notorious sinners were put to open penance and that it is a thing much to be wished for that such discipline were restored againe Bishop Latimer soone missed it or some such thing and complaines of the want thereof therefore he with the other godly Bishops of his time send their wishes after it to fetch it againe till God be pleased to provide meanes powerfull for the restoring thereof Tertullian taxeth the Heretickes of his time for neglect of this decent and godly discipline Tertul. de praeser c. 16. They kept no distinction of places nor of Service in their Conventicles Quis catechumenus quis fidelis incertum est pariter adeunt pariter audiunt pariter orant The whole heard of them ranne in a rout together both to Prayers Sermon and Sacrament that you could not know one from another Euseb l. 5. c. 28 l. 6. c. 34. It was quite otherwise in the holy Catholike Church That which Zepherinus required of Natalius Fabianus of Philip and Saint Cyprian of the Penitents of his time S. Cyp. l. 2. ep 7 make it manifest that there were distinction of places in the Church to ranke all sorts of Christians in And Saint Ambrose his practice sheweth a distinction of Service The Catechumeni being dismissed missam facere caepi S. Amb. ep 33. Saint Ambrose began not the second Service as our Church calleth it at the Altar Booke of Fast 1. Dâ—m Râ—giâ— before the first Service in the body of the Church was finished and the Catechumeni sent out which still is the custome in our Church and none will ever goe about to put that sweet harmonie which wee keepe with the Primitive Church out of tune but such as Tertullian complaines of Schismatickes and Sectaries And so we see that all those holy actions which are distinctly performed both in the first and second service are all included in this action of breaking of bread sicut frangitur in Sacramento corporis Christi And so I come to the second holy action 2. This is Preaching The Preacher is Saint Paul What kinde of Sermon then did Saint Paul make for fit it is that his action be our direction Saint Pauls preaching is of three kinds 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he reasoned with them or taught them by way of dialogue 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he continued his speech 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 11. he used a long homily which held from midnight till morning For the first Saint Pauls preaching did not stand onely in making a long discourse which some pitifully perishing in a dearth of matter and in an inundation of light and froathie words trumpet up for the onely preaching But he gave others leave to speake as well as himselfe for that must needs be to hold up the dialogue in the text yet he preached for all that Wherefore if the Curate catechise in the afternoone as he is commanded by question and answer which makes the dialogue in the text this man preacheth There is therefore no cause at all why some should take the matter so grievously that charge should be given by the King whom they never meane to obey therein that afternoone Sermons should be turned into catechising that is that one kinde of preaching should be exchanged for another the lesse profitable for the more usefull Certaine also it is that whether they travell all the Scriptures over and then passe on to the ancient Fathers they shall finde no ground at all for the fruitlesse and disobedient exercise of their afternoone talent till they come home to their owne wilfull selfe-conceitednesse Our Saviour came not to breake the law but to fulfill it who being at Capernaum on a Sabbath day preached but once For statim è Synagogâ from the Synagogue he went immediately to Simons house to dinner where Simons wives mother ministred unto them Mar. 1.31 and there stayed healing diseases till sunne set and went no more to the Synagogue to preach in the afternoon The law that enjoined afternoon Sermons for keeping their Sabbath was not then knowne to the Pharises themselves who else were apt enough to have laid it in his dish at supper Troubles at Franckford pag. 194. no nor to these mens progenitors for 1565. yeares after as by their owne confession may appeare True it is Saint Peter preached once at the ninth houre or at three a clocke in the afternoone Act. 3.1 but the occasion place and other circumstances being so extraordinary his example binds us no more to doe the like than Saint Pauls here doth to preach in an upper chamber all night long The holy Fathers also in the best times had their Sermons in the forenoons and it will be hard for the best or stubbornest of them all to shew a Sermon preached by any of the Fathers in the afternoone Saint Basil onely excepted who had his second and ninth homily in the afternoone Socrat l. 5. c. 21. Niceph. l. 12. c. 34. because as Socrates and Nicephorus affirme the custome in Caesare a was not to preach in the forenoone but Episcopi Sacerdotes post lucernarum accensiones sacras Scripturae