reflexion In whom with his conformity to the Discipline Liturgy and Articles of the Church of England labour in writing constancy in preaching against the errours of Popery and such as border upon it so much humility holinesse and charity and other fruits of the spirit did so eminently shine Indeed I have seen divers Letters wrote unto him from those who heretofore were so aspersed full of respect and large expressions of their love to him and many receiving satisfaction have concurred with him in the abovesaid particulars his humility and meeknesse prevailing more then others strict austerity but how that said Title could be fixed on him I am yet to seek unlesse it bear a better sense than the Authours of it will own Nay some of the simpler sort hearing of a conjunction of Popery and Prelacy have thought they could not be parted in him though most of his Sermons as well as his writings sufficiently clear him that way I remember many yeares agone the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury wrote unto him into Ireland of a strong rumour then raised of him here at Court That he was turned a Papist presumed to be by a Letter of some Popish Priest from thence But it fell out to be at the same time or immediately after he had in two Learned Sermons given his judgement at large that the Papacy was meant by Babylon in the 17 and 18 of the Revelation which in the return of his answer to that report he did affirm and was his judgment to his last though the reply made to him did not consent in that I am not a stranger to such a design of some of the Romish party a little before his death for the raising of the like rumour by some Letters wrote unto him from some of eminency among them which I disdain any further to mention And thus upon this occasion I have endeavoured to prevent for the future any more injurious mistakes of him by an impartial declaring according to my knowledge his judgement and practice in these particulars wherein he may well be esteemed of us as Erasmus saith of Saint Augstine Vividum quoddam exemplar Episcopi omnibus virtutum numeris absolutum And I wish in these divided times wherein each party hath a great and a reverend opinion of him they would shew it in this by taking his spirit of moderation for their Copy to write after and for my own part I would to God not only they but also all that read or hear this of him were both almost and altogether such as he was THE REDUCTION OF EPISCOPACY Unto the Form of Synodical Government Received in the ANCIENT CHURCH By the most Reverend and learned Father of our Church Dr. JAMES USHER late Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland Proposed in the year 1641. as an Expedient for the prevention of those Troubles which afterwards did arise about the matter of Church-Government Published by NICHOLAS BERNARD D. D. Preacher to the Honourable Society of Grayes-Inne London LONDON Printed Anno Domini 1658. TO THE READER THE Originall of this was given me by the most Reverend Primate some few years before his death wrote throughout with his own hand and of late I have found it subscribed by himself and Doctor Holseworth and with a Marginal Note at the first Proposition which I have also added If it may now answer the expectation of many pious and prudent Persons who have desired the publishing of it as a seasonable preparative to some moderation in the midst of those extreams which this Age abounds with it will attain the end intended by the Authour And it is likely to be more operative by the great reputation he had and hath in the hearts of all good men being far from the least suspicion to be byassed by any privivate ends but onely ayming at the reducing of Order Peace and Unity which God is the Authour of and not of confusion For the recovery of which it were to be wished that such as do consent in Substantials for matter of Doctrine would consider of some conjunction in point of Discipline that private interest and circumstantials might not keep them thus far asunder Grayes-Inne Octob. 13. 1657. N. BERNARD The Reduction of Episcopacy unto the form of Synodical Government received in the ancient Church proposed in the year 1641 as an Expedidient for the prevention of those troubles which afterwards did arise about the matter of Church-Government Episcopal and Presbyterial Government conjoyned BY Order of the Church of England all Presbyters are charged to administer the Doctrine and Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realme hath received the same And that they might the better understand what the Lord had commanded therein the exhortation of Saint Paul to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus is appointed to be read unto them at the time of their Ordination Take heed unto your selves and to all the flock among whom the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to Rule the Congregation of God which he hath purchased with his blood Of the many Elders who in common thus ruled the Church of Ephesus there was one President whom our Saviour in his Epistle unto