we not imagine that it died likewise with their Persons whil'st they like those that ran in the Olympian Games delivered that Light into the Hands of Posterity which such as went before had put in their's Hence St. Paul ordained Timothy Bishop of Ephesus and as there is good record to be shewn for it Titus of Crete both which even by St. Pauls Commission exercised that measure of Jurisdiction in each of those their Diocesses as that it may be made to appear that the Reverend Prelates of the Church do at this day own no farther a degree of Authority then that which Saint Paul in those his Epistles afforded them Neither went this Fire out in later Ages which at the first was so well kindled insomuch that as Irenaeus speaks it of himself Irenaeus l. 3. contra Val. c. 3. Habemus annumer are cos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi successores corum usque ad nos That he was able for his own particular to give a Catalogue of those Bishops that from the Apostles times had sate before him in the See of Lyons Epishan 66 Haeres Enseh l. 5. c. 6 11. l. 6. c 9. l. 7. c. 31. l. 8. c. 1. So likewise Epiphanius and Eusebius taking in hand this Performance have deduced from the Apostles until the Councel of Nice a Succession of Prelacy in all the most famous Churches in the World that then were extant Whil'st Modern Chronologists having brought down the Line near unto this present Century have hereby given unto the Pens of succeeding times the occasion of going on with that Story which God out of his mercy unto his Church will I doubt not but continue unto the Worlds end And shall this Sacred Order thus now be questioned which having in all Ages hitherto so fair Evidences to shew for its Title hath ever yet been thought to be out of question Shall the Rochet it self be yet at last disclaimed for a Rag of Popery and for this very Reason be thrown off by those very Arms themselves that once did wear it How unhappy may we deem our selves that so unworthy an Act as this hath been reserved for the disgrace of these days of Ours Whil'st it may be said of those that have committed this infamous kinde of Church Murther upon themselves Isidor l. 1. Ep. 118. what Isidor once spake of a certain dissolute Church-Man one Zozimus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that These two alone have herein done enough to draw a scandal upon all the whole Clergy of the Christian World But it is impossible to speak so loud as to reach their ears whom this concerns and therefore I turn from them and address my self unto you my Brethren to whom I cannot but signifie and that too in some such manner as St. Paul once bespake his Philippians telling them as he at least says himself of a matter weeping that when I look into Ancienter Times and read in Pelusiot that the People Isidor l. 1. Ep. 490. as often as they met in the Streets with the Sacred Robe were wont ever in all humble manner for to cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it sounds well I am sure in Greek but knowing not how it would take with some of our Mother wits in English I therefore spare the Translation when I observe that they reverenced the Ephod Isidor l. 1. Ep. 136. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the same Author as one that did bear the Image and Place of Christ and afterwards cast mine eyes upon this our Age wherein many think they have Religion enough if they can but hate a Bishop and abhor a Ceremony how can I then but even from thence collect that these our days are the very dregs of time and that the World running now as it doth stark naught is come to its Lees But however such shallow heads as these esteem of our Reverend Prelates no otherwise then as of a gay useless Pageant serving meerly for Pomp and Glory yet deeper Judgements know how to demonstrate plainly that the Church her self is not able to stand without these Pillars I for mine own particular should be very jealous of the validity of mine Orders had I not known my self to have received them from the hands of some one Reverend Paul or other Whatsoever those Transmarine Sons of the Presbyterial Board may think of themselves yet were they to be tryed at the Bar of Antiquity they would scarce be found to be of the Tribe of Levy St. Hierom who being but a private Priest at Bethlehem and discontented therefore with the meanness of his own Condition grew hereupon amongst all the Fathers the onely Man that spake hardly at least if not evil of Dignities doth nevertheless in that Epistle of his unto Evagrius where he pleads most for the honor of Priests appropriate the Power of Ordination wholly and altogether to a Bishop onely Quid facit Hierom Ep ad Evag. saith he exceptâ ordinatione Episcopus quod non facit Presbiter as conceiving this to be an act utterly beyond the Sphere of a Priests performance Whereas in after-ages a Bishop being on a time for to Ordain and being enforced by reason of a pain which he himself had in his Eyes to suffer his Chaplain to read the Words of Consecration Binius tom 4. p. 559. the second Hispaline Councel that was held then at Sivil thought it requisite to sit on those Persons who had been thus Ordained who finding a Nullity in their Orders by reason the Words of Consecration were not uttered by the Bishop himself in the fifth Canon of that Councel adjudg'd them for no Clergy men But whither am I now gone or whither have I been carried being called abroad by my Text and these Times together Whil'st the Person Visiting having had