Works of Hooker, Book 5 (2 of 10)

Works of Hooker · Book 5 (2 of 10)

p. 14716. Our opinion concerning the force and vertue which such Places have,What Holiness and Vertue we ascribe to the Church, more than other places. is, I trust, without any blemish or stain of Heresie. Churches receive, as every thing else, their chief perfection from the end whereunto they serve. Which end being the publick worship of God, they are, in this consideration, 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 unnecessarily in that preheminence and honour. Whereby also it doth come to pass, that the Service of God hath not then it self such perfection of grace and comeliness, as when the dignity of place which it wisheth for doth concurr. Again, albeit the true worship of God be to God in it self 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, Iob on the Dunghil, Ezechias in Bed, Ieremy in Mire, Ionas 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,Exhort. ad bap…. … p…enitent. as S. Basil noteth: manifest notwithstanding it is, that the very majesty and holyness of the place where God is worshipped, hath in regard of us great vertue, force and efficacy, for that it serveth as a sensible help to stirr up devotion, and in that respect, no doubt, bettereth even our holiest and best actions in this kind. As therefore we every where exhort all men to 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 sit as that of David, O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.Psal. 96.9.Ps 96:9

17. For of our Churches thus it becometh us to esteem,Their pretence that would have Churches utterly rozed. howsoever others rapt with the pang of a furious zeal, do pour out against them devout blasphemies, crying, (aaPsal. 137. 7.Ps 137:7)Down with them, down with them, even to the very ground; For to Idolatry they have been abused. And the places where Idols have been worshipped, are by (bbDeut. 12.2.Deut 12:2)the Law of God devote to utter destruction. For extentions of which Law, the (cc2 Chron. 17. 6. 2 Chron. 29. 2. Chron. 3.2 Chr 17:62 Chr 292 Chr 3)Kings that were godly, as Asa, Jehosaphat, Ezechia, Josia, destroyed all the High places, Altars, and Groves, which had been erected in Juda 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 willeth that p. 148men execute, for the breach of the other Law. They which spare them therefore, do but reserve, as the Hypocrite Saul did, exterable things, to worship God withall. The truth is, that as no man serveth God, and loveth him not; so neither can any man sincerely love God, and not extreamly abhor that sin, which is the highest degree of Treason against the Supream 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 wayes miserable. First, In that which they worship, (aaIsa. 8. 21.4. 20. Hos. 14.4. Isa. 41. 24.Isa 8:21Isa 8:4Isa 8:20Hos 14:4Isa 41:24)they find no succour; 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 (bbPsal. 115. …. …1. 13. Rom. 1. 24.Ps 115Rom 1:24)withdrawing of Grace, (ccJudic. 6.13.Judg 6:13)dereliction in this world, and in the world to come (ddApoc. 21.8. Isa. …. 21.Rev 21:8)confusion. (eeActs 14. 14.Acts 14:14)Paul and Barnabas, when Infidels admiring their vertues went about to sacrifice unto them, rent their Garments in token of horrour, and, as frighted persons, run crying thorow the press of the people, O men, wherefore doy… these things? They knew the force of that dreadful (ffDeut. 28. 20.Deut 28:20)Curse whereunto Idolatry maketh subject. Nor is there cause why the guilty sustaining the same, should grudge or complain of Injustice. For, whatsoever Evil befalleth in that respect, (ggJer. 2. 17.Jer 2:17)themselves have made themselves worthy to suffer it. 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 loath it self, 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 punishment; Which way should any such Creature be punishable by the Law of God? There may be cause sometime to abolish or to extiguish them, But surely, never by way of punishment to the things themselves. 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 manner we ought to punish the sin of Idolaty in all 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 Canaan, and to root them out, that therefore reformed Churches are bound to put all others to the edge of the sword. Now whereas Commandment was also given to destroy all places where the Canaanites had served their gods,Deut. 12. 2.Deut 12:2 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 one only 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,Deut. 1…. 4, 5.Deut 1:4Deut 1:5 But to seek the place which the Lord their God should chuse out of all their Tribes. Besides, it is reason we should likewise consider how great a difference there is between their proceedings, who erect a new Common-wealth, 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 swarved. 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 Perswasions 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 practise, especially 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 p. 149serve 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 withall so conveniently framed for the people of God to serve and honour him therein; that no man beholding them, can chuse but think it exceeding great pity they should be ever any otherwise employed. Yea but the Cattel of Amalek (you will say) were fit for sacrifice; and this was the very conceit which sometime deceived Soul. It was so. Nor do I any thing doubt, but that Saul upon this conceit might even lawfully have offered to God those reserved spoyls, had not the Lord in that particular case given special charge to the contrary. And therefore notwithstanding the commandement of Israel to destroy Canaanites, Idolaters may be converied and live: So the Temples which have served Idolatry as Instruments, may be sanctified again and continue, albeit, to Israel commandement have been given that they should destroy all Idolatrous places in their Lead; and to the good Kings of Israel commendation for fulfilling, to the evil for disobeying the same Commandement, sometimes punishment, always sharp and severe reproof hath even from the Lord himself befallen. Thus much it may suffice to have written in defence of those Christian Oratories, the overthrow and ruine whereof is desired, not now by Infidels, Pagans, or Turks, but by a special refined Sect of Christian Believers; pretending themselves 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 supertitious abuses whereunto they have been put.

