515 Word that proceeded from God (who is in himself very truth and life) should be (as the Apostle to the Hebrews noteth) lively, and mighty in operation, "sharper than any two-edged sword." Now, to make our Sermons that strong and forcible Word, is to impart 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 will [wit] of man, and therefore they oftentimes accordingly taste too much of that over corrupt fountain from which they come."+ For even the best of our Sermons (and in Sermons there is an infinite difference) howsoever they oftentimes have a singular blessing, and that the Scripture, the pure Word of God, is the text and the ground of the speech; yet the rest of the discourse, which is sometimes two or three hours long, (a time too long for most preachers to speak pertinently) is but the paraphrastical enlarging of the same text, together with those fit exhortations and applications, which the learning of the Preacher is able to furnish himself withal, and his discretion shall think fit for that auditory to which he speaketh. And therefore, as to equalize "every declamation or oration in Schools," to them, is to wrong sermons; so to make even the best Sermons equal to the Scripture, must be, in apparent reason, a great wrong to that which is immediately God's own Word; whereunto, though the best preach agreeably, yet the Sermons of none, since the Apostles' time, are or ought to be esteemed of equal authority with the holy Scripture: and yet, we are not afraid to ascribe unto them, that blessing from above, to convert, reform, and strengthen, which no "eloquence, wisdom, learning, policy, and power of the world," is able to match. Neither is there contrariety in this, that we that are the Preachers are sent as the Apostles were, in respect of our calling from God; and yet, that the learning and wit of man giveth the very being unto that we teach. Unless (which some overboldly do) you think it unlawful to use either learning or wit in making of Sermons: as though all other helps, purchased with great cost and infinite labour, together with a natural ability, all perfected in those excellent fountains of all learning, the Universities, were to be rejected as wholly unprofitable in this business. Neither doth Master Hooker, nor any other of judgment, say (which you seem to infer) That a man by natural wit, without a supernatural light from the Scripture, is able to utter those mysteries as he ought; which doubtless being a great fault, is rather the error of those who preach most and yet use least helps of learning or wit for that they utter. Wherein it must needs seem strange, that they ever understanding by the Word, the word preached, whereunto they ascribe vital operation; yet they perform this with such negligence, that they come rashly unfurnished to so great a [Vol. II. p. 73.] + [Ibid. p. 74.]

Heb. iv. 12.

business; and scarce attentively weigh the dangerous sequel of this construction. Doubtless, our Sermons, even the best, either for sound knowledge, or pure zeal, are not God's Word in the same manner that 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. Yet Sermons have sundry peculiar and proper virtues, such as no other way of Teaching besides hath: aptness, to follow particular occasions presently growing; to put life into words by countenance, voice, and gesture; to prevail mightily in the sudden affections of men; these, and such like, are those excellent prerogatives which some few may challenge who worthily deserve the name to be called Preachers. We reject not (as of no use at all in the Church) even the virtuous labours of meaner men, who come far short of the perfection of these few; but earnestly wish the Governors of our Church, for fit employment and maintenance, to respect both: and they, laying aside all comparisons, equally to labour to further that work which, by a blessing from above, knoweth how to profit by the labours of all. It seemeth, by that which you allege,* that only such Sermons have their being, from the wit of man, which "curiously bring into the Pulpit, Poets, Philosophers, Rhetoricians, Physicians, Schoolmen," and other human learning; which "the Reverend Fathers," say you, " and more staid divines, are wary to avoid." In this speech of yours, in my opinion, there are two faults. The first, a particular unjust censure of the Fathers, whether you mean, the holy Fathers of the Church, as St. Austin, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, St. Bernard, and the rest; or, those reverend Fathers which do live at this day; all which, whilst you seek to commend, directly you dispraise; accounting them to avoid all human learning, and that their Sermons have not their being from the wit of man: which doubtless is false, seeing they excel by infinite degrees, the Sermons of many others which are framed by neither. The second fault, is a general taxation of all those who any way furnish their Sermons with human learning. You may, peradventure, be able to give good direction in other points, but surely in framing of a Preacher, or making of a Sermon, you are much deceived: for I can never persuade myself, that the exactest industry that man can use is unlawful or unnecessary in this work; for sometimes we are to deal with those whose opinions are not easily confuted without human learning, nor their attention gained without wit, nor their affections persuaded without eloquence; where to come unfurnished, and leave the workings, without means, to Him who giveth a power and a blessing to the means we use, is all one to appoint him what means are fittest, or to enjoin him to work without * [Ubi sup.]

means at all: which, though that Almighty power can do, yet then to refuse them when they are provided, or not to furnish us with as much as we can of the best that he hath provided, it argueth our unthankfulness and our want of choice. This made (when Celsus, Julian, and Porphyry, had written against us) the holy Fathers to confute them with all variety of human learning; that thus the enemies of that Truth which we teach, may say with Julian, We are struck through with our own weapons. * This was the happiness of Epiphanius (which I wish were common to all Preachers) That his writings were read of the learned, for the matter; of the simple, for the words. Thus we should not doubt but to win an attention from all; nay, even for the true discharging of this business, there is a necessary use of Grammar, to teach the original and propriety of words; of Logic, to discern ambiguities; of Rhetoric, for ornament (a good tale being much better when it is well told); of Philosophy, for the unfolding the true nature of causes, the ignorance whereof hath brought much error in expounding the holy Scriptures; of History, for the computation of times; in one word, of all human learning, which, like the spoils of Egypt, we have recovered from the unjust owners; accounting it no more disgrace to be accused of eloquence, wit, or human learning, than St. Austin did by Petilian, to be termed Tertullus the Orator. There be that account incivility of manners, and rusticity of speech, as St. Jerom speaketh, true holiness. But it is not fit, that those that are toothless should envy the teeth of others; or those that are moles, repine that others see (as the same Father admonisheth Calphurnius). It hath been a trouble of some of our best and most excellent Preachers, that they have been enforced, after their wearisome toiling and unregarded pains, to give a reason and make a defence (as though they had committed a fault) for the use of that for which, in true estimation, they ought to have reaped much praise. And therefore saith one (whom I dare oppose, for eloquence and judgment, against the best in that great city § of the contrary faction), "I am not of opinion with those men who think that all secular and profane learning should be abandoned from the lips of the Preacher; and, that whether he teach, or exhort, he is of necessity to tie himself to the sentence and phrase of only Scripture. Good is good, wheresoever I find it." Upon a withered and fruitless stalk, saith St. Austin, a grape sometimes may hang; shall I refuse the grape because the stalk is fruitless and withered?¶ There is not any knowledge of learning to be despised, seeing that all science whatsoever is in the nature and kind of good things; rather, those that despise it, we must repute rude and unprofitable alto

