What then hath Master Hooker said; which St. Augustine said not long since? neither of them disproving the thing, but both denying the " express literal mention" of the word; which I persuade myself yourselves are never able to find. 66 Now, for "the proceeding of the Holy Ghost," you allege, as you say, express words: "When the Comforter shall come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth of the Father:"* Out of this place (as you think) you have sufficiently proved, the "express literal mention" of this point: we contend not with you, nor with any, Whether the truth of this point may directly be warranted by holy Scripture; but, Whether there be, as you say, express literal mention." First then we call that " express literal mention," which is set down in plain terms, and not inferred by way of consequence: that it is so in this point, we have some reason to doubt until, out of your great observation, you confirm it by more plain and apparent Scripture. For against this place (which is but one) which you have alleged, we take this twofold exception; as thereby accounting it insufficient to prove, as you would have it, that there is " express literal mention" of the proceeding, of the Spirit from the Father and the Son. For first, in that place alleged out of St. John, there is no mention at all of proceeding from the Son. Secondly, as Master Beza (whose authority you will not deny) doth expound the place, Christ speaketh not of the essence of the Holy Ghost in himself, but of the virtue and power of the Holy Ghost in us: neither doth his interpretation (which we will not examine at this time) any way prejudice the foundation of that truth, which our Church doth hold. For the Deity of the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father, and the Son, though not by any "express literal mention," yet may easily be proved by infinite places of Scripture, and other infallible demonstrations besides this. In the days of Liberius the Pope, and of Constantius the Emperor, certain fantastical spirits held, That the Holy Ghost was not God; but only the ministerial instrument of divine working. This began under Arius, and increased by Eunomius, a leprous heretic, but a subtile Logician; whom the Church hath strongly confuted, with arguments impossible to be answered. As first, that the Holy Ghost is every where; to give all things: to know and search all things; that we are commanded to baptize "in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:"§ besides the greatness of the sin against the Holy Ghost:|| So Ananias that lied, as Peter said, "to the Holy Ghost, lied not to man, but to God."¶ These and many such places, warranted those John xv. 26. Psal. cxxvi. 1 Cor. ii. 10. James i. In Comment. in Johan. xv. 26. § Matt. xxviii. 20. ¶ [Acts v. 3.] ancient Councils to conclude the Deity of the Holy Ghost, equal to the Father and the Son; and equally proceeding from both. As first, the Council of Constantinople, consisting of an hundred and fifty Bishops, under Theodosius the elder, and Damasus the Pope, which condemned the heresy of the Macedonians.* The same faith was confirmed by the Council of Ephesus; the Council of Chalcedon;† the Council of Lateran, under Innocentius the Third, and divers others. And Athanasius himself maketh it most plain, That the Father is of none, either made, created, or begotten: the Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten: the Holy Ghost is from the Father, and the Son, not made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. In this, nothing being first, or last, greater, or less; but all the three persons, co-eternal and co-equal. The proceeding of the Holy Ghost (as the Schoolmen observe) is threefold; one, unspeakable and eternal, whereby the Holy Ghost eternally, and without time, proceedeth from the Father and the Son; the other, temporal, when he is sent from the Father and the Son, to sanctify the elect. Of this latter proceeding saith Beza, is that place understood,-which you peremptorily allege, for to prove the first. So then we say, for our answer to this cavil, That as yet we see not express literal mention" of these points; but that they are truly and soundly collected by the Church, we neither do, can, nor dare deny; secondly, That the denial of "express literal mention," ought not to make any scruple in the minds of weak Christians, concerning these articles, the substance whereof are plain Scripture; though for the words we find not as yet any express literal mention:" nor, last of all, (as you seem to fear) it can be no underpropping to the "traditions" of the Church of Rome; which if they can prove with the like necessary collection out of the holy Scripture, we are ready to embrace them with all our hearts. In the mean time, we account it a wrong to have an article of our faith, for want of " express literal mention" out of Scripture, to be compared to traditions of that kind, for which in Scripture there is no warrant at all. To conclude, then, this article, we say, That in the Trinity there is that Identity of essence-that it admitteth equality, but not plurality: the Father is one, the Son another, the Holy Ghost another, but not another thing.