not savouring the things of God but of men for dissuading his Master from going up to Ierusalem The means as well as the intention must be good if we would have our actions pleasing to God We grant God may and doth often bring good out of evil but that is no thanks to those that doe it Evil can naturally produce nothing but evil It must be no lese than the infinite Wisdom and Almighty power of God that must over-rule it into good As good Ends cannot justifie Evil means so neither will evil beginnings ever bring forth good conclusions unless God by a miracle of mercy create light out of darkness order out of confusion and peace out of our passions And as he hath not allowed us to doe any evil for the obtaining or procuring of the greatest good so he needs it not Wilt thou speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him q. d. his cause his glory needs not any â—in of ours to promote it He will never thank any man for seeking his honour by sinfull means he can get himself glory and save mens souls otherwise He will say as Achish Have I need of mad-men that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad-man in my presence The way God hath taught us to gorifie him by in seeking or procuring the salvation of our own or the souls of others is always to doe that which is good and though he can bring good out of evil yet he never Commands ordains or allows our evil for that end But such Preaching and Meetings as are in question are sinfull acts Which will appear as by other reasons which shall be shewed hereafter so in this place onely because they are done in disobedience and opposition to the known Laws of the Church and Kingdom wherein we live and which we stand bound in Conscience towards God to observe and obey I begin with the Laws of the Church The Eleventh Canon of the Church of England saith Whosoever shall affirm or maintain that there are in this Realm other Meetings Assemblies or Congregations of the King's born-subjects than by the Laws of this Realm are held and allowed which may rightly challenge to themselves the names of true and lawfull Churches Let him be excommunicated and not restored but by the Arch-bishop after his repentance and revocation of such his wicked errour The sense of this Canon is large and comprehensive and contains in it virtually a prohibition of all Meetings Assemblies or Congregations whatsoever which are not allowed by the Laws of the Land as the Meetings in question will and God willing shall be made appear to be Neither can it be restrained onely if at all to any other Meetings than such as are under pretence of joyning in religious worship not authorized by the Laws of the Land which according to the title of the Canon are called Conventicles for there can be no other unlawfull Meetings so called for any other end but onely these two viz. First for Ministers and Lay-men or either of them to joyn together to make Rules Orders or Constitutions in Causes Ecclesiastical without the King's authority And that is censured and forbidden as unlawfull in the twelfth Canon Or else Secondly to consult about a course to be taken to impeach or deprave the Doctrine of the Church of England the book of Common Prayer or any part of the Government or Discipline established in the Church And this is forbidden under pain of Excommunication in the 73 Canon Any other end for any other unlawfull Meeting or Assembly other than what is aforesaid cannot easily be imagined therefore unless we will make the Reverend Pious and Learned Authors and Composers of those Canons and Constitutions which are so solemnly established by Supreme authority guilty of a gross tautology this Canon flatly prohibits all Meetings Assemblies or Congregations except the publick which are commanded and allowed by the Laws of the Land of any manner of persons in private houses or elsewhere which under pretence of religious worship take upon them to be called Churches Besides it is expressed in such terms as are commonly competible to none but such Meetings as are under pretence of religious worship What other Meetings are commonly called Congregations or do challenge to themselves the name of Churches but such Meetings as are in question The place and order of the Canon do prove the same for immediately after the impugners of the King's Supremacy the publick worship of God Articles of Religion Rites and Ceremonies Government established in the Church of England the Authours of Schism and maintainers of Schismaticks in the Church are censured is subjoyned this Canon censuring Conventicles as being the Nursery of all the former In the 71 Canon all Ministers whatsoever are forbidden to preach or administer the holy Communion in any private house except in be in time of necessity when any is either so impotent as that he cannot go to the Church or very dangerously sick under pain of Excommunication In the 72 Canon it is ordained that no Minister whatsoever shall without licence from the Bishop of the Diocese first obtained and had under his hand and seal presume to appoint any meetings for Sermons or Exercises in Market-Towns or other places either publickly or in private houses under pain of Suspension for tho first fault Excommunication for the second and Deposition for the third Now if a Minister may not doe this in his own Parish but onely