this Church in a peculiar manner stileth the Angell of the Church of Ephesus and Ignatius in another Epistle written about twelve yeares after unto the same Church calleth the Bishop thereof Betwixt the Bishop and the Presbytery of that Church what an harmonius consent there was in the ordering of the Church-Government the same Ignatius doth fully there declare by the Presbytery with Saint Paul understanding the Community of the rest of the Presbyters or Elders who then had a hand not onely in the delivery of the Doctrine and Sacraments but also in the Administration of the Discipline of Christ for further proof of which we have that known testimony of Tertullian in his general Apology for Christians In the Church are used exhortations chastisements and divine censure for judgement is given with great advice as among those who are certain they are in the sight of God and in it is the chiefest foreshewing of the judgement which is to come if any man have so offended that he be banished from the Communion of prayer and of the Assembly and of all holy fellowship The Presidents that bear rule therein are certain approved Elders who have obtained this honour not by reward but by good report who were no other as he himself intimates elsewhere but those from whose hands they used to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist For with the Bishop who was the chiefe President and therefore stiled by the same Tertullian in another place Summus Sacerdos for distinction sake the rest of the dispensers of the Word and Sacraments joyned in the common Government of the Church and therefore where in matters of Ecclesiasticall Judicature Cornetius Bishop of Rome used the received forme of
the Lord Primates Funeral but in truth he wrongs himself and our Church in those detractions from him A Letter of the late Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland to Doctor Bernard of Grayes Inne containing his judgement of the ordination of the Ministry in France and Holland I Received this following Letter from the late Arch-Bishop of Armagh not long before his death which at the desire of some prudent men and of different opinion in the subject of it I have been moved to publish which indced was committed to me by him for that end and I do it the rather now in regard somewhat hath been mistaken in the discourse of it to his prejudice on both sides So that without breach of trust I could no longer detain it The occasion of it was this there was given me by an Honourable person a writing containg a report raised of the said Arch-Bishop concerning his judgement of the ordination beyond the Sea which he prayed me to send unto him which is as followeth Mr. asked the Arch-bishop of Armagh upon occasion of an ordination what he thought of them that were ordained by Presbyters he said he judged their ordination to be null and looked on them as Lay-men He asked him what he conceived of the Churches beyond the Sea The Bishop answered he had charitable thoughts of them in France But as for Holland he questioned if there was a Church amongst them or not or words fully to that purpose This Dr. confidently reports This paper according to the earnest desire of the said person I sent inclosed to the Lord Primate being then out of Town from whom immediately I received this answer containing his judgement of the ordination of the Ministery of the reformed Churches in France and Holland as followeth Touching Mr. I cannot call to mind that he ever proposed unto me the Questions in your Letter inclosed neither do I know the Doctor who hath spread that report But for the matter it self I have ever declared my opinion to be That Episcopus Presbyter gradu tantum differunt non ordine and consequently that in places where Bishops cannot be had the ordination by Presbyters standeth valid yet on the other side holding as I do that a Bishop hath superiority in degree above a Presbyter you may easily judge that the ordination made by such Presbyters as have severed themselves from those Bishops unto whom they had sworne Canonical obedience cannot possibly by me be excused from being Schismatical And howsoever I must needs think that the Churches which have no Bishops are thereby become very much defective in their Government and that the Churches in France who living under a Popish power cannot do what they would are more excusable in this defect than the Low-Countries that live under a free State yet for the testifying my Communion with these Churches which I do love and honour as true Members of the Church Universal I do professe that with like affection I should receive the blessed Sacrament at the hands of the Dutch Ministers if I were in Holland as I should do at the hands of the French Ministers if I were in Charentone Some Animadvertisements upon the aforesaid Letter in prevention of any misinterpretations of it 1. WHereas in the former part of it he saith he hath ever declared his opinion to be c. I can witnesse it from the time I have had the happinesse to be known to him it being not as some possibly