The works of that learned and judicious divine, Mr. Richard Hooker : with an account of his life and death

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THE WORKS

OF

MR. RICHARD HOOKER,

“ All things written in this booke I humbly and meekly submit
to the censure of the grave and reverend Prelates within this
land, to the judgment of learned men, and the sober considera-
tion of all others. Wherein I may happely erre as others before
me have done, but au heretike by the help of Almighty God I
will never be.”’—Hooxer, MS. Note on the title leaf of the
“¢ Christian Letter.”

LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE

London

HENRY FROWDE

|

mi

iM

cl

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE

7 PATERNOSTER ROW

THE “WORKS,
16L.9 v
H764 z

THAT LEARNED AND JUDICIOUS DIVINE,

MR. RICHARD HOOKER:

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE AND DEATH

BY ISAAC WALTON.

ARRANGED BY

THE REV. JOHN KEBLE, M.A.

LATE FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD.

SIXTH EDITION.

§0742

VOL. IL

LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE

OXFORD:
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

M.DCCC.LXXIV.

Lieasons for addressing Archbishop Whitgift.

TO THH

MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD,

MY VERY GOOD LORD,

THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

HIS GRACE,

PRIMATE AND METROPOLITAN OF ALL ENGLAND.

Most REeveREND IN Curist,

THE long-continued and more than ordinary favour! which BOOK V.
hitherto your Grace hath been pleased to shew towards me ————

may justly claim at my hands some thankful acknowledgment
thereof. In which consideration, as also for that I embrace
willingly the ancient received course and conveniency of that
discipline, which teacheth inferior degrees and orders in the
Church of God to submit their writings to the same authority,
from which their allowable dealings whatsoever in such affairs

must receive approbation?, I

1 [See the life of Hooker, p. 53.
2 [The following letter, preserve
by Fulman, ix. 214. furnishes an
instance of this kind of deference,
on the part of Hooker, towards Ec-

clesiastical Authorities.

“To my lovinge freind Mr.
* Reynolds of Corpus Christi Col-
lege in Oxford. Salut. in Chro.
** Your copie was delyver into my
“ L. of Cant. owne hands the daye
“ after I receyved it of you. Sence
** that tyme it was demanded twyse
*‘ at his hands, and deferred, upon
‘* more view, the third tyme I went
** myself and spake unto his G. his
‘* answer was that he could not alow
‘it, because of some glawnsinge at
** matters in this tyme (those were
“the very speeches his G. used.)
** I requested the copie agayne, and
“it was delyvered me presentlye by

HOOKER, VOL. II.

nothing fear but that your

‘* hymself. I reserve it in my hands
* untill I know some trustye mes-
“singer. No man shall see it, God
** willinge, thus I commend you to
** God, who kepe you in helth to his
“plesure. London the 4th of De-
*‘ cember, 1584. Yo’rs to his power
* Gror. ByssHop.

** Mr. Hoker wolde neds have it
** goe unto my L. of Cant. other-
** wyse I was in mynde for to doe it
** first, which I wolde I had done,
** that the world might have judged
‘‘ of it, there wuld have bin no
*‘ falte funde then, yf it had bin
‘extant. Yf it be your pleasure,
** T will dele with Mr. Mills, that he
‘may dele further with my L. of
** Canterb.”

The writer of this letter was a
noted bookseller, and is mentioned
by Strype as Warden of the Sta-

B

BOOK V.

Dedication.

2 Manners rather than. Laws need Reform.

accustomed clemency will take in good worth the offer of
these my simple and mean labours, bestowed for the necessary
justification of laws heretofore made questionable, because as
I take it they were not perfectly understood.

[2.] For surely I cannot find any great cause of just com-
plaint, that good laws have so much been wanting unto us, as
we to them. ‘To seek reformation of evil laws is a commend-
able endeavour; but for us the more necessary is a speedy
redress of ourselves. We have on all sides lost much of
our first fervency towards God; and therefore concerning
our own degenerated ways we have reason to exhort with
St. Gregory,"Ozep ev yevdpeba, “ Let us return again unto
« that which we sometime were :” but touching the exchange
of laws in practice with laws in device, which they say are
better for the state of the Church, if they might take place,
the farther we examine them the greater cause we find to
conclude, pevepev Srp eopev, “ although we continue the same
“‘ we are, the harm is not great.”” These fervent reprehenders
of things established by public authority are always confident
and bold-spirited men. But their confidence for the most
part riseth from too much credit given to their own wits, for
which cause they are seldom free from error. The errors
which we seek to reform in this kind of men are such as both
received at your own hands their first wound, and from that
time to this present have been proceeded in with that moder-
ation, which useth by patience to suppress boldness, and to
make them conquer that suffer‘. |

tioners’ Company, in 1578, when mentioned in thé postscript. See

he solicited Lord Burghley for the
enlargement of a person who had
been committed by Bishop Aylmer
for printing the Admonition to the
Parliament; (Life of Aylm. p. 38.)
and in 1591, when he seized certain
books of Broughton’s, (Whitg. II.
116.) In 1569, “ being well minded
‘towards godliness and true reli-
“gion,” he took upon him the
charge of printing a translation
of Hemingius’ Exposition of the
Gospels. (Ann. I.ii. 304.)

Mr. Francis Mills, private secre-
tary to Walsingham, Reynolds’s
patron, was probably the person

Strype, An. III. i. 681. ii. 466, 471.
iv. 223. |

3 Greg. Naz. [Orat. xxxix. i. 624.
D. (speaking of the season of Epi-
phany.) Kaupos dvayervnoews” yevvn-
Oapev avabev’ Kxaipds avatddcews*
Tov mparov "Adan dvaddBopuev’ 7)
peivaper Srrep Eopev, GAN Sep juev
yevopeba.

4 [An allusion, as it seems, to the
Archbishop’s motto: “ Vincit qui
“ patitur.” See Walton’s Life of
Hooker, p. 58. Camden’s Annals
of Q. Elizabeth, ed. 1675. p. 289.
anno 1583. Wordsworth’s Eccl.
Biog. iv. 334. ]

Internal Perils worse than External. 3

[3.] Wherein considering the nature and kind of these BOOK

controversies, the dangerous sequels whereunto they were
likely to grow, and how many ways we have been thereby
taught wisdom, I may boldly aver concerning the first, that as
the weightiest conflicts the Church hath had were those which
touched the Head, the Person of our Saviour Christ; and the
next of importance those questions which are at this day
between us and the Church of Rome about the actions of

the body of the Church of God; so these which have lastly

sprung up for complements, rites, and ceremonies of church
actions, are in truth for the greatest part such silly things,
that very easiness doth make them hard to be disputed of
in serious manner. Which also may seem to be the cause
why divers of the reverend prelacy®, and other most judi-
cious men®, have especially bestowed their pains about the
matter of jurisdiction. Notwithstanding led by your Grace’s
example myself have thought it convenient to wade through
the whole cause, following that method which searcheth the
truth by the causes of truth.

[4.] Now if any marvel how a thing in itself so weak could
import any great danger, they must consider not so much how
small the spark is that flieth up, as how apt things about
it are to take fire. Bodies politic being subject as much as
natural to dissolution by divers means, there are undoubtedly
more estates overthrown through diseases bred within them-
selves than through violence from abroad; because our
manner is always to cast a doubtful and a more suspicious eye
towards that over which we know we have least power; and
therefore the fear of external dangers causeth forces at home to

be the more united ; it is to all sorts a kind of bridle, it maketh

virtuous minds watchful, it holdeth contrary dispositions in

5 (Bancroft, (who had been just
made Bishop of London,) in his
** Dangerous Positions,” and “Sur-
** vey of the pretended Holy Disci-
** pline,” both 1593. Bilson, Bishop
of Winchester, in his “ Perpetual
** Government of Christ's Church,”
also 1593. |

6 [Saravia in his Tract de Diver-
sis Ministerii Gradibus, 1590.
Bridges (afterwards Bishop of Ox-
ford) in his ‘‘ Defence of the Govern-

“ment established in the Church
“of England, 1587.” Sutcliffe,
Dean of Exeter, in his Latin tract,
“ De Presbyterio,” 1591, and his
English, “‘ Remonstrance to the
* Demonstration of Discipline,”
1590, and “The False Semblant of
** Counterfeit Discipline detected,”
1591: Cosins, Dean of the Arches,
in his ‘‘ Apology for sundry pro-
** ceedings by Jurisdiction Ecclesias-
* tical,” 1593. |

B2

K VY.
tion,

BOOK V.

Dedication,

A Evils arising from Contentiousness in Religion.

suspense, and it setteth those wits on work in better things
which would else be employed in worse: whereas on the other
side domestical evils, for that we think we can master them
at all times, are often permitted to run on forward till it be
too late to recall them. In the mean while the common-
wealth is not only through unsoundness so far impaired as
those evils chance to prevail, but further also through opposi-
tion arising between the unsound parts and the sound, where
each endeavoureth to draw evermore contrary ways, till de-
struction in the end bring the whole to ruin.

[5-] To reckon up how many causes there are, by force
whereof divisions may grow in a commonwealth, is not here
necessary. Such as rise from variety in matter of religion are
not only the farthest spread, because in religion all men pre-
sume themselves interessed alike; but they are also for the
most part hotlier prosecuted and pursued than other strifes,
forasmuch as coldness, which in other contentions may be
thought to proceed from moderation, is not in these so favour-
ably construed. The part which in this present quarrel
striveth against the current and stream of laws was a long
while nothing feared, the wisest contented not to call to mind
how errors have their effect many times not proportioned to
that little appearance of reason whereupon they would seem
built, but rather to the vehement affection or fancy which is
east towards them and proceedeth from other causes. For
there are divers motives drawing men to favour mightily those
opinions, wherein their persuasions are but weakly settled ;
and if the passions of the mind be strong, they easily sophisti-
cate the understanding ; they make it apt to believe upon
very slender warrant, and to imagine infallible truth where
scarce any probable show appeareth.

[6.] Thus were those poor seduced creatures, Hacket and
his other two adherents?, whom I can neither speak nor think

7 [In rg91. See Strype, Annals
LV Sop. ees % ror. Camden, Ann.
Eliz. t. ii. 34 —38. ed. 1627, and
chiefly Cosins,’ “Conspiracy for
** pretended Reformation, viz. Pres-
6 byterial Discipline ; a Treatise
“discovering the designs and
“courses held for advancement

* thereof by Wm. Hacket, yoeman,
“Edm. Coppinger and Henry
** Arthington, Gent. out of others’
** depositions, and their own letters,
“writings, and confessions upon
** examination .... published by au-
“ thority.” London, Barker, 1592. |

Case of Hacket and his Adherents. 5

of but with much commiseration and pity, thus were they
trained by fair ways ; first accounting their own extraordinary
love to this discipline a token of God’s more than ordinary
love towards them. From hence they grew to a strong con-
ceit, that God, which had moved them to love his discipline
more than the common sort of men did, might have a purpose
by their means to bring a wonderful work to pass, beyond
all men’s expectation, for the advancement of the throne of
Discipline by some tragical execution, with the particularities

whereof it was not safe for their friends* to be made ac-
" quainted ; of whom they did therefore but covertly demand,
what they thought of extraordinary motions of the Spirit in
these days, and withal request to be commended unto God by
their prayers whatsoever should be undertaken by men of
God in mere zeal to his glory and the good of his distressed
Church. With this unusual and strange course they went on
forward, till God, in whose heaviest worldly judgments I
nothing doubt but that there may lie hidden mercy, gave
them over to their own inventions, and left them made in the
end an example for headstrong and inconsiderate zeal no less
fearful, than Achitophel for proud and irreligious wisdom.
If a spark of error have thus far prevailed, falling even where
the wood was green and farthest off to all men’s thinking
from any inclination unto furious attempts; must not the
peril thereof be greater in men whose minds are of themselves
as dry fuel, apt beforehand unto tumults, seditions, and broils ?
But by this we see in a cause of religion to how desperate
adventures men will strain themselves, for relief of their own
part, having law and authority against them.

8 [Cosins has printed letters to
Cartwright, Udall, P. W. (Peter
Wentworth?) and others, in illus-
tration of what is here affirmed:
p- 16, Coppinger writes to Cart-
wright (4 Feb.) that ‘he was stirred
‘* up to such business of importance,
** as in the eyes of flesh and blood
‘* were likely to bring much danger
“to himself, and unlikely to bring
**any good success to the Church
*‘ of God.” Then he relates certain
fancied revelations, and adds, “I
‘* desire the Church, I mean yourself
*‘ and such as you shall name unto

* me, (because I cannot come to you
* without danger to yourself and
**me,) to look narrowly into me,”
&c. Adding certain questions re-
lating to “extraordinary callings,”
** a waste of the Church,” and the
like. In p.15, is a similar commu-
nication to P. W. a layman; p. 26,
to Charke; p. 36, to Udall. As to
Wiggington, (who was a deprived
preacher from Yorkshire,) he was in
constant communication with the
conspirators up to the very moment
of their outbreak. |

BOOK V.

Dedication.

BOOK V.
Dedication.

6 Lvils of Controversy to the Orthodox.

[7.] Furthermore let not any man think that in such divi-
sions either part can free itself from inconveniences, sustained
not only through a kind of truce, which virtue on both sides
doth make with vice during war between truth and error ; but
also in that there are_hereby so fit occasions ministered for men
to purchase to themselves well-willers, by the colour under
which they oftentimes prosecute quarrels of envy or inveterate
malice: and especially because contentions were as yet never —
able to prevent two evils; the one a mutual exchange of
unseemly and unjust disgraces offered by men whose tongues _
and passions are out of rule; the other a common hazard of
both to be made a prey by such as study how to work upon
all occurrents with most advantage in private. I deny not
therefore, but that our antagonists in these controversies may
peradventure have met with some not unlike to Ithacius9;
who mightily bending himself by all means against the heresy
of Priscillian, the hatred of which one evil was all the virtue
he had, became so wise in the end, that every man careful of
virtuous conversation, studious of Scripture, and given unto
any abstinence in diet, was set down in his calendar of sus-

pected Priscillianists, for whom it should be expedient to ap-

prove their soundness of faith by a more licentious and loose
behaviour. Such proctors and patrons the truth might spare.
Yet is not their grossness so intolerable, as on the contrary
side the scurrilous and more than satirical immodesty of Mar-
tinism ; the first published schedules whereof being brought
to the hands of a grave and a very honourable knight, with
signification given that the book would refresh his spirits,

9 Sulp. Sever. Ep. Hist. Eccles.
[lib. ii. c.63.] ‘ Certe Ithacium
** nihil pensi, nihil sancti habuisse
* definio. Fuit enim audax, loquax,
** impudens, sumptuosus, ventri et
* gule plurimum impertiens. Hic
** stultitie eo usque processerat, ut
“* omnes etiam sanctos viros, quibus
“aut studium inerat lectionis, aut
** propositum erat certare jejuniis,
*tanquam Priscilliani socios aut
* discipulos, in crimen arcesseret.
* Ausus etiam miser est, ea tempes-
tate, Martino episcopo, viro plane
“‘ Apostolis conferendo, palam ob-
** jectare heresis infamiam.” p. 472

Pp: 472;
ed. Horn. 1654. |

10 [Perhaps Sir F. Walsingham:
who being Reynolds’s patron, and
genesaly inclined to favour the

uritan party, (Strype, Whitgift, i.
425.) might be supposed notunlikely
to be “solaced with those sports.”
When the Marprelate pamphlets
first appeared, in 1587-8, his health
was declining, so that he accepted
the office of chancellor of the duchy
of Lancaster, with an intention, as
was reported, of withdrawing from
the secretaryship; (Strype, Ann.
III. i. 696;) and this agrees with
what is said of books being brought
to “refresh the knight’s spirits.”
And Hooker from his intimacy

A corrupt Aristocracy the natural Ally of Puritanism. 7

he took it, saw what the title was, read over an unsavoury Book v.
sentence or two, and delivered back the libel with this ee
answer: “I am sorry you are of the mind to be solaced with
“these sports, and sorrier you have herein thought mine
“ affection to be like your own.”

[8.] But as these sores on all hands lie open, so the deepest
wounds of the Church of God have been more softly and
closely given. It being perceived that the plot of discipline
did not only bend itself to reform ceremonies, but seek
farther to erect a popular authority of elders, and to take
away episcopal jurisdiction, together with all other ornaments
and means whereby any difference or inequality is upheld in
the ecclesiastical order; towards this destructive part they
have found many helping hands, divers, although peradven-
ture not willing to be yoked with elderships, yet contented
(for what intent God doth know) to uphold opposition against
bishops ; not without greater hurt to the course of their whole
proceedings in the business of God and her Majesty’s service,
than otherwise much more weighty adversaries had been
able by their own power to have brought to pass. Men are
naturally better contented to have their commendable actions
suppressed, than the contrary much divulged. And because
the wits of the multitude are such, that many things they
cannot lay hold on at once, but being possest with some
notable either dislike or liking of any one thing whatsoever,
sundry other in the meantime may escape them unperceived :
therefore if men desirous to have their virtues noted do in this
respect grieve at the fame of others, whose glory obscureth
and darkeneth theirs; it cannot be chosen but that when the
ears of the people are thus continually beaten with excla-
mations against abuses in the Church, these tunes come
always most acceptable to them, whose odious and corrupt
dealings in secular affairs both pass by that mean the more
covertly, and whatsoever happen do also the least feel that
scourge of vulgar imputation, which notwithstanding they
most deserve!!.

with Reynolds might well have ac- thought to make it the more likely
cess to familiar anecdotes of Wal- that he is the person referred to in
singham : who, it may be added, the text. ] |
died in 1590; and this may be 1 [All this seems very apposite

BOOK V.

Dedication.

8 Duties of Churchmen

[9.] All this considered as behoveth, the sequel of duty on
our part is only that which our Lord and Saviour requireth,
harmless discretion; the wisdom of serpents tempered with
the innocent meekness of doves!2. For this world will teach
them wisdom that have capacity to apprehend it. Our wisdom
in this case must be such as doth not propose to itself 76 té0r,
our own particular, the partial and immoderate desire whereof
poisoneth wheresoever it taketh place; but the scope and
mark which we are to aim at is 76 xowdv, the public and
common good of all; for the easier procurement whereof, our
diligence must search out all helps and furtherances of direc-
tion, which scriptures, councils, fathers, histories, the laws
and practices of all churches, the mutual conference of all
men’s collections and observations may afford: our industry
must even anatomize every particle of that body, which we
are to uphold sound. And because be it never so true which
we teach the world to believe, yet if once their affections begin
to be alienated, a small thing persuadeth them to change their
opinions, it behoveth that we vigilantly note and prevent by
all means those evils whereby the hearts of men are lost:
which evils for the most part being personal do arm in such
sort the adversaries of God and his Church against us, that,
if through our too much neglect and security the same should
run on, soon might we feel our estate brought to those lamen-
table terms, whereof this hard and heavy sentence was by
one of the ancient uttered upon like occasions, “ Dolens dico,
*‘ gemens denuncio, sacerdotium quod apud nos intus cecidit,
* foris diu stare non poterit 13,”

[10.] But the gracious providence of Almighty God hath I
trust put these thorns of contradiction in our sides, lest that
should steal upon the Church in a slumber, which now I
doubt not but through his assistance may be turned away from
us, bending thereunto ourselves with constancy ; constancy in
labour to do all men good, constancy in prayer unto God for

all men: her especially whose sacred power matched with in-

comparable goodness of nature hath hitherto been God’s most

to Leicester: and considering how we may perhaps conclude that the
directly he was opposed to Whitgift writer was thinking of him.]
in his lifetime, and that he had been 12 (St. Matth. x. 16.]

now dead so long (since 1588) asto 18 Leg. Carol. Mag. fol. 421.
make his character matter of history,

im critical Times of the Church. 9

happy instrument, by him miraculously kept for works of so
miraculous preservation and safety unto others, that as, “ By
“ the sword of God and Gideon",” was sometime the cry of
the people of Israel, so it might deservedly be at this day the
joyful song of innumerable multitudes, yea, the emblem of
some estates and dominions in the world, and (which must be
eternally confessed even with tears of thankfulness) the true
inscription, style, or title, of all churches as yet standing within
this realm, “ By the goodness of Almighty God and his
“ servant Elizabeth we are.” That God who is able to make
mortality immortal give her such future continuance, as may
be no less glorious unto all posterity than the days of her
regiment past have been happy unto ourselves; and for his
most dear anointed’s sake grant them all prosperity, whose
labours, cares, and counsels, unfeignedly are referred to her
endless welfare: through his unspeakable mercy, unto whom
we all owe everlasting praise. In which desire I will here
rest, humbly beseeching your Grace to pardon my great
boldness, and God to multiply his blessings upon whem that
fear his name.
Your Grace’s in all duty,

BUS aE RICHARD HOOKER.

14 Judges vii. 20.

BOOK V.
Dedication.

THE FIFTH BOOK.

OF THEIR FOURTH ASSERTION, THAT TOUCHING THE SEVERAL
PUBLIC DUTIES OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION, THERE IS AMONGST US
MUCH SUPERSTITION RETAINED IN THEM ; AND CONCERNING
PERSONS WHICH FOR PERFORMANCE OF THOSE DUTIES ARE
ENDUED WITH THE POWER OF ECCLESIASTICAL ORDER, OUR LAWS
AND PROCEEDINGS ACCORDING THEREUNTO ARE MANY WAYS
HEREIN ALSO CORRUPT.

MATTER CONTAINED IN THIS FIFTH BOOK.

I. True religion is the root of all true virtues and the stay of all well-
ordered commonwealths.

II. The most extreme opposite to true Religion is affected Atheism.

III. Of Superstition, and the root thereof, either misguided zeal, or igno-
rant fear of divine glory.

IV. Of the redress of superstition in God’s Church, and concerning the
question of this book.

VY. Four general propositions demanding that which may reasonably be
granted, concerning matters of outward form in the exercise of true
Religion. And, fifthly, of a rule not safe nor reasonable in these cases.

VI. The first proposition touching judgment what things are convenient
in the outward public ordering of church affairs.

VII. The second proposition.

VIII. The third proposition.

IX. The fourth proposition.

X. The.rule of men’s private spirits not safe in these cases to be followed.

XI. Places for the public service of God.

XII, The solemnity of erecting Churches condemned, the hallowing and
dedicating of them scorned by the adversary.

XIII. Of the names whereby we distinguish our Churches.

XIV. Of the fashion of our Churches.

XV. The sumptuousness of Churches.

XVI. What holiness and virtue we ascribe to the Church more than other
places.

XVII. Their pretence that would have Churches utterly razed.

XVIII. Of public teaching or preaching, and the first kind thereof,
catechising.

Contents of the Fifth Book. il

XIX. Of preaching by reading publicly the books of Holy Scripture; and
concerning supposed untruths in those Translations of Scripture which
we allow to be read; as also of the choice which we make in reading.

XX. Of preaching by the public reading of other profitable instructions ;
and concerning books Apocryphal.

XXI. Of preaching by Sermons, and whether Sermons be the only ordi-
nary way of teaching whereby men are brought to the saving knowledge
of God’s truth.

XXII. What they attribute to Sermons only, and what we to reading also.

XXIII. Of Prayer.

XXIV. Of public Prayer.

XXV. Of the form of Common Prayer.

XXVI. Of them which like not to have any set forni of Common Prayer.

XXVII. Of them who allowing a set form of prayer yet allow not ours.

XXVIII. The form of our Liturgy too near the papists’, too far different
from that of other reformed Churches, as they pretend.

XXIX. Attire belonging to the service of God.

XXX. Of gesture in praying, and of different places chosen to that
purpose. .

XXXI. Easiness of praying after our form.

XXXII. The length of our service.

XXXIII. Instead of such prayers as the primitive Churches have used,
and those that the reformed now use, we have (they say) divers short
cuts or shreddings, rather wishes than prayers.

XXXIV. Lessons intermingled with our prayers.

XXXV. The number of our prayers for earthly things, and our oft re-
hearsing of the Lord’s Prayer.

XXXVI. The people’s saying after the minister.

XXXVII. Our manner of reading the Psalms otherwise than the rest of
the Scripture.

XXXVIII. Of Music with Psalms.

XXXIX. Of singing or saying Psalms, and other parts of Common Prayer
wherein the people and the minister answer one another by course.

XL. Of Magnificat, Benedictus, and Nune Dimittis.

XLI. Of the Litany.

XLII. Of Athanasius’s Creed, and Gloria Patri.

XLIII. Our want of particular thanksgiving.

XLIV. In some things the matter of our prayer, as they affirm, is unsound.

XLV. “ When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, thou didst
** open the Kingdom of Heaven unto all believers.”

XLVI. Touching prayer for deliverance from sudden death.

XLVII. Prayer that those things which we for our unworthiness dare not
ask, God for the worthiness of his Son would vouchsafe to grant.

XLVIII. Prayer to be evermore delivered from all adversity.

XLIX, Prayer that all men may find mercy.

L. Of the name, the author, and the force of Sacraments, which force
consisteth in this, that God hath ordained them as means to make us
partakers of him in Christ, and of life through Christ.

12 Contents of the Fifth Book.

LI. That God is in Christ by the personal incarnation of the Son, who is
very God.

LII. The misinterpretations which heresy hath made of the manner how
God and man are united in one Christ.

LIII. That by the union of the one with the other nature in Christ, there
groweth neither gain nor loss of essential properties to either.

LIV. What Christ hath obtained according to the flesh, by the union of
his flesh with Deity.

LV. Of the personal presence of Christ every where, and in what sense
it may be granted he is every where present according to the flesh.

LVI. The union or mutual participation which is between Christ and the
Church of Christ in this present world.

LVII. The necessity,of Sacraments unto the participation of Christ.

LVIII. The substance of Baptism, the rites or solemnities thereunto
belonging, and that the substance thereof being kept, other things in
Baptism may give place to necessity.

LIX. The ground in Scripture whereupon a necessity of outward Baptism
hath been built.

LX. What kind of necessity in outward Baptism hath been gathered by
the words of our Saviour Christ; and what the true necessity thereof
indeed is.

LXI. What things in Baptism have been dispensed with by the fathers
respecting necessity.

LXII. Whether baptism by Women be true Baptism, good and effectual
to them that receive it.

LXIII. Of Interrogatories in Baptism touching faith and the purpose of
a Christian life.

LXIV. Interrogatories proposed unto infants in Baptism, and answered
as in their names by godfathers.

LXV. Of the Cross in Baptism.

LXVI. Of Confirmation after Baptism.

LXVII. Of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ.

LXVIII. Of faults noted in the form of administering that holy Sacra-
ment.

LXIX. Of Festival Days, and the natural causes of their convenient
institution.

LXX. The manner of coleBratiug festival days.

LXXI. Exceptions against our keeping of other festival days besides the
Sabbath.

LXXII. Of days appointed as well for ordinary as for extraordinary Fasts
in the Church of God.

LXXIII. The celebration of Matrimony.

LXXIV. The Churching of Women.

LXXV. The Rites of Burial.

LXXVI. Of the nature of that Ministry which serveth for performance of
divine duties in the Church of God, and how happiness not eternal only
but also temporal doth depend upon it.

LXXVII. Of power given unto men to execute that heavenly office, of the

The Defence of the Church a Trial of Constancy. 13

.gift of the Holy Ghost in Ordination; and whether conveniently the
power of order may be sought or sued for.

LXXVIII. Of Degrees whereby the power of Order is distinguished, and
concerning the Attire of ministers.

LXXIX. Of Oblations, Foundations, Endowments, Tithes, all intended
for perpetuity of religion; which purpose being chiefly fulfilled by the
clergy’s certain and sufficient maintenance, must needs by alienation of
church livings be made frustrate.

LXXX. Of Ordination lawful without Title, and without any popular
Election precedent, but in no case without regard of due information
what their quality is that enter into holy orders.

LXXXI. Of the Learning that should be in ministers, their Residence,
and the number of their Livings.

1. FEW there are of so weak capacity, but public evils they BOOK Y.
easily espy; fewer so patient, as not to complain, when the Seats “ak
: : ‘ . -, True reli-
grievous inconveniences thereof work sensible smart. Howbeit gion is the
to see wherein the harm which they feel consisteth, the seeds a sa all
from which it sprang, and the method of curing: it, belongeth ¢ Sian: sass”
to a skill, the study whereof is so full of toil, and the practice ae ref of
so beset with difficulties, that wary and respective men had ordered
rather seek quietly their own, and wish that the world may (yn
go well, so it be not long of them, than with pain and hazard
make themselves advisers for the common good. We which
thought it at the very first a sign of cold affection towards
the Church of God, to prefer private ease before the labour of
appeasing public disturbance, must now of necessity refer
events to the gracious providence of Almighty God, and, in
discharge of our duty towards him, proceed with the plain
and unpartial defence of a common cause. Wherein our
endeavour is not so much to overthrow them with whom we
contend, as to yield them just and reasonable causes of those
things, which, for want of due consideration heretofore, they
- misconceived, accusing laws for men’s oversights, imputing
evils, grown through personal defects unto that which is not
evil, framing unto some sores unwholesome plaisters, and

applying other some where no sore is.

[2.] To make therefore our beginning that which to both
parts is most acceptable, We agree that pure and unstained
religion ought to be the highest of all cares appertaining to

»

BOOK V,
Ch. i. 2.

14 Religion the Root of every Virtue.

public regiment: as well in regard of that aid and protection?
which they who faithfully serve God confess they receive at
his merciful hands; as also for the force which religion hath
to qualify all sorts of men, and to make them in public affairs
the more serviceable2, governors the apter to rule with con-
science, inferiors for conscience’ sake the willinger to obey.
It is no peculiar conceit, but a matter of sound consequence,
that all duties are by so much the better performed, by how
much the men are more religious from whose abilities the
same proceed. For if® the course of politic affairs cannot in
any good sort go forward without fit instruments, and that
which fitteth them be their virtues, let Polity acknowledge
itself indebted to Religion; godliness being the‘ chiefest top
and wellspring of all true virtues, even as God is of all good
things.

So natural is the union of Religion with Justice, that we
may boldly deem there is neither, where both are not. For
how should they be unfeignedly just, whom religion doth not
cause to be such; or they religious, which are not found such
by the proof of their just actions? If they, which employ their
labour and travel about the public administration of justice,
follow it only as a trade, with unquenchable and unconscion-
able thirst of gain, being not in heart persuaded that> justice
is God’s own work, and themselves his agents in this business,
the sentence of right God’s own verdict, and themselves his
priests to deliver it; formalities of justice do but serve to
smother right, and that, which was necessarily ordained for
the common good, is through shameful abuse made the cause
of common misery. |

The same piety, which maketh them that are in authority
desirous to please and resemble God by justice, inflameth

1 Ps. cxliv.2. [* My shield, and
** He in whom I trust; who sub-
** dueth my people under me.’’]

2 Cod. Theod. lib. xvi. tit. 2.
** Gaudere et gloriari ex fide semper
** volumus, scientes magis religioni-
** bus quam officiis et labore corporis
** vel sudore nostram Rempublicam
** contineri.” [t. vi. p. 44. ed. Go-
thofred. |

3”Eott 8 ovbev ev rois modutiKois
duvarév mpaka dvev rod roidy tiva

eivat, Aéyw S€ ofov amovdaiov. Tod dé
omovodaiov «civai éote TO Tas aperas
exe. Arist. Magn. Moral. lib. i.
cap. I.

4° Apyn & apiori wavrev Tv dvrev
Gecds, aperav & edvoeBera. Philo de
Dec. Precept. [p. 751. ed. Paris.
1640. |

5 2 Chron. xix. 6. [‘* Ye judge not
* for man, but for the Lord, who is
** with you in the judgment.”’]

e.g. of Justice, Prudence, Fortitude. 15

every way men of action with zeal to do good (as far as their
place will permit) unto all. For that®, they know, is most
noble and divine. Whereby if no natural nor casual inability
cross their desires, they always delighting to inure themselves
with actions most beneficial to others, cannot but gather great
experience, and through experience the more wisdom; be-
eause conscience, and the fear of swerving from that which is
right, maketh them diligent observers of circumstances, the
loose regard whereof is the nurse of vulgar folly, no less
than Solomon’s attention thereunto was of natural furtherances
the most effectual to make him eminent above others. For
he gave good heed, and pierced every thing to the very
ground, and by that means became the author of many
parables’.

Concerning fortitude; sith evils great and unexpected (the
true touchstone of constant minds) do cause oftentimes even
them to think upon divine power with fearfullest suspicions,
which have been otherwise the most secure despisers thereof® ;
how should we look for any constant resolution of mind in
such cases, saving only where unfeigned affection to God-ward
hath bred the most assured confidence to be assisted by his
hand? For proof whereof, let but the acts of the ancient Jews
be indifferently weighed ; from whose magnanimity, in causes
of most extreme hazard, those strange and unwonted resolutions

have grown, which for all circumstances no people under the '

roof of heaven did ever hitherto match. And that which did
always animate them was their mere religion.

Without which, if so be it were possible that all other orna-
ments of mind might be had in their full perfection, neverthe-
less the mind that should possess them divorced from piety
could be but a spectacle of commiseration ; even as that body
is, which adorned with sundry other admirable beauties, want-
eth eyesight, the chiefest grace that nature hath in that kind
to bestow. They which commend so much the felicity of that
innocent world, wherein it is said that men of their own accord
did embrace fidelity and honesty, not for fear of the magistrate,
or because revenge was before their eyes, if at any time they

6° Ayamnrov pev yap Kal évi pore, 7 (Eccles. xii. 9, 10. ]
kadduov S€ kai Gevdrepov Over kai d- — 8 Wisd. xvii. 13. [qu. 11.]
Aeowv. Arist. Ethic. lib.i. cap. 2.

BOOK V.
Ch. i. 2.

BOOK V.
Ch. i. 3.

_————

16 How false Religion may do temporal Good.

should do otherwise, but that which held the people in awe
was the shame of ill-doing, the love of equity and right itself
a bar against all oppressions which greatness of power causeth ;
they which describe unto us any such estate of happiness
amongst men, though they speak not of Religion, do notwith-
standing declare that which is in truth her only working.
For, if Religion did possess sincerely and sufficiently the
hearts of all men, there would need no other restraint from
evil. This doth not only give life and perfection to all en-
deavours wherewith it concurreth; but what event soever
ensue, it breedeth, if not joy and gladness always, yet always
patience, satisfaction, and reasonable contentment of mind.
Whereupon it hath been set down as an axiom of good expe-
rience, that all things religiously taken in hand are prosperously
ended?; because whether men in the end have that which
religion did allow them to desire, or that which it teacheth
them contentedly to suffer, they are in neither event unfor-
tunate!°.

[3.] But lest any man should here conceive, that it greatly

_ skilleth not of what sort our religion be, inasmuch as heathens,

Turks, and infidels, impute to religion a great part of the same
effects which ourselves ascribe thereunto, they having ours in
the same detestation that we theirs; it shall be requisite to
observe well, how far forth there may be agreement in the
effects of different religions. First, by the bitter strife which
riseth oftentimes from small differences in this behalf, and is
by so much always greater as the matter is of more importance ;
we see a general agreement in the secret opinion of men, that
every man ought to embrace the religion which is true, and to
shun, as hurtful, whatsoever dissenteth from it, but that most,
which doth farthest dissent. The generality of which per-
suasion argueth, that God hath imprinted it by nature, to the
end it might be a spur to our industry in searching and main-
taining that religion, from which as to swerve in the least
points is error, so the capital enemies thereof God hateth
as his deadly foes, aliens, and, without repentance, children of
endless perdition. Such therefore touching man’s immortal
state after this life are not likely to reap benefit by their

9 Psalm i. 3. evoxnpdvas pépetv, kal €k Tay wrap-
“ 10 Toy yap @s ddnOas dyabdv kal xdvtov del Ta Kddduora mpdrreLy.
euppova maoas oidueOa ras rixas Arist. Ethic. lib.i. cap. 10. 13.

Transmigration: Auspices: Swearing by Idols. 17

religion, but to look for the clean contrary, in regard of so
important contrariety between it and the true religion.

Nevertheless, inasmuch as the errors of the most seduced
this way have been mixed with ‘some truths, we are not to
marvel, that although the one did turn to their endless woe
and confusion, yet the other had many notable effects as
touching the affairs of this present life. There were in these
quarters of the world, sixteen hundred years ago, certain
speculative men, whose authority disposed the whole religion
of those times. By their means it became a received opinion,
that the souls of men departing this life do flit out of one
body into some other!!. Which opinion, though false, yet
entwined with a true, that the souls of men do never perish,
abated the fear of death in them which were so resolved, and
gave them courage unto all adventures.

The Romans had a vain superstitious custom, in most of
their enterprises to conjecture beforehand of the event by cer-
tain tokens which they noted in birds, or in the entrails of
beasts, or by other the like frivolous divinations. From whence
notwithstanding as oft as they could receive any sign which
they took to be favourable, it gave them such hope, as if their
gods had made them more than half a promise of prosperous
success. Which many times was the greatest cause that they
did prevail, especially being men of their own natural incli-
nation hopeful and strongly conceited, whatsoever they took
in hand. But could their fond supérstition have furthered so
great attempts without the mixture of a true persuasion con-
cerning the unresistible force of divine power ?

Upon the wilful violation of oaths, execrable blasphemies,
and like contempts, offered by deriders of religion even unto
false gods, fearful tokens of divine revenge have been known
to follow. Which occurrents the devouter sort did take for
manifest arguments, that the gods whom they worshipped
were of power to reward such as sought unto them, and would
plague those that feared them not. In this they erred. For
(as the wise man rightly noteth concerning such) it was not
the power of them by whom they sware, but the vengeance
of them that sinned, which punished the offences of the un-
godly. It was their hurt untruly to attribute so great power

1! Cees. de Bell. Gall. lib. vi. [c. 13.] 12 Wisd. xiv. 31.
HOOKER, VOL. II. Cc

BOOK V.
Ch, i. 3.

18 The Profit of Doctrines believed depends on their Truth.

. unto false gods. Yet the right conceit which they had, that
‘to perjury vengeance is due, was not without good effect as

touching the course of their lives, who feared the wilful vio- —

lation of oaths in that respect.
And whereas we read so many of them so much commended,

some for their mild and merciful disposition, some for their —

virtuous severity, some for integrity of life, all these were the

fruits of true and infallible principles delivered unto us in the

word of God as the axioms of our religion, which being im-

printed by the God of nature in their hearts also, and taking
béttér root in some than in most others, grew though not from
yet with and amidst the heaps of manifold repugnant errors ;
which errors of corrupt religion had also their suitable effects
in the lives of the selfsame parties.

[4.] Without all controversy, the purer and perfecter our —

religion is, the worthier effects it hath in them who steadfastly

and sincerely embrace it, in others not. They that love the ~

religion which they profess, may have failed in choice, but
yet they are sure to reap what benefit the same is able to
afford ; whereas the best and soundest professed by them that
bear it not the like affection, yieldeth them, retaining it in
that sort, no benefit. David was a “man after God’s own
“ heart}8,” so termed because his affection was hearty towards
God. SBeholding the like disposition in them which lived

under him, it was his prayer to Almighty God, “O keep this —
“ for ever in the purpose and thoughts of the heart of this —

* people!4.” But when, after that David had ended his days
in peace, they who succeeded him in place for the most part
followed him not in quality ; when those kings (some few ex-

cepted) to better their worldly estate, (as they thought,) left -

their own and their people’s ghostly condition uncared for ;
by woful experience they both did learn, that to forsake the
true God of heaven, is to fall into all such evils upon the face
of the earth, as men either destitute of grace divine may com-
mit, or unprotected from above endure.

[5-] Seeing therefore it doth thus appear that the safety of
all estates dependeth upon religion; that religion unfeignedly
loved perfecteth men’s abilities unto all kinds of virtuous ser-
vices in the commonwealth ; that men’s desire is in general to

13 [x Sam. xiii. 14.] 14 y Chron. xxix. 18.

How Men come to affect Atheism. 19

hold no religion but the true; and that whatsoever good BOOK Y.
effects do grow out of their religion, who embrace instead of ———
the true a false, the roots thereof are certain sparks of the
light of truth. intermingled wit with the darkness. of error, because
no religion can wholly and only ‘consist of untruths: we have
reason to think that all true virtues are to honour true religion
_as their parent, and all well-ordered commonweals to love her
as their chiefest stay.
II. They of whom God is altogether unapprehended are The most
but few in number, and for grossness of wit such, that they °°

opposite to
hardly and scarcely seem to hold the place of human being. true reli-

These we should judge to be of all others most miserable, but de
that a wretcheder sort there are, on whom whereas nature atheism.
hath bestowed riper capacity, their evil disposition seriously
goeth about therewith to apprehend God as being not God.
Whereby it cometh to pass that of these two sorts of men,
both godless, the one having utterly no knowledge of God,
the other study how to persuade themselves that there is no
such thing to be known. The! fountain and wellspring of
which impiety is a resolved purpose of mind to reap in this
world what sensual profit or pleasure soever the world yieldeth,
and not to be barred from any whatsoever means available
thereunto. And that this is the very radical cause of their
[pesto no man I think will doubt which considereth what
pains they take to destroy those principal spurs and motives
unto all virtue, the creation of the world, the providence of
God, the resurrection of the dead, the joys of the kingdom of
heaven, and the endless pains of the wicked, yea above all
things the authority of Scripture, because on these points it
evermore beateth, and the soul’s immortality, which granted,
draweth easily after it the rest as a voluntary train. Is it not
wonderful that base desires should so extinguish in men the
sense of their own excellency, as to make them willing that
their souls should be like to the souls of beasts, mortal and
corruptible with their bodies? Till some admirable or unusual
accident happen (as it hath in some) to work the beginning
of a better alteration in their minds, disputation about the

16 Wisd. ii. 21. “Such things “ blinded them. ” "Eort yap i) kakia
“they imagine and go astray, be- @aprixy dpyns. Arist. Eth, lib. vi.
‘** cause their own wickedness hath cap. 5, 6.

C 2

20 Atheistical Scoffing ought to be penal.

- knowledge of God with such kind of persons commonly pre-

Rieko vaileth little. For how should the brightness of wisdom

shine, where the windows of the soul are of very set purpose
closed!6? True religion hath many things in it, the only
mention whereof galleth and troubleth their minds. Being
therefore loth that inquiry into such matters should breed a
persuasion in the end contrary unto that they embrace, it is
their endeavour to banish as much as in them lieth quite and
clean from their cogitation whatsoever may sound that way.
[2.] But it cometh many times to pass (which is their
torment) that the thing they shun doth follow them, truth as
it were even obtruding itself into their knowledge, and not
permitting them to be so ignorant as they would be. Where-
upon inasmuch as the nature of man is unwilling to continue
doing that wherein it shall always condemn itself, they con-
tinuing: still obstinate to follow the course which they have
begun, are driven to devise all the shifts that wit can invent
for the smothering of this light, all that may but with any the
least show of possibility stay their minds from thinking that

true, which they heartily wish were false, but cannot think it —

so without some scruple and fear of the contrary!’.

Now because that judicious learning, for which we com-
mend most worthily the ancient sages of the world, doth not
in this case serve the turn, these trencher-mates (for such the
most of them be) frame to themselves a way more pleasant ;
a new method they have of turning things that are serious

into mockery, an art of contradiction by way of scorn, a

learning wherewith we were long sithence forewarned that
the miserable times whereinto we are fallen should abound!8.
This they study, this they practise, this they grace with a
wanton superfluity of wit, too much insulting over the patience
of more virtuously disposed minds.

For towards these so forlorn creatures we are (it must be
confest) too patient. In zeal to the glory of God, Babylon
hath excelled Sion!%, We want that decree of Nabuchodo-

16 Susan. ver. 9. “They turned “ agnoscere quem ignorare non pos-
“away their mind, and cast down “sis.” Cypr. de Idol. Vanit. [i. 15.
“ their eyes, that they might not see_ ed. Fell.]

*‘ heaven, nor remember just judg- 18 2 Pet. iii.3; Jude 18.
** ments.” 19 Dan. iii. 29.
\7 « Heec est summa delicti, nolle

21

nosor; the fury of this wicked brood hath the reins too much
at liberty; their tongues walk at large; the spit-venom of
their poisoned hearts breaketh out to the annoyance of others ;
what their untamed lust suggesteth, the same their licentious
mouths do every where set abroach.

With our contentions their irreligious humour also is much
strenethened2°. Nothing pleaseth them better than these
manifold oppositions upon the matter of religion, as well for
that they have hereby the more opportunity to learn on one
side how another may be oppugned, and so to weaken the
eredit of all unto themselves; as also because by this hot
pursuit of lower controversies among men professing religion,
and agreeing in the principal foundations thereof, they con-
ceive hope that about the higher principles themselves time
-will cause altercation to grow.

For which purpose, when they see occasion, they stick not
sometime in other men’s persons, yea sometime without any
vizard at all, directly to try, what the most religious are able
to say in defence of the highest points whereupon all reli-
gion dependeth. Now for the most part it so falleth out
touching things which generally are received, that although
in themselves they be most certain, yet because men pre-
sume them granted of all, we are hardliest able to bring such
proof of their certainty as may satisfy gainsayers, when sud-
denly and besides expectation they require the same at our
hands. Which impreparation and unreadiness when they
find in us, they turn it to the soothing up of themselves in
that cursed fancy, whereby they would fain believe that the
hearty devotion of such as indeed fear God is nothing else but
a kind of harmless error, bred and confirmed in them by the
sleights of wiser men.

[3.] For a politic use of religion they see there is, and
by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere
politic device, forged purposely to serve for that use. Men

Practice of mistimed Disputation by Atheists.

20 [See Cranmer’s letter, below.
In a paper called, “An Advertise-
‘ment touching the Controver-
*“sies of the Church of Eng-
‘land,’ (Mus. Bodl. 55. Catal.
MSS. Angl. 3499,) is the fol-
lowing: ‘Two principall causes
“have I ever known of Atheism:

* curious controversies, and pro-
** phane scoffiing. Now that these
** two are joined to one, no doubt
** that sect will make no small pro-
‘“‘ gression.” ‘The paper seems to
have been written, by a sensible and
very moderate man, about 1589 or

1590.)

BOOK V.
Ch. ii. 3.

BOOK V.

Ch. ii. 4.

22 The Political use of Religion.

fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by
positive laws restrained from doing evil; masmuch as those
laws have no farther power than over our outward actions only,
whereas unto men’s?! inward cogitations, unto the privy
intents and motions of their hearts, religion serveth for a
bridle. What more savage, wild, and cruel, than man, if he
see himself able either by fraud to overreach, or by power to
overbear, the laws whereunto he should be subject? Where-
fore in so great boldness to offend, it behoveth that the world
should be held in awe, not by a vain surmise, but a true
apprehension of somewhat, which no man may think himself
able to withstand. This is the politic use of religion. rs

[4.] In which respect there are of these wise malignants??
some, who have vouchsafed it their marvellous favourable
countenance and speech, very gravely affirming, that religion
honoured, addeth greatness, and contemned, bringeth ruin
unto commonweals; that princes and states, which will con-
tinue, are above all things to uphold the reverend regard
of religion, and to provide for the same by all means in the
making of their laws.

But when they should define what means are best for that
purpose, behold, they extol the wisdom of Paganism; they
give it out as a mystical precept of great importance, that
princes, and such as are under them in most authority or
credit with the people, should.take all occasions of rare events,
and from what cause soever the same do proceed, yet wrest
them to the strengthening of their religion, and not make it

21 «* Vos scelera admissa punitis,
** apud nos et cogitare peccare est ;
** vos conscios timetis, nos etiam
** conscientiam solam, sine qua esse
“non possumus.” Minuc. Fel. in
Octav. [c. 35.] “Summum presi-
*‘ dium regni est justitia ob apertos
* tumultus, et religio ob occultos.”
Carda. de Sapien. lib. iii. [vol. i. p.
537. ed. Baga: 1663. |

#2 Mach. Disc. lib. i. c. 11—14.
[Come la osservanza del culto
“‘divino @ cagione della grandez-
“za delle Republiche, cosi il dis-
** pregio di quello é cagione della
*“ rovina di esse.........20. Quelli
“ Principi, 6 quelle Republiche, le
*€ quali si vogliono mantenere incor-
“rotte, hanno sopra ogni altra cosa

**a mantenere incorrotte le ceri-
“monie della Religione, e tenerle
** sempre nella loro veneratione. ...
** E debbono tutte le cose che nas-
‘*cono in favore di guella (come
* che la giudicassino falsa) favorirle
“ed accrescerle; e tanto pit lo
** debbono fare, quanto pit pruden-
“ ti sono, e quanto pit conoscitori
“delle cose naturali. E perche
** questo modo é stato osservato da
“gli huomini savi, ne é nata la
** opinione de i miracoli, che si cele-
“brano nelle religioni, eziandio
** false ; perchei prudenti gli augu-
** mentano, da qualunque principio
** nascono, e I’ autorita loro da poi
4 quelli fede appresso a qua-
** lunque.’”]

Superstition: It arises from Zeal or Fear. 23

nice for so good a purpose to use, if need be, plain forgeries. BOOK Y.
Thus while they study how to bring to pass that religion ————
may seem but a matter made, they lose themselves in the very
maze of their own discourses, as if reason did even purposely
forsake them, who of purpose forsake God the author thereof.
For surely a strange kind of madness it is, that those men
who though they be void of piety, yet because they have wit
cannot choose but know that treachery, guile, and deceit are
things, which may for a while but do not use long to go
unespied, should teach that the greatest honour to a state is
perpetuity? ; and grant that alterations in the service of God,
for that they impair the credit of religion, are therefore
perilous in commonweals, which have no continuance longer
than religion hath all reverence done unto it?4; and withal
acknowledge (for so they do) that when people began to espy
the falsehood of oracles, whereupon all Gentility was built,
their hearts were utterly averted from it»; and notwithstand-
ing counsel princes in sober earnest, for the strengthening
of their states to maintain religion, and for the maintenance
of religion not to make choice of that which is true, but to
authorize that they make choice of by those false and frau-
dulent means which in the end must needs overthrow it.
Such are the counsels of men godless, when they would
shew themselves politic devisers, able to create God in man
by art.

III. Wherefore to let go this execrable crew, and to come of Super-
to extremities on the contrary hand; two affections there are, rae ea
the forces whereof, as they bear the greater or lesser sway in thereof, ei-
man’s heart, frame accordingly the stamp and character of his oud ol
religion ; the one zeal, the other fear. zeal, or

Zeal, unless it be rightly guided, when it endeavoureth £7, aeeee
most busily to please God, forceth upon him those unseason- vine glory.
able offices which please him not. For which cause, if they
who this way swerve be compared with such sincere, sound,

23 [** Non @ la salute d’ una Re- “ provincia, che vedere dispregiato
** publica 6 d’ un Regno havere un “il culto divino.” c. 12.]
‘** Principe che prudentemente go- 75 [** Come costoro cominciarono
‘* verni, mentre vive, ma uno che’ “ dipoi 4 parlarea modo de’ Potenti,
*‘ordini in modo, che morendo, “ e questa falsita si fu scoperta ne’
** ancora la si mantenga.” c. 11. | ** popoli, divennero gli huomini in-

24[“Nessuno maggiore indizio “ creduli, ed atti a perturbare ogn’
* si puote havere dalla rovinad’ una “ ordine buono,”

BOOK V.

Ch. iii. 2.

24 Superstition errs either in the Object or Kind of Worship.

and discreet, as Abraham was in matter of religion ; the ser-
vice of the one is like unto flattery, the other like the faithful
sedulity of friendship?®. Zeal, except it be ordered aright,
when it bendeth itself unto conflict with things either in deed,
or but imagined to be opposite unto religion, useth the razor
many times with such eagerness, that the very life of religion
itself is thereby hazarded; through hatred of tares the corn
in the field of God is plucked up. So that zeal needeth both
ways a sober guide.

Fear on the other side, if it have not the light of true
understanding concerning God, wherewith to be moderated,
breedeth likewise superstition. It is therefore dangerous, that
in things divine we should work too much upon the spur
either of zeal or fear. Fear is a good solicitor to devotion.
Howbeit, sith fear in this kind doth grow from an apprehen-
sion of Deity endued with irresistible power to hurt, and is of
all affections (anger excepted) the unaptist to admit any
conference with reason; for which cause the wise man doth
say of fear that it is a betrayer of the forces of reasonable ~
understanding?’ ; therefore except men know beforehand
what manner of service pleaseth God, while they are fearful
they try all things which fancy offereth. Many there are
who never think on God but when they are in extremity of
fear; and then, because what to think or what to do they are
uncertain, perplexity not suffering them to be idle, they think
and do as it were in a phrensy they know not what. |

[2.] Superstition neither knoweth the right kind, nor
observeth the due measure, of actions belonging to the service
of God, but is always joined with a wrong opinion touching
things divine. Superstition is, when things are either abhor-
red or observed with a zealous or fearful, but erroneous,
relation to God. By means whereof, the superstitious do
sometimes serve, though the true God, yet with needless
offices, and defraud him of duties necessary; sometime load
others than him with such honours as properly are his. The

_ one their oversight, who miss in the choice of that wherewith ;

the other theirs, who fail in the election of him towards whom
they shew their devotion: this the crime of idolatry, that, the
fault of voluntary either niceness or superfluity in religion.

26 2 Chron. xx. 7; ‘Abraham thy friend.” 27 Wisd. xvii. 12.

Superstition most apt to grow on the Western Church. 25

[3.] The Christian world itself beimg divided into two
grand parts, it appeareth by the general view of both, that
with matter of heresy the west hath been often and much
troubled ; but the east part never quiet, till the deluge of
misery, wherein now they are, overwhelmed them. ‘The
chiefest cause whereof doth seem to have lien in the restless
wits of the Grecians, evermore proud of their own curious and
subtile inventions ; which when at any time they had contrived,
the great facility of their language served them readily to
make all things fair and plausible to men’s understanding.
Those grand heretical impieties therefore, which most highly
and immediately touched God and the glorious Trinity, were
all in a manner the monsters of the east. The west bred
fewer a great deal, and those commonly of a lower nature,
such as more nearly and directly concerned rather men than
God ; the Latins being always to capital heresies less inclined,
yet unto gross superstition more.

[4.] Superstition such as that of the Pharisees was28, by
whom divine things indeed were less, because other things
were more divinely esteemed of than reason would; the su-
_perstition that riseth voluntarily, and by degrees which are
hardly discerned mingleth itself with the rites even of very
divine service done to the only true God, must be considered
of as a creeping and encroaching evil, an evil the first be-
ginnings whereof are commonly harmless, so that it proveth
only then to be an evil when some farther accident doth grow
unto it, or itself come unto farther growth. For in the
Church of God sometimes it cometh to pass as in over battle
grounds®9, the fertile disposition whereof is good; yet be-
cause it exceedeth due proportion, it bringeth forth abun-
dantly, through too much rankness, things less profitable ;
whereby that which principally it should yield being either
prevented in place, or defrauded of nourishment, faileth.
This (if so large a discourse were necessary) might be exem-
plified even by heaps of rites and customs now superstitious
in the greatest part of the Christian world, which in their
‘first original beginnings, when the strength of virtuous,
28 Mark vii. 9. times signifies “to grow fat,” some-
29 [ Battel or Battle, adj. “Fruitful, times ‘to render fertile.” Todd’s

“ fertile.’ From the verb “‘tobat- Johnson’s Dict. ]
tel” of “ battil,”’ which some-

BOOK V.
Ch. iii. 3, 46

md

;

@a_

b
?,

iz

26 Why the Charge of Superstition must be met.

BooK v. devout, or charitable affection bloomed? them, no man could
ncn justly have condemned as evil. . |

Ofthere- |TV. But howsoever superstition do grow, that wherein un-

asin lg sounder times have done amiss, the better ages ensuing must

inGod’s rectify as they may. I now come therefore to those accusa-

vse) cor. tions brought against us by pretenders of reformation ; the

cerning the first in the rank whereof is such, that if so be the Church of

iretpeuk. England did at this day therewith as justly deserve to be

touched, as they in this cause have imagined it doth, rather

would I exhort all sorts to seek pardon even with tears at the

hands of God, than meditate words of defence for our doings,

to the end that men might think favourably of them. For as

the case of this world, especially now, doth stand, what other

stay or succour have we to lean unto, saving the testimony of

our conscience, and the comfort we take in this, that we serve

the living God (as near as our wits can reach unto the know-

ledge thereof) even according to his own will, and do there-

fore trust that his mercy shall be our safeguard against those

enraged powers abroad, which principally in that respect are

become our enemies ? But sith no man can do ill with a good

conscience, the consolation which we herein seem to find, is

but a mere deceitful pleasing of ourselves in error, which at

the length must needs turn to our greater grief, if that which

we do to please God most be for the manifold defects thereof

offensive unto him. For so it is judged, our prayers, our

sacraments, our fasts, our times and places of public meeting

together for the worship and service of God, our marriages,

our burials, our functions, elections, and ordinations ecclesias-

tical, almost whatsoever we do in the exercise of our religion

according to laws for that purpose established, all things are

some way or other thought faulty, all things stained with
superstition.

[2.] Now although it may be the wiser sort of men are not
greatly moved hereat, considering how subject the very best
things have been always unto cavil, when wits possessed either
with disdain or dislike thereof have set them up as their mark
to shoot at: safe notwithstanding it were not therefore to

29 [Numbers xvii. 8. “The rod “ buds, and bloomed blossoms, and
“of Aaron for the house of Levi “ yielded almonds:” quoted by Mr.
“was budded, and brought forth Todd.] i

How far it is urged: and on what Principles. 27

neglect the danger which from hence may grow, and that Posed
especially in regard of them, who desiring to serve God as ————
they ought, but being not so skilful as in every point to un-

wind themselves where the snares of glosing speech do lie to
entangle them, are in mind not a little troubled, when they

hear so bitter invectives against that which this church hath

taught them to reverence as holy, to approve as lawful, and to

observe as behoveful for the exercise of Christian duty. It
seemeth therefore at the least for their sakes very meet, that

such as blame us in this behalf be directly answered, and

they which follow us informed plainly in the reasons of that

we do.

[3.] On both sides the end intended between us, is to have
laws and ordinances such as may rightly serve to abolish
superstition, and to establish the service of God with all hea
thereunto appertaining in some perfect form.

There is an inward reasonable®°, and there is a solemn 3 31
outward serviceable worship ieloagsivic unto God. Of the
former kind are all manner virtuous duties that each man in
reason and conscience to Godward oweth. Solemn and ser-
viceable worship we name for distinction’s sake, whatsoever
belongeth to the Church or public society of God by way of
external adoration. It is the later of these two whereupon
our present question groweth. |

Again, this later being ordered, partly, and as touching
principal matters, by none but precepts divine only ; partly,
and as concerning things of inferior regard, by ordinances as
well human as divine: about the substance of religion wherein
God’s only law must be kept there is here no controversy ;
the crime now intended against us is, that our laws have not
ordered those inferior things as behoveth, and that our cus-
toms are either superstitious, or otherwise amiss, whether we
respect the exercise of public duties in religion, or the func-
tions of persons authorized thereunto.

V. It is with teachers of mathematical sciences usual, for Four gene-
us in this present question necessary, to lay down first certain het 49
reasonable demands, which in most particulars following are manding
to serve as principles whereby to work, and therefore must 2+ which

: may rea-
be beforehand considered. The men whom we labour to sonably be

- : granted
30 Rom. xii. 1. 31 Luke i. 23.

28 Puritan Tests of Church Orders wrong or vague.

BOOK V. inform in the truth perceive that so to proceed is requisite.
—"_ For-to this end they also propose touching customs and rites
matters of indifferent their general axioms, some of them subject unto
ms ae just exceptions, and, as we think, more meet by them to be
exercise of farther considered, than assented unto by us. As that, “In
on a “ outward things belonging to the service of God, reformed
fifthly, Of “ churches ought by all means to shun conformity with the
om “ church of Rome;” that, “the first reformed should be a

reasonable “ pattern whereunto all that come after ought to conform
oases “ themselves ;” that, “sound religion may not use the things
“ which being not commanded of God have been either de-
‘‘ vised or abused unto superstition.” These and the rest
of the same consort we have in the book going before
examined.
Other canons they allege and rules not unworthy of appro-
bation; as that, “In all such things the glory of God, and
“the edification or ghostly good of his people, must be
“ sought ;” “ That nothing should be undecently or unorderly
“done.” But forasmuch as all the difficulty is in discerning
what things do glorify God and edify his Church, what not;
when we should think them decent and fit, when otherwise :
because these rules being too general, come not near enough
unto the matter which we have in hand; and the former
principles being nearer the purpose, are too far from truth ;
we must propose unto all men certain petitions incident and
very material in causes of this nature, such as no man of
moderate judgment hath cause to think unjust or unreason-
able. |
The first VI. The first thing therefore which is of force to cause
aA approbation with good conscience towards such customs or —
Judgment rites as publicly are established, is when there ariseth from the
things are due consideration of those customs and rites in themselves
‘os! plang apparent reason, although not always to prove them better

wardpublic than any other that might possibly be devised, (for who did

ordering Of ever require this in man’s ordinances?) yet competent to shew

affairs. their conveniency and fitness, in regard of the use for which
they should serve.

Now touching the nature of religious services, and the

manner of their due performance, thus much generally we

know to be most clear; that whereas the greatness and dignity

Our first Test : intrinsie Reasonableness. 29

of all manner actions is measured by the worthiness of the
subject from which they proceed, and of the object where-
about they are conversant, we must of necessity in both
respects acknowledge, that this present world affordeth not
any thing comparable unto the public duties of religion... For
if the best things have the perfectest and best operations, it
will follow, that seeing man is the worthiest creature upon
earth, and every society of men more worthy than any man,
and of societies that most excellent which we call the Church ;
there can be in this world no work performed equal to the
exercise of true religion, the proper operation of the Church
of God.

Again, forasmuch as religion worketh upon him who in
majesty and power is infinite, as we ought we account not of
it, unless we esteem it even according to that very height of
excellency which our hearts conceive when divine sublimity
itself is rightly considered. In the powers and faculties of
our souls God requireth the uttermost which our unfeigned
affection towards him is able to yield®2. So that if we affect
him not far above and before all things, our religion hath not
that inward perfection which it should have, neither do we
indeed worship him as our God.

[2.] That which inwardly each man should be, the Church
outwardly ought to testify. And therefore the duties of our
religion which are seen must be such as that affection which

is unseen ought to be. Signs must resemble the things they
signify. If religion bear the greatest sway in our hearts, our
outward religious duties must shew it as far as the Church
hath outward ability. Duties of religion performed by whole
societies of men, ought to have in them according to our
power a sensible excellency, correspondent to the majesty of
him whom we worship33._ Yea then are the public duties of
religion best ordered, when the militant Church doth resemble
by sensible means*+, as it may in such cases, that hidden

32 John iv. 24; Wisd. vi. 10; “ clesia est; Ecclesia vero est imago
1 Chron. xxix. 17. ** coelestium.”? Ambros. de Interpel.
83 2 Chron. ii. 5. Job et Dav. [l. ii. c. 2. t. i. 641.]
34 °ExkAnoia éotilv émiyevos ovpa- ‘“ Facit in terris opera coelorum.”
vés. Germa. rept rav iepovpyoupe- Sidon. Apol. Epist. lib. vi. [Ep. 12.
voy. [ap. Bibl. Patr. Colon. viii. ap. Bibl. Patr. Colon. iii. 988. |
53-] ‘ Delectatio Domini in Ec-

BOOK V.
Ch, vi. 2.

BOOK V.
Ch. vii. 1.

The second

proposi-
tion.

30 Our second Test: Antiquity.

dignity and glory wherewith the Church triumphant in heaven
is beautified.

Howbeit, even as the very heat of the sun itself which is
the life of the whole world was to the people of God in the
desert a grievous annoyance, for ease whereof his extra-
ordinary providence ordained a cloudy pillar to overshadow
them: so things of general use and benefit (for in this world
what is so perfect that no inconvenience doth ever follow it ?)
may by some accident be incommodious to a few. In which
case, for such private evils remedies there are of like condition,
though public ordinances, wherein the common good is re-
spected, be not stirred.

Let our first demand be therefore, that in the external
form of religion such things as are apparently, or can be suffi-
ciently proved, effectual and generally fit to set forward god-
liness, either as betokening the greatness of God, or as be-
seeming the dignity of religion, or as concurring with celestial
impressions in the minds of men, may be reverently thought
of ; some few, rare, casual, and tolerable, or otherwise curable,
inconveniences notwithstanding.

VII. Neither may we in this case lightly esteem what hath
been allowed as fit in the judgment of antiquity, and by the
long continued practice of the whole Church; from which
unnecessarily to swerve, experience hath never as yet found
it safe. For wisdom’s sake we reverence them no less that
are young, or not much less, than if they were stricken in
years. And therefore of such it is rightly said that their ripe-
ness of understanding is “ grey hair,” and their virtues “ old
“ age35,”” But because wisdom and youth are seldom joined
in one, and the ordinary course of the world is more accord-
ing to Job’s observation, who giveth men advice to seek
“ wisdom amongst the ancient, and in the length of days,
“ understanding 6 ;” therefore if the comparison do stand
between man and man, which shall hearken unto other; sith
the aged for the most part are best experienced, least subject
to rash ‘and unadvised passions, it hath been ever judged
reasonable that their sentence in matter of counsel should be
better trusted, and more relied upon than other men’s. The
goodness of God having furnished man with two chief instru-

35 Wisd. iv. 9. 36 Job xii. 12.

Inductive Force of the Argument from Antiquity. 31

ments both necessary for this life, hands to execute and a
mind to devise great things; the one is not profitable longer
than the vigour of youth doth strengthen it, nor the other
greatly till age and experience have brought it to perfection.
In whom therefore time hath not perfected knowledge, such
must be contented to follow them in whom it hath. For this
cause none is more attentively heard than they whose speeches
are as David’s were, “I have been young and now am old37,”
much I have seen and observed in the world. Sharp and
subtile discourses of wit procure many times very great ap-

BOOK V.

Ch. Vii. 2, 3.

plause, but being laid in the balance with that which the ©

habit of sound experience plainly delivereth, they are over-
weighed. God may endue men extraordinarily with under-
standing as it pleaseth him. But let no man presuming there-
upon neglect the instructions, or despise the ordinances of his
elders, sith He whose gift wisdom is hath said®8, “ Ask thy
« father and he will shew thee; thine ancients and they shall
“ tell thee.”

[2.] It is therefore the voice both of God and nature, not of
learning only, that especially in matters of action and policy,
“The sentences and judgments of men experienced, aged
“ and wise, yea though they speak without any proof or demon-
“ stration, are no less to be hearkened unto, than as being
« demonstrations in themselves ; because such men’s long ob-
“ servation is as an eye, wherewith they presently and plainly
“behold those principles which sway over all actions °9.”
Whereby we are taught both the cause wherefore wise men’s
judgments should be credited, and the mean how to use their
judgments to the increase of our own wisdom. That which
sheweth them to be wise, is the gathering of principles out of
their own particular experiments. And the framing of our
particular experiments according to the rule of their prin-
ciples shall make us such as they are.

[3.] If therefore even at the first so great account should be
made of wise men’s counsels touching things that are publicly
done, as time shall add thereunto continuance and approbation

37 etre. XXXVii.-25. | Tépov 7) ppoviner tais avamodeixrors

38 Deut. xxxii. 7. pacect kai ddEas, ody rrov trav

89 Arist. Eth. vi. cap. 11. [Act admodegéov dia yap rd exew ek Tis
Mpooexew Tay eumeipwv Kal mpegBu- €prretpias dupa dpoow apxds. |

82 Prejudice in Favour of Antiquity: why now abated.

Book v. of succeeding ages, their credit and authority must needs be

Oh. vil, $+;

greater. They which do nothing but that which men of
account did before them, are, although they do amiss, yet the
less faulty, because they are not the authors of harm. And
doing well, their actions are freed from prejudice of novelty
To the best and wisest4°, while they live, the world is con-
tinually a froward opposite, a curious observer of their defects
and imperfections; their virtues it afterwards as much ad-
mireth. And for this cause many times that which most
deserveth approbation would hardly be able to find favour, if
they which propose it were not content to profess themselves
therein scholars and followers of the ancient. For the world
will not endure to hear-that we are wiser than any have been
which went before. In which consideration there is cause
why we should be slow and unwilling to change, without very
urgent necessity, the ancient ordinances, rites, and long
approved customs, of our venerable predecessors. The love
of things ancient doth argue*! stayedness, but levity and want
of experience maketh apt unto innovations. That which
wisdom did first begin, and hath been with good men long
continued, challengeth allowance of them that succeed, al-
though it plead for itself nothing. That which is new, if it
promise not much, doth fear condemnation before trial ;° till
trial, no man doth acquit or trust it, what good soever it pre-
tend and promise. So that in this kind there are few things
known to be good, till such time as they grow to be ancient.
The vain pretence of those glorious names, where they could
not be with any truth, neither in reason ought to have been
so much alleged, hath wrought such a prejudice against them
in the minds of the common sort, as if they had utterly no
force at all; whereas (especially for these observances which
concern our present question) antiquity, custom, and consent
in the Church of God, making with that which law doth
establish, are themselves most sufficient reasons to uphold the

40 IIpds rods ék rodav HOdvos ovdeis 41"Ogor 80 edorabevay rpdrravrTd THs
gverat. Philo. dpxatérnros weuvov TOU Kawvorpemous
Tlacadvcpevecate Big rovre cvva- mpoetiunoav, Kal dmraparroinrov TOV
moriderat. Synes, marépav SueptAagav THY mapdadoow,

TO ex wod@y ov? dytimimret Kal Te Kara Te X@pav kal modu, TavTn Ké=
tiuntat apddvas. Greg. Naz. €v xpnvrae TH geovg. Basil. de Spirit.
Zrix. [t. 11. 251. ed. Paris.1630.] Sanet. cap. vii. [ Ed. Bened. iii. 23.]

Our third Test: Church Authority. 33

same, unless some notable public inconvenience enforce the
contrary. For‘? a small thing in the eye of law is as nothing.

[4.] We are therefore bold to make our second petition
this, That in things the fitness whereof is not of itself appa-
rent, nor easy to be made sufficiently manifest unto all, yet the
judgment of antiquity concurring with that which is received
may induce them to think it not unfit, who are not able to
allege any known weighty inconvenience which it hath, or to
take any strong exception against it.

BOOK V.
Ch. vii. 4.
Vili. I, 2.

VIII. All things cannot be of ancient continuance, which The third

are expedient and needful for the ordering of spiritual affairs :
but the Church being a body which dieth not hath always
power, as occasion requireth, no less to ordain that which
never was, than to ratify what hath been before. To pre-
scribe the order of doing in all things, is a peculiar prerogative
which Wisdom hath*?, as queen or sovereign commandress
over other virtues. This in every several man’s actions of
common life appertaineth unto Moral, in public and politic
secular affairs unto Civil wisdom. In like manner, to devise
any certain form for the outward administration of public
duties in the service of God, or things belonging thereunto,
and to find out the most convenient for that use, is a point of
wisdom Ecclesiastical.

[2.] It is not for a man which doth know or should know
what order is, and what peaceable government requireth, to
ask, “ why we should hang our judgment upon the Church’s
« sleeve ;” and “why in matters of order, more than in
* matters of doctrine*+.” The Church hath authority to
establish that for an order at one time, which at another time
it may abolish, and in both may do well. But that which
in doctrine the Church doth now deliver rightly as a truth,
no man will say that it may hereafter recall, and as rightly
avouch the -contrary. Laws touching matter of order are
changeable, by the power of the Church; articles concerning
doctrine not so. We read often in the writings of catholic

42 °O pev uixpoy Tod ed rapexBaivav, “ hommes du xvi. siécle.”’]

ov Wéyerar. Arist. Ethic. ii. c.9. 4 ‘H pév ppdvnots wept ra wounréa
*Modici nulla fere ratio haberi dpovs avrois riOcioa. Philo [de SS.
“solet.”” Tiraquel de Jud. in Reb. LL. Allegor. lib. i. t. i. 52.]

exig. cap. 10. [Opp. t. vi. 83. Bayle 44'T. C, lib. iii. p. 171.

calls him “un des plus savans

HOOKER, VOL. II. D

proposi-
tion,

BOOK V.
Ch. viii. 3.

34 To reject Church Authority 1s unnatural,

and holy men touching matters of doctrine, “this we believe,
“this we hold, this the Prophets and Evangelists have de-
“ clared, this the Apostles have delivered, this Martyrs have
“ sealed with their blood, and confessed in the midst of tor-
“ ments, to this we cleave as to the anchor of our souls,
“ against this, though an Angel from heaven should preach
“ unto us, we would not believe.” But did we ever in any
of them read, touching matters of mere comeliness, order, and
decency, neither commanded nor prohibited by any Prophet,
any Evangelist, any Apostle, “ Although the church wherein
“< we live, do ordain them to be kept, although they be never
* so generally observed, though all the churches in the world
« should command them, though Angels from heaven should
“ require our subjection thereunto, J would hold him accursed
“ that doth obey ?” Be it in matter of the one kind or of the
other, what Scripture doth plainly deliver, to that the first
place both of credit and obedience is due; the next where-
unto is whatsoever any man can necessarily conclude by force
of reason; after these the voice of the Church succeedeth.
That which the Church by her ecclesiastical authority shall
probably think and define to be true or good, must in con-
gruity of reason overrule all other inferior judgments what-
soever.

[3.] To them which ask why we thus hang our judgment
on the Church’s sleeve, I answer with Solomon, because “ two
“are better than one*>.” “ Yea simply (saith Basil4*) and
“ universally, whether it be in works of Nature, or of volun-
*‘ tary choice and counsel, I see not any thing done as it
“ should be, if it be wrought by an agent singling itself from
“ consorts.” The Jews had a sentence of good advice, “ Take
“not upon thee to be a judge alone; there is no sole judge
“ but one only ; say not to others, Receive my sentence, when
“ their authority is above thine47.” The bare consent of the

45 Eccles. iv. 9.

46 Basil. Ep. 68. [al. 97: dmaf-
amas ovd€ey ove T&v ex Hucews ovTE
TOY ex Tpoarpévews karopboupevev
6p, dvev tis Tov dpopudov ou
mvoias emurehovpevov" Orou ye kalavTn
7 Tpogevx7) 1 Exoveca Tous cuppo-
voovras adpaveorépa éotl mokd@
éaurijs. t. ili, 191.] Deer. pars i.

dist. 8. c. [2. Corp. Jur. Can. p. 5.]
Que contra. “ Turpis est omnis
‘pars universo suo non congru-
* ens.”

47 R. Ishmael in Cap. Patr. [fol.
54. ed. Venet. 1567. "TT JJ A ox
NYT HILWONN Oy) Ty xy TP TT PSD

[: mms Xn PND] pw

and implies a Tendency to wreverence. 35

whole Church should itself in these things stop their mouths,
who living under it, dare presume to bark against it. “There
“is (saith Cassianus) no place of audience left for them, by

“whom obedience is not yielded to that which all have
“agreed upon4s.” Might we not think it more than won-
derful, that nature should in all communities appoint a pre-
dominant judgment to sway and overrule in so many things ;
or that God himself should allow so much authority and
power unto every poor family for the ordering of all which are
in it; and the city of the living God, which is his Church, be
able neither to command nor yet to forbid any thing, which
the meanest shall in that respect, and for her sole authority’s
sake, be bound to obey ?

[4.] We cannot hide or dissemble that evil, the grievous
inconvenience whereof we feel. Our dislike of them, by whom
too much heretofore hath been attributed unto the Church, is
grown to an error on the contrary hand; so that now from
the Church of God too much is derogated. By which re-
moval of one extremity with another, the world seeking to
procure a remedy, hath purchased a mere exchange of the
evil which before was felt.

Suppose we that the sacred word of God can at their hands
receive due honour, by whose incitement the holy ordinances
of the Church endure every where open contempt? No; it
is not possible they should observe as they ought the one,
who from the other withdraw unnecessarily their own or their
brethren’s obedience.

Surely the Church of God in this business is neither of
capacity, I trust, so weak, nor so unstrengthened, I know, with
authority from above, but that her laws may exact obedience
at the hands of her own children, and enjoin gainsayers silence,
giving them roundly to understand, That where our duty is
submission, weak oppositions betoken pride.

[5-] We therefore crave thirdly to have it granted, That
where neither the evidence of any law divine, nor the strength
of any invincible argument otherwise found out by the light

48 Cassian. de Incarn. l,i. c.6. ‘‘impugnat: et audientiz locum
[in Bibl. Patr. Lat. iv. 60. “ Pre- “non habet qui a cunctis statuta
i ueiaaen suum damnationis exhi- ‘ convellit.’’]

*buit, qui judicium universitatis

D 2

BOOK V.

Ch viii. 4, 5.

36 Fourth Test: Dispensation in dispensable Matter.

Book v. of reason, nor any notable public inconvenience, doth make

** aeainst that which our own laws ecclesiastical have although
but newly instituted for the ordering of these affairs, the very
authority of the Church itself, at the least in such cases, may
give so much credit to her own laws, as to make their sen-
tence touching fitness and conveniency weightier than any
bare and naked conceit to the contrary ; especially in them
who can owe no less than child-like obedience to her that
hath more than motherly power.

The fourth JX. There are ancient ordinances, laws which on all sides

aaa are allowed to be just and good, yea divine and apostolic con-
stitutions, which the church it may be doth not always keep,
nor always justly deserve blame in that respect. For in evils
that cannot be removed without the manifest danger of greater
to succeed in their rooms, wisdom, of necessity, must give
place to necessity. All it can do in those cases is to devise
how that which must be endured may be mitigated, and the
inconveniences thereof countervailed as near as may be; that
when the best things are not possible, the best may be made
of those that are.

Nature than which there is nothing more constant, nothing
more uniform in all her ways, doth notwithstanding stay her
hand, yea, and change her course, when that which God
by creation did command, he doth at any time by necessity
countermand. It hath therefore pleased himself sometime to
unloose the very tongues even of dumb creatures, and to
teach them to plead this in their own defence+9, lest the
cruelty of man should persist to afflict them for not keeping
their wonted course, when some invincible impediment hath
hindered.

If we leave Nature and look into Art, the workman hath
in his heart a purpose, he carrieth in mind the whole form
which his work should have, there wanteth not in him skill
and desire to bring his labour to the best effect, only the
matter which he hath to work on is unframable. This
necessity excuseth him, so that nothing is derogated from
his credit, although much of his work’s perfection be found
wanting.

Touching actions of common life, there is not any defence

49 Numb. xxii. 28. |

Analogies for a dispensing Power im the Church. 37

more favourably heard than theirs, who allege sincerely for
themselves, that they did as necessity constrained them.
For when the mind is rightly ordered and affected as it
should be, in case some external impediment crossing well
advised desires shall potently draw men to leave what they
principally wish, and to take a course which they would
not if their choice were free; what necessity forceth men
unto*°, the same in this case it maintaineth, as long as
nothing is committed simply in itself evil, nothing absolutely
sinful or wicked, nothing repugnant to that immutable law,
whereby whatsoever is condemned as evil can never any
way be made good. The casting away of things profitable
for the sustenance of man’s life, is an unthankful abuse of
_ the fruits of God’s good providence towards mankind. Which
consideration for all that5! did not hinder St. Paul from
throwing corn into the sea, when care of saving men’s lives
made it necessary to lose that which else had been better
saved. Neither was this to do evil, to the end that good
might come of it: for of two such evils being not both
evitable, the choice of the less is not evil. And evils must
be in our constructions judged inevitable, if there be no
apparent ordinary way to avoid them; because where counsel
and advice bear rule, of God’s extraordinary power without
extraordinary warrant we cannot presume.

In civil affairs to declare what sway necessity hath ever
been accustomed to bear, were labour infinite. The laws
of all states and kingdoms in the world have scarcely of
any thing more common use. Should then only the Church
shew itself inhuman and stern, absolutely urging a rigorous
observation of spiritual ordinances, without relaxation or ex-
ception what necessity soever happen? We know the contrary
practice to have been commended by him*?, upon the warrant
of whose judgment the Church, most of all delighted with
merciful and moderate courses, doth the oftener condescend
unto like equity, permitting in cases of necessity that which
otherwise it disalloweth and forbiddeth.

Cases of necessity being sometime but urgent, a ae

50 ** Necessitas, quicquid coegit, . controv. 27. p. 186, ed. Paris. 1626. ]
“ defendit,”’ Senec. Controyv. [lib. iv. 51 Acts xxvii. 38. 52 Luke vi. 4.

BOOK V.
Ch, ix. 1,

BOOK V.
Ch. ix. 2.

38 Undisciplined Minds too fond of Generalities.

extreme>?, the consideration of public utility is with very good
advice judged at the least equivalent with the easier kind
of necessity.

[2.] Now that which causeth numbers to storm against
some necessary tolerations, which they should rather let pass
with silence, considering that in polity as well ecclesiastical
as civil, there are and will be always evils which no art of
man can cure, breaches and leaks more than man’s wit hath
hands to stop; that which maketh odious unto them many
things wherein notwithstanding the truth is that very just —
regard hath been had of the public good; that which in a
great part of the weightiest causes belonging to this present
controversy hath ensnared the judgments both of sundry
good and of some well learned men, is the manifest truth of
certain general principles, whereupon the ordinances that serve
for usual practice in the Church of God are grounded. Which
principles men knowing to be most sound, and that the ordi-
nary practice accordingly framed is good, whatsoever is over
and besides that ordinary, the same they judge repugnant to
those true prineiples. The cause of which error is ignorance
what restraints and limitations all such principles have, in
regard of so manifold varieties>+ as the Matter whereunto
they are appliable doth commonly afford. These varieties are
not known but by much experience, from whence to draw
the true bounds of all principles, to discern how far forth
they take effect, to see where and why they fail, to appre-
hend by what degrees and means they lead to the practice of
things in show though not in deed repugnant and contrary
one to another, requireth more sharpness of wit, more intricate
circuitions of discourse, more industry and depth of judg-
ment, than common ability doth yield. So that general rules,
till their limits be fully known (especially in matter of public
and ecclesiastical affairs), are, by reason of the manifold secret
exceptions which lie hidden in them, no other to the eye of
man’s understanding than cloudy mists cast before the eye
of common sense. They that walk in darkness know not

53 « Causa necessitatis et utilitatis 54°Ey rois mepl ras mpdkeus Adyors,
** eequiparantur in jure.” Abb. of pev xaOddov Keverepoi ciow, of &
Panor. ad c. ut super nu. 15. de él pépous dAnOiwdrepor’ mept yap Ta

Reb. Eccles. non alien. [Comment. - xa’ éxagra ai mpdées. Arist. Eth.
in Decretal. t. iii. 76. Lugd. 1586.] _lib. ii. ¢. 7.

Dispensation at Times required by Equity. 39

whither they go. And even as little is their certainty, whose
opinions generalities only do guide. With gross and popular
capacities nothing doth more prevail than unlimited gene-
ralities5>, because of their plainness at the first sight: nothing
less with men of exact judgment, because such rules are not
safe to be trusted over far. General laws are like general
rules of physic according whereunto as no wise man will
desire himself to be cured, if there be joined with his disease
some special accident, in regard whereof that whereby others
in the same infirmity but without the like accident recover
health, would be to him either hurtful, or at the least
unprofitable; so we must not, under a colourable commen-
dation of holy ordinances in the Church, and of reasonable
causes whereupon they have been grounded for the common
good, imagine that all men’s cases ought to have one measure.

[3.] Not without singular wisdom therefore it hath been
provided, that as the ordinary course of common affairs is
disposed of by general laws, so likewise men’s rarer incident
necessities and utilities should be with special equity con-
sidered. From hence it is, that so many privileges, immu-
nities, exceptions, and dispensations, have been always with
great equity and reason granted; not to turn the edge of
justice, or to make void at certain times and in certain men,
through mere voluntary grace or benevolence, that which
continually and universally should be of force, (as some under-
stand it,) but in very truth to practise general laws according
to their right meaning.

We see in contracts and other dealings which daily pass
between man and man, that, to the utter undoing of some,
many things by strictness of law may be done, which equity
and honest meaning forbiddeth. Not that the law is unjust,
but unperfect ; nor equity against, but above, the law, binding
men’s consciences in things which law cannot reach unto.
Will any man say, that the virtue of private equity is
opposite and repugnant to that law the silence whereof it
supplieth in all such private dealing? No more is public
equity against the law of public affairs, albeit the one permit
unto some in special considerations, that which the other

55 [So Arist. Rhet. ii, 21. 9, of yap dypoikor padurra yvwporvrot ict, xa
padiws dmropaivovrat, |

LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE

BOOK V,

Ch. ix. 3.

40 Dispensation at Times required by Equity.

poox vy, agreeably with general rules of justice doth in general sort

Oh 245+ forbid. For sith all good laws are the voices of right reason,

which is the instrument wherewith God will have the world —

guided; and impossible it is that right should withstand
right: it must follow that principles and rules of justice, be
they never so generally uttered, do no less effectually intend
than if they did plainly express an exception of all par-
ticulars, wherein their literal practice might any way pre-
judice equity.

[4.] And because it is natural unto all men to wish their
own extraordinary benefit, when they think they have rea-
sonable inducements so to do; and no man can be presumed
a competent judge what equity doth require in his own case:
the likeliest mean whereby the wit of man can provide, that
he which useth the benefit of any special benignity above
the common course of others may enjoy it with good con-
science, and not against the true purpose of laws which in
outward show are contrary, must needs be to arm with
authority some fit both for quality and place, to administer
that which in every such particular shall appear agreeable
with equity. Wherein as it cannot be denied but that some-
times the practice of such jurisdiction may swerve through
error even in the very best, and for other respects where less
integrity is: so the watchfullest observers of inconveniences
that way growing, and the readiest to urge them in disgrace
of authorized proceedings, do very well know, that the dis-
position of these things resteth not now in the hands of
Popes, who live in no worldly awe or subjection, but is com-
mitted to them whom law may at all times bridle, and superior
power control; yea to them also in such sort, that law itself
hath set down to what persons, in what causes, with what
circumstances, almost every faculty or favour shall be granted,
leaving in a manner nothing unto them, more than only to
deliver what is already given by law. Which maketh it by
many degrees less reasonable, that under pretence of incon-
veniences so easily stopped, if any did grow, and so well
prevented that none may, men should be altogether barred of
the liberty that law with equity and reason granteth.

[5-] These things therefore considered, we lastly require
that it may not seem hard, if in cases of necessity, or for

——~ Ty

Peptides ee -

Private Judgment no safe Criterion. 41

common utility’s sake, certain profitable ordinances sometime 800K v.
be released, rather than all men always strictly bound to the ———
general rigour thereof.

X. Now where the word of God leaveth the Church to The rule of
make choice of her own ordinances, if against those things — virits
which have been received with great reason, or against that not safe in
which the ancient practice of the Church hath continued {?¢° ¢°™
time out of mind, or against such ordinances as the power lowed.
and authority of that Church under which we live hath itself
devised for the public good, or against the discretion of the
Church in mitigating sometimes with favourable equity that
rigour which otherwise the literal generality of ecclesiastical
laws hath judged to be more convenient and meet; if against
all this it should be free for men to reprove, to disgrace, to
reject at their own liberty what they see done and practised
according to order set down; if in so great variety of ways
as the wit of man is easily able to find out towards any pur-
pose, and in so great liking as all men especially have unto
those inventions whereby some one shall seem to have been
more enlightened from above than many thousands, the
Church did give every man license to follow what himself
imagineth that “ God’s Spirit doth reveal” unto him, or what
he supposeth that God is likely to have revealed to some
special person whose virtues deserve to be highly esteemed :
what other effect could hereupon ensue, but the utter con-
fusion of his Church under pretence of being taught, led,
and guided by his Spirit? The gifts and graces whereof do
so naturally all tend unto common peace, that where such sin-
gularity is, they whose hearts it possesseth ought to suspect
it the more, inasmuch as if it did come of God, and should
for that cause prevail with others, the same God which
revealeth it to them, would also give them power of con-
firming it unto others, either with miraculous operation, or
with strong and invincible remonstrance of sound Reason,
such as whereby it might appear that God would indeed
have all men’s judgments give place unto it; whereas now
the error and unsufliciency of their arguments do make it on
- the contrary side against them a strong presumption, that
God hath not moved their hearts to think such things as he
hath not enabled them to prove.

BOOK V.
Ch. x. 2. xi. r.

Places for -
the public
service of

God.

42 Places for Solemn Worship before and under the Law.

[2.] And so from rules of general direction it resteth that
now we descend to a more distinct explication of particulars,
wherein those rules have their special efficacy.

XI. Solemn duties of public service to be done unto God,
must have their places set and prepared in such sort, as
beseemeth actions of that regard. Adam, even during the
space of his small continuance in Paradise, had where to
present himself before the Lord>®, Adam’s sons had out of
Paradise in like sort5? whither to bring their sacrifices. The
Patriarchs used 58altars, and *%mountains, and groves, to
the selfsame purpose.

In the vast wilderness when the people of God had them-
selves no settled habitation, yet a moveable tabernacle they
were commanded of God to make®!, The like charge was
given them against the time they should come to settle them-
selves in the land which had been promised unto their fathers,
«Ye shall seek that place which the Lord your God shall

“ choose ®.77. When God had chosen Jerusalem, and in
Jerusalem Mount Moriah®?, there to have his standing ha- —

bitation made, it was in the chiefest of David’s® desires to
have performed so good a work. His grief was no less that
he could not have the honour to build God a temple, than
their anger is at this day, who bite asunder their own tongues
with very wrath, that they have not as yet the power to pull
down the temples which they never built, and to level them
with the ground. It was no mean thing which he purposed.
To perform a work so majestical and stately was no small
charge. Therefore he incited all men unto bountiful con-
tribution, and procured towards it with all his power, gold,
silver, brass, iron, wood, precious stones, in great abundance®,
Yea, moreover, “ Because I have (saith David) a joy in the
“house of my God, I have of mine own gold and silver,
“ besides all that I have prepared for the house of the sanc-
“ tuary, given to the house of my God three thousand talents
“ of gold, even the gold of Ophir, seven thousand talents of
“ fined silver®6,” After the overthrow of this first house of

°6 Gen. iii.8. 6 Gen. xxi. 22. 64 2 Chron. vi. 7. Psal. cxxxii. -
7 Gen. iv.3. 61 Exod. fet 3-5. :
°8 Gen. xiii. 4. 62 Deut. xii. 5~7. 65 y Chron. xxii. 14.

59 Gen. xxii.1. 68 2 Chron. iii. I. 66 ; Chron. xxix. 3, 4.

cto Jie 06s ae

Places for Solemn Worship under the Gospel. 43

God, a second was instead thereof erected ; but with so great Book v.

odds, that they®” wept which had seen the former, and be-
held how much this later came behind it, the beauty whereof
notwithstanding was such, that even this was also the wonder
of the whole world. Besides which Temple, there were both
in other parts of the land, and even in Jerusalem, by process
of time, no small number of synagogues for men to resort
unto. Our Saviour himself, and after him the Apostles, fre-
quented both the one and the other.

[2.] The Church of Christ which was in Jerusalem, and
held that profession which had not the public allowance and
countenance of authority, could not so long use the exercise
of Christian religion but in private only®. So that as Jews
they had access to the temple and synagogues, where God
was served after the custom of the Law; but for that which
they did as Christians, they were of necessity forced other
where to assemble themselves®?, And as God gave increase
to his Church, they sought out both there and abroad for
that purpose not the fittest (for so the times would not suffer
them to do) but the safest places they could. In process of
time, some whiles by sufferance, some whiles by special leave
and favour, they began to erect themselves oratories; not in
any sumptuous or stately manner, which neither was possible
by reason of the poor estate of the Church, and had been
perilous in regard of the world’s envy towards them. At the
length, when it pleased God to raise up kings and emperors
favouring sincerely the Christian truth, that which the
Church before either could not or durst not do, was with all
alacrity performed. Temples were in all places erected.
No cost was spared, nothing judged too dear which that way
should be spent. The whole world did seem to exult, that
it had occasion of pouring out gifts to so blessed a purpose.
That cheerful devotion which David this way did exceedingly
delight to behold, and wish that the same in the Jewish
people might be perpetual?7°, was’ then in Christian people
every where to be seen.

[3.] Their actions, till this day always accustomed to be
spoken of with great honour, are now called openly into

67 Ezra iii.t2. Hag. ii. 2. 69 Acts ii. 1, 46.
68 Acts 1.13. 70 1 Chron. xxix, 17, 18.

Ch. xi, 2, 3.

BOOK V.
Ch. xii.1.

The solem-
nity of
erecting
churches
condemned
by Bar. p.
130. The
hallowing
and dedi-
cating of .
them
scorned,

p. 141.

Ad Dedication of Churches

question. They, and as many as have been followers of their
example in that thing, we especially that worship God either
in temples which their hands made, or which other men
sithence have framed by the like pattern, are in that respect
charged no less than with the very sin of idolatry. Our
churches, in the foam of that good spirit which directeth such
fiery tongues, they term spitefully the temples of Baal, idle
synagogues, abominable styes7?.

XII. Wherein the first thing which moveth them thus to
cast up their poison, are certain solemnities usual at the
first erection of churches. Now although the same should
be blame-worthy, yet this age thanks be to God hath rea-
sonably well forborne to incur the danger of any such blame.
It cannot be laid to many men’s charge at this day living, ©
either that they have been so curious as to trouble bishops
with placing the first stone in the Churches they built, or
so scrupulous, as after the erection of them to make any great —
ado for their dedication. In which kind notwithstanding as —
we do neither allow unmeet, nor purpose the stiff defence of
any unnecessary custom heretofore received72: so we know —

71 [Hooker seems here to be quot-
ing some tract of Henry Barrow’s:
probably “A Brief Discovery of
** the False Church,” London, 1590;
reprinted in 1707. But the editor
has not as yet been able to meet
with that pamphlet. ]

72 Durand. Rational. lib. i. cap.
6. Decr. Grat. III. Tit. de Conse-
cratione, Dist. i. c. 2. ‘ Taber-
*naculum.” Gregor, Magn. Epist.
x. 12. [al. xii.11.| and vii. 72. [ix.
70.| and viii. 63. |x. 66. The pas-
sage from the Decretal grounds the
principle of consecration on the
authority of the Old Testament, and
transfers it a fortiori to the Christ-
ian Dispensation. Durandus (who
wrote in the thirteenth century)
gives a minute detail of the cere-
monies used in his time. Of the
** unnecessary customs”’ referred to
by Hooker, and of the manner in
which they had come to be blended
with the simple and noble form
still retained in the practice of the
English Church, the following may
Serve as a specimen. ‘ Quarto,
“dicendum est qualiter Ecclesia

** consecratur. Et quidem omnibus
“de Ecclesia ejectis, solo Diacono
*‘ibi remanente incluso, Episcopus
“cum Clero ante fores Ecclesiz
‘*aquam non sine sale benedicit;
‘interim intrinsecus ardent xii lu-
‘** minaria ante xii cruces in parieti-
“bus Ecclesie depictas. Postmo-
‘dum vero clero et populo inse-
“ quente circumeundo LEcclesiam
“exterius cum falculo hyssopi,
“‘ parietes cum aqua benedicta as-
** pergit, et qualibet vice ad januam
** Ecclesize veniens percutit super-
*‘liminare cum baculo pastorali,
“ dicens, Attollite portas principes
“ vestras, &c. Diaconus de intus
“respondet, Quis est iste Rex
“‘ glorie ? Cui Pontifex, Dominus
** fortis, &c. Tertia vero vice, re-
** serato ostio, ingreditur Pontifex
“ ecclesiam cum paucis ex ministris,
“clero et populo foris manente,
“ dicens, Pax huic domui; et dicet
* litanias.” Let this be compared
with the corresponding part of the
service drawn up by Bishop An-
drews, and now commonly used.
The passages from St: Gregory are

a natural Hepression of Reverence. 45

no reason wherefore churches should be the worse, if at the
first erecting of them, at the making of them public, at the
time when they are delivered as it were in God’s own pos-
session, and when the use whereunto they shall ever serve is
established, ceremonies fit to betoken such intents and to
accompany such actions be usual, as in the purest times they
have been78. When Constantine7* had finished an house
for the service of God at Jerusalem, the dedication he
judged a matter not unworthy, about the solemn performance
whereof the greatest part of the bishops in Christendom
should meet together. Which thing they did at the empe-
ror’s motion, each most willingly setting forth that action to
their power; some with orations, some with sermons, some
with the sacrifice of prayers unto God for the peace of the
world, for the Church’s safety, for the emperor’s and his
children’s good75, By Athanasius’ the like is recorded con-
cerning a bishop of Alexandria, in a work of the like devout
magnificence. So that whether emperors or bishops in those
days were churchfounders, the solemn dedication of churches
they thought not to be a work in itself either vain or super-

stitious.

official letters, a few out of many,
exhibiting the form in which, as
Bishop of Rome, he was accustomed
to issue his license to his suffragans
for dedication of a Church or Chapel.
There are two conditions on which
he invariably insists: a certain fixed
endowment, and sufficient security
that the spot had never been used
as a burying-place before : the latter,
because (say the Benedictine editors)
** periculum erat ne cultus sanctis
** Martyribus debitus corporibus
** pridem hoc in loco sepultis reddi
“ putaretur.”’]

73” Eykaina Typo Oat madaios vd
Hos, kal Kadas € EXOV; padXov dé ra
véa ripao Bat be eykawior. Kai TovTO
ovx drag, aAXa Kali mohAdkis, € éxdo-
ba Tov eveauTov meptTpomrns: THY av-
THY npépay emayovons, iva pr e&itnra
7 xpov@ yernran Ta kana. Greg.
Nazian. Orat. eis ryy kuptakny.
[Orat. 43. init. ]

74 Vide Euseb. de vita Constant.
lib. iv. c. 41, 43-45.

75 [Euseb. iv. 45.

Oi dé rod

Can we judge it a thing seemly for any man to go

cod Aevroupyot edxais dpa kal dia-
heLeou THY €opTiy KaTeKdo pouy" ol
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vouvtes, tas dé mepi ro paptopoy
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Aoyikdv tpopay ais mayroy ma-
padidovres a dkoais® adXou de€ éppnvevas
Tov Geiov dvayvooparov €TFOLovvTO,
Tas droppyrous dmokahumrovres bew-
pias® of de py bua ToUT@Y Xxepelv
otoi TE, Ouoias dyaipots Kai pve
TuKais lepoupyias 16 Oeioy ihdoovto,
imép THs Kowis elpnyns, imep THs
exeAnoias Tod Geod, avrod re Bact-
héws trep. TOU ToTOUT@Y airiou,
maidey T avrov Geoprray, i ixetnpious
ri ah a TS O€m mpocavahéportes.

6 Athanas. _Apol. ad Constan-
tium, L§ 15. 6 pakapirns “Ae€av-
dpos, Kat oi @dXot warépes. . .ouvayd-
youres kal Tehe@oavres TO Epyovs
nvxapiornoay T@ Kupio, éyxawwia em
teheoavres. I. 685. Ed. Colon
1686. |

BOOK YV.
Ch. xii. 1.

BOOK V.
Ch. xii. 2.

46

about the building of an house to the God of heaven with no
other appearance, than if his end were to rear up a kitchen
or a parlour for his own use? Or when a work of such nature
is finished, remaineth there nothing but presently to use it,
and so an end ?

[2.] It behoveth that the place where God shall be served
by the whole Church, be a public place, for the avoiding of
privy conventicles, which covered with pretence of religion
may serve unto dangerous practices. Yea, although such
assemblies be had indeed for religion’s sake, hurtful neverthe-
less they may easily prove, as well in regard of their fitness
to serve the turn of heretics, and such as privily will soonest
adventure to instil their poison into men’s minds; as also for
the occasion which thereby is given to malicious persons, both
of suspecting and of traducing with more colourable show
those actions, which in themselves being holy, should be so
ordered that no man might probably otherwise think of
them. Which considerations have by so much the greater
weight, for that of these inconveniences the Church here-
tofore had so plain experience, when Christian men were
driven to use secret meetings, because the liberty of public
places was not granted them?77. There are which hold,
that the presence of a Christian multitude, and the duties
of religion performed amongst them, do make the place
of their assembly public7*; even as the presence of the king
and his retinue maketh any man’s house a court. But this I
take to be an error, inasmuch as the only thing which maketh
any place public is the public assignment thereof unto such
duties. As for the multitude there assembled, or the duties
which they perform, it doth not appear how either should be
of force to infuse any such prerogative.

Dedication of Churches makes them publi,

77 [See the Apologies of Tertullian “self those that are given unto him
and Justin Martyr.| “by his Father;..... Those thus

78 [See “A Declaration of the
** Faith and Order owned and prac-
*tised in the Congregational
“Churches in England; agreed
** upon and consented unto by their
“elders and messengers in their
“‘ meeting at the Savoy, Octob. 12,
* 1658.” London, 1659. p. 23, 24.
* The Lord Jesus calleth out of the
** world unto communion with him-

“called, he commandeth to walk
“ together in particular societies or
“* Churches....... Churches thus
** gathered and assembling for the
** worship of God, are thereby visible
“and public, and their assemblies
“(in what place soever they are)
** according as they have liberty or
** opportunity, are therefore Church
** or public assemblies.” |

and surrenders the Right of former Owners. 47

[3.] Nor doth the solemn dedication of churches serve
only to make them public, but further also to surrender up
that right which otherwise their founders might have in them,
and to make God himself their owner. For which cause at
the erection and consecration as well of the tabernacle as of
the temple, it pleased the Almighty to give a manifest sign
that he took possession of both79. Finally, it notifieth in
solemn manner the holy and religious use whereunto it is
intended such houses shall be put®°.

[4.] These things the wisdom of Solomon did not account
superfluous®!. He knew how easily that which was meant
should be holy and sacred, might be drawn from the use
whereunto it was first provided; he knew how bold men are
to take even from God himself; how hardly that house would
be kept from impious profanation he knew; and right wisely
therefore endeavoured by such solemnities to leave in the
minds of men that impression which might somewhat restrain
their boldness, and nourish a reverend affection towards the
house of God®?. For which cause when the first house was
destroyed, and a new in the stead thereof erected by the
children of Israel after their return from captivity, they kept
the dedication even of this house also with joy.

[5.| The argument which our Saviour useth against profaners
of the temple*‘, he taketh from the use whereunto it was with
solemnity consecrated. And as the prophet Jeremy forbiddeth
the carrying of burdens on the sabbath, because that was
a sanctified day®>; so because the temple was a place sanctified,
our Lord would not suffer no not the carriage of a vessel
through the temple®®. These two commandments therefore
are in the Law conjoined, “ Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and
*‘ reverence my sanctuary 87.”

Out of those the Apostle’s words, “ Have ye not houses to
eat and drink®’ ?”—albeit temples such as now were not
then erected for the exercise of the Christian religion, it hath
been nevertheless not absurdly conceived®? that he teacheth

79 Exod. xl. 34. 1 Reg. viii. 11. 86 Mark xi. 16.
80 Exod. xl.g. 8! 1 Reg. viii. 87 Levit. xxvi. 2.
82 Lev. xvi.2. The place named 88 1 Cor. xi. 22.
Holy. 83 Ezra vi. 16. 89 Pet. Cluniac. [cont. Petrobrus.
84 Matt. xxi. 13. Epist. in Biblioth. Patr. Colon. t.

85 Jer, xvii. 24. xili. 221, 2. “Recolite Epistolas

BOOK V.

Ch. xii. 3, 4, 5-

BOOK V.
Ch. xii. 6.

48 kites though used by Idolaters may be laudable.

what difference should be made between house and house” ;
that what is fit for the dwelling-place of God, and what for

man’s habitation he sheweth ; he requireth that Christian men —
at their own home take common food, and in the house of ©

the Lord none but that food which is heavenly ; he instructeth
them, that as in the one place they used to refresh their
bodies, so they may in the other learn to seek the nourish-
ment of their souls; and as there they sustain temporal life, so
here they would learn to make provision for eternal. Christ
could not suffer that the temple should serve for a place of
mart, nor the Apostle of Christ that the church should be
made an inn.

[6.] When therefore we sanctify or hallow churches, that
which we do is only to testify that we make them places of
public resort, that we invest God himself with them, that we
sever them from common uses. In which action, other
solemnities than such as are decent and fit for that purpose
we approve none.

Indeed we condemn not all as unmeet, the like where-

unto have been either devised or used haply amongst Idolaters.
For why should conformity with them in matter of opinion be
lawful when they think that which is true, if in action when
they do that which is meet it be not lawful to be like unto
them? Are we to forsake any true opinion ~because idolaters
have maintained it? Nor to shun any requisite action only

“ tianos in domibus suis communes

** Apostolorum, et ipsius Pauli di-
* cibos edere, in domo autem Do-

*“‘ versis Ecclesiis missas. Si vero

“‘ appellatione LEcclesiarum spirit-
“ualem magis fidelium congre-
‘* gationem quam corporalem struc-
*turam fieri dixeritis: videte quid
** Paulus Corinthios corripiens dicat ;
** «Convenientibus,’ inquit, ‘vobis
*‘ in Ecclesia, audio scissuras esse ;
** et ex parte credo.’ Et post pauca,
‘© *Nunquid domos non habetis ad
*“ manducandum et bibendum, aut
* Ecclesiam Dei contemnitis?’ Do-
** cet summus post Christum Ec-
** clesiz Magister domorum et do-
* morum distantiam ; et quid domui
*‘ divine, quid humanz conveniat,
** more suo lucide manifestat. Non
* patitur crimina carnis in domo
** Spiritus celebrari, sed vult Chris-

“mini dominicam tantum coenam
** manducare. Instruit eos, ut sicut
** in illis victum corporis sic in ista
“victum anime querere discant:
“* et sicut in illis vitam mortalem, sic
** in istavitam sibi provideant sempi-
“ternam. Imitatus est magistrum
“ discipulus Christum, in quo lo-
** quebatur Christus. Et sicut illa
*‘ templum Dei noluit esse domum
“ negotiationis, sic iste Ecclesiam
* Dei non est passus fieri domum
** comestionis.”

The date of this tract is 1147,

according to Fleury, Hist. Eccles,

tom. xv. 1. 49. c- 24. |
90 [See Mede’s Works, B. ii.
Disc. of Churches, p. 319-340. |

a

Sa ere

Our naming of Churches not superstitious. 49

because we have in the practice thereof been prevented by
idolaters. It is no impossible thing but that sometimes they
may judge as rightly what is decent about such external
affairs of God, as in greater things what is true. Not there-
fore whatsoever idolaters have either thought or done, but let
whatsoever they have either thought or done idolatrously be
so far forth abhorred. For of that which is good even in evil
things God is author.

XIII. Touching the names of Angels and Saints whereby
the most of our churches are called; as the custom of so

BOOK V.
Ch, xiii, 1, 2.

Of the
names
whereby

naming them is very ancient, so neither was the cause thereof we distin-

at the first, nor is the use and continuance with us at this
present, hurtful. That churches were consecrated unto none
but the Lord only, the very general name itself doth suffi-
ciently shew, inasmuch as by plain grammatical construction,
church doth signify no other thing than the Lord’s house%.
And because the multitude as of persons so of things particular
causeth variety of proper names to be devised for distinction
sake, founders of churches did herein that which best liked
their own conceit at the present time; yet each intending
that as oft as those buildings came to be mentioned, the name
should put men in mind of some memorable thing or person.
Thus therefore it cometh to pass that all churches have had
their names, some as memorials of Peace, some of Wisdom,
some in memory of the Trinity itself, some of Christ under
sundry titles, of the blessed Virgin not a few, many of one
Apostle, Saint or Martyr, many of all%.

[2.] In which respect their commendable purpose being
not of every one understood, they have been in latter ages
construed as though they had superstitiously meant, either
that those places which were denominated of Angels and
Saints should serve for the worship of so glorious creatures,
or else those glorified creatures for defence, protection, and

91 From Kvupiaxn, Kyre, and by dyiav “Amoorddwv. “Avéeotnoe Se

adding letters of aspiration, Chyrch.
92 Vid. Socr. lib. i. c. 16. [Ev
ravtn tH médet (Constantinople) dvo
pev oixodounoas éxkAnoias, play
erovénacev Eipnyny, érépav dé thy
Tav Arootédev éeravupov.| Evagr.
lib. iv. c. 30. [c. 31. mepi tod peyd-
Aov vaod THs ayias Sodias, Kai trav
HOOKER, VOL. II.

(Justinian) wodAods pev és KddAos
eEnaoknpévous T@ Oei@ kal Tois “Ayious
onxovs.| Hist. Trip. lib. iv. c. 18.
[‘* Hoc tempore imperator (Con-
** stantius) majorem Ecclesiam fa-
** bricabat que nunc Sophia vocita-
“tur, et est copulata Ecclesiz, que
“ dicitur Irene.” ]

E

guish our
churches.

BOOK V.

Ch, xiii, 30

50 Names of Saints rightly given to Churches.

patronage of such places. A thing which the ancient do
utterly disclaim. “%To them (saith St. Augustine) we
“ appoint no churches, because they are not to us as gods.”
Again%, “The nations to their gods erected temples, we not
“temples unto our Martyrs as unto gods, but memorials as
« unto dead men, whose spirits with God are still living.”
[3.] Divers considerations there are, for which Christian
churches might first take their names of Saints: as either
because by the ministry of Saints it pleased God there to
shew some rare effect of his power; or else in regard of death
which those saints having suffered for the testimony of Jesus
Christ did thereby make the places where they died venerable ;
or thirdly, for that it liked good and virtuous men to give
such occasion of mentioning them often, to the end that the
naming of their persons might cause inquiry to be made, and
meditation to be had of their virtues. Wherefore seeing
that we cannot justly account it superstition to give unto
churches those fore-rehearsed names, as memorials either of.
holy persons or things, if it be plain that their founders did
with such meaning name them, shall not we in otherwise
taking them offer them injury? Or if it be obscure or uncer-
tain what they meant, yet this construction being more

9 Vid. Aug. lib. viii. de Civ. Dei,
c.'27. [t. vii. 217. “ Nec tamen nos
“* eisdem Martyribus templa, sacer-
** dotia, sacra et sacrificia constitui-
** mus: quoniam non ipsi, sed Deus
** eorum nobis est Deus.” ]

%4 Ibid. lib. xxii. c. 10. [p. 673.
*‘ Jili talibus Diis suis et templa
** edificaverunt, et statuerunt, aras,
*‘ et sacerdotes instituerunt, et sa-
** crificiafecerunt. Nos autem Mar-
*‘ tyribus nostris non templa sicut
= dis, sed memorias sicut homini-
*‘ bus mortuis, quorum apud Deum
** vivunt spiritus, fabricamus.” See
Bingham, Antiq. viii. 1. 8; 9. 8, 9.]
Epist. 49. [al. 102. §.20.] ad Deo gra.
[t. xi. 280. “ Neque illic excusant
** impii sua sacrilega sacra et simu-
“ lacra, quod eleganter interpretan-
“tur quid queque significent.
“‘ Omnis quippe illa interpretatio ad
** creaturam refertur, non ad Crea-
*‘torem, cui uni debetur servitus
*religionis illa, que uno nomine

** Xarpeia Grece appellatur... Sancti
** angeli non approbant sacrificium,
*‘ nisi quod ex doctrina vere sapi-
“ entize, vereeque religionis offertur
** uni vero Deo, cui sancta societate
*‘ deserviunt. Proinde sicut impia
‘* superbia, sive hominum sive dz-
** monum, sibi hos divinos honores
** exhiberi vel jubet vel cupit; ita
“pia humilitas vel hominum vel
*‘angelorum sanctorum hec sibi
* oblata recusavit, et cui deberen-
** tur ostendit. Cujus rei manifes-
“tissima in sacris literis nostris
*‘exempla monstrantur.”’ ]

9 The duty which Christian men
performed in keeping festival dedi-
cations, St. Basil termeth Aarpeiay
tov Geov, acknowledging the same
to have been withal riyny eis rovs
Madprupas. Basil. in Psal. exiv,
[iptv pev ody, Kal Umvou Kal dvarav-
cews TH eis TOUS papTupas Tiny Kal
THv Tov Geod Aarpeiay mpotipaow,
eroimos 6 pods. t. le 199.

Names profane at first may become imnocent. 51

favourable, charity I hope constraineth no man which stand-
eth doubtful of their minds, to lean to the hardest and worst
interpretation that their words can carry.

[4.] Yea although it were clear that they all (for the error
of some is manifest in this behalf) had therein a superstitious
intent, wherefore should their fault prejudice us, who (as all
men know) do use but by way of mere distinction the names
which they of superstition gave? In the use of those names
whereby we distinguish both days and months are we cul-
pable of superstition, because they were, who first invented
them? The sign of Castor and Pollux superstitiously given
unto that ship wherein the Apostle sailed, polluteth not the
Evangelist’s pen, who thereby doth but distinguish that ship
from others9’. If to Daniel there had been given no other
name but only Belteshazzar, given him in honour of the
Babylonian idol Belti9’, should their idolatry which were
authors of that name cleave unto every man which had so
termed him by way of personal difference only? Were it not
to satisfy the minds of the simpler sort of men, these nice
curiosities are not worthy the labour which we bestow to
answer them.

BOOK V.
Ch. xiii. 4.
xiv. 1.

XIV. The like unto this is a fancy which they have ofthe

against the fashion of our churches, as being framed according

fashion
of our

to the pattern of the Jewish temple. A fault no less grievous, churches.

if so be it were true, than if some king should build his
mansion-house by the model of Solomon’s palace. So far
forth as our churches and their temple have one end, what
should let but that they may lawfully have one form? The
temple was for sacrifice, and therefore had rooms to that
_ purpose such as ours have none. Our churches are places
provided that the people might there assemble themselves
in due and decent manner, according to their several degrees
and orders. Which thing being common unto us with Jews,

% [Compare what is said of the
Anabaptists, Pref. c. 8; and see
Saravia, “ Epist. ad N. quendam.”
art. 18, in which he reasons in the
same way with Hooker, about the
names of the days of the week. ]

97 Acts xxviil. TI.

98 Dan. iv. 8. Vide Scal. de
Emendat. Temp. lib. vi. p. 277.

[** Bel, et Belti, sunt nomina Deo-
“rum utriusque sexus. Megas-
= “* thenes : ovre Bndos euds mpdyovos,
‘ovre Bacitera ByAtis. Tamen
. «spud Danielem BjAris est Deus
“non Dea: cap. iv. ‘ Daniel, cujus
“nomen Belti-schatzar juxta no-
‘men Dei mei.’” ed. Paris. 1583. |

E2

BOOK V.
Ch, xv. 1.

The sump-
tuousness
ofchurches.

52 Churches not the worse for their Founders’ Errors.

we have in this respect our churches divided by certain par-
titions, although not so many in number as theirs. They had
their several for heathen nations, their several for the people
of their own nation, their several for men, their several for
women, their several for the priests, and for the high priest

alone their several9?. There being in ours for local distinction —

between the clergy and the rest (which yet we do not with
any great strictness or curiosity observe neither) but one
partition! ; the cause whereof at the first (as it seemeth) was,
that as many as were capable of the holy mysteries might
there assemble themselves and no other creep in amongst them :
this is now made a matter so heinous, as if our religion thereby
were become even plain Judaism, and as though we retained a
most holy place, whereinto there might not any but the high
priest alone enter, according to the custom of the Jews?.

XV. Some it highly displeaseth, that so great expenses
this way are employed. “The mother of such magnificence”
(they think) “is but only a proud ambitious desire to be
* spoken of far and wide. Suppose we that God himself
delighteth to dwell sumptuously, or taketh pleasure in

99 [Joseph. A. J. xv. 11. 5. ed.
Oberthiir. mepieiye épxiov, ArOivov
Spupakrov, ypapy Kodvov eioévar
Tov adddocebvn... €erwrépw Sé yuvat-
Eiv dBarov fv rd iepdv. éexeivov &
evddrepov tpitov, Grou Tois icpetow
eioedOciy e&dv jv pdvots. comp.
Heb. ix. 6,7. For the correspond-
ing distinctions in the Primitive
ae see Bingham, Antig. viii.
4> 5» 0.

1 [Sparrow’s Rationale of the
Com. Prayer, 325. “The chancel
“* was divided from the body of the
“* Church, Cancellis: whence it is
** called the Chancel. This was, as
“‘ was said, peculiar to the Priests
* and sacred persons. In it were, at
“least in some principal churches,
“these divisions; Chorus Can-
**torum, the Quire, where was an
** high seat for the bishop, and other
** stalls or seats for the rest of the
*“‘ quire: ... and the Chancel pro-
** perly, that which of old was called
** Gyov Bia, ‘the Sanctuary,’ which
* was separated from the rest of the
“Church with rails, and whither

“indeed none but sacred persons
‘* entered ; whereas the laity entered
* into the other.”

Bancroft, Survey, 260. “There
‘is in every church for the most
** part a distinction of places be-
“‘twixt the clergy and the laity.
“We term one place the chancel
‘and another the body of the
‘church: which manner of dis-
“tinction doth greatly offend the
“tender consciences (forsooth) of
“the purer part of our reformers.
* Insomuch as Mr. Gilby, a chief
** man in his time among them, doth
** term the quire a cage, and reckon-
*‘ eth that separation of the minis-
*‘ ters from the congregation one of
“the hundred points of Popery,
“which, he affirmeth, do yet re-
‘** main in the church of England.”
The book from which he quotes is
“A View of Antichrist, his laws
“and ceremonies in our English
*‘ Church unreformed.” circ. 1578.
Strype, Ann. II. ii. 215.]

2 [T. C. i. 108. ]

Sebel ied Ae ae"

8

“""" OS... CU,” OC eCTh—F— OU

Splendour of Churches not unacceptable. 53

“ chargeable pomp? No; then was the Lord most acceptably
“ served, when his temples were rooms borrowed within the
“ houses of poor men. This was suitable unto the nakedness
of Jesus Christ and the simplicity of his Gospel.”

[2.] What thoughts or cogitations they had which were

BOOK V.

Ch. xv. 2, 3.

authors of those things, the use and benefit whereof hath —

descended unto ourselves, as we do not know, so we need not
search. It cometh we grant many times to pass, that the
works of men being the same, their drifts and purposes therein
are divers. The charge of Herod about the temple of God
was ambitious, yet Solomon’s virtuous, Constantine’s holy.
But howsoever their hearts are disposed by whom any such
thing is done in the world, shall we think that it baneth the
work which they leave behind them, or taketh away from
others the use and benefit thereof?

[3.] Touching God himself, hath he any where revealed
that it is his delight to dwell beggarly ? And that he taketh
no pleasure to be worshipped saving only in poor cottages?
Even then was the Lord as acceptably honoured of his people
as ever, when the stateliest places and things in the whole
world were sought out to adorn his temple. This most
suitable®, decent, and fit for the greatness of Jesus Christ, for
the sublimity of his gospel; except we think of Christ and
his gospel as the officers of Julian did+. As therefore the son
of Sirach giveth verdict concerning those things which God
hath wrought, “ A man need not say, ‘ this is worse than that,
“ this more acceptable to God, that less ;’ for in their season
* they are all worthy praise®:” the like we may also conclude
as touching these two so contrary ways of providing in meaner

or in costlier sort for the honour of Almighty God, “A man .

* need not say, “ this is worse than that, this more acceptable
“ to God, that less ;? for with him they are in their season
“ both allowable :” the one when the state of the Church is
poor, the other when God hath enriched it with plenty.
When they, which had seen the beauty of the first temple

3 "Epyov TO péya Kal kaddv' rod “ questor, conspicatus sacrorum
yap towovrov 7 Oewpia avpacri. “* vasorum pretia ; En, inquit, qua-
Arist. Eth. lib. Iv. C. 2. Ta aic- “libus vasis ministratur Marie
Onoet KaAG Kal vonoet Kad@y eixdves. “ filio!”? Theodoret. Hist. Eccles.
Philo Jud. lib. iii. c. 12.

4 “Felix, thesauri imperialis 5 Ecclus. xxxix. 34.

54 Splendour of Churches,

BOOK V.
Ch. xv. 3.

built by Solomon in the days of his great prosperity and
peace, beheld how far it excelled the second which had not
builders of like ability, the tears of their grieved eyes the
prophets endeavoured with comforts to wipe away®. Whereas
if the house of God were by so much the more perfect by how
much the glory thereof is less, they should have done better
to rejoice than weep, their prophets better to reprove than ~
comfort.
It being objected against the Church in the times of ©
universal persecution, that her service done to God was not —
solemnly performed in temples fit for the honour of divine —
majesty, their most convenient answer was, that “The best —
“temples which we can dedicate to God, are our sanctified —
“ souls and bodies7.””. Whereby it plainly appeareth how the
Fathers, when they were upbraided with that defect, comforted —
themselves with the meditation of God’s most gracious and —
merciful nature, who did not therefore the less accept of their
hearty affection and zeal, rather than took any great delight, —
or imagined any high perfection in such their want of external
ornaments, which when they wanted, the cause was their only
lack of ability ; ability serving, they wanted them not. Before
the emperor Constantine’s time’, under Severus, Gordian,
Philip, and Galienus, the state of Christian affairs being
tolerable, the former buildings which were but of mean and
small estate contented them not, spacious and ample churches
they erected throughout every city. No envy was able to be
their hinderance, no practice of Satan or fraud of men avail-
able against their proceedings herein, while they continued as
yet worthy to feel the aid of the arm of God extended over
them for their safety. These churches Dioclesian9 caused by
6 Hag. ii. 5, 9.

p@s €rt Tois madatois oikodounuacw

7 Minuc. Fel. in Octav. [c. 32.
** Putatis autem nos occultare quod
* colimus, si delubra et aras non
** habemus?. . .Nonne melius in nos-
** tra dedicandusest mente? in nostro
** imo consecrandus est pectore ?’’]
i 8 Euseb. lib. viii. c.1. [Ilés 0
dy tis Siaypdypee ras puptaydpovs
ekelvas emiouvaywyas Kal Ta ANON
Tay kara macav modu dOpoirparay,
Tas TE EMLONMOVUS EV TOS 7 POO EVKTN~
plows cvvdpouds; dy 1 évexa unda-

dpkovpevot, evpelas eis mAdros ava
maoas Tas Wédes €k Oepwediov avi-
otay exkAnoias’ Taira dé Trois ypd-
vous mpoliovra, donuepar te eis ai-
Enow kai péycbos emdidovra, ovdeis
aveipye POdvos. odd€ tis Saipewv mo-
ynpos olds te Hv Backaivew, ovd’ ay-
Oparev emBovdais Kodvew, és dcov
7 Ocia Kai otpavos xelp EoKeré Te
kal edpovper, ola 87 aéwov dvta rov
éautns Aadv.

9[Ibid. c. 2. trav mpocevkrn-

a Part of Natural Devotion. 55

solemn edict to be afterwards overthrown. Maximinus with
like authority giving leave to erect them, the hearts of all men
were even rapt with divine joy, to see those places, which
tyrannous impiety had laid waste, recovered as it were out of
mortal calamity, Churches! “reared up to an height im-
“ measurable, and adorned with far more beauty in their
“ restoration, than their founders before had given them.”
Whereby we see how most Christian minds stood then affected,
we see how joyful they were to behold the sumptuous stateliness
of houses built unto God’s glory.

[4.] If we should, over and besides this, allege the care
which was had, that all things about the tabernacle of Moses
might be as beautiful, gorgeous, and rich, as art could make
them; or what travail and cost was bestowed that the goodli-
ness of the temple might be a spectacle of admiration to all
the world: this they will say was figurative, and served by
God’s appointment but for a time, to shadow out the true
everlasting glory of a more divine sanctuary ; whereinto Christ
being long sithence entered, it seemeth that all those curious
exornations should rather cease. Which thing we also our-
selves would grant, if the use thereof had been merely and
only mystical. But sith the Prophet David doth mention a
natural conveniency which such kind of bounteous expenses
have, as well for that we do thereby give unto God a testimony
of our!! cheerful affection which thinketh nothing too dear to
be bestowed about the furniture of his service; as also because
it serveth to the world for a witness of his!? almightiness,
whom we outwardly honour with the chiefest of outward
things, as being of all things himself incomparably the greatest.
Besides, were it not also strange, if God should have made
such store of glorious creatures on earth, and leave them all to
be consumed in secular vanity, allowing none but the baser
sort to be employed in his own service? To set forth the

plav Tovs otkous e& Uypous eis eSachos
avtois Oepediots Karappurroupéevous
> ~ > / > -

....avtois ereidopev opOadnpois. |

10 Euseb. lib. x. c.2. [kai tis
C4 oP LA ,
évOcos dmacw éenmnvOe xdpa, mavta
Témoy Tov mpd piKpod Tails Tay TU-

3

pavvev SvoceBeias npeiropévov, do-
mep €k pakpas Kat Oavarnpdpov dv-

pns dvaBidoxovra Oewpévois, veds TE
evOds ek Bdbpav eis dos ameipov
€yetpopevous, kal oA Kpeirrova Thy
dy\aiay tav mddat memo\vopKnpevav
arrohapBavortas. |

11 y Chron. xxviii. 14. [xxix. 2, 3,
6, 9, 14.

2 2 Chron. ii. 5.

BOOK V,

Ch. xv. 4.

BOOK Y.

Ch. xv. 5.

56 Claim of Churches to be accounted Holy :

13 majesty of kings his vicegerents in this world, the most
gorgeous and rare treasures which the world hath are pro-
cured. We think belike that he will accept what the meanest
of them would disdain 4,

[5.] If there be great care to build and beautify these cor-
ruptible sanctuaries, little or none that the living temples of
the Holy Ghost, the dearly redeemed souls of the people of
God, may be edified; huge expenses upon timber and stone, —
but towards the relief of the poor small devotion; cost this
way infinite, and in the meanwhile charity cold: we have in
such case just occasion to make complaint as St. Jerome did,
“The walls of the church there are enow contented to build,
“and to underset it with goodly pillars, the marbles are
“ polished, the roofs shine with gold, the altar hath precious
“ stones to adorn it; and of Christ’s ministers no choice at
“ alls,” The same Jerome both in that place and! else-
where debaseth with like intent the glory of such magnificence,
(a thing whereunto men’s affection in those times needed
no spur,) thereby to extol the necessity sometimes of charity
and alms, sometimes of other the most principal duties belong-
ing unto Christian men; which duties were neither so highly
esteemed as they ought, and being compared with that in

13 Matt. vi. 29.

14 Malac. i. 8.

15 Ad Nepotian. de vita Cleric.
[§ 10. “Multi edificant parietes,
* et columnas Ecclesiz substruunt ;
*‘marmora nitent, auro splendent
** laquearia, gemmis altare distin-
*‘ guitur; et ministrorum Christi
** nulla electio est.”

16 Ad Demetriad. [Ep. 8. al. 97.
** Alii zdificent Ecclesias, vestiant
** parietes marmorum crustis, co-
“ Jumnarum moles advehant, earum-
“que deaurent capita, pretiosum
*‘ornatum non sentientia; ebore
“argentoque valvas, et gemmis
“aurata distinguant altaria. Non
“ reprehendo, non abnuo. Unus-
** quisquein sensu suo abundet. Me-
“ lrusque est hoc facere, quam repo-
** sitis opibus incubare. Sed tibi
“aliud propositum est: Christum
“ vestire in pauperibus; visitare in
* Janguentibus ; pascere in esurien-
“ tibus ; suscipere in his qui tecto

* indigent, et maxime in domesticis
‘* fidei; virginum alere monasteria ;
“ servorum Dei et pauperum spiritu
* habere curam, qui diebus et noc-
* tibus serviant Domino tuo.”’ t. i.
p- 69.] Ad Gaudentium, Epist. 12.
[al. 98. 1. 100. “ Proh nefas, orbis
“terrarum ruit, in nobis peccata
“non ruunt! Urbs inclyta et Ro-
** mani imperii caput, uno hausta
“est incendio. Nulla est regio,
** que non exules Romanos habeat.
i Z cineres ac favillas sacree quon-
“dam Ecclesiz conciderunt, et
*‘tamen studemus avaritiz. Vivi-
** mus quasi altera die morituri, et
“* edificamus quasi semper in hoc
*‘ seeculo victuri. Auro parietes,
* auro laquearia, auro fulgent capita
*“columnarum, et nudus atque
“esuriens ante fores nostras
** Christus in paupere moritur.” t.i.
p-100. This passage however seems
to relate to private, not to church,
expenses. |

Their Sanctification a great Help to Piety. 57

question, the directest sentence we can give of them both, as BOOK v.
unto me it seemeth, is this: “God; who-requireth the one as —~~"*
- necessary, accepteth the other also as being an honourable
“ work.”

XVI. Our opinion concerning the force and virtue which What holi-
such places have is, I trust, without any blemish or stain of ee:
heresy. Churches receive as every thing else their chief ascribe to

perfection from the end whereunto they serve. Which end Sanya
being the public worship of God, they are in this considera~ oyher
tion houses of greater dignity than any provided for meaner
purposes. For which cause they seem after a sort even to

mourn, as being injured and defrauded of their right, when

places not sanctified as they are prevent them wunecessarily

in that preeminence and honour. Whereby also it doth come

to pass, that the service of God hath not then itself such per-

fection of grace and comeliness, as when the dignity of place

which it wisheth for doth concur.

[2.] Again, albeit the true worship of God be to God in
itself acceptable, who respecteth not so much in what place, as
with what affection he is served; and therefore Moses in the
midst of the sea, Job on the dunghill, Ezechias in bed,
_ Jeremy in mire, Jonas in the whale, Daniel in the den, the
children in the furnace, the thief on the cross, Peter and
Paul in prison, calling unto God were heard, as St. Basil
noteth 17: manifest notwithstanding it is, that the very
majesty and holiness of the place, where God is worshipped,
hath i regard of us great virtue, force, and efficacy, for that
it serveth as a sensible help to stir up devotion, and in that
respect no doubt dettereth even our holiest and best actions in
this kind. As therefore we every where exhort all men to

17 Exhort. ad Bap. et Poenitent.
[The passage does not appear in
the Greek copies of St. Basil, but
it may be seen in the Latin edition
of Musculus, p. 447, having been
interpolated, as afterwards ap-

eared, from a Homily on the

oman of Canaan, ascribed to St.
Chrysostom, and published as his
by Sir H. Savile, tom. v. p. 188.
It stands as follows in the Benedic-
tine edition, t. ili, p. 442. Ov
(nreira: rémos, GAN apxy tpdrov.

e

O ‘Iepepias ev BopBdpa jv, Kat Tov
Ocdv emeamacato’ 6 Aad €v hdkx@
AedvT@v, Kat rov Gedy e&evpevioato’
oi maides of rpeis ev TH Kapiv@ joay,
kat Ocdy tyvovvtes edvcamnoar* 6
Anoris €oravpobn, Kal ovK ExorvoEV
c A > \ 10 a” e
6 oravupos, dAAa trapddeicov vorEev
6 *IaB év xompia ny, Kal roy Cedv
ihewy Katecxevacev’ 6 Iwvas év rH
KotXla Tov KnTous, Kal Toy Gedy im7-
Koov €axe.... . OmtaGev of Aiyirrios
edimxov, Eumporbev 9 Oddracoa, péeon
€ > ,

n edx7-]

BOOK V.

Ch. xvii. 1, 2.

58 The Heinousness of Idolatry

worship God, even so for performance of this service by the
people of God assembled, we think not any place so good as
the church, neither any exhortation so fit as that of David,

~ © O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness 18,”

Their pre-
tence that
would have
Churches
utterly
razed.

XVII. For of our churches thus it becometh us to esteem,
howsoever others rapt with the pang of a furious zeal do pour
out against them devout blasphemies, crying “ Down with
“ them, down with them, even to the very ground!9: for to
“idolatry they have been abused®°, And the places where
‘¢idols have been worshipped are by the law of God devote
“to utter destruction?}. For execution of which law the
“kings that were godly, Asa®?, Jehoshaphat?8, Ezechia®*,
“ Josiah25, destroyed all the high places, altars, groves, ee
¢ had been erected in Judah and Israel. He that said, ‘ Thou
“ shalt have no other gods before my face,’ hath likewise said,
« «Thou shalt utterly deface and destroy all these synagogues
‘and places where such idols have been worshipped.” This”
« law containeth the temporal punishment which God hath set
* down, and will that men execute, for the breach of the other
“law. ‘They which spare them therefore do but reserve,
“as the hypocrite Saul did, execrable things, to worship
God withal.” |

[2.] The truth is, that as no man serveth God, and loveth
him not; so neither can any man sincerely love God, and not
extremely abhor that sin, which is the highest degree of |
treason against the Supreme Guide and Monarch of the whole -
world, with whose divine authority and power it investeth
others. By means whereof the state of idolaters is two ways
miserable. First in that which they worship they find no
succour2’; and secondly at his hands whom they ought to
serve, there is no other thing to be looked for but the effects
of most just displeasure, the?® withdrawing of grace29, dere-
liction in this world, and in the world to come®° confusion.

18 Psal. xcvi. 9. 23 2 Chron. xvii. 6.
19 Psal. cxxxvii. 7. 24 2 Chron. xxix. [xxxi?]
20 [** Knox is said to have incul- 25 2 Chron. iii. [xxxiv?]
“cated the maxim, that the best 26 [1 Sam. xv.15.]
** way to keep the rooks from re- 27 Isa. vill. 21. xlv.20; Hos. xiv.

** turning was to pull down their 4. [3 ?] Isa. xli.24; Psalm cxv. 8.
« egal Life by M‘Crie, i. 277.] oS — Ixxxi. 13; Rom.i. 24.
eut. xii. 2. ® Judie. vi. 13.
22 [2 Chron. xiv. 3.] 80 Apoc. xxi. 8; Isa. ii. 21.

no Reason for destroying our Churches. 59

Paul and Barnabas, when infidels admiring their virtues went Bic
about to sacrifice unto them, rent their garments in token of

horror, and as frighted persons ran crying through the press

of the people, “O men, wherefore do ye these things?! ?”

They knew the force of that dreadful curse? whereunto

idolatry maketh subject. Nor is there cause why the guilty
sustaining the same should grudge or complain of injustice.

For whatsoever befalleth in that respect3?, themselves have

made themselves worthy to suffer it.

[3.] As for those things either whereon or else wherewith
superstition worketh, polluted they are by such abuse, and
deprived of that dignity which their nature delighteth in.
For there is nothing which doth not grieve and as it were
even loathe itself, whensoever iniquity causeth it to serve
unto vile purposes. Idolatry therefore maketh whatsoever it
toucheth the worse. Howbeit, sith creatures which have no
understanding can shew no will; and where no will is, there
is no sin; and only that which sinneth is subject to punish-
ment : which way should any such creature be punishable by
the law of God? There may be cause sometimes to abolish or
to extinguish them; but surely never by way of punishment
to the things themselves.

[4.] Yea farther howsoever the law of Moses did punish
idolaters, we find not that God hath appointed for us any
definite or certain temporal judgment, which the Christian.
magistrate is of necessity for ever bound to execute upon
offenders in that kind, much less upon things that way abused
as mere instruments. For what God did command touching
Canaan, the same concerneth not us any otherwise than only
as a fearful pattern of his just displeasure and wrath against
sinful nations. It teacheth us how God thought good to plague
and afflict them: it doth not appoint in what form and man-
ner we ought to punish the sin of idolatry i ald others. Unless
they will say, that because the Israelites were commanded to
make no covenant with the people of that land, therefore
leagues and truces made between superstitious persons and
such as serve God aright are unlawful altogether; or because
God commanded the Israelites to smite the inhabitants of

31 Acts xiv. 14. 82 Deut. xxviii. 20. 83 Jer. ii. 17.

BOOK V.
Ch. xvii. 5.

60 Idolaters not all to be treated as the Canaanites.

Canaan, and to root them out, that therefore reformed churches
are bound to put all others to the edge of the sword.

[5.] Now whereas commandment was also given to destroy
ali places where the Canaanites had served their gods®4, and
not to convert any one of them to the honour of the true
God; this precept had reference unto a special intent and
purpose, which was, that there should be but only one
place in the whole land, whereunto the people might bring
such offerings, gifts, and sacrifices, as their Levitical law did
require. By which law, severe charge was given them in
that respect not to convert those places to the worship of the
living God, where nations before them had served idols, “ but

to seek the place which the Lord their God should chooad

* out of all their tribes.”

Besides, it is reason we should likewise consider how ove
a difference there is between their proceedings, who erect
a new commonwealth, which is to have neither people nor
law, neither regiment nor religion the same that was; and
theirs who only reform a decayed estate by reducing it to
that perfection from which it hath swerved. In this case
we are to retain as much, in the other as little, of former
things as we may. :

Sith therefore examples have not generally the force of
laws which all men ought to keep, but of counsels only
and persuasions not amiss to be followed by them whose
case is the like; surely where cases are so unlike as theirs
and ours, I see not how that which they did should induce,
much less any way enforce us to the same practice; espe-
cially considering that Groves and Hill altars were, while
they did remain, both dangerous in regard of the secret
access which people superstitiously given might have always
thereunto with ease, neither could they, remaining, serve with
any fitness unto better purpose: whereas our temples (their
former abuse being by order of law removed) are not only
free from such peril, but withal so conveniently framed for
the people of God to serve and honour him therein, that
no man beholding them can choose but think it exceeding
great pity they should be ever any otherwise employed.

“ Yea but the cattle of Amalek” (you will say) “ were jit

34 Deut. xii. 2. 35 Deut. xii. 4, 5.

What preaching properly means. 61

“for sacrifice; and this was the very conceit which some- soox v.
ae . : Ch. xvii. 6.
“time deceived Saul.” It was so. Nor do I any thing ‘wii:

doubt but that Saul upon this conceit might even lawfully
have offered to God those reserved spoils, had not the Lord
in that particular case given special charge to the contrary.

As therefore notwithstanding the commandment of Israel
to destroy Canaanites, idolaters may be converted and live: so
the temples which have served idolatry as instruments may
be sanctified again and continue, albeit to Israel command-
ment have been given that ¢hey should destroy all idolatrous
places in their land, and to the good kings of Israel commen-
dation for fulfilling, to the evil for disobeying the same com-
mandment, sometimes punishment, always sharp and severe
reproof hath even from the Lord himself befallen.

[6.] Thus much it may suffice to have written in defence of
those Christian oratories, the overthrow and ruin whereof is
desired, not now by infidels, Pagans, or Turks, but by a
special refined sect of Christian believers, pretending them-
selves exceedingly grieved at our solemnities in erecting
churches, at the names which we suffer them to hold, at their
form and fashion, at the stateliness of them and costliness, at
the opinion which we have of them, and at the manifold super-
stitious abuses whereunto they have been put.

XVIII. Places of public resort being thus provided for, Of public

teaching,

our repair thither is especially for mutual conference, and as it or preach-
were commerce to be had between God and us. ing; -

Because therefore want of the knowledge of God is the kind there-
cause of all iniquity amongst men®®, as contrariwise the very 5,

hising.
ground of all our happiness, eis

86 Moses Augypt. in Mor. Hanne-
buch. lib. iii. cap. 12. [rt] ** Con-
“traria fortia, in quibus homines
*‘ sibi invicem opponantur [contra-
*‘ dicunt invicem] secundum exer-
“‘citia et desideria et opiniones,
“omnia proveniunt ex ignorantia:
** sicut ceecus ex privatione sui visus
* vagatur ubique et leditur. Scien-
* tia veritatis tollit hominum inimi-
*‘ citiam et odium. Hoc promisit
*sancta Theologia dicens, Habita-
“ bit agnus cum lupo. Et assignat
**rationem, Repletaest terrasapientia
“ Domini.” [Hooker appears to

and the seed of whatsoever

quote from the translation by
Aug. Justiniani, Almoner to Francis
I. Paris, 1520. It may be worth
while to add Buxtorf’s version of
the first sentence. ‘‘ Mala ista,
** que inter se homines inter se
*“invicem incidunt, ex diversis
*‘ nempe illorum studiis, voluntati-
“bus, affectibus, sententiis et
** opinionibus; illa enim mala omnia
im os privationem consequuntur.
** Proveniunt enim cuncta ex Igno-
** rantia, h.e. ex privatione sapien-
ce tie.” |

BOOK V.
Ch, xviii. 2, 3.

62 Preaching was not found among the Heathen.

perfect virtue groweth from us, is a right opinion touching

things divine; this kind of knowledge we may justly set
down for the first and chiefest thing which God imparteth
unto his people, and our duty of receiving this at his mer-
ciful hands for the first of those religious offices wherewith
we publicly honour him on earth. For the instruction there-
fore of all sorts of men to eternal life it is necessary, that the
sacred and saving truth of God be openly published unto

them. Which open publication of heavenly mysteries, is by
an excellency termed Preaching. For otherwise there is not
any thing publicly notified, but we may in that respect,
So that when

7 9)

rightly and properly say it is “ preached?

the school of God doth use it as a word of art, we are accord-
ingly to understand it with restraint to such special matter as_

that school is accustomed to publish.

[2.] We find not in the world any people that have lived

altogether without religion.

And yet this duty of religion,

which provideth that publicly all sorts of men may be in-
structed in the fear of God, is to the Church of God and hath”
been always so peculiar, that none of the heathens, how
curious soever in searching out all kinds of outward ceremonies”
like to ours%, could ever once so much as endeavour to

resemble hereim the Church’s care for the endless good of her.

children39,

[3.] Ways of teaching there have been sundry always usual
in God’s Church. For the first introduction of youth to the

knowledge of God, the Jews even till this day have their
Catechisms*°. With religion it fareth as with other sciences.

87 Luc. viii. 39. xii. 3. [In which
places the Geneva Bible has
** preached,” instead of ‘‘ published”
and “ proclaimed.”

38 Vide Tertull. de Preescr. advers.
Her. [c..40. ‘ Diabolus ... ipsas
** quoque res sacramentorum divino-
* rum in idolorum mysteriis emu-
*Jatur. Tingit et ipse quosdam,
*“‘ utique credentes et fideles suos:
* expositionem delictorum de la-
*“ vacro repromittit: et si adhuc
“‘memini, Mithra signat illic in
“‘frontibus milites suos; celebrat
* et panis oblationem,”’ &c. |

39 [Except perhaps under Julian :

see Greg. Naz. Orat. iii. t. i. 101.

40 The Jews’ Catechism, called

Lekach Tob. [Or, “The Book of

good Doctrine ;” (alluding to Prov.
Iv. 2. (Venice, 1595. The author
was Rabbi Abraham Ben Hananiah
Jaghel, of Montfelice near Padua.
It appears to be the work of an
elegant and pious mind: containing
an account of the thirteen articles of
the Jewish faith, and many moral
and devout precepts, lucidly arranged
in a
and his disciple. It is satisfactory
to know that the writer became

dialogue between a Rabbin

Catechising, the first sort of Preaching. 63

The first delivery of the elements thereof must, for like
consideration*!, be framed according to the weak and
slender capacity of young beginners: unto which manner
of teaching principles in Christianity, the Apostle in the
sixth to the Hebrews is himself understood to allude. For
this cause therefore, as the Decalogue of Moses declareth
summarily those things which we ought to do; the prayer
of our Lord whatsoever we should request or desire: so
either by the Apostles*?, or at the leastwise out of their
writings, we have the substance of Christian belief compen-
diously draw into few and short articles, to the end that
the weakness of no man’s wit might either hinder altogether
the knowledge, or excuse the utter ignorance of needful

things.

Such as were trained up in these rudiments, and were so
made fit to be afterwards by Baptism received into the Church,

afterwards a Christian. Bartolocci,
Bibl. Rabbin. i. 26. The tract was
reedited with a Latin version by
De Veil, 12mo. Lond. 1679, and
inserted by Carpzoff in his Intro-
duction to Theology, prefixed to
Martini’s Pugio Fidei, p. 42. Lips.
1687. Comp. Wolf. Bibl. Hebr. i.
“8. note (a). ‘ Paucissimos habent
* Judei hujus generis libros, pre
* ceteris tamen isto utuntur.’”]

41 « Tncipientibus brevius ac sim-
“ plicius tradi preecepta magis con-
“-venit. Aut enim difficultate in-
“ stitutionis tam numerose atque
* perplexze deterreri solent, aut eo
* tempore, quo preecipue alenda in-
“genia atque indulgentia quadam
* enutrienda sunt, asperiorum rerum
“ tractatu atteruntur.”” Fab. [Quin-
til.] lib. viii. proem. “ Incipienti-
“bus nobis exponere jura populi
* Romani, ita videntur posse tradi
* commodissime, si primo levi ac
** simplici via, post deinde diligen-
*tissima atque exactissima inter-
** pretatione singula tradantur. Ali-
*oqui si statim ab initio rudem
* adhuc et infirmum animum stu-
“diosi multitudine ac varietate
“rerum oneraverimus, duorum al-
*terum, aut desertorem studiorum
** efficiemus, aut cum magno labore
* ejus, sepe etiam cum diffidentia

** (que plerumque juvenes avertit)
** serius ad id perducemus ad quod
“ leviore via ductus sine magno la-
* bore et sine ulla diffidentia matu-
** rius perduci potuisset.” Institut.
Imper. lib. i. tit. 1.

42 Vide Ruff. in Symb. [p. 17. ad
calc. Cypr. ed. Fell. “ ‘Tradunt
** majores nostri quod post ascen-
** sionem Domini, cum per adven-
** tum Sancti Spiritus super singulos
** quosque Apostolos ignez linguz
“ sedissent;....preeceptum eis a
* Domino datum, ob predicandum
* Dei verbum, ad singulas quemque
*‘ proficisci nationes. Discessuri
*‘itaque ad invicem normam prius
** future sibi preedicationis in com-
** mune constituunt. ...Omnes ergo
“in unum positi, et Spiritu Sancto
** repleti, breve istud future sibi, ut
‘¢ diximus, preedicationis indicium,
* conferendo in unum quod sen-
*‘ tiebat unusquisque, componunt,
“ atque hanc credentibus dandam
“esse regulam statuunt..... Hee
“non scribi chartulis atque mem-
“‘ branis, sed retineri cordibus tra-
‘** diderunt, ut certum esset, nemi-
** nem hec ex lectione, que interdum
‘* pervenire etiam ad infideles. solet,

** sed ex Apostolorum traditione di- ©
Be dicisee.”1

BOOK V.
Ch. xix. 1.

Of preach-
ing, by
reading
publicly
the books
of holy |
Scripture ;
and con-
cerning
supposed
untruths in
those trans-
lations of
Scripture
which we

allow to be

read ; as
also of the
choice
which we
make in

reading.

64:

the Fathers usually in their writings do term Hearers*, as
having no farther communion or fellowship with the Church
than only this, that they were admitted to hear the principles
of Christian faith made plain unto them. t
Catechising may be in schools, it may be in private families,
But when we make it a kind of preaching, we mean always the
public performance thereof in the open hearing of men,
because things are preached not in that they are taught, but
in that they are published. .
XIX. Moses and the Prophets, Christ and his Apostles,
were in their times all preachers of God’s truth; some by
word, some by writing, some by both4#3. This they did partly
as faithful Witnesses, making mere relation what God him-—
self had revealed unto them ; and partly as careful Expounders, —
teachers, persuaders thereof. The Church in like case preacheth
still, first publishing by way of Testimony or relation the
truth which from them she hath received, even in such sort as —
it was received, written in the sacred volumes of Scripture;
secondly by way of Explication, discovering the mysteries
which lie hid therem. The Church as a witness preacheth
his mere revealed truth by reading publicly the sacred Scrip-
ture. So that a second kind of preaching‘ is the reading of
Holy Writ. :
For thus we may the boldlier speak, being strengthened *
with the example of so reverend a prelate as saith, that Moses
from the time of ancient generations and ages long since
past had amongst the cities of the very Gentiles them
that preached him, im that he was read every sabbath day.
For so of necessity it must be meant, in as much as we know
that the Jews have always had their weekly readings of the

Public Reading of Holy Writ, 1s Preaching.

42 Tertull. de Poenitent. [c. 6.]
* An alius est tinctis Christus, alius
*‘ audientibus? Audientes optare
* intinctionem, non preesumere,
“‘ oportet.”” Cyprian. Epist. xvii.
lib. 3. [t. ii. 41. ed. Fell.} Audi-
‘* entibusvigilantia vestranon desit.”
Rupert. de Divin. Offic. lib. iv. cap.
18. [In Auct. Bibl. Patr. Colon.
i. 927.] ‘‘Audiens quisque regu-
«lam fidei, Catechumenus dicitur.
«© Catechumenus namque Auditor
s¢ interpretatur.”’

43 [** The translation of the LXX

A “* interpreters, commonly so called,
...prepared the way for our Saviour

# among the Gentiles by written
« Preaching, as St.John Baptist did
** among the Jews by vocal.” Trans-
lators [of the Bible] to the Reader.
London. R*t. Barker. 1633

44 [See Bp. Taylor’s iloly Living,
c. iv. § 4.]

45 [Actsxv.21T. This verse had
been quoted by Whitgift to the same
purpose. Answ. i

Our Version of Scripture blamed: e.g. Psalm ev. 28. 65

Law of Moses ; but that they always had in like manner their Book v.

weekly sermons upon some part of the Law of Moses we no-
where find. :

_ [2.] Howbeit still we must here remember, that the Church
by her public reading of the book of God preacheth only as a
witness. Now the principal thing required in a witness is
fidelity. Wherefore as we cannot excuse that church, which
either through corrupt translations of Scripture delivereth
instead of divine speeches any thing repugnant unto that
which God speaketh; or, through falsified additions, pro-
poseth that to the people of God as Scripture which is in
truth no scripture: so the blame, which in both these respects
hath been laid upon the church of England, is surely altogether
without cause.

Touching translations of holy Scripture, albeit we may not
disallow of their painful travels herein, who strictly have tied
themselves to the very original letter; yet the judgment of
the Church, as we see by the practice of all nations, Greeks,
Latins, Persians, Syrians, Aithiopians, Arabians, hath been
ever that the fittest for public audience are such as following
a middle course between the rigour of literal translators and
the liberty of paraphrasts, do with greatest shortness and
plainness deliver the meaning of the Holy Ghost, Which
being a labour of so great difficulty, the exact performance
thereof we may rather wish than look for. So that, except
between the words of translation and the mind of the Scrip-
ture itself there be contradiction, every little difference should
not seem an intolerable blemish necessarily to be spunged out.

[3.] Whereas therefore the prophet David‘® in a certain

46 [See Strype, Whitg. i. 490.
* One Dr. Sparks is brought in”
(by Martin Marprelate in one of his
libels) “‘as being too hard for the
** Archbishop and some other Bi-
“shops, and putting them to a
*‘ nonplus in some conference with
‘‘them; and that before some no-
*‘blemen. It was about the sup-
** posed wrong reading of the 28th
* verse of the cv. Psalm... To this
“the Archbishop said, that their
* honours that were present, could

* and would, he was sure, answer -

HOOKER, VOL. II.

“for the Bishops for this untruth.
** And that they made report to
* divers in public places, and some
* to the highest, of that conference,
** after another sort, and to another
** end, than the libellers did.......
“ That the translation read in our
‘“* churches was in that point accord-
“ing to the Septuagint, and was
** correspondent to the analogy of
“faith. For that if the word were
“ understood of the Israelites, then
** it was true to say, that they were

* not obedient to his commandment, -

F

- Xix. 2, 3.

BOOK V.
Ch. xix. 3.

66

Fault found with our Version of Psalm ev. 28.

Psalm doth say concerning Moses and Aaron, that they were
obedient to the word of God, and in the selfsame place our
allowed translation saith they were not obedient; we are for
this cause challenged as manifest gainsayers of scripture, even

in that which we read for scripture unto the people.

But

for as much as words are resemblances of that which the mind
of the speaker conceiveth, and conceits are images representing
that which is spoken of, it followeth that they who will judge
of words, should have recourse to the things themselves from

whence they rise.

« But if of the signs and wonders
“* that Moses and Aaron did before
** Pharaoh, or of Moses and Aaron
‘‘ themselves, then was it on the
“ other side true, that they were not
** disobedient to his commandment.”
Barlow’s Account of the Confer-
ence at Hampton Court, in Pheenix,
i157. ‘Dr. Reynolds.....moved
“his Majesty, that there might be
‘a new translation of the Buble,
** because those which were allowed
“*...were corrupt. For example,
** Pg. cv. 28,”’ with two more. “To
‘“‘ which motion there was, at the
** present, no gainsaying: the ob-
** jections being trivial and old, and
“ already in print often answered.”
In Saravia’s collected works is an
Epistle to an anonymous friend,
who had published certain Articles
of exception to the Canons of 1603:
the second of which Articles is,
** Fieri potuit ut in iis que publice
*leguntur non pauca Scripturis
“dissona reperiantur. Quale est
** illud, e.g. in Ps. cv. 28. ‘Non
*‘obedierunt verbo Dei:’ cum
** Veritas Hebraica legat, ‘Et pa-
*ruerunt.’ Resp. 72 8” ‘et non
‘* rebellarunt verbis ejus.’ Pii inter-
** pretes transtulerunt, ‘ Et rebella-

“ runt.’ Quid enim significaretnon
‘* ignorarunt, sed quia non viderunt
** quis esset nominativus verbi "2,
“et de Israelitis vel de AXgyptiis
** cum non posset intelligi commode,
*“quos rebellasse Deo constat, in-
“ tellexerunt Algyptios. Prece-
* dunt enim verbum 9, tria que-
‘dam, a quibus nominandi casus
“supplendus est: nempe Signa,

“ Egyptii, Moses et Aaron: qui
“duo proxime precedunt, et de
“ipsis commode intelligitur: qui
*‘ quamvis arduum et periculi ple-
** num esset adire tyrannum...non
* fuerunt tamen Deo inobediente
« |... Potest etiam non absurde
«interpretari locus de Mose et
** Aarone, quod verbo Dei paruerint
“ mandantis ut miracula illa ederent
«« ., Ad tenebras et ad alia miracula
** referrisimiliter potest, utintelligan-
“tur tenebre et aque verbo Dei
** obtemperasse...Sed non satis com-
** mode de Mose et Aarone intelligi
“‘ id posse crediderunt nostri inter-
* pretes. Regis et servorum ipsius
“rebellio ita herebat in eorum
“* mente, ut eam ibidem notari cre-
** derent, et illis aptandum esse ser-
“monem. Non enim tam fuit erg
*‘ yatum in rei veritate, quam in ap=
** plicatione. Itaque cum non rara
“ apud Hebreos wy accipiatur pro
* 34 “ei,” wh transtulerunt ‘ et ei re-
‘¢ bellarunt,’referentes autad Augyp-
* tios aut ad Israelitas, quos semper
“« fuisse rebelles verbis Dei legimus +
“cum id proprie intelligi debeat
“vel de Mose et Aarone, vel de
‘* miraculis que per eos edita sunt.
‘* Habebant preeterea LXX Greecam
‘** Versionem, que habet, oru nape
“‘ kpavav Tous Adyous av’trou: quod
** de Mose et Aarone non dici potest,
‘sed de Aigyptiis. Scelus, mi fra-
‘* ter, esse censes huic versioni sub-
* scribere? Et ob tantillam varia-
*tionem nolle approbare consti-
“ tutiones. Anglicane Ecclesia?”
Saravia, ubi sup. p. 2.
Prynne supposed the error a
mere misprint: obedient, for diso-

Analogies in excuse of that Version. 67

In setting down that miracle, at the sight whereof Peter
fell down astonied before the feet of Jesus, and cried,
“ Depart, Lord, I am a sinner,” the Evangelist St. Luke
saith 47the store of the fish which they took was such that the
net they took it in “ brake,” and the.ships which they loaded
- therewith sunk; 48St. John recording the like miracle saith,
that albeit the fishes im number were so many, yet the net
with so great a weight was “not broken.” Suppose they had
written both of one miracle. Although there be in their
words a manifest shew of jar; yet none, if we look upon the
difference of matter, with regard whereunto they might both
have spoken even of one miracle the very same which they
spake of divers, the one intending thereby to signify that the
greatness of the burden exceeded the natural ability of the
instruments which they had to bear it, the other that the
weakness thereof was supported by a supernatural and mi-
raculous addition of strength. The nets as touching themselves
brake, but through the power of God they held.

Are not the words of the Prophet Micheas touching
Bethlehem, “Thou Bethlehem the Jeast+9?’ And doth not
the very Evangelist translate these words, “ Thou Bethlehem
« not the least°° ?” the one regarding the quantity of the place,
the other the dignity. Micheas attributeth unto it smallness

bedient. Pacific Exam. of some 47 Luke v. 6, 7.

Exuberances, &c. p. 6.1661.

A like objection was brought
against Ps. cvi. 30. ‘Then stood
“up Phinehas and prayed :” mr ;
more properly “executed judgment.”
Sanderson, Hea i.128. “The
* word hath three significations: to
* judge, to pray, to appease...And
* ] doubt not but Phinehas, when
“he did lift up his hand...did
** withal lift up his heart. In which
“respect, (especially if the word
** withal will bear it, as it seemeth it
** will,) some men should have done
** well not to have shewn so much
* willingness to quarrel at the
** church translations in our service
*‘ book, by being clamorous against
* this very place as a gross corrup-
* tion, and sufficient to justify their
“refusal of subscription to the
* hook.”’ |

48 John xxi. 11.

49 Mich. v. 2. [nin> veg. LXX.
ddvyoords ei. St. Matth. ovdapyds
édaxiorn ef. Lightfoot (i. 442.) and
Grotius and De Dieu (ap. Pol.
Synops. in loc.) explain YP3 “it is
“a light thing [to thee]:” in sup-
port of which it may be urged
that YP} is very frequently used in
the Targum for oY2, which stands
usually for the phrase “it is a light
“ thing,” in the Hebrew. Pococke
(on Mich. p. 42. ed. 1740.) pleads
for a double signification of Vy:
i.e. that it may mean “great” as
well as “little:” of which idiom
there are examples in the Semitic
languages. Compare Hammond on
the place of St. Matthew. |

50 Matt. ii. 6.

F 2

BOOK V.

Ch, xix. 3.

BOOK V.

Ch, xix. 4.

68 Preambles to certain Gospels excused.

in respect of circuit; Matthew greatness, in regard of honour
and estimation, by being the native soil of our Lord and
Saviour. Christ.

Sith therefore speeches which gainsay one another must
of necessity be applied both unto one and the same subject;
sith they must also the one affirm, the other deny, the self-
same thing: what necessity of contradiction can there be
between the letter of the Prophet David, and our authorized
translation thereof, if he understanding Moses and Aaron do
say they were not disobedient; we applyimg our speech to
Pharaoh and the Egyptians, do say of them, they were not
obedient ? Or (which the matter itself will easily enough
likewise suffer) if the Egyptians being meant by both, it be
said that they, in regard of their offer>! to let go the people |
when they saw the fearful darkness, “disobeyed not” the
word of the Lord; and yet they “did not obey” his word,
inasmuch as the sheep and cattle at the selfsame time they
withheld. Of both translations the better I willingly acknow-—
ledge that which cometh nearer to the very letter of the
original verity; yet so that the other may likewise safely
enough be read, without any peril at all of gainsaying as
much as the least jot or syllable of God’s most sacred and
precious truth. :

[4.] Which truth as in this we do not violate, so neither
is the same gainsayed or crossed, no not in those very pre-
ambles placed before certain readings, wherein the steps of the
Latin service-book have been somewhat too nearly followed.
As when we say*2 Christ spake zo iis disciples that which the ©
Gospel declareth he spake? wnto the Pharisees*+. For doth —
the Gospel affirm he spake to the Pharisees “only?” doth
it mean that they and besides them no man else was at that
time spoken unto by our Saviour Christ? If not, then is there
in this diversity no contrariety. I suppose it somewhat pro- |
bable, that St.John and St. Matthew which have recorded
those sermons heard them, and being hearers did think them- —

5! (Exod. x. 24. | 163. ‘‘His Majesty, keeping an ©
52'The Gospel on the Second “even hand, willed that the word
Sunday after Easter, and on the ‘“ Disciple should be omitted, and —
Twentieth after Trinity. ** the words Jesus said, to be printed ©
53 John. x. 11; Matt. xxii. 1, 2. ‘in a different letter.”’ And so in
54 [See Barlow’s Account, &c. subsequent Prayer Books we find it. ]

A prescribed Course of Lessons justified. 69

BOOK V.
Ch. xix. §.
xx. I.

selves as well respected as the Pharisees, in that which their
Lord and Master taught concerning the pastoral care he had
over his own flock, and his offer of grace made to the whole
world; which things are the matter whereof he treateth in
those sermons. Wherefore as yet there is nothing found,
wherein we read for the word of God that which may be
condemned as repugnant unto his word.

[5-] Furthermore somewhat they are displeased in that
we follow not the method of reading which in their judgment
is most commendable, the method used in some foreign
churches, where Scriptures are read defore the time of divine
service, and without either choice or stint appointed by any
determinate order. Nevertheless, till such time as they shall
vouchsafe us some just and sufficient reason to the contrary,
we must by their patience, if not allowance, retain the ancient
received custom which we now observe*®. For with us the
reading of Scripture in the church is a part of our church
liturgy, a special portion of the service which we do to God,
and not an exercise to spend the time, when one doth wait
for another’s coming, till the assembly of them that shall
afterwards worship him be complete. Wherefore as the form
of our public service is not voluntary, so neither are the
parts thereof left uncertain, but they are all set down in such
order, and with such choice, as hath in the wisdom of the
Church seemed best to concur as well with the special occa-
sions, as with the general purpose which we have to glorify God.

XX. Other public readings there are of books and writings of Preach-
not canonical, whereby the Church doth also preach, or openly pe the

5 T. C. lib. ii, p. 381. “ Al- “ment; which they might be, if

“though it be very convenient
* which is used in some Churches,
*‘ where before preaching-time the
** Church assembled hath the Scrip-
** tures read; yet neither is this nor
“any other order of bare public
“‘ reading in the church necessary.”
h.d. [Is this an abbreviation of
* hoc dicit,” implying that the pre-
ceding quotation gives the substance
not the words of T.C.? For the
passage runs literally thus: “ Yet
** a number of churches which have
“no such order of simple reading
“cannot be in this point charged
* with breach of God’s command-

** simple reading were necessary.”’ |

56 * Facto silentio, Scripturarum
‘* sunt lecta divina solennia.” Aug.
de Civ. Dei, lib. xxii. c. 8. [§ 22. t.
vii.672.] That for several times
several pieces of Scripture were read
as parts of the service of the Greek
church, the Fathers thereof in their
sundry Homilies and other writings
do all testify. The like order in the
Syrian churches is clear by the very
inscriptions of chapters throughout
their translation of the New Tes-
tament. See the edition at Vienna,
Paris, and Antwerp.

BOOK V.
Ch, xx. f.

Reading of
other
profitable
instruc-
tions ; and
concerning
books Apo-
eryphal.

70

The Customs of the Jews no sufficient Argument

make known the doctrine of virtuous conversation; where-—
upon besides those things in regard whereof we are thought to
read the Scriptures of God amiss, it is thought amiss*” that we
read in our churches any thing at all besides the Scriptures.
To exclude the reading of any such profitable instruction as
the Church hath devised for the better understanding of Serip-
ture, or for the easier training up of the people in holiness and —
righteousness of life, they plead>* that God in the Law would —
have nothing brought into the temple, neither besoms, nor
flesh-hooks, nor trumpets, but those only which were sancti- :
fied ; that for the expounding of darker places we ought to
follow the Jews’ polity®9, who under Antiochus, where they

57 [See T. C.i.157. Def. 715...
721. T.C. ii. 392... 402.]

58 T.C. lib. 1. p. 196. [157, 158.]
«‘ Neither the Homilies, nor the
* Apocrypha, are at all to be read
‘‘in the church. Wherein first it
** is good to consider the order which
“the Lord kept with his people in
* times past, when he commanded,
“ Exod. xxx. 29, that no vessel nor
“no instrument, either besom or
‘* flesh-hook or pan, should once
* come into the temple, but those
** only which were sanctified and set
“apart for that use. And in the
** book of Numbers he will have no
* other trumpets blown to call the
* people together, but those only
“ which were set apart for that pur-
** pose. Numb. x. 2.”

59 'T.C. lib.i. p. 194. [158.] * Be-
* sides this, the polity of the Church
** of God in times past is to be fol-
* lowed [herein; that for the ex-
** pounding of darker places, places
* of more easiness ought to be joined
* together; as in the persecution of
** Antiochus, where they could not
** have the commodity of preaching,
“the Jews did appoint at their
** meetings always a piece of the Law
“to be read, and withal a piece of
“the Prophets which expounded
** that piece of the Law, rather than
** to bring in interpretations of men
“to be read. And because I am
“entered into that matter, here
** cometh to be considered the prac-
** tice also of the Church, both be-
‘fore our Saviour’s coming and

* after, that when the churches met
“together there is nothing men-
“tioned but the reading of the
“ Scriptures: for so is the liturgy
*‘ described in the Acts. And it is
“not to be thought but that they

“had those which made exposi- —

f
5

4
i
3
3

** tions of the Law and the Prophets. —
** And besides that they had Onke- —
“los the Chaldee paraphrast, both —

*‘ Galatine and Rabbi Moses sur-

»

* named Maymon write that Jona--

** than another of the Chaldee Para-
** phrasts flourished in our Saviour

** Christ’s time: whose writings and —
‘* paraphrases upon the Scriptures —

“are esteemed comparable in that

“kind.... with any which have la- —
*boured that ways. And if any

** men’s writings were to be read in
“the Church, those paraphrases
** which in explaining the Scripture
* go least from it, and which keep
* not only the number of sentences
“but almost the very number of
** words, were of all most-fit to be
‘* read in the Church. Seeing there-

“fore, I say, the Church of God —

** then abstained from such interpre-
* tations in the Church, and con-
** tented itself with the Scriptures,
** it cannot but be a most dangerous
“attempt to bring any thing into
“‘ the Church to be read besides the
“word of God. This practice
** continued still in the Churches of
** God after the Apostles’ times, as
** may appear by the second Apology
of Justin Martyr, which shewet

“‘ that their manner was to read in

against Apoeryphal Lessons and Homilies. rg!

had not the commodity of sermons, appointed always at their
meeting somewhat out of the Prophets to be read together
- with the Law, and so by the one made the other plainer to be
understood ; that before and after our Saviour’s coming they
neither read Onkelos nor Jonathan’s paraphrase, though having
both, but contented themselves with the reading only of scrip-
tures; that if in the primitive Church there had been any thing
read besides the.monuments of the Prophets and Apostles®,
Justin Martyr® and Origen® who mention these would have
spoken of the other likewise; that the most ancient and best
councils forbid any thing to be read in churches saving: canon-
ical Scripture only ® ; that when other things were afterwards
permitted, fault was found with it®, it succeeded but ill,
the Bible itself was thereby in time quite and clean thrust out.

[2.] Which arguments, if they be only brought in token of
the author’s good will and meaning towards the cause which

BOOK V.

Ch. xx. 2.

they would set forward, must accordingly be accepted of by —

them who already are persuaded the same way. But if their
drift and purpose be to persuade others, it would be demanded,

“ the church the monuments of the
* Prophets and of the Apostles ; and
“if they had read any thing else, it
“is to be supposed that he would
“ have set it down, considering that
“his purpose there is to shew
*‘ the whole order which was used
‘in the churches then. The same
“‘ may appear in the first homily of
* Origen upon Exodus, and upon
* the Judges.”]

60 Acts xiii. 15,5 xv. 21.

61 Justin. Apol. 2. [ra dropynyo-
vevpata Tov ArooTdA\ar, 7) Ta ovy-
ypappara trav IIpodynrav avayt-
vookerat. p. 98. ed. Colon. 1686.1

62 Origen. Hom. 1. super Exod.
[t. ii. 129. D. “ Hic sermo qui nunc
** nobis ex divinis voluminibus reci-
“ tatus est.””]... et in Judie. [ibid.
458. E. “Lector presentis lectio-
“nis ita legebat,” &c. et 461. E.
** Recitatus est nobis etiam Jesu
* obitus.”’|

63 Concil. Laod. c. 59. [dre ov Sei
iStwrixovs warpods AeyeoOar ev TH
éxkAnoia, ovde axavdviota BiBdua,
GANG pova Ta KaKOViKa THS KaLYAS Kal
tahaas SiaOnkns. tom. i. col. 1507. |

64 Concil. Vas. 2, [or 3. can. 3.
** Hoc etiam pro edificatione omni-
“um Ecclesiarum, et pro utilitate
* totius populi, nobis placuit, ut non
‘“ solum in civitatibus, sed etiam in
“omnibus parochiis, verbum faci-
*‘ endi daremus presbyteris potesta-
“tem: ita ut si presbyter, aliqua
‘¢ infirmitate prohibente, per se ip-
“sum non _ potuerit preedicare,
* Sanctorum Patrum Homilie, a Di-
** aconibus recitentur.” t. iv. 1680.
A.D. 529.]

65 Concil. Colon. [A.D. 1536.]
pars ii. [cap. 6. ‘‘Cum olim a sanc-
*‘ tissimis patribus institutum sit,
** ut sole Scripture sacre in Eccle-
** sia recitarentur, nescimus qua in-
* curia acciderit, ut in earum locum
* successerint alia cum his neuti-
“ quam comparanda, atque interim
‘* historia Sanctorum tam inculte ac
** tam negligenti judicio conscripte,
* ut nec auctoritatem habere videan-
“tur, nec gravitatem. Deo itaque
**auctore, deque consilio capituli
* nostri, et theologorum aliorumque
* piorum virorum, reformationem
* breviariorum meditabimur.”’ ]

BOOK V.

Ch, xx. 3.

72 Origin of Second Lessons among the Jews.

by what rule the legal hallowing of besoms and flesh-hooks —
must needs exclude all other readings in the church save ©
Scripture. Things sanctified were thereby in such sort appro- —
priated unto God, as that they might never afterwards again
be made common. For which cause the Lord, to sign and —
mark them as his own, appointed oil of holy ointment, the like
whereunto it was not lawful to make for ordinary and daily
uses®®, Thus the anointing of Aaron and his sons tied them
to the office of the priesthood for ever®?; the anointing, not
of those silver trumpets (which Moses as well for secular as
sacred uses was commanded to make, not to sanctify®), but
the unction of the tabernacle, the table, the laver, the altar of
God, with all the instruments appertaining thereunto, this
made them for ever holy unto him in whose service they were
employed. But what of this? Doth it hereupon follow that
all things now in the church “ from the greatest to the least”
are unholy, which the Lord hath not himself precisely insti- —
tuted? For so those rudiments they say do import7®, Then
is there nothing holy which the Church by her authority hath
appointed, and consequently all positive ordinances that ever
were made by ecclesiastical power touching spiritual affairs are —
profane, they are unholy.

[3-] I would not wish them to undertake a work so despe-
rate as to prove, that for the people’s instruction no kind of
reading is good, but only that which the Jews devised under
Antiochus, although even that be also mistaken. For accord-
ing to Elias the Levite7', (out of whom it doth seem borrowed)
** in Dictionariis non facile inveniun-
“ tur, eta Rabbinis tamen Hebrzo-
* rum in scriptis suis passim usur-
“ pantur, origo, etymon, et verus

“ usus docte ostenditur et explica-
‘tur: per Paulum Fagium, in gra-

66 Exod. xxx. 25, 32.

67 Exod. xl. 15.

68 Numb. x. 2.

69 Exod. xxvii. 3; xxx. 26—28.

70 'T. C. lib. i. p.1 7-[158.] “The
“Lord would by eine rudiments

** and pedagogy teach, that he would
“have nothing brought into the
“Church but that which he had
“* appointed.”

71 Elias Thesb. in verbo Patar.
[** Opusculum Recens Hebraicum a
*‘ doctissimo Hebreo Elia Levita
** Germano Grammatico elaboratum,
** cui titulum fecit "20m, i. e. This-
** bites, in quo 712 vocum, qu sunt
** partim Hebraicz, Chaldaice, Ara-
* bice, Greece et Latins, queque

** tiam studiosorum Linguz Sancte,
* Latinitate donatum.” Isnez in
Algavia, 1531. The place quoted
occurs in the explication of the root
wp “dimisit.” “Thus,” says the
Lexicographer, “the man who is
** summoned last to the reading of
** the Law on the Sabbath is called
** sp ‘the Dismisser;’ and he pro-
*‘ nounces the Haphtarah, i.e. se-
** cond Lesson. And here let me set
** down what was the occasion of the

73

the thing which Antiochus forbade was the public Reading of
the Law, and not sermons upon the Law. Neither did the
Jews read a portion of the Prophets together with the Law
to serve for an interpretation thereof, because Sermons were
not permitted them ; but zzstead of the Law which they might
not read openly, they read of the Prophets that which in like-
ness of matter came nearest to each section of their Law.
Whereupon when afterwards the liberty of reading the Law
was restored, the selfsame custom as touching the Prophets
did continue still72.

[4.] If neither the Jews have used publicly to read their
paraphrasts, nor the primitive Church for a long time any other
writings than Scripture73, except the cause of their not doing
it were some law of God or reason forbidding them to do that
which we do, why should the later ages of the Church be de-
prived of the liberty the former had? Are we bound while
the world standeth to put nothing in _— but only that

Apocryphal Readings excusable, though unprecedented.

which was at the very first ?

Concerning the council of Laodicea, as it forbiddeth the
reading of those things which are not canonical, so it maketh

some things not canonical which are74.

Their judgment in

this we may not, and in that we need not follow.

“‘ Haphtarah. According to what I
“have found written, the wicked
** Antiochus King of Greece forbade
** Israel to read in the law publicly.

* What did the Israelites? They
* took onesection from the Prophets,
* the matter of which resembled the
* matter which was written in the
** section appertaining to that Sab-
“bath. For instance on the Sab-
** bath of Bereschith,” (i.e. ‘In the
beginning’) “ they read, Thus
« saith God the Lord which created
“the heavens,” &c. (Is. xlii. 5.)
* And for the section of Noah they
** read as a lesson, ‘ As the waters of
** Noah so is this‘to me.’” (Isai.

liv.g.) “ And so throughout, section
** by section. And even now that
** the decree has ceased, that custom
“has not ceased, but even at this
« day they read the Sections of the
* Prophets after reading of the Law,
“and it is called the Haphtarah,

* i.e, Dismission.” (Vid. Prideaux,

oe p. ii. b. iti, An. A. C,

107-4
2 Acts xv. 21; xiii. 15.