in a case of necessity much less may a stranger intrude himself into another man's Parish where there is a Preaching Ministry established by Law and there set up a course of private house-preaching administring of Sacraments and performance of all Ministerial acts where there can be no need of his so doing so much as pretended But is will be thought by some that the Laws and Constitutions of the Church are not so greatly to be regarded as that the breach of them should be sinfull and that her Canons lay no such obligation on Conscience as that the neglect of their observation and contrary practice should be criminal Nay such is the state and condition of our times that is is rather thought a vertue to despise them than any fault to disobey them And they are reputed most pure and holy who with greatest boldness quarrel and cavil against the Authority Government and Lawfull Precepts of the Church Yet certainly the judgment and practice of Christians in former ages was otherwise When vertue and true piety did more abound they made more conscience of observing the Precepts and Constitutions of the Church which were made for decency order and good government And if any frowardly wilfully or constantly lived in any opposition or contrariety thereunto they were adjudged as evil doers Nec his quisquam contradicit quisquis sane vel tenuiter expertus est quae sunt jura Ecclesiastica And truly I see not why the same regard and respect
War with Benjamin And this they did more than once and till they did so they prevailed not The like course took king Hezekiah at his keeping the Passover to make the Congregation in the house of the Lord the Temple at Ierusalem as great as he could Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Iudah and wrote Letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord at Ierusalem and keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel And as there they have prevailed with God in Prayer more than they could any where else so there God hath taught them more than they could learn any where else When I sought to know this viz. the Doctrine of God's providence and wisedom in the just and righteous management of the affairs of the world it was too painfull for me saith David till I went into the Sanctuary of God then understood I their end When all means else did fail the publick Ministry through God's blessing on it became effectual to bring him to understanding in this Mystery Therefore he concludes thy way O God is in the Sanctuary And as in Gospel-times we have the like promises of God's special presence in the publick Congregations of his People Mat. 28. 20. 2 Cor. 6. 16. Rev. 1. 13. so it was professed long before that there the Godly should exhort and stir up one another to seek the true Knowledge of God and his ways Es. 2. 3. Mic. 4. 2. which was fulfilled accordingly both in the Disciples of Christ after his Ascension who continually were in the Temple And also in the converted Jews and Gentiles who continued daily in the Temple with one accord So did the Christians in the primitive times in their Churches their Ministers did preach as frequently as the persecution of those times would permit And there the People assembled themselves together to hear They did not divide themsleves some of the Congregation going one way and some another but they came together in one place And that place was the Church If not the publick place of worship so called as most think yet the place where by reason of the hot persecution of those times the whole Church did or could meet together And St. Hierome gives this commendations of the Faith of the primitive Christians at Rome Vbi alibi tanto studio frequentia ad Ecclesias concurritur ubi sic ad similitudinem Coelestis tonitrui Amen reboat vacua Idolorum templa quatiuntur non quod aliam habeant Romani fidem nisi hanc quam omnes Christi Ecclesiae sed quod devotio in iis major sit simplicitas ad credendum In what part of the World else is there such studious flocking and resort to Christian Churches as here Where else doth the Amen of the Congregation sound so loud as that it seems to equalize a Clap of Thunder in the Air insomuch that the Idol-temples being left empty are made to tremble therewith Not that the Romans had any other Faith than the other Churches of Christ but they had more devotion and singleness of heart in believing To this also agrees the Testimony of St. Augustine primi credentes in templo veteri Domino servierint the first and new Christians did serve God in the old Temple It will be said by some to what purpose is all this that hath been alledged out of the old Testament touching God's promises to or benediction of the Church-assemblies of the Iews Their Tabernacle and Temple were holy places and the sanctification of them was Levitical and therefore now abolished and not to be applied to our Churches This passeth with some for an objection that hath force enough in the bowels of it to overthrow and demolish the whole fabrick of this my third Argument But if we carefully look into the inside of it and not tamely deliver up our hold we shall find no such formidable matter in it For as for the City of Ierusalem the Tabernacle and Temple they were in themselves places no more holy or religious than any other places in the Land of Canaan were or than any other places now in England are But they were therefore holy Partly because they had many things in them and their worship that were typical and ceremonial which are now abolished The Temple and Tebernacle were types of the body and humane Nature of Christ. Ioh. 2. 