might suggest a change of judgement upon the occurrences of latter years 2. For that superiority onely in degree which he saith a Bishop hath above a Presbyter it is not to be understood as an arbitrary matter at the pleasure of men but that he held it to be of Apostolical institution and no more a diminution of the preheminencie and authority of Episcopacy than the denomination of lights given in common by Moses to all of them in the firmament Genes 1. detracts from the Sun Moon whom he calls the greater and were assigned of God to have the rule of the rest though the difference between them be onely graduall yet there is a derivative subordination as the preheminence of the first-born was but graduall they were all brethren but to him was given of God the excellency or supremacy of Dignity and power to him they must bow or be subject and he must have the rule over them And that this gradus is both derived from the pattern prescribed by God in the Old Testament where that distinction is found in the Title of the Chief Priest who had the rule of the rest called by the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from the imitation thereof brought in by the Apostles and confirmed by Christ in the time of the New The Primate hath so fully confirmed in that learned Tractate of his of the Originall of Bishops which he hath deduced from the Apostolicall times that I know not what can be added And even for that higher gradus of a Metropolitan or Arch-Bishop to have been also Apostolicall he hath from the superscription of John to the seven Churches each of which Cities being Metropolitical and the rest of the Cities of Asia daughters under them given very strong probabilities hard to be gain-said unto which as an excellent comment upon this Letter I shall refer the Reader 3. That in this judgement of his he was not singular Doctor Davenant that pious and Learned Bishop of Salisbury consents with him in it in his determinations q. 42. produceth the principal pf the Schoolmen Gulielmus Parisiensis Gerson Durand c. Episcopatus non est ordo praecisè distinctus à sacerdotio simplici c. non est alia potestas ordinis in Episcopis quam Presbyteris sed inest modo perfectiori And declares it to be the generall opinion of the Schoolmen Episcopatum ut distinguitur à simplici sacerdotio non non esse alium ordinem sed eminentiorem quandam potestatem dignitatem in eodem ordine sacerdotali c. And as he grants the Bishop to have dignitatem altiorem potestatem majorem c. so doth the Primate in that he saith he hath a superiority in degree above a Presbyter and that the Churches which have no Bishops are thereby become very much defective in their Government Both of them being farre from a parity And whereas the Primate saith That in cases of necessity where Bishops cannot be had the Ordination by Presbyters standeth valid Bishop Davenaut concurres with him also That where Bishops were Heretical or idolatrous and refuse to ordain Orthodox Ministers that in such and the like cases he saith Si Orthodoxi Presbyteri ne pereat Ecclesia alios Presbyteros cogantur ordinare ego non ausim hujusmodi ordinationes pronuntiare irritas innanes c. Necessitas non inscitè lex temporis appellatur in tali casu defendat id ad quod coegit and produceth the opinion of Richardus
Armachanus one of this Primates Predecessors and one of the most Learned men in his time to be accordingly Armachani opinio est quod si omues Episcopi essent defuncti sacerdotes minores possunt ordinare applies it to the like Protestant Churches which the Primate mentions Hac freti necessitate si Ecclesiae quaedam protestantium quae ordinationes ab Episcopis Papistis expectare non poterant consensu Presbyterorum suorum Presbyteros ordinarunt non inde Episcopali dignitati praejudicasse sed necessitati Ecclesiae obtemperasse judicandi sint Thus much for Bishop Davenants concurrence to which divers others might be added as in speciall Doctor Richard Field sometimes Dean of Glocester in his Learned Book of the Church lib. 3. cap. 39. and lib. 5. cap. 27. where this judgement of the Primates and this concurrence of Bishop Davenants is largely confirmed without the least derogation from the preheminencie of Episcopacy But that book entituled The defence of the Ordination of the Ministers of the reformed Churches beyond the Seas maintained by Mr Arch-Deacon Mason against the Romanists who wrote also a defence of Episcopacy and of the Ministery of the Church of England is sufficiently known and I have been assured it was not onely the Judgement of Bishop Overal but that he had a principal hand in it He produceth many Testimonies The Master of the Sentences and most of the Schoolmen Bonaventure Tho. Aquinas Durand Dominicus Soto Richardus Armachanus Tostatus Alphonsus à Castro Gerson Petrus Canisius to have affirmed the same and at last quoteth Medina a principal Bishop of the Councel of Trent who affirmed That Jerome Ambrose Augustine Sedulius Primasius Chrysostome Theodoret Theophylact were of the same judgement also And I suppose there is none