3 'T.C. lib. i. p. 197. [158.] “This
“practice continued still in the
“ churches of God after the Apostles’
“ times, as may appear by the second
“ Apology of Justin Martyr.” Idem,
p- 198. [159.] “It was decreed in
“ the council of Laodicea, that no-
* thing should be read in the church
* but the canonical books of the
* Old and New Testament. After-
** ward, as corruptions grew in the
** Church, the reading of Homilies
** and of Martyrs’ lives was permit-
“ted. But besides the evil success
** thereof, that use and custom was
fs controlled, as may appear by the
** council of Colen, albeit otherwise
* popish. The bringing in of Ho-
* milies and Martyrs’ Lives hath
** thrust the Bible clean out of the
** church, or into a corner.”

74 The Apocalypse. [Can. 60.

BOOK V.

Ch. xx. 4.

BOOK V.

Ch. xx. 5, 6.

74: Order of Lessons among the early Christians.

[5.] We have by thus many years’ experience found, that
exceeding great good, not encumbered with any notable in-
convenience, hath grown by the custom which we now observe. —
As for the harm whereof judicious men have complained in
former times; it came not of this, that other things were read
besides the Scripture, but that so evil choice was made. With
us there is never any time bestowed in divine service without
the reading of a great part of the holy Scripture, which we
account a thing most necessary. We dare not admit any such -
form of liturgy as either appointeth no Scripture at all, or very”
little, to be read in the church. And therefore the thrusting —
of the Bible out of the house of God is rather there to be —
feared, where men esteem it a matter so indifferent75, whether 1
the same be by solemn appointment read publicly, or not read, —
the bare text excepted which the preacher haply chooseth
out to expound. | 7

(6.] But let us here consider what the practice of our
fathers before us hath been, and how far forth the same
may be followed. We find that in ancient times there was—
publicly read first the Scripture7®, as namely, something out
of the books of the Prophets of God which were of old77;_
something out of the Apostles’ writings’8; and lastly out of |
the holy Evangelists, some things which touched the person :

“Oca Set BiBXia dvaywookerOat Tis
madaas SiaOjkns. 1.1507. It seems
hardly correct to say that the Apoca-
lypse is omitted as uncanonical. The
word avaywookeoOa rather refers to
public reading in the church: by
which construction the judgment of
the: Fathers of Laodicea might be
much the same as that of the Church
of England. In the version under
the name of Isidorus Mercator, the
canon is headed, “Que autem
** oporteat legi, et in auctoritatem
* recipi, heec sunt.” |

75 'T.C. lib. ii. p. 381. “It is
* untrue that simple reading is ne-
** cessary in the church. A num-
“ber of churches which have no
*‘such order of simple reading,
“cannot be in this point charged
*‘ with breach of God’s command-
“ment, which they might be if
“ simple reading were necessary.”
(By simple reading, he meaneth

the custom of bare reading more
than the preacher at the same time
expoundeth unto the people.)

6 «Coimus ad divinarum litera-
** rum commemorationem.” Tertull.
Apol. p. 692. [c. 39. ]

77 “ Judaicarum historiarum libri
“ traditi sunt ab Apostolis legendi
“in Ecclesiis.” Origen. in Jos.
Hom. 15. [init. t. ii. 431.]

78 Tldvrav kata méAes 7) aypovs
pevévrav emt td aiTo cuvedevots
yiverat, kal Ta drrouynpovevpata Tov
*"Arooté\oy 7) Ta oUyypdypata TOY
IIpopyrav dvaywookera. Justin.
Apol. 2. p. 162. [98.] ‘ Factum est
* ut ista die Dominica, prophetica
** lectione jam lecta, ante altare ad-
** stante qui lectionem S. Pauli pro-
* ferret, beatissimus antistes Am-
* brosius,” &c. Sulpit. Sever. lib.
iii, de Vita S. Mart. [rather Greg.
Turon. de Mirac. 8. Mart. lib. i. c. 5,
col. 1006. ed. Ruinart. ]

Lessons Prophetical, Apostolical, Evangelical. 75

of our Lord Jesus Christ himself79. The cause of their
reading first the Old Testament, then the New, and always
somewhat out of both, is most likely to have been that which
Justin Martyr and St. Augustin observe in comparing the

two Testaments. “The Apostles,” saith the one, “have
taught us as themselves did learn, first the precepts of the
“ Law, and then the Gospels. For what else is the Law
“but the Gospel foreshewed? What other the Gospel,
“than the Law fulfilled?” In like sort the other, “ What
“the Old Testament hath, the very same the New con-
“taineth; but that which lieth there as under a shadow
“is here brought forth into the open sun. Things there pre-
* figured are here performed®!.” Again, “ In the Old Testa-
“ment there is a close comprehension of the New, in the

“ New an open discovery of the Old82.”

79 Vid. Concil. Vasens. ii. habi-
tum an. D. 444, to. Concil. ii. pag.
f [p. 20, ed. Nicolin. Venet. 1585.

e seems to refer to the canon
quoted above, (note 64,) in that
edition the second: which after
lac ge! the deacons to read

omilies from the Fathers, adds,
** Si enim digni sunt diaconi que
** Christus in evangelio locutus est
“legere; quare indigni judicentur
“sanctorum Patrum expositiones
‘* publice recitare?”’] Item Synod.
Laod. c. 16. [é€v caBBdr@, edayyédca
pera érépav ypapav avaywaookeo ba.
t. i. 1500. | Cypr. lib. ii. ep. 5. [al. t.
li. p. 75. “‘ Placuit ut ab officio lec-
* tionis incipiat : quia et nihil magis
“congruit voci, que Dominum
“gloriosa predicatione confessa
“ est, quam celebrandis divinis lec-
“tionibus personare; post verba
“ sublimia, que Christi martyrium
“ prolocutasunt, Evangelium Christi
*legere, unde martyres fiunt.’’|
Et lib. iv. ep. 5. [al. t. ii. 77.
** Hunc...quid aliud quam super
* pulpitum, i. e. super tribunal
* Ecclesie, oportebat imponi, ut
* loci altioris celsitate subnixus, et
*plebi universe pro honoris sui
** claritate conspicuus, legat preecepta
* et Evangelium Domini, que for-
“titer ac fideliter sequitur? vox
* Dominum confessa in his quotidie,

To be short,

** que Dominus locutus est, audia-
* tur?’’] Ambros. lib. i. Offic. c. 8.
[‘* Dum legimus hodie Evangelium,
** (quasi adhortaretur ad scriben-
dum) Spiritus Sanctus obtulit
* nobis lectionem, qua confirmare-
* mur,’ &c.] et Epist. 75. [ed.
Bened. 80. ‘“ Audisti, frater, lec-
* tionem Evangelii, in qua decursum
* est,” &c.] et lib. de Helia atque
Jejunio, cap. 20. [t.i.559.A. Au-
“distis hodie in lectione decursa
* quid Legio dixerit.’’]

80 Just. quest. ror. [p. 456. ds
euavOavoy of “Amdorodot, mparov

a 9
- pev TA TOD vopov, VoTepov Se Ta ev-=

ayyeAta, ovTws Kal nuas edidatav...
Tl yap €or 6 vomos 5 evayyé\tov Tpo-
KaTnyyeApevoy’ ti de rd evayyediov 3
vopuos TemAnpapevos. |

81 August. quest. 33. in Num.
[§ 1. t. iii. 541. “‘Eadem quippe
“* sunt in vetere et novo; ibi obum-
** brata, hic revelata; ibi preefigu-
“ rata, hic manifestata.” |

82 Id. de Catech. Rudib. § 8.
* In Veteri Testamento est occultatio
“Novi, in Novo Testamento est
** manifestatio Veteris.” Compare
* Quest. 73, in Exod. “ Multum et
*‘ solide significatur, ad Vetus Tes-
“tamentum timorem potius perti-
** nere, sicut ad Novum dilectionem ;
*‘ quanquam et in Vetere Novum
* Jateat, et in Novo Vetus pateat.’’]

BOOK V.
Ch. xx. 6.

BOOK V.

Ch, xx. 4.

76 Ecclesiastical Books: now called Apocryphal.

the method of their public readings either purposely did
tend, or at the leastwise doth fitly serve, “That from
“ smaller things the mind of the hearers may go forward to
“the knowledge of greater, and by degrees climb up from
« the lowest to the highest things %?.”

[7.] Now besides the Scripture, the books which they called
Ecclesiastical were thought not unworthy sometime to be
brought into public audience, and with that name they entitled
the books which we term Apocryphal. Under the selfsame
name they also comprised certain no otherwise annexed unto
the New than the former unto the Old Testament, as a Book of
Hermas, Epistles of Clement, and the like. According therefore
to the phrase of antiquity, these we may term the New, and
the other the Old Ecclesiastical Books or Writings. For we,
being directed by a sentence (I suppose) of St. Jerome, who
saith, “ that all writings not canonical are apocryphal*+,” use
not now the title apocryphal as the rest of the Fathers ordi-
narily have done, whose custom is so to name for the most
part only such as might not publicly be read or divulged.
Ruffinus therefore having rehearsed the selfsame books of
canonical Scripture, which with us are held to be alone
canonical, addeth immediately by way of caution, “ We must
“ know that other Books there are also, which our forefathers
“ have used to name not canonical but ecclesiastical books, as
“the Book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Toby, Judith, the
« Maccabees, in the Old Testament; in the New, the Book of
«« Hermes, and such others. All which books and writings
* they willed to be read in Churches, but not to be alleged as

83 Walaf. Strab. de Rebus Eccle-
siast. cap. 22. [in Biblioth. Patr.
Colon. Agrip. t. ix. pars 1, g60. C.
“* Lectiones Apostolicas, vel Evan-
** gelicas, quis ante celebrationem
*‘ sacrificii primum statuerit, non
*‘ adeo certum est. Creditur tamen
“a primis successoribus Apostolo-
“‘ rum eandem dispositionem factam,
** ea precipue causa, quia in Evan-
** geliis eadem sacrificia celebrari
“jubentur, et in Apostolo, qualiter
* celebrari debeant, docetur: et ut
“ante sanctissime actionis myste-
“ rium, ex Evangelio salutis et fidei
“ sue recognoscerent fundamentum,
*“et ex Apostolo ejusdem fidei et

*“ morum Deo placentium caperent
*‘instrumentum. Anteponitur au-
“tem in ordine quod inferius est
** dignitate, ut ex minoribus animus
*‘audientium ad majora sentienda
* proficiat, et gradatim ab imis ad
“summa conscendat.” This was
written about A.D. 842. Cave,
Hist. Litt. i. 533.]

84 Hieron. in Prolog. Galeat.
[“ Hic prologus Scripturarum,
** quasi galeatum principium, omni-
* bus libris quos de Hebrzo verti-
** mus in Latinum convenire potest :
‘ut scire valeamus quicquid extra
«hos est in Apocryphis esse ponen-
* dum.” t. iii. 17.]

Ground of the Canon of Laodicea. 77

« if their authority did bind us to build upon them our faith.
« Other writings they named Apocryphal, which they would
« not have read in churches. These things delivered unto us
“ from the Fathers we have in this place thought good to set
« down.” So far Ruffinus®>.

[8.] He which considereth notwithstanding what store of
false and forged writings dangerous unto Christian belief, and
yet bearing®® glorious inscriptions, began soon upon the
Apostles’ times to be admitted into the Church, and to be
honoured as if they had been indeed apostolic, shall easily
perceive what cause the provincial synod of Laodicea’? might
have as then to prevent especially the danger of books made
newly Ecclesiastical, and for fear of the fraud of heretics to
provide, that such public readings might be altogether taken
out of Canonical scripture. Which ordinance respecting but
that abuse that grew through the intermingling of lessons
human with sacred, at such time as the one both affected the
eredit and usurped the name of the other (as by the canon of
a later council®® providing remedy for the selfsame evil, and
yet allowing the old ecclesiastical books to be read, it doth
more plainly and clearly appear,) neither can be construed nor
should be urged utterly to prejudice our use of those old
ecclesiastical writings; much less of Homilies, which were a
third kind of readings usual in former times, a most commend-

85 Ruffinus in Symbol. Apost. [§
38.] apud Cypr. [p. 26. ad calc.
ed. Fell. ‘ Sciendum tamen est,
“ peed et alii libri sunt, qui non
© Canonici, sed Ecclesiastici a ma-
“joribus appellati sunt: ut est
-“ Sapientia Solomonis, et alia Sa-
“pientia que dicitur filii Syrach,
** qui liber apud Latinos hoc ipso
“generali vocabulo Ecclesiasticus
“appellatur ; quo vocabulo non
* auctor libelli, sed Scripture qua-
**litas cognominata est. Ejusdem
*“ordinis est libellus Tobie, et
Judith, et Maccabzeorum libri...
** In Novo vero Testamento libellus
“qui dicitur Pastoris sive Herma-
“tis qui appellatur Due Vie, vel
** Judicium Petri: quz omnia legi
** quidem in Ecclesia voluerunt, non
*“‘tamen proferri ad auctoritatem
* ex his fidei confirmandam. Czx-

*“‘teras vero Scripturas Apocryphas
** nominarunt, quas in ecclesiis legi
* noluerunt. zc nobis a Patri-
* bus, ut dixi, tradita opportunum
** visum est hoc in loco designare.”’]

86 Vide Gelas. Decret. tom. Con-
cil. 2. p. 462. [t. iv. 1264. A. D.

4.

87 Circa an. Dom. 366.

83 Concil. Carthag. iii. c. 47.
** Preter Scripturas canonicas nihil
“in ecclesiis legatur sub nomine
*‘ divinarum scripturarum.” Circa
an. Dom. 4or. [* Placuit, ut preeter
*Scripturas canonicas nihil in Ec-
* clesia legatur sub nomine divina-
‘rum scripturarum Liceat
‘etiam legi passiones martyrum,
** cum anniversarii dies eorum cele-
“brantur.” t. ii. p.1177. A. D.
397-]

BOOK V.

Ch, xx. 8,

BOOK Y.
Ch, xx. Qe

78 Acts of Martyrs why not now read in the Chureh.

able institution, as well then’? to supply the casual, as now
the necessary defect of sermons.

[9.] In the heat of general persecution, whereunto Christian
belief was subject upon the first promulgation thereof through-
out the world, it much confirmed the courage and constancy
of weaker minds, when public relation was made unto them
after what manner God had been glorified through the suffer-
ings of Martyrs, famous amongst them for holiness during
life, and at the time of their death admirable in all men’s eyes,
through miraculous evidence of grace divine assisting them
from above. For which cause the virtues of some being
thought expedient to be annually had in remembrance above
the rest, this brought in a fourth kind of public reading,
whereby the lives of such saints and martyrs had at the time
of their yearly memorials solemn recognition in the Church
of God %. The fond imitation of which laudable custom
being in later ages resumed, when there was neither the like
cause to do as the Fathers before had done, nor any care,
conscience, or wit, in such as undertook to perform that
work, some brainless men have by great labour and travel
brought to pass, that the Church is now ashamed of nothing
more than of saints. If therefore Pope Gelasius®! did so long

89 Concil. Vasen. ii. habitum an.
Dom. 444. tom. Concil. ii. p. rg.
“Si presbyter aliqua infirmitate
** prohibente per selpsum non po-
“tuerit preedicare, sanctorum Pa-
* trum Homiliz a diaconibus reci-
*tentur.” [Labb. Concil. t. iv.
1680. He makes it the third Coun-
cil of Vaux, and refers it to A. D.

29.
$i Coneit Carthag. ili. can. 13.
[Labb. t. ii, 1644. Concil. vulgo
dict. Afric. seu Collectio variorum
Canonum. Capit. 13.] et Greg.
Turon. de Gloria Mart. cap. 86.
[p.818. ed. Ruinart. “Dies passionis
“erat Polycarpi..... Lecta igitur
*‘ passione cum reliquis lectioni-
“bus, &c.”] et Hadrian. Epist. ad
Carol. Magn. [Concil. t. vi. p. 1763.
The Pope recommends certain en-
voys of his to the Emperor: ‘‘ quibus
“et in omnibus credere debeatis,
* et solita benignitate eos suscipere
** jubeatis; pro amore fautoris vestri

** beati Petri Apostoli: ut dum ad
“nos reversi fuerint cum effectu
“cause, ante confessionem tpsius
* Dei Apostoli, ... pro vestra sos-
S Witeate a «5h «. wes fundere valeamus
** preces.”’ |
91 Gelas. circa an. Dom. 492.
Tom. Concil. ii. p. 461. [t. iv. 1263.
Among the writings which the
church of Rome “ suscipi non pro-
‘‘hibet,” are reckoned ‘“ Gesta
** Sanctorum Martyrum, qui multi-
*¢ plicibus tormentorum cruciatibus,
“et mirabilibus confessionum tri-
“ umphis irradiant. Quis ita esse
*‘ catholicorum dubitet, et majora
“eos in agonibus fuisse perpessos,
“nec suis viribus, sed gratia Dei
“et adjutorio universa tolerasse?
‘Sed ideo secundum antiquam
* consuetudinem singulari cautela
“in sancta Romana Ecclesia non
** Jeguntur, quia et eorum qui con-
** scripsere nomina penitus ignoran-
“tur; et ab infidelibus aut idiotis”

Apoctyphal Lessons no Slight to the Scriptures. 79

sithence see those defects of judgment, even then, for which
the reading of the acts of Martyrs should be and was at that
time forborne in the church of Rome; we are not to marvel
that afterwards legends being grown in a manner to be
nothing else but heaps of frivolous and scandalous vanities,
they have been even with disdain thrown out, the very nests
which bred them abhorring them?. We are not therefore to
except only Scripture, and to make confusedly all the residue
of one suit, as if they who abolish legends could not without
incongruity retain in the church either Homilies or those old
Ecclesiastical books.

[10.] Which books in case myself did think, as some others
do, safer and better to be left publicly unread; nevertheless
as in other things of like nature, even so in% this, my
private judgment I should be loth to oppose against the force
of their reverend authority, who rather considering the divine
excellency of some things in all, and of all things in certain
of those Apocrypha which we publicly read, have thought it
better to let them stand as a list or marginal border unto the

* superflua, aut minus apta, quam
* rei ordo fuerit, scripta esse pu-
“tantur: ....sicut Georgii, alio-
-“ rumque hujusmodi passiones, que
** ab heereticis perhibentur compo-
*< site. Propter quod, ut dictum est,
‘ne vel levis subsannandi oriretur
*‘ occasio, in sancta Rom. Ecclesia
“non leguntur.”’]

%2 Concil. Colonien. celebrat. an
D. 1536. par. ii. cap. 6. [vid. supra,
: 41.| Melch. Can. Locor. Theol.

ib. x1. [p. 650. ed. Lovan. 1569.
* Dolenter hoc dico potius quam
© contumeliose, multo a Laertio
“severius vitas Philosophorum
* scriptas, quam a Christianis vitas
*‘ Sanctorum; longeque incorrup-
*tius et integrius Suetonium res
** Cesarum exposuisse, quam ex-
** posuerint Catholici, non res dico
“ imperatorum, sed martyrum, vir-
. “ ginum, et confessorum.”| Viv.
Lud. Vives] de Trad. Disc. lib. v.
* Dolorem....cepi animo maxi-
*“mum,......-Acta Apostolorum,
* Martyrum, denique Divorum
*‘nostre religionis, et ipsius sive
*ecrescentis LEcclesie~ sive jam

“ adulte, operta maximis tenebris
* fere ignorari, tanto sive ad cogno-
** scendum sive ad imitandum quam
*‘ducum aut philosophorum fruc-
*tuosiora. Nam que de iis scripta
“* preter pauca quedam multis sunt
** commentis foedata, dum qui scribit
‘ affectui suo indulget, et non que
* egit Divus, sed que egisse eum
* vellet exponit ; ut vitam dictet
*‘animus scribentis, non veritas.
“ Fuere qui magne pietatis loco
** ducerent mendaciosa pro religione
*‘ confingere: quod et periculosum
“ est, ne veris adimatur fides propter
“ falsa ; et minime necessarium ;
** quoniam pro pietate nostra tam
“ multa sunt vera, ut falsa, tanquam
‘* ignavi milites atque inutiles, oneri
“‘sint magis quam auxilio.” Op.
p- 510. ed. 1535. |

93 «In errorum barathrum faci-
“ liter ruunt, qui conceptus proprios
“ patrum definitionibus antepo-
“ nunt.” c. un. de relig. do. in
Extra. [i.e. capite unico (Tituli VII.)
de Religiosis Domibus, in Extrava-
gantibus (Joannis xxii.) Corp. Juris
Canon. t. iii. App. 74. Lugd. 1584. |

BOOK V.

Ch. xx. 10,

BOOK V.

Ch, xx. 11.

80 Apocrypha not apt to be confounded with Seripture.

Old Testament, and though with divine yet as human com-
positions, to grant at the least unto certain of them public
audience in the house of God. For inasmuch as the due
estimation of heavenly truth dependeth wholly upon the
known and approved authority of those famous oracles of
God, it greatly behoveth the Church to have always most
especial care, lest through confused mixture at any time
human usurp the room and title of divine writings. Where-
fore albeit for the people’s9t more plain instruction (as the
ancient use hath been) we read in our churches certain books
besides the Scripture, yet as the Scripture we read them not,
All men know our professed opinion touching the difference
whereby we sever them from the Scripture. And if any
where it be suspected that some or other will haply mistake a
thing so manifest in every man’s eye, there is no let but that
as often as those books are read, and need so requireth, the
style of their difference may expressly be mentioned, to bar
even all possibility of error.

[11.] It being then known that we hold not the Apocrypha
for sacred (as we do the holy Scripture) but for human com-
positions, the subject whereof are sundry divine matters;
let there be reason shewed why to read any part of them
publicly it should be unlawful or hurtful unto the Church of

94 Hieron. Pref. ad Libros Salom.
fiili. 25. “Sicut Judith et Tobit et

* Ecclesia eos legit, et permittit,
*‘ ut ad devotionem et ad morum

** Machabzorum libros legit quidem
* Ecclesia, sed eos intra canonicas
** Scripturas non recipit; sic et hzec
** duo volumina (Sapientiam et Ec-
*clesiasticum) legat ad eedifica-
*tionem plebis, non ad auctorita-
‘tem ecclesiasticorum dogmatum
* confirmandam.”’] Aug. de Preed.
Sanct. lib. i. c. 14. [t. x.807. “ Non
“ debuit repudiari sententia Libri
** Sapientiz, qui meruit in Ecclesia
** Christi de gradu Lectorum Ec-
** clesiz Christi tam longa annosi-
** tate recitari, et ab omnibus Chris-
** tianis, ab Episcopis usque ad ex-
** tremos laicos, fideles, poenitentes,
*‘ catechumenos, cum veneratione
** diving auctoritatis audiri.”] Preef.
Gloss. ord. [Lugd. 15809, t. i. “Boni
* et utiles sunt, nihilque in eis, quod
** canonicis obviet, invenitur; ideo

*‘ informationem a fidelibus legan-
“tur; eorum tamen auctoritas,”
&c. (as in the subsequent quotation
from St. Jerome).| et Lyr. ad Prol.
Hieron. in Tob. [Ibid. t. ii. 1495.
** Postquam, auxiliante Deo, scripsi
“super libros sacre Scripture ca-
‘“ nonicos, .... de ejusdem con-
** fisus auxilio super alios intendo
** scribere, qui non sunt de canone,
“sc. lib. Sapientize, Ecclesiasticus,
* Judith, Tobias, et Libri Macha-
** beorum,” &c.... Hi libri recepti
“ sunt ab Ecclesia, ut ad morum
*‘informationem in ea legantur :—
*‘tamen eorum auctoritas ad pro-
“ bandum ea que in contentionem
** veniunt minus idonea reputatur :
“ut dicit Hieron. in Prol. super
“ Judith.”}

Errors of the Apocryphal Books exaggerated. 81

God. I hear it said that “many things” in them are very BOOK V.
“ frivolous,” and unworthy of public audience; yea many — =
contrary, “ plainly contrary to the holy Scripture%.” Which
hitherto is neither sufficiently proved by him who saith it,
and if the proofs thereof were strong, yet the very allegation
itself is weak. Let us therefore suppose (for I will not
demand to what purpose it is that against our custom of
reading books not canonical they bring exceptions of matter
in those books which we never use to read) suppose I say
that what faults soever they have observed throughout the
passages of all those books, the same in every respect were
such as neither could be construed, nor ought to be censured
otherwise than even as themselves pretend: yet as men
through too much haste oftentimes forget the errand where-
about they should go; so here it appeareth that an eager
desire to rake together whatsoever might prejudice or any way
hinder the credit of apocryphal books, hath caused the col-
lector’s pen so to run as it were on wheels, that the mind which
should guide it had no leisure to think, whether that which
might haply serve to withhold from giving them the autho-
city which belongeth unto sacred Scripture, and to cut them
off from the canon, would as effectually serve to shut them
altogether out of the church, and to withdraw from granting
unto them that public use wherein they are only held as
profitable for instruction. Is it not acknowledged® that those

% T.C. lib. ii. p. 400, 401. “ etiam sumere documenta, quatenus

[Anonym. apud Saray. Ep. ad N.
quendam. Art.1. ‘ Durum videtur
* illorum pleraque (ne quid gravius
** dicam) inepta, legenda ht all

% Confess. Helv. in Harm. Conf.
sect. 1. [Nihil dissimulamus,
quosdam Vet. Test. libros a ve-
*‘ teribus nuncupatos esse Apocry-
** phos, ab aliis Ecclesiasticos, utpote
*quos in ecclesiis legi voluerunt
‘quidem, non tamen proferri ad
** authoritatem ex his fidei confir-
“ mandam.” Sylloge Confess. sub
Temp. Reform. Eccles. Oxon. 1804.
p. 17.] Bel. Con. art. 6. [Diffe-
* rentiam constituimus inter libros
** istos sacros, et eos quos Apocry-
“phos vocant: utpote quod Apo-
*cryphi legi quidem in Ecclesia
** possint, et fas sit ex illis eatenus

HOOKER, VOL. II.

‘cum libris Canonicis consonant ;
** at nequaquam ea est ipsorum auc-
* toritas et firmitudo, ut ex eorum
** testimonio a dogma de Fide
* et Religione Christiana certo con-
* stitui possit: tantum abest ut
*aliorum auctoritatem infringere
“ vel minuere valeant.”’ Ib. p. 293.]
Lubert. de Princip. Christ. Dogm.
lib. i. c. 5. [c. 4. ‘ Manifestum est,
** Ecclesiam habuisse eos libros pro
* sanctis, sacris, et Ecclesiasticis,
“neque tamen pro Canonicis ag-
“ novisse.” c. 5. ‘ Hi libri non
* sunt Canonicis libris conformes,
** Unum enim librum ex his Hieron-
** ymus dicit vitiosum esse, alterum
*fabulosum. At vitiosum et fabu-
*losum non est veritatis regule
“conforme. Preterea in singulis

G

LIBRARY ST. MARYS COLLEGE

82 Our Use of the Apocrypha suitable to its Origin.

Book v. books are “holy,” that they are “ ecclesiastical’’ and “ sacred,”

Ch. xx. 11.

that to term them “ divine,” as being for their excellency
next unto them which are properly so termed, is no way to
honour them above desert; yea even that the whole Church
of Christ as well at the first as sithence hath most worthily
approved their fitness for the public information of life and
manners; is not thus much I say acknowledged, and that by
them, who notwithstanding receive not the same for “any
¢* part of canonical Scripture,” by them who deny not but that
they are “faulty,” by them who are ready enough to give
instances wherein they seem to contain matter “ scarce agree-
** able with holy Scripture ?” So little doth such their supposed
faultiness in moderate men’s judgment enforce the removal
of them out of the house of God, that still they are judged to
retain worthily those very titles of commendation, than which
there cannot greater be given to writings the authors whereof
are men. As in truth if the Scripture itself ascribing to the
persons of men righteousness in regard of their manifold
virtues, may not rightly be construed as though it did there-
by clear them and make them quite free from all faults, no
reason we should judge it absurd to commend their writings
as reverend, holy, and sound, wherein there are so many
singular perfections, only for that the exquisite wits of some
few peradventure are able dispersedly here and there to find
now a word and then a sentence, which may be more pro-
bably suspected than easily cleared of error, by us which

have but conjectural knowledge of their meaning.

Against immodest invectives therefore whereby they are
charged as being fraught with outrageous lies97, we doubt not
but their more allowable censure will prevail, who without so
passionate terms of disgrace, do note a difference great enough
between Apocryphal and other writings, a difference such as
Josephus and Epiphanius observe: the one declaring that

amongst the Jews books written after the days of Artaxerxes
were not of equal credit with them which had gone before,
Inasmuch as the Jews sithence that time had not the like
‘exact succession of Prophets ; the other acknowledging that

“libris ostendemus, eos non esse 98 Joseph. cont. Apion. lib, i. [§ 8.

* canonicis conformes.” ‘Ard de ‘Apraképfou pEXpL TOU Kad

97 The libel of parade Schoolp. pas xpédvou yeypamrat pev exaora’

art. 34. miorews Sé€ ovx dpoias néiwra: Trois

Lessons Proper from the Apocrypha justified. 83

they are “ profitable%,” although denying them to be “ divine”
in such construction and sense as the Scripture itself is so
termed. With what intent they were first published, those
words of the nephew of Jesus do plainly enough signify,
«“ 1 After that my grandfather Jesus had given himself to the
“ reading of the Law and the Prophets and other books of our
“fathers, and had gotten therein sufficient judgment, he
“ purposed also to write something pertaining to learning and
“ wisdom, to the intent that they which were desirous to learn,
“and would give themselves to these things, might profit
*‘ much more in living according to the Law.” Their end in
writing and ours in reading them is the same. The books of
Judith, Toby, Baruch, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus, we read,
as serving most unto that end. The rest we leave unto men
in private.

[12.] Neither can it be reasonably thought, because upon
certain solemn occasions some lessons are chosen out of those
books, and of Scripture itself some chapters not appointed
to be read at all, that we thereby do offer disgrace to the
word of God, or lift up the writings of men above it. For in
such choice we do not think but that Fitness of speech may be
more respected than Worthiness. If in that which we use to
read there happen by the way any clause, sentence, or speech,
that soundeth towards error, should the mixture of a little
dross constrain the Church to deprive herself of so much
gold, rather than learn how by art and judgment to make
separation of the one from the other? To this effect very fitly,
from the counsel that St. Jerome giveth Leta?, of taking
heed “how” she read the Apocrypha, as also by the help of
other learned men’s judgments delivered in like case, we may
take direction. But surely the arguments that should bind
us not to read them or any part of them publicly at all must
be stronger than as yet we have heard any.

m™po avrav, Sia td py yevéeoOa thy ii. 401. ‘‘ Caveat omnia apocrypha.

Tov mpodpntay axpiBn Siadoxnv.

99 EKpiphan. io ene [de
Ponderibus, &c. § 4.] Xpnopor
pev eiot kal @PEALpor, GAN eis apid-
pov pytav ovk dvadépovra. [t. ii.
162.

1 Pref. ad lib. Eccles.

2[Opp.i.57- Quoted by T.C.

** Et siquando ea non ad dogmatum
** veritatem, sed ad signorum reve-
** rentiam legere voluerit: sciat non
*‘eorum esse, quorum titulis pre-
* notantur, multaque his admixta
** vitiosa, et grandis esse prudenti,
* aurum in luto querere.”’ |

G2

BOOK V.

Ch. xx.12.

84, What the Word of God is:

XXI. We marvel the less that our reading of books not
canonical is so much impugned, when so little is attributed
unto the reading of canonical Scripture itself, that now it hath

mons; and grown to be a question, whether the word of God be any
ames be ordinary mean to save the souls of men, in that it is either
the only or- nrivately studied or publicly read and so made known, or else

di : > ‘ :
tacking, only as the same is preached, that is to say, explained by lwely

Preaching by Sermons.
BOOK V.
Ch. xxi. 1, 2.

Of preach-
ing by ser-

«aig voice, and applied to the people’s use as the speaker in his
brought to wisdom thinketh meet. For this alone is it which they use
ortho to call Preaching. The public reading of the Apocrypha they
— condemn altogether as a thing effectual unto evil; the dare

reading im like sort of whatsoever, yea even of Scriptures
themselves, they mislike, as a thing wneffectual to do that good,
which we are persuaded may grow by it.

[2.] Our desire is in this present controversy, as in the rest,
not to be carried up and down with the waves of uncertain
arguments, but rather positively to lead on the minds of the
simpler sort by plain and easy degrees, till the very nature of
the thing itself do make manifest what is truth. First there-
fore because whatsoever is spoken concerning the efficacy or
necessity of God’s Word, the same they tie and restrain only
unto Sermons, howbeit not Sermons read neither (for such
they also abhor in the church‘) but sermons without book,
sermons which spend their life in their birth and may have
public audience but once ; for this cause to avoid ambiguities
wherewith they often entangle themselves, not marking what
doth agree to the word of God in itself, and what in regard of

3 (Eccl. Disc. fol. 76. “Ne pu-

*“temus eos de ecclesiis non esse
** sollicitos, mirifica quedam ratio

‘make it an office of reading.”
Ans. I 50. “What contrariety is
‘* there betwixt reading and preach-

““inventa est, qua quum lectores
*‘tantum habeant, qui Scripture
*‘ partem aliquam et preces reli-
“ quamque liturgiam recitent, ido-
‘* neos tamen pastores et verbi divini
*‘ predicatores se habere existi-
“mant.” Adm. ap. Whitg. Def.
579. “* Reading is not feeding, but
‘it is as evil as playing upon a
** stage, and worse too ; for players
** yet learn their parts without book,
“and these, a many of them, can
* scarcely read within book.’’]
4[Adm. ‘By the word of God
“it is an office of preaching, they

‘ing? If a man should write his
‘** sermon, and read it in the book to
“his flock, doth he not preach ?”
T.C. 1.127. (al. 160.) “ What if I
** granted that it is preaching, yet I
‘* deny that he that readeth another
‘man’s sermon preacheth: and
** further I say that if there be any
* such as being able to preach for
* his knowledge yet for fault either
** of utterance or memory cannot do
“it but by reading that which he
* hath written, it is not convenient
** that he should be a minister in
* the church.”’]

4

How it 1s made available to Salvation. 85

outward accidents which may befall it, we are to know that
the word of God is his heavenly truth touching matters of
eternal life revealed and uttered unto men; unto Prophets
and Apostles by immediate divine inspiration, from them to
us by their books and writings. We therefore have no word
of God but the Scripture. Apostolic sermons were unto such
as heard them his word, even as properly as to us their writ-
ings are. Howbeit not so our own sermons, the expositions
which our discourse of wit doth gather and minister out of
the word of God. For which cause in this present question,
we are when we name the word of God always to mean the
Scripture only.

[3.] The end of the word of God is ¢o save, and therefore
we term it the word of life. 'The way for all men to be saved
is by the knowledge of that truth which the word hath taught.
And sith eternal life is a thing of itself communicable unto all,
it behoveth that the word of God, the necessary mean there-
unto, be so likewise. Wherefore the word of life hath been
always a treasure, though precious, yet easy, as well to attain,
as to find; lest any man desirous of life should perish through
the difficulty of the way. To this end the word of God no
otherwise serveth than only in the nature of a doctrinal in-
strument, It saveth because if maketh “ wise to salvation>.”
Wherefore the ignorant it saveth not; they which live by the
word must know it. And being itself the instrument which
God hath purposely framed, thereby to work the knowledge
of salvation in the hearts of men, what cause is there where-
fore it should not of itself be acknowledged a most apt and
a likely mean to leave an Apprehension of things divine in
our understanding, and in the mind an Assent thereunto?
For touching the one, sith God, who knoweth and discloseth
best the rich treasures of his own wisdom, hath by delivering
his word made choice of the Scriptures as the most effectual
means whereby those treasures might be imparted unto the
world, it followeth that to man’s understanding the Scripture
must needs be even of itself intended as a full and perfect
discovery, sufficient to imprint in us the lively character of all
things necessarily required for the attainment of eternal life.
And concerning our Assent to the mysteries of heavenly truth,

5 [2 Tim. iii. 15. ]

BOOK V.

Ch. xxi, 3.

BOOK V.

Ch, xxi, 4.

86 God’s Word may be preached otherwise than by Sermons.

seeing that the word of God for the Author’s sake hath credit
with all that confess it (as we all do) to be his word, every
proposition of holy Scripture, every sentence being to us a
principle ; if the principles of all kinds of knowledge else
have that virtue in themselves, whereby they are able to pro-
cure our assent unto such conclusions as the industry of right
discourse doth gather from them; we have no reason to
think the principles of that truth which tendeth unto man’s
everlasting happiness less forcible than any other, when we
know that of all other they are for their certainty the most
infallible.

But as every thing of price, so this doth require travail.
We bring not the knowledge of God with us into the world.
And the less our own opportunity or ability is that way, the
more we need the help of other men’s judgments to be our
direction herein. Nor doth any man ever believe, into whom
the doctrine of belief is not instilled by instruction some way —
received at the first from others. Wherein whatsoever fit
means there are to notify the mysteries of the word of God,
whether publicly (which we call Preaching) or in private
howsoever, the word by every such mean even “ ordinarily ®”.
doth save, and not only by being delivered unto men in
Sermons. )

[4.] Sermons are not the only preaching which doth save
souls. For concerning the use and sense of this word Preach-
ing, which they shut up in so close a prison, although more
than enough have already been spoken to redeem the liberty
thereof, yet because they insist so much and so proudly insult
thereon, we must a little inure their ears with hearing how.
others whom they more regard are in this case accustomed to
use the selfsame language with us whose manner of speech
they deride. Justin Martyr doubteth not to tell the Grecians,
that even in certain of their writings the very judgment to
come is preached’ ; nor the council of Vaus to insinuate that

6 [The ordinary and especial
“‘ means to work faith by is preach-
“ing and not reading.”’,..“ It is
“* the excellentest and most ordinary
“means to work faith by in the
“hearts of the hearers.’’,.. “The
“‘ ordinary ways whereby God re-
“ generateth his children is by the

* word of God which is preached.”

. C. i. 159.

7 Parenet. ad Gent. [p.i. C. rqv
peAAovcay peta tiv TedeuvTHY TOvdE
Tov Biov €cecOa kpiow" fv ov pd-
vov of nuerepor kata Oedy KHPYT-
TOYSI mpdyovot, mpopynrat re kal
vouoGerat, GAAa Kal of map tpaov

Reading in Church anciently called Preaching. 87

presbyters absent through infirmity from their churches might
be said to preach by those deputies who in their stead did but
read Homilies® ; nor the council of Toledo to call the usual
public reading of the Gospels in the church Preaching?; nor
others long before these our days to write, that by him who
but readeth a /esson in the solemn assembly as part of divine
service, the very office of Preaching is so far forth executed 1°
Such kind of speeches were then familiar, those phrases
seemed not to them absurd, they would have marvelled to
hear the outcries which we do, because we think that the
Apostles in writing, and others in reading to the church
those books which the Apostles wrote, are neither untruly nor,
unfitly said “to preach.” For although men’s tongues and
their pens differ, yet to one and the selfsame general if not
particular effect, they may both serve. It is no good argument,
St. Paul could not “ write with his tongue,” therefore neither
eould he “ preach with his pen.” For Preaching is a general
end whereunto writing and speaking do both serve. Men
speak not with the instruments of writing, neither write with
the instruments of speech, and yet things recorded with the
one and uttered with the other may be preached well enough
with both!2. By their patience therefore be it spoken, the
Apostles preached as well when they wrote as when they
spake the Gospel of Christ, and our usual public Reading of
the word of God for the people’s instruction in Preaching",

vomicbevres ecivar odor, ov moral
pdvov, adda kat dirdcodor of rhv
ann kai Ociay émayyeAdGpevot Tap
tpiy <idévar yraow. |

8 Concil. Vasen. ii. [vel iii.] ca. ii.
[vid. supr. p. 78, not. 89. ]

9 Concil. Tol. iv. c. 12. [In
RS oo veg Hispaniarum Ecclesiis
** Laudes post Apostolum decan-
“tantur, priusquam Evangelium
“ predicetur.”” t. Vv. 1709. |

10 Rupert. de Divin. Offic. lib. i.
c. 12,13. [** Lecturus, benedictio-
** nem petens, hoc significat : quod
** nemo nisi missus aut permissus
** officium predicandi usurpare de-
“beat.” “* Quodque in fine dicit,
** Tu autem Domine miserere nostri,
** ne ipsum quidem bonum officium
** predicandt sine alicujus vel levis
** culpz pulvere posse peragi.”’ |

Isid. de Eccles. Offic. lib. i. c. 10.

[‘* Ideo Diaconus clara voce silen-
** tium admonet, ut sive dum psal-
** litur, sive dum Lectio pronuncia-
** tur, . . quod omnibus predicatur,
‘* equaliter ab omnibus audiatur.”’ ]

11 The Libel of Schoolp. art. 11.
T.C. lib. ii. p. 388. “ St. Paul’s
‘* writing is no more Preaching than
** his pen or his hand is his tongue:
* seeing they cannot be the same
‘* which cannot be made by the same
** instruments.” [i. 127. ]

12 ** Kvangelizo manu et scrip-
* tione.” Rainol. de Rom. Eccles.
Idolol. Preef. ad Co. Essex.

13'T. C. i.133. ‘* The minis-
** tering of the holy Sacraments...
** is a declaration and seal of God’s
** favour, and a plain preaching, ...
**that they be washed from their
** sins, &c.”’]

BOOK V.

Ch. xxi. 4.

88 . Unfair Comparison of Sermons with Lessons.

Book v. [5.] Nor about words would we ever contend, were not —
iut,s their purpose in so restraining the same injurious to God’s ©
most sacred Word and Spirit. It is on both sides confessed —
that the word of God outwardly administered (his!4 Spirit
inwardly concurring therewith) converteth, edifieth, and
saveth souls. Now whereas the external administration of —
his word is as well by reading barely the Scripture, as by ©
explaining the same when sermons thereon be made; in the
one they deny that the finger of God hath ordinarily certain
principal operations, which we most steadfastly hold and

believe that it hath in both.
What they XXII. So worthy a part of divine service we should greatly
—— wrong, if we did not esteem Preaching as the blessed ordi-

to sermons t
only, and nance of God, sermons as keys to the kingdom of heaven,

‘spender as wing's to the soul, as spurs to the good affections of man,

also. unto the sound and healthy as food, as physic unto diseased
minds. Wherefore how highly soever it may please them
with words of truth to extol sermons, they shall not herein
offend us. We seek not to derogate from any thing which
they can justly esteem, but our desire is to uphold the just
estimation of that from which it seemeth unto us they dero- —
gate more than becometh them!®. That which offendeth us
is first the great disgrace which they offer unto our custom of
bare reading the word of God, and to his gracious Spirit, the
principal virtue whereof thereby manifesting itself for the
endless good of men’s souls, even the virtue which it hath to
convert, to edify, to save souls, this they mightily strive
to obscure ; and secondly the shifts wherewith they maintain
their opinion of sermons, whereunto while they labour to
appropriate the saving power of the Holy Ghost, they separate
from all apparent hope of life and salvation thousands whom
the goodness of Almighty God doth not exclude.

[2.] Touching therefore the use of Scripture, even in that
it is openly read, and the inestimable good which the Church
of God by that very mean hath reaped; there was, we may
very well think, some cause, which moved the Apostle St.
Paul to require, that those things which any one church’s

14 John vi. 46. [45?] Matt. xvi. 211, 212. T. C. i. 119. al. 158—
17; 2 Cor. iv. 6; 1 Cor. xii. 3; 161. Def. 568—582. T. C. ii. 374—
Acts xvi. 14. 392.]

15 [Adm. 7. Ans. 130—134, 208

Use of Lessons : ‘89

affairs gave particular occasion to write, might for the in-
struction of all be published, and that by reading’.

1. When the very having of the books of God was a matter
of no small charge and difficulty, inasmuch as they could not
be had otherwise than only in written copies, it was the
necessity not of preaching things agreeable with the word,
but of reading the word itself at large to the people, which
caused churches throughout the world to have public care,
that the sacred oracles of God being procured by common
charge, might with great sedulity be kept both entire and
sincere. If then we admire the providence of God in the
same continuance of Scripture, notwithstanding the violent
endeavours of infidels to abolish, and the fraudulent of
heretics always to deprave the same, shall we set light by that
custom of reading, from whence so precious a benefit hath
grown?

2. The voice and testimony of the Church acknowledging
Scripture to be the law of the living God, is for the truth and
certainty thereof no mean evidence. For if with reason we
may presume upon things which a few men’s depositions do
testify, suppose we that the minds of men are not both at their
first access to the school of Christ exceedingly moved, yea and
for ever afterwards also confirmed much, when they consider
the main consent of all the churches in the whole world
witnessing the sacred authority of scriptures, ever sithence
the first publication thereof, even till this present day and
hour? And that they all have always so testified, I see not
how we should possibly wish a proof more palpable, than this
manifest received and every where continued custom of reading
them publicly as the Scriptures. The reading therefore of
the word of God, as the use hath ever been, in open audience,
is the plainest evidence we have of the Church’s Assent and
Acknowledgment that it is his word.

3. A further commodity this custom hath, which is to
furnish the very simplest and rudest sort with such infallible
Axioms and Precepts of sacred truth, delivered even in the
very Letter of the Law of God, as may serve them for!7 Rules
whereby to judge the better all other doctrines and instruc-
tions which they hear. For which end and purpose I see not

16 y Thess. v. 27; Coloss. iv. 16. 17 John v. 393 Isa. viii. 20.

BOOK V.

Ch, xxii. 2.

BOOK V.

Ch. xxii. 3.

90 Use of Lessons :

how the Scripture could be possibly made familiar unto all,
unless far more should be read in the people’s hearing, than.
by a sermon can be opened. For whereas in a manner the
whole book of God is by reading every year published, a
small part thereof in comparison of the whole may hold very
well the readiest interpreter of Scripture occupied many
years. .

4. Besides, wherefore should any man think, but that read-
ing itself is one of the “ ordinary” means, whereby it pleaseth
God of his gracious goodness to instil that celestial verity,
which being but so received, is nevertheless effectual to save
souls? Thus much therefore we ascribe to the reading of the
word of God as the manner is in our churches. |

[3-] And because it were odious if they on their part
should altogether despise the same, they yield!* that reading
may “set forward,’ but not begin the work of salvation;
that 19faith may be “nourished” therewith, but not bred;
that2° herein men’s attention to the Scriptures, and their
speculation of the creatures of God have like efficacy, both:
being of power to “augment,” but neither to effect belief
without sermons; that if?! any delieve by reading alone, we
are to account it a miracle, an “extraordinary” work of God.
Wherein that which they grant we gladly accept at their
hands, and wish that patiently they would examine how little
cause they have to deny that which as yet they grant not.

18 [T.C. i. 126. al. 1g9. ‘ Al-

** though reading do help to nourish
‘* the faith which cometh by preach-
** ing, yet this is given to the preach-
“ing kar é£oxnyv, i. e. by excellency,
** and for that it is the excellentest
‘* and most ordinary means to work
“by in the hearts of the hearers.
“The beholding of the creatures,
** and the consideration of the mak-
‘ing of the world, and of God’s
** wisdom and wonderful love ap-
‘© pearing in them, doth nourish and
** strengthen faith: and yet may it
* not therefore in efficacy be com-
“pared with the preaching of the
* word of God.”’]

19'T. C. ii. 375. [It helpeth to
“ nourish faith opendiced 1 376.
(“If private reading only cannot or-
*“‘ dinarily engender faith, I would

* know how public reading only can
“do it.”] 396. [The Lord’s
“‘ authorized embassador,.... with-
** out whose ministry.... faith can-
* not be engendered.”

20 T. C. ii. 378. [‘*I compared
** them” (the consideration of the
creatures with the reading of the
Scriptures) ‘‘in that, both nourish-
“* ing faith, neither could ordinarily
** breed it.” | .

21 T.C. ii. 383. [Of man
‘* brought to the light of the Gospel
“by reading only, he” (Whitgift)
‘*maketh not, nor, as I am per-
* suaded, could make it appear.
** Although it be confessed that that
** may be done by the Lord’s extra-
“ ordinary working ; which feedeth
“ sometime with quails in the wil-
“ derness.”’ |

The Fear of God may begin from hearing them. 91

[4.] The Scripture witnesseth that when the book of the
Law of God had been sometime missing, and was after found,
the king, which heard it but only read, tare his clothes, and
with tears confessed, “Great is the wrath of the Lord upon
“us, because our fathers have not kept his word to do after
all things which are written in this book*2.” This doth
argue, that by bare reading (for of sermons at that time there

BOOK Vv.

Ch. xxii. 4.

is no mention) true repentance may be wrought in the hearts -

of such as fear God, and yet incur his displeasure, the deserved

effect whereof is eternal death. So that their repentance
(although it be not their first entrance) is notwithstanding the
first step of their reentrance into life, and may be in them
wrought by the word only read unto them.

Besides, it seemeth that God would have no man stand in
doubt but that the reading of Scripture is effectual, as well to
lay even the first foundation, as to add degrees of farther per-
fection in the fear of God. And therefore the Law saith,
“ Thou shalt read this Law before all Israel, that men, women,
“and children may hear, yea even that their children which
“as yet have not known it may hear it, and by ateibaes it 8o
* read, may learn to fear the Lord2,”

Our Lord and Saviour was himself of opinion, that they

which would not be drawn to amendment of life by the testi-

mony which Moses and the Prophets have given concerning
the miseries that follow sinners after death, were not likely to
be persuaded by other means, although God from the very
dead should have raised them up preachers.

Many hear the books of God and believe them not. How-
beit their unbelief in that case we may not impute unto any
weakness or unsufliciency in the mean which is used towards

them, but to the wilful bent of their obstinate hearts against

it. With minds obdurate nothing prevaileth. As well they
that preach, as they that read unto such, shall still have cause

to complain with the Prophets which were of old, “ Who will

“ sive credit unto our teaching?>?”? But with whom ordinary.

means will prevail, surely the power of the word of God, even
without the help of interpreters 7 God’s Church worketh
mightily, not unto their confirmation alone which are con-
verted, but also to their conversion which are not.

22 2 Chron. xxxiv. 18, 19, 21. 24 Luke xvi. 31.
23 Deut. xxxi. 1I—13. 25 (Is. lii.1,]

BOOK V,
Ch. xxii. 5, 6

92 Difference of God’s Word and Works as sources of Faith.
It shall not boot them who derogate from reading to excuse

‘it, when they see no other remedy, as if their intent were only

to deny that aliens and strangers from the family of God are
won, or that belief doth use to be wrought at the first in them,
without sermons. For they know it is our custom of simple
reading not for conversion of infidels estranged from the house
of God, but for ustruction of men baptized, bred and brought
up in the bosom of the Church, which they despise as a thing
uneffectual to save such souls. In such they imagine that God
hath no ordinary mean to work faith without sermons.

[5-] The reason, why no man can attain belief by the bare
contemplation of heaven and earth, is for that they neither are
sufficient to give us as much as the least spark of light con-
cerning the very principal mysteries of our faith; and what-
soever we may learn by them, the same we can only attain to

know according to the manner of natural sciences, which mere

discourse of wit and reason findeth out, whereas the things
which we properly believe be only such as are received upon
the credit of divine testimony?®. Seeing therefore that he
which considereth the creatures of God findeth therein both
these defects, and neither the one nor the other in Scriptures,
because he that readeth unto us the Scriptures delivereth all
the mysteries of faith, and not any thing amongst them all
more than the mouth of the Lord doth warrant: it followeth
in those two respects that our consideration of creatures and
attention unto Scriptures are not in themselves, and without
sermons, things of like disability to breed or beget faith.

[6.] Small cause also there is, why any man should greatly
wonder as at an extraordinary work, if without sermons read-
ing be found to effect thus much. For I would know by some
special instance, what one article of Christian faith, or what
duty required necessarily unto all men’s salvation there is,
which the very reading of the word of God is not ap¢ to notify.
Effects are miraculous and strange when they grow by un-
likely means. But did we ever hear it accounted for a wonder,
that he which doth read, should believe and live according to
the will of Almighty God27? Reading doth convey to the
mind that truth without addition or diminution, which Scrip-

26 [Divine Faith is an Assent on the Creed, p- 5. ed. 1692. ]
“unto something as Credible upon _ 27 Exod. xxiv. 7.
“ the Testimony of God.’’ Pearson’ ;.:

Faith may come by Lessons without a Miracle. 93

ture hath derived from the Holy Ghost. And the end of all pooK v.

Scripture is the same which St. John proposeth in the writing
of that most divine Gospel, namely Faith, and through faith
Salvation?*, Yea all Scripture is to this effect in itself avail-
able, as they which wrote it were persuaded29; unless we
suppose that the Evangelist or others in speaking of their own
intent to instruct and to save by writing, had a secret conceit
which they never opened unto any, a conceit that no man in
the world should ever be that way the better for any sentence
by them written, till such time as the same might chance to
be preached upon or alleged at the least in a sermon. Other-
wise if he which writeth do that which is forcible in itself,
how should he which readeth be thought to do that which in
itself is of no force to work belief and to save believers ?

[7.] Now although we have very just cause to stand in some
jealousy and fear, lest by thus overvaluing their sermons, they
make the price and estimation of Scripture otherwise notified
to fall; nevertheless so impatient they are, that being but
requested to let us know what causes they leave for men’s
encouragement to attend to the reading of the Scripture, if
sermons only be the power of God to save every one which
believeth ; that which we move for our better learning and
instruction’s sake, turneth unto anger and choler in them, they
grow altogether out of quietness with it, they answer fumingly
that they are “ashamed to defile their pens with making an-
« swer to such idle questions®°:” yet in this their mood they
east forth somewhat, wherewith under pain of greater displea-
sure we must rest contented. They tell us the profit of read~
ing is singular, in that it serveth for a preparative unto ser-
mons; it helpeth prettily towards the nourishment of faith
which sermons have once engendered ; it is some stay to his

mind which readeth the Scripture, when he findeth the same
things there which are taught in sermons, and thereby per-

ceiveth how God doth concur in opinion with the preacher ;
besides it keepeth sermons in memory, and doth in that re-
spect, although not feed the soul of man, yet help the reten-
tive force of that stomach of the mind which receiveth ghostly
food at the preacher’s hand. But the principal cause of writing

28 John xx. 31. 29 Prov.i. 2—4; Rom.i.16; 2 Tim. iii. 15.
80 TC, lib. ii. p. 375.

LIBRARY ST. KiARY'S COLLEGE

BOOK V,

Ch, xxii. 8.

94. Apprehension and Assent may be without Sermons.

the Gospel was, that it might be preached upon or interpreted:
by public ministers apt and authorized thereunto®!. Is it
credible that a superstitious conceit (for it is no better) cons
cerning sermons should in such sort both darken their eyes
and yet sharpen their wits withal, that the only true and
weighty cause why Scripture was written, the cause which in
Scripture is so often mentioned, the cause which all men have
ever till this present day acknowledged, this they should clean
exclude as being no cause at all, and load us with so great
store of strange concealed causes which did never see light till
now? In which number the rest must needs be of moment,
when the very chiefest cause of committing the sacred Word
of God unto books, is surmised to have been, lest the preacher
should want a text whereupon to scholy. :

[8.] Men of learning hold it for a slip in judgment, when
offer is made to demonstrate that as proper to one thing which
reason findeth common unto more. Whereas therefore they
take from all kinds of teaching that which they attribute to
sermons, it had been their part to yield directly some strong
reason why between sermons alone and faith there should be
ordinarily that coherence which causes have with their usual
effects, why a Christian man’s belief should so naturally
grow from sermons, and not possibly from any other kind of
teaching. 4

In belief there being but these two operations, apprehension

81 [The following are the words .

* ed, which otherwise would decay j
referred to: d

“I say, as if in these respects, an

** That he” (Dr. Whitgift) “ add-
* eth, of taking away by this means
“from the majesty of the Scrip-
“tures, and making them dumb,
“ &c. (amplified in the next division
* by asking why the Scriptures were
“then written? with other such
** too too idle questions, which I am
‘‘ ashamed to defile my pen with)
** is unworthy the name of a reason.
** As if in that reading maketh men
“ fitter to hear the word preached,
** and to seek after it, in that it help-
“eth to nourish faith engendered,
“in that it confirmeth a man in the
** doctrine preached, when by read-
‘ing he perceiveth it to be as the
** preacher taught, in that it renew-
** eth the memory of that was preach-

‘and committing the word to writ-

** ing, were not singular and inesti-
“mable. Besides that it is not de-
* nied but the Lord may extraordi-
‘* narily give faith by reading only:
“although the order which God
“hath put is to save by foolish-
** ness (as it is esteemed) of preach-
“ing. Beside also that it is absurd,
“that the Doctor asketh, why else
** the Gospel should be written? as
“if there were no other cause of
“writing of it, than that it should
** be simply read: or as though the
** principal cause was not that it
“should be preached.”’ T. C. ii.

375:]

“such like, the profit of iowa

St.Paul’s Doctrine ; Faith cometh by Hearing. 95

and assent, do only sermons cause belief, in that no other way
is able to explain the mysteries of God, that the mind may
rightly apprehend or conceive them as behoveth? We all
know that many things are believed, although they be intricate,
obscure, and dark, although they exceed the reach and capa-
city of our wits, yea although in this world they be no way
possible to be understood. Many things believed are likewise
so plain, that every common person may therein be unto him-
self a sufficient expounder. Finally, to explain even those
things which need and admit explication, many other usual
ways there are besides sermons. Therefore sermons are not
the only ordinary means whereby we jirst come to apprehend
the mysteries of God.

Is it in regard then of sermons only, that apprehending the

Gospel of Christ we yield thereunto our unfeigned Assent as
to a thing infallibly true ? They which rightly consider after
what sort the heart of man hereunto is framed, must of neces-
sity acknowledge, that whoso assenteth to the words of eternal
life, doth it in regard of his authority whose words they are.
This is in man’s conversion unto God 16 60ev 7 apxi) THs Kiv7-
-aews, the first step whereat his race towards heaven beginneth.
Unless therefore, clean contrary to our own experience, we
shall think it a miracle if any man acknowledge the divine
authority of the Scripture, till some sermon have persuaded.
him thereunto, and that otherwise neither conversation in the
bosom of the Church, nor religious education, nor the reading
of learned men’s books, nor information received by conference,
nor whatsoever pain and diligence in hearing, studying, medi-
tating day and night on the Law, is so far blest of God as to
work this effect in any man; how would they have us to grant
that faith doth not come but only by hearing sermons ?

_ [g.] Fain they would have us to believe the Apostle St. Paul
himself to be the author of this their paradox, only because he
hath said that “it pleaseth God by the foolishness of Preach-
« ing to save them which believe®? ;” and again, “ How shall
* they call on him in whom they have not believed ? how shall
- they believe in him of whom they have not heard? how shall
they hear without a preacher? how shall men preach except
“ they be sent33 ?”

82 T.C. lib. ii. 375; 1 Cor.i. 21. 33 Rom. x. 14, 15.

BOOK V.

Ch. xxii. 9.

BOOK V.

Ch. xxii. 9.

96 Faith cometh by Hearing, applied by Tertullian.

To answer therefore both allegations®+ at once; the very’
substance of that they contain is in few but this. Life and’
salvation God will have offered unto all ; his will is that Gen-.
tiles should be saved as well as Jews. Salvation belongeth
unto none but such “as call upon the name of our Lord Jesus
“ Christ35.” Which nations as yet unconverted neither do
nor possibly can do till they believe. What they are to
believe, impossible it is they should know till they hear it,
Their hearing requireth our preaching unto them.

Tertullian?®, to draw even Paynims themselves unto
Christian belief, willeth the books of the Old Testament
to be searched, which were at that time in Ptolemy’s library,
And if men did not list to travel so far though it were for
their endless good, he added that in Rome and other places
the Jews had synagogues whereunto every one which would
might resort, that this kind of liberty they purchased by
payment of a standing tribute that there they did openly
37 read the Scriptures; and whosoever “ will hear” saith
Tertullian, “he shall find God; whosoever will study to

34 [View, &c. p.4. T. C. i. 126.
al.159. “St. Paul saith that faith
** cometh by hearing, and hearing of
**the word preached; so that the
* ordinary and especial means to
“work faith by is preaching and
** not reading.” Whitg. Def. 569;
T. C. ii. 375 ; Sampson in Strype,
An. iii. 1. 327.]

35 * Cor. i. 2.]

36 Apologet.c.18. [in fine. “ Quos
* diximus Preedicatores, Prophetz
“ de officio preefandi vocantur. Vo-
* ces eorum itemque virtutes quas
“ad fidem divinitatis edebant, in
‘“‘ thesauris literarum manent: nec
‘‘ iste nunc latent. Ptolemzorum
“ eruditissimus .. . libros a Judzis
** quoque postulavit ... Hodie apud
** Serapeeum Ptolemzi bibliothecz
‘cum ipsis Hebraicis literis exhi-
“bentur. Sed et Judzi palam
* lectitant, vectigalis libertas vulgo
** aditur, sabbatis omnibus qui au-
** dierit, inveniet Deum; qui etiam
* studuerit intelligere, cogetur et
* credere.”’

87 This they did in a tongue
which to all learned men amongst

the heathens and to a great part of
the simplest was familiarly known :
as appeareth by a supplication offered
unto the emperor Justinian, wherein
the Jews make request that it might
be lawful for them to read the Greek
translation of the LXX interpreters
in their synagogues, as their custom
before had been. Authent. cxlvi,
coll. 10. incipit, Auquum sane,
[‘‘ De Hebreis, Quomodo oporteat
** eos scripturas legere.”’ “Per inter-
** pellationes que ad nos referuntur
** didicimus, quod ex ipsis quidam
sola lingua tenentur Hebraica,
** eaque utendum esse in sacrorum
*¢ librorum lectione volunt: quidam
** etiam Greecam assumendam con-
**tendunt ... Nos igitur de hac re
** edocti, meliores esse judicavimus
“eos qui Grecam etiam linguam
** in sacrorum librorum lectione vo-
*‘ luerunt assumere, et (uno verbo)
*omnem denique linguam, quam
“locus accommodatiorem et magis
“ familiarem reddat auditoribus.”
p. 624. ed. Plantin. 1575. The copy
in Godefroi’s edition is very dif-
ferent. |

1 Cor.i. 21, and Rom. x. 14. not to be confined to Sermons, 97

« know, shall be also fain to believe.” But sith there is no
likelihood that ever voluntarily they will seek instruction at
our hands, it remaineth that unless we will suffer them to
perish, salvation itself must seek them, it behoveth God to
send them preachers, as he did his elect Apostles throughout
the world.

There is a knowledge which God hath always revdalad
unto them in the works of nature. This they honour and
esteem highly as profound Wisdom; howbeit this wisdom
saveth them not. That which must save believers is the
knowledge of the cross of Christ, the only sulyject of all our
preaching. And in their eyes what doth this seem as yet
but Folly ? It pleaseth God by “ the foolishness of preaching”
to save. ‘These words declare how admirable force those
mysteries have which the world doth deride as follies; they
shew that the foolishness of the cross of Christ is the wisdom of
true believers ; they concern the olyect of our faith, the Matter
preached of and believed in by Christian men38, This we
know that the Grecians or Gentiles did account foolishness ;
but that they ever did think it a fond or unlikely way to seek
men’s conversion by sermons we have not heard. Manifest
therefore it is that the Apostle applying the name of /oolish-
ness in such sort as they did must needs by “ the foolishness
“ of preaching” mean the doctrine of Christ, which we learn
that we may be saved; but that sermons are the only manner
of teaching whereby it pleaseth our Lord to save he could
not mean.

In like sort where the same Apostle proveth that as well
the sending of the Apostles as their preaching to the Gentiles
was necessary, dare we affirm it was ever his meaning, that
unto their salvation who even from their tender infancy never
knew any faith or religion than only Christian, no Kind of
teaching can be available saving that which was so needful
for the first universal conversion of Gentiles hating Christ-
ianity ; neither the Sending of any sort allowable in the one
case, except only of such as had been in the other also most
fit and worthy instruments ?

Belief in all sorts doth come by hearkening and attending

38 The Apostle useth the word kjpuyya, and not kpvéts.
HOOKER, VOL. II. H

BOOK V.
Ch, xxii. 9.

BOOK V.

Ch. xxii. 10.

98 Puritan Perversion of Teats about Preaching ;

to the word of life. Which word sometime proposeth and
preacheth itself to the hearer; sometime they deliver it
whom privately zeal and piety moveth to be instructors of
others by conference; sometime of them it is taught whom:
the Church hath called to the public either reading thereof
or interpreting. All these tend unto one effect; neither doth
that which St. Paul or other Apostles teach, concerning the
necessity of such teaching as theirs was, or of sending such as
they were for that purpose unto the Gentiles, prejudice the
efficacy of any other way of public instruction, or enforce the
utter disability of any other men’s vocation thought requisite
in this Church, for the saving of souls, where means more
effectual are wanting. ;

[10.] Their only proper and direct proof of the thing in
question had been to shew, in what sort and how far man’s”
salvation doth necessarily depend upon the knowledge of
the word of God; what conditions, properties, and qualities”
there are, whereby sermons are distinguished from other
kinds of administering the word unto that purpose ; and what
special property or quality that is, which being no where
found but in sermons, maketh them effectual to save souls,
and leaveth all other doctrinal means besides destitute of vital
efficacy. These pertinent instructions, whereby they might
satisfy us and obtain the cause itself for which they contendy
these things which only would serve they leave, and (which
needeth not) sometime they trouble themselves with fretting
at the ignorance of such as withstand them in their opinion ;
sometime they®? fall upon their poor brethren which can but
read, and against them. they are bitterly eloquent.

If we allege what the Scriptures themselves do usually
speak for the saving force of the word of God, not with
restraint to any one certain kind of delivery, but howsoever
the same shall chance to be made known, yet by one trick

x

TP oy

89 T. C. lib. ii. p. 373. “This “ gifts which our Saviour Christ
** tail of readers.” <‘‘‘The bishops’ ‘ ascended into heaven sendeth unto
“more than beggarly presents.”” “his Church, but the Bishops’ (to
‘Those rascal ministers.” [The ‘ speak no grievouslier of them) —
whole passage is, “So I trust ap- ‘more than beggerly presents.”
* peareth that this tail of reading And a little before, “The Prophet
** ministers ought to be cutoff; and “ calleth the rascal ministers of his
* that they are none of those princely “‘ time, dumb dogs.”’] |

they limit what is said of God’s Word, to Sermons. 99
or other they always restrain it unto sermons. Our Lord and
Saviour hath said?°, “ Search the Scriptures, in them ye
“ think to have eternal life.” But they tell us, he spake to
the Jews, which Jews before “had heard his Sermons‘! ;”
and that peradventure it was his mind they should search,
not by reading, nor by hearing them read, but by “ attend-
“ ine” whensoever the Scriptures should happen to be alleged
« in Sermons.”

Furthermore, having received apostolic doctrine, the Apostle
St. Paul hath taught us to esteem the same as the supreme
rule whereby all other doctrines must for ever be examined??.
Yea, but inasmuch as the Apostle doth there speak of that
he had preached, he flatly maketh (as they strangely affirm)
his Preachings or Sermons the rule whereby to examine all.
And then I beseech you what rule have we whereby to judge
or examine any? For if sermons must be our rule, because
the Apostles’ sermons were so to their hearers; then, sith
we are not as they were hearers of the Apostles’ sermons,
it resteth that either the sermons which we hear should be
our rule, or (that being absurd) there will (which yet hath
greater absurdity) no rule at all be remaining for trial, what
doctrines now are corrupt, what consonant with heavenly
truth. |

Again, let the same Apostle acknowledge “all Scripture
“ profitable to teach, to improve, to correct, to instruct in
“ righteousness43.” Still notwithstanding we err, if hereby
we presume to gather, that Scripture read will avail unto any
one of all these uses; they teach us the meaning of the words
to be, that so much the Scripture can do if the minister that
way apply it in his sermons, otherwise not.

40 John v. 39.

41 T. C. lib. ii. p. 377. [** When
“our Saviour biddeth the Jews
** search the Scriptures, he referreth
_ “them by that search to judge of
“the doctrine he had preached be-
fore; which proveth no fruit of
‘* reading when there is no preach-
‘ing. Beside that, it will be hard
“for him to refer the word search
** unto reading only; as if one could
* not search the Scriptures, when
“he attendeth to them alleged in

** sermons.” |

42 Gal. i. 8, 9. [The words of
T. C. are, “He doth flatly make his
** preaching the rule to examine all
** other preachings by.” ii. 377.]

43 2 Tim. iii. 16. ['T. C. ubi supr.
** The place of Timothy being, as I
** have shewed, of the proper duties
“of the minister of the word in
** preaching, making no manner of
*‘mention of reading, is alleged
** without all judgment.’’]

H 2

BOOK V.

Ch. xxii. 10.

BOOK V.

Ch. xxii. ro.

100 The Puritans set Man’s Word above God’s,

Finally, they never hear a sentence which mentioneth the
Word or Scripture, but forthwith their glosses upon it are,
the Word “ preached,” the Scripture “ explained or delivered -
« unto us im sermons.” Sermons they evermore understand to
be that Word of God, which alone hath vital operation; the
dangerous sequel of which construction I wish they did more
attentively weigh. For sith speech is the very image whereby
the mind and soul of the speaker conveyeth itself into the
bosom of him which heareth, we cannot choose but see great
reason, wherefore the word which proceedeth from God, who
is himself very truth and life, should be (as the Apostle to the
Hebrews noteth) lively and mighty in operation, “ sharper
“ than any two-edged sword*+.” Now if in this and the like
places we did conceive that our own sermons are that strong
and forcible word4>, should we not hereby impart even the
most peculiar glory of the word of God unto that which is
not his word? For touching our sermons, that which giveth —

them their very being is the

44 Heb. iv. 12.

45 [Chr. Letter, p. 22. ‘“ We
* beseech you... to teach us by
** sounde demonstration, that a man
“can preach the pure word of God
** by his owne naturall witt, without
“a gift supernaturall of the spirit to
* give him utterance, and to speak
‘* the worde as he ought to speake?
“If all that a man preache be the
** pure worde of God, what deroga-
** tion is it to call such a man’s ser-
‘mons or preachings the strong
** and forcible worde ?”

Hooker, MS. note. “If sermons
** be the word of God in the same
** sense that Scriptures are his word,
‘if there be no difference between
** preaching and prophecying, noe
** ods between thapostles of Christ
*‘and the preaching ministers of
“every congregation, as touching
‘that forme of delivering doctrine
** weh did exempt both the speaches
‘and writings of thapostles from
*‘ possibility of error, then must
““we hold that Calvin’s sermons
“are holie Scripture. You would
“not have homilies read in the
*“‘ Church, because nothing should
“be there read but the word of

wit of man‘*6, and therefore

“God. How shall this stand with
“your doctrine that sermons are
** God’s word no lesse than Scrip-
“tures? You taught before, that
** the Church and all men’s doc-—
“‘trine must be tried by the word —
“of God. Whereby if you under-—
*‘ stand sermons, it were good you —
** told us whose sermons. al-—
** vin’s homilies read in churches,
** This epistle not like St. Paule’s.”
Again, in p. 21. “ Have you so-
“long magnified the word of God -
“to bring the matter unto this
“issue that your own sermons are
** that word? Are you not contented —
**to have them taken for his word
‘in regard of conformity therewith, —
‘‘unlesse they be honoured and —
‘‘ held of as great authoritie as if”
“they had come from the very
‘mouth of Christ himself or of —
** Christ’s Apostles? If this be your
** meaning, let the people applaude —
** unto you, and when you speake, ©
*‘ cry mainly out, The voice of God
and not of man.”’},
46 [Chr. Letter, p. 21. ‘* Here;
** Mai. Hoo. we are hampered with
“your words, because they seeme
** to us contrarie to the judgment of —

and the Manner above the Matter of Teaching. 101

they oftentimes accordingly taste too much of that over
corrupt fountain from which they come. In our speech of
most holy things, our most frail affections many times are
bewrayed. |

Wherefore when we read or recite the Scripture, we then
deliver to the people properly the word of God. As for our
sermons, be they never so sound and perfect, his word they are
not as the sermons of the prophets were; no, they are but
ambiguously termed his word, because his word is commonly
the subject whereof they treat, and must be the rule whereby
they are framed. Notwithstanding by these and the like shifts
they derive unto sermons alone whatsoever is generally spoken
concerning the word.

[11.] Again, what seemeth to have been uttered concerning
sermons and their efficacy or necessity, in regard of divine
Matter, and must consequently be verified in sundry other
kinds of teaching, if the Matter be the same in all; their use is
to fasten every such speech unto that one only Manner of
teaching which is by sermons, that still sermons may be all in
all. Thus4? because Solomon declareth that the people decay
or “perish” for want of knowledge, where*® no “ pro-
“ phesying”’ at all is, they gather that the hope of life and
salvation is cut off, where preachers are not which prophesy
by sermons, how many soever they be in number that read
daily the word of God, and deliver, though in other sort, the
selfsame matter which sermons do. The people which have

“our Church. We therefore desire 47 [T.C. i. 126. al. 159. “It

** you hartilie to resolve us, what
+ aes meane in this place by.. .the
* being of a sermon, whether the
*‘ Jogicall and dialecticall frame by
© which men contrive their matter
** in such and such aforme: or,-&c.
“« ...If you meane the former, then
*‘everie declamation and formall
* oration in the schooles may be
* called sermons: for these are
** framed of the meere wit of man.”
Hooker, MS. note. ‘ Sermons are
** framed by the witt of man: there-

“fore all things framed by man’s.

* witt are sermons. If this be your
* skill in reasoning, let a whele-
* barrow be a sermon. For it is a
* thing made by man’s witt.’’

** may be that God doth sometimes
** work faith by reading only, espe-
** cially where preaching cannot be ;
“ and so he doth sometimes without
“ reading, by a wonderful work of
* his spirit: but the ordinary ways
“whereby God _ regenerateth his
“children is by the word of God
“‘which is preached. And there-
*‘fore Solomon saith, that where
* prophecy (which is not a bare
“reading, but an exposition and
“application of the Scriptures)
* faileth, there the people perish.”
Comp. Whitg. Def. 572.] T.C. ii.
381.
48 Prov. xxix. 18,

BOOK V.
Ch. xxii. 11,

102 Lhe Advantages of Sermons, alleged by Cartwright,

no way to come to the knowledge of God, no prophesying,
no teaching, perish. But that they should of necessity perish,
where any one way of knowledge lacketh, is more than
the words of Solomon import.

[12.] Another usual point of their art in this present ques-
tion, is to make very large and plentiful discourses+9 how
Christ is by sermons lifted up higher and made more apparent
to the eye of faith; how the savour of the word*° is more
sweet being brayed, and more able to nourish being divided
by preaching >!, than by only reading proposed; how sermons
are the keys of the kingdom of heaven*?, and do open
the Scriptures, which being but read, remain 7m comparison
still clasped; how God giveth richer increase of grace

BOOK V.
Ch, xxii. 12.

49T.C. [i. 126. al. 159.] “To
“know that the word of God
** preached hath more force, and is
‘more effectual than when it is
“ read, it is to be observed where-
“unto the preaching is compared.
** It is called a lifting or heaving up
“ of our Saviour Christ. Like unto
*‘ the displaying of a banner, as the
* serpent was lift up in the wilder-
“ness.” Comp. Def. 571.] T. C.
ii. 378, 9. x

50 2 Cor. ii. 14—16. T.C. i.
126. ap. Whitg. Def. 571. “It is
*‘ called also a sweet savour, and
“therefore as the spices being
“‘ brayed and punned, smell sweeter
‘and stronger than when they be
* whole and unbroken; so the
“word by interpretation being
“broken and bruised carrieth a
** sweeter savour unto the under-
“ standing, &c.” Comp. T.C. ii.

79, by which it appears that in
tk acid edition, Data! he sub-
stituted another figure, that of
opening a door, for this of aromatic
spices. |

51 2 Tim. ii.15. [T.C. i. 126. al.
159. ‘The same also may be said
“in that the preaching is called a
* ‘cutting’ of the word of God:
** for as when the meat is cut and
*‘ shred, it nourisheth more than
*‘ when it is not so: so likewise it
“ isin preaching and reading.” Def.
5713 T.C. ii. 379.]

52 Matt. xvi. 19. [T.C. i. 159.

** To this also may be well referred
“ that the preaching is called of St.
** Luke (xxiv. 32.) an opening of
“the Scriptures; whereby it is de-
**clared that they be as it were
“shut, or clasped, or sealed up,
** until such time as they be by ex-
** position or declaration opened.”
ii. -380. “For this cause are the
‘* ministers of the word said to have
“the keys of the kingdom of
“heaven: for that without their
“ministry of preaching the king-
“dom of heaven is as it were
* locked.”

53 y Cor. iii.6. [Adm. ap. Whitg.
Def. 580. “By this book bare
** reading is good tilling, and single
*‘ service saying is excellent build-
“ing,” with a reference to 1 Cor.
ili. 5; Whitgift (Answer, ap. Def.
581.) remarks on this, * Belike be-
** cause there is mention made of
* tilling in the next verse of that
*‘ chapter, therefore you quote it in
“the margent, missing only the
“line: for this is your usual
“manner: if you have but one
*‘ word in a text which you use
“in your book, you quote the
** place, as though it made for your
“purpose.” ‘TC. i. 126. al. 159.
** That which is brought for the
* authors of the Admenition, and so
*scornfully hurled away of M.
** Doctor, that S. Paul compareth
* the preaching unto planting and
** watering, is a very notable place

prove no Impossibility of Grace without them. 103

to the ground that is planted and watered by preaching,
than by bare and simple reading. Out of which premises
declaring how attainment unto life is easier where sermons
are, they conclude an impossibility>+ thereof where sermons
are not.

Alcidamas the sophister®> hath many arguments, to prove
that voluntary and extemporal far excelleth premeditated
speech. The like whereunto and in part the same are brought
by them, who commend sermons, as having (which all men I
think will acknowledge) sundry*® peculiar and proper virtues,
sueh as no other way of teaching besides hath. Aptness to
follow particular occasions presently growing, to put life into
words by countenance, voice, and gesture, to prevail mightily
in the sudden affections of men, this sermons may challenge.
Wherein notwithstanding so eminent properties whereof les-
sons are haply destitute, yet lessons being free from some in-
conveniences whereunto sermons are more subject, they may
in this respect no less take, than in other they must give the
hand which betokeneth preeminence. For there is nothing
which is not someway excelled even by that which it doth
excel. Sermons therefore and Lessons may each excel other
in some respects, without any prejudice unto either as touch-
ing that vital force which they both have in the work of our
salvation.

** to prove that there is no salvation
“without preaching.” Def. 572.
*S. Paul saith, ‘1 have planted,
“ Apollos watered, but God gave
*‘ the increase.’ Ergo ‘there is no

** Highness most humbly upon our
* knees, that for the redress of this
“our woeful case, you would not
‘send us to the Bishops of this
‘land ;...because by the space of

“salvation without preaching:’ is
* not this good stuff, and a strong
** argument to build a matter of sal-
“vation upon?” See also T.C. ii.

0.

54 No salvation to be looked
*¢ for, where no preaching is.” T.C.
lib. ii. p. 380, nd i, 126, al. 159.
and i. 173. ‘‘Unless the Lord
“work miraculously and extraordi-
** narily, (which is not to be looked
‘* for of us,) the bare reading of the
** Scriptures without the preaching
*‘ cannot deliver so much as one
poor sheep from destruction.”
And Petition of the Communaltie
to Q. Eliz, (1588.) “ We pray your

“this nine and twenty years their
“unfaithfulness hath manifestly
“appeared, in that they...either
* said we were already sufficiently
‘* provided for, or that it were an
‘impossible thing to establish a
“‘ preaching ministry; as if they
** should say, It were not possible for
** us to be saved.” And the same in
the leading topic of the “‘ Complaint
“of the Commonalty by way of
‘* Supplication to the High Court of
‘© Parliament,”’ which follows in the
same pamphlet. |

55 [Ad calcem Isocratis; ed. Al-
din. p.g8—1o1. |

56 T, C, lib. ii, p. 395.

BOOK V,
Ch, xxii. 12.

BOOK V.

Ch, xxii. 13.

104 Reading the Ordinance of God, and blessed by him.

[1 3.] To which effect when we have endeavoured as much
as in us doth lie to find out the strongest causes wherefore they
should imagine that reading is itself so unavailable, the most
we can learn at their hand is, that 57sermons are “the ordi-
“ nance of God,” the Scriptures “dark,” and the labour of
reading “ easy.” ;

First therefore as we know that God doth aid with his grace,
and by his special providence evermore bless with happy
success those things which himself appointeth, so his Church
we persuade ourselves he hath not in such sort given over to
a reprobate sense, that whatsoever it deviseth for the good -of
the souls of men, the same he doth still accurse and make
frustrate.

Or if he always did defeat the ordinances of his Church, is not
reading the ordinance of God**? Wherefore then should we
think that the force of his secret grace is accustomed to bless
the labour of dividing his word according unto each man’s”
private discretion in public sermons, and to withdraw itself
from concurring with the public delivery thereof by such
selected portions of Scripture, as the whole Church hath
solemnly appointed to be read for the people’s good, either by
ordinary course, or otherwise, according to the exigence of
special occasions? Reading (saith Isidore>?) is to the hearers
no small edifying. ‘To them whose delight and meditation is

57 [Whitg. Def. 717, 18. “I
“ make this only difference betwixt
“homilies and sermons, that the
** one is pronounced within the book,
“the other not so. If you object

** self hath ordained.’’] 4
58 Deut. xxxi. 11—13. [See Def.

577-1]

4, De Eccles. Offic. lib. i. c. 10.
[‘* Est autem lectio non parva audi-
** entium eedificatio.

*‘and say that the preacher is di-
** rected by the Spirit of God, I will
** answer that the writers of homi-
lies be so likewise. And what can
** you allege in this point for the one
** that I cannot allege for the other?
“The promise of the assistance of
** God’s Spirit is as well given to
“him that writeth homilies, and to
those that hear them, as it is to
*‘ such as study for their sermons,
‘and such as hear them.’’] T.C.
li. 396. (‘As if he had said, the
* Lord will give testimony to his
** word, as well by the means which
**men have devised, as that him-

*€ eunctis.

Unde oportet
“ut quando psallitur, ab omnibus”

* psallatur ; cum oratur, oretur ab

“omnibus; quando lectio legitur,
“facto silentio, eque audiatur a
Nam et si tunc super-
* veniat quisque cum lectio celebra-
*‘ tur, adoret tantum Deum, et pre-
*‘ signata fronte aurem solicite ac-
* commodet. Patet tempus orandi
** cum omnes orant, et patet tempus
** cum volueris orare privatim. Ob-
“‘ tentu orationis, ne perdideris lec-
* tionem.” p.583. ed. Du Breul.
Paris, 1601. ]

Appeal to Experience on the Use of Lessons. 105
in the law seeing that happiness and bliss belongeth®, it is
not in us to deny them the benefit of heavenly grace. And I
hope we may presume, that a rare thing it is not in the Church
of God, even for that very word which is read to be both
presently their ‘joy, and afterwards their study that hear it.
St. Augustine® speaking of devout men, noteth how they daily
frequented the church, how attentive ear they gave unto the
lessons and chapters read, how careful they were to remember
the same, and to muse thereupon by themselves. St. Cyprian ®
observeth that reading was not without effect in the hearts of
men. Their joy and alacrity were to him an argument, that
there is in this ordinance a blessing, such as ordinarily doth
accompany the administration of the word of life.

It were much if there should be such a difference between
the hearing of sermons preached and of lessons read in the
church, that he which presenteth himself at the one, and
maketh his prayer with the Prophet David, “Teach me O
“ Lord the way of thy statutes, direct me in the path of thy
“ commandments®,” might have the ground of usual expe-
rience, whereupon to build his hope of prevailing with God,
and obtaining the grace he seeketh ; they contrariwise not so,
who crave the like assistance of his Spirit, when they give ear
to the reading of the other. In this therefore preaching and
reading are equal, that both are approved as his ordinances,
both assisted with his grace. And if his grace do assist them
both to the nourishment of faith already bred, we cannot,
without some very manifest cause yielded, imagine that in
breeding or begetting faith, his grace doth cleave to the one
and utterly forsake the other.

60 Psalm i. 2.

61 Psalm cxix. 16.

62 Aug. in Psal. Ixvi. [t. iv. 657.
** Vide formicam Dei: surgit quo-
* tidie, currit ad ecclesiam Dei, orat,
“audit lectionem, hymnum cantat,
* ruminat quod audivit, apud se co-
_* gitat, recondit intus grana collecta

‘de area. Hee ipsa que modo
- *dicuntur qui prudenter audiunt
“hoc agunt, et ab omnibus viden-
-** tur procedere ad ecclesiam, redire
-* de ecclesia, audire sermonem, au-

* dire lectionem, invenire librum,
** aperire et legere: omnia ista vi-
*dentur cum fiunt. Formica illa
“est conterens iter, portans et re-
*condens in conspectu cernen-
** tium.”’ |

63 Cyprian. lib. ii. Epist. 5. [t. ii.
p- 75. ed. Fell.] “‘ Lector personat
*¢ verba sublimia, evangelium Christi
** legit, a fratribus conspicitur, cum
** gaudio fraternitatis auditur.”

64 Psal. cxix. 33, 35.

BOOK V.

Ch. xxii. 13.

BOOK V,

Ch. xxii. 14.

106

Difficulty of Scripture no Oljection to Lessons.

[14.] Touching hardness which is the second pretended im-
pediment ®, as against Homilies being plain and popular in-
structions it is no bar, so neither doth it infringe the efficacy
no not of Scriptures although but read. The force of reading,
how small soever they would have it, must of necessity be
granted sufficient to notify that which is plain or easy to be
understood. And of things necessary to all men’s salvation
we have been hitherto accustomed to hold (especially sithence
the publishing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, whereby the
simplest having now a key unto knowledge which the ®Eu-
nuch in the Acts did want®7, our children may of themselves

65 T. C. lib. ii. p. 383. [** Where
** confessing the word preached and
*© read all one, I shew notwithstand-
*‘ ing that as the fire stirred giveth
“ more heat, so the word as it were
** blown by preaching flameth more
** in the hearers then when it is read ;
“he answereth that this is to join
“with the Papists in condemning
*‘ the Scriptures of obscurity: but
‘* reason he can shew none; and it is

“ all one as if one should be charged ©

** to have said that the sun is dark,
‘“* for that he affirmeth it lighter at
* noonday than at the sunrising.
‘** Then he must understand that we
“ place not this difference of light-
“* someness in the word, which is
*‘ always in itself most lightsome,
‘read and preached ; but partly in
* the ordinance of God... making
** that the special means; partly in
“the darkness of our understand-
“ing, which without the aid of
** preaching cannot come to sufficient
* knowledge of it.”’] 384. [‘* The
** cause why the eunuch” (in Acts
vill.) * could not understand, is as-
** signed : for that he had no teacher
*‘to shew him the way. Whereby
* followeth .... that a man cannot
‘ ordinarily not only come to salva-
** tion, but not so much as to a suffi-
“cient knowledge of it without
* preaching.” |] 392. [ That he
“saith of dissent with myself”
(Def. 784.) “for that saying some-
“where” (T. C. i. 173 al. 216.)
“that bare reading without a mi-
“racle cannot save from famish-

“ ment,’ I say in another place,
“ (i, 158. al. 197.) ‘that the word of
** God is easy, giving understanding
“ to idiots,’ is frivolous. Ifit be easy
‘* and give understanding by preach-
‘ing and reading together, although
** not so by reading only, that stand-
‘* eth which I have set down.”’}

66 Acts viii. 31.

67 [Referring to T. C. i. 126. “ OF
*‘ infinite examples take one, of the
* eunuch, which...was reading of
** the Prophet Esay, yet he believed
*¢ not until Philip came and preached
“unto him.” See also Sampson’
Preface to a Supplication, &c. (1584)
in Strype, An. ili. 1. 327- * We do
** now complain of the danger of the
** loss of our souls, and of salvation,
“through this want of teaching
“ which we now do suffer. There
“are whole thousands of us left
* untaught: yea by trial it will be
“ found, that there are in England
** whole thousands of parishes des-
“ titute of this necessary help to sal-
** vation; that is, of diligent preach-
“‘ing and teaching. Salvation is
*‘ promised to them only which do
¥ Istieon 3 but we cannot believe on
* him of whom we do not hear; we
‘* cannot hear without a preacher, -
* the Apostle doth say. Itis preach-
‘* ing, and not simply reading, whic
“is required for having of faith.
* The reader may himself read with-
** out understanding, as the ou
“ did ; and likewise may the hearer
“ hear the thing read, and not un-
* derstand it. That eunuch had not

Easiness of Reading no Objection to Lessons. 107

by reading understand that, which he without an interpreter
could not) they are in Scripture plain and easy to be under-
stood. As for those things which at the first are obscure and
dark, when memory hath laid them up for a time, judgment
afterwards growing explaineth them. Scripture therefore is
not so hard, but that the only reading thereof may give life
unto willing hearers.

[15.] The “ easy®8” performance of which holy labour is in
like sort a very cold objection to prejudice the virtue thereof.
For what though an infidel, yea though a child may be able
to read? There is no doubt, but the meanest and worst
amongst the people under the Law had been as able as the
priests themselves were to offer sacrifice. Did this make sacri-
fice of no effect unto that purpose for which it was instituted ?
In religion some duties are not commended so much by the
hardness of their execution, as by the worthiness and dignity
of that acceptation wherein they are held with God.

We admire the goodness of God in nature, when we con-
sider how he hath provided that things most needful to pre-
serve this life should be most prompt and easy for all living
creatures to come by. Is it not as evident a sign of his won-
derful providence over us, when that food of eternal life, upon
the utter want whereof our endless death and destruction
necessarily ensueth, is prepared and always set in such a
readiness, that those very means than which nothing is more
easy may suffice to procure the same? Surely if we perish it
is not the lack of scribes and learned expounders that can be
our just excuse. The word which saveth our souls is near
us; we need for knowledge but® to read and live. The man
which readeth the word of God the word itself doth pronounce
blessed, if he also observe the same.

[16.] Now all these things being well considered, it shall
be no intricate matter for any man to judge with indifferency,
on which part the good of the Church is most conveniently
sought; whether on ours whose opinion is such as hath been
shewed, or else on theirs, who leaving no ordinary way of

“ full faith wrought in him, but by “Ghost did work faith in his
* hearing Philip’s preaching tohim, “ heart.”

“and opening to him the meaning = ®8 [See hereafter, ch. xxxi. § 2.
“of the Scripture, which he had 3.

“read before: for then the Holy 69 Apoc. i. 3.

BOOK V.

Ch. xxii. 15,

16,

BOOK V.
Ch. xxii. 17.

108 Public Worship scorned through disparagement of Lessons ; ;

salvation for them unto whom the word of God is but only
read, do seldom name them but with great disdain and con-
tempt who execute that service in the Church of Christ79,
By means whereof it hath come to pass, that churches, which
cannot enjoy the benefit of usual preaching, are judged as iti
were even forsaken of God, forlorn, and without either hope
or comfort: contrariwise those places which every day for the
most part are at sermons as the flowing sea, do both by their
emptiness at times of reading, and by other apparent tokens,
shew to the voice of the living God this way sounding in the
ears of men a great deal less reverence than were meet. :

[17.] But if no other evil were known to grow thereby,
who can choose but think them cruel which doth hear them
so boldly teach71, that if God (as to Him there is nothing im-
possible) do haply save any such as continue where they have
all other means of instruction, but are not taught by continual
preaching, yet this is miraculous, and more than the fitness o!
so poor instruments can give any man cause to hope for; that
sacraments are not effectual to salvation, except men be in-
structed by preaching before they be made partakers of them72;
yea, that both sacraments and prayers also, where sermons ar¢
not, “do not only not feed, but are ordinarily to further con-

7” T.C. lib. ii. p. 363. [These
* wofull readers .... Non-residence
** would bring little either to filling
** of coffers, or bathing of them in
“the delights of the world, or to
“ what other thing soever they in
“their absence propound, unless
* there were such hungry knights,
« as would for a crust of bread sup-
“ply their absence. Now for re-
“moving of these sweepings out of
“the church ministry,” &c.] ibid.
373- [see above, § a

1 Pag. 364. [* Bare reading is
*€ not able, without God’s extraordi-
‘nary work, to deliver one soul.”
“ Prayers and sacraments, forasmuch
** as they take effect by the preach-
** ing of the word, where that is not
** these do not only not feed, but are
** ordinarily to further condemna-
* tion.” ] 375. [‘ It is not denied
** but the Lord may extraordinarily
** give faith by reading only.’’] 380.
[‘* Some of these” (planting, water-

ing, &c.) “in some degree, or all
“ extraordinarily, may be done by
“‘ bare reading.” | 383. yee above
§ 3, note 21.] 384. [see above, § 14,
note 65. | 1

72 Page 392. [Whitg. Def. 784.
** You say that there is not enough
‘* in the reading of the Scriptures te
‘* keep the people from famishment,
** .,..1t isa popish and an ungodly
*‘ opinion, contrary to the worthi-
“ness and profitableness of the
* Scriptures.” T.C. ii. 392. “It is
* well with us, and the Scriptures
‘* keep their honour, if they bring to
*‘ the elect salvation, used and ap-
* plied as the order which the Lord
‘hath set requireth. Unless perad-
** venture he will say that the holy
“Sacraments lose their honour,
** when it is said they are not effec-
* tual to salvation, without men be
** instructed by preaching before they
“ be partakers of them.’” |

and those who have no Preaching Minister disheartened. 109

demnation7? ?” What man’s heart doth not rise at the
mention of these things ?
Tt is true that the weakness of our wits and the dulness of

our affections do make us for the most part, even as our Lord’s

own disciples were for a certain time, hard and slow to believe
what is written. For help whereof expositions and exhorta-
_ tions are needful, and that in the most effectual manner. The
principal churches throughout the land, and no small part of
the rest, being in this respect by the goodness of God so abun-
dantly provided for, they which want the like furtherance unto
knowledge, wherewith it were greatly to be desired that they
also did abound, are yet we hope not left in so extreme desti-
tution, that justly any man should think the ordinary means of
eternal life taken from them, because their teaching is in pub-
lie for the most part but by reading. For which cause amongst
whom there are not those helps that others have to set them
forward in the way of life, such to dishearten with fearful sen-
tences, as though their salvation could hardly be hoped for, is
not in our understanding so consonant with Christian charity7+.

73 Page 364. [See above, note 71.

also Penry’s ‘‘ Exhortation unto
the governors and people of her
* Majesty’s country of Wales, to
* Jabour earnestly to have the preach-
“ing of the Gospel planted among
them ;” 1588; p.5. ‘If you will
*‘ embrace Christ, and have pardon
“of your sins by his passion, you
“must have that brought to pass
_bypreaching. Christ, I grant, may
* be otherwise taught, but, as the
* Apostle saith, not as the truth is
“in Jesus: and therefore without
“ comfort, and without salvation.”
And p.12. “ Enquire now of the
“ days of heaven, which are past,
** which were before you, since the
** day that Adam fell from his inte-
*‘ rity; demand from the one end
* of heaven unto the other, and all
~ © with one consent will answer, that
* from Adam to Noah, from Noah
“© to Moses, from Moses unto Jesus
** Christ, from his blessed appearing
* in the flesh unto the present hour,
* no face of a true Church apparent
* without preaching; no ordinary
*“ salvation without preaching: and

** this decree shall never be changed.
* T do not say but that the Lord
‘may if he will save those, who
** never heard nor shall hear a ser-
** mon in alltheirlives. But, wretches
“as we are, what is that to us?
* We have no warrant to hope for
‘* any such salvation.”

And p.14. “ Verily, the Devil
“himself may as well hope to be
*‘ saved as you can, who never saw
* the beauty of their feet that bring
** salvation.”

And p. 60. “ The people living
“under our readers, though they
** faithfully execute their ministry,
** cannot hope for eternal life.”

74 [** If ever we mind such a re
** formation, as God shall thereby be
** glorified, and his Church edified,
‘we must utterly renounce all the
“unlearned pastors, as men by no
** means to be tolerated to have any
“charge over the Lord’s flock.”
Learned Discourse of Eccl. Govern-
ment, quoted in Bridges’ Defence,
p- 478; who produces also the fol-
lowing passage from Harrison (the
Brownist) against Cartwright; “ I

BOOK V.
Ch. xxii. 17.

110 Slights offered to Scripture by the Puritans.

We hold it safer a great deal and better to give them encou-
ragement?>; to put them in mind that it is not the deepness of —
their knowledge, but the singleness of their belief, which God
accepteth’®; that they which “ hungerand thirst after righteous- ‘
“ ness shall be satisfied?’ ;” that no imbecility of means can
prejudice the truth of the promise of God herein?®; that the
weaker their helps are, the more their need is to alin the |
edge of their own industry79; and that painfulness by feeble
means shall be able to gain that, which in the plenty of more —
forcible instruments is through sloth and negligence lost®°.

[18.] As for the men, with whom we have thus far taken
pains to confer about the force of the word of God, either read
by itself, or opened in sermons; their speeches concerning
both the one and the other are in truth such, as might give us
very just cause to think, that the reckoning is not great which
they make of either. For howsoever they have been driven
to devise some odd kinds of blind uses, whereunto they may
answer that reading doth serve, yet the reading of the word of
God in public more than their preachers’ bare text, who wil
not judge that they deem needless; when if we chance at any
time to term it “ necessary *!,” as being a thing which God
himself did institute amongst the Jews for purposes that touch
as well us as them; a thing which the Apostles commend
under the Old, and ordain under the New Testament; a thing ©
whereof the Church of God hath ever sithence the first begin-
ning reaped singular commodity; a thing which without ex
ceeding great detriment no Church can omit: they only are the

BOOK V.
Ch, xxii, 18.

** would say, there were holiness in
** the dumb ministry, if all the dumb
** ministers were hanged up in the

“‘ wretches, rogues, and vagabonds.
* And this is the milder sort of these
“our brethren.” Bridges, Def.

** churches and public assemblies,
*‘for a warning and terror to the
“‘ rest, that are ready to enter such
‘a function: then indeed there
‘* werea holy sign and remembrance
* of judgment against such wretches:
* but othe er holiness have they none
“in them.” ‘* Well fare these our
“ brethren the Learned Discoursers,
** that are somewhat more pitiful to
‘* the poor unlearned pastors, not to
“hang them up by the neck, as
** thieves and robbers, but to turn
“ them out to beg their bread, with
“their wives and children, like

480. |

75 Ecclus. li. 26,27; Matt. xii. 20.

76 1 Tim. i. 5; hoaaat xiv. 13

1 Thess. iii. 10.
77 Matt. v. 6. |
78 Phil.i.6; 1 Pet.v. 103 Matt,

iii.

9 1 Thess. iv. 18; Heb. x. 74%
ime 20, 215 ; Pip iv. 10.
80 Luke xi.
= ne: Def. Byay Both
“ rea ing and preaching be neces-
“sary in the Church, and most
* profitable. ey

Vagueness of the Puritans’ Language about Preaching. 111

men that ever we heard of by whom this hath been crossed and
gainsaid, they only the men which have given their peremp-
tory sentence to the contrary, “It is untrue that simple
“ reading is necessary in the Church®?.” And why untrue?
Because “ although it be very convenient which is used in
“ some churches, where before preaching-time the church as-
« sembled hath the Scriptures read in such order that the whole
“ canon thereof is oftentimes in one year run through; yet a
“number of churches which have no such order of simple
* reading cannot be in this point charged with breach of God’s
“ commandment, which they might be if simple reading were
* necessary.” <A poor, a cold, and an hungry cavil’?! Shall
we therefore to please them change the word necessary, and
say that it hath been a commendable order, a custom very
expedient, or an ordinance “ most profitable” (whereby they
know right well that we mean exceedingly behoveful) to read
the word of God at large in the church, whether it be as our
manner is, or as theirs is whom they prefer before us? It is
not this that will content or satisfy their minds. They have
against it a marvellous deep and profound axiom, that “ Two
« things to one and the same end cannot but very improperly
“be said most profitable®+.” And therefore if preaching be
“ most profitable” to man’s salvation, then is not reading; if
reading be, then preaching is not.

[19.] Are they resolved then at the leastwise, if preaching
be the only ordinary mean whereby it pleaseth God to save our
souls, what kind of preaching it is which doth save? Under-
stand they how or in what respect there is that force and vir-
tue in preaching? We have reason therefore to make these
demands, for that although their pens run all upon preaching
and sermons, yet when themselves do practise that whereof
they write, they change their dialect, and those words they
shun as if there were in them some secret sting. It is not their
phrase to say they “ preach,” or to give to their own instruc-
tions and exhortations the name of sermons ; the pain they take
themselves in this kind is either “ opening,” or “ lecturing,”
or “reading,” or “ exercising,” but in no case “ preaching.”

82 T.C. lib. ii. p. 381. ** juna calumnia delitescas.’’]

83 [Cicero pro A. Cecina, 21, 4 T.C., lib. ii. p. 382.
* Cave in ista tam frigida, tam je-

BOOK VY.
Ch, xxii. rg.

BOOK VY.

Ch, xxii. 19.

112

Controversy between Some and Penry.

And in this present question they also warily protest, that
what they ascribe to the virtue of preaching, they still mea 1

it of “ good preaching’>.” Now one of them saith that a good

sermon must “ expound” and “apply” a “large” portion of
the text of Scripture at one times®. Another’? giveth us to
understand, that sound preaching “is not to do as one did
“at London, who spent the most of his time in invectives
« against good men, and told his audience how the magistrate
“ should have an eye to such as troubled the peace of the

« Church.”

The best of them hold it for no good preaching

“ when a man endeavoureth to make a glorious show of elo

85 T.C, lib. ii. p. 385.

86 Complaint of the Commonalty.
[‘* Some take but one word for their
‘** text, and afterwards run into the
** mountains, that we cannot follow
“them, not knowing how they went
‘* up, or how they will come down
“again: whereas if they had taken
*©a good portion of the text, and
“had naturally expounded and pi-
** thily applied the same, by occasion
“ of that large text, we should have
*‘ remembered a good part of the
** sermon long time after.’’]

87 Dr. Some’s Painter, p. 21. [The
tract here quoted is, ‘‘ M. Some laid
** open in his colours: wherein the
* indifferent reader may easily see,
‘how wretchedly and loosely he
“ hath handled the cause against M.
*“Penry. Done by an Oxford man,
* to his friend in Cambridge.” No
date nor printer’s name. Some was
Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge,
and his principles had been those of
a moderate Puritan, of which party
in the University Whitaker seems
to have been the head. In 1588, he
published, “A godly Treatise con-
“taining and deciding certain
‘* questions moved of late in Lon-
*‘don and other places, touching
“the Ministry, Sacraments, and
** Church .... After the end of the
** book you shall find a Defence of
“such points as M. Penry hath
** dealt against, and a confutation of
** many gross errors broached in M.
** Penry’s last treatise.” The first
part of this work had been publish-
ed separately, May 5, and was met

by “A Defence of that which hath
* been written in the questions 0:
“the ignorant ministry and the
* communicating with them. By
* John Penri.” Some rejoined i
September by the Defence above-
mentioned: which rejoinder callec
forth the pamphlet quoted in th
text. The place referred to is
p. 21. “I speak here of sound
** preaching, i. e. of dividing the
“word aright, which the Apostle
* called dp0oropeiy: I speak not of
*‘ babbling, nor of handling a text
** with a currycomb: in that I join
* with M. Some with all my hea
“and therefore I wish he had been
*‘ with me the roth of November
** last, at a certain Church by the Ex-
** change, I think they call it Ba

** tholomew church, where it may be
*‘ his ears would have glowed, and
** if he durst have been so bold, I do
** not think but he would have con-
“‘demned the preacher, and that
** worthily, for his babbling.” (Note
in margin, “ This preacher, as I un-
** derstood since, was M. Some him-
“ self.”’) For then he might have
“heard him fetch many vagaries,
** and spend the most of his time in
** invectives against good men ; tell-
“ing th’ audience to this effect:
‘that for the Papists, thanks be
“to God, we need not so greatly
* fear them... . but now the magi
* strate was only to cast his eye on
“the phantastical crew, such as
* troubled the peace of the church;
“ otherwise there might fall out
‘* many mischiefs.”’ ] Fi

The Puritans challenged to define a good Sermon. 1138

« quence and learning, rather than to apply himself to the
* capacity of the simples.”

But let them shape us out a good preacher by what
pattern soever it pleaseth them best, let them exclude and
inclose whom they will with their definitions, we are not
desirous to enter into any contention with them about this,
or to abate the conceit they have of their own ways, so that
when once we are agreed what sermons shall currently pass
for good, we may at the length understand from them what that
is in a good sermon which doth make it the word of life unto
such as hear. If substance of matter, evidence of things,
strength and validity of arguments and proofs, or if any other
virtue else which words and sentences may contain; of all
this what is there in the best sermons being uttered, which
they lose by being read? But they utterly deny that the
reading either of scriptures or homilies and sermons can ever
by the ordinary grace of God save any soul. So that although
we had all the sermons word for word which James, Paul,
Peter, and the rest of the Apostles made, some one of which
sermons was of power to convert thousands of the hearers
unto Christian faith ; yea although we had all the instructions,
exhortations, consolations, which came from the gracious lips
of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and should read them ten
thousand times over, to faith and salvation no man could
hereby hope to attain.

Whereupon it must of necessity follow, that the vigour
and vital efficacy of sermons doth grow from certain accidents
which are not in them but in their maker: his virtue, his
gesture, his countenance, his zeal, the motion of his body, and
the inflection of his voice who first uttereth them as his own,
is that which giveth them the form, the nature, the very
essence of instruments available to eternal life. If they like
neither that nor this, what remaineth but that their final
conclusion be, “ sermons we know are the only ordinary
© means to salvation, but why or how we cannot tell ?”

_ [20.] Wherefore to end this tedious controversy, wherein
the too great importunity of our over eager adversaries hath
constrained us much longer to dwell, than the barrenness of
so poor.a cause could have seemed at the first likely either to
88 T. C, lib. ii. p. 385.
HOOKER, VOL. II. I

LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE

BOOK V.
Ch, xxii. 20.

—_

BOOK V.

Ch. xxii. 20.

114 Sermons not proved the only Way to Faith.

require or to admit, if they which without partialities and
passions are accustomed to weigh all things, and accordingly
to give their sentence, shall here sit down to receive our audit,
and to cast up the whole reckoning on both sides} the sum
which truth amounteth unto will appear to be but this, that
as medicines provided of nature and applied by art for the
benefit of bodily health, take effect sometimes under and
sometimes above the natural proportion of their virtue, accord=
ing as the mind and fancy of the patient doth more or less
concur with them: so whether we barely read unto men the
Scriptures of God, or by homilies concerning matter of belie
and conversation seek to lay before them the duties whiel
they owe unto God and man; whether we deliver ther
books to read and consider of in private at their own bes
leisure, or call them to the hearing of sermons publicly in thi
house of God; albeit every of these and the like unto thes
means do truly and daily effect that in the hearts of men fo
which they are each and all meant, yet the operation whic
they have in common being most sensible and most generall
noted in one kind above the rest, that one hath in some men’s
opinions drowned altogether the rest, and injuriously brough
to pass that they have been thought, not Jess effectual tha
the other, but without the other wneffectual to save so
Whereas the cause why sermons only are observed to prevail
so much while all means else seem to sleep and do nothing
is in truth nothing but that singular affection and attentio1
which the people sheweth every where towards the one, ax
their cold disposition to the other; the reason hereof bein;
partly the art which our adversaries use for the credit of thei
sermons to bring men out of conceit with all other teaching
besides ; partly a custom which men have to let those thing
carelessly pass by their ears, which they have oftentimes hear
before, or know they may hear again whensoever it pleaseth
themselves; partly the especial advantages which sermon
naturally have to procure attention, both in that they com
always new, and because by the hearer it is still presume¢
that if they be let slip for the present, what good soever they
contain is lost, and that without all hope of recovery. This i
the true cause of odds between sermons and other kinds of
wholesome instruction.

Prayer considered as a Duty to God. 115

As for the difference which hath been hitherto so much Book v.
defended on the contrary side, making sermons the only Pnehes
ordinary means unto faith and eternal life, sith this hath
neither evidence of truth nor proof sufficient to give it warrant,
a cause of such quality may with far better grace and con-
-yeniency ask that pardon which common humanity doth easily
grant, than claim in challenging manner that assent which is
as unwilling when reason guideth it to be yielded where it is
not, as withheld where it is apparently due.

All which notwithstanding, as we could greatly wish that
‘the rigour of this their opinion were allayed and mitigated, so
because we hold it the part of religious ingenuity to honour
virtue in whomsoever, therefore it is our most hearty desire,
and shall be always our prayer unto Almighty God, that in the
‘selfsame fervent zeal wherewith they seem to affect the good
of the souls of men, and to thirst after nothing more than that
all men might by all means be directed in the way of life,
both they and we may constantly persist to the world’s end.
For in this we are not their adversaries, though ony in the
other hitherto have been ours.

XXIII. Between the throne of God in heaven and his Of Prayer.
Church upon earth here militant if it be so that Angels have
their continual intercourse, where should we find the same
more verified than in these two ghostly exercises, the one
Doctrine, and the other Prayer? For what is the assembling
of the Church to learn, but the receiving of Angels descended
from above? What to pray, but the sending of Angels up-
‘ward? His heavenly inspirations and our holy desires are as
so many Angels of intercourse and commerce between God
and us. As teaching bringeth us to know that God is our
supreme truth ; so prayer testifieth that we acknowledge him
our sovereign good.

Besides, sith on God as the most high all inferior causes in
the world are dependent ; and the higher any cause is, the
more it coveteth to impart virtue unto things beneath it; how
should any kind of service we do or can do find greater eG
ance than prayer, which sheweth our concurrence with him in
desiring that wherewith his very nature doth most delight ?

Is not the name of prayer usual to signify even all the ser-
vice that ever we do unto God? And that for no other cause,

12

BOOK V.
Ch, xxiv. 1.

Of public
Prayer.

*
¥

3
116 Prayer considered as a Duty to our neighbour.

sa

as I suppose, but to shew that there is in religion no accepta- —
ble duty which devout invocation of the name of God doth not
either presuppose or infer. Prayers are those “ calves of men’s
«“ lips89;” those most gracious and sweet odours® ; those rich —
presents and gifts, which being carried up into heaven! do
best testify our dutiful affection, and are for the purchasing of :

all favour at the hands of God the most undoubted means we
can use. 4
On others what more easily, and yet what more fruitfully ~
bestowed than our prayers? If we give counsel, they are the —
simpler only that need it; if alms, the poorer only are relieved; —
but by prayer we do good to all. And whereas every other
duty besides is but to shew itself as time and opportunity re-
quire, for this all times are convenient9?: when we are not
able to do any other thing for men’s behoof, when through
maliciousness or unkindness they vouchsafe not to accept any
other good at our hands, prayer is that which we always have
in our power to bestow, and they never in theirs to refuse
Wherefore “God forbid,” saith Samuel, speaking unto a i
most unthankful people, a people weary of the benefit of his
most virtuous government over them, “God forbid that I
“ should sin against the Lord, and cease to pray for you.
It is the first thing wherewith a righteous life beginneth, an
the last wherewith it doth end. y
The knowledge is small which we have on earth concerning
things that are done in heaven. Notwithstanding thus mucl
we know even of Saints in heaven, that they pray. /
therefore prayer being a work common to the Church as we
triumphant as militant, a work common unto men with Angels,
what should we think but that so much of our lives is celestiz
and divine as we spend in the exercise of prayer? For which
cause we see that the most comfortable visitations, which God
hath sent men from above, have taken especially the times of
prayer as their most natural opportunities.
XXIV. This holy and religious duty of service toward;
God concerneth us one way in that we are men, and another

89 Hosea xiv. 2. #” Rey. v. 8. 93 Sam. xii. 2
9! Acts x. 4. 94 | Apoc. vi. Ae
9 Rom.i.g; 1 Thess.v.17; Luke % Dan.ix. 20; Acts x. 30.
XViii. I.

_ the power of God to withstand them!'.

Tr, - 0 ol Sedoae .) Lad ee TT ol Cat Ge PEROT et ee
‘ Judas ot

Lidifying Tendencies of public Prayer. 117

way in that we are joined as parts to that visible mystical body
which is his Church. As men, we are at our own choice, both

_ for time, and place, and form, according to the exigence of our
own occasions in private% ;

but the service, which we do as
members of a public body, is public, and for that cause must
needs be accounted by so much worthier than the other, as a

whole society of such condition exceedeth the worth of any

one. In which consideration unto Christian assemblies there
are most special promises made9. St. Paul, though likely to
prevail with God as much as [any] one®, did notwithstanding
think it much more both for God’s glory and his own good, if
prayers might be made and thanks yielded in his behalf by a
number of men9®, The prince and people of Nineveh assem-
bling themselves as a main army of supplicants, it was not in
I speak no otherwise

- concerning the force of public prayer in the Church of God,
_ than before me Tertullian hath done?, “We come by troops
_ © to the place of assembly, that being banded as it were toge-
_ “ther, we may be supplicants enough to besiege God with

_ © our prayers.

These forces are unto him acceptable.”
[2.] When we publicly make our prayers, it cannot be but

- that we do it with much more comfort than in private, for that
_ the things we ask publicly are approved as needful and good
in the judgment of all, we hear them sought for and desired

- with common consent.

Again, thus much help and further-
ance is more yielded, in that if so be our zeal and devotion to

_ Godward be slack, the alacrity and fervour of others serveth

as a present spur®. “For+ even prayer itself” (saith St.
Basil) “when it hath not the consort of many voices to

“ strengthen it, is not itself.”
% Psalm lv.17; Dan. ix.3; Acts

Xx. 3
Matt. xviii. 20.

98 [The word “any” is not in the
text of the original edition, nor in
Spencer’s r im? It seems to have
been inserted by Gauden. ]

99 2 Cor. 1.11.

1 Jonah iv. 11.

2 Apolog. c. 39. [‘Coimus ad
* Deum, quasi manu facta precatio-
*“nibus ambiamus. Hec vis Deo
“grata est.”] Ambros. lib. i. de
Pen. “ Multi minimi dam congre-

Finally, the good which we do

** gantur unanimes sunt magni; et
*‘ multorum preces impossibile est
*contemni.”” [Rather in the Com-
mentary on the Romans, ascribed to
St. Ambrose, c. xvi. 31. The last
clause stands thus: “ Multorum
‘* preces impossibile est ut non im-
** petrent.” ed. Bened. App. 108 A. }

3 Psalm exxii. -

4 Kal avry 7 mporevxn BN exoura
Tous ouppeovorvras adpaveortépa €ort
TOAA® éavris. Basil. Epist. Lxviii.
[al. xevii. t. iii. 191. B.]

BOOK V.

Ch, xxiv, 2.

BOOK v. by public prayer is more than in private can be-done, for that

Ch. xxv.1, 2

Of the
Form of
Common
Prayer.

118 Helps due to public Prayer: 1. Holiness of the Place:

: besides the benefit which here is no less procured to ourselves, _
the whole Church is much bettered by our good example; and|_
consequently whereas secret nists of our duty in this kind —
is but only our own hurt, one man’s contempt of the common.
prayer of the Church of God may be and oftentimes is most
hurtful unto many. In which considerations the prophet”
David so often voweth unto God the sacrifice of praise and
thanksgiving in the congregation®; so earnestly exhorteth —
others to sing praises unto the Lord in his courts, in his sanc- —
tuary, before the memorial of his holiness®; and so much
complaineth of his own uncomfortable exile, wherein although ~
he sustained many most grievous indignities, and endured the ©
want of sundry both pleasures and honours before enjoyed, —
yet as if this one were his only grief and the rest not felt, his ~
speeches are all of the heavenly benefit of public assemblies,
and the happiness of such as had free access thereunto7. i

XXV. A great part of the cause, wherefore religious”
minds are so inflamed with the love of public devotion, is that
virtue, force, and efficacy, which by experience they find that
the very form and reverend solemnity of common prayer duly
ordered hath, to help that imbecility and weakness in us, by
means whereof we are otherwise of ourselves the less apt to”
perform unto God so heavenly a service, with such affectior
of heart, and disposition in the powers of our souls as is
requisite. To this end therefore all things hereunto apper
taining have been ever thought convenient to be done with
the most solemnity and majesty that the wisest could devise.
It is not with public as with private prayer. In this rather
secresy 1s commended than outward show, whereas that
being the public act of a whole society, requireth accordingly
more care to be had of external appearance. The very
assembling of men therefore unto this service hath been ever
solemn, . |

[2.] And concerning the place of assembly, although it —
serve for other uses as well as this, yet seeing that our Lord ©
himself hath to this as to the chiefest of all other plainly
sanctified his own temple, by entitling it “the House of

5 Psalm xxvi, 12; XXXIV. 1. 7 Ps. xxvii. 4 xlii. 4; Ixxxivy. 1.
® Psalm xxx. 4; xcvi. 9. 8 Matt. vi. 5, 6.

:

9. Authority, Zeal, Holiness of the Minister. 119

« Prayer,” what preeminence of dignity soever hath been

either by the ordinance or through the special favour and
providence of God annexed unto his Sanctuary, the principal
eause thereof must needs be in regard of Common Prayer.
For the honour and furtherance whereof, if it be as the
gravest of the ancient Fathers seriously were persuaded, and
do oftentimes plainly teach, affirming that the house of prayer

is a Court beautified with the presence of celestial powers;

that there we stand, we pray, we sound forth hymns unto
God, having his Angels intermingled as our associates!°;
and that with reference hereunto the Apostle doth require so
great care to be had of decency for the Angels’ sake!!; how
can we come to the house of prayer, and not be moved with
the very glory}? of the place itself, so to frame our affections
praying, as doth best beseem them, whose suits the Almighty
doth there sit to hear, and his Angels attend to further?
When this was ingrafted in the minds of men, there needed
no penal statutes to draw them unto public prayer. The
warning sound was no sooner heard, but the churches were
presently filled1%, the pavements covered with bodies prostrate,
and washed with their tears of devout joy.

[3.] And as the place of public prayer is a circumstance
in the outward form thereof, which hath moment to help
devotion ; so the person much more with whom the people
of God do join themselves in this action, as with him that
standeth and speaketh in the presence of God for them.

BOOK V.

Ch. Xxv. 3.

The authority of his place, the fervour of his zeal, the piety -

and gravity of his whole behaviour must needs exceedingly
both grace and set forward the service he doth.

The authority of his calling is a furtherance, because if
God have so far received him into favour, as to impose upon

9 Matt. xxi. 8. 1 Cor. xi. ro. [S. Chrys. in
10 Chrysost. Hom. xv. ad Hebr. loc. ei yap rod dvdpds xaradpoveis,

et xxiv. in Act. [t. iv. 516. dxove
8€ bre dyyeoe maperot mavrayod, Kar
pddiora €v TH oik@m Tod Oeod ma-
peornkace T@ Bacrhei, kal mdyra
eumemAnoTat TOY aowpdTev eKelyoy
duvapéov. And p. 753. 1. 40.
€oTnkas aTdKT@s* oUK oidas Ore pera
ayyehov éornKas 3 per’ éxelvov adets,
per ékeivov dyveis, Kat €ornKas
yerav ; |

dyot, rovs adyyedous aidécOntt.

12 « Power and beauty are in his
*‘ sanctuary.” Psal. xcvi. 6.

13 « Ad domos statim Dominicas
“* currimus, corpora humi sternimus,
* mixtis cum fletu gaudiis suppli-
“camus.” Salvian. de Prov. lib.
vi. [ad fin. in Bibl. Patr. Colon. t. v.
351. H.]

120 Helps due to public Prayer: 3. A solemn Liturgy.

BOOK V. him by the hands of men that office of blessing the people in =
a his name, and making intercession to him in theirs; which
office he hath sanctified with his own most gracious promise’,
and ratified that promise by manifest actual performance ©
thereof, when!> others before in like place have done the :
same; is not his very ordination a seal as it were to us, that Z
the selfsame divine love, which hath chosen the instrument to —
work with, will by that instrument effect the thing whereto —
he ordained it, in blessing his people and accepting the ~
prayers which his servant offereth up unto God for them?
It was in this respect a comfortable title which the ancients
used to give unto God’s ministers, terming them usually ~
God’s most beloved'®, which were ordained to procure by their —
prayers his love and favour towards all. 7

Again, if there be not zeal and fervency in him which —
proposeth for the rest those suits and supplications which ~
they by their joyful acclamations must ratify ; if he praise not
God with all his might; if he pour not out his soul in prayer; —
if he take not their causes to heart, or speak not as Moses, ~
Daniel, and Ezra did for their people: how should there be but
in them frozen coldness, when his affections seem benumbed
from whom theirs should take fire ? |

Virtue and godliness of life are required at the hands of the
minister of God, not only in that: he is to teach and to instruct |
the people, who for the most part are rather led away by the
ill example, than directed aright by the wholesome instruction

of them, whose life swerveth from the rule of their own
doctrine; but also much more in regard of this other part of —
his function ; whether we respect the weakness of the people,
apt to loathe and abhor the sanctuary when they which
perform the service thereof are such as the sons of Eli were;
or else consider the inclination of God himself, who requireth
the lifting up of pure hands in prayer’, and hath given the —
world plainly to understand that the wicked although they
cry shall not be heard!*. They are no fit supplicants to seek
his mercy in behalf of others, whose own unrepented sins
provoke his just indignation. Let thy Priests therefore, O

_ 14 Numb. vi. 23. 44, szepe.
15 2 Chron. xxx. 27. r Tim} ii. 8. .
16 [Ocopudeordrovs. Justin.] Cod. i" John ix. gt; Jer. xi, 113 —

lib. i. tit. 3. de Episc. et Cler. 43 et Ezech. viii. 18.

Ili Effect of leaving public Prayers unordered. 121

Lord, be evermore clothed with righteousness, that thy saints

_ may thereby with more devotion rejoice and sing}.

- [4.] But of all helps for due performance of this service
the greatest is that very set and standing order itself, which
framed with common advice, hath both for matter and form

prescribed whatsoever is herein publicly done. No doubt

from God it hath proceeded, and by us it must be acknow-

ledged a work of his singular care and providence, that the

- Church hath evermore held a prescript form of common

prayer, although not in all things every where the same, yet
for the most part retaining still the same analogy. So that

if the liturgies of all ancient churches throughout the world

be compared amongst themselves, it may be easily perceived
they had all one original mould, and that the public prayers
of the people of God in churches thoroughly settled did never
use to be voluntary dictates proceeding from any man’s ex-
temporal wit?°.

[5-] To him which considereth the grievous and scandalous
inconveniences whereunto they make themselves daily sub-
ject, with whom any blind and secret corner is judged a fit
house of common prayer ; the manifold confusions which they

_ fall into where every man’s private spirit and gift (as they
- term it) is the only Bishop that ordaineth him to this ministry ;

_ the irksome deformities whereby through endless and sense-

less effusions of indigested prayers they oftentimes disgrace

In most unsufferable manner the worthiest part of Christian

duty towards God, who herein are subject to no certain order,

but pray both what and how they list: to him I say which

- weigheth duly all these things the reasons cannot be obscure,
~ why God doth in public prayer so much respect the solemnity
of places where2!, the authority and calling of persons by

whom22, and the precise appointment even with what words

or sentences his name should be called on amongst his
peoples.

_ XXVI. No man hath hitherto been so impious as plainly
and directly to condemn prayer. The best stratagem that

| cake hath, who knoweth his kingdom to be no one way more
19 Psal. cxxxii. 9. 22 Joel ii. 17.
20 (See Palmer’s Orig. Lit. ] . 23 2 Chron, xxix, 30.

21 2 Chron. vi. 20.

BOOK V.

Ch. xxv. 4, 5.

XXVi. I.

Of them
which like
not to have
any set

BOOK V,
Ch, xxvi. 2.

Form of
Common
Prayer.

‘of present occasions ; if it be right to judge him by our

122 Precedents m Scripture for a set Form of Prayer:

shaken than by the public devout prayers of God’s Church, is —
by traducing the form and manner of them to bring them
into contempt, and so to shake the force of all men’s devo-
tion towards them. From this and from no other forge hath
proceeded a strange conceit, that to serve God with any set
form of common prayer is superstitious. |
[2.] As though God himself did not frame to his Priests —
the very speech wherewith they were charged to bless the —
people25; or as if our Lord, even of purpose to prevent this
fancy of extemporal and voluntary prayers, had not left us_
of his own framing one, which might both remain as a part
of the church liturgy, and serve as a pattern whereby to
frame all other prayers with efficacy, yet without superfluity
of words. If prayers were no otherwise accepted of God
than being conceived always new, according to the exigence

0
bellies, and to imagine that he doth loathe to have the oie
same supplications often iterated, even as we do to be every
day fed without alteration or change of diet; if prayers be
actions which ought to waste away themselves in the making;
if being made to remain that they may be resumed and used
again as prayers, they be but instruments of superstition :
surely we cannot excuse Moses, who gave such occasion of
scandal to the world, by not being contented to praise the —
name of Almighty God according to the usual naked sim-
plicity of God’s Spirit for that admirable victory given them
against Pharaoh, unless so dangerous a precedent were left
for the casting of prayers into certain poetical moulds, and
for the framing of prayers which might be repeated often,
although they never had again the same occasions which
brought them forth at the first. For that very hymn of

liturgy?6 ;

24 [2d. Adm. 38. “If it were
‘* praying, and that there were never
** an ill woorde nor sentence in all
“‘ the prayers, yet to appoynt it to
** be used, or so to use it as Papistes
*“‘ did their mattens and evensong,
“for a set service to God, though
“the woordes be good, the use is
“ naught.”’]

2 Num. vi. 23. :

26 [** At the evening sacrifice (on
** the Sabbaths) they sung the Song
“of Moses, I will sing unto the
“ Lord, for he hath triumphed glo-
“ riously,” &c. Lewis’s Hebrew
Republic, b. ii. c.12. The Song of
Moses occurs in the Jewish morniiaa
service both of Rome, Germany, an i

hos ee ee

Jewish Liturgies. 123

Their books of common prayer contained partly hymns taken
out of the holy Scripture, partly benedictions, thanksgivings,
supplications, penned by such as have been from time to time
the governors of that synagogue. These they sorted into
their several times and places, some to begin the service of
God with, and some to end, some to go before, and some to
follow, and some to be interlaced between the divine readings
of the Law and Prophets. Unto their custom of finishing the
Passover with certain Psalms, there is not any thing more
probable, than that the Holy Evangelist doth evidently allude
saying, That after the cup delivered by our Saviour unto his
apostles, “they sung?7,” an@ went forth to the mount of
Olives.

[3.] As the Jews had their songs of Moses and David and
the rest, so the Church of Christ from the very beginning
hath both used the same, and besides them other of like
nature, the song of the Virgin Mary, the song of Zachary,
the song of Simeon, such hymns as the Apostle doth often

Spain: and is found, as the editor
is informed, in several of the old

liturgies of the Arabic Christians:

who may be supposed to have re-
tained it out of the Jewish service. |

27 Matt. xxvi. 30. ‘“Yprqoarres
having sung the Psalms which were

usual at that Feast, those Psalms °

which the Jews call the great Hal-

~ Ielujah, beginning at the 113th and

continuing to the end of the 118th.
See Paul Burgens. in Psal. cxii.
[Heb.113.] addit.1. [* Iste psalmus
* cum quinque sequentibus, usque
“ad psalmum, Beati immaculati,
‘exclusive vocatur ab Hebreis
* Hallelujah magnum, i.e. Hymnus
‘magnus; de quo singularem fa-
* cjunt solennitatem ; nam in tribus
* precipuis festis et in neomeniis
“stantes istum hymnum cum ma-
*‘jori cantant solennitate quam
*czeteros psalmos fotius psalterii.
“‘ Insuper in nocte pasche quando
** agnus paschalis comedebatur, post
** ejus comestionem recumbentes ad
‘‘mensam ipsum hymnum solen-
“niter dicebant, nde de hoc
** hymno ex istis sex psalmis com-

* posito intelligi debet illud quod

“imminente passione, Matt. 26. cap.

“ legitur. . quod etiam Hebrei hodie
** aono paschali carentes in illa nocte
* scil. pasche istum hymnum cum
*‘azymis solenniter prout possunt
** cantant; in quo videntur prophe-
** tizare nescientes, sicut legitur de
** Caiapha.” Bibl. cum Glossa Or-
din. et Lyrani. iii. 1307. Lugd. 1589.
The Jewish origin of Paul of Bur-
gos, who died A. D. 1435, made his
testimony particularly apposite. ] And
Scaliger de Emendat. Tempor. [536,
537- Scaliger however explains the
word tpyrvncayres not of the Hallelu-
jah Psalms, but of a short parting
hymn, of which he gives the form
from the Talmud. But he subjoins
this testimony, not without its value
in Hooker’s argument, proceeding
as it does from a great favourite of
the Puritans. “Si Christus, ut qui-
“dam hostes bonarum Iterarum
* pertendunt, non obstrinxit se ri-
“tibus Judeorum; quare igitur
“omnia hic fiunt, que in Rituali
** Judaico extant? Quare omnia
* simillima sunt? Et tamen illis
“ Criticis videtur impium, Christum
** illis legibus obnoxium facere,”’ &c.
Compare also Lightf. ii. 258.]

BOOK V.
Ch. xxvi. 3.

BOOK V.
Ch. xxvii. 1.

Of them
who allow-
ing a set
Form of
Prayer, yet.
allow not
ours.

124 A Inturgy proposed by the Puritans.

speak of saying, “I will pray and sing with the Spirit28 :”
again, “in psalms, hymns, and songs, making melody unto
“the Lord, and that heartily 29.”
such kinds of prayer as are not wont to be conceived upon a
sudden, but are framed by meditation beforehand, or else

Hymns and psalms are ©

by prophetical illumination are inspired, as at that time it —

appeareth they were when God by extraordinary gifts of the
Spirit enabled men to all parts of service necessary for the
edifying of his Church®°, |

XXVII. Now albeit the Admonitioners did seem at the
first to allow no prescript form of prayer at all2!, but thought
it the best that their minister should always be left at liberty
to pray as his own discretion did serve; yet because this

opinion upon better advice they afterwards retracted, their

defender and his associates have sithence proposed to the
world a form such as themselves like3?, and to shew their

dislike of ours, have taken against it those exceptions, which ©

whosoever doth measure by number, must needs be greatly
out of love with a thing that hath so many faults; whosoever

by weight, cannot choose but esteem very highly of that, —
wherein the wit of so scrupulous adversaries hath not hitherto —
observed any defect which themselves can seriously think to
be of moment. “Gross errors and manifest impiety” they —

28 x Cor. xiv. 15.

29 Ephes. v. I9.

30 [Compare Mede’s Works, i. 59.
ed. 1672, in which “prophesying”
in the first Epistle to the Corinthians
is explained to “ mean praising God
** in Psalms and Hymns.”’}

81 [Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 488.
‘‘'Then ministers were not so tied
**to any form of prayers invented
“* by man, but as the Spirit moved
‘* them, so they poured forth hearty
‘“* supplications to the Lord. Now
* they are bound of necessity toa
i eb order of service, and
** book of Common Prayer.” See
also Second Admonition, 38. But
in “ Certain Articles,” &c. (printed
the same year in defence of the Ad-
monition,) p. 4, they say, “There is
*‘no such thing meant, that there
*‘ should be none at all, but that
“this of theirs ought not to be

“‘ tolerated. A form of prayers they —

“deny not.” And T. C. i. 105.
‘“* We agree of a prescript form of
‘* prayer to be used in the Church.”
See also Whitg. Def. 782. ]

32 [It appears from Strype, Whitg. —

i. 347, 487, and in 1584 and 1586

attempts were made in Parliament —

to obtain sanction for ‘The Form
*‘ of Prayers and Administration of
*‘ the Sacraments used in the Eng-

‘* lish Church at Geneva: approved —

“‘and received by the Church of
** Scotland.” Which Book is for

the most part reprinted in the Phoe- —

nix, ii. 204, &c. It was first printed
in Latin, 1556, by the exiles at
Geneva, with Calvin’s approbation.
Strype, Mem. iii. 538. Bancroft,
Sermon at Paul’s Cross, p. 53, says,
** About four years since” (from
1588) “some two or three private

ee a ee ae ee ee,

an

¢* men in a corner framed a book of —

Small Amount of Exceptions to the Church Prayers. 125

grant we have “ taken away*.” Yet many things in it they
say are amiss®4; many instances they give of things in our
common prayer not agreeable as they pretend with the word
of God. It hath in their eye too great affinity with the form
of the Church of Rome; it differeth too much from that
which churches elsewhere reformed allow and observe; our
attire disgraceth it; it is not orderly read nor gestured as
beseemeth: it requireth nothing to be done which a child
may not lawfully do; it hath a number of short cuts or
shreddings which may be better called wishes than prayers ;
it intermingleth prayings and readings, in such manner as if
supplicants should use in proposing their suits unto mortal
princes, all the world would judge them mad; it is too long
and by that mean abridgeth preaching; it appointeth the
people to say after the minister; it spendeth time in singing
and in reading the Psalms by course from side to side; it
useth the Lord’s Prayer too oft; the songs of Magnificat,
Benedictus, and Nune Dimittis, it might very well spare ;
it hath the Litany, the Creed of Athanasius, and Gloria
Patri, which are superfluous; it craveth earthly things too
much; for deliverance from those evils against which we
pray it giveth no thanks; some things it asketh unseasonably
when they need not to be prayed for, as deliverance from
thunder and tempest when no danger is nigh; some in too
abject and diffident manner, as that God would give us that
which we for our unworthiness dare not ask; some which
ought not to be desired, as the deliverance from sudden
death, riddance from all adversity, and the extent of saving

* the form of Common Prayer, Ad-
* ministration of the Sacraments,
* 8c. and without any authority
** published the same, as meet to be
*‘embraced and used in all the
al ine churches in England....
“The next year another Book of
“Common Prayer, &c. with like
** authority was cast abroad ... with
** not so few as 600 alterations ....
** Within another year a third book
*“is begotten and botighi forth.” ]

83 ['T. C. i. 102. al. 131. ]

” T. C. ‘lib. 1." p, 138. [106,]
Whereas Mr. Doctor affirmeth,

** that there can be nothing shewed
in the whole book, which is not
** agreeable unto the word of God;
** T am very loth,” &c. ‘* Notwith-
* standing, my duty of defending
*‘ the truth, and love which I have
** first towards God, and then to-
“ wards my country, constraineth
** me being thus provoked to speak
‘a few words more particularly of
** the form of prayer, that when the
“blemishes thereof do appear, it
** may please the Queen’s Majesty,
*‘ and her honourable council, with
** those of the parliament,” &c.

BOOK V.

Ch, xxvii. 1.

BOOK V.

Ch, xxvii. 2.

126

Cases in which the Example of Rome

mercy towards all men. These and such like are the imper- |
fections, whereby our form of common prayer is thought to —

swerve from the word of God.

A great favourer of that part, but yet (his error that way
excepted) a learned, a painful, a right virtuous and a good —
man did not fear sometime to undertake, against popish —
detractors, the general maintenance and defence of our whole —
church service, as having in it nothing repugnant to the word —

of God35,

And even they which would file away most from —

the largeness of that offer, do notwithstanding in more sparing

terms acknowledge little less.

For when those opposite

-
;

judgments which never are wont to construe things doubtful
to the better, those very tongues which are always prone to —
ageravate whatsoever hath but the least show whereby it may _
be suspected to savour of or to sound towards any evil, do by

their own voluntary sentence clearly free us from “ gross —

“ errors,” and from “ manifest impiety” herein; who would —
not judge us to be discharged of all blame, which are con- —
fessed to have no great fault even by their very word and
testimony, in whose eyes no fault of ours hath ever hitherto

been accustomed to seem small ? .

[2.] Nevertheless what they seem to offer us with the one
hand, the same with the other they pull back again. They
grant we err not in palpable manner, we are not openly and —

35 [«« Of this book a certain learned
“man” (marg. Dering) “ writing
** against M. Harding, uttereth these
** words by way of challenge: ‘ Our
* service is good and godly; every
* tittle grounded on holy Scripture :
** and with what face do you call it
*‘ darkness? Surely with the same
“that the prophecies of the Holy
“Ghost were sometimes called
“‘ dreams, the doctrine of the Apo-
** stles, heresy, andourSaviour Christ
“a Samaritan. As Elias said to the
«© Priests of Baal, let us take either
** our bullocks (meaning the Pope’s
** portuise, and our Common Prayer
** Book) and lay the pieces on our
* altars, and on which God sendeth
* his fire, let that be the light.” And
“a little before, ‘O M. Harding,
“turn to your writings, examine
* your authors, consider your coun-

“ cils, apply your examples; look if

‘* any line be blameable in our Ser-

* vice book; I think M. Jewel will ©
* accept it as an Article.”” Ban-
croft, Sermon at Paul’s Cross, 1588.

p. 48. The book from which he
quotes is “A sparing Restraint of
** many lavish Untruths, which Mr. —
“ D. Harding doth challenge in the —
* first Article of my Lord of Saris- —
“ bury’s Reply, 1568.” Whitgift, —
Defence, 49% refers to the same —
passage. Of Dering, see Strype, —
Parker, ii. 174, 240, 265, 377; Ann. —
ii, 1.282, 400; Life of Hooker, supr.
p- 35; vol.i. Part of his “ Readings on
* the Ep. to the Hebrews,” (Strype,
Park. ii. 177.) as also some prayers
of his, were selected to be read to
Dr. Reynolds on his death-bed; as
appears by a letter in Fulm. MSS.
ix. 123. ]

ete A: > Gere

ee

is rather to be followed than that of Geneva. 127

notoriously impious; yet errors we have which the sharp BOOK V
insight of their wisest men doth espy, there is hidden impiety .,
which the profounder sort are able enough to disclose. Their”
skilful ears perceive certain harsh and unpleasant discords in
the sound of our common prayer, such as the rules of divine
harmony, such as the laws of God cannot bear.

XXVIII. Touching our conformity with the church of The Form

Rome, as also of the difference between some reformed Estes

churches and ours, that which generally hath been already near the
° ° . Papists,
answered may serve for answer to that exception which in too far dif.

these two respects they take particularly against the form ao ‘dee

of our common prayer. To say that in nothing they may be other re-
followed which are of the church of Rome were violent and ae

extreme. Some things they do in that they are men, in that as they
they are wise men and Christian men some things, some P"@t?*
things in that they are men misled and blinded with error.

As far as they follow reason and truth, we fear not to tread

the selfsame steps wherein they have gone, and to be their
followers. Where Rome keepeth that which is ancienter and
better, others whom we much more affect leaving it for newer

and changing it for worse; we had rather follow the perfec-

tions of them whom we like not, than in defects resemble

them whom we love.

[2.] For although they profess they agree with us touching
a prescript form of prayer to be used in the church*6,” yet
in that very form which they say is “ agreeable to God’s word
“and the use of reformed churches$7,” they have by special
protestation declared, that their meaning is not it shall be
prescribed as a thing whereunto they will tie their minister.
« Tt shall not” (they say) “be necessary for the minister
* daily to repeat all these things before-mentioned, but begin-
“ning with some like confession to proceed to the sermon,
* which ended, he ether useth the prayer for all states before-
“ mentioned, or else prayeth as the Spirit of God shall move
“ his heart88,” Herein therefore we hold it much better with
the church of Rome to appoint a prescript form which every

86 TC. lib.i. p. 135. [106.] 88 [See ‘The Form of Common

87 A Book of the Form of Com- “ Prayer used by the English at
mon Prayer tendered to the Parlia- ‘* Geneva,” &c. in Phoenix, ii. 219.]
ment, p. 46, |

BOOK V.

Ch. xxviii. 3.

xxix.1.

Attire be-
longing to
the service
of God.

128 Attire of Ministers in Time of Service.

man shall be bound to observe, than with them to set down
a kind of direction, a form for men to use if they list, or
otherwise to change as pleaseth themselves.
[3.] Furthermore, the church of Rome hath rightly also”
considered, that public prayer is a duty entire in itself, a duty
requisite to be performed much oftener than sermons can
possibly be made. For which cause, as they, so we have like-
wise a public form how to serve God both morning and
evening, whether sermons may be had or no. On the contrary
side, their form of reformed prayer sheweth only what shall
be done “upon the days appointed for the preaching of
“the word 89;” with what words the minister shall begin,
« when the hour appointed for the sermon is come?®;” what
shall be said or sung before sermon, and what after. So that,
according to this form of theirs, it must stand for a rule, “ No
“sermon, no service.” Which oversight occasioned the
French spitefully to term religion in that sort exercised a mere
* preach!” Sundry other more particular defects there are,
which I willingly forbear to rehearse, in consideration whereof
we cannot be induced to prefer their reformed form of prayer
before our own, what church soever we resemble therein. |
XXIX. The attire+? which the minister of God is by ordér
to use at times of divine service being but a matter of mere
formality, yet such as for comeliness-sake hath hitherto been
judged by the wiser sort of men not unnecessary to concur
with other sensible notes betokening the different kind or quality
of persons and actions whereto it is tied: as we think not
ourselves the holier because we use it, so neither should they
with whom no such thing is in use think us therefore unholy,

because we submit ourselves unto that, which in a matter sO

: Page 22, “ to wear.” p. 75. [55.] “It is easily
40 Page 24. ** seen by see Eccles, ix. 8,
41 [E. g. Spon, Hist. ae Geneve, “ that to wear a white garment was

1, Jaa "Prana que chacun fat
“en liberté pour la Messe et pour la
* Préche.”” Dict. de PAcad. voc.
Préche. ‘Se rendre au Préche,’

* «quitter la Préche,’ embrasser la

** religion protestante, ou la quit-

ee ter. 3?
42 T.C. lib. i. p. 71. [51.] “We
* think the sunpliia especially un-

** meet for a minister of the Gospel

** greatly esteemed in the east parts,
“and was ordinary to those that
** were in any estimation, as black
“with us: and therefore was no
‘* several apparel for the ministers to-
*‘ execute their ministry in.” [See
Adm. ap. Whitg. 281... 3, 286, |

292, 3, 5. Answ.149, 290, ‘&e. T. 0.1

i. 52, &e. Def. 256, &e. T. C. ii.

402... 464. ili. 242. |

— Attire of Mimsters in Time of Service justified. 129

indifferent the wisdom of authority and law hath thought
-eomely. To solemn actions of royalty and justice their suitable
ornaments are a beauty. Are they only in religion a stain?

BOOK V.

Ch, xxix, 2.

[2.] “ Divine religion,” saith St. Jerome, (he speaketh of

the priestly attire of the Law,) “hath one kind of habit
wherein to minister before the Lord, another for ordinary
uses belonging unto common lifes.” Pelagius having
| carped at the curious neatness of men’s apparel in those days,
and through the sourness of his disposition spoken somewhat
too hardly thereof, affirming that “the glory of clothes and
“ornaments was a thing contrary to God and godliness*¢ ;”
St. Jerome, whose custom is not to pardon over easily his
adversaries if any where they chance to trip, presseth him as
thereby making all sorts of men in the world God’s enemies.
“Ts it enmity with God” (saith he) “if I wear my coat some-
“what handsome? Jf a Bishop, a Priest, a Deacon, and the
rest of the ecclesiastical order come to administer the usual
“sacrifice in a white garment*, are they hereby God’s adver-
© saries ? Clerks, Monks, Widows, Virgins, take heed, it is
' dangerous for you to be otherwise seen than in foul and
'“yagoed clothes. Not to speak any thing of secular men,
'“ which are proclaimed to have war with God, as oft as ever
-“they put on precious and shining clothes.” By which
‘words of Jerome we may take it at the least for a probable
‘collection that his meaning was to draw Pelagius into hatred,
as condemning by so general a speech even the neatness of
that very garment itself, wherein the clergy did then use
‘to administer publicly the holy Sacrament of Christ’s most
blessed Body and Blood. For that they did then use
some such ornament, the words of Chrysostom‘® give plain

43 Hieron. in xliv. Ezech. [t. v.
668. ‘Religio divina alterum ha-
© bitum habet in ministerio, alterum

‘in usu vitaque communi.’’}

44 Hieron. adver. Pelag. lib. i. c.
g. [t. ii. 274.“ Adjungis, gloriam
- © vestium et ornamentorum Deo esse
“contrariam. Que sunt, rogo,
* inimicitie contra Deum, si tuni-
** cam habuero mundiorem: si Epi-
'“ scopus, Presbyter, et Diaconus, et
“reliquus ordo ecclesiasticus in
** administratione sacrificiorum can-
*‘dida veste processerint? Cavete

HOOKER, VOL. Il.

* clerici, cavete monachi, viduz et
*‘ virgines: periclitamini, nisi sor-
** didas vos atque pannosas vulgus
*‘ aspexerit. ‘Taceo de hominibus
** seeculi, quibus aperte bellum in-
* dicitur, et inimicitiz contra Deum,
si pretiosis atque nitentibus utan-
** tur exuviis.”’ ]

45 T.C. lib.i. p.77. [57.] “ By
** awhite garment is meant a comely
‘* apparel, and not slovenly.”

46 Chrysost.. ad Popul. Antioch.
tom. v. serm. 60. [in 8. Mat. Hom.
82, t.1i.515. Od yap pixpa kKddaots

K

BOOK V.

Ch. xxix. 3.

130 The Fathers’ Testimony to Ministerial Attire :

testimony, who speaking to the clergy of Antioch, telleth them
that if they did suffer notorious malefactors to come to the
Table of our Lord and not put them by, it would be as heavily
revenged upon them, as if themselves had shed his blood;
that for this purpose God hath called them to the rooms which
they held in the church of Christ; that this they should reckon
was their dignity, this their safety, this their whole crown and
glory ; and therefore this they should carefully intend, and not
when the Sacrament is administered imagine themselves called
only to walk up and down in a white and shining garment.

[3.] Now whereas these speeches of Jerome and Chryso-
stom do seem plainly to allude unto such ministerial garments
as were then in use, to this they answer, that by Jerome
nothing can be gathered but only that the ministers came
to church in handsome holyday apparel, and that himself
did not think them bound by the law of God to go like
slovens, but the weed which we mean he defendeth not; that
Chrysostom meaneth indeed the same which we defend*7, a
seemeth rather to reprehend than to allow it as we do. Which
answer wringeth out of Jerome and Chrysostom that which
their words will not gladly yield. They both speak of the
same persons, namely the Clergy; and of their weed at the

of the selfsame kind of weed, a white garment, so far as we
have wit to conceive; and for any thing we are able to see,
their manner of speech is not such as doth argue either the
thing itself to be different whereof they speak, or their judg=

tpiv eoriv, et rin ouveddres twa
movnpiay, ovyxepnonte peracxew
TavTns THs Tpame(ns, Ott TO aipa
avTovU €k TaY XELpav TOV bpeTéepov
ex(qtnOnoerat. Kav oTpatnyds TLS 7,
Kay Umapxos, Kav abros 6 ro diddnua
meptkeipevos, avagiws S€ mpocin, ka-
Avoov. peifova éxeivov thy e€ovoiav
éxers. ov O€ ef pev mnynv vdaros
evexetpioOns pudarrew mouvio Ka-
Oapay, eita cides mpdBarov toddy emt
Tov ordpuartos pépoy Tov BépBopov, ovK
dy eiacas émixiypat kde, kai Ook@orat
Td peiOpov’ vuvi S€ ody Udaros, GAN
aivaros kal mvevparos myn éyke-
XEtptopévos, kal dpav rods BopBdpov
xXarer@répay dpyapriay éyovras Kat
mpoatdyras ovkK dyavakteis, ovde

dreipyeis; kal riva dy oxoins ovy=
yropnv; Sia rovro dyas 6 Oeds éri=
Bnoe TavTy TH Tin, va Ta ToLvadTa
Siaxpivnte. rovto tay 7 akia, TovTo
7 dopddea, Todro 6 oréehavos amas,
ovx tva evKdy ytT@MLCKOY Kal amo=
orihBovra trepiBadAdpevot mrepiinre. |

47 T.C. lib.i. p.45.[55.] “It is
** true, Chrysostom maketh mention
“of a white garment, but not im
** commendation of it, but rather to
*‘ the contrary, for he sheweth that
* the dignity of their ministry was in
“taking heed that none unmeet
“were admitted to the Lord’s
** Supper, not in going about the
* church with a white garment.” —

Judgment of Natural Piety on that Subject. 131

_ ments concerning it different ; although the one do only main-
tain it against Pelagius, as a thing not therefore unlawful,
because it was fair or handsome, and the other make it a
matter of small commendation in itself, if they which wear
_ it do nothing else but air the robes which their place requireth.
_ The honesty, dignity, and estimation of white apparel in the
eastern part of the world, is a token of greater fitness for this

sacred use, wherein it were not convenient that any thing
_basely thought of should be suffered. Notwithstanding I am
- not bent to stand stiffly upon these probabilities, that in
_ Jerome’s and Chrysostom’s time any such attire was made
several to this purpose. Yet surely the words of Solomon are
very impertinent to prove it an ornament therefore not several
for the ministers to execute their ministry in, because men of
eredit and estimation wore their ordinary apparel white. For
we know that when Solomon wrote those words, the several
apparel for the ministers of the Law to execute their ministry
in was such.

[4.] The wise man, which feared God from his heart, and
honoured the service that was done unto him, could not
mention so much as the garments of holiness but with effectual
_ signification of most singular reverence and love*s. Were it
not better that the love which men bear to God should make
the least things that are employed in his service amiable, than
that their overscrupulous dislike of so mean a thing as a
vestment should from the very service of God withdraw their
hearts and affections? I term it the rather a mean thing, a
_ thing not much to be respected, because even they so account
now of it, whose first disputations against it were such as
if religion had scarcely any thing of greater weight.

[5-] Their allegations were then, “That if a man were
assured to gain a thousand by doing that which may offend
« any one brother, or be unto him a cause of falling, he ought
“not to do it49; that this popish apparel, the surplice
© especially, hath been by papists abominably abused; that
« it hath been a mark and a very sacrament of abomination®! ;
« that remaining, it serveth as a monument of idolatry, and
* not only edifieth not, but as a dangerous and scandalous

- Eccles. xlv. 7. 50 Page 71. 182-4
T.C. lib. i. p. 79. [58.] 51 Page 75.[55-
K 2

BOOK V.
Ch, xxix. 4, 5.

182 Change of Tone im the Puritans on the Attire:

spook v. “ ceremony doth exceeding much harm to them of whose
Ch. xx: ¢ good we are commanded to have regard*2; that it causeth —
“ men to perish and make shipwreck of conscience ;” for so
themselves profess they mean, when they say the weak are
offended herewith*?; ‘that it hardeneth Papists, hindereth
“the weak from profiting in the knowledge of the Gospel,
«“ orieveth godly minds, and giveth them occasion to think |
“hardly of their ministers*+; that if the magistrate may
“ command, or the Church appoint rites and ceremonies, yet
“seeing our abstinence from things in their own na
“ indifferent if the weak brother should be offended is a flat
« commandment of the Holy Ghost, which no authority either
“of church or commonwealth can make void, therefore
“ neither may the one nor the other lawfully ordain this
“ceremony, which hath great incommodity and no profit,
“ oreat offence and no edifying>>; that by the Law it should
« have been burnt and consumed with fire as a thing infecte
“ with leprosy®®; that the example of Ezekias beating to
“powder the brazen serpent, and of Paul abrogating those
“abused feasts of charity, enforceth upon us the duty of
* abolishing altogether a thing which hath been and is so
offensive’; finally, that God by his Prophet hath given an_
“ express commandment, which in this case toucheth us no
* less than of old it did the Jews**. Ye shall pollute the
* covering of the images of silver, and the rich ornament
“ of your images of gold, and cast them away as a stained rag;
“ thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence59.” 4
These and such like were their first discourses touching
that church attire which with us for the most part is usual i 1
public prayer; our ecclesiastical laws so appointing, as well
because it hath been of reasonable continuance, and by special
choice was taken out of the number of those holy garments
which (over and besides their mystical reference) served fo:
“ comeliness” under the Law®, and is in the number of

52 Page 72. [52.] ** aque effusione purganda sed ignis
53 'T, C. li. 403. ‘* incendio consumenda,”’ |

54 T. C.i. 73.153.) 57 Page 78. [60. ]

55 Lib. i. 76. [56. ] ii. 403. 58 Isa, Xxx. 22.

6 [Decl. of Disc. transl. byT.C. . 59 [Adm. p. gr. al. 17. T.C. iii.
1og, and135. Also T.C.i.57; iii. 257.]
259. And Eccl. Dise. fol. 82, ror. 60 Exod. xxviii. 2; Xxxix. 27.
** Non abluenda sed cremenda, nec

Opinions of Bullinger and of Beza. 133

_ those ceremonies which may with choice and discretion be
used to that purpose in the Church of Christ; as also for that
it suiteth so fitly with that lightsome affection of joy, wherein
God delighteth when his saints praise him®!; and so lively
- resembleth the glory of the saints in heaven, together with the
beauty wherein Angels have appeared unto men®, that they
which are to appear for men in the presence of God as Angels,
if they were left to their own choice and would choose any,
- eould not easily devise a garment of more decency for such
a service.

[6.] As for those fore-rehearsed vehement allegations against
it, shall we give them credit when the very authors from
- whom they come confess they believe not their own sayings?
For when once they began to perceive how many both of them
in the two universities, and of others who abroad having
ecclesiastical charge do favour mightily their cause and by all
means set it forward, might by persisting in the extremity of
that opinion hazard greatly their own estates, and so weaken
that part which their places do now give them much oppor-
tunity to strengthen; they asked counsel as it seemeth from
some abroad®, who wisely considered that the body is of far

61 Psal. cxlix. 2.

62 Apoc. xv.6; Mark xvi. 5.

63 [In 1565, Sampson and Hum-
frey wrote to Bullinger and Gualter
at Zurich, and to Beza at Geneva, on
this subject. ‘Their answers, to the
effect here stated, may be found in
Strype, Ann. I. ii. 505, from Bul-
linger, May, 1566: and in the Life
of Grindal, 511, from Beza, Oct.
1507. Bullinger (p. 508.) says,
** Mirum sane mihi videtur (vestra
*‘ pace, viri ornatissimi, et fratres
“* charissimi, dixerim) quod vobis
* persuadetis, salva conscientia, vos
* et ecclesias servituti vestiariz sub-
** jicere se non posse ; et non potius
** expenditis, si re politica et indif-
* ferenti uti nolitis, et perpetuo con-
~ tendatis odiosius, cujusmodi servi-
* tuti et vos et ecclesias subjiciatis ;
** quod vestra statione cedentes lupis
“exponitis ecclesias, aut saltem
‘* parum idoneis doctoribus.” Beza
(having first endeavoured to stir up
the church of Zurich to a public in-
terference, Ann. I. ii. 522.) advises

as follows: ‘ Petitur etiam a nobis
*‘utrum istam in pileis et vestibus
** tum in communi usu tum in mini-
** sterii functione distinctionem pro-
* bemus .... Respondemus igitur
‘* ingenue, si ita res habent ut audi-
** mus, nobis videri pessime mereri
“* de Ecclesia Dei, et coram Christi
*¢ tribunali rationem hujus facti red-
“ dituros, qui sunt istius rei auc-
“ tores. .. . Sunt (dicet aliquis) res
‘* per se mediz. Concedimus sane
‘* ita esse, si per se considerentur.
“Sed quis illas ita considerabit?
** Nam qui Papiste sunt, quicquid
*‘ lex civilis pretexat, sane hac ra-
** tione in sua superstitione invete-
*‘ rata confirmantur. Qui cceperunt
** superstitiones eo usque detestari,
‘* ut etiam illarum vestigia coeperint
** execrari, quantopere offenduntur !
* Qui melius sunt instituti, quem
*‘fructum inde percipient? Anne
*‘ vero tanti est ista distinctio, ut
** propterea tam multorum consci-
‘* entias perturbari oporteat, repetita
*‘ videlicet ab ipsis manifestis et

BOOK Vv.

Ch. xxix. 6.

BOOK V.

Ch, xxix. 6.

134 Change of Tone in the Puritans on the Attire:

more worth than the raiment. Whereupon for fear of dan-
gerous inconveniences, it hath been thought good to add, that
sometimes authority “must and may with good conscience be
“ obeyed, even where commandment is not given upon good
« ground® ;” that “the duty of preaching is one of the
“ absolute commandments of God, and therefore ought not
“ to be forsaken for the bare inconvenience of a thing which
“in its own nature is indifferent ;” that® “one of the foulest
spots in the surplice is the offence which it giveth in occa-
“sioning the weak to fall and the wicked to be confirmed
“in their wickedness,” yet hereby there is no unlawfulness
proved, but “ only an inconveniency” that such things should
be established, howbeit no such imconveniency neither “as
“ may not be borne with ;” that when God doth flatly com=
mand us to abstain from things in their own nature indifferent
if they offend our weak brethren, his meaning is not we
should obey his commandment herein, unless we may do it
« and not leave undone that which the Lord hath absolutely

“ commanded®7.” Always provided that whosoever will enjoy ;

*juratis sanz doctrine hostibus
‘‘ istius distinctionis ratione? Quid
** quod ex iis qui Ecclesiastici vo-
“cantur non minima pars dicitur
*‘adhuc Papismum in pectore ges-
“tare? An isti vero in melius
** proficient, restituto hoc habitu,
“ac non potius instaurandi quoque
‘* ipsius Papismi spe cristas erigent ?
**, .. Quid ergo, inquiunt fratres,
“nobis quibus ista obtruduntur
“fatiendum censetis? Responde-
** mus distinctione hic opus esse;
*‘alia enim est ministrorum alia
** sregis conditio. Deinde possunt
“ac etiam debent multa tolerari
% bt tamen rectenon precipiuntur.
** Itaque primum respondemus, etsi
“nostro quidem judicio non recte
“ revehuntur in Ecclesiam, tamen
“cum non sint ex earum rerum
** genere, qua per se impie sunt,
“non videri nobis illas tanti mo-
‘* menti, ut propterea vel pastoribus
‘* deserendum sit potius ministerium
** quam ut vestes illas assumant, vel
“ gregibus omittendum publicum
** pabulum, potius quam ita vestitos
** pastores audiant. Tantum, ut et

‘* pastores et greges in conscientia
** non peccent, (modo salva sit doc-
** trine ipsius sive dogmatum puri-
*‘tas,) suademus pastoribus, ut
** postquam et coram Regia Majes-
** tate et apud episcopos suas con-
** scientias modesta quidem (sicut
** Christianos ab omni tumultu et
** seditione alienos decet) et tamen
‘ gravi, prout rei magnitudo requi-
*¢ rit, obtestatione liberarint ; aperte
** quidem apud suos greges ea in-
*culcent, que ad tollendum hoc
** offendiculum pertinent, et in isto-
“rum etiam abusuunt emendatio-
“nem, prudenter simul ac placide,
** prout occasionem offeret Dominus,
*incumbant: sed ista tamen que
** mutare non possunt ferant potius
* quam ecclesias ob eam causam
** deserendo majoribus et periculo-
* sioribus malis occasionem Satane
“ nihil aliud querenti prebeant.”
Tract. Theol. iii. 219. ] ;
64 T. C. lib. i. p. 74. [54.] et lib.
iii. Pe. 250; Index, lib. iii. c. 8. 7
T. C. iii. 262. 66 Thid. 263.

67 Lib. iii. p. 263. ;

Their Arguments refuted by their own Practice. 135

- the benefit of this dispensation to wear a scandalous badge of
- idolatry, rather than forsake his pastoral charge, do “as occa-
- sion serveth teach” nevertheless still “ the incommodity of
_ “the thing itself, admonish the weak brethren that they be
_ not, and pray unto God so to strengthen them that they
_ may not be offended thereat®’.” So that whereas before
_ they which had authority to institute rites and ceremonies
_ were denied to have power to institute this, it is now confessed
_ that this they may also “lawfully” but not so “ conveniently”
- appoint; they did well before and as they ought, who had it

in utter detestation and hatred, as a thing abominable, they
now do well which think it may be both borne and used with
a very good conscience; before, he which by wearing it were
sure to win thousands unto Christ ought not to do it if there
were but one which might be offended, now though it be with
the offence of thousands, yet it may be done. rather than that
should be given over whereby notwithstanding we are not
certain we shall gain one: the examples of Ezekias and of
Paul, the charge which was given to the Jews by Esay, the
strict apostolical prohibition of things indifferent whensoever
they may be scandalous, were before so forcible laws against
our ecclesiastical attire, as neither church nor commonwealth
eould possibly make void ; which now one of far less authority
than either hath found how to frustrate, by dispensing with
the breach of inferior commandments, to the end that the
greater may be kept.

[7.] But it booteth them not thus to soder up a broken
cause, whereof their first and last discourses will fall asunder
do what they can. Let them ingenuously confess that their
invectives were too bitter, their arguments too weak, the
matter not so dangerous as they did imagine. If those alleged
testimonies of Scripture did indeed concern the matter to such
effect as was pretended, that which they should infer were
unlawfulness, because they were cited as prohibitions of that
thing which indeed they concern. If they prove not our attire
unlawful because in truth they concern it not, it followeth
that they prove not any thing against it, and consequently not
so much as uncomeliness or inconveniency. Unless therefore
they be able thoroughly to resolve themselves that there is no

68 Page 263.

BOOK V.

Ch. xxix. 7.

BOOK V.
Ch. xxix. 7.

1386 Absurdity of wearing the Atture with a Protest :

one sentence in all the Scriptures of God which doth control
the wearing of it in such manner and to such purpose as the
church of England alloweth; unless they can fully rest and
settle their minds in this most sound persuasion, that they are -
not to make themselves the only competent judges of decency
in these cases, and to despise the solemn judgment of the
whole Church, preferring before it their own conceit, grounded -
only upon uncertain suspicions and fears, whereof if there |
were at the first some probable cause when things were but —
raw and tender, yet now very tract of time hath itself worn |
that out also; unless I say thus resolved in mind they hold ©
their pastoral charge with the comfort of a good conscience,
no way grudging at that which they do, or doing that which |
they think themselves bound of duty to reprove, how should —
it possibly help or further them in their course to take such
occasions as they say are requisite to be taken, and in pensive
manner to tell their audience, ‘‘ Brethren, our hearts’ desire
“is that we might enjoy the full liberty of the Gospel as in
“* other reformed churches they do elsewhere, upon whom the
“ heavy hand of authority hath imposed no grievous burden.
“ But such is the misery of these our days, that so great
“< happiness we cannot look to attain unto. Were it so, that
* the equity of the Law of Moses could prevail, or the zeal of
«« Hizekias be found in the hearts of those guides and governors
“ under whom we live; or the voice of God’s own prophets
“be duly heard; or the example of the Apostles of Christ be
“ followed, yea or their precepts be answered with full and
“ perfect obedience: these abominable rags, polluted gar-
* ments, marks and sacraments of idolatry, which power as
* you see constraineth us to wear and conscience to abhor,
« had long ere this day been removed both out of sight and out
“ of memory. But as now things stand, behold to what narrow
“ straits we are driven. On the one side we fear the words
“ of our Saviour Christ, ‘Wo be to them by whom scandal
“and offence cometh;’ on the other side at the Apostle’s
“ speech we cannot but quake and tremble, ‘ If I preach not
“the Gospel wo be unto me.’ Being thus hardly beset, we
* see not any other remedy but to hazard your souls the
“ one way, that we may the other way endeavour to save
“them. Touching the offence of the weak therefore, we must

Bias of the Foreign Reformers on that Question. 1387

“adventure it. If they perish, they perish. . Our pastoral Booxv.
charge is God’s absolute commandment. Rather than that
“ shall be taken from us, we are resolved to take this filth
and to put it on, although we judge it to be so unfit and
_ © inconvenient, that as oft as ever we pray or preach so arrayed
before you, we do as-much as in us lieth to cast away your
souls that are weak-minded, and to bring you unto endless
“ perdition. But we beseech you brethren have care of your
© own safety, take heed to your steps that ye be not taken in
' “those snares which we lay before you. And our prayer
in your behalf to Almighty God is, that the poison which
“ we offer you may never have the power to do you harm.”
[8.] Advice and counsel is best sought for at their hands
which either have no part at all in the cause whereof they
instruct, or else are so far engaged that themselves are to bear
the greatest adventure in the success of their own counsels.
The one of which two considerations maketh men the less
respective, and the other the more circumspect. Those good
and learned men which gave the first direction to this course
had reason to wish that their own proceedings at home might
be favoured abroad also, and that the good affection of such
as inclined towards them might be kept alive. But if them-
selves had gone under those sails which they require to be
hoisted up, if they had been themselves to execute their own
theory in this church, I doubt not but easily they would have
seen being nearer at hand, that the way was not good which
they took of advising men, first to wear the apparel, that
thereby they might be free to continue their preaching, and
then of requiring them so to preach as they might be sure
they could not continue, except they imagine that laws which
permit them not to do as they would, will endure them to
speak as they list even against that which themselves do by
constraint of laws; they would have easily seen that our
people being accustomed to think evermore that thing evil
which is publicly under any: pretence reproved, and the men
themselves worse which reprove it and use it too, it should
be to little purpose for them to salve the wound by making
protestations in disgrace of their own actions, with plain
acknowledgment that they are scandalous, or by using fair
entreaty with the weak brethren; they would easily have

|

BOOK V.

Ch, xxx. I, 2.

Of Gesture
in praying
and of d
ferent
Places
chosen to
that pur-
pose.

138 St. Basil a better Adviser than Beza.

seen how with us it cannot be endured to hear a man openly
profess that he putteth fire to his neighbour’s house, but yet _
so halloweth the same with prayer that he hopeth it shall not

burn. It had been therefore perhaps safer and better for ours —
to have observed St. Basil’s advice ® both in this and in all

things of like nature: “ Let him which approveth not his

“‘ governors’ ordinances either plainly (but privately always) —
“shew his dislike if he have Adyov icxvpdv, strong and

“invincible reason against them, according to the true will

“and meaning of Scripture; or else let him quietly with

“silence do what is enjoined.” Obedience with professed”

unwillingness to obey is no better than manifest disobe-

dience.

XXX. Having thus disputed whether the surplice be a fit
garment to be used in the service of God, the next question
whereunto we are drawn is, whether it be a thing allowable
or no that the minister should say service in the chancel, or
turn his face at any time from the people, or before servi
ended remove from the place where it was begun7°. By them
which trouble us with these doubts we would more willingly
be resolved of a greater doubt ; whether it be not a kind of
taking God’s name in vain to debase religion with such frivo-"
lous disputes, a sin to bestow time and labour about them. ©
Things of so mean regard and quality, although necessary
to be ordered, are notwithstanding very unsavoury when
they come to be disputed of: because disputation presup=
poseth some difficulty in the matter which is argued, whereas’
in things of this nature they must be either very simple or
very froward who need to be taught by disputation what
is meet.

[2.] When we make profession of our faith, we stand 5
when we acknowledge our sins, or seek unto God for favour,
we fall down: because the gesture of constancy becometh us
best in the one, in the other the behaviour of humility. Some
parts of our liturgy consist in the reading of the word of God, |

69 Basil. Ascet. Respons. ad In- xp? pavepas 7) 7 idia aire GvTide yew, .
terrog. 47. [in later editions called et rwa éxou Adyov 7 toxupov kara TO
** Regule fusius tractate.” t. ii. p. Bothnpa Tov ypapar, i) cLannoavTa
493. Paris. 1618; t. li. p. 393. ed. TO mpoaTeraypevoy moteiy. |
Bened. Tov py karadexdpevov Ta 70 T. C. lib. i. p. 134. [105. See
rape ToU mpoect@ros eyxpiOevra, hereafter, p, na q

Of Gesture, and Change of Place, m divine Service. 189

and the proclainiing of his law, that the people may thereby
learn what their duties are towards him; some consist in
words of praise and thanksgiving, whereby we acknowledge
unto God what his blessings are towards us; some are such
as albeit they serve to singular good purpose even when there
is no communion administered, nevertheless being devised at
the first for that purpose are at the table of the Lord for that
cause also commonly read; some are uttered as from the
people, some as with them unto God, some as from God unto
them, all as before his sight whom we fear, and whose
presence to offend with any the least unseemliness we would
be surely as loth as they who most reprehend or deride that
we do7!,

[3-] Now because the Gospels which are weekly read do
all historically declare something which our Lord Jesus
Christ himself either spake, did, or suffered, in his own
person, it hath been the custom of Christian men then
especially in token of the greater reverence to stand72, to
utter certain words of acclamation7?, and at the name of

Jesus to bow74.

71 'T. C. lib. i. p. 203. [163.]

* [x Admon. p. 14. ed. 1617.

** Now the people sit, and now they
* stand up: when the Old Testa-
** ment is read, or the lessons, they
** make no reverence, but when the
“‘ Gospel cometh then they all stand
“up, for why? they think that to
“be of greatest authority, and are
* ignorant that the Scriptures came
** from one Spirit.” To which their
marginal note is, “ Standing at the
** Gospel came from Anastasius the
* Pope, in anno 404.” But in the
Apostolical Constitutions, which are
quoted by S. Epiphanius, who died
403, we read, “Orav dvaywackdpevov
TO evayyévov, mautes of mpeaBv-
Tepot, Kal oi Oidkovot, kat mas of Auds
OTHKeTMTAY peTa TOAARS Hovxias;

Lib. ii. c. 57: see Cotelerius in loc.

The Decretal Epistle of Anastasius,
which the Admonitioners quote, is
spurious. And were it genuine, it
proves nothing against the antiquity
of the practice which it recommends :
being in fact an admonition that the

Which harmless ceremonies as there is xo

clergy as well as others should stand
** venerabiliter curvi” when the Gos-
pels are read, “‘and give attentive
** hearing to the words of our Lord.”
See Concil. ii. 1191. ]

73 [The Liturgy under the name
of §. Chrysostom, of which the pro-
bable date is the fourth century,
(Palmer, Orig. Lit. i. 79,) directs
that after the title of the Gospel has
been given out, the people should
respond, “‘ Glory to Thee, O Lord,
“ Glory to Thee.”

74 [By Injunction, 1 Eliz. (ap.
Collier, Eccl. Hist. t. ii. 433.) “‘ The
** customary reverences in churches
“were ordered to he continued.
* For instance, where the name of
“« Jesus was pronounced, all persons
** were to bow, or shew some other
** suitable mark of respect.”” Adm.
ap. Wh. Def. 739. ‘‘ When Jesus
“is named, then of goeth the cap,
** and downe goeth the knee, wyth
“ suche a scraping on the grounde,
“that they cannot heare a good
“‘ while after, so that the word is

BOOK V.
Ch. xxx. 4.

140 Puritan Exceptions to certain Ceremonies ;

man constramed to use ; so we know no reason wherefore any
man should yet imagine it an unsufferable evil. It sheweth
a reverend regard to the Son of God above other messen-
gers75, although speaking as from God also. And against
infidels, Jews, Arians, who derogate from the honour of
Jesus Christ, such ceremonies are most profitable7®. As for
any erroneous “ estimation?7,” advancing the Son “ above the
« Father and the Holy Ghost,” seeing that the truth of his
equality with them is a mystery so hard for the wits of
mortal men to rise unto, of all heresies that which may give
him superiority above them is least to be feared.

[4.] But to let go this as a matter scarce worth the speaking
of, whereas if fault be in these things any where justly found,
law hath referred the whole disposition and redress thereof to
the ordinary of the place; they which elsewhere complain
that disgrace and “ injury78” is offered even to the meanest
parish minister, when the magistrate appointeth him what to
wear, and leaveth not so small a matter as that to his own
discretion, being presumed a man discreet and trusted with
the care of the people’s souls, do think the gravest prelates in
the land no competent judges to discern and appoint where it
is fit for the minister to stand, or which way convenient to

look praying 79.

*“‘hindred; but when other names
** of God are mentioned, they make
*‘no curtesie at all, as ‘though the
** names of God were not equal; or
‘as though all reverence ought to
“ be given to = syllables.”’ |

75 Mark xii.

76 [ Whitg. Det ae “ One rea-
« son that moved Christians in the
** beginning the rather to bow at
“the name of Jesus than at any
*‘ other name of God, was because
“this name was most hated and
‘most contemned of the wicked
“ Jews and other persecutors of
** such as professed the name of
¢ Jesus.’

77 'T. C. lib. iii. p. 21g. [and i.

Oh 9.0, lib. i. p. 74. [al. 54.
** Whatsoever apparel it be, this
** commandment cannot be without
** some injury done to the minister.

From their ordinary therefore they appeal

“For seeing that the magistrate
*‘ doth allow of him as of a wise,
“learned, and discreet man, and
« trusteth him with the government
*‘ of his people in matters between
*“ God and them, it were somewhat
“hard not to trust him with the
% Speen of his own apparel.’ ]
79 'T. C. lib. i. p. 134. [al. 105.

“ If it be further said that the book
“leaveth that to the discretion of
“the ordinary, and that he may
“reform it if there be any thing
“amniem:. ¥'s 72°V9 it is against reason
“ that the commodity and edifying
“of the Church should i
“upon one man... Besides..

** see by experience . . that if it ol
«lawful to commit such authority
“unto one man, yet that it is not
* safe to do so.” lib. iii. 187. [**The
* sum of his” (Whitgift’s) ‘* defence
“is, that the Bishop hath power to

why not answered in Detail.

141

to themselves, finding great fault that we neither reform the
thing against the which they have so long sithence given sen- ————
tence, nor yet make answer unto that they bring, which is
that8° St. Luke declaring how Peter stood up “in the midst
“ of the disciples,” did thereby deliver*! an “ unchangeable”
rule, that “ whatsoever” is done in the church “ ought to be

* order it to the most edification:
* wherein how unlawful it is that
“he alone should have the order
“‘ thereof, is before declared; and
* how dangerous it is, let the prac-
* tice in that point be judge.”’]

