men be satisfied, or else Repentance to be utterly void and of none effect. For if, either through open rapine, or crooked fraud, if, through injurious, or unconscionable dealing, a man have wittingly wronged others to enrich himself; the first thing evermore in this case required (ability serving) is restitution. For let no man deceive himself, from such offences we are not dis- charged, neither can be, till recompence and restitution to man accompany the penitent confession we have made to Levit. Almighty God. In which case, the Law of Moses was c' direct and plain : " If any sin and commit a trespass against the Lord, and deny unto his neighbour that which was given him to keep, or that which was put unto him of
* 'rtyiMV yaj avraiv iUw Xa.l2aiy.iv, hfX.Siv avrwv KetmyofhtrttfJ^' ouTa>; ifcXicvo-ofXlSa tov xjitw. Chrys. Horn. 30. in Ep. ad Heb.
BOOK VI. 197
trust; or doth by robbery or by violence oppress his neigh- bour; or hath found that which was lost, and dcnieth it, and swears falsely : for any of these things that a man doth wherein he sinneth, he that doth thus offend and trespass, shall restore the robbery that he hath taken, or the thing he hath got by violence, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found ; and for whatso- ever he hath sworn falsely, adding perjury to injury, he shall both restore the whole sum, and shall add thereunto a fifth part more, and deliver it unto him, unto whom it belongeth, the same day wherein he offereth for his tres- pass." Now, because men are commonly over-slack to perform this duty, and do therefore defer it sometime, till God hath taken the party wronged out of the world ; the Law providing that trespassers might not under such pre- tence gain the restitution which they ought to make, ap- pointeth the kindred surviving to receive what the dead should, if they had continued. " But (saith Moses) if the Numb. party wronged have no kinsman to whom this damage v* 8- may be restored, it shall then be rendered to the Lord him- self for the Priest's use." The whole order of proceeding herein is in sundry traditional writings set down by their great Interpreters and Scribes, which taught them that a trespass between a man and his neighbour can never be for- given till the offender have by restitution made recompence for wrongs done, yea, they hold it necessary that he ap- pease the party grieved by submitting himself unto him ; or, if that will not serve, by using the help and mediation of others : " In this case (say they) for any man to shew himself unappeasable and cruel, were a sin most grievous, considering that the people of God should be easy to re- lent, as Joseph was towards his brethren :" finally, if so it fall out, that the death of him that was injured, prevent his submission which did offend, let him then (for so they de- termine that he ought) go accompanied with ten others unto the sepulchre of the dead, and there make Confession of the fault, saying,* " I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and against this man, to whom I have done such or such injury ; and if money be due, let it be restored to his heirs, or in case he have none known, leave it with the
* ' Quamdiu enim res, propter quam peccatum est, non redditur, si reddi potest, non agitur pcenitentia, sed fingitur.' Sent. 4. d. 15.
198 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
House of Judgment : that is to say, with the Senators, Ancients, and Guides of Israel. We hold not Christian people tied unto Jewish Orders for the manner of restitu- tion; but, surely, restitution we must hold necessary, as well in our own Repentance as theirs, for sins of wilful oppression and wrong.
Now, although it suffices, that the Offices wherewith we pacify God or private men be secretly done ; yet in cases where the Church must be also satisfied, it was not to this end and purpose unnecessary, that the ancient Discipline did fur- ther require outward signs of Contrition to be shewed, Con- fession of sins to be made openly, and those works to be appa- rent which served as testimonies for conversion before men. cp. ep. Wherein, if either hypocrisy did at any time delude their 5"! c! 10.] judgment, they knew that God is he whom masks and mock- eries cannot bind, that he which seeth men's hearts would judge them according unto his own evidence, and, as Lord, correct the sentence of his servants concerning matters be- yond their reach : or, if such as ought to have kept the Rules of Canonical Satisfaction would by sinister means and prac- tices undermine the same, obtruding presumptuously them- selves to the participation of Christ's most sacred mysteries before they were orderly re-admitted thereunto, the Church for contempt of holy things held them incapable of that grace, which God in the Sacrament doth impart to devout Communicants ; and no doubt but he himself did retain bound, whom the Church in those cases refused to loose.
The Fathers, as may appear by sundry Decrees and Canons of the primitive Church, were (in matter especially of public scandal) provident that too much facility of par- Basii. doning might not be shewed. " He that casteth off his 7m In lawful wife (saith St. Basil) and doth take another, is ad- c.26. judged an adulterer by the verdict of our Lord himself; and by our Fathers it is canonically ordained, that such for the space of a year shall mourn, for two years' space hear, three years be prostrate, the seventh year assemble with the faithful in prayer, and after that be admitted to com- municate, if with tears they bewail their fault."
Of them which had fallen from their faith in the time of
the Emperor Licinius, and were not thereunto forced by
concii. any extreme usage, the Nicene Synod under Constantine
caTii. ordained, " That earnestly repenting, they should continue
BOOK VI. 199
three years hearers, seven years be prostrate, and two years communicate with the people in prayer, before they came to receive the Oblation." Which rigour sometimes they tempered nevertheless with lenity, the self-same Synod having likewise defined, " That, whatsoever the cause were, any man desirous at the time of departure out of this life to receive the Eucharist, might (with examination and trial) have it granted him by the Bishop."* Yea, besides this case of special commiseration, there is a Canon more large, which giveth always liberty to abridge, or extend out the time, as the party's meek or sturdy disposition should require.
By means of which Discipline the Church having power to hold them many years in suspense, there was bred in the minds of the penitents, through long and daily practice of submission, a contrary habit unto that which before had been their ruin, and for ever afterwards wariness not to fall into those snares out of which they knew they could not easily wind themselves. Notwithstanding, because there was likewise hope and possibility of shortening the time, this made them in all the parts and offices of their Repent- ance the more fervent. In the first station, while they only beheld others passing towards the Temple of God, where- unto for themselves to approach it was not lawful, they stood as miserable forlorn men, the very patterns of per- plexity and wo. In the second, when they had the favour to wait at the doors of God, where the sound of his com- fortable Word might be heard, none received it with atten- tion like to theirs. Thirdly, being taken and admitted to the next degree of prostrates at the feet, yet behind the back of that Angel representing God, whom the rest saw face to face, their tears, and entreaties both of Pastor and people, were such as no man could resist. After the fourth step, which gave them liberty to hear and pray with the rest of the people, being so near the haven, no diligence was then slackened which might hasten admission to the heavenly Table of Christ, their last desire. It is not there- fore a thing to be marvelled at, though St. Cyprian took it in very ill part, when both backsliders from the Faith and
* KaSsXou xai WEpl ttavto; ovwosovv Ifytetiovroi; airst/vTo; /uete^eiv Eu^a{l«TTi'af, o itti- trxovroq fj.no, Joxi/txas-i'aj /t*ETaJ(SoT4> t>)? Trpocr^apac. can. 13. /txETot Soxyxac-i*?, id est, manifests indiciis deprehensa peccatoris seria conversione ad Deum. can. 12.
c. 12.]
200 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
sacred Religion of Christ laboured by sinister practice to procure from imprisoned Saints those requests for present Absolution, which the Church could neither yield unto with safety of Discipline, nor in honour of martyrdom easily deny. For, what would thereby ensue they needed not to conjecture, when they saw how every man which came so commended to the Church by letters thought that now he needed not to crave, but might challenge of duty his peace ; taking the matter very highly, if but any little forbearance
[DeLaps. or small delay was used. " He which is overthrown (saith Cyprian) menaceth them that stand, the wounded them that were never touched;* and because presently he hath not the Body of our Lord in his foul imbrued hands, nor the Blood within his polluted lips, the miscreant fumeth at God's Priests : such is thy madness, O thou furious man, thou art angry with him which laboureth to turn away 15- God's anger from thee ; him thou threatenest, which sueth unto God for grace and mercy on thy behalf."
[PeLaps. Touching Martyrs he answereth, " That it ought not in this case to seem offensive, though they were denied, seeing God himself did refuse to yield to the piety of his own righteous Saints, making suit for obdurate Jews."
As for the parties, in whose behalf such shifts were used ; to have their desire was, in very truth, the way to make them the more guilty : such peace granted contrary to the rigour of the Gospel, contrary to the Law of our Lord and God, doth but under colour of merciful relaxation deceive sinners, and by soft handling destroy them, a grace dan- gerous for the giver, and to him which receiveth it nothing at all valuable. The patient expectation that bringeth health is, by this means, not regarded ; recovery of sound- ness not sought for by the only medicine available, which is Satisfaction ; Penitency thrown out of men's hearts ; the remembrance of that heaviest and last judgment clean banished; the wounds of dying men, which should be healed, are covered ; the stroke of death, which hath gone as deep as any bowels are to receive it, is overcast with the slight show of a cloudy look. From the altar of Satan to the holy Table of the Lord, men are not afraid to come, even belching, in a manner, the sacrificed morsels they have eaten ; yea, their jaws yet breathing out the irksome savour
* ' Jacens stantibus, et intcgris vulneratus, minatur.'
icin.
12.] Ezek. xiv. 14.
LOOK VI. 201
of their former contagious wickedness, they seize upon the blessed Body of our Lord, nothing terrified with that dread- ful commination, which saith, " Whosoever eateth and * c°r-
' ' xi. 27.
drinketh unworthily, is guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ." They vainly think it to be peace, which is gotten before they be purged of their faults, before their crime be solemnly confessed, before their conscience be cleared by the sacrifice and imposition of the Priest's hands, and be- fore they have pacified the indignation of God. Why term they that a favour, which is an injury? Wherefore cloak they impiety with the name of charitable indulgence ? Such facility giveth not, but rather taketh away, peace ; and is itself another fresh persecution or trial, whereby that frau- dulent enemy maketh a secret havock of such as before he had overfhrown ; and now, to the end that he may clean swallow them, he casteth sorrow into a dead sleep, putteth grief to silence, wipeth away the memory of faults newly done, smothereth the signs that should rise from a contrite spirit, drieth up eyes which ought to send forth rivers of tears, and permitteth not God to be pacified with full Re- pentance, whom heinous and enormous crimes have dis- pleased.
By this then we see, that in St. Cyprian's judgment, all The end Absolutions are void, frustrate, and of no effect, without Lt^! sufficient Repentance first shewed ; whereas contrariwise, if true and full Satisfaction have gone before, the sentence of man here given is ratified of God in Heaven, according to our Saviour's own sacred testimony, " Whose sins ye re- mit, they are remitted."
By what works in the Virtue, and by what in the Dis- cipline, of Repentance we are said to satisfy either God or men, cannot now bethought obscure. As for the inventors of sacramental Satisfaction, they have both altered the na- tural order heretofore kept in the Church, by bringing in a strange preposterous course to absolve before Satisfaction be made, and moreover by this their misordered practice are grown into sundry errors concerning the end whereunto it is referred.
They imagine, beyond all conceit of antiquity, that when God doth remit sin and the punishment eternal thereunto belonging, he reserveth the torments of hell-fire to be never- theless endured for a time, either shorter or longer, accord-
202 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
ing to the quality of men's crimes. Yet so, that there is between God and man a certain composition (as it were) or contract, by virtue whereof works assigned by the Priests to be done after Absolution, shall satisfy God as touching the punishment, which he otherwise would inflict for sin pardoned and forgiven. ofsatisy Now, because they cannot assure any man, that if he fying by performeth what the Priest appointeth it shall suffice ; this others, ^j gay^ because they cannot do, insomuch as the Priest hath no power to determine or define of equivalency be- tween Sins and Satisfactions; and yet if a penitent depart this life, the debt of Satisfaction being either in whole or in part undischarged, they stedfastly hold that the soul must remain in unspeakable torment till all be paid : there- fore, for help and mitigation in this case, they advise men to set certain copesmates on work, whose prayers and sacrifices may satisfy God for such souls as depart in debt. Hence have arisen the infinite pensions of their Priests, the building of so many altars and tombs, the enriching of so many Churches with so many glorious and costly gifts, the bequeathing of lands and ample possessions to religious companies, even with utter forgetfulness of friends, parents, wife, and children, all natural affection giving place unto that desire which men, doubtful of their own estate, have to deliver their souls from torment after death.
Yet, behold, even this being done, how far forth it shall avail they are not sure ; and therefore the last upshot unto their former inventions is, that as every action of Christ did both merit for himself, and satisfy partly for the eter- nal, and partly for the temporal punishment due unto men for sin, so his saints have obtained the like privilege of grace, making every good work they do, not only meritori- ous in their own behalf, but satisfactory too for the benefit of others. Or if, having at any time grievously sinned, they do more to satisfy God than he in justice can expect or look for at their hands ; the surplusage runneth to a common stock, out of which treasury containing whatso- ever Christ did by way of Satisfaction for temporal punish- ment, together with the satisfactory force which resideth in all the virtuous works of Saints, and in their Satisfac- tions whatsoever doth abound, (I say) " From hence they hold God satisfied for such arrearages as men behind in
BOOK VI. 203
accompt discharge not by other means ; and for disposi- tion hereof, as it is their doctrine that Christ reraitteth not eternal death without the Priest's Absolution, so with- out the grant of the Pope they cannot but teach it alike un- possible that souls in hell should receive any temporal release of pain. The Sacrament of Pardon from him being to this effect no less necessary, than the Priest's Absolu- tion to the other." So that by this postern-gate cometh in the whole mart of Papal Indulgences ; a gain unestima- ble to him, to others a spoil; a scorn both to God and man. So many works of Satisfaction pretended to be done by Christ, by Saints, and Martyrs ; so many virtuous acts possessed with satisfactory force and virtue ; so many supererogations in satisfying beyond the exigence of their own necessity ; and this, that the Pope might make a mo- nopoly of all, turning all to his own gain, or at least to the gain of those which are his own : such facility they have to convert a pretended Sacrament into a revenue.
Of Absolution of Penitents.
Sin is not helped but by being assecured of pardon. It resteth therefore to be considered, what warrant we have concerning forgiveness, when the sentence of man ab- solveth us from sin committed against God. At the words of our Saviour, saying to the sick of the palsy, " Son, thy Matt, sins are forgiven thee," exception was taken by the1*" Scribes, who secretly reasoned against him, " Is any able Mark to forgive sins, but God only?" Whereupon they condemn ££ his speech as blasphemy ; the rest, which believed him to v 21« be a Prophet sent from God, saw no cause wherefore he might not as lawfully say, and as truly, to whomsoever amongst them, " God hath taken away thy sins," as Nathan (they all knew) had used the very like speech ; to whom David did not therefore impute blasphemy, but embraced, as became him, the words of truth with joy and reverence. Now there is no controversion, but as God in that spe- cial case did authorize Nathan, so Christ more generally his Apostles and the Ministers of his Word in his name to absolve sinners. Their power being equal, all the difference between them can be but only in this, that whereas the one had prophetical evidence, the other have the certainty partly of faith, and partly of human experience, whereupon
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to ground their sentence ; faith, to assure them of Gods most gracious pardon in Heaven unto all penitents, and touching the sincerity of each particular party's Repen- tance, as much as outward sensible tokens or signs can warrant.
It is not to be marvelled, that so great a difference ap- peareth between the Doctrine of Rome and ours, when we teach Repentance. They imply in the name of Repentance much more than we do. We stand chiefly upon the due inward conversion of the heart ; they more upon works of external show. We teach, above all things, that Repen- tance which is one and the same from the beginning to the world's end ; they a sacramental Penance, of their own devising and shaping. We labour to instruct men in such sort, that every soul which is wounded with sin may learn the way how to cure itself; they, clean contrary, would make all sores seem incurable, unless the Priests have a hand in them.
Touching the force of whose Absolution they strangely hold, that whatsoever the penitent doth, his Contrition, Confession, and Satisfaction have no place of right to stand as material parts in this Sacrament,* nor conse- quently any such force as to make them available for the taking away of sin, in that they proceed from the penitent himself without the privity of the Minister, but only as they are enjoined by the Minister's authority and power. So that no contrition or grief of heart, till the Priest exact it ; no acknowledgment of sins, but that which he doth de- mand ; no praying, no fasting, no alms, no repentance or restitution for whatsoever we have done, can help, except by him it be first imposed. It is the chain of their own doctrine, no remedy for mortal sin committed after Bap- tism but the Sacrament of Penance only ; no Sacrament of Penance, if either matter or form be wanting ; no ways to make those duties a material part of the Sacrament, unless we consider them as required and exacted by the Priest. Our Lord and Saviour, they say, hath ordained his Priests judges in such sort, that no man which sinneth after Baptism can be reconciled unto God but by their
* ' Ipsius peenitentis actio non est pars Sacramenti, nisi quatenus potestati sa- cerdotali subjicitur, et a Sacerdote dirigitur vel jubetur.' Bellarmin. de Pcenit. J. i. c. 16.
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sentence* For why ? If there were any other way of reconciliation, the very promise of Christ should be false, in saying, " Whatsoever ye bind on earth, shall be bound [Matt. in Heaven ; and whose sins soever ye retain, they are John retained."f Except therefore the Priest be willing, God***23,1 hath by promise hampered himself so, that it is not now in his own power to pardon any man. Let him who hath of- fended crave as the Publican did, " Lord, be thou merciful [Luke unto me a sinner ;" let him, as David, make a thousand xviii' 13' times his supplication, " Have mercy upon me, O God, [?sai. according to thy loving-kindness ; according to the multi- u' 1] tude of thy compassions, put away mine iniquities;" all this doth not help, till such time as the pleasure of the Priest be known, till he have signed us a pardon, and given us our quietus est. God himself hath no answer to make but such as that of the Angel unto Lot— I can do nothing. It is true, that our Saviour by these words, "Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted," did ordain judges over our sinful souls, gave them authority to absolve from sin, and promised to ratify in Heaven whatsoever they should do on earth in execution of this their office ; to the end that hereby, as well his Ministers might take encourage- ment to do their duty with all faithfulness, as also his peo- ple admonition, gladly with all reverence to be ordered by them ; both parts knowing that the functions of the one towards the other have his perpetual assistance and appro- bation. Howbeit all this with two restraints, which every Jurisdiction in the world hath; the one, that the practice thereof proceed in due order ; the other, that it do not ex- tend itself beyond due bounds ; which bounds or limits have so confined Penitential Jurisdiction, that although there be given unto it power of remitting sin, yet no such sovereignty of power that no sin should be pardonable in man without it.J Thus to enforce our Saviour's words, is as though we should gather, that because whatsoever Jo- seph did command in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh's grant is, it should be done ; therefore he granteth that nothing should be done in the land of Egypt but what Joseph
* « Christus instituit Sacerdotes judices super terram cum ea potestate, ut, sine ipsorum sententia, nemo post Baptisnium lapsus reconciliari possit.' Bellarmin. de Pcenit. 1. iii. c. 2.
t ' Quod si possent ii sine Sacerdotum sententia absolvi, non esset vera Christi promissio, Quaecunque,' &c. Bellarm. ibid.
+ ' Christus ordinariam suam potestatem in Apostolos transtulit ; extraordina- riam sibi reservavit.'
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did command, and so consequently, by enabling his servant Joseph to command under him, disableth himself to com- mand any thing without Joseph.
But by this we see how the Papacy maketh all sin un- pardonable, which hath not the Priest's Absolution ; except peradventure in some extraordinary case, where albeit Absolution be not had, yet it must be desired.*
What is then the force of Absolution ? What is it which the act of Absolution worketh in a sinful man ? Doth it by any operation derived from itself alter the state of the soul ? Doth it really take away sin, or but ascertain us of God's most gracious and merciful pardon ? The latter of which two is our assertion, the former theirs.
At the words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, say- Matt, ing unto the sick of the palsy, " Son, thy sins are forgiven ,x' " thee," the Pharisees, which knew him not to be " Son of the living God," took secret exception, and fell to reasoning M"k with themselves against him ; " Is any able to forgive sin Luke but God only V " The sins (saith St. Cyprian) that are cypr.de committed against him, he alone hath power to forgive, Lau3. which took upon him our sins, he which sorrowed and suf- fered for us, he whom the Father delivered unto death for our offences." Whereunto may be added, that which Cle- mens Alexandrinus hath, f" Our Lord is profitable every way, every way beneficial, whether we respect him as man, or as God ; as God forgiving, as man instructing and isa. learning how to avoid, sin. For it is ' I, even I, that put- xU" 25# teth away thine iniquities for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins,' saith the Lord."
Now, albeit we willingly confess with St. Cyprian, " The sins which are committed against him, he only hath power to forgive, who hath taken upon him our sins, he which hath sorrowed and suffered for us, he whom God hath given for our offences. "J Yet neither did St. Cyprian intend to deny the power of the Minister otherwise than if he pre-
• ' Ordinaria enim remedia in Ecclesia ad remittenda peccata sunt ab eo insti- tuta, Sacramenta ; sine quibus peccata remittere Christus potest, sed extraordinarie et multo rarius hoc facit, quam per Sacramenta. Noluit igitur eos extraordinariis remissionis peccatorum confidere, quae et rara sunt et incerta : sed ordinaria, ut ita dicam, visibilia Sacramentorum quaerere remedia.' Maldon. in Matt. xvi. 1 9.
t nivTft ovi'uxnv o Kupiof xal itaMTo. oxpeXEi', x.al if avQpaiTro^, xctl i; ©£oj. To. fxiv afAa^Tti/xara aig ©eoj d<j>iEij, bJj Se to fib i£tf/u.agTttV£(V waiJayiwySv ax; avflfowo?. Clem. Alexandr. Paedag. 1. i. [c. 3.]
| ' Veniam peccatis, quae in ipsum commissa sunt, solus potest ille largiri, qui peccata nostra portavit, qui pro nobis doluit, quem Deus tradidit pro peccatis nostris.' [de Laps. c. 11.]
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surae beyond his commission to remit sin, where God's own will is it should be retained ; for, against such Abso- lutions he speaketh (which, being granted to whom they ought to have been denied, are of no validity); and, if rightly it be considered how higher causes in operation use to concur with inferior means, his grace with our Ministry, God really performing the same which man is authorized to act as in his name, there shall need for decision of this point no great labour.
To remission of sins there are two things necessary ; Grace, as the only cause which taketh away iniquity ; and Repentance, as a duty or condition required in us. To make Repentance such as it should be, what doth God de- mand but inward sincerity joined with fit and convenient offices for that purpose ? the one referred wholly to our own consciences, the other best discerned by them whom God hath appointed judges in this court. So that having victor. first the promises of God for pardon generally unto all secuV. offenders penitent ; and particularly for our own unfeigned Vant1' meaning, the infallible testimony of a good conscience, the sentence of God's appointed officer and vicegerent to ap- prove with impartial judgment the quality of that we have done, and as from his tribunal in that respect, to assoil us of any crime ; I see no cause but by the Rules of our Faith and Religion we may rest ourselves very well assured touching God's most merciful pardon and grace; who, especially for the strengthening of weak, timorous, and fearful minds, hath so far endued his Church with power to absolve sinners. It pleaseth God that men sometimes should, by missing this help, perceive how much they stand bound to him for so precious a benefit enjoyed. And surely, so long as the world lived in any awe or fear of falling away from God, so dear were his Ministers to the people, chiefly in this respect, that being through tyranny and persecution deprived of Pastors, the doleful rehearsal of their lost felicities hath not any thing more eminent, than that sinners distressed should not know how or where to unload their burdens. Strange it were unto me, that the Fathers, who so much every where extol the grace of Jesus Christ in leaving unto his Church this heavenly and divine power, should as men, whose simplicity had uni-
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vcrsally been abused, agree all to admire and magnify a needless office.
The sentence therefore of Ministerial Absolution hath two effects : touching sin, it only declareth us freed from the guiltiness thereof, and restored into God's favour ; but concerning right in sacred and divine mysteries, whereof through sin we were made unworthy, as the power of the Church did before effectually bind and retain us from ac- cess unto them, so upon our apparent Repentance it truly restoreth our liberty, looseth the chains wherewith we were tied, remitteth all whatsoever is past, and accepteth us no less returned than if we had never gone astray.
For, inasmuch as the power which our Saviour gave to his Church is of two kinds; the one to be exercised over voluntary Penitents only, the other over such as are to be brought to amendment by Ecclesiastical censures, the words wherein he hath given this authority must be so un- derstood, as the subject or matter whereupon it worketh will permit. It doth not permit that in the former kind (that is to say, in the use of power over voluntary con- verts), to bind or loose, remit or retain, should signify any other than only to pronounce of sinners according to that which may be gathered by outward signs ; because really to effect the removal or continuance of sin in the soul of any offender, is no priestly act, but a work which far ex- ceedeth their ability. Contrariwise, in the latter kind of spiritual Jurisdiction, which by censures constraineth men to amend their lives ; it is true, that the Minister of God doth then more declare and signify what God hath wrought. And this power, true it is, that the Church hath invested in it.
Howbeit, as other truths, so this hath by error been op- pugned and depraved through abuse. The first of name that openly in writing withstood the Church's authority and power to remit sin, was Tertullian, after he had com- bined himself with Montanists, drawn to the liking of their Heresy through the very sourness of his own nature, which neither his incredible skill and knowledge otherwise, nor the Doctrine of the Gospel itself, could but so much alter, as to make him savour any thing which carried with it the taste of lenity. A sponge steeped in wormwood and gall,
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a man through too much severity merciless, and neither able to endure nor be endured of any. His Book entitled Concerning Chastity, and written professedly against the Discipline of the Church, hath many fretful and angry sentences, declaring a mind very much offended with such as would not persuade themselves, that of sins, some be pardonable by the Keys of the Church, some incapable of forgiveness ; that middle and moderate offences, having received chastisement, may by spiritual authority after- Avards be remitted, but greater transgressions must (as touching Indulgence) be left to the only pleasure of Al- mighty God in the world to come ; that as idolatry and bloodshed, so likewise fornication and sinful lust, are of this nature ; that they, which so far have fallen from God, ought to continue for ever after barred from access unto his Sanctuary, condemned to perpetual profusion of tears, deprived of all expectation and hope to receive any thing at the Church's hands, but publication of their shame. " For (saith he) who will fear to waste out that, which he [De hopeth he may recover ? Who will be careful for ever to ™!{' hold that, which he knoweth cannot for ever be withheld from him? He which slackeneth the bridle to sin, doth thereby give it even the spur also."* Take away fear, and that which presently succeedeth instead thereof is licen- tious desire. Greater offences therefore are punishable, but not pardonable, by the Church. If any Prophet or Apostle be found to have remitted such transgressions, they did it not by the ordinary course of Discipline, but by extraordinary power. For they all raised the dead, which none but God is able to do ; they restored the impotent and lame man, a work peculiar to Jesus Christ; yea, that which Christ would not do, because executions of such severity beseemed not him who came to save and redeem the world by his sufferings, they by their power struck Elymas and Ananias, the one blind, and the other dead. Approve first yourselves to be, as they were, Apostles or Prophets, and then take upon you to pardon all men. But, if the authority you have be only ministerial, and no way sovereign, over-reach not the limits which God hath set you ; know that to pardon capital sin is beyond your com- mission.
* ' Securitas delicti, etiam libido est ejus.' VOL. II. P
Concil.
Neocre-
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Howbeit, as oftentimes the vices of wicked men do cause other their commendable qualities to be abhorred, so the honour of great men's virtues is easily a cloak of their errors. In which respect, Tertullian hath passed with much less obloquy and reprehension than Novatian ; who, broaching afterwards the same opinion, had not other- wise wherewith to countervail the offence he gave, and to procure it the like toleration. Novatian, at the first a Stoical Philosopher (which kind of men hath always ac- counted stupidity the highest top of wisdom, and commi- seration the deadliest sin), became by institution and study the very same which the other had been before through a secret natural distemper, upon his conversion to the Christian Faith and recovery from sickness, which moved him to receive the Sacrament of Baptism in his bed. The Bishops, contrary to the Canons of the Church, would sar-o needs, in special love towards him, ordain him Presbyter, which favour satisfied not him who thought himself worthy of greater place and dignity. He closed therefore with a number of well-minded men, and not suspicious what his secret purposes were, and having made them sure unto him by fraud, procureth his own consecration to be their Bishop. His Prelacy now was able, as he thought, to countenance what he intended to publish, and therefore his letters went presently abroad to sundry Churches, advising them never to admit to the fellowship of holy mysteries, such as had after Baptism offered sacrifice to Idols. There was present at the Council of Nice, together socrat. with other Bishops, one Acesius a Novatianist, touching c-23' whose diversity in opinion from the Church, the Emperor, coacii. desirous to hear some reason, asked of him certain ques- c so. tions ; for answer whereunto, Acesius weaveth out a long i.i!c.r. history of things that happened in the persecution under Decius, and of men, which to save life, forsook Faith. But in the end was a certain bitter Canon, framed in their Own school : " That men which fall into deadly sin after holy Baptism, ought never to be again admitted to the Communion of divine mysteries ; that they are to be exhorted unto Repentance; howbeit not to be put in hope that pardon can be had at the Priest's hands, but with God, which hath sovereign power and au-
BOOK VI. 211
thority in himself to remit sin, it may be in the end they shall find mercy." These followers of Novatian, which gave themselves the title of naOapoi, clean, pure, and unspotted men, had one point of Montanism more than their Master did profess; for amongst sins unpardon- able they reckoned second Marriages, of which opinion Tertullian making (as his usual manner was) a salt apology, e ' Such is (saith he) our stony hardness, that defaming our [De pu Comforter with a kind of enormity in Discipline, we dam J^0 up the doors of the Church, no less against twice-married men, than against adulterers and fornicators." Of this sort therefore it was ordained by the Nicene Synod, that if any such did return to the Catholic and Apostolic unity, they should in writing bind themselves to observe the Orders of the Church, and communicate as well with them which had been often married, or had fallen in time of persecution, as with other sort of Christian people. But further to relate, or at all to refel the error of misbelieving men concerning this point, is not now to our present pur- pose greatly necessary.
The Church may receive no small detriment by corrupt practice, even there where doctrine concerning the sub- stance of things practised is free from any great or dan- gerous corruption. If therefore that which the Papacy doth in matter of Confessions and Absolution be offensive, if it palpably serve [al. swerve] in the use of the Keys, how- soever that which it teacheth in general concerning the Church's power to retain and forgive sins, be admitted true, have they not on the one side as much whereat to be abashed, as on the other wherein to rejoice ?
They bind all men, upon pain of everlasting condem- nation and death, to make Confessions to their ghostly Fathers of every great offence they know, and can re- member, that they have committed against God. Hath Christ in his Gospel so delivered the doctrine of Repentance unto the world ? Did his Apostles so preach it to nations ? Have the Fathers so believed or so taught ? Surely No- vatian was not so merciless in depriving the Church of power to absolve some certain offenders, as they in im- posing upon all a necessity thus to confess. Novatian would not deny but God might remit that which the Church could not, whereas in the Papacy it is maintained, that p2
212 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
what we conceal from men, God himself shall never pardon. By which oversight, as they have here surcharged the world with multitude, but much abated the weight of Confes- sions, so the careless manner of their Absolution hath made Discipline, for the most part, amongst them a bare for- mality ; yea, rather a means of emboldening unto vicious and wicked life, than either any help to prevent future, or medicine to remedy present, evils in the soul of man. The Fathers were slow and always fearful to absolve any be- fore very manifest tokens given of a true penitent and con- trite spirit. It was not their custom to remit sin first, and then to impose works of Satisfaction, as the fashion of Rome is now; insomuch that this their preposterous course, and misordered practices, hath bred also in them an error concerning the end and purpose of these works. For against the guiltiness of sin, and the danger of ever- lasting condemnation thereby incurred, Confession and Absolution succeeding the same, are, as they take it, a remedy sufficient ; and therefore what their Penitentia- ries do think to enjoin further, whether it be a number of Ave-Maries daily to be scored up, a journey of pilgrimage to be undertaken, some few dishes of ordinary diet to be exchanged, offerings to be made at the shrines of Saints, or a little to be scraped off from men's superfluities for relief of poor people, all is in lieu or exchange with God, whose justice, notwithstanding our pardon, yet oweth us still some temporal punishment, either in this or in the life to come, except we quit it ourselves here with works of the former kind, and continued till the balance of God's most strict severity shall find the pains we have taken equivalent with the plagues which we should endure, or else the mercy of the Pope relieve us. And at this postern- gate cometh in the whole mart of Papal Indulgences so infinitely strewed, that the pardon of sin, which heretofore was obtained hardly and by much suit, is with them be- come now almost impossible to be escaped.
To set down then the force of this sentence in absolving penitents ; there are in sin these three things :* the act which passeth away and vanisheth ; the pollution where- Avith it leaveth the soul defiled ; and the punishment
* ' In peccato tria sunt ; actio mala, interior macula, et sequela.' Bon. sent. 1. iv. d. 17. q. 3.
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whercunlo they are made subject that have committed it. The act of sin is every deed, word, and thought against the Law of God; " for sin is the transgression of the f. .*JB Law:" and although the deed itself do not continue, yet is that bad quality permanent, whereby it maketh the soul unrighteous and deformed hi God's sight. " From the heart JJj*£ come evil cogitations, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, slanders ; these are things which defile a man." They do not only, as effects of impurity, argue the nest to be unclean out of which they came, but as causes they strengthen that disposition unto wicked- ness which brought them forth; they are both fruits and seeds of uncleanness, they nourish the root out of which they grow, they breed that iniquity which bred them. The blot therefore of sin abide th, though the act be tran- sitory. And out of both ariseth a present debt, to endure what punishment soever the evil which we have done de- serveth ; an obligation, in the chains whereof sinners, by the justice of Almighty God, continue bound till Repen- tance loose them. " Repent this thy wickedness (saith J|J Peter unto Simon Magus), and beseech God, that if it be 22-2% possible the thought of thine heart may be pardoned; for I see thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." In like manner Solomon : " The wicked shall £°£ be held fast in the cords of his own sin.
Nor doth God only bind sinners hand and foot by the dreadful determination of his own unsearchable judgment against them ; but sometimes also the Church bindeth by the censures of her Discipline.* So that when offenders upon their Repentance are by the same Discipline ab- solved, the Church looseth but her own bonds, the chains wherein she had tied them before.
The act of sin God alone remitteth, in that his purpose a^ is never to call it to account, or to lay it unto men's charge ; mu. the stain he washeth out by the sanctifying grace of his l"c0^' Spirit; and concerning the punishment of sin, as none else ^l(iS hath power to cast body and soul into hell-fire, so none Luke have power to deliver either besides him. Matt.'
As for the Ministerial sentence of private Absolution, it x- 28-
* ' Sacerdotes opus justitiae exercent in peccatores, cum eos justa poena ligant; opus misericordiae, cum de ea aliquod relaxant, vel Sacramentorum Communioni conciliant ; alia opera in peccatores exercere nequeunt.5 Sent. I. iv. dis. 18.
2 Sam xii.13.
214 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
can be no more than a declaration what God hath done ; it hath but the force of the Prophet Nathan's Absolution, "God hath taken away thy sin :" than which construction, especially of words judicial, there is not any thing more Luke vulgar. For example, the Publicans are said in the Gospel mI'i?9' to have justified God ; the Jews in Malachi to have iii. 15. ]}iesse(j proud men, which sin and prosper ; not that the one did make God righteous, or the other the wicked happy : but to bless, to justify, and to absolve, are as commonly * used for words of judgment, or declaration, as of true and sent.i. real efficacy; yea, even by the opinion of the Master of is! s Sentences. It may be soundly affirmed and thought that God alone doth remit and retain sins, although he have given power to the Church to do both ; but he one way, and the Church another. He only by himself forgiveth sin, who cleanseth the soul from inward blemish, and looseth the debt of eternal death. So great a privilege he hath not given unto his Priests, who notwithstanding are au- thorized to loose and bind, that is to say, declare who arc bound, and who are loosed. For albeit a man be already cleared before God, yet he is not in the Church of God so taken, but by the virtue of the Priest's sentence ; who likewise may be said to bind by imposing Satisfaction, and to loose by admitting to the holy Communion.
Saint Jerome also, whom the Master of the Sentences allegeth for more countenance of his own opinion, doth no Hiw. less plainly and directly affirm : " That as the Priests of com. ' the Law could only discern, and neither cause nor remove Kb. leprosies ; so the Ministers of the Gospel, when they re- Matt- tain or remit sin, do but in the one judge how long we con- tinue guilty, and in the other declare when we are clear or free." For there is nothing more apparent, than that the Discipline of Repentance, both public and private, was ordained as an outward means to bring men to the virtue of inward conversion; so that when this by manifest tokens did seem effected, Absolution ensuing (which could not make) served only to declare men innocent.
But the cause wherefore they are so stiff, and have for- saken their own Master in this point is, for that they hold the private Discipline of Penitency to be a Sacrament; Ab- solution an external sign in this Sacrament ; the signs ex- ternal of all Sacraments in the New Testament, to be both
BOOK VI. 215
causes of that which they signify, and signs of that which they truly cause.
To this opinion concerning Sacraments, they are now tied by expounding a Canon in the Florentine Council according to the former Ecclesiastical invention received from Thomas. For his deceit it was, that the mercy of God, which useth Sacraments as instruments whereby to work, endueth them at the time of their administration with supernatural force and ability to induce grace into the souls of men ; even as the axe and saw do seem to bring timber into that fashion which the mind of the ar- tificer intendeth. His conceit, Scotus, Occam, Petrus scot. Alliacensis, with sundry others, do most earnestly and JJ* strongly impugn, shewing very good reason wherefore no ^1°t- Sacrament of the new Law can either by virtue which Qusst. itself hath, or by force supernatural given it, be properly jam"'"" a cause to wor grace ; but Sacraments are therefore said R^*^ to work or confer grace, because the will of Almighty God quant. is, although not to give them such efficacy, yet himself to q^ be present in the ministry of the working that effect, which ^ 4- proceedeth wholly from him, without any real operation of theirs, such as can enter into men's souls.
In which construction, seeing that our books and writ- ings have made it known to the world how we join with them, it seemeth very hard and injurious dealing, that Bel- larmine throughout the whole course of his second Book De Sacramentis in Genere* should so boldly face down his adversaries, as if their opinion were, that Sacraments are naked, empty, and ineffectual signs ; wherein there is no other force, than only such as in pictures, to stir up the mind, that so by theory and speculation of things repre- sented, faith may grow: finally, that all the operations which Sacraments have, is a sensible and divine instruc-
* ' Lutherani de hac re interdum ita scribunt, ut videantur a Catholicis non dis- sentire ; interdum autem apertissime scribunt contraria : at semper in eadem sen- tentia manent, Sacramenta non habere immediate illam efficientiam respectu gra- tis, sed esse nuda signa, tamen mediate aliquid efficere quatenus excitant et alunt fidem — quod ipsum non faciunt nisi repraesentando, ut Sacramenta per visum ex- citent fidem, quemadmodum preedicatio Verbi per auditum.' Bellarm. de effect. Sacram. 1. ii. c.2. .
' Qusedam signa sunt theorica, non ad alium finem instituta, quam ad sigmfican- dum ; alia ad significandum et efficiendum, quae ob id practica dici possunt. Con» troversia est inter nos et Haereticos, quod illi faciunt Sacramenta signa prions ge- neris. Quare si ostendere poterimus esse signa posteiioris generis, obtinuimus causam.' Ibid. cap. 8.
216 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
tion. But had it pleased him not to hoodwink his own knowledge, I nothing doubt but he fully saw how to answer himself; it being a matter very strange and incredible, that one which with so great diligence hath winnowed his adver- saries' writings,* should be ignorant of their minds. For, even as in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, both God and Man, when his human nature is by itself considered, we may not attribute that unto him, which we do and must ascribe as oft as respect is had unto both natures com- bined; so because in Sacraments there are two things dis- tinctly to be considered, the outward sign, and the secret concurrence of God's most blessed Spirit, in which respect our Saviour hath taught that water and the Holy Ghost are combined to work the mystery of new birth ; Sacra- ments therefore, as signs, have only those effects before- mentioned ; but of Sacraments, in that by God's own will and ordinance they are signs assisted always with the power of the Holy Ghost, we acknowledge whatsoever either the places of the Scripture, or the authority of Councils and Fathers, or the proofs and arguments of Reason which he allegeth, can shew to be wrought by them. The elements and words have power of infallible significations, for which they are called seals of God's truth; the Spirit affixed unto those elements and words, power of operation within the soul, most admirable, divine, and impossible to be ex- pressed. For so God hath instituted and ordained, that, together with due administration and receipt of sacramental signs, there shall proceed from himself grace effectual to sanctify, to cure, to comfort, and whatsoever else is for the good of the souls of men. Howbeit this opinion + Thomas
• ' Semper memoria repetendum est Sacramenta nihil aliud quam instrumenta- les esse conferendae nobis gratiae causas.' Calv. in Ant. con. Fri. sec. 7. c. 5. ' Si qui sint qui negentSacramentis contineri gratiam quam figurant, illos improbamus.' Ibid. c. 6.
t ' Iste modus non transcendit rationem signi, cum Sacramenta novae Legis non solum significent, sed, causent gratiam.' Part. iii. q. 62. Act. 1. Alexand. part.iv. q. 8. memb. 3. act. v. sec. Let 2. Th. de verit. q. 27. act. iii. Alliac. in quart, sent. ix. 1. Capr. in 4. d. 1. q. 1. Palud. Tom. Ferrar. lib. iv. cont. Gent. c. 57. * Necesse est ponere aliquam virtutem supernatural em in Sacramentis.' Sent. iv. d. 1. q. 1. act. iv. • Sacramentum consequitur spiritualem virtutem cum benedictione Cbristi, et application Ministri ad usum Sacramenti.' Part. iii. q. 62. art. iv. Concil. * Victus sacramentalis habet esse transiens ex uno in aliud et in- completum.' Ibidem. ' Ex Sacramentis duo consequuntur in anima, unum est character, sive aliquis ornatus ; aliud, est gratia. Respectu primo, Sacramenta sunt causa; aliquo modo efficientes ; respectu secundo, sunt disponentes. Sacra- menta causant dispositionem ad formam ultiniam, sed ultimam perfectionem non inducunt.' Sent. iv. d. 1. q. 1. art. iv.
BOOK VI. 217
rejecteth, under pretence that it maketh sacramental words and elements to be in themselves no more than signs, whereas they ought to be held as causes of that they signify. He therefore reformeth it with this addition, that the very sensible parts of the Sacraments do instrumentally effect and produce, not grace (for the Schoolmen both of these times, and long after, did, for the most part, maintain it untrue, and some of them impossible, that sanctifying grace should efficiently proceed but from God alone, and that by immediate creation, as the substance of the sonl doth) ; but the phantasy which Thomas had was, that sen- sible things, through Christ's and the Priest's benediction, receive a certain supernatural transitory force, which leav- eth behind it a kind of preparative quality or beauty within the soul, whereupon immediately from God doth ensue the grace that justifieth.
Now they which pretend to follow Thomas, differ from him in two points. For first, they make grace an immediate effect of the outward sign, which he for the dignity and ex- cellency thereof was afraid to do. Secondly, whereas he, to produce but a preparative quality in the soul, did ima- gine God to create in the instrument a supernatural gift or ability ; they confess, that nothing is created, infused, or any way inherent, either in the word or in the elements ; nothing that giveth them instrumental efficacy, but God's mere motion or application.* Are they able to explain unto us, or themselves to conceive, what they mean when they thus speak ? For example, let them teach us, in the Sacrament of Baptism, what it is for water to be moved till it bring forth grace. The application thereof by the Minis- ter is plain to sense ; the force which it hath in the mind, as a moral instrument of information or instruction, we know by reason ; and by faith, we understand how God doth assist it with his Spirit : whereupon ensueth the grace which Saint Cyprian did in himself observe, saying, "After [Ad d0- the bath of regeneration having scowered out the stained c.3j foulness of former life, supernatural light had entrance into the breast which was purified and cleansed for it: after that a second nativity had made another man, by in- ward receipt of the Spirit from Heaven ; things doubtful
* ' Solus Deus efficit gratiam adeo quod nee Angelis, qui sunt nobiliores sensi- bilibus creaturis, hoc communicetur.' Sent.iv. d. 1. q. 1. art. iv.
218 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
began in marvellous manner to appear certain, that to be open which lay hid, darkness to shine like a clear light, former hardness to be made facility, impossibility easiness: insomuch as it might be discerned how that was earthly, which before had been carnally bred and lived, given over unto sins ; that now God's own which the Holy Ghost did quicken."
Our opinion is therefore plain unto every man's under- standing. We take it for a very good speech which Bona- venture hath uttered in saying, * " Heed must be taken, that while we assign too much to the bodily signs in way of their commendation, we withdraw not the honour which is due to the cause which worketh in them, and the soul which receiveth them. Whereunto we conformably teach, that the outward sign applied hath of itself no natural effi- cacy towards grace, neither doth God put into it any su- pernatural inherent virtue." And, as I think, we thus far avouch no more than they themselves confess to be very true.
If any thing displease them, it is because we add to these promises another assertion ; that, with the outward sign, God joineth his Holy Spirit, and so the whole instru- ment of God bringeth that to pass, whereunto the baser and meaner part could not extend. As for operations through the motion of signs, they are dark, intricate, and obscure; perhaps possible, howbeit, not proved either true or likely, Luke by alleging, that the touch of our Saviour's garment re- john'i*. stored health, clay sight, when he applied it. Although ten thousand such examples should be brought, they over- throw not this one principle ; that, where the instrument is without inherent, the effect must necessarily proceed from the only agent's adherent, power.
It passeth a man's conceit how water should be carried into the soul with any force of divine motion, or grace pro- ceed but merely from the influence of God's Spirit. Not- Beiiarm. withstanding, if God himself teach his Church in this case slcrffect' to believe that which he hath not given us capacity to com- l.ii.ci. prehend, how incredible soever it may seem, yet our wits should submit themselves, and reason give place unto faith therein. But they yield it to be no question of faith, how
* ' Cavendum enim ne dum nimis damus corporalibus signis ad laudem, subtra- hamus honorem causae curanti et aniina; suscipienti.'
BOOK VI. 219
grace doth proceed from Sacraments ; if in general they be acknowledged true instrumental causes, by the ministry whereof men receive divine grace.* And <hat they which impute grace to the only operation of God himself, con^- curving with the external sign, do no less acknowledge the true efficacy of the Sacrament, than they that aseribe the same to the quality of the sign applied, or to the motion of God applying, and so far carrying it, till grace be not cre- ated, but extracted, out of the natural possibility of the soul. Nevertheless, this last philosophical imagination (if I may call it philosophical, which useth the terms, but overthroweth the rules of Philosophy, and hath no article of faith to support it), but whatsoever it be, they follow it in a manner all ; they cast off the first opinion, wherein is most perspicuity and strongest evidence of certain truth.
The Council of Florence and Trent defining, that Sacra- ments contain and confer grace, the sense whereof (if it liked them) might so easily conform itself with the same opinion which they drew without any just cause quite and clean the other way, making grace the issue of bare words, in such Sacraments as they have framed destitute of any visible element, and holding it the offspring as well of ele- ments as of words in those Sacraments where both are ; but in no Sacrament acknowledging grace to be the fruit of the Holy Ghost working with the outward sign, and not by it, in such sort as Thomas himself teacheth ; that the Apostle's Tho.de Imposition of Hands caused not the coming of the Holy q^j' Ghost, which notwithstanding was bestowed together with "'; '"■ the exercise of that Ceremony ; yea, by it (saith the Evan- ad. 16. gelist), to wit, as by a mean which came between the true viii'iB. agent and the effect, but not otherwise.
Many of the ancient Fathers, presupposing that the faith- ful before Christ had not, till the time of his coming, that perfect life and salvation which they looked for and we possess, thought likewise their Sacraments to be but pre- figurations of that which ours in present do exhibit. For which cause the Florentine Council, comparing the one with the other, saith, " That the old did only shadow grace, which was afterwards to be given through the Passion of Jesus Christ." But the after-wit of latter days hath found
* ' Dicimus gratiam non creari a Deo, sed produci ex aptitudine et potentia na- turali animse, sicutctetera omnia qurs producuntur in subjectis talibus, quae sunt apta nata ad suscipiendum accidentia.' Allen, de Sacr. in Gen. c. 37.
220 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
out another more exquisite distinction, that Evangelical Sacraments are causes to effect grace, through motions of signs Legal, according to the same signification and sense wherein Evangelical Sacraments are held by us to be God's instruments for that purpose. For howsoever Bellarmine hath shrunk up the Lutherans' sinews, and cut off our doc- trine by the skirts ; #Allen, although he term us Heretics, according to the usual bitter venom of his first style, doth yet ingenuously confess, that the old Schoolmen's doctrine and ours is one concerning Sacramental efficacy, derived from God himself, assisting by promise those outward signs of elements and words, out of which their Schoolmen of the newer mint are so desirous to hatch grace. Where God doth work and use these outward means, wherein he neither findeth nor planteth force and aptness towards his intended purpose ; such means are but signs to bring men to the con- sideration of his omnipotent power, which, without the use of things sensible, would not be marked.
At the time therefore when he giveth his heavenly grace, he applieth, by the hands of his Ministers, that which be- tokeneth the same ; not only betokeneth, but, being also ac- companied for ever with such power as doth truly work, is in that respect termed God's instrument, a true efficient cause of grace ; a cause not in itself, but only by connexion of that which is in itself a cause, namely, God's own strength and power. Sacraments, that is to say, the outward signs in Sacraments, work nothing till they be blessed and sanc- tified by God.
But what is God's heavenly benediction and sanctifica- tion, saving only the association of his Spirit? Shall we say that Sacraments are like magical signs, if thus they have
* ' Quod ad circumcisionem sequebatur remissio, fiebat ratione rei adjuncts et ratione pacti divini, eodem plane modo quo non solum Hseretici, sed etiam aliquot vetustiores Scholastici voluerunt nova Sacramenta conferre gratiam.' Allen, de Sacr. in gen. c. 39. ' Bonaventura, Scotus, Durandus, Ricardus, Occamus, Marsi- lius, Gabriel, — volunt solum Deum producere gratiam ad praesentiain Sacramento- rum.' Bellarm. de Sacr. in gen. lib. ii. c. 11. • Puto longe probabiliorem et tutiorem sententiam quae dat Sacramentis veram efficientiam. Primo quia doctores passim docent, Sacramenta non agere nisi prius a Deo virtutem seu benedictionem seu sanctificationem accipiant, et referunt effectum Sacramentorum ad omnipotentiam Dei, et conferunt cum veris causis efficientibus. Secundo, quia non esset differentia inter modum agendi Sacramentorum, et signorum magicorum. Tertio, quia tunc non esset homo Dei minister in ipsa actione Sacramentali, sed homo prrcberet signum actione sua, et Deus alia actione, viso eo signo, infunderet gratiam, ut cum unus ostendit syngrapham mercatori, et ille dat pecunias. At Scriptura; docent, quod Deus bapti-at per hominem.' Bellarm. lib. ii. cap. 11.
book vr. 221
Lheir effect ? Is it magic for God to manifest by things sen- sible what he doth, and to do by his most glorious Spirit really what he manifesteth in his Sacraments ? The delivery and administration whereof remaineth in the hands of mortal men, by whom, as by personal instruments, God doth apply signs, and with signs inseparably join his Spirit, and through the power of his Spirit work grace. The first is by way of concomitance and consequence to deliver the rest also that either accompany or ensue.
It is not here, as in cases of mutual commerce, where divers persons have divers acts to be performed in their own behalf; a creditor to shew his bill, and a debtor to pay his money. But God and man do here meet in one action upon a third, in whom, as it is the work of God to create grace, so it is his work by the hand of the Ministry to ap- ply a sign which should betoken, and his work to annex that Spirit which shall effect it. The action therefore is but one, God the author thereof, and man a co-partner, by him assigned to work for, with, and under him. God the giver of grace by the outward ministry of man, so far forth as he authorizeth man to apply the Sacraments of grace in the soul, which he alone worketh, without either instrument or co-agent.
Whereas therefore with us the remission of sin is as- cribed unto God, as a thing which proceedeth from him only, and presently followeth upon the virtue of true Re- pentance appearing in man ; that which we attribute to the Virtue, they do not only impute to the Sacrament, of Re- pentance, but, having made Repentance a Sacrament, and thinking of Sacraments as they do, they are enforced to make the Ministry of the Priests and their Absolution a cause of that which the sole omnipotency of God worketh. And yet, for my own part, I am not able well to conceive how their Doctrine, that human Absolution is really a cause out of which our deliverance from sin doth ensue, can cleave with the Council of Trent, defining, " That Con- J0°e- trition perfected with charity doth at all times itself re- sess. concile offenders to God, before they come to receive ac- "£ tually the Sacrament of Penance. How can it stand with those discourses of the learned Rabbies, which grant, "That ^l*™^ whosoever turneth unto God with his whole heart, hath i.u.c.13. immediately his sins taken away ; That if a man be truly
222 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
converted, his pardon can neither be denied nor delayed?" it doth not stay for the Priest's Absolution, but presently followeth : " Surely, if every contrite sinner, in whom there is charity and a sincere ^conversion of heart, have remis- sion of sins given him before he seek it at the Priest's hands ; if reconciliation to God be a present and immediate sequel upon every such conversion or change : it must of necessity follow seeing no man can be a true penitent or contrite which doth not both love God and sincerely abhor sin, that therefore they all before Absolution attain forgiveness ; whereunto notwithstanding Absolution is pre- tended a cause so necessary, that sin without it, except in some rare extraordinary case, cannot possibly be remitted." Shall Absolution be a cause producing and working that effect which is always brought forth without it, and had before Absolution be thought of? But, when they which are thus beforehand pardoned of God shall come to be also assoiled by the Priest, I would know what force his Abso- lution hath in this case ? Are they able to say here, that the Priest doth remit any thing? Yet, when any of ours ascribeth the work of remission to God, and interpreteth the Priest's sentence to be but a solemn declaration of that which God himself hath already performed, they scorn at it; they urge against it, that if this were true, our Saviour Christ should rather have said, u What is loosed in Heaven, ye shall loose on earth," than as he doth, " Whatsoever ye loose on earth, shall in Heaven be loosed." As if he were to learn of us how to place his words, and not we to crave rather of him a sound and right understanding, lest to his dishonour and our own hurt we misexpound them. It sufficeth, I think, both against their constructions to have proved that they ground an untruth on his speech, and, in behalf of our own, that his words without any such transposition do very well admit the sense we give them ; which is, that he taketh to himself the lawful proceedings of authority in his name, and that the act of spiritual authority in this case, is by sentence to acquit or pronounce them free from sin whom they judge to be sincerely and truly penitent; which in- terpretation they themselves do acknowledge, though not sufficient, yet very true.* * Hsec expositio, Ego te absolvo, id est, Absolutum ostendo, partim quidem vera
book vi. 223
Absolution, they say, declareth indeed, but this is not all, for it likewise maketh innocent ; which addition being an untruth proved, our truth granted hath, I hope, sufficiency without it, and consequently our opinion therein neither to be challenged as untrue, nor as unsufficient.
To rid themselves out of these briers, and to make re- mission of sins an effect of Absolution, notwithstanding that which hitherto hath been said, they have two shifts. As, first, that in many penitents there is but attrition of heart, which attrition they define to be grief proceeding from fear without love ; and to these, they say, Absolution doth give that Contrition whereby men are really purged from sin. Secondly,* that even where Contrition or inward Repentance doth cleanse without Absolution ; the reason why it cometh so to pass is, because such contrites intend and desire Absolution, though they have it not. Which two things granted :f the one, that Absolution given maketh them contrite that are not ; the other, even in them which are contrite, the cause why God remitteth sin is the pur- pose or desire they have to receive Absolution :% we are not to stand against a sequel so clear and manifest as this, that always remission of sin proceedeth from Absolution either had or desired.
But should a reasonable man give credit to their bare conceit, and because their positions have driven them to imagine absolving of unsufficiently-disposed penitents to be a real creating of further virtue in them, must all other men think it due ? Let them cancel henceforward and blot out of all their books those old cautions touching neces- city of wisdom,§ lest Priests should inconsiderately ab- solve any man in whom there were not apparent tokens of true Repentance ; which to do, was, in St. Cyprian's judg-
est, non tamen perfecta. Sacramenta quippe novee Legis non solum significant, sed efficiunt quod significant.' Soto, sent. 1. iv. dist. 14. q.l. art. iii.
* ' Attritio solum dicit dolorem propter pcenas inferri ; dum quis accedit attritus, per gratiam Sacramentalem fit contritus.' Soto, sent. iv. dist. 14. q. 1. art. i.
t ' Dum accedit vere contritus propter Deum, ilia etiam Contritio non est Con- tritio, nisiquatenus prius natura informetur gratia per Sacramentum in voto.' Soto, sent. iv. dist. 14. q. 1. art. i.
$ ' Legitima Contritio votum Sacramenti pro suo tempore debet inducere, atque adeo in virtute futuri Sacramenti peccata remittit' Ibid. art. iii.
§ ' Tunc sententia Sacerdotis judicio Dei et totius coelestis Curiae approbatur, et confirmatur, cum ita ex discretione procedit, utreorum meritanon contradicant.' Sent. I. iv. d. 18.
224 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
De Laps, ment,* " pestilent deceit and flattery, not only not avoid- pl3r" able, but hurtful to them that had transgressed: a frivo- lous, frustrate, aud false peace, such as caused the unrigh- teous to trust to a lie, and destroyed them unto whom it promised safety." What needeth observation whether penitents have worthiness and bring Contrition, if the words of Absolution do infuse Contrition? Have they borne us all this while in hand that Contrition is a part of the mat- ter of their Sacraments ; a condition or preparation of the mind towards grace to be received by Absolution in the form of their Sacraments ? And must we now believe, that the form doth give the matter? That Absolution bestow- eth Contrition, and that the words do make presently of Saul, David; of Judas, Peter? For what was the peni- tency of Saul and Judas, but plain attrition ; horror of sin through fear of punishment, without any long sense, or taste of God's mercy ?
Their other fiction, imputing remission of sin to desire of Absolution from the Priest, even in them which are truly contrite, is an evasion somewhat more witty, but no whit more possible for them to prove. Belief of the world and judgment to come, faith in the promises and sufferings of Christ for mankind, fear of his majesty, love of his mercy, grief for sin, hope for pardon, suit for grace — these we know to be elements of true Contrition : suppose that besides all this, God did also command that every penitent should seek his Absolution at the Priest's hands ; where so many causes are concurring unto one effect, have they any rea- son to impute the whole effect unto one? any reason in the choice of that one, to pass by faith, fear, love, humility, hope, prayer, whatsoever else, and to enthronize above them all a desire of Absolution from the Priest, as if, in the whole work of man's Repentance, God did regard and accept nothing, but for and in consideration of this? Why [Sess.xw. do the Tridentine Council impute it to charity, " That con- trites are reconciled in God's sight before they receive the Sacrament of Penance," if desired Absolution be the true cause ?
But let this pass how it will ; seeing the question is not,
* ' Non est periculosum Sacerdoti dicere, Ego te absolvo, illis in quibus signa Contritionis videt, qua; sunt dolor de praeteritis, et propositum de caetero non pec- candi ; alios absolvere non debet.' Tho. Opusc. 22.
c.4.]
rook vi. 225
what virtue God may accept in penitent sinners, but what grace Absolution actually given doth really bestow upon them.
If it were, as they would have it, that God regarding the humiliation of a contrite spirit, because there is joined therewith a lowly desire of the Sacrament of priestly Ab- solution, pardoneth immediately and forgiveth all offences ; doth this any thing help to prove that Absolution received afterwards from the Priest, can more than declare him already pardoned which did desire it? To desire Absolu- tion, presupposing it commanded, is obedience ; and obe- dience in that case is a branch of the Virtue of Repent- ance, which Virtue being thereby made effectual to the taking away of sins without the Sacrament of Repentance, is it not an argument that the Sacrament of Absolution hath here no efficacy, but the Virtue of Contrition worketh all? For how should any effect ensue from causes which actually are not? The Sacrament must be applied where- soever any grace doth proceed from it. So that where it is but desired only, whatsoever may follow upon God's ac- ceptation of this desire, the Sacrament, afterwards received, can be no cause thereof. Therefore the further we wade, the better we see it still appears, that the Priest doth never in Absolution, no not so much as by way of service and ministry, really either forgive them, take away the unclean- ness, or remove the punishment of sin : but, if the party penitent become contrite, he hath, by their own grant, Ab- solution before Absolution; if not contrite, although the Priest should seem a thousand times to absolve him, all were in vain. For which cause the Ancients and better sort of their School-divines, Abulensis, Alexander Hales, and Bonaventure,* ascribe " the real abolition of sin, and
* ' A reatu mortis asternae absolvitor homo a Deo per Contritionem ; manet au- tem reatus ad quandam poenam temporalem, et Minister Ecclesiae quicunque vir- tute clavium tollit reatum cujusdam partis poenze illius.' Abul. in defens. p. i. c. 7. ' Sign'um hujus Sacramenti est causa effectiva gratia' sive remissionis peccatorum ; non simpliciter, sicut ipsa prima poenitentia, sed secundum quid ; quia est causa efficaciae gratis qua fit remissio peccati, quantum ad aliquem efiectum in pceni- tente, ad minus quantum ad remissionem sequelae ipsius peccati, scilicet poenae.' Alex. p. iv. q. 14. memb. 2. ' Potestas clavium proprie loquendo non se extendit supra culpam: ad illud quod objicitur.' To. '22. 'Quorum remiseritis peccata; dicendum, quod vel illud de remissione dicitur quantum ad oftensionem, vel solum quantum ad prenam.' Bon. sent. 1. i. d. 18. q. i. ' Ab aeterna poena nullo modu solvit Sacerdos, sed a Purgatorio ; neque hoc per se, sed per accidens, quod cum in poenitente, virtute clavium, minuitur debitum poena; temporalis, non ita acriter punietur in Purgatorio, sicut si non esset absolutus.' Sent. 1. iv. d. 18. q. ii VOL. II. Q
226 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
eternal punishment, to the mere pardon of Almighty God, without dependency upon the Priest's Absolution, as a cause to effect the same:" his Absolution hath in their doctrine certain other effects specified, but this denied. Wherefore having hitherto spoken of the Virtue of Repent- ance required; of the Discipline of Repentance which Christ did establish ; and of the Sacrament of Repentance invented sithence, against the pretended force of human Absolution in Sacramental Penitency; let it suffice thus far to have shewed how God alone doth truly give, the Virtue of Repentance alone procure, and private Ministerial Absolution but declare, remission of sins.
Now the last and sometimes hardest to be satisfied by Repentance, are our minds ; and our minds we have then satisfied, when the conscience is of guilty become clear. For, as long as we are in ourselves privy to our most hei- nous crimes, but without sense of God's mercy and grace towards us, unless the heart be either brutish for want of knowledge, or altogether hardened by wilful Atheism, the remorse of sin is in it, as the deadly sting of the Serpent. Which point since very Infidels and Heathens have ob- served in the nature of sin (for the disease they felt, though they knew no remedy to help it), we are not rashly to de- spise those sentences which are the testimonies of their experience touching this point. They knew that the eye of a man's own conscience is more to be feared by evil- doers than the presence of a thousand witnesses, inasmuch as the mouths of other accusers are many ways stopped, the ears of the accused not always subject to glowing with contumely and exprobration ; whereas a guilty mind being forced to be still both a martyr and a tyrant in itself, must of necessity endure perpetual anguish and grief; for, as the body is rent with stripes, so the mind with guiltiness of cruelty, lust, and wicked resolutions. Which furies brought the Emperor Tiberius sometimes into such perplexity, that writing to the Senate, his wonted art of dissimulation failed him utterly in this case ; and whereas it had been ever his peculiar delight so to speak that no man might be able to sound his meaning, he had not the power to conceal what he felt through the secret scourge of an evil conscience, though no necessity did now enforce him to disclose the same. " What to write, or how to write, at this present,
book vi. 227
if I know (saith Tiberius), let the gods and goddesses, g^t- who thus continually cat me, only be worse to me than they 1. vi. are." It was not his imperial dignity and power that could c' provide a way to protect him against himself; the fears and suspicions which improbity had bred being strength- ened by every occasion, and those virtues clean banished which are the only foundation of sound tranquillity of mind. For which cause it hath been truly said, and agree- ably with all men's experience, that if the virtuous did ex- cel in no other privilege, yet far happier they are than the contrary sort of men, for that their hopes be always better.
Neither are we to marvel, that these things, known unto all, do stay so few from being authors of their own wo.
For we see by the ancient example of Joseph's unkind brethren, how it cometh to remembrance easily when crimes are once past, what the difference is of good from evil, and of right from wrong: but such considerations, when they should have prevented sin, were over-matched by inordinate desires. Are we not bound then with all thankfulness to acknowledge his infinite goodness and mercy, which hath revealed unto us the way how to rid ourselves of these mazes; the way how to shake off that yoke, which no flesh is able to bear; the way how to change most grisly horror into a comfortable apprehension of heavenly joy ?
Whereunto there are many which labour with so much the greater difficulty, because imbecility of mind doth not suffer them to censure rightly their own doings. Some fearful lest the enormity of their crimes be so unpardonable that no Re- pentance can do them good ; some lest the imperfection of their Repentance make it ineffectual to the taking away of sin. The one drive all things to this issue, whether they be not men that have sinned against the Holy Ghost; the other to this, what Repentance is sufficient to clear sinners, and to assure them that they are delivered.
Such as by error charge themselves of unpardonable sin must think, it may be they deem, that unpardonable which is not.
Our Saviour speaketh indeed of blasphemy which shall
never be forgiven ; but have they any sure and infallible
knowledge what that blasphemy is ? If not, why are they
unjust and cruel to their own souls, imagining certainty of
Q2
Watt.
33.
228 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
guiltiness in a crime concerning the very nature whereof they are uncertain ? For mine own part, although, where this blasphemy is mentioned, the cause why our Saviour spake thereof, was the Pharisees' blasphemy, which was not afraid to say, " He had an unclean spirit, and did cast out
Mark1' spirits by the power of Beelzebub ;" nevertheless I dare not precisely deny, but that even the Pharisees themselves might have repented and been forgiven, and that our Lord Jesus Christ peradventure might but take occasion at their blasphemy, which, as yet, was pardonable, to tell them fur- ther of an unpardonable blasphemy, whereunto he foresaw that the Jews would fall. For it is plain, that many thou- sands, at the first professing the Christian Religion, became afterwards wilful apostates, moved with no other cause of revolt, but mere indignation that the Gentiles should enjoy the benefit of the Gospel as much as they, and yet not be burdened with the yoke of Moses's Law.
The Apostles by preaching had won them to Christ, in whose name they embraced with great alacrity the full remis- sion of their former sins and iniquities; they received by the imposition of the Apostles' hands that grace and power of the Holy Ghost whereby they cured diseases, prophesied, spake with tongues : and yet in the end, after all this, they fell utterly away, renounced the mysteries of Christian Faith, blasphemed in their formal abjurations that most glorious and blessed Spirit, the gifts whereof themselves had possessed ; and by this means sunk their souls in the gulf of that unpardonable sin, whereof as our Lord Jesus Christ had told them beforehand, so the Apostle at the first appearance of such their revolt, putteth them in mind again, that falling now to their former blasphemies, their
Heb. salvation was irrecoverably gone. It was for them in this case impossible to be renewed by any Repentance; because they were now in the state of Satan and his angels; the Judge of quick and dead had passed his irrevocable sen- tence against them.
So great difference there is between Infidels unconverted, and backsliders in this manner fallen away, that always we have hope to reclaim the one which only hate whom they never knew ; but to the other which know and blaspheme, to them that with more than infernal malice accurse both the seen brightness of glory which is in him, and in themselves
Acts ii. 38
book vi. 229
the tasted goodness of divine grace, as those execrable mis- creants did, who first received in extraordinary miraculous manner, and then in outrageous sort blasphemed the Holy Heb. Ghost, abusing both it and the whole Religion, which God *' by it did confirm and magnify; to such as wilfully thus sin, after so great light of the truth and gifts of the Spirit, there remaineth justly no fruit or benefit to be expected by Christ's sacrifice.
For all other offenders, without exception or stint, whether they be strangers that seek access, or followers that will make re turn unto God ; upon the tender of their Repentance, the grant of his grace standeth everlastingly signed with his blood in the Book of eternal Life. That which in this case over-terrifieth fearful souls is, a misconceit whereby they imagine every act which they do, knowing that they do amiss, and every wilful breach or transgression of God's Law to be mere sin against the Holy Ghost; forgetting that the Law of Moses itself ordained sacrifices of expia- tion, as well for faults presumptuously committed, as things wherein men offend by error.
Now, there are on the contrary side others, who, doubt- ing not of God's mercy towards all that perfectly repent, remain notwithstanding scrupulous and troubled with con- tinual fear, lest defects in their own Repentance be a bar against them.
These cast themselves into very great, and peradventure Jer. needless, agonies, through misconstruction of things spoken l\\ca]\ about proportioning our griefs to our sins,* for which they ' 8,g- never think they have wept and mourned enough, yea, ifii.ia. they have not always a stream of tears at command, they take it for a heart congealed and hardened in sin ; when to keep the wound of Contrition bleeding, they unfold the circumstances of their transgressions, and endeavour to leave nothing which may be heavy against themselves.
Yet, do what they can, they are still fearful, lest herein also they do not that which they ought and might. Come to Prayer, their coldness taketh all heart and courage from them ; with Fasting, albeit their flesh should be withered,
* Quam magna deliquimus, tarn granditer defleamus. Alto vulneri diligens et longa medicina non desit ; pcenitentia crimine minor non sit.' Cypr. de Laps. p. 137. ' Non levi agendum est contritione, ut debita ilia redimantur, quibus mors asterna debetur ; nee transitoria opus est satisfactione pro malis illis, propter quae paratus est ignis reternus.' Euseb. Emissenus, vel potius Salv.f. 106.
230 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
and their blood clean dried up, would they ever the less psai. object, what is this to David's humiliation, wherein not- withstanding there was not any thing more than necessary? In works of charity and alms-deed, it is not all the world can persuade them they did ever reach the poor bounty of Mark the widow's two mites, or by many millions of leagues Acts ' come near to the mark which Cornelius touched ; so far x* *** they are oft" from the proud surmise of any penitential su- pererogation in miserable wretched worms of the earth.
Notwithstanding, forasmuch as they wrong themselves with over rigorous and extreme exactions, by means where- of they fall sometimes into such perplexities as can hardly be allayed; it hath therefore pleased Almighty God, in tender commiseration over these imbecilities of men, to ordain for their spiritual and ghostly comfort consecrated persons, which by sentence of power and authority given from above, may, as it were, out of his very mouth ascer- tain timorous and doubtful minds in their own particular, ease them of all their scrupulosities, leave them settled in peace and satisfied touching the mercy of God towards them. To use t;ie benefit of this help for the better satis- faction in such cases is so natural, that it can be forbidden no man ; but yet not so necessary, that all men should be in case to need it.
They are, of the two, the happier, therefore, that can con- tent and satisfy themselves, by judging discreetly what they perform, and soundly what God doth require of them. For having, that which is most material, the substance of Penitency rightly bred ; touching signs and tokens thereof, we may affirm that they do boldly, which imagine for every offence a certain proportionable degree in the passions and griefs of mind, whereunto whosoever aspireth not, repenteth in vain.
That to frustrate men's confession and considerations of sin, except every circumstance which may aggravate the same be unript and laid in the balance, is a merciless ex- tremity ; although it be true, that as near as we can such wounds must be searched to the very bottom. Last of all, to set down the like stint, and to shut up the doors of mercy against penitents which come short thereof in the devotion of their Prayers, in the continuance of their Fasts, in the largeness and bounty of their Alms, or in the course of any
BOOK VI. 231
other such like duties ; is more than God himself hath thought meet, and consequently more than mortal men should presume to do.
That which God doth chiefly respect in men's Penitency Jer- is their hearts. " The heart is it which maketh Repentance joei sincere," sincerity that which tindeth favour in God's sight, " 12" and the favour of God that which supplieth by gracious acceptation whatsoever may seem defective in the faithful, hearty, and true offices of his servants.
Take it (saith Chrysostom) upon my credit, " Such is clirys- God's merciful inclination towards men, that Repentance iaep"^b.' offered with a single and sincere mind he never refuseth ; j£rTj£°j ^ no, not although we be come to the very top of iniquity." Deposit. If there be a will and desire to return, he receivetb, em- c. Talis, braceth, and omitteth nothing which may restore us to for- mer happiness ; yea, that which is above all the rest, albeit we cannot, in the duty of satisfying him, attain what we ought, and would, but come far behind our mark, he taketh nevertheless in good worth that little which we do ; be it never so mean, we lose not our labour therein.
The least and lowest step of Repentance in Saint Chry- sostom's judgment serveth and setteth us above them that perish in their sin: I therefore will end with St. Augustine's conclusion, " Lord, in thy Book and Volume of Life all Aug. shall be written, as well the least of thy Saints, as the cxxxvVi. chiefest." Let not therefore the unperfect fear ; let them only proceed and go forward.
BOOK VII.
Their sixth Assertion, That there ought not to be in the Church, Bisbops endued with such authority and honour as ours are.
THE MATTER CONTAINED IN THIS SEVENTH BOOK.
1. The state of Bishops although some time oppugned, and that by such as therein would most seem to please God, yet by his providence upheld hitherto, whose glory it is to maintain that whereof himself is the author.
1. What a Bishop is, what his Name doth import, and what doth belong unto his Office as he is a Bishop.
3. In Bishops two things traduced ; of which two, the one their Authority ; and
232 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
in it the first thing condemned, their Superiority over other Ministers : what kind of Superiority in Ministers it is which the one part holdeth, and the other denieth, lawful.
4. From whence it hath grown, that the Church is governed by Bishops.
5. The time and cause of instituting every where Bishops with restraint.
6. What manner of power Bishops from the first beginning have had.
7. After what sort Bishops, together with Presbyters, have used to govern the
Churches which were under them.
8. How far the power of Bishops hath reached from the beginning in respect of territory, or local compass.
9. In what respects Episcopal Regiment hath been gainsayed of old by Ae'rius.
10. In what respects Episcopal Regiment is gainsayed by the authors of pretended reformation at this day.
11. Their arguments in disgrace of Regiment by Bishops, as being a mere in- vention of man, and not found in Scripture, answered.
12. Their arguments to prove, there was no necessity of instituting Bishops in the Church.
13. The fore-alleged arguments answered.
14. An answer unto those things which are objected, concerning the difference between that power which Bishops now have, and that which ancient Bishops had, more than other Presbyters.
15. Concerning the Civil power and authority which our Bishops have.
16. The arguments answered, whereby they would prove, that the Law of God,
and the judgment of the best in all ages, condemneth the ruling superiority of one Minister over another.
17. The second malicious thing wherein the state of Bishops suffereth obloquy, is
their Honour.
18. What good doth publickly grow from the Prelacy.
19. What kind of Honour be due unto Bishops.
20. Honour in title, place, ornament, attendance, and privilege.
21. Honour by endowments of Lands and Livings.
22. That of Ecclesiastical goods, and consequently of the Lands and Livings
which Bishops enjoy, the propriety belongs unto God alone.
23. That Ecclesiastical persons are receivers of God's rents, and that the Honour of Prelates is to be thereof his chief receivers, not without liberty from him granted of converting the same unto their own use, even in large manner.
24. That for their unworthiness to deprive both them and their successors of such
goods, and to convey the same unto men of secular callings, is now extreme sacrilegious injustice.
1. 1 have heard that a famous Kingdom in the world being
The
B^hops solicited to reform such disorders as all men saw the som°ugh Church exceedingly burdened with, when of each degree time op- great multitudes thereunto inclined, and the number of and that them did every day so increase that this intended work aT there- was likely to take no other effect than all good men did in would wish an(j labour for; a principal actor herein (for zeal and seem to boldness of spirit) thought it good to shew them betimes God!yet w^at it was which must be effected, or else that there by his Could be no work of perfect reformation accomplished.
provi- . r *■
dence To this purpose, in a solemn Sermon, and in a great As- hitherto, sembly, he described unto them the present quality of their Wior5eit Pu^nc estate by the parable of a tree, huge and goodly to is to look upon, but without that fruit which it should and might
book vii. 233
bring forth ; affirming, that the only way of redress was °^ntain a full and perfect establishment of Christ's Discipline (for whereof so their manner is to entitle a thing hammered out upon k™t the forge of their own invention), and that to make way au,hor- of entrance for it, there must be three great limbs cut off from the body of that stately tree of the Kingdom. Those three limbs were three sorts of men : Nobles, whose high estate would make them otherwise disdain to put their necks under that yoke; Lawyers, whose Courts being not pulled down, the new Church-consistories were not like to flourish; finally, Prelates, whose ancient dignity, and the simplicity of their intended Church-discipline, could not possibly stand together. The proposition of which device being plausible to active spirits, restless through desire of innovation, whom commonly nothing doth more offend than a change which goeth fearfully on by slow and suspicious paces; the heavier and more experienced sort began presently thereat to pluck back their feet again, and exceedingly to fear the stratagem of reformation for ever after. "Whereupon ensued those extreme conflicts of the one part with the other ; which continuing and increas- ing to this very day, have now made the state of that flourishing Kingdom even such, as whereunto we may most fitly apply those words of the Prophet Jeremiah, " Thy [.La™;3 breach is great like the sea, who can heal thee?" Whether this were done in truth, according to the constant affirma- tion of some avouching the same, I take not upon me to examine ; that which 1 note therein is, how with us that policy hath been corrected. For to the authors of pre- tended reformation with us, it hath not seemed expedient to offer the edge of the axe unto all three boughs at once, but rather to single them, and strike at the weakest first, making show that the lop of that one shall draw the more abundance of sap to the other two, that they may thereby the better prosper. All prosperity, felicity, and peace, we wish multiplied on each estate, as far as their own hearts' desire is: but let men know that there is a God, whose eye beholdeth them in all their ways ; a God, the usual and ordinary course of whose justice, is to return upon the head of malice the same devices which it contriveth against' others. The foul practices which have been used for the overthrow of Bishops, may perhaps wax bold in
234 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
process of time to give the like assault even there, from whence at this present they are most seconded. Nor let it over-dismay them who suffer such things at the hands of this most unkind world, to see that heavenly estate and dignity thus conculcated, in regard whereof so many their predecessors were no less esteemed than if they had not been men, but Angels, amongst men. With former Bishops it was as with Job in the days of that prosperity which at [Job large he describeth, saying, " Unto me men gave ear, they !»!«.] waited and held their tongue at my counsel; after my words they replied not ; I appointed out their way and did sit as chief; I dwelt as it had been a King in an army." At this day, the case is otherwise with them ; and yet no otherwise than with the self-same Job at what time the al- teration of his estate wrested these contrary speeches from [J°i> him, " But now they that are younger than I mock at me, ilXg.] the children of fools, and offspring of slaves, creatures more base than the earth they tread on ; such as if they did shew their heads, young and old would shout at them and chase them through the street with a cry : their song I am, I am a theme for them to talk on." An injury less grievous, if it were not offered by them whom Satan hath through his fraud and subtilty so far beguiled, as to make them imagine herein they do unto God a part of most faithful service. Whereas the Lord in truth whom they cypi.i. serve herein is, as St. Cyprian telleth them, like, not Christ faKep. (for he it is that doth appoint and protect Bishops), but 59. c 5.] ratjier Christ's adversary and enemy of his Church. A thousand five hundred years and upward the Church of Christ hath now continued under the sacred Regiment of Bishops. Neither for so long hath Christianity been ever planted in any Kingdom throughout the world but with this kind of Government alone ; which to have been or- dained of God, I am for mine own part even as resolutely persuaded, as that any other kind of Government in the world whatsoever is of God. In this Realm of England, before Normans, yea before Saxons, there being Christians, the chief Pastors of their souls were Bishops. This Order from about the first establishment of Christian Religion, which was publickly begun through the virtuous disposi- tion of King Lucius not fully two hundred years after Christ, continued till the coming in of the Saxons ; by
BOOK VII.
235
whom Paganism being every where else replanted, only one part of the Island, whereinto the ancient natural in- habitants, the Britons, were driven, retained constantly the Faith of Christ, together with the same form of spiritual Regiment, which their fathers had before received. Where- fore in the Histories of the Church we find very ancient mention made of our own Bishops. At the Council ofSujptt. Ariminum, about the year three hundred and fifty-nine, i. a. Britain had three of her Bishops present. At the arrival [£'J?'] of Augustine, the Monk, whom Gregory sent hither to jJ^J- reclaim the Saxons from Gentility about six hundred years i. «. after Christ, the Britons he found observers still of the c' self-same Government by Bishops over the rest of the Clergy ; under this form Christianity took root again, where it had been exiled. Under the self-same form it remained till the days of the Norman Conqueror. By him and his An. 1066. successors thereunto * sworn, it hath from that time till now, by the space of five hundred years more, been upheld. O nation utterly without knowledge, without sense ! We are not through error of mind deceived, but some wicked thing hath undoubtedly bewitched us, if we forsake that Government, the use whereof universal experience hath for so many years approved, and betake ourselves unto a Regiment neither appointed of God himself, as they who favour it pretend, nor till yesterday ever heard of among men. By the Jews Festus was much complained of, as being a Governor marvellous corrupt, and almost into- lerable : such notwithstanding were they who came after him, that men which thought the public condition most afflicted under Festus, began to wish they had him again, and to esteem him a ruler commendable. Great things are hoped for at the hands of these new Pre- sidents, whom reformation would bring in : notwith- standing the time may come, when Bishops, whose Regiment doth now seem a yoke so heavy to bear, will be longed for again, even by them that are the readiest to have it taken off their necks. But in the hands of divine Provi- dence we leave the ordering of all such events, and come now to the question itself which is raised concerning
* ' Alfredus Eboracensis Archiepiscopus Gulielmum, cognomento Nothum, spirantem adhuc minarum et csdis in populum, mitem reddidit : et religiosis pro conservanda Repub. tueudaque Ecclesiastica Disciplina Sacramento adstrinxit ' Nabrig. 1. i. c. 1.
236 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Bishops. For the better understanding whereof, we must beforehand set down what is meant, when in this question we name a Bishop. what a 2. For whatsoever we bring from antiquity, by way of defence, in this cause of Bishops, it is cast off as imperti- nent matter ; all is wiped away with an odd kind of shifting
Bishop is, what his Name
dothim- answer, 'That the Bishops which now are, be not like unto 1°^' them which were/ We therefore beseech all indifferent
-what doth
be judges to weigh sincerely with themselves how the case long to doth stand. If it should be at this day a controversy oiLe whether kingly Regiment were lawful or no, peradventure *b}!u in defence thereof, the long continuance which it hath had shop, sithence the first beginning might be alleged ; mention per- haps might be made what Kings there were of old, even in Abraham's time, what Sovereign Princes both before and after. Suppose that herein some man, purposely bending his wit against Sovereignty, should think to elude all such allegations by making ample discovery through a number of particularities, wherein the Kings that are, do differ from those that have been, and should therefore in the end con- clude, that such ancient examples are no convenient proofs of that Royalty which is now in use. Surely for decision of truth in this case there were no remedy, but only to shew the nature of Sovereignty ; to sever it from accidental properties ; to make it clear that ancient and present Re- gality are one and the same in substance, how great odds soever otherwise may seem to be between them. In like manner, whereas a question of late hath grown, whether Ecclesiastical Regiment by Bishops be lawful in the Church of Christ or no, in which question, they that hold the ne- gative, being pressed with that generally received Order, •eccording whereunto the most renowned lights of the Christian world have governed the same in every age as Bishops ; seeing their manner is to reply, that such Bishops as those ancient were, ours are not, there is no remedy but to shew, that to be a Bishop is now the self-same thing which it hath been ; that one definition agreeth fully and truly as well to those elder, as to these latter, Bishops. Sundry dissimilitudes we grant there are, which notwith- standing are not such that they cause any equivocation in the, Name, whereby we should think a Bishop in those times to have had a clean other definition than doth rightly
book vir. 237
agree unto Bishops as they are now. Many things there are in the state of Bishops, which the times have changed ; many a Parsonage at this day is larger than some ancient Bishopricks were ; many an ancient Bishop poorer than at this day sundry under them in degree. The simple here- upon, lacking judgment and knowledge to discern between the nature of things which changeth not, and these out- ward variable accidents, are made believe that a Bishop heretofore and now are things in their very nature so dis- tinct that they cannot be judged the same. Yet to men that have any part of skill, what more evident and plain in Bishops, than that augmentation or diminution in their precincts, allowances, privileges, and such like, do make a difference indeed, but no essential difference between one Bishop and another? A.S for those things in regard whereof we use properly to term them Bishops, those things whereby they essentially differ from other Pastors, those things which the natural definition of a Bishop must contain ; what one of them is there more or less appliable unto Bishops now than of old ? The Name Bishop hath been borrowed from the Grecians,* with whom it signifieth one which hath principal charge to guide and oversee othes . The same word in Ecclesiastical Writings being applied unto Church-governors, at the first unto all and not unto the chiefest only, grew in short time peculiar and Act? proper to signify such Episcopal authority alone, as the pXhii2 chiefest Governors exercised over the rest ; for with all *• *• names this is usual, that inasmuch as they are not given till the things whereunto they are given have been sometime first observed ; therefore generally,f things are ancienter than the names whereby they are called.
Again, sith the first things that grow into general obser- vation, and do thereby give men occasion to find name for them, are those which being in many subjects are there- by the easier, the oftener, and the more universally noted ; it followeth, that names imposed to signify common quali-
* Oi Trap' 'Aflwaiuv eU t«; icstuxoou; ttoXu; l<s:\.aY.i\a.a^a.i to. >na.g Ixas-Toij we^Tro^evoj, ZTtitrxoTroi Hal <{>uXax.E? maXovvro, oS? oi AaxauvE; k^fA,o<TTa% 'iXeyov. Suid. Kcnea-Tntrsv icj>' ixatnoig tSv -naym a^ovra. lirifx.o'KM ts xal tt^i'ttoXov rii? iSia? ^/.os'faj. Dionys. Ha- licar. de Numa Pompilio, Antiq. Jib. ii. [c. 76.] ' Vult me Pompeius esse quem tota hffc Campania et maritima ora habeat 'ETn'a-JtoTrov, ad quem delectus et negotii summa referatur.' Cic. ad Attic. Jib. vii. Epist. 11.
t " And God brought them unto Adam, that Adam might see or consider what name it was meethe should give unto them." Gen. ii. 19.
238 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
ties of operations are ancienter, than is the restraint of those names, to note an excellency of such qualities and operations in some one or few amongst others. For ex- ample, the name Disciple being invented to signify gene- rally a Learner, it cannot choose but in that signification be more ancient than when it signifies, as it were by a kind of appropriation, those Learners who, being taught of Christ,* were in that respect termed Disciples by an ex- cellency. The like is to be seen in the name Apostle, the use whereof to signify a Messenger must needs be more ancient than that use which restraineth it unto Messen- gers sent concerning Evangelical affairs; yea this use more ancient than that whereby the same word is yet re- strained further to signify only those whom our Saviour himself immediately did send. After the same manner the Title or Name of a Bishop, having been used of old to signify both an Ecclesiastical Overseer in general, and more particularly also a principal Ecclesiastical Over- seer ; it followeth, that this latter restrained signification is not so ancient as the former, being more common.f Yet because the things themselves are always ancienter than their names ; therefore that thing, which the restrain- ed use of the word doth import, is likewise ancienter than the restraint of the word is, and consequently that power of chief Ecclesiastical Overseers, which the term of a Bishop doth import, was before the restrained use of the name which doth import it. Wherefore a lame and impo- tent kind of reasoning it is, when men go about to prove, that in the Apostles' times there was no such thing as the restrained Name of a Bishop doth now signify ; because in their Writings there is found no restraint of that name, but only a general use, whereby it reacheth unto all Spiritual Governors and Overseers.
But, to let go the Name, and come to the very nature of that thing which is thereby signified. In all kinds of Re- giment, whether Ecclesiastical or Civil, as there are sundry operations public, so likewise great inequality there is in the same operations, some being of principal respect, and
* So also the name Deacon, a Minister appropriated to a certain Order of Mi- nisters.
t The name likewise of a Minister was common to divers degrees, which now is peculiarly among ourselves given only to Pastors, and not, as anciently, to Dea- cons also.
book vii. 239
therefore not fit to be dealt in by every one to whom public actions, and those of good importance, are notwithstand- ing well and fitly enough committed. From hence have grown those different degrees of Magistrates or public persons, even Ecclesiastical as well as Civil. Amongst Ecclesiastical persons, therefore, Bishops being chief ones, a Bishop's function must be defined by that wherein his chiefly consisteth. A Bishop is a Minister of God, unto whom, with permanent continuance, there is given, not only power of administering the Word and Sacraments, which power other Presbyters have; but also a further power to ordain Ecclesiastical persons, and a power of chiefty in government over Presbyters as well as Laymen, a power to be by way of jurisdiction a Pastor even to Pastors themselves. So that this Office, as he is a Pres- byter or Pastor, consisteth in those things which are com- mon unto him with other Pastors, as in ministering the Word and Sacraments ; but those things incident unto his Office, which do properly make him a Bishop, cannot be common unto him with other Pastors. Now even as Pas- tors, so likewise Bishops, being principal Pastors, are either at large or else with restraint : at large, when the subject of their Regiment is indefinite, and not tied to any certain place ; Bishops with restraint, are they whose Re- giment over the Church is contained within some definite, local compass, beyond which compass their jurisdiction reacheth not. Such therefore we always mean, when we speak of that Regiment by Bishops which we hold a thing most lawful, divine, and holy, in the Church of Christ.
3. In our present Regiment by Bishops two things i° Bi- are complained of; the one their great Authority, and the thi^V™ other their great Honour. Touching the Authority of our ^Uich J Bishops, the first thing which therein displeaseth their ad- tw°. Ow versaries, is the Superiority which Bishops have over other A^thori- Ministers. They which cannot brook the Superiority |*;itatnhde which Bishops have, do notwithstanding themselves admit firstthine that some kind of difference and inequality there may be ed, their lawfully amongst Ministers. Inequality as touching gifts ^over and graces they grant, because this is so plain that no°!herMi- mist in the world can be cast before men's eyes so thick, what but that they must needs discern through it, that one supwlL Minister of the Gospel may be more learned, holier, and ritjrin
240 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
wiser, better able to instruct, more apt to rule and guide them than another : unless thus much were confessed, those men should lose their fame and glory whom they
tin pa
hoideti., themselves do entitle the Lights and grand Worthies of
and the other denietli, lawful.
this present age. Again, a priority of Order they deny not but that there may be, yea, such a priority as maketh one man amongst many a principal actor in those things whereunto sundry of them must necessarily concur, so that the same be admitted only during the time of such actions, and no longer ; that is to say, just so much Superi- ority, and neither more nor less may be liked of, than it hath pleased them in their own kind of Regiment to set down. The inequality which they complain of is, ' That one Minister of the Word and Sacraments should have a per- manent Superiority above another, or in any sort a Supe- riority of Power mandatory, judicial, and coercive over other Ministers.' By us, on the contrary side, ' Inequality, even such inequality as unto Bishops, being Ministers of the Word and Sacraments, granteth a Superiority permanent above Ministers, yea* a permanent Superiority of Power mandatory, judicial, and coercive over them,' is maintained a thing allowable, lawful, and good. For, Superiority of Power may be either above them, or upon them, in regard of whom it is termed Superiority. One Pastor hath Supe- riority of Power above another, when either some are au- thorized to do things worthier than are permitted unto all ; or sOme are preferred to be principal agents, the rest agents with dependency and subordination. The former of these two kinds of Superiority is such as the High-priest had above other Priests of the Law, in being appointed to enter once a year the Holy Place, which the rest of the Priests might not do. The latter Superiority, such as Pre- sidents have in those actions which are done by others with them, they nevertheless being principal and chief therein. One Pastor hath Superiority of Power, not only above, but upon, another, when some are subject unto others' com- mandment and judicial controlment by virtue of public jurisdiction. Superiority in this last kind is utterly denied to be allowable; in the rest it is only denied, that the lasting continuance and settled permanency thereof is law- ful. So that, if we prove at all the lawfulness of Superiority in this last kind, where the same is simply denied, and of
book vir. 241
permanent Superiority in the rest, where some kind of Su- periority is granted, but with restraint to the term and con- tinuance of certain actions, with which the same must, as they say, expire and cease ; if we can shew these two things maintainable, we bear up sufficiently that which the adverse party endeavoureth to overthrow. Our desire therefore is, that this issue may be strictly observed, and those things accordingly judged of, which we are to allege. This we boldly therefore set down as a most infallible truth, ' That the Church of Christ is at this day lawfully, and so hath been sithence the first beginning, governed by Bishops ' having permanent Superiority and ruling Power over other Ministers of the Word and Sacraments.'
For the plainer explication whereof, let us briefly de- clare, first, the birth and original of the same Power, whence and by what occasion it grew. Secondly, what manner of Power antiquity doth witness Bishops to have had more than Presbyters which were no Bishops. Third- ly, after what sort Bishops, together with Presbyters, have used to govern the Churches under them, according to the like testimonial evidence of antiquity. Fourthly, how far the same Episcopal Power hath usually extended; unto what number of persons it hath reached ; what bounds and limits of place it hath had. This done, we may afterwards descend unto those by whom the same either hath been heretofore, or is at this present hour, gainsayed.
4. The first Bishops in the Church of Christ were his From blessed Apostles. For the Office whereunto Matthias was uh™h chosen the Sacred History doth term 'E7n<TK07n)i/, an Episco- ^^ pal Office ; which being spoken expressly of one, agreeth church no less unto them all than unto him. For which cause St. vefnJd Cyprian* speaking generally of them all doth call them J^®1" Bishops. They which were termed Apostles, as being sent of Christ to publish his Gospel throughout the world, and were named likewise Bishops, in that the care of go- vernment was also committed unto them, did no less per- form the Offices of their Episcopal Authority by governing, than of their Apostolical by teaching. The word 'E7r«xico7n7 expressing that part of their Office which did consist in Regiment, proveth not (I grant) their Chiefty in Regiment
* ' Meminisse Diaconi debent, quoniam Apostolos, id est, Episcopos et Praeposi- tos, Dominus elegit.' Cypr. 1. iii. ep. 9, [al. ep. 3. c. 2.]
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242 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
over others, because as then that name was common unto the function of their inferiors, and not peculiar unto theirs. But the history of their actions sheweth plainly enough how the thing itself which that name appropriated importeth, that is to say, even such spiritual Chieffy, as we have al- ready denned to be properly Episcopal, was in the holy Apostles of Christ. Bishops therefore they were at large. But was it lawful for any of them to be a Bishop with re- straint? True it is their charge was indefinite, yet so, that Rom.u. in case they did all, whether severally or jointly, discharge icor! the Office of proclaiming every where the Gospel and of ix 16. guiding the Church of Christ, none of them casting off his ™i. part in their burden which was laid upon them, there doth 15,16" appear no impediment, but that they having received their common charge indefinitely, might in the execution thereof notwithstanding restrain themselves, or at leastwise be re- strained by the after commandment of the Spirit, without contradiction or repugnancy unto that charge more indefi- nite and general before given them : especially if it seemed at any time requisite, and for the greater good of the Church, that they should in such sort tie themselves unto some special part of the flock of Jesus Christ, guiding the same in several as Bishops. For, first, notwithstanding our Saviour's commandment unto them all, to go and preach unto all nations ; yet some restraint we see there Gai. was made, when by agreement between Paul and Peter, "" 8" moved with those effects of their labours which the provi- dence of God brought forth, the one betook himself unto the Gentiles, the other unto the Jews, for the exercise of that Office of every where preaching. A further restraint of their Apostolic labours as yet there was also made, when they divided themselves into several parts of the world ; John* for his charge taking Asia, and so the residue other quarters, to labour in. If nevertheless it seem very hard that we should admit a restraint so particular, as after that general charge received to make any Apostle notwithstand- ing the Bishop of some one Church ; what think we of the Bishop of Jerusalem, f James, whose consecration unto
» Him Eusebius doth name the Governor of the Churches in Asia, lib. iii. Hist. Eccles. c. 1 6. Tertullian calleth the same Churches St. John's Foster-daughters, advers. Marcion. [1. iv. c. 5.]
t ' Iacobus, qui appellatur Frater Domini, cognomento Justus, post Passionem Domini statim ab Apostolis Hierosolymorum Episcopus ordinatus est.' Hieron.
book vii. 243
that Mother See of the world, because it was not meet that it should at any time be left void of some Apostle, doth seem to have been the very cause of St. Paul's miraculous vocation, to make up the number of the Twelve again, for Aci3o the gathering of nations abroad, even as the martyrdom of xui.e. the other James, the reason why Barnabas in his stead was called. Finally, Apostles, whether they did settle in any one certain place, as James, or else did otherwise, as the Apostle Paul, Episcopal Authority either at large or with restraint they had and exercised. Their Episcopal Power they sometimes gave unto others to exercise as agents only in their stead, and as it were by commission from them. Thus Titus, and thus Timothy, at the first, though afterwards ntus endued with Apostolical Power of their own.* For in process '" 5' of time the Apostles gave Episcopal Authority, and that to continue always with them which had it. " We are able Iren-.. to number up them (saith Irenaeus), who by the Apostles cap. 3. were made Bishops." In Rome he affirmeth that the Apo- stles themselves made Linus the first Bishop. Again of Polycarp he saith likewise, that the Apostles made him Bishop of the Church of Smyrna. Of Antioch they made mEP. Evodius Bishop, as Ignatius witnesseth ; exhorting that ta£ct°" Church to tread in his holy steps, and to follow his virtuous Cc-7l example. The Apostles therefore were the first which had such Authority, and all others who have it after them in orderly sort are their lawful successors, whether they succeed in any particular Church, where before them some Apostle hath been seated, as Simon succeeded James in Jerusalem ; or else be otherwise endued with the same kind of Bishoply Power, although it be not where any Apostle before hath been. For to succeed them, is after them to have that Episcopal kind of Power which was first Hieron. given to them. "All Bishops are, (saith Jerome) the Apo- g8^ sties' successors." In like sort Cyprian doth term Bishops, §• U " Pi sepositos, qui Apostolis vicaria ordinatione succedunt." Sfi'o?' From hence it may haply seem to have grown, that they j^'-f6* whom we now call Bishops were usually termed at the first Theod- Apostles, and so did carry their very names in whose rooms m. uT
Scrip. Eccles. Catal. ii. ' Eodem tempore Iacobum primum sedem Episcopalem Ecclesiae, quas est Hierosolymis, obtinuisse rnemoria; traditur.' Euseb. Hist. Ec- clesias. lib. ii. cap. 1. The same seemeth to be intimated, Acts xv. 13. xxi. 18.
* This appeareth by those subscriptions which are set after the Epistle to Titus, and the second to Timothy, and by Euseb. Eccles, Hist. lib. iii. cap. 4.
r2
21.2 Uohn 1.3. Gal.
Apoc. xxi. 14 Matt.
XXVi ~
244 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
of spiritual Authority they succeeded. Such as deny Apo- stles to have any successors* at all in the Office of their Apostleship, may hold that opinion without contradiction to this of ours, if they well explain themselves in declaring what truly and properly Apostleship is. In somethings every Presbyter, in some things only Bishops, in some things nei- ther one nor the other, are the Apostles' successors. The
Actsi. Apostles were sent as special chosen eye-witnesses of Jesus Christ, from whom immediately they received their whole embassage and their commission to be the principal first founders of a House of God, consisting as well of Gentiles as of Jews. In this there are not after them any other like unto them ; and yet the Apostles have now their
19. successors upon earth, their true successors, if not in the largeness, surely in the kind of that Episcopal function, whereby they had power to sit as spiritual ordinary Judges, both over Laity and over Clergy, where Christian Churches were established.
The 5# The Apostles of our Lord did, according unto those
time and r ' °
cause directions which were given them from above, erect "uting" Churches in all such cities as received the Word of Truth, ^j"* the Gospel of God. All Churches by them erected re- Bishops ceived from them the same Faith, the same Sacraments, strain"" the same Form of public Regiment. The Form of Regi- ment by them established at first was, 'That the Laity of people should be subject unto a College of Ecclesiastical persons, which were in every such city appointed for that purpose.' These in their writings they term sometimes Presbyters, sometimes Bishops. To take one Church out of a number for a pattern what the rest were ; the Pres- et* **• byters of Ephesus, as it is in the history of their departure from the Apostle Paul at Miletum, are said to have wept abundantly all, which speech doth shew them to have been many. And by the Apostle's exhortation it may ap- pear that they had not each his several flock to feed, but were in common appointed to feed that one flock, the Church of Ephesus ; for which cause the phrase of bis Acts xx. speech is this, Attendite gregi, " Look all to that one flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops." These persons Ecclesiastical being termed as then, Pres-
* 'Ipsius Apostolatus nulla successio. Finitur enim legatio cum legato, nee ad successores ipsius transit.' Stapl. doct. prin, lib. vi. cap. 7,
book vii. 245
byters and Bishops both, were all subject unto Paul, as to a higher Governor appointed of God to be over them. But forasmuch as the Apostles could not themselves be pre- sent in all Churches, and as the Apostle St. Paul* foretold the Presbyters of the Ephesians, that there would "rise up Acts from amongst their ownselves men speaking perverse xx things, to draw disciples after them ;" there did grow in short time amongst the Governors of each Church those emulations, strifes, and contentions, whereof there could be no sufficient remedy provided, except, according unto the Order of Jerusalem already begun, some one were endued with Episcopal Authority over the rest, which one being resident might keep them in order, and have pre-eminence or principality in those things wherein the equality of many agents was the cause of disorder and trouble. This one President or Governor, amongst the rest, had his known Authority established along time before that settled differ- ence of Name and Title took place, whereby such alone were named Bishops. And therefore in the Book of St. John's Revelation we find they are entitled Angels. It Rev. a. will perhaps be answered, that the Angels of those Churches were only in every Church a Minister of Sacra- ments : but then we ask, is it probable that in every of these Churches, even in Ephesus itself, where many such Ministers were long before, as hath been proved, there was but one such, when John directed his speech to the Angel of that Church ? If there were many, surely St. John, in naming but only one of them an Angel, did behold in that one somewhat above the rest. Nor was this Order peculiar unto some few Churches, but the whole world uni- versally became subject thereunto ; insomuch as they did not account it to be a Church which was not subject unto a Bishop. It was the general received persuasion of the ancient Christian world, that Ecclesia est in Episcopo, the Cjpr< iv outward being of a Church consisted in the having of aEP'st-9- Bishop. That where Colleges of Presbyters were, there 66.C 6.] was at the first equality amongst them, St. Jerome thinketh
* As appeareth both by his sending to call the Presbyters of Ephesus before him as far as to Miletum (Acts xx. 17.), which was almost fifty miles, and by his leaving Timothy in his place with his authority and instructions for ordaining of Ministers there (1 Tim. v. 22.) ; and for proportioning their maintenance (ver. 17, 18.) ; and for judicial hearing of accusations brought against them (ver. 19.) ; and for holding them in a uniformity of doctrine (Ch. i. 3.).
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Hieron. it a matter clear : but when the rest were thus equal, so that Ep. loi. n0 one 0f tnem could command any other as inferior unto Evang. him, they all were controllable by the Apostles, who had that Episcopal Authority abiding at the first in themselves, which they afterwards derived unto others. The cause wherefore they under themselves appointed such Bishops as were not every where at the first, is said to have been those strifes and contentions, for remedy whereof, whe- ther the Apostles alone did conclude of such a Regiment, or else they together with the whole Church judging it a fit and needful policy did agree to receive it for a custom ; no doubt but being established by them on whom the Holy Ghost was poured in so abundant measure for the order- ing of Christ's Church, it had either divine appointment beforehand, or divine approbation afterwards, and is in that respect to be acknowledged the Ordinance of God, E»od. no less than that ancient Jewish Regiment, whereof though xvm. 19. jetjjro were tjjg deviser> yet after that God had allowed it, all men were subject unto it, as to the Polity of God, and not of Jethro. That so the ancient Fathers did think of Episcopal Regiment ; that they held this Order as a thing received from the blessed Apostles themselves, and au- thorized even from Heaven, we may perhaps more easily prove, than obtain that they all shall grant it who see it EP. ad proved. St. Augustine setteth it down for a principle, [io8. J. that whatsoever positive Order the whole Church every 5i' c' J where doth observe, the same it must needs have received from the very Apostles themselves, unless perhaps some general Council were the authors of it. And he saw that the ruling Superiority of Bishops was a thing universally established not by the force of any Council (for Councils do all presuppose Bishops, nor can there any Council be named so ancient, either General, or so much as Provincial, sithence the Apostles' own times, but we can shew that Bishops had their Authority before it, and not from it) : wherefore St. Augustine, knowing this, could not choose but reverence the Authority of Bishops, as a thing to him apparently and most clearly Apostolical. But it will be perhaps objected, that Regiment by Bishops was not so universal nor ancient as we pretend ; and that an argu- ment hereof may be Jerome's own testimony, who, living at the very same time with St. Augustine, noted this kind
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of Regiment as being no where ancient, saving only in Alexandria; his words are these: " It was for a remedy ^P-Ci- of schism that one was afterwards chosen to be placed Evang. above the rest ; lest every man's pulling unto himself, should rend asunder the Church of Christ. For (that which also may serve for an argument or token hereof), at Alexandria, from Mark the Evangelist, unto Heraclas and Dionysius, the Presbyters always chose one of them- selves, whom they placed in higher degree, and gave unto him the title of Bishop." Now St. Jerome,* they say, would never have picked out that one Church from amongst so many, and have noted that in it there had been Bishops from the time that St. Mark lived, if so be the self-same Order were of like antiquity every where ; his words therefore must be thus scholied : in the Church of Alexandria, Presbyters indeed had, even from the time of St. Mark the Evangelist, always a Bishop to rule over them, for a remedy against divisions, factions, and schisms ; not so in other Churches, neither in that very Church any longer than usque ad Heraclam et Dionysium, till He- raclas and his successor Dionysius were Bishops. But this construction doth bereave the words construed partly of wit, and partly of truth ; it maketh them both absurd and false. For, if the meaning be that Episcopal Govern- ment in that Church was then expired, it must have ex- pired with the end of some one, and not of two several Bishops' days, unless perhaps it fell sick under Heraclas, and with Dionysius gave up the ghost. Besides, it is clearly untrue that the Presbyters of that Church did then cease to be under a Bishop. Who doth not know that after Dionysius, Maximus was Bishop of Alexandria, after him Theonas, after him Peter, after him Achillas, after him Alexander? of whom Socrates in this sort writ- eth : It fortuned on a certain time that this Alexander, in s°".at- the presence of the Presbyters which were under him, and c. 3. of the rest of the Clergy there, discoursed somewhat curi- ously and subtilly of the holy Trinity, bringing high phi- losophical proofs, that there is in the Trinity a Unity. Whereupon Alius, one of the Presbyters which were placed in that degree under Alexander, opposed eagerly himself
* ' It is to be observed that Jerome saith, it was so iu Alexandria ; signifying that in other Churehes it was not so.' T. C. lib. ii. p. 82.
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against those things which were uttered by the Bishop. So that thus long Bishops continued even in the Church of Alexandria. Nor did their Regiment here cease, but these also had others their successors till St. Jerome's own time, who living long after Heraclas and Dionysius had ended their days, did not yet live himself to see the Presbyters of Alexandria otherwise than subject unto a Bishop. So that we cannot, with any truth, so interpret his words as to mean, that in the Church of Alexandria there had been Bishops endued with Superiority over Presbyters from St. Mark's time only till the time of Heraclas and of Dionysius. Wherefore, that St. Jerome may receive a more probable interpretation than this, we answer, that gene- rally of Regiment by Bishops, and what term of continu- ance it had in the Church of Alexandria, it was no part of his mind to speak, but to note one only circumstance be- longing to the manner of their election, which circumstance is, that in Alexandria they used to choose their Bishops altogether out of the College of their own Presbyters, and neither from abroad nor out of any other inferior Order of the Clergy ; whereas oftentimes elsewhere the use was to choose <as well from abroad as at home,* as well inferior unto Presbyters, as Presbyters when they saw occasion. This custom, saith he, the Church of Alexandria did always keep, till in Heraclas and Dionysius they began to do otherwise. These two were the very first not chosen out of their College of Presbyters.
The drift and purpose of St. Jerome's speech doth plainly shew what his meaning was : for whereas some did over extol the Office of the Deacon in the Church of Rome, where Deacons being grown great, through wealth, chal- lenged place above Presbyters ; St. Jerome, to abate this insolency, writing to Evagrius [Evangelus], diminisheth by all means the Deacon's estimation, and lifteth up Pres- [ep. byters as far as possible the truth might bear. " An at- Eva^g.] tendant (saith he) upon tables and windows proudly to ex- alt himself above them at whose prayers is made the Body and Blood of Christ; above them, between whom and Bishops there was at the first for a time no difference
• Unto Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, Hero a Deacon there was made successor. Cnrysostom, being a Presbyter of Antioch, was chosen to succeed Nectarius in the Bishoprick of Constantinople.