doubts but that the Primate joyned with Arch-Deacon Mason in that conclusive wish of his viz. That wherein the Discipline of France or Holland is defective they would by all possible means redresse and reform it and conforme themselves to the ancient custome of the Discipline of Christ which hath continued from the Apostles time that so they may remove all opinion of singularity and stop the mouth of malice it selfe In a word If the ordination of Presbyters in such places where Bishops cannot be had were not valid the late Bishops of Scotland had a hard task to maintain themselves to be Bishops who were not Priests for their Ordination was no other And for this a passage in the History of Scotland wrote by the Arch-Bishop of Saint Andrews is observable viz. That when tke Scots Bishops were to be consecrated by the Bishops of London Ely and Bath here at London house An. 1609. he saith A question was moved by Doctor Andrews Bishop of Ely touching the consecration of the Scottish Bishops who as he said must first be ordained Presbyters as having received no ordination from a Bishop The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Doctor Bancroft who was by maintained That thereof there was no necessity seeing where Bishops could not be had the ordination given by the Presbyters must be esteemed lawfull otherwise that it might be doubted if there were any lawfull vocation in most of the reformed Churches This applauded to by the other Bishops Ely acquiesced and at the day and in the place appointed the three Scottish Bishops were consecrated by the above-said three English Bishops the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury forbearing for another cause there mentioned Now though the ordination of Presbyters in this case of necessity be granted to be valid yet I have heard this learned Primate wonder at the neglect found in the late Presbyterian way of ordation viz. That at imposition of hands they neither used the ancient form of words with which the first framers of it were themselves ordained nor used any other to that sence in their room at least there is no order or direction for it For suppose the words of our Saviour to the Apostles John 10. 21 21. at their ordination were scrupled at viz. Receive the holy Ghost whose sins thou dost forgive are forgiven and whose sins thou dost retain are retained which rightly understood gave no just cause yet why might not the next words have been continued viz. and be thou a faithfull dispenser of the word of God and of his holy Sacraments in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost or the other words upon the solemne delivery of the Bible into the hands of the person ordained Take thou authority to preach the word of God and to minister the holy Sacraments in the Congregation where thou shalt be so appointed I can imagine no cause against the use of one of these unlesse it be because they had been used there as if in this sense old things must be done away and all must be new To impose hands according to the injunction of the Apostle and to have it accompanied with prayer and thanksgiving for the person is well done wich in the former constitution was solemnly observed before and after it but why should the formal transmitting of Authority also in the name of Christ for the power of officiating be left undone if the scruple in the instrumental cause be satisfied why might it not have been prevented in the formall who might have freely given what they had received Now to give the seal of ordination as some please to call imposition of hands without any expresse commission annexed or grant of Authority to the person the Primate was wont to say seemed to him to be like the putting of a seale to a blanck which being so weighty a businesse I wish prudent men would consider of least in the future it arm the adversary with objections and fill our own with further scruples And so much far larger then I intended for the prevention of any offence which might be taken at the one part of the Letter Now for the other clause of his judgement which he leaves unto me to judge what in reason I might apprehend to be his I leave it accordingly to the judgement of others All that can give any offence is that term of Schisme But in regard it is not directly determined but onely that he could not be an Advocate to excuse it and being delivered in that Latitude that it is dubious whether forreigne to which the question chiefly relateth or domestick former times or latter may take the application I shall not offend the Reader with any larger Apology onely wherein any shall find themselves concerned I wish such humble and meek spirits that the admonition of so pious and eminent a Bishop whose fame is throughout the Churches might prevaile to the amendmeut of what hath been amisse among us If I have abounded beyond my measure to the hazard of the offence of both parties in these advertisements let it be excused by the impartiality of it and the unbyassed intention for the setling of truth and peace so shaken of later dayes The
