lovers of themselves, and pleasers of men, then men begin to grope for the Church as in the dark; they are in doubt whether they be the successors of the apostles, or of the Pharisees; yea, howsoever they sit in Moses' chair, yet they can never speak, tanquam auctoritatem habentes, as having authority, because they have lost their reputation in the consciences of men, by declining their steps from the way which they trace out to others; so as men had need continually have sounding in their ears this same Nolite exire, go not out; so ready are they to depart from the Church upon every voice. And therefore it is truly noted by one that writeth as a natural man, that the humility of the friars did, for a great time, maintain and bear out the irreligion of bishops and prelates. For this is the double policy of the spiritual enemy, either by counterfeit holiness of life to establish and authorise errors; or by corruption of manners to discredit and draw in question truth and things lawful. This concerneth my lords the bishops, unto whom I am witness to myself, that I stand affected as I ought. No contradiction hath supplanted in me the reverence that I owe to their calling; neither hath any detraction or calumny imbased mine opinion of their persons. I know some of them, whose names are most pierced with these accusations, to be men of great, virtues; although the indisposition of the times, and the want of correspondence many ways, is enough to frustrate the best endeavours in the edifying of the Church. And for the rest, generally, I can condemn none. I am no judge of them that belong to so high a Master; neither have I two witnesses. And I know it is truly said of fame, that Pariter facta, atque infecta canebat. Their taxations arise not all from one coast; they have many and different enemies ready to invent slander, more ready to amplify it, and most ready to believe it. And magnes mendacii credulitas; credulity is the adamant of lies. But if any be, against whom the Supreme Bishop hath not a few things, but many things; if any have lost his first love; if any be neither hot nor cold; if any have stumbled too fondly at the threshold, in such sort that he cannot sit well, that entered ill; it is time they return whence they are fallen, and confirm the things that remain. Great is the weight of this fault; et eorum causa abhorrebant homines a sacrificio Domini: and for their cause did men abhor the adoration of God. But howsoever it be, those which have sought to deface them, and cast contempt upon them, are not to be excused. It is the precept of Solomon, that the rulers be not reproached; no, not in our thought: but that we draw our very conceit into a modest interpretation of their doings. The holy angel would give no sentence of blasphemy against the common slanderer, but said, Increpet te Dominus, the Lord rebuke thee. The apostle St. Paul, though against him that did pollute sacred justice with tyrannous violence, did justly denounce the judgment of God, saying, Percutiet te Dominus, the Lord will strike thee; yet in saying paries dealbate, he thought he had gone too far, and retracted it: whereupon a learned father said, ipsum quamvis inane nomen, et umbram sacerdotis expavit. The ancient councils and synods, as is noted by the ecclesiastical story, when they deprived any bishop, never recorded the offence; but buried it in perpetual silence: only Cham purchased his curse by revealing his father's disgrace; and yet a much greater fault is it to ascend from their person to their calling, and draw that in question. Many good fathers spake rigorously and severely of the unworthiness of bishops; as if presently it did forfeit, and cease their office. One saith, Sacerdotes nominamur, et non sumus, we are called priests, but priests we are not. Another saith, Nisi bonum opus amplectaris, episcopus esse non potes; except thou undertake the good work, thou canst not be a bishop; yet they meant nothing less than to move doubt of their calling or ordination. The second occasion of controversies, is the nature and humour of some men. The Church never wanteth a kind of persons, which love the salutation of Rabbi, master; not in ceremony or compliment, but in an inward authority which they seek over men's minds, in drawing them to depend upon their opinions, and to seek knowledge at their lips. These men are the true successors of Diotrephes, the lover of pre-eminence, and not lord bishops. Such spirits do light upon another sort of natures, which do adhere to these men; quorum gloria in obsequio; stiff followers, and such as zeal marvellously for those whom they have chosen for their masters. This latter sort, for the most part, are men of young years, and superficial understanding, carried away with partial respects of persons, or with the enticing appearance of godly names and pretences; Pauci res ipsas sequuntur, plures nomina rerum, plurimi nomina magistrorum: few follow the things themselves, more the names of the things, and most the names of their masters. About these general affections are wreathed and interlaced accidental and private emulations and discontentments, all which together break forth into contentions; such as either