we that no publick detriment would follow upon the want of honorable Personages Ecclesiastical to be used in those Cases It will be haply said That the highest might learn to stoop and not to disdain the advice of some circumspect wise and vertuâ—us Minister of God albeit the Ministery were nor by such degrees distinguished What Princes in that case might or should do it is not material Such difference being presupposed therefore as we have proved already to have been the Ordinance of God there is no judicious man will ever make any question or doubt but that fit and direct it is for the highest and chiefest Order in God's Clergy to be imployed before others about so near and necessary Offices as the sacred estate of the greatest on earth doth require For this cause Ioshua had Eliazer David Abiathar Constantine Hosius Bishop of Corâ—nba other Emperors and Kings their Prelates by whom in private for with Princes this is the most effectual way of doing good to be adminished counselled comforted and if need were reproved Whensoever Sovereign Rulers are willing to admit these so necessary private conferences for their Spiritual and ghostly good inasmuch as they do for the time while they take advice grant a kinde of Superiority unto them of whom they receive it albeit haply they can be contented even so farr to bend to the gravest and chiefest Persons in the Order of God's Clergy yet this of the very best being rarely and hardly obtained now that there are whos 's greater and higher Callings do somewhat more proportion them unto that ample conceit and spirit wherewith the minde of so powerable Persons we possessed what should we look for in case God himself not authorizing any by miraculous means as of old he did his Prophets the equal meaness of all did leave in respect of Calling no more place of decency for one then for another to be admitted Let unexperienced wits imagin what pleaseth them in having to deal with so great Personages these Personal differences are so necessary that there must be regard had of them 4. Kingdoms being principally next unto God's Almightiness and the Soveraignty of the highest under God upheld by wisdom and by valour as by the chiefest human means to cause continuance in safety with honor for the labors of them who attend the service of God we reckon as means Divine to procure our protection from Heavens from hence it riseth that men excelling in either of these or descending from such as for excellency either way have been enobled or possesing howsoever the rooms of such as should be in Politick wisdom or in Martial prowess eminent are had in singular recommendation Notwithstanding because they are by the state of Nobility great but not thereby made inclinable to good things such they oftentimes prove even under the best Princes as under David certain of the Jewish Nobility were In Polity and Council the World had not Achitophels equal nor Hell his equal in deadly malice Ioab the General of the Host of Israel valiant industrious fortunate in Warr but withal head-strong cruel treacherous void of Piety towards God in a word so conditioned that easie it is not to define whether it were for David harder to miss the benefit of his War-like hability or to bear the enormity of his other Crimes As well for the cherishing of those vertues therefore wherein if Nobility do chance to flourish they are both an ornament and a stay to the Common-wealth wherein they live as also for the bridling of those disorders which if they loosly run into they are by reason of their greatness dangerous what help could thereever have been invented more Divine than the sorting of the Clergy into such Degrees that the chiefest of the Prelacy being matched in a kinde of equal yoke as it were with the higher the next with the lower degree of Nobility the reverend Authority of the one might be to the other as a courteous bridle a mean to keep them lovingly in aw that are exorbitant and to correct such excesses in them as whereunto their Courage State and Dignity maketh them over-prone O that there were for encouragement of Prelates herein that lactimation of all Christian Kings and Princes towards them which sometime a famous King of this Land either had or pretended to have for the countenancing of a principal Prelate under him in the actions of Spiritual Authority Let my Lord Archbishop know saith he that if a Bishop or Earl or any other great Person yea if my own chosen Son shall presume to withstand or to hinder his will and disposition whereby he may be with-held from performing the work of the Embass age committed unto him such a one shall finde that of his contempt I will shew my self no less a Persecutor and Revenger than if Treason were committed against mine own very Crown and Dignity Sith therefore by the Fathers and first Founders of this Common-weal it hath upon great experience and fore-cast been judged most for the good of all sorts that as the whole Body Politick wherein we live should be for strengths sake a three-fold Cable consisting of the King as a Supreme Head over all of Peers and Nobles under him and of the People under them so likewise that in this conjunction of States the second wreath of that Cable should for important respects consist as well of Lords Spiritual as Temporal Nobility and Prelacy being by this mean twined together how can it possibly be avoided but that the tearing away of the one must needs exceedingly weaken the other and by consequent impair greatly the good of all 5. The force of which detriment there is no doubt but that the common sort of men would feel to their helpless wo how goodly a thing soever they now surmise it to be that themselves and their godly Teachers did all alone without controulment of their Prelate For if the manifold jeopardies whereto a people destitute of Pastors is subject be unavoidable without Government and if the benefit of Government whether it be Ecclesiastical or Civil do grow principally from them who are principal therein as hath been proved out of the Prophet who albeit the people of Israel had sundry inferior Governors ascribeth not unto them the publick benefit of Government but maketh mention of Moses and Aaron only the Chief Prince and Chief Prelate because they were the well-spring of all the good which others under then did may we not boldly conclude that to take from the people their Prelate is to leave them in effect without Guides at leastwise without those Guides which are the strongest hands that God doth direct them by Then didst lead thy People like Sheep saith the Prophet by the hands of Moses and Aaron If now there arise any matter of Grievances between the Pastor and the People that are under him they have their Ordinary a Judge indifferent to determine their Causes and to end their strife
men as contrariwise the ground of all our happiness and the seed of whatsoever perfect vertue groweth from us is a right opinion touching things divine this kind of knowledge we may justly set down for the first and chiefest thing which God imparteth unto his People and our duty of receiving this at his merciful hands for the first of those religious Offices wherewith we publickly honour him on earth For the instruction therefore of all sorts of men to eternal life it is necessary that the sacred and saving truth of God be openly published unto them Which open publication of heavenly mysteries is by an excellency termed preaching For otherwise there is not any thing publickly notified but we may in that respect rightly and properly say it is preached So that when the School of God doth use it as a word of Art we are accordingly to understand it with restraint to such special matter as that School is accustomed to publish We find not in the World any People that have lived altogether without Religion And yet this duty of Religion which provideth that publickly all sorts of men may be instructed in the fear of God is to the Church of God and hath been always so peculiar that none of the Heathens how curious soever in searching out all kinds of outward Ceremonies like to ours could ever once so much as endeavour to resemble herein the Churches care for the endless good of her Children Ways of teaching there have been sundry always usual in Gods Church For the first introduction of youth to the knowledge of God the Jews even till this day have their Catechisms With Religion it fareth as with other Sciences the first delivery of the Elements thereof must for like consideration be framed according to the weak and slender capacity of young Beginners unto which manner of teaching Principles in Christianity the Apostle in the sixth to the Hebrews is himself understood to allude For this cause therefore as the Decalogue of Moses declareth summarily those things which we ought to do the Prayer of our Lord whatsoever we should request or desire so either by the Apostles or at the least-wise out of their Writings we have the substance of Christian Belief compendiously drawn into few and short Articles to the end that the weakness of no mans wit might either hinder altogether the knowledge or excuse the utter ignorance of needful things Such as were trained up in these Rudiments and were so made fit to be afterward by Baptism received into the Church the Fathers usually in their Writings do term Hearers as having no farther communion or fellowship with the Church than only this that they were admitted to hear the Principles of Christian Faith made plain unto them Catechizing may be in Schools it may be in private Families But when we make it a kind of Preaching we mean always the publick performance thereof in the open hearing of men because things are preached not in that they are taught but in that they are published 19. Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles were in their times all Preachers of Gods Truth some by Word some by Writing some by both This they did partly as faithful Witnesses making meer relation what God himself had revealed unto them and partly as careful Expounders Teachers Perswaders thereof The Church in like case Preacheth still first publishing by way of Testimony or relation the truth which from them she hath received even in such sort as it was received written in the sacred volumes of Scripture Secondly by way of explication discovering the mysteries which lye hid therein The Church as a Witness preacheth his meer revealed Truth by reading publickly the Sacred Scripture So that a second kind of preaching is the reading of holy Writ For thus we may the boldlier speak being strengthened with the examples of so reverend a Prelate as saith that Moses from the time of antient Generations and Ages long since past had amongst the Cities of the very Gentiles them that preached him in that he was read every Sabbath day For so of necessity it must be meant in as much as we know that the Jews have alwayes had their weekly Readings of the Law of Moses but that they always had in like manner their weekly Sermons upon some part of the Law of Moses we no where find Howbeit still we must here remember that the Church by her publick reading of the Book of God preacheth only as a Witness Now the principal thing required in a Witness is Fidelity Wherefore as we cannot excuse that Church which either through corrupt translations of Scripture delivereth instead of divine Speeches any thing repugnant unto that which God speaketh or through falsified additions proposeth that to the people of God as Scripture which is in truth no Scripture So the blame which in both these respects hath been laid upon the Church of England is surely altogether without cause Touching Translations of Holy Scripture albeit we may not disallow of their painful travels herein who strictly have tyed themselves to the very Original letter yet the judgment of the Church as we see by the practise of all Nations Greeks Latines Persians Syrians AEthiopians Arabians hath been ever That the fittest for publick Audience are such as following a middle course between the rigor of literal Translators and the liberty of Paraphrasts do with greatest shortness and plainness deliver the meaning of the Holy Ghost Which being a labour of so great difficulty the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for So that except between the words of translation and the mind of Scripture it self there be Contradiction every little difference should not seem an intolerable blemish necessarily to be spunged out Whereas therefore the Prophet David in a certain Psalm doth say concerning Moses and Aaron that they were obedient to the word of God and in the self-same place â—or allowed Translation saith they were not obedient we are for this cause challenged as manifest Gain-sayers of Scripture even in that which we read for Scripture unto the people But for as much as words are resemblances of that which the mind of the Speaker conceiveth and Conceits are Images representing that which is spoken of it followeth that they who will judge of words should have recourse to the things themselves from whence they rise In setting down that Miracle at the sight whereof Peter fell down astonished before the feet of Jesus and cryed Depart Lord I am a Sinner the Evangelist St. Luke saith the store of the Fish which they took was such that the Net they took it in brake and the Ships which they loaded therewith sunk St. Iohn recording the like Miracle saith That albeit the Fishes in number were so many yet the Net with so great a weight was not broken Suppose they had written both of one Miracle Although there be in their
