interests are concerned are free to it If they can and doe why may not the same authority determine the circumstantials of the Second and Fourth Commandment as well as of the Third Are they not equally Precepts of Divine Worship And why may not the same require our conformity to their Constitutions in the adjuncts of religious Worship as well as command and enforce submission to their Acts for the modifying limiting and enlarging the duties of the Second Table Is not holy Text as much a rule of perfection for the Offices of Justice and Charity as for religious Duties Is not Christ the Lawgiver to both And can there be a fairer acknowledgment of the plenitude of his power than that by Commission he hath settled and delegated his Officers here on earth to make rules for the honest and honorary performance of what he hath indispensably commanded What therefore they by their Legantine power duly executed do order is ordered by him Quod quis per alium c. he that heareth you heareth me SECT 2. Ceremonies thus stated are in some degree necessary as we usually call ornamentals in an House necessaries because such is the exigence of all external actions that without them they cannot be solemnly performed which in all religious affairs as well as civil transactions ought to be respected All Societies have their ceremonial Observations as well as fundamental Constitutions to which they have so great respect that they suspect these to be sore shaken when the other are removed and the Catholick Church hath ever thought Ceremonies so subservient to the decent regular and reverend performance of Christian Institutions that without them the Service could not receive nor retain its due value and esteem In the Christian Community Unity and Uniformity are commanded duties and all Christians have hitherto believed Ceremonies are the best fences and securities for them and such as add much lustre and honour to exercises of Religion How great a part of the judicial Law was Ceremonial not onely by types and figures of good things to come which as carnal Ordinances were to expire when the fulness of time came but appendants and attendants of those good duties then enjoyned which are not abrogated by Christ That Text Matt. 5. 17. respects not one division of the Law but every part so that the whole remains in force to receive its perfection by the Gospel The moral Law though nulled in its presumed ability to justification which the grace of Jesus Christ supplieth yet liveth as a rule of obedience The judicial stands still in its full strength in matters of common equity though as to those Laws which peculiarly respected the Jewish State its rigour is abated to supply which God hath given to supreme Powers authority to enact such Decrees as are conducible to the great ends of Government The Ceremonial as it consisted of weak and beggarly rudiments is determined yet it holds as a directory to the Church for signification For one great end thereof was to teach us to serve God regularly and reverently Amesius Med. Theol. l. 2. c. 15. n. 16. confesses Institutions merely Ceremonial do yet contain in them a general equity and do yet teach us that certain fitting days therefore fitting Rites by parity of reason be assigned for God's publick Worship Substantia Legis Ceremonialis est perpetua Zanch. de Relig. Observ c. 15. Aphor. 4. J. Frig. p. 9. of his Ref. Pol. thus expresseth it in reference to the whole There is no abrogation well there may be some derogation which he hath borrowed from the Canonists and Casuists who thus distinguish Derogatur Legi cùm pars detrahitur abrogatur cùm prorsus tollïtur Barth Fum. Tit. Abrog and he thus explains it A derogation doth but expound an Edict as we see the Gospel derogateth from the Law by taking away the Letter and requiring it be taken after the Spirit now the spirit of the Law is the equity thereof but the letter is the rigour of the words We have a Saying the reason of the Law is its soul and every sense affixed contrary to the reason of its enacting is unreasonable Now as in several Statutes of Repeal some useless or prejudicial things are nulled but what conduceth to good ends is by cautious proviso's strengthened so the Mosaical Law in those things which were burthensome and inconvenient is quite out of all but those that are no way derogatory to the Discipline of Christ and his easie yoke and which are very agreeable with the Constitution of Christian Society and community have their full virtue It was the observation of Melancthon that the fourth Commandment was Morale praeceptum de Ceremoniali which if I understand him aright the ultimost reason of the Law is moral but what is specially commanded is Ceremonial and if so then plainly it is moral that some things should be Ceremonial And because Ceremonies have been by all almost adjudged serviceable to the common interchangeable good of Religion therefore they are not to be esteemed trivial or superfluous for nothing is so which is a concurring good mean to a good end or hath a social good end in good resolutions SECT 3. If the quarrel be at their significancy certainly the more significant they are the more expedient also they are and the Church hath good authority to expedients for what is both lawfull and laudable is in that degree necessary and if S. Paul thought it incumbent on every single Christian to provide things honest in the sight of all men Phil. 4. 