by this his allotted Minutes if not more then comes to his share to speak for himself It will concern us now to hasten him to his Visitation which too being at hand in my next Particular comes now in the second place and that too in the Word Come immediately to be treated of Si Judicas cognosce Knowledge ought ever to be the Usher the Needle as it were Seneca Trag. that is to make way for the Threed of Justice Whil'st he that shall adventure upon the executing of the later of these without sufficient Instructions first in the former may well be likened to those Preposterous Governors which Munster makes relation of Munster Cosmogra cap. de Hungar. who in an Hysteron-Proteron Custom that they had as Barbarous altogether as themselves were wont upon a suspition to condemn the Party whom they conceived to be a Malefactor and then afterwards to try the Carcass And therefore that my Apostle being now as an Ecclesiastical Judge to sit upon the state of the Church of Corinth might the better have sufficient informations of those things that he was there to Order he intends
raised a Question Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 9. c. 15. whether or no in case Adam had not faln there should have been a Sub and a Supra any Subordinations at all in the Societies of Men and seems likewise to incline to the Negative for that the very first time we meet in Scripture with the word Servant which too according to the forecited Fathers observation is in the 9th of Gen. and the 25th it being there spoken by way of a Curse he from thence collects that Nomen istud Culpa Meruit non Natura Sin alone and not Nature gave a Being unto that Condition Yet for certain ever since the Fall as matters have stood without an orderly Series of Men wherein as in a Predicament some may be Summa Genera above others Species Infimae beneath and a third between both Genera subalterna there can be no subsisting for any one Society whatsoever This being so necessary for all Common-wealths as that without this so many Men being but as so much confused Rubbish or like a multitude of Stones lying in an heap together come to be without any benefit at all each of other whereas being once disposed of to such divers uses and several places as they by their education have been fitted for they then may make not an handsome onely but a good serviceable piece of Building And if it be thus in the State then doubtless must it be more then so in the Church She having ever been esteemed an Hierarchy whose Members ought in that manner to be ranked and sorted into higher and lower Classes as that hereupon upon at the 6th of the Canticles and the 4th she is likened to an Army with Banners nay however an Army having once displayed her Banners and going on upon a March be a great Desciple and Servant unto Order yet is it conceived by St. Chrysostome Chrysost 10 Hom. in 1 Ep. ad Thess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Church in Her Discipline is and ought to be more precise and regular then the Field Military is in its For hence Beloved came it here to pass that my Apostle Saint Paul having planted now a Church in Corinth suffers not those Elders whom he had there ordained to be their own Bishops or reciprocally and by turn as it were to be Governors each to other but knowing that in the Church especially nothing could be more unequal then such an equality He therefore holds in his own hands the reigns of Government he himself reserves unto himself Episcopal Jurisdiction which too he did not onely exercise for that year and half alone mentioned in the 18 h of the Acts and the 11th that he lived amongst them all which time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word used there by the Holy Ghost in the Orignal is most observable he sate there and governed as a Bishop in his Cathedral but being once removed and absent he grew even in this respect the bolder towards them whilst in this very Epistle at the 4th Chapter and the 21 Verse he threatens them a whipping with his Apostolical Rod at the 5th Chapter and the 5th Verse he sends out a thundring Excommunication against the Incestuous Person at the 11th Chapter and the 2d Verse he constitutes Canons and Ordinances whereas at the sixteenth Chapter and the first Verse he enacts a special Edict for the observation of them Nay finally that it might appear that he was not wanting in any one particular that might declare him to be their Bishop he acquaints them here in the Text that for the Ordering of all such matters as in that Church of theirs were yet out of Order he himself would come and visit them and who is there but will acknowledge that without all contradiction the less ever hath thus been visited by the greater So that if we lay all together and adde to this his visiting here those other Episcopal Acts of his but now spoken off which he did otherwhere and then however that illiterate ignorant Scotchman for before so Learned an Assembly as this Scoti 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paraclesis contra Pan. Tileni Paraenesin to whom now I speak the Author otherwise then so is not worth a naming hath in a jeer as silly altogether as himself been pleased to snear it out that Profecto Paulus fuit Pessimus Dominus Episcopus Verily Paul was but an ill Lord Bishop yet will it hereby appear that Saint Paul for however the Man for fear of Idolatry dur'st not bestow the Saint on the Apostle yet Religion hath taught us better manners then not to do it that I say even Saint