it self could not reach unto Yet those things also we believe knowing by Reason that the Scripture is the Word of God In the presence of Festus a Roman and of King Agrippa a Jew St. Paul omitting the one who neither knew the Jews Religion not the Books whereby they were taught it speaks unto the other of things foreshewed by Moses and the Prophets and performed in Jesus Christ intending thereby to prove himself so unjustly accused that unless his Judges did condemn both Moses and the Prophets him they could not chuse but acquit who taught onely that fulfilled which they so long since had foretold His cause was easie to be discerned what was done their eyes were witnesses what Moses and the Prophets did speak their Books could quickly shew It was no hard thing for him to compare them which knew the one and believed the other King Agrippa believest thou the Prophets I know thou dost The question is how the Books of the Prophets came to be credited of King Agrippa For what with him did authorise the Prophets the like with us doth cause the rest of the Scripture of God to be of credit Because we maintain That in Scripture we are taught all things necessary unto Salvation hereupon very childishly it is by some demanded What Scripture can teach us the Sacred Authority of the Scripture upon the knowledge whereof our whole Faith and Salvation dependeth As though there were any kinde of Science in the World which leadeth men unto knowledge without presupposing a number of things already known No Science doth make known the first Principles whereon it buildeth but they are always either taken as plain and manifest in themselves or as proved and granted already some former knowledge having made them evident Scripture teacheth all supernaturally revealed Truth without the knowledge whereof Salvation cannot be attained The main principal whereupon our belief of all things therein contained dependeth is That the Scriptures are the Oracles of God himself This in it self we cannot say is evident For then all men that hear it would acknowledge it in heart as they do when they hear that every whole is more then any part of that whole because this in it self is evident The other we know that all do not acknowledge when they hear it There must be therefore some former knowledge presupposed which doth herein assure the hearts of all Believers Scripture teacheth us that saving Truth which God hath discovered unto the World by Revelation and it presumeth us taught otherwise that it self is Divine and Sacred The question then being By what means we are taught this some answer That to learn it we have no other way then onely Tradition as namely that so we believe because both we from our Predecessors and they from theirs have so received But is this enough That which all mens experience teacheth them may not in any wise be denied And by experience we all know that the first outward Motive leading men so to esteem of the Scripture is the authority of Gods Church For when we know the whole Church of God hath that opinion of the Scripture we judge it even at the first an impudent thing for any man bred and brought up in the Church to be of a contrary minde without cause Afterwards the more we bestow our labor in reading or hearing the Mysteries thereof the more we finde that the thing it self doth answer our received opinion concerning it So that the former enducement prevailing somewhat with us before doth now much more prevail when the very thing hath Ministred further Reason If Infidels or Atheists chance at any time to call it in question this giveth us occasion to sift what reason there is whereby the testimony of the Church concerning Scripture and our own perswasion which Scripture it self hath confirmed may be proved a truth infallible In which case the ancient Fathers being often constrained to shew what warrant they had so much to relie upon the Scriptures endeavored still to maintain the authority of the Books of God by Arguments such as unbelievers themselves must needs think reasonable if they judged thereof as they should Neither is it a thing impossible or greatly heard even by such kinde of proofs so to manifest and clear that point that no man living shall be able to deny it without denying some apparent Principle such as all men acknowledge to be true Wherefore if I believe the Gospel yet is reason of singular use for that it confirmeth me in this my belief the more If I do not as yet believe nevertheless to bring me into the number of Believers except Reason did somewhat help and were an Instrument which God doth use unto such purposes what should it boot to dispute with Infidels or godless persons for their conversion and perswasion in that point Neither can I think that when grave and learned men do sometime hold that of this Principle there is no proof but by the testimony of the Spirit which assureth our hearts therein it is their meaning to exclude utterly all force which any kinde of Reason may have in that behalf but I rather incline to interpret such their speeches as if they had more expresly set down that other motives and enducements be they never so strong and consonant unto Reason are notwithstanding ineffectual of themselves to work Faith concerning this Principle if the special Grace of the Holy Ghost concur not to the enlightning of our mindes For otherwise I doubt not but men of wisdom and judgment will grant That the Church in this point especially is furnished with Reason to stop the mouths of her impious Adversaries and that as it were altogether bootless to alledge against them what the Spirit hath taught us so likewise that even to our own selves it needeth Caution and Explication how the testimony of the Spirit may be discerned by what means it may be known lest men think that the Spirit of God doth testifie those things which the spirit of error suggesteth The operations of the Spirit especially these ordinary which be common unto all true Christian men are as we know things secret and undiscernable even to the very soul where they are because their nature is of another and an higher kinde then that they can be by us perceived in this life Wherefore albeit the Spirit lead us into all truth and direct us in all goodness yet because these workings of the Spirit in us are so privy and secret we theresore stand on a plainer ground when we gather by Reason from the quality of things believed or done that the Spirit of God hath directed us in both then if we settle our selves to believe or to do any certain particular thing as being moved thereto by the Spirit But of this enough To go from the Books of Scripture to the sense and meaning thereof because the Sentences which are by the Apostles recited out of the Psalms to prove
my Commandments always that it might go well with them and with their Children for ever Go say unto them Return you to your Tents But stand thou here with me and I will tell thee all the Commandments and the Ordinances and the Laws which thou shalt teach them that they may do them in the Land which I have given them to possess From this latter kinde the former are plainly distinguished in many things They were not both at one time delivered neither both after one sort nor to one end The former uttered by the voice of God himself in the hearing of Six hundred thousand men the former written with the Finger of God the former termed by the name of a Covenant the former given to be kept without either mention of time how long or of place where On the other side the latter given after and neither written by God himself nor given unto the whole multitude immediately from God but unto Moses and from him to them both by word and writing Finally The latter termed Ceremonies Judgments Ordinances but no where Covenants The observation of the latter restrained unto the Land where God would establish them to inhabite The Laws Positive are not framed without regard had to the place and persons for the which they are made If therefore Almighty God in framing their Laws had an eye unto the nature of that people and to the Countrey where they were to dwell if these peculiar and proper considerations were respected in the making of their Laws and must be also regarded in the Positive Laws of all other Nations besides then seeing that Nations are not all alike surely the giving of one kinde of Positive Laws unto one onely people without any liberty to alter them is but a slender proof that therefore one kinde should in like sort be given to serve everlastingly for all But that which most of all maketh for the clearing of this point is That the Jews who had Laws so particularly determining and so fully instructing them in all affairs what to do were notwithstanding continually inured with causes exorbitant and such as their Laws had not provided for And in this point much more is granted us then we ask namely that for one thing which we have left to the Order of the Church they had twenty which were undecided by the express Word of God and that as their Ceremonies and Sacraments were multiplied above ours even so grew the number of those cases which were not determined by any express word So that if we may devise one Law they by this reason might devise twenty and if their devising so many were not forbidden shall their example prove us forbidden to devise as much as one Law for the ordering of the Church We might not devise no not one if their example did prove that our Saviour hath utterly forbidden all alteration of his Laws in as much as there can be no Law devised but needs it must either take away from his or add thereunto more or less and so make some kinde of alteration But of this so large a grant we are content not to take advantage Men are oftentimes in a sudden passion more liberal then they would be if they had leisure to take advice And therefore so bountiful words of course and frank speeches we are contented to let pass without turning them to advantage with too much rigor It may be they had rather be listned unto when they commend the Kings of Israel which attempted nothing in the Government of the Church without the