The defense of the aunsvvere to the Admonition against the replie of T.C. By Iohn VVhitgift Doctor of Diuinitie. In the beginning are added these. 4. tables. 1 Of dangerous doctrines in the replie. 2 Of falsifications and vntruthes. 3 Of matters handled at large. 4 A table generall.

Io. Whitgifte.

That matters of ceremonies, discipline, and kinde of gouernment be matters necessarie vnto saluation is a doctrine strange, and vnheard of to me, wherof I will by and by speake more at large, after I haue in a word or two answered your obiections of the Byshop of Rome, and of the sacraments of Baptisme, and the Lordes Supper: for you saye, The case which I put whither the Bishop of Rome be head of the Church, is a matter that concerneth the gouernment, and the kinde of gouernment of the Churche, and the same is a matter that toucheth faith, and that standeth vpon saluation. Wherevpon bylike you woulde conclude, that mat∣ters of gouernment, and kinde of gouernment, are matters necessarie to saluation. Surely I put no such case: but I put such an example, to proue that we maye reason ab authoritate scripturae negatiuè, for this is a good argument, we finde it not in Scripture that the Bishop of Rome ought to be the head of the Churche: Ergo, it is not necessarie to sal∣uation to beléeue, that the Bishop of Rome is the head of the Church: the which thing notwithstanding the Papistes doe affirme: for they say thus, Subesse Romano pontifici omni animae est de necessitate salutis: to be subiecte to the Byshop of Rome is of necessitie of saluation to all men. Now sir, my reason is framed thus against them, whatsoeuer is necessarie to saluation is contained in the Scriptures, but that she Pope shoulde be the head of the Churche, is not conteyned in the Scriptures: Therefore it is not ne∣cessarie to saluation. But you reason cleane contrarie, for you conclude thus, whether the Pope be the head of the Churche is a matter of gouernment and of the kinde of gouernment, but the Papistes say (for that I take to be your meaning) that it is a matter necessary vnto saluation, that the Pope should be the head of the Church: Ergo matters of gouern∣ment and kinde of gouernment are necessarie vnto saluation. Thus you sée howe popishely, with a popishe reason you make a verie popishe conclusion. Certainely no gouern∣ment is to be brought into the Church that is directly against the word of God, as the Popes is, which doth not onely vsurpe the office and authoritie of kings and Princes, but of Christe also, and commaundeth things contrarie to faith, and to the manifest worde of God, wherefore his authoritie is wicked and damnable, but it doth not ther∣fore followe to make this a generall rule, that the gouernment of the Churche or kinde of gouernment is necessarie to saluation. Doe you not knowe of what force an argument is ex solis particularibus?

To proue that Ceremonies are necessarie to saluation you reason thus: The Sa∣craments of the Lordes Supper, and of baptisme, are ceremonies, and are matters of fayth, and necessarie to saluation: Ergo, &c.

Undoubtedly you are as euill a reasoner, as I am either an expounder or deuider, by∣cause the Supper of the Lord, and Baptisme be matters of saluation, therefore are all cere∣monyes matters of saluation? wyll you ex solis particularibus conclude an vniuersall pro∣position? furthermore you knowe that the Supper and Baptisme be not onely Cere∣monyes, but also Sacramentes, instituted and commaunded by Christ, hauyng pro∣myses of saluation, annexed vnto them: and so haue not other ceremonies. And you speake too basely of them, when you cal them ceremonyes, not shewing how or in what sorte they may be so called. It is the nexte waye to bryng the Sacramentes into con∣tempte, and it argueth that you haue not so reuerent an opinion of them, as you ought to haue. Therefore the reader muste vnderstande that there be two kyndes of Cere∣monyes, the one substantiall, the other accidentall: substantiall Ceremonyes I call those which be de substantia Religionis, of the substance of Religion, and commaunded in the worde of God as necessarie, and haue promyses annexed vnto them, as the Supper of the Lorde, and Baptisme. Accidentall I call suche as maye be done or vndone as order requireth, and altered accordyng to tyme, place, person, and other circumstances, wythoute any opinion of Iustification, necessitie, or worship in the same, pertayning onely to externall comelynesse, order, decencie. &c. of the whiche kynde these be that the Apostle Saint Paule mentioneth. 1. Cor. 11. that, men shoulde praye bareheaded, and not women, and suche lyke, as I haue in my answere to the Admonition more particularly declared. Such Ceremonyes I denie to be matters of saluation: and in suche I saye (as you also afterwardes confesse) the Churche hath authoritie to appoynt from tyme to tyme, as shall be thoughte expedient, thoughe the same Ceremonyes be not expressed in the worde of God: so that my diuision hol∣deth, and is stronger than you shall be able to oūerthrowe wyth all the force you haue.