80 Acts i. 15.

81 T, C. lib. i. p. 134. [105.
«There is a third fault, which like-
“wise appeareth almost in the
‘whole body of this service and
“liturgy of England; and that is
* that the profit which might have
“* come by it unto the people is not
“reaped: whereof the cause is, for
*‘ that he which readeth is in some
*‘ places not heard and in the most
“places not understanded of the
* people, through the distance of
** place between the people and the
“ minister, so that a great part of
“the people cannot of knowledge
* tell whether he hath cursed them
*‘ or blessed them, whether he hath
‘read in Latin or in English; all
“the which riseth upon the words
*‘ of the book of service, which are
** that the minister should stand ‘in
** the accustomed place.’ For there-
** upon the minister in saying morn-
** ing and evening prayer sitteth in
the chancel with his back to the
“ people, as though he had some
“secret talk with God, which the
** people might not hear. And here-
“upon it is likewise, that after
*‘ morning prayer, for saying ano-
** ther number of prayers he climb-
* eth up to the further end of the
** chancel, and runneth as far from
‘* the people as the wall will let him,
as though there were some vari-
“ ance between the people and the
“‘ minister, or as though he were
afraid of some infection of plague.
© And indeed it reneweth the me-
*‘mory of the Levitical priesthood,
* which did withdraw himself from

“the people into the place called
** the holiest place, where he talked
*‘ with God, and offered for the sins
** of the people.

** Likewise for marriage he cometh
“back again into the body of the
** church, and for baptism unto the
‘church door; what comeliness,
“what decency, what edifying is
“this? Decency, I say, in running
** and trudging from place to place:
** edifying, in standing in that place,
*‘ and after that sort, where he can
** worst be heard and understanded.
** St. Luke sheweth that in the pri-
** mitive Church both the prayers
‘and preachings, and the whole
** exercise of religion, was done
* otherwise. For he sheweth how
** St. Peter sitting amongst the rest
** to the end he might be the better
** heard rose, and not that only, but
** that he stood in the midst of the
** people, that his voice might as
‘much as might be come indiffer-
“ently to all their ears, and so
** standing both prayed and preach-
“ed. Now if it be said, for the
** chapters and litany there is com-
** mandment given, that they should
** be read in the body of the church :
** indeed it is true, and thereof is
‘easily perceived this disorder,
‘* which is in saying the rest of the
“* prayers partly in the hither end
** and partly in the further end of
** the chancel. For seeing that those
** are read in the body of the church,
‘* that the people may both hear and
** understand what is read; what
** should be the cause why the rest
‘* should be read farther off? unless
‘it be that either those things are
** not to be heard of them, or at the
** least not so necessary for them to
** be heard as the other; which are
** recited in the body or midst of
** the church,”’]

BOOK V.

Ch. xxxi. 1.

142 Reading Prayers, though easy, requires mature Thought.

« done” in the midst of the church®?, and therefore not bap-
tism to be administered in one place, marriage solemnized in
another, the supper of the Lord received in a third, in a
fourth sermons, in a fifth prayers to be made; that the custom
which we use is Levitical, absurd, and such as hindereth the
understanding of the people; that if it be meet for the
minister at some time to look towards the people, if the body
of the church be a fit place for some part of divine service, it -
must needs follow that’ whensoever his face is turned any
other way, or any thing done any other where, it hath ab-
surdity. ‘ All these reasons*?” they say have been brought,
and were hitherto never answered; besides a number of
merriments and jests unanswered likewise, wherewith they
have pleasantly moved much laughter at our manner of
serving God. Such is their evil hap to play upon dull-
spirited men. We are still persuaded that a bare denial is”
answer sufficient to things which mere fancy objecteth; and
that the best apology to words of scorn and petulancy is”
Isaac’s apology to his brother Ishmael, the apology which
patience and silence maketh. Our answer therefore to their
reasons is no; to their scoffs nothing. |

Easiness of XX XI. When they object that our Book requireth nothing |

praying
after our
form.

to be done which a child may not do as “ lawfully and as well
“ ag that man wherewith the book contenteth itself 8+,” is it
their meaning that the service of God ought to be a matter of.
great difficulty, a labour which requireth great learning and

82 Lib. iii. p.187. [T. C. iii. 187.
“The place of St. Luke” (Acts 1.
1s.) ‘is an unchangeable rule to
“‘ teach, that all that which is done
“in the church ought to be done
“‘ where it may be best heard.”

83 [T. C. iii. 186. ‘To all these
“reasons he answereth nothing
* worth the naming.”]

84 T, C. lib. i. p. 133. [104.] et
lib. iii. p.184. ‘ Another fault in
“the whole service or liturgy of
« England is, for that it maintaineth
“an unpreaching ministry, in re-
“quiring nothing to be done by
“the minister which a child of ten
** years old cannot do as well and as
“lawfully as that man wherewith

“ the book contenteth itself.” [and -

521.

Learned Discourse, ap. Bridges, p.
** While the whole office of a
‘* pastor shall be thought to consist
‘in reading only a prescript num-
** ber of psalms and chapters of the
** Scriptures, with other appointed
** forms of prayer, and that he may
‘be allowed a sufficient pastor
‘which doth«the things, which a
‘* child of ten years old may do as_
‘* well as he: so long shall we never
** Jack unlearned pastors.” Whitg.
Def. 482. “ You might as well say,
‘that because a child of ten years.
** old can read the Bible translated
** into English, therefore the Bible
‘* translated into English maintain-
** eth an unpreaching ministry.”’ |

The Book need not express the Minister’s Quality. 143

deep skill, or else that the book containing it should teach soox v.
what men are fit to attend upon it, and forbid either men @*"**
unlearned or children to be admitted thereunto? In setting
down the form of common prayer, there was no need that
the book should mention either the learning of a fit, or the
unfitness of an ignorant minister, more than that he which
describeth the manner how to pitch a field should speak of
moderation and sobriety in diet.

[2.] And concerning the duty itself, although the hardness
thereof be not such as needeth much art, yet surely they
seem to be very far carried besides themselves to whom the
dignity of public prayer doth not discover somewhat more
fitness in men of gravity and ripe discretion than in “ chil-
“dren of ten years of age®>,” for the decent discharge and
performance of that office. It cannot be that they who speak
thus should thus judge. At the board and in private it very
well becometh children’s innocency to pray, and their elders
to say Amen. Which being a part of their virtuous educa-
tion, serveth greatly both to nourish in them the fear of God,
and to put us in continual remembrance of that powerful
grace which openeth the mouths of infants to sound his
praise. But public prayer, the service of God in the solemn
assembly of saints, is a work though easy yet withal so
weighty and of such respect, that the great facility thereof
is but a slender argument to prove it may be as well and
as lawfully committed to children as to men of years, how-
soever their ability of learning be but only to do that in
decent order wherewith the book contenteth itself.

[3.] The book requireth but orderly reading. As in truth
what should any prescript form of prayer framed to the
minister's hand require, but only so to be read as behoveth?
We know that there are in the world certain voluntary over-
seers of all books, whose censure in this respect would fall as
sharp on us as it hath done on many others, if delivering but
a form of prayer, we should either express or include any-
thing, more than doth properly concern prayer. The minis-
ter’s greatness or meanness of knowledge to do other things,

te

8 [2d Adm. 46, 47. ed. 1617. “ Book of Common Prayers were
“If to read the Scriptures, the “enough, .. then a boy of ten years
“homilies, and the course of our “ old may do the minister’s office.’’]

BOOK V.
Ch. xxxi, 4.

The length

Xxxii. I.

cs]

144 Easiness of Reading, no Plea for Clerical Ignorance.

his aptness or insufficiency otherwise than by reading to i
struct the flock, standeth in this place as a stranger wi
whom our form of common prayer hath nothing to do.

[4.] Wherein their exception against easiness, as if thi
did nourish ignorance, proceedeth altogether of a needl
jealousy. I have often heard it inquired of by many, ho
it might be brought to pass that the Church should eve
where have able preachers to instruct the people; what im
pediments there are to hinder it, and which were the speedies
way to remove them. In which consultations the multitud
of parishes, the paucity of schools, the manifold discourage
ments which are offered unto men’s inclinations that way
the penury of the ecclesiastical estate, the irrecoverable los
of so many livings of principal value clean taken away fror
the Church long sithence by being appropriated, the dail
bruises that spiritual promotions use to take by often falling’
the want of somewhat in certain statutes which concern the
state of the Church, the too great facility of many bishops:
the stony hardness of too many patrons’ hearts not touchec
with any feeling in this case: such things oftentimes are
debated, and much thought upon by them that enter into any
discourse concerning any defect of knowledge in the clergy:
But whosoever be found guilty, the communion book. hath
surely deserved least to be called in question for this fault.
If all the clergy were as learned as themselves are that most
complain of ignorance in others, yet our book of prayer might
remain the same; and remaining the same it is, I see not
how it can be a let unto any man’s skill in preaching. Which
thing we acknowledge to be God’s good gift, howbeit no such
necessary element that every act of religion should be thought
imperfect and lame wherein there is not somewhat exacted
that none can discharge but an able preacher.

XXXII. Two faults there are which our Lord and Saviour

of - hj i i : “
= apa himself especially reproved in prayer: the one when ostenta

tion did cause it to be open; the other when superstition

86 [Christian Letter, 37. “ What “ so bruised itself when it fell va-
“be the bruises and falls that ‘ cant, that it lost some land before
** spiritual promotions ordained by ‘a new Bishop was settled therein ;
‘** Christ do or can take?”? Hooker, ‘‘ where the elects contracted with
MS. note. “O witte!” Fuller,C.H. ‘the promoters on unworthy con-
b. ix. p.98. ‘Many a bishopric * ditions.’’]

Length of our Service reverential, edifying, necessary. 145

made it long’’. As therefore prayers the one way are faulty,
not whensoever they be openly made, but when hypocrisy is
the cause of open praying: so the length of prayer is likewise
a fault, howbeit not simply, but where error and superstition
causeth more than convenient repetition or continuation of
speech to be used. “ It is not, as some do imagine,” saith St.
Augustine, “that long praying is that fault of much speaking
“in prayer which our Saviour did reprove; for then would
“not he himself in prayer have continued whole nights8%.”
« Use in prayer no vain superfluity of words as the heathens
“ do, for they imagine that their much speaking will cause
“them to be heard89,” whereas in truth the thing which
God doth regard is how virtuous their minds are, and not
how copious their tongues in prayer; how well they think,
and not how long they talk who come to present their sup-
plications before him.

[2.] Notwithstanding forasmuch as in public prayer we are
not only to consider what is needful in respect of God, but
there is also in men that which we must_regard; we some-
what the rather incline to length, lest over-quick despatch of
a duty so important should give the world occasion to
deem that the thing itself is but little accounted of, wherein
but little time is bestowed. Length thereof is a thing which
the gravity and weight of such actions doth require.

Besides, this benefit also it hath, but they whom earnest
lets and impediments do often hinder from being partakers of
the whole, have yet through the length of divine service
opportunity left them at the least for access unto some rea-
sonable part thereof.

Again it should be considered, how doth it come to pass

8 T.C. lib. i. p. 133. [104.

tom. ii. 389. ‘“Neque enim, ut
* The liturgy of England...... ap-

** quidam putant, hoc est orare in

** pointeth a number of psalms and
*‘ other prayers and chapters to be
“read, which may occupy the time
** which is to be spent in preaching ;
** wherein notwithstanding it ought
‘to have been more wary, con-
“ sidering that the Devil under this
** colour of long prayer did thus in
“the kingdom of Antichrist banish
** preaching.”’| et lib. ili. p. 184.

88 August. Ep. 121. [130. $ I9.

HOOKER, VOL. Il.

** multiloquio, si diutius oretur.
“ Aliud est sermo multus, aliud
*‘ diuturnus affectus. Nam et de
‘ipso Domino scriptum est quod
** pernoctaverit in orando, et quod
*¢ prolixius oraverit: ubi quid aliud
** quam nobis prebebat exemplum,
‘in tempore precator opportunus,
“cum Patre exauditor eternus?’’]
Luke vi. 12.
89 [ Matt. vi. 7.]

L

BOOK VY.

Ch. xxxii. 2.

BOOK V.,
Ch. xxxii. 3.

146 Time spent in our Service no Burthen

that we are so long. For if that very service of God in the
Jewish synagogues, which our Lord did approve and sanctify
with the presence of his own person, had so large portions of
the Law and the Prophets together with so many prayers and
psalms read day by day as equal in a manner the length of
ours, and yet in that respect was never thought to deserve
blame, is it now an offence that the like measure of time is
bestowed in the like manner? Peradventure the Church hath
not now the leisure which it had then, or else those things
whereupon so much time was then well spent, have sithence
that lost their dignity and worth. If the reading of the Law,
the Prophets, and Psalms, be a part of the service of God as
needful under Christ as before, and the adding of the New
Testament as profitable as the ordaining of the Old to be read ;
if therewith instead of Jewish prayers it be also for the good
of the Church to annex that variety which the Apostle. doth
commend, seeing that the time which we spend is no more
than the orderly performance of these things necessarily
requireth, why are we thought to exceed in length? Words
be they never so few are too many when they benefit not the
hearer. But he which speaketh no more than edifieth. is
undeservedly reprehended for much speaking.

[3.] That as “the Devil under colour of long prayer drave
“ preaching out of the Church” heretofore, so we “in appoint-
“ing so long time of prayers and reading, whereby the less
“ can be spent in preaching, maintain an unpreaching minis-
“ try9!,” is neither advisedly nor truly spoken. They reprove
long prayer, and yet acknowledge it to be in itself a thing
commendable. For so it must needs be, if the Devi] have
used it as “a colour” to hide his malicious practices®2. When
malice would work that which is evil, and in working avoid

9 y Tim. ii. 1.

91 T.C. lib. iii, p. 184. [and i.
104. al. 133. |

92 [The same kind of argument
is used by St. Augustine to Deo-
gratias, Opp. t.ii. p.279. “Tem-
“plum, sacerdotium, — sacrificium,
“et alia quecunque ad hec per-
** tinentia, nisi uni vero Deo deberi
** nossent Dii falsi, hoc est deemones,
“qui sunt prevaricatores angeli,
*nunquam hee sibi a cultoribus

** suis, quos decipiunt, expetissent.”
And by Tertullian, ad Uxor. i. 7.
** Sacerdotium viduitatis et cele-
*bratum est apud Nationes pro
** diaboli scilicet zemulatione. Re-
** gem szeculi, Pontificem Maximum,
*rursus nubere nefas est. Quan-
‘tum Deo sanctitas placet, cum
** jllam etiam inimicus affectat! non
** utique ut alicujus boni affinis, sed
“ut Dei Domini placita cum ‘con-
* tumelia affectans.”’ |

to Persons of average bodily Strength. 147

the suspicion of any evil intent, the colour wherewith it BOOK v.

overcasteth itself is always a fair and plausible pretence of
seeking to further that which is good. So that if we both
retain that good which Satan hath pretended to seek, and
avoid the evil which his purpose was to effect, have we not
better prevented his malice than if as he hath under colour
of long prayer driven preaching out of the Church, so we
should take the quarrel of sermons in hand and revenge
their cause by requital, thrusting prayer in a manner out of
doors under colour of long preaching ?

In case our prayers being made at their full length did
necessarily enforce sermons to be the shorter, yet ‘neither
were this to uphold and maintain an “ unpreaching ministry,”
unless we will say that those ancient Fathers, Chrysostom,
Augustine, Leo, and the rest, whose homilies in that con-
sideration were shorter for the most part than our sermons
are, did then not preach when their speeches were not long.
The necessity of shortness causeth men to cut off impertinent
discourses, and to comprise much matter in few words. But
neither doth it maintain inability, nor at all prevent opportunity
of preaching, as long as a competent time is granted for that
purpose.
_ [4.] “ An hour and a half” is, they say, in reformed churches
* ordinarily” thought reasonable “for their whole liturgy or
“ service.” Do we then continue as Ezra did% in reading
‘the Law from morning till midday? or as the Apostle St.
Paul did in prayer and preaching® till men through wea-
riness be taken up dead ‘at our feet? The huge length
whereof they make such complaint is but this, that if our
whole form of prayer be read, and besides an hour allowed
for a sermon, we spend ordinarily in both more time than
they do by half an hour9, Which half-hour being such a

% ([T.C. ii. 185. “There is “liturgy or service is not ordinarily
“to be sulahiclaenl the common “ above an hour and an half.’’]
‘infirmity; whereby, through such 4 Neh. viii. 3.

“continuance, the powers of the % Acts xx.9.

‘mind standing so long bent are % [So Whitgift, Def. 482. “The
* dulled, and often also a most “ longest time (if there be no Com-
*‘ dangerous loathsomeness occa- ‘‘ munion) is not more than an
* sioned. Against whichourChurch “hour.” And Bridges, Def. of
‘(as others have done) should by Gov. p. 625. “All the forms of
‘a godly policy have provided, ‘ prayer that are prescribed in any
“where for this cause the whole “ part of our ordinary divine service

L2

Ch. xxxii. 4,

BOOK V.

Ch, xxxiii. 1.

Instead
of such
prayers as
the pri-
mitive
Churches
have used,
and those
that be re-
formednow
use ; we

148 Ejaculatory Prayers: derided by the Puritans.

matter as the “age of some and the infirmity of other some
“ are not able to bear’ ;” if we have any sense of the “ com-
“ mon imbecility,” if any care to preserve men’s wits from
being broken with the very “bent of so long attention,” if
any love or desire to provide that things most holy be not
with “hazard” of men’s souls abhorred and “loathed,” this
half-hour’s tediousness must be remedied, and that only
by cutting off the greatest part of our common prayer. For
no other remedy will serve to help so dangerous an incon-
venience.

XXXIII. The brethren in Egypt (saith St. Augustine,
epist. 12198,) are reported to have many prayers, but every
of them very short, as if they were darts thrown out with a
kind of sudden quickness, lest that vigilant and erect atten-
tion of mind, which in prayer is very necessary, should be
wasted or dulled through continuance, if their prayers were
few and long. But that which St. Augustine doth allow they

‘may be soberly and with decent

“pauses uttered forth, either for
“the minister’s or for the people’s
*‘ part, in the space of little more
‘than one hour, yea, the lessons,
*‘ and all the rest of the divine ser-
** vice, within one hour and a half,
“‘ even where the service is longest
‘* in saying, though also much and
“solemn singing do protract it.”
These passages seem to indicate,
that the services of Morning Prayer,
the Litany, and the Communion,
were united in Q. Elizabeth’s time
according to the present practice.
The final rubric in the first Prayer
Book of K. Edward is, “If there be
** a sermon, or for other great cause,
“the curate by his discretion may
“leave out the Letanie, Gloria in
“* Excelsis, the Crede, the Homely,
“and thexhortation to the Com-
“munion.” Archbishop Grindal
directs ‘the minister not to pause
“or stay between the Morning
** Prayer, Litany and Communion,
“ but to continue and say the Morn-
“ing Prayer, Litany and Commu-
*nion, or the service appointed to
“be said when there was no com-
“ munion, together without any
* intermission; to the intent the

* people might continue together in

*‘ prayer and hearing the word of

os God, and not depart out of the

** Church during all the time of the ©
“whole divine service.” Injunc-

tions to the Province of York, 1571,

in Strype, Grind. 249. ]

97 (T.C. iii.184. ‘He asketh”
(Def. 482.) “ whether we can spend
“an hour better, than in praying,
“and hearing the Scripture read.
“¢ Whereunto I answer, that if with
“ that hour he allow another for the
‘** sermon, the time will be longer
‘‘ than the age of some and infirm-
** ities of other some can ordinarily
** well bear: whereunto also, if an-
“ other hour at the least be added
“for the celebration of the holy
“communion, he may see that
“either the preaching must be
“abridged, or not so due regard
“‘ had of men’s infirmities.”’]

9 [Al. 130. § 20. t. ii. p. 389.
*‘ Dicuntur fratres in Augypto cre-
*‘ bras quidem habere orationes, sed
‘eas tamen brevissimas, et raptim
* quodammodo jaculatas, ne illa vi-
“ gilanter erecta, que oranti pluri-
“mum necessaria est, per pro-
** ductiores moras evanescat atque
* hebetetur intentio.”’]

Lessons mingled with Prayers: their Advantage. 149

condemn. Those prayers whereunto devout minds have added Pig Saati
a piercing kind of brevity, as well in that respect which we

have already mentioned, as also thereby the better to express

that quick and speedy expedition, wherewith ardent affections, heh —_
_ the very wings of prayer, are delighted to present our suits in “ shred-
heaven, even sooner than our tongues can devise to utter ., {"8*

*€ rather
them, they in their mood of contradiction spare not openly to * wishes

deride, and that with so base terms as do very ill beseem men « ona
of their gravity99. Such speeches are scandalous, they savour

not of God in him that useth them, and unto virtuously dis-

posed minds they are grievous corrosives. Our case were
miserable, if that wherewith we most endeavour to please God

were in his sight so vile and despicable as men’s disdainful

speech would make it.

XXXIV. Again, forasmuch as effectual prayer is joined Lessons in-
with a vehement intention of the inferior powers of the soul, oe
which cannot therein long continue without pain, it hath been prayers.
therefore thought good so by turns to interpose still somewhat
for the higher part of the mind, the understanding, to work
upon, that both being kept in continual exercise with variety,
neither might feel any great weariness, and yet each be a spur
to other. For prayer kindleth our desire to behold God by
speculation; and the mind delighted with that contemplative
sight of God, taketh every where new inflammations to pray,
the riches of the mysteries of heavenly wisdom continually
stirring up in us correspondent desires towards them. So that
he which prayeth in due sort is thereby made the more atten-
tive to hear, and he which heareth the more earnest to pray,
for the time which we bestow as well in the one as the other.

have (they
say) ‘‘ di-

9 T. C. lib. i. 138. [al. 108.
** Concerning the form there is also

Whitg. Def. 499. marg. ‘“‘ These
“are unseemly terms for godly

“to be misliked: a great cause
* whereof is the following of the
“form used in popery; against
** which I have before spoken. For
‘* whilst that service was set in many
** points as a pattern of this, it cometh
** to pass, that instead of such prayers
“as the primitive churches have
“ used, and those that be reformed
“* now use, we have divers short cuts
“and shreddings, which may be
* better called wishes than prayers.”

‘* prayers, be they never so short.”
And 500. “ Will you still more and
‘** more utter your contempt against
“ God; against His Church, against
‘a most pure and godly kind of
‘* public prayer and service, and that
*‘ with such unreverent speeches ?
** But I omit them: it is enough to
“have noted them in the margent,
‘* for they are confutation to*them-
“ selves.”| And [T. C.] hb. iii.
210. 211.

150 Lessons mingled with Prayers: Use of Geneva.

[2.] But for what cause soever we do it, this intermingling
of lessons with prayers is! in their taste a thing as unsavoury,
and as unseemly in their sight, as if the like should be done
in suits and supplications before some mighty prince of the
world. Our speech to worldly superiors we frame in such
sort as serveth best to inform and persuade the minds of them,
who otherwise neither could nor would greatly regard our
necessities: whereas, because we know that God is indeed a
King, but a great king, who understandeth all things before-
hand, which no other king besides doth, a king which needeth
not to be informed what we lack, a king readier to grant than
we to make our requests; therefore in prayer we do not so
much respect what precepts art delivereth touching the method
of persuasive utterance in the presence of great men, as what
doth most avail to our own edification in piety and godly zeal.
If they on the contrary side do think that the same rules of
decency which serve for things done unto terrene powers
should universally decide what is fit in the service of God; if
it be their meaning to hold it for a maxim, that the Church
must deliver her public supplications unto God in no other
form of speech than such as were decent, if suit should be made
to the great Turk, or some other monarch, let them apply their
own rule unto their own form of common prayer. Suppose
that the people of a whole town with some chosen man before
them did continually twice or thrice in a week resort to their
king, and every time they come first acknowledge themselves
guilty of rebellions and treasons, then sing a song, after that
explain some statute of the land to the standers-by, and therein

BOOK V.
Ch, xxxiv. 2.

1 « We have no such forms in the
“ Scripture as that we should pray
** in two or three lines, and then
“after having read awhile some
“ other thing, come and pray as
‘* much more, and so the twentieth
* or thirtieth time, with pauses be-
“tween. If a man should come to
“a prince, and having very many
* things to demand, after he had
“ demanded one thing, would stay a
** long time, and then demand ano-
“ ther, and so the third: the prince
“‘ might well think that either he
“‘ came to ask before he knew what
* he had need of, or that he had

*‘ forgotten some piece of his suit,
“or that he was distracted in his
‘* understanding, or some other such
* like cause of the disorder of his
“ supplication.” T. C. lib.i. p.138. .
[al. 108. Whitgift replies, Def. 500,
* As much difference as there is be-
** twixt man and God, so far is this
‘< similitude of yours from proving
“your purpose: except you will
“‘ admit the like similitude used by
* Papists, to prove praying to
sg ed * This kind of reason
“ the Prophet in the matter of sacri-
*‘ fices doth use.” T. C, lib. ili. p.
210.

Malachi i. 8,14, wrelevant to our divine Service. 151

spend at the least an hour, this done, turn themselves again to BOoK v.

the king, and for every sort of his subjects crave somewhat of
him, at the length sing. him another song, and so take their
leave. Might not the king well think that either they knew
not what they would have, or else that they were distracted in
mind, or some other such like cause of the disorder of their
supplication? This form of suing unto kings were absurd.
This form of praying unto God they allow.
-_ [3.] When God was served with legal sacrifices, such was
_ the miserable and wretched disposition of some men’s minds,
that the best of every thing they had being culled out for
_ themselves, if there were in their flocks any poor starved
or diseased thing not worth the keeping, they thought it good
enough for the altar of God, pretending (as wise hypocrites
_ do when they rob God to enrich themselves) that the fatness
of calves doth benefit him nothing; to us the best things are
most profitable, to him all as one if the mind of the offerer
be good, which is the only thing he respecteth. In reproof of
which their devout fraud, the Prophet Malachi allegeth that
gifts are offered unto God not as supplies of his want indeed2,
but yet as testimonies of that affection wherewith we acknow-
ledge and honour his greatness. For which cause, sith the
greater they are whom we honour, the more regard we have
to the quality and choice of those presents which we bring
them for honour’s sake, it must needs follow that if we dare
not disgrace our worldly superiors with offering unto them
such refuse as we bring unto God himself, we shew plainly
that our acknowledgment of his greatness is but feigned, in
heart we fear him not so much as we dread them. “If ye
“ offer the blind for sacrifice it is not evil’. Offer it now unto

the Geneva version, which Hooker
pore followed, the sentence is
not read interrogatively, but as an
affirmation, put into the mouth of
those whom the Prophet is reproving.
So also in the B

2 Mépn tipns ra Sapa, ra map’
éxdoros timia. Kal yap rd dapdv
éort xtnuatos Sdous Kal tipqs on-
petov, dd kal of @idoxpypuaros kal of
prdriysoe ehievrar avta@v’ aycporé-

pos yap €xe dv Séovra’ xai ya
Kha €or, ov edievra of didoxpn-
parot, kal Tiny Exel, ob of Pidrdripor.
Arist. Rhet, lib.i. c. 5.

3 Mal. i. 8,14. [This quotation
has been altered in most editions,
to suit the version in K. James’s
Bible, thus: “ Is it not evil?” In

ishops’ Bible :
“When ye bryng the blynde for
** sacrifice, [you saye, | t is not
** evyl: and when ye bring the lame
“and sicke, [you saye,] It is not
* evyl.”’ The error in the copies of
Hooker occurs as early as the edi-
tion of 1632. ]

Ch, xxxiv, 3.

152 Puritan Ways of shortening the Inturgy.
RooK V. “ thy prince. Will he be content, or accept thy person ?
EVE ¢ saith the Lord of hosts. Cursed be the deceiver which
« hath in his flock a male, and having made a vow sacrificeth
“ unto the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am a great king,
“ saith the Lord of hosts.”” Should we hereupon frame a rule
that what form of speech or behaviour soever is fit for suitors
in a prince’s court, the same and no other beseemeth us in our
prayers to Almighty God ?
The num- © XXXV. But in vain we labour to persuade them that any
= tliage thing can take away the tediousness of prayer, except it be

for earthly brought to the very same both measure and form which them-
pane re. selves assign. Whatsoever therefore our liturgy hath more
hearsing of than theirs, under one devised pretence or other they cut it
the Lord’s ; ° ‘ ° - ie
Prayer. off. We have of prayers for earthly things in their opinion
too great a number‘; so oft to rehearse the Lord’s Prayer
in so small a time is as they think a loss of time5; the
people’s praying after the minister they say both wasteth
time, and also maketh an unpleasant sound; the Psalms
they would not have to be made (as they are) a part of our
common prayer, nor to be sung or said by turns, nor such
music to be used with them; those evangelical hymns they
allow not to stand in our liturgy; the Litany, the Creed of
Athanasius®, the sentence of glory wherewith we use to con-

clude psalms, these things they cancel, as having been in-

4T.C. lib.i. p.136. [107.] “ Ican
“make no geometrical and exact
‘* measure, but verily I believe there
** shall be found more than a third
** part of the prayers, which are not
‘psalms and texts of Scripture,
** spent in praying for and praying
‘‘ against the commodities and in-
*“ commodities of this life, which is
** contrary to all the arguments or
*‘ contents of the prayers of the
** Church set down in the Scripture,
*‘and especially of our Saviour
** Christ’s prayer, by the which ours
** ought to be directed.”

> T. C. lib. i, p. 219. [176.]
** What a reason is this, we must
“repeat the Lord’s Prayer often-
* times, therefore oftentimes in half
**an hour, and one on the neck of
“ another!...Our Saviour Christ

“doth not there give a prescript
“form of prayer whereunto he
** bindeth us: but giveth us a rule
** and square to frame all our prayers
* by. I know it is necessary to pray,
** and pray often. I know also that
‘* in a few words it is impossible for
** any man to frame so pithya prayer,
*‘and I confess that the Church
** doth well in concluding their
*€ prayers with the Lord’s Prayer:
** but I stand upon this, that there
*‘is no necessity laid upon us to
‘use these very words and no
‘* more.”

6 [2 Adm. 57. ‘ I would know
‘* what there is in Athanasius’ Creed,
‘* that that must be upon high days,
** (as they term them) rather than
** the Apostles’ Creed.’’]

Prayers for things earthly: their spiritual Use. 155

_ stituted in regard of occasions peculiar to the times of old, and
as being: therefore now superfluous.

[2.] Touching prayers for things earthly, we ought not to

think that the Church hath set down so many of them with-

PPA He

ge2

out cause. They peradventure, which find this fault, are of
the same affection with Solomon, so that if God should offer
to grant them whatsoever they ask, they would neither crave
riches, nor length of days’, nor yet victory over their enemies,
but only an understanding heart: for which cause themselves
having eagles’ wings, are offended to see others fly so near

_ the ground. But the tender kindness of the Church of God
it very well beseemeth to help the weaker sort, which are by

so great odds more in number, although some few of the

_ perfecter and stronger may be therewith for a time dis-
_ pleased.

Ignorant we are not, that of such as resorted to our Saviour
Christ being present on earth, there came not any unto him
with better success for the benefit of their souls’ everlasting

_ happiness, than they whose bodily necessities gave them the

first occasion to seek relief, where they saw willingness and
ability of dong every way good unto all.

The graces of the Spirit are much more precious than
worldly benefits ; our ghostly evils of greater importance than
any harm which the body feeleth. Therefore our desires to
heavenward should both in measure and number no less exceed
than their glorious object doth every way excel in value.
These things are true and plain in the eye of a perfect judg-
ment. But yet it must be withal considered, that the greatest

_ part of the world are they which be farthest from perfection.

Such being better able by sense to discern the wants of this
present life, than by spiritual capacity to apprehend things
above sense, which tend to their happiness in the world to
come, are in that respect the more apt to apply their minds
even with hearty affection and zeal at the least unto those
branches of public prayer, wherein their own particular is
moved. And by this mean there stealeth upon them a dou-

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixxiv 2.

ble benefit : first because that good affection, which things of —

smaller account have once set on work, is by so much the
more easily raised higher; and secondly in that the very
7 {1 Kings iii. r1.]

BOOK V.

Ch, xxxv. 3.

154 Iteration of the Lord’s Prayer ; prescribed by Himself.

custom of seeking so particular aid and relief at the hands of
God, doth by a secret contradiction withdraw them from
endeavouring to help themselves by those wicked shifts which
they know can never have his allowance, whose assistance
their prayer seeketh. These multiplied petitions of worldly
things in prayer have therefore, besides their direct use, a
service, whereby the Church underhand, through a kind of
heavenly fraud, taketh therewith the souls of men as with
certain baits§.

If then their calculation be true, (for so they reckon,) that a
full third of our prayers be allotted unto earthly benefits, for
which our Saviour in his platform hath appointed but one peti-
tion amongst seven, the difference is without any great disa-
greement ; we respecting what men are, and doing that which
is meet in regard of the common imperfection; our Lord con-
trariwise proposing the most absolute proportion that can be
in men’s desires, the very highest mark whereat we are able
to aim.

[3-] For which cause also our custom is both to place it in
the front of our prayers as a guide, and to add it in the end
of some principal limbs or parts as a complement which fully
perfecteth whatsoever may be defective in the rest. Twice
we rehearse it ordinarily, and oftener as occasion requireth
more solemnity or length in the form of divine service; not
mistrusting, till these new curiosities sprang up, that ever any
man would think our labour herein mispent, the time waste-
fully consumed, and the office itself made worse by so repeat-
ing that which otherwise would more hardly be made familiar
to the simpler sort; for the good of whose souls there is not

8 [Chr. Letter, p. 36. ‘Did you
** see in the mountaine of God the

“‘ the use of the word fraud in that
** sort should offend your taste. If

*‘ patterne of that heavenlie fraude
*‘ which you say is to catch men by
** multiplied petitions of worldlie
* things ?”

Hooker, MS. note. ‘ What is
“it which displeaseth you in this
‘speech? Why not the fraud of
“man to catch men by multiplied
** petitions, as well as the fraud of
God to catch them by multiplied
“ promises of worldly things? I
“ cannot think you are so dull that

“the matter be that you mislike,
“let men guesse what an unfained
“‘favourer you are of the exercise
*‘ of religion now authorised, when
“you make so speciall exception
‘‘ against our publique prayers.” |

9 Tertull. de Orat. [c.g.] “ Prae-
“ missa legitima et ordinaria oratione
** quasi fundamento, accidentium jus
** est desideriorum, jus est superstru-
* endi extrinsecus petitiones.”

:
-

Iteration of the Lord’s Prayer: Primitive Usage. 155

in Christian religion any thing of like continual use and force
throughout every hour and moment of their whole lives.
I mean not only because prayer, but because this very

_ prayer, is of such efficacy and necessity. For that our Saviour

did but set men a bare example how to contrive or devise

_ prayers of their own, and no way bind them to use this, is no
doubt an error.
always brought up in the bosom of God’s Church from the
_ time of their first infancy till they came to the school of John,
_ were not so brutish that they could be ignorant how to call
_ upon the name of God; but of their master they had received

John the Baptist’s disciples which had been

a form of prayer amongst themselves, which form none did use
saving his disciples, so that by it as by a mark of special dif-
ference they were known from others. And of this the Apo-

_ stles having taken notice, they request that as John had taught

his, so Christ would likewise teach them to pray!°.

Tertullian and St. Augustine!! do for that cause term it
Orationem legitimam, the Prayer which Christ’s own law hath
tied his Church to use in the same prescript form of words
wherewith he himself did deliver it; and therefore what part
of the world soever we fall into, if Christian religion have been
there received, the ordinary use of this very prayer hath with
equal continuance accompanied the same as one of the princi-
pal and most material duties of honour done to Jesus Christ.
* Seeing that we have” (saith St. Cyprian) “an Advocate with
« the Father for our sins, when we that have sinned come to
“ seek for pardon, let us allege unto God the words which our
« Advocate hath taught. For sith his promise is our plain
« warrant, that in his name what we ask we shall receive, must
«¢ we not needs much the rather obtain that for which we sue
“if not only his name do countenance but also his speech
“ present our requests}? ?”

Though men should speak with the tongues of Angels, yet

10 Luke xi. 1. *lictis nostris petimus, advocati

Nam

11 [Enarr. in Psalm. 142. t. iv.
p- 1592. “ Ipsis (Apostolis) data est
‘‘regula postulandi a Jurisperito
* celesti. ‘Sic orate,’ inquit.”’]

12 Cypr. de Orat. Dom. [c. 2. t.i.
140. “ Cum ipsum habeamus apud
** Patrem advocatum pro peccatis
* nostris, quando peccatores pro de-

* nostri verba promamus.
“cum dicat, quia quodcunque peti-
*erimus a Patre in nomine ejus,
“ dabit nobis ; quanto efficacius im-
“ petramus quod petimus in Christi
*“nomine, si petamus ipsius ora-
** tione.”” |

BOOK V.

Ch, xxxv. 3.

BOOK V.

Ch, xxxvi. I.

The peo-

ple’s saying

after the
Minister.

156 Repetition after the Minister in Confession :

words so pleasing to the ears of God as those which the Son
of God himself hath composed were not possible for men to
frame. He therefore which made us to live hath also taught
us to pray, to the end that speaking unto the Father im the
Son’s own prescript form without scholy or gloss of ours, we
may be sure that we utter nothing which God will either dis-
allow or deny. Other prayers we use many besides this,
and this oftener than any other; although not tied so to
do by any commandment of Scripture, yet moved with such
considerations as have been before set down: the causeless
dislike whereof which others have conceived, is no sufficient
reason for us as much as once to forbear in any place a thing
which uttered with true devotion and zeal of heart affordeth
to God himself that glory, that aid to the weakest sort of men;
to the most perfect that solid comfort which is unspeakable.
XXXVI. With our Lord’s Prayer they would find no
fault, so that they might persuade us to use it before or after
sermons only (because so their manner is) and not (as all
Christian people have been of old accustomed) insert it so
often into the liturgy. But the people’s custom to repeat any
thing after the minister, they utterly mislike’?. Twice we
appoint that the words'4 which the minister first pronounceth,
the whole congregation shall repeat after him. As first in
the public confession of sins, and again in rehearsal of our
Lord’s Prayer presently after the blessed Sacrament of his

13 « Another fault is that all the peo-
‘ ple are appointed in divers places
‘* to say after the minister, whereby
* not only the time is unprofitably
“‘ wasted, and a confused noise of
** the people one speaking after an-
** other caused, but an opinion bred
“in their heads that those only be
* their prayers which they pronounce
* with their own mouths after the
‘* minister, otherwise than the order
*‘ which is left to the Church doth
** bear, 1 Cor. xiv. 16, and otherwise
‘than Justin Martyr sheweth the
“custom of the churches to have
* been in his time.” T. C. lib. i.
p- 139. [al. 109.| and lib. iii. p. 211.
212,213. [The passagein St. Justin
Martyr is not specified, but if he
mean p.97. D. Paris. 1636, (ovvreA-

€cayTos Tas EvXas Kal THY EvxaptoTiay,

mas 6 mapa dads éemevpnuer Aéyor,
dunv’) this relates to the consecra-
tion of the Eucharist. In p. 98. E.
the form of common prayer on Sun-
days is described ; first the Lessons,
then the Sermon, éreira duordpeba
KOINH ITANTES, kai evxas mépuro-
pev® Kal, os mpoednpev, Taveapevav
NuUav THs Evyns, Aptos mpooheperat
kal oivos Kai vOwp" Kal 6 mpoecTas
evyas dpoiws Kal evyaptorias 607)
Svvayis ad’t@ avaméepret, kai 6 dads
erreupnet Aeyovrd,aunv. The “‘kow7
“‘ gavres,’ as Whitgift observes,
Def. 502, seems to favour the re-
ceived practice. |

14[The same rule at the review
after the Restoration was extended
to the Lord’s Prayer, wheresoever it
is used in divine service. |

and of the Lord’s Prayer in the Post-Communion. 157

Body and Blood received. A thing no way offensive, no way BOOK v.
unfit or unseemly to be done, although it had been so ap- ——
pointed oftener than with us it is. But surely with so good
reason it standeth in those two places, that otherwise to order

it were not in all respects so well.

_ [2.] Could there be any thing devised better than that we

all at our first access unto God by prayer should acknowledge

_ meekly our sins, and that not only in heart but with tongue,

_ all which are present being made ear-witnesses even of every

man’s distinct and deliberate assent unto each particular branch

of a common indictment drawn against ourselves? How were

it possible that the Church should any way else with such

ease and certainty provide, that none of her children may as
Adam!'> dissemble that wretchedness, the penitent confession
whereof is so necessary a preamble, especially to common
prayer?

[3.] In like manner if the Church did ever devise a thing
fit and convenient, what more than this, that when together
we have all received those heavenly mysteries wherein Christ
imparteth himself unto us, and giveth visible testification of
our blessed communion with him, we should in hatred of all
heresies, factions, and schisms, the pastor as a leader, the
_ people as willing followers of him step by step declare openly
ourselves united as brethren in one!®, by offering up with all
our hearts and tongues that most effectual supplication,
wherein he unto whom we offer it hath himself not only com-
prehended all our necessities, but in such sort also framed
every petition, as might most naturally serve for many, and
doth though not always require yet always import a multitude
of speakers together? For which cause communicants have
ever used it, and we at that time by the form of our very
utterance do shew we use it, yea every word and syllable of
it, as communicants.

In the rest we observe that custom whereunto St. Paul
alludeth!7, and whereof the Fathers of the Church in their
writings make often mention, to shew indefinitely what was

15 [Job xxxi. 33. | riv povnv. Basil. Pref. in Psal. i.
16 Tis yap ért exOpdv Hycicba Sv- [p.126. ed. Par. 1618.]
vatat, peO od piay apnke mpos Ocdy 17 x Cor. xiv. 16.

BOOK V.
Ch. xxxvi. 4.

XXXVii. I, 2.

Our
manner of
reading the
Psalms
otherwise
than the
rest of the
Scripture.

158 The Psalms: Peculiar Way of using them,

done, but not universally to bind for ever all prayers unto one
only fashion of utterance.

[4.] The reasons which we have alleged induce us to think
it still “a good work,” which they in their pensive care for
the well bestowing of time account “ waste.” As for un-
pleasantness of sound if it happen, the good of men’s souls
doth either deceive our ears that we note it not, or arm them
with patience to endure it. We are not so nice as to cast
away a sharp knife, because the edge of it may sometimes
grate. And such subtile opinions as few but Utopians are
likely to fall into, we in this climate do not greatly fear.

XXXVII. The complaint which they make about Psalms
and Hymns, might as well be overpast without any answer,
as it is without any cause brought forth. But our desire is to
content them if it may be, and to yield them a just reason
even of the least things wherein undeservedly they have but
as much as dreamed or suspected that we do amiss. They
seem sometimes so to speak, as if it greatly offended them,
that such Hymns and Psalms as are Scripture should in com-
mon prayer be otherwise used than the rest of the Scripture is
wont! ; sometime displeased they are at the artificial music
which we add unto psalms of this kind, or of any nature else ;
sometime the plainest and the most intelligible rehearsal of
them yet they savour not, because it is done by interlocution,
and with a mutual return of sentences from side to side.

[2.] They are not ignorant what difference there is be-
tween other parts of Scripture and Psalms. The choice and
flower of all things profitable in other books!9 the Psalms do
both more briefly contain, and more movingly also express,
by reason of that poetical form wherewith they are written.
The ancient when they speak of the Book of Psalms used to
fall into large discourses, shewing how this part above the rest
doth of purpose set forth and celebrate all the considerations

18 T.C. lib. iii. p. 206. ‘‘ Theyhave
*‘ always the same profit to be stu-
“ died in, to be read, and preached
* upon, which other Scriptures have,
** and this above the rest, that they
“are to be sung. But to make
“ daily prayers of them hand over

“head, or otherwise than the pre-
“sent estate wherein we be doth
‘* agree with the matter contained in
*‘ them, is an abusing of them.”

19 “H qrepuextik) Tay Taviépey
tyvoroyia. Dionys. Hierar. Eccles.

cap. ill. § 4, 5.

justified by the peculiar Adaptation to our Wants. 159

and operations which belong to God; it magnifieth the holy
meditations and actions of divine men ; it is of things heavenly
an universal declaration, working in them whose hearts God
inspireth with the due consideration thereof, an habit or dis-
position of mind whereby they are made fit vessels both for
receipt and for delivery of whatsoever spiritual perfection.
_ What is there necessary for man to know which the Psalms
_ are not able to teach? They are to beginners an easy and
familiar introduction, a mighty augmentation of all virtue and
_ knowledge in such as are entered before, a strong confirmation
_ to the most perfect among others. Heroical magnanimity,
- exquisite justice, grave moderation, exact wisdom, repentance
unfeigned, unwearied patience, the mysteries of God, the suf-
ferings of Christ, the terrors of wrath, the comforts of grace,
the works of Providence over this world, and the promised joys
of that world which is to come, all good necessarily to be
either known or done or had, this one celestial fountain
yieldeth. Let there be any grief or disease incident into the
soul of man, any wound or sickness named, for which there is
not in this treasure-house a present comfortable remedy at all
times ready to be found. MHereof it is that we covet to make
the Psalms especially familiar unto all. This is the very cause
why we iterate the Psalms oftener than any other part of
Scripture besides ; the cause wherefore we inure the people
together with their minister, and not the minister alone to
read them as other parts of Scripture he doth.

BOOK V,
h. xxxviii. 1.

XXXVIII. Touching musical harmony whether by in- of Music

strument or by voice, it being but of high and low in sounds
a due proportionable disposition, such notwithstanding is the
force thereof, and so pleasing effects it hath in that very part
of man which is most divine, that some have been thereby in-
duced to think that the soul itself by nature is or hath in it
harmony”®, A thing which delighteth all ages and beseemeth
all states; a thing as seasonable in grief as in joy ; as decent
being added unto actions of greatest weight and solemnity, as
being used when men most sequester themselves from action.
The reason hereof is an admirable facility which music hath
to express and represent to the mind, more inwardly than any
other sensible mean, the very standing, rising, and falling, the
20 [Vid.. Plat. Phzed. c. 36. p. 41... 43.)

with
Psalms,

160 Church Music warranted by Scripture and Antiquity.

Book v. very steps and inflections every way, the turns and varieties :
Ob. wxxvill'? Of all passions whereunto the mind is subject ; yea so to imi-
tate them, that whether it resemble unto us the same state
wherein our minds already are, or a clean contrary, we are not —
more contentedly by the one confirmed, than changed and
led away by the other. In harmony the very image and cha-
racter even of virtue and vice is perceived, the mind delighted
with their resemblances, and brought by having them often —
iterated into a love of the things themselves. For which cause
there is nothing more contagious and pestilent than some kinds
of harmony ; than some nothing more strong and potent unto
good. And that there is such a difference of one kind from
another we need no proof but our own experience, Inasmuch
as we are at the hearing of some more inclined unto sorrow
and heaviness ; of some, more mollified and softened in mind ;
one kind apter to stay and settle us, another to move and stir
our affections ; there is that draweth to a marvellous grave
and sober mediocrity, there is also that carrieth as it were into
ecstasies, filing the mind with an heavenly joy and for the
time in a manner severing it from the body. So that although
we lay altogether aside the consideration of ditty or matter,
the very harmony of sounds being framed in due sort and
carried from the ear to the spiritual faculties of our souls, is by
a native puissance and efficacy greatly available to bring to a
perfect temper whatsoever is there troubled, apt as well to
quicken the spirits as to allay that which is too eager, sovereign
against melancholy and despair, forcible to draw forth tears of
devotion if the mind be such as can yield them, able both to
move and to moderate all affections.

[2.] The Prophet David having therefore singular know-
ledge not in poetry alone but in music also, judged them
both to be things most necessary for the house of God, left
behind him to that purpose a number of divinely indited
poems, and was farther the author2° of adding unto poetry
melody in public prayer, melody both vocal and instrumental,
for the raising up of men’s hearts, and the sweetening of
their affections towards God. In which considerations the
Church of Christ doth likewise at this present day retain it
as an ornament to God’s service, and an help to our own

20 [See Ecclus. xlvii. 8, 9.]

Church Music, the finer Sort, a wise Condescension. 161

devotion. They which, under pretence of the Law ceremonial poox v.
abrogated?!, require the abrogation of instrumental music??, ee
approving nevertheless the use of vocal melody to remain,
must shew some reason wherefore the one should be thought
a legal ceremony and not the other.
[3.] In church music curiosity and ostentation of art, wan-
ton or light or unsuitable harmony, such as only pleaseth the
ear, and doth not naturally serve to the very kind and degree
of those impressions, which the matter that goeth with it
- leaveth or is apt to leave in men’s minds, doth rather blemish
and disgrace that we do than add either beauty or furtherance
unto it. On the other side, these faults prevented, the force
and equity of the thing itself, when it drowneth not utterly
but fitly suiteth with matter altogether sounding to the praise
of God, is in truth most admirable, and doth much edify if
not the understanding because it teacheth not, yet surely

“21 [Whitg. Def. 606. ‘Touching
“singing, piping (as you call it),
- “surplice and cope wearing, I an-
* swer with Gicolampadius, ‘ These
things be free unto Christians,
“ which holy or godly bishops may
* either add ... or take away... as
* the time requireth .. Those things
“‘ that be indifferent are not repug-
*‘ nant to the word of God.’” T.C.
ii. 214. ‘“* Under pretence of in-
“‘ different things, he seemeth to
“allow of organs; which beside
“the popish abuse reneweth Ju-
** daism.”

22 [1 Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 742.
* As for organs and curious sing-
“ing, though they be proper to
** popish dens, I mean to cathedral
*‘ churches, yet some others must
“also have them. The Queen’s
** Chapel, and these Churches must
** be patterns and precedents to the
* people of all superstitions.” Id.
ibid. 605. ‘* They ministered the
‘“* Sacraments plainly, we pompously,
*‘ with singing, piping, surplice, and
** cope wearing.” Whitg. Answ. ap.
Def. 606. ‘‘ As for piping, it is not
* prescribed to be used at the Com-
“‘ munion by any rule that I know.
** Singing I am sure you do not dis-
* allow, being used in all reformed

HOOKER, VOL. II.

** churches, and an art allowed in
** Scriptures, and used in praising
** of God by David.” T.C. i. 168.
al. 133. “‘ I have answered before. . .
“ especially seeing that M. Doctor
“will not defend the piping and
‘* organs, nor no other singing than
“is used in the reformed churches :
‘which is in the singing of two
** psalms, one in the beginning and
*‘ another in the ending, in a plain
“tune, easy both to Se sung of
** those which have no art in sing-
“ing, and understanded of those
*‘ which because they cannot read
‘cannot sing with the rest of the
** church.” itg. Def. 607. “I
“have heard no reasons as yet to
‘improve the manner of singing
* used in this church of England,
“ neither do I say that I allow no
“other ‘ singing than is used in
“other reformed Churches.’ For
“‘T would not have any church to
“ arrogate that perfection unto it-
* self, that it should think all other
‘** churches to be bound unto it: it
“‘ was the original cause of the pride
* of the Church of Rome. I have
“only said that other reformed
“ Churches allow singing: which
“is true.’’]

162 St. Basil’s Opinion of Church Musie—Psalms by way of

nook v. the affection, because therein it worketh much. They must
Oh. xxv 3: Dove hearts very dry and tough, from whom the melody of
psalms doth not sometime draw that wherein a mind reli- —
giously affected delighteth. Be it as Rabanus Maurus?3 ©
observeth, that at the first the Church in this exercise was
more simple and plain than we are, that their singing was
little more than only a melodious kind of pronunciation, that
the custom which we now use was not instituted so much >
for their cause which are spiritual, as to the end that into
grosser and heavier minds, whom bare words do not easily
move, the sweetness of melody might make some entrance
for good things. St. Basil himself acknowledging as much,
did not think that from such inventions the least jot of
estimation and credit thereby should be derogated*4: “ For”
(saith he) “ whereas the Holy Spirit saw that mankind is
‘ unto virtue hardly drawn, and that righteousness is the
“less accounted of by reason of the proneness of our affec-
“ tions to that which delighteth; it pleased the wisdom of
“ the same Spirit to borrow from melody that pleasure, which
“ mingled with heavenly mysteries, causeth the smoothness
“and softness of that which toucheth the ear, to convey as
“it were by stealth the treasure of good things into man’s —
“mind, ‘To this purpose were those harmonious tunes of
“psalms devised for us, that they which are either in years
“but young, or touching perfection of virtue as not yet
“ erown to ripeness, might when they think they sing, learn.
“QO the wise conceit of that heavenly Teacher, which hath
* by his skill, found out a way, that doing those things

23 [De Instit. Cleric. II. 48. in

Auctar. Biblioth. Patr. Colon. i. 618.
** Primitiva Ecclesia ita psallebat, ut
** modico flexu vocis faceret resonare
* psallentem : ita ut pronuncianti
** vicinior esset quam canenti. Prop-
“ter carnales autem in Ecclesia,
** non propter spiritales, consuetudo
*‘cantandi est instituta: ut, quia
** verbis non compunguntur, suavi-
** tate modulaminis moveantur.”’]

baits "Emeid) yap eide rd Lvetpa rd
“Aytov dvodywyov mpos dperiy rd yé-
vos Tav avOpwrev, kai dia rd mpds

3 A > ~ a a
nSovny emipperés Tod dpbod Biod Ka-

TapeAouvras nuas, Ti movet; TO ek THS
ped@dias teprvov rois Séypacw éyKa-
Téwtev, va TH TPOTHvEl Kal Aei@ THs
axons TO €k TAY Adyar @péedipov Aay-
Oavdvtws trodeEapeOa.—Ata Todo,
Ta évappoua Tavra péAdn Tov Yakov
Helv emivevdnrat, iva of maides TH
nAckiav 7) Kat Odws of veapot 7d 700s
T@ pev Soxetv peA@daor TH Se ddnOeia
Tas Wuxas exradevavrat.—® tis co-

ns €muvoias rod SidacKddov dpov Te
ade nuas Kat ra AvowTreAn pavOdvew
Bnxavepevov. Basil. in Psal. [i. p.
125-]

Response, a Custom at latest of the second Century. 163

“ wherein we delight, we may also learn that whereby we (BOoK v.
« profit !” a

XXXIX. And if the Prophet David did think that the Of singing
very meeting of men together, and their accompanying one Sue end
another to the house of God, should make the bond of their other parts
_ love insoluble, and tie them in a league of inviolable amity —.
_ (Psal. lv.14) ; how much more may we judge it reasonable wherein
to hope, that the hike effects may grow in each of the people

the people
_ towards other, in them all towards their pastor, and in their **¢ 2

and Min-
Swer one
_ pastor towards every of them, between whom there daily and another by
" interchangeably pass, in the hearing of God himself, and in °°”
the presence of his holy Angels, so many heavenly acclama-

tions, exultations, provocations, petitions, songs of comfort,

psalms of praise and thanksgiving: in all which particulars,

_ as when the pastor maketh their suits, and they with one

_ voice testify a general assent thereunto; or when he joyfully
beginneth, and they with like alacrity follow, dividing
between them the sentences wherewith they strive which

shall most shew his own and stir up others’ zeal, to the glory

of that God whose name they magnify ; or when he proposeth

unto God their necessities, and they their own requests for

relief in every of them; or when he lifteth up his voice like

a trumpet to proclaim unto them the laws of God, they ad-
joining though not as Israel did by way of generality a cheer-

ful promise, “ All that the Lord hath commanded we will

* do?6,” yet that which God doth no less approve, that which
savoureth more of meekness, that which testifieth rather a
feeling knowledge of our common imbecility, unto the several

25 [1 Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 739.
“They tosse the Psalmes in most
*¢ places like Tennice Balles.”’ Whitg.
Answ. ibid. 740. ‘“ You disallow
*‘ that which 1s both commendable
“and of great antiquity, as it ap-
s¢ a in an Epistle that Basilius
‘* Magnus did write to the ministers
*‘ of Neocesarea.”] T..C. i. 203.
[al. 163.] ‘“‘ For the singing of
** Psalms by course and side after
** side, although it be very ancient
* yet it is not commendable, and so
‘much the more to be suspected,
** for that the Devil hath gone about

* to get it so great authority, partly
“by deriving it from Ignatius’s
“time, and partly in making the
** world believe that this came from
* heaven, and that the Angels were
“heard to sing after this sort:
‘¢ which as it is a mere fable, so is
**it confuted by historiographers,
‘‘ whereof some ascribe the begin-
“ning of this to Damasus, some
* other unto Flavianus and Dio-
‘* dorus.”

26 Exod. xix. 8; xxiv. 3; Deut.
Vv. 273 xxvi.17; Josh. xxiv. 16.

M2

BOOK V.
Ch. xxxix, 2.

164 Chanting ancient in St. Basil’s Time :

branches thereof, several, lowly and humble requests for
grace at the merciful hands of God to perform the thing
which is commanded; or when they wish reciprocally each
other’s ghostly happiness; or when he by exhortation raiseth
them up, and they by protestation of their readiness declare
he speaketh not in vain unto them: these interlocutory forms
of speech what are they else, but most effectual partly testifi-
cations and partly inflammations of all piety ?

[2.] When and how this custom of singing by course came
up in the Church it is not certainly known?7. Socrates maketh
Ignatius the Bishop of Antioch in Syria the first beginner
thereof, even under the Apostles themselves?®. But against
Socrates they set the authority of Theodoret, who draweth
the original of it from Antioch as Socrates doth; howbeit
ascribing the invention to others, Flavian and Diodore, men
which constantly stood in defence of the apostolic faith against
the Bishop of that church, Leontius, a favourer of the Arians29.
Against both Socrates and Theodoret, Platina®° is brought as
a witness, to testify that Damasus Bishop of Rome began it
in his time. Of the Latin church it may be true which
Platina saith. And therefore the eldest of that church which
maketh any mention thereof is St. Ambrose%!, Bishop of

27 [As used in Christian families,
it seems to be mentioned by Tertul-
lian: Ad Uxor, ii. 9. ‘“ Sonant
‘inter duos Psalmi et Hymni, et
** mutuo provocant quis melius Deo
** suo canet. ‘Talia Christus videns
* et audiens gaudet. His pacem suam
*€ mittit.”’ .

28 Socrat. Hist. Eccl. lib. vi. c. 8.
[ Aexréov d€ kal Gey rv apxnv €haBev
9 Kata Tovs avTipbavous Upuvous ev TH
exkAnoia cuvnGea’ *Tyvdtios ’ Avrio-
xélas THs Supias rpiros dm rod Aroc-
tédovu Ilérpov émicxoros, Os Kal Tois
“ArooréXots avdrois cuvdiérpupev, or-
taciay eidev ayyédov Sia tov ayTi-
haovev tpvev tiv ayiay Tpidda tp-
vovvT@y, kal Tov Tpdroy Tod épdyaros
7H €v Avrioyeia éxkAnoia mapédaxev'
d0ev kal €v mdcas tais éxkAnoias
avtn 7) mapddocis 81e5d6n* obros pev
ody 6 mrepl ray dvripaver Yuvev Adyos
€oriv. |

_29 Theod. lib. ii. cap. 24. [‘H 8¢
afidyaoros ~vvwpis, SdaBiavos kar

Avddwpos, ieparixns péev Aecrovpylas
pndére@ teruxnkéres, TO S€ Aad ouv-
TeTaypevot, vuKT@p kal weO Huepay eis
Tov urep THs evoeBeias (prov diEeyetpov
dmayras* obrot mparot diy7n SteAdvres
vovs Tav Yadddvray xopovs éx dia-
Soyjs adew thy Aavitixny edidagav
peA@diay’ kal rovro év’ Avrioxeia Tpa-
Tov ap&duevoy, mavroce diédpape, Kat
katédaBe THs olkouperns Ta Téppara*
ovrot Tay Oeiwy rods épacras eis Tovs
TY papTupev ankovs cuvayeiporTes,
mavyuxot duerehouy ory ekeivois Tov
Gcdv avupvoortes. |

30 Plat. in Vita Damasi. [‘ Ut
** Psalmi quoque alternis vicibus in
“ecclesia canerentur, in fineque
*“eorum verba hec _ ponerentur,
*‘ Gloria Patri, &c. instituit.’’]

31 «Bene mari plerumque com-
*‘ paratur ecclesia, que primo in-
“ gredientis populi agmine totis
“vestibulis undas vomit: deinde
** in oratione totius plebis tanquam
“ undis refluentibus stridet; tum

may be probably traced to the Time of S. Ignatius. 165

Milan at the same time when Damasus was of Rome.
Amongst the Grecians®? St. Basil having brought it into his
church before they of Neocesarea used it, Sabellius the
heretic and Marcellus took occasion thereat to incense the
churches against him, as being an author of new devices in
the service of God®3. Whereupon to avoid the opinion of
novelty and singularity, he allegeth for that which himself
did the example of the churches of Egypt, Libya, Thebes,
Palestina, the Arabians, Pheenicians, Syrians, Mesopotamians,
and in a manner all that reverenced the custom of singing
psalms together®+. Ifthe Syrians had it then before Basil,
Antioch the mother church of those parts must needs have
used it before Basil, and consequently before Damasus.
The question is then how long before, and whether so long
‘that Ignatius or as ancient as Ignatius may be probably
thought the first inventors. Ignatius in Trajan’s days suffered
-martyrdom. And of the churches in Pontus and Bithynia to
Trajan the emperor his own vicegerent there affirmeth, that

*‘ responsoriis psalmorum, cantu
*‘virorum, mulierum, virginum,
‘* parvulorum, consonus undarum
“ fragor resultat.” Hexam. lib. ii.

cap. 5.

32 ey Epist. 63. [al. 207. t. iii.
on tN ot Sabellius (whe flourished
a century before) nor Marcellus,
aroaagee © but partisans of their

eresy who were then disturbing
the Church of Neocesarea. SaBer-
Atos 6 AiBus, kat MdpxedXos 6 Taddrns
pdvore €K mayTev eroAunoay kat i 6ddEae
Tatra kal ypayyat, dep viv map’ dpiv
as iia €avray evpéepara emXeLpovat
mpopépe ot i kabyyoupevor Tov Aaov. .
obrot pyra kal dppnra Ka’ 9 jpav dn-
payyopovor . - KaV TH airiay epern-
aot Tov dinpdxrov Tovrov Kal a-
omdySou Todeuou, Yarpovs héyouet
kai Tpdmov perodias Ths map tpiv
kekpatnkulas ouvnbeias mapndXaypé-
voy. p. 310. |

34 [Ibid. p. gil. TIpds ¢ dé rd emi
Tais Yarpediacs eykAnua, © pahiora
TouUs amhovarépous poBoiow ot dia~
Bddrovres 7) pas, exeivo ciety éx@" Ort
Ta vor kexpatnkdra €On macats tais
Tov Geod exkAnoiais cvv@da ori Kal

otppova" é€k vuKTOS s yap opOpi¢er map’
jpiv 6 Aads ent Tov oikoy Tis mpoo~
euxijs, kal €v mév@ Kal Orivper kal
ovvoxyn Saxpvev é£opodoyovpevor T@
Geo, Tedevraiov eEavactdvres Tay.
MpooevxXav, eis THY Wadpodiav kali-
orayTat. Kal viv pev Oux7 Scavepndev-
TES, dyripdhovow GAAnAots, dod
pep THY pehérny % TOV Aoyiev evrevbev
kparivoyres, épod dé kai THY Tporoxny
kal TO apeTemproror Tov Kapdiav
€avrois Svocxovpevor. €meira maw
émirpewparres € evi Kardpxew t TOU pehous
of Aourol dmnxovor" Kal ovras ev TH
mouktAia THs Yarywdias, THY vUKTa
Sceveyndyres peraky Mporevxopevot,
jpépas Hon trohaprotons, mayres
Ko], os e€ évds aordpatos Kal pds
kapdias, TOV THS efouohoynoews Wah-
pov dvapépovor | TO Kupio, idia éau-
TaY ExaoTos ra phyara THs peravoias
Totoupevot. él rovTots Aourrdv ei npas
dmoevyere, pevéeade pev Aiyurtious,
gevéerGe S€ Kai AiBvas dporépous,
OnBaiovs, Tadaorivovs, “ApaBas,
Powvixas, Svpovs, kal Tous mpos T@
Evgparn KaT@Kiopéevous® kat mayras
draamhés, map’ ols dypumviat kal
mpogevxat kat ai Kowal yarp@diat
rerinvrat. |

BOOK V.
Ch. xxxix, 2.

BOOK V.

Ch. xxxix. 3.

166 Chanting authorized by the Prophet Isaiah.

the only crime he knew of them was, they used to meet toge-
ther at a certain day, and to praise Christ with hymns as a
God, secum imvicem, “ one to another amongst themselves35.”
Which for any thing we know to the contrary might be the
selfsame form which Philo Judeus expresseth, declaring how
the Essenes were accustomed with hymns and psalms to
honour God, sometime all exalting their voices together im
one, and sometime one part answering anothers wherein as
he thought, they swerved not much from the pattern®® of
Moses and Miriam?’.

Whether Ignatius did at any time hear the angels praising
God after that sort or no, what matter is it? If Ignatius did
not, yet one which must be with us of greater authority did.
“ I saw the Lord (saith the Prophet Esay) on an high throne ;
“the Seraphim stood upon it; one cried to another saying,
« Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts, the whole world is
full of his glory38.”

But whosoever were the author, whatsoever the time,
whencesoever the example of beginning this custom in the
Church of Christ; sith we are wont to suspect things only
before trial, and afterwards either to approve them as good,
or if we find them evil, accordingly to judge of them; their
counsel must needs seem very unseasonable, who advise men
now to suspect that wherewith the world hath had by their
own account twelve hundred years’ acquamtance and upwards,
enough to take away suspicion and jealousy. Men know by
this time if ever they will know whether it be good or evil
which hath been so long retained.

[3.] As for the Devil, which way it should greatly benefit
him to have this manner of singing psalms accounted an
invention of Ignatius, or an imitation of the angels of heaven,

35 Plin. Secund. Epist. lib. x, dvriorpdédous movovpevos’ ....piynua
[Ep. ror.] Tov mddat ovordvtos (xdpov) Kara

6 Exod. xv. 1. 21. thv "EpvOpav Oddacoay, evexa Tav

87 [De Vita Contemplativa, p. Oavparoupynbévrav éei’ .. . évOovur-
902. “Avdovor memoupévous eis tov utes dvdpes Suod Kal yuvaikes, els
Ocov vevous moddois pérpos Kal yevdpevot xopos, rovs evyapioTnpious
pede, TH) HEV Duvnxovvres TH O€ Kat Uuvous eis Tov GaTHpa Ocdy Fdov'
avripavors appoviats emxetpovopodv- éEdpxovros Trois pev avdpdor Macéos
TEs Kat emopxovpevot, kal emiferd{ov=- tov mpodnrou, rais dé yuvarét Mapidyp
Tes ToTe wev ta mpoaddia, Tore dé Ta Tis mpopnyridos.]
oTdoipa, otpodds re ras €v xpeig kai ~—_ 38: sa, vi. I—3.

Puritan Allegations against Chanting. 167

we do not well understand. But we very well see in them who Book v.

thus plead a wonderful celerity of discourse. For perceiving
at the first but only some cause of suspicion and fear lest it
should be evil, they are presently in one and the selfsame
_ breath resolved, that “ what beginning soever it had, there is
“no possibility it should be good®9.” The potent arguments
which did thus suddenly break in upon them and overcome
them are first, that it is not unlawful for the people all jointly
to praise God in singing of psalms; secondly, that they are
not any where forbidden by the law of God to sing every
verse of the whole psalm both with heart and voice quite and
clean throughout ; thirdly, that it cannot be understood what
‘is sung after our manner. Of which three, forasmuch as law-
fulness to sing one way proveth not another way inconvenient,
the former two are true allegations, but they lack strength to
accomplish their desire; the third so strong that it might
persuade, if the truth thereof were not doubtful.

[4.] And shall this enforce us to banish a thing which

all Christian churches in the world have received; a thing
which so many ages have held; a thing which the most
approved councils and laws have so oftentimes ratified; a
thing which was never found to have any inconvenience in it ;
a thing which always heretofore the best men and wisest
governors of God’s people did think they could never commend

39 T.C. lib. i. p. 203. [al. 163. ]
‘From whencesoever it came it
“ cannot be good, considering that
‘when it is granted that all the
** people may praise God (as it is in
** singing of psalms) then this ought
* not to be restrained unto a few;
‘© and where it is lawful both with
* heart and voice to sing the whole
** psalm, there it is not meet that
** they should sing but the one half
*‘ with their heart and voice, and
“the other with their heart only.
** For where they may both with
“heart and voice sing, there the
“heart is not enough. ‘Therefore
“besides the incommodity which
* cometh this way, in that being
“* tossed after this sort, men cannot
* understand what is sung, those
* other two inconveniences come of
“this form of singing, and there-

* fore it is banished in all reformed
* churches.” [Whitgift’s Defence,
741. -“ How you forget yourself !
*‘ before you found fault with the
“‘ book because the people repeated
“their prayers after the minister,
** and that Recess ‘the minister is
* the only mouth of the people unto
“the Lord;’ now, as though you
‘* were not the same man, but played
“some other part, you find fault
*“‘ with the order of service because
‘‘ they be not their own mouths to
“the Lord: then to pray with
“ heart was sufficient; now it is not
* enough: whence this contrariety
*‘ should spring I cannot imagine,
“except I should ascribe it to a

_“froward and preposterous desire

“that you have to deface this
** Church,”’}

th. XXxix. 4.

BOOK V.
Ch. xxxix, 5.
xl. 1.

Of Magni-
ficat, Bene-
dictus, and
Nunc Di-
mittis.

168 Ewangelical Hymns: their Iteration.

enough; a thing, which as Basil was persuaded, did both
strengthen the meditation of those holy words which were
uttered in that sort, and serve also to make attentive, and to
raise up the hearts of men*?; a thing whereunto God’s
people of old did resort, with hope and thirst that thereby
especially their souls might be edified; a thing which filleth
the mind with comfort and heavenly delight, stirreth up
flagrant desires and affections correspondent unto that which
the words contain, allayeth all kind of base and earthly
cogitations, banisheth and driveth away those evil secret
suggestions which our invisible enemy is always apt to minis«
ter, watereth the heart to the end it may fructify, maketh the
virtuous in trouble full of magnanimity and courage, serveth
as a most approved remedy against all doleful and heavy
accidents which befall men in this present life, to conclude,
so fitly accordeth with the Apostle’s own exhortation +},
«‘ Speak to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual
* songs, making melody, and singing to the Lord in your
‘“‘ hearts,” that surely there is more cause to fear lest the
want thereof be a maim, than the use a blemish to the service
of God.

[5.] It is not our meaning, that what we attribute unto
the Psalms should be thought to depend altogether on that
only form of singing or reading them by course as with us
the manner is; but the end of our speech is to shew that
because the Fathers of the Church, with whom the selfsame
custom was so many ages ago in use, have uttered all these
things concerning the fruit which the Church of God did
then reap, observing that and no other form, it may be justly
avouched that we ourselves retaining it and besides it also
the other more newly and not unfruitfully devised, do nei-
ther want that good which the latter invention can afford,
nor lose any thing of that for which the ancients so oft and so
highly commend the former. Let novelty therefore in this
give over endless contradictions, and let ancient custom
prevail.

XL. We have already given cause sufficient for the great
conveniency and use of reading the Psalms oftener than other
Scriptures. Of reading or singing likewise Magnificat,

40 [Vid. supr. N°. 2. note 34.] 41 Eph. v. Ig.

169

_ Benedictus, and Nune Dimittis*2 oftener than the rest of the
- Psalms, the causes are no whit less reasonable, so that if the
one may very well monthly the other may as well even daily

be iterated. They are songs which concern us so much more
than the songs of David, as the Gospel toucheth us more
than the Law, the New Testament than the Old. And if
the Psalms for the excellency of their use deserve to be
oftener repeated than they are, but that the multitude of
them permitteth not any oftener repetition, what disorder is
it if these few Evangelical Hymns which are in no respect
less worthy, and may be by reason of their paucity imprinted
with much more ease in all men’s memories, be for that cause
every day rehearsed? In our own behalf it is convenient and
orderly enough that both they and we make day by day
prayers and supplications the very same; why not as fit and
convenient to magnify the name of God day by day with
certain the very selfsame psalms of praise and thanksgiving ?
Hither let them not allow the one, or else cease to reprove
the other.

[2.] For the ancient received use of intermingling hymns
and psalms with divine readings, enough hath been written.
And if any may fitly serve unto that purpose, how should it
better have been devised than that a competent number of
the old being first read, these of the new should succeed in
the place where now they are set? In which place notwith-
standing there is joined with Benedictus the hundredth Psalm ;
with Magnificat the ninety-eighth; the sixty-seventh with
Nunc Dimittis, and in every of them the choice left free for
the minister to use indifferently the one or the other. Seeing
therefore they pretend no quarrel at other psalms, which are
in like manner appointed also to be daily read, why do these
so much offend and displease their taste? They are the first
gratulations wherewith our Lord and Saviour was joyfully
received at his entrance into the world by such as in their
hearts, arms, and very bowels embraced him ; being prophetical

Lwangelical Hymns are profitably repeated.

42 [1 Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 494.
“They sing Benedictus, Nunc Di-
** mittis, and Magnificat, we knowe
** not to what purpose, except some
“of them were ready to die, or
“except they would celebrate the
** memory of the Virgine, and John

“ Baptist, &c. Thus they prophane
** the holy Scripture.” Whitg. Ans.
ibid. ‘ By this your reason we
*‘ may not use any of the Psalms,
** until we be in like case as David
*‘ was, or other, when they were
* first made.’’]

BOOK V.

Ch, xl. 2.

BOOK V.
Ch. x1. 3.

170 The Evangelical Hymns profitably repeated.

discoveries of Christ already present, whose future coming
the other psalms did but foresignify, they are against the
obstinate incredulity of the Jews, the most luculent testimonies
that Christian religion hath; yea the only sacred hymns they
are that Christianity hath peculiar unto itself, the other being
songs too of praise and thanksgiving, but songs wherewith as
we serve God, so the Jew likewise. )

[3-] And whereas they tell us these songs were fit for that
purpose, when Simeon and Zachary and the Blessed Virgin
uttered them, but cannot so be to us which have not received
like benefit*? ; should they not remember how expressly
Ezechias amongst many other good things is commended for
this also, that the praises of God were through his appoint-
ment daily set forth by using in public divine service the
songs of David and Asaph unto that very end44? Either there
wanted wise men to give Ezechias advice, and to inform him
of that which in his case was as true as it is in ours, namely,
that without some inconvenience and disorder he could not
appoint those Psalms to be used as ordinary prayers, seeing
that although they were songs of thanksgiving such as David
and Asaph had special occasion to use, yet not so the whole
Church and people afterwards whom like occasions did not
befall: or else Ezechias was persuaded as we are that the
praises of God in the mouths of his saints are not so restrained
to their own particular, but that others may both conveniently
and fruitfully use them : first, because the mystical communion
of all faithful men is such as maketh every one to be inter-
ested in those precious blessings which any one of them re-
ceiveth at God’s hands: secondly, because when any thing is
spoken to extol the goodness of God whose mercy endureth
for ever, albeit the very particular occasion whereupon it
riseth do come no more, yet the fountain continuing the same,
and yielding other new effects which are but only in some
sort proportionable, a small resemblance between the benefits
which we and others have received, may serve to make the

43 'T. C. lib. iii. p. 208. [and 1. “ for this cause and the other before
107. al.137.] “These thanksgivings ‘alleged of the Psalms, itis not con-
“were made by occasion of certain ‘“ venient to make ordinary prayers
“* particular benefits,andarenomore ‘“ of them.”

“to be used for ordinary prayers § 44 2 Chron. xxix. 30.
“ than the Ave Maria. So that both

The Intany: Processions among the Jews. rome 8

BOOK V.
Ch. xli, 1,

same words of praise and thanksgiving fit though not equally
in all circumstances fit for both ; a clear demonstration whereof
we have in all the ancient Fathers’ commentaries and medita-
tions upon the Psalms: last of all because even when there is
not as much as the show of any resemblance, nevertheless’
by often using their words in such manner, our minds are
daily more and more inured with their affections.

XLI. The public estate of the Church of God amongst the of the Li-
Jews hath had many rare and extraordinary occurrents, which *"Y*-
also were occasions of sundry*® open solemnities and offices,
whereby the people did with general consent make show of
correspondent affection towards God. The like duties ap-
pear usual in the ancient Church of Christ, by that which
Tertullian speaketh of Christian women matching themselves
with infidels. ‘She cannot content the Lord with perform-

“ ance of his discipline, that hath at her side a vassal whom
“Satan hath made his vice-agent to cross whatsoever the
“ faithful should do. If her presence be required at the time
“ of station or standing prayer, he chargeth her at no time

45 [r Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 494.
“ They pray that they may be de-
* livered from thundering and tem-
** pest when no danger is nigh.’’}
T.C. lib. i.137.[107.]| ‘* We pray for
* the avoiding of those dangers which
** are nothing near us, as from light-
*‘ ning and thundering in the midst
“of winter, from storm and tem-
*‘ pest when the weather is most
*‘ fair and the seas most calm. It is
‘true that upon some urgent cala-
* mity a prayer may and ought to be

*‘ framed which may beg either the -

** commodity for want whereof the
** Church is in distress, or the turn-
“ing away of that mischief which
“‘ either approacheth or is already
“upon it: but to make those pray-
*‘ ers which are for the present time
‘and danger ordinary and daily
** prayers, I cannot hitherto see any
* either Scripture or example of the
** primitive Church. And here for
“the simple’s sake I will set down
*‘ after what sort this abuse crept
“into the Church. There was one
“* Mamercus Bishopof Vienna, which
‘in the time of great earthquakes

“ which were in France instituted
** certain supplications, which the
** Grecians (and we of them) call the
** Litany, which concerned that mat-
‘ter: there is no doubt but as
** other discommodities rose in other
** countries they likewise had pray-
‘** ers accordingly. Now Pope Gre-
“‘ gory either made himself, or ga-
** thered the supplications that were
‘made against the calamities of
“* every country, and made of them
“a great Litany or Supplication as
** Platina calleth it, and gave it to be
** used in all churches: which thing
“‘ albeit all churches might do for
“ the time in respect of the case of
‘the calamity which the churches
“* suffered, yet there is no cause why
‘* it should be perpetual that was or-
‘* dained but for a time, and why all

** lands should pray to be delivered,

“ from the incommodities that some
land hath been troubled with.”
[See also T. C. iii. 204.

46 Exod. xv. 20; Wisd. x. 20;
2 Samuel vi. 2; 1 Chron. xiii. 5;
2 Chron. xx. 33 Joel ii. 15.

BOOK V.
- “he hath on that day a banquet to make; if there be cause

Ch, xli. 2.

172 Processions among Christians, in Tertullian’s Time.

« but that to be with him in his baths; if a fasting-day come

“ for the church to go forth in solemn procession, his whole
« family have such business come upon them that no one can
“ be spared 47.”

[2.] These processions as it seemeth were first begun for
the interring of holy martyrs, and the visiting of those places _
where they were entombed. Which thing the name itself
applied by heathens unto the office of exequies*8, and partly
the speeches of some of the ancients delivered concerning
Christian processions‘, partly also the very dross which su-
perstition thereunto added, I mean the custom of invoking
saints in processions, heretofore usual, do strongly insinuate.
And as things invented to one purpose are by use easily con-
verted to more, it grew that supplications with this solemnity

47 Tertull. lib. ii. ad Uxor. [e. 4.
« Domino certe non potest pro dis-
“ ciplina satisfacere, habens in late-
“re diaboli servum, procuratorem
‘* domini sui ad impedienda fidelium
“< studia et officia. Ut si statio fa-
** cienda est, maritus de die condicat
‘“‘ ad balneas: si jejunia observanda
“ sunt, maritus eadem die convivi-
“* um exerceat : st procedendum erit,
‘“* nunquam magis familiz occupatio
** adveniat.”” |

48 Terent. Andr. [1.i.100. “ fu-
“nus procedit.” Phorm. v. 8. 37.
“* Exsequias Chremeti, quibus est
** commodum ire, hoc tempus est.’”]

49 « Martyres tibi querantur in
“cubiculo tuo. Nunquam causa
** deerit procedendi, si semper quan-
* do necesse est progressura sis.”
ca Epist. xxii. ad Eust. [al. xviii.

17.
50 Socrat. lib. vi. c. 8. [Oi ’A-
petavifovres, domep Ehnuev, EEw Tis
mohews Tas TuVaywyas émoLovyToO*
qvika ovv éxdotns €Bdouddos éoprat
katehauBavov, dni d7 1d re caBBa-
Tov kal 7 Kuplakn, év ais ai auvagets
kara Tas exxAnoias eimOacr yiveo Oat,
avrol éytos Ta&v THs moOAEws TUAOY
Tepl tas atoas abporsuevor, kat @das
avtipavous mpos thy Apeavov ddéav
ouvtibévres Hdov" Kat rodro émoiovy
kata Td mAEiorov pépos THs vuKTds*
ae b) A n~
tmd S€ épOpov, ra Trovadra dvripwva

héyovres, Sia peons ths modews €F=
necay Tov mUAaY, Kal Tovs TdroUS
€vOa ovviyyov KareAdpBavov ....TéTE
87 Kal "Iwavyns [Xpvadaropos | edAa-
BnOeis, pnris Tov amAovaTépay id
Tav TolwovTay @dav apedkvobn Tis
éxkAnolas, avtiriOnow avrois Tovs Tod
idiov Aaod, dm@s dy Kal avrol rais
vuxrepwais tpvodoyias axodd{orres,
Guavpo@c@ct pev thy exelvoy mept
rovrov omovdiy, BeBaiovs S€ rods
oiketous mpos TH éavTay tioti é€p-
yacwvra.| Sozom. lib. viii. c. 8;
Theod. lib. ii. c. 243 lib. iii. c.
10. [Julian having permitted the
remains of St. Babylas to be re-
moved from Daphne, the Christ-
ians dopéves Td Gdcos KaradaBdv-
Tes, Kal éml Cevyous reOeckdéres THv
Adpvaxa, tmavdnpel tTavtns TyovvTo,
xopevovres kal tiv Aavirixny adovres
per@diar, kal xa6’ Exacrov KOov Emt-
pbeyydpevor, “aicxuvOnrwcay mavtes
“ of mpookuvodvtes Tois yAuTTois.’” |
Novel. Ixviii. 51. [Ixvii. 1. p. 261.
ed. Gothofred. 1688. ‘* Nulli licen-
‘‘ tiam esse neque monasterium ne-
“‘ que ecclesiam neque orationis do-
“ mum incipere eedificare, antequam
“ civitatis Deo amabilis [@cogpiAéo-
** raros| episcopus orationem in loco
* faciat, et crucem figat, publicum
* processum [dnuootay mpdcodor |
“ ipse faciens, et causam manifestam
“ omnibus statuens.” Ibid. exxiii.

Rogations, or Intanies, added to the Processions. 1738

for the appeasing of God’s wrath, and the averting of public

evils, were of the Greek church termed Litanies ; >! Rogations, ———“~

of the Latin. To the people of Vienna (Mamercus being their
Bishop, about 450 years after Christ) there befell many things,
the suddenness and strangeness whereof so amazed the hearts
of all men, that the city they began to forsake as a place which
heaven did threaten with imminent ruin. It beseemed not
the person of so grave a prelate to be either utterly without
counsel as the rest were, or in a common perplexity to shew
himself alone secure. Wherefore as many as remained he
earnestly exhorteth to prevent portended calamities, using
those virtuous and holy means wherewith others in like case
have prevailed with God. To which purpose he perfecteth
the Rogations or Litanies before in use, and addeth unto them
that which the present necessity required. Their good success
moved Sidonius Bishop of Arverna to use the same so cor-
rected Rogations®?, at such time as he and his people were

cap. 31, 32, are laws for the pro-
tection of the litany services from
disturbance, and forbidding them to
be solemnized except by the clergy.
Both enactments are by Justinian. |

51 Basil. Epist. Ixni. [al. 207.
t. iii. 311. ai Avraveia, ds tpeis vv
émirndevere. But it is truly observed
by the Benedictine editor, that the
word Litany is not employed here
in its technical sense; no procession
being mentioned orimplied. | Niceph.
lib. xiv. c. 3.. [* The younger The-
** odosius, having to preside at the
** Circensian games in a time of ex-
* cessive rain, which threatened fa-
* mine, said to the people, ‘ It were
** better for us, deferring the festi-
“ vity, to appease God:’ and they
** went forth in procession with the
* Litany, offering hymns to God:
** and the city with accordant voice
** became in a moment one church.”’]
Cedren. in Theodos. [juniore, p.
281, ed. Xyland. Zepol peyddor
yeyovaow év Kovoravtivourdnde’...
TOU Your. . .WaTpiapxou peTa TOD KAN-
pov kal Tov aod trais dirais [€£w ris
moXews | mpookaprepovrTos, Tepi Spay
tpitny, advo ravtay dpovrev npTrayn
veavias €is Tov dépa, kal HKovce Oeias
pavns mapeyyvoons avTa, avayyeidat

ye, 2 A ~ ~ f
T® emiokoT@ Kal TO Aa@, Acravevewv
ovT@, Kal Aeyeww, “Aytos 6 Oeds, aytos
loxupos, dyos aOavaros, éAénoov
npas’ Kat pndev erepoy mpooriOevar*
kal evOéws rovro WaddXovros Tod aod,
» © /, 7 ec rN
€orn 6 ceiopds. “Obey 6 Bacireds
Gcoddatos, kal 7 paxapia LovAyxepia

2 y PeKap X€Epia,
trepayacGevres TH Oavpatt, eon
gay kata Tacay oikoupevny ovT@ Wah-
AeoOa Tov Oeiov vuvov.

52 Sidon. lib. vii. Epist.1. [ad
Mamercum. ‘ Rumor est, Gothos
“in Romanum solum castra mo-
*visse. Huic semper irruptioni
*‘ nos miseri Arverni janua sumus..
** Solo tamen invectarum te auctore
** Rogationum palpamur auxilio...
** Non enim latet nostram sciscita-
“tionem, primis temporibus ha-
“rumce supplicationum instituta-
** rum civitas ceelitus tibi credita per
** cujusmodi periculorum terricula-
**menta vacuabatur. Nam modo
** scenze moenium publicorum cre-
“« bris terree motibus concutiebantur;
** nunc ignes sepe flammati caducas
** culminum cristas superjecto favil-
*Jarum monte tumulabant; nunc
** stupenda foro cubilia collocabat
*audacium pavenda mansuetudo
** cervorum: cum tu inter ista dis-
*cessu primorum populariumque

BOOK V.

Ch. xli. 3.

174 Abuse of Processions: how remedied.

after afflicted with famine, and besieged with potent adversa-
ries. For till the empty name of the empire came to be settled
in Charles the Great, the fall of the Romans’ huge dominion —
concurring with other universal evils, caused those times to be —
days of much affliction and trouble throughout the world. So
that Rogations or Litanies were then the very strength, stay,
and comfort of God’s Church. Whereupon in the year 506
it was by the council of Aurelia decreed*?, that the whole ;
Church should bestow yearly at the feast of Pentecost three
days in that kind of processionary service. About half an hun-
dred years after, to the end that the Latin churches which all
observed this custom might not vary in the order and form of
those great Litanies which were so solemnly every where ex-
ercised, it was thought convenient by Gregory the First and the
best of that name to draw,the flower of them all into one*4,
[3.] But this iron began at length to gather rust. Which
thing the synod of Colen saw and in part redressed within
that province*>, neither denying the necessary use for which
such Litanies serve, wherein God’s clemency and mercy is
desired by public suit, to the end that plagues, destructions,
calamities, famines, wars, and all other the like adversities,
which for our manifold sins we have always cause to fear, may

“* statu urbis exinanito, ad nova ce-
*‘ ler veterum Ninevitarum exempla
“* decurristi. .. Qua devotione placa-
* tus inspector pectorum Deus, fecit
* esse obsecrationem vestram-vobis
“* saluti, ceteris imitationi, utrisque
** presidio.....Quze omnia sciens
** populus iste, Viennensibus tuis et
** accidisse prius et non accessisse
“ posterius, vestigia tam sacrosanctz
** informationis amplectitur, sedulo
*‘ petens, ut conscientiz tuz bea-
* titudo mittat orationum suarum
“ suffragia, quibus exempla trans-
** misit.”” Biblioth. Patr. Colon. V.
1020. |

53 Concil. tom. ii. p. 513. [iv.
1408. E. ‘ Rogationes, i.e. Litanias
“ante ascensionem Domini ab om-
*nibus ecclesiis placuit celebrari:
“ita ut. preemissum triduanum je-
*‘junium in dominice ascensionis
“ festivitate solvatur: per quod tri-
“‘duum servi et ancillze ab omni
** opere relaxentur, quo magis plebs

“ universa conveniat.”” |

°4 [See Palmer’s Origines Litur-
gice, 1. 267—272. | ;

55 Concil. tom. v. anno 1536.
[Conce. Colon. i. p. 9. c. 7, 8; xiv.
546, 547. ‘Quod processiones per

agros et campos peraguntur, ra-
*“tionem quidem habet, nempe
a ha populus oret, ut segetes ac
‘“‘fruges terre a Domino conser-
“ ventur: verum ut alia plurima,
“ita et hic mos hominum malitia
* depravatus est, quod per occa-
* sionem talis deambulationis, que
* Deo placando erat instituta, multa
* scelera committantur. Quam-
“ obrem nobis satius videtur, ut
‘* he, alizeque supplicationes ac pro-
*‘ cessiones, de cztero intra septa
“ ecclesiarum religiose fiant, ac ut
‘in templo, loco precationibus pe-
* culiariter dedicato, oretur Deus,
** habeaturque tum pius rei ac tem-
‘* pori conveniens ad populum com-
** monitorius sermo.” |

Ewils seemingly distant may be deprecated in Litanies. 175

be turned away from us and prevented through his grace; BOOK Y.
nor yet dissembling the great abuse whereunto as sundry © wiiir.”
other things so this had grown by men’s improbity and malice
to whom that which was devised for the appeasing of God’s
displeasure gave opportunity of committing things which
justly kindled his wrath. For remedy whereof it was then
thought better, that these and all other supplications or pro-
— should be no where used but only within the walls
of the house of God, the place sanctified unto prayer. And
by us not only such inconveniences being remedied, but also
‘whatsoever was otherwise amiss in form or matter, it now
remaineth a work, the absolute perfection whereof upbraideth
‘with error or somewhat worse them whom in all parts it doth
not satisfy.

[4.] As therefore Litanies have been of longer continuance
than that we should make either Gregory or Mamercus the
author of them, so they are of more permanent use than that
now the Church should think it needeth them not. What
dangers at any time are imminent, what evils hang over our
heads, God doth know and not we. We find by daily ex-
perience that those calamities may be nearest at hand, readiest
to break in suddenly upon us, which we in regard of times
or circumstances may imagine to be furthest off. Or if they
‘do not indeed approach, yet such miseries as being present
all men are apt to bewail with tears, the wise by their prayers
_ should rather prevent. finally, if we for ourselves had a
privilege of immunity, doth not true Christian charity require
that whatsoever any part of the world, yea any one of all our
brethren elsewhere doth either suffer or fear, the same we
account as our own burden? What one petition is there
found in the whole Litany, whereof we shall ever be able at any
time to say that no man living needeth the grace or benefit
therein craved at God’s hands? I am not able to express how
much it doth grieve me, that things of principal excellency

should be thus bitten at, by men whom God hath endued
with graces both of wit and learning for better purposes.

XLII. We have from the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Of Athana-

Christ received that brief confession of faith which hath been *%% Creed

and Gloria
. 567, C. lib. i. p. 137. [107.] ‘* Patri and the Athanasius’ Creed. ene
“The like may be said of the Gloria. “It was first brought into the

BOOK V.
Ch. xiii. 2.

176 Rise of Arianism.

always a badge of the Church, a mark whereby to discern
Christian men from Infidels and Jews. ‘“ This faith received
“ from the Apostles and their disciples,” saith Ireneus*7,
« the Church though dispersed throughout the world, doth |
“ notwithstanding keep as safe as if it dwelt within the walls
*< of some one house, and as uniformly hold, as if it had but
“one only heart and soul; this as consonantly it preacheth,
« teacheth, and delivereth, as if but one tongue did speak for
«all. As one sun shineth to the whole world, so there is no
“ faith but this one published, the brightness whereof must
“ enlighten all that come to the knowledge of the truth.”
«This rule,” saith Tertullian5*, “Christ did institute ;
‘*the stream and current of this rule hath gone as far, it
« hath continued as long, as the very promulgation of the
<< Gospel.”

[2.] Under Constantine the emperor about three hundred
years and upward after Christ, Arius a priest in the church of
Alexandria, a subtle-witted and a marvellous fair-spoken man,

“Church to the end that men
“thereby should make an open
‘“‘ profession in the Church of the
“ divinity of the Son of God against
‘“‘the detestable opinion of Arius
“and his disciples, wherewith at
“that time marvellously swarmed
“almost the whole Christendom.
‘‘ Now that it hath pleased the
** Lord to quench that fire, there is
**no such cause why these things
* should be in the Church, at the
** least why that Gloria Patri should
“be so often repeated.” ([Strype,
Aylm. 71. “The Bishop silenced
“one Huckle, a minister in his
“ diocese,....an impugner of the
“book, and a gatherer of night
** conventicles, and more lately a
“ busy disputer against Athanasius’
“ Creed.” They attacked the Nicene
Creed also. Adm. ap. Whitg. Def.
589. ‘The Nicene Creed was not
** read in their communion ; we have
** it in ours.”

°7 Tren. lib. i. cap. 3. [al. ¢. ro.
p. 46. ‘H pev éxkAnoia, xaimep xa?

Ans THs olkoupévns Ews Teparar THS.

yns Sueomappen, mapa dé Trev’ Aro-
, ‘ nw a

ordhoy, kai Tdv éxeivoy pabnrdv Ta-

padraBovca thy cis Eva Gedy, arépa

TavTokpaTopa...TioTi...Kal eis eva
Xpiordv “Incovv ....Kal eis Tvedpa
Gytov ..... TovTo TO Knpvypa Tapel-
Andvia, kai ravtiy thy TioTWw, os
mpoepaper, 7 exkAnoia, kairep év G@
T® Kdop@ Sveorappévn, emipedas v=
Adovet, @s Eva oiKov oikovaa’ Kal
Spolws morever TOUTOLS, @s play Yu-
xiv Kat THY a’tny €xovca Kapdiay*
kal oupdoves tadta Knpvoce, Kal
didaoxe, kat mapadidaow, ws &
ordpua kextnuevn.... Qomep 6 HALos,
TO KTicpa Tov Qed, év GAw TO Kdo-
pe els kat 6 abrds* otrw Kal TO Ky-
pvypa Ths adn Beias mavTaxn paivet,
kal horifes mavras avOparmovs tovs
Bovdopevous eis émiyywow adnOeias
ebeiv.

58 Tertull. de Preescr. advers.
Heret. [c.14. “ Hee regula a
“ Christo ....instituta nullas habet
“apud nos questiones, nisi quas
‘‘ hereses inferunt, et que here-
*‘ ticos faciunt.”’| et advers. Prax.
[c. 2. ‘* Hane regulam ab initio
** Evangelii decucurrisse, etiam ante
** priores quosque hereticos, nedum
** ante Praxean hesternum, probabit
“tam ipsa posteritas omnium he-
“reticorum, quam ipsa novellitas
* Praxezx hesterni.’’]

Nicene Creed. Secret Progress of Arianism. 177

but discontented that one should be placed before him in honour,
whose superior he thought himself in desert, became through
envy and stomach prone unto contradiction, and bold to
broach at. the length that heresy, wherein the deity of our
Lord Jesus Christ contained but not opened in the former
ereed, the co-equality and co-eternity of the Son with the
Father was denied. Being for this impiety deprived of his
place by the bishop of the same church, the punishment
which should have reformed him did but increase his obsti-
nacy, and give him occasion of labouring with greater earnest-
ness elsewhere to entangle unwary minds with the snares of
his damnable opinion. Arius in short time had won to himself
a number both of followers and of great defenders, whereupon
much disquietness on all sides ensued. The emperor to
reduce the Church of Christ unto the unity of sound belief,
when other means whereof trial was first made took no effect,
gathered that famous assembly of three hundred and eighteen
bishops in the council of Nice, where besides order taken for
many things which seemed to need redress, there was with
common consent for the settling of all men’s minds, that other
confession of faith set down which we call the Nicene Creed,
whereunto the Arians themselves which were present sub-
scribed also; not that they meant sincerely and in deed
to forsake their error, but only to escape deprivation and exile,
_ which they saw they could not avoid openly persisting in their
former opinions when the greater part had concluded against
them, and that with the emperor’s royal assent. Reserving
therefore themselves unto future opportunities, and knowing
that it would not boot them to stir again in a matter so
composed, unless they could draw the emperor first and by his
means the chiefest bishops unto their part; till Constantine’s
death and somewhat after they always professed love and
zeal to the Nicene faith, yet ceased not in the meanwhile to
strengthen that part which in heart they favoured, and to
infest by all means under colour of other quarrels their
greatest adversaries in this cause: amongst them Athanasius
especially, whom by the space of forty-six years, from the
time of his consecration to succeed Alexander archbishop in
- the church of Alexandria till the last hour of his life in this
world, they never suffered to enjoy the comfort of a peaceable
HOOKER, VOL. II. N

BOOK V.
Ch, xlii. 2,

BOOK V.

Ch, xlii. 3.

178 Persecution of Athanasius. General Apostasy.

day. The heart of Constantine stolen from him. Constantius
Constantine’s successor his scourge and torment by all the
ways that malice armed with sovereign authority could
devise and use. Under Julian no rest given him. And in
the days of Valentinian as little. Crimes there were laid to
his charge many, the least whereof being just had bereaved
him of estimation and credit with men while the world
standeth. His judges evermore the selfsame men by whom
his accusers were suborned. Yet the issue always on their
part, shame; on his, triumph. Those bishops and prelates,
who should have accounted his cause theirs, and could not
many of them but with bleeding hearts and with watered
cheeks behold a person of so great place and worth constrained
to endure so foul indignities, were sure by bewraying their
affection towards him to bring upon themselves those molesta-
tions, whereby if they would not be drawn to seem his
adversaries, yet others should be taught how unsafe it was to
continue his friends. .

[3.] Whereupon it came to pass in the end, that (very few
excepted) all became subject to the sway of time; other odds
there was none amongst them, saving only that some fell
sooner away, some later, from the soundness of belief; some
were leaders in the host of impiety, and the rest as common
soldiers, either yielding through fear, or brought under with
penury, or by flattery ensnared, or else beguiled through
simplicity, which is the fairest excuse that well may be made
for them. Yea (that which all men did wonder at) Osius the
ancientest bishop that Christendom then had, the most forward
in defence of the Catholic cause and of the contrary part most
feared, that very Osius with whose hand the Nicene Creed
itself was set down and framed for the whole Christian world to
subscribe unto, so far yielded in the end as even with the
same hand to ratify the Arians’ confession, a thing which
they neither hoped to see, nor the other part ever feared, till
with amazement they saw it done. Both were persuaded
that although there had been for Osius no way but either
presently subscribe or die, his answer and choice would have
been the same that Eleazar’s was°9, “It doth not become our
“age to dissemble, whereby many young persons might think,

59 2 Mac. vi. 24.

Fali of Osius. Impolicy of the Catholies. 179

« that ©Osius an hundred years old and upward were now
“ gone to another religion, and so through mine hypocrisy
« (for a little time of transitory life) they might be deceived by
“ me, and I procure malediction and reproach to my old age.
« For though I were now delivered from the torments of
“men, yet could I not escape the hand of the Almighty,
_ “ neither alive nor dead.” But such was the stream of those
times, that all men gave place unto it, which we cannot but
impute partly to their own oversight. For at the first the
- emperor was theirs, the determination of the council of Nice
was for them, they had the Arians’ hands to that council.
_ So great advantages are never changed so far to the contrary,
but by great error. -
___‘[4.] It plainly appeareth that the first thing which weakened
them was their security. Such as they knew were in heart
still affected towards Arianism, they suffered by continual
nearness to possess the minds of the greatest about the
emperor, which themselves might have done with very good
acceptation, and neglected it. In Constantine’s lifetime to
have settled Constantius the same way had been a duty of
good service towards God, a mean of peace and great quiet-
ness to the Church of Christ, a labour easy, and how likely we
may conjecture, when after that so much pain was taken to
instruct and strengthen him in the contrary course, after that
so much was done by himself to the furtherance of heresy, yet
being touched in the end voluntarily with remorse, nothing
more grieved him than the memory of former proceedings in
the cause of religion, and that which he now foresaw in
Julian, the next physician into whose hands the body that was
thus distempered must fall®.

[5-] Howbeit this we may somewhat excuse, inasmuch as
every man’s particular care to his own charge was such as
gave them no leisure to heed what others practised in princes’
courts. But of the two synods of Arimine and Seleucia what
should we think? Constantius by the Arians’ suggestion had
devised to assemble all the bishops of the whole world about
this controversy, but in two several places, the bishops of the

60 Major centenario. Sulpit. Sever. Hist. lib. ii. c. 54.
61 [Greg. Naz. Orat. 21. t.i. 389. |

NZ

BOOK V.
Ch. xiii. 4, 5.

180 Synods of Ariminum and Seleucia.

nook vy. west at Arimine in Italy, the eastern at Seleucia the same
cn time. Amongst them of the east there was no stop, they
agreed without any great ado, gave their sentence against
heresy, excommunicated some chief maintainers thereof, and
sent the emperor word what was done. They had at Arimine
about four hundred which held the truth, scarce of the ad-
verse part fourscore, but these obstinate, and the other weary
of contending with them: whereupon by both it was resolved
to send to the emperor such as might inform him of the cause,
and declare what hindered their peaceable agreement. There
are chosen for the catholic side such® men as had in them
nothing to be noted but boldness, neither gravity nor learning
nor wisdom. The Arians for the credit of their faction take
the eldest, the best experienced, the most wary, and the
longest practised veterans they had amongst them. The
emperor conjecturing of the rest on either part by the quality
of them whom he saw, sent them speedily away, and with
them a certain confession of faith ambiguously ® and subtilly
drawn by the Arians, whereunto unless they all subscribed,
they should in no case be suffered to depart from the place
where they were. At the length it was perceived, that there
had not been in the Catholics either at Arimine or at Seleucia
so much foresight, as to provide that true intelligence might
pass between them what was done. Upon the advantage of
which error, their adversaries, abusing each with persuasion
that other had yielded, surprised both. The emperor the
_ more desirous and glad of such events, for that, besides all
other things wherein they hindered themselves, the gall and
bitterness of certain men’s writings, who spared him little for
honour’s sake, made him for their sakes the less inclinable
to that truth, which he himself should have honoured and
loved. > hh
Only in Athanasius there was nothing observed throughout
the course of that long tragedy, other than such as very well
became a wise man to do and a righteous to suffer. So that

62 Sulpit. lib. ii. [c. 57.] “Ex “ gem facile superiores exstiterunt.”

iad . . .

_, parte nostra leguntur homines 63 Tbid. [c. 59.] “ Eisdemque

‘adolescentes, parum doctiet parum ‘‘conscriptam ab improbis fidem

fe cauti. Ab Arianis autem missi “ tradit verbis fallentibus involutam,

: senes, callidiet ingeniovalentes, ve- i) que catholicam disciplinam per-
terno perfidize imbuti, quiapudre- “ fidia latente loqueretur.”’

-

Furmness of Athanasius. Origin of his Creed. 181

this was the plain condition of those times: the whole world
against Athanasius, and Athanasius against it ; half a hundred
of years spent in doubtful trial which of the two in the end
would prevail, the side which had all, or else the part which

‘a had no friend but God and death, the one a defender of his

innocency, the other a finisher of all his troubles.
[6.] Now although these contentions were cause of much

evil, yet some good the Church hath reaped by them, in that

they occasioned the learned and sound in faith to explain
such things as heresy went about to deprave. And in this
respect the Creed of Athanasius first exhibited unto Julius
bishop of Rome, and afterwards (as we may probably
gather) sent to the emperor Jovian®, for his more full infor-
mation concerning that truth which Arianism so mightily did
impugn, was both in the East and the West churches accepted
as a treasure of inestimable price, by as many as had not
given up even the very ghost of belief®. .Then was the
Creed of Athanasius written®”, howbeit not then so expedient
to be publicly used as now in the Church of God; because
while the heat of division lasteth truth itself enduring oppo-
sition doth not so quietly and currently pass throughout all
men’s hands, neither can be of that account which afterwards
it hath, when the world once perceiveth the virtue thereof not
only in itselfy but also by the conquest which God hath given
it over heresy.

That which heresy did by sinister interpretations go about
to pervert in the first and most ancient Apostolic Creed, the
same being by singular dexterity and plainness cleared from
those heretical corruptions partly by this Creed of Athana-
sius, written about the year three hundred and forty, and
partly by that other®* set down in the synod of Constan-
tinople forty years after, comprehending together with the
Nicene Creed an addition of other articles which the Nicene

647A pe a of Baronius,Ann. 7 [For the most probable account
A.D. 340. ] of this matter, see Waterland’s Cri-

65 Grey: Naz. Orat. 21. t.i. p. tical Hist. of the Athanasian Creed,
39 Works, iv.241.. 269. Oxford,1823.]

4.

beg. Nazian. de Athan. [ubi 6 That Creed which in the Book
sup. | Tavrny prot Soxodow aidotpevot of Common Prayer followeth im-
THY opodoyiay oire THs éomepias kat mediately after the reading of the
THs e@as Goov Bi@otpor. Gospel.

BOOK V.

Ch, xlii. 6.

BOOK V.
Ch. xlii. 7, 8.

182 The Gloria Patri, an apt Conclusion to Psalms.

Creed omitted, because the controversy then in hand needed
no mention to be made of them; these catholic declarations
of our belief delivered by them which were so much nearer
than we are unto the first publication thereof, and continuing
needful for all men at all times to know, these confessions
as testimonies of our continuance in the same faith to this
present day, we rather use than any other gloss or para-
phrase devised by ourselves, which though it were to the
same effect, notwithstanding could not be of the like autho-
rity and credit. For that of Hilary® unto St. Augustine
hath been ever and is likely to be always true: “ Your
“ most religious wisdom knoweth how great their number
“is in the Church of God, whom the very authority of
“ men’s names doth keep in that opinion which they hold
“ already, or draw unto that which they have not before
held.” |

[7.] Touching the Hymn of Glory, our usual conclusion
to Psalms: the glory of all things is that wherein their
highest perfection doth consist7°; and the glory of God that
divine excellency whereby he is eminent above all things7},
his omnipotent, infinite, and eternal Being, which angels and
glorified saints do intuitively behold 72, we on earth appre-
hend principally by faith, in part also by that kind of know-
ledge which groweth from experience of those effects, the
greatness whereof exceedeth the powers and abilities of all
creatures both in heaven and earth. God is glorified, when
such his excellency above all things is with due admiration
acknowledged78, Which dutiful acknowledgment of God’s
excellency by occasion of special effects, being the very
proper subject and almost the only matter purposely treated
of in all psalms, if that joyful Hymn of Glory have any use
in the Church of God whose name we therewith extol and
magnify, can we place it more fitly than where now it serveth
as a Close or conclusion to psalms ?

[8.] Neither is the form ‘thereof newly or unnecessarily

69 Hilar. Arelat. Epist. ad Aug. “ ferantur.’’]
[§. 8. t. ii. 828. “Non ignorat 70 1 Cor. xv. 40.
** prudentissima pietas tua, quanto 71 Exod. xxxili. 18; Heb. i. 3.
“plures sint in Ecclesia, qui auc- 72 Matt. xviii. Io.

toritate nominum in sententia 73 Josh. vii.19; Psal. xxii. 23.
teneantur, aut a sententia trans-

Its ancient Use, an Argument agaist Arianism. 183

invented. ‘ We must (saith7+ St. Basil) as we have received
“even so baptize, and as we baptize even so believe, and
“ as we believe even so give glory.” Baptizing we use the
name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;
_ confessing the Christian faith we declare our belief in the
_ Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost; ascribing
glory unto God we give it to the Father, and to the Son, and
to the Holy Ghost. It is dmddefis tot 600d ppovnuatos7>,
“the token of a true and sound understanding” for matter
of doctrine about the Trinity, when in ministering baptism,

and making confession, and giving glory, there is a con-~

junction of all three, and no one of the three severed from the
other two.

[9.] Against the Arians affirming the Father to be greater
than the Son in honour, excellency, dignity, majesty, this form
and manner of glorifying God was not at that time first
begun, but received long before, and alleged at that time as
an argument for the truth’®. “ If (saith Phebadius) there be
“ that inequality which they affirm, then do we every day
“ blaspheme God, when in thanksgivings and offerings of
« sacrifice we acknowledge those things common to the Father
“and the Son.” The Arians therefore, for that they per-
ceived how this did prejudice their cause, altered the Hymn
of Glory, whereupon ensued in the church of Antioch about
the year three hundred forty-nine that jar which Theodoret
and Sozomen mention’7. “ In their quires while they praised

74 Basil. Epist. 78. [al. 125.
p. 216 D. Sei yap npas BarriferOa
pev @s mapedaBopev* morevew Se
as BarriCépeba’ So€dlew S€ as Te-
miorevKapev, Ilarépa Kat Yidy kal
“Ayov Ilvedpa. This epistle is in
the nature of a solemn document,
much to the same purpose as the
Athanasian Creed itself: reciting
the Nicene Creed, and the blas-
phemies which had since become
current, and anathematizing them. |

75 [S- Basil, ubi supr. |

76 Phoebad. lib. contra Arian.
[ap- Bibl. Patr. Colon. t. iv. 232.

. “* Pater,’ inquit, ‘major me
* est :? et quomodo major, statim
*‘ heretica preesumptione definiunt :
*‘honore, claritate, dignitate, ma-

jestate. Quod si ita est, cur ju-
*‘ betur ut omnes honortficent Fi-
lium, sicut honorificant Patrem?
* Quod si ita est, ergo quotidie
*‘ blasphemamus in gratiarum ac-
*‘ tionibus et oblationibus sacrifici-~
“orum, communia hec Patri et
“ Filio confitentes.’”]

77 Theod. lib. ii. cap. 24. [dix
Sinpnpévovs tovs iepwpevous Kai Tov
Aourdv Spirov Gewpav, kal rovs pév
ro, KAI, cvvdecpoy emi tis od Yiod
dogodoyias riWévras, Tods Sé 7 Hv per,
AT OY, mpddcow emi rov ¥ fod, rhv
de, EN, én rod Ivevparos mpooappo-
Covras, ovyn thv So€odoyiav mpoc-
épepe’ pdvov dé 1d, eis tovs aidvas
Tov ai@vev, jkovoy of meddforres. |
Sozom. lib. iv. [iii.] cap. 19.

LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE

BOOK V,

Ch, xlii.g.

BOOK V.

Ch. xlii.1o.

184 Disputes about the two Forms of the Gloria Patri.

“ God together as the manner was, at the end of the psalms
« which they sung, it appeared what opinion every man held,
“ forasmuch as they glorified some the Father, and the
« Son, and the Holy Ghost; some the Father dy the Son in
“the Spirit; the one sort thereby declaring themselves to
“ embrace the Son’s equality with the Father as the council
“ of Nice had defined, the other sort against the council of
“ Nice his inequality.” Leontius their bishop although an
enemy to the better part, yet wary and subtile, as in a manner
all the heads of the Arians’ faction were, could at no time be
plainly heard to use either form, perhaps lest his open con-
tradicting of them whom he favoured not might make them
the more eager, and by that mean the less apt to be privately
won; or peradventure for that though he joined in opinion
with that sort of Arians who denied the Son to be equal with
the Father, yet from them he dissented which thought the
Father and the Son not only unequal but unlike, as Aétius did
upon a frivolous and false surmise, that because the Apostle
hath said, “ One God of whom, one Lord 4éy whom, one
“ Spirit 7 whom’78,” his different manner of speech doth
argue a different nature and being in them of whom he
speaketh: out of which blind collection it seemeth that this
their new devised form did first spring.

[10.] But in truth even that very form which the Arians
did then use (saving that they chose it to serve as their special -
mark of recognizance, and gave it secretly within them-
selves a sinister construction) hath not otherwise as much as
the show of any thing which soundeth towards impiety. For
albeit if we respect God’s glory within itself, it be the equal
right and possession of all three, and that without any odds,
any difference ; yet touching his manifestation thereof unto
us by continual effects, and our perpetual acknowledgment

[20. Kara xdpous as bos ev re Tis évaytias aipécews Tov’ Avrioyeav

vpvelv tov Gedy cumotdpevot, mpods
TO TEAet Tav GOav THy oikeiay Tpoai-
peat emedeikyvov' kal of nev, Iarépa
KAI Yidv as éudripoy edd€alov" of dé,
Ilarépa "EN Yio 1H wapévOece ths
mpobecews Sevrepevew tov Yidy dmo-
aivovres’ dyéder tor Trovrav &dé
Yeyernpevoor, aropav 6 tu rounoee
Aedyrios, 6s kata révde Tov xpévoy ék

Sicire Opdvov, kadvew pev OvK EmeE-
xeipnoe Tovs Kata THY TapddooL THs
ev Nixaia ouvddov Tov Gedy tpvodyras”
ededier yap, pr oTacidon TO TAGs.
héeyerat Se rhs Kehadns epayrduevos,
tm modias AevKns ovens, Elmeiy, os
* ravtnat THs xLdvos AvOeions, Todds
* Zora mnAds.”” |
78 1 Cor. viii. 63 xii. 3, 4, 13.

St. Basil blamed for altering it. 185

- thereof unto him likewise by virtuous offices, doth not every BOOK V.
_ tongue both ways confess, that the brightness of his glory hath

_ spread itself throughout the world éy the ministry of his only-
begotten Son, and is az the manifold graces of the Spirit every
way marvellous; again, that whatsoever we do to his glory,
it is done im the power of the Holy Ghost, and made accept-
able dy the merit and mediation of Jesus Christ ? So that glory
to the Father and the Son, or glory to the Father 4y the Son,
saving only where evil minds do abuse and pervert most holy
things, are not else the voices of error and schism, but of |
sound and sincere religion.

[r1.] It hath been the custom of the Church of Chiat to
end sometimes prayers, and sermons always, with words of
glory ; wherein, as long as the blessed Trinity had due honour,
and till Arianism had made it a matter of great sharpness and
subtilty of wit to be a sound believing Christian, men were
not curious what syllables or particles of speech they used.
Upon which confidence and trust notwithstanding when St.
Basil began to practise the like indifferency, and to conclude
public prayers, glorifying sometime the Father with the Son
and the Holy Ghost, sometime the Father dy the Son im the
Spirit, whereas long custom had inured them unto the former
kind alone, by means whereof the latter was new and strange
in their ears; this needless experiment brought afterwards
upon him a necessary labour of excusing himself to his friends,
and maintaining his own act against them, who because the
light of his candle too much drowned theirs, were glad to lay
hold on so colourable matter, and exceeding forward to traduce
him as an author of suspicious innovation79.

How hath the world forsaken that course which it sometime
held! How are the judgments, hearts, and affections of men
altered! May we not wonder that a man of St. Basil’s au-
thority and quality, an arch-prelate in the house of God,
should have his name far and wide called in question, and be
driven to his painful apologies, to write in his own defence

79 [De Sp. Sancto, cap. 1. tit. iii.
P- 3- D. Tpoevxoperp peou mpaony
pera Tov daov, kal ayuporépas THY
Sofokoyiay drromhnpovyre TO deo kat
Tarpi, vov pev pera rod Yiow ctv TO
Tvevpare TO ‘Ayia, vov oe bua TOU
Yiod ev rH “Ayio Ivevpari, éréokn-

yav Ties TOY TapdyTaY, erCovoais
npas povais KexpnoGa Aeyovres, kau
dua mpos addAndas brevaytins €xov-
gas. ‘To explain and justify him-
self was his immediate object in
writing the Treatise of the Holy
Ghost. |

186 Warnings against Heresy not yet superfluous.

nook v. whole volumes, and yet hardly to obtain with all his endeavour

uno pardon, the crime Jaid against him being but only a change
of some one or two syllables in their usual church liturgy ?
It was thought in him an unpardonable offence to alter any
thing ; in us as intolerable that we suffer any thing to remain
unaltered. The very Creed of Athanasius and that sacred
Hymn of Glory, than which nothing doth sound more hea-
venly in the ears of faithful men, are now reckoned as
superfluities, which we must in any case pare away, lest we
cloy God with too much service. Is there in that confession
of faith any thing which doth not at all times edify and
instruct the attentive hearer? Or is our faith in the blessed
Trinity a matter needless to be so oftentimes mentioned and
opened in the principal part of that duty which we owe to
God, our public prayer? Hath the Church of Christ from the
first beginning by a secret universal instinct of God’s good
Spirit always tied itself to end neither sermon nor almost any
speech of moment which hath concerned matters of God
without some special words of honour and glory to that
Trinity which we all adore; and is the like conclusion of
psalms become now at the length an eyesore or a galling to
their ears that hear it?

[12.] “ Those flames of Arianism” they say “are quenched,
«‘ which were the cause why the Church devised in such sort
“ to confess and praise the glorious deity of the Son of God.
“ Seeing therefore the sore is whole, why retain we as yet the
“ plaister? When the cause why any thing was ordained
* doth once cease, the thing itself should cease with it, that
“the Church being eased of unprofitable labours, needful
“ offices may the better be attended. For the doing of things
“ unnecessary, is many times the cause why the most neces-
“‘ sary are not done.” But in this case so to reason will not
serve their turns.

For first, the ground whereupon they build is not certainly
their own but with special limitations. Few things are so
restrained to any one end or purpose that the same being ex-
tinct they should forthwith utterly become frustrate. Wisdom
may have framed one and the same thing to serve commodi-
ously for divers ends, and of those ends any one be sufficient
cause for continuance though the rest have ceased; even as

Intrinsic Excellence of our Church Warnings. 187

_ the tongue, which nature hath given us for an instrument of
speech, is not idle in dumb persons, because it also serveth
for taste. Again, if time have worn out, or any other mean
altogether taken away what was first intended, uses not thought
upon before may afterwards spring up, and be reasonable
causes of retaining that which other considerations did for-
merly procure to be instituted. And it cometh sometime to
pass that a thing unnecessary in itself as touching the whole
direct purpose whereto it was meant or can be applied, doth
notwithstanding appear convenient to be still held even with-
out use, lest by reason of that coherence which it hath with
somewhat most necessary, the removal of the one should en-
damage the other; and therefore men which have clean lost
the possibility of sight keep still their eyes nevertheless in the
place where nature set them.

As for these two branches whereof our question groweth,
Arianism was indeed some occasion of the one, but a cause of
neither, much less the only entire cause of both. For albeit
conflict with Arians brought forth the occasion of writing that
Creed which long after was made a part of the church liturgy,
as hymns and sentences of glory were a part thereof before ;
yet cause sufficient there is why both should remain in use, the
one as a most divine explication of the chiefest articles of our
Christian belief, the other as an heavenly acclamation of joyful
applause to his praises in whom we believe; neither the one
nor the other unworthy to be heard sounding as they are in
the Church of Christ, whether Arianism live or die.

[13.] Against which poison likewise if we think that the
Church at this day needeth not those ancient preservatives
which ages before us were so glad to use, we deceive ourselves
greatly. The weeds of heresy being grown unto such ripe-
ness as that was, do even in the very cutting down scatter
oftentimes those seeds which for a while lie unseen and buried
in the earth, but afterward freshly spring up again no less
pernicious than at the first. Which thing they very well know
and I doubt not will easily confess, who live to their great both
toil and grief, where the blasphemies of Arians, Samosateni-
ans, Tritheites, Eutychians, and Macedonians®® are renewed ;

80 [Bezato Duditius,Tract.iii.r91. ‘ Tritheite, Ariani, Samosateni.”
** Vestrarum ecclesiarum turbatores Id. Pref. ad Explic. Perfid, Val.

BOOK YV.

Ch. xlii. 13.

188

St. Athanasius’ Creed to be kept im the Inturgy

renewed by them who to hatch their heresy have chosen
those churches as fittest nests, where Athanasius’ Creed is not
heard8!; by them I say renewed, who following the course of
extreme reformation, were wont in the pride of their own pro-
ceedings to glory ®*, that whereas Luther did but blow away

Gent.13. ‘Ecce in unico Serveto
“‘ revocati sunt ab inferis Samosate-
* nus, Arius, et Eutyches.” The
Macedonian heresy was especially
advocated by Stator, a pupil of Beza,
in a Polish synod, 1561. Fleury,
t. xxxii. 1.157, c. 80. |

81 [It would seem on comparison
of the several confessions of the
Protestant churches, (vid. Syntagm.
Confess. Gen. 1554,) that this ex-
pression, “is not heard,” can hardly
mean the total exclusion of this
Creed from the Church formularies,
since they almost all recognise it.
Vid. Conf. Helv. c. 11; Gallican.
c.5; Saxon. c.1; Wirtemb. c. 1;
and (although less expressly) Bo-
hem. art.3. It remains that Hooker
must be supposed to mean the ex-
clusion of the Creed from the public
liturgy: in which case his remark
applies more especially to the Cal-
vinistic and Zuinglian churches, as
also to the Bohemian or Moravian:
which two denominations formed the
majority of the Polish protestants.
Accordingly we find Valentinus Gen-
tilis declaring that among the
churches, such as they were, he con-
sidered those of Savoy to be the
purest. See “ Benedicti Arretini,
** Bernensis, Valentini Gentilis bre-
*‘vis Historia,” p. 45. Socinus
himself was for some time at Geneva.
Blandrata, Francis David, Lismani-
ni, and others, the chief corrupters
of the Polish and Transylvanian
churches, passed through Calvinism
or Zuinglianism to their heresy. See
Sandius, Bibl. Anti-Trinit. pag. 28 ;
Lubieniecius, Hist. Reform. Polon.
ii. 2; Contin. of Fleury, Hist. Ec-
cles. c]xii. 82. For the annoyance
they gave Calvin in the church of
Geneva itself, see his life by Beza,
A.D. 1553, 1555, 1558. After the
execution of Gentilis in Sept. 1566,
a kind of official pamphlet was
printed at Geneva, drawn up by

Calvin, and entitled, “ Explicatio
‘“* Perfidiee Valentini Gentilis;” in
the preface of which, addressed by
Beza to the protestants of Transyl-
vania and Poland, is the following :
** Quanti vobis illa Blandrate vocu-
“la, unius Dei, constiterit, an non-
“dum animadvertitis, cum hoc a
* vobis in vestro catechismo sit ex-
*tortum, ut non modo Symbola
** reliqua preter illud quod Aposto-
* licum vocant supervacanea nisi ad
“‘contradicendum scriberetis, sed
** etiam Essentize, Hypostaseos, Ho-
** mousil, ceeteraque id genus voca-
** bula, ut sophistica, repudiaretis ?”
Calvin had said, writing “ad Fratres
** Polonos,” p. 794, *‘ Valde miror
eos qui Symbolum” (Niczenum)
** jactant, fastidiose respuere certum
“et idoneum ejus interpretem.”
The theological terms however, and
all Creeds except the Apostles’, were
disused the same year (1562) by
decree of the Polish synod at
Pinczow. Hist. Ref. Polon. 186. |

82 ['The allusion here is perhaps to
a Tract called ‘Tabula de ‘Trini-
“ tate,” published about 1562, by
Gregorio Pauli, a minister of Cra-
cow, which gave occasion to Calvin’s
writing his ‘‘ Brevis Admonitio ad
** Fratres Polonos.”” The “Tabula”
was also attacked by Vigand of Po-
merania, from whose work the fol-
lowing extract is given in the Ex-
plic. Perfid. V.G. p.77. ‘* Luthero
“‘ vix minimam partem revelationis
“et destructionis Antichristi relin-
*‘quunt, nempe superioris tantum
“tecti in edificio Antichristiano
*‘denudationem. At sibimet isti
** spiritus arrogant Antichristi exci-
“ sionem et extirpationem ab imis
“usque fundamentis.” Bened.
Aret. in Hist. Val. Gent. p. 44.
“ Gentilis apud Regem Sigismun-
«dum conqueritur, Lutherum, Zu-
* inglium, Bucerum, in oppugnando
** Antichristo, solum occupatos fu-

as a Safeguard against modern Heresies. 189 .

BOOK VY.
Ch. xliii, 1.

the roof, and Zuinglius batter but the walls of popish super-
- gtition, the last and hardest work of all remained, which was
to raze up the very ground and foundation of popery, that
doctrine concerning the deity of Christ which Satanasius 8?
_ (for so it pleased those impious forsaken miscreants to speak)
hath in this memorable creed explained. So manifestly true
is that which one of the ®4ancient hath concerning Arianism, ”
_€ Mortuis auctoribus hujus veneni, scelerata tamen eorum
© doctrina non moritur :” “ The authors of this venom being
«‘ dead and gone, their wicked doctrine notwithstanding con-
“ tinueth.”
XLII. Amongst the heaps of these excesses and super- our want
fluities, there is espied the want of a principal part of duty, of partion:
« There are no thanksgivings for the benefits for which there giving.
“are petitions in our book of prayer®’’.” This they have
thought a point material to be objected. Neither may we take
it in evil part to be admonished what special duties of thank-
fulness we owe to that merciful God, for whose unspeakable
graces the only requital which we are able to make is a true,
hearty, and sincere acknowledgment how precious we esteem
such benefits received, and how infinite in goodness the Author

a

*isse in caudze oppugnatione, so-
** Jumque Philippum ex tot millibus
** unum fuisse, qui quasi aliud agens
*‘lethale vulnus ei potius minari
** quam infligere videatur. Idem
* facit Gregorius ille Paulus. Scri-
“bit Deum per Lutherum cepisse
** ecclesiam Antichristi a tecto demo-
* liri, non a fundamento, ne domus
** putrida eum opprimeret. Scilicet
** quia negotium ‘Trinitatis inconvul-
‘sum reliquerunt.” The epitaph
of Faustus Socinus, who died 1604,
runs thus:
‘* Tota licet [jacet ?] Babylon; destruxit tecta
** Lutherus,

** Calvinus muros, sed fundamenta Socinus.”
Biogr. Univ. Art. Socin.

It seems likely that the notion
about the Pope’s triple crown, men-
tioned by Hooker, b. iv. c. viii. 2,
had met his eye in the ‘ Table’ above
mentioned. |

88 [ Fleury, (speaking of Val. Gen-
tilis,) xxxiil. 162, go. ‘Il fit un
** recueil de tous ses erreurs, les pre-
“ senta au roi Sigismond Auguste

** comme des pures vérités de l’évan-
‘“‘ gile, et parla d’une mahiére in-
** digne du symbole de S. Athanase,
** qu’il appelle le symbole de Satan.”
It was probably the work which he
had printed before at Lyons, con-
cerning which, see Explic. Perfid.
Gent. p. 31. and Bened.Aret. in Hist.
Val. Gent. pp. 11, 12.]
. 84 Pheebad. cont. Arian. [278.]
85 T. C. lib. i. p. 138. fr. “ As
“* such prayers are needful, whereby
** we beg release from our distresses,
“so there ought to be as necessary
* prayers of thanksgiving when we
“ have received those things at the
** Lord’s hand which we asked.”
T.C. lib. iii. p. 209. ‘ I do not sim-
** ply require a solemn and express
** thanksgiving for such benefits, but
‘** only upon a supposition, which is,
* that if it be expedient that there
** should be express prayers against
** so many of their earthly miseries,
** that then also it is meet that upon
** the deliverance there should be an
* express thanksgiving.”

190 Want of special Thanksgioigs accounted for :

from whom they come. But that to every petition we make :

ha for things needful there should be some answerable sentence 5

of thanks provided particularly to follow such requests ob-—
tained, either it is not a matter so requisite as they pretend;
or if it be, wherefore have they not then in such order framed
their own Book of Common Prayer? Why hath our Lord ©
and Saviour taught us a form of prayer containing so many —
petitions of those things which we want, and not delivered in
like sort as many several forms of thanksgiving to serve when —
any thing we pray for is granted? What answer soever they
can reasonably make unto these demands, the same shall dis- —
cover unto them how causeless a censure it is that there are
not in our book thanksgivings for all the benefits for which —
there are petitions *®. |

[2.] For concerning the blessings of God, whether they tend ©
unto this life or the life to come, there is great cause why we ©
should delight more in giving thanks, than in making requests —
for them; inasmuch as the one hath pensiveness and fear, the —
other always joy annexed; the one belongeth unto them that
seek, the other unto them that have found happiness; they
that pray do but yet sow, they that give thanks declare they
have reaped. Howbeit because there are so many graces
whereof we stand in continual need, graces for which we may
not cease daily and hourly to sue, graces which are in bestow-
ing always, but never come to be fully had in this present
life ; and therefore when all things here have an end, endless
thanks must have their beginning in a state which bringeth
the full and final satisfaction of all such perpetual desires:
again, because our common necessities, and the lack which
we all have as well of ghostly as of earthly favours is in each
kind so easily known, but the gifts of God according to those
degrees and times which he in his secret wisdom seeth meet,
are so diversely bestowed, that it seldom appeareth what all
receive, what all stand in need of, it seldom lieth hid: we are
not to marvel though the Church do oftener concur in suits
than in thanks unto God for particular benefits.

86 T. C. lib. iii, p. 208. “The “ petitions to be delivered.” [The
2 default of the Book, for that there Forms as they now stand not having
are no forms of thanksgivings for been inserted until the reign of
“the release from those common James I.]
* calamities from which we have

their Purpose answered by Psalms and Hymns. 191

' [3.] Nevertheless lest God should be any way unglorified, soox v.

- the greatest part of our daily service they know consisteth,
- according to the blessed Apostle’s own precise rule87, in
- much variety of Psalms and Hymns, for no other purpose, but
- only that out of so plentiful a treasure there might be for
_ every man’s heart to choose out his own sacrifice, and to offer
- unto God by particular secret instinct what fitteth best the
- often occasions which any several either party or congregation
may seem to have. ‘They that would clean take from us
_ therefore the daily use of the very best means we have to
- magnify and praise the name of Almighty God for his rich
blessings, they that complain of our reading and singing so
many psalms for so good an end, they I say that find fault
with our store should of all men be least willing to reprove
our scarcity of thanksgivings.

[4.] But because peradventure they see it is not either

generally fit or possible that churches should frame thanks-

givings answerable to each petition, they shorten somewhat
the reins of their censure; “there are no forms of thanks-
“ giving $8,” they say, “ for release of those common calamities
“ from which we have petitions to be delivered.” ‘There
“ are prayers set forth to be said in the common calamities
“ and universal scourges of the realm, as plague, famine, &c.
“and indeed so it ought to be by the word of God. But
“as such prayers are needful, whereby we beg release from
“ our distresses, so there ought to be as necessary prayers of
“ thanksgiving, when we have received those things at the
* Lord’s hand which we asked in our prayers.” As oft there-
fore as any public or universal scourge is removed, as oft
as we are delivered from those either imminent or present
calamities, against the storm and tempest whereof we all
instantly craved favour from above, let it be a question what
we should render unto God for his blessings universally,
sensibly and extraordinarily bestowed. A prayer of three or
four lines inserted into some part of our church liturgy?
No, we are not persuaded that when God doth in trouble
enjoin us the duty of invocation, and promise us the benefit
of deliverance, and profess that the thing he expecteth
87 Ephes. v.19; Coloss. iii. 16. 8 T. C. lib.i. p. 138.

Ch. xliii. 3, 4.

BOOK V.
Ch. xliii. Se
xliv.1.

In some
things the
Matter of
our Prayer,
as they
affirm, un-
sound,

192 Supposed Faults in the Matter of the Inturgy.

after at our hands is to glorify him as our mighty and only —
Saviour, the Church can discharge in manner convenient
a work of so great importance by fore-ordaining some short —
collect wherein briefly to mention thanks. Our custom
therefore whensoever so great occasions are incident, is by
public authority to appoint throughout all churches set and
solemn forms as well of supplication as of thanksgiving, the
preparations and intended complements whereof may stir up
the minds of men in much more effectual sort, than if only
there should be added to the Book of Prayer that which they
require. |

[5.] But we err in thinking that they require any such
matter. For albeit their words to our understanding be very
plain, that in our book “there are prayers set forth” to be
said when “ common calamities” are felt, as “ plague, famine,”
and such like; again that “indeed so it ought to be by the
‘«< word of God ;” that likewise “there ought to be as neces-
« sary prayers of thanksgiving when we have received those
“ things ;” finally that the want of such forms of thanksgiving
for the release from those common calamities from which we
have petitions to be delivered, is the “ default of the Book
* of Common Prayer :” yet all this they mean but only by
way of “supposition, if express prayers” against so many
earthly miseries were convenient, that then indeed as many
express and particular thanksgivings should be likewise ne-
cessary. Seeing therefore we know that they hold the one
superfluous, they would not have it so understood as though
their minds were that any such addition to the book is need-
ful, whatsoever they say for argument’s sake concerning this
pretended defect. The truth is, they wave in and out, no
way sufficiently grounded, no way resolved what to think,
speak, or write, more than only that because they have taken
it upon them, they must (no remedy now) be opposite.

XLIV. The last supposed fault concerneth some few
things, the very matter whereof is thought to be much amiss,
Ina song of praise to our Lord Jesus Christ we have these
words, “ When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, |
“ thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.”
Which maketh some show of giving countenance to their

Supposed Allusion in Te Deum to the State of the Dead. 198

error, who think that the faithful which departed this life

before the coming of Christ, were never till then made

_ partakers of joy, but remained all in that place which they
term the “ Lake of the Fathers*9,”

In our liturgy request is made that we may be preserved

“from sudden death.” ‘This seemeth frivolous, because the

_ godly should be always prepared to die.

Request is made that God would give those things which
we for our unworthiness dare not ask. “This,” they say,
“ carrieth with it the note of popish servile fear, and savoureth
«not of that confidence and reverent familiarity that the
“ children of God have through Christ with their heavenly
¢ Father.”

Request is made that we may evermore be defended from
all adversity. For this “there is no promise in Scripture,”
and therefore “ it is no prayer of faith, or of the which we can
assure ourselves that we shall obtain it.”

Finally, request is made that God “would have mercy
“upon all men.” ‘This is impossible, because some are the
vessels of wrath to whom God will never extend his mercy.

XLV. As Christ hath purchased that heavenly kingdom when thon
the last perfection whereof is glory im the life to come, grace hadst over-
in this life a preparation thereunto; so the same he hath yee
* opened” to the world in such sort, that whereas none can owe
possibly without him attain salvation, by him “all that believe” open the
are saved. Now whatsoever he did or suffered, the end eo aigy of
thereof was to open the doors of the kingdom of heaven unto all

which our iniquities had “shut up.” But because by ascend. "U°V"

BOOK VY.
Ch. xlv.1.

89 [2 Adm. 58. ed.1617. “ Things
“there are maintained by some of
‘*them which are not agreeable to
“the Scripture: namely, the false
** interpretation of this clause in our
** Creed, ‘ He descended into hell ;’
‘** which is expressly set down con-
“trary to the Scriptures in the
“Creed made in metre in these
** words :

‘“ ¢ His spirit did after this descend
** Into the lower parts,

** To them that long in darkness were,
** The true light of their hearts.’

“Tf they can warrant this out of
HOOKER, VOL. II.

‘the Scriptures, then ‘ Limbus
** Patrum’ and within a while Pur-
* gatory will be found out there.”
See in Nichols on the 3d Article, p.
47, an account taken from Bishop
Montague’s Apparatus, p. 49, &c.
of a disputation on this doctrine at
Cambridge, 1599, in which Bishop
Overall dealt with the same reserve
as Hooker here. Neither Cartwright
nor the Admonitioners, nor the
Book of Discipline, took this ex-
ception to the “Te Deum;” so far
at least as the Editor has yet been
able to ascertain. |

Oo

194 How Christ’s Ascension opened Heaven to Believers.

Booky. ing after that the sharpness of death was overcome, he took 4
a the very local possession of glory, and that to the use of all
that are his, even as himself before had witnessed, “I go to —
« prepare a place for you ;” and again, “ Whom thou hast

« given me, O Father, [ will that where I am they be also with —
‘me, that my glory which thou hast given me they may ©
« behold’! :” it appeareth that when Christ did ascend he then —
most Jiberally opened the kingdom of heaven, to the end that —
with him and by him all believers might reign.

[2-] In what estate the Fathers rested which were dead
before, it is not hereby either one way or other determined.
All we can rightly gather is, that as touching their souls
what degree of joy or happiness soever it pleased God to
bestow upon them, 4s ascension which succeeded procured —
theirs, and theirs concerning the body must needs be not only —
of but after his. As therefore Helvidius% against whom —
St. Jerome writeth, abused greatly those words of Matthew

i
.

concerning Joseph and the mother of our Saviour Christ,
« He knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born,” —
thereby gathering against the honour of the blessed Virgin, —
that a thing denied with special circumstance doth import an —
opposite affirmation when once that circumstance is expired: —
after the selfsame manner it should be a weak collection, if ©
whereas we say that when Christ had “ overcome the sharp- —
“ ness of death, he then opened the kingdom of heaven to all —
“ believers ;”” a thing in such sort affirmed with circumstance —
were taken as insinuating an opposite denial before that —
circumstance be accomplished, and consequently that because —
when the sharpness of death was overcome he then opened —
heaven as well to believing Gentiles as Jews, heaven till then
was no receptacle to the souls of either. Wherefore be the
spirits of the just and righteous before Christ truly or falsely
thought excluded out of heavenly joy; by that which we in
the words alleged before do attribute to Christ’s ascension, —
there is to no such opinion nor to the favourers? thereof any

% John xiv. 2, * contradicunt, ut eam post Chris-
91 John xvii. 24. “tum alios quoque filios de viro
_ % Hieron. contra Helvid. [in ‘suo Joseph peperisse conten-
init. t. il. 7.] August. Her. lxxxiv. “ dant.’’]
[t. vili, 24, “ Helvidiani exorti ab 93 pore i. 25. |
** Helvidio, ita virginitati Marie 4 Lyra super Gen. xxix. [xxv.

The Judgment of Natural Piety on sudden Death. 195

BOOK V.

- countenance at all given. We cannot better interpret the BOOK

meaning of these words than Pope Leo himself expoundeth
them, whose speech concerning our Lord’s ascension may
serve instead of a marginal gloss: “ Christ’s exaltation is our
“ promotion, and whither the glory of the head is already
* sone before, thither the hope of the body also is to follow.
« For as this day we have not only the possession of paradise
assured unto us, but in Christ we have entered the highest
“ of the heavens?.” His “ opening the kingdom of heaven”
and his entrance thereinto was not only to his own use but for
the benefit of “ all believers.”

XLVI. Our good or evil estate after death dependeth most Touching
upon ‘the quality of our lives. Yet somewhat there is why 5" ini
a virtuous mind should rather wish to depart this world with from sud-
a kind of treatable dissolution, than to be suddenly cut off in sine
a moment; rather to be taken than snatched away from the
face of the earth.

Death is that which all men suffer, but not all men with
one mind, neither all men in one manner. For being of
necessity a thing common, it is through the manifold per-
suasions, dispositions, and occasions of men, with equal desert
both of praise and dispraise, shunned by some, by others
desired. So that absolutely we cannot discommend, we cannot
absolutely approve, either willingness to live or forwardness
to die.

And concerning the ways of death, albeit the choice thereof
be only in his hands who alone hath power over all flesh,
and unto whose appointment we ought with patience meekly
to submit ourselves (for to be agents voluntarily in our own
destruction is against both God and nature) ; yet there is no
doubt but in so great variety, our desires will and may law-

Add. ii. on the expression, ‘ Con-
‘ gregatus est ad populum suum.’
‘‘ De nonnullis sanctis antiqui tes-
“‘ tamenti, cum de hac vita migra-
‘* verant, Scriptura dicit ipsos con-
* gregari ad populum suum:.....
** nunquam tamen de aliquo eorum
“ dicitur quod ‘ obdormivit in Do-
“ mino.’” marg. “ Ante Christum
“nemo ascendit in cceelum,” i. p.
303 A. ed. Douay, 1617. And on
c. xlix. v.4. * Patres....quantum-

“* cunque justi, non admittebantur
“ad regnum, sed descendebant ad
* Limbum.” 467 C.] Tho. [Aquin.]
p. iii. q. 52. [t. xii. 168. ]

9% Leo Ser. 1. de Ascens. c. 4.
[** Christi ascensio, nostra provectio
* est, et quo processit gloria capitis,
** eo spes vocatur et corporis.....
** Hodie enim non solum Paradisi
*‘ possessores firmati sumus, sed
** etiam ceelorum in Christo superna
** penetravimus.”’ |

02

196 Sudden Death an Evil, as abridging Preparation ;

Book y. fully prefer one kind before another. Is there any man of
Ch. xlvi 2. orth and virtue, although not instructed in the school of

Christ, or ever taught what the soundness of religion mean-
eth, that had not rather end the days of this transitory —
life as Cyrus in Xenophon, or in Plato Socrates are described,
than to sink down with them of whom Elihu hath said, Mo-
mento moriuntur%, ‘there is scarce an instant between their
“« flourishing and their not bemg?” But let us which know
what it is to die as Absalon or Ananias and Sapphira died,
let us beg of God that when the hour of our rest is come, the
patterns of our dissolution may be Jacob%, Moses9, Joshua99,
David!; who leisurely ending their lives in peace, prayed
for the mercies of God to come upon their posterity ; replen-
ished the hearts of the nearest unto them with words of
memorable consolation; strengthened men in the fear of
God; gave them wholesome instructions of life, and con-
firmed them in true religion; in sum, taught the world no
less virtuously how to die than they had done before how
to live.

[2.] To such as judge things according to the sense of
natural men and ascend no higher, suddenness because it
shorteneth their grief should in reason be most acceptable.
That which causeth bitterness in death is the languishing
attendance and expectation thereof ere it come. And there-
fore tyrants use what art they can to increase the slowness of
death. Quick riddance out of life is often both requested and
bestowed as a benefit. Commonly therefore it is for virtuous
considerations that wisdom so far prevaileth with men as to
make them desirous of slow and deliberate death against the
stream of their sensual inclination, content to endure the
longer grief and bodily pain, that the soul may have time to
call itself to a just account of all things past, by means where-
of repentance is perfected, there is wherein to exercise
patience, the joys of the kingdom of heaven have leisure to
present themselves, the pleasures of sin and this world’s
vanities are censured with uncorrupt judgment, charity is free
to make advised choice of the soil wherein her last seed may
most fruitfully be bestowed, the mind is at liberty to have due

% Job xxxiv. 20. 97 Heb. xi. 21. 9 Deut. xxxiii.
% Josh, xxiv. 1 Kings ii.

and as appearing like a Token of God’s Anger. 197

regard of that disposition of worldly things which it can never
afterwards alter, and because? the nearer we draw unto God,
the more we are oftentimes enlightened with the shining
beams of his glorious presence as being then even almost in
sight, a leisurable departure may in that case bring forth for
the good of such as are present that which shall cause them
for ever after from the bottom of their hearts to pray, “O let
“us die the death of the righteous, and let our last end be
« Jike theirs.” All which benefits and opportunities are by
sudden death prevented.

[3.] And besides forasmuch as death howsoever is a general
effect of the wrath of God against sin, and the suddenness
thereof a thing which happeneth but to few; the world in
this respect feareth it the more as being subject to doubtful
constructions, which as no man willingly would incur, so they
whose happy estate after life is of all men’s the most certain
should especially wish that no such accident in their death
may give uncharitable minds occasion of rash, sinister, and
suspicious verdicts, whereunto they are over prone; so that
whether evil men or good be respected, whether we regard our-
selves or others, to be preserved from sudden death is a blessing
of God. And our prayer against it importeth a twofold desire :
first, that death when it cometh may give us some convenient
respite; or secondly, if that be denied us of God, yet we may

2 Cypr. de Mortal. [i. 162.

*‘mortis extinguant, an cervicem
“‘Pavore mortalitatis et temporis

** flectant superbi, an audaciam leni-

* accenduntur tepidi, constringun-
“tur remissi, excitantur ignavi,
* desertores compelluntur ut red-
* eant, gentiles aguntur ut credant,
“ vetus fidelium populus ad qui-
** etem vocatur, ad aciem recens et
** copiosus exercitus robore fortiore
* colligitur, pugnaturus sine metu
*‘ mortis cum prelium venerit, qui
‘ad militiam tempore mortalitatis
* accedit. Quid deinde illud, fratres
* dilectissimi, quale est, quam per-
*‘ tinens, quam necessarium, quod
“ pestis ista et lues, que horribilis
“ et feralis videtur, explorat justiti-
‘** am singulorum, et mentes humani
“generis examinat....an feroces
‘*‘ violentiam suam comprimant, an
*‘ rapaces avaritiz furentis insatia-
*‘bilem semper ardorem vel metu

‘* ant improbi, an pereuntibus caris,
** vel sic aliquid divites indigentibus
* lagiantur, et donent sine hzrede
* morituri. Ut nihil aliud morta-
*€ litas ista contulerit, hoc Christianis
** et Dei servis plurimum prestitit,
** quod martyrium ccepimus libenter
“ appetere, dum mortem discimus
“non timere. Exercitia sunt nobis
‘* ista, non funera; dant animo for-
** titudinis gloriam, contemtu mortis
“ preparant ad coronam.’’....and
p- 163. ‘‘Audivit frater noster et
** collega moriturus quod ceteris
“ diceret. Nam qui moriturus au-
** divit, ad hoc audivit ut diceret.
** Audivit non sibi ille, sed nobis.
** Nam quid sibi disceret jam reces-
*‘surus? Didicit immo remanen-
“tibus....”] | % Numb. xxiii. 10.

BOOK V.

Ch, xlvii,1, 2.

Prayer
that those
things
which we
for our un-
worthiness
dare not
ask, God,
for the
worthiness
of his Son,
would
vouchsafe
to grant.

198

have wisdom to provide always beforehand that those evils
overtake us not which death unexpected doth use to bring
upon careless men, and that although it be sudden in itself,
nevertheless in regard of our prepared minds it may not be
sudden.

XLVII. But is it credible that the very acknowledgment
of our own unworthiness to obtain, and in that respect our
professed fearfulness to ask any thing otherwise than only for
his sake to whom God can deny nothing, that this should be
noted for a popish error, that this should be termed baseness,
abjection of mind, or “servility,” is 1t credible? That which
we for our unworthiness are afraid to crave, our prayer is that
God for the worthiness of his Son would notwithstanding
vouchsafe to grant. May it please them to shew us which
of these words it is that “ carrieth the note of popish and
“ servile fear? ?”

[2.] In reference to other creatures of this inferior world
man’s worth and excellency is admired. Compared with God,
the truest inscription wherewith we can circle so base a coin
is that of David, “ Universa vanitas est omnis homo>: Who-

Confession of our Unworthiness not Popish.

4T.C. lib.i. p.136. [107.] “This
“ request carrieth with it still the
“ note of the popish servile fear, and
** savoureth not of that confidence
“and reverent familiarity that the
“children of God have through
“* Christ with their heavenly Father.”
[For as we dare not without our
** Saviour Christ ask so much as a
** crumb of bread, so there is nothing
‘which in his name we dare not
** ask, being needful for us; and if
** it be not needful why should we
“ ask it??? Comp. Whitg. Def. 493;
T. C. iii. 202—4. There are two
collects against which this charge is
brought by Cartwright ; the first
that for the 12th Sunday after Tri-
nity, which before the last review
ended as follows: “ giving unto us
** that, that our prayer dare not pre-
** sume to ask: through Jesus Christ
“our Lord.” “ Ut dimittas que
** conscientia metuit, et adjicias que
* oratio non preesumit.” Miss. Sar,
fol. cvii. ap. Palmer, Orig. Liturg. i.
349: The other collect (‘one of

*‘ those which are to be said after
* the Offertory, as it is termed, is
* done.”...T.C. ubi sup.) remains
unaltered. Mr. Palmer (ii. 162.)
was unable to trace it “in any very
* ancient formularies,”’ N. ap. Sarav.
Art.4. “Quod Dominica xii™@ post
“ Trinit. in collecta dicitur, Deum
‘‘ea nobis dare, que petere ab eo
‘“‘ preces nostre non ausint presu-
“* mere: interpretor ex eodem loco
** Deum vota nostra et preevenire et
“ superare. Sed verbis illis si quis
* inhereat, papisticam diffidentiam
* stabilire videantur, contra infinita
** Scripture loca.” Resp. “ Quis
“tu? que tua est auctoritas? que
* eruditio? ut sine ulla ex verbo
** Dei demonstratione audeas dam-
* nare tam sanctam, tam humilem,
*‘ tam piam orationem? ....Annon
“multa sunt in Dei arcanis, que
‘* fidelibus suis Deus dare decrevit,
*‘ qui tamen illa petere non aude-
* rent??? He instances in Solomon,
Joseph, Mordecai. ]
5 Psalm xxxix. 5.

The Unworthy may well be afraid to ask. 199

“ soever hath the name of a mortal man, there is in him
“ whatsoever the name of vanity doth comprehend.” And
therefore what we say of our own “ unworthiness” there is no
doubt but truth will ratify. Alleged in prayer it both be-
cometh and behoveth saints. For as humility is in suitors
a decent virtue, so the testification thereof by such effectual
acknowledgements, not only argueth a sound apprehension of
his supereminent glory and majesty before whom we stand,
but putteth also into his hands a kind of pledge or bond for
security against our unthankfulness, the very natural root
whereof is always either ignorance, dissimulation, or pride:
ignorance, when we know not the author from whom our
good cometh; dissimulation, when our hands are more open
than our eyes upon that we receive; pride, when we think
ourselves worthy of that which mere grace and undeserved
mercy bestoweth. In prayer therefore to abate so vain imagi-
nations with the true conceit of unworthiness, is rather to pre-
vent than commit a fault.

[3.] It being no error thus to think, no fault thus to speak
of ourselves when we pray, is it a fault that the consideration
of our unworthiness maketh us fearful to open our mouths by
way of suit? While Job had prosperity and lived in honour,
men feared him for his authority’s sake, and in token of their
fear when they saw him they “hid themselves?.” Between
Elihu and the rest of Job’s familiars the greatest disparity was
but in years. And he, though riper than they in judgment,
doing them reverence in regard of age, stood long “doubtful,”
and very loth to adventure upon speech in his elders’ hear-
ing’. If so small inequality between man and man make their
modesty a commendable virtue, who respecting superiors as
superiors, can neither speak nor stand before them without
fear: that the publican approacheth not more boldly to God;
that when Christ in mercy draweth near to Peter, he in
humility-and fear craveth distance; that being to stand, to
speak, to sue in the presence of so great majesty, we are
afraid, let no man blame us.

6 Phil. de Sacrif. Abel. et Cain. 7 Job xxix. 8. Amongst the parts

p- 138 C.] Mepynpevos yap ris of honour Aristotle reckoneth rpoo-
iSias mapa mdvra ovdeveias pepynon Kuvioets and éxoraces. Rhet. lib. i.

kal THs TOD Oeod mapa mavta bmep- C.5.
Bodjs. 8 Job xxxii. 6.

BOOK V.
Ch. xlvii. 4.
xlviii. 1.

Prayer to
be ever-
more de-
livered
from all ad-
versity.

200 Prayer as the opening of Man’s Heart to God,

[4.} In !°which consideration notwithstanding because to
fly altogether from God, to despair that creatures unworthy
shall be able to obtain any thing at his hands, and under that
pretence to surcease from prayers as bootless or fruitless offices,
were to him no less injurious than pernicious to our own
souls; even that which we tremble to do we do, we ask those
things which we dare not ask. The knowledge of our own
unworthiness is not without belief in the merits of Christ.
With that true fear which the one causeth there is coupled
true boldness, and encouragement drawn from the other. The
very silence which our unworthiness putteth us unto, doth
itself make request for us, and that in the confidence of his
gracel1, Looking inward we are stricken dumb, looking
upward we speak and prevail. O happy mixture, wherein
things contrary do so qualify and correct the one the danger
of the other’s excess, that neither boldness can make us pre-
sume as long as we are kept under with the sense of our own
wretchedness ; nor, while we trust in the mercy of God through
Christ Jesus, fear be able to tyrannize over us! As therefore
our fear excludeth not that boldness which becometh saints 12;
so if their familarity'® with God do not savour of this fear,
it draweth too near that irreverent confidence wherewith true
humility can never stand.

XLVIII. Touching continual deliverance in the world
from all adversity, their conceit is that we ought not to ask it
of God by prayer, forasmuch as in Scripture there is no pro-
mise that we shall be evermore free from vexations, calamities,
and troubles 14,

10 T. C. lib. iii. p. 203. “ The pub-
*‘ ican did indeed not lift up his
** eyes: so that if by his example we
* should say we dare ask nothing,
“we ought also to ask nothing:
** otherwise instead of teaching true
** humility, we open a school to hypo-
** crisy, which the Lord detesteth.”

11 [Whitg. Def. 494. “This kind
** of prayer doth not savour of mis-
“trust, but rather of great confi-
** dence in the mercy of God, at
“ whose hands we crave those things
*‘ which we are of ourselves unwor-
* thy to ask or receive.’”]

* Rom. v. 2; viii.1g; Heb.x.19.

13 [T. C. iii. 204. * Our Saviour

** Christ will have set before us most
“ amiable names” (of a Father and
a Friend) ‘‘ when we come to prayer :
*‘ to engender in us a reverent fami-
** liarity with him. And the bold-
“ness that the children of God
“ought to have so much passeth
** that which we use to any of our
“most dearest friends, as we are
“more assured of his love than of
* theirs.””

14 T, C, lib. i. p. 136. [107. ap.
Whitg. Def. 491.] “ Forasmuch as
*“‘ there is no promise in the Scrip-
** ture that we should be free from
‘all adversity and that evermore,
* it seemeth that this prayer might

may be im Hath, though without Assurance to obtaim. 201

[2.] Minds religiously affected are wont in every thing of (BOOK V.
weight and moment which they do or see, to examine ac- —-——
- eording unto rules of piety what dependency it hath on God,
what reference to themselves, what coherence with any of
those duties whereunto all things in the world should lead, and
accordingly they frame the inward disposition of their minds
sometime to admire God, sometime to bless him and give him
_ thanks, sometime to exult in his love, sometime to implore his
mercy. All which different elevations of spirit unto God are
contained in the name of prayer. Every good and holy desire
though it lack the form, hath notwithstanding in itself the
substance and with him the force of a prayer, who regardeth the
very moanings, groans, and sighs of the heart of man. Peti-
tionary prayer belongeth only to such as are in themselves
impotent, and stand in need of relief from others. We thereby
declare unto God what our own desire is that he by his power
should effect. It presupposeth therefore in us first the want
of that which we pray for; secondly, a feeling of that want ;
thirdly, an earnest willingness of mind to be eased therein ;
fourthly, a declaration of this our desire in the sight of God,
not as if he should be otherwise ignorant of our necessities,
but because we this way shew that we honour him as our God,
and are verily persuaded that no good thing can come to pass
which he by his omnipotent power effecteth not.

[3.] Now because there is no man’s prayer acceptable whose
person is odious, neither any man’s person gracious without
faith, it is of necessity required that they which pray do be-
lieve. The prayers which our Lord and Saviour made were
for his own worthiness accepted ; ours God accepteth not but
with this condition, if they be joined with!> belief in Christ.

The prayers of the just are accepted always, but not always
those things granted for which they pray. For in prayer if
faith and assurance to obtain were both one and the same
thing, seeing that the effect of not obtaining is a plain testi-
mony that they which prayed were not sure they should

‘‘ have been better conceived, being ‘ needeth some caution or excep-
* no prayer of faith, or of the which “ tion.’’]
“we can assure ourselves that we ~ 1 “ Oratio que non fit per Chris-
“ shall obtain it.” [He adds, ““What- “tum non solum non potest delere
* soever can be alleged for the de- “‘ peccatum, sed etiam ipsa fit [in]
** fence of it, yet every one which is ‘“‘ peccatum.”’ Aug. Enar, in Psal.
* not contentious may see that it viii. [§ 9. t. iv.1219.]

BOOK V.
Ch. xiviii. 4.

202 Prayer without express promise lawful.

obtain, it would follow that their prayer being without certainty
of the event, was also made unto God without faith, and con-
sequently that God abhorred it. Which to think of so many
prayers of saints as we find have failed in particular requests,
how absurd were it! His faithful people have this comfort, that
whatsoever they rightly ask, the same no doubt but they shall
receive, so far as may stand with the glory of God, and their
own everlasting good, unto either of which two it is no vir-
tuous man’s purpose to seek or desire to obtain any thing pre-
judicial, and therefore that clause which our Lord and Saviour
in the prayer of his agony did express, we in petitions of like
nature do always imply, “ Pater, si possibile est, If it may stand
‘« with thy will and pleasure.” Or if not, but that there be
secret impediments and causes in regard whereof the thing we
pray for is denied us, yet the prayer itself which we make is
a pleasing sacrifice to God, who both accepteth and rewardeth
in some other way. So that sinners in very truth are denied
when they 16 seem to prevail in their supplications, because it
is not for their sakes or to their good that their suits take
place; the faithful contrariwise, because it is for their good
oftentimes that their petitions do not take place, prevail even
then when they most’? seem denied. “Our Lord God in
“ anger hath granted some impatient men’s requests!8, as on
“ the other side the Apostle’s suit he hath of favour and mercy
“ not granted,” saith St. Augustine. :

[4.] To think we may pray unto God for nothing but what
he hath promised in Holy Scripture we shall obtain, is per-
haps an error. For of prayer there are two uses. It serveth
as a mean to procure those things which God hath pro-
mised to grant when we ask; and it serveth as a mean
to express our lawful desires also towards that, which
whether we shall have or no we know not till we see the
event. Things in themselves unholy or unseemly we may
not ask ; we may whatsoever being not forbidden either nature
or grace shall reasonably move us to wish as importing the
good of men, albeit God himself have nowhere by promise
assured us of that particular which our prayer craveth. To

16 Numb. xi. 33: 1 Sam. viii. 7: “ Nonnullis impatientibus Dominus
Jobi.12; ii.6: Luke viii. 32. ** Deus quod petebant concessit ira-

7 2 Cor. xii. 7-9. ** tus, sicut contra Apostolo negavit

'8 Aug. Epist.ad Probam viduam, “ propitius.”’]
Ep. 121. [al. 130. ¢. 14. ii. 392 B.

Our Saviour prayed without Promise. 203

_ pray for that which is in itself and of its own nature apparently ook v.

a thing impossible, were not convenient. Wherefore though
_men do without offence wish daily that the affairs which with
evil success are past might have fallen out much better, yet
to pray that they may have been any other than they are, this
being a manifest impossibility in itself, the rules of religion do
not permit. Whereas contrariwise when things of their own
nature contingent and mutable are by the secret determination
of God appointed one way, though we the other way make
our prayers, and consequently ask those things of God which
are by this supposition impossible, we notwithstanding do not
hereby in prayer transgress our lawful bounds.

[5-] That Christ, as the only begotten Son of God, having
no superior, and therefore owing honour unto none, neither
standing in any need, should either give thanks, or make
petition unto God, were most absurd. As man what could
-beseem him better, whether we respect his affection to God-
ward, or his own necessity, or his charity and love towards
men? Some things he knew should come to pass and not-
withstanding prayed for them, because he also knew that the
Necessary means to effect them were his prayers. As in the
Psalm it is said, “ Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen
* for thine inheritance and the ends of the earth for thy
nossession!9.”” Wherefore that which here God promiseth
his Son, the same in the seventeenth of John? he prayeth
for: “ Father, the hour is now come, glorify thy Son, that
“ thy Son also may glorify thee according as thou hast given
** him power over all flesh.”

But had Christ the like promise concerning the effect of
every particular for which he prayed? That which was not
effected could not be promised. And we know in what sort
he prayed for removal of that bitter cup, which cup he tasted,
notwithstanding his prayer?1.

[6.] To shift off this example?? they answer first?3, “ That

19 Psalm ii. 8. * sion removed from him; which
20 John xvii. I, 2. ‘“* undoubtedly he knew before would
21 Matt. xxvi. 39; Mark xiv. 36; “ not be granted unto him.’’]

Luke xxii. 42. 23'T.C. lib. ili. p. 200. “ Nei-

22 [Which had been alleged by ‘“ ther did our Saviour Christ pray
Whitg. Def. 492. ‘Christ himself ‘ without promise; for as other the
** prayed to have the cup of his pas- “ children of God to whose con-

- Xlviii. 5, 6.

BOOK V.

Ch, xlviii. 7.

204 Prayer, the event being doubtful, allowed by the Puritans.

“as other children of God, so Christ had a promise of
« deliverance as far as the glory of God in the accomplishment
“ of his vocation would suffer.”

And if we ourselves have not also in that sort the promise
of God to be evermore delivered from all adversity, what
meaneth the sacred Scripture to speak in so large terms,
« Be obedient, and the Lord thy God will make thee plen-
“ teous in every work of thy hand, in the fruit of thy body,
“ and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of the land
“ for thy wealth24.” Again, “ Keep his laws, and thou shalt
<< be blest above all people, the Lord shall take from thee all
“ infirmities?5.” “The man whose delight is in the Law
“ of God, whatsoever he doeth it shall. prosper®®,” For the
“ ungodly there are great plagues remaining ; but whosoever
“ putteth his trust in the Lord mercy embraceth him on every
“ side27.’ Not only that mercy which keepeth from being
overlaid or oppressed*8, but mercy which saveth from being
touched with grievous miseries, mercy which turneth away
the course of “the great water-floods,” and permitteth them
not to “ come near29.”

[7.] Nevertheless, because the prayer of Christ did con-
cern but one calamity, they are still bold to deny the law-
fulness of our prayer for deliverance out of all, yea though
we pray with the same exception that he did, “If such
« deliverance may stand with the pleasure of Almighty God
“and not otherwise.” For they have secondly found out
a rule®° that prayer ought only to be made for deliverance
“ from this or that particular adversity, whereof we know not
“ but upon the event what the pleasure of God is.” Which

* dition he had humbled himself

“have, so had he a promise of

** deliverance so far as the glory of
** God in the accomplishment of his
** vocation would suffer.”

24 Deut. xxx. 9.

25 Deut. vii.15. 26 Psalmi. 4.

27 Psalm xxxil. 11.

28 (T.C. iii. 201. “He citeth
“the ninety-first Psalm, that ‘no
“ evil shall come to thee.’. . .It must
*‘ not be understood that the afflic-
** tions shall not touch us ; which is
“manifest, in that, assigning the
“manner of performance of these

“promises, he saith, that ‘the
** Lord will be with him in his
“ trouble, and deliver him ;’ noting
* that he shall be in trouble, which
‘is contrary to that, that ‘he shall
* be free from all trouble.’ So that,
* to accord the Scripture with itself,
‘** the meaning of the promise must
“needs be, that he shall not be
“ overlaid or oppressed, but con-
“trarily, that the afflictions shall
** serve, as the Apostle saith, to his
** good.”’]

29 Psalm xxxil. 7.

30 'T. C. lib. iii. p. 201.

Christ in His Agony prayed not ignorantly. 205

quite overthroweth that other principle wherein they require
_ unto every prayer which is of faith an assurance to obtain
the thing we pray for. At the -first to pray against all
adversity was unlawful, because we cannot assure ourselves
that this will be granted. Now we have license to pray against
any particular adversity, and the reason given because we
know not but upon the event what God will do. If we know
not what God will do, it followeth that for any assurance we
have he may do otherwise than we pray, and we may faith-
fully pray for that which we cannot assuredly presume that
— God will grant.

[8.] Seeing therefore neither of these two answers will serve
the turn, they have?! a third, which is, that to pray in such
sort is but idly mispent labour, because God already hath
revealed his will touching this request, and we know that the
suit is denied before we make it. Which neither is true, and
if it were, was Christ ignorant what God had determined
touching those things which himself should suffer? To say®2,
“ He knew not what weight of sufferances his heavenly
« Father had measured unto him,” is somewhat hard; harder
that although “ he knew them” notwithstanding for the pre-
sent time they were “forgotten through the force of those
* unspeakable pangs which he then was in.” The one against
the plain express words of the holy Evangelist, “ he knew

BOOK YV.

Ch. xlviii, 8.

* all things that should come upon him?3;” the other less .

credible if any thing may be of less credit than what the
Scripture itself gainsayeth. Doth any of them which wrote
his sufferings make report that memory failed him? Is there
in his words and speeches any sign of defect that way? Did
not himself declare before whatsoever was to happen in the

31 T. C. lib. iii. p. 201. “ We
** ought not to desire to be free from
* all adversity if it be his will, con-
** sidering that he hath already de-
** clared his will therein.”

82 T.C. lib. iii. p. 201. [“ I deny
“that at that time he made that
** prayer to his holy Father he ‘ knew
“he should not obtain.’ For al-
‘though he knew that he should
“suffer, yet if I answer that as
* touching his humanity he knew
‘not the most infinite and extreme
‘weight of sufferance which God

* his heavenly Father had measured
* unto him; or knowing them had
* through the unspeakable force of
“the pangs which he then was in
‘forgotten them; I see not how
“ this answer may not be maintained
‘as a Christian and catholic an-
* swer.” Cartwright finishes his
paragraph with the following sen-
tence. “He” (Whi@pift) “hath much
** other fog to this purpose, but not
** worth the stay
33 John xviii. 4.

BOOK V.
Ch. xviii. 9.

206 Two Wills in Jesus Christ—Distraction

course of that whole tragedy? Can we gather by any thing
after taken from his own mouth either in the place of public
judgment or upon the altar of the cross, that through the
bruising of his body some part of the treasures of his soul
were scattered and slipped from him? If that which was
perfect both before and after did fail at this only middle
instant, there must appear some manifest cause how it came
to pass. True it is that the pangs of his heaviness and grief
were unspeakable: and as true that because the minds of the
afflicted do never think they have fully conceived the weight
or measure of their own woe, they use their affection as a
whetstone both to wit and memory, these as nurses to feed
erief, so that the weaker his conceit had been touching that
which he was to suffer, the more it must needs in that hour
have helped to the mitigation of his anguish. But his anguish
we see was then at the very highest whereunto it could possibly
rise; which argueth his deep apprehension even to the last
drop of the gall which that cup contained, and of every cir-
cumstance wherein there was any force to augment heaviness,
but above all things the resolute determination of God and his
own unchangeable purpose, which he at that time could not
forget.

[9.] To what intent then was his prayer, which plainly
testifieth so great willingness to avoid death? Will, whether

It be m God or man, belongeth to the essence and nature of

both. The Nature therefore of God being one, there are not
in God divers wills although Godhead be in divers persons,
because the power of willing is a natural not a personal
propriety. Contrariwise, the Person of our Saviour Christ
being but one there are in him two wills, because two
natures, the nature of God and the nature of man, which
both do imply this faculty and power. So that in Christ there
is a divine and there is an human will, otherwise he were
not both God and man. MHereupon the Church hath of old
condemned Monothelites as heretics, for holding that Christ
had but one will. The works and operations of our Saviour’s
human will were all subject to the will of God, and framed
according to his law, “I desired to do thy will O God, and
“ thy law is within mine heart#4.”
34 Psalm xl. 8. ; bie

of our Lord’s Human Will in His Agony. 207

Now as man’s will so the will of Christ hath two several
kinds of operation, the one natural or necessary, whereby
it desireth simply whatsoever is good in itself, and shunneth
as generally all things which hurt; the other deliberate,
when we therefore embrace things as good, because the eye
of understanding judgeth them good to that end which we
simply desire. Thus in itself we desire health, physic only
for health’s sake. And in this sort special reason oftentimes
causeth the will by choice to prefer one good thing before
another, to leave one for another’s sake, to forego meaner
for the attainment of higher desires, which our Saviour like-
wise did.

These different inclinations of the will considered, the
reason is easy how in Christ there might grow desires seeming
but being not indeed opposite, either the one of them unto the
other, or either of them to the will of God. For let the
manner of his speech be weighed®>, “ My soul is now
* troubled, and what should I say? Father, save me out
“of this hour. But yet for this very cause am I come
“into this hour.” His purpose herein was most effectually
to propose to the view of the whole world two contrary
objects, the like whereunto in force and efficacy were never
presented in that manner to any but only to the soul of
Christ. There was presented before his eyes in that fearful
hour on the one side God’s heavy indignation and wrath
towards mankind as yet unappeased, death as yet in full
strength, hell as yet never mastered by any that came
within the confines and bounds thereof, somewhat also perad-
venture more than is either possible or needful for the wit of
man to find out, finally himself flesh and blood left*® alone to
enter into conflict with all these37; on the other side, a

35 John xii. 27.

36 «« Non potuit divinitas humani-
* tatem et secundum aliquid dese-
*‘ ruisse, et secundum aliquid non
* deseruisse? Subtraxit protec-
** tionem,sed non separavit unionem.
** Sic ergo dereliquit ut non adjuva-
*‘ ret, sed non dereliquit ut recede-
‘ret. Sic ergo humanitas a divini-
“ tate in passione derelicta est. [de-
“relictam se clamabat.] Quam
*‘tamen mortem quia non pro sua
*‘iniquitate sed pro nostra redemp-

** tione sustinuit, quare sit derelicta
** requirit, non quasi adversus Deum
*‘de poena murmurans sed nobis
‘‘innocentiam suam in poena de-
“ monstrans.” Hug. de Sacram.
lib. ii, part. 1. cap.10. Deus meus,
utquid dereliquisti me ? vox est nec
ignorantie, nec ddliffidentiz, nec
querelz, sed admirationis tantum,
que aliis investigande cause ardo-
rem et diligentiam acuat.
37 Matt, xxvii. 46.

BOOK V.

Ch, xlviii. 10.

208 God’s Will, and Christs Human Will.

world to be saved by one, a pacification of wrath through
the dignity of that sacrifice which should be offered, a
conquest over death through the power of that Deity which
would not suffer the tabernacle thereof to see corruption,
and an utter disappointment of all the forces of infernal
powers, through the purity of that soul which they should
have in their hands and not be able to touch. Let no man
marvel that in this case the soul of Christ was much troubled.
For what could such apprehensions breed but (as their nature
is) inexplicable passions of mind, desires abhorring what they
embrace, and embracing what they abhor? In which agony
“ how should the tongue go about to express” what the soul
endured? When the griefs of Job were exceeding great,
his words accordingly to open them were many; howbeit,
still unto his seeming they were undiscovered: “'Though my
“ talk” (saith Job) “ be this day in bitterness, yet my plague is
“ oreater than my groaning’.” But here to what purpose
should words serve, when nature hath more to declare than
groans and strong cries, more than streams of bloody sweats,
more than his doubled and tripled prayers can express, who
thrice putting forth his hand to receive that cup, besides
which there was no other cause of his coming into the world,
he thrice pulleth it back again, and as often even with
tears of blood craveth, “ If it be possible, O Father: or if
* not, even what thine own good pleasure is,” for whose sake
the passion that hath in it a bitter and a bloody conflict even
with wrath and death and hell is most welcome?9,

[10.] Whereas. therefore we find in God a will resolved
that Christ shall suffer; and in the human will of Christ two
actual desires, the one avoiding, and the other accepting
death ; is that desire which first declareth itself by prayer
against that wherewith he concludeth prayer, or either of
them against his mind to whom prayer in this case seeketh ?
We may judge of these diversities in the will, by the like in
the understanding. For as the intellectual part doth not cross
itself by conceiving man to be just and unjust when it meaneth
not the same*man, nor by imagining the same man learned
and unlearned, if learned in one skill, and in another kind

88 Job xxiii. 2,
%9 [Compare Pearson on the Creed, p. 190, 191. ed. 1692.]

how reconciled in His Agony. 209

of learning unskilful, because the parts of every true op-
position do always both concern the same subject, and have
reference to the same thing, sith otherwise they are but in
show opposite and not in truth: so the will about one and the
_ same thing may in contrary respects have contrary inclinations
and that without contrariety. The minister of justice may for
_ public example to others, virtuously will the execution of that
party, whose pardon another for consanguinity’s sake as
_ virtuously may desire. Consider death in itself, and nature
_ teacheth Christ to shun it; consider death as a mean to pro-
cure the salvation of the world, and mercy worketh in Christ
all willingness of mind towards it4°. Therefore in these two
desires there can be no repugnant opposition. Again, compare
them with the will of God, and if any opposition be, it
must be only between his appointment of Christ’s death, and

_ the former desire which wisheth deliverance from death. But

neither is this desire opposite to the will of God. The will of
God was that Christ should suffer the pains of death. Not so
his will, as if the torment of innocency did in itself please
and delight God, but such was his will in regard of the end
whereunto it was necessary that Christ should suffer. The
death of Christ in itself therefore God willeth not, which to
the end we might thereby obtain life he both alloweth and
_ appointeth. In like manner the Son of man endureth willingly
to that purpose those grievous pains, which simply not to
have shunned had been against nature, and by consequent
against God. |

[r1.] I take it therefore to be an error that Christ either
knew not what himself was to suffer, or else had forgotten the
things he knew. The root of which error was an over-
restrained consideration of prayer, as though it had no other
lawful use but only to serve for a chosen mean, whereby the
will resolveth to seek that which the understanding certainly
knoweth it shall obtain: whereas prayers in truth both ours
are and his were, as well sometime a presentation of mere
desires, as a mean of procuring desired effects at the hands of
God. We are therefore taught by his example, that the
presence of dolorous and dreadful objects even in minds most
perfect, may as clouds overcast all sensible joy; that no

40 Isa. lili. 10; John x. 15.
HOOKER, VOL, II. P

BOOK V.
Ch. xviii. 11.

BOOK V.

Ch, xlviii. 12.

210 Lawfuiness of Prayer against all Sin.

assurance touching future victories can make present conflicts
so sweet and easy but nature will shun and shrink from them,
nature will desire ease and deliverance from oppressive
burdens; that the contrary determination of God is oftentimes
against the effect of this desire, yet not against the affection
itself, because it is naturally in us; that in such case our
prayers cannot serve us as means to obtain the thing we
desire; that notwithstanding they are unto God most accept-
able sacrifices, because they testify we desire nothing but at
his hands, and our desires we submit with contentment to be
overruled by his will, and in general they are not repugnant
unto the natural will of God which wisheth to the works of his
own hands in that they are his own handy work all happiness,
although perhaps for some special cause in our own particular a
contrary determination have seemed more convenient ; finally,
that thus to propose our desires which cannot take such
effect as we specify, shall notwithstanding otherwise procure
us His heavenly grace, even as this very prayer of Christ
obtained Angels to be sent him as comforters in his agony*!.
And according to this example we are not afraid to present
unto God our prayers for those things which that he will
perform unto us we have no sure nor certain knowledge.

