The Works of Mr Richard Hooker, VIII

The Works of Mr. Richard Hooker, In Eight Books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity: with Several Other Treatises, and A General Index. VIII

…and unto this was annexed a catalogue, partly of causeless surmises, as, That I had conspired against him, and that I sought superiority over him; and partly of faults which to note, I should have thought it a greater offence than to commit, if I did account them faults, … (Mr Hooker’s Answer to the Supplication that Mr Travers Made to the Council, 316-7)

If therefore I have given him occasions to use conferences and exhortations to peace, if when they were bestowed upon me I have despised them, it will not be hard to shew some one word or deed wherewith I have gone about to work disturbances: one is not much, I require but one. (317)

Most true it is which the grand philosopher hath, “Every man judgeth well of that which he knoweth;” (325)

Thus much labour being spent in discovering the unsoundness of my doctrine, some pains he taketh farther to open faults in the manner of my teaching, as that, “I bestowed my whole hour and more, my time and more than my time, in discourses utterly impertinent to my text.” Which, if I had done, it might have past without complaining of to the privy council. / But I did worse, as he saith, “I left the expounding of the Scriptures, and my ordinary calling, and discoursed upon school points and questions, neither of edification, nor of truth. I read no lecture in the law, or in physic. And, except the bounds of ordinary calling maybe drawn like a purse, how are they so much wider unto him than to me, … (326)

For the avoiding of schism and disturbances in the church, which must needs grow if all men might think what they list, and speak openly what they think; therefore by a decree agreed upon by the bishops, and confirmed by her majesty’s authority, it was ordered that erroneous doctrine, if it were taught publicly, should not be publicly refuted; but that notice thereof should be given unto such as are by her highness appointed to hear and to determine such causes. (327-8)

This testimony of his discreet carrying himself in the handling of his master, being more agreeably framed and given him by another than by himself, might make somewhat for the praise of his person but for defence of his action, unto them by whom he is thought indiscreet for not conferring privately before he spake, will it serve to answer, that when he spake, he did it considerately? (330)

…but sith there can come nothing of contention, but the mutual waste of the parties contending, till a common enemy dance in the ashes of them both, I do wish heartily that the grave advice which Constantine gave for reuniting of his clergy so many times, upon some small occasions, in so lamentable sort divided; or rather the strict commandment of Christ unto his, that they should not be divided at all; may at the length, if it be his blessed will, prevail so far, at least in this corner of the Christian world, to the burying and quite forgetting of strife, … (335)

…which quality received into the south, doth first make it to the one of them who are born of God: and, secondly, endue it with power to bring forth such works, as they do that are born of him; even as the soul of man being joined to his body, doth first make him to be of the number of reasonable creatures; and, secondly, enable him to perform the natural functions which are proper to his kind; that it maketh the soul amiable and gracious in the sight of God, in regard whereof it is termed graced; that it purgeth, purifieth, and washeth out, all the stains and pollutions of sins; that by it, through the merit of Christ we are delivered as from sin, so from eternal death and condemnation, the reward of sin. (340) (A Learned Discourse of Justification, Works, and How the Foundation of Faith is Overthrown)

According to whose example of charitable judgement, which leaveth it to God to discern what we are, and speaketh of them according to that which they do profess themselves to be, … (342)

We see how far we are from the perfect righteousness of the law; the little fruit which we have in holiness, it is, God knoweth, corrupt and unsound: we put no confidence at all in it, we challenge nothing in the world for it, we dare not call God to reckoning, as if we had him in our debt-books: our continual suit to him is, and must be, to bear with our infirmities, and pardon our offences. (344)

…which crime toucheth none but their popes and councils: the people are clear and free from this. (347)