But nowe to your Paradox, you saye that matters of discipline and kynde of gouern∣mente, are matters necessarie to saluation, and of fayth. And you adde that excommunication and other censures of the Church, whych are forerunners vnto excommunication, are matters of discipline, and the same are also of fayth and of saluation. There are two kyndes of go∣uernment in the Churche, the one inuisible, the other visible, the one spirituall, the other externall. The inuisible and spirituall gouernment of the Churche is, when God by hys spirite, gyftes, and Ministerie of hys worde dothe gouerne it, by ruling in the heartes and consciences of men, and directing them in all things necessarie to euerlasting lyfe: thys kynde of gouernmente in déede is necessarie to saluation, and it is in the Churche of the electe onely. The visible and externall gouern∣ment, is that whiche is executed by man, and consisteth of externall discipline, and visible Ceremonyes practised in that Churche, and ouer that Churche, that contayneth in it bothe good and euyll, which is vsually called, the visible Churche of Chryst, and compared by Christe to a fielde wherein bothe good seedes and tares were sowen: and to a nette that gathered of all kynde of fyshes. If you meane this kynde of gouernment, then muste I aske you thys question, whyther your mea∣nyng is, that to haue a gouernmente is necessarye to saluation, Or to haue some one certayne forme, and kynde of gouernmente, not to be altered in respecte of time, persons, or place? Lykewise woulde I knowe of you, what you meane by neces∣sarye vnto saluation. Whyther you meane suche thyngs, wythoute the whiche we can not be saued: or suche thyngs onely as be necessarie or ordinarie helpes vnto saluation: for you knowe that this worde necessarye signifyeth eyther that wythout the which a thing can not be, or that, wythout the which it can not so well and con∣ueniently be.

But for so muche as you afterwarde make mention of excommunication, and o∣ther censures of the Churche, whiche are forerunners vnto excommunication, I take it that you meane the externall gouernment of the Churche, and that kynde of gouernment.

And yet muste I aske you another question, that is, whyther you meane that this gouernmente, and kynde of gouermente is necessarye at all tymes, or then when the Churche is collected together, and in suche place where it maye haue gouernment. For you knowe that the Churche is sometymes by persecution so dispersed, that it appeareth not, as we reade Apocal. 6. Nor hath anye certayne place to remayne in, so that it can not haue anye externall gouernment, or exercise of any discipline. But to be shorte, I confesse that in a Churche collected togither in one place, and at libertie, gouernment is necessarie in the seconde kinde of necessitie, but that any one kynde of gouernment is so necessarie that withoute it the Churche can not be saued, or that it maye not be altered into some other kynde thought to be more expedient, I vtterly denye, and the reasons that moue me so to doe be these.

The firste is, bycause I fynde no one certaine and perfitte kynde of gouern∣mente prescribed or commaunded in the Scriptures to the Churche of Christ, which no doubt shoulde haue bene done, if it had bene a matter necessarie vnto the saluation of the Church.

Secondly bycause the essentiall notes of the Churche be these onely: The true preaching of the worde of God, and the righte administration of the Sacramentes: for (as Maister Caluine sayth in his Booke agaynst the Anabaptistes) Thys honour is meete to be gyuen to the worde of God, and to his Sacramentes, that wheresoeuer we see the worde of God truely preached, and God accordyng to the same truely wor∣shypped, and the Sacramentes wythoute superstition administred, there we maye wyth∣oute all controuersie conclude the Churche of God to be: and a little after, so muche we muste esteeme the worde of God, and hys Sacramentes, that wheresoeuer we fynde them to be, there we maye certaynely knowe the Churche of God to be, al∣thoughe in the common life of men, manye faultes and errours be founde. The same is the opinion of other godly and learned writers, and the iudgement of the refor∣med Churches, as appeareth by their confessions. So that notwythstanding gouern∣ment or some kynde of gouernment maye be a parte of the Churche, touching the outwarde forme and perfection of it, yet is it not suche a parte of the essence and be∣ing: but that it may be the Churche of Christ without this or that kinde of gouern∣ment, and therefore the kynde of gouernmente of the Churche is not necessarie vnto salua∣tion.

