Two Sermons Upon Jude, Title page – Dedication
TVVO SERMONS VPONUPON PART OF S. JVDES EPISTLE, BY RICHARD HOOKER sometimes Fellow of Corpus Christi College in Oxford.
AC: OX
Printed at Oxford by Ioseph Barnes. Ann. Dom. 1614.
TO THE WORSHIPFVLL Mr GEORGE SVMMASTER, Principall of Broad-Gates Hall in Oxford, HENRY IACKSON wisheth all happinesse.
SIR,
YOur kind acceptance of a former testification of that respect I owe you, hath made mee venture to shewe the world these godly Sermons vnderunder your name. In which as every point is worth observation, so some especially are to bee noted. The first, that as the spirit of Prophecie is from God himselfe, who doth inwardly heate, and enlighten the hearts & minds of his holy Pen-men, (which if some would diligently consider, they would not puzzle themselues with the contentions of Scot, & Thomas, Whether God only, or his ministring spirits doe infuse into mens minds propheticall revelations, per species intelligibiles) so God framed their words also. Whence the holy FatheraLib 4 ca 6. de doct. Chr. S. Augustine religiously obserueth, that al those, which vnderstand the sacred writers, wil also perceaue, that they ought not to vse other wordes, then they did, in expressing those heavenly mysteries which their hearts conceaved, as the Blessed Virgin did our Saviour, By the holy Ghost. The greater is Castellio his offence, who hath laboured to teach the Prophets to speake otherwise, then they hauehave already. Much like to that impious King of Spaine, Alphonsus X, who found fault with Gods workes,bRob. Tolet. l. 4 cap 5. Si, inquit, creationi affuissem, mundum meliùs ordinassem, if he had beene with God at the creation of the world, the world had gone better, then now it doth. As this mā foūd fault with Gods works, so did the other with Gods words. But because we hauehave a c2 Pet. 1.most (…ure word of the Prophets, to which we must take heed, I wil let his words passe with the wind, havingdP…aef in orat. D. Rainold. elsewhere spokē to you more largely of his errours, whom notwithstanding, for his other excellent parts, I much respect.
You shall moreover from hence vnderstand, how Christianitic consists not in formall, and seeming puritie (vnderunder which who knowes not notorious villanie to maske?) but in the heart root. Whence the author truly teacheth▪ that Mockers, which vse religion as a cloake to put off, and on, as the weather serveth, are worse then Pagans and Infidels. Where I cannot omit to shew, how iustly this kind of men hath beene reproved by that renowned Martyr of Iesus Christ, B. Latimer; both because it will bee apposite to this purpose, and also free that Christian worthy from the slaunderous reproaches of*Parsons in 3. Convers. him, who was, if ever any, a Mocker of God, Religion, and all good men. But first I must desire you, and in you all Readers, not to thinke lightly of that excellent man for vsing of this, and the like wittie similitudes in his Sermons. For whosoever will call to minde, with what riff-raff Gods people were fedde in those daies, when their Priests,eMalac. 2 7. whose lips should hauehave preserued knowledge, preached nothing else but dreames, and false miracles of counterfeit saints, enrolled in thatfCanus locor. lib. 11. c. 6 Vives lib. 2 de corrupt. art. Hard. lib 4. Detect. sottish Legend, coined & amplified by a drowsie head betweene sleeping and waking. He that will consider this, and also how the people were delighted with such toies (God sending them strong delusions, that they should beleeue lies) and how hard it would hauehave beene for any man wholly and vponupon the suddaine to drawe their minds to another bent; wil easily perceaue, both how necessary it was to vse symbolicall discourse, and how wisely, and moderately it was applied by that religious Father, to the end he might lead their vnderstanding so farre, till it were so convinced, informed, and setled, that it might forget the meanes and way, by which it was led, and thinke only of that it had acquired. For in all such mysticall speeches, who knows not that the end, for which they are vsed, is onelyonly to bee thought vponupon?
