〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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-Easter-day the annual remembrance of it because in those Churches of Asia to which he writ easter-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-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
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
enim est Constantini M. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non solum hebdomadem post Pascha sed antecedentem excipit ab opere faciendo sed de posteriore hebdomade usus tantum obtinuit The sum of all is this Because Easter weeke was the first weeke in the year and the dayes of that week were all accounted and kept holy and accordingly were thus computed the first second third fourths fifth holy day Hence it is that the same computation still hold of the days in the other weeks throughout the whole year that instead of the first second third fourth and fifth day it is said the first second third fourth and fifth holy-day For the Emperour Constantine the great made a Law that all Easter week and the week before it should be kept as one Holy-day And though in our age this Law holds only of Easter week yet we have some footsteps of that observation still in the week before it for our Church appoints Epistles and Gospels for every day of the week before Easter and most Churches beyond the seas still call it the holy week and some make it so For which Religious practice it is not to be doubted but the Church of Christ hath warrant enough from that Text Mark 14. 8. She hath done what she could she is come aforehand to anoint my body for the burying or rather to anoint her self for my body to prepare her self for to receive the Holy Eucharist and to celebrate the Resurrection Wherefore it is evident that in the judgement of the first and best Christians Easter day was a greater Sunday then any other all the year after it even as the Sabboth of the Passover was in the Jews account a greater Sabboth then any other of all the year nor was this judgement any way superstitious but truely Religious since we find it authorized by the Text saying for that Sabboth day was an high day John 19. 32. as if he had said that Sabboth day was higher then any other Sabbath because the Passover was joyned with it I will not then quarrel with the Church for preferring one Sunday before another since she observeth them all as holy to the same Lord there was the Holy of Holyes in the Sanctuary without any disparagement to the rest of the Temple The Paschal Sabbath was a high day and yet the other Sabbaths not put down the lower By taking off the opinion of holiness I see much profaness and irreligion in all respects which makes me conclude that though the Church should proclaim Holy Holy Holy never so much before the place and time of Gods worship yet all would be little enough to beget the love and practice of holiness in the worshippers SECT VI. That the Lords day which is observed weekly is to be observed in memory of our Saviours Resurrection and hath a double sanctification one by relation to its duâ—y which is publickly to serve God and to give him thanks for our Redemption by Christ and is the principal The other by institution as consecrated to this duty and is the less principal That the Antisabbatarian Doctrine which advanceth duties above days is not only of Christs but also of Moses his own teaching and makes most for the true observation of the Sabbath which yet is more properly called the Lords Day then the Sabbath WE may not pass by that memorable Canon in the Council of Trullo cap. 66. which hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the Holy Festival of the Resurrection of Christ our God untill the New Lords Day all true believers ought to go to Church and there uncessantly praise God in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual songs T is worth our notice that the Fathers of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holden in the Emperours Pallace called Easter day it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Resurrection day but the Sunday after it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The New Lords day not simply the Lords Day of its self or by its own virtue but as it was a repetition or renovation of the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the day of our Lords Resurrection For to say it was called the New Lords Day because of the renewing by Baptism which antiently was administred at that time is not satisfactory for besides that other Sundays must have been called New as well as that upon the same account to wit those of Easter and Pentecost it is manifest that Baptism cannot justly cause any Sunday to be called the Lords day and therefore surely not the New Lords day Whence it follows that if this Sunday was called the New Lords Day as renewing the day of our Lords Resurrection this and all other Sundayes do belong unto the Lord chiefly upon this account that they are memorials of his Resurrection So that though the Law of the Sabbath as well as of other things came by Moses yet the grace and truth of it came by Jesus Christ John 1. 17. And for this reason was the Sabbath translated from its own day to our Lords Day that the Law of Moses might give place to the grace and truth of Jesus Christ and happily for that cause amongst others hath the Church appointed some annual memorials of the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ to be solemnized as so many Sabbaths least we should think that in this weekly memorial she did rather follow the Law given by Moses then the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ And doubtless when we have said all that we can there can be no entire keeping of a Sabbath from Moses but only from Christ because in him alone the soul may seek for rest and in him alone is sure to find it For as the souls trouble is from sin so her rest is from the expiation and forgiveness of sins Therefore as her trouble is from her self so her rest is from her Saviour Saint Paul hath taught us both together in his Sermon and our own Church in her Anthymn of the Resurrection For seeing that by man came death by man also commeth the Resurrection of the dead for as by Adam all men do dye so by Christ all men shall be restored to life By man came death by Adam all men do die There 's the souls trouble from her sin for the wages of sin is death By man commeth the Resurrection of the dead by Christ all men shall be restored to life there 's the souls rest or Sabbath from her Saviour for the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. If we will needs gainsay the Judgement of our own Church to set up the Sabbath instead of the Lords day yet we may not gainsay the Doctrine of Saint Paul which requires us to set up the Lords day instead of the Sabbath so that if we will needs borrow the name from Moses yet we can have the thing it self only from Christ for it is not Moses but Christ which can give the
boisterous men to say ye shall nor ordain nor for timerous men to say we dare not They that are enemies to the ordination to the witnesses can scare be friends to the Doctrine of the resurrection The Lords daies and the Lords Ministers will stand or fall both together and there is no opposing the one without opposing the other and no opposing either without opposing Gods command For indeed they are both alike in general commanded by the fourth Commandment though only one be named even as uncleanness and fornication are both forbidden in the seventh though only adultery be mentioned and they are both alike in special determined by the example of Christ and of his Apostles and the constant and universal practise of the Christian Church As there is an order from the Holy Ghost that concerns the time or the day proved from the first of the Corinthians 16 2. As I have given order to the Churches of Galatia even so do ye that is the same order that I gave to them concerning the first day of the week I give also to you and in you to all other Churches which order was accordingly speedily and generally obeyed because there was an irresistible reason for that obedience so also there is an order from the Holy Ghost concerning the persons proved from Acts 20. 8. The Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers or Biships and Titus 1. 5. That thou shouldst ordain Elders or Presbyters whence it must needs follow that to disturb the persons ordained to be in the Church of God is equally sacrilegious as to disturb the day that was settled by the same order For the determination of the persons appointed to be the Lords Ministers is full as plain to speak but sparingly both in the prescript of the Text and in the practice of the Catholick Church as is the determination of the Lords day and those men are equally inexcusable who make bold to alter Gods determination in the one as those who make bold to alter it in the other for both being established by the same authority are alike unalterable An universal obligation bindeth equally all persons at all times and in all places and therefore only moral and eternal duties of the Text can immediately and from themselves have such an obligation as the duties of faith hope and charity But yet a determination of the Text though by way of example only concerning the publick exercise of those duties which is without controversie in the Gospel of Christ given to us Christians may also immediately and by vertue of the said duties have an universal obligation because to occasion the disturbance or disesteem of the true and laudable exercise of Religion whether by profaness or perversness whether by throwing aside or pulling down the time place or persons appointed for that purpose is certainly ungodly and irreligious and it is at no time lawful to do an act of ungodliness or irreligion SECT VIII That Sunday as the Lords day is most truly a Christian Festival and ought to be most Religiously observed and so ought also other Festivals instituted in honour of Christ as being likewise our Christian Sabbaths NO Christian festival whatsoever but must be wholly Christian both in its foundation Christian Verity and in its institution Christian authority and in its observation Christian service or duty For the day is holy for the duty not the duty for the day and they who teach or practise otherwise are like those Priests of Spain mentioned and reproved in the fourth Toletane Council can 9. who would not say the Lords Prayer but only on the Lords day Orationem Dominicam tantum die Dominico dicere voluerunt as if Religion were an adjunct of time and not rather time an adjunct of Religion Christian Verity Christian Authority Christian Duty no man can willfully go against either of these principles but he must profess himself either Unchristian or Antichristian And behold our weekly festival in honour of our Saviour Christ is justifiable by all these three and consequently being truly Christian in all these respects that is to say in its foundation in its institution and in its observation must needs be an universal feast for all Christians to be partakers of for that it is annexed to the Christian Religion as necessary by the necessity of Justice from the duty and thankfulness we all owe to our Saviour Christ and therefore may not be carelesly neglected much less irreverently profaned without the Imputation of injustice and unthankfulness The Casuists speak louder and say not without the imputation of Sacriledge So Cajetane in his summulae Festos dies in honorem Dei sanctificatâ—s violare peccatum est Sacrilegii quia injuria fit tempori sacro quantum ad illud ad quod sanctificatum est To profane a Holy day that is made and kept holy in honour of God is a sin of Sacriledge because the profanation of time that is sanctified is an affront and defiance of its sanctification so that in effect it is a double Sacriledge for it robs time of that holiness which belongs to it and it robs God of that time which belongs to him This great Sacriledge is yet further accompanied with one of the seven deadly sins commonly so called and that sin is spiritual slothfulness So saith Alensis Accidia opponitur praecepto de sanctificatione Sabbathi In peccato enim Accidiae Tristitia est de spirituali laborioso cum amore quietis carnalis è contra vero in illo praecepto est Amor sanctae quietis quae est cum gaudio in bono spirituali par 2 qu. 140. m. 10. The sin of slothfulness is opposed to that precept of the sanctification of the Sabbath for in the sin of slothfulness there is sorrow for spiritual labour and love of carnal rest But in the precept concerning the sanctification of the Sabbath is commanded the love of a Holy Rest or Joy in our spiritual good which as it is not obtained without great labour so it is not enjoyed without great rest even the sweet and most comfortable rest of the soul in God for his everlasting mercies in Iesus Christ so that all those Festivals which commemorate to us the mercies of God in Christ are to be accounted as our Christian sabbaths and we shall be little less then enemies to our own souls if not to be our blessed Saviour unless we seriously endeavour to make them so Surely if men did truly believe and earnestly desire the life everlasting they would be as carefull not to defraud their souls of due nourishment as they are not do defraud their bodies and would no more begrutch the time for the one then for the other but would rather be more industrious to save their souls then they are to preserve their bodies and consequently more solicitous how to lay in provision for a supply against their spiritual then for a supply against their corporal necessities alwaies remembring that Motto Ex hoc
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
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
Iew he would have been zealous to have proved his Sabbath before Moses could he have made good his proof and that these words seem to be spoken by way of anticipation to continue the history like that of the Saints rising at our Saviours death Saint Mat. 27. 52. which yet was not so till after his resurrection for Christ was to be the first that should rise from the dead Act. 26. 23. The reason of the name Sabbath depends upon the creation of which God repented soon after as saith Moses it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart Gen. 6. 6. when as the reason of the name Lords day depends upon the Redemption of which he cannot repent For Christ rising again from the dead now dieth not death from henceforth hath no power upon him for in that he died he died but once to put away sin but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Rom. 6. 9 10. And as Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more so neither can this Festival die which is consecrated to the memory of his resurrection but as long as the first day of the week shall last so long it must be our Lords day and not our own As is the mercy immortal so is the duty that recordeth it and as is the duty so is the day on which it is recorded As is the Lord himself so is his day as much as a day can be the same yesterday and to day and for ever The same in all ages and successions of the Church Not changeable now by the Authority of his present Catholick Church because that hath a power for edification not for destruction 1 Cor. 10. 8. and in this change the Church that is now would but pull down what the Church when it was under the master-builders hands did set up Not changeable by the Authority of Angeis for they in so doing would in effect preach another Gospel another Christ delivered for our offences and risen again for our Iustification and so being themselves under Saint Pauls anathema Gal. 1. 9. I dare further say and I hope it is no presumption sure it is intended with reverence not changeable by Christ himself according to his power of excellency whereby he is head of the Church and founder of all Christian Institutions because though the change be Metaphysically possible that is in its own nature for that all daies are alike in themselves as to Gods worship yet it is not morrally possible that is in the end and reason of the change because Christ cannot rise again from the dead and consequently there cannot be another day as a memorial of his resurrection More daies then this may be set apart for the honour of Christ by the example and from the reason or end of this for the duty is of extent large enough to employ many daies and God having consecrated time to his own service hath made it lawful or rather necessary for the Church to do so too and we find the Jews did ordain the feasts of Purim and Dedication without any peculiar precept from the text and yet are justified for so doing But this day must be set apart by the example of Christ himself who made it his free-will-offering to God by making on it the first ordination of the ministers of his Gospel Other daies are authorized by vertue of this but this day is authorized by vertue of Christ who chose it for the day whereon to ordain his Apostles the Teachers and Governors of his Church and also to give unto them the power of ordaining others So that both the circumstances of time and person the day and the Ministers of Gods publick worshp have no less then the chief corner stone for their foundation For they both are grounded upon the practise of Christ on the day of his resurrection though builded upon the practise and precepts of his Apostles So we read John 20. 19. The same day at evening being the first day of the week came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them Peace be unto you the same day at evening the evening follows the morning in the Christian but went before it in the Iewish account of daies The evening and the morning made the first Sabbath but the morning and the evening made the first Lords day what other reason can we give of the change but because the Lord rose from death in the morning Being the first day of the week Why is the first day of the week so punctually named Surely not to tell the Apostles what day it was but to tell us that should be after them that we might know the very day on which Christ had purchased for and bestowed on his Church such unvaluable mercies and so know it as to keep it as it followeth ver 21. Theu said Jesus unto them again Peace be unto you Now it is more then an ordinary salutation it is certainly a most solemn benediction Peace be unto you as my Father hath sent me even so send I you and when he had said this he breathed on them and saith unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost We have here the practise and example of Christ for solemnizing the day of his resurrection and for the ordaining of his Ministers We have his example for the observation of the Lords day which as he made holy by his own rising so he kept holy by his blessing and ordaining the Apostles on it And we have his example for the ordination of the Lords Ministers and there is little reason why we should easily and much less slightly pass by the former since we are sure that the latter is to continue till the worlds end for this is the full meaning of the words As my Father sent me and endued me with the Holy Ghost or with spiritual authority to be the teacher and governor of his universal Church So I send you and endue you with the Holy Ghost or with spiritual authority and power to be teachers and governors of the Church after me And as the Father sent me with power and authority of sending others and of giving them the Holy Ghost or my spiritual power So do I send you with the power of sending others and giving unto them the Holy Ghost or this spiritual authority and power of sending others still after them even to the worlds end This is the full meaning of those words and therefore the antient Fathers particularly Saint Cyprian and Firmilian did rightly apply this Text to prove by it the authority of the Church in their daies and we may as rightly alledge it now to justifie the same authority For the Bishops are obliged by this Text to ordain a succession of Ministers even to the worlds end One must be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection saith Saint Peter Acts 1. 22. If God say One must be ordained it is not for
'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
