Sacras holy or Sacred houses For Euseb de vit const l. 3. c. 1. they are set a part from common use they are assigned to Gods Worship they are consecrated with solemne and speciall rites and given up into Gods possession and their Dedications have long beene commemorated with yearely solemnites whereupon it was decreed in the Councell of Gangra Si quis docet domum Dei Contemp ibilem esse vel congregationes quae in ea fiant Anathema Cap. 5. fit i. If any man teach that the house of God or the Congregations there assembled are to be contemned or slighted let him be accursed And further the words in that Councell are Domos Cap. 21. Dei honoramus conventus qui in iis fiunt tanquam sanctos utiles suscipimus non claudentes pietatem in domibus sed omnem locum in Dei nomine aedificatum honoramus i. Wee doe honour the houses of God and embrace the assemblies there as holy and good Not that we shut up Pietie in houses but that wee honour all places which are built to the name of God So then the Pietie of those times reputed Churches holy places and yet no otherwise holy than by a Relative holinesse viz. in regard of their consecration and the use whereto they are thereby assigned which yet giveth no man liberty ever the more to slight the Church For though creatures beneath the reasonable be capable of no other holinesse than this Relative holinesse yet have they soundly smarted who have dared to prophane such holy things Nabuchadonosor 2 King 25. burnt up the houses of the Lord and the Pillars of the basesse and the brazen Sea did the Caldaeans breake in peeces c. But then marke what followed it is not long before that Nabuchadonosor is called to his account for all this when his Kingdome is departed from him and he driven Dan. 4. from men doth eate grasse as Oxen hath his body wet with the dew of heaven his haire grow like Eagles feathers and his nailes like the birds talons Baltasar will needes prophane the holy vessels and command them from the house of Dan. 5. God for himselfe to carouse in among his Concubines But the wrath of God doth quickely powre him out a Cup of vengeance and sad newes that night he lost his life and the Medes and Persians possessed his Kingdome Antiochus 1 Mac. 1. maketh the like havocke in the Temple and the holy things thereof as Nabuchadonosor had done before and not long after he is met withall by the hand of God which smote him with an invisible and incureable plague tormenting his bowels and inward parts his flesh rotting his carkasse swarming with Lice and stinking so grievously as not to be endured and in this wretched case he dyed miserably on the wilde Mountaines And one maine motive stirring God to expose the Iewes to the fury of the Chaldaeans was for that 2 Chro. 36. 14. they polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Ierusalem Doth not the fearefull death of Vzzah tell us how wary we must be and what heede we must take of medling with things hallowed or Consecrated for what did he but onely touch the Arke with his hand in no contempt or evill meaning but with a good respect to keepe it from falling But the Arke was holy and Vzza his hand was not to meddle therewith he therefore dyed for this presumption and yet the holinesse of the Arke was but relative holinesse What should I say of the Sabboth day among the Iewes or of the Lords day among the Christians was the one Or is the other holy otherwise than by a relative holinesse And yet wee know how severely they have beene punished which violated the holinesse of the Sabboth in the Old Testament and we have knowne of many terrible judgements which have overtaken such as have abused the other Ierusalem is the holy Citty and heaven it selfe is an holy place yet no otherwise holy than in relation to God there specially present If then heaven be holy Ierusalem holy the Lords day holy the Sabboth was holy then the Church or place consecrated for Christians to assemble in for the publicke worship of Almighty God is therefore holy because being so consecrated it hath such relation to God and his worship CAP. VI. Names whereby Churches under the Gospell have beene called OUr English word Church which in Scotland is sounded Kyrke commeth of the Greeke word ΚυÏιακὴ of the word ΚÏÏιοσ a Lord so ΚυÏιακὴ or Church is as if you should say belonging to the Lord answerable whereto is the Latine name Dominicum by which the Church was anciently called of the word Dominus a Lord so wee have it Ruffin l. 1. c. 3. Sequere me ad Dominicum i. De verbis dominii Ser. 15. Follow me to the Church Saint Augustine telleth us the reason why the Church is so called Quemadmodum tempus Deo sacrum dicitur dies Dominicus Ita locus Deo dicatus dicitur Dominicum i. As the time which is holy unto God is called the Lords day so the place which is dedicated unto God is called Dominicum i. The Lords house And thus the Church in the new Testament agreeth in phrase with our forefathers in the Old Testament who usually call the Temple and places of Gods Worship the house of the Lord. Places of Christian and Religious meetings have had the names of Cryptae i. hiding places For sometimes in the heate of persecution the Christians though sincere yet either timorous or rather provident not to be disturbed at their holy meetings did assemble in Caves in the earth in Woods and desarts as the Apostles themselves Iuel apol part 2. art 3. Ioh. 20. 