Works of Hooker, Dedication 3
To the Worshipful Mr. GEORGE SUMMASTER, Principal of Broad-Gates Hall in Oxford, Henry Iackson wisheth all Happiness.
SIR,
YOur kinde acceptance of a former testification of that respect I owe you, hath made me venture to sh…w the World these godly Sermons under your name. In which, as every point is worth observation, so some especially are to be noted, The first, that, as the spirit of Prophesie is from God himself, who doth inwardly heat and enlighten the hearts and mindes of his holy Pen-men, (which if some would diligently consider, they would not puzzle themselves with the contentions of Scot, and Thomas, Whether God only, or his Ministring Spirits, do infuse into men's mindes prophetical Revelations, per species intelligibiles) so God framed their words also. Whence he holy Father St. Augustine religiously observeth,Lib 4. cap. 6. de d…ct. chr. That all those who understand the Sacred Writers, will also perceive, that they ought not to use other words than they did, in expressing those heavenly Mysteries which their hearts conceived, as the Blessed Virgin did our Saviour, By the Holy Ghost, The greater is Castell-o his offence, who hath laboured to teach the Prophets to speak otherwise than they have already. Much like to that impious King of Spain, Alphonsus the tenth, who found fault with God's works, Si, inquit, Creationi assuissiem. Mundum melius ordinassem, Rob. Tol…. lib. 4. cap. 5.If he had been with God at the Creation of the World, the World had gone better than now it doth. As this man found fault with God's works, so did the other with God's words; but, because we have a most sure word of the Prophets, to which we must take heed,2 Pet. 1. I will let his words pass with the winde, having elsewhere spoken to you more largely of his errours,P…i… in Orit. D. A…nold. whom notwithstanding for his other excellent parts, I much respect.
You shall moreover from hence understand, how Christianity consists not in formal and seeming purity (under which, who knows not notorious Villany to m…sk?) but in the heart root. Whence the Author truly teacheth, that Mockers, which use Religious as a Cloak, to put off and on; as the Weather serveth, are worse than Pagans and Infidels. Where I cannot omit to shew, how justly this kinde of men hath been reproved by that renowned Martyr of Jesus Christ, E. Latimer, both because it will be opposite in this purpose, and also free that Christian Worthy from the slanderous reproaches of him, who was, if ever any,Parsons in 3. convers. a Mo…ker of God, Religion, and all good men. But first I must desire you, and in you all Readers, not to think lightly of that excellent man, for using this and the like witty similitudes in his Sermons. For whosoever will call to minde, with what riff-raff God's people were fed in those days, when their Priests, whose lips should have preserved Knowledge, Mal. 1. 7.preached nothing else but dreams and false miracles of counterfeit Saints,Canus locur. l. 11. c. 5. Vi… ver. lib. 2. de corrupt. art Hard. lib. 4. enrolled in that s…ttish Legend coyned and amplified by a drousie head, between sleeping and waking. He that will consider this, and also how the People were delighted with such toys (God sending them strong delusions that they should believe lyes) and how hard it would have been for any man, wholly, and upon the sudden, to draw their mindes to another bent, will easily perceive, both how necessary it was to use Symbolical Discourse, and how wisely and moderately it was applied by the religious Father, to the end he might lead their understanding so far, till it were so convinced, informed, and setled, that it might forget the means and way by which it was led, and think only of that it had acquired Far in all such mystical speeches who knows not that the end for which they are used is only to be thought upon?
This then being first considered▪ let us hear the story, as it is related by Mr. Fox: Pac. 1903. edit. 1570.Mr. Latuner (saith he in his Sermon gave the People certain Cards out of the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of Matthew. For the chief Triumph in the Cards be limited the Heart, as the principal thing that they should serve God withal, whereby he quite overthrew all hypocritical and external Ceremonies, not tending to the necessary furtherance of God's holy Word and Sacraments. By this, he exhorted all men to serve the Lord with inward heart, and true affection, and not with outward Ceremonies; adding moreover to the praise of that Triumph, that though it were never so small, yet it would take up the best Coat-card beside in the Bunch, yea, though it were the King of Clubs, &c. meaning thereby, how the Lord would be worshipped and served in simplicity of the heart, and verity, wherein consisteth true Christian Religion, &c. Thus Master Fox.
By which it appears, that the holy man's intention was to lift up the Peoples hearts to God, and not that he made a Sermon of playing at Cards, and taught them how to play at Triumph, and plaid (himself) at Cards in the Pulpit, as that base companion aIn the third part of the 3. conversions of England; in the Examination of Foxes Saints, c. 14. sect. 53.54. p. 215.Parsons reports the matter, in his wonted scurrilous vein of railing, whence he calleth it a bSect. 55.Christmas-Sermon. Now he that will think ill of such Allusions, may, out of the abundance of his folly, jest at Demosthenes for his story of the cPlut. in Demosthen.Sheep, Wolves, and Doggs; and dLiv. Dec. 1.l.2. an. V.C. 60Menenius, for his fiction of the Belly. But, hinc illae lacrymae, The good Bishop meant that the Romish Religion came not from the heart, but consisted in outward Ceremonies: Which sorely grieved Parsons, who never had the least warmth or spark of honesty. Whether B. Latimer compared the Bishops to the Knave of Clubs, as the Fellow interprets him, I know not: I am sure Parsons, of all others, deserved those colours; and so I leave him. We see then, what inward purity is required of all Christians, which if they have, then in Prayer, and all other Christian duties, they shall lift up pure hands, as the e1 Tim. 2.8.Apostle speaks, not as fAnnal. tom. …. An. 59. n. 109,110 & tom. 2. An. 132. num.Baronius would have it, washed from sins with holy water; but pure, that is, holy, free from the pollution of sin, as the Greek word foreign doth signifie.
You may also see here refused those calumnies of the Papists; that we abandon all religious Rites, and godly duties, as also the confirmation of our Doctrine touching certainty of Faith (and so of Salvation) which is so strongly denied by some of that Faction, that they have told the world,gS. Paulus de sua salute incertus Kicheom Jesuit. 1.2. c. 12. Idolat. Huguen. p. 119. in marg edit. Lat. Mogunt. 113. interpret. Marcel. Bomper. Jesuita. S. Paul himself was uncertain of his own salvation. What then shall we say, but pronounce a wo to the most strict observers of St. Francis rules, and his Canonical Discipline (though they make him evenhWitness the verses of Horatius a Jesuite. recited by Posse. Biblioth. Select. part. 2.l.17. c. 19. Exue Franciscum tunica laceroque cucul…o. Qui Franciscus erat, jam tibi Christus eri…. Francisci exuri…s (si quà licet) indue Christium: Jam Francisco; erit, qui modo Christus erat, The like hath Bencius another Jesuite. equal with Christ) and the most meritorious Monk that ever was registred in their Kalender of Saints? But we, for our comfort, are otherwise taught out of the holy Scripture, and therefore exhorted to build our selves in our most holy Faith, that so, when i2 Cor.3.1.our earthly house of this Tabernacle shall be destroyed, we may have a Building given of God, a house not made with hands, but eternal in the Heavens.
This is that which is most piously and feelingly taught in these few leaves, so that you shall read nothing here, but what, I perswade my self, you have long practi…ed in the constant course of your life. It remaineth only, that you accept of these Labours tendred to you by him, who wisheth you the long joys of this world, and the eternal of that which is to come.
Oxon. from Corp. Christi Colledge, this 13. of Ianuary, 1613.