gathering together the Presbytery of what persons that did consist Cyprian sufficiently declareth when he wisheth him to read his Letters to the flourishing clergy which there did preside or rule with him The presence of the Clergy being thought to bee so requisite in matters of Episcopall audience that in the fourth Councell of Cartbage it was concluded That the Bishop might hear no mans cause without the presence of 〈◊〉 â—lergy and that otherwise th◠〈…〉 sentence should be void uâ—â—â—sse it were confirmed by the presence of the Clergy which we find also to be inserted into the Canons of Egbert who was Arch-Bishop of York in the Saxon times and afterwards into the body of the Cannon Law it self True it is that in our Church this kinde of Presbyterial Government hath been long disused yet seeing it still professeth that every Pastor hath a right to rule the Church from whence the mame of Rector also was given at first unto him and to administer the Discipline of Christ as well as to dispense the Doctrine and Sacraments and the restraint of the exercise of that right proceedeth onely from the custome now received in this Realm no man can doubt but by another Law of the Land this hinderance may be well removed And how easily this ancient form of Government by the united suffrages of the Clergy might be 〈◊〉 again and with what 〈…〉 of alteration the Synodical conventions of the Pastors of every Parish might be accorded with the Presidency of the Bishops of each Diocese and Province the indifferent Reader may quickly perceive by the perusal of the ensuing Propositions I. In every Parish the Rector or Incumbent Pastor together with the Church-Wardens and Sides-men may every week take notice of such as live scandalously in that Cougregation who are to receive such several admonitions and reproofs as the quality of their offence shall deserve And if by this means they cannot be reclaimed they may be presented to the next monethly Synod and in the mean time debarred by the Pastor from accesse unto the Lords Table II. Whereas by a Statute in the six and twentieth year of King Henry the eighth revived in the first year of Queen Elizabeth Suffragans are appointed to be erected in 26 several places of this Kingdom the number of them might very well be conformed unto the number of the several Rural Deanries into which every Diocese is subdivided which being done the Suffragan supplying the place of those who in the ancient Church were called Chorepiscopi might every moneth assemble a Synod of all the Rectors or Incumbent Pastors within the Precinct and according to the major part of their voyces coclude all matters that shall be brought into debate before them To this Synod the Rector and Church-wardens might present such impenitent persons as by admonitions and suspension from the Sacrament would not be reformed who if they should still remain contumacious and incorrigible the sentence of Excommunication might be decreed against them by the Synod and accordingly be executed in the Parish where they lived Hitherto also all things that concerned the Parochial Ministers might be referred whether they did touch their Doctrine or their conversation ' as also the censure of all new Opinions Heresies and Schismes which did arise within that Circuit with liberty of Appeal if need so require unto the Diocesan Synod III. The Diocesan Synod might be held once or twice in the year as it should be thought most convenient Therein all the Suffragans and the rest of the Rectors or Incumbent Pasters or a certain select number of of every Deanry within the Diocese might meet with whose consent or the major part of them all things might be concluded by the Bishop or Saperintendent call him whether you will or in his absence by one of the Suffragans whom he shall depute in his stead to be Moderator of that Assembly Here all matters of greater moment might be taken into consideration and the Orders of the monthly Synodes revised and if need be reformed and if here also any matter of difficulty could not receive a full determination it might be referred to the next Provincial or National Synod IV. The Provincial Synod might consist of all the Bishops and Suffragans and such other of the Clergy as should be elected out of every Diocese within the Province the Arch-Bishop of either Province might be the Moderator of this meeting or in his room some one of the Bishops appointed by him and all matters be ordered therein by common consent as in the former Assemblies This Synod might be held every third year and if the Parliament do then sit according to the Act of a Triennial Parliament both the arch-Arch-Bishops and Provincial Synods of the Land might joyn together and make up a National Councel wherein all Appeals from inferâ—â—ur Synods might be received all their Acts examined and all Ecclesiastical Constitutions which concerne the state of the Church of the whole Nation established WE are of the judgement That the form of Government here proposed is not in any point repugnant to the Scripture and that the Suffragans