§ For that thing that they all are is this one thing, that they are one God. So that St. Austin saith, "I and my Father are one;" here both the words of the sentence, "one," and "are,"-in that he saith "one," he freeth thee from Arius; and in that he saith "are," he freeth thee from Sabellius. For are," he would not say of one; and " 66 66 § Aug. in Psal. lxviii. Alius non aliud. Unum non unus. 451. one," he Aug. Tom. IX. in Evang. Joh. tract. 36. Damasc. de Orthodox. Fid. lib. iii. cap. 6. would not say of divers: for every person hath his own substance, which no other besides hath, although there be others besides which are of the same substance. For "the Persons of the Godhead, by reason of the unity of their substance, do as necessarily remain one within another, as they are of necessity to be distinguished one from another: because two are the issue of one; and one, the offspring of the other two; only of three, one, not growing out of any other. For sith they all are but one God in number, one indivisible essence or substance, their distinction cannot possibly admit separation; . . . . the Father therefore is in the Son, and the Son in him; they both in the Spirit, and the Spirit in both them:"* He that can, saith Austin, conceive, let him comprehend it, but he that cannot, let him believe, and pray that that which he believeth, he may truly understand.† ARTICLE III. WHETHER THE HOLY SCRIPTURES CONTAIN ALL THINGS NECESSARY TO SALVATION? Two things are requisite to man's better life; a Faith to believe what he ought, a Knowledge to comprehend what he must believe. For, saith our Saviour, in "this is eternal life, to know thee to be the only very God; and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ." Because, therefore, the want of this knowledge is the cause of all iniquity amongst men; as, contrariwise, the very ground of all our. happiness, and the seed of whatsoever perfect virtue groweth from us, is a right opinion touching things divine; this kind of knowledge we may justly set down, for the first and chiefest thing which God imparteth to his people; and, our duty of receiving this at his merciful hands, for the first of those religious offices wherewith we publicly honour him on earth. Now our Church holdeth, and we most willingly confess, that the Scripture is the true ground of all that holily we believe. But yet for all that, not the only means, concerning God, of all that profitably we know. For that new impression, made into our nature, even by the hand of the Almighty, after the first sin; and the wise beholding of his excellent workmanship, in the making of all his creatures, are two volumes wherein we may read (though not directly) the mercy of that power, that hath saved us; yet, the greatness, and the might of that hand that hath first made us which though it be not all that we must believe, yet it is not the least part of that which we ought to know. For this, as it maketh us without excuse, so it serveth even to lead us to a better knowledge: and (until it be perfect) to utter out of the light of nature,§ those voices, which Vol. II. p. 195. John xvii. 3. † Aug. Tom. VI. cont. Max. lib. iii. epist. 10. § Rom. i. 20. "Abba, may argue us, though not to be sons (for by this we cannot cry Father*") yet to be reasonable creatures of that power which we do adore; this made Euripides in Troas, and many of the heathen, to utter those prayers, which had they been offered up in Christ, had not been unbeseeming a good Christian: so that though" the Scriptures contain all things, which are necessary to salvation ;" and that " our chiefest direction," is from them; yet we are not afraid to confess, that there is besides a "light of Nature" not altogether unprofitable; the insufficiency whereof is, by the light of Scripture, fully and perfectly supplied and that both these together, as Master Hooker affirmeth, which you mislike, "do serve in such full sort, that they both jointly, and not severally either of them, be so complete, that unto everlasting felicity we need not the knowledge of any thing more than of these two;"‡ I cannot but marvel that men endowed with reason should find any thing in this assertion, which, in the hardest construction, might be wrested as detracting from the sufficiency of the holy Scripture: And only for this cause, by reason that we read darkly, by "the light of Nature," those first elements out of a natural