[12.] St. Paul’s prayer for the church of Corinth was that
they might not do any evil4?, although he knew that no man
liveth which sinneth not, although he knew that in this life we
always must pray, “ Forgive us our sins43.” It is our frailty
that in many things we all do amiss, but a virtue that we would
do amiss in nothing, and a testimony of that virtue when we
pray that what occasion of sin soever do offer itself we
may be strengthened from above to withstand it. They pray
in vain to have sin pardoned which seek not also to prevent
sin by prayer, even every particular sin by prayer against all
sin; except men can name some transgression wherewith we
ought to have truce. For in very deed although we cannot be
free from all sin collectively in such sort that no part thereof
shall be found inherent in us, yet distributively at the least
all great and grievous actual offences as they offer themselves

4! Luke xxii. 43. “may not pray in this life to be
a 2 Cor. xill. 7. “ free from all sin, because we must
48T.C. lib. ili, p. 200. “We “ always pray, Forgive us our sins.”

In what Sense such Prayer may be realized. 211

one by one both may and ought to be by all means avoided. So
that in this sense to be preserved from all sin is not impossible*+.

[13.] Finally, concerning deliverance itself from all adver-
sity, we use not to say men are in adversity whensoever they
feel any small hinderance of their welfare in this world, but
when some notable affliction or cross, some great calamity or
trouble befalleth them. ‘Tribulation hath in it divers circum-
stances, the mind sundry faculties to apprehend them: it
offereth sometime itself to the lower powers of the soul as a
most unpleasant spectacle, to the higher sometimes as drawing
after it a train of dangerous inconveniences, sometime as
bringing with it remedies for the curing of sundry evils, as
God’s instrument of revenge and fury sometime, sometime
as a rod of his just yet moderate ire and displeasure,
sometime as matter for them that spitefully hate us to
exercise their poisoned malice, sometime as a furnace of
trial for virtue to shew itself, and through conflict to obtain
glory. Which different contemplations of adversity do work

44 (Chr. Letter, p.15. “ Whether
** you meane, that it is possible for
“‘ all Christians to be preserved from
“all great sinnes: and if so, why
** should it not be as possible from
“all small offences: and if from
*‘ small and great, why doe we not
“‘ keepe our robe pure and without
** spot untill the comming of Christ,
“and so bee justified more and
** more by our works, as the popish
** canons teach ?”

Hooker, MS. note. “ Vid. August.
“de Civ. Dei, lib. xiv. cap. 9.”
(“Illa que drdéea Greece dicitur,
** que si Latine posset, impassibili-
‘tas diceretur, si ita intelligenda
* est,.....ut sine his affectionibus
* vivatur, que contra rationem acci-
** dunt, mentemque perturbant, bona
“* plane et maxime optanda est, sed
“nec ipsa est hujus vite. Non
“enim qualiumcunque hominum
‘“* vox est, sed maxime piorum mul-
“ tumquejustorum atquesanctorum,
“* Si dixerimus quoniam peccata non
** habemus, nos ipsos seducimus, et
“ veritas in nobis non est. Tunc
*itaque amd@ea ista erit, quando
** peccatum in homine nullum erit.
** Nunc vero satis bene vivitur, si
“sine crimine: sine peccato autem

** qui se vivere existimat, non id
* agit ut peccatum non habeat, sed
** ut veniam non accipiat.”’)

** Apostolus ordinandos precipit
** non qui sine peccato sunt, sed qui
‘* sine crimine.”’ (He seems to refer
tor Tim. il. 2; Tit. i. 7.) “Nam
“alias nemo ordinari possit, teste
* johanne epist. prima. Having
*‘ bent yourself before against the
“ necessitie of all vertue, you are
“now an enemie to the invocation
** of God’s aid against all vice.

* Vid. August. Enchirid. c. 64, de
*‘ discrimine criminis et peccati.”
(“ Fili- Dei...sic Spiritu§ Dei
“ excitantur,.....ut etiam spiritu
* suo, maxime aggravante corrupti-
*‘ bili corpore, tanquam filii homi-
“ num quibusdam humanis motibus
‘* deficiant ab seipsos, et ideo pec-
“cent. Interest quidem quantum ;
‘neque enim quia peccatum est
“‘omne crimen, ideo crimen est
*‘omne peccatum. Itaque sancto-
* rum hominum vitam quamdiu in
** hac mortali-vivitur, inveniri posse
** dicimus sine crimine: ‘ Peccatum
** autem si dixerimus quia non ha-
* bemus,’ ut ait tantus Apostolus,
“ ‘nosmet ipsos seducimus, et veri-
** tas in nobis non est,’ ”’) t. vi. 220. |

PZ

BOOK V.
Ch. xlviii. 13.

BOOK V.
Ch. xlviii.13.

212 Of the Prayer against ali Adversity.

for the most part their answerable effects. Adversity either
apprehended by sense as a thing offensive and grievous to
nature; or by reason conceived as a snare, and occasion of
many men’s falling from God, a sequel of God’s indignation
and wrath, a thing which Satan desireth and would be glad
to behold; tribulation thus considered being present causeth
sorrow, and being imminent breedeth fear. For moderation
of which two affections growing from the very natural bitter-
ness and gall of adversity, the Scripture much allegeth contrary
fruits which affliction likewise hath whensoever it falleth on
them that are tractable4®, the grace of God’s Holy Spirit con-
curring therewith.

But when the Apostle St. Paul teacheth 47, “That every one
“ which will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecu-
tion,” and “by many tribulations we must enter into the
« kingdom of heaven48,” because in a forest of many wolves
sheep cannot choose but feed in continual danger of life; or
when St. James exhorteth to “ account it a matter of exceeding
“joy when we fall into divers temptations*9,” because “ by
“ the trial of faith patience is brought forth ;” was it suppose
we their meaning to frustrate our Lord’s admonition “ Pray
“that ye enter not into temptation?” When himself pro-
nounceth them blessed that should for his name’s sake be sub-
ject to all kinds of ignominy and opprobrious malediction, was
it his purpose that no man should ever pray with David,
** Lord, remove from me shame and contempt*°?”

“In those tribulations” (saith St. Augustine*!) “ which
* may hurt as well as profit, we must say with the Apostle,
** What we should ask as we ought we know not, yet because
“they are tough, because they are grievous, because the
** sense of our weakness flieth them, we pray according to the

46 Psalm cxix. 71.
47 2 Tim. iii. 12. T.C. lib. iii. p.
200. “'T'o pray against persecution,

*‘desse et nocere, quid oremus
** sicut oportet nescimus: et tamen
‘quia dura, quia molesta, quia

‘fis contrary to that word which
* saith, that every one which will
‘live godly in Christ Jesu must
* suffer persecution,”

48 [Aes xiv. 22. |

49 James i. 2, 3.

50 Psalm cxix. 22.

>! Aug. Epist. cxxi. [al. exxx.]
c. 14. [t. ii. 392. In his ergo tri-
* bulationibus, que possunt et pro-

* contra sensum nostre infirmitatis
‘** sunt, universali humana voluntate
** ut anobis auferantur oramus. Sed
“hoc devotionis debemus Domino
** Deo nostro, ut siea non abstulerit,
“non ideo nos ab eo negligi existi-
“*memus, sed potius pia patientia
**malorum bona speremus amplio-
“ra; sic enim virtus in infirmitate
“ perficitur.’”]

Prayer that all Men may be saved. 213

_ & general desire of the will of man that God would turn them BOOK V.
“ away from us, owing in the meanwhile this devotion to the ———
« Lord our God, that if he remove them not, yet we do not
“ therefore imagine ourselves in his sight despised, but rather
“ with godly sufferance of evils expect greater good at his
“ merciful hands. For thus is virtue in weakness perfected.”

To the flesh (as the Apostle himself granteth) all affliction

is naturally grievous®?. Therefore nature which causeth to
fear teacheth to pray against all adversity. Prosperity in re-
gard of our corrupt inclination to abuse the blessings of Al-
mighty God, doth prove for the most part a thing dangerous
to the souls of men. Very ease itself is death to the wicked,
“ and the prosperity of fools slayeth them* ;” their table is
a snare, and their felicity their utter overthrow. Few men
there are which long prosper and sin not. Howbeit even as
these ill effects although they be very usual and common are
no bar to the hearty prayers whereby most virtuous minds
wish peace and prosperity always where they love, because
they consider that this in itself is a thing naturally desired :
so because all adversity is in itself against nature, what should
hinder to pray against it, although the providence of God
turn it often unto the great good of many men? Such prayers
of the Church to be delivered from all adversity are no more
repugnant to any reasonable disposition of men’s minds to-
wards death, much less to that blessed patience and meek
contentment which saints by heavenly inspiration have to
endure what cross or calamity soever it pleaseth God to iay
upon them, than our Lord and Saviour’s own prayer before
his passion was repugnant unto his most gracious resolution
to die for the sins of the whole world.

XLIX. In praying for deliverance from all adversity we Prayerthat
seek that which nature doth wish to itself; but by entreating ehg q
for mercy towards all, we declare that affection wherewith mercy, and
Christian charity thirsteth after the good of the whole world, oa
we discharge that duty which the Apostle himself doth im- all men
pose on the Church of Christ as a commendaéle office, a sacri- ey aa
fice acceptable in God’s sight, a service according to his heart
whose desire is “to have all men saved>+,” a work most
suitable with his purpose who gave himself to be the price of

52 (Heb. xii, 11.] 58 Prov. i. 32. 54 y Tim. ii. 3.

BOOK V.

Ch. xlix. 2.

214 How Prayers for the Salvation of all Men,

redemption jor ai/, and a forcible mean to procure the conver-
sion of all such as are not yet acquainted with the mysteries
of that truth which must save their souls. Against it there
is but the bare show of this one impediment, that all men’s
salvation and many men’s eternal condemnation or death are
things the one repugnant to the other, that both cannot be
brought to pass; that we know there are vessels of wrath to
whom God will never extend mercy, and therefore that wit-
tingly we ask an impossible thing to be had>5.

[2.] The truth is that as life and death, mercy and wrath
are matters of mere understanding or knowledge, all men’s
salvation and some men’s endless perdition are things so oppo-
site that whosoever doth affirm the one must necessarily deny
the other, God himself cannot effect both or determine that
both shall be. There is in the knowledge both of God and
man this certainty, that life and death have divided between
them the whole body of mankind. What portion either of
the two hath, God himself knoweth; for us he hath left no
sufficient means to comprehend, and for that cause neither
given any leave to search in particular who are infallibly the
heirs of the kingdom of God, who castaways. Howbeit con-
cerning the state of all men with whom we live (for only of
them our prayers are meant) we may till the world’s end, for
the present, always presume, that as far as in us there 1s power
to discern what others are, and as far as any duty of ours
dependeth upon the notice of their condition in respect of
God, the safest axioms for charity to rest itself upon are
these: “ He which believeth already is ;” and “ he which be-
“ lieveth not as yet may be the child of God.” It becometh
not us°® “during life altogether to condemn any man, see-
“ ing that” (for any thing we know) “there is hope of every
“‘ man’s forgiveness, the possibility of whose repentance is

59 [1 Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 739. men shall be saved.”’]
‘They pray that all men may be *6 Sidon. Apol. lib. vi. Epist. [11.
“saved.” Whitgift, Answer, ibid. “ Ad Eleutherium. Judzeum presens
al. 253. ‘We do so indeed; and “ charta commendat; non quod mi-
“‘ what can you allege why we should “ hi placeat error, per quem pereunt
“not do so? St. Paul saith, Iex- “involuti, sed quia neminem ipso-

“hort that supplications, &c. be
*‘ made for all men. And adding the
** reason he saith, For this is good
** and acceptable in the sight of God
* our Saviour: who will that all

‘yum nos decet ex asse damnabi-
“lem pronunciare, dum vivit. In
“spe enim adhuc absolutionis est,
“ cui suppetit posse converti.” Bibl.
Patr. Colon. v. pars i. 1020. B.]

though not simply granted, may be acceptable. 215

— not yet cut off by death.” And therefore Charity which
_ &hopeth all things*7,” prayeth also for all men.

_ [3.] Wherefore to let go personal knowledge touching ves-
sels of wrath and mercy, what they are inwardly in the sight
of God it skilleth not, for us there is cause sufficient in all
- men whereupon to ground our prayers unto God in their be-
half. For whatsoever the mind of man apprehendeth as good,
_ the will of charity and love is to have it enlarged in the very
uttermost extent, that all may enjoy it to whom it can any
way add perfection. Because therefore the farther a good
_ thing doth reach the nobler and worthier we reckon it, our
prayers for all men’s good no less than for our own the
Apostle with very fit terms commendeth as being xaddv, a
work commendable for.the largeness of the affection from
whence it springeth, even as theirs, which have requested at
_ God’s hands the salvation of many with the loss of their own
souls58, drowning as it were and overwhelming themselves in
the abundance of their love towards others, is proposed as
being in regard of the rareness of such affections tmépxadov,
more than excellent. But this extraordinary height of desire
after other men’s salvation is no common mark. The other
is a duty which belongeth unto all and prevaileth with God
daily. For as it is in itself good, so God accepteth and
taketh it in very good part at the hands of faithful men. Our
prayers for all men do include both them that shall find
mercy, and them also that shall find none. For them that
shall, no man will doubt but our prayers are both accepted
and granted. Touching them for whom we crave that mercy
which is not to be obtained, let us not think that59 our
Saviour did misinstruct his disciples, willing them to pray for
the peace even of such as should be uncapable of so great a
blessing ; or that the prayers of the © Prophet Jeremy offended
God because the answer of God was a resolute denial of favour
to them for whom supplication was made. And if any man
doubt how God should accept such prayers in case they be
opposite to his will, or not grant them if they be according
unto that which himself willeth, our answer is that such suits
God accepteth in that they are conformable unto his general

57 y Cor. xiii. 7. 59 Matt. x. 11, 12.
58 Rom. ix. 3, 8; x.1. 60 Jer. xv. I.

BOOK Vy.

Ch. xix. 3.

216 The Will of God, revealed to guide our Actions,

. inclination which is that all men might be saved, yet always

he granteth them not, forasmuch as there is in God sometimes
a more private occasioned will®! which determineth the con-
trary. So that the other being the rule of our actions and
not this, our requests for things opposite to this will of God
are not therefore the less gracious in his sight.

[4.] There is no doubt but we ought in all things to frame
our wills to the will of God, and that otherwise in whatsoever
we do we sin. For of ourselves being so apt to err, the only
way which we have to straighten our paths is by following
the rule of his will whose footsteps naturally are right. If the
eye, the hand, or the foot do that which the will commandeth,
though they serve as instruments to sin, yet is sin the com-
mander’s fault and not theirs, because nature hath absolutely
and without exception made them subjects to the will of man
which is Lord over them. As the body is subject to the will
of man, so man’s will to the will of God; for so it behoveth
that the better should guide and command the worse. But
because the subjection of the body to the will is by natural
necessity, the subjection of the will unto God voluntary ; we

61 [Chr. Letter, p.17. “ Have we
“not cause to fear that the wittie
** schoolmen have seduced you, and
“by their conceited distinctions
“made you forget, ‘That you are
*‘ neither able nor worthie: to open
‘* and looke into the booke of God’s
“law, by which he guideth the
** worlde?’ (see before, b.i. c. ii. 5.)
** And yet you will say, There is in
** God an occasioned will.”

Hooker, MS. note. “The booke
** of that law I presume no farther to
* looke into, then all men may and
** ought thereof to take notise. I
** have [not] adventured to ransack
** the bosome of God, and to search
** out what is there to be read con-
** cerning every particular man, as
** some have done. Vis divine mag-
* nitudinis et nota nobis objecit et
*‘ignota. Tertul. Contra Gent. p.
** 634. (p.18. B. Paris. 1641. ‘ Hoc
‘est quod Deum estimari facit,
** dum estimari non capit: ita eum
*‘ vis magnitudinis et notum homi-
* nibus objecit et ignotum.”) Dionys.
* p. 367.” (unmore ody dAnbes eireiv,

ri Ocdv ywwmoKoper, OVK Ek THS avTOD
piocws' &yvwotoy yap TovTo, kal mav=
Ta \dyov Kal vody Umepaipov’ GAN’ &k
THs TavTeav Tay bvTav Siard&ews’ . «+
516 kal €v maow 6 Geds ywwaokerat,
kal xopis mavrav’ Kat dia yvaoews,
6 Gcds ywwookerat, kal dia dyvocias*
kal €otw avrov kal vdnois Kal Adyos
kal émiotnun Kal éradn kal aicOnors
kal 86£a kat havyracia Kal dvoua Kat
Ta Ga tava’ Kal ore voeirat ovre
Aeyerat ore dvondera.) “and 433.”
(Aeydpevov aippnrov péever Kal vooupe-
vov dyvecrov.) Ed. Paris. 1562.

Again, Chr. Letter, ibid. ‘* Where
** is that God you speake of in your
** first booke, ‘of whom and through
‘whom and for whom are all
** things ?”?””

Hooker, MS. note. “‘ Even where
** He was in the highest heaven ;
*‘ from whence He beholdeth their
“untamed pride which speake of
‘‘ Him and His they neither care
‘nor know what.” See Life of
Hooker, p. 22, 23; and the refer-
ences there. |

as the best Guide and Measure of our Prayers. 217

_ therefore stand in need of direction after what sort our wills BooK Ye
and desires may be rightly conformed to his. Which is not ————
done by willing always the selfsame thing that God intendeth.
_ For it may chance that his purpose is sometime the speedy
death of them whose long continuance in life if we should not
wish we were unnatural. .

[5-] When the object or matter therefore of our desires is
(as in this case) a thing both good of itself and not forbidden
of God ; when the end for which we desire it is virtuous and
apparently most holy ; when the root from which our affection
towards it proceedeth is Charity, Piety that which we do in
declaring our desire by prayer; yea over and besides all this,
sith we know that to pray for all men living is but to shew the
same affection which towards every of them our Lord Jesus
Christ hath borne, who knowing only as God who are his®
did as man taste death for the good of all men: surely to that
will of God which ought to be and is the known rule of all
our actions, we do not herein oppose ourselves, although his
secret determination haply be against us, which if we did un-
derstand as we do not, yet to rest contented with that which
God will have done is as much as he requireth at the hands of
men. And concerning ourselves, what we earnestly crave in
this case, the same, as all things else that are of like con-
dition, we meekly submit unto his most gracious will and
pleasure.

[6.] Finally, as we have cause sufficient why to think the
practice of our church allowable in this behalf, so neither is
ours the first which hath been of that mind. For to end with
the words of Prosper®, “ This law of supplication for all men,”
(saith he,) “the devout zeal of all priests and of all faithful
“ men doth hold with such full agreement, that there is not
* any part of all the world where Christian people do not use
“to pray in the same manner. The Church every where
“‘ maketh prayers unto God not only for saints and such as

62 Hug. de Quat. Christi Volunt.
[t. iii. 48 E.] “ Propterea nihil
** contrarietatis erat, si Christus ho-
mo secundum affectum pietatis
** quam in humanitate sua assump-
** serat aliquid volebat, quod tamen
** secundum voluntatem divinam in
* qua cum Patre omnia disponebat

** futurum non esse preesciebat; quia
** et hoc ad veram humanitatem per-
** tinebat, ut pietate moveretur; et
“hoc ad veram divinitatem, ut a
** sua dispositione non moveretur.”

63 Prosp. de Vocat. Gen. lib.i. c.
12, inter opera Ambros.

BOOK V.

Ch. xlix. 6.

218 The Ancient Church prayed for alt Men.

“ already in Christ are regenerate, but for all infidels and
< enemies of the Cross of Jesus Christ, for all idolaters, for all
«that persecute Christ in his followers, for Jews to whose
«¢ blindness the light of the Gospel doth not yet shine, for here-
“ tics and schismatics, who from the unity of faith and charity
‘ are estranged. And for such what doth the Church ask of
« God but this, that leaving their errors they may be converted
« unto him, that faith and charity may be given them, and
« that out of the darkness of ignorance they may come to the
“ knowledge of his truth? which because they cannot them-
« selves do in their own behalf as long as the sway of evil
< custom overbeareth them, and the chains of Satan detain
“them bound, neither are they able to break through those
‘“ errors wherein they are so determinately settled, that they
“ yay unto falsity the whole.sum of whatsoever love is owing
“ unto God’s truth; our Lord merciful and just requireth to
“have all men prayed for; that when we behold innumerable
“ multitudes drawn up from the depth of so bottomless evils,
“ we may not doubt but” (in part) “God hath done the thing
“ we requested, nor despair but that being thankful for them
“* towards whom already he hath shewed mercy, the rest which
“ are not as yet enlightened, shall before they pass out of life
“‘ be made partakers of the like grace. Or if the grace of him
“* which saveth (for so we see it falleth out) overpass some, so
* that the prayer of the Church for them be not received, this
‘* we may leave to the hidden judgments of God’s righteousness,
“ and acknowledge that in this secret there is a gulf, which
* while we live we shall never sound ®.”

64 [ Quam legem supplicationis . “ tis alieni sunt. Quid autem pro

* itaomnium sacerdotum et omnium
‘* fidelium devotio concorditer tenet,
“ut nulla pars mundi sit, in qua
** hujusmodi orationes non celebren-
“tur a populis Christianis. Sup-
** plicat ergo ubigue Ecclesia Deo
** non solum pro sanctis et in Christo
“jam regeneratis, sed etiam pro
* omnibus infidelibus et inimicis
*‘ crucis Christi, pro omnibus ido-
*lorum cultoribus, pro omnibus
*‘ qui Christum in membris ipsius
** persequuntur, proJudeis, quorum
“* ceecitati lumen evangelii non re-
“ fulget, pro hereticis et schismati-
** cis, qui ab unitate fidei et carita-

** istis petit, nisi ut relictis erroribus
“ suis, convertantur ad Deum, acci-
* piant fidem, accipiant caritatem,
*‘ et de ignorantiz tenebris liberati,
“in agnitionem veniant veritatis?
“ Quod quia ipsi prestare sibi ne-
: eae male consuetudinis pon-
“dere oppressi et Diaboli vinculis
“alligati, meque deceptiones suas
** evincere valent, quibus tam perti-
“ naciter inheserunt, ut quantum
‘‘ amanda est veritas tantum dili-
** gant falsitatem ; misericors et jus-
“tus Dominus pro omnibus sibi
‘* yult hominibus supplicari: ut cum
* videmus de tam profundis malis

Sacraments: what they are, and where to be had. 219

L. Instruction and Prayer whereof we have hitherto spoken, BOOK V.
are duties which serve as elements, parts, or principles, to the gaa
rest that follow, in which number the Sacraments of the pame, the
Church are chief. The Church is to us that very mother of ea elagie
our new birth®, in whose bowels we are all bred, at whose sacra-
breasts we receive nourishment. As many therefore as are Scie ee
apparently to our judgment born of God, they have the seed consisteth
of their regeneration by the ministry of the Church which 7" ,
useth to that end and purpose not only the Word, but the hath
Sacraments, both having generative force and virtue. i

[2.] As oft as we mention a Sacrament properly under~™eans to
stood, (for in the writings of the ancient Fathers all articles partakers
which are peculiar to Christian faith, all duties of religion Obriat. pa a
containing that which sense or natural reason cannot of itself of life
discern, are most commonly named Sacraments,) our restraint Movs”
of the word to some few principal divine ceremonies importeth
in every such ceremony two things, the substance of the
ceremony itself which is visible, and besides that somewhat
else more secret in reference whereunto we conceive that
ceremony to be a Sacrament. For we all admire and honour
the holy Sacraments, not respecting so much the service
which we do unto God in receiving them, as the dignity
of that sacred and secret gift which we thereby receive from
God. Seeing that Sacraments therefore consist altogether in
relation to some such gift or grace supernatural as only God
can bestow, how should any but the Church administer those
ceremonies as Sacraments which are not thought to be Sacra-
ments by any but by the Church?

[3.] There is in Sacraments to be observed their force and
their form of administration. Upon their force their necessity
dependeth. So that how they are necessary we cannot dis-
cern till we see how effectual they are. When Sacraments

are said to be visible signs of invisible grace, we thereby con-

* innumeros erui, non ambigamus “ ferendos. Quod si aliquos, sicut

* Deum prestitisse quod ut preesta-
‘* ret oratus est; et gratias agentes
** pro his qui salvi facti sunt, spere-
* mus etiam eos qui necdum illumi-
nati sunt eodem divine gratiz
** opere eximendos de potestate te-
“ nebrarum, et in regnum Dei, pri-
** usquam de hac vita exeant, trans-

** videmus accidere, salvantis gratia
** preteriret, et pro eis oratio Kccle-
** size recepta non fuerit ; ad occulta
** divinze justitize judicia referendum,
“ et agnoscendum, secreti hujus pro-
** funditatem nobis in hac vita pa-
tere non erg
65 Gal. iv. 26; Isai. liv. 3.

220 Sacraments are Means of Communion with God.

BooK v. ceive how grace is indeed the very end for which these

Satie heavenly mysteries were instituted, and. besides sundry other
properties observed in them, the matter whereof they consist
is such as signifieth, figureth, and representeth their end.
But still their efficacy resteth obscure to our understanding,
except we search somewhat more distinctly what grace in
particular that is whereunto they are referred, and what
manner of operation they have towards it.

The use of Sacraments is but only in this life, yet so that
here they concern a far better life than this, and are for that
cause accompanied with “grace which ‘worketh Salvation.”
Sacraments are the powerful instruments of God to eternal life.
For as our natural life consisteth in the union of the body
with the soul ; so our life supernatural in the union of the soul
with God. And forasmuch as there is no union of God with
man® without that mean between both which is both, it
seemeth requisite that we first consider how God is in Christ,
then how Christ is in us, and how the Sacraments do serve to
make us partakers of Christ. In other things we may be
more brief, but the weight of these requireth largeness.

That God LI. “The Lord our God is but one God.” In which indi-
peed visible unity notwithstanding we adore the Father as being
sonalin- altogether of himself, we glorify that consubstantial Word
fe, Which is the Son, we bless and magnify that co-essential
~~ s very Spirit eternally proceeding from both which is the Holy
* Ghost. Seeing therefore the Father is of none, the Son is of

the Father and the Spirit is of both, they are by these their

several properties really distinguishable each from other. For

the substance of God with this property fo be of none doth

make the Person of the Father; the very selfsame substance

in number with this property fo be of the Father maketh the

Person of the Son; the same substance having added unto it

the property of proceeding from the other two maketh the

Person of the Holy Ghost. So that in every Person there

is implied both the substance of God which is one, and

66 Tertull. [Novatian.] de Trinit. ‘“ partis in se connectens pignora,
[c. 18. ad calc. Tertull. ed. Pamel. p. ‘‘ et Deum pariter homini et homi-
1246.] ‘“Qportebat Deum carnem ‘ nem Deo copularet.”

“ fierl, ut in semetipso concordiam 67 Isai.ix.6; Jer. xxiii.6; Rom.
“confibularet terrenorum pariter ix.5; Johnxvi.15.v.21; Col. ii.9;
*‘atque celestium, dum utriusque 1 John y. 20.

Communion of Saints: Incarnation of the Word only. 221

also that property which causeth the same person really and
truly to differ from the other two.* Every person hath his
own subsistence which no other besides hath®, although there
be others besides that are of the same substance. As no man
but Peter can be the person which Peter is, yet Paul hath
_ the selfsame nature which Peter hath. Again, angels have every
of them the nature of pure and invisible spirits, but every
angel is not that angel which appeared in a dream to Joseph.

[2.] Now when God became man, lest we should err in
applying this to the Person of the Father, or of the Spirit,
St. Peter’s confession unto Christ was, “ Thou art the Son of the
living God,” and St. John’s exposition thereof was plain,
that it is the Word?® which was made Flesh. “7!The
« Father and the Holy Ghost (saith Damascen) have no
“ communion with the incarnation of the Word otherwise
“than only by approbation and assent.”

Notwithstanding, forasmuch as the Word and Deity are one
_ subject, we must beware we exclude not the nature of God
from incarnation, and so make the Son of God incarnate not
to be very God. For undoubtedly72 even the nature of God
itself in the only person of the Son is incarnate, and hath
taken to itself flesh. Wherefore incarnation may neither be
granted to any person but only one, nor yet denied to that
nature which is common unto all three.

[3-] Concerning the cause of which incomprehensible mys-
tery, forasmuch as it seemeth a thing unconsonant that the
world should honour any other as the Saviour but him whom
it honoureth as the Creator of the world, and in the wisdom of
God it hath not been thought convenient to admit any way of

68 IIpécwmov iyouw wtméoracis yap é€ote Aadias evdpOpov paovnua,

€oTt Kata Tovs ayious marépas, Td
idikov mapa Td Kowdv. Kowvdrns
yap <oTw 4 vats éxaorov mpdy-
patos, tia O€ eiow ai troordcas.
Suid. [sub voc. ‘Yaéoracis.] ‘H
ovola ka éavtny otk tpiorarat, GAN
€v Tais Uroordaeot Oewpeirar’ To dé
kowvoy peta Tod ididfovros Exe 7 UTd-
otaots Kal TO Ka éautny trapéa,
Damase. de Orthod. Fide, lib. iii.
cap. 6. [p.67. ed. Veron. 1531. ]

69 Matt. xvi. 16.

70 John. i. 14. “Os éorw avrod
Adyos ov pyrds add’ ovoiwdns, Od

GAN’ éevepyeias Ocixns ovoia yevynrn.
Ignat. Epist. ad Magnes. [§ 8. from
the interpolated epistle. |

BOOK V.
Ch. li, 2, 3.

71 Kar’ ovdéva Adyov Kexotv@vnker —

6 Tlatjp kai ro Ivedpa rd dyov rH
capkocet Tod Adyou, ei un KaT evdSo-
kiav kat BowAnow. Damasc. [de Or-
thod. Fid. lib. iii. c. 11. fin. p. 75. ]

72 Aug. Epist. 57. [al.187. § 20.
t. 1. 684.] “In illo Divinitas est
** Unigeniti facta particeps mortali-
*tatis nostre, ut et nos participes
** ejus immortalitatis essemus.”

222 Progress of Heresy concerning our Lord’s Incarnation,

Book y. saving man but by man himself, though nothing should be
“spoken of the love and merey of God towards man, which this
way are become such a spectacle as neither men nor angels
can behold without a kind of heavenly astonishment, we may

hereby perceive there is cause sufficient why divine nature |

should assume human, that so God might be in Christ recon-
ciling to himself the world74.. And if some cause be likewise
required why rather to this end and purpose the Son than
either the Father or the Holy Ghost should be made man,
could we which are born the children of wrath be adopted the

sons of God through grace, any other than the natural Son of |

God being Mediator between God and us? It7> became there-
fore him by whom all things are to be the way of salvation to
all, that the institution and restitution of the world might be
both wrought by one hand. The world’s salvation was with-
out the incarnation of the Son of God a thing impossible, not
simply impossible, but impossible it being presupposed that
the will of God was no otherwise to have it saved than by the
death of his own Son. Wherefore taking to himself our flesh,
and by his incarnation making it his own flesh, he had now of
his own although from us what to offer unto God for us.

And as Christ took manhood that by it he might be capable
of death whereunto he humbled himself, so because manhood
is the proper subject of compassion and feeling pity, which
maketh the sceptre of Christ’s regency even in the kingdom
of heaven amiable, he which without our nature could not on
earth suffer for the sins of the world, doth now also7® by means
thereof both make intercession to God for sinners and exercise
dominion over all men with a true, a natural, and a sensible
touch of mercy.

Themisin- LIT. It is not in man’s ability either to express perfectly
terpreta: | or conceive the manner how this was brought to pass. But

tions which

oat the strength of our faith is tried by those things wherein our
ae oe? wits and capacities are not strong. Howbeit because this

isn sa divine mystery is more true than plain, divers having framed
are united the same to their own conceits and fancies are found in their

Onene, expositions thereof more plain than true. Insomuch that by
the space of five hundred years after Christ, the Church was

74 2 Cor. v. 19. 75 Heb. ii. 10. [See also Coloss. i. 15-18. ]
76 Heb. iv. 15.

:

until the Settlement of the Creed of Constantinople. 228

- almost troubled with nothing else saving only with care and
_ travel to preserve this article from the sinister construction of
heretics. Whose first mists when the light of the Nicene
council’? had dispelled, it was not long ere Macedonius trans-
ferred unto God’s most Holy Spirit the same blasphemy where-
with Arius had already dishonoured his co-eternally begotten
Son; not long ere Apollinarius7® began to pare away from
Christ’s humanity. In refutation of which impieties when
the Fathers of the Church, Athanasius, Basil, and the two
Gregories, had by their painful travails sufficiently cleared the
truth, no less for the Deity of the Holy Ghost than for the
complete humanity of Christ, there followed hereupon a final
conclusion, whereby those controversies, as also the rest which

BOOK Vv.
Ch. lii. 2.

Paulus Samosatenus, Sabellius, Photinus, Aétius, Eunomius, ©

together with the whole swarm of pestilent Demi-Arians had
from time to time stirred up sithence the council of Nice, were
both privately first at Rome in a smaller synod?9, and then at
Constantinople *°, in a general famous assembly brought to a
peaceable and quiet end, seven-score bishops and ten agreeing
in that confession which by them set down remaineth at this
present hour a part of our church liturgy, a memorial of their
fidelity and zeal, a sovereign preservative of God’s people
from the venomous infection of heresy.

[2.] Thus in Christ the verity of God and the complete sub-
stance of man were with full agreement established throughout
the world, till such time as the heresy of Nestorius broached
itself, “8! dividing Christ into two persons the Son of God and

77 An. Dom. 325.

78 Mnde yap SenOjvac gyoi ryv
cdpxa éxeivny avOpwmivov vods nye-
povevoperny bd TOU adrny evdeduKd-
tos Oeov. Suid. [sub voc. ’AmoAXu-
vaptos.

79 (A. D. 378, a synod of ninety-
three bishops was held at Rome, in
which Damasus presided; by au-
thority of which a Synodical Epistle,
probably the document known by
the name of réuos trav durixdy, and
~ adopted in the fifth canon of Con-
stantinople, was sent to a council
then sitting at Antioch under Mele-
tius, and approved there. See The-
odoret, E.H. v.10. p. 211 A. and
c. ii, p. 213-16. and Valesius’ Notes,

p- 41, 443; Conc. ii. 899-904, 908,
9,10; Cave, Hist. Lit. 1. 123, 127;
Bevereg. Synod. ii. 89; Routh,
Opusc. re,

80 An. Dom. 381.

81 Od« Ere thy Evooty dporoyet peO
npov. Cyril. Epist. ad Eulog. [p. 133
A. ed. Par. 1638. t. vi.] Ovdx €Aeye
yap €vwowv Tov Adyou Tov Geov mpos
avOpwror, adda Svo broardcets Eheye
kal Swaipeow...Ei d€ kat advOpwrov
Kat Ocedy amexddet Tov Xpiordv, GAN
OUK €Tt ws Hucis, GANA TH oxEoeL Kal
Th Olkew@oel...KaTa TO Tav’Ta GAAT-
Aots apéokew Sia thy brepBorny THs
gurias. Leont. de Sect. [Act. 4.

. 508. t. i. Biblioth. Patr. Gr. ed.
ar. 1624. |

224. Nestorius: Ground of his Error.

nook v. “ the Son of man, the one a person begotten of God before all

Ch. lii. 3.

‘¢ worlds, the other also a person born of the Virgin Mary,
« and in special favour chosen to be made entire to the Son of
« God above all men, so that whosoever will honour God must
“« together honour Christ, with whose person God hath vouch-
“ safed to join himself in so high a degree of gracious respect
“ and favour.” But that the selfsame person which verily is
man should properly be God also, and that, by reason not of
two persons linked in amity but of two natures human and
divine conjoined in one and the same person, the God of
glory may be said as well to have suffered death as to have
raised the dead from their graves, the Son of man as well to
have made as to have redeemed the world, Nestorius in no
case would admit.

[3.] That which deceived him was want of heed to the first
beginning of that admirable combination of God with man.
« The Word (saith St.John) was made flesh and dwelt 7m ~s82.”
The Evangelist useth the plural number, men for manhood,
us for the nature whereof we consist, even as the Apostle
denying the assumption of angelical nature, saith likewise in
the plural number, “ He took not Angels but the seed of
« Abraham 83.” It pleased not the Word or wisdom of God to
take to itself some one person amongst men, for then should
that one have been advanced which was assumed and no more,
but Wisdom to the end she might save many built her house
of that Nature which is common unto all, she made not ¢his or
that man her habitation, but dwelt im ws. The seeds of herbs
and plants at the first are not in act but in possibility that
which they afterwards grow to be. If the Son of God had
taken to himself a man now made and already perfected, it
would of necessity follow that there are in Christ two persons,
the one assuming and the other assumed ; whereas the Son of
God did not assume a man’s person unto his own, but a man’s
nature to his own Person, and therefore took semen, the seed of
Abraham, the very first original element of our nature®+, before
it was come to have any personal human subsistence. The flesh
and the conjunction of the flesh with God began both at one

82 John i. 14. ths Anews. Theod. Dial.”Arperros.-
8 Heb. ii. 16, Dial. ti. p. rot. t.iv. parsi. ed.
84 °H An$Ocioa picts ob mpovmapxe Schulze. ]

Christ's compound Person the Subject of all his Attributes. 225

instant; his making and taking to himself our flesh, was but
one act, so that in Christ there is no personal subsistence but
one, and that from everlasting. By taking only the nature of
man he still continueth one person, and changeth but the
_ manner of his subsisting, which was before in the mere glory
‘of the Son of God, and is now in the habit of our flesh.
_ Forasmuch therefore as Christ hath no personal subsistence
but one whereby we acknowledge him to have been eternally
the Son of God, we must of necessity apply to the person of
the Son of God even that which is spoken of Christ according
to his human nature. For example, according to the flesh he
‘was born of the Virgin Mary, baptized of John in the river
Jordan, by Pilate adjudged to die, and executed by the Jews.
We cannot say properly that the Virgin bore, or John did
baptize, or Pilate condemn, or the Jews crucify the Nature of
man, because these all are personal attributes ; his Person is
the subject which. receiveth them, his Nature that which
maketh his person capable or apt to receive. If we should say
that the person of a man in our Saviour Christ was the sub-
ject of these things, this were plainly to entrap ourselves in the
very snare of the Nestorians’ heresy, between whom and the
Church of God there was no difference, saving only that Nes-
torius imagined in Christ as well a personal human subsistence
as a divine, the Church acknowledging a substance both divine
and human, but no other personal subsistence than divine,
because the Son of God took not to himself a man’s person,
but the nature only of a man.

Christ is a Person both divine and human, howbeit not
therefore two persons in one, neither both these in one sense,
but a person divine, because he is personally the Son of God,
human, because he hath really the nature of the children
of men. In Christ therefore God and man “ There is (saith
« Paschasius®*) a twofold substance, not a twofold person,
“ because one person extinguisheth another, whereas one
“‘ nature cannot in another become extinct.” For the personal
being which the Son of God already had, suffered not the sub-

85 Paschas. lib. de Spir. Sanct. ‘ sona personam consumere potest,
[lib. ii. c.4. ‘In Deo et homine, “ substantia vero substantiam con-
*gemina quidem substantia, sed ‘ sumere non potest.” In Biblioth.
*‘ non gemina persona est, quia per- Patr. Colon. viii. 331. |

HOOKER, VOL. II. . Q

BOOK YV,
Ch. lii. 3,

BOOK V.
Ch. lii. 4.

226 The Errors of Nestorius and Eutyches.

stance to be personal which he took, although together with
the nature which he had the nature also which he took con-
tinueth. "Whereupon it followeth against Nestorius, that no
person was born of the Virgin but the Son of God, no person
but the Son of God baptized, the Son of God condemned, the
Son of God and no other person crucified; which one only
point of Christian belief, the infinite worth of the Son of God,
is the very ground of all things believed concerning life and
salvation by that which Christ either did or suffered as man
in our behalf.

[4.] But forasmuch as St. Cyril, the chiefest of those two
hundred bishops assembled in the council of Ephesus*®, where
the heresy of Nestorius was condemned, had in his writings§7
against the Arians avouched that the Word or Wisdom of God
hath but one nature which is eternal, and whereunto he
assumed flesh (for the Arians were of opinion®® that besides
God’s own eternal wisdom, there is a wisdom which God
created before all things, to the end he might thereby create
all things else, and that this created wisdom was the Word
which took flesh:) again, forasmuch as the same Cyril89 had
given instance in the body and the soul of man no farther than
only to enforce by example against Nestorius, that a visible
and an invisible, a mortal and an immortal substance may
united make one person: the words of Cyril were in process
of time so taken as though it had been his drift to teach, that
even as in us the body and the soul, so in Christ God and man
make but one nature. Of which error, six hundred and thirty
fathers in the council of Chalcedon condemned Eutyches%.
For as Nestorius teaching rightly that God and man are dis-
tinct natures, did thereupon misinfer that in Christ those
natures can by no conjunction make one person ; so Eutyches
of sound belief as touching their true personal copulation be-
came unsound by denying the difference which still continueth
between the one and the other Nature. We must therefore
keep warily a middle course, shunning both that distraction of
Persons wherein Nestorius went awry, and also this later
confusion of Natures which deceived Eutyches.

86 An. Dom. 431. 88 [Vid. e.g. Alexand. Alexandrin.
87 (Vid. Cyril. de Recta Fide, t. vi. ap. Socr.i. 6. p. 11. A. ed. Vales.
48. (ex Athanas.) et Ep. ad Eulog. 9% Cie t.vi. Epist. p. 8, 133.
Vi. 133.] 90 An. Dom. 451.

The two Natures inseparable, but not confounded. 227

These natures from the moment of their first combination soox v.
have been and are for ever inseparable9'. For even when his we
_ soul forsook the tabernacle of his body, his Deity forsook nei-

_ ther body nor soul. If it had, then could we not truly hold

_ either that the person of Christ was buried, or that the person

of Christ did raise up itself from the dead. For the body
separated from the Word can in no true sense be termed the

_ person of Christ; nor is it true to say that the Son of God in
raising up that body did raise up himself, if the body were

not both with him and of him even during the time it lay in

the sepulchre. The like is also to be said of the soul, other-

wise we are plainly and inevitably Nestorians. The very per-

son of Christ therefore for ever one and the selfsame was only
touching bodily substance concluded within the grave, his

soul only from thence severed, but by personal union his

- Deity still unseparably joined with both.

LIII. The sequel of which conjunction of natures in the Thatbythe

person of Christ is no abolishment of natural properties ap- U2

the one

pertaining to either substance, no transition or transmigration with the

i other
thereof out of one substance into another, finally no such ciate Se

mutual infusion as really causeth the same natural operations ae
or properties to be made common unto both substances; but ¢th nsither

whatsoever is natural to Deity the same remaineth in Christ oo

uncommunicated unto his manhood, and whatsoever natural essential
to manhood his Deity thereof is uncapable. The true proper- Properties
ties and operations of his Deity are to know that which is not
possible for created natures to comprehend ; to be simply the
highest cause of all things, the wellspring of immortality and
life; to have neither end nor beginning of days; to be every
where present, and enclosed no where; to be subject to no
alteration nor passion; to produce of itself those effects which
cannot proceed but from infinite majesty and power. The true
properties and operations of his manhood are such as Irenzus
reckoneth up%: “ If Christ,” saith he, “ had not taken flesh

91 "Aydpirrov mpoonke Ts Gapkos TeccapdKovra Hpuépas, Spolws as Ma~
eivat Thy Oeiav hiow dporoyeiv,xavTG wvons kal HAlas, ynorevoas ereivnce,
oTaup@ kav t@ Tap». Theod. Dial. rod caparos émif{nrovyros ryv idiay
*AraOns. [ Dial. ili. t.iv. p. 227. | tpopyy’ odd dy "lwdvyns 6 padyrns

92 [Ei pndev cine: mapa ths Ma- avrov epi airod ypdper eipnke’ “O
pias, ovk aitas amo yas eiAnupévas Se Incods Kexomiakws éx THs ddouro-
mpooiero tpodas, O¢ av Td amd yas pias, éxabéLero* ...0v8 dv eddxpucev
Anhbev rpeherar vapa* ovd ay eis emi rod Aadpov, 09 ay dpace Opdpu-

Q 2

BOOK V.
Ch. liii. 2.

228 Necessity of our Lord’s continuing very Man.

“ from the very earth, he would not have coveted those earthly
« nourishments, wherewith bodies which be taken from thence
«are fed. This was the nature which felt hunger after long
“ fasting, was desirous of rest after travail, testified compassion
s* and love by tears, groaned in heaviness, and with extremity
of grief even melted away itself into bloody sweats.” To
Christ we ascribe both working of wonders and suffering of
pains, we use concerning him speeches as well of humility as
of divine glory, but the one we apply unto that nature which
he took of the Virgin Mary, the other to that which was in
the beginning.

[2.] We may not therefore imagine that the properties of
the weaker nature have vanished with the presence of the
more glorious, and have been therein swallowed up as in
a gulf. We dare not in this point give ear to them who over
boldly affirm® that “the nature which Christ took weak and
“ feeble from us by being mingled with Deity became the
“ same which Deity is, that the assumption of our substance
“ unto his was like the blending of a drop of vinegar with
“the huge ocean, wherein although it continue still, yet
“ not with those properties which severed it hath, because
“ sithence the instant of their conjunction, all distinction of
« the one from the other is extinct, and whatsoever we can now
“ conceive of the Son of God, is nothing else but mere Deity,”
which words are so plain and direct for Eutyches, that I stand
in doubt they are not his whose name they carry. Sure lam
they are far from truth, and must of necessity give place to

Bovs aiparos* ove” dy eipnke, ore

Greg. Naz. Orat. II. de Filio. [§ 36.

mepihurds € corw 7 Wuxn pou’ od’ dy
vuyelons avrov tis mheupas, ef bev
aiva kal vSep.] Tatra [yap | mavra
ovpBoda capkos THs amd yns eiAnppe=
vns. _Iren. lib. iii. advers. Heres.
[c. 32. ] Christ did all these av6pa-
mivov coparos véu@. ‘Theod. Dial.
‘Aovyxvros. [iv. 1.148. from Greg.
Naz. Orat. XXXvill. t. i. 621. D.
‘Ameordny, HEV, GAN’ os dyOpomos*
dumhovs yap hv’ émet kal éxorriace,
kal ereivnoe, kal ediynce, Kal nyo~
viace, Kai eddkpuce von Taparos. J
Tovs pepv Tamrewvovs Adyous TO €K
Mapias dvOpare, TOUS de dvnypevous
kal Ocompercis tO év dpyn dvrt Ady:

t. i. 577-]

9 Greg. Nyss. Epist. ad Theophil.
Alexandr. [contr. Apollin. t. ii. 697.
Paris. 1615. may Scov doOeves ths
dvoews pay kal émixnpor, dvaxpabev
TH Oecdrntt, exeivo eyeveto, Orep 7
Ocdrns €ori . 7) de mpoohnpbeioa
THs dxO pensions pboene drrapxy tro
THs mavroduvdpou OecdryTos, os ay
elmot Tis eixdve Xpapevos, oldy tis
oTayav d£ous drretp@ meAdyet kara-
kpadeioa, & €oTt pev €v Gedrnrt, ov pay
év trois idiows adris tStcpacw* wok ae
ovdevi _karahapBdverat 7 Suadbope
Smep yap ay tis oi rod viod, Oedrns
€oTl...

ule of Interpretation regarding this Mystery. 229

the better-advised sentences of other men. ‘ 9! He which in
_ himself was appointed,” saith Hilary, “ a Mediator to save
“his Church, and for performance of that mystery of media-
_ tion between God and man, is become God and man, doth now
“ being but one consist of both those natures united, neither
“ hath he through the union of both incurred the damage or
loss of either, lest by being born a man we should think he
“ hath given over to be God, or that because he continueth
“God, therefore he cannot be man also, whereas the true
belief which maketh a man happy proclaimeth jointly God
“and man, confesseth the Word and flesh together.” Cyrill
more plainly; “ His two natures have knit themselves the
“ one to the other, and are in that nearness as uncapable of
*‘ confusion as of distraction. Their coherence hath not taken
“away the difference between them. Flesh is not become
* God, but doth still continue flesh, although it be now the
* flesh of God.” Yea, “of each substance,” saith Leo 9%,
*‘ the properties are all preserved and kept safe.”
_ [3-] These two natures are as causes and original grounds
of all things which Christ hath done. Wherefore some things
he doth as God, because his Deity alone is the wellspring
from which they flow; some things as man, because they
issue from his mere human nature; some things jointly
as both God and man, because both natures concur as princi-
ples thereunto. For albeit the properties of each nature
do cleave only to that nature whereof they are properties, and
therefore Christ cannot naturally be as God the same which he
naturally ic as man; yet both natures may very well concur
unto one effect, and Christ in that respect be truly said to work

91 Hilar. de Trin. lib. ix. [§ 3. p.
148. ed. Paris. 1605. ‘‘ Mediator
* ipse in se ad salutem Ecclesiz con-
* stitutus, et illo ipso inter Deum et
* hominem mediatoris sacramento
“utrumque unus existens, dum
‘‘ ipse ex unitis in idipsum naturis,
“ nature utriusque res eadem est,
“ita tamen ut neutro careret in
“ utroque, ne forte Deus esse homo
‘“* nascendo desineret, et homo rur-
*©sum Deus manendo non esset.
** Hec itaque humane beatitudinis
“* fides vera est, Deum et hominem

‘* preedicare, Verbum et carnem con-
** fiteri.”” |

92 Cyr. Epist. ad Nest. [ad Suc-
censum. Epist. p. 137. D. t. v. pars
ii. ed. 1628. ‘Opdpev drt S00 huces
auvjdOov GdrdAndrats Kal’ evwowy adid-
onTacTov dovyxiTas, kai drpéntas’
yap oap& odp& éortt, kal ov Oedrns, et
kal yéyove Ocov odpé. |

9 * Salva proprietate utriusque
“ nature suscepta est a majestate
“* humilitas, a virtute infirmitas, ab
‘* eeternitate mortalitas.”” Leo Ep.
ad Flav. [c. 3.]

BOOK VY.

Ch, liii. 3.

BOOK V.

Ch. liii. 4.

280 Communicatio Idiomatum :

both as God and as man one and the selfsame thing. Let us
therefore set it down for a rule or principle so necessary
as nothing more to the plain deciding of all doubts and ques-
tions about the union of natures in Christ, that of both natures
there is a co-operation often, an association always, but never
any mutual participation, whereby the properties of the one are
infused into the other. :

[4.] Which rule must serve for the better understanding of
that which Damascene™ hath touching cross and circulatory
speeches, wherein there are attributed to God such things as
belong to manhood, and to man such as properly concern
the Deity of Christ Jesus, the cause whereof is the association
of natures in one subject. A kind of mutual commutation
there is whereby those concrete names, God and Man, when
we speak of Christ, do take interchangeably one another’s
room, so that for truth of speech it skilleth not whether
we say that the Son of God hath created the world, and the
Son of Man by his death hath saved it, or else that the Son of
Man did create, and the Son of God die to save the world.
Howbeit, as oft as we attribute to God what the manhood of
Christ claimeth, or to man what his Deity hath riglit unto, we
understand by the name of God and the name of Man neither
the one nor the other nature, but the whole person of Christ,
in whom both natures are. When the Apostle saith of the
Jews that they crucified the Lord of Glory, and when the
Son of Man being on earth affirmeth that the Son of Man
was in heaven at the same instant, there is in these two
speeches that mutual circulation before-mentioned 9. In
the one, there is attributed to God or the % Lord of Glory
death, whereof divine nature is not capable; in the other
ubiquity unto 97 man, which human nature admitteth not.
Therefore by the Lord of Glory we must needs understand the

94 Oirés éorw 6 rpdmos Tis avri-
Sdcews, Exatépas picews dyrididov-
ons TH étépa ta tdia, dia rHv Tis
troctdcews TauvTdérnta, Kat THY Ets
@ Ana abr&v reptxyopynow. Damase.
de Orthod. Fid. lib. iil. c. 4. Verum
est duarum in Christo naturarum al-
teram suas alteri proprietates im-
pertire, enunciando videlicet, idque
non in abstracto sed in concreto so-

lum, divinas homini non humanitati,
humanas non deitati sed Deo tribui.
Cujus hee est ratio, quia cum sup-
positum preedicationis sit ejusmodi
ut utramque naturam in se conti-
neat, sive ab una sive ab altera
CenOnslaenne se 8 ae S

S. Aug. Ep. 187. 9. t. ii. 680.
F,G

% ¢Cor.ii.8. 97 John iii. 13.

Haamples from Cyril and Theodoret. 231 ;

- whole person of Christ, who being Lord of Glory, was indeed
—erucified, but not in that nature for which he is termed
the Lord of Glory. In like manner by the Son of Man the
whole person of Christ must necessarily be meant, who being
man upon earth, filled heaven with his glorious presence, but
not according to that nature for which the title of Man is
given him.

Without this caution the Fathers whose belief was sincere
and their meaning most sound, shall seem in their writings one
to deny what another constantly doth affirm. Theodoret dis-
puteth with great earnestness that God cannot be said to
suffer2s. But he thereby meaneth Christ’s divine nature
against 99Apollinarius, which held even Deity itself passible.
Cyril on the other side against Nestorius as much contendeth,
that whosoever will deny very God to have suffered death},
_ doth forsake the faith. Which notwithstanding to hold were
heresy, if the name of God in this assertion did not import as
it doth the person of Christ, who being verily God suffered
death, but in the flesh, and not in that substance for which the
name of God is given him.

LIV. If then both natures do remain with their proper- what
ties in Christ thus distinct as hath been shewed, we are for sen Hy
our better understanding what either nature receiveth from pccntiae
other, to note, that Christ is by three degrees a receiver : first, tthe flesh,

98 [Reprehens. Capitum Cyrilli,
N°. xii. t. v. pars i. p.65, ed. Schulze.
Ta dn, tov mabnrov, idia. 6 yap
ama0is, ma0av eotw wWnddrepos.
and N°. x. p.52. Tis roivuy 6 mévos
dperns Tedev@bels, Kal py pice reé-
Aewos imdpyev; tis 6 meipa pabov
THY UTraKony, Kal TavTnY ayvoa@y mpd

Ths meipas; Tis 6 evAaBela ovpBiwoas,
* kal pera kpavyis ioxupas Kai Saxpvov
Tas ikerelas TpoceveyKoy, kai ca ety
éavtov ov Suvdpevos, adda Tov duvd-
pevoy ow ew mpoxadar, kai Tov Oavd-
Tov tiv amadAayny airav; ovx 6
Geds Adyos, 6 araOys, 6 abdvatos, 6
doaparos, k.T.X.]

Ovntiy tod Yiov karackevdfover
tiv Gedtnra. Greg. Nyss. de Sec-
tator. Apollinar. [Opp. t. ili. 262.
A. Paris. 1638; et Leo.] Ep. ad
Pjavian. fe. 3+]

1 [Ap. Theod. ibid. p. 64. (Cyril’s
12th A atherba; exhibited at the

council of Ephesus.) Ei tis ovx
dponoyel, roy TOU Geov Adyov maOdvra
capki, kal €oravpwpéevoy capxi, kal
Gavdrov yevodpevoy capki, yeyovdra
Te mpwrdrokoy €k vexpav, Kad Can
€ott, kai (words, as Geds, avdbeya
éoto, And p. 67. ovcoty deyeoOa
WavTa avTov, Kal duoroyeicb@ cwtnp
6 Tod Geod Adyos, peyernkas, pev
amabns ri Ths Gedtnros pice, capKt
d¢ maby, as eimev 6 Ierpos. adrov:
yap hv Wiov KaP evaow adnOn rd
Tov Oavdrov yevodpevoy o@pa' eel...
eis Tov Tivos Oavatoy BeBarricpeba ;
..-.ap ovv eis Odvaroy avOparov
Kowov BeBarricpueOa, Kai eis avrov
muotevovtes SikacovpeOa; 7, Smep
éotiv drnbes, evavOpwmnoavros GEOY,
kai IIAGONTOS imeép nuay capri,
tov OANATON karayyéAAouev; Me-
lito of Sardis, about A.D. 150, wrote,
6 Ocds rérovOer tro SeEtas IopanXiti-

dos. Routh, Reliquiz Sacre, i. 116. ]

BOOK V,
Ch. liv. Ze

by the
union of
his flesh
with Deity.

232

in that he is the Son of God; secondly, in that his human
nature hath had the honour of union with Deity bestowed
upon it; thirdly, in that by means thereof sundry eminent
graces have flowed as effects from Deity into that nature
which is coupled with it. On Christ therefore there is
bestowed the gift of eternal generation, the gift of union, and
the gift of unction.

[2.] By the gift of eternal generation Christ hath received
of the Father one and in number the selfsame substance,
which the Father hath of himself unreceived from any other.
For every beginning® 1s a Father unto that which cometh of
it; and every offspring is a Son unto that out of which it
groweth. Seeing therefore the Father alone is originally 4
that Deity which Christ originally> is not, (for Christ is God
by being of God®, light by issuing out of light7,) it followeth
hereupon that whatsoever Christ hath common unto him with
his heavenly Father’, the same of necessity must be given him,

Communion of the Son with the Father

2 « Nativitas Dei non potest non
“eam ex qua profecta est tenere
*‘naturam. Neque enim aliud quam
* Deus subsistit qui non aliunde
‘quam ex Deo Deus subsistit.”
Hilar. de Trin. lib. v. [§ 37.] “Cum
“sit gloria, sempiternitate, virtute,
** regno, potestate, hoc quod Pater
“est, omnia tamen hec non sine
** auctore sicut Pater, sed ex Patre
** tanquam Filius sine initio et equa-
“lis habet.” Ruffin. in Symb.
Apost. cap. 9. [ad calcem Bene
Fell. p.19.] “ Filium aliunde non
** deduco, sed de substantia Patris,
**...omnem a Patre consecutum
ce Sure. Tertull, contra Prax.

C. 4.

3 Ephes. iii. 15. maoa marpid,
“* quicquid alteri quovis modo dat
*“ esse.” [So the Vulgate, “ Om-
“nis Paternitas.”” Tertull. contra
Prax. c.8. ‘ Omnis origo parens
“est, et omne quod ex origine pro-
** fertur, progenies est; multo ma-
“‘ gis Sermo Dei, qui etiam proprie
** nomen filii accepit.’’]

4 Jac. i.17. Pater luminum, Yiod
te kal Ivetiparos SyAovért. Pachym.
in Dionys. de cel. Hierar. cap. 1.
[ed. Corder. i. p. 10.] “ Pater est
*“‘principium totius divinitatis,”
quia ipse a nullo est. ‘* Non enim

** habet de quo procedat, sed ab eo
“et Filius est genitus et Spiritus
** Sanctus procedit.” Aug. de Tri-
nit. lib. iv. cap. 40. [t. viii. 829.]
Hinc Christus deitatis loco nomen
ubique Patris usurpat, quia Pater
nimirum est mnyaia Oedrns. [vid.
Dionys. Areop. de Divinis Nomini-
bus, c. ii. § 7.

5“ Pater tota substantia est, Fi-
* lius vero derivatio totius et propa-
“gatio.” Tertull. contra Prax.

6 «© Quod enim Deus est, ex Deo

“est.”? Hilar. de Trin. lib. v.
[§ 39.] ‘* Nihil nisi natum habet
“© Filius.” Hilar. de Trin. lib. iv.
[§ 10.]

7’Aravyacpa tis Sdéns. Heb. |
i. 3.”Eotw améppo.a tis Tod TayTo-
Kparopos Sd&ys_ eiduxpuns* — arrav-
Dee tore a didiov. Sap. vii. 25,
26.

8 « Nihil in se diversum ac dissi-
*‘ mile habent natus et generans.”
[** Neque rursum dissimilis esse
“é ; 2? ;

possit natus et generans.”’| Hilar.
de Syn. advers. Arian. [§ 22.] “In
*‘Trinitate alius atque alius, non
* aliud atque aliud.” Vincent. Lir.
cap. Ig. [in Bibl. Patr. Colon. iv.
242. B.]}

in Respect of His eternal Generation. 233

but naturally and eternally given, not bestowed by way of Book v.
- benevolence and favour, as the other gifts both are. And ae
therefore where the Fathers give it out for a rule, that
_ whatsoever Christ is said in Scripture to have received, the
- same we ought to apply only to the manhood of Christ; their
assertion is true of all things which Christ hath received by
grace, but to that which he hath received of the Father by
eternal nativity or birth it reacheth not.

: [3.] Touching union of Deity with manhood, it is by grace,
because there can be no greater grace shewed towards man,
than that God should vouchsafe to unite to man’s nature the
person of his only begotten Son. Because!! “the Father
“ loveth the Son” as man, he hath by uniting Deity with
manhood, “ given all things into his hands.” 12It hath
pleased the Father, that in him “all fulness should dwell.”
13The “name” which he hath “above all names” is given
him. “14As the Father hath life in himself,’ the “Son in

_ “himself hath life also” by the gift of the Father. The gift
whereby God hath made Christ a fountain of life is that!
** conjunction of the nature of God with the nature of man” in
the person of Christ, “which gift,” (saith Christ to the
woman of Samaria!®,) “if thou didst know and 7m that respect
‘understand who it is which asketh water of thee, thou
“ wouldest ask of him that he might give thee living water.”
The union therefore of the flesh with Deity is to that flesh a
gift of principal grace and favour. For by virtue of this
grace, man is really made God, a creature is exalted above
the dignity of all creatures, and hath all creatures else
under it.

[4.] This admirable union of God with man can enforce in

9 “«* Ubi auctor sternus est, ibi et
“nativitatis eternitas est: quia
“sicut nativitas ab auctore est,
“ita et ab zeterno auctore externa
“ nativitas est.” Hilar. de Trin.
lib. xii. [§ 21.]
“‘ prestat Filio sine initio Gene-
*‘ ratio: ita Spiritus Sancti preestat
‘‘essentiam sine initio Processio.”
Aug. de Trin. lib. v. c. 15.

10’Ooa éeyet 7 ypapy ore €daBev
6 Yids cai edo€dcGn, Sia tHv avOpa-
métnta av’rov héyet, ov THY OedtyTa.

*“Sicut naturam .

Theod. fol. 42. [t. iv. pars i. 139. ex
S. Athanas. t. i. parsi.873.D. De
Incarn. c. 4.| et ibid. 44. [149,
150.| ex Greg. Nazian. Orat. 1i. de
Fil. [t.i.577, 588; et passim. |

11 John iil. [ 35.

12 Ephes. i. [53] [Col.i. 19.]

13 Phil. ii. [9.]

14 John v. 26.

157 John v.20. “ Hic est verus
“ Deus et vita zterna.”

16 John iv. 10.

BOOK V.

Ch. liv. 5.

234 Glorification of Man’s Nature in Christ.

that higher nature no alteration!7, bécause unto God there is
nothing more natural than not to be subject to any change.
Neither is it a thing impossible that the Word being made
flesh should be that which it was not before as touching the
manner of subsistence, and yet continue in all qualities or pro-
perties of nature the same it was, because the incarnation of
the Son of God consisteth merely im the union of natures,
which union doth add perfection to the weaker, to the nobler
no alteration at all. If therefore it be demanded what the
person of the Son of God hath attained by assuming manhood,
surely, the whole sum of all is this, to be as we are truly,
really, and naturally man, by means whereof he is made
capable of meaner offices than otherwise his person could
have admitted, the only gain he thereby purchased for him-
self was to be capable of loss and detriment for the good of
others. _

[5.| But may it rightly be said concerning the incarnation

_ of Jesus Christ, that as our nature hath in no respect changed

his, so from his to ours as little alteration hath ensued? The
very cause of his taking upon him our nature was to change it,
to better the quality, and to advance the condition thereof,
although in no sort to abolish the substance which he took, nor
to infuse into it the natural forces and properties of his Deity.
As therefore we have shewed how the Son of God by his in-
carnation hath changed the manner of that personal subsist-
ence which before was solitary, and is now in the association
of flesh, no alteration thereby accruing to the nature of God ;
so neither are the properties of man’s nature in the person of
Christ by force and virtue of the same conjunction so much
altered, as not to stay within those limits which our substance
is bordered withal ; nor the state and quality of our substance
so unaltered, but that there are in it many glorious effects

17 "Qorep trav avOpomev kowov “ abstulit.” Leo de Nativit. Ser.

€ott TO Ovntov, ovT@ THs aylas Tpid=
Sos xowdy 7d atpentév te Kal avad-
Aolwrov. Theodor. Dial. ”Arper-
ros. [Dial. i. p.g. tom. iv. parsi.]
** Periculum status sui Deo nullum
“est.” Tertull. de Carn. Chr.
[c. 3.] “ Majestati Filii Dei corpo-
‘rea nativitas nihil contulit, nihil

vii. [c.2.] Mever & fv am dpxis*
cds pever Kal Thy nuav ev EavT@
mapackevafoy vmapéwv. Theophil.
[of Alexandria: ap. Theodor. Dial.
ll. p. 153. t. iv. parsi.] “ In formam
*‘ servi transisse non est naturam
“ perdidisse Dei.” Hilar. de Trin.
lib. xii. [§ 6.]

are

Communion of Christ with God im respect of Unction. 285

proceeding from so near copulation with Deity!®. God from
us can receive nothing, we by him have obtained much. For
- albeit the natural properties of Deity be not communicable to
- man’s nature, the supernatural gifts graces and effects thereof

_ The honour which our flesh hath by being the flesh of the
- Son of God is in many respects great. If we respect but that
_ which is common unto us with him, the glory provided for him
and his in the kingdom of heaven, his right ard title there-
unto even in that he is man differeth from other men’s,
because he is that man of whom God is himself a part. We
have right to the same inheritance with Christ, but not the
same right which he hath, his being such as we cannot reach,
and ours such as he cannot stoop unto.

Furthermore, to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life; to
be the Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, Resurrection 5
to be the Peace of the whole world, the hope of the righteous,
_ the Heir of all things; to be that supreme head whereunto all
power both in heaven and in earth is given: these are not
honours common unto Christ. with other men, they are titles
above the dignity and worth of any which were but a mere man,
yet true of Christ even in that he is man, but man with whom
Deity is personally joined, and unto whom it hath added those
excellencies which make him more than worthy thereof. _

Finally, sith God hath deified our nature, though not by
turning it into himself, yet by making it his own inseparable
habitation, we cannot now conceive how God should without
man either exercise divine power!9, or receive the glory of
divine praise. For man is in both an associate of Deity 2°

[6.] But to come to the grace of auction : did the parts of our

18 [°Ov pev vopifopev Kal serei~
opeba apxnber eivac Gedy kal Yidv
Gcod, otros 6 av’roddyos éeotl Kal 7
airocodia Kal 9 avroaAnOea’ rd Se
Ovnrov avrod capa Kai thy avOperi-
yyy ev avT@ Yruxnv, TH mpds ekeivoy
ov pdvoy Kkowwvia adda kal évace
kal dvaxpdoe, Ta peyiord caper
mpocetAnpeva, kal THs éexeivou Ocd-
TnTOs Kekowvwvnkdra eis Gedy petaBe-
Bynkéva. Orig. cont. Cels. iii. 41. ]

19 Meréyer 7 avOpwrivn ths Ocias
evepyeias. Theod. [ Eran. ii. p. 172.

from Apollinarius. ]

20H Se£iad rod Geod 4 moinriKy
Tay bvTeY ToY TavTwY, ATis éoTW 6
Kuptos 80 ob ra mavra éyéveto, avtyn
Tov évobévra mpos aitiy avOpemov
eis 7d idtov aviyayev wos dia tis
évooews. Gregor. Nyss. apud
Theod. [Dial. ii. p. 152. t. iv. pars
i.] "Amd ths hicews THs ojs AaBav
drapxiy éexdlicey emdve mdaons apxijs
kat efovoias. Chrys. in Psal. xli.
[t. i. p. 614. eds Eton. 1612.]

BOOK Vv.

Ch. liv. 6,

BOOK V.
Ch. liv. 7, 8.

236 Divine Unction of our Lord, both m Soul and Body:

nature, the soul and body of Christ, receive by the influence
of Deity wherewith they were matched no ability of operation,
no virtue or quality above nature? Surely as the sword
which is made fiery doth not only cut by reason of the
sharpness which simply it hath, but also burn by means of
that heat which it hath from fire2!, so there is no doubt but
the Deity of Christ hath enabled that nature which it took of
man to do more than man in this world hath power to com-
prehend ; forasmuch as (the bare essential properties of Deity
excepted) he hath imparted unto it all things, he hath re-
plenished it with all such perfections as the same is any way
apt to receive, at the least according to the exigence of
that economy or service for which it pleased him in love
and mercy to be made man. For as the parts, degrees, and
offices of that mystical administration did require which he
voluntarily undertook, the beams of Deity did in operation
always accordingly either restrain2? or enlarge themselves.

[7.] From hence we may somewhat conjecture how the
powers of that soul are illuminated, which being so inward
unto God cannot choose but be privy unto all things which
God worketh, and must therefore of necessity be endued with
knowledge so far forth universal2+, though not with infinite
knowledge peculiar to Deity itself. The soul of Christ that
saw in this life the face of God was here through so visible
presence of Deity filled with all manner graces and virtues in
that unmatchable degree of perfection, for which of him
we read it written, “ That God with the oil of gladness
anointed him above his fellows?5.”

[8.] And as God hath in Christ unspeakably glorified the
nobler, so likewise the meaner part of our nature, the very
bodily substance of man. Where also that must again be
remembered which we noted before concerning degrees of the
influence of Deity proportionable unto his own purposes,

21 [Compare Theodoret, Eranis-
tes, Dial. ii. p. 116, and Apollinar.
ap. Theod. ibid. 171.]

22 Luce. ii. 47.

28 “Hovxdfovros pev rod Adyou év
TO meipdtecOar kal oravpodoba Kat
aroOynckewv, cvyywopevov dé TO ay-
Opare év ro vikay Kat imopévey Kab
Xpnotever Oa kai avioracOa: Kai dva-

AapBaveoOa. Theod. [Dial. iii. t.
iv. pars i. 232.] et Iren. lib. iii. ad-
vers. Heres. [p. 250. ed. Grabe. ]
Matth. xxvii. 46.

24 Col. ii. 3.

25 Isa. xi. 2; Ixi. 1; Luke iv. 18;
Acts iv.27; Heb.i.g; 2Cor.i. 21;
1 John ii. 20, 27.

not vmplying corporal Omnipresence. 237

_ intents, and counsels. For in this respect his body which by
- natural condition was corruptible wanted the gift of everlast-
- ing immunity from death, passion, and dissolution, till God
_ which gave it to be slain for sin had for righteousness’ sake
restored it to life with certainty of endless continuance. Yea
- in this respect the very glorified body of Christ retained in it
the scars and marks of former mortality26,

[9.] But shall we say that in heaven his glorious body by
virtue of the same cause hath now power to present itself
in all places and to be every where at once present? We
nothing doubt but God hath many ways above the reach of
our capacities exalted that body which it hath pleased him to
make his own, that body wherewith he hath saved the world,
that body which hath been and is the root of eternal life,
the instrument wherewith Deity worketh, the sacrifice which
taketh away sin, the price which hath ransomed souls from
death, the leader of the whole army of bodies that shall rise
again. For though it had a beginning from us, yet God hath
given it vital efficacy, heaven hath endowed it with celestial
power, that virtue it hath from above, in regard whereof
all the angels of heaven adore it. Notwithstanding?’ a body
still it continueth, a body consubstantial with our bodies, a
body of the same both nature and measure which it had on
earth.

[10.] To gather therefore into one sum all that hitherto
hath been spoken touching this point, there are but four
things which concur to make complete the whole state of our
Lord Jesus Christ: his Deity, his manhood, the conjunction
of both, and the distinction of the one from the other beng
joined in one. Four principal heresies there are which have
in those things withstood the truth: Arians by bending
themselves against the Deity of Christ; Apollinarians by
maiming and misinterpreting that which belongeth to his
human nature; Nestorians by rending Christ asunder, and

26 John xx. 27. [Theodoret, Eran. xdv rovyapoty capa apOaproy pev
ii. p.120. | dvéotn, kal arabes, kal adavaroy, Kat
27 Mera tiv avdoracw abavaroy ri beia Sd&n SedoEacpEvor, kal mapa
pev eats kal apOaprov kal Oeias ddEns tev emovpavioy mpockuveitat Suvd-
peorov, copa dé Guos thy oikeiay pear’ capa dé Guws eat, THY Tpo=
éxov meprypadny. Theod. fol. 80. répav éyov meprypadpny. |
[t. iv. pars I. p.122. 1d Seomori-

BOOK V.
Ch. liv. 9, 10.

BOOE V.

Ch. ly. 1, 2.

Of the per-
sonal pre-
sence of
Christ
every
where, and
in what
sense it
may be
granted,
he is every
where pre-
sent ac-
cording to
the flesh.

238 Presence of Christ in order to-our Participation of Him.

dividing him into two persons; the followers of Eutyches by
confounding in his person those natures which they should —
distinguish. Against these there have been four most famous _
ancient general councils: the council of Nice to define against —
Arians, against Apollinarians the council of Constantinople,
the council of Ephesus against Nestorians, against Eutychians
the Chalcedon council. In four words, dAnOGs, redAéws, Gdvai-
pétws, aovyxttws, truly, perfectly, indwisibly, distinctly ; the
first applied to his being God, and the second to his being
Man, the third to his being of both One, and the fourth to
his still continuing in that one Both: we may fully by way
of abridgment comprise whatsoever antiquity hath at large
handled either in declaration of Christian belief, or in refuta-
tion of the foresaid heresies. Within the compass of which
four heads, I may truly affirm, that all heresies which touch
but the person of Jesus Christ, whether they have risen in
these later days, or in any age heretofore, may be with great
facility brought to confine themselves.

We conclude therefore that to save the world it was of
necessity thé Son of God should be thus incarnate, and that
God should so be in Christ as hath been declared.

LV. Having thus far proceeded in speech concerning the
person of Jesus Christ, his two natures, their conjunction,
that which he either is or doth in respect of both, and that
which the one receiveth from the other; sith God in Christ
is generally the medicine which doth cure the world, and
Christ in us is that receipt of the same medicine, whereby we
are every one particularly cured, inasmuch as Christ’s incar-
nation and passion can be available to no man’s good which is
not made partaker of Christ, neither can we participate him
without his presence, we are briefly to consider how Christ is
present, to the end it may thereby better appear how we are
made partakers of Christ both otherwise and in the Sacra-
ments themselves.

[2.] All things are in such sort divided into finite and infi-
nite, that no one substance, nature, or quality, can be possibly
capable of both. The world and all things in the world are
stinted, all effects that proceed from them, all the powers and
abilities whereby they work, whatsoever they do, whatsoever
they may, and whatsoever they are, is limited. Which limita-

A finite Substance cannot be infinite in Presence. 289

_ tion of each creature is both the perfection and also the pre-
servation thereof. Measure is that which perfecteth all things,
because every thing is for some end, neither can that thing
be available to any end which is not proportionable thereunto,
and to proportion as well excesses as defects are opposite.
_ Again, forasmuch as nothing doth perish but only through
excess or defect of that, the due proportioned measure whereof
_ doth give perfection, it followeth that measure is likewise the
preservation of all things. Out of which premises we may
— eonclude not only that nothing created can possibly be unli-
_ mited, or can receive any such accident, quality, or property,
as may really make it infinite, (for then should it cease to be
a creature,) but also that every creature’s limitation is accord-
ing to his own kind, and, therefore as oft as we note in them
any thing above their kind, it argueth that the same is not
properly theirs, but groweth in them from a cause more
powerful than they are.

[3.] Such as the substance of each thing is, such is also the
presence thereof. Impossible it is that God should withdraw
his presence from any thing?%, because the very substance of
God is infinite. He filleth heaven and earth29, although he
take up no room in either, because his substance is immaterial,
pure, and of us in this world so incomprehensible, that albeit
no part of us be ever absent from him who is present®° whole
unto every particular thing, yet his presence with us we no
way discern farther than only that God is present, which
partly by reason and more perfectly by faith we know to be
firm and certain.

[4.] Seeing therefore that presence every where is the sequel
of an infinite and incomprehensible substance, (for what can be
every where but that which can no where be comprehended ?)
to inquire whether Christ be every where is to inquire of a
natural property, a property that cleaveth to the Deity of
Christ. Which Deity being common unto him with none but
only the Father and the Holy Ghost, it followeth that nothing

28 Psalm cxxxix. 7, 8.

“ bet, et alteri parti alteram partem,
29 Jer. xxiii. 24.

te sed non solum universitati

30 «Tdeo Deus ubique esse dici-
- tur, quia nulli parti rerum absens
** est ; ideo totus, quia non parti re-
“rum partem sui presentem pre-

“ creature verum etiam cuilibet parti
“ ejus totus pariter adest.” Aug.
Epist. lvii. [al.187. c. 5. t. ii. 683. |

BOOK VY.

Ch. lv. 35 4.

240 The Ubiquity of our Lord’s glorified Body.
nook vy, Of Christ which is limited, that nothing created, that neither
Ch.lv.s-_ the soul nor the body of Christ, and consequently not Christ

as man or Christ according to his human nature can possibly
be every where present, because those phrases of limitation —
and restraint do either point out the principal subject where-
unto every such attribute adhereth, or else they intimate the |
radical cause out of which it groweth. For example, when —
we say that Christ as man or according to his human nature ~
suffered death, we shew what nature was the proper subject —
of mortality; when we say that as God or according to his —
Deity he conquered death, we declare his Deity to have been —
the cause, by force and virtue whereof he raised himself from —
the grave. But neither is the manhood of Christ that sub-
ject whereunto universal presence agreeth, neither is it the
cause original by force whereof his Person is enabled to be
every where present. Wherefore Christ is essentially present —
with all things, in that he is very God, but not present with
all things as man, because manhood and the parts thereof can
neither be the cause nor the true subject of such presence. 4
[5-] Notwithstanding, somewhat more plainly to shew a
true immediate reason wherefore the manhood of Christ can
neither be every where present, nor cause the person of Christ
so to be; we acknowledge that of St. Augustine concerning
Christ most true, “In that he is personally the Word he
“ created all things, in that he is naturally man he himself is
“ created of God!,” and it doth not appear that any one
creature hath power to be present with all creatures. Where-
upon, nevertheless it will not follow that Christ cannot there-
fore be thus present, because he is himself a creature, foras-
much as only infinite presence is that which cannot possibly
stand with the essence or being of any creature: as for presence
with all things that are, sith the whole race, mass, and body

81 * Quod ad Verbum attinet, C. iii. 2. p.15. C. &c. Lugd. 1533. ]

** Multi timore trepidant ne Chris-

** Creator est; quod ad hominem,
** creatura [creatus] est.” Aug. Ep.
57. [al. 187. c. 3. t. ii. 680.] “ Deus
** qui semper est et semper erat fit
** creatura.” Leo de Nativ. [This
does not appear in so many words
in St. Leo’s Homilies on the Nati-
vity. Expressions equivalent to it
occur almost in every page. E. g.
Hom. i. c. 2. p.13. E. ii. 2. p.14.

“tum esse creaturam dicere com-
* pellantur; nos proclamamus non
“esse periculum dicere Christum
“esse creaturam; [quem vermem
** et hominem et crucifixum et ma-
* Jedictionem tota spei nostre fidu-
*“ cia profitemur.”] Hier. in Epist.
ad Eph. c. ii. [§ 6. t. ix. 213. B.]

inconsistent with the Verity of His Manhood. 241

of them is finite, Christ by being a creature is not in that nook v.
respect excluded from possibility of presence with them. That "™-*
which excludeth him therefore as man from so great largeness
of presence, is only his being man, a creature of this particular
kind, whereunto the God of nature hath set those bounds of
restraint and limitation, beyond which to attribute unto it any
thing more than a creature of that sort can admit, were to
give it another nature, to make it & creature of some other
kind than in truth it is.

[6.] Furthermore if Christ in that he is man be every where
present, seeing this cometh not by the nature of manhood
itself, there is no other way how it should grow but either by
the grace of union with Deity, or by the grace of unction
received from Deity. It hath been already sufficiently proved
that by force of union the properties of both natures are
imparted to the person only in whom they are, and not what
belongeth to the one nature really conveyed or translated into
the other; it hath been likewise proved that natures united
in Christ continue the very same which they are where they
are not united. And concerning the grace of unction, wherein
are contained the gifts and virtues which Christ as man hath
above men, they make him really and habitually a man more
excellent than we are, they take not from him the nature and
substance that we have, they cause not his soul nor body to be
of another kind than ours is. Supernatural endowments are
an advancement, they are no extinguishment of that nature
_whereto they are given.

The substance of the body of Christ hath no presence,
neither can have, but only local. It was not therefore every
where seen, nor did it every where suffer death, every where
it could not be entombed, it is not every where now being
exalted into heaven. There is no proof in the world strong
enough to enforce that Christ had a true body but by the true
‘and natural properties of his body. Amongst which proper-
ties, definite or local presence is chief. ‘“ How is it true of
Christ (saith Tertullian) that he died, was buried, and rose
“ avain, if Christ had not that very flesh the nature whereof
“is capable of these things, flesh mingled with blood, sup-
“ ported with bones, woven with sinews, embroidered with

HOOKER, VOL. Il. R

BOOK V.

Ch. lv. 7.

242 Christ’s Person omnipresent by His Deity ;

¢ veins32?” If his majestical body have now any such new
property, by force whereof it may every where really even im
substance present itself, or may at once be in many places, then —
hath the majesty of his estate extinguished the verity of his —
nature. ‘ Make thou no doubt or question of it” (saith St.
Augustine) “ but that the man Christ Jesus is now in that very
“‘ place from whence he shall come in the same form and sub-
«¢ stance of flesh which he carried thither, and from which he —
“ hath not taken nature, but given thereunto immortality. Ac-
“ cording to this form he spreadeth not out himself into all —
“ places. For it behoveth us to take great heed, lest while
“ we go about to maintain the glorious Deity of him which is —
«* man, we leave him not the true bodily substance of a man8?,” |
According to St. Augustine’s opinion therefore that majestical —
body which we make to be every where present, doth thereby
cease to have the substance of a true body.

- [7.] To conclude, we hold it in regard of the fore-alleged
proofs a most infallible truth that Christ as man is not every
where present. There are which think it as infallibly true,
that Christ is every where present as man, which peradventure
in some sense may be well enough granted. His human sub-
stance in itself is naturally absent from the earth, his soul and
body not on earth but in heaven only. Yet because the sub-
stance is inseparably joined to that personal word which by
his very divine essence is present with all things, the nature
which cannot have in itself universal presence hath it after a

82 Tertull. de Car. Chr. [e. 5.
** Natus est Dei Filius; non pudet,
** quia pudendum est: et- mortuus
“est Dei Filius; prorsus credibile
* est, quia ineptum est: et sepultus
** resurrexit ; certum est, quia im-
** possibile est. Sed hzec quomodo
** in illo vera erunt, si ipse non fuit
** verus, si non vere habuit in se
** quod figeretur, quod moreretur,
** quod sepeliretur et resuscitaretur :
** carnem scilicet hanc, sanguine suf-
** fusam, ossibus substructam, ner-
** vis intextam, venis implexam ?’’]

33 Aug. Epist. 57. [al. 187. c. 3.
t. i. 681. ‘Noli itaque dubitare
ibi nune esse hominem Christum

* Jesum, unde venturus est; et fi-
* deliter tene Christianam confessi-
** onem, quoniam resurrexit a mor-
“ tuis, ascendit in celum, sedet ad
*‘ dextram Patris, nec aliunde quam
‘© inde venturus est ad vivos mortu-
** osque judicandos. Et sic ventu-
** rus est, illa angelica voce testante,
** quemadmodum ire visus est in cz-
“lum, i.e. in eadem carnis forma
“* atque substantia, cui profecto im-
“ mortalitatem dedit, naturam non
*€ abstulit. Secundum hanc formam
“non est putandus ubique diffusus.
“‘ Cavendum est enim, ne ita divini-
“tatem adstruamus hominis ut ve-
* ritatem corporis auferamus.”’ |

His Soul, by participating in Divine Government. 2438

sort by being nowhere severed from that which every where is
present. For inasmuch as that infinite word is not divisible
into parts, it could not in part but must needs be wholly
incarnate, and consequently, wheresoever the Word is it hath
with it manhood, else should the Word be in part or some-
where God only and not Man, which is impossible. For the
Person of Christ is whole, perfect God and perfect Man
wheresoever, although the parts of his “Manhood being finite
and his Deity infinite, we cannot say that the whole of Christ
is simply every where, as we may say that his Deity is, and
that his Person is by force of Deity. For somewhat of the Per-
son of Christ is not every where in that sort, namely his man-
hood, the only conjunction whereof with Deity is extended as
far as Deity, the actual position restrained and tied to a cer-
tain place; yet presence by way of conjunction is in some sort
presence.

[8.] Again, as the manhood of Christ may after a sort be
every where said to be present, because that Person is every
where present, from whose divine substance manhood nowhere
is severed: so the same universality of presence may likewise
- seem in another respect appliable thereunto, namely by co-
operation with Deity, and that i all things. The light created
of God in the beginning did first by itself illuminate the world ;
but after that the Sun and Moon were created, the world
sithence hath dy them always enjoyed the same. And that

BOOK V.
Ch. lv. 8.

Deity of Christ which before our Lord’s incarnation wrought |

all things without man, doth now work nothing wherein the
nature which it hath assumed is either absent from it or idle.
Christ as man hath** all power both in heaven and earth given
him. He hath as Man not as God only supreme dominion
over quick and dead%5, for so much his ascension into
heaven, and his session at the right hand of God do import.
The Son of God which did first humble himself by taking our
flesh upon him, descended afterwards much lower, and became
according to the flesh obedient so far as to suffer death, even
the death of the cross, for all men, because such was his
Father’s will. The former was an humiliation of Deity, the
latter an humiliation of manhood®6, for which cause there

34 Matt. xxviii. 18. 36 Phil. ii, 8, 9; Heb. ii.g; Rev.

85 Rom. xiv. 9. v.12,

R 2

244 How Christ, as Man, governs all things.

poox y, followed upon the latter an exaltation of that which was hum-
“uly 3: bled; for with power he created the world, but restored it by
obedience. In which obedience as according to his manhood ~
he had glorified God on earth, so God hath glorified in heaven —
that nature which yielded him obedience, and hath given unto
Christ even in that he is man such fulness of power over the
whole world, that he which before fulfilled in the state of —
humility and patience whatsoever God did require, doth now
reign in glory till the time that all things be restored?8. He
which came down from heaven and descended into the lowest
parts of the earth is ascended far above all heavens%9, that
sitting at the right hand of God he might from thence fill all
things with the gracious and happy fruits of his saving pre-
sence. Ascension into heaven is a plain local translation of
Christ according to his manhood from the lower to the higher
parts of the world. Session at the right hand of God is the
actual exercise of that regency and dominion wherein the
manhood of Christ is joined, and matched with the Deity of
the Son of God. Not that his manhood was before without
the possession of the same power, but because the full use
thereof was suspended till that humility which had been be-
fore as a veil to hide and conceal majesty were laid aside.
After his rising again from the dead, then did God set him at
his right hand in heavenly places+° far above all principality,
and power, and might, and domination, and every name that
is named not in this world only but also in that which is to
come, and hath put all things under his feet*!, and hath
appointed him over all the Head to the Church which is his
body, the fulness of him that filleth all im all. The sceptre of
which spiritual regiment over us in this present world is at
the length to be yielded up into the hands of the Father which
gave it42; that is to say the use and exercise thereof shall

87 Luke xxi. 27. 38 Acts iii. 21.

“nunc regnat ex fide viventibus

89 Ephes. iv. 9.

40 Ephes. i. 20-23.

41 Psalm viii. 6; Heb. ii. 8.

42 1 Cor.xv. 24. [Aug. de Trini-
tate, i. 16. tom. vii. 759. C. ‘* Quid
** ergo est, ‘Cum tradiderit regnum
“Deo et Patri?’ quasi modo non
“‘habeat regnum Deus et Pater!
“Sed quia omnes justos, in quibus

* Mediator Dei et hominum homo
“ Christus Jesus, perducturus est
“ad speciem, quam visionem dicit
** idem Apostolus, ‘ facie ad faciem ;”
“ita dictum est, ‘ Cum tradiderit
*‘ regnum Deo et Patri,’ ac si dice-
* retur, ‘Cum perduxerit credentes
‘ad contemplationem Dei et Pa-
“qa 4

Christ's Body omnipresent by Sacrificial Virtue. 245

cease, there being no longer on earth any militant Church to soox v.
govern. ‘This government therefore he exerciseth both as 55
God and as man, as God by essential presence with all things,

as Man by co-operation with that which essentially is present.
Touching the manner how he worketh as man in all things ;

the principal powers of the soul of man are the will and un-
derstanding, the one of which two in Christ assenteth unto all

things, and from the other nothing which Deity doth work is

hid; so that by knowledge and assent the soul of Christ is

present with all things which the Deity of Christ worketh.

[9.] And even the body of Christ itself, although the defi-
nite limitation thereof be most sensible, doth notwithstanding
admit in some sort a kind of infinite and unlimited presence
likewise. For his body being a part of that nature which
whole nature is presently joined unto Deity wheresoever
Deity is, it followeth that his bodily substance hath every
where a presence of true conjunction with Deity. And foras-
much as it is by virtue of that conjunction made the body of
the Son of God, by whom also it was made a sacrifice for the
sins of the whole world, this giveth it a presence of force and
efficacy throughout all generations of men. Albeit therefore
nothing be actually infinite in substance but God only in that
he is God, nevertheless as every number is infinite by possi-
bility of addition, and every line by possibility of extension
infinite, so there is no stint which can be set to the value or
merit of the sacrificed body of Christ, it hath no measured cer-
tainty of limits, bounds of efficacy unto life it knoweth none,
but is also itself infinite in possibility of application.

- Which things indifferently every way considered, that gra-
cious promise of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ concerning
presence with his to the very end of the world, I see no cause
but that we may well and safely interpret he doth perform
both as God by essential presence of Deity, and as Man in
that order, sense, and meaning, which hath been shewed.

LVI. We have hitherto spoken of the Person and of the The union
presence of Christ. Participation is that mutual inward hold vel Locticom
which Christ hath of us and we of him, in such sort that each tion which
possesseth other by way of special interest, property, and in- ein pe
herent copulation. For plainer explication whereof we may the Church

from that which hath been before sufficiently proved assume . pone

sent world.

BOOK V.

Ch, Ivi, 2, 36

2946 Mutual Participation of the Father and the Son,

to our purpose these two principles, “ That every original
“ cause imparteth itself unto those things which come of it ;”
and “ whatsoever taketh being from any other, the same is
« after a sort in that which giveth it being.”

[2.] It followeth hereupon that the Son of God being light
of light, must needs be also light4? in light. The Persons of
the Godhead, by reason of the unity of their substance, do as
necessarily remain one within another, as they are of neces-
sity to be distinguished one from another, because two are the
issue of one, and one the offspring of the other two, only of
three one not growing out of any other. And sith they all
are but one God in number, one indivisible essence or sub-
stance, their distinction cannot possibly admit separation. For
how should that subsist solitarily by itself which hath no sub-
stance but individually the very same whereby others subsist
with it; seeing thatthe multiplication of substances mm parti-
cular is necessarily required to make those things subsist apart
which have the selfsame general nature, and the Persons
of that Trinity are not three particular substances to whom one
general nature is common, but three that subsist by one sub-
stance which itself is particular, yet they all three have it, and
their several ways of having it are that which maketh their
personal distinction? The Father therefore is in the Son, and
the Son in him, they both in the Spirit, and the Spirit in both
them. So that the Father’s offspring, which is the Son, re-
maineth eternally in the Father; the Father eternally also in
the Son, no way severed or divided by reason of the sole and
single unity of their substance. The Son in the Father as
light in that light out of which it floweth without separation ;
the Father in the Son as light in that light which it causeth
and leaveth not. And because in this respect his eternal being
is of the Father, which eternal being is his life, therefore he
by the Father liveth.

[3.] Again, sith all things do accordingly love their offspring
as themselves are more or less contained in it, he which

« 43 “In the bosom of the Father,”

John i. 18. “* Ecce dico alium esse
** Patrem et alium Filium; non di-
**visione alium sed distinctione. fs
Tertull. contra Prax. [c. 9.] “Nee

‘in numerum pluralem defiuit 3 in-

“* corporea generatio, nec in divisio-
“nem cadit ubi qui nascitur ne-
** quaquam a generante separatur.”
Ruffin. in Symbol. [e. 6. p. a ad
calc. Cypr. Fell.]

3 is thus the only-begotten, must needs be in this degree BOOK Y.
_ the only-beloved of the Father. He therefore which is in —~—””

im respect of Christ's Manhood, as well as His Godhead. 247

the Father by eternal derivation of being and life from him,
must needs be in him through an eternal affection of love.
[4.] His Incarnation causeth him also as man to be now in

_ the Father, and the Father to be in him. For in that he is

man, he receiveth life from the Father as from the fountain of«
that ever living Deity, which in the person of the Word hath
combined itself with manhood, and doth thereunto impart
such life as to no other creature besides him is communicated.
In which consideration likewise the love of the Father towards
him is more than it can be towards any other‘‘, neither can
any attain unto that perfection of love which he beareth
towards his heavenly Father+®. Wherefore God is not so in
any, nor any so in God as Christ, whether we consider him as

_ the personal Word of God, or as the natural Son of man.

[5-] All other things that are of God have God in them
and he them in himself likewise. Yet because their substance
and his wholly differeth, their coherence and communion
either with him or amongst themselves is in no sort like unto
that before-mentioned.

God hath his influence into the very essence of all things,
without which influence of Deity supporting them their utter
annihilation could not choose but follow. Of him all things
have both received their first being and their continuance
to be that which they are. All things are therefore partakers
of God, they are his offspring, his influence is in them, and the
personal wisdom of God is for that very cause said to excel in
nimbleness or agility, to+® pierce into all intellectual, pure, and
subtile spirits, to go through all, and to reach unto every
thing which is. Otherwise, how should the same wisdom be
that which supporteth, beareth up*7, and sustaineth all ?

Whatsoever God doth work, the hands of all three Persons
are jointly and equally in it according to the order of that
connexion whereby they each depend upon other. And there-
fore albeit in that respect the Father be first, the Son next,
the Spirit last, and consequently nearest unto every effect

44 Luke iii. 22; John iii. 34, 35; : Wisd. vii. 23.
V. 20; X.17. 47 Heb. i. 3.
45 John xiv. 31 5. Xv. 10,

BOOK V.

Ch. Ivi. 6.

248 How all Creatures, especially the Saints, partake of God.

which groweth from all three, nevertheless, they ‘all beg of
one essence, are likewise all of one efficacy. Dare any man
unless he be ignorant altogether how inseparable the Persons
of the Trinity are, persuade himself that every of them may
have their sole and several possessions, or that4® we being
not partakers of all, can have fellowship with any one? The

Father as Goodness, the Son as Wisdom, the Holy Ghost

as Power do all concur in every particular outwardly issuing
from that one only glorious Deity which they all are. For
that which moveth God to work is goodness, and that which
ordereth his work is Wisdom, and that which perfecteth
his work is Power. All things which God in their times and
seasons hath brought forth were eternally and before all times
in God, as a work unbegun is in the artificer which after-
ward bringeth it unto effect. Therefore whatsoever we do
behold now in this present world, it was enwrapped within
the bowels of divine Mercy, written in the book of eternal
Wisdom, and held in the hands of omnipotent Power, the

first foundations of the world being as yet unlaid.

So that all things which God hath made are in that respect
the offspring of God+9, they are im hum as effects in their
highest cause, he likewise actually is 7m them, the assistance and
influence of his Deity is their life*°.

[6.] Let hereunto saving efficacy be added, and it bringeth
forth a special offspring amongst men, containing them to
whom God hath himself given the gracious and amiable name
of sons*!. We are by nature the sons of Adam. When God
created Adam he created us, and as many as are descended
from Adam have in themselves the root out of which they
spring. The sons of God we neither are all nor any one of us
otherwise than only by grace and favour. The sons of God
have God’s own natural Son as a second Adam *? from
heaven, whose race and progeny they are by spiritual and
heavenly birth. God therefore loving eternally his Son, he
must needs eternally in him have loved and preferred before
all others them which are spiritually sithence descended and
sprung out of him’, These were in God as in their Saviour,

48 John xiv. 23. 51 y John iii. 1.
49 Acts xvii. 28, 29. 52 1 Cor. xv. 47.
50 John i. 4,103 Isai. xl. 26. 53 Ephes. i. 3, 4.

The Communion of Saints, not figuratiwe. = QA9

and not as in their Creator only. It was the purpose of his
saving Goodness, his saving Wisdom, and his saving Power
__ which inclined itself towards them.
__‘[7.] They which thus were in God eternally by their in-
_ tended admission to life, have by vocation or adoption God
actually now in them, as the artificer is in the work which his
hand doth presently frame. Life as all other gifts and benefits
groweth originally from the Father, and cometh not to us but
by the Son, nor by the Son to any of us in particular
but through the Spirit®>. For this cause the Apostle wisheth
_ to the church of Corinth, “The grace of our Lord Jesus
« Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy
© Ghost>6.” ‘Which three St. Peter comprehendeth in one,
« The participation of divine Nature*’.” We are therefore in
God through Christ eternally according to that intent and
purpose whereby we were chosen to be made his in this
_ present world before the world itself was made, we are in God
_ through the knowledge which is had of us, and the love which
is borne towards us from everlasting. But in God we actually
are no longer than only from the time of our actual adoption
into the body of his true Church, into the fellowship of his
children. For his Church he knoweth and loveth, so that
they which are in the Church are thereby known to be in him
Our being in Christ by eternal foreknowledge saveth us not
without our actual and real adoption into the fellowship of his
saints in this present world. For in him we actually are by
our actual incorporation into that society which hath him for
their Head*8, and doth make together with him one Body, (he
and they in that respect having one name®?,) for which cause,
by virtue of this mystical conjunction, we are of him and
in him even as though our very flesh and bones should
be made continuate with his®. We are in Christ because
he® knoweth and loveth us even as parts of himself. No
man actually is in him but they in whom he actually is. - For
“ he which hath not the Son of God hath not life?” “TIT
“¢ am the vine and you are the branches: he which abideth in
«me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit ;” but
54 y John v. 11. 57 2 Pet. i. 4. 60 Ephes. v. 30.

55 Rom. viii. 10. 58 Col. ii. 10. 61 John xv. 9.
56 2 Cor, xiii. 13. 59 1 Cor. xii. 12. 62 y John v. 12.

BOOK V,

Ch, Ivi, 4,

BOOK V.
Ch. lvi. 7.

250 The Communion of Saints wrought by the Holy Ghost ;

the branch severed from the vine withereth6*. We are there-
fore adopted sons of God to eternal life by participation of
the only-begotten Son of God, whose life is the well-spring
and cause of ours®.

It is too cold an interpretation, whereby some men expound
our being in Christ to import nothing else, but only that the
selfsame nature which maketh us to be men, is in him, and
maketh him man as we are. For what man in the world is
there which hath not so far forth communion with Jesus
Christ ? It is not this that can sustain the weight of such
sentences as speak of the mystery of our coherence® with
Jesus Christ. The Church is in Christ as Eve was in Adam.
Yea by grace we are every of us in Christ and in his Church,
as by nature we are in those our first parents. God made
Eve of the rib of Adam. And his Church he frameth out
of the very flesh, the very wounded and bleeding side of the
Son of man. His body crucified and his blood shed for the
life of the world, are the true elements of that heavenly
being, which maketh us such as himself is of whom we come.
For which cause the words of Adam may be fitly the words of
Christ concerning his Church, “flesh of my flesh, and bone
“ of my bones,” a true native extract out of mine own body.
So that in him even according to his manhood we according to
our heavenly being are as branches in that root out of which
they grow.

To all things he is life, and to men light’, as the Son of God ;
to the Church both life and light eternal®* by being made
the Son of Man for us, and by being in us a Saviour, whether
we respect him as God, or as man. Adam is in us as an
original cause of our nature, and of that corruption of nature
which causeth death, Christ as the cause original of restoration
to life69; the person of Adam is not in us, but his nature, and
the corruption of his nature derived into all men by propaga-
tion ; Christ having Adam’s nature as we have, but incorrupt,
deriveth not nature but incorruption and that immediately
from his own person into all that belong unto him. As
therefore we are really partakers of the body of sin and death

ia Ae xv. 5, 6. meu fi 1 Cor. xv. 48.
ohn xiv. 19; es. V. 23. John i. ;
65 John xiv. ri er 4. : 68 vi. 57. My Heb. v. 9.

Ba
LY

depending on the Manhood as well as Godhead of Christ. 251

; received from Adam, so except we be truly partakers of Christ,

ae

_and as really possessed of his Spirit, all we speak of eternal life

is but a dream.

[8.] That which quickeneth us is the Spirit of the second

Adam7°, and his flesh that wherewith he quickeneth. That

which in him made our nature uncorrupt, was the union
of his Deity with our nature.
sentence of death and condemnation which only taketh hold
upon sinful flesh, could no way possibly extend unto him.
This caused his voluntary death for others to prevail with
God, and to have the force of an expiatory sacrifice.
blood of Christ as the Apostle witnesseth doth therefore take

And in that respect the

The

away sin, because “ through the eternal Spirit he offered him-
« self unto God without spot7!.” That which sanctified our
nature in Christ, that which made it a sacrifice available
to take away sin, is the same which quickeneth it, raised
it out of the grave after death, and exalted it unto glory.

Seeing therefore that Christ is in us as a quickening Spirit,

the first degree of communion with Christ must needs consist
in the participation of his Spirit, which Cyprian in that respect
well termeth germanissimam societatem’?, the highest and truest

society that can be between man and him which is both God

and man in one.

[9.) These things St. Cyril duly considering7?, reproveth
their speeches which taught that only the deity of Christ
is the vine whereupon we by faith do depend as branches,
and that neither his flesh nor our bodies are comprised in
this resemblance. For doth any man doubt but that even
from the flesh of Christ our very bodies do receive that
life which shall make them glorious at the latter day, and

70 x Cor. xv. 22. 45.

7) Heb. ix. 14.

72 Cypr. de Coena Dom. e. 6. [p.
40. ad calc. ed. Fell. The tract is
not St. Cyprian’s, but Arnold’s, of
Chartres, the friend of St. Bernard,
(Cave, Hist. Lit. i. a and forms
part of his work “* De Cardinalibus
** Christi Operibus.” The whole
passage is, ‘‘ Panis iste quem Domi-
“nus discipulis porrigebat, non
* effigie sed natura mutatus, omni-
** potentia Verbi factus est caro; et
** sicut in persona Christi humanitas

*¢ videbatur, et latebat divinitas ; ita
‘sacramento visibili ineffabiliter
*¢ divina se infudit essentia, ut esset
** religioni circa sacramenta devotio,
*‘ et ad veritatem cujus corpus et
“ sanguis sacramenta sunt since-
“rior pateret accessus, usque ad
*‘ participationem Spiritus; non
* quod usque ad consubstantialita-
*‘ tem Christi, sed usque ad societa-
“tem germanissimam ejus hec
‘* unitas pervenisset.””

73 Cyril, in Joan. lib. x. cap. 13.
[t. iv. 862:

BOOK V.

Ch. lvi. 8, 9.

252 The Communion of Saints, how variously imparted

for which they are already accounted parts of his blessed
body ? Our corruptible bodies could never live the life they
shall live, were it not that here they are joined with his
body which is incorruptible, and that his is in ours as a cause of
immortality, a cause by removing through the death and merit
of his own flesh that which hindered the life of ours. Christ
is therefore both as God and as man that true vine whereof we
both spiritually and corporally are branches. The mixture of
his bodily substance with ours is a thing which the ancient
Fathers disclaim7*. Yet the mixture of his flesh with ours
they speak of, to signify what our very bodies through mystical
conjunction75-receive from that vital efficacy which we know
to be in his: and from bodily mixtures they borrow divers
similitudes rather to declare the truth, than the manner of
coherence between his sacred and the sanctified bodies of
saints 76,

[10.] Thus much no Christian man will deny, that when
Christ sanctified his own flesh, giving as God and taking
as man the Holy Ghost, he did not this for himself only but
for our sakes, that the grace of sanctification and life which
was first received in him might pass from him to his whole
race as malediction came from Adam unto all mankind.
Howbeit, because the work of his Spirit to those effects is in
us prevented by sin and death possessing us before, it is of
‘ necessity that as well our present sanctification unto newness
of life, as the future restoration of our bodies should presup-
pose a participation of the grace, efficacy, merit or virtue of

BOOK V,
Ch. Ivi. 10.

74 « Nostra quippe et ipsius con-
*‘junctio nec miscet personas nec
** unit substantias, sed affectus con-
** sociat et confoederat voluntates.”’
Cypr. de Coen. Dom. [c. 6.]

7) «Quomodo dicunt carnem in
** corruptionem devenire et non per-
* cipere vitam, que a corpore Do-
** mini et sanguine alitur?” Iren.
lib. iv. advers. Heres. c. 34. [p.

827.|

6 «« Unde considerandum est non
*solum oxéoe seu conformitate
*< affectionum, Christum in nobis
“esse, verum etiam participatione
*““naturali (id est, reali et vera]:
** quemadmodum si quis igne lique-
*‘factam ceram alii cere similiter

** liquefactee ita miscuerit ut unum
** quid ex utrisque factum videatur ;
** sic communicatione Corporis et
** Sanguinis Christi ipse in nobis
“est et nos in ipso.” Cyril. in
Joan. lib.x. cap. 13. [t. iv. 863. B.
ev yap 5 Tovr@ pddsora karideiv
aé.oy, @s od Kata Yeo Tia pdvnY,
tiv ev Siabécer voovpevny, ev nyiv
écecOai dnow 6 Xpiords, adda Kal
kara peOekw, row Gvouny. “Qo-
mep yap €t tis Knpov érépw ovvava-
mhé€as Knp®, Kal rupt ovyxaratnéas,
€y Tt TO €€ apo epydterar* ovT@
did THs peradHiews TOU GapaTos Tov
Xpicrov, Kal Tov Tipiov aiparos, av-
TOs pev ev Huy, Nueis S€ av maduy ev
aiT@® cvvevovpeba. |

to the Church, and to Individuals. 253

his body and blood, without which foundation first laid there
is no place for those other operations of the Spirit of Christ to
ensue. So that Christ imparteth plainly himself by degrees.

It pleaseth him in mercy to account himself incomplete and
maimed without us?7. But most assured we are that we all
receive of his fulness78, because he is in us as a moving and
working cause; from which many blessed effects are really
found to ensue, and that in sundry both kinds and degrees,
all tending to eternal happiness. It must be confessed that of
Christ, working as a Creator, and a Governor of the world by
providence, all are partakers; not all partakers of that grace
whereby he inhabiteth whom he saveth. :

Again, as he dwelleth not by grace in all, so neither doth
he equally work in all them in whom he dwelleth. “Whence
“is it (saith St. Augustine7%) that some be holier than others
“ are, but because God doth dwell in some more plentifully
“ than in others ?”

And because the divine substance of Christ is equally in
all, his human substance equally distant from all, it appeareth
that the participation of Christ wherein there are many degrees
and differences, must needs consist in such effects as being
derived from both natures of Christ really into us, are made
our own, and we by having them in us are truly said to have
him from whom they come, Christ also more or less to inhabit
and impart himself as the graces are fewer or more, greater
or smaller, which really flow into us from Christ.

Christ is whole with the whole Church, and whole with
every part of the Church, as touching his Person, which can
no way divide itself, or be possessed by degrees and portions.
But the participation of Christ importeth, besides the presence
of Christ’s Person, and besides the mystical copulation thereof
with the parts and members of his whole Church, a true actual
influence of grace whereby the life which we live according to
godliness is his®°, and from him we receive those perfections
wherein our eternal happiness consisteth.

77 Ephes. i. 23. “Ecclesia com- ii. 683. C. “ Unde in omnibus sanc-
*plementum ejus qui implet omnia “tis sunt alii aliis sanctiores, nisi
“in omnibus.” Td mAnp@pa tod “ abundantius habendo habitatorem
mavra év Tact mAnpoupevov. ** Deum?’’]

78 (St. John i. 16.] 80 Gal. ii. 20,

79 Aug. Epist. 57. [al. 187. c. 5. t.

BOOK V.

Ch, lvi. 10,

BOOK V.

Ch, lvi. £1, 12.

254 Communion of Saints by Infusion of Christ's Spirit ;

[11.] Thus we participate Christ partly by imputation, as —
when those things which he did and suffered for us are im-
puted unto us for righteousness*!; partly by habitual and —
real infusion, as when grace is inwardly bestowed while we ©
are on earth, and afterwards more fully both our souls and —
bodies made like unto his in glory. The first thing of his so
infused into our hearts in this life is the Spirit of Christ®? _
whereupon because the rest of what kind soever do all both —
necessarily depend and infallibly also ensue, therefore the
Apostles term it sometime the seed of God*?, sometime the
pledge of our heavenly inheritance®‘, sometime the handsel
or earnest of that which is to come®*. From hence it is that
they which belong to the mystical body of our Saviour Christ, —
and be in number as the stars of heaven, divided succes-
sively by reason of their mortal condition into many genera-
tions, are notwithstanding coupled every one to Christ their
Head ®®, and all unto every particular person amongst them-
selves87, inasmuch as the same Spirit, which anointed the
blessed soul of our Saviour Christ, doth so formalize, unite
and actuate his whole race, as if both he and they were so
many limbs compacted into one body, by being quickened
all with one and the same soul.

[12.] That wherein we are partakers of Jesus Christ by
imputation, agreeth equally unto all that have it. For it
consisteth in such acts and deeds of his as could not have
longer continuance than while they were in doing, nor at that
very time belong unto any other but to him from whom they
came, and therefore how men either then or before or sithence
should be made partakers of them, there can be no way
imagined but only by imputation. Again, a deed must either
not be imputed to any, but rest altogether in him whose it is,
or if at all it be imputed, they which have it by imputation
must have it such as it is whole. So that degrees being neither
in the personal presence of Christ, nor in the participation
of those effects which are ours by imputation only, it resteth
that we wholly apply them to the participation of Christ’s
infused grace, although even in this kind also the first

81 Isai. lili. 5; Ephes. i. 7. 8° Rom. vill. 23.
82 Rom. viii.g; Gal. iv. 6. 86 1 Cor. xii. 27; Ephes. iv. 15.
83; John iii.g. 84 Ephes.i.t4. 87 Rom. xii.5; Ephes. iv. 25.

or by Imputation of His Merits. 255
beginning of life, the seed of God, the first-fruits of Christ’s Boox v.

Spirit be without latitude. For we have hereby only the is ta
being of the Sons of God, in which number how far soever
one may seem to excel another, yet touching this that all are
sons, they are all equals, some haply better sons than the rest
are, but none any more a son than another.
[13.] Thus therefore we see how the Father is in the Son,

and the Son in the Father; how they both are in all things,

‘and all things in them; what communion Christ hath with
his Church, how his Church and every member thereof is in
him by original derivation, and he personally in them by way
of mystical association wrought through the gift of the Holy
Ghost, which they that are his receive from him, and together
with the same what benefit soever the vital force of his body
and blood may yield, yea by steps and degrees they receive
the complete measure of all such divine grace, as doth sanc-
_ tify and save throughout, till the day of their final exaltation
to a state of fellowship in glory, with him whose partakers
they are now in those things that tend to glory. As for
any mixture of the substance of his flesh with ours, the parti-
cipation which we have of Christ includeth no such kind of
_ gross surmise.

LVII. It greatly offendeth, that some, when they labour The neces-
to shew the use of the holy Sacraments, assign unto them er a
no end but only ¢o teach the mind, by other senses, that unto the
which the Word doth teach by hearing. Whereupon, how P@@ciP*
easily neglect and careless regard of so heavenly mysteries Christ.
may follow, we see in part by some experience had of those
men with whom that opinion is most strong. For where
the word of God may be heard, which teacheth with much
more expedition and more full explication any thing we have
to learn, if all the benefit we reap by sacraments be instruc-
tion, they which at all times have opportunity of using the
better mean to that purpose, will surely hold the worse in
less estimation. And unto infants which are not capable of
instruction, who would not think it a mere superfluity that
any sacrament is administered, if to administer the sacra-
ments be but to teach receivers what God doth for them ?
There is of sacraments therefore undoubtedly some other more
excellent and heavenly use.

BOOK V.

Ch. lvii, 2, 3.

256 | The subordinate Uses of Sacraments.

[2.] Sacraments, by reason of their mixed nature, are more —
diversely interpreted and disputed of than any other part of —
religion besides, for that in so great store of properties belong- —
ing to the selfsame thing, as every man’s wit hath taken hold |
of- some especial consideration above the rest, so they have —
accordingly seemed one to cross another as touching their
several opinions about the necessity of sacraments, whereas
in truth their disagreement is not great. For let respect be —
had to the duty which every communicant doth undertake,
and we may well determine concerning the use of sacraments,
that they serve as bonds of obedience to God, strict obliga-
tions to the mutual exercise of Christian charity, provocations
to godliness, preservations from sin, memorials of the prin-
cipal benefits of Christ; respect the time of their institution,
and it thereby appeareth that God hath annexed them for
ever unto the New Testament, as other rites were before with
the Old; regard the weakness which is in us, and they are
warrants for the more security of our belief; compare the
receivers of them with such as receive them not, and sacra-
ments are marks of distinction to separate God’s own from
strangers: so that in all these respects, they are found to be
most necessary. }

{3.] But their chiefest force and virtue consisteth not
herein so much as in that they are heavenly ceremonies,
which God hath sanctified and ordained to be administered in
his Church, first, as marks whereby to know when God doth
impart the vital or saving grace of Christ unto all that are
capable thereof %’, and secondly as means conditional which

88 (Chr. Letter, p. 27: “ Where
** finde you that God ordained the
** sacramentes to tell us when God
“* giveth grace?”

Hooker, MS. note. “ Are not
** sacraments signes of grace given?
** If signes, have they not that which
“they signify? If they have, are
** they not intimations and declara-
‘* tions thereof to the mind? And
“did not God ordaine them to be
“verba visibilia as S. Augustine
“termeth them?” ( Quid enim
“sunt aliud queeque corporalia sa-
“ cramenta, nisi queedam quasi ver-
“ba visibilia, sacrosancta quidem,

“ verumtamen mutabilia et tempo-
*‘yalia?”’ contr. Faust. xix. 16. t.
vill. 321. C.) “If it be of the essence
“ of sacraments to be signaor indicia,
‘* then, where you find that God or-
*dained them, you shall find he
*‘ ordeined them to this end.

* Again, if the thing they signify
“be grace, and God the giver of
** that grace, in the ministry of the
‘* sacraments, then are they ordeined
* to tell us when God giveth grace,
*‘ yea, and further, what grace God
* doth give.”

On p. 26, his note is, “The sa-
** craments being a matter so much

257

Sacraments do not confer Grace ex opere operato.

~ God requireth in them unto whom he imparteth grace. For
sith God in himself is invisible, and cannot by us be discerned
working, therefore when it seemeth good in the eyes of
his heavenly wisdom, that men for some special intent and
purpose should take notice of his glorious presence, he giveth
them some plain and sensible token whereby to know what
they cannot see. For Moses to see God and live was im-
possible, yet Moses by fire knew where the glory of God
extraordinarily was present®®. The angel, by whom God
endued the waters of the pool called Bethesda with super-
natural virtue to heal, was not seen of any, yet the time
of the angel’s presence known by the troubled motions of the
waters themselves®. The Apostles by fiery tongues which
they saw, were admonished when the Spirit, which they could
not behold, was upon them, In like manner it is with us.

Christ and his Holy Spirit with all their blessed effects, though

BOOK Vy.

Ch, Ivii. 4.

entering into the soul of man we are not able to apprehend or -

_ express how, do notwithstanding give notice of the times when
they use to make their access, because it pleaseth Almighty
God to communicate by sensible means those blessings which
are incomprehensible.

[4.] Seeing therefore that grace is a consequent of sacra-
ments, a thing which accompanieth them as their end, a benefit
which he that hath received from God himself the author of
sacraments, and not from any other natural or supernatural
quality in them, it may be hereby both understood that
sacraments are necessary, and that the manner of their neces-
sity to life supernatural is not in all respects as food unto
natural life, because they contain in themselves no vital force or
efficacy, they are not physical but moral instruments of salva-
tion, duties of service and worship, which unless we perform
as the Author of grace requireth, they are unprofitable. For

** debated, it seemeth strange that
** you which take upon you so great
** care of the Church, should never
** take the paines at the least for the
_ *€ good of your own soul, to know
“that which every shopman and
*‘ prentise is now acquainted with
‘in this matter. You speake of sa-
“craments as if by the space of
“these thirty or forty yeares you
“had lived in some cave of the
‘earth, and never heard in what

HOOKER, VOL. II.

>

** points the Church doth either
*‘ varie or agree concerning them.
“It were strange that you should
* affect to seeme ignorant in that
** whereof you have presumed to be

“a judg. And yeat that you should

“be so raw as your wordes make
“ show of, I cannot persuade my-
self.’”]

89 Exod. iii. 2.

90 John v. 4.

91 Acts ii. 3. ~

LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE

BOOK V.

Ch. lvii. 5 6.

258 The two Sacraments, how severally necessary to Salvation.

all receive not the grace of God which receive the sacraments
of his grace. Neither is it ordinarily his will to bestow the
grace of sacraments on any, but by the sacraments; which
grace also they that receive by sacraments or with sacraments,
receive it from him and not from them. For of sacraments the
very same is true which Solomon’s wisdom observeth in the
brazen serpent, “ He that turned towards it was not healed
“«‘ by the thing he saw, but by thee, O Saviour of all93.”

[5-] This is therefore the necessity of sacraments. That
saving grace which Christ originally is or hath for the general
good of his whole Church, by sacraments he severally de-
riveth into every member thereof. Sacraments serve as the
instruments of God to that end and purpose, moral instruments,
the use whereof is in our hands, the effect in his; for the
use we have his express commandment, for the effect his
conditional promise: so that without our obedience to the
one, there is of the other no apparent assurance, as contrari-
wise where the signs and sacraments of his grace are not
either through contempt unreceived, or received with con-
tempt, we are not to doubt but that they really give what they
promise, and are what they signify. For we take not baptism
nor the eucharist for bare resemblances or memorials of things
absent, neither for naked signs and testimonies assuring us of
grace received before, but (as they are indeed and in verity)
for means effectual whereby God when we take the sacra-
ments delivereth into our hands that grace available unto
eternal life, which grace the sacraments represent or signify %.

[6.] There have grown in the doctrine concerning sacraments
many difficulties for want of distinct explication what kind or
degree of grace doth belong unto each sacrament. For by

91 [S. Aug. in Ps, lxx. (78.) § 2.
** Cum essent omnia communia sa-
*“cramenta, non communis erat
‘omnibus gratia, que sacramen-
“‘ torum virtus est.” Cf. Bp. Jewel,
Def. of Apol. p. 235. ed. 1611. ]

92 «Spiritus Sancti {Dei} munus
“est gratiam implere mysterii.”
Ambros. in Luc. cap. iii. [lib.ii. § 79. ]
** Sanctificatis elementis effectum
“* non propria ipsorum natura pre-
* bet, sed virtus divina potentius
** operatur.” Cypr. de Chrism. [c. 2.
p- 47. ed. Fell. ad calc. inter Tractat.
Arnoldi Carnotensis. |

93 Wisd. xvi. 7.

%4 “Dum homini bonum invisi-
‘bile redditur, foris ei ejusdem
** significatio per species visibiles
* adhibetur, ut foris excitetur et
*intus reparetur. In ipsa vasis
** specievirtus exprimitur medicine.”
Hugo de Sacram. lib. i. [pars ix.]
cap. 3. [Opp. t. ili. 560. KE. Rouen,
1648.] “Siergo vasa sunt spiritualis
“‘ gratie Sacramenta, non ex suo
*sanant, quia vasa egrotum non
“curant, sed medicina.” Idem,

lib. i. [pars ix.] c. 4. [p. 561. E.]

Sacraments: what is essential to them. 259

this it hath come to pass, that the true immediate cause Poo. idea
why Baptism, and why the Supper of our Lord is necessary,
few do rightly and distinctly consider. It cannot be denied

but sundry the same effects and benefits which grow unto

men by the one sacrament may rightly be attributed unto the

other. Yet then doth baptism challenge to itself but the
inchoation of those graces, the consummation whereof de-
pendeth on mysteries ensuing. We receive Christ Jesus in
baptism once as the first beginner, in the eucharist often as

being by continual degrees the finisher of our life. By bap-

tism therefore we receive Christ Jesus, and from him that
saving grace which is proper unto baptism. By the other
sacrament we receive him also, imparting therein himself and

that grace which the eucharist properly bestoweth. So that

each sacrament having both that which is general or common,

and that also which is peculiar unto itself, we may hereby
gather that the participation of Christ which properly belongeth

to any one sacrament, is not otherwise to be obtained but by

the sacrament whereunto it is proper.

LVIII. Now even as the soul doth organize the body, and The sub-
give unto every member thereof that substance, quantity, and Doster
shape, which nature seeth most expedient, so the inward the rites or
grace of sacraments may teach what serveth best for their a
outward form, a thing in no part of Christian religion, much belonging ;

: andthatthe
less here to be neglected. Grace intended by sacraments was substance
a cause of the choice, and is a reason of the fitness of the ele- tack ;
ments themselves. Furthermore, seeing that the grace which other _ re
here we receive doth no way depend upon the natural force fen
of that which we presently behold, it was of necessity that _ give
words of express declaration taken from the very mouth of our adn Pn
Lord himself should be added unto visible elements, that the
one might infallibly teach what the other do most assuredly
bring to pass.

[2.] In writing and speaking of the blessed sacraments we
use? for the most part under the name of their Substance not

only to comprise that whereof they outwardly and sensibly

% <*Kucharistia duabus ex rebus “ bola non nudis signis, sed signis
* constat, terrena et coelesti.”” Iren. ‘‘ simul et rebus constant.’’? Helvet.
advers. Heres. lib. iv. cap. 34. Confes. Prior. Art. 20. [in Sylloge
[p. 327-] “ Arcanarum rerum sym- Conf. 109. Oxon. 1804. |

$2

LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE

BOOK V.

Ch. viii. 3.

~~)

260 Three Things essential to a Sacrament.

consist, but also the secret grace which they signify and exhi-
bit. This is the reason wherefore commonly in definitions,

whether they be framed larger to augment, or stricter to
abridge the number of sacraments, we find grace expressly
mentioned as their true essential form, elements as the matter
whereunto that form doth adjoin itself. But if that be sepa-
rated which is secret, and that considered alone which is seen,
as of necessity it must in all those speeches that make distine-
tion of sacraments from sacramental grace, the name of a sa-
crament in such speeches can imply no more than what the
outward substance thereof doth comprehend. And to make
complete the outward substance of a sacrament, there is re-
quired an outward form, which form sacramental elements
receive from sacramental words. Hereupon it groweth, that”
many times there are three things said to make up the sub-
stance of a sacrament, namely, the grace which is thereby
offered, the element which shadoweth or signifieth grace, and
the word which expresseth what is done by the element. So
that whether we consider the outward by itself alone, or both
the outward and inward substance of any sacrament; there
are in the one respect but two essential parts, and in the other
but three that concur to give sacraments their full being.

[3.] Furthermore, because definitions are to express but the

% Sacramentum est, cum res gesta
visibilis longe aliud invisibile intus
operatur. Isid. Etym. lib. i. [lib. vi.
c.19. ‘‘ Sacramentum est in aliqua
** celebratione, cum res gesta ita fit,
*‘ ut aliquid significare intelligatur,
‘quod sancte accipiendum est.
~ Sunt autem Sacramenta baptis-
** mus et chrisma, corpus et sanguis
* Christi; quz ob id Sacramenta
** dicuntur, quia sub tegumento cor-
** poralium rerum, virtus divina se-
** cretius salutem eorundem sacra-
‘** mentorum operatur.” p. 52. A. ed.
Du Breul. Colon. 1617, ** Sacya-
“mentum est, per quod sub tegu-
*“mento rerum visibilium divina
** virtus salutem secretius operatur.”’
Greg. Mag. “ Sacramentum est sig-
**num significans efficaciter effec-
tum Dei gratuitum.”’ Occa. Sent.
iv. d.1. “‘Sacramentum proprie non
* est signum cujuslibet rei sacre,

‘* sed tantum rei sacre sanctifican-
* tis homines.”” Tho. II.1. q. 101,
4. et q. 102, 5. [t. xi. p. 226, 228.
vid. Tab. Aur. ad calceem Thome
Aquin. t. xviii. 243.] ‘* Sacramen-
** tum est signum passionis Christi,
* gratie et glorize: ideo est com-
* memoratio preteriti, demonsiratio
“* presentis, et prognosticon futuri.”
Tho. iii. q. 60, 3. [t. xii. 187.] “Sa-
“cramenta sunt signa et symbola
** visibilia rerum internarum et in-.
“‘ visibilium, per que ceu per media
** Deus virtute Spiritus Sancti in
** nobis agit.” Conf. Belg. Art. 33.
[Syl Conf. p. 313.] Item Bohem.

onf. cap. 11. [Syntagma Confess.
Gen. 1354. parsii. p. 191.]

97 «‘ Sacramenta constant verbo,
** signis, et rebus significatis.”” Con-
Sj Helvet. Post. c. 19. [p. 76, 78,
81.

Things accessory in Sacraments are dispensable. 261

most immediate and nearest parts of nature, whereas other

principles farther off although not specified in defining, are ———

notwithstanding in nature implied and presupposed, we must
note that inasmuch as sacraments are actions religious and
mystical, which nature they have not unless they proceed from
a serious meaning, and what every man’s private mind is, as
we cannot know, so neither are we bound to examine, therefore
always in these cases the known intent of the Church generally
doth suffice, and where the contrary is not manifest98, we may
presume that he which outwardly doth the work, hath in-
_wardly the purpose of the Church of God 99.

[4.] Concerning all other orders, rites, prayers, bestia ser-
mons, actions, and their circumstances whatsoever, they are to
the outward substance of baptism but things accessory, which

the wisdom of the Church of Christ is to order according to

98 « Si aliud ministri agere intend-
“ ant, puta sacris illudere mysteriis,
« vel aliud quod Ecclesiz non con-
*“sentiat, nihil agitur. Sine fide
** enim spiritualis potestas exerceri
** quidem potest, sine Ecclesiz in-
*‘tentione non potest.” Lancel.
Inst. Jur. Can. lib. ii. Tit. ii.5. Hoc
tamen.

9 [ Chr. Letter, * Of the
ne tention of the Cacch, they say,
«This is the verie dungeon of in-
* certaintie [Bp. Jewel, Replie to
*‘ Hardinge, Art. i. p. 34] ++ . You
*“seeme to speake otherwise “when
“ you say, We must note, &c. Here
“we desire to be instructed how
** these two opinions can stande to-
$ eel The one which sayeth the
«* Sacraments are effectuall through
“the institution of Christ and his
ge promise ; 3 the other which tyeth
“it to the good meaninge of the
‘* prieste or of the Church. Againe,
* the one saieth the intention of the
** Church is the verie dungeon of
** incertaintie, to make us doubt of

“our baptisme: the other, that the
** Sacraments have not the nature

_“ to be religious and misticall, with-
** out a serious meaning, that is, the
** intent of the Church.”

Hooker, MS. note. “ He” [Bp.
Jewel] “ saith not ‘ the intention of
* the Church,’ but of ‘a mortall man,’

“meaning therby the priest. And
* to the confirmation of that opinion
“* my speech tended, which if malice
“had not blinded your eyes, is
** plaine enough to be seene.’

The passage in Jewel is this:
“ Whereas he saith, ‘The priest must
“have intention to do that the
* Church doth:’ unless he be well
“assured of the Church’s doing
*‘ herein, he cannot be sure of his
‘* own intention, and so must he say
** mass with intention to do he know-
“eth not what. Now it appeareth
* that the Church is not yet resolved
** upon one intention. For the in-
* tention of the Church of Rome is
** to work the transubstantiation of
** bread andwine: the Greek Church
“had never that intention, as is
** plain by the council of Florence.
‘The intention of the Church of
“Rome is to consecrate with
** Christ’s words: the intention of
** the Greek Church is to consecrate
“with prayers. And whether of
“these Churches shall the priest
‘ follow with his intention? This
“is the very dungeon of uncertainty.
* The heart of man is unsearchable.
“* If we stay upon the intention of a
“* mortal man, we may stand i in doubt
“‘ of our own baptism.” Reply to
Harding, p. 26. ed. 1611.]

BOOK V.
Ch, lix. 1.

The ground
in Scrip-
ture,where-
upon a ne-
cessity of
outward
baptism
hath been
built,

262 Baptism: Construction of St. John iu. 5.

the exigence of that which is principal. Again, considering
that such ordinances have been made to adorn the sacrament’,
not the sacrament to depend on them; seeing also that they
are not of the substance of baptism, and that baptism is far
more necessary than any such incident rite or solemnity or-
dained for the better administration thereof?; if the case be
such as permitteth not baptism to have the decent complements
of baptism, better it were to enjoy the body without his furni-
ture, than to wait for this till the opportunity of that for which
we desire it be lost. Which premises standing, it seemeth to
have been no absurd collection, that in cases of necessity which
will not suffer delay till baptism be administered with usual
solemnities, to speak the least,) it may be tolerably given
without them, rather than any man without it should be
suffered to depart this life.

LIX. They which deny that any such case of necessity can
fall, in regard whereof the Church should tolerate baptism,
without the decent rites and solemnities thereunto belonging,
pretend that such tolerations have risen from a false interpre-
tation which “ certain men” have made of the Scripture,
grounding a necessity of external baptism upon the words of
our Saviour Christ: “ Unless a man be born again of water
“and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
“ heaven’.” For by “ water and the Spirit,” we are in that

1 Accessorium non regulat princi-
pale, sed ab eo regulatur. 42. De
Regul. Jur. in Sext. lib. iii. ff. quod
jussu. [This is not a quotation, but
the substance of two rules, one from
the canon and the other from the
civil law. The first, from the Tract
* De Regulis Juris,’ annexed to the
collection technically called “ Liber
“‘ Sextus Decretalium:” col. 753.
Lugd.1572. ‘* Accessorium naturam
“ sequi congruit principalis.” The
other, in the reference to which there
appears to be a mistake, from the
Digest, b. L. tit. xvii. N°. 178.
** Cum principalis causa non con-
** sistat, plerumque ne ea quidem,
** que sequuntur, locum habent.”
The rule, ‘* Quod jussu,”’ named in
Hooker’s margin, is N°. 80. It has
nothing to do with this subject. ]

2 «* Ktsi nihil facile mutandum est

** ex solemnibus, tamen ubi equitas
* evidens poscit, subveniendum est.”
L. clxxxiii. de Reg. Jur. [ Dig. lib.
L. tit. xvii. art. 183. in Corp. Jur.
Civil. 795. ]

3 « Private baptism first rose upon
** a false interpretation of the place of
“St. John, ch. iii. 5. ‘ Unless a
“man be born again of water and
** of the Spirit :’”? &c. “ where cer-
** tain do interpret the word water,
‘for the material and elemental
“* water, when as our Saviour Christ
*‘ taketh water there by a borrowed
** speech for the Spirit of God, the
“ effect whereof it shadoweth out.
‘* For even as in another place, Matt.
* iii, 11, by ‘ fire and the Spirit,’ he
* meaneth nothing but the Spirit of
© God, which purgeth and purifyeth
“as the fire doth: so in this place
‘* by water and the Spirit, he mean-

Consent of Antiquity on Baptismal Regeneration. 263

place to understand (as they imagine) no more than if the soox v.
Spirit alone had been mentioned and water not spoken of. pleat tba
Which they think is plain, because elsewhere it is not impro-
_ bable that “the Holy Ghost and fire” do but signify the
Holy Ghost in operation resembling fire. Whereupon they
conclude, that seeing fire in one place may be, therefore water
in another place is but a metaphor, Spirit the interpretation
thereof, and so the words do only mean, “ That unless a man
“be born again of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the king-
« dom of heaven.”
- [2.] I hold it for a most infallible rule in expositions of
sacred Scripture, that where a literal construction will stand,
the farthest from the letter is commonly the worst. There is
nothing more dangerous than this licentious and deluding art,
which changeth the meaning of words, as alchymy doth or
_ would do the substance of metals, making of any thing what
it listeth, and bringeth in the end all truth to nothing. Or
howsoever such voluntary exercise of wit might be borne with
otherwise, yet in places which usually serve, as this doth con-
cerning regeneration by water and the Holy Ghost, to be
alleged for grounds and principles, less is permitted.

[3-] To hide the general consent of antiquity agreeing in
the literal interpretation, they cunningly affirm that “ certain”
have taken those words as meant of material water, when they
know that of all the ancient there is not one to be named that
ever did otherwise either expound or allege the place than as
implying external baptism. Shall that which hath always4
received this and no other construction be now disguised with
the toy of novelty? Must we needs at the only show of a
critical conceit without any more deliberation, utterly condemn
them of error, which will not admit that fire in the words of
John is quenched with the name of the Holy Ghost, or with
_ the name of the Spirit, water dried up in the words of Christ ?

[4.] When the letter of the law hath two things plainly and
expressly specified, Water, and the Spirit; Water as a duty

* eth nothing else but the Spirit of
«© God, which cleanseth the filth of
* sin, and cooleth the broiling heat
“‘ of an unquiet conscience, as water
“ washeth the thing which is foul,
“and quencheth the heat of the

“ fire.’ T.C. lib. i. p. 143. [113.-
See also, Eccl. Disc. fol. 19. ]

4«* Minime sunt mutanda que
‘* interpretationem certam semper
* habuerunt.” D. lib. i. tit. 3. lib.

xxiii. [p. 78.]

264 Baptism proved necessary to Salvation,

required on our parts, the Spirit as a gift which God bestow-
eth ; there is danger in presuming so to interpret it, as if the
clause which concerneth ourselves were more than needeth.
We may by such rare expositions attain perhaps in the end to
be thought witty, but with ill advice.

[5-] Finally if at *the time when that Baptism which was
meant by John came to be really and truly performed by Christ
himself, we find the Apostles that had been, as we are, before
baptized, new baptized with the Holy Ghost, and in this their
later baptism as well a visible descent of fire®, as a secret
miraculous infusion of the Spirit ; if on us he accomplish like-
wise the heavenly work of our new birth not with the Spirit
alone but with water thereunto adjoined, sith the faithfullest
expounders of his words are his own deeds, let that which his
hand hath manifestly wrought declare what his speech did
doubtfully utter.

LX. To this they add, that as we err by following a wrong
e7 outwani construction of the place before alleged, so our second over-
baptism sight is, that we thereupon infer a necessity over rigorous
oxckang and extreme’.
by the The true necessity of baptism a few propositions considered
oo tei will soon decide. All things which either are known Causes —
Jone logy or set Means®, whereby any great good is usually procured,
true neces- or men delivered from grievous evil, the same we must needs
sity thereof confess necessary. And, if regeneration were not in this very

What kind

of necessity

indeed is.

5 « John baptized with water, but
“* you shall within few days be bap-
“ tized with the Holy Ghost.” Acts
i. 5.

6 Acts ii. 3.

7'T. C. lib.i. p. 143. [113.] Se-
** condly, this error” (of private bap-
tism) ‘‘ came by a false and unne-
** cessary conclusion drawn of that
‘** place. For although the Scripture
** should say that none can be saved
** but those which have the Spirit
“* of God, and are baptized with ma-
** terial and elemental water, yet
‘ought it to be understanded. of
‘* those which can conveniently and
** orderly be brought to baptism, as
“the Scripture saying that whoso
*‘ doth not believe the Gospel is
*“‘ condemned already, John iii. 18,

“ meaneth this sentence of those
*‘ which can hear the Gospel and
“have discretion to understand it
‘* when they hear it, and cannot here
“shut under this condemnation
‘* either those that be born deaf and
“© so remain, or little infants, or na-
* tural fools that have no wit to con-
** ceive what is preached.”

8 *Avaykaiov éyerat ob Gvev ovK
evdexetat (hv as ovvattiou’ ... kal dv
avev 7d ayabdy pr evdéxera 7) elvat 7}
yever Oa, 7 Te Kakdy aTroBanelp, 7} oTE-
pnOnva. ** Necessarium id dicitur
‘* sine quo ut concausa fieri non po-
** test ut vivatur: et ea sine quibus
** fierl nequit ut bonum aut sit aut
‘* fiat ; vel malum aliquod amovea-
* tur, aut non adsit.”’ Arist. Metaph.
Vv. Cap. 5.

not naturally, but ordinarily, by God’s Appointment. 265

sense a thing necessary to eternal life, would Christ himself
have taught Nicodemus? that to see the kingdom of God is
impossible, saving only for those men which are born from
above ?

His words following in the next sentence are a proof suffi-

than regeneration itself necessary unto life?°.
Thirdly, unless as the Spirit is a necessary inward cause, so
Water were a necessary outward mean to our regeneration,

what construction should we give unto those words wherein

we are said to be new-born, and that é¢ ddaros, even of Water ?
Why are we taught that with water God doth purify and
cleanse his Church!!? Wherefore do the Apostles of Christ
term baptism a bath of regeneration!2 ? What purpose had they
in giving men advice to receive outward baptism, and in per-
suading them it did avail to remission of sins!3 ?

[2.] If outward baptism were a cause in itself possessed of
that power either natural or supernatural, without the present
operation whereof no such effect could possibly grow, it must
then follow, that seeing effects do never prevent the necessary
causes out of which they spring, no man could ever receive
grace before baptism: which being apparently both known
and also confessed to be otherwise in many particulars,
although in-the rest we make not baptism a cause of grace,
yet the grace which is given them with their baptism™ doth
so far forth depend on the very outward sacrament, that God
will have it embraced not only as a sign or token what we
receive, but also as an instrument or mean whereby we
receive grace, because baptism is a sacrament which God hath
instituted in his Church, to the end that they which receive
the same might thereby be incorporated into Christ!>, and so
through his most precious merit obtain as well that saving
grace of imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness?®,

9 John iii. 3. 10 Verse 5. 15 «Susceptus a Christo Chris-
11 Ephes. v. 26. *‘tumque suscipiens non idem fit
12 Tit, ili. 5. ** post lavacrum qui ante baptismum
13 Acts ii. 38. ** fuit, sed corpus regenerati fit caro

14 «« Fideles salutem ex istis ele- ‘‘ crucifixi.”’ Leo Serm. xiv. de Pas.
“mentis non querunt, etiamsi in Dom. [c.5.
“‘istis querunt..... Non enim ista 16 «Caro abluitur ut anima ema-
“ tribuunt quod per ista tribuitur.” “ culetur.” ‘Tertull. de Carn. Re-
Hugo de Sacram. lib. i. cap. 3. sur. [c.8.] ‘“* Homo per aquam bap-

BOOK V.
Ch, Ix. 2.

cient, that to our regeneration his Spirit is no less necessary -

BOOK VY.
Ch. Ix, 3.

266

as also that infused divine virtue of the Holy Ghost!7, which
giveth to the powers of the soul their first disposition towards
future newness of life.

[3.] There are that elevate too much the ordinary and im-
mediate means of life, relying wholly upon the bare conceit of
that eternal election, which notwithstanding includeth a
subordination of means without which we are not actually
brought to enjoy what God secretly did intend; and therefore
to build upon God’s election if we keep not ourselves to the
ways which he hath appointed for men to walk in, is but
a self-deceiving vanity. When the Apostle saw men called to
the participation of Jesus Christ, after the Gospel of God
embraced and the sacrament of life received, he feareth not
then to put them in the number of elect saints!8, he then
accounteth them delivered from death, and clean purged
from all sin!9. Till then notwithstanding their pre-ordination
unto life which none could know of saving God, what were
they in the Apostle’s own account but children of wrath as
well as others, plain aliens altogether without hope, strangers
utterly without God in this present world2°? So that by
sacraments and other sensible tokens of grace we may boldly
gather that he, whose mercy vouchsafeth now to bestow the
means, hath also long sithence intended us that whereunto
they lead. But let us never think it safe to presume of our
own last end by bare conjectural collections of his first intent

Danger of depending on God’s secret Election

“* tismi licet a foris idem esse vide- ‘‘ pectus ac purum desuper se lu-

*‘ atur, intus tamen alter efficitur,
**cum peccato natus sine peccato
** renascitur, prioribus perit, succe-
** dentibus proficit, deterioribus ex-
‘* uitur, in meliora innovatur, per-
* sona tingitur et natura mutatur.”
Euseb. Emis. de Epiphan. Homil.
ili. [in Biblioth. Patr. Colon. t. v.
par. 1. p. 549. ] Tproony yervnow npiv
oidev 6 Adyos Tiy ex copuaTos, [ copd-
tov] thy €k Bamticpatos, tiv &&
dvaotdcews ...AUTn pev 7 TOU Bar-
Tiopatos xdpts Kal Suvaps, ov Kd pou
katakAvo poy @s mada, THs dé Tov KaP
ExacTov auaptias KdOapow ~xovea.
Greg. Naz: de Sanct. Bapt. tOrat.
40, ad init.

17 « Unde genitalis auxilio supe-
** rloris zvi labe detersa in expiatum

‘men infundit.” Cypr. ad Donat.
[de Grat. Dei, c. 3.] p. 3. Ov
povoy Tav takaov duaprnudrev
Swpeirat thy aheowv, adda kal Thy
edrida tav exnyyeApevav evtiOnow
ayadav, kal rov Seomorikod Oava-
tov kal rns dvacracews Kabiornot
Kowvavovs, Kal THs TOU mvevpatos Sa-
peas tiv perovciay yapitera. Theod.
Epit. Divin. Dogmat. [al. Heret.
Fab. Comp. v. 18. t. iv. pars I. p.
41.| “ Baptizari est purgari a sordi-
“bus peccatorum, et donari varia
‘* Dei gratia ad vitam novam et in-
*nocentem.”” Confess. Helvet.
cap. 20. [p. 82.]

18 Eph. i. 1.

19 Eph. v. 8.

20 Eph. ii. 3, 12.

Se
k
:

we OD RASS Eee eek ORS Pe Lee Sees Line

yocation, wherein our baptism is implied2}.
+ § not naturally men without birth, so neither are we Christian
- men in the eye of the Church of God but by new birth, nor
_ according to the manifest ordinary course of divine dispensa-

a,

_ Calvin,

to the Disparagement of the Means of Grace. 267

and purpose, the means failing that should come between.
Predestination bringeth not to life, without the grace of external
For as we are

tion new-born, but by that baptism which both declareth and
maketh us Christians. In which respect we justly hold it
to be the door of our actual entrance into God’s house, the
first apparent beginning of life?, a seal perhaps to the grace
of Election, before received2*, but to our sanctification here a
step that hath not any before it.

[4.] There were of the old Valentinian heretics, some which
had knowledge in such admiration‘, that to it they ascribed
all, and so despised the sacraments of Christ, pretending that

‘as ignorance had made us subject to all misery, so the full

redemption of the inward man, and the work of our restora-
tion, must needs belong unto knowledge only. They draw
very near unto this error, who fixing wholly their minds
on the known necessity of faith2> imagine that nothing but
faith is necessary for the attainment of all grace. Yet is ita
branch of belief that sacraments are in their place no less
required than belief itself. For when our Lord and Saviour
promiseth eternal life, is it any otherwise than as he promised
restitution of health unto Naaman the Syrian, namely with

21 Rom. viii. 30.

22°Apxn pow (ons ro Bdmriopa.
Basil. de Spir. Sanct. cap. 1o. [t. iii.
22.A.|
23"). C. lib, iii. p. 134. [From
Inst. iv. 15, 22.] “He
*‘ which is not a Christian before
“« he come to receive baptism, can-
* not be made a Christian by bap-
** tism, which is only the seal of the
** grace of God before received.”

24 Tren. contra Heres. lib.i. c. 18,
p- 91. [After describing certain
ceremonies, which some of the Va-
lentinians used by way of initiation,
he proceeds, ” Advor 8e Tatra mavTa
Taparnodpevot, packovar, pay Seiv Td
THs dppiyrov ‘Kal dopdrov duvdpews
Mvornpiov de dpatav Kai pbaprav

emuteheio Bat KTLTHATOV, Kal TOY avev=
vonTay kat dooparey be aig Onrav
kat TMPATIKBY. eivat de TeAelav amoXv-=
TPeaws auTny THY émiyvoow Tow
dppyrou peyedovs. or dyvoias yap
torepnparos kat ma0ous yeyovdrav,
dia yrorens karahveo Oat macay ry
éx THs dyvoias cvotacw" ote eivar
THY yoow, dmovtp@cww Tod évdov
avOperrov.

25 Hic scelestissimi illi provo-
“cant queestiones. Adeo dicunt,
*‘baptismus non est necessarius
quibus fides satis est.”” Tertull.
de Baptis. [c. 13.] “ Huic nulla
“ proderit fides, qui cum possit non
“‘ percipit sacramentum.” Bern.
Epist. 77. ad Hugon. [p. 1458. ed.
Antwerp. 1620. ]

BOOK V.

Ch. Ix. §.

268 Allowance for the case of Unbaptized Martyrs ;

this condition, “ Wash, and be clean2°?” or, as to them
which were stung of serpents, health by beholding the brazen
serpent?’ ? If Christ himself which giveth salvation do require
baptism?, it is not for us that look for salvation to sound and
examine him, whether unbaptized men may be saved, but
seriously to do that which is required29, and religiously to fear
the danger which may grow by the want thereof. Had Christ
only declared his will to have all men baptized, and not
acquainted us with any cause why baptism is necessary, our
ignorance in the reason of that he enjoineth might perhaps
have hindered somewhat the forwardness of our obedience
thereunto ; whereas now being taught that baptism is neces-
sary to take away sin, how have we the fear of God in our
hearts if care of delivering men’s souls from sin do not move
us to use. all means for their baptism? Pelagius?° which
denied utterly the guilt of original sin, and i that respect
the necessity of baptism, did notwithstanding both baptize
infants, and acknowledge their baptism necessary for “ en-
“trance into the kingdom of God.”

[5-] Now the law of Christ which in these considerations
maketh baptism necessary, must be construed and under-
stood according to rules of natural equity?!. Which rules if
they themselves did not follow in expounding the law of
God, would they ever be able to prove that the Scripture
in saying, “ Whoso believeth not the Gospel of Christ is
* condemned already32,” “meaneth this sentence of those
* which can hear the Gospel, and have discretion when they
“ hear to understand it, neither ought it to be applied unto
“ infants, deaf men and fools33?” That which teacheth them

26 2 Kings v.13.

27 Numb. xxi. 8.

28 Mark xvi. 16.

29 “Institutio sacramentorum
‘** quantum ad Deum auctorem dis-
** pensationis est; quantum vero ad
* hominem obedientem necessitatis.
* Quoniam in potestate Dei est
** preter ista hominem salvare, sed
** in potestate hominis non est sine
** istis ad saiutem pervenire.”” Hugo
de Sacram. lib. i. [pars 9.] cap. 5.

30 <* Pelagius asserere arrepta im-

‘‘ pietate preesumit non propter vi-
** tam sed propter regnum ccelorum
*baptismum parvulis conferen-
“ dum.” Euseb. Emis. Hom. v. de
Pasch. [Bibl. Patr. Colon. t. v.
par. I. p. 560. ]

31 « Benignius leges interpretan-
** dz sunt, quo voluntas earum con-
“ servetur.” L. Benign. D. de
Legib. et Senatuse. [lib. i. tit. ii. 18.

p. 78.
82 iv John iii. 18. ]
33 'T. C. lib.i. p.143. [113.]

and for Cases where Baptism was impossible. 269

thus to interpret the law of Christ is natural equity. And

(because equity so teacheth) it is on all parts gladly confessed, —~—"~—

that there may be im dwers cases life by virtue of inward bap-
tism, even where outward is not found. So that if any ques-
tion be made, it is but about the bounds and limits of this

possibility.

For example, to think that a man whose baptism the crown
of martyrdom preventeth, doth lose in that case the happiness
which so many thousands enjoy, that.only have had the grace
to believe, and not the honour to seal the testimony thereof
with death, were almost barbarous®+, _

Again, when some certain opinative men in St. Bernard’s
time began privately to hold that, because our Lord hath
said, ** Unless a man be born again of water,” therefore life,
without either actual baptism or martyrdom instead of bap-
tism, cannot possibly be obtained at the hands of God: Bernard
considering that the same equity which had moved them to
think the necessity of baptism no bar against the happy estate
of unbaptized martyrs is as forcible for the warrant of their
salvation, in whom, although there be not the sufferings of
holy martyrs, there are the virtues which sanctified those
sufferings and made them precious in God’s sight, professed
himself an enemy to that severity and strictness which admit-
teth no exception but of martyrs only®>. “ For,” saith he,

34 [** Quidam .... catechumenos
‘*€ nobis opponunt, siquis ex his an-
**tequam in Ecclesia baptizetur, in
* confessione nominis apprehensus
‘* fuerit et occisus: an spem salutis
“ et premium confessionis amittat,
“eo quod ex aqua prius non sit re-
*natus? Sciant igitur hujusmodi
*‘homines . . . . catechumenos illos
** primo integram fidem et Ecclesiz
* unitatem tenere,.... deinde nec
** privari baptismi sacramento, ut-
** pote qui baptizentur gloriosissimo
“et maximo sanguinis baptismo,
** de quo et Dominus dicebat habere
‘* se aliud baptisma baptizari. San-
“ guine autem suo baptizatos et
*¢ passione sanctificatos consummari,
“et divine pollicitationis gratiam
“‘consequi, declarat in Evangelio
**idem Dominus, quando ad Latro-

“nem in ipsa passione credentem
* et confitentem loquitur, et quod’
** secum futurus sit in paradiso pol-
* licetur.”” §. Cyprian. Epist. ad
Jubaianum, t. ii. 208. ]

35 Bern. Epist. 70. ad Hugonem.
[Op. 1457. ‘*Si ante exitum resi
** puerit, et voluerit, et petierit bap-
‘*‘ tizari, sed mortis preoccupatus
‘* articulo forte obtinere nequiverit,
“dum non desit fides recta, spes
** nia, charitas sincera, propitius sit
** mihi Deus, quia huic ego ob so-
“lam aquam, si defuerit, nequa-
‘quam omnino possum desperare
** salutem, nec vacuam credere fidem,
“nec confundere spem, nec exci-
“ dere charitatem, tantum si aquam
“non contemptus, sed sola, (ut
*¢ dixi,) prohibeat impossibilitas.”’

BOOK V.
Ch, lx. 6.

270 Case of Infants dying unbaptized :

‘‘ if a man desirous of baptism be suddenly cut off by death,
“in whom there wanted neither sound faith, devout hope,
“ nor sincere charity, (God be merciful unto me and pardon |
“me if I err,) but verily of such a one’s salvation in whom —
«“ there is no other defect besides his faultless lack of baptism, —
“ despair I cannot, nor induce my mind to think his faith
«‘ void, his hope confounded, and his charity fallen to nothing,
“ only because he hath not that which not contempt but im-
“ possibility withholdeth.”

« Tell me I beseech you,” saith Ambrose®®, “ what there
“is in any of us more than to will, and to seek for our own
“oood. Thy servant Valentinian, O Lord, did both.” (For
Valentinian the emperor died before his purpose to receive
baptism could take effect.) ‘ And is it possible that he which
“had purposely thy Spirit given him to desire grace, should
“ not receive thy grace which that Spirit did desire? Doth it
“move you that the outward accustomed solemnities were
“not done? As though converts that suffer martyrdom be-
“ fore baptism did thereby forfeit their right to the crown
“ of eternal glory in the kingdom of heaven. If the blood of
“ martyrs in that case be their baptism, surely his religious
« desire of baptism standeth him in the same stead.”

It?7 hath been therefore constantly held as well touching

_ other believers as martyrs, that baptism taken away by neces- —

sity, is supplied by desire of baptism, because with equity this
opinion doth best stand.
[6.] Touching infants which die unbaptized, sith they

36 [De obitu Valent. Consolatio,
§ 51, 52, 53. t. li. 1187. “ Dicite
** mihi quid aliud in nobis_est, nisi
** voluntas, nisi petitio?. . .Solve igi-
*‘ tur, Pater sancte, munus servo tuo
** .. solve, inquam, servo tuo Valen-
“ tiniano munus quod concupivit,
“‘munus quod poposcit..... Qui
* habuit Spiritum tuum, quomodo
** non accepit gratiam tuam? Aut,
‘* si, quia solemniter non sunt cele-
‘* brata mysteria, hoc movet; ergo
“nec Martyres, si Catechumeni
* fuerint, coronentur; non enim
*‘coronantur, si non _ initiantur.
** Quod si suo abluuntur sanguine,
* et hunc sua pietas abluit et volun-
“ tas.” ]

87 “* Qui ad tolerandam omnem
** pro Dei gloria injuriam seme} di-
*‘ cavit animum in martyrium mihi
** videtur implevisse. Summi ergo
* meriti est semel fixisse sententiam ;
“‘ atque ideo ut dixi ratio principa-
“tum obtinet passionis, et si sors
*‘ perpetiendi deneget facultatem,
** pertulit tamen cuncta que voluit
** pati.” Joseph. lib. de Imper.
Ration. [Quoted from Erasmus’s
Paraphrase, p. 825, Basil. 1540:
there is nothing answering to it
in the original. See Combefis’ re-
marks on the liberties which the
translator had taken with this tract,
pag Bibl. Patr. Paris. 1672. p.
21.

‘wi

especially if born of Christian Parents. 271

neither have the sacrament itself, nor any sense or conceit

thereof, the judgment of many hath gone hard against them, —————-

But yet seeing grace is not absolutely tied unto sacraments,

and besides such is the lenity of God that unto things alto-

gether impossible he bindeth no man, but where we cannot

_ do what is enjomed us accepteth our will to do instead of the
deed itself; again, forasmuch as there is in their Christian

parents and in the Church of God a presumed desire that the

sacrament of baptism might be given them, yea a purpose also

that it shall be given; remorse of equity hath moved divers

of the school divines®* in these considerations ingenuously to

grant, that God all merciful to such as are not in themselves
able to desire baptism imputeth the secret desire that others
have in their behalf, and accepteth the same as theirs rather
than casteth away their souls for that which no man is able
to help.

And of the will of God to impart his grace unto infants
without baptism, in that case the very circumstance of their
natural birth may serve as a just argument, whereupon it is

not to be misliked that men

38 Gers. Serm. in Nativit. Beatz
Mar. [consid. 2. t. iii. 133. A. ** Con-
** stat Deum misericordiam salva-
*‘ tionis sue non ita legibus com-
*‘munibus traditionis Christiane,
** non ita sacramentis ipsis alligasse,
** quin absque prejudicio legis ejus-
. foe possit pueros nondum natos
“extra uterum intus sanctificare
“ oratie suze baptismo, vel virtute
“ Sp. Sancti... . Proficit heec con-
** sideratio ad excitationem devo-
“tionis in parentibus, proficit ad
* lJeviandum eorum angustiam dum
“sine baptismo decedit puer, quia
**non omnis inde spes ablata est.
«« Sed neque absque revelatione da-
“tur, fateor, certitudo.”” Ed. Paris.
1506.] Cajetan. in 3 Tho. qu. 68. al.
g, Art.1 and 2: [quoting the Coun-
cil of Trent, Sess. vil. c. 9. ‘‘ Siquis
** dixerit, sine eis Sacramentis, aut
* eorum voto, per solam fidem ho-
“mines a Deo gratiam justificatio-
‘* nis adipisci; anathema sit.’’] Biel.
in iv. Senten. d. 4. q. 2. [not. B.
“ Dicitur etiam Baptismus attribu-
** tive, quod habet effectum simile

in charitable presumption do

** Baptismo : et hoc modo baptis-
“mus peenitentie vel flaminis et
‘* baptismus sanguinis dicuntur bap-
“tismi.... Est autem baptismus
* flaminis vel pcenitentiz, contritio
** cordis aut preparatio sufficiens ad
** sratiz infusionem....dummodo
“non fuerit contemptus baptismi,
“sed impossibilitas suscipiendi.”’ |
Tilman. Segeberg. de Sacr. cap. 1.
[Colon. 1546. p. 43. “ Parvuli ob
** votum parentum fidelium et fidem
* Ecclesiz ..... Ecclesie membris
*‘annumerantur, et per ejus fidem
*credunt. Quod si repentina mors
“*.,..Yapuerit, salvantur, ut ple-
“‘rumque a multis non impie cre-
* ditur.””. Which he confirms from
Gerson, Caietan, and the Decretals. |
Elisius Neapol. in Clyp. advers.
Heres. cap. de Baptist. [fol. 98.
Venet. 1563. ‘‘ Baptismus est ne-
*cessarius absolute et simpliciter
** omnibus cupientibus vitam eter-
“nam; quem quidem oportet ha-
“bere in actu et in re si poterit,
*‘ sin autem, sufficit in voto et vo-
** luntate.’””]

272 The possible Huceptions to the Necessity of Baptism

BOOK y. gather a great likelihood of their salvation, to whom the
“benefit of Christian parentage being given, the rest that :

should follow is prevented by some such casualty as man hath —
himself no power to avoid. For we are plainly taught of -
God, that the seed of faithful parentage is holy from the very -
birth39. Which albeit we may not so understand, as if the
children of believing parents were without sin, or grace from
baptized parents derived by propagation, or God by covenant
and promise tied to save any in mere regard of their parents’
belief: yet seeing that to all professors of the name of Christ
this pre-eminence above infidels is freely given, the fruit of
their bodies bringeth into the world with it a present interest
and right to those means wherewith the ordinance of Christ
is that his Church shall be sanctified, it is not to be thought
that he which as it were from heaven hath nominated and
designed them unto holiness by special privilege of their very
birth, will himself deprive them of regeneration and inward
grace, only because necessity depriveth them of outward sacra-
ments. In which case it were the part of charity to hope,
and to make men rather partial than cruel judges, if we had
not those fair apparencies which here we have.

[7.] Wherefore a necessity there is of receiving, and a
necessity of administering, the sacrament of baptism ; the one
peradventure not so absolute as some have thought, but out
of all peradventure the other more strait and narrow, than that
the Church which is by office a mother unto such as crave at
her hands the sacred mystery of their new birth, should repel
them and see them die unsatisfied of these their ghostly desires,
rather than give them their soul’s rights with omission of those
things that serve*° but only for the more convenient and or-
derly administration thereof. For as on the one side we grant
that those sentences of holy Scripture which make sacraments
most necessary to eternal life are no prejudice to their salva-
tion that want them by some inevitable necessity, and without
any fault of their own; so it ought in reason to be likewise
acknowledged, that forasmuch as our Lord himself maketh

89 ¢ Cor. vii. 14. ‘*for the ministering thereof the
40'T. C. lib. iii. p. 218. “It isin “ common decent orders should be
“‘ question whether there be any “ broken.”
“‘ such necessity of baptism as that

do not justify Carelessness in administering it. 273

baptism necessary, necessary whether we respect the good re-
-eeived by baptism, or the testimony thereby yielded unto God
of that humility and meek obedience, which reposing wholly
itself on the absolute authority of his commandment, and on
the truth of his heavenly promise, doubteth not but from crea-
tures despicable in their own condition and substance to obtain
“grace of inestimable value, or rather not from them but from
him, yet by them as by his appointed means ; howsoever he
by the secret ways of his own incomprehensible mercy may be
thought to save without baptism, this cleareth not the Church
from guiltiness of blood, if through her superfluous scrupu-
losity lets and impediments of less regard should cause a erace
of so great moment to be withheld, wherein our merciless strict-
ness may be our own harm, though not theirs towards whom
‘we shew it ; and we for the hardness of our hearts may perish,
‘albeit, they through God’s unspeakable mercy do live. God
which did not afflict that innocent, whose circumcision Moses
‘had over long deferred‘!, took revenge upon Moses himself
for the injury which was done through so great neglect, giving
‘us thereby to understand that they whom God’s own mercy
saveth without us are on our parts notwithstanding and as
‘much as in us lieth even destroyed, when under unsufficient
pretences we defraud them of such ordinary outward helps as
we should exhibit. We have for baptism no day set as the
Jews had for circumcision‘? ; neither have we by the law of
God but only by the Church’s discretion a place thereunto
appointed. Baptism therefore even in the meaning of the law
of Christ belongeth unto infants capable thereof from the very
instant of their birth*®. Which if they have not howsoever,
rather than lose it by being put off because the time, the place,
or some such like circumstance doth not solemnly enough con-

cur, the Church as much as in her lieth, wilfully casteth away
their souls.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixi. 1.

LXI. The ancient it may be were too severe, and made the What

necessity of baptism more absolute than reason would, as touch-

41 Exod. iv. 24. 43 « Tn omnibus obligationibus in
42 [As wasonce imagined bysome “ quibus dies non ponitur, pre-
of the African bishops, but corrected ‘“‘ senti die debetur.” Lib. xiv. D.
by Cyprian and the synod of Car- de Reg. Jur. [Dig. lib. L. tit. xvii.
thage, A. D. 253. Opp. ii. 158, &c. 14. p. 788.] |
ed. Fell. |

HOOKER, VOL. Il. T

things in
baptism

274 Private Baptism in Case of Necessity

Book y. ing infants. But will any man say‘ that they, notwithstanding”
A their too much rigour herein, did not in that respect sustain:
Geet and tolerate defects of local or of personal solemnities belong-—
see ing to the sacrament of baptism? The Apostles themselves
respecting did neither use nor appoint for baptism any certain time. The
necessity. Church for general baptism heretofore made choice of two
chief days in the year, the feast of Easter, and the feast of
Pentecost. "Which custom when certain churches in Sicily”
began to violate without cause, they were by Leo Bishop of
Rome advised#* rather to conform themselves to the rest of the
world in things so reasonable, than to offend men’s minds:
through needless singularity: howbeit always providing that.

44 T.C. lib.i. p.146. [115.] “The
** authors themselves of that error
‘“‘ that they cannot be saved which
*‘ are not baptized, did never seek
* no remedy of the mischief in
‘women’s or private baptism.”
T. C. lib. iii. 219. “ What plainer
** testimony can there be than that
“of Augustine, which noteth the
“use of the Church to have been
* to come to the church with their
“children in danger of death, and
*‘ that when some had opinion that
‘* their children could not be saved
“ if they were not baptized ? (Cont.
“ Lit. Parm. lib. ii. c.13.) I would
** also know of him what he will an-
** swer to that which is noted of a
“* Christian Jew desperately sick of
“the palsy, that was with his bed
* carried to the place of baptism.
** (Socr. lib. vii. cap. 4.) What will
** he answer to this, That those which
‘“‘ were baptized in their beds were
** thereby made unapt to have any
** place amongst the clergy, (as they
* call them,) doth it not leave a note
** of infamy in those which had pro-
** cured that baptism should be
‘ministered in private houses?
“* (Euseb. lib. vi. cap. 43.) What
«‘ unto the emperor’s decree, which
‘* upon authority of the ancient laws
“and of the Apostles, forbiddeth
** that the holy things should be ad-
** ministered in any man’s private
“house? (Just. Novel. 57.)” [58.
p. 91. in Corp. Jur. Civ P

45 Leo Epist. iv. ad Epise. Sicil.
[§ 1. “ Miror vos, vel precessores

** vestros, tam irrationabilem novi-
“‘tatem usurpare potuisse, ut con-
** fuso temporis utriusque mysterio,
** nullam esse differentiam credere-
“tis inter diem, quo adoratus est
** Christus a Magis, et diem quo re-
‘* surrexit a mortuis...§ 3. Ipsa
* operis qualitas docet celebrandz
** generaliter gratize eum esse legiti-
** mum diem, in quo orta est et vir-
** tus muneris et species actionis...
** Additur sane huic observantiz
** etiam Pentecostes ex adventu Spi-
* ritus Sancti consecrata solennitas,
** que de Paschatis festi pendet ar-
* ticulo... § 5,6. Unde quia ma-
“ nifestissime patet baptizandis in
* Ecclesia electis hec duo tempora
** ... esse legitima, dilectionem ves-
“tram monemus, ut nullos alios
“dies huic observationi misceatis.
** Quia etsi sunt alia quoque festa
** quibus multa in honorem Dei re-
“‘ verentia debeatur, principalis ta-
“men et maximi sacramenti custo-
*‘ dienda nobis est mysticz rationis
** exceptio: non interdicta licentia,
‘* que in baptismo tribuendo quoli-
‘* bet tempore periclitantibus subve-
*nitur. Ita enim ad has duas fes-
* tivitates connexas, atque sibimet
** cognatas, incolumium et in pacis
* securitate degentium libera vota
“ differimus, ut in mortis periculo,
* in obsidionis discrimine, in perse-
“‘ cutionis angustiis, in timore nau-
*‘ fragii, nullo tempore hoc vere sa-
** Jutis singulare remedium cuiquam
** denegemus.” p. 99, 100. ]

permitted by St. Leo and others of the Ancients. 275

_ nevertheless in apparent peril of death, danger of siege, straits
_ of persecution, fear of shipwreck, and the like exigents, no
respect of times should cause this singular defence of true
safety to be denied unto any. This of Leo did but confirm that
sentence which Victor had many years before given46, extend-
ing the same exception as well unto places as times.

_ [2.] That which St. Augustine speaketh of women hasting
to bring their children to the church when they saw danger,
is a weak proof that when necessity did not leave them so much
time, it was not then permitted them neither to make a church
of their own home.

Which answer dischargeth likewise their example of a sick
Jew carried in bed to the place of baptism, and not baptized
at home in private.

The cause why such kind of baptism barred men afterwards
from entering into holy orders, the reason wherefore it was ob-
jected against Novatian47, in what respect and how far forth
it did disable, may be gathered by the twelfth canon set down
in the council of Neocewsarea after this manner. “ A man
« which hath been baptized in sickness, is not after to be or-
« dained priest.” For it may be thought, “ that such do ra-

“ther at that time, because they see no other remedy, than of
a voluntary mind lay hold on the Christian faith, unless their
“true and sincere meaning be made afterwards the more
“ manifest, or else the scarcity of others enforce the Church to

« admit them 48.”

to Damasus; and the whole of it

46 Vict. Ep. ad Theoph. Alexand.
in Pontif. Damas. [Conc. i. 591,
593- He fixes Easter as the proper
time for baptism, adding, “ Si ne-
** cesse fuerit, aut mortis periculum
“ ingruerit, gentiles ad fidem veni-
** entes quocunque loco vel momen-
“to, ubicunque evenerit, sive in
* flumine, sive in mari, sive in fon-
* tibus, tantum Christiane confes-
* sione credulitatis clarificata, bap-
*tizentur.” The letter, if genuine,
was written to Theophilus of Czsa-
rea in Palestine. Eus. E. H. v. 22.
circ. A. D. 197. The book from
which Hooker quotes is the “ Liber
** Pontificalis”’ or “ De Vitis Rom.
** Pontificum ;” the earlier portion
of which work was formerly ascribed

since to Anastasius Bibliothecarius,
A.D. 870. But it seems now agreed
that it is a compilation by various
authors. It has been usual to in-
sert it in editions of the Councils.
Cave, H. L. i. 183.

47 [Cornelius in Euseb. E. H. vi.
43. p. 246. ed. Vales. says of the
Bishop who ordained Novatian,
Ataxodvépevos ind mayrés ToD KAn-
pov, GAAd kal AaixkGv modA@v" eEnet
pn e&dv jv Tov emt Krivns dia vdoov
mepixvoevta, Somep Kai ovros, eis
KAjpov twa yeverOar néioge avyxo-
pnOnvat ait@ rovTov povoy XELpoTo-
vnoa.

48 ["Edv vooay tis hatiaG7, eis
mpeaBvrepoy ayerOa ov Svvatat. ovK

T2

BOOK V.

Ch, lxi. 2,

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixi, 2,

276 Imperial Laws against Private Baptism: why relaxed.

They bring in Justinian’s imperial constitution, but to what
purpose, seeing it only forbiddeth men to have the mysteries
of God administered in their private chapels, lest under that
pretence heretics should do secretly those things which were ©
unlawful? In which consideration he therefore commandeth —
that if they would use those private oratories otherwise than
only for their private prayers, the Bishop should appoint them —
a clerk whom they might entertain for that purpose. This is —
plain by later constitutions made in the time of Leot9: “ It
« was thought good,” saith the emperor, “ in their judgment
« which have gone before, that in private chapels none should —
“ celebrate the holy communion but priests belonging unto —
« oreater churches. Which order they took as it seemeth for
“ the custody of religion, lest men should secretly receive from >
“<< heretics, instead of the food the bane of their souls, pollu- —
“ tion in place of expiation.” Again5°, “ Whereas a sacred —
“ canon of the sixth reverend synod requireth baptism, as
“« others have likewise the holy sacrifices and mysteries, to be
‘** celebrated only in temples hallowed for public use, and not
“in private oratories; which strict decrees appear to have
“been made heretofore in regard of heretics, which entered
* closely into such men’s houses as favoured their opinions,
« whom under colour of performing with them such religious
“ offices they drew from the soundness of true religion: now

“ that perverse opinions through the grace of Almighty God

€k mpoarperews yap uv mors avrod,
GX’ e& audcykns” ei pt) Taxa bua THY
peta Tavta a’tov orovdny kal rioTW,
kal 61a ody avOporev. Concil. t. i.
1484. |

*9 Leo Const. iv. [p. 240. in Corp.
J ur. Civ. rois pev dpxavorépots edo&e
Tas Kat olkous lepareias kal ovvd£ers
imd pdovev exreheioOa Tav Tais Kao-
Atxais exxAncias Scahepdvrev iepewv
».. TovTo & ouxev evexa ye THs Tept
Thy wiotw dodadeias eis evOvpuov
avrois ere Oeiv arobernicat’ @s ay
BN; as cixds, TeV _ emiKpunTOVT OV
drooragias GeOpov ev TO THs iepo-
cbvns oxnpart, oupBaivor, dvri rod
ayrdeo Bat, _PadXov metoy BeBnhov-
70a rods tijs €xeivou peréxovras avi-~
épov.rederijs. |

50 Leo Const. xv. [p. 244. ‘O

TS oeBacpias éxrijs ovvddou kavoy
iepos ... 76 Oeiov THs dvayevvnoews
Lourpiy ev ois Kat’ olkov evxrnpiots
reheio Oat ov Botherat, ada € év pdvots
Tois pos TO KOLWOY aVLEep@pevols Vvaois.
... THY yap TovavTny axpiBevay Soxei
pot tretoinaOa Td iepdy THs avvddouv
Sidraypa, did Tovs €v lepéwy dvdpare
aviepous kal BeBndous Tovs Ur avTav
mpooayouevous TO hourp@ movodyras*
oi, ws eikds, ev Tois Tov époddfev ot-
kos Umodudpevot, ov TedovoLY, GAG
ouvTeovort Tos avTOLs TPOEpXopEvots*
... Any adda ye viv Geia Xapere md~
ons kaxobogias d direc KopaKLo pers, ov-=
bev Kal kata ToUTO TO Hépos ép@ poe
To Séypa mpoBah)dpevoy dvayKaior,
eis 7) Kodvew év Tois Kar otkov ev=
KTnpiots TO AOdVTpOy THS avayevyn-
oews. a

eee a eet

the voice>! of the whole world heretofore.
tan, Epiphanius, Augustine, or any other of the ancient
against it.

Lay Baptism sanctioned im Case of Necessity. 277

_ are extinct and gone, the cause of former restraints being
“ taken away, we see no reason but that private oratories may
& henceforward enjoy that liberty which to have granted
_ them heretofore had not been safe.”

In sum, all these things alleged are nothing, nor will it ever

“be proved while the world doth continue, but that the prac-
tice of the Church in cases of extreme necessity hath made for
_ private baptism always more than against it.

[3.] Yea, “ Baptism by any man in case of necessity,” was
Neither is Tertul-

The boldness of such as pretending Tecla’s example 52, took

openly upon them both baptism and all other public functions
of priesthood, Tertullian severely controlleth, saying, “To
“give baptism is in truth the bishop’s right.
_“ belongeth unto priests and deacons, but not to them without

After him it

“authority from him received. For so the honour of the

Church requireth, which being kept, preserveth peace.

« Were it not in this respect the laity might do the same, all

© sorts might give even as all sorts receive. But because emu-

< Jation is the mother of schisms**, let it content thee” (which

51 **T'o allow of women’s bap-
** tizing is not only contrary to the
** learned writers now, but also con-
“ trary to all learned antiquity, and
*‘ contrary to the practice of the
** Church whilst there was any to-
“‘lerable estate. Tertull. de Ving.

_ “veland. et lib. de Baptism. Epi-

«¢ phan. lib. i. et lib. ii. cont. Heres.
« St. Augustine, although he seem to
** allow of a layman’s baptism in time
** of necessity (Cont. Epist. Parm.

_ lib. ii. cap. 13. [t. ix. 44.]) yet there

*‘ he mentioneth not women’s bap-
*‘ tism; andin the fourth council of
“* Carthage, can. 100. it is simply
“« without exception decreed that a
**woman ought not to baptize.”
T.C.i.145. [114.]

52 [** Quod si, que Pauli perpe-
‘ram scripta legunt, exemplum
“* 'Tecle ad licentiam mulierum do-
** cendi tingendique defendunt: sci-
** ant in Asia presbyterum, qui eam
** Scripturam construxit, quasi titulo
** Pauli de suo cumulans, convictum

** atque confessum id se amore Pauli
** fecisse, loco discessisse.”’ Tertull.
de Baptismo, 17. See Jones’s Canon
of the N.T. ii. 375, 378, 380. or
— Spicileg. Patrum, i, 111,
ITp.

3 Tertull. de Baptis. [c. 17.
** Dandi quidem habet jus summus
** sacerdos, qui est episcopus: de-
*‘hine presbyteri et diaconi, non
**tamen sine episcopi auctoritate,
** propter ecclesie honorem. Quo
*‘ salvo, salva pax est. Alioquin
‘* etiam laicis jus est. Quod enim

“ex quo accipitur ex equo dari.

** potest... . Aimulatio, schismatum
*‘ mater est. Omnia licere dixit
** sanctissimus Apostolus, sed non
** omnia expedire. Sufficiat scilicet
‘in necessitatibus ut utaris, sicubi
** aut loci aut temporis aut persone
**conditio compellit. Tunc enim
** constantia succurrentis excipitur,
** quum urget circumstantia pericli-
** tantis.”
54 Tertull. [ibid.]