express Word of God and when they urge that God left nothing in his Word undescribed whether it concerned the Worship of God or outward Polity nothing unset down and therefore charged them strictly to keep themselves unto that without any alteration Howbeit seeing it cannot be denied but that many things there did belong unto the course of their Publick Affairs wherein they had no express word at all to shew precisely what they should do the difference between their condition and ours in these cases will bring some light unto the truth of this present Controversie Before the fact of the son of Shelomith there was no Law which did appoint any certain punishment for Blasphemers That wretched creature being therefore deprehended in that impiety was held in Ward till the minde of the Lord was known concerning his case The like practice is also mentioned upon occasion of a breach of the Sabbath day They finde a poor silly creature gathering sticks in the Wilderness they bring him unto Moses and Aaron and all the Congregation they lay him in hold because it was not declared what should be done with him till God had said unto Moses This man shall die the death The Law requireth to keep the Sabbath day but for the breach of the Sabbath what punishment should be inflicted it did not appoint Such occasions as these are rare And for such things as do fall scarce once in many ages of men it did suffice to take such order as was requisite when they fell But if the case were such as being not already determined by Law were notwithstanding likely oftentimes to come into question it gave occasion of adding Laws that were not before Thus it fell out in the case of those men polluted and of the daughters of Zelophehad whose causes Moses having brought before the Lord received Laws to serve for the like in time to come The Jews to this end had the Oracle of God they had the Prophets And by such means God himself instructed them from Heaven what to do in all things that did greatly concern their state and were not already set down in the Law Shall we then hereupon argue even against our own experience and knowledge Shall we seek to perswade men that of necessity it is with us as it was with them that because God is ours in all respects as much as theirs therefore either no such way of direction hath been at any time or if it hath been it doth still continue in the Church or if the same do not continue that yet it must be at the least supplied by some such mean as pleaseth us to account of equal force A more dutiful and religious way for us were to admire the Wisdom of God which shineth in the beautiful variety of all things But most in the manifold and yet harmonious dissimilitude of those ways whereby his Church upon Earth is guided from age to age throughout all Generations of Men. The Jews were necessarily to continue till the coming of Christ in the flesh and the gathering of Nations unto him So much the Promise made unto Abraham did import So much the Prophesie of Iacob at the hour of his death did foreshew Upon the safety therefore of their very outward state and condition for so long the after good of the whole World and the Salvation of all did depend Unto their so
likewise said Thou shalt utterly deface and destroy all these Synagogues and places where such Idols have been worshipped This Law containeth the Temporal punishment which God hath set down and willeth that men execute for the breach of the other Law They which spare them therefore do but reserve as the Hypocrite Saul did exterable things to worship God withall The truth is that as no man serveth God and loveth him not so neither can any man sincerely love God and not extreamly abhor that sin which is the highest degree of Treason against the Supream Guide and Monarch of the whole world with whose Divine Authority and Power it investeth others By means whereof the state of Idolaters is two wayes miserable First In that which they worship they find no succour and secondly At his hands whom they ought to serve there is no other thing to be looked for but the effects of most just displeasure the withdrawing of Grace dereliction in this world and in the world to come confusion Paul and Barnabas when Infidels admiring their vertues went about to sacrifice unto them rent their Garments in token of horrour and as frighted persons run crying thorow the press of the people O men wherefore doyâ— these things They knew the force of that dreadful Curse whereunto Idolatry maketh subject Nor is there cause why the guilty sustaining the same should grudge or complain of Injustice For whatsoever Evil befalleth in that respect themselves have made themselves worthy to suffer it As for those things either whereon or else wherewith Superstition worketh polluted they are by such abuse and deprived of that Dignity which their Nature delighteth in For there is nothing which doth not grieve and as it were even loath it self whensoever iniquity causeth it to serve unto vile purposes Idolatry therefore maketh whatsoever it toucheth the worse Howbeit sith Creatures which have no understanding can shew no will and where no will is there is no sin and only that which sinneth is subject to punishment Which way should any such Creature be punishable by the Law of God There may be cause sometime to abolish or to extiguish them But surely never by way of punishment to the things themselves Yea farther howsoever the Law of Moses did punish Idolaters we find not that God hath appointed for us any definite or certain temporal judgment which the Christian Magistrate is of necessity for ever bound to execute upon Offenders in that kind much less upon things that way abused as mere instruments For what God did command touching Canaan the same concerneth not us any otherwise than only as a fearful pattern of his just displeasure and wrath against sinful Nations It teacheth us how God thought good to plague and afflict them it doth not appoint in what form and manner we ought to punish the sin of Idolaty in all others Unless they will say that because the Israelites were commanded to make no Covenant with the people of that Land therefore Leagues and Truces made between Superstitious Persons and such as serve God aright are unlawful altogether or because God commanded the Israelites to smite the Inhabitants of Canaan and to root them out that therefore reformed Churches are bound to put all others to the edge of the sword Now whereas Commandment was also given to destroy all places where the Canaanites had served their gods and not to convert any one of them to the honour of the true God this Precept had reference unto a special intent and purpose which was that there should be but one only Place in the whole Land whereunto the People might bring such Offerings Gifts and Sacrifices as their Levitical Law did require By which Law severe charge was given them in that respect not to convert those places to the worship of the living God where Nations before them had served Idols But to seek the place which the Lord their God should chuse out of all their Tribes Besides it is reason we should likewise consider how great a difference there is between their proceedings who erect a new Common-wealth which is to have neither People nor Law neither Regiment nor Religion the same that was and theirs who only reform a decayed estate by reducing it to that perfection from which it hath swarved In this case we are to retain as much in the other as little of former things as we may Sith therefore Examples have not generally the force of Laws which all men ought to keep but of Counsels only and Perswasions not amiss to be followed by them whose Case is the like surely where Cases are so unlike as theirs and ours I see not how that which they did should induce much less any way enforce us to the same practise especially considering that Groves and Hill-altars were while they did remain both dangerous in regard of the secret access which People superstitiously given might have always thereunto with ease neither could they remaining serve with any fitness unto better purpose whereas our Temples their former abuse being by order of Law removed are not only free from such peril but withall so conveniently framed for the people of God to serve and honour him therein that no man beholding them can chuse but think it exceeding great pity they should be ever any otherwise employed Yea but the Cattel of Amalek you will say were fit for sacrifice and this was the very conceit which sometime deceived Soul It was so Nor do I any thing doubt but that Saul upon this conceit might even lawfully have offered to God those reserved spoyls had not the Lord in that particular case given special charge to the contrary And therefore notwithstanding the commandement of Israel to destroy Canaanites Idolaters may be converied and live So the Temples which have served Idolatry as Instruments may be sanctified again and continue albeit to Israel commandement have been given that they should destroy all Idolatrous places in their Lead and to the good Kings of Israel commendation for fulfilling to the evil for disobeying the same Commandement sometimes punishment always sharp and severe reproof hath even from the Lord himself befallen Thus much it may suffice to have written in defence of those Christian Oratories the overthrow and ruine whereof is desired not now by Infidels Pagans or Turks but by a special refined Sect of Christian Believers pretending themselves exceedingly grieved at our Solemnities in erecting Churches at the Names which we suffer them to hold at their form and fashion at the stateliness of them and costliness at the opinion which we have of them and at the manifold supertitious abuses whereunto they have been put 18. Places of publick resort being thus provided for our repair thither is especially for mutual conference and as it were commerce to be had between God and us Because therefore want of the knowledge of God is the cause of all iniquity amongst
unto God the Sacrifice of Prayse and Thanksgiving in the Congregation so earnestlie exhorteth others to sing Praises unto the Lord in his Courts in his Sanctuary before the memorial of his Holiness and so much complaineth of his own uncomfortable exile wherein although he sustained many most grievous indignities and indured the want of sundry both pleasures and honours before injoyed yet as if this one were his only grief and the rest not felt his speeches are all of the heavenly benefit of Publick Assemblies and the happiness of such as had free access thereunto 25. A great part of the Cause wherefore religious mindes are so inflamed with the love of Publick devotion is that vertue force and efficacy which by experience they finde that the very form and reverend solemnity of Common Prayer duly ordered hath to help that imbecillity and weakness in us by means whereof we are otherwise of our selves the less apt to perform unto God so heavenly a service with such affection of heart and disposition in the powers of our Souls as is requisite To this end therefore all things hereunto appertaining have been ever thought convenient to be done with the most solemnity and majesty that the wisest could devise It is not with Publick as with Private Prayer In this rather secresie is commanded than outward shew whereas that being the publick act of a whole Society requireth accordingly more care to be had of external appearance The very assembling of men therefore unto this service hath been ever solemn And concerning the place of assembly although it serve for other uses as well as this yet seeing that our Lord himself hath to this as to the chiefest of all other plainly sanctified his own Temple by entituling it the House of Prayer what preeminence of dignity soever hath been either by the Ordinance or through the special