Script Angl. They who entred into the Ministry at Strasburgh after its first reformation did by Oath undertake to keep in the Communion and obedience of the Church and its Governours according to the law of God and their Canons Statutes and Ordinances And it is related from the laws of Geneva where an established Liturgy is one of their Constitutions that all they who were there received to the Ministry must oblige themselves by Oath to observe the Ecclesiastical Ordinances ordained by the Councils of that City In the Hungarian reformed Church they who enter the Ministry do by a very solemn Oath oblige themselves to the observations of the Ecclesiastical Canons Eccles Augl Vindic cap. 31. in fin and to the performing due obedience to the Bishop and other Superiours in the Church as may be seen in their Oath as it is fully exhibited by Mr. Durell from their Synodical Constitutions 5. The Subscriptions or Declarations required amongst us besides what for the present concerneth the Covenant are an acknowledgment of the Kings just authority to secure the Government of the Articles of Religion to preserve truth of Doctrine and of the Liturgy and Book of Ordination to maintain order and Uniformity to which end also tendeth the Oath of Canonical obedience wherein such obedience to the Bishop and his Successors is engaged in all lawful and honest things which must needs be blameless unless it could be accounted a sin to resolve to do good and honest things in a way of order Of these I shall in this discourse treat of what concerneth the Liturgy which is chiefly opugned and therefore requireth the principal consideration for the vindicating our Communion in the worship of God and the manifesting the unlawfulness of the breach thereof 6. Some declared allowance of the Liturgy hath since the reformation been ordinarily required in this Church Art 35. The Articles in the time of King Edward the Sixth contained an approbation both of the Book of Common Prayer and of Ordination In Queen Elizabeths time the allowance of the use and the Subscription to the Book of Common-Prayer was required by the Advertisements Advertism 7. Eliz Can. 1571. c. concionatores Tract 21. c. 1. and Canons and defended by Bishop Whitgift Since Queen Elizabeth the same hath been performed in the Subscription according to the 36th Canon and in the Declaration and Acknowledgment in the Act of Uniformity which in seense much agreeth therewith 7. The subscription required by the thirty sixth Canon is grounded upon the Constitutions of the Convocation confirmed by the authority of the Kings broad Seal according to his supream authority in causes Ecclesiastical and according to the Statute 25. Henr. 8. And so the Canons of the Church did of old frequently receive a confirmation by the Emperours sanction under his Sea which is a thing of so great antiquity that Eusebius relateth concerning Constantine the first Christian Emperour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by his Seal Eus de Vit. Const l. 4. c. 27. he ratisied the determinations made by the Bishops in their Synods 8. That Article in this Canon which referreth to the Book of Common-Prayer doth enclude an acknowledging three things First that that Book containeth nothing contrary to the word of God which is intended to be manifested in the following Chapters touching the things chiefly opposed The second will be consequent thereupon viz. that it may lawfully be so used The third and last clause is a promise to use the form prescribed in that Book in publick Prayer and administration of the Sacraments and none other the lawfulness of which promise doth evidently follow from the former clause and its sense is of the same import with those words of the acknowledgment required in the Act of Uniformity viz. I will conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England as it is now established 9. But some especial doubts have been peculiarly entertained concerning the sense of the Declaration in the Act of Uniformity in giving unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book of Common-Prayer c. But while our Government doth require the use of this form both the intended sense being the same with that of the two former clauses concerning the Liturgy in the Canon above-mentioned and the expression thereof may upon equitable and impartial consideration appear clearly and fairly justifiable To which purpose the true sense of assenting and consenting and the things to which this hath respect is to be enquired after 10. Wherefore it is first to be considered that as to assent when referred to things asserted is to owne the truth of them so when referred to things to be done ordered or used it is to allow that they should be put in practice in which latter sense assenting is one and the same with consenting Now the Act of Uniformity both immediately before this Declaration and in divers other places referreth this unfeigned assent and consent to the use of the things in that Book contained and prescribed and thereby directeth us to this ordinary sense of the word Assent as doth also the nature of the things to be assented to which for the main part are Prayers Thanksgivings and Rubricks which being no assertions or propositions are to be used but not properly to be believed This notion of assenting in the same signification with consenting is according to the frequent use of assensus in the Latin as when things are agreed unanimi assensu consensu and the marriage of Children is declared Littleton C. of Tenaunt in Dower that it should be de assensu consensu parentum and we read of dower de assensu patris in our English Law-Books and the same might be evidenced by various English Examples But this Declaration being required by our Statute Laws it may be sufficient to observe that this is a very common sense of the word assent in our English Statutes 11. 