that Christian joy The first part is Christ Preached The second part is Christ Practised The third part must be your own that is Christ Purchased which from the bottom of his heart and in the bowels of Christian Charity he wisheth unto you who is Your Brother and Servant in Christ E. H. A Prayer in honour of Christs Nativity OBlessed Jesus thou Lover and Redeemer of souls God manifest in the flesh who camest unto men and didst become man to bring true light into the world from the Father of Lights grant we beseech thee unto us miserable sinners so to glorifie thee for thy coming to us and being in us and reigning over us that though of our selves we are in darkness and in the shadow of death yet in thee we may come to see the true light of Grace and by thee may come to enjoy the true light of Glory to glorifie thee eternally who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost one God eternal world without end Amen A short Scheme of the whole Christ welcomed in his Nativity Hath three Chapters The first sheweth the Motives of that welcome The second sheweth the Reasons of that welcome The third sheweth the joyful manner of that welcome CAP. 1. Shewing the Motives of Christs welcome from God and from Gods Church both Triumphant and Militant Hath fifteen Sections Sect. 1. CHrists image repairs the loss of Gods image in man The Churches desire tâ—… Christ should be formed in us Christs humiliation is the Christians exaltation Sect. 2. Christs humiliation was in the fulness of time Sect. 3. The fulness of time in which Christ came to humble himself was the perfection of time Sect. 4. God observed the fulness of time for the sending of Christ to fill our souls with Patience and with Piety which two make up the true Christians fulness Sect. 5. The authority of God and of his Church for a solemn Festival to celebrate the coming of Christ and that the Church did no more then her Duty in appointing that Festival and an Advent Sunday to prepare for it and that we cannot justly or safely gainsay that Appointment Sect. 6. Christmass no superstitious word and Christmass-day observed not for it self but for its duty takes off all controversies and can fall under no just exceptions and may not fall under any unjust cavils much less calumnies Sect. 7. The difference betwixt a Iewish and a Christian observation of daies This latter is a moral part of Gods service and may not be neglected without scandal Sect 8. To oppose the celebration of Christs Nativity is a scandal to Christians and a stumbling block to Iews keeping them from Christianity Sect. 9. The Iews equally scandalized by Idolatry and by Profaneness especially that profaneness or irreligion which immediately dishonoureth our Saviour Christ Sect. 10. That those Christians who oppose christmass-Christmass-day do give occasion to other good Christians to suspect them as not well grounded in the Christian Religion Sect. 11. The first christmass-Christmass-day was kept by the holy Angels therefore no will-worship in keeping Christmass but rather a necessity to keep it from Heb. 1. 6. The Kingdom of Christ as Creator and as Redeemer Sect. 12. We must embrace all opportunities of glorifying Christ that we may not be thought to desert either our Saviour or our selves whiles we are defective in our Devotions either for want of Preparation before them which hath hitherto made us so bad Christians in so good a Churâ—â— or of Affection in them which will keep us from being good Christians or of Thankfulness after them which will keep us from worthily magnifying the name of Christ Sect. 13. A new song for the coming of Christ God the Father Son and Holy Ghost carefully observed the time of our Saviours coming into the world therefore it can be no true piece of Reformation for men not to observe it Sect. 14. Everlasting thankfulness is due to God for this everlasting mercy Sect. 15. Time not perfect in Gods account from our Creation but from our Redemption The Iews not destroyed and Time not untimed meerly in relation to the coming of Christ Time still continued for the world to make a right use of his coming No other time perfect in Gods account but that wherein he gives his Son And no other should be perfect in our account but that wherein we receive him CAP. 2. Shewing the Reasons of Christs welcome because of the infinite love of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost bestowed on man in his Redemption Hath nine Sections Sect. 1. GOds first gift to man was his love in Christ his second Gift was Christ in our nature No Gift can prove a blessing unless God give it in love Not Government not the Gospel though the one be the best temporal the other the best Spiritual Gift Sect. 2. Gods love in Christ though it be Universal in the diffusion yet is it particular in the Obligation Sect. 3. Gods love to man in Christ was the ground of his Consultation with himself how to bring us to eternal life Sect. 4. Gods love to man in Christ was not in vain or without Success though his Churches love to us in daily Praying for us and teaching us to pray for our selves often proves unsuccessful And yet our best proof that God hath loved us in Christ is That we love him again both in his Authority and in his Ordinances and in his Members Sect. 5. Gods love to us in Christ was not in vain or without a cause for as much as Christ was the ground of our Election as well as the Author of our Reconciliation More men Reconciled by Christ to God then Recommended to Him Or more men reconciled Potentially then Actually Sect. 6. Gods love in Christ is not a fond love therefore he scourgeth whom he loveth The Christian Church not taught in the New Testament to expostulate for being scourged though she be crucified as Christ was between two thieves Sect. 7. Christs love to us that he would come from the bosom of his Father to teach and to redeem us The title of the chief corner-stone blasphemously applyed to his pretended Vicar Christ was not an Apostle one sent from God but an Ex-apostle one sent out of God Sect. 8. Tht mother of Christ so a Woman as still a Virgin The Prayer of the seventy Interpreters Christs love to us that he would be made the Son of a woman whereby he hath exalted men above Angels A mercy not to be forgotten till there be no man to remember it That the Iews corrupted not the Text proved from the Prophecies concerning Christ Sect. 9. Christs love to us that he would be made under the Law That man is a Son of Belial not a Member of Christ who will not be under the Law All good Christians follow Christ both in Active and in Passive obedience CAP. 3. Shewing the joyful manner of Christs welcome as proceeding from joy in the Holy-Ghost
behold him as my Judge For if I be ashamed of him in his infirmity how shall he not be ashamed of me in his glory Therefore I dare not be ashamed of this day least I should seem to be ashamed of him also no nor of his prayer least I should seem to be ashamed of his words since himself hath said Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the Son ef man be ashamed when â—e cometh in the glory of his Father with the Holy Angel Mar. 8. 38. SECT XI The first Christmas-day was kept by the Holy Angels therefore no will-worship in keeping Christmas but rather a necessity to keep it from Heb. 1. 6. The Kingdom of Christ as Creator and as Redeemer IN keeping of Christmas the Church militant follows the example of the Church Triumphant for the First Christmas-Day that was ever kept on Earth was kept by the Holy Angels that came of purpose from Heaven to keep it Luk. 2. 13 14 And suddenly there was with the Angel A multitude of the Heavenly Host Praising God and saying Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth Peace good will towards men Shall that be accounted Superstition in men which was undoubted Religion in the Angels or can we be called will-worshippers for doing no more then they did unless you will first call them so Let will-worship go in Epiphanius his language for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for wilful and for superfluous worship for what it hath of mans will or wilfulness it cannot but have of superfluity But let us take heed of calling that will-worship for which there is a Precedent in the Text and so great a reason for that Precedent for it is most certain that the blessed Angels in Heaven had great reason to joy for the incarnation of Christ since he was the Repairer of their ruine in their fellows and the confirmer of their â—â—ay or standing in themselves whence Alensis tels us plainly that the Angels joy and bliss was greater after the incarnation of Christ then it had been before For though the substantial Joy of the Angels consist in the contemplation of the Divinity yet their accidental joy consists in the contemplation of the Humanity of our blessed Saviour as it is united to his Divinity Accrevit igitur gaudium Angelorum licet non quod substantiam tamen quantum ad multitudinem quia pluribus modis habent modò gaudium in beatitudine quà m ante Incarnationem Par. 3. q. 12. Therefore the Joy of the Angels is increased by the Nativity of Christ though not in its substance yet in its Variety for that now they rejoyce more several wayes then before for whereas before the Incarnation they rejoyced to see God in God now since it They rejoyce to see God in man And we find that they did sing and triumph that they might express their joy surely not to teach us Christians who in that we are men have much greater cause of joy from thence then the Angels could have I say surely not to teach us men a lesson of silence and of fullenss But if we will not regard Precedent yet we must regard Precept And the Angels seem to have a Precept to worship our Saviour Christ at his Nativity For the Apostles words seem to look towards a Precept Heb. 1. 6. When he bringeth in the first begotten into the world He saith And let all the Angels of God worship him I know this Text chiefly aims at the Proof of Christs Divinity but if the Holy Spirit thought he had sufficiently proved the first-begotten of the Father though brought into the world in the form of a servant to be no less then God when he had said And let all the Angels of God worship him It is evident they do what is in them to invalidate this Proof who at the very time that he was thus brought into the world do cry out as loud as they can let not the the sons of men worship him But where doth the Holy Ghost say this Epiphanius in his Ancorate plainly cites Moses's song for this Text which is in Deut. 32. where v. 42. The Greek interpretation hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let all the Angels of God worship him but with some various lections to make the Interpretation disputable at least if not questionable However since no such thing is to be found in the Hebrew and we are not assured that the Holy Ghost spake in Greek by the Septuagint supposing their Translation hath been preserved incorruptible we may not ascribe this Greek Translation to the saying of the Holy Ghost we must therefore appeal to the Hebrew Original which we are sure came immediately from Gods holy Spirit and then we shall find this Injunction Worship him all ye Angels of God in Psal 97. 7. And indeed the whole Argument of that Psalm is nothing else but a Prophecy of the Kingdom of Christ and an exhortation both to Angels and men Joyfully to celebrate the magnificence and thankfully to acknowledge the power of his Kingdom For the Kingdom of Christ may be considered either as he is Creator Eternal God with the Father and the Holy Ghost and so the Jews themselves will not deny him to be their King or As Redeemer God and man in one Person and and so the Jews do stiffly deny his Kingdom and we Christians had need beware least we may seem to encourage or at least to confirm and Harden them in that Denial SECT XII We must embrace all opportunities of glorifying Christ that we may not be thought to desert either our Saviour or our selves whiles we are defective in our Devotions either for want of Preparation before which hath hitherto made us so bad Christians in so good a Church or of Affection in them which will keep us from being good Christians or of Thankfulness after them which wil keep us from worthily magnifying the name of Christ THe best course I know to prevent the hardening either of our own or of others Hearts is to take all the opportunities that are offered us of glorifying our blessed Saviour for he that is willing to neglect an opportunity can scarce be zealously inclined to lay hold of another time he that will not Honour Christ on his own Day will scarce pick out another Day to honour him though he may pretend to keep Christmass all the year or if he be indeed zealously inclined to honour Christ yet other Christians cannot be easily inclined to think him so and Jews must necessarily think him not so And though we ought not to judge them also that are without 1 Cor. 5. 12. yet we ought not to offend them and much less them that are within for this is the way to cause God to judge us we will therefore take that for granted which cannot be denied that we have all great need to imploy very much and cannot imploy
of the sixteenth Psalm for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt suffer thine holy one to see corruption rather then he would allow them their own plain proper sense whereby they did necessarily infer his resurrection from the dead in whose person they were spoken which is the more to be observed for that himself had acknowledged some peculiar eminence of this Psalm from the Title of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he therefore had thus glossed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 T is glorious or precious as Gold t is a Golden Psalm and yet he would not see that mysterie in it which alone had given it that glorious title in the judgement of the best Divines even the Mysterie of Christs Resurrection SECT II. The necessity of our Christian Festival called Easter as it is an Anniversary feast to express the Christians joy for the resurrection of Christ that thereby the Christians Jubile or joy in Christ is not confined but enlarged and that by the same reason the Spirit of Prayer is not confined or hindred but rather assisted and helped by a set form of words SInce we cannot deny the Christians unspeakable joy for the Resurrection of Christ why should we go about to diminish it by opposing the grand Christian Festival which hath been instituted to express that joy For excellently Greg. Naz. and most like a true Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 39. the sum or business of a Festival is the remembrance of God and to put the Thesis into an Hypothesis the sum and business of this Festival is to remember Christ in whom alone we Christians must remember God so that to oppose this Festival is in effect to oppose the remembrance of God in Christ and to shake the very foundations of Christianity For we cannot oppose this Anniversary but we must also oppose our weekly Lords day Therefore did that Council judiciously which began its reformation of abuses in the Church with this Canon Custodite diem Dominicam quae nos denuo peperit à peccatis omnibus liberavit estote omnes in hymnis laudibus Dei animo corporeque intenti si aliter fecerit rusticus aut servus gravioribus fustium ictibus verberabitur Concil Matiscon 2. cap. 1. Keep the Lords day which hath begotten us anew and delivered us from all our sins Be all of you intent in body and soul to the praises of God and if any country man or servant do otherwise let him be soundly cudgelled for his pains And Bullinger in his Decades upon the fourth Commandment gives an excellent reason why set times and seasons should be consecrated and set apart for the publike worship and honour of God saying Oportet autem definitum tempus consecratum esse exercitio religionis ut Dominicum idem sentiendum arbitror de pauculis quibusdam Christi Domini festis quibus peragimus memoriam Nativitatis incarnationis circumcisionis resurrectionis ascentionis in coelum missionis Spiritus Sancti in discipulos libertas enim Christiana non est licentia dissolutio Ecclesiasticae piaeque observationis juvantis provehentis gloriam Dei charitatem proximi There must be some set and certain time consecrated to the exercise of Religion by vertue of this fourth Commandment as the Lords day and I think the same of those other Festivals instituted and observed in memory of Christ as his Nativity incarnation circumcision resurrection ascention into heaven and sending down the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples For Christian liberty is not a licentious dissolution of such holy and pious Ecclesiastical observations as tend wholly to the glory of Christ and the edification of our Christian Brethren Yet do we most willingly confess that the Christians feast of Jubile is not to be confined to a day because he that is the cause of it Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. And indeed so doth Saint Chrysostome expound that Text of Saint Paul 1 Cor. 5. 8. Therefore let us keep the feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He saith not Let us keep the feast because it was then Easter or Whitsuntide when he writ this Epistle but to shew that a good Christians life is a continual Feast and therefore every day might serve him for a Festival So that in Saint Chrysostomes judgement Saint Pauls Let us keep the Feast is little other then a short extract of the Psalm of Jubile Jubilate Deo omnis terra O keep your Jubile in the Lord all ye lands Psalm 100. 1. Only the reason is much more express in the New then in the Old Testament Be ye sure that the Lord is God saith the Psalmist It is he that hath made us but much more forcible is the Apostles reason It is he that hath redeemed us We are his people and in that regard ought to hold a feast unto him Exod. 5. 1. but much rather because he hath been a sacrifice for us that we might be his people we are the sheep of his pasture and ought to hear his voice much rather because he hath been our Paschal Lamb that we might be his sheep The whole Psalm is nothing else but a song of Jubile in one verse and the reason of it in the next as ver 1. O be joyful in the Lord with gladness and with a song there 's the Jubile but ver 2. The Lord he is God it is he that hath made us there 's the cause of it And again ver 3. O go your way into his Gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise and be thankful unto him there 's the Jubile But ver 4. For the Lord is gracious his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth from generation to generation there 's the reason of it Grace mercy and truth are all met together in the Lord saith the Psalmist a grace without repenting the Lord is gracious that is still continues so notwithstanding our multiplied provocations a mercy with ending His mercy is everlasting and a truth without failing His truth endureth from generation to generation But the Apostle tels us moreover in whom they are met and the ground of their meeting when he saith For Christ our passover is sacrificed for us For the cause of the grace is that this Christ is ours made ours by conjunction The cause of the mercy that he is our sacrifice by propitiation and the cause of the truth which is one and the same from Genesis to the Revelation is this that the same Christ was this sacrifice of the passover according to the prediction so long foreshewed in the Paschal Lamb Exod. 12. and so long foretold in the Prophets particularly Isa 53. 7. He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter so that though a stranger from the Common-wealth of Israel could ask the question Of whom speaketh the Prophet this he was led like a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in all things he might be first or that in all things he might have the preheminence Col. 1. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith his most faithful interpreter Saint Chrysostom The first in heaven as the beginning the first in earth as Head of the Church the first under the earth as the first born from the dead Thus hath God ordained that our Saviour Christ should have the preheminence in all things and in all places from whence we must conclude that the same is the duty and ought to be the work of all that profess godliness even to give all honour and glory to this Son of man whom the King of Kings is pleased to honour And in this respect those Christians like Mary have chosen the better part though the other like Martha trouble themselves and all the world besides about many unnecessary things who carefully observe all those anniversary Festivals which have been instituted entirely for the honour of Christ and consequently observe our weekly festival rather as a Lords day then as a Sabbath For these sit quietly and orderly at Jesus his feet hearing his Word and place him at their head promoting his honour according to the Apostles example and advice To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Rom. 16. 27. They look upon this festival as instituted for Gods glory and think it neither safe nor fit for Christians to glorifie God through Moses but through Christ And therefore desire to honour him not by a Sabbath but by a Lords day for that the Sabbath was a type of Christs rest in the grave who rested there only that whole day as it were to bury it with himself but the Lords day is an undoubted memorial of his resurrection So that the one carries in its name if not in its nature a false protestation concerning the Christian faith and may possibly in time make us turn Jews The other carries in its name and nature a true profession of our faith and can only help to make and to keep us good Christians as immediately directing our thoughts and our thankfulness to our Saviour Christ which alone is the way to make us true Evangelical professors this being the summe of the whole Gospel That he was delivered for our offences and rose again for our Iustification Rom. 4 26. And it is plain that the whole Gospel doth so directly tend to the Article of Christs resurrection that Saint Paul saith expresly it can neither be rightly preached nor professed without it If Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith also is vain 1 Cor. 15. 14. It nearly concerns all Christian Ministers to abandon those tenents which may either directly or indirectly make vain their own preaching or the peoples faith And it is to be feared the Sabbatarian Doctrine may tend to this for it is to be avowed that the turning those solemn festivals out of the Church which peculiarly commemorate the Incarnation Nativity Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and teach us to bless God for the same that the Sabbath may be set up as Lady paramount and Queen Regent to controule and confine all our publick worship can in no case make for the honour of Christ and therefore not for the truth of Christianity For Saint Paul saith expresly that in all things he must have the preheminence and if in all things then surely both in duties and in daies and if in duties then much more in daies for if the worship be not acceptable to God but in him then sure the day cannot be acceptable but for him T is proper for the Jew to keep a Sabbath who thinks himself still bound to worship God through Moses but t is proper for the Christian to keep a Lords day who knows himself bound to worship and glorifie God only through Christ Jesus the Lord of glory And Saint Paul readeth this Lecture to the Jews themselves and much more to us Christians in those words to the Hebrews Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Heb. 13. 20 21. Where he briefly declares the summe not only of that whole Epistle but also of the whole Christian Faith and that by way of benediction to shew we cannot have the blessing of Christians unless we have the faith of Christians And that faith teacheth us to believe and confess 1. That God is reconciled to us Now the God of peace 2. That our Saviour Christ alone hath wrought for us and offereth to us this reconciliation as our King our Lord Jesus as our Prophet the great Shepherd and as our Priest through the blood of the everlasting Covenant 3. That he hath given us sufficient proof of his great work that he is brought again from the dead 4. That he is ready to give us the superabundant fruits of all by making us perfect in every good work to do his will working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight In all these inestimable and undeserved mercies it is Christ alone that is all in all wherefore it follows in the next words through Christ Jesus and consequently he in himself and the Father in him is to be glorified for all as it is said To whom be glory for ever and ever Amen God is the God of peace to us men in that he brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus so that we cannot rightly glorifie him for the reconciliation unless we glorifie him for the resurrection And for this cause happily it was that the Church did antiently interpose Halleluiah in the midst of those sentences of the Text which she chose for her publick service in celebrating the memory of Christs resurrection not to interrupt the words or sense of the Scriptures but rather to explain them teaching us that good Christians should not read or hear any part of the Text without thinking of Christ and that they should not think of Christ without praising God in him and for him and that praising God in and for their Saviour Christ they can never be zealous enough in their praises nor rejoyce too much in his salvation Therefore they intermingled Hallelujah not only in the Hymns of the Text where it might be thought a natural appendix but also in the Doctrines of it where at first sight it might seem altogether an unnecessary addition As for example thus they recite that Hymn of the Psalmist He brought forth his people with joy Halleluiah and his chosen with gladness Psalm 105. ver 42. And thus also that doctrine of Saint Peter As new born babes Halleluiah desire the sincere milk of the Word 1 Pet. 2. 2. Where