favour and providence of God annexed unto his Sanctuary the principal cause thereof must needs be in regard of Common Prayer For the honour and furtherance whereof if it be as the gravest of the antient Fathers seriously were perswaded and do oftentimes plainly teach affirming that the House of Prayer is a Court beautified with the presence of Celestial powers that there we stand we pray we sound forth Hymnes unto God having his Angels intermingled as our Associates and that with reference hereunto the Apostle doth require so great care to be had of decency for the Angels sake how can we come to the House of Prayer and not be moved with the very glory of the place it self so to frame our affections Praying as doth best beseem them whose Suits the Almighty doth there sit to hear and his Angels attend to further When this was ingrafted in the mindes of men there needed no penal Statutes to draw them unto publick Prayer The warning sound was no sooner heard but the Churches were presently filled the pavements covered with bodies prostrate and washt with their tears of devout joy And as the place of publick Prayer is a Circumstance in the outward form thereof which hath moment to help devotion so the Person much more with whom the People of God do joyn themselves in this Action as with him that standeth and speaketh in the presence of God for them The authority of his Place the fervour of his Zeal the piety and gravity of his whole Behaviour must needs exceedingly both grace and set forward the service he doth The authority of his Calling is a furtherance because if God have so farr received him into favour as to impose upon him by the hands of men that Office of blessing the People in his Name and making intercession to him in theirs which Office he hath sanctified with his own most gracious Promise and ratified that promise by manifest actual performance thereof when others before in like place have done the same is not his very Ordination a seal as it were to us that the self-same Divine love which hath chosen the instrument to work with will by that instrument effect the thing whereto he ordained it in blessing his People and accepting the Prayers which his Servant offereth up unto God for them It was in this respect a comfortable Title which the Antients used to give unto God's Ministers terming them usually God's most beloved which were ordained to procure by their Prayers his love and favour towards all Again if there be not zeal and fervency in him which proposeth for the rest those sutes and supplications which they by their joyful Acclamations must ratifie if he praise not God with all his might if he pour not out his Soul in Prayer if he take not their Causes to heart and speak not as Moses Daniel and Ezra did for their People how should there be but in them frozen coldness when his affections seem benummed from whom theirs should take fire Vertue and godliness of life are required at the hands of the Minister of God not only in that he is to teach and instruct the People who for the most part are rather led away by the ill example then directed aright by the wholesom instruction of them whose Life swarveth from the rule of their own Doctrine but also much more in regard of this other part of his Function whether we respect the weakness of the People apt to loathe and abhorr the Sanctuary when they which perform the service thereof are such as the Sonnes of Heli were or else consider the inclination of God himself who requireth the lifting up of pure hands in Prayers and hath given the World plainly to understand that the Wicked although they cry shall not be heard They are not fit Supplicants to seek his mercy on the behalf of others whose own un-repented sins provoke his just indignation Let thy Priests therefore O Lord be evermore cloathed with Righteousness that thy Saints may thereby with more devotion rejoice and sing But of all helps for due performance of this Service the greatest is that very set and standing order it self which framed with common advice hath both for matter and form prescribed whatsoever is herein publickly done No doubt from God it hath proceeded and by us it must be acknowledged a Work of singular care and providence that the Church hath evermore held a Prescript form of Common Prayer although not in all things every where the same yet for the most part retaining still the same analogy So that if the Liturgies of all antient Churches throughout the World be compared amongst themselves it may be easily perceived they had all one original mold and that the publick Prayer of the People of God in Churches throughly settled did never use to be voluntary Dictates proceeding from any man's extemporal wit To him which considereth the grievous and scandalous Inconveniencies whereunto they make themselves daily subject with whom any blinde and secret Corner is judged a fit House of
Life in his Body and Blood by means of this Sacrament Wherefore should the World continue still distracted and rent with so manifold Contentions when there remaineth now no Controversie saving onely about the subject where Christ is Yea even in this point no side denieth but that the Soul of Man is the receptacle of Christs presence Whereby the question is yet driven to a narrower issue nor doth any thing rest doubtful but this Whether when the Sacrament is administred Christ be whole within Man onely or else his Body and Blood be also externally seated in the very Consecrated Elements themselves Which opinion they that defend are driven either to Consubstantiate and Incorporate Christ with Elements Sacramental or to Transubstantiate and change their substance into his and so the one to hold him really but invisibly moulded up with substance of those Elements the other to hide him under the onely visible shew of Bread and Wine the substance whereof as they imagine is abolished and his succeeded in the same room All things considered and compared with that success which Truth hath hitherto had by so bitter Conflicts with Errors in this point Shall I wish that men would more give themselves to meditate with silence what we have by the Sacrament and less to dispute of the manner how If any man suppose that this were too great stupidity and dulness let us see whether the Apostles of our Lord themselves have not done the like It appeareth by many examples that they of their own disposition were very scrupulous and inquisitive yea in other cases of less importance and less difficulty always apt to move questions How cometh it to pass that so few words of so high a Mystery being uttered they receive with gladness the gift of Christ and make no shew of doubt or scruple The reason hereof is not dark to them which have any thing at all observed how the powers of the minde are wont to stir when that which we infinitely long for presenteth it self above and besides expectation Curious and intricate speculations do hinder they abate they quench such inflamed motions of delight and joy as Divine Graces use to raise when extraordinarily they are present The minde therefore feeling present joy is always marvellous unwilling to admit any other cogitation and in that case casteth off those disputes whereunto the intellectual part at other times easily draweth A manifest effect whereof may be noted if we compare with our Lords Disciples in the Twentieth of Iohn the people that are said in the Sixth of Iohn to have gone after him to Capernaum These leaving him on the one side the Sea of Tiberias and finding him again as soon as themselves by ship were arrived on the contrary side whither they knew that by ship he came not and by Land the journey was longer then according to the time he could have to travel as they wondered so they asked also Rabbi when camest thou hither The Disciples when Christ appeared to them in far more strange and miraculous manner moved no question but rejoyced greatly in that they saw For why The one sort beheld onely that in Christ which they knew was more then natural but yet their affection was not rapt therewith through any great extraordinary gladness the other when they looked on Christ were not ignorant that they saw the Well-spring of their own Everlasting felicity the one because they enjoyed not disputed the other disputed not because they enjoyed If then the presence of Christ with them did so much move Judge what their thoughts and affections were at the time of this new presentation of Christ not before their Eyes but within their Souls They had learned before That his Flesh and Blood are the true cause of Eternal Life that this they are not by the bate force of their own substance but through the dignity and worth of His Person which offered them up by way of Sacrifice for the Life of the whole World and doth make them still effectual thereunto Finally that to us they are Life in particular by being particularly received Thus much they knew although as yet they understood not perfectly to what effect or issue the same would come till at the length being assembled for no other cause which they could imagine but to have eaten the Passover onely that Moses appointed when they saw their Lord and Master with hands and eyes lifted up to Heaven first bless and consecrate for the endless good of all Generations till the Worlds end the chosen Elements of Bread and Wine which Elements made for ever the Instruments of Life by vertue of his Divine Benediction they being the first that were commanded to receive from him the first which were warranted by his promise that not onely unto them at the present time but to whomsoever they and their Successors after them did duly administer the same those Mysteries should serve as Conducts of Life and Conveyances of his Body and Blood unto them Was it possible they should hear that voice Take eat This is my Body Drink ye all of this This is my Blood Possible that doing what was required and believing what was promised the same should have present effect in them and not fill them with a kinde of fearful admiration at the Heaven which they saw in themselves They had at that time a Sea of Comfort and Joy to wade in and we by that which they did are taught that this Heavenly Food is given for the satisfying of our empty Souls and not for the exercising of our curious and subtile wits If we doubt what those admirable words may import let him be our Teacher for the meaning of Christ to whom Christ was himself a School-master let our Lords Apostle be his Interpreter content we our selves with his Explication My Body The Communion of my Body My Blood The Communion of my Blood Is there any thing more expedite clear and easie then that as Christ is termed our Life because through him we obtain life so the parts of this Sacrament are his Body and Blood for that they are so to us who receiving them receive that by them which they are termed The Bread and Cup are his Body and Blood because they are causes instrumental upon the receit whereof the Participation of his Body and Blood ensueth For that which produceth any certain effect is not vainly nor improperly said to be that very effect whereunto it tendeth Every cause is in the effect which groweth from it Our Souls and Bodies quickned to Eternal Life are effects the cause whereof is the Person of Christ His Body and Blood are the true Well-spring out of which this Life floweth So that his Body and Blood are in that very subject whereunto they minister life Not onely by effect or operation even as the influence of the Heavens is in Plants Beasts Men and in every thing which they quicken but also by a far more Divine and