BOOK V,

Ch. Ixi. 3.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixi. 3.

278 Harshness of utterly forbidding Prwate Baptism.

art of the order of laymen) “to do it in necessity when the
« state of time or place or person thereunto compelleth. For

“« then is their boldness privileged that help when the circum- —
‘«* stance of other men’s dangers craveth it.” What he grant- —
eth generally to lay persons of the house of God, the same we —
cannot suppose he denieth to any sort or sex contained under ~
that name, unless himself did restrain the limits of his own ~
speech, especially seeing that Tertullian’s rule of interpreta- —
tion is elsewhere®>, “Specialties are signified under that —
“ which is general, because they are therein comprehended.” —
All which Tertullian doth deny is*6 that women may be called —
to bear, or publicly take upon them to execute offices of eccle- —

siastical order, whereof none but men are capable. 3
As for Epiphanius>’, he striketh on the very self-same anvil —

with Tertullian.

And in necessity if St. Augustine allow as much unto lay-_
men as Tertullian doth, his “not mentioning” of women —
is but a slender proof that his meaning was to exclude —

women.

Finally, the council of Carthage 58 likewise, although it

55 “Subjectum est generali spe-
“ciale. In ipso significatur, quia
‘in ipso continetur.”’ ‘Tertull. de
veland. Virg. [c. 4.} Posito genere
punponitne species. Azoar. in lib. ii.
Cod. De Transact. [p. 73. Basil.
1563. The words are, “A quocun-
** que removetur genus, ab eodem
‘* yemovetur et species.” }

56 “Non permittitur mulieri in
** ecclesia loqui, sed nec docere, nec
“‘tingere, nec offerre, nec ullius
“‘ virilis muneris nedum sacerdota-
** lis officii sortem sibi vindicare.”
Tertull. de veland. Virg. [c. 9. ]

7 ['T.C. ubi supr. “ Epiphanius
** upbraideth Marcion that he suf-
** fered women to baptize.”? (Epiph.
lib. i. heeres. xlii. § 4. did@ou kai
emitpomny yuvasi Barriopa diddvac*
map avtais yap mdavra xAeuns épmdea,
kal ovdépy Erepov’ Srrore kal Ta puoTn-
pla €vomioy KaTnxovpevev emuredew
ToAv@owv.) And in another book
“he derideth them that they made
“women bishops: lib. ii. ubi de
* Phrygib. et Priscil.”” (Heer. xlix.

“7 t o-9 |e Lib “
§ 2. €MWlOKOTOL TE Trap avTois yvuvat-

kes, kal mpeoBurepor yuvaikes, Kal Ta
Gra’ as pndev diahépew pyoiv’ ev
yap Xpior@ “Inaod ove apoev, ovre
Ondv.) ‘And in another book he
“saith, it was not granted to the
“holy mother of Christ to baptize -
her son: lib. in.” (Heer. lxxix.
C. lil. ef ieparevew -yuvaixes Oc@
MpooeTdooorTo, 7} Kavovikdy TL epyd-
(eoOa €v TH exkAnoia, €det uadAXov ad-=
Tv Tv Mapiay iepareiay émitehéoat
év kawn diaOnkn’...adX ovdé Bar-
ricpa Siddvar memiorevtac’ emel ndv-
varo 6 Xpiords paddAov map’ avris
BarricOjva, ifrep mapa ‘lwavvov.
He is arguing against the heresy of
the Collyridians, who had a sort of
priestesses to offer meat-offerings to
(or in memory of) the Virgin: and
much of his argument turns upon
the point that it was impossible for
a woman to perform any office pro-
perly sacerdotal. Comp. § 2, 4,

: 68 fiv. Conc. Carth. A. D. 398.
can. 100. ‘‘ Mulier baptizare non
‘* presumat.” t. 11. 1207. St. Augus-
tine being one of the subscribers. }

Private Baptism, a Case of Mercy against Sacrifice. 279

make no express submission, may be very well presumed
willing to stoop as other positive ordinances do to the coun-
_termands of necessity.

[4.] Judge therefore what the ancient would have thought
if in their days it had been heard which is published in ours®9,
that because “the substance of the sacrament doth chiefly
“ depend on the institution of God, which is the form and as
“it; were the life of the sacrament,” therefore first, “if the
“ whole institution be not kept, it is no sacrament;” and
secondly, if baptism be private his institution is broken, inas-
much as, “ according to the orders which he hath set for bap-
“tism it should be done in the congregation,” from whose
ordinance in this point “we ought not to swerve, although
“we know that infants should be assuredly damned without
“baptism.” O sir, you that would spurn thus at such as in
case of so dreadful extremity should lie prostrate before your
feet, you that would turn away your face from them at the
hour of their most need, you that would dam up your ears and
harden your heart as iron against the unresistible cries of
supplicants calling upon you for mercy with terms of such
invocation as that most dreadful perplexity might minister if
God by miracle did open the mouths of infants to express
their supposed necessity, should first imagine yourself in their
ease and them in yours. This done, let their supplications
proceed out of your mouth, and your answer out of theirs.
Would you then contentedly hear, “My son, the rites and
“ solemnities of baptism must be kept, we may not do ill that
“ oood may come of it®, neither are souls to be delivered
“from eternal death and condemnation, by breaking orders
« which Christ hath set ;” would you in their case yourself be
shaken off with these answers, and not rather embrace enclosed

59 'T.C. lib.i. p.144.[114.] “The ‘ by the minister.” Ibid. ‘And I

“substance of the sacrament de-
‘* pendeth chiefly of the institution
“and word of God, which is the
** form and as it were the life of the
“sacrament.” Ibid. ‘ Although
‘* part of the institution be observed,
** yet if the whole institution be not,
“itis no sacrament.” ‘T.C. lib.1.
p-146.[115.] “The orders which

“God hath set are, that it should |

** be done in the congregation and

*

“will further say, that although
‘* the infants which die without bap-
** tism should be assuredly damned,
** (which is most false,) yet ought
“not the orders which God hath
“set in his Church to be broken
** after this sort.”

60 «* Nostro peccato alterius saluti
** consulere non debemus.” Aug.
lib. cont. Mend. cap. 17. [t. vi. 468.

in substance. |

BOOK V.

Ch, lxi, 4.

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixi. 5.

lxii. 1.

Whether

baptism by
women be

280 Baptism by Women ;

with both your arms a sentence which now is no Gospel unto —
you, “I will have mercy and not sacrifice®! ?” :

[5.] To acknowledge Christ’s institution the ground of both —
sacraments, I suppose no Christian man will refuse: for it —
giveth them their very nature, it appointeth the matter whereof —
they consist, the form of their administration it teacheth, and —
it blesseth them with that grace whereby to us they are both ~
pledges and instruments of life. Nevertheless seeing Christ’s —
institution containeth, besides that which maketh complete —
the essence or nature, other things that only are parts as it —
were of the furniture of sacraments, the difference between —
these two must unfold that which the general terms of indefi- —
nite speech would confound. If the place appointed for —
baptism be a part of Christ’s institution, it is but his institution —
as Sacrifice, baptism his institution as Mercy, in this case.
He which requireth both mercy and sacrifice rejecteth his
own institution of sacrifice, where the offering of sacrifice
would hinder mercy from being shewed. External circum-
stances even in the holiest and highest actions are but the“lesser
“things of the law®,” whereunto those actions themselves
being compared are “the greater;” and therefore as the
greater are of such importance that they must be done, so
in that extremity before supposed if our account of the lesser
which are not to be omitted, should cause omission of that
which is more to be accounted of, were not this our strict
obedience to Christ’s institution touching “ mint and cummin,”
a disobedience to his institution concerning love? But sith
no institution of Christ hath so strictly tied baptism to
public assemblies as it hath done all men unto baptism, away
with these merciless and bloody sentences, let them never be
found standing in the books and writings of a Christian man,
they savour not of Christ nor of his most gracious and meek
Spirit, but under colour of exact obedience they nourish
cruelty and hardness of heart.

LXII. To leave private baptism therefore and to come

unto baptism by women, which they say® is no more a
6! Matt. ix. 13. “‘ the dignity but also the being of
62 Matt. xxiii. 23. ** the sacrament. So that I take the

63 'T.C. lib. i. p.144.[114.] “On “ baptism of women to be no more
* this point, whether he be a minis- ‘ the holy Sacrament of Baptism
“ter or no, dependeth not only “ than any other daily or ordinary

Principle on which its Validity is denied. 281

sacrament, than any other ordinary washing or bathing of BOOK v.

h. lxii, 2.

man’s body ; the reason whereupon they ground their opinion gion?
herein is such, as making baptism by women void, because tism, pave
women are no ministers in the Church of God, must needs 2™4effectu-
neta ; 2 al to them
generally annihilate the baptism of all unto whom their con- thatreceive
ceit shall apply this exception, whether it be in regard of sex,

of quality, of insufficiency, or whatsoever. For if want of

ealling do frustrate baptism, they that baptize without calling

do nothing, be they women or men.

[2.] To make women teachers in the house of God were a
gross absurdity, seeing the Apostle hath said, “I permit not
“a woman to teach®;” and again, “ Let your women in
“ churches be silent®*.” Those extraordinary gifts of speak-
ing with tongues and prophesying, which God at that time did
not only bestow upon men, but on women also, made it the
harder to hold them confined with private bounds. Where-
upon the Apostle’s ordinance was necessary against women’s
public admission to teach. And because when law hath begun
some one thing or other well, it giveth good occasion either to
draw by judicious exposition out of the very law itself, or to
annex to the law by authority and jurisdiction things of like
conveniency, therefore Clement extendeth this apostolic con-
stitution to baptism®®. <“ For,” saith he, “if we have denied

“‘washing of the child.” [That altered to, “let the Minister of the

which gave occasion to the writers
of the Admonition to insert baptism
by women in their list of things
found in the Prayer Book contrary
to God’s word, (ap. Whitg. Def.
503.) was the rubric which on this
matter stood as follows in Queen
Elizabeth’s time: ‘‘ They (the pas-
“tors and curates) shall warn the
* people, that without great cause
‘and necessity, they baptize not
** children at home in their houses :”
which was altered at the Hampton
Court conference in 1603-4 to “they
*‘ procure not their children to be
*‘ baptized at home.” Again, the
old rubric directed, ‘* Let them that
“‘ be present call upon God for His
** grace, and say the Lord’s Prayer,
«if the time will suffice. And then
*¢ one of them shall name the child,
‘and dip him in the water, or pour
“ water upon him,” &c. This was

*‘ parish, (or... any other lawful
** minister...) call upon God, &c.
* And then...the minister shall
“pour water upon it,” &c. See
Barlow’s account of the Conference
at Hampton Court, in the Phenix,
1. 139, &c. ed. 1707; Strype, Whitg.
iil. 494; ili. 402; Wheatly on the
Common Prayer, p. 370—372, Oxf.
1810. Whitgift (Def. 793.) ques-
tions both the construction of the
old rubric, and the practice in his
time. |

64; Tim. ii. 12.

65 1 Cor. xiv. 34.

66 Clem. Const. Apostol. lib. iii.
cap. g. [Ilept d€ rov yuvaicas Bar-
ri¢ew, yvopiCouer dpiv, Ste kivduvos
ov puikpds Tais TovTo Eemyxetpovoas*
516 ov oupBovdrevouer’ emiodades
yap’ paddov de kai wapdavopoy kai
doeBes*. .. i S€ €v Tois MpodaBovar
diddoKew avrais otk emerpéyraper,

282 Baptism by Women not traceable to Heathen Rites :

BooK v. “them leave to teach, how should any man dispense with —
ok" 5: ¢ nature and make them ministers of holy things, seeing this —
« unskilfulness is a part of the Grecians’ impiety, which for —
“ the service of women goddesses have women priests ?” 4
I somewhat marvel that men which would not willingly
be thought to speak or write but with good conscience, dare
hereupon openly avouch Clement for a witness®7, “That as —
«when the Church began not only to decline but to fall —
“ away from the sincerity of religion it borrowed a number
“ of other profanations of the heathens, so it borrowed this,
« and would needs have women priests as the heathens had,
“and that this was one occasion of bringing baptism by
“ women into the Church of God.” Is it not plain in their
own eyes that first by an evidence which forbiddeth women
to be ministers of baptism, they endeavour to shew how
women were admitted unto that function in the wane and
declination of Christian piety ; secondly, that by an evidence
rejecting the heathens, and condemning them of impiety, they
would prove such affection towards heathens as ordereth the
affairs of the Church by the pattern of their example; and
thirdly, that out of an evidence which nameth the heathens
as being in some part a reason why the Church had no
women priests, they gather the heathens to have been one of
the first occasions why it had? So that throughout every
branch of this testimony their issue is yea, and their evidence
directly no.

[3.] But to women’s baptism in private by occasion of
urgent necessity, the reasons that only concern ordinary bap-
tism in public are no just prejudice, neither can we by force
thereof disprove the practice of those churches which (neces-
sity requiring) allow baptism in private to be administered
by women. We may not from laws that prohibit any thing
with restraint conclude absolute and unlimited prohibitions.
Although we deny not but they which utterly forbid such
baptism may have perhaps wherewith to justify their orders
against it. For even things lawful®* are well prohibited,

m@s leparedoat tavrais mapa diow T.C. lib.i. p.144. [113.]

Tis OVyX@pHoEL; TOTO yap THs TOV 68 Licita prohibentur, ne si per-
‘EdAjvev abedtnros rd ayvénua, On- mitterentur eorum occasione perve-
Aciats Oeais iepeias xetporoveiy, GAN niatur ad illicita. L. neque tamen.
ov THs Xpiorov Siard£ews. | Just. de Asuth. Tut. 1. Officium. D.

not proved invalid because prohibited im publ. 283

when there is fear lest they make the way to unlawful more
easy. And it may be the liberty of baptism by women at
such times doth sometimes embolden the rasher sort to do it
where no such necessity 18%,

[4.] But whether of permission besides law, or in presump-
tion against law, they do it, is it thereby altogether frustrate,
void, and as though it were never given ?

They which have not at the first their right baptism must
of necessity be rebaptized, because the law of Christ tieth all
men to receive baptism. Iteration of baptism once given
hath been always thought a manifest contempt of that ancient
apostolic aphorism, “ One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism7°,”
baptism not only one inasmuch as it hath every where the
same substance and offereth unto all men the same grace, but
one also for that it ought not to be received by any one man
above once. We serve that Lord which is but one, because
no other can be joined with him: we embrace that Faith
which is but one, because it admitteth no innovation: that
Baptism we receive which is but one, because it cannot be

de rei Vind. [The places referred to
apparently are, Just. Inst. 1. 21.
De Authoritate Tutorum, § 1. ‘‘ Ne-
** que tamen hereditatem adire,” &c.
et Dig. vi.1.9. But the connec-
tion of these places with the subject
matter of the text is not clear. e
references perhaps have strayed
from their proper place. In Digest.
i. 18. 6. t.1. p. 46, ed. Lugd. 1552,
the following gloss occurs, ‘ Pre-
“‘textu liciti, non debet committi
* illicitum.””]

69 [Bishop Cooper, quoted by the
author of eM, Some laid out in his
* colours,” p. 66, says, “‘ As touch-
“ing the baptism by midwives, I
*‘can assure you that the Church
** of England, or any that I know of
“in place of government thereof,
4 doth not maintain either the bap-
‘* tism of midwives as a thing tolera-
“‘ able in the Church, or else the
*‘ condemnation of those children
‘* that depart this world unbaptized,
** but doth account them both erro-
*‘ neous, and not according to the
‘‘word of God. For in the con-
** vocation the matter was debated
“amongst us, wherein some of

*‘those persons were present, to
‘whom the drawing of the book
“‘ was permitted: who protested that
* neither the order of the book did
** allow any such thing, neither that
‘it was any part of their meaning
** to approve the same. But for so
** much as baptizing by women hath
“been aforetime commonly used,
* and now also of rashness by some
“is done, the book only taketh
‘order and provideth, that if the
* child be baptized by the midwife
“rebaptizing be not admitted.’
Bridges, Defence, p. 576. ‘‘ Con-
** cerning ‘ permitting the adminis-
tration of baptism (in this light
** of the Gospel) to women,’ (be it
‘* spoken with the reverence of our
** brethren) it is most untrue. When
** as it is not only given customarily
‘in the open charge of every visi-
“tation, whether any such thing
“be done -by them, as in the time
“* of the popish darkness was used:
** but also if any such thing have
“happened, and be found out, the
** parties that so have done are
** openly punished for the same.’’]
70 Ephes. iv. 5.

BOOK V,

Ch. lxii, 4.

BOOK VY,

Ch, lxii. 5.

284 Rebaptization why greatly to be avoided.

received often. For how should we practise iteration of
baptism, and yet teach that we are by baptism born anew,
that by baptism we are admitted into the heavenly society
of saints, that those things be really and effectually done by
baptism which are no more possible to be often done than a
man can naturally be often born?!, or civilly be often adopted
into any one’s stock and family? ‘This also is the cause
why they that present us unto baptism are entitled for ever
after our parents in God, and the reason why there we receive
new names in token that by baptism we are made new crea-
tures. As Christ hath therefore died and risen from the
dead but once, so the sacrament which both extinguisheth
in him our former sin and beginneth in us a new condition of
life, is by one only actual administration for ever available,
according to that in the Nicene Creed, “I believe one baptism
** for remission of sins.”

[5.] And because second baptism was ever abhorred?72 in
the Church of God as a kind of incestuous birth, they that
iterate baptism are driven under some pretence or other to
make the former baptism void. ‘Tertullian the first that pro-
posed to the Church73, Agrippinus7‘ the first in the Church

71 « Una est nativitas de terra,
* alia de ceelo; una de carne, alia
* de Spiritu; una de eternitate,
‘** alia de mortalitate; una de mas-
* culo et foemina, alia de Deo et
** Ecclesia. Sed ipse due singu-
*Jares sunt. Quo modo enim
** uterus non potest repeti, sic nec
** baptismus iterari.”” Prosp. Sen-
ten. 331. [S. Aug. in Joann. c. 3.
Tract. xi. 6.] “* Eja fratres lacteum
** genitalis fontis ad laticem con-
** volate, ut semper vobis aqua suffi-
** ciat, hoc ante omnia scientes, quia
*‘ hanc nec effundere licet nec rur-
* sus haurire.” Zeno. Invit. ad
Font. [i. p.117. t. iii. Biblioth. Patr.
Colon.

72 August. de Bapt. cont. Don.
lib. ii. cap. 14. [t.ix. 107. A. “ Quid
*‘ sit perniciosius, utrum omnino
‘non baptizari, an rebaptizari, ju-
** dicare difficile est. Video quidem
** quid amplius homines detestentur
** atque horreant.”

73 Tert. de Bapt. [c.15. “Circa

** heereticos sane quid custodiendum
** sit, digne quis retractet: ad nos
*‘ enim editum.est. Heeretici autem
** nullum habent consortium nostre
* disciplinge, quos extraneos utique
** testatur ipsa ademptio communi-
** cationis. Non debeo in illis cog-
** noscere quod mihi est preeceptum,
** quia non idem Deus est nobis et
* illis, nec unus Christus, id est
“idem. Ideoque nec baptismus
*unus, quia non idem. Quem
** quum rite non habeant, sine du-
** bio non habent.”’]

74 Cypr. Epist. 71. [t. ii. p. 196.
**Sciamus, remissam peccatorum
non nisi in Ecclesia dari posse,
** nec posse adversarios Christi quic-
** quam sibi circa gratiam ejus vin-
* dicare. Quod quidem et Agrip-
** pinus, bonz memorize vir, cum
** ceteris céepiscopis suis, qui illo
‘tempore in provincia Africa et
** Numidia Ecclesiam Domini gu-
** bernabant, statuit, et librato con-
** silii communis examine firmavit.”’]

va ha ak eden donL cea

ip

Validity of Heretical Baptism questioned in Africa. 285

that accepted, and against the use of the Church Novatian

the first that publicly began to practise rebaptization, did it
therefore upon these two grounds, a true persuasion that
baptism is necessary, and a false that the baptism which
others administered was no baptism. Novatianus’ conceit
was that none can administer true baptism but the true
Church of Jesus Christ, that he and his followers alone were
the Church, and for the rest he accounted them wicked and
profane persens, such as by baptism could cleanse no man,
unless they first did purify themselves, and reform the faults
wherewith he charged them. At which time St. Cyprian75
with the greatest part of African bishops, because they like-
wise thought that none but only the true Church of God can
baptize, and were of nothing more certainly persuaded than
that heretics are as rotten branches cut off from the life and
body of the true Church, gathered hereby that the Church
of God both may with good consideration and ought to
reverse that baptism which is given by heretics. These held
and practised their own opinion, yet with great protestations
often made that they neither loved a whit the less, nor
thought in any respect the worse of them that were of a
contrary mind. In requital of which ingenuous moderation
the rest that withstood them did it in peaceable sort with
very good regard had of them as of men in error but not
in heresy.

[6.] The bishop of Rome against their novelties upheld as
beseemed him the ancient and true apostolic customs”, till
they which unadvisedly before had erred became in a manner
all reconciled friends unto truth’7, and saw that heresy in
the ministers of baptism could no way evacuate the force
thereof; such heresy alone excepted’78, as by reason of

75 Euseb. lib. vii. cap. 2, 3. Cypr. tad fin.] Vide et. August. contr.
Epist.7o—76. = =~ Crescon. lib. iii. cap. ii, iii

76 ("0 ye Srépavos py Seiv te ved-
Tepov Tapa THY Kpatnoacay apxnbev

mapddoow émikatvotopety oidpuevos,
ent rovr@ Sinyavdkre. Euseb. E. H.

77 «* Ti ipsi episcopi qui rebapti-
** zandos hereticos cum Cypriano
** statuerant ad antiquam consuetu-
** dinem revoluti novum emisere de-
“cretum.” Hieron. cont. Lucifer.

249.

7 ‘* Dixisti fieri non posse ut in
“ falso baptismate inquinatus abluat,
** immundus emundet, supplantator
*‘ erigat, perditus liberet, reus ve-
*‘ niam tribuat, damnatus absolvat.
** Bene hzc omnia poterunt ad solos
“hereticos pertinere, qui [quia]
** falsaverunt symbolum, dum alter

BOOK VY,

Ch. lxii. 6,

BOOK V.

Ch. lxii. 6.

286 Judgment of St. Dionysius on Heretical Baptism.

unsoundness in the highest articles of Christian faith, pre- —
sumed to change, and by changing to maim the substance,
the form of baptism. In which respect the Church did
neither simply disannul, nor absolutely ratify baptism by
heretics. For the baptism which Novatianists gave stood
firm, whereas they whom Samosatenians had baptized were
rebaptized79, It was likewise ordered in the council of
Arles 8°, that if any Arian did reconcile himself to the
Church they should admit him without new baptism, unless
by examination they found him not baptized in the name of
the Trinity.

Dionysius bishop of Alexandria maketh report’! how there
lived under him a man of good reputation and of very ancient
continuance in that church, who being present at the rites of
baptism, and observing with better consideration than ever

before what was there done,

* dixerit duos Deos cum Deus unus
* sit, alter Patrem vult in Persona
* Filii cognosci, alter carnem sub-
“‘ducens Filio Dei per quam Deo
** reconciliatus est mundus: et cz-
“ teri hujusmodi, qui a sacramentis
** catholicis alieninoscuntur.” Optat.
lib.i. [c. 10. p. 12. Paris. 1679.

79 Synod. Niceen. can. 19. [epi
Tov TlavAianotay, eira mpoopvydv-
Tov TH KaOodiKn ekkAnoia, pos éxTe-
Ocirat dvaBanriferba aitots é&d-
mavros. Item can.8: mepi rav dvo-
paCdvrmy pev Eavrovs Kabapovs more,
mpocepxonevav dé tH KaOoduKH kal
droorohikh éexkdAnoia, edoke rH ayia
kai peyddn ovvdd@, dore xetpoberou-
Hévous avTovs pevew ovTas ev TO
ene Ap. 0 Script. Eccle-
siast. Opusce. p. 366, .

80 Synod. i. a ea 8. [* De
** Afris, quod propria lege utuntur,
ut rebaptizent; placuit ut si ad
‘* Ecclesiam aliquis de heresi vene-
“rit, interrogent eum symbolum ;
** et si perviderint eum in Patre et
* Filio et Spiritu sancto esse bapti-
** zatum, manus ei tantum impona-
** tur, ut accipiat Spiritum sanctum.
** Quod si interrogatus non respon-

derit hanc Trinitatem, baptizetur.”’
Routh, Rel. Sac. iv. 91.

81 Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. vii.
cap.9. [Quoted also by T. C. iii.

came and with weeping sub-

135, to shew that the presumed in-
validity of baptism in any case does
not imply a necessity of rebaptiza-
tion. “Ovras, adedpe, cuvpBovdrs
d€opat, kal yvounv aité rapa god,
TotovTou TLvds ror TpoceAOdvTOs Tpd-
yearos, Sediws py dpa opdddA@pat.
Tay yap cuvayoperav ddeAPay micros
vousCdmevos apxatos Kat mpd THs éuns
xetporovias ss Tois imdyvov Barrifo-
pévois Tapatuxov, Kal ray émrepa~
THOEwY Kal amoKpicewy €makovaas,
mpoonrGe pot KAaiwy Kal Katrabpnvav
€avTov, kal wirravy mpd trav mddeav
pov" eLopohoyoupevos pev Kal efop-
vipevos To Banticua 5 mapa Trois
aipetixois BeBamricto, py) ToLOUTOY
eivat, unde Gos €xew Tiva mpds TOUTO
koweviay' docBeias yap €xkeivo kat
Braodnuiav memAnpdoba’ Aéeyov dé
mavu Tl Thy Wuxi viv KatavervxOat*
.. kat dia rovro Seduevos rhs eiAcKpt-
veotatns TavtTns Kabdpoews Kal mapa-
Soxns Kal xapiros ruxelv’ Srep eyo
pev ovk erddpnoa rownoa, pynoas
avTadpkn Tv ToAvypoviay av’T@® Kol-
veviay eis TodTo yeyovevar’ Oapoeiv
dé éxéAevor, kal pera BeBaias ricrews
kal dyabijs cuvednoens TH peTOX]
Tov ayiwv mpoctévar’ 6 Se ovre mev-
Oav mavera, méeppike Te TH TpaTrEe{n
mpoovevat, Kal pots TapaKkadovpevos
cuvecrdvat Ttais mpocevxais dvé-
xerat. |

Question of Baptism by an unworthy Minister. 287

mission craved of his bishop not to deny him baptism, the BOOK: Wt
due of all which profess Christ, seeing it had been so long —
sithence his evil hap to be deceived by the fraud of heretics,

and at their hands (which till now he never throughly and

duly weighed) to take a baptism full fraught with blas-
_phemous impieties, a baptism in nothing like unto that which

the true Church of Christ useth. The bishop greatly moved
thereat, yet durst not adventure to rebaptize, but did the best

he could to put him in good comfort, using much persuasion

with him not to trouble himself with things which were past

and gone, nor after so long continuance in the fellowship of

God’s people to call now in question his first entrance. The

poor man that saw himself in this sort answered but not
satisfied, spent afterwards his life in continual perplexity,
whereof the bishop remained fearful to give release: perhaps

too fearful, if the baptism were such as his own declaration
importeth. For that the substance whereof was rotten at the

very first, is never by tract of time able to recover soundness.

And where true baptism was not before given, the case of
rebaptization is clear.

[7.] But by this it appeareth that baptism is not void in
regard of heresy, and therefore much less through any other
moral defect in the minister thereof. Under which second
pretence Donatists notwithstanding took upon them to make
frustrate the Church’s baptism, and themselves to rebaptize
their own fry. For whereas some forty years after the mar-
tyrdom of blessed Cyprian the emperor Dioclesian began
to8? persecute the Church of Christ, and for the speedier
abolishment of their religion to burn up their sacred books,
there were in the Church itself Zraditors content to deliver
up the books of God by composition, to the end their own
lives might be spared. Which men growing thereby odious
to the rest whose constancy was greater, it fortuned that
after, when one Cecilian was ordained bishop in the church
of Carthage, whom others endeavoured in vain to defeat by
excepting against him as a Zraditor, they whose accusations
could not prevail, desperately joined themselves in one, and
made a bishop of their own crew, accounting from that day

82 Circa ann. 300.

BOOK V.

Ch. 1xii. 8.

288 Origin of Donatism. Causes of its success.

forward their faction the only true and sincere Church. The
first bishop on that part was Majorinus, whose successor
Donatus being the first that wrote in defence of their schism,
the birds that were hatched before by others have their

names from him.

[8.] Arians and Donatists began both about one time.
Which heresies according to the different strength of their —
own sinews, wrought as hope of success led them, the one
with the choicest wits, the other with the multitude so far,
that after long and troublesome experience the perfectest
view men could take of both was hardly able to induce any
certain determinate resolution, whether error may do more
by the curious subtilty of sharp discourse, or else by the
mere appearance of zeal and devout affection, the latter of
which two aids gave Donatists beyond all men’s expectation
as great a sway as ever any schism or heresy had within that
reach of the Christian world where it bred and grew: the
rather perhaps because the Church which neither greatly
feared them, and besides had necessary cause to bend itself
against others that aimed directly at a far higher mark, the
Deity of Christ, was contented to let Donatists have their
forth by the space of threescore years and above, even from
ten years before Constantine till the time that Optatus bishop
of Milevis published his books against Parmenian *.

During which term and the space of that schism’s con-
tinuance afterwards, they had, besides many other secular
and worldly means to help them forward, these special
advantages. First, the very occasion of their breach with
the Church of God, a just hatred and dislike of Zraditors,
seemed plausible; they easily persuaded their hearers that
such men could not be holy as held communion and fellow-
ship with them that betray religion. Again, when to dazzle
the eyes of the simple, and to prove that it can be no church
which is not holy, they had in show and sound of words the
glorious pretence of the creed apostolic, “ I believe the Holy
“ Catholic Church,” we need not think it any strange thing
that with the multitude they gained credit. And avouching
that: such as are not of the true Church can administer no

8 Circa an. 370.

Imperial Laws against Rebaptization. 289

_ true baptism, they had for this point whole volumes of St.
_ Cyprian’s own writing, together with the judgment of divers
_ African synods whose sentence was the same with his.
Whereupon the Fathers were likewise in defence of their
_ just cause very greatly prejudiced, both for that they could
not enforce the duty of men’s communion with a church con-
_ fessed to be in many things blameworthy, unless they should
oftentimes seem to speak as half-defenders of the faults them-
selves, or at the least not so vehement accusers thereof as
_ their adversaries; and to withstand iteration of baptism, the
other branch of the Donatists’ heresy, was impossible without
manifest and professed rejection of Cyprian, whom the world
universally did in his lifetime admire as the greatest amongst
prelates, and now honour as not the lowest in the kingdom
of heaven. So true we find it by experience of all ages in
the Church of God, that the teacher’s error is the people’s
trial, harder and heavier by so much to bear, as he is in
_ worth and regard greater that mispersuadeth them, . Although
there was odds between Cyprian’s cause and theirs, he dif-
fering from others of sounder understanding in that point,
but not dividing himself from the body of the Church by
schism as did the Donatists. For which cause, saith Vin-
centius’+, “ Of one and the same opinion we judge (which
“ may seem strange) the authors catholic, and the followers
* heretical; we acquit the masters, and condemn the scholars ;
« they are heirs of heaven which have written those books, the
** defenders whereof are trodden down to the pit of hell.”
[10.] The invectives of catholic writers therefore against
them are sharp; the words of imperial edicts by Honorius
and Theodosius*> made to bridle them very bitter, the

84 Vincent. Lirin. adver. Heres.
cap.11. [“ Orerum mira conversio !
** auctores ejusdem opinionis catho-
** lici, consectatores vero heeretici
** judicantur: absolvuntur magistri,
*condemnantur discipuli: con-
** scriptores librorum filii regni e-
‘runt, assertores vero gehenna
* suscipiet.” In Bibl. Pat. Colon.
t. v. p. 2. pag. 239.] Wane

85 Vide C. Theod. lib. xvi. tit. 6.
]. “ Adversarios,” et 1. “* Nullus,”
circa an. 405. [t. vi. 196, Lyons,

HOOKER, VOL. Il.

1665, is a decree of Honorius, be-
ginning with “ Adversarios catho-
** licee fidei extirpare hujus decreti
‘** auctoritate prospeximus.” Then
enlarging on the guilt of rebaptizing,
and its immoral effects, he enacts
forfeiture of all property as the
penalty: to be restored however to
the children if catholic. The en-
dowments of places where such
baptism had been permitted are also
confiscated. In p.200, occurs the
other law, one of Honorius and the

U

BOOK V.

Ch, lxii, 10.

290 Infant Baptism no Case for Rebaptization.

punishments severe in revenge of their folly. Howbeit for
fear (as we may conjecture) lest much should be derogated :
from the baptism of the Church, and baptism by Donatists be —
more esteemed of than was meet, if on the one side that ©
which heretics had done ill should stand as good, on the ~
other side that be reversed which the Catholie Church had —
well and religiously done, divers better minded than advised
men thought it fittest to meet with this inconvenience by ~
rebaptizing Donatists as well as they rebaptized Catholics. —
For stay whereof the same emperors saw it meet to give their —
law a double edge*®, whereby it might equally on both sides —
cut off not only heretics which rebaptized whom they could —
pervert, but also Catholic and Christian priests which did the —
like unto such as before had taken baptism at the hands of —
heretics, and were afterwards reconciled to the Church of
God. Donatists were therefore in process of time, though —
with much ado, wearied and at the length worn out by the —
constancy of that truth which teacheth, that evil ministers of —
good things are as torches, a light to others, a waste to none —
but themselves only, and that the foulness of their hands can —
neither any whit impair the virtue nor stain the glory of the
mysteries of Christ. | |
[11.] Now that which was done amiss by virtuous and good
men, as Cyprian carried aside with hatred against heresy, and
was secondly followed by Donatists, whom envy and rancour
covered with show of godliness made obstinate to cancel
whatsoever the Church did in the sacrament of baptism, hath
of later days in another respect far different from both the
former, been brought freshly again into practice. For the
Anabaptist rebaptizeth, because in his estimation the baptism
of the Church is frustrate, for that we give it unto infants
which have not faith, whereas according unto Christ’s institu-

BOOK VY,
Ch, lxii. 11.

younger Theodosius, re-enacting the
penalty. The emperors use such
expressions as these: ‘“‘ iterati bap-
** tismatis polluunt sacrilegio :” ‘‘fe-
*‘yalibus sacrilegiis;” ‘‘ piaculare
* crimen,”’ &c. |

86 << Siquis.” C. “Ne Sanct.
* Baptis.” circa an. 413. [Cod.
Justin. lib.i. tit.6.2. Siquis re-
“ baptizare quempiam de ministris

“* (Godefroi, mysteriis) catholice
* secte fuerit detectus, una cum eo
** qui piaculare crimen commisit, si
**tamen criminis per ztatem capax
** sit, cul persuasum sit, statuti pri-
‘* oris supplicio percellatur.”’ Thus
the passage stands in the latter part
of the law of Honorius and Theo-
dosius, just quoted. |

Lay Baptism no Case for Rebaptization. 291

tion, as they conceive it, true baptism should always presup- Book v.
pose actual belief in receivers, and is otherwise no baptism. § “*"*"*
__[12.] Of these three errors there is not any but hath been
able at the least to allege in defence of itself many fair proba-
bilities. Notwithstanding, sith the Church of God hath
hitherto always constantly maintained, that to rebaptize them
_ which are known to have received true baptism is unlawful ;
that if baptism seriously be administered in the same element
and with the same form of words which Christ’s institution
_ teacheth, there is no other defect in the world that can make
it frustrate, or deprive it of the nature of a true sacrament ;
and lastly, that baptism is only then to be readministered,
when the first delivery thereof is void in regard of the fore-
alleged imperfections and no other; shall we now in the case
of baptism, which having both for matter and form the
_ substance of Christ’s institution, is by a fourth sort of men
voided for the only defect of ecclesiastical authority in the
_ minister, think it enough that they blow away the force
thereof with the bare strength of their very breath by saying,
“ We take such baptism to be no more the Sacrament of
* Baptism, than any other ordinary bathing to be a sacra-
“ ment !”

[13.] It behoveth generally all sorts of men to keep them-
selves within the limits of their own vocation’?. And seeing
God from whom men’s several degrees and pre-eminences do
proceed, hath appointed them in his Church, at whose hands
his pleasure is that we should receive both baptism and
all other public medicinable helps of soul, perhaps thereby
the more to settle our hearts in the love of our ghostly
superiors, they have small cause to hope that with him their
voluntary services will be accepted who thrust themselves into
functions either above their capacity or besides their place,
and over boldly intermeddle with duties whereof no charge
was ever given them. They that in any thing exceed the
compass of their own order do as much as in them lieth to
dissolve that order which is the harmony of God’s Church.

Suppose therefore that in these and the like considerations ~
the law did utterly prohibit baptism to be administered by

87 Numb. xvi.10; Levit.x.1; 1 Sam. xiii. 11: 2Sam.vi.6; 2 Chron.
xxvi.16; Heb.v. 4.

U2

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixii. 136

292 Confused Reasoning of the Puritans

any other than persons thereunto solemnly consecrated, what
necessity soever happen. Are not many things firm®*® being
done, although in part done otherwise than positive rigour
and strictness did require? Nature as much as is possible
inclineth unto validities and preservations. Dissolutions and
nullities of things done, are not only not favoured, but hated
when either urged without cause, or extended beyond their
reach.

If therefore at any time it come to pass, that in teaching
publicly, or privately in delivering this blessed Sacrament of
regeneration, some -unsanctified hand contrary to Christ’s
supposed ordinance do intrude itself, to execute that where-
unto the laws of God and his Church have deputed others,
which of these two opinions seemeth more agreeable with
equity, ours that disallow what is done amiss, yet make not
the force of the word and sacraments, much less their nature
and very substance to depend on the minister’s authority
and calling, or else theirs’? which defeat, disannul, and anni-
hilate both, in respect of that one only personal defect, there
being not any law of God which saith that if the minister be
incompetent his word shall be no word, his baptism no
baptism? He which teacheth and is not sent loseth the
reward, but yet retaineth the name of a teacher; his usurped
actions have in him the same nature which they have in
others, although they yield him not the same comfort. And
if these two cases be peers, the case of doctrine and the case
of baptism both alike, sith no defect in their vocation that
teach the truth is able to take away the benefit thereof from

88 9. q. 2. c. “ Lugdunensis.”

“ fieri si fiant non tenent. In pro-
{[Decr. Gratian. pars il. caus. ix.

*“ hibitionibus autem circa res fa-

qu. 2. p. 860. ed. Lugd. 1572. In

- which the ordination of an intruding

bishop is held good, and persons so
ordained are declared admissible to
sacred offices with certain precau-
tions.] c. “ex literis.” Decretal.
[Gregor.] de Matrim. contrac. [lib.
Iv. tit. 16. cap. 2. col.1400; where
is a similar decision with regard to
a marriage contracted after espou-
sals with another person, the espou-
sals being first renounced on both
sides.] Damas. Burch. [Brocarda
Damasi.] Reg. 109. ‘“ Prohibita

* vorabiles contrarium obtinet.” [ap.
Tract. Illustr. Jurisc. t. xviii. p.
511. Venet. 1584. ]

89 T.C. lib.i. p.144.[114.] “ As
“* St. Paul saith, that a man cannot
** preach which is not sent; (Rom.
** x.15-:) no not although he speak
“the words of the Scripture and.
‘interpret them: So I cannot
** see how a man can baptize unless
“he be sent to that end, although
“he pour water and rehearse the
“‘ words which are to be rehearsed
“in the ministry of baptism.”

293

him which heareth, wherefore should the want of a lawful
calling in them that baptize make baptism to me vain?

[14.] They% grant that the matter and the form in sacra-
ments are the only parts of substance, and that if these two be
retained, albeit other things besides be used which are incon-
venient, the sacrament notwithstanding is administered but
not sincerely. Why persist they not in this opinion? When
by these fair speeches they have put us in hope of agreement,
wherefore sup they up their words again, interlacing such
frivolous interpretations and glosses as disgrace their sentence ?
What should move them, having named the matter and the
form of the sacrament, to give us presently warning, that they
mean by the form of the sacrament the institution, which exposi-
tion darkeneth whatsoever was before plain? For whereas in
common understanding that.form, which added to the element
doth make a sacrament, and is of the outward substance thereof,
containeth only the words of usual application, they set it
down lest common dictionaries should deceive us) that the
form doth signify in their language the imstitution, which
institution in truth comprehendeth both form and matter.
Such are the fumbling shifts to enclose the minister’s vocation
within the compass of some essential part of the sacrament. ~

A thing that can never stand with sound and sincere con-
struction. For what if the minister be “no circumstance
“ but a subordinate efficient cause” in the work of baptism! ?
What if the minister’s vocation be a matter? “of per-
“ petual necessity and not a ceremony variable as times
“ and occasions require?” What if his calling be “a prin-
“ cipal part of the institution of Christ?” Doth it therefore
follow that the minister’s authority is% “of the substance
“ of the sacrament,” and as incident into the nature thereof as

00. C. lib. i, p-165.(1gr.] “If
* either the matter of the sacrament,

“or the form of it, which is the
* institution, (which things are only

concerning the Essentials of Baptism.

92 T.C. lib. iii. 127. [‘* This is a
** matter of doctrine, and a matter
“of faith:...this is none of the
* variable ceremonies, which alter

** substantial parts,) were wanting,
“there should then have been no
“* sacrament at all ministered. But
* they being retained and yet other
*‘ things used which are not con-
venient, the sacrament is minis-
** tered, but not sincerely.”

91 T.C. lib. iii. p. 117, [and 138.]

** by the diversity of times, of coun-
‘* tries, and of persons.”’ |

93 TC. lib. [i. 114. and] iii. 135.
“The minister is of the substance
** of the Sacrament, considering that
‘it is a principal part of Christ’s
** Institution.”

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixii. 14.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixii.15.

294 Baptism, an Act Moral, Keelesiastical, Mystical :

the matter and the form itself, yea more incident? For
whereas in case of necessity the greatest amongst them%
professeth the change of the element of water, lawful, and
others which like not so well this opinion could be better
content that voluntarily the Words of Christ’s institution
were altered, and men baptized in the name of Christ without
either mention made of the Father or of the Holy Ghost,
nevertheless in denying that baptism administered by private
persons ought to be reckoned of as a sacrament they both agree.

[15.] It may therefore please them both to consider that
Baptism is an action in part moral, in part ecclesiastical, and
in part mystical: moral, as being a duty which men perform
towards God; ecclesiastical, in that it belongeth unto God’s
Church as a public duty; finally mystical, if we respect what
God doth thereby intend to work.

The greatest moral perfection of baptism consisteth in
men’s devout obedience to the law of God, which law requireth
both the outward act or thing done, and also that religious
affection which God doth so much regard, that without it
whatsoever we do is hateful in his sight, who therefore is said

to respect adverbs more than verbs, because the end of his —

94 Beza, Epist. 2. [t. iii. 196. ed.
1582.] ‘* Desit aqua et tamen bap-
‘* tismus alicujus differri cum edi-
** ficatione non possit nec debeat,
** ego certe quovis alio liquore non
** minus rite quam aqua baptizarim.”
T.C, lib. ii. p. 138. “Shew me
‘* why the breach of the institution
“in the form should make the
** sacrament unavailable, and not
“the breach of this part [which
** concerneth the minister]?” T.C.
ibid. ‘ Howsoever some learned
*< and godly, give some liberty in the
** change of the elements of the holy
** Sacrament, yet I do not see how
“that can stand.” Idem, p. 137.
“I would rather judge him bap-
*‘ tized which is baptized into the
“name of Christ without adding
“the Father and the Holy Ghost
“‘when the element of water is
‘* added, than when the other words
“ being duly kept, some other liquor
ae) "Gamd (A

% [Camden (Ann. pars i. p. 368.
A. D. 1584.) in his yr beta of

Parry’s confession, mentions that
he was deterred for a while from
practising on the Queen’s life by
the scruples of his spiritual advi-
sers. ‘‘Creictonus etiam Scotus
** Jesuita, docendo mala non perpe-
** tranda ut inde bonum proveniret,
* Deum magis Adverbiis, quam No-
** minibus, delectari, magisque quod
“bene ac legitime factum, quam
** quod bonum, ei placere; nec unius
* exitio multas animas redimendas
‘* sine expresso Dei mandato.” The
paper referred to may be found in
Holinshed, iii. 1388. It is a letter
of Creighton’s to Walsingham.
* He, Parry, alleged the utility of
** the deed for delivering of so many
** Catholics out of misery, and resti-
** tution of the Catholic religion. I
* answered, that the Scripture an-
‘** swered thereto, Non sunt facien-
‘“‘da mala, ut veniant bona. So
*‘ that for no good, how great that
“ever it be, may be wrought any
** evil, how little that ever it be.
** He replied, that it was not evil to

x
a
>

=
ia
<

Se a SER eee Sa bea Teak KALLE pte

mystically, not annulled by Want of Commission. 295

law in appointing what we shall do is our own perfection,
which perfection consisteth chiefly in the virtuous disposition

of the mind, and approveth itself to him not by doing but by
doing well.

Wherein appeareth also the difference between
human and divine laws, the one of which two are content

_ with opus operatum, the other require opus operantis, the one
do but claim the deed, the other especially the mind. So
_ that according to laws which principally respect the heart of
men, works of religion being not religiously performed, cannot

morally be perfect.
Baptism as an ecclesiastical work is for the manner of per-
formance ordered by divers ecclesiastical laws, providing that

-as the sacrament itself is a gift of no mean worth, so the

ministry thereof might in all circumstances appear to be a
function of no small regard.

All that belongeth to the mystical perfection of baptism
outwardly, is the element, the word, and the serious applica-
tion of both unto him which receiveth both; whereunto if we
add that secret reference which this action hath to life and
remission of sins by virtue of Christ’s own compact solemnly

made with his Church, to accomplish fully the Sacrament of.

Baptism, there is not any thing more required.

Now put the question whether. baptism administered to
infants without any spiritual calling be unto them both a true
sacrament and an effectual instrument of grace, or else an
act of no more account than the ordinary washings are?
The sum of all that can be said to defeat such baptism is, that
those things which have no being can work nothing, and that
baptism without the power of ordination is as judgment with-
out sufficient jurisdiction, void, frustrate, and of no effect,

*‘ take away so great evil and in-
“duce so great good. I answered,
“that all good is not to be done,
“but that only ‘quod bene et le-
** gitime fieri potest.’ And there-
“fore, ‘dixi Deum magis amare
« adverbia quam nomina. Quia in
‘** actionibus magis ei placent bene
** ac legitime, quam bonum. Ita ut
** nullum bonum liceat facere, nisi
** bene et legitime fieri possit. Quod
“ in hoc casu fieri non potest.’ ’”]
% ['T.C. iii.128. “It is all one

_ as if he should say, that if there be

“no magistrate at hand, or none
* that will do his duty in executing
“justice against a murderer, that
*‘ then a private man may take upon
“ him to hang the murderer.” 239.
‘“* As a private man, killing a mur-
** derer, hath himself murdered, and
“executed no justice, because he
** had no calling thereunto ; even so
“those, which without all calling
“have taken in hand to baptize,
“have made a profane washing,
“and made no sacrament of the
** Lord.’’]

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixii. 15.

296 The Case of usurped Jurisdiction wrrelevant

BOOK ¥. But to this we answer, that the fruit of baptism dependeth

Ch. 1xii.

—

— only upon the covenant which God hath made; that God by
covenant requireth in the elder sort Faith and Baptism, in
children the Sacrament of Baptism alone, whereunto he hath
also given them right by special privilege of birth within the
bosom of the holy Church; that infants therefore, which have
received baptism complete as touching the mystical perfection
thereof, are by virtue of his own covenant and promise cleansed
from all sin, forasmuch as all other laws concerning that which
in baptism is either moral or ecclesiastical do bind the Church
which giveth baptism, and not the infant which receiveth it of
the Church. So that if any thing be therein amiss, the harm
which groweth by violation of holy ordinances must altogether
rest where the bonds of such ordinances hold. |

[16.] For that in actions of this nature it fareth not as in
jurisdictions may somewhat appear by the very opinion which
men have of them. The nullity of that which a judge doth by
way of authority without authority, is known to all men, and
agreed upon with full consent of the whole world, every man
receiveth it as a general edict of nature; whereas the nullity
of baptism in regard of the like defect is only a few men’s
new, ungrounded, and as yet unapproved imagination. Which
difference of generality in men’s persuasions on the one side,
and their paucity whose conceit leadeth them the other way,
hath risen from a difference easy to observe in the things
themselves. The exercise of unauthorized jurisdiction is a
grievance unto them that are under it, whereas they that
without authority presume to baptize, offer nothing but that
which to all men is good and acceptable. Sacraments are
food, and the ministers thereof as parents or as nurses, at
whose hands when there is necessity but no possibility of
receiving it, if that which they are not present to do in right
of their office be of pity and compassion done by others, shall
this be thought to turn celestial bread into gravel, or the
medicine of souls into poison? Jurisdiction is a yoke which
law hath imposed on the necks of men in such sort that they
must endure it for the good of others, how contrary soever it
be to their own particular appetites and inclinations; jurisdic-
tion bridleth men against their wills, that which a judge doth
prevaileth by virtue of his very power, and therefore not

AS VO ate Mee Ab A) ANRC a Ty

to the Case of Lay Baptism. 297

_ without great reason, except the law have given him authority,
‘whatsoever he doth vanisheth. Baptism on the other side
_ being a favour which it pleaseth God to bestow, a benefit of
soul to us that receive it, and a grace which they that deliver
are but as mere vessels either appointed by others or offered
‘of their own accord to this service ; of which two if they be

- the one it is but their own honour, their own offence to be

_ the other; can it possibly stand with equity and right%, that

_ the faultiness of their presumption in giving baptism should
be able to prejudice us, who by taking baptism have no way
offended ?

[17.] I know there are many sentences found in the books
and writings of the ancient Fathers to prove both ecclesiastical
and also moral defects in the minister of baptism a bar to the
heavenly benefit thereof. Which sentences we always so un-
derstand, as Augustine understood in a case of like nature the
words of Cyprian9*’. When infants baptized were after their

_ parents’ revolt carried by them in arms to the stews of idols,

those wretched creatures as St. Cyprian thought were not only
their own ruin but their children’s also; “Their children,”
whom this their apostasy profaned, “ did lose what Christian
“ baptism had given them being newly born.” ‘“ They lost,”
saith St. Augustine, “the grace of baptism, if we consider to
* what their parents’ impiety did tend ; although the mercy of
** God preserved them, and will also in that dreadful day of
“ account give them favourable audience pleading in their
© own behalf, ‘The harm of other men’s perfidiousness it lay
“not in us to avoid.’” After the same manner whatsoever
we read written if it sound to the prejudice of baptism through

97 *Factum alterius alii nocere
** non debet.” Ulp. 1. De Pupillo.
sect. “ Si plurium.”’ [ Dig. xxxix. 1,
5- p-558-] Item, Alphen. 1. “ Pater-
** familias.” de Hered. Instituend.
[Dig. xxviii. v. 44. 402.] “ Male-

-“ficia teneant auctores ga non

** alios.” 1. “* Sancimus,” 22. C. de
Poen. [Cod. Just. ix. ys ak p-

30
3% August. Epist. [al. 98. § 3.
t. ii. 264. Cypr. de na t. 1. 125.
** Infantes quoque parentum mani-
* bus impositi vel attrectati, amise~
‘* runt parvuli, quod in primo statim

nativitatis exordio fuerant conse-
* cuti.” Aug. “Amiserunt, dixit,
** quantum attinuit ad illorum sce-
** Jus, a quibus amittere coacti sunt.
o Amiserunt i in eorum mente ac vo-
**Juntate, qui in illos tantum faci-
“nus commiserunt. Nam si in
*‘ selpsis amisissent, remansissent
*‘ utique divina sententia sine ulla
“ dubitatione damnandi. Quod si
*‘ sanctus Cyprianus arbitraretur,
“non eorum defensionem continuo
** subjiceret, dicens, Nonne illi, cum
“judicii dies venerit, dicent, Nos
* nihil fecimus ? |

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixii.14,

BOOK V.

Ch, lxii, 18.

298 St. Augustine’s Judgment on Lay Baptism.

any either moral or ecclesiastical defect therein, we construe it, _
as equity and reason teacheth, with restraint to the offender —
only, which doth, as far as concerneth himself and them —
which wittingly concur with him, make the sacrament of
God fruitless. :

[18.] St. Augustine’s dowbétfulness99, whether baptism by a
layman may stand or ought to be readministered, should not —
be mentioned by them which presume to define peremptorily —
of that wherein he was content to profess himself unresolved. —
Albeit in very truth his opinion is plain enough, but the man- —
ner of delivering his judgment being modest, they make of a
virtue an imbecility, and impute his calmness of speech to an
irresolution of mind. His disputation in that place is against —
Parmenian, which held, that a Bishop or a Priest if they fall —
into any heresy do thereby lose the power which they had be- —
fore to baptize, and that therefore baptism by heretics is merely —
void. For answer whereof he first denieth that heresy can
more deprive men of power to baptize others than it is of force _
to take from them their own baptism! ; and in the second place -
he farther addeth that if heretics did lose the power which
before was given them by ordination, and did therefore un-
lawfully usurp as often as they took upon them to give the
Sacrament of Baptism, it followeth not that baptism by them
administered without authority is no baptism. For then what
should we think of baptism by laymen to whom authority was
never given?? “I doubt,” saith St. Augustine, “ whether

9 T. C. lib. ili. p.136. “ Augus-
“tine standeth in doubt whether
** baptism by a layman be available
“or no.” [Cont. Lit. Parm. lib. ii.
c. 13.| [t. ix. 44.] ‘* Where by all
*‘ likelihood he was out of doubt,
** that that which was ministered by
** a woman, whose unaptness herein
‘< is double to that of a layman, was
** of no effect.”

1 [* Nulla ostenditur causa cur
* ille qui ipsum baptismum amittere
** non potest, jus dandi potest amit-
* tere. Utrumque enim sacramen-
** tum est; et quadam consecratione
“utrumque homini datur, illud
* cum baptizatur, istud cum ordina-
** tur: ideoque in Catholica utrum-
“que non licet iterari. Nam si

** quando ex ipsa parte venientes
** etiam prepositi pro bono pacis cor-
“recto schismatis errore suscepti
** sunt,...non eis in populo manus —
*‘ jmponitur, ne non homini sed ipsi
** sacramento fiat injuria.”

2 [* Quanquam etsi laicus per-
*‘ eunti dederit necessitate compul-
‘* sus, quod cum ipse acciperet, quo-
“modo dandum esset addidicit,
“nescio an pie quisquam dixerit
“esse repetendum. Nulla enim
* cogente necessitate si fiat, alieni
** muneris usurpatio est: si autem
* necessitas urgeat, aut nullum aut
*‘ veniale delictum est. Sed et si
** nulla necessitate usurpetur, et a
** quolibet cuilibet detur, quod da-
tum fuerit non dici potest non

299

any man which carrieth a virtuous and godly mind will affirm
« that the baptism which laymen do in case of necessity ad-
_ minister should be iterated. For to do it unnecessarily is
«to execute another man’s office ; necessity urging, to do it
_ is then either no fault at all” (much less so grievous a

rime that it should deserve to be termed by the name of
sacrilege?) “ or if any, a very pardonable fault. But suppose
_ it even of very purpose usurped and given unto any man
_ “by every man that listeth, yet that which is given cannot
was possibly be denied to have been given, how truly soever
“we may say it hath not been given lawfully. Unlawful
“ usurpation a penitent affection must redress. If not, the
* thing that was given shall remain to the hurt and detriment
“ of him which unlawfully either administered or received
_ the same, yet so, that in this respect it ought not to be re-
_ “ puted as if it had not at all been given.” Whereby we may
plainly perceive that St. Augustine was not himself uncertain
what to think, but doubtful whether any well-minded man in
the whole world could think otherwise than he did.

[19.] Their argument taken from a stolen seal+ may return
to the place out of which they had it, for it helpeth their cause
nothing. That which men give or grant to others must appear
_ to have proceeded of their own accord. This being manifest,
their gifts and grants are thereby made effectual both to bar
themselves from revocation, and to assecure the right they

The Case of a stolen Seal irrelevant.

** datum, quamvis recte dici possit
“illicite datum. Illicitam autem
** usurpationem corrigit reminiscen-
** tis et poenitentis affectus. Quod
si non correxerit, manebit ad pe-
“ nam usurpatoris quod datum est,
* vel ejus qui illicite dedit, vel ejus
** qui illicite accepit : non tamen
“pro non dato habebitur.” Cart-
wright does not seem to have been
aware of the force of the common
idiom “nescio an:’ otherwise he
could hardly have missed the true
construction ; “ Augustine standeth
“in doubt, whether a man could
“rightly as a Christian say that
“ay baptism is invalid in case of
necessity.” |

31T..C. lib. iii. p. 116. ‘ The
“sacrilege of private persons, wo-
‘men especially, in administering

** the holy sacrament of baptism.”
4 T. C. lib. iii. p.139. ‘* As by
“the seal which the prince hath
** set apart to seal his grants with,
“when it is stolen and set to by
* him that hath no authority, there
weth no assurance to the party
** that hath it: So if it were possible
“to be the seal of God which a
* woman should set to, yet for that
“she hath stolen it and put it to
** not only without but contrary to
“the commandment of God, I see
* not how any can take any assur-
** ance by reason thereof.” ['This
image was also, as it may seem,
borrowed from St. Augustine, ibid.
p- 45. “ Neque unquam per devo-
* tum militem, quod a privatis usur-
** patum est signum regale violabi-
tur.” &c. |

BOOK V.

Ch. lxii. 19.

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixii. 20,
21.

300 Lay Baptism analogous to illegitimate Birth :

have given. Wherein for further prevention of mischiefs that
otherwise might grow by the malice, treachery, and fraud of

men, it is both equal and meet that the strength of men’s_
deeds and the instruments which declare the same should
strictly depend upon divers solemnities, whereof there cannot

be the like reason in things that pass between God and us,

el ew

because sith we need not doubt lest the treasures of his hea-_
venly grace should without his consent be passed by forged —
conveyances, nor lest he should deny at any time his own acts, —
and seek to revoke what hath been consented unto before, as —
there is no such fear of danger through deceit and falsehood —
in this case, so neither hath the cireumstance of men’s persons —

that weight in baptism which for good and just considerations

in the custody of seals of office it ought to have. The grace —
of baptism cometh by donation from God alone. That God
hath committed the ministry of baptism unto special men,

it is for order’s sake in his Church, and not to the end that
their authority might give being, or add force to the sacra-

ment itself. That infants have right to the sacrament of

baptism we all acknowledge. Charge them we cannot as
guileful and wrongful possessors of that whereunto they have
right by the manifest will of the donor, and are not parties
unto any defect or disorder in the manner of receiving the
same. And if any such disorder be, we have sufficiently
before declared that “ delictum cum capite semper ambulat,”
men’s own faults are their own harms.

[20.] Wherefore to countervail this and the like mischosen
resemblances with that which more truly and plainly agreeth,
the ordinance of God concerning their vocation that minister
baptism wherein the mystery of our regeneration is wrought,
hath thereunto the same analogy which laws of wedlock have
to our first nativity and birth. So that if nature do effect pro-
creation notwithstanding the wicked violation and breach even
of nature’s law made that the entrance of all mankind into this

present world might be without blemish, may we not justly |

presume that grace doth accomplish the other, although there
be faultiness in them that transgress the order which our
Lord Jesus Christ hath established in his Church?

[21.] Some light may be borrowed from circumcision for
explication what is true in this question of baptism. Seeing

and to the Cureumeision of Moses’ Child. 301

then that even they which condemn Sephora the wife of Moses
for taking upon her to circumcise her son, a thing necessary
at that time for her to do, and as I think very hard to reprove
in her, considering how Moses, because himself had not done
it sooner, was therefore stricken by the hand of God, neither
could in that extremity perform the office ; whereupon, for
the stay of God’s indignation, there was no choice, but the
action must needs fall into her hands; whose fact therein
whether we interpret as some have done, that being a Midian-
ite, and as yet not so thoroughly acquainted with the exercise
of Jewish rites, it much discontented her, to see herself through
her husband’s oversight, in a matter of his own religion,
brought unto these perplexities and straits, that either she must
now endure him perishing before her eyes, or else wound the
flesh of her own child, which she could not do but with some
indignation shewed, in that she fumingly both threw down the
foreskin at his feet, and upbraided him with the cruelty of his
religion: or if we better like to follow their more judicious
exposition which are not inclinable to think that Moses was
matched like Socrates, nor that circumcision could now in

5 Exod. iv. 24. T.C. lib. i. p.
144. [113.] “ I say that the unlaw-
“fulness of that fact doth appear
* sufficiently, in that she did it be-
*‘fore her husband Moses, which
“was a prophet of the Lord, to
“ whom that office of circumcision
“did: appertain. Besides that she
“ did cut off the foreskin of the in-
*‘ fant not of mind to obey the com-
** mandment of God, or for the sal-
*© vation of the child, but in a choler
*‘ only, to the end that her husband

** might be eased and have release:

** which mind appeareth in her both
“by her words, and by casting
“‘ away in anger the foreskin which
*‘ she had cut off. And if it be said
** that the event declared that the act
** pleased God, because that Moses
‘* forthwith waxed better, and was
** recovered of his sickness, I have
** shewed before that if we measure
*‘ things by the event, we shall of-
“tentimes justify the wicked, and
“take the righteousness of the
“righteous from them.” [Ap.
Whitg. Def. 517: who answers,

** Moses at this time was extremely
** sick, and therefore could not exe-
“cute that office himself. And in
** the Geneva Bible there is this note,
“that ‘it was extraordinary, for
** Moses was sore sick, and God
“even then required it.’ Sephora
‘* therefore did circumcise in a point
*“‘ of extremity, and not wilfully or
** of purpose; and that circumcision
“was a true circumcision, though
** it were not done ordinarily ; even
** so baptism is true baptism, though
** it be sometimes ministered by such
‘as be not ordinary ministers.”
T. C. rejoins, iii. 126: ‘ That the
“ Lord required circumcision, if
‘there were no ordinary minister
*‘for it, doth not appear. For as
“it was an order of God that the
** male child should be circumcised

“* the eighth day, so was it also his

*‘ order that he should be circum-
‘* cised by a minister.” In this he
contradicts his master, Calvin, from
whom most of his other arguments
are derived. Inst. iv. 15, 22.]

BOOK Vy,
Ch. lxii, 21.

BOOK V.

Ch, lxii. 21.

302

Zipporah justified im cireumeising her Child.

Eleazar be strange unto her, having had Gersom her elder son ~
before circumcised, nor that any occasion of choler could rise —
from a spectacle of such misery as doth® naturally move :
compassion and not wrath, nor that Sephora was so impious as ~
in the visible presence of God’s deserved anger to storm at —
the ordinance and law of God, nor that the words of the —
history itself can enforce any such affection, but do only —
declare how after the act performed she touched the feet of —
Moses saying’, “ Sponsus tu mihi es sanguinum,” “ Thou art —
“ unto me an husband of blood,” which might be very well the —
one done and the other spoken even out of the flowing abund- —
ance of commiseration and love, to signify with hands laid —
under his feet that her tender affection towards him had —
caused her thus to forget womanhood, to lay all motherly —
affection aside, and to redeem her husband out of the hands of ©
death with effusion of blood ; the sequel thereof, take it which
way you will, is a plain argument, that God was satisfied with —
that she did, as may appear by his own testimony declaring —
how there followed in the person of Moses present release of —
his grievous punishment upon her speedy discharge of that
duty which by him neglected had offended God, even as

6 « Mala passis non irascimur sed
*‘ compatimur.” Boet. de Consol.

7 Where the usual translation
hath, Exod. iv. 25; ‘‘ She cut away
*‘ the foreskin of her son, and cast it
“at his feet, and said, Thou art
“indeed a bloody husband unto
“me. So he departed from him.
‘* Then she said, O bloody husband,
“because of the circumcision :”
the words as they lie in the original
are rather to be thus interpreted,
«* And she cut off the foreskin of
“her son. Which being done, she
** touched his feet (the feet of Moses)
“‘ andsaid, ‘Thou art to me an hus-
‘‘ band of blood,’ (in the plural
“number, thereby signifying effu-
** sion of blood.)
‘** withdrew from him at the very
** time when she said, ‘ A husband
* of blood,’ in regard of circumci-
** sion.” [See the Targum of On-
kelos im loco: which instead of
“ cast it at his feet” has *fi07p) N29
** obtulit coram eo.” And her words

And the Lord.

are rendered, “ propter sanguinem
*‘ circumcisionis hujus detur” [da-
tur?] “nobis sponsus meus.”
And afterwards, ‘‘ Nisi propter san-
** guinem circumcisionis hujus, con-
** demnatus erat ad mortem sponsus
* meus.” To this construction
Mede (i.53.) objects that jn “ spon-
** sus” could hardly be applied so
long after marriage: which is an-
swered by a remark of Tirinus in
Pol. Synops. that it may mean,
*** ego te morti destinatum redemi
* sanguine filii, atque ita jam secun-
** do te mihi sponsum coemo ;’? nam
** nuptiz solebant olim coemptione
“fier, tum apud Hebreos, tum
*apud Romanos.” Compare Po-
cocke, ad Port. Mos. Not. Miscell.

.51: who seems to think the place
best illustrated by the double mean-
ing of the root {07 in Arabic: viz.
«‘r, Affinitatem contrahere,” and
** 2, Circumcidere.”” |

eee ak ey ere

F

Presumption thence in Favour of Lay Baptism.

303

after execution of justice by the hands of Phineas® the
plague was immediately taken away, which former impunity of
sin had caused; in which so manifest and plain cases not to
-make that a reason of the event which God himself hath set
down as a reason, were falsely to accuse whom he doth justify,
and without any cause to traduce what we should allow; yet
seeing they which will have it a breach of the law of God for
her to circumcise in that necessity, are not able to deny but
circumcision being in that very manner performed was to the
innocent child which received it true circumcision, why should
that defect whereby circumcision was so little weakened be to

baptism a deadly wound ?

[22.] These premises therefore remaining as hitherto they
have been laid, because the commandment of our Saviour
Christ which committeth jointly to public ministers both
doctrine and baptism? doth no more by linking them together
import that the nature of the sacrament dependeth on the
minister’s authority and power to preach the word than the
force and virtue of the word doth on license to give the
sacrament ; and considering that the work of external ministry
in baptism is only a preeminence of honour, which they that
take to themselves and are not thereunto called as Aaron
was, do but themselves in their own persons by means of
such usurpation incur the just blame of disobedience to the
law of God; farther also inasmuch as it standeth with no
reason that errors grounded on a wrong interpretation of
other men’s deeds should make frustrate whatsoever is mis-

8 Psalm cvi. 30.

9T. C. lib. ii. p.142. Seeing
* they only are bidden in the Scrip-
** ture to administer the sacraments
*‘ which are bidden to preach the
“* word, and that the public ministers
** have only this charge of the word ;
* and seeing that the administration
“* of both these are so linked together
** that the denial of license to do one
“ig a denial to do the other, as of
** the contrary part license to one is
“‘ license to the other; considering
“also that to minister the sacra-
** ments is an honour in the Church
** which none can take unto him but
* he which is called unto it as was

** Aaron: and further, forasmuch as
** the baptizing by private persons
“and by women especially con-
* firmeth the dangerous error of the
‘* condemnation of young children
“which die without baptism; last
“‘ of all seeing we have the consent
“of the godly learned of all times
“against the baptism by women,
* and of the reformed churches now
“against the baptism by private
“‘men; we conclude that the ad-
** ministration of this sacrament by
** private persons and especially by
*‘ women is merely both unlawful
** and void.”

BOOK V.

Ch, lxii, 22,

BOOK V.

Ch. lxiii. 1.

Interroga-
tories in
baptism
touching
faith, and
the purpose
of a Christ-
ian life.

304 Interrogatories in Baptism touching Faith.

conceived, and that baptism by women should cease to be
baptism as oft as any man will thereby gather that children
which die unbaptized are damned, which opinion if the act —
of baptism administered in such manner did enforce, it might —
be sufficient cause of disliking the same, but none of defeating —
or making it altogether void; last of all whereas general and —
full consent of the godly learned in all ages doth make for —
validity of baptism, yea albeit administered in private and —
even by women, which kind of baptism in case of necessity —
divers reformed churches do both allow and defend, some
others which do not defend tolerate, few in comparison and —
they without any just cause do utterly disannul and annihi- —
late; surely howsoever through defects on either side the
sacrament may be without fruit, as well in some cases to him —
which receiveth as to him which giveth it, yet no disability
of either part can so far make it frustrate and without effect —
as to deprive it of the very nature of true baptism, having all —
things else which the ordinance of Christ requireth. Where-
upon we may consequently infer that the administration of
this sacrament by private persons, be it lawful or unlawful,
appeareth not as yet to be merely void.

LXIII. All that are of the race of Christ, the Scripture
nameth them “ children of the promise!°” which God hath
made. ‘The promise of eternal life is the seed of the Church
of God. And because there is no attainment of life but
through the only begotten Son of God, nor by him otherwise
than being such as the Creed apostolic describeth, it followeth
that the articles thereof are principles necessary for all men
to subscribe. unto whom by baptism the Church receiveth
into Christ’s school.

All points of Christian doctrine are either demonstrable
conclusions or demonstrative principles. Conclusions have
strong and invincible proofs as well in the school of Jesus
Christ as elsewhere. And principles be grounds which
require no proof in any kind of science, because it sufficeth
if either their certainty be evident in itself, or evident by the
light of some higher knowledge, and in itself such as no
man’s knowledge is ever able to overthrow. Now the prin-
ciples whereupon we do build our souls have their evidence

10 [Galat. iv. 28.]

Interrogatories in Baptism touching Faith. 305

where they had their original, and as received from thence
we adore them, we hold them in reverent admiration, we
neither argue nor dispute about them, we give unto them that
assent which the oracles of God require.
We are not therefore ashamed of the Gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ because miscreants in scorn have upbraided us,
that the highest point of our wisdom is Jelieve!!, That which
js true and neither can be discerned by sense, nor concluded °
by mere natural principles, must have principles of revealed
truth whereupon to build itself, and an habit of faith in us
wherewith principles of that kind are apprehended. The
mysteries of our religion are above the reach of our under-
‘standing, above discourse of man’s reason, above all that
‘any creature can comprehend. ‘Therefore the first thing

required of him which standeth for admission into Christ’s
family is belief. Which belief consisteth not so much in
knowledge as in acknowledgment of all things that heavenly

wisdom revealeth; the affection of faith is above her reach,

her love to Godward above the comprehension which she
hath of God.

And because only for believers all things may be done, he

which i is goodness itself loveth them above all. Deserve we
then the love of God, because we believe in the Son of God ?
What more opposite than faith and pride? When God had
created all things, he looked upon them and loved them,
because they were all as himself had made them. So the

true reason wherefore Christ doth love believers is because

their belief is the gift of God, a gift than which flesh and

blood in this world cannot possibly receive a greater!3, And
as to love them of whom we receive good things is duty,
because they satisfy our desires in that which else we should
want; so to love them on whom we bestow is nature, because

in them we behold the effects of our own virtue.

Seeing therefore no religion enjoyeth sacraments the signs

_ of God’s love, unless it have also that faith whereupon the

vf

11 Apostate maledictum, ovdev kaTadnyiw Ktistns pioews Ta Hye=
imep 7d miorevoov ths bwerépas eott tepa. Just. Mart. Expos. Fid. [p.
gopias. Naz. Orat.i. contr. Julian. 388. Paris. 1615.]

—«&S§ 97. t. 1.97 B.] 13 Matt. xvi.17; Johni.12,13.

2°Ymep vodv, tmép Adyov, trép
HOOKER, VOL. II. x

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixiii. 1,

BOOK V.
Ch, Ixiii, 2, 3.

306 Renunciation of Christ's Enemies in Baptism.

sacraments are built; could there be any thing more con- —
venient than that our first admittance to the actual receipt of —
his grace in the Sacrament of baptism should be consecrated —
with profession of belief!*, which is to the kingdom of God —
as a key, the want whereof excludeth infidels both from that —
and from all other saving grace.

[2.] We find by experience that although faith be an im-
tellectual habit of the mind, and have her seat in the under- —
standing’, yet an evil moral disposition obstinately wedded to —
the love of darkness dampeth the very light of heavenly illu- —
mination, and permitteth not the mind to see what doth shine —
before it. Men are “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of —
“ God15.” Their assent to his saving truth is many times
withheld from it, not that the truth is too weak to persuade,
but because the stream of corrupt affection carrieth them a
clean contrary way. That the mind therefore may abide in ~
the light of faith, there must abide in the will as constant a —
resolution to have no fellowship at all with the vanities and —
works of darkness.

[3.] “Two covenants there are which Christian men,” saith
Isidore, “ do make in baptism, the one concerning relinquish-
« ment of Satan, the other touching obedience to the faith of
« Christ1¢.”” In lke sort St. Ambrose, “ He which is bap-
“ tized forsaketh the intellectual Pharaoh, the Prince of this
“ world, saying, Abrenuncio, Thee O Satan and thy angels,
“thy works and thy mandates I forsake utterly!7.” Ter-
tullian having speech of wicked spirits, ‘“‘ These,” saith he,
“are the angels which we in baptism renounce!’.” The
declaration of Justin the Martyr concerning baptism!9 shew-

14 «Spiritus Sanctus habitator
‘* ejus templi non efficitur quod an-
** tistitem non habet veram fidem.”
Hieron. adv. Lucif. c. 4.
15 P Tim. iii. 4.
16 Jsid. de Offic. Eccles. lib. ii.
cap. 24. [p. 612. ed. Du Breul.
*“ Duz sunt pactiones credentium.
** Prima pactio est, qua renunciatur
** diabolo et pompis ejus, et univer-
** see conversationi illius. Secunda
* pactio est, qua se in Patrem et
* Filum et Sp. Sanctum credere
** fatetur.’””]

17 Ambros. Hexam. lib. i. cap. 4.
[** Derelinquit enim et deserit, qui
** abluitur, intelligibilem illum Pha-
‘rao principem istius mundi, di-
*‘ cens, Abrenuncio tibi, diabole, et
*“‘ angelis tuis, et operibus tuis, et
** imperiis tuis.’’]

18 Tertull. de Spectac. [c. 4. “Cum
** aquam ingressi Christianam fidem
** in legis suze verba profitemur, re-
** nunciasse nos diabolo, et pompe,
‘et angelis ejus, ore nostro con-
testamur.”’ |

19"Qgou ay meoOdot Kal mirTevo-

Interrogatories to Infants : Olyections to them. 307

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixiv. 1.

eth, how such as the Church in those days did baptize made
profession of Christian belief, and undertook to live accord-
ingly. Neither do I think it a matter easy for any man to
prove, that ever baptism did use to be administered without
interrogatories of these two kinds. Whereunto St. Peter (as
it may be thought) alluding, hath said2°, that the baptism
“which saveth” us is not (as legal purifications were) a
cleansing of the flesh from outward impurity, but éepérnua,
« an interrogative trial of a good conscience towards God.”
LXIV. Now the fault which they find with us concerning tnterroga-
interrogatories is, our moving of these questions unto infants tories pro-
which cannot answer them, and the answering of them by Attn “2
others as in their names. ge
The Anabaptist hath many pretences to scorn at the bap- packed i
tism of children, first because the Scriptures he saith do no shear
where give commandment to baptize infants; secondly, for godfathers.
that as there is no commandment so neither any manifest
example shewing it to have been done either by Christ or his
Apostles; thirdly, inasmuch as the word preached and the
sacraments must go together, they which are not capable of
the one are no fit receivers of the other; last of all sith the
order of baptism continued from the first beginning hath in it
those things which are unfit to be applied unto sucking
children, it followeth in their conceit that the baptism of such
is no baptism but plain mockery.
They with whom we contend are no enemies to the baptism
of infants; it is not their desire that the church should hazard
so many souls by letting them run on till they come to ripe-
ness of understanding, that so they may be converted and
then baptized as infidels heretofore have been; they bear not
towards God so unthankful minds as not to acknowledge it
even amongst the greatest of his endless mercies, that by
making us his own possession so soon, many advantages
which Satan otherwise might take are prevented, and (which
should be esteemed a part of no small happiness) the first

c

ow dAnOy ravta ra bd) jay didac- judy Oa tdwp €oti, Kai tpdmov
képeva Kal Aeydpeva eivat, kai Body dvayevynoews by Kal jyeis adrol dve-
ovtas Svvacba imoyvarra, etyer- yevvnOnuev avayevvdvra. Justin.
Oai re kai aiteiy vnotevovres Tapa In later

Tov Gcod Tay mponuapTnpevay ade-
. >
ow Siddoxovra, emerta ayoytar vp

Apol. [ii. p. 93. ed. 1615.
Reone it is the first Apology. ]
20 x Pet, iii. 21.

X 2

BOOK V.

Ch. lxiv. 2,

308 Interrogatories to Infants: Case put to St. Austin:

thing whereof we have occasion to take notice is, how much
hath been done already to our great good, though altogether
without our knowledge; the baptism of infants they esteem
as an ordinance which Christ hath instituted even in special
love and favour to his own people; they deny not the practice
thereof accordingly to have been kept as derived from the
hands and continued from the days of the Apostles them- —
selves unto this present. Only it pleaseth them not that to
infants there should be interrogatories proposed in bap-
tism2!, This they condemn as foolish, toyish, and profane
mockery.
[2.] But are they able to shew that ever the Church of
Christ had any public form of baptism without interroga-
tories ; or that the Church did ever use at the solemn baptism
of infants to omit those questions as needless in this case?
Boniface a bishop m St. Augustine’s time knowing that the
Church did universally use this custom of baptizing infants
with interrogatories, was desirous to learn from St. Augustine

the true cause and reason thereof2?2.

“If” saith he, “i &

* should set before thee a young infant, and should ask of ©

21 «They profane holy baptism in
“ toying foolishly, for that they ask
** questions of an infant which can-
“* not answer, and speak unto them
“as was wont to be spoken unto
“* men, and unto such as being con-
*‘ verted answered for themselves
«© and were baptized. Which is but
**a mockery of God, and therefore
* against the holy Scriptures. Gal.
“vi.7.’ Admonition to the Parlia-
ment. [ap. Whitg. Def. 610.] The
same defended in T. C. lib.i. p.168.
[134. And by Beza in his twelfth
Epistle, Strype, Grind. 512. ‘‘ Pue-
*‘rorum baptizandorum interroga-
* tionem non dubitamus ex eo in-
*‘ vasisse Ecclesiam, quod episco-
‘** porum negligentia retenta sit ea-
*‘ dem in baptismo infantium for-
* mula, que initio in adultis cate-
*‘ chumenis observabatur ; id quod
“etiam ex aliis multis que in
“‘baptismo papistico adhuc vigent
“‘ perspicere licet. Itaque sicut
* chrisma et exorcismus, quantum-
“ vis vetusta, optimo jure: abolita
** sunt, cuperemus quoque istam non

** modo supervacuam sed etiam in-
‘‘eptam interrogationem omitti,
- ar illam in epistola qua-
** dam Augustinus ipse aliqua inter-
** pretatione tueatur.” Tract. Theol.
ili. 220. |

22 Aug. Epist. xxiii. [al. 98. § 7.
t. ii. 266 F. “Si constituam ante
** te parvulum, et interrogem, utrum
** quum creverit futurus sit castus,
‘** vel fur non sit futurus; sine dubio
‘** respondebis, Nescio. Et utrum in
“eadem parvula etate constitutus
*‘ cogitet aliquid boni vel mali;
*‘ dices, Nescio. Si itaque de mori-
“bus ejus futuris nihil audes certi
‘* promittere, et de presenti cogita-
* tione; quid est illud quod quando
* ad baptismum offeruntur, pro eis
* parentes tanquam fidedictores re-
*‘ spondent, et dicunt illos facere
** quod illa etas cogitare non potest,
** aut si potest, occultum est?.....
* Ad istas ergo questiones peto
*‘ breviter respondere digneris, ita
* ut non mihi de consuetudine pre-
** scribas, sed rationem reddas.’”]

St. Austin’s Judgment, how Infants are said to believe. 309

“thee whether that infant when he cometh unto riper age
“ will be honest and just or no, thou wouldst answer (I know)
« that to tell in these things what shall come to pass is not
“in the power of a mortal man. If I should ask what good
« or evil such an infant thinketh, thine answer hereunto must
* needs be again with the like uncertainty. If thou neither
* canst promise for the time to come nor for the present
*‘ pronounce any thing in this case, how is it that when such
“are brought unto baptism, their parents there undertake
“ what the child shall afterwards do, yea they are not
* doubtful to say it doth that which is impossible to be
«done by infants? at the least there is no man precisely
*‘ able to affirm it done. Vouchsafe me hereunto some short
“ answer, such as not only may press me with the bare
* authority of custom but also instruct me in the cause
* thereof.”

Touching which difficulty, whether it may truly be said for
infants at the time of their baptism that they do believe, the
effect of St. Augustine’s answer is yea, but with this dis-
tinction®, a present actual habit of faith there is not in them,

23 «« Sicut credere respondetur, ita
* etiam fidelis vocatur; non rem
‘ipsa mente annuenda, sed ipsius
“rei sacramentum percipiendo.”
Aug. [Ep. 23. al. 98. § 10. t. ii.
268. D. “ Szpe ita loquimur, ut
**Pascha propinquante dicamus,
** crastinam vel perendinam Domini
*‘passionem, cum ille ante tam
* multos annos passus sit....Ipso
*‘ die Dominico dicimus, Hodie Do-
*‘ minus resurrexit, cum ex quo re-
** surrexit tot anni transierint. Cur
“nemo tam ineptus est ut nos ita
*loquentes arguat esse mentitos,
* nisi quia istos dies secundum il-
*lorum quibus hec gesta sunt si-
“ militudinem nominamus, ut dica-
“** tur ipse dies qui non est ipse, sed
* revolutione temporis similis ejus ;
‘et dicatur illo die fieri, propter
**sacramenti celebrationem, quod
* non illo die sed jam olim factum
‘est? Nonne semel immolatus est
-* Christus in seipso? et tamen in
** sacramento non solum per omnes
** Pasche solennitates sed omni die
“populis immolatur, nec utique

* mentitur, qui interrogatus eum
** respondet immolari... Sicut ergo
‘secundum quendam modum sa-
‘* cramentum corporis Christi corpus
** Christi est, sacramentum sangui-
** nis Christi sanguis Christi est, ita
* sacramentum fidei fides est. Nihil
“est autem aliud credere, quam
“fidem habere. Ac per hoc cum

“ respondetur parvulus credere, qui

* fidei nondum habet affectum, re-
* spondetur fidem habere propter
* fidei sacramentum, et convertere
“se ad Deum propter conversionis
** sacramentum, quia et ipsa respon-
** sio ad celebrationem pertinet sa-
“cramenti. Sicut de ipso baptismo
** Apostolus, consepulti, inquit, su-
“mus Christo per baptismum in
“mortem. Non ait, sepulturam
* significavimus; sed prorsus ait,
* consepulti sumus. Sacramentum
* ergo tante rei nonnisi ejusdem rei
** vocabulo nuncupavit.

** Itaque parvulum, etsi nondum
*“ fides illa que in credentium vo-
*‘ Juntate consistit, jam tandem ip-
“sius fidei sacramentum fidelem

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixiv. 2.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixiv, 2.

310 Hypocrites, and much more Infants, do m one sense believe.

there is delivered unto them that sacrament, a part of the
due celebration whereof consisteth in answering to the articles
of faith, because the habit of faith which afterwards doth come
with years, is but a farther building up of the same edifice,
the first foundation whereof was laid by the sacrament of bap-
tism. For that which there we professed without any under-
standing, when we afterwards come to acknowledge, do we
any thing else but only bring unto ripeness the very seed
that was sown before? We are then believers, because then we
begin to be that which process of time doth make perfect.
And till we come to actual belief, the very sacrament of faith
is a shield as strong as after this the faith of the sacrament
against all contrary infernal powers. Which whosoever doth
think impossible, is undoubtedly farther off from Christian
belief though he be baptized than are these imnocents, which
at their baptism albeit they have no conceit or cogitation of
faith, are notwithstanding pure and free from all opposite
cogitations, whereas the other is not free. If therefore with-
out any fear or scruple we may account them and term them
believers only for their outward profession’s sake, which in-
wardly are farther from faith than infants, why not infants
much more at the time of their solemn initiation by baptism
the sacrament of faith, whereunto they not only conceive
nothing opposite, but have also that grace®4 given them

* facit. Nam sicut credere respon- ‘“ contrarie cogitationis opponit,

** detur, ita” &c. (ut supr.) ‘Cum
** autem homo sapere cceperit; non
*‘illud sacramentum repetet, sed
** intelliget, ejusque veritati consona
‘‘ etiam voluntate coaptabitur. Hoc
** quamdiu non potest, valebit sacra-
** mentum ad ejus tutelam adversus
* contrarias potestates; et tantum
*‘ valebit, ut si ante rationis usum
** ex hac vita emigraverit, per ipsum
** sacramentum, commendante Ec-
* clesiz caritate, ab illa condemna-
*‘ tione, que per unum hominem
*‘intravit in mundum, Christiano
** adjutorio liberetur. Hoc qui non
** credit, et fieri non posse arbitra-
“tur, profecto infidelis est, etsi
** habeat fidei sacramentum ; longe-
** que melior est ille parvulus, qui
“etiamsi fidem nondum habeat in
** cogitatione, non ei tamen obicem

** unde sacramentum ejus salubriter
“ percipit.

** Respondi, sicut existimo, que-
** stionibus tuis, quantum adtinet ad
** minus capaces et ad contentiosos,
* non satis; quantum autem ad pa-
*“ catos et ad intelligentes plus forte
** quam sat est. Nec tibi ad excusa-
*tionem meam objeci firmissimam
*‘ consuetudinem, sed saluberrimee
** consuetudinis reddidi quam potui
* rationem.”’ |

24 Aug. Epist. 57. [al. 187. c. 6.
t. ii. 684.] ‘* Multum mirabilis res
“est quemadmodum quorundam
* nondum cognoscentium Deum sit
**inhabitator Deus et quorundam
** cognoscentium non sit. Nec illi
“enim ad templum Dei pertinent
° gui cognoscentes Deum non sicut
** Deum glorificaverunt, et ad tem-

OE EE ELE OMG TELL hhc t CREE Ey OD

How Children brought to Baptism may be termed Elect. 311

which is the first and most effectual cause out of which our

: _ belief groweth !

In sum, the whole Church is a multitude of believers, all

; 3 honoured with that title, even hypocrites for their profession’s
sake as well as saints because of their inward sincere per-
_ suasion, and infants as being in the first degree of their ghostly

motion towards the actual habit of faith; the first sort are

- faithful in the eye of the world, the second faithful in the

sight of God; the last in the ready direct way to become

both if all things after be suitable to these their present

beginnings?>. “ This,’ saith St. Augustine, “would not
“haply content such persons as are uncapable or unquiet,
* but to them which having knowledge are not troublesome
“it may suffice. Wherein I have not for ease of myself
objected against you that custom only than which nothing
“is more firm, but of a custom most profitable I have done
that little which I could to yield you a reasonable cause.”
[3.] Were St. Augustine now living there are which would
tell him for his better instruction that to say of a child26

_ it is elect” and to say it doth believe are all one, for which

cause sith no man is able precisely to affirm the one of any
infant in particular, it followeth that “ precisely” and “ abso-
* lutely” we ought not to say the other.

Which “ precise” and “absolute terms” are needless in
this case. We speak of infants as the rule of piety alloweth
both to speak and think. They that can take to themselves
in ordinary talk a charitable kind of liberty to name men of
their own sort God’s dear children, (notwithstanding the large
reign of hypocrisy,) should not methinks be so strict and
rigorous against the Church for presuming as it doth of a
Christian innocent. For when we know how Christ in general
hath said that of such is the kingdom of heaven?’, which

** plum Dei pertinent parvuli sancti-
** ficati sacramento Christi, regene-
*‘ rati Spiritu Sancto, qui per eta-
**tem nondum possunt cognoscere
* Deum. Unde quem potuerunt illi
*‘nosse nec habere isti potuerunt
¥ yy antequam nosse.”
Ep. 23. al. 98. § 10.

26 ht C. lib. i. > 169. [136, 137.]

** If children could have faith, yet

* they that present the child cannot
*‘ precisely tell whether that par-
* ticular child hath faith or no; we
* are to think charitably and to
** hope it is one of the Church, but
“it can be no more precisely said
* that it hath faith, than it may be
* said precisely elected.”

27 [S. Matth. xix. 14. ]

BOOK V.
Ch. lxiv. 3.

BOOK V,

Ch, Ixiv. 4.

312 Proxies admissible in a Covenant of Mercy.

kingdom is the inheritance of God’s elect, and do withal —
behold how his providence hath called them unto the first
beginnings of eternal life, and presented them at the well-
spring of new birth wherein original sin is purged, besides
which sin there is no hinderance of their salvation known to
us, as themselves will grant; hard it were that having so
many fair inducements whereupon to ground, we should not
be thought to utter at the least a truth as probable and allow-
able in terming any such particular infant an elect babe29: as
in presuming the like of others, whose safety nevertheless we
are not absolutely able to warrant.

[4.] If any troubled with these scruples be only for in-
struction’s sake desirous to know yet some further reason
why interrogatories should be ministered to infants in bap-
tism, and be answered unto by others as in their names, they
may consider that baptism implieth a covenant or league be-
tween God and man, wherein as God doth bestow presently
remission of sins and the Holy Ghost, binding also himself
to add im process of time what grace soever shall be farther
necessary for the attainment of everlasting life; so every
baptized soul receiving the same grace at the hands of God
tieth likewise itself for ever to the observation of his law, no
less than the Jews by circumcision bound themselves to the
law of Moses3°, The law of Christ requiring therefore faith
and newness of life in all men by virtue of the covenant
which they make in baptism, is it toyish that the Church in
baptism exacteth at every man’s hands an express profession
of faith and an irrevocable promise of obedience by way of
solemn stipulation?! ?”

29 2 Johni. [Chr. Letter, p. 36:
‘“* What warrant have you of present

. “ grace in the verie worke wrought

‘* of baptism ?”

Hooker, MS. note: ‘“ Warrant
** sufficient I hope for present grace
‘in the sacrament.’ As for in the
“very worke wrought, they are not
““my wordes, but yours. What
“mean you by this your glose?
* Doth it not shew that in my
*‘ speech there is lesse than you
* looked for, and therefore to draw
“ it somewhat nearer your own con-

** struction, you help it with a worde
“or two, but so botcht, that one
** peace will not hold with another.
** Had you placed ew opere operato
“where you use in opere operato,
‘it might have stood you in more
** stead, and yeat the labour all one.
* But in and ex make no great ods,
*T suppose, in your theologicall
* dictionary.” |

30 Gal. v. 3.

31 « Stipulatio est verborum con-
** ceptio, quibus is qui interrogatur
** daturum facturumve se quod in-

. Eaclusion of ili Men’s Children unwarrantable. 313
That infants may contract and covenant with God, the law. Book v.

is plain®?. Neither is the reason of the law obscure. For 2

sith it tendeth we cannot sufficiently express how much to
their own good, and doth no way hurt or endanger them to
: é begin the race of their lives herewith, they are as equity
requireth admitted hereunto, and in favour of their tender
years, such formal complements of stipulation as being requi-
site are impossible by themselves in their own persons to be
_ performed, leave is given that they may sufficiently discharge

E: by others 33.

Albeit therefore neither deaf nor dumb men,

neither furious persons nor children can receive any civil
stipulation, yet this kind of ghostly stipulation they may
- through his indulgence, who respecting the singular benefit
thereof accepteth children brought unto him for that end,
entereth into articles of covenant with them, and in tender

commiseration granteth that

other men’s professions and

_ promises in baptism made for them shall avail no less than if
they had been themselves able to have made their own.

[5-] None more fit to undertake this office in their behalf
than such as present them unto baptism. A wrong conceit
that none may receive the sacrament of baptism but they
whose parents at the least the one of them are by the sound-
ness of their religion and by their virtuous demeanour known
to be men of God, hath caused some to repel children3+ who-
soever bring them if their parents be mispersuaded in reli-
gion, or for other misdeserts excommunicated ; some likewise
for that cause to withhold baptism, unless the father, albeit
no such exception can justly be taken against him, do not-

withstanding make profession
child to be his own®>, Thus

** terrogatus est respondet.” Sect. 1.
ff. de Oblig. et Act. [de Verb. Oblig.
Dig. xlv. 1. v. § 4. p. net “In
‘« hac re olim talia verba tradita fue-
“runt: Spondes? Spondeo. Pro-
** mittis? Promitto. Fide pramittis?
** Fide promitto. Fide jubes? Fide
**jubeo. Dabis? Dabo. Facies?
* Faciam.” Instit. de Verb. Oblig.
lib. iii. tit. 16. [p. 26.]

32 Gen. xvii. 14.

83 « Accommodat illis mater ec-
*‘ clesia aliorum pedes ut veniant,

of his faith, and avouch the
whereas God hath appointed

** aliorum cor ut credant, aliorum
* linguam ut fateantur ; ut quoniam
** quod zgri sunt alio peccante pre-
** sravantur, sic cum sani fiant alio
** pro eis confitente salventur.” Aug.
Serm. 10. de Verb. Apost. [al. serm.
176. § 2. t. v. 840.]

34 'T. C, lib.i. p. 172. [137.

85 [Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 620.
** How convenient it were, seeing
the children of the faithful only
** are to be baptized, that the father
** should and might, if conveniently,

BOOK V.

Ch. lxiv. 5.

314 Analogy from Curcumeision: The Church's Security a

them ministers of holy things, they make themselves inquisi-
tors of men’s persons a great deal farther than need is.

They should consider that God hath ordained baptism in
favour of mankind. ‘To restrain favours is an odious thing,
to enlarge them acceptable both to God and man. Whereas
therefore the civil law gave divers immunities to them which
were fathers of three children and had them living, those
immunities they held although their children were all dead,
if war had consumed them, because it seemed in that case
not against reason to repute them by a courteous construction
of law as live men®, in that the honour of their service done
to the commonwealth would remain always. Can it hurt us
in exhibiting the graces which God doth bestow on men, or
can it prejudice his glory, if the selfsame equity guide and
direct our hands?

When God made his covenant with such as had Abraham
to their father, was only Abraham’s immediate issue, or only
his lineal posterity according to the flesh included in that
covenant? Were not proselytes as well as Jews always taken
for the sons of Abraham? Yea because the very heads of
families are fathers in some sort as touching providence and
care for the meanest that belong unto them, the servants
which Abraham had bought with money were as capable of

‘* offer and present his child to be
** baptized, making an open con-
* fession of that faith, wherein he
* would have his child baptized.”
And p. 619. ‘ If upon necessary oc-
‘* casion the parents be absent, some
** one of the congregation, knowing
** the good behaviour and sound faith
“of the parents, may both make
“* rehearsal of their faith, and also if
“* their faith be sound and agreeable
“* to holy scriptures, desire to be in
“* the same baptized.” Upon which
Whitgift asks, ‘“‘ What if the parents
** be of evil behaviour?.... what if
“* they be papists or heretics?....”
T. C. (i. 137.) answers, “ If one of
‘* the parents be not so, the child is
** holy by virtue of the covenant, for
** one of the parents’ sakes. If they
** be both, and yet not obstinate in
‘their sin, whereby the Church

*‘ hath not proceeded to excommu-
“ nication, (themselves being yet of
“the Church,) their child cannot,
** nor ought not to be refused. If
“both be papists or condemned
* heretics...and cut off from the
** Church, their children cannot be
** received...”” In the rubric before
baptism, in “‘the Form of Common
** Prayer used by the English at
** Geneva,” (Phoenix, ii. 237.) it is
directed that ‘* the father, or in his
“‘ absence, the godfather, shall re-
*‘ hearse the articles of his faith.”
Some such regulation was proposed
in Convocation, 1562. Strype, An.
I. i. 508. ]

86 <* Fi enim qui pro Rep. cecide-
“runt in perpetuum per gloriam
** vivere intelliguntur.” Instit. lib. i.
tit, 25. sect. I.

sufficient, in Default of the Parents’ Faith. 315

circumcision, being newly born, as any natural child that
Abraham himself begat.

Be it then that baptism belongeth to none but such as
either believe presently, or else being infants are the children
of believing parents. In case the Church do bring children
to the holy font whose natural parents are either unknown,
or known to be such as the church accurseth but yet for-
getteth not in that severity to take compassion upon their
offspring, (for it is the Church?? which doth offer them to
baptism by the ministry of presentors,) were it not against
both equity and duty to refuse the mother of believers her-
self, and not to take her in this case for a faithful parent?
It is not the virtue of our fathers nor the faith of any other
that can give us the true holiness which we have by virtue of
our new birth. Yet even through the common faith and
spirit of God’s Church, (a thing which no quality of parents
can prejudice,) I say through the faith of the Church of God
undertaking the motherly care of our souls, so far forth we
may be and are in our infancy sanctified as to be thereby
made sufficiently capable of baptism, and to be interessed in
the rites of our new birth for their piety’s sake that offer us

thereunto.

It cometh sometime to pass,” saith St. Augustine®s, “ that
« the children of bond-slaves are brought to baptism by their

37 ** Offeruntur quippe parvuli ad
** percipiendam spiritualem gratiam
** non tam ab eis quorum gestantur
** manibus, quamvis et ab ipsis si et
**ipsi boni et fideles sint, quam ab
** universa societate sanctorum atque
“ fidelium.”” Aug. in Epist. 23. [al.
98. § 5. t. ii. 265.] "Agsotdvrar dé
tay dia tod Bartiopatos ayabav ra
Bpehn rh ticre. tay mpoodhepdytav
avra t@ Barriocpat. Justin. Resp.

ad Orthod. [resp. 56.]

88 [Aug. Ep. 23. al. 98. § 6. t. ii.

266. “ Illud nolo te fallat, ut exis-
“times reatus vinculum ex Adam
* tractum aliter non posse disrumpi,
nisi parvuliad percipiendam Christi
** gratiam a parentibus offerantur.
** Sic enim scribens dicis, ut sicut
** parentes fuerunt auctores ad eorum
** noeenam, per fidem parentum identi-
** demjustificentur ; cum videas mul-

“tos non offerri a parentibus, sed
* etiam a quibuslibet extraneis, sicut
“a dominis servuli aliquando offe-
“runtur. Et nonnunquam mortuis
** parentibus suis, parvuli baptizan-
* tur ab eis oblati, qui illis ejusmodi
** misericordiam prebere potuerunt.
** Aliquando etiam quos crudeliter
** parentes exposuerunt nutriendos
“a quibuslibet, nonnunquam a sa-
“cris virginibus colliguntur, et ab
“eis offeruntur ad _ baptismum.
** Que certe proprios filios nec ha-
** bent ullos nec habere disponunt :
** ac per hoc nihil aliud hic fieri vi-
“* des, nisi quod in evangelio scrip-
**tum est, cum Dominus interro-
* gasset, quis ei a latronibus sauci-
“ato et semivivo in via derelicto
** proximus fuisset: responsum est
“ enim, Qui in illum fecit misericor-
** diam.”’|

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixiv. 5.

316 Why Baptismal Answers are made in the Child’s Person.

“lord ; sometime the parents being dead, the friends alive
“ undertake that office ; sometime strangers or virgins con-
“ secrated unto God which neither have nor can have children
“ of their own take up infants in the open streets, and so
“ offer them unto baptism, whom the cruelty of unnatural
* parents casteth out and leaveth to the adventure of uncer-—
* tain pity. As therefore he which did the part of a neighbour
“ was a neighbour to that wounded man whom the parable of
“ the Gospel describeth ; so they are fathers although stran-
“‘ vers that bring infants to him which maketh them the sons
“ of God.” In the phrase of some kind of men they use to be
termed Witnesses, as if they came but to see and testify what
is done. It savoureth more of piety to give them their old
accustomed name of Fathers and Mothers in God, whereby
they are well put in mind what affection they ought to bear
towards those innocents, for whose religious education the
Church accepteth them as pledges.

[6.] This therefore is their own duty. But because the
answer which they make to the usual demands of stipulation
proposed in baptism is not their own, the Church doth best to
receive it of them in that form which best sheweth whose
the act is. That which a guardian doth in the name of his
guard or pupil standeth by natural equity forcible for his
benefit though it be done without his knowledge. And
shall we judge it a thing unreasonable, or in any respect unfit,
that infants by words which others utter should though
unwittingly yet truly and forcibly bind themselves to that
whereby their estate is so assuredly bettered? Herewith
Nestorius the heretic was charged39 as having fallen from

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixiv. 6.

39 « Si Ariane aut Sabellianz
*‘ heereseos “assertor esses, et non
*‘ tuo ipsius symbolo tecum uterer,
*“convincerem te tamen testimo-

** nlorum sacrorum auctoritate;..._

** quid tandem si sic apud te age-
“‘rem? quid diceres? quid respon-
**deres? nonne obsecro illud,...
‘in eo te baptizatum, in eo te rena-
“tum esse?.,.Et vere in negotio
* quanis improbo non importuna
*‘ defensio, et que non absurde
** causam erroris diceret, si pertina-
** clam non sociares errori. Nunc
** autem cum in catholica urbe na-

‘tus, catholica fide institutus, ca-
** tholico baptismate regeneratus sis,
**numquid agere tecum quasi cum
** Ariano aut Sabelliano possim?
** Quod utinam fuisses. Minus do-
*Jerem in malis editum quam de
“bonis lapsum, minus fidem non
* habitam quam amissam.... Non
‘* iniquum autem, heretice, non ini-
** quum aut grave aliquid postulo.
¢ Hoe fac in catholica fide editus
** quod fueras pro perversitate fac-
*turus.” Cassian. de Incarn. lib.
vi. cap. 5. [in Bibl. Pat. Colon. V.

p. 2. 77-]

The Cross in Baptism: Objections to it. 317

his first profession, and broken the promise which he made to
God in the arms of others. Of such as profaned themselves
being Christians with irreligious delight in the ensigns of
idolatry, heathenish spectacles, shows, and stage plays, Ter-
_ tullian to strike them the more deep claimeth the promise
__ which they made in baptism*°. Why were they dumb being
thus challenged? Wherefore stood they not up to answer in
their own defence, that such professions and promises made in
their names were frivolous, that all which others undertook
for them was but mockery and profanation? That which
no heretic, no wicked liver, no impious despiser of God, no
miscreant or malefactor, which had himself been baptized,
was ever so desperate as to disgorge in contempt of so fruit-
fully received customs, is now their voice that restore as they
say the ancient purity of religion.

LXV. In baptism many things of very ancient continuance OftheCross
are now quite and clean abolished, for that the virtue and ™ Baptism.
grace of this sacrament had been therewith overshadowed, as
fruit with too great abundance of leaves. Notwithstanding to
them which think it always imperfect reformation that doth
but shear and not flay, our retaining certain of those former
rites, especially the dangerous sign of the cross, hath seemed
almost an impardonable oversight*!. ‘The cross,” they say,

“ sith it is but a mere invention of man, should not therefore
* at all have been added to the sacrament of baptism. To
“ sion children’s foreheads with a cross, in token that here-
“ after they shall not be ashamed to make profession of the
“ faith of Christ, is to bring into the Church a new word,
“ whereas there ought to be no doctor heard in the Church
“but our Saviour. Christ. That reason which moved the
“ Fathers to use should move us not to use the sign of

BOOK V,
Ch. Ixy. 1.

40 Tertull. lib. de Spectac. [c. 4.
*« Si ex idololatria universam spec-
“‘taculorum paraturam constare
‘* constiterit, indubitate przejudi-
“ catum erit, etiam ad spectacula
*‘ pertinere renunciationis nostre
*¢ testimonium in lavacro, que dia-
“bolo et pompe et angelis ejus
“‘ sint mancipata, scilicet per idolo-
“ Jatriam.””]

41 [Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 607.

** Crossing and such like: pieces of
* Popery, which the Church of God
‘in the Apostles’ time never knew,
“and therefore not to be used.”
Id. ibid. 617. “They do supersti-
“tiously and wickedly institute a
** new Sacrament, which is proper
*‘ to Christ only, marking the child
‘in the forehead with a cross, in
** token that he shall not be ashamed
* to confess the Faith of Christ.’’]

BOOK V,

Ch, Ixv. 2, 3.

318

“the cross. They lived with heathens which had the cross of
« Christ in contempt, we with such as adore the cross, and
“ therefore we ought to abandon it even as in like con-
“ sideration Ezechias did of old the brazen serpent*?.”

[2.] These are the causes of displeasure conceived against
the cross, a ceremony the use whereof hath been profitable
although we observe it not as the ordinance of God but
of man. 4%For, saith Tertullian, “if of this and the like
“customs thou shouldest require some commandment to be
“ shewed thee out of Scriptures, there is none found.” What
reason there is to justify tradition, use or custom in this
behalf, “ either thou mayest of thyself perceive, or else learn
‘© of some other that doth.” Lest therefore the name of
tradition should be offensive to any, considering how far
by some it hath been and is abused, we mean by traditions‘,
ordinances made in the prime of Christian religion, esta-
blished with that authority which Christ hath left to his
Church for matters indifferent, and in that consideration requi-
site to be observed, till like authority see just and reasonable
cause to alter them. So that traditions ecclesiastical are not
rudely and in gross to be shaken off, because the inventors

Some Human Traditions allowed by the Puritans.

of them were men.

[3.] Such as say they allow no invention of man** to be

42 (Abridged from T.C. i. 135,
136. al.170,171. Beza, Epist. 12.
Tract. Theol. iii.220. ‘“ Signi cru-
** cis ut olim aliquis fuerit usus,
‘eam tamen esse et quidem adhuc
‘‘adeo recentem superstitionem,
** superstitionem maxime execrabi-
“lem, certum est; ut rectissime
“* fecisse arbitremur, qui semel is-
** tum ritum ex ecclesiis expulerunt ;
** cujus etiam non videmus que sit
** utilitas,”” Comp. Str. Grind. 512. |

43 'Tertull. de Coron. Militis, [c. 4.
“Ad omnem progressum atque
** promotum, ad omnem aditum et
“exitum, ad vestitum, ad calcea-
‘tum, ad lavacra, ad mensas, ad
** Jumina, ad cubilia, ad sedilia, quee-
“cunque nos conversatio exercet,
** frontem crucis signaculo terimus.
** Harum et aliarum ejusmodi dis-
*‘ ciplinarum si legem expostules
** scripturarum, nullam invenies:
“* traditio tibi preetendetur auctrix,

** consuetudo confirmatrix, et fides
* observatrix. Rationem traditioni,
** consuetudini, fidei, patrocinaturam
** aut ipse perspicies aut ab aliquo
~- qui perspexerit disces.”’ |
‘“‘Traditiones non scriptas si
* doctrinam respiciant cum doctri-
‘** na scripta convenire debere dici-
“mus. Quod ad rituales et eccle-
* siasticas attinet, ordinis et edifi-
** cationis ecclesiarum in his semper
* habenda ratio est; inutiles autem
** et noxias, nempe ineptas et super-
** stitiosas, patronis suis relinqua-
ne: Goulart. Genev. Annot, in
, r. 74.

Tp 1G, ib. i. p. 191%. [136.]
** They should not have been so
¥ bold as to have brought it into
“the holy Sacrament of Baptism,
“and so mingle the ceremonies
“and inventions of men with the
“sacraments and institutions of
** God.”

The sign of the Cross a significant Ceremony. 319

mingled with the outward administration of sacraments, and
under that pretence condemn our using the sign of the cross,
have belike some special dispensation themselves to violate
their own rules. For neither can they indeed decently nor do
they ever baptize any without manifest breach of this their
_ profound axiom, that “men’s inventions should not be mingled
“with sacraments and institutions of God.” They seem to
like very well in baptism the custom of godfathers, “ because
“so generally all churches have received it46””? Which
custom being of God no more instituted than the other, (how-
soever they pretend the other hurtful and this profitable,) it
followeth that even in their own opinion, if their words do
shew their minds, there is no necessity of stripping sacraments
out of all such attire of ceremonies as man’s wisdom hath at
any time clothed them withal, and consequently that either
they must reform their speech as over general, or else condemn
their own practice as unlawful.

[4.] Ceremonies have more in weight than in sight, they
work by commonness of use much, although in the several
acts of their usage we scarcely discern any good they do.
And because the use which they have for the most part is not
perfectly understood, superstition is apt to impute unto them
greater virtue than indeed they have. For prevention whereof
when we use this ceremony we always plainly express the
end whereunto it serveth, namely, for a sign of remembrance
to put us in mind of our duty.

But by this mean they say*?7 we make it a great deal worse.

46 'T. C. lib. i. p. 170. 137: “have authority to make cere-
47 T.C. lib.i. p.171.[136.] “The

‘monies, (so they be according

** profitable signification of the cross
“maketh the thing a great deal
** worse, and bringeth in a new word
“into the Church, whereas there
“ ought to be no doctor heard in
** the Church but only our Saviour
“Christ. For although it be the
“word of God that we should not
“© be ashamed of the cross of Christ,
“* yet it is not the word of God that
‘* we should be kept in remembrance
“ of that by two lines drawn across
“one over another in the child’s
* forehead.” [Ini. 80. al. 59, the
same argument is employed against
thesurplice. *‘ Although the Church

“to the rules before recited...) I
** could for all that never yet learn
“that it hath power to give new
** significations, as it were to insti-
* tute new sacraments. . .And there-
*‘ fore although the surplice have a
** black spot when it is whitest, yet
“is it not so black as you make it
“* with your white significations : nor
“the cause so evil, as you defend
“it.” Id. ili. 227. ‘ Although the
** ceremony of crossing were conve-:
* nient, yet to raise a doctrine of it
“is unlawful: forasmuch as it is
** not enough to teach the truth un-
“less it be truely taught, and that

BOOK V.

Ch. xv. 4.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixv. 5.

320 Our Saviour authorized expressive Ceremonies.

For why? Seeing God hath no where commanded to draw
two lines in token of the duty which we owe to Christ, our
practice with this exposition publisheth a new gospel, and —
causeth another word to have place in the Church of Christ,
where no voice ought to be heard but his.

By which good reason the authors of those grave Admoni-
tions to the Parliament are well holpen up, which held that
“ sitting” at communions “ betokeneth rest and full accom-
“ plishment of legal ceremonies in our Saviour Christ48.” For
although it be the word of God that such ceremonies are
expired, yet seeing it is not the word of God that men to
signify so much should sit at the table of our Lord, these
have their doom as well as others, “ Guilty of a new-devised
« wospel in the Church of Christ+9.”

[5.| Which strange imagination is begotten of a special
dislike they have to hear that ceremonies now in use should
be thought significant, whereas in truth such as are not signi-
ficant must needs be vain. Ceremonies destitute of significa-
tion are no better than the idle gestures of men whose broken
wits are not masters of that they do. For if we look but into
secular and civil compliments, what other cause can there
possibly be given why to omit them where of course they are
looked for, (for5®° where they are not so due to use them,
bringeth men’s secret intents oftentimes into great jealousy,)
I would know I say what reason we are able to yield why
things so light in their own nature should weigh in the
opinions of men so much, saving only in regard of that which
they use to signify or betoken?

Doth not our Lord Jesus Christ himself impute the omis-

“is only out of the word of God.
“ Now let him shew a word of God,
*‘ that two lines laid crosswise sig-
*‘nifieth that we should not be
‘‘ ashamed of the passion or cross
* of Christ.”’]

48 [See hereafter, c. Ixviii. 3.
They had omitted this opinion in
their second edition. Whitg. Answ.

303.1

49 [So Whitgift, Answ. 244. “It
* (crossing) may be left, and hath
* been used in the primitive Church,
“and may be so still, without either
“ superstition or wickedness. Nei-

“ther doth it any more make a
* sacrament, because it is in token
“that hereafter he shall not be
** ashamed to confess Christ cruci-
“ fied, than your sitting doth at the
** communion in token of rest, that
“is a full finishing through Christ
** of the ceremonial law.’’ See also
Def. 618, and T. C. iii. 227.]

50 [The original edition has “looked
* for, or,”’ but in the list of errata at
the end ‘‘for” is directed to be
substituted instead of “or.’? The
present editor has ventured to insert
the marks of a parenthesis. |

' Our Saviour authorized expressive Ceremonies. 321

_ sion of some courteous ceremonies even in domestical enter- goox v.
tainment to a colder degree of loving affection, and take the “* =
contrary in better part, not so much respecting what was less
_ done as what was signified less by the one than by the other?
| _ For to that very end he referreth in part those gracious ex-
. -_postulations>! ,; “Simon, seest thou this woman? Since I
“entered into thine house thou gavest me no water for my
“feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped
_ “them with the hairs of her head; thou gavest me no kiss,
| “but this woman since the time I came in, hath not ceased
“+o kiss my feet; mine head with oil thou didst not anoint,
_ ©)but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.”

Wherefore as the usual dumb ceremonies of common life
are in request or dislike according to that they import, even
so religion having likewise her silent rites, the chiefest rule
whereby to judge of their quality is that which they mean or

_betoken. For if they signify good things, (as somewhat they
must of necessity signify, because it is of their very nature to
be signs of intimation, presenting both themselves unto out-
ward sense and besides themselves some other thing to the
understanding of beholders,) unless they be either greatly

-mischosen to signify the same, or else applied where that
which they signify agreeth not, there is no cause of exception

- against them as against evil and unlawful ceremonies, much
less of excepting against them only in that they are not
without sense.

And if every religious ceremony which hath been invented
of men to signify any thing that God himself alloweth were
the publication of another gospel in the Church of Christ,
seeing that no Christian church in the world is or can be
without continual use of some ceremonies which men have
instituted, and that to signify good things (unless they be
vain and frivolous ceremonies) it would follow that the world
hath no Christian church which doth not daily proclaim new
gospels, a sequel the manifest absurdity whereof argueth the
rawness of that supposal out of which it groweth.

[6.] Now the cause>? why antiquity did the more im actions

51 Luke vii. 44—46. ** clesiastical stories that the heathen
52 'T. C. lib. i. p.170. [136.] “Itis ‘ did object ‘to Christians in times

* known to all that have readtheec- “ past in reproach that the God
HOOKER, VOL. II. ¥

BOOK V.

Ch. lxv. 6.

822 Use of Imagination im aiding virtuous Shame :

of common life honour the ceremony of the cross might be for
that they lived with infidels. But that which they did in the
sacrament of baptism was for the selfsame good of believers
which is thereby intended still. The Cross is for us an admo-
nition no less necessary than for them to glory in the service
of Jesus Christ, and not to hang down our heads as men
ashamed thereof although it procure us reproach and obloquy
at the hands of this wretched world.

Shame is a kind of fear to incur disgrace and ignominy.
Now whereas some thing's are worthy of reproach, some things
ignominious only through a false opinion which men have
conceived of them, nature that generally feareth opprobrious
reprehension must by reason and religion be taught what it
should be ashamed of and what not*2. But be we never so
well instructed what our duty is in this behalf, without some
present admonition at the very instant of practice, what we
know is many times not called to mind till that be done
whereupon our just confusion ensueth. To supply the absence
of such as that way might do us good when they see us
in danger of sliding, there are judicious and wise men which
think we may greatly relieve ourselves by a bare imagined
presence of some, whose authority we fear and would be loth

** which they believed of was hanged
“upon across. And they thought
“ good to testify that they were not
“‘ ashamed therefore of the Son of
** God, by the often using of the
** sign of the cross. Which careful-
*‘ness and good mind to keep a-
** mongst them an open profession
* of Christ crucified, although it be
*‘to be commended, yet is not this
*‘means so. For they might other-
*‘ wise have kept it and with less
“* danger than by this use of cross-
“ing. And as it was brought in
* upon no good ground, so the Lord
* left a mark of his curse of it, and
** whereby it might be perceived to
“come out of the forge of man’s
* brain, in that it began forthwith
“‘ while it was yet in the swaddling
** clouts to be superstitiously abused.
* The Christians had such a super-
“ stition in it that they would do
“nothing without crossing. But
“if it were granted that upon this

** consideration which I have be-
** fore mentioned, the ancient Christ-
*‘jans did well, yet it followeth not
“that we should so do. For we
“live not amongst those nations
** which do cast us in the teeth or
“reproach us with the cross of
* Christ. Now that we live amongst
* papists that do not contemn the
** cross of Christ, but which esteem
** more of the wooden cross than of
‘* the true cross which is his suffer-
“ings, we ought now to do clean
*‘ contrariwise to the old Christ-
* jians, and abolish all use of these
“crosses. For contrary diseases
** must have contrary remedies. If
** therefore the old Christians to
“deliver the cross of Christ from
** contempt did often use the cross,
“ the Christians now to take away
“the superstitious estimation of it
** ought to take away the use of it.”
52 Ephes. v.12; Rom. vi. 21.

: to offend, if indeed they were present with us5.

Le evs Bol 8) Be

Application of the Sign of the Cross to that Purpose. 323

«< Wit-
«nesses at hand are a bridle unto many offences. Let the

“mind have always some whom it feareth, some whose
« authority may keep even secret thoughts under awe. Take
« Cato, or if he be too harsh and rugged, choose some other

“of a softer mettle, whose gravity of life and speech thou
© Jovest, his mind and countenance carry with thee, set him
_ “always before thine eyes either as a watch or as a pattern.
That sega is crooked we cannot eomenten but by some

oe level.’

If men of so good experience and insight in the maims of
our weak flesh, have thought these fancied remembrances
available to awaken shamefacedness, that so the boldness of
sin may be stayed ere it look abroad, surely the wisdom of the
Church of Christ which hath to that use converted the cere-

| mony of the cross in baptism it is no Christian man’s part to

despise, especially seeing that by this mean where nature doth
earnestly implore aid, religion yieldeth her that ready assist-
ance than which there can be no help more forcible serving
only to relieve memory, and to bring to our cogitation that
which should most make ashamed of sin.

[7.] The mind while we are in this present life, whether
it contemplate*+, meditate, deliberate, or howsoever exercise
itself, worketh nothing without continual recourse unto ima-
gination, the only storehouse of wit and peculiar chair of
memory. On this anvil it ceaseth not day and night to strike,
by means whereof as the pulse declareth how the heart doth
work, so the very thoughts *> and cogitations of man’s mind be
they good or bad do no where sooner bewray themselves, than

53 Sen. Epist. lib. i. Ep. 11.

54 Td voeiv } pavracia tis 7) ovK
Arist. de Anim.

[“* Magna pars peccatorum tollitur,
** si peccaturis testis adsistat. Ali-
*‘ quem habeat animus, quem vere-
*‘ atur, cujus auctoritate etiam se-
** cretum suum sanctius faciat.....
** Elige itaque Catonem :
“ videtur tibi nimis rigidus, elige
‘* remissioris animi virum, Lelium ;
“elige eum, cujus tibi placuit et
*‘ vita et oratio, et ipsius animum
“ante te ferens et vultus, illum
** semper tibi wats vel custodem
* vel exemplum.... Nisi ad regu-
‘Jam, prava non corriges. *

avev cbavtacias.
lib. i. cap. 1. [§ 18.] ‘H pev aicOn-
TUK) pavracia kal €y Tois addyors
{mors vmdpxet’ 9 Sé Bovhevtixy ev
Trois Aoyorixois. lib. ii. cap. II.
[§ 13.] Ta pev ovv «ion TO vontiKoy
€v Tois parrdo pace _voet, kal ws ev
exeivots Spiorat avr@ ro diwxrov Kai
pevaror, kal exros ths alaOnceas bv,
otray emt tav pavracpdtay 7, Kwvel-
rat. lib. iii. cap. 8. [§ 8.]

55 « Frons hominis tristitiz, hila-
“ ritatis, clementize, severitatis in-
* dex est.”” Plin. lib. xi. [c. 37.]

Y2

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixv. 7.

BOOK V,

Ch. Ixv. 8.

324 The Sign of the Cross, a Guard against Apostasy :

through the crevices of that wall wherewith nature hath com-_
passed the cells and closets of fancy. In the forehead nothing —
more plain to be seen than the fear of contumely and disgrace. —
For which cause the Scripture (as with great probability it-
may be thought) describeth them56 marked of God in the
forehead, whom his mercy hath undertaken to keep from final -
confusion and shame. Not that God doth set any corporal
mark on his chosen, but to note that he giveth his elect
security of preservation from reproach, the fear whereof doth —
use to shew itself in that part®’. Shall I say, that the sign of
the Cross (as we use it) is in some sort a mean to work our
preservation from reproach5$? Surely the mind which as yet
hath not hardened itself in sin is seldom provoked thereunto
in any gross and grievous manner, but nature’s secret sugges-
tion objecteth against it ignominy as a bar. Which conceit
being entered into that palace of man’s fancy, the gates
whereof hath imprinted in them that holy sign which bringeth
forthwith to mind whatsoever Christ hath wrought and we
vowed against sin, it cometh hereby to pass that Christian
men never want a most effectual though a silent teacher to
avoid whatsoever may deservedly procure shame. So that in
things which we should be ashamed of we are by the Cross
admonished faithfully of our duty at the very moment when
admonition doth most need.

[8.] Other things there are which deserve honour and yet
do purchase many times our disgrace in this present world, as
of old the very truth of religion itself, till God by his own
outstretched arm made the glory thereof to shine over all the
earth. Whereupon St. Cyprian exhorting to martyrdom in times
of heathenish persecution and cruelty, thought it not vain to
allege unto them with other arguments thevery ceremony of that
Cross whereof we speak59, Never let that hand offer sacrifice

56 Ezek. ix. 4; Apoc. vii. 3; ix. 4.

57 °*EpvOpaivovra yap oi aioyvyd-
pevot. Arist. Eth. iv. c. 9.

58 « Caro signatur ut et anima
* muniatur.” ‘Tertull. de Resur.
Carn. [c. 8.]

59 Cypr. Epist. 56. [al. 58. c. 6.]
ad Thibaritanos, [t. ii. 125. “ Acci-
*‘ piamus quoque ad tegumentum
** capitis galeam salutarem, ut mu-

* niantur aures, ne audiant edicta
** feralia ; muniantur oculi, ne vide-
* ant detestanda simulacra; munia-
* tur frons ut signum Dei incolume
* servetur ; muniatur os, ut Domi-
** num suum Christum victrix lingua
“ fateatur. Armemus et dextram
** gladio spiritali, ut sacrificia funesta
“ fortiter respuat, et eucharistie
“ memor, que Domini corpus ac-

and appealed to accordingly by St. Cyprian. 325

to idols which hath already received the Body of our Saviour
Christ, and shall hereafter the crown of his glory; “ Arm
_ “your foreheads” unto all boldness, that the “Sign of God”
may be kept safe.

% Again, when it pleased God that the fury of their enemies
being bridled the Church had some little rest and quietness
_ (if so small a liberty but only to breathe between troubles may

be termed quietness and rest,) to such as fell not away from

_ Christ through former persecutions, he giveth due and de-

served praise in the selfsame manner. “You that were
_ yeady to endure imprisonment, and were resolute to suffer
“ death; you that have courageously withstood the world, ye
“ have made yourselves both a glorious spectacle for God to
“ behold, and a worthy example for the rest of your brethren
“to follow. Those mouths which had sanctified themselves
* with food coming down from heaven loathed after Christ’s
_ “ own Body and Blood to taste the poisoned and contagious

BOOK V.

Ch. lxy. 9.

“ scraps of idols; those foreheads which the sign of God had,

“ purified kept themselves to be crowned by him, the touch
“ of the garlands of Satan they abhorred®!.” Thus was the
memory of that sign which they had in baptism a kind of bar

or prevention to keep them even from apostasy, whereinto the ©

frailty of flesh and blood overmuch fearing to endure shame,
might peradventure the more easily otherwise have drawn them.

[9.] We have not now through the gracious goodness of
Almighty God, those extreme conflicts which our fathers had
with blasphemous contumelies every where offered to the
name of Christ, by such as professed themselves infidels and
unbelievers. Howbeit, unless we be strangers to the age
wherein we live, or else in some partial respect dissemblers

* cepit, ipsum complectatur, postea ‘‘ quias respuerunt...Frons cum
“4 Domino sumtura premium ce- “ signo Det pura diaboli coronam

“ lestium coronarum.”’ | “ ferre non potuit, corone se Domini
60 Cypr. de Laps. [c. 2. t.i.121. “‘ reservavit.’’ |]
*‘ Parati ad patientiam carceris, ar- 61 « Krant enim supplices cona-

“* mati ad tolerantiam mortis,repug- “ rii.” Tertull. lib. de Coron. Mil.
* nastis fortiter seeculo,spectaculum [c.7.] In the service of idols, the
“ gloriosum prebuistis Deo, secutu- doors of their temples, the sacri-
‘‘ ris fratribus fuistis exemplo..... fices, the altars, the priests and the
“ Sanctificata ora celestibus cibis, supplicants that were present wore
“ post corpus et sanguinem Domini, garlands.

“ profana contagia et idolorum reli-

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixv, 10.

326 The Sign of the Cross, a Support under Contempt :

of that we hourly both hear and see, there is not the simplest
of us but knoweth with what disdain and scorn Christ is
honoured far and wide. Is there any burden in the world
more heavy to bear than contempt? Is there any contempt
that grieveth as theirs doth whose quality no way making them
less worthy than others are of reputation, only the service
which they do to Christ in the daily exercise of religion tread-
eth them down? Doth any contumely which we sustain for
religion’s sake pierce so deeply as that which would seem
even of mere conscience religiously spiteful? When they
that honour God are despised ; when the chiefest service of
honour that man can do unto him, is the cause why
they are despised; when they which pretend to honour him
and that with greatest sincerity, do with more than heathenish
petulancy trample under foot almost whatsoever either we
or the whole Church of God by the space of so many ages have —
been accustomed unto, for the comelier and better exercise of
our religion according to the soundest rules that wisdom
directed by the word of God, and by long experience con-
firmed, hath been able with common advice, with much
deliberation and exceeding great diligence, to comprehend ;
when no man fighting under Christ’s banner can be always
exempted from seeing or sustaining those indignities, the
sting whereof not to feel, or feeling, not to be moved thereat,
is a thing impossible to flesh and blood; if this be any object
for patience to work on, the strictest bond that thereunto
tieth us in our vowed obedience to Christ; the solemnest
vow that we ever made to obey Christ and to suffer willingly
all reproaches for his sake was made in baptism; and amongst
other memorials to keep us mindful of that vow we cannot
think that the sign which our new baptized foreheads did
there receive is either unfit or unforcible, the reasons hitherto
alleged being: weighed with indifferent balance.

[10.] It is not (you will say) the cross in our foreheads,
but in our hearts the faith of Christ that armeth us with
patience, constancy, and courage. Which as we grant to be
most true, so neither dare we despise no not the meanest
helps that serve though it be but in the very lowest degree of
furtherance towards the highest services that God doth require

eee hl

es)

not to be despised, though but an outward Help. 327

at our hands. And if any man deny that such ceremonies
are available at the least as memorials of duty, or do think that
himself hath no need to be so put in mind what our duties are,

it is but reasonable that in the one the public experience

of the world overweigh some few men’s persuasion, and in the

other the rare perfection of a few condescend unto common
_ imbecility.

[11.] Seeing therefore that to fear shame which doth wor-

thily follow sin, and to bear undeserved reproach constantly is

the general duty of all men professing Christianity; seeing
also that our weakness while we are in this present world
doth need towards spiritual duties the help even of corporal

_ furtherances, and that by reason of natural intercourse between

the highest and the lowest powers of man’s mind in all actions,
his fancy or imagination carrying in it that special note of
remembrance, than which there is nothing more forcible
where either too weak or too strong a conceit of infamy and
disgrace might do great harm, standeth always ready to put
forth a kind of necessary helping hand; we are in that respect
to acknowledge the good and profitable use of this ceremony ®,
and not to think it superfluous that Christ hath his mark
applied unto that part where bashfulness appeareth, in token
that they which are Christians should be at no time ashamed
of his ignominy.

But to prevent some inconveniences which might ensue if
the over ordinary use thereof (as it fareth with such rites
when they are too common) should cause it to be of. less
observation or regard where it most availeth, we neither omit
it in that place, nor altogether make it so vulgar as the custom
heretofore hath been: although to condemn the whole Church
of God when it is most flourished in zeal and piety, to mark that
age with the brand of error and superstition only because
they had this ceremony more in use than we now think
needful, boldly to affirm that this their practice grew so soon
through a fearful malediction of God upon the ceremony of

62 "Eo de dyaboy kal ro dvAa-
Krixdy TOV ToLovTeY kal @ dxohovdei
ra rovadra kal Ta K@AuTiKa TOY évav-
tiv kai ra POaprixad. Arist. Rhet.
lib. i. cap. 6.

ala Onias Rex lepree varietate in

** fronte maculatus est, ea parte cor-
* poris notatus offenso Domino, ubi
* signantur qui Dominum prome-
* rentur.” cy r. de Unit. Eccles.
cap. 16, (i, 11 rk ge

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixy. 11.

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixy.12, ,

13.

328 Objection from the Papists’ Adoration of the Cross.

the cross, as if we knew that his purpose was thereby to make
it manifest in all men’s eyes how execrable those things are in
his sight which have proceeded from human invention, is as we
take it a censure of greater zeal than knowledge. Men whose
judgments in these cases are grown more moderate, although
they retain not as we do the use of this ceremony, perceive
notwithstanding very well such censures to be out of square,
and do therefore not only acquit the Fathers from superstition
therein® but also think it sufficient to answer in excuse
of themselves, “This ceremony which was but a thing indif-
“ ferent even of old we judge not at this day a matter neces-
“ sary for all Christian men to observe®.”

[12.] As for their last upshot of all towards this mark, they
are of opinion that if the ancient Christians to deliver the
Cross of Christ from contempt did well and with good con-
sideration use often the sign of the cross, in testimony of their
faith and profession before infidels which upbraided them with
Christ’s sufferings, now that we live with such as contrariwise
adore the sign of the cross, (because contrary diseases should
always have contrary remedies,) we ought to take away all
use thereof. In which conceit they both ways greatly seduce
themselves, first for that they imagine the Fathers to have had
no use of the cross but with reference unto infidels, which mis-
persuasion we have before discovered at large; and secondly
by reason that they think there is not any other way be-
sides universal extirpation to reform superstitious abuses of
the cross. Wherein because there are that stand very much
upon the example of Ezechias®, as if his breaking to pieces
that serpent of brass®?7 whereunto the children of Israel had
burnt incense, did enforce the utter abolition of this ceremony,
the fact of that virtuous prince is by so much the more atten-
tively to be considered.

[13.] Our lives in this world are partly guided by rules,

64 Goulart. Annot. in Cypr. lib.
ad Demetr. cap. 19. ‘‘Quamvis
* veteres Christiani externo signo
“* crucis usi sunt; id tamen fuit sine
“ superstitione, et doctrina de Christi

“* merito ab errore qui postea irrep-
‘ sit pios servavit immunes.’

pe 2 Kings xviii. 3, 4
67 [T. C. i. 60. al. 81. “If there
** were no harm in it,”’ (the apparel,)
‘*‘ and that it were also profitable,
** yet forasmuch as it is not com-
*‘manded of God expressly, but a
** thing (as you say) indifferent, and

- 65 Idem, Annot. in Cypr. Epist.
56. cap. 7.

* notwithstanding is cause of so
“many incommodities, and so a-

~

3
Ea
-:

=
=
4

Example of Hezekiah. 329

BOOK V.

: and partly directed by examples. To conclude out of general BOO!
. Ixv. 14.

rules and axioms by discourse of wit our duties in every par-
ticular action, is both troublesome and many times so full of
difficulty that it maketh deliberations hard and tedious to the
wisest men. Whereupon we naturally all incline to observe
examples, to mark what others have done before us, and in
favour of our own ease rather to follow them than to enter
into new consultation, if in regard of their virtue and wisdom
we may but probably think they have waded without error.
So that the willingness of men to be led by example of others
both discovereth and helpeth the imbecility of our judgment.
Because it doth the one, therefore insolent and proud wits
would always seem to be their own guides; and because it
doth the other, we see how hardly the vulgar sort is drawn
unto any thing for which there are not as well examples as
reasons alleged. Reasons proving that which is more parti-
cular by things more general and farther from sense are with
the simpler sort of men less trusted, for that they doubt of
their own judgment in those things ; but of examples which
prove unto them one doubtful particular by another more
familiarly and sensibly known, they easily perceive in them-
selves some better ability to judge. The force of examples
therefore is great, when in matter of action being doubtful
what to do we are informed what others have commendably
done whose deliberations were like.

[14.]| But whosoever doth persuade by example must as
well respect the fitness as the goodness of that he allegeth.
To Ezechias God himself in this fact giveth testimony of well
doing. So that nothing is here questionable but only whether
the example alleged be pertinent, pregnant, and strong.

The serpent spoken of was first erected for the extraordi-
nary and miraculous cure of the Israelites in the desert. This
use having presently an end when the cause for which God

“ bused ...it ought to be sufficient
“reason to abolish them: seeing
' that the brazen serpent, which was
** instituted of the Lord himself, and
*‘ contained a profitable remem-
‘* brance of the wonderful benefit of
** God towards his people, was beaten
** to powder, when as it began to be
** an occasion of falling to the chil-

** dren of Israel.”? Whitg. Def. 294.
** Do you think that any man doth
** worship the apparel, as the Israel-
*¢ ites did worship the serpent?” T,
C. iii. 261. ** Although no man wor-
*‘ ship the apparel by falling down
** before it, yet he may have a dam-
*‘ nable opinion of it, and as hard
* to be pulled out as the other.’’]

330 Principle on which the brazen Serpent was adored:

BOOK Vv. ordained it was once removed, the thing itself they notwith-
Po toaadaaad standing kept for a monument of God’s mercy, as in like con- —
sideration they did the pot of manna, the rod of Aaron, and
the sword which David took from Goliah. In process of time ~
they made of a monument of divine power a plain idol, they
burnt incense before it contrary to the law of God, and did it
the services of honour due unto God only. Which gross and -
grievous abuse continued till Ezechias restoring the purity of ©
sound religion, destroyed utterly that which had been so long |
and so generally a snare unto them.

It is not amiss which the canon law hereupon concludeth,
namely®$ that “if our predecessors have done some things
« which at that time might be without fault, and afterward be
* turned to error and superstition, we are taught by Ezechias
“ breaking the brazen serpent that posterity may destroy them
“ without any delay and with great authority.” But may it
be simply and without exception hereby gathered, that pos-
terity is “ bound to destroy” whatsoever hath been either at
the first invented, or but afterwards turned to like superstition
and error? No, it cannot be.

The serpent therefore and the sign of the cross, although
seeming equal in this point, that superstition hath abused both,
yet being herein also unequal, that neither they have been
both subject to the like degree of abuse, nor were in hardness
of redress alike, it may be that even as the one for abuse was
religiously taken away, so now, when religion hath taken
away abuse from the other, we should by utter abolition
thereof deserve hardly his commendation whose example
there is offered us no such necessary cause to follow.

[15.| For by the words of Ezechias in terming the serpent
but “a lump of brass®,” to shew that the best thing in it now
was the metal or matter whereof it consisted, we may probably
conjecture, that the people whose error is therein controlled
had the selfsame opinion of it which the heathens had of

68 [Decr.1.] Dist. 63. cap. Quia. ‘‘ sine culpa, et postea vertuntur in
[** Sancta.” Corp. Jur. Can. 75. ‘“‘errorem et superstitionem, sine
** Per hoc magna auctoritas ista est ‘“‘ tarditate aliqua, et cum magna
* habenda in Ecclesia, ut si non- “‘ auctoritate, a posteris destru-
*‘ nulli ex preedecessoribus et ma- ‘“ antur.’’]

*‘joribus nostris fecerunt aliqua, 69 [Grot. in loc. Q.d. dis est,
** que illo tempore potuerunt esse ‘“ preterea nihil.’’]

Peril of Idolatry towards the material Cross. 33]

idols, they thought that the power of Deity was with it,
and when they saw it dissolved haply they might to comfort
themselves imagine as Olympius the sophister did beholding
‘the dissipation of idols7°, “Shapes and counterfeits they
_ “were, fashioned of matter subject unto corruption, there-
“fore to grind them to dust was easy, but those celestial
« powers which dwelt and resided in them are ascended into
* heaven.”

Some difference there is between these opinions of palpable
idolatry and that which the schools in speculation have bolted
out concerning the cross. Notwithstanding forasmuch as the
church of Rome hath hitherto practised and doth profess the
same adoration to the sign of the cross and neither less nor
other than is due unto Christ himself, howsoever they varnish
and qualify their sentence, pretending that the cross, which
to outward sense presenteth visibly itself alone, is not by
them apprehended alone, but hath in their secret surmise or
conceit a reference to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, so
that the honour which they jointly do to both respecteth
principally his person, and the cross but only for his person’s
sake, the people not accustomed to trouble their wits with so
nice and subtile differences in the exercise of religion are ap-
parently no less ensnared by adoring the cross, than the Jews
by burning incense to the brazen serpent.

It is by Thomas ingenuously granted7!, that because unto
reasonable creatures a kind of reverence is due for the excel-
lency which is in them and whereby they resemble God,
therefore if reasonable creatures, angels or men, should receive
at our hands holy and divine honour as the sign of the cross

70 Sozom. Jib. vii. cap. 15. [O-
Avpmids rs ev purocdgpov oxnpare

71 Tho. p. iii. q. 25. art. 8 Resp.
ad Tert. [t. xii. 98. reaturee

ouvey avrois, kal mreiOwv xpnvat ty)
dpeheiv TOV marpicov, GAN ei Séoe
omep avtav OvncKew* kabatpovpéevev
de rav fodver, abvpodvras dpav, cuve-
Bovdeve p21) eiorac bat THs Opnoxeias,
vAnv pbapriy kat iySdApara éeyor el-
vat Ta dyd\para, kat dia todro ada-
ver pov drropevery” Suvdpecs b¢ Tuas
evokyjoat avrois, kal eis ovpavoy drro-
mrjva. ‘This happened at Alex-
andria in the reign of Valentinian
and Theodosius. |

“ rationali debetur reverentia prop-
“ter seipsam; et ideo si creature
*‘ rationali, in qua est imago Dei,
« exhiberetur idratio latrize, posset
* esse erroris occasio, ut scil. motus
* adorantis sisteret in homine, in
“ quantum est res queedam, et non
** ferretur in Deum cujus est imago :
“quod non potest contingere de
** imagine sculpta, vel picta in ma-
** teria sensibili.”’ |

BOOK V.

Ch.lxv, 15.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixy. 16.

332 Perit of Idolatry, regarding the material Cross,

doth at theirs, to pretend that we honour not them alone but

we honour God with them would not serve the turn, neither
would this be able to prevent the error of men, or cause them —
always to respect God in their adorations, and not to finish —
their intents in the object next before them. But unto this —
he addeth, that no such error can grow by adoring in that

sort a dead image, which every man knoweth to be void of
excellency in itself, and therefore will easily conceive that the
honour done unto it hath an higher reference.

——_

Howbeit, seeing that we have by over-true experience been —
taught how often, especially in these cases, the light even of —
common understanding faileth, surely their usual adoration of —
the cross is not hereby freed. For in actions of this kind —

we are more to respect what the greatest part of men is com-
monly prone to conceive, than what some few men’s wits may
devise in construction of their own particular meanings. Plain
it is, that a false opinion of some personal divine excellency
to be in those things which either nature or art hath framed
causeth always religious adoration. And as plain that the
like adoration applied unto things sensible argueth to vulgar
capacities, yea leaveth imprinted in them the very same
opinion of Deity from whence all idolatrous worship groweth.
Yea the meaner and baser a thing worshipped is in itself,
the more they incline to think that every man which doth
adore it, knoweth there is in it or with it a presence of divine
power.

[16.] Be it therefore true that crosses purposely framed or
used for receipt of divine honour be even as scandalous as the
brazen serpent itself, where they are in such sort adored.

Should we hereupon think ourselves in the sight of God and.

in conscience charged to abolish utterly the very ceremony of
the cross, neither meant at the first, nor now converted unto
any such offensive purpose? Did the Jews which could never
be persuaded to admit in the city of Jerusalem? that image
of Cesar which the Romans were accustomed?7? to adore,

72 Joseph. Antiq. lib. xvii. cap. 8. ried with them in all their armies,
[c.6. § 2. ed. Huds.] et lib.xviii.cap. and had always a kind of chapel
3: [§ 1.] et de Bell. lib. ii. cap. 9. wherein they placed and adored

8 Their eagles, their ensigns,and them as their gods. Dio, lib. xl. [c.
the images of their princes, they car- 6. p.128. D. ed. Leunclay. 6 derés

no valid Objection to the Ceremony of Crossing. 333

_ make any scruple of Cesar’s image in the coin which they
knew very well that men were not wont to worship74? Be-
tween the cross which superstition honoureth as Christ, and
that ceremony of the cross which serveth only for a sign of
remembrance, there is as plain and as great a difference as
between those brazen images which Solomon made to bear
up the cistern of the temple7*, and (sith both were of like
shape but of unlike use) that which the Israelites in the
wilderness did adore7®; or between the altars which Josias
destroyed because they were instruments of mere idolatry77,
and that which the tribe of Reuben with others erected near
to the river Jordan’8, for which also they grew at the first
into some dislike, and were by the rest of their brethren sus-
pected yea hardly charged with open breach of the law of
God, accused of backwardness in religion, upbraided bitterly
with the fact of Peor, and the odious example of Achan, as if
the building of their altar in that place had given manifest
show of no better than intended apostasy, till by a true de-
claration made in their own defence it appeared that such as
misliked misunderstood their enterprise, inasmuch as they
had no intent to build any altar for sacrifice, which God
would have no where offered saving in Jerusalem only, but
to a far other end and purpose, which being opened satisfied
all parts, and so delivered them from causeless blame.

[17.] In this particular suppose the worst, imagine that the
immaterial ceremony of the Cross had been the subject of as
gross pollution as any heathenish or profane idol. If we
think the example of Ezechias a proof that things which error
and superstition hath abused may in no consideration be tole-
rated, although we presently find them not subject to so vile

abuse, the plain example of Ezechias proveth the contrary. |

The temples and idols which under Solomon had been of very
purpose framed for the honour of foreign gods79 Ezechias de-
stroyed not, because they stood as forlorn things and did now

mvopacpevos (€aTs dé veds puxpds, Kat Sov mpockuveirat. |

€y avt@ aetds xpvoois evidputat* 74 Matt. xxii. 20.
xabiorarai Te €v Tact Tois Ek TOU Ka- 75 2 Chron. iv. 3.
taddyou otparomedos.)| Herodian 76 Exod. xxxii. 4.
lib. iv. [c. 8. éoémecer eis rb otpa- 77 2 Chron. xxxiv. 7.
tomedov, €s Te TOY veay évOa Ta ON- 78 Josh. xxii. 10.

peia kal ta dydApata Tov otparore- 79 1 Kings xi. 7.

BOOK V.

Ch, lxv. 17.

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixv. 18,
19.

334 No overpowering Expediency in Disuse of Crossing.

no harm, although formerly they had done harm. Josias%°
for some inconvenience afterwards razed them up. Yet to
both there is one commendation given even from God himself,
that touching matter of religion they walked in the steps of
David and did no way displease God®!.

[18.] Perhaps it seemeth that by force and virtue of this
example although in bare detestation and hatred of idolatry
all things which have been at any time worshipped are not
necessarily to be taken out of the world, nevertheless for
remedy and prevention of so great offences wisdom should
judge it the safest course to remove altogether from the eyes |
of men that which may put them in mind of evil.

Some kinds of evil no doubt there are very quick in work-
ing on those affections that most easily take fire, which evils
should in that respect no oftener than need requireth be
brought mm presence of weak minds. But neither is the
Cross any such evil, nor yet the brazen serpent itself so
strongly poisoned, that our eyes, ears, and thoughts ought to
shun them both, for fear of some deadly harm to ensue the
only representation thereof by gesture, shape, sound, or such
like significant means. And for mine own part I most as-
suredly persuade myself, that had Ezechias (till the days of
whose most virtuous reign they ceased not continually to burn
incense to the brazen serpent) had he found the serpent,
though sometimes adored, yet at that time recovered from the
evil of so gross abuse, and reduced to the same that was be-
fore in the time of David, at which time they esteemed it
only as a memorial, sign, or monument of God’s miraculous
goodness towards them, even as we in no other sort esteem —
the ceremony of the Cross, the due consideration of an use so
harmless common to both might no less have wrought their
equal preservation, than different occasions have procured,
notwithstanding the one’s extinguishment, the other’s lawful
continuance.

[19.] In all persuasions which ground themselves upon ex-
ample, we are not so much to respect what is done, as the
causes and secret inducements leading thereunto. The ques-
tion being therefore whether this ceremony supposed to have

8 2 Kings xxiii. 13. 81 2 Kings xviii. 3, 6; xxil. 2.

~

Crossing, if a Scandal, not of an imeurable Sort. 335

been sometimes scandalous and offensive ought for that cause
- to be now removed; there is no reason we should forthwith
yield ourselves to be carried away with examples, no not of
them whose acts the highest judgment approveth for having
_ reformed in that manner any public evil: but before we either
attempt any thing or resolve, the state and condition as well
of our own affairs as theirs whose example presseth us, is
_ advisedly to be examined; because some things are of their
- own nature scandalous, and cannot choose but breed offence,
as those sinks of execrable filth whicheJosias did overwhelm ®? ;
some things albeit not by nature and of themselves, are not-
withstanding so generally turned to evil by reason of an evil
corrupt habit grown and through long continuance incurably
settled in the minds of the greatest part, that no redress can
be well hoped for without removal of that wherein they have
ruined themselves, which plainly was the state of the Jewish
people, and the cause why Ezechias did with such sudden in-
dignation destroy what he saw worshipped ; finally some things
are as the sign of the Cross though subject either almost or
altogether to as great abuse, yet curable with more facility and
ease. And to speak as the truth is, our very nature doth
hardly yield to destroy that which may be fruitfully kept, and
without any great difficulty clean scoured from the rust of evil
— which by some accident hath grown into it. Wherefore to
that which they build in this question upon the example of
Ezechias let this suffice.

[20.] When heathens despised Christian religion, because
of the sufferings of Jesus Christ, the Fathers to testify how
little such contumelies and contempts prevailed with them
chose rather the sign of the Cross than any other outward
mark, whereby the world might most easily discern always
what they were. On the contrary side now, whereas they
which do all profess the Christian religion are divided amongst
themselves, and the fault of the one part is that in zeal to the
sufferings of Christ they admire too much and over-supersti-
tiously adore the visible sign of his Cross, if you ask what we
that mislike them should do, we are here advised to cure one
contrary by another. Which art or method is not yet so
current as they imagine.

82 2 Kings xxiii. 7.

LIBRARY S7. .,ARY’S COLLEGE

BOOK V.
Ch, lIxv. 20.

336 Superstition not well corrected by Irreverence.

BOOK V. For if, as their practice for the most part sheweth, it be
ch KY!" their meaning that the scope and drift of reformation when
. things are faulty should be to se¢¢/e the Church in the contrary,
it standeth them upon to beware of this rule, because seeing
vices have not only virtues but other vices also in nature op-
posite unto them, it may be dangerous in these cases to seek
but that which we find contrary to present evils. For in sores
and sicknesses of the mind we are not simply to measure good
by distance from evil, because one vice may in some respect
be more opposite to another than either of them to that virtue
which holdeth the mean between them both. Liberality and
covetousness, the one a virtue and the other a vice, are not so
contrary as the vices of covetousness and prodigality ; religion
and superstition have more affiance, though the one be light
and the other darkness, than superstition and profaneness which
both are vicious extremities. By means whereof it cometh
also to pass that the mean which is virtue seemeth in the eyes
of each extreme an extremity; the liberal hearted man is by
the opinion of the prodigal miserable, and by the judgment of
the miserable lavish; impiety for the most part upbraideth
religion as superstitious, which superstition often accuseth as
impious, both so conceiving thereof because it doth seem more
to participate each extreme, than one extreme doth another,
and is by consequent less contrary to either of them, than they
mutually between themselves. Now if he that seeketh to
reform covetousness or superstition should but labour to induce
the contrary, it were but to draw men out of lime into coal-
dust. So that their course which will remedy the supersti-
tious abuse of things profitable in the Church is not still to
abolish utterly the use thereof, because not using at all is most
opposite to ill using, but rather if it may be to bring them back
to a right perfect and religious usage, which albeit less con-
trary to the present sore is notwithstanding the better and by
many degrees the sounder way of recovery.

[21.] And unto this effect that very precedent itself which
they propose may be best followed. For as the Fathers when
the Cross of Christ was in utter contempt did not superstitiously
adore the same, but rather declare that they so esteemed it as
was meet: in like manner where we find the Cross to have
that honour which is due to Christ, is it not as lawful for us to

ie ae Se ee

Imposition of Hands with Prayer scriptural. 337

retain it in that estimation which it ought to have and in that Book v.
‘use which it had of old without offence, as by taking it clean “*"™*
away to seem followers of their example which cure wilfully

by abscission that which they might both preserve and heal ?

Touching therefore the sign and ceremony of the Cross, we
no way find ourselves bound to relinquish it, neither because
the first inventors thereof were but mortal men, nor lest the
sense and signification we give unto it should burden us as
authors of a new gospel in the house of God, nor in respect of
some cause which the Fathers had more than we have to use _
the same, nor finally for any such offence or scandal as here-
tofore it hath been subject unto by error now reformed in the
minds of men.

LXVI. The ancient custom of the Church was after they of Con-
had baptized, to add thereunto imposition of hands with effec- sive Bes.
tual prayer for the illumination of God’s most Holy Spirit? tism.
to confirm and perfect that which the grace of the same Spirit
had already begun in baptism.

For our means to obtain the graces which God doth bestow
are our prayers. Our prayers to that intent are available as
well for others as for ourselves. 'To pray for others is ¢o dless
them for whom we pray, because prayer procureth the bless-
ing of God upon them, especially the prayer of such as God
either most respecteth for their piety and zeal that way, or
else regardeth for that their place and calling bindeth them
above others unto this duty as it doth both natural and
spiritual fathers.

With prayers of spiritual and personal benediction the man-
ner hath been in all ages to use imposition of hands, as a cere-
mony betokening our restrained desires to the party, whom
we present unto God by prayer. Thus when Israel dlessed
Ephraim and Manasses Joseph’s sons, he imposed upon them
his hands and prayed$, “God, in whose sight my fathers
“ Abraham and Isaac did walk, God which hath fed me all
* my life long unto this day, and the Angel which hath deli-

“ vered me from evil bless these children.” The prophets
which healed diseases by prayer, used therein the selfsame
ceremony. And therefore when Eliseus willed Naaman to

83 Tertull. de Resur. Car. [c. 8.] “ bratur, ut et anima Spiritu illumi-
‘Caro manus impositione adum- “ netur.” 84 Gen. xlviil. 14.

HOOKER, VOL. II. z

LIBRARY ST. iiARY'S COLLEGE

838 Confirmation at first had Respect to miraculous Gifts.

ROOK v. wash himself seven times in Jordan for cure of his foul disease

Ch. lx

Vi, 2.

it much offended him; * “I thought,” saith he, “with my-
« self, surely the man will come forth and stand and call upon’
“the name of the Lord his God, and put his hand on the
“ place to the end he may so heal the leprosy.” In consecra=
tions and ordinations of men unto rooms of divine calling, the
like was usually done from the time of Moses to Christ%6,
Their suits that came unto Christ for help were also tendered
oftentimes and are expressed in such forms or phrases of
speech as shew that he was himself an observer of the same
custom8’?. He which with imposition of hands and prayer
did so great works of mercy for restoration of bodily health,
was worthily judged as able to effect the infusion of heavenly
grace into them whose age was not yet depraved with that
malice which might be supposed a bar to the goodness of
God towards them. They** brought him therefore young
children to put is hands upon them and pray.

[2.] After the ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, that which he had begun continued in the daily prac-
tice of his Apostles, whose prayer and imposition of hands
were a mean whereby thousands became partakers of the won-
derful gifts of God. The Church had received from Christ
a promise that such as have believed in him these signs and
tokens should follow them’. “ To cast out devils, to speak
« with tongues, to drive away serpents, to be free from the
“ harm which any deadly poison could work, and to cure
*‘ diseases by imposition of hands.” Which power, common
at the first in a manner unto a// believers, all believers had
not power to derive or communicate unto all other men, but
whosoever was the instrument of God to instruct, convert and
baptize them, the gift of miraculous operations by the power

of the Holy Ghost they had not but only at the Apostles’

own hands%,. For which cause Simon Magus perceiving that
power to be in none but them, and presuming that they
which had it might sell it, sought to purchase it of them
with money®!.

85 2 Kings v.11. : 89 Mark xvi. 17.
86 Num. xxvii. 18. Acts xix. 6.
87 Matt. ix.18; Mark v. 23; viii. 22. 91 Acts vill. 17, 18.

88 Matt. xix.13; Mark x.13; Luke xviii.15.

Miraculous Gifts continued after the Apostles. 339

[3.] And as miraculous graces of the Spirit continued after
the Apostles’ time®?; (“ for,’ saith Irenweus, “ they which
“are truly his disciples do in his name and through grace
«« received from him such works for the benefit of other men
*‘ as every of them is by him enabled to work; some cast out
«« devils, insomuch as they which are delivered from wicked
“spirits have been thereby won unto Christ, and do con-
“ stantly persevere in the church and society of faithful men ;
« some excel in the knowledge of things to come, in the grace
“ of visions from God, and the gift of prophetical prediction ;
« some by laying on their hands restore them to health which
“ are grievously afflicted with sickness; yea there are that of
“ dead have been made alive and have afterwards many years
© conversed with us. What should I say? The gifts are innu-
“ merable wherewith God hath enriched his Church through-
“ out the world, and by virtue whereof in the name of Christ
“ crucified under Pontius Pilate the Church every day doth
“ many wonders for the good of nations, neither fraudulently
*‘ nor in any respect of lucre and gain to herself, but as freely
** bestowing as God on her hath bestowed his divine graces ;”’)
so it no where appeareth that ever any did by prayer and im-
position of hands sithence the Apostles’ times make others
partakers of the like miraculous gifts and graces, as long as it
pleased God to continue the same in his Church, but only
Bishops the Apostles’ successors for a time even in that power.
St. Augustine acknowledgeth that such gifts were not per-
mitted to last always, lest men should wax cold with the com-
monness of that the strangeness whereof at the first inflamed
them, Which words of St. Augustine declaring how the

92 Tren. lib. ii. cap. 57. [p. 188.
Aw kat ev T® €keivou dvopart oi
adnOas avrod pabnrai, Tap avrov
AaBdvres THY xapy, emiTeNovow er
evepyeoig 7 TOV Aoum@y dvOporar,
Kabas eis éxaoros avray THY Sepeay
evAne Tap avrov' of pev yap dai-
povas éXavvover BeBaiws kal ahn bas,
dore modhakis kal morevely avrous
e€xeivous TOvs kabapiobevras a amo TOV
movnpav mvevparor, kal eivar a7 TH
exxAnoia’ oi O€ kal mpdyvoow €xovat
Tav pedddvra@v, Kal dmtacias, Kal p7-
gets mpodntikds’ GAdou Se Tovs Kap-
vovras Sia THs TeV xeipay émiOécews

idvra., Kal byteis droxabioracw* 7n
de, kabos epaper, kal vekpot nyEp-

Onoar, kat mapépeway ov jpiy ixa-

vois ereot, kal Ti yap; ovK eoTw dpt-
Opov eimeiv Tov Xapioparar, ov kara
mavTos TOU kd pov u] éxxAnota Tapa
Geod AaBovoa, ey TO dvdpare “Ingo
Xpuorov, TOU oravpobévros emt Tlov~
tiou TlAdrou, éxaoTns Nuépas én
evepyecia TH TOV eOvaev EMLTEAEL, [ANTE
eLanaraod Twas, pnre eLapyuptto-
péevn’ as yap Sapedy etAnpe mapa
Geov, Swpeay kai diaxovei. |

%3 August. de Vera Relig. cap. 25.
[t.i. 763. ‘ F. Accipimus majores

Z2

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixvi. 3.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixvi. 4.

340 Confirmation by the Apostles’ Successors,

vulgar use of those miracles was then expired, are no preju-
dice to the like extraordinary graces more rarely observed in
some either then or of later days. :
[4.] Now whereas the successors of the Apostles had but
only for a time such power as by prayer and imposition of —
hands to bestow the Holy Ghost; the reason wherefore con-
firmation nevertheless by prayer and laying on of hands hath
hitherto always continued, is for other very special benefits
which the Church thereby enjoyeth. The Fathers every where
impute unto it that gift or grace of the Holy Ghost, not
which maketh us first Christian men, but when we are made
such, assisteth us in all virtue, armeth us against temptation
and sin. For, after baptism administered, “ there followeth,”
saith Tertullian, “imposition of hands with invocation and
‘ invitation of the Holy Ghost, which willingly cometh down
‘«‘ from the Father to rest upon the purified and blessed bodies,
“as it were acknowledging the waters of baptism a fit seat.” :
St. Cyprian in more particular manner alluding to that effect
of the Spirit which here especially was respected%, “ How
« great,” saith he, “is that power and force wherewith the
« mind is here” (he meaneth in baptism) “ enabled, being not
‘¢ only withdrawn from that pernicious hold which the world
* before had of it, not only so purified and made clean that
“¢ no stain or blemish of the enemy’s invasion doth remain, but
over and besides” (namely through prayer and imposition of

“nostros eo gradu fidei, quo a
‘** temporalibus ad eterna conscen-
*¢ ditur, visibilia miracula (non enim
‘‘aliter poterant) secutos esse: per
** quos id actum est, ut necessaria
“non essent posteris. Cum enim
** Ecclesia catholica per totum orbem
** diffusa atque fundata sit, nec mi-
* racula illa in nostra tempora du-
‘rare permissa sunt, ne animus
** semper visibilia quzereret, et eorum
** consuetudine frigesceret genus
*humanum, quorum novitate fla-
*‘ gravit: nec jam nobis dubium
“esse oportet lis esse credendum,
** qui cum ea predicarent que pauci
* assequuntur, se tamen sequendos
** populis persuadere potuerunt.””]
94 'Tertull. de Baptis. [c. 8. “ De-
“ hinc manus imponitur, per bene-

*‘ dictionem advocans et invitans
** Spiritum Sanctum....Tune ille
** sanctissimus Spiritus super emun-
** data et benedicta corpora libens
“a Patre descendit, super baptismi
*aquas tanquam pristinam sedem
** recognoscens conquiescit.” Vid.
Gen. i. 2.

9 Cypr. Tract. ad Donat. c. 2.
[t.i. p. 4. “ Quantus hic animi po-
“‘tentatus! quanta vis est! non
*‘tantum ipsum esse subtractum
*‘ perniciosis contactibus mundi, ut
*¢ qui expiatus et purus, nulla incur-
* santis inimici labe capiatur; sed
*‘ adhuc majorem et fortiorem viri-
** bus fieri, ut in omnem adversarii
* grassantis exercitum imperioso
** jure dominetur.”’}

with a View to ordinary Graces.. 341

hands) “ becometh yet greater, yet mightier in strength, so
“far as to reign with a kind of imperial dominion over the
«whole band of that roaming and spoiling adversary.” As
much is signified by Eusebius Emisenus saying, “ The Holy
“ Ghost which descendeth with saving influence upon the
“ waters of baptism doth there give that fulness which suf
“ ficeth for innocency, and afterwards exhibiteth in confirma-
tion an augmentation of further grace.” The Fathers
therefore being thus persuaded held confirmation as an or-
dinance apostolic always profitable in God’s Church, al-
though not always accompanied with equal largeness of those
external effects which gave it countenance at the first.

[5.] The cause of severing confirmation from baptism (for
most commonly they went together) was sometimes in the
minister, which being of inferior degree might baptize but
not confirm, as in their case it came to pass whom Peter and
John did confirm, whereas Philip had before baptized them?9 ;
and in theirs of whom St. Jerome hath said’, “ I deny not but
“the custom of the churches is that the Bishop should go
“ abroad, and imposing his hands pray for the gift of the
* Holy Ghost on them whom presbyters and deacons far off
“in lesser cities have already baptized.” Which ancient
custom of the Church St. Cyprian groundeth upon the
example of Peter and John in the eighth of the Acts before

% Euseb. Emis. Ser. de Pentec.
[P- 572. par. i. tom. v. Biblioth.

atr. Colon. “‘ Spiritus Sanctus, qui
*‘ super aquas baptismi salutifero
** descendit illapsu, in fonte plenitu-
*‘ dinem tribuit ad innocentiam, in
* confirmatione augmentum preestat
*‘ ad gratiam.” Hooker, b. vi. ex-
presses an opinion that these ho-
milies were Salvian’s. |

97 Aug. de Trin. lib. xv. cap. 26.
[t. viii. 999. “* Quomodo ergo Deus
“non est, qui dat Sp. Sanctum?
“Immo quantus Deus est qui dat
“Deum! Neque enim aliquis
“discipulorum ejus dedit Sp.
‘Sanctum. Orabant quippe ut ve-
** niret in eos quibus manum impo-
*‘nebant, non ipsi eum dabant.
“Quem morem in suis Przpositis
“etiam nunc servat Ecclesia...

**¢ Unxit eum Deus Sp. Sancto.’
** Non utique oleo visibili, sed dono
** gratie, quod visibili significatur
“ unguento, quo baptizatos unguit
** Ecclesia... Nos accipere quidem
*‘ hoc donum possumus pro modu-
“lo nostro, effundere autem super
* alios non utique possumus; sed
“ut hoc fiat, Deum super eos, a
« quo hoc efficitur, invocamus.”’] ©
Heb. vi. 2.

9 Acts vill. 12—17.

1 Hieron. advers. Lucif. cap. 4.
[t. ii. p. 139. ‘‘ Non abnuo hance
esse ecclesiarum consuetudinem,
“ut ad eos qui longe in minoribus
** urbibus per presbyteros et diaconos
** baptizati sunt, episcopus ad invo-
** cationem Sancti Spiritus manum
‘* impositurus excurrat.”’ |

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixvi. s.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixvi. 6,

342 Case of Persons baptized in Heresy.

alleged?. The faithful in Samaria, saith he, “ had already |
« obtained baptism: only that which was wanting Peter and —
« John supplied, by prayer and imposition of hands to the —
« end the Holy Ghost might’ be poured upon them. Which —
“ also is done amongst ourselves, when they which be already —
*‘ baptized are brought to the Prelates of the Church to

* obtain by our prayer and imposition of hands the Holy
« Ghost.” By this it appeareth that when the ministers of
baptism were persons of inferior degree, the Bishops did —
confirm. whom such had before baptized.

[6.] Sometimes they which by force of their ecclesiastical

calling might do as well the one as the other, were notwith-—

standing men whom heresy had disjoined from the fellowship

of true believers. Whereupon when any man by them bap-—
tized and confirmed came afterwards to see and renounce —

their error, there grew in some churches very hot contention —
about the manner of admitting such into the bosom of the —

true Church, as hath been declared already in the question
of rebaptization. But the general received custom was oO
to admit them with imposition of hands and prayer.

which custom while some imagined the reason to be for that
heretics might give remission of sins by baptism, but not the
Spirit by imposition of hands because themselves had not —

y

|
.
Of
:

God’s Spirit, and that therefore their baptism might stand —
but confirmation must be given again: the imbecility of this
ground gave Cyprian occasion to oppose himself against the

practice of the Church herein, labouring many ways to prove
that heretics could do neither3, and, consequently, that their —

2 Cypr. Epist. 73. [c. 6.] ad Ju- “ ejusdem. majestas nominis non

baianum. [t. ii. p. 202. “ Baptizari “ prevalet manus impositione, quam —

“eos ultra non oportebat ; sed tan- ‘ valuisse contendunt in baptismi
‘* tummodo quod deerat, id a Petro ‘‘ sanctificatione? Nam si potest quis
“et Joanne factum est, ut oratione “extra Ecclesiam natus templum
“‘ pro eis habita, et manu imposita, ‘ Dei fieri, cur non possit super
‘ invocaretur et infunderetur super “ templum et Spiritus Sanctus in-
‘eos Spiritus Sanctus. Quod nunc “ fundi?...... Qui potest apud he-
‘“* quoque apud nos geritur, ut qui “ reticos baptizatus Christum in-
‘in Ecclesia baptizantur prepositis ‘“ duere, multo magis potest Spiritum
‘¢ ‘* Ecclesize offerantur,et per nostram ‘ Sanctum, quem Christus misit,
‘ orationem ac manus impositionem ‘ accipere.” et Ep. 75. Firmilianus
“ Spiritum Sanctum consequantur, Cypriano, p. 226. “ Si in nomine
“et signaculo Dominico consum- “ ‘Christi valuit foris baptisma ad
“ mentur.”’} “ hominem purgandum, in ejusdem
3 Ep. 74. ii. 213. “Cur eadem “ Christi nomine valere illic potuit

Imposition of Hands on reconciled Heretics. 343

baptism in all respects was as frustrate as their chrism ; for
_ the manner of those times was in confirming to use anointing’.
_ On the other side against Luciferians which ratified only the
baptism of heretics but disannulled their confirmations and
eonsecrations under pretence of the reason which hath been
_ before specified, “ heretics cannot give the Holy Ghost,”
St. Jerome proveth at large, that if baptism by heretics be
_ granted available to remission of sins, which no man receiveth
without the Spirit, it must needs follow that the reason taken
from disability of bestowing the Holy Ghost was no reason
wherefore the Church should admit converts with any new
imposition of hands. Notwithstanding because it might be
objected, that if the gift of the Holy Ghost do always join
itself with true baptism, the Church, which thinketh the
bishop’s confirmation after other men’s baptism needful for
the obtaining of the Holy Ghost, should hold an error,
St. Jerome hereunto maketh answer, that the cause of this
observation is not any absolute impossibility of receiving the
Holy Ghost by the sacrament of baptism -unless a bishop add
after it the imposition of hands, but rather a certain congruity
and fitness to honour prelacy with such preeminences, because
the safety of the Church dependeth upon the dignity of her
chief superiors, to whom if some eminent offices of power
above others should not be given, there would be in the
Church as many schisms as priests®. By which answer it

‘* et manus impositioad accipiendum
“ Spiritum Sanctum. Et incipient
“cetera quoque que apud here-
“ticos aguntur justa ac legitima
* videri.”? |

** Jaicum poenitentem per manus im-
** positionem et invocationem Spi-
*‘ ritus Sancti, sciens ab hereticis
‘* Spiritum Sanctum non posse con-
* ferri’. ..Orthod. .. .“ Quomodo di-

4 [Tertull. de Baptismo, c. 7.
“‘ Egressi de lavacro, perunguimur
-benedicta unctione de pristina
“* disciplina, qui ungui oleo de cornu
“in sacerdotium solebant.”” ‘This
seems to be the earliest mention of
Chrism. See Bingham, Antigq. xii.
3.2. From Tertullian’s mode of
speaking, it would seem to have been
then a settled and probably a general
custom. And Bishop Pearson (Lect.
in Act. Apost. v. 6.) considers it to
have been practised immediately
after the Apostles. ]

° [t. ii. 137.. Lucif. ‘ Ego recipio

*‘ cis, sine adventu Spiritus Sancti
*‘apud Arianos peccata posse di-
** mitti? Quomodo antiquis sordibus
** anima purgatur, que sanctum non
“habet Spiritum? Neque enim
** aqua lavat animam, sed prius ipsa
* Javatur a Spiritu, ut alios lavare
** spiritualiterpossit. ..Apparet, Bap-
** tisma non esse sine Spiritu Sancto
* |. .(p. 138.) Igitur si Arianus Spi-"
‘‘ritum Sanctum non potest dare,
** ne baptizare quidem potest: quia
** Ecclesie baptisma sine Spiritu
*Sancto nullum est’... (p. 139.)
* Lucif. ‘An nescis etiam ecclesia-

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixvi. 6.

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixvi. 4.

344: Confirmation now delayed more for Edification.

appeareth his opinion was, that the Holy Ghost is received

in baptism; that confirmation is only a sacramental comple-—

ment; that the reason why bishops alone did ordinarily con-
firm, was not because the benefit, grace, and dignity thereof
is greater than of baptism, but rather, for that by the Sacra-

ment of Baptism men being admitted into God’s Church, it

was both reasonable and convenient that if he baptize them
not unto whom the chiefest authority and charge of their
souls belongeth, yet for honour’s sake and in token of his
spiritual superiority over them, because to bless is an act of

authority®, the performance of this annexed ceremony should —

be sought for at his hands. Now what effect their imposition

of hands hath either after baptism administered by heretics —

or otherwise, St. Jerome in that place hath made no mention,
because all men understood that in converts it tendeth to the
fruits of repentance, and craveth in behalf of the penitent
such grace as David after his fall desired at the hands of
God’? ; in others the fruit and benefit thereof is that which
hath been before shewed.

[7.] Finally sometime the cause of severing confirmation
from baptism was in the parties that received baptism being
infants, at which age they might be very well admitted to
live in the family; but because to fight in the army of God,
to discharge the duties of a Christian man, to bring forth the

eS eee ee Se ee

fruits and to do the works of the Holy Ghost their time of —

ability was not yet come (so that baptism were not deferred)
there could by stay of their confirmation no harm ensue but
rather good. For by this mean it came to pass that children
in expectation thereof were seasoned with the principles of
true religion before malice and corrupt examples depraved

‘rum hune esse morem, ut bapti-
** zatis postea. manus imponantur,
* et ita invocetur Spiritus Sanctus?
** Ex quo animadvertes nos Ecclesiz
** consuetudinem sequi, licet ante
** advocationem Spiritus constet ali-
** quem baptizatum’...Orthod....
** ¢ Si hoc loco queris, quare in Ec-
* clesia baptizatus nisi per manus
“* episcopi non accipiat Sp. Sanctum,
** quem omnes asserimus in vero
*¢ baptismate tribui: disce hane ob-
servationem ex ea autoritate de-

** scendere, qua post ascensum Do-
“mini Sp. Sanctus ad Apostolos
** descendit. Et multis in locis idem
“ factum reperimus, ad honorem
** potius sacerdotii quam ad legis
** necessitatem ... Ecclesiz salus in
‘* summi sacerdotis dignitate pendet:
*‘ cul si non exsors quedam et ab
** omnibus eminens detur potestas,
** tot in ecclesiis efficientur schis-
** mata, quot sacerdotes.’ ’’]

6 Heb. vii. 7.

7 Psalm li. t1o—12.

Growing Neglect of Confirmation. 345

_ their minds, a good foundation was laid betimes for direction
of the course of their whole lives, the seed of the Church of
God was preserved sincere and sound, the prelates and
fathers of God’s family to whom the cure of their souls
belonged saw by trial and examination of them a part of
their own heavy burden discharged, reaped comfort by be-
holding the first beginnings of true godliness in tender years,
glorified Him whose praise they found in the. mouths of
infants, and neglected not so fit opportunity of giving every
one fatherly encouragement and exhortation. Whereunto
imposition of hands and prayer being added, our warrant for
the great good effect thereof is the same which Patriarchs,
Prophets, Priests, Apostles, Fathers and men of God have
had for such their particular invocations and benedictions, as
no man I suppose professing truth of religion will easily think
to have been without fruit.

[8.] No, there is no cause we should doubt of the benefit,
but surely great cause to make complaint of the deep neglect
of this Christian duty® almost with all them to whom by
right of their place and calling the same belongeth. Let
them not take it in evil part, the thing is true, their small
regard hereunto hath done harm in the Church of God.
That which error rashly uttereth in disgrace of good things?

8 [Caudry in Strype, Aylm. 89.
‘The Bishops themselves, for the
** most part, these twenty-nine years,
*‘ had not observed it,” (the Book
of Common Prayer). . .“‘ in not con-
« firming of children.” Archbishop
Whitgift writes, in a circular letter,
Sept. 1591, “ 1am very sorry to hear
* that my brethren, the Bishops of
** the province of Canterbury, do so
“ generally begin to neglect to con-
*¢ firm children; at least, to call for
** and exact both the use of it, and
** of the catechising children in the
** Church by the minister.”’ Strype,
Whitg. iii. 289. ]

9[Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 725.
** As for confirmation, as they use
**it by the Bishop alone to them
* that lack both discretion and faith,
** it is superstitious, and not agree-
“able to the word of God, but
*‘ popish and peevish. We speak

** not of other toys used in it: and
* how far it differeth from the first
* institution, they themselves that
** are learned can witness.” | T.C.
lib.i. p. 199.[160.] ‘* Tell me why
“there should be any such con-
** firmation in the Church, being
** brought in by the feigned decretal
* epistles of the Popes,”’ (this is re-
tracted by the same T. C. lib. iii. p.
232. ‘* That it is ancienter than the
“feigned decretal epistles I yield
“ unto :”) “and no one tittle thereof
** being once found in the Scripture,
* and seeing that it hath been so
** horribly abused, and not neces-
** sary, why ought it not to be ut-
*‘ terly abolished? and thirdly this
** confirmation hath many dangerous
* points in it. The first step of
‘* popery in this confirmation is the
‘* Jaying on of hands upon the head
** of the child, whereby the opinion

BOOK V.

Ch, lxvi. 8.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixvi. 9.