8. then much more is the Church bound to take care in that respect for her self and her members Now these honest things which are to be provided are such as in the approbation of all wise men whether good or bad are grave venerable attractive and obliging and such are our Ceremonies which are experimented to be wholsome preservatives of the golden mean betwixt nakedness and vanity veneration and superstition gaudiness and rudeness and therefore of the kind of those honest things But S. Paul is yet more particular seeming to put significant Ceremonies sub Praecepto 1 Tim. 2. 8. I will therefore I appoint it by Apostolical authority saith Diod. that men lift up holy hands by this Ceremony saith he to express the devotion of the heart Pisc seconds him the lifting up the hands says he is a sign of the elevation of the heart with this proviso not that this gesture is so necessary that we are indispensably tyed to it For we find the Publican used it not but smote upon his Breast yet therein he was a true Conformist who observed an uncommanded significant rite according to the then received custome if Dr. Lightfoot's warranty be good that in Christ's time they prayed with their hands laid on their breasts the right hand being placed on the left Prostration was no commanded Rite yet approved 2 Chron. 7. 3. All these had their proper significations that of lifting up the
him upon a Puritan Vote or Republican Resolution as they who prove and prosecute it upon the Pope's Placet or Fiat that cannot be the mystery of Godliness and Saintship in a Presbyterian or Independent which is presumed to be the mystery of Iniquity in the Pope and if the Doctrine of Rebellion be the mark of the Beast in a Pontifician it cannot be a sign of Election in a Smectymnuan or Owenist for if the Pope by the plenitude of his power can discharge Subjects from the Oath and bonds of Allegiance then the Sectaries by what names or titles soever divided or subdivided can free themselves upon easier terms for one will absolve himself by a dormant dispensation of the spirit another excuse himself by the pretence of a new light a third will plead Providence a fourth Conscience and the Blades of Fortune will stand upon their privileges The result of this tedious Chapter is God had always a Church this Church had always a Government this was always detemined by God who in the first Ages of the world settled this power on the first-born who were both Kings and Priests after he separated these Offices Moses to hold the Kingly power Aaron the Priestly yet he so ordered that the Priestly power should be subordinate to the Regal he foretold the like order should be established in the Christian Church that Nations should flow into it Isa 2. 2. and the Kings of those Nations should be nursing Fathers to it Isa 49. 23. that together with them should be spiritual Fathers Bishops as Prefects therein Isa 60. 17. for Clement according to that Copy which the Apostle useth reads that Comma thus viz. I will make thy Bishops peace so do the Seventy who in nineteen other places render the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishop so Pagnine from R. Abraham and Buxtorf what we translate Office Psal 109. 8. they reade Prefecture which S. Peter Acts 1. 2. calls Bishoprick what was thus prophesied God in the fulness of time determined by his all-wise providence verified when the Church was first governed by our Lord Jesus Christ who had under him Commission-officers his Apostles and under them the Seventy Disciples After his Ascension and descent of the Holy Ghost the Apostles ruled in chief having Attendants and Assistants to them whom they after substituted as the necessities of the Church required for Bishops with Deacons and Priests under their Jurisdiction Thus the Church stood and was governed for 300 years till the nursing Fathers appeared then and ever since Kings and Bishops have presided in it Kings having the Dominion Bishops the Jurisdiction in the Catholick Church This was one great end of the Reformation to restore our Kings and Bishops to their universally acknowledged Rights due to them by Divine Law this of all other Governments is the most Christian rational and practicable because most suiting with the main end of Government which is that we may live quiet and peaceable lives without any Faction or Schism in all godliness and honesty and this therefore and no other is to be retained in the Church both upon the true measures of piety and prudence CHAP. IV. THE next thing canvassed in this Church is the constituted Worship of God by Liturgy with Ceremonies and Holy-days SECT 1. If it can be evinced that prescribed Forms were used in the Three first Centuries it will follow in the judgment of all unprejudiced persons they are still to be practised and imposed Num. 1. Our Lord and Saviour prescribed a Form to his Disciples Matt. 6. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not onely for the Matter but very Form for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. is the same with that Numb 6. 23. according to the Septuagint which did not respect onely the Substance but the Words as they were dictated S. Luke makes it clear When ye pray say Verba recitationem certam praescribit saith Melanch he gave them an Express saith Diod. long before them S. Cypr. de Orat. Dom. Christ consulting the salvation of his people delivered them Etiam orandi Formam and before him Tert. de Or. c. 1 9. Novam c. he ordered a new Form of Prayer and before them both in Trajan's Reign the Christians ordinarily used it as our Greg. observ'd from Lucian The Context will confirm the interpretation for it is generally received the Jewish Teachers did compose Forms for their Disciples S. John Baptist did whereupon Christ's Disciples moved him also for a Form Luk. 11. 1. that thereby they might be owned for such In compliance whereto our Saviour granted their Petition yet with that caution to decline novelty that he took much of it from the Jewish Euchologue as not onely our Greg. hath noted but Drusius also and Capellus plain it is from the manner of its composure it was not delivered as a Directory but as a Liturgy not onely as a Rule to form our Prayers by but a form to pray in good reasons also there are to persuade us notwithstanding the silence of the Scripture that the Disciples constantly so used it for it was a Symbol of their Discipleship not unto them as common Jews who onely used the Church Ritual but as Christ's retainers whose privilege and honour it was to have a Form of his setting they under this relation moved him for a Form in order to its observation and to discriminate them from other Jews or Disciples of other Masters Num. 2. Our Saviour himself practised composed Forms Matt. 26. 30. which Cam. assures us was the solemn customary Hymn which concluded the Supper and it is the more probable because the Disciples joyned with Christ in it which they could not have done unless they had been well acquainted with it Again he used the same prayer thrice Matt. 26. 44. so upon his complaint upon the Cross he used the words of David Psal 22. 1. and when he gave up the Ghost Luk. 23. 46. he took a Form from Psal 31. 7. Num. 3. We have the Presidents of S. Peter and S. John attending the ordinary service Acts 3. 1. which the circumstances of time and place do evince for if they neglected the daily Service or used any other they would have given an offence to the Jews whose conversion they endeavoured this is confirmed from that observation of learned men that the first Christians accommodated all their Offices to the Jewish Ritual and revived the moral Service of God practised in the Jewish Church which was always by a determinate Form saith Capel from Maim Syn. Crit. in Loc. and appears from Luk. 1. 10. compared with Rev. 8. 4. for at the time of Incense they had three Forms called Emeth Gnaboah and Shemshalom because they began with these words Lightf Desc of the Temple Service Mr. Selden in his Notes on Eut. p. 41. from Maim relates The Jews were permitted to have their voluntary prayers yet not on the Sabbath
on my forehead the banner of the Cross The custome then being ancient and innocent because observed in the best times it ought to be retained and for its better observation be enjoyned by authority certainly not laid aside to gratifie humorous people 3. As for kneeling at the receiving of the holy Sacrament though there be not so clear a constat yet this is plain the Ancients used the same gesture they did at prayer which never was that of sitting which neither in it self hath nor in the esteem of the Ancients ever had any thing of reverence Tert. de Orat. c. 12. protests against it and Amesius c. 18. de Consc p. 191. rejects it because not expressive of reverence nor approved in Scripture Now kneeling was the ordinary custome Euseb l. 8. c. 5 8. standing was at particular times and places which they used as a significant Ceremony yet when they stood they bowed the body after the manner of worshipping which is sufficiently proved by that received rule Nemo manducat c. Let none communicate but he who first adores so that ordinarily they kneeled when they received and when they did not they worshipped The best reformed Churches use kneeling and the best learned of those who do not acknowledge it a gesture of humility and reverence which where it is constituted ought to be uniformly observed The Genevians in their Annot. on the harmony of Confessions are well content every particular Church should use her liberty in such cases particularly they make mention of kneeling at the Communion and use of all such Ceremonies as now are observed by the Lutherans Copes Organs c. and had been used before by Papists Annot. Sect. 14. Obs 4. ad Confes Bohem As an upshot to this when an English fugitive Separatist proposed his Thesis