the manifold works of Vertue often practised Before the powers of our mindes be brought unto some perfection our first assays and offers towards Vertue must needs be raw yet commendable because they tend unto ripeness For which cause and Wisdom of God hath commanded especially this circumstance amongst others in solemn Feasts That to Children and Novices in Religion they minister the first occasion to ask and enquire of God Whereupon if there follow but so much Piety as hath been mentioned let the Church learn to further imbecillity with Prayer Preserve Lord these good and gracious beginnings that they suddenly dry not up like the morning dew but may prosper and grow as the Trees which Rivers of Waters keep always flourishing Let all mens acclamations be Grace Grace unto it as to that first laid Corner Stone in Zerubbabels Buildings For who hath despised the day of those things which are small Or how dare we take upon us to condemn that very thing which voluntarily we grant maketh as of nothing somewhat seeing all we pretend against it is onely that as yet this somewhat is not much The days of solemnity which are but few cannot chuse but soon finish that outward exercise of Godliness which properly appertaineth to such times howbeit mens inward disposition to Vertue they both augment for the present and by their often returns bring also the same at the length unto that perfection which we most desire So that although by their necessary short continuance they abridge the present exercise of Piety in some kinde yet because by repetition they enlarge strengthen and confirm the habits of all Vertue it remaineth that we honor observe and keep them as Ordinances many ways singularly profitable in Gods Church This Exception being taken against Holidays for that they restrain the Praises of God unto certain times another followeth condemning restraint of men from their ordinary Trades and Labors at those times It is not they say in the Power of the Church to command Rest because God hath left it to all men at liberty that if they think good to bestow Six whole days in labor they may neither is it more lawful for the Church to abridge any man of that liberty which God hath granted then to take away the yoke which God hath laid upon them and to countermand what he doth expresly enjoyn They deny not but in times of publick calamity that men may the better assemble themselves to fast and pray the Church because it hath received Commandment from God to proclaim a Prohibition from ordinary works standeth bound to do it as the Jews afflicted did in Babylon But without some express Commandment from God there is no power they say under Heaven which may presume by any Decree to restrain the liberty that God hath given Which opinion albeit applied here no farther then to this present cause shaketh universally the Fabrick of Government tendeth to Anarchy and meer confusion dissolveth Families dissipateth Colledges Corporations Armies overthroweth Kingdoms Churches and whatsoever is now through the providence of God by Authority and Power upheld For whereas God hath foreptized things of the greatest weight and hath therein precisely defined as well that which every man must perform as that which no man may attempt leaving all sorts of men in the Rest either to be guided by their own good discretion if they be free from subjection to others or else to be ordered by such Commandments and Laws as proceed from those Superiors under whom they live the Patrons of Liberty have here made Solemn Proclamation that all such Laws and Commandments are void in as much as every man is left to the freedom of his own minde in such things as are not either exacted or prohibited by the Law of God And because onely in these things the Positive Precepts of men have place which Precepts cannot possibly be given without some Abridgment of their Liberty to whom they are given Therefore if the Father command the Son or the Husband the Wife or the Lord the Servant or the Leader the Soldier or the Prince the Subject to go or stand sleep or wake at such times as God himself in particular commandeth neither they are to stand in defence of the Freedom which God hath granted and to do as themselves list knowing that men may as lawfully command them things utterly forbidden by the Law of God as tye them to any thing which the Law of God leaveth free The plain contradictory whereunto is unfallibly certain Those things which the Law of God leaveth Arbitrary and at Liberty are all subject to the Positive Laws of Men which Laws for the common benefit abridge particular Mens Liberty in such things as far as the Rules of Equity will suffer This we must either maintain or else over-turn the World and make every man his own Commander Seeing then that Labor and Rest upon any one day of the Six throughout the year are granted free by the Law of God how exempt we them from the force and power of Ecclesiastical Law except we deprive the World of Power to make any Ordinance or Law at all Besides Is it probable that God should not onely allow but command concurrency of Rest with extraordinary occasions of doleful events befalling peradventure some one certain Church or not extending unto many and not as much as permit or licence the like when Piety triumphant with Joy and Gladness maketh solemn commemoration of Gods most rare and unwonted Mercies such especially as the whole race of mankinde doth or might participate Of vacation from labor in times of sorrow the onely cause is for that the general publick Prayers of the whole Church and our own private business cannot both he followed at once whereas of Rest in the famous solemnities of publick Joy there is both this consideration the same and also farther a kinde of natural repugnancy which maketh labors as hath been proved much more unfit to accompany Festival Praises of God then Offices of Humiliation and Grief Again If we sift what they bring for proof and approbation of Rest with Fasting doth it not in all respects as fully warrant and as strictly command Rest whensoever the Church hath equal reason by Feasts and gladsome solemnities to testifie publick thankfulness towards God I would know some cause why those words of the Prophet Ioel Sanctifie a Fast call a solemn Assembly which words were uttered to the Jews in misery and great distress should more binde the Church to do at all times after the like in their like perplexities then the words of Moses to the same people in a time of joyful deliverance from misery Remember this day may warrant any annual celebration of benefits no less importing the good of men and also justifie as touching the manner and form thereof what circumstance soever we imitate onely in respect of natural fitness or decency without any Jewish regard to Ceremonies such as
after one certain manner exercised But Yearly or Weekly Fasts such as ours in the Church of England they allow no farther then as the Temporal State of the Land doth require the same for the maintenance of Sea-faring-men and preservation of Cattle because the decay of the one and the waste of the other could not well be prevented but by a Politick Order appointing some such usual change of Diet as ours is We are therefore the rather to make it manifest in all mens eyes That Set-times of Fasting appointed in Spiritual Considerations to be kept by all sorts of men took not their beginning either from Montanus or any other whose Heresies may prejudice the credit and due estimation thereof but have their ground in the Law of Nature are allowable in Gods sight were in all ages heretofore and may till the Worlds end be observed not without singular use and benefit Much hurt hath grown to the Church of God through a false imagination that Fasting standeth men in no stead for any spiritual respect but onely to take down the frankness of Nature and to tame the wildeness of flesh Whereupon the World being bold to surfeit doth now blush to fast supposing that men when they fast do rather bewray a Disease then exercise a Vertue I much wonder what they who are thus perswaded do think what conceit they have concerning the Fasts of the Patriarks the Prophets the Apostles our Lord Jesus Christ himself The affections of Joy and Grief are so knit unto all the actions of mans life that whatsoever we can do or may be done unto us the sequel thereof is continually the one or the other affection Wherefore considering that they which grieve and joy as they ought cannot possibly otherwise live then as they should the Church of Christ the most absolute and perfect School of all Vertue hath by the speciall direction of Gods good Spirit hitherto always inured men from their infancy and partly with days of Festival Exercise for the framing of the one affection partly with times of a contrary sort for the perfecting of the other Howbeit over and besides this we must note that as Resting so Fasting likewise attendeth sometimes no less upon the Actions of the higher then upon the Affections of the lower part of the minde Fasting saith Tertullian is a work of reverence towards God The end thereof sometimes elevation of minde sometime the purpose thereof clean contrary The cause why Moses in the Mount did so long fast was meer divine Speculation the cause why David Humiliation Our life is a mixture of good with evil When we are partakers of good things we joy neither can we but grieve at the contrary If that befal us which maketh glad our Festival Solemnities declare our rejoycing to be in him whose meer undeserved Mercy is the Author of all happiness if any thing be either imminent or present which we shun our Watchings Fastings Cryes and Tears are unfeigned Testimonies that our selves we condemn as the onely causes of our own misery and do all acknowledge him no less inclinable then able to save And because as the memory of the one though past reneweth gladness so the other called again to minde doth make the wound of our just remorse to bleed anew which wound needeth often touching the more for that we are generally more apt to Kalendar Saints then sinners days therefore there is in the Church a care not to iterate the one alone but to have frequent repetition of the other Never to seek after God saving onely when either the Crib or the Whip doth constrain were brutish servility and a great derogation to the worth of that which is most predominant in men if sometime it had not a kinde of voluntary access to God and of conference as it were with God all these inferior considerations laid aside In which sequestration for as much as higher cogitations do naturally drown and bury all inferior cares the minde may as well forget natural both food and sleep by being carried above it self with serious and heavenly Meditation as by being cast down with heaviness drowned and swallowed up of sorrow Albeit therefore concerning Jewish Abstinence from certain kindes of meats as being unclean the Apostle doth reach That the Kingdom of Heaven is not meat nor drink that food commendeth us not unto God whether we take it or abstain from it that if we eat we are not thereby the more acceptable in his sight nor the less if we eat not His purpose notwithstanding was far from any intent to derogate from that Fasting which is no such scrupulous Abstinence as onely refuseth some kindes of meats and drinks lest they make them unclean that taste them but an Abstinence whereby we either interrupt or otherwise abridge the careof our bodily sustenance to shew by this kinde of outward exercise the serious intention of our mindes fixed on Heavenlier and better desires the earnest hunger and thirst whereof depriveth the body of those usual contentments which otherwise are not denied unto it These being in Nature the first causes that induce fasting the next thing which followeth to be considered is the ancient practice thereof amongst the Jews Touching whose private voluntary Fasts the Precept which our Saviour gave them was When ye fast look not sour as Hypocrites For they dis-figure their faces that they might seem to men to fast Verily I say unto you they have their reward When thou fastest anoint thy head and wash thy face that thou seem not unto men to fast but unto thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret will reward thee openly Our Lord and Saviour would not teach the manner of doing much less propose a reward for doing that which were not both holy and acceptable in Gods sight The Pharisees weekly bound themselves unto double Fasts neither are they for this reproval Often Fasting which was a vertue in Iohns Disciples could not in them of it self be a vice and therefore not the oftenness of their Fasting but their hypocrisie therein was blamed Of publick enjoyned Fasts upon causes extraordinary the examples in Scripture are so far frequent that they need no particular rehearsal Publick extraordinary Fastings were sometimes for one onely day sometimes for three sometimes for seven Touching Fasts not appointed for any such extraordinary causes but either yearly or monethly or weekly observed and kept First Upon the nineth day of that moneth the tenth whereof was the Feast of Expiation they were commanded of God that every Soul year by year should afflict it self Their yearly Fasts every fourth moneth in regard of the City of Ierusalem entred by the Enemy every fifth for the memory of the overthrow of their Temple every seventh for the treacherous destruction and death of Gedaliah the very last stay which they had to lean unto in their greatest misery every tenth in remembrance
