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.

The Iewes as it is confessed by learned men, had their lawes more particularly* 1.1 prescribed vnto them, and especially touching Ceremonies, not onely bycause they were prone to Idolatrie, but also oftentimes in subiection to Idolatrous princes, where they had occasion offered vnto them to worship their false Gods. Therefore a learned interpreter saith, Fateor in multis ceremonijs diuinitùs mandatis fuisse occupatos, ne a∣lias appeterent. I confesse that they were occupied in many ceremonies commaunded of* 1.2 God, least they should desire other. This then was one, though not the only cause of their ceremoniall lawes: and in this respecte their case was not better, but indéede much more seruile and worse than ours, who are deliuered from that yoke of cere∣monies, and bound only to two, as Aug. Epist. 118. ad Ianuar. saithe most easily to be ob∣serued,* 1.3 and most excellent in signification, that is, the supper of the Lord and Baptisme. So that you are much deceiued if you thinke vs to be in worse case, than they were, by∣cause we haue not so many particular rules for ceremonies, as they had: for we are deliuered from the bondage of Ceremonies, as the Apostle declareth to the Galat. 5.* 1.4 and therefore M. Caluine in his booke against the Anabap. answering this reason of theirs (There is more perfection required in the Church of Christ, than there was among* 1.5 the Iewes, and therefore Christians may not vse the sword or be magistrates) saith on thys sort. Hoc quidem verum est, quod ad Ceremonias attinet. This is true as touching ceremonies, meaning that we are not now bound to so many lawes of ceremonies, but haue frée∣dome and libertie therein. I speake of accidentall ceremonies as well as of Sacra∣mentes.

You say that whereas the question is of the gouernment of the Church. &c. wherein anti∣quum obtines. For our present question is whither all things to be vsed in the Church are prescribed in the scripture? And that which I speake of the iudiciall lawe I speake it by occasion of the interpretation of these places of Deuteronomie. How∣beit I sée no such distance betwixt the Church and the common wealth, but the lawes of the one doth and oughte to perteine to the other, excepte you will do as the Papistes did, that is, seclude the ciuill magistrate altogither from medling in any ecclesiasti∣call

matter. And I am well assured that not onely the ceremoniall and morall lawe but the iudiciall also perteyned to the gouernmente of the Churche of the* 1.6 Israelites, and that these preceptes of not adding too or taking from, perteyned to that lawe also. M. Musculus in his common places. Cap. de legibus, de∣uideth the iudiciall lawe into two partes, into ecclesiasticall and ciuill: his wordes be these. VVherefore these preceptes may not vnfitly (he meaneth, iudiciall) be deui∣ded* 1.7 into two kyndes, whereof some are ecclesiasticall and other ciuill. M. Beza in lyke* 1.8 manner in his booke de haereticis a magist: puniend. saith, that the iudiciall law doth part∣ly consist in the externall manner of worshipping God, partly in the ciuill affaires of this lyfe. And M. Caluine. in his Harmo: vpon the fyue bookes of Moses, expounding this* 1.9 verse in the. 23. of Exod. Thou shalt vtterly ouerthrow them and breake in peeces their images. Calleth it a politike lawe, and yet notwithstanding an apendix to the firste precepte, and added to confirme that which he had spoken before against Idolatrie. Therefore to the ordering and gouerning of the Churche, the Iewes had not only the morall and ceremoniall, but the iudiciall law also.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Why the Iewes had their ceremo∣nies particu∣larly prescribed
• * 1.2

  Cal. in barmo. in pentateuc.
• * 1.3

  Aug. epist. 118
• * 1.4

  Galat. 5.
• * 1.5

  Cal. adue. ana.
• * 1.6

  The iudiciall law perteyned to the gouern∣ment of the Church.
• * 1.7

  Muscul.
• * 1.8

  Beza.
• * 1.9

  Caluine.