Howsoever men, when they sit at ease, do vainly tickle their hearts with the vain conceit of I know not what proportionable correspondence between their merits and their rewards, which, in the trance of their high speculations, they dream that God hath measured, weighed, and laid up, as it were, in bundle for them, nonwithstanding we see by daily experience, in a number even of them, that when the hour of death approacheth, when the secretly hear themselves summoned forthwith to appear, and stand at the bar of that Judge, whose brightness causeth the eyes of the angels themselves to dazzle, all these idle imaginations do then begin to hide their faces; to name merits then, is to lay their souls upon the rack the memory of their own deeds is loathsome unto them, they forsake all tings wherein they have put any trust or confidence; no staff to lean upon, no ease, so rest, no comfort then, but only in Jesus Christ (355)

The nature of man, being much more delighted to be led than drawn, do th many times stubbornly resist authority, when to persuasion it easily yieldeth. Whereupon the wisest law-makers have endeavoured always, that those laws might not seem most reasonable, which they would have most inviolably kept. (A Learned Sermon of The Nature of Pride, 383)

To make this somewhat more plain, we must note, that as they, which travel from city to city, enquire ever for the straightest way, because the straightest is that which soonest bringeth them to their journey’s end; so we, having here, as the apostle speaketh, no abiding city, but being always in travel towards that place of joy, immortality, the rest, cannot but in every of our deeds, words, and thoughts, think that to be best, which with most expedition leadeth us thereunto, and is for that very cause termed right. (387)

…shall we think that God hath endued them with so many excellencies more, not only than any, but than all the creatures in the world besides, to leave them in such estate,  that they had been happier if they had never been? (388)

Whether we look upon the gifts of nature, or of grace, or whatsoever is in the world admired as a part of man’s excellency, adorning his body, beautifying his mind, or externally any way commending him in the account and opinion of men, … (389)

…how that when men have once conceived an over-weening of themselves, it maketh them in all their affections to swell; how deadly their hatred, how heavy their displeasure, how unappeasable their indignation and wrath is above other men’s, in what manner they compose themselves to be as Heteroclites, without the compass of all such rules as the common sort are measured by; how the oaths which religious hearts do tremble at, they affect as principal graces of speech; what felicity t take to see the enormity of their crimes above the reach of laws and punishments; howmuch it delighteth them when they are able to appal with the cloudiness of their looks, how far they exceed the terms wherewith man’s nature should be limited; how high they bear their heads over others; how they browbeat all men which do not receive their sentences as oracles, with marvelous applause and approbation; how they look upon no man, but with an indirect countenance, nor hear any thing, saving their own praise, with patience, nor speak without scornfulness and disdain; (392)

It is not my meaning to speak so largely of this affection, or to go over all the particulars whereby men do one way or other offend in it; but to teach it so far only, as it may cause the very apostles’ equal to swerve. (A Remedy Against Sorrow and Fear: Delivered in a Funeral Sermon, 397)

It is not, as the stoics have imagined, a thing unseemly for a wise man to be touched with grief of mind: but to be sorrowful when we least should, and where we should lament, there to laugh, this argueth our small wisdom. (397)

They are oftener plagued than we are aware of. The pangs they feel, are not always written in their forehead. Though wickedness be sugar in their mouths, and wantonness as oil to make them look with cheerful countenances; nevertheless, in their hearts were disclosed, perhaps their glittering state would not greatly be envied. (398)

…the in the hour when God shall call us unto our trial, and turn his honey of peace and pleasure, wherewith we swell, into that gall and bitterness which flesh doth shrink to taste of… (399)

The death of the saints of God is precious in his sight. And shall it seem unto us superfluous at such times as these are, to hear in what manner they have ended their lives? The Lord himself hath not disdained so exactly to register in the book of life, after what sort his servants have closed up their days on earth, that he descendeth even to their very meanest actions; what meat they have longed for in their sickness, what they have spoken unto their children, kinsfolks and friends, where they have wills and testiments; yea, the very turning of their faces to this side or that, the setting of their eyes, the degrees whereby their natural health hath departed from them, their cries, their groans, their pantings, breathings, and last gaspings he hath most solemnly commended unto the memory of all generations. (400)

Is there any estate more fearful than that Babylonian strumpet’s that sitteth upon the tops of seven hills, glorying and vaunting, “I am a queen” &c (Rev. xviii.7) (402)