the Lords prayer all joyntly agreeing together in this the one commanding it to be done the other believing it is done perfectly in heaven the third praying it may be done perfectly on earth And in this sense it is evident that keeping of the Sabbath is a moral duty not to end with time but to last to all eternity as becometh Righteousness which is immortal not temporary and that so intrinsecally and essentially that if it be not Immortal it cannot be righteousness Thus did Adam and Seth with his righteous posterity keep the Sabbath long before the Law was given by Moses to appoint the day as we read Gen. 4. 26. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord which words clearly set forth the first exercise of publick worship in the first communion of Saints upon the earth so Junius upon the place Sensus est Adam Seth in cujus posteris mansura erat Ecclesia c. The meaning is that Adam and Seth in whose posterities the Church was to be continued observing that their families were in danger of being corrupted by the ungodly conversation of the wicked Cainites and consequently that the worship of God whereof they were the Ministers and therefore the Trustees was like speedily to decay did from that time assemble their children together into one congregation or into one body of a Church and by their preaching and their praying and their exercises of piety and Religion did labour to convert the wicked and to confirm the righteous from which their religious observations they did purchase to themselves the title or appellation of the Sons of God Nam prius quidem invocavit Adam sed in familia tunc verò invocarunt multi sed in ecclesiam velut in caulam recepti à mundi peccantis seducentis consortio For Adam had indeed before that called upon the name of the Lord in his own family But at that time many families called upon God together being gathered into the Church as into a fold and separating themselves from the sinners and seducers of the world Thus in effect saith Junius And we cannot but say that this was a moral duty suggested to them by the Law written in their hearts which teacheth men to enter into a society or communion to serve themselves and much more to serve their God Drusius goes yet further saying thus Eo tempore ritus certos colendi Deum institutos fuisse quos observarent filii Dei At that time were instituted some certain rites and ceremonies of worshipping God which the Sons of God were bound to observe But Aquinas had said the same long before him for after this objection how could Enos first begin to call upon the Name of the Lord for that were to say that the Church began not till his time he gives this answer Non incepit divinum cultum sed invenit aliquem modum singularem colendi velorandi Deum He did not first begin to worship God but found out a new way of solemnly worshipping him which new way Junius tells us was of assembling many families together whereas before for want of Communicants Adam had served God only in his own family But now that the Church was further enlarged and spread in several families it was necessary that all those families should assemble together to do their homage to their leige Lord and maker And the Chaldee Paraphrase did before him give the same exposition of that Text for though the words of that Paraphrase be different in Buxtorfs and Montanus his Hebrew Bibles which is very usual whilst the Hebrew Text in both is alwayes the same the Church not thinking her self bound to the same care in keeping of Translations as of the Originals yet the sense is not different but one and the same of either Paraphrase and that is this then began men to pray in the name of the Lord that is then they began to pray altogether in one congregation whereas before they had prayed only in several families So then this is the true keeping of the Sabbath to Hallow Gods most holy name for its own sake and to hallow the things conducting or belonging thereto for his names sake according to that command Be ye holy for I am holy which though found four several times in Leviticus Lev. 11. 44. 11. 45. Lev. 19. 2. Lev. 20. 7. yet is not a precept of the Levitical but of the Moral Law as Saint Peter plainly shews us alledging these very words as an invincible demonstration that it is our bounden duty to be holy in all manner of conversation because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. Where this is the force of the argumentation such as I am such must all they be who will have relation to me or communion with me but I am holy therefore must they be holy And this argumentation though it most properly belong to persons yet may it not be confined only to them but is also to be extended to things and Actions Person◠Res Actiones Persons Things and Actions must be all holy or they must not come into the beauty of holiness And if they be all holy they must come in thither and may not be kept or cast out thence ungodly profaning of dayes and Churches unworthy reviling or robbing of Ministers consecrated to the service of Almighty God unjust excommunicating of Orthodox Christians undeserved ejecting of Catholick rites of unblameable Liturgies are all sins against this fourth Commandment and so many breaches or violations of the Sabbath all of these directly opposing that communion of Saints which ought to be in the publick worship of God or the exercise of Religion and all of them grievously sinning against that command which came to Saint Peter in a voice from heaven before it came to us in the written word What God hath cleansed or purified that call not thou common or unclean Act. 10. 15. We generally do look upon the profanation of consecrated time as the breach of the Sabbath and we do well for so it is But we look not far enough for profanation is of as large an extent as consecration and we are to know that persons and Things and Actions are all alike consecrated to Gods publick worship by virtue of the fourth Commandment Thus saith the Psalmist Give thanks O Israel to God the Lord in the congregation Psalm 68. 26. Which are the words saith Sol. Jarchi that Miriam and the Damosels with her playing on the timbrels mentioned in the verse before had said in their song of praises to God at the drowning of the Egyptians so that in the judgement of this great Doctor blessing God in the congregations was a duty that belonged to Israel by the Law of nature for the Law of Moses was not then given when Miriam was supposed to say so Though it was also included in the positive Law concerning the Sabbath which we find set down in
of Gods service and may not be neglected without scandal THE Apostle establishing our Christian liberty doth much more establish our Christian Piety Rom. 14. He establisheth our liberty ver 6. placing daies and meats in the same rank of indifferency neither of them in it self ought to be reputed a matter of Religion But withal he doth much more establish our Christian Piety ver 7. 8. That both daies and meats daies wherein and meats whereby we live are to be observed or not observed as shall most conduce to his Glory by whom we do and to whom we should all live He overthrows a legal or Iewish observation of daies for themselves because that was a typical worship But he establisheth an evangelical or Christian observation of daies for duties because that is a real and moral part of Gods service For he that so regardeth a day regardeth not it but the Lord And he that so regardeth it not being thereunto called by that authority which God hath set over him were best take heed lest it be thought that he regardeth not the Lord He was best take heed lest he give occasion of scandal or spiritual ruine to his brother whilst he gives him occasion to think that God is not worth the regarding or that those are given to superstition who do most zealously regard him For he that doth this may chance have the milstone in his heart to harden him but sure he must have the milstone about his neck to drown him SECT VIII To oppose the celebration of Christs Nativity is a scandal to Christians and a stumbling block to the Jews keeping them from Christianity PER scandalum laeditur proximus in mente ut per homicidium in corpore per furtum in possessione saith the School-man Alensis par 2. qu. ibi m. 1. Scandal wrongs my neighbour in his mind as murder wrongs him in his body and theft wrongs him in his possession and therefore I have great reason to take heed of being scandalous as to take heed of being a murderer or a thief And truly I cannot see but that our Saviours determination concerning scandal reacheth this very case Mat. 18. 6. Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better a mill-stone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea For tell me do they not believe in Christ who set apart a time of purpose to make Profession of their Belief in him And if they do believe in him how will you answer your scandalizing and offending them whiles they are professing or rather indeed practising that their belief or your scandalizing others whiles you keep them from the same Christian Practice and Profession Wherefore it can hardly be denyed but this is really a scandal or an offence to Christians because it is a way to cause some of them to forget or to forsake our Saviour Christ But surely it is a down-right stumbling-block to the Jews to keep them from embracing the Christian Religion For the main thing needful to their conversion is to prove the Messiah is already come in the flesh which the Jews will take for granted is denyed if not disproved by them who will not allow themselves nor others to celebrate the memorial of his coming for the whole course of their Religion taught them to acknowledge the receipt of far lesser blessings with much more solemn memorials as the receipt of the Law with the celebration of Pentecost So that whatsoever may be urged for serving God in Spirit in Truth to make Christians become sincere worshippers yet we had need keep up an outward solemn service and worship of Christ to make Jews become Christians For it is not imaginable they should leave the outward decency and order that they are bound to use in their own Synagogues according to the whole purport of their own Law to come to the slovenliness and Indecency that may be found in some Christian Churches under the pretence of the purity of our Gospel SECT IX The Jews equally scandalized by Idolatry and by Profaness especially that Profaness or Irreligion which immediately dishonoureth our Saviour Christ IT is much to be lamented that Christians who are bound to do what is in them to convert the Jews should so far scandalize them either by Idolatry or by Profaness as to hinder their conversion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Jew in his Disputation with the Christian in the second Nicen Council in the sift Action I am scandalized at you O ye Christians that you worship Images And is it not as great a scandal if they shall be able to say I am scandalized at you O ye Christians that you do not worship God or at least do not worship him with fear and reverence as God Or That you refuse to worship Christ whom you would have me believe to be the Son of God For is it not an act of Religious worship in Moses his Law to dedicate daies to the worship of God If then we deny the Dedication of daies to the worship of Christ How shall we perswade the Jews that we do indeed worship him as our God It is to be feared if we shall do so they will rather think us turning Jews then that themselves will think of turning Christians SECT X. That those Christians who oppose christmas-Christmas-Day do give occasion to other Good Christians to suspect them as not well grounded in the Christian Religion SInce it is the ground of our Christian Religion That all Gods gifts and mercies to mankind do concenter together in Christ it is scarce possible those Christians should be thought truly religious who make it their work to oppose the publick worship of Christ on that very day wherein as Christ he was first capable of being publickly worshipped They that are Jews may think well of this for they denying him to be the Son of God will easily deny that he is to be worshipped But sure good Christians cannot think well of it who are taught to glorifie God in Christ and much more for Christ To glorifie God in Christ is our Religion To glorifie God for Christ is our salvation Religio est motus creaturae rationalis ad Deum ut ad primum principium ultimum finem Christus autem ut Homo est via per quam fit hic motus saith Aquinas 22â— qu. 81. Religion is a motion of the reasonable creature to God as to its first beginning and to its last end But Christ as man is the way wheâ—ein the reasonable creature thus moveth so that once forget Christ as man and you shall soon forget all religion Saint Bernard tells us of a threefold coming of Christ the first was in the infirmity of his flesh to redeem us the second in the power of his spirit to sanctifie us the third in the glory of his majesty to judge us I will thankfully receive him as my Redeemer that I may securely
in us ariseth only the necessity or want of adoption for there is only so much of it left as to shew how great need we have to be made his children that we may be made more like him then we are by nature But the adoption it self is founded in our new begotten Image or likeness with our heavenly Father which is after the similitude of his only Son by Grace in this world and by glory in the world to come and may accordingly be called either incompleat or compleat adoption Concerning the first Saint John saith that we are made the Sons of God as being already partakers of the Divine nature in the likeness of grace concerning the second he saith It doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him that is we shall hereafter be made the Sons of God after a more perfect manner by being made partakers of the divine nature in the likeness of glory Blessed be that eternal Son in whom we are made Sons and blessed be that day wherein he took on him our nature that he might give us his SECT VI. Christians are more eminently the Children of God in Christ then were the Jews The difference betwixt the Adoption and all other Spiritual blessings of the Jews and of the Christians That though they were adopted to be heirs as we are yet were they tutored as infants till the coming of Christ by whom was wrought a true Reformation THE Spirit of adoption though it were given under the Law yet was it not so fully given as it is now under the Gospel For though it were the same Covenant of Grace to the Jew and to the Christian to be saved by Christ yet was this Covenant much different in the manner of its administration And therefore we must consider the Church before Christ came in the flesh though as an heir that had a right from Gods fidelity though not from his strict Justice to all Spiritual Gifts and Graces whatsoever yet withal as an infant that had not the full possession of that right And this distinction Saint Paul himself teacheth us Gal. 4. 1. Now I say that the heir as long as he is a child or rather an infant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such an one as cannot speak differeth nothing from a servant though he be Lord of all but is under Tutors and Governors until the time appointed of the Father And himself plainly applies this distinction to the Church before Christs time verse 3. saying even so we when we were children or infants were in bondage under the elements of the world that is as long as we continued in the Jewish Religion For the Church before the coming of the Son of God was so an heir as that she was also an infant As she was an heir so she was free but as she was an infant so she was a servant under Tutors and Governors As she was an heir she had spiritual hopes but as she was an infant she had carnal Ordinances Heb. 9. 10. As she was an heir she had the Spirit of adoption but as she was an infant she had the Spirit of fear and bondage which makes the Apostle say Rom. 8. 15. For ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again ye had it once sc whiles ye were under the Law but ye have it not again sc now ye are under the Gospel to fear but ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Hence it is that the Jews had then the same spiritual blessings in dark representations and figures which we Christians now have in full revelations and substance I will set down some few examples concerning the chiefest spiritual blessings by which we may easily be able to judge of all the rest and not be mistaken in our judgements 1. What a vast difference is there betwixt those words of Moses The seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head Gen. 3. 15. and those words of Saint Paul the God of peace meaning our Saviour Christ who was our peace-maker and gave himself to make it shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly Rom. 16. 20. or those words of Saint John For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 Jâ—â—n 3. 8. And yet both alike speak of the same redemption 2. What a vast difference is there betwixt that of Gen. 25. 23. the elder shall serve the younger and that of Rom. 9 16. Not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy yet both alike concern the same Doctrine of Election 3. What a vast difference is there betwixt Abrahams being called to go out of his Countrey and from his Fathers house Gen. 12. 1. and our being called out of darkness into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. and yet both alike confess the same Vocation 4. What a vast difference betwixt the sacrifices of the Jews and the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross and yet both alike assure us of the same Justification in so much that Saint Paul explaineth the one by the other Eph. 5. 2. as Christ hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling Savour 5. What a vast difference is there betwixt the Sons of Abraham according to the promise under the Law and under the Gospel for as Isaac was so also we are the children of the Promise Gal. 4. 28. The one having the promise of an earthly the other of an heavenly inheritance and yet both promises alike belong to the same Adoption 6. What a vast difference betwixt the Cirumcision of the flesh and of the heart betwixt the outward purifications of the Jews and the inward purgings of Christians for the blood of Christ purgeth our consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. and yet both of them do set forth the same Sanctification 7. Seventhly and lastly what a vast difference betwixt their entring into Canaan and our entering into the heavenly Jerusalem and yet both of them declare one and the same Glorification They were all partakers of the same spiritual blessings that we are they had the same Redemption Election Vocation Justification Adoption Sanctification and Glorification that we have but they had them in a dark representation not in an open revelation so that they could not so fully know them and they had them in types and figures not in reality and substance so that they did not so fully enjoy them For they all had carnal Ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation Heb. 9. 10. that is till the time of Christs coming to plant the Christian Religion which was a true reformation indeed because it proceeded from a true cause and to a true end from a true cause a more perfect knowledge of Christ who before had not been fully discovered and to a true