25. Ed. 1. c. 1 Pref. to 18. Ed. 3. to 2. Ric. 2. passim Thus from King Edw. I. will King Henry the seventh and sometimes after our Statute Laws are oft declared to be assented unto or to be made with the assent of the Lords c. But from Queen Elizabeths time downwards the Laws are oft expressed to be enacted by the King or Queen with the consent of the Lords c. and sometimes with their assent and consent as 1. Jac. 2. 21. Jac. 2. In the same sense par assent assensus and such like expressions are frequently used in our most ancient Statutes in their Latin and Frence Originals As in St. de Carl. Ordinat Forest c. 6. St. Lincoln Westm 4. Exilium Hug. le despenser Ordin pro ter Hib. And about common assaâ—s the word assent is three times in one paragraph used in this sense concerning the recovery of any land 14 Eliz. 8. by the assent and agreement of the persons to
and whether this position will not go far toward the condemning Religious and devout behaviour in Christian Assemblies because it is an outward and visible expression of a pious frame of mind whereas such external actions rightly used with a due significancy are testimonies and incentives of Piety and Religion but without such a signification are either Hypocritical or at least vain and empty 5. But some distinguish here between such things which have a natural significancy as Religious gestures and such things as signifie by humane Constitutions and consent the former they do admit but not the latter But this distinction is to little purpose partly because there can be no sufficient reason given why the latter should be universally disallowed while the former are approved partly because most things supposed to have a natural significancy did derive their original signification from humane custom and consent as reverent gestures and uncovering the head and partly because divers particular things above-mentioned which cannot be disapproved cannot be pretended to have a natural signification to which laying the hand on the Book in an Oath and others more may be added 6. Cons 3. The disallowing all external significative Rites in Gods service is a thing opposite to the general sense of the Church of God in all former Ages That divers signfiicative Rites were lawfully used in the Jewish Church without any divine Institution is sufficiently manifest from the instances given in the former Chapter and such were also the Apostolical Rites of the Love-kiss the Feasts of Charity and the having mens heads uncovered and not veiled The judgment of Calvin and Zanchy approving such Ceremonies of Ecclesiastical appointment were also in that Chapter produced and the same may be observed in Vrsin Explic. Catech. q. 103. and P. Martyr Ep. Hoopero Art 15. The Bohemian Confession teacheth that such Rites by whomsoever they were introduced ought to be preserved which advantage Faith the worship of God and other things that are good amongst Christians with which agreeth the Strasburgh Confession Cap. 14. Some significative Rites of the Ancient Christian Church were also mentioned in the foregoing Chapter to which may be added the frequent use of the Trinal Mersion in Baptism as a profession of the Trinity and of Conformity to the Death of Christ which continued three days and this is used in divers Protestant Churches at this day they also sometimes purposely used the single Merscon to testifie the Unity of the Godhead In c. 2. q. 1. c. legum Sometimes as appeareth by the words of Hincmarus the person to be baptized supposing him adult was to give up his name in writing to signifie by that action his willingness and desire to undertake Christianity and to obtain Baptism And very anciently the person receiving Baptism did then change his Garments arraying himself in white as an admonition to him that he then changed his state and undertook the innocency of the Christian profession De Consecr Dist 4. c. post baptismum Accepisti this Custom was observed by Gratian from Rabanus and S. Ambrose and is thought by a learned man of our own Nation to be as ancient as the Apostles themselves and to be alluded unto in the use of those Scripture Phrases Mr. Thorndike Right of the Church c. 4. of putting of the old man with his deeds and putting on the new man Col 3.9 10. 