346 Minor Objections to episcopal Confirmation.

may peradventure be sponged out, when the print of those
evils which are grown through neglect will remain behind.
[9.] Thus much therefore generally spoken may serve for

answer unto their demands that require us to tell them “ why
“there should be any such confirmation in the Church,”

seeing we are not ignorant how earnestly they have pro-—
tested against it; and how directly (although untruly, for so _
they are content to acknowledge) it hath by some of them —
been said to be “first brought in by the feigned decretal
“‘ epistles of the Popes ;” or why it should not be “ utterly —
“ abolished, seeing that no one tittle thereof can be once —

“ found in the whole Scripture,”

Hebrews be Scripture!°; and again seeing that how free
soever it be now from abuse, if we look back to the times

except the epistle to the

past, which wise men do always more respect than the

present, it hath been abused, and is found at the length zo
such profitable ceremony as the whole silly Church of Christ —

for the space of these sixteen hundred years hath through
want of experience imagined ; last of all “ seeing’’ also besides

the cruelty which is shewed towards poor country people, —

who are fain sometime to let their ploughs stand still, and
with incredible wearisome toile of their feeble bodies to
wander over mountains and through woods it may be now
and then little less than a whole “ half-score of miles” for a

‘* that it isa sacrament is confirmed,
** especially when as the prayer doth
*‘ say that it is done according to
** the example of the Apostles, which
*‘is a manifest untruth, and taken
‘* indeed from the popish confirma-
“tion. ‘The second is for that the
** bishop as he is called must be the
“only minister of it, whereby the
* popish opinion which esteemeth
“it above baptism is confirmed.
** For whilst baptism may be minis-
** tered of the minister, and not con-
** firmation but only of the bishop,
*‘ there is great cause of suspicion
** given to think that baptism is not
“so precious a thing as confirma-
“ tion, seeing this was one of the
*‘ principal reasons whereby that
** wicked opinion was established in
*‘ popery. I do not here speak of
‘the inconvenience, that men are

‘* constrained with charges to bring
“their children oftentimes half a
*‘ score miles for that which if it
‘were needful might be as well
** done at home in their own parishes.

~~
—

Le

“The third is for that the book ~

‘* saith a cause of using confirmation
** is that by imposition of hands and
‘“‘ prayer the children may receive
“strength and defence against all
** temptations, whereas there is no
** promise that by the laying on of
**hands upon children any such
** oift shall be given; and it main-
** taineth the popish distinction, that
*‘ the Spirit of God is given at bap-
*‘tism unto remission of sins, and
“in confirmation unto strength.”
(Comp. Whitg. Def. 785; T.C. iii.
232; Learned Disc. ap. Bridges,
Def. of Gov. p. 806.]
10 Heb. vi. 2.

Summary Answer to those Objections. 347

_ bishop’s blessing, “which if it were needful might as well be Booxv.

“ done at home in their own parishes,” rather than they to
_ purchase it with so great loss and so intolerable pain; there
are they say in confirmation besides this, three terrible points.
he first is “laying on of hands with preterice that the
_ same is done to the example of the Apostles,” which is not
only as they suppose “a manifest untruth!” (for all the
_ world doth know that the Apostles did never after baptism
lay hands on any, and therefore St. Luke which saith they did
was much deceived!?) but farther also we thereby teach men
to think imposition of hands a sacrament, belike because it is
a principle engrafted by common light of nature in the minds
of men that all things done by apostolic example must needs
be sacraments.

The second high point of danger is, that by “tying confir-

** mation to the bishop alone there is great cause of suspicion

“ oiven to think that baptism is not so precious a thing as
* confirmation :” for will any man think that a velvet coat is
of more price than a linen coif, knowing the one to be an or-
dinary garment, the other an ornament which only sergeants
at law do wear?

Finally, to draw to an end of perils, the last and the

weightiest hazard is where the book itself doth say that chil-
dren by imposition of hands and prayer may receive strength
against all temptation: which speech as a two-edged sword
doth both ways dangerously wound; partly because it as-
cribeth grace to imposition of hands, whereby we are able no
more to assure ourselves in the warrant of any promise from
God that his heavenly grace shall be given, than the Apostle
was that himself should obtain grace by the bowing of his
knees to God!3; and partly because by using the very word
strength in this matter, a word so apt to spread infection, we
“ maintain” with “ popish” evangelists an old forlorn “ dis-
“ tinction” of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon Christ’s Apostles
before his ascension into heaven!‘, and “ augmented” upon
them afterwards'5, a distinction of grace infused into Christian

11 [So 2 Adm. 42. **It hath no 13 Ephes. iii. 14.
“ground out of the Scriptures at 14 John xx. 22.
* all.””] 19 Acts i. 8.

12 Acts vill. 15,17.

Ch. lxvi. 9.

348 The Eucharist: its Province, to nourish divine Life.

Book v. men by degrees, planted in them at the first by baptism,
enon at after cherished, watered, and (be it spoken without offence)
strengthened as by other virtuous offices which piety and true
religion teacheth, even so by this very special benediction
whereof we’ speak, the rite or ceremony of Confirmation. ;
OftheSa- LXVII. The grace which we have by the holy Eucharist
eg eel doth not begin but continue life. No man therefore receiveth
and Blood this sacrament before Baptism, because no dead thing is
Joga capable of nourishment. That which groweth must of neces-
sity first live. If our bodies did not daily waste, food to re-
store them were a thing superfluous. And it may be that the ©
grace of baptism would serve to eternal life, were it not that —
the state of our spiritual being is daily so much hindered and
impaired after baptism. In that life therefore where neither —
body nor soul can decay, our souls shall as little require this —
‘sacrament as our bodies corporal nourishment, but as long as —
the days of our warfare last, during the time that we are both
subject to diminution and capable of augmentation in grace, —
the words of our Lord and Saviour Christ will remain forcible,
« Except 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 re-
ceive the grace of his Spirit without any sense or feeling of
the 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 ho-
liness and virtue we see and can judge of them, we under-
stand 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 sacramentally presented the

16 John vi. 53.

=p =-—-

State of the Sacramentarian Controversy.

349

very taste of eternal life, the grace of the sacrament is here
as the food which we eat and drink.

[2.] This was it that some did exceedingly fear, lest Zuin-
glius!7 and Cicolampadius would bring to pass, that men
should account of this sacrament but only as of a shadow,

destitute, empty and void of Christ.

But seeing 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 dy means of this sacrament; wherefore should the
world continue still distracted and rent with so manifold con-
tentions, when there remaineth 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 presence.

Whereby the question is yet driven to

@ narrower issue, nor doth any thing rest doubtful but this,
whether when the sacrament is administered Christ be whole
within man only, or else his body and blood be also externally
seated in the very consecrated elements themselves; which
opinion they that defend are driven either to consubstantiate
and incorporate Christ with elements sacramental, or to ¢ran-
- substantiate 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

17 [E. g. Zuingl. De Vera et Falsa
Relig. Opp. ii. f. 202. ‘* Qui in hac
** publica gratiarum actione interes-
* set toti se Ecclesiz probaret ex
**eorum esse numero, qui Christo
** pro nobis exposito fiderent....
** Unde et Communio sive Commu-
“nicatio apud Paulum vocatur.”
fol. 204. ‘ Christus est anime
*‘ cibus, quod ea dum videt Deum
** Filio unigenito non pepercisse, ...
* certa fit gratize Dei salutisque.”
f. 207. (after exposing the doctrine
of gross corporal manducation) he
adds, “ Liberum cuique de spirituali
** manducatione utcunque velit sen-
** tire, modo Christi non suis nitatur
** placitis.” f. 212. ‘* Est Eucha-
*“‘ristia, sive Synaxis, sive Coena

** Dominica, nihil aliud quam Com-
** memoratio, qua ii qui se Christi
‘* morte et sanguine firmiter credunt
* Patri reconciliatos esse, hanc vi-
*talem mortem annunciant.” fol.
213. *‘ Augustinum, pre aliis acuto
** perspicacique ingenio virum, sua
*‘tempestate non fuisse ausum di-
** serte veritatem proloqui, que jam
** casum magna parte dederat. Vidit
** omnino pius homo quid hoc sacra-
** mentum esset, et in quem usum
** esset institutum ; verum invaluerat
= — de corporea carne.”’ |

18 [Chiefly by the influence of
Calvin on the one side and Melanc-
thon on the other. See Mosheim,
K. H. Cent. xvi. § iii. p. ii. c. 1, n°
27. and c. 2, n° 12.]

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixvii. 2.

BOOK V,
Ch. lxvii. 3.

350 Contrast between the Disciples and Capernaites.

as they imagine is abolished and his succeeded in the same
room.

[3.] All things considered 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 them-
selves to meditate with silence what we have by the sacra-
ment, and less to dispute of the manner how? If any man
suppose 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 inquisitive,
yea in other cases of less importance and less difficulty 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 expectation. 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

—eogitation, and in that case casteth off those disputes where-

unto the intellectual part at other times easily draweth.

A manifest effect whereof may be 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 the sea of
Tiberias, and finding him again as soon as themselves by ship
were arrived on the contrary side, whither they knew that by
ship he came not, and by land the journey was longer than
according to the time he could have to travel, as they wondered
so they asked also, “ Rabbi, when camest thou hither!9 ?”
The disciples when ‘Christ appeared to them in far more
strange and miraculous manner moved no question, but re-
joiced greatly in that they saw. For why? The one sort beheld
only that in Christ which they knew was more than natural, but

19 John vi. 25.

The Apostles how affected by the first Eucharist. 351

- yet their affection was not rapt therewith through any great
- extraordinary 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 dis-
puted, the other disputed not because they enjoyed.

___ [4.] 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
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
appointeth, when they saw their Lord and Master with hands
and eyes lifted up to heaven 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 instruments 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 duly 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 ;” possible that doing what was re-
quired 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 them-
selves? 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 exercising of our curious and subtile
wits.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixvii. 46

352 Christ really present in the worthy Receiver.

Pg Sg ae 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 bread and cup are —
his body and blood because they are causes instrumental upon
the receipt whereof the participation of his body and blood
ensueth. For that which produceth any certain effect is not
vainly nor improperly 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 influ-
ence 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.

[6.] The real presence of Christ’s most blessed body and
blood is not therefore to be sought for in the sacrament, but in
the worthy receiver of the sacrament.

And with this the very order of our Saviour’s words
agreeth, first “take and eat ;” then “ this is my Body which
“ was broken for you:” 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 gathered 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 re-
ceiveth them. As for the sacraments, they really exhibit,
but for aught we can gather out of that which is written of
them, they are not really nor do really contain in themselves

20 Mark xiv. 22; [Matt. xxvi. 26-28.]

353

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 al-
though 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 par-
takers of his body and blood except they be first contained in

the sacrament, or the sacrament converted into them. “ This
“is my body,” and “ this is my blood,” being words of pro-
mise, sith we 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 con-
substantiation, 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, be-
cause our participation of Christ in this sacrament dependeth
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 nor inquire”.

His Presence in the Elements not an essential Doctrine.

21 [Chr. Letter, 35. ‘Instruct ‘“‘ or to be contended for, cared for

* us, whether the institution of the
* sacrament by Christ... bee not
‘the true and right making of it
«© Christe’s bodie and blood unto us,
** and upon what ground of Scrip-
** ture it may be proved that the co-
‘* operation of his omnipotent power
** doeth make it his bodie and blood
* unto us, and in what sense.”
Hooker, MS. note. ‘“ God by
‘‘ this. . .doctrine did but at the first
** institute, and doth now no further
** meddle with the ministery thereof
** by assisting it any way to take ef-
** fect in men’s soules through the
“ power of his holy Spirit.”
22[Chr. Letter, 34. ‘‘ In which
‘‘ words you seeme to make light of
© the doctrine of Transubstantiation,
** as a matter not to be stoode upon

HOOKER, VOL. II.

*‘ or enquired into: which maketh
“us to marvell how our Church
‘and Reverend Fathers have all
this time passed been deceaved.
“What should cause them to af-
** firme it to bee a thing contrarie to
**the playne wordes of Scripture,
** overturning the nature of the Sa-
*‘crament ; to call it monstrous
** doctrine; why so manie reverend
‘* Fathers, as Cranmer, Ridley,
** Hooper, Latimer, Rogers, Brad-
*‘ ford, &c. have given their lives
‘in witnes against it, if it bee a
* thinge that neither furthereth nor
‘** hindreth, a thing not to bee cared
“ for, nor enquired after ?”’

Hooker, MS. note. ‘“ Not to be
** stood upon or contended for by
“them, because it is not a thing

Aa

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixvii. 6,

BOOK V,

Ch. Ixvii. 7.

854 Agreement of Catholics touching the real Presence :

[7.] Take therefore that wherein all agree, and then con-—
sider by itself what cause why the rest in question should not —
It is

rather be left as superfluous than urged as necessary.
on all sides plainly confessed, first that this sacrament is a

true and a 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 4

receiver doth thereby incorporate or unite himself unto Christ

as a mystical member of him, yea of them also whom he 4

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

“ necessary, although because it is
* false, as long as they doe persist
*‘ to maintaine and urge it, there is
** no man so grosse as to thinke in
“this case wee may neglect it.
« Against them it is therefore said,
“They ought not to stand in it as
“in a matter of faith, nor to make
‘* so high accompt of it, inasmuch as
‘** the Scripture doth only teach the
** communion of Christ in the holy
** Sacrament, and neither the one
“nor the other way of preparation
“thereunto. It sufficed to have be-
“ lieved this, and not by determining
“the manner how God bringeth it
“to passe, to have intangled them-
“selves with opinions so strange,
*‘so impossible to be proved true.
“‘'They should have considered in
** this. particular Sacrament that
“which Bellarmine acknowledgeth
** of Sacraments in generall, It is a
** matter of faith to believe that sa-
** craments are instruments wherby
** God worketh grace in the soules
*‘ of men, but the manner how he
* doth it is not a matter of faith.”
Again, p.33. ‘* Whereas popish
** doctrine doth hold that priests by
** wordes of consecration make the
“reall, my whole discourse is to
** shew that God by the Sacrament
‘maketh the mysticall bodie of
“Christ: and that seing in this
** point as well Lutherans as Papists
** agree with us, which only point
** conteineth the benefit wee have of
“the Sacrament, it is but needles
* and unprofitable for them to stand,

“the one upon consubstantiation,

3

ES Pt oti

“and upon transubstantiation the —
** other, which doctrines they neither _
“can prove nor are forced by any ©

*‘ necessity to maintein, but might
** very well surcease to urge them, ~
** if they did hartily affect peace, and —

** seeke the quietnes of the Church.

See Bulinger De Eucharistia,

See Calvin’s Institutions, —
See an Epistle of Frithus in the —
booke of Martyrs touching this —

p. Il.

point. Foxe, Acts and Monu-
ments, t. il. 1034.
“they, ‘ dost thou not think that
*‘ his very natural body, flesh, blood
“and bone, is contained under
** the Sacrament, and there present,

** without all figure or similitude?? —

** « No,’ said I, ‘ I do not so think.
** Notwithstanding I would not that
“any should count, that I make my
** saying, which is the negative,
** any article of faith. For even as
* T say, that you ought not to make
‘“‘ any necessary article of the faith
** of your part, (which is the affirma-

** tive,) so I say again, that we make ~

“no necessary article of the faith of
“our part, but leave it indifferent
“ for all men to judge therein, as
** God shall open his heart, and no
** side to condemn or despise the
‘* other, but to nourish in all things
“brotherly love, and one to bear
** another’s infirmity.” And p. 1035.

« T will not hold it as an article of ©

‘faith, but that you may without
‘“* danger or damnation either believe
* it or think the contrary.”’]

“< Well,’ said —

ss

ee ~~ _ S

. dh

~

The Sacramentaries wrongly charged with denying it. 355

sanctifieth him which is their head; thirdly that what merit,
_ force or virtue soever there is in his sacrificed body and blood,
- we freely fully and wholly have it by this sacrament; fourthly
- that the effect thereof m us is a real transmutation of our souls
and bodies from sin to righteousness, from death and corrup-
_ tion 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.
_ [8.] It seemeth therefore much amiss that against them
whom ,they term Sacramentaries so many invective discourses
are made all running 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 are thus
traduced 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 import 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.

[9.] Now whereas all three opinions do thus far accord in
one, that strong conceit which two of the three have embraced
as touching a literal, corporal and oral manducation of the
very substance 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 understand
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. participa-

Aa 2

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixvii. 8, 9.

356 Corporal Presencé contradicted by 8. John vi.63: how ©

BooK v. tion giveth life. Wherein there is small appearance of likeli-
ern.” hood 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 a 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.

[10.] 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 presence ~
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 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 to-—
gether 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 transub-
stantiation followeth upon the words of consecration, and upon
transubstantiation the participation of Christ’s both body and
blood in the only shape of sacramental elements.

So that they all three do plead God’s omnipotency: sacra-
mentaries to that alteration which the rest confess he accom-
plisheth ; the patrons of transubstantiation over and besides
that to the change of one substance into another ; the followers
of consubstantiation to the kneading up of both substances as
it were into one lump.

[11.] 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

maintained by Lutherans, Romanists, and the Fathers. 357

that Christ hath as truly the substance of man as of God, BOOK v.

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?3, thus Ireney24,
thus Theodoret2> 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; 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
consecrated elements changeth them and maketh them that

23 « Acceptum panem et distribu-
* tum discipulis corpus suum illum
** fecit, ‘hoc est corpus meum’ di-
“* cendo, id est figura corporis mei.
“Figura autem non fuisset nisi
* veritatis esset corpus, cum vacua
‘res quod est phantasma figuram
** capere non posset.”” Tertull. con-
tra Marc. lib. iv. cap. 40.

24 «Secundum hec” (that is to
say if it should be true which heretics
have taught denying that Christ
took upon him the very nature of
man) “nec Dominus sanguine suo
* redemit nos, neque calix Eucha-
*‘ ristie communicatio sanguinis
‘‘ ejus erit, nec panis quem frangi-
** mus communicatio corporis ejus
“est. Sanguis enim non est nisi
‘a venis et carnibus et a reliqua
** quee est secundum hominem sub-
*‘ stantia.” Tren. lib.v. cap. 2. [p.

395:

$1 Ei roivyy rod dvros oaparos
avrirund éort Ta Ocia puornpia, copa
apa €ott kal viv rod Seamdrov rd
gopa, ovk eis Oedrnros vow pera-
BrnOev Gdra Oeias SdEns avarAnobev.
Theodor. ’Acvyxuros. [Dial. ii. t.iv.

rs I. p. 125.

Pas « Dieanouts quidem quantum
** in se est sine propria virtute esse
‘non possunt, nec ullo modo se
‘* absentat majestasmysteriis.”’Cypr.
de Coen. cap. 7. [p. 41. ad calc. ed.
Fell.

27 «Sacramento visibili ineffabiliter
** divina se infudit essentia, ut esset

* religioni circa sacramenta devotio.”
Idem cap. 6. ‘“Invisibilis sacerdos
** visibiles creaturas in substantiam
** corporis et sanguinis sui verbo
‘* suo secreta potestate convertit ...
** In spiritualibus sacramentis verbi
** precipit virtus et [rei] servit ef-
* fectus.” Euseb. Emisen. Hom.
5. de Pasch. [p. 560. par.i. t. v.
Biblioth. Patr. Colon. |

28 [Eran.| Ta ovpBoda rod deo
ToTiKOd G@pards Te Kal aipuros GAAa
pev eiot mpo TS leparixiis emiKAn=
oews, peta O€ ye THY EmikAnow peTa~
Badrdera Kai Erepa yivera, [Orth.]
> > > > , 327 ’
AAN ovK oikeias e€icrata pvoews.
Meve: yap emt ths mpotépas ovcias
kal TOU oxnpaTos Kal Tod eidous, Kal
épard éort kal ara oia Kal mpdrepov
Ys voeirat be Gmep eyevero, kal muo=
TEVETAL, KAL TWPOTKVVELTAL @S EKELVA
évta dmep mioreverar. Theodor.
[Dial. ii. p. 126.] ‘“‘ Ex quo a
‘© Domino dictum est, Hoc facite in
**meam commemorationem, Hec
* est caro mea, et Hic est sanguis
** meus, quotiescunque his verbis et
‘* hac fide actum est, panis iste su-
‘* persubstantialis et calix benedic-
**tione solenni sacratus ad totius
“hominis vitam salutemque profi-
“cit.” Cypr. de Coen. cap. 3.
** Immortalis alimonia datur, a com-
** munibus cibis differens, corpora~
“lis substantie retinens speciem
** sed virtutis divine invisibili effi-
*‘cientia probans adesse presen-
*tiam.” Ibid, cap. 2.

BOOK V.

Ch. ixvii. 11.

358 Use to be made by a devout Mind

unto us which otherwise they could not be; that to us they are
thereby made such instruments as mystically29 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 transub-—

stantiation in us, a true change®® 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 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 consubstantiation of
Christ with those sanctified and blessed elements before we
receive them, or of the like transubstantiation of them into the
body and blood of Christ. Which both to our mystical com-
munion with Christ are so unnecessary, that the Fathers who

29 ««Sensibilibus sacramentis inest
** vitee eeterne effectus, et non tam
*‘ corporali quam spirituali transi-
** tione Christo unimur. Ipse enim
* et panis et caro et sanguis, idem
“ cibus et substantia et vita factus
“est Ecclesiz suze quam corpus
** suum appellat, dans ei participa-
*tionem spiritus.” Cyprian. de
Coen. cap. 5. “ Nostra et ipsius
*‘conjunctio nec muscet personas
*“ nec unit substantias, sed effectus
* consociat et confoederat volun-
“tates.” Ibid. cap. 6. ‘ Mansio
** nostra in ipso est manducatio, et
* potus quasi quedam incorpora-
“tio.” Ibid. cap. g. ** Ille est in
** Patre per naturam divinitatis, nos
** in eo per corporalem ejus nativi-
*tatem, ille rursus in nobis per
‘* Sacramentorum mysterium.” Hi-
Jar. de Trin. lib. viii. [§ 15.]

30 «Panis hic azymus cibus ve-
*‘rus et sincerus per speciem et
“* sacramentum nos tactu sanctificat,
** fide illuminat, veritate Christo
* conformat.” Cypr. de Coen. c. 6.
* Non aliud agit participatio corpo-
“ris et sanguinis Christi quam ut
‘in id ude. sumimus transeamus,

‘* et in quo mortui et sepulti et cor-
** resuscitati sumus ipsum per om-
* nia et spiritu et carne gestemus.”
Leo de Pass. Serm. 14. [c. 5. fin.]}
* Quemadmodum qui est a terra
‘** panis percipiens Dei vocationem”
(id est facta invocatione divini nu-
minis) ‘‘jam non communis panis
“ est, sed Eucharistia, ex duabus
** rebus constans terrena et ccelesti:
** sic et corpora nostra percipientia
** Eucharistiam jam non sunt cor-
‘* ruptibilia, spem resurrectionis ha-
** bentia.” Iren. lib. iv. cap. 34. [al.
18. ws dd yijs apros mpocAapPBavé-
pevos Thv ExkAnoww Tod CeEod ovKere
Kowos dptos €oriv, add’ edyapioria,
éx d00 mpaypatav suveotnkvia, émt-
yeiov Te Kal ovpaviov' ovTas Kal Ta
copata nuav petratauBdvovra tis
evxapiotias pnKere eivar POapra, Thy
éAridarns eis ai@vas avacrdcews Exov-
ra. t.i. p.251.ed. Bened. | * Quoniam
*‘ salutaris caro verbo Dei quod
‘* naturaliter vita est conjuncta vivi-
** fica effecta est, quando eam come-
‘“‘dimus, tune vitam habemus in
“nobis, illi carni conjuncti que
“* vita effecta est.”? Cyril. in Johan.
lib. iv. cap. 14. [t.iv. 361. C.]

of the Controversies regarding the Lord’s Supper. 359

_ 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.

____[12.] These things considered, how should that mind which
loving truth and seeking comfort out of holy mysteries 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 judg-
“ ments and opinions argueth obscurity in those things where-
“about 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 therefore there are but three exposi-
“ tions 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
« Lutherans’ interpretation; the second, ‘this is itself and
“ before participation the very true and natural substance of my
body, by force of that Deity which with the words of consecra-
« tion abolisheth the substance of bread and substituteth im the
* place thereof my Body, which is the popish construction ;
“ the last, ‘ this hallowed food, through concurrence of divine
“ power, 1s in verity and truth, unto faithful receivers, imstru-
* mentally a cause of that mystical participation, whereby as I
« make myself wholly theirs, so I give them in hand an actual
* nossession of all such saving grace as my sacrificed body can
“« meld, and as thevr souls do presently need, this is to them and
“in them my 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 enforce,
“ 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 concerning the use and
* force of this sacrament, finally nothing but that wherewith
“ the writings of all antiquity are consonant and all Christian
“‘ confessions agreeable. And as truth in what kind soever is

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixvii. 12.

BOOK V.
Ch. lxvii, 12.

860 <Arguments by Analogy for the Grace of the Eucharist.

“by no kind of truth gainsayed, so the mind which resteth
‘itself on this is never troubled with those perplexities
** which the other do both find, by means of so great contradic-
* tion between their opinions and true principles of reason —
« orounded upon experience, nature and sense. Which albeit
“ with boisterous 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 instru-
** ments, 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, ‘ 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
* T 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 take what is offered,
“and most assuredly to rest persuaded of this, that can we
“ but eat we are safe? When I behold with mine eyes some
“ small and scarce discernible grain or seed whereof nature
« maketh 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 I simply credit nature in things natural, shall

31 [S. Matt. ix. 21.]

The Eucharist, the true Feast on Christ's Sacrifice. 361

«Tin 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 sublimity of matter, or else for secresy of
performance we are not able to reach unto, as we may be
“ jonorant 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 soundness

© of belief many times into great hazard. Let it therefore 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 secu-
“rity 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 cup hallowed with solemn benediction availeth to the

32 [Arnold. de Coena Dom. p.41. ‘a sapientibus hujus szculi judica-
** Cruci heremus, sanguinem sugi- ‘“‘ mur amentes..... Qui manducat
“mus, et inter ipsa Redemptoris ‘ ex hoc pane ultra non esurit; qui

“nostri vulnera figimus linguam: “ bibit, ultra non sitit.’”]
‘* quo interius exteriusque rubricati,

BOOK V.

Ch. lxvii. 12,

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixvii. 13.
lxviii. 1.

Of faults
noted in
the Form
of adminis-
tering the
Holy Com-
munion,

362

« endless life and welfare both of soul and body, in that it
« serveth as well for a medicine to heal our infirmities and
«purge 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 Christ3+; 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 cogita-
* tion possess the mind of a faithful communicant but this,
“ O my God thou art true, O my Soul thou art happy !”

[13.] Thus therefore we see that howsoever men’s opinions
do otherwise vary, nevertheless touching Baptism and the
Supper of the Lord, we may with consent of the whole
Christian world conclude they are necessary, the one to ini-
tiate or begin, the other to consummate or make perfect our
life in Christ. ,

LXVIII. In administering the Sacrament of the Body and
Blood of Christ, the supposed faults of the Church of England
are not greatly material, and therefore it shall suffice to touch
them in few words. “ The first is that we do not use in a gene-
* yality 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 use35, Our second oversight is by gesture.
“ For in kneeling there hath been superstition ; sitting agreeth
“ better to the action of a supper®; and our Saviour using
“ that which was most fit did himself not kneel37. A third
“ accusation is for not examining all communicants, 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®8, because all things necessary were used,

Faults found im our Communion Service :

33 [« Panis iste supersubstantialis
** et calix benedictione solenni sa-
“* cratus ad totius hominis vitam sa-

“Then it was delivered generally.
** and indefinitely, ‘Take ye and eat

“ve:

*‘ Jutemque proficit, simul medi-
** camentum et holocaustum ad sa-
* nandas infirmitates et purgandas
“ iniquitates existens.”” Arnold. p.

39.
34 bes above, p.358, § 11. note 3o. |
85{Adm. Ap. Whitg. Def. 600.

we particularly and singular-'
** ly, ‘Take thou and eat thou.’”] »
36 ['T. C. i. 165. al. 131. ]
87 |Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 596.
‘* They received it sitting ; we kneel-:
“ing according to Honorius’ de-.
“€ cree.”

$e Adm, ap. Whitg. Def. sor.

Popish Forms ; Want of Discipline. 363

- and this in their opinion is necessary, yea it is commanded
_ inasmuch as the Levites?9 are commanded to prepare the
« people for the Passover, and examination is a part of their
' © preparation, our Lord’s Supper in place of the Passover.
| © The fourth thing misliked is that against the Apostle’s pro-
_ hibition? to have any familiarity at all with notorious of-
_ fenders, papists being not of the Church are admitted to our
_ “very communion before they have by their religious and
_ gospel-like behaviour 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 have been store of people to hear
‘ sermon and service in the church we suffer the communion to
* be ministered to a few. It is not enough that our book of
* common prayer hath godly exhortations to move all there-
* unto which are present. For it should not suffer a few to
* communicate, it should by ecclesiastical discipline and civil
“‘ punishment provide that such as would withdraw themselves
“might be brought to communicate, according both to the
« 42]aw of God and the ancient church canons. In the sixth
and last place cometh the enormity of imparting this sacra-
* ment privately unto the sick+s.”

* There was then accustomed to be
‘an examination of the communi-
** cants which now is neglected.’’]

39 2 Chron. xxxv. 6.

40 ; Cor. v.11.

41 [Adm. ap. Whitg. 603. “‘ They
** shut men by reason of their sins
*¢ from the Lord’s Supper: we thrust
them in their sin to the Lord’s
‘‘ supper :”’ thus explained by T. C.
1.132. al.167. “If the place of the
‘© to the Corinth. do forbid that
‘we should have any familiarity
“with notorious offenders, it doth
** much more forbid that they should
“be received to the Communion.
** And therefore Papists being such,
‘as which are notoriously known
“to hold heretical opinions, ought
“not to be admitted, much less
*‘ compelled to the Supper.’’]

42 Num. ix.13; Can. ix. Apost.

[Coteler. PP. Apost. i. 443. Tldv-
Tas Tovs eloidvtas morovs eis THY
ayiay Geod éxxAnoiay, kal trav iepav
ypapay akovovtas, pi Tapayévortas
d€ ry mpocwevyn Kal TH ayia petadn-
Wet, ws dy drakiav éumowodrtas TH €k-
kAnoia, apopiferOa xpy.| Concil. 2.
Brac. cap. 83. [vid. Capitula Mar-
tini Episc. Bracar. cap. 83. apud
Concil. v. 914. “Si quis intrat
‘* ecclesiam Dei, et sacras scripturas
‘non audit, et pro luxuria sua
*‘ avertit se a communione sacra~
** menti, et in observandis mysteriis
* declinat constitutam regulam dis-
* cipline, istum talem ejiciendum
“© de Ecclesia Catholica decernimus,
** donec peenitentiam agat.”” |

43 [Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 525.
“A great number of things con-
** trary to the law of God, as private
«© Communion,” &c. T.C.115. al.

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixviii.1.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixviii, 2

364 The Eucharist ; Individual Appleation more edifying :

[2.] Thus far accused we answer briefly to the first44 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 our 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 brevity 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
consisteth 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 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 circumstance 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.

146. ‘‘The private communion is ‘“ Besides that it is good to leave the

** found fault with, both for the place
‘wherein it is ministered, and for
“the small number of communi-
“‘cants which are admitted by the
** book of service.” And p. 116. al.
147. “There is fault in the ap-
** pointing of the service book, not
* only for that it admitteth in the
“time of plague, that one with
“the minister may celebrate the
‘* Supper of the Lord in the house,
“but for that it ordaineth a com-
**munion in the church, when of
*“a great number which assemble
* there it admitteth three or four.”
44 TC. libois pina6ts al

‘* popish form in those things which
*‘ we may so conveniently do, it is
‘* best to come as near the manner
** of celebration of the supper which
* our Saviour Christ used as may
“be. And if it be a good argument
“to prove that therefore we must
* rather say Take thou than Take ye,
‘* because the sacrament is an appli-
* cation 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.”

365

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 unne-
cessary 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 particu-
lar hearer, a strange madness it were if we should. The soft-
ness of wax may induce a wise man to set his stamp or image
therein; it persuadeth no man that because 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 ridiculous absurdity, agreement of sacraments with
sermons in that which is alleged as a reasonable proof of con-
veniency for the one proveth not the same allegation imperti-
nent because it doth not enforce the other to be administered
in like sort. For equal principles do then avail unto equal
conclusions when the matter whereunto we apply them is
equal, and not else.

[3.] Our kneeling at Communions is the gesture of piety*.
If we did there present ourselves but to make some show or
dumb resemblance of a spiritual feast*, it may be that sitting

Kneeling more fit and respectful.

45 T. C. lib. i. p. 165. [131.]
““ Kneeling carrieth a show of wor-
** ship, sitting agreeth better with
** the action of the Supper. Christ
** and his Apostles kneeled not.”

46 [Adm. ap. Wh. Def. 599. “ In
“this book we are tinjoised to re-
* ceive the communion kneeling ;
** which beside that it hath in it a
** shew of papistry, doth not so well
** express the mystery of this holy
“supper. For as in the old Testa-
“ment eating the paschal lamb
** standing signified a readiness to
‘* pass, even so in the receiving of it
“ now sitting according to the exam-
** ple of Christ, we signify rest: i.e.
‘a full finishing through Christ of
‘¢ all the ceremonial law, and a per-
* fect work of redemption wrought,
** that giveth rest for ever. And so

** we avoid also the danger of idola-
** try, which was in times past too
** common, and yet is in the hearts
“of many.” h. Def. * What?
‘are you now come to allegories
** and to significations? Surely this
‘is a very papistical reason: nay
** then we can give you a great deal
** better significations of the surplice,
** of crossing, of the ring in mar-
** riage, and many other ceremonies,

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixviii. 3.

* than this is of sitting. I pray you -

‘in the whole Scripture where doth
* sitting signify a full finishing of
‘* the.ceremonial law, and a perfect
** work of redemption that giveth
** rest for ever?” ‘T. C. 132. al. 166.
** Let it be that this is not so sound
‘* a reason, (as indeed for my part I
‘* will not defend it, and the authors
** themselves have corrected it,) yet

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixviii. 4.

366 Eucharist: Examination by the Minister not essential.

were the fitter ceremony ; but coming as receivers of ines-
timable 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 long usage had made fit; we that which fitness
and great decency hath made usual.

[4.] The trial of ourselves before we eat of this bread and
drink of this cup is by express commandment every man’s
precise duty. As for necessity of calling others unto account47
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 necessary by affirming that the Apostles
did use it*8, and then prove the Apostles to have used it by
affirming it to be necessary; again49 albeit we greatly muse

‘<M. Doctor might have dealt easili-
‘“‘ er withall than to call it a papisti-
** cal reason, which is far from po-
** pery, and the reason of two notable
« Jearned and zealous men,J ohannes
« Alasco”’ (marg. ‘‘in Liturgia Ec-
“« cles. Peregr.”’ ‘ Alienum id a nobis
‘* maxime esse oportet, ut observa-
“tum a Christo Domino, ejusque
“‘demum etiam Apostolis, Conses-
“sum in cena Novi Testamenti
‘* jpsius, vanum, otiosum, omnique
‘‘ mysterio vacuum esse imagine-
“mur. Sed est nobis summa reli-
“gione observandum, longe pre-
*stantissimum illud plenumque
“‘ summe consolationis mysterium,
“* nostre jam quietis in Christo, ip-
** siusmet Christi Domini verbis no-
* bis commendatum.’”’ &c. p. 147.)
“and of M. Hooper in his Com-
‘* mentary upon the ProphetJonas.’’|

47 [Whitg. Answer, 96. al. 140.
** How prove you that there was
** then any examination of commu-
*“ nicants?....St. Paul saith, ‘ Let
*‘a man examine himself.’ But he
“speaketh of no other examina-
“tion.” T.C. i. 130. al. 164. “ M.
** Doctor asketh how it is proved
“that there was any examination
“ of the communicants. After this
“sort: all things necessary were
“used in the churches of God in
** the Apostles’ times; but examina-
** tion of those whose knowledge of

*‘ the mystery of the Gospel was not
** known, or doubted of, was a ne-
“cessary thing; therefore it was
** used in the churches of God which
** were in the Apostles’ time.”’]

48 'T. C. lib. i. p. 164. [130. and
ill. 149, 150.| All things necessary
were used in the churches of God
in the Apostles’ times, but examina-
tion was a necessary thing, there-
fore used. ‘‘ In the Book of Chro-
“nicles (2 Chron. xxxv. 6.) the
** Levites were commanded to pre-
** pare-the people to the receiving of
‘the passover, in place whereof we
“have the Lord’s Supper. Now
** examination being a part of the
‘* preparation it followeth that here
‘is commandment of the examina-
** tion.”

49 [Whitg. ubi sup. “ If there
*‘ had been either commandment or
“example for it in Scriptures, I
“am sure you would not have left
“it unquoted in the margent.”
T.C. ubisup. “In the second book
“* of the Chronicles he might have
* yead, that the Levites were com-
“ manded &c.” Wh. Def. 592.
** You betray the weakness of your
“cause too much, when you are
* constrained to run so far for a pre-
* cept....especially when you are
“compelled for want of other to
“* bring out ceremonial precepts long
“ago abrogated.... Why may not

Communion with Recusants not forbidden by St. Paul. 367

how they can avouch that God did command the Levites to Book v.

_ 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
Levites 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 selfsame place it followeth how
lambs and kids and sheep and bullocks were delivered unto
the Levites, and that thus “the service was made ready 5° ;”
it followeth likewise how the Levites having in such sort pro-
vided 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 communi-
cants when need requireth, for the profitable use it may have
in such cases, we reject not.

[5-] Our fault in admitting popish communicants, is it in
that we are forbidden*? to eat and therefore much more to
communicate with notorious malefactors>?? The name of a
papist is not given unto any man for being a notorious male-
factor. And the crime wherewith we are charged is suffering
of papists to communicate, so that be their life and conversa-
tion whatsoever in the sight of men, 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 con-
trary*+, All this doth not justify us, which ought not (they

*‘ the Papists as well use the same

“ for their auricular confession? ...
«« These words, ‘ Prepare your bre-
* thren,’ &c. are thus expounded by
“‘ Jearned interpreters: Exhort your
** brethren to examine themselves,
“‘ that they may be ready to eat the
** passover. Look the marginal note
** in the Geneva Bible.’’]

50 [2 Chr. xxxv. 10. |

51 | Ibid. 14. The same phrase oc-
curs Gen. xliii. 16. where Joseph
bids his servant “ slay and make
“ready.”” Comp. Josh.i.11. Cart-
wright was probably misled by the
Vulgate, which reads, “ Et fratres

“* vestros.... preeparate.”

63 Cor. v. 11; T.C. lib. ‘i. p.
167. 132. |

3 {The phrase in T. C. is “ no-
* torious offenders.” |

54 T. C. lib. i. p. 167. [133.]
«* Although they would receive the
‘communion, yet they ought to
“be kept back until such time
‘as by their religious and Gospel-
“like behaviour they have purged
“themselves of that suspicion of
‘*‘ popery which their former life
‘‘and conversation hath caused to
*‘ be conceived.” [ Eccles. Disc. fol.
129. “Cur sacra Dei mysteria

h, Ixviii. 5.

BOOK V.

Ch. lxviii. 6.

368 The Eucharist ; Admission of Recusants :

say) to admit them in any wise, till their gospel-like be-
haviour have removed all suspicion 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.”

[6.] What the terms of “ gospel-like behaviour” may in-
clude is obscure 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, Paganism which
lived in the blindness of corrupt and depraved nature; Juda-
ism embracing the Law which reformed heathenish impiety,
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 acknowledgeth him 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
define a man are to pass by those qualities wherein one man
doth excel another, and to take only those essential properties
whereby a man doth differ from creatures of other kinds, so
he that will teach what the Church is shall never rightly per-
form the work whereabout he goeth, till im matter of religion
he touch that difference which severeth the Church’s Religion
from theirs who are not the Church. Religion being there-
fore a matter partly of contemplation partly of action, we must
define the Church which is a religious society by such differ-
ences as do properly explain the essence of such things, that
is to say, by the object or matter whereabout the contempla-
tions 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 reli-
gions is Jesus Christ, in whom none but the Church doth
* Papistis communicamus, nec ante, ‘“ sacra cum incircumcisis et immun-
** apertam, publicam, sinceram vere “ dis communicantur, nec custodes
** religionis professionem exigimus? ‘ad portas adhibemus, neque im-

“Sacra Dei mysteria profanantur, “ mundos claustris circumscribi-
** gentes in templa Deiingrediuntur, mus,’’]

Defects compatible with Church Communion. 369

believe and whom none but the Church doth worship, we find
that accordingly 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
* be his Church.”

If we go lower, we shall but add unto this e¢ertain 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 popish 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 perfect 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 differences no way possible to be drawn unto any
certain account. There is not the least contention and variance;
but it blemisheth somewhat the unity that ought to be in the
Church of Christ®>, which notwithstanding may have not only
without offence or breach of concord her manifold varieties in
rites and ceremonies of religion, but also her strifes and con-
tentions many times and that about matters of no small im-
portance, yea her schisms, factions and such other evils where-
unto the body of the Church is subject, sound and sick re-
maining both of the same body, as long as both parts retain by
outward profession that vital substance of truth which maketh
Christian religion to differ 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 contrary, 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.

55 Rom. xv. 5; 1 Cor. i.to. 56 [Comp. b. iii. ¢.1.]
HOOKER, VOL. II. Bb

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixviii. 6.

370 Division, Hypocrisy, Heresy short of Apostasy,

Book v. In the Church there arise sundry grievous storms, by means
Ch. xviii: + hereof whole kingdoms and nations professing Christ both

have been heretofore and are at this present day divided about
Christ. During which divisions and contentions amongst
men albeit each part do justify itself, yet the one of necessity
must needs err if there be any contradiction between them be
it great or little, and what side soever it be that hath the
truth, the same we must also acknowledge alone to hold with
the true Church in that point, and consequently reject the other
as an enemy 7 that case fallen away from the true Church.

Wherefore of hypocrites and dissemblers5”7 whose profession
at the first 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
pronounce 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 cnpongliont 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 ex-
tended. Both heresy and many other crimes which wholly
sever from God do sever from the Church of God 7m part only.
«“ The mystery of piety” saith the Apostle “is without perad-
“ venture great, God hath been manifested in the flesh, hath
* been justified in the Spirit, hath been seen of Angels, hath
‘ been preached to nations, hath been believed on in the world,
“ hath been taken up into glory*’.” The Church a pillar and
foundation of this truth, which no where is known or pro-
fessed but only within the Church, and they all of the Church
that profess it. In the meanwhile it cannot be denied that
many profess this who are not therefore cleared simply from
all either faults or errors which make separation between us
and the wellspring of our happiness. Idolatry 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

7 x Johnii. 19. 58 y Tim. iii. 16.

do not exclude Men utterly from the Church. 371
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°? 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 separateth therefore utterly, that which cutteth
off clean from the visible Church of Christ is plain Apostasy,

BOOK V.
Ch. lxviii, 7.

direct denial, 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 righteous-
ness which they transgress, this very true Church of Christ
they have left, howbeit not altogether left nor forsaken simply
the Church upon the main foundations whereof they continue
built, notwithstanding these breaches whereby they are rent at
the top asunder.

[7.] 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

59 I a xiii. 24, 47.]

** nion in the Temple church, accus-
60 | Namely, the Act of Uniform-

“tomably, as others of the house

ity: that under which the High
Commission acted and the Queen’s
Injunctions were issued from time
to time: other acts in 1562, 1581,
- 1593. Of interference with regard
to the Communion in particular two
instances occur in Strype: one in
Park. i. 568: where a person of the
Temple is interrogated, ‘“ Whether
“he had received the Commu-

“ had done :” the other, Ann. I. ii.
347; a circular signed by the ma-
gistrates, pledging themselves to
“receive the holy Sacrament from
“time to time, according to the
“‘ tenor of the Act of Uniformity :”
both dated 1569, when the rebellion
in the north was yet rife. The act
of 1581 appears to have been thought
necessary on account of certain

Bb2

372

Proposed Method of dealing with Recusants

Book v. always definite, and when that they require is done they go

Ch. Ixviii. 7.

=O

farther, whereupon sundry ill-affected persons to save

themselves from danger of laws pretend obedience, albeit in-
wardly 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,

doubts which existed as to the con-
struction of the previous general
enactments, and consequent lawful-
ness of the pecuniary penalties which
the court of High Commission had
been in the habit of occasionally en-
et Strype, Grind. 345. A.D.

1677.

oid T.C. lib. i. p. 167. [132, 133. ]
“If the place of the fifth to the
*‘ Corinthians do forbid that we
* should have any familiarity with
“ notorious offenders, it doth much
“more forbid that they should be
** received to the Communion. And
*‘ therefore papists being such as
“which are notoriously known to
* hold heretical opinions ought not
** to be admitted muchless 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 them-
*‘ selves: 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 pre-
** pared for the children unto dogs,
*‘ and he bringeth into the pasture
*‘ 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 I
‘doubt not but many of those
*‘ which are now papists pertain to
* the election of God, which God also
“in his good time will call to the

** knowledge of his truth: yet not-
“‘ withstanding they ought to be
*‘ unto the minister and unto the

** nistering of the holy sacraments
‘unto them is a declaration and
** seal of God’s favour and reconci-
*‘liation with them, and a plain
“preaching partly that they be
** washed already from their sins,
** partly that they are of the house-
“4 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 un-
“to the communion, and the dis-
“missing 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
* unlawful, 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. [Comp. T. C. i.
34. ap. Whitg. Def.178. Whitgift
in his answer had pleaded against
popular election of bishops, that
** the Church is now full of papists,
* atheists, and such like.” T.C.
replies, “‘ Now you bring in papists,
“* idolaters, and atheists, which are
“not only filthy but also poisoned ©
“and venomed beasts. I am not
* ignorant of that distinction which
“ saith that there be in the Church
* which are not of the Church; and
*‘ those are hypocrites as is before
* said: but I would gladly learn of
* you, what scripture there is to
* prove that idolaters and papists
‘and atheists are in the Church,

oljectionable, as tending to encourage Jesuitical Craft. 378

that whom the law of the realm doth punish unless they com-
municate, such if they offer to obey law, the Church notwith-
standing should not admit without probation before had of
their gospel-like behaviour. .

[8.] 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 requireth at their hands that duty which in con-
science doth touch them nearest, because the greatest difference
between us and them is the Sacrament of the Body and Blood
of Christ, whose name in the service of our communion 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®! shall once apprehend this

“when St. Paul calleth all such
*‘ without the Church, and with

‘time as they declare manifest to-
« kens of unrepentantness, and then

“whom the Church hath nothing
** to do, nor they with the Church.
* You might as well have placed in
** the Church, wolves, tigers, lions
** and bears, i. e. tyrants and perse-
** cutors... But now I hear you ask
** me what then shall become of the
* papists and atheists, if you will
** not have them to be of the Church?
“TI answer that they may be of
* and in the Commonwealth, which
* neither may, nor can be, of or in
“the Church. And therefore the
** Church having nothing to do with
** such, the magistrate ought to see
‘¢ that they join to hear the sermons
** in the place where they are made,
«© |, .and cause them to be examined,
* how they profit; and if they pro-
** fit not, to punish them; and as
* their contempt groweth, so to in-
“* crease the punishment, until such

** asrottenmembers...cutthem off.” |

61 [This expression refers perhaps
to the Jesuits and-seminary priests
especially : who were very busy in
England about 1596. See Strype,
Ann. iv. 422. Compare in the same
vol. p. 53, Topclyff’s statement in a
letter to Burghley: “ There is a
‘‘ sreat danger in many others, who
“* sometimes do come to the church,
“and yet be papists both in their
“inward hearts, and in their out-
*‘ ward actions and conversations,
“ refusing to receive the communion ;
* and in every thing else as ill as the
“worst. Of which there be also
“two sorts. The one goeth to the
** church for saving of the penalties
‘** of thirteen score pounds a year:
* yet his wife and whole family, or
* most of them, continue resolute
**recusants and harbour traitors.

BOOK V.

Ch, lxviii. 8.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixviii. 9.

374. Errors of those who would repel conforming Papists.

advantage given them, whereby they may satisfy law-in pre-
tending themselves conformable (for what can law with
reason or justice require more?) and yet be sure the Church
will accept no such offer, till their gospel-like behaviour be al-
lowed ; after that our own simplicity hath once thus fairly eased
them from sting of 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 to profane sacra-
ments, we shall not only defeat the purpose of most whole-
some laws, but lose or wilfully hazard those souls from which
the likeliest means of full and perfect recovery are by our
indiscretion withheld. .

For neither doth God thus bind us to dive into men’s con-
sciences, nor can their fraud and deceit hurt any man but
themselves. 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 sincerely
with him, in our eyes they must be received as with Christ
that are not to outward show against him.

The case of impenitent and notorious sinners is not like
unto theirs whose only imperfection is error severed from
pertinacy, 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.

[9.] 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 occa-
sion to think it requisite that we earnestly advise rather and
exhort them to consider as they ought their sundry over-
sights, first in equalling undistinctly crimes with errors as
touching force to make uncapable of this sacrament ; secondly
in suffering 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 never-
“ The other sort go to the church “a great priest as hath episcopal
“* because they may avoid suspicion “ authority, to the end they may
“ of the magistrates the better, and “ the better, and with the less suspi-

“is dispensed withal by some secret “ cion, serve the turn of their cause
“ dispensation of a delegate,or such ‘ catholic.’’]

Fewness of Communicants : not the Church’s Fault. 375

theless still due to the same church, as to be held and reputed Book v.

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 considerations 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 meek-
ness, if any thing be shaken in them to strengthen it, not to
quench with delays and jealousies that feeble smoke of con-
formity which seemeth to breathe from them, but to build
wheresoever there is any foundation, 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 preservation of strength but also for relief
of weakness.

[10.] But to return to our ownselves in whom the next
thing severely reproved is the paucity® of communicants, if
they require at communions frequency we wish the same,
knowing how acceptable unto God such service is when mul-
-titudes cheerfully concur unto it®; if they encourage men
thereunto, we also (themselves acknowledge it®!) are not ut-
_ terly 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 statutes
provided in that behalf, whereunto whatsoever convenient

62 T.C. lib. i. p.147. [116.]

63 2Chron.xxx.13; Psalm cxxii.1.

64T.C. i.117. al. 148. “ It may
“ be objected, that in this point the
“* Book of Common Prayer is not in
*€ fault, which doth not only not for-
** bid that all the Church should re-
** ceive together, but also by a good
‘and godly exhortation moveth
** those that be present that they
*‘ should not depart.... It is true
“that it doth not forbid, and that
*‘ there is godly exhortation for that

“* purpose.” |

65 [T. C. i.117. al. 149. “ It”
(the Prayer Book) “ought to pro-
** vide that those which would with-
‘“* draw themselves should be by ec-
** clesiastical discipline at all times,
* and now also under a godly prince
“by civil punishment brought to
* communicate.... This is the law
**of God, (Numbers ix. 13.) and
** this is now and hath been hereto-
“fore the practice of the churches
* reformed.’” |

h. Ixviii. ro.

a part of the house of God, a limb of the visible Church of -

BOOK V.

Ch. lxviii. 10.

376 Communicants not to be repelled because they are few.

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 mean of sweet compul-
sion®5 to have this high and heavenly banquet largely fur-
nished? Only we cannot so far yield as to judge it convenient
that the holy desire of a competent number should be unsatis-
fied, because the greater part is careless and undisposed to
join with them.

Men should not (they say) be permitted a few by them-
selves to communicate when so many are gone away, because
this sacrament 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? First in the one it is not
denied but that they may have reasonable causes of departure,
and that then even they are delivered from just blame. Of
such kind of causes two are allowed’, namely danger of im-
pairing health and necessary business requiring our presence
otherwhere. And may not a third cause, which is wajfitness 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

66 Luke xiv. 23.

67 ['T.C.i.116. al.147. “ The holy
“ Sacrament of the Supper of the
** Lord is not only a seal and con-
“* firmation of the promises of God
*‘unto us, but also a profession of
* our conjunction as well with Christ
“ our Saviour and with God, as also
**(as St. Paul teacheth) a declara-
** tion and profession that we are at
** one with our brethren. . .. The de-
* parting therefore of the rest of the
** Church from those three or four
*‘is an open profession that they
* have no communion, fellowship,
** nor unity, with them that do com-
*“ municate; and likewise of those
** three or four, that they have none
“with the rest.... Therefore St.
** Paul driving thereunto wisheth
“ that one should tarry for another.”
Whitg. Def. 528. “If the book
** should appoint that three or four
** should communicate together, and

“no more; or if it did not allow
“that communion best wherein
‘* most of the church do participate ;
** then were your reasoning to some
“end. But seeing that it is ap-
** pointed that there should not be
“‘ fewer than three or four, to the
** end that it might be a communion,
“and have no similitude with the
‘* papistical mass, there is no cause
** why you should take this pains....
*‘ Shall none communicate because
“ all will not? Or shall not three or
“four because the rest refuse? Or
“is it lack of love towards our
** neighbour, or any token thereof,
‘“if we resort to the Lord’s table
** when other will not? Where learn
* you that :

68 [By T. C. i. 117.]

69 [Id.i.118. al.149. “ Here may
‘*€ rise another doubt of the words of
“ Moses in the Book of Numbers.
** For seeing he maketh this excep-

Private Communion objected to by the Puritans. 377

if we have committed a fault in not preparing our minds be- Book v.

fore, shall we therefore aggravate the same with a worse, the
erime of unworthy participation? He that abstaineth doth
want for the time that grace and comfort which religious
communicants have, but he that eateth and drinketh unwor-
thily receiveth 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.

[11.] As for the last thing which is. our imparting this
sacrament privately unto the sick?7°, whereas there have been
of old (they grant?!) two kinds of necessity wherein this

** tion, ‘if they be clean,’ it may be
** said that those that depart do not
** feel themselves meet to receive...
“For answer whereunto...... the
* uncleanness which Moses speak-
“eth of was such as men could
* not easily avoid: and whereunto
** they might fall sometimes by ne-
** cessary duty.... which thing can-
“not be alleged in those that are
* now of the Church. For if they
** will say, they be not meet, it may
** be answered unto them that it is
‘their own fault; and further, if
“they be not meet to receive the
“holy Sacrament of the Supper,
“they are not meet to hear the
“word of God, they are not meet
**to be partakers of the prayers of
** the Church. . .. To whomsoever of
“them the Lord will communicate
“himself by preaching the word,
“to the same he will not refuse to
** communicate himself by receiving
* of the sacraments.”

70 [Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 529.
* In this book three or four are al-
** lowed for a fit number to receive
“the Communion, and the priest
** alone together with one more, or
*‘ with the sick man alone, may in
“time of necessity, that is when
“‘ there is any common plague, or in
* time of other visitation minister it

** to the sick man, and if he require
** it it may not be denied. ‘This is
“not I am sure like in effect to
“a private mass: that Scripture,
** «Drink ye all of this,’ maketh not
** against this, and private Commu-
“ nion is not against the Scriptures.”
Whitg. Answer, 185. “ ‘Drink ye
** all of this’ may as well be applied
** to prove that ten, twenty, forty, is
*‘no sufficient number....I know
* there be some of the old Fathers,
** as Basilius Magnus, which would
* not have fewer communicants than
“twelve.” (t. i. 320.D.) “ But
*‘ of the number of communicants
“there is nothing determined in
“ Scripture.’’ |

71 ('T. C. quotes Justin Martyr,
Apol. c. 85. Of kadovpevor tap’
npiv Sidxova, diddacw éxact@ tov
mapévr@y petadaBeiy amd Tov evxa-
piotnOevtros Gprov Kal olvov Kal voa-
TOS, Kal Tots ov Tapovow amodepovet.
Tertull. de Orat. c. xix. (speaking of
the scruple which some persons felt
of breaking their fast on a day of
humiliation, by participation of the
Eucharist :) ‘* Accepto corpore Do-
** mini, et reservato, utrumque sal-
“ vum est: et participatio sacrificii,
** et executio officii.”” And Cyprian,
de Lapsis, p.132. ‘ Cum quedam
‘** arcam suam, in qua Domini Sanc-

Ch, lxviii. i1.

378 The Eucharist, being a Pledge of Resurrection,

nook v. sacrament might be privately administered??, of which two

Ch. Ixvill- 11+ +e 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
Eucharist78. The other cause of necessity was, when men,
which had fallen in time of persecution, and had afterwards —
repented them, but were not as yet received again unto the
fellowship of this communion, did at the hour of their death
request it, that so they might rest with greater quietness and
comfort of mind, being thereby assured of departure 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 sacrament. 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

** tum fuit, manibus indignis tentas-
** set aperire, igne inde surgente de-
** territa est, ne auderet attingere.”’ |

72 T..C..i.146.. [al aan. tes
“not to be denied that this abuse
** is very ancient, and was in Justin
‘* Martyr’s time, in Tertullian and
** Cyprian’s time, even as also there
** were other abuses .... First of all
‘in the primitive Church the dis-
*‘ cipline of the Church was so se-
* vere, and so extreme, that if any
** one who professed the truth and
** were of the body of the Church
“did through infirmity deny the
** truth, and joined himself unto the
“idolatrous service, although he
“‘repenting came again unto the
“‘ Church, yet was he not received
“to the communion of the Lord’s
“ Supper any more. And yet lying
“in extremity of sickness, and ready

“to depart this life, if they did re-
*‘ quire the Communion in token
** that the Church had forgiven the
“fault, ....they granted that he
“might be partaker of it: as may
‘appear by the story of Serapion.
** Another cause was that which was
** before alleged: which is the false
** opinion they had conceived that
“* all those were condemned that re-
* ceived not the Supper of the Lord.
** And therefore when catechumens
** or young children fell sick danger-
* ously they ministered the Supper
‘* of the Lord unto them, lest they
** should want their voyage victual
** (as they termed i)"

73 [On this point so far as regards
Infant Communion see especially
Waterland’s Inquiry concerning that
practice. Works, ix. 473, &c. (vol.

vi. p. 41. ed. 1844.) ]

379

more comfortable7+. And do we think, that all cases of such
necessity are clean vanished ? Suppose that some have by
_mis-persuasion lived in schism, withdrawn themselves from
holy and public assemblies, hated the prayers, and loathed
the sacraments of the Church, falsely presuming them to be
fraught with impious and Antichristian corruptions, which
error the God of mercy and truth opening at the 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 bee.

[12.] 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 conscience which com-
monly do then most trouble and perplex 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
glorious7> and blessed resurrection which the Apostle St.
Paul76 nameth éfavdoracww77, to note that as all men shall

is especially seasonable on a Death-bed.

74 [S. Dionys. Alex. ap. Euseb,

Adrrevrat, Bpaxd ths evxapiorias

H. E. vi. 44. Zaparioy tis iv map
np morTos yépav, dpéeprras pev
Tov tmoNvy SiaBiacas xpovor, ev de
TO meipacp@ TET@V" OUTOS modkis
ébciro, Kat ovdeis mpoeixev aire,
kal yap ereBixet, ev vor S€ yevd-
pevos, Tptay éEns Nuepav dpovos: kai
dvaioOnros Sieréhece’ Bpaxd dé ava-
opiAas TH TeTapTy, mpooekahécaro
Tov Ovyarpidovv" kal, HEXpt Tivos,
gyoiv, & réxvor, pe KATEXETE 5 déo-
pat, omevoare, kai pe Oarroy dmo-
Avoare, Tov mpeoBurépav poi Tia
Kd\ecov" kal tadta cima, mah 7} nv
aovos. eSpaper 6 6 mais én rov mpeo-
Burepov* wo§ de 7 La kdeivos no ever"
adixéo bat pev ovv OvK edvv7 n° €vTO-
Ans be ta evov Sedoperns, Tous drah~
Aatropévous Tov Biov, ei SéowrTo, Kal
pddwora ¢i kal mpdrepor ixerevoartes
tuxotev, apierOat, iv’ eveAmides atrad-

eméOwKe ™? radapie, drroBpeEa Ke=
Aevoas, kal TO mpeoBiry KaTa TOU
ordparos émordgéau’ emrayijkev 6 mais
pépor’ eyyvs TE yevouévov, mpl eio=
bei, a dvevéykas madw 6 Zapariov,
*Hkes, én, TEKVOY 5 kat 6 pev mpeoBu-
TEpos eddeiv ovK AduniOn, av de Toin-
Toy Taxéws TO mpooraxGev, kal dndh~
Aarre pe améBpefev Te 6 mais, kal
dpa te evéxee TH OTOpaTL’ Kal pexpov
e€keivos kataSpoxbicas, evdéws amé=
Saxe 7d myevpa. "Ap ovK évapyas
Sernpn On kal mapépetvev ews AvOj,
kal THs dpaprias efareipGeions, emt
modAois ois empake Kadois 6uodoyn-
Onvat Suv Oh ; |

7° 1 Cor.xv.21. 76 Phil. iii. rr.

7 Ava thy ék Ths yas emapow.
Theophyl. [in Phil. iil. 11. efavd-
grag evravOa voet TH evdofov THY
ev vebeAais Srrapow.]| Idyres of dy-

BOOK V.
Ch, Ixviii. 12.

BOOK V.

Ch, lxviii. 12.

380 Festival Days. Idea of God’s Eternity.

have their avdoracwv and be raised again from the dead, so’
the just shall be taken up and exalted above the rest, whom
the power of God doth but raise and not exalt. This life and
this resurrection 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. Cyprian78 termeth it a

joyful solemnity of expedite and speedy resurrection; Igna-

tius79 a medicine which procureth immortality and preventeth
death; Irenzus®® the nourishment of our bodies to eternal
life and their preservative from corruption. Now because
that Sacrament which at all times we may receive unto this
effect is then most acceptable and most fruitful, when any
special extraordinary occasion nearly and presently urging
kindleth our desires towards it, their severity, who cleave
unto that alone which is generally fit to be done and so make
all men’s condition alike, may add much affliction to divers
troubled and grieved minds®!, of whose particular estate par-
ticular respect 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
distresses do yield, and unto them which have their reasonable
petitions satisfied the same contentment, tranquillity, and joy,
that others before them by means of like satisfaction 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 sacraments together
with our usual and received form of administering the same

in the church of England, let thus much suffice.

Opwrot dvioravra, pdovor Sé morot
afvovvra trav dyadov. Ammon. Vide
1 Thess. iv. 17.

78 « Maturate resurrectionis leeta-
“‘ bunda solemnia.”” Cypr. de Coen.
Dom. cap. 10.
ce Papyaxov dOavacias, dvtiSorov
pa) Oaveiv. [dvridoros rod pi dmoba-
veiv, GdAa Civ ev Inood Xpiore Sid

mayvTos.
[c. 20.

80 Tren. lib. iv. cap. 34. [al. c. 18.
in substance. |

81 « Etsi nihil facile mutandum
“* est ex solemnibus, tamen ubi equi-
“tas evidens poscit subveniendum
“est.” Lib. clxxxiii. ff. de Reg. Jur.

[lib. 1. tit. 17. p. 795. ]

Ignat. Epist. ad Ephes.

381

LXIX. As the substance of God alone is infinite and hath (BOOK v.
no kind of limitation, so likewise his continuance is from —————

Idea of Time: relative to heavenly Motions.

Of festival

everlasting to everlasting and knoweth neither beginning nor Gays and
end. Which demonstrable conclusion being presupposed, it the natural

followeth necessarily that besides him all things are finite Shcir ee

‘both in substance and in continuance. If in substance all vee lag
things be finite, it cannot be but that there are bounds
without the compass whereof their substance doth not ex-
tend; if in continuance also limited, they all have, it cannot
be denied, their set and their certain terms before 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 substance, the other from the infinite con-
tinuance of God. Out of this we gather that only God hath
true immortality or eternity, that is to say continuance where-
in 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 con-
tinuance lengthened, so that they could not heretofore be
said to have continued so long as now, neither now so long as
hereafter.

[2.] God’s own eternity is the hand which leadeth Angels
in the course of their perpetuity; their perpetuity the hand
that draweth out celestial motion 82, the line of which motion

82 [This favours an opinion not
uncommon among the Fathers and
schoolmen, of a correspondence be-
tween the intellectual and material
heavens in such sort, that the nine
spheres of which the latter, accord-
ing to the Ptolemaic system, was

In the invisible Heavens.

composed, answered to, and were
influenced respectively by, the nine
orders of the celestial hierarchy, as
expounded in the books ascribed to
Dionysius the Areopagite. This
double scheme (or ovororyia) stands
as follows :
In the material Heavens,

The Seraphim actuated the Primum Mobile.

The Cherubim the Sphere of fixed Stars.
The Thrones that of Saturn.

The Dominations ———— of Jupiter.

The Virtues —— —of Mars.

The Powers —— ——of the Sun.

The Principalities —_—- -—— of Venus.

The Archangels — of Mercury.

The Angels —— of the Moon.

Dante has several allusions to this
opinion: see Parad. canto viii. terz.

12,13; and xxix.15; but especially
xxvill. throughout.

BOOK V.
Ch, Ixix. 2.

382 Figurative use of Words denoting Time.

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 considered 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. 1

Hereupon some have defined time to be the measure of the
motion of heaven 81, because the first thing which time doth
measure is that motion wherewith it began and by the help
whereof it measureth other things, as when the Prophet
David saith, that a man’s continuance doth not commonly
exceed threescore 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 notwith-
standing 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 farther 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 con-
tinuance is were impossible. So that herein we must of ne-
cessity 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

8! [Arist. de Ceelo, i. 9. tom. i. 446. B. ed. Duval. xpdvos éariv dpibuds

KWNoEws.

82 [Diog. Laert. lib. ix. p. 243.]

The natural Origin of Holy Days. 383

of that continuance which all things have that are not as God
is without beginning, that which is proper unto all quantities
-agreeth 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 commonly
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 forgetteth 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 themselves wherewith time is joined; as for
time it neither causeth things nor opportunities of things,
although it comprise and contain both.

[3.] 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 estimation 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 designation,
*« This very place wherein thou standest is holy ground ®4 ?”
Why doth the Prophet David choose out of all the days of
the year but one whereof he speaketh by way of principal
admiration, “‘ This is the day which the Lord hath made*® ?”
No doubt as God’s extraordinary presence hath hallowed and
sanctified certain places, so they are his extraordinary works

83 _Xpédvos éoriv, ev @ katpos, kai bitur. [in init. Op. p. 25. ed. 1624. |
Katpos, €v @ xpdvos ov Todds. Hip- 4 Exod. iii. 5.
poc. lib. qui Preceptiones inscri- 85 Psalm cxviili. 24.

BOOK V.
Ch. lxx. 1, 2.

The man-
ner of
celebrating
festival
days.

384 Festivals to be outwardly marked by our Employments.

that have truly and worthily advanced certain times, for
which cause they ought to be with all men that honour God
more holy than other days.

The wise man therefore compareth herein not unfitly the
times of God with the persons of men. If any should ask |
how it cometh 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 Lord
« hath parted them asunder, he hath by them disposed the
“ times and solemn feasts; some he hath chosen out and
“« sanctified, some he hath put among the days to number :”
even as Adam and all other men are of one substance, all
created of the earth, “but the Lord hath divided them by
“ oreat knowledge and made their ways divers, some he hath
“ blessed and exalted, some he hath sanctified and appro-
“ priated 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 ser-
vices they are wherewith such times should be kept holy.

LXX. The sanctification of days and times is a token of
that thankfulness and a part of that public honour which we
owe to God for admirable benefits, whereof it doth not suffice
that we keep a secret calendar, taking 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
into those days.

[2.] “This is the day which the Lord hath made,” saith
the prophet David; “Jet us rejoice and be glad in it8*.” So

86 Ecclus. xxxiii. 7-12.
87 [The first edition has “ religion’s.”’] 88 Psalm cxviii. 24.

- meet to be companions of such gladness.

Three Natural Marks of a Feast Day: first, Praise. 385

that generally offices and duties of religious joy are that
- wherein the hallowing of festival times consisteth 8°.

The

most natural testimonies of our rejoicing in God are first
His praises set forth with cheerful alacrity of mind, secondly
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
Festival solemnity
therefore is nothing but the due mixture as it were of these
three elements, Praise, and 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 Sabbaths and solemn days as
being therewith much offended %°.

[3.] Plentiful and liberal expense is required in them that
abound, partly as a sign of their own joy in the goodness
of God towards them, and partly as a mean whereby to refresh
those poor and needy, who being especially at these times
made partakers of relaxation and joy with 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 continue.

[4.] Rest is the end of all motion, and the last perfection of
all things that labour. Labours in us are journeys, and even
in them which feel no weariness by any work yet they are but
ways whereby to come unto that which bringeth not hap-

88 «‘ Grande videlicet officium fo- xpoppnuoovyns aappoves éopraovrat

* cos et choros in publicum educere,
** vicatim epulari, civitatem taberne
** halitu obolefacere, vino lutum co-
*‘ gere, catervatim cursitare ad in-
** jurias, ad impudicitias, ad libidi-
*‘ nis illecebras. Siccine exprimitur
“ publicum gaudium per publicum
*‘dedecus?” ‘Tertull. Apol. c. 35.

- * Dies festos Majestati altissime

** dedicatos nullis volumus volupta-

tibus occupari.” C. 1. xii. tit. 12.

l.1. [Cod. Justin. lib. iii. tit. xii.

lex 11M4, p.195.|] “Avri ris marae

mropmeias Kal aiaxpoupyias Kal aic-
HOOKER, VOL. II.

mavnyupes, ov peOnv exovoa kat
K@pov Kal yéAwra, add’ vuvous Oetous
kal iep@v Aoyiwy axpdéacww, kat Tpoo-
evyny dakeraivois Koopoupévny Sa-
kpvos. Theod. ad Grec, Infidel.
ser. [8. de Martyr. ad fin. tom. iv.
p. 607. ed. Sirmond. | /

89 Tis yap aitns piceas eorw
evoeBn Te eivat Kal diddvOpwror.
Philo de Abraha. [vol.ii. p. 30. ed.
Mang. |

% Isa. i. 13.

91 Deut. xvi.14; Nehem viii. 9.

CC

LIBRARY ST. WiARY'’S COLLEGE

BOOK V,

Ch, Ixx. 3, 4.

BOOK ¥.
Ch. Ixx. 4.

386 Festival Rest an Image of Heaven.

piness 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, where- —
unto 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 undertaken. 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 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 per-
fecting the more base, they are in their times and seasons
continued with most exquisite correspondence; labours of
bodily and daily toil purchase freedom for actions of religious
joy, which benefit 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 whereunto we tend, as
festival rest doth that celestial estate whereof the very
heathens themselves?! which had not the means whereby to
apprehend much did notwithstanding 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, un-

91 O08 €or ovdevds ovdeuia pe- thy apiorny exovra Cony Kal thy
taBohy tay Unep eEwrdrw [vrd tiv avrapkeotdtny Siatedet Tov dravra
eEwtdtw| depouevnv [reraypevwv] aidva. Arist. [de Ceelo, lib. i. c.9.
gopdv' adX’ avadXoiwra kat draby, t. 100. ]

Jewish Feasts: some of human Institution. 387

- subject to passion, blest with eternal continuance in a life BOOK V.

of the highest perfection and of that complete abundant suffi-
- ciency 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 between
_ them shew that the one as it were by way of submission
_ and homage should surrender themselves to the other, where-
_ with 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?

___ [5.] Wherefore even nature hath taught 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 religion 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 given unto God in the Sabbaths, months,
and appointed times, as their custom had been always before
the Lord.

[6.] Now besides the times which God himself in the Law
of Moses particularly specifieth, there were through the
wisdom of the Church certain other devised by occasion of
like occurrents to those whereupon the former had risen,
as namely that which Mardocheus and Esther% did first

celebrate in memory of the Lord’s most wonderful protection,

when Haman had laid his inevitable plot to man’s thinking for
the utter extirpation of the Jews even in one day. This they

92 1 Chron. xxiii. 31. 93 Esther ix. 27.
Cc 2

. Ixx. 5, 6.

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixx. 4, 8.

388 General View of Ecclesiastical Feasts.

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 in the
tenth of St. John’s Gospel, the institution whereof is declared —
in the history of the Maccabees. |

[7.] But forasmuch 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
sanctification 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 reproveth saying,
“Ye observe days and months and times and years, I am in
‘ fear of you lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.”
Howbeit so far off was Tertullian from imagining how any
man could possibly hereupon call in question such days as
the Church of Christ doth observe9’, that the observation —
of these days he useth for an argument whereby to prove it
could not be the Apostle’s intent and meaning to condemn
simply all observing of such times.

[8.] Generally therefore touching feasts in the Church of
Christ, they have that profitable use whereof St. Augustine
speaketh’, “ By festival solemnities and set days we dedi-
* cate and sanctify to God the memory of his benefits, lest
* unthankful forgetfulness thereof should creep 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 former world finished by creation, so the

“omni exultatione decurrimus?”’

Lib. [de Jejun.] advers. Psych.

[c. 14.

% Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. x. cap.
[t. vil. 240. ‘“ Ei beneficiorum

94 John x. 22.

% y Mace. iv. 54.

% Gal. iv. 10.

97 « Si omnem in totum devotio-
*“nem temporum et dierumetmen- 3.

“sium et annorum erasit Aposto-
** lus, cur Pascha celebramus annuo
*‘circulo in mense primo? Cur
“ quinquaginta exinde diebus in

* ejus solennitatibus festis et diebus
** statutis dicamus sacramusque me-
*‘moriam, ne volumine temporum
** ingrata subrepat oblivio,’’]

Three Principles on which Festival Days are kept. 389

other might keep us in perpetual remembrance of a far better
world begun by him which came to restore all things, to
make both heaven and earth new. For which cause they
honoured the last day, we the first, in every seven through-
out the year.

The rest of the days and times which we celebrate have

relation all unto one head. We begin therefore our ecclesi-

astical year with the glorious annunciation of his birth by

i angelical embassage 9%. There being hereunto added his

blessed nativity itself!, the mystery of his legal circumcision,
the testification of his true incarnation by the purification of
her which brought him into the world, his resurrection, his
ascension into heaven, the admirable sending down of his
Spirit upon his chosen, and (which consequently 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 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
whereinto 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
every of those Apostles whom it pleased him to use as foun-
ders of his kingdom here; glorified in the Angels as in
Michael; 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 annexed 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

99 Luke i. 26. 1 Luke ii. 21.

BOOK V.
Ch, lxx. 8.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixx. 9.

390 Our Festivals how censured by the Puritans:

present continuance is now for the greater honour of the
principals whereupon they still attend.
[9.] 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 con-
fess to be God’s law requireth in general no less the sancti-
fication of times, than of places, persons, and things unto
God’s honour. For which cause it hath pleased him hereto-
fore as of the rest so of time 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 continuance ; and of the rest which
were left arbitrary to accept what the Church shall in due
consideration consecrate voluntarily 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 number 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 before, because in reference to the
benefit of creation and now much more of renovation there-
unto 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 continuance of
them doth nourish wicked superstition in the minds of men2,

2 [Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 538. “a matter to pull out the supersti-

* Holydays, &c. patched, if not al-
* together, yet the greatest piece,
* out of the Pope’s Portuise.” T.C.
i,11g. al.igi. ‘M. Doctor saith,
* that so they be not used supersti-
“ tiously, they may be commanded.
“1 have shewed before that they
“were. If they were so indifferent
“as they are made, yet being kept
“ of the Papists, which are the ene-
“mies of God, they ought to be
“abolished. And if it were as easy

“tion of the observing of those
** holidays out of men’s hearts, as it
“is to protest and to teach that they
*‘ are not commanded for any reli-
** gion to be put in them, or for any

to make conscience of the observ-

* ing of them, as though there were
“some necessary worship of God
in the keeping of them, then they
‘were much more tolerable; but
‘** when as the continuance of them
“doth nourish wicked superstition

charged with limiting Religion to certain Days. 391

- besides they are all abused by Papists the enemies of God, BOOK v,
yea certain of them as Easter and Pentecost even by the ———
Jews.

LXXI. Touching Jews, their Easter and Pentecost have Exceptions
with ours as much affinity, as Philip the Apostle with Philip eee our

: , eer, keeping of
the Macedonian king. As for “imitation of Papists” and other fes-
the “breeding of superstition,’ they are now become such so pa a.

common guests that no man can think it discourteous to let sabbath.
them go as they came. The next is a-rare observation and
strange®, You shall find if you mark it (as it doth deserve
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

** in the minds of men, and that the
** doctrine which should remedy the
“ superstition, through the fewness
“and scarcity of able ministers,
“ cannot come to the most part of
“them which are infected with this
** disease, and that also where it is
*‘ preached the fruit thereof is in
“ part hindred, whilst the common
“people attend oftentimes rather
** to that which is done than to that
“which is taught; being a thing
“ indifferent, as it is said, it ought
*6 to be abolished, as that which is
* not only not fittest to hold the
- * people in the sincere worshipping
‘of God, but also as that which
** keepeth them in their former blind-
“ness and corrupt opinions which
“‘ they have conceived of such holi-
“ days.”

3 T. C. lib. i. p. 151. [120.] “If
*‘ they had been never abused nei-
‘ther by the papists nor by the
** Jews, as they have been and are
“‘ daily, yet such making of holi-
** days 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 generally
“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 dili-
*‘ gent 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
*€ yest in that near consideration of
** our duties, for the space of a few
*‘ days, which should be extended
** to all our life.”

392 Festival Duties require Exercise at Intervals.

not to keep our Easter as the Jews did for certain days, but
in the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth to feast con-
tinually, whereas this restraint of Easter to a certain number
of days causeth us to rest for a short space in that near con-
sideration of our duties which should be extended throughout
the course of our whole lives, and so pulleth out of our minds
the doctrine of Christ’s gospel ere we be aware‘.

[2.] 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 cele-
brate 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 how are stand-
ing festival solemnities against this ?

That which the gospel of Christ requireth is the perpetuity
of virtuous duties; not perpetuity of exercise or action, but
disposition perpetual, and practice as oft as times and oppor-
tunities require. Just, valiant, liberal, temperate and holy
men are they which can whensoever they will, and will when-

BOOK V.
Ch. 1xxi. 2.

4 [Whitg. Def. 539. “‘ What? do
** you condemn the feast of Easter
“also? would you have it abro-
** gated because it hath been abused?
**do you not know that the Apo-
** stles themselves observed it, and
**the Church ever sithence their
** time? read Euseb. v. 23. and you
** shall find it to be a tradition of
“the Apostles: peruse the 24th
“and 25th ch. of the same book,
“and you shall understand by the
“ testimony of Polycrates, and all
“the other bishops in Asia, that
** Philip the Apostle, John the Evan-
** gelist, Polycarpus his scholar, and
“other bishops likewise of great-
“est antiquity kept solemnly the
“feast of Easter. But why should
“ Tlabour to prove that that all his-
** tories, all ancient Fathers, all late
** writers, all learned men confess?
** ... Surely you may as well reason
“ that the Scriptures are not to be
*‘ read, because that heretics have

** so greatly abused them.” T. C. iii.
189. “If it were a tradition of the
** Apostles, yet it was used of them
“as a thing indifferent; consider-
* ing that the same story witnesseth
“ that S. John the Apostle, together
*“ with the churches of Asia, did
** celebrate the Easter as the Jews
*“ were wont, upon the xivth day
“of the month. Now, if S. John
** himself, which departed not from
‘the authority of the Scripture,
“did keep the Jews’ day, he gave
* sufficiently to understand that
** our Easter hath no authority from
“the Scriptures; for then he
“would have kept it also.” He
seems to assume what cannot be so
readily granted: viz. that the feast
which St. John and the Asiatic
churches observed was the Jewish
passover, and not the Christian
Easter on the same day as the pass-
over. |

Festiwal Duties, a good Beginning of Holiness. 393

- goever they ought execute what their several perfections im-
port. If virtues did always cease to be when they cease to
_ work, there should be nothing more pernicious to virtue than
E sleep: neither were it possible that men as Zachary and
- Elizabeth should in all the commandments of God walk un-
- reprovable, or that the chain of our conversation should con-
tain so many links of divine virtues as the Apostles in divers
places have reckoned up, if in the exercise of each virtue per-
_ petual continuance were exacted at our hands. Seeing there-
_ fore all things are done in time, and many offices are not
possible at one and the same time to be discharged, 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
himself hath ordained them, or the Church by that authority
which God hath given, they are of religion such public ser-
vices as neither can nor ought to be continued otherwise 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 do grant to be sown in the hearts of many
thousands, during the while that such feasts are present.
The constant habit of well doing is not gotten without the
custom of doing well, neither can virtue be made perfect
but by the manifold 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 commended especially
this circumstance amongst others in solemn feasts, that to
children and novices in religion they -minister the first

5 [E.g. Aquinas inSumma Theol. “ semper: et ideo solum pro tem-
pars il.1. qu. 71. art.5. p.431. Ven. ‘pore illo aliquis cessando ab actu
1596. ‘“ Peccatum omissionis con- “ peccat, pro quo preceptum affir-
“trariatur precepto affirmativo, ‘ mativum obligat.’’]

** quod obligat semper, sed non ad

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixxi. 2.

BOOK V.

Ch. 1xxi. 3.

394 The Objection to Feasts, as restraining Gospel Liberty,

occasions 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 sud-—
« denly dry not up like the morning dew, but may prosper —
« and grow as the trees which rivers of waters keep always —
“ flourishing ;” let all men’s acclamations be “ Grace, grace
“ unto it,” as to that first-laid corner-stone in Zerubbabel’s —
buildings®. For who hath despised the day of those things —
which are small7? Or how dare we take upon us to condemn —
that very thing which voluntarily we grant maketh us of no- |
thing 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 exer-—
cise of godliness which properly appertaineth to such times,
howbeit men’s inward disposition 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 be-—
cause 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.

[3.] 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

6 Fees iv.7.] 7 [Ver. 10.]

4 pean x Lt T.C. lib. i. p. 152.
- 8{Adm. ap. Whitg. 538, objecting wi

[120. ] confess that it is in the

to holidays, refers in the margin to
Exod. xx. 9. And in the View of
Popish Abuses subjoined to the first
Adm. p. 11, occurs, “ Days....
** ascribed unto saints....and kept
* holy, are contrary to the com-
*“mandment of God, ‘Six days
* shalt thou labour.’” Whitg.
Answer, ap. Def. 538. “I think
“the meaning of this command-
““ment is not so to tie men to
“bodily labour, that they may
*‘ not intermit the same to labour

** power of the Church to appoint
** so many days in the week or in
“the year (in the which the con-
** gregation shall assemble to hear
“the 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 com-
‘** manded to cease from their daily
*‘ vocations of ploughing and exer-

if allowed, would overthrow all Government. 395

“left it to all men at liberty that if they think good to bestow
A 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 pro-
claim a prohibition from ordinary works, standeth bound to
do it, as the Jews afflicted did in Babylon. But without some
express commandment from God there is no power they say
under heaven which may presume by any decree to restrain
the liberty that God hath given.

[4.] Which opinion, albeit applied here no further than to
this present cause, shaketh universally the fabric of govern-
ment, tendeth to anarchy and mere confusion, dissolveth
families, dissipateth colleges, corporations, armies, overthrow-

“cising their handicrafts, that I
“deny to be in the power of the
“Church. For proof whereof I will
“take the fourth commandment,
‘and no other interpretation of it
“than Mr. Doctor alloweth 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
“ jabour 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 not-
‘‘ withstanding this fourth com-
** mandment 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 todo. As when there is
** any general plague or judgment of
*‘ God either upon the Church or
* coming towards it, the Lord com-
** mandeth in such a case (Joel ii.
** 15.) that they should sanctify a
** general fast and proclaim Ghnat-
** sarah, which signifieth a prohibi-
‘tion or forbidding of ordinary
“‘ works, and is the same Hebrew
“‘ word wherewith those feast 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 conve-
* niently from meats, so they might
** abstain from their daily works, to
“the end they might bestow the
*‘ whole day in hearing the word

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixxi. 4.

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixxi. 4.

396 Feasts as well as Hasts may be ordained by the Church:

i

eth kingdoms, churches, and whatsoever is now through the
providence of God by authority and power upheld. For —
whereas God hath foreprized things of the greatest weight, —
and hath therein precisely 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 discretion if they be free from subjection to others, or —
else to be ordered by such commandments and laws as pro- —
ceed 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 be-
cause only in these things the positive precepts of men have
place, which precepts cannot possibly 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 —

t

himself in particular commandeth neither, they are to stand —
in defence of the freedom which God hath granted and to do 4

4

as themselves list, knowing that men may as lawfully com-
mand 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

* of God and humbling themselves
‘in the congregation, confessing
“ their faults and desiring the Lord
** to turn away from his fierce wrath.
“In this case the Church having
** commandment 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 com-
** mandment, it may not presume by
** any decree to restrain that liberty
“which the Lord hath given.”
[ Whitgift’s Def. 541. ‘* This doc-
**trine of yours is very licentious,
‘and tendeth too much to carnal
** and corporal liberty, and indeed is
*“a very perilous doctrine for all
*‘ states. Not one tittle in God’s
* word doth restrain either the ma-

‘* gistrate or the Church from turn- —
“ing carnal liberty to the spiritual —
*‘ service of God, or bodily labour

“to divine worship.”
“To rest the seventh day is com-
** manded ; to labour six days is but
** permitted ; he that forbiddeth rest
“on the seventh day doth directly
“against the commandment; so
* doth not he that restraineth men
“from bodily labour in any of the
“six days; and therefore the rea-
“son is not like.” T. C. iii. 193.
“<The reason is like. For the au-
** thority is all one, to make it un-
“ lawful to work, when God hath
“ made it lawful; and to make it
* lawful to labour, when God hath
** made it unlawful.”’ ]

Ibid. 542. —

Case of the Feast of Purim in the Book of Esther. 397

id things which the law of God leaveth arbitrary and at liberty aor.
are all subject unto 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, except we deprive the world
of power to make any ordinance or law at all?

___-[5.] 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 per-
mit or license the like, 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 public
prayers of the whole Church and our own private business
cannot both be followed at once; whereas of rest in the
famous solemnities of public joy there is both this considera-
tion the same, and also farther a kind of natural repugnancy,
which maketh labours (as hath been proved) much more unfit
to accompany festival praises of God than offices of humi-
hiation and grief.

Again if we sift what they bring for proof and approbation
of rest with fasting, 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
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 perplex-
ities, than the words of Moses to the same people in a time of
joyful deliverance from misery!°, “ Remember this day,” may
warrant any annual celebration of benefits no less importing

9 Joel ii. 15. 10 Exod. xiii. 3.

BOOK V.

Ch. xxi. 6.

398 The Feast of Purim was not of Divine Institution.

the good of men; and also justify as touching the manner and
form thereof what cireumstance soever we imitate only in

respect of natural fitness or decency, without any Jewish re- —
gard to ceremonies such as were properly theirs and are not —

by us expedient to be continued. .:

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 Mardocheus did sometime devise, Esther?! _
what lay in her power help forward, and the rest of the Jews _
establish for perpetuity, namely that the fourteenth and —
fifteenth days of the month Adar should be every year kept —
throughout all generations as days of feasting and joy, wherein —

they would rest from bodily labour, and what by gifts of cha-_

rity bestowed 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 all were as men dead.
[6.] But this decree they say was divine not ecclesiastical !2,

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

11 Esther ix.

12 T. C. lib. ili. p. 193. ‘ The
“example out of Esther” [which
had been alleged by Whitg. Def.
543-] “is no sufficient warrant for
** these feasts in question. For first
‘* as in other cases so in this case of
“‘ days, the estate of Christians un-
“* der 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 follow-
“ed by us. This may appear b

‘*‘ another 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 where-
*‘ of first I take the twenty-eighth
“ verse,” [Esth. ix. 28.] “‘ where it
*‘ appeareth that this was an order
*‘ to endure always, even as long as
“the other feast days which were
“instituted by the Lord himself.
* So that what abuses soever were
* of that feast, yet as a perpetual
* decree of God it ought to have

Summary of the Argument on Ecclesiastical Feasts. 399

these men have a strong opinion that because 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 in-
tend constancy in that the nature whereof is subject to altera-
tion. Doth the Scripture itself make mention of any divine
commandment? Is the Scripture witness of more than only
that Mardocheus 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 cele-
brate 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 letters con-
firmed the same which Mardocheus had before decreed, and
that finally the ordinance was written to remain 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 uniform 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? Was not the first of
these three afterwards, the day of sorrow and heaviness, abro-
gated, when the same Church saw it meet that a better day, a
day in memory of like deliverance out of the bloody hands of
_Nicanor should succeed in the room thereof!3 ?
[7.] 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

* remained: whereas our Churches
** can make no such decree, which
** may not upon change of times and
“other circumstances be altered.
** For the other proof hereof I take
“the last verse, for the Prophet
* contenteth not himself with that,
** that he had reheared the decree,
“as he doth sometimes the decree
** of profane kings, but addeth pre-
‘* cisely that as soon as ever the de-
*“ cree was made it was registered in
‘this book of Esther which is one

“‘of the books of the 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 ecclesi-
* astical only.”
13 2 Macc. xv. 36.

BOOK VY.

Ch, Ixxi. 4.

BOOK V,

Ch, Ixxi. 4.

400 Hapress Scripture not to be required for Saints’ Days.

and festival solemnity to be observed by way of thankful and
joyful 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 later 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 prece-
dents and enlightened by other means always 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 wherefore the memory of Paul}®
should be rather kept than the memory of Daniel!®, 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

14 7 Macc. iv. 55. [59.]

15 « Commemoratio Apostolic
** Passionis totius Christianitatis
** magistre a cunctis jure celebra-
“tur.” Cod. lib. iii. tit. 12. 1. 7.

MS, Ree
Le 1 C. lib. i. p. 153. [121. “ As
‘* we reason against the popish pur-
“* gatory, that it is therefore naught,
*‘ forasmuch as neither in the Old
** Testament nor in the New there is
‘** any mention of prayer at any time
** for the dead; so may it be reason-
** ed against these holidays ordained
‘* for the remembrance of the saints,
* that for so much as the old people
* did never keep any feast or holi-
** day for the remembrance either of
** Moses or Daniel, or Job or Abra-
** ham or David, or any other, how
“holy and excellent soever they
*‘ were; nor the Apostles nor the
** Churches in their time never in-
** stituted any, either to keep the
‘remembrance of St. Stephen, or
** of the Virgin Mary, or of John
** Baptist, or of any other notable
** and rare personage; that the in-
** stituting and erecting of them now,
*‘ and this attempt by the churches
“which followed ...is mot with-
*‘ out some note of presumption.”
Whitg. Def. 543. “ Purgatory is

“made a matter of salvation or
** damnation, as ‘all other doctrines
“‘ of the popes be; and therefore a
** negative reason, such as you use,
** is sufficient enough to improve it.
‘* But holidays in our Church have
*‘no such necessity ascribed unto
** them.” .

The earliest clear instance of a
saint’s day being kept is perhaps
that of St. Polycarp, A.D. 169. See
the Epistle of the Church of Smyr-
na, containing the account of his
martyrdom, c. 18. ‘Hyeis vorepov
dvehopevot Ta TYyuUoTEpAa AiOwy tro-
Aurea kal Soxiuorepa brép xpuciov
6074 a’rod, ameOéueOa Srrov Kal axd-
Aovboy jv? &vOa ws Suvarov hyiv ovv-
ayouévois, €v ayaddidoe Kal xapa,
mapéfet 6 Kupios eémredeiv thy Tov
paprupiov avrovd nuepay yevebduor, els
Te Thy Tav NOAnkKdTeY prnuny, Kal
Tov pedAdvT@v doKnoiv Te Kal érowma-
ciav. ap. Coteler. PP. Apost. t. ii. p.
202.
tip, C. lib. i. p.153. [121.]
** The people, when it is called St.
** Paul’s day or the blessed Virgin
‘** Mary’s day, can understand no-
thing thereby but that they are
‘* instituted to the honour of St. Paul
*‘or the Virgin Mary, unless they
** be otherwise taught. And if you

Hh
Me

The Abuse of them easily obviated.

401

be taught the right construction of as great mysteries as the

18name of a saint’s 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
ordinances 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 profit-
able19 regiment had left her public habitation to dwell in
retired manner with some few men of one livery; we make
not our childish 2°appeals sometimes from our own to foreign

“‘ say let them so be taught, I have
‘© answered that the teaching in this
** Jand cannot by any order which is
*‘ yet taken come to the most part
“of those which have drunk this

— poison,” &c.

18 « Scilicet ignorant nos nec
“ Christum unquam relinquere qui
“pro totius servandorum mundi
** salute passus est, nec alium quem-
*‘piam colere posse. Nam hunc
* quidem tanquam Filium Dei ado-
‘ramus, martyres vero tanquam
*‘ discipulos et imitatores Domini
*‘digne propter insuperabilem in
* Regem ipsorum ac Preceptorem
** benevolentiam diligimus, quorum

‘* et nos consortes et discipulos fieri .

* optamus.” Euseb. Hist. Eccles.
lib. iv. cap. 15. [from the Church of
Smyrna’s letter on the Martyrdom
of S. Polycarp. |

19T,.C. lib. i. p. 153. [al. 121.]
** As for all the commodities [we
* receive by them, whereby M. Doc-
** tor goeth about to prove the good-
* ness and lawfulness of their insti-
* tution; as that the Scriptures are
“there read and expounded, the
‘** patience of those saints in their
** persecution and martyrdom is to
“the edifying of the Church re-
“* membered and yearly renewed; I
* say that we might have all these
“commodities without all those
** dangers which I have spoken of,
“and without any keeping of yearly
* memory of those saints; and (as
* it falleth out) in better and more
** profitable sort. For as I said be-
“fore of the keeping of Easter,...
** so these celebrations of the memo-

HOOKER, VOL. II.

* ries of saintsand martyrs straighten
*‘ our consideration of them unto
“those days, which should conti-
** nually be thought of, and daily, as
“long as we live.” Whitg. Def.
546. “ You might as well say, there
** ought to be no certain times ap-
** pointed for the receiving of the
“holy communion, because the
‘** meditation of the death and pas-
* sion of Christ, and the applica-
“tion of the same, is fettered to

“these certain days..... The same
* might you say likewise of the
** Sabbath day.’ |

20'T.C, lib.i. p.154.[122. “As
“* for M. Calvin, as the practice of
** him and the Church where he lived
** was and is, to admit no one holy-
“ day besides the Lord’s day, so can
** it not be shewed out of any part of
‘* his works, (as I think,) that he ap-
** proved those holydays which are
‘* now in question.”

* As touching M. Bucer’s, M.
** Bullinger’s, and Illyricus’ allow-
“ance of them” (which had been
alleged by Whitg. Answ. ap. Def.
548.) “...that good leave they give
** the Churches to dissent from them
* in that point, I do take it granted
*‘unto me, being by the grace of
** God one of the Church.”

* It is not to be denied but this
“keeping of holydays (especially
‘* of the Easter and Pentecost) are
** very ancient, and that these holy-
“days for the remembrance of
** martyrs were used of long time:
** but these abuses were no ancienter
** than other were, grosser also than
*‘ this was:...and therefore I ap-

pd

© 402

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixxi. 8,

Festival Rest, how enforced upon the Jews:

churches, sometime from both unto churches ancienter 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 2! grant, that what their fancy
will not yield to like their judgment cannot with reason con-
demn. Such is evermore the final victory of all truth, that
they which have not the hearts to love her acknowledge that
to hate her they have no cause.

[8.] Touching those festival days therefore which we now
observe, their number being no way felt22 discommodious to
the commonwealth, and their grounds such as hitherto hath
been shewed ; what remaineth 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 sur-
cease from labour is necessary, yet not so necessary no not on
the Sabbath or seventh day itself, but that rarer occasions in
men’s particular affairs subject to manifest detriment unless
they be presently followed may with very good conscience
draw them sometimes aside from the ordinary rule, considering

*‘ peal from these examples to the
** Scriptures, and to the examples
“* of the perfectest Church that ever
“‘ was: which was that in the Apo-
* stles’ times.” Bullinger’s state-
ment is, ‘* Adhuc in Ecclesia nostra
* Tigurina, Nativitatis, Circumci-
“* sionis, Resurrectionis et Ascensio-
“nis Domini, Missionisque sancti
‘* Spiritus, Deipare Virginis, Joan-
“nis Baptiste, Magdalene, Ste-
* phani, et Apostolorum Domini
“festa celebramus; neminem in-
“ terim eorum damnantes, qui post
** Dominicam aliam nesciunt festi-
* vitatem.” On Rom. xiv. p. 82. |

4! T..C. lib. %.. p. 354." aaa

** 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 an-
** other thing to condemn the Church
“ for it.”

22 TloAdas pev Ovaias moddas de
kat iepounvias emavoe’ 16 TE yap
mAeicTrov Tov €rous eis ai’Tas avnXi-
oxeTo, kal TS Snpoci@ (nia ov« €a-
xlotn éylyvero, De Claudio dic-
tum apud Dion. lib. lx. [c. 15. p.
676. ed. Han. 1606. |

and how upon Christians, especially by Leo. 403

the favourable dispensation which our Lord and Saviour Boox y.

groundeth on this axiom, ‘‘ Man was not made for the Sab-
“bath but the Sabbath ordained for man23,” so far forth as
concerneth ceremonies annexed to the principal 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 punished24, a
thing perhaps the more requisite 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 require a
more exact observation for many ages to come; therefore as
the Jews superstitiously addicted to their Sabbaths’ rest for a
long time?>, not without danger to themselves and obloquy to
their very law, did afterwards perceive and amend wisely their
former error, not doubting that bodily labours are made by
26necessity venial, though otherwise, especially on that day,
rest be more convenient; so at all times the voluntary scan-
dalous contempt of that rest from labour wherewith publicly
God is served we cannot too27 severely correct and bridle. .
[9.] The emperor** Constantine having with overgreat fa-
cility licensed Sundays’ labours in country villages, under that
pretence whereof there may justly no doubt sometime consi-
deration be had, namely lest any thing which God by his pro-
vidence hath bestowed should miscarry not being taken in due

23 Mark ii. 27.

24 Numb. xv. 32.

25 « Hii vacare consueti sunt sep-
* tima die, et neque arma portare In
** preedictis diebus, neque terre cul-
*turam contingere, neque alterius
** cujuspiam curam habere patiun-
* tur, sed in templis extendentes
** manus adorare usque ad vesperam
* soliti sunt. Ingrediente vero in
* civitatem Ptolemeo Lago cum
* exercitu et multis hominibus, cum
** custodire debuerint civitatem, ip-
*‘ sis stultitiam observantibus pro-
“ vincia quidem dominum suscepit
*¢ amarissimum, lex vero manifestata
** est malam. habere solennitatem.”

Agatharchid. apud Joseph. lib. i.
contra Apion. [c. 22. ad fin.] Vide
et Dion. lib. xxxvii. [p. 36 E.]

26 1 Mac. ii. 40.

27 Neh. xiii. 15.

28 Cod. [Just.] lib. iii. tit. 12.1. 3.
[p.193. ed. Gothofred. 1688. ‘‘ Om-
* nes judices, urbanzeque plebes, et
* cunctarum artium officia venera-
*¢ bili die solis quiescant. Ruri ta-
** men positi, agrorum culture libere
** licenterque inserviant: quoniam
“ frequenter evenit, ut non aptius
** alio die frumenta sulcis aut vine
“‘ scrobibus mandentur, ne occasi-
*“ one momenti pereat commoditas
** celesti provisione concessa.”’ |

pd2

Ch. Ixxi. 9,

BOOK YV.
Ch. 1xxi, 9,

404 Our Feasts, an Occasion of Bounty and of holy Joy :

time; Leo which afterwards saw that this ground would not
bear so general and large indulgence as had been granted,
doth by a contrary edict both reverse and severely censure
his predecessor’s remissness, saying??, “ We ordain according
« to the true meaning 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 ight 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 which God hath chosen to his
“ own honour? Were it not reckless neglect of religion to make
“ that very day common and to think we may do with it as

“¢ with the rest ?”

Imperial laws which had such care of hallowing especially
our Lord’s day did not omit to provide that other®° festival

29 Leo Constit. liv. [‘Opigopev
kai nets a @ ayig edoge Tvevpare
Kal Tots Um avtov Hepunpevors drroord-
Aas, Sore mayras €v TH Ocia Kal THY
apOapaiay jj ppv eykawiopevy [eyxac-
yoapery | 7 npEpa oxoAdgey a dpynoews,
[epyacias >] Kat pare yewpyov pyre
Tia anrecOat € epyov €v TavTn Tay BI)
VEVOULO HEVOV" ei yap of madat Tas oKias
kal Tous TUTous TYL@VTES, dua To~av-
™ms iyyov Tins THY Tov caBBarov
npepav ws mavrehi aury ampagiav
d.ddvat, Tas eikos ovs 7) xapis Gepa-
metas exet kat 7 dh Geva, Tourous
Bn) TYay THY NeEpay 7 TO Tipwoy mapa
tou Aeonérou émhouryce, kal neds
nrevdépoce THs €K pbopas dripias 5
ij T@S Ov mavTeh@s dovveidnror, € énra
nMEpav ovoar, av «is SeomoriKiy Tt-
Bay dveirar pla, [pn a dpxeioba 7 nuas
Tais €&@ dmroKexXpnpevous eis epya,
dvacaiperoy, T? Aconéry éxelyqy T™-
pety, GAda kal TavTHY kowny Toveto=
Oat, kal rév nuerepov epyav vopitew
Kapov ; p. 47. ed. Plantin. 1575.
The text is translated from the Latin
version of this. ]

30 °T. C. lib. iii. tit. 12. (1. 11.]
** Dies festos [majestati altissime
** dedicatos nullis volumus volupta-
** tibus occupari, nec ullis exactio-
“* num vexationibus profanari. Do-
*‘ minicum itaque diem ita semper
** honorabilem decernimus et vene-
*€ randum, ut a cunctis executioni-
** bus excusetur; nulla qu enquam
‘** urgeat admonitio, nulla fidejussio-
** nis flagitetur exactio, taceat appa-
** ritio, advocatio delitescat, sit ille
** dies a cognitionibus alienus, pre-
*‘conis horrida vox silescat, respi-
** rent a controversiis litigantes, et
** habeant fcederis intervallum, ad
‘* sese simul veniant adversarii non
‘‘ timentes, subeat animos vicaria
** peenitudo, pacta conferant, trans-
* actiones loquantur. Nec hujus
‘* tamen religiosi diei otia relaxantes
“ obsccenis quenquam patimur vo-
luptatibus detineri. Nihil eodem
* die sibi vindicet scena theatralis,
“ aut Circense certamen, aut fera-
* rum lachrymosa spectacula; et si
* in nostrum ortum aut natalem ce-

compared, in that Respect, to the Jewish Feasts. 405

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.

[10.] 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 joyfulness is to
rest, because it seeketh no more; the next, because it abound-
eth, to give. The root of both is the glorious presence of
that joy of mind which riseth from the manifold considera-
tions of God’s unspeakable mercy, into which considerations
we are led by occasion of sacred times.

[11.] 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 ordinances, 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 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 massacre
of man, woman, and. child, became the buckler of their pre-
servation that no one hair of their heads might be touched,
the same days which had been set for the pouring out of so
much innocent blood were made the days of their execution
‘* lebranda solemnitas inciderit, dif- ‘ cunque judicis apparitor, praetexta
“ feratur. Amissionem militie, pro- ‘‘ negotii publici seu privati, hec,
** scriptionemque patrimonii susti- * hac lege statuta sunt, credi-

* nebit, si quis unquam hoc die festo erit temeranda.” Const. Impp.
*‘ spectaculis interesset, vel cujus- Leon. et Anthem. A. D. 469.]

BOOK V. _
Ch. 1xxi. 10,
Il.

406 Festivals, a great Safeguard to sound Doctrine.

whose malice had contrived the plot thereof, and the selfsame E
persons that should have endured whatsoever violence and
rage could offer were employed in the just revenge of cruelty
to give unto bloodthirsty men the taste of their own cup; or
how can the Church of Christ now endure to be so much
called on, and preached unto by that which every*! dominical
day throughout the year, that which year by year so many
festival times, if not commanded by the Apostles themselves 32
whose care at that time was of greater things, yet instituted
either by such universal authority as no man®*, or at the least
such as we with no reason may despise, do as sometime the
holy angels did from heaven sing, “34Glory 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 require,) 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
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 cele-
brate 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®®,

~ BOOK V.
Ch. Ixxi. 11.

31 Matt. xxviili.1; Mark xvi. 1;
Luke xxiv.1; John xx.1; 1 Cor.
xvi. 2; Apoc. i. Io.

82 « Apostolis propositum fuit non
“ut leges de festis diebus celebran-
** dis sancirent, sed ut recte vivendi
*‘ rationis et pietatis nobis auctores
* essent.”’. Socrat. Hist. lib. v. cap.
21.

33“ Quee toto terrarum orbe ser-

‘ vantur vel ab ipsis Apostolis vel

« coneilii generalibus quorum est

“ saluberrima in Ecclesia auctori-
“tas statuta esse intelligere licet ;
“sicuti quod Domini passio et re-
*‘ surrectio et in ccelum ascensus

*‘ et adventus Spiritus Sancti anni-
“ versaria solennitate celebrantur.”
August. Epist. exviii. [al. liv. cr.
t. ii, 124. ]

34 Luke ii. 14.

35 [Arist. Rhet. i. 5, 20. “Ocots
Ta Kara yuvaixas padha, & Gorep Aa-
kedatpoviors, oxébov Kata Td “type
ovk evdaipovovow. Cf. Polit. ii. 9.]

36 [Smith’s Account of the Greek
Church, 1680, p.18. ‘ Next to the
“ miraculous and gracious provi-
** dence of God, I ascribe the pre-
*‘ servation of Christianity among
“them to the strict and religious
“ observation of the festivals and

Puritan Olyections to periodical Fasts.

407

provocations to the exercise of all piety, shadows of our end-

less felicity im heaven, on earth everlasting records and cnet

- memorials, wherein they which cannot be drawn to hearken
_ unto that we teach, may only by looking upon that we do, in
a manner read whatsoever we believe.

LXXII. The matching of contrary things together is a Of days

kind of illustration to both. -Having therefore spoken thus

much of festival days, the next that offer themselves to hand ordinary,

are days of pensive humiliation and sorrow. Fastings are

either of men’s own free and voluntary accord as their p
ticular devotion doth move them thereunto; or else they are of God.

publicly enjoined in the Church and required at the hands

of all men.

“fasts of the Church: this being
“the happy and blessed effect of
“those ancient and pious institu-
“tions, the total neglect of which
*‘ would soon introduce ignorance
“and a sensible decay of piety and
*‘ religion in other countries besides
“the Levant. This certainly is the
* chiefest preservative of religion in
‘those eastern countries, against
*‘ the poison of the Mahometan su-
* perstition. For children, and those
‘of the most ordinary capacities,
* know the meaning of these holy
* solemnities, at which times they
“flock to church in great com-
“panies, and thereby retain the
** memory of our blessed Saviour’s
** birth, dying upon the cross, resur-
“rection and ascension, and keep
** up the constant profession of their
** acknowledgment of the necessary
** and fundamental points of faith:
*as of the doctrine of the blessed
** Trinity, and the like. And while
* they celebrate the sufferings and
‘* martyrdoms of the Apostles of our
© Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
and other great saints, who laid
** down their lives most joyfully for
“his name, and underwent with
‘* unwearied and invincible patience
*‘ all the torments and cruelties of
“their heathen persecutors, they
* take courage from such glorious
* examples, and are the better en-
‘abled to endure with less trouble
** and regret the miseries and hard-
* ships they daily struggle with.”’]

There are3? which altogether disallow not the

oT. C. lib. i. p. go. [17.].. “1
** will not enter now to discuss whe-
‘* ther it were well done to fast in all
** places according to the custom of
‘the place. You oppose Ambrose
‘and Augustine, 1 could oppose
** Ignatius and Tertullian, whereof
“the one saith, It is nefas, ‘a de-
*‘ testable 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 followeth 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 vopobe-
** giay of fasting, 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
* corruptly of fasting; when as the
** one saith it was 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 our sins
* by fasting, seeing that the Scrip-
* ture saith that fasting and alms
** doth deliver from sin, and there-
“fore calleth them new teachers
*‘ that shut out the merit of fasting.
* August. de Temp. Ixii. Serm.”

ar- Fasts in

408 Mortification not the only End of Fasting.

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixxii. 2.

former kind, and the latter they greatly commend, so that it 7
be upon extraordinary occasions only, and after one certain —
manner exercised. But yearly or weakly 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 politie order appointing some
such usual change of diet as ours is. |

We are therefore the rather to make it manifest in all
men’s eyes, that set times of fasting appoited in spiritual
considerations to be kept by all sorts of men took not their
beginning either from Montanus 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 observed not without singular use and benefit.

[2.] Much hurt hath grown to the Church of God through
a false imagination 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 concerning 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

[al. serm. 142. § 1. t. v. Append.
252.| ‘Ambr. lib. x. Epist.” [al.
Ep. 63. § 16,17. Whitgift, Def. 99.
had quoted from St. Augustine, Ep.
86. al. 36. the answer made by St.
Ambrose to him, when perplexed
about the propriety of fasting on the
Saturday: ‘* Quando hic sum, non
**jejuno Sabbato; quando Rome
* sum, jejuno Sabbato: et ad quam-
““cunque ecclesiam veneritis, ejus
** morem servate, si pati scandalum

** non vultis aut facere:” which rule
St. Augustine adopted as his. own.
T. C. opposing the expressions of
Tertullian and St. Ignatius against
fasting on Sundays, would appear to
have forgotten the ancient distinc-
tion between the Sabbath and the
Lord’s day, and so to lay himself
open to the charge brought against
him by Whitgift in his margin, p. 102:
“The replier setteth the Fathers to-
“* gether by the ears without cause.” ]

409

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; sometime 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®9. Our life is a mixture of good with evil‘°
When we are 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
him whose mere undeserved mercy is the author of all happi-
ness; 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

Fasting, an Expression of holy Sorrow.

“Tali

38 [De Jejun. adv. Psych. c. iii.
« Etiamsi Deus nulla jejunia preece-
** pisset, ostendens tamen unde sit
“< occisus Adam, mihi reliquerat in-
“telligenda remedia offense, qui
** offensam demonstrarat : ultro ci-
** bum quibus modis quibusque tem-
*‘poribus potuissem, pro veneno
** deputarem, et antidotum famem
“sumerem, per quam purgarem
“ mortis a primordio causam in me
** quoque cum ipso genere transduc-
“tam; certus hoc Deum velle cujus
* contrarium noluit.” Ibid. c. vi.
«« Cui cor evectum potius invenieba-
“tur quam impinguatum, quadra-
** ginta diebus totidemque noctibus
* supra humane nature facultatem
jejunium perennavit, spiritali fide
** virtutem subministrante: et vidit
** oculis Dei gloriam, et audivit auri-
“ bus Dei vocem, et corde conjecit

“Dei legem.” Ibid. c. ix.
“victu David exomologesin suam
*‘ expressit, cinerem quidem edens
*‘velut panem, i.e. panem velut
** cinerem aridum et sordidum; po-
“tum vero fletu miscens utique
*€ pro vino.” ] '

389 «* Neque enim cibi tempus in
*‘ periculo:...semper inedia mece-
“roris sequela est.” ‘Tertull. de
Jejun. [c. 7.

40 Mndeis & trodaBerw thy akpa-
roy kal duryn Admns xapay am’ ovpa-
vov KaraBaivewy én thy ynv. GAN ey-
Kéxpatat €& audoiv...ov yap ciacev
6 matip To avOporev yévos hUrats
kat ddvvais Kai GyOeow davidros €p=
péepec Oar, mapeme Se Kai ths dueivo-
vos Pucews, evdideat Tote Kal yadn-
vidoa thy Woxny dicawoas. Philo
de Abraham. [t. ii. p. 29. ed.
Mang. |

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixxii. 2.

410 Jewish Fasts voluntary, not blamed by our Lord.

Book v. though past reneweth gladness; so the other called again

Ch. Lxx

ii. 3, 4.

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 sequestration forasmuch
as‘! higher cogitations do naturally drown 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.

[3-] 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 drink,” that
“ food commendeth us not unto God+2” whether we take it or
abstain from it, that if we eat we are not thereby the more ac-
ceptable 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 re-
fuseth some kinds of meats and drinks lest they make him
unclean that tasteth 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 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.

[4.] 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 Saviour
gave them was‘, “ When ye fast look not sour as hypocrites.

4! John iv.34. 42 Rom. xiv.17; [1 Cor. viii. 8.] | 43 Matt. vi. 16.]

Standing public Fasts among the Jews. 41]

« 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 the 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‘4, 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 therein was blamed.

[5-] Of public4® enjoined fasts upon causes extraordinary
the examples in Scripture are so frequent that they need no
particular rehearsal. Public extraordinary fastings were
sometimes for one‘? only day, sometimes for three+*, some-
times for seven*?. Touching fasts not appointed for any such
extraordinary causes, but either yearly or monthly or weekly
observed and kept, first upon the ninth*® day of that month
the tenth whereof was the feast of expiation, they were com-
manded of God that every soul year by year should afflict
itself. Their yearly fasts every fourth month in regard of
the city of Jerusalem entered by the enemy, every fifth in
memory of the overthrow of their temple, every seventh for
the treacherous destruction and death of Godolias the very
last stay which they had to lean unto in their greatest misery,
every tenth in remembrance of the time when siege began
first to be laid against them ; all these not commanded of God
himself but ordained by a public constitution of their own,
the Prophet*! Zachary expressly toucheth. That-St. Jerome?

, A > a s
voias, pndevos €voxAovvros pnde

. St. Luke xviii. 12.]
St. Matth. ix. 14.]

‘ 2 Chron. xx; Jer. xxxvi; Ezra
Vili; 1 Sam. vii.

47 Judges xx. 26.

48 2 Macc. xiii. 12.

49 ; Sam. xxxi.13; 1 Chron. x.12.

“0 Levit. xxili.xvi. Philo [in vit.
Mosis,| de hujus festi jejunio ita
loquitur: Ov ouriov, ov morov e£eott
mpocevéeykacba, kabapais Ores dia-

eutrodigovros TopATLKOD v waOous, 6 éroia
iret cupBaivew ex mhyoporas, € éop-
Trafoow, ‘ag kdpevor Tov matépa Tou
mavros écias evxais. 8&0 &va dpynoriay
pev Tahai@v apapTnparev, ktnow oe
kal aréAavow veov ayabav ciobacw
aircioOa. p. 447. [ Paris, 1552. ]
mr Zach. vill. 19.

In loc. Zach. ‘ Cogimur ad

C He reos recurrere, et scientiz

LIBRARY ST. 7.ARY’S COLLEGE

BOOK V,

Ch. Ixxii. 5.

BOOK V.

Ch. Lxxii. 6.

4.12 How the Jews observed their Fasts.

following the tradition of the Hebrews doth make the first a.
memorial of the breaking of those twelve tables when Moses
descended from Mount Sina>?; the second a memorial as well
of God’s indignation condemning them to forty years’ travail -
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 above twenty in number
ordained amongst them by like occasions and observed in
like manner, besides their weekly abstinence Mondays and
Thursdays throughout the whole year‘.

[6.] 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

** veritatem de fonte magis quam de
*rivulis querere: presertim cum
* non prophetia aliqua de Christo,
** ubi tergiversari solent, et verita-
** tem celare mendacio, sed historic
“ex precedentibus et consequen-
“tibus ordo.texatur. Jejunium
** quarti mensis, qui apud Latinos
*‘vocatur Julius, die septima et
** decima ejusdem mensis, illud ar-
*bitrantur, quando descendens
** Moyses de monte Sina tabulas
*‘ legis adjecerit atque confregerit ;
** et juxta Hieremiam muri primum
*‘rupti sunt civitatis. In quinto
** mense qui apud Latinos appella-
“tur Augustus, cum propter ex-
** ploratores terre sanctz seditio
*‘ orta esset in populo, jussi sunt
“ montem non ascendere, sed per
** quadraginta annos longis ad ter-
*“yam sanctam circuire dispendiis;
** ut exceptis duobus Chaleb et Josue,
** omnes in solitudine caderent. In
“hoc mense et a Nabucodonosor,
*“et multa post secula a Tito et
** Vespasiano, templum Hierosoly-
“mis incensum est atque destruc-
“tum: capta urbs Bethel ad quam
**multa millia confugerant Jude-
“orum; aratum templum in igno-

** miniam gentis oppresse a T.Annio
** Rufo. In septimo vero, qui apud
“nos appellatur October, sicut
** supra diximus, occisus est Godo-
* lias, et Jude tribus ac Hierusa-
“lem reliquiz dissipate. Lega-
*“*mus Hieremiam. Mense decimo,
** qui apud nos Januarius dicitur,
** eo quod anni janua sit atque prin-
* cipium, Ezechiel in captivitate
** positus audivit, et cunctus popu-
“lus, captivorum, quinto mense
“templum esse subversum, quod
*‘planissime in eodem_ propheta
* cognoscimus.”’ vi. 516. |

53 Exod. xxxii.

54 Numb. xiv.

55 [| Ezek. xxiv. 1, 2.]

56 Vide Riber. lib. v.cap.21. [De
Templo, et de iis que ad Templum
pertinent, p.214. Salamance. 1591. |

57 [** His diebus addiderunt ma-
“ gistri Judzorum singulis anni
*hebdomadis jejunium secundi
“et quinti diei, i.e. secunde et
*‘quinte feriz, tribus de causis:
** propter excidium templi, propter
*‘combustam legem, et propter
“ blasphemiam Rabsacee.”’ Rib. ubi
supr. Comp. Maimonid. Taanith,
§ 1. ap. Lightf. ii. 463. ]

In what Sense they might fast.on the Sabbath. 413

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 Daniel5’, “I was,”
saith he, “in heaviness for three weeks of days; I ate no
“pleasant bread, neither tasted flesh nor wine.” Their
tables 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 Apostle may be thought to allude
saying®?, “One believeth he may eat all things, another
“ which is weak” (and maketh a conscience of keeping those
customs which the Jews observe) “eateth herbs.” This
austere repast they took in the evening after abstinence the
whole day. For to forfeit a noon’s meal and then to recom-
pense themselves at night was not their use. Nor did they
ever accustom themselves on sabbaths or festival days to
fast,

[7.] And yet it may be a question whether in some sort
they did not always fast the Sabbath. Their fastings were
partly in token of penitency, humiliation, grief and sorrow,
partly in sign of devotion and reverence towards God. Which
second consideration (I 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 that hereunto the sacred © Scripture
doth give some secret kind of testimony ? Josephus is plain,

56 [Jonah iii. 7.]

57 Dan. x. 2, 3.

58* Puram et sine animalibus
* coenam.” Apul. in Asclep. in fin.
[Oper. p. 380. ed. Vulcan. 1594.]
** Pastum et potum pura nosse non
** ventris scilicet sed anime causa.”
Tertul. de Poenit. [c.9.] Vide Phil.
lib. de vita contempl. [613. ovrody-
tat d€ moduTedes ovdev, GAAa prov
evTeAn’ Kal dor ares, ods of aBpo-
dvairarot mapaptriovcw tocar.
Ibid. airiov } mérov oddels dv avrav
mpogeveykaito mpd HAtov dvceas. |

59 Rom. xiv. 2; Hieron. lib. ii.
contr. Jovinian. [§ 17. t. ii. 81. B.
“ Non inter jejunia et satietatem
** qualia merita dispensat, sed con-

*tra eos loquitur, qui in Christum
*credentes adhuc Judaizabant.”
And below; ‘‘ Ne quis putaret hoc
** de jejuniis dici, et non de super-
** stitione Judaica, statim edisserit,
** Salius credit manducare omnia;
‘* qui autem infirmus est olera man-
** ducat,’”’ &c. ]

69 Judith. viii. 6; R. Mos. in
Misneh Tora, lib. iii. (qui est de
tempor.) cap. de Sab. et cap. de
Jejun. [cap.i. p. 3. of Carpzovius’
Version. “ Non definiunt jejunia
*‘populo universo, neque diebus
* Sabbati, neque diebus festis.”
Vid. Buxtorf. Synag. Jud. c. 11.
p. 276. ] :

61 Nehem. viii. 3. 12.

BOOK V.

Ch. 1xxii. 7.

BOOK V.

Ch. lxsii. 8.

Al 4 Christian Fasts, private and public ;

that the sixth hour® (the day they divided into twelve)

Neither is it improbable but that the heathens did therefore
so often upbraid them with fasting on that day®.

was >
wont on the sabbath always to call them home unto meat. —

™

Besides —

-
:
4

:
:

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 unlikely 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,

«These men,” saith Peter, “are not drunk as you suppose™, |

“ since as yet the third hour of the day is not overpast.”
[8.] Howbeit leaving this in suspense as a thing not alto-
gether certainly known, and to come from Jews to Christians,

we find that of private voluntary fastings the Apostle St. Paul |

speaketh more than once®, And (saith Tertullian) they are
sometime commanded throughout the Church “ex aliqua
“ sollicitudinis ecclesiastics causa,” the care and fear of the
Church 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 had foresignified that
when himself should be taken from them his absence would
soon make them apt to fast®, it seemeth that even as the first
festival day appointed to be kept of the Church was the day
of our Lord’s return from the dead, so the first sorrowful and
mourning day was that which we now observe in memory of
his departure out of this world. And because there could be

62 « Hora sexta, que Sabbatis
‘“‘ nostris ad prandium vocare solet,
** supervenit.” Joseph. lib. de Vita

sua. [§ 54. |

63 «* Sabbata Judzorum a Mose
“in omne zvum jejunio dicata.”
Justin. lib. xxxvi. fe 2.| “ Ne Ju-

*‘ deeus quidem, mi Tiberi, tam li-

“benter Sabbati jejunium servat
“* quam ego hodie servavi.” Sueton.
in Octav. cap. 76.

64 Acts ii. 15.

65 1 Cor. vii.5; 2 Cor. vi. 5; xi. 273
Col. iv. 3.

66 [S. Luke v. 35.]

Sell within the Church's Prerogative. 415

sno 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 Ignatius
not thinking him a Catholic Christian man which did not
abhor and (as the state of the Church was then) avoid 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 sometimes
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 observed the Saturday’s
fast, because such was then the custom in Rome, nevertheless

in his own church at home he did otherwise®?.

67 Tonat. [i. e. a writer in his
simec| Ep. ad Philip. [c. 13.]

68 (The latter, or Saturday’s fast,
is supposed by Bingham (Antiq.
xxi. 3. § 6.) to have grown out of
the Friday’s by superposition, i. e.
by adding so many hours to the
fast, as prolonged it into the follow-
ing day. See Dr. Routh’s note on
a fragment of St. Victorinous, Reliq.
Sacr. iii. 245. Bingham, ubi supr.
says it was confined to the Western
Church, and quotes no earlier au-
thority than the 36th canon of the
council of Eliberis, A.D. 305. “ Pla-
“cuit... ut omni Sabbati die jeju-
*‘niorum superpositionem celebre-
“mus.”

69S. Aug. Ep. 36. olim 86. c. 32.
t. ii. p. 81. “ Quoniam non inveni-
“mus, ut supra commemoravi, in
*evangelicis et apostolicis literis,
“que ad Novi ‘Testamenti revela-
*‘tlonem proprie pertinent, certis
*‘diebus aliquibus evidenter pre-
*ceptum observanda esse jejunia,
‘et ideo res quoque ista sicut aliz
** plurimee, quas enumerare difficile

The churches

“ est, invenit in veste illius filiz
“regis, hoc est Ecclesiz, varietatis
*Jocum; indicabo tibi quid mihi
** responderit venerandus Ambro-
* sius, a quo baptizatus sum, Me-
** diolanensis episcopus. Nam cum
* in eadem civitate mater mea me-
‘cum esset, et nobis adhuc cate-
** chumenis parum ista curantibus,
** illa sollicitudinem gereret utrum
* secundum morem nostre civitatis
** sibi esset sabbato jejunandum, an
** ecclesize Mediolanensis more pran-
**dendum ; ut hac eam cunctatione
** liberarem, interrogavi hoc supra-
*‘ dictum hominem Dei. At ille,
* «Quid possum,’ inquit, ‘hic do-
“cere, amplius quam ipse facio?’
** Ubi ego putaveram nihil eum ista
*‘responsione precepisse, nisi ut
** Sabbato pranderemus; hoc quippe
“ipsum facere sciebam: sed ille
** secutus adjecit, ‘Quando hic sum,
“non jejuno Sabbato; quando
** Rome sum, jejuno Sabbato: et
‘ad quamcunque ecclesiam vene-
* ritis,’ inquit, ‘ejus morem servate,
“si pati scandalum nonvultis aut

BOOK V.

Ch. lxxii. 8,

BOOK V.
Ch. lxxii. 9.

416 Weekly Fasts Christian: Variety regarding them.

which did not observe that day had another instead thereof,
which was the Wednesday?°, for that when they judged it:
meet to have weekly a day of humiliation besides that
whereon our Saviour suffered death, it seemed best to make
their choice of that day especially whereon the Jews are
thought to have first contrived their treason together with | z
Judas against Christ7!. 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.

[9.] 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 affect peace. As for their specified
errors, I will not in this place dispute whether voluntary
fasting with a virtuous purpose of mind be any medicinable |
remedy of evil, or a duty acceptable unto God and in the
world to come 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 —
penitent both weeping and fasting are means to blot out
sin?2, means whereby through God’s unspeakable and unde-
served mercy we obtain or procure to ourselves pardon,

bel) a PR

“« facere.” Hoc responsum retuli ad
** matrem, elque suffecit, nec dubi-
** tavit esse obediendum : hoc etiam
* nos secuti sumus. Sed quoniam
* contingit maxime in Africa, ut
“una ecclesia vel unius regionis
*ecclesie alios habeant Sabbato
** prandentes, alios jejunantes ; mos
*‘eorum mihi sequendus videtur,
“ quibus eorum populorum congre-
** gatio regenda commissa est.”” |

40 (For “in all churches which
“embraced the Saturday fast,
“© Wednesday was wholly laid aside.”
Bingham, ubi supra. ]

71 [See Bingham, Antiq. b. xxi.
c. 3. The earliest authorities pro-
duced for the Stationes on Wednes-
days and Fridays are Clement of
Alex. Strom. vii. ‘P- 877: Oidey avros
(6 yrooriKds epyarns) Kal THs yoreias
Ta aiviypara TOV 7Ep@v TOUTOD, THs
tetpados Kai Ths mapacKevns éyo.

and Tertull. de Jejun. c. 13. “ Con-
*‘ venio vos et preter Pascha jeju-
** nantes, citra illos dies, quibus ab-
“Jatus est sponsus, et stationum
“ semijejunia interponentes.” et c.
14. “Si omnem in totum devotionem
“‘ temporum et dierum, .. erasit Apo-
« stolus. .. cur stationibus quartam
“ et sextam Sabbati dicamus ?”? The
reason is assigned (among others)
by S. Peter of Alexandria, Canon xv.
Ovk eykahéoet Tus npty mapaTnpov-
pévors rerpdda kal L mapacKkeuny, ev ais
kal vnorevew npiv KaTa mapadoot
evAdyws mpoorérakrat’ THY pev Te-
Tpada, dia TO yevopevoy ovpBovhtov
tro Tov "Tovdaiov emi TH mpodocia
Tov Kupiou, Ty be TaparKeuny, dua
TO memovOevat aitov imep quay. ap.
Routh. Reliq. Sacr. iii. 343.]

7218S. A ao Ep. 63. 16. “ Que
bie noble salus esse potest, nisi jejunio
** eluerimus peccata nostra?” |

St. Ambrose and St. Augustine vindicated. ° 417

-which attainment unto any gracious benefit by him bestowed Boom ¥

the phrase of antiquity useth to express by the name of
merit 72; but if either St. Augustine or St. Ambrose have
taught any wrong opinion, seeing they which reprove them
are not altogether 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 not subject to power or
jurisdiction, discretion should teach us for peace and quiet-
ness’ 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
ease 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.
[10.] 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 Ignatius hath said,
“if any keep Sundays’ or Saturdays’ fast 73 (one only Satur-
“ day 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 heretics, which thought?

72 [S. Amb. Ep.63. 17. “Qui sunt
* hi preceptores novi, qui meritum
** excludant j jejunii? ? ee

73 Ei ris Kuptaxiy i) oaBBarov n-
oTevet may évos caBBarov, ovtos

fea) éori. Epist. ad Philip.

Simon Magus, Menander,
gio, Basilides, Carpocrates,

HOOKER, VOL. II.

Cerinthus, and the whole body of
Gnostics: afterwards Marcion, the
Valentinians, and Manes.| Vide
Iren. lib. i. cap. 20—25. Epiph.
Heeres. 21. § 43 22.§ 13 23. § 13
245 $2397. 625 2859 Take F3;
42. § 2. Vide Canon. Apost. 55.
(The following canons relate to this
subject; they are numbered as in

Ee

lxxii, 10.

418 Heretical Notions on Fasting.—Tertullian’s Error.

that this world being corruptible could not be made but by a
very evil author. And therefore as the Jews did by the
festival solemnity of their Sabbath rejoice in the God th
created the world as in the author of all goodness, so tho
heretics in hatred of the Maker of the world sorrowed, wept,
and fasted7> on that day as being the birthday of all evil.

And as Christian men of sound belief did solemnize aul
Sunday, in joyful memory of Christ’s resurrection, so likewise
at the selfsame time such heretics as denied his resurrection
did the contrary to them which held it, when the one sort
rejoiced the other fasted. a:

Against. those heretics which have urged perpetual abstill
nence from certain meats as being in their very nature un=
clean, 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 “
know. |

[11.] Again when Tertullian together with such as were
his followers began to Montanize, and pretending to perfect
the severity of Christian discipline brought in sundry unae-
customed days of fasting, 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 so sudden novelty, the cause was presently
inquired into. After notice taken how the Montanists held

ROOK V.
Ch. lxxii. 11.

Beveridge’ 8 edition. Can. 43. el Tis
émigKomos, i mpeaBurepos, i 7) Sidkovos,
7 dos Tov karahdyou Tou ieparikov,
yapou kal Kpe@v Kal oivou ov dia
doxnow adda dia Bdedupiay amréxe-
Tal, enthavGavopevos 6 ott mayra Kaa
Aiav, kai Gru Gppev kal Ondv erroinaey 6
@ecds Tov avOporor, adAa Braognpaev
dvaBadrer THY Snpuoupyiav™ jy Stop-
Bovcbw, 7 Kabawpeicbw Kai Tis &k-
kAnolas dmroBadd\éobw* eoavtas Kal
Aaikés.

Can. 45. Et tis émiokoros, i} mpeo-
.Borepos, 7 q didkovos, ev Tats mpépats
Tav EopTav ov perahapBdver Kpe@v 7}
oivov, kabatpeicba, @s kKekauTnplag~
Hévos thy idiay ovveidnow, Kal atrios

oxavdddov troddois yevdpevos.

Can. 56. Et Tus kAnpixds evpebn
THY Kupakny npépay i) TO odBBarov,
TAH Tov €vds udvov, rnoTevov, Kabat~
peiadw’ cay d€ Aaixds 7, apopifér ba.
ap. Coteler. PP. Apost.i. 449, 450. |

75 [Of Marcion in particular Epi-
phanius says, Heer, xlil. c.25 7d od8-
Batov vnorever, dia rovavtny airiav*
ered, pol, rod Ocod rav "lovdalev
éorly mn dvdrravots Tod _merroixdros
Tov Koo pov, Kal év TH €3ddun nuepa
dvaravoapevon, aypeis yNTTEvT@peED
TavTyY, iva py TO KaOnKov Tov Ocod
trav lovdaiwv épyafapea. t. i. 304. B.
ed. Petav. Paris. 1622. |

+

Fasting, how urged by Tertullian and-the Montanists. 419

ithese additions to be supplements of the gospel, whereunto Book v.
ithe Spirit of prophecy did now mean to put as it were the nara
‘last hand, and was therefore newly descended upon Mon-
‘tanus, 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 Ter-
- tullian proclaiming even open war to the Church, maintained
- Montanism, wrote a book in defence of the new fast, and en-
_ titled the same, A Treatise of Fasting against the Opinion of
the Carnal Sort. In which treatise nevertheless because so
much is sound and good, as doth either generally concern the
“use, or in particular declare the custom of the Church’s fast-
ing in those times, men are not to reject whatsoever is alleged
out of that book for confirmation of the truth. His error
discloseth itself in those places where he defendeth his fasts
to be duties necessary for the whole Church of Christ to ob-
serve 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 farther reveal
the same by Montanus also. ‘“ Against us ye pretend,” saith
Tertullian7®, “ that the public orders which Christianity is
“ hound 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,

76 [De Jejun. c.13. ‘ Prescri- “ trio agenda, non ex imperio. Mo-

« bitis constituta esse solennia huic
** fidei scripturis vel traditione ma-
_ © jorum; nihilque observationis am-
* plius adjiciendum ob illicitum in-
“ novationis. State in isto gradu si
potestis. Ecce enim convenio vos
“et preter Pascha jejunantes....
** Denique respondetis hee ex arbi-

* vistis igitur gradum, excedendo
*‘ traditionem, cum que non sunt
‘© constituta obitis. Quale est autem,
“ ut tuo arbitrio permittas quod im-
*‘ perio Dei non das? plus humane
* licebit voluntati quam divine po-
* testati? Ego me seculo non Deo
* liberum memini.”’ |

Ee 2

4.20 Fasting, how depreciated by Aérius.

‘we require your obedience to that which God himself doth i
“ 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?” ti
[12.] These places of Tertullian for fasting have worthily
been put to silence. And as worthily Aérius 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 mainte-
nance of Christian liberty: the one thought his cause very
strongly upheld by making invective declamations with a pale
and a withered countenance against the Church, by filling the
ears of his starved hearers with speech suitable to such men’s
humours, and by telling them no doubt to their marvellous
contentment and liking7’, “‘ Our new 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 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 de-
* votions please them not:” thus the one for Montanus and
his superstition. The other in a clean contrary tune against
the religion of the church7§, “ These set fasts away with
“ them, for they are Jewish and bring men under the yoke of
“servitude; if I will fast let me choose my time, that
“ Christian liberty be not abridged.” Hereupon their glory
was to fast especially upon the Sunday, because the order of

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixxii. 12.

77 [Tertull. de Jejun.c.1. “ Hi c.17. ‘ Qui sanctior inter vos, nisi

** Paracleto controversiam faciunt,
‘* propter hoc nove prophetize recu-
*santur, non quod alium Deum
“* preedicent Montanus et Priscilla
‘et Maximilla, nec guod Jesum
** Christum solvant, nec quod ali-
** quam fidei aut spei regulam ever-
“tant, sed quod plane doceant se-
“pius jejunare quam nubere.” et

** convivandi frequentior, nisi obso-
*“nandi pollucibilior, nisi calicibus
“ jnstructior? Merito homines solius
“anime et carnis spiritalia recu-
‘“‘ satis.” Hooker seems to have
read the last sentence without the
s€ et, 39

78 Odre ynoreia, pnow, éorat
retaypevn’ tadra yap lovdaikd €or,

Need of solemn Fasts for private Offences. 421

‘the Church was on that day not to fast79. “On Church
‘“ fasting days and specially the week before Easter, when
‘“with us,’ saith Epiphanius, “custom admitteth nothing
/“ but lying down upon the earth, abstinence from fleshly de-
«“ lights 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 strongest 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.”
_ [13.] By this of Epiphanius it doth appear not only what
- fastings 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 bringing
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 offenders 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 heaps of grievous transgressions have we com-
mitted, the best, the perfectest, the most righteous amongst

kal umd Cuyov Soudeias’. . et yap Glos macat Tov Wuxev ai GwrTnpiat Tov

Bovdopat yorevely, | oiav 8 ay aipi-
gopar npepay ar €pavrov, moreva
dia tiv edevbepiav. “Obev map av~
Tots chianierak se paddov ev Ku-
ptai} ynoTevew . - & Te Tais meepais
tov IIdoxa, 6Te rap” mi Xapevviat,
ayveiat, kaxorraGeiat, Enpopayiar, ev-
xal, aypumviat te Kat vynoteiat, Kat

ayiov aber, avrol dmréwbev oyo-
vovot kpéa te Kal olvoy, éavTdy Tas
prcBas yepiforres, dvaxayxafovor,
yeA@ures, xhevdovres THY ayiay
TavTHY arpeiay tis €Bdouadds Tov
es émitehoovtas. | Epiph. Heres.

5; iba]

BOOK Vv.

Ch. Ixxii.13.

422 Need of solemn Fasts for public or Church Offences. |
nook vy, us all, and yet clean pass them over unsorrowed for and uns i
oni" yenented of, only because the Church hath forgotten utterly”
~~ how to bestow her wonted times of discipline, wherein the

public example of all was unto every particular person a most

effectual mean 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 were no part of a Christian
man’s duty!

[14.] Again besides our private offences which ought nol ;
thus loosely to be overslipped, suppose we the body and cor-—
poration 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 special_sacrifice ap-—
pointed for them in the law of Moses, and being common to—
the whole society which containeth all, must needs so far con-—
cern every man in particular, as at some time in solemn man- —
ner 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 suitable. 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
setting 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 unto 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.

[15.] Having therefore hitherto spoken both of festival
days, and so much of solemn fasts as may reasonably serve
to shew the ground thereof in the law of nature, the practice

Discipline of Fasts, how far corresponding with Feasts. 423

jpartly 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 quarrelling without
- cause, we will only collect the chiefest points as well of re-
- semblance 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
_ well-spring of the other, they are incompatible*°, A third
- degree of affinity between them is that neither being accept-
' able to God of itself, but both tokens of that which is accept-
able, 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 fast8? we offend. A fourth thing common unto them is,

that the greatest part of the world hath always grossly and
_ palpably offended in both; 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 affec-
tion towards those things which are pretended by such exer-
cise; 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,
inasmuch 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 therefore need

the more to be directed by a watchful guide, seeing 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 angels in heaven
are but angels, and that bodily exercise considered in itself is

80 Conc. Laod. c. 51, 52. vetat pyelay moveivy ev trois caBBdrois Kai
Natalitia Martyrum in Quadrage- xvpiaxais. And can. 52. ov det ev
sima celebrari. [t. i. 1505. od de teacapakoot ydpous f yeveOdva em-
€v TeaoapakooTh paptipey yeveOdrov —reAeiv. |
emiteheiv, GANA Tay ayiov papripey = 8! Isai. 1. 13. 2 Isai. lviii. 3.

BOOK Y.

Ch. Ixxii. 13.

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixxii. 16.

424 Discipline of Fasts more needful than that of Feasts,

i

no great matters. Finally seeing that both are ordinances
well devised for the good of man, and yet not man created
purposely for them as for other offices of virtue*? whereunto —
God’s immutable law for ever tieth; it is but equity to wish
or admonish that where by uniform order they are not as yet ~
received, the example of 84 Victor’s extremity in the one, and
of 85 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 labour, so in times of fasting regard be had
to their imbecilities, lest they should suffer harm doing ~
good. | a
[16.] Thus therefore we see how these two customs are in —
divers respects 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 ©
contrary passion of mind, albeit gladness to all men be na- —
turally more weleome. 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 unto other
men, there is no man so seldom crossed as pleasured 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 concerning the very choice
which oftentimes we are to-make, our corrupt inclination well
considered, there is cause why our Saviour should account
them happiest that do most mourn®7, and why Solomon might
judge it better to frequent mourning than feasting houses®,
not better simply and in itself (for then would nature that
way incline) but in regard of us and our common weakness
better. Job was not ignorant that his children’s banquets
though tending to amity needed sacrifice’®. Neither doth
any of us.all need to be taught that in things which delight

Wee mye Omer te py ey y

82 1 Tim. iv. 8. 85 Matt. ix. 14.
83 Eccles. xii. 13; Isai, lviii. 6,7; 8° Col. ii. 16.
Rom. xiv. 17; James i. 27; Heb. 87 Matt. v. 4.
xil. 14; Ephes. ii. 10. 88 Eccles. vii. 2, 4.
84 Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. v. c. 23. 89 Job i. 5.

by reason of the natural Unpleasantness of the former. 425

_ we easily swerve from mediocrity, and are not easily led by a
- right direct line®. On the other side the sores and diseases
_ of mind which inordinate pleasure breedeth are by dolour
and grief cured. For which cause as all offences use to se-
' duce by pleasing, so all punishments endeavour by vexing to
_ reform transgressions. We are of our own accord apt enough
_ to give entertainment 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
_ Jabour and long practice.

_ [17.] From hence it riseth 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 continually gave themselves to austere life; or
men that took often occasions in private virtuous respects to
lay Solomon’s counsel aside9!, “ Eat thy bread with joy,” and
to be followers of David’s example which saith% “I humbled
“ my soul with fasting ;” or but they who otherwise worthy
of no great commendation have made of hunger some their
gain, some their physic, some their art, that by mastering sen-
sual appetites without constraint, they might grow able to
endure 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 considerations the rather to be accepted. For
I presume we are not altogether without experience how great
their advantage 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 mode-
rate themselves, he which can either bring them to hunger or
overcharge them is sure to make them their own overthrow”.

9 °Ey ravi d€ pddiora pudakreov Protestant army in France, A. D.
To 700 Kal THY HOovnv’ ov yap ddé- 1587, might possibly be in Hooker’s
kagTot Kpiopev avtny. Arist. Eth. mind when he wrote this sentence.

il. cap. 9. Davila says, “ Pit che tutte le fatiche,
91 Eccles. ix. 7. “e tutte I’ industrie del Duca di
92 Psalm xxxv. 13. * Guisa nuoceva agli Alemanni |’

93 [The overthrow of the German “‘ abbondanza di vini, di uve, di

LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixxii.17.

4.26 Fasting turned by the Church to devout Ends.

nook v. What nation soever doth feel these dangerous inconveniences —
oarsmen 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 discipline 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. |
[18.] 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 arisen, that men considering the one —
might fear the other the more, but farther also to temper the —
mind lest contrary affections coming 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 prevention of
those disorders as much as might be, wherein notwithstanding
the world always will deserve, as it hath done, blame, be-
cause 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 men a love towards
frugal and severe life, to undermine the palaces of wantonness,
to plant parsimony as nature where riotousness hath been
study, 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 afterwards change colour; that the poor whose perpe-
tual fasts are 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 contrary ;
that they which for the most part do lead sensual and easy
lives, they which as the prophet David describeth them®%,
“ are not plagued like other men,” may by the public spectacle
of all be still put in mind what themselves are ; finally that
every man may be every man’s daily guide and example as

“ frutte, e di carnaggi, de’ quali “ [Ita tibi semper comedendum est,

“sono copiose quelle provincie.” “ut cibum et oratio sequatur et

lib. viii. p. 365. ] *lectio.”] Hier. Epist. ad Eust.
94 Valde absurdum est nimia [i. 132. .

** saturitate velle honorare martyrem § 9 Psalm Ixxiii. 5.

** quem scias Deo placuisse jejuniis.

loge ste eee ee

Marriage, why a Relation of Inequality. 427

| well by fasting to declare humility as by praise to express joy Boox Vv.
— in the sight of God, although it have herein befallen the Opa
Church as sometimes David, so that the speech of the one may Ba
be truly the voice of the other, “My soul fasted, and even
__ that was also turned to my reproof.”

LXXIII. In this world there can be no society durable The cele-
| otherwise than only by propagation. Albeit therefore single “sitar 5
_ life be a thing more angelical and divine, yet sith the replen- ah T.C,
ishing 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.

[2.] In things which some further end doth cause to be de-
sired 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 the bringing up of children, whereunto it was not
possible they could concur unless there were subalternation
between them, which subalternation is naturally 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 nature 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 perfect-
est ground of wedlock is seldom able to yield any reason of
‘itself,

[3-] Now that which is born of man must be nourished with
far more travail, 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 4 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

p- 1996

96 Psalm lIxix. 10.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixxiii, 4.

428 Liberty of Marriage, why at some Times restrained.

iw
-

themselves do thereunto oftentimes give is ho/y97. Those rites —
and orders which were instituted in the solemnization of mar-
riage, the Hebrews term by the name of conjugal Sanctifica-
tions, :
[4.] 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 restrained99, ‘ There is,” saith Solomon', “a
« time for all things, a time to laugh and a time to mourn.”
That duties belonging unto marriage and offices appertaining

97 Tovds iepods yauouvs. Dionys. ‘“ tained in the north of England.’’)

Antiq. lib. ii. [¢. 25.
98 Kidduschin in jpitual Heb. de
benediction. nuptiarum. [‘ Apud

** Rabbinos 03? synecdochice dicitur
** de consecratione sponse ad con-
** jugium, pro ‘ desponsare, despon-
** dere, spondere.’ 0°17} ‘ sanctifica-
“tiones:’ item ‘desponsationes,
“ sponsalia ;’ de quibus integer liber
‘*extat apud Talmudicos sic voca-
*tus.’? Buxt. Lex. Hebr. et Talm.
col. 1978, 1980. Comp. Wolf. Bibl.
Hebr. 11.747. The tract ‘‘ Kiddu-
*‘ schin” is the seventh title of the
third series in the Mischna, ed. Su-
renhus. t. ili. 359, &c. |

99 [r Adm. 16. ed. 1617. “ We
* speak not of licences granted out
** of this court to marry in forbidden
** times, as in Lent, m Advent, in
**the gange week, when the priest
“in his surplice, singing gospels
‘* and making crosses, rangeth about
**in many places, upon the ember
*‘ days, and to forbidden persons,
“and in exempt places.” (Todd,
Johnson’s Dict. “ Gang week. Ro-
‘« gation week, when processions are
“made to lustrate the bounds of
“ parishes. This name is still re-

In Strype, Ann. ii.1. 382, is the fol-
lowing, among other articles, “ pro-
* pounded and divulged” by Cart-
wright at Cambridge, 1570. “xx.
** Matrimonium certis quibusdam
‘* anni temporibus interdicere, papis-
*ticum est.” See Bp. Cooper’s
Admonition, p. 103—107. “ ‘The
“bishops .... prohibit marriage at
“certain times, most contrary to
** God’s word: that is,’ say they,
** a papistical practice, to fill the
** clergy’s purse: yea it is a doctrine
“of Antichrist and of the Devil
* himself, prohibiting marriage even |
** in laymen.’ ... This must needs be
*‘ thought a captious and rigorous
‘* interpretation, to say that a stay of
“marriage for certain days and
** weeks is an unchristian forbidding
** of marriage. .. For then it is a po-
*‘ pish disorder also, and Antichris-
*‘ tian corruption, to stay marriage
** for three weeks, until the banns
** be asked... But... I think it not a
“ matter of such necessity, neither
“is it so greatly pressed, as they
‘pretend. I think there is no law
“remaining, that is so little exe-
** cuted, as that is.”’]
1 (Eccles. iii. 1.]

4.29

Customs in Marriage accounted for.

to penance are things unsuitable and unfit to be matched Book v.
- together, the 2? Prophets and * Apostles themselves do witness. ph asa
| 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 likewise in the selfsame consideration our predecessors

_ thought it not amiss to take away the common liberty of mar-

| viages during the time which was appointed for the prepara

_ tion unto and for exercise of general humiliation by fasting

and praying, weeping for sins*.

[5-] 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 nor fathers to govern

them had their tutors, without whose authority there was no

act which they did warrantable®. 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.
[6.] The custom of laying down money seemeth to have
been derived from the Saxons, whose manner was to buy their

2 Joel ii. 16.

3 1 Cor. vii. &

4 (Con. Laod. can. 52; see above,
c. Ixxii. § 15. note 80. Lyndwood
ap. Gibs. Codex 518. ‘“ Solennisa-
** tio non potest fieri a i™@, Domini-
ca Adventis usque ad Octavas
“* Epiphanie exclusive; et a Domi-
“ nica LXx usque ad primam om.
** post Pascha inclusive; et a prima
“die Rogationis usque ad septi-
* mum diem Pentecostes inclusive.”
Bishop Gibson says, “I find no
“* prohibitions expressed or plainly
** supposed in our Constitutions or
** Canons.” Strype, Ann. 1562, has
preserved a paper which seems to
have been intended for consideration
in convocation that year, of which
one article is, “ That it shall be law-
“ ful to marry at any time of the
*‘ year without dispensation, except
“it be on Christmas day, Easter
*‘ day, and six days going before,
“and upon Pentecost Sunday.”

Bishop Gibson, ubi sup. says, “ In
** parliament, 17 Eliz. a bill was de-
** pending, entitled, An Act declaring
** Marriages lawful at all times : and
‘* in convocation, 1575, the last ar-
* ticle presented to the Queen for
** confirmation, (but by her rejected)
** was, that the Bishops shall take
‘order, that it be published and
** declared in every church before
** y May, that marriage may be so-
* Jemnized at all times of the year.”’]

5 “ Mulieres antiquo jure tutela
*€ perpetua continebat. Recedebant
“vero a tutoris potestate que in
** manum convenissent.” Boet. in
Topic. Cic. [lib. ii. p. 781. ed. Ba-
sil. 1570. |

6 «Nullam ne privatam quidem
**rem foeminas sine auctore agere
** majores nostri voluerunt.” Liv.
lib. [xxxiv. c. 2.] The reason yield-
ed by Tully this, ‘‘ propter infir-
* mitatem consilii.”” Cic. pro Mur.

[c. 12. ]

ROOK V.

Ch. Ixxiii., 6.

430 Customs in Marriage: Spousal Money ;

wives’. But seeing there is not any great cause wherefore
the memory of that custom should remain, it skilleth not
much although we suffer it to lie dead, even as we see it in
a manner already worn out. 3
The ring hath been always used as an especial 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 Tertul- ~
lian 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, as some of the fathers think,
is? either to testify mutual love or rather to serve for a pledge
of conjunction in heart and mind agreed upon between them. —
But what rite and custom is there so harmless wherein the
wit of man bending itself to derision may not easily find out
somewhat to scorn and jest at? He that should have beheld
the Jews!° when they stood with a four-cornered garment

7 Vide Leg. Saxon. tit. 6. et 17.
[ap. Herold. Germ. Antig. p. 124.
tit. vi. 3, 4. “Qui viduam ducere

* est.” Cartwright, ap. Strype, ubi
sup. |
8 *Aurum nulla norat preter

“ velit, offerat tutori pretium emp-
“tionis ejus, consentientibus ad
“hoc propinquis ejus. Si tutor
“‘ abnuerit, convertat se ad proxi-
“mos ejus, et eorum consensu
“accipiat illam, paratam habens
** pecuniam, ut tutori ejus, si forte
“aliquid dicere velit, dare possit,
*‘ hoc est solid. ccc.” and tit. xvii.
«‘ Lito Regis liceat uxorem emere,
** ubicunque voluerit. Sed non li-
* ceat ullam foeminam vendere.”
p. 126. Basil. 1557. (“Litus, ad-
** scriptitius, servus glebe.’? Du-
cange.) First Prayer Book of King
Edw. VI. Rubric in Off. of Ma-
trim. fol. cxlviii. ‘The man shall
*‘ give unto the woman a ring, and
“‘ other tokens of spousage, as gold
*‘ and silver, laying the same upon
“the book:” ap. Wheatly, c. x.
§ v. 4, whom see on this subject.
** Venale illud [matrimonium] fa-
** cere aliquando intolerabilius etiam

** unico digito quem sponsus oppig-
** nerasset pronubo annulo.” ‘Ter-
tull. Apol. cap. 6.

9 Isidor. de Eccles. Offic. 1. ii.
c.19. [*Illud vero quod imprimis
‘annulus a sponso sponse datur,
* fit hoc nimirum vel propter mu-
** tue fidei signum, vel propter id
** magis, ut eodem pignore eorum
* corda jungantur.”

10 Elias Thesb. in dict. Hhupha.
[‘* We call the garment which they
‘* spread over the head of the bride-
* groom and the bride, with four
‘“‘ staves at the time of espousals,
“met; from the Scripture expres-
** sion,” (Isaiah iv.) Upon all the
** glory there (is) 781 a defence” or
(“canopy of light:””) and (Psalm
xix.) “ As a bridegroom cometh out
of his 750 chamber :” (or “from
“under his bridal canopy.”) Ed.
Fagii, 1531. p. 119. |

The king: Jewish Ceremonial in Marriage.

431

| spread over the head of espoused couples while their espousals
- were in making, he that should have beheld their praying
over a cup and their delivering the same at the marriage

feast with set forms of benediction" as the order amongst

' them was, might being lewdly affected take thereat as just
_ occasion of scornful cavil as at the use of the ring in wedlock

among Christians!2.

__[7.] But of all things the most hardly taken is the uttering
those words, ‘“‘ With my body I thee worship!3,” in which

11 In Ritual. de benedict. nuptia-
rum. [Comp. Selden, Uxor. Hebr.
lib. ii. c. 7. ‘“Solitus benedicendi
“hic ritus ex majorum instituto
* fieri, adhibito vini, si adsit, alte-
“riusve potus qui in usu poculo,
* cui etiam sua pro more preit be-
* nedictio... Solennis poculi vini
* pleni benedictio est, Benedictus
“sis Dominus Deus noster Rex
*‘mundi qui creasti fructum vitis.
** Benedictione peracta, gustatum a
* benedicente poculum sponsis tra-
* ditur, aut a sponso sponse, ubi is
“tam benedicit quam pregustat.
* Mahanil, fol. 83. et Machazor
“ German. fol. 336. partis 1™@e,’”|

12[Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 723.
** As for matrimony, that also hath
“corruptions too many. It was
* wont to be counted a sacrament,
*‘and therefore they use yet a sa-
** cramental sign to which they at-
“tribute the virtue of wedlock, I
“mean the wedding ring, which
** they foully abuse and daily withal,
** in taking it up and laying it down.
‘In putting it on they abuse the
“name of the Trinity.” Whitg.
Answ. ibid. ‘I know it is not ma-
** terial whether the ring be used or
** no, for it is not of the substance
“of matrimony; neither yet a sa-
** cramental sign, no more than the
* sitting at communion is: but
** only a ceremony of the which M.
* Bucer...saith on this sort;...
** «This ceremony is very profitable,
‘if the people be made to under-
“stand what is thereby signified:
*‘ as that the ring and other things
*¢ first laid upon the book and after-
** ward by the minister given to the
** bridegroom to be delivered to the

“ bride, do signify that we ought to
** offer all that we have to God be-
** fore we use them, and to acknow-
** ledge that we receive them at his
“hand to be used to his glory.
** The putting of the ring upon the
“‘ fourth finger of the woman’s left
*« hand, to the which, as it is said,
“there cometh a sinew or string
‘from the heart, doth signify that
‘* the heart of the wife ought to be
*‘ united to her husband; and the
* roundness of the ring doth sig-
“nify, that the wife ought to be
‘* joined to her husband with a per-
* petual band of love, as the ring
* itself is without end.” T. C.
159. (al. 199.) “If it be M. Bu-
*‘ cer’s judgment which is here al-
os ledged for the ring, I see that
** sometimes Homer sleepeth. For
*‘ first of all I have shewed that it
‘is not lawful to institute new
** signs or sacraments, and then it
‘is dangerous to do it, especially
** in this which confirmeth the false
**and popish opinion of a sacra-
“ment. And thirdly, to make
* such fond allegories of the lay-
‘‘ing down of the money, of the
‘roundness of the ring, and of
‘the mystery of the fourth finger,
** is (let me speak it with his good
leave) very ridiculous and far
‘unlike himself. And fourthly,
** that he will have the minister to
‘* preach upon these toys, surely it
** savoureth not of the learning and
*‘sharpness of the judgment of
** M. Bucer.”’

13 [Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 723.
** They make the new-married man
* according to the popish form to
** make an idol of his wife, saying,

BOOK V.

Ch. xxiii. 7.

BOOK V.

Ch. lxxiii. 7.

AB2 Use of the Word Worship.

words when once they are understood there will appear as
little cause as in the rest for any wise man to be offended. E
First therefore inasmuch as unlawful copulation doth 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

ws

~

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 expressly affirm that parties married —
have not any longer 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 was the
natural meaning the words should perhaps be as requisite

to be 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 the one or the other. If his purpose
were only fellowship, there grew to the woman by this mean
no worship at all but the contrary. In professing that his
intent was to add by his person honour and worship unto
hers, he took her plainly and clearly to wife. This is it
which the Civil Law doth mean when it maketh a wife
to differ from a concubine in dignity!7; a wife to be taken
where!’ conjugal honour and affection doth go before. The

** «With this ring I thee wed, with
**my body I thee worship,’” &c.
Whitg. Answer, ibid. ‘ Yet S. Pe-
** ter, I ep. c. ili. speaking to the
** husband saith, ‘Ye husbands,
** dwell with them as men of know-
“ledge, giving honour unto the
** woman,” &c, T. C. i. 160. al. 199.
** M. Doctor..... must understand
‘that it is one thing with us to
*‘ worship and another thing to
* honour.” Whitg. Def. ubi sup.
“This word worship, when it is
** spoken of one man towards an-
** other, can have no other signifi-
*‘ cation than reverence and duty,
*‘ which is required by the law of

** God, of nature, of civility.”” Comp.
S. Luke xiv. 10. ‘Thou shalt have
** worship in the presence of them
** that sit at meat with thee.’’]

14 Rom. i. 24.

15 y Cor. vii. 4. .

16 L, penult. D. de concub. [Di-
gest. lib. xxv. tit.7. 1.4. ‘* Concu-
** binam ex sola animi destinatione
** gestimari oportet.”’ |

17 L. item legato. sect. penult. D.
de legat. 3. [‘* Parvi refert, uxori an
*‘ concubine quis leget...... sane
“enim, nist dignitate, nihil inter-
“est.” Dig. lib. xxxii. 1. 49. 4.]

18 L, donationes. D. de donatio-
nibus. [‘‘ An maritalis honor et af-

The Holy Eucharist, a fitting Seal of Marriage. 433

worship that grew unto her being taken with declaration of
this intent was that her children became by this mean legiti-

mate and free; herself was made a mother over his family ;

last of all she received such advancement of state as things
annexed unto his person might augment 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 endow.” The former branch
having granted the principal, the latter granteth that which is
annexed thereunto.

[8.] 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!9 in this respect it
is not for suffering it to be so much but rather for not providing
that it may be more put inure. The laws of Romulus con-
cerning marriage2° are therefore extolled above the rest

* fectio pridem precesserit, perso-
“ nis comparatis, vite conjunctione
“‘ considerata, perpendendum esse
“ respondi: neque enim tabulas fa-
* cere matrimonium.”’ Digest. lib.
xxxix. tit. 6. 1. 31.]

19 [Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 723.
** Because in Popery no holy action
** may be done without a mass, they
*‘ enjoin the new married persons
“to receive the communion, as
*“‘ they do their Bishops and Priests
** when they are made.” Answ. ibid.
“ Truly I marvel what you mean,
** so wickedly to revile so godly and
* so holy a law. Well, I will only
* set down M. Bucer’s judgment of
“this thing also...‘ Est illud ad-
“modum pie ordinatum, ut novi
“ conjuges una quoque de mensa
** Domini communicent, nam non
* nisi in Christo Domino debent
** Christiani inter se matrimonio
“jungi.’” T.C. i. 160. al. 199.
* As for the receiving of the Com-
*‘munion when they be married,
** that it is not to be suffered, unless
“there be a general receiving, I
* have before at large declared; and
* as for the reason that is fathered
** of M. Bucer, (which is, that those
“that be Christians may not be
* joined in marriage but in Christ,)

HOOKER, VOL. II.

** it is very slender and cold: as if
** the Sacrament of the Supper were
‘instituted to declare any such
“thing; or they could not declare
** their joining together in Christ by
“no means but by receiving the
** Supper of the Lord.”

Compare the following passage in
the Life of Kettlewell, compiled
from Hickes and Nelson’s papers.
“© He was married at Whitchurch,
** Oxon, Oct. 4, 1685, on a Lord’s
“day, and there was a sacrament
‘on purpose to communicate the
*“new-married couple; whereby
*‘ they solemnly plighted their troth
** to their Lord and Saviour, as well
‘as to one another; a practice
“though so much neglected, yet
*‘ piously recommended by the
* Church, whom all ought in this
**to hear: but sure both by their
* advices to others, and by their
“ own examples, none should be so
“ fit to retrieve a custom so recom-
** mended, as our spiritual guides,
** according to this pattern here set
“them.” Prefixed to Kettlewell’s
Works, i. 42. ed. 1719. ]

20 Otros 6 vduos tds Te yuvaikas
nvaykace Tas ‘yaperas ota pydepiay
€xovoas érépav aroarpopiy mpos eva
roy Tov yeyapunkdros (nv Tpdrov, Kal

Ff

BOOK V,

Ch. lxxiii. 8,

434. Churching of Women: Objection to it generally.

BOOK V,
Ch. Ixxiv. 1.

amongst the heathens which were before, in that they esta-
blished 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 effectual to like
purpose it is the Sacrament of the holy Eucharist, in regard of
the force whereof Tertullian breaketh out into these words
concerning matrimony therewith sealed; “ 2!Unde sufficiam
“ad enarrandam felicitatem ejus matrimonii quod Ecclesia
“ conciliat et confirmat oblatio ?”—* I know not which way I
‘should be able to shew the happiness of that wedlock the
‘knot whereof the Church doth fasten and the Sacrament
‘of the Church confirm.’ Touching marriage therefore let
thus much be sufficient.

LXXIV. The fruit of marriage is birth, and the companion
of 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 deliverance do
publicly shew their thankful minds unto God? But behold
what reason there is against it! Forsooth22, “ 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 not have so much leisure as to do
“any corporal or bodily work, but should be like those
«¢ Massilian heretics23 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

Churching
of women.

TRS ee eo iy <3: 9

tovs avdpas @s avaykaiov Te Kal ava-
, , “~

aiperov xpnuartos THs yuvatkos Kpa-

tev. Dionys. Hal, Antiq. lib. ii.

[é. ans) ir
21 'Tertul. lib. ii. ad Uxor. [c. 9. ]

22'T.C. lib. i. p. 150. [119.

23 [S. Aug. de Heres. 57. t. viii.
19. “ Postremam ponit Epiphanius
** Massalianorum heeresin. .. Greece
* autem dicuntur edxira, ab oran-

“do sic appellati.... Nam cum
‘** Dominus dixerit, Oportet semper
“orare &c.... quod sanissime sic
* accipitur, ut nullo die intermit-
*‘ tantur certa tempora orandi; isti
* ita nimis hoc faciunt, ut hine ju-
*‘ dicarentur inter hzereticos nomi-
“ nandi.” Epiph. Her. Ixxx. § 3, 4.
Theod. Heret. Fab. iv. 11.]

Childbirth, a fit Occasion of Thanksgiving. 435

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 require solemn and express thanksgiving 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 indeed the earth is full of the blessings of the Lord which
are day by day renewed without number and above measure)
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 regard thereof to perform
the like duty ? Suppose that some bond there be which tieth
us at certain times to mention publicly 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 im-
possible labour at our hands, shall we therefore condemn
that law whereby 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.

[2.] 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

25 [This passage clearly alludes ‘ Jewish purifyings” are reckoned

to the academical custom of men- among the things contained in the
tioning the names of founders and Prayer Book contrary to God’s
benefactors, in bidding prayer before word. And p. 537. ‘* Churching
sermons. | ** of women after child birth smell-
26 [Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 535. : “ eth of Jewish purification ; their

Ff2

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixxiv. 2.

BOOK V.

Ch, lxxiv, 2,

436

Our Form of Churching not superstitious.

she were so long judged waholy, and were thereby shut out or )
sequestered from the house of God according to the ancient

Levitical Law.

Whereas the very canon law itself doth not

so hold, but directly professeth the contrary2?; she is not
barred from thence in such sort as they interpret it, nor in
respect of any unholiness forbidden entrance into the church,

‘“‘ other rites and customs in their
‘¢ ]ying-in and coming to church is
“foolish and superstitious as it is
“used.” T.C. lib. 1.118. al. 150.
‘The Churching of women: in
“‘ which title yet kept there seemeth
“to be hid a great part of the Jew-
* ish purification: for like as in the
“old law she that had brought
‘© forth a child was holden unclean,
*‘ until such time as she came to
“the temple to shew herself... so
‘this term of churching can seem
‘to import nothing else than a
** banishment, and as it were a cer-
“tain excommunication from the
‘* Church during the space that is
** between the time of her delivery
“ and of hercoming unto the church.
‘“¢ For what doth else this churching
“imply but a restoring her unto
“the Church, which cannot be
‘‘ without some bar or shutting
** forth presupposed?” Whitg. Def.
534. “ Now, sir, you see that the
“ proper title is this ; The Thanks-
** giving of Women after childbirth.
*‘'The other is the common name
** customably used of the common
‘* people, who will not be taught to
*‘ speak by you or any man, but
“‘ keep their accustomed names and
“terms: therefore they call the
** Lord’s Day Sunday, and the next
** unto it Monday profane and eth-
** nical names, and yet nothing de-
** rogating from the days and times
“ .,.The absence of the woman
** after her delivery is neither banish-
** ment nor excommunication, but a
** withdrawing of the party from the
** church by reason of that infirmity
“and danger that God hath laid
* upon womankind in punishment
* of the first sin, which danger she
** knoweth not whether she shall es-
** cape or no: and therefore after she

** hath not only escaped it but also
* brought a child into the world, to
** the increase of God’s people, and
** after such time as the comeliness
“of nature may bear, she cometh
“ first into the church to give thanks |
** for the same, and for the deliver- |
“ance by Christ from that sin,
* whereof that infirmity is a per-
‘* petual testimony. And this being
“ done not Jewishly but Christianly,
* not of custom but of duty, not to
** make the act of lawful matrimony
** unclean but to give thanks to God
‘for deliverance from so manifold
* perils; what Christian heart can
** for the name’s sake thus disallow
** of it as you do.”’] .

27 Dict. v. cap. Hee que. [in
Corp. Jur. Canon. p.3.] “ In lege
“ precipiebatur ut mulier si mascu-
** Jum pareret, 40, si feeminam, 80
** diebus a templi cessaret ingressu.
*“ Nunc autem statim post partum
*ecclesiam ingredi non prohibe-
“tur.” [The rubric in the Use of
Sarum on the Purification of Wo-
men runs thus: “ Nota quod mu-
*“ lieres post prolem emissam quan-
** docunque ecclesiam intrare volue-
** runt gratias acturee purificari pos-
** sunt, et nulla proinde peccati mole
“ oravantur, nec ecclesiarum aditus
“est eis denegandus; ne poena
** illis verti videatur in culpam. Si
**tum ex veneratione voluerint ali-
**quamdiu abstinere, devotionem
‘* eam non credimus improbandam.”
The service at that time was read at
the church door, and after it the
priest took her hand and led her
into the church, saying, “ Enter
‘into the temple of God, that
“thou mayest receive eternal life,
‘and endure through all ages,
“ Amen.” ]

Attire in Churching: Use of the Word Oblations. 437

although her abstaining from public assemblies, and her soox v.
abode in separation for the time be most convenient?®. pi eastiae e
[3-] To scoff at the manner of attire2? 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 sometime 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.
[4.] The name of Oblations®° applied not only here to those
small and petit payments which yet are a part of the minis-
ter’s right, but also generally given unto all such allowances

28 Leo Const. xvii. (Corp. Jur.
Civ. p. 244.] “Quod profecto non
“tam propter muliebrem immundi-
* tiem quam ob alias causas in in-
“tima legis ratione reconditas et
‘* veteri prohibitum esse lege et gra-
** tiz tempus traditionis loco susce-
“ pisse puto. Existimo siquidem
*‘sacram legem id_prescripsisse
“quo protervam eorum qui intem-
‘* peranter viverent concupiscentiam
* castigaret, quemadmodum et alia
** multa per alia precepta ordinan-
“tur et prescribuntur quo indo-
‘* mitus quorundam in mulieres sti-
* mulus retundatur. Quin et hec
** providentiz que legem constituit
* voluntas est, ut partus a depra-
*‘ vatione liberi sint. Quia enim
*‘ quicquid natura supervacaneum
** est idem corruptivum est et inu-
“ tile, quod hic sanguis superfluus
** sit, que illi obnoxie essent, in
** immunditie ad id temporis vivere
* illa [illas] lex jubet, quo ipso e-
*€ tiam nominis sono lascivi [lasciva ]
* concupiscentia ad temperantiam
** redigatur, ne ex inutili et corrupta
“* materia ipsum animans coagmen-
“* tetur.”

29[Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 537.
** She must come...covered with
“ a vail, as ashamed of some folly.”
Bishop Gibson (Codex, 1, 373. tit.
xviii. ch. 12.) has the following note
on the words “ decently apparelled’”’
in the rubric on this subject. ‘“ In
*‘ the reign of King James I. an or-

** der was made by the chancellor of
** Norwich, that every woman who
** came to be churched should come
* covered with a white vail : a wo-
** man refusing to conform was ex-
* communicated for contempt, and
** prayed a prohibition; alleging, that
‘** such order was not warranted b
** any custom or canon of the Churc
“of England. The judges desired
*‘ the opinion of the Archbishop of
** Canterbury, who convened divers
** bishops to consult thereupon ; and
** they certifying that it was the an-
** cient usage of the Church of Eng-
*‘ land, for women who came to be
* churched to come veiled, a prohi-
** bition was denied.””|

30 [T. C.i. 118. al. r50. “ To pass
“ by that, that it will have them
** come as nigh the communion ta-
** ble as may be, as they came before
to the high altar;” (the rubric
till the last review directed that it
should be “nigh unto the place
‘* where the table standeth ;”’) “ that
“ of all other is most Jewish, and
‘* approacheth nearest to the Jewish
purification, that she is command-
“ed to offer accustomed offerings,
‘* wherein besides that the very word
** carried with it a strong scent and
** suspicion of a sacrifice, ... it can-
“not be without danger that the
“ book maketh the custom of the
** popish church, which was so cor-
“‘ rupt, to be the rule and measure
** of this offering.””]

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixxy. 1, 2.

Of the
rites of
Burial.

438 Burial of the Dead: Oljections to our Ritual.

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. :

LXXV. 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
are though “not unlawful” yet “inconvenient,” because it
appointeth a prescript form of service at burials, suffereth
mourning apparel to be worn, and permitteth funeral ser-
mons32, a word or two concerning this point will be neces-
sary, although it be needless to dwell long upon it.

[2.] 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 towards them that are departed
mourning is not denied to be a thing convenient. As in
truth the Scripture every where doth approve lamentation
made unto this end. The Jews by our Saviour’s tears there-
fore gathered in this case that his love towards Lazarus was
great33, And that as mourning at such times is fit, so like-

31'T. C. lib. iii. p. 236. [In the
table of contents this head is thus
referred to: “ Of the inconvenience,
* not of the wnlawfulness, of the ce-
** remonies in burial.” |

32 [Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 727.
“They appoint a prescript kind of
** service to bury the dead: and that
** which is the duty of every Chris-
“ tian they tie alone to the minister,
‘‘ whereby prayer for the dead is
“‘ maintained, and partly gathered
** out of some of the prayers, where
*‘ we pray that we with this our bro-
** ther, and all other departed in the
* true faith of thy holy name, may
“have our perfect consummation

* and bliss, both in body and soul.
** We say nothing of the threefold
** peal, because that it is rather li-
* cenced by injunction,” (see In-
junctions, 1564; in Sparrow’s Col-
lection, 125.) “than commanded in
“the book, nor of their strange
** mourning by changing their gar-
** ments, which if it be not hypo-
** critical, yet it is superstitious and
** heathenish, because it is used only
** of custom; nor of burial sermons,
‘* which are put in the place of tren-
** tals, whereout spring many abuses,
** and therefore in the best reformed
** churches are removed.”’}
33 John xi. 35, 36.

Mourning Apparel justified. 439

- wise that there may be a kind of attire suitable to a sorrowful
_ affection and convenient for mourners to wear how plainly
doth David’s3+ example shew, who being in heaviness went
_ up to the mount with his head 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 ?
« Tf there be no sorrow” they say “it is hypocritical to pre-
“tend it, and if there be to provoke it” by wearing such
attire “is dangerous®®.” 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
way nourished3/,

34 2 Sam. xv. 30.

35 Eccles. ix. 8.

36 [T.C. i. 201. al. 161. “ For the
** mourning apparel, the Admonition
* saith not simply it is evil, because
“it is done of custom, but proveth
“that it is hypocritical oftentimes,
** for that it proceedeth not from
“any sadness of mind, which it
** doth pretend, but worn only of
“custom, there being under a
“ mourning gown oftentimes a mer-
“ry heart. And considering that
** where there is sorrow indeed for
** the dead, there it is very hard for
“a man to keep a measure, that
“he do not lament too much; we
“ought not to use these means
‘** whereby we might be further pro-
** yoked to sorrow, and so a great
‘way beyond the measure which
“the Apostle appoineth in mourn-
** ing: (1 Thess. iv.) any more than
“it was lawful for the Jews in the
** Gospel (S. Matt. ix. 23, 24.) to
** provoke weeping and sorrow for
** their dead by some doleful noise,
“or sound of instrument, or than
**it was lawful for Mary Lazarus’

killing themselves with sorrow that

* sister to go to her brother’s grave,
‘* thereby to set the print of her sor-
** row deeper in her mind. Seeing
* therefore if there be no sorrow it
*‘is hypocritical to pretend it, and
“if there be, it is very dangerous
** to provoke it, or to carry the notes
** of remembrance of it, it appeareth
** that this use of mourning apparel
“* were much better laid away than
“ kept.” See Whig. Def. 731. T.C.
iii. 238. |

87 |'T.C. quotes S. Cyprian de
Mortal. c. xiv for the contrary sen-
timent. “‘ Nobis quoque ipsis mini-
** mis et extremis quoties revelatum
* est, quam frequenter atque mani-
“‘ feste de Dei dignatione precep-
*‘ tum est, ut contestarer assidue et
‘ publice preedicarem fratres nostros
“non esse lugendos accersitione
‘** Dominica de seculo liberatos....
* nec accipiendas esse hic atras ves-
“ tes, quando illi ibi indumenta alba
‘* jam sumpserint : occasionem dan-
“dam non esse gentilibus ut nos
‘* merito ac jure reprehendant, quod
*¢ quos vivere apud Deum dicimus,
“ut extinctos et perditos lugea-

BOOK VY.