populo exponunt the people have the Scripture expounded to them in the afternoone Their preaching was but expounding as they call it and that but once neither Why then should they not yeeld to change their afternoone discoursing into preaching by way of dialogue as St. Paul here did Secondly St. Paul preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the while he was in his Homilie What his Homilie was it is hard for me to say whether it was one that himselfe made and did not reade or one that he read and another made An Homilie I am sure it was and it may be made by all the Apostles or the chiefe of the Apostles as Bucer saies our Homilies were penned by some eminent Preachers I pray you tell me when Saint Paul went through divers Churches as now he did to establish them in the faith and to that end took with him dogmata the decrees made by the Apostles and Elders that were at Jerusalem Act 16.4 and delivered them to the Churches to be kept whether he did reade them or no or delivered them as a Roll sealed up If he read them there 's his homilie And most certaine it is he read them even by his owne rule For if he caused Epistles from some one man to be read in the Church by him that brought them it is more than evident that himselfe bringing the Decrees of the Apostles and Elders he would not in any sort transgresse his owne rule but doe the decrees himselfe and the Church that right as to reade them that the Churches might see what it was that he delivered them to keep and be fully assured that himselfe walked in the selfe same steps with the rest of the Apostles and so be enabled to stop the mouths of all false Apostles who objected that against
solemne service of God because our Redeemer arose on that day and therefore it is called ever since dies Dominicus the Lords day ex illo caepit habere festivitatem and from the very Apostles time and from their constitution it began to be kept as a festivall day A festivall day what meane you by that Why à sanctis patribus constitutum mandatum saies the same Father it is a constitution and command received from our holy Fathers S. Aug serm 251. de temp that men should leave all worldly businesse on Saints daves maximè diebus Dominicis and especially on the Lords day that they may betake themselves wholly to the Lords service The first day of the week then is the Lords day appointed to be kept as a holy feast for the Lords service by the Apostles themselves in their owne time And this day which the Apostles call the Lords day S. Justin ora◠ad Anton St. Justine Martyr an Apostolike man calls Sunday Solis autem die communiter omnes conventum agimus ad preces supplicationes on Sunday we all meet together to prayers and supplications because that is primus dies the first day on which our Saviour arose For he was crucified pridiè Saturni diei the day before Saturday and the next day after Saturday qui sc Solis est dies which is Sunday Apostolis Discipulis suis apparuit he appeared to his Apostles and Disciples And hereupon his Apostles and Disciples thought fit to appoint and command this day to be kept holy The Lords day then is by the Apostles so called and by this Apostolike man named Sunday and may fitly so be called because saies Saint Ambrose in eo ortus Sol justitiae illuminat S. Amb ser 61. the Sun of righteousnesse then arose that enlightneth every one of us The first day of the weeke then is the Lords day and Sunday And the Lords day was by the Apostles themselves in their owne time appointed for holy assemblies to meet on as on a feast day dedicated to the Lords service And so hath that day beene called and used ever since in the true Catholike Church of God for 1554. yeares together without interruption both in the Greeke and Latine Church What shall we thinke then of Knox and Whittingham Troubles at 〈◊〉 pag. 30. and their fellowes that in their letter to Calvin depart from the constitution ordinance and practice of the Apostles and Apostolike men and call not this day the Lords day or Sunday but with the pietie of Jeroboam make such a day of it as they have devised in their owne hearts to serve their owne turne and anabaptizing of it after the mind of some Jew hired to be the god-father thereof call it the Sabbath and so disguised with that name become both the first that so called it and the Testators that have so bequeathed it to their Disciples and Proselites to be observed accordingly It was full thirtie yeares before their children could turne their tongues from Sunday to hit on Sabbath and if the Gileadites that met with the Ephraimites before they could frame to pronounce Shibboleth had snapt these too before they had got their Sabbath by the end their counsell had brought much peace to the Church For this name Sabbath is not a bare name like a spot in their foreheads to know Labans sheepe from Jacobs but indeed it is a mysterie of iniquitie intended against the Church For allow them but their Sabbath and you must allow