have an universal Trust Nay the Text bids us say the quite contrary for Saint Paul thus writeth to Titus For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting or that are yet left undone and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee Tit. 1. 5. He limits Titus his commission and much more the rest of the Ministers that were under him to that people only which was in Crete and leaves him not to take the particular care of any other People or Nation they were to have other Trustees appointed for them Again The same Saint Paul writeth thus to Timothy I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other Doctrine 1 Tim. 1. 3. Where it is as plain that Saint Timothies Trust was confined only to the people of the Church of Ephesus and that he was Gods chiefest Trustee though he was not Gods only Trustee for that people because the same Saint Paul saith to all the Presbyters of the same Church Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the Flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishops to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Acts 20. 28. where it is evident whose Trustees they were for he saith The Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers or Bishops and what was their trust for he saith Take heed to your selves and to all the Flock to feed the Church of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so to feed as t is also to govern or to guide for so doth a shepheard his sheep Pascere saith Beza to feed Regere saith the Vulgar Latine to govern the word requires both and accordingly their trust is not only to feed their Flocks but also to govern them Here is a commission not only for Doctrine but also for Discipline and this commission is given only to the Presbyters or Doctors of the Church of Ephesus He sent to Ephesus and called the Elders of the Church ver 17. If you ask what Elders T is plain by their office what they were even such as were to answer for the blood of those who perished in their sins if they did not teach repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ For so the Apostle argues for himself I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you ver 20. I testified Repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ ver 21. I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God ver 25. Wherefore I take you to record this day That I am pure from the blood of all men ver 26. He alludes without doubt to those words of Ezekiel Because thou hast not given him warning he shall die in his sin but his blood will I require at thine hand Ezek. 3. 20. So that Saint Paul gave this commission only to such Elders as were to succeed him in his office of preaching and governing or in the Ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God ver 24. Thâ—se Elders he appointed his Successors in the Church of Ephesus when he was now quite to be taken from thence and by the same appointment hath established the succession of the Ministry in all other Churches For as the Apostles observing the first day of the week for the publick worship of Christ hath made it necessary for all Christian Churches to observe the same day for their publick worship to the worlds End so their appointing the Ministers as their Successors for the discharge of that publick worship hath much more laid upon all Churches the necessity of a successive Ministry yet Saint Paul looks upon the succession of Persons without a succession of Doctrine as a poor evidence and a poorer priviledge of a Christian Church because he saith Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them v. 30. In that he saith Of your own selves shall men arise he plainly sheweth they should have a succession of Persons but in that he saith speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them he as plainly sheweth they should in that succession of persons not have a succession of Doctrine T is a miserable condition when men shall put asunder those two which God hath joyned together but if we will needs phansie for God forbid we make or fear much more that we should suffer for the division better it were for the succession to be divided from the Ministry then for the Ministry to be divided from the Doctrine For the Ministry is necessary for the Doctrine but the Doctrine is necessary for it self And those Churches which most pretend an uninterrupted and an undoubted succession in their Ministry yet would be loth to be no surer of their Doctrine then they are of their Ministry For all the world cannot make them have more then a Moral certainty of the succession of their Ministers whereas they cannot be good Christians if they have not a Theological certainty of the succession of their Doctrine for he that believes the truth not knowing it to be true and to have proceeded from the God of truth is not formally but only materially a true Believer and leaves himself in a capacity if he doth not put himself into a disposition to believe a lye For by the same reason that he can bestow his Faith upon an uncertainty He may also bestow it upon a Falsity SECT II. The trust and nature of the Catholick Church best gathered from particular Churches the first part of their Trust is concerning the Word of God HE that would not miss or lose his way to the Sea had best follow the conduct of some particular River and he that would not be mistaken in his judgement concerning the Catholick Church were best guide himself by the consideration and the observation of particular Churches Vniversalia priora sunt particularibus ordine naturae Particularia Vniversalibus â—rdine Doctrinae Universals are before particulars in the order of nature but particulars are before universals in the order of Doctrine wherefore we must first enquire into the nature of particular Churches if we would fully understand the nature of the Catholick or universal Church For as Universals have no subsistence in themselves but only in their Individuals so neither hath the universal Church any actual subsistence but only in particular Churches And as we rightly understand an universal by abstracting it from the conditions and imperfections of the individiuals and taking only the perfections of the same So shall we rightly understand the Catholick Church by abstracting it from the imperfections of particular Churches and imputing to it only their excellencies and perfections Thus though I see lameness in one man blindness in another perversness in a third ignorance in a fourth and falseness in all yet I consider
due is to deny the Text and to be a Heretick against the fifth Commandment and t is as hard going to heaven for Hereticks against the Decalogue as against the Creed surely Mordecay and Hester would not have appointed the feast of Purim for two dayes by their own authority if the secular Magistrate had been confined by God only to secular affairs and prohibited to intermeddle in Ecclesiastical Wherefore we dare not but say this trust this power is indeed the Princes birth-right and is as inseparable from his Crown by the dictates of God and nature as his Crown is from his head or his head is from his body And t is happy for us it is so for else such is the wickedness and such would be the outrage of headstrong Schismaticks Hereticks and Atheists that we should soon come to have no appearance or shew of a Church and no form or face of Religion For the spiritual power of Preaching exhorting correcting administring praying excommunicating which is all that Church-men can do by vertue of their Orders can only enable them to preserve the purity and the truth but not the outward publick solemnity and practice of Religion that depends very much if not altogether upon the external or temporal power both for its being and for its continuance For if men once turn mad and outragious as t is very easie for those who are out of their honesty to be also out of their wits the fear of Gods Judgements will no more terrifie them then the love of Gods truth will perswade them to consult with their consciences so that neither fear nor love of God is like to bring them to a right order in his worship and service nor to keep them in it wherefore in such a case as this and a mischief that hath already been so often felt ought to be alwayes feared unless the secular arm defend the Church well there may be some private love and desire but there can scarce be any publick practice and exercise of the true Religion This Augustine proves at large Epist 50. Bonifacio comiti de moderate coercendis Hereticis which himself would have us look upon as a full Tractate because in the second of his Retract cap. 28. he calls it a Book Scripsi librum de correctione Donatistarum In which Book he useth many arguments why Kings by their secular power should both defend and vindicate Religion 1. Because those were blamed in the Old Testament who did it not those extolled above all others who did it 2. Because it was the duty of Kings so to do for that else though they might serve God as private men yet not as Kings unless they made Laws to compel others also to serve him Aliter enim servit quia homo est aliter quia etiam Rex est Quia homo est ei servit vivendo fideliter quia vero etiam rex est servit leges justa praecipientes contraria prohibentes convenienti rigore sanciendo Kings serve God as men by being religious but they serve him as Kings by making severe Laws in the defence of Religion 3. Because the Church might lawfully call upon them to do it for though the Apostles desired not the assistance of the Heathen Princes in their dayes because that prophesie was not yet fulfilled why do the Heathen so furiously rage The Kings of the Earth stand up together against the Lord and against his Christ Yet now the Church may desire the assistance of Christian Princes since that is come to pass which followeth in the same Psalm Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be learned ye that are Judges of the earth For now that Kings are called to the knowledge of Religion t is not rational to say they are not called to the defence of it Quis mente sobrius Regibus dicat Nolite curare in regno vestro à quo teneatur vel oppugnetur Ecclesia Domini vestri non ad vos pertineat in regno vestro quis velit esse sive religiosus sive sacrilegus quibus dici non potest non ad vos pertineat in regno vestro quis velit pudicus esse quis impudicus What sober man will say to Kings It is no part of your care to look after the Church of your Lord who do possess it or who do oppose it as if they were not to look after mens piety who are to look after womens chastity as if it concerned them that there should be no bastards not much more that there should be no sacriledge or idolatry in their kingdoms 4. Because Kings by their temporal power might redress many mischiefs which else were not like to be redressed For though the best Christians were moved by love yet the most Christians were awed by fear Sicut meliores sunt quos dirigit amor ita plures sunt quos corrigit timor And to this purpose he applies several Texts of the Proverbs particularly this of Prov. 29. 19. Verbis non emendabitur servus durus A stubborn servant will not be corrected by words Quum dixit Verbis non emendari non eum jussit deseri sed tacite admâ—nuit unde debeat emendari when be said a stubborn servant will not be corrected by words he would not have him left incorrigible but privately intimated the way he should be corrected sc by stripes or blows For God often useth the scourge to his best servants to bring them to himself therefore it is not cruelty but mercy in Christian Kings to scourge his enemies unto him whereas the Donatists object Cui vim Christus intulit quem coegit Whom did Christ force or compell to be a Christian I answer saith he Let them look on S. Paul Agnoscant in eo prius cogentem Christum postea docentem prius ferientem postea consolantem mirum est autem quomodo ille qui poena corporis ad Evangelium coactus intravit plus illis omnibus qui solo verbo vocati sunt in Evangelio laboravit Let them confess that Christ did first compel then instruct Saint Paul first strike him down then raise him up and it is very observable that he who was forced to the Apostleship by the pain and punishment of his own body was more laborious therein then they who were only called by the word of Christ 5. And lastly Because the Donatists used un just violence to oppose and opppress the Church much more should Christian Princes use their just power to uphold and to maintain it Cur ergo non cogeret Ecclesia perditos filios ut redirent si perditi filii coegerunt alios ut perirent Why should not the Church force her lost children to come to the way of life since they force their brethren to go to the gates of death Et ipse Dominus ad magnam coenam suam prius adduci jubet convivas postea cogi for even our Lord himself first appointed guests to be invited but at last to
Christ and his Church OR Christianity Explained Vnder seven Evangelical and Ecclesiastical Heads VIZ. CHRIST I. Welcomed in his Nativity II. Admired in his Passion III. Adored in his Resurrection IV. Glorified in his Ascension V. Communicated in the coming of the Holy Ghost VI. Received in the state of true Christianity VII Reteined in the true Christian Communion WITH A Justification of the Church of England according to the true Principles of Christian Religion and of Christian Communion Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 13. 14. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain Phil. 1. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Cyril in Ep. ad Coelest Papam in act Concil Ephes par 1. If Christ be evil spoken of how shall we that are his Ministers hold our Peace And if we hold our Peace now what shall we say in the day of Judgement By Ed. Hyde Dr. of Divinity sometimes fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and late Rector Resident at Brightwell in Berks. Printed by R. W. for Rich. Davis in Oxford 1658. To the Christian Reader WHen conscientious Ministers cannot officiate in the Church and conscientious Christians cannot go to Church and customary Christians go thither either to little purpose because to no true worship or to great shame because to no true Ministers t is fit the Church should come to private houses that 's reason enough for this Treatise of Christianity to see the Press But t is in vain for the Church to come to any man till he come to himself and desire to come to his Saviour that 's caution enough for them who shall see this Treatise of Christianity For unless they have Christ in their hearts they cannot have him in their eyes They will scarce find him in the writings of his own infallible Apostles and much less of his unworthy Ministers Do not then complain of these Vnchristian times though there was never greater reason for that complaint but take heed your own heart be not Vnchristian Then will God in worse times then these if worse can be never let you be destitute of those means which will be able to root and build you up in your Saviour If as you have received Christ Iesus the Lord so you do also walk in him Col. 2. 6 7. For this is the only way to have true faith in Christ even to have stedfastness in that faith since that Faith cannot be true which cares not to be stedfast Without doubt there is nothing more sure in it self then the Truth of Christian Religion and therefore there should be nothing more sure to us Domine si error est a Te decepti sumus Scot. Prol. in sent If our Christian Religion be a device or a deceit as too many men now make it or use it t is Thou O Lord hast deceived us said that acute Divine most boldly and yet more truly And we must be as ready to say Because Thou Lord canst not deceive us we are sure in what we have from Thee we are not we cannot be deceived As the certainty of the object is so the certainty of the subject should be the greatest in matters of Religion Since it is undenyable on all hands That man is much more bound by the obligations both of Nature and of Grace to look to the certainty and to compass the assurance of his internal then of his external tenure of his eternal then of his temporal of his spiritual then o◠his corporal good estate and condition For if Christ be indeed our author for what we do and suffer then will he also be our Advocate in all our doings and all our sufferings And so will our cause be certainly justifiable both in this world and in the next as having a twofold goodness one from it self the other from its Advocate The first goodness of our cause will justifie us before men but the latter will also justifie us before God The first will keep men that though they may oppress us yet they shall not be able to condemn us The latter will keep us from the sentence of Gods eternal condemnation So happy is it with that man who knows he serves Christ and will not for any fear or love whatsoever start aside from his service Yet now a daies we take a quite contrary course which cannot be observed without bitterness of soul and ought to be reproved with bitterness of words for when there is dead flesh on the heart the stile ought to be very sharp at least to pierce it if not to cut it off most men making sure of their salvation before they have made sure of their Religion and not at all desiring to make sure of their Repentance that they may have either Religion or Salvation They will needs be walking upon the Battlements of Heaven before they have found out the true Iacobs ladder to climb up thither I speak to and of those men especially who are so ready not only to forsake but also to contemn their poor Mother This distressed Church of England once flourishing to the envy of her friends now seemingly withered for extirpated she cannot be to the joy and scorn of her enemies And I ask them seriously Were they sure of their Religion heretofore or no For not the perswasion and knowledge but the profession and practise of Religion is Religion according to that of Saint Iames Be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving your own souls Iam. 1. 22. If they were not sure of their Religion why did they then serve God without their consciences as Hypocrites If they were why are they since fallen from that service against their consciences as Apostates Here seems yet to be a very bad certainty of their Religion and how can there be a better certainty of their salvation unless that we may gratifie their singularity more then our own Veracity we will say There may be a company of good Christians out of the Communion of Saints or a Communion of Saints out of Christs Catholick Church Whereas in truth a man that goes alone in a perswasion by himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like Ajax in the Tragedian is in the Poets sense One out of his wits in the Casuists sense One out of his Conscience and must be in the good Christians sense One out of his Religion Pude◠haec opprobria nobis dici potuisse non potuisse refelli The intent of this Treatise of Christianity which labours for such a Zeal as may enflame devotion and for such a simplicity as may satisfie it is To bring these men back again to their Saviour Christ and to the ordinary way of their salvation His Church To Christ their Saviour whiles it sets out the Christians knowledge of and joy in Christ To Christs Church the ordinary way of their salvation whiles it keeps in memory the antient festivals of the Church not only professing that knowledge but also embracing and expressing