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pascha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 herba amara 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Azymus Their Annuntiation belonging to the Passeover was how God passed their Fathers over that night wherein he destroyed the first born of the Egyptians Their annuntiation belonging to the bitter herbs was of their Fathers grievous servitude and bondage in Egypt which made even their lives bitter unto them And their annuntiation belonging to the unleavened bread was their happy and sudden deliverance from that bondage for the Egyptians were so urgent upon the people that they took their dough before it was leavened their kneading troughs being bound up in their cloathes upon their shoulders Exod. 12. 24. We had at the same time a much greater deliverance and why should we have a less Annuntiation For where the mercy it self is much greater why should the memorial thereof be so much less God gives a signal intimation to the Jew Exod. 12. 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haec ista non illa This is that very night as if there were not demonstrative pronouns enough to shew that this mercy was to be as particular in their thankful commemoration as it had been in Almighty Gods free donation And Saint Paul seems to speak as signally to the Christian when he saith The same night that he was betrayed 1 Cor. 11. 23. as if he would not have us forget the particular time when he cometh so near the very words of Moses This is that very night to be observed to the Lord And indeed why should not we keep a Christian Passeover as well as a Christian Sabbath were they not both alike feasts of the Jews and as so are they not both alike abolished by the Apostle Gal. 4. 10. saying ye observe daies and moneths and times and years I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you labour in vain A Jewish observation of daies which observes daies for themselves is without doubt destructive of Christianity for it places Religion in things meerly ceremonial Not so a Christian observation of daies for duties for that places Religion only in morals Again why hath not the Christian Church as good Authority if not as justifiable warrant to observe an Anniversary as it hath to observe a Weekly festival as well the feast of the Christian Passeover once a year as the feast of the Christian Sabbath once a week for both are alike recommended in the Law and neither is directly commanded in the Gospel and we may not add to Gods commands no more then we may take from them nor may we think the New Testament defective in any necessary command or doctrine unless we will advance Judaism above Christianity Therefore since it will pose the best Divine in Christendom to shew that Text in the New Testament which commandeth the observation of a Sabbath and we cannot run to the letter of the fourth Commandment to keep the first day in stead of the seventh we must be contented in this case with the general equity of the Law and that gives the Church power to consecrate Annual as well as Weekly Festivals to the honour of God and condemneth our profaness in neglecting our perversness in despising the one as well as the other Besides it is evident we cannot or if we can sure the Apostles could not keep a Lords day all the year but as a repetition of Easter-day which was the first Lords day even the very day of his resurrection wherefore we must either say it is a Jewish not a Christian Sabbath or say it is a Lords day from the great Lords day the day of our Lords resurrection For though Saint John telling us He was in the Spirit on the Lords day pointeth clearly at our Sunday the weekly remembrance of Christs resurrection and not at Easter-day the annual remembrance of it because in those Churches of Asia to which he writ Easter-day was not yet confined to the first but might be kept on any other day of the week yet without doubt he called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day for that it was a weekly repetition of that very day which our Lord had consecrated to himself by rising from the dead called for that reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Lords day by the primitive Christians And shal we then not think it worth our notice that our blessed Saviour himself chose such a time for his Passion and Resurrection as by the unerring Characters of heaven might be exactly observed all the world over to the worlds end were it so that our Civil year were made agreeable with the Tropical or that the Catholick Church of Christ in its first and purest age would have been so careful to find out and so zealous to settle the time of this Festival if the Fathers of these blessed ages which were less quarrelsom but more pious then any have been since had not thought it highly concerned the honour of Christ and the propagation and justification of the Christian Religion Surely we cannot easily more gratifie the Jews then by putting down the memory of that time wherein they crucified Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh nor can we more easily scandalize good Christians then by putting down the memorial of that time wherein he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 3 4. And God deliver his Church from such practises as are fit to gratifie Jews but to scandalize good Christians SECT IV. Of the antient contention about the observation of Easter That the Apostles zeal more about Duties then about Daies doth not overthrow the observing of particular daies in the service of God And that those daies ought to be observed by Preaching Praying Administring of the Sacrament and also by Almes-deeds So that false administration sc of the Holy Eucharist in one kind and false Devotions and false Doctrine and sordid illiberality in not relieving the poor are allâ— alike Profanations of a Festival FAmous was the controversie betwixt Policrates and Victor the one Bishop of Ephesus the other Bishop of Rome concerning the celebrating of Easter-day For the Churches of Asia would needs keep the very day of the first full moon in Spring conceiving the Apostles condescention to the Iew to have been a dogmatical sanction to the Christian but the Western Churches who had no conversation with the Iews and therefore were not moved through compliance with them at first to forsake their Christian liberty and at last the Christian truth for the Quartadeciâ—… were in proâ—ess of time declared Hereticks would not keep the very day of that full Moon but the Sunday after it for their Easter-day the learned Scaliger gives this reason for their difference The Jewish Converts following their old custom kept still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Passeover in remembrance of Christs Passion
and therefore sought after the very day of the moneth on which the Paschal Lamb had been slain and our Saviour had been crucified But the Gentile Converts kept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Passeover in remembrance of Christs resurrection and therefore deferred their feast till the first day of the week that followed next after that day of the moneth So we see that both Churches agreed about the feast it self and thought themselves bound to observe a Passeover once a year and that they agreed also about the time of the year wherein it was to be observed their disagreement was only about the very day For the Churches of Asia had mistaken Saint Johns condescention to the Jew for an approbation to themselves as if because he had allowed this manner of celebrating the feast of the Passeover according to the known and received custom among the Iews he had also approved and by consequent established the same among the Christians The like mistake whereunto might also have been in other Eastern Churches concerning the Iewish Sabbath had they retained the observation of it with the same opinion of necessity For that the Sabbath was at first jointly observed with the Lords day by the Christian Churches appears from antient canons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clement cap. 33. And Scaliger takes it for granted that those Churches were converted betimes which retained that old custom Quod Ethiopes sabbatum â—que ac Dominicum ab opere immune habent id non est argumentum Judaismi sed veteris Christianismi saith he lib. 7. de emend That the Churches of Aethiopia do keep Saturday a Holy-day as well as Sunday is not a proof that they are new Iews but that they have been old Christians The truth is the Apostles zeal busied and spent it self wholly upon duties not upon daies and so should ours They continued daily in the Temple Acts 2. 46. and again daily in the Temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Iesus Christ Acts 5 42. This daily preaching shewed their chief zeal was for duties not for daies and yet their every day doth not forbid their particular choice of one principal day for those holy purposes and performances at the same time for so we read Acts 20. 7. Vpon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them Here 's a particular day culled out from the rest of the week both for preaching the word and consequently for praying and for administring the holy Communion for so we may well expound the breaking of bread with some antient Interpreters though it be an ill inference that some of late have made from thence that they may lawfully leave out the other part of that blessed Sacrament By the same reason they might tell us that the Church hath authority to change the very form instituted in Baptism because we read in the Acts of the Apostles that many men were baptized in the name of the Lord Iesus Acts 8. 16. 19. 5. For without doubt if Christs institution may be dispensed withal in the one it may also in the other Sacrament and if not in the one then not in the other Wherefore it is ill arguing from a Synechdoche partis in dicto to a Synechdoche partis in facto from a part for the whole in speaking to a part for the whole in doing The bread may be named without the wine but it follows not therefore it may be given without it We may admit of half speeches but we must be sure of whole Sacraments For though words are not sacrilegious in putting a part for the whole because that is a right way of speaking yet works may be guilty of sacriledge by doing but a part for the whole because that is not a right way of working for in speaking we may follow the custome or practice of men but in doing we must follow the precept and prescription of God Nor can a man that wilfully transgresseth the institution of Christ be excused from infidelity if we will embrace as we cannot justly reject Aquinas his distinction Infidelis non ut habeus malam voluntatem circa finem Sc. Christum sed tamen ut deficiens in Electione mediorum quia non eligit quae sunt à Christo tradita a Christian may be an infidel not as erring about the end for he aims at Christ but yet as erring in the choice of the means when he followeth not those ways which Christ hath prescribed him And thus have they erred about the administration of the holy Eucharist who would be accounted very strict observers of the grand Christian Festivals although in truth they cannot keep a Festival in honour of Christ who falsely administer the Eucharist no more then they who Preach false Doctrine or use false devotions For it is evident from this practice of the Apostles that Christian Festivals ought to be celebrated by preaching the word and administring the holy Eucharist and much more by holy and religious prayers which may not be left out either in preaching of the word or in administring of the Sacrament unless we will not regard Gods blessing on the one nor his presence in the other Nay indeed holy and religious Prayers do in effect partake both of the word and of the Sacrament of the word as they are professions of our faith of the Sacrament as they are remembrances of our Saviour And it is accordingly observable that in all the collects of the Church there is in the first part of them a recognition or profession of some heavenly Doctrine which we are bound to believe as in the latter part there is a special remembrance of our blessed Saviour whom we are bound to honour alwayes concluding Per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum through Jesus Christ our Lord so that false devotions that is not true in themselves or not true in his certain knowledge who useth them False Doctrine and false administration do all alike profane a Festival Nay Saint Paul thinks the Lords Day not sufficiently celebrated by words and Sacraments and prayers but he requires also the giving of alms Vpon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store 1 Cor. 16. 2. And Saint Chrysostome tels us he chose such a day for it as could not but very much advance the duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He argues from the day to the duty bidding them consider what great mercies the Lord hath bestowed on them that very day for that alone would make them willingly and liberally shew mercy to his distressed members This was the antient practice of the primitive Christians to offer up their alms as well as their prayers to God upon those Festivals which they celebrated in a thankful remembrance of his mercies conveyed unto them by his Son and therefore they might beseech him mercifully to accept their alms as well as to receive
their prayers which they offered to his Divine Majesty But our charity and our devotion are both grown cold and our charity so cold that it hath quite chilled our devotion we are loth to be at the charges to honour Christ with set anniversary Festivals for fear of continuing or reviving the formerly accustomed alms to his poor members for we cannot deny but giving something to the poor is a most fitting Concomitant or proper adjunct of a Festival being so taught John 13. 29. where our Saviours words to Judas That thou dost do quickly being spoken against the feast arâ— thus interpreted that he should give something to the poor And indeed they are so rightly interpreted For since our Saviour hath suffered so much for us we connot do enough for him and our doings for him must needs then be most seasonable when we record his sufferings for us And as he was so willing to suffer for our sakes that he called upon the Traytor to dispatch quickly so we should be as willing to do for his sake and in all matters of charity that may be helpful unto our brethren every man say to himself what thou dost do quickly Wherefore let me seriously and constantly pour out my soul to God in unquestionable devotion meditate on Gods holy word hunger after his body thirst after his blood and willingly and frequently releive and refresh his poor members and though I may be able to keep nothing else yet I shall be sure to keep a good conscience which will be to me a continual Feast yea though all the Holy Dayes that are instituted in the remembrance of Christ should be forbidden and forgotten by others yet the performance of these holy duties will never let me want my Christian Festivals SECT V. The practice of the Primitive Christians in observing the Feast of Easter and that there was no superstition in that practice THE Primitive Christians did exceedingly rejoyce at the Anniversary Feast of our Saviours Resurrection and did long continue that their rejoycing even till the day of his Ascension or rather till the day of his descending again in the gift of the Holy-Ghost so saith Balsamon of some in the Greek Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they accounted the whole time from Easter to Whitsontide but a one continual Lords day And it is evident that the first Council of Nice which hath but twenty Canons in the whole hath bestowed one of them and that is the last meerly upon the manner of celebrating this solemnity requiring all people to say their prayers standing on every day of the week betwixt Easter and Whitsontide no less then on the Lords days all the year after to proclaim their joy for as well as to profess their faith in their Saviours Resurrection Nor were they acquainted with any other salutation at that time of the year but only this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord is risen and the party thus saluted made answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 true he is risen indeed they thought they could not wish one another any joy like the joy of Christ nor any joy of Christ like the joy of his Resurrection The like salutation was in the Latine Church Resurrexit Dominus the Lord is risen said he who saluted his neighbour and the other answered Deo gratias the Lord be thanked or Apparuit Simoni he hath appeared unto Simon This was all their Good morrow Good even one to the other in the more antient and more innocent times of the Church Nay yet more on every Sunday from the Resurrection to the Ascention did the Latine Church repeat the collect for Easter day Deus qui per Vnigenitum tuum aeternitatis nobis aditum reserâsti Almighty God which by thy only begotten Son hast opened unto us the gate of everlasting life leaving out only hodiernâ die on this day because they could not make one day hold out to forty And as they did so long continue the same prayer so did they as long continue the same praise singing three several Alleluiahs on every one of these Sundays for this infinite mercy and eternal consolation in our Saviour Christ for a heavenly comfort expressing a heavenly joy as if they had already passed from the Church militant to be of the Church triumphant would have no more to do with the earth since our Saviour was risen from it and going into Heaven Surely Saint Augustine cals the whole three days of our blessed Saviours passion death and Resurrection sacratissimum triduum the three most holy days in the circle of the whole year and the cheif of the three was that of his Resurrection which was therefore antiently accounted not only the first day of the week for so is any other Sunday but also the first day of the year that is to say the first in dignity as well as in order Veteris anni Ecclesiastici initium à Pascha Pascha dicebatur annus novus saith Scaliger lib. 1. de em tem The beginning of the Ecclesiastical year was antiently at Easter and that was called the new year And in the Greek Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 new years week was the same with Easter week and how this account came afterwards to be altered in the Church and the new year translated from Easter to Christmass the same Scaliger sheweth lib. 6. de emend temp in these words Institutum vetus in Ecclesiâ fuit in natali Domini Pascha proximum ejusque diem indiculis aut breviculis notare Ab hoc more fluxit ut à natali Domini anni passionis ejus numeraâ—entur hoc est ut annum passionis inciperent putare à natali Domini qui tamen putandus erat à sequenti Paschâ— Because at Christmas they did antiently give out the Calender for the ensuing Easter thence it came to pass that some began the account of the year of Christ at Christmas which they should not have begun till the Easter after But for a long time in the account of the Church Easter day was the first day and Easter week was the first week in the whole year which was the occasion that the common dayes of all the other weeks were by the Latine Church called feriae that is holy-dayes as feria secunda tertia quarta the second third and fourth holy-day instead of Munday Tuesday Wednesday because they followed the account of Easter week whereof every day was a holy-day So the same Scaliger lib. 7. de emend temp Quare prima secunda tertia quarta quinta Septimane dictae sunt feriae quum in omnibus hebdomadibus feriandi necessitas nulle incumbat haec ratio est quod annus Ecclesiasticus incipiat à Pascha septimana autem Paschatis erat immunis ab opere faciendo feriata unde quum sex illi dies post Pascha feriati esseâ—… ea esset prima anni hebdomas inde factum ut omnes diâ—s septimanae vocarentur feriae Lex
soul a Sabbath or make it truly to rest in God And indeed iâ— our Sabbath be grounded on this foundation the gates of hell will not be able to prevail against it because on it our Lord and Saviour prevailed against the gates of hell And all Christians will see cause enough to observe it not only religiously but also joyfully because as many as are in the communion of the blessing ought also to be in the communion of the Joy and thanksgiving and wholly devote themselves to the publike profession and acknowledgement of Gods infinite and undeserved mercies and as undeserved as infinite mercies conveyed unto us in and by our blessed Saviours Resurrection If we keep the Sunday or Sabbath upon this ground we shall find a double reason of strictly keeping it one from the duty which is to serve God and to praise him for our Redemption by his Son the other from the day it self which by his own Apostles if not by his own Son htah been consecrated to this duty But we must be sure to take the duty for the principal the day for the less principal unless we will prefer accidents before substances For the worship of God belongs to the substance of Religion but the time of worshipping is meerly an accident of it though being consecrated thereunto by God himself we may well admit it for an inseparable accident Wherefore men had need take heed of that Sabbatarian Doctrine which seeks to advance the day above the duty as if the publike exercise of Religion had been appointed for the Sabbath and not rather the Sabbath for the publick exercise of Religion for this is not in truth to alledge the fourth Commandment but to mistake it For the moral or substantial and eternal part of the fourth Commandment consists of these two particulars 1. That there be a publike solemn worship of God or exercise of Religion for our souls to rest in God And this is morale naturae moral by the Law of Nature that man should desire and declare his rest to be only in God 2. That some certain dayes and consequently other requisites or adjuncts be consecrated or made holy for that publike worship and in relation thereto be esteemed holy and religious as set apart to serve our God not to serve our selves And this is Morale Disciplinae as saith Halensis or ex instituto moral by way of Discipline or by way of institution and is also a substantial part of the fourth Commandment belonging not only to the Jew but also to the Christian But the determination of those dayes to the seventh was meerly ceremonial as a sign to the Jew and to a seventh cannot be moral as a duty to Christians by virtue of this commandment save only according to the rule of general equity that Gods proportion is the best proportion and that if one of seven were apportioned for the lesser how much more for the greater blessing Yet still in asserting thus much we must take heed that the institution of the day which belongs to the letter be not alledged to confine the obligation of the duty which belongs to the end of this commandment for that were to set up the second and lesser against the first and greater morality of the Sabbath In which respect t is probable that Damascene so plainly averreth That whiles there was no Law no Scriptures there was no Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan. lib. 4 de orth fide cap. 24. But after the holy Scripture was given by inspiration from God to Moses then was the sabbath consecrated to God for men to exercise themselves in his holy Scriptures So that according to Gods own example if this author say true we are first to provide for the duty then for the solemnity of Religion And we may the better believe him because his saying is according to Gods command For the fourth commandment being the commandment of consecrations yet first requires a worship intrisically and essentially holy before it requires the adjuncts of that worship to be made extrinsically or accidentally holy So that clearly by the fourth commandment it self rightly understood the duty is above the day and the exercise of Religion is to be preferred above the Solemnities of time and place wherein it is exercised and consequently if the publike exercise of Religon that is in use doth not truly glorifie God a man may better keep the sabbath in his own then in Gods house supposing he worship God better in his own house then he can in the Church So neerly doth it concern us all to be sure of the substance of our worship before we can pretend to be true keepers of the sabbath for if the Prayers or Administrations wherein we communicate do not in very deed rightly glorifie God t is not going to Church can make us keep the sabbath for infidels and heriticks may do that as well as the best Christians and the best Christians may be kept from doing it because what we get of the day we lose of the duty â—â—t is not possible that any thing of superstition or of irreligion should afford the soul of man any true rest in God which is the end of the sabbath And this seems to be our Saviour own doctrine at that same time when he reproved the blindness of the Pharisees about the observation of the sabbath by scripture by reason and by a miracle Mathew 12. three such arguments as were sure to leave none of them unconfuted for if they had judgement reason would be their confutation If they had Faith the Scriptures But though they had neither judgement nor faith yet a miracle was able to do the work and we may well suppose the error was very dangerous which our blessed Saviour did confute with so much industry and so many arguments as he did scarce any other in all the Gospel In this case he said to the ruler of the Synagogue Thon Hypocrite Luke 13. 15. In this case he looked round about on the Pharisees with anger being grieved for the hardness of their hearts Mar. 3. 5. He imployed his tongue his eyes his heart his head all to beat down this Heresie or rather this Hypocrisie which under pretence of being zealous for Gods commandments did in truth not only secretly undermine but also openly oppose them Accordingly our blessed Saviour and Master hath in one chapter Mat. 12. fortified us with no less then four limitations of this or any other positive or Ceremonial Law wherein it doth not bind and oblige or at least four interpretations to mitigate the rigour of its obligation The first is Lex naturae or necessitatis it must give place to the Law of nature or of necessity as in the case of Davids Hunger ver 3 4. The Second is Lex cultus it must give place to the Law of Religion as in the case of the Priests working about the sacrifices on the Sabbath and yet they were blameless ver 5.
