P. 33. V. CHAP. he observed, is taken in two senses; "first, to signify the "knowledge by which we know the true article; secondly, Treatise of "the same true article in itself known by faith. Or thus : Faith, p. 32. "Faith is a knowing, wherein we consent in our under"standing to a truth being above our capacity to find and "know, and therefore we know it by this, that God "affirmed it; and it is the article or the truth in this now "said manner known. Now neither of these two faiths," his Lordship said, "may the Clergy, or the whole Church, "make new at their own will: for why? it is not in the 66 power of the Clergy, or whole Church, to make such an "article to be true or untrue; as it is not in the Church's 66 power to make this to be true or untrue, that Mary con"ceived a child in her maidenhood, or this, that Christ P. 35. P. 37. P. 34. 66 was dead and rose again unto life, and so forth of other "articles of faith in this said manner and kind. And "therefore he concluded, all that the Clergy or whole "Church may do hereabout is denouncing, and declaring, "and defining to the simpler part of the Church what is "faith in either of these now said manners; and that this "is to be taken for such said faith, and this other is to be "taken for such faith, and so forth of other like. But all "wise men may soon see, that far is this from a power to "make any thing to be such said faith; and that the "Church maketh not a thing to be such faith, in this that ❝it decreeth, discerneth, judgeth, determineth, witnesseth, ❝ and publisheth a thing to be such a faith." A little further the Bishop shews, " that whatever article the Clergy, "or the whole Church, believeth as faith, and hath not 66 upon the same article the process of evidence and proof, "that God affirmed or revealed it, they in so believing are "over-hasty, and presume further than they should." For which his Lordship gives this reason; that "the Apostles "delivered not, out and besides holy Scriptures, any arti"cles unwritten to be believed for necessary faiths; that "they did not let run any articles under necessary faith, "to be believed without proof of Scripture." From all which his Lordship concluded, that "holy Writ is a more V. "worthy ground of our faith, than is the Clergy of the CHAP. "whole Church on earth; and that the Clergy ought not "to induce or constrain the other people into the belief P. 41. "and faith of other points and articles, as upon the faith "of which dependeth our salvation, than are expressed in "the literal sense of holy Scriptures, or following them so "expressed." So far was our Bishop from being so weak as to imagine the holy Scriptures only a parcel of unsensed characters, and that there is need of a certain human authority to fix and ascertain their sense and meaning, and that such an authority is given to and vested in the Clergy of the Christian Church. 10. His Lordship indeed allowed, that "the Clergy, or P. 80. "some of them, by their great learning, have power or "skill to declare to simpler folk which is the true sense "and understanding of the Scripture. Reason," says he, "will that the wiser part of all the whole multitude of "Christian men take upon them for to teach and inform "authoritatively the simpler part, which thing ought to "be taken for faith, and which not; and that so doth the "Clergy to the laity." To the same purpose his Lordship observed, that "peradventure a man shall have need at P. 14. 66 some time, and in some texts of Scripture, to have ex"position had by the eldest party of the Church, joined to "the Apostles, and living in the time of the Apostles." But then he declared, that " of more strength than this is P. 34. ❝he saw not that the determination of the Church is; " and that hereof followeth not, that the Clergy so declar"ing or teaching is worthier, in way of grounding what Scripture was ordained to ground, by their due under"standing of truth, than is the same Scripture in itself for "to ground." 66 11. His Lordship further shewed, that the determinations of the Clergy, or Church, ought not to be against or contrary to reason; and that if they were, no one was bound to believe them or submit to them. "Reason," says P. 3. he," which is a syllogism well ruled, after the craft taught V CHAP. "in logic, and having two premises openly true and to be "granted, is so strong and so mighty in all the kinds of "matters, that though all the angels in heaven would 66 say, that this conclusion was not true, yet we should "leave the angels, saying and should trust more to the "proof of that syllogism, than to the contrary saying of "all the angels in heaven. For that all God's creatures "must needs obey the judgment of REASON, and such a "syllogism is nothing else than the judgment of REASON. "If the Church in earth determines against what such a 66 syllogism concludeth, we should rather trust and hold "us to that syllogism, than to the determination of the "Church in earth." Treatise of 12. As this supposed that the Clergy or Church in earth may err, or that it might be so understood, as if the Bishop allowed that the determinations of the Church might possibly be against reason; he thus guards against any such meaning