wil-worship and superstition That the general equity of the Levtical Law as far as it was not Typical is still in force concerning the solemnities of Religion and that approves Anniversary as well as weekly Festivals Sect. 4. Of the antient contention about the observation of Easter That the Apostles zeal more about duties then about days doth not overthrow the observing of particular days in the service of God And that those days ought to be observed by Preaching Praying Administring the Sacraments and also by Alms-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 all alike profanations of a Festival Sect. 5. The practice of the Primitive Christians in observing the Feast of Easter and that there was no superstition in that practice Sect. 6. That the Lords day which is observed weekly is to be observed in memory of our Saviours Resurrection And hath a double sanctification one by relation to its duty which is publickly to serve God and to give him thanks for our redemption by Christ and is the Principal The other by institution as consecrated to this duty and is the less principal That the Antisabbatarian Doctrine which advanceth duties above days is not only of Christs but also of Moses his own teaching and makes most for the true observation of the Sabbath which yet is more properly called the Lords day then the Sabbath Sect. 7. That Sunday hath a better Title to holiness and unchangeableness as the Lords Day then as the Sabbath And that the Lords Day and the Lords labourers or Ministers are both to continue to the worlds end by virtue of Gods command in general and of Christs determination and institution in particular Sect. 8. That Sunday as the Lords Day is most truly a Christian Festival and ought to be most religiously observed and so ought also other Festivals instituted in honour of Christ as being likewise our Christian Sabbaths Sect. 9. 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 observing 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 be in his Retribution Sect. 10. That the end of this and of all other Christian Festivals is our spiritual Communion with Christ and therefore they ought to be celebrated more with spiritual then with carnal joys that though our carnal joys are greater in their proportion yet our spiritual joys are greater in their foundation Sect. 11. A zealous observation of this Christian Festival proceedeth from the true love of our Redeemer and thankfulness for our redemption A set form of praise fittest to express that thankfulness CAA. 2. That God is to be adored only in Christ Hath four Sections Sect. 1. THat no man whilst he is in the state of sin cares to come neer God and that Adam after his sin could not have adored God rightly if Christ had not been revealed to him as the propitiation for his sins Sect. 2. That no Religion adoreth God rightly which adoreth him not in Christ and of the excellencies of the Christian Religion That no other Religion teacheth such conformable truths to right reason declareth an expiation for sin promiseth so great a reward sheweth so pure a worship or so innocent a conversation Sect. 3. The reason why God cannot be rightly adored but only by Christians is because he cannot be truly known and loved but only by those who know and love him in Christ The true way to gain that knowledge and to shew and keep that love is universal obedience both to his affirmative and negative precepts without which there can be no saving knowledge of God That the Christians do know and worship God in Christ cleerly and substantially and that the Jews did so know and worship him in Types and Figures so that the Jewish and the Christian Religion differ not in substance but only in degrees of perfection Sect. 4. That those Christians who adore God by any other Mediator then by Christ alone do not rightly adore him And that those who do rightly adore him ought not to be discouraged in their Religion and much less be deterred from it Christ glorified in his Ascension Hath a Prooem and three Chapters The Proeem That our blessed Saviours Ascension is not so truly observed by our Commemoration as by our imitation and the manner how to consider the history of his Ascension The first Chapter is Christ considered before his Ascension The second Chapter is Christ considered whilst he was Ascending The third Chapter is Christ considered after he was Ascended CAP. 1. Christ considered before his Ascension Hath three Sections Sect. 1. Christ considered in his Apparitions before he ascended as to Mary Magdalen and to Saint Peter c. The wrong use that hath been made the right use that may be made of those Apparitions Sect. 2. The Apparition to above five hundred at once cleared And Christ considered in his instructions before he Ascended That those instructions are more particularly to be observed as more directly conducing to the Constitution and the conservation of his Church Those instructions briefly explained as they are set down Mat. 28. 19 20. Sect. 3. That the words which our Saviour Christ spake to his Apostles before he ascended may be reduced to these three heads Words of instruction consolation benediction That the effect of them all is registred in the Text not left to unwritten Tradition That the Apostles though thus instructed comforted and blessed yet preached not the Gospel till the coming of the Holy Ghost upon them whereby they had not only ability but also authority or Mission and Commission in a full degree CAP. 2. Christ considered whilst he was ascending Hath three Sections Sect. 1. THat the words used to express Christs ascension did manifest his twofold claim or title to heaven the one by inheritance as God the other by merit or purchase as man And that Christ in his ascension wrought a twofold miracle one in the conquest of Earth the other in the conquest of Heaven and what comfort and benefit redounds to us Christians from these Titles and these Miracles Sect. 2. The time of Christs ascension particularly named in the Text and the observation of that Day is founded upon the practise of the Apostles which in the exercise of Religion is to be embraced as precept why the Apostles left not many precepts concerning circumstances of worship to the Christian Church The place of the ascension was Bethany in Mount Olivet and what considerations arise from thence Sect. 3. The persons before whom our Saviour Christ ascended
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-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
love and then in the gift of Christ Gal. 2. 20. I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me First he gave me his love then he gave me himself for even himself had been no gift to me without his love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostom What dost thou say blessed Apostle did he love thee only did he give himself only for thee no he loved the whole nature of man all the world besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I think my self as much bound to my Saviour as if he had only loved me and given himself only for me I think my self as much bound to live to him as if he had died only for me and to give my self as entirely to him as if he had given himself onely for me A large soul which can readily comprehend much more which doth willingly embrace and entertain the obligation of the whole world and yet there is no Christians soul but must be thus enlarged For Gods love in Christ though universal in the diffusion yet is it particular in the obligation obliging every particular man to love the Lamb of God as if he had been slain only for his sake as if in him alone he had taken away the sins of the world For indeed in him alone be he never so righteous hath he taken away both the sin of the world and a world of sin the sin of the world that is the original corruption contracted in his nature and a world of sin that is a numberless number of actual transgressions committed in his person SECT III. Gods love to man in Christ was the ground of his consultation with himself how to bring us to eternal life WE have seen Gods eternal love given us in Christ the main reason of our Christian joy and we must now endeavour to see the fruits and effects of that love that we may accordingly rejoyce in him even in our blessed Saviour And truly Saint Paul makes eternal life to spring from no other root but only from this root of Jesse when he saith in his Epistle to Titus cap. 1. v. 2. That God promised eternal life before the world began I ask to whom did he promise it Saint Hierom thinks to the Angels but they not having been before the world it was impossible a promise made before the world began should be made to them It is much safer to say That this promise of eternal life was made to our blessed Saviour in our stead and that God the Father promised to God the Son before the world began That as many as should live according to the Faith of Gods Elect and the acknowledgment of the Truth which is after Godliness should in him have eternal life For thus the same Saint Paul makes a dialogue betwixt God the Father and God the Son in the Love and Communion of God the Holy Ghost to which the Angels were not admitted Heb. 1. 13. To which of the Angels said he at any time Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy foot-stool And the Psalmist tells us plainly the persons that were in this Dialogue saying The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand c. Psal 110. v. 1. whence we may safely conclude that there was a great consultation betwixt God the Father Son and Holy Ghost concerning the Redemption of mankind from the vassalage of sin and Satan and what can we think was the ground of this Consultation but only Gods everlasting love to us in our Redeemer SECT IV. Gods love to man in Christ was not in vain or without success though his Churches love to us in 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 GOD will have love for love and never casts away his love in vain Man may love where he may be hated for his pains it fared so of old with the best of men the Church of God among the Iews whose sad complaint is registred Psal 109. 3. 4. for the love that I had unto them lo they take now my contrary part but I give my self unto prayer Thus have they rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my good will we may be sure this complaint was made by the Church for none else could say but I give my self unto Prayer or as it is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I am Prayer save onely the Church which being more peculiarly consecrated to the service of God knew Her self bound more then any other to Pray Continually Thus it is said of the singers chief of the Fathers of the Levites who remaining in the chambers were free for they were imployed in that work day and night 1 Chron. 9. 33. that is to say in the work of singing Gods praises according to that of the 134. Psalm ver 1. Behold now Praise the Lord all ye servants of the Lord ye which by night stand in the house of the Lord. But least we should think that these words they were imployed in that work day and night did only shew the continual obligation of the Levites duty not their continued actual discharge thereof we are told the particular times of the day and night wherein they did actually discharge the same 1 Chron. 23. 28 30. Their office was to wait for the service of the house of the Lord and to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord and likewise at even It was their office every morning and evening to sing Gods praises publickly in Gods house and not to content themselves only with and much less to confine themselves only to their Sabbath as if God by claiming or challenging that day had thereby denyed and rejected all the rest Had this practice of praising God daily in the Temple been superstition or will-worship in the Jewish Church we should have found it not commanded and commended but reproved and reformed by their Pious Kings and Prophets for their Kings did not reform without the advice of their Prophets but not finding this Practise Reproved or Reformed by them how comes it among some Christians to be accounted as a main Piece of their Reformation to shut up the doors of Gods house all the week daies and to open them only upon Sundaies and then in truth to open them for such a worship of God as is publick rather for its accidents then for its substance rather for its time and place then for its matter and form rather for its notice and for its noise then for its Communion For though a man may go to Church as a Judge wherein he chiefly serves himself and pleases his curiosity upon unknown and uncertain terms yet he can scarce go to Church as a Communicant wherein alone he serves his God and
to man in teaching him how to rejoyce for his Redemption Hymns expressing that joy may be only to the honour of God and directed to him The evil spirit silenced at the coming of Christ but the mouth of the good Spirit was opened THere is no man but naturally desires joy and delight as a remedy against his labours naturaliter appetit delectationes medicinas contra labores sensuum motuum saith Aquinas The reason why the natural man looks so much after his delights is because he looks upon them as medicines to heal his sicknesses or as remedies against the continual labours of his sense and of his motion And for this reason the spiritual man ought much more to look after his spiritual delights because he is much more under the labours of sense and motion then is the natural man for there is no sense so irksom as the sense of Gods wrath and of mans unworthiness and no motion so toilsom as that which seeks to climb up from earth to heaven and this is the sense this is the motion of the spiritual man he is continually feeling the burden of flesh and much more of sin upon his soul there 's his sense He is continually panting and â—ighing after God for rest there 's his motion In so great a labour both of his sense and of his motion how should he be able to subsist if it were not for the comfort of spiritual delight which proceeds only from Gods Holy Spirit For delight cannot be but from some good that is convenient and present and known to be so Ad delectationem duo requiruntur conjunctio boni convenientis cognitio hujus conjunctionis saith the same Aquinas A man cannot have delight without two things first the conjunction or acquisition of some convenient good then the knowledge of that conjunction so is it in this case The Redemption of our souls from death is undoubtedly both a convenient and a present good and yet few men have true joy and delight from it because few apprehend it as actually present Wherefore it is the singular gift and love of God the Holy Ghost to any man to give him the true knowledge of his Saviour that he may give him the true joy of his salvation For this indeed is the joy in the Holy Ghost and comes only from him It is he that teacheth the Church Militant to sing a new song on earth for her joy in Christ it is he that teacheth the Church Triumphant to sing a new song in heaven for the same joy O sing unto the Lord a new song saith the Psalmist Psal 98. and that Psalm is nothing else but a song of Joy and Thanksgiving for the Redemption of mankind by Jesus Christ there 's the new song on earth and again Rev. 5. 9. They sung a new song saying Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood there 's the new song in heaven to express the joy of the same Redemption For the Holy Spirit teacheth them to practise this new song in earth who are to sing their part of it in heaven For those men are not like to come to Abrahams bosom who are not Abrahams sons and those men are not yet Abrahams sons who have not his faith and do not his works Now this was the Faith of Abraham to see the day of Christ and this was his work to joy in that sight John 8. 56. Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exultavit gestivit He rejoyced and he desired to express his joy His desire encreased his joy and his joy inflamed his desire He did see it a far off by faith the eye of his soul and he desired to see it nearer by sense with the eye of his body the joy of the one did not hinder but advance the joy of the other for if the heart of them must rejoice that seeke the Lord Psal 105. 3. then much more must the heart of them rejoce that have found him Accordingly good Christians do indeede shew no other then Abrahams faith by desiring to looke on Christ and no other then Abrahams worke by rejoycing in that vision which we may well suppose was the cause that the Latine Church antiently used and still useth some such peculiar hymns before the nativity of Christ as it is hard to determine whether they have more of desire in them to see his day comming or of joy to see it come our Calander still retains the memory of the first of those hymns which was O sapientia on the 17 of December but the hymns themselves in the Latine Church hold out till Christmas eve I will give you a short scheme of them 1. O Sapientia veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae O Thou who art the eternal wisdom of God come and Teach us the way of true wisedom 2. O Adonai veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento O thou who art the Lord of might come and redeem us by thy mighty hand 3. O radix Jesse veni ad liberandum nos O thou root of Jesse come and deliver us 4. O Clavis David veni educ vinctum de domo carceris O thou Key of David come and open the prison doors and let out the Prisoners 5. O oriens splendor lucis aeternae veni illumina sedentes in tenebris umbrâ mortis O thou Day-spring of eternal light come and enlighten us who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death 6. O Rex gentium salva hominem quem de limo formasti O thou who art the King of the Nations come and save man whom thou hast formed of the dust of the earth 7. O Emanuel veni ad salvandum nos Domine Deus noster O thou who art God with us be also a God to us and save us O Lord our God These greater and more solemn hymns called Antiphone majores were at first made only in the honour of Christ though in process of time after the Invocation of Saints had crept into the Church there were two more added to them O Thoma Didyme and O virgo Virginum as Hugo testifieth in his Commentary upon the 38. Psalm which now the office it self of the blessed Virgin blusheth at and taketh no notice of at all and it were to be wished it had left out other prayers to the Blsseed Virgin which are as grosly superstitious as were those Hymns For they that believe Christ to be God must confess him to be a jealous God and that he hath said I am the Lord that is my name and my glory will I not give to another Isa 42. 8. and what is his glory but that of Prayer and of Praise Accordingly it is observable that at the time of his coming in the flesh the Oracles of Jupiter Apollo Hecate were