7. The main Objection peculiarly directed against signisicant Ceremonies is that such things have a resemblance of Sacraments but no Ecclesiastical Authority nor any person below Christ himself can constuâ—â—te or appount a Sacrament Cont. Faust l. 10. c. 16. Indeed S. Augusline sometimes speaketh of Sacraments as being nothing else but verba visibiliâ— visible words and other where saith Ep. 5 Marc. that signs referring to divine things are called Sacraments but these expressions were noted by Kemnitius as instances to shew Kemnit Exam. de Sacram. Can. 1. that S. Augustine used the word Sacrament in a great latitude of sense this being an Ecclesiastical word not always taken in the same strictness of signification And S. Aug. doth there peculiarly speak of a certain kind of signs viz. the Jewish Ceremonies appointed by the Divine Law which I have above observed to enclude somewhat Sacramental 8. But that we may rightly apprehend 〈…〉 significative signs are lawfully 〈…〉 in the Church I shall distinguish 〈◊〉 signs referring to matters of Religion into so many several ranks or Classes as may be sufficient for the clearing my present enquiry Wherefore 9. First Some external signs are appointed to ratifie seal and confirm the Covenant of God and to tender and exhibit the Grace of that Covenant or Christ himself unto us And these signs are properly Sacraments according to the definition thereof in our Church Catechism to be outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual Grace given unto us ordained by Christ himself as a means whereby we receive the same and a pledge to assure us thereof Accordingly Baptism as a means of Grace doth exhibit remission of sins Act. 22.16 and Salvation 1 Pet. 3.21 and the Lords Supper exhibiteth the New Testament in Christs bloud and is the Communion of the body and bloud of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 Ch. 11.25 And Rabanus Maurus describing a Sacrament saith De Instit Cler. l. 1. c. 24. that therein sub integumento rerum corporalium virtus divina secretius operatur salutem And that this is the common Doctrine of the Protestant Writers concerning Sacraments which they defend against the Calumnies of the Papists who charge them with asserting the Sacraments to be only significative signs but not exhibitive and also against the fond opinion of the Anabaptists and other Sectaries accounting Sacraments to be chiefly professing signs may be evidenced by perusing Bishop Cranmer in his Preface to his Book of the Sacrament Bishop Ridley de Coena Dom. p. 28 29. Bishop Jewel Apol. Reply Art 8. Dr. Whitaker de Sacr. Qu. 1. c. 3. Bucer Conf. de Euchar. Sect. 45. Epist ad Michael N. Hispan Kemnit Exam. de Sacr. Can. 5 6 7. Vrsini Apol. Catech. ad 3 m Calumn adv Anabapt Chamier de Sacram l. 1. c. 10. Sect. 13. Rivet Cath. Orth. Tr. 3. q. 1. with many others Now none can appoint any such sign as this but he who hath power of giving the Grace exhibited thereby and if any humane authority constitute any sign to this end and purpose it would therefore be an high intrenchment upon the Soveraignty of God and the authority of Christ and the expecting this Grace from any such sign is great superstition 10. Secondly There are signs appointed not to exhibit and tender the Grace of Gods Covenant but to testifie in Gods name the certainty of some point of Faith as the Star in the East was a witness of Christs Birth and an assurance thereof to the Wise men or to tender some particular
Baptism engaged them to acknowledge and worship the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Baxt. Disp of Gerem c. 2. Sect. 58. And whereas it is objected against the use of any such external signs that this is to set up something to work Grace in the same manner that the Sacraments do which do only objectively teach remember and excite and thereby work on the understanding will memory and affections all this is grounded upon manifest misapprehensions For the holy Sacraments do not only stir us up to the exercise of Grace already received but do tender to us a Communion with Christ and a Communication of further Grace from him which no humane Rites can do Artic. 25. Whence our Articles declare them to be effectual signs of Grace and Gods good will towards us by the which he doth work invisibly in us and doth not only quicken but also strengthen and confirm our Faith in him In Sect. and agreeably hereunto is the Doctrine of all the Protestant Writers above-mentioned But to condemn all objective incitements to the exercise of Grace as humane Sacraments where there is no pretence of their being direct means of conveying further Grace from God would enclude a censuring any particular becoming actions gravity and due expression of affectionateness in the Minister or people in Christian Assemblies because it is a means to excite others to the greater reverence and Religious devotion and would condemn any actions as sinful and evil meerly from their being useful to promote good And for example hereupon he who looking into a Register Book where his Baptism is recorded shall only take notice of his Age should be commended but he who upon the sight of his name in that Book is put in memory concerning his Baptismal Covenant and excited to a care of answering that Covenant by a Christian and pious life should be guilty of grievous sin as if this was to make that Book to be a kind of Sacrament And they who reject all exciting signs as being Sacramental may find almost all the same pretences to dislike all words not instituted of God which do excite men to Religious Piety especially when they are accompanied with any outward action though it be but a gesture because not only Sacramental signs but Sacramental words in their Sacramental Use as in Baptism I baptize thee in the name c. do both exhibit and excite Grace as an essential part of that Sacrament and there is not much more reason to conclude all exciting signs to be Sacramental signs than to account all exciting words to be Sacramental words 15. Sixthly Other external things in Gods worship are properly significant of reverence towards him and of high esteem of him and his Ordinances Such are a humble and