18. Places of publick resort being thus provided for,Of publick teaching, or preaching, and the first kind thereof, Catechising. our repair thither is especially for mutual conference, and as it were commerce to be had between God and us. Because therefore want (aaContraria for…a in quibut homines sibi intecem oppunannar secundum exercitia & desideria & opiniones …unla provenlunt exignoranth: sicut c…cus ex p… vatione sui visu… vagatur ubique & laeditur. Scientio veriratis rollit hominum iaimidria… & adlum. Hee promisit sancte Theologia dicens, Habitabit agnus cum lupo. Et olsig…at rarionem, …eple…a est terra sapiendo Domini. …set AEgpt, in Mo…. Honnebuch. lib. 3. cap. 12.) of the knowledge of God is the cause of all iniquity amongst men, as contrariwise, the ground of all our happiness, and the seed of whatsoever perfect vertue 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 merciful hands, for the first of those religious Offices wherewith we publickly honour him on earth. For the instruction therefore 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 publickly notified, but we may in that respect, rightly and properly say it is preached. So that when the School of God doth use it as a word of Art, Luc. 8.39.Luke 8:39we are accordingly to understand it with restraint to such special matter as that School is accustomed to publish. We find not in the World any People that have lived altogether without Religion. And yet this duty of Religion, which provideth that publickly all sorts of men may be instructed in the fear of God, is to the Church of God, and hath been always so peculiar, that none of the Heathens, how curiousVide Terrol. de praset. advers her. soever in searching out all kinds of outward Ceremonies like to ours, could ever once so much as endeavour to resemble herein the Churches care for the endless good of her Children. Ways of teaching there have been sundry always usual in Gods Church.The Jews, Catech. called Letach, Tob. 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, the first delivery of the Elements thereof must, for like consideration, (bbInciplen…ibus brev. ùs. ac simpliciàs tradi praecepra …gs convenit. Aut enim difficaltate institutionis tam numeros… at que per…lexe dete…reri solenu aureo rempore quo praecipuè alenda ingenia atque indulgentis quadam enutrienda sunt, asperiorum rerum tractaru atter antur. Fab. proam l. 1. Inci…ienrihon no…is exponers in…o populi Romani, i…a videntur posse …r adi commodissum…, si primo leri aesimplici vi…, post deinde …digentissima arque exoctissima interpretatione singula tralantar. Alinqui si station ah laitio rudem ad huc & infermu… …ni…g…o lahore ej…, supe etiam dissien…ia (quae pletumque juvenes averti…) …en… ad … perdutemus, ad quod leviore via ductus sine magno lahore & sine ulla diffidentia me…rius perduci pornif…et. Institus. Impur. l. …. …it 1.)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 p. 150Hebrews 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:Vide …uff. in Symb. so either by the Apostles, or at the least-wise out of their Writings, we have the substance of Christian Belief compendiously drawn into few and short Articles, to the end that the weakness of no mans 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 afterward by Baptism received into the Church, the Fathers usually in their Writings do term Hearers; as having no farther communion or fellowship with the Church,Tert. de poeniteur. A… alius est ti… ctis Christus? Alius audientibus? Audientes optare intinctionem … pr…sumere apor…re. Cyprian. Epist. 17. l. 3. Audientibus vigilantia vestea non di sit. Rupert de divin. offic. lib. 4. cap. 18. Audiens quisqueregulam filei. Catechumenus dicitur. Catechumenus namque Auditor interpretatur. than only this, that they were admitted to hear the Principles of Christian Faith made plain unto them. Catechizing may be in Schools, it may be in private Families; But when we make it a kind of Preaching, we mean always the publick performance thereof in the open hearing of men, because things are preached not in that they are taught, but in that they are published.

Of Preaching, by reading publickly the Books of holy Scripture; and concerning supposed untru hs in those Translations Scripture which we allow to be read, as also of the choyce which we make in reading.19. Moses and the Prophets, Christ and his Apostles, were in their times all Preachers of Gods Truth; some by Word, some by Writing, some by both. This they did partly as faithful Witnesses, making meer relation what God himself had revealed unto them; and partly as careful Expounders, Teachers, Perswaders 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 lye hid therein. The Church as a Witness, preacheth his meer revealed Truth, by reading publickly the Sacred Scripture. So that a second kind of preaching is the reading of holy Writ. For thus we may the boldlier speak, being strengthened(aaActs 15. 21.Acts 15:21) with the examples of so reverend a Prelate as saith, that Moses from the time of antient Generations and Ages long since past, had amongst the Cities of the very Gentiles them that preached him, in 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 alwayes had their weekly Readings of the Law of Moses; but that they always had in like manner their weekly Sermons upon some part of the Law of Moses, we no where find. Howbeit still we must here remember, that the Church; by her publick 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, proposeth 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 tyed themselves to the very Original letter; yet the judgment of the Church, as we see by the practise of all Nations, Greeks, Latines, Persians, Syrians, AEthiopians, Arabians, hath been ever, That the fittest for publick Audience are such, as following a middle course between the rigor 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 Scripture it self, there be Contradiction, every little difference should not seem an intolerable blemish necessarily to be spunged out.Psal. 105 28.Ps 105:28 Whereas therefore the Prophet David in a certain Psalm doth say concerning Moses and Aaron, that they were obedient to the word of God, and in the self-same place …or allowed Translation saith, they were not obedient, we are for this cause challenged as manifest Gain-sayers 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 p. 151recourse to the things themselves from whence they rise. In setting down that Miracle, at the sight whereof Peter fell down astonished before the feet of Jesus, and cryed, Depart, Lord, I am a Sinner, the(kkLuke 5. 6, 7.Luke 5:6Luke 5:7) Evangelist St. Luke saith, the 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; (llJohn 1…. 21.John 1:21)St. Iohn recording the like Miracle, saith, That albeit the Fishes in 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 signifie 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 miraculous addition of strength. The Nets, as touching themselves, brake, but through the power o… God they held. Are not the words of theaaMatth. 5 1.Matt 5:1)Prophet Micheas touching Bethleem, Thou Bethleem the least? and doth not the very (bbMatth. 3. 6.Matt 3:6 Evangelist translate these words, Thou Bethleem not the least? the one regarding the quantity of the Place, the other the dignity. Micheas attributeth unto it smallness, in respect of circuit; Matthew greatness, in regard of honor and estimation, by being the native soyle of our Lord and Saviour Christ. Sith therefore Speeches, which gain-say one another, must of necessity be applyed both unto one and the self-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 authorised Translation thereof, if he understanding Moses and Aaron do say, They were not disobedient; we applying our speech to Pharaoh and the AEgyptians, do say of them, They were not obedient? Or (which the matter it self will easily enough likewise suffer) if the AEgyptians being meant by both, it be said that they in regard ofccExod. 10. 24.Exod 10:24 their offer to let go the People, when they saw the fearful darkness, disobeyed not the Word of the Lord; and yet that they did not obey his Word, in as much as the Sheep and Cattel at the self-same time they with-held. Of both Translations, the better I willingly acknowledge 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 per…l at all of gain-saying, as much as the least jot or syllable of God's most sacred and precious Truth. Which Truth, as in this we do not violate, so neither is the same gain-sayed or crost, no not in those very Preambles placed before certain readings, wherein the steps of the Latin Service-Book have been somewhat too nearly followed. As when we say, Christ spake (ddThe Gospel as the second Sunday after Easter, and on the twentieth after Trinity.)to his Disciples, That which the Gospel declareth he spake (eeJohn 10.1…. Matth. 21 1.John 10:1Matt 21:1)unto the Pharises. 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 probable, that St. Iohn and St. Matthew, which have recorded those Sermons, heard them, and being Hearers, did think themselves as wel 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. Furthermore, somewhat they are displeased, in that we follow not the method of Reading, whichffT. C. l. 2. p. 381. Although it be very convenient which is used in some Churches, where before Preaching time the Church assembled hath the Sorpreres read; yet neither is this, nor any other O…ler… bare Publick reading in the Church necessary had. in their judgement is most commendable, the method used in some foreign Churches, where Scriptures are read before the time of Divine Service, and without either choyce 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 theggAug. de Civ. Dei. l. 22. c. 8. F…o silentio, Scriprorarum suat lecta divine solennia. That for several times several pieces of Scripture were read as part of the Service of the Greek Church and Fathers thereof in their sundry Homilles and other Writings do all testifie the like Order in the Syrian Churches, is clear by the very inscriptions of Chapters throughout their Translation of the New Testament. See the Edition at Vienna, Par… and A…thrup. antient received Custom which we now observe. For with us the reading of the 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 anothers coming, till the assembly of them which shall afterwards worship him be comple…. Wherefore, as the form of our Publick Service is not voluntary, so neither are the parts thereof left uncertain, but they are p. 152all set down in such order, and with such choyce, as hath in the wisdom of the Church seemed best to concur as well with the special occasions, as with the general purpose which we have to glorifie God.

