ARTICLE XXXV. Of Homilies. The second Book of Homilies, the several titles whereof we have joined under this Article, doth contain a godly and wholesome doctrine, and necessary for these times, as doth the former Book of Homilies, which were set forth in the time of Edward the Sixth: and therefore we judge them to be read in churches by the ministers diligently and distinctly, that they may be understood of the people. Of the Names of the Homilies. 1. Of the right use of the Church. 2. Against Peril of Idolatry. 3. Of repairing and keeping clean of Churches. 4. Of good Works; first of Fasting. 5. Against Gluttony and Drunk cnness. 6. Against excess of Apparel. 7. Of Prayer. 8. Of the Place and Time of Prayer. 9. That Common Prayers and Sacraments ought to be ministered in a known Tongue. 10. Of the reverend Estimation of God's Word. 11. Of Alms-doing. 12. Of the Nativity of Christ. 15. Of the worthy receiving of 16. Of the Gifts of the Holy 17. For the Rogation-Days. 19. Of Repentance. 21. Against Rebellion. Touching this article, the greatest matter is not, whether these homilics meant and mentioned do contain doctrine both godly, wholesome, and necessary; but whether homilies, or any apocrypha writings at all, may be read in the open church, and before the congregation; which I think they may, and prove thus. Great is the excellency, great also the utility, of God's word preached. Therefore saith St Paul, "None can believe Rom. x. 14. without a preacher ;" and, "Woe is me if I preach not the 1 Cor. ix. 16. gospel." Howbeit the manner of preaching is not always one and the same. For the apostles were to teach as well by the D. whitak. pen as by the lively voice". [ Itaque summam religionis nostræ scriptam esse affirmamus, quæ quidem cont. Bel. Con. 1. q. 6, p. 385. D. Fulk against the Rhem. An not. Rom. i. 15. The ministers of Geneva's epistle before Calvin, on Deutero nomy. Soiter de Vinda de bello Pa. Lib. II. D. Chrysost. & Muscul, in Ad Col. iv. Eus. Lib. IV. c. 23. Paul did preach the gospel by writing: we owe in a manner more to the bonds of Paul (for his books) than to his liberty for "preaching2. Calvin's writings will edify all men continually in the time to come3. Protestant books are witnesses of sound doctrine and sincere Christianity. For my part, I cannot but magnify the goodness of God for all good means to bring us unto faith, and so unto salvation, but especially for the written labours of holy and learned men, whose doings in all ages not only have been approved, but also used and read many of them in the most sacred assemblies. So In the primitive church was publicly read the epistle of the Laodiceans in the church of the Colossians, the epistle of Clemens unto the Corinthians". a Pauli vinculis plura pene quam libertati debemus.-Bcza, Epist. Dedicat. Olevian. Com, in epist. ad Galat. eadem est cum eorum etiam apostolorum doctrina, qui nihil scripserunt. Idem enim docuerunt evangelium qui non scripserunt, quod illi qui scripserunt.-Whitaker, Disput. de Sacra Script. Cantab. 1588. Controv. I. Quæst. vi. cap. 6. p. 385.] [St Paul did preach the gospel also by writing, and the people did hear by reading. Fulke's Rhemish New Test. Lond. 1617. p. 438. Annot. Rom. i. 7.] [ Sic fiet ut... Paulum ipsum imitatus videare, cujus etiam vinculis plura pene quam libertati debemus.-Bez. Epist. Dedicat. in Olevian. Comm. in Epist. ad Galat. Genev. 1578. prope fin.] [3 The editor has been unable to discover any such epistle. But see Beza's Epistle Dedicatory to the Comment. on Job. (Calvin. Opp. Amstelod. 1667-71. Tom. 11.) Calvinus...magis ac magis inter vere pios et eruditos in posterum eminebit.] [ Curiam ingressi et habito senatu in primis novi dogmatis de religione rem ordiri cœpere, et ipse imperator Augustus....monere jussit: Dogma illud novum, &c....At hi in eadem perseverantia...perstitere....Composuisse namque suos jampridem antea quos evulgaverint in lucemque ediderint libellos multos, sanæ doctrinæ atque purioris Christianismi testes et indices synceros, &c.-Melch. Soiter. a Vinda, Bell, Pannon. Lib. 11. pp. 516, 17, subjoined to Laon. Chalcond. de Orig. Ture. Basil. 1556.] [* Καὶ τὴν ἐκ Λαοδικείας ἵνα καὶ ὑμεῖς ἀναγνῶτε. Τινὲς λέγουσιν ὅτι οὐχὶ τὴν Παύλου πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἀπεσταλμένην, ἀλλὰ τὴν παρ' αὐτῶν Παύλῳ.-Chrysost. Opp. Paris. 