devout behaviour and gesture which are Hypocritical actions where no such signification is intended but when designed to this end they are truly religious but far from being Sacramental O◠this nature are the preparing and preserving decent structures and other things comely as Communion Table Cup c. which are set apart for Religious service And to this sixth head belongeth the use of the Ministerial Garments appointed in our Church as the use of the Cross in the Office of Baptism is of the nature of a memorative and exciting sign under the former head And to dislike these things solely because of such signification is to account the actions of man who in Gods worship acts as a reasonable Creature to be the worse meerly because he is able to give a good and rational account why he doth perform them SECT II. Of Ecclesiastical appointments considered as imposed and enjoined 1. Having proved in the former Chapter the lawfulness of some external Rites and having shewed in this Chapter that they do not become unlawful by being significant we may hence infer that nothing can be said against the enjoining some such lawful Rites but what will equally oppose all Ecclesiastical Injunctions and Constitutions in things indifferent For if these things be in themselves both lawful and in their due circumstances useful as I have above shewed and if there be a power in the Church of enjoining lawful things to useful purposes then cannot the establishing these things thus directed be disallowed But to deny the lawfulness of Ecclesiastical Sanctions and Constitutions is to charge all the ancient famous known parts of the Church of Christ with a sinful usurpation of Authority in the Church for that they enjoined what they judged useful both in General and Provincial Synods is manifest from the Canons of the Code of the Universal Church and of the Roman and African Churches and from the more ancient Canons among those called the Apostles and from other Ecciesiastical Rules of Discipline frequently mentioned in Tertullian S. Cyprian and other ancient Writers And that this practice of the Church was used ever since the Apostles is not only manifest from the instances given in the former Chapter Sect. 3. but is also evident from the Synod at Jerusalem and its decisions concerning somethings indifferent mentioned Act. 15. 2. Concerning the Decrees of that Council at Jerusalem I shall Observe 1. That some part of the matter of them was not contained under the Divine Precepts of perpetual obligation but was enjoined only as Ecclesiastical laws of mutable Constitution I should willingly acknowledge that not only that part of the Apostolical Decree which concerned Fornication but that also which concerned things offered unto Idols did contain an immutable Law to all Christians and that what S. Paul writeth upon this subject in his first Epistle to the Corinthians did not at all invalidate or dispense with the Decree of the Apostolical Synod as divers worthy men have judged but only declareth how far that Decree intended to oblige That which renders this opinion probable is because it is evident by comparing Act. 15.20 with Act. 15.29 that the Apostles in commanding to abstain from meats offered to Idols designed only to prohibit the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pollutions of Idols and because after the writing the Epistles to the Corinthians it was still in as general terms as that Synod did express it accounted a duty to abstain from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or things sacrificed to Idols not only by divers particular ancient Writers but by one of the Canons of the Greek Code Conc. Gangr Can. 2. and even by S. John in the Revelations Rev. 2.14 But that that Decree concerning things strangled and bloud was no perpetually binding Law of God may be evinced from the general judgment of the Church of God Aug. cont Faust l. 32. c. 13. Binius in 4. Syn. Apost de Immolatis which doth not now account it binding some very few persons excepted from such general expressions of holy Scripture as that nothing is unclean in it self and to the pure all things are pure and from the Apostles expressing their Decree to be
Dionysius of Alexandria speaketh of a Communicant in his Church Eus Hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may properly render it standing at the Lords Table and the testimony of Justin Martyr above produced giveth a very probable intimation of the same gesture But when as the ancient Churches had two stationary days in a Week that is the sourth and sixth days with which the seventh day was also joined at Caesaria as is manifest from S. Basil upon which the holy Communion was administred it is probable Basil Ep. ad Caesariam that as upon those days they prayed kneeling so they did in the same gesture receive this Sacrament in attendance upon which they thought an humble gesture of adoration to be very suitable this Sacrament being accounted by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dreadful mysteries 5. Albasp Obs l. 1. Obs 15. Indeed Albaspinus undertaketh to assert without any proof that the chief reason why anciently they stood in their Prayers upon the Lords days and the Pentecost was because upon those days they received the holy Communion and it was requisite they should use none other than a gesture of Joy upon that day in which they communicated in that Sacrament But besides the improbability of