Lancelot Andrewes's 'Orphan Lectures': The Exeter Manuscript
[1]
P.G. Stanwood
University of British Columbia
stap@shaw.ca
Peter McCullough
Lincoln College, Oxford
Peter.McCullough@lincoln.oxford.ac.uk
Ray Siemens
University of Victoria
siemens@uvic.ca
P. G. Stanwood, Peter McCullough, Ray Siemens, and others. "Lancelot Andrewes's 'Orphan Lectures': The Exeter Manuscript". Early Modern Literary Studies Texts Series 2 <URL:http://purl.org/emls/andrewes/andrewes4.htm>.
Contents
- Introduction (P. G. Stanwood)
- Bibliographical Descriptions (Peter McCullough): Lancelot Andrewes, Apospasmatia Sacra (1657)
- A Digital Facsimile of the Newly-discovered Exeter Manuscript of Lancelot Andrewes (Ray Siemens, with Karin Armstrong, Gerry Watson, Mike Elkink, and Greg Newton; 276 pp.)
- Apospasmatia sacra, or, A collection of posthumous and orphan lectures (An external link to the EEBO 1657 text, Wing / A3125)
- Transcriptions
(P. G. Stanwood):
- On the Transcriptions
- Selection 1. The lecture on Revelation 2.7 (Notes by Peter McCullough) Selection 2. 1. Gen. 11.
- Selection 3. Gen. 3.16.
- Selection 1. The lecture on Revelation 2.7 (Notes by Peter McCullough)
- Selection 2. 1. Gen. 11.
- Selection 3. Gen. 3.16.
1. Introduction
There has recently come to light an early seventeenth-century manuscript of Lancelot Andrewes’s Apospasmatia SACRA: or A Collection of posthumous and orphan lectures. [2] For the first and only time published in 1657—some thirty years after Andrewes’s death in 1626—their authorial integrity has ever since been in doubt. In a hastily contrived preface, the notable Laudian Thomas Pierce declared ‘that this Volumne of Notes was only taken by the Eare from the voluble Tongue of the Dictator, as he deliver’d them out of the Pulpit; and so are infinitely short of their original perfection’. Pierce continues painstakingly to discredit these ‘Notes’, which, had he been consulted, would not have appeared. In reflecting and extending this judgement, James Bliss rejects the ‘Orphan Lectures’ for inclusion in the eleven volume edition of Andrewes’s Works in The Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology, noting that ‘there does not appear to be sufficient evidence to justify one in ascribing these sermons, at least in their present form, to Bishop Andrewes’. [3] Thus this substantial body of work, comprising of over 700 octavo pages, has remained marginal to most students of Andrewes. [4]
In recounting the early years of Andrewes’s life, Henry Isaacson, his amanuensis and biographer, declares ‘that in S. Paul’s Church … he read the lecture thrice a-week in the term time’ besides often preaching at St Giles’. [5] The only record that we have had until now of these lectures and sermons is provided by the ‘Orphan Lectures’, a systematic study and exegesis of the first four chapters of Genesis, verse by verse, as well as a number of homilies on various other texts from both Old and New Testaments. Most of these exegetical or homiletic sections are extensive, carefully wrought, fully coherent, and entirely characteristic of Andrewes’s unmistakable style. The notion that any of them might have been the notes of an auditor is most improbable, though one might accept the possibility that Andrewes considered expanding or revising them. [6]
The manuscript of the ‘Orphan Lectures’ that I have
examined gives unique testimony to the authenticity of this work and firmly
corroborates its authorial integrity. Now privately held in
The second of these loose leaves gives a fuller statement by Daniel Hollingworth, in his hand: ‘To my Deare beloued Mr John / Chomely the younger my young Nephew / Sir Paule Pinder that was Ambassader / Near xx years in Turkey famose in the / Turkish History had and [Bouand?] this book And / Docter Hacket of St Andrewes in Holdborne hath / Tould mee, Neuer a Devine in England / Could Capp: Sir Paule Pinder in purest Christianitie / And he with his owne hands gaue to the / poure & to Hospitalls & to Churches & / Bulding of Paules in his owne dayes with his owne hands / Fortie Thousand Pounds And had noe / Pictshure in his house But the Pictshure / of Docter Andrewes And hath oft sayd / To mee, That since St Pauls dayes / The Church of God had Neuer / his Fellow. // soe say I think.’ Hollingworth’s name appears below this inscription, but in the hand perhaps of the recipient, who glosses the proper names ‘Hacket’, ‘Andrews’, and ‘Pindar’, quoting from Treatise of Temples, 1638, chap. 25. [8]
One may reasonably
presume that ‘this book’ refers to the manuscript that Hollingworth was giving
to his nephew. This single loose leaf might once have been part, not of the
present manuscript, but of one that now survives only in four pages (or the two
leaves of one folio sheet) of prefatory matter which must have been copied much
later—perhaps mid-century—from the principal manuscript under discussion, or
else another like it (see plate 1).
The reference to Pindar’s having been already in
The Exeter
Manuscript begins with folio 2r, the first folio sheet in fact being the one
that contains the earliest inscription, ‘Doctor Andrewes Sermons …’ that forms
the paste-down on the inside of the front cover, that is, folio 1r, and with
the pencilled date ‘1598[?99]’ on the verso. The leaf in Hollingworth’s hand
that describes Sir Paul Pindar’s ownership of the Exeter Manuscript might have
become detached and offered as a preliminary leaf to a second manuscript, now
lost, that includes only four prefatory pages. The surviving pages (of this one
folio sheet) still retain fragments in the gutter of the binding thread.
Certainly we do have what seems to be the beginning of a second manuscript; the
hand is obviously much later than that of
Measurements of the Exeter Manuscript (and also of the single loose leaf) are 290 x 195 mm. (pot folio). There are 276 folios; the final one, folio 276r is a paste-down on the end cover. Five leaves have been cut out at 243v–244r. The gatherings are bound up variously, in six, seven, or often nine folio sheets. At the beginning of the manuscript are the lectures at St Paul’s, from f. 2r to 228r; 228v is blank; a different scribe begins at f. 229r, with the earlier lectures at St Giles’, and with some repetition of material that has appeared earlier in the manuscript. Compared with the printed text of 1657, the Exeter Manuscript employs throughout orthography and scribal forms of the earlier seventeenth century. There are numerous variants, chiefly of an accidental rather than a substantive kind; but several sections are unique to this manuscript, or else greatly altered in the printing. Notable amongst these sections is Andrewes’s sermon on the Apocalypse, misplaced in 1657, but remarkable for its author’s discussion of eucharistic doctrine (see plate 3).
plate 1. The opening page of the loose leaf
accompanying the
plate 2. Watermark of the loose leaf accompanying the
plate 3. Folio 146v of the
COMPARISON WITH THE PRINTED VERSION
The relationship of manuscript to printed text is complicated, but the following comparison of the two indicates principal differences.
The manuscript opens with ‘Knowledge
of holy things is Compared by our Saviour Christ to a Keay’, which appears in
the Addenda of 1657 (pp. 657 ff.), ff. 2r–v. Then follow the lectures on
Genesis, preached at
Gen. 1.1–11 3r–37r
12 37r–v
14 37v–38v
16–30 38v–48r
Manuscript and printed text are very different from verse 12 on. There is no manuscript text for verses 13, 15, or 31; but 1657 continues the sequence from verses 12–31 without interruption.
Gen. 2 begins at 48r.
1–19 48r–107r
21–24 107r–114v
Gen. 2.20 is missing from the manuscript, which continues with Gen. 2.21 through 2.24, where this section ends; but 1657 continues through verse 25, that is, the end of chap. 2.
Gen 3.1–5 114v–125v
6 Omitted from the ms
7 125v–128r
8–14 128r–146v
Apoc. 2.7 146v–150v
The date ‘9.Aug:1620./’ appears in the margin of 128r, at the beginning of the lecture on Gen. 3.8, in a hand different from that of the scribe, but contemporary with it. At this point, the manuscript ends Gen. 3 with verse 14 (ff. 141r–146v); however, it then gives Andrewes’s lecture on Revelation 2.7 (ff. 146v–150v), which 1657 removes to the concluding section of homilies ‘preached upon severall choice Texts’ (pp. 572–8). Now 1657 continues to the end of Gen. 3 (that is, verse 24). And ff. 229r–276r, in the hand of a different but contemporary scribe, complete these verses of Gen. 3, beginning with (and repeating the discussion of) verse 14.
Gen. 4.1–26 150v–228r The lower half of 228r is blank; 228v is also blank.
This section of the manuscript is very carefully copied, and the printed text follows it closely, but with many accidental variants. Also, the verse headings are all from the Vulgate; earlier sections are inconsistent in this usage.
The manuscript continues with 229r, in a different but similar hand, and concludes at 276r.
Folio 229r is headed: ‘Mr. Doctor Andrewes Sermons at St. Giles without Criplegate.’ (see plates 4 and 5)
Gen. 3.14[1] 229r–234r [in margin: ‘Junij die 18 1598’]
The copy is identical with ff. 141r–146v, the first part of Gen. 3.4: ‘Then the Lord god saide to the serpent because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all Cattaile and every beast of the feild.’
Gen. 3.14[2] 234v–239r [in margin: ‘Junij die 25 1598’]
The second part of the verse, appearing also in 1657: ‘Uppon thy belly shalt thou goe and dust shalt thou eate all the dayes of thy life.’
Gen. 3.15[1] 239r–243v [in margin: ‘Julij die 2o. 1598’] ‘I will alsoe putt enmitye betwene thee and the woeman and betwene her seede and thy seede.’ [In 1657]
Gen. 3.15[2] 243v–246v [in margin: ‘Aug. 20. 1598’]
The second part of the verse, appearing also in 1657: ‘He shall breake thyne head, and thou shalt bruise his heele.’ [The lectures for Gen. 3.14 and 15 have been detached from the regular sequence in 1657, and misplaced at the end of the volume. Five leaves have been cut out from the manuscript between 243v and 244r; only a few lines on Gen. 3.15 remain at the bottom of 243v, but a substantial portion of what may belong to the lecture on Gen. 3.16 remains as 244r–246v.
Gen. 3.16 ‘Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.’ (KJV).
What remains of this lecture, which is decidedly about the scriptural text, is quite different from what occurs in 1657. Andrewes writes with expansive vigour, in a fashion reminiscent of his lecture on Gen. 2.18, about the creation of Eve.
Gen. 3.17–24 246v–276r
Apart from conventions of orthography and punctuation, the printed text follows the manuscript closely. Yet 1657 would seem to have been set from a different manuscript (or several manuscripts?).
plate 4. Folio 229r of the
plate 5. Watermark of fol. 228r, the paper stock common to the entire bound volume (Original paper size 290 x 195 mm.) Reproduced by permission of Professor Ivan Roots.
CONCLUSION
The existence of the Exeter Manuscript, a volume, which, as we have seen, contained two different though contemporaneous versions of the ‘Orphan Lectures’, as well as the fragment of still another manuscript in yet a further and third hand, suggests that more manuscripts may yet come to light; for Andrewes’s lectures and sermons of his early career must have enjoyed some circulation—how widely we cannot, of course, know. Of interest also is the fact that 1657 is incomplete, obviously hastily compiled from a manuscript (or manuscripts) that were conveniently at hand, or readily available to Thomas Pierce and such loyal printers as Moseley and Royston. Yet in missing or confusing the sections that do appear in the Exeter Manuscript, the printers cause one to query how else they might have been misled. The sermon on Revelation 2.7, for example, is especially significant; for in it Andrewes is developing his ‘high’ view of the eucharist with considerations ‘suche as may fitly be applied for instruction in the sacrament of the body & blood of Christ’, [9] yet the sermon is relegated to the miscellaneous section following the discourses on Genesis (beginning at p. 515). Clearly, a new edition of the ‘Orphan Lectures’ is needed that will bring together all the material that we now possess. Such an edition should allow full comparison of manuscript to printed text and thus help also to illuminate Andrewes’s own practises of composition and doctrinal belief. [10]
2. Bibliographical Descriptions (Peter McCullough): Lancelot Andrewes, Apospasmatia Sacra (1657)
COPY 1. Union Theological Seminary (EEBO; UMI Wing
303:1).
Title. [within double rules] APOSPASMATIA SACRA: | or | A Collection of posthumous and orphan | LECTURES:|
Delivered at St. Pauls and St. Giles his Church, | BY | The Right
Honourable | AND | Reverend Father in God | LANCELOT ANDREWS,
| Lord Bishop of VVinchester. | [rule] | Never before extant. | [rule] |
Apothanon eti laleitai Heb. 11.4. | [rule] | [device:
shield with coat of arms of Cambridge Univ.; cf. McKerrow 399] | [rule]
| LONDON, | Printed by R. Hodgkinsonne, for H. Moseley, A.
Crooke, | D. Pakeman, L. Fawne, R. Royston, and N.
Ekins. 1657.
Formula. 2o in
4s: )(4 2)(4 3)(4 4)(2 b-d4 A-Z4 2A-2Z4 3A-3P4 3Q-3S2 3T-3Z4 4A-4S4; [$3 signed (- )(1, 4)(2,
d3, P1, 2H3, 2Z1, 3Q2, 3R2, 3S2; 2O1 signed ‘O’)]; 367 leaves, pp. i-lii
1-111 112-114 115-245 246-248 249-312 305-351 352-354
363-499 500-502 515-694 (misprinting 7 as ‘6’, 131 as ‘132’, 265 as
‘272’, 266 as ‘247’, 271 as ‘251’, 272 as ‘265’ , 323 as ‘326’, 326 as ‘323’,
454 as ‘445’, 613 as ‘413’
Paper. (microfilm)
Types. (microfilm)
Contents. )(1, title (verso blank); )(2, The Preface; b1 Elenchus Latino-Anglus Omnium Concionum
totius Libri; Numerus paginam indicat. . . . Index Concionum in Caput Primum
Geneseôs; b3v Index
Concionum in Caput Secundum Geneseôs;
c1 Index Concionum in Caput Tertium Geneseôs c3 Index Concionum in Caput Quartum
Geneseôs; d1 Index Concionum
diversarum, ex veteri et novo Testamento;
d4 Lectures Preached upon the first chapter of Genesis (half title;
verso blank); A1 Lectures, Preached at
Saint Paules London; P1 Lectures
Preached upon the Second Chapter of Genesis (half title; verso blank); P2 Lectures preached in Saint Pauls Church
London; 2H4 Lectures Preached upon the
Third Chapter of Genesis (half title; verso blank); 2I Lectures.