Of Preaching by the Publick reading of other profitable instructions; and concerning Books Apocryphal.20. Other Publick readings there are of Books and Writings not Canonical, whereby the Church doth also preach, or openly make known, the Doctrine of vertuous conversation; whereupon, 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 Scripture, or for the easier trayning up of the People in holiness and righteousness of life, theyaaT. C. l. 1. p 196. Neither the Homiles 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. 30. 25. that no Vessel nor no instrument, either Besome 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 purpose. Numb. 10.2.Exod 30:25Num 10:2 plead, that God in the Law would have nothing brought into the Temple, neither Besomes, nor Flesh-hooks, nor Trumpets, but those only which were sanctified, that for the expounding of darker places, we ought to follow the Jews**T. C. l. 1 p. 157. Besides this, the Policy of the Church of God is times past is to be followed, &c. Polity, who under Antiochus, where they had not the commodity of Sermons, appointed always at their Meetings 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 Saviours comming they neither read Onkelos nor Ionathan's Paraphrase, though having both, but contented themselvesbbActs 13. 15. Acts 15. 21.Acts 13:15Acts 15:21 with the reading only of Scriptures, that if in the Primitive Church there had been any thing read besides the Monuments of the Prophets and Apostles, (ccJustin Apol. 2. Origen. Hom. 1. super Exod. … in Judie. Iustin Martyr and Origen, who mention these, would have spoken of the other likewise; that (ddConcil. La…d. c. …9. the most antient and best Councels forbid any thing to be read in Churches, saving Canonical Scripture onelyonly; that wheneeConcil. Vasens. 2. other things were afterwards permittedffConcl. Co…on. par. 2. fault was found with it, it succeeded but ill, the Bible it self was thereby in time quite and clean thrust out. Which Arguments, if they be only brought in token of the Authors good-will and meaning towards the cause which they would set forward, must accordingly be accepted of by them, who already are perswaded the same way. But if their drift and purpose be to perswade others, it would be demanded, by what Rule the legal hallowing of Besomes and Flesh-hooks must needs exclude all other readings in the Church save Scripture. Things sanctified were thereby in such sort appropriated 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,ggEx. 30. 25. 32.Exod 30:25Exod 30:32 appointed oyle of holy oyntment, the like whereunto it was not lawful to make for ordinary and daily uses. Thus thehhExod. 40.15Exod 40:15 anoynting of Aaron and his Sons tyed them to the Office of the Priest-hood for ever; the anoynting not of those Silver Trumpets (whichiiNumb. 10.2.Num 10:2 Moses as well for Secular as Sacred uses was commanded to make, not to sanctifie) but the Unction of thekkExod. 27. 3. & 30. 36,27, 28.Exod 27:3Exod 30:36Exod 30:27Exod 30:28 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 imployed. 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 instituted? for sollT. C. l. 1. p. 197. The Lord would by these Rudiments and P…dagogies teach, that he would have nothing brought into the Church but that which he had appointed. those Rudiments, they say, do import. 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 prophane, they are unholy. I would not with them to undertake a Work so desperate as to prove, that for the Peoples instruction no kinde of Reading is good, but only that which the Jews devised under Antiochus, although, even that he also mistaken. For according tommEsias Thesh. in veron Pat…r. Elius the Levite (out of whom it doth seem borrowed) the thing which Antiochus forbad, was the Publick 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, instead of the Law, which they might not read openly, they read of the Prophets that, which in likeness of matter came nearest to each Section of their Law. Whereupon, when afterwards the liberty of reading the LawnnActs 15.21.Acts 15:21 was restored, the self-same p. 153CustomooActs 13. 15Acts 13:15 as touching the Prophets did continue still. If neither the Jews have used publickly to read their Paraphrasts, norppT. C. l. 1. 197. This Practice continued still in the Churches of God after the Apostles times, as may appear by the second Apology of Iustin Martyr. Idem, p. 198. It was decreed in the Councel of Laodicea, that nothing should be read in the Church but the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament. Afterwards, as corruptions grew in the Church, the reading of Homilies and of Martyrs lives was permitted. But, besides the evil success thereof, that Use and Custom was controlled, as may appear by the Councel of Collin, albeit otherwise Popish. The bringing in of Homilies and Martyrs lives, hath thrust the Bible clean out of the Church, or into a Corner. the Primitive Church for a long time any other Writings than Scripture, 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 latter Ages of the Church be deprived of the Liberty the former had? Are we bound while the World standeth, to put nothing in practice, but onelyonly that which was at the very first? Concerning the Council of Laodicea, is it forbiddeth the reading of those things which are not Canonical, so it maketh some things not Canonical which are.The Apocalyps. Their Judgment in this we may not, and in that we need not follow. We have by thus many years experience found, that exceeding great good, not incumbred with any notable inconvenience, hath grown by the Custome 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 choyce 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 acount 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 aaT. C. l. 2. p. 381. It is untrue, that simple reading is necessary in the Church. A number of Churches which have no such Order of simple reading, cannot be in this point charged with the breach of God's Commandment, 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.]so indifferent, whether the same be by solemn appointment read publickly, or not read, the bare Text excepted, which the Preacher haply chuseth out to expound. But let us here consider what the Practise of our Fathers before us hath been, and how far-forth the same may be followed. We find, that in ancient times there was publickly read first the bbColmus ad divinarum literarum commemorationem. Tertul. Apol. p. 692.Scripture, as namely, something out of the Books of theccJudaicorum Historiarum libri readiri sunt ab Apostolis legendi in Ecclestis. Orig. in Jos. Hom. 15.Prophets of God, which were of old, something out of ddforeign Iustin. Apol. 2. p. 162. Factum est ut iste die Dominica, Prophetica lectione jam lecta, ante astate adslance, qui lectionem S. Pauli proferret, be…isimus Autistes Ambrestus, &c. Sulp…. Sever. l. 3. de vita S. Mart.the Apostles Writings, and lastly out of the holy eeVide Concil. V…s. …. habitum an. Dom. 444. tom. Concil. 2. p. 19. Item Synod. La…d. c. 16. Cypr. l. 2. epist. 5. & l. 4. epist. 5. Amb. l. 1. Offic c. …. & epist. 75. & lib. de Helio arque jejunio, cap. 20.Evangelists, some things which touched the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. 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 Iustin Martyr and Saint August. observe in comparing the two Testaments.Just. quaest. 101. The Apostles (saith the one) hath 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,August. quaest. 