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neither in Authority nor in Title. And whereas after schisms and contentions made it necessary, that some one should be placed over them, by which occasion the Title of Bishop became proper unto that one, yet was that one chosen out of the Presbyters, as being the chiefest, the highest, the worthiest degree of the Clergy, and not out of Deacons : in which consideration also it seemeth that in Alexandria, even from St. Mark to Heraclas and Dionysius, Bishops there, the Presbyters evermore have chosen one of themselves, and not a Deacon at any time, to be their Bishop. Nor let any man think that Christ hath one Church in Rome, and another in the rest of the world ; that in Rome he alloweth Deacons to be honoured above Presbyters, and otherwise will have them to be in the next degree to the Bishop. If it be deemed that abroad where Bishops are poorer, the Presbyters under them may be the next unto them in honour, but at Rome, where the Bishop hath ample revenues, the Deacons, whose estate is nearest for wealth, may be also for estimation the next unto him ; we must know that a Bishop in the meanest city is no less a Bishop than he who is seated in the greatest ; the countenance of a rich, and the meanness of a poor estate, doth make no odds between Bishops : and therefore, if a Presbyter at Eugubium be the next in degree to a Bishop, surely, even at Rome it ought in reason to be so likewise, and not a Deacon for wealth's sake only to be above, who by Order should be, and elsewhere is, under- neath a Presbyter. But ye will say, that according to the custom of Rome, a Deacon presenteth unto the Bishop him which standeth to be ordained Presbyter, and upon the Deacon's testimony given concerning his fitness, he re- ceiveth at the Bishop's hands Ordination : so that in Rome the Deacon having this special pre-eminence, the Presbyter ought there to give place unto him. Wherefore is the custom of one city brought against the practice of the whole world? The paucity of Deacons in the Church of Rome hath gotten the credit; as unto Presbyters their multitude hath been cause of contempt : howbeit, even in the Church of Rome, Presbyters sit, and Deacons stand ; an argument as strong against the Superiority of Deacons, as the fore-alleged reason doth seem for it. Besides, whosoever is promoted must needs be raised from a lower
250 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
degree to a higher ; wherefore either let him which is Pres- byter be made a Deacon, that so the Deacon may appear to be the greater, or, if of Deacons Presbyters be made, let them know themselves to be in regard of Deacons, though below in gain, yet above in Office. And to the end we may understand that those Apostolic Orders are taken out of the Old Testament, what Aaron and his sons and the Levites were in the Temple, the same in the Church may Bishops, and Presbyters, and Deacons challenge unto themselves." This is the very drift and substance, this the true construction and -sense, of St. Jerome's whole dis- course in that Epistle : which I have therefore endeavoured the more at large to explain, because no one thing is less effectual, or more usual to be alleged against the ancient authority of Bishops; concerning whose Government St. Jerome's own words otherwhere are sufficient to shew his opinion, that this Order was not only in Alexandria so ancient, but even as ancient in other Churches. We have before alleged his testimony touching James the Bishop of Jerusalem. As for Bishops in other Churches, on the first CM.] of the Epistle to Titus thus he speaketh, " Till through in- stinct of the Devil there grew in the Church factions, and among the people it began to be professed, I am of Paul, I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, Churches were governed by the common advice of Presbyters ; but when every one began to reckon those whom himself had baptized, his own and not Christ's, it was decreed in the whole world, that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be placed above the rest, to whom all cares of the Church should belong, and so the seeds of schism be removed." If it be so, that by St. Jerome's own confession this Order was not then begun when people in the Apostles' absence began to be divided into factions by their Teachers, and to rehearse, " I am of Paul," but that even at the very first appoint- ment thereof it was agreed upon and received throughout the world ; how shall a man be persuaded that the same Jerome thought it so ancient no where saving in Alex- andria, one only Church of the whole world ? A sentence there is indeed of St. Jerome's, which, being not thoroughly considered and weighed, may cause his meaning so to be taken, as if he judged Episcopal Regiment to have been the Church's invention long alter, and not the Apostles'
BOOK VII. 251
own institution ; as namely, when he adraonisheth Bishops in this manner : " As therefore Presbyters do know that [»"• the custom of the Church makes them subject to the Bishop which is set over them ; so let Bishops know,* that custom rather than the truth of any Ordinance of the Lord maketh them greater than the rest, and that with common advice they ought to govern the Church." To clear the sense of these words therefore, as we have done already the former : Laws which the Church from the beginning universally hath observed, were some delivered by Christ himself, with a charge to keep them to the world's end, as the Law of baptizing and administering the holy Eucharist; some brought in afterwards by the Apostles, yet not without the special direction of the Holy Ghost, as occasions did arise. Of this sort are those Apostolical Orders and Laws, whereby Deacons, Widows, Virgins, were first appointed in the Church.
This answer to St. Jerome seemeth dangerous ; I have qualified it as I may by addition of some words of restraint : yet I satisfy not myself, in my judgment it would be altered. " Now whereas Jerome doth term the Government of Bishops by restraint an Apostolical Tradition, acknow- ledging thereby the same to have been of the Apostles' own institution, it may be demanded, how these two will stand together; namely, that the Apostles by divine in- stinct should be, as Jerome confesseth, the authors of that Regiment ; and yet the custom of the Church be accounted (for so by Jerome it may seem to be in this place accounted) the chiefest prop that upholdeth the same?" To this we answer, " That forasmuch as the whole body of the Church hath power to alter, with general consent and upon ne- cessary occasions, even the positive Law of the Apostles, if there be no command to the contrary; and it manifestly appears to her, that change of times have clearly taken away the very reasons of God's first institution, as by sundry examples may be most clearly proved ; what Laws the universal Church might change, and doth not, if they
* Bishops he meancth by restraint; for the Episcopal power was always in the Church instituted by Christ himself, the Apostles being in Government Bishops at large, as no man will deny, having received from Christh imself that Episcopal Au- thority. For which cause Cyprian hath said of them : ' Meminisse Diaconi debent, quoniam Apostolos, id est, Episcopos et Pnepositos, Dominus elegit : Diaconos au- tem, post ascensum Domini in coelos, Apostoli sibi constituerunt, Episcopatus sui et Ecclesias Ministros.' Lib. iii. ep. 9. [al. ep. 3. c. 2.]
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have long continued without any alteration, it seemeth that St. Jerome ascribeth continuance of such positive Laws, though instituted by God himself, to the judgment of the Church. For they which might abrogate a Law and do not, are properly said to uphold, to establish it, and to give it being. The Regiment therefore whereof Jerome speaketh being positive, and consequently not absolutely necessary, but of a changeable nature, because there is no divine voice which in express words forbiddeth it to be changed ; he might imagine both that it came by the Apostles by very divine appointment at the first, and notwithstanding be, after a sort, said to stand in force, rather by the custom of the Church, choosing to continue in it, than by the ne- cessary constraint of any commandment from the Word, requiring perpetual continuance thereof." So that St. Je- rome's admonition is reasonable, sensible, and plain, being contrived to this effect: the ruling Superiority of one Bishop over many Presbyters in each Church, is an Order de- scended from Christ to the Apostles, who were themselves Bishops at large; and from the Apostles to those whom they in their steads appointed Bishops over particular countries and cities ; and even from those ancient times universally established, thus many years it hath continued throughout the world ; for which cause Presbyters must not grudge to continue subject unto their Bishops, unless they will proudly oppose themselves against that which God him- self ordained by his Apostles, and the whole Church of Christ approveth and judgeth most convenient. On the other side, Bishops albeit they may avouch, with conformity of truth, that their Authority had thus descended even from the very Apostles themselves, yet the absolute and ever- lasting continuance of it they cannot say that any com- mandment of the Lord doth enjoin ; f and therefore must acknowledge that the Church hath power by universal consent upon urgent cause to take away, if thereunto she be constrained through the proud, tyrannical, and unre- formable dealings of her Bishops, whose Regiment she hath thus long delighted in, because she hath found it good and requisite to be so governed. Wherefore, lest Bishops forget themselves, as if none on earth had autho- rity to touch their states, let them continually bear in mind, that it is rather the force of custom, whereby the
book vii. 253
Church having so long found it good to continue under the Regiment of her virtuous Bishops, doth still uphold, maintain, and honour them in that respect, than that any such true and heavenly Law can be shewed, by the evi- dence whereof it may of a truth appear that the Lord him- self hath appointed Presbyters for ever to be under the Regiment of Bishops, in what sort soever they behave themselves. Let this consideration be a bridle unto them, let it teach them not to disdain the advice of their Pres- byters, but to use their Authority with so much the greater humility and moderation, as a sword which the Church hath power to take from them." In all this there is no let why St. Jerome might not think the authors of Episcopal Regiment to have been the very blessed Apostles them- selves, directed therein by the special motion of the Holy Ghost, which the ancients all before and besides him and himself also elsewhere being known to hold, we are not, without better evidence than this, to think him in judgment divided both from himself and from them. Another argu- ment that the Regiment of Churches by one Bishop over many Presbyters hath been always held Apostolical, may be this. We find that throughout all those cities where the Apostles did plant Christianity, the history of times hath noted succession of Pastors in the seat of one, not of many (there being in every such Church evermore many Pastors), and the first one in every rank of succes- sion we find to have been, if not some Apostle, yet some Apostle's Disciple. By Epiphanius the Bishops of Je- Lib. h. rusalem are reckoned down from James to Hilarion then ^("co. Bishop. Of them which boasted that they held the same things which they received of such as lived with the Apo- stles themselves, Tertullian speaketh after this sort: " Let DePr*. them therefore shew the beginnings of their Churches, let advers. them recite their Bishops one by one, each in such sort j?*^j succeeding other, that the first Bishop of them have had for his author and predecessor some Apostle, or at least some Apostolic person who persevered with the Apostles. For so Apostolical Churches are wont to bring forth the evidence of their estates. So doth the Church of Smyrna, having Poly carp, whom John did consecrate." Cata- logues of Bishops in a number of other Churches (Bishops, and succeeding one another) from the very Apostles'
254 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
times, are by Eusebius and Socrates collected ; whereby it appeareth so clear, as nothing in the world more, that under them and by their appointment this Order began, which maketh many Presbyters subject unto the Regiment of some one Bishop. For as in Rome while the civil or- dering of the Commonwealth was jointly and equally in the hands of two Consuls, historical records concerning them did evermore mention them both, and note which two, as colleagues, succeeded from time to time. So there is no doubt but Ecclesiastical antiquity had done the very like, had not one Pastor's place and calling been always so eminent above the rest in the same Church. And what need we to seek far for proofs that the Apostles, who began this Order of Regiment of Bishops, did it not but by divine instinct, when without such direction things of far less weight and moment they attempted not ? Paul and Barnabas did not open their mouths to the Gentiles, till the Spirit had said, " Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have sent them." The Eunuch by Philip was neither baptized nor instructed, before the Angel of God was sent to give him notice that so it pleased the Most Acts High. In Asia, Paul and the rest were silent, because the Spirit forbade them to speak. When they intended to have seen Bithynia they stayed their journey, the Spirit not giving them leave to go. Before Timothy was em- ployed in those Episcopal affairs of the Church, about which the Apostle St. Paul used him, the Holy Ghost gave special charge for his Ordination and prophetical in- telligence ; more than once, what success the same would have. And shall we think that James was made Bishop of Jerusalem, Evodius Bishop of the Church of Antioch, the Angels in the Churches of Asia Bishops, that Bishops every where were appointed to take away factions, con- tentions, and schisms, without some like divine instigation and direction of the Holy Ghost ? Wherefore let us not fear to be herein bold and peremptory, that if any thing in the Church's Government, surely the first institution of Bishops was from Heaven, was even of God; the Holy Ghost was the author of it. What (>. A Bishop, saith St. Augustine, is a Presbyter's su- manner perior : but the question is now, wherein that Superiority Bishop'1" did consist. The Bishop's pre-eminence we say therefore
Acts siii. 2
Acts viii. 26,
i.G.
ver.7.
lTim
book vii. 255
was twofold. First, he excelled in latitude of Power of from the Order ; secondly, in that kind of Power which belongeth ^"1^ unto Jurisdiction. Priests in the Law had authority andl'avehad-
J Aug. Ep.
power to do greater things than Levites, the High-priest 19. [ai. greater than inferior Priests might do ; therefore Levites fa.]at' were beneath Priests, and Priests inferior to the High-priest, ™"™~ by reason of the very degree of dignity and of worthiness Hjeres. in the nature of those functions which they did execute; and not only, for that the one had power to command and control the other. In like sort, Presbyters having a weightier and worthier charge than Deacons had, the Deacon was in this sort the Presbyter's inferior ; and where we say that a Bishop was likewise ever accounted a Presbyter's superior, even according unto his very Power of Order, we must of necessity declare what prin- cipal duties belonging unto that kind of Power a Bishop might perform, and not a Presbyter. The custom of the primitive Church in consecrating holy Virgins and Widows unto the service of God and his Church, is a thing not obscure, but easy to be known, both by that which St. 1 cor. Paul himself concerning them hath, and by the latter con- Tji'm'. sonant evidence of other men's writings. Now a part of £eftul de the pre-eminence which Bishops had in their Power ofvei. virg. Order was, that by them only such were consecrated. c- Again, the Power of ordaining both Deacons and Presby- ters, the Power to give the Power of Order unto others, this also hath been always peculiar unto Bishops. It hath not been heard of, that inferior Presbyters were ever authorized to ordain. And concerning Ordination, so great force and dignity it hath, that whereas Presbyters, by such power as they have received for administration of the Sacraments, are able only to beget children unto God; Bishops, having power to ordain, do by virtue thereof create fathers to the people of God, as Epiphanius Epiph. fitly disputeth. There are which hold, that between a ^"75. Bishop and a Presbyter, touching Power of Order, there [c- s,] is no difference. The reason of which conceit is, for that they see Presbyters, no less than Bishops, authorized to offer up the Prayers of the Church, to preach the Gospel, to baptize, to administer the holy Eucharist; but they considered not withal, as they should, that the Presbyter's authority to do these things is derived from the Bishop which doth ordain him thereunto : so that even in those
256 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
things which are common unto both, yet the power of the one is as it were a certain light borrowed from the others' Aet3 lamp. The Apostles being Bishops at large, ordained *'v.23. every where Presbyters. Titus and Timothy having re- ceived Episcopal Power, as Apostolical ambassadors or Tit. legates, the one in Greece, the other in Ephesus, they iTim. both did, by virtue thereof, likewise ordain, throughout v-- all Churches, Deacons and Presbyters within the cir- cuits allotted unto them. As for Bishops by restraint, their Power this way incommunicable unto Presbyters, which of the ancients do not acknowledge? I make not Confirmation any part of that Power, which hath always belonged only unto Bishops ;* because in some places the custom was, that Presbyters might also confirm in the absence of a Bishop, albeit, for the most part, none but only Bishops were thereof the allowed Ministers.
Here it will perhaps be objected, that the Power of Or- dination itself was not every where peculiar and proper unto Bishops, as may be seen by a Council of Carthage, which sheweth their Church's Order to have been, that Presbyters should together with the Bishop lay hands upon the ordained. But the answer hereunto is easy ; for doth it hereupon follow, that the Power of Ordination was not principally and originally in the Bishop ? Our Sa- [Mait. viour hath said unto his Apostles, " With me ye shall «x. 28.] g.^ an(j judge the twelve tribes of Israel ;" yet we know that to him alone it belongeth to judge the world, and that to him all judgment is given. With us, even at this day, Presbyters are licensed to do as much as that Coun- cil speaketh of, if any be present : yet will not any man thereby conclude, that in this Church others than Bishops are allowed to ordain. The association of Presbyters is no sufficient proof that the Power of Ordination is in them ; but rather that it never was in them we may hereby understand : for that no man is able to shew ei Jier Deacon or Presbyter ordained by Presbyters only, and his Ordination accounted lawful in any ancient part of the Church ; every where examples being found both of Deacons and Pres- byters ordained by Bishops alone oftentimes, neither even in that respect thought sufficient. Touching that other Chiefty, which is of Jurisdiction ; amongst the Jews he
* ' Apud jEgyptum Presbyteri confirmant, si praesens non sit Episcopus.' Com. q. vulgo Ambros. die. in 4. Ep. ad Ephes. [§. 9.]
book vii. 257
which was highest through the worthiest of peculiar duties incident unto his function in the Legal service of God, did bear always in Ecclesiastical jurisdiction the chiefest sway. As long as the glory of the Temple of God did last, there were in it sundry Orders of men consecrated unto the service thereof, one sort of them inferior unto another in dignity and degree ; the Nathiners subordinate unto the Levites, the Levites unto the Priests, the rest of the Priests to those twenty-four which were Chief-priests, and they all to the High-priest. If any man surmise that the difference between them was only by distinction in the former kind of Power, and not in this latter of Jurisdiction, are not the words of the Law manifest which made Eleazar, Numb. the son of Aaron the Priest, chief captain of the Levites, '"' and overseer of them unto whom the charge of the Sanctuary was committed? Again, at the commandment iv. 27. of Aaron and his sons, are not the Gersonites themselves required to do all their service in the whole charge be- longing unto the Gersonites, being inferior Priests, as Aaron and his sons were High-priests ? Did not Jehosha- schron. phat appoint Amarias the Priest to be chief over them who ™ were Judges for the cause of the Lord in Jerusalem ? " Priests (saith Josephus) worship God continually, and Joseph. the eldest of the stock are Governors over the rest. He p.^ie'. doth sacrifice unto God before others, he hath care of the Laws, judgeth controversies, correcteth offenders, and whosoever obeyeth him not, is convict of impiety against God." But unto this they answer, that the reason thereof was because the High-priest did prefigure Christ, and represent to the people that Chiefty of our Saviour which was to come ; so that Christ being now come, there is no cause why such pre-eminence should be given unto any one. Which fancy pleaseth so well the humour of all sorts of rebellious spirits, that they all seek to shroud themselves under it. Tell the Anabaptist, which hold- eth the use of the sword unlawful for a Christian man, that God himself did allow his people to make wars ; they have their answer round and ready, " Those ancient wars were figures of the spiritual wars of Christ." Tell the Barrowist what sway David, and others the Kings of Israel, did bear in the ordering of spiritual affairs, the vol. 11. s
258 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
same answer again servetli, namely, "That David and the rest of the Kings of Israel prefigured Christ." Tell the Martinist of the High-priest's great authority and juris- diction among the Jews, what other thing doth serve his turn but the self-same shift: " By the power of the High- priest the universal supreme authority of our Lord Jesus Christ was shadowed." The thing is true, that indeed High-priests were figures of Christ, yet this was in things belonging unto their Power of Order; they figured Christ by entering into the Holy Place, by offering for the sins of all the people once a year, and by other the like duties : but, that to govern and maintain order amongst those that were subject to them, is an Office figurative, and abro- gated by Christ coming into the Ministry ; that their ex- ercise of Jurisdiction was figurative, yea, figurative in such sort, that it had no other cause of being instituted, but only to serve as a representation of somewhat to come, and that herein the Church of Christ ought not to follow them ; this article is such as must be confirmed, if any way, by miracle, otherwise it will hardly enter into the heads of reasonable men, why the High-priest should more figure Christ in being a Judge, than in being whatsoever he cypr. might be besides. St. Cyprian deemed it no wresting of J: 3'9# Scripture, to challenge as much for Christian Bishops [ai.ep.3. as was given to the High-priest amongst the Jews, and to adiioga. urge the Law of Moses as being most effectual to prove it. tianum. gt jerome likewise thought it an argument sufficient to Hier. ground the authority of Bishops upon. " To the end (saith fa\'.v)i. he) we may understand Apostolical Traditions to have fi»J been taken from the Old Testament ; that which Aaron, and his sons, and the Levites were in the Temple, Bishops, and Presbyters, and Deacons in the Church may lawfully challenge to themselves." In the office of a Bishop, Ig- Ep- ad natius observeth these two functions, kparsvetv mi apxuv : ^"Xi concerning the one, such is the pre-eminence of a Bishop, that he only hath the heavenly mysteries of God com- mitted originally unto him, so that otherwise than by his Ordination, and by Authority received from him, others besides him are not licensed therein to deal as ordinary Ministers of God's Church ; and touching the other part of their sacred function, wherein the Power of their Juris-
book vii. 259
diction doth appear, first how the Apostles themselves, and secondly how Titus and Timothy had rale and juris- diction over Presbyters,* no man is ignorant. And had not Christian Bishops afterwards the like power? Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, being ready by blessed martyrdom to end life, writeth unto his Presbyters, the Pastors under him, in this sort : 01 Trpeafiintpoi, TTOifxavere to ev vfxXv 7roi/iviov, ^n**. slog dvadu^r) 6 Qebg tov jueAAovtci ap-\tiv v/liCov. 'E-yw yap Antioch.
n&i (jirevSonm. After the death of Fabian, Bishop of Rome, £jJ;J there growing some trouble about the receiving of such Ep- persons into the Church as had fallen away in persecution, and did now repent their fall, the Presbyters and Deacons of the same Church advertised St. Cyprian thereof, signi- fying, " That they must of necessity defer to deal in that cause till God did send them a new Bishop which might moderate all things." Much we read of extraordinary Fasting usually in the Church ; and in this appeareth also somewhat concerning the Chiefty of Bishops. " The custom is (saith Tertullian),t that Bishops do appoint when the people shall all fast." " Yea, it is not a matter left to our cyPr. own free choice, whether Bishops shall rule or no, but the [a£ tl] will of our Lord and Saviour is (saith St. Cyprian), that every act of the Church be governed by her Bishops." An argument it is of the Bishop's high pre-eminence, rule, and government over all the rest of the Clergy ; even that the sword of persecution did strike, especially, always at the Bishop as at the head, the rest by reason of the lower estate being more secure, as the self-same Cyprian noteth; the very manner of whose speech unto his own both Deacons and Presbyters who remained safe, when himself, then Bishop, was driven into exile, argueth likewise his eminent authority and rule over them. " By these letters cypr. (saith he) I both exhort and command, that ye whose pre- ^g' sence there is not envied at, nor so much beset with dan- Tf at-
' ad
gers, supply my room in doing those things which the ex- Magnes. ercise of Religion doth require." Unto the same purpose serve most directly those comparisons, than which nothing is more familiar in the books of the ancient Fathers, who as oft as they speak of the several degrees in God's Clergy, if
* " Against a Presbyter receive no accusation under two or three witnesses." 1 Tim. v. 19.
t ' Episcopi universal plebi mandare jejunia assolent.' Tertul. advers. Psychic, [c. 13.]
s 2
ad. Tr [c. 7.]
Instit, 1. iv. c. 4. sect. !
260 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
they chance to compare Presbyters with Levitical Priests of the Law, the Bishop they compare* unto Aaron the High-priest ; if they compare the one with the Apostles, the other they compare (although in a lower proportion) sometime to Christ,f and sometime to God himself, evermore shewing that they placed the Bishop in an eminent degree of ruling Authority and Power above other Pres- byters. Ignatius, comparing Bishops with Deacons, and with such Ministers of the Word and Sacraments as were but Presbyters, and had no authority over Presbyters; i?nat. "What is (saith he) the Bishop, but one which hath all . principality and power over all, so far forth as man may have it, being to his power a follower even of God's own Christ?" Mr. Calvin himself, though an enemy unto Re- giment by Bishops, doth notwithstanding confess, that in old time the Ministers which had charge to teach, chose of their company one in every city, to whom they appro- priated the title of Bishop, lest equality should breed dis- sension. He addeth further, that look what duty the Roman Consuls did execute in proposing matters unto the Senate, in asking their opinions, in directing them by advice, admonition, exhortation, in guiding actions by their authority, and in seeing that performed which was with common consent agreed on, the like charge had the Bishop in the assembly of other Ministers. Thus much Calvin being forced by the evidence of truth to grant, doth yet deny the Bishops to have been so in authority at the first as to bear rule over other Ministers : wherein what rule he doth mean, I know not. But if the Bishops were so far in dignity above other Ministers as the Consuls of Rome for their year above other Senators, it is as much as we require. And, undoubtedly, if as the Consuls of Rome, so the Bishops in the Church of Christ, had such authority, as both to direct other Ministers, and to see that every of them should observe that which their common consent had agreed on, how this could be done by the Bishop not bearing rule over them, for mine own part I must ac- knowledge that my poor conceit is not able to compre- hend. One objection there is of some force to make against that which we have hitherto endeavoured to prove,
* ' Quod Aaron et filio3 ejus, hoc Episcopum et Presbyteros esse noverimus.' Hier. ad Nepotianum, Ep. 2. [al. 34. §. 7.]
t ' lta est, ut in Episcopis Uominum, in Presbyteris Apostolos recogaoscas.' Auctor opusc. de ordinib. Eccl. inter opera Hieron.
BOOK VII.
2G1
if they mistake it not who allege it. St. Jerome, comparing other Presbyters with him unto whom the name of Bishop was then appropriate, asketh, " What a Bishop, by virtue of Hie™. his place and calling, may do more than a Presbyter, except Evang. it be only to ordain?" In like sort, Chrysostom having 5Jl.[j!'i.] moved a question, wherefore St. Paul would give Timothy precept concerning the quality of Bishops, and descend from them to Deacons, omitting the order of Presbyters between, he maketh thereunto this answer: " What things °h^*- he spake concerning Bishops, the same are also meet for 3. Presbyters, whom Bishops seem not to excel in any thing but only in the Power of Ordination." Wherefore, seeing this doth import no ruling Superiority, it follows that Bishops were as then no rulers over that part of the Clergy of God. Whereunto we answer, that both St. Jerome and St. Chrysostom had in those their speeches an eye no further than only to that function for which Presbyters and Bishops were consecrated unto God. Now we know that their consecration had reference to nothing but only that which they did by force and virtue of the Power of Order, wherein sith Bishops received their charge, only by that one degree, to speak of, more ample than Presby- ters did theirs, it might be well enough said that Presby- ters were that way authorized to do, in a manner, even as much as Bishops could do, if we consider what each of them did by virtue of solemn consecration : for as con- cerning Power of Regiment and Jurisdiction, it was a thing withal added unto Bishops for the necessary use of such certain persons and people as should be thereunto subject in those particular Churches whereof they were Bishops, and belonging to them only, as Bishops of such or such a Church ; whereas the other kind of Power had relation indefinitely unto any of the whole society of Christian men, on whom they should chance to exercise the same, and belonging to them absolutely, as they were Bishops, wheresoever they lived. St. Jerome's conclusion thereof is, " That seeing in the one kind of Power there is [ep. ^ no greater difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop, a]. 3i.'" Bishops should not, because of their pre-eminence in the *■ 7 ] other, too much lift up themselves above the Presbyters under them." St. Chrysostom 's collection, " That where the Apostle doth set down the qualities whereof regard should be had in the consecration of Bishops, there was
262 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
no need to make a several discourse how Presbyters ought to be qualified when they are ordained ; because there being so little difference in the functions whereunto the one and the other receive Ordination, the same precepts might well serve for both ; at leastwise by the virtues re- quired in the greater, what should need in the less might be easily understood. As for the difference of Jurisdic- tion, the truth is, the Apostles yet living, and themselves, where they were resident, exercising the Jurisdiction in their own persons, it was not every where established in Bishops." When the Apostles prescribed those Laws, and when Chrysostom thus spake concerning them, it was not by him at all respected, but his eye was the same way with Jerome's ; his cogitation was wholly fixed on that Power which by consecration is given to Bishops more than to Presbyters, and not on that which they have over Presbyters by force of their particular accessary Jurisdic- tion. Wherein if any man suppose that Jerome and Chry- sostom knew no difference at all between a Presbyter and a Bishop, let him weigh but one or two of their sen- tences. The pride of insolent Bishops hath not a sharper enemy than Jerome, for which cause he taketh often oc- casions most severely to inveigh against them, sometimes for* shewing disdain and contempt of the Clergy under them ; sometimes for not t suffering themselves to be told of their faults, and admonished of their duty by inferiors ; sometimes for not admitting % their Presbyters to teach, if so be themselves were in presence ; sometimes for not vouchsafing to use any conference with them, or to take any counsel of them. Howbeit, never doth he, in such wise, bend himself against their disorders as to deny their rule and authority over Presbyters. Of Vigilantius, being ep. 53. a Presbyter, he thus writeth : " Miror sanctum Episcopum, [ai.R37.ar' m cujus Parochia Presbyter esse dicitur, acquiescere *• 2 -J furori ejus, et non virga Apostolica virgaque ferrea con- fringere vas inutile : — I marvel that the holy Bishop, under whom Vigilantius is said to be a Presbyter, doth yield to
* « Velut in aliqua sublimi specula constitute, vix dignantur videre mortales ct alloqui conservos suos.' In 4. c. Epist. ad Gal. [§. 9.]
t ' Nemo peccantibus Episcopis audet contradicere ; nemo audet accusare ma- jorem ; propterea quasi sancti et beati et in prasceptis Domini ambulantes augent peccata peccatis. Difficilis est accusatio in Episcopum. Si enim peccaverit, non creditur ; et si convictus merit, non punitur.' In cap. 8. Ecclesiast. [§. 7.]
' t Pessimre consuetudinis est, in quibusdam Ecclesiis tacere I'resbyteros et prasentibus Episcopis non loqui ; quasi aut invidcant aut non dignentur audire.' Ep. ad Nepotian. ep. 2. [al. 31. §'. 7.]
book vii. 263
his fury, and not break that unprofitable vessel with his Apostolic and iron rod." With this agreeth most fitly the grave advice he gave to Nepotian : " Be thou subject unto Hier. ad thy Bishop, and receive him as the Father of thy soul. ^.Zl' This also I say, that Bishops should know themselves to **' *■ rJ be Priests, and not Lords ; that they ought to honour the Clergy as becometh the Clergy to be honoured, to the end their Clergy may yield them the honour which, as Bishops, they ought to have.* That of the Orator Domitius is famous : ' Wherefore should I esteem of thee as of a Prince, when thou makest not of me that reckoning which should in reason be made of a Senator ? ' Let us know the Bishop and his Presbyters to be the same which Aaron sometimes and his sons were." Finally, writing against the Heretics which were named Luciferians, " The very safety of the [*. 9 J Church (saith he) dependeth on the dignity of the Chief- Priest, to whom unless men grant an exceeding and an eminent power, there will grow in Churches even as many schisms as there are persons which have authority."
Touching Chrysostom, to shew that by him there was also acknowledged a ruling Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters, both then usual, and in no respect unlawful, what need we allege his words and sentences, when the history of his own Episcopal actions in that very kind is till this day extant for all men to read that will? For St. invaa Chrysostom, of a Presbyter in Antioch, grew to be after- pe'rrys' wards Bishop of Constantinople ; and, in process of time, seanssir^' when the Emperor's heavy displeasure had, through the Hist. practice of a powerful faction against him, effected his Sipart. banishment, Innocent the Bishop of Rome, understanding '■ *■ c> 3] thereof, wrote his letters unto the Clergy of that Church, " That no successor ought to be chosen in Chrysostom's room : nee ejus Clerum alii parere Pontifici, nor his Clergy obey any other Bishop than him." A fond kind of speech, if so be there had been, as then, in Bishops no ruling Superiority over Presbysters. When two of Chrysostom's fallad- Presbyters had joined themselves to the faction of his chrys. mortal enemy Theophilus, Patriarch in the Church of[c"9'-' Alexandria, the same Theophilus and other Bishops which
* No Bishop may be a Lord in reference unto the Presbyters which are under him, if we take that name in the worse part, as Jerome here does. For a Bishop is to rule his Presbyters, not as Lords do their slaves, but as Fathers do their children
264 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
were of his conventicle, having sent those two amongst others to cite Chrysostom their lawful Bishop, and to bring him into public judgment, he taketh against this one thing special exception, as being contrary to all order, that those Presbyters should come as messengers, and call him to judgment, who were a part of that Clergy whereof himself was ruler and judge. So that Bishops to have had in those times a ruling Superiority over Presby- ters, neither could Jerome nor Chrysostom be ignorant ; and therefore, hereupon it were superfluous that we should any longer stand. After 7^ Touching the next point, how Bishops, together
Bishops, with Presbyters, have used to govern the Churches which wfthher were under them, it is by Zonaras somewhat plainly and freShave at lar»e declared, that the Bishop had his seat on high in used to the Church above the residue which were present ; that theveru a number of Presbyters did always there assist him ; and whidi'165 ^a* m tne oversignt °f the people those Presbyters were v/ere after a sort the Bishop's coadjutors.* The Bishop, and them' Presbyters who together with him governed the Church, are for the most part by Ignatius jointly mentioned. In the Epistle to them of Trallis, he saith of Presbyters, that they [c. 7.] are 2u/uj3ovAot koi ^wedpevTal tov 'Ettio-kottou, * Counsellors and Assistants of the Bishop;' and concludeth in the end, " He that should disobey these were a plain Atheist, and an irreligious person, and one that did set Christ himself and his own Ordinances at nought." Which Orders making Presbyters or Priests the Bishop's Assistants, do not import that they were of equal authority with him, but rather so adjoined, that they also were subject, as hath been proved. In the writings of St. Cyprianf no- thing is more usual, than to make mention of the College of Presbyters subject unto the Bishop ; although in hand- ling the common affairs of the Church they assisted him. But of all other places which open the ancient Order of Episcopal Presbyters, the most clear is that Epistle of Cornelius unto Cyprian, concerning certain Novatian He- retics, received again upon their conversion into the unity of the Church. " After that Urbanus and Sidonius, Con-
* ",J2(77r££ avf*9ow SoSevte; rZ 'Enia-HoTrii). Zon. in can. Apost. •f ' Cum Episcopo Presbyteri Sacerdotali honore conjuncti.' Ep. 28. ' Ego et Cornpresbyteri nostri qui nobis adsidebant.' Ep. [66. al. 1. c. l.j
book vii. 265
lessors, had come and signified unto our Presbyters, that [ep 46- Maxinius, a Confessor and Presbyter, did, together with c. 1.] them, desire to return into the Church, it seemed meet to hear from their own mouths and confessions that which by message they had delivered. When they were come, and had been called to account by the Presbyters touching those things they had committed, their answer was, That they had been deceived ; and did request, that such things as there they were charged with might be forgotten. It being brought unto me what was done, I took order that the Presbytery might be assembled. There were also pre- sent five Bishops, that, upon settled advice, it might be with consent of all determined what should be done about their persons." Thus far Cornelius to St. Cyprian. Wherein it may be, peradventure, demanded, whether he and other Bishops did thus proceed with advice of their Presbyters in all such public affairs of the Church, as being thereunto bound by Ecclesiastical Canons, or else that they volun- tarily so did, because they judged it in discretion as then most convenient. Surely the words of Cyprian are plain, that of his own accord he chose this way of proceeding. " Unto that (saith he) which Donatus, and Fortunatus, and cypr. Novatus, and Gordius, our Com-presbyters, have written, ^'1!.' 1 could by myself alone make no answer, forasmuch as at c4] the very first entrance into my Bishoprick I resolutely de- termined not to do any thing of mine own private judg- ment, without your counsel, and the people's consent." The reason whereof he rendereth in the same Epistle, say- ing, " When by the grace of God myself shall come unto you (for St. Cyprian was now in exile), of things which either have been or must be done we will consider, sicut honor mutuus poscit, as the law of courtesy which one doth owe to another of us requireth." And to this very mark doth St. Jerome evermore aim, in telling Bishops, that Presbyters were at the first their equals; that, in some Churches, for a long time no Bishop was made, but only such as the Presbyters did choose out amongst themselves, and therefore no cause why the Bishop should disdain to consult with them, and in weighty affairs of the Church to use their advice ; sometime to countenance their own ac- tions, or to repress the boldness of proud and insolent spirits, that which Bishops had in themselves sufficient
266 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Authority and Power to have done, notwithstanding they would not do alone, but craved therein the aid and assist- ance of other Bishops, as in the case of those Novatian Heretics, before alleged, Cyprian himself did. And in Cyprian we find of others the like practice. Rogatian, a Bishop, having been used contumeliously by a Deacon of his own Church, wrote thereof his complaint unto Cyprian and cypr- other Bishops. In which case their answer was, " That aiP-3. ' although in his own cause he did of humility rather shew cl] his grievance, than himself take revenge, which by the rigour of his Apostolical Office, and the Authority of his Chair, he might have presently done, without any further delay;" yet if the party should do again as before, their judgments were, " fungaris circa eum potestate honoris tui, et eum vel deponas vel abstineas ; — use on him that power which the honour of thy place giveth thee, either to depose him, or exclude him from access unto holy things." The Bishop, for his assistance and ease, had under him, to guide and direct Deacons in their charge, his Archdeacon: so termed in respect of care over Deacons, albeit himself were not Deacon, but Presbyter. For the guidance of Presbyters in their function, the Bishop had likewise under him one of the self-same Order with them, but above them in authority, one whom the ancients termed usually an Arch- presbyter,* we at this day name him Dean. For, most certain truth it is, that Churches Cathedral, and the Bishops of them, are as glasses, wherein the face and very countenance of Apostolical antiquity remaineth even as yet to be seen, notwithstanding the alterations which tract of time and the course of the world hath brought. For de- fence and maintenance of them we are most earnestly bound to strive, even as the Jews were for their Temple and the High-priest of God therein: the overthrow and ruin of the one, if ever the sacrilegious avarice of Atheists should prevail so far, which God of his infinite mercy forbid, ought no otherwise to move us than the people of God were moved, when having beheld the sack and combustion of his Sanctuary in most lamentable manner flaming before their eyes, they uttered from the bottom of their grieved
* Such a one was that Peter whom Cassiodore, writing the Life of Chrysostom, doth call the Archpresbyter of the Church of Alexandria, under Theophilus, at that time Bishop. [Hist. Eccles. Tripartit. 1. x. c. 10.]
BOOK VII. 207
spirits, those voices of doleful supplication, " Exsurge , psal- Domine, et rniserearis Sion; Servi tui diliguntlapidesejus, i3.*u. pulveris ejus miseret eos."
8. How far the Power which Bishops had did reach, how what number of persons was subject unto them at the first, y0werof and how large their territories were, it is not for the ques- JJJ0*8 tion we have in hand a thing very greatly material to know, readied For if we prove that Bishops have lawfully of old ruled banning
over other Ministers, it is enough, how few soever those inresPect
» o » ot tem-
Ministers have been, how small soever the circuit of place tory.or which hath contained them. Yet hereof somewhat, to the compass. end we may so far forth illustrate Church-antiquities. A Law Imperial there is, which sheweth that there was great care had to provide for every Christian city a Bishop, as near as might be,* and that each city had some territory be- longing unto it, which territory was also under the Bishop of the same city; that because it was not universally thus, but in some countries one Bishop had subject unto him many cities and their territories, the Law which provided for establishment of the other Orders, should not prejudice those Churches wherein this contrary custom had before prevailed. Unto the Bishop of every such city, not only the Presbyters of the same city, but also of the territory thereunto belonging, were from the first beginning subject. For we must note, that when as yet there were in cities no Parish Churches, but only Colleges of Presbyters under their Bishop's Regiment, yet smaller congregations and Churches there were even then abroad, in which Churches there was but some one only Presbyter to perform among them divine duties.t Towns and villages abroad receiving Faith of Christ from cities whereunto they were adjacent, did as spiritual and heavenly colonies, by their subjection, honour those ancient Mother-churches out of which they grew. And in the Christian cities themselves, when the mighty increase of believers made it necessary to have them divided
* 'Exia-Tfl ttoXij iSiov 'Ewis-xowov \yk-rw xai *av Sia &E(a? avriy^n; TO'k/xna-ri T(j «<f>E- Xis-Stt« woXiv tov iJiou 'E'sna-K07:ov n t!?c WEgJC-iXt'So; ain-Jfj h tivoj aXXou Jixaiou, yvfAVovrttt ray ovtoov xai a.TiUQVTJ.1. 'E^'gflTai Se h Tof/Am SxuSi'tt? woXij. 'O yaf 'EwiVxotto; aiiTij? xal *r5v Xotorov ir(woiZ. Kai h Aeovto'ttoXij 'lo-avpia.$ biro Tov*E7riVxo7ro'v eo-ti'v 'ia-aupoTroXEa?. Can. 35. pag. 1258. torn. ii. Biblioth. Jur. Canon. Justell. ed. Par. Besides, Cypr. Ep. 52. [al. 55. c. 14.] ' Cum jampridem per omnes provincias et per urbes singulas ordinarii sunt Episcopi.'
t ' Ubi Ecclesiastici ordinis non est consessus, et offert et tingit Sacerdos qui est ibi solus.' Tertull. exhort, ad castit. [c. 7.]
Hieron. advers. Lucifer.
268 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
into certain several companies, and over every of those companies one only Pastor to be appointed for the ministry of holy things; between the first, and the rest after it, there could not be but a natural inequality, even as between the Temple and Synagogues in Jerusalem. The Clergy of cities were termed Urbici, to shew a difference between them and the Clergies of towns, of villages, of castles cypr. abroad. And how many soever these Parishes or Congre- Kp'~5' gations were in number, which did depend on any one principal City-church, unto the Bishop of that one Church they and their several sole Presbyters were all subject.
For if so be, as some imagine, every petty congregation or hamlet had its own particular Bishop, what sense could there be in those words of Jerome concerning castles, vil- lages, and other places abroad, which having only Presby- B-9J ters to teach them, and to minister unto them the Sacraments, were resorted unto by Bishops for the administration of that wherewith their Presbyters were not licensed to med- dle. To note a difference of that one Church where the Bishop hath his seat, and the rest which depend upon it, that one hath usually been termed Cathedral, according to the same sense wherein Ignatius, speaking of the Church cy(,r. of Antioch, termeth it his Throne ; and Cyprian, making [ai! 5e. mention of Evaristus, who had been Bishop and was now deposed, termeth him Cathedra extorrem, one that was thrust besides his Chair. The Church where the Bishop is set with his College of Presbyters about him we call a See ; the local compass of his authority we term a Diocess. Unto a Bishop within the compass of his own both See and Diocess, it hath by right of his place evermore appertained to ordain Presbyters,* to make Deacons, and with judg- ment to dispose of all things of weight. The Apostle St. Paul had Episcopal Authority, but so at large, that we cannot assign unto him any one certain Diocess. Hisf positive Orders and Constitutions Churches every where did obey. Yea, " a charge and a care (saith he) I have even of all the Churches." The walks of Titus and Timothy were limited within the bounds of a narrow pre-
* Cone. Antioch. cap. 9. 'akXjitou? li "EfficrxoVoi/? vi&ef> AioiVucriy y,n emZttlmv, ovSe XSigoTona. ri tktiv aXXai; oixovo/ui'aic ixnXna-iao-Tixeus. Cone. Const, cap. 2. Touro yap 7rgOTi£ov $ia ro'vi; $iay{A0v$ ly'viiro a^ia^o^ax;. Socr. lib. v. cap. 8.
t " As I have ordained in the Churches of Galatia, the same do ye also.'' 1 Cor. xvi. 1.
c.X.]
2 Cor.
xi. 28.
book vii. 2G9
cinct. As for other Bishops, that which Chrysostom hath concerning them, if they be evil, could not possibly agree unto them, unless their Authority had reached farther than to some one only congregation. " The danger being so chrys.jn great, as it is, to him that scandalizeth one soul, what shall [i™- he (saith Chrysostom, speaking of a Bishop), what shall he deserve, by whom so many souls, yea, even whole cities and people, men, women, and children, citizens, peasants, inhabitants, both of his own city, and of other towns sub- ject unto it, are offended?" A thing so unusual it was for a Bishop not to have ample Jurisdiction, that Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, for making one a Bishop of a small town, is noted a proud despiser of the commendable Orders of the Church with this censure, " Such novelties Paiud. Theophilus presumed every where to begin, taking upon chry's? him, as it had been another Moses." Whereby is dis- tc 9 ] covered also their error, who think, that such as in Ec- clesiastical writings they find termed Chorepiscopos, were the same in the country which the Bishop was in the city: whereas the old Chorepiscopi are they that were appointed of the Bishops to have, as his Vicegerents, some oversight of those Churches abroad, which were subject unto his See; in which Churches they had also power to make Sub- deacons, Readers, and such like petty Church-officers. With which power so stinted, they not contenting them- selves, but adventuring at the length to ordain even Dea- cons and Presbyters also, as the Bishop himself did, their presumption herein was controlled and stayed by the an- cient edict of Councils. For example, that of Antioch, " It Condi, hath seemed good to the holy Synod, that such in towns and c. w. countries as are called Chorepiscopi do know their limits, and govern the Churches under them, contenting themselves with the charge thereof, and with authority to make Rea- ders, Sub-deacons, Exorcists, and to be leaders or guiders of them ; but not to meddle with the Ordination either of a Presbyter or of a Deacon, without the Bishop of that city, whereunto the Chorepiscopus and his territory also is subject." The same Synod appointed likewise that those Chorepiscopi shall be made by none but the Bishop of that city under which they are. Much might hereunto be added, if it were further needful to prove, that the local compass of a Bishop's Authority and Power was never so
270 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
straitly listed, as some men would have the world to imagine. But to go forward; degrees there are, and have been of old, even amongst Bishops also themselves ; one sort of Bishops being superiors unto Presbyters only, another sort having pre-eminence also above Bishops. It cometh here to be considered in what respect inequality of Bishops was thought at the first a thing expedient for the Church, and what odds there hath been between them, by how much the Power of one hath been larger, higher, and greater than that of another. Touching the causes for which it hath been esteemed meet that Bishops themselves should not every way be equals ; they are the same for which the wisdom both of God and man hath evermore approved it as most requisite that where many governors must of necessity concur, for the ordering of the same affairs, of what nature soever they be, one should have some kind of sway or stroke more than all the residue. For where number is there must be order, or else of force there will be confusion. Let there be divers agents, of whom each hath his private inducements with resolute purpose to follow them (as each may have), unless in this case some had pre-eminence above the rest, a chance it were, if ever any thing should be either begun, proceed- ed in, or brought unto any conclusion by them ; delibera- tions and counsels would seldom go forward, their meet- ings would always be in danger to break up with jars and contradictions. In an Army, a number of Captains, all of equal power, without some higher to oversway them ; what good would they do I In all nations where a number are to draw any one way, there must be some one princi- pal mover. Let the practice of our very adversaries themselves herein be considered ; are the Presbyters able to determine of Church-affairs, unless their Pastors do strike the chiefest stroke, and have power above the rest? Can their pastoral Synod do any thing, unless they have some President amongst them ? In Synods, they are forced to give one Pastor pre-eminence and superiority above the rest. But they answer, That he, who being a Pastor according to their Discipline is for the time some little deal mightier than his brethren, doth not continue so longer than only during the Synod. Which answer serveth not to help them out of the briers ; for, by their practice
BOOK VII. 271
they confirm our principle, touching the necessity of one man's pre-eminence wheresoever a concurrency of many is required unto any one solemn action : this Nature teacheth, and this they cannot choose but acknowledge. As for the change of his person to whom they give this pre-eminence, if they think it expedient to make for every Synod a new superior, there is no Law of God which bindeth them so to do; neither any that telleth them, that they might suffer one and the same man being made President, even to continue so during life, and to leave his pre-eminence unto his successors after him, as, by the ancient Order of the Church, Archbishops, Presidents amongst Bishops, have used to do. The ground therefore of their pre-eminence above Bishops, is the necessity of often concurrency of many Bishops about the public af- fairs of the Church : as, consecrations of Bishops, consul- tations of remedy of general disorders, audience judicial, when the actions of any Bishop should be called in ques- tion, or appeals are made from his sentence by such as think themselves wronged. These, and the like affairs, usually requiring that many Bishops should orderly as- semble, begin, and conclude somewhat; it hath seemed, in the eyes of reverend antiquity, a thing most requisite, that the Church should not only have Bishops, but even amongst Bishops some to be in Authority chiefest. Unto which purpose, the very state of the whole world, immediately before Christianity took place, doth seem by the special providence of God to have been prepared. For we must know, that the countries where the Gospel was first planted, were for the most part subject to the Roman empire. The Romans' use was commonly, when by war they had subdued foreign nations, to make them Provinces, that is, to place over them Roman Governors, such as might order them according to the Laws and Cus- toms of Rome. And, to the end that all things might be more easily and orderly done, a whole country being divi- ded into sundry parts, there was in each part some one city, whereinto they about did resort for justice. Every such part was termed a Diocess.* Howbeit, the name
* ' Si quid habebis cum aliquo Hellespontio controversies, ut in illam AioiWiv rejicias.' Cic. Fam. Ep. 53. lib. xiii. The suit which Tully maketh was this, that the party, in whose behalf he wrote to the Proprietor, might have his causes put over to that Court which was held in the Diocess of Hellespont, where the
272 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Diocess is sometime so generally taken, that it containeth not only move such parts of a Province, but even more Provinces also than one ; as, the Diocess of Asia contain- ing eight, the Diocess of Africa seven. Touching Dio- cesses according unto a stricter sense, whereby they are taken for apart of a Province, the words of Livy do plainly shew what orders the Romans did observe in them. For at what time they had brought the Macedonians into sub- jection, the Roman Governor, by order from the Senate of Rome, gave charge that Macedonia should be divided [lib. xiv. into four Regions or Diocesses. " Capita Regionum ubi c Concilia fierent, prima? sedis Amphipolim, secundas Thes-
salonicen, tertiae Pellam, quartae Pelagoniam fecit. Eo, Concilia suae cujusque regionis indici, pecuniam conferri, ibi Magistratus creari jussit." This being before the days of the Emperors, by their appointment Thessalonica was afterwards the chiefest, and in it the highest Governor of Macedonia had his seat. Whereupon the other three Diocesses were in that respect inferior unto it, as daughters unto a Mother-city ; for not unto every town of justice was that title given, but was peculiar unto those cities wherein principal Courts were kept. Thus in Macedonia the cic.ad Mother-city was Thessalonica; in Asia, Ephesus; in lib. v. Africa, Carthage ; for so Justinian in his time made it.*
%. 13. rpn Qovernors Officers, and inhabitants of those Mother- item,!. ' ' observ. cities were termed for difference' sake Metropolites, that
officio is to say, Mother-city men ; than which nothing could pos-
fuTisTt s'bly have been devised more fit to suit with the nature
Legati. 0f that Form of spiritual Regiment, under which afterwards
the Church should live. Wherefore, if the Prophet saw
cause to acknowledge unto the Lord, that the light of his
gracious providence did shine no where more apparently
to the eye, than in preparing the land of Canaan to be a
Psali receptacle for that Church which was of old, " Thou hast
ixxx. brought a vine out of Egypt, thou hast cast out the Heathen
and planted it, thou madest room for it, and when it had
taken root it filled the land ;" how much more ought we
to wonder at the handy-work of Almighty God, who, to
settle the Kingdom of his dear Son, did not cast out any
man did abide, and not to his trouble be forced to follow them at Ephesus, which was the chiefest Court in that Province.
* ' Sancimus, ut sicutOriens atque lllyricum, ita et Africa prffitoriana maxima, potestate specialiter a nostra dementia decoretur. Cujus sedem jubemus esse Carthaginem ; et ab ea, auxiliante Deo, septem Provinciee cum suis Judicibus dis- ponantur.' Lib. i. Tit. 27. 1. 1. sect. 1, 2. Cod. Justinian.
book vii. 273
one people, but directed in such sort the politic counsels of them who ruled far and wide over all, that they through- out all nations, people, and countries, upon earth, should unwittingly prepare the field wherein the Vine which God did intend, that is to say, the Church of his dearly-beloved Son, was to take root? For unto nothing else can we at- tribute it, saving only unto the very incomprehensible force of Divine Providence, that the world was in so mar- vellous fit sort divided, levelled, and laid out before- hand. Whose work could it be but his alone to make such provision for the direct implantation of his Church ? Wherefore, inequality of Bishops being found a thing con- venient for the Church of God, in such consideration as hath been shewed, when it came secondly in question, which Bishops should be higher and which lower, it seemed herein not to the Civil Monarch only, but to the most, expe- dient that the dignity and celebrity of Mother-cities should be respected.* They which dream, that if Civil Authority had not given such pre-eminence unto one city more than another, there had never grown an inequality among Bishops, are deceived. Superiority of one Bishop over an- other would be requisite in the Church, although that Civil distinction were abolished. Other causes having made it ne- cessary, even amongst Bishops, to have some in degree higher than the rest, the Civil dignity of place was considered only as a reason wherefore this Bishop should be preferred before that : which deliberation had been likely enough to have raised no small trouble, but that such was the circum- stance of place, as being followed in that choice, besides the manifest conveniency thereof, took away all show of partiality, prevented secret emulations, and gave no man occasion to think his person disgraced, in that another was preferred before him.
Thus we see upon what occasion Metropolitan Bishops became Archbishops. Now while the whole Christian world, in a manner, still continued under the Civil Govern- ment, there being oftentimes, within some one more large territory, divers and sundry Mother-churches, the Metro-
* Tout xaS' iHaa-TW sVa^i'av 'E7na->coffovj siSevai yjm -rov h rn MutjottoXh irpaifraira 'EwiVxowov, xai rhv tyovrtia. avaJl^sa-Sai ttken* rns £7rft^iaf Jii to h t? MdtjowoXsi wavTa^c'flev truvrpi^eiv -rravtitq tou; ra Trjay^ara e^oy-ra,; , o'Qsv eSo^t xai tn rtfxri tr^on- yiTs-Qai altm. Concil. Antiochen. cap. 9. VOL. II. T
274 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
politans whereof were Archbishops, as, for order's sake, it grew hereupon expedient, there should be a difference also among them ; so no way seemed, in those times, more fit than to give pre-eminence unto them whose Metropoli- tan Sees were of special desert or dignity. For which cause these, as being Bishops in the chiefest Mother- churches, were termed Primates, and at the length, by way of excellency, Patriarchs : for ignorant we are not, how sometimes the title of Patriarch is generally given to all Me- Je'suau5 tropolitan Bishops. They are mightily therefore to blame primi- which are so bold and confident, as to affirm that, for the ciesis. space of above four hundred and thirty years after Christ, all Metropolitan Bishops were in every respect equals, till the second Council of Constantinople exalted certain Metropolitans above the rest. True it is, they were equals, as touching the exercise of Spiritual Power within their Diocesses, when they dealt with their own flock. For what is it that one of them might do within the compass of his own precinct, but another within his might do the same ? But that there was no subordination at all of one of them unto another ; that when they all, or sundry of them, were to deal in the same causes, there was no difference of first and second in degree, no distinction of higher and lower in Authority acknowledged amongst them, is most untrue. The great Council of Nice was after our Saviour Christ but three hundred and twenty-four years, and in that Council certain Metropolitans are said even then to have had an- cient pre-eminence and dignity above the rest ; namely, the Primate of Alexandria, of Rome, and of Antioch. fn"' 8 Threescore years after this, there were Synods under the Emperor Theodosius ; which Synod was the first at Con- stantinople, whereat one hundred and fifty Bishops were assembled : at which Council it was decreed, that the Bi- shop of Constantinople should not only be added unto the former Primates, but also that his place should be second amongst them, the next to the Bishop of Rome in dignity. can. ss. The same Decree was again renewed concerning Constan- tinople, and the reason thereof laid open in the Council of can. 39. Chalcedon. At the length came that second of Constanti- ple, whereat were six hundred and thirty Bishops for a third confirmation thereof. Laws Imperial there are like- wise extant to the same effect. Herewith the Bishop of
BOOK VII. \Llb
Constantinople being overmuch puffed up, not only could not endure that See to be in estimation higher, whereunto his own had preferment to be the next, but he challenged more than ever any Christian Bishop in the world before either had, or with reason could have. What he chal- lenged, and was therein as then refused by the Bishop of Rome, the same Bishop of Rome in process of time ob- tained for himself, and, having gotten it by bad means, hath both upheld and augmented it, and upholdeth it by acts and practices much worse. But Primates, according to Novel, their first institution, were all, in relation unto Archbishops, 7™"' the same by prerogative which Archbishops were being compared unto Bishops. Before the Council of Nice, albeit there were both Metropolitans and Primates, yet could not this be a means forcible enough to procure the peace of the Church : but all things were wonderful tumul- tuous and troublesome, by reason of one special practice common unto the Heretics of those times ; which was, that when they had been condemned and cast out of the Church by the sentence of their own Bishops, they, contrary to the ancient-received Orders of the Church, had a custom to wander up and down, and to insinuate themselves into fa- vour where they were not known, imagining themselves to be safe enough, and not to be clean cut off from the body of the Church, if they could any where find a Bishop which was content to communicate with them ; whereupon en- sued, as in that case there needs must, every day quarrels and jars unappeasable amongst Bishops. The Nicene Council, for redress hereof, considered the bounds of every Archbishop's Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions, what they had been in former times ; and accordingly appointed unto each grand part of the Christian world some one Primate, from whose judgment no man living within his territory might appeal, unless it were to a Council-general of all Bi- shops. The drift and purport of which Order was, that neither any man oppressed by his own particular Bishop might be destitute of a remedy, through appeal unto the more indifferent sentence of some other ordinary Judge ; nor yet every man be left to such liberty, as before, to shift himself out of their hands for whom it was most meet to have the hearing and determining of his cause. The evil, for remedy whereof this Order was taken, annoyed at t 2
27G ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
that present especially (be Church of Alexandria in Egypt, where Arianism begun. For which cause the state of that Church is in the Nicene Canons, concerning this matter, mentioned before the rest. The words of their sacred Edict cone are these : " Let those customs remain in force which have c.6.' been of old the customs of Egypt, and Libya, and Penta- polis ; by which customs the Bishop of Alexandria hath Authority over all these ; the rather, for that this hath also been the use of the Bishops of Rome, yea, the same hath been kept in Antioch, and in other Provinces." Now, be- cause the custom likewise had been, that greathonour should be done to the Bishop of iElia or Jerusalem ; therefore, lest their Decree concerning the Primate of Antioch should any whit prejudice the dignity and honour of that See, Ejusd. special provision is made, that although it were inferior in c.°r?" degree, not only unto Antioch the chief of the East, but even unto Caesarea too ; yet such pre-eminence it should retain as belonged to a Mother-city, and enjoy whatsoever special prerogative or privilege it had besides. Let men, therefore, hereby judge of what continuance this Order which upholdeth degrees of Bishops must needs have been, when a General Council of three hundred and eighteen Bi- shops, living themselves within three hundred years after Christ, doth reverence the same for antiquity's sake, as a thing which had been even then of old observed in the most renowned parts of the Christian world. Wherefore, needless altogether are those vain and wanton demands, No mention of an Archbishop in Theophilus Bishop of Antioch? None in Ignatius ? None in Clemens of Alex- andria ? None in Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cy- prian? None in all those old Historiographers, out of which Eusebius gathereth his story? None till the time of the Council of Nice, three hundred and twenty years after Christ?* As if the mention, which is thereof made in
* ' What ! no mention of him in Theophilus Bishop of Antioch ? none in Clemens Alexandrinus? none in Ignatius i none in Justin Martyr? in Irenaeus, in Tertul- lian, in Origen, in Cyprian ? in those old Historiographers, out of which Euse- bius gathered his story ? Was it for his baseness and smallness that he could not be seen amongst the Bishops, Elders, and Deacons, being the chief and prin- cipal of them all ? Can the cedar of Lebanon be hidden amongst the box-trees ?' T. C. lib. i. 92. ' A Metropolitan Bishop was nothing else but a Bishop of that place which it pleased the Emperor or Magistrate to make the chief of the Diocess or Shire; and as for this name, it makes no more difference between a Bishop and a Bishop, than when I say a Minister of London and a Minister of Newington.' T. C. lib. i. ubi supra.
book vn. 277
that very Council where so many Bishops acknowledge Archiepiscopal Dignity even then ancient, were not of far more weight and value than if every of those Fathers had vvritten large discourses thereof. But what is it which they will blush at who dare so confidently set it down, that in the Council of Nice some Bishops being termed Metropolitans, no more difference is thereby meant to have been between one Bishop and another than is shewed between one Minister and another, when we say such a one is a Minister in the city of London, and such a one a Minister in the town of Newington ? So that, to be termed a Metropolitan Bishop did, in their conceit, import no more pre-eminence above other Bishops, than we mean that a girdler hath over others of the same trade, if we term him which cloth inhabit some Mother-city for diffe- rence' sake a Metropolitan girdler. But the truth is too manifest to be eluded ; a Bishop at that time had Power in his own Diocess over all other Ministers there, and a Metropolitan Bishop sundry pre-eminences above other Bishops, one of which pre-eminences was, in the Ordina- tion of Bishops, to have Kvpog twv yivo/jizvwv, the chief Power of ordering all things done. Which pre-eminence that Council itself doth mention,* as also a greater be- longing unto the Patriarch or Primate of Alexandria, concerning whom it is there likewise said, that to him did belong IZovoia, authority and power over all Egypt, Penta- j)olis, and Libya: within which compass sundry Metropo- litan Sees to have been, there is no man ignorant, which in those antiquities have any knowledge. Certain preroga- tives there are wherein Metropolitans excelled other Bi- shops, certain also wherein Primates excelled other Metro- politans. Archiepiscopal or Metropolitan prerogatives are those mentioned in the old Imperial Constitutions, to con- Novel- vocate the holy Bishops under them, within the compass of can. 10 their own Provinces, when need required their meeting to- gether for inquisition and redress of public disorders ; to Nove1' grant unto Bishops under them leave and faculty of absence «n. 9- from their own Diocesses, when it seemed necessary that they should otherwhere converse for some reasonable while ;
* Cone. Nicen. c. 6. ' Illud autem omnino manifestum, quod siquis absque Me- tropolitan! sententia factus sit Episcopus, hunc magna Synodus definivit Epis- copum esse non oportere.' Can. 4.
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Novel. {0 g[ve notice unto Bishops under them of things cOm- c"an.X2. manded by supreme authority ; to have the hearing and cmih.' first determining of such causes as any man had against a Novel2' Bishop ; to receive the appeals of the inferior Clergy, in csxiii. case they found themselves overborne by the Bishop, their immediate Judge. And lest haply it should be imagined that Canons Ecclesiastical we want to make the self-same thing manifest ; in the Council of Antioch it was thus de- can.9. creed : " The Bishop in every Province must know, that he which is Bishop in the Mother-city hath not only charge of his own Parish or Diocess, but even of the whole Pro- vince also.3' Again: " It hath seemed good, that other Bishops without him should do nothing more than only that which concerns each one's Parish, and the places un- tan. 16. derneath it." Further, by the self-same Council all Councils Provincial are reckoned void and frustrate, unless the Bishop of the Mother-city within that Province where such Councils should be, were present at them. So that the want of his presence, and, in Canons for Church-govern- ment, want of his approbation also, did disannul them : not so the want of any others. Finally, concerning elec- can. 4. tion 0f Bishops, the Council of Nice hath this general Rule, l°7n.\Pc°l That the chief ordering of all things here, is in every Pro- vince committed to the Metropolitan. Touching them, who amongst Metropolitans were also Primates, and had of sundry united Provinces, the chiefest Metropolitan See, can. 23. 0f such that Canon in the Council of Carthage was eminent, whereby a Bishop is forbidden to go beyond seas without the licence of the highest Chair within the same Bishop's own country; and of such which beareth the name Apos- cna.si. tolical, is that ancient Canon likewise, which chargeth the Bishop of each Nation to know him which is First amongst them, and to esteem of him as a Head, and to do no ex- traordinary thing but with his leave. The chief Primates of the Christian world were the Bishops of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch. To whom the Bishop of Constantinople tav£fJ Dem» afterwards added, St. Chrysostom the Bishop of that chry. See is in that respect said to have had the care and charge [Hilt, not only of the city of Constantinople, " sed etiam totius Ecdes. xhracias, quae sex Praefecturis est divisa, et Asias totius, quae ab undecim Prassidibus regitur." The rest of the East was under Antioch, the South under Alexandria, and the
book vii. 279
West under Rome. Whereas, therefore, John the Bishop of Jerusalem being- noted of Heresy, had written an Apo- logy for himself unto the Bishop of Alexandria, named Theophilus ; St. Jerome rcproveth his breaeh of the Order of the Church herein, saying, " Tu, qui regulas quasris Ec- iiierou. clesiasticas, et Niceni Concilii Canonibus uteris, responde [IV. as. mihi, ad Alexandrinum Episcopum Palasstina quid pertinet? *■ 36] Ni fallor, hoc ibi decernitur, ut Palaestinas Metropolis Caesarea sit, et totius Orientis Antiochia. Aut igitur ad Caesariensem Episcopum referre debueras; aut si procul expetendum judicium erat, Antiochiam potius literas diri- gendae." Thus much concerning that local compass which was anciently set out to Bishops ; within the bounds and limits whereof we find, that they did accordingly exercise that Episcopal Authority and Power which they had over the Church of Christ.
9. The first whom we read to have bent themselves In wh ,l against the Superiority of Bishops were Aerius and his fol- ep\sC0*. lowers. Aerius seeking to be made a Bishop, could not gfme'nt brook that Eustathius was thereunto preferred before him. i»a«'beeu Whereas therefore he saw himself unable to rise to that of oia by greatness which his ambitious pride did affect, his way of ^,rgluds; revenge was to trv what wit, being sharpened with envy Ha5r- ad, and malice, could do in raising a new seditious opinion, deum. that the superiority which Bishops had was a thing which they should not have; that a Bishop might not ordain ; and that a Bishop ought not any way to be distinguished from a Presbyter. For so doth St. Augustine deliver the opinion of Aerius. Epiphanius not so plainly nor so directly, but after a more rhetorical sort. " His speech was rather furi- [EpiPhan. ous than convenient for man to use : What is (saith he) 75.T3.'] a Bishop more than a Presbyter ? The one doth differ from the other nothing. For their Order is one, their Honour one, one their Dignity. A Bishop imposeth his hands, so doth a Presbyter. A Bishop baptizeth, the like doth a Presbyter. The Bishop is a Minister of divine Service, a Presbyter the same. The Bishop sitteth as a judge in a throne, even the Presbyter sitteth also." A Presbyter therefore doing thus far the self-same thing which a Bishop
* ' Aeriani ab Aerio quodam sunt nominati ; qui quum esset Presbyter, doluisse fertur, quod Episcopus non potest ordinari. Dicebat Episcopum a Presbytero nulla ratione debere discerni.' Aug. de Hser. [53.]
280 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
did, it was by Aerius enforced, that they ought not in any thing to differ. Are we to think Aerius had wrong in be- ing judged a Heretic for holding this opinion? Surely, if Heresy be an error falsely fathered upon Scriptures, but indeed repugnant to the truth of the Word of God, and by the consent of the universal Church in the Councils, or in her contrary uniform practice throughout the whole world, declared to be such; and the opinion of Aerius in this point be a plain error of that nature : there is no remedy, but Aerius, so schismatically and stiffly maintaining it, must even stand where Epiphanius and Augustine have placed him. An error repugnant unto the truth of the Word of God is held by them, whosoever they be, that stand in de- fence of any conclusion drawn erroneously out of Scripture, and untruly thereon fathered. The opinion of Aerius there- fore being falsely collected out of Scripture, must needs be acknowledged an error repugnant unto the truth of the Word of God. His opinion was, that there ought not to be any difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter. His grounds and reasons for his opinion were sentences of Scripture. Under pretence of which sentences, whereby it seemed that Bishops and Presbyters at the first did not differ, it was concluded by Aerius, that the Church did ill in permitting any difference to be made. The answer which Epiphanius maketh unto some part of the proofs by Aerius alleged, was not greatly studied or laboured ; for through a contempt of so base an error (for this himself did perceive and profess) yieldeth he thereof expressly this reason : Men that have wit do evidently see that all this is mere foolish- ness. But how vain and ridiculous soever his opinion seemed unto wise men, with it Aerius deceived many ;* for which cause somewhat was convenient to be said against it. And in that very extemporal slightness which Epiphanius there useth, albeit the answer made to Aerius [Hasr 75. be in part butraw,f yet ought not hereby the truth to find any less favour than in other causes it doth, where we do
* 'Ev Tturui -aroXXous ntri-rrtas. [Haer. 75. §. 3.]
t As in that he saith, the Apostle doth name sometimes Presbyters and not Bishops, lTim. iv. 14. sometimes Bishops and not Presbyters, Phil. i. 1 . because all Churches had not both, for want of able and sufficient men. In such Churches, therefore, as had but the one, the Apostle could not mention the other. Which answer is nothing to the latter place abovementioned : for that the Church of Philippi should have more Bishops than one, and want a few able men to be Pres- byters under the Regiment of one Bishop, how shall we think it probable or likely ?
BOOK VII. 281
not therefore judge Heresy to have the better, because now and then it allegeth that for itself, which defenders of the truth do not always so fully answer. Let it therefore suf- fice, that Aerius did bring nothing unanswerable. The weak solutions which the one doth give, are to us no pre- judice against the cause, as long as the other's oppositions are of no greater strength and validity. Did not Aerius, trow ye, deserve to be esteemed as a new Apolos, mighty and powerful in the Word, which could for maintenance of his cause bring forth so plain divine authorities, to prove by the Apostles' own writings that Bishops ought not in any thing to differ from other Presbyters ? For example, where it is said that Presbyters made Timothy Bishop, is it not clear that a Bishop should not differ from a Pres- byter, by having Power of Ordination? Again, if a Bishop might by Order be distinguished from a Presbyter, would the Apostle have given as he doth unto Presbyters the title of Bishops?* These were the invincible demonstrations wherewith Aerius did so fiercely assault Bishops. But the sentence of A'erius perhaps was only, that the difference be- tween a Bishop and a Presbyter hath grown by the Order and Custom of the Church, the Word of God not appoint- ing that any such difference should be. Well, let Aerius then find the favour to have his sentence so construed ; yet his fault in condemning the Order of the Church, his not submitting himself unto that Order, the schism which he caused in the Church about it, who can excuse? No, the truth is, that these things did even necessarily ensue, by force of the very opinion which he and his followers did hold. His conclusion was, that there ought to be no dif- ference between a Presbyter and a Bishop. His proofs, those Scripture-sentences which make mention of Bishops and Presbyters without any such distinction or difference. So that if between his conclusion and the proofs whereby he laboured to strengthen the same, there be any show of coherence at all, we must of necessity confess, that when Aerius did plead, there is by the Word of God no diffe-
• 1 Tim. iv. 14. With the imposition of the Presbytery's hand. Of which Presbytery St. Paul was chief, 2 Tim. i. 6. And I think no man will deny that St. Paul had more than a simple Presbyter's Authority, Phil. i. 1. To all the Saints at Philippi, with the Bishops and Deacons. For as yet in the Church of Philippi, there was no one which had authority besides the Apostles, but their Presbyters or Bishops were all both in Title and in Power equal.
282 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
rencc between a Presbyter and a Bishop, his meaning was, not only that the Word of God itself appointeth not, but that it enforceth on us the duty of not appointing, or allow- ing, that any such difference should be made, in what 10. And of the self-same mind are the enemies of Govern- Episco- ment by Bishops, even at this present day. They hold, as TenfiT Aerius did, that if Christ and his Apostles were obeyed, saiu- a Bishop should not be permitted to ordain ; that between Ke a Presbyter and a Bishop the Word of God alloweth not o"pr°" anv inequality or difference to be made ; that their Order, tended their Authority, their Power, ought to be one ; that it is
reforraa- . .. , ,
tion at but by usurpation and corruption that the one sort are sui- tins day. fere(j to iiave ruie over the other, or to be any way superior unto them. Which opinion having now so many defenders, shall never be able while the world doth stand to find in some, believing antiquity, as much as one which hath given it countenance, or borne any friendly affection to- wards it. Touching these men, therefore, whose desire is to have all equal, three ways there are whereby they usually oppugn the received Order of the Church of Christ. First, by disgracing the inequality of Pastors, as a new and mere human invention, a thing which was never drawn out of Scripture, where all Pastors are found (they say) to have one and the same Power both of Order and Jurisdic- tion : secondly, by gathering together the differences be- tween that Power which we'give to Bishops, and that which was given them of old in the Church ; so that, albeit even the ancient took more than was warrantable, yet so far they swerved not as ours have done : thirdly, by endeavour- ing to prove, that the Scripture directly forbiddeth, and that the judgment of the wisest, the holiest, the best, in all ages, condemneth utterly the inequality which we allow. Their ar- u# That inequality of Pastors is a mere human invcn- in dis- tion, a thing not found in the Word of God, they prove SS °f thus:
™f°tby i. "All the places of Scripture where the word Bishop is 'ng used, or any other derived of that name, siguify an over- sight in respect of some particular congregation only, and tion of never jn regard of Pastors committed unto his oversight. and 'not por which cause the names of Bishops, and Presbyters, scrip- D or Pastoral Elders, are used indifferently, to signify one
Hiiliops as be a mere inven
book vii. 283
use of these words for one and the self-same Office, so con- thus stantly and perpetually in all places, declareth that the \\ Tim. word Bishop in the Apostles' writing importeth not a Pas- "j;u5; tor of higher Power and Authority over other Pastors." >• »■
ii. "All Pastors are called to their Office by the same 1,2V means of proceeding ; the Scripture maketh no difference in the manner of their Trial, Election, Ordination : which proveth their Office and Power to be by Scripture all one."
iii. " The Apostles were all of equal Power, and all Pas- tors do alike succeed the Apostles in their Ministry and Power, the commission and authority whereby they suc- ceed being in Scripture but one and the same that was committed to the Apostles, without any difference of com- mitting to one Pastor more, or to another less."
iv. " The Power of the Censures and Keys of the Church, and of ordaining and ordering Ministers (in which two points especially this Superiority is challenged), is not com- mitted to any one Pastor of the Church more than to ano- ther ; but the same is committed as a thing to be carried equally in the guidance of the Church. Whereby it ap- peareth, that Scripture maketh all Pastors, not only in the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments, but also in all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Authority, equal."
v. " The Council of Nice doth attribute this difference, not unto any Ordination of God, but to an ancient Custom used in former times, which judgment is also followed afterwards by other Councils : Concil. Antioch. cap. 9."
vi. Upon these premises, their summary collection and conclusion is, " That the Ministry of the Gospel, and the functions thereof, ought to be from Heaven and of God (John i. 23.); that if they be of God,^and from Heaven, then are they set down in the Word of God ; * that if they be not in the Word of God (as by the premises it doth ap- pear (they say) that our kinds of Bishops are not), it fol- loweth, they are invented by the brain of men, and are of the earth, and that consequently they can do no good in the Church of Christ, but harm."
Our answer hereunto is, first, that their proofs are un- Answer
* ' So that it appeareth that the Ministry of the Gospel, and the functions thereof, ought to be from Heaven : from Heaven, 1 say, and heavenly, because although it be executed by earthly men, and Ministers are chosen also by men like unto themselves, yet because it is done by the Word and Institution of God, it may well be accounted to come from Heaven and from God.' T. C. lib. i. p. 13.
284 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
available to shew that Scripture affordeth no evidence for the inequality of Pastors : secondly, that albeit the Scrip- ture did no way insinuate the same to be God's Ordinance, and the Apostles to have brought it in, albeit the Church were acknowledged by all men to have been the first be- ginner thereof a long time after the Apostles were gone ; yet is not the Authority of Bishops hereby disannulled, it is not hereby proved unfit or unprofitable for the Church.
(1.) ' That the Word of God doth acknowledge no ine- quality of Power amongst Pastors of the Church,' neither doth it appear by the signification of this word Bishop, nor by the indifferent use thereof. For, concerning significa- tion, first, it is clearly untrue that no other thing is there- by signified but only an oversight in respect of a particu- lar Church and Congregation. For, I beseech you, of what Parish or particular Congregation was Matthias i.ao. Bishop? His Office Scripture doth term Episcopal : which being no other than was common unto all the Apos- tles of Christ, forasmuch as in that number there is not any to whom the oversight of many Pastors did not be- long by force and virtue of that Office ; it followeth that the very word doth sometimes, even in Scripture, signify an oversight such as includeth charge over Pastors them- selves. And if we look to the use of the word, being ap- plied with reference unto some one Church, as Ephesus, Philippi, and such like, albeit the guides of those Churches be interchangeably in Scripture termed sometime Bishops, sometime Presbyters, to signify men having oversight and charge, without relation at all unto other than the Chris- tian Laity alone; yet this doth not hinder, but that Scrip- ture may in some place have other names, whereby certain of those Presbyters or Bishops are noted to have the over- ly, sight and charge of Pastors, as out of all peradventure "• *■ they had whom St. John doth entitle Angels.
(2.) ' As for those things which the Apostle hath set down concerning Trial, Election, and Ordination of Pastors, that he maketh no difference in the manner of their calling/ this also is but a silly argument to prove their Office and their Power equal by the Scripture. The Form of admit- ting each sort unto their offices, needed no particular in- struction: there was no fear, but that such matters of course would easily enough be observed. The Apostle,
book vir. 285
therefore, toucheth those things wherein judgment, wis- dom, and conscience are required ; he carefully admonish- eth of what quality Ecclesiastical persons should be, that their dealing might not be scandalous in the Church. And, forasmuch as those things are general, we see that of Deacons there are delivered, in a manner, the self-same precepts which are given concerning Pastors, so far as concerneth their Trial, Election, and Ordination. Yet who doth hereby collect that Scripture maketh Deacons and Pastors equal ? If notwithstanding it be yet demanded, 'Wherefore he which teacheth what kind of persons Deacons and Presbyters should be, hath nothing in parti- cular about the quality of Chief-Presbyters, whom we call Bishops ? ' I answer briefly, that there it was no fit place for any such discourse to be made, inasmuch as the Apo- stle wrote unto Timothy and Titus, who, having by com- mission Episcopal Authority, were to exercise the same in ordaining, not Bishops (the Apostles themselves yet liv- ing, and retaining that power in their own hands) but Presbyters, such as the Apostles at the first did create throughout all Churches. Bishops by restraint (only James at Jerusalem excepted) were not yet in being.
(3.) About equality amongst the Apostles there is by us no controversy moved. If in the rooms of the Apostles, which were of equal Authority, all Pastors do by Scripture succeed alike, where shall we find a commission in Scrip- ture which they speak of, which appointed all to succeed in the self-same equality of Power ? except that commission which doth authorize to preach and baptize should be al- leged, which maketh nothing to the purpose ; for in such things all Pastors are still equal. We must, I fear me, wait very long before any other will be shewed. For how- soever the Apostles were equals amongst themselves, all other Pastors were not equals with the Apostles while they lived, neither are they any where appointed to be afterwards each other's equals. Apostles had, as we know, Authority over all such as were no Apostles ; by force of which their Authority they might command and judge. It was for the singular good and benefit of those Disciples whom Christ left behind him, and of the Pastors which were afterwards chosen ; for the great good, I say, of all sorts, that the Apostles were in Power above them. Every
28G ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
day brought forth somewhat wherein they saw by expe- rience, how much it stood them in stead to be under con- trolment of those Superiors and higher Governors of God's House. Was it a thing so behoveful that Pastors should be subject unto Pastors in the Apostles' own times ? and is there any commandment that this subjection should cease with them, and that the Pastors of the succeeding ages should be all equals? No, no, this strange and absurd conceit of equality amongst Pastors (the mother of schism and of confusion) is but a dream newly brought forth, and seen never in the Church before.
(4.) Power of Censure and Ordinationappearethevenby Scripture marvellous probable to have been derived from Christ to his Church, without this surmised equality in them to whom he hath committed the same. For I would know, whether Timothy and Titus were commanded by St. Paul to do any thing more than Christ hath authorized Pastors to do? And to the one it is Scripture which saith, i Tim. " Against a Presbyter receive thou no accusation, saving v- *9- under two or three witnesses ;" Scripture which likewise Tit . 5. hath said to the other, " For this very cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest redress the things that remain, and shouldest ordain Presbyters in every city, as I ap- pointed thee." In the former place the power of Censure is spoken of, and the power of Ordination in the latter. Will they say, that every Pastor there was equal to Timo- thy and Titus in these things ? If they do, the Apostle him- self is against it, who saith, that of their two very persons he had made choice, and appointed in those places them for performances of those duties : whereas, if the same had belonged unto others no less than to them, and not princi- pally unto them above others, it had been fit for the Apo- stle accordingly to have directed his letters concerning these things in general unto them all which had equal in- terest in them ; even as it had been likewise fit to have written those Epistles in St. John's Revelation, unto whole Ecclesiastical Senates, rather than only unto the Angels of each Church, had not some one been above the rest in Authority to order the affairs of the Church. Scrip- ture, therefore, doth most probably make for the inequality of Pastors, even in all Ecclesiastical affairs, and by very express mention, as well in Censures, as Ordinations.
book vii. 287
(5.) In the Nicene Council there are confirmed certain prerogatives and dignities belonging unto Primates or Archbishops, and of them it is said, that the ancient Cus- tom of the Church had been to give them such pre-emi- nence, but no syllable whereby any man should conjecture that those Fathers did not honour the Superiority which Bishops had over other Pastors only upon ancient Custom, and not as true Apostolical, Heavenly, and Divine Ordi- nance.
(G.) Now, although we should leave the general-received persuasion held from the first beginning, that the Apostles themselves left Bishops invested with Power above other Pastors ; although, I say, we would give over this opinion, and embrace that other conjecture which so many have thought good to follow,* and which myself did sometime judge a great deal more probable than now I do, merely that after the Apostles were deceased, Churches did agree amongst themselves, for preservation of peace and order, to make one Presbyter in each city chief over the rest, and to translate unto him that Power by force and virtue whereof the Apostles, while they were alive, did preserve and uphold Order in the Church, exercising spiritual Juris- diction, partly by themselves, and partly by Evangelists, because they could not always every where themselves be present : this Order taken by the Church itself (for so let us suppose, that the Apostles did neither by word nor deed Tit appoint it) were notwithstanding more warrantable, than '* that it should give place and be abrogated, because the Ministry of the Gospel, and the functions thereof, ought to j0hu be from Heaven. There came Chief-Priests and Elders unto '' M* our Saviour Christ as he was teaching in the Temple, and the question which they moved unto him was this, " By Matt. what authority doest thou these things, and who gave thee SJjj*" this authority ?" their question he repelled with a counter- demand, " The Baptism of John, whence was it, from Hea- ven, or of men?" Hereat they paused, secretly disputing within themselves, " If we should say, From Heaven, he will ask, Wherefore did ye not then believe him ? and if we say, Of men, we fear the people, for all hold John a
* They of Walden, 2En. Syl. hist. Bohem. [c. 35.] Marsilius defens. pac. Nicl. Thomas Wald. c. 1. lib. ii. c. 60. Calvin. Com. in 1. ad Tit. Bullinger, Decad. 1. Ser. 3. Juel. Def. apol. par. 2. c. 9. Di. I. Fulk, answ. to the Test.
288 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Prophet." What is it now which hereupon these men would infer ? That all functions Ecclesiastical ought in such sort to be from Heaven, as the function of John was? No such matter here contained. Nay, doth not the con- trary rather appear most plainly by that which is here set down? For when our Saviour doth ask concerning the Baptism, that is to say, the whole spiritual function of John, whether it were "from Heaven, or of men," he giveth clearly to understand that men give authority unto some, and some God himself from Heaven doth authorize. Nor is it said, or in any sort signified, that none have lawful authority which have it not in such manner as John, from Heaven. Again, when the Priests and Elders were loth to say, that John had his calling " of men," the reason was not because they thought that so John should not have any good or lawful calling, but because they saw that by this means they should somewhat embase the calling of John ; whom all men knew to have been sent from God, according to the manner of Prophets, by a mere celestial vocation. So that out of the evidence here alleged, these things we may directly conclude : first, that whoso doth exercise any kind of function in the Church, he cannot law- fully so do, except Authority be given him ; secondly, that if Authority be not given him from men, as the Authority of teaching was given unto Scribes and Pharisees, it must be given him from Heaven, as Authority was given unto Christ, Elias, John Baptist, and the Prophets. For these two only ways there are to have Authority. But a strange con- clusion it is, God himself did from Heaven authorize John to bear witness of the Light, to prepare a way for the pro- mised Messiah, to publish the nearness of the Kingdom of God, to preach Repentance, and to baptize (for by this part, which was in the function of John most noted, all the rest are together signified) ; therefore the Church of God hath no power upon new occurrences to appoint, to ordain an Ecclesiastical function, as Moses did upon Jethro's advice devise a Civil. All things we grant which are in the Church ought to be of God. But, forasmuch as they may be two ways accounted such : one, if they be of his own institu- tion, and not of ours ; another, if they be of ours, and yet with his approbation : this latter way there is no impedi- ment, but that the same thing which is of men, may be also
BOOK VIT. 289
justly and truly said to be of God, the same thing from Heaven which is from earth. Of all good things God him- self is author, and consequently an approver of them. The Rule to discern when the actions of men are good, when they are such as they ought to be, is more ample and large than the Law which God hath set particular down in his holy Word ; the Scripture is but a part of that Rule, as hath been heretofore at large declared. If therefore all things be of God which are well done ; and if all things be well done, which are according to the Rule of well-doing ; Kb. >• and if the Rule of well-doing be more ample than the Scrip- ture: what necessity is there, that every thing which is of God should be set down in Holy Scripture? True it is in things of some one kind, true it is, that what we are now of necessity for ever bound to believe or observe in the special mysteries of salvation, Scripture must needs give notice of it unto the world ; yet true it cannot be, touching all things that are of God. Sufficient it is for the proof of lawfulness in any thing done, if we can shew that God ap- proveth it. And of his approbation the evidence is suffi- cient, if either himself have by Revelation in his Word war- ranted it, or we by some discourse of Reason find it good of itself, and unrepugnant unto any of his revealed Laws and Ordinances. Wherefore, injurious we are unto God, the author and giver of human capacity, judgment, and wit, when, because of some things wherein he precisely forbiddeth men to use their own inventions, we take occa- sion to disauthorize and disgrace the works which he doth produce by the hand either of Nature or of Grace in them. We offer contumely, even unto him, when we scornfully reject what we list, without any other exception than this, " The brain of man hath devised it." Whether we look into the Church or Commonweal, as well in the one as in the other, both the Ordination of Officers, and the very in- stitution of their Offices, may be truly derived from God, and approved of him, although they be not always of him in such sort as those things are which are in Scripture. Doth not the Apostle term the Law of Nature, even as the Rom. Evangelist doth the Law of Scripture, Aacalufxa tov Qeov, Luife God's own righteous Ordinance ? The Law of Nature then '• 6- being his Law, that must needs be of him which it hath directed men unto. Great odds, I grant, there is between
VOL. II. u
290 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
things devised by men, although agreeable with the Law of Nature, and things in Scripture set down by the finger of the Holy Ghost. Howbeit the dignity of these is no hin- derance, but that those be also reverently accounted of in their place. This much they very well saw, who although not living themselves under this kind of Church Polity, yet being, through some experience, more moderate, grave, and circumspect in their judgment, have given hereof their confess, sounder and better-advised sentence. " That which the holy l6i' Fathers (saith Zanchius) have by common consent, with- out contradiction of Scripture, received, for my part, I neither will, nor dare with good conscience, disallow." And what more certain, than that the ordering of Ecclesiastical persons, one in Authority above another, was received into the Church by the common consent of the Christian world? What am I, that I should take upon me to control the whole Church of Christ in that which is so well known to have been lawfully, religiously, and to notable purpose, insti- tuted ? Calvin maketh mention even of Primates that have Epist. Authority above Bishops : " It was (saith he) the institu- tion of the ancient Church, to the end that the Bishops might, by this bond of concord, continue the faster linked amongst themselves." And, lest any man should think that as well he might allow the Papacy itself, to prevent this he addeth, " Aliud est moderatum gerere et honorem, quam totum terrarum orbem immenso imperio complecti." These things standing as they do, we may conclude, that, albeit the Offices which Bishops execute had been commit- ted unto them only by the Church, and that the Superiority which they have over other Pastors were not first by Christ himself given to the Apostles, and from them descended to others, but afterwards in such consideration brought in and agreed upon, as is pretended; yet could not this be a just or lawful exception against it. Their ar- 12. But they will say, " There was no necessity of t8oUpronve instituting Bishops; the Church might have stood well waTno enough without them ; they are as those superfluous things, necessity which neither while they continue do good, nor do harm tilting- when they are removed, because there is not any profitable ?lst'n°ps use whereunto they should serve. For first, in the primi- church. jive Church their Pastors were all equal, the Bishops of those days were the very same which Pastors of Parish-
BOOK VII. 291
churches at this day are with us, no one at commandment or controlment by any other's authority amongst them. The Church therefore may stand and flourish without Bishops: if they be necessary, wherefore were they not sooner instituted V ii. "Again, if any such thing were need- ful for the Church, Christ would have set it down in Scrip- ture, as he did all kind of Officers needful for Jewish Regi- ment. He which prescribed unto the Jews so particularly the least thing pertinent unto their Temple, would not have left so weighty offices undetermined of in Scripture, but that he knew the Church could never have any profitable use of them." iii. " Furthermore, it is the judgment of Cy- Jp- '• prian, that equality requireth every man's cause to be heard, [aiisb. where the fault he is charged with was committed : and Cl 10] the reason he allegeth is, forasmuch as there they may have both accusers and witnesses in their cause. Sith therefore every man's cause is meetest to be handled at home by the judges of his own Parish, to what purpose serveth their device, which have appointed Bishops unto whom such causes may be brought, and Archbishops to whom they may be also from thence removed ?
13. What things have necessary use in the Church, Thefore- they of all others are the most unfit to judge, who bend arguments themselves purposely against whatsoever the Church useth, answered- except it please themselves to give it the grace and coun- tenance of their faithful approbation ; which they willingly do not yield unto any part of Church Polity, in the fore- head whereof there is not the mark of that new-devised stamp. But howsoever men like or dislike, whether they judge things necessary or needless in the House of God, a conscience they should have touching that which they boldly affirm or deny. (1.) " In the primitive Church no Bishops, no Pastor having Power over other Pastors, but all equals, every man supreme commander and ruler within the kingdom of his own Congregation or Parish. The Bishops that are spoken of in the time of the primitive Church, all such as Parsons or Rectors of Parishes are with us V If thus it hath been in the prime of the Church, the question is, how far they will have that prime to ex- tend? and where the latter spring of that new- supposed disorder to begin ? That primitive Church, wherein they hold that amongst the Fathers all which had pastoral u2
292 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
charge were equal, they must of necessity so far enlarge as to contain some hundred of years, because for proof hereof they allege boldly and confidently St. Cyprian, who suf- fered martyrdom about two hundred and threescore years after our blessed Lord's Incarnation. A Bishop, they say, such as Cyprian doth speak of, had only a Church or Con- gregation, such as the Ministers and Pastors with us, which are appointed unto several towns. Every Bishop in Cyprian's time was Pastor of one only Congregation, assembled in one place to be taught of one man.* A thing impertinent, although it were true. For the question is about personal inequality amongst Governors of the Church. Now to shew there was no such thing in the Church at such time as Cyprian lived, what bring they forth ? For- sooth that Bishops had then but a small circuit of place for the exercise of their Authority. Be it supposed, that no one Bishop had more than one only Town to govern, one only Congregation to rule; doth it by Cyprian appear, that in any such Town or Congregation being under the care and charge of some one Bishop, there were not, besides that one Bishop, others also Ministers of the Word and Sacraments : yet subject to the Power of the same Bishop ? If this appear not, how can Cyprian be alleged for a wit- ness that in those times there were no Bishops which did differ from other Ministers, as being above them in degree of Ecclesiastical Power? But a gross and a palpable un- truth it is, " That Bishops with Cyprian were as Ministers are with us in Parish-churches ; and that each of them did guide some Parish without any other Pastors under him." St. Cyprian's own person may serve for a manifest disproof hereof. Pontius, being Deacon under Cyprian, noteth that his admirable virtues caused him to be Bishop with the soonest; which advancement thereof himself endeavoured for a while to avoid. It seemed in his own eyes too soon for him to take the Title of so great honour, in regard whereof a Bishop is termed Pontifex, Sacerdos, Antistes Dei. Yet such was his quality, that whereas others did hardly perform that duty whereunto the Discipline of their Order, together with the Religion of the Oath they took at
• ' The Bishop which Cyprian speaketh of, is nothing else but such as we call Pastor, or, as the common name with us is, Parson ; and his Church, whereof he is Bishop, is neither Diocess nor Province, but a Congregation which met together in one place, and to be taught of one man.' T. C. lib. i. p. 99, 100.
book vii. 293
their entrance into the Office, even constrained them; him the Chair did not make, but receive, such a one, as behoved that a Bishop should be. But soon after followed that prescription, whereby being driven into exile, and con- tinuing in that estate for the space of some two years, he ceased not by letters to deal with his Clergy, and to direct them about the public affairs of the Church. They unto whom these Epistles were written,* he commonly entitled the Presbyters and Deacons of that Church. If any man doubt whether those Presbyters of Carthage were Minis- ters of the Word and Sacraments or no, let him consider but that one only place of Cyprian, where he giveth them this careful advice, how to deal with circumspection in the perilous times of the Church, that neither they which were for the truth's sake imprisoned might want those ghostly comforts which they ought to have, nor the Church by mi- nistering the same unto them incur unnecessary danger and peril. In which Epistle it doth expressly appear, that the Presbyters of whom he speaketh did offer, that is to say, administer the Eucharist; and that many there were of them in the Church of Carthage, so as they might have every day change for performance of that duty. Nor will any man of sound judgment, I think, deny, that Cyprian was in Authority and Power above the Clergy of that Church, above those Presbyters unto whom he gave direction. It is apparently therefore untrue, that in Cyprian's time Mi- nisters of the Word and Sacraments were all equal, and that no one of them had either Title more excellent than the rest, or Authority and Government over the rest. Cyprian, being Bishop of Carthage, was clearly superior unto all other Ministers there : yea, Cyprian was, by reason of the dignity of his See, an Archbishop, and so consequently su- perior unto Bishops. Bishops, we say, there have been always, even as long as the Church of Christ itself hath been. The Apostles who planted it, did themselves rule as Bishops over it ; neither could they so well have kept
* ' Etsi Fratres pro dilecticme sua cupidi sunt ad conveniendum et visitandum Confessores bonos, quos illustravit jam gloriosis initiis divina dignatio, tamen caute hoc, et non glomeratim nee per multitudinem simul junctam, puto esse faci- endum ; ne ex hoc ipso invidia concitetur, et introeundi aditus denegetar, et dum insatiabiles multum volumus, totum perdamus : consulite ergo et providete ut cum temperamento hoc agi tutius possif, ita ut Presbyteri quoque, qui illic apud Con- fessores offerunt, singuli cum singulis Diaconis per vices alternent, quia et muta- tio personarum, et vicissitudo convenientium minuit invidiam.' Ep. 5. [c. 2.]
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things in order during their own times, but that Episcopal Authority was given them from above, to exercise far and wide over all other Guides and Pastors of God's Church. The Church indeed for a time continued without Bishops by restraint, every where established in Christian cities. But shall we thereby conclude that the Church hath no use of them, that without them it may stand and flourish? No ; the cause wrherefore they were so soon universally appointed was, for that it plainly appeared, that without them the Church could not have continued long. It was by the special providence of God, no doubt, so disposed, that the evil whereof this did serve for remedy might first be felt, and so the reverend Authority of Bishops be made by so much the more effectual, when our general expe- rience had taught men what it was for Churches to want them. Good Laws are never esteemed so good, nor ac- knowledged so necessary, as when precedent crimes are as seeds out of which they grow. Episcopal Authority was even in a manner sanctified unto the Church of Christ by that little bitter experience which it first had of the pestilent evil of schisms. Again, when this very thing was proposed as a remedy, yet a more suspicious and fearful acceptance it must needs have found, if the self- same provident wisdom of Almighty God had not also given beforehand sufficient trial thereof in the Regiment of Jerusalem, a Mother-church, which having received the same Order even at the first, was by it most peaceably go- verned, when other Churches without it had trouble. So that by all means, the necessary use of Episcopal Govern- ment is confirmed, yea, strengthened it is and ratified, even by the not establishment thereof in all Churches every where at the first. (2.) When they further dispute, "That if any such thing were needful, Christ would in Scripture have set down particular Statutes and Laws, appointing that Bishops should be made, and prescribing in what Or- der, even as the Law doth for all kind of Officers which were needful in the Jewish Regiment ;" might not a man that would bend his wit to maintain the fury of the Petro- brusian Heretics, in pulling down Oratories, use the self- same argument with as much countenance of reason? "If it were needful that we should assemble ourselves in Churches, would that God, which taught the Jews so ex-
book vii. 295
aetly the frame of their sumptuous Temple, leave us no particular instructions in writing, no not so much as which way to lay any one stone ?" Surely such kind of argumen- tation doth not so strengthen the sinews of their cause, as weaken the credit of their judgment which are led there- with. (3.) And whereas, thirdly, in disproof of that use which Episcopal Authority hath in judgment of spiritual causes, they bring forth the verdict of Cyprian, who saith, "That equity requireth every man's cause to be heard, cypr- where the fault he was charged with was committed, for- ep! 3. asmuch as there they may have both accusers and witnesses |.alj05?' in the cause ;" this argument grounding itself on princi- ples no less true in Civil than in Ecclesiastical causes, unless it be qualified with some exceptions or limitations, overturneth the highest tribunal seats both in Church and Commonwealth; it taketh utterly away all appeals; it se- cretly condemneth even the blessed Apostle himself, as having transgressed the Law of Equity, by his appeal from Acts the Court of Judea unto those higher which were in Rome. "v' n* The generality of such kind of axioms deceiveth, unless it be construed with such cautions as the matter whereunto they are appliable doth require. A usual and ordinary transportation of causes out of Africa into Italy, out of one Kingdom into another, as discontented persons list, which was the thing which Cyprian disalloweth, may be unequal and unmeet ; and yet not therefore a thing unnecessary to have the Courts erected in higher places, and judgment committed unto greater persons, to whom the meaner may bring their causes either by way of appeal or otherwise, to be determined according to the Order of Justice; which hath been always observed every where in Civil States, and is no less requisite also for the State of the Church of God. The reasons which teach it to be expedient for the one, will shew it to be for the other at leastwise not un- necessary. Inequality of Pastors is an Ordinance both divine and profitable. Their exceptions against it, in these two reasons, we have shewed to be altogether causeless, unreasonable, and unjust.
14. The next thing which they upbraided us with, is An *n. the difference between that inequality of Pastors which hath totLse"' been of old, and which now is. For at length they grant, u™*| " That the Superiority of Bishops and of Archbishops is objected,
ence be-
tween
that
Tower
which
Bishops
29G ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
concern- somewhat ancient, but no such kind of Superiority as ours differ-6 have." By the Laws of our Discipline a Bishop may or- dain without asking the people's consent, a Bishop may excommunicate and release alone, a Bishop may imprison, a Bishop may bear Civil Office in the Realm, a Bishop may be a Counsellor of State; those things ancient Bishops snTthat neitner did nor might do. Be it granted, that ordinarily which neither in elections nor deprivations, neither in excommu- Bishops nicating nor in releasing the excommunicate, in none of j|aod,e the weighty affairs of Government, Bishops of old were than wont to do any thing without consultation with their Clergy pVeTby- and consent of the people under them; be it granted, that ters- the same Bishops did neither touch any man with corporal punishment, nor meddle with secular affairs and offices, the whole Clergy of God being then tied, by the strict and severe Canons of the Church, to use no other than ghostly power, to attend no other business than heavenly. Tar- quinius was in the Roman Commonwealth deservedly hated, of whose unorderly proceedings the History speaketh L'v- thus : " Hie Regum primus traditum a prioribus morem [C.49J de omnibus Senatum consulendi solvit; domesticis consi- liis Rempub. administravit; bellum, pacem, foedera, socie- tates, per seipsum, cumquibus voluit, injussu Populi ac Senatus, fecit diremitque." Against Bishops the like is objected, " That they are invaders of other men's rights, and by intolerable usurpation take upon them to do that alone, wherein ancient Laws have appointed that others, not they only, should bear sway." Let the case of Bishops be put, not in such sort as it is, but even as their very heaviest adversaries would devise it. Suppose that Bishops at the first had encroached upon the Church ; that by sleights and cunning practices they had appropri- ated Ecclesiastical, as Augustus did Imperial Power ; that they had taken the advantage of men's inclinable af- fections, which did not suffer them for revenue's sake to be suspected of ambition ; that in the meanwhile their usurpation had gone forward by certain easy and insensi- ble degrees ; that being not discerned in the growth, when it was thus far grown, as we now see it hath proceeded, the world at length perceiving there was just cause of com- plaint, but no place of remedy left, had assented unto it by a general secret agreement to bear it now as a helpless
book vii. 297
evil : all this supposed for certain and true ; yet surely a thing of this nature, as for the superior to do that alone unto which of right the consent of some other inferiors should have been required by them ; though it had an indi- rect entrance at the first, must needs, through continuance of so many ages as this hath stood, be made now a thing more natural to the Church, than that it should be oppress- ed with the mention of contrary Orders worn so many ages since quite and clean out of ure. But with Bishops the case is otherwise: for in doing that by themselves which others together with them have been accustomed to do, they do not any thing but that whereunto they have been upon just occasions authorized by orderly means. All things natural have in them naturally, more or less, the power of providing for their own safety ; and as each par- ticular man hath this power, so every politic Society of men must needs have the same, that thereby the whole may provide for the good of all parts therein. For other benefit we have not any, by sorting ourselves into politic Societies, saving only that by this means each part hath that relief which the virtue of the whole is able to yield it. The Church, therefore, being a politic Society or Bodj', can- not possibly want the power of providing for itself; and the chiefest part of that power consisteth in the authority of making Laws. Now, forasmuch as Corporations are perpetual, the Law of the ancienter Church cannot choose but bind the latter, while they are in force. But we must note withal, that because the Body of the Church continueth the same, it hath the same authority still, and may abro- gate old Laws, or make new, as need shall require. Where- fore, vainly are the ancient Canons and Constitutions ob- jected as Laws, when once they are either let secretly to die by disusage, or are openly abrogated by contrary Laws. The ancients had cause to do no otherwise than they did; and yet so strictly they judged not themselves in conscience bound to observe those Orders, but that in sundry cases they easily dispensed therewith, which I suppose they would never have done, had they esteemed them as things whereunto everlasting, immutable, and indispensable ob- servation did belong. The Bishop usually promoted none which were not first allowed as fit, by conference had with
298 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
the rest of his Clergy and with the people. Notwithstand- ing, in the case of Aurelius, St. Cyprian did otherwise. In matters of deliberation and counsel, for disposing of that which belongeth generally to the whole Body of the Church, or which being more particular, is nevertheless of so great consequence, that it needeth the force of many judgments conferred ; in such things the common saying must neces- sarily take place, " An eye cannot see that which eyes can." As for Clerical Ordinations, there are no such rea- sons alleged against the Order which is, but that it may be esteemed as good in every respect as that which hath been, and, in some considerations, better ; at leastwise (which is sufficient to our purpose) it may be held in the Church of Christ without transgressing any Law, either ancient or late, divine or human, which we ought to observe and keep. The Form of making Ecclesiastical Offices hath sundry parts, neither are they all of equal moment. When, Deacons having not been before in the Church of Christ, the Apostles saw it needful to have such ordained, they first assemble the multitude, and shew them how needful it is that Deacons be made : secondly, they name unto them what number they judge convenient, what quality the men must be of, and to the people they commit the care of finding such out: thirdly, the people hereunto assenting, make their choice of Stephen and the rest; those chosen men they bring and present before the Apostles ; howbeit, all this doth not en- due them with any Ecclesiastical Power. But when so much was done, the Apostles finding no cause to take excep- tion, did with Prayer and Imposition of Hands make them Deacons. This was it which gave them their very being ; all other things besides were only preparations unto this. Touching the Form of making Presbyters, although it be not wholly of purpose any where set down in the Apostles' writings, yet sundry speeches there are which insinuate the chiefest things that belong unto that action : as, when Acts paui anc| Barnabas are said to have fasted, prayed, "Tim.' and made Presbyters : when Timothy is willed to " lay hands suddenly on no man," for fear of participating with other men's sins. For this cause the Order of the pri- mitive Church was, between choice and Ordination, to have some space for such probation and trial as the
book vii. 299
Apostle doth mention in Deacons, saying, " Let them [i Tim. first be proved, then minister, if so be they be found blame- ,n' 10'] less."
Alexander Severus beholding in his time how careful Lamprid.
in Alex
the Church of Christ was, especially for this point ; how, sever. after the choice of their Pastors, they used to publish the [c,45] names of the parties chosen, and not give them the usual act of approbation, till they saw whether any let or impe- diment would be alleged ; he gave commandment, that the like should also be done in his own Imperial Elections, adding this as a reason wherefore he so required, namely, " For that both Christians and Jews being so wary about the Ordination of the Priests, it seemed very unequal for him not to be in like sort circumspect, to whom he com- mitted the Government of Provinces, containing power over men's both estates and lives." This the Canon itself doth provide for, requiring, before Ordination, scrutiny : " Let r>ec them diligently be examined three days together before the |pis# ° Sabbath, and on the Sabbath let them be presented unto J8**^ the Bishop." And even this in effect also is the very use of the Church of England, at all solemn Ordaining of Mini- sters ; and, if all Ordaining were solemn, I must confess it were much the better.
The pretended disorder of the Church of England is, that Bishops ordain them to whose election the people give no voices, and so the Bishops make them alone; that is to say, they give Ordination without popular election going before, which ancient Bishops neither did nor might do. Now in very truth, if the multitude have hereunto a right, which right can never be translated from them for any cause, then is there no remedy but we must yield, that unto the lawful making of Ministers the voice of the people is required ; and that, according to the adverse Ecci. party's assertion, such as make Ministers without asking P^1' the people's consent, do but exercise a certain tyranny.
At the first erection of the Commonwealth of Rome, the people (for so it was then fittest) determined of all affairs : afterwards, this growing troublesome, their Senators did that for them which themselves before had done : in the end all came to one man's hands ; and the Emperor alone was instead of many Senators.
In these things, the experience of time may breed both
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Civil and Ecclesiastical change from that which hath been before received ; neither do latter things always violently exclude former ; but the one growing less convenient than it hath been, giveth place to that which is now become more. That which was fit for the people themselves to do at the first, might afterwards be more convenient for them to do by some other: which other is not hereby proved a tyrant, because he alone doth that which a multitude were wont to do, unless by violence he take that authority upon him, against the order of Law, and without any public ap- pointment; as with us, if any did, it should (I suppose) not long be safe for him so to do.
This answer (I hope) will seem to be so much the more reasonable, in that themselves, who stand against us, have furnished us therewith. For, whereas against the making of Ministers by Bishops alone, their use hath been to ob- ject, what sway the people did bear when Stephen and the rest were ordained Deacons; they begin to espy how their own platform swerveth not a little from that example wherewith they control the practices of others. For, touching the form of the people's concurrence in that action, they observe it not ; no, they plainly profess, that they are not in this point bound to be followers of the Apostles. The Apostles ordained whom the people had first chosen. They hold, that their Ecclesiastical Senate ought both to choose, and also to ordain. Do not them- selves then take away that which the Apostles gave the people, namely, the privilege of choosing Ecclesiastical Officers? They do. But behold in what sort they an- swer it. Dui'i i " -^ tne s*xtn an(* fourteenth of the Acts (say they) it feu 41." doth appear, that the people had the chiefest power of choosing. Howbeit that, as unto me it seemeth, was done upon special cause which doth not so much concern us, neither ought it to be drawn unto the ordinary and per- petual Form of governing the Church. For, as in establish- ing Commonweals, not only if they be popular, but even being such as are ordered by the power of a few the chiefest, or as by the sole authority of one, till the same be established, the whole sway is in the people's hands, who voluntarily appoint those Magistrates by whose au- thority they may be governed ; so that afterward not the
BOOK VII. 301
multitude itself, but those Magistrates which are chosen by the multitude, have the ordering of public affairs : after the self-same manner it fared in establishing also the Church; when there was not as yet any placed over the people, all authority was in them all ; but when they all had chosen certain to whom the Regiment of the Church was committed, this power is not now any longer in the hands of the whole multitude, but wholly in theirs who are appointed Guides of the Church. Besides, in the choice of Deacons, there was also another special cause where- fore the whole Church at that time should choose them. For inasmuch as the Grecians murmured against the He- brews, and complained that in the daily distribution which was made for relief of the poor, they were not indifferently respected, nor such regard had of their widows as was meet; this made it necessary that they all should have to deal in the choice of those unto whom that care was after- wards to be committed, to the end that all occasion of jealousies and complaints might be removed. Wherefore, that which was done by the people for certain causes, before the Church was fully settled, may not be drawn out and applied unto a constant and perpetual Form of order- ing the Church."