Paul himself did in his Authority Lord it as much as any of those our Reverend Prelates whom he out of the depth of his ignorance can by no means fancy Neither ought it to be conceived as a Marvel that my Apostle so early now at the first erects this kinde of Church-Government amongst the Clergy here at Corinth since as if this were in a manner natural and essential to her the Church seldom or never hath anciently been observed to have stood without it Thus in the old Testament we finde that amongst the Jews there were not onely Priests and Levites but an High-Priest also who was even then so lively an Emblem of Episcopacy as that hereupon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Summus Sacerdos have since familiarly been used in the Writings of the Ancients no otherwise then as Synonoma's with the word Bishop Whereas in the New it is to be read that our blessed Savior whom Ignatius is not afraid to call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Ep. ad Magnes Tertull. l. 4. cōtra Mar. c. 35. and after him too Tertullian Authenticum Dei Patris Pontificem all other Bishops being as it should seem but Copies onely taken from him like one of that Order licenceth the Twelve together with the Seventy to Preach the Gospel until at last immediately before his ascension lifting up his hands and blessing the Apostles Luke 24.51 Aug. 97. quaest de Novo Test Per istam manuum impositionem as St. Austin seems to believe Apostolos ordinavit Episcopos By that laying of his hands upon the Apostles he ordained them to be Bishops Sure I am that Antiquity thought it no prejudice at all to the Apostles to have this Opinion of them and therefore Theodoret. l. 4. c. 18. Basil Cyprian Ep. 65. Hierom ad Marcellum as the Greek Fathers were wont to call Episcopal Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So likewise who knows not but that it is as usual with the Latine to stile the Apostles themselves in plain terms Bishops as having no meaner authority for this then that of St. Peters own example who in Acts 1.20 speaking of Judas his Apostleship calls it there by no other name then by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Bishoprick But though Episcopacy lived in these Renowned Worthies yet may
himself in the 15th Chapter to the Romans and verse 9. and you will then acknowledge that there may a large Map be made of his Journals onely But the Church being all this while without enclosure lay hitherto nothing else but as so much Common and therefore that it might appear how this so Ancient an Order went not out when once distinction of Diocesses was brought in look but upon those seven Churches of Asia whom the Holy Ghost himself in the second Chapter of the Revelation hath been pleased so far as to take notice of The Bishops of which several Churches as it is Interpreted by a Learned Commentator Mendoz. in 1 Sam. 2. Tom. p 523 are therefore there called Angels that so being put in minde of their Office by their Name they might be ready no otherwise then as those Ministring Spirits the Angels to go hither and thither for the better ordering of that particular Diocess which they were to govern And where the Wheel had so many good Hands to stir it at the first how can it be expected otherwise then that it would keep long a going which too it did in after Ages with that force and vigor as that for the better keeping of it up even beyond an usual height The Church thought it meet to create a new kinde of Order of Ecclesiastical Persons who being by their Office to go about and ever and anon for to visit those little Vilages that it stood not with the Dignity of the Episcopal Robe to come to himself were therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Circuiters whose name as I first finde mentioned by Justinian so likewise is the reason why they were first ordained set down by the Fathers of the Laodicean Councel De Episc Cleric lib. 4. Zonaras Concil in the 57 Canon thereof whereas Zonarus in his Expositions of that very Canon explaining both their place and their name together signifies that they were therefore stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in regard for the keeping the Church in Order they went continually round the Country having in no particular place any setled Mansion But since the Heavens themselves which now rejoyce as a Gyant to run their course shall yet at the last wax old as doth a Garment how could it but be imagined that this motion likewise should in time begin for to languish The decay whereof divers Councels taking notice of endeavored by their Canons and Constitutions to put new life into it as knowing that the Church in Her Discipline and Doctrine both would soon feel a Winter should not those Lights of Hers like that great Light above the Sun come yearly by the Beams of their Authority at a nearer distance then at other times to shine upon Her which Councels if you desire to know what they were Vid. Binâ—uÌ„ Concil Hic citat are Concilium Toletanum quartum Canone 35o. Concilium Bracarense secundum Canone 1o. Concilium Aralatense Canone 17o. with divers others whom I am not ambitious here to quote The Edicts of all which Councels being taken into the Body of the Canon Law by Gratian have grown hereby to be of that Authority Gratian. C. 10. q. 3. C. placuit even in this our Church as that the Year it self is not more constant in the return of her Yearly Seasons then this our Church in Her as Yearly Visitations Thus have I you see Beloved from the