33. in Num. What the Old Testament hath, the very same the New containeth; but that which lyeth there at under a shadow, in here brought forth into the open Sun. Things there prefigured, are here performed. Again, In the Old Testament there is a close comprehension of the New; in the New, an open discovery of the Old. To be short, the method of their Publick readings either purposely did tend, or at the least-wise doth fitly serve,W…s. St…ab. de rebes Ecsiast. cap. 22. That from smaller things the mindes of the Hearers, may go forward to the Knowledge of greater, and by degrees climbe up from the lowest to the highest things. Now, besides the Scripture, the Books which they called Ecclesiastical, were thought not unworthy sometime to be brought into publick audience, and with that Name they intituled the Books which we term Apocryphal. Under the self-same Name they also comprised certain, no otherwise annexed unto the New, than the former unto the Old Testament, as a Book of Hermes, 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 Saint Ierom, who saith,…eron. in …rol…g. Galeat. That All Writings not Canonical are Apocryphal, use not now the Title Apocryphal, as the rest of the Fathers ordinarily have done, whose Custom is so to name for the most p. 154part only, such as might not publickly be read or divulged. Ruffinus therefore having rehearsed the self-same Books of Canonical Scripture, which with us are held to be alone Canonical,Ruffinus in Symbol. Apost. apud Cypr. addeth immediately, by way of caution, We must know that other Books there are also, which our Fore-fathers have used to name not Canonical, but Ecclesiastical Books, as the Book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Toby, Judith, the Macchabees, 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 alleadged, as if their authority did binde 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. He which considereth notwithstanding what store of false and forged Writings, dangerous unto Christian Belief, and yet bearingaaV…le Gelas. decree. non. Concil. 2. p. 532. glorious Inscriptions, began soon upon the Apostles times to be admitted into the Church, and to be honoured as if they had been indeed Apostolick, shall easily perceive what cause the Provincial Synod ofbbCires An. Dom. 366. Laodicea might have as then to prevent, especially the danger of Books made newly Ecclesiastical, and, for feat of the fraud of Hereticks, to provide, that such Publick readings might be altogether taken out of Canonical Scripture. Which Ordinance, respecting but that abuse which grew through the intermingling of Lessons Human with Sacred at such time as the one both affected the Credit, and usurped the Name of the other (as by the Canon ofccConcil Car…ag. 3. c. 47. Prae…e… S…ip… as Cano… c…s nihil in Ecclesis ligatur su… nomine Divinarum scriprerarum Cire… An. Dom. 401. a later Council providing remedy for the self-same 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 kinde of Readings usual in former times, a most commendable Institution, as well thenddConcil. Vasen. … habitum An. Dom. 444. tom. Concil. p. 19. Si Presbyter, ali qua infirmiraprehibente, pee se…psum non potuerit praeli…are: …anctorum Partum Homilly à Diaconibus recitentur.to supply the casual, as now the necessary defect of Sermons.

In the heat of general Persecution whereunto Christian Belief was subject, upon the first promulgation thereof throughout the World, it much confirmed the courage and constancy of weaker mindes, when publick relation was made unto them, after what manner God had been glorified through the sufferings of Martyrs, famous amongst them for Holiness during life, and at the time of their death admirable in all mens eyes, through miraculous evidence of Grace divine assisting them from above. For which cause the Vertues of some being thought expedient to be annually had in remembrance above the rest, this brought in eeConcil. Car… tlug. 3. Can. 13. & Greg. Tu…on de gloris in…e…. ca. 16. & …adria epist. ad Coral. Magu.a fouth kinde of Publick 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 laudible Custom being in later Ages resumed, where 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 PopeffGelas. c…e… An. Do. 432. to Concil. p. 451. Gelasim did, so long sithence, see those defects of Judgment even then, for which the reading of the Acts of Martyrs should be, and was at that time, forborn in the Church of Rome; we are not to marvail, 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 ggConcil. Co…on. celebra…. An. Dom. 1535 pa…a. cap. 5. Melch. Can. …ocor. theol. lib. 1…. Vir. de tr…d. …se. lib. 5.very Nests which bred them abhorring them. We are not therefore to except only Scripture, and to make confusedly all the residue of one sute, as if they, who abolish Legends could not without incongruity retain in the Church either Homilies, or those old Ecclesiastical Books: Which Books in case my self did think, as some others do, safer and better to be left publickly unread; nevertheless as in other things of like nature, even so in this,hhIn cremum …ar…a…heum sicliterrum… qui conceptus propitus …atrum desiai…i onibus antepodunt. c. …nde Relig…o. In Extra. my private Judgement I should be loath 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 publickly read, have thought-it better to let them stand as a lift or marginal border unto the Old Testament, and, though with Divine, yet as Human compositions, to grant at the least unto certain of them publick audience in the House of God. For in as much as the due estimation of heavenly Truth dependeth wholly upon the known p. 155and 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.Hieron. praes. ad libros …alom. Aug de p…d. Sanct. Wherefore albeit for the Peoples more plain instruction (as the antient 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.l. 1. c. 14. Praefat. gloss. ord. & Lyr. ad pr…. Hieron. in Iob. And if any where it be suspected that some one or other will haply mistake a thing so manifest in every man's eye, there is no lett, but that as often as those Books are read, and need so requireth, the style of their difference may expresly be mentioned, to barr even all possiblity of Error. It being then known, that we hold not the Apocrypha for sacred (as we do the holy Scripture) but for human compositions, the subject whereof are sundry Divine matters; let there be reason shewed, why to read any part of them publickly, it should be unlawful or hurtful unto the Church of God. I hear it said, that many things in them are very frivolous, and unworthy of publick audience;T. C. l. 2. p. 400, 401. 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 it self 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 whereabout they should go; so here it appeareth, that an eager desire to take together whatsoever might prejudice or any way hinder the credit of Apocryphal Books, hath caused the Collector's Pen so to run as it were on Wheels, that the minde which should guide it, had no leisure to think, whether that which might haply serve to with-hold from giving them the Authority 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 publick use, wherein they are only held as profitable for instruction. Is it not acknowledged, that those Books are Holy, that they are Ecclesiastical and Sacred,…arm. Conses. sect. 1. …d. con. art. 6. Lubert. de pincip. Christ. doug…. L… …. 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 publick informations 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 agreeable with holy Scripture? So little doth such their supposed Faultiness in moderate mens Judgments inforce 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 it self, ascribing to the Persons of Men Righteousness, in regard of their manifold vertues, may not rightly be construed, as though it did thereby 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 finde now a word and then a sentence, which may be more probably suspected than easily cleared of Error by as which have but conjectural knowledge of their meaning. Against immodest Invectives therefore whereby they are charged as being fraught with aaThe Lib… of Metaphys. School p. art. 34.outragious Lyes, 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 bbJoseph. cent. App. lib. 1.Iosephus and Epiphanius observe: the one declaring, that amongst the Jews, Books written after the days of Artaxerxe, were not of equal credit with them which had gone before, in as much as the Jews sithence that time had not the like exact succession of Prophets; the ccEpist. in An…y…or. foreignother p. 156acknowledging that they are profitable, although denying them to be Divine, in such construction and sense as the Scripture it self is so termed. With what intent they were first published,Prael. ad lib. Eccles. those words of the Nephew of Jesus do plainly enough signifie, After that my Grand-father, 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 Iudith, Toby, Baruch, Wisdome, and Ecclesiasticus we read, as serving most unto that end. The rest we leave unto men in private. Neither can it be reasonably thought, because upon certain solemn occasions, some Lessons are chosen out of those Books, and of Scripture it self 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 Worthyness. 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. Ierem giveth Lata, 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 binde us not to read them, or any part of them publickly at all, must be stronger than as yet we have heard any.