Holy Word that she should first faithfully keep it and after that faithfully interpret it wherefore to say the Church hath falsified her trust in keeping Gods Word is in effect to say she is not trust-worthy to interpret it which is bring all Religion to doubts and uncertainties in the knowledge to schisms and divisions in the practice thereof For surely if the Lords own most holy prayer hath been so ill kept by the Church which in all ages hath been looked upon as the sum of the Gospel and as the plat-form or rather the ground-work of all true Religion then we must needs have but very little or no assurance concerning the rest of the Scriptures wherefore it concerns all Christian Divines in the first place to vindicate the Church of Christ concerning her faithful keeping of this Prayer which would have been altogether needless had not some Criticks of later years obtruded their own observations for various Lections and by that means not cleared the Text but puzzled it But let us ask them Are the unknown manuscrips or the known and received Copies of the Church to be taken for the Text If the former we trust private men and private spirits which God never entrusted with his word If the latter we have as unquestionable a Lords Prayer as if we had heard it immediately from his own mouth For we have it thus exactly delivered us by the Greek and the Latine Church in the undoubted Originals of Saint Matthews Gospel For the Greek Church let Saint Chrysost speak who hath so elegantly and so exactly expounded at this Doxology in his nineteenth Homily upon Saint Matthew plainly shewing the necessary connexion thereof to the last Petition of the Lords Prayer that it is evident he accounted it as a part of the Prayer though as no part of the Petitions for saith he Our Saviour having told us of that evil one which we were to fight against for so he expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deliver us from that evil one that is the devil thought fit to encourage us to the fight by telling us also of the King that would lead us to the battel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore he saith For thine is the Kingdom c. shewing that if the Kingdom be his we ought to fear no other but him for that the power is his to defend us and the glory is also his to reward us Thus in effect Saint Chrysoft upon the place so that t is a wonder to see Beza hath reckoned him among those Fathers who expounded the Lords Prayer of purpose and yet omitted these words in their Expositions for sure he omitted them not who expounded the Original Greek though Saint Cyprian and Saint Augustine and Saint Ambrose omitted them happily because they looked no further then the Latine translation which adds Amen at the end of libera nos a malo and takes no notice at all of the Doxology And yet Saint Ambrose lib. 6. de Sacram. cap. 5. asserting that our Prayers ought to begin and end with the praise of God after the example of the Lords own Prayer habes hoc in oratione Dominica c. doth in effect allow the Doxology to be the end of that Prayer since it is evident that Deliver us from evil is no matter of praise nay indeed he doth rather alledge it in sense though not in words in saying that the priest concludes with such a form of praise as is in truth no other then an exposition of this Doxology only applied to all three Persons of the blessed Trinity Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum in quo tibi est cum quo tibi est honor laus gloria magnificentia potestas cum Spiritu Sancto à seculis nunc semper in omnia secula seculorum But however if that be a good Argument why we should leave the Doxology or the conclusion out of the Lords Prayer in Saint Matth. because it is not in the Vulgar Latine it must be as good an argument why we should leave the introduction and the last petition out of the same Prayer in Saint Luke for there in the Latine translation is no mention of noster qui es in coelis nor of libera nos à malo whereas the Greek Text gives us that Prayer with its conclusion in Saint Matthew and the same Prayer not mangled but whole and entire though without its conclusion in Saint Luke and there is no greater reason but only some mens bold conjectures to say that the conclusion of that Prayer was added to the Greek Text in Saint Matthew then to say that the introduction and last Petition of it was added to the Greek Text in Saint Luke for both alike are left out of the Latine translation But though they have been both left out of the Bibles by the Latine translation yet we cannot say that either hath been left out of the Bibles by the Latine Church For the Greek copies of Saint Matthews Gospel this day agnized by the Latine Church are ready to depose the contrary all of them having the Doxology annexed to the Petitions as the conclusion to its premisses without any the least interruption and then at last adding ' A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the end of the whole which is an invincible argument that the Latine Church received those words of the Doxology as an undoubted part of the Greek Text and therefore durst not leave them out of their Bibles though they found no footsteps at all of them in their own Latine translation Wherefore it is evident that this Prayer both in its Petitions and in its conclusion hath alwaies been received as an unquestionable part of Saint Matthews Gospel both by the Greek and the Latine Churches and consequently those men have disparaged the Church of Christ and disadvantaged the Christian Religion who have either commenced or continued either begun or maintained any quarrels against this most holy Prayer either in it self or in its use Nay in truth such men have disparaged and disadvantaged themselves for cavilling with that Prayer which so plainly teacheth them to say Our Father must needs be accounted an ill sign that they have received and a worse means that they may retain the adoption of Sons Surely Saint Cyprian who whipped those Sectaries with scourges that refused to communicate with Christs Church as not caring by their obedience to say Our mother would further have whipped them with scorpions had they refused to communicate with Christ himself as abhorring in their Prayers to say Our Father And doubless it may reasonably be demanded of us with what certainty of faith or satisfaction of conscience we do communicate with them in their Prayers who will not communicate with Christ in his Prayer And how we shall answer it to our Saviour when he shall come to be our Judge that we have indeed renounced his Prayer and have given occasion to sober men to fear that we have also
remarkable circumstances we shall then see how properly our blessed Saviour was called the Lamb of God First the Paschal Lamb was one of the flock Exod. 12. 5. So Christ was one of us and dwelt among us Saint John 1. 14. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us This consideration That the word was made flesh as it may inflame our devotions because our Saviour is in our own flesh to pitty us and to relieve us so it must cool and allay our distempers That he is in that same flesh which we so easily suffer in our selves to be excessively passionate and either distracted by sinful factions or distempered by sinful affections So that now what sins I commit in the flesh I commit not only against that flesh which in my self goes creeping and growling on the earth but also against that flesh which in my Saviour is exalted into heaven and there sitteth at the right hand of God This is the Apostles most pathetical argument against all the sins of uncleanness and should be mine in the like case or temptation Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot God forbid 1 Cor. 6. 15. as if he had said I must abandon abhor all uncleannesses of the flesh in that thereby I shall sin against mine own body How much more in that thereby I shall sin against my Saviours body Secondly the Paschal Lamb was without blemish so Christ was without sin the only spot and blemish of the soul In peccato sunt reatus macula saith the School All sin as it brings a guiltiness with it so it leaves a spot and blemish after it Our Saviour Christ was without this spot and we must labour to be without it likewise by being made conformable to him So should we rightly understand the hidden mysterie of predestination more by our practise then we can possibly by our speculations or disputes if every one of us would really endeavour to fulfill that part of it To be conformed to the image of his Son Rom. 8. 29. For whom he did fore-know he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son The great quarrel of Christendom at this day is about conformity that all Churches will not be conformed to one And yet even that conformity if it were brought to pass would not could not put an end to other differences But here is such a conformity that would soon end all quarrels whatsoever if men would make it their study and business to conform themselves to the image of the Son of God If men would seriously endeavour a conformity with Christ by holiness meekness patience obedience vertues so much out of our use that they are almost out of our knowledge but quite out of our remembrance they would never be Non-conformists in any lawful thing nor require conformity in any that is unlawful much less would they brand one another as reprobates but every one would strive to make his own Election sure Hope well of anothers so we should all forth with prove unerring students unblamable proficients in that grand controverted Doctrine of Predestination if we did but truly follow the meekness of this Lamb. Thirdly the Paschal Lamb was slain as a memorial of the Jews deliverance from the bondage of Egypt So was Christs death our deliverance from the bondage of sin and Satan Let me then stand fast in that spiritual liberty wherewith Christ hath made me free and be no less afraid of returning to my former sins then the Israelites were of returning to their former bondage alwaies remembring that dreadful sentence in the Apostle who in that he had fallen himself was the more careful to keep others from a relapse the latter end is worse with them then the beginning 2 Pet. 2. 20. Fourthly the blood of the Paschal Lamb sprinkled on the door posts made the destroying Angel pass over the Israelites when he smote the Egyptians So the blood of Christ sprinkled upon our souls preserveth us from the destroying Angel A mercy to be remembred with an everlasting thankfulness and to be commemorated with an everlasting thanksgiving for this is a part of the new song in heaven Rev. 5. 9. Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God with thy blood What was the ground of their thanksgiving in heaven must be the ground of our supplication on earth that we lose not the benefit of this blood which is the price of our Redemption that neither through the infirmities of the flesh nor the anguishes of the Spirit nor the backslidings of the world nor the temptations of the Devil we be drawn or driven from faith in the blood of our dearest Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And accordingly we must take care that we be not driven or drawn from the outward profession and exercise of this faith least we come by degrees to be driven or drawn from the inward settlement and assurance of it Fifthly the Paschal Lamb was to be eaten with bitter herbs and without leaven so Christ is to be received with repentance and without malice or hypocrisie which is the most common but the most unsavoury leaven of the soul for a small parcell of either of these will infect and corrupt all our best Religious performances even as a little leaven leaventh the whole lump Accordingly the Apostle is most industrious to chase this leaven out of our hearts when he biddeth us to keep the feast not with old leaeven that is the leaven of hypocrisie when we pretend to be new men but are not Nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth 1 Cor. 5. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in azymis sinceritatis veritatis for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sincerity is a righteous judgement against the sophistications or delusions of malice and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truth is a righteous practise for there is a moral as well as a Metaphysical truth against the prevarications of Hypocrisie They generally go both together hypocrisie in the tongue and malice in the heart fair pretences and foul intentions The hypocrite being most commonly malicious as having the Devil in his heart and the malicious needing the hypocrite to disguise his malice by seeming to be an Angel in his tongue But what ever the leaven be whether these or any other infectious sins our care must be first to find it and then to cleanse it wherein it will not be amiss if we follow the great scrupulosity of the Jews who to the intent that not so much as the suspition of leaven should be amongst them at their feast of the Passeover did first cleanse their ordinary vessels of it then searched every cranny or chink of their houses after it then burnt all they found then execrated or cursed all that might possibly be left behind which they could
are espoused unto him Such a righteousness as will keep off sin from causing a Divorce He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness such a salvation as will keep off death from causing a dissolution in their marriage He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation Therefore I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God for neither shall my sins disturb this joy since I am covered with his righteousness nor shall my death diminish it since I am cloathed with his salvation To him be glory for this righteousness and for this salvation for evermore Amen Christ adored in his Resurrection CAP. I. That Christ is to be adored chiefly in his Resurrection SECT I. The resurrection of Christ the grand cause of joy to Christià ns but strongly opposed by the Jews whose Commentaries are not to be followed on those texts which concern our Saviour Christ though even those texts have not been corrupted by them WHat is the sorrow of the soul for sin we may partly see by every true penitent who cannot but say for his sins as our Saviour once said for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My soul is exceeding sorrowful even to the death Mat. 26. 38. But what is the sorrow of the soul for death the wages of sin God make us such true penitents that we may never see for if we are so unfit by reason of our impatience and so unable by râ—â—son of our infirmity to pass over the momentary sorâ—oâ—â— of the earth it must needs fill our souls with astonishment and confusion but once seriously to think of the sorrows the everlasting sorrows of hell Wherefore most welcom to the Christian soul is that joy which delivers it from this sorrow and that is the joy of Christs resurrection whereby we have been delivered from the sting and mischief of the temporal from the pangs horrours of the eternal death Accordingly it hath been observed by Christian Chronologers that our blessed Saviour did rise from the dead on that very same day of the year on which Moses and the children of Israel had almost two thousand years before passed safely through the red Sea And indeed as their deliverance by Moses from the Egyptians was a type of our deliverance by Christ from our spiritual bondage so their joy may well be in our hearts and their Song in our mouths only heightned by a greater measure of thankfulness and of thanksgiving for as much as ours hath of the two been infinitely the greater deliverance Therefore let me say as they did but let me say it with a more thankfull heart and with a more cheerfull voice for greater is my duty though lesser is my ability I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously Exod. 15. 1. Never was so glorious a triumph as this which triumphed over the grave that devours all this worlds triumphs nay over Hell which makes the bare memory of them odious and detestable either that they were gained unjustly or used immoderately or abused intemperately The Lord is my strength and song and he is become my Salvation ver 2. What can my soul say more what should it say less for being delivered from the pangs and horrours of the temporal and eternal death but that the Lord is my Song for being my strength to rescue and to redeem me much more for being my salvation to receive me and to crown me Again Who is like unto thee O Lord amongst the Gods who is like unto thee glorious in holiness fearfull in praises doing wonders ver 11. Let me but think of the Son of God dying for my sins and rising from the dead to make me righteous and I must needs say he was glorious in holiness and ought to be fearfull in praises for doing such wonders as to bring glory out of shame holiness out of Sin and life out of death Lastly Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed Thou hast guided them in thy strength to thy holy habitation ver 13. All those Saints that did rise from the dead when our Saviour Christ arose to go along with him into heaven and all those Saints that shall rise hereafter by vertue of his resurrection to follow him thither can say no more then this to express their joy and thankfulness Thou hast led us forth from the grave thou hast redeemed us from death thou hast guided us in thy strength to thy holy habitation there to see and bless and enjoy thee for ever So that those late Hebr. Criticks are too much in love with the glosses of the Jews who oppose them against the Judgement of the whole Catholick Church that they may enervate one of the soundest proofs of the Resurrection that is to be found in all the Old Testament And that proof is Job 19. 25 26 27. I know that my redeemer liveth and that I shall rise out of the earth at the last day and shall be covered again with my skin and shall see God in my flesh Yea and my self shall behold him not with other but with these same eyes Words so expresly spoken of the resurrection that the Church hath thought fit to use them at the burial of the dead as the chiefest comfort and consolation against death yet upon these words thus saith the Learned Mercer Nostri ferè omnes tam veteres quà m recentiores hunc versiculum cum duobus sequentibus ad resurrectionem referunt sâ—d ego cum Hebraeis aliter accipio Quod si de resurrectione futura hic loqueretur Job non erant haud dubie id praetermissuri Hebraei qui ipsi resurrectionem credunt At ne unum quidem ex sex aut septem Hebraeorum commentariis invenies qui eò referat Almost all Christian writers ancient and modern do expound these three verses of the Resurrection but I with the Jews do expound them otherwise For if Job had here spoken of the resurrection to come doubtless the Hebrew doctors would not have pretermitted it in their Commentaries since they also believed this Doctrine but in six or seven of their Expositors there is not one that expounds these words of the resurrection This reason is unsound in it self and therefore unsatisfactory in its Proof For the Jewish expositors labour after nothing more then not to see Christ in the Old Testament And their Doctors knowing that the Christians did believe and profess the Resurrection of the dead by vertue of Christs resurrection had rather leave the doctrine of the resurrection out of their glosses then allow it to be by vertue of our blessed Saviour whom their fathers had crucified and whom themselves not only hated but also accursed and blasphemed every day Thus Saint Mathew tells us plainly that the Jews gave the Souldiers mony to say that our Saviours disciples came by night and stole him away And they that were so willing to put a lye in other mens mouths were as
the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it The Sabbath in respect of its duty is without doubt of Divine right in respect of its day may without derogation to the fourth commandment in the Judgement of many good Divines be said to be of Ecclesiastical right For the duty is matter of Religion which God hath reserved wholly to himself the day is matter of order which God hath in part left unto his Church even in this very case for though he hath determined a set day for his publike worship yet he hath not confined his Church to that day as he hath to the worship it self by his determination Therefore we may not deny Gods Church that liberty which he hath given her though we are willing to say he hath given it with this limitation or restriction that where the Apostolical Church hath positively determined any thing in the practice of Religion as in the weekly festival for the honour of Christ 〈…〉 Church after it may not lawfully alter the determination And where the Catholick Church hath determined to the same purpose as in the yearly Festivals for the honour of Christ particular national Churches may not with sobriety or with safety determine against it For though neither of these in it self is against the substance of Religion yet both are against the order and exercise of it and therefore against God who is the God of order and hath commanded the exercise of Religion We conclude then that though the Sabbath in special is abolished that is to say that determinate set day no less then that Temple and that Priesthood yet not others instead of them which having been since determinately pointed out and appointed by the authority of Christ and his Apostles have as much real holiness in them as the other ever had and that by virtue of the same Commandment which requires as a holy a publike worship now as it did then since the same God who said to the Jews in the old hath said to the Christian in the new Testament be ye holy for I am holy 1 Pet. 1. 16. Wherefore the name Sabbath cannot add to the Religion of the worship but it may add to the superstition of the worshippers And t is safest for us now to look upon it as a name of the old use though it signifie a thing of the new use wherein it is not amiss to take notice of Eustathius his Criticism upon the third of the Iliads concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words that are still of the old usage as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still signifies a head-peice though now it be not made of a sea doggs skin for which cause it was first called so And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Arms though now they are not made of brass but of yron So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is still used for to write though now our writing be not by ingraving or making any hollow impressions many other of the like kind may be observed both in the Greek and Latine tongue wherein the same word is still retained though the thing be quite out of use And by this rule we may still retain the words Priest Altar Temple Sacrifice as well as sabbath viz. all of them by way of custom but none of them all by way of contestation And God himself calling the day of Attonement a sabbath Lev. 16. 31. though it came but once a year hath licenced us to give the name Sabbath as well to our Aniversary as to our weekly Festivals But indeed the question is not about Sunday a Sabbath as if Caesar-like it would admit of no Superiour but of Sunday the Sabbath which Pompey-like will admit of no Equal and I answer That to call Sunday the Sabbath by way of eminency though it were lawful yet it is not laudable and is therefore better omitted then practised for besides that every language in the Christian world takes the Sabbath day for Saturday save only our late new English and God himself hath taken the seventh day and the Sabbath for terms convertible and all the wit of man cannot take the first day for the seventh day it is neither safe for us nor for our festival to seek to derive its holiness from the Jewish Sabbath not safe for us because it will make us Judaize at least in other mens judgements if not in our own which is a thing that Saint Paul if he were amongst us would be much afraid of for our sakes Gal. 4. 10 11. and therefore much more should we be afraid of it for our own sakes Not safe for our festival which by that means will be made rely upon a broken reed for the broken reeds are more now in Judaea then in Egypt and so be subject to a downfall For the Sabbath is as alterable to the Christian as to the Jew but the Lords day is eternal And if we have such a Sabbath as is subject to alteration we must have such a Sabbath as is subject to annihilation for the one is naturally not only a fore-runner of but also a preparation to the other Wherefore let my soul look after such a Sabbath as may lead me not to an outward and temporal but to an inward and eternal rest of which the Apostle speaketh Heb. 4. 9. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the keeping of a Sabbath but it is such a Sabbath as hypocrites cannot keep nor Atheists hinder good men from keeping whereas this outward Sabbath may be most observed by hypocrites and altogether opposed by Atheists But this is such a Sabbath as Hypocrites cannot keep for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only for the people of God And such as Atheists cannot hinder good men from keeping for the text saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relinquitur They that can take away all other things cannot take away this Sabbath from us they must still leave that behind them though they have plaied at sweep-stakes with all the rest This is a Relique that I must highly prize because they cannot plunder according to that admirable gloss of Epiphanius adver Her Manich. upon these very words of Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord Iesus Christ himself is our Sabbath and our rest and in this sense we had need both labour and pray that we may be Sabbatarians SECT VII That Sunday hath a better title to holiness and unchangeableness as the Lords day then as the Sabbath And that the Lords day and the Lords Labourers or Ministers are both to continue to the worlds end by vertue of Gods command in general and of Christs determination and institution in particular WILL you plead for a Sabbath in Paradise from Gen. 2. 2 you will not from thence be able to advantage our weekly Festival For besides that the Fathers are of another mind particularly Justine Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho who quarrels not with him about that Tenent though being a