mentioned in the second Proposition may lawfully use the power both of Jurisdiction and Ordination according to the Word of God and the practice of the ancient Church Ja. Armachanus Rich. Holdsworth AFter the proposal of this An. 1641. Many Quaeries were made and doubts in point of conscience resolved by the Primate divers passages of which he heth left under his own hand shewing his pious endeavours to peace and unity which how far it then prevailed is out of season now to relate only I wish it might yet be thought of to the repairing of the breach which this division hath made and that those who are by their Office Messengers of Peace and whose first word to cach house should be peace would earnestly promote it within the walls of their Mother-Church wherein they were educated and not thus by contending about circumstantials lose the substance and make our selves a prey to the adversary of both who rejoyce in their hearts saying So would we have it Which are the Primates works and which not A Catalogue of the Works already printed of Doctor James Usher late Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland which are owned by him In Latine DE Ecclesiarum Christianarum successione Statu Quarto Londini 1613. Epistolarum Hibernicarum Sylloge 4o. Dublinii 1630. Historia Goteschalci 4o. Dublinii 1631. De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britanicarum 4o. Dublinii 1639. Ignatii Epistolae cum annotationibus 4o. Oxoniae 1645. De Anno Solari Macedonum 8o. Londini 1648. Annales Veteris Testamenti Fol. Londini 1650. Annales Novi Testamenti usque ad extremum Templi Reipublicae Judaicae excidium c. Fol. Londini 2654. Epistola ad Capellum de Variantibus textus Hebraici Lectionibus 4o. Londinii 1652. De Graeca Septuaginta Interpretum versione Syntagma 4o.
of the Pagans put together did come short of fifty Ethnicis semel annuus dies quisque festus est tibi octavo quoque die Excerpe singulas solemnitates nationum in ordinem texe Pentecosten implere non potuerunt And yet as I said that they accounted Satturday more holy and requiring more respect from them than the other ordinary dayes of the week may be seen by that of Tibullus Eleg. 3. lib. 1. Aut ego sum causatus aves aut omina dira Saturni SACRA me tenuisse die And that of Lucian in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of boyes getting leave to play 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that of Aelius Lampridius touching Alexander Severus using to go unto the Capitols and other Temples upon the seventh day Whereunto we may adde those verses of the ancient Greek Poets alleadged by Clemens Alexandrinus lib. 5. Stromat and Eusebius lib. 13. Praeparat Evangelic which plainly shew that they were not ignorant that the works of Creation were finished on the seventh day for so much doth that verse of Linus intimate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that of Callimachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Israelites by the Law of Moses were not only to observe their weekly Sabbath every seventh day but also their feast of weekes once in the year Which although by the vulgar use of the Jewish nation it may now fall upon any day of the week yet do the Samaritans untill this day constantly observe it on the first day of the week which is our Sunday For which they produce the Letter of the Law Levit. 23. 15 16. where the feast of the first fruits otherwise called Pentecost or the feast of weeks is prescribed to be kept the morrow after the seventh Sabbath which not they onely but also amongst our Christian Interpreters Isychius and Rupertus do interpret to be the first day of the week Planiùs saith Isychius Legislator intentionem suam demonstrate volens ab altero die Sabbati memor ari praecepit quinquaginta dies Dominicum diem proculdubiò volens intelligi Hic enim est altera dies Sabbati in hâc enim resurrectio facta est qua hebdomadae numerantur septem usque ad alterum diem expletionis hebdomadae Dominicâ rursus die Pentecostes celebramus festivitatem in quâ Sancti Spiritus adventum meruimus Where you may observe by the way that although this Authour made a little bold to strain the signification of altera dies Sabbati which in Moses denoteth no more than the morrow after the Sabbath yet he maketh no scruple to call the day of Christs Resurrection another Sabbath day as in the Councel of Friuli also If I greatly mistake not the matter you shall find Satturday called by the name of Sabbatum ultimum and the Lords day of Sabbatum primum with some allusion perhaps to that of St. Ambrose in Psal. 47. Ubi Dominica dies caepit praecellere quâ Dominus resurrexit Sabbatum quod primum erat secundum haberi caepit à primo not much unlike unto that which Dr. Heylin himself noteth out of Scaliger of the Aethiopian Christians that they call both of them by the name of Sabbaths the one the first the other the latter Sabbath or in their own Language the one Sanbath Sachristos i. e. Christs Sabbath the other Sanbath Judi or the Jews Sabbath But touching the old Pentecost it is