guilefull zeale to be thought to speake the Scripture phrase when indeed the dregs of Ashdod flow from their mouthes For that day which they nickname the Sabbath is either no day at all or not the day that they meane It were well therefore that they would forbeare to speake strange languages in the Church for Saint Pauls sake and use them then when they all meet together in new England amongst them that understand the language for with us the Sabbath is Saturday and no day else No ancient Father Father Nay no learned man Heathen or Christian tooke it otherwise from the beginning of the world till the beginning of their schisme in 1554. And if wee finde the word otherwise used in some writings that of late come unto our hands blame not the Clerkes good men for it nor intitle the misprision any higher or otherwise than to these pretenders to pietie who for their owne ends have for a long time deceived the world with their zealous and most ignorant or cunning clamours and rung the name of Sabbath so commonly into all mens eares that not Clerkes onely but men of judgement learning and vertue not heeding peradventure so much as is requisite what crafty and wicked device may be menaged under the vaile of a faire word used in Gods law doe likewise suffer the same often to scape the doore of their lips that detest the drift of the devisers in the closet of their hearts I will now shut up this point in Saint Hilaries words S. Hilar. l. 6. Non sum nescius difficillimo me asperrimoque tempore haec disserere multis jam per omnes fermè Romani Imperii provincias Ecclesiis morbo pestiferae hujus praedicationis infectis velut ad piae fidei hujus malà usurpatam persuasionem longo doctrinae usu ementito nomine verae religionis imbutis non ignorans difficilem esse ad emendationis profectum voluntatem quam in erroris sui studio per plurimorum assensum authoritas publicae sententiae contineret Gravis enim est periculosus error inplurimis multorum lapsus etiamsi se intellig at tamen exurgendi pudore authoritatem sibi praesumit ex numero habens hoc impudentiae ut quod errat intelligentiam esse veritatis asserat dum minus erroris esse existimatur in multis There are so many that see so little benefit will be suckt out of the constitutions of the Apostles practice and tradition of holy Church doctrine of godly and learned Fathers that they have got themselves heapes of teachers that to serve their owne turnes will call and keep the Lords day as a Sabbath and so proclaime it with such lowd outcries that the voice of truth will become silence and her selfe made errour and so made to beleeve of her selfe or to forgoe her owne modesty and to beleeve none but her selfe But with Moses liberavi animam meam being called hither very unwillingly I have set before you good and evill light and darknesse life and death the doctrine and practice of the Church of God and the leaven of Pharisees and fashion of Schismatickes and Novellists chuse which you will and the Lord be your guide Onely of this be you well assured that if you will have Manna rained downe unto you you must forgoe your Sabbath and sticke onely to the Lords day for in nostrâ Dominicâ die semper Dominus pluit Manna Orig. super 15. Exod. hom 7. in Sabbatho non pluit The last point touching the day of meeting is When doth the Lords day begin Resp I answer S. Ambra in Ps â—7 out of Saint Ambrose The first day of the weeke began when the Sabbath ended The Sabbath ended when Christ arose Christ the true light arose with the light and spring of the morning for vesperi Sabbathi quae lucescit in primam Sabbathi are Saint Matthews words Nihil pulchrius nihil expressius saith hee this place is as fit and pat for our purpose as may be The Sabbaths evening is in the light of the first day of the weeke So Saint Leo resolveth Dioscorus Patriarch of Alexandria vespera Sabbathi initium diei Dominici S. Leo epist â—d Diosc the beginning of the Lords day is in the end of the Sabbath The end of the Sabbath is in the light of the first day of the weeke Looke then for Jacobs hand on Esau's heele or the beginning of the Lords day in the end of the Sabbath But Saint Nyssen is more punctuall and cleere S. Nyssen deresur orat 2. the Lords day saith he begins at Cock-crowing atque in hoc ipso articulo temporis and at that very knot and joint of time For then end we our Sabbaths or Saturdaies fast and then begin we nos oblectare laetari to keepe our Sundayes feast and that by an ancient custome which all are bound to observe For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he doth not signifie the evening or that part of the night which is post occasum Solis after Sun set but the rise