in the following words: "Nevertheles, sone, of this part I now have granted to thee, followith not, that the Churche in erthe errith or may erre in "matter of faith; no more than folowith of my graunt, "that the Chirche now in heaven erreth or may erre." 13. Accordingly his Lordship contended, that every man is bound to obey the determinations of the Church, unless he can demonstrate her determinations to be Ibid. c. 7. wrong. "I dare," says he, "wel this say and avowe, and "this reverence I give to the Church in earth, that when66 ever the Church of God in earth holdith any article as "faith, or hath determined thilk article to be faith, every "singular person of the same Church, how wise ever he "be, and how digne and worthy ever he be, is bounden "under pain of damnation for to believe thilk same article "as faith, and so therin to obey the Church, yea though "the Church therein believed or determined falsely or "amiss; but if he can evidently and openly without any "doubt shew, teach, and declare that the Church beleev"eth, or hath determined thilk article wrong and untruly, Faith, V. P. 14. "or else that the Church hath no sufficient ground for so CHAP. "to believe and determine. If thou canst not prove "cleerly and undoubtably, that the Church errs against "thy party, thou art in damnation to hold agenst the "Church and agenward, if thou canst prove it cleerli "and undoubtably, thou art in damnation for that thou 66 conquerest not other men and the Church; sithen it is "proved, that thou maist so do, if it be true that thou "canst prove clearly and undoubtably, what thou pre"tendest and acknowledgest thee kunne so prove, or that "thou knowest so to prove. Yea," says his Lordship, "though the Church should believe or determine amiss, yet thereof should not this person, who obeys and sub"mits to what it has determined, be blamed of God, but "should be fully excused. Since by this obedience to the Treatise of "Clergy, in case of their erring, whilst we know not that "they do err, nor desire nor cause their erring, none hurt "shall come, but the same good which should come to "us thereby, if the Clergy in teaching us had not erred." His Lordship therefore puts this case. "If," says he, "a "Parish Priest should teach his parishioner some gross he66 resy instead of an article of faith, it were the parishion"er's duty to receive it," i. e. in case the parishioner is not notably reasoned for to understand the New Testament himself, and cannot evidently and openly without any doubt shew, that what the Priest teaches him is a gross heresy; in such a case, the Bishop says, the parishioner would, in receiving what the Priest teaches him, "not only be ex4cusable before God, but be as meritorious, and equally "rewarded with the belief of any true article. Nay, if that man should lay down his life for defence of this gross "heresy, he would be a true and undoubted martyr." 14. As to matters of order and discipline, our Bishop shewed, that "the Pope is of like authority and jurisdic- P. 27, 28. ❝tion with each and the greatest of the Apostles; that "the Church now living is even in authority and power "with some parts of Scripture as in this, for to make V. CHAP. "positive ordinances, like as holy Scripture by power of "the Apostles made; and for to revoke that positive ordi"nance of holy Scripture made by the Apostles. Thus "the Clergy may make now first a fasting-day, and an "choly-day, which never were before." But then his Lordship adds, that "hereof it followeth not, that the "Clergy now living, or the Pope now living, may dispense "with this that Scripture teacheth as the positive ordi"nance of Christ, and that they may revoke any of those "ordinances:" or, that though the present Pope or Clergy are equal in power, and have the same authority with such parts of holy Scripture as teach us the ordinances of some Apostle; they are equal in authority with all the Scripture of the New Testament, or with many other parts thereof, which teach us the positive ordinance of Christ. 66 15. Though our Bishop allowed the Church or Clergy P. 35, 36. to have power to canonize saints, or to "declare that this 66 holy liver, for whom the miracles done be well examined " and tried by witnesses sworn after his death, is accepted "into salvation, and is to be reverenced, worshipped, and "followed as for a saved soul, and much loved and wor66 shipped of God;" yet he does not scruple to own, that pretence-miracles, inspirations, and appearings of God, "or of angels within forth and without, and legends or "lives of saints and other stories, which are written and "had in fame, are full uncertain and unsure grounds for to "ground upon them faith; that is to say, a truth surpass"ing nature and revealed by God, without passing great "trial of them. For certainly among them a diligent "wise ensearcher shall find sometime superstitions, some"time errors against sure known truth, and sometime "contrariety betwixt themselves.-And therefore though "the Church suffer many such to run forth and be read, "and be taken as wise men will judge and feel of them, C Quisque Episcopus diem festum velut peculiare quoddam sui monumentum adjicit. Erasmi Epist. col. 2025. |