19. 21. Heb. 8. 2. Heb. 9. 11. And this I grant might be one reason that moved David in his banishment so earnestly to desire his return to the Temple Ps. 42. 3. And in the beginning of the New Testament we reade of certain holy and devout persons that when they prayed they went up to the Temple to perform their devotion And those that could not repair to Ierusalem they might and did pray elsewhere but it was with their faces towards the Temple And Partly because God placed a memorial of his Name there or caused his Name to be remembred there i. e. did set apart those places for his publick worship and service as monuments of him For as Absolom erected a Pillar to keep his Name in remembrance so did God chuse out those places to put his Name there And therefore they were called his habitation In this respect our Churches now are every whit as holy as Ierusalem the Tabernacle or Temple there was being places lawfully set apart for God's publick worship to have his Name remembred and placed there And so the Tabernacle and Temple had this in them and their worship that was moral and consequently of equal concernment to us now as to the Jews then that publick places ought to be assigned for God's publick worship every way fitting and convenient for Ecclesiastical conventions where all the Congregation ought to meet as in a place where God will vouchsafe to be more graciously present in his worship than elsewhere according to all those his gracious promises And touching the holiness of the Tabernacle and Temple that is excepted against in the objection as being not to the present purpose Let the answer of that learned and pious Gent. Sir Henry Spelman in his book de non temerandis Ecclesiis be heard and well considered and the reader will easily find what hath been alledged out of the Old Testament maketh much for my present purpose his words are these The Temple was sanctified unto three functions which also had three several places assigned to them The first belonging to the divine presence and had the custody of the holiest types thereof the Oracle the Ark the Mercy-Seat c. And was therefore called Sanctum Sanctornm the Holiest of all The second was for ceremonial Worship and Atonement viz. by Sacrifices Oblations and other Levitical Rites the place thereof being the Sanctuary wherein were the holy Vessels and the Court of Priest wherein the Altar of burnt Sacrifice did stand The
opposition to that which themselves oppose Beza Interprets it thus prout hoc vel illud illis arriserit as this or that best pleafeth them The second is the itch of the ear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a disease very common yet never so Epidemical as in these days And there are two things that very much stir and provoke this humour 1. Novelty If the thing either for the matter or the manner of it be new and strange our Athenâ—an dispositions will soon incline us to spend our whole time in it Let a Physician be never so learned honest experienced and successfull in his place yet if but an Empirick or Mounteâ—ank come into the Country and set up his Stage though he doeth nothing but put off deceitfull and Sophisticate Drugs and takes mens money yet he shall not want at all times a full resort to him because he is a new-corner and his pretended method and means of cure are new and unusual In Religion also people are naturally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to be led away with insatiable desire of hearing new men and new things and listen rather to fables than to wholesome words that are according to godliness rather admire and adore the new conceits of every Novellist than receive the great mysteries of Salvation in love of the truth from him whom God hath set to watch over their Souls Mitte quod scio dic quod nescio is their Motto we have heard this man long enough our Ears itch now to attend to some other what we know is stale things fresh and unheard do better please us It is not the word but the man they desire to hear And therein they shew themselves to be the most observant disciples of the great Masters of errour and deceipt the Papists For this is a Doctrine taught by Stapleton in the tenth of his quodlibets non quid loquitur sed quis à bono Catholico attendendum est A good Catholick ought not to regard what is spoken but who it is that speaks And if the speaker prove a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and stuff up his discourse with idle and impertinent stories how fabulous soever he shall find more attention and applause from such humorous hearers than he that with greatest evidence of the spirit and power makes known the Oracles of God But certainly that man is under a very great distemper of body that grows weary of his good ordinary food The stomach is very sickly when it cannot take in any solid meat but the fancy is still working after rarities And if ever that person recover his former health he will find that his body will never hold to be in better temper than when he keeps to his ordinary Diet. 2. Prohibition by Authority Things denied are