ipsis Apostolis Domini aedificata witnesseth Henry the second in his Letters Patents For being burnt in his time he takes a Princely care for the building of it againe as the Kings Majestie now doth for the repairing of that goodly edifice of S. Pauls Church now fallen to decay Anno 71. Crescens sent into Galatia by St. Paul Euseb l. 3. c. 4 Ado. would not content himselfe to preach in private houses but by S. Pauls example caused a Church to be built at Vienna Anno 79. St. Euseb l. 3. c. 20. John caused a goodly Church to be built about Ephesus where himself with an Archbishop divers Bishops of severall Churches in Asia met at a Synode This Church stood over against the hill where he robbed whom S. John converted Euseb l. 2. c. 25 Gaius Bishop of Rome affirmeth that til his time for 220. years together Churches had continued neere unto the Vaticane built by the Apostles which had Church-yards belonging to them and where were to be seen the Tombs and Monuments of the Apostles Anno 110. Ignatius reproved Trajan in a Church Anno 117. Niceph. l. 3. c. 19 Dion in Adrian Adrian caused Churches to be built for Christians wherein he forbade any of the Romane gods to be placed Anno 160. Euseb l. 5. c. 25. Polycarpus received the Sacrament publikely in the Church of Rome Anno 197. Bed l. 1. c. 4. Lucius King of Great Britaine desired of Eleutherius ut per ejus mandatum fieret Christianus which being granted â—lores hist he dedicated the Temples of the Heathen gods to the worship of the true God and made Churches of them and placed in them 28. Bishops and three Archbishops Seas Tertul. adv Vaâ—en in Apolog Anno 203. Tertullian maketh mention of these Churches built before his time and saith that commonly they were built upon an hill as Isaac was offered and Christ crucified on an hill and looked towards the East Nostrae columbae Domus in editis apertis Orientem amat Hence it is saith he that the Heathen traduce us for worshipping the Sun quòd innotuerit nos ad Orientis regionem praecari because it is openly known that all we Christians pray unto God in our Churches with our faces to the East and if they stand not so they are not like Christian Churches nor judged to be consecrated by Christian Bishops S. Ireâ— l. 3. c. 3. Anno 180. Irenaeus saw Poly carpus sit in his Bishops chaire in Smyrna S. James his chaire stood in the Church of Jerusalem for 326. yeares together saith Eusebius and was there to be seen in St. Austins time Euseb l. 5. c. 20. l 7. c. 19. notwithstanding Dioclesians Decree Anno 239. S. Aug. l 2. Con. lit Pâ—ttl c. 51. Cusâ—b l. 6. 〈◊〉 34. Fabianus suffered not Philip the first Christian Emperour to joyn with the faithfull in the Church before he had stood in loco poenitentium And so you see the zeale of Christians in building of Churches began in the Apostles times and continued for 280. yeares together at least And how necessary it was for the Apostles and their successours planters of the Gospel to build Churches and not to pray preach administer the Sacraments or exercise Ecclesiasticall discipline of excommunication and absolution in private houses S. Aug contr Mâ—nâ—â— epis 〈◊〉 4 â—â—m 6. Irenaeus Tertullian St. Augustine and divers godly Fathers tell us For hereby Catholickes and good Christians were knowne from Heretickes For nullus Haereticorum basilicam suam audet ostendere Heretickes had no Churches to shew nor chaire wherein they succeeded the Apostles Thus Irenaeus confoundeth Valentinus S. Iren. l. 3. c. 3.4.5 Cerdon and Marcion they could not shew how they succeeded the Apostles but he could prove his owne succession and reckon up all those that succeeded the Apostles in their severall Churches and so sheweth who succeeded Peter and Paul in the Church of Rome Whereby their vanity may in part appeare that against all Antiquity upon idle ghesses make fooles beleeve that St. Peter was never at Rome making the succession of Bishops and truth of the Latine Churches as questionable as the Centurists orders Thus Tertullian putteth Valentinus and Apelles to it to shew their descent Tertul. de praâ—â— ser c. 11. If they will not be accounted Heretickes aedant origines Ecclesiarum suarum evolvant ordinem Sacerdotum c. it a ut primus sit aliquis ex Apostolis let them shew when their Church began so that the first founder be an Apostle as Polycarpus was placed by St. John in Smyrna and Clemens by St. Peter in the Church of Rome Confingant tale quid Haeretici let Heretickes lay their heads together Tert. de praeâ— ser c. 17. and produce such a pedigree of their faith Which he was sure they could not doe for sine matre sine sede extorres