# "Propriis pennis configimur." + Ad Marcell. epist. 102. § London.

M. King upon Jonas, p. 541. De Baptis, cont.

Epist. ad Rom. Donat. lib. vi. c. 2.,

gether, who would be glad that all men were ignorant that their own ignorance, lying in the common heap, might not be espied. And St. Austin in another place,* saith, Eloquence is not evil, but a sophistical malignant profession, proposing to itself, not as it meaneth, but either of contention, or for commodity' sake, to speak for all things and against all things. What were more profitable, than the eloquence of Donatus, Parmenian, and others of your sect, if it ran with as free a stream, for the peace, unity, truth, and love of Christ, as it floweth against it? For else, it is a venomous eloquence, as St. Cyprian wrote of the eloquence of Novatus;† I know there is much amiss, both in matter, and in the use of profane learning; but this we are sure, if we bring it to the Scripture, if it be faulty, it is condemned; if wholesome, it is there confirmed. And I see no reason, that any man should be bold to offer his own inventions and conceits to the world, when he findeth such in the Fathers and others, as cannot be amended. I am sorry that the Learned of any sort (as my Author saith) that hath but borne a book, should dispraise Learning; she hath enemies enough abroad, though she be justified by her children. It is fitter that Wisdom be beaten by fools, than by those who ought to be esteemed wise; above all other places, a blow given in the Pulpit against Learning (a fault too common) leaveth a scar in the face of Knowledge which cannot easily be cured. It calleth in question the teaching of others, as if they fed the people with acorns and husks, not bread; or because they gather the Truth out of human Authors, they contemned the Authority of the holy Scriptures. Doubtless, it is sometime vanity in those that preach, and itching in those that hear, and a thing not tolerable, or allowable in either; but where it is otherwise, let not a rash conclusion without proof (as though it were young men's faults) be admitted against good Learning. If Asclepiodorus will draw with a coal or chalk alone, I judge him not; if others will paint with colours, neither let them be judged: for those, that are wise and humble in the Church know how, with discretion, to make use of all; and yet, not all of the like authority. For doctrines derived, exhortations deducted, interpretations agreeable, are not the very Word of God, but that only which is in the original text, or truly translated; and yet we call those Sermons, though improperly, the Word of God. To conclude this point; as our Church hath many excellent Preachers, which we wish by good encouragement may increase; so it is too presumptuous a labour for any to prescribe one form necessary to all. But I could wish that all

were like him whom you accuse, or like one Marianus Genazanensis, whom Angelus Politianus doth excellently describe,* in my opinion an excellent pattern of a reverend Divine.

ARTICLE XIII.

OF THE MINISTER'S OFFICE.

In the actions of this life, whether spiritual or temporal, God and man give their approbation in a diverse manner; the one, looketh only at the thing done; the other, at the mind and disposition of the doer. And therefore, the same things from divers parties are not of the same nor of like value: nay, that which is from sincerity, a worship; is from hypocrisy, a sin: and the defects, which outwardly the manner of doing disproveth, the sincerity oftentimes in the mind of the doer, acquitteth. In the eye of man, it is sometimes a fault which is no sin; and, in the eye of God, a sin which, in the eye of man, was no fault. So that according to laws which principally respect the heart of man, works of Religion being not religiously performed, cannot morally be perfect. Baptism, as an Ecclesiastical work, is for the manner of performance ordered by divers ecclesiastical laws, providing, that as the sacrament itself is a gift of no mean worth; so the ministry thereof might, in all circumstances, appear to be a function of no small regard. The Ministry of the things divine, is a function which as God did himself institute, so neither may men undertake the same but by authority and power given them in lawful manner. That God, which is no way deficient or wanting unto man in necessaries, and hath therefore given us the light of his heavenly Truth, because without that inestimable benefit we must needs have wandered in darkness, to our endless perdition; and, who hath in the like abundance of mercies, ordained certain to attend upon the due execution of requisite parts, and offices, therein prescribed, for the good of the whole world; which men, thereunto assigned, do hold their authority from him, whether they be such, as himself immediately, or else the Church in his name, investeth; it being neither possible, for all, nor for every man without distinction convenient, to take upon him a charge of so great importance: and therefore very fitly, "the Church of England affirmeth, that It is not lawful for any one to take to himself the Office of Preaching publicly, or administering the Sacraments in the Church, except he be first lawfully called to do these things:"* For God who hath reserved, even from the first beginning of the world until the end thereof, a Church unto himself upon earth; against which, the gates of hell shall not prevail; hath likewise appointed, a perpetual Ministry for the service therein; which though for outward calling hath not been ever the same, yet continually it was limited, in those bounds, as a thing most unmeet and unlawful for any man to undertake that was not called. For as it is God's infinite mercy, when he

Eccl. Ang. Art. XXIII.