very considerable that it is no where in Moses affixed unto any one certain day of the moneth as all the rest of the feasts are which is a very great presumption that it was a moveable feast and so varied that it might alwayes fall upon the day immediately following the ordinary Sabbath And if God so order the matter that in the celebration of the feast of weeks the seventh should purposely be passed over and that solemnity should be kept upon the first what other thing may we imagine could be praesignified thereby but that under the State of the Gospel the solemnity of the weekly service should be celebrated upon that day That on that day the famous Pentecost in the 2. of the Acts was observed is in a manner generally acknowledged by all wherein the truth of all those that went before being accomplished we may observe the type and the verity concurring together in a wonderfull manner At the time of the Passeover Christ our Passeover was slain for us the whole Sabboth following he rested in the grave The next day after that Sabbath the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sheaf of the first fruits of the first or barly Harvest was offered unto God and Christ rose from the dead and became the first fruits of them that slept many bodies of the Saints that slept arising likewise after him From thence was the count taken of the seven Sabbaths and upon the more after the seventh Sabbath which was our Lords day was celebrated the feast of weeks the day of the first fruits of the second or wheat Harvest upon which day the Apostles having themselves received the first fruits of the spirit begat three thousand Soules with the word of truth and presented them as the first fruits of the Christian Church unto God and unto the Lamb. And from that time forward doth Waldensis note that the Lords day was observed in the Christian Church in the place of the Sabbath Quia inter legalia saith he tunc sublata Sabbati castodia fuit unum planum est tunc intrâsse Dominicam loco ejus sicut Baptisma statim loco Circumcisionis Adhuc enim superstes erat sanctus Johannes qui diceret Et fui in spiritu die Dominicâ Apocal. 1. cùm de Dominicâ die ante Christi Resurrection nulla prorsùs mentio haberetur Sed statim post missionem Spiritus sancti lege novâ fulgente in humano cultu sublatum est Sabbatum dies Dominicae Resurrectionis clarescebat Dominica The Revelation exhibited unto St. John upon the Lords day is by Irenaeus in his fifth book referred unto the Empire of Domitian or as S. Hierome in his Catalogue more particularly doth expresse it to the fourth yeare of his Reigne Which answereth partly to the forty ninth and partly to the ninty fifth year of our Lord according to our vulgar computation and was but eleven or twelve yeares before the time when Ignatius did write his Epistles Of whom then should we more certainly learn what the Apostle meant by the Lords day then from Ignatius who was by the Apostles themselves ordained Bishop of that Church wherein the Disciples were first called Christians and in his Epistle to the Magnesians clearly maketh the Lords day to be a weekly holy day observed by Christians in the room of the abrogated Sabbath of the Jews than which can we desire more But here you are to know beside the common edition wherein
heard he was not so severe as to condemn and disown the Ministery of other reformed Churches or refuse Communion with them because in every particular as to some persons usually ordaining they were defective For Episcopacy he was not wanting with Saint Paul to magnifie his own office by two several Tractates he hath published none being more able to defend the ancient right of it for which he was by Letters importuned by some of the most eminent persons of his own profession yet how humbly without any partiality to himself and the eminent degree he had obtained in it did he declare his judgement is evident by the above-said Tractates and the Letter before mentioned And his prudence in the present accommodation of things in that Treatise of his viz. The reduction of it to the form of Synodical Government for the prevention of that disturbance which did afterwards arise about it is as apparent also if others concerned in these transactions had been of that moderation humility and meeknesse the wound given might have been healed before it grew incurable That the Annual Commemorations of the Articles of the faith such as the Nativity Passion Resurrection of our Saviour c. were fit to be observed which Saint Augustine saith in his time were in use through the whole Catholick Church of Christ and is now in some Reformed Churches as a means to keep them in the memory of the vulgar according to the pattern of Gods injunction to the Israelites in the Old Testament for the Types of them appeared sufficiently to be his judgement by his then constant preaching upon those subjects The Friday before Easter i e. the Resurrection East in old Saxon signifying rising appointed for the remembrance of the Passion of our Saviour he did duely at Drogheda in Ireland observe