their profit but t is by a false Arithmetick an Arithmetick that is only in their own fansie by which they cast up that which is not and so must needs be out in their account For they cast up for the time to come making that a part of their reckoning and by that their life longer in their fansie then t is truely in it self or in Gods appointment which is so unimaginable folly that it causeth the Son of God to thwart his own instructions and though he much dislike the language of thou fool Matth. 5. 22. Yet here he useth it saying verse 20. Thou fool this night thy soul shsll be required of thee Thus are our carnal joys great in their proportion not so in their foundation but contrarywise our spiritual joys are greater in their foundation then in their proportion which shews that even the best of us do so live in the flesh as to live too much after it contrary to that profession which should be ours as well as Saint Pauls for though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh 2 Cor. 10. 3. Hence it is that the cause or foundation of our joy in Christ is infinitely greater then the measure and proportion of it But yet the man after Gods own heart the Prophet David sets it out to the full He was a man after our hearts in his carnal failings but a man after Gods heart in his unfeigned repentance which caused his spiritual rejoycings And his spiritual joy was so great that he cals for company to rejoyce wirh him saying Rejoyce in the Lord O ye righteous for it becommeth well the just to be thankful Psal 33. 1. As if he had said since ye are truly righteous and just being made righteous by his propitiation and just by his satisfaction it becommeth you well to rejoyce in him that you may be thankful for this transcendent salvation So let me be just so let me be joyful SECT XI A zealous observation of this Christian Festival proceedeth from the true love of our Redeemer and thankfulness for our Redemption A set form of Praise fittest to express that thankfulness IT were a fowl shame for Christians who are most obliged to serve God to be least devoted to his service and therefore we must beware of shewing less zeal in our moral then the Jews shewed in their ceremonial worship When they celebrated their Passeover they did sing some Psalms of Repentance as a lamentation for the sinner other Psalms of thanksgiving as a triumph and rejoycing for the righteous Canebant quaedam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quaedam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Scal. lib. 6. de emend temp They did sing some Psalms for propitiation some for thanksgiving And this was their hymn for thanksgiving Blessed art thou O Lord our God King of heaven and earth who hast sanctified us by thy Commandments and hast commanded us in this manner to bless and praise thee which hymn of theirs holy Zachary seems to have imitated but withal to have amplified in his Benedictus Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people that we being delivered from the fear of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the daies of our life A main ground of his blessing God is this That God hath enabled his people to bless and praise him Which invaluable mercy the Greek Church alwaies thought worthy of a particular thanksgiving saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we give unto thee humble and hearty thanks that thou hast given us this Liturgie this good form of serving thee That thou hast called us to this duty of publick thanksgiving That thou hast vouchsafed us this great honour who are dust and ashes and greater mercy who are sinful dust and ashes to bless and praise thee and to call upon thy holy name And they have this reward of their thankfulness that in the middst of the greatest and bitterest enemies of the Christian Religion they do still enjoy their Liturgy groaning indeed under the bondage and oppression of their bodies but infinitely rejoycing in the liberty of their souls the Turks themselves thinking it too inhumane a tyrannie to bring that people into bondage both of body and of soul And as for the Jews they would have laughed at any man that should have offered them whimsies instead of certainties and would sooner have let their bread be taken out of their mouthes then this their hymn of blessing and praising God So great so fervent so constant was their zeal for that which they knew to be true godliness This I say was the general thanksgiving of the Iews at all their great Feasts to the which they added those particular forms of thanksgiving that most properly concerned the occasion And this was their spiritual manner of feasting God himself suggesting no less in that he commanded them to take their Lamb the tenth day of the moneth which was not to be slain till the fourteenth for why was the Lamb to be taken so long before hand but only that their souls might feed on the goodness of God before their bodies feasted on the Lamb And the Jewish Authors tell us that during those four daies the Lamb was tyed to their bed-posts that not only eating and drinking as Saint Paul requires of us 1 Cor. 10 31. but also sleeping and waking they might glorifie their God And so will we too if we have the true love and zeal of godliness saying with those three holy men for the same cause that they did even our deliverance from the fiery furnace not of temporary but of everlasting burnings O ye servant of the Lord bless ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O ye spirits and souls of the righteous bless ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O ye holy and humble men of heart bless ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever So that unless we will profess that we serve our selves not our God that we are men whose spirits and souls are unrighteous and that we are unholy and proud of heart we must bless the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever This is the zeal we should bring with us to this and all other our Christian Festivals as the Prophet requireth saying If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own waies nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words Isa 58. 13. which text in Kimchies gloss is to be interpreted of the Sabbath in general for saith he the feast of expiation was strictly to be observed as a Sabbath though it was placed on the 10. day of September which might fall on any day of the week And he proveth a strict observation from the words themselves wherein are both a negative
in substance that we now have though not the same in manner nor in degree They knew him to be the Mediator between God and man as well as we but they know this confusedly and imperfectly we now know it clearly distinctly and perfectly The difference was not in the substance of the knowledge but in the manner and degrees only So that the Jews worshipped God in Christ as we Christians worship him for in all their sacrifices they did look upon the Messiah as the only propitiation for their sins Hence the 22. Psalm was a part of their dayly morning service which may not unfitly be called Christus Patiens for that it doth rather Historically then Prophetically set forth the passion of our blessed Saviour For Christ upon the Cross appropriated this Psalm unto himself by using the first words of it My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And Saint Matthew applieth it unto him in the eighth verse He trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him Saint John in the eighteenth verse They parted my raiment among them and for my vesture they did cast lots And Saint Paul in the twenty second verse I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the Church will I praise thee Heb. 2. 12. Christ assumes this Psalm to himself whilst he is in his passion and the Apostles apply it to him whilst they are describing of it And this very Psalm amongst all the rest was chosen out by the Jews to be a part of their dayly morning service nay indeed it was composed of purpose by the Spirit of God that it might be so As plainly appears from the title or inscription thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad primordium aurorae for the dawning of the morning Sensus est Psalmum hunc sacerdotibus Levitis fuisse traditum ut singulo quoque mane in Ecclesia quamprimùm aurora erumperet caneretur Sic voluit Deus Ecclesiam veterem singulis diebus recolere fiduciam de expectatione Christi saith Junius The meaning of the title is That this Psalm was delivered to the Priests and Levites to be sung in the Congregation every morning at the break of day For so would God inure the Church of the Jews to have a daily recourse to Christ and to revive the hope they had of his comming in the flesh And indeed the Chaldee Paraphrase saith no less on the inscription of this twenty second Psalm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro robore seu virtute sacrificii jugis matutini For the virtue or strength of the dayly morning sacrifice or oblation for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprizeth both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both sacrifice and oblation The meaning of the gloss is this that this Psalm concerns him who is the virtue and strength of all their service or Religion And that all their sacrifices and oblations had their virtue only from the Messiah who was exhibited unto them in this Psalm as offered upon the Cross The Jews offered all their sacrifices in hopes of being accepted in this Mediator and what do we Christians more but believe and profess that our persons and our prayers are accepted in him Only here is the difference the Jews worshipped God in the Messiah that was to come the Christians worship him in the Messiah that is come The Religion is but one in substance though two in circumstances And we may say that the worship of the Jews was the inchoation of the Christian but the worship of the Christians is the perfection of the Jewish Religion For whom they worshipped implicitely in Types we do worship explicitely in spirit and in truth All the fault is they were more zealous in their typical then we are in our substantial and real worship For the Babylonian captivity could not make them forsake their Religion but we have captivated our Religion of purpose that we might forsake it and so are fallen under that severe reprehension 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Insensati quis vos fascinavit O ye that are mad and sensless who hath bewitched you not to obey the truth For we who could not be seduced not to receive the truth are little less then bewitched not to obey it SECT IV. That those Christians who adore God by any other Mediator then by Christ alone do not rightly adore him And that those who do rightly adore him ought not to be discouraged in their Religion and much less be deterred from it GOD never yet had never can have any true worship or glory but only in Christ Hence Saint Paul saith To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Rom. 16. 27. Take away Christ from the glory and you were as good take away the glory from God And again unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Eph 3. 21. This is the true Catholick Religion or worship of God that obligeth all persons in the Church at all times throughout all ages and in all places in heaven as well as in earth world without end for no worship can be world without end but that which shall be in heaven And sure we are the worship whereby we Christians glorifie God in and by Jesus Christ shall be in heaven The Jews worship though in substance it was Christian yet the manner being figurative and typical in extent it was but National and in duration it was but temporal But the Christians worship being wholly in Spirit and in truth in the manner of it is angelical in the extent of it is universal in the continuance of it is eternal The same to all ages that it is in this the same in heaven that it is in earth It is not safe for Christians to worship God so now as they cannot worship him world without end If they worship him now by his Son they may so worship him for ever But if they worship him now by any other Mediator they are sure they must leave that worship behind them when they leave this world and therefore they are on the surer side who had rather not take it then be forced to leave it For the Angels and Saints in heaven do not go to God by one another but all go to him by his Son and why should we men on earth go to him by any other then by him by whom they do go with us now and we shall go with them hereafter Shall the Church Militant set up a Communion of Saints disagreeing in the worship of God from the Church Triumphant And why then doth the Canon of the Mass begin with an Illative particle that hints a conclusion rather than a beginning saying Te igitur clementissime Pater per Jesum Christum filium tuum Dominum nostrum supplices rogamus Therefore O most merciful Father we humbly beseech thee by Jesus Christ thy Son and our Lord that thou wilt accept
the eternal Spirit be all honour and glory now and for ever Amen Christ glorified in his Ascention The Prooeme That our blessed Saviours Ascention is not so truly observed by our commemoration as by our imitation and the manner how to consider the History of his Ascention THere is no blessing of Christ but imposeth upon a Christian the necessity of commemorating it and withall affords him exceeding great joy in its commemoration if he so observe it with other Christians as also to imitate it with good Christians For at Saint Luke gives a full definition of Christs Gospel when he calleth it a Treatise of those things which Jesus did do and teach Acts 1. 1. as if he had said A Book that containeth Christs sayings and doings so may we give this definition of a true Gospeller or of a good Christian He is a lively representer of the sayings and doings of Christ of the sayings of Christ by his profession of the doings of Christ by his practise and imitation For that man alone hath a true faith in the Passion Resurrection and Ascention of Christ who sheweth his faith by his works dying with Christ that he may live to him rising with Christ that he may live with him and ascending to Christ that he may live in him who sheweth his faith in Christs Cross by crucifying his own sinful lusts in Christs resurrection by rising to newness of life and in Christs ascention by ascending thither in heart and mind whiher his Saviour is gone before him Thus did the holy Apostles follow their Master with their eyes and with their hearts when they could not follow him with their bodies They looked stedfastly towards heaven as he went up Acts 1. 10. Surely the more to fix their hearts on him when he was above And so must we too we must go up with him thither that we may tarry with him there accordingly as Christs own Church hath taught us to pray Grant we beseech thee Almighty God that like as we do believe thine only begotten Son our Lord to have ascended into the heavens so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend and with him continually dwell who liveth and raigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost one God world without end which is such an heavenly prayer That we are infinitely bound to bless God for putting it into our devotions but yet more bound to beseech him that he will also put it into our lives and conversations For which cause I will enlarge my considerations concerning the ascention of our blessed Saviour And as Binius in setting down that vast and voluminous Council of Ephesus digesteth his work into three Tomes in the first tome reciting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the acts before the Council in the second Tome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the acts done in the Council in the third Tome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the acts done after the Council So will I consider the history of our blessed Saviours Ascention first insisting upon those things which are recorded before it His apparitions his instructions his consolations and his benedictions Secondly insisting upon those things which are recorded concerning the manner of his ascending And lastly insisting upon that one thing which is recorded of him after he was ascended viz. his sitting at the right hand of God And I have warrant enough so to do from the two Pen-men of that very History For Saint Mark describeth the Ascention with reference to Christs Apparitions upon the very day of his resurrection though that was full fourty daies before he ascended for so we read Mar. 16. 14. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sate at meat and upbraided their unbelief and hardness of heart which apparition was clearly on the very day of his Resurrection unless we will say that unbelief and hardness of heart remained in the Apostles when it scarce remained in any of the other Disciples for he had appeared unto them no less then five several times on that very day for the confirmation of their faith And yet without any mention of more apparitions it followeth v. 19. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into heaven But Saint Luke describeth the Ascention with the sending down of the Holy Ghost which was not till ten daies after our Saviour Christ was actually ascended as appears Acts 1. 8 9. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you And when he had spoken these things he was taken up The Ascention is so placed in the narrations of these Evangelists as both to look backward to the Feast of Easter and forward to the Feast of Pentecost To look backward upon the Resurrection of God the Son to look forward upon the Descention of God the Holy Ghost Happily to teach all Christians That they must first arise from sin before they can ascend up to God there 's the Resurrection before the Ascention And that they must ascend up to God before they can receive the gifts and graces of his Holy Spirit there 's the Ascention before the coming of the Holy Ghost However this is ground enough for me to look a little backward and a little forward in my considerations of the Ascention because the Evangelists have thus related it with its antecedent apparitions and words and with its consequent exaltation or sitting on the right hand of God CAP. I. Christ Considered before his Ascention SECT I. Christ considered in his Apparitions before he ascended as to Mary Magdalen and to Saint Peter c. The wrong use that hath been made the right use that may be made of those Apparitions IT is much to be observed That since in the Gospel are mentioned but ten apparitions of Christ between his Resurrection and his Ascention yet no less then five of them are recorded on the very day of his Resurrection For he appeared five several times to several persons on that same day which Durand would perswade us the Latine Church did intimate in her very Church musick of that day singing that Invitatory Hymn The Lord is risen indeed in the fift musical tone Et est quinti toni propter quinque apparitiones Domini in ill◠die saith he This Anthymne Surrexit Dominus verè The Lord is risen indeed is sung in the fift Tone because the Lord appeared five times on that very day This is an elegant way of teaching mysteries by musical tones somewhat above that gross invention of turning pictures into Lay-mens books but yet whatsoever is to be said of the musick we are sure the thing it self is consonant to the Truth For our blessed Saviour did appear five several times on the very day of his resurrection that as soon as he had raised his own body from the Grave he might raise his Apostles souls from incredulity and prepare them to receive those Heavenly doctrines pertaining to the kingdom of God concerning which he resolved to speak with them