Of Preaching by Sermons… and whether Sermons be the only u…llnary way of Teaching, whereby men are brought to the saving knowledge of Gods Truth.21. 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 it self; that now it hath grown to be a question, whether the Word of God be any ordinary mean to save the Souls of men, in that it is either privately studied, or publickly read, and so made known; or else only as the same is preached, that is to say, explained by a lively voyce, and applyed to the People's use, as the Speaker in his Wisdom thinketh meet. For this alone is it which they use to call Preaching. The publick reading of the Apocrypha they condemn altogether, as a thing effectual unto Evil; the bare reading in like sort of whatsoever, yea even of Scriptures themselves, they mislike, as a thing uneffectual to do that good, which we are perswaded may grow by it. Our desire is in this present Controversie, as in the rest, not to be carried up and down with the waves of uncertain Arguments, but rather positively to lead on the mindes of the simpler sort by plain and easie degrees, till the very nature of the thing it self do make manifest what is Truth. First therefore, because whatsoever is spoken concerning the efficacy or necessity of God's Word, the same they tye 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 publick audience but once: For this cause, to avoid ambiguities, wherewith they often intangle themselves, not marking what doth agree to the Word of God in it self, and what in regard of 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. Apostolick Sermons were, unto such as heard them, his Word, even as properly as to us their Writings are. Howbeit not so our own Sermons, the exposition 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. The end of the Word of God is to 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 it self communicable unto all, it behooved that the Word of God, the necessary mean thereunto, be so likewise. Wherefore the Word of Life hath been always a Treasure, though precious, yet easie, as well to attain, as to finde; lest any man desirous p. 157of life should perish through the difficulty of the way. To this and the Word of God no otherwise serveth, than only in the nature of a Doctrinal Instrument. It saveth, because it maketh wise unto Salvation. Wherefore the ignorant it saveth not, they which live by the Word, must know it. And being it self the Instrument which God hath purposely framed, thereby to work the knowledge of Salvation in the hearts of men, what cause is there wherefore it should not of it self be acknowledged a most apt and a likely mean, to leave an apprehension of things Divine in our understanding, and in the minde an assent thereunto? For touching the one, sith God, who knoweth and discloseth best the rich tresures 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 no man's understanding the Scripture must needs be even of it self, 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, 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 kindes of Knowledge else have that vertue in themselves, whereby they are able to procure 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 travel. 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 doctrin of Belief is not instilled by instruction, some way received at the first from others. Wherein whatsoever fit means there are to notifie the Mysteries of the Word of God, whether Publickly (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. Sermons are not the only Preaching which doth save Souls. For, concerning the use and sense of this word Preaching, 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 self-same language with us, whose manner of speech they deride. (aaParaenet. ad Gent. p. 17.)Iustin Martyr doubteth not to tell the Grecians, That even in certain of their Writings the very Judgment to come is preached, not the (bbConcil Va…i…. 2. c 2.)Council of Vaeus to insinuate, that 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 (ccConcil. Tol. 4 cap. 11.)Council of Toledo, to call the usual Publick reading of the Gospels in the Church, Preaching, nor (ddRupert. de Divin. Offic. l. 1. c. 12, 13. Isid. de Eccles. Offic. l. 1. c. 10.)others, long before these our days to write, that by him who but readeth a Lesson in the Solemn Assembly as part of Divine Service, the very Office of Preaching is so far-forth executed. Such kind of speeches were then familiar, those Phrases seemed not to them absurd, they would have marvelled to hear the (eeThe libel of School. part. 11 T. C. lib. 2. pag. 388. Saint 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.)Out-cryes 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 mens Tongues and their Pens differ, yet to one and the self-same general, if not particular effect, they may both serve. It is no good Argument, St. Paul could not write with his Tongue, therefore neither could 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 (ffEvangelizo manu & scriptione. Rainol. de Rom. Eccles. Idolola. praef. ad Co. Essex.)preached well enough with both. 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 Publick reading of the Word of God for the Peoples instruction, is Preaching. Nor about words would we ever contend, were not their purpose in so restraining the same, injurious to God's most Sacred Word and Spirit. It is on both sides confest, That the Word of God outwardly administred (his (ggJohn 6.46. Mat. 16 17. 2 Cor. 4. 6. 1 Cor. 12. 3… Acts 16. 14.John 6:46Matt 16:172 Cor 4:61 Cor 12:3Acts 16:14)Spirit inwardly concurring therewith) converteth, edifieth, and saveth Souls. Now whereas p. 158the 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 stedfastly hold and believe that it hath in both.