example here of St. Paul and from this his coming which my Text makes mention of presented you with the Story of Ecclesiastical Visitations which since for many Ages together they have been much observed it cannot without infinite prejudice to the Wisdom of the Church be conceived but that there may divers weighty reasons be given for them And indeed who knows not how the Ear of Authority may easily be abused in her Informations concerning such Particulars as lye remote distant from her Tertull. Apol. cap. 7. since that all Allegations passing per Aurium Linguarum Traduces as Tertullian phraseth it through the hear-say of divers Tongues and Ears like Waters running through Mines of a several nature loose usually their own genuine relish changing their taste now for the better and now again for the worse by having a strong tang ever of that Man's disposition who at the last hand relates them Hence when the cry of Sodoms Transgression travelled so far as from Earth to Heaven the Lord seems not at that distance to give credit to it but resolves to go down and see and then to judge her Genesis the 18th and the 21. in imitation of which Example Chrysost Hom. 13. in Gen. Saint Chrysostom presumes to counsel those that have the Authority either of Church or Commonwealth put into their hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to account every crying information that rides Post unto them sufficient Evidence whereon for to pass a Sentence but at some certain appointed Season for to go themselves that so those Fallacies which distance otherwise might impose upon them being thus prevented Falshoods may not then dare to appear before them And as Authority were it not for these Visitations might in some Particulars hear too much so likewise in other-some might it hear too little whil'st divers defects of the Church here and there abroad come hereby alone oftentimes to be known Even as Saint Paul at the 17th of the Acts going through the Streets of Athens observed thereby some such Superstitious Custom which had he not been there himself might for ever happily lain undiscovered For albeit some like Hermogenes in Tertullian think it officium bonae Conscientiae the part of a good Conscience to be blabbing ever all that ill which they know of any yet to be an Informer is somewhat in it self an odious Office from which too some dispositions are so averse as that many a Church-warden the more the pitty giving up an Omnia benè when as indeed an Omnia Pessime had been of the two the truer hath been known at such Meetings as these to have chosen to be guilty rather of Perjury it self then in this Particular to discharge his Oath and Duty Whence the Ear of Government by reason of these blank Presentments can never hope to have so exact Intelligence as is needful for her and therefore how requisite is it that the Eye of Government like His at the first of the Revelation and the 13th walking in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks should endeavor in part to be its own Informer Whil'st she might by these means observe here the House even of God Himself in this or that part so ruinous as that were it but an House for a Man to dwell in it would scarce be thought Tenantable and there a Church-man as little going as living suitable to the gravity of that Holy Profession which he hath undertaken In one place the Ceremonies of this our Mother all dis-used and in another the Canons themselves made
no otherwise then a dead Letter to be of no force or power In this Congregation that most Heavenly piece of Devotion the Litany for many Years since banished as Apocryphal and the rest of Divine Service so curtailed upon every occasion and like the Garments of Davids Servants so cut off at the wast as if the Prayers of the Church were of little other use then to serve onely as Musick before a Play to entertain the Company till the Seats be full Whereas it may so fall out that in the very next Parish a Sermon on the contrary hath been such Dainties as that the People unless it be upon some great Solemn Feast or other have not had that Dish served up unto them Thus thus may he that travels over a County observe here and there the noysom Smells the Boggs and the Myre of it whereas by viewing of it at a distance or in a Map he shall see onely the Towns and the Woods the Rivers and the Hills nothing but what is fair in it self and a Pleasure likewise to the Eye for to behold How singular therefore a design of this was Saint Paul's worthy altogether of such an Apostle as He for to undertake who the better to finish that Reformation which he had begun concludes upon a Coming amongst his Corinthians that so as for those matters which in that Church of theirs were not as yet redressed he might by this his Visitation put likewise in Order as being the end of my Apostles Coming or Visitation and therefore in the next place now to be treated of Will I put in Order The Word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Ordinabo Constituam Praescribam so that my Apostle here in this place according to the Judgement of the best Commentators aims wholly at such things onely as belong unto outward Order and Discipline or as St. Aug. 1. Ep ad Januar. Austin is pleased to express it ad Ordinem Agendi to the Ordering of all such Services as in the Church were to be performed A matter it should seem of no small consequence in regard my Apostle beats so often and so much upon it who having here spent no less then a whole Chapter upon this one