Ch, Ixxy, 2,

440 Honouring the Dead, a Part of Natural Religion.

BooK v. _[3.] The honour generally due unto all men maketh a decent
pba 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 of him forth upon a bier
and the accompanying of him to the earth, hath been used
even amongst infidels, all men accounting it a very extreme
destitution 39 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 the ancient use of the Jews to embalm
the corpse with sweet odours*, and to adorn the sepulchres
of certain 4},

In regard of the quality of men it hath been judged fit
to commend them unto the world at their death amongst the
heathen in funeral orations, amongst the Jews in sacred
poems*?; and why not in funeral sermons also amongst
Christians43 ? Us it sufficeth that the known benefit hereof
doth countervail millions of such inconveniences as are therein
surmised 44, 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 capable of such
speech. The care no doubt of the living both to live and to

44 [Namely, first, that the funeral
sermon ‘nourisheth an opinion
‘“* that the dead are the better for it,
“which doth appear in that there
“are none more desirous of fu-
** neral sermons than the papists.”
Secondly, “‘forasmuch as the min-
‘* ister is driven oftentimes by this
** means to preach upon a sudden,
“the word of God thereby is ne-
** gligently handled.” Thirdly,
* considering that these funeral
“sermons are at the request of

“mus.” Would it not seem that
he speaks rather with an eye to that
trying time in particular, than as
censuring universally the custom
of wearing mourning? But see
Bingham, Antiq. xxiii. 3. 21-]

38 Luke vii. 12.

39 Psalm Ixxix. 3.

40 John xix. 40.

41 Matt. xxiii. 27.

42 2 Sam.i. t9.

43 [Funeral orations, at least for
illustrious persons, were usual in

the fourth century, and so were set
forms of funeral psalmody and
prayer. Bingham (xxiii. 3. 8, 11—
13.) gives instances from the Apo-
stolical Constitutions, vi. 30; and
from Dionysius de Eccles. Hierarch.
¢. vii. |

‘** rich men, and those which are in
** authority, and are very seldom
*‘at the burial of the poor, there
“is brought into the church con-
“trary to the word of God, an ac-
** ceptation of persons, which ought
* not to be.’’]

Funeral Sermons warranted by Analogy of Scripture. 4A)

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 acquainted with it. Moreover when

they hear how mercifully 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
fellowship 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 whereunto the prophet
Jeremy spake concerning the people whom God had appointed
unto a grievous manner of destruction, saying47 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 Solomon, “ unto them that have grief of
“ heart48.” Surely he that ministereth unto them comfortable
speech #9 doth much more than give them wine.

[4.] But the greatest thing of all other about this duty of
Christian burial is an outward testification of the hope which

45 [This seems to refer to a com-
plaint of T.C. (i. 162) that “this
*‘ device of man’s brain...driveth
“ quite away a necessary duty of
¢ ‘he minister, which is to comfort
‘** with the word of God the parties
** which be grieved at the death of
their friends.” See Def. 735;
T. C. iii. 240. ]

46 [See Buxtorf, Synag. Judaic.

c. 35. p. 504; from which it appears
that the materials of the funeral
banquet must all be presents from
friends: it being unlawful during
so many days for the mourner to
taste any thing of his own. |

47 Jer. xvi. 7.

48 Prov. xxxi. 6.

49 y Chron. xix. 2; Jobii. 11.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixxv. 4.

BOOK V.

Ch. laxv. 4,

44,2 Burial service used by the Jews:

we have touching the resurrection of the dead. For which |
purpose let any man of reasonable judgment examine, whether
it be more convenient for a company of men as it were in a
dumb show to bring a corse to the place of burial, there to
leave it covered with earth, and so end, or else to have the
exequies devoutly performed with solemn recital of such lec-—
tures, psalms and prayers, as are purposely framed for the —
stirrmg 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 their dead, and
therefore that this order is taken up without any good example
or precedent 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 some-
time one thing and sometime another which was in use, as
special occasions require any of them to be either mentioned
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 later ages
thereof have devised the same must needs be inconvenient ?

Furthermore, that the Jews before our Saviour’s coming

50 [Form of Common Prayer used
by the English at Geneva (in Phee-
nixi,257). ‘The corpse is reverent-
“ly brought to the grave, accompa-
** nied by the congregation, without
*‘any further ceremonies; which
‘“‘ being buried, the minister, if he
“‘ be present and required, goeth to
‘* the church, if it be not far off, and
** maketh some comfortable exhorta-
** tion to the people touching death
** and resurrection.” ]

°! [T.C.i. 200. al. 161. “ Another
““ general fault, that these ceremo-
* nies are taken up without any ex-
‘ample either of the churches un-
“der the Law, or of the purest
** churches under the Gospel. . .For
** when the Scripture describeth the
“ceremonies or rites of burial
“ amongst the people of God so di-

* ligently, that it maketh mention of
**the smallest things, there is no
** doubt but the Holy Ghost doth
** thereby shew us a pattern, where-
** by we should also frame our bu-
*‘ rials. And therefore for so much
**as neither the Church under the
** Law nor under the Gospel, when
** it was in the greatest purity, did
*‘ ever use any prescript form of
** service in the burial of their dead,
“it could not be but dangerous to
*‘take up any such custom; and
** in the time of the law it was not
** only not used but utterly forbid-
“© den; for when the law did forbid
* that the priest should not be at
* the burial, which ought to say or
** conceive the prayers there, it is
** clear that the Jews might not have
** any such prescript form.’’]

and especially appropriate to Christians. 443

thad any such form of service although in scripture it be not Boox v.
jaffirmed, yet neither is it there denied; (for the forbidding ine
/of priests to be present at burials>? letteth not but that others
smight discharge that duty, seeing all were not priests which
had rooms of public function in their synagogues ;) and if any
“man be of opinion 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*4,
neither are they so affected towards Christians, as to borrow
that order from us, besides that the form thereof is 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 burial feast*>, and a consolatory

form of prayers appointed for the master of the synagogue
thereat to utter>®, albeit I may not deny but it hath also some

52 [Lev. xxi.1. ‘Speak unto the
*‘ priests the sons of Aaron, and
** say unto them, There shall none
“ be defiled for the dead among his
* people.” ap. T. C. i. 161.]

53 [ Of which a specimen was trans-
lated into Latin by Genebrard, from
the Machazor or Prayer Book of
the Roman Jews, and published
1575- It may be found among the
Opuscula at the end of his Chrono-
graphia, Paris, 1600, p. 77-81.

54 [ Leo of Modena, (al. R. Jehuda
Arje,) published in 1598, at Venice,
several funeral orations and some
elegies and epitaphs, under the title
of “the Desert of Judah.” The
same writer in 1637 published in
Italian a History of the Customs of
the Jews of his time, from the trans-
lation of which, Lond. 16509, c. ix.
p-242, the following is taken: “At
** the month’s or year’s end, if he
“‘ were a rabbin that is dead, or a
*‘ person of quality, they then have
** sermons or funeral orations, which
** they call 12077, made for him.” Cf.
Wolf. Bibl. Hebr. i. 414, 15, and iv.

II io.
6 | Buxtorf, Synag. Jud. 504. |
56 [** Hascaba, (a 220 jacuit, dor-
** miit,) i.e. Oratio pro defunctis,

** quam Hazan sive Minister Syna-
** gogee recitat ad sepulcrum, item-
“ que in synagogis. . .Hanc szepius-
** cule minister repetit prout rogatur
“a diversis flagitantibus sibi dari
‘** Hascaba pro anima N. Sic enim
“‘loquuntur. Unde posset juxta
** ecclesiasticam loquendi formulam
** appellari ‘ Requiem’ vel ‘ Libera’
** Hebreorum.

** « Melius est ire in domum luc-
** tus, quam in domum convivii; in
** qua est finis omnium hominum.
** Quod vivens in cor inducat suum.
** Finem verbi omnes audiamus;
** Deum time et mandata ejus serva.
‘* Nam istud est omnis hominis.

‘** Requies firma in superna ha-
** bitatione sub alis Numinis, in
** gradu sanctorum et purorum, tan-
‘* quam splendor firmamenti, collu-
** centium fulgentiumque; permuta-
** tio ossium, propitiatio delictorum,
** remotio preevaricationis, accessio
“ salutis, indulgentia et miseratio a
** conspectu inhabitantis celeste do-
*f micilium, pars denique bona in
** vita venturi szeculi ibi sit portio,
** tectumque ac habitatio celebris
** anime sapientis hujus, intelligentia
‘£ prediti,gloric magistri,vel domini.

*** Spiritus Domini quiescere fa-

444 The Christian Ministry needed for Men’s temporal Good:

nook y. things which are not perhaps so ancient as the Law and the
a": 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, undecent, unfit for Christianity, till
these miserable days, wherein under the colour of removing
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? 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?

Ofthenas LXXVI. I come now unto that function which undertaketh

saggy the public ministry of holy things according to the laws of
which serv- Christian religion. And because the nature of things consist-
eth for Per in as this doth in action is known by the object whereabout
| ~ oe they are conversant, and by the end or scope whereunto they
the Church are referred, we must know that the object of this function is
diet and hoth God and men; God in that he is publicly worshipped of

ow happi- , . ; °

nessnot his Church, and men in that they are capable of happiness by
ee means which Christian discipline appointeth. So that the sum

also tem- of our whole labour in this kind is to honour God and to save
poral doth
depend men.

upon it. For whether we severally take and consider men one by one,
or else gather them into one society and body, as it hath been
before declared5” that every man’s religion is in him the well-
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 follow them: so
at this present we must again call to mind how the véry
worldly peace and prosperity, the secular happiness, the tem-
poral and natural good estate both of all men and of all domi-

‘* ciat eum in horto Eden, et societur ‘‘ ipsius misericordia et propitiatione.
vid el pax, quemadmodum scribitur ‘‘ Amen.’” Genebrard, p. 80. See
“in Esaia: veniat pax, quiescat in Bp. Taylor, Pref. to Rule of Holy
** cubilibus suis ambulans ante ip- Dying]

“ sam,ipseacomnes defuncti Israelis 7 [See ahove c.i. § 2-5.]

Elements of temporal Good enumerated. 445

~nions hangeth chiefly upon religion, and doth evermore give Boox v.
, plain testimony that as well in this as in other considerations ——
_ the priest is a pillar of that commonwealth wherein he faith-
fully serveth God. For if these assertions be true, first that
- nothing can be enjoyed in this present world against his will
which hath made all things; secondly that albeit God doth
sometime permit the impious to Aave, 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 continue, the
use and benefit of that sacred function even towards all men’s
worldly happiness must needs be granted.
[2.] Now the first being a theorem both understood and
confessed of 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 therefore 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 be-
stoweth the same*9, them we confess he graciously blesseth.
Of earthly blessings the meanest is wealth, reputation the
chiefest. For which cause we esteem the gain of honour an
ample recompense for the loss of all other worldly benefits.
[3.] But forasmuch as in all this there is no certain perpe-
tuity-of goodness, nature hath taught to affect these things not
for their own sake but with reference and relation to some-
what independently good, as is the exercise of virtue and
speculation of truth. None whose desires are rightly ordered

58 «* Si creatura Dei merito et dis-
“ pensatio Dei sumus. 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 po-
** testatem a Deo esse omnemque
* ordinationem et qui non legerunt
*‘ sentiunt, et qui legerunt cognos-
* cunt.” Paul Oros, Hist. advers.
Pagan. lib. ii. [c. 1.]

59 Ovro. Ta xpnpar’ idta Kéxtnvtat Bporol,

Ta trav Ocav & Exovres emipedovpeda.

Eurip. Pheeniss, 555-

446 Temporal Good being always im Order to a higher End,

Book v. would wish to live, to breathe and move, without performance

an* 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 interrupt 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 continue action and to work though not by ourselves
yet. by them whom we leave behind us, causeth us provi-
dently 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.

[4.] 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

60

oidpecOa yap ;
Tov evtuxodvra mavr érioragGa Kadas. Eurip. Herac. [741.]
61 Psalm ly. 23. 62 Deut. xxvill. 21, 22, 27.

the Bad, partaking of it, do not really enjoy tt. AA7

/and none shew countenance of love towards them as much as
‘by pitying them in their misery ; 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 un-
righteous persons shall putrefy®, and the posterity of robbers
starve. If any think that imiquity and peace, sin and pro-
sperity 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 the 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 fool-
ishly those eggs out of which their woful overthrow is after-
wards hatched. Hereby it cometh to pass that wise and judi-
cious men observing the vain behaviours 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
fortunate they had but only the good estate which fat oxen
have above lean, when they appeared to grow their climbing
was towards ruin,
The gross and bestial conceit of them which want under-
standing is only that the fullest bellies are happiest®>. There-

63 Prov. x. 7.

64 ** Ante ruinam elatio.” Prov.
xvi. 18. Bidder 6 Oeds ra imepexorra .
mdvTa Kodovew" ov yap ea ppoveew

** felicius, pace secura sit. Et quid
‘ad nos? immo id ad nos magis
** pertinet, si divitias quisque sem-
*‘ per augeat, que quotidianis effu-

péya 6 Beds GdXov 7} ewurdév. Herod.
lib. vii. [c. 10, 5.]

65 [S. Aug. de Civ. Dei, ii. 20.
“Tales cultores et dilectores Deo-
“rum istorum, quorum etiam imi-
** tatores in sceleribus et flagitiis se
*© esse leetantur, nullo modo curant
‘* pessimam ac flagitiosissimam non
“esse remp. Tantum stet, inqui-
“unt, tantum floreat copiis referta,
“victoriis gloriosa; vel quod est

*‘ sionibus suppetant, per quas sibi
*‘ etiam infirmiores subdat quisque
* potentior. Obsequantur divitibus
“ pauperes causa saturitatis, atque
** ut eorum patrociniis quieta inertia
** perfruantur, divites pauperibus ad
*‘ clientelas et ad ministerium sui
**fastus abutantur. Populi plau-
** dant, non consultoribus utilitatum
** suarum, sed largitoribus volupta-
“tum. Non jubeantur dura, non

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixxvi. 4.

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixxvi. §.

448 In what Sense Godliness hath the Promise of this Infe.

fore 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
felicities. |

[5-] 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 be said to have the promises 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 6,”

Howbeit 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-

“ prohibeantur impura. Reges non
‘** curent quam bonis sed quam sub-
** ditis regnent. Provincie regibus
“non tanquam rectoribus morum,
‘* sed tanquam rerum dominatoribus
‘et deliclarum suarum provisori-
** bus serviant : eosque non sinceri-
** tur honorent, sed nequiter ac ser-
‘‘ viliter timeant. Quid alien viti
* potius, quam quid suze vite quis-
‘que noceat, legibus advertatur.
* Nullus ducatur ad judices, nisi
** qui aliene rei, domui, saluti, vel
** cuiquam invito fuerit importunus
*‘ aut noxius: czterum de suis, vel
** cum suis, vel cum quibusque vo-
** lentibus faciat quisque quod libet.
** Abundent publica scorta, vel prop-
“ter omnes quibus frui placuerit,
*‘ vel propter eos maxime, qui pri-
“vata habere non possunt. Ex-
“* struantur amplissime atque orna-
‘‘tissime domus, opipara convivia

** frequententur, ubi cuique libuerit
“et potuerit die noctuque ludatur,
** bibatur, vomatur, diffluatur. Sal-
* tationes undique concrepent, the-
*‘atra inhoneste letitiz vocibus,
*‘atque omni genere sive crudelis-
*‘ sime sive turpissime voluptatis
*‘ exeestuent. Ille sit publicus ini-
** micus, cui hee felicitas displicet :
** quisquis eam mutare vel auferre
*‘ tentaverit, eam libera multitudo
** avertat ab auribus, evertat e sedi-
‘bus, auferat a viventibus. Illi
*‘ habeantur dii veri, qui hance adi-
** piscendam populis procuraverint
** adeptamque servaverint. Colantur
* ut voluerint, ludos exposcant qua-
“les voluerint, quos cum suis vel
** de suis possint habere cultoribus :
“tantum efficiant, ut tali felicitati
** nihil ab hoste, nihil a peste, nihil
*‘ ab ulla clade timeatur.”’]
66 [ Ps, xxxvii. 25. |

Limitations of the temporal Promises to Religion. 449

times most benefit by being deprived of those things which Book v.

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 pro-
sperity be taken by 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 necessary
for men of calling and place in the world, neither men of
inferior condition many things which greater personages 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®’ ; 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
greatness delighteth to shew itself by effects of power, and
baseness 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

6 [See Wisd. iv. 11.]
66 "Emel rd y' dpxotv ixava Trois
cadpoow. Eurip. Pheeniss. [534]
Tameworépav 6 Aoyiopos t Lows,
adn’ ouv dopareatépor, i ivov améxeuv
kal ixpous kai mraparos. Greg. Na-
zian. Apol. 3. [t. i. p. 134 D.]
“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.”

HOOKER, VOL, IT.

68 [ Prov. xxx. 8.]
69 Vid. Arist. Polit. lib. iv. cap.
- [Ymépxadov, 7 7) imepioxupor, i
Wrdigyer, 7 Umephovovoy™ i Tda-~
vaytia Tourows, imépmT@xoy, i) Urep-
acGevn, kai epddpa aripoy, xaderdv
T Ady@ dxodovOeiv, yiyvovra yap ot
poev bBprrral kal peyadordynpot pad-
Aov’ of d€ kaxovpyo. kal puxpomdynpoe
iar. |

Gs

Ch. lxxvi. §.

BOOK V.

Ch, lxxvi. 6.

450 Temporal Blessings of Faith: Appeal to History ;

}
circumstances duly considered) the safest and happiest for all
estates, even for kings and princes themselves. u

Again we are not to look that these things should always”
concur no not in them which are accounted happy, nih
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, 3
those particular men are worthily reputed good whose viral
be great and their faults tolerable, so him we may register
for a man fortunate, and that for a prosperous or 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. 3

Besides whereas true felicity consisteth in the highest ope-—
rations of that nobler part of man which sheweth sometime
greatest perfection not in using the benefits which delight
nature but in suffermg 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 re-
ligion we say is accompanied, but yet in such measure, as the -
several degrees of men may require by a competent estima-
tion, 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 falleth, but whom neither
misery nor prosperity is able to move from a right mind, them
we may truly pronounce fortunate, and whatsoever doth out-
wardly 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 casualties 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.

[6.] It standeth therefore with these cautions firm and
true, yea ratified by all men’s unfeigned confessions drawn
from the very heart of experience, that whether we compare
men of note in the world with others of like degree and state,

|
|

especially the Jewish: the Christian no Exception. 451

‘or else the same men with themselves; whether we confer
‘one dominion with another or else the different times of one
‘and the same dominion, the manifest odds between their very
outward condition as long as they steadfastly were observed
to honour God and their success being fallen from him, are
remonstrances 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 malicious and mortal
adversaries all acknowledge that to strive against them it
was in vain as long as their amity with God continued, that
nothing could weaken them but apostasy? In the whole
course of their own proceedings did they ever find it other-
wise, but that during their faith and fidelity towards God
every man of them was in war as a thousand strong, and as
much as a grand senate for counsel in peaceable deliberations,
contrariwise that if they swerved, as they often did, their
wonted courage and magnanimity forsook them utterly, their
soldiers and military men trembled 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 bewitched, even that which they knew (being such as
might stand them in stead) they had not the grace to utter,
or 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 tempts they found no certain conclusion 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.

[7.] But it may be the case is now altogether changed, and
that in Christian religion there is not the like force towards

eg 2

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixxvi. 7.

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixxvi. 8.

452 Temporal Promises to Faith :

temporal felicity. Search the ancient records of time, look —
what hath happened by the space of these sixteen hundred
years, see if ail 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 acknowledgment, who beholding the pros-
perous 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 admiration. As for ini-
quity 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 after-
wards came to pass.

[8.] 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 espe-
cially 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
an heart of steel. On the contrary part although we confess
with St. Augustine7° most willingly, that the chiefest happi-

70 [De Civit. Dei, v. 24. “‘ Neque
“enim nos Christianos quosdam
** imperatores ideo felices dicimus,
‘* quia vel diutius imperarunt, vel
‘* imperantes filios morte placida re-
** liquerunt, vel hostes reipubl. do-
** muerunt, vel inimicos cives ad-
** versus se insurgentes et cavere et
** opprimere potuerunt. Hec et alia

** vite hujus erumnose vel munera
* vel solatia quidam etiam cultores
** demonum accipere meruerunt, qui
** non pertinent ad regnum Dei, quo
‘* pertinent isti: et hoc ipsius mise-
** ricordia factum est, ne ab illo ista,
* qui ineum crederent, velut summa
** bona desiderarent. Sed felices eos
** dicimus, si juste imperant, si inter

as addressed to Christian Kings especially. 453

BOOK V.

- ness for which we have some Christian kings in so great
Ch. lxxvi, 8.

admiration 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 succeeding
them in royalty and power, the glorious overthrow of foreign
enemies, or the wise prevention of inward dangers and of
secret attempts at home; all which solaces and comforts of
this our unquiet life it pleaseth God oftentimes 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 where-
fore we mostly extol their felicity is if so be they have virtuously
reigned, if honour have not filled their hearts with pride, if
the exercise of their power hath been service 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 tempered 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 embolden 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 best rather than usual with
greatest personages, if the true knowledge of themselves hath

*‘linguas sublimiter honorantium
“et obsequia nimis humiliter sa-
*‘ Jutantium non extolluntur, sed.se
‘“‘homines esse meminerunt; si
*‘suam potestatem, ad Dei cultum
“ maxime dilatandum, majestati ejus
*‘famulam faciunt; si Deum ti-
“ment, diligunt, colunt; si plus
“ amant illud regnum, ubi non ti-
** ment habere consortes; si tardius
** vindicant, facile ignoscunt; si
* eandem vindictam pro necessitate
** regendee tuendeeque reip. non pro
‘* saturandis inimicitiarum odiis ex-
*‘serunt ; si eandem veniam non
“ad impunitatem iniquitatis, sed
“ad spem correctionis indulgent ;

** si quod aspere coguntur plerum-

“ que decernere, misericordiz leni-
“ tate et beneficiorum largitate com-
$4 pensant ; si luxuria tanto eis est
“‘ castigatior, quanto posset esse
“liberior; si malunt cupiditatibus
‘‘ pravis, quam quibuslibet genti-
“bus imperare ; et si hec omnia
** faciunt, non propter ardorem in-
** anis gloriz, sed propter caritatem
*‘ felicitatis sternze; si pro suis
“ peccatis, humilitatis et miseratio-
“nis et orationis sacrificium Deo
** suo vero immolare non negligunt.
“Tales Christianos imperatores di-
“ cimus esse felices interim spe,
** postea reipsa futuros, cum id
“quod expectamus advenerit.” t.
vil. p. eet

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixxvi. 9.

454 The Ministry necessary. Dwision of its Functions.

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 them that are mightiest in the world, and
albeit those things alone are happiness, nevertheless consider-—
ing 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 Almighty hitherto
befallen : let it not seem to any man a needless and super- |
fluous 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 peculiar benefit, this singular grace
and preeminence religion hath, that either it guardeth as an
heavenly shield from all calamities, or else conducteth us safe
through them, and permitteth them not to be ‘miseries ; it
either giveth honours, 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 salad of green herbs more sweet than all the sacri-
fices of the ungodly.

[9.] Our fourth proposition before set down was that reli-
gion 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 farther confirmation. If it did I could easily de-
clare 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 receive 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 sub-
ordinated unto the power of his own Spirit. A thing both
needful for the humiliation 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.

eS
al

The Ministerial Commission must be divine. 455

[10.] Ministerial actions tending immediately unto God’s 300K V.

Ch, Ixxvi.1o.

honour and man’s happiness are either as contemplation, !xvii.1.
- which helpeth forward the principal work of the ministry ;
or else they are parts of that principal work of administration

itself, which work consisteth in doing the service of God’s

house?! and in applying unto men the sovereign medicines of

_ thereby appear that we owe to the guides of our souls72 even

grace, already spoken of the more largely to the end it might

: as much as our souls are worth, although the debt of our tem-

poral blessings should be stricken off.

LXXVII. The ministry of things divine is a feelin Of power
which as God did himself institute, so neither may men Ait Peel
undertake the same but by authority and power given them cute that
in lawful manner. That God which is no way deficient or pe ppl
wanting unto man in necessaries, and hath therefore given the gift of
us the light of his heavenly truth, because without that poate,
inestimable benefit we must needs have wandered in dark- pares
ness to our endless perdition and woe, hath in the lke ther con-
abundance of mercies ordained certain to attend upon the aati
due execution of requisite parts and offices therein prescribed of order

for the good of the whole world, which men thereunto poke ie
assigned do hold their authority from him, whether they be sued for.
such as himself immediately or as the Church in his name
investeth, it being neither possible for all nor for every man
without 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 magis-

trates whose execution of judgment and justice 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

7) Luke xii. 42; 1 Cor.iv.1; Tit. 72 Kal ceaurdv por mpocodeiiets.
i.73; 1 Pet. iv.10; Ephes. iii. 2. Epist. ad Philem. [ver. 19.]

456 The Clergy a distinct Order, in respect of the Eucharist.

Book v. “ retained: and their offences in heaven pardoned whose faults ;

paar .« 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 down from heaven, by blessing 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 notwith-
standing imagine that any but God can bestow it!

[2.] To whom Christ hath imparted 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 call7? 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 consecrated unto the service of the Most High in things
wherewith others may not meddle. Their difference therefore
from other men is. in that they are a distinct order. So Ter-
tullian calleth them74. And St. Paul himself dividing the
body of the Church of Christ into two moieties nameth the
one part idiéras75, which is as much as to say the Order 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 God7®. For of the power of their

73 [E. g. S. Jerome, Ep. xiv.
§ 8. t. i. 33; and Ep. cxlvi. § 1.
p-1075. ed. Vallarsii. Hooker seems
to have approved of the view of
Remigius of Auxerre, for which see
Bibl. Patr. Colon. v. pars iii. 884 ;
and Ges Waterland, Works, viii.
250.

74 Tertul. de Adhort. Castit. [c. 7.

“ Differentiam inter ordinem et ple-
“bem constituit Ecclesiz auctori-
** tas, et honor per ordinis conses-
** sum sanctificatus a Deo.’ |

75 [1 Cor. xiv. 16, 23, 24. ‘O
dvamAnpav tov témoy tov idimrov.
S. Chrys. in loc. idtarnyv, rov dai-
Koy déyet. |

76 Heb. ii. 17. [ra mpds rov Gedv. |

Holy Orders an indelible Mark: even after Heresy. 457

"jurisdiction over men’s persons we are to speak in the books (BOOK. v.

- following.

[3.] They which have once received 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 later times have
_ yielded as of all other kinds of iniquity and apostasy strange
examples; but let them know which put their hands unto
this plough, that once consecrated unto God they are made
his peculiar inheritance 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 77, yet if (as sometime 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 con-
cerning the reordination of such as others in times more
corrupt did consecrate heretofore7*. Which error already
quelled by St. Jerome7? doth not now require any other
refutation.

[4.] Examples I grant there are which make for restraint
of those men from admittance again into rooms of spiritual
function, whose fall by heresy or want of constancy in pro-
fessing the Christian faith hath been once a disgrace to their

calling ®°,

77 Matt. xix. [ 4-9. ]

78 [ Eccl. Disc. fol. 16. ‘‘ Papisticos
‘* sacerdotes. eos dico qui nulla un-
“quam nova ordinatione ad legiti-
“mum ministerium delecti sunt,
“sed tantum horrendis illis sacris
“ freti, &c.”? See also fol. 80-82. |

79 [In his Dialogue against the
Luciferians. |

80 [Can. Apost. 62. al. 54. Et tis
KAnptkos bia dBov avOpamwwor, "Iov-
daiov, 7) °EAAnvos, 7) aipetixod, apyn-
onrat, ei pev TO dvoua Tov Xpicrod,
agopitécbw’ «i dé rd dvopa Tod KAn-
pixov, KabapeicOw’ petavonoas dé
as Aaikds SexOnrw. ap. Cotoler. PP.
Apost. i. 450. S. Petr. Alex. Can.

Nevertheless as there is no law which bindeth,

to. ap. Routh, Rel. Sacr. ii. 333.
> ¥ > ‘4 A > A ,
Ovk €otww evoyov ovde Tovs amd KAn-
pov avropoAngayras exmemtTa@xoras TE
kal dvamaXaicaytas €tt €v TH AevToup-
yia civa. S.Cypr. Ep. 55. t.ii. p.
to5. ‘* Redeunte ad Ecclesiam Tro-
** phimo, et satisfaciente, et poeni-
“‘tentia deprecationis errorem pris-
* tinum confitente, et fraternitatem,
‘* quam nuperabstraxerat, cum plena
*‘ humilitate et satisfactione revo-
** cante, audite sunt ejus preces.. .
* Sic tamen admissus est Trophi-
** mus, ut laicus communicet, non
** secundum quod ad te malignorum
** literee pertulerunt, quasi locum

** sacerdotis usurpet.”’ |

. xxvii. 3,

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixxvii. 4.

458 Exror of the Luciferians.

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 that wander out of the
way®° it cannot be unexpedient to win with all hopes of
favour, lest strictness used towards such as reclaim them-
selves should make others more obstinate in error. Where-
fore after that the church of Alexandria had somewhat re-
covered itself from the tempests and storms of Arianism ®!,
being in consultation about the reestablishment 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

80 «In XII. Tabulis cautum est,
* ut idem juris esset sanatibus quod
** fortibus, id est bonis et qui nun-
*‘ quam defecerunt a populo Ro-
*‘mano.” Fest. in ver. Samnites.
[** Sanates dicti sunt, qui supra in-
** fraque Romam habitaverunt, quia
** cum defecissent a Romanis, brevi
** post redierunt in amicitiam, quasi
** sanata mente.” Festus, (or rather
Paulus Diaconus, his epitomizer,)
ubi sup.

81 Ruffin. Hist. Eccles. lib. x. cap.
28. [‘* Quo pacto post hereticorum
** procellas et perfidize turbines tran-
** quillitas revocaretur LEcclesiz,
‘* omni cura et libratione discutiunt.
*‘ Aliis videbatur fidei calore fer-
** ventibus, nullum debere ultra in
“ sacerdotium recipi, qui se utcun-
** que heereticee. communionis conta-
“‘ gione maculasset. Sed qui imi-
“ tantes Apostolum querebant non
“quod sibi utile esset sed quod
ss pluribus, ...dicebant melius esse
“humiliari paululum propter de-

** jectos, ...et ideo rectum sibi videri,
** ut tantum perfidie auctoribus am-
** putatis, reliquis sacerdotibus da-
** yetur optio, si forte velint, abjurato
“ errore perfidie, ad fidem patrum
** statutaque converti, ... quia et ille
** evangelicus junior filius, paterne
** depopulator substantia, in semet
‘* ipsum reversus, non solum suscipi
“meruit, sed et dignus paternis
* complexibus deputatur, et annu-
‘lum fidei recipit, et stola circum-
** datur: per quam quid aliud quam
* sacerdotii dudlarantah insignia ?
** Nec probabilis extitit apud patrem
“* senior filius, quod invidit recepto ;
* nec tantum meriti habuit non de-
*linquendo, quantum note con-
** traxit non indulgendo germano.”’ |

82 [That is, the Luciferians. See
St. Jerome’s Dialogue against them :
and the account of the origin of their
schism in Socr. iii. 5,6,9; Sozom.
v.12,13; Theodoret. iii. 4, 5. ]

83 [See the proceedings of the
council of Alexandria, assembled on

Aptness of the Form, “ Receive the Holy Ghost.’ 459

_ young man which returned home to his father’s house was B
_ with joy both admitted and honoured, his elder brother
hardly thought of for repining thereat, neither commended
so much for his own fidelity and virtue as blamed for not
embracing him freely whose unexpected recovery ought to
have blotted out all remembrance of misdemeanours and faults
past. But of this sufficient.

[5.] A thing much stumbled at in the manner of giving
orders is our using those memorable words of our Lord and
Saviour Christ, “Receive the Holy Ghost.” Thes+ Holy
Ghost they say we cannot give, and therefore we “ foolishly”
bid men receive it. Wise men for their authority’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 heard some wise men
_ teach, namely that the “ Holy Ghost” may be used to signify

sat 5,

ETE a he SAY TOE
34a

ate aL a mee oe a

_ ee a ee a.
on ~ .

the return of St. Athanasius, A.D. T.C. i. 44. “These words, ‘ Receive,’

ere Tere re

362. the synodical letter of that
council drawn up by Athanasius, in
his works, t.i. p.770: and Newman
on the Arians of the 4th Century,
ov. 6 2.|

84 «« Papisticus quidam ritus stulte
** quidem ab illis et sine ullo Scrip-
“ture fundamento institutus, et a
** discipline nostre auctoribus (pace
* illorum dixerim) non magno pri-
“‘ mum judicio acceptus, minore ad-
“ huc in Ecclesia nostra retinetur.”

Ecclesiast. Discip. p. 53. [69 of

Cartwright’s Translation. See also
Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 227. “That
** ridiculous, and (as they use it to
*‘ their new creatures) blasphemous
“saying, ‘ Receive &c.’” Answ.
ibid. “‘ No more ridiculous and blas-
** phemous, than it is to use the
* words that our Saviour used in
“the Supper....The Bishop by
“speaking these words doth not
“take upon him to give the Holy
** Ghost, no more than he doth to
“remit sins, when he pronounceth
** the remission of sins. .... He doth
** shew the principal duty of a min-
* ister, and assureth him of the as-
** sistance of God’s Holy Spirit, if he
*‘Jabour in the same accordingly.”

** &c. are the imperative mood, and
“do expressly signify a command-
“ment. And, the Bishop may as

** well say to the sea, when it rageth -

“and swelleth, Peace, be quiet; as
“to say, ‘ Receive, &c.’”” Whitg.
Def. ibid. ‘The words.... because
‘* they signify that God doth pour
* His Spirit upon those whom he
** calleth to that function, are most
“ aptly used of the Bishop (who is
** God’s instrument in that business)
** in the ordaining of ministers. St.
** Paul speaking to Timothy, 1 ‘Tim.
“‘ iv, saith, ‘ Neglect not the gift that
“is in thee, which was given thee
** of prophecy, with the laying on of
“the hands of the eldership.? In
*‘ which words the Apostle signi-
* fieth that God doth bestow his
** gifts and Spirit upon such as be
** called to the ministry of the word,
** whereof imposition of hands is a
“ token, or rather a confirmation.”
T.C. ii. 292. “The place of Timothy
“is utterly impertinent. For it is
‘not question whether God doth
** give his gifts to them which he
“ calleth, or no; but whether he
“ giveth them by this means, of
* saying, ‘ Receive, &c.’”?|

OOK V.
Ixxvii. 5.

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixxvii, 6.

460 Authority for the Form, “ Receiwe the Holy Ghost.”

not the Person alone but the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and
we know that spiritual gifts are not only abilities to do things
miraculous, as to speak with tongues which were never
taught us, to cure diseases without 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 “ Receive the Holy Ghost,” such
power as the Spirit of Christ hath endued his Church withal,
such power as neither prince nor potentate, king nor Cesar
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.

(6.] If then our Lord and Saviour himself have used the
selfsame form of words and that in the selfsame kind of
action, although there be but the least show of probability,
yea or any possibility 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 im-
possible to have in it more profoundness of wisdom than flesh
and blood should presume to control. Our Saviour after his
resurrection from the dead gave his Apostles their com-
mission saying’, “ All power is given me in Heaven and in
“ earth: 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 Father sent me, so
“send I you.’ Whereunto St. John doth add farther that
“‘ having thus spoken he breathed on them and said, Receive
* the Holy Ghost’7.” By which words he must of likelihood
understand some gift of the Spirit which was presently at
that time bestowed upon them, as both the speech of actual
delivery in saying Receive, and the visible sign thereof his

85 Eccles. Discip. fol. 52. p.2. ‘he was full of the Holy Ghost
lin. 8. [‘*Spiritum Sanctum, i.e. ‘“ (whereby I understand the extra-
*‘ varia atque multiplicia illa dona ‘‘ ordinary gifts) and of faith.’’]

** Spiritus” .... And p. 68 of Cart- 86 Matt. xxviil. 18.

wright’s Transl. ** As for Barnabas, 87 John xx. 22.
“S. Luke doth plainly witness that

What Grace those Words originally conveyed. 461

: breathing did shew. Absurd it were to imagine our Saviour

:

did both to the ear and also to the very eye express a real
donation, and they at that time receive nothing.

‘[7.] It resteth then that we search what especial 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 power are therefore set down
with signification of the time to come*’: “ Behold I will send
“the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry you in the
“ city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on
“high.” Wherefore undoubtedly 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 in power to remit and retain sins®9?
“ Receive the Holy Ghost: whose sins soever ye remit they
“are remitted; whose sins ye retain they are retaimed.”
Whereas therefore 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 promise 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 therefore 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,
*‘ are much to blame to leave out

**the outward sign or sacrament
“of breath.” Whitg. Def. 228.

88 Luke xxiv. 49.
John xx. 23.
T.C. i. 44. al. 63. “If you

<3 thin it so good reason to use this
* in the making of ministers, because

** you use the words of our Saviour
** Christ, why may you not as well
** blow upon them as he did... You

‘“* Christ when he breathed upon
“them did an action proper unto
“himself, for he thereby signified
« that he had authority to give unto
“them his Holy Spirit, and that

BOOK V,
Ch. Ixxvii. 7,

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixxvii. 8.

462 Objection to Men’s being Candidates for Orders.

which are but delegates or assigns to give men possession of
his graces.

[8.] Now, besides that the power and authority delivered
with those words is itself xydpioya, a gracious donation which
the Spirit of God doth bestow, we may most assuredly per-
suade ourselves that the hand which imposeth upon us the
function of our ministry doth under the same form of words
so tie itself thereunto, that he which receiveth the burden is
thereby for ever warranted to have the Spirit with him and
in him for his assistance9!, aid, countenance and support in
whatsoever he faithfully doth to discharge duty. Knowing
therefore that when we take 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 authority 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 renew the memory and enter into serious cogitation
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
to them that assisted him in his government9 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 authorize them,
which no other offices on earth can challenge. Whether we

“ the same Spirit did not only pro-
“ceed from the Father but from
** himself also: when he spake these
** words, he made a perpetual pro-
* mise that all such should receive
“his Spirit, as from time to time
“* were by him called to the office of
“the ministry.” T.C. ii. 293. “If
* because he instituted a ministry
“by those words they are to be
“used, then the breathing must
“ likewise, considering that he used
“that for the confirmation of the
** words.”’]

91 « Etsi necessarium est trepi-
“dare de merito, religiosum est
“‘ tamen gaudere de dono: quoniam
‘* qui mihi oneris est auctor ipse fiet
‘ administrationis adjutor, et ne
** magnitudine gratiz succumbat in-
** firmus, dabit virtutem qui contulit
* dignitatem.”” Leo ser. 1. in an-
niver. die Assumpt. To Ilvedpa rd
dytov eOero npas eis tiv Staxoviay
fay Greg. Nazian. [Orat. 5. ad
fin.
92 Numb. xi. 17.

The Desire of Holy Orders not properly Ambition. 463

' preach, pray, baptize, communicate, condemn, give absolution, BOOK v.
or whatsoever, as disposers of God’s mysteries, our words, 1.
_ 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 profes-

sion abhor.

[9.] Now because the ministry is an office of dignity and
honour, some are doubtful whether any man may seek for it
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 ambitious suits and
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 examples 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 com-
“ mendatory letters be removed ; let men keep themselves at
« home, expecting there the voice of God and the authority
“ of such as may call them to undertake charge9.”

[10.] Thus severely they censure and control ambition, if
it be ambition which they take upon them to reprehend. For

%3 Auct. Libel. de Discip. Eccle- ‘‘ aliquando morem illum ad diem

siast. [fol. 25-27, or p. 35, of Cart-
wright’s Praualation.|

%4 Eccl. Disc. fol. 25. ‘‘ Neque
* vero hic quisquam dona et suam
** dignitatem ostentet ; quibus fretus
** tanquam candidatus honores am-
** biat...Neque vero hic illud Apo-
** stoli nobis opponant, eum qui epi-
** scopatum desideratrem preclaram
*‘ appetere, ut candidatorie petiti-
*‘ onis ambitionem confirment.....
*« Christum. . .delituisse legimus, et
‘* Patris sul vocem expectasse.....
‘* Similiter faciunt Apostoli..... Ea-
*‘ dem modestia in veteris Ecclesize
* Episcopis apparet....Corrigamus

** ordinationum Episcopi ex omnibus
* partibus confluendi, ordinationem
** et ordines (trito Papistis vocabulo
‘* fere appellant) petendi atque am-
** biendi, commendatitias amicorum
** aut dominorum literas afferendi,
** omnem denique corrumpende vo-
* cationis rationem querendi; ac
“tandem (quod jam diu factum
** oportuit) ex Dei verbo statuamus,
‘‘ ne quis amplius ullam in Ecclesia
** Dei vocationem ambiat, domiom-
** nes sese contineant, operam suam
* modestius offerant, illic Dei vocem
** et eligentium auctoritatem ad Ec-
* clesiam capessandam expectent.”’ |

BOOK V.
Ch, lxxvii,10.

464: Scripture Warrant for seeking Holy Orders ;

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, reverenced, 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 repu-
tation it hath in the eye of this present world, that they which
affect it rather need encouragement 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 good95. Nevertheless be-
cause 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 declining 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 there in opening it there where
it may be furthered and satisfied 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 ecclesiastical order may be desired, the
desire thereof may be professed, they which profess them-
selves that way inclined may endeavour to bring their desires
to effect, and in all this no necessity of evil. Is it the bringing
of testimonial letters wherein so great obliquity consisteth ?

% 7 Tim. iii. 1.

% Toy madadyv rods eddoxipo-
Tatovs dvackoraév etpickw, Saovs
mémore els emuotaciay i) mpodnreiay
1 xapis mpovBddero, Tous peév etéav-
Tas TpoOvpews tH KANoEL Tors dé ava-
Baddopevous rd xdpiopa, Kal adde-

Tépov peumriy ovte tav troxwpy-
cavrav thy Sediav ovre tev dppun-
cdvtav thy mpoOvpiay, of pev yap
ths Staxovias td péyeOos nidaBn-
O@noav, of S€ TH KadodvTt moTev-
cayvres nkohovOnoav. Greg. Nazian.

Apologet. [p. 44-]

we
é ie
+ ? +

not impeached by Heb.v.6; nor by the Apostles’ Case. 465

What more simple, moré plain, more harmless, more agree- BOOK V.
able with the law of common humanity than that men where ©1112.
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 ambitious suings nor to
approve any indirect or unlawful act.

_ [11.] 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
*‘ ys97 ?” Whereunto he recordeth his own answer, “Then 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
“ oo for us?” 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.

[12.] As for the éxaneihe of our Saviour Christ who took
‘not to himself this honour to be made our high priest, but re-
ceived the same from him which said, “ Thou art a Priest for
“ ever after the order of Melchisedec’,” his waiting and not
attempting to execute the office till 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 admittance, which willingness of mind I suppose did
not want in him whose answer was to the voice of his heavenly
‘calling, “ Behold I am come to do thy will9.” And had it
been for him as it is for us expedient to receive his commis-
a signed with the hands of men, to seek it might better
have beseemed his humility than it doth our boldness to re-
Sechenid them of pride and ambition that make no worse kind
‘of suits than by letters of information.

97 Tsaiah vi. 8. 98 Heb. v. 6. 99 Heb. x. 9. .

HOOKER, VOL. II. a Hh

LIBRARY

BOOK V.
Ch, Ixxvii.
13,14.

466 Inferior Motives not altogether wnclerical.

[13.] Himself in calling his Apostles prevented all cogita-
tions 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 nomina-
tion to 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 supernatural
ability and performance beyond hope might cause the greater
admiration; whereas in the other mere admiration 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 the ministry? Towards which labour
what doth the blessed Apostle else but encourage saying,
“ He which desireth it is desirous of a good work??” What
doth he else by such sentences but stir, kindle, and inflame
ambition, if I may term that desire ambition, which coveteth
more to testify love by painfulness in God’s service, than to
reap any other benefit ? |
_ [14.] Although of the very honour itself, and of other
emoluments annexed to such labours, for more encourage-
ment of man’s industry, we are not so to conceive neither, as
if no affection could be cast towards them without offence.
Only as the wise 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 shouldest com-
“mit an offence 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 foras-
much 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

1 [S, John xv, 16.] 2 {1 Tim. iii. 1.] 3 Ecclus. vii. 6,

There may be Vanity in refusing Preferment. 467

method of speculative knowledge doth by things which we Boox v.
: : F og Ch, Ixxvii. 14.

sensibly perceive conduct to that which is in nature more cer- —————

tain though less sensible, and the method of virtuous actions

is also to train beginners at the first by things acceptable

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 sakes,) howsoever inordinate -

desires do hereby take occasion to abuse the polity of God

and nature, either affecting without worth, or procuring by

unseemly means, that which was instituted and should be re-

‘served for better minds to obtain by more approved courses ;

in which consideration the emperors Anthemius and Leo did

worthily oppose against such ambitious practices that ancient

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 :” notwithstandmg we ought not therefore

with the odious name of ambition to traduce and draw into

hatred every poor request 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

4[Cod. Justin. i. tit. iii. de Epi- “ fuerit ordinatus invitus.” Accur-
scop. et Cler. 1. 31. A.D. 469. sius’ note however on the present
“* Nec pretio, sed precibus, ordinetur reading is, “ Sic omnes MSS. recte:
“ Antistes. Tantum ab ambitu de- “i.e. ‘orandus est Deus ut det
“bet esse sepositus, ut queratur ‘“‘ optimum;’ vel ut alii exponunt,
* cogendus, rogatus recedat, invita- ‘‘‘orandus est is qui refugit hoc
“tus effugiat, sola illi suffragetur ‘“‘ onus.’ Alii legunt ‘nec preci-
* necessitas excusandi. Profecto ‘“ bus.’”’]
** enim indignus est sacerdotio, nisi

Hhg

BOOK V.
Ch, lxxviii. 1.

OfDegrees,
whereby
the power
of order is
distin-
guished ;
and con-
cerning the
attire of
ministers,

468 Functions of the Levitical Priesthood.

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 forborne as prosecuted, it remaineth that the
evenest line of moderation between both is> neither to follow

them without conscience, nor of pride to withdraw ourselves —

utterly from them.

LXXVIII. It pleased Almighty God to choose to himself
for discharge of the legal ministry one only tribe out of twelve
others, the tribe of Levi, not all unto every divine service,
but Aaron and his sons to one charge, the rest of that sanctified
tribe 10 another. With what solemnities they were admitted
into their functions, in what manner Aaron and 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 con-

fessed 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 un-

cleanness, 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 conti-

nually 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

perpetual remembrance of that merey 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 them-
selves in sacrifice day by day; finally what offices the Levites —
discharged, and what duties the rest did execute, it were a —

5 Méoos eiui tis rev re dyay TOA- 6 TIpds Scatnpnow Kal dvdakny
Lnpey kat rev iav Sear, trav pev sdodtnTos Kal evoeBeias Kal Necroup-
maoas éminndovtey (mpootaciats) yuav ai mpos THv ToD cod Tysyy
Sedrepos, ray b€ hevydvrwy macas avadépovra. Philo, p. 297. [ed.
Oapoadewrepos. Greg. Nazian. Apo- Paris, 1552.]
loget. [p. 43.]

;

Order of the Christian Ministry : Priests and Deacons. 469

labour too long to enter into 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 of men
to read, study, and interpret the Law of God, as the sons or
scholars of the old Prophets, in whose room afterwards Scribes
and expounders of the law succeeded.

And because where so great variety is, if there should be
equality, confusion would follow, the Levites were in all their
service at the appointment and direction of the sons of Aaron
or priests, they subject to the principal guides and leaders of
their own order, and they all 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 of the Law, masters.

[2.] Touching the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ :
the whole body of the Church being divided into laity and
clergy, the clergy are either presbyters 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

7 «For so much as the common
** and usual speech of England is to
** note by the word Priest not a mi-
“ nister of the Gospel but a sacri-
‘* ficer, 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 iepeis which were
“ sacrificers Priests ; and do not on
** the other side for any that ever I
“ read translate mpeoBvreposa Priest.
“ Seeing therefore a Priest with us
‘and in our tongue doth signify
** both by the papists’ judgment in
** respect of their abominable mass,
“and also by the judgment of the
** protestants in respect of the beasts
** which were offered in the law, a

** sacrificing office, which the minis-
** ter 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. [159.
and p. 61, al. 82. ‘* Who can abide
** that a ministerof the Gospel should
** be called by the name of a Levite
** or sacrificer, unless it be he which
** would not care much if the re-
** membrance of the death and re-
** surrection of our Saviour Christ
** were plucked out of his mind?’’]
8 [Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 721.
“We speak not of the name of
‘* Priest, wherewith he defaceth the
** minister of Christ... seeing the
*‘ office of priesthood is ended,
** Christ being the last priest that
ever was. To call us therefore
‘* Priests as touching our office, is

BOOK V.

Ch, lxxviii. 2.

BCOK V.

Ch. Ixxviii. 2.

470 Popular meaning of the word Priest,

without cause. For as things are distinguished one from an-
other by those true essential forms which being really and actu-
ally in them do not only give them the very last and highest
degree of their natural perfection, but are also the knot, founda-
tion 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 apparent what the first in-
ventors respected, much less what every man’s inward conceit
is which useth their words. For any thing myself can discern
herein, I suppose that they which ‘have bent their study to

“ either to call back again the old
** priesthood of the law, which is to
** deny Christ to be comen, or else
“to keep a memory of the popish
** priesthood of abomination still
“amongst us. As for the first, it
“is by Christ abolished, and for
“€ the second it is of Antichrist, and
“‘ therefore we have nothing to do
* with it. Such ought to have no
*‘ place in the Church, neither are
“they ministers of Christ sent to
** preach his Gospel, but priests of
** the pope to sacrifice for the quick
“and the dead; that is, to tread
‘under their feet the blood of
* Christ. Such ought not to have
** place among us, as the Scriptures
“* manifestly teach. Besides that,
** we never read in the New Testa-
“ment, that this word Priest, as
** touching office, is used in the good
** part.” Whitg, Answ. ibid. ‘The
**name of Priest need not be so
“odious unto you, as you would
‘seem to make it. I suppose it
** cometh of this word Presbyter, not
** of Sacerdos, and then the matter
‘is not great.” T.C.i.159. al. 198.
“ Although it will be hard for you to
** prove that this word Priest cometh
“of the Greek word mpeoSurepos,
** yet that is not the matter but the
* case standeth in this; that foras-
“much as the common and usual

** speech,” &c. as in the preceding
note. Whitg. Def. 722. “I am not
“* greatly delighted with the name,
“nor so desirous to maintain it:
** but yet a truth is to be defended.
“*T read in the old Fathers, that
* these two names, Sacerdos and
“« Presbyter be confounded. I see
** also that the learned and the best
*‘ of our English writers, such I
** mean as write in these our days,
*‘ translate the word Presbyter so;
‘and the very word itself as it is
** used in our English tongue, sound-
*‘ eth the word Presbyter. As here-
** tofore use hath nade it to be taken
*‘ for a sacrificer, so will use now
* alter that signification, and make

‘it to be taken for a minister of the

** Gospel. But it is mere vanity to
** contend i ae name, be we
« of the thing.” .C, iii.
96m The sireba OR the ancient
** writers herein may easily appear,
** in that, in this too great liberty of
** speech, they also used to call the
“holy Supper of the Lord a sacri-
** fice, and the communion table an
** Altar: if he allow of the one, he
** must allow of the other. But if
** these kind of speeches have given
* occasion of falling unto many,
“then it is manifest that this de-
** fence is naught. }

its Etymological and Analogical Use. 471

- search more diligently such matters do for the most part find BOoK v.

that names advisedly given had either regard unto that which
_ is naturally most proper ; or if perhaps to some other specialty,
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 clergyman which offereth
sacrifice to God, but they shew some particular person whom
they use to call by that name. And, if we list to descend to
grammar, we are told by masters in those schools that the
word Priest hath his right place? ém rod WidGs mpoeotGros Tis
Oepareias Tod Ocod, “in him whose mere function or charge is
_ “the service of God.” Howbeit because the most eminent
part both of heathenish and Jewish service did consist in sa-
crifice, when learned men declare what the word Priest doth
properly signify according to the mind of the first imposer
of that name, their ordinary scholies 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 even as St. Paul applieth the name
of Flesh! unto that very substance of fishes which hath a pro-
portionable correspondence to flesh, although it be in nature
another thing. Whereupon when philosophers will speak
warily, they make a difference between flesh in one sort of
living creatures!? and that other substance in the rest which
hath but a kind of analogy to 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 security of speech call usually the ministry of the
Gospel Priesthood in regard of that which the Gospel hath

9 Etym. magn. [s. v. fepeds.] ed. Du Bruel. ]

10 ‘Tepedoa, Ovordoa. Hesych. 11 ¢ Cor. xv. 39.
[s. v. fepedoa.] ‘ Christus homo 12 "Eyer & dmopiay ti rd aicbn-
“ dicitur quia natus est; Propheta rypiov rd Tov amrod amriKdy, Tére-
* quia futura revelavit; Sacerdos pov 7 odp& kal € rois dAdo Td
“ ° . . "4°99 Wa a » $ -

quia pro nobis hostiam se obtulit.” dvddoyov, 7 o¥. Arist. de Anim.
Isid. Orig. lib. vii. cap. 2.[p. 55 E. lib. ii. c. 11. [n° 1.]

h. Ixxviii. 2,

472 Proper Force of the Term Presbyter.

Book v. proportionable to ancient sacrifices, namely the Communion of
Ch. Ixxvili- 3-4, @ blessed Body and Blood of Christ, although it have pro-
perly now no sacrifice’. As for the people when they hear
the name it draweth no more their minds to any cogitation of
sacrifice, than the name of a senator or of an alderman 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.

[3.] Wherefore to pass by the name, let them use what
dialect they will, whether we call it a Priesthood, a Presbyter-
ship, or a Ministry it skilleth not: Although in truth the word
Presbyter 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 Gospel
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 Testament making so much mention of
them doth not any where call them Priests. The prophet
Esay I grant doth!‘ ; but in such sort as the ancient fathers,
by way of analogy. A presbyter according to the proper
meaning of the New Testament is “ he unto whom our Saviour
“ Christ hath communicated. the power of spiritual procrea-
* tion!>.” Out of twelve patriarchs issued the whole multi-

13 [**Mr. Hooker feared not to

“* say that ‘sacrifice is now no part
*¢ of the Church ministry,’ and that
** we have ‘ properly now, no sacri-
** fice.’ I presume he meant by
** proper sacrifice, propitiatory, ac-
* cording to the sense of the ‘T'rent
** Council,” (sess. xxii. can. I, 3.)
** or of the new definitions. In such
“a sense as that, he might justly
“* say that sacrifice is no part of the
“Church ministry, or that the
** Christian Church has no sacrifice.
** But I commend not the use of
* such new language, be the mean-
“ing ever so right: the Fathers

‘‘ neverusedit.” Waterland, Charge,
1738. Works, viii. 168. Oxf. 1823.]

4 Isaiah Ixvi. 21.

15(Epiph. i. 908 A. her. 75.
Cc. 4. Ore pev appoowyns éori rd may
eumdeov, Tois cuverw KeKTHMEvOLS,
touro SyAov. TO AEyew avdrov émi-
okorrov Kal mpecBvrepov icov eivat
Kat T@s €aTat TovTo duvatdv; 7 pev
yap €oTit marépwy yevyntixyn takis”
marépas yap yevva tH exkAnoia’ 7 dé
marépas pn Svvapevn yevvay, dia trod
Aourpov maduyyeverias TéKva yerve
Th €kkAnoia, ov pay tarepas 7 O-
dackddovs.

Degrees among Presbyters ordained by our Lord. 473

tude of Israel according to the flesh. And according to the Boox v.
mystery of heavenly birth our Lord’s Apostles we all aaksow: ge
ledge to be the patriarchs of his whole Church. St.John =
therefore beheld sitting about the throne of God in heaven
four and twenty Presbyters, the one half fathers of the old,
the other of the new Jerusalem!®. In which respect the
Apostles likewise gave themselves the same title!’, albeit that
name were not proper but common unto them with others.

[4.] 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'8. Which preeminence excepted, to all other offices
and duties incident into their order it was in them to ordain
and consecrate whomsoever they thought meet, even as our
Saviour did himself assign seventy 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 publicly
make was the conversion of above three thousand souls!9,
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 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 labourers
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 ine like were made
afterwards elsewhere.

[5-] To these two degrees appointed of our Lord and

16 Rev. iv. 43 xxi.14; Matt. xix. voyuoOéra. Dionys. Areop. p. 110,
: (de Eccl. Hier. 1, 5.]

17-1 Pet. v.1. 19 Acts li. 41, 47.

18 Of rév iepav Ocorapaddras

nook v. Saviour Christ his Apostles soon after annexed deacons: —
Ch. Ixxviii. 5-

474 Pastoral Labours of Deacons not unseriptural :

Deacons therefore must know, saith Cyprian, that our Lord —
himself did elect Apostles, but deacons after his ascension into |
heaven the Apostles ordained. Deacons were stewards of the —
Church, unto whom at the first was committed the distribu- —

tion 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 divine service. For which cause Ignatius?! to set forth the
dignity of their calling saith, that they are in such case to
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 violated
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 dea-

cons should sometime be licensed to preach, whose institution —

was at the first to another end®?. To charge them for this as

20 Cypr. Ep. ix. 1. 3. ad Rogatia-
num. [al. Ep. 3. t. il. p. 6. ** Memi-
*‘nisse Diaconi debent, quoniam
** Apostolos, i.e. Episcopos et Pre-
** positos Dominus elegit; Diaco-
** nos autem post ascensum Domini
**in celos Apostoli sibi constitue-
* runt, episcopatus sui et Ecclesiz
$s sinigiten 71

21 TIgnat. Epist. ad Tral. [e. 7
(from the interpolated portion) ri
dé dudkovor, GAN’ 7 piuntal ray dyye-
Aixav Suvdpewv, Aecroupyovvtes av’T@
Aetroupyiav Kabapdy kal Guopor, as
Srépavos 6 dywos laxoBo T@ pakapio,
kal Tydbeos kal Aivos TlavA@, kal
"AvéykAntos kat KAnuns Ieérpo ; |

22 [Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 584.
“Touching deacons, though their
“names be remaining, yet is the
* office finally perverted and turned
“upside down; for their duty in
“the primitive Church was to
* gather the alms diligently and to
“distribute it faithfully; also for
“ the sick and impotent persons to

“ provide painfully, having ever a
** diligent care that the charity of
*“‘ godly men were not wasted upon
“ Joiterers and idle vagabonds. Now
* it is the first step to the ministry,
** nay rather a mere order of priest-
“hood.” Whitg. Answ. ibid. “It
“is true that in the primitive
** Church the office of a deacon was
** to collect and provide for the poor;
but not only, for it was also their
** office to preach and to baptize. For
** Stephen and Philip being Dea-
** cons did preach the Gospel: and
* Philip did baptize the eunuch.
* Justinus Martyr saith,” (Apol. p.
98 E. 9 diddoors Kai 9 perddnis
ard Tav evxapioTnOevTay éxdoT@
yiverat, kai Tots ov mapodvot Oia Top
Ovaxdvwv mépmera) “that in the
‘* administration of the Supper, the
** deacons did distribute the bread
“and wine to the people.” T.C.
i. 128. al. 162. ‘“‘ He affirmeth St.
** Stephen to have preached. But
“I deny it: for all that long ora-

nor any intrusion on the Priesthood. 475

men not contented with their own vocations and as breakers Book v.

into that which appertaineth unto others is very hard23, For
when they are thereunto once admitted, it is a 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 repug-
nant unto the office of deaconship that they cannot concur
in one and the same person? What was there done in the
Church by deacons which the 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 it2+. Beitso. The
multitude of Christians increasing in Jerusalem and waxing
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

‘ tion, which he bath in the seventh
“ of the Acts, is no sermon, but a
** defence of himself... .. Philip bap-
* tized, not in that he was a deacon,
“but for that he was an Evange-
* list.” Comp. Whitg. Def. ubi sup.
and T. C. iii. 89-115.] -

23 [The Admonition in the pas-
sage above had quoted Rom. xii. 8.
6 peradidovs, ev amddrnti, (as the
Puritans commonly did,) to prove
the office of Deacon. T. C. i. 152. al.
190, adds, “ St. Paul speaketh there
** against those which not content-
“ing themselves with their own
* vocations did break into that
** which appertained unto others.”
See also Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 692.
* The deaconship must not be con-
** founded with the ministry, nor the
** collectors for the poor may not
** usurp the deacon’s office: but he
** that hath an office must look to
“his office, and every man must
“* keep himself within the bonds and
* limits of his own vocation.”’]

“4 [T. C.i.152. al. 190. “If the
** Apostles which have such excel-
‘lent and passing gifts did find
** themselves (preaching of the word
“and attending to prayer) not able
“to provide for the poor; but
*‘ thought it necessary to discharge
“themselves of that office, to the
** end they might do the other effec-
** tually and fruitfully ; he that shall
*‘ do both now must either do none
“well and profitably, or else he
** must have greater gifts than the
** Apostles had.”” Whit. Def. 688.
*“The Apostles were occupied in
** planting Churches, in going from
*‘ place to place to spread abroad
‘the word of God, and therefore
“they. could not so conveniently
* provide for the poor: but the
** deacons having no such occasion
*‘ of travelling and removing from
* place to place, might very well
** both preach the Gospel and pro-
** vide for the poor.’’]

- Ixxviii. 5,

BOOK V,
Ch, Ixxviii. 5.

476 Union of offices sometimes allowable.

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 some-
what 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 of divinity, being men so able to discharge
both. To say they did not content themselves with their
pastoral vocations, but break into that which belonged to
others ; to allege against them, “ He that exhorteth in ex-
“ hortation?>,” as against us, “ He that distributeth in sim-
plicity” is alleged in great dislike of granting license for
deacons to preach?6, 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 respected 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 commons 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 deaconship was then most necessary?7, it might
the better be afterwards extended to other services, and so
remain as at this present day a degree in the clergy of God
which the Apostles of Christ did institute?s.

25 Rom. xii. 8.

*‘ prince in the time of peace that

26 [* Whether a doctor may be
**the master of an hospital, which
“is the Deacon’s office, is a great
** question ; for they say that Th.
** Cartwright will rather suffer this
** confusion of’ members of the
“ Church, than give over his hos-
** pital.” Sutcliffe, False Semblant,
&e. p. 26.]

27 [Whitg. Def. 688. ‘If you
“speak of deacons now, I say
“unto you, that under a Christian

** part of their office to provide for
“ the poor is not necessary.” |

28 [See Sutcliffe, False Semblant,
&c. p. 109. “* Wherein is proved
** that the deacon’s office is an holy
‘* ministry about the word and sacra-
** ments and attendance of bishops:
* First, by the words of the Apo-
“© stle” (1 Tim. iii.13.) “that maketh it
** BaOuoy, ‘a decree,’ and indueth it
* with mappnoia, ‘ liberty of speech:’
*« Secondly, for that the same re-

|
:

:

The first Deacons were not among the LXX. 477

That the first seven deacons were chosen out of the seventy soox y.
Ch. lxxviii, 6,

disciples is an error in Epiphanius?9. For to draw men from
places of 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 teachers ?

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.

[6.] Touching Prophets, they were such men as having
otherwise learned the Gospel had from above bestowed upon
them a special gift of expounding Scriptures and of foreshew-
ing things to come. Of this sort Agabus®° was and besides
him in Jerusalem sundry others, 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.

[7.] Evangelists were presbyters of principal sufficiency
whom the Apostles sent abroad and used as agents in eccle-
siastical affairs wheresoever they saw need. They whom we
find to have been named in Scripture Evangelists as Ananias*',
Apollos®2, Timothy? and others were thus employed. And
concerning Evangelists afterwards in Trajan’s days, the history

** sembleth the Levites’ office, which
“taught and ministered; which is
“confirmed by Jerome’s opinion:
* Thirdly, by the examples of Ste-
“phen and Philip: Fourthly, for
“that the deacons had the gifts of
“the Holy Ghost, which to distri-
_ * bute alms were not so necessary :”
(see especially 1 Tim. iii. :) “ Lastly,
** for that the Fathers with one con-
“sent make the same an holy
‘** ministry, conversant about the
“things aforesaid, and never did

** profane it in mere collection of
* alms.”*]

“9 Epiph. lib. i. c. 21. [t. i. p. 5o.
D. améoreindte S€ Kai GAdovs EBdopn-
kovtadvo knpvocew, €& av joay oi
énta oi ént TOV xNp@y TEeTaypEVOL. ..

A , ‘ , ¢ > . 3 7
mpo tovtwy S€ MarGias, 6 avti ‘Iovda
oupyyndiobeis peta TOV drooTdhor. |

80 Acts xxi. 103 Xl. 27.

31 Acts ix.17.

32 Acts xviil. 24.

33 2 Tim. iv. 5, 9; 1 Tim. iii. 15 ;
v.14; 11.8.

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixxviii. 8.

478 Exposition of 1 Cor. xii. 28.

ecclesiastical noteth3+ 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, to shew their
willing minds’ in executing that which Christ first of all
required at the hands of men, they sold their possessions,
gave them to the poor, and betaking themselves 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, howbeit settled
in some certain charge and thereby differing from Evan-
gelists ?

[8.] I beseech them therefore which have hitherto troubled
the Church with questions about degrees and offices of eccle-
siastical calling, because they principally ground themselves
upon two places?5, that all partiality laid aside they would
sincerely weigh and examine whether they have not mis-
interpreted both places, and all by surmising incompatible
offices where nothing is meant but sundry graces, gifts, and
abilities which Christ bestowed. To them of Corinth his
words are these: “26God placed in the Church first of all
“some Apostles, secondly Prophets, thirdly teachers, after
“them powers, then gifts of cures, aids, governments, kinds

34 Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. iii. c.
37. [Icioro trav réte padnrdr,
apodporépm ditocodias epwrt mpos
tov Geiov Adyou thy Wuxi mAntTd-
Pevol, THY TwTHPLOY MpoTepoy areE-
mAnpovv tapakédevow, evdeeor vemov=
Tes Tas ovgias’ émeita Sé amodnpias
oTehAdpevot, Epyov éemeréhouy evay-
yeAtoT@y, Tois Ere mapmayv avyKdots
TOU THs TioTews Adyou KNpUTTELY TOV
Xpiorov Pidoriovpevor, Kal tTHv TOV
ren evayyehiov mapadiddva ypa-

nv.

35 [2 Adm. 44. ed. 1617. “In
“the ministry therefore, after re-
“‘ hearsal made of those rare and
“extraordinary functions of Apo-
* stles, Prophets, and Evangelists,
“there is declared in the last place
“ those ordinary functions of shep-
** herds and teachers, which endure

“in every well ordered Church.
“* Eph. iv. rr—13.” T.C. i. 63. al.
85. “ That without these ministeries
“the Church may be complete, it
* appeareth by that which is in the
‘* Ephesians,” &c. Id. ii. 454. “The
** Archbishoprick seeing it is an ec-
* clesiastical function, either must
** be planted by one of these places,
*‘ or die in the Church: consider-
“ing that there is no ecclesiastical
** function which is not here set
“forth.” See also Decl. of Disc.
1373; Eccl. Disc. fol. 102. *Quum
*‘dubium non sit, Apostolum ad
** Ephesios omnia munera quibus
‘* ministerii opus continetur, et per
*‘ que Christus Ecclesiam suam
“* eedificari voluit, recensuisse.”’ |
36 1 Cor. xii. 28.

Delt Bee Bd ae

Exposition of Ephes. iv. 7, 8. 479

“ of languages. Are all Apostles? Are all Prophets? Are
“all Teachers? Is there power in all? Have all grace to
“cure? 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 conceive that general to be church offices, besides
a number of other difficulties, can by no means possibly deny
but that many of these might concur 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 dis-
course, 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 imme-
diately ? 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 edu-
cation 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 all did
furnish up the whole body but each benefit and help other.
[9.] Again the same Apostle otherwhere in like sort®7, “To
“ every one of us is given grace according to the 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

37 Ephes. iv. 7, 8. 11, 123; Psalm lxviii. 18.

LIBRARY ST. 7ARY’S COLLEGE

BOOK V.

Ch. xxviii. 9.

430 Some Church Offices not properly Orders.

poox y, none but gifts of instruction are expressed. And because —
Ch. lxxvill. 1 teachers some were Evangelists which neither had any part
————— of their knowledge by revelation 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 m Christian religion this
being the ground of our whole belief, that the promises which
God of old had made by 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 im-
mediately 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 de-
grees and varieties of grace doth mention Pastors and Teach-
ers, although he mention them not in respect of their ordi-
nation to exercise the ministry, but as examples of men espe-
cially 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 Apo-
stles Bishops, concerning whose order we are to speak in the
seventh book.

[10.] There is an error which beguileth many who much
entangle both themselves and others by not distinguishing
Services, Offices, and Orders ecclesiastical, 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, Exorcists, Readers, Singers, and the rest of like
sort, if the nature only of their labours and pains be con-

Widows not Ecclesiastical Persons. 481

BOOK V.
Ch, Ixxviii.
Ele

sidered, may in that respect seem clergynien, even as the
Fathers for that cause term them usually ‘Clerks8 ; 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 masmuch as they no way dif-
fered 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 ordination, we
find them always exactly severed from that body whereof.
those three before rehearsed orders alone are natural parts.
[11z.] Touching Widows, of whom some men are persuaded,
that if such as St. Paul®9 describeth may be gotten we ought
to retain them in the Church for ever#®; certain mean ser-
vices 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 women well experienced
and virtuously given, neither any under threescore year of

38 [See Bingham, Antiq. i. 5. 7.]

39 ; Tim. v. 9.

40 T. C. lib. i. p. 191. [153. “* Al-
** though there is not so great use
** of these widows with us, as there
*‘was in those places where the
_ © Churches were first founded, and
** in that time wherein this order of

** widows was instituted ; part of
_ the which necessity grew both by
* the multitude of strangers in the
** persecution, and by the great heat
** of those east countries, whereupon
*‘ the washing and suppling of their
** feet was required; yet for so much
** as there are poor and sick in every
** Church, I do not see how a better
** or more convenient order can be
** devised...then...that there should
“be (if there can be any gotten)
* godly poor widows of the age
“ which St. Paul appointeth...... I
** conclude that if such may be gotten
* we ought also to keep that order
** of widows in the Church still. I
** know that there be learned men

HOOKER, VOL. II.

“which think otherwise: but I
** stand upon the authority of God’s
** word, and not upon the opinions
“of men be they never so well
*‘Jearned.” Bancroft, Survey, 177.
** There is a second sort of disci-
** plinary widowists, that are grown
“very far past Cartwright’s ifs.
** One that writeth ‘ the Defence of
** the godly Ministers’ hath in that
** treatise framed ten arguments of
“a wonderful power... wherein he
** always comprehendeth the widows,
“and nameth them as necessary
** parts of the form of that church-
** government which Christ and his
** Apostles have appointed to be the
** ordinary and perpetual platform
“for guiding and governing his
** Church until the end of the world:
‘*and maketh them, by such force
**as his arguments have, as neces-
‘‘ sary for the ordinary continuance
** of them, as either Pastor, Doctor,
*“* Elders, or Men-Deacons.”’]

Il

BOOK V.
Ch, Ixxviii.
12, 13.

482 The Fathers’ Witness to the Three Orders.

age should be admitted of that number. Widows were never |
in the Church so highly esteemed as Virgins. But seeing
neither of them did or could receive ordination, to make them
ecclesiastical persons were absurd.

[12.] The ancientest therefore of the Fathers mention
those three degrees of ecclesiastical order specified and no
more. ‘ When your captains,” saith Tertulliant!, “ that is
« to say the Deacons, Presbyters and Bishops fly, who shall
« teach the laity that they must be constant?” Again, “ What
“ should I mention laymen4?,” saith Optatus, “ yea or divers
“of the ministry itself? To what purpese Deacons which are
“in the third, or presbyters in the second degree of priest-
« hood, when the very heads and princes of all even certain
‘¢ of the Bishops themselves were content to redeem life with
«the loss of heaven?” 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 order, namely
Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons, which had their beginning
from Christ and his blessed Apostles themselves.

As for Deans, Prebendaries, Parsons, Vicars, Curates,
Archdeacons, Chancellors, Officials, Commissaries, and such
other the like names, which being not found in Holy Scrip-
ture, we have been thereby through some men’s error thought
to allow of ecclesiastical 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 admitted as
the state of the Church doth need, degrees of order still con-
tinuing the same they were from the first beginning.

[13.] Now what habit or attire doth beseem each order to
use in the course of common life both for the gravity of his

41 Tertull. de Persecut. [c. 11. “ clesia nulla fuerant dignitate suf-

** Quum ipsi auctores, i.e. ipsi Dia-
*coni, Presbyteri et Episcopi fu-
* giunt; quomodo Laicus intelligere
“ poterit, qua ratione dictum, Fugite
“de civitate in civitatem?...Cum
“duces fugiunt, quis de gregario
*“ numero sustinebit ad gradum in
“acie figendum suadere?” &c. |

- 42 Optat. lib.i. [e. 13. “ Quid com-
“ memorem Laicos, qui tunc in Ec-

** fulti? quid ministros plurimos ?
*‘ quid Diaconos in tertio, quid
** Presbyteros in secundo sacerdotio
*“ constitutos? Ipsi apices et prin-
** cipes omnium, aliqui Episcopi, ut
** damno eeterne vite. . .lucis moras
*‘ brevissimas compararent, instru-
** menta divine legis impie tradi-
** derunt.””]

Offerings from our Substance a Part of natural Piety, 488

BOOK V.

place and for example’s sake to other men is a matter
Ch. Ixxix, 1.

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 where their persons. are
not known, it argueth a disproportioned mind in them whom
so decent orders displease 4%.

LXXIX. We might somewhat marvel what the Apostle Of Obla-
St. Paul should mean to say that ‘ covetousness is idolatry 4+,” a

Founda-

if the daily practice of men did not shew that whereas nature tions, En-
owments,

requireth God to be honoured with wealth, we honour for Tithes, all

the most part wealth as God. Fain we would teach ourselves - enema :
to believe that for worldly goods it sufficeth frugally and tuity of
honestly to use them to our own benefit, without detriment ark ips
and hurt of others; or if we go a degree farther, and perhaps pose being
convert some small contemptible portion thereof to charitable oi? bas ;
uses, the whole duty which we owe unto God herein is fully theClergy’s

satisfied. But forasmuch as we cannot rightly honour God 2)

unless both our souls and bodies be sometime employed ciel a
merely in his service; again sith we know that religion needs by

requireth at our hands the taking away of so great a part of —
the time of our lives quite and clean from our own business livings be
and the bestowing of the same in his, suppose we that ates sar
nothing of our wealth and substance is immediately due to

God, but all our own to bestow and spend as ourselves think

43 [Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 261.
** Ministers ...... in those days
“known by voice, learning, and
** doctrine ; now they must be dis-
** cerned from other by popish and
* Antichristian apparel, as cap,
“ gown, tippet,” &c. And Eccl.
Disc. fol. 97—101. ‘* Certum vesti-
* menti genus, forma, modus, nus-
** quam non modo in communi vita
‘* sed ne in sacris quidem in Evan-
“ gelio preecipitur ... Conqueramur
“ex nostris aliquos inventos esse,
“* qui quum totus Papatus execran-
*‘ dus erat, et hec Roma Jerichun-
“tane illius urbis anathemate de-

* vovenda, Babylonice vestis specie
“ et splendore capti, eam in Israeli-
*tica castra transtulerunt. Cur
** enim cappam et superpelliceum in
** sacris, in communi vita liripipium,
** [tippet] (quod appellant) et quad-
*‘yratum pileum gerenda esse pre-
* cipiunt nisi quod hec auctoritatem
*quandam apud populum habere
“ .,.existiment.” &c. The regula-
tions objected to are to be found
in Queen Elizabeth’s “ Advertise-
* ments,” 25 January, 1564-5. See
Sparrow’s Collection, p. 126.
44 (Col. iii. 5.]

112

BOOK V.

Ch, lxxix. 2,

484. Qualities of an acceptable Offering, im itself.

meet? Are not our riches as well his as the days of our life
are his? Wherefore unless with part we acknowledge his
supreme dominion 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 which ought not to be called in question, a truth
manifest and infallible, that men are eternally bound to
honour God with their substance in token of thankful
acknowledgment 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 over all, 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 nature 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. 7

[2.] 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 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‘4 is commended,
the flower of all men’s increase assigned to God by Solomon®®,

“4 (Gen. iv. 4.] “ not only with the first, but with
45 | Prov. iii.g. JNy11n-52 nx “ the best, of all thine increase.’’]

Offerings as to their Use, should be permanent. 4.85

_ the gifts and donations of the people rejected as oft as their Boox v.

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 wnsound, or already given, or else not truly their own to
gwe.

[3.] 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. purposes. Whether we give unto God therefore
that which himself by commandment requireth; or that
which the public consent of the Church thinketh good to
allot; or that which every man’s private devotion doth best

like, inasmuch as the gift which we offer proceedeth not only
as a testimony of our affection towards God, but also as a
mean 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.

[4.] The first permanent donations of honour in this kind
are temples. Which works do so much set forward the
exercise of religion, that while the world was in love with

46 « Purum, probum, profanum,
“ suum.” Fest. lib. xiv. [p. 397. ed.
Dacerii. “Puri, probi, profant, sui
** quri dicitur in manumissione sa-
“crorum causa: ex quibus puri
** significat, quod in usu spurco non

* fuerit; probi, quod recte excoctum,
“purgatumque sit; profant quod
*‘ sacrum non sit, et quod omni re-
* ligione solutum sit; sui, snot ali-
* enum non sit.’”|

Ch. xxix. 3,4.

BOOK V.

Ch, lxxix. 5.

486 Oblations perpetual: Churches: Church Ornaments.

religion it gave to no sort greater reverence than to whom it ©
could point and say, “These are the men that have built us
« synagogues47.” But of churches we have spoken sufficiently
heretofore.

[5.] The next things to churches are the ornaments of
churches, memorials which men’s devotion hath added to re-
main 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 continually 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 tem-
ple 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 princes of
the twelve tribes gave to God for their first presents amounted
even then to two thousand and four hundred shekels of silver,
a hundred and‘twenty shekels of gold48, every shekel weighing
half an ounce+2, What was given to the temple which Solo-
mon erected, we may partly conjecture, when over and besides
wood, marble, iron, brass, vestments, precious stones, and
money, the sum which David delivered into Solomon’s hands
for that purpose was of gold in mass eight thousand and of
silver seventeen thousand ¢ichars®*°, every cichar containing a
thousand and eight hundred shekels which riseth to nine hun-
dred ounces in every one cichar: whereas the whole charge
of the tabernacle did not amount unto thirty cichars5!. After

47 (St. Luke vii. 5. ]

48 Num. vii. 85, 86.

49 [See Arbuthnot, Coins, Weights,
and Measures, p. 37.

60 1 Chron. xxix. [2—47;] Exod.
xxv. 28. [39?] xxxvii. 24,

*1 [There seem to be two errors in
this statement. One, that the talent
or cichar was worth only 1,800 she-
kels: whereas it is clear from Exod.

XXXVill. 25, 26, that its value was |
3000. ‘The other, that the whole
cost of the tabernacle was less than
thirty talents; see Exod. xxxviii.
24: ‘* All the gold that was occupied
‘in the work of the holy place, even
“the gold of the offering, was
* twenty and nine talents, and seven
* hundred and thirty shekels, after
* the shekel of the sanctuary.” The

Church Lands: the Levitical Cities. 487

their return out of Babylon they were not presently in case BOOK v.

to make their second temple of equal magnificence and glory
with that which the enemy had destroyed. Notwithstanding
what they could they did*?. Insomuch that the building
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 Nehemias*4
of his own gift a thousand drachms of gold, fifty vessels of
silver, five hundred and thirty priests’ vestments, by other the
princes of the fathers twenty thousand drachms of gold, two
thousand and two hundred pieces of silver; by the rest of the
people twenty thousand of gold, two thousand of silver, three-
score and seven attires of priests. And they furthermore
bound themselves5> towards other charges to give by the poll
in what part of 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 Mithridates is said*?7 to have taken up by the way
before it could pass to Jerusalem from Asia in one adventure
eight hundred talents5* ; 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 tapestry
of the temple under his custody thought it the safest way to
grow unto some composition, and so to redeem the residue by

silver and brass was over and above, putation, which values the shekel at

exceeding, the one 100, the other 70 four Roman drachms; in the for-

talents; ver. 25, 29. mer, that of Josephus and Hesychi-
Arbuthnot, c. xxi. gives the re- us, who say, oik\os, terpddpaypop

sults in English money as follows: “Arruxdv. |

** For the altar of burnt offering,’ 5? Ezra ii. 68,69; Hag. ii. 3.

(rather for the gold of the holy place) 53 Ezra viii. 26.

* 181,308/. 138. 4d. Forthe silver | 4 Nehem. vii. 70.

‘of the same, 19,604/. 5s. 5d.... ' 5 Nehem. x. 32.

‘* David laid up of his own money _*6 Cic. Orat. pro L. Flac. [c. 28.]

“‘ for building the temple 3000 ta- ‘Cum aurum Judzorum nomine

*lents of gold, 18,600,000/.; and ‘‘ quotannis ex Italia et ex omnibus

4000 of silver, 2,712,5001. The “‘ vestris provinciis Hierosolymam
** princes of the tribes gave towards “‘ exportari soleret, Flaccus sanxit

* it sooo talentsand 10,ooodrachms “ edicto ne exAsia exportari liceret.”

“* of gold, 31,000,516/. 13s. 4d. and 57 Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiv. c. 7. § 2.

* 10,000 talentsofsilver,3,875,000/.”’ [quoting some lost work of Strabo,

In these calculations Arbuthnot does probably his iropzvjpara: see Hud-

not follow his own tables: for he son in loc.]

makes the talent of gold worth6200/. — °8 Every talent in value six hun-

whereas his tables give it only 54757: dred crowns,

using inthe latterthe rabbinical com-

. xxix. 5.

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixxix. 6, y

488 Tithes: their Antiquity: their natural Fitness.

parting with a certain beam of gold about seven hundred and |
a half in 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 remained was betrayed and the whole lost.

[6.] Such being the casualties whereunto moveable treasures
are subject, the Law of Moses*? did both require eight and
twenty cities together with their fields and whole territories _
in the land of Jewry to be reserved for God himself, and not
only provide for the liberty of farther additions if men of their
own accord should think good, but also for the safe preserva-
tion 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. |

[7.] Furthermore some cause no doubt there is why besides
sundry other more rare donations of uncertain rate, the tenth
should be thought a revenue so natural to be allotted out unto
God. For of the spoils which Abraham had taken in war he
delivered unto 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
“ T am to 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 all men
the selfsame kind of tribute, the tenth of their corn, wine, oil,
fruit, cattle and whatsoever increase his heavenly providence

should send. Insomuch that Painims being herein followers

of their steps paid tithes likewise®.
Imagine we that this was for no cause done, or that there

9 Numb. xxxv. [“ Twenty” is 6 Deut. xiv. 22.
no doubt a slip of the pen for 64 Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xii. c. 14.

se sorty. J 3 [‘* Decimas [thuris] Deo, quem vo-
‘. Levit. XXV. 345 xxvii. 28, ** cant Sabin, mensura non pondere
Gen. xiv. 20. “sacerdotes capiunt. Nec ante

§2 Gen. xxviii. 20. ** mercari licet.”’
>

4

Especial Use of Tithes to the Poor. 4.89

was not some special inducement to judge the tenth of our Boox
Ch. Ixxix

worldly profits the most convenient for God’s portion? Are
not all things by him created in such sort that the forms which
give them their distinction are number, their operations mea-
sure, and their matter weight? Three being the mystical num-
ber of God’s unsearchable perfection within himself; seven the
number whereby our own perfections through grace are most
ordered; and ¢en®> 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 with-
out iteration of numbers under it) could nature better acknow-
ledge the power of the God of nature than by assigning unto
him that quantity which is the continent of all she possesseth?

_ There are in Philo the Jew many arguments to shew the great

congruity and fitness of this number in things consecrated
unto God.

[8.] But because over-nice and curious speculations become
not the earnestness of holy things, I omit what might be far-
ther observed as well out of others as out of him touching the
quantity of this general sacred tribute, whereby it cometh to

65 Aekxas apiOpav raév amd povddos
€oTt mépas tedetdratov. Philo zepi
aro. [It should be mepi rijs eis ra
mporadevpata ocuyddov. p. 297. ed.

rneb. |

66 [Chr. Letter, 35. “ § 18. Of
** speculative doctrines. There be
** also in your book divers theoremes
“not so familiar to us common
* Christians, neither doe we per-
** ceave them in the English Creede;
* neither in the reading of the holy
“ writinges of God. Wee pray you
** therefore declare unto us by what
*‘ spirit or worde you teach them
“unto us.... such as are these:
“ 'Tenne, the number of nature’s per-
“* fections :” &c.

Hooker MS. note. ‘“ You seeme
“ neither to understand what theo-
“‘remes nor what speculative doc-
* trines are.

* Hitherto nothing but ever
“‘ article begunne with The Churc
“ of England teacheth, The Church

_ “of England affirmeth, It is an Ar-

* ticle of faith, A foundation of be-

* liefe. And are you now come to
“‘pettie quarels? Must I either
** conforme myselfe not onlie to the
*“bodie of the whole Church, as
“reason is, but even to every
** particular man’s humour, and to
‘what patern so ever you like,
** speaking as it pleaseth you to pre-
“scribe, wrighting in such onlie
‘** forme and maner as your censure
** may approve, finallie dissenting in
“judgment from no man which
** findeth favour in your eyes, nor
** sorting with anie but such as you
** admire and set up for the princi-
*¢ pall lights in the Church, and the
* polestarres of all men’s faith; or
“els to be held an enimie of true
*‘ and Christian beliefe ?”’

“‘ See Philo, p. 298.”’ where Philo
argues ingeniously for the natural
congruity of the number ten as
measuring the offering due to Him,
who abides as it were in the tenth
sphere, above all the orbs which
compose the material world accord-
ing to the Ptolemaic system. ]

Ws
~83

BOOK V.

Ch. lxxix. 8.

490 Tithes duly paid, an Earnest of a great Blessing.

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 privileges and preeminences whatsoever, equals and
peers with them unto whom they are otherwise in earthly
respects inferiors ; being furthermore well assured that the
top as it were thus presented to God is neither lost nor un-
fruitfully 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®7. Albeit a hedge
do only fence and preserve that which is contained, whereas
their tithes and offerings did more, because they procured in-
erease of the heap out of which they were taken. God de-
manded 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 themselves 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 say-
ing, “ 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 windows of heaven and pour down upon you an
“ immeasurable blessing.” ‘That which St. James hath con-
cerning 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 nothing 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

i ** Massoreth sepes est legis ; nawenp) 2D O77)
** divitiarum sepes Decime.” R. ii rel dees ieee
Aquiba in Pirk. Aboth. [fol. 35- 68 Mal Gvo et
Cracovize, 1660 : 69 « Nemo libenter dedit quod non

myn? bo NNO accepit sed expressit.”” Sen. de
Wwiyd 32D ninoyy Benef. lib. i. c. 1.

Tithes under the Gospel: best paid in Kind. 491

_ we bring it seasoned with this cogitation, “ Thou Lord art
_ “ worthy of all honour.”

[9.] With the Church of Christ touching these matters it
_ standeth as it did with the whole world before Moses. Where-
upon 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 proportionable unto
the poorer or wealthier estate of Christian 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.

[10.] 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 transitory.
For to the end that in worth and value there might be no
abatement of any thing once assigned to such purposes, the
law requireth precisely the best of that we possess, and to pre-
vent all damages by way of commutation, where instead of
natural commodities or other rights the price of them might
be taken, the Law of Moses determined their rates, and the
payments to be always made by the shekel of the sanctuary7°
wherein there was great advantage of weight above the ordi-
nary 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 selfsame riches which through his gracious benediction
the earth doth continually yield. This where it may be with-
out inconvenience is for every man’s conscience safe. That
which cometh from God to us by the natural course of his pro-
vidence 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 indif-
ferent and permanent standard between God and man.

[11.] But the main foundation of all, whereupon the security
of these things dependeth, as far as any thing may be ascer-

70 Levit. xxvii. 25.

BOOK V.
Ch, Ixxix. 9,

10521; °°"

16

4.92

tained 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, remain
the proper possession of God till the world’s end, unless him-
self 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 con-
sent72 ; finally that no man having passed his consent or deed
may change it to the prejudice of any other7?, should we pre-
sume to deal with God worse than God hath allowed any man
to deal with us ?

[12.] Albeit therefore we be now free from the Law of
Moses and consequently not thereby bound to the payment of
tithes74, 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 howsoever at the first it
might have been thought doubtful, our case is clearly the
same now with theirs unto whom St. Peter sometime ‘spake
saying’7>, “ While it was whole it was whole thine.” When
our tithes might have probably 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 example what it is voopfcacOa, to wash or clip
that coin which hath on it the mark of God.

Church Property is God’s own, and malenable.

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixxix.12.

71 L, xi. de Reg. Jur. [Id quod
* nostrum est, sine facto nostro ad
** alium transferri non potest.” Dig.
lib. L. tit. xvii. 1.11. p. 788.]

72 « Cujus per errorem dati repe-
“ titio est, ejus consulto dati dona-
* tio est.”” L. i. D. de cond. indeb.
[Dig. lib. L. xvii. 53. “De solu-
“tione indebiti.” The title ‘de
“ condictione indebiti” is lib. xii.
tit. vi. and the first law is in sub-
stance the same.] This is the ground
of Consideration in alienations from
man to man.

73 «Nemo potest mutare consili-

,

** um suum in alterius prejudicium
** [injuriam].” L. Ixxv. de Reg. Jur.
[Dig. lib. L. tit. xvii. 1. 75 p. 791.]

74 (Eccl. Disc. fol. 95. ‘** Scien-
“dum est, quod sub lege de deci-
“mis sacerdotibus et Levitis per-
<* mittendis preeceptum est, non ita
*‘ precise nos ad decimas _persol-
* vendas adigere. Hec enim poli-
*‘ tica lex Judzorum fuit, que nos
*tantum generali quadam ratione
** devincit, ut nos quoque iis qui in
* opere Domini laborant consula-
“© mus.” | '

79 Acts v. 4.

Church Benefactors meant their Gifts to be sacred. 493

[13.] For that all these are his possessions and that he doth soox v.

himself so reckon them appeareth by the form of his own
speeches. Touching gifts and oblations, “Zhou shalt give
“them me7®;” touching oratories and churches, “ Wy house
“ shall be called the house of prayer’7;” touching tithes,
« Will a man spoil God? ? yet behold even me your God ye
“ have spoiled79, notwithstanding ye ask wherein, as though
“ ve 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 particular justification ;” touching lands, “ Ye shall
* offer to the Lord a sacred portion of ground, and that sacred
*‘ portion shall belong to the priests*%°.”

[14.] Neither did God only thus ordain amongst the Jews,

Ch, Ixxix. 13,
14.

but the very purpose intent and meaning of all that have |

honoured him with their substance was to invest him with
the property of those benefits the use whereof must needs
be committed to the hands of men. In which respect the
style of ancient grants and charters is*! “We have given
“unto God both for us and our heirs for ever:” yea “We
“ know,” saith Charles the Great®2, “that the goods of the
“ Church are the sacred endowments 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 indifferently unto every man, some to be the cer-
tain goods and possessions of commonweals, some to appertain
unto several corporations or companies of men, some to be

76 Exod. xxii. 29, 30.

77 Matt. xxi. 13.

78 Mal. iii. 8.
79<*Non videntur rem amittere

** jura sua integra, et libertates suas
** illeesas.””]

82 Capit. Carol. 1. vi. ca. 284.
[285. ap. Lindenbrog. Cod. p. 1025.
““Scimus enim res Ecclesiz Deo

*‘quibus propria non fuit.” L.
lxxxiil. de Reg. Jur. [Dig. L. xvii.
83. p. 791. ]

80 Ezek. xlv. 1, 4.

81 Mag. Char. c. 1. [Imprimis,
** Concessimus Deo, et hac presenti
** charta nostra confirmavimus, pro
“nobis et heredibus nostris in
** perpetuum, quod Ecclesia Angli-
** cana libera sit, et habeat omnia

** esse sacratas, scimus eas esse ob-
** Jationes fidelium, et pretia pecca-
** torum: quapropter si quis eas ab
** ecclesiis, quibusa fidelibus collate,
** Deoque sacratz sunt, aufert, pro-
** culdubio sacrilegium committit.
** Quisquis ergo nostrum suas res
* Ecclesiz tradit, Domino Deo illas
** offert atque dedicat.’’]

494 St. Laurence, a Martyr

Book v. privately men’s own in particular, and some to be separated :

Ch. ba" uite 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 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 impious* and hateful than to impair those pos-
sessions 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 re-
“ ceive 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 com-
manders 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®5
they could by virtuous delusion invent how to save them
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 understood to be
one of the church-stewards, thirst of blood began to slake and
another humour to work, which first by a favourable counte-

83 «* Nullius autem sunt res sacrz
“ et religiose et sanctee. Quod enim
“* divini juris est, id nullius in bonis
“est.” Inst, lib. ii. tit. 1. [§ 7.

- 9.|

84 « Soli cum Diis sacrilegi pug-
“nant.” Curt. lib. vii. [c. 23.]
“Sacrum sacrove commendatum
** qui dempserit rapseritve, [ cleperit,
** rapsitque, | parricida esto.” Leg.
xi. Tab. [Cic. de Leg. ii.9.] Capit
Carol. lib. vi. c.285. [“ Facit scriptu-
‘ram de ipsis rebus, quas Deo dare

** desiderat, et ipsam scripturam co-
‘ram altari, aut supra, tenet in
** manu, dicens ejusdem loci sacer-
** dotibus atque custodibus; ‘ Offero
** Deo, atque dedico, omnes res, que
“ hac in chartulatenentur inserte. ..
** Siquis autem eas inde, quod fieri
* nullatenus credo, abstulerit, sub
* poena sacrilegii ex hoc Domino
** Deo, cui eas offero atque dedico,
** districtissimas reddat rationes.’”’]

85 «*Deposita pietatis.” Tertul.
Apologet. [c. 39.

for the Church Treasures. 495

- nance and then by quiet speech did thus calmly disclose it- (BOOK v.

self86: “ You that profess the Christian religion make great
© complaint of the wonderful 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 capital sentence against you. Your
“bishops are said to have rich vessels of gold and silver,
“«¢ which they use in the exercise 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 be-
* hind him many wholesome and good precepts, as namely
“that Cesar should have of you the things that are fit for
and due to Cesar. His wars are costly and chargeable
“unto him. That which you suffer to rust in corners the
“ affairs of the commonwealth do need. Your profession is
“ not to make account of things transitory. And yet if ye

86 Prudent. Peristeph. [ii. Pass.
Laurent. 57. seqq. ]
** ‘Soletis,’ inquit, ‘ conqueri,
‘¢ Seevire nos justo amplius,
*¢ Cum Christiana corpora
“¢ Plusquam cruente scindimus.
‘¢ Abest atrocioribus
*‘ Censura fervens motibus ;
“« Blande et quiete efflagito
“‘ Quod sponte obire debeas.
‘* Hunc esse vestris orgiis
“¢ Moremque et artem proditum est,
‘¢ Hane disciplinam foederis,
“ Libent ut auro Antistites.
“ Argenteis scyphis ferunt
«¢ Fumare sacrum sanguinem,
«* Auroque nocturnis sacris
‘¢ Adstare fixos sereos.
“¢ Tum summa cura est fratribus,
“Ut sermo testatur loquax,
** Offerre fundis venditis
*¢ Sestertiorum millia.
“ Addicta avorum predia
** Foedis sub auctionibus
** Successor exheres gemit,
** Sanctis egens parentibus....
* * * *
** Hoc poscit usus publicus,
** Hoc fiscus, hoc zerarium,
** Ut didita stipendiis

*¢ Ducem juvet pecunia.

‘* Sic dogma vestrum est, audio;

** Suum quibusque reddito :—

** En Cesar agnoscit suum

** Nomisma nummis inditum.

** Quod Ceesaris scis, Casari

** Da: nempe justum postulo:

** Ni fallor, haud ullum tuus

** Signat Deus pecuniam.

* * *
** Implete dictorum fidem

** Quze vos per orbem venditis:

*¢ Nummos libenter reddite,

‘¢ Estote verbis divites.’

“* Nil asperum Laurentius

*¢ Refert ad ista, aut turbidum,

** Sed, ut paratus obsequi,

_ Obtemperanter annuit.”.... &¢.
[Sarav. de Hon. Presul. &c. ¢. 11.
* Nota est Laurentii Diaconi Ro-
* mane LEcclesize historia, penes
** quem thesauros adservari Eccle-
** siz tyranni suspicabantur: que
*‘suspicio partim vera fuit, nam
* thesauros habebat Ecclesia, par-
** tim falsa, nam adservandi thesau-
ros mos non erat, sed distribu-
* endi.’’|

h. Ixxix.14.

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixxix. 15.

496 Natural Detestation of Sacrilege.

<¢ ean be contented but to forego that which ye care not for, ©
« T 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 concealment 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 re-
ceive his prey, a miserable rank of poor, lame, and impotent
persons 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 how proud the Church was of these
treasures. . ,

[15-] If men did not naturally abhor sacrilege, to resist or
defeat so impious attempts would deserve small 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 success, because in common
construction unless notorious improbity be joined with pro-
sperity 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,
whatsoever they afterwards 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 heart’s desire, but the censure of the
world is ever directly against them both bitter and per-
emptory §7.

86 | Valer. Max. lib.i.c.2. “Sy-
“‘racusis Dionysius genitus.. .fano
“* ... Proserpine spoliato Locris,
“cum per altum secundo vento
“classe veheretur, ridens, amicis,
“ * Videtisne,’ ait, ‘quam bona na-

** vigatio ab ipsis Diis immortalibus
* sacrilegis tribuatur.’ ””]

87 “Novimus multa regna et
*‘ reges eorum propterea cecidisse,
** quia Ecclesias spoliaverunt,resque
*earum vastaverunt,” [*‘abstule-

Pretexts for Sacrilege: its providential Penalties. 497

[16.] To make such actions therefore less odious, and to
mitigate the envy of them, many colourable shifts and inven-
tions 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®* 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 patri-
mony 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 commonly they are men born under that constella-
tion 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 dis-
grace and ignominy, the very turpitude of such actions in the
eye of a wise understanding heart®9 is itself a heavy punish-
ment, Men of virtuous quality are by this sufficiently

“runt,” sic in Ed. Par. 1640.]
‘* alienaverunt vel diripuerunt, Epi-
** scopisque et Sacerdotibus, atque
** quod majus est Ecclesiis eorum
Mt Selena, et pugnantibus dede-
‘runt. Quapropter nec fortes in
‘** bello nec in fide stabiles fuerunt,
** nec victores exstiterunt, sed terga
* multi vulnerati et plures interfecti
** verterunt, regnaque et regiones
** et quod pejus est regna ccelestia
‘* perdiderunt, atque propriis hzre-
*‘ ditatibus caruerunt et hactenus
** carent.” Verba Carol. Magn. in

Capit. Carol. lib. vii. c.104.
88 ‘‘Turno tempus erit, magno cum

‘* optaverit emptum
‘* Intactum Pallanta, etcum spolia
“* ista diemque
** Oderit.”
Virg. Ain. lib. x. 503.

HOOKER, VOL. II.

89 “H ray mpaypdrav aicyivn
ovdeuias éAdrreav Cnuias Tois ye oo-
poor. Demosth. [ Olynth. i. ad fin. ]
** Poenam non dico legum quas spe
‘* perrumpunt, sed ipsius turpitudi-
** nis que acerbissima est non vi-
* dent.” Cic. Offic. lib. iii. [e. 8.]
** Impunita tu credis esse que in-
** visa sunt? aut ullum supplicium
‘“* gravius existimas publico odio.”
Sen. de Benef. lib. iii. c.17.

90 [** Sardonius inter tot sacrilegia
** Dionysii risus fuit: tot malefici-
*‘orum conscius metu vacare non
* potuit.” Sarav. de Sacrilegiis,
c.g. Then reciting the story of
Damocles, he adds, “ Satisne vide-
“tur declarasse Dionysius, sacrile-
** gos in perpetuo versari metu ?”’]

Kk

BOOK V.
Ch, Ixxix. 16.

498 In what Case Alienation is not Sacrilege.

nooK v. moved to beware how they answer and requite the mercies of
op bx 17 God with injuries whether 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 com-
monly for gold hath flannel, and whereas the usual saw of
old was “Glaucus his change,” the proverb is now, “A
“ church bargain.”

[17.] 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 en-
chantments 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 cere-
mony 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 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 oblations 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
Irenzus Polycarp’s disciple should not have said, “ We offer
“unto God our goods as tokens of thankfulness for that we
“ receive,” neither Origen, “ He which worshippeth God

4 9! Tren. lib. iv. c. 34. [“Offerimus “ agentes Dominationi ejus, et sanc-
€1 non quasi indigenti, sed gratias ‘* tificantes creaturam.”

Titles of Ministers: Origin of Parishes. 499

_ © must by gifts and oblations acknowledge him the Lord of Book v.
s¢ all 92 ;” in a word that to give unto God is error, reforma- cai
tion of error to take from the Church that which the blindness

of former ages did unwisely give. By these or the like sug-
gestions 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 peradventure 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 over-

thrown not so much by puissance and might of adversaries as
through defect of counsel in them that should have upheld

and defended the same.

LXXX. There are in a minister of God these four things Of Ordina-
to be considered, his ordination which giveth him power to f0"8.4¥-,
meddle with things sacred, the charge or portion of the Title, and
Church allotted unto him for exercise of his office, the per- fea
formance of his duty according to the exigence of his charge, a
and lastly the maintenance which in that respect he receiveth. bat in na

All ecclesiastical laws and canons which either concern the °° With-

t d
bestowing or the using of the power of ministerial order have of due in-
relation to these four. Of the first we have spoken before A tegeansl
at large. quality is

° ‘ F that enter
[2.] Concerning the next, for more convenient discharge of into Holy

ecclesiastical duties, as the body of the people must needs be Orders.
severed by divers precincts, so the clergy likewise accordingly
distributed. Whereas therefore religion did first take place
in cities, and in that respect was a cause why the name of
Pagans which properly signifieth country people came to be
used in common speech for the same that infidels and unbe-
lievers 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,
92 Orig. in 18. Num. hom. xi. “ mitias sacerdotibus.” t. ii. 304 A.].

[“ Indignum existimo et impium, ut . % Psalm xc. ro.
** is, qui Deum colit non offerat pri-

Kka2

BOOK V.

Ch. 1xxx. 3.

500 Absolutely to require a Title would hinder Missions.

and the rest where the Apostles are known to have planted
our faith and religion. Now because 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 636 became di-
vided?> in like manner. But other distinction of Churches
there doth not appear any in the Apostles’ writings save only
according to those% cities wherein they planted the Gospel
of Christ and erected ecclesiastical colleges. Wherefore to
ordain xara wéAw throughout every city, and kar’ éxxAyolav
throughout every church” do in them signify the same thing.
Churches then neither were nor could be in so convenient 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 several congregations termed
parishes with far narrower restraint than this name at the
first was used. |

[3.] And from hence hath grown their error, who as oft as
they read of the duty which ecclesiastical persons are now

94 [Anastasius Biblioth. (writing
in the 8th century, and as appears,
without any good authority) de Vit.
Pontif. Rom. c. vi. “ Evaristus. .. .
** titulos in urbe Roma divisit pres-
* byteris.” But afterwards in the
life of Dionysius, A. D. 261, he says,
*« Hic presbyteris ecclesias divisit, et
** coemeteria et parochias [et] dice-
** ceses instituit.” Accordingly Whit-
gift (Answ. 40. ap. Def. 249,) ascribes
the regulation to Dionysius. T.C.
1. 50. al. 69. says, ‘‘The matter is
** plain, that the Lord himself divided
*“‘national churches into parishes
“ and congregations.’ ]

99 [Referred by some to the time
of Archbishop Theodore. “ Excita-
“bat Theodorus Archiepiscopus fi-
delium devotionem et voluntatem

“ in quarumlibet provinciarum civi-
“ tatibus, nec non villis, ecclesias
“* fabricandi, parecias distinguendi,
*‘ assensus regios procurando: ut si
** qui sufficientes essent, et ad Dei
** honorem pro voto haberent, super
** proprium fundum ecclesias con-
‘* struere, earundem perpetuo patro-
“natu gauderent.” Elmham, ap.
not. ad Bed. E. H. v. 8. p. 399. ed.
1645. But see Stillingfleet, “‘ Duties
** &c. of the parochial Clergy,” p.
124—130: who seems to prove that
the institution was in gradual pro-
gress from some time before the
death of Bede till the Norman Con-
uest: when it received a check
rom the monastic interest. ]
96 Acts xv. 36; Apoc. i. 20.
97 Tit. i.5; Acts xiv. 23.

Indefinite Ordination in one Sense more primitive. 501

to perform towards 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
parish9’, Because the names of all church-officers are words
of relation, 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 unlawful
for the Church to employ men at all in converting nations?
For if so be the Church may not lawfully admit to an eccle-
siastical function unless it tie the party admitted 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 con-
eregations and flocks.

[4.] But, to the end it may appear how much this one
thing amongst 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 them-
selves did, surely no man can justly say that herein we
practise any thing repugnant to their example. For by them

** and definite charge, being, as the
** Logicians term them, actual rela-
“tives. For what shepherd can

98 [Adm. ap. wae Def. 216.
“ Then none admitted to the min-
“istry, but a place was void afore-

“hand, to which he should be
“ called.” T.C.i. 42. al. 60. “There
“are by the word of God at this
‘“‘ time no ordinary ministers eccle-
** siastical, which be not local, and
“tied to one congregation ; there-
‘* fore this sending abroad of minis-
“ters which have no place is un-
“ Jawful.” And p. 43. al. 61. “ For
“ the Pastor or Bishop which is here
“© mentioned, which name soever we
* consider of them, they do forth-
*‘ with... imply and infer a certain

** there be, unless he have a flock ?
“ and how can he be a watchman,
** unless he have some city to look
“ unto?” Whitg. Def. 219. “ Heis
** alsoashepherd that hathmo flocks,
“‘ and he is a shepherd that hath a
** general care and oversight of many
“‘ shepherds and many flocks.” See
also T’. C. ii. 298, 299; and Eccl.
Disc. f. 28. “ Vocatio...nunquam
‘* libera vagetur, sed cum certi ali-
** cujus loci atque ecclesiz procura-
** tione conjuncta sit.’”|

BOOK Y.

Ch, xxx, 4.

BOOK V.
Ch, Ixxx. 5.6.

502 Academical Titles. The ministry personal not local.

there was ordained only in each Christian city a college of |
presbyters and deacons to administer holy things. varistus
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 eccle-
siastical 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 Dea-
cons doth come more near the Apostles’ example, and the
trying of them to be made only for particular congregations
may justlier ground itself upon the example of Hvaristus than
of any Apostle of Christ.

[5-] It hath been the opinion of wise men 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 by providing that choice wits
after reasonable time spent in contemplation may at the
length either enter into that holy vocation for which they
have 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
afterwards unto particular charge abroad may be according.
All this is frustrate, those worthy foundations we must dis-
solve, 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 particular parish or congregation.

[6.] 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 doth say of tutors99, “ Certe rei vel
“cause tutor dari non potest, quia persone non cause vel
“rei tutor datur.” He that should grant a tutorship restrain-
ing his grant to some one certain thing or cause should do

9 Inst. lib. i, tit. 14. sect. 4.

Puritan Examples of Ministers without local Title. 503.

_ 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
concur evermore with all lawful ordinations. 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 unnatural custom
as doth hallow men with ecclesiastical functions 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 exercised we may be by sundry
good and lawful occasions translated, retaining nevertheless
the selfsame power which was first given.

[7.] It is some grief to spend thus much labour in refuting

a thing that hath so little ground to uphold it, especially 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 noble-
men!, sometime in much more public and frequent con-

gregations, there are that have successively 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 ecclesiastical
duty and possession of commodity thereto belonging 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 any place, some which have

bound themselves to one place only for a time and that time

being once expired have afterwards voluntarily given unto

other places the like experience and trial of them. All this
1 [As Travers in the household of Burghley. ]

BOOK-V.

Ch. xxx.

BOOK V.
Ch, Ixxx. 8, 9.

504 What an ecclesiastical Title properly denotes.

I presume they would not do if their persuasion were as strict —
as their words pretend.

[8.] 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 exercise thereof; secondly to
know that the only true and proper 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 ministry 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 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 elections, 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.

[9.] In the question of making ministers without a title,
which to do they say is a thing unlawful, they should at the
very first have considered what the name of ¢¢/e doth imply,
and what affinity or coherence ordinations have with titles,
which thing observed would plainly have shewed them their
ewn 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 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 numbers of souls
unto whom he there administereth holy things, and some
certain allowanee whereby to sustain life; that the Fathers at
the first named oratories and houses of prayer titles?, thereby

2[Ducange, voc. Titulus. “ Titulos
** apponere, seu Tabulas inscriptas :
“ quo ritu res privatorum aut reo-
“rum fisco addicebantur.” The
manner in which the word may have
passed from its civil to its ecclesias-

tical meaning is explained in the
following ordinance of a Roman
synod under S. Gregory. “ Consue-
“* tudo nova et in hac ecclesia valde
“yeprehensibilis erupit, ut cum

yectores ejus patrimonii urbana

Drift of the old Canons or Titles for Orders. 505

isignifying how God was interessed in them and held them as
‘his own possessions. But because they know that the Church
‘had ministers before Christian temples and oratories were,
‘therefore some of them understand by a title a definite con-
gregation 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 impediment” 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.

[10.] Into these absurdities and follies they slide by mis-
conceiving the true purpose of certain canons*, which indeed

* vel rustica preedia juris illius com-
“ petere posse suspicantur, fiscali
more titulos imprimant.” Concil.
v.1586. Titulusin its modern sense
appears in a canon of a synod of
Braga about A. D. pi. Ibid. gor.
The decretal letter of Pius I. (i. 576.)
in which also we find the word,
seems to be spurious. |

3 “ Unlawful to ordain a minister
* without a title.’ Abstract rt An
* Abstract of certaine Acts of Par-
* liament ; of certaine her Majesties
* Injunctions; of certaine Canons,
** Constitutions and Synodalles pro-
** vinciall; established and in force,
** for the peaceable government of
“the Church within her Majesties
** dominions and countries, for the
‘most part heretofore unknowen
‘and unpractized.” No date, but
it came out 1584. Strype, Ann. iii.
I. 338.] p. 243, and p. 246, ‘‘The

*‘ law requireth that every one ad-
‘* mitted 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 infirmity sickness or other
‘* lawful impediment to execute his
** ecclesiastical office and function.”

4 [Vid. Bishop Gibson’s Codex,
1.140, tit. ili. 3. note. ‘‘ One of the
“earliest and most strict among
** [these decrees | is that of the coun-
* cil of Chalcedon, Mndéva Se drrode-
** Aupevas xetporoveio Oa, pnre Iper=
*€ Burepov, pte Aidkovoy, pnte dros
*¢ rid TOV Ev EKKANTLACTLKG Taypatt,
* ef ut iuxds ev exxAnoia médews,
“ ka@uns, i) paprupio, povarrnpiy, 6
“ yetporovovpevos emtxnpvTrotro. Tovs
“* §€ dmodvras yxetpoTovoupévous Spt-
ev ayia aivodos akupoy €xew

OOK V.

Ch, lxxx. 10.

506 State of Question on Titles changed :

have forbidden to ordain a minister without a title, not thati
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 ordi-.
nation 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 redound to the:
disgrace and discredit of their calling. Which evil prevented,
those very laws which in that respect forbid, do expressly
admit ordinations to be made at large and without title,
namely if the party so ordained have of his own for the sus-
tenance of this life, or if the bishop which giveth him orders.
will find him competent allowance till some place of minis-—
tration from whence his maintenance may arise be provided —
for him, or if any other fit and sufficient means be had against —
the danger before mentioned.
[11.] Absolutely therefore it is not true that any ancient ©
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 present 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 minister, is it not manifest in the eyes of
all men, that whereas the name of a benefice doth signify
some standing ecclesiastical revenue taken out of the treasure
of God and allotted to a spiritual person, to the end he may

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixxx. 11.

“ rn ToavTyy xetpodeciay, Kal pn=
° © Sapod Sivacbat € evepyety, ep’ UBper

‘rov xetporovnaavros.” [Conc. ix.
144.] ‘* Which rule was transferred
“into the body of the canon law;
“and afterwards into the consti-
“tution of the English Church
* by Egbert Archbintan of York.

* « Nullus absolute ordinetur, et sine
¢ pronunciatione loci ad quem ordi-
* nandus.’ And it was accordingly
** prohibited in the several bodies of
“ our canons, made since the Refor-
“‘ mation and before the canons of
** 1603.” Compare Bingham, Antiq.

iv. 6. § 2.]

Endowments under the Feudal Law. 507

ase the same and enjoy it as his own for term of life unless sooxv.
is default cause deprivation, the clergy for many years after Rac - cht
hrist had no other benefices> but only their canonical por-
ions, or monthly dividends allowed them according to their
}several degrees and qualities out of the common stock of such
wifts, oblations, and tithes as the fervour of Christian piety
idid then yield? Yea that even when ministers 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 suffi-
iciently endowed with lands, other presbyters enjoyed instead
‘of their first benefices the tithes and profits of their own con-
gregations 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 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 interest, the
building of churches and consequently the assigning of either
parishes or benefices was a thing impossible without consent
of such as were principal owners of land ; in which considera-
tion for their more encouragement 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

5 [S. Cypr. Ep. t. ii. p. 2, calls

tion as monthly: “ Modicam unus-
them “ sportulantes fratres.” Ep.

39. p. 78, he mentions his purpose
of ordaining certain confessors to be
presbyters, “‘ut et sportulis iisdem
**cum Presbyteris honorentur, et
*divisiones mensurnas equatis
Co spi partiantur.” Ep. 34.
p- 68, he enjoins that certain clerical
persons whose conduct had been

uestionable should not present
themselves to receive their monthly
dividend,—“ se a divisione mensur-
* na contineant,’’—till the sentence
of the Church concerning them
could be known. Tertullian, Apol.
39, describes the customary collec-

*€ quisque stipem menstrua die, vel
** quum velit, et si modo velit et si
** modo possit, apponit.” See Bing-
ham, v. 4. § 2,3.

6 [E.g. In the church of Con-
Pe about A. D. 460, Gen-
nadius then patriarch made Marcian
a Novatianist (oixovdyov) steward or
treasurer of the church: és dua ro
yever Oat oixovdpos, Ta mpooepspeva
év éxdotn exkAnoia Tovs Tod Témov
Khyptxovs kopiver Oar Suerim@er, Ews
TouTou THs peydAns éxkAnoias mayra
kouiConevns. Theod. Lector. lib. i. ad
calcem Theodoret. E. H. ed. Vales.
P- 553°]

BOOK V.
Ch, lxxx, 12,
7.

508 Futility of Puritan Allegations on Titles.

till the world’s end to nominate in those benefices men whose
quality the bishop allowing might admit them thereunto?
Ts it not manifest that from hence inevitably such inequality,
of parishes hath grown, as causeth some through the multi-
tude 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 stipen-
diaries 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 ?

[12.] Not to mention therefore any other reason whereby
it may clearly appear how expedient it is and profitable for
this 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 asseve-
rations that only through negligence of popish prelates 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 alto-
gether follow. For howsoever they are loth peradventure to
be named curates, stipendiaries they are and the labour they
bestow is in other men’s cures, a thing not unlawful for them
to do, yet unseemly for them to condemn which practise it.

[13.] I might here discover the like oversight throughout
all their discourses* made in behalf of the people’s pretended
right to elect their ministers before the bishop may lawfully
ordain. But because we have otherwhere? at large disputed
of popular elections, and of the right of patronage wherein is

7 (Justinian Novell. lvii. § 2. “Si

** expensas ipsis clericis ministrant,
‘* quis eedificans ecclesiam, aut etiam

** et dignos denominant, denomina-

** aliter expendens in ea ministranti-
** bus alimenta voluerit aliquos cle-
** ricos statuere, non esse ei fiduciam
** ullam quos vult pro potestate de-
** ducere tue reverentiz ad ordinan-
** dos eos, sed examinari a tua sanc-
“ titate.’ And Nov. exxiii. § 18.
** Si quis oratorii domum fabricave-
* rit, et voluerit in ea clericos ordi-
** nare aut ipse aut ejus heredes; si

** tos ordinari.”’ | .

8 [ Adm. ap. Whitg. Def. 156.
“Then no minister placed in any
** congregation, but by consent of
“the people. Acts xiv. 13. (23.)
“2 Cor. viii.19.” T. C. i. 29—33.
al. 43—49. ii.193—265. Eccl. Disc.

fol. 31—43.
9 [See Book Vii. 14. |

heal Church Abuses : Ignorance, Non-residence, Plurality. 509

owned whatsoever the people under any pretence or colour BOOK Vv.
i Ch. Ixxxi. 1,2.
}nay seem to challenge about admission and choice of the pas-
tors that shall feed their souls, I cannot see what one duty
ithere i is which always ought to go before ordination, but only

rare of the party’s worthiness as well for integrity and virtue
as knowledge, yea for virtue more, inasmuch as defect of know-
ledge may sundry ways be supplied, but the scandal of vicious
and wicked life is a deadly evil.
LXXXI. The truth is that of all things hitherto mentioned Of the
ithe greatest is that threefold blot or blemish of notable igno- (ov 75,4
‘rance, unconscionable absence from the cures whereof men be in Min-
shave taken charge, and insatiable hunting after spiritual pre- ar apa
‘ferments without either care or conscience of the public good. and the
-Whereof to the end that we may consider as in God’s own their Liv-
‘sight and presence with all uprightness, sincerity and truth, ™8*-

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 whether that which our laws do per-

mit 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 whatsoever we disallow.

[2.] Touching arguments therefore taken from the principles

of common right to prove that ministers should be learned?!°,

that they ought to be resident upon their livings, and that

more than one only benefice or spiritual living may not be

granted unto one man; the first}! because St. Paul requireth

in a minister ability to teach, to convince, to distribute the

word rightly, because also the Lord himself hath protested

they 12 shall be no priests to him which have rejected know-

ledge, and because! if the blind lead the blind they must both

needs fall into the pit: the second because teachers are shep-

herds!4 whose flocks can be at no time secure from danger,

they are watchmen whom the enemy doth always besiege, their

labours in the Word and Sacraments admit no intermission!>,

10 T.C. lib. i. p. 70. 66. 69. [51, Disc. 89—100; Eccl. Disc. 68—76,
46, 50; Def. 235—246. T.C. ii. and 30—32.|
330—356. The references to the 11; Tim. ii, 2; Titusi.g; 2'Tim.
criptures here are all from T.C. ii. 15.
On Pluralities see also Def. 246— 12 Hoseaiv.6. 13 Matt. xv. 14.
241; T.C. ii. 356—361; Decl. of . 14 Lukeii.8. © 1 Acts xx. 2.

BOOK V.
.Ch. Ixxxi, 2.

510 Scriptural Censures on negligent Pastors.

their duty requireth instruction and conference with men ir
private!6, they are the living oracles of God to whom the
people must resort for counsel, they are commanded?’ to be
patterns of holiness, leaders '8, feeders 19, supervisors?° amongst
their own, it should be their grief as it was the Apostle’s?!
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?8, because every one should remain in
that vocation whereto he is called2+; 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 mea=
sure what knowledge there should be in a minister of the
Gospel of Christ; the arguments which light of nature offer-_
eth, the laws and statutes which scripture hath, the canons”
that are taken out of ancient synods, the decrees and constitu-
tions of sincerest times, the sentences of all antiquity, and in a
word even every man’s full consent and conscience is against —
ignorance in them that have charge and cure of souls. i

Again what availeth it if we be learned and not faithful? or
what benefit hath the Church of Christ if there be in us suffi- ©
ciency without endeavour or care to do that good which our
place exacteth? Touching the pains and industry therefore
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, sophis-
tication, 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 himself at the time of their ordi- .

_

16 1 Sam. i. 19. [9-18.] exkAngiats’ €umopias yap kal aiaypo= —
17 Tim. iv. 12. xepdeias tStov Tovro, Kat ddAdrpiov —
18 §. John x. 4. exkAnovaotiKns ouvnbeias. kovoa-

19 t Pet. v. 2. pev yap €& airns rhs Kuptakns porns, —
20 Acts xx. 28. Gre ov Svvarai tis Svol Kupiois Sov- —
21 ; Thess. ii. 17. devel’... .€kagTos ovv KaTa TI}V diro~ —

22 Concil. Nic. can. 15. [i.e. of orodcxhy havi, év @ exAnOn, &v ToU=
the second Nicene Council, ed. T@ deiner pevery. | |
Labb. Vil. 609. KaAnpixds dmrd rod 23 Matt. vi. 24.

Tapovtos wy) Katraracoéabw ev Sve 24 1 Cor. vii. 24.

Peculiar Evils of Non-residence and Plurality. 511

‘care and fear. Their sloth that negligently perform it maketh
‘them subject to malediction. Besides we also know that the
ifruit of our pains in this function is life both to ourselves and
others.
_ And do we yet need incitements to labour? Shall we stop
jour 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 pre-
-yention the other for reformation of our sluggishness in this
behalf? St. Paul2>, “ Attend to yourselves and to all the
- flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to
*‘ feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his
* own blood.” Again*®®, “I charge thee before God and the
_ Lord Jesus Christ which shall judge the quick and the dead
«at his coming, preach the word; be instant.” Jeremy?’,
* Wo unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the 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
* torether 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.” Ezekiel2%,
_ © Should not the shepherds, should they not feed the flocks?
« Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe yourselves with the wool, and
* 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
“ve have ruled. Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God,
«< T will require my sheep at their hands, nor shall the shep-
‘herds feed themselves any more, for I will deliver my sheep
« from their mouths, they shall no more devour them.”

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 resi-
dence of ministers upon their own peculiar charge is by
so much the rather necessary, for that absenting themselves

25 Acts xx. 28. 27 Jer. xxiii. i—4.
26 2 Tim. iv. 1. 28 Ezek. xxxiv. 2, 8, 10.

mation. The work which they have undertaken requireth both Boox v-

. xxxi, 2,

BOOK V.

Ch, 1xxxi. 3.

512

from the place where they ought to labour they neither car
do the good which is looked for at their hands, nor reap that
comfort which sweeteneth life to them that spend it in these
travails upon their own. For it is in this as in all thing
else, which are through private interest dearer than what con
cerneth 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 beside:
at the least in common construction a show of that worldly
humour which men do think should not reign so high.
[3-] Now from hence their collections are as followeth, first
a repugnancy or contradiction between the principles of com=
mon right and that which our laws in special consideration
have allowed ; secondly a nullity or frustration of all such a
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 of common right
for the other two. And why so? Forsooth because29 whatso-
ever we do in these three cases and not by virtue of common
right, we must yield it of necessity done by warrant of peculiar

Dispensations : Puritan Olyections to them.

right or privilege. Now “a privilege is said to be that that
‘* the favour of certain persons cometh forth against common
“ right, things prohibited are dispensed with because things
«< permitted are despatched by common right, but things for=
“‘ bidden require dispensations. By which descriptions of

29 Abstract, p. 117. [* Whatso-
“ever ratifieth a thing monstrous
“and against nature, the same
** may not be privileged by the law
“of man. But dispensations for
** pluralities ratify monstrous things,
* and things against nature. There-
“fore, &c....The second propo-
* sition... 1 prove from the ety-
* mology or description of a privi-
** lege or dispensation: for a pri-
** vilege and a dispensation in effect
** signify both one thing. ‘ Privile-
** gium dicitur, quod emanat contra
** jus commune in fayorem aliqua-
** rum personarum : super prohibitis
“ dispensatur, quia permissa jure
“communi expediuntur, prohibita

*‘ vero dispensatione essent.’? ‘A
** privilege is said,’ &c. By which
*‘ descriptions of a privilege and
** dispensation, it is apparent, that
“qa privilege and dispensation for
‘* pluralities must license and an
*‘ thorize that that the law against
“ plurality doth infringe and disal-
* low, and so be a law contrariant
** and repugnant to the law again

** pluralities; but the law against
‘* pluralities is the law of nature and
** the law of God. Therefore a pri-
** vilege or dispensation for plurali-
** ties is against the law of natur
“and against the law of God:
‘more monstrous law never estar
** blished.”’]

en aT. 2 oe

A dispensing Power, per se, not against common Right. 518

. “a privilege and dispensation it is,” they say, “apparent,” BooK v.

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 repugnant 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 whereunto we will but
_Jead them to answer themselves.
_ [4.] First therefore if they will grant (as they must) that all
_ direct oppositions of speech require one and the selfsame sub-
- ject 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 contradic-
tions if the one part be true the other eternally must be false.
_ And therefore if the principles of common right do at any
time truly enforce that particular not to be good which privi-
leges make good, it argueth invincibly 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 contrariant to
the other, a general law being in force should always dissolve
a privilege.
_ The reason 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 sudject or matter itself, which
matter indefinitely considered in laws of common right is in
_ privileges considered as beset and limited with special curcum-
stances, 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 particular considera-
tion thereof. Precepts do always propose perfection, not
such as none can attain unto, for then in vain should we ask or
HOOKER, VOL. II. Ll

Ch. Ixxxi. 4.

BOOK V.
Ch, Ixxxi. 4.

514 Fallacy of arguing from General Rules, apart from

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 whereupon our actions must work are there-
fore chiefly considered by us, by them least thought upon
that wade altogether in the two first kinds of general direc-
tions, 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-
premises 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 precepts 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 —
hearing a privilege defined to be “an especial right brought
“ in by their power and authority that make it for some public —
“ benefit against the general course of reason®,” are no
able to comprehend how the word against doth import Excep-—
80 « Jus singulare est, quod con- “ stituentium introductum est.”

** tra tenorem rationis propter ali- Paulus ff. de Legib. [Dig. lib. 1. tit. —
“quam utilitatem auctoritate con- iii. 16.] )

the Matter: shewn in the Case of Contracts by Minors. 515

_ tion without any Opposition at all. For imasmuch 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. Not-
- withstanding 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 themselves 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.
Privileges 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®! with the end of whose
- natural life they expire; permanent such as the use whereof
doth continue still, for that they belong unto certain finds of
men and causes which never die. Of this nature are all im-
munities and preeminences which for just considerations one
sort of men enjoyeth above another both in the Church and

31 «Privilegium personale cum
“persona exstinguitur, et privile-
* sium datum actioni transit cum
*‘ actione.” Op. de Regulis, par. 1.
227. [The editor has -not been
able to verify this reference. In the

Digest, L. xviii. 196, is the following :
* Privilegia quedam cause sunt,
*‘ quedam persone: et ideo que-
"< dam ad heredem transmittuntur,
* que cause sunt: que persone
“ sunt, ad heredemnon transeunt.”’ |

Ll2

BOOK V.

Ch, 1xxxi. 4.

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixxxi. 5.

516 Case of the English Ministry as to Learning.

commonwealth, no man suspecting them of contrariety to any —
branch of those laws or reasons whereupon the general right
is grounded.

[5.] 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*2, 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 whatso-—
ever we may imagine in our private closets or talk for com-
munication’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 dili-
gently viewed out of whom the choice shall be made, and
thereby an estimate made what degree of skill we must either
admit or else leave numbers utterly destitute of guides, and I
doubt 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 knowledge
in that degree which is but tolerable.

When we commend any man for learning our speech im-
porteth him to be more than meanly qualified that way ;
but when laws do require learning as a quality which maketh

82 [*OFf almost 10,000 parishes ‘“ books.” Sutcliffe, False Sem-
“there are not much above 500 blant, &c. p. 69. }
“ that are above 3o0/. in the Queen’s

Unlearned Mimsters: Need of a dispensing Power. 517

- capable 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 know
when laws are broken when kept, seeing one man may think
a lower degree sufficient, another may judge them insuf-
ficient that are not qualified in some higher degree. Where-
fore of necessity either we must have some judge in whose
conscience they that are thought and pronounced sufficient
are to be so accepted and taken, or else the law itself is 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 exhort in doctrine which is sound, and to dis-
prove 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 conscience of Titus? and others which had to deal in
ordaining 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 marriage, 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 Apostle’s 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

33 Titus i. 9. |

BOOK V.
Ch. Ixxxi, §,

518 Nonresidence in Respect of academical Charges.

Book v. to furnish all congregations should do better to let thousands

Ch. lxxxi, 6.

of souls grow savage, to let them live without 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 without any thing so much as read unto them
concerning the way of life, than as it doth in this necessity,
to make such presbyters as are so far forth sufficient although
they want that ability of preaching which some others have.
[6.] 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 regard 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 uni-
versities, if they faithfully there labour to grow in knowledge
that so they may afterwards the more edify and the better in-
struct their congregations. The Church in their absence is
not destitute, the people’s salvation not neglected for the pre-
sent 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 continually abidden with them. So that the
law doth hereby provide 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’ travail 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, preparing men against the time that
they come to reside abroad, are in my poor opinion even the
fittest places that any ingenuous mind can wish to enter into

Pluralities in Respect of Merit and Service. 519

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 uni-

versities themselves 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 selfsame leave is given

not without great respect to the good of the whole Church.
_ For assuredly whosoever doth well observe how much all in-
_ ferior things depend upon the orderly courses and motions of

those greater orbs will hardly judge it either. meet or good

that the Angels assisting them should be driven to betake
_ themselves unto other stations, although by nature they were

not tied where now they 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 maintain at their own charge men suf-
ficient 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
seemed not indeed to have conceived what either is. But the
eye of law is the eye of God, it looketh into the hearts and
secret dispositions of men, it beholdeth how far one star dif-
fereth 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 affairs, to the end
they may love that religion the more which no way seeketh to
make them vulgar, no way diminisheth 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.

BOOK V.
Ch, 1xxxi, 6,

520 Pluralities allowed in Honour to Rank and Authority.

BOOK V. [7- ] A third thing respected both in permitting absence and —
ee leo in granting to some that liberty of addition or plurality
which necessarily enforceth their absence is 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 encouragements by special privilege of law
might somewhat declare how the state itself doth accept their
pains, much abhorring 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 !
expenses 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 change 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 absence and not to release them from
the duty of residence were a kind of cruel and barbarous in-
justice; to residents in cathedral churches or upon dignities
ecclesiastical, forasmuch as these being rooms of greater hos-
pitality, places of more respect and consequence than the rest,
they are 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 suffragans of
bishops, the household chaplains of men of honour or in great
office, 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 license to
hold two ecclesiastical livings though having cure, any spi-
ritual 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.
[8.] But, as it fareth in such cases, the gap which for just
considerations we open unto some letteth in others through

Guilt of the Abusers of dispensing Power. 521

‘corrupt practices to whom such favours were neither meant
mor should be communicated. The greatness of the harvest
sand the scarcity of able workmen hath made it necessary that
‘law should yield to admit numbers of men but slenderly and
‘meanly qualified. Hereupon because whom all other worldly
hopes have forsaken they commonly reserve ministerial voca-
tion as their last and surest refuge ever open to forlorn men,
the Church that should nourish them whose service she need-
eth hath obtruded upon her their service that know not other-
wise 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 facility in condescending unto such re-
quests, are often received into that vocation whereunto their
unworthiness is no small disgrace.

Did any thing more aggravate the crime of Jeroboam’s pro-
fane apostasy than that he chose to have his clergy the scum
and refuse of his whole land? Let no man spare to tell it
them, 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 ministry that which St. Chryso-
stom *4 doth of the highest, “He that will undertake so weighty
“a charge had need to be a 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 blemishes in continual attend-

34 Chrysost. de Sacerd. lib. iii.
c. 15, 16. [vi. 18. ed. Savile. «i
pev yap amas 7d KAnOjvat Tromera,
kal petaxeipioa TO Mpaypa ws ETU-
xev, apkei, kai kivduvos ovdels, €y-

kaXeitw Kevodokias nuav 6 Bovdd=

pevos’ ei S€ wodAn pev cviveow
TodAny S€ mpd ths ouvéecews THY
mapa tod Oeod yxadpw, Kal Tpdrev
opOdtnta Kai kaGapdrnra Biov, Kal

peifova 4) Kata avOpwrov exew det
THY aperiy tov TavTny avad_exdpevoy
thy povrida, py pe amoorepnons
ovyyveuns parny amohécOat pn Bov-
Adpevoy kai eikj. And p. 24. €te ody
Cntncopev, eimé pot, Tov Oeov Ths
opyis thy aitiav, mpdypata ovTes
dyia Kai dpixodéorata ta avOpwrois
Tois pév movnpois Ttois dé ovdevds
a&ios AvupaiverOa mapacyxértes ; |

LIBRARY ST. MARY'S. COLLEGE

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixxxi.8,

BOOK V.

Ch, lxxxi. 9.

522 Rules even natural may allow special Exceptions.

ants about the service of God’s sanctuary do make them eve

day fewer that willingly resort unto it, till at length all affec-
tion 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 recompense in fine the death of
the nurse that feedeth them. It is not obscure how incom- ~
modious 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 considerations

already mentioned affordeth touching residence and plurality —

of spiritual livings. ry
Now that which is practised corruptly to the detriment an¢
hurt of the Church against the purpose of those very laws —
which notwithstanding are pretended in defence and justifica-
tion 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 sovereignty.
Howbeit not so those special privileges which are but instru-—
ments wrested and forced to serve malice. | 4
There is in the patriarch of heathen philosophers this pre-_
cept, “ Let no husbandman nor no handicraftsman be a
« priest35.” 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 publicly employed in his service should —
live of base and manuary trades. Now compare herewith the ©
Apostle’s words®®, “ Ye know that these hands have ministered —
“to my necessities and to them that are with me.” What
think we? Did the Apostle any thing opposite herein or re-—
pugnant to the rules and maxims of the law of nature? The
selfsame reasons that accord his actions with the law of nature ~
shall declare our privileges and his laws no less consonant. «_
[9.] Thus therefore we see that although they urge very
colourably the Apostle’s own sentences, requiring that a minis-—
ter 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

35 Odre yewpyov ovre Bdvavoov Arist. Polit. lib. vii. c. 9.
lepéa karagTatéoy’ vd yap Tey Tro- 36 Acts xx. 34; 1 Cor. iv. 12;
hiray mpére tiyacbar tovs Oeovs. 1 Thess. ii. 9; 2 Thess. iii. 8. :

4

q

On Dispensations not invalid. 523

the law apostolic seemeth apparently broken, which law re-
quiring attendance cannot otherwise be understood than so
as to charge them with perpetual residence; again though in
‘every of these causes they infinitely heap up the sentences of
(Fathers, the decrees of popes, the ancient edicts of imperial
authority, our own national laws and ordinances prohibiting
e same and grounding evermore their prohibitions partly on
ithe laws of God and partly on reasons drawn from the light of
nature, yet hereby to gather and infer contradiction between
‘those laws which forbid indefinitely and ours which in certain
‘eases have allowed the ordaining of sundry ministers whose
isufficiency for learning is but mean, again the licensing of
‘some to be absent from their flocks, and of others to hold more
‘than one only living which hath cure of souls, I say to con-
elude 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.

[10.] 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 founda-
tion of repugnancy being broken whatsoever they have built
thereupon falleth necessarily to ground. Whereas therefore
upon surmise or vain supposal of opposition between our spe-
cial and the principles of common right they gather that such
as are with us ordained 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 pos-
sess 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 mitigations and the
strict establishment of former ordinances to be absolutely exe-
cuted whatsoever follow; albeit the answer already made in
discovery of the weak and unsound foundation whereupon they

Mivers cures must of necessity be absent from some, whereby Book v.
Ch, Ixxxi, 10.

BOOK V.

Ch, Ixxxi. 11.

- in no wise please their appetite. Such therefore as preach

524 Orthodox preaching, how understood by the Puritans :

have built these erroneous collections may be thought suffi-
cient,. yet because our desire is rather to satisfy if it be possi-
ble than to shake them off, we are with very good will con-
tented_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 patel n
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 hearkened to tk 2
readings of the law of God, they kept in mind the oracles and
aphorisms of wisdom which tended unto 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.

[11.] Now because men bring all religion in a manner td
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

unto them but hit not the string they look for are respected
as unprofitable, the rest as unlawful and indeed no ministers”

87 "ANN oi modAot TavTa pev ov be ovdev Tov mpoorarropever” domep
mpatrovow, emt d€ rov Adyov KaTa~ ouv ovde éxeivor ev E£ovcr 76 copa
pevyovres oloyrat procopety kal ovT@ Ocparevdpevot, seta ovrot THY
ovTes écecbat orrovdaior" Spowdy Tt ox ovT@ ditogopodrres. Arist.
mowovvres Trois kdpvovoty ot rav ia- Eth. lib. ii. cap. 3.

Tp@v dkovovor pév erypeh@s Towodor

how provided for by the Church of England. 525

if the faculty of sermons want®*. For why? A minister of
the word should they say be able “ rightly to divide the
-€ word 39.” 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 proceeding
while they thus labour amongst the people to divide the
word, they make the word a mean to divide and distract the
people.

7OpOoropeiv “to divide aright” doth note in the Apostles’
writings soundness of doctrine only; and in meaning stand-

eth opposite to kaworoyeity “ the broaching of new opinions:

“ against that which is received.” For questionless the first
things delivered to the Church of Christ were pure and sin-
cere truth. Which whosoever 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 de-
grees 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 allowance of
the book of common prayer and the book of ordaining minis-
ters, 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 with the answer of M. Curius*,

88 [Of unpreaching ministers see oe 2 Tim. ii. 15

Adm. 5; Answ. 83; T.C. i. 50; aler. lib. we = 3. [§ 4.]
Def. 251—254; T.C. ii. 363—392. |

BOOK V.

Ch. Ixxxi. 11.

526 Ability to preach, not the Essence of the Mimstry.

nook v. which had sometime occasion to cut off one from the body of

Ch. Ixxxi. 12 + commonwealth, in whose behalf because it might have —
been pleaded that the party was a man serviceable, he there- —
fore began his judicial sentence with this preamble, “ Non 4
« esse opus reip. eo cive qui parere nesciret: The common- i;
«¢ wealth needeth men of qnality, yet never those men which —
« have not learned how to obey.”

[12.] But the ways which the church of England taketh 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 most urge the Apostle’s rule and
canon. For which cause they allege it not so much to that
purpose, 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 progeadety from nature, but our well-
“ willing isfrom grace.” We say as much of the minister of
God, “ publicly to teach and instruct the Church is necessary
“in every ecclesiastical minister, but ability to teach by ser-
* mons is a grace which God doth bestow on them whom he >
* maketh sufficient for the commendable discharge of their
“ duty.” That therefore wherein a minister differeth from
other Christian men is not as some have 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 ~

t

—— a

polity hath set, so canonical

Mi ps editor has not been able
to find any sentence in St. Augustine
having exactly this turn. The fol-
lowing perhaps comes as near the
point as any: “‘ Semper est in nobis
** voluntas libera, sed non semper
* est bona. . .Gratia vero Dei semper

“ est bona et per hanc fit ut sit homo
** bone voluntatis, qui fuit prius vo-
*‘ Juntatis male.’ De Grat. et lib.
Arbitr. c. xv. t. x. 484 F.]

41 Oxf. Man, p.21. [The pam-
phlet quoted is, “M. Some laid open

‘in his colours, &c.; done by an
** Oxford man, to his friend in Cam-

* another Christian.

© lawful function,’ &c.

ordination in the Church of

“ bridge.” Of which see some ac- |

count above, c. xxii. 19, note 87.
** Simple reading, in ms oF, account
“© soever it be amongst men, yet is
“ it not as I conceive the thing that
* doth single out a minister from

-It must be —

“only (as I told you before) ‘the
** sound preaching’ of the word ina —

Bear wit-
‘* ness I pray you that I speak here
** of sound preaching, i. e. of dividing
‘“‘ the word aright, which the Apo-
** stle calleth épOoropeiv.””]

‘ -————. =e

7
EE

The Puritans’ Wish to annul existing Dispensations. 527

Christ is that which maketh a lawful minister as touching the soox v.

validity of any act which appertaineth to that vocation. The
cause why St. Paul willed Timothy not to be over hasty in
ordaining ministers was (as we very well may conjecture)
because imposition of hands doth consecrate and make them
ministers whether they have gifts and qualities fit for the
laudable discharge of their duties or no. If want of learning
and skill to preach did frustrate their vocation, ministers or-
dained before they be grown unto that maturity should receive
new ordination whensoever it chanceth that study and industry
doth make them afterwards more able to perform the office,
than which what conceit can be more absutd? 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 supplied 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 in-
terpret the law of God? or was it ever imagined that this de-
fect should frustrate what they executed, and deprive them
of right unto any thing they claimed by virtue of their priest-
hood? 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 unsufficient and unfit men when
they might do otherwise, and yet therefore is not their choice
void, nor every action of magistracy frustrate in that respect :
so whether it were of necessity or even of very carelessness
that men unable to preach should be taken in pastors’ rooms,
nevertheless it seemeth to be an error in them which think
that the lack of any such perfection defeateth utterly their
calling.

[13.] To wish that all men were so qualified as their places
and dignities require, to hate all sinister 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 desires cannot offend any but ungodly
minds. Notwithstanding some in the true vehemency, and

42 [Eraclius; see the account of Aug. t.ii. 788. But his want of
his election in the Epistles of S. erudition is not there mentioned. ]

Ch. Ixxxi. 13,

BOOK V.
Ch, Ixxxi. 14.

528 Iniquity of annulling Dispensations long granted :

others under the fair pretence of these desires, have adven- _
tured that which is strange, that which is violent and unjust. —
There are42, which in confidence of their general allegations.
concerning the knowledge, the residence, and the’ single
livings of ministers, 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 permitting those things in
show and appearance which indeed 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
deprivable at all hours. Is this the justice of that discipline
whereunto all Christian churches must stoop and submit
themselves? Is this the equity wherewith they labour to
reform the world ? |

[14.] 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 unsufficiencies, nonresidences, and plu-
ralities; 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 authority groweth

“The Author of the Abstract. by him at the end of his work,
(See the Interrogatories proposed p. 262—266. ] |

proved by Analogy from the Case of Civil Offices.

529

weakeneth the sinews of the whole state42. Notwithstanding Book y.
where many governors are needful and they not many whom
their quality can commend, the penury of worthier must needs
make the meaner sort of men capable49,

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 committing many offices to one man‘5 there are appa-

42 Meydwv kupior Kabeorares Gy
evteheis dot peydda Pddzmrovot.
Arist. Polit. ii. cap, 11.

43 «* Nec ignoro maximos honores
‘ad parum dignos penuria meli-
‘“* orum solere deferri.”” Mamertin.
Paneg. ad Julian. [p. 231. ed. Plan-
tin. 1599. |

44 Neque enim zquum visum
*‘ est absentem reipub. causa inter
‘¢ reos referri dum reipub. operatur.”
Ulpian. (Digest. lib. xlviii. tit. v.]
leg. 15. ‘Si maritus.” ad legem
Juliam, de adulter.

45 Arist. Polit. lib. ii. cap, 11.
See the like preamble framed by the
Author of the Abstract, where he
fancieth a bishop deposing one un-
apt to preach whom himself had
before ordained. [p.89,90. “ Sith-
“‘ence....it is not expedient that
** faith be kept in wicked promises,
**I conclude the impossibility or
** iniquity of conditions to be per-
“formed by him that is made a
“* minister to make the contract be-
** tween the Bishop and him merely
** void and of none effect in law.
** And that the Bishop, according
‘to the true intent and meaning
** of the laws whereof he hath the
“execution, ought to cite and ex
“ officio to proceed and — against
“him in this sort: ‘You, A.B.
*‘ parson of C. about twenty-four
** years past, at what time I had ap-
** pointed a solemn day for making
*© of Deacons and Ministers, and
**had called by my mandate men
** meet to serve the Lord in his holy
** services, to teach his people and
** to be examples to his flock, in ho-
’ “nest life and godly conversation,
*‘came before me, making a great

HOOKER, VOL. IT.

“‘ brag, and fair show of zeal and
*‘ conscience, and of your know-
* ledge in the holy Scriptures, and
“that you would instruct them
** faithfully, and exhort them dili-
** gently in the doctrine of salvation
** by Christ, and in holiness of life :
** that you would exercise his disci-
* pline according to his command-
“ment; and that you would be a
** peace maker; and all these things
** you faithfully promised and took
“upon you to perform, joining
** yourself openly to the ont's peo-
** ple in prayer, with a solemn vow.
** Now so it is, as I understand by
*‘ your demeanour ever since, that
in truth you had no other end,
* but to steal a living from the
** Church, though-it were with the
** murder of many souls. You dis-
* honoured the Lord, you made an
** open lie in his holy congregation,
*‘ you circumvented me by guile,
** and by craft deluded me: you have
** ever since falsified your word, you
‘‘have not preached one sermon
** these many years; you have not
** instructed one of your parish in
“ the doctrine of salvation by Christ
* alone, you have not governed your
** family as became one of your coat,
** you have not exercised the disci-
** pline of Christ against any adul-
** terer, and swearer, any drunkard,
“any breaker of the Lord’s Sab-
** baths ; you have been and are a
*‘ quarreller among your neigh-
** bours, you cite them to my con-
“‘sistory for toys and trifles, and
** so abuse my judgment seat; you
“are an example of evil, and not
** of goodness unto your flock: you
** meant no good faith at the first,

Mm

Ch, Ixxxi. 14.

530

nook v. rently these inconveniences: the commonwealth doth lose the

Ch. lanai t4 1 efit 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 perfection
and expedition?

Nevertheless be it far from the mind of any reasonable man
to imagine, that in these considerations 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 offices hitherto you quietly enjoy ;
“ we are now given to understand 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 wonderful discommodities which use to

Probable Mode of remedying Abuses ;

* you wittingly took upon you a
** charge which in your own con-
* science you knew was impossible
** for you to discharge: you profane
“the Lord’s most sacred name, in
*¢ praying hypocritically before him :
** you have not since repented you
** of these iniquities, but have con-
‘* tinued obstinate in the same; and
‘therefore inasmuch as you for
“* your part without any good con-
“‘ science have gotten you a place
“in the ministry; I for my part
** moved by a good conscience, and
** for the same my conscience’ sake,
“to discharge my duty to the Lord;
“ have summoned you publicly law-
“fully and rightly to dispossess
“you of that place, and depose
* you from that function, whereof
“though publicly yet unlawfully
“and unrightly you are possessed :
“ neither ought you or any other to
“ think me rash light or unconstant

“in so doing. For I tell you plain
‘that herein I will both say and
“do that thing which the noble
“and wise emperor sometimes both
“said and did in a matter of far
“less weight than this: ‘ Quod
* inconsulto fecimus, consulto re-
** vocamus :’ ‘ ‘That which we unad-
* visedly have done, we advisedly
* revoke and undo.’ And, sir, for
“ your part, it is very necessary
“and expedient for you that we
** depose you indeed, because ‘ tanto
** graviora sunt tua peccata quanto
“‘ diutius infelicem animam deti-
* nent alligatam:’ ‘So much more
** grievous are your sins, by how
** much longer they have your un-
“happy soul fettered with their
* bolts.’ To do this or the like
* were in my simple understanding
“a noble and famous practice of
“a good and godly Bishop.’ ”’]

Example from the Roman Policy of Enfranchisement. 531

« orow by dignities thus heaped together in one: for which
“ cause at this present moved in conscience and tender care
“for the public good we have summoned you hither, to
“ dispossess you of those places and to depose you from those
“rooms, whereof indeed by virtue of our own grant, yet
“against reason, you are possessed. Neither ought you,
“ or any other, to think us rash, light, or unconstant, in so
“ doing. For we tell you plain that herein we will both say
“and do that thing which the noble and wise emperor some-
“ time both said and did in a matter of far less weight than
* this, ‘Quod inconsulto fecimus consulto revocamus,’ ‘ That
“‘ which we unadvisedly 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. |

[15.] As for the last thing which is incident into 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 liberty of the law is turned to
great abuse, some light we may receive from abroad not un-
profitable 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 oppro-
brious 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 prostitutions of their bodies gather
wherewith to redeem liberty ; others obtain the same at the

Mm 2

BOOK V.
Ch, Ixxxi. 15.

532 Practical Appeal to Bishops and Patrons

nook v. hands of their lords by serving them as vile. instruments in
Ch. taxis: those attempts which had been worthy to be revenged with
ten thousand deaths. A learned, judicious, and polite histo-
rian having mentioned so foul disorders giveth his judgment
and censure of them in this sort*®: “Such eye-sores in the
« commonwealth have occasioned many virtuous minds to
“ condemn altogether the custom of granting liberty to any
« bondslave, forasmuch as it seemed a thing absurd that a
« people which commanded 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 incon-
“ yeniences ensuing, but as much as may be I would rather
“ advise that redress were sought through the careful provi-
“ dence of chief rulers and overseers of the commonwealth,
“ by whom a yearly survey being made of all that are manu-
«¢ mised, they which seem worthy might be taken and divided
‘¢ into tribes with other citizens, the rest dispersed into colo-
«¢ nies 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

46 Dionys. Halicar. Rom. Antiq.
lib. iv. c. 24. [Ervyxavoy ris
edevbepias oi pev mreEloTOL mpoika,
dua Kadoxayabiay" .. .driyo Sێ tives
Avrpa kataridévres €& Soiwv kai b1-

, > ~ / > > >
Kai@y epyaci@y avvaxOevra’ GAN ovK

. c “ “A
€v Tois Kad Huds xpdvois ovTw TavT
pd
Exeu’ ... of prev Grd AnoTelas, Kal ToL

,
x@puxias, kal mopveias, kal mavros
GAXov tovnpod xpnpatiodpuevot, Tov-
> ~ nr
TOY @VOUYTAL THY XpNnudTay TH éev=
, Cal
Gepiay, kai edOds ciot Papatar’ of dé,
/ re
guviotopes Kat cuvepyol trois Seamd-
,
Tais ‘yevouevor... pupiov® ad&ia dia-
4
meTpaypevo. Oavatwv’ eis Tovrovs
, > 4 ¢ ‘
pevtot...amoB\erovtes of oAXol
, a
Suc xepaivovar, kat mpoBéBAnvrar rd
7 3 n~
€Oos, as ob mpémov HyeuovKn méret,
kat wayros & E100 ba
avrTos apxew a&vovon Térov, Tot-

ovtous moXitas trovetaOa. ~xor 8 ay
Tis moka Kal adda SiaBdddAew €On,
Ka@s péev id T&V. apxaiwy érivon-
Oévra, kakas & td Tay viv émirpi-
Bopeva. eyd 8€ roy vopoy ovk olopat
rovroy Seiy avaipeiv, pn tt peiCov ex-=
pay TO xow@ St adtov kaxdy. ema-
vopbovoba perros pnt Seiv ra Suva-
Ta... kal padiora pev Tovs TYysnTas
d&doais dy rovrov Tod pépous mpo-
voeiv. ei dé pj, TOUS Umdrous’ .... 08
tovs ka’ €xacrov emavrov édevOepous
yevouevous eferdvovor. vee ire ods
peév Gy evpwow a&iovs THs Toews Gv-
ras, eis pUAas Kataypdreot...Td dé
puapov Kai dxaOaprov didov exBddo~
ow ...evmperes Svoua TO Tpdypare
Oévres, arrotkiay. |

and Persons trusted with controul of Privileges. 533

- the search thereof. And if counsel to that purpose may seem BOOK Vv.

needful, this Church (God be thanked) is not destitute of men
endued with ripe judgment whensoever any such thing shall
be thought necessary. For which end at this present to
| propose any special inventions of mine own might argue
in a man of my place and calling more presumption perhaps
than wit.

f16.] I will therefore leave it entire unto graver considera~

tion, 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 unnecessarily
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 account 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 by them, from whose original interest together with
the selfsame 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 dis-
_ position of such preferments as appertain unto learned men,
- would bethink themselves what it is to respect any thing
- either above or besides merit; considering how hardly the
world taketh it when to men of commendable note and
quality there is so little respect had, or so great unto 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 arp a thorn where a
- vine ought to grow:

Fourthly that honourable personages, and they who by
virtue of any principal office in the commonwealth are enabled

Ch. Ixxxi. 16,

BOOK V.
Ch, Ixxxi. 16.

534 <Admonition to persons enjoying any Dispensation.

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 covetous-
ness 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 imperti-
nent or unnecessary to be borne in mind even when they
grant those degrees of schools, which degrees are not gratia
gratis date, kindnesses bestowed by way of humanity, but
they are gratia gratum facientes, favours which always imply
a testimony given to the Church and commonwealth concern-
ing 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 wherewith it ought to be always given,
and do thereby induce into error such as deem it a thing un-
civil 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 own corporations to feel either one way
or 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 preeminence 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 esti-

Conclusion: Privileges to be reformed not abolished. 535

7 mation and 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 faith-
fully the expectation of the Church herein, unless sincerely
they bend their wits day and night both to sow because they
reap, and to sow as much more abundantly as they reap more
abundantly than other men, whereunto by their very accept-
ance 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 pun-
isheth those colourable and subtle crimes that seldom are
taken within the walk of human justice‘s.

{17.] I therefore conclude that the grounds and maxims of
common right, whereupon ordinations of ministers unable to
_ preach, tolerations of absence from their cures, and the mul-
tiplications 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 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 specialties before-mentioned ; and that the most to
be desired were a voluntary reformation thereof on all hands
which may give passage unto any abuse.

47 [1 Tim. v. 27.] that before set down in the ninth,
48 For the main hypothesis or be read together with this last, the
foundation of these conclusions, let eighty-first paragraph.

BOOK V.
Ch, Ixxxi. 14.

si St ¢
.

ihe Se

Si Sea

APPENDIX TO BOOK V.

No. L.

Fragments of an Answer to the Letter of certain English
7 Protestants}.

[1.] * * * * that God is?, from whose special grace they proceed. Boox v.

Wherefore cursed3, I say, be that man which believeth not as the
Church of England, that without God’s preventing and helping
grace we are nothing at all able to do the works of piety which are
acceptable in his sight. But must the will cease to be itself because
the grace of God helpeth it? That which confoundeth your under-
standing in this point is lack of diligent and distinct consideration,
what the will of man naturally hath ; what it wanteth through sin ;
and what it receiveth by means of grace. Aptness, freely to take
or refuse things set before it, is so essential to the will, that being
deprived of this it looseth the nature, and cannot possibly retain the
definition, of will: “Voluntas4, nisi libera sit, non est voluntas.”
To actuate at any time the possibility of the will in that which is

1 [For an account of these Frag-
ments, published for the first time
in 1836, see the preface to the first
volume. Archdeacon Cotton, to
whom the readers of Hooker are
indebted, not only (in conjunction
with Dr. Elrington) for the discovery
and verification of these and other
fragments, but also for the labour
of preparing them for the press,
states that “they are in the hand
** of an amanuensis, the same who
“copied the ‘ Sermon on Pride,’
‘which they immediately follow,
* the folios being bound up in the
** volume in the exact order in which
** they are here given.”

[The passage in the Christian
Letter, to which Hooker is here
addressing himself, is p. 11, art. 5.
* Of freewill. The Church of Eng-
“land professeth this ground of
* faith, ‘ Without the grace of God
“(which is by Christ) preventing

“us, that we will, and working
“together while we will, we are
** nothing at all able to do the works
* of pietie pleasing and acceptable
** unto God. You to our under-
*‘ standing write clean contrarie :
“namely, ‘there is in the will of
“man naturallie that freedome,
** whereby it is apt to take or refuse
* anie particular object whatsoever,
** being presented unto it.’ ””]

3 [i.e. Anathema. In the same
sense Jackson, Works, iii. 788. ‘His
* curse be upon him who will not
** unfeignedly acknowledge the ab-
** solute infiniteness as well of His
“* power as of His goodness.” vol.xi.
p- 376. Oxf. edit.

[S. Aug. de Lib. Arbitr. iii. 8.
** Voluntas nostra nec voluntas es-
‘* set, nisi esset in nostra potestate.
** Porro quia est in potestate, libera
** est nobis.” t.i. p. 613 F.]

Appendix f.
I.

BOOK V.,
Appendix I.
2.

538 What Man’s Wili naturally has.

evil, we need no help, the will being that way over-inclinable of
itself: but to the contrary so indisposed through a native evil habit4
that if God’s special grace did not aid our imbecility, whatsoever we
do or imagine would be only and continually evil. So that, except
we either give unto man, as the Manichees did, two souls, a good
and a bad ; or make him in all his resolutions to be carried by fatal
necessity ; or by some other new invention abrogate all contingency
in the effect of man’s will ; or deny him by creation to have had the
faculties of reason and will ; or hold him through sin translated out
of the very number of voluntary agents, and changed into some
other creature ; or to be able to define the power of the will, and
not to mingle therein that indifferency before mentioned: how
should we separate from Will natural possibility and aptness to
shun or follow, to choose or reject, any eligible object whatsoever ?
You peradventure think aptness and ableness all one: whereas the
truth is, that had we kept our first ableness, grace should not need ;
and had aptness been also lost, it is not grace that could work in us
more than it doth in brute creatures. Which distinction Hilary
doth well express, saying®, that even as the body is apt to those
operations which yet it exerciseth not unless the help of such causes.
concur as are required to set it on work; the eyes which are apt
to see all things, are unable to behold any, being either dimmed by
some accident in themselves, or else compassed with outward dark-
ness; wéa et animus humanus, nisi per Fidem donum Spiritis
hauserit, habebit quidem naturam Deum intelligendi, sed lwmen
scientiee non habebit. Lib. ii. De Trinit.

(2.| That axiom® of the providence of God in general, whereby he
is said to govern all things amiably according to the several condi-
tion and quality of their natures, must needs especially take place
in ordering the principal actions whereunto the hand of his grace
directeth the souls of men. Prescience, predestination, and grace,
impose not that necessity, by force whereof man in doing good hath
all freedom of choice taken from him. If prescience did impose any

such necessity, seeing prescience

4 Gen. vi. 5.

5 [De Trin. ii. 35. p. 806 D. E. ed.
Bened. “ Ut enim natura humani
“corporis cessantibus officii sui
** causis erit otiosa; nam oculis, nisi
** lumen aut dies sit, nullus minis-
“* terli erit usus; ut aures, nisi vox
*sonusve reddatur, munus suum
“non recognoscent: ut nares, nisi
“odor fragraverit, in quo officio

is not only of good but of evil,

*‘ erunt nescient ; non quod his de-
* ficiet natura per causam, sed usus
* habetur ex causa: ita et animus,
ce &c.”’

6 Wisdom of Sol. viii. 1. Scocxet
Ta mdvta xpynotas. Tho. Aquin.
Summa cont. Gent. iv. 56. ‘ Sicut
* ceteris rebus, ita homini Deus
** providet secundum ejus conditio-
* nem.” |

Will consistent with Presciencée, Predestination, Grace. 589

- then must we grant that Adam himself could not choose but sin;
and that Adam sinned not voluntarily, because that which Adam
did ill was foreseen. If predestination did impose such necessity,
then was there nothing voluntary in Adam’s well-doing neither,
- because what Adam did well was predestinated. Or, if grace did
impose such necessity, how was it possible that Adam should have
_ done otherwise than well, being so furnished? as he was with grace ?
Prescience, as hath been already shewed, extendeth unto all things,
but causeth nothing. Predestination appointeth nothing but only
that which proceedeth from God, as all goodness doth. Predesti-
nation to life, although it be infinitely ancienter than the actual
_ work of creation, doth notwithstanding presuppose the purpose of
creation ; because, in the order of our consideration and knowledge,
it must first have being that shall have happy being. Whatsoever
the purpose of creation therefore doth establish, the same by the

purpose of predestination may be perfected, but in no case disan-
-nulled and taken away. Seeing then that the natural freedom of
man’s will was contained in the purpose of creating man, (for this
freedom is a part of man’s nature ;) grace contained under the pur-
pose of predestinating man may perfect, and doth, but cannot pos-
sibly destroy the liberty of man’s will. That which hath wounded
and overthrown the liberty, wherein man was created, as able to do
good as evil, is only our original sin, which God did not predesti-
nate, but he foresaw it, and predestinated grace to serve as a remedy.
So that predestination in us also which are now sinful, doth not
imply the bestowing of other natures than creation at the first gave,
but the bestowing of gifts, to take away those impediments which
are grown into nature through sin. Freedom of operation we have
by nature, but the ability of virtuous operation by grace ; because
through sin our nature hath taken that disease and weakness,
whereby of itself it inclineth only unto evil. The natural powers
and faculties therefore of man’s mind are through our native cor-
ruption so weakened and of themselves so averse from God, that
without the influence of his special grace they bring forth nothing
in his sight acceptable, no not the blossoms or least buds that tend
to the fruit of eternal life. Which powers and faculties notwith-
standing retain still their natural manner of operation, although
their original perfection be gone, man hath still a reasonable under-
standing, and a will thereby framable to good things, but is not
thereunto now able to frame himself. Therefore God hath ordained

7 [See Bishop Bull’s English Works, iii. 305—360. |

BOOK V.
Apes I,

BOOK v. grace,

540 Error of the Pelagians.

to countervail this our imbecility, and to serve as his hand,

Appendix I. that thereby we, which cannot move ourselves, may be drawn, but

amiably drawn. If the grace of God did enforce men to goodness,
nothing would be more unpleasant unto man than virtue : whereas
contrariwise, there is nothing so full of joy and consolation as the
conscience of well-doing. It delighteth us, that God hath been so
merciful unto us as to draw us unto himself, and ourselves so happy,
as not to be obstinately bent to the way of our own destruction.
Yet what man should ever approach unto God, if his grace did no
otherwise draw our minds than Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians®
imagined? They knew no grace but external only, which grace
inviteth, but draweth not: neither are we by inward grace carried
up into heaven, the force of reason and will being cast into a dead
sleep. Our experience teacheth us, that we never do any thing
well, but with deliberate advice and choice, such as painfully setteth
the powers of our minds on work: which thing I note in regard of
Libertines and Enthusiasts, who err as much on the one hand, by
making man little more than a block, as Pelagians on the other, by
making him almost a god9 in the work of his own salvation.

[3.] In all such sentences as that which St. John’s Revelation hath,
I stand at the door and knock, the Pelagian’s manner of construc-
tion, was, that to knock is the free external offer of God’s grace ; to
open, is the work of natural will by itself, accepting grace and so
procuring or deserving whatsoever followeth. But the Catholic
exposition of that and all such sentences was, that to stand and
knock is indeed a work of outward grace, but fo open cometh not
from man’s will without the inward illumination of grace ; where-
upon afterwards ensueth continual augmentation thereof; not be-
cause the first concurrence of the will itself with grace, much less
without, doth deserve additions after following ; but because it is
the nature of God’s most bountiful disposition to build forward
where his foundation is once laid. The only thing that Catholic
Fathers did blame, was the error of them who ascribed any laudable
motion or virtuous desire tending towards heavenly things to the
naked liberty of man’s will), the grace of God being severed from tt.

8 “ Quid est attrahere, nisi pre-

“ dicare, nisi Scripturarum conso-
* lationibus excitare, increpationibus
** deterrere, desideranda proponere,
* intentare metuenda, judicium com-
** minari, premium polliceri?”’ Faust.
de lib. Arbitr. lib. i. c.17. [in Bibl.
Patr. Paris. 1610. t. iv. p. 822.]

9 [So Lord Bacon; “ deaster qui-
“dam.” Medit. Sacre, de Heres.
Works, x. 329. Lond. 1803. But
see also Davison on Prophecy, p.

478. ed. 1824. |

10 «© Nude libertati arbitrii remota
* Dei gratia.” Prosp. con. Colla.
c. 8. [ad calc. Cassian. ed. Atrebati

Proportions in Grace given. 541

Error of the Libertines.

[4.] In a word therefore, the manner of God’s operation through
grace is, by making heavenly mysteries plain to the dark under-
_ standing of man, and by adding motive efficacy unto that which
there presenteth itself as the object of man’s will. Howbeit, many
things which the Scripture hath concerning grace will remain obscure,
unless we also consider with what proportion it worketh. That
which was spoken to the Apostle St. Paul did not belong unto him
only, but to every communicant of grace. “ My grace,” saith Christ,
“ds sufficient for thee\l.” Grace, excluding possibility to sin, was
neither given unto angels in their first creation, nor to man before
his fall; but reserved for both till God be seen face to face in the
state of glory, which state shall make it then impossible for us to
sin, who now sin often, notwithstanding grace, because the provi-
dence of God bestoweth not in this present life grace so nearly
illustrating goodness, that the will should have no power to decline
from it. Grace is not therefore here given in that measure which
taketh away possibility of sinning, and so effectually moveth the
will, as that it cannot.

[5.] “ Behold,” saith Moses, “I have set before you good and evil,
“ life and death!2.”. Now when men are deceived and choose evil
instead of good, where shall we say the defect resteth? May we
plead in our own defence, that God hath not laid the way of life
plain enough to be found, or that good things are so lapped up
within clouds, that we have no possible means whereby to discern
their goodness? Who seeth not how vain, and unto God himself
how injurious, it were, thus to shift off from ourselves the blame of
sin!3, and to cast it where it hath no place? We cannot therefore

(Arras) 1628, p.889. The passage

*¢ bitrii: ut boni salubresque conatus
objected to in Cassian is, “In his

* nequeant quidem proficere nisi

** omnibus et gratia Dei et libertas
** nostri declaratur arbitrii; et quia
** etiam suis interdum motibus homo
“ad virtutum appetitus possit ex-
** tendi, semper vero a Domino in-
“« digeat adjuvari.”” Prosper answers,
* Et ubi est, quod regulari defini-
** tione premissum est, Non solum
** actuum, verum etiam cogitationum
“ bonarum a Deo esse principium,
** qui et incipit que bona sunt et ex-
** sequitur et consummat in nobis?
** Ecce hic etiamsi bonis ceeptis ne-
*‘cessarium Dei fateris auxilium,
** jpsos tamen laudabiles motus ap-
** petitusque virtutum, remota gratia
* Dei, nude libertati adscribis ar-

* Deus adjuvet; possint tamen,
*‘ etiamsi non a Deo inspirentur,
** incipere.”” |
1l [2 Cor. xii. 9.]
12 | Deut. xxx. 15. ]

13 « Vide rationes quibus pecca-
* tores seducti delinquant,”’ Philo
Jud. p.109. [dra yap, rd Tov Adyou
5 rodro, Kivodat Aidov, hdckortes,
ovuK oikia Wux7s TO cGpa; Sid tri ovv
olkias, @s pn yevoito épeimios, ovK
? 4 > > A x
emipeAnodpeba ; ovK dpOadrpos Kai
@ra kal 6 trav dAdwv xopos aicOnoewy
aorep Wuyxns Sopoddpat kal didror ;
guppaxous ovv kat hidrovs ovk ev io@
Tiunteov €avrois; nOovas dé Kal amo-
Aaveess, Kal Tas Tapa mdvra Tov Biov

BOOK V.
Appendix I,
4 5»

BOOK V.
Appendix I.
6.

542 Calvin distinguishes natural Truth from supernatural.

in defence of evil plead obscwrity of that which is good. or there
is not that good which concerneth us, but it hath evidence enough
whereby to manifest itself, if reason were diligent to search it out}.
So that our ignorance we must impute to our own slought [sic]: we
suffer the gifts of God to rust, and but use our reason as an instru-
ment of iniquity : our wits we bend not towards that which should
do us good: yea oftentimes the cause of our error is, for that we
study to deceive ourselves. Wisdom is easily seen of them that love
her, and found of such as seek after her: she preventeth them, and
strives rather to offer herself, than to answer their desires: whoso
waketh wnto her betimes, shall sustain no tedious labour ; whoso
watcheth for her, shall be soon without care. Sap. vi. 12.

[6.] Is our reason then by diligence, although unassisted with God’s
grace, yet able of itself to find out whatsoever doth concern our
good? Some things there are concerning our good, and yet known
even amongst them to whom the saving grace of God is not
known!5, But no saving knowledge possible, without the sanctify-
ing spirit of God. You will have me tell you which way you should
perceive by my writings that thus I think!¢: and I fear, that if I
shew you the way you will not follow it: read them with the same
mind you read Mr. Calvin’s writings, bear yourself as unpartial in
the one as in the other: imagine him to speak that which I do:
lay aside your unindifferent mind, change but your spectacles, and
I assure myself that all will be clearly true: if he make difference,

répipets, Tois TeOve@ow 7) Tois pnde
yevopevors TO Tapdmay GAN’ ovxt Tots
Caow n piows eOnutovpyet;.. .TOLOU-
Tovi tiva OOALXov amrounkuvaytes Adyo,
wikay Tovs ovk elwOdras coduirrevety
édoéav'| “ Causa cur tales rationes
** prevalent non est obscuritas sed
‘** imbecilitas nature.” ib. [airia de
THS ViKIS, OVK |) TOY TEpLyeyernLEvaV
iaxvds, GAN 7H Tept TavTa TeV avTi-
madev acbéve.a.| Ib. “ Causa imbe-
** cilitatis imperitia,” p.143. [ap-
porre. S€ rovtTos maow, apxopuevots,
mpokdmrovot, TeTeAermpevois, Brody
aidoveikas, kal p17) TO TOV CopioeTav
emarrodvecOat Tohep@’...i yap eis
tovrov adigovtar tov ayava, mpos
epmetpotrokewous idi@ra, mavTedas
adooovra.| ‘ Imperitie segnitia:
** offert n. sese sapientia volentibus
“eam acquirere: causa est segnitice
* originalis corruptela: corruptele
*‘ hujus medicina gratia.”
14 [See E. P. i. vii. 7.]

15 «*Vultis Deum ex anime ipsius
“ testimonio comprobemus, que li-
** cet carcere corporis pressa, licet
** institutionibus primis [ pravis ] cir-
** cumscripta, licet libidinibus et
** concupiscentiis evigorata, licet fal-
“sis diis exancillata, cum tamen
** resipiscit, ut ex crapula, ut ex
** somno, ut ex aliqua valetudine, et
* sanitatem suam patitur, et Deum
“ &c. [et sanitatem suam patitur, et
** Deum nominat.””] ‘Tertull. cont.
Gent. [c. 17. Compare the treatise
De Testimonio Anime. |

16 [See Chr. Letter, p. 11. “ Shew
“us....how your positions agree
* with our church and the Scrip-
tures. If you say you understand
** reason and will helped by the grace
** of God, then tell us how we may
*< perceive it by your writing, which
** putteth difference betwixt naturall
** and supernaturall truth and laws.”

Natural and supernatural Laws before the Fall. 543

as all men do, which have in them his dexterity of judgment, be-
- tween natural and supernatural truth and laws17, I know that
against him you will never thereupon infer, that he holdeth not the
grace of God necessary unto the search of both, so far forth as they
serve to our soul’s everlasting good.

[7.| To find out supernatural laws, there is no natural way, because
they have not their foundation or ground in the course of nature.
Such was that law before Adam’s fall, which required abstinence
from the tree of knowledge touching good and evil. For by his
reason he could not have found out this law, inasmuch as the only
commandment of God did make it necessary, and not the necessity
thereof procure it to be commanded, as in natural laws it doth.
Of like nature are the mysteries of our redemption through the
blood of Jesus Christ, which presupposeth the fall of Adam, and
was in that respect instituted, nor would ever have been imagined
by any wit of man or angel’*, had not God himself revealed the same

_ toboth. But concerning such laws and truths as have their ground
in the course of nature, and are therefore termed by all men laws
of nature, [they ?] were necessary for Adam although he had kept,
and are for us which have lost, the state of that first perfection, neces-
sary also even in themselves. These truths and laws our first parents
were created able perfectly both to have known and kept ; which we
can now neither fully attain without the grace of God assisting us in
the search, nor at all observe availably to our salvation, except in the
exercise thereof, both grace do aid, and mercy pardon our manifold
imperfections. I cannot help it, good sir, if you in your angry mood
will spurn at all these things, and reject them either as subtile, or
as frivolous and idle matter. My meaning in them is sincere, and
I thought them pertinent: to you it appeareth they seem otherwise :
yet, till you be able to prove them erroneous, other defects may be for-
given if it please you: for you must think that yourself in all things
cannot write to every man’s contentment, though you write well.

(8.] But in the closing up of all, if it is your pleasure that I should
declare, how this discourse may stand with St. Paul’s meaning,
where he saith that the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God,
because it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be9:
That which here you call a discourse9, is but two poor sentences?! ;
17 [See his Institutions, i. 3.] And p.12. “ Shew us the true mean-
18 tSce Ephes. iii.10; 1 Pet.i.12.] “ ing of St. Paul, and how he fitteth
19 Rom. viii. 7. ** your discourse in this place, namel
«0 [Ch. Letter, p.11. ‘“‘May we “ when he saith, Rom. viii. 7, 8c.”

“not suspect that your whole dis- 21 [See E. P. i. vii. 6. “ There is
* course is subtle and cunning?” “ in the will of man naturally that

BOOK V.
Appendix I.
4, 8.

544 Twofold Need of Grace, since the Fall.

BooK v. the one, shewing the nature of will in itself, without consideration

Appendix had either of sin or of God’s grace; the other, the evidence of

————~ goodness in itself, and the sluggishness of man’s reason to search
it out. We have therefore a will, the nature whereof is apt and
capable as well to receive the good as the evil ; but sin is fraudulent,
and beguileth us with evil under the shew of good : sloth breeding
carelessness, and our original corruption sloth in the power of
reason, which should discern between the one and the other. On
the contrary side let precedent grace be a spur to quicken reason,
and grace subsequent, the hand to give it; then shall good things
appear as they are, and the will, as it ought, incline towards them.
The first grace shall put in us good desires, and the second shall
bring them to good effect?2._ Out of which principles, if I declare
the reason of that which the Apostle saith, and shall deduct from
thence his words by way of conclusion, your barely objected and no
way manifested surmises of contradiction, thereunto will, I hope,
give place.