them the service that belongs to their Sabbath Then must you have no Letanie for that is no service for their Sabbath containing suffrages devised by Pope Gregory but for Sundayes nay Troubles at Frankf pag. 30. for Wednesdayes and Fridayes which must not so be used for sixe dayes thou must labour nay you must have no part of the Service in the Communion booke used for that is Service also for holy dayes Welph detemp◠l. 2. c. 4. which are abominated as idolatricall being dedicated to Saints Well then the Sabbath must be yeelded them otherwise there will be no day left for God to be served on What Service then must you allow them for their Sabbath Why nothing but preaching How shall that be knowne Why out of their owne mouthes Thus soone after the Conventicle in London in 84. about the 31th yeare of the Sabbaths nativitie writeth one of them in his letter to some Superintendent amongst them to whom he gives an account of his Sabbaths exercise Ego singulis Sabbath is si non alius adveniens locum suppleat cum praescriptà Leiturgeias formulâ nihil habens commercit in caetu concionem habeo idque reverendorum fratrum consilio I preach every Sabbath in the congregation having nothing at all to doe with the order prescribed in the booke of Common Prayer and this he does not of his owne head but by the counsell of the reverend brethren delivered doubtlesse in that late Synode Now you see the Common Prayer booke which the Kings Majesties authority in causes Ecclesiasticall with the Convocation house have appointed and the Parliament the reunto assented is clean cast out of their Sabbath and no service allowed or used but preaching Marvaile not then at the casting out of lawfull sports their zeale could and did dispence with them well enough for a long time together as they of Genevah and the Low-countries even sitting the Synode of Dort did and still doe But the plot with us will not beare them for they must gaine elbow roome for their Sabbaths exercise or preaching falsely so called being for the most part as their hearers will justifie but violent discourses and personall invectives against the present State and settled lawes of the Land with the Governours thereby to get themselves magnified for the great power of God with Simon that having cryed downe all Lawes Ecclesiasticall and Temporall too in time that sute not with their Sabbath doctrine they may be able making their reliance on their inveigled thousands whereof they bragge to put their hands to their mouthes Mar. ju epiles and to say with him in the story Petition to his Majestie in 1603. Richard 2◠Behold the fountaine from whence all lawes for governement of Church and Common wealth must shortly spring You see then what the plot was that bred and still keepes the name of Sabbath on foot that if St. John or the Apostles that first called and appointed the Lords day should come amongst them and happen to call it the Lords day they would quickly finde him to be none of their Tribe nor for their turne being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without his watch word of the Sabbath But if Justin that blessed Martyr should be so profane as to call it Sunday he would be in danger under their discipline to be martyred the second time for not adoring their idoll Sabbath as he was under Antonius for not worshipping Jupiter
him and thereby be fully established in the faith which was the only end of his comming which could not have beene wrought nor obtained if these Decrees had not beene read at all or read by any other Wherefore I take it for a cleare truth that St. Paul read the Decrees and sure I am by the word used in the text that when he read them and did no more but reade them without adding or diminishing that he preached by way of Homilie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reading of Homilies then is preaching Concil Rhem. Can. 15. and so adjudged by the learned Bishops in the Councell of Rhemes The Canon concerneth Bishops themselves Ut Episcopi Sermones Homilias sanctorum Patrum prout omnes intelligant secundum proprietatem linguae praedicare studeant The Canon saies not praedicari studeant but praedicare themselves must give good example not only in preaching Sermons of their owne making as it is appointed Can. 14. which some cry up for the only preaching but also read and interpret the Homilies of holy Fathers themselves which is also here called preaching So likewise when the Diptychs containing the Decrees of the foure first generall Councels Constantinop 5. Act. 10. and of Saint Leo were read pro utilitate pace Ecclesiae praedicantur they are said to be preached for the profit and peace of the Church This reading of Decrees is called preaching in the Councell of Constantinople If then reading of decrees of the Apostles and by that president reading of Diptychs and Homilies be preaching and used for the profit and peace of the Church and for the establishing of them in the faith then surely is reading