Let them cast the Discipline of the Church of England into the same scales where they weigh their own, let them give us the same measure which here they take, and our strifes shall soon be brought to a quiet end. When they urge the Apostles as precedents; when they condemn us of tyranny, because we do not in making Ministers the same which the Apostles did ; when they plead, " That with us one alone doth ordain, and that our Ordinations are without the people's knowledge, contrary to the exam- ple which the blessed Apostles gave ;" we do not request at their hands allowance as much as of one word we speak in our own defence, if that which we speak be of our own ; but that which themselves speak, they must be content to listen unto. To exempt themselves from being over-far pressed with the Apostles' example, they can answer, " That which was done by the people once upon special causes, when the Church was not yet established, is not to be made a Rule for the constant and continual ordering of the Church." In defence of their own election, although
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they did not therein depend on the people so much as the Apostles in the choice of Deacons, they think it a very sufficient apology, that there were special considerations why Deacons at that time should be chosen by the whole Church, but not so now. In excuse of dissimilitudes be- tween their own and the Apostles' Discipline, they are contented to use this answer, " That many things were done in the Apostles' times, before the settling of the Church, which afterwards the Church was not tied to ob- serve." For countenance of their own proceedings, wherein their Governors do more than the Apostles, and their people less than under the Apostles the first Churches are found to have done at the making of Ecclesiastical Officers, they deem it a marvellous reasonable kind of pleading to say, " That even as in Commonweals, when the multitude have once chosen many, or one to rule over them, the right which was at the first in the whole body of the people is now derived unto those many, or that one which is so chosen; and, that this being done, it is not the whole mul- titude, to whom the administration of such public affairs any longer appertaineth, but that which they did, their Rulers may now do lawfully without them : after the self- same manner it standeth with the Church also."
How easy and plain might we make our defence, how clear and allowable even unto them, if we could but obtain of them to admit the same things consonant unto equity in our mouths, which they require to be so taken from their own! If that which is truth, being uttered in mainte- nance of Scotland and Geneva, do not cease to be truth when the Church of England once allegeth it, this great crime of tyranny, wherewith we are charged, hath a plain and an easy defence. Yea, but we do not at all ask the people's approbation, which they do, whereby they shew themselves more indifferent and more free from taking away the people's right. Indeed, when their Lay-elders have chosen whom they think good, and the people's consent thereunto is asked, and, if they give their ap- probation, the thing standeth warranted for sound and good. But if not, is the former choice overthrown? No, but the people are to yield to reason ; and, if they which have made the choice, do so like the people's reason, as to reverse their own deed at the hearing of it, then a
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new election to be made ; otherwise the former to stand, Ecdes. notwithstanding the people's negative and dislike. What p.'«.p ' is this else but to deal with the people, as those nurses do with infants, whose mouths they besmear with the backside of the spoon, as though they had fed them, when they them- selves do devour the food ? They cry in the ears of the people, that all men's consent should be had unto that which concerns all; they make the people believe we wrong them, and deprive them of their right in making Ministers, whereas with us the people have commonly far more sway and force than with them. For, inasmuch as there are but two main things observed in every Ecclesi- astical function, power to exercise the duty itself, and some charge of people whereon to exercise the same ; the former of these is received at the hands of the whole visible Catholic Church. For it is not any one particular multi- tude that can give power, the force whereof may reach far and wide indefinitely, as the Power of Order doth, which whoso hath once received, there is no action which be- longeth thereunto but he may exercise effectually the same in any part of the world without iterated Ordination. They whom the whole Church hath from the beginning used as her agents in conferring this Power, are not either one or more of the Laity, and therefore it hath not been heard of that ever any such were allowed to ordain Mi- nisters : only persons Ecclesiastical, and they, in place of calling, superiors both unto Deacons and unto Presbyters; only such persons Ecclesiastical have been authorized to ordain both, and give them the Power of Order, in the name of the whole Church. Such were the Apostles, such was Timothy, such was Titus, such are Bishops. Not that there is between these no difference, but that they all agree in pre-eminence of place above both Presbyters and Deacons, whom they otherwise might not ordain.* Now whereas hereupon some do infer, that no Ordination can stand but only such as is made by Bishops, which have had their Ordination likewise by other Bishops before them, till we come to the very Apostles of Christ themselves ; in which respect it was demanded of Beza at Poissie, " By what Authority he could administer the holy Sacraments,
* ' Neque enini fas erat aut licebat, ut inferior ordinaret majorem.' Comment, q. Ambros. tribuuntur, in 1 Tim. 3. [§. 7.]
[Apol.
Arian c.12. sqq.]
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being not thereunto ordained by any other than Calvin, or by such as to whom the Power of Ordination did not belong, according to the ancient Order and Customs of the Church; sith Calvin and they who joined with him in that action were no Bishops?" and Athanasius maintaineth the fact of Macarius a Presbyter, which overthrew the Holy Table whereat one Ischyras would have ministered the blessed Sacrament, having not been consecrated thereunto by Lay- ing on of some Bishop's Hands,* according to the Eccle- siastical Canons ; as also Epiphanius inveigheth sharply against divers for doing the like, when they had not Epis- copal Ordination — to this we answer, that there may be sometimes very just and sufficient reason to allow Ordina- tion made without a Bishop. The whole Church visible being the true original subject of all Power, it hath not or- dinarily allowed any other than Bishops alone to ordain : howbeit, as the ordinary course is ordinarily in all things to be observed, so it may be in some cases not unneces- sary that we decline from the ordinary ways. Men may be extraordinarily, yet allowably, two ways admitted unto spiritual functions in the Church. One is, when God him- self doth of himself raise up any, whose labour he useth without requiring that men should authorize them; but then he doth ratify their calling by manifest signs and tokens himself from Heaven : and thus even such as be- lieved not our Saviour's teaching, did yet acknowledge him [John a lawful Teacher sent from God: "Thou art a Teacher sent from God, otherwise none could do those things which thou doest." Luther did but reasonably, there- fore, in declaring that the Senate of Melheuse should do well to ask of Muncer, from whence he received Power to teach? who it was that had called him? and if his answer were, that God had given him his charge, then to require at his hands some evident sign thereof for men's satisfaction : because so God is wont, when he himself is the author of any extraordinary calling. Another extraordinary kind of vocation is, when the exi- gence of necessity doth constrain to leave the usual ways of the Church, which otherwise we would willingly keep : where the Church must needs have some ordained, and neither hath, nor can have possibly, a Bishop to ordain;
iii. 2.]
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in case of such necessity, the ordinary institution of God hath given oftentimes, and may give, place. And therefore we are not, simply without exception, to urge a lineal descent of Power from the Apostles by continued succes- sion of Bishops in every effectual Ordination. These cases of inevitable necessity excepted, none may ordain but only Bishops : by the Imposition of their Hands it is, that the Church giveth Power of Order both unto Pres- byters and Deacons. Now, when that Power so received is once to have any certain subject whereon it may work, and whereunto it is to be tied, here cometh in the people's consent, and not before. The Power of Order I may law- fully receive, without asking leave of any multitude ; but that Power I cannot exercise upon any one certain people utterly against their wills; neither is there in the Church of England any man, by order of Law, possessed with Pastoral charge over any Parish, but the people in effect do choose him thereunto. For, albeit, they choose not by giving every man personally his particular voice, yet can they not say, that they have their Pastors violently ob- truded upon them, inasmuch as their ancient and original interest therein hath been by orderly means derived into the Patron who chooseth for them. And if any man be desirous to know how Patrons came to have such interest, we are to consider, that at the first erection of Churches, it seemed but reasonable in the eyes of the whole Christian world to pass that right to them and their successors, on whose soil and at whose charge the same were founded. This all men gladly and willingly did, both in honour ot so great piety, and for encouragement of many others unto the like, who peradventure else would have been as slow to erect Churches, or to endow them, as we are forward both to spoil them, and to pull them down.
It is no true assertion, therefore, in such sort as the pre- tended Reformers mean it, " That all Ministers of God's Word ought to be made by consent of many, that is to say, by the people's suffrages; that ancient Bishops neither did nor might ordain otherwise ; and that ours do herein usurp a far greater power than was, or then lawfully could have been, granted unto Bishops which were of old." Furthermore, as touching Spiritual Jurisdiction, our Bishops, they say, do that which of all things is most
VOL. II. X
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intolerable, and which the ancient never did ; " Our Bishops excommunicate and release alone, whereas the censures of the Church neither ought, nor were wont to be, admi- nistered otherwise than by consent of many." Their meaning here, when they speak of many, is not as before it was. When they hold that Ministers should be made with consent of many, they understand by many, the multitude, or common people; but in requiring that many should evermore join with the Bishop in the administration of Church-censures, they mean by many, a few Lay-elders chosen out of the rest of the people to that purpose. This, concii. they say, is ratified by ancient Councils, by ancient Bishops i^css! this was practised. And the reason hereof, as Beza sup- jCypr- poseth, was, " Because if the Power of Ecclesiastical ep. 10. Censures did belong unto any one, there would this great itie.j inconvenience follow; Ecclesiastical Regiment should be 8.[a]Ep' changed into mere tyranny, or else into a Civil Royalty : 5s-] therefore no one, either Bishop or Presbyter, should or can alone exercise that Power, but with his Ecclesiastical Consistory he ought to do it, as may appear by the old Discipline."
And is it possible, that one so grave and judicious should think it in earnest tyranny for a Bishop to excom- municate, whom Law and Order hath authorized so to do ? or be persuaded, that Ecclesiastical Regiment degene- rateth into Civil Regality, when one is allowed to do that which hath been at any time the deed of more ? Surely, far meaner witted men than the world accounteth Mr. Beza do easily perceive, that tyranny is Power violently exercised against Order, against Law; and that the diffe- rence of these two Regiments Ecclesiastical and Civil, consisteth in the matter about which the actions of each are conversant ; and not in this, that Civil Royalty ad- mitteth but one, Ecclesiastical Government requireth many supreme correctors. Which allegation, were it true, would prove no more than only, that some certain number is necessary for the assistance of the Bishop : but that a number of such as they do require is necessary, how doth it prove l Wherefore, albeit Bishops should now do the very same which the ancients did, using the College of Presbyters under them as their assistants when they ad- minister Church-censures, yet should they still swerve
jiooK vii. 307
utterly from that which these men so busily labour for, because the agents whom they require to assist in those cases are a sort of Lay-elders, such as no ancient Bishop ever was assisted with.
Shall these fruitless jars and janglings never cease? shall we never see end of them 1 How much happier were the world if those eager taskmasters, whose eyes are so curious and sharp in discerning what should be done by many, and what by few, were all changed into painful doers of that which every good Christian man ought either only or chiefly to do, and to be found therein doing when that great and glorious Judge of all men's both deeds and words shall appear ? In the meanwhile, be it one that hath this charge, or be they many that be his assistants, let there be careful provision that justice may be administered, and in this shall our God be glorified more than by such con- tentious disputes.
15. Of which nature that also is, wherein Bishops are, concern-
iDg the
over and besides all this, accused "to have much more civil excessive Power than the ancient, inasmuch as unto their andTu- Ecclesiastical Authority, the Civil Magistrate, for the better B»riJr
•> ° • which
repressing of such as contemn Ecclesiastical Censures, our Bi- hath for divers ages annexed Civil. The crime of Bishops jJJU herein is divided into these two several branches — the one, that in causes Ecclesiastical they strike with the sword of secular punishments ; the other, that offices are granted them, by virtue whereof they meddle with Civil affairs." Touching the one, it reacheth no further than only unto restraint of liberty by imprisonment (which yet is not done but by the Laws of the land, and by virtue of Authority derived from the Prince). A thing which being allowable in Priests amongst the Jews, must needs have received some strange alteration in nature since, if it be now so pernicious and venomous to be coupled with a spiritual vocation in any man which beareth Office in the Church of Christ. Shemaiah writing to the College of Priests which were in Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the principal of them, told them they were appointed of God, " that Jer they might be officers in the House of the Lord, for every man which raved, and did make himself a Prophet," to the end that they might, by the force of this their authority, " put such in prison, and in the stocks." His malice is
lCor, 1—7.
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reproved, for that he provoketh them to shew their power against the innocent. But surely, when any man justly punishable had been brought before them, it could be no unjust thing for them even in such sort then to have punished. As for Offices, by virtue whereof Bishops have to deal in Civil affairs, we must consider that Civil affairs are of divers kinds ; and as they be not all fit for Ecclesi- astical persons to meddle with, so neither is it necessary, nor at this day haply convenient, that from meddling with any such thing at all they all should without exception be secluded. I will therefore set down some few causes, wherein it cannot but clearly appear unto reasonable men that Civil and Ecclesiastical functions may be lawfully united in one and the same person.
First, therefore, in case a Christian Society be planted amongst their professed enemies, or by toleration do live under some certain State whereinto they are not incorpo- rated, whom shall we judge the meetest man to have the hearing and determining of such mere Civil controversies as are every day wont to grow between man and man ? Such being the state of the Church of Corinth, the Apo- vi. stle giveth them this direction, " Dare any of you, having business against another, be judged by the unjust, and not under Saints ? Do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world? If the world then shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters ? Know ye not that we shall judge the Angels? how much more things that appertain to this life ? If then ye have judg- ment of things pertaining to this life, set up them which are least esteemed in the Church. I speak it to your shame ; is it so, that there is not a wise man amongst you? no, not one that can judge between his brethren, but a brother goeth to law with a brother, and that under the Infidels ? Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another ; why rather suffer ye not wrong, why rather sustain ye not harm?" In which speech there are these degrees : better to suffer and to put up injuries, than to contend; better to end con- tention by arbitrement, than by judgment ; better by judg- ment before the wisest of their own, than' before the sim- pler ; better before the simplest of their own, than the wisest of them without: so that if judgment of secular
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affairs should be committed unto wise men, unto men of vide chiefest credit and account amongst them, when the Pas- J"°*^# tors of their souls are such, who more fit to be also their AunrH*b Judges tor the ending of strifes? The wisest in things xi.c.'i6. divine may also be in things human the most skilful. At leastwise they are by likelihood commonly more able to know right from wrong, than the common unlettered sort. And what St. Augustine did hereby gather, his own words do sufficiently shew. "I call God to witness upon myAug.de soul (saith he), that according to the Order which is kept Monad.. in well-ordered Monasteries, I could wish to have every c,29t day my hours of labouring with my hands, my hours of reading and of praying, rather than to endure these most tumultuous perplexities of other men's causes, which I am forced to bear while I travel in secular businesses, either by judging to discuss them, or to cut them off by entreaty : unto which toils that Apostle, who himself sustained them not, for any thing we read, hath notwithstanding tied us not of his own accord, but being thereunto directed by that Spirit which speaks in him. His own Apostleship, which drew him to travel up and down, suffered him not to be any where settled to this purpose ; wherefore the wise, faithful, and holy men which were seated here and there, and not them which travelled up and down to preach, he made examiners of such businesses. Where- upon of him it is no where written, that he had leisure to attend these things, from which we cannot excuse our- selves although we be simple : because even such he re- quireth, if wise men cannot be had, rather than that the affairs of Christians should be brought into public judg- ment. Howbeit, not without comfort in our Lord are these travels undertaken by us, for the hope's sake of eternal Life, to the end that with patience we may reap the fruit." So far is St. Augustine from thinking it unlawful for Pastors in such sort to judge Civil causes, that he plainly collecteth out of the Apostle's words a necessity to under- take that duty; yea, himself he comforteth with the hope of a blessed reward, in lieu of travel that way sustained. Again, even where whole Christian Kingdoms are, how troublesome were it for Universities, and other great Col- legiate societies, erected to serve as nurseries unto the
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Church of Christ, if every thing which civilly doth concern them were to be carried from their own peculiar Gover- nors, because for the most part they are (as fittest it is they should be) persons of Ecclesiastical calling 1 It was by the wisdom of our famous predecessors foreseen how unfit this would be, and hereupon provided by grant of special Charters, that it might be as now it is in the Uni- versities ; where their Vicechancellors, being for the most part Professors of Divinity, are nevertheless Civil Judges over them in the most of their ordinary causes.
And to go yet some degrees farther, a thing impossible it is not, neither altogether unusual for some who are of Royal blood to be consecrated unto the Ministry of Jesus Christ, and so to be the nurses of God's Church, not only as the Prophet did foretell, but also as the Apostle St. Paul was. Now in case the Crown should by this means descend unto such persons, perhaps when they are the very last, or perhaps the very best, of their race, so that a greater benefit they are not able to bestow upon a Kingdom, than by accepting their right therein ; shall the sanctity of their Order deprive them of that honour whereunto they have right by blood ? or shall it be a bar to shut out the public good that may grow by their virtuous Regiment ? If not, then must they cast off the Office which they received by di- vine Imposition of Hands ; or, if they carry a more reli- gious opinion concerning that heavenly function, it follovv- eth, that being invested as well with the other, they re- main God's lawful anointed both ways. With men of skill and mature judgment there is of this so little doubt, that concerning such as at this day are under the Arch- bishops of Mentz, Colen, and Trevers, being both Arch- bishops and Princes of the Empire ; yea, such as live within the Pope's own civil territories, there is no cause why any should deny to yield them Civil obedience in any thing which they command, not repugnant to Christian piety ; yea, even that civilly, for such as are under them, not to obey them, were but the part of seditious persons : hovvbeit, for persons Ecclesiastical thus to exercise Civil dominion of their own, is more than when they only sustain some public Office,or deal in some business Civil, being there- unto even by supreme authority required. As Nature doth not
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any thing in vain, so neither Grace. Wherefore, if it please God to bless some principal attendants on his own Sanc- tuary, and to endue them with extraordinary parts of excel- lency, some in one kind, some in another, surely a great derogation it were to the very honour of him who bestow- ed so precious graces, except they on whom he hath be- stowed them should accordingly be employed, that the fruit of those heavenly gifts might extend itself unto the body of the Commonwealth wherein they live ; which being of purpose instituted (for so all Commonwealths are) to the end that all might enjoy whatsoever good it pleaseth the Almighty to endue each one with, must needs suffer loss, when it hath not the gain which eminent Civil ability in Ecclesiastical persons is now and then found apt to afford. Shall we then discommend the people of Milan for using Ambrose their Bishop as an Ambassador about their public and politic affairs; the Jews for electing their Priests sometimes to be leaders in war ; David for making the High-priest his chiefest Counsellor of State : finally, all Christian Kings and Princes which have appointed unto like services Bishops or other of the Clergy under them ? No, they have done in this respect that which most sincere and religious wisdom alloweth. Neither is it allowable only, when either a kind of necessity doth cast Civil offices upon them, or when they are thereunto preferred in regard of some extraordinary fitness; but further also, when there are even of right annexed unto some of their places or of course imposed upon certain of their persons, functions of dignity and account in the Commonwealth; albeit no other consideration be had therein save this, that their credit and countenance may by such means be augmented. A thing, if ever to be respected, surely most of all now, when God himself is for his own sake generally no where honoured, Religion almost no where, no where religiously adored, the Mini- stry of the Word and Sacraments of Christ a very cause of disgrace in the eyes both of high and low, where it hath not somewhat besides itself to be countenanced with. For unto this very pass are things come, that the glory of God is constrained even to stand upon borrowed credit, which yet were somewhat the more tolerable, if there were not that dissuade to lend it him. No practice so vile,
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but pretended holiness is made sometimes a cloak to hide it.
The French King, Philip Valois, in his time made an Ordinance, that all Prelates and Bishops should be clean excluded from Parliaments, where the affairs of the King- dom were handled; pretending that a King, with good conscience, cannot draw Pastors, having cure of souls, from so weighty a business, to trouble their heads with consultations of State. But irreligious intents are not able to hide themselves, no, not when holiness is made their cloak. This is plain and simple truth, that the coun- sels of wicked men hate always the presence of them whose virtue, though it should not be able to prevail against their purposes, would notwithstanding be unto their minds a secret corrosive : and therefore, till either by one shift or another they can bring all things to their own hands alone, they are not secure. Ordinances holier and better there stand as yet in force by the grace of Al- mighty God, and the works of his providence, amongst us. Let not envy so far prevail, as to make us account that a blemish, which if there be in us any spark of sound judg- ment, or of religious conscience, we must of necessity ac- knowledge to be one of the chiefest ornaments unto this land : by the ancient Laws whereof, the Clergy being held for the chief of those Three Estates, which together make up (he entire body of this Commonwealth, under one su- preme Head and Governor, it hath all this time ever borne a sway proportionable in the weighty affairs of the land ; wise and virtuous Kings condescending most willingly thereunto, even of reverence to the Most High ; with the flower of whose sanctified inheritance, as it were with a kind of divine presence, unless their chiefest Civil assem- blies were so far forth beautified as might be, without any notable impediment unto their heavenly functions, they could not satisfy themselves as having shewed towards God an affection most dutiful.
Thus, first, in defect of other Civil Magistrates ; secondly, for the ease and quietness of Scholastical Societies ; thirdly, by way of political necessity ; fourthly, in regard of quality, care, and extraordinancy ; fifthly, for countenance unto the Ministry; and, lastly, even of devotion and reverence towards God himself: there may be admitted, at leastwise
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in some particulars well and lawfully enough a conjunction of Civil and Ecclesiastical Power, except there be some such Law or Reason to the contrary, as may prove it to be a thing simply in itself naught.
Against it many things are objected, as, first, " That the matters which are noted in the Holy Scriptures to have belonged unto the ordinary Office of any Ministers of God's holy Word and Sacraments, are these which follow, with such like, and no other; namely, the watch of the Sanctuary, the business of God, the ministry of the Word and Sacraments, oversight of the House of God, watching over his flock, prophecy, prayer, dispensations of the mys- teries of God, charge and care of men's souls. If a man would shew what the offices and duties of a Chirurgeon or Physician are, I suppose it were not his part, so much as to mention any thing belonging to the one or the other, in case either should be also a Soldier, or a Merchant, or a Housekeeper, or a Magistrate : because the functions of these are different from those of the former, albeit one and the same man may haply be both. The case is like, when the Scripture teacheth what duties are required in an Ecclesiastical Minister ; in describing of whose Office, to teach any other thing than such as properly and directly toucheth his Office that way, were impertinent.
Yea, "But in the Old Testament the two Powers Civil and Ecclesiastical were distinguished, not only in nature, but also in person ; the one committed unto Moses, and the Magistrates joined with him ; the other to Aaron and his sons. Jehosaphat in his reformation doth not only distinguish causes Ecclesiastical from Civil, and erecteth divers Courts for them, but appointeth also divers Judges." With the Jews these two Powers were not so distinguished, but that sometimes they might and did concur in one and the same person. Was not Eli both Priest and Judge ? after their return from captivity, Ezra a Priest, and the same their chief Governor even in Civil affairs also ? These men which urge the necessity of making always a personal distinction of these two Powers, as if by Jehosaphat's ex- ample the same person ought not to deal in both causes, yet are not scrupulous to make men of Civil place and calling Presbyters and Ministers of Spiritual Jurisdiction in their own Spiritual Consistories.
314 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
if it be against the Jewish precedents for us to give Civil Power unto such as have Ecclesiastical ; is it not as much against the same for them to give Ecclesiastical Power unto such as have Civil? They will answer, perhaps, that their position is only against conjunction of Ecclesiastical Power of Order, and the Power of Civil Jurisdiction in one person. But this answer will not stand with their proofs, which make no less against the Power of Civil and Eccle- siastical Jurisdiction in one person ; for of these two Powers Jehosaphat's example is: besides, the contrary example of Eli and of Ezra, by us alleged, do plainly shew, that among the Jews even the Power of Order Ecclesias- tical and Civil Jurisdiction were sometimes lawfully united in one and the same person. Pressed further we are with our Lord and Saviour's example, who " deuieth his King- dom to be of this world, and therefore, as not standing with his calling, refused to be made a King, to give sen- tence in a Criminal cause of adultery, and in a Civil of dividing an inheritance."
The Jews imagining that their Messiah should be a potent Monarch upon earth, no marvel, though when they did otherwise wonder at Christ's greatness, they sought forthwith to have him invested with that kind of dignity, to the end he might presently begin to reign. Others of the Jews, which likewise had the same imagination of the Messiah, and did somewhat incline to think that peradven- ture this might be he, thought good to try whether he would take upon him that which he might do, being a King, such as they supposed their true Messiah should be. But Christ refused to be a King over them, because it was no part of the Office of their Messiah, as they did falsely conceive ; and to intermeddle in those acts of Civil judgment he refused also, because he had no such Jurisdiction in that Commonwealth, being, in regard of his Civil person, a man of mean and low calling. As for repugnancy between Ecclesiastical and Civil Power, or any inconvenience that these two Powers should be united, it doth not appear that this was the cause of his resistance either to reign, or else to judge.
What say we then to the blessed Apostles who teach, 2 rim. « That soldiers entangle not themselves with the busi- nesses of this life, but leave them, to the end they may
n„ >
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please him who hath chosen them to serve ; and that so the good soldiers of Christ ought to do."
The Apostles which taught this, did never take upon them any place or office of Civil Power. No, they gave over the Ecclesiastical care of the poor, that they might wholly attend upon the Word and Prayer. St. Paul in- deed doth exhort Timothy after this manner, " Suffer thou evil as a noble soldier of Jesus Christ : no man warring is entangled with the affairs of life, because he must serve such as have pressed him unto warfare." The sense and meaning whereof is plain, that soldiers may not be nice and tender, that they must be able to endure hardness, that no man betaking himself unto wars continueth en- tangled with such kind of businesses, as tend only unto the ease and quiet felicity of this life ; but if the service of him who hath taken them under his banner require the hazard, yea the loss, of their lives, to please him they must be content and willing, with any difficulty, any peril, be it never so much against the natural desire which they have to live in safety. And at this point the Clergy of God must always stand ; thus it behoveth them to be affected as oft as their Lord and Captain leadeth them into the field, whatsoever conflicts, perils, or evils, they are to endure. Which duty being not such, but that therewith the Civil Dig- nities, which Ecclesiastical persons amongst us do enjoy, may well enough stand ; the exhortation of Paul to Timo- thy is but a slender allegation against them. As well might we gather out of this place, that men having children or wives, are not fit to be Ministers (which also hath been collected, and that by sundry of the ancients);* and that it is requisite the Clergy be utterly forbidden Marriage. For, as the burden of Civil Regiment doth make them who bear it the less able to attend their Ecclesiastical charge ; even so St. Paul doth say, that the married are careful for the world, the unmarried freer to give themselves wholly to the service of God. Howbeit, both experience hath found it safer, that the Clergy should bear the cares of honest mar-
* ' Convenit bujusmodi eligi et ordinari Sacerdotes, quibus nee liberi sunt nee nepotes. Etenim fieri vix potest, ut vacans bujus vitae quotidians curis, quas liberi creant parentibus maxime, omne studium omnemque cogitationem circa divinain Liturgiam etres Ecclesiasticas consumat.' Lib. xlii. sect. 1. c. de Episc. et Cler.
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riage, than be subject to the inconveniences which single life, imposed upon them, would draw after it; and as many as are of sound judgment know it to be far better for this present age, that, the detriment be borne which haply may grow through the lessening of some few men's spiritual la- bours, than that the Clergy and Commonwealth should lack the benefit which both the one and the other may reap through their dealing in Civil affairs. In which considera- tion, that men consecrated unto the spiritual service of God be licensed so far forth to meddle with the secular af- fairs of the world, as doth seem for some special good cause requisite, and may be without any grievous preju- dice unto the Church, surely, there is not in the Apostle's words, being rightly understood, any let. That no Apostle did ever bear Office, may it not be a wonder, considering the great devotion of the age wherein they lived, and the zeal of Herod, of Nero the great commander of the known world, and of other Kings of the earth at that time, to ad- vance by all means Christian Religion ? Their deriving unto others that smaller charge of distributing of the goods which were laid at their feet, and of making provision for the poor, which charge, being in part Civil, themselves had before (as I suppose, lawfully) undertaken, and their fol- lowing of that which was weightier, may serve as a marvel- lous good example for the dividing of one man's Office into divers slips, and the subordination of inferiors to discharge some part of the same, when, by reason of multitude in- creasing, that labour waxeth great and troublesome, which before was easy and light : but very small force it hath to infer a perpetual divorce between Ecclesiastical and Civil Power in the same persons. The most that can be said in this case is, " That sundry eminent Canons, bearing the name of Apostolical, and divers Councils likewise there are, which have forbidden the Clergy to bear any secular Office ; and have enjoined them to attend altogether upon reading, preaching, and prayer : whereupon the most of the ancient Fathers have shewed great dislikes that these two Powers should be united in one person."
For a full and final answer whereunto, I would first de- mand, whether commension and separation of these two powers be a matter of mere positive Law, or else a thing
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simply with or against the Law immutable of God and Nature? That which is simply against this latter Law can at no time be allowable in any person, more than adultery, blasphemy, sacrilege, and the like. But con- junction of Power Ecclesiastical and Civil, what Law is there which hath not at some time or other allowed as a thing convenient and meet 1 In the Law of God we have examples sundry, whereby it doth most manifestly appear, how of him the same hath oftentime been approved. No kingdom or nation in the world, but hath been thereunto accustomed without inconvenience and hurt. In the prime of the world, Kings and Civil Rulers were Priests for the most part all. The Romans* note it as a thing beneficial in their own Commonwealth, and even to themf apparently forcible for the strengthening of the Jews' Regiment under Moses and Samuel. I deny not, but sometime there may be, and hath been perhaps, just cause to ordain otherwise. Wherefore we are not to urge those things which hereto- fore have been either ordered or done, as thereby to pre- judice those Orders, which, upon contrary occasion, and the exigence of the present time, by like authority have been established. For, what is there which doth let, but that from contrary occasions contrary Laws may grow, and each be reasoned and disputed for by such as are subject thereunto, during the time they are in force ; and yet nei- ther so opposite to other, but that both may laudably con- tinue, as long as the ages which keep them do see no necessary cause which may draw them unto alteration ? Wherefore in these things, Canons, Constitutions, and Laws, which have been at one time meet, do not prove that the Church should always be bound to follow them. Ecclesiastical persons were by ancient Order forbidden to
* Cum multa divinitus, Pontifices, a inajoribus nostris inventa atque instituta sunt, turn nihil pneclarius, quam quod vos eosdem et Religionibus Deorum immorta- lium, et summae Reipub. praeesse voluerunt.' Cic. pro Domo sua ad Pontiff, [c. 1.]
t ' Honor Sacerdotii firmamentum potentise assumebatur.' Tacit. Hist. lib. v. [c. 8. fin.] He sheweth the reason wherefore their Rulers were also Priests. The joining of these two Powers, as now, so then likewise, profitable for the public State, but in respect clean opposite and contrary. For, whereas then divine things being more esteemed, were used as helps for the countenance of secular power ; the case in these latter ages is turned upside down, earth hath now brought Heaven under foot, and, in the course of the world, hath of the two the greater credit. Priesthood was then a strengthening to Kings, which now is forced to take strength and credit from far meaner degrees of Civil authority. ' Hie mos apud Judaeos fuit, ut eosdem Reges et Sacerdotes haberent, quorum Justitia Religioni pennixta incredibile quantum evaluere.' Just. Hist. lib. xxxvi. [c. 2.] Lib. xlii. sect. 22. c de Episc.
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be executors of any man's testament, or to undertake the wardship of children. Bishops, by the Imperial Law, are forbidden to bequeath by testament, or otherwise to alienate, any thing grown unto them after they were made Bishops. Is there no remedy but that these, or the like Orders, must therefore every where still be observed 1 The reason is not always evident, why former Orders have been repealed and other established in their room. Herein therefore we must remember the axiom used in the Civil Laws, " That the Prince is always presumed to do that with reason, which is not against reason being done, al- though no reason of his deed be expressed." Which being in every respect as true of the Church, and her di- vine Authority in making Laws, it should be some bridle unto those malapert and proud spirits, whose wits not con- ceiving the reason of Laws that are established, they adore their own private fancy as the supreme Law of all, and accordingly take upon them to judge that whereby they should be judged. But why labour we thus in vain? For even to change that which now is, and to establish in- stead thereof that which themselves would acknowledge the very self-same which hath been, to what purpose were t. c. it, sith they protest, " That they utterly condemn as well P?i26. that which hath been, as that which is ; as well the ancient, as the present Superiority, Authority, and Power of Eccle- siastical persons." The ar- 16. Now where they lastly allege, "That the Law of •usTe"*5 our ^ord Jesus Christ, and the judgment of the best in all ed> ages, condemn all ruling Superiority of Ministers over Mi- they nisters ;" they are in this, as in the rest, more bold to affirm, f°ovt than able to prove, the things which they bring for support that the of their weak and feeble cause. "The bearing of dominion God, or the exercising of authority (they say), is that wherein Judg1.'16 the Civil Magistrate is severed from the Ecclesiastical Of- mentof ficer according to the words of our Lord and Saviour,
the best T7-.
in aii ' Kings of nations bear rule over them, but it shall not be IIIs.' so with you :' therefore bearing of dominion doth not agree demueth to one Minister over another." This place hath been, and
the ml- r
ingsu- still is, although falsely, yet with far greater show of like- ly ofTne lihood and truth, brought forth by the Anabaptists, to prove Minister that the church of Christ ought to have no Civil Magis- another. trates, but to be ordered only by Christ. Wherefore they
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urge the opposition between Heathens and them untOT.c. whom our Saviour spcaketh. For, sith the Apostles were p'. £ opposite to Heathens, not in that they were Apostles, but in that they were Christians, the Anabaptists' inference is, u That Christ doth here give a Law, to be for ever ob- served by all true Christian men, between whom and Hea- thens there must be always this difference, that whereas Heathens have Kings and Princes to rule, Christians ought not in this thing to be like unto them." Wherein their con- struction hath the more show, because that which Christ doth speak to his Apostles is not found always agreeable unto them as Apostles, or as Pastors of men's souls, but oftentimes it toucheth them in generality, as they are Christians ; so that Christianity being common unto them with all believers, such speeches must be so taken that they may be applied unto all, and not only unto them. They which consent with us, in rejecting such collections as the Anabaptist maketh with more probability, must give us leave to reject such as themselves have made with less ; for a great deal less likely it is, that our Lord should here establish an everlasting difference, not between his Church and Pagans, but between the Pastor of his Church and Ci- vil Governors. For, if herein they must always differ, that the one may not bear rule, the other may ; how did the Apo- stles themselves observe this difference, the exercise of whose authority, both in commanding and in controlling others, the Scripture hath made so manifest that no gloss can overshadow it 1 Again, it being, as they would have it, our Saviour's purpose to withhold his Apostles, and in them all other Pastors, from bearing rule, why should Kingly domi- nion be mentioned, which occasions men to gather, that not all dominion and rule, but this one only form, was prohibit- ed, and that authority was permitted them, so it were not Regal ? Furthermore, in case it had been his purpose to withhold Pastors altogether from bearing rule, why should Kings of nations be mentioned, as if they were not for- bidden to exercise, no, not Regal dominion itself, but only such Regal dominion as Heathen Kings do exercise ? The very truth is, our Lord and Saviour did aim at a far other mark than these men seem to observe. The end of his speech was to reform their particular mispersuasion to whom he spake : and their mispersuasion was, that which
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was also the common fancy of the Jews at that time, that their Lord being the Messias of the world, should restore unto Israel that Kingdom, whereof the Romans had as then bereaved them ; they imagined that he should not only deliver the State of Israel, but himself reign as King in the throne of David with all secular pomp and dignity ; that he should subdue the rest of the world, and make Jeru- salem the seat of universal Monarchy. Seeing therefore they had forsaken all to follow him, being now in so mean condition, they did not think but that together with him they also should rise in state ; that they should be the first and the most advanced by him.
Of this conceit it came, that the mother of the sons of Zebedee sued for her children's preferment ; of this conceit it grew, that the Apostles began to question amongst them- selves which of them should be greatest ; and in control- ment of this conceit it was, that our Lord so plainly told them, that the thoughts of their hearts were vain. The Kings of nations have indeed their large and ample domi- nions, they reign far and wide, and their servants they advance unto honour in the world ; they bestow upon them large and ample secular preferments, in which respect they are also termed many of them benefactors, because of the liberal hand which they use in rewarding such as have done them service : but, was it the meaning of the ancient Prophets of God that the Messias, the King of Israel, should be like unto these Kings, and his relinue grow in such sort as theirs ? " Wherefore ye are not to look for at my hands such preferment as Kings of nations are wont to bestow upon their attendants, ' With you not so.' Your reward in Heaven shall be most ample, on earth your chiefest honour must be to suffer persecution for righteousness' sake ; submission, humility, and meekness are things fitter for you to inure your minds withal, than these aspiring- cogitations ; if any amongst you be greater than other, let him shew himself greater in being lowliest, let him be above them in being under them, even as a servant for their good. These are affections which you must put. on ; as for degrees of preferment and honour in this world, if ye expect any such thing at my hands ye deceive yourselves, for in the world your portion is rather the clear contrary." Where- fore they who allege this place against Episcopal Authority
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abuse it, they many ways deprave and wrest it clean from the true understanding wherein our Saviour himself did utter it. For first, whereas he by way of mere negation had said, " With you it shall not be so," foretelling them only that it should not so come to pass as they vainly surmised; these men take his words in a plain nature of a prohibition, as if Christ had thereby forbidden all inequality of Ecclesiastical Power. Secondly, whereas he did but cut off their idle hope of secular advancements ; all standing Superiority amongst persons Ecclesiastical these men would rase oft' with the edge of his speech. Thirdly, whereas he in abating their hope even of secular advancements spake but only with relation unto himself, informing them that he would be no such munificent Lord unto them in their temporal dignity and honour, as they did erroneously suppose ; so that any Apostle might afterwards have grown by means of others to be even Emperors of Rome for any thing in those words to the contrary : these men, removing quite and clean the hedge of all restraints, enlarge so far the bounds of his meaning, as if his very precise intent and purpose had been not to reform the error of his Apostles conceived as touch- ing him, and to teach what himself would not be towards them ; but to prescribe a special Law both to them and their successors for ever, a Law determining what they should not be in relation of one to another, a Law forbidding that any such title should be given to any Minister as might import or argue in him a Superiority over other Ministers. Being thus defeated of that succour which they thought t. c. their cause might have had out of the words of our Saviour F'. ,o Christ, they try their adventure in seeking what aid man's p-05 testimony will yield them : " Cyprian objecteth it to Floren- Jp. ' tius as a proud thing, that by believing evil report, and mis- g. [ai judging ofCyprian, he made himself Bishop of a Bishop, and 66- Cl Judge over him whom God had for the time appointed to be Judge." " The endeavour of godly men to strike at these insolent names may appear in the Council of Carthage : where it was decreed, that the Bishop of the chief See should not be entitled the Exarch of Priests, or the Highest Priest, or any other thing of like sense, but only the Bishop of the chiefest See;* whereby are shut out the name of Arch-
" "ilc-TE tov tJKc Tfaj-rn- Kaflilfya? 'EttiVkowov f*h "kiylcrSai "E^a^ov ™v 'ISPs'an' « 'Ascpov 'j£££ct !i roiovrar^oTrov ri ito-rs, aXKa povov 'Effierxo7r<iv ifi; ttjibtiij Ka&aSpa?. Can. 39.
VOL. II. Y
ep.
322 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
bishop, and all other such haughty Titles." In these alle- gations it fareth as in broken reports snatched out of the author's mouth, and broached before they be half either told on the one part, or on the other understood. The matter which Cyprian* complaineth of in Florentius was thus : Novatus misliking the easiness of Cyprian to admit men into the fellowship of believers after they had fallen away from the bold and constant confession of Christian Faith, took thereby occasion to separate himself from the Church ; and being united with certain excommunicate persons, they joined their wits together, and drew out against Cyprian, their lawful Bishop, sundry grievous accusations; the crimes such, as being true, had made him incapable of that Office whereof he was six years as then possessed ; they went to Rome, and to other places, accusing him every where as guilty of those faults of which themselves had lewdly condemned him, pretending that twenty-five African Bishops (a thing most false) had heard and examined his cause in a solemn Assembly, and that they all had given their sentence against him, holding his election by the Canons of the Church void. The same factious and sedi- tious persons coming also unto Florentius, who was at that time a man imprisoned for the testimony of Jesus Christ, but yet a favourer of the error of Novatus, their malicious accusations he over-willingly hearkened unto, gave them credit, concurred with them, and unto Cy- prian, in fine, wrote his letters against Cyprian: which letters he justly taketh in marvellous evil part, and there- fore severely controlleth his so great presumption in making himself a Judge of a Judge, and, as it were, a Bishop's Bishop, to receive accusations against him, as [Ep.66. one that had been his Ordinary. " What height of pride is this (saith Cyprian), what arrogancy of spirit, what a puff- ing up of mind, to call Guides and Priests to be examined and sifted before him ! So that, unless we shall be cleared in your Court, and absolved by your sentence, behold for these six years' space neither shall the brotherhood have had a Bishop, nor the people a Guide, nor the flock a Shepherd, nor the Church a Governor, nor Christ a Prelate, nor God a Priest." This is the pride which Cyprian con- demneth in Florentius, and not the Title or Name of Arch- bishop ; about which matter there was not at that time so much as the dream of any controversy at all between them.
3.]
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A silly collection it is, that because Cyprian rcproveth Florentius for lightness of belief and presumptuous rash- ness of judgment, therefore he held the Title of Archbishop to be a vain and proud name. Archbishops were chief amongst Bishops, yet Archbishops had not over Bishops that full Authority which every Bishop had over his own particular Clergy. Bishops were not subject unto their Archbishops as an Ordinary, by whom at all times they were to be judged, according to the manner of inferior Pastors, within the compass of each Diocess. A Bishop might suspend, excommunicate, depose, such as were of his own Clergy without any other Bishop's assistance; not so an Archbishop the Bishops that were in his own Pro- vince, above whom divers prerogatives were given him, howbeit no such Authority and Power as alone to be Judge over them. For as a Bishop could not be ordained, so neither might he be judged by any one only Bishop, albeit that Bishop were his Metropolitan. Wherefore Cyprian, concerning the liberty and freedom which every Bishop had, spake in the Council of Carthage, whereat fourscore and seven Bishops were present, saying, " It resteth that concii. every of us declare what we think of this matter, neither de H»f. judging nor severing from the right of Communion any that ^'is shall think otherwise : for of us there is not any which [Cone maketh himself a Bishop of Bishops, or with tyrannical par. i. fear constraineth his colleagues unto the necessity of obedi- £;, ^ ence, inasmuch as every Bishop, according to the reach of tfis.] his liberty and power, hath his own free judgment, and can have no more another his Judge, than himself to be Judge to another." Whereby it appeareth, that among the African Bishops none did use such Authority over any as the Bishop of Rome did afterwards claim over all, forcing upon them opinions by main and absolute Power. Wherefore, unto the Bishop of Rome the same Cyprian also writeth concern- ing his opinion about Baptism : " These things we present Lib.ii. unto your conscience, most dear brother, as well for com- JS.W. mon honour's sake, as of single and sincere love, trusting c- 2l that as you are truly yourself religious and faithful, so those things which agree with Religion and Faith will be accept- able unto you : howbeit we know, that what some have over-drunk in, they will not let go, neither easily change their mind, but with care of preserving whole amongst their y2
324 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
brethren the bond of peace and concord, retaining still to themselves certain their own opinions wherewith they have been inured ; wherein we neither use force, nor prescribe a Law unto any, knowing that in the Government of the Church every Ruler hath his own voluntary free judgment, and of that which he doth shall render unto the Lord him- self an account." As for the Council of Carthage, doth not the very first Canon thereof establish with most effec- tual terms all things which were before agreed on in the Council of Nice? and that the Council of Nice did ratify the pre-eminence of Metropolitan Bishops, who is igno- rant ? * The name of an Archbishop importeth only a Bishop having Chiefty of certain prerogatives above his brethren of the same Order. Which thing, since the Coun- cil of Nice doth allow, it cannot be that the other of Car- thage should condemn it, inasmuch as this doth yield unto that a Christian unrestrained approbation.
The thing provided for by the Synod of Carthage can be no other, therefore, than only that the chiefest Metropo- litan, where many Archbishops were within any greater Province, should not be termed by those names, as to im- port the Power of an ordinary Jurisdiction belonging in such degree and manner unto him over the rest of the Bishops and Archbishops as did belong unto every Bishop over other Pastors under him. But much more absurd it is to affirm, that both Cyprian and the Council of Carthage condemn even such Superiority also of Bishops them- selves over Pastors their inferiors, as the words of Igna- T- c- tius imply, in terming the Bishop " a Prince of Priests." p. us. Bishops to be termed Arch-priests, in regard of their Superiority over Priests, is in the writings of the ancient Fathers a thing so usual and familiar, as almost no one thing more. At the Council of Nice, saith Theodoret, three hundred and eighteen Arch-priests were present.f Were it the meaning of the Council of Carthage, that the Title of Chief-priests and such like ought not in any sort at all to be given unto any Christian Bishop, what excuse
*"ilfre ra Ivtw Nix<t£a>v SuvoSa) ojKT&evra Teavrl rpoiircii Tia^a^vKa^wtrai. [Cone, t. i. par.i. p. 572^ Can. xiii.]
t Theod. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. 7. 'A^ieps"?. Hieronymus contra Lucifer. [§. 9.] salutem Ecclesiae pendere dicit a summi Sacerdotis dignitate, id est, Epi- scopi. Idem est in Hieronymo Summus Sacerdos quod 'Axpo? 'l£p£u? in Carthaginensi Concilio. Vide C. omnes, 38. dist. Item C. Pontifices, 12. q. 3. Item C. de his, de conseq. dist. 5.
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should we make for so many ancient both Fathers, and Synods of Fathers, as have generally applied the Title of Arch-priest unto every Bishop's Office? High time I think it is, to give over the obstinate defence of this most miserable forsaken cause ; in the favour whereof neither God, nor amongst so many wise and virtuous men as antiquity hath brought forth, any one can be found to have hitherto directly spoken. Irksome confusion must of necessity be the end whereunto all such vain and ungrounded confidence doth bring, as hath nothing to bear it out but only an ex- cessive measure of bold and peremptory words, holpen by the start of a little time, before they came to be examin- ed. In the writings of the ancient Fathers, there is not any thing with more serious asseveration inculcated, than that it is God which maketh Bishops, that their Authority hath divine allowance, that the Bishop is the Priest of God, that he is Judge in Christ's stead, that, according to God's own Law, the whole Christian fraternity standeth bound to obey him. Of this there was not in the Chris- tian world of old any doubt or controversy made ; it was a thing universally every where agreed upon. What should move men to judge that now so unlawful and naught, which then was so reverently esteemed ? Surely no other cause but this: men were in those times meek, lowly, tractable, willing to live in dutiful awe and subjection unto the Pastors of their souls, now, we imagine ourselves so able every man to teach and direct all others, that none of us can brook it to have superiors, and, for a mask to hide our pride, we pretend falsely the Law of Christ, as if we did seek the execution of his will, when in truth we labour for the mere satisfaction of our own against his.
17. The chiefest cause of disdain and murmur against The Bishops in the Church of England is, that evil-affected eye ^f0M wherewith the world looked upon them since the time that thius . irreligious profaneness, beholding the due and just ad- the state vancement of God's Clergy, hath under pretence of enmity lH^?** unto ambition and pride proceeded so far, that the con- obloquy, tumely of old offered unto Aaron in the like quarrel may Honour. seem very moderate and quiet dealing, if we compare it with the fury of our own times. The ground and original of both their proceedings one and the same ; in declaration of their grievances they differ not ; the complaints as well of the
32C ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Numb xvi. 3,
1 Tet ii. 17.
1 Levit.
one as the other are, " AVherefore lift ye up yourselves thus far above the congregation of the Lord 1 It is too much which you take upon you ; too much Power, and too much Honour." Wherefore, as we have shewed that there is not in their Power any thing unjust or unlawful, so it resteth that in their Honour also the like be done. The labour we take unto this purpose is by so much the harder, in that we are forced to wrestle with the stream of obstinate affection, mightily carried by a wilful prejudice, the dominion where- of is so powerful over them in whom it reigneth, that it giveth them no leave, no not so much as patiently to hearken unto any speech which doth not profess to feed them in this their bitter humour. Notwithstanding, for- asmuch as I am persuaded that against God they will not strive, if they perceive once that in truth it is he against whom they open their mouths, my hope is their own con- fession will be at the length, * Behold, we have done ex- ceeding foolishly ; it was the Lord, and we knew it not ; him in his Ministers we have despised, we have in their Honour impugned his." But the alteration of men's hearts must be his good and gracious work, whose most omnipo- tent power framed them. Wherefore, to come to our pre- sent purpose, Honour is no where due, saving only unto such as have in them that whereby they are found, or at the least presumed, voluntarily beneficial unto them of whom they are honoured. Wheresoever Nature seeth the countenance of a man, it still presumeth that there is in him a mind willing to do good, if need require, inasmuch as by nature so it should be ; for which cause men unto men do honour, even for very humanity's sake : and unto whom we deny all honour, we seem plainly to take from them all opinion of human dignity, to make no account or reckon- ing of them, to think them so utterly without virtue, as if no good thing in the world could be looked for at their hands. Seeing therefore it seemeth hard that we should so hardly think of any man, the Precept of St. Peter is, "Honour all men." Which duty of every man towards all doth vary according to the several degrees whereby they are more or less beneficial, whom we do honour. " Honour the Physician," saith the Wise Man : the reason why, because for necessity's sake God created him. «e. Again, " Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and
book vii. 327
honour the person of the aged : " the reason why, because the younger sort have great benefit by their gravity, expe- rience, and wisdom ; for which cause, these things the Wise Eccius. man termeth the crown or diadem of the aged. Honour is XX1 due to parents : the reason why, because we have our be- ginning from them ; " Obey the father that hath begotten pr0v. thee, the mother that bare thee despise thou not." Ho-xxu1"* nour is due unto Kings and Governors : the reason why, because God hath set them " for the punishment of evil- f Pet doers, and for the praise of them that do well." Thus we see by every of these particulars, that there is always some kind of virtue beneficial, wherein they excel who receive Honour ; and that degrees of Honour are distin- guished according to the value of those effects which the same beneficial virtue doth produce.
Nor is Honour only an inward estimation, whereby they are reverenced and well thought of in the minds of men ; but Honour, whereof we now speak, is defined to be an external sign, by which we give a sensible testification that we acknowledge the beneficial virtue of others. Sarah honoured her husband Abraham; this appeareth by the title she gave him. The brethren of Joseph did hiin Honour in the land of Egypt; their lowly and humble gesture sheweth it. Parents will hardly persuade themselves that this intentional Honour, which reacheth no farther than the inward conception only, is the Honour which their children owe them.
Touching that Honour which, mystically agreeing unto Christ, was yielded literally and really unto Solomon, the words of the Psalmist concerning it are, " Unto him they *»»>• shall give of the gold of Sheba, they shall pray for him xx continually, and daily bless him." Weigh these things in themselves, titles, gestures, presents, other the like exter- nal signs wherein Honour doth consist, and they are mat- ters of no great moment. Howbeit, take them away, let them cease to be required, and they are not things of small importance, which that surcease were likely to draw after it. Let the Lord Mayor of London, or any other unto whose Office Honour belongeth, be deprived but of that Title which in itself is a matter of nothing ; and suppose we that it would be a small maim unto the credit, force, and countenance of his Office ? It hath not without the
good doth
328 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
singular wisdom of God been provided, that the ordinary outward tokens of Honour should for the most part be in themselves things of mean account ; for to the end they might easily follow as faithful testimonies of that bene- ficial virtue whereunto they are due, it behoved them to be of such nature, that to himself no man might over- eagerly challenge them, without blushing ; nor any man where they are due withhold them, but with manifest ap- pearance of too great malice or pride. Now, forasmuch as, according to the ancient Orders and Customs of this Land, as of the Kingdom of Israel, and all Christian King- doms through the world, the next in degree of Honour unto the chief Sovereign are the chief Prelates of God's Church ; what the reason hereof may be, it resteth next to be inquired.
18. Other reason there is not any, wherefore such Ho- nour hath been judged due, saving only that public good pubiick- which the Prelates of God's Clergy are authors of. For I
ly grow ^^
from the would know which of these things it is whereof we make prdacy. ^ question, either that the favour of God is the chiefest pillar to bear up Kingdoms and States ; or, that true Reli- gion publickly exercised is the principal mean to retain the favour of God ; or, that the Prelates of the Church are they without whom the exercise of true Religion cannot well and long continue. If these three be granted, then cannot the public benefit of Prelacy be dissembled. And of the first or second of these I look not for any professed denial : the world at this will blush, not to grant, at the leastwise in word, as much as Heathens themselves have of old with most earnest asseveration acknowledged,* concerning the force of divine grace in upholding Kingdoms. Again, though his mercy doth so far strive with men's ingratitude, that, all kinds of public iniquities deserving his indignation, their safety is through his gracious providence many times nevertheless continued, to the end that amendment might, if it were possible, avert their envy ; so that as well Com- monweals as particular persons both may and do en-
• ' Quis est tam vecors, qui aut cum suspexerit in ccelum, Deos esse non sentiat, et ea, qua? tanta mente fiunt ut vix quisquam arte ulla ordinem rerura ac necessi- tuclinem persequi possit, casu fieri putet ; aut, cum Deos esse intellexerit, non in- telligat eorum numine hoc tantum Imperium esse natum et auctum et retentum :' Cic. Oral, de Hams. resp. [c. 9.]
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dure much longer, when they are careful, as they should be, to use the most effectual means of procuring his favour on whom their continuance principally dependeth : yet this point no man will stand to argue, no man will openly arm himself to enter into set disputation against the Em- perors Theodosius and Valentinian, for making unto their Laws concerning Religion this Preface, " Decere arbitra- T;t. i. mur nostrum Imperium, subditos nostros de Religione J^1"' commonefacere. Ita enim et pleniorem acquiri Dei ac Sal- »"a vatoris nostri Jesu Christi benignitatem possibile esse ex- istimamus, si quando et nos pro viribus ipsi placere studue- rimus, et nostros subditos ad earn rem instituerimus :" or against the Emperor Justinian, for that he also maketh the like profession : " Per sanctissimas Ecclesias et nostrum Lib. m. Imperium sustineri, et communes res clementissimi Dei Epis*. gratia muniri, credimus." And in another place, " Certis- *£ler- sime credimus, quia Sacerdotum puritas et decus, et ad xxxiv. Dominum Deum ac Salvatorem nostrum Jesum Christum EpiSe. fervor, et ab ipsis missae perpetuae preces, multum favorem audiend- nostras Reipublicae et incrementum praebent."
Wherefore only the last point is that which men will boldly require us to prove; for no man feareth now to make it a question, " Whether the Prelacy of the Church be any thing available or no, to effect the good and long continuance of true Religion?" Amongst the principal blessings wherewith God enriched Israel, the Prophet in the Psalm acknowledgeth especially this for one, " Thou Bwi. didst lead thy people like sheep by the hands of Moses and o^v"' Aaron." That which sheep are, if Pastors be wanting, the same are the people of God, if so be they want Governors : and that which the principal Civil Governors are, in compa- rison of Regents under them, the same are the Prelates of the Church, being compared with the rest of God's Clergy.
Wherefore inasmuch as amongst the Jews the benefit of Civil Government grew principally from Moses, he being their principal Governor ; even so the benefit of Spiritual Regiment grew from Aaron principally, he being in the other kind their principal Rector, although even herein subject to the sovereign dominion of Moses. For which cause, these two alone are named as the heads and well- springs of all. As for the good which others did in service either of the Commonwealth or of the Sanctuary, the
330 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
chiefest glory thereof did belong to the chiefest Governors of the one sort and of the other, whose vigilant care and oversight kept them in their due order. Bishops are now as High-priests were then, in regard of Power over other Priests, and in respect of subjection unto High-priests.* What Priests were then, the same now Presbyters are, by way of their place under Bishops. The one's Authority therefore being so profitable, how should the other's be thought unnecessary ? Is there any man professing Chris- tian Religion which holdeth it not as a maxim, that the Church of Jesus Christ did reap a singular benefit by Apo- stolical Regiment, not only for other respects, but even in re- gard of that Prelacy whereby they had and exercised Power of Jurisdiction over lower Guides of the Church ? Prelates are herein the Apostles' successors, as hath been proved.
Thus we see that Prelacy must needs be acknowledged exceedingly beneficial in the Church ; and yet for more perspicuity's sake, it shall not be pains superfluously taken, if the manner how be also declared at large. For this one thing not understood by the vulgar sort, causeth all contempt to be offered unto higher powers, not only Ec- clesiastical, but Civil : whom when proud men have dis- graced, and are therefore reproved by such as carry some dutiful affection of mind, the usual apologies which they make for themselves are these : " What more virtue in these great ones than in others ? We see no such eminent good which they do above other men." We grant indeed, that the good which higher Governors do is not so imme- diate and near unto every of us, as many times the meaner labours of others under them, and this doth make it to be less esteemed.
But we must note, that it is in this case as in a ship ; he that sitteth at the stern is quiet, he moveth not, ho seemeth in a manner to do little or nothing in comparison of them that sweat about other toil, yet that which he doth is in value and force more than all the labours of the residue laid together. The influence of the heavens above worketh infinitely more to our good, and yet appeareth not half so sensible as the force doth of things below. We consider
* ' Qui Sacerdotes in Veteri Testamento vocabantur, hi sunt qui nunc Presby teri appellantur : et qui tunc Princeps Sacerdotum, nunc Episcopus vocatur.' Raba. Maur. de instit. Cler. lib. iii. cap. 6.
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not what it is which we reap by the authority of our chiefest spiritual Governors, nor are likely to enter into any consideration thereof, till we want them ; and that is the cause why they are at our hands so unthankfully re- warded. Authority is a constraining power ; which power were needless if we were all such as we should be, willing to do the things we ought to do without constraint. But, because generally we are otherwise, therefore we all reap singular benefit by that authority which permitteth no men, though they would, to slack their duty. It doth not suffice, that the Lord of a Household appoint labourers what they should do, unless he set over them some chief work- men to see they do it. Constitutions and Canons made for the ordering of Church-affairs are dead taskmasters. The due execution of Laws spiritual dependeth most upon the vigilant care of the chiefest spiritual Governors, whose charge is to see that such Laws be kept by the Clergy and people under them : with those duties which the Law of God and the Ecclesiastical Canons require in the Clergy, Lay-governors are neither for the most part so well ac- quainted, nor so deeply and nearly touched. Requisite therefore it is, that Ecclesiastical persons have authority in such things ; which kind of authority maketh them that have it Prelates. If then it be a thing confessed, as by all good men it needs must be, to have Prayers read in all Churches, to have the Sacraments of God administered, to have the Mysteries of Salvation plainly taught, to have God every where devoutly worshipped, and all this perpetually, and with quietness, bringeth unto the whole Church, and unto every member thereof, inestimable good ; how can that Authority which hath been proved the Ordinance of God for preservation of these duties in the Church, how can it choose but deserve to be held a thing publickly most beneficial ? It were to be wished and is to be laboured for, as much as can be, that they who are set in such rooms may be furnished with honourable qualities and graces every way fit for their calling. But, be they otherwise, howsoever, so long as they are in authority, all men reap some good by them, albeit not so much good as if they were abler men. There is not any amongst us all, but is a great deal more apt to exact another man's duty, than the best of us is to discharge exactly his own ; aud therefore
332 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Prelates, although neglecting many ways their duty unto God and men, do notwithstanding by their Authority great good, in that they keep others, at the leastwise, in some awe under them.
It is our duty, therefore, in this consideration, to honour them that rule as Prelates, which Office if they discharge
i Tim. wen, the Apostle's own verdict is, that the Honour they have they be worthy of, yea, though it were double. And if their government be otherwise, the judgment of sage men hath ever been this, that albeit the dealings of Governors be cul- pable, yet honourable they must be, in respect of that autho- rity by which they govern. Great caution must be used that we neither be emboldened to follow them in evil, whom for authority's sake we honour, nor induced in authority to dis- honour them, whom as examples we may not follow. In a word, not to dislike sin, though it should be in the highest, were unrighteous meekness, and proud righteousness it is to contemn or dishonour highness, though it should be in the sinfullest men that live. But so hard it is to obtain at our hands, especially as now things stand, the yielding of honour to whom honour in this case belongeth, that by a brief declaration only what the duties of men are towards
Rom- the principal Guides and Pastors of their souls, we cannot greatly hope to prevail, partly for the malice of their open adversaries, and partly for the cunning of such as in a sacrilegious intent, work their dishonour under covert, by more mystical and secret means. Wherefore requisite, and in a manner necessary, it is, that by particular in- stances we make it even palpably manifest what singular benefit and public use the nature of Prelates is apt to yield. First, no man doubteth but that unto the happy con- dition of Commonweals it is a principal help and further- ance, when in the eye of foreign States their estimation and credit is great. In which respect, the Lord himself commending his own Laws unto his people, mentioneth this as a thing not meanly to be accounted of, that their
©«ut. careful obedience yielded thereunto should purchase them
*v'6' a great good opinion abroad, and make them every where famous for wisdom. Fame and reputation grow especially by the virtue, not of common ordinary persons, but of them which are in each estate most eminent by occasion of their higher place and calling. The mean man's actions, be
book vii. 333
they good or evil, they reach not far, they are not greatly inquired into, except perhaps by such as dwell at the next door : whereas men of more ample dignity are as cities on Matt. the tops of hills, their lives are viewed afar off; so that'1 the more there are which observe aloof what they do, the greater glory by their well-doing they purchase both unto God whom they serve, and to the State wherein they live. Wherefore, if the Clergy be a beautifying unto the Body of this Commonweal in the eyes of foreign beholders, and if in the Clergy the Prelacy be most exposed unto the world's eye, what public benefit doth grow from that Order, in re- gard of reputation thereby gotten to the Laud from abroad, we may soon conjecture. Amongst the Jews (their Kings excepted) who so renowned throughout the world as their High-priest? Who so much or so often spoken of as their Prelates 1
(2.) Which Order is not for the present only the most in sight, but for that very cause also the most commended unto posterity. For if we search those records wherein there hath descended from age to age whatsoever notice and intelligence we have of those things which were before us, is there any thing almost else, surely not any thing so much, kept in memory, as the successions, doings, suffer- ings, and affairs of Prelates. So that either there is not any public use of that light which the Church doth receive from antiquity ; or if this be absurd to think, then must we necessarily acknowledge ourselves beholden more unto Prelates than unto others their inferiors, for that good of direction which Ecclesiastical actions recorded do always bring.
(3.) But to call home our cogitations, and more inwardly to weigh with ourselves what principal commodity that Order yieldeth, or at leastwise is of its own disposition and nature apt to yield : Kings and Princes, partly for infor- mation of their own consciences, partly for instruction what they have to do in a number of most weighty affairs, entangled with the cause of Religion, having, as all men know, so usual occasion of often consultations and con- ferences with their Clergy; suppose we, that no public detriment would follow upon the want of honourable per- sonages Ecclesiastical to be used in those cases ? It will be haply said, " That the highest might learn to stoop, and
334 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
not to disdain the advice of some circumspect, wise, and virtuous Minister of God, albeit the Ministry were not by such degrees distinguished." What Princes in that case might or should do, it is not material. Such difference being presupposed therefore, as we have proved already to have been the Ordinance of God, there is no judicious man will ever make any question or doubt, but that fit and direct it is for the highest and chiefest Order in God's Clergy to be employed before others about so near and necessary offices as the sacred estate of the greatest on earth doth require. For this cause Joshua had Eleazar ; David, Abiathar; Constantine, Hosius Bishop of Corduba; other Emperors and Kings their Prelates, by whom in pri- vate (for with Princes this is the most effectual way of doing good) to be admonished, counselled, comforted, and if need were, reproved.
Whensoever Sovereign Rulers are willing to admit these so necessary private conferences for their spiritual and ghostly good, inasmuch as they do for the time, while they take advice, grant a kind of Superiority unto them of whom they receive it, albeit haply they can be contented even so far to bend to the gravest and chiefest persons in the Order of God's Clergy, yet this of the very best being rarely and hardly obtained, now that there are whose greater and higher callings do somewhat more proportion them unto that ample conceit and spirit wherewith the minds of so powerful persons are possessed ; what should we look for in case God himself not authorizing any by miraculous means, as of old he did his Prophets, the equal meanness of all did leave, in respect of calling, no more place of decency for one than for another to be admitted 1 Let in- experienced wits imagine what pleaseth them, in having to deal with so great personages these personal differences are so necessary that there must be regard had of them.
(4.) Kingdoms being principally (next unto God's Al- mightiness, and the sovereignty of the highest under God) upheld by wisdom and by valour, as by the chiefest hu- man means to cause continuance in safety with honour (for the labours of them who attend the service of God, we reckon as means divine, to procure our protection from Heaven); from hence it riseth, that men excelling in either of these, or descending from such, as for excellency
book vii. 335
either way have been ennobled, or possessing howsoever the rooms of such as should be in politic wisdom or in martial prowess eminent, are had in singular recommen- dation. Notwithstanding, because they are by the state of Nobility great, but not thereby made inclinable to good things ; such they oftentimes prove even under the best Princes, as under David certain of the Jewish Nobility were. In Polity and Council the world had not Achi- tophel's equal, nor hell his equal in deadly malice. Joab the General of the Host of Israel, valiant, industrious, for- tunate in war, but withal headstrong, cruel, treacherous, void of piety towards God ; in a word, so conditioned, that easy it is not to define, whether it were for David harder to miss the benefit of his warlike ability, or to bear the enormity of his other crimes. As well for the cherish- ing of those virtues therefore, wherein if Nobility do chance to flourish, they are both an ornament and a stay to the Commonwealth wherein they live ; as also for the bridling of those disorders, which if they loosely run into, they are by reason of their greatness dangerous ; what help could there ever have been invented more divine, than the sort- ing of the Clergy into such degrees, that the chiefest of the Prelacy being matched in a kind of equal yoke, as it were, with the higher, the next with the lower degree of Nobility, the reverend Authority of the one might be to the other as a courteous bridle, a mean to keep them lovingly in awe that are exorbitant, and to correct such excesses in them, as whereunto their courage, state, and dignity make them over-prone? O that there were for encouragement of Prelates herein, that inclination of all Christian Kings and Princes towards them, which sometime a famous King of this Land either had, or pretended to have, for the coun- tenancing of a principal Prelate under him in the actions of Spiritual Authority !
" Let my Lord Archbishop know (saith he), that if a Petr- Bishop, or Earl, or any other great person, yea, if my own ep!Ts chosen Son, shall presume to withstand, or to hinder his [t°rm'n"' will and disposition, whereby he may be withheld from p i°*-
r . T , - ,, rf , J , Biblioth.
performing the work ot the embassage committed unto ratr. him ; such a one shall find, that of his contempt I will Lat,] shew myself no less a persecutor and revenger, than if treason were committed against mine own very Crown
336 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
and Dignity." Sith, therefore, by the Fathers and first Founders of this Commonwealth it hath, upon great expe- rience and forecast, being judged most for the good of all sorts, that as the whole Body Politic wherein we live should be for strength's sake a threefold cable, consisting of the King as a supreme Head over all, of Peers and Nobles under him, and of the People under them ; so like- wise, that in this conjunction of states, the second wreath of that cable should, for important respects, consist as well of Lords Spiritual as Temporal. Nobility and Prelacy being by this mean twined together, how can it possibly be avoided, but that the tearing away of the one must needs exceedingly weaken the other, and by consequence impair greatly the good of all ?
(5.) The force of which detriment there is no doubt but that the common sort of men would feel to their helpless wo, how goodly a thing soever they now surmise it to be, that themselves and their godly Teachers did all alone without controlment of their Prelate. For, if the manifold jeopardies whereto a people destitute of Pastors is subject, be unavoid- able without Government, and if the benefit of Government, whether it be Ecclesiastical or Civil, do grow principally from them who are principal therein, as hath been proved out of the Prophet, who, albeit the people of Israel had sundry inferior Governors, ascribeth not unto them the pub- lic benefit of Government, but maketh mention of Moses and Aaron only, the chief Prince and chief Prelate, be- cause they were the well-spring of all the good which others under them did ; may we not boldly conclude, that to take from the people their Prelate, is to leave them in effect without guides ; at leastwise, without those guides which are the strongest hands that God doth direct them iwvii ky? " Thou didst lead thy people like sheep (saith the eo. Prophet) by the hands of Moses and Aaron."
If now there arise any matter of grievance between the Pastor and the people that are under him, they have their Ordinary, a Judge indifferent to determine their causes, and to end their strife. But in case there were no such appointed to sit, and to hear both, what would then be the end of their quarrels ? They will answer, perhaps, " That for such purposes their Synods shall serve." Which is, as if in the Commonwealth, the higher Magistrates being re-
book vir. 337
moved, every Township should be a State altogether free and independent ; and the controversies which they can- not end speedily within themselves, to the contentment of both parties, should be all determined by solemn Parlia- ments. Merciful God ! where is the light of wit and judg- ment, which this age doth so much vaunt of and glory in, when unto these such odd imaginations so great not only assent, but also applause, is yielded ?
(6.) As for those in the Clergy whose place and calling is lower, were it not that their eyes are blinded lest they should see the thing that of all others is for their good most effectual, somewhat they might consider the benefit which they enjoy by having such in authority over them as are of the self-same profession, society, and body with them ; such as have trodden the same steps before ; such as know by their own experience the manifold intolerable contempts and indignities which faithful Pastors, inter- mingled with the multitude, are constrained every day to suffer in the exercise of their spiritual charge and function; unless their superiors, taking their causes even to heart, be, by a kind of sympathy, drawn to relieve and aid them in their virtuous proceedings no less effectually, than loving parents their dear children.
Thus therefore Prelacy, being unto all sorts so beneficial, ought accordingly to receive Honour at the hands of all ; but we have just cause exceedingly to fear that those mi- serable times of confusion are drawing on, wherein " the i™. people shall be oppressed one of another ;" inasmuch as '"* already that which prepareth the way thereunto is come to pass, " Children presume against the ancient, and the vile against the honourable." Prelacy, the temperature of ex- cesses in all estates, the glue and soder of the public-weal, the ligament which tieth and connecteth the limbs of this body-politic each to other, hath, instead of deserved Honour, all extremity of disgrace. The foolish every where plead, that unto the wise in heart they owe neither service, subjection, nor Honour.
19. Now that we have laid open the causes for which What
r» i kinds of
Honour is due unto Prelates, the next thing we are to con- Honour sider is, what kinds of Honour be due. The good Govern- J^"6 ment either of the Church or the Commonwealth depend- Bishops. eth scarcely on any one external thing so much as on the
VOL. II. z
668 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
public marks and tokens whereby the estimation that Go- vernors are in is made manifest to the eyes of men. True it is, that Governors are to be esteemed according to the excellency of their virtues ; the more virtuous they are, the more they ought to be honoured, if respect be had unto that which every man should voluntarily perform unto his superiors. But the question is now, of that Honour which public Order doth appoint unto Church-governors, in that they are Governors ; the end whereof is, to give open sen- sible testimony, that the place which they hold is judged publickly in such degree beneficial, as the marks of their excellency, the Honours appointed to be done unto them, do import. Wherefore this Honour we are to do them, with- out presuming ourselves to examine how worthy they are ; and withdrawing it, if by us they be thought unworthy. It is a note of that public judgment which is given of them ; and therefore not tolerable that men in private should, by refusal to do them such Honour, reverse, as much as in them lieth, the public judgment. If it deserve such griev- ous punishment, when any particular person adventureth to deface those marks whereby is signified what value some small piece of coin is publickly esteemed at ; is it sufferable that Honours, the character of that estimation which publickly is had of public estates and callings in the Church or Commonwealth, should at every man's pleasure be cancelled ? Let us not think that without most necessary cause the same have been thought expedient. The first authors thereof were wise and judicious men ; they knew it a thing altogether impossible, for each particular in the multitude to judge what benefit doth grow unto them from their Prelates, and thereupon uniformly to yield them con- venient Honour. Wherefore, that all sorts might be kept in obedience and awe, doing that unto their superiors of every degree, not which every man's special fancy should think meet, but which, being beforehand agreed upon as meet by public sentence and decision, might afterwards stand as a rule for each in particular to follow ; they found that nothing was more necessary than to allot unto all de- grees their certain Honour, as marks of public judgment concerning the dignity of their places ; which mark when the multitude should behold, they might be thereby given to know, that of such or such estimation their Governors
book: vii. 339
are, and in token thereof do carry those notes of excel- lency. Hence it groweth, that the different notes and signs of Honour do leave a correspondent impression in the minds of common beholders. Let the people be asked, who are the chiefest in any kind of calling ? who most to be lis- tened unto? who of greatest account and reputation? and see if the very discourse of their minds lead them not unto those sensible marks, according to the difference whereof they give their suitable judgment, esteeming them the worthiest persons who carry the principal note and pub- lic mark of worthiness. If therefore they see in other estates a number of tokens sensible, whereby testimony is given what account there is publickly made of them, but no such thing in the Clergy ; what will they hereby, or what can they else conclude, but that where they behold this, surely in that Commonwealth, Religion, and they' that are conversant about it, are not esteemed greatly benefi- cial ? Whereupon, in time, the open contempt of God and godliness must needs ensue : " Qui bona fide Deus colit, J-^- amat et Sacerdotes," saith Papinius. In vain doth that siw. Kingdom or Commonwealth pretend zeal to the Honour of God, which doth not provide that his Clergy also may have Honour. Now if all that are employed in the service of God should have one kind of Honour, what more confused, absurd, and unseemly ? Wherefore, in the Honour which hath been allotted unto God's Clergy, we are to observe, how not only the kinds thereof, but also in every particu- lar kind, the degrees do differ. The Honour which the Clergy of God hath hitherto enjoyed, consisteth especially in the pre-eminence of title, place, ornament, attendance, privilege, endowment. In every of which it hath been evermore judged meet, that there should be no small odds between Prelates and the inferior Clergy.
20. Concerning Title, albeit even as under the Law, all Hononr they whom God hath severed to offer him sacrifice were ™}™°' generally termed Priests ; so likewise the name of Pastor ™* t|> or Presbyter be now common unto all that serve him in the tendance, Ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ ; yet both then and vLg'e? now the higher Orders, as well of the one sort as of the other, have by one and the same congruity of reason their different Titles of Honour, wherewith we find them in the phrase of ordinary speech exalted above others. Thus z 2
340 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
the Heads of the twenty-four companies of Priests are in 'Aflfttgift Scripture termed Arch-priests ; Aaron and the successors of Aaron being above those Arch-priests ; themselves arc in that respect further entitled High and Great. After what sort antiquity hath used to style Christian Bishops, and to yield them in (hat kind Honour more than was meet for inferior Pastors, I may the better omit to declare, both because others have sufficiently done it already, and in so slight a thing it were but a loss of time to bestow further travel. The allegation of Christ's prerogative to be named an Arch-pastor simply, in regard of his absolute excellency over all, is no impediment but that the like Title in an unlike signification may be granted unto others be- side him, to note a more limited superiority, whereof men are capable enough without derogation from his glory, than which nothing is more sovereign. To quarrel at syl- lables, and to take so poor exceptions at the first four let ters in the name of an Archbishop, as if they were mani festly stolen goods whereof restitution ought to be made to the Civil Magistrate, toucheth no more the Prelates that now are, than it doth the very blessed Apostle, who giveth unto himself the title of an Arch-builder.
As for our Saviour's words alleged against the Title of
Lordship and Grace, we have before sufficiently opened how
far they are drawn from their natural meaning, to bolster up a
cause which they nothing at all concern. Bishops Theodoret
Hist, entitled ' most honourable :' Emperors writing unto Bi-
5^le'* shops, have not disdained to give them their appellations of
«•.»■ Honour, 'Your Holiness,' 'Your Blessedness,' 'Your Am-
c!bcieV1 plitude,' 'Your Highness,' and the like : such as purposely
Tr^iT nave done otherwise are noted of insolent singularity and
1. xxxiii. pride.
Episc.et Honour done by giving pre-eminence of Place unto one u *ii?S sor' Def°re another, is, for decency, order, and quietness' c- de sake, so needful, that both Imperial Laws and Canons Ec- E^cies. clesiastical have made their special provisions for it. Our Saviour's invective against the vain affectation of Superi- ority, whether in Title or in Place,* may not hinder these seemly differences usual in giving and taking Honour, either according to the one or the other.
• " They love to have the chief seats in the assemblies, and to be called of men Rabbi." Matt, xxiii. 6,7.
BOOK VII. 341
Something there is, even in the Ornaments of Honour also ; otherwise it had been idle for the Wise Man, speak- ing of Aaron, to stand so much upon the circumstances of his Priestly Attire, and to urge it as an argument of such dignity and greatness in him : " An everlasting covenant ^'"! God made with Aaron, and gave him the Priesthood among the people, and made him blessed through his comely Orna- ment, and clothed him with the Garment of Honour." The robes of a Judge do not add to his virtue ; the chiefest orna- ment of Kings is justice; holiness and purity of conversa- tion do much more adorn a Bishop, than his peculiar form of clothing. Notwithstanding, both Judges, through the Garments of judicial Authority, and through the Ornaments of Sovereignty, Princes ; yea, Bishops, through the very attire of Bishops, are made blessed, that is to say, marked and manifested they are to be such as God hath poured his blessing upon, by advancing them above others, and placing them where they may do him principal good service. Thus to be called is to be blessed, and therefore to be ho- noured with the signs of such a calling must needs be in part a blessing also ; for of good things even the signs are good.
Of Honour, another part is Attendancy ; and therefore in the visions of the glory of God, Angels are spoken of as his Attendants. In setting out the Honour of that mystical Queen, the Prophet mentioneth the Virgin Ladies which waited on her. Amongst the tokens of Solomon's honour- able condition, his Servants and Waiters the Sacred His- tory omitteth not. This doth prove Attendants a part of Honour: but this as yet doth not shew with what Attend- ancy Prelates are to be honoured. Of the High-priest's retinue amongst the Jews, somewhat the Gospel itself doth intimate. And, albeit our Saviour came to minister, and not, as the Jews did imagine their Messias should, to be ministered unto, in this world, yet, attended on he was by his blessed Apostles, who followed him not only as Scho- lars, but even as Servants about him. After that he had sent them, as himself was sent of God, in the midst of that hatred and extreme contempt which they sustained at the world's hands, by Saints and Believers this part of Honour was most plentifully done unto them. Attendants they had provided in all places where they went; which custom of the Church was still continued in Bishops their succes-
/
342 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
sors, as by Ignatius it is plain to be seen. And from hence no doubt those Acolythes took their beginning, of whom so frequent mention is made ; the Bishop's Attend- ants, his Followers they were : in regard of which service the name of Acolythes seemeth plainly to have been given. Novei.6. The custom for Bishops to be attended upon by many is, as Justinian doth shew, ancient: the affairs of Regiment, wherein Prelates are employed, make it necessary that they always have many about them whom they may com- mand, although no such thing did by way of Honour belong unto them.
Some men's judgment is, that if Clerks, Students, and religious persons were more, common Serving-men and Lay-retainers fewer than they are, in Bishops' Palaces, the use and the honour thereof would be much more suitable than now. But these things, concerning the number and quality of persons fit to attend on Prelates, either for ne- cessity, or for Honour's sake, are rather in particular discre- tion to be ordered, than to be argued of by disputes. As for the vain imagination of some, who teach the original hereof to have been a preposterous imagination of Maxi- mums the Emperor, who being addicted unto Idolatry, chose of the choicest Magistrates to be Priests, and, to the end they might be in great estimation, gave unto each of them a train of followers ; and that Christian Emperors, thinking the same would promote Christianity which pro- moted Superstition, endeavoured to make their Bishops encounter and match with those idolatrous Priests : such frivolous conceits having no other ground than conceit, we weigh not so much as to frame any answer unto them ; our declaration of the true original of ancient Attendancy on Bishops being sufficient. Now, if that which the light of sound reason doth teach to be fit, have upon like induce- ments reasonable, allowable, and good, approved itself in such wise as to be accepted, not only of us, but of Pagans and Infidels also, doth conformity with them that are evil in that which is good, make that thing which is good, evil? We have not herein followed the Heathens, nor the Hea- thens us, but both we and they one and the self-same divine Rule, the light of a true and sound understanding; which sheweth what Honour is fit for Prelates, and what Attend- ancy convenient to be a part of their Honour.
BOOK VII.
343
Touching Privileges granted for Honour's sake, partly in ^™±?* general unto the Clergy, and partly unto Prelates, the chief- Eccies." est persons Ecclesiastical, in particular; of such quality d*evSaC;. and number they are, that to make but rehearsal of them we f^*£ scarce think it safe, lest the very entrails of some of our de ep«c. godly brethren, as they term themselves, shouldt hereat i,x, c! haply burst in sunder. 252T
21. And yet of all these things rehearsed, it may be Honour there never would have grown any question, had Bishops J*£jJ£ been honoured only thus far forth. But the honouring of lands and the Clergy with wealth, this is, in the eyes of them which pretend to seek nothing but mere reformation of abuses, a sin that can never be remitted.
How soon, O how soon, might the Church be perfect, even without any spot or wrinkle, if public authority would at the length say Amen unto the holy and devout requests of those godly brethren, who as yet with out- stretched necks groan in the pangs of their zeal to see the Houses of Bishops rifled, and their so-long-desired Livings gloriously divided amongst the righteous ! But there is an impediment, a let, which somewhat hindereth those good men's prayers from taking effect : they in whose hands the Sovereignty of Power and Dominion over this Church doth rest, are persuaded there is a God ; for undoubtedly, either the name of Godhead is but a feigned thing, or, if in Hea- ven there be a God, the sacrilegious intention of Church- robbers, which lurketh under this plausible name of refor- mation, is in his sight a thousand times more hateful than the plain professed malice of those very miscreants who threw their vomit in the open face of our blessed Saviour. They are not words of persuasion by which true men can hold their own when they are over-beset with thieves. And therefore to speak in this cause at all were but labour lost, saving only in respect of them, who being as yet unjoined unto this conspiracy, may be haply somewhat stayed, when they shall know betimes what it is to see thieves, and to run on with them, as the Prophet in the Psalm speaketh; " When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with J«J him, and hast been partaker with adulterers."
For the better information therefore of men which carry true, honest, and indiiFerent minds, these things we will en- deavour to make most clearly manifest.
344 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
First, That in Goods and Livings of the Church none hath propriety but God himself.
Secondly, That the Honour which the Clergy therein hath, is to be, as it were, God's receivers ; the Honour of Prelates, to be his chief and principal receivers.
Thirdly, That from him they have right, not only to re- ceive, but also to use such goods, the lower sort in smaller, and the higher in larger, measure.
Fourthly, That in case they be thought, yea, or found to abuse the same, yet may not such Honour be therefore law- fully taken from them, and be given away unto persons of other calling. That of 22. Possessions, Lands, and Livings spiritual, the asticai wealth of the Clergy, the goods of the Church, are in such mdcon- sort the Lord's own, that man can challenge no propriety sequent- m them. His they are, and not ours; all things are his,
ly of the . J > ' S> »
Lands in that from him they have their being : " My corn, and Livings, my wine, and mine oil," saith the Lord. All things his, in Bisho s *nat ^e na*k aDS°lute power to dispose of them at his plea- enjoy, sure. " Mine (saith he) are the sheep and oxen of a thou- prie?y° sand hills." All things his, in that when we have them, we eth°ufto may say vv^ ^°k' " God hath given ;" and when we are cod deprived of them, " The Lord," whose they are, hath like- Hos.Vi.s. wise " taken them away" again. But these sacred Posses- Ps^- sions are his by another tenure; his, because those men job i. 21. who first received them from him, have unto him returned them again, by way of religious gift or oblation : and in this respect it is, that the Lord doth term those houses, ll\. io. wherein such gifts and oblations were laid," his Treasuries." The ground whereupon men have resigned their own inte- rest in things temporal, and given over the same unto God, is that Precept which Solomon borroweth from the Law of prov. Nature, " Honour the Lord out of thy substance, and of the chiefest of all thy revenue : so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and with new wine the fat of thy press shall overflow." For although it be by one most fitly spoken against those superstitious persons, who only are scrupu- seneca. lous in external Rites; "Wilt thou win the favour of God? Be virtuous. They best worship him that are his followers." It is not the bowing of your knees, but of your hearts; it is not the number of your oblations, but the integrity of your lives; not your incense, but your
BOOK VII.
345
obedience, which God is delighted to be honoured by: nevertheless, we must beware, lest simply understanding this, which comparatively is meant; that is to say, whereas the meaning is, that God doth chiefly respect the inward disposition of the heart, we must take heed we do not hereupon so worship him in spirit, that outwardly we take all worship, reverence, and honour from him.
Our God will be glorified both of us himself, and for us by others : to others, because our hearts are known, and yet our example is required for their good ; therefore it is not sufficient to carry Religion in our hearts, as fire is carried in flint-stones, but we are outwardly, visibly, ap- parently, to serve and honour the living God ; yea, to employ that way, as not only for our souls, but our bo- dies, so not only our bodies, but our goods; yea, the choice, the flower, the chiefest of all thy revenue, saith Solomon. If thou hast anything in all thy possessions of more value and price than other, to what use shouldest thou convert it, rather than to this ? Samuel was dear unto Hannah his mother : the child that Hannah did so much esteem, she could not choose but greatly wish to advance; and her religious conceit was, that the honouring of God with it was the advancing of it unto honour. The chiefest of the offspring of men are the males which be first born : and for this cause, in the ancient world they all were by right of their birth Priests of the Most High. By these and the like precedents, it plainly enough appeareth, that in what heart soever doth dwell unfeigned Religion, in the same there resteth also a willingness to bestow upon God that soonest which is most dear. Amongst us the Law is, that sith gold is the chiefest of metals, if it be any where found in the bowels of the earth, it belongeth in right of honour, as all men know, to the King : whence hath this custom grown, but only from a natural persuasion, whereby men judge it decent, for the highest persons always to be honoured with the choicest things ? " If ye offer unto God >•• the blind (saith the Prophet Malachi), is it not evil ? if the lame and sick, is it good enough? Present it unto thy Prince, and see if he will content himself, or accept thy person, saith the Lord of hosts." When Abel presented God with an offering, it was the fattest of all the lambs in his whole flock ; he honoured God not only out of his sub-
346 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
stance, but out of the very chiefest therein ; whereby we may somewhat judge how religiously they stand affected towards God, who grudge that any thing worth the having should be his. Long it were to reckon up particularly what God was owner of under the Law ; for of this sort was all which they spent in legal sacrifices ; of this sort, their usual Oblations and Offerings ; of this sort, Tithes and Firstfruits ; of this sort, that which by extraordinary occa- sions they vowed unto God ; of this sort, all that they gave to the building of the Tabernacle ; of this sort, all that which was gathered amongst them for erecting of the Tem- ple, and the adorning of it erected ;* of this sort, whatso- ever their Corban contained, wherein that blessed widow's deodate was laid up. Now, either this kind of Honour was prefiguratively altogether Ceremonial, and then our Saviour accepteth it not; or, if we find that to him also it hath been done, and that with divine approbation given for encouragement of the world, to shew, by such kind of ser- vice, their dutiful hearts towards Christ; there will be no place left for man to make any question at all whether herein they do well or no.
Wherefore, to descend from the Synagogue unto the Church of Christ : albeit sacrifices, wherewith sometimes God was highly honoured, be not accepted as heretofore
p»ai. i. at the hands of men, yet, forasmuch as " Honour God with thy riches," is an edict of the inseparable Law of Na- ture, so far forth as men are therein required by such kind
PMi. of homage to testify their thankful minds, this sacrifice God doth accept still. Wherefore as it was said of Christ,
rsai that " all Kings shall worship him, and all Nations do him
lxxu.ll. • 11 l
service ; so this very kind of worship or service was like- wise mentioned, lest we should think that our Lord and ver. io. Saviour would allow of no such thing : " The Kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents ; the Kings of Sheba and Seba shall bring gifts." And, as it maketh not a little to the praise of those sages mentioned in the Gospel, that the first amongst men which did solemnly honour our Saviour on earth were they ; so it soundeth no less to the dignity of this particular kind, that the rest by it were prevented ; " They fell down and worshipped him,
* " Because (saith David) I have a delight in the House of my God, therefore I have given thereunto of my own both gold and silver to adorn it with." 1 Chron.
book vii. 347
and opened their treasures, and presented unto him gifts ; *}»"■ gold, incense, and myrrh."
Of all those things which were done to the honour of Christ in his lifetime, there is not one whereof he spake in such sort as when Mary, to testify the largeness of her affection, seemed to waste away a gift upon him, the price of which gift might, as they thought who saw it, much better have been spent in works of mercy towards the poor : " Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached, throughout all. the world, there shall also this that she hath done be spoken of, for n. memorial of her." Of service to God, the best works are they which continue j0hn longest ; and, for permanency, what like donation, where- xv- l6- by things are unto him for ever dedicated ? That the an- cient Lands and Livings of the Church were all in such sort given into the hands of God by the just lords and owners of them, that unto him they passed over their whole inte- rest and right therein, the form of sundry the said dona- tions, as yet extant, most plainly sheweth. And where time hath left no such evidence as now remaining to be seen, yet the same intention is presumed in all donors, unless the contrary be apparent. But to the end it may yet more plainly appear unto all men under what title the several kinds of Ecclesiastical possessions are held, " Our Aug. Lord himself (saith St. Augustine) had coffers to keep those HPmll[ things which the faithful offered unto him. Then was the dac- form of the Church-treasury first instituted, to the end, that withal we might understand, that, in forbidding to be care- ful for to-morrow, his purpose was not to bar his saints from keeping money, but to withdraw them from doing God service for wealth's sake, and from forsaking righte- ousness through fear of losing their wealth."
The first gifts consecrated unto Christ after his departure out of the world, were sums of money ; in process of time other moveables were added, and at length goods unmove- able ; Churches and Oratories hallowed to the honour of his glorious name ; houses and lands for perpetuity con- veyed unto him; inheritance given to remain his as long as the world should endure. " The Apostles (saith Mel- c.k. chiades), they foresaw that God would have his Church cap.' is. amongst the Gentiles, and for that cause in Judea they took et l6, no Lands, but price of Lands sold." This he conjecturcth
Trov. iii. 10.
348 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
to have been the cause why the Apostles did that which the History reporteth of them.
The truth is, that so the state of those times did require, as well otherwhere as in Judea. Wherefore, when after- wards it did appear much more commodious for the Church to dedicate such inheritances, than the value and price of them being sold, the former custom was changed for this, as for the better. The devotion of Constantine herein, all the world, even till this very day, admireth. They that lived in the prime of the Christian world, thought no testa- ment Christianly made, nor any thing therein well be- queathed, unless something were thereby added unto Christ's patrimony. Touching which men, what judgment that the world doth now give, I know not ; perhaps we deem them to have been herein but blind and superstitious persons. Nay, we in these cogitations are blind; they contrariwise did with Solomon plainly know and persuade themselves, that thus to diminish their wealth was, not to diminish but to augment it ; according to that which God doth promise to his own people by the Prophet Malachi, and which they by their own particular experience found true. IfWickliff therefore were of that opinion which his adversaries ascribe unto him (whether truly, or of purpose to make him odious, I cannot tell, for in his writings I do
ti.. not find it), namely, " That Constantine, and others fol- lowing his steps, did evil, as having no sufficient ground whereby they might gather, that such donations are accept- able to Jesus Christ ;" it was in WicklifF a palpable error. I will use but one only argument, to stand in the stead of many. Jacob, taking his journey unto Haran, made in this sort his solemn vow : " If God will be with me, and will keep
20-22. nie in this journey which I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothes to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in safety ; then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone which I have set up a pillar shall be the House of G od, and of all that thou shalt give me, will I give the Tenth unto thee." May a Christian man desire as great things as Jacob did at the hands of God ? May he desire them in as earnest manner ? May he promise as great thankfulness in ac- knowledging the goodness of God? May he vow any certain kind of public acknowledgment beforehand ? Or, though he vow it not, perform it after, in such sort that
Wald torn, i lib. iv c. 39.
Gen. xxviii
book vi r. 349
men may see he is persuaded how the Lord hath been his God ? Are these particular kinds of testifying thankful- ness to God, the erecting of Oratories, the dedicating of Lands and Goods to maintain them, forbidden any where? Let any mortal man living shew but one reason where- fore in this point to follow Jacob's example, should not be a thing both acceptable unto God, and in the eyes of the world for ever most highly commendable. Concerning goods of this nature, goods, whereof when we speak, we term them ra no Quo dcpitpwSevTa, the goods that are con- secrated unto God, and, as Tertullian speaketh, deposita fAP°'- pietatis, things which piety and devotion hath laid up as c" it were in the bosom of God; touching such goods, the Law Civil, following mere light of Nature, define th them to be no man's, because no mortal man, or community of men, hath right of propriety in them.
23. Persons Ecclesiastical are God's Stewards, notT,hatEr;
clesiasti-
only for that he hath set them over his family, as the cai Per- Ministers of ghostly food, but even for this very cause receivers also, that they are to receive and dispose his temporal re- °rle^t°fs venues, the gifts and oblations which men bring him. Of and that the Jews it is plain that their Tithes they offered unto the io'urdr Lord, and those offerings the Lord bestowed upon the Prelates
7 ~ L is, to be
Levites. When the Levites gave the Tenth of their Tithes, thereof this their gift the Law doth term the Lord's Heave-offering, receivers; and appoint that the High-priest should receive the same. ^SJl Of spoils taken in war, that part which they were accus- tj from tomed to separate unto God, they brought it before theedTofan Priest of the Lord, by whom it was laid up in the Taber- 1™yt"*~ nacle of the Congregation, for a memorial of their thank- *<"«« fulness towards God, and his goodness towards them in theirown fighting for them against their enemies. As therefore the ^''^ge" Apostle magnifieth the honour of Melchisedec, in that he, manner. being a High-priest, did receive at the hands of Abraham xvin.' the Tithes which Abraham did honour God with; so it ^txff" argueth in the Apostles themselves great Honour, that at H.*b- their feet the price of those possessions was laid, which Acts men thought good to bestow on Christ. St. Paul, com- 1V' 34, mending the Churches which were in Macedonia, for their exceeding liberality this way, saith of them, that he him- self would bear record, they had declared their forward minds according to their power, yea, beyond their power, and had so much exceeded his expectation of them, that
350 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
e cor. «< Uicy seemed as it were even to give away themselves first
Vl"'5' to the Lord (saith the Apostle), and then by the will of
God unto us:" to him, as the owner of such gifts; to us,
as his appointed receivers and dispensers. The gift of the
Acts Church of Antioch, bestowed unto the use of distressed
xxl ip. brethren which were in Judea, Paul and Barnabas did
x" 17- deliver unto the Presbyters of Jerusalem ; and the Head
of those Presbyters was James, he therefore the chiefest
disposer thereof.
Amongst those Canons which are entitled Apostolical, one is this, " We appoint that the Bishop have care of those things which belong to the Church ;"* the meaning is, of Church-goods, as the reason following sheweth : " For if the precious souls of men must be committed unto him of trust, much more it behoveth the charge of money to be given him, that by his authority the Presbyters and Deacons may administer all things to them that stand in need." So that he which hath done them the Honour to be, as it were, his Treasurers, hath left them also Authority and Power to use these treasures, both otherwise and for the maintenance even of their own estate: the lower sort of the Clergy, according unto a meaner; the higher, after a larger, proportion. The use of Spiritual Goods and Possessions hath been a matter much disputed of; grievous com- plaints there are usually made against the evil and un- lawful usage of them, but with no certain determination hitherto on what things and persons, with what proportion and measure they being bestowed, do retain their lawful use. Some men condemn it as idle, superfluous, and alto- gether vain, that any part of the treasure of God should be spent upon costly ornaments appertaining unto his jo! n. service : who being best worshipped, when he is served in v 24, spirit and truth, hath not for want of pomp and magnifi- cence rejected at any time those who with faithful hearts have adored him. Whereupon the Heretics, termed Hen- riciani and Petrobusiani, threw down Temples and Houses of Prayer, erected with marvellous great charge, as being in that respect not fit for Christ by us to be honoured in. We deny not, but that they who sometime wandered as pilgrims on earth, and had no Temples, but made caves
•'EstriVxtWov E^EiV tZv t«? 'ExxXno-iae it^ayfxatK\ l^cua-iav, Sis-rt SiootEiV £?? vtayrai; Jso/wlvouj fxtya. iracri? il\a@iU$ itai ^>o'(3ou ©Eou. Can. 40. et Cone. Antioch. [Cone. torn. \. par. i. p. 415. Can. 25.]
book vii. 351
and dens to pray in, did God such honour as was most acceptable in his sight : God did not reject them for their H«t>. poverty and nakedness' sake ; their Sacraments were not *'' abhorred for want of vessels of gold.
Howbeit, let them who thus delight to plead, answer me: when Moses first, and afterwards David, exhorted the people of Israel unto matter of charge about the service of God ; suppose we it had been allowable in them to have thus pleaded : " Our Fathers in Egypt served God devoutly, God was with them in all their afflictions, he heard their prayers, pitied their case, and delivered them from the ty- ranny of their oppressors; what House, Tabernacle, or Temple had they?" Such argumentations are childish and fond ; God doth not refuse to be honoured at all where there lacketh wealth ; but where abundance and store is, he there requireth the flower thereof, being bestowed on him, to be employed even unto the ornament of his service. In Egypt the state of his people was servitude, and there- fore his service was accordingly. In the desert they had no sooner aught of their own, but a Tabernacle is required ; and in the Land of Canaan a Temple. In the eyes of David it seemed a thing not fit, a thing not decent, that himself should be more richly seated than God.
But concerning the use of Ecclesiastical Goods bestowed this way, there is not so much contention amongst us, as what measure of allowance is fit for Ecclesiastical persons to be maintained with. A better rule in this case to judge things by we cannot possibly have, than the wisdom of God himself: by considering what he thought meet for each degree of the Clergy to enjoy in time of the Law ; what for Levites, what for Priests, and what for High- priests, somewhat we shall be the more able to discern rightly what may be fit, convenient, and right for the Christian Clergy likewise. Priests for their maintenance Num. had those first-fruits of cattle, corn, wine, oil, and other *l'"{5™' commodities of the earth, which the Jews were accustomed yearly to present God with. They had the price which was appointed for men to pay in lieu of the firstborn of their children, and the price of the firstborn also amongst ver. s. cattle which were unclean : they had the vowed gifts of the JJrii. u. people, or the prices, if they were redeemable by the *"™-8 donors after vow, as some tilings were: they had the free 9- 21. 28.
352 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
and unvowed oblations of men: they had the remainder of things sacrificed : with Tithes the Levites were maintained ; and with the Tithe of their Tithes the High-priest.
In a word, if the quality of that which God did assign to his Clergy be considered, and their manner of receiving it, without labour, expence, or charge, it will appear that the tribe of Levi, being but the twelfth part of Israel, had in effect as good as four twelfth parts of all such goods as the Holy Land did yield: so that their worldly estate was four times as good as any other tribe's in Israel besides. But the High-priests' condition, how ample 1 to whom belonged the Tenth of all the Tithe of this land, especially the Law providing also, that as the people did bring the best of all things unto the Priests and Levites, so the Levites should deliver the choice and flower of all their commodities to the High-priest, and so his tenth part by that means be made the very best part amongst ten : by which propor- tion, if the Levites were ordinarily in all not above thirty thousand men (whereas when David numbered them, he chron. found almost thirty-eight thousand above the age of thirty years), the High-priest, after this very reckoning, had as much as three or four thousand others of the Clergy to live upon. Over and besides all this, lest the Priests of Egypt, holding lands, should seem in that respect better provided for than the Priests of the true God, it pleased him further to appoint unto them forty and eight whole cities with territories of land adjoining, to hold as their own free inheritance for ever. For to the end they might have all kind of encouragement, not only to do what they ought, but to take pleasure in that they did ; albeit they were ex- pressly forbidden to have any part of the Land of Canaan laid out whole to themselves, by themselves, in such sort r>eut. as the rest of the tribes had ; forasmuch as the will of ilv.'xxv. GJod was rather that they should throughout all tribes 33,34. be dispersed, for the easier access of the people unto knowledge ; yet were they not barred altogether to hold land, nor yet otherwise the worst provided for, in re- spect of that former restraint ; for God, by way of special pre-eminence, undertook to feed them at his own table, and out of his own proper treasury to maintain them, that want and penury they might never feel, except God himself did first receive injury. A thing most worthy our
Geu. xlvii.
Num. xxxv. 7
Jos h. xiv.4.
book vi r. 353
consideration is the wisdom of God herein; for the common sort being prone unto envy and murmur, little considereth of what necessity, use, and importance the sacred duties of the Clergy are, and for that cause hardly yicldeth them any such honour without repining and grudging thereat ; they cannot brook it, that when they have laboured and come to reap, there should so great a portion go out of the fruit of their labours, and be yielded up unto such as sweat not for it. But when the Lord doth challenge this as his own due, and require it to be done by way of ho- mage unto him, whose mere liberality and goodness had raised them from a poor and servile estate, to place them where they had all those ample and rich possessions ; they must be worse than brute beasts, if they would storm at any thing which he did receive at their hands. And for him to bestow his own on his own servants (which liberty is not denied unto the meanest of men), what man liveth that can think it other than most reasonable. Wherefore no cause there was, why that which the Clergy had should in any man's eye seem too much, unless God himself were thought to be of an over-having disposition.
This is the mark whereat all those speeches drive, " Levi Deut- hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren, the Lord is his inheritance ;" again, " To the tribe of Levi he gave no *°^. inheritance, the sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel are an x" inheritance of Levi ;" again, " The Tithes of the which Num. they shall offer, as an offering unto the Lord, I have given xvm,C}- the Levites for an inheritance ;" and again, " All the heave- ver.iy. offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel shall offer unto the Lord, I have given thee, and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee, to be a duty for ever ; it is a perpetual covenant of salt before the Lord." Now that, if such provision be possible to be made, the Christian Clergy ought not herein to be inferior unto the Jewish, what sounder proof than the Apostle's own kind of argument? " Do ye not know that they which minister about the holy i cor. things, eat of the things of the Temple ? and they which IX" * " wait at the altar, are partakers with the altar? (even so) hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel, should live of the Gospel." Upon which words I thus conclude, that if the people of God do abound, and abounding can so far forth find in their hearts to shew
VOL. II. 2 A
v. 17.
2 Cor. iii.7,8.
VideCC.
354 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
themselves towards Christ their Saviour thankful as to honour him with their riches (which no Law of God or Nature forbiddeth), no less than the ancient Jewish peo- ple did honour God ; the plain Ordinance of Christ ap- pointeth as large and as ample proportion out of his own treasure unto them that serve him in the Gospel, as ever the Priests of the Law did enjoy ? What further proof can we desire ? It is the blessed Apostle's testimony, That u even so the Lord hath ordained." Yea, I know not whether it be sound to interpret the Apostle otherwise than that, lTim. whereas he judgeth the Presbyters " which rule well in the Church of Christ to be worthy of double honour," he means double unto that which the Priests of the Law received ; " For if that Ministry which was of the Letter were so glo- rious, how shall not the Ministry of the Spirit be more glorious?" If the Teachers of the Law of Moses, which God delivered written with letters in tables of stone, were thought worthy of so great honour, how shall not the Teachers of the Gospel of Christ be in his sight most wor- thy, the Holy Ghost being sent from Heaven to engrave the Gospel on their hearts who first taught it, and whose successors they that teach it at this day are? So that, ac- cording to the Ordinance of God himself, their estate for worldly maintenance ought to be no worse that is granted unto other sorts of men, each according to that degree they were placed in. Neither are we so to judge of their worldly condition as if they were servants of men, and at men's hands did receive those earthly benefits by way of stipend in lieu of pains whereunto they are hired ; nay, that which is paid unto them is homage and tribute due unto the Lord Christ. His servants they are, and from him they receive such goods by way of stipend. Not so from men : for at the hands of men he himself being ho- noured with such things, hath appointed his servants therewith according to their several degrees and places to be maintained. And for their greater encouragement who are his labourers, he hath to their comfort assured them iTim. for ever, that they are, in his estimation, ie worthy the hire" which he alloweth them ; and therefore, if men should withdraw from him the store which those his servants that labour in his work are maintained with, yet he in his word shall be found everlastingly true, their labour in
US.
book vii. 355
the Lord shall not be forgotten ; the hire he accountcth them worthy of, they shall surely have either one way or other answered.
In the prime of the Christian world, that which was Acts brought and laid down at the Apostles' feet, they disposed "" of by distribution according to the exigence of each man's need. Neither can we think that they, who out of Christ's treasury made provision for all others, were careless to furnish the Clergy with all things fit and convenient for their estate : and as themselves were chiefest in place of authority and calling, so no man doubteth but that pro- portionally they had power to use the same for their own decent maintenance. The Apostles, with the rest of the Clergy in Jerusalem, lived at that time according to the manner of a Fellowship, or Collegiate Society, maintaining themselves and the poor of the Church with a common purse, the rest of the faithful keeping that purse conti- nually stored. And in that sense it is, that the Sacred His- tory saith, *« All which believed were in one place, and Ac£ had all things common." In the histories of the Church, and in the writings of the ancient Fathers for some hun- dreds of years after, we find no other way for the main- tenance of the Clergy but only this, the treasury of Jesus Christ furnished through men's devotion, bestowing some- times Goods, sometimes Lands that way, and out of his treasury the charge of the service of God was defrayed, the Bishop and the Clergy under him maintained, the poor in their necessity ministered unto. For which purpose, every r>isP. Bishop had some one of the Presbyters under him to be dervjPta Treasurer of the Church, to receive, keep, and deliver all ; contea.pi. which Office in Churches Cathedral remaineth even till this °- 1«-
CEcon.
day, albeit the use thereof be not altogether so large now 1. xiv. as heretofore. The disposition of these Goods was by the s;cdr" appointment of the Bishop. Wherefore Prosper, speak- J^- ingofthe Bishop's care herein, saith, "It was necessary 7. in for one to be troubled therewith, to the end that the rest Pn"c,p* under him might be freer to attend quietly their spiritual businesses." And lest any man should imagine, that Bi- shops by this means were hindered themselves from at- tending the service of God, " Even herein (saith he) they *er0^;a do God service ; for if those things which are bestowed on cnmempi. the Church be God's, he doth the work of God, who, not c'. 16. 2a2
35G ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
of a covetous mind, but with purpose of most faithful ad- ministration, taketh care of things consecrated unto God." And forasmuch as the Presbyters of every Church could not all live with the Bishop, partly for that their number was great, and partly because the people being once divid- ed into Parishes, such Presbyters as had severally charge of them were by that mean more conveniently to live in the midst each of bis own particular flock, therefore a competent number being fed at the same table with the Bishop, the rest had their whole allowance apart,* which several allowances were called sportulca, and they who received them, sportulantes fratres. Touching the Bishop, as his place and estate was higher, so likewise the propor- tion of his charges about himself being for that cause in all equity and reason greater ; yet, forasmuch as his stint herein was no other than it pleased himself to set, the rest (as the manner of inferiors is to think that they which are over them always have too much) grudged many times at the measure of the Bishop's private expence, perhaps not without cause. Howsoever, by this occasion there grew amongst them great heart-burning, quarrel, and strife : where the Bishops were found culpable, as eating too much beyond their tether, and drawing more to their own private maintenance than the proportion of Christ's patri- mony, being not greatly abundant, could bear, sundry Con- stitutions hereupon were made to moderate the same, ac- cording to the Church's condition in those times. Some before they were made Bishops, having been owners of ample possessions, sold them and gave them away to the poor: thus did Paulinus, Hilary, Cyprian, and sundry tem" i °^lers- Hereupon they, who, entering into the same spi- ). it. ritual and high function, held their secular possessions pont. still, were hardly thought of : and even when the case was invite' *"^y resolved, that so to do was not unlawful, yet it typr. grew a question, "Whether they lawfully might then
* ' Presbyterii honorem design asse nos illis jam sciatis, ut et sportulis eisdem cum Presbyteris honorentur et divisiones mensuratas aequatis quantitatibus par- tiantur, sessuri nobiscum provectis et corroboratis annis suis.' Cypr. lib. iv. ep. 5. [al. 39. c. 2] Which words of Cyprian do shew, that every Presbyter had his standing allowance out of the Church-treasury ; that besides the same allowance called sfiortula, some also had their portion in that dividend which was the re- mainder of every month's expence ; thirdly, that out of the Presbyters under him, the Bishop as then had a certain number of the gravest, who lived and commoned always with him.
Prosp. tie Vita
book vii. 357
take any thing out of the public treasury of Christ?" a question, " Whether Bishops, holding by Civil Title sufficient to live of their own, were bound in con- science to leave the Goods of the Church altogether to the use of others?" Of contentions about these matters there was no end, neither appeared there any possible way for quietness otherwise than by making partition of Church-revenues according to the several ends and uses for which they did serve, that so the Bishop's part might be certain. Such partition being made, the Bi- shop enjoyed his proportion several to himself; the rest of the Clergy likewise theirs ; a third part was severed to the furnishing and upholding of the Church ; a fourth to the erection and maintenance of houses wherein the poor might have relief. After which separation made, Lands and Livings began every day to be dedicated unto each use severally, by means whereof every of them became in short time much greater than they had been for worldly mainte- nance; the fervent devotion of men being glad that this new opportunity was given of shewing zeal to the House of God in more certain order.