of the morning with which the Sabbath ended Yet for all this the Church by way of preparation for the better sanctification of the Lords day hath prudently and piously appointed holy offices to be used on the Eve before And in obedience to this positive constitution of holy Church Saint Augustine would have his hearers to observe the Lords day S. Aug. ser de tem 25. à vesperâ ad vesperam from Even to Even sicut antiquis praeceptum est de Sabbatho as it was also commanded the Jewes concerning the Sabbath And therefore saith he look that from Saturday at Even us que ad vesperam diei Dominici till the Lords day at even we set aside all rurall and worldly businesse ut solo divino culiui vacemus that we may attend onely on the Lords service and begin to repaire to the Church to evening prayer on Saturday nights and he that cannot so doe let him be sure to pray at home Remember then that you which will needs have the Lords day a Sabbath doe set aside all businesse and flocke to the Church to say or heare Service on Saturday Evens which hitherto you have not done notwithstanding the order of the Church which prescribeth that part of that day to prepare us for the more devout observation of the Lords day Thus much of the day of meeting The first day of the weeke 2 In the next place we have in the next words to consider of the persons that then met These were not Jewes for then the Sabbath had beene the day of their meeting but Gentiles Asians Macedonians Thessalonians Paul with his companions and Disciples Now Paul had ordered before this time in Galatia and in Corinth that his Disciples were to have their meetings on the first day of the weeke whereunto they submitted themselves For on the first day of the week they now met and so did the whole Church
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
Scripture hath determined nothing mos populi Dei S. Aug. ep Cas 86. instituta majorum pro lege tenenda sunt the custome of Gods people and the ordinance of our Elders are to be observed as lawes And in this case for any man to doubt whether he should relinquish and abandon his owne new devices ita faciendum and that it becomes him to doe as he sees the whole Church of God to doe insolentissimae insaniae est is an insolencie with madnesse to boot saies Saint Augustine S. Aug aep 119. Ja. And to talke with such interminata orietur luctatio were to uphold wrangling world without end 3 If the first day of the weeke be the Lords day we must looke to doe the Lords worke on it and not trench upon him by doing our owne worke thereon For no excuse of businesse ought to keepe us from the service of God on that day No necessitie is a greater tyrant than poverty yet is that no good excuse for thy absence from Church saies Saint Chrysostome to say thou art poore and must follow thy businesse S. Chrysoft hom 24. de bap Christi For God hath not taken to himselfe the greatest part of the dayes of the weeke but hath given thee sixe unam vero sibi reliquit and left himselfe but one yet wilt thou finde out the thiefe povertie to steale that away from him too as sacrilegious persons doe consecrate things But what doe I speake de integro die of a whole day Doe but that in keeping the Lords day which the widow did in her almes that gave two mites sic tu duas horas so give the Lord two houres This if you doe not beware you lose not integrorum annorum labores the labours of many whole yeares Qu. May then no worke of our owne be done on the Lords day not so much as out of the times of the Lords service Resp Out of doubt there may yea though we should suppose that Christians are bound to keepe the Lords day as strictly as our Saviour kept the Sabbath For our Saviour saies Epiphanius non artem fabrilem lignariam S. Epipâ—â—â— 2. 〈◊〉 2. ber 66. p. 229. aut ferrariam did not follow the trade of a Carpenter or Smith on the Sabbath day though he was so poore that he used Josephs trade and made both Carts and Ploughs yet conversatione doctrinâ by his doctrine and course of life he shewed that some workes of our owne might be done on the Sabbath out of the times of divine service for himselfe made clay est autem opuâ— lutum subigere and to make clay is a kinde of worke a worke neither of necessity nor charity for had it so pleased him the worke of charity had taken place before the clay could have been tempered He commanded also the Cripple grabbatum tollere to carry away his bed which then needed not for the arrantest Pharisee theefe in Jerusalem would not have medled with it on that day The Disciples also by his doctrine and example saies the same Father spicas vellunt torrent edunt do plucke and parch their corne on the Sabbath