supposing daily Communions where we have no testimony thereof from Easter to Whitsunday this observation is very plainly contradicted by Albaspinus himself in his very next observation Obs 16. where he declareth that the Eucharist was constantly celebrated upon the stationary days and yet upon those days he yieldeth that the ancient Christians did pray kneeling Conc. Trul. c. 90. and this his conjecture is also contrary to what is asserted by the sixth general Council by Zonaras and Balsamon upon the twentieth Council of Nice and by S. Hierom Austen Hieron Prooem in lib. 1. Com. in Eph. Basil and other Fathers who unanimously assert that their joyfulness to the wonder of the Gentiles for the Resurrection of Christ and their professing themselves to be risen with him and to expect resurrection by him was the cause of their standing gesture at those times in their Religious Prayers But that the most humble gesture was not thought inconsistent with the Eucharist may appear Gr. Nazianz Orat. in Gorgon Besides the testimonies above produced from what Gregory Nazianzen relateth of his Sister Gorgonia who privately fell down prostrate before the Altar with the Sacrament in her hand 6. Wherefore kneeling at the holy Sacrament or receiving it in a gesture of Prayer and Religious Worship unto God was no way disallowed as unlawful by the Primitive Church but our practice herein is but a building upon their Foundations who themselves used a gesture of Adoration or the same gesture with that of Prayer 7. Obj. 4. Kneeling is a gesture which hath been grosly abused by the Papists in worshipping the Host according to their Doctrine of Transubstantiation and to that end it was enjoined by Honorius the third Ans 1. NO sinful use of any gesture though it be in the most manifest idolatry doth render that gesture unlawful in Religious service to God as was shewed in the former Chapter Though the Israelites sate down to eat and drink when they had offered Sacrifices to the golden Calf Ex. 32.6 it was still allowable in the days of Samuel to sit down to feast upon the Sacrifices of God 1 Sam. 9.13 22. And though the discumbing or reclining gesture was anciently used in Idolatrous Feasts Amos 2.8 Ezek 23.41 and so continued in some places very common till the times of Christ being designed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sit or rather discumb in the Idols Temple 1. Cor. 8.10 Conc. Ancyr Can. 51 and for some hundred years after as appears from the Council of Ancyra yet Christ himself made use of this gesture at the Jewish Passover according to the Custom and Canons of the Jewish Church 8. Ans 2. Though it be true that many Papists but not all do receive and adore the Host kneeling yet the Decree of Honorius so oft insisted upon is herein mistaken and misapplyed That Decree commandeth that the people cum elevatur hostia salutaris se reverenter inclinet Decret Greg. Lib. 3. Tit. 41. c. 10. idem faciens cum eam deferat Presbyter ad infirmum which words speak not the gesture of communicating or at the time of receiving the Sacrament but only concerns their behaviour as spectators when the Host immediately after the Consecration is elevated or when it is carried abroad to the sick And though the old Gloss supposeth that kneeling was thereby at such times enjoined which the practice of many in that Communion cannot admit Espencaeus a more learned man than the Author of the Gloss Espencaeus De Adorat Euch. l. 2. c. 16. accounteth that Decree rather to prohibit kneeling and to direct as the words se reverenter inclinet may import a standing gesture with expression of reverence And Espencaeus telleth us in the same place that in 1555. the kneeling gesture had not obtained in the Church of Lyons and that when some endeavoured to obtrude it upon that Metropolis a stop was put to their proceeding by the Royal Authority and in the same place in that Book purposely written for the adoration of the Sacrament he declareth that it is not much material in what gesture it is performed whether sitting standing lying or kneeling 9. Ans 3. They who will lay aside all gestures grosly abused must upon the same account reject all those which are in this Sacrament ordinarily received in the Protestant Churches both standing and sitting as well as kneeling That standing was a gesture used in the Romish adoration of the Host by many of the ordinary sort of Papists is evident from Espencaeus now cited Sacr. Cerem lib. 1. Sect. 2. Cap. 1. f. 22. And if he who is elected Pope be not Bishop or Priest at his Priestly Ordination he receiveth the Sacrament standing for then as their Book of Ceremonies informs us Ordinator communicat electo stanti in ipso cornu de corpore sanguine Christi Ibid. c. 2. f. 28. and the same gesture is used by him at his Episcopal Ordination Communionem sumet sub utraque specie stans c. and as this is the gesture of the Pope in that great solemnity of the Popes being invested with his Papal dignity V. Durand Rat. l. 4. c. 54. n. 45. so upon the great Mass upon Christmas day if the Pope himself celebrate the Mass the Deacon who attendeth upon him receiveth it at the Popes hand in a standing gesture Diaconus slans inclinato capite ex ejus manibus de Corpore Christi communicat Ibid. Lib. 2. Sect. 1. Cap. 14. calamo slans sanguinis partem sugit and in the same gesture the consicient Priest usually receiveth 10. Sacerdotal Par. 1. Tract 4. c. 35. But because sitting is most