Preached in Saint Pauls Church, London;
2R1 Lectures Preached in the Parish Church of St Giles without Cripplegate,
London; 2Z1 Lectures Preached upon the
fourth Chapter of Genesis (half title; verso blank); 2Z2 Lectures Preached in the Parish Church of
St Giles without Cripplegate London; 3T1
Lectures Preached upon Several choice Texts, both out of the Old and New
Testament (half title; verso blank); 3T2
Lectures Preached in the Parish Church of St Giles without Cripplegate
London; 4O1 Addenda;
on 4S3v ‘FINIS’
Running Titles. )(2v – 4)(2v The Preface; b1v – d3 Index Capitum
A1v – O4, P2v – 2H3, 2I1v – 2Q4v,
Lectures preached in St. Pauls Church.; 2r1v – 2Y4, 2Z2v
– 3S2 Lectures preached in St. Giles’s Church | without Cripplegate;
3T2v – 4N4 Lectures preached in St. Giles’s Church | without
Cripple-gate 4N4v Lectures
preached in St. Giles’s Church, &c. 4O1v
– 4P4 Lectures preached in
Catchwords. 2f2 ‘Of’ ‘De’ 2N3 ‘offend’ ‘offended’ 2P4v ‘An’ ‘Another’ 2X4v ‘than’ ‘then’ 3B4v ‘an’ ‘and’ 3E2 ‘eth’ ‘teth’ 3O1 ‘Lamech’ ‘Assumpsit’ 3Q2 ‘Socondly,’ ‘Secondly,’ 4D1 ‘Sacra-’ ‘Sacrament’ 4D4 ‘ter,’ ‘ter.’ 4E2v ‘the’ ‘of’ 4E4v ‘there-’ ‘therefore’ 4G2v ‘chapter,’ ‘chapter.’ 4L1v ‘the’ ‘for’
Notes. On balance, not a substandard piece of
printing. The impression of sloppiness
derives mostly from the copy text and lack of editorial intervention before its
typesetting. Signatures are sequent and
catchwords reliable, with only a few exceptions to the latter. Most egregious printer’s fault is in
pagination. Detailed marginal
instructions to ‘insert’ sermons from ‘Addenda’ elsewhere in sequence are
clearly for readers, not setters.
Preface and Index set together, after the setting of the main body (cf.
how index integrates and rationalises the ‘Addenda’ texts with those in the main
run); since Preface and Index set last and use the faulty pagination, highly
unlikely that any copies would have a corrected run of pagination (this would
render index unusable). That the
‘Addenda’ texts begin with a new gathering (4O) might further suggest that they
derive from an MS copy text independent of that of the main run of
lectures/sermons (note also that in addition to supplying texts not in the main
run, they also include dates not found in main run).
1. Eyre, Rivington and Plomer, eds., A
Transcription of the Registers of the . . . Company of Stationers from 1640 –
1708, vol. II, p. 20:
‘27 Novemb[er] 1655. M[aster] Richard Hodgkinson Entred (under the
hand of Master NORTON Warden) a booke called fourty lectures preached in St
Pauls Church upon the first, second, third & fourth chap. of GENESIS; and
fourty five lectures preached in the parish church of St Giles, Cripplegate
upon severall texts, by Lancelot Andrews, DD, late Bp of Winchester’. NB how drastically this differs from text as
printed (98 lectures on Genesis 1-4, 25 lectures on ‘other texts’; however, if
the 9 Genesis lectures contained in the ‘Addenda’ are placed with the ‘upon
severall texts’ group here, the numbers would be 89 and 34 - ?; OR if the
printed texts are divided by place of preaching, count = 71 at St Paul’s, 33 at
St Giles). NB how Register entry places all
Genesis lectures ‘in
2. )(1 autograph ‘Jos: Glanville | pretiu[m].
11s.’ Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680),
theologian and Anglican controversialist; BA Exeter College Oxford 1655, migr.
to
3. passim many MS emendations (by
Glanvill?) correcting egregious typesetting errors.
4. Title Page.
Graeco-Latin title = ‘Holy Fragments’.
Greek epigram (Heb. 11.4) = ‘he being dead yet speaketh’. Coat of arms (Cambridge University); used by
Hodgkinson for at least one other publication by a Cambridge-educated author
(Henry Spelman, Villare Anglicum, 1656); Hodgkinson used arms of Oxford
for publications by Oxonian Robert Vilvain; Hodgkinson seems not to have used a
device of his own in any of his publications.
5. Formula.
NB: disturbance in pagination
coincides with shift within lectures on Genesis 3 from
6. Catchwords.
Formula here gives catchword as given on stated fol. followed by word in
text following. Slippage on 2f2 and 3O1
from English to Latin (both instances being catchwords linked to Biblical texts
given at new sermon headings) might suggest that MS copy text had Biblical
texts in both English and Latin, whereas only Latin was set (as an economy?).
7. NB:
UMI photographer (presumably confused by disturbance in typesetters’
pagination) duplicates several leaves in 2S and 2U.
COPY 2.
Title. as Copy 1.
Formula. as Copy 1, EXCEPT: 2X2 signed ‘X2’; pg. 613 is ‘613’
Paper. Mix of two watermarks: 1. pot with initials ‘PH’; 2. shield within a
double circle, bend, initials (?) in dexter chief. Chainlines vertical (confirming folio).
Type. body 88.
face 80x2:3 = pica roman. This
for the overwhelming majority of type set.
Some italic and greek; brevier for marginalia. Type, format, etc. does not change throughout
body of main text, suggesting all set in Hodgkinson’s shop.
Ornaments. )(2 block orn (100 x 31mm), crowned royal
arms with garter supported by crowned lion (l) and unicorn (r) surrounded by
thistles and Tudor roses (largest crowned);
A1 block orn (82 x 39mm), naked female bust w/ outstretched arms flanked
by (West Indian? African?) naked women seated with cornucopias; passim range of modest orn. block
capitals, ca. 30x30mm; half-title pages without orn.
Notes. Two variants in formula between Copies 1
& 2 confirm that there were minor press-corrections during run. A clean copy with no contemporary marginalia
or marks (except succession of 3 Bodleian shelfmarks on front pastedown); a
modern hand corrects pagination in pencil.
Front board (not contemporary) detached.
COPY 3. Queen’s College,
Title. as Copy 1.
Formula. as Copy 1, EXCEPT: 2O1 signed correctly (‘Oo’); 3T1 not signed;
p. 266 correct (‘266’); p. 271 correct (‘271’).
3S4 is integral (not pasted-down)
Paper. as Copy 1.
Type. as Copy 1.
Ornaments. as Copy 1.
Notes. Further incidental variants in formula
between both Copy 1 and Copy 2 confirm further minor press-corrections.
1. Contemporary calf binding, front board almost
detached. Front paste-down has small
(C19) label pasted-in: ‘C.J. Stewart /
2. Endpapers visible: facing )(A1 C17 printed text (‘Jezabel swore
by her gods, and is eaten by’; ‘house, lest thou be an accursed thing like
it; but shalt be utterly de-’.
3. )(1 ms inscription: ‘Tho: Charles 1789’ (1755-1814; Welsh
Calvinistic Methodist preacher; author of Welsh Bible transs. and catechisms; ODNB). In the same hand (?) some underlining pp.
207-8; large hand-pointer to 1st new para., p. 351. Otherwise a clean copy.
4. Transcriptions (P.G. Stanwood)
Contents
I have transcribed these selections from the Exeter Manuscript with near diplomatic care. Punctuation is preserved (or its lack), as well as capitalisation, though I confront the familiar difficulty of distinguishing between majuscule and miniscule forms of such letters as L / l and C /c. I make no attempt to alter the accidentals and spelling, and have retained u and v, i and j, though the scribal copy itself is very inconsistent in distinguishing between them. I retain most superscript forms of which, yet, with, ye, our, and retain the ampersand; but I expand the common scribal abbreviations for per and pro, the tilde, and Latin abbreviations. The scribe uses italic or a mixture of italic and secretary for citations and references, with the verses cited at the beginning of each section generally in italic. I have given all such citations in italic, both at the head of each section and within the subsequent body of discussion. Most, but not all proper names appear in italic, and in this point I have attempted to follow whatever the text seems to show.
Many statements run on, or are fragments; but I have not attempted any change except occasionally where great confusion might occur. In these instances, I have used square brackets to call attention to an editorial insertion. Many statements appear half formulated and sometimes there are blank spaces where whole phrases or words are missing— sometimes these gaps are noted with a + mark in the margin. The scriptural citations, which may be by verse, book, and chapter, or else by chapter, book, and verse, usually come from the Geneva Bible, or else from the Vulgate, but I have not altered incomplete or inaccurate references. A curious feature of the manuscript is the series of hatchmarks in the margins of ff. 37r through40v (e.g. /// ). Usually, one sees two such marks together, but there may be as many as six. Their significance is not clear, but they would seem perhaps to indicate some kind of collation with other manuscripts or witnesses.
Andrewes like many of his contemporaries turned especially to Genesis
for extended exegetical reflections, but his comments have been largely
overlooked—a notable omission, for example, in Arnold Williams’s Common
Expositor: An Account of the Commentaries on Genesis 1527–1633 (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina P, 1948). The three selections here are chosen in order
to illustrate Andrewes’s unique style and purpose as well as to show different
features of the manuscript in comparison with the printed text.
Selection 1. The lecture on Revelation 2.7. This text essentially appears in 1657, pp. 572 – 78,
not in sequence with the considerations of Genesis as in the manuscript, but in
a concluding section of homilies on various texts. See XCVI Sermons, Easter 2 (1607, 1
Cor. 15.20): The text’s ‘first fruits of
the dead’ means that an agricultural metaphor runs throughout the sermon, and
it blends with a eucharistic peroration perfectly: ‘Such was the meanes of our
death, by eating the forbidden fruit, the first fruits of death: and such is
the meanes of our life, by eating the flesh of
CHRIST, the first fruits of life’ (5th ed. London, 1661, p.
262). In this ‘lecture’, Andrewes
develops the typology of the Tree of Life as a restorative means of grace (cf. Faerie
Queene, I.ii.30, and the story of Fradubio / Fraelissa — who become a tree
whose branches, when broken, bleed).
See esp. Peter McCullough, ed., Lancelot Andrewes: Selected
Sermons and Lectures (
This edited version is by Peter McCullough.
Text. Exeter Manuscript (hereafter EM), fols. 146v – 150v, collated with Apospasmatia Sacra (1657, hereafter AS), pp. 572-578. All variants, some of which are substantive, are recorded in the apparatus. The number of readings from AS which clarify, correct, or improve the sense suggests some combination of ‘tidying’ by the editor or compositor of AS, and the likely superiority of the (lost) copy for the latter over EM. Copy for EM and AS is shown (from other sermons collated) to be different, though not necessarily unrelated, since both contain common errors (a good example of which is the incorrect citation – certainly by transcription error in an anterior copy common to both -- of John 14 for John 1.4, below p. 6, line 7).
Headnote. The sermon edited here is part of a
remarkable survival, perhaps unique for 1590’s London: extensive notes of a single minister’s
complete parish preaching rota stretching over many months (‘notes’ is perhaps
slightly misleading – these are summaries written in continuous prose, much
fuller than the outline notes often encountered in commonplace books of the
period). The bulk of the sermons in
question are Andrewes’s lectures on Genesis 3.14-24 and all of Genesis 4. These were preached between Sunday, 18 June
1598 and Saturday, 17 February 1599 at St Giles’s Cripplegate (a sprawling
parish immediately north of
Taken together, the evidence of these lectures and other sermons suggests that Andrewes preached, during term time, two to three afternoon lectures in St Giles per week, as well as twice a month in the morning, one of the latter of which being a monthly Sunday communion. With such different aims (the systematic exposition of a book of the Bible in the Genesis lectures, vs the application of a text proper to a feast day or holy communion), these two parts of Andrewes’s preaching rota rarely intersected. A prominent exception, however, is the sermon presented here, which opens by self-consciously announcing itself as a communion day sermon based on a text related to the portion of Genesis recently treated in the independent lecture series: on the two preceding Sundays (21, 28 January 1599) the Genesis series had considered Genesis 3.23 and 3.24 – the story of the ‘Tree of Life’ planted in the Garden of Eden – and then, at the communion on Sunday 4 February, Andrewes chose as his text the New Testament vision of the ‘Tree of Life’ in heaven (Rev. 2.7).
The sermon is in itself valuable as a relatively rare example of a
sermon expounding the eucharist at a routine Sunday parish observance. Among Andrewes’s surviving works, it is
further significant as a parochial example of the far grander feast day
eucharistic sermons preached at the court of James VI & I, which so
dominate the authorized edition XCVI Sermons (1629, commissioned by
Charles I and edited by William Laud and John Buckeridge). But this, and the other eucharistic sermons from
AS, have even greater significance as some of the earliest examples of
Andrewes’s ‘avant-garde conformity’, the hallmarks of which are an elevated
view of the efficacy and importance of the sacraments and a sustained critique
of English Calvinist predestinarianism.
As notes (presumably taken by a listener, though possibly derived from
authorial notes or drafts), these sermons lack both the literary finesse and
the scholarly apparatus of those sermons which Andrewes painstakingly prepared
for print in his own lifetime or which appeared in XCVI Sermons. But in addition to thought, arguments, and
structures immediately recognizable as Andrewesian, there also survives
Andrewes’s characteristically sophisticated mode of composition using
tight-knit tissues of scriptural quotation, something that is perhaps even
exaggerated here in the condensed summary form of the notes.
Content & Sources. Andrewes’s exegesis of Rev. 2.7 is best
summarized by placing it in the context of other influential commentary (both patristic
and early modern) on its dominant image, the ‘Tree of Life’. Interpretation of the tree (and its fruit) as
a sacrament has a long pedigree, dating at least from Augustine’s De
Civitate Dei, xiii.20. There, considering the state of Adam and Eve’s
natural bodies before the Fall, Augustine explained that though not subject to
death, their ‘animal’ bodies required ‘nourishment’. Hence, they ate of the many fruits of the
garden for natural purposes, but their bodies were preserved from natural decay
by the power of the Tree of Life. In his
summary, ‘other fruits were, so to speak, their nourishment, but this [the Tree
of Life] their sacrament’ (The City of God, trans. Marcus Dods, New
York, 1950, p. 431). After Augustine,
exegetical and doctrinal debates ebbed around whether Adam and Eve actually ate
of the Tree of Life, or whether it simply exuded a preservative power; and
about whether that power was natural (like a medicine), or divine (grace). Typically, Andrewes here skirts the
quiddities of means, and focusses only on effects: ‘that was a naturall tree appoynted to
preserve
Exegetical tradition agreed that the heavenly Tree of Life promised to
the faithful in Revelation 2.7 (Andrewes’s text here) was the heavenly cognate
of the Edenic tree of the same name in Genesis.