day And there was no law saies Saint Irenaeus that forbade them so to doe 〈…〉 metere autem colligere in horreum lex vetabat but the law forbade reaping and carrying into the barne on the Sabbath day His reason is this continere enim se jubeb at lex ab omni opere servili i.e. ab omni avaritiâ quae per negotiationem reliquo terreno actu â—gitatur The law forbiddeth all servile workes wherein covetousnesse sticketh as a naile betweene two stones Some small chares then of our owne may be done on the Lords day out of the times of the Lords service Secondly meate may be drest and Feasts may be kept on the Lords day by Christs example S. Luc. 14.13 who was at a feast on the Sabbath day and none ought to blame us for doing the like For rectè Ecclesiae festa colunt S. Aug. de temp ser 253. 255. qui Ecclesiae filios se esse recognoscunt they doe well to keepe the Feasts of the Church that remember themselves to be the sonnes of the Church This doctrine Saint Augustine taught his people Novit sanctitas vestra fraires my brethren your holinesse knoweth very well that to day consecrationem altaris celebramus we celebrate the Feast for the consecration of the Altar in quo unctus vel benedictus est lapis in quo divina sacrificia consecrantur ac meritò gaudentes celebramus and wee doe well to keepe this feast with joy not with wanton lewd or unchaste joy Saint Austine is no Proctor to plead for Baal nor any that follow him For nescio qua fronte saith he I cannot tell with what conscience he can shew a cheerefull countenance in altaris consecratione that is not precise in cordis sui altari munditiam custodire to preserve purity in the altar of his heart The Lords day then is and ought to bee kept as a Feast as the Sabbath was Judith 10.2 For magnum scandalum saies Saint Augustine nay magnum nefas saies Tertullian it is a great scandall S. Aug. ep 86. Tert. de Coro Mil. and a foule sinne to fast on the Lords day Therefore we condemne the Manichees saies Saint Ambrose that fast on Sundayes S. Amb. ep 33. l. 10. We are bound to fast on Fridayes and of feast on Sundayes so have we a day amaritudinis laetitiae in illo jejunemus illo reficiamur to fast on the one to feast on the other The Jewes themselves saies Tertullian kept not their Sabbath with fasting for pridianâ paraturâ by their provision of two Omers for a man it plainely appeareth that they made as large a meale on the Sabbath as on any day else Ob. But they were commanded to dresse their Sabbath dinner the day before and the Commandement saies On it thou shalt doe no maner of worke Sol. Not to dispute it further S. Aug. ep 119. c. 12. how or to what the Jewes were bound upon their Sabbath however this nothing concernes us Christians if we understand the Commandement aright for though all the nine Commandements sic observantur ut sonant are to be kept according to the letter observare tamen diem Sabbathi non ad literam jubemur secundum etium ab opere corporali sicut observant Judaei yet we Christians are not commanded to observe the Sabbath after the letter by a strict rest as did the Jewes nor the Lords day after the maner of the Jewish Sabbath for of all the ten Commandements the third which concerneth the Sabbath figurativè intelligendum est is to be understood figuratively For this Commandement was given for no other end but onely for a signe saies Saint Irenaeus out of the Prophet Ezechiel â— Iren. l. â— c. 30. cap. 20. and out of the Law of Moses
Exod. 31. and then shewes whereof it was a signe Sabbath a perseverantiam totius diei erga Deum deservitionis edocebant their Sabbath taught our continuall service of God Orig. hoâ— 2â— in 〈◊〉 28. which Origen calls Sabbathum Christianum a Christian Sabbath And because no man is justified either by the Sabbath or Circumcision therefore in signo data sunt populo they were given the people for a signe This Theodoret largely sheweth out of the plaine words of the Prophet Ezechiel cap. 20. ver 11. S. Theod. in Ezech The Sabbath was none of those Commandements that could give life to the observers but was given them onely to be a signe in signum temporis illius Tert. de prâ—â—â— lib. c. 4. as Tertullian speakes and not in sallutis praerogativam not to bring them salvation but to make them knowne from other Nations Other Nations that descended of Abraham used circumcision as well as the Jewes but no Nation kept the Sabbath but Jewes onely Therefore 1541. years they were knowne by that signe to be Gods people but the keeping of the Sabbath made neither them nor the Pharisees to be Gods people This is evident For Abraham saith Saint Irenaeus was justified and called the friend of God S. Iren. l. 4. c. 30. sine