What they attribute to Sermons only, and what we to Reading also.22. So worthy a part of Divine Service we should greatly wrong, if we did not esteem Preaching as the blessed Ordinance of God, Sermons as Keyes to the Kingdom of Heaven, as Wings to the Soul, as Spurrs to the good Affections of Man, unto the Sound and Healthy as Food, as Physick unto diseased Mindes. Wherefore how higly soever it may please them with words of Truth to extoll 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 derogate 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 vertue whereof thereby manifesting it self, for the endless good of mens Souls, even the Vertue which it hath to convert, to edifie, 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. 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 Saint Paul to require,2 Thes. … 27. Colos. ….16. that those things which any one Churches affairs gave particular occasion to write, might, for the Instruction 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, in as much 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 it self at large to the People, which caused Churches throughout the World to have publick care, that the sacred Oracles of God being procured by Common charge, might with great sedulity be kept both intire 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 fraudulence of Hereticks always to deprave the same, shall we set light by that Custom of Reading, from whence so precious a benefit hath grown? 2. The Voyce 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 mens depositions do testifie, suppose we that the mindes 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 publickly 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 Churches assent and acknowledgement 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 Rules whereby to judge the better all other Doctrins and Instructions which they hear. John. 5. 39. Isa. 8. 22.John 5:39Isa 8:22For which end and purpose, I see not how, the Scripture could be possibly made familiar unto all, unless far more should be read in the Peoples 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 Reading it self is one of the ordinary means, whereby it pleaseth God of his gracious goodness to instill that Celestial Verity, which being but so received is nevertheless effectual to save Souls? Thus much therefore we ascribe to the Reading p. 159of the Word of God as the manner is in our Churches. 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; ThataaT. C. l. 2. p. 376, 377, 395. Faith may be nourished therewith, but not bred; ThatbbPag. 3. 8. herein mens 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 ifccPag. 383. any believe 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 with that patiently they would examine how little cause they have to deny that which as yet they grant not. The Scripture witnesseth,2 Chro. ….16 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 Cloaths, and with tears confessed,2 Chro. 34.3.2 Chr 34:3 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. This doth argue, that by bare reading (for of Sermons at that time there is no mention) true Repentance may be wrought in the hearts of such as fear God, and yet incurr 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 re-entrance 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 adde degrees of farther perfection in the fear of God; And therefore the Law saith,Deut. 31. 13.Deut 31:13 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 hearing it so read, may learn to fear the Lord. Our Lord and Saviour was himself of opinion,Luke 16. 29.Luke 16:29 That they which would not be drawn to amendment of Life by the Testimony which Moses and the Prophets have given, concerning the miseries that follow Sinners after death, were not likely to be perswaded 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. Howbeit, their unbelief in that case we may not impute unto any weakness or insufficiency in the mean which is used towards them, but to the wilful bent of their obstinate hearts against it. With mindes 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 give credit unto our Teaching? But with whom ordinary means will prevail, surely the power of the World of God, even without the help of Interpreters in God's Church, worketh mightily, not unto their confirmation alone which are converted, but also to their conversion which are not. 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 instruction of Men baptised, 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. 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 concerning the very principal Mysteries of our Faith; and whatsoever we may learn by them, the same we can only attain to know, according to the manner of natural Sciences, which meer 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 own 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. Small cause also there is, why any man should greatly p. 160wonder as at an extraordinary work, if, without Sermons, Reading be sound to effect thus much. For I would know by some special instance, what one Article of Christian Faith, or what duty required unto all mens Salvation there is, which the very reading of the Word of God is not apt to notifie. Effects are miraculous and strange, when they grow by unlikely 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 God?Exod. 14.7.Exod 14:7 Reading doth convey to the Minde that Truth, without addition or diminution, which Scripture hath derived from the Holy Ghost. And the end of all Scripture is the same which Saint Iohn proposeth in the writing of that most Divine Gospel,John 20. 31.John 20:31 namely Faith, and through Faith Salvation. Yea, all Scripture is to this effect in it self available,Prov. 1. 2,3,4. Rom. 1. 16. 2 Tim. 3. 15.Prov 1:2Prov 1:3Prov 1:4Rom 1:162 Tim 3:15 as they which wrote it were perswaded; unless we suppose, that the Evangelists, or others, in speaking of their own intent to instruct and to save by writing, had a secret Conceit which they never opened to 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 alledged at the least in a Sermon. Otherwise, if he which writeth, doth that which is forceable in it self, how should he which readeth, be thought to do that which in it self is of no force to work Belief, and to save Believers? Now, although we have very just cause to stand in some jealousie 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 mens incouragement 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-sake, turneth unto anger and choler in them, they grow altogether out of quietness with it,T. C. l. 2. p. 376. they answer fumingly, that they are ashamed to defile their Pens with making answer to such idle questions: yet in this their mood they cast forth somewhat, wherewith under pain of greater displeasure we must rest contented. They tell us, the profit of Reading is singular, in that it serveth for a Preparative unto Sermons; it helpeth prettily towards the nourishment of Faith, which Sermons have once ingendred; it is some stay to his minde which readeth the Scripture, when he findeth the same things there which are taught in Sermons, and thereby perceiveth how God doth concurr in opinion with the Preacher; besides, it keepeth Sermons in memory, and doth in that respect, although not feed the Soul of man, yet help the retentive force of that stomack of the minde, which receiveth ghostly …ood at the Preachers hands. But the principal cause of writing the Gospel was, that it might be preached upon or interpreted by publick Ministers, apt and authorized thereunto. Is it credible that a superstitious conceit (for it is no better) concerning Sermons, should in such sort both darken their Eyes, and yet sharpen their Wits withall, that the only true and weightly 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 scholie. Men of Learning hold it for a slip in Judgement, when offer is made to demonstrate that as proper to one thing, which Reason findeth common unto moe. Whereas therefore they take from all kindes of teachings, 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 kinde of teaching. In belief there being but these two operations, Apprehension and Assent. Do only Sermons cause Belief, in that no other way is able to explain the mysteries of God, that the minde may rightly apprehend or conceive them as behooveth? We all know, that many things are believed, although they be intricate, obscure, and dark, although they exceed the reach and capacity of our Wits, yea although in this World they be no p. 161way possible to be understood. Many things believed are likewise so plain, that every Common Person may therein be unto himself 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 first come to apprehend the Mysterys 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 necessity acknowledge, that who so 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 foreign, 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 perswaded him thereunto, and that otherwise neither conversation in the bosome of the Church, nor religious Education, nor the reading of Learned mens Books, nor Information received by conference, nor whatsoever pain and diligence in hearing, studying, meditating 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 heating Sermons?aaT. C. l. r. p. 375.Fain they would have us to believe the Apostle Saint Paul himself to be Author of this their Paradox, only because he hath said, that it pleaseth God by thebb1 Cor. 1.21.1 Cor 1:21 foolishness of Preaching to save them which believe; and again,ccRom. 