19. 1 King 18. 13. when they assembled in the night with the doores shut for feare of the Iewes and as the Prophets were hidden by fifty in a Cave by the good Obediah But O! the goodnesse of our mercifull God who hath placed unto us our Churches in most open view and made both the way thither and our being there safe and comfortable We neede not with Nicodemus goe to Christ by night The Church doores are open at noone day wee are in no danger in going to or being at Church but expose our selves to punishment by keeping away Happy are the eyes which see the things which we see And God give us grace to make good use of so great blessings Churches have also the names of Oratories of the Latine Word Orare to pray For that Christians in all their meetings used to prayse God and to pray unto him Eusebius writing of the joyfull L. 8. c. 1. dayes with the zeale and devotion of the Christians before the persecution began under Dioclesian saith Quis aggregationes multitudinis insignesque concursus ad oratoria describeret i. who was able to describe the gathering together of the multitude and their goodly flocking to the
well disposed doth as I have said ingender quicken increase and nourish the inward reverence respect and devotion which is due to Soveraigne Majesty and power which those whom the use thereof cannot perswade unto would easily by the want thereof be brougbt to confesse for which cause I crave leave to be excused by them herein if in zeale to the common Lord of all I choose rather to coÌ„mend the vertue of an enemy then to flatter the vice and imbecillity of a friend Finally I know not any that dissallow the adorning of Churches except Anabaptists and Brownistes into whose schisme and faction too many of our bretheren seem to be too much inclining Indeede Theod. l. 3. c. 12. the unfaithfull disciple afore mentioned did grudge at what was bestowed on Christ and came not into the bagge which he had in keeping And wee read of one Felix an apostate and great treasurer to the apostate Emperour Julian who beholding the goodly vessels which the piety of the good Constantine and Constantius had bestowed upon the Church sayd in the bitternesse of his malice en quibus vasiâ—s ministratur Mariae filio i. Behold what goodly vessels the sonne of Mary is served in But as the history relateth this sonne of Beltal quickly came to a shamefull end To adorne Churches is not Superstitious but to deprive them of their ornaments to hinder their endowments and to repine thereat are all no better then sacrilegious And now me thinks I heare some of our bretheren call upon me to listen to the sounde that is made in our Churches by voices of singers by Organes and other instruments of musique and to tell how I can cleare this from being Popish or superstitious But God be thanked as there is no law to prohibit the use of musique even in the Church Service so withall being rightly used it is very usefull and profitable for the spirituall man in that it stirreth up his christian affection the more chearefully to prayse God Pet. Mart. saith that in Musique rightly â—nd judic 5. ordered tria bonorum genera concurrunt honestum utile jueundum i. three good things concur viz. comely profitable and pleasant When God had brought his people through the red sea therein whelmed the Aegyptians The Israelites as they expresse their gladnesse by their songs so to proportion their joy the best they can to the measure of their hapynesse do set their ditty to an instrument of Musique The like is done by devoute Deborah For when God had given the life of Siserah into the hands of Jael and peace to Israel in the confusion of Jabin Then sung Deborah and Barak prayse yee the Lord for a venging Israel But this was done once upon speciall occasion at the red Sea not above once more in nere two hundred Object yeares in the dayes of the Judges what is this then to the standing use of musique in the publique worship of God But this was done in the publique worship of God Ans by the people of god without any breach of any law of God therfore it is stil lawful to be done again as well twice as once as well coÌ„stantly as sometimes And therefore the King and prophet David the only man ever Chronicled to have been a man after Gods owne heart and well might he so be being so zealous as he was for the house and honour of God as Ps 69. 