always most desired and the enjoyment of them is therefore the sweeter because restrained by Law Audax omnia perpeti Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas Ever since our first parents transgressed in eating the forbidden fruit all the sinfull posterity of Adam are ready to run most dangerous adventures for a taste of that which they should not touch How just and reasonable soever the prohibition is yet it will allways be looked on with a jealous Eye by those that are concerned in it as if there were a more than ordinary excellency in the thing denyed and it were therefore kept from us by our Superiours though they mean us never so much good in it because they envy us the enjoyment of it Whence it comes to pass that as beasts though their own pasture be never so good yet if they are bounded in they cannot contain themselves but will adventure to leap the hedge that they may goe farther though they fare worse Were it so that the doors of our Churches were shut up by Authority People forbidden to resort thither or to attend the Ministry of their own Pastours any more and commanded to frequent the private meetings of strangers onely the would these People be soon weary of their restraint and pretend great zeal to God's house and the place where his honour dwells then would their Souls seem to long and even to faint within them for the Courts of the Lord to see his Power and his Glory so as they have seen it in his Sanctuary Then would they seem to account their own Ministers worthy of double honour to receive them in the Lord with all gladness and to hold them in reputation Oh the strange nature of the Sons of men to whom a Legal prohibition is a forcible invitation that know not the worth of Mercies but by the loss of them Fifthly it alienates the affections of People from the true worship of God established by Law in our Church shakes the minds of the weak and begets even in those who have professed they have not the least exception against it but suspect somewhat amiss in it onely upon this ground because they see others of whose judgments they have a good confidence withdraw from it and chuse rather to frequent private meetings than to serve God in the publick Congregations Who have not heard the railings and revilings that have proceeded out of the mouths of those who are the favourers and followers of these unlawfull Assemblies against the Book of common-Common-prayer And who may not observe their constant and studyed withdrawing from the use of it That book which 1. For the Authours and Compilers of it was composed by the most Learned and Holy Doctours Martyrs and Confessours that the Church of England ever had who spent their times studies and lives in opposing the Idolatry and Superstition of the Romish Church Set forth at first in the Reign and by the Authority of King Edward the Sixth who for his Piety Zeal Learning and Wisedom was accounted the miracle of nature Peter Martyr in an Oration of his at Argentine saith thus of his death Praeter omnem spem acerbâ luctuosâ morte sublatus est Edvardus Angliae Rex Monarcharum Christiani orbis candidum Lumen pietatis Legitimus alumnus Evangelii Christi propugnator acerrimus Besides all expectation Edward King of England is taken away by lamentable and cruel Death who was the clear light of all the Monarchs of the Christian World the true Son of Piety and the most zealous and earnest Defender and Maintainer of the Gospel of Christ. And in an Oration of his at Tigurum he gives this Testimony of him Obiit prohdolor obiit Edvardus ille sanctissimus Rex quo adolescente nescio an Sol doctiorem proâ—â—aetate sanctiorem atque prudentiorem usquam viderit The most Holy King Eward is dead and I know not whether the Sun ever saw a more Learned for his age and a more sanctified and wise Prince And again in an Epistle to Queen Elizabeth speaking of the zeal and care of several godly and religious Kings in reforming Religion and establishing the true Worship of God saith
neither hath it in these but such as fight with their weapons and sharpen their instruments against it at their forge And if the Queens Highness would grant thereunto prove against all that will say the contrary that all that is contained in the Holy Communion set out by the most innocent and godly King Edward VI. in his high Court of Parliament is conformable to that order which our Saviour Christ did both observe and command to be observed and which the Apostles and primitive Church used many years And that if he might be permitted to take to himself Peter Martyr and four or five others whom he should chuse they would by God's Grace take upon them to defend not onely the Common-prayers of the Church the ministration of the Sacraments and other the rites and ceremonies but also all the Doctrine and Religion set out by the said King Edward VI. to be more pure and according to God's word than any other that have been used in England these thousand years so that God's word may be judge And that the Order of the Church set out at that present in the Realm by Act of Parliament is the same that was in the Church fifteen hundred years past Neither saith he it alone but we have the several testimonies of particular Learned and judicious Saints of that and the following generation touching the excellency and worth of that Book such as