ascended And to this purpose we may not unfitly reduce all the words which he spake from his Resurrection till his Ascension to these three heads verba instructionis verba consolationis verba benedictionis words of instruction words of consolation and words of benediction or words of grace mercy and peace For like as Saint Paul said to Saint Timothy whom he called his own son in the Faith Grace Mercy and Peace so did God from the beginning speak to his Apostles and so doth he still speak to all those whom he accepteth as his sons though unworthy to be his servants the words of grace by instruction the words of mercy by consolation and the words of peace by benediction Saint Luke saith our Saviour was full forty dayes with his Apostles after his Resurrection speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God Act. 1. 3. He had so fervent a desire of teaching them and in them us the right way of salvation that he differred to enter into his own glory which he had so dearly earned by his sufferings till he had fully instructed and confirmed them in that way He was willing to leave the impression of heaven in their hearts before he was willing to take possession of it in his own body Oh that we did imitate our Master in this his unspeakable charity for though it be above our expression yet may it in some sort come under our imitation by truly desiring and zealously promoting one anothers Salvation This would be indeed to shew not to speak our selves Christians This would be indeed not Verbally but Really to put on the Lord Jesus Christ He was unwilling to leave his Apostles before he had given them all manner of Instructions both how to teach and how to govern his Church the one that he might keep all after-ages from heresie the other that he might keep them from schism Oh that all Christians would accordingly consider what a grievous sin it is not to hearken to Christs own Teaching not to obey Christs own Government And what a Severe account he will call them to when he shall come again as Judge of quick and dead for being hereticks against his doctrine put afterwards in writing in his word or for being Schismaticks against his discipline put immediately in practice in his Church For if he kept himself forty dayes from heaven to settle his Church how shall any that is called a Christian think the best way thither is to unsettle it Our blessed Saviour gave instructions and not only so least we should think any thing of Religion to be arbitrary but he also gave commands That we should know and acknowledge all matters of Religion to be necessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After he had given commandments unto the Apostles Acts 1. 2. But where are these commands Are they or any of them devolved down unto us only by unwritten Tradition we dare not say so for that were to make the holy Apostles so regardless of Christs instructions as to care to teach them only to those men who had the happiness to live in their dayes since verbal Tradition is as changable as the breath that derives it whereas what is spoken of Abel is much more to be verified of Saint Peter or Saint John God testifying of his gifts and by it that is by his faith he being dead yet speaketh Heb. 11. 4. Nay more yet Preacheth for the reading of the law of Moses is called Preaching Acts 15. 21. For Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day and if reading in the Law of Moses was Preaching who dares deny it to be so in the Law of Christ Therefore the books of the New Testament do certainly contain the Instructions and commands which Christ gave to his Apostles by word of mouth during those forty dayes he abode with them And we need go no farther then the written word to know our Saviours mind for it is therein taught us either by Precept or by Promise or by Precedent And consequently what we find not there written for our instruction in one of these three wayes that we must not ascribe either to his dictating or to their Preaching unless we will impute gross forgetfullness to the Registers of Christ as not remembring all things necessary when as our Saviour himself promised them such a Comforter as should bring all things to their remembrance Joh. 14. 26. or supine negligence to the Pen-men of the Holy-Ghost as not writing what was necessary to be remembred For if the words which Job spake concerning Christ were to be engraven with an yron pen lead in a rock for ever Joh. 19. 24. then much more were those words to be so engraven which Christ himself spake to his Apostles words ingraven in a rock with an yron pen are lasting but they are not so legible unless they be also drawn over or coloured with lead to make them conspicuous So Salomon Iarchi glosseth this Text he would have the Characters of his Letters engraven with yron to make a deep impression but after that he would have those same Characters coloured or died with lead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dare litteris aspectum nigrum ut cognoscantur That their black tincture might make them the more legible And without doubt our blessed Saviour took such a course that the main effect of his words should be so engraven as to be both lasting and legible to the worlds end when himself hath said that heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away Mat. 24. 35. and amongst the rest sure not his last words Saint Luke records this for one of them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the father Acts 1. 4. And this word doth our Saviour Christ still speak to every good Christian saying unto him depart not from Jerusalem though it were in truth what some have made it reputed by their false clamours prophane unclean impure Ierusalem For you may not hope to fare better then Christ and his Apostles whereever you stay and you are sure not to fare worse then they did though you stay in Jerusalem Jerusalem the City of God had been turned into Sodom a cage of unclean birds for its impurity into an Aceldama a field of blood for its cruelty yet here is such a promise annexed to it as makes Christs Disciples willing to bear with the impurities and to bear the cruelties For it is an Elisha promise which signifieth My God saveth And no wonder then if it hath the power of reviving the Soul as Elisha's bones did revive a dead body And when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stood upon his feet 2 Kings 13. 21. So if the soul be let down never so low into the pit of destruction yet if it touch this Elisha this promise of My God saveth with
Apostolical practice recorded in the Text was therefore imbraced by the Catholike Church as if it had been Precept for the time and place and persons of Religious worship because that Practice in all these respects was founded upon the precepts of the old Testament not as they were typical and figurative but as they were solemn and positive and did no less concern the Christian in the publike exercise of his moral then they did concern the Jew in the publike exercise of his ceremonial Worship For publike worship requires the same publike adjuncts of time place and person no less in the Christians then it did in the Jews Religion And therefore we cannot deny but all those precepts in the old Testament that were given about those publike adjuncts do still remain in force as to that intent of the publike exercise of Religion unless we will deny that Christians are obliged to the exercise of Gods publike worship we must then still have our set dayes as Sabbaths our set places as Churches our set Persons as Ministers for the solemn publike worship of God And consequently they who go about to abolish any of these adjuncts or circumstances of publike worship do in effect go about to expunge the fourth commandment out of the Decalogue which was written with Gods own finger as well as the rest commandeth the solemn benediction consecration and conservation of all those adjuncts of time place person as conducing to the Publike service of God and exercise of Religion And as for times and persons they have been since in many respects determined by Apostolical Practice and particularly the Day of our Saviours Ascension seems to have been Annually observed by them as the day of his Resurrection was observed weekly since we find that Festival universally received by the Catholike Church and the Fathers made many admirable Sermons or Homilies upon it long before superstition had infected or Popery had invaded the Church of Christ in so much as Saint Augustine tells us plainly that the feast of the Ascension was observed in the Catholike Church even from the Apostles times Sure we are those primitive Christians well understood that God did not intend to confine but to enlarge his own worship by the fourth Commandment to wit to make that exercise of Religion solemn and publike in the fourth which was private in the other three Commandments not to make that to be only on one day which was before commanded to be all the week For he that saith Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart supposeth that as no day thou canst be without thy heart so no day thy heart may be without his love And therefore when we have a publike day set apart to make this our love publikely known if we do wilfully neglect the same we are grievous transgressors and downright plain Sabbath-breakers though not on the Sabbath day and consequently twice sinners in one contempt or profanation for omitting the substance of the duty and for contemning the circumstance of the day Another circumstance in our blessed Saviours Ascension is the place from which he was received up and that was not Hierusalem but Bethany For although the Apostles had been with him in Galilee many dayes where he conversed with them after the first day of his Resurrection yet now they were again returned back to Hierusalem waiting there for the promise of the Father as they had been commanded Act. 1. 4. And he led them out from thence as far as Bethany Luk 24. 50. before he was pleased to ascend into heaven partly because he would not have the people see but rather believe the Mysterie of his Ascension and partly because he would not expose his Apostles to the outrages of those who though they had seen it yet were resolved not to believe but to persecute the true believers And yet in that he led his Apostles out to Bethany he shewed them what was the right use they were to make of this worlds afflictions or persecutions even to have their conversation with him in heaven For Bethany is by interpretation the house of sorrow or affliction and our blessed Saviour Ascending to heaven from thence hath shewed us that then do we make a right use of of our afflictions on earth when they do make our souls ascend up to heaven This is to turn Bethany into Bethel the house of sorrow into the house of God But the place from which our blessed Saviour ascended into heaven is called Mount Olivet Act. 1. 12. And indeed these two were but one and the same place for Bethany stood upon Mount Olivet Christ ascended from a Mount and from this Mount Olivet He ascended from a Mount to shew it was not an easie step from earth to heaven there must be three ladders joyned together to accomplish this ascent scala mentis scala voluntatis scala vitae one ladder of the mind by contemplation another ladder of the will by affection a third ladder of the life by action All three have several rongs or degrees as Jacobs ladder had and God is only at the top Again he ascended from this Mount Olivet where he begun his passion by sweating blood Luk. 22. to shew us the necessity of passive obedience if we desire to go to heaven Moses his Mount Sinai which teacheth the rule of active obedience will not serve the turn we must also go up to Christs Mount Olivet and there learn his passive obedience that by suffering with him we may also reign with him for he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross and therefore God highly exalted him Phil. 2. Can you drink of his cup without fear it may overcome your weak Stomack since the fear of it made him offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears Heb. 5. 7. If you can then may you find some pretence though little cause to take that for granted to you which the sons of Zebedee only requested for themselves to sit with him in his Kingdom But if your frailty and humility bid you fear you may stick at the dregs in drinking of his cup much more should your frailty and modesty bid you blush that you are so exceeding unworthy of comming to his Kingdom and of sitting in it together with him that so you may not turn your own Churchwarden to appoint your own place in heaven but may wholly relie upon him for your place upon whom you must relie for your worthiness SECT III. The persons before whom our Saviour Christ ascended were 1. Angels 2. Men yet men only not Angels appointed by him as witnesses of his ascension though not all men And that the disturbers of these witnesses that is of the orders of Christs Ministers in his Church do sin against this article of Christs ascension which however is it self and puts all true believers above all disturbances THE persons before whom or in whose
to examine the other exigencies which this excellent Divine is put to that he may gratifie his Church by seeking to make good this Tenent but sure other Churches look upon it as an invasion of their Christian liberty and as a Doctrine which cannot pretend to Christian verity or antiquity though it may fondly pretend to some external unity T is certain the Greek Church took it for a Novelty and therefore would not admit this position as a dispensation from the Anathemas denounced by the two Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon against such as should presume to alter the former Creeds And yet in truth the alteration was more in word then in sense and the Greek Church had the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son in their Faith though not in their Creed And this appears plainly by Simeon the Metaphrast who lived about the year eight hundred and fifty after Christ neer the same time with Walefridus Strabo yet useth these words in the Greek Menology on October 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Lord Christ is Ascended into heaven and returned to his Fathers throne and from thence hath sent down the Holy Spirit which proceedeth from himself upon his Disciples He saith in his Faith the Spirit proceeded from the Son though neither he nor any of his Church would change their Creed to say so And upon this ground the Western Churches may still retain the use of Athanasius his Creed in their Liturgies notwithstanding the addition of Filioque without cutting off the Greek Church from the hope of salvation though they allow not that addition because the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son is also in their Faith according to the sense though not according to the words of the Article And to speak the plain truth in this controversie concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son as well as from the Father the animosity was greater betwixt the Greek and Latine Church then the disagreement the quarrel larger then the difference And thus much Scotus ingenuously confesseth in these words Sed forte si duo sapientes unus Graecus aâ—ter Latinus uterque verus amator veritatis non propriae dictionis de hac visa contrarietate disquirerent pateret utique tandem ipsam contrarietatem non esse veraciter realem sicut est vocalis Alioquin vel ipsi Graeci vel nos Latini sumus verè haeretici Sed quis audet Johannem Damascenum Basilium Gregorium Theologum Nazianzenum Cyrillum similes patres Graecos arguere haereseos Quis iterum argueret haereseos B. Hieronymum Augustinum Aâ—ibrosium Hilarium consimiles Latinos Verisimile igitur est quod non subest dictis verbis contrariis contrariorum Sanctorum sententia discors Scotus in 1. Sent. dist 11 qu. 1. But happily if two wise men the one of the Greek the other of the Latine Church did enquire concerning this seeming contrariety and both of them would prefer the truth above their own words or expressions they might in time find that this is but a verbal not a real controversie For if it be real either the Greeks or the Latines must needs be hereticks But who shall dare to accuse Damascene or Basil or Gregory the Divine or Gregory Nazianzene or Cyril and the rest of the Greek Fathers of heresie Again who dares take Saint Hierom Saint Augustine Saint Ambrose Saint Hilary and the rest of the Latine Fathers for hereticks It is therefore most probable that in these contrary expressions was no contrary sense but they both meant one and the same truth concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost Thus far Scotus and indeed no less appears in the Council of Florence where from the twentyeth Session to the twenty fifth exclusively is a long disputation betwixt Johannes Provincialis for the Latine Church and Marcus Ephesius for the Greek Church And the Ephesian professing that the Spirit did proceed from the Father by the Son the Provincial confesseth it was in effect the same as from the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That by is here as much as from saith Johannes Concil Flor. Sessione 24. For the Father begetting and the Son begotten and the Holy Ghost proceeding being all confessedly coequal and coeternal whether it be said the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son or from the Father by the Son the Doctrine of the blessed Trinity is uncorrupt and inviolable for the three distinct persons with their three distinct properties are believed in one God none afore or after none greater or lesser then other In personis proprietas in essentia unitas in Majestate aequalitas property in the persons unity in the essence equality in the Majesty of the Godhead being no less acknowledged and believed by the Greek then by the Latine Fathers which is the short confession of the Doctrine of the blessed Trinity For it is manifest that the Greeks who denyed not the Son to be consubstantial with the Father could not exclude him in the procession of the Holy Ghost Wherefore we must needs reject that harsh and heavy doom which Bellarmine hath left upon record against the Grecians Ac ut intelligant causam exitii sui esse pertinaciam in errore de processione Sp. S. in ipsis â—eriis Sp. S. capta fuit Constantinopolis à Turmay understand the cause of their destruction to be their pertinacy in their error concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost in the very Festival of the Holy Ghost that is at Whitsontide was Constantinople their cheif City taken by the Turks This he thinks he hath sufficiently proved but the learned Scaliger thinks no man can sufficiently prove and laments this Queen Regent of the East in these words ut cujus calamitas ignorari non potest dies calamitatis ignoretur And though he incline to their opinion who said that City was besieged the morrow after Easter and taken upon the day of Pentecost yet he concludes it dangerous to determine so much Sed periculosum est haec definire De anno quidem non dubito fuisse 1452. sed de mense delibero utrum sc mense Maii an mense Aprilis capta fuerit Scal. lib. 5. de emend temp He dares not define the month whether it were in April or in May and sure Whitsontide cannot fall in April much less the week or the day he sayes t is dangerous to assert it was taken in Whitsontide but sure it is dangerous to assert it with so much uncharitableness against a whole Church whose ruine should be thought on with pitty not with insolency However though the assertion it self be true yet the argument is fitter for a Souldier then for a Divine to appeal to the success of the sword for the justification of the cause and will much better advance Turcism which hath full six parts then Christianity which in all the several professions of it hath but five parts of thirty in the known habitable world