of lessons Epistle and Gospel much more preaching and the Reader is a Preacher The Councell of Aquisgrane layeth downe the office of a Reader Concil Aq. c. 3. and to prevent all exceptions ex canonicâ authoritate and saith thus Lectores sunt qui verbum Dei praedicant Readers are Preachers This they might learne of Saint Ambrose S. Ambr. in eph c. 4. v. 11. S. Cypr. ep 4. l. 4. ep 5. l. 2. and he of Saint Cyprian Saint Cyprian gives onely a toleration to read unto Celerinus nobly descended yet sayes it will make more for his honour in coelesti praedicatione fieri generosum to be made a Gentleman for his heavenly preaching yet this preaching was but reading And further saith that there is nothing wherein a Confessour magis prosit can more profit his brethren than by reading the Gospel unde Martyres fiunt whereby Confessours are made Martyrs This was the doctrine of Origen before him Orig. hom 10. in Gen. Reading then is preaching nay heavenly preaching and there is nothing more profitable for the Church nor more powerfull to make the most perfect men of God of all other even to make Martyrs What shall we thinke then of T. C. and such as he hath seduced that traduce Readers for dumb dogs blinde guides empty feeders and say that reading is so farre from making the man of God perfect that rather the quite contrary may be confirmed Whether doe you not thinke that this blessed Archbishop and Martyr and these holy and learned Bishops would not sharpely have censured the broachers of such doctrine within their Diocesses or will you condemne them their doctrine and Canons to deifie T.C. For my part qui Bavium non odit amet tua Carmina Maevi he that detesteth not the Father of such Schismatickes with their Brood I wish him no worse but that he may fall so farre in love with the pure zeale of those wandring Danites their refined brethren led by such guides that they may beleeve their spies and follow them per mare per terras into new Laish to dwell in a Land of their owne Cottons Sermon and to goe no more out but make themselves happy without corrivalls under an Ephod and Priest of Micha's owne making And surely if they did beleeve their owne doctrines and would be honest and true to their owne positions I cannot see how they should stay here longer than for a good wind The government of our Church they say is Babylonish while they stay here they are in the midst of Babylon therefore the rites of Babylon they will not use and there is no reason that they should Why then doth not that loud cry awaken their consciences that calls them out hence Come out of her my people that you be not partaker in her plagues How doe they thinke that any man should trust them that are so false to their owne friends their own followers their owne faith and doctrine and will forsake them all and with Demas embrace this present world in the midst of Babylon with so great hazzard of the plagues of Babylon Doubtlesse these Church Schismatickes are the most grosse nay the most transparent Hypocrites and most void of conscience of all others They will take the benefit of the Church but abjure the doctrine and discipline of the Church These are whorish and Babylonish But tythe milke is not whorish if it be not mingled with water nor a tithe sheafe Babylonish till it be as big as great Babylon it selfe Is not this ridiculous hypocrisie If their stomackes be so queazie to rise against these things because their pure nostrill resenteth the dip of the Popes foot in them let them begin to abandon the Pope in that which he hath by Canons and Bulls allowed viz. in tiths and offrings and not in that which he never allowed in our Booke of Common Prayer wherein is set downe the onely direction we have for keeping the Lords day in such godly duties as the text specifieth If their condemnation or want of the Popes confirmation of that holy booke were of power to hang a mill-stone about it and to cast it into the bottome of the sea of their abominations we might lie downe in sorrow and cry our last Ichabod the glorie is departed from Israel And they might with the voice of melody sing and say With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister and have prevailed to make her a very Babylon and to cause her to sit in the dust and never to rise any more But praised be the Lord whose day we wil ever keep and not their Sabbath that hath delivered us as a prey out of their teeth I will now conclude this point We see that breaking of bread and preaching in such sort as hath beene explained are the holy exercises used by St. Paul and his Disciples and by the holy Martyrs and godly Fathers in the Primitive Church for the observation of the Lords day From hence then we may conclude who are profaners of that most holy day not those that use harmlesse recreations or do some small usefull chare or perhaps take a nap on the Lords day But those that do these with Eutichus when Paul is preaching or as St. Austine saies caeteris ad Ecclesiam