9. he composed his Psalmes to be tuned and sung to severall instruments of Musique for Gods honor so he brought that musique into the Church and erected 1 Chro. ea 16. Ca. 25. the most glorious Quire that ever was under the cope of Heaven for song in the house of the Lord with Cymballs Psalteries and Harpes for the Service of the house of God But this was in the old Testement and therefore Object is like to have beene some Leviticall Ceremony The is no such Institution among all the Leviticall Ans ceremonies which were all delivered by God to Moses and by Moses to the people 400 yeeres before David was borne Yea the text telleth us 1 Chro. 25. 6. playnely that this was according to the Kings order And therefore it is no Leviticall ceremony in that there was no institution thereof before the dayes of David And then I hope here is no feare of Popery to be in the use of the Church Musique because it had the first Institution in the dayes of David 1500 yeares before any Popery began And therefore Eph. as it were in approbation of so good a practise Colos our Saviour Christ with his Disciples sing a Psalme at the end of the Sacred Supper And S. Paul adviseth the use of the Psalmes hymnes and spirituall Comm. Judic c. 5. N. 1. Songs Pet. Mart. proveth that musique hath beene of use in the Christian Church from the dayes of the Apostles because Plinius secundus writeth unto Trajan euseb l. 3. l. 30 that the Christians did hymnos antelucanos Christo suo canere i. Sing Psalmes to their Christ before day light They found themselves thereby charged in Gods worship And I do assure my selfe that man who shal bring to the Church where Musique is rightly used a devout hart not perverted with prejudice and attend unto the Prayses of God which are set out with Musique cannot choose but feele his thoughts therewith elevated and enlarged the more pathetically and feelingly the more amplie and fervently to acknowledge and magnifie the goodnesse of God It is true that some of the antient Fathers do find fault with the abuse of Musique in Gods Worship but that condemneth not the right use thereof any more then the holy Supper is condemned by St. Paul whilest he blameth those who shamefully prophaned it In the right use therefore of church Musique there is good profit and edification to the affection but no Superstition CAP. VIII Gods Servants are Holy and not Superstitious HOuses are usually framed to suit their owners especially when they build them for their owne habitation And such masters such men Salomon had not only builded an house answeareable to the wisdome and state of so great a King but was also sorted with servants suitable to the wisedome Levit. 19. 2. of their prince and to the order and magnificence of his house and throne And God whose house and habitation the Church is is holy The Church also being Gods house is holy So the holy God hath an holy house as is suitable Neither will he want answerable servants who by their holy demenure shall manifest it to the world that they are the Servants of the holy God The true servants of God must be holy For the Lord God their master is holy And St. Peter telleth us that we are an holy Nation And here we do not meane only a relative holinesse such as times places garments and the like are capable of but such an holinesse as is wrought
as St. Paul adviseth to 1 Cor. 10. 31. Gods glory Wee read in Rev. 4. v. 10. of foure and twenty Elders who fell downe on their faces worshipped him who liveth for ever Shall wee say that they woshiped not in Spirit and truth because they used a gesture of humilitie and reverence in falling downe upon their faces It is lamentable to behold men pretending sincerity and love of trueth thus perversly wringing Gods holy word and willfully shutting their eyes against so cleare light of so manifest a truth When the knee is bent the body bowed or the hand lifted up devoutly unto God these are indeede bodily exercises or actes done by the members of the body as outward expressions of inward devotion but no acts of Superstition CHAP. X. The severall gestures used by Gods Servants in his worship are all free from Superstition WEE have hitherto made scearch in and about the house of God or place of Christian assembly wee have carefully pryed into every nooke and corner thereof and observed the Servants of God performing worship unto God so as their inward devotions are declared and expressed by their outward gestures and demeanures God being so worshipped by their whole man body and Soule But in all this wee have found no Superstition But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things decently and in good order Come we now and examin those outward demeanures gestures and expressions severally and perticularly And all that wee do in our Churches in their distinct formes and postures least yet under any of them some peece of superstition be paradventure concealed and here I