vagantur Ecclesias non habent They were not Christians that had no Churches for 200. yeares after Christ but it plainely appeares by St. Irenaeus and Tertullian that they were Hereticks that were so long without Churches These had no Church for their Mother no Sea for their Bishops nor succession of them from the Apostles but were meere stragglers And for this cause saies St. Cyprian Haereticus sanctificare non potest S. Cyp. l. 1. ep 12. quia nec Ecclesiam nec Altarehabet an Hereticke cannot consecrate the Sacrament because he hath neither Church nor Altar for Eucharistia in Altari sanctificatur Without Churches no Sacrament could be consecrated nor received In this sort St. Augustine confoundeth the Donatists and Sectaries of his time S. Aug l. 2. cont Petil. c. 51. Numerate Sacerdotes vel ab ipsa sede Petri in illo ordine quis cui successit videte Reckon up your Priests who succeeded one another after St. Peter in his chaire if you will be esteemed members of the Church Hereby we may by Gods mercy make good the truth of our Church For we are able lineally to set down the succession of our Bishops from St. Peter to S. Gregorie and from him to our first Archbishop St. Austin our English Apostle as Bishop Godwin calls him downeward to his Grace that now sits in his chaire Primate of all England and Metropolitane This succession of Bishops to the Apostles and exercise of Ecclesiasticall discipline preaching of the word of God and consecrating of the Eucharist on the Lords Boord or holy Altar was judged a thing so necessary by the Apostles and their successors Eusâ—â— l. 8. c. 1. that as Eusebius reports Christians never ceased building repairing and inlarging of Churches even in the hottest times of persecution And though the Pastours were many times driven out of them and wandred up and down in Mountaines and Dens and Caves of the earth yet they found such favour with the Emperours that the Churches still continued And their chaires were never empty nor the succession of their Bishops interrupted no not in Dioclesians time when so many Churches were demolished True it is Cecilius in Minutius Foelix and Celsus in Origen and other Gentiles reviled Christians and called them Atheists quia nec templa nec deos haberent because they had neither temples nor Gods And indeed they had no such temples nor worshipped such gods as they did Yet Christians were never without Churches to serve the true God in Howbeit they were not called Temples or Basilicae before the Emperour Constantines time who built them in that stately and magnificent maner that they might equalize or surmount the sumptuous Temples erected by the Heathen to Diana Venus Jupiter or other heathen gods Thus necessity of Gods service and exercise of Ecclesiasticall discipline caused and continued the use of Churches from time to time and their zeale inflamed them to beautifie and adorne them in the most sumptuous maner that might be that with David and Solomon they might shew so farre as their poverty would suffer them in such glorious and magnificent buildings and by the sumptuous costlinesse bestowed in adorning of them with gold silver and precious stones the incomparable glory and infinite greatnesse of the Majestie of their God to whom that poore house was dedicated and before whom they presented themselves to performe such service as himselfe and his Vicegerents have appointed which doubtless as by the practice of S. Paul and the Apostles and the best Saints of God may appeare is much more acceptable unto him being performed in an house of his own than if it had been continued in one of ours in some upper chamber as now upon necessity it was Wherefore since by Gods mercy we doe in part enjoy the piety and bounty of our Predecessours and have the houses of God left us to serve God in let us abandon the irregular fashion of straggling Schismatickes in making Conventicles praying preaching and breaking bread in corners private houses and dining rooms And on the other side let us conforme our selves in frequenting the Lords house to the practice of the Lords Church especially on the Lords day and say with David O come let us goe into the house of the Lord and fall flat on our faces before his footstoole And if we doe not onely bend or bowe our body to his blessed Boord or holy Altar but fall flat on our faces before his footstoole so soone as ever we approach in sight thereof what Patriarch Apostle blessed Martyr holy or learned Father would condemne us for it or rather would not be delighted to see their Lord so honoured and their devotion so reverently imitated and so good hope given to have