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A38583
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The reasonableness of our Christian service (as it is contained in the Book of Common-Prayer) evidenced and made clear from the authority of Scriptures and practice of the primitive Christians, or, A short rationale upon our morning and evening service as it is now established in the Church of England wherein every sentence therein contained is manifestly proved out of the Holy Bible, or plainly demonstrated to be consonant thereto / composed and written by Thomas Elborow, vicar of Cheswick ; and since his death made publick by the care and industry of Jo. Francklyn ...
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Elborow, Thomas.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing E324; ESTC R31410
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96,665
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240
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read and approved of as our own Comments upon a Text of Scripture which it is to be presumed we would not have to be taken for Canonical Scripture They who are most against the reading of them cannot but confess our Sermons and Tractates to have as little of the Spirit of infallibility and Sanctification as the Apocryphal Books So far as they are consonant to the Word of God they are Canonical though not Proto-Canonical There is truth in them and we are to embrace truth wherever we meet with it for it is Gods whoever speaks it or writes it we read them not to confirm us in matters of Faith but to instruct us in life and manners because they contain in them many excellent moral precepts for the regulating of our lives and well ordering of our conversations Again some part of the Canonical is not enjoyned to be read publickly in the Congregation not because the Authority of it is undervalued but because it is not so useful for Edification nor so fitted to the understandings and capacities of the people as those portions of Scripture are which are enjoyned to be read those necessary parts of Scripture which God hath made easie the Church desires should be made familiar and frequently read to the people Therefore she orders the Psalms to be read over once every month most part of the Old Testament once a year the New thrice and hath so sorted the Lessons Prayers Psalms Epistles and Gospels for some Festivals that they edifie as much as any ordinary Sermons if people were but so wise as to consider the wise directions of the Church and to value her prudence as much as they do their own foolish humors Now the Lessons are taken one out of the Old another out of the New Testament that by frequent reading of them we may observe the Harmony of both for as the Cherubins of Glory looked each upon other and both closed with their wings over the Mercy-seat so the Two Testaments look each upon other both upon Christ who is the supplement of the one and the complement of the other in the one promised in the other exhibited the Law being an hidden Gospel and the Gospel a revealed Law The Patriarchs Prophets Evangelists Apostles wrote by the same Spirit pointed at the same Messias were saved by the same Faith and this may very much confirm us in the truth of the Scriptures when we read that exactly fulfilled in the New Testament which was so punctually foretold in the Old Besides it may be a means of converting the Jews as well as confirming us Christians for they may in time embrace Christ's Gospel with us when they see us embrace Moses and the Prophets together with them But in taking Lessons first out of the Old Testament and then out of the New the Church observes the method of the Holy Spirit who first published the Old then the New first the precepts of the Law then of the Gospel and by this method we are taught to go forward in our knowledge from smaller things to greater from the lowest to the highest for the Law is as a Paedagogue teaching the first Rudiments the Institutions of highest perfection are contained in the Gospel The Minister is to read the Lessons distinctly with a sober grave and audible voice and he is to turn himself towards the people when he reads because he is upon an office directed to them whereas in Prayer he looks another way towards the more eminent part of the Church where use to be placed the Symbols of God's more especial presence with whom the Minister in Prayer hath chiefly to do For the same reason we may suppose that the Christians in former times used to pray with their faces Eastward because in the Chancel which was the East part of the Church stood the Holy Table where the highest of Religious Services were usually performed and the Sacrament of Christ's body and bloud was administred which is the special sign of God's mysterious presence The Jews at the reading of the Law and other Scriptures looked toward the people but in Prayer toward the Mercy-seat or principal part of the Temple Psal 28.2 and Christians may in all probability do the like in imitation of the Jews for as their Mercy-seat was a type and figure of Christ so the Holy Table and the Sacred Mysteries there performed are representations of him in a more special manner Neither did the Jews nor do the Christians this out of any superstitious conceit that God cannot or will not hear our Prayers unless we look Eastward when we pray as the Jews looked toward the Oracle or Mercy-seat for we know God is Omnipresent every where present yet for all this Christ directed us by his form of prayer to look towards Heaven when we pray because it is the Throne of God Te Deum Laudamus WE praise thee O God we acknowledge thee to be the Lord Psal 67.3 Psal 99.34 Psal 148.1 All the Earth doth worship thee the Father everlasting To thee all Angels cry aloud the Heavens and all the Powers therein Psal 148.2 To thee Cherubin and Seraphin continually do cry Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory Isa 6.3 Rev. 4.8 Isa 66.1 Jer. 23.24 The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee Rev. 4.10 11. The noble army of Martyrs praise thee Rev. 6.9 10. The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee Psal 67.2 The Father of an infinite Majesty Psal 93.1 Thine honourable true and onely Son Mat. 17.5 Luk. 1.32 Heb. 1.3 4 5. Also the Holy Ghost the Comforter John 14.26 Thou art the King of Glory O Christ Rev. 17.14 Psal 24.8 Luk. 19.38 Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father Rom. 1.4 Isa 9.6 Luk. 1.35 John 8.58 John 17.5 When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man thou didst not abhor the Virgins womb Philip. 2.6 7. Mat. 1.25 When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death thou didst open the kingdom of Heaven to all believers John 14.2 3. John 17.24 Heb. 9.8 9 10 11. Heb. 10.19 20. Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father Act. 2.33 Heb. 10.12 Heb. 12.2 We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge Rom. 2.16 Act. 1.11 Act. 17.31 We therefore pray thee help thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious bloud 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Psal 74.2 Make them to be numbred with thy Saints 〈◊〉 in glory everlasting Colos 1.12 John 17.22 O Lord save thy people and bless thine heritage Govern them and lift them up for ever Joel 2.17 Psal 28.9 Day by day we magnifie thee Psal 96 2◠Psal 145.2 And we worship thy Name ever world without end Psal 61.8 Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us this day without sin Psal 17.5 Gen. 20.6 O Lord have mercy upon us have mercy upon us Psal 123.3 O Lord