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
preached by Paul and Silas because they found it agreeable with the written Word These were more noble in that they searched the Scriptures whether those things were so therefore many of them believed Acts 17. 11 12. And sure we are to go in the same way they did go unless we can prove that either the Scripture is now less Dogmatical then it was in those days or the Church more Apostolical And there is great Reason for it as well as great Religion For we plainly see that the Church is much ordered according to the will of man but weare sure the word was wholy ordered according to the will of God For the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 21. We must say the same of the New what he saith of the Old Testament for as came the Prophecy of old time so also came the Gospel in the latter times not by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost And from hence we must conclude the Authority of the Scripture to be the highest authority that can be in setling and establishing the Christian Religion For if the Prophets and Apostles did not only speak but also write as they were moved by the Holy Ghost it must needs follow that the doctrine of the Church must have its force and weight from their doctrine but their doctrine from it self as that which came directly and immediately from the Holy Ghost the infallible Spirit of God which best knew his mind as being his own Spirit and hath most truly derived his mind and meaning to us as being his infallible Spirit So it is evident The Scripture is no less to teach the Church then the Church is to teach the People according to that irrefragable determination of their irrefragable Doctor Si enim aliquis asserit aliquid quod non sit determinatum in sacra Scriptura vel quod non sequatur directe ex fide mortaliter peccat quia se constieuit supra Deum Judex enim est supra id de quo debet judicare Qui ergo suâ authoritate asserit aliquid de Deo ponit se supra Deum quia judicat de Deo Haec est superbia Intellectus quam prohibet Apostolus Rom. 12. Non plus sapere quà m oportet sapere sed sapere ad sobrietatem Alensis par 1. qu. 68. mem 1. ar 2. If any Doctor and consequently if any Church which is but a company of Doctors doth positively affirm any thing as matter of Faith or Religion which is is not directly determined in the holy Scriptures or doth not inevitably follow from the Faith therein revealed he sinneth mortally because he exalteth himself above God For the Judge is above that of which he is to judge Therefore he who without warrant from God positively asserteth any thing of God putteth himself above God in that he judgeth of God which is the Spiritual pride forbidden by the Apostle Rom. 12. 3. Be not wise above what is required but be wise to Sobriety Therefore surely the Church cannot teach that as a Doctrine of Christianity which she hath not learned of Christ and where hath she learned of Christ but in his Word SECT IV. That the state of true Christianity is to be learned only in the Church of Christ for there only doth Christ teach by his word which the Church is bound to translate that the People may understand it and by his spirit which teacheth both infallibly and irresistibly That the state of true Christianity is not confined to any one particular Church for that Christ teacheth more or less in all Christian Churches and yet this is no ground for Sectaries to run from the Church THE state of Christianity as it came by our Saviour Christ in being so also in knowing It hath its being from his merit its knowing from his word whence it follows by undeniable consequence that the state of true Christianity is to be learned only in the Church of Christ for there only is the word of Christ by which he teacheth to mens conviction there only is the Spirit of Christ by which he teacheth to mens Conversion For the voice must needs proceed from the body and the Church is his body Col. 1. 24. therefore it is to be feared that those who care not to be of the body either do not hear his voice or do not much profit by hearing it For it is not to be doubted but Christ hath intrusted his Church with his word as appears Rom 3. 2. Vnto them were commited the oracles of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were intrusted with the oracles of God The Jewish Church with the Oracles of the Old Testament and the Christian Church with the oracles of the new And this precious Talent was intrusted with the Church not to be wrapped up in a Napkin but to be imployed to Gods glory the peoples good for so we find that the law and the Prophets were read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day Acts 13. 15. 27. And by the same reason the Christian Church is still bound to take care that the Gospel or New Testament be also read in our Churches which because it cannot in the original tongue wherein it was written to the Edification of the people the Church is bound to translate it into such languages as the people do understand that she may not be defective in her trust which is to use the word of God most for Gods glory and for his peoples good And that Church doth in this particular best discharge her trust which sets forth the word of God in the truest and fittest translation not rigidly according to the words in all places but yet exactly according to the sense for neither doth Christ himself nor his holy Apostles cite the Old Testament so much according to the words as according to the sense And if men had no other obligation to their Church but only this That they could not know what God had said in his holy word unless their Church had taught them yet this alone if rightly weighed would keep them both from Heresie and from Schism from Heresie in receding from that doctrine which came from God and from Schism in receding from that communion wherein they were first made partakers of that doctrine This is certain the Text saith plainly The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved Acts 2. 47. which would never have been written if to depart from the doctrine or to be out of the communion of the Church were the ready way of Salvation Therefore as S. Peter once said to our blessed Saviour so ought all good Christians still to say unto his Church for rightly translating the word of Christ Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life John 6. 68. for without question God did
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
of Religion to be true doth require my assent by the authority of the first truth and whatsoever appears to me to be good doth require my love and obedience by the authority of the cheifest good So that if I cannot but confess my Churches sincerity woe will be unto me if I deny much more if I withstand her authority For if I cannot justly find fault with her Religion I must be irreligious if I forsake her communion God have mercy upon those Christians who on the one side are so zealous for their Church as not to be scrupulous about their Religion or who on the other side are so scrupulous about their religion as not to be zealous for their Church the one sinning against the verity the other against the unity of faith and therefore neither but hath a spice of infidelity in their sin and since God hath made me a Christian why should I make my self an Infidel either by superstition sinning against my God or by faction sinning against his Church I will therefore take the best care I can both about my Religion and about my communion though I will first take care of my Religion and then of my communion SECT III. The sincerity of Christian communion comprehendeth both the purity and the solemnity of Religion And is the whole duty of the first table The purity and substance of Religion being enjoynd in the three first commandments The solemnity and publick exercise of it with the adjuncts thereto belonging being enjoyned in the Fourth the one from the end the other from the letter of the Law The Sabbatarian the greatest opposer of the fourth Commandment who cryes up the day but beats down the other adjuncts and also the very duty of the Sabbath That duty being to glorifie God in Christ by publick worship for the Redemption of the world whereas they discountenance Liturgie and Festivals though both instituted in honour of our Redeemer EVery man is born an enemy to the true Christian communion because his corrupt nature filleth him with vain fears to make him superstitious and with outragious malice to make him factious And the true Christian communion is equally opposed by superstition which corrupts the sincerity and by faction which destroys the solemnity of Gods publick worship Wherefore God hath given us a Law which taketh care not only for the Religion of his Church against superstition but also for the Communion of his Church against faction though it first take care for the Religion and after that for the communion For Religion knits and unites us immediately to God But communion knits and unites us one to the other Religion is the very knowledge and worship of God communion is only the agreement in that knowledge and worship Religion makes the Saints communion only shews and declares them Religion makes true worship communion makes publick worship Accordingly God first provided for the duty then for the solemnity first for the Religion then for the communion Thus in the three first precepts of the decalogue he requires the true knowledge and worship of God which constitute our Religion and in the fourth he requires the publick profession of that knowledge and exercise of that worship which constitute our communion For the first commandment requires us to have right apprehensions and affections concerning God by the internal acts of our souls in trusting believing loving him above all things The second and third require us to testifie those our inward apprehensions and affections concerning him by our outward adoration or reverence and by our outward confessing or glorifying his holy name Then follows the fourth requiring us to muster up our apprehensions and affections adorations and glorifications altogether in one publick entire and holy communion So that the fourth Commandment is little other then a new ratification or establishment of the three first all in one to be observed or performed solemnly and publickly enjoyning us to do those holy duties on some set dayes openly and joyntly in one communion which were before enjoyned every day severally and privately in one Religion And consequent the 4th Commandment is in effect an establishment of the Church as the three first are an establishment of Religion For the consecration of times places persons maintenance and forms of worship is here commanded though time only be named and all for this end that God may be publickly glorified and our souls edified in the communion of Saint Wherefore those that prophane the places oppose the persons rob the maintenance and reproach the forms consecrated to the publick worship of God are as great Sabbath-breakers as those that prophane the time nor is there in truth a greater enemy to the Sabbath then the Sabbatarian as not a greater enemy to faith then the Solifidean the one crying up the Sabbath in the day but beating it down in the duty advancing the circumstance of time but depressing and debasing not only other circumstances but also the very substance of worship The other making a noise of faith which fils the phansie with strong perswasions but neglecting the work of faith which fils the soul with holy affections What do we think our Saviour Christ said in vain Father glorifie thy name or that God himself answered in vain by a voyce from heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again John 12. 28. If not let us acknowledge this to be the main end of our Christian Religion to glorifie the name of God and then we shall be afraid to oppose any thing directly conducing to his praise and glory For certainly those words are never to grow out of date This voice came not because of me but for your sakes John 12. 30. We know it was the whole work of Christ to glorifie God and what else can we think is the work of the Christian Religion Let this then I mean the glory of God be taken for the ballance of the Sanctuary wherein to weigh all our Tenents and all our practices and we shall never put a parsimonious much less an envious gloss upon the fourth Commandment as if it had taken care only for one circumstance of publick worship but neglected all the rest that 's a parsimonious gloss or as if it had provided for the circumstances alone and not much more for the substance of Gods publick worship and service that 's an envious irreligious gloss For in truth as in the Creed every subsequent Article of faith presupposeth the belief of all before it that it self may be rightly believed the same truth being first in the order of nature which is there put first in the order of Revelation So also in the decalogue especially in the first table every subsequent commandment presupposeth the obedience of all before it that it self may be rightly obeyed the same duty being first in the order of nature which is there put first in the order of injunction God in his very Method of revealing truths and
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
Roman Souldiers would not do but also his body raising factions and schisms in the Church not only against the decency and order which are as it were the coat or cloathing but also against the very substance of worship which is in some sort the body of Christ So then the Church may still in this regard claim and continue the power of Exorcism saying with Saint Paul I exhort or command you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ or we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth And if the evil spirit of Schism being thus adjured shall answer Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are yâ— making no more account of the Ministers of Christ then if they were indeed so many vagabond Jews it will shew it self not only a factious but also a lying spirit saying It knows Christ when it doth not know him They profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate Tit. 1. 16. Such a lying spirit deserves not to be confuted by the spirit of Truth which saith Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 5. shewing that the societies or corporations of Christians may no more take their spiritual food together without their ministers then other Corporations do usually take their corporal food without their Stewards I say such a lying spirit as this which pretends to know both Jesus and Paul but indeed knows neither deserves not to be confuted by the spirit of Truth but by the spirit errour and indeed hath found such a confutation For Satan in this foul affront of Christ is devided against himself and one of his own most false and wicked spirits could not but say of Gods Stewards or Ministers These men are the Servants of the most high God which shew unto us the way of salvation Acts 16. 17. This truth when some men did gainsay after the father of lyes himself durst not deny could not dissemble it they gave occasion to Luther of falling into these bitter expressions As hitherto men have seemed possessed with Devils even so now the Devils themselves do seem to be possessed of far worse Devils and so rage above the fury of Devils and again For who ever heard to pass over the abominations of the Pope so many monsters to burst out at once in the world as we see at this day in the Anabaptists alone in whom Satan breatheth out as it were the last blast of his kingdom through horrible uproars as if he would by them suddenly not only destroy the whole world with Seditions but also by innumerable Sects swallow up and devour Christ wholly with his Church Prefat in Gal. So Luther in his zeal to Christ and his Church for he saw the one could not be devoured without the other he saw the Church could be thrown down but Christ would also be involved in the downfall Without doubt it is a most horrid sin for men to cry up the shadow that they may beat down the substance of the Law and yet this is the sin of many men who cry up the Sabbath in the Day that they may throw it down in the Duty making it their business to discountenance the solemn exercise of Religion in common Prayer to disadvantage Gods publike worship and service to disgrace his Ministers to defile his ordinances to revile and contemn and pollute his Sanctuaries whereas in truth these are all alike sanctified to the hallowing of Gods name by vertue of the fourth Commandment and if we will needs make a separation betwixt the letter and the end or reason of that commandment where God hath made a most strict conjunction we must give the pre-eminence and superiority not to the circumstances or adjuncts but to the substance of Religion The Jew in his typical worship was first to look after the Time the Place the Person as the Sabbath the Temple the Priest which were the adjuncts of his worship and then to offer his sacrifice which was the substance of it But the Christian in his moral worship is first to look after substance then after circumstances though he hath commission to neglect neither but rather hath express command to look after both Nay indeed the Jew himself was to do this in his moral worship even to prefer the Substance before the circumstance for we find that Ezra did read in the book of the Law and blessed the Lord the great God and all the people answered Amen Amen with lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground Ezra 8. 5 6. All these were acts of moral worship and accordingly we find them not confined to the Temple for its evident They were all performed before the Street that was before the water-gate verse 3. And it is as evident that the duties of Preaching and Praying were exercised by the Jews in their Synagogues whereas their sacrifices were offered only in the Temple The reason we may conceive was this Because their Typical worship was to continue but for a time and to shew it deserved not to continue for ever there was in it this kind of absurdity that the accessory did draw the Principal the Temple the Sacrifice the Circumstance the Substance But their moral worship was to continue for ever and therefore in that the Principall was to draw the accessories the substance the circumstances blessing the Lord the great God bowing the head and worshipping the Lord reading the Law and giving the sense of it that the People might understand the reading these being all duties of moral worship were unconfinable either to place or time either to the Temple or Sabbath to shew they were above them both and were to remain after them as they had been before them This was the main subject of Saint Stephens Sermon Acts 7. That Abraham and the Fathers worshipped God rightly long before Moses was born to give them any Laws either about the Tabernacle or the Temple and consequently about the Sabbath and that all those outward ceremonies which were afterwards ordained by Moses were to last but for a time but till the coming of Christ And the Jews themselves who call the Sabbath the foundation of the Decalogue because the precept of the sabbath was given before the rest for that was certainly given in the wilderness of Zin Exod. 16. where as the rest were not given till they came to Mount Sinai Exod. 20. yet do ingenuously confess that Abraham did not keep the Sabbath so saith Hospinian who yet was very zealous for the Sabbath Judaei ipsi in minori expositione in Genesin arbitrantur Abrahamum non observasse Sabbatum The Jews themselves in the lesser exposition upon Genesis do think that Abraham did not keep the Sabbath Nay the Fathers do plainly say they know he did not For Tertullian proves against the Jews that