[9.| That which moveth man’s will, is the object or thing desired.
That which causeth it to be desired, is either true or apparent good-
ness: the goodness of things desired is either manifest by sense,
gathered by reason, or known by faith. Many things good to the
judgment of sense, are in the eye of right reason abhorred as evil, in
which case the voice of reason is the voice of God. So that they,
who, being destitute of that spirit which should certify and give
reason, follow the conduct of sensual direction, termed the wisdom —
of the flesh, must needs thereby fall into actions of plain hostility
against God. Such wisdom neither is, nor can be, subject to his
law, because perpetually the one condemneth what the other doth
allow, according to that in the Book of Wisdom23, We fools thought
the life of the just madness. Again, as the wisdom of the flesh,
man’s corrupt understanding and will not enlightened nor reformed
by God’s spirit, is opposite and cannot submit itself unto his law,
but followeth the judgment of sensuality, contrary to that which —
reason might learn by the light of the natural law of God: so in
matters above the reach of reason, and beyond the compass of —
nature, where only faith is to judge by God’s revealed law what is —
right or good, the wisdom of the flesh, severed and divided from —

“ freedom, whereby it is apt to take ‘‘ hath evidence enough for itself, if —
“or refuse any particular object ‘ reason were diligent to search it
*“ whatsoever being presented unto “out.”

it.” And vii. 7. “Thereis notthat 22 [See Collect for Easter Day.]
** good which concerneth us, but it 23 LY. 4: ]

Freewill how reconcilable with Grace. 545

_ that spirit which converteth man’s heart to the liking of God’s truth,
- must needs be here as formal adversaries to him, and as far from
subjection to his law as before. Yet in these cases not only the
carnal and more brutish sort of men, but the wittiest, the greatest
in account for secular and worldly wisdom, Scribes, Philosophers,
profound disputers, are the chiefest in opposition against God : such
in the primitive Church were Julian, Lucian, Porphyry, Sym-
machus2, and other of the like note, by whom both the natural law
of God was disobeyed, and the mysteries of supernatural truth derided.

I conclude therefore, the natural aptness of man’s will to take or
refuse things presented before it, and the evidence which good things
have for themselves, if reason were diligent to search it out, may
be soundly and safely taught without contradiction to any syllable
in that confession of the Church, or in those sentences of holy
Scripture by you alleged, concerning the actual disability of reason
and will, through sin, whereas God’s especial grace faileth.

[10.] And lest ignorance what I mean by the name of grace should
put into your head some new suspicion, know that I do understand
grace so as all the ancient Fathers did in their writings against
Pelagius. For whereas the grace of Almighty God” signifieth either
his undeserved love and favour ; or his offered means of outward

23 [See especially among his Epi-
stles, lib. x. 54, the memorial ad-
dressed to Theodosius and Valenti-
naan for the restoration of the altar
of Victory. It may be read in St.
Ambrose’s works, t. ii. 828. ed.
ees) and St. Ambrose’s answer,

. 833. |
4 oP Vide Thomam, I, 2. qu. 109,
art.2. “ De Gratia. Deus respectu
*“boni actus eliciendi a_ libero
*‘arbitrio potest infundere triplex
* auxilium. 1, Auxilium universale
*sicut causa prima influit in se-
** cundam, qui influxus modificatur
** in secunda causa secundum ma-
“teriam cause secunde. Aliter
enim recipitur in causa naturali,
*‘ aliter in causa libera. In causa
** naturali sic influit, quod coope-
“‘ratur ei determinate ad unum:
* cause m. libere cooperatur ad
** opposita secundum quod ea sese
** determinat; quare hoc auxilium
“est necessarium in omni actu li-
** beri arbitrii tam bono quam malo.
** 2, Auxilium speciale influit ad ac-
“tum moraliter bonum, et est ne-

HOOKER, VOL. II.

Pam A Rts

** cessarium gp pe corrupt na-
** turee, propter declinationem cau-
** satam in viribus anime, ex culpa
‘* originali, non autem erat necessa-
“rium in natura integra, propter
* tranquillitatem quz erat in viri-
“bus anime, ex justitia originali,
** unde tempore illo sufficiebat uni-
** versale auxilium ad eliciendos bo-
“nos actus moraliter: Potentiz
‘* motive actus in sano et infirmo.
** 3, Auxilium speciale supernaturale
** necessarium est ad eliciendum me-
* ritorlum et condignum feelicitate,
* vel potius si fuse loqui volumus,
** ad actum Deo acceptabilem et gra-
** tiosum inter quos principalis actus
*‘ est credere, ps autem non per
“se tanquam qualitas, sed ratione
** objecti Christi. s. et ipsa redditur
*‘ acceptabilis, et reddit alios ac-
“tus omnes. Solus enim Christ-
“us meruit felicitatem quam nos
“in ipso obtinemus ex gratuito
“ favore Dei, non propter operum
*‘ dignitatem. Remunerantur qui-
“dem opera, sed gratiose non
** propter ipsorum dignitatem. Cum

Nn

Pem BE ae eee serie 0hlCe ee eS CUCU eee

BOOK V.
Appendix I,

[10.]

BOOK V.
Appendix I.

{11.]

546 Debate between St. Augustine and the French Bishops.

instruction and doctrine ; or thirdly, that grace which worketh in-
wardly in men’s hearts ; the scholars of Pelagius denying original
sin did likewise teach at the first, that in all men there is by nature
ability to work out their own salvation. And although their profes-
sion soon after was, that without the grace of God, men can neither
begin, proceed, nor continue in any good thing available unto eternal
life, yet it was perceived that by grace they only meant those ex-
ternal incitements unto faith and godliness, which the Law, the
Prophets, the Ministers, the works of God do offer ; that is to say
the second grace, whereby being provoked and stirred up, it is, as
they supposed, in our own power to assent to seek after God, and
to labour for that, which then in regard of such our willingness, God
willingly doth bestow, so that partly holpen by his grace, but
principally through the very defect [“ desert” or “effect” ?] of our
own travel we obtain life.

[11.] Touching natural sufficiency without grace, Pelagius generally
was withstood, and the necessity of that third kind of grace which
moved the heart inwardly, they all maintained against Pelagius.
Only in this, there were a number of the French especially, who
went not so far, as to think with St. Augustine?° that God would
bestow his grace upon any, which did not first procure and obtain it

by labour proceeding from that natural ability which yet remaineth —

in all men.
French churches thought thereof, declareth?6 their steadfast belief

Hilary therefore, informing St. Augustine what the ©

to have been, that in Adam all men were utterly lost, and that to

** sint enim in nobis duo principia
* agendi, Dei gratia et natura nos-
“ tra, sapiunt actus nostri etiam op-
*¢ timi utrumque principium.” [This
note contains the substance, but not
the words, of the place in Aquinas. |

25 «« Ex voluntate perversa facta
** est libido, et dum servitur libidini
* facta est consuetudo, et dum con-
“ suetudini non resistitur facta est
** necessitas.” August. Confess.
[viii. 5.] * Quomodo habitus boni
et mali necessitant voluntatem.”

26 [Inter Ep. Aug. t. ii. p. 825.
** Consentiunt omnem hominem in
“ Adam periisse, nec inde quenquam
“‘ posse proprio arbitrio liberari.
** Sed id conveniens asserunt veri-
“ tati, vel congruum predicationi,
* ut cum prostratis et nunquam suis
“viribus surrecturis annunciatur
* obtinende salutis occasio; eo me-

* rito quo voluerint et crediderint, —
“a suo morbo se posse sanari, et —

*ipsius fidel augmentum et totius
‘ sanitatis suze consequantur effec-
“Pema: 30 9d Quod enim dicitur,

** € Crede et salvus eris,’ unum ho- ©
** rum exigi asserunt, aliud offerri; —
“ut propter id quod exigitur, si

* yedditum fuerit, id quod offertur ©
** deinceps tribuatur. ..Quod autem ~

;
{

* dicit sanctitas tua, neminem per- —
“* severare, nisi perseverandi virtute —
** nercepta; hactenus accipiunt, ut —

es nati datur, inerti licet, preece- —
g Epes arbitrio tri-

enti tamen
* buatur: quod ad hoc tantum li-
“‘ berum asserunt, ut velit vel nolit —
“admittere medicinam. Ceterum
“et ipsi abominari se et damnare
** testantur, si quis quidquam virium ~
in aliquo remansisse, quo ad sani-
“ tatem progredi possit existimet.’”]’

4

Pelagian Abuse of’ the Term Grace. 547

F deliver them which never could have risen by their own power the
— way of obtaining life is offered : that they which desire health, and
: believe that they may be ewred, do thereby obtain augmentation of
Juith, and the whole effect of safety. For in that it is said, “believe
“ and live,” the one of these is required at our hands, and the other
80 offered, that in liew of our willingness, if we perform what God
_ requireth, that which He offereth is afterwards bestowed. That free-
_ dom of will we have so far only, as thereby to be able without grace
to accept the medicine which God doth offer. But, saith he, we wor-
__ thily abhor and condemn them which think that in any man there is
remaining any spark of ability to proceed but the least step JSurther
_ than this, to the recovery of health.
____[12.] Now although they did well maintain that we cannot finish
our salvation without the assistance of inward grace ; yet because
_ they held that of ourselves by assenting to grace externally first
_ offered, we may begin and thereby obtain the grace which perfecteth
our raw and unsufficient beginnings, the French were herein as
_ Demipelagians by St. Augustine, Prosper, Fulgentius, and sundry
others gainsayed, at length also condemned by the Arausican Coun-
cil 7, as the Council of Milevis * had before determined against
that first opinion of Pelagius which the French themselves did con-
demn. So that the whole question of grace being grown amongst
. the ancient unto this issue, whether man may without God seek God,
and without grace either desire or accept grace first offered, the con-
clusion of the catholic part was No, and therefore in all their writings,
_ the point still urged is grace, both working inwardly, and preventing
the very first desires, or motions of man to goodness. Which unless
we every where diligently mark, there is no man but may be abused
by the words whereby Pelagians and Demipelagians seem to magnify
the grace of God, the one meaning only external grace, the other i-
ternal, but only to perfect that which our own good desires without
grace have begun. The diviner sort of the heathens themselves saw,
that their own more eminent perfections in knowledge, wisdom,
valour, and other the like qualities, for which sundry of them were
had in singular admiration, did grow from more than the ordinary

27 [Namely, the second council of
Orange, held A.D. 529, at which
- Ceesarius of Arles presided: the
occasion of it being the work of
- Faustus Regiensis, quoted above,

p. 686. See Concil. iv. 1666. ]

28 [The second council of Milevis
in Numidia, at which St. Augustin

assisted, who appears to have drawn
up the canons there enacted: the
eight first relate to the Pelagian
controversy, and are armed with an

anathema; which is not the case.
with those of Orange, mentioned .

above. Cone. ii. 1537. A. D. 416.]

Nn 2

BOOK vy,
Appendix f,
[12.]

BOOK V.
Appendix I.
[13.]

548 Three Senses of the word Grace. Sanetifying Grace,

influence which that supreme cause instilleth into things beneath.
No mervaile then in the school of Christ to hear from the mouth of
a principal instructor, “not I, but the grace of God which is with
“me.” Now amongst the heathens, which had no books whereby
to know God besides the volumes of heaven and earth, that small
vital odor which (as Prosper noteth 28) breathed upon them to the

- end they might live, became notwithstanding the odor of death : so

Fifth Arti-
cle 29.

that even by those visible testimonies, it might be plainly perceived,
how the letter killeth where the Spirit quickeneth not.

But of heathens what should we speak, sith the first grace saveth
not the Church itself by virtue of the second without the third.
Saving grace is the gift of the Holy Ghost, which lighteneth in-
wardly the minds, and inflameth inwardly the hearts of men, work-
ing in them that knowledge, approbation, and love of things divine,
the fruit whereof is eternal life. In grace there is nothing of so
great difficulty as to define after what manner and measure it
worketh.

[13.] Thus of the three kinds of grace ; the grace whereby God doth
incline towards man, the grace of outward instruction, and the grace

of inward sanctification, which two work man’s inclination towards —

God, as the first is the well-spring of all good, and the second the
instrument thereof to our good, so that which giveth effect to both

in us, who have no cause at all to think ourselves worthy of either, -

is the gracious and blessed gift of his Holy Spirit. This is that
baptism with heavenly fire, which both illuminateth and enflameth.
This worketh in man that knowledge of God, and that love unto

things divine, whereupon our eternal felicity ensueth. This is the |

grace which God 20 hath given to restrain insatiable desires, to beat

down those lusts, which can in no sort moderate themselves, to

28 [De Voc. Gent. ii. 4. in Bibl. “ spiritus autem vivificaret.

Patr. Colon. t. v. part. 3, p. 175.
“ Celum ergo cunctaque celestia,
“mare et terra, omniaque que in
* eis sunt, consono speciei suc or-
*“ dinationisque concentu protesta-~
*‘bantur gloriam Dei, et preedica-
“tione perpetua majestatem sui
*‘loquebantur auctoris; et tamen
“ maximus numerus hominum, qui
“ vias voluntatis suze ambulare per-
** missus est, non intellexit, nec se-
“ cutus hanc legem est, et odor vite,
“* qui spirabat ad vitam, factus est ei
*“‘ odor mortis ad mortem; ut etiam
“in illis visibilibus testimoniis dis-
*“ceretur, quod litera occideret,

** ergo in Israel per constitutionem

** legis et prophetica eloquia gere- —
** batur, hoc in universis nationi- —
* bus totius creature testimonia et —

*‘ bonitatis Dei miracula semper
** egerunt.”” |

29 [This is apparently a reference —

to the Christian Letter, p. aa
30 Tertull. [N aati de ‘Trini-
tate, [c. 29. ‘* Hic est qui inexple-

“* biles cupiditates coercet, immode- —

** yatas libidines frangit, illicitos ar-

** dores extinguit, flagrantes impetus —

** vincit, ebrietates rejicit, avaritias
** repellit, luxuriosas comessationes
* fugit; caritates nectit, affectiones

Quod ©

4
7

how united with human Exertions. 549

quench lawless fervours, to vanquish headstrong and unruly appe-
tites, to cut off excess, to withstand avarice, to avoid riot, to join
love, to strengthen the bonds of mutual affection, to banish sects,
to make manifest the rule of truth, to silence heretics, to disgorge
miscreants, and inviolably to observe the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
“This grace” (saith Hilary*') “remaineth with us till the world’s
“end, it is the stay of our expectation, the things that are done bye
“the gifts thereof are a pledge of our hope to come. This grace
“ therefore we must desire, procure, and for ever entertain, with
“ belief and observation of God’s laws.” For let the Spirit be never
so prompt, if labour and exercise slacken, we fail. The fruits of the
Spirit do not follow men, as the shadow doth the body, of their own
accord. If the grace of sanctification did so work, what should the
grace of exhortation need ? It were even as superfluous and vain to
stir men up unto good, as to request them when they walk abroad
not to lose their shadows. Grace is not given us to abandon labour,
but labour required lest our sluggishness should make the grace of
God unprofitable. Shall we betake ourselves to our ease, and in
that sort refer salvation to God’s grace, as if we had nothing to do
with it, because without it we can do nothing? Pelagius urged
labour for the attainment of eternal life without necessity of God’s
grace: if we teach grace without necessity of man’s labour, we use
one error as a nail to drive out another. David, to shew that grace
is needful, maketh his prayer unto God, saying, “*? Set thou, O
“ Lord, a watch before the door of my lips :” and to teach how
needful our travail is to that end, he elsewhere useth exhortation,
« 33 Refrain thou thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak
“no guile.” Solomon respecting the use of our labour giveth
counsel, “3+ Keep thy heart with all the custody and care that may
“be.” The Apostle, having an eye unto necessity of grace,
prayeth, “*5The Lord keep your hearts and understandings in
“ Christ Jesus.”

Aw Kai Tov eikaiov Tay To\AGy ovk arrobeEdpeOa Adyov, of xpyvai hace

tiv mpdvouay Kal dxdvras nas emt tiv dperny cyew, Td yap pOcipas Pvow ovk«

** constringit, sectas repellit, regu-
“lam veritatis expedit, hzereticos
“< revincit, improbos foras exspuit,
“ evangelia custodit.” ad calc. Tert.
p. 742. ed. Pamel. |

31 Hilar. de Trin. lib. 2°. [in fine
p. 807. “ Hoc usque in consumma-
“‘tionem seculi nobiscum, hoe ex-
** spectationis nostre solatium, hoc

‘in donorum operationibus futuree
** spei pignus est, hoc mentium lu-

‘men, hic splendor animorum est.-

“« Hic ergo Spiritus Sanctus expe-
*‘tendus est, promerendus est, et
*‘ deinceps preeceptorum fide atque
* observatione retinendus.”’ |
32 Ps. cxli. 33 Ps. xxxiv. 13.
34 Prov. iv. 35 Philipp. iv.

BOOK V.
Appendix I,
[13.]

BOOK V.
Appendix I.
[14.]

550 Sacraments: The Fathers’ wide use of the Term.

»” Vg £6 « , a ce , 4 oe 3
€oTt mpovo.as oUEeV @S Tmpovota TS €KaOTOV pucews O@OTLK?), T@V avuTO-

n Os av i ovoei, ai trav GAov Kal Tév Kab ExacTov oikeiws BA@
KWIT@V OS AVTOKUTT@Y TpoVoEl, i

Kal éxd xa’ cov » Tv mpovoovpéevay vows emidéxerar Tas THs OAns Kal
Kal EKAOT®, u) P xX Frys On}

ravrodarns mpovoias éxdidopévas avaddyws éxdor@ mpovontixds ayaOdrnyras.
Dionys. pag. 338. [Paris. 1562.]

In sum, the grace of God hath abundantly sufficient for all. We
sare by it that we are, and at the length by it we shall be that we
would. What we have, and what we shall have, is the fruit of his
goodness, and not a thing which we can claim by right or title of our
own worth. All that we can do to him cometh far behind the sum
of that we owe; all we have from him is mere bounty. And seeing
all that we of ourselves can do, is not only nothing, but naught ; let
Him alone have the glory, by whose only grace, we have our whole
ability and power of well-doing.

Natura et Numerus Sacramentorwm.

[z4.] A Sacrament is generally in true religion every admirable
thing which divine authority hath taught God’s Church, either to be-
lieve or observe, as comprehending somewhat not otherwiseunderstood
than by faith: only*> in a word Sacraments are God’s secrets, dis-
covered to none but his own people. The name being used for the
most part with the ancient thus at large, doth notwithstanding

35 [The sense seems to shew that
the Dublin MS. has here a wrong
stop ; and that it should stand “ by
* faith only: in a word”.

36 Tertull. lib. v. contra Marc.
[c.i. “Hee figurarum sacramenta :”’
(he is speaking of certain historical
allegories which he finds in the Old
Testament :) and, c. iv. he says of
the history of Hagar, “ allegoriz
“habere sacramentum.”| August.
cont. advers. Legis et Proph. lib. i.
[c. 24. (speaking of S. John vi. 54,
56,) “ verbis sacramento congruis
*‘ pascens animam credentem.”’| et
de Gen. ad lit. lib. viii. cap. 4, et 5.
[‘* Erat in lignis ceteris alimentum,
* in illo autem sacramentum.” “ Po-

** tuisse autem per lignum, i.e. per

** corpoream creaturam tanquam sa-
“ cramento quodam significari sap1-
*‘entiam in paradiso corporali, ille
* credendum non existimat, qui vel
** tam multa in scripturis rerum spi-
“ ritalium corporalia sacramenta non

** videt, vel hominem primum cum
* ejusmodi aliquo sacramento vivere
“non debuisse contendit,” &c.]
Contra Faust. lib. xix. c. 14. [‘ An-
** tiqui justi, qui sacramentis illis in-
** telligebant venturam preenuntiari
“ revelationem fidei.””] De peccat.
merit. et remiss. lib. ii. c. 26.
[‘* Non unius modi est sanctificatio :
“nam et catechumenos secundum
“ quendam modum suum per sig-
‘num Christi et orationem manus
** jmpositionis puto sanctificari; et
* quod accipiunt, quamvis non sit
** corpus Christi, sanctum, est ta-
** men, et sanctius quam cibi quibus
“alimur, quoniam sacramentum
** est.”,] De Symb. ad Catech. lib.
iv.c.1. [‘ Omnia sacramenta que
** acta sunt et aguntur in ‘ vobis per
** ministerium servorum Dei, exor-
** cismis, orationibus, canticis spiri-
*‘talibus, insufflationibus, cilicio,
* inclinatione cervicum, humilitate
** pedum,”’ &c. ]

+.

Essentials of a Christian Sacrament.

with some restraint of signification oftentimes in their writings like- jpook v.

551

wise note those visible signs only which in the exercise of religion
God requireth every man to receive, as tokens of that saving grace
which himself thereby bestoweth. It is therefore required to the
nature of a sacrament in this sense, First, that it be a perpetual duty
in religion; and of a Christian Sacrament, that it be proper to

Christian Religion :

Secondly, that Christ be author thereof :

Thirdly, that all men be bound to receive it : Fourthly, that it have
a promise from God for the effect of some saving grace to be
thereby wrought in the person of the receiver: Fifthly, that there
be in it a visible sign, both betokening the grace wrought, and the
death of our Saviour Christ, to us the fountain of all grace: Lastly,
that all these things concerning it be apparent in holy Scripture,
because they are supernatural truths which cannot otherwise be

demonstrated.

_[15.] True definitions are gathered by that which men consider in
things particular ; a man defined by that which is seen to be in all
men, together with that which only men, and no other have in them.
Wherefore because in Baptism and in the Hucharist only, as much as
hath been before declared is most manifest, what should forbid us to
make the name of a Sacrament, as St. Augustine®’ doth, by way of
special excellency proper and peculiar to these two, when*® the
Fathers note the paucity of 9 Christian in comparison of Jewish Sa-
eraments, when they teach that our*® Sacraments have flowed out of
the side of Christ, from whence only water and blood issued, which
are resembled and represented, the one in Baptism, the other in the
Supper of our Lord, it should seem by this they confined their opinion
touching the number of holy sacraments, with stricter limits some-
time than the Church of Rome liketh. Which therefore hath broken

87 August. de Doctr. Christ. lib.
iii. c. 9. [‘* Posteaquam resurrec-
*‘tione Domini nostri manifestissi-
“mum indicium nostre libertatis
* jlluxit, nec eorum quidem signo-
** rum, qu jam intelligimus, opera-
**tione gravi onerati sumus; sed
** quedam pauca pro multis, eadem-
** que factu facillima, et intellectu
** augustissima, et observatione cas-
*‘ tissima ipse Dominus et aposto-
*lica tradidit disciplina; sicut est
** Baptismi sacramentum, et celebra-
** tio corporis et sanguinis Domini.”’ |

88 [two ? When].

39 August. Epist. 118. [al. 54. t. ii.
124. “'Tenere te volo, quod est hujus

*‘ disputationis caput, Dominum
“nostrum Jesum Christum, sicut
“ipse in Evangelio loquitur, leni
** jugo suo nos subdidisse et sarcinz
“Jevi: unde sacramentis numero
*‘ paucissimis, observatione facilli-
“* mis, significatione preestantissimis,
** societatem novi populi colligavit,
** sicut est Baptismus Trinitatis no-
*‘ mine consecratus, communicatio
“corporis et sanguinis ipsius, et si
*‘ quid aliud in Scripturis canonicis
** commendatur.””]

40 August. in Evangel. Johan.
Tract.15. [c. 8. “ De latere in cruce.
‘** pendentis lancea percusso sacra
* menta Ecclesie profluxerunt.’’ |

BOOK V.
Appendix 5
{16.]

552 Subtilty of the Romish Doctrine of Sacraments.

down those narrow pales, and made the territory of Sacraments more
ample by extending the same to divers exercises moe, wherein it is
not possible to prove, either that force or that necessity which in the
other two is evident of itself. Yet would we not stand with them
about the use of words howsoever, were it not, that by labouring to
bring all unto one measure, they attribute to divers rites and cere-
monies surely more than the truth can bear, by means whereof there
are brought into Christian faith many intricate strifes and questions
wherewith the better days of the Church were never troubled. For
having made so many sacraments, it is strange to see how extremely
they toil, and what pains they take, to frame every supposed Sacra-
ment unto the general rules, which they give concerning all : wherein
their dexterity and edge of wit is many times exceeding fine, but in
this argument still accompanied with this error, that they speak with-
out book, they tie not their understanding to that which they evi-
dently learn from God, but what he delivereth in terms, framable
unto different expositions, they so construe as themselves list, they

- wrest antiquity to the bolstering of their own construction and sen-

Virtus Sa-

cramenti et

Dei Gratia.

tence, what things their wits can imagine possible, and draw out any
thing wherewith to colour them, the same they stiffly maintain as
true : they urge them as doctrines of Christian belief ; if any of their
own vary from them, they [have ?] plaisters in a readiness to salve
the matter ; but for us to make question or doubt thereof, is always
held a damnable heresy. Such is their partial affection, even in

matters of faith, where nothing but the fear of God and conscience —

ought to sway.

[16.] Touching Sacraments, whether many or few in number, their
doctrine is, that owrs both signify and cause grace : but what grace,
and in what manner? By grace we always understand, as the word
of God teacheth, first, his favour and undeserved mercy towards us :
secondly, the bestowing of his Holy Spirit which inwardly worketh :
thirdly, the effects of that Spirit whatsoever, but especially saving
virtues, such as are faith, charity, and hope ; lastly, the free and full
remission of all our sins. This is the grace which Sacraments yield,
and whereby we are all justified. To be justified, is to be made
righteous. Because therefore, righteousness doth imply first re-
mission of sins ; and secondly a sanctified life, the name is sometime
applied severally to the former, sometimes jointly it comprehendeth
both. The general cause which hath procured our remission of sins
is the blood of Christ, therefore in his blood we are justified, that is
to say cleared and acquitted from all sin. The condition required in
us for our personal qualification hereunto is faith. Sin, both original

Justification by Faith agrees with Sacramental Grace. 553

and actwal, committed before belief in the promise of salvation through
Jesus Christ, is through the mere mercy of God taken away from
them which believe, justified they are, and that not in reward of their
good, but through the pardon of their evil works. For albeit they
have disobeyed God, yet our Saviour’s death and obedience performed
in their behalf doth redound to them, by believing it they make the
benefit thereof to become their own. So that this only thing is im-
puted unto them for righteousness, because to remission of sins there
is nothing else required. Remission of sins is grace, because it is
God’s own free gift ; faith, which qualifieth our minds to receive it
is also grace, because it is an effect of his gracious Spirit in us ; we
are therefore justified by faith without works, by grace without merit.
Neither is it, as Bellarmine*! imagineth, a thing impossible, that we
should attribute any justifying grace to Sacraments, except we first

: renounce the doctrine of justification by faith only. To the impu-

tation of Christ’s death for remission of sins, we teach faith alone

necessary: wherein it is not our meaning, to separate thereby faith

from any other quality or duty, which God requireth to be matched
therewith, but from faith to seclude in justification the fellowship of
worth through precedent works as the Apostle St. Pawl doth.

For in Children God exacteth but baptism unto remission of sin :

in converts from infidelity, both faith and penitency before baptism :

and for remission of sins actual after baptism, penitency in all men
as well as faith. Nor doth any faith justify, but that wherewith there
is joined both hope and love. Yet justified we are by faith alone,
because there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither martyr nor sainé, no
man whose works in whole or in part clear can make him righteous
in God’s sight. Now between the grace of this first justification, and
the glory of the world to come, whereof we are not capable, unless
the rest of our lives be qualified with the righteousness of a second
justification consisting in good works, therefore as St. Pawl doth dis-
pute for faith without works to the first, so St. James to the second
justification is urgent for works with faith. To be justified so far as

remission of sins, it sufficeth if we believe what another hath wrought

for us: but whosoever will see God face to face, let him shew his
faith by his works, demonstrate his first justification by a second as
Abraham did : for in this verse Abraham was justified (that is to say,
his life was sanctified) by works.

[17.] The Schoolmen which follow Zhomas, do not only comprise
in the name of justifying grace, the favour of God, his Spirit and [an ?]

41 [De Justificatione, lib. i. 16.]

BOOK V.
Appendix I,
{14.]

BOOK V.
Appendix I.
{18.]

Modus quo
Sacra-
menta con-
ferunt
Gratiam.

554 Peter Lombard’s Notion of Sacramental Grace:

effect of that favour, and saving virtues the effects of his Spirit, but
over and besides these three a fourth kind of formal habit or inherent
quality which maketh the person of man acceptable, perfecteth the
substance of his mind, and causeth the virtuous actions thereof to be
meritorious. This grace they will have to be the principal effects of
Sacraments, a grace which neither Christ nor any Apostle of Christ
did ever mention. The Fathers have it not in their writings, although
they often speak of Sacraments and of the grace we receive by them.
Yea they which have found it out are as doubtful as any other what
name and nature they should give unto it : besides inasmuch as what-
soever doth belong to our spiritual perfection on earth, the same is
complete in that grace which was first mentioned ; their new scholas-
tical invention must needs be vain and unnecessary. Let it there-
fore suffice us to receive Sacraments as sure pledges of God’s favour,
signs infallible, that the hand of his saying mercy doth thereby reach
forth itself towards us, sending the influence of his Spirit into men’s
hearts, which maketh them like to a rich soil, fertile with all kind of
heavenly virtues, purgeth, justifieth, restoreth the very dead unto
life, yea raiseth even from the bottomless pit to place in thrones of
everlasting joy.

[18.] They pretend that to Sacraments we ascribe no efficacy, but
make them bare signs of instruction or admonition ; which is utterly
false. For Sacraments with us are signs effectual : they are the instru-
ments of God, whereby to bestow grace ; howbeit grace not proceed-
ing from the visible sign, but from his invisible power. “God by
“ Sacraments giveth grace :” (saith Bernard 4! :) “even as honors and
‘ dignities are given, an Abbot made by receiving a staff, a Doctor
“by a book, a Bishop by a ring ;” because he that giveth these pre-
eminences declareth by such signs his meaning, nor doth the receiver
take the same, but with effect ; for which cause he is said to have
the one by the other : albeit that which is bestowed proceed wholly
from the will of the giver, and not from the efficacy of the sign.

They, to derive grace in Sacraments from the very sign itself as a
true coefficient with God, are so wrapped about with clouds and mists
of darkness, that neither other men’s wits can follow, nor theirs lead
to any manifest and plain issue. It was offensive to the elder School-

41 [In Cena Domini Serm. ii.t.i. “bas per baculum, episcopus per
187. Paris 1586. “Sicut in exte- baculum et annulum simul; sicut
“rioribus diversa sunt signa, &c... ‘ inquam in hujusmodi rebus est, ©
“ varie sunt investiture secundum “ sic et divisiones gratiarum diversis

ea de quibus investimus:v.g.in- ‘ sunt tradite sacramentis.”]
“ vestitur canonicus per librum, ab-

how modified by the later Schoolmen. 555

men 42 that the Master of Sentences defined 43 Sacraments of the new
law, to be signs which cause grace. Thomas, in defence of the
Master, declared after what sort they are causes of grace, namely by
producing a preparative quality in the soul, but what quality he could
not tell, only his opinion was, that something doth ensue from God
himself, creating the same. Which sentence of Thomas very few
have allowed, but they are neither few, nor meanly accounted of, that
have oppugned him in that point. Wherefore even they which at
this present pretend his name, are yet of another mind than he was
concerning Sacraments : inasmuch as they hold the very elements
and words for causes which immediately produce grace by being
moved with the hand of God till an effect infinite degrees above them
in excellency proceed from them. The motion of God is, as they
themselves expound it, an application of the sign together with the
charge and commandment given it, to convey an intimation of his
will to the soul, which presently thereupon conceiveth and bringeth
_ forth grace, through that obedience which all creatures yield to God’s
word, when they once hear it. An explication more obscure than
the thing itself which they would explain ; and all because they affect
metaphors, where nothing but exact propriety of speech can plainly
instruct.

“ Aqua in Baptismo ut applicata et mota a Deo per ministrum,
“non solum lotionem corporis attingit, sed etiam ipsam ablutionem
“ anime et gratiz productionem .... In quo non partem operatur
“ Deus, et aliam partem sacramentum, sed ut fit in actionibus natu-
“ yalibus, ut quando sol et homo generant hominem totum hoc et
“ totum ille uno atque individuo opere peragunt ... Aqua a Spiritu
« Sancto mota habet eandem potentiam quamipse Spiritus Sanctus,
“ yespectu animarum nostrarum.” Allen: de Sacram. in gen. cap. 35.
“ Sacramenta sunt cause efficientes, etiam physics, sed instrumen-
“tales ; virtus autem divinitus indita non est aliqua nova qualitas
‘ inheerens, sed solum motus sive usus Dei... . Motio illa qua Deus
“ movet sacramenta, est sola applicatio sacramenti ad opus... Educi-
“ tur autem gratia de potentia anime non naturali, sed obedientali...
“ qua potest in ea fieri et ex ea produci quicquid Deus vult.” Bellarm.
de Sacram. in gen. lib. ii. cap. 11. [De Controv. t. ili. p. 180 C.D.
182 D. 183C.] “Virtus Sacramentorum non est aliud quam usus
“ seu motus quo per ministrum recte et ex institutione divina fun-

42 (Vid. Scot. ad 1 Sentent. dist.i. “‘ mentum proprie dicitur quod ita
queest. iv. et v. ed. Wading. t. viii. ‘“‘ signum est gratiz Dei et invisibi-
p. 78, &c.] “lis gratie forma, ut ipsius imagi-

43 (Lib. iv. dist.i.c. 1. ‘‘Sacra- ‘* nem gerat et causa existat.’’]

BOOK V.
Appendix I.
[18.]

BOOK V,
Appendix I.
[19.]

556 A Difference in God’s Will implied in Predestination.

“ gentem suo munere adhibentur et usurpantur a Deo principali
“ agente ad producendum illum effectum qui est gratia.” Greg. de
Valent. in 3 part. Thom. disp. 3. de Sacram. in gen. qu. 3. puncto 1.
[t. iv. p. 507 ©. Venet. 1600.] “Sacramentum comproducit gra-
“ tiam quia intimat imperium Dei... Huic enim instrumento, vicem
“ Dei tenenti, et denuntianti imperium efficax Dei, obedit subjecta
“ creatura ut transmutetur, sicut Pro-Regi obediunt cives tanquam
“ ipsi Regi ... Imperium Dei, quod per scriptum aut instrumentum
“ assumptum intimat, est simul causa physica et efficax. Omnis
“ enim creatura etiam inanimata censetur audire et sentire imperium
“ Dei...Sic in creatione Deus per imperium produxit res, in Evan-
“ gelio imperavit Christus ventis ac mari... Atque ita Baptismum
“ comproducere gratiam nihil aliud videtur, quam gratiam educi de
“ potentia hominis obedientis imperio Baptismi.” Henric. Summ.
lib. i. cap. 17. [p. 43, 44. Ven. 1596.] Were they not as good to
say briefly that God’s omnipotent will causeth grace, that the outward
sign doth shew his will, and that Sacraments implying both are
thereby termed both signs and causes, which is the selfsame that we
say? Their motions and intimations to make signs in themselves
seem causes do amount to no more in very deed than that they are
signs. And as we understand not how, so neither can they express
in what manner they should be more.

The Tenth Article ++ touching Predestination.

[19.] To make up your first decade of Articles, you cast yourself
headlong into a gulf of bottomless depth, God’s unsearchable purpose,
his eternal predestination and will; moved as you pretend thereunto
by words of mine concerning a general inclination in God towards all
men’s safety, and yet an occasioned determination of the contrary to
some men’s everlasting perdition and woe. Wherein how strange
your proceedings are, I willingly forbear to lay open before you, till
it be first made manifest touching man’s eternal condition of life and
death not only that there is in the will of God that very difference —
which you in no wise can digest, but further also how the same dis-
tinction doth as a ground sustain and pass as a strong principle
throughout all the parts of that doctrine, which delivereth rightly the
predestination of Saints: whereinto because you compel me to enter,
I may not in a cause of so great moment spare any requisite labour
and pain: but, God’s most gracious Spirit assisting me, declare to
the uttermost of my slender and poor skill what I think is true.

44 [See Chr. Letter, p. 15.]

Difference of Things necessary and contingent. 557

To begin therefore with that foundation which must here be laid, Book v.
forasmuch as the nature of the matter in question is contingent, nei- ey 2g
ther can be understood as it ought unless we foreconceive the differ-
ence between things contingent, and such as come necessarily to pass ;
let it be first of all considered what the truth is in this point.

[20.] We have not for the course of this world any one more in- I. The dif-
fallible rule, than that besides the highest cause wherein all depend- ia sa

eth, there are inferior causes, from which, since the first creation, things con-

all things (miraculous events excepted) have had their being. The eta
nature of which inferior causes is exprest in the nature of their

effects : for if the cause be uniform and constant in operation, the

effects of that cause are found always like themselves : if it be vari-

able, they alter and change. And by this we are led to distinguish

things necessary from contingent, respecting how diversly they issue

from their true immediate peculiar and proper causes 4.

Of which causes we have perfect sensible experience, we know

and see in what sort they work ; and we are thereby out of doubt

that all.things come not necessarily to pass, but those effects are

necessary which can be no other than they are, by reason that their

next and nearest causes have but one only way of working ; from

which as it is not in their power to swerve, so they are not subject

to any impediment by opposition, nor unto change by addition of

any thing which may befall them more at one time than at another,

nor to defect by losing any such habilitie or complement as serveth

to further them in that they do.

On the other side, those contingent, which in regard of the very

principal inferior causes whereupon they depend, are not always cer-

tain ; inasmuch as the causes whereof they come, may divers ways

vary in their operation. Things aptest to suffer are always least

certain in that they do. Again, whatsoever hath any thing contrary

unto itself, the same, when it meeteth therewith, is evermore subject

to suffering, and so in doing consequently hindered. For the more

subject that causes are to impediment or let, the further their effects

are off from the nature of things necessary. And apparent it is,

- that some things do bring forth perpetually the same effects ;
whereby it appeareth they are never hindered ; some things, the

45 @avepivy dru ovy Gmavta && TO pr évdexduevoy Gros Exewv
dvdykns ovr totw ore yiverat. dvaykaioy paper éxew otras. Me-
Aristot. de Interpr. c. 9. [t.i. 60. taphys. lib. v. c. 5. [t. iv. 324.]
ed. Duval. | SupBeBykds Se A€yerar, 6 bmdpyee

*Eotw évia Suvata kat eivar Kal pev Tin Kal GdAnOes cimeiy ov pevTor
py. Lib. i. de Ceelo, c. 12. [t. i. otre €& dvaykns ovte emt rd Todd.
635.] Metaphys. lib. v. c. 30. [#. iv. 345.]

BOOK V.
Appendix I.
[21, 22.]

558 How Matters of Fact are contingent, how necessary.

same effects commonly, yet not always. ‘Some things do that at
one time or other, which they never or very seldom do again: some
things at all times are equally uncertain what their issue or event
will be till they come to pass. In which variety of contingents, that
which altereth not often differeth but little from that which possibly
cannot alter. The greatest part of things in this world have a mix-
ture of causes necessary with contingent ; so that where both kinds
concur unto any one effect, the effect doth follow the weaker side
and is contingent ; inasmuch as the nature of every effect is accord-
ing to the nature of those causes totally presupposed which do give
it being; and therefore if the causes be in part contingent, the effect
through their uncertainty is likewise made doubtful. Whereupon
some, considering how far this mixed contingency of causes reach-
eth, have imagined all things in the world to be casual: others on
the contrary part, because they evidently see how unvariable and
uniform the principal causes of all things are, deny that any thing
is subject to such indefinite contingency as we imagine. But most
manifest it is, that some causes, in regard of those effects which fol-
low from them, have divayw dvripdcews, a possibility to produce or
not produce the same. And whatsoever doth in that sort issue from
any cause, it is in relation thereunto contingent. So that contin-.
gency and necessity of events do import a different kind or manner
of operation in the causes out of which they spring.

[21.] The motion of the sun is a necessary effect of the sun, be-
cause it is not in the power and possibility of the sun to move or
not to move. But the walking of Socrates is a thing which either
might be, or not, therefore this effect is contingent. In like manner,
for living creatures to be endued with sense, and for men to have
the faculty of reason, is necessary ; it is a thing which proceedeth
originally from that disposition of causes in the bosom of nature,
which disposition changeth not: and therefore it no where falleth
out that we find a living creature without sense, or a man, and the
faculty of reason wanting. Contrariwise, to be learned or virtuous,
because some men have attained and not all, it appeareth that these
two qualities in man proceed from no natural or necessary cause,
they are contingent, and do happen only. Things necessary have
definite and set causes ; whereas the causes of things contingent are
indefinite. The future effects of causes contingent are only ra ped-
Aovra, things not present, and such as either may be, or not till the
time that they come to pass: but of necessary causes the future
effects are ra écopéva, such as must be. j

[22.] To be, and not to be, are terms of contradiction which never

The Conduct of free agents must be contingent. 559

fall together into one and the same ree but where the one of BOOK vy,

them taketh place, the other utterly is excluded. Things no way
subject to not being are therefore necessary ; and things altogether
uncapable of being are impossible : contingent those things, which
sith they may as well be, as not be, are consequently neither neces-
sary nor impossible, of an indifferent constitution between both:
for during the time while as yet they are not, it is but possible
that they shall be ; when once they are, their not being is then
impossible. It being therefore presupposed that things which before
were but possible, are now actually fallen out, they are by virtue of
this supposal become necessary, as far as concerneth the bare and
naked act of their being, which is irrevocable, howsoever the manner
of their efficiency were contingent, and such as might have before
been hindered from taking effect. So that apparently we see how
those things which only are possible beforehand, and only casual at
the time when they come to pass, do for the time forward so long as
they shall endure, continue necessary, not absolutely necessary, yet
necessary by virtue of this supposal, that they have attained actual
being. For where the one term of contradiction taketh place, that
there the other should take place at the same time, is a thing
impossible. The being therefore of all things that actually are is
necessary, because then of their not being there is no possibility ;
unless we should grant that one and the same thing may together
be and not be. Whereupon it followeth, that when contingents
are said to have divapw avripdcews, a possibility unto either term
of contradiction, this only is true while they yet remain in that
indefinite power of causes out of which they may either grow or
not grow. Again, it followeth that to things casual two proper-
ties are incident ; the one, that while as yet they are future, no wit
of man can either determinately affirm or deny they shall be: the
other, that being made once actual, they are then so necessary,
that God himself cannot possibly cause them not to have been.
And it thirdly followeth, that whereas contingency is especially con-
sidered between effects and efficient causes ; which causes efficient
are either natural or voluntary agents : natural, if in them there be
no power to stay or refrain their own actions ; voluntary, if they be
lords and masters of that they do : the effects of the one are contin-
gent only by means of external concurrents with them, not in all
times and places alike: the effects of the other, both that way con-
tingent, and also in regard of the very perfection which is incident
unto the nature of those agents, and implieth as it were a kind of
authority and power to take which part itself listeth in a contradic-

Appendix I,

[22.]

560 Practical Benefit of the Contingency of Actions.

: BOOK v, tion, and of two opposite effects, to give being unto either. Where-

Appendix
[22.]

fore not only to our seemings, (as some men of great understanding
and knowledge have imagined,) but even according to truth itself,
and by the plain different efficacy of those causes, whereby things are
really brought to pass, we may conclude, that some are by natural
constitution necessary, and must needs fall out, (the course of nature
being presupposed,) as fire cannot but consume the stubble thrown
into it, except God’s omnipotent power overrule the course of nature :
some things contrariwise are casual or contingent ; contingent I say
in their own nature, and not so judged only by us through ignorance
of the manner how their causes work. Things contingent are certain
as touching the circumstance of time when, and place where, they
have once their being. But in respect of the cause which produceth
them, they have no certainty. So that although we be not of any
thing more sure, than that he doth walk, whom we presently behold
walking : yet if we refer this effect to the cause out of which it
groweth, that is to say, to the will of him which moveth himself,
there is not any thing less necessary. For if nothing change more
easily than in such cases the will of man, by reason of the manifold
incitements and stays whereto it is subject ; is it not plain that of
all effects in a manner the most contingent are our own particular
actions : and yet of the will of man itself, there are some operations
necessary, as we see, in that all men without exception desire happi-
ness ; some for the most part so constant, that easily they alter not,
as appeareth by things done through a settled virtuous or vicious
habit of the mind ; some altogether doubtful and either way indif-
ferent,as the voluntary motions which grow from outward occasions
happening unawares. ‘This is it which maketh counsels and de-
liberations intricate. For which cause, in matter of consultation,
we account them wisest, to whom through experience, the most
approved principles of action are so familiarly known, and by par-
ticular notice the matter whereof they deliberate so throughly seen
into, that having considered both the one and the other, they are
able to forecast the surest effects that causes subject to so great
variety will in likelihood of reason bring forth. It is therefore the
doubtfulness of things contingent that sharpeneth man’s industry to
seek out the likeliest means of bringing them to good effect, and the
providence of God which giveth success thereunto, as he in his wis-
dom seeth meet. But the events of this world, though we all behold
alike, yet touching the manner how they come to pass, all are not
of one mind ; but some impute whatsoever happeneth to irresistible
destiny ; others avoiding this, have imagined every thing left to the

No Necessity implied in Prescience. 561

loose uncertainty of fortune and chance. Between which two BOOK V.
extremities of error, the only true mean is that doctrine of divine sd .
providence. Soi aia
[23.] In things ordered by this providence, it is especially to be on —
considered, that the foreknowledge which he hath of all things46, jn) and
(for his eternal prescience is as a large volume wherein they are all infallible
exactly registered,) doth not make all things to be of necessity ; es ag

although, forasmuch as in God himself there can be no error, it must maketh not

needs be that every thing will come to pass, which he foreseeth aBeeg i
as really future, whether it be necessary or contingent. necessity.

When things are necessary according to their own natural consti-
tution ; as a good tree must needs bring forth good fruit, and
of necessity every tree fruit according to his kind ; this, for distinc-
tion’s sake, we call a real necessity. On the other side, when God
foretelleth, or foreseeth any future thing, it followeth of necessity,
that so it shall be, because otherwise God were deceived. And
_ yet, that which is so foreseen may haply be in itself a thing casual ;
as the treason of Judas, the fall of Peter, and such like events,
which when Christ had foreshewed, could not in truth or reason
choose but accordingly follow. This necessity is not real, because
the things brought to pass be contingent. We term it therefore a
necessity im reason, because it followeth only by way of necessary
sequel from a presupposal of God’s foresight. He seeth it will
be, ergo it shall be. His prescience then doth not take away
casualties, nor make all things in the world subject to inevitable
necessity ; but such he foreseeth them as they are of their own
natures when they come to pass. Whensoever we find therefore
‘In Scripture divine predictions; the declarations of God’s foreknow-
ledge alleged, whether it be before they take effect, or after, this is
perpetually true in them all, they are alleged as arguments, proofs,
and testimonies, only, that so it would be, but never as causes
imposing a real necessity on that which is foreshewed. Prescience,
as prescience, hath in itself no causing efficacy. Again, what the
book of God’s knowledge doth comprehend, the same both wholly in
one sum and every part thereof distinctly lieth at all times alike
open in his sight47 ; which notwithstanding is no let, but that those
things which he by his knowledge together beholdeth, we may

46 Psalm exxxix. 2; Esai. xli.22, Oe torepov & pr mpdrepov «ixe,
23; Eccles[iasticus] xxiii. 19,20; J ustin. [i,e. a writer in his name]
xxxix. 19, 203 Hebr. iv. 13. Resp. ud Gree. [p. 539 D. ed.

47 Oire yap mpds yrdow ovre mpds Bened.]

Svvapw Svvardv mpocyevéerOa Te

HOOKER, VOL. IT. 00

562 No Necessity implied in Prediction.

nook v, rightly and truly distinguish, that we may consider them by order,
i 27 one going before another as their mutual dependency and coherence
requireth.
Of God’s [24.] For as the eye of divine knowledge readeth all things which
ced are written in that book, so the hand of his will subseribeth unto all
things that things which are effected, though not-unto all things after one and
wall’ a his the game manner. There are which think, that whereas knowledge
create and is either an apprehension of things themselves already being, or else
govern the foresight of them when as yet they are not brought forth ;
world, not . °
considered this latter kind of knowledge doth ever presuppose in God a definite
2 pein! of Ordination and appointment of every thing which cometh to pass in
thefirst be- the world. So that the reason which they give why he knoweth all
gaming of things, is, because he appointeth how all things both great and small
world, shall happen, from the motion of the highest orb of heaven, to the
least mote in the sun, or spark which the fire casteth. Others
grant, that there is not indeed the least casualty which can fall
out till the world’s end unto him unknown. But the cause which
they render, why God cannot in things casual and contingent be
deceived, is not always the certainty of his own appointment, but his
eminent and incomprehensible kind of knowledge, his deep insight
into all things, inasmuch as he perfectly understandeth, not only
what they are, or what they shall be, but also whatsoever would
grow from them through copulation and concurrence, with all the
circumstances which moe than ten thousand such worlds can yield,
One small experiment whereof there is in the history of David48 ;
which one may serve for example sake instead of many ; David
being in Keilah, and hearing that Saul’s purpose was to surprise the
city, asked counsel of the mouth of the Lord, Will Saul come down
as thy servant hath heard? and the Lord said, He will come down:
Then said David, Will the lords of Keilah deliver me wp and the men
that are with me into Saul’s hand ? And the Lord said, They will
deliver thee wp. David, by his speedy departure thence, stayed both
these events, though God foresaw and foretold both, as indeed both
would have come to pass if his removal had not defeated the bent of
their secret dispositions. But by this it appeareth, that the foresight
which God hath of all things proveth not his foreappointment of all
things which are foreseen ; because he foreseeth as well what might
be and is not, as what is or shall be. All reasonable creatures
know, and can foresignify what themselves appoint to do. But his
_ peculiar honour is, to see beforehand infallibly every thing that may
come to pass, yea although it never do ; and therefore much more,
48 y Sam. xxiii. 11, 12.

God’s declared Will may restrain itself. 563

every circumstance of all things which indeed fall out, whether
himself be author of them, and have ordained them to be, or no.
Wherefore, as all men of knowledge grant, that God is himself no
author of sin; so no man will deny, but that God is able to fore-
see and foretell what sin, as what righteousness either may be,
or will be in men49, and that consequently there are many things
in his sight certain to be brought to pass, which himself did never
foreordain. And yet we must of necessity grant that there could be
no evil committed, if his will did appoint or determine that none
should be.

[25.| We are therefore to note certain special differences in God’s
will. God being of infinite goodness by nature, delighteth only in good
things: neither is it possible that God should alter in himself this
desire, because that without it he were not himself. But from this
natural inclination of his will, unless it be some way or other deter-
mined, there cometh no certain particular effect. Wherefore, as
God hath a natural bent only, and infinitely, unto good ; and hath
likewise a natural power to effect whatsoever himself willeth: so
there is in God an incomprehensible wisdom, according to the rea-
sonable disposition whereof his natural or general will restraineth
itself as touching particular effects. So that God doth determine of
nothing that it shall come to pass, otherwise than only in such
manner as the law of his own wisdom hath set down within itself.
Many things proceed from the will of God, the reasons whereof are
oftentimes to us unknown. But unpossible it is that God should
will‘any thing unjust, or unreasonable, any thing against those very
rules whereby himself hath taught us to judge what equity requireth :
for out of all peradventure there are no antinomies with God. The
laws of action which he teacheth us, and the laws which his own
wisdom chooseth to follow, are not the one repugnant to the other.
The concealed causes of his secret intents overthrow not the princi-
ples which Nature or Scripture, the true interpreters of his wisdom,
have disclosed to the whole world: and by virtue whereof, to our
great contentment of mind, yea to his everlasting praise and glory,
we are able in many things to yield abundantly sufficient reason for
the works of God, why and how it is most just which God willeth.
In those things therefore, the reasonable coherence whereof with
the will of Almighty God we are not able to comprehend, we must
with learned ignorance admire ; and not, with an ignorant pride
of wit, censure, judge, or control God, who is, as 5? Tertullian by very

49 Sap. iv.11. _ he « pees sane wae magnus, cum

50 Contra Marcion. lib. ii. c. 2. ‘ homini pusillus; et tunc maxime

002

BOOK V.

564 God’s Positive and Permissive Will.

Book y, fit comparison inferreth, even best then when we least see how, and just

my I. to the level of his own reason, when the reach of ours cometh most
short. So that in all things our duty is with meekness to submit
ourselves, and humbly to adore that wisdom, the depth whereof for-
asmuch as we cannot sound, what are we that we should presume
to call him to account of his purposes, by way of contre-plea or
opposition 5! 2

[26.] The determinations of the will of God are most free, and
his will most freely determining itself ere ever any thing was, giveth
being unto all things that are. His determinate will affirmatively
considered, as granting passage to that which wisdom seeth meet,
is either positive, or but permissive52. He willeth positively what-
soever himself worketh ; He willeth by permission that which his
creatures do: He only assisting the natural powers which are
given them to work withal, and not hindering or barring the effects
which grow from them. Whereunto we may add that negative or
privative will also, whereby he withholdeth his graces from some,
and so is said to cast them asleep whom he maketh not vigilant 53 ;
to harden them whom he softeneth not ; and to take away that,
which it pleaseth him not to bestow.

But above all things, we are to note what God willeth simply of
his own voluntary inclination, and what by occasion of something
precedent, without the which there would be in God no such will.
That which he willeth determinately of his own accord, is not only
to himself always good, but in such sort good that he chooseth it,
maketh it his end, taking pleasure and delight in it, as being utterly
without hurt. That which he willeth by occasion, is also to his own
good. For how should God will hurt to himself? Yet so far is
this inferior to the other, that because it is joined with harm to a
part of his noblest creatures, it cometh in that respect from the will
of God as it were with a kind of unwillingness. |

In all this God determineth nothing which tendeth so to his own
glory, but that it also maketh for the good of the works of his hands,
especially the good of reasonable creatures either severally con-
sidered, or else jointly as in one body. God doth not so much as
permit that evil which he some way or other determineth not to .
convert even to their good, as well as unto his own glory. He
‘* optimus, cum homini non bonus ; ** republica est, quod non de interi-
* et tunc maxime unus, cum homini “ ori atque intelligibili aula Summi
* duo aut plures.”’] ‘* Imperatoris aut jubeatur, aut per-

°l Rom. ix. 20. * juittatur.” Aug. de Trin. 3. 4.

°2 « Nihil in ista totius creature [t. viii. 797, 8.]
*amplissima quadam immensaque 5 Rom. ii. 8.

God’s Wilt overruling Evil. His Will in Creation. 565

turneth to good that which was never by himself intended nor BOOK v.
desired. It is not therefore said of Judas simply, Zt had been good i 25 -
had he never been; but it had been good for that man if he never had

been. And in what kind soever it be, the will of God’s absolute
determination is always fulfilled.

[27.] Wherefore to come to the operations of [or ?] effects of God’s The crea-
will, because his eternal and incomprehensible being is so all-suffi- — ny
cient, as nothing could move him to work, but only that natural ance 55] of
desire which his goodness hath to shew and impart itself, so the ~~ re
wisest of the very heathens themselves, which have acknowledged Send ke
that he made the world, know that no other reason thereof can be Peing evil.

And touch-
yielded but this, his mere goodness, which is likewise the cause, why j ing the first
it cannot be, but that the world which he hath created, he should vectae
love so far forth, as it is the workmanship of his hands. world.

- Seeing then that good is before evil, both in dignity and in nature
(for we cannot without good define and conceive what evil is) ; and
of good things that come to pass by the will of God, the first is the
end which his will proposeth, and that end is to exercise his good-
ness of his own nature, by producing effects wherein the riches of
the glory thereof may appear: forasmuch as all other effects are
grounded upon the first existence or being of that which reviveth
[receiveth ?] them: the first determination of God for the attain-
ment of his end, must needs be creation, and the next unto it
governance. For that he which created should govern, and that he
which made should guide, seemeth reasonable in all men’s eyes.
Whereupon we come to observe in God two habilities or powers ;
his power to create, and his power to rule: in regard of the one, we
term him our God, in respect of the other, our Lord and King. As
God, Creator or Father of all, he hath no will but only to be
gracious, beneficial, and bountiful. As Lord, both mercy and wrath
come from him: mercy of his own accord, and wrath by occasion
offered: but his providence, the root of both, is over all. All
things have their beginning from him, by him their continuance, and
in him their end. In power he ordereth them, but yet with gentle-
ness: mightily, but yet in amiable manner. So that under him
they feel no unpleasant constraint : framed they are to his incli-
nation without violence to their own5®: such is the course of his
heavenly regiment, such his wisdom to overrule forcibly without

force. The providence of God is both general over the kinds

54 Acts xvii. 31; ti exv. 3; MS. of one word, which has been
Esai. xlvi. :0; Hest. xiii. supplied by conjecture.
55 [There is a blank ete in the Sap. vill. 12.

566 God’s Providence, umplying Freewill in Angels and Men.

~ goox v. of things, and such also as extendeth unto all particulars in each

SET kind,

Of things created, the noblest and most resembling God are
creatures endued with the admirable gift of understanding. St.
Augustine®5 comparing the first matter whereof all things are made
with these last and worthiest works of God’s hands, saith of the one,
it is little above the degree of nothing ; the other, little inferior to
God the creator of all. If God, then, clothe the lilies of the field,
and provideth food for the birds of the air, should we think that his
providence hath not always an especial care, as well of each particular
man, as of mankind, and that for our greatest good every way,
unless some great thing occasion the contrary? the work of creation
itself therefore, and the government of all things simply according to
the state wherein they were made, must be distinguished from that
which sin, arising afterwards, addeth unto the government of God,
lest we run into their error, who blinde [blend ?] even with God’s
very purpose of creation, a reference to eternal condemnation and
death. |

[28.] Concerning his intended work of creation and government
simply in itself considered, by the effects which are seen it may in
part be understood what his secret purposes were, and that amongst
sundry other more hidden determinations which were in God, these
for example’s sake are manifest, amiably to order all things, and suit-
ably with the kinds, degrees, and qualities of their nature : not to be
wanting unto reasonable creatures in things necessary for the attain-
ment of their end: to give unto angels and men happiness in the
nature of a reward ; to leave them endued with sufficient ability in
the hands of their own will5®: to enjoin them their duty, to shew
them the danger which they might avoid, and must sustain if they
did not avoid. é

It being therefore the will of God to make reasonable creatures the
liveliest representations of his own perfection and glory ; he assigned
unto angels and men a state of the greatest happiness to be acquired
by actions of most dignity, proceeding from the highest degree of
excellency, that any created nature was to receive from him. To
angels and men there was allotted a threefold perfection, a perfection
of the end whereunto they might come, eternal life ; a perfection of
duty, whereby they should come, which duty was obedience ; and a

55 (Confess. lib. xii. c. 7. “Tu “ nihil: unum quo superior tu esses,
“eras, et aliud nihil unde fecisti ‘* alterum quo inferius nihil esset.”
“celum et terram, duo quedam; t.i. p. att
“unum prope te, alterum prope 6 Sap. [Sir.] xv. 14.

Freewill in reasonable Creatures. 567

perfection of state or quality for performance of that duty. The first
was ordained, the second required, and the third given. For pre-
supposing that the will of God did determine to bestow eternal life
in the nature of a reward, and that rewards grow from voluntary
duties °’, and voluntary duties from free agents ; it followeth, that
whose end was eternal life, their state must needs imply freedom
and liberty of will. A part therefore of the excellency of their
nature was the freedom of their will ; and in this respect necessary,
that he whose will was to govern them in justice should strictly tie
them to the constant observation of requisite offices, by the possi-
bility as well of endless perdition and woe, if they fell away, as of
like felicity [if?] they continued for a time, that which they ought
and might have done. Out of the liberty wherewith God by creation
endued reasonable creatwres, angels and men, there ensued sin through
their own voluntary choice of evil, neither by the appointment of
God, nor yet without his permission. Not by appointment, for it
abhorreth from the nature of God, to be outwardly a sharp and
severe prohibitor, and underhand an author of sin. Touching per-
mission, if God do naturally hate sin, and by his knowledge foresee
all things, wherefore did not his power prevent sin, that so his
natural desire might be satisfied? Because, in wisdom, (whereupon
his determinate will dependeth,) he saw it reasonable and good, to
create both angels and men perfectly free, which freedom being
a part of their very nature, they could not without it be that which
they were: but God must have left them uncreated if not endued
with liberty of mind. Angels and men had before their fall the
grace whereby they might have continued if they would without sin :
yet so great grace God did not think good to bestow on them,
whereby they might be exempted from possibility of sinning ;
because this latter belongeth to their perfection, who see God in
fulness of glory, and not to them, who as yet serve him under hope.
He saw it reasonable also to grant them power touching all events
of their liberty, to shew them how they might use it to their own
everlasting good. But if, himself having thus with great good
reason determined, his power should after have interposed itself for
the hinderance of their choice either in good or evil ; as to hinder
them the one way, could not have stood with the purity of righteous-
ness, so the other way to let them, had been against that constancy
of wisdom, which is in him, whose greatness nothing doth more

57 * Nec boni nec mali merces ‘“ ventus, non voluntate.” Tertull.
‘jure pensaretur ei qui aut bonus contra Mare. 2. [c. vi. ]
*‘ aut malus necessitate fuisset in-

BOOK V.
Appendix I,
[28.]

BOOK V.
Appendix I.

[29.]

568 Fall of Angels.

beseem, than to be one and the same for ever, and not to stop the
events of mutability in his creatures, by changing his own decrees
for their sakes with mutability in himself. Consider (saith Tertul-
lian 58) what divine fidelity requireth, and thou wilt never marvel,
although for preservation of that which was according to the will of
God, his power hindered not that which was greatly against his will.

[29.] We see therefore how sin entered into the world. The first
that sinned against God was Satan. And then through Satan’s
fraudulent instigation man also. The sin of devils grew originally
from themselves without suggestion or incitement outwardly offered
them. They? kept not the state of that first beginning which they
had from God ; and as our Saviour himself saith of them®, they
stood not in the truth, whereby it may be very probably thought,
that the happiness even of angels depended chiefly upon their belief in
a truth which God did reveal unto them: The truth of that personal
conjunction which should be of God with men. For Christ, although
a Redeemer only unto men, might notwithstanding be revealed unto
angels as their Lord, without any reference at all to sin, which
the knowledge of Christ a Redeemer doth necessarily presuppose.
So that man, their inferior by degree of nature, they must in Christ
the Son of God advanced unto so great honour adore. Which
mystery the too great admiration of their own excellency being so
likely to have made incredible, it is unto us the more credible, that
infidelity through pride was their ruin. As also envy maketh them
ever sithence the first moment of their own fall, industrious, as much
as in them lieth, to work ours, which they can only do as solicitors
and instigators. Our sin therefore in that respect excuseth us not,
but we are therewith justly charged as the authors of it ourselves.
Touching God, though he stop it not, he neither coveteth nor
appointeth it, he no way approveth, he no way stirreth, or tempteth
any creature unto it. It is as natural unto God to hate sin, as
to love righteousness.

Amongst the Jews, two hundred years before Christ, there were,
as it seemed, [seemeth ?] men which fathered sin and iniquity upon
God’s ordinance : under the Apostles there is some shew that the
like was broached®!. The Valentinians, the Marcionites, and the —

58 [Cont. Marcion. ii. 7. “ Exi-
“ gere a Deo debes et gravitatem
*summam, et fidem precipuam in
* omni institutione ejus: ut desinas
** querere, an Deo nolente potuerit
“* quid evenire. Tenens enim gra-
* vitatem et fidem Dei boni, sed
“ rationalibus institutis ejus vindi-

- candas, nec illud miraberis, quod

** Deus non intercesserit adversus
** ea que noluit evenire; ut conser-
** varet ea qu voluit.’’]

59 Jude 6.

60 John viii. 44.

61 James i. 14 [13?]; 1 John ii.
16; 1 John i, 5; Matt. xix. 17;

Blasphemies regarding the Origin of Evil. 569

- Manichees being persuaded, as the truth is, that one and the same Book v.
God cannot wish, love, or approve, both virtue and vice, both =e si ‘
_ good and evil, ascribed willingly the one to that God most just and
righteous, whom we all worship : but vainly imagined that the other
had grown from some other God of equal power and of contrary —
disposition. Of late the Libertines have reduced both unto God
again, they have left no difference between good and evil, but
in name only. They make all things in God’s sight to be alike ;
God the worker, man but his instrument ; and our perfection to con-
sist only in casting out that scrupulosity, conscience, and fear,
which we have of one thing more than another. Of all which
heretical devices the fountain is that secret shame 62 wherewith our
nature in itself doth abhor the deformity of sin, and for that cause
study by all means how to find the first original of it elsewhere.
But for as much as the glory of God hath been defended, first
by Jesus the son of Sirach 6 against blasphemers in his time ; by
St. James 64 against the wicked of the Apostles’ days; against the
Valentinians and afterwards by Irenzus® ; by Tertullian against the
Marcionites ; against the Manichees by St. Augustin ; and against
Libertines last of all by Calvin®: to whose industry alone we owe
the refutation of their impiety ; we may well presume that of this
the whole Christian world is agreed, all denying God to be one
author of sin.

[30.] It appeareth hitherto how God’s creation is an effect of the will What the
of God, which had no subject at all to work upon, but of nothing vig diate
made all things, and gave them that being, wherein it rejoiced God man, the
to behold the first fruits of his own benignity. The subject of his cle bas
providence simply considered, were all things in the state of their being pre-
first creation, and amongst them reasonable creatures to be further “PP
advanced to a state of supernatural happiness, in such sort as those
laws required which the wisdom of God saw meet for itself to follow.

The laws of his providence we term such general rules, as it pleaseth
God to follow in governing the several kinds of things, and especially
in conducting reasonable creatures unto the end for which they were
made. And because in the subject of his providence over reasonable
creatures, there is now an addition of sin which was not before

Psa.v.5; Esai. lxy.12; Zach. viii. 64 James i. 13.
17; Eccles[iasticus] xv. 11. 65 Tren. iv. 47, 48.
2 Omne malum aut timore aut - % [In two Tracts published 1544,
‘* pudore[natura perfudit. |” Tertull. 1547. See his collected Tracts in
cont. Gent. p. 564. [Apol.c.1.] = Theology, Genev. 1597. p. 501,
63 Syr. xv. 12. 540. |

570 <All human Evil, but Sin, im some Sense a Punishment.

considered, the laws of his general providence, in regard of this
addition, are somewhat different from such as have been already
noted, For as nature draweth love from God, so corruption of
nature procureth hatred, it being as natural to him to abhor that
which defaceth his handywork, as to delight in the absolute perfec-
tion which himself hath given. So that sin hath opened now in
God every way of wrath which before was shut. Sin hath awakened
justice, which otherwise might have slept. Wrath and justice
we attribute to God, by reason of those effects of punishment which
God inflicteth. The first rule therefore of providence now, is, that
sin do not go altogether unpunished in any creature ; whereupon it
followeth, that seeing all men universally are sinful, punishment
hath also fallen upon all. Some are, after this life; tormented with
eternal flames, yet here permitted to live at ease till the hour of
death come. Some, during life, never free from miseries, whose
state after is perpetual joy : some, neither in this world, nor in the
world to come, pardoned ; but the death of all is argument sufficient
that none escapeth it, both [in both?] altogether without touch.
For death even in new-baptized infants, yea in Saints, in Martyrs, we
must acknowledge to be a punishment ; a punishment which God
inflicteth, in judgment, and not in fury, but yet a punishment. It
was a branch of the error of Pelagius, to think our mortality no
punishment inflicted by the hand of the supreme Judge, but a part
of that state and condition, which, as Creator, he hath imposed on
mankind 67,

[31.] That justice which worketh by way of revenge, proportioneth
punishment unto sin. And sin hath two measures whereby the
greatness thereof is judged. The object, God, against whom ; and
the subject, that creature in whom sin is. By the one measure, all
sin is infinite, because he is infinite whom sin offendeth : for which
cause there is one eternal punishment due in justice unto all sinners.
In so much that if it were possible for any creature to have been
eternally with God, and co-eternally sinful, it standeth with justice by
this measure to have punisht that creature from eternity past, no
less than to punish it unto future eternity. And therefore the sin
[time ?] which cometh between the birth and death of such as are to
endure this punishment, is granted them by dispensation as it were,
and toleration, at God’s hand68. From the other measure, which is

7 [S. Aug. Serm. cexcix. § 11. ‘ esse quod morimur, et moriturum
t.v.1217. “ Dicunt, non de pec- ‘“ fuisse Adam etiamsi non peccas-

“_ cato nos mori, quantum pertinet “ set.’”]
‘ad corporis mortem, sed nature 68 Rom. ix. 22.

Eternal Punishment. Redeeming Grace. 571

~ according to the subject of sin, there are in that eternity of punish-
_ ment varieties, whereby may be gathered a rule much built upon in
holy Scripture: That degrees in wickedness have answerable degrees

in the weight of their endless punishment.

But lest only wrath and justice should take effect, love and mercy
be without exercise, by reason of sin, God hath not suffered the pre-
parations of eternal life to be thus frustrated altogether as concern-
ing man, but chosen rather to remit on his own part much of that,
which extremity and rigour of justice might require, being con-
tented to condescend unto favourable conditions : and except it be
where incurable malice, on the part of the sinful themselves, will
not suffer mercy with such conditions to take place, leadeth still to
eternal life, by an amiable course, framed even according to the very
state wherein we now are. He is not wanting to the world in any
necessary thing for the attainment of eternal life, though many
things be necessary now, which according to our first condition we

~ needed not. He bestoweth now eternal life as his own free and

undeserved gift ; together also with that general inheritance and lot
of eternal life, great varieties of rewards proportioned to the very
degrees of those labours, which to perform he himself by his grace
enableth. He leaveth us not as Adam in the hands of our own
wills, at once endued with ability to stand of our own accord, but
because that ability is altogether lost, he putteth into our souls con-
tinually new strength, the paths of our duty he layeth before us,
and directeth our steps therein, he giveth warning whereby to know,
and wisdom also whereby to prevent the fearful hazards whereinto
our souls, being left to themselves, would assuredly fall : that per-
manent wrath which is for ever, he turneth away ; from temporal
punishments altogether, and especially from natural death, though
none young nor old be exempted, yet his mercy which endureth for
ever towards some, turneth both life and death and all things unto
their everlasting good. So that from punishments in this world
there can be no certain collection drawn, either to clear or condemn
men, as being in degree of sin according to that we see them sus-
tain here more or less, but only that in general our punishments
prove we all have sinned, because without sin we should never have
suffered any thing unpleasant or grievous to nature. And the rea-
son why temporal punishments, declaring all to be sinners, do not
argue that they always have sinned most, who suffer most in this
present life, is because those things which here we suffer are not still
inflicted by the hand of God’s revengeful justice, as in the world to
come they are. And therefore, after this life, it standeth much

BOOK V.
Appendix I,
[32.]

572 Punishment, an Instance of God’s occasioned Will.

more firm, The heavier punishment, the greater sin. In the act of ©
sinning, God hath the place of a meer patient. For all sin is against
God, and therefore all sinners termed his enemies. As for the
punishment which his will determineth upon them, it is the con-
sequent of their iniquity, and their iniquity the cause of it.

[32.] If therefore we look upon the rank or chain of things volun-
tarily derived from the positive will of God, we behold the riches of
his glory proposed as the end of all, we behold the beatitude of men
and angels ordained as a mean unto that end, graces and blessings
in all abundance referred as means unto that happiness, God to be
blessed for evermore, the voluntary author of all those graces. But
concerning the heaps of evils which do so overwhelm the world,
compare them with God, and from the greatest to the least of them,
he disclaimeth them all. He refuseth utterly to be intituled either
Alpha, or Omega, the beginning, or the end, of any evil. The evil
of sin is within the compass of God’s prescience, but not of his pre-
destination, or fore-ordaining will. The evil of punishment is within
the compass of God’s fore-appointed and determining will, but by
occasion of precedent sin. For punishments are evil, because they
are naturally grievous to him which must sustain them. Yet in
that they proceed from justice thereby revenging evil, such evils
have also the nature of good ; neither doth God refuse, but challenge
it as an honour, that he maketh evil doers which sow iniquity to
reap destruction, according to that in the Prophet Jeremy, There
as no evil in the city, which I the Lord have not done. God there-
fore, with the good evil of punishment, revengeth the evil good of
sin. Sin is no plant of God’s setting. He seeth and findeth it a
thing irregular, exorbitant, and altogether out of course. It is unto
him an occasion of sundry acts of mercy, both an occasion and a
cause of punishment : by which mercy and justice, although God be
many ways greatly glorified, yet is not this glory of God any other
in respect of sin than only an accidental event. We cannot say there-
fore truly, that, as God to his own glory did ordain our happiness,
and to accomplish our happiness appoint the gifts of his grace: so
he did ordain to his glory our punishment, and for matter of punish-
ment our sins. For punishment is to the will of God no desired
end, but a consequent ensuing sin: and, in regard of sin, his glory
an event thereof, but no proper effect. Which answereth fully
that repining proposition, If man’s sin be God’s glory, why is God
angry ?

As therefore sin hath entered into the nature of man, notwith-

69 (Rather, Amos iii. 6.]

God’s principal Will, Salvation by Christ. 573

_ standing the general will of God’s inclination to the contrary : so the
- same inclination of will in him for the good of man doth continue
still, notwithstanding sin. For sin altereth not his nature, though it
change ours. His general will, and the principal desire whereunto
of his own natural bent he inclineth still, is, that all men may enjoy
the full perfection of that happiness, which is their end. Signs of
the general inclination of God, are all promises which he maketh in
holy Scripture, all the Precepts which he giveth of godliness and
virtue, all Prohibitions of sin and threatenings against offenders, all
counsels, exhortations, admonitions, tolerations, protestations, and
complaints. Yea all the works of his merciful providence, in up-
holding the good estate of the world, are signs of that desire, which
the Schoolmen therefore term his signified will” : Damascen, the
principal will of God”. And according to this will, he desireth not
the death, no not of the wicked “, but rather that they might be
converted and live. He longeth for nothing more than that all men
might be saved.

[33-] He that willeth the end, must needs will also the means
whereby we are brought unto it. And one [our ?] fall in Adam being
presupposed, the means now which serve as causes effectual by their
own worth to procure us eternal life, are only the merits of Jesus
Christ, without whom no heathen by the law of nature, no Jew by
the law of Moses, was ever justified. Yea it were perhaps no error
to affirm, that the virtue of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ being
taken away, the Jew by having the law, was farther removed from
hope of salvation and life, than the other by wanting the law : if it

70 (Sent. i. dist. xlv. art. 4. “ U-
** trum voluntas Dei distinguatur in
*€ voluntatem beneplaciti et volunta-
“tem signi.”... “ Magna est adhi-
*‘ benda discretio in cognitione di-
“‘ vine voluntatis, quia et benepla-
*‘citum Dei est voluntas ejus, et
“signum beneplaciti ejus dicitur
*‘ voluntas ejus. Sed beneplacitum
“ejus zternum est, signum vero
** beneplaciti ejus non. Et consonat
“‘ rerum effectibus beneplacitum ip-
** sius, et ipsi effectus rerum ab eo
“non discordant. Fit enim omne
** quod beneplacito vult fieri, et om-
** ne quod non vult fieri nequaquam
“ fit. Non ita autem est de signis,
*€ quia preecepit Deus multis ea, que
‘non faciunt, et prohibit que non
* cavent, et consulit que non im-
* plent.” This distinction was per-

haps in the minds of the framers of
the last sentence of the seventeenth
Article of our Church. |

71 [De Orthod. Fide, lib. ii.
c. 29. t. i. p. 190. ed. Le Quien.
xpn Se «idévar, as 6 Oeds mponyou-
pévas Oder mavras cwOqjvat, Kai THs
Baowdelas avrod tuxeiv* ov yap emt
TO KoAdoat émAacev Nas, GdAG pds
TO peracxety THs ayabdrnTos avToU,
as ayabés* auapravovras Se Gédet Ko=
AdfecOar, as Sikaos. Aéyerar ovy,
TO peév MpaTov, mponyoupevoy OéAnua,
Kai evdoxia, €€ aitod dv" rd dé dev=
tepov, emdpevoy Oédnpa, Kal mapa-
xopnats, €& jperepas airias’ Kal avrn
durtn’ 7 pev olkovopuKn, Kal madev-
tik?) Tpos g@Tnpiay, n S€ arroyvaattKh
mpos Tedeiav koAaow. Comp. E. P.
V. xlix. 3.]

72 Ezech. xviii. [23, 32.]

BOOK V.
Appendix I.
[33+]

BOOK V.
Appendix I,
(34-]

The cause
of God’s

(sic).

574 Universality of Redemption by Christ,

be true which Fulgentius 7? hath, that without the graces of belief in
Christ, the law doth more heavily condemn being known, than un-
known : because by how much the ignorance of sin is made less, by
so much his guiltiness that sinneth is greater. And St. Paul’s own
doctrine is 73, that the law, severed from Christ, doth but only aggra-
vate sin. God being desirous of all men’s salvation, according to
his own principal or natural inclination, hath in token thereof for
their sakes whom he loved, bestowed his beloved Son. The selfsame
affection was in Christ himself, to whom the wicked at the day of
their last doom will never dare to allege for their own excuse, That
he which offered himself as a sacrifice to redeem some, did exclude
the rest, and so made the way of their salvation impossible. He paid
a ransom for the whole world ; on him the iniquities of all were laid ;
and, as St. Peter plainly witnesseth, he bought them which deny
him, and which perish because they deny him”, As in very
truth, whether we respect the power and sufficiency of the price
given ; or the spreading of that infection, for remedy whereof the
game was necessary; or the largeness of his desire which gave
it ; we have no reason but to acknowledge with joy and comfort,
that he tasted death for all men: as the Apostle to the Hebrews
noteth >, Nor do I think that any wound did ever strike his
sacred heart more deeply, than the foresight of men’s ingratitude,
by infinite numbers of whom that which cost him so dear would
so little be regarded ; and that made to so few effectual through
contempt, which he of tender compassion in largeness of love had
provided to be a medicine sufficient for all. As therefore the gospel
itself, which Christ hath commanded to preach unto all creatures, is
an apparent effect of his general care and providence : so Christ, the
principal matter therein contained and taught, must needs likewise
have been instituted by the selfsame general providence to serve for
a most sufficient remedy for the sin of mankind, although to ordain
in whom particularly it shall be forceable and effectual be an act of
special or personal providence.

[34.] But if God would have all men saved, and if Christ through
such his grace have died for all men, wherefore are they not all saved ?

72 De Incar. et Gra. c. 16. “ reatus peccatoris augetur.” p.240.
[‘* Legalis quoque auditus non so- ed. Raynaud. 1633. ]
“Jum neminem de potestate tene- 73 y Tim. 4. [10.] Servator omni-
* brarum eripuit, quin etiam pecca- um ma- ch [maxime creden-
“‘toribus cumulum prevaricationis tium? |
“adjecit. Sine gratia quippe fidei 74 John vi; Esai. lili; 1 John ii;
“ gravius lex agnita quam ignorata 2Cor.v; 2 Pet. ii. 1.

“condemnat. Ubi quantum igno- 75 Heb. ii.g.
*rantia peccati minuitur, tantum

how reconcilable with some being cast away. 575

God’s principal desire touching man’s happiness is not always satis-
fied. It is on all sides confest, that his will in this kind oftentimes
succeedeth not ; the cause whereof is a personal impediment making
particular men uneable [uncapable ?] of that good which the will of
his general providence did ordain for mankind. So that from God,
as it were by a secondary kind of will, there groweth now destruc-
tion and death, although otherwise the will of his voluntary inclina-
tion towards man would effect the contrary. For the which cause
the Wise Man directly teacheth, that death is not a thing which
God hath made or devised with intent to have so many thousands
eternally therein devoured: that condemnation is not the end
wherefore God did create any man, although it be an event or con-
sequent which man’s unrighteousness causeth God to decree. The
_ decree of condemnation is an act of hatred ; the cause of hatred in
God is not his own inclination thereunto: for his nature is, to hate
nothing which he hath made ; therefore the cause of this affection
towards man must needs be in man some quality whereof God is
himself no author. The decree of condemnation is an act of divine
justice. Justice doth not purpose punishment for an end, and faults
as means to attain that end: for so it should be a just thing to
desire that men might be unjust: but justice always presupposing
sin which it loveth not, decreeth punishment as a consequent wherein
it taketh otherwise no pleasure. Finally, if death be decreed as a
punishment, the very nature of punishment we know is such as
implieth faultiness going before ; without which we must give unto
it some other name, but a punishment it cannot be. So that the
nature of God’s goodness, the nature of justice, and the nature of
death itself, are all opposite to their opinion, if any will be of opin-
ion, that God hath eternally decreed condemnation without the
foresight of sin as a cause. The place of Judas was locus swus, a
place of his own proper procurement. Devils were not ordained of
God for hell-fire, but hell-fire for them ; and for men, so far forth
as it was foreseen, that men would be like them. There are speeches
in Scripture, where we read of Christ himself laid in Sion as a stone
to stumble at, and a rock to make men fall: of the wicked created
to the day of wrath, fashioned to destruction, fore-ordained to con-
demnation. But the words are ambiguous. For inasmuch as ends
and events have this common, that they are the last thing which
befalleth, therefore the same phrase of speech doth usually serve in
both. But our understanding must distinguish where the one is
meant, and not the other. Where we say that man is born to die,
we mean that death is the event of his birth. When we teach that
Christ died to redeem the world, we mean that the end of his death

BOOK V.
Appendix I.
[35-]

P. 30.7

576 Sin foreseen, the Cause of Reprobation.

was redemption. The determination of God therefore touching re-
probates, is of Damascen’> termed aptly enough a consequent will,
forasmuch as it presupposeth in man a just and deserved cause
leading him who is most holy thereunto.

[35-] There is not in this life any cross or calamity, be it never
so short, but when we suffer it at the hands of God, his own most
sacred will directeth us unto sin as the very root out of which
originally it groweth: and because we are sinful, therefore the
burden under which we groan, we impute to none but to ourselves
only. Now if all the miseries, plagues, and torments of the whole
world could be laid upon one back and th... [that to endure ?] as
long as a million of worlds, should he be able (one succeeding an-
other) to continue: what were this unto those torments, which,
when they have worn out that time oftener doubled and multiplied —
than any number can comprehend, are not one jot nearer to an end,
than they were when they first begun, but are still to endure even
as long as there is in heaven a God of power to extend them fur-
ther? And shall we think that to these torments he hath for the
only manifestation of his power adjudged by an eternal decree the
greatest part of the very noblest of all his creatures, without any
respect of sin foreseen in them? Lord, thou art just and severe,
but not cruel. And seeing all the ancient Fathers of the Church of
Christ have evermore with uniform consent agreed, that reproba-
tion presupposeth foreseen sin, as a most just cause whereupon it
groundeth itself: sin at the least original in them whose portion of
eternal punishment is easiest, as they that suffer but the only loss
of the joys of heaven: sin of several degrees in them whose plagues
accordingly by the same act of reprobation were proportioned : let
us not in this case of all other remove the limits and bounds which
our fathers before us have set.

But seeing all unrighteousness is of its own nature offensive to
God, and in that whole mass which containeth, together with Satan
and his retinue, Adam and Adam’s natural posterity without ex-
ception of any one, we find from the first to the last none in whom
there is not unrighteousness, either actual, or at the least original ;
shall we therefore conclude that death and condemnation are even
as largely decreed as sin is itself spread? Behold mercy hath found
a way how to triumph over justice, love how to bury the cause of
hatred, grace how to save that which unrighteousness would destroy.
There is an act of God’s most favourable determination, which the
Apostle usually termeth the good pleaswre of Almighty God, by

75 Ns supra. ] the margin of the MS. But to what
76 |'This reference stands here in book it relates does not appear. |

577

which good pleasure the first chosen to eternal life is Christ Jesus,
for his own worthiness’ sake ; with and under him the elect angels
which had no spot nor blemish foreseen ; in and through him no small
number of men also, taken out of the flames of that general com-
bustion, to be made vessels of his honour, partakers of his felicity
and bliss, inheritors of his indefeasible glory ; angels elect in Christ
the Lord, men in Christ the physician of the world, the decree of
God being ever as certain touching the very least. of these, as it is
of the angels themselves, yea of Christ Jesus, if he, they, and we, be
all elect before the foundations of the world were laid, and the
election of all three an act of God’s unchangeable will.

[36.] When Pelagius, to the utter overthrow of soundness in
Christian belief, had denied that man is born in original sin, and
taught that every man hath in himself power to accomplish his own
salvation by himself, or at least to merit what help soever besides
he should need to receive at the hands of God: St. Augustin, to
repress so intolerable insolency, pride, and presumption against God,
was drawn by degrees from the consideration of that which man
doeth by way of duty towards God, to the contemplation of that
which God did by way of secret decree and purpose concerning man
before the foundations of the world were laid. For whereas Pelagius
did make merit the cause of grace, St. Augustin derived graces from
the well-spring of God’s eternal predestination. His opinion was,
at the furst”’, that God foreseeing who would believe and who would
not, did for their belief’s sake choose the one sort, and reject the
other for their incredibility [sic] : that unto them whose belief he
foresaw, the grace of well doing was also fore-ordained ; the rest,
forsaken, left, and given over to be hardened in their own impiety :
that faith was the cause of all men’s election, the Spirit of sanctifi-
cation, bestowed on the elect, to the end they might bring forth the
fruit of good works, and obtain the reward of eternal life. But the
error of Pelagius, after examined, gave him occasion to retract this
sentence’®, which maketh faith to prevent grace, and the election of

Predestination to life: St. Augustin’s Doctrine.

77 [Prop. ex Epist. ad Rom. Ex-
pos. § 62. sup. c.ix.19. “Sic re-
** spondet (Apostolus) ut intelliga-
** mus,...patere posse prima merita
‘¢ fidei et impietatis, quomodo Deus
** preescius eligat credituros et dam-
*‘ net incredulos ; nec illos ex operi-
** bus eligens, nec istos ex operibus
** damnans; sed illorum fidei pree-
** stans ut bene operentur, et isto-
‘rum impietatem obdurans dese-
* rendo ut male operentur.” Ibid.

HOOKER, VOL. IT.

§ 60. sup. c. ix. 11-13. “‘ Non ergo
*‘ elegit. Deus opera in cujusquam
** preescientia, que ipse daturus est ;
** sed fidem elegit in preescientia ;
*‘ ut quem sibi crediturum esse pree-
** scivit, ipsum elegerit cui Spiritum
** Sanctum daret, ut bona operando
“ etiam vitam zternam consequere-
* tur.” t, ill, pars 2. 918, 916. comp.
ee Hilar. § 3. ap. S. Aug. t. x.
8

78 [Retract, i. c. 23. 2,3. ti. 34.
Pp

iRPARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE

BOOK V.
Appendix I,
[36.]

BOOK V.
Appendix I,
[37-]

578 Debate of the French Clergy with St. Augustin.

God to follow upon the foresight of our virtue. His latter judg-
ment therefore was, that the whole body of mankind, in the view of
God’s eternal knowledge, lay universally polluted with sin, worthy
of condemnation and death : that over the mass of corruption there
passed two acts of the will of God: an act of favour, liberality, and
grace, choosing part to be made partakers of everlasting glory ; and
an act of justice, forsaking the rest, and adjudging them to endless
perdition, these vessels of wrath, those of mercy, which mercy is to
God’s elect so peculiar, that to them and to none else (for their
number is definitely known, and can neither be increast nor dimin-
ished) to them it allotteth immortality and all things thereunto
appertaining ; them it predestinateth, it calleth, justifieth, glorifieth
them, it poureth voluntarily that spirit into their hearts, which
spirit so given is the root of their very first desires and motions,
tending to immortality: as for others, on whom such grace is not
bestowed, there is justly assigned, and immutably to every of them,
the lot of eternal condemnation”.

[37-] The first publication of these things, never before descended
into, troubled exceedingly the minds of many®. For a time they
rested silent, as if some thunder from heaven had astonisht them, till
at the length a part of the clergy of Marseilles in France, and when
the ice was once broken, sundry others begun to doubt®!, both that
grace and that predestination, which St. Augustin the glory of those
times had delivered. Their seruple touching grace, was, whether God
bestow his Spirit before it be askt, laboured and sought for, or else
after®2: 2. touching predestination, whether certain be absolutely
ordained unto life, or every man living capable thereof, and no man’s
predestination so necessary but that he may perish, neglecting the
means whereby salvation must be attained, and may neglect the

means if he will®*, Prosper, at that time a man of very good —
account in France ; and Hilary, whose learning was no whit less, —

De Predestin. Sanct. c. iii, t. x. : 82 [ Prosper. ap. Aug. x. 782. See
798 Vide (int. al.) De Nat. et Grat. 8 ibid 86 2g eas. et
c.5. t.x.129 G. Contr. Julian. v. “ preedestinationem, vel propositum,
c. 6. p. 636 C. De Corrept. et Grat. “ad id valere contendunt, ut eos
* Blatle ate ote Seca ee
of A meats was ‘especially dis § od ituri.. . Nofunt gutta ita...
turbed, which gave occasion to the “ perseverantiam preedicari, ut non

treatise de Gratia et Libero Arbitrio, ‘‘ vel suppliciter emereri vel amitti

and to that de Correptione et Gratia. ‘ contumaciter possit.”” It appears
See the correspondence of St. Au- from Prosper’s letter, that many of
gustin with Valentinus, t.ii.791-9.] the objectors to absolute predestina-
81 [See the letters of Prosper and tion did not share the scruple about
Hilary to S. Aug. t. x. 779-787.] preventing grace. See § 3, 4.]

579

his authority and place in the Church greater84, both devoted to
St. Augustin : the one®, persuaded of the opinion, but not sufficiently
instructed to defend it, the other loath86 to dissent, yet fearful also
to be over hastily carried ; these sent into Africa their letters most
effectually and largely written, omitting no part of that respect
which St. Augustin’s dignity and quality did well deserve ; neither
concealing from him what questions and doubts had grown upon his
former writings. or their own satisfaction they desired to learn
how they might soundly maintain, that grace doth begin, continue,
and finish the work of man’s salvation, without taking away that
natural freedom8’, whereby we know the will unconstrainedly always
worketh. 2. Again, which way it should be safest to deliver the
doctrine of immutable predestination both to glory and to grace ;
that neither the Fathers might be rejected, with whom his former
did more agree%8, than his latter opinion, nor yet exhortations to
godliness and virtue be the less regarded89, as things unnecessary

Predestination. Scruples of Augustin’s Contemporaries.

84 [He being Bishop of Arles:
although the Benedictine editor
doubts their identity. }

85 [Prosper, ubi sup. § 7. “ Pos-
** sumus quidem ad non credendum
* esse constantes, sed ad auctorita-
“tem talia sentientium non sumus
** pares.”” |

86 [Hil. ubi sup. § 10. ‘“ Nolo
*‘sanctitas tua sic me arbitretur
“hee scribere, quasi de iis que
*‘ nunc edidisti ego dubitem.”’....
§ 9. “ Tue sancte prudentize est
“ dispicere quid facto opus sit, ut
*‘talium et tantorum superetur vel
“temperetur intentio.” Prosper, §
9, intimates that Hilary (if it were
the same Hilary) was among the
number of the objectors. ]

87 | Prosper. ubi supr. § 8. “ Dig-
‘*neris aperire.....quomodo per
istam preoperantem et cooperan-
“tem gratiam liberum non impedi-
“ atur arbitrium.” |
- 88 (Id. ibid. “ Illud etiam qualiter
* diluatur, quesumus, patienter in-
*‘ sipientiam nostram ferendo, de-
** monstres, quod retractatis priorum
** de hac re opinionibus, pene omni-
* um par invenitur et una sententia,
* qua propositum et preedestinati-
** onem Dei secundum prescientiam
** receperant; ut ob hoc Deus alios
** vasa honoris, alios contumeliz

* fecerit, quia finem uniuscujusque
* preeviderit, et sub ipso gratiz ad-
**jutorio qua futurus esset volun-
‘* tate et actione presciverit.” Hil.
Ep. ad Aug. § 8. “ Parvulorum
*causam ad exemplum majorum
“non patiuntur adferri. Quam et
*tuam sanctitatem dicunt eatenus
** adtigisse, ut incertum esse volu-
“eris, ac potius de eorum peenis
** malueris dubitari... Hoc etiam de
* aliorum libris, quorum est in Ec-
*‘clesia auctoritas, faciunt, quod
* perspicit sanctitas tua non parum
** posse juvare contradictores, nisi
** majora, aut certe vel paria profe-
“ rantur a nobis.” |

89 [Prosp. ubi supr. “ Quemad-
** modum per hanc preordinationem
* propositi Dei, quo fideles fiunt
“qui preordinati sunt ad vitam
** eternam, nemo eorum qui cohor-
“ tandi sunt impediatur, nec occa-
“sionem negligentie habeant, si
“‘ se predestinatos esse desperent.”
Hil. ubi supr.§ 5. ‘ Asserunt in-
“ utilem exhortandi consuetudinem,
‘* si nihil in homine remansisse dici-
“tur, quod correptio valeat excitare
SESS Si sic preedestinati sunt, in-
* quiunt, ad utramque partem, ut
" de aliis ad alios nullus possit ac-
** cedere, quo pertinet tanta extrin-
** secus correptionis instantia ?”’ ]

Pp2

BOOK Vv.
Appendix I,
[37+]

BOOK V.
Appendix I.
(37-]

Exertions of Prosper.

580 Death of Augustin.

for them, who in such sort are already ordained to life, and unpro-
fitable for them which are not ; whereby it appeareth that as yet it
was not clear in St. Augustin’s books whether the grace and predes-
tination which he taught would enforce an absolute necessity of
belief and salvation, such as the Schoolmen call necessitatem conse-
quentis® ; which indeed would have taken away freewill, and made
all instructions and exhortations superfluous. This gave occasion of
writing afterwards many treatises9!, whereby (as commonly in such
cases it falleth out) some were mervailous well pleased, some waxed
fiercer and bolder to contradict. Not long after the rising of these
flames 92, St. Augustin dieth without any equal in the Church of
Christ from that day to this. This defence Prosper undertook and
sustained with all constancy for the space of thirty-six years 3 fol-
lowing. In which time, being aided by Pope Celestin94 and Leo%,
he much weakened the Pelagian heresy, and lived not only to see

9 [E. g. Tho. Aquin. Quest. de
Verit. q. xxiv. art. i. Resp. ad 13™.
«* Ex prescientia Dei, non potest
“ concludi quod actus nostri sint
“‘ necessarii necessitate absoluta,
** quze dicitur necessitas consequen-
* tis; sed necessitate conditionata,
‘* quee dicitur necessitas consequen-
“ tie.” t. vill. 443. f. Venet. 1593. |

91 [T.e. De Praedestinatione Sanct-
orum, De Dono Perseverantize, and
perhaps, in part, the second reply to
Julian, which St. Augustine did not
live to finish. But this latter Hooker
had not seen. It was first published
by Vignier in 1653. ]

92 [The letters of Hilary and
Prosper are dated by the Benedict-
ines A. D. 429: St. Augustin died
430, Aug. 28.

93 [Prosper (having been, as is
supposed, twenty-two years Bishop
of Riez in Provence) died June 25,
466. See his Life prefixed to his
works, Lyons 1539.

4 [See his letter to the bishops of
Gaul, A. D. 431, in which at the re-
quest of Prosper and Hilary he gives
what was interpreted to be an offi-
cial sanction to the views of St. Au-
gustin in his later works. See Con-
cil. ii. 1612, and Prosper contr.
Collatorem (Cassian.) sub fin. p.
163, 164: who states amongst other
things that Celestine caused Pela-

gius’s most active supporter, Celes-
tius, to be exiled from Italy. “Nec
* vero segniore cura ab hoc eodem
“‘morbo Britannias liberavit, quando
*‘ quosdam inimicos gratiz solum
* sue originis occupantes” (for
Pelagius, as is well known, was a
Briton) ‘ etiam ab illo secreto ex-
** clusit Oceanis et ordinato Scotis
** Episcopo, dum Romanam insu-
‘lam studet servare catholicam,
“fecit etiam barbaram Christi-
* anam.”” |

9% [Prosper. de Promiss. et Prea-
dict. Dei, dimid. Temp. c.vi. “ In
“* Italia quoque nobis apud Campa-

*‘ niam constitutis, dum venerabilis —

** et apostolico honore nominandus
** Papa Leo Manichzos subverteret,

** et contereret Pelagianos et maxime ~

* Julianum,” &c. p. 111 A. Pho-
tius, Biblioth. ¢c. 54. Ilpdomepds tis,
avOpwros ws aAnOds rod Ceo,
ABedArAovs Kar avrdv emidedaxas,
apaveis avrovs ameipydcato, ert

A€oyros Tod mpoetpnuevov rov ‘Po=- —

paixdy Opdvov iBivovros. See two

Epistles of St. Leo to the bishops —

of the Venetian province, circ. A. D.

444, with directions what kind of —
recantation should be required of —

the Pelagians returning to the
Church; which imply a consider
able movement of that kind. Con
cil. ili, 1388, 90.] ee

d

4

—— ——-

Pelagianism after St. Augustin: Faustus : 581

the open recantation of Julian% then best learned on that part,
against whom before St. Augustin had written, but also to frame
and to set down with his own hand those Canons which being
agreed upon by the Arausican Synod 97, St. Augustin’s opinion
touching grace prevailed for ever after, and the contrary was clean
crusht.

[38.] Prosper’s successor 98 was one Faustus, not in wit and industry,
nor eloquence inferior unto Prosper, only behind him in soundness
of faith. He therefore refelleth Pelagius99 as touching sufficiency
of nature in itself without grace, to the end that with less suspicion
he might notwithstanding defend with Pelagius!, that grace is not
given without the merit of present labour, and endeavour to obtain

the same.
was incurable.

But the wound, which Pelagius in both had received,
Fulgentius? therefore after Prosper’s death, op-

pugned whatsoever Faustus either wrote, or did, in that cause

96 [ Prosper. Chron. Theodos. xvii.
et Festo Coss. (A. D. 439.) “ Hee
** tempestate Julianus Athelenensis
*‘jactantissimus Pelagiani erroris
*assertor, quem dudum amissi
*episcopatus intemperans cupido
** exagitabat, multimoda arte fallendi
*‘ correctionis spem preferens, mo-
*‘ litus [molitur ?] in communionem
** Ecclesiz irrepere; sed his insidiis
** Sixtus Papa diaconi Leonis hortatu
** vigilanter occurrens nullum adi-
‘tum pestiferis conatibus patere
** permisit; et ita omnes catholicos
** defectione fallacis bestiz gaudere
** fecit, quasi tunc primum super-
** bissimam heeresin apostolicus gla-
* dius detruncasset.” In Bibl. Patr.
Colon. t.v. pars iii. 193. |

97 Anno 430. [This date in the
Dublin Transcript seems to have
strayed from its place: it being the
date of St. Augustin’s death, men-
tioned above; whereas the second
council of Orange was held A. D.

29. From the ninth to the twenty-
ourth of what are called the Arau-
sican Canons are dicta of St. Au-
stin on the subjects of grace and
ee-will, which had been mostly
extracted by Prosper in his Sen-
tences, and may therefore with much
sees be supposed to have
een adopted by that council from
him. See Concil. ii. ro99. ed. Har-
duin. |

98 [That is, in the bishopric of
Riez: but Tillemont seems to have
demonstrated that Prosper never
was Bishop of Riez. Mémoires
pour servir a l’Histoire Ecclésias-
tique, t. xvi. p. 27. |

99 [De lib. Arbitr. lib. i. c. 1, 2.]

1 [In the rest of the same trea-
tise.| ‘‘ Priorem volunt obedientiam
** quam gratiam, ut initium salutis
** ex eo quod Salvator [qui salvatur,
** non ex eo credendum sit stare qui
** salvat.”” Prosp. ap. Aug. x. 782.
Mr. Gibbings states, that this un-
finished sentence is written on the
line * Prosper’s successor,” &c. in
the D. MS. and remarks that the
reading to which Hooker refers may
allude to St. John vii. 17. |

2 [Bishop of Ruspa in Africa from
A. D. 508, to A. D. 533. Vit. Fulg.
c. 30, in Bibl. Patr. Colon. vi. 11. g.
and Basnage, Annales, iii. 618.
His tracts on this controversy were,
1. De Incarnatione et Gratia: writ-
ten A. D. 520, in the name of sixty
bishops of Africa, then exiled to
Sardinia by the Arian Vandals.
2. Seven books against Faustus:
written in his second exile, A. D.
522, and now lost. 3. The first of
the three Books to Monimus: the
subject of which is “ God’s twofold
** Predestination ;” the date uncer-
tain. |

BOOK V.
Appendix I,
[38.] _

582 Writings of Fulgentius: Recantation of Lucidus.

BooK v. against St. Augustin ; by means whereof their doctrine could not
a, e prevail, as otherwise it might have done. But in the matter of
= grace, they were utterly overthrown. Nevertheless? being loath
that the world should think they had for no just cause contended,

whereas they had amongst them one Lucidus a priest, very earnest

in defence of absolute predestination, and thereby fallen into divers
absurdities, which St. Augustin, the master whom he pretended to

follow, had never held ; him when. Faustus had brought to be of

another mind, they assembled a Synod4, whereat some twenty and

six Bishops met together, gave their sentence against his opinions,

and took the recantation of Lucidus, submitting his former judg-

ment to the order of this their Synod, and pronouncing® accursed

openly, 1. all such as either with Pelagius save man by man’s mere —

labour, or as others by predestination though labour want: 2. all

such as hold, that no man perisheth but for original sin only: 3. or,

that God’s foreknowledge presseth down into hell: 4. or, that God

is wanting to all them which perish, rather than they wanting to
themselves: 5. or, that vessels of contumely cannot rise to be vessels

of honour, though they would: 6. or, that Christ did not die for —

all men, neither would have all men saved. Wherein it clearly —
appeareth, that the first of these rehearsed articles condemneth —
Pelagianism only so far forth as Faustus approved it not: the rest of —

8 [This word would seem to con-
nect the proceedings against Luci-
dus with the attack of Fulgentius ;
but the former took place A. D. 475,
or thereabouts: a full generation
before Fulgentius flourished. |

4 [At Arles, Leontius archbishop
of that city presiding. Conc. Har-
duin. ii. 806. Some copies make
the number of bishops present to
have been thirty. Faustus in his
dedication to Leontius intimates
that his work on Free-will had the
approbation of this synod and of
another at Lyons. Bibl. Patr. Colon.
t. V. pars 3, p. 503.

5 (Faust, ie J cia ibid. p.
526. “ Cum gratia Domini opera-
**tionem baptizati famuli semper
*‘ adjungas ; et eum, qui preedesti-
* nationem excluso labore hominis
“ asserit, cum Pelagii dogmate de-
“ testeris. Anathema ergo illi, qui
“inter reliquas Pelagii impietates
* hominem sine peccato nasci, et per
* solum laborem posse salvari, dam-

*‘ nanda presumtione contenderit,
* et qui eum sine gratia Dei liberari
‘* posse crediderit. Item anathema
** ili, qui hominem cum fideli con-

** fessione solenniter baptizatum, et - :

* asserentem catholicam fidem, et
“ postmodum per diversa mundi
* hujus oblectamenta prolapsum, in
** Adam et originale peccatum [ori-
** ginali peccato ? | periisse asseruerit.
** Item, anathema illi, qui per Dei
** preescientiam in mortem deprimi
€ Tae dixerit. Item anathema
“ illi, qui dixerit illum qui periit non
*“accepisse ut salvus esse posset:
‘i, e. de baptizato, vel de illius
“ getatis pagano, qui eredere potuit
‘et noluit. Item anathema illi,
“ qui dixerit quod vas contumeliz
‘non possit adsurgere ut sit vas
“in honorem. Item anathema illi,
** qui dixerit quod Christus non pro
‘omnibus mortuus sit, nec omnes
** homines salvos esse velit.”” Comp.
Conc. Harduin. t. ii. p. 807.]

Summary of the Doctrine of Predestination. 583

the articles would closely insinuate, that Lucidus by following St. Book v.

Augustin’s doctrine against Pelagius in that point, (where Faustus
was himself a Pelagian,) had fallen into those absurdities and follies,
which now he forsakes. But by this we see how the question about
both grace and predestination, being first set on foot by St. Augustin,
was afterwards both followed with and against him, as men’s capa-
cities and other accidents gave occasion at that time. But surely
his judgment of predestination was far enough from such phrenetical
opinions, as, in that Fathers’ synod, Lucidus did renounce %,
1. Predestination, as St. Augustin himself taught it, doth no way
diminish the great necessity of labour required at our hands: nor
2. import that original sin is the only cause of destruction or expro-
bation [sic] ; nor 3. that God’s foreknowledge is a cause why any
man doth perish: nor 4. that the grace of God is withheld from
any man but justly and deservedly: 5. nor that any man in whom
[sic] desire and endeavour to be saved, can be a vessel of contumely
and wrath: nor 6. that Christ did ever purpose and determine to
exclude any from the benefit of his death, but whom their own
incurable wickedness doth worthily exclude.

_{39.] To proceed therefore with the rest : we have seen the general
- inclination of God towards all men’s everlasting happiness notwith-
standing sin: we have seen that this natural love of God towards
mankind, was the cause of appointing or predestinating Christ to
suffer for the sins of the whole world: we have seen that our Lord,
who made himself a sacrifice for our sins, did it in the bowels of a
merciful desire that no man might perish: We have seen that God
nevertheless hath found most just occasion to decree the death and
condemnation of some: we have seen that the whole cause, why
such are excluded from life, resteth altogether in themselves: we
have seen that the natural will of God being inclined towards all
men’s salvation, and his occasioned will having set down the death

6 [Ibid. 809. “ Damno vobiscum
*sensum illum, qui dicit humane
** obedientize laborem divine gratize
** non esse jungendum, . ,. Qui dicit
« quod post acceptum legitime bap-
? dombsi in ya tos moriatur qui-
** cunque deliquerit...... Qui dicit
** quod prescientia Dei hominem
* violenter compellat ad mortem. .

** Profiteor etiam zternos ignes et
** infernales flammas factis capitali-
“bus preparatas: quia perseve-
* rantes humanas culpas merito se-

“ quitur divina justitia; quam juste
** incurrunt qui hec non toto corde
“ crediderint. ..Libens fateor Chris-
* tum etiam pro perditis advenisse,
** quia eodem nolente perierunt. .

9 $i Christum his tantum remedia
*‘ attulisse dicimus, qui redempti
** sunt, videbimur absolvere non re-
“ demptos, quos pro redemptione
“contempta constat esse punien-
“dos.” The fifth head does not
occur, either in the councils or in
the Bibliotheca Patrum. |

Appendix I,
[39.]

BOOK V.
Appendix I.
[40.]

i ae > Re:

584 Outward Means of applying God’s Mercy.

but of some in such consideration as hath been shewed ; it must
needs follow, that of the rest there is a determinate ordinance,
proceeding from the good pleasure of God, whereby they are, and
have been, before all worlds, predestinated heirs of eternal bliss.
We have seen that in Christ the Prince of God’s elect all worthiness
was foreseen ; that in the elect angels there was not foreseen any
matter for just indignation and wrath to work upon; that in all
other God foresaw iniquity, for which an irrevocable sentence of
death and condemnation might most justly have past over all. For
it can never be too often inculcated, that touching the very decree
of endless destruction and death, God is the judge from whom it
cometh, but man the cause of which it grew. Salvation contrariwise
and life proceedeth only both from God and of God. We are re-
ceivers through grace and mercy, authors, through merit and desert,
we are not, of our own salvation. In the children of perdition,
we must always remember that of the Prophet’, Thy destruction,
O Israel, is of thyself, lest we teach men blasphemously to cast the
blame of all their misery on God. Again, lest we take to ourselves
the glory of that happiness, which if he did not voluntarily and
freely bestow, we should never be made partakers thereof; it must
ever in the election of saints be remembered, that to choose is an
act of God’s good pleasure, which presupposeth in us sufficient cause
to avert, but none to deserve tt. For this cause, whereas St. Augus-
tin had sometimes been of opinion that God chose Jacob and hated
Esau, the one in regard of belief, the other of infidelity, which was
foreseen, his mind he afterwards delivered thus®: “‘ Jacob I hawe
“ loved, behold what God doth bestow freely : ‘Z have hated Esau,’
“ behold what man doth justly deserve.”

[40.] It remaineth therefore that we come now unto those things
about ourselves, which by God’s own appointment are means of bring-
ing his desire, and our Saviour’s merit, finally to that effect, which
they both covet. Christ is a mean unto God for us. But this suf-
ficeth not, unless there be also the means of application which God
requireth, the decree of whose good pleasure, touching man’s salva-
tion, includeth both the one and the other. Christ in himself hath
that cup of life, which is able to do all men good. Sed si non bibitur,
non medetur, saith Prosper®, if we taste not, it heals not. There are

7 Hos. iv. 6; viii. 8; ix.15; xili.g. ‘ quid homini donaretur; et in eo
8 Prosp. Respons.ad Exceptiones ‘* quod dictum est, Esau autem odio
[Excerpta] Gen. [in App. ad Aug. ‘“* habui, ostensum esse quid homini
t. x. p.215. “In eo quod dictum ‘“* deberetur.’’]
“est, Jacob dilexi, ostensum esse 9 Prosp. Resp. ad Ob. [Respons,

Jee ei te a tae » 7 ..

God’s outward Grace to the Jews could not be merited. 585

means which God hath appointed towards us, means to be in us,
and means which are to proceed from us. The mean towards us, is
that grace, whereby we are outwardly called, and chose into the
fellowship of God’s people. The Jews were persuaded, that God,
for the love he bare unto Abraham’s integrity and virtue, did, in
lieu of his obedience and faithful service, make him the root of a
sanctified generation of men on earth; and that God bringeth no
man to life, which is not either born, or else adopted the son of
Abraham : circumcised also as he was, and consequently tied to all
the laws which Abraham’s posterity received at the hands of Moses.
For which cause the very Christian Jews themselves were offended
when they saw that the Apostles did impart the grace of external
vocation to the Gentiles, and never tie them to any such conditions,
It seemed new and strange in their eyes, that the nations which so
long had lived in ignorance, idolatry, and utter contempt of God,
should, notwithstanding all their wickedness, now, not as proselytes,
but universally without any bond of subjection to the law of Moses,
be received into favour, and his ancient elect people be shaken off,
This gave the Apostle occasion to enter into many mysteries, and to
handle with a bleeding heart things, which his own very pen even
_ trembleth sometimes to set down. But concerning the grace of their
outward vocation to the means of eternal life, he which asketh,
“ Hath any man given unto God first, and soe by desert made him
“a debtor,” though for horror’s [honour’s?] sake he name not
Abraham, must notwithstanding needs mean, that the adoption of
him and his seed, to be a sanctified generation, a church visible to
God on earth, the glory of his residence and miraculous presence
amongst them, the covenants, law, service, promises, with other
the like spiritual prerogatives, as to [be?] the father of a race of so
many holy patriarchs, and to be Christ’s own principal progenitor,
was more than God could owe unto Abraham. Yet not so much,
but that they, which were of this line and posterity, might after-
wards, in time to come, by virtue of these preeminencies, afford
matter for the building of that ark, which the Gentiles should enter
into, and they themselves, in the deluge of their own infidelity,
perish: God towards them being deservedly just, and towards the.
nations of the world undeservedly merciful. For we must note,
there is an election, the grace whereof includeth their temporary

ad Capitula Objectionum Vincenti- “ nostra et virtute divina, habet qui-
anarum. App. ad Aug. t. x. 208. ‘‘ dem in se ut omnibus prosit ; sed
*“ Poculum quippe immortalitatis, “ si non bibitur, non medetur.’’]

** quod confectum est de infirmitate

-

BOOK V.
Appendix I,
[40.]

586 . Variety in the Measures of outward Grace,

BOOK V. benefit, that are chosen, and there is an election that includeth their

Appendix
[41.]

eternal good. By temporary I do not understand any secular or

worldly blessing, of which nature God bestowed plenty upon that —

people ; but I mean such spiritual favours, as albeit they tend to
everlasting felicity, yet are not themselves everlastingly continued,
neither are inwardly infused, but outwardly bestowed graces, as all
those preeminencies were upon the nations of the Jews, and that
through God’s mere mercy towards them. God, by the laws of his
providence, hath stinted the degrees and measures of that outward
grace, which from time to time he hath offered. To the Jews that
was given, which to all other nations of the world besides was de-
nied ; according to that of the Prophet in the Psalm °, God hath not
so dealt with every nation, neither have the people knowledge of his
ways, in such sort, degree, and measure, as that only people had.
Of the later age of the world it is said, God did never so discover
the holy mysteries of his saving truth, since the beginning of the
world, as to us they are now manifested 9 : this abundance of grace,
which God hath now poured out, doth not argue that to Israel grace

was wanting, because it was less. Wee de illa ewra Dei que Patri- —

archarum filiis proprie presidebat conjiciendum est gubernacula
Divine misericordie ceteris omnibus [hominibus| fuisse subtracta.
Qui quidem in comparatione electorum videntur abjecti, sed nunquam
sunt manifestis.... benefictis abdicati?®, God left not himself with-
out testimony amongst them: what testimony, saith Prosper ” ;
Quod est hoc testimonium, quod semper Domino deservivit, et nunquam
de ejus bonitate ac potestate conticuit, nisi ipsa totvus mundi imenar=
rabilis pulchritudo, et inenarrabilium beneficiorum ejus dives et or-
dinata largitio; per que humanis cordibus quedam eterne legis
tabule prebebuntur, ut in paginis elementorum ac voluminibus tem-
porum communis et publica diwine institutionis doctrina legeretwr.
[41.] If it be therefore demanded, why the Jews had the law of God,
and not the Gentiles in former times ? or why afterward those out-
ward means of conversion, which prevailed nothing with Corazin,
Bethsaida, and Capernaum }%, were not bestowed upon Tyre and
Sidon, or upon Sodom, where they had been able to take effect as
our Saviour himself witnesseth? or why his disciples for a time
were forbidden to preach to Gentiles and Samaritans", till first
they had gone to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, with whom
8 Piatt! oe 11 Acts xiv. [17.]
9 | Eph. iii. 5.] 12 Prosp. ibidem.
- 10 Prosp. de 2. 1. [de Vocat. Gent. 13 Matt. xi. 21.

li. 4. * Bibl, PP. Colon. V, iii. 14 Matt. x. 6.
175. ¢.

consistent with Probation: exclusive of Merit. 587

they spent their labour in vain? or why the Apostles were hindered
by the Spirit?°, when they meant to have preached in Asia: why
stayed, when their purpose was towards Bithynia for the same in-
tent ; arid yet that grace not denied altogether unto those countries,

- _ but deferred only? what should we answer touching these things,

but that God hath made of one blood?® all mankind, to dwell upon
the face of the whole earth, and hath assigned the times which were
ordained before, together with the seasons, bounds, and limits, as of
all things, so of grace itself, which whensoever it least shineth,
ministereth always if not sufficient light to guide in the way of life,
yet competent to give men that introduction, which clearer light
would make complete, but that too much love of one kind of dark-
ness or other hath been the world’s perpetual impediment, and to
some a cause, not only of having the offer of [more ?] grace with-
drawn clean, but the very former possession of less also taken from
them.

That thus it stood with the Jewish nation, that all those spiritual
favours of grace which God had bestowed upon them were volun-
tary : that his choice of the Jews before others hereunto was free,
and on their part without desert: that he in his promise made to
their fathers remained steadfast, but the true construction thereof
they did not conceive, because they were obstinate and would not
understand : finally, that whereas the light, which their fathers
would have greatly rejoiced to see, had presented itself to them,
and was rejected ; if God did now depart from them being thus
repelled, and were content to be found of the Gentiles, who sought
not him, but he them; as the one had no cause to grudge, so
neither had the other any to boast: all this the Apostle proveth in
the ninth, the tenth, and eleventh to the Romans. At the length,
in consideration that they sometimes were a people, whom God so
wonderfully did affect ; a people, to whom he had given so many
privileges, honours, preeminences, above the rest of the whole world;
a people, with whose forefathers he had made so many covenants
and leagues of mercy: a people, for whose advancement so mighty
nations had been quelled ; a people, for whose defence the angels
had taken arms, the sun and moon been stayed in their course: a
people, that had filled heaven with so many Patriarchs, Prophets,
Saints, Martyrs ; a people, that had been the well-spring of life to
all nations : a people, the top of whose kindred sitteth at the right
hand of God, and is the author of salvation unto all the world :—

15 Acts xvi. [6.] 16 Acts xvii. 26.

BOOK V.
Appendix I,
[41.]

588 St. Paul’s View of the Case of the Jews.

nook v. these things considered in such sort, as we may think an apostolic

Aprenxl spirit did consider them after long discourse against them ; the

————~ question is moved, Hath God then clean cast off his people ? Not his
people eternally chosen. Be it far from us so to think. But is there
no hope that the very nation itself shall recover what it now hath
lost? Have they stumbled to the end they might fall? God forbid.
Nay, their fall hath occasioned salvation to arise unto the Gentiles,
and the Gentiles not unlikely to be a mean of restoring salvation
unto them again. That as now they are losers to our gain, so in
time our gain may be their abundance. And as we, being some-
times unbelievers, have at the length obtainéd mercy ; so they at
the length may find mercy, although they be now unbelievers, and
thus God, who is all-merciful, become merciful towards all}.
“ O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
* how unsearchable are his judgments, and his footsteps how im-
“ possible to be traced out !” GX ais

This may suffice touching outward grace, whereby God inviteth
the whole world to receive wisdom, and hath opened the gates of
his visible Church unto all, thereby testifying his will and purpose
to have all saved, if the let were not in themselves.

[42.] The inward mean, whereby his will is to bring men to eter-
nal life, is that grace of his Holy Spirit, which hath been spoken of
already at large, in the article that concerneth free-will. Now from
whom this inward gracé is either withheld altogether, or withdrawn,
such, being left to themselves, wax hard and obdurate in sin.
Touching the manner of their obduration, it hath been ever on all
sides confest, that the malice of man’s own heart doth harden him,
and nothing else. Therefore in the Psalm it is said’, harden not
your own hearts. In Jeremy'®, Thou hast stricken them, but they
have not sorrowed ; thou hast consumed them, and they have refused
to recewe correction: they have made their faces harder than stones.
And in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans!9, Thou, according to
thine own hardness and heart impenitent, heapest up to thyself wrath.
But some difference there is, by reason that all have not alike
defined after what sort God himself worketh in this action. It
cannot be denied that they take occasion at the very goodness of
God to strengthen themselves in malice. His mercy towards Abel
hardened Cain: and his mercy towards Israel, the Aigyptians?? :
yea, the mercy which is shewed towards them hardeneth them.

16 [Rom. xi. 33.] 17 Pg, xev. 7. 18 Jerem. v. 3.
19 Rom. ii. 5. 20 Exod. i. 12.

How God hardened Pharaoh's Heart. 589

I saw the prosperity of the wicked, saith David'9, they are not
troubled nor plagued like others, they have more than heart can wish ;
therefore they are proud, cruel, blasphemous, they set their mouths
even against heaven. Pharaoh in misery confesseth sin2°, where-
upon God in lenity withdrawing his plague, sin and hardness of
heart return, both in him and his: whereby it hath been by some?!
inferred, that God hath no other hand in the obduration of such,
but only so far forth as their malice doth abuse his lenity, and turn
it unto their own evil. St. Augustin and others considering more
deeply, that God himself had said touching Pharaoh, I have hardened
his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might work these my
miracles wmongst them, conceived, that God did hereby somewhat
more than only foretell what hurt the Zgyptians would take occa-
sion to do themselves, by the very good which he intended to do for
them. It seemed therefore probable, that God who eternally had
foreseen what Pharaoh was, and what himself did purpose to work con-
cerning Pharaoh, declared to Moses”? that which was in Pharaoh’s
heart, namely, an obstinate will, that the people should not go whither
God required. And concerning himself thus far to Moses also God

did reveal2? what his own determinations were.

19 [Pe. Ixxiii. [3-]9.

20 Exod. ix. 34; x.I.

21 [Faustus de Lib. Arbitr. ii. c. 1.
«* Hac ratione Pharaonem, dicit Do-
‘* minus, obdurabo, dum eum mihi
‘in decem plagis, quas a Moyse
“ exoratus removeo, insultare per-
“‘ mitto,.. Sic interdum familiariter
etiam apud homines hujus elocu-
*‘ tionis vim assumimus, sic inter-
** dum contumacibus famulis expro-
“ bramus mansuetudinem nostram,
“ita dicentes: ‘ Ego patientia mea
“ te pessimum feci,’” &c. |

22 Ex. iv. 21. [De Predest. et
Gratia, suspecti auctoris liber, c. vi.
in App. ad Aug. x. 53. “* Qui pie
queens aliquid desiderat invenire,
‘illum locum ejusdem Scripture
*‘ relegat, ubi primo Moysi in rubo
“‘ignis apparuit,.,. et ibi inveniet
** totum hoc, quod indurasse Deus
* cor Pharaonis premittit, non ad
** operationem Dei, sed ad preescien-
*‘tiam pertinere. Loquens enim
‘** Dominus de rubo sic dicit: ‘ Ego
*‘ autem scio quod non dimittet vos
** Pharao rex Aigypti, nisi per ma-
“num magnam., Sed extendens

As first, that

* manum meam, percutiam Aigyp-
*‘tios in omnibus mirabilibus quz
*‘faciam, et postea dimittat vos.’
‘* Hec prima vox Dei est, qua futu-
“ram voluntatem, Pharaonis, sicut
** praeviderat, indicabat.”? |

23 [Ibid. ‘* Postea jam inter ipsos
‘** miraculorum imbres dixisse legi-
“tur, ‘ Ego autem indurabo cor
** Pharaonis, ne dimittat populum.’
** Ubi jam aperte intelligitur primam
*‘iterasse sententiam. Quid est
** enim, indurabo, nisi non molliam ?
** Apparet enim in alios manante
“ justitia, in alios gratia profluente,
‘“‘ Scripture illius sententiam fuisse
“ completam, qua dicit Deus Pha-

*‘ raoni, ‘In hoe ipsum excitavi te,:

** ut ostendam in te virtutem meam,’
** &c. Utente enim Deo bene etiam
** malis, induratione Pharaonis, fla-
“ gellis Augypti, tot ac tantis mira-
“culis, &c.... quid aliud gestum
“ est, quam ut Dei virtus...ad hu-
‘** mani generis notitiam perveniret ?
«|... Pharaonem non esse mutan-
‘«* dum, et illam omnem gentem,...
“alta illa Deus providentie suze
“‘Juce preescivit. Sed periturorum

BOOK V.,
Appendix I,
[42.]

BOOK V.
Appendix I.
[42.]

590 Equity of Judicial Obduration.

Pharaoh’s malice and obstinacy he would turn to the good of the
whole world. And secondly, that the grace of his Holy Spirit,
which softeneth inwardly the hearts of men, and whereby they are
driven to obedience, should not in this action be given, either to
Pharaoh or to any of his servants ;—J will harden them ;—so that
to Pharaoh’s obduration, it plainly appeareth there did concur, not
only on his part malice, but also from God himself a prohibition or
restraint of grace; which restraint generally being an act, not of
policy, but of severity in God, there is no doubt but Pharaoh did
otherwise*4 deserve the same, even as they all do, to whom divine
grace is denied. This of the Gentiles St. Paul witnesseth™ ; Knowing
God, they glorified him not as G'od, neither were thankful : therefore
God also gave them wp to their own hearts’ lusts. Of the Jews
David said?°, Let thew table be made wa snare, and a net, and a
stumblingblock for aw recompense unto them. And of them in the
Church ef Christ, whom the like befalleth, God’s own testimony is
as plain: Because they received not the law [love ?| of the truth, that
they might be saved, therefore God shall send them strange [strong ?]
delusions to believe lies?’, For seeing the natural will of God
desireth to impart unto all creatures all goodness, so far as they
are by the laws of his providence capable thereof; it cannot be
chosen but in that respect his desire is, that all men were capable
of inward grace, because without grace there is no salvation. Now
there are that have made themselves incapable of both, thousands
there have been, and are, in all ages, to whose charge it may truly
be laid, that they have resisted the Holy Ghost, that the grace
which is offered, they thrust from them ; and do thereby, if not in
word, yet in effect, pronounce themselves unworthy of everlasting
life, and of all effectual helps thereunto belonging?®. And for this
cause, that will of God which sin occasioneth to decree the just
condemnation of many, is by the same necessity enforced to leave
many unto themselves, where the greatness of sin hath constrained
him to set down the sentence of death. That first act of justice
draweth after it the second, whereupon their dereliction ensueth, an

** interitum preedestinatis a se vasis ‘“ bus afflixit in regno suo peregri-
*‘ misericordie salutis esse voluit “ nos, dignum effectum cui obdura-
“‘ argumentum, et aliorum perditione “‘ retur cor, ut nec manifestissimis
* ad salutem usus est aliorum.” Cf. signis jubentis Dei crederet.’’]
Aug. de Grat. et Lib. Arbitr. c. 9 Rom. i. 14. [21, 24.]
Xxill. t. x. 74-] 26 Rom. xi. 9.

24 [S. Aug. de divers. quest. 68. 27 [2] Thess. ii. [10, 11.]
4. t. vi. 53. g. De Pharaone facile 28 Acts vii. 51; xiii. 46.
“ respondetur, prioribus meritis qui-

The Fathers refer Obduration to previous Sin. 591

example whereof for temporal punishment we have Heli’s sons:
and not only them, but that whole nation whereof it was said to the
prophet Esay*®, Make the heart of this people fat: make their ears
heavy, and shut their eyes: lest they see with their eyes, and hear
with ther ears, and understand with their hearts, and convert, and
be healed. Then suid I, O Lord, how long? And he answered, Till
the cities be wasted without inhabitants, and the houses without men,
and the land utterly desolate. If it be demanded, wherefore grace
preventeth not, at the least wise, such sin, as draweth after it both
obduration and condemnation? I demand again, What if the malice
of the greatest part do come so near diabolical iniquity, that it
overmatcheth the highest measure of divine grace, which the laws
of the providence of God have assigned unto men on earth? Should
God obtrude unto swine pearls of that value? Jn such, (saith Ful-
gentius*°,) God beginneth that judgment with dereliction, which tor-
ments in the world to come shall finish. And lest any man should
think but some one of St. Augustin’s followers amongst many were
thus persuaded, we have Prosper also of the same mind; who speak-
ing in the person of all, saith*!, “ When we read of certain given
“over to their own lusts, or forsaken of God and hardened, our
“ »rofessed construction thereof is, that such wre so dealt with in
“ regard of their grievous sins. For by reason of their crimes going
“before, they did owe to themselves a kind of penalty ; which so
“ punisheth them, that now they continually incur further guiltiness,
“and make themselves daily more punishable. Being thus per-
“ suaded, we neither complain of the judgment of God, or ask why
*« he casteth off such as deserve to be left; and we give thanks for
“ that mercy wherewith he safely keepeth them, which cannot say
“ they deserve to be kept.” St. Augustin himself to like effect 2,
Cum aliis preparetur voluntas a Domino, aliis non preparetur; dis-
cernendum est utique guid veniat de misericordia, quid de judicio.
[43.] Final obduration therefore is an argument of eternal re-
_ jection, because none continue hardened to the last end, but lost

29 Esai. vi. 10, [ 11. |

30 Fulgent. ad Mo. 1. 27. [ad Mo-
nimum. Bibl. Patr. Colon. t. ii. pars
I. p.20.g. “In talibus enim Deus
** judicium suum desertione inchoat,
* cruciatione consummat.”’ |

31 Prosp. ad Cap. Gall. Resp. 11.
[App. ad Aug. x. 203. ‘* Cum vero
** aliquos a Deo aut traditos deside-
* riis suis aut obduratos legimus,
** aut relictos; magnis peccatis suis

*‘hoc ipsos meruisse profitemur :
‘* quia talia eorum crimina preces-
* serunt, ut ipsi sibi poenas debu-
* erint, que eis etiam supplicium
** verterent in reatum. Atque ita
* nec de judicio Dei querimur, quo
“ deserit meritos deseri; et miseri-
“ cordie ejus gratias agimus, qua
** liberat non meritos liberari.”

82 August. de Preedest. c. 6. [t. x.
798. b.]

BOOK Vv.
Appendix I,
[43+]

BOOK V.
Appendix I.
[43-]

P. 41. q.

592 Cases of Pharaoh and Esau.

children. And the cause why that Spirit, which softeneth others,
forsaketh them, is their own malice. In consideration whereof the
Apostle which acknowledgeth, that touching the gifts of external
grace, there can be on man’s part no reason why Abraham’s posterity
was so much loved above others: or why in Abraham’s own race,
God hated Esau, and loved Jacob: or why he now loveth all the na-
tions of the earth, as effectually as ever Abraham’s seed: or again, —
why Pharaoh, of all other wicked persons in the world, should be

taken and made a spectacle of God’s power: the Apostle, which in
these cases fleeth to that absolute sovereignty which God hath over —
all things, as the potter over his own clay ; yieldeth notwithstand-
ing oftentimes [sic] of God’s justice in those whom personally he
adjudgeth to eternal death, and from whom he withholdeth finally
his inward grace, yea even where he standeth most upon the abso-
lute power of God 3, is it not in defence of God’s righteousness ?
God preserveth [preferreth?] Jacob the younger brother before
Esau which was the elder, and declareth this his purpose, when as
yet the children were unborn, and had neither done good nor evil,
for no other intent, as it seemeth, discovering so soon his deter-
mination, but only that the Jews might thereby know, that what
he did was merely to fulfil the purpose of his own good pleasure, in
choosing them: and how he chose neither them, nor any of all their
predecessors, for their works or worthiness sake, but of mere mercy.
What then, shall we say, hath God herein shewed himself unjust34
towards either part? Touching the one, it must be confest, his
mercies are his own to bestow wheresoever himself will, And
concerning the other, because men shall no way better discern
their own cause, than by beholding it in other men’s persons ; let
Pharaoh’s* example be their glass to look him [in?). If Esau’s
posterity complain, that when so many others before and after him,
notwithstanding their evil quality, did yet enjoy those rights, which
the course of nature, and the custom of the world gave them, he
(rather than others) should be deprived of that prerogative : let
them be given to understand, that God hath his full and free scope
to take at any time, in any age, out of any race, such as, justly
being hateful in his sight, may be made patterns of severity to the
world, as others are of clemency?”._ And therefore, as we can yield
no reason, why of all other wicked tyrants in Egypt, Pharaoh alone
and the people under him should he made such a tragical spectacle:
so neither are we able to shew any cause, why mercy may not do

33 Rom. ix. 11. 34 [Rom. ix.] 14. 35 [ Rom. ix.] 15.
36 [Rom. ix.] 17. 87 [Rom. ix.] 18.

St. Paul’s Account of the Cases of Pharaoh and Esau. 598

- good where it will ; and wheresoever it will, justice may withhold
good.

[44.] This may suffice for satisfaction of minds willing to submit
themselves unto that which is reasonable. But there are, 38whose
stubborn spirits will even in spite and rancour hereupon stormingly
reply, “What cause then hath God to be offended with their obdura-
“ tion, on whom it is not his will to bestow his mollifying grace? if it
“be his will to harden by withholding grace, how-should we with-
“stand it?” It doth not altogether offend God, that the works of
his providence are discoursed, argued, and disputed of. For in Job,
in David, in Jeremie, in Abacuk, in sundry others, God taketh it
not in evil part, to be urged and seriously pressed by arguments.
But with this affection of mind, O man, who art thou that openest
thy mouth to upbraid God*®? Suppose (which yet is false) that
there were nothing in it, but only, “so God will have it :” suppose
God did harden and soften, choose and cast off, make honourable
and detestable, whom himself will, and that without any cause mov-
ing him one way or other ; are we not all in his hands as clay* ?
If thus God did deal, what injury were it? How much less now,
when they, on whom his severity worketh, are not found, like the
clay, without form, as apt to receive the best shape as any other,
but are in themselves, and by their own disposition, fashioned for

BUOK V.
Appendix I,
[44.]

P. 39. q-

destruction and for wrath*!, whom notwithstanding he suffereth to |

enjoy many honours in this present world, (as both Esau and Pha-
raoh did,) and that very rigour, which they here sustain, proceedeth

not of any delight that God doth take in afflicting them, whom it is .

likely his hand altogether would have spared, as it doth sundry
others here*?, had it not so fallen out in them, that their punish-
ment did appear needful for the clearer manifestation of God’s
mercy towards the vessels which himself had formed for glory. His
hatred towards Esau declareth towards Jacob the greater love: by
Pharaoh’s destruction, the salvation of Israel was the more marvel-
lous. And was there any thing that could more manifest the riches
of the glory of God, in bestowing grace on the Gentiles’, than the
exercise of his justice, in withdrawing the same from the Jews, a
small remnant of them excepted? We may therefore conclude, that
of all the good we receive, mercy is the only cause. And albeit sin
be the true original cause of all the evil which we suffer: yet,
touching those punishments for sin, which justice in this world

38 [Rom. ix.] 19. 89 [Rom. ix.] 20. 40 [Rom. ix.] 21.
41 [Rom. ix.] 22. 42 (Rom. ix.] 23. 43 [Rom. ix. | 24.
HOOKER, VOL. II. Qq

BOOK V.

Appendix I.

[45.]

P. 136.

594 Election outward and inward:

imposeth, it is not always in regard of greater sins, that special
plagues do sometimes light rather on one man’s head than -another.
Esau’s sin did deserve his deprivation: Pharaoh’s sin, his overthrow:
the sin of the Jews, their obduration. Yet the cause why, of so
many first-born, Esau at that time, should lose his birthright, was
rather a merciful eye towards Jacob, than a rigorous towards Esau.
The cause why, (the Israelites’ four hundred years of thraldom
being expired,) the justice of God did shew itself in Pharaoh, came
of mercy and love to themward“*, The cause, why God did then
strike Israel especially with blindness, when the happy hour of the
Gentiles was come, our part is rather to search, in the bosom of
undeserved clemency towards us, than in the depth of that justice
which their iniquity kindled. This I take to be the natural and
true meaning of the Apostle’s whole disputation, tending to the
abatement of the Jews’ evil, which was envy; and of the pride,
which was to be feared in the Gentiles, at that time.

[45-] One thing further also we must note, touching obduration : |
That there may be in man such malice, as maketh him the child of
eternal death, and yet not always such cause, as induceth God per-
petually to withhold his inward grace: which difference between the
act of reprobation and obduration is the more necessary to be well
observed, in regard of those things, which the Scripture hath con-
cerning sin against the Holy Ghost, and the sin of apostasy after
grace. For we need not doubt of the cause of reprobation in them,
touching whom the Apostle hath said‘, they crucify again unto

. themselves the Son of God, and make a mock of him. And yet, that

the other either not grace at all, or else grace which abideth not.

in them God did not always see cause to withhold his Holy Spirit, :
appeareth, in as much as the same men were once enlightened, and
had been partakers of the heavenly gift of the Holy Ghost, and had —
tasted of the good word of God, and of the power of the world to
come. On the other side, perpetuity of inward grace belongeth unto |
none, but eternally foreseen elect, whose difference from castaways,
in this life, doth not herein consist, that the one haye grace always,
the other never : but in this, that the one have grace that abideth, :
I demand then (saith the Apostle) hath God rejected his people?
No; we must distinguish ; There is a visible election of people, which — .
the wu seeth, according whereunto of old the Jews, and now all
the nations of the world are elect. But besides this external election, — :

44“<He smote Aigypt, overthrew “ his mercy endureth for ever.” (Ps. :
Pharaoh, slew mig iy kings, for cxxxvi.10,15,18.] # Heb. vi. 6.

Chain of God’s Mercies following it. 595

there are, out of the body of these elect, others, invisibly and eter- BOOK Vv.

nally chosen in Christ, before the foundations of the world were
laid. In him Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, in him all that indeed apper-
tain unto God were chosen. To him all are given; yea given (as
he to whom they are given witnesseth) with purpose of custody and
safety, for ever*®: “This is the Father’s will, that of all which he
“ hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again
“at the last day.” Whereupon St. Paul, touching them, inferreth,
God hath not cast away his people, his eternally elect, that people
which he knew before. For that which the outward body of Israel
hath deservedly lost, the body of the election of grace hath obtained,
in it the promises of God take effect : the rest are hardened?’.

[46.] But is it our desert, for which we have gotten that, which
they by desert have foregone? We deserve God’s grace, no more
than the vessel doth deserve the water, which is put into it. Only
we are vessels endued with sense, we are not dead, and altogether
without feeling of that we receive: our obstinate resistance may
hinder that infusion, which nothing in us could procure, or purchase.
We are sick as others, yet others not cured as we are. Is the cause
in ourselves? No more than the cause of health is in them, which
recover health, being restored thereunto by practice of art, offered
voluntarily, and neither sought for, nor desired. Such is that grace,
which the elect find. Neither are we to marvel, if the same be
withheld from them, which have both the offer of health, and the
very physician also, that maketh the offer. Though grace therefore
be lost by desert, yet [it] is not by desert given. It cometh not,

in lieu of travail, to him, which willeth or runneth, but, by way of |

guest, from him, whose purpose is to shew mercy.

For whom he hath known before as his own, with determination
to be for ever merciful unto them, those he hath, in the same
determination, predestinated to be of our [one ?] stamp or character,
which is the image of his own Son, in whom, for that cause, they
are said to be chosen. Men, thus predestinated in his secret pur-
pose, have their actual vocation or adoption likewise intended unto
that fellowship or society which is invisible, and really his true
catholic Church, through the grace of the Spirit of Christ given
them. Whom his will is effectually to gather unto the society of
saints, by the Spirit of Christ, them he hath purposed as effectually
to justify through Christ’s righteousness ; whom to justify, them to
glorify*®, both here, with that beauty of holiness, which the law of

46 John vi. 39. 47 [Rom. xi. 1, 7.] 48 [Rom. viii. 30.]
Qq2

—- I,
[46.]

BOOK V.
Appendix I.
[46.]

596 Hooker’s Modification of the Lambeth Articles.

Christ prescribeth, and hereafter, as well in body as in soul, with R
that honour of eternal happiness, which our Lord doth himself
enjoy: and till they may enjoy it also, which are his, turneth all —
things to the help and furtherance of this their good*: even as all
things were converted to good in Christ, than which there cannot —
be a greater glory.

So that all his foreknown elect are predestinated, called, justified,
and advanced unto glory, according to that determination and pur-
pose, which he hath of them: neither is it possible that any other
should be glorified, or can be justified, and called, or were predesti-
nated, besides them, which, in that manner, are foreknown: where-
upon we find in Scripture the principal effects of God’s perpe-
tually during favour applied only unto them. In that prayer for
eternal life, which our Saviour knew could not be made without
effect, he excepteth them, for whom he knew his sufferings would
be frustrate, and commendeth unto God his own*?; they are the
blessed of God, for whom he ordained his kingdom*!; to their
charge nothing can be laid®?: of them those words of the wise man
are meant®?, That none can diminish what God will save. Their
temptations God will not suffer to exceed the strength or measure —
of that grace, which himself hath given. That they should be finally
seduced, and clean drawn away from God, is a thing impossible.
Such as utterly depart from them, were never of them.

It followeth therefore, 1. That God hath predestinated certain
men, not all men. 2. That the cause, moving him hereunto, was
not the foresight of any virtue in us at all. 3. That to him the
number of his elect is definitely known. 4. That it cannot be but
their sins must condemn them, to whom the purpose of his saving
mercy doth not extend. 5. That to God’s foreknown elect final
continuance of grace is given. 6, That inward grace, whereby to
be saved, is deservedly not given unto all men. 7. That no man
cometh unto Christ, whom God, by the inward grace of his Spirit,
draweth not. 8. And that it is not in every, no not in any man’s
own mere ability, freedom, and power, to be saved, no man’s salva-
tion being possible without grace**. Howbeit, God is no favourer of
sloth ; and therefore there can be no such absolute decree, touching

49 (Rom. viii. 28.] of those agreed upon (for the quiet-
50 John xvii. 9, 20. ing of a dispute which had arisen at
51 Matth. xxv. 34. Cambridge) by Whitgift, Bancroft,
52 Rom. viii. 33. Whitaker, and others, Nov. 20,
53 Eccles[iasticus] xxxix. 18. 1595, commonly called the Lambeth

- [It will be observed that these Articles. To shew the extent of the
articles are evidently a modification modification, those articles are here

rows

No absolute Decree exclusive of good Works. 597

man’s salvation as on our part includeth no necessity of care and BOOK Vv.

travail®>, but shall certainly take effect, whether we ourselves do APO]

wake or sleep.

subjoined, as they stand in Strype,
Whitg. b. iv. c.17:

1. “Deus ab eterno predesti-
* navit quosdam ad vitam, et quos-
“ dam ad mortem reprobavit.

2. * Causa movens aut efficiens
“ predestinationis ad vitam non est
** previsio fidei, aut perseverantiz,
‘aut bonorum operum, aut ullius
rei, que insit in personis preedes-
* tinatis, sed sola voluntas bene
* placiti Dei.

3. “ Preedestinatorum definitus et
*‘ certus numerus est, qui nec au-
‘* geri nec minui potest.

4. “ Qui non sunt predestinati
“‘ ad salutem necessario propter pec-
“ cata sua damnabuntur.

5. “ Vera, viva, justificans Fides,
* et Spiritus Dei sanctificans non
** extinguitur, non excidit, non eva-
“ nescit in electis, aut finaliter aut
** totaliter.

6. “ Homo vere fidelis, i.e. fide
‘‘ justificante preeditus, certus est
*s Perephocis Fidei, de remissione
“ peccatorum suorum, et salute
“‘ sempiterna sua per Christum.

dix I.

Of the ne-
cessity of
4. © Gratia salutaris non tribui- labour to
* tur, non communicatur, non con- concur on
*‘ ceditur universis hominibus, qua our part
** servari possint, si voluerint. with the
8. “ Nemo potest venire ad Chris- will of God
* tum, nisi datum ei fuerit, et nisi ™ justify-
« Pater eum traxerit. Et omnes 8 and,
“‘homines non trahuntur a Patre, “age
“ut veniant ad Filium. abe
. “Non est positum in arbitrio .14 a. .
“aut potestate uniu&Scujusque ho- |. be.
** minis salvari.”” | levified.
55 [Compare the conclusion of the .
Sermon on Habak. i. 4.]
56 [The following is Archdeacon
Cotton’s memorandum subjoined
to his transcript of this fragment.
* Here ends the treatise (or as much
** ofit as is preserved); not abruptly,
** but in the middle of a page, on
** which no more was written. The
‘* remaining leaf of this sheet is also
“blank. It is possible however,
*‘ that a new article or head may
‘* have been finished by the author,
“‘ and the copy of it begun on some
** separate sheet. Of this no vestige
“ remains.” |

BOOK V.
Appendix II,
(t.]

598 Causes of Abatement in Disciplinarian Ardour :

APPENDIX, No. II.
Concerning the New Church Discipline.

AN EXCELLENT LETTER, WRITTEN BY MR. G. CRANMER
TO MR. R. H.

Printed in the year 1642.

February, 1598.!
[1.] WHAT posterity is likely to judge of these matters concern-

ing church discipline, we may the better conjecture, if we call to
mind what our own age, within few years, upon better experience —
hath already judged concerning the same. It may be remembered
that at first, the greatest part of the learned in the land were either —
eagerly affected, or favourably inclined that way. The books then
written for the most part savoured of the disciplinary style: it
sounded every where in pulpits, and in the common phrase of men’s
speech: the contrary part began to fear they had taken a wrong
course ; many which impugned the discipline, yet so impugned it,
not as not being the better form of government, but as not so con-
venient for our state, in regard of dangerous innovations thereby —
likely to grow. One man? alone there was, to speak of, (whom let
no suspicion of flattery deprive of his deserved commendation,) who
in the diffidence of the one part, and courage of the other, stood in the
gap, and gave others respite to prepare themselves to their-defence ;
which by the sudden eagerness and violence of their adversaries had —
otherwise been prevented. Wherein God hath made good unto him

1 [This date may have been given
to Strype by Fulman, in whose hand-
writing it is entered in the copy of
the letter as first published, belong-
ing to the library of C.C.C. See
also his MS. Collections for a Hist.
of the College, fol. 26. The date
exactly suits the matter of the letter,
which was evidently written after
receipt of the fifth book, (published
1597,) and probably in answer to a
request from Hooker for such hints
as might occur to Cranmer regarding

the conclusion of the whole work.
If Cranmer went into France with —
Essex and Killigrew, 1591, he may
have returned to England on the
signature of the pe of Vervins,
1598: and may have been conve-
niently situated for receiving and
revising Hooker’s work. The next

ear, Feb. 1599-1600, we know that

e went with Mountjoy into Ireland.
Camd. Ann. part ii. p. r90.|

2 John Whitgift, the Archbishop.

[This note is Strype’s. |

Inquiry on the Part of the Learned. 599

his own emprese, Vincit qui patitur3 :; for what contumelious indig- BOOK.
nities he hath at their hands sustained, the world is witness ; and —— ve
what reward of honour above his adversaries God hath bestowed
upon him, themselves (though nothing glad thereof) must needs
confess. ‘Now of late years the heat of men towards the Discipline
is greatly decayed: their judgments begin to sway on the other
side: the learned have weighed it and found it light ; wise men
conceive some fear, lest it prove not only not the best kind of go-
vernment, but the very bane and destruction of all government.
The cause of this change in men’s opinions may be drawn from the
general nature of error, disguised and clothed with the name of
truth ; which is mightily and violently to possess men at first, but
afterwards, the weakness thereof being by time discovered, to lose
that reputation which before it had gained. As by the outside of
an house the passers by are oftentimes deceived, till they see the
conyeniency of the rooms within ; so by the very name of discipline
and reformation men were drawn at first to cast a fancy towards it,
but now they have not contented themselves only to pass by and
behold afar off the fore front of this reformed house; they have
entered in, even at the special request of the master workmen and
chief builders thereof ; they have perused the rooms, the lights, the
conveniences ; they find them not answerable to that report which
was made of them, nor to that opinion which upon report they had
conceived. So as now the discipline which at first triumphed over
all, being unmasked, beginneth to droop and hang down her head.
[2.] This cause of change in opinion concerning the discipline, is
proper to the learned, or to such as by them have been instructed :
another cause there is more open and more apparent to the view of
all, namely, the course of practice which the reformers have had
with us from the beginning. ‘The first degree was only some small
difference about cap and surplice4, but not such as either bred divi-
sion in the church, or tended to the ruin of the government then
established. This was peaceable; the next degree more stirring.
Admonitions were directed to the parliament in peremptory sort
against our whole form of regiment: in defence of them, volumes
were published in English, in Latin ; yet this was no more than
writing. Devices were set on foot to erect the practice of the disci-
pline without authority® : yet herein some regard of modesty, some

3 [See E. P. book V. Dedic. to 5 [Especially Travers’s book, De
Whitgift, § 3.] Disciplina Ecclesiastica, 1584. |

4 See Pref. to E.P.c.ii.[10; and 6 [See Pref. vii. 13. note 68. See
the notes there. | also Bancroft, Dang. Pos. b. iii. c. 1,

BOOK V.
Appendix II.
[3-]

600 Mar-Prelate Inbels: Conspiracy of Hacket

moderation was used. Behold, at length it brake forth into open
outrage, first in writing by Martin : in whose kind of dealing these
things may be observed. 1. That whereas T. C. and others his great
masters had always before set out the discipline as a queen, and as
the daughter of God§, he contrariwise to make her more acceptable ~
to the people, brought her forth as a vice upon the stage’. 2.Which —
conceit of his was grounded (as may be supposed) upon-this rare
policy, that seeing the discipline was by writing refuted, in parlia-
ment rejected, in secret corners hunted out and descried, it was —
imagined that by open railing (which to the vulgar is commonly —
most plausible) the state ecclesiastical might have been drawn into —
such contempt and hatred, as the overthrow thereof should have
been most grateful to all men, and in a manner desired of the com-
mon people. 3. It may be noted (and this I know myself to be true)
how some of them, although they could not for shame approve so
lewd an action, yet were content to lay hold on it to the advance-
ment of their cause8, acknowledging therein the secret judgments
of God against the Bishops, and hoping that some good might be
wrought thereby for his Church, as indeed there was, though not
according to their construction. For, 4. contrary to their expecta-
tion, that railing spirit did not only not further, but extremely dis-
grace and prejudice their cause, when it was once perceived from
how low degrees of contradiction at first, to what outrage of con-
tumely and slander they were at length proceeded, and were also
likely further to proceed.

[3.| A further degree of outrage was in fact. Certain prophets?
did arise, who deeming it not possible that God should suffer that
undone which they did so fiercely desire to have done, namely, that
his holy saints, the favourers and fathers of the discipline !9, should

for an account of the establishment
of the first English presbytery at
Wandsworth, Nov. 20, 1572. The
following chapters to the 15th relate
similar proceedings down to 1592. |

6 [Especially Travers, in the con-
clusion of his book, “ De Discipl.
** Eccles.”

7 [In the MS. “ Advertisement
** touching the Controversies of the
*“ Church of England,” quoted E.P.
Vv. C. li, § 2. note 20, is the follow-
ing: “It is time there were an
“ende or surseance made of this
** unmodest and deformed maner of
** writing lately intertained: where-

“ by matters of religion are handled
** in the stile of the stage.” Comp.
Bp. Cooper, Adm. 96. “ Histrionical
*“mocks and scoffs, too immodest
‘‘ for any vice in a play.’”’]

8 [Bancr. Dang. Pos. iv. 12. “I
“have heard reported, that upon
“the coming forth of Martin’s
** Epistle, M. Cartwright should
“say, ‘ Seeing the bishops would
** take no warning, it is no matter
** that they are thus handled.’ 7

9 [Hacket and Coppinger, Feb.

1591.]
° [Namely, Cartwright, and eight
others, whose names may be seen in

and Coppinger: traced to Puritanism. 601

be enlarged, and delivered from persecution ; and seeing no means
of deliverance ordinary, were fain to persuade themselves that God
must needs raise some extraordinary means: and being persuaded
of none so well as of themselves, they forthwith must needs be the
instruments of this great work. Hereupon they framed unto them-
selves an assured hope, that, upon their preaching out of a pease-
eart}°, all the multitude would have presently joined unto them, and
in amazement of mind have asked them, Viri fratres, quid agimus ?
whereunto it is likely they would have returned an answer far unlike
to that of St. Peter, “Such and such are men unworthy to govern,
“ pluck them down ; such and such are the dear children of God,
“let them be advanced.” Of two of these men! it is meet to speak
with all commiseration, yet so that others by their example may
receive instruction, and withal some light may appear what stirring
affections the discipline is like to inspire, if it light upon apt and

prepared minds.

Now, if any man doubt of what society they were, or if the
reformers disclaim them, pretending that by them they were con-

demned, let these points be considered.

1. Whose associates were

they before their entering into this frantic passion ? whose sermons’?

Strype, An. iv. 103; or in Neal,
Hist. of the Puritans, i. 524. They
were imprisoned Sept. 1590, chiefly
for continuing to practise their dis-
cipline. }

10 [Cosins’ “* Conspiracy for pre-
** tended Reformation,” p. 56. “After
“they both had thus come, (with
** mighty concourse of the common
* multitude, as to such a novelty of
‘* hearing two new prophets in these
*« days arisen was likely,) with an
** uniform cry into Cheapside near
** unto the Cross, and there finding
*‘ the throng and press of people to
“increase about them ... they got
“them up into an empty cart which
“* stood there, and out of that choice
* pulpit (for such a purpose) made
“‘ their lewd and traitorous preach-
‘** ment unto the people: wherein...
** (so near as I could learn from so
** common an auditory, and in so
*‘ confused an action) they reading
* something out of a paper, went
** more particularly over the office
“and calling of Hacket.: how he
“‘ represented Christ, by partaking
a part of his glorified body: by

“his principal Spirit, and by his
* office of severing the good from
* the bad with his fan in his hand
** ,.. and of bringing in that Disci-
** pline which they so often babble
“ of, &c.”’

ll [Viz. Arthington and Coppin-
ger, who were evidently simple per-
sons. |

12 Cosin, Consp. p. 2. ‘ These
** two having itching ears ... madé
* choice to hear and follow such
“‘ preachers as were thought fittest
“to feed their humours: which
“‘ preachers with their sad looks,
“‘ frequent sighs abroad, long and
“vehement conceived prayers, bit-
“ter and plain invectives in pri-
“* vate, and privy (sic) depraving in
“‘ public, of the laws and _ polity
* ecclesiastical, ... may seem so to
** have inflamed these two persons,
“as that they thought this Disci-

** pline a worthy subject whereupon

“they should spend most of their
** actions and cogitations.” In p. 3,
he quotes a letter from Hacket to
Wigginton, who, as it seems, had
been instrumental in converting

LIRRARY ST MARY'S COLLEGE

BOOK V.
Appendix II,
[3.]

602 Puritanism, a Sanction for worse Errors.

Book v. did they frequent? whom did they admire? 2, Even when they —

Appendix II.
(4-]

were entering into it, Whose advice did they require’? ? and when

~ they were in, whose approbation ? whom advertised they of their

purpose ? whose assistance by prayers did they request? But we
deal injuriously with them to lay this to their charge ; for they
reproved and condemned it.

How? did they disclose it to the ©

magistrate, that it might be suppressed? or were they rather con- —
tent to stand aloof and see the end of it, and loath to quench the —

Spirit? No doubt these mad practitioners were of their society,
with whom before, and in the practice of their madness they had
most affinity. Hereof read Dr. Bancroft’s book'4.

[4.] A third inducement may be to dislike of the discipline, if we
consider not only how far the reformers themselves have proceeded,
but what others upon their foundations have built, Here come the

him; in which he expresses his de-
sire “to communicate his spirit at
“large” to Wigginton; and adds,
** Make my sound heart knowen to
“* Master Cartwright, Master Snape,
** Master Udall, Master Lord, &c.”’
3 March, 1590—1. |

13 [Cosin, Consp. p. 10. “ Cop-
* pinger... had signified to two of
“his familiar acquaintance (whom
** he had requested to fast and pray
‘“‘ with him for success in obtaining
‘* a widow) that ‘God had shewed
“him great favour, by revealing
** such a secret mystery unto him
** as was wonderful, ...viz. that he
“knew a way how to bring the
“* Queen to repentance, to cause all
* her council and nobles to do the
“like out of hand, or else detect
‘* them to be traitors that refused.’ ”
p: “When Hacket came to
** London, Wigginton introduced
“Coppinger to him, as being a
**man who had a message to say
** to his sovereign, concerning some
** practice intended against her;
“ from dealing wherein, the preach-

ers in London had wonderfully

“ discouraged him.” p.11. The
** manner and other circumstances
“ of the first revealing of this pre-
‘tended mystery, Coppinger him-
“ self declareth in a letter written
“the 4th of February last, unto
* T. C. in prison.” The substance
of the letter is such as to make it

strange that Cartwright should not
at once have declined receiving
communications from such a per-
son. Cosin adds, p.15. “ For resolu-
* tion also herein, by the help of his

_ diligent fellow-labourer John ap

‘“* Henry alias a Penry, he solicited
“the reformed preachers of some
“ foreign parts.” And p. 20. “Ar-
** thington at one of his examina-
*‘ tions confessed that Penry sent a
* letter unto him forth of Scotland,
‘* wherein he signified that reforma-
“tion must shortly be erected in
* England... Now it is sure that
** Penry conveyed himself eerey in-
** to England, and was lurking about
** London at the selfsame time when
“these other prophets arose in
“‘ Cheapside.” See also Ded. to
Whitg. p. 6. note 8. But Cartwright
in his Answer to Sutcliffe, 1596,
affirms that he refused to receive
the letter, or to see Coppinger: and
that he discouraged his proceedings
in every possible wg 6 Personall
indeed he seems to be exculpated.
But the argument from the tendency
of his doctrine may appear to some
all the stronger. |

14 deste ib Positions, b. iv.
c. 5—I14.
5 [Bp. Cooper’s Admon. to the
People of England, 1589. p. 29.
“If the state of the clergy shall
‘‘be made contemptible, and the
“best reward of learning a mere

Doctrines of the Brownists.

603

Brownists in the first rank, their lineal descendants, who have BOOK v,
seized upon a number of strange opinions ; whereof although their
ancestors the reformers were never actually possessed, yet by right
and interest from them derived, the Brownists and Barrowists hath
[have?] taken possession of them. For if the positions of the
reformers be true, I cannot see how the main and general conclu-
sions of Brownism should be false. For upon these two points, as
T conceive, they stand. 1. That because we have no church", they are
to sever themselves from us!’, 2. That without civil authority they are

to erect a church of their own,

“‘ pension, he (Satan) foreseeth that
“neither young flourishing wits
*‘ will easily incline themselves to
** godly learning, neither will their
** parents and friends suffer them to
‘“* make that the end of their travail.
“ To bring this to pass, he worketh
“his devices by sundry kinds of
“men. 1. By such as be papists
“in heart, but yet can clap their
* hands and set forward this pur-
“pose, because they see it the
** next way either to overthrow the
** course of the gospel, or by great
* and needless alteration to hazard
‘* and endanger the state of the com-
*‘monwealth. Of the second sort
“are certain worldly and godless
** epicures, which can pretend reli-
“‘ gion, and yet pass not which end
“thereof go forward, so they ma
“be partakers of that spoil which
‘in this alteration is hoped for.
“The third sort, in some respect
“the best, but of all other most
*‘ dangerous, because they give op-
“* portunity and countenance to the
“residue, and make their endea-
**vours seem zealous and godly.
** These be such which in doctrine
“agree with the present state, and
** shew themselves to have a desire
“of perfection in all things, and
“in some respect, indeed, have no
** evil meaning, but through inordi-
*€ nate zeal are so carried, that the
** see not how great dangers by ack
** devices they draw into the church
** and state of this realm.” |

16 | Brownists’ “ True Confession,”
1596. art.31. ‘* That these ecclesi-
‘** astical assemblies, remaining in
“ confusion and bondage under this

And if the former of these be true,

‘ antichristian ministry, courts, ca-
*‘nons, worship, ordinances, &c.
** without freedom or power to re-
*‘ dress any enormity, have not in
“this confusion and_ subjection
** Christ their Prophet, Priest and
“ King; neither can be in this es-
* tate (whilst we judge them by the
** rules of God’s word) esteemed the
** true, orderly gathered, or consti-
** tuted churches of Christ, whereof
the faithful ought to become or
‘stand members, or to have any
** spiritual communion with them
‘in their public worship and ad-
‘* ministration.”’ |

17 (Ibid. art. 32. “ That by God’s
“commandment all that will be
“‘ saved must with speed come forth
** of this antichristian estate, leaving
** the suppression of it to the magis-
* trate to whom it belongeth. And
** that both all such as have received
*‘or exercised any of these false
‘* offices or any pretended function
** or ministry in or to this false and
*¢ antichristian constitution, are will-
* ingly in God’s fear to give over
*‘ and leave those unlawful offices;
*©and that none also, of what sort
“or condition soever, do give any
** part of their goods, lands, money,
** or money worth to the maintenance
*¢ of this false ministry and worship,
‘“¢ upon any commandment or under
** any colour whatsoever.”” |

18 [Ibid. art. 33. ‘ That being
** come forth out of this anti-chris-
** tian estate unto the freedom and
** true profession of Christ, besides
“ the instructing and well guiding of
*‘ their own families, they are will-
** ingly to join together in Christian

Appendix II.
{4.]

604 The Brownists’ Judgment of the Puritans.

BooK V. the latter I suppose will follow. For if above all things men be to

Appendix IT
[4.]

regard their salvation, and if out of the Church there be no salvation ;

it followeth, that if we have no church, we have no means of salva-
tion, and therefore separation from us, in that respect, both lawful
and necessary: as also that men so separated from the false and
counterfeit church are to associate themselves unto some church ;
not to ours ; to the popish much less ; therefore to one of their own
making. Now the ground of all these inferences being this, that in
our church there is no means of salvation, is out of the reformers’
principles most clearly to be proved. For wheresoever any matter —
of faith unto salvation necessary is denied, there can be no means of
salvation: but in the church of England, the discipline, by them
accounted a matter of faith, and necessary to salvation, is not only
denied, but impugned, and the professors thereof oppressed : HZrgo.
Again, (but this reason perhaps is weak,) every true church of
Christ acknowledgeth the whole gospel of Christ: the discipline, in
their opinion, is a part of the Gospel?®, and yet by our Church
resisted : Hrgo. Again, the discipline is essentially united to the
Church: by which term, essentially, they must mean either an
essential part, or an essential property. Both which ways it must
needs be, that where that essential discipline is not, neither is there
any church. If therefore between them and the Brownists there
should be appointed a solemn disputation, whereof with us they
have been oftentimes so earnest challengers; it doth not yet appear
what other answer they could possibly frame to these and the like
arguments, wherewith they might be pressed, but fairly to deny the
conclusion (for all the premises are their own?,) or rather in-

** communion and orderly covenant,
** and by confession of faith and
** obedience of Christ to unite them-
** selves into peculiar congregations;
‘* wherein, as members of one bod
** whereof Christ is the only head,
‘they are to worship and serve
* God according to His word, re-
** membering to keep holy the Lord’s
“day.” And‘art. 42. “ That if
** God withhold the magistrates’ al-
**lowance and furtherance herein,
** they yet proceed tugether in Chris-
“ tian covenant and communion thus
** to walk in the obedience of Christ,
“even through the midst of all
trials and afflictions,” &c.]

19 (T. C. ii. Reply, p.1. We
“ offer to shew the Discipline to be

‘a part of the Gospel, and so to
‘** have a common cause.”’ Comp.
E. P. iii. 2.]

20 [The Brownists themselves
took this view so strongly as to call
the Puritan preachers mere hypo-
crites for shrinking from it. ‘* As
‘* for the priests and preachers of the
“land; they of all other men have
“‘ bewrayed their notable hypocrisy,
“that standing erewhile against
‘the English Romish hierarchy,
“and their popish abominations,
“have now so readily submitted
* themselves to the beast, and are
“not only content to yield their
* canonical obedience unto him,
* and receive his mark, but in most
‘hostile manner oppose and set

End and Means of Political Church Reformers. 605

geniously [ingenuously ?] to reverse their own principles before laid, poox v.
whereon so foul absurdities have been so firmly built. What further 4?°*y)* ™
proofs you can bring out of theix high words, magnifying the disci- —___
pline, I leave to your better remembrance + but above all points, I
am desirous this one should be strongly enforced against them,
because it wringeth them most of all, and is of all others (for aught
I see) the most unanswerable. You may notwithstanding say that
you would be heartily glad these their positions might so be salved
as the Brownists might not appear to have issued out of their loins;
but until that be done, they must give us leave to think that they
have cast the seed whereout these tares are grown.
[5-] Another sort of men there is, which have been content to
run on with the reformers for a time, and to make them poor instru-
ments of their own designs. These are a sort of godless politics”!,
who perceiving the plot of discipline to consist of these two parts,
the overthrow of episcopal, and erection of presbyterial authority,
and that this latter can take no place till the former be removed,
are content to join with them in the destructive part of discipline,
bearing them in hand, that in the other also they shall find them as
ready. But when time shall come, it may be they would be as loath
to be yoked with that kind of regiment, as now they are willing to

be released from this.

‘* themselves against us . . . These
“have long busied themselves in
‘* seeking out new shifts and cavils
“to turn away the truth, which
‘* presseth them so sore; and have
“at last been driven to palpable
“and gross absurdities, seeking to
‘* daub up that ruinous antichristian
“* muddy wall which themselves did
“once craftily undermine. And
‘* herein we report us to the learned
* discourses of Dr. Robert Some
“and Mr. Giffard. . . With what
*‘ equity now can these priests so
**blaspheme and persecute us for
rejecting the heavy yoke of their
*tyrannous prelates, whom they
“ Tenet call antichristian and
“ bishops of the Devil? for forsaking
“their priesthood, which they have
** complained is not the right minis-
“‘ tery?” Preface to the Brownists’
“* True Confession,” 1596. |

21 [This word is used in a pecu-

These men’s ends in all their actions is
7 ivory, their pretence and colour, reformation.

Those things

liar sense, borrowed from the state
of parties in France, from which
country Cranmer had just returned.
See in Thuanus, lib. xliv. c. 11.
(1568.) the substance of a letter from
the Prince of Conde to Charles [X.,
in which he complains that the house
of Guise and their partisans gave
this name to all those who although
attached to the old religion refused
to go all lengths with them under

retence of supporting it. Davila,

. V. gives an account of the mate-
rials of this party, under the year
15733; and says of them, “ Have-
** yano formato come un terzo par-
“ tito, che non facendo alcun fonda-
** mento, né alcuna differenza dall’
“una religione all’ altra, ma tutto
* applicandosi alla riforma dello
‘* stato, comincid a nominarsi il par-
** tito de’ Politici, overo de’ malcon-
* tenti.”]

>

606 Atheism furthered by the Puritan Proceedings.

Book v. which under this colour they have effected to their own good, are, —
pe aE % By maintaining a contrary faction, they have kept the clergy ~
~~ always in awe, and thereby made them more pliable and willing to

buy their peace. 2. By maintaining an opinion of equality among —
ministers, they have made way to their own purposes for devouring ~
cathedral churches and bishops’ livings. 3. By exclaiming against —
abuses in the Church they have carried their own corrupt dealings —
in the civil state more covertly. For, such is the nature of the —
multitude, they are not able to apprehend many things at once, so —
as being possessed with dislike or liking of any one thing, many —
other in the mean-time may escape them without being perceived. —
4. They have sought to disgrace the clergy in entertaining a conceit —
in men’s minds, and confirming it by continual practice, that men —
of learning, and specially of the clergy, which are employed in the —
chiefest kind of learning, are not to be admitted, or sparingly ad- —
mitted to matters of state; contrary to the practice of all well-
governed commonwealths, and of our own till these late years.

[6.] A third sort of men there is, though not descended from the
reformers, yet in part raised and greatly strengthened by them,
namely, the cursed crew of Atheists?*. This also is one of those
points, which I am desirous you should handle most effectually, and
strain yourself therein to all points of motion and affection, as in —
.that of the Brownists, to all strength and sinews of reason. This
is a sort most damnable, and yet by the general suspicion of the
world at this day most common. The causes of it, which are in the
parties themselves, although you handle in the beginning of the
fifth book, yet here again they may be touched; but the occasions
of help and furtherance which by the reformers have been yielded
unto them, are as I conceive, two; senseless preaching, and dis-
gracing of the Ministry ; for how should not men dare to impugn
that which neither by force of reason nor by authority of persons is
maintained ? But in the parties themselves these two causes I con-
ceive of Atheism. 1. More abundance of wit than judgment, and
of witty than judicious learning ; whereby they are more inclined to
contradict any thing, than willing to be informed of the truth.
They are not therefore men of sound learning for the most part,
but smatterers ; neither is their kind of dispute so much by force of
argument, as by scoffing. Which humour of scoffing and turning
matters most serious into merriment, is now become so common, as
we are not to marvel what the Prophet means by “ the seat of

23 [See E. P., b. v. ii. 2. note 20.]

Encouragement afforded by them to Popery. 607

“ scorners,” nor what the Apostles by foretelling of “scorners to BOOK V.
“ come :” our own age hath verified their speech unto us. Which fas or =
also may be an argument against these scoffers and Atheists them-
selves, seeing it hath been so many ages ago foretold, that such
men the latter days of the world should afford ; which could not be
done by any other spirit save that whereunto things future and
present are alike. And even for the main question of the resur-
rection, whereat they stick so mightily, was it not plainly foretold
that men should in the later times say, “ Where is the promise of
“his coming?” Against the creation, the ark, and divers other
points, exceptions are said to be taken; the ground whereof is
superfluity of wit without ground of learning and judgment.

A second cause of Atheism is sensuality, which maketh men
desirous to remove all stops and impediments of their wicked life :
among which because religion is the chiefest, so as neither in this
life without shame they can persist therein, nor (if that be true)
without torment in the life to;come ; they whet their wits to anni-
hilate the joys of heaven, wherein they see (if any such be) they can
have no part ; and likewise the pains of hell, wherein their portion
must needs be very great. They labour therefore not that they
may not deserve those pains, but that, deserving them, there may
be no such pains to seize upon them. But what conceit can be
imagined more base than that man should strive to persuade him-
self even against the secret instinct (no doubt) of his own mind,
that his soul is as the soul of a beast, mortal and corruptible with
the body? Against which barbarous opinion their own Atheism is
a very strong argument. For were not the soul a nature separable
from the body, how could it enter into discourse of things merely
spiritual, and nothing at all pertaining to the body? Surely the soul
were not able to conceive any thing of heaven, no not so much as to
dispute against heaven and against God, if there were not in it some-
what heavenly, and derived from God.

[7.] The last which have received strength and encouragement
from the reformers, are Papists ; against whom although they are .
most bitter enemies, yet unwittingly they have given them great
advantage. For what can any enemy rather desire than the breach
and dissension of those which are confederates against him ? Wherein
they are to remember, that if our communion with papists in some
few ceremonies do so much strengthen them, as is pretended, how
much more doth this division and rent among ourselves ; especially
seeing it is maintained to be, not in light matters only, but even in
matter of faith and salvation? Which over-reaching speech of theirs,

BOOK V.

Sy Il.

608 Course of Reasoning to be used with Puritans.

because it is so open to advantage both for the Barrowist and the —
Papist, we are to wish and hope for, that they will acknowledge it —

to have been spoken rather in heat of affection, than with soundness
of judgment ; and that through their exceeding love to that creature

of discipline which themselves have bred, nourished, and maintained,

-their mouth in commendation of her did somewhat overflow.

(8.] From hence you may proceed (but the means of connexion I
leave to yourself) to another discourse, which I think very meet to be —

handled either here or elsewhere at large: the parts whereof may be
these: 1. That in this cause between them and us, men are to sever
the proper and essential points and controversy, from those which are

accidental. The most essential and proper are these two: overthrow —

of episcopal, erection of presbyterial authority. But in these two
points whosoever joineth with them is accounted of their number ;
whosoever in all other points agreeth with them, yet thinketh the
authority of bishops not unlawful, and of elders not necessary, may
justly be severed from their retinue. Those things therefore which
either in the persons, or in the laws and orders themselves are faulty,
may be complained on, acknowledged and amended ; yet they no
whit the nearertheir main purpose. For what if all errors by them
supposed in our Liturgy were amended, even according to their own
hearts’ desire ; if nonresidence, pluralities, and the like, were utterly

‘taken away ; are their lay-elders therefore presently authorized, their

sovereign ecclesiastical jurisdiction established ?

But even in their complaining against the outward and accidental
matters in church-government, they are many ways faulty. 1. In
their end which they propose to themselves. For in declaiming
against abuses, their meaning is not to have them redressed, but by
disgracing the present state, to make way for their own discipline.
As therefore in Venice, if any senator should discourse against the
power of their senate, as being either too sovereign or too weak in
government, with purpose to draw their authority to a moderation, it

might well be suffered ; but not so, if it should appear he spake with ~

purpose to induce another state by depraving the present: so in all
causes belonging either to church or commonwealth, we are to have
regard what mind the complaining part doth bear, whether of amend-
ment, or of innovation, and accordingly either to suffer or suppress
it. Their objection therefore is frivolous, ““ Why, may not men speak
“against abuses?” Yes, but with desire to cure the part affected,
not to destroy the whole. 2. A second fault is in their manner of
complaining, not only because it is for the most part in bitter and
reproachful terms, but also because it is unto the common people,

Four Pownts of Unfairness in their Objections. 60S

judges incompetent and insufficient, both to determine any thing
amiss, [and] for want of skill and authority to amend it. Which
also discovereth their intent and purpose to be rather destructive
than corrective. 3. Thirdly, those very exceptions which they take,
are frivolous and impertinent. Some things indeed they accuse as
impious: which if they may appear to be such, God forbid they
should be maintained. Against the rest it is only alleged, that they
are idle ceremonies without use, and that better and more profitable
might be devised. Wherein they are doubly deceived : for neither

is it a sufficient plea to say, “ This must give place, because a better

“may be devised ;” and in our judgments of better and worse, we
oftentimes conceive amiss, when we compare those things which are
in device with those which are in practice: for the imperfections of
the one are hid, till by time and trial they be discovered ; the others
are already manifest and open to all.

But last of all (which is a point in my opinion of great regard, and
which I am desirous to have enlarged) they do not see that for the
most part when they strike at the state ecclesiastical, they secretly
wound the civil state. For personal faults, what can be said against
the church, which may not also agree to the commonwealth? In
both states men have always been and will be always men, sometimes
blinded with error, most commonly perverted by passions: many
unworthy have been and are advanced in both, many worthy not re-
garded. As for abuses which they pretend to be in the laws them-
selves, when they inveigh against non-residence ; do they take it a
matter lawful or expedient in the civil state, for a man to have a great
_ and gainful office in the north, himself continually remaining in the
south? He that hath an office let him attend his office. When they
condemn plurality of livings spiritual to the pit of hell, what think
they of infinite [infinity ?] of temporal promotions? By the great
philosopher (Pol. lib. ii. cap. 9.24) it is forbidden as a thing most
dangerous to commonwealths, that by the same man many great
offices should be exercised. When they deride our ceremonies as
vain and frivolous, were it hard to apply their exceptions even to
those civil ceremonies, which at the coronation, in parliament, and
all courts of justice, are used? Were it hard to argue, even against
eircumcision, the ordinance of God, as being a cruel ceremony:
against the passover, as being ridiculous ; shod, girt, a staff in their
hand, to eat a lamb ?

BOOK V.
Appendix IT.
[9.]

24 Cap. ii. p. 210. ed. Victorii. eddokimet mapa trois Kapyndovios" ev

gaddov & ay Sdkerev civar kal rd yap id’ évds Epyor dpior dmorehei-
melous apxas Tov avtov Gpxetv, OmEep Tat.
HOOKER, VOL. II. Rr

BOOK V,

Appendix IT,

[ro.]

610 Moral to be learned from the Rise of Puritanism.

To conclude: You may exhort the clergy, (or what if you direct
your conclusion not to the clergy in general, but only to the learned
‘in or of both universities ?) you may exhort them to a due considera-

tion of all things, and to a right esteem and valuing of each thing in
that degree wherein it ought to stand : for it oftentimes falleth out,
what men have either devised themselves, or greatly delighted in,

the price and the excellency thereof they do admire above desert. .

The chiefest labour of a Christian should be to know, of a minister
to preach Christ crucified ; in regard whereof not only worldly things,
but things otherwise precious, even the discipline itself is vile and
base: whereas now, by the heat of contention and violence of affec-
tion, the zeal of men towards the one hath greatly decayed their love
to the other. Hereunto therefore they are to be exhorted, to “ preach
“ Christ crucified,” the mortification of the flesh, the renewing of the
spirit ; not those things which in time of strife seem precious, but
passions being allayed, are vain and childish.

END OF VOL. I1.

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