violate truth, sobriety, or peace. These generalities apply themselves. The universities are the seat or the continent of this disease, whence it hath been, and is derived into the rest of the realm. There men will no longer be e numero, of the number. There do others side themselves before they know their right hand from their left so it is true which is said, transeunt ab ignorantia ad præjudicium, they skip from ignorance to a prejudicate opinion, and never take a sound judgment in their way. But as it is well noted, inter juvenile judicium et senile præjudicium, omnis veritas corrumpitur: through want of years, when men are not indifferent, but partial, then their judgment is weak and unripe; and when it groweth to strength and ripeness, by that time it is forestalled with such a number of prejudicate opinions, as it is made unprofitable so as between these two all truth is corrupted. In the mean while, the honourable names of sincerity, reformation, and discipline, are put in the fore-ward so as contentions and evil zeals cannot be touched, except these holy things be thought first to be violated. But howsoever they shall infer the solicitation for the peace of the Church to proceed from carnal sense, yet I will conclude ever with the apostle Paul, Cum sit inter vos zelus et contentio, nonne carnales estis? While there is amongst you zeal and contention, are you not carnal? And howsoever they esteem the compounding of controversies to savour of man's wisdom and human policy, and think themselves led by the wisdom which is from above, yet I say, with St. James, Non est ista sapientia de sursum descendens, sed terrena, animalis, diabolica: ubi enim zelus et contentio, ibi inconstantia et omne opus pravum. Of this inconstancy it is said by a learned father, Procedere volunt non ad perfectionem, sed ad permutationem; they seek to go forward still, not to perfection, but to change. pro The third occasion of controversies I observe to be an extreme and unlimited detestation of some former heresy or corruption of the Church already acknowledged and convicted. This was the cause that duced the heresy of Arius, grounded especially upon detestation of Gentilism, lest the Christian should seem, by the assertion of the equal divinity of our Saviour Christ, to approach unto the acknowledgement of more gods than one. The detestation of the heresy of Arius produced that of Sabellius; who, holding for execrable the dissimilitude which Arius pretended in the Trinity, fled so far from him, as he fell upon that other extremity, to deny the distinction of persons; and to say, they were but only names of several offices and dispensations, Yea, most of the heresies and schisms of the Church have sprung up of this root; while men have made it as it were their scale, by which to measure the bounds of the most perfect religion; taking it by the farthest distance from the error last condemned. These be posthumi hæresium filii; heresies that arise out of the ashes of other heresies that are extinct and amortised. This manner of apprehension doth in some degree possess many in our times. They think it the true touchstone to try what is good and evil, by measuring what is more or less opposite to the institutions of the church of Rome, be it ceremony, be it policy, or government; yea, be it other institutions of greater weight, that is ever most perfect which is removed most degrees from that Church; and that is ever polluted and blemished, which participateth in any appearance with it. This is a subtile and dangerous conceit for men to entertain; apt to delude themselves, more apt to delude the people, and most apt of all to calumniate their adversaries. This surely, but that a notorious condemnation of that position was before our eyes, had long since brought us to the rebaptisation of children baptized according to the pretended Catholic religion: for I see that which is a matter of much like reason, which is the re-ordaining of priests, is a matter already resolutely maintained. It is very meet that men beware how they be abused by this opinion; and that they know, that it is a consideration of much greater wisdom and sobriety to be well advised, whether in general demolition of the institutions of the Church of Rome, there were not, as men's actions are imperfect, some good purged with the bad, rather than to purge the Church, as they pretend, every day anew; which is the way to make a wound in the bowels, as is already begun. The fourth and last occasion of these controversies, a matter which did also trouble the Church in former times, is the partial affectation and imitation of foreign churches. For many of our men, during the time of persecution, and since, having been conversant in churches abroad, and received a great impression of the form of government there ordained, have violently sought to intrude the same upon our Church. But I answer, Consentiamus in eo quod convenit, non in eo quod receptum est; let us agree in this, that every church do that which is convenient for the state of itself, and not in particular customs. Although their churches had received the better form, yet many times it is to be sought, non quod optimum, sed e bonis |