…nothing can be so truly spoken, but through misunderstanding it may be depraved (A Learned and Comfortable Sermon of the Certain and Perpetuity of Faith in the Elect: Especially of the Prophet Habakkuk’s Faith, 405)

Hence an error growth, when men in heaviness of spirit suppose they lack faith, because they find not the sugared joy and delight which indeed doth accompany faith, but so as a separable accident, as a thing that may be removed from it, yea, there is a cause why it should be removed. The light would never be so acceptable, were it not for that usual intercourse of darkness. Too much honey doth turn to gall; and too much joy, even spiritual, would make us wantons. Happier a great deal is that man’s case, whose soul by inward desolation is humbled, than he whose heart is through abundance of spiritual delight lifted up and exalted above measure. Better it is sometimes to go down into the pit with him, who, beholding darkness, and bewailing the loss of inward joy and consolation, crieth from the bottom of the lowest hell, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” then continually to walk arm in arm with angels, to sit as it were in Abrahams’s bosom, and to have no thought, no cogitation, but “I thank my God it is not with me as it is with other men.” No, God will have them that shall walk in light to feel now and then what it is to sit in the shadow of death. A grieved spirit therefore is no argument of a faithless mind. (410)

This simplicity the serpent laboureth continually to pervert, corrupting the mind with many imaginations of repugnancy and contrariety between the promise of God and those things which sense or experience, or some other foreconceived persuasion hath imprinted. (411)

…to breed a conceit, and such a conceit as is not easily again removed, that we are clean crossed out of God’s book, that he regards us not, that he looketh upon others, but passeth by us like a stranger to whom we are not known. Then we think, looking upon others, and comparing them with ourselves, their tables are furnished day by day; earth and ashes are our bread: they sing to the lute, and they see their children dance before them; our hearts are heavy in our bodies as lead, our sighs beat as thick as a swift pulse, our tears do wash the bed whereon we lie: our hearts are heavy in our bodies as lead, our sighs beat as thick as a swift pulse, our tears do wash the bed whereon we lie: the sun shineth fair upon their foreheads; we are hanged up like bottles in the smoke, case into corners like the shreds of a broken pot: tell not us of the promises of God’s favour, tell such as do reap the fruit of them; (413)

 …we must understand, that as the knowledge of that they spake, so likewise the utterance of that they knew, came not by these usual and ordinary means whereby we are brought to understand the mysteries of our salvation, and are wont to instruct others in the same. [should be ;] For whatsoever we know, we have it by the hands and ministry of men, which lead us along like children from a letter to a syllable, from a syllable to a word, from a word to a line, from a line to a sentence, from a sentence to a side, and so turn over.  But God himself was their instructor, he himself taught them, partly by dreams and visions in the night, partly by revelations in the day, taking them aside from amongst their brethren, and talking with them as a man would talk with his neighbor in the way.  (Two Sermons Upon Part of St Jude’s Espistle, Sermon I, 420) 

Leon Howard, Essays on Puritans and Puritanism

Leon Howard, Essays on Puritans and Puritanism, Univ of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque 1986

Martin Luther began it on Halloween day, 1517, when he posted his theses against indulgences on the door of the university in Wittenberg. (6)

John Wycliffe, had preached most of the doctrines of the sixteenth-century Reformation, led an active protest against the abuses and corruptions of the Church, translated the Bible into English for popular use, and gained a great and rebellious popular following. But Wycliffe had no printing press to spread his English version of the Word and his explications of it and no secular authority to support his reforms. Instead his followers, the Lollards, were put down in one of the bloodiest repressions of rebellion in the history of England, and severe laws were passed against them and kept in force during the sixteenth century. (8)

Two great convictions dominated their minds and fortified their emotions. The first, formalized as the basic Protestant doctrine by Martin Luther, was a belief in “justification by faith alone” … The second, an article of faith rather than a formal doctrine, was a belief in “the sufficiency of the Word”—a conviction that the Word of God contained everything necessary for man’s guidance along the road of salvation. Since this, by implication, denied both the authority and the dogma of the Roman Church, it was obnoxious to Catholicism as the doctrine of justifications by faith was heretical. (11)