must confesse some evill Surmisers have unjustly caused much suspition For our justification therefore and the manifesting of truth to Gods glory Come and see all that is done in our Churches Wee confesse our sinnes unto God Wee begge pardon at the hands of God Wee give God thanks for what wee have received Wee crave from God what wee stand in need of Wee remember the afflictions of all distressed people with our prayers for them all and our almes to the poorer sort We reade and heare read the holy Bible and godly expositions homilyes and sermons whereby the ignorant are instructed the unruly admonished the backward exhorted the hard-hearted terrefied the feeble encouraged the aflicted conscience comforted We administer the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords supper Is any of these any superstitious act Our scrupulous brethren allow all this But then thus they take exception In your very entrance into the Church you Object put off your hats and kneele downe and pray as if either God were not in other places or that wee might not pray but in the Church If we taught men that they ought not to pray Ans anywhere else but in a Church or place consecrated or that we did not use to pray in any other place then there were some cause to object thus against us But we are in our Churches from time to time called upon to pray continually and in all things to give thankes Is it not thus extant in our booke of common prayer It is very meete right and our bounden duty that we should at all times and in all places give thankes to thee O holy father Lord of heaven and earth Is there not in that booke speciall service to be used in privat houses at the bed side of sick people Is not the booke it selfe free and vendible by every Stationer not only for the publick worship in Churches but also for the use of every private man in his own house Be there not also plenty of other bookes in print of formes of prayers to be made unto God upon severall occasions at any time in any place by any man whose soule is possessed with so good devotion And therfore it is plaine that our devotion and discipline doth not therfore encline us to pray when we come within a Church as if we held that the only place where a man may pray but for that the Church is an house of prayer as we have already shewed this very place putteth a man in mind and calleth upon him there specially to pray in somuch that it is a place purposely set apart for that very end and purpose that whatsoever a man doth elsewhere yet here he should pray because this is the house of prayer We uncover our heads in the Church as in the presence Chamber on earth of the King of heaven and earth And when we pray we kneele because kneeling is the gesture of humility becomming a man who preferreth his petition to the God of heaven In the fourth Century a time abounding with prodigious haeresies arose one Eustachius who among others of his prophane opinions wherwith many became infected maintained that Churches Concil Gangr and meetings therein are to be despised Damascus and Saint Augustin mention this to have been the haeresie of the Messalini otherwise called Euchites and Enthusiastes who also had so meane an opinion of Baptisme and the Lords supper as that they held Dan. de haeres 8 Aug. Serm. contra Arrianos l. 4. C. 11. de ecliis c. 37. them altogether uneffectuall and unprofitable as Theodoret reporteth Turrecremata telleth us that the fratricellian haeritiques a most impure sect maintained among other things Eccelsiam non plus valere ad orandum quam porcorum stabulum i. That the Church avayleth a man for prayer no more then a swine-sty O my brethren conforme not yourselves to the abominable fancies of these filthie dreamers odious to God and in the judgment of the Church damned haeretiques To pray is no superstitius act To pray kneeling is no superstition To pray in a Church as we shewed cap. 4. is no superstition To use reverend gestures and behaviour of humility in the presence of God is no superstition To repute the Church to be Gods house is no superstition Therefore for a man entring into a Church to put off his hat and being come in to kneele downe and to pray to God are no superstition but pious acts of christian devotion You have so many severall gestures and postures Ob. sometimes sitting sometimes kneeling sometimes standing sometimes bowing Why may not men use what gestures they please so that the heart be right I have already shewed that a reverend heart can Ans not but produce reverend demeanure in Gods worship And yet further to answer this cavill I say It is not inough that our gestures be reverend and sober in the generall except also they be suteable and fit to expresse the present act whereto they are applyed And first for sitting If humane frailty specially in aged people could endure it sitting would not at all be used in the house of God specially during the holy businesse of Gods service But in consideration of the infirmity of flesh and blood Rest is sometimes requisite least too much weakenesse either diminish or disturb devotion Therefore the indulgence of the Church permitteth