10.14.Rom 10:14 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 sent? To answer therefore both Allegations at once; The very substance of what they contain is in few but this. Life and Salvation God will have offered unto all; his will is that Gentiles should be saved as well as Jews. Salvation belongeth unto none but such as call upon the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ. Which Nations as yet unconverted neither do not possibly can do till they believe. What they are to believe, impossible it is they should know till they bear it. Their Hearing requireth our Preaching unto them.ddApologet. c. 18. in finc. Tertullian, to draw even Painyms themselves unto Christian Belief, willeth the Books of the Old Testament to be searched, which were at that time in Ptolemics Library. And if men did not lift to travel so far, though it were for their endless good, he addeth that in Rome and other places the Jews had Synagogues, whereunto every one which would, might resort; that this kinde of Liberty they purchased by payment of a standing Tribute; that there they did openlyeeThis 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 Iustinian, wherein the Jews make request that it might be lawful for them to read the Greek Translations of the 70. Interpreters in their Synagogues, as their Custom before had been. Anthem. 145. Cel. 10. incipit. AEqaum sanc. read the Scriptures; and whosoever will bear, (saith Tertullian) he shall finde God; whosoever will study to 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 it self must seek them, it behooveth God to send them Preachers as he did his elect Apostles throughout the World. There is a Knowledge which God hath always revealed unto them in the works of Nature. This they honour and esteem highly as profound Wisdome; howbeit this Wisdome saveth them not. That which must save Believers, is, the knowledge of the Cross of Christ, the only Subject of all our Preaching. And in their Eyes what seemeth this but Folly? It pleaseth God by the foolishness of Preaching to save. These Words declare how admirable force those Mysteries have, which the World do deride as Follies; they shew that the Foolishness of the Cross of Christ is the Wisdom of True Believers; they concern the Object of our Faith, the ffI… the Apostle u…eth the went foreign and foreign.Matter preached of and believed in by Christian men. This we know that the Grecians or Gentiles did account Foolishness; but that they did ever think it a fond or unlikely way to seek mens Conversion by Sermons, we have not heard. Manifest therefore it is, that the Apostle applying the name of Foolishness 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 p. 162Infancy never knew any other Faith or Religion that only Christian, no kinde of Teaching can be available, saving that which was so needful for the first universal Conversion of Gentiles hating Christianity; 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 hearkning, and attending to the Word of Life. Which Word sometime proposeth and preacheth it self 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 Publick, 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 Publick instruction, or inforce the utter disability of any other mens Vocation thought requisite in this Church for the saving of Souls, where means more effectual are wanting. Their only proper and direct proof of the thing in question had been to shew, in what sort, and how farr 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 kindes of administring 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 satisfie us, and obtain the Cause it self for which they contend, 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 theyaa…. c. …. …. p. 373. This sayle of Readers. The Bishops more than beggerly Prese…ts. Those Rascal Ministers. fall upon their poor Brethren which can but read, and against them they are bitterly eloquene. If we alledge what the Scriptures themselves do usually speak for the saving force of the Word of God, not with restraint to any one certain kinde of delivery, but howsoever the same shall chance to be made known, yet by one trick or other they alwaysbbT C. l. a. p. 37. restrain it unto Sermons. Our Lord and Saviour hath said,ccJohn 3. 39.John 3:39 Search the Scriptures, for 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 minde they should search, not by reading, nor by hearing them read, but by attending, whensoever the Scriptures should happen to be alledged in Sermons. Furthermore, having received Apostolical Doctrine,ddGal. 1. 9.Gal 1:9 the Apostle Saint Paul hath taught us to esteem the same as the Supream Rule, whereby all other Doctrines must for ever be examined. Yea, but in as much 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) therewill (which yet hath greater absurdity) no Rule at all be remaining for Tryal, what Doctrines now are corrupt, what consonant with heavenly Truth.1. Tim. 3 16.1 Tim 3:16 Again, let the same Apostle acknowledge all Scripture profitable to teach, to improve, to correct, to instruct in Righteousness; Still notwithstanding we erre, 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. Finally, they never hear Sentence which mentioneth the Word or Scripture, but forthwith their Glosses upon it are, the Word preached, the Scripture explained or delivered unto us in 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 minde and soul of the Speaker conveyeth it self into the bolom of him which heareth, we cannot chuse but see great reason, wherefore the Word that proceedeth from God, who is Himself very Truth and Life, should be (as the Apostle to the Hebrews noteth) lively and mighty in operation,Heb. 4. 12.Heb 4:12 sharper than any two-edged Sword. Now, if in this and the like Places we did conceive, that our p. 163own Sermons are that strong and forcible Word, 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 wit of man, and therefore 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. 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 kindes 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.aaT. C. l 2. p. 381. Thus, because Solomon declareth that the People decay or perish for want of Knowledge, where bbProv. 29.18.Prov 29:18no Prophecying at all is, they gather, that the hope of Life and Salvation is cut off, where Preachers are not which prophecy by Sermons, how many soever they be in number that read daily the Word of God, and deliver, though in other sort, the self-same matter which Sermons do. The people which have no way to come to the knowledge of God, no prophecying, no teaching, perish. But that they should of necessity perish, where any one way of knowledge lacketh, is more then the words of Solomon import,ccT. C. l. a. p. 379. Another usual point of their Art in this present question, is to make very large and plentiful Discourses, how Christ is by Sermonsdd2 Cor. 2.16.2 Cor 2:16 lifted up higher, and made moreee2 Tim. 2 15.2 Tim 2:15 apparent to the eye of Faith; how theffMatth 16.19.Matt 16:19 savour of the Word is more sweet being brayed, and more able to nourish being divided by Preaching, then by only reading proposed; how Sermons are the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven, and do open the Scriptures, which being but read, remain in comparison still clasped; how Godgg1 Cor. 3. 6.1 Cor 3:6 giveth richer increase of grace 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 anhhT. C. l. 2. p. 380. No Salvation to be looked for, where no Preaching is. impossibility thereof where Sermons are not. Alcidimas 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 ii… C. C. l. 2. p. 364.peculiar and proper vertues, such as no other way of Teaching besides hath. Aptness to follow particular occasions presently growing, to put life into words by countenance, voyce and gesture, to prevail mightily in the sudden affections of men, this Sermons may challenge. Wherein notwithstanding so eminent properties whereof Lessons are haply destitute, yet Lessons being free from some inconveniences, whereunto Sermons are more subject, they may in this respect no less take, then in other they must give the hand, which betokeneth preeminence. For there is nothing which is not some way excell'd, even by that which it doth excel. Sermons therefore and Lessons may each excell other in some respects, without any prejudice unto either, as touching that vital force which they both have in the work of our Salvation. To which effect when we have endeavoured as much as in us doth lye, to finde out the strongest causes, wherefore they should imagine that Reading is itself so unavailable;T. C. l. 2. p. 395. the most we can learn at their hands, is, that Sermons are the Ordinance of God, the Scriptures dark, and the labour of Reading easie. First, therefore, as we know that God doth aide with his grace, and by his special providence evermore bless with happy success those things which himself appointeth; so his Church, we perswade our selves, 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,Deut. 31. 13.Deut 31:13 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 publick Sermons, and to withdraw it self from concurring with the publick delivery thereof by such selected portions of Scriptures, as the p. 164whole Church hath solemnly appointed to be read for the Peoples good, either by ordinary course or otherwise, according to the exigence of special occasions? Reading (saith aaDe Eccles. Offic l. 1. c. 10.Isidore) is to the Hearers no small edifying. To them whose bbPsal. 1. 2.Ps 1:2delight and meditation is 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 ccPsal. 119. 16.Ps 119:16joy, and afterwards their study that hear it. ddAug. in Ps. …6.Ps 6S. Augustin 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. eeCyprian, 1. 2. Epist. 5. Lector personat verba sublimia Evangelium Christi 1. g's a frottibus conspieitur, cum giudio fraternitatis auditur.St. Cyprian observeth. that Reading was not without effect in the hearts of men. Their joy and alacity was 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 ffPsal. 119. 33, 35.Ps 119:33Ps 119:35David, Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy Statutes, direct me in the path of thy commandments, might have the ground of usual experience wherupon 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, imagin that in breeding or begetting faith, his grace doth cleave to the one, and utterly forsake the other. Touching hardness, which is the second pretended impediment,T. C. l. 2. p. 383. 