knowledge, which, by the access of a better teacher, serve afterward for the full perfecting of that knowledge which is requisite to man's salvation. For, as the Schoolmen say, man standeth in need of a threefold Law, to a moral uprightness, setting aside that righteousness requisite for his heavenly country. First, an eternal Law (which St. Austin calleth "the chiefest reason" §); secondly, natural; last of all, human; unto which, if we add that man, over and besides these, is in an ordination to a supernatural end, then it is manifest, that to make him a heavenly Citizen there is requisite a fourth Law, which man must learn to obey, out of the holy Scripture. But as in the greatest and fairest buildings, even those stones that lie lowest are of an use not be contemned; though peradventure, not comparable to those last, exquisite, perfections, by which the work is finished; so even "the light of Nature," for the acting of moral virtues, hath his [its] use, though not absolutely complete, to make us Christians. And, therefore, in the nature of man's will, the very Philosophers did seldom err; but in the strength of it, often. So that some ascribed more than was fit; others less than they ought; imputing all to a stoical and fatal Necessity. Now that we may truly understand (the ignorance or mistaking whereof, hath been the ground of your exception in this Third * [Rom. viii. 15.] + "O terræ vehiculum, et in terrasedem habens. Quisquis tandem es inaccesse nostris animis Jupiter; sive naturæ ordo sic ferat, sive mens mortalium te venerer: omnia enim secrete, et sine strepitu qui facis incedere via, et justo libramine mortalia et humana." EURIP. in Troas. Vol. I. p. 136. § "Summam rationem." De Libero. Arbit. lib. i. cap. 6. Cajetan. ad summam Aquinatis, in quest. 9. 2. article), what good things man of himself may do or know without the grace of God; we are taught first, That all actions are of three sorts; Natural, which are common to man with the brute beasts; as to eat, sleep, and such like, which appertain to his natural life: Secondly, Civil, which we call political, or moral, human actions; as to buy, sell, to learn any art, and to conclude any other action, which concerneth the politic, or private society of man: Thirdly, those which belong to the kingdom of God; to a perfect, happy, and true Christian life; as, to repent us of our sins, to believe in God, to call upon him, to obey his voice, to live after his precepts, and such like: now the question is, What grace and power is requisite to man, to perform any, or all these? Where we must observe, that some men (how properly I know not) make the grace of God to be threefold. First that general motion and action divine, of which Saint Paul saith, "in him we live, we move, and have our being."* This the Schoolmen call a "general overflowing;"† and of the late writers, especially of Luther, it is called "the action of the omnipotency;" and this grace is common to all, that are within that compass to be called creatures. Secondly, there is a grace of God, which is a special favour of God, by the which he bestoweth and divideth his gifts and moral virtues, both to the faithful and unfaithful, as pleaseth him.‡ To the faithful, that having the help afterward of a better light, they may serve to be means of their salvation; to the unfaithful, for special uses, and manifold, in the society of man, and to make themselves, in the end without excuse. Such were those gifts in the Romans and others of the heathen, of justice, fortitude, temperance, prudence, which they thought, were from nature; but we acknowledge to be from the special favour of God: for as Being, so Truth is but one, and by whomsoever it is done, or spoken, it proceedeth from the Holy Ghost;§ and therefore I both marvel at those, who make an opposition betwixt this light of nature and the Scripture; being both from one fountain, though running in divers streams; and that some men peevishly refuse the excellentest truths, of heathen learning, seeing even in them, these have proceeded from the Holy Ghost. Thirdly, there is a grace of regeneration, or the grace of Christ, without which, there can be nothing performed of man truly good; for saith our Saviour, "Without me, you can do nothing ;"¶ and St. Paul, "Not I, but the grace of God which is with me; so that this must be the perfection of the other two, which is powerful to man's salvation, not razing out that which before was, but finishing that which before was Acts xvii. 28. "** + Superfluxus generalis. § "Veritas a quocunque dicatur a Spiritu Sancto est." AMBROS. 1 Cor. xii. 11. "Si unicum veritatis fontem Dei Spiritum esse reputamus, veritatem ipsam neque respuemus neque contemnamus ubicunque apparebit.” CALVIN. Inst. lib. ii. cap. 2. sect. 15. ¶ John xv. 5. ** 1 Cor. xv. 10. |