Business falls nevertheless upon it again in as ample a manner as here he doth in the 4th Chapter of this very self-same Epistle where having insisted likewise upon the Ordering of divers other Particulars in the Church his conclusion there at the last is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let all things be done decently and in Order ver 40. Nay that he might the better mould his Son Titus to this his temper in Church-affairs he lays his Commands upon him in the first Chapter of that Epistle and the 5th to Order the things that were wanting in the Church of Creet such it seems as St Paul himself had not disposed of at his being there And no marvel neither that my Apostle both here and other where in himself and others seemed so zealous for Order The Church being as anciently she hath been stiled Constit A. post l. 8. c. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very School of good Order wherein Lessons of Order are daily to be taught and learned and practiced also Nay Order hath heretofore been conceived so proper unto the Church as that by this no otherwise then as by some peculiar badge or cognisance She anciently hath been known No sooner had Jacob in that Vision of his beheld the Orderly ascending and descending of the Angels from Heaven together with the Lord Himself standing at the top of that Ladder whereon they went but being once awaked from this his seeing of so much Order he presently makes to himself this peremptory Conclusion This is no other then the House of God Gen. 28.17 Whereas our Saviour out of the great desire he had to see no irregularity at all in the Temple vouchsafed oftentimes to heal the Blinde the Dumb the Deaf and the Lame even in the Temple as if it had been so great an eye-soar to Him that any in that place especially should want either an Eye to read or an Ear to hear or a Tongue to speak or a Knee to bow when the Discipline of the Church required these Duties of them as that he chose rather to be at the expense of a Miracle Himself for their redress And were our Saviour yet still on Earth as indeed He is now in Heaven how many such Cures as these might He meet with in most Congregations Some being blinde by reason of a Cataract of wilful Ignorance that is grown over their eyes others lame in regard of a strong Convulsion which Rebellion and Inconformity have caused in their Knees whereas a certain prejudice against the Liturgy of the Church hath so far possessed a third as that this alone to them is a dumb and a deaf Spirit also making them oftentimes to have the use neither of Tongue nor Ear in these our Assemblies The Fancies of whose Humors were they but once fed and cherished the Church would soon leave of to be what at the 4th of the Canticles and the 12th She is stiled A Garden enclosed A Garden being ordinarily a place of so exact contrivance as that here may be observed a Knot there a Square next to that a Bank and above that again a Walk hem'd in with Trees that stand in a row at an equal distance each from other all things being done there by line and measure disposed of to the best advantage by method Order whil'st the Church would be then a Wilderness or a Forest rather where without any distinction at all a Lilly a Thorn a Bryar Straw-berries and Thistles good and bad might be seen to grow all upon one piece of Turf together insomuch that Babel it self no nor the Primitive Chaos neither were never guilty of a greater Confusion then that which would be then acknowledged for to be in Her But the Text speaking as here it doth not of Order simply but of putting in Order may not but be conceived to look equally two ways at once whil'st hereby it doth not onely point at the Necessity of Orders in a Church but it reflects likewise upon their Persons in whose hands it lies to enact these Orders so that as from the one side it is to be gathered that there is no subsisting for a Church without the having of Order in regard that Ceremonial Circumstances being absolutely necessary for the performance of all outward Acts whatever without rules given and observed concerning times places manner and the like there can be no outward Worship done unto God So likewise from the other is it to be understood that every one is not Master of the Mint so far as to presume to stamp this Coyn this being a Prerogative wherein they are to be sharers onely to whom the Government of the Church belongs which is the reason that here in
the Text it is not one I that comes and another I that puts in Order but it being the same I in both it 's the same numerical St. Paul that divides himself between both these acts And indeed many are the Orders which we finde St. Paul to have made for the Meridian of the Church of Corinth divers whereof are to be read in the preceding Verses of this present Chapter all which he enacted to make use of a distinction which he himself so much harps on in the 7th Chapter of this Epistle not by commandment and as from the Lord but by permission and as from himself giving herein his Judgement as one that had obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful Wherein that I may not be thought to have delivered any private Opinion of mine own know that you have all this warranted unto you under the hands of the deservedly Honored Angel of the Church of Sarum Bishop Davenant de Jud Controv cap. 16. Apostoli saith he quatenus erant ordinarii Ecclesiae Rectores de hisce ritibus externis pro suâ sapientiâ statuebant quod ad adificationem Ecclesiae