The Church of Corinth when Paule did write vnto it, was the Church of Christ, for so doth he call it. 1. Cor. 1. where also he doth giue vnto it, a singular commenda∣tion, and yet it had not at that time when he so commendeth it, that kynde of gouernment and discipline, that you meane of, that is, excommunication as appeareth. 1. Cor. 5.

My thirde reason is this. If excommunicatiō (which is a kind of gouernment) be necessarie to saluation, then any man may separate him selfe from euerie Church wherin is no excommunication, but no man may separate himselfe from euery Church wherin is no excommunicatiō, therfore excommunication (which is a kynde of gouernment) is not necessarie to saluation. The first proposition is euident, for no man is bounde to remaine in that Churche where any thing is wanting, without the which he cannot be saued. As for the seconde proposition (that is to saye) that no man ought to sepa∣rate him selfe from euerie Churche, where excommunication is not, bycause it is learnedly proued by suche as haue written against the Anabaptistes, who both dyd teache and practise the contrarie, it shall be sufficient to referre you vnto them. Mai∣ster Caluine, in hys Booke against the Anabaptistes fayth thus. Herein is the contro∣uersie betwixte the Anabaptistes and vs, that they thinke there is no Church where this gouernment (meaning excommunication) is not appointed, or not vsed and exercised, as it ought to be, nor that a Christian mā there ought to receiue the Supper and vnder that pre∣tence they separate themselues from the Churches where the worde of God is truely prea∣ched. &c. M. Bullinger also in his sixt booke against the Anabaptistes saith. This the A∣nabaptistes do vrge, that there is no true Church acceptable vnto God, where there is no ex∣communication, the whiche they vse. To these therefore we answere, that the Churche of Corinth was a true Church, and so acknowledged of Paule to be. 1. Cor. 1. before there was

any vse of excommunication in it. &c. of the same iudgement is M. Gaulter writing vp∣on the first to the Corinth. 5. VVhilest the Anabaptistes persuade themselues that there can be no discipline wythout excommunication, they trouble the Churches euery where. &c. In the same Chapter he sayth, that there is no one certaine kinde of gouernment or discipline prescribed to y^e Churches, but that the same may be altered as the profit of the Churches shall require. His words among other be these, Let euery Church fol∣low that maner of discipline, which doth most agree, with the people with whō it abideth, and which seemeth to be most fit, for the place and time. And let no man here rashely pre∣scribe vnto others, neither let him binde all Churches to one and the same forme. But of this matter I shall haue occasion to speake more hereafter, where it shall appeare howe farre this learned man M. Gualter is, from allowing that kinde of g〈1 line〉〈1 line〉uernment now in this state of the Churche, the which T. C. woulde make vs to beléeue to be so necessarie. This haue I briefely set downe, not to disalowe discipline or gouernment (for I thinke it very conuenient in the Church of Christ,) nor yet to reiect excommunicatiō, which also hath a necessarie vse in the gouernment of the Church, but to declare that this assertion can not stande with the truth, & with learning, that the kynde of gouern∣ment (meaning as I thinke some one certaine kinde of externall gouernment) is neces∣sarie to saluation.

Notes

• Two kinds of ceremonies.
• Substantiall ceremonies.
• Accidentall ceremonies.
• 1. Cor. 11.
• Fol. 15. Sect. 5.
• Matters of y^e kinde of go∣uernment and discipline are not necessarie to saluation. Two kindes of gouernmēt of the church.
• Math. 13.
• Diuerse sig∣nification of the word ne∣cessarie.
• In what 〈1 line〉〈1 line〉∣specte gouern∣ment is neces∣sarie.
• Reasons why the Church 〈◊〉〈◊〉 not tied to any one certayne kinde of exter∣nall gouern∣ment.
• Onely two es∣sentiall notes of the church.
• Caluine ad∣uer. Anabap.
• Confess. Heb uetica. cap. 17.
• want of excō∣munication is no iust cause of separation from any Churche.
• Caluine ad∣uer. Anabap.
• Bul. lib. 6. ad∣uer. Anabap.
• Gualter in. 1. Cor. 5.
• Ibidem.