A Reply to an Answer Made by Doctor Whitgift, Reply · Part 23
To the next ſections in the. 52. and. 53. pages.
IF you ſhoulde begette / and be a father of many bookes / and all your children like their eldeſt brother / you woulde (without better aduiſe) ſhake manye groundes of our religion. For heere agayne you wyſhe that all paſtors were able to teache / but that being vnpoſſible (as the eſtate is nowe) you are content with paſtors or miniſters that can doe nothing but reade. You through out your whole booke make thys a maruellous good eſtate / and alwayes turne the beſt ſide outwarde / and when men goe about to vrge the deformities thereof / to the ende they mighte be remedyed / then you lay open the ſhame and nakedneſſe of it / and make it greater then it is in deede. For as I hauehave ſhewed before / the churche ſtandeth not ſo muche in neede of youre reading miniſters / as you would make the worlde beleeue. And althoughe it be a great deformitie and ſore plage of the church which you heere ſpeake of and confeſſe at vnwares / yet you will let no man come neare to heale it. There be ſome make a gayne by ſores / and ſore legges / and therefore they hauehave a medicine to keepe their woundes alwayes greene / that they ſhoulde not heale.
I hope you do not of purpoſe keepe the churche in this eſtate / but thys I dare ſay / that the cheefe of your gaine and of your honour conſiſteth and is grounded in the ruines of the church / and therefore I deſire you to looke vntounto it.
But what if the eſtate of the churche be ſuch as you ſpeake of / that it will ſkarce yelde three preaching paſtors and biſhops in ſome dioceſſe / may you therefore make reading miniſters? In deede if the Apoſtle had made this a counſell only / and no commaundement / that paſtors of churches ſhould be able to teache / then your ſaying might hauehave bene borne.
But ſeeing that S. Paule hathe commaunded expreſſedly / that he ſhould 1. Tim. 3. 2. Tit. 1. 9.bee able to teache / and to conuince the gayneſayers / I woulde learne of you gladly / what neceſſitie there is whiche can cauſe a man to breake the morall law of God / to bring in a tradytion of man. You maye as well breake any other commaundement of God for neceſſyties ſake / as breake thys / being comprehended in the firſt table.
And to ſay that theſe that can only read / muſt be tolerated in the churche as miniſters / is to ſaye / becauſe you can hauehave no paſtors in the churches / you will hauehave idolles. For ſo will I not doubt to call them / although through ignoraunce of that which they do / ſome may be good men. But yet in reſpect of the place that they occupy / they are idolles / for they ſtande for that / and make ſhew of that / which they are not / and admit you them as often as you will / the Lord pronounceth that they ſhall be no miniſters to him / which hauehave *Ozee. 4. 6.no knowledge.
But let vsus heare your reaſon / there muſte bee reading in the churche / therefore there muſt bee miniſters whiche can doe nothing elſe. Then we may reaſon thus to. There muſt be breaking of bread / and diſtributing of the cuppe in the church / and pouring on water / therefore whoſoeuer is able to breake a loafe of bread / or to lift a cup of wyne / or to poure on water on the body of the childe / may be made a miniſter.
And did you neuer reade that there were readers in the church / when there were no reading miniſters? but of reading of the ſcriptures and prayers in the church / there will be a fitter place to ſpeake afterwarde where it ſhall be ſhewed / how vniuſtly you ſurmiſe theſe thinges of them.
Touching Homilies ſhall be ſpoken more hereafter / where further occaſion is geuen. I doe not vſe to maintayne the places which are quoted / althoughe they be truely alleaged for the cauſes which I hauehave before mentioned / but yet I can not but ſpeake of this place of S. Luke / for feare of the daunger that may enſue. 9. Luk. 2.For if thys be a good reaſon / that the place of S. Luke may not be vſed to proue that preaching is perpetually annexed to the miniſterie / becauſe in the ſame place is made mention of curing of diſeaſes / which is but a temporall thing / and followed the miniſterie but for a tyme / then the commaundement of S. Iames *Iam. 5. 14.that the Elders of the Churche ſhoulde praye for thoſe that are ſicke / is now no commaundement / becauſe putting on of handes / and annoynting of them / that they myghte recouer theyr healthe / hathe no place / and by thys meanes you will pull from vsus many places of the new Teſtament / as you dyd before of the olde.
What dealing is this / to bring men into ſuſpition of that / which they neuer thought of / as though there were any woorde that ſounded to this / that a man ſhould put him ſelfe into the office of preaching / without the approbation of thoſe men to whome it doth pertayne.
Their complaynt is / that thoſe which are ordayned paſtors / and therefore to preach / can not doe it without further licence. As if a man ſhould be charged to doe a thing forthwith / and then he that chargeth hym / bindeth him hande and foote / that he can not doe it / vnles he will loſe hym.
The Byſhoppes inhable hym to teache / and poynte hym a place to teache in / and yet they will not let hym teache / vnleſſe he hauehave a further licence. If hee be an hereticke or ſchiſmatike / or ſuſpected of any ſuche thing / why is he admitted / or being admitted / why is he ſuffered to be ſo much as a reader in the church? And becauſe you could not anſwere thys / therefore you ſet vp a fanſie of youres to confute. And thus you fyght without an aduerſary / and you make triumphes / where there is no victory.
They will ſay vntounto you / that not only vnderunder a godly Magiſtrate / but not in the time of perſecution any man ought to take vponupon him any function in the church / vnles he be thereunto called by men / except he hauehave a wonderfull calling / which is rare / and muſt be diligently examyned by them which hauehave it / leaſt vnderunder pretence of the ſpirite of God whome they make author of their calling / it fall out that it be but their own headlong affection that hath thruſt them in: ſo farre they are from the frenſic of Anabaptiſtes / whiche you by a confutation of that / which they neuer affirmed / would ſeeme to ſtaine them with.