This then being first considered, let vsus heare the story, as it is related by Mr Fox: Mr Latimer, gPag. 1903. edit. 1570.saith he, in his sermon gaue the people certaine cardes out of the fift, sixt, and seaventh Chap: of S. Matthew. For the chiefe Triumph in the cards, he limited the Hart, as the principal thing that they should serue God withall, whereby he quite overthrew all hypocriticall and externall ceremonies, not tending to the necessarie furtherance of Gods holy word & Sacraments. By this he exhorted all men to serue the Lord with inward heart and true affection, & not with outward ceremonies, adding moreouer to the praise of that triūph, that though it were never so smal, yet it would take vp the best coat card beside in the bunch, yea though it were the king of Clubbes, &c. meaning thereby how the Lord would be worshipped and served in simplicitie of the heart, and verity, wherein consisteth true Christian religion, &c. Thus Mr. Fox. By which it appeares, that the holy mans intention was to lift vp the peoples hearts to God, & not that he made a sermon of playing at cards, and taught them how to play at Triumph, & plaied (himselfe) at cards in the Pulpit, as that base companion hIn the third part of 3. conversions of England: in the Examine of Foxes Sainte, cap. 14. §. 53. 54 p. 215Parsons reports the matter in his wonted scurrilous vaine of rayling, whence hee calleth it a▪ *Sect 55Christmasse Sermon. Now he that will thinke ill of such allusions, may out of the abundance of his follie iest at Demosthenes for his story of thekPlut in Demosthen. sheepe, wolues, & dogs, and atlLiv. dec 1. lib. 2. an. V. C 60 Menenius for his fiction of the Belly. But, hinc illae lacrymae, The good Bishop meant that the Romish Religion came not from the heart, but consisted in outward ceremonies: which sorely greived Parsons who never had the least warmth or sparke of honesty. Whether B. Latimer cōpared the Bishops to the knaues of Clubs, as the fellow interprets him, I knowe not: I am sure Parsons of all others deserved those colours, and so I leaue him.
We see then, what inward puritie is required of all Christians, which if they hauehave, then in prayer, and all other Christian duties, they shall lift vp pure hands, as them1. Tim. 2. 8. Apostle speakes, not asnAnnal to 1 Ann. 57. n. 109 110 & .10. 2. An. 132. num. 5 Baronius would hauehave it, washed from sins with holy water, but pure, that is, holy, free from the pollution of sin, as the greeke word foreign doth signify.
You may also see here refuted those calumnies of the Papists, that we abandon al religious rites, & godsy duties, as also the confirmatiō of our doctrine touching certainty of faith (& so of salvation) which is so strongly denied by some of that faction, that they hauehave told the world,oS. Paulus de sua salute incertꝰ Richeom. Iesuit. lib. 2. c. 12. Idololat. Huguenot. pa. 119. in marg. edit. lat. Mogunt. 1613. interpret Marcel. Bompar Iesuitâ. S. Paule himselfe was vncertaine of his owne salvation. What then shall we saie, but pronounce a woe to the most strict observers of S. Francis rule, and his canonicall discipline (though they make him evenpWitnesse the verses of Horatius of Iesuite, recited by Possevin. Biblioth. Select part. 2. lib. 17. cap. 19. Exue Francis cum tunicâ, lacero que cucullo, Qui Frāciscꝰ eratiam tibi Christus erit, Frā c…sci exuviis (si qua licet) indue Christum, Iam Franciscus erit, qu imodò Christus erat The like hath Bencius another Iesuite. equal with Christ) & the most meritorious Monke that ever was registered in their Calendar of Saints? But wee for our comfort are otherwise taught out of the holy Sbripture and therefore exhorted to build our selues in our most holy faith, that so when our q2. Cor. 5. 1.earthly house of this Tabernacle shall bee destroyed, we may hauehave a building giuen of God, a house not made with hands, but eternall in the heavens. This is that, which is most piously & feelingly taught in these few leaues, so that you shall read nothing here, but what, I perswade my selfe, you hauehave long practised in the constant course of your life. It remaineth only, that you accept of these labours tendred to you by him who wisheth you the long ioies of this world, & the eternal of that which is to come. Oxon. from Corp. Christ. College, this 13. of Ianuary, 1613.