observatione Sabbathorum without keeping any Sabbaths Nay there was not any of the Patriarchs saith Tertullian that kept the Sabbath neither Adam Tert. adv â—udaeos de praeserâ— c. 2.4 Enoch Noah Abraham nor Melchizedek for 2455. years yet were they just men and obtained salvation This is so cleare a truth that the Jewes could not denie it and Trypho doth confesse it being pressed thereunto by Saint Justin And for this 1635. S. Just iâ— Tryph. Tom. 2. yeares it hath not beene kept in the Christian world Manifestum est igitur saies Tertullian it is manifest therefore that that cannot be morall nor perpetuall that began but with Moses S. Tusti◠〈◊〉 verit l. 2. in Tryph as Saint Justin Martyr sayes and ended with Christ when hee nailed all the ceremoniall law to his Crosse with those words Consummatum est it is finished Therefore the third Commandement as Saint Austine or the fourth as Josephus and other Fathers call it touching the Sabbath must be understood onely figuratively and not after the letter as the other nine commandements are This is the doctrine of antiquitie which hath gotten a placet from Gomarus Goma invest sab c. 3. whose followers may perhaps embrace the same Ob. Dicunt autem Judaei quòd primordio c. Tertul. de praescrip c. 2. 4. But a Jew will object and say saies Tertullian that God from the beginning did sanctifie the Sabbath and therefore the Sabbath ought to be kept holy and no maner of worke must be done thereon Sol. This is the very argument which Marcion learned of the Pharisees John 9.16 and blasphemously useth to prove Christ not to the Sonne of God because he carried himselfe so crosse to his Fathers actions and Lawes For the Sabbath which his Father sanctified and rested on operatione destruxit Tert. in Mar. l. 4. he profaned and overthrew by working on it so did his Disciples for cibum operati marke how pure this blasphemous Hereticke was they dresse their meate on the Sabbath My answer therefore is this that the Law-giver best knew how to observe his owne lawes and if his Fathers rest did not binde him from doing some worke no more doth it us Besides we see the Patriaches even Melchizedek himselfe a Priest of the most high God did not take themselves bound to rest on the Sabbath at all For though they saw Gods example yet they heard no commandement to enjoyne them to rest on that day as he did therefore they never observed the Sabbath Thirdly though a Jew will little regard what the Patriarches did or what all good Christians resolve and practice but will force the Law-giver to keepe his owne law not after his owne meaning but after theirs as the Pharisees did our Saviour saying This man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day viz. as they construed and expounded the Commandement for the observation thereof yet that nothing concernes us that keepe the Lords day by vertue of Apostolical constitution and tradition of holy Church and not the Sabbath by force of the fourth Commandement which the Apostles by Christs doctrine and example understood solutum to be dissolved And cujus vis soluta nec nomen haerebat S. Ambâ—th Lu. 6. l. 5. saies Saint Ambrose when the Sabbath lost his force it forfeited the name therefore ought not so to be called and so having lost both force and name is become nothing at all but a meere Idoll An Idoll hath the shape of something but because it hath eyes and sees not c. it is nothing in the world So though their Sabbath hath the name of one of the Jewes holy dayes yet keepeth it not neither the day they kept nor the service belonging to it and so is become nothing in the world True it is that some that with great zeale and little judgement exclaime against recreations and dressing of meat and the like on Sundayes must make a Sabbath of Sunday and keepe up that name otherwise their many citations of Scripture mentioning onely the Sabbath of being applied to Sunday will appeare so ridiculously distorted and wry-neckt that they will be a scorne and derision to the simplest of their now deluded Auditors who are abused with the name of a Christian Sabbath out of Origen which is not kept on Sunday onely 〈…〉 but every day Christ is our Christian Sabbath saith Origen and he that lives in Christ semper in Sabbatho vivit requiescendo ab operibus malis operatur autem opera justitiae incessanter Others also for the plot-sake must uphold the name of Sabbath that stalking behind it they may shoot against the Service appointed for the Lords day Hence it is that some for want of wit some for too much adore the Sabbath as an Image dropt downe from Jupiter and cry before it as they did before the golden Calfe This is an holy day unto the Lord whereas indeed it is the great Diana of the Ephesians as they use it whereby the mindes of their Proselytes are so perplexed and bewitched that they cannot resolve whether the sinne be greater to bowle shoot or daunce on their Sabbath than to commit murder or the father to cut the throate of his owne childe All which doubts would soon be resolved by plucking the vizzard of the Sabbath from the face of the Lords day which doth as well and truely become it as the Crowne of thornes did the Lord himselfe This was platted to expose him to damnable derision and that was plotted to impose on it detestable superstition Yet to die for it they will call it a Sabbath presuming in their zealous ignorance or