Tyrant it self must of necessity endure perpetual Anguish and Grief For as the Body is rent with stripes so the Minde with guiltiness of Cruelty Lust and wicked Resolutions Which Furies brought the Emperour Tyberius sometimes into such perplexity that writing to the Senate his wonted art of dissimulation failed him utterly in this Case And whereas it had been ever his peculiar delight so to speak that no man might be able to sound his meaning he had not the power to conceal what he felt through the secret scourge of an evil Conscience though no necessity did now enforce him to disclose the same What to write or how to write at this present if I know saith Tyberius let the Gods and Goddesses who thus continually eat me only be worse to me than they are It was not his Imperial Dignity and Power that could provide a way to protect him against himself the fears and suspitions which improbity had bred being strengthned by every occasion and those Vertues clean banished which are the only foundation of sound tranquility of minde For which cause it hath been truly said and agreeably with all mens experience that if the vertuous did excel in no other priviledge yet farr happier they are than the contrary sort of men for that their hopes be alwayes better Neither are we to marvel that these things known unto all do stay so few from being Authors of their own woe For we see by the antient example of Ioseph's unkinde Brethren how it commeth to remembrance easily when Crimes are once past what the difference is of good from evil and of right from wrong But such consideration when they should have prevented Sinne were over-match'd by inordinate desires Are we not bound then with all thankfulnesse to acknowledge his infinite goodnesse and mercy which hath revealed unto us the way how to rid our selves of these mazes the way how to shake off that yoke which no Flesh is able to bear the way how to change most grisly horror into a comfortable apprehension of heavenly joy Whereunto there are many which labour with so much the greater difficultie because imbecillity of minde doth not suffer them to censure rightly their own doings Some fearful lest the enormity of their Crimes be so unpardonable that no Repentance can do them good some lest the imperfection of their Repentance make it uneffectual to the taking away of Sinne The one drive all things to this issue whether they be not men that have sinned against the Holy Ghost the other to this what Repentance is sufficient to clear Sinners and to assure them that they are delivered Such as by Error charge themselves of unpardonable Sinne must think it may be they deem that unpardonable which is not Our Saviour speaketh indeed of Blasphemy which shall never be forgiven But have they any sure and infallible knowledge what that Blasphemy is If not why are they unjust and cruel to their own Souls imagining certainty of Guiltiness in a Crime concerning the very nature whereof they are uncertain For mine own part although where this Blasphemy is mentioned the cause why our Saviour spake thereof was the Pharisees Blasphemy which was not afraid to say He had an unclean Spirit and did cast out Spirits by the Power of Beelzebub Neverthelesse I dare not precisely deny but that even the Pharisees themselves might have repented and been forgiven and that our Lord Jesus Christ peradventure might but take occasion at their Blasphemy which as yet was pardonable to tell them further of an unpardonable Blasphemy whereinto he foresaw that the Jews would fall For it is plain that many thousands at the first professing Christian Religion became afterwards wilful Apostates moved with no other cause of revolt but mere indignation that the Gentiles should enjoy the benefit of the Gospel as much as they and yet not be burthened with the yoke of Moses his Law The Apostles by Preaching had won them to Christ in whose Name they embraced with great alacrity the full remission of their former sinnes and iniquities they received by the imposition of the Apostles hands that Grace and Power of the Holy Ghost whereby they cured Diseases Prophecyed spake with Tongues and yet in the end after all this they fell utterly away renounced the Mysteries of Christian Faith Blasphemed in their formal Abjurations that most glorious and blessed Spirit the Gifts whereof themselves had possest and by this means sunk their Souls in the Gulf of that unpardonable Sinne whereof as our Lord JESUS CHRIST had told them before hand so the Apostle at the first appearance of such their revolt putteth them in minde again that falling now to their former Blasphemies their Salvation was irrecoverably gone It was for them in this Case impossible to be renewed by any Repentance because they were now in the state of Satan and his Angels the Judge of quick and dead had passed his irrevocable Sentence against them So great difference there is between Infidels unconverted and Backsliders in this manner fallen away that always we have hope to reclaim the one which only hate whom they never knew but to the other which know and Blaspheme to them that with more than infernal malice accurse both the seen brightnesse of Glory which is in him and in themselves the tasted goodness of Divine Grace as those execrable Miscreants did who first received in extraordinary miraculous manner and then in outragious sort blasphemed the Holy Ghost abusing both it and the whole Religion which God by it did confirm and magnifie To such as wilfully thus sinne after so great light of the Truth and Gifts of the Spirit there remaineth justly no fruit or benefit to be expected by Christ's Sacrifice For all other Offenders without exception or stint whether they be Strangers that seek accesse or Followers that will make return unto God upon the tender of their Repentance the grant of his Grace standeth everlastingly signed with his blood in the Book of Eternal life That which in this Case over-terrifieth fearful Souls is a mis-conceit whereby they imagine every act which they doe knowing that they doe amisse and every wilful Breach or Transgression of God's Law to be mere Sinne against the Holy Ghost forgetting that the Law of Moses it self ordained Sacrifices of Expiation as well for Faults presumptuously committed as Things wherein men offend by Errour Now there are on the contrary side others who doubting not of God's mercy towards all that perfectly repent remain notwithstanding scrupulous and troubled with continual fear lest defects in their own Repentance be a barr against them These cast themselves into very great and peradventure needlesse Agonies through mis-construction of things spoken about proportioning our griefs to our Sinnes for which they never think they have wept and mourned enough yea if they have not alwayes a stream of Tears at command they take it for a heart congealed and hardned in sinne when
man surmise that the difference between them was only by distinction in the former kind of power and not in this latter of jurisdiction are not the words of the Law manifest which make Eleazer the Son of Aaron the Priest chief Captain of the Levites and overseer of them unto whom the charge of the Sanctuary was committed Again at the commandment of Aaron and his Sons are not the Gersonites themselves required to do all their service in the whole charge belonging unto the Gersonites being inferiour Priests as Aaron and his Sons were High Priests Did not Iehoshaphat appoint Amarias the Priest to be chief over them who were Judges for the cause of the Lord in Ierusalem Priests saith Josephus worship God continually and the eldest of the stock are governours over the rest He doth sacrifice unto God before others he hath care of the Laws judgeth controversies correcteth offenders and whosoever obeyeth him not is convict of impiety against God But unto this they answer That the reason thereof was because the High-Priest did prefigure Christ and represent to the people that chiefty of our Saviour which was to come so that Christ being now come there is no cause why such preheminence should be given unto any one Which fancy pleaseth so well the humour of all sorts of rebellions spirits that they all seek to shroud themselves under it Tell the Anabaptist which holdeth the use of the sword unlawful for a Christian man that God himself did allow his people to make wars they have their answer round and ready Those ancient Wars were figures of the spiritual Wars of Christ. Tell the Barrowist what sway David and others the Kings of Israel did bear in the ordering of spiritual affairs the same answer again serveth namely That David and the rest of the Kings of Israel prefigured Christ. Tell the Martinist of the High-Priests great authority and jurisdiction amongst the Jews what other thing doth serve this Turn but the self-same shift By the power of the High-Priest the universal supreme Authority of our Lord Iesus Christ was shadowed The thing is true that indeed High-Priests were figures of Christ yet this was in things belonging unto their power of Order they figured Christ by entring into the holy place by offering for the sins of all the people once a year and by other the like duties But that to govern and to maintain order amongst those that were subject to them is an office figurative and abrogated by Christs coming in the Ministry that their exercise of jurisdiction was figurative yea figurative in such sort that it had no other cause of being instituted but only to serve as a representation of somewhat to come and that herein the Church of Christ ought not to follow them this Article is such as must be confirmed if any way by miracle otherwise it will hardly enter into the heads of reasonable men why the High-Priest should more figure Christ in being a Judge then in being whatsoever he might be besides St. Cyprian deemed it no wresting of Scripture to challenge as much for Christian Bishops as was given to the High-Priest among the Jews and to urge the law of Moses as being most effectual to prove it St. Ierom likewise thought it an argument sufficient to ground the Authority of Bishops upon To the end saith he we may understand Apostolical traditions to have been taken from the Old Testament that which Aaron and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons in the Church may lawfully challenge to themselves In the Office of a Bishop Ignatius observeth these