it in such sort continued in the Lords house on the Lords day by the Lords servants unto the Lords comming againe who doubtlesse will then ratifie what he hath already pronounced Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he commeth shall finde so doing Amen FINIS PErlegi hanc concionem habitam in visitatione Trionnali Reverendi in Christo Patris Episcopi Lincolniensis in quâ nihil reperio sanae doctrinae aut bonis moribus contrarium quominùs cum utilitate pablicâ imprimatur it a tamen ut si non intra tres menses proximè sequentes typis mandetur haec licentia sit omnino irrita Ex Aedibus Lambethanis II. Calend. Martii 1635. GUIL BRAY Rmo. Patri D. Arch. Cant. Sacellanus domesticus
Ob. Secondly if the Lords day was appointed and kept by the Apostles what shall we say to those turbulent spirits as master Calvin calls them qui tumultuantur ob diem Dominicum Calv. iâ—sâ—â— â— c. 8 S. 33. 〈◊〉 3â— that are all up in a hurly-burly for being abridged of their Christian libertie and made to observe dayes and Feasts and particularly the Lords day Whereupon it was sadly demurr'd upon even in Genevah Barclâ—iâ— paroen l. 1 c. 13. to have that day altered to Thursday and himselfe holds it alterable What shall wee thinke also of the Centurists Cent. 1. l. 2. c. 6. de feâ—â—â— that not onely say there is no place of Scripture to command the observation of the Lords day Cent. 2. c. 6. pag. 11 â— but that the contentions raised by Anicetus and Victor Popes of Rome touching the observation of Easter on the Lords day doe sufficiently declare that for two hundred yeares after Christ some kept the Sabbath holy some the Lords day and that they were false Apostles that attempted at first to bind the Church to the observation of Feasts as of the Lords day and for this cause they sticke the mysterie of iniquitie on the foreheads of those two blessed Martyrs Sol. To that part of the objection which is framed out of the Centurists some perhaps would answer that the guise of the Centurists is to use the Catholike Fathers and holy Martyrs as Balaam used his Asse For if they wil not go that way that they would have them though Gods Angel suffer them not so to doe but the Spirit of truth lead them quite otherwise they fall upon them and use them as rudely as he did the Asse A wrong which cannot but bee highly displeasing to that good God who was so moved upon the sight of the injury done the poore beast that hee was upon the point to have taken a sharpe revenge upon the false hypocrite in habit of a Prophet for the same But with cruell Balaam I will not compare them because he wisht for a sword to be avenged of the poore Asse whereas these like diligent Schoolemasters examine the exercises of the ancient Fathers shew them their errours tell them of the many spots and blots they finde in them and let them see how they are put to the trouble to correct them at every turne whereupon their patience is so moved that they rebuke them sometime with very sharpe language and when all is done they are so ashamed of divers things they heare from them that they set them to schoole againe to learne their lessons backward This their diligence and paines in correcting and wiping the Fathers as one wipes a dish that turneth it upside downe is not well accepted on all hands for some passionate men thinke they whip the Fathers without cause and for not running the way of their errours which these Auditors account to be so many and so costly too that the Merchant payes more for them than for all the truths 〈…〉 morall naturall supernaturall that are in Aristotle Plato or the blessed Bible though you give the Apocrypha leave to be bound up with it I would be loath to say as Saint Paul doth of the testimonie of Epimenides This witnesse is true But be it truth or some counterfeit like Jeroboams wife their credit is eclipsed and their testimonie abated by their doings So I leave them till anon Secondly I answer true it is that Saint Paul and other Apostles preached to the Jewes in the Synagogue on the Sabbath day because they would meet upon no other but it is untrue that they set that day apart to preach unto the Gentiles or the Jews either They were false Apostles that laboured to lay that yoak on the Disciples neckes whom Saint Paul opposed with all his might Col. 2.16 Gal. 4.10 and did utterly reject their Sabbath and appointed no day of publick meetings but the first day of the weeke when their collections were ever made 1 Cor. 16.1 and so continued to be made on that day and on no day else in all succeeding ages And because Saint Paul did keepe the first day of the weeke and opposed the