of God by their example for ever after Wherefore their obedience and humility would better beseeme us than the pride and opposition of Diotrephes against St. John and St Paul and the whole Church of God about the day of meeting or the Service thereon used onely for preheminence sake 3 Now I come in the next place to the holy duties wherin the Apostle and his Disciples spent the Lords day The first of these is breaking of bread How is that done St. Augustine tells us sicut frangitur in Sacramento corporis Christi S. Aug. ep 86. not as bread is broken in a Taverne but as it is broken in the Sacrament of the Lords body Therefore the Syriac plainely calleth this breaking of bread receiving the Eucharist So doth Justin Martyr And none is so fit as he to expound St. Austins sicut to tell us how bread was broken in the holy Eucharist in those primitive times This he doth in his information given thereof unto Antoninus plus Sunday saies he is the day of our meeting S. Justin orat ad Anton. for taking that nourishment which with us is called the Eucharist Then the brethren come together ad communes preces supplicationes to common prayers and supplications then are read the writings of the Prophets and Apostles deinde Lectore quiescente when the Reader hath finished all divine Service Praesidens orationem habet he that hath the chiefe place maketh an Oration or Sermon and instructs the people and exhorts them to imitate those excellent things which they have heard read Here is reading of prayers and lessons both out of the Old and New Testament and after them a Sermon and the Sermon doth not justle out any part of divine Service though the President or Bishop himselfe made it Thus the first Service endeth with a Sermon And now begins the second Service Sub haec consurgimus omnes c. prayers being finished and the Sermon done we all stand up at once and poure out our prayers Stand up and pray Marvaile not at this For in the Primitive Church prayers on the Lords day were performed standing in memory of Christs resurrection And it was not lawfull de geniculis adorare to pray kneeling as appeares out of Tertullian Tertul. de Coron mil. Concil Nic. Can. 30. S. Bafil de Sp. Sancto c. 27. S. Aug. ep 119. S. Epiph. l. 3. To. 2. and the Nicene Councell and the Fathers that succeeded Then precibus finitis prayers being ended ei qui fratribus praeest offertur panis c. Bread wine and water are offered to the Priest who taketh the same and with all his might courageously preces gratiarum actiones profundit poures out prayers and benedictions over them and then all the people give a cheerefull acclamation and cry Amen Then is distribution made cuique praesenti to every one present doubtlesse to lay men as well as to Priests and Deacons Then also the richer sort contribute what they thinke fit which is laid up for the use of the poore Here are reading of prayers and lessons expounding of Scripture supplications benedictions oblations to the Priest collections for the poore distribution of the Sacrament all required to breaking of bread ficut frangitur in Sacramento corporis Christi as it is broken in the Eucharist And so we see how the use of our first and second Service is founded on and agreeth with the practice of the Primitive Church by the testimonie of this holy Martyr Yet this may more clearely be delineated out of the Fathers that succeeded him Christian Churches in the Primitive times had these distinct places in them there was Sacrarium Presbyterium and Auditorium the Sacrarium or holy place was distinguished from the Presbyterie by certaine lists and railes the Presbyterie also was divided from the Auditorie Nave and body of the Church per cancellos by a certaine partition that gave it the name of a Chauncell In the holy place stood the Altar or Lords boord and not in the body of the Church In the Presbyterie was placed Cathedra Episcopi exedrae Presbyterorum the Bishops Chaire or Throne and stalls for Priests For anciently