Several of Andrewes’s contemporaries therefore discussed the sacramental
nature of the Tree of Life, whether in
Against this broadly Augustinian and Calvinist consensus, Andrewes’s
exegesis stands out in bold relief. To
begin with, Andrewes’s English contemporaries were skittish about extending
Augustine’s sacramental reading of the tree to the eucharist (Fulke’s rejection
of precisely such a reading by Sanders being the exception which proves the
rule). Although Fulke and Perkins
discuss the tree as a sacrament or symbol of Christ’s gift of eternal life
generally, they do so only by discussing the tree historically (in Genesis), or
anagogically (in Revelation). Missing
from their commentaries is precisely what Andrewes adds, that is, a reading of
the Tree of Life as an image with a tropological (earthly) referent: the eucharist. The identification is swift, emphatic, and
repeated, first in the opening sentences (1.3-6) where the tree ‘may fitly be
applyed’ to communion. The strategy ‘to
applye this scripture to our present purpose’ (2.11) is next repeated with the
added force of linking the tree and communion explicitly to the most climactic
eucharistic passage in the New Testament, the sixth chapter of John’s
gospel. Andrewes even paraphrases the
most provocative verse (57, at 2.15: ‘my flesh is that bread . . . soe he that
eateth me shall live by me’), before rattling-off a conflating sequence of
imagery for the eucharist: ‘fuite of the
tree . . . bread of life . . . Manna . . . Christes body and blood’
(2.16-19). Andrewes’s embrace of the
Johannine insistence on literal eating, on physical reception, is what
distinguishes him here from contemporary Calvinists. Perkins, for example, glosses the same phrase
‘To eate of the tree’ (Rev. 2.7) also with a verse from John (6.50,
‘This is that breade, which commeth downe from heauen, that hee which eateth of
it, shoulde not die.’), but with the swift and crucial caveat that ‘to eate
signifieth sometime to believe’.
Therefore, both John 6 and Rev. 2.7 give priority to the spiritual sense
of eating as believing in Christ, rather than the physical sense of
eating as receiving Christ: ‘for he which truly beleeueth in Christ, he
is a partaker of Christ’ (Perkins, Lectures, pp. 161-2).
It is certainly not the case that Calvinists like Perkins and Fulke held
belief necessary for the efficacy of the eucharist while Andrewes did not. Nor is it true that Perkins and Fulke
dismissed the necessity of receiving the sacraments. The crucial difference is one of emphasis
which contains within it, for Andrewes, greater claims for the operative
efficacy of communion, something which becomes very clear in the latter parts
of the sermon. The eucharist fades from
the sermon while Andrewes discusses the heavenly
Further
In addition to the works cited above, see, for an overview of Andrewes’s
‘avant-garde conformity’ Peter Lake, ‘Lancelot Andrewes, John Buckeridge and Avant-Garde
Conformity at the Court of James I’, in Linda Levy Peck, ed., The Mental
World of the Jacobean Court (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 113-33; the discussion
is helpfully extended to the Elizabethan period by Nicholas Tyacke, ‘Lancelot
Andrewes and the Myth of Anglicanism’, in Lake and Michael Questier, eds., Conformity
and Orthodoxy in the English Church, c. 1560-1660 (Cambridge, 2000), pp.
5-33. Outlines of major English
positions on eucharistic theology are Brian Spinks, Two Faces of Elizabethan
Anglican Theology: Sacraments and Salvation in the Thought of William Perkins
and Richard Hooker (London, 1999), and Sacraments, Ceremonies, and the
Stuart Divines (Aldershot, 2002).
Andrewes’s sermon may also bring fresh life to a long-lived discussion
in studies of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene: the interpretation of the ‘goodly tree . . .
the tree of life’ (I.xi.46.1, 9)
which restores Red Crosse Knight during his climactic battle with the dragon
(I.xi.46-52). Rosemund Tuve’s trenchant warning not to
limit the allegorical signification of Spenser’s Tree of Life to only the
eucharist is salutary (Allegorical Imagery, Princeton, 1966, pp.
110-12). But in that episode, Spenser
does seem to share Andrewes’s view of the Tree of Life as simultaneously both a
symbolic pledge of victory and an operative means to achieve it. Suggestively, Andrewes and Spenser were
contemporaries at both Merchant Taylor’s School and Pembroke College
Cambridge. The first part of FQ
(Books I-III) appeared in 1590, but direct influence on Andrewes seems
unlikely. Yet this and a significant
cluster of Andrewes’s other St Giles’s sermons offer a surprising number of
complementary texts for comparison with FQ Books I-III: on Michael’s battle with the
[146v] February the 4º 1598./ Vincenti
dabo edere ex arbore vitae quae est in medio./
A place of scripture purposely chosen that
wee might not departe from the consideration of those thinges wherein wee have
bene occupyed heretofore and yet suche as may fitly be applyed for our
instruction in the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ for though wee be
now in the
[¶] But the cheife poynt to be inquired is
how the holy ghost agreeth wth him selfe that man being debarred of
the tree of life is restored to yt, The
answere is Gen. 3.22. The
punishment laide uppon him was that he might not put fourth his hand and take
of the tree of life but if there be a power given to man to eate of the tree
Joh. 19. ii. then he maye
take of yt, man of himselfe may not rushe into
From the condition wee are taught that this
promise is not to be cast uppon us but geven and yt is not a generall promise but made particulerly
to him only that overcometh wch condicion carryeth us to the
promises of vertues made by god Gen. 3. where god proclaymeth warre
betwene the woeman and the serpent betwene the woemans seede and the serpentes
seede. And Christ tells us here that he
which is conquerour in this warr shall enioy
stirring in us fleshly lusts which fight
against the soule 1. Pet. 2. wch must be overcome as the
apostle
exhortes Coll. 3. mortifye your earthly
members but the harte also by that boyling Lust of Revenge wch made
Caine one of the serpentes seede to kill his brother 1. Joh. 3.12. wch inward desire of Revenge must
likewise be overcome as the apostle willeth
in yt is sowen in the harte of the Receavers
as yt were a kernell wch in tyme shootes fourth and becomes a tree
for as there was a death of the soule by sinne before god inflicted a death of
the body soe answerable to that first death of sinne there must be in us a life
of grace which is the roote of that tree from whence wee shall in due tyme
receave the life of glory[.] In this
sacrament the tree of the life of grace is sowen in us that is a measure of
grace wrought in our hartes by the power of godes spirit by wch wee
shall at length atteyne to eate of that tree wchshall conveye unto
us the life of glory. As there are two
trees of life, soe wee must have a double Paradise wee must haue a Libertye to
be of the paradise on earth that is the church military wch is
called hortus conclusus, Cant. 2. before wee can be receaved into
the heavenly Paradise that is the Church triumphant, Soe there is a playne
Analogye betwene those, As when wee are dead in sinnes and in the
uncircumsition of the flesh Coll. 2.13. wee receave the life of grace by
the sprinckling of the blood of Christ in baptisme soe when wee are fallen from
the life of grace and are restrayned from the life of god Ephe. 4. and
dead in trespasses and sinnes Ephe. 2. then wee obteyne victory against
sinne and death by the blood of the Lambe being druncke in the sacrament
List of variants
The Exeter manuscript reading appears first,
with reference by page and line to the transcription; there follows the variant
reading, located by page and line number of the printed text of 1657.
1.1 Vincenti]
Victori vitae] illa vitae medio.]
medio Paradisi Dei. 572.1
1.9 scriptures]
scripture 572.15
1.14 returne]
come 572.24
1.16 certyne
persons] the persons 572.26
1.17 whether
of theis] next, how these 573.1
that all] how 573.2 are]
or 573.2
1.19 And
these] and 573.5
2.18 1.
Cor. 10.2.] first epistle to the Corinthians the tenth chapter and the
third verse 573.35–36
2.30 John
17] omit 574.9
3.2 thinke
of] think 574.15
3.19 at
whose] whose 574.45
3.28 Ephe.
6.] cites also verse 12 575.10
4.8 blank
space] gain 575.33
4.13 scriptures]
Scripture 575.41 looke] look into 575.42–43 then] there 575.43
4.14 makes
us] makes 575.44
4.18 gott]
get 576.4
4.25 is
an] as an 576.13
4.30 abstinence]
abstinencie 576.21
5.3 Apoc.
12.11.] cites chapter only
576.28–29
5.5 second]
Secondly 576.33
5.11 a
sacrament . . . both] omit 576.42
5.14 harte]
hearts 576.46
5.21 military]
Militant 577.9
5.25 Ephe.
4.] cites also verse 18 577.17
5.27
5.28 suche
an] such 577.21
5.32 eate
of] eat 577.28
5.33 they
that] Whoso 577.29
6.1 for
ever, There] by me; And he that eateth of his body shall live for ever. 577.30–31
6.1 god]God first 577.31
6.3
6.13 et]
est 578.4
6.22 come
/ Amen.] come. 578.20
Notes. The annotations below document sources
(mostly biblical), translate Latin phrases, define difficult or now obsolete
words or senses of words, explain contemporary allusions, and cite passages
helpful for comparison either from elsewhere in Andrewes or other sources. Unless otherwise stated, all biblical
quotations are from the ‘
1.1 February
. . . 1598: Sunday, 4 February 1599. For Andrewes’s pattern of preaching at St
Giles’s, see headnote.
1.1 Vincenti
. . . 2.7.: closer to
Tremellius/Beza (‘victori dabo edere ex arbore illa vitæ quæ est in medio
paradisi Dei’, quoted exactly in AS) than Vulg. (‘vincenti dabo ei edere
de ligno vitæ quod est in paradiso Dei mei’).
1.2 thinges
. . . heretofore: Andrewes’s
on-going lecture series on Genesis; see headnote.
1.5-6 Gen.
3 . . . life’: Gen. 3.23-4, the
texts for Andrewes’s lectures on Sundays 21 and 28 January, 1599 (AS,
pp. 339-51).
1.8 first
state: prelapsarian state.
1.9 as
. . . told you: cf. the
peroration of Andrewes’s lecture (Gen. 3.24) preached the Sunday before (28
Jan.), ‘if we . . . shall be partakers of Christs Sacrifice, which worketh
reconciliation between God and man . . . then followeth the restoring of us to
the heavenly Paradise, And to him that overcommeth God will give to
eate of the Tree of life in the middest of the Paradise of God’ (AS,
p. 351).
1.10 acquisitio
novi iuris: Lat., ‘the acquisition
of a new law’.
1.10 in
this place: in this verse (Rev.
2.7); cf. lecture on Gen. 3.23, preached two Sundays’ earlier (21 Jan.), ‘the
second of the Revelations the seventh verse: So that that place sheweth a manifest return
to eat of the tree of life, and to take again the benefit of Paradise’ (AS,
p. 344).
1.11-12 Angell
. . . fiery sword: Gen. 3.24, the
text for Andrewes’s lecture 28 Jan. (AS, pp. 345-51).
1.15 Thone
. . . thother: i.e., ‘the one . . .
the other’ (as modernized in AS, p. 572).
1.17-18 Seraphins
. . . Joh. 12: Is. 6.2, Joh.
12.39-41.
1.19
Ezech. . . this Angell: A very
compressed reading of Ezekiel’s vision of the cherubim (Ez. 10), which suggests
that these supporters of the glory of God (the cherubim) adore the ‘Angel’ with
the two-edged sword and eyes of fire (Rev. 1.16, 2.18), that is, Christ.
2.1
2.2-3 Hebr.
. . . Cor. 2: Hebr. 1.14.; Acts
3.20-1, 26; 1 Cor. 2.8.
2.5 Gen.
3.22: the text for Andrewes’s lecture
on 14 Jan. 1599 (AS, pp. 335-9), which he treated as God’s
‘deliberation’ over executing the sentence of expulsion upon Adam and Eve.
2.7 Joh.
19.ii: i.e., John 19.11.
2.8 theife
Luke 23: Luke 23.43; an exemplum
used similarly in the lecture on 21 Jan. (AS, p. 344).
2.13 John.6: John 6.35.
2.17 Manna
2.18 1.
Cor. 10.2: an error for 1 Cor. 10.3
(as AS, p. 573).
2.19-20 2
partes . . . dabo: typically,
Andrewes divides the main parts of his argument according to grammatical units
in his text: ‘vincenti’ (‘to him
that overcommeth’), or overcomming sin, is the requirement or ‘condicion’ for
receiving (‘dabo’, ‘I give’) the ‘promise’ of eternal life.
2.20 coniunction: again, Andrewes makes grammar do theological
work; the conjunction ‘et’ (Lat., ‘and’) which links ‘vincenti’ and ‘dabo’
makes the necessary, and carefully balanced, theological point that eternal
life is a ‘guift’ not earned, but is also not given to those who are idle; the
‘et’ here carries an immense strain by trying to reconcile opposed
reformed and catholic views about the efficacy of human works in the economy of
salvation (see next note).
2.23-4 cooperari
. . . Joh. 6: Lat., ‘work together
for the food that does not perish’, a startling rephrasing of John 6.27
(‘Labour not for the meate which perisheth’; Vulg. and Trem/Beza, ‘Operamini
non cibum, qui perit’). The slight
adjustments of adding the prefix ‘co-’ to the main verb (‘operamini’), and
moving the negative modifier ‘non’ from it to ‘perit’, effects an assertion of
the cooperation of the believer necessary to obtain salvation that is foreign
to Elizabethan Calvinist soteriology, but found elsewhere in Andrewes (see
headnote).
2.28 Apostle
. . . Cor.12: Paul, 2 Cor. 12.1-4.
2.30 John
17: John 17.24 (the citation is
repeated, l. 31).
3.1-2 Mat.
. . . domini: Vulg., Matt. 25.21
(Trem/Beza, ‘engredere in . . .’); ‘enter into thy Master’s joy’.
3.3 wise
man Pro.13: Solomon; Prov. 13.12.
3.5 all
in all: a Pauline epithet; cf. 1
Cor. 12.6, 15.28; Eph. 1.23.
3.9 2.ii: i.e., 2.11.
3.13 Job.
14: Job 14.7.
3.16 center
. . . circumference: The garden of
Eden within ‘Paradise’ was traditionally thought to be a round hortus
conclusus, in the centre of which stood the Tree of Life (Gen. 2.8-9; cf.
3.17 coronam
vitae: Lat., ‘crown of life’.
3.17 1.
Peter 5: 1 Pet. 5.4.
3.20 Psal.
16: Psal. 16.11.
3.21 the
condition: the prepositional phrase
(‘to him that overcommeth’) which qualifies the main clause of the text (Rev.
2.7); cf. above, 2.19-20. Andrewes’s
interpretation of this ‘condition’ is a sustained qualification of strict predestinarianism:
eternal life is not forced upon (‘cast uppon’) any, but instead offered
(‘geven’) only to the believer who ‘overcometh’, or perseveres, in the struggle
against sin in the earthly life.
3.23 Gen.
3.: Gen. 3.14-16.
3.26 2.
Tim. 2.: 2 Tim. 2.5.
3.28 Ephe.
6.: Eph. 6.11-12.
3.29 2.
Cor. 12.: 2 Cor. 12.7.