Despite all the variations that existed within it, the doctrine of justification by faith alone put the Protestants in direct opposition to the Catholic doctrine of being judged righteous by merit—whether this merit was acquired through mysterious sacramental channels or through obvious works of charity and piety. The Protestant was expected sincerely and earnestly to repent of his sins, not to do penance for them. His faith and hope were supposed to lead to a feeling of love, not to acts of charity. (13)

The belief in personal “election” to salvation, as it came to be called, created no serious problems until the Calvanists began to dwell upon the complementary notions that those who were not of the elect must necessarily be “reprobated” to eternal damnation. But this was to come later, after the publication of the 1559 edition of Calvin’s Institutes. The early years of the Reformation were years of discovery—of man’s new relationship to God through faith and throough the Word—and of zeal in rallying God’s chosen people to the cause of true religion. (14-15)

Some extreme groups, though, maintained that there was no precedent either in the Scriptures or in the primitive churches for infant baptism and held that true baptism involved a spiritual rebirth which was possible only for mature believers and should be performed by total immersion. (17)

The separation of the English church from the church of Rome was not in itself an act of reformation although it placed the new Church of England in the secessionist group and made it subject to strong Protestant influences. (19)

The other development which harmed the Puritan cause, at least for a while, was the appearance of the Martin Marprelate tracts of 1588-89. … supposedly on behalf of an unknown Martin Marprelate, and the first tract was Martin’s “An Epistle to the Terrible Priests”… “proud, popish, presumptuous, profane, paltry, pestilent and pernicious Prelates” as usurpers of authority in the church and defended the “Puritan” system of government set forth by Cartwright, Fenner, and Travers. He was serious in his opinions but maddeningly irreverent in his attitude, (51-2)

This was the “Matthew” Bible, compiled by John Rogers under the pseudonym Thomas Matthew. The disguise was necessary because more than half the text was Tyndale’s, and Tyndale’s was a name which irritated the King because he had opposed the divorces proceedings and set himself apart from the English reformers. Henry had tried to have him kidnapped and brought to England and—though Cromwell had thought well of him—had done nothing to assist him in 1535-36 when he was imprisoned for heresy, strangled at the stake, and burned in Antwerp. (59-60)

…the practice of prophesying—regular gatherings of the clergy…for the purpose of exercising their ability in public explication of biblical texts… was well systemized. There the local ministers formally subscribed to a confession of faith, signed their names in order, and gathered each Saturday at nine in the morning for two hours of public prophesying and one hour of private consultation. Following the order of their signatures, three spoke each morning. The major speaker, beginning and ending with prayer, was allowed forty-five minutes to explicate the text, confute any false interpretations of it that he might know of, and apply it to the comfort of his audience—all under the strict injunction that “he shall not digress, dilate, nor amplify that place of scripture whereof he treateth to any common place, further than the meaning of the said scripture.” Each of the minor speakers was allowed fifteen minutes to supplement the remarks of the first, but with repetition… After the public exercises were brought to an end by the moderator the “learned bretheren” were called together to judge the exposition and “propound their doubts or question,” and the text for the next meeting was read and the names of the speakers publicly announced. (71)

…the Queen was probably suspicious of any religious gatherings, unauthorized by the law, for scriptural discovery…Grindal flatly and boldly refused. Defending preaching on scriptural authority and grounds of policy, he reminded the Queen that she was mortal and that a mightier prince “dwelleth in heaven”. … Elizabeth stripped him of his authority without accepting his offer, but her own personal efforts failed to stop the practice. Even with the willing cooperation of John Aylmer, Bishop of London, who took over many of Grindal’s duties, she could not find deputies capable of suppressing the now frankly Puritan lecturers who were being supported by wealthy laymen, municipal officials, and congregations who selected their own ministers and sometimes purchased the right to do so. Prophesying continued, often with the approval or active support of some bishops… (71-2)