read that he was saith Ambrose but we never read when he was not begotten of his Father before all worlds but the manner of his begetting or his generation who can declare Isa 53.8 The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son neither made nor created nor begotten but proceeding John 14.26 John 15.26 How the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son we are not able to say need not to search only because revealed we ought to believe it so far as it is revealed The Holy Ghost's procession is as ineffable as the Son's generation I know not how saith St. Augustine to distinguish betwixt that and this for as both are credible so both are ineffable So there is one Father not three Fathers one Son not three Sons one Holy Ghost not three Holy Ghosts Ephes 4.6 John 3.16 Ephes 4.4 And in this Trinity none is afore or after other none is greater or less then another But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal John 10.30 Philip. 2.6 1 John 5.7 So that in all things as is aforesaid the Vnity in Trinity and the Trinity in Vnity is to be worshipped Rom. 11.36 1 John 2.22 23. Revel 4.8 Isa 6.3 He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity That is The Christian Religion which offers Salvation to all who shall embrace it obliges those who will become Proselytes to it to believe God to be as he hath revealed himself to be in his holy Word that is God Father Son and Holy Ghost Mat. 28.19 God Father Word and Holy Ghost 1 John 5.7 Three and yet but one three Persons and yet but one God This Mystery of the Trinity saith Bernard is to be embraced by Faith not searched into by Reason I believe saith he the eternal and blessed Trinity though I understand it not and apprehend that by Faith which I cannot comprehend by Reason Many of the Fathers have undertaken to give us some adumbrations of this Mystery which yet cannot be seen clearly and therefore ought not to be examined curiously Tertullian hath shadowed it forth by the same Sun in its body beams and light Lactantius by the same water in its Fountain Spring and River Augustine by the same Soul in its understanding memory and will Basil by the three distinct colours in the Rain-bow Jerome by the same hand arm and fingers Meletius by three fingers And the Hand which appeared to Belshazzar upon the wall Dan. 5.5 was a hand with three fingers say some Expositors upon the place Humane eloquence saith St. Augustine hath laboured much in this Mystery but wanted words to express it Yet however Reason cannot instruct us to know what is hid it should direct us to believe what is revealed in Scripture concerning this Mystery Hereticks have endeavoured to break this mysterious knot which they were not able to untie yet they themselves have been broken and this Mystery is preserved Ignatius Scholar to St. John the Evangelist hath defended it in his Epistles so hath Vincentius Lyrinensis in his Golden Treatise so have Tertullian and St. Augustine in their Books written of it so Athanasius in his most excellent Treatise entituled God the Word incarnate and more eminent writers which I forbear now to mention We read Psal 50. ver 21. some men who were far enough from being good men charged by God himself who did so far mistake God and themselves too that they thought God like themselves when they were not themselves I know that place is properly applicable to men of the most vitious lives and putrified manners to such as deny God at least in their practises yet it may after a sort be applyed to those also who mistake him upon another account and presume to be too familiar with him only because they are not well instructed to know their distance who discourse of God and of Religion as of common things and by so doing draw contempt and irreverence towards both To advance the reputation of Religion and to gain it that respect and reverence which it ought to have we must advance the reputation of God first and shew him to be such a one as is rather to be admired and adored then to be drawn into a low esteem by our over-much familiarity This Creed serves now for such a purpose it being framed up not so much to advance our knowledge as to edifie our reverence that we may have more humble and reverend conceits of God and of Religion too when we shall see how much fools we are though we may take our selves to be very wise men and that all the knowledge we have of God in respect of that which we cannot know is but ignorance This Creed may serve to check that pride which is so radicated in our natures that we presume to be acquainted with all the ways methods and operations of God with all Religion and all that is Religious whereas though revealed to us by the Creatures and the Scriptures we know very little of God himself The greatest part of what we know of him is but the least part of what we know not of him There is nothing in God but what is very mysterious he was not God if he could be comprehended not only the mystery of Godliness which takes up the latter part of this Creed is a great mystery 1 Tim. 3.16 but the mystery of the Godhead which takes up the former part is also a very great mystery Now this should beget in us fear and reverence that we have such a God to do withall upon all good occasions who when he is brought the clearest down to our understanding is yet above it The more he reveals himself to us the more is he hid from us he cloaths himself with light yet we can see nothing but the dark side of him that which reveals other things to us hides him from us He is not far from us Act. 17.27 yet he is out of our reach He makes his approaches to us and yet is unapproachable 1 Tim. 6.16 He is visible in his works Rom. 1.19 20. and yet invisible in himself 1 Tim. 6.16 He gives himself several names and this amongst the rest I am that I am Exod. 3.14 as to shew him a God unchangable so to shew him a God unspeakable The three great works wherein he was most manifest are Creation Redemption and Sanctification wherein we admire three and are to adore but one we may discover three Persons and yet we must pay our Devotions and Adorations but to one God In the Creation we have three Persons creating yet but one Creator The creation of the matter is ascribed to the power of the Father the disposition of the form to the wisdom of the Son the preservation of the whole to the love of the Holy Ghost The Persons are three and yet inseparable acting by a strange order in these three great works yet acting inseparably In the first of Genesis where