By these things it plainly appeareth what proportion of maintenance hath been ever thought reasonable for a Bi- shop; sith in that very partition agreed on to bring him unto his certain stint, as much is allowed unto him alone as unto all the Clergy under him, namely, a fourth part of the whole yearly rents and revenues of the Church. Nor is it likely, that before those temporalities, which now are such eyesores, were added unto the Honour of Bishops, their state was so mean as some imagine. For, if we had no other evidence than the covetous and ambitious humour of Heretics, whose impotent desires of aspiring thereunto, and extreme discontentment as oft as they were defeated, even this doth shew that the state of Bishops was not a few degrees advanced above the rest. Wherefore, of grand Apostates which were in the very prime of the primitive Church, thus Lactantius above thirteen hundred years sithence testified, " Men of a slippery faith they were, who Lact.de feigning that they knew and worshipped God, but seeking Vei only that they might grow in wealth and honour, affected the place of the highest Priesthood; whereunto, when their betters were chosen before them, they thought it better to
lib. iv. c. 30.
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leave the Church, and to draw their favourers with them, than to endure those men their Governors, whom them- selves desired to govern." Now, whereas against the pre- sent estate of Bishops, and the greatness of their port, and the largeness of their expences at this day, there is not any thing more commonly objected than those ancient Canons, whereby they are restrained unto a far more sparing life ; their houses, their retinue, their diet, limited within a far more narrow compass than is now kept ; we must know, that those Laws and Orders were made when Bishops lived of the same purse which served as well for a number of others as them, and yet all at their disposing. So that convenient it was to provide that there might be a mode- rate stint appointed to measure their expences by, lest others should be urged by their wastefulness. Contrari- wise, there is now no cause wherefore any such Law should be urged, when Bishops live only of that which hath been peculiarly allotted unto them. They having, therefore, temporalities and other revenues to bestow for their own private use, according to that which their state requireth, and no other having with them any such com- mon interest therein, their own discretion is to be their Law for this matter ; neither are they to be pressed with the rigour of such ancient Canons as were framed for other times, much less so odiously to be upbraided with uncon- formity unto the pattern of our Lord and Saviour's estate, in such circumstances as himself did never mind to require that the rest of the world should of necessity be like him. Thus against the wealth of the Clergy they allege how meanly Christ himself was provided for ; against Bishops' Palaces, his want of a hole to hide his head in ; against the service done unto them, that " he came to minister, and not to be ministered unto in the world." Which things, as they are not unfit to control covetous, proud, or ambitious desires of the Ministers of Christ, and even of all Christians, whatsoever they be, and to teach men contentment of mind, how mean soever their estate is, considering that they are but servants to him, whose condition was far more abased than theirs is, or can be ; so to prove such difference in state between us and him unlawful, they are of no force or strength at all. If one convented before their Con- sistories, when he standcth to make his answer, should
book vii. 359
break out into invectives against their Authority, and tell them that Christ, when he was on earth, did not sit to judge, but stand to be judged ; would they hereupon think it requisite to dissolve their Eldership, and to permit no tribunals, no judges at all, for fear of swerving from our Saviour's example? If those men, who have nothing in their mouths more usual than the poverty of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, allege not this as Julian sometime did beati pauperes, unto Christians, when his meaning was to spoil them of that they had ; our hope is then, that as they seri- ously and sincerely wish, that our Saviour Christ in this point may be followed, and to that end only propose his blessed example ; so, at our hands again, they will be content to hear with like willingness the holy Apostle's exhortation made unto them of the Laity also, " Be ye fol- i cor. lowers of us, even as we are of Christ ; let us be your ex- "" ample, even as the Lord Jesus Christ is ours, that we may Phil. all proceed by one and the same rule."
24. But beware we of following Christ as thieves That for follow true men, to take their Goods by violence from worth?" them. Be it that Bishops were all unworthy, not only of ^"^ Livings, but even of life, yet what hath our Lord Jesus both them Christ deserved, for which men should judge him worthy succes-er to have things that are his given away from him unto H"u°l others that have no right unto them ? For at this mark it g°ods. is that the head Lay-reformers do all aim. Must these un- convey worthy Prelates give place? What then? Shall better **tos^ succeed in 'their rooms? Is this desired, to the end thatofsecu- others may enjoy their Honours which shall do Christ more inhere faithful service than they have done ? Bishops are the '2"™." worst men living upon earth ; therefore let their sanctified s»ou.s in- possessions be divided: amongst whom? O blessed Re- Jus formation ! O happy men, that put to their helping hands for the furtherance of so good and glorious a work ! Wherefore, albeit the whole world at this day do already perceive, and posterity be like hereafter a great deal more plainly to discern, not that the Clergy of God is thus heaved at because they are wicked, but that means are used to put it into the heads of the simple multitude that they are such indeed, to the end that those who thirst for the spoil of spiritual possessions may, till such time as they have their purpose^ %e thought to covet nothing but
360 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
only the just extinguishment of unreformable persons; so that in regard of such men's intentions, practices, and ma- chinations against them, the part that suffereth these things psai. may most fitly pray with David, "Judge thou me, O Lord, V11'8' according to my righteousness, and according unto mine innocency : O let the malice of the wicked come to an end, and be thou the guide of the just :" notwithstanding, foras- much as it doth not stand with Christian humility other- wise to think, than that this violent outrage of men is a rod in the ireful hands of the Lord our God, the smart whereof we deserve to feel ; let it not seem grievous in the eyes of my reverend Lords the Bishops, if to their good consideration I offer a view of those sores which are in the kind of their heavenly function most apt to breed, and which, being not in time cured, may procure at the length that which God of his infinite mercy avert. Of Bishops in his time St. Jerome complaineth, that they took it in great disdain to have any fault, great or small, found with Ep>ph. them. Epiphanius likewise, before Jerome, noteth their h^res! impatiency this way to have been the very cause of a banTo. scn*sra in the Church of Christ; at what time one Audius, c- i- a man of great integrity of life, full of faith and zeal towards God, beholding those things which were corruptly done in the Church, told the Bishops and Presbyters their faults in such sort as those men are wont who love the truth from their hearts, and walk in the paths of a most exact life. AVhether it were covetousness or sensuality in their lives, absurdity or error in their teaching, any breach of the Laws and Canons of the Church wherein he espied them faulty, certain and sure they were to be thereof most plainly told. Which thing they, whose dealings were justly culpable, could not bear; but, instead of amending their faults, bent their hatred against him who sought their amendment, till at length they drove him, by extremity of infestation, through weariness of striving against their in- juries, to leave both them, and with them the Church. Amongst the manifold accusations, either generally in- tended against the Bishops of this our Church, or laid particularly to the charge of any of them, I cannot find that hitherto their spitefullest adversaries have been able to say justly, that any man for telling them their personal faults in good and Christian sort hath sustained in that
BOOK vir. 361
respect much persecution. Wherefore, notwithstanding mine own inferior state and calling in God's Church, the consideration whereof assureth me, that in this kind the sweetest sacrifice which I can offer unto Christ is meek obedience, reverence, and awe, unto the Prelates which he hath placed in seats of higher Authority over me, embold- ened I am, so far as may conveniently stand with that duty of humble subjection, meekly to crave my good Lords your favourable pardon, if it shall seem a fault thus far to presume ; or, if otherwise, your wonted courteous ac- ceptation.
Sine me hrec baud mollia fata
Sublatis aperire dolis. iEneid. lib. xii. [25.]
(1.) In Government, be it of what kind soever, but espe- cially if it be of such kind of Government as Prelates have over the Chu rch, there is not one thing publickly more hurtful, than that a hard opinion should be conceived of Governors at the first : and a good opinion how should the world ever conceive of them for their after-proceeding in Regiment, whose first access and entrance thereunto giveth just oc- casion to think them corrupt men, which fear not that God in whose name they are to rule ? Wherefore a scandalous thing it is to the Church of God, and to the actors them- selves dangerous, to have aspired unto rooms of Prelacy by wicked means. We are not at this day troubled much with that tumultuous kind of ambition wherewith the elections of Damasus in St. Jerome's age, and of Maximus AmmUc. in Gregory's time, and of others, were long sithence stain- Ub. ^h. ed. Our greatest fear is rather the evil which Leo* and £d6eJ.n Anthemius did by Imperial Constitution endeavour as ™* Greg much as in them lay to prevent. He which granteth, or22a6PP'. he which receiveth, the Office and Dignity of a Bishop, \fjp otherwise than beseemeth a thing divine and most holy; he which bestoweth and he which obtaineth it, after any
» < JJo„, -, gradum Sacerdotii pretii venalitate mercetur ; quantum quisque mere- atu-, non quantum dare sufficiat, sestimetur. Profecto enim, quis locus tutus et PJffi causa esse poterit excusata, si veneranda Dei Templa pecunns expugnentur . Quem murum integritatis aut vallum providebimus, si aun sacra fames in pene- tralia veneranda proserpat? quid denique cautum esse poterit aut securum si sanctitas incormpta corrumpatur? Cesset altaribus imminere protanus arUor avariti*, et a sacris adytis repellatur piaculare flagitium. ltaque castus et humilis nostris temporibus eligatur Episcopus, ut quocunque locorum pervenml, omnia vite propria integrate puriricet. Nee pretio sed precibus ordinctur Antistes, Lib. xxxi. C. de Episc. et Cler.
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other sort than were honest and lawful to use, if our Lord Jesus Christ were present himself on earth to bestow it even with his own hands, sinneth a sin by so much more grievous than the sin of Belshazzar, by how much offices and functions heavenly are more precious than the mean- est ornaments or implements which thereunto appertain. If it be, as the Apostle saith, that the Holy Ghost doth make Bishops, and that the whole action of making them is God's own deed, men being therein but his agents, what spark of the fear of God can there possibly remain in their hearts, who, representing the person of God in naming worthy men to Ecclesiastical charge, do sell that which in his name they are to bestow ; or who, standing as it were at the throne of the living God, do bargain for that which at his hands they are to receive? Wo worth such impious and irreligious profanations ! The Church of Christ hath been hereby made, not " a den of thieves," but in a manner the very dwelling-place of foul spirits ; for undoubtedly such a number of them have been in all ages who thus have climbed into the seat of Episcopal Regiment.
(2.) Men may by orderly means be invested with Spiritual Authority and yet do harm, by reason of ignorance how to use it to the good of the Church. " It is (saith Chrysos- tom) 7roX\ov filv d^iwfiarot;, dvcrKoXov St iirioKOirtiv ; a thing highly to be accounted of, but a hard thing to be that which a Bishop should be." Yea, a hard and a toilsome thing it is for a Bishop to know the things that belong unto a Bishop. A right good man may be a very unfit Magis- trate. And for discharge of a Bishop's Office, to be well minded is not enough, no not to be well learned also. Skill to instruct is a thing necessary, skill to govern much more necessary, in a Bishop. It is not safe for the Church of Christ, when Bishops learn what belongeth unto Govern- ment, as empirics learn physic by killing of the sick. Bishops were wont to be men of great learning in the Laws, both Civil and of the Church ; and while they were so, the wisest men in the land for counsel and government were Bishops.
(3.) Know we never so well what belongeth unto a charge of so great moment, yet can we not therein proceed but with hazard of public detriment, if we rely on ourselves
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alone, and use not the benefit of conference with others. A singular mean to unity and concord amongst them- selves, a marvellous help unto uniformity in their dealings, no small addition of weight and credit unto that which they do, a strong bridle unto such as watch for occasions to stir against them ; finally, a very great stay unto all that are under their Government, it could not choose but be soon found, if Bishops did often and seriously use the help of mutual consultation. These three rehearsed are things only preparatory unto the course of Episcopal proceedings. But the hurt is more manifestly seen which doth grow to the Church of God by faults inherent in their several actions : as, when they carelessly ordain ; when they institute negli- gently ; when corruptly they bestow Church-livings, Bene- fices, Prebends, and Rooms especially of Jurisdictions ; when they visit for gain's sake, rather than with serious intent to do good ; when their Courts erected for the main- tenance of good order are disordered : when they regard not the Clergy under them ; when neither Clergy nor Laity are kept in that awe for which this Authority should serve ; when any thing appeareth in them rather than a fatherly affection towards the flock of Christ; when they have no respect to posterity; and finally, when they neglect the true and requisite means whereby their Authority should be upheld. Surely, the hurt which groweth out of these de- fects must needs be exceeding great. In a Minister igno- rance and disability to teach is a maim ; nor is it held a thing allowable to ordain such, were it not for the avoiding of a greater evil which the Church must needs sustain, if in so great scarcity of able men, and insufficiency of most Parishes throughout the land to maintain them, both Public Prayer and the administration of Sacraments should rather want, than any man thereunto be admitted lacking dexterity and skill to perform that which otherwise was most requisite. Wherefore the necessity of ordaining such is no excuse for the rash and careless ordaining of every one that hath but a friend to bestow some two or three words of ordinary commendation in his behalf. By reason whereof the Church groweth burdened with silly creatures more than need, whose noted baseness and in- sufficiency bring their very Order itself into contempt. It may be that the fear of a Qitare impedit doth cause
364 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Institutions to pass more easily than otherwise they would. And to speak plainly the very truth, it may be that Writs of Quare non impedit were for these times most necessary in the other's place : yet where Law will not suffer men to follow their own judgment, to shew their judgment they are not hindered. And I doubt not but that even conscience- less and wicked Patrons, of which sort the swarms are too great in the Church of England, are the more emboldened to present unto Bishops any refuse, by finding so easy acceptation thereof. Somewhat they might redress this sore, notwithstanding so strong impediments, if it did plainly appear that they took it indeed to heart, and were not in a manner contented with it.
Shall we look for care in admitting wrhom others present, if that which some of yourselves confer be at any time cor- ruptly bestowed ? A foul and an ugly kind of deformity it hath, if a man do but think what it is for a Bishop to drawr commodity and gain from those things whereof he is left a free bestower, and that in trust, without any other obliga- tion than his sacred Order only, and that religious inte- grity which hath been presumed on in him. Simoniacal corruption I may not for honour's sake suspect to be amongst men of so great place. So often they do not, I trust, offend by sale, as by unadvised gift of such Prefer- can. ments, wherein that ancient Canon should specially be 75POSt' remembered, which forbiddeth a Bishop to be led by human affection, in bestowing the things of God. A fault no where so hurtful, as in bestowing places of Jurisdiction, and in furnishing Cathedral Churches, the Prebendaries and other Dignities whereof are the very true successors of those ancient Presbyters which were at the first as Counsellors unto Bishops. A foul abuse it is, that any one man should be loaded as some are with Livings in this kind, yea, some even of them who condemn utterly the granting of any two Benefices unto the same man, whereas the other is in truth a matter of far greater se- quel, as experience would soon shew, if Churches Cathe- dral being furnished with residence of a competent num- ber of virtuous, grave, wise, and learned Divines, the rest of the Prebends of every such Church were given within the Diocess unto men of worthiest desert for their better encouragement unto industry and travel ; unless it seem
book vii. 365
also convenient to extend the benefit of them unto the learned in Universities, and men of special employment otherwise in the affairs of the Church of God. But how- soever, surely with the public good of the Church it will hardly stand, that in any one person such favours be more multiplied than Law permitteth in those Livings which are with Cure.
Touching Bishops' Visitations, the first institution of them was profitable, to the end that the state and condition of Churches being known, there might be for evils growing convenient remedies provided in due time. The observa- tion of Church-laws, the correction of faults in the service of God, and manners of men, these are things that Visitors should see. When these things are inquired of formally, and but for custom's sake, fees and pensions being the only thin g which is sought, and little else done by Visita- tions ; we are not to marvel, if the baseness of the end doth make the action itself loathsome. The good which Bishops may do not only by these Visitations belonging ordinarily to their Office, but also in respect of that Power which the Founders of Colleges have given them of spe- cial trust, charging even fearfully their consciences there- with— the good, I say, which they might do by this their Authority, both within their own Diocess, and in the well- springs themselves, the Universities, is plainly such as cannot choose but add weight to their heavy accounts in that dreadful day, if they do it not.
In their Courts, where nothing but singular integrity and justice should prevail, if palpable and gross corruptions be found, by reason of Offices so often granted unto men who seek nothing but their own gain, and make no account what disgrace doth grow by their unjust dealings unto them under whom they deal, the evil hereof shall work more than they which procure it do perhaps imagine.
At the hands of a Bishop, the first thing looked for is a care of the Clergy under him, a care, taht in doing good they may have whatsoever comforts and encouragements his countenance, authority, and place may yield. Other- wise what heart shall they have to proceed in their painful course, all sorts of men besides being so ready to malign, despise, and everyway oppress them? Let them find no- thing but disdain in Bishops; in the enemies of present
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Government, if that way they list to betake themselves, all kind of favourable and friendly help : unto which part think we it likely that men having wit, courage, and stomach, will incline ?
As great a fault is the want of severity when need re- quireth, as of kindness and courtesy, in Bishops. But touching this, what with ill usage of their Power among the meaner, and what with disusage amongst the higher sort, they are in the eyes of both sorts as bees having lost their sting. It is a long time sithence any great one hath felt, or almost any one much feared, the edge of that Ec- clesiastical severity, which sometime held Lords and Dukes in a more religious awe than now the meanest are able to be kept.
A Bishop, in whom there did plainly appear the marks and tokens of a fatherly affection towards them that arc under his charge, what good might he do ten thousand ways more than any man knows how to set down ? But the souls of men are not loved ; that which Christ shed his blood for is not esteemed precious. This is the very root, the fountain of all negligence in Church-government.
Most wretched are the terms of men's estate when once they are at a point of wretchlessness so extreme, that they bend not their wits any further than only to shift out the present time, never regarding what shall become of their successors after them. Had our predecessors so loosely cast off from them all care and respect to posterity, a Church Christian there had not been, about the Regiment whereof we should need at this day to strive. It was the barbarous affection of Nero, that the ruin of his own Im- perial seat he could have been well enough contented to see, in case he might also have seen it accompanied with the fall of the whole world : an affection not more intoler- able than theirs, who care not to overthrow all posterity, so they may purchase a few days of ignominious safety unto themselves and their present estates ; if it may be termed a safety which tendeth so fast unto their overthrow that are the purchasers of it in so vile and base manner.
Men whom it standeth upon to uphold a reverend esti- mation of themselves in the minds of others, without which the very best things they do are hardly able to escape dis- grace, must, before it be over-late, remember how much
book vir.
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easier it is to retain credit once gotten, than to recover it being- lost. The executors of Bishops are sued, if their Mansion-house be suffered to go to decay : but whom shall their successors sue for the dilapidations which they make of that credit, the unrepaired diminutions whereof will in time bring to pass, that they which would most do good in that calling shall not be able, by reason of prejudice gene- rally settled in the minds of all sorts against them? By what means their estimation hath hitherto decayed, it is no hard thing to discern. Herod and Archelaus are noted to Egfcip. have sought out purposely the dullest and most ignoble that c. 12. could be found amongst the people, preferring such to the High-priest's Office, thereby to abate the great opinion which the multitude had of that Order, and to procure a more expedite course for their own wicked counsels, whereunto they saw the High-priests were no small impe- diment, as long as the common sort did much depend upon them. It may be there hath been partly some show and just suspicion of like practice in some, in procuring the un- deserved Preferments of some unworthy persons, the very cause of whose advancement hath been principally their unworthiness to be advanced. But neither could this be done altogether without the inexcusable fault of some pre- ferred before, and so oft we cannot imagine it to have been done, that either only or chiefly from thence this decay of their estimation may be thought to grow. Somewhat it is that the malice of their cunning adversaries, but much more which themselves have effected against themselves. A Bishop's estimation doth grow from the excellency of vir- tues suitable unto his place. Unto the place of a Bishop those high divine virtues are judged suitable, which vir- tues being not easily found in other sorts of great men, do make him appear so much the greater in whom they are found.
Devotion, and the feeling sense of Religion, are not usual in the noblest, wisest, and chiefest personages of State, by reason their wits are so much employed another way, and their minds so seldom conversant in heavenly things. If therefore wherein themselves are defective they see that Bishops do blessedly excel, it frameth secretly their hearts to a stooping kind of disposition, clean opposite to con- tempt. The very countenance of Moses was glorious after
3G8 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
that God had conferred with him : and where Bishops are, the powers and faculties of whose souls God hath pos- sessed, those very actions, the kind whereof is common unto them with other men, have notwithstanding in them a more high and heavenly form, which draweth correspond- ent estimation unto it, by virtue of that celestial impression which deep meditation of holy things, and, as it were, con- versation with God, doth leave in their minds. So that Bishops, which will be esteemed of as they ought, must frame themselves to that very pattern from whence those Asian Bishops unto whom St. John writeth were denominated, even so far forth as this our frailty will permit ; shine they must as Angels of God in the midst of perverse men. They are not to look that the world should always carry the affection of Constantine, to bury that which might derogate from them, and to cover their imbecilities. More than high time it is, that they bethink themselves of the Apostle's admonition, Attende tibi, ' Have a vigilant eye to thyself.' They err, if they do not persuade themselves, that whereso- ever they walk or sit, be it in their Churches or in their Consistories, abroad or at home, at their tables or in their closets, they are in the midst of snares laid for them. Wherefore as they are with the Prophet every one of them to make it their hourly prayer unto God, " Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness, because of enemies ;" so it is not safe for them, no not for a moment, to slacken their industry in seeking every way that estimation which may further their labours unto the Church's good. Absurdity, though but in words, must needs be this way a maim, where nothing but wisdom, gravity, and judgment are looked for. That which the son of Sirach hath concerning the writings of the old Sages, " Wise sentences are found in them," should be the proper mark and character of Bishops' speeches, whose lips, as doors, are not to be opened, but for egress of instruction and sound knowledge. If base servility and dejection of mind be ever espied in them, how should men esteem them as worthy the Booms of the great Ambassadors of God ? A wretched desire to gain by bad and unseemly means standeth not with a mean man's credit, much less with that reputation which Fathers of the Church should be in. But, if besides all this there be also coldness in works of piety and charity, utter contempt even of learning
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itself, no care to further it by any such helps as they easily might and ought to afford, no not as much as that due re- spect unto their very families about them, which all men that are of account do order, as near as they can, in such sort that no grievous offensive deformity be therein noted ; if there still continue in that most reverend Order such as by so many engines work day and night to pull down the whole frame of their own estimation amongst men, some of the rest secretly also permitting others their industrious opposites every day more to seduce the multitude, how should the Church of God hope for great good at their hands ?
What we have spoken concerning these things, let not malicious accusers think themselves therewith justified, no more than Shimei was by his Sovereign's most humble and meek acknowledgment even of that very crime which so infamous a caitiff's tongue upbraided him withal ; the one in the virulent rancour of a cankered affection took that delight for the present which in the end did turn to his own more tormenting wo, the other in the contrite patience even of deserved malediction had yet this com- fort, " It may be the Lord wiil look on mine affliction, and 2Sam-
xvi. 12,
do me good for his cursing this day." As for us, over whom Christ hath placed them to be the chiefest Guides and Pastors of our souls, our common fault is, that we look for much more in our Governors than a tolerable suf- ficiency can yield, and bear much less than humanity and reason do require we should. Too much perfection over rigorously exacted in them, cannot but breed in us per- petual discontentment, and on both parts cause all things to be unpleasant. It is exceedingly worth the noting, which Plato hath about the means whereby men fall in- to an utter dislike of all men with whom they converse : " This sourness of mind which maketh every man's deal- Piat.in ings unsavoury in our taste, entereth by an unskilful over- f^i weening, which at the first we have of one, and so of an- Pj"03- other, in whom we afterwards find ourselves to have been Bipont.] deceived, they declaring themselves in the end to be frail men, whom we judged demigods : when we have oftentimes been thus beguiled, and that far besides expectation, we grow at the length to this plain conclusion, that there is nothing at all sound in any man. Which bitter conceit is vol. n. 2 b
370 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
unseemly, and plain to have risen from lack of mature judgment in human affairs : which if so be we did handle with art, we would not enter into dealings with men, other- wise than being beforehand grounded in this persuasion, that the number of persons notably good or bad is but very small ; that the most part of good have some evil, and of evil men some good in them." So true our experience doth M.Tris. find those Aphorisms of Mercurius Trismegistus, 'ASuvarov mandro, to ayaSbv IvSddt KaSapzvav Trig mictag, To purge goodness [j'sj '" quite and clean from all mixture of evil here is a thing im- PWdJ possible.' — Again, To jurj \tav kokov IvSaSe to ayaSov ian, ' When in this world we term a thing good, we cannot by exact construction have any other true meaning, than that the said thing so termed is not noted to be a thing exceed- [ibid.] ing evil/ — And again, Movov, t5 'AcncX/jirtE, to ovojim row ayaSov Iv avSpwiroig, to Si tpyov ovSajuoy, 'Amongst men, O Asclepius, the name of that which is good we find, but no where the very true thing itself.' — When we censure the deeds and dealings of our superiors, to bring with us a fore- conceit thus qualified shall be as well on our part as theirs a thing available unto quietness. But howsoever the case doth stand with men's either good or bad quality, the ver- dict which our Lord and Saviour hath given should con- tinue for ever sure. " Quae Dei sunt, Deo," Let men bear the burden of their own iniquity ; as for tjiose things which are God's, let not God be deprived of them. For, if only Mai. to withhold that which should be given be no better than '"'8' to rob God, if to withdraw any mite of that which is but in purpose only bequeathed, though as yet undelivered into Acls the sacred treasure of God, be a sin for which Ananias and Sapphira felt so heavily the dreadful hand of divine re- venge ; quite and clean to take that away which we never gave, and that after God hath for so many ages therewith been possessed, and that without any other show of cause, saving only that it seemeth in their eyes who seek it too much for them which have it in their hands, can we term it or think it less than most impious injustice, most heinous cen. sacrilege? Such was the religious affection of Joseph, that 22!"' it suffered him not to take that advantage, no not against the very idolatrous Priests of Egypt, which he took for the purchasing of other men's lands to the King ; but he con- sidered, that albeit their Idolatry deserved hatred, yet for
BOOK VII. 371
the honour's sake due unto Priesthood, better it was the King himself should yield them relief in public extremity, than permit that the same necessity should constrain also them to do as the rest of the people did. But it may be, men have now found out, that God hath proposed the Christian Clergy as a prey for all men freely to seize upon; that God hath left them as the fishes of the sea, which every man that listeth to gather into his net may ; or that there is no God in Heaven to pity them, and to regard the injuries which man doth lay upon them : yet the public good of this Church and Commonwealth doth, I hope, weigh somewhat in the hearts of all honestly-disposed men. Unto the public good no one thing is more directly avail- able, than that such as are in place, whether it be of Civil or of Ecclesiastical Authority, be so much the more largely furnished even with external helps and ornaments of this life, how much the more highly they are in power and call- ing advanced above others. For Nature is not contented with bare sufficiency unto the sustenance of man, but doth evermore covet a decency proportionable unto the place which man hath in the body or society of others. For ac- cording unto the greatness of men's calling, the measure of all their actions doth grow in every man's secret expecta- tion, so that great men do always know that great things are at their hands expected. In a Bishop great liberality, great hospitality, actions in every kind great, are looked for: and for actions which must be great, mean instruments will not serve. Men are but men, what room soever amongst men they hold. If, therefore, the measure of their worldly abilities be beneath that proportion which their calling doth make to be looked for at their hands, a stronger inducement it is than perhaps men are aware of unto evil and corrupt dealings for supply of that defect. For which cause we must needs think it a thing necessary unto the common good of the Church, that, great jurisdiction being granted unto Bishops over others, a state of wealth proportionable should likewise be provided for them. Where wealth is had in so great admiration, as generally in this golden age it is, that without it angelical perfections are not able to deliver from extreme contempt, surely to make Bishops poorer than they are, were to make them of less account and estimation than they should be. Where- 2b2
Numb, xviii. 32
Lev. xxv. 34.
372 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
fore, if detriment and dishonour do grow to Religion, to God, to his Church, when the public account which is made ofthe chief of the Clergy decayeth, how should it be, but in this respect, for the good of Religion, of God, of his Church, that the wealth of Bishops be carefully preserved from further diminution ? The travels and crosses where- with Prelacy is never unaccompanied, they which feel them know how heavy and how great they are. Unless such difficulties, therefore, annexed unto that estate be tempered by co-annexing thereunto things esteemed of in this world, how should we hope that the minds of men, shunning naturally the burdens of each function, will be drawn to undertake the burden of Episcopal care and la- bour in the Church of Christ? Wherefore, if long we desire to enjoy the peace, quietness, order, and stability of Re- ligion, which Prelacy (as hath been declared) causeth, then must we necessarily, even in favour of the public good, uphold those things, the hope whereof being taken away, it is not the mere goodness of the charge, and the divine acceptation thereof, that will be able to invite many there- unto. What shall become of that Commonwealth or Church in the end, which hath not the eye of learning to beautify, guide, and direct it? At the length, what shall become of that learning, which hath not wherewith any more to encourage her industrious followers? And finally, what shall become of that courage to follow learning, which hath already so much failed through the only diminution of her chiefest rewards, Bishopricks ? Surely, wheresoever this wicked intendment of overthrowing Cathedral Churches, or of taking away those Livings, Lands, and Possessions, which Bishops hitherto have enjoyed, shall once prevail, the handmaids attending thereupon will be Paganism and ex- treme Barbarity. In the Law of Moses how careful provision is made that goods of this kind might remain to the Church for ever : " Ye shall not make common the holy things of the children of Israel, lest ye die, saith the Lord." Touch- ing the fields annexed unto Levitical cities, the Law was plain, they might not be sold ; and the reason of the Law this, " for it was their possession for ever." He which was Lord and owner of it, his will and pleasure was, that from the Levites it should never pass to be enjoyed by any other. The Lord's own portion, without his own commis-
BOOK VII.
373
sion and grant, how should any man justly hold? They which hold it by his appointment had it plainly with this condition, " They shall not sell of it, neither change it, nor a*, alienate the first-fruits of the land; for it is holy unto the u. ' Lord." It falleth sometimes out, as the Prophet Habakkuk noteth, that the very " prey of savage beasts becometh Habak. dreadful unto themselves." It did so in Judas, Achan, Nebuchadnezzar; their evil-purchased goods were their snare, and their prey their own terror; a thing no where so likely to follow, as in those goods and possessions, which being laid where they should not rest, have by the Lord's own testimony his most bitter curse, their undividable com- Mai. panion. These persuasions we use for other men's cause, '" 9* not for theirs with whom God and Religion are parts of the abrogated Law of Ceremonies. Wherefore, not to continue longer in the cure of a sore desperate, there was a time when the Clergy had almost as little as these good people wish. But the Kings of this Realm and others, whom God had blessed, considered devoutly with themselves, as David in like case sometime had done, " Is it meet that we at the hands of God should enjoy all kinds of abundance, and God's Clergy suffer want?" They considered that of Solomon, " Honour God with thy substance, and the chiefest of all r.rov- thy revenue ; so shall thy barns be filled with corn, and thy vessels shall run over with new wine." They considered how the care which Jehosaphat had, in providing that the 2Chn>t Levites might have encouragement to do the work of the XIX' Lord cheerfully, was left of God as a fit pattern to be fol- lowed in the Church for ever. They considered what pro- mise our Lord and Saviour had made unto them, at whose hands his Prophets should receive but the least part of the meanest kind of friendliness, though it were but a draught of water; which promise seemeth not to be taken, as if Christ had made them of any higher courtesy incapable, and had promised reward unto such as give them but that, but unto such as leave them but that. They considered how earnest the Apostle is, that if the Ministers of the Law were so amply provided for, less ire then ought not to be had of them, who under the Gos- * of Jesus Christ possessed correspondent Rooms in the rch. They considered how needful it is, that they who PT^ke all others unto works of mercy and charity should
374 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
especially have wherewith to be examples of such things, and by such means to win them, with whom other means, without those, do commonly take very small effect.
In these and the like considerations, the Church-reve- nues were in ancient times augmented, our Lord thereby performing manifestly the promise made to his servants, that they which did " leave either father, or mother, or lands, or goods, for his sake, should receive even in this world a hundred fold." For some hundreds of years to- gether, they which joined themselves to the Church were fain to relinquish all worldly emoluments and to endure the hardness of an afflicted estate. Afterward the Lord gave rest to his Church, Kings and Princes became as Fathers thereunto, the hearts of all men inclined towards it, and by his providence there grew unto it every day earthly possessions in more and more abundance, till the great- ness thereof bred envy, which no diminutions are able to satisfy. For, as those ancient nursing Fathers thought they did never bestow enough ; even so in the eye of this present age, as long as any thing remaineth, it seemeth to be too much. Our Fathers we imitate in perversum, as Tertullian speaketh ; like them we are, by being, in equal degree, the contrary unto that which they were. Unto those earthly blessings which God as then did with so great abundance pour down upon the Ecclesiastical state, we may, in regard of most near resemblance, apply the self- psai. cv. same words which the Prophet hath, " God blessed them exceedingly ; and, by this very mean, turned the hearts of their own brethren to hate them, and to deal politicly with his servants." Computations are made, and there are huge sums set down for Princes, to see how much they may am- plify and enlarge their own treasure; how many public burdens they may ease ; what present means they have to reward their servants about them, if they please but to grant their assent, and to accept of the spoil of Bishops, by whom Church-goods are but abused unto pomp and vanity. Thus albeit they deal with one whose princely virtue giveth them small hope to prevail in impious and sacrilegious motions; yet shame they not to move he Royal Majesty even with a suit not much unlike unto th' wherewith the Jewish High-priest tried Judas, whom tl solicited unto treason against his Master, and propr^
C4, C5.
book vii. 375
unto him a number of silver pence in lieu of so virtuous and honest a service. But her sacred Majesty disposed to be always like herself, her heart so far estranged from willingness to gain by pillage of that estate, the only awe Avhereof under God she huth been unto this present hour, as of all other parts of this noble Commonwealth, whereof she hath vowed herself a protector till the end of her days on earth, which if Nature could permit, we wish, as good cause we have, endless : this her gracious inclination is more than a seven-times-sealed warrant, upon the same assurance whereof touching time and action, so dishonour- able as this, we are on her part most secure, not doubting but that unto all posterity it shall for ever appear, that from the first to the very last of her sovereign proceedings there hath not been one authorized deed other than conso- nant with that Symmachus saith, « Fiscus bonorum Prin- Lib. *. cipura, non Sacerdotum damnis, sed hostium spoliis auge- ddd." atur:" consonant with the Imperial Law, " Ea quae ad ^^ beatissiniae Ecclesiae jura pertinent, tanquam ipsam sacro- «* Arcad. sanctam et religiosam Ecclesiam, intacta convenit venera- C.X" biliter custodiri ; ut sicut ipsa Religionis et Fidei Mater |accc™ss; perpetua est, ita ejus patrimonium jugiter servetur illae- sum." As for the case of public burdens, let any Poli- tician living make it appear, that by confiscation of Bi- shops' Livings, and their utter dissolution at once, the Commonwealth shall ever have half that relief and ease which it receiveth by their continuance as now they are, and it shall give us some cause to think, that albeit we see they are impiously and irreligiously minded, yet we may esteem them at least to be tolerable Common weal th's-men. But the case is too clear and manifest, the world doth but too plainly see it, that no one Order of subjects whatso- ever within this Land doth bear the seventh part of that proportion which the Clergy beareth in the burdens of the Commonwealth: no revenue of the Crown like unto it, either for certainty or for greatness. Let the good which this way hath grown to the Commonwealth by the dissolu- tion of religious Houses, teach men what ease unto pub- lic burdens there is like to grow by the overthrow of the Clergy. My meaning is not hereby to make the state of Bishopricks and of those dissolved companies alike, the one no less unlawful to be removed than the other. For those religious persons were men which followed only a special
376 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
kind of contemplative life in the Commonwealth, they were properly no portion of God's Clergy (only such amongst them excepted as were also Priests), their goods (that excepted which they unjustly held through the Pope's usurped power of appropriating Ecclesiastical Livings unto them) may in part seem to be of the nature of Civil possessions, held by other kinds of Corporations, such as the city of London hath divers. Wherefore, as their insti- tution was human, and their end for the most part super- stitious, they had not therein merely that holy and divine interest which belongeth unto Bishops, who being employ- ed by Christ in the principal service of his Church, are receivers and disposers of his patrimony, as hath been shewed, which whosoever shall withhold or withdraw at any time from them, he undoubtedly robbeth God himself. If they abuse the goods of the Church unto pomp and vanity, such faults we do not excuse in them. Only we wish it to be considered whether such faults be verily in them, or else but objected against them by such as gape after spoil, and therefore are no competent judges what is moderate and what excessive in them, whom under this pretence they would spoil. But the accusation may be just. In plenty and fulness it may be we are of God more forgetful than were requisite. Notwithstanding men should remember how not to the Clergy alone it was said by Moses in Deuteronomy, " Ne cum manducaveris, et bibe- ris, et domos optimas aedificaveris." If the remedy pre- scribed for this disease be good, let it impartially be ap- plied. " Interest Reipnb. ut re sua quisque beneutatur." Let all states be put to their moderate pensions, let their Livings and Lands be taken away from them whomsoever they be, in whom such ample possessions are found to have been matters of grievous abuse : were this just? would noble families think this reasonable ? The title which Bi- shops have to their Livings is as good as the title of any sort of men unto whatsoever we account to be most justly held by them ; yea, in this one thing the claim of Bishops hath pre-eminence above all secular titles of right, in that God's own interest is the tenure whereby they hold, even as also it was to the Priests of the Law an assurance of their spiritual goods and possessions, whereupon though they many times abused greatly the goods of the Church, yet was not God's patrimony therefore taken away from them,
book vii. 377
and made saleable unto other tribes. To rob God, to ran- sack the Church, to overthrow the whole Order of Christian Bishops, and to turn them out of land and living, out of house and home, what man of common honesty can think it for any manner of abuse to be a remedy lawful or just? We must confess that God is righteous in taking away that which men abuse : but doth that excuse the violence of thieves and robbers ? Complain we will not with St. Je- rome, *" That the hands of men are so straitly tied, and their liberal minds so much bridled and held back from doing good by augmentation of the Church-patrimony." For we confess that herein mediocrity may be and hath been sometime exceeded. There did want heretofore a Moses to temper men's liberality, to say unto them who enriched the Church, Sufficit, Stay your hands, lest fervour of zeal do cause you to empty yourselves too far. It may be the largeness of men's hearts being then more moderate, had been after more durable ; and one state by too much overgrowing the rest, had not given occasion unto the rest to undermine it. That evil is now sufficiently cured : the Church-treasury, if then it were over full, hath since been reasonably well emptied. That which Moses spake unto givers, we must now inculcate unto takers away from the Church, Let there be some stay, some stint in spoiling. If " grape-gatherers came unto them (saith the Prophet), 0baJ; would they not leave some remnant behind V But it hath 'e' fared with the wealth of the Church as with a tower, which being built at the first with the highest, overthroweth itself after by its own greatness ; neither doth the ruin thereof cease with the only fall of that which hath exceeded me- diocrity, but one part beareth down another, till the whole be laid prostrate. For although the State Ecclesiastical, both others and even Bishops themselves, be now fallen to so low an ebb, as all the world at this day doth see ; yet, because there remaineth still somewhat which insatiable minds can thirst for, therefore we seem not to have been hi- therto sufficiently wronged. Touching that which hath been taken from the Church in appropriations known to amount to the value of one hundred twenty-six thousand pounds yearly, we rest contentedly and quietly without it, till it
* ' Pudet dicere, Sacerdotes idolorum, aurigae, mimi et scorta haereditates capiunt, solis Clericis et Monachis id lege prohibetur, et prohibetur non a perse- cutoribus sed Principibus Christianis. Nee de lege conqueror, bed doleo rjuod meruerimus hanc Legem.' Ad Nepot. 2. [al. ep. 31. $. 6.]
Flor. lib. ii c. 13.
37 8 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
shall please God to touch the hearts of men, of their own voluntary accord, to restore it to him again; judging thereof no otherwise than some others did of those goods which were by Sylla taken away from the citizens of Rome, that albeit they were in truth male capta, unconscionably taken away from the right owners at the first, nevertheless, seeing that such as were after possessed of them held them not without some title, which Law did after a sort make good, " repetitio eorutn proculdubio labefactabat compo- sitam Civitatem." What hath been taken away as dedi- cated unto uses superstitious, and consequently not given unto God, or at the leastwise not so rightly given, we re- pine not thereat. That which hath gone by means secret and indirect, through corrupt compositions or compacts, we cannot help. What the hardness of men's hearts doth make them loth to have exacted, though being due by Law, even thereof the want we do also bear. Out of that which after all these deductions cometh clearly unto our hands, I hope it will not be said that towards the public charge we disburse nothing. And doth the residue seem yet excessive ? The ways whereby temporal men provide for themselves and their families are fore-closed unto us. All that we have to sustain our miserable life with, is but a remnant of God's own treasure, so far already diminished and clipped, that if there were any sense of common hu- manity left in this hard-hearted world, the impoverished state of the Clergy of God would at the length even of very commiseration be spared. The mean gentleman that hath but a hundred pound land to live on, would not be hasty to change his worldly estate and condition with many of these so over-abounding Prelates; a common artisan or tradesman of the city, with ordinary Pastors of the Church. It is our hard and heavy lot, that no other sort of men being grudged at, how little benefit soever the public-weal reap by them, no state complained of for hold- ing that which hath grown unto them by lawful means ; only the governors of our souls, they that study night and day so to guide us, that both in this world we may have comfort, and in the world to come endless felicity and joy (for even such is the very scope of all their endeavours ; this they wish, for this they labour, how hardly soever we use to construe of their intents): hard, that only they should be thus continually lifted at for possessing but
book vii. 379
that whereunto they have, by Law both of God and Man, most just title. If there should be no other remedy, but that the violence of men in the end must needs bereave them of all succour, further than the inclinations of others shall vouchsafe to cast upon them, as it were by way of alms, for their relief but from hour to hour; better they are not than their fathers, who have been contented with as hard a portion at the world's hands : let the light of the sun and moon, the common benefit of heaven and earth, be taken away from Bishops, if the question were, whether God should lose his glory, and the safety of his Church be ha- zarded, or they relinquish the right and interest which they have in the things of this world. But sith the question in truth is, whether Levi shall be deprived of the portion of God or no, to the end that Simeon or Reuben may de- vour it as their spoil, the comfort of the one, in sustaining the injuries which the other would offer, must be that Prayer poured out by Moses, the Prince of Prophets, in most tender affection to Levi, " Bless, O Lord, his sub- ^'^ stance, accept thou the work of his hands ; smite through n- the loins of them that rise up against him, and of them which hate him, that they rise no more."
BOOK VIII.
Containing their seventh Assertion, That to no Civil Prince or Governor there may be given such Power of Ecclesiastical Dominion, as by the Laws of this Land belongeth unto the supreme Regent thereof.
We come now to the last thing whereof there is controversy moved, namely, The Power of supreme Jurisdiction; which for distinction's sake we call, The Power of Ecclesiastical Dominion. It was not thought fit in the Jews' Common- wealth, that the exercise of Supremacy Ecclesiastical should be denied unto him, to whom the exercise of Chiefty Civil did appertain ; and therefore their Kings were in- vested with both. This Power they gave unto Simon, when ^Ia4cc they consented that he should be their Prince, not only to set men over their works, and country, and weapons, but also to provide for the holy things ; and that he should be obeyed of every man, and that the writings of the country
380 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
lawful for any of the people or Priests to withstand his words, or to call any congregation in the country without him. And if haply it be surmised, that thus much was given to Simon, as being both Prince and High-priest, which otherwise (being their Civil Governor) he could not lawfully have enjoyed ; we must note, that all this is no more than the ancient Kings of that people had, being Kings and not Priests. By this power David, Asa, Jeho- shaphat, Josias, and the rest, made those Laws and Orders which Sacred History speaketh of, concerning matters of mere Religion, the affairs of the Temple, and service of God. Finally, had it not been by the virtue of this Power, how should it possibly have come to pass, that the piety or impiety of the Kings did always accordingly change the public face of Religion, which things the Prophets by themselves never did, nor at any time could, hinder from being done 1 Had the Priests alone been possessed of all Power in Spiritual affairs, how should any thing concern- ing matter of Religion have been made but only by them ? In them it had been, and not in the King, to change the face of Religion at any time; the altering of Religion, the making of Ecclesiastical Laws, with other the like actions belonging unto the Power of Dominion, are still termed The deeds of the King ; to shew, that in him was placed the Supremacy of Power in this kind over all, and that unto their Priests the same was never committed, saving only at such times as the Priests were also Kings and Princes over them. According to the pattern of which example the like Power in causes Ecclesiastical is by the Laws of this Realm annexed unto the Crown : and there are which do imagine, that Kings, being mere Lay-persons, do by this means exceed the lawful bounds of their call- ings ; which thing to the end that they may persuade, they first make a necessary separation perpetual and personal between the Church and the Commonwealth. Secondly, they so tie all kind of Power Ecclesiastical unto the Church, as if it were in every degree their only right who are by proper spiritual functions termed Church-governors, and might not unto Christian Princes in any wise apper- tain. To lurk under shifting ambiguities and equivoca- tions of words in matter of principal weight, is childish. A Church and a Commonwealth we grant are things in
BOOK VIII. 381
nature one distinguished from the other. A Common- wealth is one way, and a Church another way, denned. In their opinions the Church and Commonwealth are Corporations, not distinguished only in nature and defi- nition, but in substance perpetually severed ; so that they which are of the one can neither appoint nor execute in whole nor in part the duties which belong to them which are of the other, without open breach of the Law of God, which hath divided them, and doth require that so being divided they should distinctly or severally work, as de- pending both upon God, and not hanging one upon the other's approbation for that which either hath to do. We say that the care of Religion being common to all Societies politic, such Societies as do embrace the true Religion have the name of the Church given unto every one of them for distinction from the rest; so that every Body politic hath some Religion, but the Church that Re- ligion which is only true. Truth of Religion is the pro- per difference whereby a Church is distinguished from other politic Societies of men ; we here mean true Re- ligion in gross, and not according to every particular. For they which in some particular points of Religion do sever from the truth, may nevertheless truly (if we com- pare them to men of a Heathenish Religion) be said to hold and profess that Religion which is true. For which cause, there being of old so many politic Societies established through the world, only the Commonwealth of Israel which had the truth of Religion was in that respect the Church of God : and the Church of Jesus Christ is every such politic Society of men as doth in Religion hold that truth which is proper to Christianity. As a politic Society it doth maintain Religion, as a Church that Religion which God hath revealed by Jesus Christ. With us therefore the name of a Church importeth only a Society of men, first united into some public Form of Regiment, and se- condly, distinguished from other Societies by the exercise of Religion. With them on the other side the name of the Church in this present question importeth not only a multitude of men so united and so distinguished, but also further the same divided necessarily and perpetually from the body of the Commonwealth ; so that even in such a politic Society as consisteth of none but Christians, yet the
382 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Church and Commonwealth are two Corporations inde- pendently subsisting by themselves.
We hold, that seeing there is not any man of the Church of England but the same man is also a member of the Commonwealth, nor any memher of the Commonwealth which is not also of the Church of England, therefore as in a figure triangle the base doth differ from the sides thereof, and yet one and the self-same line is both a base and also a side ; a side simply, a base if it chance to be the bottom and underlie the rest : so, albeit properties and actions of one do cause the name of a Commonwealth, qualities and functions of another sort the name of the Church, to be given to a multitude, ye tone and the self-same multitude may in such sort be both. Nay, it is so with us, that no person appertaining to the one can be denied also to be of the other : contrariwise, unless they against us should hold, that the Church and the Commonwealth are two, both distinct and separate societies ; of which two one comprehendeth always persons not belonging to the other (that which they do), they could not conclude out of the difference between the Church and the Commonwealth, namely, that the Bishops may not meddle with the affairs of the Commonwealth, because they are Governors of another Corporation, which is the Church ; nor Kings, with making Laws for the Church, because they have Government, not of this Corporation, but of another di- vided from it, the Commonwealth; and the walls of sepa- ration between these two must for ever be upheld : they hold the necessity of personal separation, which clean excludeth the power of one man's dealing with both; we of natural, but that one and the same person may in both bear principal sway.
The causes of common-received errors in this point seem to have been especially two : one, that they who embrace true Religion living in such Commonwealths as are oppo- site thereunto, and in other public affairs, retaining Civil communion with such, are constrained, for the exercise of their Religion, to have a several communion with those who are of the same Religion with them. This was the state of the Jewish Church both in Egypt and Babylon, the state of Christian Churches a long time after Christ. And in this case, because the proper affairs and actions of
HOOK VI II.
383
the Church, as it is the Church, hath no dependance on the Laws, or upon the Government of the Civil State, an opi- nion hath thereby grown, that even so it should be always. This was it which deceived Allen in the writing of his Apology : " The Apostles (saith he) did govern the Church in Rome, when Nero bare rule, even at this day in all the Church's dominions. The Church hath a spiritual Regi- ment without dependence, and so ought she to have amongst Heathens, or with Christians." Another occasion of which misconceit is, that things appertaining to Religion are both distinguished from other atfairs, and have always had in the Church spiritual persons chosen to be exercised about them. By which distinction of spiritual affairs, and persons therein employed, from temporal, the error of per- sonal separation always necessary between the Church and Commonwealth hath strengthened itself. For of every politic Society that being true which Aristotle saith, namely, " That the scope thereof is not simply to live, nor the duty JJ* so much to provide for the life, as for the means of living lib.'iii. well:" and that even as the soul is the worthier part ofcap'6, man, so human Societies are much more to care for that which tendeth properly to the soul's estate, than for such temporal things which the life hath need of; other proof there needeth none to shew that as by all men the Kingdom of God is to be sought first, so in all Commonwealths things spiritual ought above temporal to be sought for; and of things spiritual, the chiefest is Religion. For this cause, persons and things employed peculiarly about the affairs of Religion, are by an excellency termed Spiritual. The Heathens themselves had their Spiritual laws, and causes, and affairs, always severed from their temporal ; neither Arist. did this make two independent estates among them. God ul.'vi. by revealing true Religion doth make them that receive it ™?;7- his Church. Unto the Jews he so revealed the truth of'>t>. i. Religion, that he gave them in special considerations Laws, not only for the administration of things spiritual, but also temporal. The Lord himself appointing both the one and the other in that Commonwealth, did not thereby distract it into several independent communities, but institute se- veral functions of one and the self-same community. Some reasons therefore must there be alleged why it should be otherwise in the Church of Christ.
384 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Three I shall not need to spend any great store of words in an-
of their swering that which is brought out of the Holy Scripture to proofs snew that Secular and Ecclesiastical affairs and offices are taken distinguished ; neither that which hath been borrowed from differ- " antiquity, using by phrase of speech to oppose the Com- monweal to the Church of Christ ; neither yet their reasons
ence of
affairs
nd which are wont to be brought forth as witnesses, that the Church and Commonweal were always distinct. For whe- ther a Church or Commonweal do differ, is not the question we strive for ; but our controversy is concerning the kind of distinction whereby they are severed the one from the other; whether as under Heathen Kings the Church did deal with her own affairs within herself without depending at all upon any in Civil Authority, and the Commonweal in hers, altogether without the privity of the Church ; so it ought to continue still even in such Commonweals as have now publickly embraced the truth of Christian Religion ; whether they ought evermore to be two Societies in such sort, several and distinct. I ask therefore, what Society was that in Rome, whereunto the Apostle did give the name of the Church of Rome in his time ? If they answer (as needs they must) that the Church of Rome in those days was that whole Society of men which in Rome profes- sed the name of Christ, and not that Religion which the Laws of the Commonweal did then authorize ; we say as much, and therefore grant that the Commonweal of Rome was one Society, and the Church of Rome another, in such sort that there was between them no natural dependence. But when whole Rome became Christian, when they all embraced the Gospel, and made Laws in defence thereof, if it be held that the Church and Commonweal of Rome did then remain as before ; there is no way how this could be possible, save only one, and that is, they must restrain the name of a Church in a Christian Commonweal to the Clergy, excluding all the rest of believers, both Prince and people. For, if all that believe be contained in the name of the Church, how should the Church remain by personal subsistence divided from the Commonweal, when the whole Commonweal doth believe? The Church and the Com- monweal are in this case therefore personally one Society, which Society being termed a Commonweal as it liveth under whatsoever Form of secular Law and Regiment, a Church
book viii. 385
as it liveth under the spiritual Law of Christ ; forasmuch as these two Laws contain so many and different Offices, there must of necessity be appointed in it some to one charge, and some to another, yet without dividing the whole and making it two several impaled Societies.
The difference therefore either of affairs or offices Eccle- 1 chron. siastical from Secular, is no argument that the Church and nJiifv"'. Commonweal are always separate and independent the one on the other : which thing even Allen himself considering Aiieu, somewhat better, doth in this point a little correct his Ub\l™' former judgment beforementioned,and confesseth in his De- fence of English Catholics, that the Power political hath her Princes, Laws, Tribunals ; the spiritual, her Prelates, Ca- nons, Councils, Judgments, and those (when the temporal Princes were Pagans) wholly separate; but in Christian Commonweals joined though not confounded. Howbeit afterward his former sting appeareth again ; for in a Com- monwealth he holdeth, that the Church ought not to depend at all upon the Authority of any Civil person whatsoever, as in England he saith it doth.
It will be objected, that the Fathers do oftentimes men- 2 Taken tion the Commonweal and the Church of God by way of op- from tl,e position. Can the same thing be opposed to itself? If of the one and the same Society be both Church and Common- l^0"sae, wealth, what sense can there be in that speech, " That thev the one to
*^ the other.
suffer and flourish together?" What sense is that which Euseb. maketh one thing to be adjudged to the Church, and an- JS^'Ant. other to the Commonweal ? Finally, in that which putteth lib- '■'• a difference between the causes of the Province and the 167. [ai. Church, doth it not hereby appear that the Church and the 89] Commonweal are things evermore personally separate? No, it doth not hereby appear that there is perpetually any such separation ; we speak of them as two, we may sever the rights and the causes of the one well enough from the other, in regard of that difference which we grant is between them, albeit we make no personal difference. For the truth is, that the Church and the Commonwealth are names which import things really different; but those things are accidents, and such accidents as may, and always should, lovingly dwell together in one subject. Wherefore the real difference between the accidents signi- fied by these names, doth not prove different subjects for vol. 11. 2 c
386 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
them always to reside in. For albeit the subjects wherein they be resident be sometimes different, as when the people of God have their residence among Infidels; yet the nature of them is not such but that their subject may be one, and therefore it is but a changeable accident, in those accidents they are to be divers. There can be no error in our own conceit concerning this point, if we remember still what accident that is for which a Society hath the name of a Commonwealth, and what accident that which doth cause it to be termed a Church. A Commonwealth we name it simply in regard of some Regiment or Policy under which men live ; a Church for the truth of that Religion which they profess. Now names betokening accidents inab- stracted, betoken not only the accidents themselves, but also together with them subjects whereunto they cleave. As when we name a Schoolmaster and a Physician, those names do not only betoken two accidents, teaching and curing, but also some person or persons in whom those accidents are. For there is no impediment but both may be in one man, as well as they are for the most part in divers. The Commonweal and Church therefore being such names, they do not only betoken these accidents of Civil Government and Christian Religion which we have mentioned, but also together with them such multitudes as are the subjects of those accidents. Again, their nature being such as they may well enough dwell together in one subject, itfolloweth that their names, though always imply- ing that difference of accidents that hath been set down, yet do not always imply different subjects also. When we op- pose therefore the Church and Commonwealth in Christian Society, we mean by the Commonwealth that Society with relation to all the public affairs thereof, only the matter of true Religion excepted ; by the Church, the same Society with only reference unto the matter of true Religion, with- out any affairs besides : when that Society which is both a Church and a Commonwealth doth flourish in those things which belong unto it as a Commonwealth, we then say, the Commonwealth doth flourish ; when in both of them, we then say, the Church and Commonwealth do flourish together, isai i. The Prophet Esay to note corruptions in the Common- ,23' wealth complaineth, " That where justice and judgment
xviii. 14.
book vni. 387
had lodged now were murderers; Princes were become companions of thieves ; every one loved gifts and rewards, but the fatherless was not judged, neither did Ihe widow's cause come before them." To shew abuses in the Church, Malachy doth make his complaint : " Ye offer unclean Mai. s. bread upon mine altar: if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, ' it is not evil as ye think ; if the lame and the sick, nothing is amiss." The treasure which David bestowed upon the * chron- Temple did argue the love which he bore unto the Church : "' the pains which Nehemiah took for building the walls of Nehem. the City are tokens of his care for the Commonwealth. Causes of the Commonwealth, or Province, are such as Gallio was content to be judge of: " If it were a matter of Acts wrong, or an evil deed (O ye Jews), I would according to reason maintain you :" causes of the Church are such as Gallio there reciteth : " If it be a question of your Law, ver. 15. look ye to it, I will be no judge thereof." In respect of this difference therefore the Church and the Commonwealth may in speech be compared or opposed aptly enough the one to the other ; yet this is no argument that they are two independent Societies.
Some other reasons there are which seem a little more 3.Taken nearly to make for the purpose, as long as they are but .sect'of heard and not sifted. For what though a man being severed Puaish- by excommunication from the Church, be not thereby de- meted by prived of freedom in the City, or being there discommoned, |J« °nthe°r" is not therefore forthwith excommunicated and excluded the Church ? what though the Church be bound to receive them upon repentance, whom the Commonweal may refuse again to admit? if it chance the same man to be shut out of both, division of the Church and Commonweal, which they contend for, will very hardly hereupon follow. For we must note, that members of a Christian Commonweal have a triple state; a Natural, a Civil, and a Spiritual. No man's Natural estate is cut off otherwise than by that ca- pital execution : after which he that is none of the Body of the Commonwealth doth not, I think, remain fit in the Body of that visible Church. And concerning man's Civil estate, the same is subject partly to inferior abatements of liberty, and partly to diminution in the highest degree, such as banishment is ; sith it casteth out quite and clean from the Body of the Commonweal, it must needs also consequently
388 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
cast the banished party even out of the very Church he was of before, because that Church and the Commonweal he was of were both one and the same Society : so that what- soever doth utterly separate a man's person from the one, it separateth from the other also. As for such abatements of Civil estate as take away only some privilege, dignity, or other benefit which a man enjoyeth in the Commonweal, they reach only to our dealing with public affairs, from which what may let but that men may be excluded and thereunto restored again without diminishing or augment- ing the number of persons in whom either Church or Com- monwealth consisteth? He thatby way of punishment loseth his voice in a public election of Magistrates, ceaseth not thereby to be a citizen. A man disfranchised may not- withstanding enjoy as a subject the common benefit of pro- tection under Laws and Magistrates. So that these in- ferior diminutions which touch men civilly, but neither do clean extinguish their estates as they belong to the Com- monwealth, nor impair a whit their condition as they are of the Church of God : — these, I say, do clearly prove a difference of the one from the other, but such a difference as maketh nothing for their surmise of distracted Societies. And concerning Excommunication, it cutteth off indeed from the Church, and yet not from the Commonwealth ; howbeit so, that the party excommunicate is not thereby severed from one Body which subsisteth in itself, and re- tained by another in like sort subsisting ; but he which be- fore had fellowship with that Society whereof he was a member, as well touching things Spiritual as Civil, is now by force of Excommunication, although not severed from the Body in Civil affairs, nevertheless for the time cut off from it as touching communion in those things which belong to the same Body, as it is the Church. A man having been both excommunicated by the Church, and deprived of Civil dignity in the Commonwealth, is upon his repentance ne- cessarily reunited into the one, but not of necessity into the other. What then ? that which he is admitted unto is a communion in things divine, whereof both parts are par- takers ; that from which he is withheld is the benefit of some human privilege or right which other citizens hap- pily enjoy. But are not these saints and citizens one and the same people ? are they not one and the same society ?
book vin. 389
doth it hereby appear that the Church which received an excommunicate, can have no dependency on any person which hath chief authority and power of these things in the Commonwealth whereunto the same party is not ad- mitted ? Wherefore to end this point, I conclude : first, that under the dominions of Infidels the Church of Christ and their Commonwealth were two Societies independent. Secondly, that in those Commonwealths, where the Bishop of Rome beareth sway, one Society is both the Church and the Commonwealth ; but the Bishop of Rome doth divide the Body into two divers bodies, and doth not suffer the Church to depend upon the power of any Civil Prince and Potentate. Thirdly, that within this Realm of England the case is neither as in the one, nor as in the other of the former two : but from the state of Pagans we differ, in that with us one Society is both the Church and Commonwealth, which with them it was not; as also from the state of those nations which subjected themselves to the Bishop of Rome, in that our Church hath dependence from the Chief in our Commonwealth, which it hath not when he is suffered to rule. In a word, our state is according to the pattern of God's own ancient elect people, which people was not part of them the Commonwealth, and part of them the Church of God, but the self-same people whole and entire were both under one chief Governor on whose supreme authority they did all depend. Now the drift of all that hath been alleged to prove perpetual separation and inde- pendency between the Church and the Commonwealth is, that this being held necessary, it might consequently be thought fit, that in a Christian Kingdom he whose power is greatest over the Commonwealth, may not lawfully have Supremacy of Power also over the Church, that is to say, so far as to order thereby and to dispose of Spiritual af- fairs, so far as the highest uncommanded Commander in them. Whereupon it is grown a question, whether Govern- ment Ecclesiastical, and Power of Dominion in such de- grees as the Laws of this Land do grant unto the Sovereign Governor thereof, may by the said Supreme Governor law- fully be enjoyed and held? For resolution wherein, we are, first, to define what the Power of Dominion is : secondly, then to shew by what right: thirdly, after what sort : fourthly, in what measure : fifthly, in what inconveniency, and ac-
390 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
cordiDg to whose example Christian Kings may have it. And when these generals are opened, to examine afterwards how lawful that is which we in regard of Dominion do attribute unto our own : namely, the title of Headship over the Church, so far as the bounds of this Kingdom do reach : secondly, the prerogative of calling and dissolving great assemblies, about spiritual affairs public: thirdly, the right of assenting unto all those Orders concerning Reli- gion, which must after be in force as Law : fourthly, the advancement of principal Church-governors to their rooms of Prelacy : fifthly, judicial Authority higher than others are capable of: and sixthly, exemption from being punish- able with such kind of censures as the Platform of Refor- mation doth teach that they ought to be subject unto.
What the Power of Dominion is.
Luke Without order there is no living in public Society, because *' 17, the want thereof is the mother of confusion, whereupon di- icor. vision of necessity followeth; and out of division destruc- siv. 40. tion The Apostle, therefore, giving instruction to public So- cieties, requireth that all things be orderly done. Order can have no place in things, except it be settled amongst the persons that shall by office be conversant about them ; and if things and persons be ordered, this doth imply that they are distinguished by degrees : for Order is a gradual dis- position. The whole world consisting of parts so many, so different, is by this only thing upheld; he which framed them, hath set them in order. The very Deity itself both keepeth and requireth for ever this to be kept as a Law, that wheresoever there is a coagmentation of many, the lowest be knit unto the highest by that which being interjacent may cause each to cleave to the other, and so all to continue one. This order of things and persons in public Societies is the work of Policy, and the proper instrument thereof in every degree is Power ; Power being that ability which we have of ourselves, or receive from others for performance of any action. If the action which we have to perform be con- versant about matters of mere Religion, the Power of per- forming it is then Spiritual ; and if that Power be such as hath not other to over-rule it, we term it Dominion or Power supreme, so far as the bounds thereof extend. When there-
BOOK VIII. 391
fore Christian Kings are said to have Spiritual Dominion or supreme Power in Ecclesiastical affairs and causes, the meaning is, that within their own precincts and territories they have an authority and power to command even in matters of Christian Religion, and that there is no higher nor greater that can in those cases over-command them, where they are placed to reign as Kings. But withal we must likewise note that their Power is termed Supremacy, as being the highest, not simply without exception of any thing. For what man is so brain-sick, as not to except in such speeches God himself, the King of all dominion ? Who doubteth but that the King who receiveth it must hold it of and under the Law, according to that old axiom, " Attribuat Rex Legi, quod Lex attribuat ei potestatem :" and again, " Rex non debet esse sub homine, sed sub Deo et Lege." Thirdly, whereas it is altogether without reason, " that Kings are judged to have by virtue of their dominion, al- though greater Power than any, yet not than all the state of those Societies conjoined, wherein such sovereign Rule is given them ;" there is not any thing hereunto to the contrary by us affirmed, no, not when we grant supreme Authority unto Kings, because Supremacy is not otherwise intended or meant to exclude partly foreign Powers and partly the Power which belongeth in several unto others, contained as parts in that politic Body over which those Kings have Supremacy : " Where the King hath Power of Dominion, or supreme Power, there no foreign State or Potentate, no State or Potentate domestical, whether it consistest of one or many, can possibly have in the same affairs and causes Au- thority higher than the King." Power of spiritual Dominion therefore is in causes Ecclesiastical that ruling authority which neither any foreign State nor yet any part of that politic Body at home, wherein the same is established, can lawfully over-rule. It hath been declared already in general how " the best established Dominion is where the Law doth most rule the King:" the true effect whereof particularly is found as well in Ecclesiastical as Civil affairs. In these the King, through his supreme Power, may do sundry great things himself, both appertaining to peace and war, both at home, and by command, and by commerce with States abroad, because the Law doth so much permit. Sometimes on the other side, " The King alone hath no right to do
392 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
without consent of his Lords and Commons in Parliament: the King himself cannot change the nature of pleas, nor courts, no not so much as restore blood," because the Law is a bar unto him ; the positive Laws of the Realm have a privilege therein, and restrain the King's Power; which positive Laws, whether by custom or otherwise established, without repugnancy to the Laws of God and Nature, ought not less to be in force even in supernatural affairs of the Church : wherefore, in regard of Ecclesiastical Laws, we willingly embrace that of Ambrose, " Imperator bonus intra Ecclesiam, non supra Ecclesiam, est, — Kings have Do- minion to exercise in Ecclesiastical causes, but according to the Laws of the Church ;" whether it be therefore the nature of Courts, or the form of Pleas, or the kind of Go- vernors, or the order of proceeding in whatsoever business, for the received Laws and Liberty of the Church " the King hath supreme Authority and Power, but against them never." What such positive Laws have appointed to be done by others than the King, or by others with the King, and in what form they have appointed the doing of it, the same of necessity must be kept, neither is the King's sole Autho- rity to alter it; yet, as it were a thing unreasonable, if in Civil affairs the King, albeit the whole universal Body did join with him, should do any thing by their absolute Power for the ordering of their State at home, in prejudice of those ancient Laws of Nations which are of force throughout all the world, because the necessary commerce of Kingdoms dependeth on them ; so in principal matters belonging to Christian Religion a thing very scandalous and offensive it must needs be thought, if either Kings or Laws should dispose of the Law of God, without any respect had unto that which of old hath been reverently thought of through- out the world, and wherein there is no Law of God which forceth us to swerve from the ways wherein so many and holy ages have gone. Wherefore not without good con- sideration the very Law itself hath provided, " That Judges Ecclesiastical appointed under the King's commission shall not adjudge for Heresy any thing but that which heretofore hath been adjudged by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures, or by the first four General Coun- cils, or by some other General Council wherein the same hath been declared Heresy by the express words of the said Canonical Scriptures, or such as hereafter shall be
book vin. 393
determined to be Heresy by the high Court of Parliament of this Realm, with the assent of the Clergy in the Convo- cation: an. 1. Reg. Eliz. By which words of the Law, who doth not plainly see, how that in one branch of pro- ceeding by virtue of the King's supreme Authority, the cre- dit which those four first General Councils have throughout all Churches, and evermore had, was judged by the making of the aforesaid Act a just cause wherefore they should be mentioned in that case, as a requisite part of that Rule wherewith Dominion was to be limited? But of this we shall further consider when we come unto that which Sovereign Power may do in making Ecclesiastical Laws.
Unto which supreme Power in Kings two kinds of adver- The right saries there are which have opposed themselves : one sort ^v'l <T0T defending, "That supreme Power in causes Ecclesiastical ratlfies- throughout the world appertaineth of divine right to the Bishop of Rome:" another sort, " That the said Power be- longeth in every national Church unto the Clergy thereof assembled." We which defend as well against the one as against the other, " That Kings within their own precincts may have it," must shew by what right it must come unto them. First, unto me it seemeth almost out of doubt and controversy, that every independent multitude, before any certain Form of Regiment established, hath, under God, supreme Authority, full Dominion over itself, even as a man not tied with the band of subjection as yet unto any other, hath over himself the like power. God creating mankind did endue it naturally with Power to guide itself in what kind of Society soever they should choose to live. A man which is born lord of himself may be made another's ser- vant. And that Power which naturally whole Societies have, may be derived unto many, few, or one, under whom the rest shall then live in subjection. Some multitudes are brought into subjection by force, as they who being sub- dued are fain to submit their necks unto what yoke it pleaseth their conquerors to lay upon them ; which con- querors by just and lawful wars do hold their Power over such multitudes as a thing descending unto them, Divine Providence itself so disposing. For it is God who giveth victory in the day of war ; and unto whom Dominion in this sort is derived, the same they enjoy according to the Law of Nations, which Law authorizeth Conquerors to reign as ab~
394 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
solute Lords over thern whom they vanquish. Sometimes it pleaseth God himself by special appointment to choose out and nominate such as to whom Dominion shall be given, which thing he did often in the Commonwealth of Israel. They which in this sort receive Power immediately from God, have it by mere divine right, they by human on whom the same is bestowed according to men's discretion, when they are left freely by God to make choice of their own Governors. By which of these means soever it happen that Kings or Governors be advanced unto their estates, we must acknowledge both their lawful choice to be ap- proved of God, and themselves to be God's Lieutenants, and confess their Power which they have to be his*. As for supreme Power in Ecclesiastical affairs, the Word of God doth no where appoint that all Kings should have it, nei- ther that any should not have it ; for which cause it seemeth to stand altogether by human right, that unto Christian Kings there is such Dominion given.
Again, on whom the same is bestowed at men's discretions, they likewise do hold it by divine right. If God in his re- vealed Word hath appointed such Power to be, although him- self extraordinarily bestow it not, but leave the appointment of persons to men; yea, albeit God do neither appoint nor assign the person, nevertheless when men have assigned and established both, who doth doubt but that sundry duties and affairs depending thereupon are prescribed by the Word of God, and consequently by that very right to be exacted 1 For example's sake, the Power which Roman Emperors had over foreign Provinces was not a thing which the Law of God did ever institute, neither was Tiberius Caesar by es- pecial commission from Heaven therewith invested ; and yet payment of tribute unto Caesar, being now made Em- peror, is the plain Law of Jesus Christ ; unto Kings by hu- man right, Honour by very divine right, is due ; man's Or- dinances are many times proposed as grounds in the Statutes of God. And therefore of what kind soever the means be whereby Governors are lawfully advanced to their States, as we by the Laws of God stand bound meekly to ac- knowledge them for God's Lieutenants, and to confess their Power his, so by the same Law they are both authorized and required to use that Power as far as it may be in any
* ' Corona est potestas delegata a Deo.' Bracton.
book viii. 395
state available to his honour. The Law appointeth no man to be a husband, but if a man hath betaken himself unto that condition, it giveth him power and authority over his own wife. That the Christian world should be ordered by the Kingly Regiment, the Law of God doth not any where command ; and yet the Law of God doth give them, which once are exalted unto that place of estate, right to exact at the hands of their subjects general obedience in whatsoever affairs their Power may serve to command, and God doth ratify works of that sovereign Authority which Kings have received by men. This is therefore the right whereby Kings do hold their Power, but yet in what sort the same doth rest and abide in them it somewhat behoveth further to search ; where, that we be not enforced to make over large discourses about the different conditions of sovereign or supreme Power, that which we speak of Kings shall be in respect of the State, and according to the nature of this King- dom, where the people are in no subjection, but such as willingly themselves have condescended unto for their own most behoof and security. In Kingdoms therefore of this quality the highest Governor hath indeed universal Domi- nion, but with dependency upon that whole entire Body, over the several parts whereof he hath Dominion ; so that it standeth for an axiom in this case, The King is " major singulis, universis minor." The King's dependency we do not construe as some have done, who are of opinion that no man's birth can make him a King, but every particular person advanced to such Authority hath at his entrance into his Reign the same bestowed on him, as an estate in con- dition, by the voluntary deed of the people, in whom it doth lie to put by any one, and to prefer some other before him better liked of, or judged fitter for the place, and that the party so rejected hath no injury done unto him, no, although the same be done in a place where the Crown doth go &a 7£voc, by succession, and to a person which is capital, and hath apparently, if blood be respected, the nearest right. They plainly affirm, in all well-appointed Kingdoms, the custom evermore hath been, and is, that children succeed not their parents till the people after a sort have created them anew, neither that they grow to their fathers as natu- ral and proper heirs, but are then to be reckoned for Kings when at the hands of such as represent the King's Majesty,
Brutus, Vindi p. 83.
39G ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
they have by sceptre and a diadem received as it were the ^°^* investiture of a Kingly Power. Their very words are, " That where such Power is settled into a family or kindred, the stock is thereby chosen, but not the twig that springeth of it. The next of the stock unto him that reigneth are not through nearness of blood made Kings, but rather set forth Pag. 85. to stand for the Kingdom. Where Regal Dominion is here- ditary, it is notwithstanding (if we look to the persons which have it) altogether elective." To this purpose are se- lected heaps of Scriptures concerning the solemn Corona- tion or Inauguration of Saul, of David, of Solomon, and others, by the Nobles, Ancients, and people of the Com- monweal of Israel ; as if these Solemnities were a kind of deed, whereby the Right of Dominion is given. Which strange, untrue, and unnatural conceits, set abroad by seedsmen of rebellion, only to animate unquiet spirits, and to feed them with possibility of aspiring to thrones, if they can win the hearts of the people, what Hereditary Title so- ever any other before them may have — I say, these unjust and insolent positions I would not mention, were it not thereby to make the countenance of truth more orient ; for unless we will openly proclaim defiance unto all law, equity, and reason, we must (there is no remedy) acknow- ledge, that in Kingdoms hereditary birth giveth Right unto sovereign Dominion; and the death of the predecessor putteth the successor by blood in seisin. Those public So- lemnities before specified do but serve for an open testifi- cation of the inheritor's Right, or belong unto the form of inducting him into possession of that thing he hath Right unto : therefore in case it doth happen that without Right of Blood a man in such wise be possessed, all these new elec- tions and investings are utterly void, they make him no inde- feasible estate, the inheritor by blood may dispossess him as a usurper. The case thus standing, albeit we judge it a thing most true, that Kings, even inheritors, do hold their Right in the Power of Dominion, with dependency upon the whole Body politic over which they have rule as Kings; yet so it may not be understood as if such dependency did grow, for that every Supreme Governor doth personally take from thence his Power by way of gift, bestowed of their own free accord upon him at the time of his entrance into the said place of his Sovereign Government : but the
book viii. 397
case of dependency is that first original conveyance, when Power was derived from the whole into one; to pass from him unto them, whom out of him nature by law- ful births should produce, and no natural or legal inability make incapable. " Neither can any man with reason fuiiy think, but that the first institution of Kings, a sufficient d* uffic' consideration wherefore their Power should always depend on that from which it always flows by original influence of Power, from the Body unto the King, is the cause of the King's dependency in Power upon the Body." By depen- dency we mean subordination and subjection. A mani- fest token of which dependency may be this ; as there is no more certain argument that lands are held under any as Lords, than if we see that such lands in defect of heirs fall unto them by escheat; in like manner it doth fol- low rightly, that seeing Dominion when there is none to in- herit it returneth unto the Body, therefore they which before were inheritors thereof did hold it with dependency upon the Body, so that by comparing the Body with the Head, as touching Power, it seemeth always to reside in both, fundamentally and radically in the one, in the other deri- vatively; in one the habit, in the other the act of Power. May a Body politic then at all times withdraw, in whole or in part, the influence of Dominion which passeth from it, if inconveniences do grow thereby? It must be presumed, that Supreme Governors will not in such case oppose them- selves, and be stiff in detaining that, the use whereof is with public detriment : but surely without their consent I see not how the Body by any just means should be able to help itself, saving when Dominion doth escheat ; such things therefore must be thought upon beforehand, that Power may be limited ere it be granted, which is the next thing we are to consider.
In what measure.
In Power of Dominion, all Kings have not an equal lati- tude. Kings by conquest make their own charter; so that how large their Power, either Civil or Spiritual, is, we can- not with any certainty define further, than only to set them in the line of the Law of God and Nature for bounds. Kings by God's own special appointment have also that largeness of Power which he doth assign or permit with ap-
398 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
probation. Touching Kings which were first instituted by agreement and composition made with them over whom they reign, and how far their Power may extend, the articles of compact between them are to shew : not only the articles of compact at the first beginning, which for the most part are either clean worn out of knowledge, or else known to very few, but whatsoever hath been after in free and voluntary manner condescended unto, whether by express consent (whereof positive Laws are witnesses), or else by silent allowance famously notified through custom, reaching be- yond the memory of man. By which means of after-agree- ment, it cometh many times to pass in Kingdoms, that they whose ancient predecessors were by violence and force made subject, do by little and little grow into that sweet form of Kingly Government which philosophers define, Ari»t. « Regency willingly sustained, and endued with Chiefty of lib.iii. Power in the greatest things." Many of the ancients, in pytiia. their writings, do speak of Kings with such high and ample fuciEr- terms> as if Universality of Power, even in regard of things dam. de and not of persons, did appertain to the very being of a King. The reason is, because their speech concerning Kings they frame according to the state of those Monarchs to whom unlimited Authority was given ; which some not observing, imagine that all Kings, even in that they are Kings, ought to have whatsoever Power they judge any Sovereign Ruler lawfully to have enjoyed. But the most judicious Philosopher, whose eye scarce any thing did escape which was to be found in the bosom of Nature, he considering how far the Power of one Sovereign Ruler may be different from another Regal Authority, noteth in p^ist" Spartan Kings, " That of all others they were most tied lib. in. to Law, and so the most restrained Power." A King ™p' 14] which hath not supreme Power in the greatest things, is rather entitled a King, than invested with real Sovereignty. We cannot properly term him a King, of whom it may not be said, at the leastwise, as touching certain the chiefest affairs of the State, apx*iv, apxwSat vtto ovdtvbg, his right in them is to have rule, not subject to any other predominancy. I am not of opinion that simply in Kings the most, but the best limited, Power is best both for them and the people : the most limited is that which may deal in fewest things ; the best that which in dealing is tied
book vni. 399
unto the soundest, perfectest, and most indifferent Rule, which Rule is the Law ; I mean not only the Law of Na- ture and of God, but the National Law consonant there- unto. " Happier that people whose Law is their King in the greatest things, than that whose King is himself their Law. Where the King doth guide the State, and the Law the King, that Commonwealth is like a harp or melodious instrument, the strings whereof are tuned and handled all by one hand, following as Laws the Rules and Canons of musical science." Most divinely, therefore, Archytas maketh unto public felicity these four steps and degrees, every of which doth spring from the former, as from ano- ther cause, 6 St fiamXevg vofxifiog, 6 §1 apyow duoXovSng, 6 Si dpxy/JievoQ inroXvTrog, r] §£ oXi; KOiviovia evSai/iuv, " the King ruling by Law, the Magistrate following, the subject free, and the whole society happy :" adding on the contrary side, that where this order is not, it cometh by trangres- sion thereof to pass that a King groweth a tyrant; he that ruleth under him abhorreth to be guided by him, or com- manded ; the people subject unto both, have freedom under neither ; and the whole community is wretched. In which respect, I cannot choose but commend highly their wisdom, by whom the foundation of the Commonwealth hath been laid; wherein though no manner of person or cause be un- subject unto the King's Power, yet so is the Power of the King over all, and in all limited, that unto all his pro- ceedings the Law itself is a Rule. The axioms of our Regal Government are these, "Lex facit Regem:" the King's grant of any favour made contrary to the Law is void ; " Rex nihil potest nisi quod jure potest." Our Kings, therefore, when they are to take possession of the Crown they are called unto, have it pointed out before their eyes, even by the very Solemnities and Rites of their Inaugura- tion, to what affairs, by the same Law, their supreme Power and Authority reacheth ; crowned we see they are, enthron- ized, and anointed; the Crown a sign of military dominion ; the Throne of sedentary or judicial ; the Oil of religious and sacred Power. It is not on any side denied, that.Kings may have Authority in secular affairs. The question then is, " What Power they may lawfully have, and exercise in causes of God." " A Prince, a Magistrate, or a Commu- Jg^ nity (saith Dr. Stapleton), may have Power to lay corporal ?"™p-
400 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
lib. v. punishment on them which are teachers of perverse things ; 6. c.ir. power to make Laws for the peace of the Church ; Power to proclaim, to defend, and even by revenge to preserve dogmata, the very Articles of Religion themselves from violation." Others, in affection no less devoted unto the Papacy, do likewise yield, that the Civil Magistrate may by his Edicts and Laws keep all Ecclesiastical persons within the bounds of their duties, and constrain them to observe the Canons of the Church, to follow the Rule of ancient Discipline. That if Joash was commended for his care and provision concerning so small a part of Religion as the Church-treasure ; it must needs be both unto Chris- tian Kings themselves greater honour, and to Christianity a larger benefit, when the custody of Religion and the wor- ship of God in general are their charge. If, therefore, all these things mentioned be most properly the affairs of God's Ecclesiastical causes; if the actions specified be works of Power ; and if that Power be such as Kings may use of themselves, without the fear of any other power su- perior in the same thing: it followeth necessarily, that Kings may have supreme Power, not only in Civil, but also in Ecclesiastical, affairs, and consequently that they may withstand what Bishop or Pope soever shall, under the pre- tended claim of higher Spiritual Authority, oppose them- selves against their proceedings. But they which have made us the former grant, will never hereunto condescend ; what they yield that Princes may do, it is with secret ex- ception always understood, if the Bishop of Rome give leave, if he interpose no prohibition ; wherefore somewhat it is in show, in truth nothing, which they grant. Our own reformers do the very like, when they make their dis- course in general concerning the Authority which Magis- trates may have, a man would think them to be far from withdrawing any jot of that which with reason may be t.c. thought due, " The Prince and Civil Magistrate (saith one pfiVs. °f them) hath to see the Laws of God touching his worship, and touching all matters, and all orders of the Church to be executed, and duly observed ; and to see every Ecclesiastical person do that Office whereunto he is appointed, and to punish those which fail in their Office accordingly." An- Farmer-s other acknowledgeth, " That the Magistrate may lawfully a* ' ° uphold all truth by his sword, punish all persons, enforce
rook vi i r. 401
all to their duties towards God and men; maintain by his God|y Laws every point of God's Word, punish all vice in all trate. men ; see into all causes, visit the Ecclesiastical estate, and correct the abuses thereof: finally, to look to his subjects, that under him they may lead their lives in all godliness and honesty." A third more frankly professeth, " That in IIu™^e case their Church-discipline were established, so little itp.ifa. ' shorteneth the arms of sovereign Dominion in causes Ec- clesiastical, that her gracious Majesty, for any thing they teach or hold to the contrary, may no less than now remain still over all persons, in all things supreme Governess, even with that full and royal authority, superiority, and pre- eminence, supremacy, and prerogative, which the Laws already established do give her, and her Majesty's Injunc- tions, and the Articles of the Convocation-house, and other writings apologetical of her Royal Authority and Supreme Dignity, do declare and explain." Posidonius was wont to say of the Epicure, "That he thought there were no gods, Cicer°. but that those things which he spake concerning the gods de Vat. were only given out for fear of growing odious amongst £^£] men ; and, therefore, that in words he left gods remaining, but in very deed overthrew them, insomuch as he gave them no kind of action." After the very self-same manner, when we come unto those particular effects, Prerogatives of Dominion which the Laws of this Land do grant unto the Kings thereof, it will appear how these men, notwithstand- ing their large and liberal speeches, abate such parcels out of the afore-alleged grant and flourishing show, that a man, comparing the one with the other, may half stand in doubt, lest their opinion in very truth be against that Authority which by their speeches they seem mightily to uphold, partly for the avoiding of public obloquy, envy, and hatred ; partly to the intent they may both in the end, by the esta- blishment of their Discipline, extinguish the force of supreme Power which Princes have, and yet, in the mean- while, by giving forth these smooth discourses, obtain that their favourers may have somewhat to allege for them by way of apology, and that such words only sound towards all kind of fulness of Power. But for myself, I had rather construe such their contradictions in the better part, and impute their general acknowledgment of the lawfulness of Kingly Power unto the force of truth, presenting itself be-
VOL. II. 2 D
402 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
fore them sometimes above their particular contrarieties, oppositions, denials, unto that error which, having so fully possessed their minds, casteth things inconvenient upon them; of which things in their due place. Touching that which is now in hand, we are on all sides fully agreed : first, that there is not any restraint or limitation of matter for Regal Authority and Power to be conversant in, but of Reli- gion only; and of whatsoever cause thereunto appertaineth, Kings may lawfully have charge, they lawfully may therein exercise Dominion, and use the temporal sword : secondly, Kinds, that some kind of actions conversant about such affairs are denied unto Kings ; as, namely, actions of Power and Order, and of Spiritual Jurisdiction, which hath with it in- separably joined Power to administer the Word and Sacra- ments, Power to ordain, to judge as an Ordinary, to bind and loose, to excommunicate, and such like : thirdly, that Ey what even in those very actions which are proper unto Domi- ' ule' nion, there must be some certain Rule, whereunto Kings in all their proceedings ought to be strictly tied ; which Rule for proceeding in Ecclesiastical affairs and causes by Regal Power, hath not hitherto been agreed upon with such uni- form consent and certainty as might be wished. The dif- ferent sentences of men herein I will not now go about to examine, but it shall be enough to propose what Rule doth seem in this case most reasonable.
The cause of deriving supreme Power from a whole en- tire multitude into some special part thereof, is partly the necessity of expedition in public affairs ; partly the incon- venience of confusion and trouble, where a multitude of equals dealeth; and partly the dissipation which must needs ensue, in companies where every man wholly seeketh his own particular (as we all would do, even with other men's hurts), and haply the very overthrow of them- selves, in the end also, if for the procurement of the com- mon good of all men, by keeping every several man in order, some were not invested with Authority over all, and encouraged with Prerogative-honour to sustain the weighty burden of that charge. The good which is proper unto each man belongeth to the common good of all, as part to the whole perfection ; but these two are things different ; for men by that which is proper are se- vered, united they are by that which is common. Where-
BOOK VIII. 403
fore, besides that which moveth each man in particular to seek his own private good, there must be of necessity in all public Societies also a general mover directing unto common good, and framing every man's particular unto it. The end whereunto all Government was instituted, was bonum publicum, the universal or common good.* Our question is of Dominion, for that end and purpose derived into one : such as all in one public State have agreed, that the supreme charge of all things should be committed unto one; they, I say, considering what inconveniency may grow where States are subject unto sundry supreme authorities, have for fear of these inconveniences with- drawn from liking to establish many ; ouk ayaObv ttoXvkol- pavhi, the multitude of supreme commanders is trouble- some. " No man (saith our Saviour) can serve two mas- ters :" surely two supreme Masters would make any one's service somewhat uneasy in such cases as might fall out. Suppose that to-morrow the Power which hath Dominion in justice require thee at the Court ; that which in war, at the Field ; that which in Religion, at the Temple ; all have equal authority over thee, and impossible it is, that then in such case thou shouldest be obedient unto all : by choosing any one whom thou wilt obey, certain thou art for thy disobedience to incur the displeasure of the other two.
But there is nothing for which some comparable reason Accord- or other may not be found. Are we able to shew any "£*«. commendable state of Government, which, by experience ample- and practice, hath felt the benefit of being in all causes subject unto the supreme Authority of one ? Against the Policy of the Israelites, I hope there will no man except, where Moses deriving so great a part of his burden in Go- vernment unto others, did notwithstanding retain to him- self universal Supremacy ; Jehoshaphat appointing one to be chosen in the affairs of God, and another in the King's affairs, did this as having Dominion over them in both. If therefore, from approbation of Heaven, the Kings of God's own chosen people had in the affairs of Jewish Religion supreme Power, why not Christian Kings the like also in Christian Religion ? First, unless men will answer, as some
* ' Ob utilitatem publicam Reip. per unum consuli oportere, prudentissimi do- cent.5 L. C. 11. F. de Origine Juris Civilis.
2i>2
Tdcn ibid.
404 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
stapi. have done, " That the Jews' Religion was of far less per- Doct?n' fection and dignity than ours, ours being that truth whereof p197- theirs was but a shadowish prefigurative resemblance." stap]- Secondly, " That all parts of their Religion, their Laws, their Sacrifices, and their Rites and Ceremonies, being fully set down to their hands, and needing no more but only to be put in execution, the Kings might well have highest Authority to see that done ; whereas with us there are a number of mysteries even in belief, which were not so generally for them, as for us, necessary to be with sound express acknowledgment understood : a number of things belonging to external Government, and our manner of serving God, not set down by particular Ordinances, and delivered to us in writing, for which cause the state of the Church doth now require that the Spiritual Authority of Ecclesiastical persons be large, absolute, and not subor- dinate to Regal Power." Thirdly, " That whereas God armed Jewish Religion with the temporal sword, but Christian with that of spiritual punishment ; the one with Power to imprison, to scourge, to put to death, the other with bare Authority to censure and excommunicate ; there is no reason that the Church, which hath no visible sword, should in Regiment be subject unto any other power, than only unto theirs which have Authority to bind and loose." Fourthly, "That albeit whilst the Church was restrained unto one people, it seemed not incommodious to grant their King the general Chiefty of Power ; yet now the Church having spread itself over all nations, great inconveniences must thereby grow, if every Christian King in his several territory shall have the like Power." Of all these diffe- rences, there is not one which doth prove it a thing repug- nant to the Law either of God or of Nature, that all Su- premacy of external Power be in Christian Kingdoms granted unto Kings thereof, for preservation of quietness, unity, order, and peace, in such manner as hath been shewed.
Of the Title of Headship.
For the Title or State itself, although the Laws of this Land have annexed it to the Crown, yet so far we should
BOOK VIII. 405
not strive, if so be men were nice and scrupulous in this behalf only ; because they do wish that, for reverence to Christ Jesus, the Civil Magistrate did rather use some other form of speech wherewith to express that sovereign Authority which he lawfully hath over all both persons and causes of the Church. But I see that hitherto they which condemn utterly the name so applied, do it because they mislike that such Power should be given to Civil Governors. The great exception that Sir Thomas More took against that Title, who suffered death for denial of it, was "for that it maketh a Lay, a Secular person, the Head Roffensis of the State Spiritual or Ecclesiastical ;" as though God vZr. himself did not name Saul the Head of all the tribes of Israel ; and consequently of that tribe also among the rest, whereunto the State Spiritual or Ecclesiastical belonged. When the Authors of the Centuries reprove it in Kings and Civil Governors, the reason is, "istis non competit iste pr«f. Primatus ;" such kind of Power is too high for them, they fit it not. In excuse of Mr. Calvin, by whom this Realm caivin in is condemned of blasphemy, for entitling Henry the Eighth Amo's ' Supreme Head of this Church under Christ, under Christ, a Y1K 13- charitable conjecture is made, that he spake by misinfor- mation ; howbeit, as he professeth utter dislike of that name, so whether the name be used or no, the Power itself which we give unto Civil Magistrates he much complain- eth of, and protesteth, " That their Power over all things was it which had ever wounded him deeply : that unad- vised persons had made them too Spiritual, that throughout Germany this fault did reign; that in those very parts where Calvin himself was, it prevailed more than was to be wished ; that Rulers, by imagining themselves so Spiri- tual, have taken away Ecclesiastical Government ; that they think they cannot reign unless they abolish all the Au- thority of the Church, and be themselves the chief Judges, as well in Doctrine, as in the whole Spiritual Regency." So that, in truth, the question is, whether the Magistrate, by being Head in such sense as we term him, do use or exercise any part of that Authority, not which belongeth unto Christ, but which other men ought to have.
These things being first considered thus, it will be easier to judge concerning our own estate, whether by force of Ecclesiastical Government Kings have any other kind of
406 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
prerogative than they may lawfully hold and enjoy. It is, as some do imagine, too much, that Kings of England should be termed Heads, in relation of the Church. That which we do understand by Headship is, their only su- preme Power in Ecclesiastical affairs and causes. That which lawful Princes are, what should make it unlawful for men in spiritual Styles or Titles to signify ? If the having of supreme Power be allowed, why is the expressing thereof by the Title of Head condemned ? They seem in words (at leastwise some of them) now at length to ac- knowledge, that Kings may have Dominion or supreme Government even over all, both persons and causes. We in terming our Princes Heads of the Church, do but testify that we acknowledge them such Governors. Again, to T.c this it will peradventure be replied, " That howsoever we p. in. interpret ourselves, it is not fit for a mortal man, and there- fore not fit for a Civil Magistrate, to be entitled the Head of the Church, which was given to our Saviour Christ, to lift him above all Powers, Rules, Dominions, Titles, in Heaven or in earth. Where, if this Title belong also to Civil Magistrates, then it is manifest that there is a Power in earth whereunto our Saviour Christ is not in this point superior. Again, if the Civil Magistrate may have this Title, he may be termed also the first-begotten of all crea- tures, the first-begotten of all the dead, yea, the Redeemer of his people. For these are alike given him, as dignities whereby he is lifted up above all creatures. Besides this, Ephes. the whole argument of the Apostle, in both places, doth lead to shew that this Title, Head of the Church, cannot be said of any creature. And further, the very demonstra- tive articles, amongst the Hebrews especially, whom St. Paul doth follow, serveth to tie that which is verified of one, unto himself alone : so that when the Apostle doth say that Christ is KrfaXr), the Head ; it is as if he should say, Christ, and none other, is the Head of the Church." Thus have we against the entitling of the Highest Magis- trate, Head, with relation unto the Church, four several arguments gathered, by strong surmise, out of words mar- vellous unlikely to have been written to any such pur- pose as that whereunto they are now used and urged. Ephes. i. To the Ephesians the Apostle writeth, " That Christ, God had set on his right hand in the heavenly places above all
Col. i. 18.
-Z3.
BOOK VIII. 407
the regency, and authority, and power, and dominion, and whatsoever name is named, not in this world only, but in that which shall be also : and hath under his feet set all things, and hath given him Head above all things unto the Church, which is his Body, even the fulness of him which accomplisheth all in all." To the Colossians in like manner, " That he is the Head of the Body of the coi. Church, who is a first-born regency out of the dead, to the l' end he might be made amongst them all such a one as hath the Chiefty :" he meaneth, amongst all them whom he mentioned before, saying, " By him all things that are, coi. were made ; the things in the Heavens, and the things in l" the earth, the things that are visible, and the things that are invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or regencies," &c. Unto the fore-alleged arguments there- fore we answer : first, that it is not simply the Title of Head, in such sort understood, as the Apostle himself meant it; so that the same being imparted in another sense unto others, doth not any ways make those others his equals ; inasmuch as diversity of things is usually to be understood, even when of words there is no diversity ; and it is only the adding of one and the same thing unto divers persons, which doth argue equality in them. If I term Christ and Caesar Lords, yet this is no equalizing Caesar with Christ, because it is not thereby intended: " To term the Emperor Lord (saith Tertullian), I, for my [Ap <.\. part, will not refuse, so that I be not required to call him Gent. Lord in the same sense that God is so termed." Neither c34] doth it follow, which is objected in the second place, that if the Civil Magistrate may be entitled a Head, he may as well be termed, 'l the first-begotten of all creatures, the first- begotten of the dead, and the Redeemer of his people." For albeit the former dignity doth lift him up no less than these, yet these terms are not applicable and apt to sig- nify any other inferior dignity, as the former term of Head was. The argument of matter which the Apostle followeth hath small evidence or proof, that his meaning was to ap- propriate unto Christ that the aforesaid Title, otherwise than only in such sense as doth make it, being so under- stood, too high to be given to any creature.
As for the force of the Article where our Lord and Sa- viour is called the Head, it serveth to tie that unto him by
408 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
way of excellency, which in meaner degrees is common to others ; it doth not exclude any other utterly from being termed Head, but from being entitled as Christ is, the Head, by way of the very highest degree of excellency. Not in the communication of names, but in the confusion of things, there is error. Howbeit, if Head were a name that could not well be, nor never had been, used to signify that which a Magistrate may be in relation to some Church, but were by continual use of speech appropriated unto the only thing it signifieth ; being applied unto Jesus Christ then, although we must carry in ourselves a right understanding, yet ought we otherwise rather to speak, unless we interpret our own meaning by some clause of plain speech, because we are all else in manifest danger to be understood according to that construction and sense wherein such words are personally spoken. But here the rarest construction, and most removed from common sense, is that which the word doth import being applied unto Christ; and which we signify by it in giving it to the Ma- gistrate, it is a great deal more familiar in the common conceit of men.
The word is so fit to signify all kinds of superiority, pre-eminence, and chiefty, that nothing is more ordinary than to use it in vulgar speech, and in common understand- ing so to take it.* If, therefore, Christian Kings may have any pre-eminence or chiefty above all others, al- though it be less than that which Theodore Beza giveth, who placeth Kings amongst the principal members whereunto public function in the Church belongeth, and denieth not, but that of them which have public function, the Civil Magistrate's Power hath all the rest at command, in re- gard of that part of his Office, which is to procure that peace and good order be especially kept in things concern- ing the first Table ; if even hereupon they term him the Head of the Church, which is his Kingdom, it should not seem so unfit a thing : which Title surely we could not communicate to any other, no not although it should at our hands be exacted with torments, but that our meaning herein is made known to the world, so that no man which will understand can easily be ignorant that we do not im- part unto Kings, when we term them Heads, the honour
* Pekah is termed the Head of Samaria. Esai. vji. 9.
BOOK VIII. 409
which is properly given to our Lord and Saviour Christ, when the blessed Apostle in Scripture doth term him the Head of the Church.
The Power which we signify in that name, differeth in three things plainly from that which Christ doth chal- lenge.
First, it differeth in order, because God hath given him to his Church for the Head, virlp Travra, inrspavo) iruar^g ap^rjc, " far above all principalities, and powers, and might, and EPhe». dominion, and every name that is named, not in this world ,'21- only, but also in that which is to come:" whereas the Power which others have, is subordinate unto his.
Secondly, again, as he differeth in order, so in measure of Power also : because God hath given unto him the ends Psai. of the earth for his possession; unto him, Dominion from u'8' sea to sea; unto him, all Power both in Heaven and earth ; unto him, such Sovereignty, as doth not only reach over all places, persons, and things, but doth rest in his own only person, and is not by any succession continued ; he reigneth as Head and King, nor is there any kind of Law which tieth him, but his own proper will and wisdom ; his Power is absolute, the same jointly over all which it is severally over each : not so the Power of any other Head- ship. How Kings are restrained, and how their Power is limited, we have shewed before ; so that unto him is given, by the Title of Headship over the Church, that largeness of Power, wherein neither Man nor Angel can be matched or compared with him.
Thirdly, the last and greatest difference between him and them, is in the very kind of their Power. The Head being, of all other parts of the body, most divine, hath dominion over all the rest ; it is the fountain of sense, of motion; the throne where the guide of the soul doth reign; the court from whence direction of all things human pro- ceeded. Why Christ is called the Head of the Church, these causes themselves do yield. As the Head is the chiefest part of a man, above which there is none, always joined with the body ; so Christ, the highest in his Church, is always knit to it. Again, as the Head giveth sense and motion unto all the body, so he quickeneth us, and, to- gether with understanding of heavenly things, giveth strength to walk therein. Seeing therefore, that they can-
410 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
not affirm Christ sensibly present, or always visibly joined unto his Body the Church which is on earth, inasmuch as his corporal residence is in Heaven ; again, seeing they do not affirm (it were intolerable if they should) that Christ doth personally administer the external Regiment of outward actions in the Church, but, by the secret inward influence of his grace, giveth spiritual life and the strength of ghostly motions thereunto : impossible it is, that they should so close up their eyes, as not to discern what odds there is between that kind of operation which we imply in the Headship of Princes, and that which agreeth to our Saviour's Dominion over the Church. The Headship which we give unto Kings is altogether visibly exercised, and ordereth only the external frame of the Church-affairs here amougst us; so that it plainly differeth from Christ's, even in very nature and kind. To be in such sort united unto the Church as he is ; to work as he worketh, either on the whole Church, or upon any particular assembly, or in any one man, doth neither agree, nor hath any possibility of agreeing, unto any one besides him.
Against the first distinction or difference, it is to be ob- jected, " That to entitle a Magistrate Head of the Church, 4xx*. although itbe under Christ, is absurd. For Christ hath a two- fold Superiority ; over his Church, and over Kingdoms : ac- cording to the one, he hath a Superior, which is his Father; according to the other, none, but immediate authority with his Father; that is to say, of the Church he is Head and Governor only as the Son of man ; Head and Governor of t. c. Kingdoms only as the Son of God. In the Church, as p. 4i8. Man, he hath officers under him, which officers are Eccle- siastical persons. As for the Civil Magistrate, his Office belongeth unto Kingdoms, and to Commonwealths, neither is there an under or subordinate Head, considering that his Authority cometh from God, simply and immediately, even as our Saviour Christ's doth." Whereunto the sum of our answer is, first, that as Christ being Lord or Head over all, doth by virtue of that Sovereignty rule all ; so he hath no more a Superior in governing his Church, than in exercising sovereign Dominion upon the rest of the world besides : secondly, that all Authority, as well Civil as Ecclesiastical, is subordinate unto him : and, thirdly, the Civil Magistrate being termed Head, by reason of that Au-
T. C lib. ii
BOOK VIII. 411
thority in Ecclesiastical affairs which hath been already declared that themselves do acknowledge to be lawful, it followeth, that he is a Head even subordinated of Christ, and to Christ. For more plain explication whereof, unto God we acknowledge daily, that kingdom, power, and glory, are his ; that he is the immoTtal and invisible King of ages ; as well the future which shall be, as the present which now is. That which the Father doth work as Lord and King over all, he worketh not without, but by the Son, who through co-eternal generation received of the Father that Power which the Father hath of himself. And for that cause our Saviour's words concerning his own Dominion are, *' To me all Power both in Heaven and earth is given." The Father by the Son did create, and doth guide all ; wherefore Christ hath supreme Dominion over the whole universal world. Christ is God, Christ is A070C, the consubstantialWordof God, Christ is also that consubstantial Word which made man. As God, he saith of himself, " I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and aPoc. the end : He which was, and which is, and which is to '" 8* come ; even the very Omnipotent." As the consubstantial Word of God, he hath with God, before the beginning of the world, that glory, which, as he was man, he requireth to have ; " Father, glorify thy Son with that glory which John with thee he enjoyed before the world was." Further, it xv"' 5* is not necessary that all things spoken of Christ should agree to him either as God, or else as man ; but some things as he is the consubstantial Word of God, some things as he is that Word incarnate. The works of supreme Dominion which have been since the first beginning wrought by the Power of the Son of God, are now most properly and truly the works of the Son of man : the Word made flesh doth sit for ever, and reign as sovereign Lord over all. Domi- nion belongethunto the Kingly Officeof Christ, as propitia- tion and mediation unto his Priestly; instruction, unto his Pastoral and Prophetical Office. His works of Dominion are, in sundry degrees and kinds, according to the different conditions of them that are subject unto it : he presently doth govern, and hereafter shall judge the world, entirely and wholly; and therefore his Regal Power cannot be with truth restrained unto a proportion of the world only. Not- withstanding, forasmuch as all do not shew and acknow- ledge, with dutiful submission, that obedience which they
412 ECCLESIASTICAL rOLITY.
owe unto him ; therefore such as do, their Lord he is termed by way of excellency, no otherwise than the Apostle doth term God the Saviour generally of all, but especially of the faithful : these being brought to the obedience of faith, are every where spoken of as men translated into that Kingdom, wherein whosoever is comprehended, Christ is the author of eternal salvation unto them ; they have a high and ghostly fellowship with God, and Christ, and Saints; or, as the Apostle in more ample manner speaketh, " Aggregated they are unto Mount Sion, and to the City of the living God, the celestial Jerusalem, and to the com- pany of innumerable Angels, and to the Congregation of the First-born, which are written in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the Spirits of just and perfect men, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Testament." In a word, they are of that mystical Body, which we term the Church of Christ. As for the rest, we account them " aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, and that live in]the Kingdom of darkness, and that are in this present world without God." Our Saviour's Dominion is therefore over these, as over rebels ; over them, as over dutiful and loving subjects. Which things being in Holy Scriptures so plain, I some- what muse at that strange position, that Christ in the Go- vernment of his Church, and Superiority over the officers of it, hath himself a Superior which is the Father ; but in governing of Kingdoms and Commonwealths, and in the Superiority which he hath over Kingdoms, no Superior. t.c. Again, "That the Civil Magistrate's Authority cometh from God immediately, as Christ's doth, and is not subordi- nate unto Christ." In what Evangelist, Apostle, or Prophet, is it found, that Christ (supreme Governor of the Church) should be so unequal to himself, as he is supreme Gover- nor of Kingdoms ? The works of his providence for the preservation of mankind by upholding Kingdoms, not only obedient unto, but also obstinate and rebellious against, him, are such as proceed from divine Power ; and are not the works of his providence for safety of God's elect, by gathering, inspiring, comforting, and every way preserving, his Church, such as proceed from the same Power likewise? Surely, if Christ, as God and man, hath ordained certain means for the gathering and keeping of his Church, seeing this doth belong to the Government of that Church; it must in reason follow, I think, that as God and man he worketh
lib. i p. 418
BOOK VIII. 413
in Church-regiment; and consequently hath no more there any superiors, than in the Government of the Common- wealth. Again, to " be in the midst of his, wheresoever they are assembled in his name," and to be " with them to the world's end," are comforts which Christ doth perform to his Church as Lord and Governor ; yea, such as he can- not perform but by that very Power wherein he hath no Su- perior. Wherefore, unless it can be proved, that all the works of our Saviour's Government in the Church are done by the mere and only force of his human nature, there is no remedy but to acknowledge it a manifest error, that Christ in the Government of the World is equal to the Father, but not in the Government of the Church. Indeed, to the honour of this Dominion, it cannot be said, that God did exalt him otherwise than only according to that human nature where- in he was made low. For, as the Son of God, there could no advancement or exaltation grow unto him: and yet the Dominion whereunto he was in his human nature lifted up, is not without divine Power exercised. It is by divine Power, that the Son of man, who sitteth in Heaven, doth work as King and Lord upon us which are on earth. The exercise of his Dominion over the Church Militant cannot choose but cease, when there is no longer any Militant Church in the world. And therefore, as Generals of Ar- mies, when they have finished the work, are wont to yield up such commissions as were given for that purpose, and to remain in the state of subjects, and not as Lords, concerning their former authority; even so, when the end of all things is come, the Son of man (who till then reigneth) shall do the like, as touching Regiment over the Militant Church on the earth. So that between the Son of man and his brethren, over whom he reigneth now in this their warfare, there shall be then, as touching the ex- ercise of that Regiment, no such difference ; they not war- faring any longer under him, but he, together with them, under God, receiving the joys of everlasting triumph, that so God may be all in all; all misery in all the wicked, through his justice; in all the righteous, through his love, all felicity and bliss. In the meanwhile he reigneth over the world as King, and doth those things wherein none is Superior unto him, whether we respect the works of his Providence and Kingdom, or of his Regiment over the Church. The
23.