The third is Lex charitatis it must give place to the Law of charity as is proved from the saying of Hosea I will have mercy and not sacrifice ver 7. The fourth is Authoritas legislatoris the authority of the law-giver for he that made it may abrogate it an argument not used in the Text concerning any intrinsically moral law or duty The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath ver 8. We may add a fifth from the repetition of the same story and that is Intentio legislatoris it must give place to the intent of the Law-giver which is the good not the mischief of those to whom he gives his Law And this Limitation or Interpretation we find Mar. 2. 27. in these words the sabbath was made for man that is for mans good to wit the outward rest of his body and the inward rest of his soul and therefore it is not his intent who made the Sabbath for mans good both in corporal and spiritual rest that it should bind him to any real mischief either in his body or in his soul wherefore it is evident by our blessed Saviours own determination That though great is the obligation of those ceremonies which are of Gods own immediate appointment yet greater is the obligation of the least moral duty then of any of those ceremonies when that Moral duty concerns either our selves or our neighbours and not only when it concerns our God For ceremonials are appointed for Morals but Morals are appointed for themselvs Positive constitutions are for the inforcement of natural institutions but natural institutions are for the God of nature Wherefore since Gods worship is not ceremonial but moral not positive but natural the Sabbath is both positive and ceremonial it must follow that the worship was not ordained for the Sabbath but the Sabbath for the worship and consequently the worship is cleerly above the Sabbath And this same Antisabbatarian doctrine is not only of Christs but also of Moses his own teaching if we may believe the Jewish Doctors themselves upon those words of Exod. 12. 16. And in the first day and in the Seventh day shall be an holy convocation For there this is Aben Ezzra's gloss in the first day because that was the day of their going out of Egypt and in the seventh day because that was the day of Pharaohs being drowned therefore those two dayes were more strictly observed then any of the rest that came in betwixt them And yet if we look narrrowly into the matter not the dayes themselves but the duties performed on them made the holy convocations for it is evident from the Text that the first day was sanctified by eating of the Passeover and the Seventh day was sanctified by the heavenly Songs and thanksgivings of Moses and Miriam so it was the Passeover and the thanksgiving not the first and the seventh day that is Holy duties not holy dayes which made the Gathering of the people to be an holy convocation and shewed it to be so We ask no more of Christians but this That they will allow Duties to be above dayes in making of holy convocations and consequently the publike worship of God to be above the Sabbath the day wherein he is to be so worshipped And this being granted which cannot well be denied it must needs follow that they best keep the sabbath who have the best publike worship of God which is the duty not they who are strictest in observing of the day which is the ceremony who talke much of the Sabbath but follow such a service or worship of God as is more agreeable with mans humors or with humane invention then with Gods word or divine institution A Service or worship which though it may be solemn and publike in regard of the Convention yet not in regard of the Communion since no man can câ—me as a Communicant to that worship concerning the which he is not well assured that it is according to the analogy of Faith For he may neither give up his conscience in a blind obedience nor may he retain it upon uncertainties the one being against the evidence the other against the assurance of faith and whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom 14. 23. Whether it be not of faith for want of evidence or for want of assurance Nor doth this divinity whereby we â—ollow the best Divine that ever was in preferring substances above accidents morals above ceremonials Duties above dayes any whit diminish the true Santification of the Sabbath but rather improve advantage it For it is an undeniable rule of reason and much more of religion That all moral duties must have moral antecedents concomitants and consequents which if we will apply to this moral duty of Gods publike worship we shall find any day consecrated there to whether weekly or yearly little enough either for our preparation before we go to worship or for our attention whiles we are worshipping or for our meditation and thankfulness after we have worshipped In a word a Sabbath in general is doubtless moral by the fourth commandment which requires a day to be set apart or made holy for Gods publike worship requires that the day so set apart be esteemed holy and religious though not so much for its own sake as for its works sake according to St. Pauls command concerning the Ministers that are set apart for the same worship 1. Thes 5. 12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you And to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake which text plainly convinceth those men to be the greatest sabbath-breakers and contemners of the fourth commandment who will not know those which labour among them in the Lord unless it be to contemn and to revile and to oppress them and are so far from acknowledging those labourers to be over them in the Lord that they strive both to bring the labour under their girdles and to tread the labourers under their feet for the Apostle saith expresly they are to be esteemed highly if not for their own yet surely for their works sake in saying so teacheth us to say the same of the time and place that are consecrated to the publike worship of God For by the rule of proportion what is commanded concerning one adjunct of Religion is commanded concerning the rest and we may not think we have dicharged our duties to the fourth commandment by honouring the time but pillaging and defying both the Places and the Persons that are consecrated to Gods service or to speak yet more plainly by crying up the Sabbath but beating down both Churches and Ministers And indeed the fourth commandment it self hints no less which deriveth the reason of the Sabbaths being sanctified above other dayes not from any holiness in the day it self or any set number of dayes but only from the holiness that is in God Wherefore
momento aeternitas as we spend our time here so we shall find our eternity hereafter For God who hath given us time only to prepare and provide for eternity will certainly call us to a strict account for all our time but to the strictest account for that time which he hath more immediately allotted and consigned us to make that preparation SECT IX The fourth commandment was not given to limit the first and therefore excludes not other Festivals shewing our true love of Christ but rather commands them The true manner of ob serving any Christian festival particularly Easter is to account and make it a day of Observations by observing our selves and our Saviour our selves what we have been what we are what we desire to be Our Saviour what he was in his humiliation what he is in his exaltation what he will in his retribution CHristian Feasts were not ordained not so much for the outward as for the inward man Hence excellently the divine Nazianzen or at 44. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No beauty doth so much enamour and delight the most affectionate lover of beauties as our spiritual keeping of publike assemblies doth delight a Christian lover of Festivals We will therefore enquire how a good Christian may best keep a spiritual feast unto the Lord and we hope thereby not to overthrow but rather to establish our set temporal Festivals And indeed we cannot better keep a spiritual feast unto the Lord then by accounting it a day of observations as Moses said of the feast of the Passeover that it was a night of observations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salomon Jarchi gives this gloss upon the place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the Lord observed himself that night and watched that he might deliver Israel according to his promise And sure we are that our blessed Saviour thus observed and watched himself that he might deliver us from sin and death and as sure that this day of our deliverance ought be a day for every good Christian most especially to observe himself and yet much more to observe his Saviour That sabbath day was an high day to the Jew whereon was celebrated the Passeover John 19. 31 And since there is much greater reason it should be so to the Christian t is not possible there should be greater supestition in it For reason and superstition could never yet agree so well together that what was truly Rational could by the wit of man be proved superstitious We must then account this day an high day and not confine our devotions so to our weekly Festival as if that alone were within the compass of the fourth commandment For we may not limit the first commandment by the fourth since the first is the great commandment to which all the rest in that Table are to be reduced according to our blessed Saviours own determination Mat. 22. 37 38. Jesus said unto him Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind this is the first and great commandment By which his determination our infallible Doctor hath concluded the fourth commandment to be moral in that he maketh it reducible to the first but withall to have its chiefest morality meerly by vertue of that reduction And in this respect we may pray in faith Incline our hearts to keep this law as well as any of the rest in the Decalogue looking on the duty as moral for it self on the day as moral for its duty for the duty is clearly reducible to the love of God and consequently to be most religiously observed for it self by vertue of that comes in the day with its other adjuncts to be most religiously observed for the duty We have a Theological certainty concerning the duty which is the rest of our souls in God we can have but a moral certainty concerning the day as set apart for that rest yet we need not fear a mistake in the day being sure of no mistake in the duty and consequently observing the day for the duty we cannot but pray in faith for mercy because we have transgressed for who did ever rest in God as he was bound to do and for grace that we may not transgress but may still more and more rest in him till we come to our eternal rest Therefore we may not limit or restrain the end of the fourth Commandment by the letter of it advancing the day above the duty for that is the way not to pray in faith that we may keep this Law much less may we limit and restrain the first Commandment by the fourth for that is the way not to be able to pray in faith that we may keep any other Law since it is evident that the love of God is the foundation of faith in all our prayers and that Love is required in the first Commandment so that to restrain that Commandment is to restrain our love of God and to restrain our love of God is to restrain our faith in God Again we may not limit the first Commandment by the fourth for that were to limit the greater by the lesser and t is evident the fourth was given to establish the exercise of the first not to enfeeble its obligation since then the first commands us to love God with all our hearts and with all our souls we may not think that the fourth was given to confine this love in any one particular member of Christ much less in his whole mystical body as if Christians were bound to make use of their hearts and souls in the publike exercise and profession of their love to God only upon Sunday or upon one day in seven Accordingly we must account every Christian Festival that is truly in honour and for love of Christ and particularly this of the Passover An high day and to shew that we account it so our best way is to endeavour to make it so by making it a day of observations Now observations cannot be less then two and that two may indeed serve our turns one of these observations must be of our selves another of our Saviour The observation of our selves must be three-fold what we have been what we are what we resolve to be First what we have been miserable sinners Thus the Psalmist observed himself when he said for innumerable troubles are come about me my sins have taken such hold upon me that I am not able to look up yea they are more in number then the hairs of my head and my heart hath failed me O Lord let it be thy pleasure to deliver me make haste O Lord to help me Psalm 40 I have been hitherto a miserable sinner but I beseech thee to deliver me both from my misery and from my sin Secondly what we are penitent sinners Thus holy Job observed himself when he said wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes Job 42. 6. T is in the Origin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
life 1 John 5. 10 11 12. Wherefore that Religion which hath not the Son hath not life and the Religion which hath not life what can it have but death Nor is it lawfull and much less laudable in any man to account those men Christians who doubt the divinity of Christ much less who deny it For they that have not Christ for their God cannot have the true God for their God And therefore Saint Paul takes these two for one and the same mischief to be without Christ and to be without God saying to the Ephesians At that time ye were without Christ being Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world Eph. 2. 12. Saint Cyril in his Catechism expound these words of the Heathen saying thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some of them made the Sun their God that all the night long they might be without God others made the Moon their God that they might be without God all the day But in truth the words will concern many men that are far from that stupid and gross Idolatry even all Jews and all Turks and too too many that are called Christians even as many as question the divinity of Christ for all these alike are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Atheists alike as being without the true God And if their Religion make them Atheists what shall we call it but Irreligion or Atheism But I will not insist any longer upon the proofs of the Text to justifie the Christian Religion since even common sense it self doth make known this Tenent and common experience doth make it good For it is a very substantial and sufficient proof that no other Religion hath in it those truths which are really conformable to a rational mans understanding but only the Christian for that no other Religion subsisteth any longer then the sword that forceth it whereas the Christian Religion still abideth and continueth in the world not by the violence but by the patience of those that uphold and maintain the same nowithstanding the many and great difficulties that are in and with it and the many and great oppositions and persecutions that have been and are against it which must needs argue an inward consonancy or congruity of the Christian Religion with the very soul of man as alone having truths able to satisfie it and alone shewing means able to save it And indeed these three excellencies among many other do give to the Christian Religion the preheminence above all other Religions The first is That no other Religion declareth au expiation for sin The Jewish Religion it self being defective in this particular but as it was Christian and looked unto Christ the Apostle plainly and positively assuring us That it is not possible the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins Heb. 10. 5. So that no Jew could have this opinion of his own Religion that it taught a way of expiating sin unless he would be mad that he might be thought religious for there is no room for any the least probability against an absolute impossibility but the Apostle saith it is not possible And yet there can be no comfortable nor cordial practice of Religion to a man that groaneth under the burden of his sins unless he have this perswasion that his sins may be expiated and his person accepted since it is impossible that any man should care to worship or serve God being offended with him if he had no hope to appease him Let this then be the peculiar excellency of the Christian Religion that it may be most comfortably and most cordially practised because it most teacheth that God may be appeased nay indeed it teacheth how he is appeased even by the merits and mediation of his son who is both founder and the foundation of our Christian Religion The Second excellency is That no other religion proposeth much less promiseth so great and glorious a reward to those that embrace it as is the eternal and everlasting glory both of the body and soul for to let pass the disputes of the Heathen in this kind which were all either vanities or uncertainties even Moses himself in the institution of the Jewish Religion if we look upon the express and explicite Covenants of the law went no farther then a a land flowing with milk and honey and a long and prosperous continuance of them and their seed in that land But for what concerns a better life after this t is either darkly included in this promise or rationally concluded from it not without strong collections of a searching Judgement such as was that of our blessed Saviour Now that the dead are raised even Moses shewed at the bush when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob for he is not a God of the dead but of the living Luke 20. 37 38. Where the conclusion was virtually in the premises though not found out till the eternal wisdom of God discovered it and since that discovery we see t is undeniable in our own humane reason yet if the Jewish Doctors could have seen so much before t is scarce imaginable that one of their chiefest Sects or Parties I mean the Sadduces would have denied the resurrection Let this then be another peculiar excellency of the Christian Religion that it teacheth the body shall live again with the soul in the life everlasting for this doctrine must needs terrifie us from the sins of the flesh because we shall all rise again with our own bodies and give account of the works done in them and be acquitted or condemned according to that account And this same doctrine must also needs comfort and strengthen us against all the maladies and miseries of the flesh for what is a momentary sickness or miserie to an endless and everlasting glory Wherefore since it is the work of Religion to subdue the flesh to the spirit both in its doings and in its sufferings and thereby to subdue the spirit to God and since the Christian Religion alone can do this work subduing the flesh to the spirit in its doings by terrifying it from sin and in its sufferings by strengthning it against miseries I will evermore bless my God for calling me to such a Religion which maugre all the mischief and malice both of men and devils will neither let me be impenitently sinfull nor uncomfortably miserable The third excellency of the Christian Religion above all other religions consists in that admirable holiness and Purity which it requires in the worship of Christ and in all other duties and works of Christianity whereas the Pagan sacrifices were full of cruelty delighting in the blood of men and their mysteries full of obscoenity invading the modesty of women And the Jewish Religion though it had nothing unlawfull or immodest yet it had many things in themselves unusefull and unnecessary though both useful