none else not so much as Deacons were permitted to sit in the Church In the Auditorie stood the Pulpit or Readers Tribunall as Saint Cyprian calls it Now the Service that was performed in Sacrario was much different from that which was done in Auditorio None were allowed to come and stand within the lists of the holy place where the Altar was fixed but the Priests Concil Arel Can. 15. S. Cyp. l. 1. ep 9. whose office it was non nisi altari deservire to stand and serve at the altar and none but they Concil Constantinop 6. Can. 69. And the Canon in the sixth generall Councell excludeth all lay men from thence unlesse it were to come in to offer And the passages in Theodoret between S. Ambrose and Theodosius make it manifest S. Theod. l. 5. c. 18. and they are much mistaken that produce the Councell of Constantinople to prove that communion Tables stood in the midst of the Church But the Service in the Auditory might and was much of it performed by such as had onely a toleration to read from the Bishop without imposition of hands by the Presbyterie as Celerinus had from Saint Cyprian S. Cypri 2. ep 7. And such had authority to goe into the Pulpit and read the Service appointed and when the Reader had finished the Ecclesiasticall office then the Expounder or Preacher went up into the Pulpit and did expound some place of Scripture formerly read Tert. depraeser c. 16. Eusch l. 6. c. 34. S. Cypr. l. 4. ep 2. l. 2. ep 1. l. 1. ep 7. 4. At this Service were present Catechumeni Competentes Neophyti and all sorts of Auditors beleevers or unbeleevers But at the second Service which began in Sacrario when this first Service ending with a Sermon was done in Auditorio none were admitted to be present but only the faithfull And these kneeled behind the Deacons in the midst of the Presbytery or Chauncell and with them such Priests as after penance done ad limina Ecclesiae were admitted only in communionem laicorum For Penitents were permitted to kneele together with the faithfull but that was post exomologesin as Tertullian thinkes fit to call it after confession and penance which was so district and severe in those primitive times performed in sackcloth and ashes and the Penitents casting themselves downe at the thresholds of the Church doores and after admission into the Church with much adoe granted then casting themselves downe upon their knees before the Altar or Lords boord to receive the Priests absolution that our silken eares will be in danger to be galled with the hearing of so rough a discipline Yet all of us confesse in the Commination That in the Primitive Church there was such a godly discipline whereby
notorious sinners were put to open penance and that it is a thing much to be wished for that such discipline were restored againe Bishop Latimer soone missed it or some such thing and complaines of the want thereof therefore he with the other godly Bishops of his time send their wishes after it to fetch it againe till God be pleased to provide meanes powerfull for the restoring thereof Tertullian taxeth the Heretickes of his time for neglect of this decent and godly discipline Tertul. de praeser c. 16. They kept no distinction of places nor of Service in their Conventicles Quis catechumenus quis fidelis incertum est pariter adeunt pariter audiunt pariter orant The whole heard of them ranne in a rout together both to Prayers Sermon and Sacrament that you could not know one from another Euseb l. 5. c. 28 l. 6. c. 34. It was quite otherwise in the holy Catholike Church That which Zepherinus required of Natalius Fabianus of Philip and Saint Cyprian of the Penitents of his time S. Cyp. l. 2. ep 7 make it manifest that there were distinction of places in the Church to ranke all sorts of Christians in And Saint Ambrose his practice sheweth a distinction of Service The Catechumeni being dismissed missam facere caepi S. Amb. ep 33. Saint Ambrose began not the second Service as our Church calleth it at the Altar Booke of Fast 1. Dâ—m Râ—giâ— before the first Service in the body of the Church was finished and the Catechumeni sent out which still is the custome in our Church and none will ever goe about to put that sweet harmonie which wee keepe with the Primitive Church out of tune but such as Tertullian complaines of Schismatickes and Sectaries And so we see that all those holy actions which are distinctly performed both in the first and second service are all included in this action of breaking of bread sicut frangitur in Sacramento corporis Christi And so I come to the second holy action 2. This is Preaching The Preacher is Saint Paul What kinde of Sermon then did Saint Paul make for fit it is that his