T. C, 1
414 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
cause of error in this point doth seem to have been a misconceit, that Christ, as Mediator, being inferior to his Father, doth, as Mediator, all works of Regiment over the Church ; when, in truth, Regiment doth belong to his Kingly Office, Mediatorship to his Priestly. For, as the High-priest both offered sacrifices for expiation of the people's sins, and entered into the Holy Place, there to
Heb. make intercession for them; so Christ, having finished upon the Cross that part of his Priestly Office which wrought the propitiation for our sins, did afterwards enter into the very Heaven, and doth there, as Mediator of the New Testa- ment, appear in the sight of God for us. A like sleight of judgment it is, when they hold, that Civil Authority is from
p. 4i5. God, but not immediately through Christ, nor with any subordination to Christ, nor doth any thing from God by the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. They deny it not
Prov- to be said of Christ in the Old Testament, " Bv me Princes
vin. 10. * J
rule, and the Nobles, and all the Judges of the earth." In Kev.i.5. the New as much is taught, " That Christ is the Prince of the Kings of the earth." Wherefore, to the end it may more plainly appear how all Authority of man is derived p. 63. from God through Christ, and must by Christian men be acknowledged to be no otherwise held than of and under him ; we are to note, that, because whatsoever hath ne- cessary being, the Son of God doth cause it to be, and those things without which the world cannot well continue, have necessary being in the world ; a thing of so great use as Government cannot choose but be originally from him. Touching that Authority which Civil Magistrates have in Ecclesiastical affairs, it, being from God by Christ, as all other good things are, cannot choose but be held as a thing received at his hands ; and because such Power is of neces- sity for the ordering of Religion, wherein the essence and very being of the Church consisteth, and can no otherwise flow from him, than according to that special care which he hath to govern and guide his own people, it followeth, that the said Authority is of and under him after a more special manner, in that " he is Head of the Church," and not in respect of his general Regency over the world. " All things (saith the Apostle, speaking unto the Church) are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." Kings are Christ's as Saints, because they are of the Church, if
Rom xiii. 1. Humble
Motion,
BOOK VIII. 415
not collectively, yet divisively understood. It is over each particular person within that Church where they are Kings : surely, Authority reaching both unto all men's persons, and to all kinds of causes also, it is not denied but that they may have and lawfully exercise it ; such Authority it is, for which, and for no other in the world, we term them Heads; such Authority they have under Christ, because he in all things is Lord over all ; and even of Christ it is that they have received such Authority, inasmuch as of him all lawful Powers are : therefore the Civil Magistrate is, in regard of this Power, an under and subordinate Head of Christ's people.
It is but idle where they speak, " That although, for se- r. c. veral companies of men, there may be several Heads or p."i3. Governors, differing in the measure of their authority from the chiefest, who is Head over all ; yet it cannot be in the Church, for that the reason why Head-magistrates appoint others for such several places is, because they cannot be present every where to perform the Office of a Head. But Christ is never from his body, nor from any part of it, and therefore needeth not to substitute any, which may be Heads, some over one Church and some over another." Indeed the consideration of man's imbecility, which maketh many Heads necessary where the burden is too great for one, moved Jethro to be a persuader of Moses, that a num- ber of Heads or Rulers might be instituted for discharge of that duty by parts, which in whole he saw was trouble- some. Now although there be not in Christ any such de- fect or weakness, yet other causes there be divers, more than we are able to search into, wherefore it might seem unto him expedient to divide his Kingdom into many Pro- vinces, and place many Heads over it, that the Power which each of them hath in particular with restraint, might illus- trate the greatness of his unlimited Authority. Besides, howsoever Christ be spiritually always united unto every part of his Body, which is the Church ; nevertheless, we do all know, and they themselves who allege this, will, I doubt not, confess also, that from every Church here visible, Christ, touching visible and corporal presence, is removed as far as Heaven from the earth is distant. Visible Govern- ment is a thing necessary for the Church ; and it doth not appear how the exercise of visible Government over such
n. p. 419,
UtHen 8.6.9.
41G ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
multitudes every where dispersed throughout the world, should consist without sundry visible Governors ; whose Power being the greatest in that kind, so far as it reacheth, they are in consideration thereof termed so far Heads. Wherefore, notwithstanding the perpetual conjunction, by virtue whereof our Saviour always remaineth spiritually united unto the parts of his mystical Body ; Heads indeed with supreme Power, extending to a certain compass, are for the exercise of a visible Regiment not unnecessary. Some other reasons there are belonging unto this branch which seem to have been objected, rather for the exercise of men's wits in dissolving sophisms, than that the authors of them could think in likelihood thereby to strengthen t. c.ju their cause. For example, " If the Magistrate be Head of the Church within his own Dominion, then is he none of the Church : for all that are of the Church make the Body of Christ, and every one of the Church fulrilleth the place of one member of the Body. By making the Magistrate there- fore Head, we do exclude him from being a member sub- ject to the Head, and so leave him no place in the Church." By which reason, the name of a Body politic is supposed to be always taken of the inferior sort alone, excluding the principal Guides and Governors, contrary to all men's cus- toms of speech. The error ariseth by misconceiving of some Scripture-sentences, where Christ as the Head, and the Church as the Body, are compared or opposed the one to the other. And because in such comparisons or oppo- sitions, the Body is taken from those only parts which are subject unto the Head, they imagine that whoso is the the Head of any Church, he is therefore even excluded from being a part of that Church; that the Magistrate can be none of the Church, if so we make him the Head of the Church in his own Dominions; a chief and principal part of the Church therefore next this, is surely a strange con- clusion. A Church doth indeed make the Body of Christ, being wholly taken together ; and every one in the same Church fulrilleth the place of a member in the Body, but not the place of an inferior member, the which hath su- preme Authority and Power over all the rest. Wherefore, by making the Magistrate Head in his own Dominions, we exclude him from being a member subject unto any other person which may visibly there rule in place of a Supe-
BOOK VIII. 417
rior or Head over him ; but so far are we off from leaving him by this means no place in the Church, that we do grant him the chief place. Indeed the Heads of those visible Bodies, which are many, can be but parts inferior in that spiritual Body which is but one ; yea, they may from this be excluded clean, who notwithstanding ought to be honoured, as possessing in order the highest rooms : but for the Magistrate to be termed, in his Dominions, a Head, doth not bar him from being any way a part or member of the Church of God.
As little to the purpose are those other cavils : " A Church which hath the Magistrate for Head, is perfect man without Christ." So that the knitting of our Saviour there- unto should be an addition of that which is too much. Again, " If the Church be the Body of Christ, and of the Civil Magistrate, it shall have two Heads, which being mon- strous, is to the great dishonour of Christ and his Church." Thirdly, "If the Church be planted in a popular estate, then, forasmuch as all govern in common, and all have au- thority, all shall be Heads there, and no Body at all ; which is another monster." It might be feared what this birth of so many monsters together might portend, but that we know how things, natural enough in themselves, may seem monstrous, through misconceit ; which error of mind is in- deed a monster: and the skilful in Nature's mysteries have used to term it the womb of monsters ; if any be, it is that troubled understanding, wherein, because things lie con- fusedly mixed together, what they are it appeareth not. A Church perfect without Christ, I know not how a man shall imagine ; unless there may be either Christianity without Christ, or else a Church without Christianity. If Magistrates be Heads of the Church, they are of necessity Christians, then is their Head Christ. The adding of Christ universal Head over all, unto Magistrates' particu- lar Headship, is no more superfluous in any Church than in other Societies ; each is to be both severally subject unto some Head, and to have a Head also general for them all to be subject unto. For so in Armies, in Civil Corpora- tions, we see it fareth. A Body politic, in such respects, is not like a natural Body ; in this, more Heads than one is superfluous ; in that, not. It is neither monstrous, nor yet uncomely, for a Church to have different Heads: for if
VOL. II. 2 F,
418 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Christian Churches be in number many, and every of them a perfect Body by itself, Christ being Lord and Head over all ; why should we judge it a thing more monstrous for one Body to have two Heads, than one Head so many Bodies? Him that God hath made the supreme Head of the whole Church ; the Head, not only of that mystical Body which the eye of man is not able to discern, but even of every Christian politic Society, of every visible Church in the world ? And whereas, lastly, it is thought so strange, that in popular States a multitude to itself should be both Body and Head, all this wonderment doth grow from a little oversight, in deeming that the subject wherein Headship ought to reside, should be evermore some one person ; which thing is not necessary. For in the collective Body that have not derived as yet the Principality of Power into some one or few, the whole of necessity must be Head over each part ; otherwise it could not have Power possi- bly to make any one certain person Head ; inasmuch as the very Power of making a Head belongeth unto Head- ship. These supposed monsters we see therefore are no such giants, as that there should need any Hercules to tame them.
The last difference which we have between the Title of Head when we give it unto Christ, and when we give it to other Governors, is, that the kind of Dominion which it im- porteth is not the same in both. Christ is Head, as being the fountain of life and ghostly nutriment, the wellspring of spiritual blessings poured into the Body of the Church; they Heads, as being the principal instruments for the Church's outward government; he Head, as Founder of the House ; they, as his chiefest Overseers. Against this is exception especially taken, and our purveyors are herein said to have their provision from the Popish shambles: for by Pighius and Harding, to prove that Christ alone is not Head of the Church, this distinction, they say, is brought, that according to the inward influence of grace, Christ only is Head ; but according to the outward government, the being Head is a thing common to him with others. To raise up falsehoods of old condemned, and bring it for con- firmation of any thing doubtful, which already hath suffi- ciently been proved an error, and is worthily so taken, this would justly deserve censuring. But shall manifest truth
book vi ir. 419
therefore be reproached, because men convicted in some things of manifest untruth have at any time thought or al- leged it? If too much eagerness against their adversaries had not made them forget themselves, they might remem- ber, where being charged as maintainers of those very things, for which others before them had been condemned of Heresy, yet, lest the name of any such Heretic holding the same which they do, should make them odious; they stick not frankly to confess, " That they are not afraid to t. c. consent in some points with Jews and Turks." Which pi defence, for all that, were a very weak buckler for such should consent with Jews and Turks in that which they have been abhorred and hated for in the Church. But as for this distinction of Headship, spiritual and mystical, of Jesus Christ, ministerial and outward in others besides Christ; what cause is there to mislike either Harding, or Pighius, or any other besides, for it? That which they have been reprov- ed for, is, not because they did therein utter an untruth, but such a truth as was not sufficient to bear up the cause which they did thereby seek to maintain. By this distinction, they have both truly and sufficiently proved that the name of Head, importing Power and Dominion over the Church, might be given to others besides Christ, without prejudice to any part of his honour. That which they should have made manifest was, thatthe name of Head, importingthe Power of universal Dominion over the whole Church of Christ mili- tant, doth, and that by divine right, appertain to the Pope of Rome. They did prove it lawful to grant unto others besides Christ, the Power of Headship in a different kind from his ; but they should have proved it lawful to challenge, as they did to the Bishop of Rome, a Power universal in that different kind. Their fault was therefore in exacting wrongfully so great Power as they challenged in that kind, and not in making two kinds of Power, unless some reasons can be shewed for which this distinction of Power should be thought er- roneous and false. A little they stir (although in vain) to prove that we cannot with truth make such distinction of Power, whereof the one kind should agree unto Christ only, and the other be further communicated. Thus therefore they argue, " If there be no Head but Christ, in respect of t. c. spiritual Government, there is no Head but he in respect oC^/ms. the Word, Sacraments, and Discipline, administered by 2e2
420 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
those whom he hath appointed, forasmuch also as it is his spiritual Government." Their meaning is, that whereas we make two kinds of Power, of which two, the one being spi- ritual is proper unto Christ ; the other, men are capable of, because it is visible and external ; we do amiss alto- gether in distinguishing, they think, forasmuch as the visible and external Power of Regiment over the Church, is only in relation unto the Word, Sacraments, and Disci- pline, administered by such as Christ hath appointed there- unto, and the exercise of this Power is also his spiritual Government : therefore we do but vainly imagine a visible and external Power in the Church differing from his spiritual Power. Such disputes as this do somewhat resemble the practising of well-willers upon their friends in the pangs of death ; whose manner is, even then, to put smoke in their nostrils, and so to fetch them again, although they know it a matter impossible to keep them living. The kind of affec- tion which the favourers of this labouring cause bear to- wards it will not suffer them to see it die, although by what means they should make it live, they do not see. But they may see that these wrestlings will not help. Can they be ignorant how little itbooteth to overcast so clear aslight with some mist of ambiguity in the name of spiritual Regiment? To make things therefore so plain, that henceforward a child's capacity may serve rightly to conceive our mean- ing, we make the spiritual Regiment of Christ to be gene- rally that whereby his Church is ruled and governed in things spiritual. Of this general we make two distinct kinds ; the one invisible, exercised by Christ himself in his own person; the other outwardly administered by them whom Christ doth allow to be Rulers and Guides of his Church. Touching the former of these two kinds, we teach that Christ, in regard thereof, is particularly termed the Head of the Church of God ; neither can any other creature, in that sense and meaning, be termed Head besides him ; because it importeth the conduct and government of our souls by the hand of that blessed Spirit wherewith we are sealed and marked, as being peculiarly his. Him only do we acknowledge to be the Lord, which dwelleth, liveth, and reigneth, in our hearts ; him only to be that Head, which giveth salvation and life unto his Body ; him only to be that Fountain from whence the influence of heavenly graces
BOOK VIII. 421
distillefb, and is derived into all parts, whether the Word, or the Sacraments, or Discipline, or whatsoever be the means whereby it floweth. As for the Power of administer- ing these things in the Church of Christ, which Power we call the Power of Order, it is indeed both spiritual and his : spiritual, because such properly concerns the Spirit ; his, because by him it was instituted. Howbeit, neither spi- ritual, as that which is inwardly and invisibly exercised ; nor his, as that which he himself in person doth exercise. Again, that Power of Dominion, which is indeed the point of this controversy, and doth also belong to this second kind of spiritual Government, namely, unto that Regiment which is external and visible; this likewise being spiritual in regard of the matter about which it dealeth, and being his, inasmuch as he approveth whatsoever is done by it, must notwithstanding be distinguished also from that Power whereby he himself in person adrainistereth the former kind of his own spiritual Regiment, because he himself in person doth not administer this; we do not, therefore, vainly imagine, but truly and rightly discern a Power external and visible in the Church exercised by men, and severed in na- ture from that spiritual Power of Christ's own Regiment : which Power is termed spiritual, because it worketh se- cretly, inwardly, and invisibly ; his, because none doth, nor can, it personally exercise, either besides or together with him; seeing that him only we may name our Head, in regard of his Power, and yet, in regard of that other Power from this, term others also, besides him, Heads, without any contradiction at all. Which thing may very well serve for answer unto that also which they further allege against the aforesaid distinction, namely, " That even the outward so- t. c. cieties and assemblies of the Church, where one or two are p/^5< gathered together in his name, either for hearing of the Word, or for Prayer, or any other Church-exercise, our Saviour Christ being in the midst of them as Mediator, must be their Head : and, if he be not there idle, but doing the Office of a Head fully, it followeth, that even in the outward societies and meetings of the Church, no mere man can be called the Head of it, seeing that our Saviour Christ doing the whole Office of the Head himself alone, leaveth nothing to men, by doing whereof they may obtain that Title." Which objection I take as being made for nothing
422 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
but only to maintain argument. For they are not so far gone as to argue this in sooth and right good earnest. " God standeth (saith the Psalmist) in the midst of gods ;" if God be there present, he must undoubtedly be present as God ; if he be not there idle, but doing the Office of a God fully, it followeth, that God himself alone doing the whole Office of a God, leaveth nothing in such assemblies to any other, by doing whereof they may obtain so high a name. The iib°ii Psa^mist' therefore, hath spoken amiss, and doth ill to call p. 4i3. Judges, gods. Not so ; for as God hath this Office differing from theirs, and doth fully discharge it even in the midst of them, so they are not hereby excluded from all kind of duty, for which that name should be given unto them also, but in that duty for which it was given them they are en- couraged religiously and carefully to order themselves after the self-same manner. Our Lord and Saviour being in the midst of his Church as Head, is our comfort, without the abridgment of any one duty, for performance whereof others are termed Heads in another kind than he is. If there be of the ancient Fathers, which say, " That there is but one Head of the Church, Christ; and that the Minister that baptizeth cannot be the Head of him that is baptized, because Christ is the Head of the whole Church ; and that Paul could not be Head of the Church which he planted, because Christ is the Head of the whole Body;" they understand the name of Head in such sort as we grant that it is not applicable to any other, no not in relation to the least part of the whole Church ; he which baptizeth, baptizeth into Christ; he which con verteth, converteth into Christ; he which ruleth, ruleth for Christ. The whole Church can have but one to be Head as Lord and Owner of all ; wherefore, if Christ be Head in that kind, it fol- loweth, that no other besides can be so either to the whole or to any part.
To call and dissolve all solemn Assemblies about the public affairs of the Church.
Amongst sundry prerogatives of Simon's Dominion over the Jews there is reckoned, as not the least, "That no man might gather any great assembly in the land without him." For so the manner of Jewish Regiment had always been, that whether the cause for which men assembled
BOOK VIII.
423
themselves in peaceable, good, and orderly sort, were Ec- clesiastical or Civil, supreme Authority should assemble them. David gathered all Israel together unto Jerusalem; when the Ark was to be removed, he assembled the sons of Aaron and the Levites. Solomon did the like at such time as the Temple was to be dedicated : when the Church was to be reformed, Asa in his time did the same : the same upon like ocasions was done afterwards by Joash, Heze- kias, Josiah, and others.
The Consuls of Rome Polybius affirmeth to have had a Pol7b- kind of regal Authority, in that they might call together the Mult, ac Senate and people whensoever it pleased them. Seeing, R°^st' therefore, the affairs of the Church and Christian Religion Disdpi. are public affairs, for the ordering whereof more solemn Assemblies sometimes are of as great importance and use, as they are for secular affairs ; it seemeth no less an act of supreme Authority to call the one, than the other. Where- fore the Clergy, in such wise gathered together, is an Ec- clesiastical Senate, which with us, as in former times, the chiefest Prelate at his discretion did use to assemble ; so that afterward in such considerations as have been be- fore specified, it seemed more meet to annex the said pre- rogative to the Crown. The Plot of reformed Discipline not liking thereof so well, taketh order that every former Assembly before it breaketh up should itself appoint both the time andplace o f their after-meeting again. But be- cause I find not any thing on that side particularly alleged against us herein, a longer disputation about so plain a cause shall not need. The ancient Imperial Lawforbiddeth &*. i. such Assemblies as the Emperor's Authority did not cause miciV to be made. Before Emperors became Christians, the conven-
ticulis.
Church had never any General Synod ; their greatest meet- ing consisting of Bishops and other the gravest in each EpIscTet Province. As for the Civil Governor's Authority, it suf- l>resbyt- fered them only as things not regarded, or not accounted of at such times as it did suffer them. So that what right a merarch. Christian King hath as touching Assemblies of that kind, JJj."' we are not able to judge till we come to later times, when Religion had won the hearts of the highest Powers. Con- constant. stantine (as Pighius doth grant) was not only the first that Theododo. ever did call any General Council together, but even the J^u.™' first that devised the calling of them for consultation about constant.
Hieron. contr.
424 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
the businesses of God. After he had once given the ex- ample, his successors a long time followed the same r, in- somuch that St. Jerome, to disprove the Authority of a Sy- nod which was pretended to be General, useth this as a forcible argument, " Die, quis Imperator hanc Synodum Rum. jusserit convocari?" Their answer hereunto is no answer, lib.i'i. which say, " That the Emperors did not this without con- coi.*4i5.] ference had with the Bishops :" for to our purpose it is enough, if the Clergy alone did it not otherwise than by the leave and appointment of their Sovereign Lords and sozomen. Kings. Whereas, therefore, it is on the contrary side c'ap!V. alleged, that Valentinian the Elder being requested by %iSs. Catholic Bishops to grant that there might be a Synod for the ordering of matters called in question by the Arians, answered, that he being one of the Laity might not meddle with such matters, and thereupon willed, that the Priests and Bishops, to whom the care of those things belongeth, should meet and consult together by themselves where they thought good ; we must, with the Emperor's speech, weigh the occasion and drift thereof. Valentinian and Valens, the one a Catholic and the other an Arian, were Emperors together : Valens the Governor of the East, and Valen- tinian of the West, Empire. Valentinian, therefore, taking his journey from the East unto the West parts, and passing for that intent through Thracia, there the Bishops which held the soundness of Christian belief, because they knew that Valens was their professed enemy, and therefore if the other was once departed out of those quarters, the Catho- lic cause was like to find very small favour, moved pre- sently Valentinian about a Council to be assembled under the countenance of his Authority ; who by likelihood con- sidering what inconvenience might grow thereby, inasmuch as it could not be but a means to incense Valens the more against them, refused himself to be author of, or present at any such Assembly : and of this his denial gave them a colourable reason, to wit, that he was, although an Em- peror, yet a secular person, and therefore not able in mat- ters of so great obscurity to sit as competent Judge; but, if they which were Bishops and learned men did think good to consult thereof together, they might. Whereupon, when they could not obtain that which they most desired, yet that which he granted unto them they took, and forthwith
book viii. 425
had a Council. Valentinian went on towards Rome, they remaining in consultation till Valens which accompanied him returned back ; so that now there was no remedy, but either to incur a manifest contempt, or else at the hands of Valens himself to seek approbation of that they had done. To him, therefore, they became suitors : his answer was short, " Either Arianism, or exile, which they would;" whereupon their banishment ensued. Let reasonable men now therefore be judges, how much this example of Valen- tinian doth make against the Authority, which we say that Sovereign Rulers may lawfully have as concerning Synods and Meetings Ecclesiastical.
Of the Authority of making Laws.
There are which wonder that we should account any Sta- tute a Law, which the High Court of Parliament in Eng- land hath established about the matters of Church-regi- ment; the Prince and Court having (as they suppose) no more lawful means to give order to the Church and Clergy in those things, than they have to make Laws for the Hierarchies of Angels in Heaven ; that the Parliament being a mere temporal Court, can neither by the Law of Nature, nor of God, have competent power to define of such matters : that Supremacy in this kind cannot belong unto Kings, as Kings, because Pagan Emperors, whose princely Power was true Sovereignty, never challenged so much over the Church ; that Power, in this kind, cannot be the right of an earthly Crown, Prince, or State, in that they be Christians, forasmuch as if they be Christians, they all owe subjection to the Pastors of their souls ; that the Prince therefore, not having it himself, cannot commu- nicate it to the Parliament, and consequently cannot make Laws here, or determine of the Church's Regiment by himself, Parliament, or any other Court subjected unto him. The Parliament of England, together with the Convoca- tion annexed thereunto, is that whereupon the very essence of all Government within this Kingdom doth depend : it is even the body of the whole Realm : it consisteth of the King, and of all that within the Land are subject unto him. The Parliament is a Court, not so merely temporal as if it might
426 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
meddle with nothing but only leather and wool. Those days of Queen Mary are not yet forgotten, wherein the Realm did submit itself unto the Legate of Pope Julius, at which time, had they been persuaded, as this man seemeth now to be, had they thought that there is no more force in Laws by Parliament concerning Church-affairs, than if men should take upon them to make Orders for the Hierarchies of Angels in Heaven, they might have taken all former Sta- tutes of that kind as cancelled, and, by reason of nullity, abrogated. What need was there that they should bargain with the Cardinal, and purchase their pardon by promise made beforehand, that what Laws they had made, assented unto, or executed, against the Bishop of Rome's Supre- macy, the same they would, in that present Parliament, effectually abrogate and repeal ? Had they power to re- peal Laws made, and none to make Laws concerning the Regiment of the Church ? Again, when they had by suit obtained his confirmation for such foundations of Bishop- ricks, Cathedral Churches, Hospitals, Colleges, and Schools ; for such Marriages before made, for such insti- tutions into Livings Ecclesiastical, and for all such judicial processes, as having been ordered according to the Laws before in force, but contrary unto the Canons and Orders of the Church] of Rome, were in that respect thought de- fective, although the Cardinal in his Letters of Dispensa- tion did give validity unto those Acts, even " Apostolicae iirmitatis robur, The very strength of Apostolical solidity;" what had all these been without those grave authentical An. l. words? "Be it enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament, that all and singular Articles and Clauses con- tained in the said Dispensation, shall remain and be reputed and taken to all intents and constructions in the Laws of this Realm, lawful, good, and effectual, to be alleged and pleaded in all Courts Ecclesiastical and Temporal, for good and sufficient matter either for the plaintiff or defendant, without any allegation or objection to be made against the validity of them, by pretence of any general Council, Canon, or Decree, to the contrary." Somewhat belike they thought there was in this mere Temporal Court, without which the Pope's own mere Ecclesiastical Legate's Dispensation had taken small effect in the Church of England ; neither did they or the Cardinal imagine anything committed against the
et2 Phil, et
Mar.
book viii. 427
Law of Nature, or of God, because they took Order for the Church's affairs, and that even in the Court of Parliament. The most natural and religious course in making Laws is, that the matter of them be taken from the judgment of the wisest in those things which they are to concern. In mat- ters of God, to set down a Form of Prayer, a solemn Con- fession of the Articles of the Christian Faith, and Cere- monies meet for the exercise of Religion ; it were unnatural not to think the Pastors and Bishops of our souls a great deal more fit, than men of secular trades and callings: how- beit, when all which the wisdom of all sorts can do is done for the devising of Laws in the Church, it is the general consent of all that giveth them the form and vigour of the Laws, without which they could be no more unto us than the counsel of Physicians to the sick. Well might they seem as wholesome admonitions and instructions ; but Laws could they never be, without the consent of the whole Church, to be guided by them ; whereunto both Nature and the practice of the Church of God set down in Scripture, is found every way so fully consonant, that God himself would not impose his own Laws upon his people by the hand of Moses, without their free and open consent. Wherefore, to define and determine, even of the Church's affairs by way of assent and approba- tion, as Laws are defined in that right of power, which doth give them the force of Laws ; thus to define of our own Church's Regiment, the Parliament of England hath competent Authority.
Touching that Supremacy of Power which our Kings have in the case of making Laws, it resteth principally in the strength of a negative voice ; which not to give them, were to deny them that, without which they were Kings but by a mere Title, and not in exercise of Dominion. Be it in Regiment Popular, Aristocratical, or Regal, Principality resteth in that person, or those persons, unto whom is given right of excluding any kind of Law whatsoever it be before establishment. This doth belong unto Kings as Kings ; Pagan Emperors, even Nero himself had no less, but much more than this, in the Laws of his own Empire. That he challenged not any interest of giving voice in the Laws of the Church, I hope no man will so construe, as if the cause were conscience and fear to encroach upon the
428 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Apostles' right. If then it it be demanded, by what right, from Constantine downward, the Christian Emperors did so far intermeddle with the Church's affairs, either we must herein condemn them, as being over presumptuously bold, or else judge that, by a Law, which is termed Regia, that is to say, Regal, the people having derived unto their Em- perors their whole Power for making of Laws, and by that means his Edicts being made Laws,* what matter soever they did concern; as Imperial Dignity endowed them with competent Authority and Power to make Laws for Reli- gion, so they were thought by Christianity to use their Power, being Christians, unto the benefit of the Church of Christ. Was there any Christian Bishop in the world which did then judge this repugnant unto the dutiful sub- jection which Christians do owe to the Pastors of their souls? to whom, in respect of their sacred Order, it is not by us, neither may be, denied, that Kings and Princes are as much as the very meanest that liveth under them, bound in conscience to shew themselves gladly and willingly obe- dient; receiving the Seals of Salvation, the blessed Sacra- ments at their hands, as at the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all reverence, not disdaining to be taught and admonished by them, nor withholding from them as much as the least part of their due and decent honour. All which, for any thing that hath been alleged, may stand very well without resignation of Supremacy of Power in making Laws, even Laws concerning the most spiritual af- fairs of the Church ; which Laws being made amongst us, are not by any of us so taken or interpreted, as if they did receive their force from Power which the Prince doth com- municate unto the Parliament, or unto any other Court un- der him, but from Power which the whole Body of the Realm being naturally possessed with, hath by free and deliberate assent derived unto him that ruleth over them, so far forth as hath been declared. So that our Laws made concerning Religion, do take originally their essence from the Power of the whole Realm and Church of Eng- land, than which, nothing can be more consonant unto the Law of Nature and the will of our Lord Jesus Christ. TC; To let these go, and return to our own men ; " Ecclesias- p.92. tical Governors (they say) may not meddle with making of
* ' Item quod Principi placuit, Legis habet vigorem.' Inst, cle J. N. G. et C.
book viii. 429
Civil Laws, and of Laws for the Commonwealth ; nor the Civil Magistrate, high or low, with making of Orders for the Church." It secmeth unto me very strange, that these men, which are in no case more vehement and fierce than where they plead, that Ecclesiastical persons may not Kvpuveiv, be lords, should hold that the Power of making Ecclesiastical Laws, which thing of all other is most proper unto Dominion, belongeth to none but Ecclesiastical per- sons only. Their oversight groweth herein for want of ex- act observation, what it is to make a Law. Tully, speak- ing of the Law of Nature, saith, " That thereof God himself was inventor, disceptator, lator, the deviser, the discusser, and deliverer :" wherein he plainly alludeth unto the chief- est parts which then did appertain to his public action. For when Laws were made, the first thing was to have them devised ; the second to sift them with as much exactness of judgment as any way might be used; the next by so- lemn voice of Sovereign Authority to pass them, and give them the force of Laws. It cannot in any reason seem otherwise than most fit, that unto Ecclesiastical persons the care of devising Ecclesiastical Laws be committed, even as the care of Civil unto them which are in those affairs most skilful. This taketh not away from Ecclesiastical persons all right of giving voice with others, when Civil Laws are proposed for Regiment of the Commonwealth, whereof themselves, though now the world would have them anni- hilated, are notwithstanding as yet a part ; much less doth it cut off that part of the Power of Princes, whereby, as they claim, so we know no reasonable cause wherefore we may not grant them, without offence to Almighty God, so much Authority in making all manner of Laws within their own Dominions, that neither Civil nor Ecclesiastical do pass without their royal assent.
In devising and discussing of Laws, wisdom especially is required ; but that which established! them and maketh them, is power, even Power of Dominion; the Chiefty whereof (amongst us) resteth in the person of the King. Is there any Law of Christ's which forbiddeth Kings and Rulers of the earth to have such sovereign and supreme Power in the making of Laws either Civil or Ecclesiasti- cal? If there be, our controversy hath an end. Christ, in his Church, hath not appointed any such Law concern-
430 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
ing temporal Power, as God did of old unto the Common- wealth of Israel ; but leaving that to be at the world's free choice, his chiefest care is, that the Spiritual Law of the Gospel might be published far and wide. They that re- ceived the Law of Christ were, for a long time, people scattered in sundry Kingdoms, Christianity not exempting them from the Laws which they had been subject unto, saving only in such cases as those Laws did enjoin that which the Religion of Christ did forbid. Hereupon grew their manifold persecutions throughout all places where they lived ; as oft as it thus came to pass, there was no possibility that the Emperors and Kings under whom they lived, should meddle any whit at all with making Laws for the Church. From Christ, therefore, having received Power, who doubteth, but as they did, so they might bind them to such Orders as seemed fittest for the maintenance of their Religion, without the leave of high or low in the Commonwealth ; forasmuch as in Religion it was divided utterly from them, and they from it? But when the mightiest began to like of the Christian Faith ; by their means, whole free States and Kingdoms became obedient unto Christ. Now the question is, whether Kings, by em- bracing Christianity, do thereby receive any such Law as taketh from them the weightiest part of that Sovereignty which they had even when they were Heathens ? whether, being Infidels, they might do more in causes of Religion, than now they can by the Laws of God, being true Believ- ers. For, whereas in Regal States, the King, or Supreme Head of the Commonwealth, had, before Christianity, a supreme stroke in making of Laws for Religion ; he must by embracing Christian Religion utterly deprive himself thereof, and in such causes become subject unto his sub- jects, having even within his own Dominions them whose commandment he must obey ; unless his Power be placed in the hand of some foreign spiritual Potentate : so that either a foreign or domestic Commander upon earth, he must admit more now, than before he had, and that in the chiefest things whereupon Commonwealths do stand. But apparent it is unto all men which are not strangers unto the doctrine of Jesus Christ, that no State of the world receiv- ing Christianity is by any Law therein contained bound to resign the Power which they lawfully held before : but over
book vnr. 431
what persons and in what causes soever the same hath been in force, it may so remain and continue still. That which, as Kings, they might do in matters of Religion, and did in matter of false Religion, being idolatrous and super- stitious Kings, the same they are now even in every respect fully authorized to do in all affairs pertinent to the state of true Christian Religion. And, concerning the supreme t.c. Power of making Laws for all persons in all causes to be J,1^" guided by, it is not to be let pass, that the head enemies of this Headship are constrained to acknowledge the King endued even with this very Power, so that he may and ought to exercise the same, taking order for the Church and her affairs of what nature or kind soever, in case of necessity : as when there is no lawful Ministry, which they interpret then to be (and this surely is a point very remarkable), wheresoever the Ministry is wicked. A wicked Ministry is no lawful Ministry ; and in such sort no lawful Minis- try, that what doth belong unto them as Ministers by right of their calling, the same is annihilated in respect of their bad qualities; their wickedness is itself a deprivation of right to deal in the affairs of the Church, and a warrant for others to deal in them which are held to be of a clean other Society, the members whereof have been before so peremp- torily for ever excluded from Power of dealing with affairs of the Church. They which once have learned thoroughly this lesson, will quickly be capable perhaps of another equivalent unto it. For if the wickedness of the Ministry transfers their right unto the King ; in case the King be as wicked as they, to whom then shall the right descend? There is no remedy, all must come by devolution at length, even as the family of Brown will have it, unto the godly among the people, for confusion unto the wise and the great by the poor and the simple; some Kniperdoling, with his retinue, must take this work of the Lord in hand ; and the making of Church-laws and Orders must prove to be their right in the end. If not for love of the truth, yet for shame of gross absurdities, let these contentions and trifling fancies be abandoned. The Cause which moved them for a time to hold a wicked Ministry no law- ful Ministry ; and, in this defect of a lawful Ministry, au- thorized Kings to make Laws and Orders for the affairs of the Church, till it were well established, is surely this :
432 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
first, they see that, whereas the continual dealings of the Kings of Israel in the affairs of the Church doth make now very strong against them, the burden hereof they shall in time well enough shake off, if it may be obtained, that it is indeed lawful for Kings to follow these holy examples ; howbeit no longer than during the case of necessity, while the wickedness, and, in respect thereof, the unlawfulness of the Ministry doth continue. Secondly, they perceive right well, that unless they should yield Authority unto Kings in case of such supposed necessity, the Discipline they urge were clean excluded, as long as the Clergy of England doth thereunto remain opposite. To open there- fore a door for her entrance, there is no reason but the tenet must be this : that now when the Ministry of England is universally wicked, and, in that respect, hath lost all Au- thorit)', and is become no lawful Ministry, no such Minis- try as hath the right, which otherwise should belong unto them, if they were virtuous and godly, as their adversaries are ; in this necessity the King may do somewhat for the Church: that which we do imply in the name of Headship, he may both have and exercise till they be entered which will disburden and ease him of it ; till they come, the King is licensed to hold that Power which we call Headship. But t.c. what afterward ? In a Church ordereds, that which the Su- pb;9'; preme Magistrate hath to do, is to see that the Laws of God, touching his worship, and touching all matters and orders of the Church, be executed and duly observed ; to see that every Ecclesiastical person do that Office whereunto he is appointed ; to punish those that fail in their Office. In a word, that which Allen himself acknowledged, unto the earthly Power which God hath given him it doth belong to defend the Laws of the Church, to cause them to be exe- cuted, and to punish rebels and transgressors of the same; Apoi.x. on all sides therefore it is confessed, that to the King be- Pag.42°.' longeth Power of maintaining the Laws made for Church- regiment, and of causing them to be observed ; but Princi- pality of Power in making them, which is the thing we attribute unto Kings, this both the one sort and the other do withstand. power Touching the King's supereminent Authority in com- tii manding, and in judging of causes Ecclesiastical ; first, to
it hath been taken as if we
to com- mand
book vr ii. 433
ov
dgcsir
did hold, that Kings may prescribe what themselves think °ver »»
good to be done in (he service of God ; how the Word sha'.l be taught, how the Sacraments administered : that f^X Kings may personally sit in the Consistory where the Bishops do, hearing and determining what causes soever do appertain unto the Church : that Kings and Queens, in their own proper persons, are by judicial sentence to de- cide the questions which do arise about matters of Faith and Christian Religion : that Kings may excommunicate : finally, that Kings may do whatsoever is incident unto the office and duty of an Ecclesiastical Judge. Which opinion, because we account, as absurd, as they who have fathered the same upon us, we do them to wit, that this is our mean- ing, and no otherwise. There is not within this Realm an Ecclesiastical Officer, that may, by the Authority of his own place, command universally throughout the King's domi- nions: but they of this people whom one may command, are to another's commandment unsubject. Only the King's royal Power is of so large a compass, that no man com- manded by him according to the order of Law, can plead himself to be without the bounds and limits of that Autho- rity ; I say, according to order of Law, because with us the highest have thereunto so tied themselves, that otherwise than so, they take not upon them to command any. And, that Kings should be in such sort supreme Commanders over all men, we hold it requisite, as well for the ordering of Spiritual as Civil affairs ; inasmuch as without univer- sal Authority in this kind, they should not be able when need is, to do as virtuous Kings have done. " Josiah, 2 chror purposing to renew the House of the Lord, assembled the *"£ Priests and Levites ; and when they were together, gave them their charge, saying, Go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather of Israel money to repair the House of the Lord from year to year, and haste the things : but the Le- vites hastened not. Therefore the King commanded Je- hoiada, the Chief-priest, and said unto him, Why hast thou not required of the Levites, to bring in out of Judah and Jerusalem, the tax of Moses, the servant of the Lord, and of the congregation of Israel, for the Tabernacle of the tes- timony ? For wicked Athaliah and her children brake up the House of the Lord God, and all the things that were dedicated for the House of the Lord did they bestow upon vol. 11. 2 F
Josh i. 18
434 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
Baalim. Therefore the King commanded, and they made a chest, and set it at the gate of the House of the Lord without ; and they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring unto the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of the Lord laid upon Israel in the wilderness." Could either he have done this, or after him Hezekiah the like concerning the celebration of the Passover, but that all sorts of men in all things did owe unto these their Sovereign Rulers the same obedience which sometimes Joshua had them by vow and promise bound unto ? " Who- soever shall rebel against thy commandments, and will not obey thy words in all thou commandest him, let him be put to death ; only be strong and of a good courage." Furthermore, Judgment Ecclesiastical we say is necessary for decision of controversies rising between man and man, and for cor- rection of faults committed in the affairs of God : unto the due execution whereof there are three things necessary, Laws, Judges, and Supreme Governors of Judgments. What Courts there shall be, and what causes shall belong unto each Court, and what Judges shall determine of every cause, and what order in all judgments shall be kept; of these things the Laws have sufficiently disposed, so that his duty who sitteth in any such Court is to judge, not of, but after, the same Law ; " Imprimis illud observare debet jud!ffic" Judex, ne aliter judicet quam Legibus, Constitutionibus, aut Moribus proditum est, ut Imperator Justinianus ;" which Laws (for we mean the positive Laws of our Realm concerning Ecclesiastical affairs) if they otherwise dispose of any such thing than according to the Law of Reason and of God, we must both acknowledge them to be amiss, and endeavour to have them reformed : but touching that point, what may be objected shall after appear. Our Judges in causes Ecclesiastical are either Ordinary or Commissionary: Ordinary, those whom we term Ordina- ries ; and such, by the Laws of this Land, are none but Pre- lates only, whose Power to do that which they do is in themselves, and belonging to the nature of their Ecclesias- tical calling. In spiritual causes, a Lay-person may be no Ordinary ; a Commissionary Judge there is no let but that he may be ; and that our Laws do evermore refer the or- dinary judgment of spiritual causes unto spiritual persons, such as are termed Ordinaries, no man which knoweth any
Just
book viir. 435
thing of the practice of this Realm can easily be ignorant. Now, besides them which are authorized to judge in seve- ral Territories, there is required a universal Power which reacheth over all, imparting supreme Authority of Govern- ment over all Courts, all Judges, all Causes ; the operation of which Power is as well to strengthen, maintain, and up- hold particular Jurisdictions, which haply might else be of small effect ; as also to remedy that which they are not able to help, and to redress that wherein they at any time do otherwise than they ought to do. This Power being some- time in the Bishop of Rome, who by sinister practices had drawn it into his hands, was for just considerations by public consent annexed unto the King's royal Seat and Crown ; from thence the authors of reformation would translate it into their national Assemblies or Synods; which Synods are the only helps which they think lawful to use against such evils in the Church, as particular Juris- dictions are not sufficient to redress. In which cause our 1 Eliz- Laws have provided, that the King's supereminent Autho- rity and Power shall serve : as namely, when the whole Ecclesiastical state, or the principal persons therein, do need visitation and reformation ; when, in any part of the Church, errors, schisms, heresies, abuses, offences, con- tempts, enormities, are grown ; which men in their seve- ral Jurisdictions either do not, or cannot help : whatso- ever any spiritual Authority and Power (such as Legates from the See of Rome did sometimes exercise) hath done or might heretofore have done for the remedies of those evils in lawful sort (that is to say, without the violation of the Laws of God or Nature in the deed done), as much in every degree our Laws have fully granted that the King for ever may do, not only by setting Ecclesiastical Synods on work, that the thing may be their act and the King their motioner unto it, for so much perhaps the masters of the reformation will grant ; but by commissioners few or many, who having the King's Letters Patent, may in the virtue thereof execute the premises as agents in the right, not of their own peculiar and ordinary, but of his super- eminent, Power. When men are wronged by inferior Judges, or have any just cause to take exception against them; their way for redress is to make their appeal; an appeal is a present delivery of him which maketh it 2f2
Machia- vel. Hist Florent. lib. i. [p.C7.ed
VIII c.19
436 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
out of the hands of their Power and Jurisdiction from whence it is made. Pope Alexander having sometimes the King of England at advantage, caused him, amongst other things, to agree, that as many of his subjects as would, might have appeal to the Court of Rome. " And thus (saith one) that whereunto a mean person at this day would scorn to submit himself, so great a King was con- Argent, tent to be subject to. Notwithstanding, even when the Pope (saith he) had so great Authority amongst Princes which were far off, the Romans he could not frame to obe- dience, nor was able to obtain that himself might abide at Rome, though promising not to meddle with other than Ecclesiastical affairs." So much are things that terrify more feared by such as behold them aloof off than at hand. Reformers I doubt not in some causes will admit appeals, but appeals made to their Synods ; even as the Church of Rome doth allow of them so they be made to the Bishop 25 Hen. of Rome. As for that kind of appeal which the English Laws do approve from the Judge of any certain particular Court unto the King, as the only Supreme Governor on earth, who by his delegates may give a final definitive sen- tence, from which no further appeal can be made; will their Platform allow of this ? Surely, forasmuch as in that estate which they all dream of, the whole Church must be divided into Parishes, in which none can have greater or less Authority and Power than another ; again, the King himself must be but a common member in the body of his own Parish, and the causes of that only Parish must be by the Officers thereof determinable ; in case the King had so much favour or preferment, as to be made one of those Officers (for otherwise by their positions he were not to meddle any more than the meanest amongst his subjects with the judgment of any Ecclesiastical cause), how is it possible they should allow of appeals to be made from any other abroad to the King ? To receive appeals from all other Judges, belongeth to the highest in Power of all, and to be in Power over all (as touching judgment in Ecclesiastical causes), this, as they think, belongeth only to Synods. Whereas therefore, with us Kings do exercise over all things, persons, and causes, supreme Power, both of voluntary and litigious Jurisdictions; so that according to the one they incite, reform, and command ; according to
book viir. 437
the other, they judge universally, doing both in far other sort than such as have ordinary Spiritual Power ; oppugned we are herein by some colourable show of argument, as if to grant thus much to any secular person it were unrea- sonable : " For sith it is (say they) apparent out of the t- c. Chronicles, that judgment in Church-matters pertaineth to p.m. God ; seeing likewise it is evident out of the Apostles, that l^%oa' the High-priest is set over those matters in God's behalf; Heb- it must needs follow that the principality or direction of the judgment of them is, by God's Ordinance, appertaining to the High-priest, and consequently to the Ministry of the Church: and if it be by God's Ordinance appertaining unto them, how can it be translated from them to the Civil Magistrate ?" Which argument, briefly drawn into form, lieth thus : — That which belongeth unto God, may not be translated unto any other but whom he hath appointed to have it in his behalf; but Principality of Judgment in Church-matters appertaineth unto God, which hath ap- pointed the High-priest, and consequently the Ministry of the Church alone, to have it in his behalf; ergo, it may not from them be translated to the Civil Magistrate. The first of which propositions we grant, as also in the second that branch which ascribeth unto God Principality in Church- matters. But, that either he did appoint none but only the High-priest to exercise the said Principality for him ; or that the Ministry of the Church may in reason from thence be concluded to have alone the same Principality by his appointment, these two points we deny utterly. For, concerning the High-priest, there is, first, no such Ordinance of God to be found ; " Every High-priest (saith Heb. the Apostle) is taken from amongst men, and is ordained v' u for men in things pertaining to God ;" whereupon it may well be gathered, that the Priest was indeed ordained of God to have Power in things appertaining unto God. For the Apostle doth there mention the Power of offering gifts and sacrifices for sin ; which kind of Power was not only given of God unto Priests, but restrained unto Priests only. The Power of Jurisdiction and ruling Authority, this also God gave them, but not them alone. For it is held, as all men know, that others of the Laity were herein joined by the Law with them. But, concerning Principality in Church-affairs (for of this our question is, and of no other),,
438 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
the Priest neither had it alone, nor at all, but in Spiritual or Church-affairs (as hath been already shewed) it was the lloyal prerogative of Kings only. Again, though it were so, that God had appointed the High-priest to have the said Principality of Government in those matters ; yet how can they who allege this, enforce thereby, that conse- quently the Ministry of the Church, and no other, ought to have the same, when they are so far off from allowing so much to the Ministry of the Gospel, as the Priesthood of the Law had by God's appointment, that we but collecting thereout a difference in Authority and Jurisdiction amongst the Clergy, to be for the Polity of the Church not inconve- nient ; they forthwith think to close up our mouths by an- swering, "That the Jewish High-priest had Authority above the rest, only in that they prefigured the Sovereignty of Jesus Christ; as for the Ministers of the Gospel, it is altogether unlawful to give them as much as the least title, any syllable whereof may sound to Principality V And of the Regency which may be granted, they hold others even of the Laity no less capable than the Pastors themselves. How shall these things cleave together ? The truth is, that they have some reason to think it not at all of the fittest for Kings to sit as ordinary Judges in matters of Faith and Religion. An ordinary Judge must be of the quality which in a supreme Judge is not necessary : because the person of the one is charged with that which the other Authority dischargeth, without employing personally himself therein. It is an error to think, that the King's Authority can have no force nor power in the doing of that which himself may not personally do. For first, impossible it is that at one and the same time, the King in person should order so many and so different affairs, as by his own Power every where present are wont to be ordered both in peace and war, at home and abroad. Again, the King in regard of his Non- age or Minority may be unable to perform that thing wherein years of discretion are requisite for personal action ; and yet his Authority even then be of force. For Wilich cause we say, that the King's Authority dieth not, but is, and worketh, always alike. Sundry considerations there may be effectual to withhold the King's person from being a doer of that which notwithstanding his Power must give force unto, even in Civil affairs ; where nothing doth
book viii. 439
more either concern the duty, or better beseem the majesty of Kings, than personally to administer justice to their people (as most famous Princes have done) : yet if it be in case of Felony or Treason, the learned in the Law of this Realm do affirm, that well may the King commit his Au- stamf. thority to another to judge between him and the offender ; afB^e but the King being himself there a party, he cannot per- ]Cr°wn> sonally sit to give judgment. c 3.
As therefore the person of the King may, for just consi- derations, eveu where the cause is Civil, be notwithstand- ing withdrawn from occupying the Seat of Judgment, and others under his Authority be fit, he unfit himself to judge ; so the considerations for which it were haply not conve- nient for Kings to sit and give sentence in Spiritual Courts, where causes Ecclesiastical are usually debated, can be no bar to that force and efficacy which their sovereign Power hath over those very Consistories, and for which we hold, without any exception, that all Courts are the King's. All men are not for all things sufficient, and therefore pub- lic affairs being divided, such persons must be authorized Judges in each kind, as common reason may presume to be most fit: which cannot of Kings and Princes ordinarily be presumed in causes merely Ecclesiastical ; so that even common sense doth rather adjudge this burden unto other men. We see it hereby a thing necessary, to put a differ- ence, as well between that Ordinary Jurisdiction which be- longeth unto the Clergy alone, and that Commissionary wherein others are for just considerations appointed to join with them; as also between both these Jurisdictions, and a third, whereby the King hath transcendent Authority, 'and that in all causes over both. Why this may not lawfully be granted unto him there is no reason. A time there was when Kings were not capable of any such Power, as, namely, when they professed themselves open enemies unto Christ and Christianity. A time there followed, when they, being capable, took sometimes more, sometimes less, to them- selves, as seemed best in their own eyes, because no cer- tainty, touching their right, was as yet determined. The Bishops, who alone were before accustomed to have the ordering of such affairs, saw very just cause of grief, when the highest, favouring Heresy, withstood, by the strength of sovereign Authority, religious proceedings. Where-
440 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
upon they oftentimes, against this irresistible Power, plead- ed the use and custom which had been to the contrary ; namely, that the affairs of the Church should be dealt in by the Clergy, and by no other ; unto which purpose, the sen- tences that then were uttered in defence of unabolished Or- ders and Laws, against such as did of their own heads con- trary thereunto, are now altogether impertinently brought in opposition against them, who use but that Power which Laws have given them, unless men can shew that there is in those Laws some manifest iniquity or injustice. Whereas T- c- therefore against the force Judicial and Imperial, which su- p*. 155. preme Authority hath, itis alleged, how Constantine termeth Euseb. Church-officers, " Overseers of things within the Church," himself, ''of those without the Church;" how Augustine witnesseth, that the Emperor not daring to judge of the [c. 84.] Bishop's cause, committed it to the Bishops ; and was to crave pardon of the Bishops, for that by the Donatists' importunity, which made no end of appealing unto him, ep.i"66. he was, being weary of them, drawn to give sentence in a
[al. 105
de Vit Con- stant.
Aue.
[al. 43 7.]
[Hilar, ad Con stant.
j. 16.]
matter of theirs ; how Hilary beseecheth the Emperor Constance to provide that the Governors of his Provinces should not presume to take upon them the judgment of $."ij Ecclesiastical causes, to whom only Commonwealth-mat- Ambros. ters belonged ; how Ambrose affirmeth, that Palaces be- fp.b33." l°n» unto tne Emperor, Churches to the Ministry ; that the [ai.^o. Emperor hath the Authority over the common walls of the city, and not in holy things ; for which cause he never would yield to have the causes of the Church debated in the Prince's Consistories, but excused himself to the Em- peror Valentinian, for that being convented to answer concerning Church-matters in a Civil Court, he came not : we may by these testimonies drawn from antiquity, if we list to consider them, discern how requisite it is that Au- thority should always follow received Laws in the manner of proceeding. For, inasmuch as there was at the first no certain Law determining what force the principal Civil Magistrate's Authority should be of, how far it should reach, and what order it should observe ; but Christian Em- perors from time to time did what themselves thought most reasonable in those affairs ; by this means it cometh to pass that they in their practice vary, and are not uniform. Virtuous Emperors, such as Constantine the Great was,
BOOK VIII. 441
made conscience to swerve unnecessarily from the custom which had been used in the Church, even when it lived un- der Infidels; Constantine, of reverence to Bishops and their spiritual Authority, rather abstained from that which himself might lawfully do, than was willing to claim a Power not fit or decent for him to exercise. The Order which hath been before, he ratifieth, exhorting the Bishops to look to the Church, and promising that he would do the office of a Bishop over the Commonwealth ; which very Constantine notwithstanding, did not thereby so renounce all Authority in judging of especial causes, but that some- time he iook, as St. Augustine witnesseth, even personal cognition of them ; howbeit, whether as purposing to give therein judicially any sentence, I stand in doubt. For if the other, of whom St. Augustine elsewhere speaketh, did in such sort judge, surely there was cause why he should ex- cuse it as a thing not usually done. Otherwise there is no let, but that any such great person may hear those causes to and fro debated, and deliver in the end his own opinion of them, declaring on which side himself doth judge that the truth is. But this kind of sentence bindeth no side to stand thereunto ; it is a sentence of private persuasion, and not of solemn Jurisdiction, albeit a King or an Em- peror pronounce it. Again, on the contrary part, when Governors infected with Heresy were possessed of the highest Power, they thought they might use it as it pleased themselves, to further by all means that opinion which they desired should prevail ; they, not respecting at all what was meet, presumed to Command and judge all men in all causes, without either care of orderly proceeding, or regard to such Laws and Customs as the Church had been wont to observe. So that the one sort feared to do even that which they might; and that which the other ought not, they boldly presumed upon ; the one sort of modesty ex- cused themselves where they scarce needed; the other, though doing that which is inexcusable, bare it out with main power, not enduring to be told by any man how far they roved beyond their bounds. So great odds was be- tween them whom before we mentioned, and such as the younger Valentinian, by whom St. Ambrose being com- manded to yield up one of the Churches under him unto the Arians, whereas they which were sent on his message
442 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
alleged, that the Emperor did but use his own right, foras- much as all things were in his Power; the answer which the holy Bishop gave them was, " That the Church is the House of God, and that those things that are God's are not to be yielded up, and disposed of at the Emperor's will and pleasure ; his Palaces he might grant to whomso- ever he pleaseth, but God's own habitation not so." A cause why many times Emperors do more by their abso- lute Authority than could very well stand with reason, was the over-great importunity of wicked Heretics, who, being enemies to peace and quietness, cannot otherwise than by violent means be supported.
In this respect therefore we must needs think the state of our own Church much better settled than theirs was ; be- cause our Laws have with far more certainty prescribed bounds unto each kind of Power. All decision of things doubtful, and correction of things amiss, are proceeded in by order of Law, what person soever he be unto whom the administration of judgment belongeth. It is neither per- mitted unto Prelates nor Prince to judge and determine at their own discretion, but Law hath prescribed what both shall do. What Power the King hath, he hath it by Law, the bounds and limits of it are known; the entire commu- nity giveth general order by Law, how all things publickly are to be done, and the King, as the Head thereof, the highest in Authority over all, causeth, according to the same Law, every particular to be framed and ordered thereby. The whole Body politic maketh Laws, which Laws give Power unto the King ; and the King having bound himself to use according unto Law that Power, it so falleth out, that the execution of the one is accomplished by the other in most religious and peaceable sort. There is no cause given unto any to make supplication, as Hilary did, that Civil Governors, to whom Commonwealth-mat- ters only belong, may not presume to take upon them the judgment of Ecclesiastical causes. If the cause be spi- ritual, Secular Courts do not meddle with it : we need not excuse ourselves with Ambrose, but boldly and lawfully we may refuse to answer before any Civil Judge in a mat- ter which is not Civil, so that we do not mistake either the nature of the cause or of the Court, as we easily may do both, without some better direction than can be by the
book viii. 443
Rules of this new-found Discipline. But of this most cer- tain we are, that our Laws do neither suffer a Spiritual Court* to entertain those causes which by the Law are Civil ; nor yet, if the matter be indeed Spiritual, a mere Civil Court to give judgment of it. Touching supreme Power, therefore, to command all men, and in all manner of causes of judgment to be highest, let thus much suffice as well for declaration of our own meaning, as for defence of the truth therein.
The cause is not like when such Assemblies are gathered together by supreme Authority concerning other affairs of the Church, and when they meet about the making of Ec- clesiastical Laws or Statutes. For in the one they are only to advise, in the other to decree. The persons which are of the one, the King doth voluntarily assemble, as being in respect of quality fit to consult withal ; them which are of the other he calleth by prescript of Law, as having right to be thereunto called. Finally, the one are but them- selves, and their sentence hath but the weight of their own judgment; the other represent the whole Clergy, and their voices are as much as if all did give personal verdict. Now the question is, whether the Clergy alone so assem- bled ought to have the whole Power of making Ecclesias- tical Laws, or else consent of the Laity may thereunto be made necessary, and the King's assent so necessary that his sole denial may be of force to stay them from being Laws.
If they with whom we dispute were uniform, strong, what and constant in that which they say, we should not need Laws
* » may be
to trouble ourselves about their persons, to whom the m^e for power of making Laws for the Church belongs. ForStorf they are sometime very vehement in contention^that from £°nrch the greatest thing unto the least about the Church, all and t0
* See the Statute of Ed. I. and Ed. II. and Nat. Brev. touching prohibition. See also in Bracton these sentences, lib. v. cap. 2. ' Est jurisdictio ordinaria quaedam delegata, quas pertinet ad Sacerdotium, et Forum Ecclesiasticum, sicut in causis Spiritualibus et Spiritualitati annexis. Est etiam alia jurisdictio ordinaria vel de- legata, qua; pertinet ad Coronam, et Dignitatem Regis, et ad Regnum in causis et placitis rerum temporalium in Foro Seculari.' Again : * Cum diveisse sintbinc inde jurisdictiones, et diversi judices, et diversaj causae, debet quilibet ipsorum impri- mis a;stimare, an sua sit jurisdictio, ne falcem videatur ponere in messem alienam.' Again : ' Non pertinet ad Regem injungere poenitentias, nee ad Judicem Secula- rem ; nee etiam ad eos pertinet cognoscere de iis, quae sunt Spiritualibus annexa, sicut de Decimis et aliis Ecclesis proventionibus.' Again : ' Non est Laicus con- veniendus coram Judice Ecclesiastico de aliquo, quod in Foro Seculari terminari possit et debeat.'
l.ii
quaes 108. art. 2,
444 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
whom must needs be immediately from God. And to this they power of apply the pattern of the ancient Tabernacle which God making delivered unto Moses, and was therein so exact, that
them ap- pertain, there was not left as much as the least pin for the wit of
man to devise in the framing of it. To this they also apply that strait and severe charge which God so often Deut. gave concerning his own Law, " Whatsoever I command *h.s2. you, take heed ye do it; thou shalt put nothing thereto, *°*h> thou shalt take nothing from it ;" nothing, whether it be great or small. Yet sometimes bethinking themselves better, they speak as acknowledging that it doth suffice to have received in such sort the principal things from God, and that for other matters the Church had sufficient Autho- rity to make Laws. Whereupon they now have made it a question, what persons they are whose right it is to take order for the Church's affairs, when the institution of any Thom. new thing therein is requisite ? Law may be requisite to be made, either concerning things that are only to be known and believed in, or else touching that which is to be done by the Church of God. The Law of Nature and the Law of God are sufficient for declaration in both what belongeth unto each man separately, as his soul is the spouse of Christ ; yea, so sufficient, that they plainly and fully shew whatsoever God doth require by way of necessary introduction unto the state of everlasting bliss. But as a man liveth joined with others in common society, and belongeth to the outward politic Body of the Church, albeit the same Law of Nature and Scripture have in this respect also made manifest the things that are of greatest necessity ; nevertheless, by reason of new occasions still arising, which the Church, having care of souls, must take order for as need requireth, thereby it cometh to pass, that there is, and ever will be, so great use even of human Laws and Ordinances, deducted by way of discourse as a conclusion from the former divine and natural, serving as principles thereunto. No man doubteth, but that for matters of action and practice in the affairs of God, for manner in Divine Service, for order in Ecclesiastical pro- ceedings about the Regiment of the Church, there may be oftentimes cause very urgent to have Laws made : but the reason is not so plain, wherefore human Laws should ap- point men what to believe. Wherefore in this we must
book vrn. 445
note two things : 1. That in matters of opinion, the Law doth not make that to be truth which before was not, as in matter of action it causeth that to be a duty which was not before ; but manifesteth only and giveth men notice of that to be truth, the contrary whereunto they ought not be- fore to have believed. 2. That opinions do cleave to the understanding, and are in heart assented unto, it is not in the power of any human Law to command them, because to prescribe what men shall think belongeth only unto God : " Corde creditur, ore fit Confessio," saith the Apo- stle. As opinions are either fit or inconvenient to be pro- fessed, so man's Laws have to determine of them. It may, for public unity's sake, require men's professed assent, or prohibit their contradiction to special articles, wherein, as there haply hath been controversy what is true, so the same were like to continue still, not without grievous detriment unto a number of souls, except Law, to remedy that evil, should set down a certainty which no man afterwards is to gainsay. Wherefore, as in regard of divine Laws, which the Church receiveth from God, we may unto every man apply those words of wisdom in Solomon, " My son, keep Prov. thou thy father's Precepts ; Conserva, fili mi, Prascepta V1* 20c patris tui :" even so concerning the Statutes and Ordi- nances which the Church itself makes, we may add there- unto the words that follow, " Et ne dimittas Legem matris tuae, And forsake thou not thy mother's Law."
It is a thing even undoubtedly natural, that all free and independent Societies should themselves make their own Laws, and that this Power should belong to the whole, not to any certain part of a politic Body, though haply some one part may have greater sway in that action than the rest ; which thing being generally fit and expedient in the making of all Laws, we see no cause why to think other- wise in Laws concerning the Service of God, which in all well-ordered States and Commonwealths is the first thing that Law hath care to provide for.* "When we speak of the right which naturally belongeth to a Commonwealth,
* As~ tov vs'juov ra Trepj ©sou? Jtal Sai^ovaj Kal yovlttj, xal o\a>? t« jcaAa h rifxia, VfiZra TiBi^Bar SsuTfgcv &£ to. <?VfJ.4?kpo-na.% t« yap /uixpi to~s y.ei(oTiV axohov^lTv ■jr^oirnx.Ei. Archit. de leg. et instit. That is, It behoveth tbe Law first to establish or settle those things which belong to the gods, and divine powers, and to our parents, and universally those things which be virtuous and honourable : in the second place, those things that be convenient and profitable ; for it is fit that matters of the less weight should come after the greater.
.7.
13- C3
446 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
we speak of that which must needs belong to the Church of God. For if the Commonwealth be Christian, if the people which are of it do publickly embrace the true Reli- gion, this very thing doth make it the Church, as hath been shewed. So that unless the verity and purity of Religion do take from them which embrace it, that Power wherewith otherwise they are possessed ; look what Authority, as touching Laws for Religion, a Commonwealth hath simply, it must of necessity retain the same, being of the Christian Religion.
It will be therefore perhaps alleged, that a part of the verity of Christian Religion is to hold the Power of making Ecclesiastical Laws a thing appropriated unto the Clergy in their Synods ; and whatsoever is by their only voices agreed upon, it needeth no further approbation to give unto it the strength of a Law, as may plainly appear by the Canons of that first most venerable Assembly : Acts where, those things the Apostles and James had conclud- ed, were afterwards published and imposed upon the Churches of the Gentiles abroad as Laws, the records thereof remaining still in the Book of God for a testimony, that the Power of making Ecclesiastical Laws belongeth to the Prelates of the Church of God.
To this we answer, that the Council of Jerusalem is no argument for the Power of the Clergy to make Laws. For first, there has not been sithence any Council of like Au- thority to that in Jerusalem : secondly, the cause why that was of such Authority came by a special accident : thirdly, the reason why other Councils being not like unto that in nature, the Clergy in them should have no Power to make Laws by themselves alone, is in truth so forcible, that except some commandment of God to the contrary can be shewed, it ought notwithstanding the aforesaid example to prevail.
The Decrees of the Council of Jerusalem were not as the Canons of other Ecclesiastical Assemblies, human, but very divine Ordinances : for which cause the Churches were far and wide commanded every where to see them kept, no otherwise than if Christ himself had personally on earth been the author of them. The cause why that Council was of so great Authority and Credit above all others which have been sithence, is expressed in those words of principal observation, ei Unto the Holy Ghost
book viii. 447
and to us it hath seemed good :" which form of speech, though other Councils have likewise used, yet neither could they themselves mean, nor may we so understand them, as if both were in equal sort assisted with the Power of the Holy Ghost ; but the latter had the favour of that Matt:
J ' xxvm. 20.
general assistance and presence which Christ doth pro- mise unto all his, according to the quality of their several estates and callings ; the former, the grace of special, miraculous, rare, and extraordinary illumination, in rela- tion whereunto the Apostle, comparing the Old Testament e.c°r- and the New together, termeth the one a Testament of the '"' Letter, for that God delivered it written in stone; the other, a Testament of the Spirit, because God imprinted it in the hearts, and declared it by the tongues of his chosen Apo- stles, through the power of the Holy Ghost, framing both their conceits and speeches in most divine and incompre- hensible manner. Wherefore, inasmuch as the Council of Jerusalem did chance to consist of men so enlightened, it had Authority greater than were meet for any other Council besides to challenge, wherein such kind of per- sons are, as now the state of the Church doth stand; Kings being not then that which now they are, and the Clergy not now that which then they were. Till it be proved that some special Law of Christ hath for ever an- nexed unto the Clergy alone the Power to make Ecclesi- astical Laws, we are to hold it a thing most consonant with equity and reason, that no Ecclesiastical Laws be made in a Christian Commonwealth, without consent as well of the Laity as of the Clergy, but least of all without consent of the highest Power.
For of this thing no man doubteth, namely, that in all cap. Societies, Companies, and Corporations, what severally de excess. each shall be bound unto, it must be with all their assents Lra2eartor ratified. Against all equity it were, that a man should f^dum suffer detriment at the hands of men, for not observing that prsd.'et' which he never did, either by himself or by others, medi- j£^ ately or immediately, agree unto ; much more that a King de rerum should constrain all others to the strict observation of any such human Ordinance as passeth without his own appro- bation. In this case therefore especially, that vulgar axiom is of force, " Quod omnes tangit, ab omnibus tractari et approbari debet." Whereupon Pope Nicholas, although
448 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
otherwise not admitting Lay-persons, no not Emperors themselves, to be present at Synods, doth notwithstanding seem to allow of their presence when matters of Faith are gioss. determined whereunto all men must stand bound : " Ubinam xcvi'. c. legistis Imperatores, antecessores vestros, Synodalibus ubiuam. Conventibus interfuisse ; nisi forsitan in quibus de Fide tractatum est, quas non solum ad Clericos, verum etiam ad Laicos et omnes pertinet Christianos ?" A Law, be it Civil or Ecclesiastical, is a public obligation, wherein, seeing that the whole standeth charged, no reason it should pass with- out his privity and will, whom principally the whole doth Extra depend upon. " Sicut Laici jurisdictionem Clericorum per- dfcNo. turbare, ita Clerici jurisdictionem Laicorum non debent Vlt minuere ;" saith Tnnocentius, " As the Laity should not hinder the Clergy's jurisdiction, so neither is it reason that the Laity's right should be abridged by the Clergy," saith Pope Innocent. But were it so that the Clergy alone might give Laws unto all the rest, forasmuch as every estate doth desire to enlarge the bounds of their own liberties, is it not easy to see how injurious this might prove to men of other conditions? Peace and justice are maintained by preserv- ing unto every order their right, and by keeping all estates, as it were, in an even balance. Which thing is no way better done, than if the King, their common parent, whose care is presumed to extend most indifferently over all, do bear the chiefest sway in making Laws which all must be ordered by. Wherefore, of them which in this point attri- bute most to the Clergy, I would demand, what evidence there is whereby it may clearly be shewed, that, in ancient Kingdoms Christian, any Canon devised by the Clergy alone in their Synods, whether Provincial, National, or General, hath by mere force of their agreement, taken place as a Law, making all men constrainable to be obe- dient thereunto, without any other approbation from the King, before or afterwards required in that behalf? But what speak we of ancient Kingdoms, when at this day, even Boet. the Papacy itself, the very Tridental Council hath not heroic, every where as yet obtained to have in all points the qU*st. strength of Ecclesiastical Laws. Did not Philip, King of sect. Spain, publishing that Council in the Low Countries, add thereunto an express clause of special provision, that the same should in no wise prejudice, hurt, or diminish, any
•j;;i.
book viii. 449
kind of privilege which the King or his vassals aforetime had enjoyed, touching either possessory Judgments of Ec- clesiastical Livings, or concerning Nominations thereunto, or belonging to whatsoever right they had else in such af- fairs? If therefore the King's exception, taken against some part of the Canons contained in that Council, were a sufficient bar to make them of none effect within his terri- tories ; it follows that the like exception against any other part had been also of like efficacy, and so consequently that no part thereof had obtained the strength of a Law, if he which excepted against a part had so done against the whole. As, what reason was there, but that the same Au- thority which limited, might quite and clean have refused that Council? Whoso allovveth the said act of the Catholic King's for good and lawful, must grant that the Canons, even of General Councils, have but the face of wise men's opinions concerning that whereof they treat, till they be publickly assented unto, where they are to take place as Laws ; and that, in giving such public assent as maketh a Christian Kingdom subject unto those Laws, the King's Authority is the chiefest. That which a University of men, a Company, a Corporation, doth without consent of their Rector, is as nothing. Except, therefore, we make the King's Authority over the Clergy less in the greatest things, than the Power of the meanest Governor is in all things over the College or Society which is under him ; how should we think it a matter decent, that the Clergy should impose Laws, (he Supreme Governor's assent not asked ?
Yea, that which is more, the Laws thus made, God him- self doth in such sort authorize, that to despise them, is to despise in them, him. It is a loose and licentious opinion, which the Anabaptists have embraced, holding that a Christian man's liberty is lost, and the soul which Christ hath redeemed unto himself injuriously drawn into servi- tude under the yoke of human Power, if any Law be now imposed besides the Gospel of Christ ; in obedience where- unto the Spirit of God, and not the constraint of men, is to lead us, according to that of the blessed Apostle, " Such [fc°m. as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God, vi"' "'] and not such as live in thraldom" unto men. Their judg- ment is, therefore, that the Church of Christ should admit of no Lawmakers but the Evangelists, no Courts but Presby-
vol. II. 2 G
450 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
teries, no punishments but Ecclesiastical censures. Against this sort, we are to maintain the use of human Laws, and the continual necessity of making them from time to time, as long as this present world doth last; so likewise the Au- thority of Laws so made doth need much more by us to be strengthened against another sort, who, although they do not utterly condemn the making of Laws in the Church, yet make they a deal less account of them than they should do. There are which think simply of human Laws, that they can in no sort touch the conscience, that to break and transgress them cannot make men in the sight of God culpable, as sin doth; only when we violate such Laws, we do thereby make ourselves obnoxious unto external punishment in this world, so that the Magistrate may, in regard of such offence committed, justly correct the offender, and cause him, without injury, to endure such pains as Law doth appoint, but further it reacheth not. For first, the conscience is the proper court of God, the guiltiness thereof is sin, and the punishment eternal death; men are not able to make any Law that shall command the heart, it is not in them to make inward conceit a crime, or to appoint for any crime other punishment than corporal ; their Laws, therefore, can have no power over the soul, neither can the heart of man be polluted by transgressing them. St. Augustine rightly defincth sin to be that which is spoken, done, or desired, not against any Laws, but against the Law of the living God. The Law of God is proposed unto man, as a glass wherein to behold the stains and the spots of their sinful souls : by it they are to judge themselves, and when they feel themselves to have trans- gressed against it, then to bewail their offences with David, [Psai. « Against thee only, O Lord, have I sinned, and done wick- edly in thy sight;" that so our present tears may extin- guish the flames, which otherwise we are to feel, and which God in that day shall condemn the wicked unto, when they shall render account of the evil which they have done, not by violating Statute-Laws and Canons, but by disobedience unto his Law and his Word.
For our better instruction, therefore, concerning this
Pet point, first we must note, that the Law of God itself doth
ii. 13. require at our hands subjection. " Be ye subject/' saith
fiuTij St. Peter ; and St. Paul, " Let every soul be subject; sub-
BOOK VIII. 451
ject all unto such Powers as are set over us." For if such as are not set over us require our subjection, we by deny- ing it are not disobedient to the Law of God, or undutiful unto higher Powers ; because, though they be such in re- gard of them over whom they have lawful Dominion, yet having not so over us, unto us they are not such.* Sub- jection, therefore, we owe, and that by the Law of God ; we are in conscience bound to yield it even unto every of them that hold the Seats of Authority and Power in relation unto us. Howbeit, not all kinds of subjection unto every such kind of Power. Concerning Scribes and Pharisees, our Saviour's precept was, " Whatsoever they shall tell [Matt. ye, do it:" was it his meaning, that if they should at any XX1"-3,1 time enjoin the people to levy any army, or to sell their lands and goods for the furtherance of so great an enter- jjrize ; and, in a word, that simply whatsoever it were which they did command, they ought, without any excep- tion, forthwith to be obeyed? No, but whatsoever they shall tell you, must be understood in pertinentibus ad Cathedram, it must be construed with limitation, and re- strained unto things of that kind which did belong to their Place and Power : for they had not Power general, abso- solutely given ihem to command all things. The reason why we are bound in conscience to be subject unto all such power is, because all " Powers are of God."
They are of God either instituting or permitting them. Power is then of divine institution, when either God him- self doth deliver, or men by light of Nature find out, the kind thereof. So that the Power of parents over children, and of husbands over their wives, the Power of all sorts of superiors, made by consent of Commonwealths within themselves, or grown from agreement amongst Nations, such Power is of God's own institution in respect of the kind thereof. Again, if respect be had unto those parti- cular persons to whom the same is derived, if they either receive it immediately from God, as Moses and Aaron did ; or from Nature, as parents do ; or from men by a natural and orderly course, as every Governor appointed
* ' Verum ac proprium civis a peregrino discrimen est, quod alter imperio ac potestate civili obligatur; alter jussa Principis alieni respuere potest. Ilium Princeps ab hostium aeque ac civiura injuria tueri tenetur ; hunc non item nisi rogatus et humanitatis officiis impulsus,' saitb Bodin. de Rep. lib. i. cap. 6. non multum a fine p. 61. edit. Lugd. B. in fol. 1586.
2 g 2
[Rom. xiii. 1.
452 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
in any Commonwealth, by the order thereof, doth : then is not the kind of their Power only of God's instituting, but the derivation thereof also into their persons, is from him. He hath placed them in their Rooms, and doth term them his Ministers; subjection, therefore, is due unto all such Powers, inasmuch as they are of God's own institution, even then when they are of man's creation, omni humance creaturce : which things the Heathens themselves do ac- knowledge.
As for them that exercise Power altogether against Order, although the kind of power which they have may be of God, yet is their exercise thereof against God, and there- fore not of God, otherwise than by permission, as all in- justice is.
Touching such acts as are done by that Power which is according to his institution, that God in like sort doth au- thorize them, and account them to be his; though it were not confessed, it might be proved undeniably. For if that be accounted our deed, which others do, whom we have appointed to be our agents, how should God but approve those deeds, even as his own, which are done by virtue of q- that commission and power which he hath given. " Take heed (saith Jehoshaphat to his Judges), be careful and cir- cumspect what ye do ; ye do not execute the judgments of man, but of the Lord." The Authority of Caesar over the Jews, from whence was it ? Had it any other ground than the Law of Nations, which maketh Kingdoms, subdued by just war, to be subject unto their conquerors ? By this Power Caesar exacting tribute, our Saviour confesseth it to be his right, a right which could not be withheld without injury, yea disobedience herein unto him, and even rebel- lion against God. Usurpers of Power, whereby we do not mean them that by violence have aspired unto places of highest Authority, but them that use more Authority than they did ever receive inform and manner before mentioned (for so they may do, whose title to the Rooms of Authority which they possess, no man can deny to be just and lawful : even as contrariwise some men's proceedings in Govern-
* A sceptre-swaying King, to whom even Jupiter himself hatb given power and commandment. Horn. 11. lib. A. [ver. 279.]
BOOK VIII.
453
ment have been very orderly, who notwithstanding did not attain to be made Governors without great violence and disorder); such usurpers thereof, as in the exercise of their Power do more than they have been authorized to do, can- not in conscience biud any man unto obedience.
That subjection which we owe unto lawful Powers, doth not only import that we should be under them by order of our state, but that we shew all submission towards them both by honour and obedience. He that resisteth them, resisteth God : and resisted they be, if either the Authority itself which they exercise be denied, as by Anabaptists all secular Jurisdictions ; or if resistance be made but only so far forth as doth touch their persons which are invested with Power (for they which said, Nolumus hunc regnare, did not utterly exclude Regiment ; nor did they wish all kind of Government clearly removed, which would not at the first have David to govern) ; or if that which they do by virtue of their Power, namely, their Laws, Edicts, Ser- vices, or other acts of Jurisdiction, be not suffered to take effect, contrary to the blessed Apostle's most holy Rule, " Obey them who have the oversight of you." Or if they n>b. do take effect, yet is not the will of God thereby satisfied x,li' neither, as long as that which we do is contemptuously or repiningly done, because we can do no otherwise. In such sort the Israelites in the Desert obeyed Moses, and were notwithstanding deservedly plagued for disobedience. The Apostle's Precept therefore is, " Be subject even for God's cause; be subject, not for fear, but of mere con- science, knowing, that he which resisteth them, purchaseth to himself condemnation." Disobedience, therefore, unto Laws which are made by them, is not a thing of so small account as some would make it.
Howbeit, too rigorous it were, that the breach of every human Law should be held a deadly sin : a mean there is between these extremities, if so be we can find it out.
SUPPLICATION, &c.
TO THE READER.
The pleasures of thy spacious walks in Mr. Hooker's Temple-garden (not unfitly so called, both for the Temple whereof he was Master, and the subject, Ecclesiastical Polity) do promise acceptance to these flowers, planted and watered by the same hand, and, for thy sake, composed into this posy. Sufficiently are they commended by their fragrant smell, in the dogmatical truth ; by their beautiful colours, in the accurate style ; by their medicinable vir- tue, against some diseases in our neighbour Churches, now proving epidemical, and threatening farther infection ; by their straight feature and speading nature, growing from the root of Faith (which, as here is proved, can never be rooted up), and extending the branches of charity to the covering of Noah's nakedness; opening the windows of hope to men's misty conceits of their bemisted forefathers. Thus, and more than thus, do the Works commend them- selves : the workman needs a better workman to commend him (Alexander's picture requires Appelles's pencil); nay, he needs it not, His own Works commend him in the gates ; and, being dead he yet speaketh ; the syllables of that memo- able name, Mr. Richard Hooker, proclaiming more, than if I should here style him, a painful Student, a profound Scholar, a judicious Writer, with other due titles of his honour. Receive then this posthume Orphan for his own, yea, for thine own sake ; and if the Printer hath, with over- much haste, like Mephibosheth's nurse, lamed the child with slips and falls, yet be thou of David's mind, shew kindness to him for his father Jonathan's sake. God grant, that the
CONTENTS. 455
rest of his brethren be not more than lamed, and that as Saul's three sons died the same day with him, so those three promised to perfect his Polity, with other issues of that learned brain, be not buried in the grave with their re- nowned Father. Farewell.
W. S.
The contents of the Treatises following.
I. A Supplication made to the Council by Master Walter
Travers.
II. Master Hooker's Answer to the Supplication that Master
Travers made to the Council.
III. A learned Discourse of Justification, Works, and how
the Foundation of Faith is overthrown.
IV. A learned Sermon of the Nature of Pride.
V. A Remedy against Sorrow and Fear, delivered in a
Funeral Sermon.
VI. Of the Certainty and Perpetuity of Faith in the Elect:
especially the Prophet Habakkuk's Faith.
VII. Two Sermons upon part of St. Jude's Epistle.
VIII. A Sermon upon Matt. vii. 7, 8.
A
SUPPLICATION
MADE TO THE
COUNCIL
BY
MASTER WALTER TRAVERS.
Right Honourable,
The manifold benefits which all the subjects within this Do- minion do at this present, and have many yeafs enjoyed, under her Majesty's most happy and prosperous reign, by your godly wisdom and careful watching over this estate night and day, I truly and unfeignedly acknowledge, from the bottom of my heart, ought worthily to bind us all to pray continually to Almighty God for the continuance and in- crease of the life and estate of your Honours, and to be ready, with all good duties, to satisfy and serve the same to our power. Besides public benefits common unto all, I must needs, and do willingly, confess myself to stand bound by most special obligation, to serve and honour you more than any other, for the honourable favour it hath pleased you to vouchsafe both oftentimes heretofore, and also now of late, in a matter more dear unto me than my earthly commodity, that is, the upholding and furthering of my service in the ministering of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For which cause, as I have been always careful so to carry myself as I might by no means give occasion to be thought unworthy of so great a benefit, so do I still, next unto her Majesty's gracious countenance, hold nothing more dear and precious to me, than that I may always remain in your Honours' favour, which hath oftentimes been helpful and comfortable unto me in my Ministry, and to all such as reaped any fruit of my simple and faithful labour. In which duti- ful regard I humbly beseech your Honours to vouchsafe to do me this grace, to conceive nothing of me otherwise than
SUPPLICATION TO THE COUNCIL. 457
according to the duty wherein I ought to live, by any in- formation against me, before your Honours have heard my answer, and been thoroughly informed of the matter. Which, although it be a thing that your Wisdoms, not in favour, but in justice, yield to all men, yet the state of the calling into the Ministry, whereunto it hath pleased God of his goodness to call me, though unworthiest of all, is so subject to misinformation, as, except we may find this fa- vour with your Honours, we cannot look for any other, but that our indifferent parties may easily procure us to be hardly esteemed of; and that we shall be made like the poor fisher-boats in the sea, which every swelling wave and billow raketh and runneth over. AVherein my estate is yet harder than any others of my rank and calling, who are indeed to fight against flesh and blood in what part so- ever of the Lord's host and field they shall stand marshalled to serve, yet many of them deal with it naked, and unfur- nished of weapons: but my service was in a place where I was to encounter with it, well appointed and armed with skill and with authority, whereof, as I have always thus deserved, and therefore have been careful by all good means to entertain still your Honours' favourable respect of me, so have I special cause at this present, wherein misinfor- mation to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and other of the High Commission, hath been able so far to prevail against me, that by their letter they have inhibited me to preach, or execute any act of Ministry, in the Temple or elsewhere, having never once called me before them, to un- derstand by mine answer the truth of such things as had been informed against me. We have a story in our books where- in the Pharisees, proceeding against our Saviour Christ, without having heard him, are reproved by an honourable Counsellor(as the Evangelist doth term him), saying, " Doth [John. our Law judge a man before it hear him, and know what he vu'51'1 hath done ?" Which I do not mention, to the end that by an indirect and covert speech I might so compare those who have, without ever hearing me, pronounced a heavy sentence against me ; for notwithstanding such proceedings, I purpose by God's grace to carry myself towards them in all seeming duty, agreeable to their places : much less do I pre- sume to liken my cause to our Saviour Christ's, who hold it my chiefest honour and happiness to serve him, though
21.
458 WALTER TRAVERS HIS
it be but among the hinds and hired servants that serve him in the basest corners of his House : but my purpose in men- tioning it is, to shew, by the judgment of a prince and great man in Israel, that such proceeding standeth not with the Law of God, and in aprincely pattern to shew it to be a noble part of an honourable Counseller, not to allow of indirect dealings, but to love and affect such a course in justice as is agreeable to the Law of God. We have also a plain rule in the Word of God, not to proceed any otherwise against any Elder of the Church; much less against one that laboureth in the Word, and in Teaching. Which rule is delivered with this most earnest charge and obtestation, [iTim " I beseech and charge thee in the sight of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect Angels, that thou keep those [rules] without preferring one before another, doing nothing of partiality, or inclining to either part;" which Apostolical and most earnest charge, I refer to your Honours' wisdom how it hath been regarded in so heavy a judgment against me, without ever hearing my cause ; and whether, as having God before their eyes, and the Lord Jesus, by whom all former judgments shall be tried again ; and, as in the presence of the elect Angels, witnesses and observers of the Regiment of the Church, they have pro- ceeded thus to such a sentence. They allege indeed two reasons in their letters, whereupon they restrain my Minis- try ; which, if they were as strong against me as they are supposed, yet I refer to your Honours' wisdoms, whether the quality of such an offence as they charge me with, which is in effect but an indiscretion, deserve so grievous a punishment both to the Church and me, in taking away my Ministry, and that poor little commodity which it yieldeth for the necessary maintenance of my life ; if so unequal a balancing of faults and punishments should have place in the Commonwealth, surely we should shortly have no ac- tions upon the case, nor of trespass, but all should be pleas of the Crown, nor any man amerced, or fined, but for every light offence put to his ransom. I have credibly heard, that some of the Ministry have been committed for grievous transgressions of the Laws of God and men, being of no ability to do other service in the Church than to read ; yet hath it been thought charitable, and standing with Christian moderation and temperance, not to deprive such of Minis-
SUPPLICATION TO THE COUNCIL. 459
try and beneficence, but to inflict some more tolerable punishment. Which I write not because such, as I think, were to be favoured, but to shew how unlike their dealing is with me, being through the goodness of God not to be touched with any such blame ; and one, who, according to the measure of the gift of God, have laboured now some years painfully, in regard of the weak estate of my body, in preaching the Gospel, and, as I hope, not altogether unprofitably, in respect of the Church. But I beseech your Honours to give me leave briefly to declare the particular reasons of their letter, and what answer I have to make to it.
The first is, that, as they say, " I am not lawfully called to the function of the Ministry, nor allowed to preach, ac- cording to the Laws of the Church of England."
For answer to this, I had need to divide the points. And first to make answer to the former; wherein, leaving to shew what by the Holy Scriptures is required in a lawful calling, and that all this is to be found in mine, that I be not too long for your weighty affairs, I rest in this answer.
My calling to the Ministry was such as, in the calling of any thereunto, is appointed to be used by the Orders agreed upon in the National Synods of the Low Countries, for the direction and guidance of their Churches ; which Orders are the same with those whereby the French and Scottish Churches are governed ; whereof I have shewed such sufficient testimonial to my Lord the Archbishop of Canterbury, as is requisite in such a matter : whereby it must needs fall out, if any man be lawfully called to the Ministry in those Churches, then is my calling, being the same with theirs, also lawful. But I suppose, notwith- standing they use this general speech, they mean only, my calling is not sufficient to deal in the Ministry within this Land, because I was not made Minister according to that Order, which in this case is ordained by our Laws. Where- unto I beseech your Honours to consider thoroughly of mine answer, because exception now again is taken to my Ministry, whereas, having been heretofore called in ques- tion for it, I so answered the matter, as I continued in my Ministry, and, for any thing I discerned, looked to hear that no more would be objected unto me. The Comniu-
460 WALTER TRAVERS HIS
nion of Saints (which every Christian man professeth to believe) is such, as that the acts which are done in any true Chureh of Christ's according to his Word, are held as law- ful, being done in one Church as in another. Which, as it holdeth in other acts of Ministry, as Baptism, Marriage, and such like, so doth it in the calling to the Ministry ; by reason whereof, all Churches do acknowledge and receive him for a Minister of the Word, who hath been lawfully called thereunto in any Church of the same profession. A Doctor created in any University of Christendom, is ac- knowledged sufficiently qualified to teach in any country. The Church of Rome itself, and the Canon Law holdeth it, that being ordered in Spain, they may execute that that belongeth to their Order, in Italy, or in any other place. And the Churches of the Gospel never made any question of it; which if they shall now begin to make doubt of, and deny such to be lawfully called to the Ministry, as are called by another Order than our own; then may it well be looked for, that other Churches will do the like : and if a Minister called in the Low Countries be not lawfully called in England, then may they say to our Preachers which are there, that being made of another Order than theirs, they cannot suffer them to execute any act of Minis- try amongst them ; which in the end must needs breed a schism, and dangerous divisions in the Churches. Further, I have heard of those that are learned in the Laws of this Land, that by express Statute to that purpose, anno 13 of her Majesty's reign, upon subscription to the Articles agreed upon, anno!562, that they who pretend to have been ordered by another Order than that which is now established, are of like capacity to enjoy any place of Ministry within the Land, as they which have been ordered according to that which is now by Law in this established. Which comprehending manifestly all, even such as were made Priests according to the Order of the Church of Rome, it must needs be, that the Law of a Christian land, professing the Gospel, should be as favourable for a Minister of the Word, as for a Popish Priest ; which also was so found in Mr. Whit- tingham's case, who, notwithstanding such replies against him, enjoyed still the benefit he had by his Ministry, and might have done until this day, if God had spared him life
SUPPLICATION TO THE COUNCIL. 461
so long ; which if it be understood so, and practised in others, why should the change of the person alter the right which the Law giveth to all others?
The place of Ministry whereunto I was called was not presentative : and if it had been so, surely they would never have presented any man whom they never knew ; and the Order of this Church is agreeable herein to the Word of God, and the ancient and best Canons, that no man should be made a Minister sine titulo : therefore having none, I could not by the Orders of this Church have entered into the Ministry, before I had a charge to tend upon. When I was at Antwerp, and to take a place of Ministry among the people of that nation, I see no cause why I should have returned again over the seas for Orders here ; nor how I could have done it, without disallowing the Orders of the Churches provided in the country where I was to live. Whereby I hope it appeareth, that my calling to the Minis- try is lawful, and maketh me, by our Law, of capacity to enjoy any benefit or commodity, that any other, by reason of his Ministry, may enjoy. But my cause is yet more easy, who reaped no benefit of my Ministry by Law, receiv- ing only a benevolence and voluntary contribution ; and the Ministry I dealt with being Preaching only, which every Deacon here may do being licensed, and certain that are neither Ministers nor Deacons. Thus I answer the former of these two points, whereof, if there be yet any doubt, I humbly desire, for a final end thereof, that some competent judges in Law may determine of it; whereunto I refer and submit myself with all reverence and duty.
The second is, "That I preached without licence." Whereunto this is my answer: I have not presumed, upon the calling I had to the Ministry abroad, to preach or deal with any part of the Ministry within this Church, without the consent and allowance of such as were to allow me unto it. My allowance was from the Bishop of London, testified by his two several letters to the Inner Temple, who, without such testimony, would by no means rest satisfied in it : which letters being by me produced, I refer it to your Honours' wisdom, whether I have taken upon me to preach, without being allowed (as they charge) according to the Orders of the Realm. Thus having an-
462 WALTER TUAVERS HIS
swered the second point also, I have done with the objec- tion, " Of dealing without calling or licence."
The other reason they allege is, concerning a late action, wherein I had to deal with Mr. Hooker, Master of the Temple. In the handling of which cause, they charge me with an indiscretion, and want of duty, " in that I inveighed (as they say) against certain points of Doctrine taught by him, as erroneous, not conferring with him, nor complain- ing of it to them." My answer hereunto standeth, in de- claring to your Honours the whole course and carriage of that cause, and the degrees of proceeding in it, which I will do as briefly as I can, and according to the truth, God be my witness, as near as my best memory, and notes of re- membrance, may serve me thereunto. After that I have taken away that which seemed to have moved them to think me not charitably minded to Mr. Hooker ; which is, be- cause he was brought into Mr. Alvey's place, wherein this Church desired that I might have succeeded: which place, if I would have made suit to have obtained, or if I had ambitiously affected and sought, I would not have refused to have satisfied, by subscription, such as the mat- ter then seemed to depend upon : whereas contrariwise, notwithstanding I would not hinder the Church to do that they thought to be the most for their edification and com- fort, yet did I, neither by speech nor letter, make suit to any for the obtaining of it, following herein that resolution, which I judge to be most agreeable to the Word and will of God; that is, that labouring and suing for places and charges in the Church is not lawful. Further, whereas, at the suit of the Church, some of your Honours entertained the cause, and brought it to a near issue, that there seemed nothing to remain, but the commendation of my Lord the Archbishop of Canterbury, when as he could not be satis- fied, but by my subscribing to his late Articles ; and that my answer (agreeing to subscribe according to any Law, and to the Statute provided in that case, but praying to be respited for subscribing to any other, which I could not in con- science do, either for the Temple (which otherwise he said he would not commend me to), nor for any other place in the Church) did so little please my Lord Archbishop, as he re- solved that otherwise I should not be commended to it : I
SUPPLICATION TO THE COUNCIL. 4G3
had utterly here no cause of offence against Mr. Hooker, whom I did in no sort esteem to have prevented or under- mined me, but that God disposed of me as it pleased him, by such means and occasions as I have declared.
Moreover, as I have taken no cause of offence at Mr. Hooker for being preferred, so there were many witnesses, that I was glad that the place was given him, hoping to live in all godly peace and comfort with him, both for ac- quaintance and good-will which hath been between us, and for some kind of affinity in the marriage of his nearest kindred and mine. Since his coming, I have so carefully endeavoured to entertain all good correspondence and agreement with him, as I think he himself will bear me wit- ness of many earnest disputations and conferences with him about the matter; the rather, because that, contrary to my expectation, he inclined from the beginning but smally thereunto, but joined rather with such as had always op- posed themselves to any good order in this Church, and made themselves to be thought indisposed to this present state and proceedings. For, both knowing that God's com- mandment charged me with such duty, and discerning how much our peace might further the good service of God and his Church, and the mutual comfort of us both, I had re- solved constantly to seek for peace ; and though it should fly from me (as I saw it did by means of some, who little desired to see the good of our Church), yet according to the rule of God's Word, to follow after it. Which being so (as hereof I take God to witness, who searcheth the heart and reins, and who by his Son will judge the world, both quick and dead), I hope no charitable judgment can suppose me to have stood evil-affected towards him for his place, or desirous to fall into any controversy with him.
Which my resolution I so pursued, that, whereas I dis- covered sundry unsound matters in his doctrine (as many of his Sermons tasted of some sour leaven or other), yet thus I carried myself towards him. Matters of smaller weight, and so covertly delivered, that no great offence to the Church was to be feared in them, I wholly passed by, as one that discerned nothing of them, or had been un- furnished of replies ; for others of great moment, and so openly delivered, as there was just cause of fear lest the truth and Church of God should be prejudiced and perilled
464 WALTER TRAVEKS HIS
by it, and such as the conscience of my duty and calling would not suffer me altogether to pass over, this was my course; to deliver, when I should have just cause by my text, the truth of such doctrine as he had otherwise taught, in general speeches, without touch of his person in any sort, and further at convenient opportunity to confer with him on such points.
According to which determination, whereas he had taught certain things concerning Predestination otherwise than the Word of God doth, as it is understood by all Churches professing the Gospel, and not unlike that wherewith Co- ranus sometime troubled this Church, I both delivered the truth of such points in a general doctrine, without any touch of him in particular, and conferred with him also privately upon such articles. In which conference, I re- member, when I urged the consent of all Churches and good writers against him that I knew ; and desired, if it were otherwise, to understand what authors he had seen of such doctrine : he answered me, that his best author was his own reason ; which I wished him to take heed of, as a matter standing more with Christian modesty and wisdom in a doctrine not received by the Church, not to trust to his own judgment so far as to publish it before he had conferred with others of his profession labouring by daily prayer and study to know the will of God, as he did, to see how they understood such doctrine. Notwithstanding, he, with wavering, replied, that he would some other time deal more largely in the matter. I wished him, and prayed him not so to do, for the peace of the Church, which, by such means, might he hazarded ; seeing he could not but think, that men, who make any conscience of their Ministry, will judge it a necessary duty in them to teach the truth, and to convince the contrary.
Another time, upon like occasion of this doctrine of his, " That the assurance of that we believe by the Word, is not so certain, as of that we perceive by sense ;" I both taught the doctrine otherwise, namely, the assurance of Faith to be greater, which assured both of things above, and contrary to all sense and human understanding, and dealt with him also privately upon that point : according to which course of late, when as he had taught, " That the Church of Rome is a true Church of Christ, and a sancti- fied Church by profession of that truth, which God hath
SUPPLICATION TO THE COUNCIL. 465
revealed unto ns by his Son, though not a pure aud perfect Church ;" and further, " That he doubted not, but that thousands of the Fathers, which lived and died in the Su- perstitions of that Church, were saved, because of their ignorance, which excused thern ;" misalleging to that end a text of Scripture to prove it: the matter being of set 1 Tim. purpose openly and at large handled by him, and of that '" 13' moment, thatmight prejudice the Faith of Christ, encourage the ill-affected to continue still in their damnable ways, and others weak in Faith to suffer themselves easily to be se- duced to the destruction of their souls ; I thought it my most bounden duty to God and to his Church, whilst I might have opportunity to speak with him, to teach the truth in a general speech in such points of doctrine.
At which time I taught, '* That such as die, or have died at any time in the Church of Rome, holding in their igno- rance that faith which is taught in it, and namely, justifi- cation in part by works, could not be said by the Scriptures to be saved." In which matter, foreseeing that if I waded not warily in it, I should be in danger to be reported (as hath fallen out since notwithstanding) to condemn all the Fathers, I said directly and plainly to all men's under- standing, " That it was not indeed to be doubted, but many of the Fathers were saved ; but the means (said I) was not their ignorance, which excuseth no man with God, but their knowledge and faith of the truth, which, it appear- eth, God vouchsafed them, by many notable monuments and records extant of it in all ages." Which being the last point in all my Sermon, rising so naturally from the text I then propounded, as would have occasioned me to have delivered such matter, notwithstanding the former doctrine had been sound ; and being dealt in by a general speech, without touch of his particular; I looked not that a matter of controversy would have been made of it, no more than had been of my like dealing in former time. But, far otherwise than I looked for, Mr. Hooker, shewing no grief of offence taken at my speech all the week long, the next Sabbath, leaving to proceed upon his ordinary text, pro- fessed to preach again that he had done the day before, for some question that his doctrine was drawn into, which he desired might be examined with all severity.
So proceeding, he bestowed his whole time, in that dis-
VOL. II. 2h
46G WAL'lEtt THAVEUS HIS
course, concerning his former doctrine, and answering the places of Scripture which I had alleged to prove that a man dying in the Church of Rome is not to be judged by the Scriptures to be saved. In which long speech, and utterly impertinent to his text, under colour of answering for himself, he impugned directly and openly to all men's understanding, the true doctrine which I had delivered ; and, adding to his former points some other like (as wil- lingly one error follows another), that is, " That the Gala- tians joining, with faith in Christ, circumcision, as neces- sary to salvation, might be saved ; and that they of the Church of Rome may be saved by such a faith of Christ as they had, with a general repentance of all their errors, notwithstanding their opinion of justification in part by their works and merits :" I was necessarily, though not willingly, drawn to say something to the points he objected against sound doctrine ; which I did in a short speech in the end of my Sermon, with protestation of so doing not of any sinister affection to any man, but to bear witness to the truth according to my calling; and wished, if the matter should needs further be dealt in, some other more conve- nient way might be taken for it. Wherein, I hope, my dealing was manifest to the consciences of all indifferent hearers of me that day, to have been according to peace, and without any uncharitableness, being duly considered.
For that I conferred not with him the first day, I have shewed that the cause requiring of me the duty at the least not to be altogether silent in it, being a matter of such con- sequence, the time also being short wherein I was to preach after him, the hope of the fruit of our communication being small upon experience of former conferences, and my expec- tation being that the Church should be no further troubled with it, upon the motion I made of taking some other course of dealing ; I suppose my deferring to speak with him till some fit opportunity, cannot in charity be judged uncharitable.
The second day, his unlooked-for opposition with the former reasons, made it to be a matter that required of necessity some public answer ; which being so temperate as I have shewed, if notwithstanding it be censured as un- charitable, and punished so grievously as it is, what should have been my punishment, if (without all such cautions
SUPPLICATION TO THE COUNCIL. 407
and respects as qualified ray speech) I had before all, and in the understanding of all, so reproved him offending openly, that others might have feared to do the like ? which yet, if I had done, might have been warranted by the rule and charge of the Apostle, " Them that offend openly, re- [i Tim. buke openly, that the rest may also fear ;" and by his ex- ample, who, when Peter in this very case which is now between us, had, not in preaching, but in a matter of con- versation, not gone with a right foot, as was fit for the truth of the Gospel, conferred not privately with him, but, as his own rule required, reproved him openly before all, that others might hear, and fear, and not dare to do the like. All which reasons together weighed, I hope, will shew the manner of my dealing to have been charitable, and warrantable in every sort.
The next Sabbath-day after this, Mr. Hooker kept the way he had entered into before, and bestowed his whole hour and more only upon the questions he had moved and maintained ; wherein he so set forth the agreement of the Church of Rome with us, and their disagreement from us, as if we had consented in the greatest and weightiest points, and differed only in certain smaller matters : which agree- ment noted by him in two chief points, is not such as he would have made men believe. The one, in that he said, " They acknowledge all men sinners, even the blessed Vir- gin,though some of them freed her from sin ;" for the Council of Trent holdeth, that she was free from sin. Another, in that he said, " They teach Christ's righteousness to be the only meritorious cause of taking away sin, and differ from us only in the applying of it :" for Thomas Aquinas their chief Schoolman, and Archbishop Catherinus, teach, "That Christ took away only original sin, and that the rest are to be taken away by ourselves ;" yea, the Council of Trent teacheth, " That righteousness whereby we are righteous in God's sight, is an inherent lighteousness ;" which must needs be of our own works, and cannot be understood of the righteousness inherent only in Christ's person, and ac- counted unto us. Moreover he taught the same time, " That neither the Galatians, nor the Church of Rome, did directly overthrow the foundation of justification by Christ alone, but only by consequent, and therefore might well be saved ; or else neither the Churches of the Lu therans, nor any 2 h 2
4G8 WALTER TRAVERS HIS
which hold any manner of error, could be saved; because (saith he) every error by consequent overthroweth the foundation." In which discourses, and such like, he he- stowed his whole time and more ; which, if he had affected either the truth of God, or the peace of the Church, he would truly not have done.
Whose example could not draw me to leave the Scripture I took in hand, but standing about an hour to deliver the doctrine of it, in the end, upon just occasion of the text, leaving sundry other his unsound speeches, and keeping- me still to the principal, I confirmed the believing the doctrine of justification by Christ only, to be necessary to the justifi- cation of all that should be saved, and that the Church of Rome directly denieth, that a man is saved by Christ, or by Faith alone, without the works of the Law. Which my answer, as it was most necessary for the service of God and the Church, so was it without any immodest or re- proachful speech to Mr. Hooker: whose unsound and wilful dealings in a cause of so great importance to the Faith of Christ, and salvation of the Church, notwithstand- ing I knew well what speech it deserved, and what some
Mark zealous earnest man of the spirit of John and James, sur- named Boanerges, Sons of Thunder, would have said in such case; yet I chose rather to content myself in exhorting him to revisit his doctrine, as Nathan the Prophet did the device, which, without consulting with God, he had of him- self given to David, concerning the building of the Temple :
Gai. ii. and, with Peter the Apostle, to endure to be withstood in such a case, not unlike unto this. This in effect was that which passed between us concerning this matter, and the invectives I made against him, wherewith I am charged. Which rehearsal, I hope, may clear me (with all that shall indifferently consider it) of the blames laid upon me for want of duty to Mr. Hooker in not conferring with him, whereof I have spoken sufficiently already ; and to the High Commission, in not revealing the matter to them, which yet now I am further to answer. My answer is, that I protest, no contempt nor wilful neglect of any lawful Au- thority stayed me from complaining unto them, but these reasons following:
First, I was in some hope, that Mr. Hooker, notwith- standing he had been over-carried, with a show of charity,
17.
11.14.
SUPPLICATION TO THE COUNCIL. 4G9
to prejudice the truth, yet when it should be sufficiently proved, would have acknowledged it, or at the least in- duced with peace, that it might be offered without any offence to him, to such as would receive it ; either of which would have taken away any cause of just complaint. When neither of these fell out according to my expecta- tion and desire, but that he replied to the truth, and ob- jected against it, I thought he might have some doubts and scruples in himself; which yet, if they were cleared, he would either embrace sound doctrine, or at least suffer it to have its course : which hope of him I nourished so long, as the matter was not bitterly and immodestly haodled be- tween us.
Another reason was the cause itself, which, according to the parable of the tares (which are said to be sown among the wheat), sprung up first in his grass: therefore, as the servants in that place are not said to have come to com- plain to the Lord, till the tares came to shew their fruits in their kind ; so I, thinking it yet but a time of discovering of what it was, desired not their sickle to cut it down.
For further answer, it is to be considered, that the con- science of my duty to God, and to his Church, did bind me at the first, to deliver sound doctrine in such points as had been otherwise uttered in that place, where 1 had now some years taught the truth ; otherwise the rebuke of the Pro- Ezek. phet had fallen upon me, for not going up to the breach, "xuui. and standing in it, and the peril of answering for the blood of the city, in whose watch-tower I sate ; if it had been sur- prised by my default. Moreover, my public protesta- tion, in being willing, that if any were not yet satisfied, some other more convenient way might be taken for it. And, lastly, that I had resolved (which I uttered before to some, dealing with me about the matter) to have protested the next Sabbath-day, that I would no more answer in that place any objections to the doctrine taught by any means, but some other way satisfy such as should require it.
These, I trust, may make it appear, that I failed not in duty to Authority, notwithstanding I did not complain, nor give over so soon dealing in the case. If I did, how is be clear, which can allege none of all these for himself? who leaving the expounding of the Scriptures, and his ordinary calling, voluntarily discoursed upon school-points and
470 WALTER TRAVERS HIS
questions, neither of edification nor of truth ? Who after all this, as promising to himself, and to untruth, a vic- tory by my silence, added yet in the next Sabbath-day, to the maintenance of his former opinions, these which follow :
" That no additament taketh away the foundation, except it be a privative ; of which sort neither the works added to Christ by the Church of Rome, nor circumcision by the Galatians, were ; as one denieth him not to be a man, that saith, he is a righteous man, but he that saith he is a dead man:" whereby it might seem, that a man might, without hurt, add works to Christ, and pray also that God and St. Peter would save them.
" That the Galatians' case is harder than the case of the Church of Rome, because the Galatians joined circumci- sion with Christ, which God had forbidden and abolished; but that which the Church of Rome joined with Christ, were good works, which God had commanded." Wherein he committed a double fault : one, in expounding all the questions of the Galatians, and consequently of the Ro- mans, and other Epistles, of circumcision only, and the ceremonies of the Law (as they do, who answer for the Church of Rome in their writings), contrary to the clear meaning of the Apostle, as may appear by many strong and sufficient reasons ; the other, in that he said, " The addition of the Church of Rome was of works commanded of God." Whereas the least part of the works whereby they looked to merit, was of such works ; and most were works of supere- rogation, and works which God never commanded, but was highly displeased with, as of Masses, Pilgrimages, Pardons, Pains of Purgatory, and such like. Further, " That no one sequel urged by the Apostle against the Galatians for joining circumcision withChrist,but might be aswell enforced against the Lutherans ; that is, that for their ubiquity it may be as well said to them, If ye hold the Body of Christ to be in all places, you are fallen from grace, you are under the curse of the Law, saying, ' Cursed be he that fulfilleth not all things written in this Book/ " with such like. He added yet further, " That to a Bishop of the Church of Rome, to a Cardinal, yea, to the Pope himself, acknowledging Christ to be the Saviour of the world, denying other errors, and being discomforted for want of works whereby he might be
SUPPLICATION TO THE COUNCIL. 471
ustified, he would not doubt, but use this speech; Thou loldest the foundation of Christian Faith, though it be but >y a slender thread ; thou boldest Christ, though but by the hem of his garment; why shouldest thou not hope that virtue may pass from Christ to save thee ? That which thou holdest of justification by thy works, overthrovveth indeed by consequent the foundation of Christian Faith ; but be of good cheer, thou hast not to do with a captious sophister, but with a merciful God, who will justify thee for that thou holdest, and not take the advantage of doubt- ful construction to condemn thee. And if this (said he) be an error, I hold it willingly ; for it is the greatest comfort I have in the world, without which I would not wish either to speak or live." Thus far, being not to be answered in it any more, he was bold to proceed, the absurdity of which speech I need not to stand upon. I think the like to this, and other such in this Sermon, and the rest of this matter, hath not been heard in public places within this Land since Queen Mary's days. What consequence this doctrine may be of, if he be not by authority ordered to revoke it, I be- seech your Honours, as the truth of God and his Gospel is dear and precious unto you, according to your godly wis- dom to consider.
I have been bold to offer to your Honours a long and tedious discourse of these matters ; but speech being like to tapestry, which, if it be folded up, sheweth but part of that which is wrought, and being unlapt and laid open, sheweth plainly to the eye all the work that is in it ; I thought it necessary to unfold this tapestry, and to hang up the whole chamber of it in your most honourable Senate, that so you may the more easily discern of all the pieces, and the sundry works and matters contained in it. Wherein my hope is, your Honours may see I have not deserved so great a punishment as is laid upon the Church for my sake, and also upon myself, in taking from me the exercise of my Ministry. Which punishment, how heavy it may seem to the Church, or fall out indeed to be, I refer it to them to judge, and spare to write what I fear, but to myself it is exceeding grievous, for that it taketh from me the exercise of my calling. Which I do not say is dear unto me, as the means of that little benefit whereby I live (although this be
472 WALTER TRAVERS HIS
a lawful consideration, and to be regarded of me in due place, and of the authority under whose protection I most willingly live, even by God's commandment both unto them and unto me); but which ought to be more precious unto me than my life, for the love which I should bear to the glory and honour of Almighty God, and to the edification and salvation of his Church, for that my life cannot any other way be of like service to God, nor of such use and profit to men by any means. For which cause, as I dis- cern how dear my Ministry ought to be unto me, so it is my hearty desire, and most humble request unto God, to your Honours, and to all the Authority I live under, to whom any dealing herein belongeth, that I may spend my life (according to his example, who in a word of like sound, but of fuller sense, comparing by it the bestowing of his life to the offering poured out) upon the sacrifice of the Faith of God's people, and especially of this Church, whereupon I have already poured out a great part thereof in the same calling, from which I stand now restrained. And if your Honours shall find it so, that I have not deserved so great a punishment, but rather performed the duty which a good and faithful servant ought, in such case, to do to his Lord and the people he putteth him in trust withal carefully to keep ; I am a most humble suitor by these presents to your Honours, that, by your godly wisdom, some good course may be taken for the restoring of me to my Ministry and place again. Which so great a favour, shall bind me yet in a greater obligation of duty (which is already so great, as it seemed nothing could be added unto it to make it greater) to honour God daily for the continuance and in- crease of your good estate, and to be ready, with all the poor means God hath given me, to do your Honours that faithful service I may possibly perform. But if, notwith- standing my cause be never so good, your Honours can by no means pacify such as are offended, nor restore me again, then am I to rest in the good pleasure of God, and to com- mend to your Honours' protection, under her Majesty's, my private life, while it shall be led in duty; and the Church to him, who hath redeemed to himself a people with his precious blood, and is making ready to come to judge both the quick and dead, to give to everyone accord-
SUPPLICATION TO THE COUNCIL. 473
ing as he hath done in this life, be it good or evil ; to the wicked and unbelievers, justice unto death; but to the faithful, and such as love his truth, mercy and grace to life everlasting.
