An Apology for the Discipline of the Ancient Church, Part 3 · Section 6 · Excerpt 20
This motion is my heavenly motion for my ſelf, the granting of which will engage me, yet further, to be, to remain, and alſo acknowledge my ſelf,
From my lodging this 22. of the 8. Month. 1656.
Your thankful Remembrance… In his neareſt Approaches To the Throne of Grace.
The Reply.
That the motion is for your ſelf, I very much reſpect it, becauſe I have ever ſince I knew you, born unto you much affection, as judging that diſlike you bore firſt to this my Mother of England, to proceed rather from a miſtake in judgment, than any peeviſhneſſe, malice or frowardneſſe of will, not from any carnal or ſecular end, but from tenderneſſe of heart. But now that you have added heavenly to it, it quickens me to embrace it the more; for what friend, what Chriſtian friend, would not lay out himſelf to help his friend forward in his way to heaven? It was Cains churliſh anſwer, what am I my brothers keeper? this is the voice of a Reprobate, not of one guided by the ſpirit of lenity; for ſuch a one knows he ows to his brother conſilium & auxilium, Bernard.and that debt I have here paid. If it may any way conduce to that end I intend it, let God have the honour, whom I have often ſollicited in my prayers to aſſiſt and direct me in it. All the weakneſſe I take to my ſelf, and ſhall be ready to acknowledge and retract it, when diſcovered. Some paſſages in it you muſt needs paſſe by, becauſe you begin, and a reviled parent hath made a dumb ſon ſpeak. If the words ſeem many, conſider how many and ſeveral things I had to anſwer. In this length, I have ſtudied brevity, and ſaid as little as I could to every head, and yet not ſo little, but I hope I have cleared up all difficulties. If it work not fully to change your judgment, yet I hope it may have this effect, to make you conceive a little better of our cauſe then hitherto you, or rather yours have done, and that it is not without reaſon, that we remain what and as we were. Pray let us have your pity, if we may not partake of your mercy, and think of us yet ſo charitably, as Luther did of the Anabaptiſts of his t me, O quam honesta mente hi miſeri errant, 'tis with a good meaning theſe poor ſouls do miſtake, and therefore made a requeſt unto Frederick Duke of Saxony, that in his Dominion they might be favourably dealt withall and ſpared; for that their errour exempted, they ſeemed otherwiſe very good men. The infamy that we were wont to be loaded withall, was, that we were worldlings, time-ſervers, pleaſers of men, not of God; but time hath waſhed off theſe aſperſions, and ſhewed that we have little regarded the world in compariſon of that we are fully perſwaded is truth, and Gods Ordinance. Thoſe indeed among us who were time-ſervers, have ſerved the time, and become ſervants of men; and if you look with an impartial eye upon the men, you have little reaſon to boaſt of your purchaſe by them, being for the moſt part ſuch, who ſhould not have been continued among us, but have been ejected by us, could the deſires of honeſt men have prevailed. The better part have been conſtant, choſe rather to loſe all, then not to follow Chriſt. Nudi nudum. Some pity then I beg, if it be but for their ſake.
You may perhaps except, that in many paſſages I make uſe of the Fathers, Councels, and Church-Records. Pray remember that you began the way, and cited to my hand Euſebius, Socrates, Evagrius, the book of Martyrs. Secondly, remember of what the controverſie is. It is about the Agends, and practice of the Church in all ages, and of that how can any man be certifyed but by Records? he muſt be held an unreaſonable man, who would look to finde that in the Scriptures, no part of which was written in the Apoſtles dayes, and could not therefore relate what was done afterward. If any thing in them can be found contrary to the Scriptures, by their own open Confeſſion they may be rejected. But when they tell you plainly what they were taught out of the Scriptures, and what they finde generally believed and practiſed through the whole Church, have they not reaſon to take it unkindly to be caſt aſide? If you will examine their veracities by all thoſe circumſtances that are uſually conſidered in taking mens depoſitions, you will finde them ſtrong on their ſide. They were gracious and right honeſt men, not only believed, but known to be ſuch by all the world. They are acknowledg'd on all hands to be ſo judicious, as would more blemiſh ones judgment, than theirs, to call it in queſtion. What they wrote of, were matters of their own cognizance, art and profeſſion, in which ſure they would have a great care not to be miſtaken. Why then ſhould we brand them, (in whom there was ſo much ability and good meaning to inform us of truth) with the imputation of falſhood and ignorance, flattering our ſelves, that new and clearer lights ſhine unto us, and that we know better how to regulate Chriſts Church than they? Their private opinions do not intereſt our belief; in ſuch points we are as free as they. But when we finde in them an univerſal concurrence, and a conſtant narration of Apoſtolical conſtitutions delivered to Apoſtolical men, and by them practiſed, and ſo handed over from age to age, we are deeply obliged to be well perſwaded of it, and to embrace it, before any new invention whatſoever.
Had the diſpute been of Articles of Faith, I had forborn this paſſage, (for thoſe are of another conſideration) but when it is meerly of the Diſcipline of the Church, and that which depends upon that Diſcipline, their authorities ſway very much with me, as all credible Authours muſt in matters of Fact, with all wiſe men, without which it is impoſſible for any man to be informed and confirmed in any thing that hath paſſed in the world before he was born. I ſhall deſire you therefore to take this into your conſideration, and not to paſſe too haſty a cenſure upon the fathers, nor upon me for producing the teſtimonies of thoſe Fathers.