the Communion table But why can they not They have the ability of their limmes God be thanked but more truly then Rachell may these men say the custome of women is upon them Longe since the woman beganne and ever since both men and women have gotten a custome to affect and pretend more wisdome and knowledge then ever God laid out for them forgetting the rule of the Apostle that no man thinke of himselfe more highly then he ought to thinke but to thinke soberly as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith and Rom. 22. 3. v. 16. not to be wise in their owne conceits But when against plaine evidence of Scripture and grounds of common reason men persist and be overcarried against authority what is this but frowardnesse and wilfulnesse a very Custome of women the poverty of whose judgement in the weakenesse of their sexe is captivated to the unrulinesse of their affections ut non persuadeas etiamsi persuaseris i. They will do what they list in despight of reason And then what is this but flat Idolatry when their owne conceits are so preferred and magnified and God in his ordinances sleighted But our brethren will plead that it is not conceit or fancy but Conscience that withdrawes them from conforming with us in the formes and gestures used by us in Gods worship And then I must tell them that when the things in use are both by authority required and by primitive and purer antiquity practised and in their nature sutable to the actions which they accompany and nowhere forbidden by the word of God Their standing out in these things cannot be true Conscience which is ever guided by the will of God But fancy and selfe-conceit doth overbeare men and take up that roome and power in their hearts and that authority over their affections and practises which belong properly to almighty God And so Conceit and Fancy is obeyed and followed and become an Idoll shutting out the Soveraignty of God and placing it selfe or rather placed by men as a God in their hearts For his servants ye are to whom ye obey And whatsoever we submit our selves unto contrary to the word and ordinance of God that is by us made our God and Idoll and we therein are become plaine Idolaters worshipping the Creature above the Creator And the time will come when they shall plainly understand that their stifnesse of body and mind will be found out to be meere Idolatry When our humble and reverend bowings shall be approoved for gestures of Christian Devotion And yet further seeing that Superstition as we shewed before Consisteth not only in overvaluing and too much doating upon the Creature but also in starting at the lawfull use of the creature so as a man thinketh himselfe ipso facto defiled in his soule by touching tasteing or handling of any thing which is touched tasted or handled without any breach of any law of God or lawfull constitution of man As for example if a man should now abstaine from eating Swines flesh in a conceit that it doth now defile or make a man a sinner This were plaine Superstition So if in time of Lent or on any of the dayes upon the which we are commanded by Law to abstaine from eating flesh a man should imagine now that it is a sinne to eate flesh not so much in regard of the wholsome Lawes of the State and Church which do indeede binde the conscience 1 Pet. 2. 13. as in a conceit that flesh as it is flesh eaten on such a day hath a speciall power to defile or make a man a sinner this also were meere Superstition For in both these cases a man conceiveth himselfe defiled and made a sinner by that use of the Creature which God simply forbiddeth not And as thus the rule holdeth in the use of the Creatures of God so doth it also in the actions of men which are in themselves indifferent i. neither good nor bad but as they be applyed As for example to kneele to bow to stand to go from one place to another are things in themselves indifferent No where forbidden by any Law of God or man And therefore for a man to thinke that he doth sinne in the performance of any of these or to abstaine from them for feare of sinning thereby is plaine Superstition For it imputeth sinne unto that which hath none in it If my brethren yet alleage that they do not abstaine from these actions or gestures meerely as they are actions or gestures but as they are applied in the worship of God Then I desire to know of them whether kneeling bowing standing or going do of things indifferent in themselves then become a sinne when I kneele to God stand up to God or go to God And I dare boldly inough affirme it neither need it any proofe that there is not in our worship of God any other kneeling bowing