3.31-2 warre
. . . inward partes: an orthodox
statement of the relationship between original and actual sin; cf. ‘Articles of
Religion’ (1571), no. IX: ‘Original sin
. . . is the fault and corruption of the Nature of every man, that naturally is
engendered of the offspring of Adam . . . so that the flesh lusteth always
contrary to the Spirit . . . . And this infection of nature doth remain, yea in
them that are regenerated’.
3.32 Reynes: lit., the kidneys; fig., in Biblical usage,
the seat of the emotions (OED ‘reins’, 1, 3).
3.33 1.
Pet. 2.: 1 Pet. 2.11.
4.1-2 Revenge
. . . Caine: anticipates Andrewes’s
extended treatment of the murder of Abel by Cain, and of Cain’s subsequent punishment
and progeny (Gen. 4) in the same lecture series at St Giles’s, preached during
term times from 7 February 1599 to 17 February 1600 (AS, pp.
363-499). Together, these lectures
constitute one of the most extended, and neglected, early modern considerations
of the immorality of revenge (discussed briefly in Tyacke, ‘Lancelot Andrewes’,
pp. 12-13). Their proximity to the
likely date of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1600) is highly suggestive, and is
the subject of work in progress by the editor.
4.3 Rom.
12.:
4.3-4 sed
. . . bono:
4.5 mortification: ‘the subjection or bringing under control of
one's appetites and passions by the practice of austere living’ (OED
I.1).
4.5 wthout
us: outside of us; external
temptations to sin (as opposed to the prompts to sin ‘within us’ from original
sin and lusts of the affections; cf. above, 3.32).
4.5 filij
Beliall: Lat., ‘children (or sons)
of Belial’; common Old Testament epithet for evil people, by New Testament
times understood in the Judeo-Christian tradition as servants of the devil; cf.
Judges 20.13 (Bishops’ and Vulg.); Geneva consistently translates as ‘evil men’
(cf. Judges 19.22), with the Hebrew transliteration used only in marginal
notes.
4.6 John
8: John 8.44.
4.10 The
Apostle: Peter
4.15 continere
a peccato: Lat., ‘to hold back from
sin’
4.16 penitere
de peccato: Lat., ‘to repent of sin’
4.18-19 gott
. . . head: ‘to gain force, ascendency,
or power’ (OED, ‘head’ 52; citing 1625 as the first usage of the phrase
‘to get head’).
4.23 Isa.
28.: Is. 28.18.
4.25 Pro.
7.: Prov. 7.22.
4.26 Ezech.
14: Ezek. 14.3.
4.28 drawe
nere: physically approach, quoting
the minister’s invitation to recite the General Confession before receiving the
Holy Communion (BCP): ‘You that do truly
and earnestly repent you of your sins . . . Draw near, and take this holy
Sacrament to your comfort ; make your humble confession to Almighty God . . .’.
4.29-30 snatch
. . . repentance: an orthodox
English protestant insistence that the worthy state of the believer’s soul is a
condition for the efficacy of the Holy Communion; cf. Articles of Religion
(1571), no. XXV: ‘And in such only as
worthily receive the same, they have a wholesome effect or operation’.
4.31 de
furto . . . jure: Lat.,
‘deceitfully, but not lawfully’.
5.1-2 bread
. . . gravell: correlative to
4.29-30, unworthy receiving of the Holy Commonion is damnable; Article
XXV: ‘but they that receive them [the
sacraments] unworthily, purchase to themselves damnation’.
5.2 Pro.
20.: Prov. 20.17.
5.7 vincenti
. . . edere: Lat., ‘to him that
overcommeth to partake and to him that partaketh to overcome, I will cause
(give) him to eat [of the tree of life]’; Andrewes’s own cleverly chiasmic
combination of the main text (Rev. 2.7) and 1 Cor. 10.16-17, epitomizes the
‘reciprocation’ whereby, in the worthy receiving of the holy communion, the
believer is simultaneously rewarded for overcomming sin and given strength to
overcome sin; cf. 5.9-10.
5.11 wee
have . . . wee have: the repetition
is caused by the copyist’s ‘eyeskip’ error (moving back to the wrong point in
the copy after the eye has wandered; frequently found when starting a fresh
page, as here).
5.11 means
. . . pledge: for the holy communion
as both a confirmation (‘pledge’) and an operative strengthening of faith, see
Article XXV: ‘[sacraments are] not only
badges or tokens of Christian men’s profession . . . and doth not only quicken,
but also strengthen and confirm our Faith in him.’
5.13 Roote
. . . Christ speakes of: although
the allusion is highly compressed, probably the parable of the tree and the
fruit from the Sermon on the Mount: ‘So
euery good tree bringeth foorth good fruite, & a corrupt tree bringeth
forth euill fruite.’ (Matt. 7.17).
5.20 two
trees of life: the historical Tree
of Life in Eden (Gen. 3.23-4, and the future Tree of Life in heaven (Rev. 2.7).
5.20-1 Libertye
. . . on earth: the freedom, or free
will, to participate in the life of the church; perhaps another counterpoint to
a strict Calvinist definition of the true church as the predestined elect.
5. 21 church
military: church militant, the
church on earth (vs the ‘church triumphant’ in heaven, 5.22).
5.21 hortus
. . . Cant.2.: incorrect citation
for Canticles 4.12, ‘My sister my spouse is as a garden inclosed, as a spring
shut vp, and a fountaine sealed vp.’ (Vulg., ‘hortus conclusus soror mea sponsa
hortus conclusus fons signatus’). The
allegorization of the enclosed garden as the church was first made by Gregory
the Great: ‘horta sancta ecclesia
existit’ (‘the garden is deemed to be the holy church’) (Expositio Super
Cantica Canticorum, IV.17), and became a commonplace. Cf., among the prayers for the ‘continuance of the true institution of the
Sacraments’ in Thomas Bentley, The Monument of
Matrones (1582): ‘I AM come (saith Christ vnto his spouse the Church) into my garden, my
sister, my spouse: I gathered my mirrh with my spice, I ate my honie-combe with
my honie: I dranke my wine with my milke. Eate ô freends, drinke, and make ye
merrie ô welbeloued.’ (p. 568).
5.25 Ephe.4.: Eph. 4.18.
5.26 Ephe.2.: Eph. 2.1.
5.27 Apo.12.: Rev. 12.11.
5.28-30 power
. . . sacrament: cf., from the
sermon preached at St Giles’s 1 October 1598 (on Is. 6.6), ‘in the Sacrament he
doth so elevate a piece of bread, and a little wine, and make them of such
power; that they are able to take away our sinnes . . . he can so elevate the
meanest of his creatures; not only the hemme of a garment, but even a strawe,
(if hee see it good) shall be powerfull enough, to save us from our sinnes’ (Selected
Sermons, ed. McCullough, p. 143).
6.1 Deut.
30.: Deut. 30.20.
6.1 ipse
. . . mea: cf. Vulg., Deut. 30.20,
‘ipse est enim vita tua’ (‘for he is thy life’); the change here and in AS
to the first person predicate (‘ipse enim est vita mea’; ‘for he is my life’)
may be authorial, but is probably a note-taker’s or copyist’s error.
6.3
6.4 Joh.
5.: Joh. 5.26.
6.6 Cesterne: cistern
6.6-7 wisdome
. . . Christ: Wisdom, personified as
female in the Old Testament, was interpreted by Christians as a defining
attribute of the second person of the Trinity (Christ), through whom divine
knowledge is conveyed to mankind; cf. from Andrewes’s funeral sermon by John
Buckeridge, ‘for Christ is made to us wisdom from God’
(appended to Andrewes, XCVI Sermons, p. ‘51’ [15]).
6.7 Christ
. . . 3.18: Of Wisdom it is said
that ‘She is a tree of life to them that lay holde on her, and blessed is he
that retaineth her.’ (Prov. 3.18). Using
the traditional identification of Wisdom with Christ (see prev. n.), Andrewes
cements his analogy between eating Christ’s body in the eucharist and eating
the Tree of Life in heaven. The
6.7 in
ipso . . . 14.: i.e., Joh. 1.4: ‘in ipso vita erat’ (Vulg.), ‘in it [the
Word, Christ] was life’ (
6.8 Joh.
14.: Joh. 14.6 (‘Iesus sayd vnto
him, I am that Way, and that Trueth, and that Life. No man commeth vnto the
Father, but by me.’).
6.9 blood
in Baptisme: traditional baptismal
doctrine, applying the soteriological reasoning that the grace to wash away sin
could only be bought by the blood-sacrifice of Christ; cf. Andrewes, Whitsunday
1615: ‘And the
baptisme of the
bodie, is but the bodie of baptisme; the soule of baptisme,
is the baptisme of the soule.
Of the soule, with the blood of CHRIST, by the hand of the Holy
Ghost’ (XCVI Sermons, p. 679).
6.9 actuall
sinnes: sins committed after baptism
(i.e., vs original sin). Cf.
sermon at St. Giles’s, 1 October 1598, ‘By one bodily sacrament [baptism] he
taketh away the affection unto sin . . . .
By another bodily Sacrament [eucharist] he taketh away the habituall
sins, and the actuall transgression, which proceed from the corruption of our
nature’ (Selected Sermons, ed. McCullough, p. 143).
6.13 fructus
. . . 11.30: Prov. 11.30 (Vulg.);
‘The fruite of the righteous is as a tree of life’.
Selection 2. 1. Gen. 11. v. and it was soe. 12. v. and the
earthe brought fourthe the budd of the hearbe etc. 13 v. soe the evening &
the morninge were the third day./
What follow are notes, transformed through extensive revision in the
1657 edition, pp. 72–111. Immediately
preceding these notes is a more finished draft of what essentially appears in
1657, pp. 65–72, that is, the full section on Gen. 1.11 (ff. 33v–37r). Thus there are in fact two versions in the
manuscript of this section, both evidently copied at the same time but one from
an earlier and the other from a later version.
The earlier, unrevised or first version is given here.
[37r]
Wee have heard of godes decree commaunding; & the returne executing
it & his censure approving that is made, wch in every dayes worke is sett downe in
theis three phrases, fiat, erat sic, & bonum erat. of this third dayes worke wee have handled
before wee have heard the first parte namely godes worde commaunding ye earth
to budd fourth leaves & seeds & trees etc nowe it remayneth to speake
of theother two: & first of ye returne and execution and it was
soe. for the earthe according to every
iott & title of godes worde fullfilled godes will & brought fourth all
sortes of hearbes, & trees, & buddes, & fruites, & seedes,
leaving no thing undone wch was commaunded./
Touching wch, besides the obedyence of this Element in
executing godes decree wee note a speciall certificate under godes hand as it
were for the discharge of this creature, in ye dispatche of his
worke & that without delay with all haste & speed wch reproveth
not onely our disobedience to god, but also our dullnes & slownes in doeing
any thing wch god commaundes.
for wth us it is one thing to doe a thing & another to
doe it willingly & quickly with expedition & speed. for when god doth commaunde any thing, wee
put it of[f] wth this delay erit sic, it shalbe soe hereafter
when wee can finde leasure & fitt tyme:
it can seldome be saide in the present tense erat sic, it was
performed without delay. for wee are as
Salomons debtors, wch bidde god stay till to morrowe or the next
day. 3. prov. before he can finde leasure to pay this debt & duety
of obedience. Secondly in that the
retourne in the end of the ii. v. was erat sic, it was soe two thinges
are to be noated out of the nature of the worde first is a congruitie of the
performance answerable to the commaundement in every poynte; for here is
specifyed iust so much done as was required, nothing to much or to litle. to teache us yt our obedyence must
be suche, we must not deficere in necessarijs nec abundare in
superfluijs. The other poynte is for
contynuance or perpetuitie, for ye word signifyeth yt it was soe
surely & firmely done as if it had a sure basis or foundation for
continuance. yt it might
never fayle, wee see it holdeth & endureth id hunc usque diem, our
eyes and experyence seeing yt it is soe.
The last thing wee gather by opposition, yt godes worde was
the cause & is, yt hearbes & trees do beare *fruites &
seedes. soe & contra, it is the [37v]
same word of god saying let not the earth nor the trees beare wch is
the cause of unfruitefullnes & wante if for our sinne they fayle any yeare ab
eius edicto fertilitas, et ab eius interdicto sterilitas: if therefore wee disobey godes worde, this
wilbe our punishment, yt his worde shall forbid ye earth
to yeild encrease & to deny us his fruites./
The Second parte is the censure & approbation of god sayeng that it
was good. I sayed before there are 3
sortes of goodes .1. honestum .2. utile .3. iucundum. each of wch wee shall see in the earthe & the
fruites thereof for honesty & morrall good wee see it is gratefull to the
owner or sower wch laboureth therein, faithfully & gratefully
repaying & requiting his cost & labour thereon. for perfitt it yealdeth pabulum et
latibulum both for man & beast. & soe necessarily good is it in
this respect yt without it the king cannot lyve. 5 Eccl: 9.
for pleasure and delight either of the eye to behold it or of the taste to
relieve it, it is most delicious & delightfull. mylk [space] wyne &
oyle wheate & all other grayne wch are both for varietye and
necessitye, wee receive by godes blessing from the fruite and encrease of the
earthe & trees. & therefore is every way good./
[37v]
1 Gen: 14. and god
saide let there be lights etc./
In this fowerth dayes worke is set downe the creation of lightes &
the adorninge ye heavens wth light & starres for us
before god made the earthe a garden full of trees hearbes & flowers so now
he intendeth to make heaven beautifully replenished with starres & planetts
of light/
Here then wee shall see the first rising & shining of ye Sonne
ye first coniunction of the new moone, & god now first calling ye
starres out by theire names & making them appeare 14v Psal: 4 nowe
the Sonne being first marryed to the light, he cometh this day like a glorious
bridegroome out of his chamber to runne his course. 19. Psal: 4. &
all the starres as freindes of the bride wth ioy accompaning them.