two functions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the one such is the prehemince of a Bishop that he only hath the heavenly mysteries of God committed originally unto him so that otherwise than by his Ordination and by authority received from him others besides him are not licensed therein to deal as ordinary Ministers of Gods Church And touching the other part of their sacred Function wherein the power of their jurisdiction doth appear first how the Apostles themselves and secondly how Titus and Timothy had rule and jurisdiction over Presbyters no man is ignorant And had not Christian Bishops afterward the like power Ignatius Bishop of Antioch being ready by blessed martyrdom to end his life writeth unto his Presbyters the Pastors under him in this sort O◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After the death of Fabian Bishop of Rome there growing some trouble about the receiving of such persons into the Church as had fallen away in persecution and did now repent their fall the Presbyters and Deacons of the same Church advertised St. Cyprian thereof signifying That they must of necessity defer to deal in that cause till God did send them a new Bishop which might moderate all things Much we read of extraodinary fasting usually in the Church And in this appeareth also somewhat concerning the chiefty of Bishops The custome is saith Tertullian that Bishops do appoint when the people shall all fast Yea it is not a matter left to our own free choice whether Bishops shall rule or no but the will of our Lord and Saviour is saith Cyprian that every act of the Church be governed by her Bishops An Argument it is of the Bishops high preheminence rule and government over all the rest of the Clergy even that the Sword of persecution did strike especially always at the Bishop as at the Head the rest by reason of their lower estate being more secure as the self-same Cyprian noteth the very manner of whose speech unto his own both Deacons and Presbyters who remained safe when himself then Bishop was driven into exile argueth likewise his eminent authority and rule over them By these letters saith he I both exhort and COMMAND that ye whose presence there is not envied at nor so much beset with dangers supply my room in doing those things which the exercise of Religion doth require Unto the same purpose serve most directly those comparisons than which nothing is more familiar in the books of the ancient Fathers who as oft as they speak of the several degrees in Gods Clergy if they chance to compare Presbyters with Levitical Priests of the Law the Bishop they compare unto Aaron the High Priest if they compare the one with the Apostles the other they compare although in a lower proportion sometime to Christ and sometime to God himself evermore shewing that they placed the Bishop in an eminent degree of ruling authority and power above other Presbyters Ignatius comparing Bishops with Deacons and with such Ministers of the word and Sacraments as were but Presbyters and had no Authority over Presbyters What is saith he the Bishop but one which hath all principality and power over all so far forth as man may have it being to his power a follower even of Gods own Christ Mr. Calvin himself
most willingly thereunto even of reverence to the Most High with the Flower of whose sanctified Inheritance as it were with a kinde of Divine presence unless their Chiefest Civil Assemblies were so farr forth beautified as might be without any notable impediment unto their Heavenly Fâ—nctions they could not satisfie themselves as having showed towards God an Affection most duâ—iful Thus first in defect of other Civil Magistrates Secondly for the ease and quietness of Scholastical Societies Thirdly by way of Political necessity Fourthly in regard of quality care and extraordinancy Fifthly For countenance into the Ministry And lastly even of Devotion and Reverence towards God himself there may be admitted at leastwise in some Particulars well and lawfully enough a conjunction of Civil and Ecclesiastical Power except there be some such Law or Reason to the contrary as may prove it to be a thing simply in it self naught Against it many things are objected as first That the matters which are noted in the holy Scripture to have belonged unto the ordinary Office of any Minister of God's holy Word and Sacraments are these which follow with such like and no other namely The watch of the Sanctuary the business of God the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments Oversight of the House of God Watching over his Flock Prophesie Prayer Dispensations of the Mysteries of God Charge and care of mens Souls If a man would shew what the Offices and Duties of a Chirurgion or Physician are I suppose it were not his part so much as to mention any thing belonging to the one or the other in case either should be also a Souldier or a Merchant or an House-keeper or a Magistrate Because the Functions of these are different from those of the former albeit one and the same man may happily be both The Case is like when the Scripture teacheth what Duties are required in an Ecclesiastical Minister in describing of whose Office to touch any other thing than such as properly and directly toucheth his Office that way were impertinent Yea But in the Old Testament the two Powers Civil and Ecclesiastical were distinguished not onely in Nature but also in Person the one committed unto Moses and the Magistrates joyned with him the other to Aaron and his Sons Jehosophat in his Reformation doth not onely distinguish Causes Ecclesiastical from Civil and erecteth divers Courts for them but appointeth also divers Iudges With the Jews these two Powers were not so distinguished but that sometimes they might and did concâ—â— in one and the same Person Was not Ely both Priest and Judge After their return from captivity Esâ—â—as a Priest and the same their Chief Governour even in Civil Affairs also These men which urge the necessity of making always a Personal distinction of these two Powers as if by Iehosaphat's example the same Person ought not to deal in both Causes yet are not scrupulous to make men of Civil Place and Calling Presbyters and Ministers of Spiritual Jurisdiction in their own Spiritual Consistories If it be against the Jewish Precedents for us to give Civil Power unto such as have Ecclesiastical is it not as much against the same for them to give Ecclesiastical Power unto such as have Civil They will answer perhaps That their Position is onely against conjunction of Ecclesiastical Power of Order and the Power of Civil Jurisdiction in one Person But this Answer will not stand with their Proofs which make no less against the Power of Civil and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in one Person for of these two Powers Iehosaphat's example is Besides the contrary example of Heli and of Ezra by us alledged do plainly shew that amongst the Jewes even the power of Order Ecclesiastical and Civil Jurisdiction were sometimes lawfully united in one and the same Person Pressed further we are with our Lord and Saviour's example who denyeth his Kingdom to be of this Wold and therefore as not standing with his Calling refused to be made a King to give sentence in a criminal Cause of Adultery and in a Civil of dividing an Inheritance The Jews imagining that their Messiah should be a Potent Monarch upon Earth no marvail though when they did otherwise wonder at Christ's greatness they sought forthwith to have him invested with that kinde of Dignity to the end he might presently begin to reign Others of the Jewes which likewise had the same imagination of the Messiah and did somehat incline to think that peradventure this might be He thought good to try whether he would take upon him that which he might do being a King such as they supposed their true Messiah should be But Christ refused to be a King over them because it was no part of the Office of their Messiah as they did falsely conceive and to intermeddle in those Acts of Civil Judgement be refused also because he had no such Jurisdiction in that Common-wealth being in regard of his Civil Person a man of mean and low Calling As for repugnancy between Ecclesiastical and Civil Power or any inconvenience that these two Powers should be united it doth not appear that this was the cause of his resistance either to reign or else to judge What say we then to the blessed Apostles who teach That Souldiers intangle not themselves with the businesses of this life but leave them to the end they may please him who hath chosen them to serve and that so the good Souldiers of Christ â—ught to do The Apostles which taught this did never take upon them any Place or Office of Civil Power No they gave over the Ecclesiastical care of the Poor that they might wholly attend upon the Word and Prayer St. Paul indeed doth exhort Timothy after this manner Suffer thou evil as a noble Souldier of Iesus Christ No man warring is entangled with the affairs of Life because he must serve such as have pressed him unto Warfare The sense and meaning whereof is plain that Souldiers may not be nice and tender that they must be able to endure hardnesse that no man betaking himself unto Wars continueth entangled with such kinde of Businesses as tend only unto the ease and quiet felicity of this Life but if the service of him who hath taken them under his Banner require the hazard yea the losse of their Lives to please himâ— they must be content and willing with any difficulty any peril be it never so much against the natural desire which they have to live in safety And at this point the Clergy of God must always stand thus it behoveth them to be affected as oft as their Lord and Captain leadeth them into the field whatsoever conflicts perils or evils they are to endure Which duty being not such but that therewith the Civil Dignities which Ecclesiastical Persons amongst us do enjoy may enough stand the Exhortation of Paul to Timothy is but a slender Allegation against them As well might we gather out of this place that Men having Children or Wives
