free, and not to be free, and not bound to laws. bound to Jaws. The sum of the seventh precept or commandment. Apollinus, a certain ancient and ecclesiastical writer, disputing against Montanus, the heretic, saith: "This is he which taught that marriages are undone, and which first of all hath appointed laws for men to fast by1." And verily, to go about to set down to all men and nations one manner of fasting in one appointed time, one prescribed order and choice of meat, is a mere folly, and a brain-sick kind of madness. For, according to the choice of air, so are men's bodies of sundry temperatures, and one kind of meat doth not stir men of sundry complexions to one kind of affection. The most godly way, therefore, and profitable order for the church is, that all pastors in every congregation should teach sobriety, temperancy, and the true fast indeed: not presuming to prescribe any laws for the choice of meats or times, but leaving that free to every man and nation, who undoubtedly will have an especial eye to temper themselves from the things by which they perceive that their health will be endangered; but most of all in the time when the flesh beginneth to wax over wanton, or when some great peril hangeth over their head. For the time of fasting is not prorogued till an appointed number of years or days be expired, but till the looseness or wantonness of the flesh, temptations, or motions, be utterly bridled. Fastings being so ordered, as they be the exercises of godliness, obtain great praise indeed in the church of the Lord. Thus much hitherto touching fasting. Now, to shut up this seventh precept, I say it forbiddeth all intemperance, it commandeth holiness, and the clean and lawful use of all the members of the whole body. And therefore in this short precept there is contained a good part of the doctrine of Christ and his apostles. For Paul to the Thessalonians saith: "We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that ye increase more and more, as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk, and to please God. For ye know Ουτός [1 Auctor Euseb. Ecclesiast. Hist. Lib. v. cap. 18, Lat. ἐστιν ὁ διδάξας λύσεις γάμων, ὁ νηστείας νομοθετήσας,-Euseb. Hist. Eccles. Lib. v. cap. 18. ed. Burton. The writer is Apollonius.—Routh, Reliq. Sacr. Tom. I. p. 466. Oxon. 1846. See also Calvin. Comment. in 1. Ep. ad Tim. cap. IV. v. 3. Tom. VII. p. 455. ed. Amst.] [2 Suæ integritati, Lat.] what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your holiness; that ye should abstain from fornication; that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in holiness and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, as the Gentiles, which knew not God. God is a revenger of all such, as we have forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness 5." And straightway after again: "The God of peace sanctify you throughout, that your whole spirit, and soul, and body, may be preserved blameless in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ"." I have again, my brethren, passed beyond the appointed time of an ordinary sermon, staying you longer than I am wont to do. Pardon this fault; for, I hope, I have not troubled you, almost two whole hours, without profiting you any whit at all. Make your prayers now, and depart in peace. By the help and will of God I will, within these few days, add the rest of the ten commandments. The grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. [3 Dominum nostrum, Lat. our Lord.] [4 suum inquam corpus, Lat. omitted by the translator:-I mean, his body.] [5 1 Thess. iv. 1-7. immunditiæ causa, Lat. Erasmus' rendering.] [6 1 Thess. v. 23. The rendering in Cranmer's Bible is more agreeable with Bullinger's text: viz. "So that in nothing ye may be blamed in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."] note 7 line 8 παθόντα, 12 ἢ τρεπτὸν, "sat at the right hand of God," should have been noted as an interpolation of the Translator's. 29 line 9 ོ་ཎྜཚོ = 83 note 5 91 3 of the Saviour: ab ipso Salvatore, Lat. Mark, The definition is taken from Budæi Comment. Ling. Græc. p. 103. cf. Tertull. adv. Praxean. cap. 10. Tom. II. p. 161. ed. Semler. Hal. Mag. 1828, which passage, no doubt, Bullinger had here in his mind, as he has referred to it also in his Exposit. Epist. ad Roman. iv. 20, 21. p. 47. Tigur. 1537. 112 line 32 So in his Expos. Epist. ad Rom. iii. 26. p. 35, Bullinger writes: Hactenus exposuit (Paulus) fidem, videlicet in Christum, id est, ipsum Christum Jesum, Dei filium, cui fidimus, veram esse pii hominis justitiam. 123 note 4 line 13. Of this treatise Bullinger himself says in his Comment. in Lucam. Lib. 1. p. 17. Tigur. 1546.-quæ S. Cyprianus, sive is Ruffinus est, scripsit. 129 line 22 154 158 9 cf. Augustine's Enarrat, in Psalm. cit. See Pearson on the Creed. Art. 7. p. 455. Vol. 1. and Vol. 11. p. 365. Oxf. 1820. 23 Symbolum secundo conditum disertis verbis in hunc modum conftendum docet: πιστεύω εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον τὸ Κύριον, τὸ λαλῆσαν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν εἰς μίαν καθολικὴν καὶ ἀποotodikýv ékkλnoíav, hoc est, Credo in Spiritum sanctum Dominum, qui loquutus est per prophetas in unam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam. Audis unum atque eundem esse Spiritum, qui per prophetas loquatur in unam generalem ecclesiam, olim quidem a prophetis, nunc ab apostolis, verbo veritatis, qui Sancti Spiritus instinctus est, collectam. Bullingeri Comment. in 1 Epist. Petri. cap. i. p. 11. 