3v Job. 7./
Nowe to the wordes themselves In dixit deus etc is conteyned the
decree in wch three thinges are to be noated i the thinges to be made & created. 2.
the situation or place of them 3 the use & end, wch is to divide
light from darkenes & to be for signes etc
For the first one would thincke this commaundement to be needles because
theire was light created before: but this was most necessarily ioyned to the
former, yt whereas onely light was made before now theire might be
vesselles to conteyne and carry, for before the light [blank space] was
dispersed and diffusedly spreading it selfe abroad, but nowe, but nowe it is
made as it were a piller of light, beeing brought into the greate bodyes of
planettes & starres & into certayne glorious vesselles to conteyne it
& conveye it to all soe that the estate of the light made before is
bettered, sublimed & made more excellent then it was before./
[38r] The second is the place
& situation of theis starres and lightes wch is heaven the most
fitt & convenient place that might be for three respectes: first godes
wisdome knewe it meetest in regard of the cause, that wee may know from whome
cometh this grace nam sursum a patre luminum 1. Jac. 17:
Secondly in respect of the Convenyence of ye place, for in a
house the best place to sett ye Candle or light uppon is uppon the
topp of ye table. 5. Mat. or uppon some highe place that it
may the better give light to every place therein. Thirdly it is a place of safty for the great
& precious a benefitt for yt place being soe highe & out of
all mens reaches, neither vis nec fraus, neither the force & power
of strong men, nor the Craft of subtle malicious men can take it from the world
& bereave it of this benefitt. for
it is ye nature of rich covetuous & malicious men to [blank
space]. all good thinges especially ye
best to theire owne private use & gayne, though they bereave others
of the publicke & common benefitt wch is theires by right. Therefore god hath soe placed theis lightes,
yt as all wch have eyes may see thereby soe none have
suche handes or armes to take them away./
Nowe touching the endes & uses for wch god made them, the
first is to divide light from darknes, wch is necessary because
elles there would be a confusion, & soe the beautie of the starres for want
of ordering & disposinge ye cloudes grosse darknes would not
appeare. They serve for divisions &
distinctions many wayes betwene night, & day, sommer, & wynter, hott
& could, dry & wett seasons./
Secondly they are for signes.
for god hath geven them a power & influence as it may seeme, to
signifie & shew divers thinges to men yet this doth not make muche for
[blank space] & Judiciall Astrologers, but rather against them. for if there be onely coniecturall signes
then wee may not build a futall necessitye uppon them. for being onely figures to forwarne us of
thinges, then it is in us to avoyde them if they be evill, & procure them
if they be good. Therefore god sayeth .20
Jer: 2. be not affraid of the signes of heaven. god hath not sett them to take away the feare
wch [blank space] to him,
& to give it to them./
God hath sett them for signes naturall to tell us when it is tyme &
season to sowe fytches, barley & wheate. 28. Esay. 25.26. they be
husbandmens signes to know when to plant, to pruine & cut theire trees,
& when to gather fruites. for
marriners & seamen they be signes & markes to knowe when & howe to
divert theire course. 27 act. 4.
& they are signes for Phisitions & Surgions in theire severall
artes. yea they are signes to warne both
man & beast that the night is at hand by the evening starr, & yt the
day doth approach by the day starr & therefore when it is tyme both to
sleepe & arise. 104. Psal. [38v] Yea there are Commettes
& great blasinge starres 65. Esay 8. wch are signes &
tokens of godes wrath for sinn to summon us to repentance & to amend. And thus diversly they are signes to us./
The last is the most [blank space] & yt is to be lightes
geving light to all. It had bene no
benefitt to us if onely they had bene endued wth light for themselves
& had not communicated any parte thereof to us but had left us still in
darknes. Therefore god created them not
for themselves but for us, & our use & benefitt. God yt as ye heaven
& heavenly starres are for ye earth, soe ye heaven
& earthe & all is for the use of men.
Wherefore wee see yt god hath not made man for ye Sonne
or moone etc. to serve them, but they for ye service of man wch sheweth the base & grosse Idolatrye
of ye gentilles wch omitting the worshipp of god yt made & gave them did serve & honour ye
Sonne & moone & starres yt is suche creatures wch
god made ministers & servantes to us god havinge exalted us in
dignitye above them 8 Psal:./
There are Fower endes of all thinges wch god created all wch wee may observe in the light. first they are assigned to theire severall
functions for as the eye is made to see & the eare to heare, soe are the
starres to shine & give light, & therefore Sol est oculus mundi
without wch all is blinde.
Secondly god made alwayes ye inferiour Creature to serve the
superiour, soe all thinges in earth & heaven are created for the benefitt
& service of man. Thirdly he hath
made all theis innumerable Creatures for the beautifieng adorning &
replenishing of the whole world wch is his glorious worke & howse
for man to dwell in; so as hearbes & plantes & trees did beautifie the
earth belowe, the starres & lightes did adorne the heavens the upper parte
thereof. Lastly god made the heavens
& earth & men & all thinges elles propter se for his owne
service, honour & glory. 38 Job: 7. wch is the mayne & generall end of all
the Creatures that are.
i. Gen: 16.17.18.19. v.
god then made two great Lights &c
& god set them in
the firmament of heaven to shine &c
& to rule in the
day & night & to separate the Light &c
& god sawe it was
good &c./
Wee have shewed before the decree or iniunction of god; nowe of the
execution & accomplishing thereof: & of godes censure & approbation
of it. the first whereof is to ye end
of the 18 v. the other is the very end & conclusion of the 18 v. & god
sawe it was good.
Before in the former workes the returne was fuit sic, it was even
soe as god commaunded: but in this worke, here is a more large declaration of
the doeing & fullfilling godes decree specifyeng the efficient who made the
starres even the same god and the same word wch did commaunde it
agreeing wth yt wch John i
John. 23. by the word were all thinges created & without it was nothing
made yt was created. Beeing then the Sonne & moone are but
the creatures of god they are not to be adored & worshipped as the
god ye creator of them. 33. psal 6./ [39r] By
the word of his mouthe were the heavenes made, & all the hoste of them by
his spirit or breathe. soe that there
was nothing elles yt had a finger in this worke but onely the
almightie god & glorious Trinitye, & therefore all the glory and prayse
of this worke must wholly be given to him wch causeth the prophet
David to invite the Sonne & moone & all the starres to prayse &
magnifye the Lord, as theire onely creator. Ps: 14. v.5./
If any aske of what matter god made theis fayre and glorious bodyes of
the sonne & moone & Starres, the answere is conteyned in the nature of
the word. For the heavens being made of
the waters & by the waters by the power of god, the heavens do bring theis
heavenly bodyes of the same matter & nature whereof they were made, as the
earth doth bring fourth plantes & hearbes and trees, of the same matter and
nature of wch it selfe was 37 Job. 18. god did spread the
heavens as glasse etc [blank space] For ye manner & order wch god observed
in making them, wee see yt god first made the Two greater lightes
the Sonne & moone & then the infinite nomber of Starres./
But this is offensive to some curious Astronomers, wch by
mathematicall instruments fynd that the moone is lesse then divers planettes
& starres; but theis Cavillers doe not vaynely carpe & like a dog barke
at the moone. For Moyses calleth the
Sunne & Moone greater, not in regard of the quantity or greatnes wch
they have but in respect of us, to whose appearance they seeme farr greater
then all the rest. yea because it is
manyfest yt they geve more & farr greater light then all the
rest besides. wherefore wee see this
word great is geven not soe much to the quantitye of greatnes in substance but
to the qualitye & dignitye of thinges wch in greater degree of
excellencie are above the rest. as
Moyses is said to be a great man. ii. Exo. 3. wch in respect
of the quantitye of his body as in regard of his excellencye & dignitye
above all the rest. In wch sense
it is saide that ye disciples did strive who should be greatest
& yt is not for bignes of body, as for the greatnes of dignitye
& estimation wch they soe muche desired; as many litle men now
do soe seeke to be greatest. But
But touching the bodyes of theis starres it was necessary yt all
of them should be great, because the howse to wch they should give
light was very great. And it was
needfull to make the greater lightes in nomber to be two because the Two tymes
of night & day & the two great bodyes of the earthe & the sea are
ruled by them. And it was meete and
convenyent that theis two should be in pares, one greater then other & not
alike; because ye world hath most need of the best and greatest
light in the day for direction of our worke./
And therefore god made the moone of a dymmer & lesser light [39v]
because they yt sleep sleeping in the night, may as well and better take
rest with the least light. yet god
would not now have the night as before utter darknes without all light but
caused the moone to be quasi nocturnus Sol. yt ye watchmen on land,
& Shipmen by sea might have some direction both to watche & sayle./
And thus much for the two greater lightes, now for ye starres.
Theis lesser starres are made by god, sometymes to be forerunners of the
sonne & moone, sometymes to attend & waight as it were on them; &
sometymes in theire absence as theire deputies to shine & serve alone. Soe yt they not onely beautifye
the heavens, but also they are made to be a benefitt to us. Some of theis starres are fixed &
immoveable; other are planettes movable & wandering in theire Spheres, wch
are in nomber seaven expressed in godes worde./
And thus much for fecit, yt god made them all great
& litle.
Nowe wee heare in the 17 v. that god wch made them did also
sett & seate them in the firmament of heaven. The reason of theire severall places wee know
not, but god hath ordered them in great wisdome & in a most comely order as
they stand. 1 [?] 5./
The use & end why god placed them there, is not onely to give light
to us, but also to distinguish betwene the night & day & to manage
& rule them both by ye direction of light. by meanes of them wee see hurtefull thinges
to avoyd them; wee distinguish betwene thinges difference & doubtfull to
discerne them & then wee are able [blank space] thinges wch
are good to make choyce of the best by theis lightes & starres thus
placed. god giveth a Comfortable
influence from heaven to the earthe & earthlie thinges belowe: for all the
vertuous operations of the heavens doe by godes ordinance geve attendance to
theis lightes & by them are conveyed to thinges on earth yet the Starres
doe beare no sway nor rule neither have any power in the mindes of men, for god
reserveth the rule of them to himselfe, ordering, disposing & tourning them
as the rivers of water pro v./
The last use & end of the starres are to divide soe the light of the
day maketh the wild beastes afrayd & divideth or driveth them into deserts
& desolate places into theire dennes & holes of the earthe wth theire shining [i.e shunning] the light is a
safegard & safty to mankinde. 104 Psal: 24. The absence of the Sonne can causeth the night
dividing it from the light of the day yt being dedicated to rest
& sleepp as this is to labour & worke./
Nowe for godes censure & approbation saying yt they are
good. The goodnes & benefitt of wch
is most evident to all. First for
the goodnes of delight & pleasure Salomon sayeth. ii Eccle: 17 v. profecto
lumen bonum et iucundum est. soe
ioy full & comfortable it is that Toby wanting the benefitt of it sayeth
what ioy or pleasure can I take seeing I cannot beholde the light of the Sonne
and therefore some thinck that Sol hath his name a solatio, of solace
and delight, because all thinges doe take suche pleasure therein./ And it is
absolutely necessary & good, because without it our iudgementes could not
be able to discerne or iudge of Collars./ [40r] It is good also for
direction of our wayes howe to walke & for our workes to knowe howe &
what wee should doe 11 John walke while ye have the light, for when the
night cometh men know not whether they goe.
This then is an argument of godes great goodnes & mercie to all, in
that he suffereth & hath sett the Sonne & theis lightes to shine &
give light to all, as well to the wicked as to them wch are godly
& good. 6 Math:
i. Gen. 20.v. Afterwarde god
saide Let the waters bring fourth in abundance every creeping thing that hath
lyfe & let the fowle fly uppon the earth, in the open firmament etc
This verse & the three following doe conteyne in them the fyft dayes
worke, by wch both the waters are stoared with fishe & the ayer
and firmament was replenished with fowle.
for yet hitherto they were like to wide & great stoarehowses wch
were empty & voide In wch
dayes worke are fower branches 1
the edict or precept. 2 the execution or performance of it. 3. the allowance
& commendation of it in the end of the 21 v. lastly another speciall
precept, for the preserving of theis thinges soe made in the 22 v./
Touching the commaundment wee may note that to saie or to commaunde in
word may seeme to be but a weake thing.
For wordes we holde to be but wynde yet suche wordes as god speaketh doe
receive suche & soe great power & authoritie from the speaker or
commaunder yt of necessitye that wch is saide must needes
be done./
If a king do commaunde, the power of his authoritye being ioyned wth
ye weakenes of his word doth cause it to be very powerfull
& effectuall. If princes authoritie
can make his word soe great, howe much more can godes omnipotencie geve
strength to his worde & cause that wch he sayeth be most
certaynely done. This thereupon yt by
vertue & force onely of his word whatsoever he sayeth is done and cometh to
passe./
The second thing to be noted is to whome god spoke, namely to the
waters. for as Moyses was willed to
speake to the stony rocke 20. Numb. 8. soe doth god here speake to the
waters. neither is it a fond thing thus for god to speake to deafe &
senseles creatures. for though they have
no eares & cannot heare, yet they can understand when god doth call &
speake to them, & have power to doe his will when he commaundeth. if then the waters and rockes can heare &
understand & doe what god doth saye & bid them, howe much more should
wee wch have eares and understanding hartes & active handes take
heed wee doe the like./
Nowe touching the Tenor of godes precept, wee see it concerneth the
producing & bringing fourth of lyving thinges in abondance & great
multitude, And though god sayeth let the
waters bringe fourth fowles, it argueth not (as Symplicius the Atheist absurdly
gathereth that here the water is said to be the matter of which the fowles were
made; for in the 2. Gen. 19. this is explaned that they were made of the
earthe, though they were brought fourth of the waters./
Touching the creatures moving in the waters, the word here used [40v]
doth in a generall terme signifye suche thinges as are quicke & lyve &
move, comprehending therein all the particular creatures besides fishe &
fowle, wch either creepe or crawle or move in either of theis
Elementes, as frogges Snakes, flyes etc./
Man by practise can attayne to the fishes motion yt is to
swime & move uppon & in the waters, but he cannot by any device atteyne
to fly & move as birdes or mounte in the ayer. It is a wonder to heare that iron could swim
2. Reg. 6.6. but it is by the same power of god by wch a fether
can fly aloft./
By the firmament or ayer is meante the nether & grosser parte of the
ayer, wch region is full of foggy fumes & vapours wch come
from the earthe & soe highe & farr the fowles can abide & endure to
fly. But the farther & higher parte
& region of the ayer wch is more pure & cleare, are called penetralia
coeli wch is soe free from
grosse vapours & earthly mistes that noe earthly thing can breathe or abide
therein. as therefore water is a fitt
element for fishes wch breathe not, soe this lower region of the
ayer is for all fowles./
But let us come to that wch is common both to fishe and
fowles & maketh both of them lyve & move the one by swimminge the other
by flying & that is the soule of life.