Your Honours' most bounden, and
Most humble Supplicant,
WALTER TRAVERS,
Minister of the Gospel.
MR, HOOKER'S ANSWER
SUPPLICATION
MR. TRAVERS MADE TO THE COUNCIL.
To my Lord of Canterbury his Grace.
1. My duty in my most humble wise remembered, may it please your Grace to understand, that whereas there hath been a late controversy raised in the Temple, and pursued by Mr. Travers, upon conceit taken at some words by me uttered, with a most simple and harmless meaning; in the heat of which pursuit, after three public invectives, silence being enjoined him by Authority, he hath hereupon, for de- fence of his proceedings, both presented the Right Honour- able Lords, and others of her Majesty's Privy Council, with a writing, and also caused or suffered the same to be co- pied out, and spread through the hands of so many, that well nigh all sorts of men have it in their bosoms ; the matters wherewith I am therein charged, being of such quality as they are, and myself being better known to your Grace than to any other of their Honours besides, I have chosen to offer to your Grace's hands a plain declaration of my innocence in all those things wherewith I am so hardly and so heavily charged : lest, if I still remain silent, that which I do for quietness' sake, be taken as an argument, that I lack what to speak truly and justly in mine own defence.
2. First, because Mr. Travers thinketh it expedient to breed an opinion in men's minds, that the root of all in-
ME. TRAVEEs's SUPPLICATION. 475
convenient events which are now sprung out, is the surly and unpeaceable disposition of the man with whom he hath to do ; therefore, the first in the rank of accusations laid against me, is, " my inconformity, which have so little inclined to so many and so earnest exhortations and con- ferences, as myself (he saith) can witness, to have been spent upon me, for my better fashioning unto good corre- spondence and agreement."
3. Indeed, when at the first, by means of special well- willers, without any suit of mine, as they very well know (although I do not think it had been a mortal sin, in a rea- sonable sort, to have shewed a moderate desire that way), yet when by their endeavour without instigation of mine, some Reverend and Honourable, favourably affecting me, had procured her Majesty's grant of the place; at the very point of my entering thereinto, the evening before I was first to preach, he came, and two other gentlemen joined with him : the effect of* his conference then was, " That he thought it his duty to advise me, not to enter with a strong hand, but to change my purpose of preaching there the next day, and to stay till he had given notice of me to the congregation, that so their allowance might seal my calling." The effect of my answer was, " That, as in a place where such order is, I would not break it ; so here, where it never was, I might not, of my own head, take upon me to begin it :" but liking very well the motion, for the opinion which I had of his good meaning who made it, requested him not to mislike my answer, though it were not correspondent to his mind.
, 4. When this had so displeased some, that whatsoever was afterward done or spoken by me, it offended their taste> angry informations were daily sent out, intelligence given far and wide, what a dangerous enemy was crept in; the worst that jealousy could imagine was spoken and written to so many, that at the length some knowing me well, and perceiving how injurious the reports were, which grew daily rnore and more unto my discredit, wrought means to bring Mr. Travers and me to a second conference. Wherein, when a common friend unto us both had quietly requested him to utter those things wherewith he found himself any way grieved, he first renewed the memory of my entering into this charge, by virtue only of a human creature (for so the want
476 MR. HOOKERS ANSWER TO
of that formality* of popular allowance was then censured), and unto this was annexed a catalogue, partly of causeless surmises, as, " That I had conspired against him, and that 1 sought superiority over him ;" and partly of faults, which to note, I should have thought it a greater offence than to commit, if I did account them faults, and had heard them so curiously observed in any other than myself; they are such silly things, as, " praying in the entrance of my Sermon only, and not in the end," " naming Bishops in my Prayer," " kneeling when I pray, and kneeling when I receive the Communion," with such like, which I would be as loth to recite, as I was sorry to hear them objected, if the rehearsal thereof were not by him thus wrested from me. These are the conferences where- with I have been wooed to entertain peace and good agree ment.
5. As for the vehement exhortations he speaketh of, I would gladly know some reason wherefore he thought them needful to be used. Was there any thing found in my speeches or dealings that gave them occasion, who are studious of peace, to think that I disposed myself with some unquiet kind of proceedings ? Surely, the special pro- vidence of God I do now see it was, that the first words I spake in this place, should make the first thing whereof I am accused to appear not only untrue, but improbable, to as many as then heard me with indifferent ears ; and do, I doubt not, in their conscience clear me of this suspicion. Howbeit, I grant this were nothing, if it might be shewed, that my deeds following were not suitable to my words. If I had spoken of peace at the first, and afterwards sought to molest and grieve him, by crossing him in his function, by storming, if my pleasure were not asked and my will obeyed in the least occurrences, by carping needlessly sometimes at the manner of his teaching, sometimes at this, sometimes at that point of his doctrine ; I might then with some likelihood have been blamed, as one disdaining a peaceable hand when it had been offered. But if I be able (as I am) to prove that myself hath now a full year together, borne the continuance of such dealings, not only without any manner of resistance, but also without any such com-
* A mere formality it had been to me in that place ; where, as no man had ever used it before me, so it could neither further me if I did use it, nor hinder me if I did not.
MR TRAVERS'S SUPPLICATION. 477
plaint, as might let or hinder him in his course, I see no cause in the world why of this I should be accused, unless it be, lest I should accuse, which I mean not. If therefore I have given him occasion to use conferences and exhorta- tions to peace, if when they were bestowed upon me I have despised them, it will not be hard to shew some one word or deed wherewith I have gone about to work disturbance : one is not much, I require but one. Only, I require if any thing be shewed, it may be proved, and not objected only as this is, f That I have joined with such as have always opposed themselves to any goodOrder in the Church, and made them- selves to be thought indisposed to the present estate and pro- ceedings." The words have reference, as it seemeth, unto some such things as being attempted before my coming to the Temple, went not so effectually forward (perhaps) as he that devised them would have wished. An Order, as I leam, there was tendered, that Communicants should neither kneel, as in most places of the Realm ; nor sit, as in this place the custom is ; but walk to the one side of the Table, and there standing till they had received, pass afterward away round about by the other. Which being on a sudden begun to be practised in the Church, some sat wondering what it should mean, others deliberating what to do : till such time as at length by name one of them being called openly thereunto, requested that they might do as they had been accustomed, which was granted ; and as Mr. Travers had ministered this way to the rest, so a Curate was sent to minister to them after their way. Which unprosperous beginning of a thing (saving only for the inconvenience of needless alterations otherwise harmless) did so disgrace that Order, in their conceit who had to allow or disallow it, that it took no place. For neither could they ever induce themselves to think it good, and it so much offended Mr. Travers, who supposed it to be the best, that he, since that time, although contented to receive it as they do, at the hands of others, yet hath not thought it meet that they should ever receive it of his, which would not admit that Order of receiving it, and therefore in my time hath been always present not to minister, but only to be ministered unto.
6. Another Order there was likewise devised, but an Or- der of much more weight and importance. This soil, in
478 MR. HOOKERS ANSWER TO
respect of certain immunities and other specialties belong- ing unto it, seemed likely to bear that which in other places of the Realm of England doth not take. For which cause, request was made to her Majesty's Privy Council, that whereas it is provided by a Statute there should be Col- lectors and Sidemen in Churches, which thing, or some- what correspondent unto it, this place did greatly want ; it would please their Honours to motion such a matter to the Ancients of the Temple. And, according to their honour- able manner of helping forward all motions so grounded, they wrote their letters, as I am informed, to that effect. Whereupon, although these Houses never had use of such Collectors and Sidemen as are appointed in other places, yet they both erected a box and received men's devotions for the poor, appointing the Treasurer of both Houses to take care for bestowing it where need was ; and granting further, that if any could be entreated (as in the end some were) to undertake the labour of observing men's slackness in divine duties, they should be allowed, their complaints heard at all times, and the faults they com- plained of, if *Mr. Alvey's private admonition did not serve, then by some other means to be redressed ; but according to the old received Orders of both Houses. Whereby the substance of their Honours' letters was indeed fully satis- fied. Yet because Mr. Travers intended not this, but, as it seemed, another thing; therefore, notwithstanding the Orders which have been taken, and for any thing I know, do stand still in as much force in this Church now as at any time heretofore, he complaineth much of the good Orders which he doth mean have been withstood. Now it were hard, if as many as did any ways oppose unto these and the like Orders, in his persuasion good, do thereby make them- selves dislikers of the present state and proceedings. If they, whom he aimeth at, have any other ways made them- selves to be thought such, it is likely he doth know where- in, and will, I hope, disclose wherein it appertaineth, both the persons whom he thinketh, and the causes why he thinketh them so ill-affected. But whatsoever the men be, do their faults make me faulty ? They do, if I join myself with them. I beseech him therefore to declare wherein I
[* A MS. preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, for Mr. Alvey reads Mr. Travers.']
MB THAVERS'S SUPPLICATION. 479
have joined with them. Other joining than this with any man here, I cannot imagine : it may be I have talked, or walked, or eaten, or interchangeably used the duties of common humanity, with some such as he is hardly per- suaded of. For I know no Law of God or man, by force whereof they should be as Heathens and Publicans unto me, that are not gracious in the eyes of another man, per- haps without cause, or if with cause, yet such cause as he is privy unto, and not I. Could he, or any reasonable man, think it a charitable course in me, to observe them that shew by external courtesies a favourable inclination to- wards him, and if 1 spy out any one amongst them of whom I think not well, hereupon to draw such an accusation as this against him, and offer it where he hath given up his against me ? which notwithstanding I will acknowledge to be just and reasonable, if he or any man living shall shew, that I use as much as the bare familiar company but of one, who by word or deed hath ever given me cause to suspect or conjecture him such as here they are termed, with whom com- plaint is made that I join myself. This being spoken, there- fore, and written without all possibility of proof, doth not Mr. Travers give me over great cause to stand in some fear lest he make too little conscience how he useth his tongue or pen ? These things are not laid against me for nothing ; they are to some purpose if they take place. For in a mind per- suaded that I am, as he deciphereth me, one who refuses to be at peace with such as embrace the truth, and side myself with men sinisterly affected thereunto, any thing that shall be spoken concerning the unsoundness of my doctrine cannot choose but be favourably entertained. This presupposed, it will have likelihood enough which afterwards followeth, " That many of my Sermons have tasted of some sour leaven or other, that in them he hath discovered many unsound matters." A thing much to be lamented, that such a place as this, which might have been so well provided for, hath fallen into the hands of one no better instructed in the truth. But what if in the end it be found that he judgeth my words, as they do colours, which look upon them with green spectacles, and think that which they see is green, when indeed that is green whereby they see ?
7. Touching the first point of this discovery, which is about the matter of Predestination, to set down that I spake
480 MR. hooker's answer to
(for I have it written), to declare and confirm the several branches thereof, would be tedious now in this writing, where I have so many things to touch, that I can but touch them only. Neither is it herein so needful for me to justify my speech, when the very place and presence where I spake, doth itself speak sufficiently for my clearing. This matter was not broached in a blind alley, or uttered where none was to hear it that had skill and authority to control ; or covertly insinuated by some gliding sentence.
8. That which I taught was at Paul's Cross ; it was not huddled in amongst other matters, in such sort that it could pass without noting : it was opened, it was proved, it was some reasonable time stood upon. I see not which way my Lord of London, who was present and heard it, can excuse so great a fault, as patiently, without rebuke or control- ment afterward, to hear any man there teach otherwise than " the Word of God doth ;" not as it is understood by the private interpretation of some one or two men, or by a spe- cial construction received in some few books ; but, as it is understood " by all Churches professing the Gospel ;" by them all, and therefore even by our own also amongst others. A man that did mean to prove that he speaketh, would surely take the measure of his words shorter.
9. The next thing discovered, is an opinion about the as- surance of men's persuasions in matters of Faith. I have taught, he saith, " That the assurance of things which we believe by the Word, is not so certain as of that we per- ceive by sense." And, is it as certain? Yea, I taught, as he himself, I trust, will not deny, that the things which God doth promise in his Word are surer unto us than any thing which we touch, handle, or see. But are we so sure and certain of them ? if we be, why doth God so often prove his promises unto us, as he doth by argument taken from our sensible experience ? We must be surer of the proof, than of the thing proved, otherwise it is no proof. How is it, that if ten men do all look upon the moon, every one of them knoweth it is as certainly to be the moon as another; but many believing one and the same promise, all have not one and the same fulness of persuasion ? How falleth it out, that men being assured of any thing by sense, can be no surer of it than they are ; whereas the strongest in faith that liveth upon the earth, hath always need to labour and
MR. TKAVERS'S SUPPLICATION. 481
strive, and pray, that his assurance concerning heavenly and spiritual things, may grow, increase, and be aug- mented ?
10. The Sermon wherein I have spoken somewhat largely of this point was, long before this late controversy rose between him and me, upon request of some of my friends, seen and read by many, and amongst many, some who are thought able to discern ; and I never heard that any one of them hitherto hath condemned it as containing unsound matter. My case were very hard, if, as oft as any thing I speak displeaseth one man's taste, my doctrine upon his only word should be taken for sour leaven.
11. The rest of this discovery is all about the matter now in question ; wherein he hath two faults predominant which would tire out any that should answer unto every point severally : unapt speaking of School-controversies ; and of my words so untoward a reciting, that he which should promise to draw a man's countenance, and did indeed ex- press the parts, at leastwise most of them, truly, but per- versely place them, could not represent a more offensive visage, than unto me my own speech seemeth in some places, as he hath ordered it. For answer whereunto, that writing is sufficient, wherein I have set down both my words and meaning in such sort, that where his accusation doth deprave the one, and either misinterpret, or without just cause mislike the other, it will appear so plainly, that I may spare very well to take upon me a new needless la- bour here.
12. Only at one thing which is there to be found, be- cause Mr. Travers doth here seem to take such a special advantage, as if the matter were unanswerable, he con- straineth me either to detect his oversight, or to confess mine own in it. In settling the question between the Church of Rome and us, about Grace and Justification, lest I should give them an occasion to say, as commonly they do, that when we cannot refute their opinions, we pro- pose to ourselves such instead of theirs, as we can refute ; I took it for the best and most perspicuous way of teaching, to declare first how far we do agree, and then to shew our disagreement : not generally (as Mr. Travers's words* would
* His words be these : " The next Sabbath-day after this, Mr. Hooker kept the way he had entered into before, and bestowed his whole hour and more, only upon the VOL. II. 2 I
482 mr. hooker's answer to
carry it, for the easier fastening that upon me wherewith, saving only by him, I was never in my life touched) ; but about the matter only of Justification : for further I had no cause to meddle at this time. What was then my of- fence in this case ? I did, as he saith, so set it out as if we had consented in the greatest and weightiest points, and differed only in smaller matters. It will not be found, when it cometh to the balance, a light difference where we disagree, as I did acknowledge that we do, about the very essence of the medicine whereby Christ cureth our disease. Did I go about to make a show of agreement in the weight- iest points, and was I so fond as not to conceal our disagree- ment about this? I do wish that some indifferency were used by them that have taken the weighing of my words.
13. Yea, but our agreement is not such in two of the chiefest points, as I would have men believe it is : and what are they ? The one is, I said, " They acknowledge all men sinners, even the Blessed Virgin, though some of them free her from sin." Put the case I had affirmed, that only some of them free her from sin, and had delivered it as the most current opinion amongst them, that she was conceived in sin : doth not Bonaventure say plainly, " omnes fere," in a manner all men do hold this ? doth he not bring many reasons wherefore all men should hold it ? were their voices since that time ever counted, and their number found smaller which hold it than theirs that hold the contrary? Let the question then be, whether I might say, the most of them " acknowledged all men sinners, even the Blessed Virgin herself." To shew that their general received opi- nion is the contrary, the Tridentine Council is alleged, per- adventure not altogether so considerately. For, if that Coun- cil have by resolute determination freed her, if it hold, as
questions he had moved and maintained. Wherein he so set forth the agreement of the Church of Rome with us, and their disagreement from us, as if we had consented in the greatest and weightiest points, and differed only in certain smaller matters. Which agreement, noted by him in two chief points, is not such as he would have made men believe : the one, in that he said, They acknowledge all men sinners, even the Blessed Virgin, though some of them freed her from sin : for the Council of Trent holdeth, that she was free from sin. Another, in that he said, They teach Christ's righteousness to be the only meritorious cause of taking away sin, and dif- fer from us only in the applying of it. For Thomas Aquinas, their chief School- man, and Archbishop Catharinus, teach, That Christ took away only original sin, and that the rest are to be taken away by ourselves : yea, the Council of Trent teacheth, That the righteousness whereby we are righteous in God's sight, is in- herent righteousness ; which must needs be of our own works, and cannot be understood of the righteousness inherent only in Christ's person, and accounted unto us.
MR. TRAVERS S SUPPLICATION. 483
Mr. Travers saith it doth, that she was free from sin ; then must the Church of Rome needs condemn them that hold the contrary. For what that Council holdeth, the same they all do and must hold. But in the Church of Rome, who knoweth not, that it is a thing indifferent to think and de- fend the one or the other: so that, this argument, the Council of Trent holdeth the Virgin free from sin, ergo, it is plain than none of them may, and therefore untrue that most of them do acknowledge her a sinner, were forcible to overthrow my supposed assertion, if it were true that the Council did hold this. But to the end it may clearly ap- pear, how it neither holdeth this nor the contrary, I will open what many do conceive of the Canon that concerneth this matter. The Fathers of Trent perceived, that if they should define of this matter, it would be dangerous howso- ever it were determined. If they had freed her from her origi- nal sin, the reasons against them are unanswerable, which Bonaventure and others do allege, but especially Thomas, whose line, as much as may be, they follow. Again, if they did resolve the other way, they should control them- selves in another thing, which in no case might be altered. For they profess to keep no day holy in the honour of an unholy thing ; and the Virgin's Conception they honour with a Feast,* which they could not abrogate without can- celling a Constitution of Xystus Quartus. And, that which is worse, the world might perhaps suspect, that if the Church of Rome did amiss before in this, it is not impossible for her to fail in other things. In the end, they did wisely quote out their Canon by a middle thread, establishing the Feast of the Virgin's Conception, and leaving the other question doubtful as they found it ; giving only a caveat, that no man should take the Decree which pronounceth all mankind originally sinful, for a definitive sentence concerning the Blessed Virgin. This in my sight is plain by their own words, " Declarat hac ipsa sancta Synodus," &c. Where-
* This doth much trouble Thomas, holding her conception stained with the na- tural blemish inherent in mortal seed. And therefore he putteth it off with two answers : the one, that the Church of Rome doth not allow, but tolerate, the Feast; which answer now will not serve : the other, that being sure she was sanctified before birth , but unsure how long a while after her conception, therefore, under the name of her Conception-day, they honour the time of her sanctification . So that, besides this, they have now no soder to make the certain allowance of their Feast, and their uncertain sentence concerning her sin, to cleave together. Tom. iii. part 1. quest. 27. art. ad 2 et 3.
2i2
484 MR. HOOKERS ANSWER TO
fore our countrymen at Rhemes, mentioning this point, are marvellous wary how they speak ; they touch it as though Annot. it were a hot coal : " Many godly devout men judge that our v°s^°t?9. Blessed Lady was neither born nor conceived in sin." Is it their wont to speak nicely of things definitively set down in that Council ?
In like sort, we find that the rest, which have since the time of the Tridentine Synod written of original sin, are in this point, for the most part, either silent, or very sparing in speech : and, when they speak, either doubtful what to think, or whatsoever they think themselves, fearful to set down any certain determination. If I be thought to take the Canon of that Council otherwise than they themselves do, let him expound it whose sentence was neither last asked, nor his pen least occupied in setting it down ; I mean Andradius, whom Gregory the Thirteenth hath al- Lib. v. lowed plainly to confess, that it is a matter which neither el express evidence of Scripture, nor the tradition of the Fa- thers, nor the sentence of the Church, hath determined ; that they are too surly and self-willed, which, defending their opinion, are displeased with them by whom the other is maintained: finally, that the Fathers of Trent have not set down any certainty about this question, but left it doubtful and indifferent.
Now whereas my words, which I had set down in writ- ing before I uttered them, were indeed these, " Although they imagine, that the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ were, for his honour, and by his special protection, pre- served clean from all sin: yet concerning the rest, they teach as we do, that all have sinned." Against my words they might, with more pretence, take exception, because so many of them think she had sin : which exception not- withstanding, the proposition being indefinite and the matter contingent, they cannot take, because they grant, that many whom they account grave and devout amongst them think that she was clear from all sin. But whether Mr. Travers did note my words himself, or take them upon the credit of some other man's noting, the tables were faulty wherein it was noted, " All men sinners, even the Blessed Virgin." When my speech was ra- ther, "All men except the Blessed Virgin." To leave this ; another fault he findeth, that I said, " They teach Christ's
MR. THAVERS'S SUPPLICATION. 485
righteousness to be the only meritorious cause of taking away sin, and differ from us only in the applying of it." I did say and do, " They teach as we do, that although Christ be the only meritorious cause of our justice, yet as a me- dicine, which is made for health, doth not heal by being made, but by being applied ; so, by the merits of Christ, there can be no life nor justification, without the applica- tion of his merits : but about the manner of applying Christ, about the number and power of means whereby he is applied, we dissent from them." This of our dissenting from them is acknowledged.
14. Our agreement in the former is denied to be such as I pretend. Let their own words therefore and mine con- cerning them be compared. Doth not Andradius plainly confess ; " Our sins do shut, and only the merits of Christ orthod. open, the entering into blessedness ?" And Soto, " It is JJ^. put for a good ground, that all, since the fall of Adam, ob- •'JJ^ tain salvation only by the Passion of Christ : howbeit, art. 6. as no cause can be effectual without applying, so neither can any man be saved, to whom the suffering of Christ is not applied." In a word, who not? When the Council of Trent, reckoning up the causes of our first Justification, doth name no end but God's glory, and our felicity ; no ef- ficient but his mercy ; no instrumental but Baptism ; no meritorious but Christ ; whom to have merited the taking away of no sin but original, is not their opinion : which himself will find, when he hath well examined his wit- nesses, Catharinus and Thomas. Their Jesuits are mar- vellous angry with the men out of whose gleanings Mr. Travers seemeth to have taken this ; they openly disclaim it ; they say plainly, "Of all the Catholics there is not one that did ever so teach ;" they make solemn protestation, " We believe and profess, that Christ upon the Cross hath altogether satisfied for all sins, as well original as actual." Indeed they teach, that the merit of Christ doth not take away actual sin in such sort as it doth original ; wherein, if their doctrine had been understood, I for my speech had never been accused. As for the Council of Trent, con- cerning inherent righteousness, what doth it here? No man
* 'Nemo Catbolicorum unquam sic docuit; sed credimus et profitemur, Chri- stum in Cruce pro omnibus omnino peccatis satisfecisse, tam originalibus quam actualibus.' Bellarm. Judic. de lib. Concor. Mendac. 18.
486 MR. HOOKERS ANSWER TO
doubteth, but they make another formal cause of Justifica- tion than we do. In respect whereof, I have shewed already, that we disagree about the very essence of that which cureth our spiritual disease. Most true it is which the grand Philosopher hath, " Every man judgeth well of that which he knoweth ;" and therefore, till we know the things thoroughly whereof we judge, it is a point of judg- ment to stay our judgment.
15. Thus much labour being spent in discovering the unsoundness of my doctrine, some pains he taketh further to open faults in the manner of my teaching, as that, " I bestowed my whole hour and more, my time and more than my time, in discourses utterly impertinent to my text." Which, if I had done, it might have past without com- plaining of to the Privy Council.
16. But I did worse, as he saith, " I left the expounding of the Scriptures, and my ordinary calling, and discoursed upon School-points and questions, neither of edification, nor of truth." I read no Lecture in the Law, or in Physic. And, except the bounds of ordinary calling may be drawn like a purse, how are they so much wider unto him than to me, that he within the limits of his ordinary calling, should reprove that in me, which he understood not ; and I labouring that both he and others might understand, could not do this without forsaking my calling ? The matter whereof I spake was such, as being at first by me but lightly touched, he had in that place openly contradicted, and solemnly taken upon him to disprove. If therefore it were a School-question, and unfit to be discoursed of there, that which was in me but a proposition only at the first, wherefore made he a problem of it? Why took he first upon him to maintain the negative of that which I had af- firmatively spoken only to shew mine own opinion, little thinking that ever it would have been a question? Of what nature soever the question were, I could do no less than there explain myself to them, unto whom I was accused of unsound doctrine ; wherein if to shew what had been through ambiguity mistaken in my words, or misapplied by him in this cause against me, I used the distinction and helps of Schools, I trust that herein I have committed no unlawful thing. These School-implements are acknowledged
inst' by grave and wise men not unprofitable to have been in-
MR. TRAVERSES SUPPLICATION. 487
vented. The most approved for learning and judgment do »•*• use them without blame; the use of them hath been well wet". 9. liked in some that have taught even in this very place before me : the quality of my hearers is such, that I could not but think them of capacity very sufficient, for the most part, to conceive harder sentences than I used any ; the cause I had in hand did in my judgment necessarily require them which were then used: when my words spoken gene- rally without distinctions had been perverted, what other way was there for me, but by distinctions to lay them open in their right meaning, that it might appear to all men whe- ther they were consonant to truth or no ? And although Mr. Travers be so inured with the city, that he thinketh it unmeet to use any speech which savoureth of the School, yet his opinion is no Canon ; though unto him, his mind being troubled, my speech did seem like fetters and ma- nacles, yet there might be some more calmly affected which thought otherwise; his private judgment will hardly warrant his bold words, that the things which I spake " were neither of edification nor truth." They might edify some other, for any thing he knoweth, and be true for any thing he proveth to the contrary. For it is no proof to cry, " Absurdities, the like whereunto have not been heard in public places within this land since Queen Mary's days!" If this came in earnest from him, I am sorry to see him so much offended without cause ; more sorry, that his fit should be so extreme, to make him speak he know- eth not what. That I neither " affected the truth of God, nor the the peace of the Church," mihi pro minimo est, it doth not much move me, when Mr. Travers doth say that, which, I trust, a greater than Mr. Travers will gainsay.
17. Now let all this which hitherto he hath said be granted him, let it be as he would have it, let my doctrine and manner of teaching be as much disallowed by all men's judgments as by his, what is all this to his purpose ? He allegeth this to be the cause why he bringeth it in ; the High Commissioners "charge him with an indiscretion and want of duty in that he inveighed against certain points of doctrine taught by me, as erroneous, not confer- ring first with me, nor complaining of it to them." Which faults, a sea of such matter as he hath hitherto waded in,
488 MR. HOOKERS ANSWER TO
will never be able to scour from him. For the avoiding of schism and disturbance in the Church, which must needs grow, if all men might think what they list, and speak openly what they think; therefore by a Decree* agreed upon by the Bishops, and confirmed by her Majesty's Au- thority, it was ordered that erroneous doctrine, if it were taught publickly, should not be publickly refuted; but that notice thereof should be given unto such as are by her Highness appointed to hear and to determine such causes. For breach of which Order, when he is charged with lack of duty, all the faults that can be heaped upon me will make but a weak defence for him. As surely his defence is not much stronger, when he alleges for himself, that " he was in some hope that his speech in proving the truth, and clearing those scruples which I had in myself, might cause me either to embrace sound doctrine, or suffer it to be em- braced of others ; which, if I did, he should not need to complain :" that " it was meet he should discover first what I had sown, and make it manifest to be tares, and then de- sire their scythe to cut it down :" that " conscience did bind him to do otherwise, than the foresaid Order requireth ;" that " he was unwilling to deal in that public manner, and wished a more convenient way were taken for it :'' that " he had resolved to have protested the next Sabbath-day, that he would some other way satisfy such as should require it, and not deal more in that place." Be it imagined (let me not be taken as if I did compare the offenders, when I do not, but their answers only) that a libeller did make this apology for himself: I am not ignorant that if I have just matter against any man the Law is open, there are Judges to hear it, and Courts where it ought to be complained of; I have taken another course against such or such a man, yet without a breach of duty ; forasmuch as I am able to yield a reason of my doing, I conceive some hope that a little discredit amongst men would make him ashamed of
* In the advertisements published in the seventh year of her Majesty's reign : " If any Preacher, or Parson, Vicar, or Curate so licensed, shall fortune to preach any matter tending to dissension, or to derogation of the Religion and Doctrine received, that the hearers denounce the same to the Ordinary, or to the next Bishop of the same place, but not openly to contrary, or to impugn the same speech so disorderly uttered, whereby may grow offence, and disquiet of the people, but shall be convinced and reproved by the Ordinary, after such agreeable order as shall be seen to him, according to the gravity of the offence : and that it be pre- sented within one month after the words spoken."
MR. TRAVERS'S SUPPLICATION. 489
himself, and that his shame would work his amendment ; which, if it did, other accusation there should not need ; could his answer be thought sufficient, could it in the judgment of discreet men free him from all blame ? No more can the hope Mr. Travers conceived to reclaim me by public speech, justify his fault against the established Order of the Church.
18. His thinking it meet, "he should first openly disco- ver to the people the tares that had been sown amongst them, and then require the hand of authority to mow them down ;" doth only make it a question, whether his opinion that this was meet, may be a privilege or protection against the lawful Constitution which had before determined of it as a thing unmeet? Which question I leave for them to discuss whom it most concernelh. If the Order be such, that it cannot be kept without hazarding a thing so pre- cious as a good conscience, the peril whereof could be no greater to him, than it needs must be to all others whom it toucheth in like causes ; when this is evident, it will be an ef- fectual motive, not only for England, but also for other re- formed Churches, even Geneva itself (for they have the like), to change or take that away which cannot but with great inconvenience be observed. In the meanwhile the breach of it may, in such consideration, be pardoned (which truly I wish, howsoever it be), yet hardly defended as long as it standeth in force uncancelled.
19. Now, whereas he confesseth that another "way had been more convenient," and that he found in himself secret unwillingness to do that which he did, doth he not say plainly, in effect, that the light of his own understanding proved the way that he' took perverse and crooked ? Reason was so plain and pregnant against it, that his mind was alie- nated, his will averted to another course, yet somewhat there was that so far over-ruled, that it must needs be done even against the very stream ; what doth this bewray ? Fi- nally, his purposed protestation, whereby he meant open- ly to make it known, that he did not allow this kind of proceeding, and therefore would satisfy men otherwise, " and deal no more in this place," sheweth his good mind in this, that he meant to stay himself from further offend- ing ; but it serveth not his turn. He is blamed because the thing he hath done was amiss, and his answer is, That
490 MR. hooker's answer to
which I would have done afterward had been well, if so be I had done it.
20. But as in this he standeth persuaded, that he hath done nothing besides duty, so he taketh it hardly, that the High Commissioners should charge him with indiscretion. Wherefore, as if he could so wash his hands, he maketh a long and a large declaration concerning the carriage of himself; how he waded in " matters of smaller weight," and how in things of "greater moment;" how warily he dealt ; how " naturally he took things rising from the text ;" how " closely he kept himself to the Scriptures he took in hand ;" how " much pains he took to confirm the necessity of believing Justification by Christ only," and to shew how "the Church of Rome denieth that a man is saved by Faith alone, without Works of the Law ;" what " the Sons of Thunder would have done," if they had been in his case ; (hat his " answer was very temperate, without im- modest or reproachful speech ;" that when he might " be- fore all have reproved me," he did not, " but contented himself with exhorting me" before all, " to follow Nathan's example, and revisit my doctrine ;" when he might have followed St. Paul's example in " reproving" Peter, he did not, but exhorted me, with Peter, to " endure to be .with- stood." This testimony of his discreet carrying himself in the handling of his matter, being more agreeably framed and given him by another than by himself, might make somewhat for the praise of his person ; but for defence of his action, unto them by whom he is thought indiscreet for not conferring privately before he spake, will it serve to answer, than when he spake, he did it considerately ? He perceiveth it will not, and therefore addeth reasons, such as they are ; as, namely, how he purposed at the first to take another course, and that was this, " Publickly to deliver the truth of such doctrine as I had otherwise taught, and at convenient opportunity to confer with me upon such points." Is this the Rule of Christ? If thy brother offend openly in his speech, control it first with contrary speech openly, and confer with him afterwards upon it, when convenient opportunity serveth ? Is there any Law of God or man, whereupon to ground such a re- solution 1 any Church extant in the world, where Teach- ers are allowed thus to do, or to be done unto ? He cannot
MR. TRAVERSES SUPPLICATION. 491
but see how weak an allegation it is, when he bringeth in his following discourse, first in one matter, and so after- ward in another, to approve himself now following it again. For, if the purpose of doing of a thing so uncharit- able be a fault, the deed is a greater fault ; and doth the doing of it twice, make it the third time fit and allowable to be done ? The weight of the cause, which is his third defence, relieveth him as little. The weightier it was, the more it required considerate advice and consultation, the more it stood upon him to take good heed, that nothing were rashly done or spoken in it. But he meaneth weighty, in regard of the wonderful danger, except he had presently withstood me without expecting a time of conference. " This cause being of such moment that might prejudice the faith of Christ, encourage the ill-affected to continue still in their damnable ways, and others weak in faith to suffer themselves to be seduced, to the destruction of their souls, he thought it his bounden duty to speak before he talked with me." A man that should read this, and not know what I had spoken, might imagine that I had at the least denied the Divinity of Christ. But they which were present at my speech, and can testify that nothing passed my lips more than is contained in their writings, whom, for soundness of doctrine, learning, and judgment, Mr. Tra- vers himself doth, I dare say, not only allow, but honour; they which heard, and do know, that the Doctrine here signified in so fearful manner, the Doctrine that was so dangerous to the faith of Christ, that was so likely to " en- courage ill-affected men to continue still in their damna- ble ways ;" that gave so great cause to tremble for fear of the present "destruction of souls," was only this ; " I doubt not but God was merciful to save thousands of our Fathers, living heretofore in Popish Superstitions, inas- much as they sinned ignorantly ;" and this spoken in a Sermon, the greatest part whereof was against Popery ; they will hardly be able to discern how Christianity should herewith be so grievously shaken.
21. Whereby his fourth excuse is also taken from him. For what doth it boot him to say, " The time was short wherein he was to preach after me," when his preaching of this matter perhaps ought, surely might have been either very well omitted, or at least more conveniently for awhile
492 mr. hooker's answer to
deferred ; even by their judgments that cast the most favourable aspect towards these his hasty proceedings. The poison which men had taken at my hands, was not so quick and strong in operation, as in eight days to make them past cure ; by eight days' delay, there was no like- lihood that the force and power of his speech could die, longer meditation might bring better and stronger proofs to mind, than extemporal dexterity could furnish him with. And, who doth know whether time, the only mother of sound judgment and discreet dealing, might have given that action of his some better ripeness, which by so great festination hath, as a thing born out of time, brought small joy unto him that begat it ? Doth he think it had not been better, that neither my speech had seemed in his eyes as an arrow sticking in a thigh of flesh ; nor his own as a child whereof he must needs be delivered by an hour? His last way of disburdening himself is, by casting his load upon my back, as if I had brought him by former conferences out of hope, that any fruit should ever come of conferring with me. Loth1 1 am to rip up those conferences, whereof he maketh but a slippery and loose relation. In one of them, the question between us was, whether the persua- sion of faith concerning remission of sins, eternal life, and whatsoever God doth promise unto man, be as free from doubting, as the persuasion which we have by sense con- cerning things tasted, felt, and seen ? For the negative, I mentioned their example, whose faith in Scripture is most commended, and the experience which all faithful men have continually had of themselves. For proof of the affirmative, which he held, I desiring to have some reason, heard nothing but " all good writers" oftentimes inculcat- ed. At the length, upon request to see some one of them, Peter Martyr's Common Places were brought, where the leaves were turned down, at a place sounding to this effect, " That the Gospel doth make Christians more vir- tuous than Moral Philosophy doth make Heathens :" which came not near the question by many miles.
22. In the other conference he questioned about the mat- ter of Reprobation, misliking first, that I had termed God a permissive, and no positive cause of the evil which the Schoolmen do call malum culpa;. Secondly, that to their objection, who say, " If I be elected, do what I will I shall
MR. TRAVERS's SUPPLICATION. 493
be saved/' I had answered, that the will of God in this thing is not absolute, but conditional, to save his elect be- lieving, fearing, and obediently serving him. Thirdly, that to stop the mouths of such as grudge and repine against God for rejecting castaways, I had taught that they are not rejected, no not in the purpose and counsel of God, without a foreseen worthiness of rejection going, though not in time, yet in order, before. For, if God's electing do in order (as needs it must) presuppose the fore- sight of their being that are elected, though they be elect- ed before they be ; nor only the positive foresight of their being, but also the permissive of their being miserable, because election is through mercy, and mercy doth always presuppose misery : it followeth, that the very chosen of God acknowledge, to the praise of the riches of his ex- ceeding free compassion, that when he in his secret deter- maintion set it down, " Those shall live and not die," they lay as ugly spectacles before him, as lepers covered with dung and mire, as ulcers putrefied in their father's loins, miserable, worthy to be had in detestation ; and shall any forsaken creature be able to say unto God, Thou didst plunge me into the depth, and assign me unto endless tor- ments, only to satisfy thine own will, finding nothing in me for which I could seem in thy sight so well worthy to feel everlasting flames ?
23. When I saw that Mr. Travers carped at these things, only because they lay not open, I promised at some conve- nient time to make them clear as light, both to him and all others. Which, if they that reprove me will not grant me leave to do, they must think that they are for some cause or other more desirous to have me reputed an un- sound man, than willing that my sincere meaning should appear and be approved. When I was further asked what my grounds were? I answered, that St. Paul's words concerning this cause were my grounds. His next demand, what author I did follow in expounding St. Paul, and gathering the doctrine out of his words, against the judgment (he saith) "of all Churches and all good writ- ers ?" I was well assured, that to control this over-reaching speech, the sentences which I might have cited out of Church-confessions, together with the best learned monu- ments of former times, and not the meanest of our own, were
494 mr. hooker's answer to
more in number than perhaps he would willingly have heard of: but what had this booted me ? For, although he himself in generality do much use those formal speeches, " all Churches," and " all good writers, " yet as he holdeth it in the pulpit lawful to say in general, the Painims think this, or the Heathens that, but utterful unlawful to cite any sen- tence of theirs that say it ; so he gave me at that time great cause to think, that my particular alleging of other men's words, to shew their agreement with mine, would as much have displeased his mind, as the thing itself for which it had been alleged ; for he knoweth how often he hath in public place bitten me for this, although I did never in any Sermon use many of the sentences of other writers, and do make most without any ; having always thought it meetest, neither to affect nor contemn the use of them.
24. He is not ignorant, that in the very entrance to the talk which we had privately at that time, to prove it un- lawful altogether in preaching, either for confirmation, de- claration, or otherwise, to cite any thing but mere Canoni- cal Scripture, he brought in, " The Scripture is given by inspiration, and is profitable to teach, improve, &c." urging much the vigour of these two clauses, " the man of God," and "every good work." If therefore the work were good which he required at my hands, if privately to shew why I thought the doctrine I had delivered to be according to St. Paul's meaning, were a good work, can they which take the place before alleged for a Law, condemning every man of God, who in doing the work of preaching any way useth human authority, like it in me, if in the work of strengthening that which I had preached, I should bring forth the testimonies and the sayings of mortal men? I alleged therefore that which might under no pretence in the world be disallowed, namely, reasons ; not meaning thereby mine own reason as now it is reported, but true, sound, divine reason ; reason whereby those conclusions might be out of St. Paul demonstrated, and not probably discoursed of only ; reason, proper to that science whereby the things of God are known ; theological reason, which out of principles in Scripture that are plain, soundly deduceth more doubtful inferences, in such sort, that being heard they cannot be denied, nor any thing repugnant unto them
MR. traver's supplication. 495
received ; but whatsoever was before otherwise by miscol- lectiug gathered out of dark places, is thereby forced to yield itself, and the true consonant meaning of sentences not understood is brought to light. This is the reason which I intended. If it were possible for me to escape the ferula in any thing I do or speak, I had undoubtedly escaped in this. In this I did that which by some is enjoin- ed as the only allowable, but granted by all as the most sure and safe way, whereby to resolve things doubted of in matters appertaining to Faith and Christian Religion. So that Mr. Travers had here small cause given him to be weary of conferring, unless it was in other respects than that poor one which is here pretended, that is to say, the little hope he had of doing me any good by con- ference.
25. Yet behold his first reason of not complaining to the High Commission is, " That sith I offended only through an over-charitable inclination, he conceived good hope, when I should see the truth cleared, and some scruples which were in my mind removed by his diligence, I would yield." But what experience soever he had of former con- ferences, how small soever his hope was that fruit would come of it, if he should have conferred, will any man judge this a cause sufficient, why to open his mouth in public, without any word privately spoken? He might have con- sidered that men do sometimes reap, where they sow but with small hope ; he might have considered, that although unto me (whereof he was not certain neither), but if to me his labour should be as water spilt or poured into a torn dish, yet to him it could not be fruitless to do that which Order in Christian Churches, that which charity amongst Christian men, that which at many men's hands, even com- mon humanity itself, at his, many other things besides, did require. What fruit could there come of his open contra- dicting in so great haste, with so small advice, but such as must needs be unpleasant, and mingled with much acer- bity ? Surely, he which will take upon him to defend, that in this there was no oversight, must beware, lest by such defences he leave an opinion dwelling in the minds of men, that he is more stiff to maintain what he hath done, than careful to do nothing but that which may justly be main- tained .
496 mr. hooker's answer Sec.
26. Thus have I, as near as I could, seriously answered things of weight : with smaller I have dealt as I thought their quality did require, I take no joy in striving, 1 have not been nuzzled or trained up in it. I would to Christ they which have at this present enforced me hereunto, had so ruled their hands in any reasonable time, that I might never have been constrained to strike so much as in mine own defence. Wherefore, to prosecute this long and tedi- ous contention no further, I shall wish that your Grace, and their Honours (unto whose intelligence the dutiful regard which I have of their judgments makcth me de- sirous, that as accusations have been brought against me, so that this my answer thereunto may likewise come), did both with the one and the other, as Constantine with books containing querelous matter. Whether this be convenient to be wished or no, I cannot tell : but sith there can come nothing of contention, but the mutual waste of the parties contending, till a common enemy dance in the ashes of them both, I do wish heartily that the grave advice which Constantine gave for re-uniting of his Clergy so many times, upon some small occasions, in so lamentable sort divided, or rather the strict commandment of Christ unto his, that they should not be divided at all, may at the length, if it be his blessed will, prevail so far, at least in this corner of the Christian world, to the burying and quite forgetting of strife, together with the causes that have either bred it, or brought it up, that things of small moment never dis- join them, whom one God, one Lord, one Faith, one Spirit, one Baptism, bands of so great force, have linked ; that a respective eye towards things wherewith we should not be disquieted, make us not, as through infirmity the very Patriarchs themselves sometimes were, full gorged, unable to speak peaceably to their own brother; finally, that no strife may ever be heard of again, but this, who shall hate strife most, who shall pursue peace and unity with swiftest paces.
TO THE CHRISTIAN READER
Whereas many desirous of resolution in some points handled in this learned Discourse, were earnest to have it copied out ; to ease so many labours, it hath been thought most worthy and very necessary to be printed : that not only they might be satisfied, but the whole Church also hereby edified. The rather, because it will tree the Author from the suspicion of some errors, which he hath been thought to have favoured. Who might well have answered with Cremutius in Tacitus, " Verba mea arguuntur ; adeo Lib. iv. factorum innocens sum." Certainly the event of that time £n3n4a \' wherein he lived, shewed that to be true which the same Author spake of a worse, " Cui deerat inimicus, per amicos L>t>- »■ oppressus ;" and that there is not " minus periculum ex- [c!V.] magna fama, quam ex mala." But he hath so quit him- self, that all may see how, as it was said of Agricola, " Simul suis virtutibus, simul vitiis aliorum, in ipsamlDVi'a gloriam prasceps agebatur." Touching whom I will say [cg«o no more, but that which my Author said of the same man, " Integritatem, &c. in tan to viro referre, injuria virtutum fuerit." But as of all other his writings, so of this I will add that which Velleius spake in commendation of Piso, " Nemo fuit, qui magis quae agenda erant curaret, sine ulla ^b. u. ostentatione agendi." So not doubting, good Christian tc' 98] Reader, of thy assent herein, but wishing thy favourable acceptance of this work (which will be an inducement to set forth others of his learned labours), I take my leave, from Corpus Christi College in Oxford, the 6th of July, 1612.
Thine in Christ Jesus,
Henry Jackson.
vol. II.
A
LEARNED DISCOURSE
JUSTIFICATION, WORKS, AND HOW THE FOUNDATION OF FAITH IS OVERTHROWN.
1 Cor. v. 12, 13
The wicked doth compass about the righteous : therefore perverse judgment doth proceed. — Habak. i. 4.
For the better manifestation of the Prophet's meaning in this place, we are, first, to consider " the wicked," of whom he saith, " that they compass about the righteous :" secondly, " the righteous" that are compassed about by them : and thirdly, that which is inferred ; ** therefore per- verse judgment proceedeth." Touching the first, there are two kinds of wicked men, of whom in the fifth of the former to the Corinthians, the blessed Apostle speaketh thus : '* Do ye not judge them that are within 1 but God judgeth them that are without." There are wicked, therefore, whom the Church may judge, and there are wicked whom God only judgeth ; wicked within, and wicked without, the walls of the Church. If within the Church, particular persons be apparently such, as cannot otherwise be reformed, the ccor.vi. rule of the Apostolical judgment is this, " Separate them from among you :" if whole assemblies, this, " Separate yourselves from among them : for what society hath light with darkness?" But the wicked, whom the Prophet mean- eth, were Babylonians, and therefore without. For which cause we have heard at large heretofore in what sort he urgeth God to judge them.
2. Now concerning the righteous, there neither is, nor ever was, any mere natural man absolutely righteous in himself, that is to say, void of all unrighteousness, of all sin. We dare not except, no not the Blessed Virgin her- self, of whom, although we say with St. Augustine, for the
14—17.
A DISCOURSE OK JUSTIFICATION, &C. 499
honour-sake which we owe to our Lord and Saviour Christ, we are not willing, in this cause, to move any ques- tion of his Mother ; yet forasmuch as the Schools of Rome have made it a question, we may answer with Eusebius Emissenus,* who speaketh of her, and to her in this ef- fect: "Thou didst by special prerogative nine months to- [Hom.s. gether entertain within the closet of thy flesh the hope of iLn. p.' all the ends of the earth, the honour of the world, the f4J; £ common joy of men. He, from whom all things had their be- Bibiioth. ginning, had his beginning from thee; of thy body he took Latj the blood which was to be shed for the life of the world ; of thee he took that which even for thee he paid. ' A pec- cati enim veteris nexn, per se non est immunis ipsa Genitrix Redemptoris :'f The Mother of the Redeemer himself is not otherwise loosed from the bond of ancient sin, than by re- demption." If Christ have paid a ransom for all, even for her, it followeth, that all, without exception, were captives. If one have died for all, then all were dead in sin ; all sin- ful, therefore, none absolutely righteous in themselves ; but we are absolutely righteous in Christ. The world then must shew a righteous man, otherwise it is not able to shew a man that is perfectly righteous : " Christ is made to us wisdom, justice, sanctification, and redemption:" Wisdom, because he hath revealed his Father's will ; Justice, be- cause he hath offered up himself a sacrifice for sin ; Sanc- tification, because he hath given us his Spirit ; Redemp- tion, because he hath appointed a day to vindicate his children out of the bands of corruption into liberty which is glorious. How Christ is made Wisdom, and how Redemp- tion, it may be declared when occasion serveth ; but how Christ is made the Righteousness of men, we are now to declare.
3. There is a glorifying righteousness of men in the world to come : as there is a justifying and sanctifying righteous- ness here. The righteousness, wherewith we shall be clothed in the world to come, is both perfect and inherent. That whereby here we are justified is perfect, but not inherent.
* Or whosoever it be, that was the author of those Homilies, that go under his name.
t Knowing how the Schoolmen hold this question, some critical wits may per- haps half suspect that these two words, per se, are inmates. But, if the place which they have be their own, their sense can be none other than that which I have given them by a paraphrastical interpretation.
2k2
/
500 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
That whereby we are sanctified is inherent, but not perfect. This openeth a way to the understanding of that grand question, which hangeth yet in controversy between us and the Church of Rome, about the matter of justifying righteousness.
4. First, although they imagine that the Mother of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ were for his honour, and by his special protection, preserved clean from all sin, yet touching the rest, they teach as we do, that infants that never did actually offend, have their natures defiled, des- titute of justice, averted from God ; that in making man righteous, none do efficiently work with God, but God.* They teach as we do, that unto justice no man ever attained, but by the merits of Jesus Christ. They teach as we do, that although Christ as God be the efficient, as man the meritorious, cause of our justice ; yet in us also there is something required. God is the cause of our natural life ; in him we live : but he quickeneth not the body without the soul in the body. Christ hath merited to make us just : but as a medicine which is made for health, doth not heal by being made, but by being applied ; so, by the merits of Christ there can be no Justification, without the application of his merit. Thus far we join hands with the Church of Rome. Thedif- 5. Wherein then do we disagreee ? We disagree about betwMn the nature and essence of the medicine whereby Christ "istfand cureth our disease ; about the manner of applying it; about us about the number and the power of means, which God requireth cation, in us for the effectual applying thereof to our soul's comfort. When they are required to shew what the righteousness is whereby a Christian man is justified, they answer, f that it is a divine spiritual quality ; which quality received into the soul, doth first make it to be one of them who are born of God : and, secondly, endue it with power to bring forth
* They teach as we do, that God doth justify the soul of man alone, without any coeffective cause of justice. ' Deus sine medio coeffeclivo animamjustificat.' Casal. de quadripart. just. lib. vi. Idem. lib. iii. c. 9.
t Tho. Aquin. 1. 2. quaest. 100. ' Gratia gratumfaciens, id est.justificans, est in anima quiddam reale et positivum, qualitas quxdam (art ii. concl.) supernaturalis, non eadem cum virtute infusa, ut magister ; sed aliquid (art. iii.) prater virtutes infusas, fidem, spem, charitatem, habitudo quredam (art. iii. ad 3.) qure prassup- ponitur in virtutibus istis sicut earum principium et radix ; essentiam animae tan- quam subjectum occupat, non potentias, sed ab ipsa (art. iv. ad 1.) effluunt virtutes in potentias anima?, per quas potentias moventur ad actus.' Plur. vid. quasst. 113. de Justificatione.
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 501
such works, as they do that are born of him ; even as the soul of man being joined to his body, doth first make him to be of the number of reasonable creatures, and secondly enable him to perform the natural functions which are pro- per to his kind ; that it maketh the soul amiable and gra- cious in the sight of God, in regard whereof it is termed Grace ; that it purgeth, purifieth, and washeth out, all the stains and pollutions of sins ; that by it, through the merit of Christ we are delivered as from sin, so from eternal death and condemnation, the reward of sin. This Grace they will have to be applied by infusion ; to the end, that as the body is warm by the heat which is in the body, so the soul might be righteous by inherent Grace ; which Grace they make capable of increase ; as the body may be more and more warm, so the soul more and more justified, according as Grace should be augmented ; the augmentation whereof is merited by good works, as good works are made merito- rious by it. Wherefore, the first receipt of Grace in their divinity is the first Justification ; the increase thereof, the second Justification. As Grace may be increased by the merit of good works ; so it may be diminished by the de- merit of sins venial; it may be lost by mortal sin. Inas- much, therefore, as it is needful in the one case to repair, in the other to recover, the loss which is made; the infusion of Grace hath her sundry after-meals; for the which cause they make many ways to apply the infusion of Grace. It is applied to infants through Baptism, without either Faith or Works, and in them really it taketh away Original sin, and the punishment due unto it ; it is applied to infidels and wicked men in the first Justification, through Baptism with- out Works, yet not without Faith ; and it taketh away both sins Actual and Original together, with all whatsoever punishment, eternal or temporal, thereby deserved. Unto such as have attained the first Justification, that is to say, the first receipt of Grace, it is applied further by good works to the increase of former Grace, which is the second Justi- fication. If they work more and more, Grace doth more increase, and they are more and more justified. To such as diminish it by venial sins, it is applied by Holy Water, Ave Marias, Crossings, Papal Salutations, and such like, which serve for reparations of Grace decayed. To such as have lost it through mortal sin, it is applied by the Sacra- ment (as they term it) of Penance ; which Sacrament hath
Phil, iii. 8, 9
502 A DISCOURSE OF J USTIFIC ATION, &C.
force to confer Grace anew, yet in such sort, that being so conferred, it hath not altogether so much power as at the first. For it only cleanseth out the stain or guilt of sin com- mitted, and changeth the punishment eternal into a tempo- ral satisfactory punishment here, if time do serve : if not, hereafter to be endured, except it be lightened by Masses, Works of Charity, Pilgrimages, Fasts, and such like ; or else shortened by pardon for term, or by plenary pardon quite removed and taken away. This is the mystery of the Man of sin. This maze the Church of Rome doth cause her followers to tread, when they ask her the way to Justifica- tion. I cannot stand now to unrip this building, and sift it piece by piece ; only I will pass it by in few words, that that may befall Babylon, in the presence of that which God hath builded, as happened unto Dagon before the Ark.
6. " Doubtless (saith the Apostle), I have counted all things lost, and judge thern to be dung, that I may win Christ; and to be found in him, not having my own righteousness, but that which is through the Faith of Christ, the righteous- ness which is of God through Faith." Whether they speak of the first or second Justification, they make the essence of a divine quality inherent, they make it righteousness which is in us. If it be in us, then it is ours, as our souls are ours, though we have them from God, and can hold them no longer than pleaseth him ; for if he withdraw the breath of our nostrils, we fall to dust: but the righteousness wherein we must be found, if we will be justified, is not our own ; therefore we cannot be justi- fied by any inherent quality. Christ hath merited right- eousness for as many as are found in him. In him God findeth us, if we be faithful ; for by Faith we are' incorpo- rated into Christ. Then, although in ourselves we be altogether sinful and unrighteous, yet even the man which is impious in himself, full of iniquity, full of sin ; him being found in Christ through Faith, and having his sin remitted through Repentance ; him God beholdeth with a gracious eye, putteth away his sin by not imputing it, taketh quite away the punishment due thereunto by pardoning it, and accepteth him in Jesus Christ, as perfectly righteous, as if he had fulfilled all that was commanded him in the Law ; shall I say more perfectly righteous than if himself had fulfilled the whole Law ? I must take heed what I say : but the Apostle saith, " God made him to be sin for us, who
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 503
knew no sin ; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Such we are in the sight of God the Father, as is the very Son of God himself. Let it be counted folly, or frenzy, or fury, whatsoever, it is our comfort, and our wis- dom ; we care for no knowledge in the world but this, that man hath sinned, and God hath suffered ; that God hath made himself the Son of man, and that men are made the righteousness of God. You see, therefore, that the Church of Rome, in teaching Justification by inherent Grace, doth pervert the truth of Christ ; and that by the hands of the Apostles we have received otherwise than she teacheth. Now concerning the righteousness of Sanctification, we deny it not to be inherent; we grant, that unless we work, we have it not ; only we distinguish it as a thing dif- ferent in nature from the righteousness of Justification : we are righteous the one way, by the Faith of Abraham ; the other way, except we do the works of Abraham, we are not righteous. Of the one St. Paul, " To him that worketh [Rom. not, but believeth, Faith is counted for righteousness." Of 1V' the other, St. John, " Qui facit justitiam, Justus est : — He PJ°hn is righteous which worketh righteousness." Of the one? St. Paul doth prove by Abraham's example, that we have [Kom.iv. it of Faith without Works. Of the other, St. James by^n,.^ Abraham's example, that by Works we have it, and not only by Faith. St. Paul doth plainly sever these two parts of Christian righteousness one from the other. For in the sixth to the Romans thus he writeth, " Being freed from Rom. sin, and made servants to God, ye have your fruit in holi- V1"22, ness, and the end everlasting life." " Ye are made free from sin, and made servants unto God ;" this is the righteous- ness of Justification ; " Ye have your fruit in holiness ;'' this is the righteousness of Sanctification. By the one we are interested in the right of inheriting ; by the other we are brought to the actual possession of eternal bliss, and so the end of both is everlasting life.
7. The Prophet Habakkuk doth here term the Jews " righteous men," not only because being justified by Faith they were free from sin ; but also because they had their measure of fruits in holiness. According to whose example of charitable judgment, which leaveth it to God to discern what we are, and speaketh of them according to that which they do profess themselves to be, although they be not holy men whom men do think, but whom God doth know indeed to
504 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
be such ; yet let every Christian man know, that in Chris- tian equity, he standeth boundfor to think and speak of his brethren, as of men that have a measure in the fruit of holi- ness, and a right unto the titles wherewith God, in token of special favour and mercy, vouchsafeth to honour his chosen servants. So we see the Apostles of our Saviour Christ do use every where the name of Saints; so the Prophet the name of righteous. But let us all be such as we desire to be termed : " Reatus impii est pium nomen," saith Salvianus; "Godly names do not justify godless men." We are but upbraided, when we are honoured with names and titles whereunto our lives and manners are not suitable. If indeed we have our fruit in holiness, notwithstanding we must note, that the more we abound therein, the more need we have to crave that we maybe strengthened and supported. Our very virtues may be snares unto us. The enemy that waiteth for all occa- sions to work our ruin, hath found it harder to overthrow an humble sinner, than a proud Saint. There is no man's case so dangerous as his whom Satan hath persuaded that his own righteousness shall present him pure and blameless in the sight of God. If we could say, we were not guilty of any thing at all in our consciences (we know ourselves far from this innocency, we cannot say, we know nothing by our- selves ; but if we could), should we therefore plead not guilty before the presence of our Judge, that sees further in- to our hearts than we ourselves can do ? If our hands did never offer violence to our brethren, a bloody thought doth prove us murderers before him : if we had never opened our mouth to utter any scandalous, offensive, or hurtful word, the cry of our secret cogitations is heard in the ears of God. If we did not commit the sins, which daily and hourly either in deed, word, or thoughts we do commit; yetin the good things which we do, how many defects are there intermingled ! God, in that which is done, respecteth the mind and intention of the doer. Cut off then all those things wherein we have regarded our own glory, those things which men do to please men, and to satisfy our own liking, those things which we do for any by-respect, not sincerely and purely for the love of God, and a small score will serve for the number of our righteous deeds. Let the holiest and best things which we do be considered. We are never better affected unto God than when we pray ; yet when we pray, how are our affections many times distracted ! How little reverence
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 505
do we shew unto the grand Majesty of God, unto whom we speak ! How little remorse of our own miseries ! How little taste of the sweet influence of his tender mercies do we feel ! Are we not as unwilling many times to begin, and as glad to make an end; as if in saying, " Call upon me," he had set us a very burdensome task? It may seem some- what extreme, which I will speak ; therefore let every one judge of it, even as his own heart shall tell him, and no otherwise ; I will but only make a demand : If God should yield unto us, not as unto Abraham, if fifty, forty, thirty, twenty, yea, or if ten good persons could be found in a city, for their sakes this city should not be destroyed ; but, and if he should make us an offer thus large, Search all the gene- rations of men sithence the fall of our father Adam, find one man, that hath done one action/which hath passed'from him pure, without any stain or blemish at all ; and for that one man's only action, neither Man nor Angel shall feel the torments which are prepared for both. Do you think that this ransom, to deliver Men and Angels, could be found to be among the sons of men ? The best things which we do have somewhat in them to be pardoned. How then can we do any thing meritorious, or worthy to be rewarded? Indeed, God doth liberally promise whatsoever appertaineth to a blessed life, to as many as sincerely keep his Law, though they be not exactly able to keep it. Wherefore, we ac- knowledge a dutiful necessity of doing well, but the me- ritorious dignity of doing well we utterly renounce. We see how far we are from the perfect righteousness of the Law ; the little fruit which we have in holiness, it is, God knoweth, corrupt and unsound : we put no confidence at all in it, we challenge nothing in the world for it, we dare not call God to reckoning, as if we had him in our debt- books : our continual suit to him is, and must be, to bear with our infirmities, and pardon our offences.
8. But the people of whom the Prophet speaketh, were they all, or were the most part of them, such as had care to walk uprightly? did they thirst after righteousness? did they wish, did they long with the righteous Prophet, " O that our ways were so direct that we might keep thy [psai. Statutes?" did they lament with the righteous Apostle, cxix,5] " O miserable men, the good which we wish and purpose, [Rom. and strive to do, we cannot?" No ; the words of another Pro- iii,19']
506 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
phet concerning this people do shew the contrary. How [isa. grievously hath Esay mourned over them ! " O sinful nation,
'• 4] laden with iniquity, wicked seed, corrupt children !" AH which notwithstanding, so wide are the bowels of his com- passion enlarged, that he denieth us not, no not when we were laden with iniquity, leave to commune familiarly with him, liberty to crave and entreat, that what plagues soever we have deserved, we may not be in worse case than unbe- lievers, that we may not be hemmed in by Pagans and In- fidels. Jerusalem is a sinful polluted city ; but Jerusalem compared with Babylon is righteous. And shall the righte- ous be overborne ? Shall they be compassed about by the wicked ? But the Prophet doth not only complain ; Lord, how cometh it to pass that thou handiest us so hardly, of whom thy name is called, and bearest with the Heathen nations, that despise thee ? no, he breaketh out through extremity of grief, and inferreth violently, This " proceed- ing is perverse," the righteous are thus handled ; " there- fore perverse judgment doth proceed."
9. Which illation containeth many things, whereof it were better much both for you to hear, and me to speak, if necessity
(vcts did not draw me to another task. Paul and Barnabas being
™u requested to preach the same things again which once they had preached, thought it their duty to satisfy the godly desires of men sincerely affected to the truth. Nor may it seem burden- ous for me, nor for you unprofitable, that I follow their exam- ple, the like occasion unto theirs being offered me. When we had last the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews in hand,
Heb. and of that Epistle these words, " In these last days he has " spoken to us by his Son ;" after we had thence collected the nature of the visible Church of Christ, and had defined it to be a community of men* sanctified through the profession of the truth which God hath taught the world by his Son ; and had declared, that the scope of Christian doctrine is the comfort of them whose hearts are overcharged with the burden of sin ; and had proved that the doctrine professed in the Church of Rome, doth bereave men of comfort, both in their lives, and in their deaths : the conclusion in the end, whereunto we came, was this ; the Church of Rome being iu faith so corrupted, as she is, and refusing to be re-
* By sanctification, I mean a separation from others not professing as they do. For true holiness consistelh not in professing, but in obeying the truth of Christ.
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 507
formed, as she doth, we arc to sever ourselves from her; the example of our Fathers may not retain us in commu- nion with that Church, under hope that we so continuing, may be saved as well as they. God, I doubt not, was merciful to save thousands of them, though they lived in Popish Superstitions, inasmuch as they sinned ignorantly: but the truth is now laid before our eyes. The former part of this last sentence, namely, these words, " I doubt not but God was merciful to save thousands of our Fathers living in Popish Superstitions, inasmuch as they sinned ignorantly :" this sentence I beseech you to mark, and to sift it with the severity of austere judgment, that if it be found to be gold, it may be suitable to the precious foun- dation whereon it was then laid ; for I protest, that if it be hay or stubble, my own hand shall set fire on it. Two questions have risen by this speech before alleged : the one, * Whether our Fathers, infected with Popish errors and superstitions, may be saved?' the other, ' Whether their ig- norance be a reasonable inducement to make us think they might?' We are then to examine, first, what possibility; then, what probability there is, that God might be merciful unto so many of our Fathers.
10. So many of our Fathers living in Popish Supersti- tions, yet by the mercy of God be saved ? No ; this could not be : God hath spoken by his Angel from Heaven unto his people concerning Babylon (by Babylon we understand the Church of Rome) : " Go out of her, my people, that ye ap°c be not partakers of her plagues." For answer whereunto, " first, I do not take the words to be meant only of temporal plagues, of the corporal death, sorrow, famine, and fire, whereunto God in his wrath had condemned Babylon ; and that to save his chosen people from these plagues, he saith, " Go out ;" with like intent, as in the Gospel, speaking of Jerusalem's desolations, he saith, " Let them that are in Matt. Judea flee unto the mountains, and them that are in the xx' midst thereof depart out ;" or, as in former times to Lot, " Arise, take thy wife and thy daughters which are there, Gen. lest thou be destroyed in the punishment of the city:" but forasmuch as here it is said, " Go out of Babvlon ;" we doubt, their everlasting destruction, whicn are partakers therein, is either principally meant, or necessarily implied in this sentence. How then was it possible for so many of
508 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
our Fathers to be saved, sith they were so far from depart- ing out of Babylon, that they took her for their Mother, and in her bosom yielded up the ghost?
11. First, for the plagues being threatened unto them that are partakers in the sins of Babylon, we can define nothing concerning our Fathers out of this sentence ; unless we shew what the sins of Babylon be, and what they be which are such partakers of them, that their everlasting plagues are inevitable. The sins which may be common both to them of the Church of Rome, and to others de- parted thence, must be severed from this question. He which saith, " Depart out of Babylon, lest ye be partakers of her sins," sheweth plainly, that he meaneth such sins, as except we separate ourselves, we have no power in the world to avoid ; such impieties, as by their Law they have established, and whereunto all that are among them, either do indeed assent, or else are, by powerable means forced in show and appearance to subject themselves. As for ex- ample, in the Church of Rome it is maintained, that the same credit and reverence that we give to the Scriptures of God, ought also to be given to unwritten verities ; that the Pope is Supreme Head Ministerial over the universal Church Militant ; that the bread in the Eucharist is tran- substantiated into Christ; that it is to be adored, and to be offered up unto God, as a sacrifice propitiatory for quick and dead ; that Images are to be worshipped, Saints to be called upon as intercessors, and such like. Now, because some Heresies do concern things only believed, as the Transubstantiation of the Sacramental Elements in the Eucharist ; some concern things which are practised and put in ure, as the Adoration of the Elements transubstan- tiated : we must note, that erroneously, the practice of that is sometime received, whereof the doctrine, that teachethit, is not heretically maintained. They are all partakers of the maintenance of Heresies, who by word or deed allow them, knowing them, although not knowing them to be Heresies ; as also they, and that most dangerously of all others, who knowing Heresy to be Heresy, do notwithstand- ing, in worldly respects, make semblance of allowing that, which in heart and judgment they condemn: but Heresy is heretically maintained, by such as obstinately hold it after wholesome admonition. Of the last sort, as of the next
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION;, &C. 509
before, I make no doubt, but that their condemnation, without an actual repentance, is inevitable, Lest any man therefore should think, that in speaking of our Fathers, I should speak indifferently of them all; let my words, I be- seech you, be well marked, " I doubt not but God was'mer- ciful to save thousands of our Fathers :" which thing I will now, by God's assistance, set more plainly before your eyes.
12. Many are partakers of the error, which are not of the Heresy of the Church of Rome. The people following the conduct of their guides, and observing as they did, exactly that which was prescribed, thought they did God good ser- vice, when indeed they did dishonour him. This was their error : but the Heresy of the Church of Rome, their dogma- tical position opposite unto Christian truth, what one man among ten thousand did ever understand ? Of them, which understand Roman Heresies, and allow them, all are not alike partakers in the action of allowing. Some allow them as the first founders and establishes of them ; which crime toucheth none but their Popes and Councils : the people are clear and free from this. Of them which maintain Po- pish Heresies, not as authors, but receivers, of them from others, all maintain them not as masters. In this are not the people partakers neither, but only the Predicants and Schoolmen. Of them which have been partakers in this sin of teaching Popish Heresy, there is also a difference ; for they have not all been teachers of all Popish Heresy. " Put a difference (saith St. Jude); have compassion upon some." Shall we lap up all in one condition? shall we cast them all headlong, shall we plunge them all into that infernal and everlasting flaming lake? them that have been partakers of the errors of Babylon, together with them which are in the Heresy? them which have been the authors of the Heresy, with them that by terror and violence have been forced to receive it? them who taught it, with them whose simplicity hath by sleights and conveyances of false teachers been seduced to believe it? them which have been partakers in one, with them which have been partakers in many? them which in many, with them which in all ?
13. Notwithstanding I grant, that although the condem- nation of them be more tolerable than of these : yet from
510 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
the man that laboureth at the plough, to him that sitteth in the Vatican ; to all partakers in the sins of Babylon ; to our Fathers, though they did but erroneously practise that which the Guide heretically taught ; to all without excep- tion, plagues were due. The pit is ordinarily the end, as well of the guide, as of the guided in blindness. But wo worth the hour wherein we were born, except we might pro- mise ourselves better things; things which accompany man's salvation, even where we know that worse and such as accompany condemnation are due. Then must we shew some way howjpossibly they might escape. What way is there that sinners can find to escape the judgment of God, but only by appealing to the seat of his saving mercy ? which mercy, with Origen, we do not extend to devils and damned spirits. God hath mercy upon thousands, but there be thousands also which he hardeneth. Christ hath therefore set the bounds, he hath fixed the limits of his saving mercy within the compass of these terms : " God sent not his own Son to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." In the third of St. John's Gospel, mercy is restrained to believers : " He that believeth shall not be condemned: he that belie veth not, is condemned already, because he believeth not in the Son of God." In the second of the Revelation, mercy is re- strained to the penitent. For of Jezebel and her sectaries thus he speaketh : ■' I gave her space to repent, and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit fornications with her into great affliction, ex- cept they repent them of their works ; and I will kill her children with death." Our hope therefore of the Fathers is, if they were not altogether faithless and impenitent, that they are saved.
14. They are not faithless that are weak in assenting to the truth, or stiff in maintaining things opposite to the truth of Christian doctrine. But as many as hold the foundation which is precious, though they hold it but weakly, and as it were with a slender thread, although they frame many base and unsuitable things upon it, things that cannot abide the trial of the fire ; yet shall they pass the fiery trial and be saved, which indeed have builded themselves upon the Rock, which is the foundation of the Church. If then our Fathers did not hold the foundation of Faith, there is no
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 511
doubt but they were faithless. If many of them held it, then is therein no impediment but many of them might be saved. Then let us see what the foundation of Faith is, and whether we may think that thousands of our Fathers being in Popish Superstitions, did notwithstanding hold the foundation.
15. If the foundation of Faith do import the general ground whereupon we rest when we do believe, the writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles are the foundation of Christian Faith : " Credimus quia legimus," saith St. Je- rome. O that the Church of Rome did as* soundly inter- pret these fundamental writings whereupon we build our Faith, as she doth willingly hold and embrace them!
16. But if the name of foundation do note the principal thing which is believed, then is that the foundation of our Faith which St. Paul hath to Timothy : " God manifested i rim. in the flesh, justified m the Spirit, &c:" that of Nathanael, "ll6' " Thou art the Son of the living God ; thou art the King joim of Israel :" that of the inhabitants of Samaria, " This is \J%, Christ the Saviour of the world :" he that directly denieth this, doth utterly raze the foundation of our Faith. I have proved heretofore, that although the Church of Rome hath played the harlot worse than ever did Israel, yet are they not, as now the Synagogue of the Jews, which plainly deny Christ Jesus, quite and clean excluded from the new Covenant. But as Samaria compared with Jerusalem is termed Aholath, a Church or Tabernacle of her own; con- trariwise, Jerusalem Aholibath, the resting place of the Lord : so, whatsoever we term the Church of Rome, when
we compare her with reformed Churches, still we put a difference, as then between Babylon and Samaria, so now between Rome and the Heathenish assemblies. Which opinion I must and will recall ; I must grant and will, that the Church of Rome, together with all her children, is clean excluded ; there is no difference in the world be- tween our Fathers and Saracens, Turks and Painims, if they did directly deny Christ crucified for the salvation of the world. 17. But how many millions of them were known so to
* They misinterpret, not only by making false and corrupt glosses upon the Scripture, but also by forcing the old vulgar Translation as the only authentical : howbeit, they refuse no Book which is Canonical, though they admit sundry which are not.
512 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
have ended their lives, that the drawing of their breath hath ceased with the uttering of this Faith, " Christ my Saviour, my Redeemer Jesus?" Answer is made, that this they might unfeignedly confess, and yet be far enough cai. from salvation. For behold, saith the Apostle, " I, Paul, "say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall pro- fit you nothing." Christ, in the work of man's salvation, is alone : the Galatians were cast away by joining Circum- cision and the other Rites of the Law with Christ : the Church of Rome doth teach her children to join other things likewise with him; therefore their Faith, their Belief, doth not profit them any thing at all. It is true, that they do indeed join other things with Christ; but how? Not in the work of redemption itself, which they grant that Christ alone hath performed sufficiently for the salvation of the whole world ; but in the application of this inestima- ble treasure, that it may be effectual to their salvation : how demurely soever they confess that they seek remis- sion of sins no otherwise than by the blood of Christ, using humbly the means appointed by him to apply the benefit of his holy blood ; they teach, indeed, so many things pernicious in Christian Faith, in setting down the means whereof they speak, that the very foundation of Faith which they hold, is thereby plainly overthrown,* and the force of the blood of Jesus Christ extinguished. We may therefore, disputing with them, urge them even with as dangerous sequels, as the Apostle doth the Galatians. But I demand, if some of those Galatians, heartily embracing the Gospel of Christ, sincere and sound in Faith (this one only error excepted), had ended their lives before they were ever taught how perilous an opinion they held ; shall we think that the danger of this error did so overweigh the benefit of their Faith, that the mercy of God might not save them? I grant they overthrew the foundation of Faith by consequent : doth not that so likewise which thef Lutheran
* Plainly in all men's sight whose eyes God hath enlightened to behold his truth. For they which are in error are in darkness, and see not that which in light is plain. In that which they teach concerning the natures of Christ, they hold the same with Nestorius fully, the same with Eutyches about the proprieties of his nature.
t The opinion of the Lutherans, though it be no direct denial of the foundation may notwithstanding be damnable unto some ; and I do not think but that in many respects it is less damnable, as at this day some maintain it, than it was in them which held it at first ; as Luther and others whom I had an eye unto in this
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Churches do at this day so stiffly and so firmly maintain? For mine own part, I dare not here deny the possibility of their salvation, which have been the chiefest instruments of ours, albeit they carried to their graves a persuasion so greatly repugnant to the truth. Forasmuch therefore, as it may be said of the Church of Rome, she hath yet a little strength, she doth not directly deny the foundation of Christianity : I may, I trust without offence, persuade myself that thousands of our Fathers, in former times, living and dying within her walls, have found mercy at the hands of God.
18. What although they repented not of their errors ? God forbid that I should open my mouth to gainsay that which Christ himself hath spoken : " Except ye repent, ye shall all perish." And if they did not repent, they perished. But withal note, that we have the benefit of a double repentance : the least sin which we commit in deed, thought,
f or word, is death, without repentance. Yet how many things do escape us in every of these, which we do not know ? how many, which we do not observe, to be sins ? and without the knowledge, without the observation of sin, there is no actual repentance. It cannot then be chosen, but that for as many as hold the foundation, and have holden all sins and errors in hatred, the blessing of repentance for unknown sins and errors is obtained at the hands of God, through the gracious mediation of Jesus
I Christ, for such suitors as cry with the Prophet David, " Purge me, O Lord, from my secret sins."
19. But we wash a wall of loam ; we labour in vain ; all this is nothing; it doth not prove, it cannot justify, that which we go about to maintain. Infidels and Heathen men are not so godless, but that they may, no doubt, cry God mercy, and desire in general to have their sins forgiven. To such as deny the foundation of Faith, there can be no
; salvation (according to the ordinary course which God doth use in saving men) without a particular repentance of that error. The Galatians, thinking that unless they were circumcised, they could not be saved, overthrew the foundation of Faith directly : therefore if any of them did
speech. The question is not, whether an error with such and such circumstances ; but simply, whether an error overthrowing the foundation, do exclude al! possibi- lity of salvation, if it be not recanted, and expressly repented of.
VOL. II. 2 L
ii. IC-
xiii. 8.
514 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C
die so persuaded, whether before or after they were told of their errors, their end is dreadful ; there is no way with them but one, death and condemnation. For the Apostle speaketh nothing of men departed, but saith generally of all, " If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Ye are abolished from Christ, whosoever are justified by the Law ; ye are fallen from grace." Of them in the Church of Rome the reason is the same. For whom Antichrist hath seduced, concerning them did not St. Paul 2Thess. speak long before, " They received not the word of truth, that they might be saved ; therefore God would send them strong delusions to believe lies, that all they might be damned which believe not the truth, but had pleasure Apoc. ia unrighteousness?" And St. John, " All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the Book of Life ?" Indeed many in former times, as their books and writings do yet shew, held the foundation, to wit, salvation by Christ alone, and therefore might be saved. God hath always had a Church among them, which firmly kept his saving truth. As for such as hold with the Church of Rome, that we cannot be saved by Christ alone without Works ; they do not only by a circle of consequence, but directly, deny the foundation of Faith; they hold it not, no not so much as by a thread.
20. This, to my remembrance, being all that hath been opposed with any countenance or show of reason, I hope, if this be answered, the cause in question is at an end. Concerning general repentance, therefore : what ? a mur- derer, a blasphemer, an unclean person, a Turk, a Jew, any sinner to escape the wrath of God by a general re- pentance, " God forgive me ?" Truly, it never came within my heart, that a general repentance doth serve for all sins : it serveth only for the common oversights of our sinful life, and for the faults which either we do not mark, or do not know that they are faults. Our Fathers were actually penitent for sins, wherein they knew they displeas- ed God : or else they fall not within the compass of my first speech. Again, that otherwise they could not be saved, than holding the foundation of Christian Faith, we have not only affirmed, but proved. Why is it not then confessed, that thousands of our Fathers which lived in Popish Superstitions, might yet, by the mercy of God, be
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 515
saved ? First, if they had directly denied the very founda- tion of Christianity, without repenting them particularly of that sin, he which saith, there could be no salvation for them, according to the ordinary course which God doth use in saving men, granteth plainly, or at the least closely insinuateth, that an extraordinary privilege of mercy might deliver their souls from hell ; which is more than I re- quired. Secondly, if the foundation be denied, it is de- nied for fear of some Heresy which the Church of Rome maintaineth. But how many were there amongst our Fathers, who being seduced by the common error of that Church, never knew the meaning of her Heresies ? So that although all Popish Heretics did perish, thousands of them which lived in Popish Superstitions might be saved. Thirdly, seeing all that held Popish Heresies did not hold all the Heresies of the Pope ; why might not thou- sands which were infected with other leaven, die unsoured with this, and so be saved ? Fourthly, if they all held this Heresy, many there were that held it, no doubt, but only in a general form of words, which a favourable interpreta- tion might expound in a sense differing far enough from the poisoned conceit of Heresy. As for example ; did they hold that we cannot be saved by Christ without good works 1 * We ourselves do, I think, all say as much, with this con- struction, salvation being taken as in that sentence, " Corde creditur ad justitiam, ore fit confessio ad salu- tem ;" except infants, and men cut off upon the point of their conversion, of the rest none shall see God, but such as seek peace and holiness, though not as a cause of their salvation, yet as a way which they must walk which will be saved. Did they hold, that without Works we are not justified? Take Justification so as it may also imply Sanc- tification, and St. James doth say as much. For except there be an ambiguity in the same term, St. Paul and St. James do contradict each the other; which cannot be. Now there is no ambiguity in the name either of Faith or of Works, being meant by them both in one and the same sense. Finding, therefore, that Justification is spoken of by St. Paul without implying Sanctification, when he proveth that a man is justified by Faith without Works;
* For this is the only thing alleged to prove the impossibility of their salva- tion : the Church of Rome joineth works with Christ, which is a denial of the foundation ; and unless we hold the foundation, we cannot be saved.
2l2
51G A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
finding likewise that Justification doth sometimes imply Sanctification also with it ; I suppose nothing to be more sound, than so to interpret St. James speaking not in that sense, but in this.
21. We have already shewed, that there be two kinds of Christian righteousness : the one without us, which we have by imputation; the other in us, which consisteth of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and other Christian virtues : and St. James doth prove that Abraham had not only the one, because the thing believed was imputed unto him for righteousness ; but also the other, because he offered up his son. God giveth us both the one justice and the other : the one by accepting us for righteous in Christ; the other by working Christian righteousness in us. The proper and most immediate efficient cause in us of this latter, is, the Spirit of Adoption we have receiv- ed into our hearts. That whereof it consisteth, whereof it is really and formally made, are those infused virtues proper and peculiar unto Saints ; which the Spirit, in the very moment when first it is given of God, bringeth with it : the effects whereof are such actions as the Apostle doth call the fruits of Works, the operations of the Spirit; the difference of the which operation from the root where- of they spring, maketh it needful to put two kinds like- wise of sanctifying righteousness, habitual and actual. Habitual, that holiness, wherewith our souls are inwardly endued, the same instant when first we begin to be the temples of the Holy Ghost ; actual, that holiness which afterward beautifieth all the parts and actions of our life, the holiness for which Enoch, Job, Zachary, Elizabeth, and other Saints, are in the Scriptures so highly commend- ed. If here it be demanded, which of these we do first receive ? I answer, that the Spirit, the virtue of the Spirit, the habitual justice, which is ingrafted, the external jus- tice of Jesus Christ, which is imputed, these we receive all at one and the same time ; whensoever we have any of these, we have all ; they go together : yet sith no man is justified except he believe, and no man believeth except he has Faith, and no man except he hath received the Spirit of Adoption, hath Faith, forasmuch as they do ne- cessarily infer Justification, and Justification doth of neces- sity presuppose them ; we must needs hold that imputed
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 517
righteousness, in dignity being the cbiefest, is notwithstand- ing in order to the last of all these, but actual righteousness, which is the righteousness of good works, succeedeth all, followeth after all, both in order and time. Which being attentively marked, sheweth plainly how the Faith of true believers cannot be divorced from Hope and Love ; how Faith is a part of Sanctification, and yet unto Justifica- tion necessary ; how Faith is perfected by good Works, and not Works of ours without Faith : finally, how our Fathers might hold, that we are justified by Faith alone, and yet hold truly that without Works we are not justified. Did they think that men do merit rewards in Heaven by the Works they perform on earth ? The Ancients use merit- ing for obtaining, and in that sense they of Wittenberg have in their Confession ; " We teach that good Works commanded of God are necessarily to be done, and by the free kindness of God they merit their certain rewards." Therefore, speaking as our Fathers did, and we taking their speech in a sound meaning, as we may take our Fathers', and might, forasmuch as their meaning is doubt- ful, and charity doth always interpret doubtful things fa- vourably ; what should induce us to think that rather the damage of the worst construction did light upon them all, than that the blessing of the better was granted unto thou- sands ? Fifthly, if in the worst construction that may be made, they had generally all embraced it living, might not many of them dying utterly renounce it ? Howsoever men, when they sit at ease, do vainly tickle their hearts with the vain conceit of I know not what proportionable correspondence between their merits and their rewards, which, in the trance of their high speculations, they dream that God hath measured, weighed, and laid up, as it were, in bundle for them ; notwithstanding we see by daily expe- rience, in a number even of them, that when the hour of death approacheth, when they secretly hear themselves summoned forthwith to appear, and stand at the bar of that Judge, whose brightness causeth the eyes of the Augels themselves to dazzle, all these idle imaginations do then begin to hide their faces ; to name merits then, is to lay their souls upon the rack, the memory of their own deeds is loathsome unto them, they forsake all things wherein they have put any trust or confidence ; no staff to
518 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
lean upon, no ease, no rest, no comfort then, but only in Jesus Christ.
22. Wherefore if this proposition were true, " To hold in such wise, as the Church of Rome doth, that we can- not be saved by Christ alone without Works, is directly to deny the foundation of Faith ;" I say, that if this propo- sition were true, nevertheless so many ways I have shew- ed, whereby we may hope that thousands of our Fathers which lived in Popish Superstition might be saved.* But what if it be not true ? What if neither that of the Gala- tians concerning Circumcision, nor this of the Church of Rome by Works, be any direct denial of the foundation, as it is affirmed that both are 1 I need not wade so far as to discuss this controversy, the matter which was first brought into question being so clear, as I hope it is. Howbeit, because I desire that the truth even in that also should receive light, I will do mine endeavour to set down somewhat more plainly ; first, the foundation of Faith, what it is : secondly, what it is directly to deny the foun- dation : thirdly, whether they whom God hath chosen to be heirs of life, may fall so far as directly to deny it : fourth- ly, whether the Galatians did so by admitting the error about Circumcision and the Law : last of all, whether the Church of Rome, for this one opinion of Works, may be thought to do the like, and thereupon to be no more a Christian Church, than are the assemblies of Turks and Jews. what 23. This word Foundation being figuratively used, hath always reference to somewhat which resembleth a ma- terial building, as both that doctrine of Laws and the community of Christians do. By the Masters of Civil Policy nothing is so much inculcated, as that Common- wealths are founded upon Laws; for that a multitude cannot be compacted into one body otherwise than by a common acception of Laws, whereby they are to be kept in order .f The ground of all Civil Laws is this ; "No man ought to be hurt or injured by another;" take away this persuasion, and ye take away all the Laws ; take away Laws, and what shall become of Com-
* They may cease to put any confidence in Works, and yet never think, living in Popish Superstition, they did amiss. Pighius died Popish, and yet denied Popery in the article of Justification by Works long before his death.
+ * Vocata ad concionem multitudine, qua- coalescere in populi unius corpus nulla re prreterquam legibus poterat.' Liv. de Rom. lib. i. [c. 8.]
the
found- ation of Faith is
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 519
inonweals? So it is in our spiritual Christian Commu- nity : I do not mean that body mystical, whereof Christ EPhes. is only the Head, that building undiscernible by mortal \v'\'5. eyes, wherein Christ is the chief Comer- stone : but I speak of the visible Church; the foundation whereof EPhes. is the Doctrine which the Prophets and the Apostles"' professed. The mark whereunto their Doctrine tend- eth, is pointed at in these words of Peter unto Christ, " Thou hast the words of eternal Life:" in those words of ^ Paul to Timothy, " The Holy Scriptures are able to make e Tim. thee wise unto salvation." It is the demand of Nature m' itself, " What shall we do to have eternal life ?" The de- sire of immortality and the knowledge of that whereby it may be obtained, is so natural unto all men, that even they who are not persuaded that they shall, do notwithstand- ing wish that they might, know a way how to see no end of life. And because natural means are not able to resist the force of death, there is no people in the earth so savage, which hath not devised some supernatural help or other, to fly to for aid and succour in extremities, against the enemies of the Laws. A longing therefore to be saved, without understanding the true way how, hath been the cause of all the Superstitions in the world. O that the miserable state of others, which wander in darkness, and wot not whither they go, could give us understanding hearts, wor- thily to esteem the riches of the mercy of God towards us, before whose eyes the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven are set wide open ! Should we offer violence unto it ? It offereth violence unto us, and we gather strength to with- stand it. But I am besides my purpose when I fall to bewail the cold affection which we bear towards that where- by we should be saved ; my purpose being only to set down what the ground of salvation is. The doctrine of the Gospel proposeth salvation as the end : and doth it not teach the way of attaining thereunto ? Yet the Damsel possessed with a spirit of divination spake the truth: " These men are the servants of the most high God, which Acu shew unto us the way of salvation:" "A new and living Hei.. way which Christ hath prepared for us through the vail, that x- 20- is, his flesh ;" salvation purchased by the death of Christ. By this foundation the children of God, before the written Law, were distinguished from the sons of men ; the re-
Gen. xlix. Job
520 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
verend Patriarchs both possessed it living, and spake ex- pressly of it at the hour of their death. It comforted Job in the midst of grief ; as it was afterwards the anchor-hold of all the righteous in Israel, from the writing of the Law to the time of Grace, every Prophet making mention of it. It was famously spoken of, about the time, when the coming of Christ to accomplish the promises, which were made long before it, drew near, that the sound thereof was heard even amongst the Gentiles. When he was come, as many as were his, acknowledged that he was their salvation ; he, that long-expected hope of Israel ; he, that " seed, in whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." So that now he is a name of ruin, a name of death and condem- nation, unto such as dream of a new Messias, to as many as look for salvation by any other but by him : " For amongst men there is given no other name under Heaven whereby we must be saved." Thus much St. Mark doth in- timate by that which he doth put in the front of his book, making his entrance with these words : " The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." His doctrine he termeth the Gospel, because it teacheth salvation; the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, because it teacheth salvation by him. This is then the foundation, whereupon the frame of the Gospel is erected ; that very Jesus whom the Virgin conceived of the Holy Ghost, whom Simeon embraced in his arms, whom Pilate condemned, whom the Jews crucified, whom the Apostles preached, he is Christ, the Lord, the only Saviour of the world : " other founda- tion can no man lay." Thus I have briefly opened that principle in Christianity, which we call the foundation of our Faith. It followeth now that I declare unto you, what it is directly to overthrow it. This will be better opened, if we understand, what it is to hold the foundation of Faith.
24. There are which defend, that many of the Gentiles, who never heard the name of Christ, held the foundation of Christianity : and why? they acknowledged many of them the providence of God, his infinite wisdom, strength, power ; his goodness, and his mercy towards the children of men; that God hath judgment in store for the wicked, but for the righteous which serve him rewards, &c. In this which they confessed, that lieth covered which we believe;
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C 521
in the rudiments of their knowledge concerning God, the foundation of our Faith concerning Christ lieth secretly wrapt up, and is virtually contained : therefore they held the foundation of Faith, though they never had it. Might we not with as good a colour of reason defend, that every ploughman hath all the sciences, wherein philosophers have excelled? For no man is ignorant of their first principles, which do virtually contain whatsoever by natural means is or can be known. Yea, might we not with as great reason affirm, that a man might put three mighty oaks whereso- ever three acorns may be put ? For virtually an acorn is an oak. To avoid such paradoxes, we teach plainly, that to hold the foundation is, in express terms to acknowledge it. 25. Now, because the foundation is an affirmative posi- tion, they all overthrow it, who deny it ; they directly over- throw it, who deny it directly ; and they overthrow it by consequent, or indirectly, which hold any one assertion whatsoever, whereupon the direct denial thereof may be necessarily concluded. What is the question between the Gentiles and us, but this, Whether salvation be by Christ? What between the Jews and us, but this, Whether by this Jesus, whom we call Christ, yea, or no ? This is to be the main point whereupon Christianity standeth, it is clear by that one sentence of Festus concerning Paul's accusers: " They brought no crime of such things as I supposed, but [Acts had certain questions against him of their Superstitions, "xv and of one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." Where we see that Jesus, dead and raised for the salvation of the world, is by Jews denied, despised by a Gentile, by a Christian Apostle maintained. The Fathers therefore in the primitive Church, when they wrote; Ter- tuljian, the Book which he called Apologeticus ; Minutius Felix, the Book which he entitled Octavius ; Arnobius, the seven Books against the Gentiles; Chrysostom, his Orations against the Jews; Eusebius, his ten Books of Evangelical Demonstration : they stand in defence of Chris- tianity against them, by whom the foundation thereof was directly denied. But the writings of the Fathers against Novatians, Pelagians, and other Heretics of the like note, refel positions, whereby the foundation of Christian Faith was overthrown by consequent only. In the former sort of writings the foundation is proved ; in the latter, it is al-
522 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
ledged as a proof, which to men that had been known di- rectly to deny it, must needs have seemed a very beggarly kind of disputing. All Infidels therefore deny the founda- tion of Faith directly ; by consequent, many a Christian man, yea whole Christian Churches, denied it, and do deny it at this present day. Christian Churches, the foundation of Christianity? not directly, for then they cease to be Christian Churches ; but by consequent, in respect whereof we condemn them as erroneous, although, for holding the foundation, we do and must hold them Christians.
26. We see what it is to hold the foundation; what directly, and what by consequent, to deny it. The next thing which followeth is, whether they whom God hath chosen to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, may, once effectually called, and through Faith justified truly, afterwards fall so far, as directly to deny the foundation which their hearts have before embraced with joy and comfort in the Holy Ghost; for such is the Faith, which indeed doth justify. Devils know the same things which we believe, and the minds of the most ungodly may be fully persuaded of the truth; which knowledge in the one and in the other, is sometimes termed Faith, but equivocally, be- ing indeed no such Faith as that whereby a Christian man is justified. It is the Spirit of Adoption which worketh Faith in us, in them not ; the things which we believe, are by us apprehended, not only as true, but also as good, and that to us : as good, they are not by them apprehended ; as true, they are. Whereupon followeth the third diffe- rence ; the Christian man the more he increaseth in Faith, the more his joy and comfort abound : but they, the more sure they are of the truth, the more they quake and tremble at it. This begetteth another effect, where the heart* of the one sort have a different disposition from the other. [octar. " Non ignoro plerosque conscientia meritorum, nihil se esse per mortem magis optare quam credere; malunt enim exstingui penitus, quam ad supplicia reparari." I am not ig- norant, saith Minutius, that there be many, who being con- scious what they are to look for, do rather wish that they might, than think that they shall cease, when they cease to live ; because they hold it better that death should consume them unto nothing, than God revive them unto punishment. So it is in other articles of Faith, whereof wicked men think,
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION,
no doubt, many times they are too true : on the contrary side, to the other, there is no grief or torment greater, than to feel their persuasion weak in things, whereof, when they are persuaded, they reap such comfort and joy of spirit: such is the Faith whereby we are justified ; such, I mean, in respect of the quality. For touching the principal object of Faith, longer than it holdeth the foundation whereof we have spoken, it neither justifieth, nor is ; but ceaseth to be Faith when it ceaseth to believe, that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of the world. The cause of life spiritual in us, is Christ, not carnally or corporally inhabiting, but dwelling in the soul of man, as a thing which (when the mind apprehendeth it) is said to inhabit or possess the mind. The mind conceiveth Christ by hearing the Doc- trine of Christianity, as the light of Nature doth cause the mind to apprehend {hose truths which are merely rational ; so that saving truth, which is far above the reach of human reason, cannot otherwise, than by the Spirit of the Almighty, be conceived. All these are implied, whereso- ever any of them is mentioned as the cause of the spiritual life. Wherefore if we have read, that " the Spirit is our Rom. life;" or, " the Word our life;" or, " Christ our life :" we plljj.10' are in every of these to understand, that our life is Christ, '^-J6- by the hearing of the Gospel apprehended as a Saviour, n\. 4. and assented unto through the power of the Holy Ghost. The first intellectual conceit and comprehension of Christ so embraced, St. Peter calleth the seed whereof we be new 1 Pet. born : our first embracing of Christ, is our first reviving from 'i^^ the state of death and condemnation. "He that hath the11-3- Son hath life," saith St. John, " and he that hath not the v. 12. Son of God, hath not life." If therefore he which once hath the Son, may cease to have the Son, though it be for a moment, he ceaseth for that moment to have life. But the life of them which have the Son of God, is everlasting in j John the world to come. But because as Christ being raised from per^. the dead died no more, death hath no more power over tFua'itt3[,of him ; so justified man, being allied to God in Jesus Christ R°m- our Lord, doth as necessarily from that time forward always "' live, as Christ, by whom he hath life, liveth always. I John might, if I had not otherwhere largely done it already, shew *u by many and sundry manifest and clear proofs, how the motions and operations of life are sometime so undisccrn-
524 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
ible, and so secret, that they seem stone-dead, who not- withstanding are still alive unto God in Christ.
For as long as that abideth in us, which animateth, quickeneth, and giveth life, so long we live; and we know that the cause of our Faith abideth in us for ever. If Christ, the fountain of life, may flit and leave the habita- tion where once he dwelleth, what shall become of his pro- mise, " I am with you to the world's end?" If the seed of God, which containeth Christ, may be first conceived and i Pet. then cast out; how doth St. Peter term it immortal? How i John doth St. John affirm it abideth? If the Spirit, which is given "'• 9- to cherish and preserve the seed of life, may be given and Ephes. taken away, how is it the earnest of our inheritance until John redemption; how doth it continue with us for ever? If 3ilv17 therefore the man which is once just by Faith, shall live by Faith, and live for ever, it followeth, that he which once doth believe the foundation, must needs believe the foun- dation for ever. If he believe it for ever, how can he ever directly deny it? Faith holding the direct affirmation ; the direct negation, so long as Faith continueth, is excluded.
Object. But you will say, "That as he that is to-day holy, may to-morrow forsake his holiness, and become im- pure ; as a friend may change his mind, and be made an enemy ; as hope may wither : so Faith may die in the heart of man, the Spirit may be quenched, Grace may be extin- guished, they which believe maybe quite turned away from the truth."
Sol. The case is clear, long experience hath made this manifest, it needs no proof. I grant we are apt, prone, and ready, to forsake God ; but is God as ready to forsake us? Our minds are changeable; is his so likewise? Whom God hath justified, hath not Christ assured, that it is " his Father's will to give them a Kingdom ?" Notwithstanding, coi. it shall not be otherwise given them, than u if they continue grounded and stablished in the Faith, and be not moved i Tim. away from the hope of the Gospel ;" " if they abide in love and holiness." Our Saviour therefore, when he spake of the sheep effectually called, and truly gathered into his fold, joim " I give unto them eternal Life, and they shall never perish, "8 neither shall any pluck them out of my hand ;" in promis- ing to save them, he promised, no doubt, to preserve them in that without which there can be no salvation, as also
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 525
from that whereby it is irrecoverably lost. Every error in things appertaining unto God is repugnant unto Faith ; every (earful cogitation, unto Hope; unto Love, every strag- gling inordinate desire ; unto Holiness, every blemish where- with cither the inward thoughts of our minds, or the out- ward actions of our lives, are stained. But Heresy, such as that of Ebion, Cerinthus, and others, against whom the Apostles were forced to bend themselves, both by word and also by writing ; that repining discouragement of heart which tempteth God, whereof we have Israel in the Desert for a pattern; coldness, such as that in the Angels of Ephesus ; foul sins, known to be expressly against the first or second Table of the Law, such as Noah, Manasses, David, Solomon, and Peter, committed : these are each in their kind so opposite to the former virtues, that they leave no place for salvation without an actual repentance. But infidelity, extreme despair, hatred of God and all goodness, obduration in sin, cannot stand where there is but the least spark of Faith, Hope, Love, and Sanctity ; even as cold in the lowest degree cannot be, where heat in the highest de- gree is found. Whereupon I conclude, that although in the first kind, no man liveth which sinneth not ; and in the second, as perfect as any do live, may sin: yet sith the man which is born of God hath a promise, that in him '* the seed of God shall abide ;" which seed is a sure pre- i John servative against the sins that are of the third suit ; greater '"' 9 and clearer assurance we cannot have of any thing, than of this, that from such sins God shall preserve the righte- ous, as the apple of his eye, for ever. Directly to deny the foundation of Faith, is plain infidelity ; where Faith is en- tered, there infidelity is for ever excluded : therefore by him which hath once sincerely believed in Christ, the foundation of Christian Faith can never be directly denied. Did not Peter? did not Marcellinus ? did not others, both directly deny Christ after that they had believed, and again believe after they had denied ? No doubt, as they confess in words, whose condemnation is nevertheless their not believing (for example we have Judas) ; so likewise, they may believe in heart whose condemnation, without repentance, is their not confessing. Although, therefore, Peter and the rest, for whose faith Christ hath prayed that it might not fail, did not by denial sin the sin of infidelity, which is an inward
526 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C
abnegation of Christ (for if they had done this, their faith had clearly failed) : yet, because they sinned notoriously and grievously, committing that which they knew to be expressly forbidden by the Law, which saith, " Thou shall worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve;" necessary it was, that he which purposed to save their souls should, as he did, touch their hearts with true un- feigned repentance, that his mercy might restore them again to life, whom sin had made the children of death and condemnation. Touching the point therefore, I hope I may safely set down, that if the justified err, as he may, and never come to understand his error, God doth save him through general repentance : but if he fall into Heresy, he calleth him one time or other by actual repentance ; but from infidelity, which is an inward direct denial of the foundation, he preserveth him by special providence for ever. Whereby we may easily know, what to think of those Galatians whose hearts were so possessed with the love of the truth, that, if it had been possible, they would have plucked out their eyes to bestow upon their Teachers. It is true, that they were greatly* changed, both in persuasion and affection ; so that the Galatians, when St. Paul wrote unto them, were not now the Galatians which they had been in former time, for that through error they wandered, although they were his sheep. 1 do not deny, but that I should deny, that they were his sheep, if I should grant, that through error they perished. It was a perilous opinion that they held; perilous even in them that held it only as an error, because it overthroweth the foundation by conse- quent. But in them which obstinately maintain it, I cannot think it less than a damnable Heresy. We must therefore put a difference between them which err of ignorance, re- taining nevertheless a mind desirous to be instructed in truth, and them which, after the truth is laid open, persist in the stubborn defence of their blindness. Heretical de- fenders, froward and stiff-necked teachers of Circumcision,
* Howsoever men be changed (for changed they may be, even the best amongst men), if they that have received, as it seemeth some of the Galatians, which fell into error, had received, the gifts and graces of God, which are called a.fji.tTa.fj.ixnra, such as faith, hope, and charity are, which God doth never take away from him to whom they are given, as if it repented him to have given them ; if such might be so far changed by error, as that the very root of Faith should be quite extinguished in them, and so their salvation utterly lost, it would shake the hearts of the strong- est and stoutest of us all. See the contrary in Beza's Observations upon the Harmony of Confessions.
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 527
the blessed Apostle calls dogs : silly men, who were se- duced to think they taught the truth, he pitieth, he taketh up in his arms, he lovingly embraceth, he kisseth, and with more than fatherly tenderness doth so temper, qualify, and correct the speech he useth towards them, that a man can- not easily discern, whether did most abound, the love which he bare to their godly affection, or the grief which the danger of their opinion bred in him. Their opinion was dangerous ; was not theirs also, who thought the Kingdom of Christ should be earthly ? was not theirs, which thought the Gospel only should be preached to the Jews? What more opposite to Prophetical doctrine, concerning the com- ing of Christ, than the one? concerning the Catholic Church, than the other? Yet they which had these fancies, even when they had them, were not the worst men in the world. The Heresy of Free-will was a millstone about the Pelagians' neck ; shall we therefore give sentence of death inevitably against all those Fathers in the Greek Church, which being mispersuaded, died in the error of Free-will? Of these Galatians, therefore, which first were justified, and then deceived, as I can see no cause, why as many as died before admonition might not by mercy be received, even in error; so I make no doubt, but as many as lived till they were admonished, found the mercy of God effec- tual in converting them from their error,* lest any one that is Christ's should perish. Of this, I take it, there is no controversy: only against the salvation of them that died, though before admonition, yet in error, it is objected, that their opinion was a very plain direct denial of the founda- tion. If Paul and Barnabas had been so persuaded, they would haply have used the terms otherwise, speaking of the Masters themselves, who did first set that error abroach, "certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed." Acts What difference was there between these Pharisees and xv' 5' other Pharisees, from whom by a special description they are distinguished, but this ? These which came to Antioch, teaching the necessity of Circumcision, were Christians ; the other, enemies of Christianity. Why then should these be termed so distinctly believers, if they did directly deny
* Error convicted, and afterwards maintained, is more than error; for although opinion be the same it was, in which respect I still call it error, yet they are not now the same they were when they are taught what the truth is, and plainly taught.
528 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
the foundation of our belief; besides which, there was no other thing, that made the rest to be no believers ? We need go no further than St. Paul's very reasoning against them
Gai. for proof of this matter : " Seeing you know God, or rather are known of God, how turn you again to impotent rudi-
ver. 24. ments ? The Law engendereth servants, her children are in bondage : they which are begotten by the Gospel, are
ver.si. free. Brethren, we are not children of the servant, but of the free woman, and will ye yet be under the Law ?" That they thought it unto salvation necessary, for the Church of
ver. 10. Christ to observe days, and months, and times, and years, to keep the Ceremonies and Sacraments of the Law, this was their error. Yet he which condemneth their error, confesseth that, notwithstanding, they knew God, and were known of him ; he taketh not the honour from them to be termed Sons begotten of the immortal seed of the Gospel. Let the heaviest words which he useth be weighed; consider the
c.ai. v. drift 0f those dreadful conclusions: "If ye be circum-
2. 4.
cised, Christ shall profit you nothing: as many as are jus- tified by the Law, are fallen from Grace." It had been to no purpose in the world so to urge them, had not the Apos- tle been persuaded, that at the hearing of such sequels, " No benefit by Christ, a defection from Christ," their hearts would tremble and quake within them: and why? be- cause that they knew, that in Christ, and in Grace, their salvation lay, which is a plain direct acknowledgment of the foundation. Lest I should herein seem to hold that which no one learned or godly hath done, let these words be considered, which import as much as I affirm. Surely Bucer. those brethren which, in St. Paul's time, thought that God
de Unit.
Eccies. did lay a necessity upon them to make choice of days and meats, spake as they believed, and could not but in words condemn the liberty, which they supposed to be brought in against the authority of Divine Scripture. Otherwise it had been needless for St. Paul to admonish them, not to condemn such as eat, without scrupulosity, whatsoever was set before them. This error, if you weigh what it is of itself, did at once overthrow all Scriptures, whereby we are taught salvation by Faith in Christ, all that ever the Prophets did foretell, all that ever the Apostles did preach of Christ; it drew with it the denial of Christ utterly: in- somuch, that St. Paul complaincth, that his labour was
Ser- vanda.
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C 529
lost upon the Galatians, unto whom this error is obtruded, affirming that Christ, if so be they were circumcised, should not profit them any thing at all. Yet so far was St. Paul from striking their names out of Christ's Book, that he commandeth others to entertain them, to accept with sin- gular humanity, to use them like brethren ; he knew man's imbecility, he had a feeling of our blindness which are mortal men, how great it is, and being sure that they are the sons of God, whosoever be endued with his fear, would not have them counted enemies of that whereunto they could not as yet frame themselves to be friends, but did ever, upon a very religious affection to the truth, willingly reject the truth. They acknowledged Christ to be their only and perfect Saviour, but saw not how repugnant their believing the necessity of Mosaical Ceremonies was to their Faith in Jesus Christ. Hereupon a reply is made, that if they had not directly denied the foundation, they might have been saved ; but saved they could not be, therefore their opinion was, not only by consequent, but directly, a denial of the foundation. When the question was about the possibility of their salvation, their denying of the foundation was brought to prove that they could not be saved : now, that the question is about their denial of the foundation, the impossibility of their salvation is alleged to prove they denied the foundation. Is there nothing which excludeth men from salvation, but only the founda- tion of Faith denied ? I should have thought, that besides this, many other things are death unto as many as, under- standing that to cleave thereunto was to fall from Christ, did notwithstanding cleave unto them. But of this enough. Wherefore I come to the last question, " Whether that the doctrine of the Church of Rome, concerning the necessity of Works unto salvation, be a direct denial of our Faith ?" 27. I seek not to obtrude unto you any private opinion of my own. The best learned in our profession are of this judgment, that all the corruptions of the Church of Rome do not prove her to deny the foundation directly ; if they did, they should grant her simply to be no Christian Church. " But I suppose (saith one) that in the Papacy some caiv. Church remaineth, a Church crazed, or, if you will, broken Epl04* quite in pieces, forlorn, mishapen, yet some Church :" his reason is this, "Antichrist must sit in the Temple of
VOL. II. 2 M
530 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
God." Lest any man should think such sentences as these to be true only in regard of them whom that Church is supposed to have kept by the special providence of God, as it were, in the secret corners of his bosom, free from infection, and sound in the Faith, as we trust, by his mercy, we ourselves are ; I permit it to your wise consi- derations, whether it be more likely, that as frenzy, though it take away the use of reason, doth notwithstanding prove them reasonable creatures which have it, because none can be frantic but they ; so Antichristianity being the bane and overthrow of Christianity, may nevertheless argue, the Church where Antichrist sitteth, to be Christian. Neither have I hitherto heard or read any one word alleged of force to warrant, that God doth otherwise than so as in the two next questions before hath been declared, bind himself to keep his elect from worshipping the Beast, and from re- ceiving his mark in their foreheads ; but he hath preserved, and will preserve, them from receiving any deadly wound at the hands of the Man of Sin, whose deceit hath prevailed over none unto death, but only unto such as never loved the truth, such as took pleasure in unrighteousness : they in all ages, whose hearts have delighted in the principal truth, and whose souls have thirsted after righteousness, if they received the mark of error, the mercy of God, even erring, and dangerously erring, might save them ; if they received the mark of Heresy, the same mercy did, I doubt not, convert them. How far Romish Heresies may pre- vail over God's elect, how many God hath kept from falling into them, how many have been converted from them, is not the question now in hand : for if Heaven had not re- ceived any one of that coat for these thousand years, it may still be true, that the Doctrine which this day they do profess, doth not directly deny the foundation, and so prove them simply to be no Christian Church. One I have al- leged, whose words, in my ears, sound that way : shall I Mom. add another, whose speech is plain ? "I deny her not the Eccies. name °f a Church," saith another, " no more than to a man [«■ 2- $• the name of a man, as long as he liveth, what sickness soever he hath." His reason is this : "Salvation in Jesus Christ, which is the mark which joineth the Head with the Body, Jesus Christ with the Church, is so cut off by many merits, by the merits of Saints, by the Pope's pardons, and
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 531
snch other wickedness, that the life of the Church holdeth by a very thread," yet still the life of the Church holdeth. A third hath these words: " I acknowledge the Church of zanch. Rome, even at this present day, for a Church of Christ, de Reiig. such a Church as Israel did Jeroboam, yet a Church." His reason is this : " Every man seeth, except he willingly hoodwink himself, that as always, so now, the Church of Rome holdeth firmly and stedfastly the doctrine of truth concerning Christ; and baptizeth in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; confesseth and avoucheth Christ to be the only Redeemer of the world, and the Judge that shall sit upon quick and dead, receiving true believers into endless joy, faithless and godless men being cast with Satan and his Angels into flames unquench- able."