facere videbatur The Apostles as they were ordinary Governors of the Church prescribed as concerning outward Rites such things which they in their Wisdom thought to make most for Edification which Words are in that incomparable Work of his De Judice Controver siarum Cap. 16. Rat. 2a. So that my Text being thus opened affords us in this place such a parcel of Divine Truth as this namely That the Authority of making Orders whereby to govern each particular Church is a Prerogative which those that sit at the Stern thereof may rightly challenge St. Paul you see after an ordinary way did it here in the Church of Corinth and therefore those that are his Successors in the like condition may lawfully assume to themselves the like employment A Doctrine of that Evidence and Consequence both together as that this Church of ours in those few Articles of Hers which She hath published hath thought it in Her Wisdom meet See the Book of the 39 Articles to avouch it no less then twice in two several Articles Article the 20th and the 34th Nay before ever that Book of Hers saw light those great Reformers under King Edward the sixth concluded as much which too was done with that measure of zeal Fox in his Book of Acts and Mon. as that Bishop Bonner was enjoyned by the Kings Councel to Preach at Pauls-Cross this Doctrine my Authority for both these is Fox in his Acts and Monuments 2º Edvardisexti Neither hath it been given to Men of this Climat onely to be of this Opinion since those Reformed Churches that have been beyond the Seas have herein yielded unto us the right Hand of Fellowship Witness the Confession of the Reformed Church of France Extâ—t haec confessio apud Calvinum lib. opuscul published in the Year 1562. Fatemur saith She tum omnes tum singulas Ecclesias hoc jus habere ut leges statuta sibi condant ad Politiam communem inter suos statuendam Witness likewise the consent of the Lutheran Divines set down in that Auspurge Confession whereof Melancton was the Contriver whose words much to the same purpose are Licet Episcopis Pastoribus Canones constituere Ausourg Coufess art ult ut singula in Ecclesia siant secundum Ordinem Nay Reverend Calvin however conceived by some to be none so the greatest Friends which the Church ever had stickles nevertheless so earnestly for this in the 4th of his Institutions and the 10th Chapter as that those who shall cast an eye one what he there hath written cannot but judge him to be very zealous for it Niether ought it to be conceived that these Sons of the Church in honour of their Mother have endeavoured herein to flatter her into a greater Priviledge then that which by right belongs to her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil lib. de Spiritu quinto cap. 27. is an ancient distinction made heretofore by St Basil Predications and matters of Faith are one thing and Placits or matters of Order another For so is the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there as I conceive to be understood the word Ceremony being not of so ancient a standing in the Church as to be found in the writings either of the Greek or of the Latine Fathers St Austin in his Retractations Austin l. 2. Ret. c. 37. makes in his owne behalf an Apologie for that it once dropp'd unawares from his Pen. And however the Church of Rome dare extend her Commission so far as in respect of the former of these to make new Creeds for so Pope Pius the fourth did and to blot out one of the Commandements of the Decalogue for that it gain-sayes those Images which they are resolved to set up and worship Nos vero talem non habemus Consuetudinem we have no such custome nor the Church of God we cannot find in our hearts for to be so cruell as for the satisfying of our owne causelesse Fancies to mangle thus the body of Religion which our Fore-fathers to the least Tittle therof have even with the losse of their owne blood preserved entire All the Power which we assume to our selves is only about the outward dress and attire of the Churh in causing that to be suitable always to her Condition This being a liberty which in all ages hath so far been Challenged as that a great part of that apparell it self wherewith the Apostles thought fit to cloath Her within a Century or two grew to be cast off and antiquated insomuch that the Holy Kisse the Feasts of Charity Abstinence from things strangled the imploying of Widdows in Ecclesiasticall Services with the like however Orders all of the Apostles owne Composing in some short time came for to be difused Wheras we read likewise of St. Ambrose Vid. Ludo. Viv. in Aug. de Civit. dei l. 6. c 26. that in his owne Church at Millaine abrogated an old Order which they had of Feasting at the Tombes of the Martyrs in regard the People in his time made it an occasion to draw on drunkennesse Nay however Trina Mersio the threefold dipping in the Sacrament of Baptisme was at the first established upon no meaner a Ground then for signification of the Three Persons in the Blessed Trinity yet by reason the Arians took the advantage thereof to countenance their Heresie Binius Con. cil Tolet. Can. 5 to the Fourth Toletan Councell blotted that Order out of the Rubrick And why may not the Church still be Mistress of so much Power as to do the like as long as those Sonnes of Heirs who are set for to rule are engaged in the Action whereas if every Private Member should be suffered to have therin a Finger how might we then in time look to have as many Editions of Service-books as there is of Almanacks