Concerning wch generally it signifyeth a breath or spirit of
life: for seeing wee can understand & conceive best thinges sensible,
therefore spirituall thinges for our capasitye are termed by thinges
sensible. The breath therefore being of
sensible thinges ye most pure & subtle, the soule is called by
that name yet theis thinges are in theire proper nature distinct breath, liffe,
& soule. for life is the adiunct
& effect of a soule, so breath is the effect & signe of life. Neither is it superfluous that here is added
to the soule life, because it serveth for a needfull instruction &
distinction betwene the soule of man hereafter to be handled wch is
a soule of more then one onely life of a double life & therefore immortall,
whereas theis creatures have a soule of a single life & therefore are
mortall./
1 Gen: 21.v then god created the great whales etc and
fethered fowles according to their kinde etc./
In theis wordes as the returne of that decree, conteyning the execution
& accomplishing of it. first
touching the thinges god made in ye waters the whales are first
named as the greatest and strangest fishe wch the waters have. for it pleaseth god in every dayes worke to
sett before our eyes some on[e] famous thing peece of worke to showe the
workemans power & wisdome & therefore would have it marked more then
all the rest./
In heaven among all starres the Sonne & moone is cheifest. on earth mankinde is exalted above the rest;
& in the sea the great whale as cheifest amonge all fishe. In regard of whose bignes & hugenes Job
sayeth. 40 chap. creavit vastitates & stupores soe huge is it yt
Esay calleth the whale vectum maris 27. chap:[1]v.&
Bernard sayeth habent æqualia montibes corpora. for they sometymes appeare as Ilandes in the
sea, wherefore as the sea by nature is abissus, a huge gulfe soe god
hath made theis huge [41r] Creatures to live and fill the same. This then being specified & sett before
us first as the king & cheife of all thinges in the sea the rest are not
named but included in the generall worde and name of living & moving
thinges, not yt but godes power & wisdome doth appeare as well
& as much in pisciculis et raris as in whales & the great
Leviathan of the sea. for usually in
godes workes wee see that wch is least then other thinges in
quantitie doth exceed the greatest thinges in excellent qualityes soe yt
the wonder of greatnes wch the least doe want is supplied by some
rare quality and vertue wch the great ones doe lack./
Touching the infinite nomber & abundance of theis fishe. It were to be wished that Salomons booke were
yet extante which he wisely wrote of the divers birdes kindes of fishe and
fowle i reg: 4.33. but sawe the knowledge of other more necessary
poyntes were more profitable & therefore in wisdome concealed it, neither
will I labour any further in searching them out./
Nowe for the fowles of the ayer & the making of them. Moyses hath not the word of abundance
expressed. for god would not have them
abounde in nomber as the fishe of the sea, least some inconvenyence thereby
might come to mankinde wch the Lord meant should most abounde &
multiplie on earth./.
But here is expressed the manner of theire motion, by [?] wch signifyeth
flyeng & by Hanah wch is a winge the instrument & motion
meanes of the meanes motion, for though
some fly with feathers some without yet all must needes have wynges yt
can flye. herein then cometh in the
distinction of flyenge thinges they are aut fecta aut in fecta animalia
the one fly with feathered wynges, the other have unfeathered winges as flyes
& battes etc./
Wee come now to the approbation of theis thinges sett downe in the
usuall phrase, god saw it was good omitting therefore ye generall
observations out of theis wordes before wee will onely showe the speciall
goodnes wch concerne theis thinges./
The goodnes both of the fishe & fowle, wee dayly doe both taste
& feele for fishe are called ye treasures of the sandes. 33.
Deut. 19 v. wch are the first in regard yt they are
most profitable for foode 11. Nomb. 5 where fishe are sett downe as a
necessary supply where fleshe and fowle is scarce. our saviour Christ wee read used them both as
ye good creatures of god for to sustayne and feed our bodyes &
preserve this life. for he did not
onely eate of ye pascall Lambe but also of the broyled fishe. And if all the people should have libertie to
eate onely fleshe wch without
the supply of fishe from the waters they must needes doe, surely all cattell
& provision of fleshe would be consumed quickly or be very scarce as Moyses
said 11. Nomb. 22 v. wee see then in this respect it is necessarily good
for a common wealth wch goodnes especially concerneth us which are
Ilanders & are compassed round about wth the seas. soe 19 Esai. 8. it is denounced as a
great curse to the Iland where the fishmen fishermen are made to mourne. And as the fleshe of some fish are good for
food, soe are the bones of others as good and profitable for some kind of
oyles./
[41v] As for the good of
pleasure & delight the arte of fishing it selfe is a pleasant thing &
as for the pray of fishe when it is taken, the most are used for dayntye
varietye and delight./ besides the
pleasure and profitt they yeild us to our tast, wee finde some good &
comoditie to our eye, in that the shell fishe called Purpura yeildeth
that Likour wherewth the rich and princely purple couller is
made. from them also another good of
profitt and pleasure wee receive. for
pretious pearles called margaritæ are the spoyles & gaynes wee gett
from fishes of the Sea, wherewith the riche & noble doe adorne themselves./
And thus muche of the fishe, nowe for the fowles, many are the good
thinges wee receive by them. for god
hath made them good & profitable to us, not onely in the use of theire
fleshe but of theire egges for foode 10. Esaie. 18.[?] And as they are soe profitable in the day soe
for the night theire feathers are necessary and good to geve us rest. And as wee have this good by them in tyme of
peace, soe in the tyme of warr parte of theire feathers are good to make us
arrowes & dartes besides the profitable use wee have of theire quilles for
pens wch at all tymes wee use to write. Therefore wee may conclude & with the
wise man saye 39 [i.e. 12]. eccle: 14.
there is nothing of all the workes of god but that in theire tyme &
place are necessary & good & may serve us for some profitable use to
our good if wee can glorifye & serve god, wch is the good maker
of them to theis endes./
i Gen: 22. v. Then god blessed
them saying bring fourth fruite & multiplie & fill the waters of the sea and let the fowle multiplie in the
earthe./
This is the last parte of this first dayes worke, wch is præceptum
propagationis, conteyninge the blessing of god for theire perpetuitye &
continuance of theis thinges made according to theire kindes./
Which precept (as the fathers saye) is creatio naturæ. for natura nomen habet a nascendo. therefor St. James .3. cha. calleth this the
course of generation & nature, wch being soe the preservation of
theire kind is a speciall & singuler blessinge of god wch wheele
or course of nature wee see god did first make & move; & ever hath in
his hand & good pleasure to guide to the worldes end, whenas the nomber of
godes elect being fulfilled, the course of nature shall have and an end./
Whereas god here speaketh to fyshe & fowles, wee must learne to
measure it by the power & wisdome of god, whose voyce and phrase of speech
all dombe & senseles creatures doe heare and understand, as wee read 2
Jonas .10 howe god comaunded the
whale; & the Ravens 1 Reg: 17. & they did obey his will &
word/
Nowe for the meaninge of the wordes wee must first knowe yt theire
is no needles superfluitye of wordes in the wholy scripture & therefore
their is no word here yt is in vayne but hath i[t]s waighte Theis wordes therefore growe, multiplie,
& fill, doe differ muche [42r] and importe upper meaninge. growing respecteth quantitye, increasing the
augmentation of it. multiplyenge
respecteth the nomber & tale of thinges[.]
replenishing signifyeth the exceeding increase or multitude in any place
cominge from yt blessing of
God. for ex multitudine fit
plenitudo terræ. Soe that without
godes blessing onely the thinges wch were made should have continued
in theire owne being, in the same small and certayne nomber wth any
further increase or replenishing./ For
encreasing first god giveth to every thing yt is his owne body 1
Cor: 15.38. then he geveth it a power to growe & encrease bigger &
greater in his dimensions. There is no
man being borne can of himselfe without godes blessing, noe not without all the care & endeavour
he hath add one heares breadth to his stature 6.[chap.]Mat. 27. Therefore the Apostle sayeth wee doe growe
and encrease with the encrease of god 2
For multiplyeng the nomber wch blessing is to be restrayned
onely to thinges wch live & growe, & properly to them wch
are of mature & ripe age & fullnes of growthe. To this end god hath made a distinction of
sexes both male & female, the he & the shee & he geveth the one a
power to begett, the other a power to conceive & to bring fourth & then
the blessing of the bread to breed upp being borne./
Soe that it is godes blessing to a man not to be a dry tree and to a
woeman not have a barren wombe & breastes yt can geve no sucke./
The third degree of blessing is to fullfill & replenish with the
great nomber & store of encrease, for though god geve a nomber of encrease
yet unles he add another blessing to preserve them & keep them alive the
earth can never be replenished therewith.
Therefore this preservative blessing of god is added as most necessary
to replenish wthout wchall the rest are but vayne./
But here wee are to observe as it were a Caveat or proviso touching the
fowles saying but lett the fowles multiplie in the earthe as who should say I
restrayne the fowles I will not have them to fill the ayer, as the fishe doe
the waters, because it is not soe convenyent or profitable for men. by wch wee see god respected mans
good in this thinge, foreseeing & forecasting what was for his good &
what might doe him hurte. And therefore
god hath taken order that fowle shall not bring soe many egges as fishes doe
spawne; neither yet doe all theire egges come to good./
1 Gen: 24 v. moreover god saide Let the earthe bring fourth Livinge
thing according to his kinde cattle, & creeping thinges & the beast of
the earthe etc./
[42v] This verse & all
the rest to the end of the chapter, doe conteyne the furnishing &
replenishing of the earth wth living Creatures, & soe bringeth
to passe the finishing & perfecting of the whole worke of Creation./
For this sixt dayes worke sheweth the bringing fourth of beastes &
cattell of all sortes & the bringing in of mankinde into the world to be
Lord & ruler of them & all the rest./
In wch wee observe the Three usuall partes. godes decree comaunding the execution
performing it: & godes approbation of it being done. for ye decree wee may note as
before yt god is the commaunder the earth is yt wch is
commaunded, & the effect of the commaundement is yt it should
bring fourth cattle & creeping thinges.
Having shewed before how god speaketh & revealeth his will to dombe,
deafe & senceles Creatures, as here he doth to the earth, wee will come to
the tenor & meaning of the decree & commanundement to it. for yt phrase here used of
bringing fourth is taken from the manner of woemen great with child, wch when
theire tyme is come to bring fourth theire young. Therefore ye fathers do call this parerperam
terræ, as it were by resemblaunce, the children of the earthe, or her
travill. now But that theis thinges were
before made & hid in ye bowelles & wombe of the earthe. For as the waters were not in the worke
before. 20 Nomb. 8. but even at yt instant when god
commaunded, it gushed out waters onely by the power of god: soe the vertue of
godes worde & the power of the comaunder caused the earth to bring fourth
all theis thinges when of it selfe it had no power to doe it./
Nowe the severall kindes of Creatures wch here the earth is
willed to bring fourth are reduced to three heades: beastes[,] Cattle & creeping
thinges. Cattle are called Iumenta a
iunando because they are made to be our servantes to helpe us in our
labours & affayres. And they are
suche as do need us, as much as wee need them.
for sheepe, even horses etc. must first be served & fedd and tended
by us before they can attend to serve our tournes./
The second sorte are wormes or creeping thinges called reptilies because
they crawle uppon the grounde & therefore they are said netare super
terram, as it were to swim or glyde uppon the grounde; & soe they are
distinguished by theire motion. And
theis are of two sortes, either they have no feete or legges at all crawling on
theire belly, or elles very shorte feete creeping lowe by grownd.
The third kinde are wyld beastes, wch doe live alone in
terra in culta (as the word signifieth) in the waste wildernes & in the
unprofitable & barren Land wch is desert & foresaken of
men. In wch they live for the
most parte by blood praying on the spoyle on[e] of an other; And therefore to
some of them is geven strength, to some swiftnes, to some subtilitye &
Craft by wch they knowe howe to gett theire prey. And least theis savage [43r] wilde,
& cruell beastes should annoy, hurte or destroy mankynde, wee see the Lord
hath provided for us divers wayes, allotting to them onely the barren
wildernes, geving to us the profitable grownd appoynting the night for them to
goe abroad, whereas the day is specially graunted to us. 104. Ps. 22.
besides god hath not made them soe fruitefull, they doe not multiplie as other
profitable & meeke cattell doe wch
will not hurte us but doe.
And thus muche for the speciall kinde of thinges wch the
earth bringeth fourth./
Now for the performance of godes precept it is generally sett downe in
the end of the 24 v. as in other places, yt it was soe, even as god
commaunded wch generall is more particulerly sett downe in 25 v.
ensuing./
i Gen: 25.v. and god made the beastes of the earth etc & the cattell
etc & every creeping thing & god sawe it was good.
The first parte of this verse is the performance of his worde, a decree
in every poynte. the end of it is the
approbation thereof. for the execution
of all yt god sayed, because as he said, soe it came to passe &
was truly & fully performed & done, wee note howe true and certayne
& undoubted godes word is: shall he speake ye word & shall
it not come to passe. surely heaven
& earth may passe away but not one iott or title of his worde shall fayle;
wch as wee see in the word of creation soe shall wee find it in ye
gospell the word of salvation. And here
wee may observe yt god wilbe made knowne not onely to be the maker
of the Lyon & the Elephant, those good great & goodly beastes, but also
of the poore creeping creature & ye Arte qui fecit angeles,
fecit et vermiculos sayeth Austyne neither is it any disgrace or dishonour
to god, because theire is no lesse power & wisdome shewed & seene in
theis, then is in the greatest & hugest beastes yt is[.] yea for the most parte, the excellency of
godes handy worke is more admirably seene in the least & smallest living
thinges yt are. as strange
thinges are knowen of the poor shrimpe as of the whale; more vertue is to be
founde in the silly Bee, then in the Eagle, soe as great arte may be seene in
the Ant, as in the Elephant, wch may be knowen, if wee observe the
great providence & forecast of the Litle Ant. his great industry and diligence in
labouring without wearines while the sommer doe last & the great strength
this Litle Creature hath wch is able to carry a corne farr greater
then himselfe. wherefore theis small
creeping creatures wch god hath made are not to be passed over
without regard, but to be considered to his glory and prayse wch made
them./
The last parte of this verse is the likning & approbation of this
worke for this censure is geven of this as of the rest yt it was right good, & therefore very well
done./
wch must teach us this lessen, that if wee will have the like
prayse & commendacion of all workes, they must be done soe answerable
[43v] to godes will and word in every poynte, soe diligently & speedily
& perfectly done as theire thinges were./
But here god doth not purpose soe much to commend the manner of doeing
his will; as ye workes themselves & the thinges yt
were done yt is ye
goodnes of theis natures wch are made & brought fourth and
if wee inquire of the goodnes of theis thinges particulerly, the wise man will
tell us. 39. Eccle: 34: every
thinge in his tyme place & kinde is profitable & good./
For touching the Cattle, wch are servantes & helpers to
us, who knoweth not how good & beneficiall, the oxe, the Cow, the sheepe
& such thinges are both for worke & food & cloth./
but you may aske, wherefore are wild beastes, wch cruelly
devoure one another & oftentymes kill men?
for answere whereto wee must consider yt god made theis
before sinne was in the world & therefore in yt estate & tyme of innocency
wherein god did commend them. wee must
not doubt but they were good without any evill or hurte at all quamdiu Adam
non peccavit in deum nihil peccabat in eum, while wee were good good
servantes to god, they were good servantes to us. It is our evillnes & sin therefore wch
causeth them to be evill & hurtefull to us. And as in our first holy estate they were
good, soe if wee be converted to god after his Image agayne they wilbe good
& doe us no hurte 5 Iob. 22. 23. for then the beastes of the forrest
shalbe in league with the [space]. as they were with Daniell in the
1. Gen: 26. furthermore god saide, Lett us make man after
our Image etc Let them rule over etc./.