195 36 212 note 2 320 line 1 350 5 See Erasmi Adag. Chili. p. 500, conscientia mille testes. cf. Bp. Hooper's Early Writ. ed. Park. Soc. p. 78. These were the Anabaptists' objections. See Bullinger, adv. THE WORKS OF THE FATHERS AND EARLY WRITERS OF THE PRESENTED TO THE GENERAL MEETING, MAY THE 21ST, 1849. "He (Archbishop Parker) was a great collector of ancient and modern writings, and took espec'al care of the safe preservation of them for all succeeding times; as foreseeing, undoubtedly, what use might be made of them by posterity; that, by having recourse to such originals and precedents, the true knowledge of things might the better appear." "As he was a great patron and promoter of good learning, so he took care of giving encouragement to printing- a great instrument of the increase thereof." Strype's Life of Archbishop Parker. The Council of the Parker Society have to lay before the Members the following Report of the proceedings of the past year: The total receipts, from all sources, for the year just closed were £5983, 16s. ld.; the total payments £6357, 7s. 8d., leaving a balance against the Society of £373, 11s. 7d., which comprises several payments for books in progress, to appear in future years. The books for the year 1848 which have been circulated among the Subscribers were four in number:-1st. A third portion of Bishop Jewel's works; containing his celebrated Apology, both in the original Latin, and in Lady Bacon's English Translation; also, a part of the Defence of the Apology. 2nd. Doctrinal Treatises of Tyndale, the martyr, and translator of the Scriptures. 3rd. A portion of the Writings of Bradford; containing various Sermons, Meditations, and other Tracts, by that honoured martyr. 4th. Fulke's Answer to Stapleton, Martiall, and Sanders; being a supplement to Calfhill's work, published in 1846. A small edition of the Latin originals of the Letters printed in two parts in 1846 and 1847, has been issued to those who paid the specified additional subscription. For the year 1849, the following books are in preparation : 1st. Another portion of Tyndale's Works. 2nd. A volume of Bullinger's Decades, a work of great importance, having been prescribed by the Convocation of 1586 as a manual for the clergy. 3rd. Selections from the Writings of Bishop Bale. 4th. A translation of Whitaker's valuable Disputation on Holy Scripture. These volumes, it is confidently expected, will have been circulated among the members before Christmas. 2 THE EIGHTH REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. In reference to future proceedings, the Council feel that they may now speak more definitely than they have hitherto ventured to do. A wish has frequently been expressed by subscribers, to know how long the series of re-publications was likely to last; but, in the early stages of their progress, the Council could only point out certain works which they felt it desirable to print, and promise that pains should be taken to issue these as speedily as circumstances, with a due regard to the creditable editing of them, would allow. Now, however, when much has been accomplished, and many volumes have been presented to the subscribers, the Council can more easily define what remains to be done. They are sure that the members will agree with them in deeming the works of Bishop Jewel, and of Archbishop Whitgift, of the highest importance, which it would be a discredit to the Society to leave unfinished. To complete Jewel and to publish Whitgift must, therefore, be a main object. Simultaneously with these may proceed the remaining volumes of Tyndale, Bradford, and Hooper, of which portions have already appeared. There are also in forward preparation Archbishop Parker's Correspondence, Rogers on the Articles, the remainder of Bullinger s Decades, the Reformatio Legum, Nowel's Catechisms, with a few other valuable treatises and documents. The precise time of completing these must of course depend upon the support the Council continue to receive; but it may be stated with confidence, that about four years will suffice to place the works they have enumerated in the hands of the subscribers, who will then possess a series of the most important character. If these volumes have been more generally controversial than some persons expected, the Council would remind their friends that a peculiar value must always attach to them as evidence of the opinions of men to whom, under God, we owe the deliverance of our Church from the foreign yoke under which she had for centuries laboured, and who compiled and settled those formularies which are her present standards of doctrine. On every point connected with the doctrine and discipline of the Church the opinions of such men must be of incalculable interest. They were her defenders against external and internal assailants; they were the expounders of the truths which they had contributed to embody. Of course it is not intended to assert that the private writings of any divines, however venerable and eminent, can claim a public authority; but public standards may indisputably be illustrated by the contemporaneous writings of their compilers, and the spirit in which they were conceived, and the sense they were designed to convey be hence better understood. And it is to be observed, that the writers of the Reformation era demand respect, not only for the circumstances under which they wrote, but because they were the distinguished men of an age neither unlearned nor unadorned with genius of the highest order; besides, they were men, not only of natural endowments, but of primitive zeal and piety. They, many of them, obtained the martyr's crown, and are, therefore, worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance. Their faults, in a great measure, were those of the system in which they had been nurtured, or of the period in which they lived; their graces were the peculiar and excellent gift of Him who raises up and strengthens His own instruments for the great work He is accomplishing in the earth: they were honoured by Him, they should be honoured and esteemed by us The Council feel grateful to God that they have been enabled to put forth the works of so many of these men, that they have been permitted so far to complete their original design; and they would earnestly solicit from the members such continued support, as that they may not have to leave undone that which yet remains. |