and necessary in regard of the Jews to keep them in obedience and from idolatry as circumcision sacrificing of beasts the distinction of meats and the rigorous observation of the Sabbath But the Christian Religion requires nothing of us save what is usefull and necessary in it self though it were not commanded as it requires us not to circumcise the foresking of our flesh but of our hearts not to keep a Sabbath by the external rest of the body ceasing from motion but by the internal rest of the soul ceasing from sin and taking its repose in God Not to offer the blood of bullocks but to be ready to offer our own blood for Gods glory not to abstain from certain kinds of meats but to use them all with sobriety for the chastisement of the body and sometimes to use none at all for the advantage of the soul And whereas other Religions have too much of Mammon in them to teach men to forsake their estates ours teacheth us to forsake our selves nor if I had the tongue of men and Angels were I able to express the incomparable purity of that faith whereby we are taught to hope in God not only above hope but also against it in the midst of death to hope for life in the extremity of Justice to hope for mercy and so wholly to trust God with our souls as not to hope for salvation but only to glorifie him thereby desiring his glory equally with our own eternal bliss or rather above it Nor if I had a Seraphins quill were I able to delineate the purity of that worship which teacheth us to pray for nothing but in relation to the honour and with subordination to the will of God and to rest secure in the deniall of temporal blessings whiles we rely upon the promises of those which are eternal This being such a purity as is above our Praise and yet required to come under our Practice plainly sheweth that our Religion is too much above our selves either to proceed from our own understanding or to depend upon our own wills and consequently that God alone was the first founder and is still the Master-builder and defender of it Nor doth our Christian Religion teach us this admirable purity and holiness only in conversing with our God but also in conversing with our selves not only in our duty towards God but also in our duty towards our neighbour Do but consider the ordinary offices of humanity and the Christian Religion will shew you there is some thing of Divinity in those offices for that teacheth you to relieve your brother not only as a member of your own body having the same flesh and blood with your self which is according to the office of humanity but also to relieve him as a member of your Saviours body as a member of God the Son as a temple of God the Holy-Ghost which adds something of divinity to that office Humanitas quà m sit proprium hominis ipsum nomen indicat shew the offices of Humanity to another man for your own sake because you are a man unless you would be accounted a beast was a forcible argument for men to be curteous and friendly one to another before Christ came in the flesh But now that argument must be strained to a higher pitch and we must say shew the offices of humanity to another man for the Son of Gods sake because you are a Christian unless you would be accounted not a beast but a devil So undeniable is the argument of the Christian Religion for the practise of Charity So inexcusable are Christians above other men for the practice of uncharitableness For surely we cannot deny but this doctrine of doing good to all and hurt to none for Christs sake is nowhere to be found but among Christians though their practise in this yron age of the hard-hearted world hath much disagreed from this doctrine As for the Turks religion it was born in the camp smells of the camp lives by the camp it was brought in by the sword savours of the sword is preserved and propagated by the Sword And yet in this respect shame it is to say it but the shame is theirs of whom it may be truly said many Christians are of late turned Turks So that the black-mouthed calumnie of Calvino-Turcismus is in this sense a Truth and the retaliation of that by Papismo-Turcismus is in this sense not to be thought a calumnie for both Protestants and Papists as much as they have of cutting of purses and cutting of throats in their late inhumane rapines and butcheries so much they have of Turcism not of Christianity For that hath said If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink Rom. 12. 20. That is strive to make thine enemy thy friend by overcoming evil with good but in no case to make thy friend and much less thy God thine enemy by overcoming good with evil And indeed this mild voice is only the voice of the Christian religion For even the Jew who came neerest to God and his goodness did nevertheless say An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and thou shalt love thy neighbour but hate thine enemy T is only the Christians hath learned this lesson from the mouth of their master Love your enemies blâ—ss them that curse you and do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven Mat. 5. 42. As much then as love is above hatred blessing above cursing forgiving above reviling relieving above revenging and praying above persecuting or in one word heaven above hell so much is the Christians Religion above all other religions in the offices of humanity or in the conversation of man with man Again look upon the conversation of man with woman and you shall find the Christian is taught and the good Christian doth practice a greater chastity in his marriage then other men look after in their virginity He knows he is bound to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God 1 Thes 4. 1. and therefore will take heed of making his remedy his disease of adding oyle to the fire of provoking that lust of concupiscence which he should banish and expel for what he retains of lust that he loses of sanctification and honour in his body and of the knowledge of God in his soul This chast consideration being grounded in the hearts of good Christians will either keep them innocent or make them penitent whereas other men that know not this Doctrine or regard it not do let loose the rains of their concupiscence and are further from chastity in their virginity then these men are in their marriage For the one follow the Apostles advice It remaineth that they who have wives be as though they had none 1 Cor. 7. 29. The other
's the strength of perswasion And to speak of all thy works in the gates of the daughter of Sion there 's the strength of affection first in the exercise of devotion to speak Secondly in the extent of it of all thy works Thirdly in the profession of it in the gates Fourthly in the integrity or purity of it in the gates of the daughter of Sion What pitty is it that we who out-pass others in the purity of our devotions should come far short of them in the profession extension and exercise of the same That we who are in the daughter of Sion should come short of those who we say are under the Whore of Babylon For this second miracle in Christs ascension The conquest over heaven in his Soul must needs make us conclude concerning our selves that we cannot possess heaven till we have first conquered it Man in his composition is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world but in his affection he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great world A conqueror over heaven and earth over neither by himself but over both by his Saviour In all these things we are more then conquerours through him that loved us Rom. 8. 37. and we may see who it was that loved us from ver 35. who shall seperate us from the love of Christ It was he that loved us it is by him that we are more then Conquerours Let me fight the good fight of faith that I may have my Saviours love and though all the Nimrods and mischiefs of this wicked world prevail against me yet none of them shall conquer me SECT II. The time of Christs ascention is particularly named in the Text and the observation of that day is founded upon the practice of the Apostles which in the exercise of Religion is to be embraced as Precept And why the Apostles left not many precepts concerning the circumstances of worship to the Christian Church The place of the Ascention was Bethany in Mount Olivet and what considerations arise from thence LOgicians do tell us that it is the property of verbs to be adsignificant as saith the great scholler of nature and greater master of Art Aristotle in his book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verbum est quod adsignificat tempus It is the property of a verb not only to express the thing it self which is to be significant but also to declare the chief circumstances of time and place and person which is to be adsignificant And for this reason it will not be improper to consider in these three verbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He went he was carried he was received up not only the substance or act of our Saviours Ascention but also the chief circumstances of it to wit the time in which the place from which and the persons before whom he was pleased to ascend into heaven As for the time in which it was exactly the fourtieth day after his resurrection being seen of them fourty dayes saith the Text Acts 1. 3. which doubtless is not set down superfluously and therefore ought to be observed carefully I may justly add conscientiously For though duties and not dayes yet duties upon their own dayes call for a most religious observation God himself having said in express terms to the Jews and consequently by the rule of general equity to the Christians since the reason of his saying is rather moral then typical The man that is clean and is not in a journey and forbeareth to keep the Passeover even the same soul shall be cut off from his people because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season that man shall bear his sins Num. 9. 13. Whence we may safely conclude not as Jews but as Christians that t is not safe but sinfull meerly out of peevishness or willfullness to neglect the appointed seasons of serving God for such a grievous punishment as being cut off from Gods people would not be threatned but for a grieveous sin such as begins in the contempt of God and ends in the scandal of men Therefore duties are to be most strictly observed upon their own dayes Thus the resurrection is most solemnly to be celebrated on its own day the first day of the week and the Ascention on its own day the fift day of the week for the fourtieth day after a Sunday can be no other then thirsday So that either the fourtieth day after the resurrection of Christ is lawfully consecrated to celebrate his ascention and by consequent is the day appointed for that duty or this particular circumstance was unnecessarily set down in the text and as unlawfully observed by the Apostles who turning from the mount Olivet came into Jerusalem and went up into their upper room when they durst not assemble together in the Temple and prayed there immediately upon their return even on the very same day of Christs Ascension and did not think fit to put off their solemn meeting till the next Sabbath or till the next Lords day after it Wherefore it is reasonably concluded by Judicious men that Apostolical practice is to us Christians what Mosaical precept was to the Jews concerning the observation of dayes places and persons for religious assemblies and therefore our Lords day is as indispensable as was their Sabbath our Churches as inviolable as their Temple and Synagogues our orders of Ministers as unchangeable as their orders of Priests for Apostolical Practice in these circumstances or adjuncts of Religion doth oblige us Christians to conformity as Mosaical precept did the Jewes to obedience I say Comformity because time place person were all essential parts of their ceremonial and typical but cannot be so of our moral worship and therefore obedience was necessary for them but comformity is enough for us So that a willfull neglect and much more a scornfull contempt of any rite observed by the Apostles cannot but be impious in it self dangerous to us and scandalous to our brethren And as this is judiciously concluded by some learned men so it must be couragiously resolved by all good men not to fear superstition in that which the Apostles practised when their practice is declared in the text since all circumstances adjuncts of Religion are derived to us Christians rather by practice then by precept as not being of the Substance of our Religion And indeed they could not well be derived otherwise because types and ceremonies were utterly to be abolished to the Jews and therefore ceremonies though without types could not but with offence to the Jews be particularly prescribed to the Christians consequently were to be left unto them only in example and practice as matter of decency and order which are capable of dispensation not set down in the text by way of command or imposition as matter of Substance which hath alwayes a rigour of Justice and should alwayes have a readiness of obedience both alike indispensable Nay yet more
How the Apostles Baptized in the name of Christ and their infidelity and uncharitableness who deny Baptism to Infants IF we look on men as men we must look on them as the Sons of wrath But if we look on men as Christians we must then look on them as the Sons of God members of Christ and inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven For they are Sons in his Son in whom they are made Christians because Christ is communicated to them in their baptism whereby they are not only distinguished from Turks and Infidels but also qualified and exalted above them for having been baptized into Christ they have put on Christ This is Saint Pauls own assertion in his own words For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3. 26 27. which two verses in Saint Chrysostoms Judgement do shew that Christians are the Sons of God and the means or manner how they are made his Sons The 26. verse shews their being made Sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the 27. verse shews the means and manner how they are made Sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he calleth it For ye are all the children of God in Christ Jesus there 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christians are made the Sons of God by faith in his Son by faith in Christ Jesus which makes Saint Chrysostome break forth in admiration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh wonderfull how great is the power of faith for he shewed before that it makes us the Sons of Abraham ver 7. He sheweth now that it makes us the Sons of God Again verse 27. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ there 's the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manner of our adoption how we are made the Sons of Gods even by being baptized into his son ye have put on Christ by being baptized into Christ or ye have been baptized into Christ therefore ye have put on Christ for this will be the Minor and the Conclusion to that Major and we may join all these together and make up this Syllogism As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ But you have been baptized into Christ Therefore you have put on Christ If you ask how the baptized into Christ put on Christ Saint Augustine will answer you with a distinction Vel Sacramenti perceptione vel rei induunt homines aliquando Christum usque ad Sacramenti perceptionem Aliquando autem ulterius usque ad vitae sanctificationem hoc accidit quum digne suscipiunt Men when they are baptized do put on Christ Sometimes outwardly in the visible sign of the Sacrament Sometimes inwardly in the spiritual Grace of the thing signified as when they worthily receive their Baptism And this answer is necessary because there are so many Hypocrites in the world who frustrate the Grace of God by their Hypocrisie But concerning those that are not Hypocrites when they come to be baptized as true believers or concerning those who cannot be Hypocrites as little children the Judgement of charity bids us say they have put on Christ both outwardly and inwardly because the Judgement of verity teacheth us to say that the outward visible sign is not without the inward spiritual grace on Gods part who offereth the Baptism and is not wanting to his own offers what ever it be on mans part who receiveth it for those words of the Gospel He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire Mat. 3. 11. will not allow us to separate the Holy-Ghost and the fire from the Baptism which hath been instituted by our Saviour Christ But Bonaventure lib. 4. Sent. disp 4. supplies us with another answer omnes Baptismum aequaliter recipiunt quantum ad characterem restitutionem innocentiae non quantum ad infusionem Grati◠As many as have been baptized into Christ have alike put on Christ so far as to be accounted innocent or freed from the guilt and imputation of original sin with which they came into the world though not so far as to be made righteous by the infusion of Grace or to be freed and delivered from the infection or the dominion of that Sin for grace hath a twofold act Delere culpam habilitare ad bonum saith the same Author to blot out sin and to dispose to righteousness Sure we are that Baptismal grace doth immediately avail to the blotting out of sin alike in all though we are not sure that it doth alike dispose all to righteousness though we hope well of that too So that in his sense All that have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ equally as to the restitution of innocency though not as to the infusion of grace They are all restored to the innocency that was lost in the first though not all enriched with the grace that is found and founded in the second Adam They have not the sin of their nature imputed though they have it still inherent They have it not imputed in that they are made the children of God They have it inherent in that they are still the sons of men Baptism is available unto all alike for Remission of sins though not for Regeneration from sin And yet sure it makes way for that too else Saint Peter would not have annexed the receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost to the remission of sins saying Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost Acts 2. 38. Baptism doth immediately conduce to the remission of sins be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins and mediately also to the receiving of the gift of the Holy Ghost in as much as it takes away that guilt of sin which keeps him from us and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost That is some more eminent gift of the Holy Ghost for your confirmation in righteousness after you have received him in Baptism for the remission of your sins For surely Baptism of it self without the Holy Ghost cannot avail to the remission of sins therefore this promise of receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost is to be expounded comparatively that is a greater gift of the Holy Ghost And this exposition is necessary from this very text because there is no remission of sin without grace and no grace without the Spirit of grace and may be proved to be convenient from that other Text which comes near to this of Acts 8. 15 16 17. where after the Samaritans had been Baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Saint Peter and Saint John layed their hands upon them and they received the Holy Ghost that is to say in a greater proportion for their confirmation then they had in Baptism for their conversion But why is it said They were baptized
it a most disconsolate and doleful prayer yet it begins with praise I will magnifie thee O Lord for thou hast set me up and it ends with praise O my God I will give thanks unto thee for ever And it is the peculiar observation concerning the 88. Psalm nullâ consolatione clauditur saith Musculus that it hath in it no clause of comfort and consolation and yet even this Psalm hath in it some shaddow or dark representation of Abba Father in that it is said O Lord God of my salvation and O let my prayer enter into thy presence even as our blessed Saviour when he thought himself most forsaken of God yet even then laid hold on him by a true and lively Faith saying My God my God why hast thou forsaken me This we are sure It is the same Spirit of adoption that inditeth the most uncomfortable prayer and the most comfortable praise Only the prayer proceedeth from the great apprehension and constant necessity of our own manifold wants and imperfections even in our best condition But the praise proceedeth from the comfortable enjoyment of Gods undeserved goodness in mercies received and more comfortable assurance of his everlasting mercies in blessings promised So that the uncomfortableness of the prayer is from the testimony of our own spirits concerning our miseries and sorrows in our selves but the comfortableness of the praise is from the testimony of Gods Holy Spirit concerning the blessings and joys treasured up for us in our Redeemer Accordingly there is no gift or comfort of the Spirit which we can now pray for in our distresses which was not prayed for by the Psalmist in his greatest distress Psal 51. Renew a right spirit within me take not thy holy spirit from me stablish me with thy free spirit He prayeth for a right spirit against the perversness for an holy spirit against the profaness and uncleanness for a free spirit against the dulness and deadness of his heart And what can we say more of that spirit which teacheth us to cry Abba Father but that it is a right spirit to rectifie us when we are out of order but that it is an holy spirit to sanctifie us that we may be kept in order and that it is a free spirit to testifie unto us that being rectified and sanctified we shall doubtless be accepted as beloved in the beloved Accordingly Saint Hierom thus translateth the words Et spiritu principali confirma me and confirm or stablish me with thy principal spirit which in Saint Pauls phrase is the spirit of thy Son or the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father So that we find these Psalms of David as necessary and as useful devotions for us Christians as they were for the Jews for that one and the same spirit cryed Abba Father in them which cryeth Abba Father in us Wherefore he so prayeth as that he also praiseth and so praiseth as that he also prayeth He praiseth for the joy of his Saviour he prayeth for the joy of his salvation Redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui restore unto me the joy of thy salvation So restore it when it is lost as also preserve and increase it when it is restored This is a joy which all the delights of this world cannot give and therefore sure all the sorrows of this world cannot take away Although the figg tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Hab. 3. 17 18. The Prophets festival doth not depend upon the joy and mirth of the times his good chear doth not hang upon the fig-tree nor upon the vine it ariseth not out of the fields nor out of the flocks God may sequester all these from man or man may sequester them all from Gods Prophet yet still he will keep his solemn feast he will rejoyce in the Lord he will joy in the God of his salvation and the reason is because God will not and man cannot sequester the true Prophet from his God Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword as it is written For thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter nay in all these things we are more then conquerors through him that loved us Rom. 8. 35. And as this joy of the good Christian is unsequestrable not to be taken from him so is it also unspeakable not to be expressed by him thus saith Saint Peter speaking of our blessed Saviour Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. You that love him from your soul cannot but rejoyce in him from your soul If your love of him be with all your soul with all your might with all your strength your joy in him will be so too you love him with all your might because he is your Saviour you rejoyce in him with all your might because of his salvation Who can sufficiently admire the goodness of God in giving the gift of faith unto men thereby in some sort to antedate the beatifical vision and to let us into heaven whiles we live here on earth For the Apostle describes to us such a faith as is to be known not by its pretences but by its power and that power is threefold A power of believing in Christ yet believing A power of loving Christ whom having not seen ye love A power of rejoycing in Christ in whom ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable Whosoever hath not this threefold power of believing of loving and of rejoycing in Christ hath not true Faith in Christ but a phansie in stead of Faith So inseparable are these three Sisters the three Theological vertues Faith Hope and Charity that whosoever hath one hath All whosoever doth believe doth also love whosoever doth love doth also rejoyce rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5. 2. A joy not to be expressed to others by our speaking but by our doing not by our words but by our works It is fit they should see us offer the sacrifice of righteousness and from thence know that we put our trust in the Lord Psalm 4. 4. For we Christians also have an Altar Heb. 13. 10. and we have a two fold sacrifice to offer upon that Altar 1. A Sacrifice of thanksgiving let us offer the Sacrifice of praise to God continually v. 15. 2. A Sacrifice of Almsgiving to do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased ver 16. These our sacrifices as they do express our joy in Christ so they should also answer it