1839. Tom. xt. p. 478. D. In Epist. ad Colos. cap. 1v. Hom. 12. Non satis observant verba apostoli, qui putant illum loqui de quadam epistola quam scripserit ad Laodicenses, quæ interciderit. Non dicit, Et cam quam scripsi ad Laodicenses: sed, Et eam quæ est ex Laodicea vos quoque legatis.-Wolf. Musc. in Pauli Epist. Basil. 1578. In Ep. ad Coloss. cap. iv. p. 201.] [* Εν αὐτῇ δὲ ταύτῃ καὶ τῆς Κλήμεντος πρὸς Κορινθίους μέμνηται ἐπιστολῆς, δηλῶν ἀνέκαθεν ἐξ ἀρχαίου ἔθους ἐπὶ τῆς ἐκκλησίας τὴν ἀνάγνωσιν αὐτῆς ποιεῖcoat.-Euseb. Eccl. Hist. Cant. 1720. Lib. iv. cap. 23, p. 187.] Idem, Lib. 111. c. 3. p. 110. Hermes his Pastor, and the homilies of the fathers". In the reformed churches in Flanders' and France" read are M. Calvin's sermons upon Job: and in the Italian, French, D. Sutclif, Dutch and Scottish churches, the said Calvin his catechism is the Petit. c. both read and expounded publicly, and that before the whole Seton. concongregation". The errors and adversaries unto this truth. Answer to 1, p. 23. tra Hamilton, P. 106. against the Love, p. 75. Deceived then, and out of the way of truth, are they, Wilkinson which of preaching by the mouth conceive either too basely, Fam. of or too highly too basely, as do the Anabaptists and Family of Love, they affirming there ought to be no preaching at all", and that preachers are not sent of God, neither do preach Bullinger. God's word, but the dead letter of the scripture 12; these, with the said Anabaptists, terming them letter-doctors 13, H. N. lamen. preaching the letter, and imagination of their own knowledge, Idem, 1. Exbut not the word of the living God1⁄4. b Edita sunt igitur jampridem Gallica ista conciones (Calvini in Jobum) &c. Neque id vero temere factum fuisse res ipsa mox ostendit, maximo cum remotissimarum etiam Gallicarum ecclesiarum fructu, quibus usque adeo privatim et publice placuerunt, ut plurimis in locis, quibus quotidiani pastores decrant, [conciones ist in communi cœtu ex pulpito recitata] pastorum vice fuerint.-Beza, Præf. Concionum, J. Calv. in Jobum. [Opp. Tom. 11.] [' Επεὶ δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς ἀπόστολος, ἐν ταῖς ἐπὶ τέλει προσρήσεσι τῆς πρὸς 'Ρωμαίους, μνήμην πεποίηται μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων καὶ Ἑρμᾶ, οὗ φασὶν ὑπάρχειν τὸ τοῦ ποιμνίου βιβλίου Ιστέον ὡς καὶ τοῦτο πρὸς μὲν τινῶν ἀντιλέλεκται, δι' οὓς οὐκ ἂν ἐν ὁμολογουμένοις τεθείη· ὑφ' ἑτέρων δὲ ἀναγκαιότατον οἷς μάλιστα δεῖ στοιχειώσεως εἰσαγωγικῆς κέκριται, ὅθεν ἤδη καὶ ἐν ἐκκλησίαις ἴσμεν αὐτὸ δεδημοσιευμένον, κ.τ.λ.-Ibid. Lib. ii. cap. 3. p. 90.] [ Another council decreed that in the minister's sickness one deacon should read the homilies of the fathers, &c.-The rest of the Second Replie of Thomas Cartwright, 1577. p. 110.] [There seems to be an error in the reference.] [10 Summam Christianæ fidei brevi libello complexus est Geneva Joan. Calvinus; quam Itali, Galli, Belgæ, Scoti, &c. publice in ecclesiis suis interpretantur.Smeton, contr. Hamilton. Edinburg. 1579. p. 106.] ["They said there ought to be no more any preaching because the door was shut. Apoc. 1.-Wilkinson's Confut. Lond. 1579. p. 75. (from Bullinger against the Anabaptists.)] [12 Hi scripturarum interpretationem ægerrime ferunt, et multo ægrius cum ex illis corripiuntur. Itaque dicunt, se quidem verbum Dei non illibenter audire, sed interpretationem et adjecta ministrorum verba non posse agnoscere pro verbo Dei, aut libenter audire et recipere.-Bulling, adv. Anabapt. (Simler. Vers.) Tigur. 1560. cap. x1. p. 114.] [ See Wilkinson's Confut. p. 57.] II. N. First Exhortation, Translated, &c. cap. xvI. § 18.] contra Anab. Complaint. hort. 16, 18. T. C. 1 Rep. p. 173. the Parliam. Too highly, as do the Puritans of all sorts. For say they, Except God work miraculously and extraordinarily, (which is not to be looked for of us) the bare reading (yea not) of the scriptures, without preaching, cannot deliver so 1 Admon. to much as one poor soul from destruction': reading (of whatsoever in the church) without preaching, is not feeding, but as ill as playing upon a stage, and worse too?. D. B. Sab. 277. Sleidan. Gifford against the Fruct. Ser. on Without preaching of the word (viz. by the lively voice of a minister, and without the book) the Sabbath cannot be hallowed either of a minister or people, in the least measure which the Lord requireth of