de Adiaphoris at Geneva he could not be permitted to discuss them The whole may be drawn up in this order Ceremonies are lawfull things some of this kind are expedient these expedients ought to be significant these may and occasionally ought to be imposed these so imposed are to be observed and those we practise caeteris paribus are to be settled rather than any other because thereby we honour our first Reformers we obey our lawfull Superiours we keep up our alliance with other reformed Churches sure with the chiefest and best and which is more we hold a firm correspondence with the primitive and present Catholick Church CHAP. VI. AS for the observation of Holidays the Grandees of the Sectarians seemed once willing to admit Festivals provided they were not called Holidays which was nothing else in them but a silly sour singularity and morosity for more learned and much better men than they never scrupled at the name Mr. Perkins Demonst Problem p. 232. n. 6. asserts this Holy they are not in and for themselves but for the holy duties then performed to God Dr. Rivet in Ex. 20. p. 167. declares A relative holiness belongeth to them and they might very properly be called Holidays ratione finis in respect to their ends and uses being separated for holy exercises So they were constituted and observed in the primitive Church S. Chrys Hom. in Ascen hath assured us The Catholick Church observed six recurring anniversary Solemnities in memory of Christ's Nativity Epiphany Passion Resurrection Ascension and mission of the Holy Ghost The matter of fact is notorious In the Reign of Dioclesian an 294. and by the Greek Menology on the twenty fifth of December the Christians assembled to commemorate the Birth of our Lord whereof the Emperour having received intelligence commanded the doors of the Church to be shut and fire set to it which soon consumed both them and it Julian in an hellish design joyned with the Christians in their publick Assembly on the sixth of January called the Epiphany The Festival for it 's called by Phil. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Fast of our Saviour's Passion was solemnly celebrated and that from long custome Eus l. 2. c. 16. The dispute so early started about the time of the observation of Easter puts that beyond dispute Just Mart. Resp ad Orthod 115. speaks of its being kept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Apostles time Euseb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vid. Eus l. 5. c. 23 24 25. and S. Aug. Ep. 119 ex authoritate Scripturarum universae Ecclesiae consensione The Ancients called Ascension Tessaracostae Scal. de Emend Temp. many are their Homilies on that day Conc. Elib c. 43. treats of Whitsuntide as an ancient Solemnity censuring all those who neglect it as Hereticks The matter of fact is backed with a good reason For if the primitive Christians were strict in the observation of the Birth-days as they were called but indeed Death-days of the Martyrs we cannot imagine they would be forgetfull fo the joyfull days wherein the Lord and the Lord of the Martyrs begun continued and perfected the work of the Redemption of mankind But evident it is those days were religiously observed S. Cypr. l. 3. Ep. 6. expressed his great care and zeal those commemorations and solemn Offices should not be slurred Rivet in Ex. 20. p. 154. saith Ratio postulat c. Reason requires that not onely certain days but sufficient be retained even as many as the right constitution safety good of the Church and the glory of God requires For we being exonerated from the Jewish yoke may have more ought not have fewer days for the service of God than they had but they had more than one in seven some whereof were of humane institution This he confirms p. 163. Quod de die c. that which was expresly said of the Seventh-day by analogy and parity of reason respects any day which the Church hath appointed and in common use hath observed for holy Meetings whereupon all Interpreters do conceive not onely the Lord's day but all other lawfully instituted Festivals are comprehended under the Fourth Commandment But a good word from Geneva may doe more service than all other authorities and reasons Hear a whole gang of Genevians at once Every Church may use her liberty in observing Ember-days and Holidays consecrated to the godly memory of the Saints Annot. in Harm Confess Sect. 16. Obs 1. ad Conf. Boh. and retain the use of singing Christian Hymns and Songs upon the Holidays Obs 2. Zanch. in Expl. c. 2. ad Col. so far approves them that though he thinks there is no absolute necessity for them yet there is a profitable necessity in their due observation Bishop Dav. in his exposition of the same words hath furnished us with three substantial reasons who will may consider them CHAP. VII THE last which is opposed is the Doctrine of the Church exemplified in the Book of Articles The Independent Sophi hath expressed so great kindness for 36 of them that by his Verdict woe be to him that shall dispute them no less correction will satisfie his tender Conscience than exile but away