After almightie god had created all other thinges for man, nowe he
beginneth to create man himselfe, wch is the end & perfection of
all thinges that were made. & though
man is the last worke executione yet he was first intentione, for
wee sawe before that god aymed at him in all thinges that he made. This 26 v. conteyneth a consultation about
this workemanshipp of mankinde; in wch wee need of noe other
division then the 4 causes of man wch are here expressed. first the efficient cause is god, 2dly
the matter whereof he was made is included in his name Adam, wch
importeth earth. 3dly his formale cause is the Image of god. Lastly
his fynall cause or the end why he was [( ?]is after the glory of god) to have
rule & dominion over the creatures./
For the efficient [cause], it is evident yt god was the sole
maker of man, who here sayeth faciamus hominum, wch the psalmist confesseth. 100 psal: he made us and not wee our selves wee are the
worke of his handes. for this speech
(lett us make man) is not directed to the Angelles or the Elementes as some
Heretickes have thought because god hath said he imparte[s] none of his glory
of Creation to any creature. god is
wise enoughe he needeth st no counseller to teach or advise him much lesse doth
he need any [44r] coadiutor to assist or helpe him. but he directing his speech in the plurall
nomber faciamus doth darkely shewe even in the beginning the distinction
of the persons in trinitye, wch afterward was revealed. for wch cause faciamus is
thrice here repeated in the creation of man & on the other side, the unitye
of the godhead wch created mankind is shewed in this, that he sayeth
not secundum similitudines nostras but singulerly secundum imaginem
et similitudinem nostram, as speaking of one. And soe in this speech the mistery of the
trinity in unity is made knowne to be the eficient cause & workman of
mankinde./
The materiall cause is earthe, if wee respect his body & his fleshly
parte, for soe his name Adam, doe imparte.
for god tooke glebam terrae, a clod of clay, a peece of earthe,
to make this man whome he went to exalt above the Angelles in heaven, wch consideracion
of godes goodnes, to suche an earth weite made Adam with admiration say:
8. Psal: what is Adamah or what is man made of earth, o Lord,
that thou shouldest be soe myndfull of him?
And this matter & base substance doth therefore the Lord in wisdome
choose, least wee considering our excellence & the manifold privileges wee
have above other creatures, should be puffed upp with pride, & exalt our
selves above measure for our dignitye: therefore that wee might learne to know
our selves & be humble wee are willed not onely to consider our maker wch
is above us, but also our matter, the vile & base earth wch is
under our feete. For this cause god
sendeth his prophet to prowde & presumptious men. 22. Ier. 29. &
willeth him theire to repeate his name, saying, o earthe, earthe, earthe heare
the word of the Lord, yt soe considering his base and contemptible
nature, he might humble him selfe./
But there is a greater worke & more excellent parte of man yet here
behinde, wch is the forme of man, his soule; the Image of God. for though he be made of the earthe, yet he
is not made after the Image of the earth, but like to god. Touching wch wee must not thincke that there is any
waste or vayne wordes here sett downe, in that it is said after our Image &
similitude: for both Image & likenes are to great purpose here sett downe
for though both wordes doe importe a congruity of qualityes resembling there
maker, yet to be his Image is one thing, and to be his likenes is an
other. Image is more largely taken for
the resemblance of form & shape: likenes is taken for the livelynes or
perfection of that Image because it doth represent the patterne mervilous
well. Therefore god in both wordes
sheweth yt he will make man to be a perfect & lively
representation of his creator, yt is, to be as like unto god, as it
is possible for a creature to be like to the creator of all./
[44v] And he is like unto god
& made after his Image in two thinges:
first in respect of the nature or substance of his soule, wch is
a spiritt as god is a spirit. Secondly
in the resemblance of his qualityes. for
first as god is every where in all the world, soe the soule is in every parte
& place of the body. 2. the soule is immortall as god is eternall. 3. the
understanding is a resemblance of his wisdome, & his will, is the Image or
likenes of infinite power. Theis are
certayne resemblances of godes Image in man, namely in his soule & better
parte. But yet wee are not come to that
wch here is meant. for the
lively Image of god & true forme of man is sett downe by St Paul, wee are
made after godes Image in knowledge & in holnes & righteousnes, wch
Image because wee did loose our fall & sinne, wch it is
defaced & wee deformed. Therefore
Christ the sonne of god is sent into the world wch is the most true
& lively Image of god i Coll: 15. to regenerate & renewe us to
that Image agayne, making us like to him selfe & soe like to god agayne./
Though the fynall cause and cheefe end of man is conteyned in his forme,
to glorifye god, by expressing his Image of true holynes; yet there is another
subordinate end of man sett downe in this place & yt is to be
like to god in soveranity & authoritie to rule all other creatures. for us if god had nowe put a scepter in to
his hand, & put all thinges thereby in subiection under his feete, as david
sayeth .8 Psal: nowe god doth as it were make him Lord & King, to
rule & raigne under him. And this is
the donative & gift wch man received of his god, & wch he
had & used over every creature soe long as his Image did last, but when he
fell from god by sinne then did he loose yt & him selfe also./
i. Gen: 27. thus god created the
man in his Image in the Image of god created he him. he created them male & female./
In this verse is conteyned the accomplishment of godes will. Touching wch wee will first speake
of the word (creauit). for
although the word faciamus, lett us make, doth seeme to importe more then
one, yet this word of the singuler nomber, putteth it out of doubt, showing
that onely god & none but he was the creator of mankinde & whereas
before he sayed ad imaginem nostram now to take away the former scruple,
it is here said, ad imaginem suam, et ad imaginem dei, to shewe yt as
god is but one soe the creator of man was but onely one: he had no coadiutor
ioyned with him in this worke, &
therefore wee have but one Image in us, wch is onely godes./
Secondly in yt this word (creauit) is theire repeated
also in this [45r] verse as before, without question theis triple
repetitions are not in vayne, but doe conteyne some profitable note, either to
imparte the trinitye of persons in unity of essence in god head, or elles to
shew us a three fould manner of being, wch onely man received from
god. The first is called esse, a
bare existence or being, or being made some thinge wch were nothing
before. the second is called viuere
to have a living soule, wch is a greater benefitt and a more perfect
being. The third is intelligere,
to have an understanding & reasonable soule wch is the last
& highest & perfectest degree of any thing that is wch three
are sett downe. 2. gen. 7 v. where mans body is called figmentum
his soule is called animam viuentem and the third wch is the
parte of godes image is called spiritus vitæ. stones and trees have an essentiall
being. beastes and fowles have life
& sence therewith, but man onely hath besides theis two, a reasonable &
immortall spiritt & soule, in which perfection he differeth from all the
rest./
Now thoughe this be a three fould creavit in nomber yet in deed
& in nature in respect of god it is but one, & in respect of man it is
but two fould. the one respecting his
body, the other his soule, notwithstanding another is added in regard of the
sex or kinde, in yt it is said to be godes worke to create or make
him both male & female, yt is man and woeman for propagation
& preservation of his kinde of wch it followeth now to
speake. for though man and woeman are by
nature made one by & the same both of one mettle, & both after one
& the same Image & forme, yet they differ & are distinguished in
kynd for the worke of generation & encrease of theire kinde, wch beeing onely a difference visible &
in the body respecting the fleshe; wee must noate that touching the spirit
& soule the better parte, there is noe difference at all before god. for god hath no more respect to the man then
to the woeman, he made both alike, & after the like Image & likenes
too. 3. Gal: 20. & they are both made to one & the same end to
be fellowe heires of eternall lyfe 1. Pet. 3. 4/.
Theis two then man and woeman were made this day; though not together
the reason whereof is shewed in the 2 chapter following. Nowe the Lordes purpose & intent in making
man & woeman male & female was because the riches of his mercy &
goodnes was soe great & large, that he would have it imparted &
bestowed not uppon one or two, but uppon Thousand generations of them that love
and serve him that is on the multitude of mankinde wch should come
of them. And therefore doth god saie let
them beare rule etc as if he now in Adam did not onely respect Eve wch was in his side but also all his
posteritye wch should come out of his Loynes./
besides wee may observe yt god made the woeman for the man, yt
man might not have carnall copulation with any other creature, but onely
wth his kinde wch was made fitt & meete for him &
agayne wee see the Lord made but one woeman for one man, not more then one;
that he might thereby intend holy matrimony & avoyd polygamye, or having
company wth many or more woemen or men then one. for god by [45v] matrimony
seeking a holy seed. 3. Malach. did cause it to be holy & to be
onely of two one man & one woeman./
And in theis two man & woeman, is here grounded household discipline
or ye goverment of a familie, the man to beget the woeman to
conceive the one to beare & bring fourth the other to provide & bring
upp, then one to goe abroad & bring home, ye other to keep yt
he bringeth, & to tarry at home, the one to governe wth gentlenes
the other to obey with willingnes./
1 Gen: 28. v. and god blessed
them, and said bring fourth fruite & multiplie & fill ye earthe
& subdewe it and rule ouer etc.
Which wordes conteyne the second speech of god concerning man by wch
he created or constituted mankinde.
In wch there is a double benefitt to be considered wch god
geveth unto man, the first is propagation, and ability to beget & beare
children the second is a deed of gift or endowment, wch god ge[ve]th
to them[.] by the first god geveth him
heires, by the second he hath him & them an inheritage to possesse. The first is in theis wordes encrease &
multiply, & the other in theis wordes subdew & rule. For the first god minding not to have his
Image inwardly, nor his goodnes outwardly bestowed uppon a fewe, not to be
worshipped of a fewe, but of many therefore he will have them multiplie &
fill the earthe that all the earthe may be filled with his glory and
prayse. Therefore as before he planted
the stocke of mankinde soe now he watereth it with the word of his blessing[,]
they might encrease & replenish the whole earthe, by wch wee see
yt to be fruitefull in
procreation is the blessing of god without wch men are drie trees,
& woemen have barren wombes./
And seeing godes blessing goeth here before the solemnizing, of
marriage, or bringing fourth childdren, it teacheth us that Christians must
first pray unto god for his blessing and grace before they either marry or can
multiplye or encrease./
This then is a comaundement bringe fourthe & multiplie is geven to
man and woeman ioyned together in the holy estate of marriage yet it doth not
imponere necessitatem dominibus nubendi, sed dat facultatem. otherwise Paul sayeth, 1 cor. 7. 25. we
have no suche commaundment yt is of necessity to bynd & compell
any to marry to increase mankinde soe it geveth free libertie to use it by wch
we see yt both the holy ordinance of marriage & the
blessing & fruite of children thereby cometh from god./
I said that theis wordes subdewe & beare rule are as it were the
endowment or dowrie wch god gave to them & theire seed to
inherite & it is a prerogative royall entayled to them & theire
posterity for ever that is to as many are made after the same Image wch they
had and by this conveyance & deed of gift or portent (as I may say) wee
prove our right in tenure in lands & all other earthly thinges./
For god is the true owner & right possesser of heaven & earth
& of all thinges therein. 24. Ps. 8. yet god not make the earthe [46r]
nor replenish it with living creatures, for him selfe, as if he had any need of
suche thinges 50. Psal. 10. the fowles & cattell are his owne to
dispose. but he made the world &
thus furnished it for mans sake & for his needfull use to whome nowe he
gave it. God then is the great Landlord
of all the world, & wee have received as his Tennantes or servantes a
bayliwicke to be stewardes to use them to his glory & shall geve an accompt
for them./
By vertue & force of godes graunte, that wee shall subdewe or holde
in subiection or obedience other creatures, wee doe receive a threefould
benefitt & blessing. The first is
called ius premiæ occupationis, by wch man had possession
geven him of all the grownd and Land, that the soule of theire feete did tread
uppon. 11. Deut. 4. Secondly they
had a right & allowance graunted to them, hereby having taken in possession
a whole land or country to destribute & divide it by consent amonge
themselves as Abraham & Lott did. 13.
Gen. 11. or elles as the Tribes did by Lott. 15 Iosh: But all our Tenure and right to possesse and
enioy all this, standeth uppon our good and go[d]ly behaviour & demeanure
in the service of god. for all ye
conveyance is made & indented with this condicion yt wee shall
keepe his statutes and observe his lawes. 105 Psa: And therefore as the Cananytes were lawfully
and iustly for theire sines & abominations cast fourth, soe god gave his
people the land of the heathen in possession uppon condicion that they should
serve & glorifye god better then they 113. Psa: 26. [?] Herein then cometh in the right of warr and
lawe of armes: for when a people or nation doe forsake & remake renounce
theire god as rebellious Idolators & most notorious & obstinate sinners
then god gave order yt his people wch truly serve him
should by force & by the sword drive them out, wch was parte of vindicative iustice, to punish
them for sinne./
By this right Iacob by his sword & by his bowe did wyn & get the
Land of the Amorites, as his lawfull right & bequeathed it as a Legacie
afterward to Ephram: 48 Gen: 22./
By this allowance also of god saying subijcite, wee have libertie
and good leave to discry & discover unknowen countryes & newe found
Landes, & soe to keep & inhabite them./
besydes in yt god said subijcite etc we gather yt
god did not subdue it him selfe but gave them leave & authoritie
& power to doe it non dedit eis subiectam sed subijciendam terram wch
no doubt god did in great wisdome
yt man might exercise him selfe in the workes of his handes, &
keepe him selfe from idlenes both in subduing thinges by his power &
strength & then in ruleing & ordering them by his wisdome &
knowledge. for god cannot abide idlenes
no not in the tyme of innocency & in the best & perfectest estate &
therefore besides all this caused Adam to trime & dresse the garden of
Eden. 2. Gen: 15./.
The second parte of godes blessed worde advancing man to authority [46v]
& rule on earthe, is dominamin.
for though the earthe be the Lordes & the fullnes thereof, yet god
would have soe use and governe it, that all the earthe might be full of his
glory and prayse. And therefore in this
[blank space] is allowed us theis privileges./
first to use any creatures on earthe for our helpe & furtherance in
labour, or for our use & benefitt anywayes.
Secondly wee have power & right not onely to use them alive but also
wee have the power of life & death over them & to kill them & to
spend them being dead. Lastly by this
wee [have] a right & authority to exchange them for other thinges in
trafficke, and to buy & sell them as wee list & soe wee may convey the
right wch wee have to others from our selves by deed of gift; or
elles alienate it by exchange. now under
fishe, wee have the right and libertie of fishing, wth wch it
seemeth yt Christ our saviour was delighted and therefore allowed it
in Peter when he said vade piscatum & yt as well with
nettes 5 Luc: 4. as with the angle 17. Mat: And when wee have taken them it is lawfull
for us to make pondes & fishpooles to keepe them alive for store./
The like wee may say of beastes of the feild & fowles of the ayre
for the fowle wee have lawfull power by this of hawking or fowling, to either
kill them with arrowes and dartes 7 Prov. or by pittfoldes or gynnes.