It is now high time for me to beg your pardon, for aſſuming ſo much licenſe to your trouble. To another I would have been more ſparing; but to you I have thus enlarged my ſelf, becauſe I heartily deſire your information, at leaſt, that you may ſee that though I differ from you, yet it is not out of a ſtubborn and perverſe minde, nor ſelf-will, as hath been imputed to me, but upon ſuch ſolid and evident reaſons as it will not be eaſie for you to revel. As I told you at firſt, I am not of a contentious humour, nor love not to tug at one end of the ſaw, if you or any other take a delight to tug at the other; I am ſorry for it. Far more comfort it were for us (ſo ſmall is the joy, I take in thoſe ſtrifes) to labour under the ſame yoke,Hookers preface. as men that look for the ſame eternal reward of our labours, to be joyned with you in the bands of indiſſoluble love and amity, to live as if our perſons being many, our ſoules were but one, rather than in ſuch diſmembred ſort to ſpend our few and wretched dayes in a tedious proſecution of weariſome contentions, the end whereof, if they have not ſome ſpeedy end, will be heavy even on both ſides. The numerous company of Shakers, and other Sectaries that have ſprung out of your root, and the harveſt the Pope hath made by theſe diviſions, together with the herds of Atheiſts and profane perſons, that as the Locuſts out of the bottomleſſe pit are riſen to over-ſpread the Nation, makes me more than fear what will be the end thereof. The manifeſt godlineſſe we glory in, is to finde out ſomewhat, whereby we may judge others to be ungodly. Each others faults we obſerve as matters of exprobration, and not of grief, and then it is no marvail if the witty Atheiſts ſtand by and laugh, and warme themſelves at our fire.
I have here brought my bucket to extinguiſh it, and my earneſt motion is to you to bring another; I know your endeavour may contribute very much to the ceſſation of this flame. Lay it to heart, and ſet it forward what you may, and the God of peace will reward you for it. I have ſomewhere read of an anſwer that Biſhop Ridly then in priſon, and condemned to dye, returned to a friend, being informed that Mr. Knox was diſcontented with ſome things in the Liturgy, which is worthy of Record, and worthy to be well weighed: Alas, ſaith he, that our brother Knox could not bear with our book of Common-prayer, in matters against which, although I grant a man of wit and learning as he is, may produce popular arguments, yet I ſuppoſe he cannot be able ſoundly by the Word of God to diſprove any part thereof. The like ſay I about the conſtitution of our Engliſh Church and Diſcipline, though the wits of diſcontented men have been ſharpned to finde out what to ſay againſt it, and their arguments have prevailed too far on weak judgments, yet I know that no man can be able to diſprove any thing thereof from the Word of God; which as to me it ſeems, very far prevailed after that conference at Hampton Court with Dr. Reinolds, who after lived a very quiet, peaceable and ſedentary life, never diſturbed the Church-government in the leaſt, nor diſſwaded any man from the embracing of the Diſcipline of this Church; it may be his reputation would not ſuffer him publickly to recede. And this, let me be bold to tell you ſo, is a great Remo…a, that hinders many a learned man to confeſſe his errour, and retract. To which, if that bewitching ſin of profit be added, the man is charm'd, as is the Chobber Chobberim, the old Adder, that ſtops his ears at the voice of the Charmer, charm he never ſo wiſely.
And yet for all that, I will not deſpair, but will make a trial whether it be poſſible to charm this ſerpent. Every man that undertakes to execute an office, muſt be ſure that his calling is juſtifiable; otherwiſe, though the work he does be good, and his intent honeſt, yet he commits a grievous ſin. There is no office in the Church higher than that of the Miniſter, the duties he is to perform are ſacred, the adminiſtrations holy; he ought then to be fully upon certain grounds confirmed, that he is called to adminiſter, which can never be without he derive his power from thoſe to whom God hath given a Commiſſion. That of the people, as I have proved, is a new, a ſlight, a fallacious foundation, and for ſuch I ſhall alwayes account it, till I ſee it demonſtrated to the contrary. With what comfort then can any man execute his Miniſtry, who till his Commiſſion be aſſured to his conſcience upon Scripture principles, ſinnes very hainouſly in every action that he does, though done with never ſo honeſt a minde. The puniſhment of Nadab and Abihu for offering ſtrange fire, of Vzzah for touching the Ark, of Vzziah for invading the Prieſts office, ought to ſink very deep into the heads and hearts of ſuch men. Till they can aſſure me infallibly that the Power of the Keys is in the people, which I am perſwaded they will never do, I ſhall never acknowledge their vocation, and therefore much fear their doom.
This I would have ſeriouſly weighed, and God Almighty give the ſucceſſe to it; then I ſhall the ſooner hope that unity will be reſtored to the Church, peace and proſperity to the Nation, Religion will again flouriſh, and the gates of Zion ſhall be built; the Wolfe ſhall dwell with the Lamb, and the Leopard ſhall lye down with the Kid, and the Calf, Iſa. 11.6.and the young Lion, and the Fa…ling together, and a little Child ſhall lead them, and the Cow and the Bear ſhall feed, their young ones ſhall lie down together, 7.and the Lion ſhall eat straw like the Oxe, 8.and the ſuckling Child ſhall play on the hole of the Aſp, and the weaned Child ſhall put his hand to the Cockatrices den. They ſhall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy Mountain, 9▪for the earth ſhall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the Sea. Which that it may come to paſſe, is the hearty prayer of him, who is,
Yours, D…o Opt. Max. & filio ſuo Jeſu Chriſto, & Spiritus ſancto ſit laus, gloria, honor, in ſaecula ſaeculorum. Amen. Janu. 15. 1656.
— Amphora caepit
Institui, currente rotâ, nunc uiceus exit.
FINIS.