and therefore when we have the greatest joyes we should also have the greatest sacrifices For the analogie or proportion is not only historical but also causal which we find set forth betwixt the joy of Gods people and their Sacrifices Nehem. 12. 43. Also that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoyced for God hath made them rejoyce with great joy Because their joy was great their sacrifice also was great God had made them rejoyce with great joy on that day and therefore also on that day they offered great sacrifices And this is the reason why the Church of Christ recommendeth to us solemn Festivals as daies wherein the Lord hath made us rejoyce with great joy and as solemn sacrifices for those festivals particularly the receiving the holy Eucharist and the giving of alms the two proper sacrifices of Christians that our sacrifices may be in some sort answerable to our joy For all the sacrifices we can offer unto God cannot be answerable to the joy we have in him and from him and much less answerable to the joy which we hope to have with him And will you see the reason of this joy it is by reason of the comfort and consolation that good men have in and from God when they cannot have it in or from the world They have comfort from the Comforter and may well have joy with their comfort This made Saint Paul bless God for all the troubles and tribulations he had from men because the more they troubled him the more his God comforted him and enabled him to comfort others 2 Cor. 1. 3 4. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God that is with internal and spiritual comfort which proceedeth from the Spirit of God q. d. I will not repine for mens cruelties but bless God the Father of mercies whiles the more man is my Persecutor the more God is my Comforter enabling me to comfort both my self and others with such comforts as this world is not able to give and therefore sure is not able to take away And the same way doth God please to comfort the soul as the Prophet describes him comforting of Zion for what is Zion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but an illuminated or enlightened soul For the Lord shall comfort Zion He will comfort all her wast places and he will make her wilderness like Eden and her desart like the garden of the Lord joy and gladness shall be found therein thanksgiving and the voice of melody Isa 51. 3. What an immense an immortal comfort is this that the wast places of the soul are comforted and that her wilderness is made like Eden and her desart like the garden of the Lord for the waste place of the soul that needs be comforted is the conscience which is wasted by sin the wilderness or desart of the soul is the same conscience overgrown with cares as a wilderness is with thorns and over-awed with fears and terrours as with so many wild beasts and overcome with drouth and barrenness like the desarts of those hot Countries that starve their inhabitants This wast place this wilderness this desart must be quite changed before it can be comforted The Lord makes this wilderness like Eden a place of pleasure this desart like a garden of the Lord a place of fruitfulness before joy and gladness can be found therein thanksgiving and the voice of melody Till the conscience is purged from dead works it is like a wilderness unlovely and unfruitful unlovely it makes the man out of love with himself and much more his God out of love with him unfruitful it brings forth no fruits either of righteousness or of repentance But after it is purged from sin then it is like an Eden or a Paradise a place of pleasure and of plenty of loveliness and of fruitfulness Saint Paul joyns them both together That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work Col. 1. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all pleasing of God of your neighbours and of your selves there 's the pleasure and the loveliness for no man truly pleaseth himself whiles he displeaseth his God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bringing forth fruit in every good work or bringing forth the fruit of every good work there 's the plenty and the fruitfulness for no man walketh worthy of God but he that is fruitful in every good work that is to say fruitful in the works of piety of temperance and of charity of piety towards God of temperance towards himself of charity towards his neighbour He that thus walks worthy of God cannot but exceedingly rejoyce in God For he cannot but say with the Psalmist And now shall he list up mine head above mine enemies round about me Psalm 27. 6. Hoc erit lentum est nimis He shall lift up mine head would make him stay too long for his joy He may therefore say He hath already lifted up mine head even my blessed Saviour above all mine and above all his enemies that I should not fear them and he is daily lifting me up to my head that I should not fear my self Therefore will I offer in his dwelling an oblation with great gladness I will sing and speak praises unto the Lord ver 7. Hoc erit lentum est nimis I will sing keeps him too long from his duty he therefore doth sing and say Praised be the Lord for he hath heard the voice of my humble petitions The Lord is my strength and my shield my strength to support me when I am not assaulted my shield to defend me when I am my heart hath trusted in him and I am helped therefore my heart danceth for joy and in my song will I praise him Psal 28. 7 8. All this and much more then this is set down to express the joy of the Holy Ghost and it is nothing but Abba Father in the language of those under the Law who though they did not see God in his Son and in his Spirit so clearly as we do under the Gospel yet they praised him as loud both for his Son and for his Spirit as we can praise him for though in some sort they came short of us in the Object of Faith because the Son and the Holy Ghost were not so fully revealed unto them yet they came not short of us in the Act of faith whether exercised in prayers or in praises for they prayed in the mediation of the Son and they praised in the joy of the Holy Ghost SECT V. Fâ—lly and Filiation are together in Gods best adopted children whiles they are in this world The three priviledges of the Saints of Gods not of their own making because of the Spirit of Adoption First
it either to prevent it from coming upon us or to redress it when it is come For it calleth us to unity against division to constancy against distraction since there can be no constancy where there is no unity It calleth us to a communion with Christ and with his Church which communion must have unity from the nature and constancy from the author of it For our Saviour Christ is the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. and as he is unchangeable in himself so he desires to be found unchangeable in his members He will have them the same yesterday and to day and for ever And indeed so they are for they do partake of the constancy who were real partakers of the unity in the Christian communion which is betwixt Christ and his Church Those Christians do shew forth a kind of immutability or unchangeableness by their constancy in religion who truly have communion with Christ in the unity of his Church For they cannot run a gadding after other mens phansies who are really established in their own consciences They know they have met with the true Christ already and therefore look not after false Christs and regard not them who say loe he is here or loe he is there They have found him in his Church and will not look for him in the desert or in the secret chambers For Christ having said to his Church Loe I am with you alwayès even to the end of the world would not have us think that we can be with him if we will not be with his Church Therefore we must look for Christian communion in Christs Church though we must not look for it only in his Church but also much rather in himself For in truth Christ and his Church do make but one true Christian communion Accordingly it will be necessary to consider this communion first in its authority for that Christ calleth us thereto by his own authority as the head and the Church calleth us thereto by the authority of Christ as his body After that we shall consider the same communion in its excellency for authority and excellency are reciprocal in Gods commands He commonly commaning that with the greatest authority on which he hath bestowed the greatest excellency And lastly we shall consider the same Christian communion in its sincerity for in spiritual exercises or duties of the soul such as is the desire and practice of this communion the greatest part of the excellency consisteth in the sincerity for God the seer and searcher and judge of hearts accounteth nothing excellent in his service but what proceeds from the heart Lord make me earnestly desire this Christian communion for its authority as proceeding from Christ the eternal Son of God make me highly admire this communion for its excellency as continuing with Christ make me cordially embrace this communion for its sincerity as wholly ending in Christ A true Christian communion indeed which hath its beginning from Christ its continuance with Christ its end in Christ which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex ipso per ipsum in ipsum which is of him and through him and to him as the Apostle speaks Rom. 11. 36. Because it is of him it hath great authority because it is with him it hath great excellency because it is to him it hath great sincerity CAP. I. Of Christian Communion in its Authority SECT I. Christ requires our Communion by his own authority as our Head which hath the most noble and most powerfull influence upon the members The nature the reasons the cause the proofs of our communion with Christ COmmunion with Christ is the only way to Salvation by Christ for if we embrace not his Communion here we shall not enjoy his Salvation hereafter For Christ as man is the head of our Christian Communion though as God he be not only the commander of it by his word but also the defender and maintainer of it by his power so that the gates of hell are not able to prevail against it And this is Saint Augustines Judgement upon those words of our blessed Saviour John 1. 5. I am the true Vine That our Saviour spake those words Secundum quod caput Ecclesiae as he was the Head of the Church that is according to his humanity whereby he is of the same nature with us men as a Vine is of the same nature with its branches Nor can there be a fitter similitude to express the communion of Christ with his Church then is this of a Vine with its branches For as a Vine in the winter is without its branches so was Christ in his passion without his disciples for they all forsook him and fled Mark 14. 50. And as a Vine when it is without its branches is without it is beauty so it is said of Christ whiles he was yet without its disciples hanging upon his cross He hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him Isa 53. 2. And as a Vine is first planted in the earth before it brings forth branches So was our Saviour first laid in the earth before his Church was increased and multiplied And as the Vine is the basis and foundation which sustaineth the branches so is Christ the foundation of his Church Other foundation can no man lay then that is laied which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3. 11. The fellow-labourers with God spoken of in the ninth verse may help under prop the branches but t is only the Vine that can sustain them And as the branches have all their greeness and growth and fruit from the Vine So hath the Church all its beauty and nourishment and increase from Christ and as the Vine doth transfuse its nature and therewith its vertue into the branches so doth Christ communicate to his members his name whereby they are called Christians his vertue whereby they are made Christians nay the very nature and being of his filiation or Son-ship as far as it is communicable in that he makes them the Sons of God with himself though not by nature yet by adoption and Grace Lastly which is Saint Augustines observation As the branches are the most contemptible of all sorts of wood when they are off from the Vine but the most glorious whiles they are on it so is it with men whiles they are without Christ they are most base and contemptible Saint Peter can liken them to nothing but to dogs or swine But it is hapned to them according to the true proverb the Dog is turned to his own vomit again and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire 2 Pet. 2. 22. But whiles they are in Christ they are glorious and excellent above all others the same Saint Pteer labours for variety of titles to express their excellency But ye are a chosen generation a royall Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People 1. Pet. 2. 9 Nay yet more
the Jews in their own Moral Law whilst we establish not our own righteousness but submit our selves to the rightâ—â—usness of God acknowledging that Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10. 4. but by no means for unrighteousness that is for the acceptance of our obedience but not for the abolition of it Thus we Christians still keep communion with the Jews in all Moral duties and as for Ceremonials the Jews themselves cannot deny but they are bound to alter their own communion For the abolition of all ceremonial or typical worship was foretold to them even at the first institution of it by Moses himself saying And the Lord said I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him Deut. 18. 18 19. And as this abolition of the Ceremonial worship was foretold to the Jews at the first institution so was it also believed by them at the first reception thereof For hence alone was it that they found no fault with their Prophets after Moses though they found them dispensing with the Law of Moses nay plainly acting against it in the exercise of their typical or ceremonial worship as for example neither they of Hierusalem nor of Samaria quarrelled with Eliah for gathering Israel together to offer sacrifice upon Mount Carmel 1 King 18. 19. Though Moses had flatly commanded That all should bring their offerings to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation Levit. 17. 2 3 4. Here it is plain the Ceremonial worship was changed without any quarrel at all in that backsliding and therefore quarrelsome and contentious age of the Church of the Jews which could scarce have been had they not received that same worship with some belief of its future change and had not their Prophets confirmed them in that belief foreshewing as it were by particular changes introduced by them the universal change that should one day be introduced by the Messiah their last and greatest Prophet And this general change wrought by our Saviour Christ is so proved to us Christians that we cannot so much as doubt it and much less deny it For those very words of Moses that foreshewed the change A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall you hear in all things are quoted by Saint Peter as fulfilled in Christ Acts 3. 22. And again he saith v. 24. That all the Prophets from Samuel and those that follow after which words justifie the Jews division of the Prophets into the former and latter Prophets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and put the latter Prophets in as good credit as the former against the Samaritanes and as many have spoken have likewise foretold of these dayes All the Prophets like so many lines from the circumference in the centre meet together in Christ so that the written word of God not only is the undoubted and therefore should be the undeniable ground of all Religion but also of the very Christian Religion nor may we endeavour to prove the establishment of the Christian Religion by unwritten Traditions no more then the Apostles did prove the change of the Jewish Religion by them They alledged the written word for the introduction we for the establishment of our Christian Religion The old Testament so exactly agreeing with the new and both old and new so exactly agreeing and corresponding in Christ that there can be no doubt left of the truth of Christianity Hence Saint Paul will have us make so sure of our Religion that though an Angel from heaven should preach another Gospel we should not be ready to believe but to accurse him Gal. 1 8. And Saint John saith the same in effect If there come any to you and bring not this doctrine sc that whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed 2 John 9 10. Si quis venit ad vos If any come unto you t is all one whether the substantive be an Angel or a man for that divinity was not yet in fashion Si Papa erraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas nisi velit contra conscientiam peccare Bellar. lib. 4. de Pontif. cap. 5. That if the Pope should err by commanding sins and forbidding vertues The Church were bound to believe that sins were good and vertues were evil unless she would sin against her conscience Op. Ac ne forte contra conscientiam agat tenetur credere bonum esse quod ille praecipit malum quod ille prohibet And least the Church should do any thing against her conscience she is bound to believe that to be good which the Pope commandeth and that to be evil which he forbiddeth A strange assertion as if God had put all his Divine Truths whether speculative or practical for if the one the other also under the possibility of mans lawfull contradiction and all our consciences under the power of his controul nor is there any remedy for this mischeivous consequence by translating this pretended Infallibility from his person to his chair nor from his chair to his Church for we may justly suppose or rather must necessarily believe that Saint Johns words are as well to be understood and interpreted of a whole Church as of single man since there is the same reason of both for a Church is but a congregation of men and false doctrine hath no less of falsity though it hath less of excuse in a Church then in any particular man But we must more then believe this Truth if it be possible That the Gospel is to sway our faith above and against all authorities to the contrary whatsoever by the force of Saint Pauls reason For if not the authority of the Church triumphant then surely not of the Church militant may be allowed to weaken our faith in the doctrine or in the Gospel of Christ If not an Angel from heaven then sure not a man upon the earth And great pity it is but greater shame that the faction and humour of some men should endeavour to shake not only the dictates of nature in putting vertue and vice under mans determination but also the very foundation of supernatural Truth the written Word of God thereby thinking the more to establish the pillar of supernatural truth the Church of God whereas indeed they do the more shake that too For we are all most sure that the Scriptures came incorrupt from the mouth of God and therefore if there be now any corruptions in them they are of mans not of Gods creating And