as a solemn fast inclining the rather to that choice out of Prudence and the security from censure by the then custome of having Sermons beyond their ordinary limit in England when after the publick prayers of the Church he first preached upon that subject extending himselfe in prayer and Sermon beyond his ordinary time which we imitated who succeeded in the duties of the day and which being known to be his constant custome some from Dublin as other parts came to partake of it which most excellent Sermons of his upon that occasion he was by many Godly Religious persons importuned much for the publishing of them and his strict observation of this fast was such that neither before or after that extraordinary paines would he take the least refreshment till about six a Clock and which did not excuse him from Preaching again on Easter day when we constantly had a Communion That Tractate of his entitled The Incarnation of the Son of God was the summe of two or three Sermons which I heard him preach at Drogheda at that Festivall when we celebrate the birth of our Saviour That he was for the often publike reading of the ten Commandements and the Creed before the Congregation according to the custome of other reformed Churches I suppose none can doubt of and not onely that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed but the Nicene and Athanasius his book of the three Creeds sufficiently perswade it What his judgement was of the use of the Lords Prayer his practice shewed it in the constant concluding of his prayer before Sermon with it And his approbation of that gesture of kneeling at the Communion was often apparent before many witnesses For confirmation of Children which Calvine Beza Piscator and others do much commend and wish it were restored among them he was not wanting in his observation as an ancient laudable custome by which was occasioned the more frequent having in memory the principles of religion with the yonger sort At his first publike giving notice of the time of that his intention it having been long disused in Ireland he made a large speech unto the people of the antiquity of it the prudence of the first reformers in purging it from Popish superstitions with the end of it and then such youths presented to him who could repeat the publike Catechisme were confirmed and so often afterwards and indeed the apprehension of his piety and holinesse moved the Parents much to desire that their Children might by him receive that Benediction which was seconded with good and spiritual instruction that stuck to them when they came to further yeares The publike Catechisme containing the summe of the Creed the 10. Commandements the Lords Prayer and Doctrine of the Sacraments despised by some for its plainnesse he thought therefore to be the more profitable for the vulgar And at Drogheda in Ireland gave me orders every Lords day in the afternoon beside the Sermon which was not omitted to explain it He was very exemplary in the careful observation of the Lords day in his family The Sermon preached by him in the forenoon being constantly repeated in the Chappel by his Chaplain about five of the Clock in the afternoon unto which many of the Town resorted For Habits he observed such which were accustomed by those of his profession for the Organ and the Quire he continued them as he found them in use before him And as in all things so in his ordinary wearing Garments he was a Pattern of gravity approving much of a distinctive Apparel in the Ministery that way Lastly for the Ecclesiastical Constitutions of Ireland as he was in An. 1634. being then the Primate the chief guide in their establishment so before he was a Bishop An. 614. being then a Member of the Convocation he was employed as a principal person for the Collecting and drawing up such Canons as concerned the Discipline and Government of the Church and were to be treated upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops and the rest of the Clergy of Ireland divers taken out of the Statutes Queen Elizabeths Injunctions and the Canons of England 1571. which I have lately found written then with his own hand The two first of which being in these words 1. That no other form of Liturgy or Divine service shall be used in any Church of this Realm but that which is established by Law and comprized in the book of Common-Prayer and Administrations of Sacraments c. 2. That no other form of Ordination shall be used in this Nation but which is contained in the book of ordering of Bishops Priests and Deacons allowed by Authority and hitherto practized in the Churches of England and Ireland make it apparent that his judgement concerning many of the above-mentioned subjects was the same in his yonger as Elder years And yet notwithstanding all this there were alwayes some and still are too many who are apt to blurre him with the title of a Puritane which is is one occasion of this enlargement though in none the sense of it is more uncertain then in his application and from none a greater lustre would be given unto it than by his