Saunders Taylor Ridley Iewel c. We have a Noble Army of Martyrs standing together in vindication of the purity of it The whole blessed company of persecuted Preachers in Prison at the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign in a petition of theirs to the King Queen and Parliament say thus If your said Subjects be not able by the Testimony of Christ his Prophets Apostles and Godly Fathers of his Church to prove that the Doctrine of the Church Homilies and Service-book taught and set forth in the time of our late most godly Prince King Edward VI. is the true Doctrine of Christ's Catholick Church and most agreeable with the Articles of the Christian faith your said subjects offer themselves then to the most heavy punishment that it shall please your Majesty to appoint Should but one Nonconformist have said so much for the antiquity and purity of this Book it would sooner have been believed by the people of our age than from the mouths of so many learned and holy Fathers Take therefore the testimony of one of that way and a learned one Mr. Iohn Ball who having spent great pains in quitting it from the objections of Separatists lays down this conclusion Our service-Service-book is not a Translation of the Mass but a restitution of the ancient Liturgy wherein sundry Prayers are inserted used by the Fathers agreeable to the Scriptures And in the same Chapter in a few pages after he hath these words To the praise of God be it spoken our Liturgy for purity and soundness may compare with any Liturgy used in the third and fourth Ages of the Church Which was long before Popery came into the World Neither hath any of the several emendations that it hath admitted since its first composure been of that nature or moment as to give an occasion to charge it in the least with any thing that is or was sinfull or Superstitious However thus much I suppose may unquestionably be concluded from the abovesaid acknowledgment that if it were an excellent and worthy work then it is not sinfull now but the use of it being enjoyned by Authority may be conformed to with a good Conscience Especially considering that it is farther acknowledged by the Divines first named That what things soever are offensive to them in it and desired to be removed are not of the foundation of Religion nor the essentials of publick Worship and must therefore be but circumstantials Which ought to be the more easily born with in complyance with Lawfull Authority by all such as mind their own duty or tender the peace of the Church it being a good and safe rule which St. Augustine gives in such a case Quod neque contra Fidem neque contra bonos more 's injungitur indifferenter est habendum pro eorum inter quos vivitur societate servandum est Whatsoever is enjoined that is not contrary to Faith or Holiness ought to be observed for peace-sake with them among whom we live Yet how is this Book called to the stake by the upholders and frequenters of Conventicles and made to fill up what was behind of the sufferings of those holy Fathers that compiled it How often have I heard it call'd by some of them Popery Idolatry Superstition and what not How are they accounted the onely Virtuoso's in these days and to have attained to a very high pitch of Piety when they have onely arrived at such a measure of profaneness as to rail at it and carefully to shun their joining with us in the Worship of God by it and think that they have then done him a very acceptable service when they have done him none at all but onely afforded their presence at the Preaching of a Sermon And to the end that malice may leave nothing unattempted to render it contemptible I have observed that these sinfull Assemblies are studiously continued till the end of Common Prayer in the Church at least if not during the Sermon also Could it ever have been thought that men who pretend Religion and Conscience could have proceeded to such a monstrous extremity of wickedness as to prefer their own private humours and fancies before God's publick Worship And thus endeavour to undermine and destroy so godly and legal an Establishment If confession of Sin profession of Faith reading of the Scriptures Prayers and Praise to God which is the substance of this whole Book be any part of God's Ordinance or Worship then surely the practice of these men is contrary not onely to Gospel order and commands but even to those Rules of Worship which the principal men of their own way and perswasion have given For in the Directory composed by the late Assembly of Divines the first direction for publick Worship which they give is this When the Congregation is to meet for publick Worship the people having before prepared their hearts thereunto ought all to come and join therein not absenting themselves from the publick Ordinances through negligence or upon pretence of Private meetings How are the mouths of Papists hereby opened against us to justifie their own Recusancy and to condemn our Church as false and adulterate seeing that our own members do revile it as they of the Romish Church also do calling it an abominable Book very pestiâ—erous c. the service of Baal plain Idolatry separate themselves from it join hands with them to destroy it and are contented to hazard their Estates and fortunes rather than to conform to it Doth not this harden them in their