true Christian communion that man may be edified and brought to the knowledge and enjoyment of his Redeemer And all those Texts in the Old and New Testament which concern the publick worship of God are so many interpretations of the twofold end of this commandment as for example in the Old Testament Psalm 95 which was made to be used in publick assemblies according to Aben Ezra's gloss commandeth singing to the Lord and worshipping of him there 's the exercise of Religion q. d. Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day and commandeth us to sing and worship there 's the establishment of communion q. d. Thou and thy son and thy daughter c. and gives this reason of those commands The Lord our maker q. d. For in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth So again Psalm 100. O be joyful in the Lord serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song there 's the Religion All ye lands or as it is in the Hebrew all the earth there 's the communion It is he that hath made us and not we our selves there 's the reason of both from our Creation For the Lord is gracious his mercy is everlasting c. there 's that reason further enlarged to us Christians from our redemption who are taught that God by his son both made the worlds and also purged our sins Heb. 1. 2 3. So again in the New Testament Mat. 18. 20. Where two or three are gathered together there 's the communion In my name there 's the Religion I am in the midst of them there 's the reason of both so Heb. 10. 22 23. Let us draw neer with a true heart let us hold fast the profession of our faith there 's the exercise of Religion for he is faithful that promised there 's the reason of that exercise And ver 24 25. Let us consider one another not forsaking the assembling of our selves together there 's the establishment of communion To provoke unto love and to good works there 's the reason of that establishment If we be sure of Christs name we cannot be too zealous of our gathering together if we be sure of the Religion we cannot be too zealous of the Communion but if we be not sure of the name which cannot well be without a set and known Liturgie every good Christian must be contented to say with Joshua I and my house will serve the Lord and mouâ—n that he cannot say with David I was glad when they said unto me we will go into the house of the Lord for it is more agreeable with the end of the fourth Commandment that men have the right Religion in their own houses without a publick visible communion then that they have a publick visible communion in Gods house without the right Religion They must first say Let us hold fast the profession of our faith and after that Let us consider one another not forsaking the assembling of our selves together For if the Assemblies have forsaken the faith it can be no sin to forsake the Assemblies since the end of the Commandment is without doubt above the letter of it the substance of worship above the adjunct of it or to speak in one word since Christian Religion doth challenge precedency before and preeminency above Christian communion So then without question the end of the Commandment is the first thing to be considered for if the end be rightly understood the letter will not easily be mistaken for the letter of the Law is subservient to the end of it and therefore may not have so scanty an interpretation as will not reach the end And such is that interpretation of the fourth Commandment which would have the letter mean no more then it mentions that is the bare circumstance of time and leaves men at liberty to do what they please with the other adjuncts of publick worship to wit the persons by whom and the places in which it is to be performed and regards not the end or reason of the command at all This was the fault which our blessed Saviour did find with the Scribes and Pharisees interpretations of the Law that they interpreted it not in its full extent or latitude and this made him so often in one Chapter use these words Ye have heard it hath been said of old But I say unto you c. not opposing his authority against the authority of God who gave the Law but against the authority of the Scribes and Pharisees who misinterpreted it As for example God had said thou shalt not kill they intepreted this Law only of the act of murder our Saviour interprets it also of the intent or occasion of it of hatred in the heart and of calumny in the tongue Again God had said thou shalt not commit adultery this the Scribes and Pharisees restrained to the act of fornication or adultery but our Saviour tells us plainly that God meant otherwise and forbad not only the act but also the inclination thereto lusting nay the occasion thereof looking on a woman to lust after her Mat. 5. 28. The like interpretation have some of late given of the fourth Commandment as if the day were all that God required whereas questionless he requireth also the other adjuncts of publick worship as much as the day and he requireth the worship it self much more For publick worship must first be publick in its substance then in its adjuncts first in its substance by having such prayers as are of publick concernment to all good Christians according to the pattern given us in the Mount that is to say in Gods most holy word wherein we find the Spirit of God himself the first author of Liturgie or of common prayer having taught us such prayers whose matter and form is common alike to all good men and taught them not only for our direction but also for our use as plainly appears by the Hebrew inscription on the ninty second Psalm A Psalm for the Sabbath because saith Jarchi and Ezra both they were to say that Psalm on the Sabbath And Musculus saith the same after them concinendus in Ecclesia die Sabbathi this Psalm was to be sung in the assemblies on the Sabbath Nay the Psalmist saith as much being nothing else but an invitation to praise the name of God for all his works most especially for the wonderful dispensations of his power in pulling down his enemies and of his mercy in relieving and upholding his servants So again Psalm 102. hath this inscription A prayer for the afflicted when he is over-whelmed and poureth out his complaint before the Lord which plainly sheweth that the Psalms were made to be used not only as publick but also as private devotions and consequently that set forms do not confine the Spirit of prayer because the Holy Ghost commandeth the use of this Psalm to the afflicted not for the hinderance but for the furtherance of his devotion not only as a prayer
but also as a prayer fit to pour out his complaint before the Lord And t is clear our blessed Saviour hath said concerning his own most holy prayer not only after this manner therefore pray Mat. 6. 9. commending it for our direction but also when ye pray say Our Father Luke 11. 2. commanding it for our use not only giving this prayer to his Church as a pattern for Liturgie or publick worship but also as a part of it which is also true of the whole Book of God since those words being a part of the Scripture cannot be of any private interpretation 2 Pet. 1. 20. So that God hath provided for himself a Lamb for a burnt offering in giving his Scriptures to his Church for in them are not only rules of worshipping but also forms of worship such rules as equally oblige all such forms as equally concern all the Christians in the world Secondly publick worship must also be publick in its adjuncts not only in one adjunct of Time though that happily be more particularly named because it is the most universal or common adjunct wherein all the habitable world can at once communicate together but also in the other adjuncts of place and person God will have his publick places to be worshipped in his publick persons to be worshipded by as well as his publick day and all those Texts in the Old and New Testament which speak of places or persons deputed to Gods publick worship do belong to the letter of this fourth Commandment as well as those which speak of the day Thus hath God himself said Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary I am the Lord Lev. 19. 30. Here is the same reason given for reverencing the Sanctuary as for keeping the Sabbath and not to do the one as well as the other is a contempt of God And lest we should think this injunction did only concern the Tabernacle or the Temple of the Jews the reverence is evidently communicated to more then one Sanctuary Lev. 21. 23. That he prophane not my Sanctuaries for I the Lord do sanctifie them God owns the sanctification of Place as well as of time for his worship and forbids us to prophane the one as well as the other Thus as we find many complaints in the Prophets against those that prophaned the Day so we find many in the Psalms against those that prophaned the place of Gods publick worship as Psalm 74. 8. They have set fire upon thy holy places and have defiled the dwelling place of thy name and ver 9. They have burnt up all the houses of God in the land and they that did this are called Gods enemies foolish people and blasphemers verse 19. Remember this O Lord how the enemy hath rebuked and how the foolish people have blasphemed thy name God owneth to have houses as well as days and if our Saviours example may prevail with us we shall be as zealous for his Houses as for his Days He would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the Temple Mark 11. 16. and yet he here excused his Disciples for plucking the ears of corn on the Sabbath day Mark 2. and he gives a reason for it that concerns Christians who are of all Nations and not only Jews who were but of one Nation for he saith Is it not written my house shall be called of all Nations the house of prayer Which words plainly shew that all Nations are to set apart Houses of prayer and that God hath an interest or propriety in those Houses so set apart they are his houses which caused Saint Paul to say to the Corinthians What have ye not houses to eat and to drink or despise ye the Church of God 1 Cor. 11. 22. Where is a plain contradistinction betwixt mens houses and Gods House they may not do the same offices in both Their corporal food they must take in their own houses their spiritual food only in Gods house and they who do otherwise are said to despise the Church of God which is here put as a term convertible with the House of God or is imporperly opposed to their own houses And indeed the context requires this exposition when ye come together in the Church ver 18. Is thus afterwards explained when ye come together in one place ver 20. For it is evident that if the place of their meeting had not been first determined and known they could never have met together and what is the determining of a place to holy meetings but the exempting or separating it from prophane or common uses Therefore the Canon Law saith expresly that all men know there was a consecration of places from the beginning who know the precepts of the Old and New Testament de consecr dist 1. cap. 1. and accordingly proves it was so among the Jews and ought to be so among the Christians Iudaei ergo loca in quibus sacrificabant Domino Divinis habebant supplicationibus consecrata nec in aliis quam Deo dicatis locis munera Domino offerebant si enim Iudaei qui nmbrae legis deserviebant haec faciebant multo magis nos c. The Jews did consecrate those places by prayers and supplications in which they offered their sacrifices And if they who had only the shadow of the Law were so zealous and carefull about the places of their worship how much more ought we so to be who enjoy the substance of the Gospel and the very Sun-shine of Grace For sure our worship being more holy then theirs cannot have less claim to the beauty of holiness And the same was also the Judgement of the Greek Church in the purest ages of it as appears by Athanasius his Apology to the Emperour Constantius making many excuses for himself that he had held a religious Assembly in the great Church newly builded by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before it had been consecrated And the Council of Gangre saith expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we honour and highly esteem the Houses of God not speaking of his spiritual but of his material Temples which this prophane age blasphemously nick-nameth steeple-houses for so it follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 21. Honouring every place that is built to the name or for the worship of God But why should we insist upon the practice of the servants when the master himself did no less who honoured the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple with his own presence John 10. 22. Thereby shewing it was not superstition but true Religion which first taught men to perform holy duties not only on Holy-days but also in holy Places And yet we have not quite explained the letter of this Commandment for it also requires holy persons as well as times and places for a holy worship Nay we find Gods publick worship performed in a common or unholy place Nehem. 8. 1. In the street before the water-gate but not by a common or unholy person for it
I am sure I have the true Christian Religion for I cannot oppose such a Communion because of its authority but I shall be guilty of faction nor because of its excellency but I shall be guilty of Blasphemy nor because of its sincerity but I shall be guilty of Irreligion And I cannot be either Factious or Blasphemous or Irreligious much less all three together but I shall sin grievously against the glory of my God scandalously against the good of my neighbour dangerously against the salvation of mine own soul In a word since God of his infinite goodness which I could not deserve may not abuse hath made me an Israelite I will not strive to make my self an Idumaean a Babylonian or an Aegyptian Saint Bernard finds all these three in one persecutor or opposer of that Church which professeth and practiceth the true Christian Religion saying thus Herodiana malitia Babylonica crudelitas est nascentem extinguere velle Religionem allidere parvulos Israel Si quid enim ad salutem pertinens si quid Religionis oritur quicunque resistit quicunque repugnat planè cum Aegyptiis parvulos Israelitici germinis necare conatur imo cum Herode nascentem persequitur salvatorem It is the malice of a Herod who was an Idumaean and no less then Babylonian cruelty to labour to suppress Religion and to dash the children of Israel against the stones For if indeed what is brought forth doth conduce to salvation or belong to true piety who ever resisteth or opposeth it doth plainly endeavour with the Aegyptians to slay the young children of Israel nay with Herod he doth seek out his new born Saviour to destroy him And he that doth this forgets all the curses denounced against Edom in the Prophets for persecuting his brother Jacob particularly that of Obadiah v. 10. For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee and thou shalt be cut off for ever A Text the fittest that can be alledged in this case because the Jews tell us that this Obadiah from being Ahabs Steward was made a Prophet of the Lord for the kindness which he had shewed to the Lords Prophets when they were persecuted by Jezebel Hic igitur quia centum Prophetas paverat accepit gratiam Prophetalem de duce exercitus fit dux Ecclesiae Tunc in Samaria parvum gregem paverat nunc in toto orbe Christi pascit Ecclesias saith Saint Hierom prol in Abdian Proph. This man because he fed an hundred Prophets received the Grace of Prophecy and from being a Captain under Ahab was made a Captain under Christ Then he fed but a small number in Samaria now he feedeth many millions in all the world and I doubt not but God hath still reserved the same blessing for all those who have hitherto sustained his persecuted Prophets not to give them the Spirit of Prophecy for he will not violate his own orders and institutions but to give them the Spirit of Grace in this ungracious the Spirit of perseverance in this backsliding age of ours So that we may be truly say The reason why they have not lost their faith as well as others is because they would not lose their Charity whereas many that were of an other temper as at first they lost their charity so now at last they have lost their faith and know not whither to go to seek it but may truly say with Mary Magdalen and so much the more truly by how much the less sorrowfully for they would with her have more tears in their eyes if they had grace in their hearts They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him John 20. 13. They who were among the head-men of Tekoa Amos 1. 1. and taught to keep cattell from their youth Zach. 13. 5. and so made themselves Prophets without the Lord Nay they who were among Sauls messengers sent to take David 1 Sam. 1. 20. and so made themselves Prophets against the Lord They have taken away my Lord my Saviour from me and I know not where they have laid him A very sad complaint which they now least make who have most reason who from their Sedition and privy conspiracy have fallen into false doctrine and heresie and from their hardness of heart towards men have fallen into contempt of Gods word and commandments from which we pray God to deliver them and to keep us For since his mercy hath made us Christians we may not let our own Unthankfulness make us Antichristian and such are all they who will needs be of a Religion fitter to serve themselves then to serve their God It is Musculus his observation upon Ps 52. Saul hic typum gerit â—ntichristi qui habet in regno suo Sacerdotes tabernaculum cultum Dei verum haec omnia vult sui Juris esse sib ministrare Vult Sacerdotes Domini esse iniquitatis suae Ministres Non indicastis mihi inquit quod David venerit ad vos Saul was the very type of Antcâ—hrist who had indeed Priests and Tabernacle and the worship of God in his kingdom but would have them all under his command and would make them all serve his designs He would have the Priests of the Lord become Ministers of his wickedness and destroyed them because they had not been so Turn and slay the Priests of the Lord saith he because their hand also is with David and because they knew when he fled and did not shew it to me 1 Sam. 22. 17. This Sin of Antichrist in striving to make Religion stoop to Interest that is in effect to make God serve Mammon to make Christ serve Belial being most directly against the end of the fourth Commandment plainly shews that the end of that Commandment is chiefly to set up the honour of Christ the eternal Son of God All the Jews service did all the Christians service should tend only to this end Do this in remembrance of me concerned their Sacrifices no less then our Sacraments Their Sabbaths no less then our Lords dayes their weekly on less then our weekly their anniversary no less then our anniversary festivals and all by vertue of the fourth commandment Do this in remembrance of me concerned the Jews in the general reason of it no less then it concerneth us Christians only it concerned them in types and shadows it concerneth us in body and substance So saith Saint Paul of their Sabbaths which are a shaddow of things to come but the body is of Christ Col. 2. 17. They were to look after the shaddow but we are to look after the Body they were to look after the types but we are to look after Christ They were to be zealous for the Sabbath Day but we are to be most zealous for the Sabbath Duty which is to do all in remembrance of Christ to magnifie our Redeemer in the first place and for his sake to magnifie the memorials of our Redemption
Thus hath holy Zachary taught us to sing Blessed be the Lord God of Israel and hath given this reason of that song For he hath visited and redeemed his people Luke 1. 68. That we may assure our selves it is not superstition but good Religion agreeable with the end of the fourth Commandment which teacheth us to celebrate the memorials both of his Visitation that he came to visit us in great humility and of his redemption that he hath redeemed us in great mercy and will consummate that Redemption in greater glory nor may we think that the letter of this Commandment was to restrain the end of it or the Sabbath was to confine the publike worship of Christ no more then we may think that God gave the Law to restrain the Gospel or set up the practice of Judaism for a time to confine the practice of Christianity for ever we may not so put our necks under the yoke of Jewish bondage in the Circumstances and much less in the substance of our Religion The proportion of time allotted the Jew for his publike worship may admonish the Christian to give no less must not regulate him to give no more to God For Religion first brings men to God then binds them to God and that Religion which brings them neerest binds them fastest The Jews Religion brought and bound him to God as to the author of nature and called for much praise The Christians Religion brings and binds him to God as to the Author of Grace and calleth for more praise The Angels Religion brings and binds them to God as the author of glory and calleth for all Praises The Christians Religion though betwixt that of the Jews and that of the Angels yet comes neerer to that of the Angels and therefore may not look backwards to Nature but must look forwards to glory The Author of nature did bid the Jews first number dayes saying For in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it There the day called for the duty But the Author of Grace hath bid the Christian first number Duties teaching him to say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7. 25. Here the Duty calleth for the Day and bidding us think God will not let us be stiâ—ted to one day in seven for our thanksgivings For though nature be under the measure and government of Time yet Grace is only under the measure and government of Eternity Wherefore any day that tells me of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God in him shall tell me also of the Communion of the Holy Ghost to give thanks to God the Son for his Grace and to God the Father for his love nor dare I so undervalue the duty of thankfullness which I owe to my blessed Saviour for my redemption from sin and death as to tarry till the next Sabbath before I say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord And this I am sure though men may deny me thus to keep the Sabbath on earth yet God will not deny me thus to keep the Sabbath in Heaven and the more they may hinder me thus to keep it in earth the more should my soul be filled with desires and longings to keep it so in Heaven SECT IV. The sincerity of Christian communion may be broken either causally by a false Religion or formally by an unjust separation Both breaches are abominable The care which the Primitive Christians used to avoid both by cleaving to the ancient Creeds and the Gloria Patri and also by their communicatory letters The reason of that care was that both Priest and People laboured only to serve Christ not to serve themselves of him The Touchstone to try all Churches is from advancing the glory of Christ both in their Religion and in their communion AS the Communion of Saints is commanded in the fourth Commandment which requires all men to communicate in those doctrines of faith and duties of life which God hath called them to profess and practise in and by his Church So the Religion of Saints is commanded in the three first Commandments which do teach the Doctrines and Duties of that communion For as God hath not left his people to make their own communion so neither hath he left his Church to make her own Religion He first saith Let all things be done then let all things be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14. 40. He first provides the doctrines then regulates the Prophets or the Preachers first takes care for the order of Religion then takes care for the order of Communion He first taught his Church how to invocate and implore his mercy how to reverence and adore his Majesty how to acknowledge his Authority and glorifie his holy name in worship in word in Sacraments and after that how to order assemblies and publick meetings for these Invocations for these adorations for these acknowledgements or glorifications And hence it is that Christian Religion bids all men first look after Gods authority in his word then after Gods authority in his Church So that no Church can be obliged by the obedience which she oweth to the Christian Faith to communicate with that Church which absolutely refuseth to have the doctrines and duties of its communion regulated and ordered by the known and undoubted written word of God because every man ought first to choose his Religion whereby to have communion with Christ then the Profession or exercise of it whereby to have communion with Christs Church And by consequent for any company of men to advance themselves against the word is to incurre Saint Pauls censure If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to Godliness he is proud knowing nothing but dâ—ating about questions and strifes of words And those men which have incurred Saint Pauls censure cannot be acquitted from Saint Pauls sentence From such withdraw thy self 1 Tim. 6. 3 4 5. In such a case the breach of Christian communion is to be imputed to those who consent not to the words of Christ for if they break off from Christ it is no sin can be no shame in others to break off from them For the Apostle saith expresly from such withdraw thy self So that it is evident the breach of Christian Communion may be causal in a false Religion as well as formal in an unjust separation And all the world is not able to excuse the formal unless it be from the causal breach since no man can have a pretence to leave the Church unless it be to cleave to Christ to forsake the Christian communion unless it be to follow the Christian Religion Therefore where Religion is most sincerely kept there communion is most sinfully and most shamefully broken For if the Church hath indeed taught us the right Invocation