standing or going required or used but unto God Let men insist where they will and they shall soone see if they be not wilfully blinde the case most manifest and that not wee observing these things but our brethren in their either timerous starting at them or in their wilfull opposing of them are the superstitious people as more fully appeareth by what we have said of this kind of superstition before cap. 7. It is true indeed that our brethen seem desirous to shun Popish superstition But then not discerning between Popish superstition and true outward devotion they fall upon an other worse superstition For true Religion and devotion is a vertue placed betweene two extreames whereof the one is secundum excessum i. in the excesse or too much according to the words of Aquinas And such is much of the superstition of Popery ascribing too much to the creature The other extreame secundum defectum i. in the defect or too little And wtih this is the Anabaptist and Brownist and the rest of the sectaries that go in that tracke much infected not permitting garments or the lymbes of our bodies or the like to be any use in the worship of God And therefore these may be compared to those in the Prophet Amos whose case is as if a man did fly from a Lyon and a beare met him or went into In moral the house and leaned on the wall and a serpent bit him according whereto is the observation of St. Gregory Quidam dum fugiunt latrones aut feras in avia incidunt aut barathra Sic quidam Superstitionem ita fugiunt ut incidant in impietatem i. Some do so run a way from theeves or wild beasts as that they fall upon Gulfes and unpassable places And so some do so avoyd or shun Superstition as that they become impious or irreligious If this language seeme too harsh to any of my brethren I request them to consider that these actions and gestures of ours in Gods worship being in themselves indifferent and withall applyed not unto any Idol or unlawfull act but unto God and that also according to antient Christian practice and constitutions ecclesiasticall not onely of foraigne councels but of our owne state and hierachy under so Christian a Prince they that refuse herein to be conformed specially in those things which be expressely injoyned are therein not onely Superstitious but also guilty of one of the greatest sinnes worse than witch craft disobedience which is also iniquity and IDOLATRIE Thus have we cleared our holy house of God his servants and Service as wee doe performe it from all Idolatry and Superstition We have also made it manifest that our accusers themselves are while they are not aware a Superstitious people And therefore I say Brother pull the beame of Superstition out of thine owne eye and then I trust in God thou shalt clearely see that there are no such motes in our eyes as thou diddest imagine Remember that the members of thy body do in their kinde owe service and worship unto God as well as the abilities and faculties of the soule Robbe not God then of his due least under a pretence of abhorring Idols thou committest Sacrilege FINIS Imprimatur tractatus hic cui Titulus est Gods holy House and Service modò intra decem menses proximè sequentes typis mandetur Fulhamae Iulii ultimo 163◠Sa. Baker Diverse quotations in the Margine something out of their due places and imperfect pointings in the pages the Reader is requested to pardon But such errours as pervert the sence of the Author are to be mended thus Page 3. line 22 and 23. for immediatly reade mediately p. 4. l. 2 for immediately r. mediately p. 5. b. 24. for to be r. where was p. 7. l. 14. blot out it p. 8. l. 8. and 13. for Church r. Christian p. 12. l. 30. for it is r. is it p. 21. l. 3. for custè r. iustè and l. 4. for esse r. est p. 32. l 16. for because Church v. because the Church and l. 18. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 37. l. 21. for were r. where p. 38. l 28. blot out and p. 39. in marg for dives r. divis p. 41. l. 18. for Church r. Christian p. 43. l. 25. blot out not p. 46. l. 22. for to use r. to use it p. 48. l. 2. for rightly r. richly l. 16. for which you r. with you l. 24. for of things r. of the things p. 50. l. 20. for and other r. and another p. 52. l. 10 for thyrstie r. thriftie and l. 22. for set r. get p. 55. l. 18. for the is r. there is p. 56. l. 7 8. for charged r. cheared and l. 9. for that man r. that that man p. 61. l. 31. for maketh to r. maketh them to p. 63. l. 3. for heard r. hard and l. 11. for vincibatur r. vincebatur p. 66. l. 2. for spirituale qua r. spiritualem quam p. 72. l. 11. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 74. l. 29. for Damascus r. Damasus p. 77. l. 31. blot out in p. 80. l. 15. for magnified r imagined and l. 18 for for as r. as for and l. 20. for forward r. froward p. 86. l. 21. for oppositive r. positive p. 93. l. 13. for little r. title p. 98. l. 11. for be any r. be of any