384, 392. as against Homilies, being plain and popular instructions, 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 notifie that which is plain or easie to be understood. And of things necessary to all mens salvation, we have been hitherto accustomed to hold (especially sit hence the publishing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, whereby the simplest having now a Key unto Knowledge which the Eunuch in the Acts did want,Acts. …. 31. our Children may of themselves by reading understand that, which he without an Interpreter could not) they are in Scripture plain and easie to be understood. 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. The easie performance of which holy labour, is in like sort a very cold Objection, to prejudice the vertue thereof. For what though an Infidel; yes, though a Childe 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 Sacrifice 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 consider how he hath provided that things most needful to preserve this life, should be most prompt and easie for all living Creatures to come by. Is it not as evident a sign of his wonderful 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 easie, may suffice to procure the same? Surely, if we perish, it is not the lack of Scribes and learned Expounders that can be out just excuse. The Word which saveth our Souls is near us, we need for knowledge but to read and live.Apoc. 1 3.Rev 1:3 The man which readeth the Word of God, the Word it self doth pronounce blessed, if he also observe the same. 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 Salvation for them unto whom theT. C. l. 2. p. 353. p. 373. Word of God is but only read, do seldom name them but with great disdain and contempt who execute that Service in the Church of Christ. By means whereof it hath come to pass, that Churches, which cannot enjoy the benefit of usual Preaching, are judged, as it were, even forsaken of God, forlorn, and without either hope or comfort: Contrariwise, p. 165those 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 then were meet. But if no other evil were known to grow thereby, who can chuse but think them cruel which doth hear them so boldly teach,Pag. 364. 375. 382, 383, 384. that if God (as to him there nothing impossible) 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 of so poor instruments can give any man cause to hope for; that Sacraments are not effectual to Salvation,Pag. 392. except men be instructed by Preaching before they be made Partakers of them; yea, that both Sacraments and Prayers also, where Sermons are not,Pag. 364. do not only not feed, but are ordinarily to further condemnation; What mans heart doth not rise at the mention of these things… It is true, that the weakness of our Wits and the dulness of our Affections do make us for the most part, even as our Lords own Disciples were for a certain time, hard and slow to believe what is written. For help whereof expositions and exhortations 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 abundantly 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 extream desticution, that justly any men should think the ordinary means of Eternal life taken from them because their teaching is in publick 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 dis-hearten with fearful Sentences, as though their Salvation could hardly be hoped for, is not in our understanding so consonant with Christian Charity. We hold it safer a great deal, and better to give themaaEcclus 51. 26.27. Matth. 12. ….Sir 51:26Sir 51:27Matt 12 incouragement; to put them in minde, that it is not the deepness of their Knowledge, but thebb1 Tim. 1. 3. Rom. 14. 1. 1 Thes. 3. 10.1 Tim 1:3Rom 14:11 Thess 3:10 singleness of their Belief which God accepteth; That they whichccMatth. 5. 6.Matt 5:6 hunger and thirst after Righteousness, shall be satisfied; That noddPhil. 1. 6. 1 Pet. 5. 10. Matth. 3. 9.Phil 1:61 Pet 5:10Matt 3:9 imbecillity of Means can prejudice the truth of the promise of God herein; That the weaker their helps are, the more their need is to sharpen the edge of their ownee1 Thes. 4. 18. Pet. 10. …4. Jude vers. 20. 1 Per. 4. 10.1 Thess 4:18 industry; And thatffLuke 11. 31.Luke 11:31 painfulness by feeble meanes shall be able to gain that, which in the plenty of more forcible instruments is through sloth and negligence lost. As for the men, with whom we have thus fart taken pains to conferr, about the force of the Word of God, either read by it self 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 odde kinde of blinde uses, whereunto they may answer that reading doth serve, yet the reading of the Word of God in publick more than their Preachers bare Text, who will 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 beginning reaped singular Commodity; a thing which without exceeding great detriment no Church can omit, they only are the men that ever we heard of, by whom this hath been cross'd and gain-said; they only the men which have given their peremptory sentence to the contrary:T. C. l. 2. p. 381. 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 assembled 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 Gods commandement, 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 behoovful) 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 satisfie their mindes. They have against it a marvellous deep and profound Axiome,T. C. l. 2. p. 372. that Two things to one and the same end p. 166cannot 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. Are they resolved then at the leastwise, if Preaching be the only ordinary mean whereby it pleaseth God to save our Souls, what kinde of Preaching it is which doth save? Understand they, how or in what respect there is that force or vertue in Preaching? We have reason wherefore 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 instructions and exhortations the name of Sermons; the pain they take themselves in this kinde is either opening or Lecturing or Reading, or Exercising, but in no case Preaching.aaT. C. l. 2. p. 38. And in this present Question, they also warily protest that what they ascribe to the vertue of Preaching, they still mean it of good Preaching: Now one of them saith that a good SermonbbComplaint of the Commin… …. must expound and apply a large portion of the Text of Scripture at one time. Another giveth us to understand, that sound PreachingccDr. Som…, Painter. p.21. is not to do as one did at London, who spent 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. TheddT. C. lib. 2. pag. 335. best of them hold it for no good Preaching, when a man endeavoureth to make a glorious shew of Eloquence and Learning, rather than to apply himself to the capacity of the simple. But let them shape us out a good Preacher by what pattern soever 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 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 vertue 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 Iames, 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 vertue, his gesture, his countenance, his zeal, the motion of his body, and the inflexion 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? Wherefore to end this tedious Controversie, 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 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 applyed by Art for the benefit of bodily health, take effect sometime under and sometime above the natural proportion of their vertue, according as the minde and fancy of the Patient doth more or less concurr with them: So, whether we barely read unto men the Scriptures of God; or by Homilies concerning matter of Belief and Conversation seek to lay before them the duties which they owe unto God and Man; whether we deliver them Books to read and consider of in private at their own best leasure, or call them to the hearing of Sermons publickly in the House of God; albeit every of these and the like unto these means p. 167do truly and daily effect that in the hearts of men for which they are each and all meant; yet the operation which they have in common, being most sensible and most generally noted in one kinde above the rest, that one hath in some mens opinions drowned altogether the rest, and injuriously brought to pass that they have been thought not less effectual than the other, but without the other uneffectual to save souls. 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 but that singular affection and attention which the people sheweth every where towards the one, and their cold disposition to the other; the reason hereof being partly the Art which our Adversaries use for the credit of their Sermons, to bring men out of conceit with all other Teaching besides; partly, a custom which men have to let those things carelesly pass by their ears which they have oftentimes heard before, or know they may hear again whenever it pleaseth themselves; partly, the especial advantages which Sermons naturally have to procure attention, both in that they come always new, and because by the Hearer it is still presumed, that if they be let slip for the present, what good soever they contain, is lost, and that without all hope of recovery. This is the true cause of odds between Sermons, and other kindes of wholesome Instruction. As for the difference which hath been hitherto so much defended on the contrary side, making Sermons the only 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 fart better grace and conveniency aske 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 with-held where it is apparently due. All which notwithstanding, as we could greatly wish that the rigour of this their opinion were allayed and mittigated; so, because we hold it the part of religious ingenuity to honour vertue in whomsoever, therefore it is our most hearty desire, and shall be always our Prayer unto Almighty God, that in the self-same fervent zeal wherewith they seem to effect 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 Worlds end. For in this we are not their Adversaries, though they in the other hitherto have been ours.