words of Leo relate to the Capitula or constitutions of Charles the great and Lodowick his son which Lotharius had commanded to be observed throughout all Italy And when it had been buzzed by some to the Emperour that the Pope disliked those constitutions he was very zealous to clear and to purge himself from that suspition by this Epistle De qua re Leo hac se Epistola videtur purgare voluisse And indeed the words of the Epistle shew a very fierce zeal for though he charge not himself with an Oath yet he plainly chargeth them with a lye that either had or should report so to the Emperour si fortasse quilibet aliter vobis dixerit vel dicturus fuerit sciaâ—is eum pro certo mendacem And yet this is not all For as Pope Leo in this Epistle made a solemn protestation of his own obedience to the Emperours Laws so in another after this cited by Gratian in the thirteenth Chapter of this same tenth Distinction he made an humble supplication that others might also be compelled to obey them Vestram flagitaneus clementiam c. For which though some late Canonists may perchance say he had too little spirit to be a good Pope yet we cannot deny but in this Tenent he had too much Truth to be a bad Divine For Christ took not from Kings their trust that he might give it unto Church-men no more then God took from Moses that he might give to Aaron And consequently Christian Kings are still obliged to discharge this Trust in their own dominions as belonging to them by the Law of nature and therefore not impaired but confirmed by the Law of grace since it is the work of grace to consummate and perfect nature not to overthrow it For the Moral Law given to the Jews by Moses was the same that had before been given by God himself to Adam only it was written again in Tables of stone because by our sin we had much defaced that writing which had been engraven in the tables of our hearts So then what is commanded by Moses in the fifth Commandment was before commanded by God in the Law of nature that is to say that all Fathers whether natural or spiritual or civil should be entrusted with and have power over their own children in subordination to though not in opposition against the commands of the Eternal Father And this right of Princes doth Pope Leo himself acknowledge in giving them the title of Pontifices High Priests which had been assumed by themselves before in their edicts and accordingly saith the gloss imperatores olim Pontifices appellabantur Which he proveth by the Authority of Isidâ—re in these express words cited afterwards dist 21. c. 1. Aâ—tea autem qui Regeserant Pontifices erant nam majorum haec erat consuetudo ut Rex esset etiam Sacerdos Pontifex unde Romani Imperatores Pontifices dicebantur Hence it is that among the titles of Aurelius the Romane Emperour this is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Summus sacerdos Maximus Euseb l. 4. Eccles histor cap. 13. Which is a good proof that by the Law of Nations the authority of Religion was judged to be in the Prince though the administration of it was in the Priest nor was this an erroneous conceit of the Heathens for God himself would have the ceremonies of Religion to be instituted and established by Moses who was a civil Magistrate not by Aaron who was a Priest though they were executed only by Aaron After Moses Joshua removed the Ark gave the charge of Religion and renewed the Covenant betwixt God and the people And after him David and Solomon Josiah and Ezechiah did by their authority as Kings order and reform Religion overthrow Idolatry and superstition so that we may justly and truly infer that Princes had that Trust of Christian Religion before they themselves were Christians to understand it and still have it though they are never so bad Christians to abuse it T is one thing what they are by their deeds another thing what they are by their duties for by their duties they are preservers of Gods truth and peace though by their deeds they often prove the persecutors of his truth and the disturbers of his peace God made them preservers though they too too often make themselves Persecutors of his Church Thus Basilius the Emperour publickly assumeth to himself this Trust in the eighth general Council cited in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Divine and merciful providence having put into my hands the helm of the universal ship That is of the Church wherein as in Noahs Ark all those are gathered who are saved from perishing A large claim and yet not one of all the Council opens his mouth against it Nay they all plainly give their suffrages for it in the ninth Action when they solemnly make this profession 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We well know O Emperour that there are under your power Arch-Bishops and Bishops and Abbates and Clergie-men and Monks and that you are the Governour of them all This was accounted no bad Divinity almost nine hundred years after Christ for this Council was held in the year eight hundred and seventy both by Greek and Latine Churches the Popes Legates then present not dissenting from the rest nay the Pope himself giving his actual and publick assent to this Tenent at this day in that at his consecration he solemnly professeth to Saint Peter and his Church I could rather wish it were to God but it is to Saint Peter Profiteor tibi Beate Petre sanctaeque tuae Ecclesiae That he doth receive and will keep this eight as well as the other seven general Councils and promising to himself that Saint Peter will be gracious to him at the last day when I desire God only to be gracious to me as he did carefully observe this his profession Eris autem mihi in illa terribili die haec conanti diligenter servare curanti propitius This profession of the Pope at his inauguration is set down at large by Binius in his notes upon this Council so that t is scarce out of use in the Church of Rome at this day to make it whatever it is to keep it And yet t is much that a profession so solemnly made should be slightly kept for surely those words Deo tibi sciens me redditurum de omnibus quae profiteor districtam in divino judicio rationem Knowing I shall give a strict account to God and to you at the day of Judgement of all that I now profess though we leave out the Tibi in the case are such words as may well make a Pagan Foelix tremble to hear them much more a Christian Bishop tremble to speak them and both Pagans and Christians tremble to break them Nor may any Divine think or teach this Doctrine of Supremacy to be a matter of indifferency for to deny it to be the Kings
Bishops and Presbyters in Italy shall give an account for souls in England and as much against reason to say or think that souls in England shall not give an account for their disobedience And as this Position concerning the Authority of our own particular Church is reasonable so is it also religious For this is Saint Pauls own argument to the Corinthians Though you have ten thousand instructers in Christ yet have ye not many Fathers for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel Wherefore I beseech you be ye followers of me 1 Cor. 4. 15 16. Whence we cannot but collect this dogmatical conclusion That this Church which hath begotten us in Christ claimeth our obedience in Christ and to renounce that obedience is in effect to renounce our being made Christians And as no other Church can truly say to us I have begotten you through the Gospel so no other Church can justly say unto us Wherefore I beseech you be ye followers of me To sum up all in one word This Doctrine concerning the acknowledging and obeying the authority of mine own Church being both rational and religious I dare not wilfully oppose it for fear of sinning against the God within me that is to say mine own conscience which will certainly by a most terrible and just remorse vindicate the violated dictates of Reason And much more for fear of sinning against the God without me Father Son and Holy Ghost which will certainly by a more terrible and just vengeance at the last day vindicate the violated dictates of Religion CAP. II. That the Church of England hath most carefully discharged her Trust concerning Religion as a most Christian or most Catholick Church SECT I. Gods intent in trusting his Church with Religion was her honour and happiness which should cause our thankfulness to God and our reverend esteem of his Church IT is a great honour to be trusted and as great a happiness to discharge a Trust Accordingly God entrusting his Church with Religion did intend her both honour and happiness Honour with men happiness with himself Honour in earth and happiness in heaven wherein we cannot but admire the goodness and Justice and liberality and mercy of God His Goodness in that he communicateth to his Church his own most excellent property even a will and desire that all men should be saved and come unto the knowledge of the Truth 1. Tim. 2. 4. His Justice in that he giveth abilities proportionable to that desire enabling his Church to promote the salvation of men and to bring them unto that heavenly knowledge his Liberality in that he giveth this desire and those abilities meerly of his free grace to enrich our souls not himself And lastly his Mercy in that by giving this desire these abilities and these riches he expelleth our natural defects arising from errour and ignorance whereby we do walk in the false and cannot find out the true way and prepareth us for that bliss and glory which is above nature who can think of this goodness of this Justice of this liberality of this mercy and not say with the Psalmist Praise the Lord O my soul and all that is withâ—n me praise his holy Name Praise the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits which forgiveth all thy sin and healeth all thine infirmities which saveth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and loving kindness Psalm 103. 1 2 3 4. For it is his goodness that he forgiveth sin and healeth infirmities his Justice that he forgiveth only the penitent sinners and healeth only those who are broken in heart His mercy that he saveth our life from destruction and his liberality that he crowneth us with mercy and loving-kindness Accordingly he hath commanded his Church to teach especially the Doctrine of Faith to set forth his goodness by which he is reconciled The Doctrine of Repentance to set forth his Justice which hath been satisfied The Doctrine of Free Grace to set forth his mercy in saving us from destruction The Doctrine of eternal glory to set forth his liberality in crowning us with loving kindness O my soul consider the immortal comfort of these heavenly Truths and look upon thy Church which teacheth them as the daughter of immortality as the mother of comfort and as the Bride of the King of Heaven Then wilt thou no more be contentedly without thy Church then thou canst be comfortably without these Doctrines Then wilt thou say with the Psalmist I am fearfully and wonderfully made but with thy self I am more fearfully and wonderfully saved Marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well Psalm 139. 13. I am much amazed at thy great care and providence over my body but much more at thy great care and providence over my soul Thou madest use of my carnal Parents to make me communicating to them as far as they were capable the honour of my Creation Thou makest use of my spiritual Parents to save me communicating to them as far as they are capable the honour of my salvation should I be a monster of nature if I dishonoured the one and shall I not be a monster of grace if I dishonour the other Didst thou confer on them the Dignity of Causality by thy goodness that I should cast upon them the indignity of contumacy by my undutifulness Can I indeed truly honour thee the Principal and dishonour thy Church the instrumental cause of my salvation Thou laid'st thine hand upon me to make me but thou laid'st thine heart upon me to save me O make me wholly to fix my heart upon thee my Saviour and upon thy salvation Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect and in thy book were all my members written wstilst thou madest my Body But thine eyes would not see my sinfulness nor my imperfections and thou didst blot all my transgressions out of thy Book that thou mightst save my soul Therefore I cannot but say How dear are thy counsels unto me O God Psalm 139. 17. Dear are thy counsels about my Creation much dearer are thy counsels about my Redemption Counsels they were till thou wert pleased to reveal them by thy Church Since therefore I cannot but say How dear are thy counsels I beseech thee suffer me not to say How cheap is thy Counsellor SECT II. The Churches Trust concerning Religion is to see there be right Preaching Praying and Administring the holy Sacraments That preaching belongs rather to the knowledge then to the worship of God and ought not to thrust out Praying which is the chiefest act of Gods worship and most regarded by him especially when many pray in one communion CHristian Religion teacheth us to know and worship God as is agreeable to his Glory and profitable for our salvation So that the Churches trust concerning the Christian Religion is reducible to these two heads the knowledge and the worship of God And because the Church is trusted with the
in relation to the people to those who have a great number to countenance any insolency and as great a power to continue it and to say it in the name of God is to say that which if it doth not make the people tractable will certainly make them inexcusable And this Saint Paul saith so frequently that we are bound to look upon it as his common dialect and therefore as our own special duty I will instance only in that Text which as it allows the necessity of Ecclesiastical Discipline so it allayes the severity of it for these times though they most shew the want or necessity of Church government yet will they least endure the severity of the same And that Text is in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians the third Chapter 14. and 15. Verses And if any men obey not our word by this Epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed yet count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother T is without all doubt and therefore should be without all dispute that these words were not written occasionally but âoctrinally and consequently contain in them such a precept as now at this time concerns us no less then it did at that time concern the Thessalonians And our Church is no less intrusted with this precept then theirs was and as much bound to execute this command of observing admonishing avoiding such as obey not the Apostles Word or Doctrine whether by his own Epistles or by the Churches Sermons Whether by his writing or by her speaking whether by his Hand or by her mouth What remains then if I obey not but wilfully persist in disobeying the Apostles Doctrine taught me by this Church which God hath set over me but that I look upon my self as one excommunicated by this Canon of the Holy Ghost and consequently as one whose sins are bound and retained in heaven though possibly not so much as taken notice of here on Earth And therefore I have great reason to fear that sentence which a Bishop of this Church hath recorded upon this very Text though now I see no visible Judge to pronounce it In nomine Dei c. In the name of the living God and of Jesus Christ before whom I stand and before whom all flesh shall appear by the authority of his word and by the power of the Holy Ghost I divide thee from the fellowship of the Gospel and declare that thou art no more a member of the body of Christ Thy name is put out of the book of life Thou hast no part in the life to come thou art not in Christ and Christ is departed from thee I deliver thee to Satan the Prince of darkness thy reward shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Thou shalt starve and wither and not abide The Grace of God is taken out of thy Heart The face of the Lord is against all them that do evil they shall not taste of his mercy Bishop Jewel in his Commentary on 2 Thes 3. This is a sentence that I have reason to fear if I be disobedient to the Doctrine and bid defiance to the worship of Almighty God which I have learned in this Church For rather then the Synagogue of Satan shall be confounded with the Church of God Christ himself will re-assume that Power which he hath given to his Ministers he will become the judge rather then obstinate sinners shall want the sentence of condemnation Nay it is to be feared that he is become the Judge already and hath moreover ratified his own sentence for surely men are divided from the fellowship of the Gospel Christ is departed from them and the grace of God is taken out of their hearts when they altogether delight in divisions and are as children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine nay carried away with all deceivableness of unrighteousnesness because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved And indeed men are first generally carried away by the deceivableness of unrighteousness and after that by the deceivableness of untruth The deceivableness of unrighteousness will not let them receive the love of the truth and then the deceivableness of untruth will not let them retein the Doctrine of it as it follows For this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2. 11 12. They first have pleasure in unrighteousness and will not believe the truth and from thence proceed to have pleasure in untruth that they may defend and maintain their unrighteousness First they will not give themselves to believe the truth then God gives them to belielieve a lye First they contemn those whom God hath sent then God sends them strong delusions First they believe not the truth because they have pleasure in their sins then they believe a lye that they may perish in their sins O the unspeakable mercy of God who hath given us this warning to day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts O the impartial Justice of God who hath given us this doom that if we hear not his voice to day we shall harden our hearts to morrow Let us consider how the Primitive Christians obeyed their spiritual guides and we shall never want the Method and much less lose the zeal of our obedience We will never let it be said that we have lived so many years to understand our Religion now mean to live the rest of our dayes to abandon it alwayes remembring that heavenly contemplation of the Angelical Doctor Ratio Aeternitatis consequitur Immutabilitatem sicut ratio temporis consequitur motum 1 par qu. 10. art 2. Eternity is founded upon unchangeableness as time is founded upon change Therefore we cannot lay a greater reproach upon Religion then to think or to shew it changeable as if it rather belonged to time then to eternity Secondly this obligation which binds us to our spiritual Pastors and Guides hath not lost its force of binding us because of the duty to which we are bound which is the publick practice of Religion A duty which we cannot perform without the direction of the Church for without that when we come together every one will have a Psalm a Doctrine a tongue a revelation an interpretation 1 Cor. 14 26. yet a duty which we cannot wilfully neglect without the danger if not the damnation of our souls For this comes neer that damnable sin of spiritual slothfulness which regards not Communion with God and he that regards not communion with God here how can he hope for the fruition of God hereafter T is the common course of men now to say are not Abana and Pharphar Rivers of Damascus better then all the Waters of Israel may I not wash in them aud be clean