action be our direction Saint Pauls preaching is of three kinds 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he reasoned with them or taught them by way of dialogue 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he continued his speech 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 11. he used a long homily which held from midnight till morning For the first Saint Pauls preaching did not stand onely in making a long discourse which some pitifully perishing in a dearth of matter and in an inundation of light and froathie words trumpet up for the onely preaching But he gave others leave to speake as well as himselfe for that must needs be to hold up the dialogue in the text yet he preached for all that Wherefore if the Curate catechise in the afternoone as he is commanded by question and answer which makes the dialogue in the text this man preacheth There is therefore no cause at all why some should take the matter so grievously that charge should be given by the King whom they never meane to obey therein that afternoone Sermons should be turned into catechising that is that one kinde of preaching should be exchanged for another the lesse profitable for the more usefull Certaine also it is that whether they travell all the Scriptures over and then passe on to the ancient Fathers they shall finde no ground at all for the fruitlesse and disobedient exercise of their afternoone talent till they come home to their owne wilfull selfe-conceitednesse Our Saviour came not to breake the law but to fulfill it who being at Capernaum on a Sabbath day preached but once For statim è Synagogâ from the Synagogue he went immediately to Simons house to dinner where Simons wives mother ministred unto them Mar. 1.31 and there stayed healing diseases till sunne set and went no more to the Synagogue to preach in the afternoon The law that enjoined afternoon Sermons for keeping their Sabbath was not then knowne to the Pharises themselves who else were apt enough to have laid it in his dish at supper Troubles at Franckford pag. 194. no nor to these mens progenitors for 1565. yeares after as by their owne confession may appeare True it is Saint Peter preached once at the ninth houre or at three a clocke in the afternoone Act. 3.1 but the occasion place and other circumstances being so extraordinary his example binds us no more to doe the like than Saint Pauls here doth to preach in an upper chamber all night long The holy Fathers also in the best times had their Sermons in the forenoons and it will be hard for the best or stubbornest of them all to shew a Sermon preached by any of the Fathers in the afternoone Saint Basil onely excepted who had his second and ninth homily in the afternoone Socrat l. 5. c. 21. Niceph. l. 12. c. 34. because as Socrates and Nicephorus affirme the custome in Caesare a was not to preach in the forenoone but Episcopi Sacerdotes post lucernarum accensiones sacras Scripturae populo exponunt the people have the Scripture expounded to them in the afternoone Their preaching was but expounding as they call it and that but once neither Why then should they not yeeld to change their afternoone discoursing into preaching by way of dialogue as St. Paul here did Secondly St. Paul preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the while he was in his Homilie What his Homilie was it is hard for me to say whether it was one that himselfe made and did not reade or one that he read and another made An Homilie I am sure it was and it may be made by all the Apostles or the chiefe of the Apostles as Bucer saies our Homilies were penned by some eminent Preachers I pray you tell me when Saint Paul went through divers Churches as now he did to establish them in the faith and to that end took with him dogmata the decrees made by the Apostles and Elders that were at Jerusalem Act 16.4 and delivered them to the Churches to be kept whether he did reade them or no or delivered them as a Roll sealed up If he read them there 's his homilie And most certaine it is he read them even by his owne rule For if he caused Epistles from some one man to be read in the Church by him that brought them it is more than evident that himselfe bringing the Decrees of the Apostles and Elders he would not in any sort transgresse his owne rule but doe the decrees himselfe and the Church that right as to reade them that the Churches might see what it was that he delivered them to keep and be fully assured that himselfe walked in the selfe same steps with the rest of the Apostles and so be enabled to stop the mouths of all false Apostles who objected that against
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