observation of the Jewish Sabbath therefore the Ebionites say St. Irenaeus and Epiphanius rejected his writings Apostatam legis dicentes S. Irer l. 1. c. 26. S. Epâ—phâ—hâ—e 31. rating him for an Apostata So likewise the blessed Martyrs in the Primitive Church Euseb l. 3. c. 24. S. Ignatap 3. ad Mâ—g by the doctrine and example of Saint Paul and the Apostles so unfeignedly abhorred the observation of the Jewish Sabbath that they esteemed the observers thereof and the contemners of the Lords day the very sonnes of perdition enemies of our Saviour and sellers of Christ and as Saint Justin Martyrtells Trypho S. Just 〈◊〉 Triph. Tom. 2. they gladly endured the most horrible torments that men and divels could devise to inflict upon them rather than yeeld Sabbatha vestra solennes dies observare to keepe your Sabbaths and dayes of solemne assemblies which saith he could not hurt us were they not forbidden us by the doctrine and practice of the Apostles and Christ himselfe S. Just ad Anton But the observation of Sunday was so generally and religiously observed of all Christians that then was the common meeting of all qui vel in oppidis vel rure degunt both Citizens and Country men All sorts of Christians met on Sundayes and none on the Sabbath day but Jewes onely With what face then dare the Centurists vent such untruths that the keeping of the Lords day was a thing indifferent for two hundred yeeres And with what conscience dare they forge those to be false Apostles that were the bringers in of the observation of Feasts and particularly of the Lords day Or with what conscience dare they use the Martyrs of God members of Christs body so unworthily as to make the blessed Saints in heaven fellow heires with Christ Jesus meet vessels for the mysterie of iniquitie to begin to worke in who did no more than either was appointed by the Apostles and Apostolike men before themselves or was afterward confirmed by the Councell of Nice the Edicts of Constantine and his successours the Decrees of the Councell of Constantinople and other Synods as well in the Greeke as Latine Church in all succeeding ages Ob. But they say there is no place of Scripture to command the observation of the Lords day but onely the Tradition from the Apostles therefore the day may be altered Sol. Be it so yet as Chemnitius excellently saies though we be not bound by any necessity of law in Novo Testamento Câ—em Exam. de â—est 4. pars in the New Testament to observe the Lords day for solemne assemblies barbarica tamen petulantia yet were it barbarous saucinesse to refuse to observe the custome of the Apostles and Primitive Church For as Saint Augustine saies wherein the
pergentibus S Aug. Ser. de tem 251. when others goe to Church or in such sort that publicum impediunt ministerium as Chemnitius speakes they hinder them from the publicke service of God Chem. de Fest p. 4. Those also are profaners of the Lords day as Origen saies qui sacris lectionibus terga vertunt Orig. hom 11. in Jer. that make base account of Scripture read and such as Saint Cyrill sayes that will not Ecclesiastico officio interesse S. Cyril in Je l. 8. c. 5. come to Church till Service be ended and the Sermon to begin and such as St. Austine sayes that cogunt Sacerdotem ut abbreviet missam make the Priest to curtaile divine Service S. Aug. Ser. de tem 251. aut ut ad eorum libitum cantet or sing or say it after their fancy not antiphonatim the Priest one verse and the people another which factious disposition St. Basil reproves in some Clergie men of Neocaesarea S. Basil ep 45◠that being against the practice of the universall Church continued from Ignatius who was directed thereunto by an Angell as Socrates affirmeth Those yet are worse profaners of the Lords day Socrat. l. 6. c. 8. that will not reade the Letanie on it for excitavit Diabolus saies St. Chrysostome in plaine termes the Divell himselfe and no body else S. Chrys Ser. antequam iret in exil Bed his l. 1. c. 25. hath stirred up those that make brabbles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the Letanie to bring it into contempt which was the meanes of the first conversion of our English Nation Trypho the Jew alledgeth Isa 58.13 to prove Justin Martyr a breaker of the Sabbath who tells him that the Prophet I say requireth no more than was before commanded by Moses in the law S. Just in Tryph. Tom. 2. whereunto he had given his answer This very place of Scripture our zealous Sabbatarians his issue borrow of that Jew and use as a sword to cut off all sports and recreations on their Sabbath with all other actions of our owne because we are forbidden to