us3. Next, err do they, which set their wits and learning, either against all books in general, except the sacred Bible, or against the public reading of any learned men's writings, be they never so divine and godly, in the open and sacred assemblies. Of the former sort are the Anabaptists; who, as Sleidan1 recordeth, did burn the books, writings, and monuments of learned men, reserving and preserving only the holy scriptures from the fire. Of the latter be the Brownists, Disciplinarians, and Sabbatarians. The Brownists do say, that no Apocrypha must be brought Brown 15 into the christian assemblies: so the Disciplinarians; ministers Rom. xu. p. ought not to read openly in the congregation any writings, Def. of the but only the canonical scriptures: they complain that human writings are brought into the church': they cry out, GO. god. Min. p. 116. [ And indeed unless the Lord work miraculously and extraordinarily (which is not to be looked for of us) the bare reading of the scriptures without the preaching cannot deliver so much as one poor sheep from destruction.-A Reply to au Answer, &c. by T. C. p. 173.] [2 For bare reading of the word, and single service saying is bare feeding, yea, it is as evil as playing upon a stage, and worse too.-An Admonition to the Parliament, fol. B.] [ Nich. Bownde, Doct. of the Sabbath, Lond. 1595. Bk. 11. p. 277.] [ Post hæc idem propheta (Joannes Mathaus) mandabat, ne quis ullum deinceps librum haberet, aut sibi servaret, præter sacra Biblia: reliquos omnes in publicum deferri jussit et aboleri: hoc se mandatum divinitus accepisse dicebat: itaque magno numero libri comportati flamma fuerunt omnes absumpti.—Sleidan. Comment. Argentorat. 1555. Lib. x. fol. 151.] [See, A Plaine Declaration that our Brownists be full Donatists, &c. by George Gyffard. London, 1590. p. 83.] [... ...so ought not the ministers of God to expound or read openly, &c.—A Fruitful Sermon on the 3, 4, &c. verses of the 12th chap. of the Epistle to the Romans. London, 1589. p. 53.] [ From this we come unto the Homilies, which are allowed by one of the Remove homilies; and they supplicate unto K. James, that 1 Admon. to the canonical scriptures only may be read in the church. the Parlia And so, but much more bitterly and erroneously, the Sab- the thousand. batarians. We damn ourselves (say they) if we go not from those ministers and churches where the scriptures and homilics only be read, and seck not unto the prophets, when (and so P. B. Sabbat. often as) we have them not at home 10. Doct. 2 Book, pag. 173. ARTICLE XXXVI. Of Consecration of Bishops and Ministers. The Book of Consecration (1) of Archbishops and Bishops, and Ordering of Priests and Deacons, set forth in the time of Edward the Sixth, and confirmed at the same time by authority of Parliament, doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and Ordering: neither hath it anything that of itself is superstitious or ungodly. And therefore (2) whosoever are consecrated or ordered according to the Rites of that Book, since the second year of the aforenamed K. Edward unto this time, or hereafter shall be consecrated or ordered according to the same Rites; we decree all such to be rightly and orderly and lawfully consecrated and ordered. The propositions. 1. It is agreeable to the word of God, and practice of the primitive church, that there should be archbishops, Articles, where beside the contrariety they have in the order itself, that the human writings of men are brought to be read in the church, and that to underpropt (sic), n yet more foul abuse, even the inability of ministers to teach, &c.-A Defense of the Godly Ministers against the Slaunders of D. Bridges. 1587. p. 116.] [ Remove Homilies, Articles, Injunctions, and that prescript order of service made out of the mass-book.-An Admonition, &c. fol. A. 4.] [See the Humble Petition of the Ministers of the Church of England, desiring Reformation, &c. prefixed to the Answer of the Vice-Chancellor, Doctors, &c. in the University of Oxford to the same. Oxford, 1604. Art. 1. J [10 What cause have we to be sorry for ourselves and others? which have so many times broken this law by wilful absenting ourselves from the church without any just cause, or by not seeking to the prophets to teach us when we had not them at home, &c.--Nich. Bownde, Doct. of the Sabbath. Book 11. p. 173.] |