28. I may, and will, rein the question shorter than they do. Let the Pope take down his top, and captivate no more men's souls by his Papal jurisdiction; let him no longer count himself Lord Paramount over the Princes of the world, no longer hold Kings as his servants paravaile; let his stately Senate submit their necks to the yoke of Christ, and cease to die their garments, like Edom, in blood ; let them, from the highest to the lowest, hate and forsake their idolatry, abjure all their errors and heresies, wherewith they have any way perverted the truth ; let them strip their Church, till they leave no polluted rag, but only this one about her ; " By Christ alone, without Works, we cannot be saved :" it is enough for me, if I shew, that the holding of this one thing doth not prove the foundation of Faith directly denied in the Church of Rome.
29. Works are an addition: be it so, what then? the foundation is not subverted by every kind of addition : simply to add unto those fundamental words, is not to mingle wine with water, Heaven and earth, things polluted with the sanctified Blood of Christ : of which crime indict them, which attribute those operations in whole or in part to any creature, which in the work of our salvation wholly are peculiar to Christ ; and, if I open my mouth to speak in their defence, if I hold my peace, and plead not against them as long as breath is within my body, let me be guilty of all the dishonour that ever hath been done to the Son of God. But the more dreadful a thing it is to deny sal-
2m 2
532 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
vation by Christ alone, the more slow and fearful I am, except it be too manifest, to lay a thing so grievous to any man's charge. Let us beware, lest if we make too many ways of denying Christ, we scarce leave any way for ourselves truly and soundly to confess him. Salvation only by Christ is the true foundation whereupon indeed Christianity standeth. But what if I say you cannot be saved only by Christ, without this addition, Christ believed in heart, confessed with mouth, obeyed in life and conver- sation ? Because I add, do I therefore deny that which I did directly affirm? There may be an additament of expli- cation, which overthroweth not, but proveth and con- cludeth the proposition whereunto it is annexed. He which saith, Peter was a chief Apostle, doth prove that [«Thess. Peter was an Apostle : he which saith, Our salvation is of the Lord, through Sanctification of the Spirit, and Faith of the truth, proveth that our salvation is of the Lord. But if that which is added, be such a privation as taketh away the very essence of that whereunto it is added, then by the sequel it overthroweth it. He which saith, Judas is a dead man, though in word he granteth Judas to be a man, yet in effect he proveth him by that very speech no man, because death depriveth him of being. In like sort, he that should say, Our election is of grace for our works' sake, should grant in sound of words, but indeed by con- sequent deny, that our election is of Grace; for the grace which electeth us is no grace, if it elect us for our works' sake.
30. Now whereas the Church of Rome addeth "Works, we must note further, that the adding of Works* is not like the adding of Circumcision unto Christ. Christ came not to abro- gate and put away good Works: he did, to change Circumci- sion; for we see that in place thereof he hath substituted Holy Baptism. To say, ye cannotbe saved by Christ except ye be circumcised, is to add a thing excluded, a thingnot only not necessary to be kept, but necessary not to be kept by them
* I deny not but that the Church of R.ome requireth some kinds of works which she ought not to Tequire at men's hands. But our question is general about the ending of good works, not whether such or such works be good. In this compa- rison it is enough to touch so much on the matter in question between St. Paul and the Galatians, as inferreth those conclusions. " Ye are fallen from grace ; Christ can profit you nothing :" which conclusions will follow Circumcision and Rites of the Law Ceremonial, if they be required as things necessary to salvation. This only was alleged against me : and need I touch more than was alleged ?
Rom.
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 533
that will be saved. On the other side, to say, ye cannot be saved by Christ without Works, is to add things not only not excluded, but commanded, as being in their place and in their kind necessary, and therefore subordinated unto Christ, by Christ himself, by whom the web of salvation is spun: "Except your righteousness exceed the righteous- 5Iao,f- ness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into Luke' the Kingdom of Heaven." They were rigorous exacters of X1' "*■ things not utterly to be neglected and left undone, washing and tithing, &c. As they were in these, so must we be in judgment and the love of God. Christ, in Works Ceremo- ^a**- nial, giveth more liberty, in Moral much less, than they did. Works of righteousness therefore are added in the one proposition ; as in the other Circumcision is.
31. But we say, our salvation is by Christ alone ; there- fore howsoever, or whatsoever, we add unto Christ in the matter of salvation, we overthrow Christ. Our case were very hard, if this argument, so universally meant as it is supposed, were sound and good. We ourselves do not teach Christ alone, excluding our own Faith, unto Justifica- tion ; Christ alone, excluding our own Works, unto Sancti- rication ; Christ alone, excluding the one or the other un- necessary unto salvation. It is a childish cavil wherewith in the matter of Justification our adversaries do so greatlyplease themselves, exclaiming, that we tread all Christian virtues under our feet, and require nothing in Christians but Faith ; because we teach that Faith alone justifieth : whereas by this speech we never meant to exclude either Hope or Cha- rity from being always joined as inseparable mates with Faith in the man that is justified ; or Works from being ad- ded as necessary duties, required at the hands of every justified man : but to shew that Faith is the only hand which putteth on Christ unto Justification ; and Christ the only garment, which being so put on, covereth the shame of our defiled natures, hideth the imperfection of our works, preserveth us blameless in the sight of God, before whom otherwise the weakness of our Faith were cause sufficient to make us culpable, yea, to shut us from the Kingdom of Heaven, where nothing that is not absolute can enter. That our dealing with them be not as childish as theirs with us ; when we hear of salvation by Christ alone, consi- dering that aloiie as an exclusive particle, we are to note
534 A DISCOURSE OF J USTIFICATION, &C.
what it doth exclude, and where. If I say, "Such a Judge only ought to determine such a case," all things in- cident to the determination thereof, besides the person of the Judge, as Laws, Depositions, Evidences, &c. are not hereby excluded ; persons are not excluded from witnes- sing herein, or assisting, but only from determining and giving sentence. How then is our salvation wrought by Christ alone ? is it our meaning, that nothing is requisite to man's salvation, but Christ to save, and he to be saved quietly without any more ado ? No, we acknowledge no such foundation. As we have received, so we teach that besides the bare and naked work, wherein Christ, without any other associate, finished all the parts of our redemp- tion, and purchased salvation himself alone ; for convey- ance of this eminent blessing unto us, many things are of necessity required, as, to be known and chosen of God before the foundation of the world ; in the world to be cal- led justified, sanctified ; after we have left the world, to be received unto glory ; Christ in every of these hath somewhat which he worketh alone. Through him, accord- EPh. ing to the eternal purpose of God before the foundation of Ln* the world, born, crucified, buried, raised, &c. we were in a gracious acceptation known unto God long before we were seen of men : God knew us, loved us, was kind to us in Jesus Christ, in him we were elected to be heirs of life. Thus far God through Christ hath wrought in such sort alone, that ourselves are mere patients, working no more than dead and senseless matter, wood, stone, or iron, doth in the artificer's hands ; no more than clay, when the pot- ter appointeth it to be framed for an honourable use ; nay, not so much. For the matter whereupon the craftsman worketh he chooseth, being moved by the fitness which is in it to serve his turn ; in us no such thing. Touching the rest which is laid for the foundation of our Faith, it im- porteth further, that by him we are called, that we have redemption, remission of sins through his Blood, health by his stripes ; justice by him ; that he doth sanctify his Church, and make it glorious to himself; that entrance into joy shall be given us by him ; yea, all things by him alone. Howbeit,not so by him alone, as if in us, to our Vocation, the hearing of ihe Gospel ; to our Justification, Faith ; to our Sanctificatidn;'the<TrUits of the Spirit ; to our Entrance
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 535
into rest, perseverance in Hope, in Faith, in Holiness, were not necessary.
32. Then what is the fault of the Church of Rome? Not that she requireth Works at their hands which will be saved : but that she attributeth unto Works a power of satisfying God for sin ; yea, a virtue to merit both grace here, and in Heaven glory. That this overthroweth the foundation of Faith, I grant willingly ; that it is a direct denial thereof, I utterly deny. What it is to hold, and what directly to deny, the foundation of Faith, I have already opened. Apply it particularly to this cause, and there needs no more ado. The thing which is handled, if the form under which it is handled be added thereunto, it sheweth the foundation of any doctrine whatsoever. Christ is the matter whereof the Doctrine of the Gospel treateth; and it treateth of Christ as of a Saviour. Salvation therefore by Christ is the foundation of Christianity: as for Works, they are a thing subordinate, no otherwise than because our Sanctification cannot be accomplished without them. The doctrine concerning them is a thing builded upon the foun- dation ; therefore the doctrine which addeth unto them the power of satisfying, or of meriting, addeth unto a thing subordinated, builded upon the foundation, not to the very foundation itself; yet is the foundation by this addition consequently overthrown, forasmuch as out of this addition it may be negatively concluded, he which maketh any work good and acceptable in the sight of God, to proceed from the natural freedom of our will ; he which giveth unto anyfeood Works of ours the force of satisfying the wrath of God for sin, the power of meriting either earthly or Hea- venly rewards ; he which holdeth Works going before our Vocation, in congruity to merit our Vocation ; Works follow- ing our first, to merit our second Justification, and by con- dignity our last reward in the Kingdom of Heaven, pulleth up the doctrine of Faith by the roots ; for out of every of these the plain direct denial thereof may be necessarily concluded. Not this only, but what other Heresy is there that doth not raze the very foundation of Faith by conse- quent 1 Howbeit, we make a difference of Heresies; ac- counting them in the next degree to Infidelity, which directly deny any one thing to be which is expressly acknowledged in the Articles of our Belief; for out of any one Article so
Lib. vl. delucar. Dom. cap. 17.
536 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C
denied, the denial of the very foundation itself is straightway inferred.* As for example ; if a man should say, 'There is no Catholio Church,' it followeth immediately thereupon, that this Jesus whom we call the Saviour, is not the Sa- viour of the World ; because all the Prophets bear witness, that the true Messias should "shew light unto the Gen- tiles ;" that is to say, gather such a Church as is Catholic, not restrained any longer unto one circumcised nation. In the second rank we place them, out of whose positions the denial of any the foresaid Articles may be with like facility concluded ; such as are they which have denied, with He- bion, or with Marcion, his Humanity; an example whereof may be that of Cassianus defending the Incarnation of the Son of God against Nestorius Bishop of Antioch, who held, that the Virgin, when she brought forth Christ, did not bring forth the Son of God, but a sole and mere man. Out of which Heresy the denial of the Articles of the Christian Faith he deduceth thus: "If thou dost deny our Lord Jesus Christ, in denying the Son, thou canst not choose but deny the Father; for, according to the voice of the Father himself, 'He that hath not the Son, hath not the Father.' Wherefore denying him which is begotten, thou deniest him which doth beget." Again, " Denying the Son of God to have been born in the flesh, how canst thou believe him to have suffered? believing not his Passion, what remaineth, but that thou deny his Resurrection? For we believe him not raised, except we first believe him dead : neither can the reason of his rising from the dead stand, without the Faith of his death going before. The denial of his Death and Passion inferreth the denial of his rising from the depth. Whereupon it followeth, that thou also deny his Ascension into Heaven. The Apostle af- firmeth, ' That he which ascended, did first descend ;' so that, as much as lieth in thee, our Lord Jesus Christ hath neither risen from the depth, nor is ascended into Heaven, nor sitteth on the right hand of God the Father, neither shall hecome at the day of the final account, which is look- ed for, nor shall judge the quick and the dead. And darest
* ' Hsec ratio Ecclesiastici Sacramenti et Catholicae Fidei est, ut qui partem divini Sacramenti negat, partem non valeat confiteri. Ita enim sibi connexa et concorporata sunt omnia, ut aliud sine alio stare non possit, et qui unum ex om- nibus denegaverit, alia ei omnia credidisse non prosit.' Cassian. lib. vi. Ue In- carnat. Dom. [c; 17.]
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 537
thou yet set foot in the Church ? Canst thou think thyself a Bishop, when thou hast denied all those things whereby thou dost obtain a Bishoply calling ?" Nestorius confessed all the Articles of the Creed, but his opinion did imply the denial of every part of his Confession. Heresies there are of the third sort, such as the Church of Rome maintaineth, which be removed by a greater distance from the founda- tion, although indeed they overthrow it. Yet because of that weakness, which the Philosopher noteth in men's ca- pacities when he saith, that the common sort cannot see things which follow in reason, when they follow, as it were, afar off by many deductions ; therefore the repug- nancy of such Heresy and the foundation is not so quickly or so easily found, but that a Heretic of this, sooner than of the former kind, may directly grant, and consequently nevertheless deny, the foundation of Faith.
33. If reason be suspected, trial will shew that the Church of Rome doth no otherwise, by teaching the doc- trine she doth teach concerning good Works. Offer them the very fundamental words, and what man is there that will refuse to subscribe unto them ? Can they directly grant, and directly deny, one and the very self-same thing ? Our own proceedings in disputing against their Works satisfac- tory and meritorious do shew, not only that they hold, but that we acknowledge them to hold, the foundation, not- withstanding their opinion. For are not these our argu- ments against them ? " Christ alone hath satisfied and ap- peased his Father's wrath : Christ hath merited salvation alone." We should do fondly to use such disputes, neither could we think to prevail by them, if that whereupon we ground, were a thing which we know they do not hold, which we are assured they will not grant. Their very answers to all such reasons, as are in this controversy brought against them, will not permit us to doubt whether they hold the foundation or no. Can any man, that hath read their books concerning this matter, be ignorant how they draw all their answers unto these heads ? " That the remission of all our sins, the pardon of all whatsoever punishments thereby deserved, the rewards which God hath laid up in Heaven, are by the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ purchased, and obtained sufficiently for all men : but for no man effectually for his benefit in particu-
538 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
Jar, except the Blood of Christ be applied particularly to him by such means as God hath appointed that to work by. That those means of themselves, being but dead things, only the Blood of Christ is that which putteth life, force, and efficacy in them to work, and to be available, each in his kind, to our salvation. Finally, that Grace being purchased for us by the Blood of Christ, and freely without any merit or desert at the first bestowed upon us, the good things which we do, after Grace received, be thereby made satisfactory and meritorious." Some of their sentences to this effect I must allege for mine own war- rant. If we desire to hear foreign judgments, we find in Lewis one this confession : " He that could reckon how many the Granada virtues and merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ have been, capd' might likewise understand how many the benefits have last. 3. been that are to come to us by him, for so much as men are made partakers of them all by means of his Passion : by him is given unto us remission of our sins, grace, glory, liberty, praise, salvation, redemption, justification, justice, satisfaction, sacraments, merits, and all other things which we had, and were behoveful for our salvation." In another we have these oppositions and answers made unto them : pauiga- it AH grace is given by Christ Jesus. True ; but not ex- iet.a'n. cept Christ Jesus be applied. He is the propitiation for our sin ; by his stripes we are healed ; he hath offered him- self up for us: all this is true, but apply it. We put all satisfaction in the Blood of Jesus Christ ; but we hold, that the means which Christ hath appointed for us in the case to apply it, are our penal Works." Our countrymen Annot. in Rhemes make the like answer, that they seek salva- joim i. tion no other way than by the Blood of Christ ; and that humbly they do use Prayers, Fastings, Alms, Faith, Cha- rity, Sacrifice, Sacraments, Priests, only as the means ap- pointed by Christ, to apply the benefit of his holy Blood unto them : touching our good Works, that in their own natures they are not meritorious, nor answerable to the joys of Heaven ; it cometh by the grace of Christ, and not of the work itself, that we have by well-doing a right to Heaven, and deserve it worthily. If any man think that I seek to varnish their opinions, to set the better foot of a lame cause foremost; let him know, that since I began throughly to understand their meaning, I have found their
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 539
halting greater than perhaps it seeraeth to them which know not the deepness of Satan, as the blessed Divine speaketh. For, although this be proof sufficient, that they do not directly deny the foundation of Faith ; yet, if there were no other leaven in the lump of their doctrine but this, this were sufficient to prove, that their doctrine is not agreeable to the foundation of Christian Faith. The Pela- gians being over-great friends unto Nature, made them- selves enemies unto Grace, for all their confessing, that men have their souls, and all the faculties thereof, their wills and all the ability of their wills, from God. And is not the Church of Rome still an adversary to Christ's merits, because of her acknowledging, that we have re- ceived the power of meriting by the Blood of Christ? Sir in bis Thomas More setteth down the odds between us and the ConsoL Church of Rome in the matter of Works thus : " Like as tion- we grant them, that no good work of man is rewardable in Heaven of its own nature, but through the mere goodness of God, that lists to set so high a price upon so poor a thing; and that this price God setteth through Christ's Passion, and for that also they be his own Works with us ; for good Works to Godward worketh no man, with- out God work in him : and as we grant them also, that no man may be proud of his Works, for his imperfect working; and for that in all that man may do, he can do God no good, but is a servant unprofitable, and doth but his bare duty : as we, I say, grant unto them these things, so this one thing or twain do they grant us again, that men are bound to work good Works, if they have time and power; and that whoso worketh in true Faith most, shall be most rewarded ; but then set they thereto, that all his rewards shall be given him for his Faith alone, and nothing for his Works at all, because his Faith is the thing, they say, that forceth him to work well." I see by this of Sir Thomas More, how easy it is for men. of the greatest capacity to mistake things written or spoken as well on the one side as on the other. Their doctrine, as he thought, maketh the work of man rewardable in the world to come through the goodness of God, whom it pleased to set so high a price upon so poor a thing ; and ours, that a man doth receive that eternal and high re- ward, not for his Works, but for his Faith's sake, by which
540 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
he worketh: whereas in truth our doctrine is no other than that we have learned at the feet of Christ ; namely, that God doth justify the believing man, yet not for the worthiness of his belief, but for the worthiness of him which is believed ; God rewardeth abundantly every one which worketh, yet not for any meritorious dignity which is, or can be, in the work, but through his mere mercy, by whose commandment he worketh. Contrariwise, their doc- trine is, that as pure water of itself hath no savour, but if it pass through a sweet pipe, it taketh a pleasant smell of the pipe through which it passeth ; so, although before Grace received, our Works do neither satisfy nor merit ; yet after, they do both the one and the other. Every vir- tuous action hath then power in such to satisfy; that if we ourselves commit no mortal sin, no heinous crime, where- upon to spend this treasure of satisfaction in our own be- half, it turneth to the benefit of other men's release, on whom it should please the Steward of the House of God to bestow it; so that we may satisfy for ourselves and others, works but merit only for ourselves. In meriting, our actions perero. do work with two hands : with one, they get their morning gatwn. stjpenc|} tne increase of grace ; with the other, their even- ing hire, the everlasting crown of glory. Indeed they teach, that our good Works do not these things as they come from us, but as they come from grace in us ; which grace in us is another thing in their divinity, than is the mere goodness of God's mercy towards us in Christ Jesus.
34. If it were not a long deluded spirit which hath pos- session of their hearts ; were it possible but that they should see how plainly they do herein gainsay the very ground of Apostolic Faith ? Is this that salvation by Grace, whereof so plentiful mention is made in the Scrip- tures of God ? was this their meaning, which first taught the world to look for salvation only by Christ? By Grace, the Apostle saith, and by Grace in such sort as a gift; a thing that cometh not of ourselves, nor of our works, lest any man should boast and say, " I have wrought out my own salvation." By Grace they confess; but by Grace in such sort, that as many as wear the diadem of bliss, they wear nothing but what they have won. The Apostle, as if he had foreseen how the Church of Rome would abuse the
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 541
world in time by ambiguous terms, to declare in what sense the name of Grace must be taken, when we make it the cause of our salvation, saith, " He saved us according to his mercy :" which mercy, although it exclude not the washing- of our new birth, the renewing of our hearts by the Holy Ghost, the means, the virtues, the duties, which God requireth of our hands which shall be saved ; yet it is so repugnant unto merits, that to say, we are saved for the worthiness of any thing which is ours, is to deny we are saved by Grace. Grace bestoweth freely ; and therefore justly requireth the glory of that which is bestowed. We deny the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ ; we abuse, dis- annul, and annihilate the benefit of his bitter Passion, if we rest in these proud imaginations, that life is deservedly ours, that we merit it, and that we are worthy of it.
35. Howbeit, considering how many virtuous and just men, how many Saints, how many Martyrs, how many of the ancient Fathers of the Church, have had their sundry perilous opinions ; and amongst sundry of their opinions this, that they hoped to make God some part of amends for their sins, by the voluntary punishment which they laid upon themselves ; because by a consequent it may follow hereupon, that they were injurious unto Christ, shall we therefore make such deadly epitaphs, and set them upon their graves, " They denied the foundation of Faith di- rectly, they are damned, there is no salvation for them?" St. Augustine saith of himself, " Errare possum, Haereticus esse nolo." And, except we put a difference between them that err, and them that obstinately persist in error, how is it possible that ever any man should hope to be saved 1 Surely, in this case, I have no respect of any person either alive or dead. Give me a man, of what estate or condition soever, yea, a Cardinal or a Pope, whom in the extreme point of his life affliction hath made to know himself; whose heart God hath touched with true sorrow for all his sins, and filled with love towards the Gospel of Christ ; whose eyes are opened to see the truth, and his mouth to renounce all Heresy and error any wise opposite thereunto, this one opinion of merits excepted ; he thinketh God will require at his hands, and because he wanteth, therefore, trembleth, and is discouraged ; it may be I am forgetful, and unskilful, not furnished with things
542 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
new and old, as a wise and learned Scribe should be, nor able to allege that, whereunto, if it were alleged, he doth bear a mind most willing to yield, and so to be recalled, as well from this, as from other errors : and shall I think, be- cause of this only error, that such a man toucheth not so much as the hem off Christ's garment ? If he do, where- fore should not I have hope, that virtue might proceed from Christ to save him ? Because his error doth by con- sequent overthrow his Faith, shall I therefore cast him off, as one that hath utterly cast off Christ ? one that holdeth not so much as by a slender thread ? No ; I will not be afraid to say unto a Pope or Cardinal in this plight, Be of good comfort, we have to do with a merciful God, ready to make the best of a little which we hold well, and not with a captious Sophister, which gathereth the worst out of every thing wherein we err. Is there any reason that I should be suspected, or you offended, for this speech? *Is it a dangerous thing to imagine, that such men may find mercy ? The hour may come, when we shall think it a blessed thing to hear, that if our sins were the sins of the Pope and Cardinals, the bowels of the mercy of God are larger. I do not propose unto you, a Pope with the neck of an Emperor under his feet ; a Cardinal riding his horse to the bridle in the blood of Saints ; but a Pope or a Car- dinal sorrowful, penitent, disrobed, stripped, not only of usurped power, but also delivered and recalled from error and Antichrist, converted and lying prostrate at the foot of Christ; and shall I think that Christ shall spurn at him ? and shall I cross and gainsay the merciful promises of God, generally made unto penitent sinners, by opposing the name of a Pope or Cardinal? What difference is there in the world between a Pope and a Cardinal, and John a Style, in this case ? If we think it impossible for them, if they be once come within that rank, to be afterwards touched with any such remorse, let that be granted. The Apostle saith, " If I, or an Angel from Heaven, preach unto," &c. Let it be as likely, that St. Paul, or an Angel from Heaven, should preach Heresy, as that a Pope or Cardinal should be brought so far forth to acknowledge the truth ; yet if a Pope or Cardinal should, what find we in their persons why they might not be saved ? It is not the
* Let all affection be laid aside ; let the matter indifferently be considered.
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 543
persons, you will say, but the error wherein I suppose them to die, which excludeth them from the hope of mercy; the opinion of merits doth take away all possibility of sal- vation from them. What if they hold it only as an error? although they hold the truth truly and sincerely in all other parts of Christian Faith ? although they have in some mea- sure all the virtues and graces of the Spirit, all other tokens of God's elect children in them? although they be far from having any proud presumptuous opinion, that they shall be saved by the worthiness of their deeds? although the only thing which troubleth and molesteth them, be but a little too much dejection, somewhat too great a fear, rising from an erroneous conceit that God would require a worthiness in them, which they are grieved to find wanting in them- selves ? although they be not obstinate in this persuasion ? although they be willing, and would be glad to forsake it, if any one reason were brought sufficient to disprove it 1 although the only let, why they do not forsake it ere they die, be the ignorance of the means by which it might be disproved ? although the cause, why the ignorance in this point is not removed, be the want of knowledge in such as should be able, and are not, to remove it ? Let me die, if ever it be proved, that simply an error doth exclude a Pope or a Cardinal, in such a case, utterly from hope of life. Surely, I must confess unto you, if it be an error, that God may be merciful to save men even when they err, my greatest comfort is my error ; were it not for the love I bear unto this error, I would never wish to speak, nor to live.
36. Wherefore to resume that mother-sentence, whereof I little thought that so much trouble would have grown, " I doubt not but God was merciful to save thousands of our Fathers, living in Popish Superstitions, inasmuch as they sinned ignorantly." Alas ! what bloody matter is there contained in this sentence, that it should be an occa- sion of so many hard censures? Did I say, "That thou- sands of our Fathers might be saved?" I have shewed which way it cannot be denied. Did I say, " I doubt not but they were saved ?" I see no impiety in this persuasion, though I had no reason for it. Did I say, "Their ignorance did make me hope they did find mercy, and so were saved ?" What hindereth salvation but sin ? Sins are not
544 A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
equal ; and ignorance, though it doth not make sin to be no sin, yet seeing it did make their sin the less, why should it not make our hope concerning their life the greater? We pity the most, and doubt not but God hath most compas- sion over them that sin for want of understanding. As much is confessed by sundry others, almost in the self-same words which I have used. It is but only my evil hap, that the same sentences which savour verity in other men's books, should seem to bolster Heresy when they are once by me recited, If I be deceived in this point, not they, but the blessed Apostle hath deceived me. What I said of others, the same he said of himself, " I obtained mercy, for I did it ignorantly." Construe his words, and you can- not misconstrue mine. I spake no otherwise, I meant no otherwise, than he did.
37. Thus have I brought the question concerning our Fathers at length unto an end. Of whose estate, upon so fit an occasion as was offered me, handling the weighty causes of separation between the Church of Rome and us, and the weak motives which are commonly brought to re- tain men in that Society ; amongst which motives the ex- amples of our Fathers deceased is one ; although I saw it convenient to utter the sentence which I did, to the end that all men might thereby understand, how untruly we are said to condemn as many as have been before us otherwise persuaded than we ourselves are ; yet more than that one sentence, I did not think it expedient to utter, judging it a great deal meeter for us to have regard to our own estate, than to sift over-curiously what is become of other men ; and fearing, lest that such questions as these, if voluntarily they should be too far waded in, might seem worthy of that rebuke which our Saviour thought needful in a case not unlike, " What is this unto thee?" When I was forced, much beside my expectation, to render a reason of my speech, I could not but yield at the call of others, and proceed so far as duty bound me, for the fuller satisfying of minds. Wherein I have walked, as with reverence, so with fear : with reverence, in regard of our Fathers, which lived in former times ; not without fear, considering them that are alive.
38. I am not ignorant how ready men are to feed and sooth up themselves in evil. Shall I (will the man say,
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 545
that loveth the present world more than he loveth Christ), shall I incur the highest displeasure of the mightiest upon earth ? shall I hazard my goods, endanger my estate, put myself into jeopardy, rather than to yield to that which so many of my Fathers embraced, and yet found favour in the sight of God ? " Curse ye Meroz (saith the Lord,) V^J™ curse her inhabitants, because they helped not the Lord, they helped him not against the mighty." If I should not only not help the Lord against the mighty, but help to strengthen them that are mighty against the Lord ; wor- thily might I fall under the burden of that curse, worthy I were to bear my own judgment: but, if the doctrine which I teach be a flower gathered in the garden of the Lord, a part of the saving truth of the Gospel, from whence not- withstanding poisonous creatures do suck venom ; I can but wish it were otherwise, and content myself with the lot that hath befallen me, the rather, because it hath not befallen me alone. St. Paul taught a truth, and a com- fortable truth, when he taught, that the greater our misery is, in respect of our iniquities, the readier is the mercy of God for our release, if we seek unto him ; the more we have sinned, the more praise, and glory, and honour unto him that pardoneth our sin. But mark what lewd collec- tions were made hereupon by some: "Why then am IlRom. condemned for a sinner?" And the Apostle (as we are blamed, and as some affirm that we say, " Why do we not evil that good may come of it?") he was accused to teach that which ill-disposed people did gather by his teaching, though it were clean not only besides, but against his meaning. The Apostle addeth, " Their condemnation (which thus do) is just." I am not hasty to apply sen- tences of condemnation : I wish from my heart their con- version, whosoever are thus perversely atfected. For I must needs say, their case is fearful, their estate danger- ous, which harden themselves, presuming on the mercy of God towards others. It is true, that God is merciful, but let us beware of presumptuous sins. God delivered Jo- nah from the bottom of the sea ; will you therefore cast yourselves headlong from the tops of rocks, and say in your hearts, God shall deliver us? He pitieth the blind that would gladly see ; but will he pity him that may see, and hardeneth himself in blindness? No; Christ hath vol. 11. 2 N
54G A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C.
spoken too much unto you, to claim the privilege of your Fathers.
39. As for us that have handled this cause concerning the condition of our Fathers, whether it be this thing or any other which we bring unto you, the counsel is good which the Wise Man giveth, " Stand thou fast in thy sure understanding, in the way and knowledge of the Lord, and have but one manner of word, and follow the word of peace and righteousness." As a loose tooth is a grief to him that eateth, so doth a wavering and unstable word in [J°'> i speech, that tendeth to instruction, offend. " Shall a wise man speak words of the wind," saith Eliphaz ; light, in- constant, unstable words ? Surely the wisest may speak words of the wind : such is the untoward constitution of our nature, that we do neither so perfectly understand the way and knowledge of the Lord, nor so stedfastly em- brace it when it is understood ; nor so graciously utter it, when it is embraced ; nor so peaceably maintain it, when it is uttered ; but that the best of us are overtaken some- times through blindness, sometimes through hastiness, sometimes through impatience, sometimes through other passions of the mind, whereunto (God doth know) we are too subject. We must therefore be contented both to pardon others, and to crave that others may pardon us for such things. Let no man, that speaketh as a man, think himself, while he liveth, always freed from scrapes and over- sights in his speech. The things themselves which I have spoken unto you are sound, howsoever they have seemed otherwise unto some : at whose hands I have, in that re- spect, received injury, I willingly forget it; although, indeed, considering the benefit, which I have reaped by this neces- sary speech of truth, I rather incline to that of the Apostle, [Gai. " They have not injured me at all." I have cause to wish them as many blessings in the Kingdom of Heaven, as they have forced me to utter words and syllables in this cause ; wherein I could not be more sparing of my speech [%■"*■ than I have been. " It becometh no man (saith St. Jerome) macit to be patient in the crime of Heresy." Patient, as I take it, 3iMe.] we snould be always, though the crime of Heresy were in- tended ; but silent in a thing of so great consequence I could not, beloved, I durst not be; especially the love, which I bear to the truth of Christ Jesus, being hereby
A DISCOURSE OF JUSTIFICATION, &C. 547
somewhat called in question. Whereof I beseech them in the meekness of Christ, that have been the first original cause, to consider that a watchman may cry " An enemy !" when indeed a friend cometh. In which cause, as I deem such a watchman more worthy to be loved for his care, than misliked for his error ; so I have judged it my own part in this, as much as in me lieth, to take away all sus- picion of any unfriendly intent or meaning against the truth, from which, God doth know, my heart is free.
40. Now to you, beloved, which have heard these things, I will use no other words of admonition, than those that are offered me by St. James, "My brethren, have not the faith P». of our glorious Lord Jesus in respect of persons." Ye are not now to learn, that as of itself it is not hurtful, so neither should it be to any scandalous and offensive, in doubt- ful cases, to hear the indifferent judgments of men. Be it that Cephas hath one interpretation, and Apollos hath an- other.; that Paul is of this mind, and Barnabas of that; if this offend you, the fault is yours. Carry peaceable minds, and you may have comfort by this variety.
Now the God of peace give you peaceable minds, and turn it to your everlasting comfort.
2n 2
A
LEARNED SERMON
OF
THE NATURE OF PRIDE.
His mind swelleth, and is not right in him : but the just by Faith shall live.
HABAK.ii. 4.
The nature of man, being much more delighted to be led than drawn, doth many times stubbornly resist authority, when to persuasion it easily yieldeth. Whereupon the wisest Law-makers have endeavoured always, that those Laws might seem most reasonable, which they would have most inviolably kept. A Law simply commanding or for- bidding, is but dead in comparison of that which expresseth the reason wherefore it doth the one or the other. And, surely, even in the Laws of God, although that he hath given commandment be in itself a reason sufficient to exact all obedience at the hands of men, yet a forcible inducement it is to obey with greater alacrity and cheerfulness of mind, when we see plainly that nothing is imposed more than we must needs yield unto, except we will be unreasonable. In a word, whatsoever be taught, be it precept for direction of our manners, or article for instruction of our Faith, or document any way for information of our minds, it then taketh root and abideth, when we conceive not only what God doth speak, but why. Neither is it a small thing which we derogate, as well from the honour of his truth, as from the comfort, joy, and delight which we ourselves should take by it, when we loosely slide over his speech as though it were as our own is, commonly vulgar and trivial. Whereas, he uttereth nothing but it hath, besides the sub- stance of doctrine delivered, a depth of wisdom, in the very choice and frame of words to deliver it in. The rea- son whereof being not perceived, but by greater intention
THE NATURE OF PRIDE.
549
of brain that our nice minds for the most part can well away with, fain would we bring the world, if we might, to think it but a needless curiosity, to rip up any thing further than extemporal readiness of wit doth serve to reach unto. Which course, if here we did list to follow, we might tell you, that in the first branch of this sentence God doth condemn the Babylonian's pride ; and in the second, teach what happiness of state shall grow to the righteous by the constancy of their Faith, notwithstanding the troubles which now they suffer ; and, after certain notes of whole- some instruction hereupon collected, pass over without detaining your minds in any further removed speculation. But, as I take it, there is a difference between the talk that beseemeth nurses among children, and that which men of capacity and judgment do, or should, receive in- struction by.
The mind of the Prophet being erected with that which hath been hitherto spoken, receiveth here for full satis- faction a short abridgment of that which is afterwards more particularly unfolded. Wherefore, as the question before disputed of doth concern two sorts of men, the wicked flourishing as the bay, and the righteous like the withered grass, the one full of pride, the other cast down with utter discouragement ; so the answer which God doth make for resolution of doubts hereupon arisen, hath reference unto both sorts, and this present sentence, containing a brief abstract thereof, comprehendeth summarily as well the fearful state of iniquity over-exalted, as the hope laid up for righteousness oppressed. In the former branch of which sentence, let us first examine what this rectitude or straight- ness importeth, which God denieth to be in the mind of the Babylonian. All things which God did create, he made them at first true, good, and right : true, in respect of correspondence unto that pattern of their being, which was eternally drawn in the counsel of God's foreknowledge ; good, in regard of the use and benefit which each thing yieldeth unto other; right, by an apt conformity of all parts with that end which is outwardly proposed for each thing to tend unto. Other things have ends proposed, but have not the faculty to know, judge, and esteem of them ; and therefore as they tend thereunto unwittingly, so likewise in the means whereby they acquire their appointed ends,
i. 14.]
550 A LEARNED SERMON OF
they are by necessity so held that they cannot divert from them. The ends why the heavens do move, the heavens themselves know not, and their motions they cannot but continue. Only men in all their actions know what it is which they seek for, neither are they by any such necessity tied naturally unto any certain determinate mean to obtain their end by, but that they may, if they will, forsake it. And therefore, in the whole world, no creature but only man, which hath the last end of his actions proposed as a recompence and reward, whereunto his mind directly bend- ing itself, is termed right or straight, otherwise perverse.
To make this somewhat more plain, we must note, that as they, which travel from city to city, inquire ever for the straightest way, because the straightest is that which [iieb. soonest bringeth them to their journey's end; so we," hav- ing here, (as the Apostle speaketh,) no abiding city," but being always in travel towards that place of joy, immor- tality, and rest, cannot but in every of our deeds, words, and thoughts, think that to be best, which with most ex- pedition leadeth us thereunto, and is for that very cause termed right. That sovereign good, which is the eternal fruition of all good, being our last and chiefest felicity, there is no desperate despiser of God and godliness living, which doth not wish for. The difference between right and crooked minds, is in the means which the one or the other eschew or follow. Certain it is, that all particular things which are naturally desired in the world, as food, raiment, honour, wealth, pleasure, knowledge, they are subordinated in such wise unto that future good which we look for in the world to come, that even in them there lieth a direct way tending unto this. Otherwise we must think, that God, making promises of good things in this life, did seek to pervert them and to lead them from their right minds. Where is then the obliquity of the mind of man ? His mind is perverse and crooked, not when it bendeth itself unto any of these things, but when it bendeth, so that it swerveth either to the right hand or to the left, by excess or defect, from that exact rule whereby human actions are measured. The Rule to measure and judge them by, is the Law of God. For this cause, the Prophet doth make so often and so earnest suit, " O direct me in the way of thy Commandments: as long as 1 have respect to thy
THE NATURE OF PRIDE. 551
Statutes, I am sure not to tread amiss." Under the name of* the Law, we must comprehend not only that which God hath written in tables and leaves, but that which Nature also hath engraven on the hearts of men. Else how should those Heathens, which never had books but heaven and earth to look upon, be convicted of perverseness ? "But^0™-" the Gentiles, which had not the Law in books, had (saith the Apostle) the effect of the Law written in their hearts." Then seeing that the heart of man is not right exactly, unless it be found in all parts such, that God examining and calling it unto account with all severity of rigour, be not able once to charge it with declining or swerving aside (which absolute perfection when did God ever find in the sons of mere mortal men ?), doth it not follow, that all flesh must of necessity fall down and confess, We are not dust and ashes, but worse ; our minds from the highest to the lowest are not right ; if not right, then undoubtedly not capable of that blessedness which we naturally seek, but subject unto that which we must abhor, anguish, tribula- tion, death, wo, endless misery. For whatsoever misseth the way of life, the issue thereof cannot be but perdition. By which reason, all being wrapped up in sin, and made there- by the children of death, the minds of all men being plainly convicted not to be right ; shall we think that God hath endued them with so many excellencies more, not only than any, but than all the creatures in the world besides, to leave them in such estate, that they had been happier if they had never been ? Here cometh necessarily in a new way unto salvation, so that they which were in the other perverse, may in this be found straight and righteous. That the way of Nature, this the way of Grace. The end of that way, salvation merited, presupposing the righteous- ness of men's works ; their righteousness, a natural ability to do them ; that ability, the goodness of God which cre- ated them in such perfection; but the end of this way, sal- vation bestowed upon men as a gift, presupposing, not their righteousness, but the forgiveness of their unrighte- ousness, justification; their justification, not their natural ability to do good, but their hearty sorrow for their not doing, and unfeigned belief in Him, for whose sake not- doers are accepted, which is their vocation ; their vocation, the election of God, taking them out from the number of
552 A LEARNED SERMON OF
lost children ; their election, a Mediator in whom to be elect; this mediation, inexplicable mercy; his mercy, their misery, for whom he vouchsafed to make himself a Mediator. The want of exact distinguishing between these two ways, and observing what they have common, what peculiar, hath been the cause of the greatest part of that confusion whereof Christianity at this day laboureth. The lack of diligence in searching, laying down, and inur- ing men's minds with those hidden grounds of reason, whereupon the least particular in each of these are most firmly and strongly builded, is the only reason of all those scruples and uncertainties, wherewith we are in such sort entangled, that a number despair of ever discerning what is right or wrong in any thing. But we will let this matter rest, whereinto we stepped to search out a way, bow some minds may be, and are, right truly, even in the sight of God, though they be simply in themselves not right.
Howbeit, there is not only this difference between the just and impious, that the mind of the one is right in the sight of God, because his obliquity is not imputed ; the other perverse, because his sin is unrepented of: but even as lines that are drawn with a trembling hand, but yet to the point which they should, are thought ragged and un- even, nevertheless direct in comparison of them which run clean another way ; so there is no incongruity in terming them right-minded men, whom though God may charge with many things amiss, yet they are not as hideous and ugly monsters, in whom, because there is nothing but wil- ful opposition of mind against God, a more than tolerable deformity is noted in them, by saying, that their minds are not right. The Angel of the Church of Thyatira, unto [Rev. ii. whom the Son of God sendeth this greeting, " I know thy 19 works, and thy love, and thy service, and faith ; notwith- standing, I have a few things against thee," was not as he [Acts unto whom St. Peter, " Thou hast no fellowship in this business ; for thy heart is not right in the sight of God." So that whereas the orderly disposition of the mind of man should be this ; perturbation and sensual appetites all kept in awe by a moderate and sober will, in all things framed by reason, reason directed by the Law of God and Nature ; this Babylonian had his mind, as it were, turned upside down. In him unreasonable cecity and blindness trampled
vin. 21.
THE NATURE OF PRIDE. 553
all Laws, both of God and Nature, under feet ; wilfulness tyrannized over reason, and brutish sensuality over will : an evident token that his outrage would work his over- throw, and procure his speedy ruin. The mother whereof was that which the Prophet in these words signified, "His mind doth swell."
Immoderate swelling, a token of very eminent breach, and of inevitable destruction : pride, a vice which cleaveth so fast unto the hearts of men, that if we were to strip ourselves of all faults one by one, we should undoubtedly find it the very last and hardest to put off. But I am not here to touch the secret itching humour of vanity, where- with men are generally touched. It was a thing more than meanly inordinate, wherewith the Babylonian did swell. Which that we may both the better conceive, and the more easily reap profit by, the nature of this vice, which setteth the whole world out of course, and hath put so many, even of the wisest, besides themselves, is first of all to be in- quired into : secondly, the dangers to be discovered which it draweth inevitably after it, being not cured : and, last of all, the way to cure it.
Whether we look upon the gifts of Nature, or of Grace, or whatsoever is in the world admired as a part of man's excellency, adorning his body, beautifying his mind, or externally any way commending him in the account and opinion of men, there is in every kind somewhat possible which no man hath, and somewhat had which few men can attain unto. By occasion whereof, there groweth dis- paragement necessarily ; and by occasion of disparage- ment, pride through men's ignorance. First, therefore, although men be not proud of any thing which is not, at least in opinion, good ; yet every good thing they are not proud of, but only of that which neither is common unto many, and being desired of all, causeth them which have it to be honoured above the rest. Now there is no man so void of brain, as to suppose that pride consisteth in the bare possession of such things ; for then to have virtue were a vice, and they should be the happiest men who are most wretched, because they have least of that which they would have. And though in speech we do intimate a kind of vanity to be in them of whom we say, " They are wise men, and they know it ;" yet this doth not prove, that every
554 A LEARNED SERMON OF
wise man is proud which doth not think himself to be blockish. What we may have, and know that we have it without offence, do we then make offensive when we take joy and delight in having it ? What difference between men enriched with all abundance of earthly and heavenly blessings, and idols gorgeously attired, but this, ' The one takes pleasure in that which they have, the other none ?' If we may be possessed with beauty, strength, riches, power, knowledge, if we may be privy to what we are every way, if glad and joyful for our own welfare, and in all this re- main unblameable 5 nevertheless, some there are, who, grant- ing thus much, doubt whether it may stand with humility, to accept those testimonies of praise and commendation, those titles, rooms, and other honours, which the world yieldeth, as acknowledgments of some men's excellencies above others. For, inasmuch as Christ hath said unto [Luke those that are his, " The Kings of the Gentiles reign over 2g _"■ "5" them, and they that bear rule over them, are called gra- cious Lords ; be ye not so ;" the Anabaptist hereupon urgeth equality among Christians, as if all exercise of authority were nothing else but Heathenish pride. Our Lord and Saviour had no such meaning. But his Dis- ciples feeding themselves with a vain imagination for the time, that the Messias of the world should in Jerusalem erect his throne, and exercise dominion with great pomp and outward stateliness, advanced in honour and ter- rene power above all the Princes of the earth, began to think how with their Lord's condition their own would also rise; that having left and forsaken all to follow him, their place about him should not be mean ; and be- cause they were many, it troubled them much, which of them should be the greatest man. When suit was made [Matt, for two by name, that of them " one might sit at his right hand, and the other at his left," the rest began to stomach, each taking it grievously that any should have what all did affect : their Lord and Master, to correct this humour, turneth aside their cogitations from these vain and fanciful conceits, giving them plainly to understand, that they did but deceive themselves ; his coming was not to purchase an earthly, but to bestow an heavenly, Kingdom, wherein they (if any) shall be greatest, whom unfeigned humility maketh in this world lowest, and least amongst others : " Ye arc
xx. CI.
THE NATURE OF PRIDE. 555
they which have continued with me in my temptations, [Luke therefore I leave unto you a Kingdom, as my Father hath H]\-"s appointed me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and sit on seats, and judge the twelve tribes of Israel." But my Kingdom is no such Kingdom as ye dream of; and, therefore, these hungry ambitious conten- tions are seemlier in Heathens than in you. Wherefore, from Christ's intent and purpose, nothing is further re- moved than dislike of distinction in titles and callings, annexed for order's sake unto Authority, whether it be Ecclesiastical or Civil. And when we have examined thoroughly what the nature of this vice is, no man knowing it can be so simple, as not to see an ugly shape thereof apparent many times in rejecting honours offered, more than in the very exacting of them at the hands of men. For, as Judas's care for the poor was mere covetousness ; and that frank-hearted wastefulness spoken of in the Gos- pel, thrift ; so, there is no doubt, that going in rags may be pride, and thrones be clothed with unfeigned humility.
We must go further, therefore, and enter somewhat deeper, before we can come to the closet wherein this poi- son lieth. There is in the heart of every proud man, first, an error of understanding, a vain opinion whereby he thinketh his own excellency, and by reason thereof his worthiness of estimation, regard, and honour, to be greater than in truth it is. This maketh him in all his affections accordingly to raise up himself; and by his inward affec- tions his outward acts are fashioned. Which if you list to have exemplified, you may, either by calling to mind things spoken of them whom God himself hath in Scripture especially noted with this fault ; or by presenting to your secret cogitations that which you daily behold in the odious lives and manners of high-minded men. It were too long to gather together so plentiful a harvest of examples in this kind as the sacred Scripture afford eth. That which we drink in at our ears doth not so piercingly enter, as that which the mind doth conceive by sight. Is there any thing written concerning the Assyrian Monarch, in the tenth of Isaiah, of his swelling mind, his haughty looks, his great and presumptuous taunts; " By the power ofryer.i; mine own hand I have done all things, and by mine own wisdom I have subdued the world ?" any thing concern-
556 A LEARNED SERMON OF
ing the dames of Sion, in the third of the Prophet Isaiah, of their stretched-out necks, their immodest eyes, their pageant-like, stately, and pompous gait? any thing con- cerning the practices of Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, of their impatience to live in subjection, their mutinies, re- pining at lawful authority, their grudging against their Su- periors, Ecclesiastical and Civil? any thing concerning pride in any sort of sect, which the present face of the world doth not, as in glass, represent to the view of all men's beholding ? So that if books, both profane and holy, were all lost, as long as the manners of men retain the estate they are in ; for him that observeth, how that when men have once conceived an over-weening of themselves, it maketh them in all their affections to swell ; how deadly their hatred, how heavy their displeasure, how unappeas- able their indignation and wrath is above other men's, in what manner they compose themselves to be as Hetero- clites, without the compass of all such rules as the com- mon sort are measured by ; how the oaths which religious hearts do tremble at, they affect as principal graces of speech ; what felicity they take to see the enormity of their crimes above the reach of Laws and punishments ; how much it delighteth them when they are able to appal with the cloudiness of their looks ; how far they exceed the terms wherewith man's nature should be limited ; how high they bear their heads over others ; how they brow-beat all men which do not receive their sentences as oracles, with marvellous applause and approbation; how they look upon no man, but with an indirect countenance, nor hear any thing, saving their own praise, with patience, nor speak without scornfulness and disdain ; how they use their servants, as if they were beasts, their inferiors as ser- vants, their equals as inferiors, and as for superiors they acknowledge none ; how they admire themselves as vener- able, puissant, wise, circumspect, provident, e very-way great, taking all men besides themselves for ciphers, poor, inglorious, silly creatures, needless burthens of the earth, off-scourings, nothing : in a word, for him which marketh how irregular and exorbitant they are in all things, it can be no hard thing hereby to gather, that pride is nothing but an inordinate elation of the mind, proceeding from a false conceit of men's excellency in things honoured, which ac-
THE NATURE OF PRIDE. 557
cordingly frameth also their deeds and behaviour, unless they be cunning to conceal it; for a foul scar may be covered with a fair cloth, and as proud as Lucifer may be in outward appearance lowly.
No man expecteth grapes of thistles ; nor from a thing of so bad a nature, can other than suitable fruits be looked for. What harm soever in private families there groweth by disobedience of children, stubbornness of servants, un- tractableness in them, who, although they otherwise may rule, yet should in consideration of the imparity of their sex, be also subject ; whatsoever, by strife amongst men combined in the fellowship of greater societies, by tyranny of Potentates, ambition of Nobles, rebellion of subjects in Civil States ; by heresies, schisms, divisions in the Church ; naming Pride, we name the mother which brought them forth, and the only nurse that feedeth them. Give me the hearts of all men humbled ; and what is there that can overthrow or disturb the peace of the world? wherein many things are the cause of much evil ; but pride of all.
To declaim of the swarms of evils issuing out of pride, is an easy labour. I rather wish that I could exactly pre- scribe and persuade effectually the remedies, whereby a sore so grievous might be cured, and the means how the pride of swelling minds might be taken down. Whereunto so much we have already gained, that the evidence of the cause which breedeth it, pointeth directly unto the likeliest and fittest helps to take it away. Diseases that come of fulness, emptiness must remove. Pride is not cured but by abating the error which causeth the mind to swell. Then seeing that they swell by misconceit of their own ex- cellency : for this cause, all that tends to the beating down of their pride, whether it be advertisement from men, or from God himself chastisement ; it then maketh them cease to be proud, when it causeth them to see their error in over- seeing the thing they were proud of. At this mark Job, in his apology unto his eloquent friends, aimeth. For per- ceiving how much they delighted to hear themselves talk, as if they had given their poor afflicted familiar a school- ing of marvellous deep and rare instruction, as if they had taught him more than all the world besides could acquaint him with; his answer was to this effect: Ye swell as though ye had conceived some great matter ; but as for
[1 Cor iv. 8.]
[Isa. i.6.]
558 A LEARNED SERMON OF
that which ye are delivered of, whoknoweth it not? Is any man ignorant of these things ? At the same mark the bless- ed Apostle driveth : " Ye abound in all things, ye are rich, ye reign, and would to Christ we did reign with you :" but boast not. For what have ye, or are ye of yourselves ? To this mark all those humble confessions are referred, which have been always frequent in the mouths of Saints, truly wading in the trial of themselves ; as that of the Pro- phet : " We are nothing but soreness, and festered corrupti- on ;" our very light is darkness, and our righteousness itself unrighteousness : that of Gregory, " Let no man ever put confidence in his own deserts ; ' sordet in conspectu Judicis, quod fulget in conspectu operantis,'in the sight of the dread- ful Judge, it is noisome, which in the doer's judgment maketh a beautiful show:" that of Anselm," I adore thee, I bless thee, Lord God of Heaven, Redeemer of the world, with all the power, ability, and strength of my heart and soul, for thy goodness so unmeasurably extended ; not in regard of my merits, whereunto only torments were due, but of thy mere unprocured benignity." If these Fathers should be raised again from the dust, and have the books laid open before them, wherein such sentences are found as this : " Works no other than the value, desert, price, and the worth of the joys of the Kingdom of Heaven ; Heaven, in relation to our works, as the very stipend, which the hired labourer covenanteth to have of him whose work he doth, as a thing equally and justly answering unto the time and weight of his travels, rather than to a voluntary or bountiful gift" — if, I say, those reverend fore-rehearsed Fathers, whose books are so full of sentences witnessing their Christian humility, should be raised from the dead, and behold with their eyes such things written ; would they not plainly pro- nounce of the authors of such writs, that they were fuller of Lucifer than of Christ, that they were proud-hearted men, and carried more swelling minds than sincerely and feelingly known Christianity can tolerate ?
But as unruly children, with whom wholesome admoni- tion prevaileth little, are notwithstanding brought to fear that ever after which they have once well smarted for ; so the mind which falleth not with instruction, yet under the rod of divine chastisement ceaseth to swell. If, therefore, the Prophet David, instructed by good experience, have
7.1
THE NATURE OF PRIDE. 559
acknowledged, Lord I was even at the point of clean for- getting myself, and so straying from my right mind, but Cxix. 71.] thy rod was my reformer ; it hath been good for me, even as much as my soul is worth, that I have been with sorrow troubled : if the blessed Apostle did need the corrosive of sharp and bitter strokes, lest his heart should swell with too great " abundance of heavenly revelations :" surely, pc«r. upon us whatsoever God in this world doth or shall inflict, * it cannot seem more than our pride doth exact, not only by way of revenge, but of remedy. So hard it is to cure a sore of such quality as pride is, inasmuch as that which rooteth out other vices, causeth this ; and (which is even above all conceit) if we were clean from all spot and blemish both of other faults ; of pride, the fall of Angels doth make it almost a question, whether we might not need a preservative still, lest we should haply wax proud, that we are not proud. What is virtue but a medicine, and vice but a wound ? Yet we have so often deeply wounded ourselves with medicine, that God hath been fain to make wounds medicinable ; to cure by vice where virtue hath stricken ; to suffer the just man to fall, that, being raised, he may be taught what power it was which upheld him standing. I am not afraid to affirm it boldly, with St. Au- gustine, that men puffed up through a proud opinion of their own sanctity and holiness, receive a benefit at the hands of God, and are assisted with his grace, when with his grace they are not assisted, but permitted, and that grievously, to transgress ; whereby, as they were in over- great liking of themselves supplanted, so the dislike of that which did supplant them, may establish them afterwards the surer. Ask the very soul of Peter, and it shall un- doubtedly make you itself this answer : My eager protes- tations, made in the glory of my ghostly strength, I am ashamed of; but those crystal tears, wherewith my sin and weakness was bewailed, have procured my endless joy ; my strength hath been my ruin, and my fall my stay.
A
REMEDY AGAINST SORROW AND FEAR
DELIVERED IN A
FUNERAL SERMON.
Let not your hearts be troubled, nor fear. — John xiv. 27.
The holy Apostles having gathered themselves together by the special appointment of Christ, and being in expec- tation to receive from him such instruction as they had been accustomed with, were told that which they least looked for, namely, that the time of his departure out of the world was now come. Whereupon they fell into consi- deration, first, of the manifold benefits which his absence should bereave them of; and, secondly, of the sundry evils which themselves should be subject unto, being once be- reaved of so gracious a Master and Patron. The one con- sideration overwhelmed their souls with heaviness ; the other, with fear. Their Lord and Saviour, whose words had cast down their hearts, raiseth them presently again with chosen sentences of sweet encouragement. ' My dear, it is for your own sakes t leave the world ; I know the affections of your hearts are tender, but if your love were directed with that advised and staid judgment which should be in you, my speech of leaving the world, and go- ing unto my Father, would not a little augment your joy. Desolate and comfortless I will not leave you ; in spirit I am with you to the world's end. Whether I be present or absent, nothing shall ever take you out of these hands. My going is to take possession of that, in your names, which is not only for me, but also for you prepared ; where I am, you shall be. In the mean while, " My peace I give, not as the world giveth, give I unto you : let not your hearts be troubled, nor fear."' The former part of which sentence having otherwhere already been spoken of, this unacceptable occasion to open the latter part thereof here,
SORROW AND FEAK. 561
I did not look for. But so God disposeth the ways of men. Him I heartily beseech, that the thing which he hath thus ordered by his providence, may through his gracious good- ness turn unto your comfort.
Our nature covetethfor preservation from things hurtful. Hurtful things being present, do breed heaviness ; being future, do cause fear. Our Saviour, to abate the one, speaketh thus unto his Disciples, " Let not your hearts be troubled ;" and to moderate the other, addeth, " Fear not." Grief and heaviness in the presence of sensible evils, can- not but trouble the minds of men. It may therefore seem that Christ required a thing impossible. Be not troubled. Why, how could they choose ? But we must note, this being natural, and therefore simply notreprovable, is in us good or bad, according to the causes for which we are grieved, or the measure of our grief. It is not my meaning to speak so largely of this affection, or to go over all the particulars whereby men do one way or other offend in it; but to teach it so far only, as it may cause the very Apo- stles' equal to swerve. Our grief and heaviness therefore is reprovable, sometime in respect of the cause from whence, sometime in regard of the measure whereunto it groweth.
When Christ, the life of the world, was led unto cruel death, there followed a number of people and women, which women bewailed much his heavy case. It was a natural compassion which caused them, where they saw undeserved miseries, there to pour forth unrestrained tears. Nor was this reproved. But in such readiness to lament where they less needed, their blindness in not discerning that for which they ought much rather to have mourned ; this our Saviour a little toucheth, putting them in mind that the tears which were wasted for him, might better have been spent upon themselves ; " Daughters of Jerusalem, [Luke weep not for me, weep for yourselves and for your children." xxlrt" 28' It is not, as the Stoics have imagined, a thing unseemly for a wiseman to be touched with grief of mind : but to be sorrowful when we least should ; and where we should lament, there to laugh, this argueth our small wisdom. Again, when the Prophet David confesseth this of himself, " I grieved to see the great prosperity of godless men, how Psal they flourish and go untouched ;" himself hereby open- lxxiii- 3- eth both our common, and his peculiar, imperfection, whom
vol. ii. 2 o
\ I •: 1 1 1 ,
562 A REMEDY AGAINST
this cause should not have made so pensive. To grieve at this, is to grieve where we should not, because this grief doth rise from error. We err, when we grieve at wicked men's impunity and prosperity; because, their estate being rightly discerned, they neither prosper nor go un- punished. It may seem a paradox, it is truth, that no wicked man's estate is prosperous, fortunate, or happy. For what though they bless themselves, and think their happiness great? Have not frantic persons many times a great opinion of their own wisdom? It may be that such as they think themselves, others also do account them. But what others? Surely such as themselves are. Truth and reason discerneth far otherwise of them. Unto whom the J ews wish all prosperity, unto them the phrase of their speech is to wish peace. Seeing then the name of peace containeth in it all parts of true happiness, when the Pro- [tsa. phet saith plainly, " That the wicked have no peace ;" how can we think them to have any part of other than vainly- imagined felicity? What wise man did ever account fools happy ? If wicked men were wise, they would cease to be wicked. Their iniquity therefore proving their folly, how can we stand in doubt of their misery ? They abound in those things which all men desire. A poor happiness to have good things in possession. " A man to whom God hath given riches, and treasures, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that it desireth, but yet God giveth him not the power to eat thereof;" such a feli- city Solomon esteemeth but as vanity, a thing of nothing. If such things add nothing to men's happiness, where they are not used surely wicked men, that use them ill, the more they have, the more wretched. Of their prosperity, therefore, we see what we are to think. Touching their impunity, the same is likewise but supposed. They are oftener plagued than we are aware of. The pangs they feel are not always written in their forehead. Though wickedness be sugar in their mouths, and wantonness as oil to make them look with cheerful countenances ; never- theless, if their hearts were disclosed, perhaps their glitter- ing state would not greatly be envied. The voices that have broken out from some of them, " O that God had given me a heart senseless, like the flints in the rocks of stone!" which as it can taste no pleasure, so it feeleth no wo ;
SORROW AND FEAR. 5G3
these and the like speeches are surely tokens of the curse which Zophar, in the Book of Job, poureth upon the head of the impious man, "He shall suck the gall of asps, and [Job the viper's tongue shall slay him." If this seem light, be- *** cause it is secret, shall we think they go unpunished, be- cause no apparent plague is presently seen upon them ? The judgments of God do not always follow crimes, as thunder doth lightning ; but sometimes the space of many ages coming between. When the sun hath shined fair the space of six hours upon their tabernacle, we know not what clouds the seventh may bring. And when their pu- nishment doth come, let them make their account in the greatness of their suffering, to pay the interest of that re- spite which hath been given them. Or if they chance to escape clearly in this world, which they seldom do ; in the day when the heavens shall shrivel as a scroll, and the mountains move as frighted men out of their places, what cave shall receive them ? What mountain or rock shall they get by entreaty to fall upon them? What covert to hide them from that wrath, which they shall neither be able to abide or avoid ? No man's misery therefore being greater than theirs whose impiety is most fortunate ; much more cause there is for them to bewail their own infelicity, than for others to be troubled with their prosperous and happy estate, as if the hand of the Almighty' did not, or would not, touch them. For these causes, and the like unto these, therefore, Be not troubled.
Now, though the cause of our heaviness be just, yet may not your affections herein be yielded unto with too much indulgency and favour. The grief of compassion, whereby we are touched with the feeling of other men's woes, is of all other least dangerous : yet this is a let unto sundry-duties ; by this we are apt to spare sometimes where we ought to strike. The grief which our sufferings do bring, what temptations have not risen from it? What great advantage Satan hath taken even by the godly grief of hearty contrition for sins committed against God, the near approaching of so many afflicted souls, whom the conscience of sin hath brought unto the very brink of extreme despair, doth but too abundantly shew. These things, wheresoever they fall, cannot but trouble and molest the mind. Whether we be therefore moved vainly with that which secmeth hurtful, and is not ; 2o 2
564 A REMEDY AGAINST
or have just cause of grief, being pressed indeed with those things which are grievous, our Saviour's lesson is touching the one Be not troubled, nor over-troubled for the other. For, though to have no feeling of that which nearly con- cerneth us were stupidity, nevertheless, seeing that the Author of our salvation was himself consecrated by af- fliction, so the way which we are to follow him by is not strewed with rushes, but set with thorns ; be it never so hard to learn, we must learn to suffer with patience, even that which seemeth almost impossible to be suffered ; that in the hour when God shall call us unto our trial, and turn this honey of peace and pleasure, wherewith we swell, into that gall and bitterness which flesh doth shrink to taste of, nothing may cause us in the troubles of our souls to storm, and grudge, andrepjne at God, but every heart be enabled with divinely-inspired courage to inculcate unto itself, Be not troubled ; and in those last and greatest conflicts to re- member, that nothing may be so sharp and bitter to be suf- fered, but that still we ourselves may give ourselves this encouragement, Even learn also patience, O my soul.
Naming patience, I name that virtue which only hath power to stay our souls from being over-excessively troubled. A virtue, wherein if ever any, surely that soul had good experience, which extremity of pains having chased out of the tabernacle of this flesh, Angels, I nothing doubt, have carried into the bosom of her father Abraham. The death of the Saints of God is precious in his sight. And shall it seem unto us superfluous at such times as these are, to hear in what manner they have ended their lives ? The Lord himself hath not disdained so exactly to register in the Book of Life, after what sort his ser- vants have closed up their days on earth, that he descendeth even to their very meanest actions ; what meat they have longed for in their sickness, what they have spoken unto their children, kinsfolks and friends, where they have willed their dead carcases to be laid, how they have framed their wills and testaments; yea, the very turning of their faces to this side or that, the setting of their eyes, the degrees whereby their natural health hath departed from them, their cries, their groans, their pantings, breathings, and last gaspings, he hath most solemnly commended unto the memory of all generations. The care of the
SORROW AND FEAR. 565
living both to live and die well must needs be somewhat increased, when they know that their departure shall not be folded up in silence, but the ears of many be made ac- quainted with it. Again, when they hear how mercifully God hath dealt with others in the hour of their last need, besides the praise which they give to God, and the joy which they have, or should have, by reason of their fellow- ship and communion of Saints, is not their hope also much confirmed against the day of their dissolution ? Finally, the sound of these things doth not so pass the ears of them that are most loose and dissolute of life, but it causeth them sometime or other, to wish in their hearts, " Oh, that £™-M we might die the death of the righteous, and that our end *x' might be like his !" Howbeit, because to spend herein many words, would be to strike even as many wounds into their minds, whom I rather wish to comfort: therefore^con- cerning this virtuous gentlewoman only this little I speak, and that of knowledge, ' She lived a dove, and died a lamb.' And if amongst so many virtues, hearty devotion towards God, towards poverty tender compassion, motherly affection towards servants, towards friends even serviceable kindness, mild behaviour and harmless meaning towards all ; if, where so many virtues were eminent, any be worthy of special mention, I wish her dearest friends of that sex, to be her nearest followers in two things : silence, saving only where duty did exact speech; and patience, even then when extremity of pains did enforce grief. " Blessed are [Rev. they that die in the Lord." And concerning the deadxivl3] which are blessed, let not the hearts of any living be over- charged, with grief over-troubled.
Touching the latter affection of fear, which rcspecteth evil to come, as the other which we have spoken of doth present evils ; first, in the nature thereof it is plain, that we are not of every future evil afraid. Perceive we nothowthey, whose tenderness shrinketh at the least rase of a needle's point, do kiss the sword that pierceth their souls quite through? If every evil did cause fear, sin, because it is sin, Y would be feared ; whereas properly sin is not feared as sin, but only as having some kind of harm annexed. To teach men to avoid sin, it had been sufficient for the Apostle to say, " Fly it:" but to make them afraid of committing sin, because the naming of sin sufficed not, therefore he addeth
566 A REMEDY AGAINST
further, that it is a " serpent which stingeth the soul.' Again, be it that some nocive or hurtful thing be towards us, must fear of necessity follow hereupon ? Not, except that hurtful thing do threaten us either with destruction or vexation, and that such, as we have neither a conceit of ability to resist, nor of utter impossibility to avoid. That which we know ourselves able to withstand, we fear not; and that which we know we are unable to defer or diminish, or any way avoid, we cease to fear; we give ourselves over to bear and sustain it. The evil therefore which is feared, must be in our persuasion unable to be re- sisted when it coaieth, yet not utterly impossible for a time in whole or in part to be shunned. Neither do we much fear such evils, except they be imminent and near at hand ; nor if they be near, except we have an opinion that they be so. When we have once conceived an opi- nion, or apprehended an imagination of such evils pressed, and ready to invade us ; because they are hurtful unto our nature, we feel in ourselves a kind of abhorring ; because they are thought near, yet not present, our nature seeketh forthwith how to shift and provide for itself; because they are evils which cannot be resisted, therefore she doth not provide to withstand, but to shun and avoid. Hence it is, that in extreme fear, the mother of life contracting herself, avoiding as much as may be the reach of evil, and drawing the heat together with the spirits of the body to her, leaveth the outward parts cold, pale, weak, feeble, unapt to perform the functions of life ; as we see in the fear of Belshazzar King of Babylon. By this it appeareth, that fear is nothing else but a perturbation of the mind, through an opinion of some imminent evil, threatening the destruction or great annoy- ance of our nature, which to shun, it doth contract and de- ject itself.
Now because, not in this place only, but otherwhere often, we hear it repeated, * Fear not," it is by some made a question, Whether a man may fear destruction or vexation, without sinning? First, the reproof wherewith Christ checketh his Disciples more than once, " O men of little faith, wherefore are ye afraid ?" Secondly, the punishment threatened in Rev. xxi. viz. the lake, and fire, and brim- stone, not only to murderers, unclean persons, sorcerers, idolaters, liars, but also to the fearful and faint-hearted :
SORROW AND FEAR. 567
this sccmeth to argue, that tearfulness cannot but be sin. On the contrary side we see, that he which never felt mo- tion unto sin, had of this affection more than a slight feel- ing. How clear is the evidence of the Spirit, that " in the Heb. days of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications, '' with strong cries and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death, and was also heard in that which lie feared?" Whereupon it followeth, that fear in itself is a thing not sinful. For, is not fear a thing natural, and for men's preservation necessary, implanted in us by the pro- vident and most gracious Giver of all good things, to the end that we might not run headlong upon, those mischiefs wherewith we are not able to encounter, but use the remedy of shunning those evils which we have not ability to with- stand ? Let that people therefore which receive a benefit by the length of their Prince's days, the father or mother which rejoiceth to see the offspring of their flesh grow like green and pleasant plants, let those children that would have their parents, those men that would g]adly have their friends and brethren's days prolonged on earth (as there is no natural-hearted man but gladly would), let them bless the Father of lights, as in other things, so even in this, that he hath given man a fearful heart, and settled natu- rally that affection in him, which is a preservation against so many ways of death. Fear then in itself being mere nature, cannot in itself be sin, which sin is not nature, but thereof an accessary deprivation.
But in the matter of fear we may sin, and do, two ways. If any man's danger be great, theirs is greatest that have put the fear of danger farthest from them. Is there any estate more fearful than that Babylonian strumpet's that sitteth upon the tops of seven hills, glorying and vaunting, " I am a RfcV Queen," &c. How much better and happier are they, whose xv'" 7 estate hath been always as his, who speaketh after this sort of himself, " Lord, from my youth have I borne thy yoke ?" [Mark They which sit at continual ease, and are settled in the lees *' 2°'] of their security, look upon them, view their countenance, their speech, their gesture, their deeds : " Put them in fear, O God, (saith the Prophet), that so they may know them- selves to be but men;" worms of earth, dust and ashes, frail, corruptible, feeble things. To shake off security,therefore, and to breed fear in the hearts of mortal men, so rnanv ad-
568 A REMEDY AGAINST
monitions are used concerning the power of evils which beset them, so many threatenings of calamities, so many descriptions of things threatened, and those so lively, to the end they may leave behind them a deep impression of such as have force to keep the heart continually waking. All which do shew, that we are to stand in fear of nothing more than the extremity of not fearing.
When fear hath delivered us from that pit, wherein they are sunk that have put far from them the evil day, that have made a league with death, and have said, "Tush, we shall feel no harm ;" it standeth us upon to take heed it cast us not into that, wherein souls destitute of all hope are plung- ed. For our direction, to avoid as much as may be both extremities, that we may know, as a ship-master by his card, how far we are wide, either on the one side or on the other, we must note, that in a Christian man there is, first, Nature; secondly, Corruption perverting Nature; thirdly, Grace correcting and amending Corruption. In fear all these have their several operations : Nature teach- eth simply, to wish preservation, and avoidance of things dreadful; for which cause our Saviour himself prayeth, and that often, " Father, if it be possible." In which cases, corrupt Nature's suggestions are, for the safety of temporal life, not to stick at things excluding from eternal ; wherein how far even the best may be led, the chiefest Apostle's frailty teacheth. Were it not therefore for such cogitations as, on the contrary side, Grace and Faith minis- yob tereth, such as that of Job, " Though God kill me ;" that of Paul, " Scio cui credidi, — I know him on whom I do rely ;" small evils would soon be able to overthrow even [Prov. the best 0f us# «A wise man (saith Solomon) doth see a plague coming, and hideth himself." It is Nature which teacheth a wise man in fear to hide himself, but Grace and Faith doth teach him where. Fools care not to hide their heads : but where shall a wise man hide himself when he feareth a plague coming? where should the frighted child hide his head, but in the bosom of his loving father ? where a Christian, but under the shadow of the wings of Christ his Saviour? " Come, my people (saith God in the Prophet), enter into thy chamber, hide thyself," &c. But because we are in danger, like chased birds, like doves, that seek and cannot see the resting holes that are right
[Matt.
15
2 Tim
,8.]
SORROW AND FEAR. 569
before them; therefore our Saviour giveth his Disciples these encouragements beforehand, that fear might never so amaze them, but that always they might remember, that whatsoever evils at any time did beset them, to him they should still repair for comfort, counsel, and succour. For their assurance whereof, his -Peace he gave them, his g*^ Peace he left unto them, not such Peace as the world ot- fereth " by whom its name is never so much pretended, as when deepest treachery is meant; but "Peace which passeth all understanding," Peace that bringeth with it all happiness, Peace that continueth for ever and ever with them that have it.
This Peace God the Father grant, for his Son s sake ; unto whom, with the Holy Ghost, three Persons, one eternal and everlasting God, be all honour, and glory, and praise, now and for ever. Amen.
A LEARNED AND COMFORTABLE
SERMON
OF
THE CERTAINTY AND PERPETUITY OF FAITH IN THE ELECT :
ESPECIALLY OF THE PROPHET HABAKKUK'S FAITH.
i
Whether the Prophet Habakkuk, by admitting this cogitation into his mind, " The Law doth fail," did thereby shew himself an unbeliever. — Habak. i.4.
1. We have seen in the opening of this clause, which con- cerneth the weakness of the Prophet's Faith, first, what things they are, whereunto the Faith of sound believers doth assent : secondly, wherefore all men assent not there- unto : and thirdly, why they that do, do it many times with small assurance. Now, because nothing can be so truly spoken, but through misunderstanding it may be deprav- ed ; therefore to prevent, if it be possible, all misconstruc- tion in this cause, where a small error cannot rise but with great danger, it is perhaps needful, ere we come to the fourth point, that something be added to that which hath been already spoken concerning the third.
2. That mere natural men do neither know nor acknow- ledge the things of God, we do not marvel, because they are spiritually to be discerned ; but they in whose hearts the light of grace doth shine, they that are taught of God, why are they so weak in Faith ? why is their assenting to the Law so scrupulous ? so much mingled with fear and wavering 1 It seemeth strange that ever they should ima- gine the Law to fail. It cannot seem strange if we weigh the reason. If the things which we believe be considered in themselves, it may truly be said that Faith is more cer- tain than any science. That which we know either by sense, or by infallible demonstration, is not so certain as the principles, articles, and conclusions of Christian Faith. Concerning which we must note, that there is a certainty of evidence, and a certainty of adherence. Certainty of evidence we call that, when the mind doth assent to this
OF FAITH IN THE ELECT. 571
or that, not because it is true in itself, but because the truth is clear, because it is manifest unto us. Of things in themselves most certain, except they be also most evi- dent, our persuasion is not so assured as it is of things more evident, although in themselves they be less certain. It is as sure, if not surer, that there be spirits, as that there be men; but we be more assured of these than of them, because these are more evident. The truth of some things are so evident, that no man which heareth them can doubt of them : as when we hear that a part of any thing is less than the whole, the mind is constrained to say, this is true. If it were so in matters of Faith, then, as all men have equal certainty of this, so no believer should be more scrupulous and doubtful than another. But we find the contrary. The Angels and Spirits of the righteous in Heaven have certainty most evident of things spiritual : but this they have by the light of Glory. That which we see by the light of Grace, though it be indeed more certain ; yet it is not to us so evidently certain, as that which sense or the light of Nature will not sutler a man to doubt of. Proofs are vain and frivolous, except they be more certain than is the thing proved. And do we not see how the Spirit every where in the Scripture prov- ing matters of Faith, laboureth to confirm us in the things which we believe by things whereof we have sensible knowledge ? I conclude therefore that we have less cer- tainty of evidence concerning things believed, than con- cerning sensible or naturally perceived. Of those who doth doubt at any time ? Of them at some time who doubt- eth not ? I will not here allege the sundry confessions of the perfectest that have lived upon earth, concerning their great imperfections this way ; which, if I did, I should dwell too long upon a matter sufficiently known by every faithful man that doth know himself.
3. The other, which we call the certainty of adherence is, when the heart doth cleave and stick unto that which it doth believe. This certainty is greater in us than the other. The reason is this : the Faith of a Christian doth appre- hend the words of the Law, the promises of God, not only as true, but also as good ; and therefore even then, when the evidence which he hath of the truth is so small, that it grievcth him to feel his weakness in assenting thereto, yet is there in him such a sure adherence unto that which he
572 THE CERTAINTY AND PERPETUITY
doth but faintly and fearfully believe, that his spirit having
once truly tasted the heavenly sweetness thereof, all the
world is not able quite and clean to remove him from it ;
but he striveth with himself to hope against all reason of
believing, being settled with Job upon this immoveable re-
xm 15 so^ution> " Though God kill me, I will not give over trust-
psai. ing *n him." For why? this lesson remaineth for ever
xxxvii. imprinted in him, " It is good for me to cleave unto God."
4. Now the minds of all men being so darkened as they are with the foggy damp of original corruption, it cannot be that any man's heart living should be either so en- lightened in the knowledge, or so established in the love of that wherein his salvation standeth, as to be perfect, neither doubting nor shrinking at all. If any such were, what doth let why that man should not be justified by his own inherent righteousness? For righteousness inherent, being perfect, will justify. And perfect Faith is a part of perfect righteousness inherent ; yea, a principal part, the root and the mother of all the rest : so that if the fruit of every tree be such as the root is, Faith being perfect, as it is if it be not at all mingled with distrust and fear, what is there to exclude other Christian virtues from the like perfections ? And then what need we the righteous- ness of Christ ? His garment is superfluous : we may be honourably clothed with our own robes, if it be thus. But let them beware, who challenge to themselves strength which they have not, lest they lose the comfortable sup- port of that weakness which indeed they have.
5. Some show, although no soundness of ground, there is, which may be alleged for defence of this supposed per- fection in certainty touching matters of our Faith ; as, first, that Abraham did believe, and doubted not: secondly, that the Spirit, which God hath given us to no other end, but only to assure us that we are the sous of God ; to em- bolden us to call upon him as our Father ; to open our eyes, and to make the truth of things believed evident unto our minds, is much mightier in operation than the common light of Nature, whereby we discern sensible things: wherefore we must needs be more sure of that we be- lieve, than of that we see ; we must needs be more certain of the mercies of God in Christ Jesus, than we are of the light of the sun when it shineth upon our faces. To that of Abraham, " He did not doubt ;."
OF FAITH IN THE ELECT. 573
I answer, that this negation doth not exclude all fear, all doubting, but only that which cannot stand with true Faith. It freeth Abraham from doubting through infidelity, not from doubting through infirmity ; from the doubting of unbelievers, not of weak believers ; from such a doubting as that whereof the Prince of Samaria is at- tainted, who, hearing the promise of sudden plenty in the midst of extreme dearth, answered, M Though the Lord tc Kiu8s would make windows in heaven, were it possible so to ""2] come to pass V But that Abraham was not void of all doubtings, what need we any other proof than the plain evidence of his own words ? The reason which is taken Gen. from the power of the Spirit were effectual, if God did xvu' 17' work like a natural agent, as the fire doth inflame, and the sun enlighten, according to the uttermost ability which they have to bring forth their effects : but the incompre- hensible wisdom of God doth limit the effects of his power to such a measure as it seemeth best to himself, wherefore he worketh that certainty in all, which sufficeth abundantly to their salvation in the life to come; but in none so great as attaineth in this life unto perfection. Even so, O Lord, it hath pleased thee ; even so it is best and fittest for us, that feeling still our own infirmities, we may no longer breathe than pray, " Adjuva, Domine — Help, Lord, our incredulity." Of the third question, this I hope will suffice, being added unto that which hath been thereof al- ready spoken. The fourth question resteth, and so an end of this point.
6. That which cometh last of all in this first branch to be considered concerning the weakness of the Prophet's Faith is, " Whether he did by this very thought, The Law doth fail, quench the Spirit, fall from Faith, and shew himself an unbeliever, or no V The question is of moment; the repose and tranquillity of infinite souls doth depend upon it. The Prophet's case is the case of many; which way soever we cast for him, the same way it passeth for all others. If in him this cogitation did extinguish Grace, why the like thoughts in us should not take the like effects, there is no cause. Forasmuch, therefore, as the matter is weighty, dear, and precious, which we have in hand, it behoveth us with so much the greater chariness to wade through it, taking special heed both what we build,
574 THE CERTAINTY AND PERPETUITY
and whereon we build, that if our building be pearl, our foundation be not stubble ; if the doctrine we teach be full of comfort and consolation, the ground whereupon we gather it be^sure : otherwise we shall not save, but deceive, both ourselves and others. In this we know we are not deceived, neither can we deceive you, when we teach that the Faith whereby ye are sanctified cannot fail ; it did not in the Prophet, it shall not in you. If it be so, let the difference be shewed between the condition of unbelievers and his, in this or in the like imbecility and weakness. [i John There was in Habakkuk that which St. John doth call " the seed of God," meaning thereby the first grace which God poureth into the hearts of them that are incorporated into Christ ; which having received, if, because it is an adver- sary to sin, we do therefore think we sin not both other- wise, and also by distrustful and doubtful apprehending of that which we ought stedfastly to believe, surely we do but deceive ourselves. Yet they which are of God do not sin either in this, or in any thing, any such sin as doth quite extinguish Grace, clean cut them off from Christ Jesus ; because the seed of God abideth in them, and doth shield them from receiving any irremediable wound. Their Faith, when it is at the strongest, is but weak ; yet even then, when it is at the weakest, so strong, that utterly it never faileth, it never perisheth altogether, no not in them who think it extinguished in themselves. There are for whose sakes I dare not deal slightly in this cause, sparing that labour which must be bestowed to make plain. Men in like agonies unto this of the Prophet Habakkuk's, are through the extremity of grief, many times in judgment so confounded, that they find not themselves in themselves. For that which dwelleth in their hearts they seek, they make diligent search and inquiry. It abideth, it worketh in them, yet still they ask, where ? Still they lament as for a thing which is past finding : they mourn as Rachel, and refuse to be comforted, as if that were not which indeed is ; and as if that, which is not were ; as if they did not believe when they do, and, as if they did despair when they do not. Which in some, I grant, is but a melancholy passion, proceeding only from that dejection of mind, the cause whereof is the body, and by bodily means can be taken away. But where there is no such bodily cause,
OF FAITH IN THE ELECT. 575
the mind is not lightly in this mood, but by some of these three occasions : One, that judging by comparison either with other men, or with themselves at some other time more strong, they think imperfection to be a plain depri- vation, weakness to be utter want, of Faith. Another cause is, they often mistake one thing for another. St. Paul, wishing well to the Church of Rome, prayeth for them after this sort: " The God of hope fill you with all joy •f£J°£] believing." Hence an error groweth, when men in heavi- ness of spirit suppose they lack Faith, because they find not the sugared joy and delight which indeed doth accompany Faith, but so as a separable accident, as a thing that may be removed from it; yea, there is a cause why it should be removed. The light would never be so acceptable, were it not for that usual intercourse of darkness. Too much honey doth turn to gall; and too much joy, even spiritual, would make us wantons. Happier a great deal is that man's case, whose soul by inward desolation is humbled, than he whose heart is through abundance of spiritual delight lifted up and exalted above measure. Better it is sometimes to go down into the pit with him, who, behold- ing darkness, and bewailing the loss of inward joy and consolation, crieth from the bottom of the lowest hell, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" than [Psai. continually to walk arm in arm with Angels, to sit as it xx",1] were in Abraham's bosom, and to have no thought, no co- gitation, but " I thank my God it is not with me as it is [i^* with other men." No, God will have them that shall™"'1 walk in light to feel now and then what it is to sit in the shadow of death. A grieved spirit therefore is no argu- ment of a faithless mind. A third occasion of men's mis- judging themselves, as if they were faithless when they are not, is, they fasten their cogitations upon the distrust- ful suggestions of the flesh, whereof finding great abund- ance in themselves, they gather thereby, Surely unbelief hath full dominion, it hath taken plenary possession of me ; if I were faithful it could not be thus : not marking the motions of the Spirit and of Faith, because they lie buried overwhelmed with the contrary: when notwith- standing, as the blessed Apostle doth acknowledge, that [Rom. - the Spirit groaneth, and that God heareth when we do not ; 26' 3T ] so there is no doubt but that our Faith may have, and hath,
576 THE CERTAINTY AND PERPETUITY
her private operations secret to us, yet known to him by whom they are. Tell this to a man that hath a mind de- ceived by too hard an opinion of himself, and it doth but augment his grief: he hath his answer ready, Will you make me think otherwise than I find, than I feel in myself? I have thoroughly considered and exquisitely sifted all the corners of my heart, and I see what there is ; never seek to persuade me against my knowledge ; I do not, I know, I do not believe. Well, to favour them a little in their weakness, let that be granted which they do imagine ; be it that they be faithless and without belief. But are they not grieved for their unbelief? They are. Do they not wish it might, and also strive that it may, be otherwise ? We know they do. Whence cometh this, but from a secret love and liking which they have of those things that are believed ? No man can love things which in his own opi- nion are not. And if they think those things to be, which they shew that they love when they desire to believe them ; then must it needs be, that by desiring to believe they prove themselves true believers : for without Faith no man thinketh that things believed are. Which argument all the subtilty of infernal powers will never be able to dissolve. The Faith therefore of true believers, though it hath many and grievous downfalls, yet doth it still continue invincible ; it conquereth and recovereth itself in the end. The dangerous conflicts, whereunto it is sub- ject, are not able to prevail against it. The Prophet Ha- bakkuk remained faithful in weakness, though weak in faith. It is true, such is our weak and wavering nature, we have no sooner received Grace, but we are ready to fall from it. We have no sooner given our assent to the Law, that it cannot fail, but the next conceit which we are ready to embrace is, that it may, and that it doth fail. Though we find in ourselves a most willing heart to cleave unseparably unto God, even so far as to think unfeignedly tLuke with Peter, " Lord, I am ready to go with thee into prison Mii'33] and to death;" yet how soon and how easily, upon how small occasions, are we changed, if we be but awhile let alone, and left unto ourselves? The Galatians to-day, for their sakes which teach them the truth of Christ, are con- tent, if need were, to pluck out their own eyes, and the next day, ready to pluck out theirs which taught them.
OF FAITH IN THE ELECT. 577
The love of the Angel of the Church of Ephesus, how greatly inflamed, and how quickly slaked ? The higher we flow, the nearer we are unto an ebb, if men be respected as mere men, according to the wonted course of their al- terable inclination, without the heavenly support of the Spirit. Again, the desire of our ghostly enemy is so incre- dible, and his means so forcible to overthrow our Faith, that whom the blessed Apostle knew betrothed and made hand-fast unto Christ, to them he could not write but with great trembling: "I am jealous over you with a godly [* c°r- jealousy, for I have prepared you to one Husband, to pre- sent you a pure Virgin unto Christ : but I fear, lest as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ." The simplicity of Faith which is in Christ, taketh the naked promise of God, his bare Word, and on that it resteth. This simplicity the Serpent laboureth continually to pervert, corrupting the mind with many imaginations of repugnancy and contrariety between the promise of God and those things which sense or experience, or some other fore-conceived persuasion, hath imprinted. The word of the promise of God unto his people is, " I will not leave [Jos. thee nor forsake thee :" upon this the simplicity of Faith He5b'. resteth, and is not afraid of famine. But mark how the*1'1-51 subtilty of Satan did corrupt the minds of that rebellious generation, whose spirits were not faithful unto God. They beheld the desolate state of the Desert in w hich they were, and by the wisdom of their sense concluded the pro- mise of God to be but folly : " Can God prepare a table in rpsai. the Wilderness ?" The word of the promise to Sarah was, 1X9^V1"' " Thou shalt bear a son." Faith is simple, and doubteth not of it : but Satan, to corrupt this simplicity of Faith, en- tangleth the mind of the woman with an argument drawn from common experience to the contrary ; " A woman that [Gen. is old ; Sarah now to be acquainted with forgotten pas- XV1 sions again of youth !" The word of the promise of God by Moses and the Prophets made the Saviour of the world so apparent unto Philip, that his simplicity could conceive no other Messias than Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Jo- seph. But to stay Nathanael, lest being invited to come and see, he should also believe, and so be saved, the sub- tilty of Satan casteth a mist before his eyes, putteth in his
VOL. II. 2 p
578 THE CERTAINTY AND PERPETUITY
head against this the common-conceived persuasion of all [John men concerning Nazareth, " Is it possible that any good 1 46] thing should come from thence ?" This stratagem he doth use with so great dexterity, that the minds of all men are so strangely bewitched with it, that it bereaveth them, for the time, of all perceivance of that which should relieve them and be their comfort ; yea, it taketh all remem- brance from them, even of things wherewith they are most familiarly acquainted. The people of Israel could not be ignorant, that he which led them through the sea was able to feed them in the Desert : but this was obliterated and put out by the sense of their present want. Feeling the hand of God against them in their food, they remember not his hand in the day that he delivered them from the hand [Matt, of the oppressor. Sarah was not then to learn, that " with x.x. 26.] q0(j ajj jjjjugg were possible." Had Nathanael never [icor. noted how " God doth choose the base things of this world 1. 27,28.] to (]iSgrace them that are most honourably esteemed?" The Prophet Habakkuk knew that the promises of grace, protection, and favour, which God in the Law doth make unto his people, do not grant them any such immunity as can free and exempt them from all chastisements : he knew that, as God said, " I will continue for ever my mercy towards them ;" so he likewise said, " Their transgressions I will punish with a rod :" he knew that it could not stand with any reason we should set the measure of our own pu- nishments, and prescribe unto God how great, or how long, our sufferings shall be : he knew that we were blind, and altogether ignorant what is best for us ; that we sue for many things very unwisely against ourselves, thinking we ask fish, when indeed we crave a serpent : he knew that when the the thing we ask is good, and yet God seemeth slow to grant it, he doth not deny but defer our petitions, to the end we might learn to desire great things greatly : all this he knew. But, beholding the land which God had severed for his own people, and seeing it abandoned unto Heathen nations ; viewing how reproachfully they did tread it down, and wholly make havock of it at their pleasure ; beholding the Lord's own royal seat made a heap of stones, his Temple defiled, the carcasses of his servants cast out for the fowls of the air to devour, and the flesh of his meek ones for the beasts of the field to feed upon ; being con-
OF FAITH IN THE ELECT. 579
scious to himself how long and how earnestly he had cried, " Succour us, O God of our welfare, for the glory of thine own name ;" and feeling that their sore was still increased : the conceit of repugnancy between this which was objected to his eyes, and that which Faith upon promise of the Law did look for, made so deep an impression, and so strong, that he disputeth not the matter; but, without any further inquiry or search, inferreth, as we see, " The Law doth fail." 7. Of us, who is here which cannot very soberly advise his brother? Sir, you mustlearn to strengthen your Faith by that experience which heretofore you have had of God's great goodness towards you, " Per ea quae agnoscas prae- stita, discas sperare promissa," By those things which you have known performed, learn to hope for those things which are promised. Do you acknowledge to have re- ceived much ? Let that make you certain to receive more : " Habenti dabitur ; To him that hath, more shall be given." When you doubt what you shall have, search what you have had at God's hands. Make this reckoning, that the benefits, which he hath bestowed are bills obligatory and sufficient sureties, that he will bestow further. His present mercy is still a warrant of his future love, because, " whom he loveth, he loveth to the end." Is it not thus ? Yet if we could reckon up as many evident, clear, undoubted signs of God's reconciled love towards us as there are years, yea days, yea hours, past over our heads ; all these set together have no such force to confirm our Faith, as the loss, and sometimes the only fear of losing a little transi- tory goods, credit, honour, or favour of men ; a small cala- mity, a matter of nothing, to breed a conceit, and such a con- ceit as is not easily again removed, that we are clean crossed out of God's book, that he regards us not, that he looketh upon others, but passeth by us like a stranger to whom we are not known. Then we think, looking upon others, and comparing them with ourselves, their tables are furnished day by day ; earth and ashes are our bread : they sing to the lute, and they see their children dance before them ; our hearts are heavy in our bodies as lead, our sighs beat as thick as a swift pulse, our tears do wash the bed whereon we lie : the sun shineth fair upon their foreheads; we are hanged up like bottles in the smoke, cast into cor- ners like the shreds of a broken pot: tell not us of thepro- 2p2
580 THE CERTAINTY AND PERPETUITY
mises of God's favour, tell such as do reap the fruit of them ; they belong not to us, they are made to others. The Lord be merciful to our weakness, but thus it is. Well, let the frailty of our nature, the subtilty of Satan, the force of our deceivable imaginations be, as we cannot deny but they are, things that threaten every moment the utter subversion of our Faith ; Faith notwithstanding is not ha- zarded by these things : that which one sometimes told the [saiiust. Senators of Rome, "Ego sic existimabam, P. C. ut ipa- c."u.] ' trem saepe meum prajdicantem audiveram, qui vestram amicitiam diligenter colerent, eos multum laborem susci- pere, casterum ex omnibus maxime tutos esse," As I have often heard my father acknowledge, so I myself did ever think, that the friends and favourers of this State charged themselves with great labour, but no man's condition so safe as theirs;" the same we may say a great deal more justly in this case : our Fathers and Prophets, our Lord and Master, hath full often spoken, by long experience we have found it true, as many as have entered their names in the mystical Book of Life. " eos maximum laborem susci- pere," they have taken upon them a laboursome, a toil- some, a painful profession, "sed omnium maxime tutos [Luke esse," but no man's security like to theirs. " Simon, Si- ai"a2]. m°n, Satan hath desired to winnow thee as wheat;" here is our toil : " but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not ;" this is our safety. No man's condition so sure as ours : the prayer of Christ is more than sufficient both to strengthen us, be we never so weak ; and to overthrow all adversary power, be it never so strong and potent. His prayer must not exclude our labour: their thoughts are vain who think that their watching can preserve the city, which God himself is not willing to keep. And are not theirs as vain, who think that God will keep the city, for which they themselves are not careful to watch? The husbandman may not therefore burn his plough, nor the merchant forsake his trade, because God hath promised " I will not forsake thee." And do the promises of God concerning our stability, think you, make it a matter indif- ferent for us to use, or not to use, the means whereby to attend, or not to attend, to reading? to pray, or not to pray, that we " fall not into temptations ?" Surely, if we look to stand in the Faith of the sons of God, we must
OF FAITH IN THE ELECT. 581
hourly, continually, be providing and setting ourselves to strive. It was not the meaning of our Lord and Saviour in saying, " Father, keep them in thy name," that we should PjJ»u . be careless to keep ourselves. To our own safety, our own sedulity is required. And then blessed for ever and ever be that mother's child, whose Faith hath made him the child of God. The earth may shake, the pillars of the world may tremble under us, the countenance of the Hea- ven may be appalled, the sun may lose his light, the moon her beauty, the stars their glory ; but concerning the man that trusteth in God, if the fire have proclaimed itself un- able as much as to singe a hair of his head, if lions, beasts ravenous by nature, and keen with hunger, being set to devour, have as it were religiously adored the very flesh of the faithful man ; what is there in the world that shall chang ehis heart, overthrow his Faith, alter his affec- tion towards God, or the affection of God to him ? If I be of this note, who shall make a separation between me and my God ? " shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, [Rom. or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? No ; I am ^'^j persuaded, that neither tribulation, nor anguish, nor per- secution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword, nor death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall ever prevail so far over me." " I know in whom I have believed ;" I am not ignorant whose precious blood hath been shed for me ; I have a Shepherd full of kindness, full of care, and full of power, unto him I commit myself; his own finger hath en- graven this sentence in the tables of my heart, " Satan hath desired to winnow thee as wheat, but I have prayed that thy Faith fail not :" therefore the assurance of my hope I will labour to keep, as a jewel, unto the end ; and by labour, through the gracious mediation of his prayer, I shall keep it.
TWO SERMONS, Sec.
To the Worshipful Mr. George Summ aster, Principal of Broad- Gates Hall, in Oxford, Henry Jackson wisheth all happiness.
Your kind acceptance of a former testification of that respect I owe you, hath made me venture to shew the world these godly Sermons under your name. In which, as every point is worth observation, so some especially are to be noted : the first, that as the Spirit of Prophecy is from God himself, who doth inwardly heat and enlighten the hearts and minds of his holy Penmen (which if some would diligently consider, they would not puzzle themselves with the contentions of Scot and Thomas, Whether God only, or his ministering Spirits, do infuse into men's minds prophetical revelations " per species intelligibiles"), so God framed their words also. Whence the holy Father St. Augustine religiously observeth, " That all those who i- »v- understand the Sacred Writers, will also perceive that they Se Doct. ought not to use other words than they did, in expressing Chr' those heavenly mysteries which their hearts conceived, as the blessed Virgin did our Saviour, by the Holy Ghost." The greater is Castellio's offence, who hath laboured to teach the Prophets to speak otherwise than they have al- ready. Much like to that impious King of Spain, Alphon- Rob. sus the Tenth, who found fault with God's works. " Si [f* (inquit) creationi affuissem, mundum melius ordinassem ;" c- 3 If he had been with God at the creation of the world, the world had gone better than now it doth. As this man found fault with God's works, so did the other with God's words ; but, because " we have a most sure word of the 2 Pet- Prophets," to which we must take heed, I will let his prS. words pass with the wind, having elsewhere spoken to you £. bU more largely of his errors, whom, notwithstanding, for his nold- other excellent parts, I much respect.
584 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
You shall moreover from hence understand, how Christ- ianity consists not in formal and seeming purity (under which who knows not notorious villany to mask ?), but in the heart-root. Whence the Author truly teacheth, that mockers, which use Religion as a cloak, to put off and on, as the weather serveth, are worse than Pagans and Infidels. Where I cannot omit to shew how justly this kind of men hath been reproved by that renowned Martyr of Jesus Christ, Bishop Latimer, both because it will be apposite to this purpose, and also free that Christian worthy from the ^anr-. slanderous reproaches of him, who was, if ever any, a 3.con- mocker of God, Religion, and all good men. But first I must desire you, and in you all readers, not to think light of that excellent man, for using this and the like witty similitudes in his Sermons. For whosoever will call to mind with what riff-raff God's people were fed in those Mai. days, when their Priests, whose " lips should have pre- served knowledge," preached nothing else but dreams and false miracles of counterfeit Saints, enrolled in that sot- tish legend, coined and amplified by a drowsy head between sleeping and waking * — he that will consider this, and also how the people were delighted with such toys (God send- ing them strong delusions that they should believe lies), and how hard it would have been for any man wholly, and upon the sudden, to draw their minds to another bent, will easily perceive, both how necessary it was to shew symbolical discourse, and how wisely and moderately it was applied by the religious Father, to the end he might lead their understanding so far, till it were so convinced, informed, and settled, that it might forget the means and way by which it was led, and think only of that it had acquired. For in all such mystical speeches, who knows not that the end for which they are used, is only to be thought upon?
This then being first considered, let us hear the story, Pae- as it is related by Mr. Fox : " Mr. Latimer (saith he) in edit.' his Sermon, gave the people certain cards out of the 15T0' fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of Matthew. For the chief triumph in the cards he limited the heart, as the prin- cipal thing that they should serve God withal, whereby he
* Canuslocor. 1. xi. c. 6. Vives, lib. ii.de corrupt, art. Hard. Jib. iv.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 585
quite overthrew all hypocritical and external Ceremonies, not tending to the necessary furtherance of God's holy Word and Sacraments. By this he exhorted all men to serve the Lord with inward heart and true affection, and not with outward Ceremonies ; adding, moreover, to the praise of that triumph, that though it were never so small, yet it would take up the best coat-card beside in the bunch, yea, thought it were the King of Clubs, &c. mean- ing thereby, how the Lord would be worshipped and serv- ed in simplicity of the heart, and verity, wherein consist- ed the true Christian Religion, &c." Thus Mr. Fox.
By which it appears, that the holy man's intention was to lift up the people's hearts to God, and not that he made a Sermon of playing at cards, and taught them how to play at Triumph, and played (himself) at cards in the pul- pit, as that base companion *Parsons reports the matter in his wonted scurrilous vein of railing, whence he call- eth it a Christmas Sermon. Now he that will think ill sect. 55. of such allusions, may, out of the abundance of his folly, jest at f Demosthenes for his story of the sheep, wolves, and dogs ; and Menenius, for his fiction of the belly.]: But, hinc illce lacrymce, the good Bishop meant that the Romish Religion came not from the heart, but consisted in outward Ceremonies : which sorely grieved Parsons, who never had the least warmth or spark of honesty. Whether Bishop Latimer compared the Bishops to the Knave of Clubs, as the fellow interprets him, I know not : I am sure Parsons, of all others, deserved those colours ; and so I leave him. We see then, what inward purity is required of all Christians, which if they have, then in prayer, and all other Christian duties, they shall lift up pure hands, as the Apostle speaks, not as § Baronius 1.T^m- would have it, washed from sins with holy water ; but pure, that is, holy, free from the pollution of sin, as the Greek word balovg does signify.
You may see also here refuted those calumnies of the Papists, that we abandon all religious Rites and godly duties 5 as also the confirmation of our doctrine, touching
* In the third part of the three conversions of England : in the examination of Fox's Saints, c. 14. sect. 53, 54. p. 215.
t Plutarch, in Demosthen. [c. 23.] J Liv. Dec. 1. 1. ii. an. U. C. 60. [c. 3LJ.] $ Annal. torn. i. an. 57. n. 109, 110. et torn. ii. an. 132. Num.
586 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
certainty of Faith, (and so of salvation), which is so strongly denied by some of that faction, that they have told the world, * St. Paul himself was uncertain of his own salvation. What then shall we say, but pronounce a wo to the most strict observers of St. Francis's Rules and his Canonical Discipline, though they make him even f equal with Christ, and the most meritorious Monk that ever was re- gistered in their Calendar of Saints ? But we, for our comfort, are otherwise taught out of the Holy Scripture, and therefore exhorted to build ourselves in our most [2 cor. nojy paitn? that SOj <( When our earthly house of this ta- bernacle shall be destroyed, we may have a building given of God, a house not made with hands, but eternal in the Heavens."
This is that which is most piously and feelingly taught in these few leaves, so that you shall read nothing here, but what I persuade myself you have long practised in the constant course of your life. It remaineth only that you accept of these labours tendered to you by him, who wish- eth you the long joys of this world, and the eternal of that which is to come.
Oxon, from Corpus Christi College, this 13th of Janu- ary, 1613.
* S. Paulus de sua salute incertus ; Kicheom Jesuit, lib. ii. c. 12. Indolat. Hu- guen. p. 119.in marg. edit. Lat. Mogunt. 113. interpret. Marcel. Bomper. Jesuita. t Witness the verses of Horatius, a Jesuit, recited by Posse, v. Biblioth. Select, part. 2. 1. xvii. c. 19.
Exsue Franciscum tunica laceroque cucullo : Qui Franciscus erat, jam tibi Christus erit. Francisci exsuviis (si qua licet) indue Christum : Jam Franciscus erit, qui modo Christus erat. The like hath Bencius, another Jesuit.
TWO SERMONS
UPON
PART OF ST. JUDE'S EPISTLE.
SERMON I.
But ye, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before of the Apostles
of our Lord Jesus Christ : How that they told you, that there should be mockers in the last time, which
should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These are makers of sects, fleshly, having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, edify yourselves in your most holy Faith, praying in the Holy
Ghost. And keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ unto eternal Life. — Jude 17 — 21.
The occasion whereupon, together with the end wherefore, this Epistle was written, is opened in the front and entry of the same. There were then, as there are now, many evil and wickedly-disposed persons, not of the mystical Body, yet within the visible bounds of the Church, " men [*"• *• which were of old ordained to condemnation, ungodly men, which turned the grace of our God unto wantonness, and denied the Lord Jesus." For this cause the Spirit of the Lord is in the hand of " Jude the servant of Jesus and [ver. 1. brother of James," to exhort them that are called, and sanctified of God the Father, that they would earnestly " contend to maintain the Faith, which was once delivered tve' ■ 3- to the Saints." Which Faith, because we cannot main- tain, except we know perfectly, first, against whom ; se- condly, in what sort it must be maintained ; therefore in the former three verses of that parcel of Scripture which I have read, the enemies of the Cross of Christ are plainly described ; and in the latter two, they that love the Lord Jesus have a sweet lesson given them how to strengthen and establish themselves in the Faith. Let us first there- fore examine the description of these reprobates concern- ing Faith ; and afterwards come to the exhortation, where- in Christians are taught how to rest their hearts on God's
19.]
588 TWO SERMONS
eternal and everlasting truth. The description of these godless persons is twofold, general and special. The general doth point them out, and shew what manner of men they should be. The particular pointeth at them, and saith plainly, these are they. In the general descrip- tion we have to consider of these things ; First, when they were described ; " They were told of before :" Secondly, the men by whom they were described ; " They were spoken of by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ :" Thirdly, the days when they should be manifest unto the world, they told you, " they should be in the last time :" Fourthly, their disposition and whole demeanour, " Mockers and walkers after their own ungodly lusts." [ver. i8, 2. In the third to the Philippians, the Apostle describ- eth certain ; " They are men (saith he) of whom I have told you often, and now with tears I tell you of them, their god is their belly, their glory and rejoicing is in their own shame, they mind earthly things." These were ene- mies to the Cross of Christ, enemies whom he saw, and his eyes gushed out with tears to behold them. But we are taught in this place, how the Apostle spake also of enemies, whom as yet they had not seen, described a family of men as yet unheard of, a generation reserved for the end of the world, and for the last time ; they had not only declared what they heard and saw in the days wherein they lived, but they have prophesied also of men in time [2 pet. to come. And " you do well (saith St. Peter) in that you take heed to the words of prophecy, so that ye first know this, that no prophecy in the Scripture cometh of any man's own resolution." No prophecy in Scripture cometh of any man's own resolution ; for all prophecy which is in Scripture, came by the secret inspiration of God. But there are prophecies which are no Scripture ; yea, there are prophecies against the Scripture : my brethren, beware of such prophecies, and take heed you heed them not. Remember the things that were spoken of before ; but spoken of before by the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Take heed to prophecies, but to prophecies which are in Scripture ; for both the manner and matter of those prophecies do shew plainly that they are of God. of the 3. Touching the manner how men, by the Spirit of Pro- Prophe- phecy in Holy Scripture, have spoken and written of
19 CO.]
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE. 589
things to come, we must understand, that as the knowledge eye-
i* i- U ceived
of that they spake, so likewise the utterance of that they from God knew, came not by these usual and ordinary means where- by we are brought to understand the mysteries of our sal- vation, and are wont to instruct others in the same. For whatsoever we know, we have it by the hands and ministry of men, which lead us along like children from a letter to a syllable, from a syllable to a word, from a word to a line, from a line to a sentence, from a sentence to a side, and so turn over. But God himself was their instructor, he himself taught them, partly by dreams and visions in the night, partly by revelations in the day, taking them aside from amongst their brethren, and talking with them as a man would talk with his neighbour in the way. Thus they became acquainted even with the secret and hidden counsels of God, they saw things which themselves were not able to utter, they beheld that whereat men and angels are astonished, they understood in the beginning, what should come to pass in the last days.