which that surcease were likely to draw after it Let the Lord Maior of London or any other unto whose Office Honor belongeth be deprived but of that Title which in itself is a matter of nothing and suppose we that it would be a small maim unto the credit force and countenance of his Office It hath not without the singular wisdom of God been provided that the ordinary outward tokens of Honor should for the most part be in themselves things of mean account for to the end they might easily follow as faithful testimonies of that beneficial vertue whereunto they are due it behoved them to be of such nature that to himself no man might over-eagerly challenge them without blushing not any man where they are due withhold them but with manifest appearance of too great malice or pride Now forasmuch as according to the Antient Orders and Customs of this Land as of the Kingdom of Israel and of all Christian Kingdoms through the World the next in degree of Honor unto the Chief Soveraign are the Chief Prelates of God's Church what the reason hereof may be it resteth next to be enquired XVIII Other reason there is not any wherefore such Honor hath been judged due saving only that publick good which the Prelates of God's Clergy are Authors of For I would know which of these things it is whereof we make any question either that the favour of God is the chiefest Pillar to bear up Kingdoms and States or that true Religion publickly exercised is the principal mean to retain the favour of God or that the Prelates of the Church are they without whom the exercise of true Religion cannot well and long continue If these three be grented then cannot the publick benefit of Prelacy be dissembled And of the first or second of these I look not for any profest denyal The World at this will blush not to grant at the leastwise in word as much as Heathens themselves have of old with most earnest asseveration acknowledged concerning the force of Divine Grace in upholding Kingdoms Again though his mercy doth so farr strive with mens ingratitude that all kinde of Publick iniquities deserving his indignation their safety is through his gracious Providence many times neverthelesse continued to the end that amendment might if it were possible avert their Envy so that as well Common-weals as particular Persons both may and do endure much longer when they are careful as they should be to use the most effectual means of procuring His favour on whom their continuance principally dependeth Yet this point no man will stand to argue no man will openly arm himself to enter into set Disputation against the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian for making unto their Laws concerning Religion this Preface Decere arbitramur nostrum Imperium subditos nostros de Religione commonefacere Ita enim plenicrem adquiri Dei ac Salvatoris nostri Iesu Christi benignitatem possibile esse existimamus si quando nos pro viribus ipsi placere studuerimus nostros subditos ad eam rem instituerimus Or against the Emperor Iustinian for that he also maketh the like Profession Per sanctissimas Ecclessias nostrum Imperium sustineri communes res elementissimi Dei gratia muniri credimus And in another place Certissimè credemus quia Sacerdotum puritas deâ—â—â—â— ad Dominum Deum Salvatorem nostrum Iesuis Christum fervor ab ipsis missa perpetua preces maltum favorem nostra Reipublica incrementum praebent Wherefore onely the last point is that which men will boldly require us to prove for no man feareth now to make it a question Whether the Prelacy of the Church be any thing available or no to effect the good and long continuance of true Religion Amongst the principal Blessings wherewith God enriched Israel the Prophet in the Psalm acknowledgeth especially this for one Thou didst lead thy People like Sheep by the hands of Moses and Aaron That which Sheep are if Pastors be wanting the same are the people of God if so be they want Governors And that which the principal Civil Governors are in comparison of Regents under them the same are the Prelates of the Church being compared with the rest of God's Clergy Wherefore inasmuch as amongst the Jews the benefit of Civil Government grew principally from Moses he being their Principal Civil Governor even so the benefit of Spiritual Regiment grew from Aaron principally he being in the other kinde of their principal Rector although even herein subject to the Soveraign Dominion of Moses For which cause these two alone are named as the Heads and Well-springs of all As for the good which others did in service either of the Common-wealth or of the Sanctuary the chiefest glory thereof did belong to the chiefest Governors of the one sort and of the other whose vigilant care and oversight kept them in their cue Order Bishops are now is High-Priests were then inregard of power over other Priests and in respect of subjection unto High-Priests What Priests were then the same now Presbyters are by way of their place under Bishops The ones Authority therefore being so profitable how should the others be thought unnecessary Is there any man professing Christian Religion which holdeth it not as a Maxim That the Church of Jesus Christ did reap a singular benefit by Apostolical Regiment not only for other respects but even in regard of that Prelacy whereby they had and exercised Power of Jurisdiction over lower Guides of the Church Preciates are herein the Apostles Successors as hath been proved Thus we see that Prelacy must needs be acknowledged exceedingly beneficial in the Church and yet for more perspicuities sake it shall not be pains superstuously taken if the manner how be also declared at large For this one thing not understood by the vulgar sort causeth all contempt to be offered unto higher Powers not only Ecclesiastical but Civil whom when proud men have disgraced and are therefore reproved by such as carry some dutiful affection of minde the usual Apologies which they make for themselves are these What more vertue in these Great ones than in others we see no such eminent good which they do above other mon. We grant indeed that the good which Higher Governors do is not so immediate and near unto every of us as many times the meane labours of others under them and this doth make it to be less esteemed But we must note that it is in this Case as in a Ship he that fitteth at the Stern is quiet he moveth not he seemeth in a manner to do little or Nothing in comparison of them that sweat about other toil yet that which he doth is in value and force more than all the labours of the residue laid together The influence of the Heavens above worketh infinitely more to our good and yet appeareth not half so sensible as the force doth of
part and impute their general acknowledgment of the lawfullness of Kingly Power unto the force of truth presenting it self before them sometimes above their particular contrarieties oppositions denyals unto that errour which having so fully possest their minds casteth things inconvenient upon them of which things in their due place Touching that which is now in hand weare on all sides fully agreed First that there is not any restraint or limitation of matter for regal Authority and Power to be conversant in but of Religion onely and of whatsoever cause thereunto appertaineth Kings may lawfully have change they lawfully may therein exercise Dominion and use the temporal Sword Secondly that some kind of actions conversant about such affairs are denyed unto Kings As namely Actions of Power and Order and of Spiritual Jurisdiction which hath with it inseparably joyned Power to Administer the Word and Sacraments power to Ordain to Judge as an Ordinary to bind and loose to Excommunicate and such like Thirdly that even in those very actions which are proper unto Dominion there must be some certain rule whereunto Kings in all their proceedings ought to be strictly tyed which rule for proceeding in Ecclesiasticall affairs and causes by Regal Power hath not hitherto been agreed upon with such uniform consent and certainty as might be wished The different sentences of men herein I will now go about to examine but it shall be enough to propose what Rule doth seem in this case most reasonable The case of deriving Supream Power from a whole intire multitude into some special part thereof as partly the necessity of expedition in publick affairs partly the inconvenience of confusion and trouble where a multitude of Equals dealeth and partly the dissipation which must needs ensue in companies where every man wholly seeketh his own particular as we all would do even with other mens hurts and haply the very overthrow of themselves in the end also if for the procurement of the common good of all men by keeping every several man is order some were not invested with Authority over all and encouraged with Prerogative-Honour to sustain the weighty burthen of that charge The good which is proper unto each man belongeth to the common good of all as part to the whole perfection but these two are things different for men by that which is proper are severed united they are by that which is common Wherefore besides that which moveth each man in particular to seek his own private good there must be of necessity in all publick Societies also a general mover directing unto common good and framing every mans particular unto it The end whereunto all Government was instituted was Bonum publicum the Universal or Common good Our question is of Dominion for that end and purpose derived into one such as all in one publick State have agreed that the Supream charge of all things should be committed unto one They I say considering what inconveniency may grow where States are subject unto sundry Supream Authorities have for fear of these inconveniencies withdrawn from liking to establish many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the multitude of Supream Commanders is troublesome No Nan saith our Saviour can serve two Masters surely two supream Masters would make any ones service somewhat uneasie in such cases as might fall out Suppose that to morrow the Power which hath Dominion in Justice require thee at the Court that which in War at the Field that which in Religion at the Temple all have equal Authority over thee and impossible it is that then in such case thou shouldst be obedient unto all By chusing any one whom thou wilt obey certain thou art for thy disobedience to incur the displeasure of the other two But there is nothing for which some comparable reason or other may not be found are we able to shew any commendable State of Government which by experience and practice hath felt the benefit of being in all causes subject unto the Supream Authority of one Against the policy of the Israelites I hope there will no man except where Moses deriving so great a part of his burthen in Government unto others did notwithstanding retain to himself Universal Supremacy Iehosaphat appointing one to be chosen in the affairs of God and another in the Kings affair's did this as having Dominion over them in both If therefore from approbation of Heaven the Kings of Gods own chosen people had in the affairs of Jewish Religion Supream Power why not Christian Kings the like also in Christian Religion First unless men will answer as some have done That the Jews Religion was of far less perfection and dignity then ours our being that truth whereof theirs was but a shadowish prefigurative resemblance Secondly That all parts of their Religion their Laws their Sacrifices and their Rights and Ceremonies being fully set down to their hands and needing no more but only to be put in execution the Kings might well have highest Authority to see that done whereas with us there are a number of Mysteries even in Belief which were not so generally for them as for us necessary to be with sound express acknowledgement understood A number of things belonging to external Government and our manner of serving God not set down by particular Ordinances and delivered to us in writing for which cause the State of the Church doth now require that the Spiritual Authority of Ecclesiastical persons be large absolute and not subordinate to Regal power Thirdly That whereas God armeth Religion Iewish as Christian with the Temporal sword But of Spiritual punishment the one with power to imprison to scourge to put to death The other with bare authority to Censure and excommunicate There is no reason that the Church which hath no visible sword should in Regiment be subject unto any other power then only unto theirs which have authority to bind and loose Fourthly That albeit whilst the Church was restrained unto one people it seemed not incommodious to grant their King the general Chiefty of Power yet now the Church having spread it self over all Nations great inconveniences must therby grow if every Christian King in his several Territory shall have the like power Of all these differences there is not one which doth prove it a thing repugnant to the Law either of God or of Nature that all Supremacy of external Power be in Christian Kingdoms granted unto Kings thereof for preservation of quietness unity order and peace in such manner as hath been shewed Of the Title of Headship FOr the Title or State it self although the Laws of this Land have annexed it to the Crown yet so far◠we should not strive if so be men were nice and scrupulous in this behalf only because they do wish that for reverence to Christ Jesus the Civil Magistrate did rather use some other form of speech wherewith to express that Soveraign Authority which he lawfully hath overall both