doe our owne will or to speake our owne words or vaine words on the Sabbath But let them beware that with Saul they fall not upon their owne sword For I pray you deale clearely and say whether those that will neither preach pray catechise administer the Sacraments nor performe any part of divine Service as Gods Magistrate appoints doe not their owne wills His I am sure they doe not And when they make new glosses and expositions of Scripture never received in the Church of God nor delivered by any ancient Father whom by Canon they are bound to follow and call the Lords day a Sabbath Lib. Can. An. 1571. Can. 19. whether they doe not speake their owne words And when they use vaine repetitions and babling in their prayers and preaching saying Lord Lord oftener in one prayer than there are words in all the Lords prayer doe not use vaine words and take the Lords name in vaine and be not punctually those whom our Saviour reproves by Saint Marke cap. 7. ver 7. In vanum me colunt they honour me with vaine words vaine glosses and expositions vaine babling and repetitions crying Lord Lord and all in vaine for they doe not the thing that I say For I say when you pray say Our Father c. and thus you will not doe but will pray an houre together before a Sermon yet though Christ and his Church command them to say it they will not doe it He that can say Corban and cry up the Sabbath the Sabbath it is a sufficient Supersedeas it is duty and piety enough though he neither honour Father nor Mother Christ nor the King his Vicegerent nor the Church his Spouse Let those then that are so violent against such as recreate themselves civilly and modestly in such wise as Gods Magistrate doth allow to prove them Sabbath breakers which is no sin at all look they be not found such as with an high hand and stiffe neck profane the Lords day in despite of Authority and so adde drunkennesse to thirst namely to their open profanation rebellion or disobedience which is as the sinne of witchcraft From which leprosie washing seven times in Jordan will not cleanse them unlesse they can prove Gods Magistrate Nebuchodonosor and themselves the three children Sure I am their disobedient and scornfull contempt of our Church Liturgie is to many godly and learned men farre their Superiours in these respects very scandalous and may drive many that reverence antiquity with us and for that cause stand well affected to our Church to withdraw themselves from us That it is not to be wondred at if Recusants should increase but rather it is a wonder that there are no more For how can any man of judgement and discretion like that Liturgie and forme of divine Service which our selves they say contemne scorne mangle and misuse as we list and some reject utterly as unlawfull and Antichristian Doe we tell them it is poison and doe they see us cast it out of our hands and doe we wonder that they will not run and take it up and eat it or that they refuse the use of it as we doe or rather forbeare the Church till it be used They will use no Crosse forsooth nor Surplice meet no coarse at the Church gate Church no women read no Service on Wednesdayes Fridayes Saturdayes Holy dayes nor on their Eeves will not stand at the Creed nor Gospel kneele at the Communion nor bowe the knee at the blessed name of the Lord JESUS nor goe in procession or keep their perambulations nor doe any thing at all as the Church appoints yet the worst is they would be esteemed members nay pillars of the Church whereas indeed they are neither the one nor the other but a disease a fretting canker a dangerous faction in the Church They are wandring starres and disasterous planets who have and doe blast the most flourishing and glorious Church under the cope of Heaven were it not that these withered branches doe appeare her onely spots of disgrace And because they are such hence it is that the Church for her owne safety is faine to renounce all defence of them and their doctrines against the Romanists Therefore she ought not in right to be upbraided or deserted for any thing they say or doe The Church knoweth and every member thereof of seeth that this generation had eaten out her bowels long since like Vipers and become her destruction but that by Gods providence they have as sufficiently discovered their malicious projects to be bent alike for the casting downe of Crownes and Scepters and lawes of the Land and the Professours thereof as for the trampling under their feet of Miters and corner'd Caps Bishops and such as exercise jurisdiction under them together with our Booke of Common Prayer and Canons Ecclesiasticall Therefore the Church