4. God, which lightened thus the eyes of their under- of the standing, giving them knowledge by unusual and extraor- nTiLr dinary means, did also miraculously himself frame and ^eech_ fashion their words and writings, insomuch that a greater difference there seemeth not to be between the manner of their knowledge, than there is between the manner of their speech and others. When we have conceived a thing in our hearts, and thoroughly understand it, as we think with- in ourselves, before we can utter in such sort, that our bre- thren may receive instruction or comfort at our mouths, how great, how long, how earnest meditation are we forced to use ? And after much travel and much pains, when we open our lips to speak of the wonderful works of God, our tongues do faulter within our mouths, yea, many times we disgrace the dreadful mysteries of our Faith, and grieve the spirit of our hearers by words unsavoury, and unseemly speeches : " Shall a wise man fill his belly with the eastern job wind (saith Eliphaz) ? Shall a wise man dispute withxv'2'3' words not comely? or with talk that is not profitable?" Yet behold, even they that are wisest amongst us living, compared with the Prophets, seem no otherwise to talk of God, than as if the children which are carried in arms, should speak of the greatest matters of state. They whose
590 TWO SERMONS
words do most shew forth their wise understanding, and whose lips do utter the purest knowledge, so long as they understand and speak as men, are they not fain sundry ways to excuse themselves ? Sometimes acknowledging
[wisd. with the Wise Man, " Hardly can we discern the things that are on earth, and with great labour find we out the things that are before us. Who can then seek out the things that
[Jot> are in heaven ?" Sometimes confessing with Job the righ-
xlii. 3.]
teous, in treating of things too wonderful for us, we have spoken we wist not what : sometimes ending their talk, as
[2 Mace, does the history of the Maccabees : " If we have done well, and as the cause required, it is that we desire ; if we have spoken slenderly and barely, we have done what we could."
r*f- But " God hath made my mouth like a sword," saith Isaiah :
xhx. 3. J '
[i cor. and " we have received (saith the Apostle), not the spirit is ] "' of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are given to us of God ; which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost doth teach." This is that which the Prophets mean by those books written full within and without ; which books were so often delivered them to eat, not because God fed them with ink and paper, but to teach us, that so oft as he employed them in this heavenly work, they neither spake nor wrote any word of their own, but uttered syllable by syllable, as the Spirit put it into their mouths, no otherwise than the harp or the lute doth give a sound, according to the discretion of his hands that hold- eth and striketh it with skill. The difference is only this : an instrument, whether it be a pipe or harp, maketh a dis- tinction in the times and sounds, which distinction is well perceived of the hearer, the instrument itself understandeth not what is piped or harped. The Prophets and holy men Ezek. of God, not so: " I opened my mouth (saith Ezekiel), and God reached me a scroll, saying, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this I give thee ; I ate it, and it was sweet in my mouth as honey," saith the Prophet ; yea, sweeter, I am persuaded, than either honey or the honey-comb. For herein they were not like harps or lutes, but they felt, they felt the power and strength of their own words. When they spake of our peace, every corner of their heart was filled with joy. When they prophesied of mourning, lamentations, and woes to fall
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE. 591
upon us, they wept in the bitterness and indignation of spirit, the arm of the Lord being mighty and strong upon them.
5. On this manner were all the prophecies of Holy Scrip- ture. Which prophecies, although they contain nothing which is not profitable for our instruction ; yet as one star differeth from another in glory, so every word of prophecy hath a treasure of matter in it : but all matters are not of like importance, as all treasures are not of equal price ; the chief and principal matter of prophecy is the promise of righteousness, peace, holiness, glory, victory, immortality, unto " every soul which believeth that Jesus is Christ, of [^™; the Jew first, and of the Gentile." Now because the doc- trine of salvation to be looked for by Faith in Him, who was in outward appearance, as it had been, a man forsaken of God; in him, who was numbered, judged, and condemned with the wicked ; in him, whom men did see buffeted on the face, scoffed at by the soldiers, scourged by tormen- tors, hanged on the cross, pierced to the heart; in him, whom the eyes of many witnesses did behold, when the an- guish of his soul enforced him to roar, as if his heart had rent in sunder, " O my God, my God, why hast thou for- [Matt; saken me V I say, because the doctrine of salvation by X]'" him is a thing improbable to a natural man, that whether we preach to the Gentile, or to the Jew, the one condemneth our Faith as madness, the other as blasphemy ; therefore, to establish and confirm the certainty of this saving truth in the hearts of men, the Lord, together with their preach- ings whom he sent immediately from himself to reveal these things unto the world, mingled prophecies of things, both Civil and Ecclesiastical, which were to come in every age, from time to time, till the very last of the latter days, that by those things, wherein we see daily their words fulfilled and done, we might have strong consolation in the hope of things which are not seen, because they have revealed as well the one as the other. For when many things are spoken of before in Scripture, whereof we see first one thing accomplished, and then another, and so a third, per- ceive we not plainly, that God doth nothing else but lead us along by the hand, till he hath settled us upon the rock of an assured hope, that not one jot or tittle of his Word shall pass, till all be fulfilled ? It is not therefore said in
James
592 TWO SERMONS
vain, that these godless wicked ones " were spoken of be- fore."
6. But by whom ? By them whose words, if men or Angels from Heaven, gainsay, they are accursed ; by them, [Luke whom whosoever despiseth, " despiseth not them but me," x' l6-1 saith Christ. If any man therefore doth love the Lord Jesus, (and wo worth him thatloveth not the Lord Jesus !), hereby we may know that he loveth him indeed, if he de- spise not the things that are spoken of by his Apostles, whom many have despised even for the baseness and a natu. simpleness of their persons. For it is the property of perceiv" fleshly and carnal men to honour and dishonour, credit and heavenly discredit, the words and deeds of every man, according to t™Is* tna^ ne wanteth or hath without. " If a man of gorgeous apparel come amongst us," although he be a thief or a murderer (for there are thieves and murderers in gorgeous apparel), be his heart whatsoever, if his coat be of purple or velvet, or tissue, every one riseth up, and all the re- verend solemnities we can use are too little. But the man that serveth God is contemned and despised amongst us for his poverty. Herod speaketh in judgment, and the peo- Actso pie cry out, " The voice of God, and not of man." Paul i>vii. ' preacheth Christ, they term him a trifler. " Hearken, be- loved, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, that they should be rich in Faith?'' Hath he not chosen the refuse of the world to be heirs of his Kingdom, which he hath promised to them that love him ? Hath he not chosen the off-scourings of men to be the Lights of the world, and the Apostles of Jesus Christ? Men unlearned, yet how fully replenished with understanding? Few in number, yet how great in power? Contemptible in show, yet in spirit how strong ? how wonderful ? "I would fain learn the mystery of the eternal generation of the Son of God," saith Hilary. Whom shall I seek ? Shall I get me to the schools of the Grecians? Why, I have read, "Ubi Sa- piens? ubi Scriba? ubi Conquisitor hujus sasculi ?" These wise men in the world must needs be dumb in this, because they have rejected the wisdom of God. Shall I beseech the Scribes and Interpreters of the Law to become my Teachers ? How can they know this, sith they are offend- ed at the Cross of Christ ? It is death for me to be igno- rant of the unsearchable mystery of the Son of God ; of
James ii. 5.
UPON PART OF ST. J IDE. 593
which mystery, notwithstanding, I should have been igno- rant, but that a poor fisherman, unknown, unlearned, new come from his boat, with his clothes wringing wet, hath opened his mouth, and taught me, " In the beginning was [John the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word ' lJ was God." These poor silly creatures have made us rich in the knowledge of the mysteries of Christ.
7. Remember therefore that which is spoken of by the Apostles ; whose words if the children of this world do not regard, is it any marvel 1 They are the Apostles of our Lord Jesus ; not of their Lord, but of ours. It is true which one hath said in a certain place, " Apostolicam fidem saeculi homo non capit," A man sworn to the world is not capable of that faith which the Apostles do teach. What mean the children of this world then to tread in the courts of our God? What should your bodies do at Bethel, J™'« whose hearts are at Bethaven ? The god of this world, between whom ye serve, hath provided Apostles and Teachers for op°nions. you, Chaldeans, Wizards, Soothsayers, Astrologers, and such like ; hear them. Tell not us that ye will sacrifice to the Lord our God, if we will sacrifice to Ashtaroth or Melcom ; that ye will read our Scriptures, if we will listen to your Traditions ; that if ye may have a Mass by per- mission, we shall have a Communion with good leave and liking ; that ye will admit the things that are spoken of by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus, if your Lord and Mas- ter may have his Ordinances observed, and his Statutes kept. Solomon took it (as he well might) for an evident proof, that she did not bear a motherly affection to her child, which yielded to have it cut in divers parts. He cannot love the Lord Jesus with his heart, which lendeth one ear to his Apostles, and another to false Apostles ; which can brook to see a mingle-mangle of Religion and Superstition, Ministers and Massing-priests, Light and Darkness, Truth and Error, Traditions and Scriptures. No, we have no Lord but Jesus ; no Doctrine but the Gospel; no Teachers but his Apostles. Were it reason to require at the hand of an English subject, obedience to the Laws and Edicts of the Spaniards ? I do marvel, that any man, bearing the name of a servant of the servants of Jesus Christ, will go about to draw us from our alle- giance. We are his sworn subjects ; it is not lawful for us
vol. II. 2 Q
in the
last
time.
594 TWO SERMONS
to hear the things that are not told us by his Apostles. They have told us, that " in the last days there shall be mockers," therefore we believe it; "Credimus quia legi- mus," We are so persuaded, because we read it must be so. If we did not read it, we would not teach it : " Nam quae Libro Legis non continentur, ea nee nosse decemus," saith Hilary ; Those things that are not written in the Book of the Law, we ought not so much as to be acquainted with them. " Remember the words which were spoken of be- fore by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ." Mockers g rjyfe fofrfi thing to be considered in the description of these men, of whom we speak, is the time wherein they should be manifested to the world. They told you " there should be mockers in the last time." Noah, at the com- mandment of God, built an ark, and there were in it beasts of all sorts, clean and unclean. A husbandman planteth a vineyard, and looketh for grapes, but when Lthey come to the gathering, behold, together with grapes, there are found also wild grapes. A rich man prepareth a great supper, and biddeth many ; but when he sitteth him down, he findeth amongst his friends here and there a man whom he knoweth not. This hath been the state of the Church sithence the beginning. God always hath mingled his Saints with faithless and godless persons, as it were the clean with the unclean, grapes with sour grapes, his friends and children with aliens and strangers. Marvel not then, if in the last days also, ye see the men with whom you live and walk arm in arm, laugh at your Religion, and blaspheme that glorious Name whereof you are called. Thus it was in the days of the Patriarchs and Prophets, and are we better than our Fathers? Albeit we suppose that the blessed Apostles, in foreshewing what manner of men were set out for the last days, meant to note a calamity special and peculiar to the ages and generations which were to come. As if he should have said, As God hath appointed a time of seed for the sower, and a time of harvest for him that reapeth ; as he hath given unto every herb and every tree his own fruit and his own season, not the season nor the fruit of another (for no man looketh to gather figs in the winter, because the summer is the season for them ; nor grapes of thistles, because grapes are the fruit of the vine) : so the same God hath appointed sundry for every
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE. 595
generation of men, other men for other times, and for the last times the worst men, as may appear by their proper- ties ; which is the fourth point to be considered of in this description.
9. They told you that there should be mockers : he Mock- meaneth men that shall use Religion as a cloak, to put off and on, as the weather serveth ; such as shall, with Herod, hear the preaching of John Baptist to-day, and to-morrow condescend to have him beheaded ; or with the other Herod, say they will worship Christ, when they purpose a massacre in their hearts ; kiss Christ with Judas, and be- tray Christ with Judas : these are mockers. For Ishmael, the son of Hagar, laughed at Isaac, which was heir of the promise : so shall these men laugh at you as the maddest people under the sun, if ye be like Moses, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; and why ? God hath not given them eyes to see, nor hearts to conceive, that exceeding recompence of your reward. The promises of salvation made to you, are matters wherein they can take no pleasure, even as Ishmael took no pleasure in that pro- mise wherein God had said unto Abraham, "In Isaac igm. shall thy seed be called ;" because the promise concerned not him, but Isaac. They are termed for their impiety towards God, mockers ; and for the impurity of their life and conversation, * walkers after their own ungodly lusts." St. Peter, in his second Epistle, and third chapter, sound- eth the very depth of their impiety; shewing first, how they shall not shame at the length to profess themselves profane and irreligious, by flat denying the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and deriding the sweet and comfortable promises of his appearing. Secondly, that they shall not only be deriders of all Religion, but also disputers against God, using truth to subvert the truth ; yea, Scriptures themselves to dis- prove Scriptures. Being in this sort mockers, they must also be followers of their own ungodly lusts. Being Atheists in persuasion, can they choose but be beasts in conversation ? For why remove they quite from them the fear of God ? Why take they such pains to abandon and put out from their hearts all sense, all taste, all feeling of Religion ? But only to this end and purpose, that they may, without inward remorse and grudging of conscience, 2 q2
ers
worse
than
Pagaus
and
Infidels
[Job xxxviii
a.]
596 TWO SERMONS
Mock- give over themselves to all uncleanness. Surely, the state of these men is more lamentable than is the condition of Pagans and Turks. For at the bare beholding of Heaven and earth the Infidel's heart by and by doth give him, that there is an eternal, infinite, immortal, and ever-living God, whose hands have fashioned and framed the world ; he knoweth that every house is builded of some man, though he see not the man which built the house ; and he considereth that it must be God which hath built and cre- ated all things, although because the number of his days be few, he could not see when God disposed his works of old ; when he caused the light of his clouds first to shine, when he laid the corner-stone of the earth, and swaddled it with bands of water and darkness, when he caused the morning star to know his place, and made bars and doors to shut up the sea within his house, saying, " Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further." He hath no eye-witness of these things ; yet the light of natural Reason hath put this wis- dom in his reins, and hath given his heart thus much un- derstanding. Bring a Pagan to the schools of the Pro- phets of God ; prophesy to an Infidel, rebuke him, lay the judgments of God before him, make the secret sins of his heart manifest, and he shall fall down and worship God. They that crucified the Lord of Glory, were not so far past recovery, but that the preaching of the Apostles was able
[Acts to move their hearts, and to bring them to this, " Men and
"• 37,] brethren, what shall we do ?" Agrippa, that sate in judg- ment against Paul for preaching, yielded notwithstanding
[Acts i ^ thus far unto him, " Almost thou persuadest me to become a Christian." Although the Jews, for want of knowledge, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of
[XR2? ^0<* ' yet " * bear tnem recorcl (saith the Apostle), that they have a zeal." The Athenians, a people having neither zeal nor knowledge, yet of them also the same Apostle beareth witness, " Ye men of Athens, I perceive ye are $Eim$aifxovi<TTtpoi, some way religious ;" but mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts, they have smothered every spark of that heavenly light, they have trifled away their very natural understanding. O Lord, thy mercy is over all thy works, thou savest man and beast! yet a happy case it had been for these men, if they had never been born ; and so I leave them.
xxvi. 28.J
Acts xvii. 22.
UPON PART OF ST. JUOE. 597
10. St. Jude having his mind exercised in the doctrine of Judas the Apostles of Jesus Christ, concerning things to come in plenTet the last time, became a man of wise and staid judgment. "£lcii< Grieved he was to see the departure of many, and their falling away from the Faith which before they did profess ; grieved, but not dismayed. With the simpler and weaker sort it was otherwise : their countenance began by and by
to change, they were half in doubt they had deceived themselves in giving credit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. St. Jude, to comfort and refresh these silly babes, taketh them up in his arms, and sheweth them the men at whom they were offended. Look upon them that forsake this blessed profession wherein you stand : they are now before your eyes ; view them, mark them, are they not carnal ? are they not like to noisome carrion cast out upon the earth ? is there that Spirit in them which crieth, " Abba, Father," in your bosoms? Why should any man be discom- forted ? Have you not heard that there should be " mockers in the last time?" These verily are they that now do separate themselves.
11. For your better understanding what this severing and separating of themselves doth mean, we must know that the multitude of them which truly believe (howsoever they be dispersed far and wide, each from other) is all one Body, whereof the Head is Christ ; one building, whereof he is corner-stone, in whom they, as the members of the body, being knit, and as the stones of the building, being coupled, grow up to a man of perfect stature, and rise to an holy Temple in the Lord. That which linketh Christ to us is his mere mercy and love towards us. That which tieth us to him, is our Faith in the promised salvation re- vealed in the word of truth. That which uniteth and join- eth us amongst ourselves, in such sort that we are now as if we had but one heart and one soul, is our love. Who be inwardly in heart the lively members of this Body, and the polished stones of this building, coupled and joined to Christ, as flesh of his flesh, and bones of his bones, by the mutual bonds of his unspeakable love towards them, and their unfeigned faith in him, thus linked and fastened each to other, by a spiritual, sincere, and hearty affection of love, without any manner of simulation ; who be Jews within, and what their names be : none can tell, save he
598 TWO SERMONS
whose eyes do behold the secret dispositions of all men's hearts. We, whose eyes are too dim to behold the inward man, must leave the secret judgment of every servant to his own Lord, accounting and using all men as brethren, both near and dear unto us, supposing Christ to love them tenderly, so as they keep the profession of the Gospel, and join in the outward Communion of Saints. Whereof the one doth warrantize unto us their Faith, the other their Love, till they fall away, and forsake either the one, or the other, or both ; and then it is no injury to term them as they are. When they separate themselves, they are avro- KaraKpiToi, not judged by us, but by their own doings. Three- Men do separate themselves either by Heresy, Schism, or s°ePara- Apostacy. If they lose the bond of Faith, which then tion- they are justly supposed to do when they frowardly op- pugn any principal point of Christian Doctrine, this is to 1. Here- separate themselves by Heresy. If they break the bond of unity, whereby the Body of the Church is coupled and knit in one, as they do which wilfully forsake all external Communion with Saints in holy exercises, purely and orderly established in the Church, this is to separate them- schism. selves by Schism. If they willingly cast off, and utterly forsake both profession of Christ and Communion with Christians, taking their leave of all Religion, this is to se- 3. Apos- parate themselves by plain Apostacy. And St. Jude, to tacy' express the manner of their departure which by Apostacy fell away from the Faith of Christ, saith, " They separated themselves ;" noting thereby, that it was not constraint of others, which forced them to depart ; it was not infirmity and weakness in themselves ; it was not fear of persecution to come upon them, whereat their hearts did fail ; it was not grief of torments, whereof they had tasted, and were not able any longer to endure them : no, they voluntarily did separate themselves with a fully-settled and altogether- determined purpose, never to name the Lord Jesus any more, nor to have any fellowship with his Saints, but to bend all their counsel, and all their strength, to raze out their memorial from amongst them.
12. Now, because that by such examples, not only the hearts of Infidels were hardened against the truth, but the minds of weak brethren also much troubled, the Holy Ghost hath given sentence of these backsliders, that they
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE.
599
were carnal men, and had not the Spirit of Christ Jesus, lest any man having an over- weening of their persons should be over-much amazed and offended at their fall. For sim- ple men, not] able to discern their spirits, were brought by their Apostacy thus to reason with themselves: If Christ be the Son of the living God, if he have the words of eternal Life, if he be able to bring salvation to all men that come unto him, what meaneth this Apostacy and unconstrained departure ? Why do his servants so willingly forsake him ? Babes, be not deceived, his servants forsake him not. They that separate themselves were amongst his servants, but if they had been of his servants, they had not sepa- rated themselves. " They were amongst us, not of us," J^i saith St. John ; and St. Jude proveth it, because they were dence carnal, and had not the Spirit. Will you judge of wheat faiShLi, by chaff, which the wind hath scattered from amongst it ? JjjJ are Have the children no bread, because the dogs have not Gods tasted it ? Are Christians deceived of that salvation they p johu " look for, because they were denied the joys of the life to ii,19#] come which were no Christians ? What if they seemed to be pillars and principal upholders of our Faith ? What is that to us, which know that Angels have fallen from Heaven ? Although if these men had been of us indeed (O the blessedness of a Christian man's estate !), they had stood surer than the Angels that had never departed from their place : whereas now we marvel not at their departure at all, neither are we prejudiced by their falling away ; because they were not of us, sith they are fleshly, and have not the Spirit. Children abide in the house for ever ; they are bondmen and bondwomen which are cast out.
13. It behoveth you therefore greatly, every man to ex- amine his own estate, and try whether you be bond or free, children or no children. I have told you already, that we must beware we presume not to sit as gods in judgment upon others, and rashly, as our conceit and fancy doth lead us, so to determine of this man, he is sincere, or of that man, he is an hypocrite ; except by their falling away they make it manifest and known that they are. For who art thou that takest upon thee to judge another before the time 1 Judge thyself. God hath left us infallible evidence, whereby we may at any time give true and righteous sen- tence upon ourselves. We cannot examine the hearts of
600 TWO SERMONS
[i joim other men, we may our own. " That we have passed from iiL 14, death to life, we know it (saith St. John), because we love [2 cor. the brethren:" and "Know ye not your ownselves, how xiii,5,] that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates?" I trust, beloved, we know that we are not reprobates, be- cause our spirit doth bear us record, that the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ is in us.
14. It is as easy a matter for the Spirit within you to tell whose ye are, as for the eyes of your body to judge where you sit, or in what place you stand. For what coios. i. saith the Scripture? "Ye which were in times past strangers and enemies, because your minds were set on evil works, Christ hath now reconciled in the body of his flesh, through death, to make you holy and unblameable, and without fault in his sight ; if you continue grounded and established in the Faith, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel :" and in the third to the Colos- Ver. o4. sians, " Ye know, that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of that inheritance ; for ye serve the Lord Christ." If we can make this account with ourselves : I was in times past dead in trespasses and sins, I walked after the Prince that ruleth in the air, and after the Spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience ; but God, who is rich in mercy, through his great love, wherewith he loved me, even when I was dead, hath quickened me in Christ. I was fierce, heady, proud, high-minded ; but God hath made me like the child that is newly weaned. I loved plea- sures more than God, I followed greedily the joys of this present world ; I esteemed him that erected a stage or theatre, more than Solomon, which built a Temple to the Lord ; the harp, viol, timbrel, and pipe, men-singers and women-singers, were at my feast; it was my feli- city to see my children dance before me ; I said of every kind of vanity, O how sweet art thou in my soul ! All which things now are crucified to me, and I to them: now rpsai. I hate the pride of life, and pomp of this world ; now " I take H*?' as great delight in the way of thy testimonies, O Lord, as in all riches ;" now I find more joy of heart in my Lord and Saviour, than the worldly-minded man, when " his wheat and oil do much abound ;" now I taste nothing sweet but [juim the "bread which came down from Heaven, to give life vi. 33] unto tjie ^vorid ." now mme eves see nothing but Jesus
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE. 601
rising from the dead ; now my ears refuse all kind of me- lody, to hear the song of them that have gotten victory of the Beast, and of his image, and of his mark, and of the number of his name, that stand on the sea of glass, "hav- [Hev. ing the harps of God, and singing the Song of Moses the xv-2,3] servant of God, and the Song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, O King of Saints." Surely, if the Spirit have been thus effectual in the secret work of our regeneration unto newness of life ; if we endeavour thus to frame ourselves anew : then we may say boldly with the blessed Apostle, in the tenth to the Hebrews, "We are not [ver.39.] of them which withdraw ourselves to perdition, but which follow Faith to the conservation of the soul." For they which fall away from the Grace of God, and separate themselves unto perdition, they are fleshly and carnal, they have not God's Holy Spirit. But unto you, "because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into w.e.] your hearts," to the end ye might know that Christ hath built you upon a rock unmoveable ; that he hath registered your names in the Book of Life ; that he hath bound him- self in a sure and everlasting covenant to be your God, and the God of your children after you ; that he hath suffered as much, groaned as oft, prayed as heartily, for you, as for Peter, " O Father, keep them in thy name ; O righteous [John Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known xvii- thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. I have declared thy name unto them, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved them, may be in me, and I in them." The Lord of his infinite mercy give us hearts plentifully fraught with the treasure of this blessed assur- ance of Faith unto the end !
15. Here I must advertise all men that have the testi- The mony of God's holy fear within their breasts to consider, Jjjj*1 how unkindly and injuriously our own countrymen and accuse brethren have dealt with us by the space of twenty-four Heresy years, from time to time, as if we were the men of whom ^npdos St. Jude here speaketh, never ceasing to charge us, some tacy- with Schism, some with Heresy, some with plain and ma- nifest Apostacy, as if we had clean separated ourselves from Christ, utterly forsaken God, quite abjured Heaven, and trampled all Truth and Religion under our feet.
602 TWO SERMONS
Against this third sort, God himself shall plead our cause in that day, when they shall answer us for these words, not we them. To others, by whom we are accused for Schism and Heresy, we have often made our reasonable
a** and, in the sight of God, I trust, allowable answers. " For in the way which they call Heresy, we worship the God of our Fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets." That which they call Schism, we know to be our reasonable service unto God, and obedi-
B*y. ence to his voice, which crieth shrill in our ears, " Go out ' of Babylon, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." And there- fore, when they rise up against us, having no quarrel but this, we need not seek any further for our apology, than
2Chron. tne WOrds of Abiah to Jeroboam and his army. " O Jero- boam and Israel, hear you me : ought you not to know, that the Lord God of Israel hath given the Kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him, and to his sons, by a Covenant of Salt?" that is to say, an everlasting Cove- nant. Jesuits and Papists, hear ye me : ought you not to know that the Father hath given all power unto the Son, and hath made him the only Head over his Church, wherein he dwelleth as a husbandman in the midst of his vineyard, manuring it with the sweat of his own brows, not letting it forth to others ? For, as it is in the Canticles,
vm.n. " Solomon had a vineyard in Baalhamon, he gave the vineyard unto keepers, every one bringing for the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of silver;" but my Vineyard, which is mine, is before me, saith Christ. It is true, this is meant of the mystical Head set over the Body, which is not seen. But as he hath reserved the mystical administration of the Church invisible to himself; so he hath committed the mystical government of congregations visible to the sons of David, by the same Covenant ; whose sons they are in the governing of the flock of Christ, whomsoever the Holy Ghost hath set over them, to go before them, and to lead them in several pastures, one in this congregation,
Acts another in that; as it is written, "Take heed unto your- selves, and to all the flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which he
The hath purchased with his own blood." Neither will ever
pope* any Pope or Papist under the cope of Heaven be able to
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE. 603
prove the Romish Bishop's usurped Supremacy over all usurped Churches by any one word of the Covenant of Salt, which JJJJ^ is the Scripture. For the children in our streets do now laugh them to scorn, when they force, " Thou art Peter," to this purpose. The Pope hath no more reason to draw the Charter of his universal Authority from hence, than his bre- thren had to gather by the words of Christ in the last of St. John, that the Disciple which Jesus loved should not die. " If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to [John thee?" saith Christ. " Straightways a report was raised 22, 23.] amongst the brethren, that this Disciple should not die. Yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die ; but if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee V Christ hath said in the sixteenth of St. Matthew's Gospel to Si- mon the son of Jonas, " I say to thee, Thou art Peter." Matt. Hence an opinion is held in the world, that the Pope is XV1' 18# universal Head of all Churches. Yet Jesus said not, The Pope is universal Head of all Churches; but, "Tu es Pe- trus," Thou art Peter. Howbeit, as Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon, rose up and rebelled against his Lord, and there were gathered unto him vain men and wicked, which made themselves strong against Roboam, the son of Solomon, because Roboam was but a child, and tender-hearted, and could not resist them ; so the Son of Perdition and Man of Sin, (being not able to brook the words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which forbade his Disciples to be like Princes of Nations, " They bear rule that are called gracious, it shall not be [Luke so with you,") hath risen up and rebelled against his 55' V| Lord ; and, to strengthen his arm, he hath crept into the houses almost of all the noblest families round about him, and taken their children from the cradle to be his Cardi- nals ;# he hath fawned upon the Kings and Princes of the earth, and by spiritual cozenage hath made them sell their lawful authority and jurisdiction for titles of Catholicus, Christianissimus, Defensor Fidei, and such like ; he hath proclaimed sale of pardons to inveigle the ignorant ; built seminaries to allure young men desirous of learning; erected stews to gather the dissolute unto him. This is the rock whereupon his Church is built. Hereby the man
* Cone, delect. Card. Laud. Surius Com. de reb. gest. a Pio V. Francisc. San- Bovin. de gubem. Rerum pub. 1. xi. cap. de Jud. Marescal. et Sold.
604 TWO SERMONS
is grown huge and strong, like the cedars which are not shaken with the wind, because Princes have been as chil- dren, over-tender-hearted, and could not resist.
Hereby it is come to pass, as you see this day, that the Man of Sin doth war against us, and not by men of a lan- guage which we cannot understand, but he cometh as Je- roboam against Judah, and bringeth the fruit of our own bodies to eat us up, that the bowels of the child may be made the mother's grave ; and hath caused no small num- ber of our brethren to forsake their native country, and with all disloyalty to cast off the yoke of their allegiance to our dread Sovereign, whom God in mercy hath set over them ; for whose safeguard, if they carried not the hearts of tigers in the bosoms of men, they would think the dear- est blood in their bodies well spent. But now, saith Abiah to Jeroboam, Ye think ye be able to resist the Kingdom of the Lord, which is in the hands of the sons of David. Ye be a great multitude, the golden calves are with yon, which Jeroboam made you for gods : have ye not driven away the Priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and have made you Priests like the people of nations ? whosoever cometh with a young bullock and seven rams, the same may be a Priest of them that are no gods. If I should follow the comparison, and here uncover the cup of those deadly and ugly abominations, wherewith this Je- roboam, of whom we speak, hath made the earth so drunk that it hath reeled under us, I know your godly hearts would loath to see them. For my own part, I delight not to rake in such filth, I had rather take a garment upon my shoulders, and go with my face from them to cover them. The Lord open their eyes, and cause them, if it be possi- ble, at the length to see how they are wretched, and mi- serable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Put it, O Lord, in their hearts to seek white raiment, and to cover them- selves, that their filthy nakedness may no longer appear. For, beloved in Christ, we bow our knees, and lift up our hands to Heaven in our chambers secretly, and openly in our Churches we pray heartily and hourly, even for them also : though the Pope hath given out, as a Judge, in a so- lemn declaratory sentence of Excommunication against this Land, that our gracious Lady hath quite abolished Prayer within her Realm ; and his Scholars, whom he hath
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE. 605
taken from the midst of us, have in their published writ- ings charged us, not only not to have any Holy Assemblies unto the Lord for Prayer, but to hold a common School of sin and flattery ; to hold sacrilege to be God's service ; un- faithfulness, and breach of promise to God, to give it to a strumpet, to be a virtue ; to abandon Fasting ; to abhor Confession ; to mislike with Penance ; to like well of usury ; to charge none with restitution; to find no good before God in single life, nor in no well-working ; that all men, as they fall to us, are much worse, and more than afore, cor- rupted. I do not add one word or syllable unto that which Mr. Bristow, a man both born and sworn amongst us, hath taught his hand to deliver to the view of all. I appeal to the conscience of every soul, that hath been truly converted by us, whether his heart were never raised up to God by our preaching; whether the words of our ex- hortation never wrung any tear of a penitent heart from his eyes; whether his soul never reaped any joy and com- fort, any consolation in Christ Jesus by our Sacraments, and Prayers, and Psalms, and Thanksgiving ; whether he were never bettered, but always worse by us.
O merciful God ! if Heaven and earth in this case do not witness with us, and against them, let us be razed out from the land of the living ! Let the earth on which we stand, swallow us quick, as it hath done Corah, Dathan, and Abiram ! But if we belong unto the Lord our God, and achron. have not forsaken him ; if our Priests, the Sons of Aaron, 10,11. minister unto the Lord, and the Levites in their Office ; if we offer unto the Lord every morning and every evening the burnt-offerings and sweet incense of Prayers and Thanksgiving ; if the bread be set in order upon the pure table, and the candlestick of gold, with the lamps thereof, burn every morning ; that is to say, if amongst us God's blessed Sacraments be duly administered, his Holy Word sincerely and daily preached ; if we keep the watch of the Lord our God, and if ye have forsaken him : then doubt ye not, this God is with us as a Captain, his Priests with sound- ing trumpets must cry alarm against you ; "O ye children ver. 12. of Israel, fight not against the Lord God of your Fathers, for ye shall not prosper."
SERMON II.
But ye, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before of the Apostles of
our Lord Jesus Christ : How that they told you, that there should be mockers in the last time, which
should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These are makers of sects, fleshly, having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, edify yourselves in your most holy Faith, praying in the Holy
Ghost. And keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ, unto eternal life.— Jude 17—21.
1. Having otherwhere spoken of the words of St. Jude, going next before, concerning mockers which should come in the last time, and backsliders which even then should fall away from the Faith of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; I am now, by the aid of Almighty God, and through the assistance of his good Spirit, to lay before you the words of exhortation which I have read.
2. Wherein, first of all, whosoever hath an eye to see let him open it, and he shall well perceive how careful the Lord is for his children, how desirous to see them profit and grow up to a manly stature in Christ, how loth to have them any way misled either by the examples of the wicked, or by inticements of the world, and by provocation of the flesh, or by any other means forcible to deceive them, and likely to estrange their hearts from God. For God is not at that point with us, that he careth not whether we sink or swim. No, he hath written our names in the palm of his hand, in the signet upon his finger are we graven ; in sentences not only of mercy, but of judgment also, are we remembered ; he never denounceth judgments against the wicked, but he maketh some proviso for his children, as it were for some [Psai. privileged persons ; " Touch not mine anointed, do my rJv. Prophets no harm : Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of God in their foreheads." He never speaketh of godless men, but he adjoineth words of comfort, or admonition, or exhortation, whereby we are moved to rest and settle our hearts on him. Tver. i3. In the second to Timothy, the third chapter, " Evil men (saith the Apostle) and deceivers, shall wax worse and
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE. 607
worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned." And in the first to Timothy, the sixth chapter, " Some men lusting after [«r. ">, money, have erred from the Faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows : but thou, O man of God, fly these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." In the second to the Thessalonians, the second chapter, " They have not re- t»er- ,0> ceived the love of the truth, that they might be saved ; God shall send them strong delusions that they may be- lieve lies. But we ought to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through Sanctifi- cation of the Spirit, and Faith in the truth." And in this Epistle of St. Jude, " There shall come mockers in the last times, walking after their own ungodly lusts. But, beloved, edify ye yourselves in your most holy Faith."
3. These sweet exhortations, which God putteth every where in the mouths of the Prophets and Apostles of Jesus Christ, are evident tokens that God sitteth not in Heaven careless and unmindful of our estate. Can a mother for- get her child ? Surely a mother will hardly forget her child. But if a mother be haply found unnatural, and do forget the fruit of her own womb; yet God's judgments shew plainly that he cannot forget the man whose heart he hath framed and fashioned anew in simplicity and truth to serve and fear him. For when the wickedness of man was so great, and the earth so filled with cruelties, that it could not stand with the righteousness of God any longer to for- bear, wrathful sentences brake out from him, like wine from a vessel that hath no vent: " My Spirit (saith he) can struggle and strive no longer ; an end of all flesh is come before me." Yet then did Noah find grace in the eyes of Gen. the Lord : " I will establish my covenant with thee (saith w.Vw God) ; thou shalt go into the Ark, thou, and thy sons, and
thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee."
4. Do we not see what shift God doth make for Lot and for his family, in the nineteenth of Genesis, lest the fiery destruc- tion of the wicked should overtake him? Over-night the An- gels make inquiry what sons and daughters, or sons-in-law, what wealth and substance, he had. They charged him to carry out all, " Whatsoever thou hast in the city, bringit out." v". 12.
.t nothing of a thread of e. In the 1 to hasten daughters
608 TWO SERMONS
God seemed to stand in a kind of fear, lest something or other would be left behind. And his will was, that nothing of that which he had, not a hoof of any beast, nor i any garment, should be singed with that fire, morning the Angels fail not to call him up, and him forward ; " Arise, take thy wife and thy which are here, that they be not destroyed in the punish- ment of the city." The Angels having spoken again and again, Lot for all this lingereth out the time still, till at length they were forced to take " both him, his wife, and his daughters, by the arms (the Lord being merciful unto him), and to carry them forth, and set them without the city."
5. Was there ever any father thus careful to save his child from the flame ? A man would think, that now being spoken unto to escape for his life, and not to look behind him, nor to tarry in the plain, but to hasten to the moun- tain, and there to save himself, he should do it gladly. Yet behold, now, he is so far off from a cheerful and will- ing heart to do whatsoever is commanded him for his own weal, that he beginneth to reason the matter, as if God had mistaken one place for another, sending him to the hill, when salvation was in the city. le Not so, my Lord, I beseech thee ; behold, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life. I cannot escape in the mountain, lest some evil take me and I die. Here is a city hard by, a small thing ; O, let me escape thither (is it not a small thing?) and my soul shall live." Well, God is contented to yield to any conditions : " Behold, I have received thy request concerning this thing also, I will spare this city for which thou hast spoken ; haste thee, save thee there ; for I can do nothing till thou come thither."
6. He could do nothing! Not because of the weakness of his strength (for who is like unto the Lord in power ?), but because of the greatness of his mercy, which would not suffer him to lift up his arm against that city, nor to pour out his wrath upon that place, where his righteous servant had a fancy to remain, and a desire to dwell. O the depth of the riches of the mercy and love of God ! God is afraid to offend us, who are not afraid to displease him ; God can do nothing till he have saved us, which can find in our hearts
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE. 609
rather to do any thing than to serve him. It contenteth him not to exempt us when the pit is digged for the wicked ; to comfort us at every mention which is made of reprobates and godless men ; to save us as the apple of his own eye, when fire cometh down from Heaven to consume the inha- bitants of the earth; except every Prophet, and every Apostle, and every servant whomhesendeth forth, do come laden with these or the like exhortations, " O beloved, edify yourselves in your most holy Faith : give yourselves to prayer in the Spirit ; keep yourselves in the love of God ; look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."
7. " Edify yourselves." The speech is borrowed from material builders, and must be spiritually understood. It appears in the sixth of St. John's Gospel by the Jews, that their mouths did water too much for bodily food :
'" Our fathers (say they) did eat manna in the Desert, as it [ver.sj. is written, He gave them bread from Heaven to eat ; Lord, M' evermore give us of this bread." Our Saviour, to turn their appetite another way, maketh them this answer : " I am the Bread of Life ; he that cometh to me shall [ver. 35. not hunger ; and he that believeth in me shall never thirst."
8. A usual practice it is of Satan, to cast heaps of worldly baggage in our way, that whilst we desire to heap up gold as dust, we may be brought at the length to esteem vilely that spiritual bliss. Christ, to correct this evil affec- Matt. tion, putteth us in mind to lay up treasure for ourselves in I Tim'. Heaven. The Apostle, misliking the vanity of those i,#9,10' women who attired themselves more costly than beseemed
the heavenly calling of such as professed the fear of God, willeth them to clothe themselves with shamefacedness and modesty, and to put on the apparel of good works. " Taliter pigmentatae, Deum habebitis amatorem," saith [De cult. Tertullian. Put on righteousness as a garment; instead a(ffin?] of civet, have Faith, which may cause a savour of life to issue from you, and God shall be enamoured, he shall be ravished with your beauty. These are the ornaments, bracelets, and jewels which inflame the love of Christ, and set his heart on fire upon his spouse. We see how he breaketh out in the Canticles at the beholding of this attire : VOL. II. 2 R
610 TWO SERMONS
[vii.6.] "How fair art thou, and how pleasant art thou, O ray love, in these pleasures !'"
9. And perhaps St. Jude exhorfceth us here not to build our houses, but ourselves, foreseeing by the Spirit of the Al- mighty which was with him, that there should be men in the last days like to those in the first, who should encourage and stir up each other to make brick, and to burn it in the fire, to build houses huge as cities, and towns as high as Heaven, thereby to get them a name upon earth ; men that should turn out the poor, and the fatherless, and the widow, to build places of rest for dogs and swine in their rooms ; men that should lay Houses of Prayer even with the ground, and make them stables where God's people have worshipped before the Lord. Surely this is a vanity of all vanities, and it is much amongst men ; and a special sickness of this age. What it should mean I know not, except God hath set them on work to provide fuel against that day, when the Lord Jesus shall shew himself from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire. What good cometh unto the owners of these things, saith Solo- mon, but only the beholding thereof with their eyes?
[Luke « Martha, Martha, thou busiest thyself about many things ; one thing is necessary." Ye are too busy, my brethren, with timber and brick ; they have chosen the better part, they have taken a better course that build themselves. [2 cor. " Ye are the temples of the living God, as God hath said, V1' 1 I will dwell in them, and will walk in them ; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God."
10. Which of you will gladly remain or abide in a mishapen, or a ruinous, or a broken house ? And shall we suffer sin and vanity to drop in at our eyes, and at our ears, and at every corner of our bodies, and of our souls, knowing that we are the temples of the Holy Ghost? Which of you receiveth a guest whom he honoureth, or whom he loveth, and doth not sweep his chamber against his coming ? And shall we suffer the chambers of our hearts and consciences to lie full of vomiting, full of filth, full of
[joim garbage, knowing that Christ hath said, " I and my Father will come and dwell with you ?" Is it meet for your oxen to lie in parlours, and yourselves to lodge in cribs? Or is it seemly for yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses,
.41 48,
xiv. 23.
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE. 611
and the House of the Almighty to lie waste, whose house ye are yourselves ? Do not our eyes behold, how God every day overtaketh the wicked in their journeys 1 How sud- denly they pop down into the pit? How God's judgments for their crimes come so swiftly upon them, that they have not the leisure to cry, alas ! How their life is cut off like a thread in a moment ! How they pass like a shadow ! How they open their mouths to speak, and God taketh them even in the midst of a vain or an idle word ? and dare we for all this lie down, and take our rest, eat our meat securely and carelessly in the midst of so great and so many ruins ? Blessed and praised for ever and ever be his name, who perceiving of how senseless and heavy metal we are made, hath instituted in his Church a spiri- tual Supper,* and a Holy Communion to be celebrated often, that we might thereby be occasioned often to ex- amine these buildings of ours, in what case they stand. For sith God doth not dwell in Temples which are unclean, sith a Shrine cannot be a Sanctuary unto him : and this Supper is received as a seal unto us, that we are his House, and his Sanctuary ; that his Christ is as truly united to to me, and 1 to him, as my arm is united and knit unto my shoulder ; that he dwelleth in me as verily as the elements of bread and wine abide within me ; which persuasion, by receiving these dreadful mysteries, we profess ourselves to have a due comfort, if truly ; and if in hypocrisy, then woe worth us. Therefore before we put forth our hands to take this blessed Sacrament, we are charged to ex- amine and try our hearts whether God be in us of a truth or no : and if by Faith and Love unfeigned we be found the Temples of the Holy Ghost, then to judge whether we have such regard every one to our building, that the Spirit which dwelleth in us hath no way been vexed, molested, and grieved : or if it had, as no doubt sometimes it hath by incredulity, sometimes by breach of charity, sometimes by want of zeal, sometimes by spots of life, even in the best and most perfect amongst us : (for who can say his heart is clean ?) O then to fly unto God by unfeigned re- pentance, to fall down before him in the humility of our souls, begging of him whatsoever is needful to repair our decays, before we fall into that desolation, whereof the
• The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
2 r 2
[1 Pet, iii. 7-]
612 TWO SERMONS
Prophet speaketh, saying, " Thy breach is great like the sea, who can heal thee ?"
11. Receiving the Sacrament of the Supper of the Lord after this sort (you that are spiritual judge what I speak) is not all other wine like the water of Marah, being compared to the cup which we bless 1 Is not manna like to gall, and our bread like to manna ? Is there not a taste, a taste of Christ Jesus in the heart of him that eateth ? Doth not he which drinketh behold plainly in this cup, that his soul is bathed in the Blood of the Lamb ? O beloved in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, if ye will taste how sweet the Lord is, if ye will receive the King of Glory, build your- selves.
12. Young men, I speak this to you, for ye are his House, because by Faith ye are conquerors over Satan, and have overcome that evil. Fathers, I speak it also to you, ye are his House, because ye have known him, who is from the beginning. Sweet Babes, I speak it even to you also, ye are his House, because your sins are forgiven you for his namesake. Matrons and Sisters, I may not hold it from you, ye are also the Lord's Building; and as St. Peter speaketh, " Heirs of the grace of life as well as we." Though it be forbidden you to open your mouths in public assemblies, yet ye must be inquisitive in things concern- ing this building which is of God, with your husbands and friends at home ; not as Delilah with Samson, but as Sarah with Abraham ; whose daughters ye are, whilst ye do well, and build yourselves.
13. Having spoken thus far of the exhortation, as whereby we are called upon to edify and build ourselves; it remaineth now, that we consider the things prescribed, namely, wherein we must be built. This prescription standeth also upon two points, the thing prescribed, and the adjunct of the thing. And that is, our most pure and holy Faith.
14. The thing prescribed is Faith. For, as in a chain which is made of many links, if you pull the first, you draw the rest ; and as in a ladder of many staves, if you take away the lowest, all hope of ascending to the highest will be removed : so, because all the precepts and promises in the Law and in the Gospel do hang upon this, Believe ; and because the last of the graces of
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE. 613
God doth so follow the first, that he glorifieth none, but whom he hath justified, nor justifieth any, but whom he hath called to a true, effectual, and lively Faith in Christ Jesus ; therefore St. Jude exhorting us to Build ourselves, mentioneth here expressly only Faith, as the thing wherein we must be edified ; for that Faith is the ground and the glory of all the welfare of this building.
15. " Ye are strangers and foreigners, but citizens with EPhes. i
19-22
the Saints, and of the Household of God (saith the Apos- tle), and are built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner- stone, in whom all the building being coupled together, groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together to be the habitation of God by the Spirit." And we are the habitation of God by the Spirit, if we believe ; for for it is written, "Whosoever confesseth ^ r°5h'' that Jesus is the Son of God, in him God dwelleth, and he in God." The strength of this Habitation is great, it pre- vaileth against Satan, it conquereth sin, it hath death in derision ; neither principalities nor powers can throw it down ; it leadeth the world captive, and bringeth every enemy that riseth up against it to confusion and shame, and all by Faith ; for " this is the victory that overcometh » J°im the world, even our Faith. Who is it that overcometh the v world, but he which believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"
16. The strength of every building which is God, stand- eth not in any man's arms or legs ; it is only in our Faith, as the valour of Samson lay only in his hair. This is the rea- son, why we are so earnestly called upon to edify ourselves in Faith. Not as if this bare action of our minds, whereby we believe the Gospel of Christ, were able in itself, as of itself, to make us unconquerable, and invincible, like stones, which abide in a building for ever, and fall not out. No, it is not the worthiness of our believing, it is the virtue of him in whom we believe, by which we stand sure, as houses that are builded upon a rock. He is a wise man which hath builded his house upon a rock; for he hath chosen a good foundation, and no doubt his house will stand ; but how shall it stand ? Verily, by the strength of the rock which Matt. beareth it, and by nothing else. Our fathers, whom God VI1, 2a' delivered out of the land of Egypt, were a people that had
614 TWO SERMONS
no peers amongst the nations of the earth, because they were built by Faith upon the rock, which rock is Christ. " And
[ver.4.] the rock (saith the Apostle in the first to the Corinthians, the tenth chapter) did follow them." Whereby we learn not only this, that being- built by Faith on Christ, as on a rock, and grafted into him as into an olive, we receive all our strength and fatness from him; but also, that this strength and fatness of ours ought to be no cause, why we should be high-minded, and not work out our salvation with a reverent trembling and holy fear. For if thou boastest thyself of thy Faith, know this, that Christ chose his Apostles, his Apostles chose not him ; that Israel
Rom. followed not the rock, but the rock followed Israel ; and that thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. So that every heart must thus think, and every tongue must thus speak, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us," nor unto any thing which is within us, but unto thy Name only, only to thy Name belongeth all the praise of all the treasures and riches of every Temple which is of God. This excludeth all boasting and vaunting of our Faith.
17. But this must not make us careless to edify our- selves in Faith. It is the Lord that delivereth men's souls from death, but not except they put their trust in his mercy.
a joim, it js q0(i tnat natn given us eternal life, but no otherwise than thus, if we believe in the name of the Son of God; for he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life. It was the Spirit of the Lord which came upon Samson, and made him strong to tear a lion, as a man would rend a kid ; but his strength forsook him, and he became like other men, when the razor had touched his head. It is the power of [Heb. God whereby the faithful "have subdued Kingdoms, 34.] ' wrought righteousness, obtained the promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword :" but take away their Faith, and doth not their strength forsake them ? Are they not like unto other men ?
18. If ye desire yet further to know, how necessary and [Heb. needful it is that we edify and build up ourselves in Faith,
mark the words of the blessed Apostle ; ei Without Faith it is impossible to please God." If I offer to God all the sheep and oxen that are in the world ; if all the temples that were builded since the days of Adam till this hour, were of my foundation ; if I break my very heart with cal-
No
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE. 615
ling upon God, and wear out my tongue with preaching; if I sacrifice my body and soul unto him, and have no Faith, all this availeth nothing. " Without Faith it is im- ple possible to please God." Our Lord and Saviour therefore, oiood being asked in the sixth of St. John's Gospel, " What shall piuhf we do that we might work the works of God ?" maketh Jo1™
° vi.28.
answer, "This is the work of God, that ye believe in him, 29. whom he hath sent."
19. That no work of ours, no building of ourselves in any thing can be available or profitable unto us, except we be edified and built in Faith, what need we to seek about for long proof? Look upon Israel, once the very chosen and peculiar of God, to whom the Adoption of the faithful, and the glory of Cherubim, and the Covenants of Mercy, and the Law of Moses, and the Service of God, and the Promises of Christ were made impropriate, who not only were the offspring of Abraham, father unto all them which do believe, but Christ their offspring, which is God to be blessed for evermore.
20. Consider this people, and learn what it is to build yourselves in Faith. They were the Lord's Vine : " He j^1- brought it out of Egypt, he threw out the Heathen from a-11.] their places, that it might be planted ; he made room for it, and caused it to take root, till it had filled the earth ; the mountains were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were as the goodly cedars; she stretched
out her branches to the sea, and her boughs unto the river." But, when God having sent both his Servants and his Son to visit this vine, they neither spared the one, nor received the other, but stoned the Prophets, and crucified the Lord of Glory which came unto them ; then began the curse of God to come upon them, even the curse whereof the Pro- phet David hath spoken, saying, " Let their table be made 1>sal- a snare, and a net, and a stumbling-block, even for a re- 33,23. compence unto them : let their eyes be darkened, that they J°™'10. do not see, bow down their backs for ever," keep them down. And sithence the hour that the measure of their infidelity was first made up, they have been spoiled with wars, eaten up with plagues, spent with hunger and fa- mine; they wander from place to place, and are become the most base and contemptible people that are under the sun. Ephraim, which before was a terror unto nations,
616 TWO SERMONS
and they trembled at his voice, is now by infidelity so vile, that he seemeth as a thing cast out to be trampled under men's feet. In the midst of these desolations they cry,
psai. « Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts, look down from Heaven, behold and visit this Vine." But their very prayers are turned into sin, and their cries are no better
Rotn- than the lowing of beasts before him. "Well (saith the
xi. 20.
22. Apostle), by their unbelief they are broken off, and thou dost stand by thy Faith : behold therefore thebountifulness and severity of God ; towards them severity, because they have fallen, bountifulness towards thee, if thou continue in his bountifulness, or else thou shalt be cut off." If they forsake their unbelief and be grafted in again, and we at any time for the hardness of our hearts be broken off, it will be such a judgment as will amaze all the powers and principalities which are above. Who hath searched the counsel of God concerning this secret? And who doth not
[Rosea see, that infidelity doth threaten Lo-ammi unto the Gen- tiles, as it hath brought Lo-riichama upon the Jews ? It may be that these words seem dark unto you : but the words of the Apostle, in the eleventh to the Romans, are
Bom. plain enough ; " If God hath not spared the natural branches, take heed, take heed, lest he spare not thee :" build thyself in Faith. Thus much of the thing which is prescribed, and wherein we are exhorted to edify ourselves. Now consider the condition and properties which are in this place annexed unto Faith. The former of them (for there are but two) is this, Edify yourselves in your Faith. 21. A strange and a strong delusion it is wherewith the Man of Sin hath bewitched the world ; a forcible spirit of error it must needs be, which hath brought men to such a senseless and unreasonable persuasion as this is, not only that men clothed with mortality and sin, as we ourselves are, can do God so much service as shall be able to make a full and perfect satisfaction before the tribunal seat of God for their own sins, yea, a great deal more than is suffi- cient for themselves ; but also, that a man at the hands of a Bishop or a Pope, for such or such a price, may buy the overplus of other men's merits, purchase the fruits of other men's labours, and build his soul by another man's Faith. Is not this man drowned in the gall of bitterness ? Is his heart right in the sight of God ? Can he have any
xi. 21.
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE. 617
part or fellowship with Peter, and with the successors of Peter, who thinketh so vilely of building the precious Tem- ples of the Holy Ghost ? Let his money perish with him, and he with it, because he judgefh that the gift of God may be sold for money.
22. But, beloved in the Lord, deceive not yourselves, neither suffer ye yourselves to be deceived : ye can receive no more ease nor comfort for your souls by another man's faith, than warmth for your bodies by another man's clothes, or sustenance by the bread which another man doth eat. The just shall live by his own Faith. " Let a Saint, yea a Martyr, content himself that he hath cleansed himself of his own sins" (saith Tertullian). No Saint or Martyr can cleanse himself of his own sins. But if so be a Saint or a Martyr can cleanse himself of his own sins, it is sufficient that he can do it for himself. Did ever any man by his death deliver another man from death, except only the Son of God? He indeed was able to safe conduct a thief from the cross to Paradise : for to this end he came, that being himself pure from sin, he might obey for sinners. Thou which thinkest to do the like, and supposest that thou canst justify another by thy righteousness, if thou be without sin, then lay down thy life for thy brother ; die for me. But if thou be a sinner, even as I am a sinner, how can the oil of thy lamp be sufficient both for thee and for me ? Virgins that are wise, get ye oil, while ye have day, into your own lamps: for out of all peradventure, others, though they would, can neither give nor sell. Edify yourselves in your own most holy Faith. And let this be observed for the first
« property of that wherein we ought to edify ourselves.
23. Our Faith being such, is that indeed which St. Jude doth here term Faith : namely, a thing most holy. The reason is this, we are justified by Faith : for Abraham be- lieved, and this was imputed unto him for righteousness. Being justified, all our iniquities are covered ; God be- holdeth us in the righteousness which is imputed, and not in the sins which we have committed.
24* It is true we are full of sin, both original and actual; whoso ever denieth it is a double sinner, for he is both a sinner and a liar. To deny sin, is most plainly and clearly to prove itjtbecause he that saith he hath no sin, lieth,and by lying proveth that he hath sin.
618 TWO SERMONS
25. But imputation of righteousness hath covered the sins of every soul which believeth ; God by pardoning our sin hath taken it away : so that now, although our trans- gressions be multiplied above the hairs of our head, yet being justified, we are as free and as clear as if there were no one spot or stain of any uncleanness in us. For it is God that Justine th ; " And who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's chosen?" saith the Apostle in Rom. viii. 33.
26. Now sin being taken away, we are made the righte- ousness of God in Christ: for David, speaking of this
[Psai. righteousness, saith, " Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven." No man is blessed, but in the righteous- ness of God : every man whose sin is taken away is bless- ed ; therefore every man whose sin is covered, is made the righteousness of God in Christ. This righteousness, doth make us to appear most holy, most pure, most unblam- able before him.
27. This then is the sum of that which I say, Faith doth justify; Justification washeth away sin; sin removed, we are clothed with the Righteousness which is of God ; the righteousness of God maketh us most holy. Every of these I have proved by the testimony of God's own mouth ; therefore I conclude, that Faith is that which maketh us most holy, in consideration whereof, it is called in this place, " Our most holy Faith."
28. To make a wicked and a sinful man most holy through his believing, is more than to create a world of nothing. Our Faith most holy! Surely, Solomon could not shew the Queen of Sheba so much treasure in all his Kingdom, as is lapt up in these words. O that our hearts were stretched out like tents, and that the eyes of our un- derstanding were as bright as the sun, that we might tho- roughly know the riches of the glorious inheritance of the Saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us, whom he accepteth for pure, and most holy, through our believing ! O that the Spirit of the Lord
rt) would give this doctrine entrance into the stony and brazen
[Rom. ix. o »
31—33.] heart of the Jew, which followeth the Law of Righteous- ness, but cannot attain unto the Righteousness of the Law ! Wherefore, saith the Apostle, they seek Righteousness, and not by Faith ; wherefore they stumble at Christ, they
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE. 619
are bruised, shivered to pieces, as a ship that hath run herself upon a rock. O that God would cast down the eyes of the proud, and humble the souls of the high-minded ! that they might at the length abhor the garments of their own flesh, which cannot hide their nakedness, and put on the Faith of Christ Jesus, as he did put it on, who hath said, " Doubtless I think all things but loss, for the excel- [Phil. lent knowledge sake of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I m-8-91 have counted all things loss, and do judge them to be dung, that I might win Christ, and might be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the Law ; but that which is through the Faith of Christ, even the Righte- ousness which is of God through Faith." O that God would open the Ark of mercy, wherein this doctrine lieth, and set it wide before the eyes of poor afflicted con- sciences, which fly up and down upon the water of their afflictions, and can see nothing but only the gulf and de- luge of their sins, wherein there is no place for them to rest their feet. The God of pity and compassion give you all strength and courage, every day, and every hour, and every moment, to build and edify yourselves in this most pure and holy Faith. And thus much both of the thing pre- scribed in this exhortation, and also of the properties of the thing, " Build yourselves in your most holy Faith." I would come to the next branch, which is of Prayer ; but I cannot lay this matter out of my hands, till I have added somewhat for the applying of it, both to others and to our- selves.
29. For your better understanding of matters contained in this exhortation, " Build yourselves," you must note, that every Church and Congregation doth consist of a mul- titude of believers, as every house is built of many stones. And although the nature of the mystical body of the Church be such, that it suffereth no distinction in the vi- sible members, but whether it be Paul or Apollos, Prince or Prophet, he that is taught, or he that teacheth, all are equally Christ's, and Christ is equally theirs : yet in the external administration of the Church of God, because God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, it is necessary that in every Congregation there be a distinction, if not of inward dignity, yet of outward degree ; so that all are Saints, or seem to be Saints, and should be as they seem :
620 TWO SERMONS
but are all Apostles ? If the whole body were an eye, where were then the hearing ? God, therefore, hath given some to be Apostles, and some to be Pastors, &c. for the edification of the Body of Christ. In which work we are God's la- bourers, saith the Apostle, and ye are God's husbandry, and God's building.
30. The Church, respected with reference unto Adminis- tration Ecclesiastical, doth generally consist but of two sorts of men, the labourers and the building ; they which are minis- tered unto, and they to whomjthe work of the Ministry is com- mitted ; Pastors, and the flock over whom the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers. If the Guide of a congregation, be his name or his degree whatsoever, be diligent in his
[i Pet. vocation, feeding the flock of God which dependeth upon him, caring for it, " not by constraint, but willingly ; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;" not as though he would tyrannize over God's heritage, but as a pattern unto the flock, wisely guiding them : if the people in their de- gree do yield themselves frameable to the truth, not like rough stone or flint, refusing to be smoothed and squared for the building : If the Magistrate do carefully and dili- gently survey the whole order of the work, providing by Statutes and Laws, and bodily punishments, if need require, that all things might be done according to the rule which cannot deceive ; even as Moses provided, that all things might be done according to the pattern which he saw in the Mount ; there the words of this exhortation are truly and effectually heard. Of such a congregation every man will say, " Behold a people that are wise, a people that walk in the Statutes and Ordinances of their God, a people full of knowledge and understanding, a people that have skill in building themselves." Where it is otherwise, there, " as by slothfulness the roof doth decay ;" and as by " idleness of hands the house droppeth through," as it is in Eccles. x. 18. so first one piece, and then another of their building shall fall away, till there be not a stone left upon a stone.
31. We see how fruitless this exhortation hath been to such as bend all their travel only to build and manage a Papacy upon earth, without any care in the world of build- ing themselves in their most holy Faith. God's people have inquired at their mouths, '■' What shall we do to have
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE. 621
eternal Life ?" Wherein shall we build and edify ourselves ? And they have departed home from their Prophets, and from their Priests, laden with doctrines which are precepts of men; they have been taught to tire out themselves with bodily exercise : those things are enjoined them, which God did never require at their hands, and the things he doth require are kept from them ; their eyes are fed with pictures, and ears are filled with melody, but their souls do wither, and starve, and pine away : they cry for bread, and behold stones are offered them ; they ask for fish, and see they have scorpions in their hands. Thou seest, O Lord, that they build themselves, but not in Faith ; they feed their children, but not with food : their rulers say with shame, bring, and not build. But God is righteous; their drunk- enness stinketh, their abominations are known, their mad- ness is manifest, the wind hath bound them up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed of their doings. " Ephraim [Hose* (saith the Prophet) is joined to idols, let him alone." I lv' lTJ will turn me, thereofre, from the Priests, which do minister unto idols, and apply this exhortation to them whom God hath appointed to feed his chosen in Israel.
32. If there be any feeling of Christ, any drop of hea- venly dew, or any spark of God's good Spirit with in you, stir it up, be careful to build and edify, first yourselves, and then your flocks, in this most holy Faith.
33. I say, first, yourselves ; for, he which will set the hearts of other men on fire with the love of Christ, must himself burn with love. It is want of Faith in ourselves, my brethren, which makes us (careless) wretchless in building others. We forsake the Lord's inheritance, and feed it not. What is the reason of this ? Our own desires are settled where they should not be. W"e ourselves are like those women which have a longing to eat coals, and lime, and filth ; we are fed, some with honour, some with ease, some with wealth; the Gospel waxeth loathsome and unpleasant in our taste ; how should we then have a care to feed others with that which we cannot fancy our- selves ? If Faith wax cold and slender in the heart of the Prophet, it will soon perish from the ears of the people. The Prophet Amos speaketh of a famine, saying, " I will Am03 send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a Is.'*"' thirst of water, but of hearing the Word of the Lord. Men
iv.ir
622 TWO SERMONS
shall wander from sea to sea, and from the North unto the East shall they run to and fro, to seek the Word of the pet. Lord, and shall not find it." " Judgment must begin at the House of God," saith Peter. Yea, I say, at the Sanc- tuary of God this judgment must begin. This famine must begin at the heart of the Prophet. He must have dark- ness for a vision, he must stumble at noon-day, as at the twilight, and then truth shall fall in the midstof the streets; then shall the people wander from sea to sea, and from the North unto the East shall they run to and fro, to seek the Word of the Lord. «agg. 34. In the second of Haggai, " Speak now (saith God to his Prophet), speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, Prince of Judah, and to Jehoshua, the son of Jehozadak the High-priest, and to the residue of the peo- ple, saying, Who is left among you that saw this House in her first glory ? and how do you see it now ? Is not this House in your eyes, in comparison of it, as nothing V* The Prophet would have all men's eyes turned to the view of themselves, every sort brought to the consideration of their present state. This is no place to shew what duty Zerubbabel or Jehoshua does owe unto God in this re- spect. They have, I doubt not, such as put them hereof in remembrance. I ask of you, which are a part of the re- sidue of God's elect and chosen people, Who is there amongst you that hath taken a survey of the House of God, as it was in the days of the blessed Apostles of Jesus Christ ? Who is there amongst you that hath seen and considered this holy Temple in her first glory ? And how do you see it now ? Is it not, in comparison of the other, almost as nothing? When you look upon them which have undertaken the charge of your souls, and know how far these are, for the most part, grown out of kind, how few there be that tread the steps of their ancient predecessors, ye are easily filled with indignation, easily drawn into these complaints, wherein the difference of present from former times is bewailed ; easily persuaded to think of them that lived to enjoy the days which are now gone, that surely they were happy in comparison of us that have succeeded them : were not their Bishops men irreprovable, wise, righteous, holy, temperate, well reported of, even of those which were without? Were not their Pastors, Guides, and Teach-
UPON PART OF ST. JUDE. 623
crs, able and willing to exhort with wholesome doctrine, and to reprove those which gainsayed the truth ? Had they Priests made of the refuse of the people? Were men, like to the children which were in Nineveh, unable to discern between the right hand and the left, presented to the charge of their congregations? Did their Teachers leave their flocks, over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers ? Did their Prophets enter upon holy things as spoils, without a reverend calling? Were their Leaders so unkindly affected towards them, that they could find in their hearts to sell them as sheep or oxen, not caring how they made them away? But, beloved, deceive not your- selves. Do the faults of your Guides and Pastors offend you? It is your fault if they be thus faulty. " Nullus, qui malum Rectorem patitur, eum accuset : quia sui fuit meriti perversi Pastoris subjacere ditioni," saith St. Gregory ; ' Whosoever thou art, whom the inconvenience of an evil Governor doth press, accuse thyself, and nothim : his being such is thy deserving.' " O ye disobedient children, turn Jer. m. again, saith the Lord, and then will I give you Pastors ac- 14> 15- cording to mine own heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." So that the only way to repair all ruins, breaches, and offensive decays, in others, is to begin reformation at yourselves. Which, that we may all sincerely, seriously, and speedily do, God the Father grant for his Son our Saviour Jesus's sake, unto whom, with the Holy Ghost, three Persons, one eternal and everlasting God, be honour, and glory, and praise, for ever. Amen.
SERMON,
FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF
BISHOP ANDREWS.
Ask, and it shall be given you : seek, and you shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For whosoever asketh, &c. — Mattii. vii. 7, 8.
As all the creatures of God, which attain their highest per- fection by process of time, are in their first beginning raw ; so man, in the end of his race the perfectest, is at his en- trance thereunto the weakest, and thereby longer enforced to continue a subject for other men's compassion to work upon voluntarily, without any other persuader, besides their own secret inclination, moving them to repay to the common stock of humanity such help, as they know that themselves before must needs have borrowed; the state and condition of all flesh being herein alike. It cometh hereby to pass, that although there be in us, when we enter into this present world, no conceit or apprehension of our own misery, and for a long time after no ability, as much as to crave help or succour at other men's hands; yet through his most good and gracious providence, which feedeth the young, even of feathered fowls and ravens (whose natural significations of their necessities are there- fore termed in Scripture " prayers and invocations" which God doth hear), we amongst them whom he values at a far higher rate than millions of brute creatures, do find by perpetual experience, daily occasions given unto every of us, religiously to acknowledge with the Prophet David, " Thou, O Lord, from our birth hast been merciful unto us, we have tasted thy goodness, hanging even at our mothers'
ON ST. MATTHEW, VII. 7, 8. G25
breasts." That God, which during infancy preserveth us without our knowledge, teacheth us at years of discretion how to use our own abilities for procurement of our own good.
" Ask, and it shall be given unto you ; seek, and you shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For whosoever doth ask, shall receive ; whosoever doth seek, shall find ; the door unto every one which knocks shall be opened."
In which words we are first commanded to ask, seek, and knock: secondly, promised grace answerable unto every of these endeavours ; asking, we shall have ; seeking, we shall find ; knocking, it shall be opened unto us : thirdly, this grace is particularly warranted, because it is generally here averred, that no man asking, seeking, and knocking, shall fail of that whereunto his serious desire tendeth.
1. Of asking or praying I shall not need to tell you, ei- ther at whose hands we must seek our aid, or to put you in mind that our hearts are those golden censers from which the fume of this sacred incense must ascend. For concern- ing the one, you know who it is which hath said, " Call Psai. upon me ;" and of the other, we may very well think, that !" 15, if any where, surely first and most of all in our prayers, God doth make his continual claim, " Fili, da mihi cor pr0v. tuum," Son, let me never fail in this duty to have thy"*"1,5 heart.
Against invocation of any other than God alone, if all arguments else should fail, the number whereof is both great and forcible, yet this very bar and single challenge might suffice; that whereas God hath in Scripture deli- vered us so many patterns for imitation when we pray, yea, framed ready to our hands in a manner all, for suits and supplications, which our condition of life on earth may at any time need, there is not one, no not one to be found, directed unto Angels, Saints, or any, saving God alone. So that, if in such cases as this we hold it safest to be led by the best examples that have gone before, when we see what Noah, what Abraham, what Moses, what David, what Daniel, and the rest did ; what Form of Prayer Christ himself likewise taught his Church, and what his blessed Apostles did practise ; who can doubt but the way for us to pray so as we may undoubtedly be accepted, is
vol. ii. 2 s
G26 A SERMON'
by conforming our prayers to theirs, whose supplications we know were acceptable ?
Whoso cometh unto God with a gift, must bring with him a cheerful heart, because he loveth hilarem datorem, a liberal and frank affection in giving. Devotion and fer- vency addeth unto prayers the same that alacrity doth unto gifts ; it putteth vigour and life in them.
Prayer proceedeth from want, which being seriously laid to heart, maketh suppliants always importunate ; which importunity our Saviour Christ did not only tolerate in the woman of Canaan, but also invite and exhort thereunto, as the parable of the wicked Judge sheweth. Our fervency sheweth us sincerely affected towards that we crave : but that which must make us capable thereof, is an humble spirit ; for God doth load with his grace the lowly, when the proud he sendeth empty away : and therefore to the end that all generations of the world might know how much it standeth them upon to beware of all lofty and vain con- ceits when we offer up our supplications before him, he hath in the Gospel both delivered this caveat, and left it by a special chosen parable exemplified. The Pharisee and Publican having presented themselves in one and the same place, the Temple of God, for performance of one and the same duty, the duty of prayer, did notwithstand- ing, in that respect only, so far differ the one from the other, that our Lord's own verdict of them remaineth (as you know) on record, They departed home, the sinful Publican, through humility of prayer, just ; the just Pha- risee, through pride, sinful. So much better doth he ac- cept of a contrite peccavi, than of an arrogant Deo gratias.
Asking is very easy, if that were all God did require : but because there were means which his providence hath appointed for our attainment unto that which we have from him, and those means now and then intricated, such as re- quire deliberation, study, and intention of wit ; therefore he which emboldeneth to ask, doth after invocation exact inquisition ; a work of difficulty. The baits of sin every where open, ready always to offer themselves ; whereas that which is precious, being hid, is not had but by being sought. '' Praemia non ad magna pervenitur nisi per ma- gnos labores ;" Straightness and roughness are qualities in- cident unto every good and perfect way. What booteth it
ON ST. MATTHEW, VII. 7, 8. 627
to others that we wish them well, and do nothing for them t As little ourselves it must needs avail, if we pray and seek not. To trust to labour without prayer, it argueth impiety and profaneness ; it maketh light of the providence of God : and although it be not the intent of a religious mind ; yet it is the fault of those men whose religion wanteth light of mature judgment to direct it, when we join with our prayer slothfulness and neglect of convenient labour. He which hath said, " If any man lack wisdom, let him ask" — hath in like sort commanded also to seek wisdom, to search for understanding as for treasure. To them which did only crave a seat in the Kingdom of Christ, his answer, as you know, in the Gospel, was this ; To sit at my right hand and left hand in the seat of glory is not a matter of common x*oS, gratuity, but of divine assignment from God. He liked better of him which inquired, " Lord, what shall I do that Matt x I may be saved ?" and therefore him he directed the right 16, 17. and ready way, " Keep the commandments."
I noted before unto you certain special qualities belong- ing unto you that ask: in them that seek there are the like : which we may observe it is with many as with them of whom the Apostle speaketh, they " are alway learning, -J'™- and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." " Ex am ore non quasrunt," saith Bernard ; they seek because they are curious to know, and not as men desirous to obey. It was distress and perplexity of mind which made them inquisitive, of whom St. Luke in the Acts reportetll, that w. 37. sought counsel and advice with urgent solicitation ; Men and brethren, sith God hath blessed you with the spirit of understanding above others, hide not from miserable per- sons that which may do them good ; give your counsel to them that need and crave it at your hands, unless we be utterly forlorn ; shew us, teach us, what we may do and live. That which our Saviour doth say of prayer in the open streets, of causing trumpets to be blown before us when we give our alms, and of making our service of God a means to purchase the praise of men, must here be applied to you, who never seek what they ought, but only when they may be sure to have store of lookers on. " On my bed," saith »<• 1. the Canticles, " there did I seek whom my soul doth love." When therefore thou resolvest thyself to seek, go not out of thy chamber into the streets, but shun that frequency 2s2
G28 A"rSERMON
which distractelh ; single thyself from thyself, if such se- questration may be attained. When thou seekest, let the love of obedience, the sense and feeling of thy necessity, the eye of singleness and sincere meaning guide thy foot- steps, and thou canst not slide.
You see what it is to ask and seek ; the next is " knock." There is always in every good thing which we ask, and which we seek, some main wall, some barred gate, some strong impediment or other objecting itself in the way be- tween us and home ; for removal whereof, the help of stronger bands than our own is necessary. As therefore asking hath relation to the want of good things desired, and seeking to the natural ordinary means of attainment there- unto ; so knocking is required in regard of hindrances, lets, or impediments, which are doors shut up against us, till such time as it please the goodness of Almighty God to set them open : in the mean while our duty here required is to knock. Many are well contented to ask, and not unwilling to undertake some pains in seeking ; but when once they see impediments which flesh and blood doth judge invinci- ble, their hearts are broken. Israel in Egypt, subject to miseries of intolerable servitude, craved with sighs and tears deliverance from that estate, which then they were fully persuaded they could not possibly change, but it must needs be for the better. Being set at liberty to seek the land which God had promised unto their Fathers, did not seem tedious or irksome unto them : this labour and travel they undertook with great alacrity, never troubled with any doubt, nor dismayed with any fear, till at the length they came to knock at those brazen gates, the bars whereof, as they had no means, so they had no hopes, to break asunder. Mountains on this hand, and the roaring sea before their faces ; then all the forces that Egypt could make, coming with as much rage and fury as could possess the heart of a proud, potent, and cruel tyrant: in these straits, at this in- stant, Oh that we had been so happy as to die where be- fore we lived a life, though toilsome, yet free from such ex- tremities as now we are fallen into ! Is this the milk and honey that hath been so spoken of? Is this the paradise in description whereof so much glossing and deceiving eloquence hath been spent? have we after four hundred and thirty years left Egypt to come to this ? While they
ON ST. MATTHEW, VII. 7, 8. 629
are in the midst of their mutinous cogitations, Moses with all instancy beateth, and God with the hand of his omni- potency casteth open the gates before them, maugre even their own infidelity and despair. It was not strange then, nor that they afterward stood in like repining terms ; for till they came to the very brink of the river Jordan, the least cross accident, which lay at any time in their way, was evermore unto them a cause of present recidivation and relapse. They having the land in their possession, being seated in the heart thereof, and all their hardest en- counters past, Joshua and the better sort of their Governors, who saw the wonders which God had wrought for the good of that people, had no sooner ended their days, but first one tribe, then another, in the end all, delighted in ease ; fearful to hazard themselves in following the conduct of God, weary of passing so many strait and narrow gates, condescended to ignominious conditions of peace, joined hands with Infidels, forsook him which had been always the Rock of their salvation, and so had none to open unto them, although their occasions of knocking were great af- terward, more and greater than before. Concerning Issa- char, the words of Jacob, the father of all the Patriarchs, were these ; Issachar, though bonny and strong enough u*{5. '*' unto any labour, doth couch notwithstanding as an ass under all burdens ; he shall think with himself that rest is good, and the land pleasant ; he shall in these considera- tions rather endure the burden and yoke of tribute, than cast himself into hazard of war. We are for the most part all of Issachar's disposition, we account ease cheap, how- soever we buy it. And although we can haply frame our- selves sometimes to ask, or endure for a while to seek ; yet loth we are to follow a course of life, which shall too often hem us about with those perplexities, the dangers whereof are manifestly great.
But of the duties here prescribed of asking, seeking, knocking, thus much may suffice. The promises follow which God hath made.
2. " Ask and receive, seek and find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." Promises are made of good things to come ; and such, while they are in expectation, have a kind of painfulness with them; but when the time of per- formance and of present fruition cometh, it bringeth joy.
630
A SERMON
29.
4r—8.
Abraham did somewhat rejoice in that which he saw would come, although knowing that many ages and gene- rations must first pass : their exultation far greater, who beheld with their eyes, and embraced in their arms him which had been before the hope of the whole world. We John, have found that Messias, have seen the salvation : " Behold here the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." These are speeches of men not comforted with the hope of that they desire, but rapt with admiration at the view of enjoyed bliss.
As oft therefore as our case is the same with the Pro- phet David's ; or that experience of God's abundant mercy towards us doth wrest from our mouths the same acknow- r3ai. c*vi. ledgments which it did from his, " I called on the name of the Lord, and he hath rescued his servant : I was in mi- sery, and he saved me: Thou, Lord, hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling:" I have asked and received, sought and found, knocked and it hath been opened unto me : can there less be expected at our hands, than to take the cup of salva- tion, and bless, magnify, and extol the mercies heaped upon the heads of the sons of men ? Are we in the case of them, who as yet do only ask and have not received ? It is but attendance a small time, we shall rejoice then ; but how ? we shall find, but where ? it shall be opened, but with what hand ? To all which demands I must answer. John, Use the words of our Saviour Christ ; " Quid hoc ad te V what are these things unto us ? Is it for us to be made ac- quainted with the way he hath to bring his counsel and purposes about? God will not have great things brought to pass, either altogether without means, or by those means altogether which are to our seeming probable and likely. Not without means, lest under colour of repose in God we should nourish at any time in ourselves idleness : not by the mere ability of means gathered together through our own providence, lest prevailing by helps which the common course of nature yieldeth, we should offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving for whatsoever prey we take to the nets which our fingers did weave ; than which there cannot be to him more intolerable injury offered . " Vere et absque dubio, (saith St. Bernard,) hoc quisque est pessimus, quo optimus, si hoc ipsum quo est optimus adscribatsibi;" the
x.\i. 22.
ON ST. MATTHEW, VII. 7, 8. 631
more blest, the more curst, if we make his graces our own glory, without imputation of all to him ; whatsoever we have we steal, and the multiplication of God's favours doth but aggravate the crime of our sacrilege : he knowing how prone we are to unthankfulness in this kind, tempereth ac- cordingly the means, whereby it is his pleasure to do us good. This is the reason why God would neither have Gideon to conquer without any army, nor yet to be fur- nished with too great an host. This is the cause why, as none of the promises of God do fail, so the most are in such sort brought to pass, that, if we after consider the circuit, wherein the steps of his providence have gone, the due consideration thereof cannot choose but draw from us the self-same words of astonishment, which the blessed Apostle hath : " O the depth of the riches of the wisdom of R0m. God ! how unsearchable are his counsels, and his ways XI' 33, past finding out !" Let it therefore content us always to have his word for an absolute warrant ; we shall receive and find in the end ; it shall at length be opened unto you: however, or by what means, leave it to God.
3. Now our Lord groundeth every man's particular as- surance touching this point upon the general rule and axiom of his providence, which hath ordained these effects to flow and issue out of these causes; gifts of suits, finding out of seeking, help out of knocking; a principle so gene- rally true, that on his part it never faileth.
For why? it is the glory of God to give; his very nature delighteth in it ; his mercies in the current, through which they would pass, may be dried up, but at the head they never fail. Men are soon weary both of granting and of hearing suits, because our own insufficiency maketh us still afraid, lest by benefiting of others we impoverish our- selves. We read of large and great proffers, which Princes in their fond and vain-glorious moods have poured forth : as that of Herod ; and the like of Ahasuerus in the Book of Mark Esther. " Ask what thou wilt, though it reach to the half 2i of my Kingdom, I will give it thee :" which very words of vii- 2- profusion do argue, that the ocean of no estate in this world doth so flow, but it may be emptied. He that promiseth half of his Kingdom, foreseeth how that being gone, the re- mainder is but a moiety of that which was. What we give we leave ; but what God bestoweth benefiteth us, and from
Jam. iv. 3.
632 A SERMON ON ST. MATTHEW, VII, 7, 8.
him it taketh nothing : wherefore in his propositions there
are no such fearful restraints ; his terms are general in re-
john £ar<* °f making, " Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my
xvi.23!name;" and general also in respect of persons, " whoso- ever asketh, whosoever seeketh." It is true, St. James saith, " Ye ask, and yet ye receive not, because you ask amiss ;" ye crave to the end ye might have to spend upon your lusts. The rich man sought Heaven, but it was then that he felt hell. The Virgins knocked in vain, because they overslipped their opportunity ; and when the time was
^a6 to knock, they slept : but " Quaerite Dominum dum inveniri potest," Perform these duties in their due time and due sort. Let there, on our part, be no stop, and the bounty of God we know is such, that he granteth over and above our de- sires. Saul sought an ass, and found a Kingdom. Solomon named wisdom, and God gave Solomon wealth also, by way
al of surpassing. " Thou hast prevented thy servant with
a. 3. 4. blessings," saith the Prophet David. " He asked life, and thou gavest him long life, even for ever and ever." God a
jam. giver ; " He giveth liberally, and upbraideth none in any wise :" and therefore he better knoweth than we the best times, and the best means, and the best things, wherein the good of our souls consisteth.
INDEX.
INDEX.
ABSOLUTION, the extravagant abuse of it by the papists, ii. 204, 211. What in the doctrine of the church of England, 206, 207.
Adversity, prayer to be evermore deliver- ed from it, vindicated, i. 546.
Aerius, his different opinion from Tertul- Jian about fasting, ii. 56. The first opposer of the order of bishops, 279.
Agents, natural and voluntary, how distin- guished, i. 156.
Anabaptists in Germany, their first tenets, i. 138. By what steps they gained ground, 141. Their bold assertions at last, 143. Their notions as to the liberty of Christians cen- sured, 307.
Angels, what law they act by, i. l6l. How some of them came to fall, 163. How dis- persed after their fall, 164. Their know- ledge full and complete, 165.
Antiquity, what deference to be paid to it in disputable points, i. 418.
Apocryphal books, what denoted by the word formerly, and what now, i. 452, 453. The reading of them in churches vindicated, 455.
Apollinarians, their heresy, what, i. 577.
.Apostacy, what, ii. 599.
Apostles, in what things they have succes- sors, and in what not, ii. 244. The danger of despising their words or preaching, 592.
Appetite, how it differs from will, i. 169.
Archbishop, to what end appointed, ii. 270.
Archdeacon, his office what, ii. 266.
Archpresbyter, his office what,ib.
Arianism, its rise and progress, i. 527.
Athanasian creed, by whom and when written (according to the judgment of Mr. Hooker), i. 531 . The use of it in our Liturgy vindicated, 534.
Atheism, when affected, the most opposite to true religion, i. 408.
Augustine (St.), vindicated, i. 239.
Baptism, in cases or necessity, to be ad- ministered without the usual ceremonies, i. 598, 606. The necessity of it, 598. The in- ward grace of it conferred where the outward means cannot be had, 604. The case of in- fants dying without it considered, 605. To be privately administered iu cases of neces- sity, 608. Administered by women and lay- men valid and effectual (in the judgment of Mr. Hooker), 6l2. Administered by heretics, why rejected by the ancients, 274.— (See Cross, Interrogatories.)
Benedictus, the use of it in our service vindicated, i. 521.
Benefice, what the name signifies, ii. 121.
Bishops, their order appointed of God, ii, 234. Were in all churches universally, for 1500 years after Christ, ib. In England be- fore the year 350, and ever since, 235. Whence they took their name, 237. Their order an- cienter than their name, ib. A definition of a bishop, and in what his office consists, 239. At large, and with restraint, how distinguish- ed, ib. Their superiority, in what sense dis- puted, ib. The apostles the first bishops, and all bishops the apostles' successors, 241. All bishops originally called apostles, ib. They were first instituted with restraint, and why, 244. St. Jerome's notion of them vindicated, 246. Their succession from the apostles to be proved in all churches which the apostles founded, 252. What their power was origi- nally, 254. Have the power of ordination in- vested solely in them, 255. Have the power of jurisdiction invested solely in themselves, 256. How far they admitted presbyters to the exercise of jurisdiction, 264. How far their power extended originally in compass, 268. Some superior to others, and why, 270. By whom their order was first opposed, 271. Their interest in civil affairs vindicated, 307. What honours due to them, and upon what account, 325, 337. In what instances honour is to be shewed them, 339. What share they had formerly out of the public maintenance of the church, 354. Their behaviour and con- duct, what it should be, 360. The great sin of procuring their office by simony, S6l. Their visitation and courts, how they ought to be managed, 365, 366. The great detriment that arises from careless bishops to the church, 367. The duty of their clergy and people to bear with their infirmities, 369. Their reve- nues and wealth to be carefully protected, 371. Their title to their revenues justified, 376.— (See Episcopacy, Maintenance, and Pre- lates.)
Bowing at the name of Jesus vindicated, i. 499.
Brazen serpent destroyed by Hezekiah, how far to be drawn into a precedent, i. 650.
Burial-office, the design of it, ii. 68. Mourn- ing attire at funerals, lawful and decent, 69. Processions at funerals, decent and ancient, ib. Sermons at funerals, the proper use of them, 70. Funeral banquets or doles, the decency of them, ib. Testification of our hope of the resurrection, at such times, how necessary, 71. Funeral offices used by Jews and Christians of old,ib.
Calviu (John), born in France, and origi- nally a lawyer, i. 99. How he introduced
634
INDEX.
himself into the church of Geneva, jb. Is banished thence, and recalled thither again, 100, 101. What conditions lie required of them upon his return, 102. The subtilty of Ins conditions, and how received by the peo- ple, 102, 103. Is again disgusted, and takes his leave of them, 104. His just praise, and how universally honoured among the foreign reformed, 105.
Catechizing, the design and usefulness of it, i. 143, -144.
Ceremonies, what meant by them, i. 326, 337. The use of them, 307. 643. Howuniver- sal, 338. How far we may vary from the primitive ceremonies, 340. The objections that are made against our ceremonies as popish, 343. These objections contradict themselves, 346. Not to be abolished upon account of the boasts and hopes of the papists, 36l. The grief of those that are disturbed at them, by whom to be remedied, 365. Not always to be rejected, because originally de- rived from the Jews, 367. When scandalous, and when not, 379. When to be removed for fear of scandal, and when not, 381. Not ne- cessary to be formed after the pattern of elder churches, 384. The moderation and prudence of the church of England iu establishing them, 392.
Certainty of assurance, what, ii. 572. Of evidence, what, 573.
Chorepiscopi, how distinguished from bi- shops, ii. 269.
Christ hath the second person in the Tri- nity united with him, i. 563. Is but one per- son, 565. Hath two natures entire and dis- tinct, 568. What his humanity gained by its union with the Deity, ii. 572. 580, 581. His body not every where present, 578. In what sense he may be said to be present every where as man, 581. In what manner, and by what means, he is united with his church, 584. Has the same authority in the govern- ment of the world as in the government of the church, ii. 412.
Chrysostom (St.), vindicated as to his no- tion of the jurisdiction of bishops, ii. 26l.
Church, what it signifies, ii. 17. Mystical and visible, sound and unsound, how distin- guished, i. 269. How united with Christ, 584. What power we attribute to it, in the making of laws, 327. What deference due to her judgment, i. 421. How it is distinguished from the commonwealth, ii. 380. Both one and the same society, 381. 334. The notion of their being two separate societies, whence it arises, 382.
Churches, the decency of dedicating them solemnly to God, i. 430. The lawfulness of distinguishing them by the names of angels and saints, 434. The fashion of them vindi- cated, 435. Ought to be stately and sump- tuous, 436. Not to be abolished, because formerly abused to superstitious uses, 440, 441.
Church-goods, lands, offerings, and reve- nues, &c, the property of them in God, ii. 344. The right of the clergy to receive and use them, 349. Sacrilege to alienate them, 359. The sad consequences that would at- tend a sacrilegious alienation, 372. 374.
Church-polity, see Ecclesiastical Polity.
Churching of women, the lawfulness of the rite, ii. 66. The woman not before excluded the church as unholy, 68. The attire of a womaii at churching to be decent. Oblations, a proper name for her offerings at such times, ib.
Civil powers, see King.
Clergy (Christian), three orders of them mentioned in the New Testament, ii. 99, 101. — (See Maintenance.)
Clergy (Jewish), their distinct orders and offices, ii. 91. Their distinctjurisdiction, 148. Their plentiful maintenance allotted by God, 351, 352.
Collects, the shortness of them vindicated, i. 504, 505.
Common prayer, the place where perform- ed to be decent and solemn, i. 483. The mi- nisters that perform it to be zealous and fer- vent, 484. The several exceptions made against it, 487, 508. The objections to it as popish considered, 489. Not to be postponed to any foreign liturgies, 490. The easiness of reading it considered, 501. The length of it vindicated, 502. The shortness of the col- lects vindicated, 504, 505. The frequent pe titions for temporal blessings vindicated, 508. — (See Forms of prayer.)
Commonwealth, see Church — Prayer.
Communion, see Eucharist.
Communion of saints, wherein it consists, i. 592.
Conference, see Disputation.
Confession, how practised by the primitive church, ii. 157. How practised among the Jews, 161. How practised by the protestants abroad, 183. How it stands with the church of England, 184.
Confession (auricular) the pretended texts of Scripture for it examined, ii. 162. The rise, progress, and discontinuance, of it in the primitive church, 165. How abused by the papists, 176. How far practised by the church of England, 185.
Confirmation, the antiquity of it, i.658. An office peculiar to bishops, 660. Why sever- ed from baptism, 661.
Contrition, wherein it consists, ii. 155.
Councils to be called and dissolved by the civil powers, ii. 422.
Courts (of bishops) how pernicious, if cor- rupt, ii. 365.
Cross in baptism, justified, i. 641. Its an- tiquity and use, and why made in the fore- head, 644. Not to be discontinued because abused by the papists, 649.
Cyprian (St.) vindicated, i. 240. S91. 295-
Deacons, their order and office, ii. 96.
Death (sudden), the petition against it in the Litany vindicated,!. 542.
Diocess and province (of a bishop), how they differ, ii. 272. Whence the distinction at first arose, ib.
Discipline and doctrine, the difference be- tween them, i. 282. (Penitential), the severity of it in the primitive church, ii. 198. The danger of too easily remitting it, 200. How abused by the papists,201. (Of the puritans),
XDEX.
C35
by what means it got footiug among the peo- pl8, i. 108. By what means among the learn- ed, 116. The dangerous consequences that would follow from it, 131.
Disputation, public, where properly to be held, i. 122. Not to be admitted upon all de- mands, 123. How to be managed, 124. The proper manner to end it, 125.
Doles, at funerals, the decency of them, ii. 70.
Dominion, spiritual, the power of it, what, ii. 390.— (See Head of the church— King — Su- premacy.)
Donations, endowments, or foundations, religious, the impiety or sacrilege of alienat- ing or impairing them, ii. 111.
Donatists, the ground of their schism, i. 617-
Doxology, see Gloria Patri.
Ecclesiastical Polity, why chosen by the Author for the title of his book, i. 280. The substance and matter of the eight books, 129. Not necessary to be the same in all churches, 280. Nor to be wholly and minutely set down in Scripture, 281.— (See Discipline.)
Elect, never wholly fall from the faith, ii. 573, 599. God's care of them, when he exe- cutes judgments on the wicked, 607.
Endowments, religious; see Donations.
Episcopacy, by whom first opposed, ii. 279. In what respect opposed by the modern sec- taries, 282. Their arguments against it as a human invention, ib. Those arguments answered, 284. Their arguments against the necessity of it, 290. An answer to those'ar- guments, 291. The objection of bishops usurp- ing more power now than formerly, answer- ed, 205. No where condemned in Scripture or antiquity, 317.— (See Bishops — Prelates.)
Error and heresy, how they differ, ii. 509. 541.
Evangelists, what they were, ii. 98.
Eucharist, not to be received before bap- tism, ii. 1. The design and use of it, ib. The manner of Christ's presence in it, not to be inquired into too curiously, 3. 10. In what sense the elements are his body and blood, 4. Distributing the elements to every person singly, justified, 13. Kneeling at the time of receiving, justified, 15. Examination of the communicants not to be laid aside, 16. Pa- pists, when conforming, not to be repelled, ib. The objection as to the fewness of our com- municants answered, 23. Very properly ad- ministered at marriages, 66. The power of ministers to exclude men from it, 185.
Evil, as evil, not to be desired, i. 170. How to be distinguished from good, 172.
Eutyches, his error, what, ii. 568. 577.
Faith, why weak and imperfect in some be- lievers, ii. 570. When once received, never afterward entirely fails, 534. 574. 599. The sole basis of a Christian, 6ll. The founda- tion of it, what, 510. 518. What it is to hold it, 520. What to deny it directly, and what by consequent, 521. The difference of faith in good men and wicked, 522. He that once holds it can never afterward directly deny it, 534.
Fasting, the design and use of it, ii. 17.
What fasts observed by the Jews, 49. What by the Christians, 52. The oppositions made to it, 55. The political benefits of it, 6l. Why appointed before festivals, ib.
Fathers, how far they make use of nega- tive arguments from Scripture, i. 240.
Fathers, Romish ; see Romanists.
Fear, not sinful in itself, ii. 567. On what it ought to be exercised most, ib.
Fear and zeal, the roots of superstition, i. 412.
Festivals, the natural cause of their insti- tution, ii. 26. In what manner to be cele- brated, 29. What days to be observed as fes- tivals, 32. The objections against observing them answered, 35.
First cause, acknowledged by the heathens, and what they thought of it, i. 153.
Forms of prayer, used by the Jews and primitive Christians, i. 485, 486. — (See Com- mon Prayer.)
Foundation, see Faith.
Foundations, religious ; see Donations.
Funerals, see Burial-office.
Geneva, see Calvin.
Gestures, different, at the time of prayer, vindicated, i.498.
Gloria Patri, why the usual conclusion of Psalms, &c. i. 532. The use made of it against the Arians, 533. The use of it in our Liturgy vindicated, 535. The Arian doxolo- gy, orthodox in words, ib.
God and his doings unsearchable, i. 152. A law to himself, 153. Does nothing with- out reason, ib.
Good works, how far instrumental to sal- vation, ii. 5l6. Not meritorious, or the cause of salvation, 518. 531.
Goodness, the degrees of it, and whence it proceeds, i. 164. 166. How to be discerned, 173. How to be distinguished from evil, 172.
Government, public, how and upon what occasion it at first began, i. 187. The kinds of it arbitrary, 188. Its happiness and pros- perity dependent upon religion, ii. 76.
Grace, no falling away from it entirely, ii. 534.574.599.
Grief and heaviness, when reprovable, ii. 561.
Habit of the clergy for distinction, proper, ii. 102.
Halting between two opinions condemned, ii. 593.
Head of the church, the lawfulness of ap- plying that title to the king, ii. 405. Not ap- plied in the same sense to the king as to Christ, 406. In what sense applied to one and the other, 408. 417- Implies no contradic- tions or absurdities, when applied to the king, 410. Applied to the king and to the pope in different senses, 419.
Heresy, what, ii. 597. How it differs from error, 508. 526.
Hezekiah's destroying the brazen serpent, how far to be drawn into a precedent, i. 650.
Holidays, see Fasts — Festivals.
Holy Ghost, in what sense given and re- ceived in ordination, ii. 84.
Honour, to whom, and upon what accounts
636 index.
due ii. 326. How (o be expressed, ib. How and upon whataccounts due to the clergy, 337. In what respects to be shewed them, 339. _(See Bishops— Prelates.)
Human authority, how far to be urged, i. 253.
Jerome (St.), vindicated as to his notions of episcopacy, ii. 246. 26l.
Jerusalem, the council of, superior authori- ty to any since, ii. 446.
Jesus, bowing at his name vindicated, i. 499.
Jews, their destruction the result of their infidelity, ii. 615.
Jewish ceremonies and rites, how far they may be lawfully retained by Christians, i. 367.
Jewish clergy, see Clergy Jewish.
Ignorance in the clergy, the true cause of it, ii. IC9. In some cases not to be remedied, 130. Ought not to be suffered unnecessarily, 363.
Imposition of hands, ah ancient ceremony in blessing, &c. i. 658.
Indulgences (popish), exposed, ii. 201.
Incarnation of the Son of God with Christ, i. 563. How diversely misinterpreted by he- retics, 565. The orthodox account of it ex- pressed in four words, in refutation of the four principal heresies, 577.
Infants, dying without baptism, their case considered, i. 605.
Intention of the priest, in the administra- tion of the sacraments, to be always supposed sincere, i. 598.
Interrogatories in baptism justified, ii. 631. 633.
Jurisdiction, a distinct power from ordina- tion, ii. 148. To what end given by Christ, 149.
Justification, what in the sense of the church of Rome, ii. 500. What in the sense of our own church, 502. How it differs from sanctification, 503.
King, had a supremacy in ecclesiastical af- fairs among the Jews, ii. 379, 380. Has the same power with us, 380. By what right he has it, 393. And in what sort, 394. In what measure, 398. May, in a limited sense, be lawfully termed Head of the Church, 405. Hath a power to call and dissolve councils, &c. 422. Hath power to make laws concern- ing ecclesiastical affairs, 427. Hath power in all causes and over all persons as well eccle- siastical as civil, 433. His consent necessary to the making of laws, 447 .-(See Dominion- Head of the Church— Supremacy.)
Kneeling at the sacrament justified, ii. 15.
Law (in general), what it is, i. 151. (Eter- nal), what it is, 152. (Set by God to himself), what, 153. 174. Unsearchable, 154. (Ob- served by natural agents) what, 157. 175. (Observed by angels) what, 161. (By which man is to be guided) what, 164. (Of reason) what, and how to be known, 179- 'J"lle benefit of keeping it, 182.
Laws (politic), to what end ordained, i. 185. 189. By whom to be made, 190. 1'rom whence
they take their force, 191. Why so much va- riety in them, ig2. (Mixed aud merely hu- man) how they differ, 193. (Of nations), of what use, 195. (Primary and secondary), how distinguished, 196. (Supernatural), why it pleased God to make them known, 198. (Na- tural and rational) why set down in Holy Scripture, 206. (Divine) the benefit of having them written, 208. 212. (Positive), when mu- table and when not, i. 215. 308. How to judge of laws, 219. When well or ill made. 305. How far to be obeyed, 223. (Of Christ and Moses), how they differ, 315. Whether Christ has forbidden all change of his laws, ib. In what cases we may add to or diminish them, 327. (Ecclesiastical), by whom to be made, ii. 425. 443.
Laity, their consent necessary in ecclesias- tical laws, ii. 447.
Lay-baptism, valid and effectual in the opi- nion of the author, i.6l2.
Learning in the clergy not every where to be expected, ii. 130. The want of it does not vacate their commission, 136.
Lessons, the intermingling of them with the public service vindicated, i. 505.
Litanies, the antiquities and use of them, i. 523, 524.
Liturgy, see Common Prayer.
Lord's Prayer, the frequent use of it in the Liturgy vindicated, i. 508.
Magnificat, the use of it in our service vin- dicated, i. 521.
Maintenance of the clergy among the Jews how liberal, ii. 351. Among Christians ought to be the same, 353. 373. How scandalously small it is with us, 378. Sacrilege to alienate it, 359. 372.374.
Man aspires to a conformity with God, i. 164. By what degree he attains to knowledge, 166. What happiness or perfection he aims at, 198. By what means he must attain it, 202.
Masses for the dead (as practised by the pa- pists), exposed, ii. 202.
Matrimony, why instituted, ii. 62. How esteemed by heathens and Jews, 63. Not to be celebrated at improper times, ib.
Mercy for all men, the praying for it vin- dicated, ii. 557.
Merits, none whatsoever in the best of men, ii. 504. The popish doctrine of them refuted, 541. 6l6.
Metropolitan bishops, how they came to be archbishops, ii. 273.
Ministers, their zeal and fervency in public prayer, how necessary, i. 484. Of great im- portance to the welfare and prosperity of the commonwealth, ii. 72. Their authority and power, 81. Their character indelible, 82. The scandal of admitting unfit persons to the ministry, 134.— (See Clergy.)
Mockers, who properly so called, ii. 594. The danger of their state, 595.
Mourning attire at funerals, lawful aud de- cent, ii. 69.
Music, the power of it, i. 514. Helpful to devotion, 515. How it ought to be regulated in churches, 5l6.
Natures (two dbtinct) in Christ, i.56B.
INDEX.
037
Necessity, liow far it may dispense with laws, i. 423.
Negative arguments, from Scripture, how far of force, i. 238. 246.
Nestorius, his heresy, what, i. 565. His heresy confuted, 577.
Noah's seven precepts, i. 371-
Non-residence, how far reprovable, ii. 124. In what cases allowed of, 131. How and by whom to be in some measure redressed, 143.
Novatius, his error, what, ii. 210.
Nunc-dimittis, the use of it in our service vindicated, i. 521.
Offensive and scandalous, what properly so, i. 377.
Pagans, how the name came to be used for heathens, ii. 115.
Papists, see Romanists. Parishes or districts, when and by whom first appointed, ii. 116.
Parliament of England, its authority to make laws in ecclesiastical affairs, ii. 425.
Pastors, in the New Testament, what they were, ii. 98.
Patriarchs or primates, their superiority, what, ii. 274.
Patronage of churches, whence the right of it arises, ii. 121.
Penance, the discipline of it instituted by Christ, ii. 156. Practised by the primitive Christians, 157. What it is, and of how many parts it consists among the papists, 158. How abused by the papists, 202. Very severe in the primitive church, 198. The danger of its being too remiss, 199-
Penitentiary's office, when and for what reason set up, ii. 158. When and why discon- tinued, 173.
People, how drawn into a liking of the new discipline, i. 108. Their right to the election of ministers more infringed by that discipline, than by the church, ii. 299.
Person, one only, and not two in Christ, i. 565. Philosophy, see Reason. Places appropriate to divine worship, how universally set apart, i. 423. Such places ought to be sacred, 483.— (See Churches.)
Pluralities, considered, ii. 125. In what cases allowed by the laws, 133. How and by whom to be retrenched, 144.
Pope, his supremacy a usurpation, ii. 603. Prayer, for blessings which we are not sure to receive, not unlawful, i. 547. 554. The use of it, ib. How God accepts the prayer which he does not grant, ib. 559.— (See Common Prayer.
Preaching, what properly so called, i. 443. Reading the Scriptures in churches, a proper preaching, 445. 460.
Prebends, and places of jurisdiction, the de- sign of them, and to whom they ought to be given, ii. 364.
Prelates in the church, the -benefit and cre- dit of them, ii. 329- 332. What honour due to them, and how, 332. The benefit of them to commonwealths in general, 332. To -kings and princes, ib. To the nobility, 334. To the people, 336. To the clergy, 337.— (See Bi- '•oos — Episcopacy — Honour.) Prtsbyters, their order and office, what, ii.
95. Their laying on of their hands with the bishops in ordination, does not infer that they have a power of ordaining, 256. How far they were concerned in jurisdiction, 263,264.
Pride, what it is, ii. 553. The haughtiness and insolence of it, 555. The cause of all evils, 557. How cured, ib.
Priest, a name not improperly applied to presbyters, ii. 93.
Primates or patriarchs, their superiority, what, ii. 274.
Processions at funerals, ancient and decent, ii. 69.
Prophets, in the New Testament, what they were, ii. 98. Received their instructions im- mediately from God himself, 589.
Prosperity of the wicked, no just cause of other men's grief, ii. 56l.
Province and diocess of a bishop, how dis- tinguished, and whence the distinction at first arose, ii. 271.
Psalms, the great usefulness of them, and why repeated oftener than any other parts of Scripture, and in a different manner, i. 513. The singing them with music vindicated, 514. The singing or repeating them alternately vindicated, 517.
Punishment, see Rewards.
Quare impedit? the inconvenience and abuse of it, ii. 363.
Real presence of Christ in the sacrament, whether in the elements or the receiver, ii. 5. 10.
Reason, the guide of human actions, and the natural judge of right or wrong, i. 171.
Reason or philosophy, six objections against it, and each objection distinctly answered, i. 291. The use of it in judging of divine mat- ters, 301.
Receive the Holy Ghost, in the ordination office, vindicated, ii. 84.
Religion, the support of commonwealths, i. 402. The foundation of temporal happiness and prosperity, ii. 74. 80. How far false re- ligions may contribute to the support of a state, i. 405. (Internal) how aptly expressed by outward duties, 417-
Repentance, the nature of it, ii. 150. The virtue and discipline of it, how distinguished, ib. How the heart is framed to it, 151. The advantages of it, 194. Men may be too scru- pulous in it, 229.— (See Penance.)
Repetitions of prayers after the minister vindicated, i. 511.
Restitution, the necessity of it, and to whom due, ii. 196, 197.
Rewards and punishments presuppose good or evil, willingly done, i. 184. Are not re- ceived but from those who have power to judge of our actions, ib. To what end de- signed, 190. Who to assign them, ib.
Righteous, see Elect.
Righteousness, actual and habitual, how they differ, ii. 5l6, 517.
Rogations, see Litanies.
Romanists, to be followed in some things, though not the people of God, i. 350. Not to be dissented from in every thing, because he- retics and neighbours, 351. It is not policy to disagree with them about things that are
638 INDEX
iound, 358. Not to denied the communion when they conform, ii. l6. Who partakers of their errors, 508. Their error and their heresy, how they differ, ib. Hold the foundation of faith, 511. 530. Notwithstanding their errors may possibly be saved, 531. Falsely accuse us of heresy and apostacy, &c. 001.
Sacraments, their name, author, and force, i. 56l. The uses of them, 593. Several deli. nitions of them, 597. Whether signs only, or means of Grace, ii. 215.— (See Baptism — Eucharist — Intention.)
Sacrilege, the odiousness and danger of it, ii. 110. 359. 372. At the Reformation repre- sented,374.
Salvation by Christ alone, how to be under- stood, ii. 534.
Sanctification, how it differs from justifica- tion, ii. 503.
Satisfaction, what in the notion of the an- cient fathers, ii. I89. How made to God for sin, 190. What demanded of offenders in the primitive church, 198. The danger of remit- ting it too easily, 199. How abused by the papists, 201.
Scandalous and offensive, what properly so, i. 377.
Schism, what, ii. 597, 598.
Scriptures, want nothing needful, nor con- tain any thing superfluous, i. 209. Sufficient to the end for which they were given, 210. The general use of them, 218. Not designed to direct men in actions indifferent, 228. 238. 262. 286. Negative arguments from them, how far of force, 238. 246. The honour of them not impaired by the established church, 285. General rules in Scripture, how far to be applied to particular duties, 288. Their authority, from whence to be deduced, 300. The reading of them in churches, a kind of preaching, 445. 460. Some seeming contra- dictions in our translations of them recon- ciled, 446. The method and choice in our reading them vindicated, 448. In what man- ner read in the Jewish synagogues, 450. The great use of reading them publickly, 461. By what means they conduce to salvation, 458.
Serapion, his case stated, ii. 24.
Sermons, not the only means of saving souls i. 459. The good use of them, 46l. Considered comparatively with bare reading the Scriptures, 460. 478. What gains them their great repute, 479- At funerals, the pro. per use of them, ii. 70.
SimoDy, the keinousness of it in bishops, ii. 361.
Sin, the horror of it, after committed, ii. 226. Against the Holy Ghost, what, 227.
Societies (public), the foundations of them, i. 185.
Substance, part of it to be dedicated to the uses of religion, ii. 102. Tithes or tenths of it, a just proportion to be allotted to this use, 106.
Sudden death, the petition against it in the Litany vindicated, i. 542.
Superstition, whence it springs, i. 41C.
Supremacy of the pope, a usurpation, ii. 603. Of the king, what it is, 391. By what right invested in him, 393. And in what sort, 395. And in what measure, 397.— (See Dominion— King.)
Surplice, the objection to it answered and exposed, i. 490.
Synods and councils to be called and dis- solved by the civil powers, ii. 422.
Tabernacle and temple of the Jews, the sumptuousness of them, ii. 105.
Teachers in the New Testament, what they were, ii. 99.
Teaching, see Preaching.
Temple, see Tabernacle.
Temple-church, a disorderly practice in re- ceiving the communion there noted, ii. 477-
Temporal happiness or prosperity, how far a blessing, ii. 74. The consequence of reli- gion, 76, 77. Wherein it consisteth, 76.
Ten commandments, given after a different manner from the other laws of Moses, i. 317.
Tenth*. See Tithes.
Tertullian vindicated, i. 239. 241. His and Aerius's opposite opinions about fasting, ii. 55,56.
Thanksgivings (particular), the want of them in our Liturgy considered, i. 537.
Time, what it is, ii. 27.
Tithes or tenths of our substance to be of. fered to God, ii. 106. These never afterward to be alienated, 110.
Title (at ordination), what the name implies, ii. 119. For what reason required, 120. Not absolutely necessary, ib.
Tradition (oral), the uncertainty of it, i. 209. When of authority, 214. What tradition we make use of, 642.
Trinity (holy), how united and distinguish- ed, i. 563.
Unworthiness, those things which for our un worthiness we dare not ask,&c. the petition vindicated, i. 544.
Virgin Mary, whether conceived in sin, not determined by the church of Rome, ii. 482.
Visitations (of bishops), the design of them, and how they ought to be managed, ii. 365.
When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, &c. in the Te Deum, explained, ami vindicated, i. 540.
Wicked men, their prosperity no just cause of other men's grief, ii. 56l.
Widows, whom Saint Paul means by them, ii. 313.
Will of man, how it is influenced, i. l6d. How it differs from appetite, 169. But one will in God, 551. Two wills in Christ, ib.
Women apt by nature to be drawn into ad- miration of new doctrines, i. 114.
Works, see Good Works.
Worship, in what sense promised to the wife in the office of matrimony, ii. 65.
Xistus (bishop of Rome), his conduct and courage to save the treasures of the church, ii. 112.
Zeal and fear, roots of superstition, i. 412.
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