23 Iosua.13. and having taken them alive wee may keep them in cages. 5.
Ier: 26./
For wilde beastes, wee have by this leave to chase or hunte them17.
Lev: 13. and either kill them for a pray as Iacob did or elles make parkes,
to keepe them alive./
By this also wee have power to use any of theis creatures for our
service and good, as the strength of the Oxe for tillage the swiftnes of the
horse for easing our weary bodyes in travile the Asse and Cammell for burden,
the woll of sheepe and the skynnes of other beastes to cloath us & keepe us
warme. And thus much for godes charter
given to man, wch conteyneth all the right wee have over the
Creatures & wch lasteth to the worldes end./
1 Gen: 29.30: And god said
beholde I haue geven you every hearbe etc and euerie tree etc that shalbe to
you for meate. Likewise to euery beast
and to euery fowle of heaven etc and to euery thing wch hath lyfe in
himselfe euery greene hearbe shalbe for meate.
And it was soe./
The generall argument of theis verses, is the providing of meate &
food for man & beast, wch benefit the prophet David thankfully
remembreth. Ps. saying thou Lord feedest both man &
beast. Touching the food & diett
graunted to man, a question may be, what need Adam had now of meate being
innocent seeing he then was immortall.
for answere whereof we must marke the difference & distinction of posse
non mori, et mori non posse for Adam was made [47r] immortall, by
possibilitie, not by absolute necessitye, as if he could not possible dye. for soe onely god is immortall & noe
creature elles. for his yeares never
fayle, he continueth for ever & world without end, and therefore is called
the living god. This estate of
immortalitye Adam had from his Image; but the other possibilitye to dye he had
from his matter of wch he was made, as god said Puluis es et in
pulverem reuerteris. Therefore Adam
was immortall not by any power of life in himselfe for then he could never dye,
& should have need of no meate, but seeing his estate of imortalitye &
lyfe is from god & yt by ordinarie meanes of foode wch god
hath appoynted, and therefore he hath need of it, & must of necessitye use
it./
Nowe though Adam and wee stand in suche absolute need & want of
foode, yet wee cannot lawfully lay hand on any one creature to releive us,
unlesse wee had godes speciall priviledge and warrant for free libertie to take
and use them, wch onely wee have by vertue and force of his most
blessed worde geveth the fruites of the earthe to be meate & sustinance to
us. In wch generally wee see
the love and care of god the creator in providing for the preservation of his
creatures, especially of man wch he cared for most./
Touching the particuler meates specifyed in theis wordes wee may
behoulde gods liberalitye & bountye towardes us in geving us all fruites of
the earthe, all kinde of grayne, every seede, all spice and good thinges wch
either hearbes or trees do beare; wch is called ye fatt
of the earthe & the blood of the grape, wch two generall names
in Leuit. dothe conteyne them all./
But some will hold & better with Noes patente & allowance for
eating both of fish and fleshe. Gen. for this rawe and could diett of sallettes
& fruites theire daynty bringing upp cannot away with all. but wee must beware that wee doe not unwisely
cavill & repyne at godes word & workes, as if wee were more wise then
he, in devising what foode is best for our nature and health wee must knowe
therefore yt god made us not for our belly to pamper it, for he
hateth suche as make theire bellie theire godes
3 Phi: 19. & if wee could be content wth godes
diette & allowance & be thankfull therefore, wee ought to consider yt
though it seeme very homely &
meane, yet he can give suche a blessing to one meale of it that may make us
walke forty dayes and nightes in the strength of it. 1 Reg. 19.6. yea to
cause us to live for ever most happily with it & not be subiect to
death. whereas on the contrary without
his blessing all the dayntye foode and preservatives to restore, can doe us noe
good at all./
The reason why the eating of flesh is not here named nor sett downe, may
seeme to be this, because as one sayeth an innocent dyett, is most meete and
agreeable for an innocent estate suche [as?] wee know Adames estate was, nowe even the heathen wise men had found out,
as Pithagoras by name, who helde & taught yt it was yet ye onely
best & lawfullest dyett still perswading men yt wee should not
susteyne our life by the death & destruction of other living thinges./
[47v] Nowe in the 30. verse
wee see a degree further of godes mercye & goodnes in yt he
provideth not onely for man but for beastes and birdes also wherefore if any
aske yt question 1 cor: 9.9. numquid de bobus est
cura, doth god take care for oxen, the answere is 6. Mat. [26] yt
god yt god doth take care for sparowes and lesser thinges then
they. He feedeth the young Ravens wch
call uppon him. 145. Psal: & he geveth fodder for cattell. 147.
Psal. 9. And wee may observe yt
there is great difference betwene the meate given to men & the food
graunted to ye the rest. for
all thinges wch are satira, wch are sowed &
beare seed are for men, but onely the thinges quæ sunt spontanaæ, wch
doe grow & sproute upp of his owne accord are ordeyned to bee foode
for the beastes and cattell./
Nowe wee come to the performance of this precept, et fuit sic yt
is even as godes worde commaunded it, soe was it performed in every
deed. every creature in his order &
degree had his share & dyet wch was allotted unto him./
Thus all thinges being thus settled is man being perfected and the whole
world being furnished & provided for.
now in the last verse [Gen 1.31] it is saide yt god did as it
were looke back & survey all the workes wch he had made, &
uppon serious consideracion thereof he geveth this upright sentence, yt all
was very good, wch wordes are as if he had saide, the particuler
workes distinguished in theire orders and kindes were not onely good severally
& aparte by themselves, but also as all of them were ioyned in one compact
body of the world & sett together they did seeme more excellent &
perfect, & therefore are in yt sense affirmed not onely to be
good, but to be valde bona yt is exceeding good in a higher
degree./
Soe this is the approbation & commendacion wch god gave
when he sawe all the partes soe orderly & decently & well agreeing with
the whole, especially seeing man nowe sett over them all to rule & keepe
him selfe & all the rest in the same good order and state wherein they were
made.
Soe that mankinde wch was last made was that valde bonum
& as it were the accomplishment & perfection of all the rest of godes
workes wch were made before,
wch is the reason yt this commendation is a degree more
then all the former, but then onely man, & all thinges elles deserves the
highest approbation indeed when wee all ioyne together to his glory &
prayse wch made us, for then god will saie yt they are summa
bona. for this indeed is the
perfection of all godes creatures & as it were theire summum bonum
& true happines, to retourne to god theire maker & susteyner ye glory
& praise wch is dewe to his name, because god made all thinges,
for this end omnia sunt propter vos saith Paul. 2 cor: 4. 15.
but Salomon [48r] goeth to a further end. 16. pro: 4. omnia
fecit deus propter se[met]ipsum yt is for the prayse of his holy
name. Soe be it./
Finis
primi cap: Genes./.
Selection 3. Gen. 3.16: Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee (KJV).
Five leaves have been cut out
from the manuscript between 243v and 244r.
A few lines on Gen. 3.15 remain at the bottom of 243v, but a substantial
portion of what evidently belongs to the lecture on Gen. 3.16 remains as 244r –
246v. What remains of this lecture is
markedly different from the 1657 edition (pp. 313 –14).
[244r] . .
. 2d that she shalbe
subiect to her husband. The
correspondence Correspondence wch
god keepeth betwene the sinne and the punishement is this, The sinfull pleasure
that she tooke in eating the forbidden fruite is iustly censured with sorrowe
and payne, and as she had the upper hand of her husband in perswading him to
eate, soe she is punished with subiection to him. The sorrowes that woemen sustayne in
conceaving and travayle standeth wth the lawe of nature, for not
only they doe undergoe this punishment, but as the Apostle saith, Every
Creature groaneth and travaileth together wth us
The 2d punishment ensueth in theis wordes Let thy desire be to thy husband and lett him
have domynion over thee. As if god
should saie because you did overrule your husband to his and your hurte your
desire shalbe subiect to your husband.
There is a double end of the coniunction of man and woeman thone is for
procreation, thother for fellowshipp and societies sake that they may dwell
together, The blessing for bringing
fourth Children is mixed with the sorrowes of conception, the pleasure of
societie for the sinne of the woeman is made bitter by subiection, for to be
inferiour or subiect to another hath the nature of a Curse or punishment and so
therefore subiection was inflicted uppon Cham Gen. 9. and uppon Esawe Gen.
27. But every subiection or service
is not a punishment[.] There is a
service of [ ? ] 1. Cor. 7. and a service of Love,
that which the Apostle speakes of Gall. 5. serve one another thoroughe
love. This is a willing service
proceeding from Love, suche as was performed by Timothy to Paul of whome
he reporteth that he served with him in the Gospell as a Child serveth his
father Phill. 2. suche should be the subiection of the woeman
to her husband not of [ ? ] but of Love, yea thoughe the fault had not
bene comitted there should have bene this subiection on the woemans parte, soe
that there must be order in every societie, but it should have bene without all
grevance. The woeman should not have
striven with the yoke as Esawe did Gen. 27.45. the dominyon of the man
over the woman should have bene and still must be not suche as was the Rule of Gideon
to whome it was said beare Rule over them Judg. 9. but it should
have bene for good. Yf our Parentes had
continewed in the state of innocentie there should not have bene betwene man
and [246r] wife theis murmuringes and debates which now are heard, but
yet there should have bene a subiection, sometyme he that rules hath the Curse
Eccle. 8. but whether Abigall be marryed to David a wise king
or to Naball a foole 1. Sam. 25. yet she must be subiect to her
husband. The Rule which the man hath is
of 2 partes. 1 because thou didest Covet
the forbidden fruite and didest not turne thy selfe to god nor aske Councell of
him, therefore thou shalt turne to thy husband, and knowe of him what he will
allowe of, soe as thou shalt doe nothing without his consent, and this is
required of woemen by the Lawe of nature and all nations for they have not
power to bestowe themselves in marriage, but are geven by another when they are
marryed, they Change theire names and can doe nothing without theire husbandes
and he that is marryed can make no vowe of force except her husband allowe of
it Numb. 30.5. that is in regard of the weakenes of theire sexe in
Respect whereof the woeman is called the weaker vessell 1. Pet. 3. which
Ruth confessed when she said, spred the winges of thy skirtes Ruth 2. Therefore they are compared to the vyne uppon
the howse side that must be held upp or ells yt will fall downe uppon the
grounde. Psal. 128. soe must
woemen knowing theire owne weakenes ioyne themselves to theire husbandes and
submitt themselves to theire governement,
The Apostle saith the man is the woemans head Eph. 5.
1. Cor. 11. therefore he is the
superiour and is to be had in Reverence.
This thing being established by god in the beginninge, was called in
question by Vashtoi Esth. 1. therefore order was taken that all woemen
should be subiect to theire husbandes, and suffer them to have the preheminence. Thus wee see what the Lawe of nature and of
all nations requireth touching this poynte, but it is playne in religion[,]
Peter saith they must be subiect to their husbandes 1. Pet. 3.1. Paul saith I will not have a woeman to speake
nor to usurpe authoritye over her husband 1. Tim. 2.12. 1. Cor. 14. Howbeit for defaulte of male yssue the woeman
may beare rule Numb. 25. as the Queene of
Notes
[1] The essay below, by P.G. Stanwood, first appeared in English Manuscript Studies 1100–1700, “New Texts and Discoveries in Early Modern English Manuscripts,” ed. Peter Beal, 13 (The British Library, 2007): 35–46. It is reprinted here in full, followed by a bibliographical collation of three copies of the only printed edition of Andrewes’s Apospasmatia SACRA: or A Collection of posthumous and orphan lectures (1657), with a link to the text on EEBO, and also to the digitised manuscript in full. Three selections from the manuscript are then given, the first of them in a critical edition.
[2] ‘Delivered at St. Pauls and St. Giles his Church’ … Never before extant … London, Printed by R. Hodgkinsonne, for H. Moseley, A. Crooke, D. Pakeman, L. Fawne, R. Royston, and N. Ekins. 1657.
[3] See Andrewes, Works, vol.
11: Two Answers to Cardinal Perron, and Other Miscellaneous Works (
[4] But see Peter McCullough’s recent edition, Lancelot Andrewes: Selected Sermons and Lectures (Oxford, 2005), which includes two complete items from 1657: ‘A Lecture on Genesis 2.18 delivered at St Paul’s, 18 October 1591’; and ‘A Sermon on Isaiah 6.6–7, Preached at St Giles Cripplegate, 1 October 1598’. The sermon on Isaiah is one of several on various texts—but not from Genesis—given from 1598–1600. See McCullough’s introduction, pp. xvii–xx, and especially his commentary on these two sermons, pp. 353–65, 378–90.
[5] See Works, cited in n. 2, p. viii.
[6] See P. J. Klemp, ‘ “Betwixt the Hammer and the Anvill”: Lancelot
Andrewes’s Revision Techniques in the Manuscript of His 1620 Easter Sermon’, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of
America 89 (1995): 149–82, on
[7] An additional, but misleading note likely in John Jones’s hand, appears at the bottom of this leaf, probably for his own information: ‘N.B. These Lectures upon the beginning of Genesis do not appear amongst the printed works of Bp. Andrews, nor are they mentioned in the Biographia Britannica, in the account of his Life & Writings there set down, unless they are the Apospasmatia mentioned in Not[e]. H. art[icle]. 16.’ Indeed, there is a mention of the ‘Orphan Lectures’ in the several editions of Biographia Britannica (London, 1747–66, 1778–93, etc.), correctly cited here.
[8] De Templis, A Treatise of Temples (London, 1638), by ‘R. T.’ Chapter 25, near the end of the book, treats ‘Of the rewards which such receive, who build and adorn Churches’. The quotation from Pindar appears on pp. 230–1.
[9] In this sermon (or ‘lecture’), Andrewes carefully develops the typology of the Tree of Life as a restorative means of grace. See ms f. 146r: ‘though wee be now in the Revelation yet are wee not gone from Gen: 3: wherein wee learned that Adam was sent out of the garden and kept from the tree of life. … [T]here is a great affinytye betwene the tree of life wch god sett in Paradise as a quickininge meanes for the continewance of life in Adam … [for] restitution to Paradise and the tree of life … is performed in this place [Rev. 2.7]’.
[10] A list and description of Andrewes’s known manuscripts appears in
Peter Beal, Index of English Literary Manuscripts,
vol. I, part 1 (
[11]John 6.27 reads: ‘Operamini non cibum, qui perit, sed qui permanet in vitam aeternam, quem filius hominis dabit vobis’. See note.
[12]Cf. John 8.44. The MS leaves a blank space where this word belongs. It is supplied from AS. See variants.
[13]MS reads ‘leauge’.
Responses to this piece intended for the Readers' Forum may be sent to the Editor at M.Steggle@shu.ac.uk.
© 2010-, Matthew
Steggle (Editor, EMLS).