was performed by Ezra the Scribe And we find our blessed Saviour and his Disciples sometimes upon extraordinary occasions preaching and praying publickly neither in the Synagogues nor on the Sabbaths that is neither in consecrated places nor on consecrated Days to shew the work it self had a holiness incommensurable with and therefore unconfinable to either but still we find only them who were without doubt consecrated persons publickly preaching and praying we find no unholy or unconsecrated persons in all the Book of God either authorized or allowed to do this Work of God which immediately concerneth his publick worship But on the contrary it is said expresly The Lord separated the tribe of Levi to bear the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to stand before the Lord to Minister unto him and to bless in his name unto this day Deut. 10. 8 Those whom the Lord had not separated durst not meddle with the Ark of his Covenant nor stand before the Lord to Minister unto him and to bless in his name One Vzzah that was not of this separated tribe was struck dead for taking hold of Gods Ark though it were with a good intent to sustain it when the Oxen shook it 2 Sam. 6 7. And we cannot say that this was not written for our learning unless we will twice contradict Saint Paul not only in the general Thesis when he saith Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition 1 Cor. 10. 11. but also in this very particular hypothesis when he saith No man taketh this honour unto himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron so also Christ glorified not himself to be made an High Priest but he that said unto him Thou art my Son Heb. 5. 4 5. In which words though he confine not the Priesthood to the tribe of Levi of which Aaron was for he saith that Christ was an high Priest who was of the tribe of Judah yet he confines it to the calling of God for he saith Christ glorified not himself to be made an High Priest but he that said unto him thou art my Son If Christ would not glorifie himself by taking the Priesthood till he was called of God then surely no Christian can do the office of a Priest without being called but he must disobey God and dishonour Christ and to countenance any man that doth so must needs be both ungodly and unchristian much more to discountenance those whom God hath called and who do not their own but his work Ministring indeed unto him exactly according as himself hath prescribed both in Worship and Word and Sacraments and blessing in his name and by his authority If we will needs expel these Ministers what do we else but expel our own Blessing Sure we cannot deny but our Saviour Christ hath given unto his Ministers the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven for the Keys which he promised only to Saint Peter Mat. 16. 19. He gave to all his Apostles John 20. 23. Nay also the Keys of the Kingdom of Hell for so those whom he had sent out return with joy saying Lord even the Devils are subject unto us through thy name Luke 10. 17. And how then can we disturb those Ministers whom he hath sent without grievously sinning against his authority and dangerously sinning against our own souls For what is this in effect but to shut up Heaven and to open Hell but to keep out God and to let in Devils Tell me if you can why men are not now so frequently possessed with Devils as they were before the coming of Christ but only because Christ hath given his Church power over them And if we will needs beat down his Church why should not the Devils again recover their former power of possessing men This we have found true by sad experience that since we have forsaken our Church which prayed God to beat down Satan under our feet God hath let Satan get up even over our heads Angelis malis duplex poenalis convenit locus Infernus pro ipsorum culpa in quem omnes post diem judicii detrudentur Aer autem ista caliginosus usque ad diem Judicii ad bonorum exercitium ne totaliter sc ab utilitate naturalis ordinis exciderent saith Aqu. par 1. qu 64. art 4. God hath allotted the Devils two places of torment Hell in regard of their own sin and they shall be all thrown down thither at the day of Judgement And also the region of the Air. till that day comes for the exercise of good men lest otherwise those evil Spirits should quite have fallen from the order of nature and been out of all capacity of doing good God hath set the Devils over our Heads in respect of Place But t is only our contempt of God can set the Devils over our heads in respect of power And the contempt of Gods Ministers comes very neer the contempt of God for so himself hath taught us He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Luk 10. 16. What is it then I will take heed of sinning against the letter but much more against the end of the fourth Commandment I will take heed of sinning against the circumstances but much more against the substance that is required in the exercise of Religion I will glorifie God in the Sabbath Day that is in all the adjuncts or solemnity but I will much more glorifie him in the Sabbath Duty that is in the substance or form of his publick worship I will first make sure of my Religion then of my Communion first of my Liturgie then of my Company first of Essentials then of Ceremonials I know they are blessed that dwel in thy house Psalm 84. 4. But withal that this is the reason of their blessing They will be alwayes praising thee Great is the blessing of Christian Communion whereby men dwell in Gods house but greater is the blessing of Christian Religion whereby men are alwayes praising God I will not willingly sin against thy house but above all I will not sin against thy praise I will not cast them out of thine house whom thou hast commanded to dwell in it that they may be always praising thee Psalm 134. 2. much less will I cast thee out of thine own house by disturbing thy praises If others will not forsake their false Churches to come to the true worship of God what shall I answer at the last day if I forsake a true Church to set up a false worship If they so highly prize a Religion that is in part against thee a Communion that is in part without thee for which they can produce only some few specious pretence what will become of me if I regard neither thy Religion nor thy Communion for which I have so many unquestionable arguments or rather so many irresistable Demonstrations I will then be very zealous for that Christian Communion wherein
it or potentially in our spiritual vote and desire though we live never so far from them And it is to be noted in Gods Method that he first makes provision for the Truth of his worship in the three first then afterwards for the publike exercise of it in the fourth Commandment he first takes care that we be not faulty in the object of our worship saying Thou shalt have no other Gods but me then not in the outward manner of it either in deed or in word not in deed saying Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image thou shalt not how down to them nor worship them not in word saying Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain After this order taken for the truth of his worship both in the object and in the manner then he proceeds to command the publick exercise thereof saying Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day Certainly this Method was not in vain but to shew that as the Truth was to go before the exercise so the exercise was to follow the Truths of Religion And therefore wheresoever the Church did worship God according to the dictates of the three first commandments there every man was bound to be a communicant with the Church by vertue of the fourth and not only by vertue of the fifth Commandment For Christian communion as an act of Religion belongs to the first though as an act of obedience it belong to the second Table Therefore if another man saith Our Father which art in heaven how shall I not say with him Hallowed be thy name Doth it beseem me to be angry with the Lords most holy prayer for his sake that saith it as if what Christs lips had sanctified his lips could prophane for my devotion Or can I be angry with any of Christs words wheresoever I find them and not be guilty of anger against Christ and against Christianity Is the love of my God to be over-ruled by the hatred of my neighbour or may I indeed hate my God for my neighbours sake who am bound to love mine enemy for Gods sake The argument then will proceed à minori ad majus that if I may not in a true worship deny my communion to a stranger much less to a brother if not to a brother then much less to a mother If not to one single Minister much less to a whole Church which God hath entrusted with his own worship and with my soul For if I must look on that particular Minister whom God hath set over me as one that directeth me in his worship by his authority then much more must I so look upon my Church which God first set over that Minister before he set that Minister over me And if every particular Minister amongst us would as conscionably acknowledge and as couragiously vindicate his Churches Trust as he confidently assumes and diligently performs his own we should soon have much less faction in the Church and much more Religion in the people SECT V. The Prince as the supream governour of the particular Church in his own Dominions is Gods Trustee concerning the outward exercise of Religion not to manage or perform but to propagate and to protect it The antient Divines acknowledged this Trust and the antient Princes discharged it and Princes were bound so to do because it is their right by the Law of nature and because without the discharge of this Trust there can neither be the face nor the order of Religion among any People IT was the singular providence of God to commit the care and trust of man in matters of Religion only to men for since the devil can transform himself into an Angel of light if in this case we had been entrusted with the Angels we might have been deluded by the Devils But now having a more sure word of prophesie then can be any voice from heaven whosoever be the speaker or the messenger 2 Pet. 1. 19. there is no true Christian Church but may with confidence and must with courage say unto the people committed to her Trust as Saint Paul said to the Galatians Though we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you then that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed Gal. 1. 8. God hath not trusted Angels but men with preaching his Gospel nor hath he trusted men to preach a new Gospel but that only which the Apostles at first preached and what he hath given some men spiritual power to preach that he hath given other men temporal power to maintain The Priest is to preach it the Prince is to maintain it and the same God who in the affairs of the body hath given his Angels charge over men hath in the affairs of the soul given men charge over Angels for though an Angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel yet neither might the Priest publish it nor the Prince protect it It being a priviledge of men above Angels since the eternal truth took on him not the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham that as Angels are the guardians of men so men should be the guardians of Gods truth And happily in this regard we find two sorts of men especially in the holy Scriptures called Angels to wit Kings and Priests because God hath most especially trusted them with his truth T is sure this reason is given why the King is so called 2 Sam. 14. 17. For as an Angel of God so is my Lord the King to discern good and bad And t is very probable the same reason is meant though it be not given why the Priests are so called Revel 2. For we find the Angels of those several Churches strictly examined if not severely blamed for the neglect of this Trust God hath made Kings and Priests guardians of his truth as he hath made the Angels guardians of our persons that we should admire his infinite power whereby he is able and adore his infinite goodness whereby he is willing not only to send down from heaven his Ministring Spirits but also to raise up from earth his Ministring flesh to be our guardian Angels Nor can we now without unthankfulness to God injury to the Truth and injustice if not uncharitableness to our selves deny either King or Priest his part in this guardianship And God he knows we have great need of both It hath been the Devils cheifest policy to sow seeds of jealousie and dissension between these two Trustees that so he might make himself the greater harvest either by depraving the purity or by disturbing the peace of Religion In some Churches the Priest hath almost expelled the King in other Churches the King hath almost expelled the Priest The one extending his spirituals even to temporals the other extending his temporals even to spirituals neither but cometh short of his duty whiles both go beyond their Trust God make both truly to see the danger and the burden of their own
quantum Reges sunt si in suo regno bona jubeant mala prohibeant non solum quae pertinent ad humanam societatem verum etiam quae ad divinam religionem Aug. lib. 3. contra Cres cap. 51. Kings when they are in any error make laws for that error against the Truth When they are in the Truth they make laws for the truth against error So good men are tried by wicked laws and wicked men are mended by good laws King Nebuchodonosor being yet in his perversness made a law for his image to be worshipped But being himself amended made as severe a law that the true God should not be blasphemed For in this thing Kings do God service as Kings according to his own command if in their dominions they require what is good and forbid what is evil and that not only in regard of humane society but also in regard of Divine Religion Thus he plainly affirmed Kings to be Gods Trustees not only in regard of the second but also of the first Table of the Decalogue though as long as they remained wicked Kings they did only abuse their Trust So likewise Saint Ambrose in his Commentaries upon Luke 5. calleth it magnum spirituale documentum a great and spiritual point of Divinity whereby Christians are taught subjection to the higher powers not to break the constitutions of their earthly Princes and he proves it to be so for that Christ himself paid tribute The argument is irrefragable from Christ to the Christian from the Son of God to the servant of God If he shewed his obedience who can give us leave to be disobedient or pardon us for being so So likewise Saint Chrysostom in his Commentaries upon the Romans cap. 13. tells us that Saint Paul requireth Priests and Monks to be subject as well as other men in that he saith Let every soul be subject to the higher power yea though thou wert an Apostle saith he or an Evangelist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For subjection doth not overthrow but rather establish Religion And so likewise Saint Gregory doth often in his Epistles call Mauritius the Emperour his Lord yea in his very chair he doth in effect determine for the lawfulness of that appellation sending this for a decretal to the Bishops of Sicily Legem quam piissimus Imperator dedit vestrae studui fraternitati transmittere The Law which the most Religious Emperour hath given I was careful to send to you And why was he so careful to send it but that they should be as careful to obey it Grat. Dist 53. c. 1. I could easily heap up more quotations of the antient Divines but that the testimonies of these four Doctors of the Church are more then sufficient to prove this was in their dayes the Churches Doctrine And if it were so then t is not for the credit of our Churches to say Now it is not so nor for the credit of our Religion to say it should not be so For we see plainly that Jehosaphat who was in great esteem with Gods Prophet Elisha 2. Reg. 3. 14. and with God himself 2 Chron. 19. 3. though he left the Priests to discharge their own office yet he thought the external Polity both Civil and Ecclesiastical within the reach and compass of his Regal power And accordingly he constituted not only Zebadiah the Ruler of the house of Judah his chief commissioner for all the Kings matters but also Amariah the chief Priest his chief commissioner for all the matters of the Lord 2 Chron. 19. 11. And Constantine the great and after him Theodosius Martian Justinian and other Christian Emperours followed his example in so much that the whole Civil Law especially in the Code and in the Novels containeth many several Laws and constitutions both concerning Ecclesiastical persons and causes that is to say concerning the whole discipline of the Church And this is a Truth which no true Civilian can or will deny Nay yet more no true Canonist though of late their mouths have been most open against Princes can or will deny this Truth unless he resolve to leave the Church that he may flatter the Court of Rome and not only to go against the antient Canons but also against his own Master Gratian the father of Canonists For he brings in Pope Pelagius professing to Childebertus the King that he was bound by the Word of God to be obedient to his Laws Quibus sc legibus nos etiam subditos esse sacrae Scripturae praecipiunt Grat. causa 25. qu. 1. cap. 10. And the gloss cannot but take notice of it saying Argum. quod Papa subest Imperatori This is an argument that the Pope is subject to the Emperour But because the gloss is willing to elude this Argument by saying that this subjection goes no further then paying of tribute it is not amiss to shew that Gratian himself in another place extends it generally to all the Imperial Laws For in that very distinction wherein he pleadeth for the civil constitutions to be under the Ecclesiastical sc Dist 10. he produceth some signal testimonies and proofs that even after the decay of the Empire and the translating it to the Germans the Emperours notwithstanding had made Laws concerning the Church and the Popes themselves had professed their obedience to those Laws I will instance but in one which is in the ninth Chapter of that distinction wherein Leo the fourth Bishop of Rome thus writeeth to Lotharius the third Emperour of the Germans for he was the son of Lodowick the son of Charls the great De capitulis vel praeceptis imperialibus vestris vestrorumque Pontificum praedecessorum irrefragabiliter custodiendis quantum valuimâ—s valemus Christo propitio nunc in aevum nos conservaturos modis omnibus profitemur As concerning your Imperial constitutions and those of the High Priests your predecessors we know they are undeniably to be observed and profess that we now do and with Christs help ever will by all means observe them The new Commentator upon the Decree as it is published by the authority of Gregory the thirteenth from the word Pontificum in this Epistle of Leo being applied to the Emperours maketh this collection that the Emperours established no constitutions in cases of Religion without the advice of their Bishops which is a very true just and reasonable assertion for doubtless they were bound to look after the advice of their Divines in matters of the Church no less then after the advice of their Lawyers in matters of the Commonwealth even as the Kings of Judah had done before them for even David himself in ordering the Levites followed the advice of Gad the Kings Seer and of Nathan the Prophet 2 Chron. 29. 25. But he taketh it for granted that the Emperours did make and establish such constitutions and that when they were made not only the people of Italy but also the Popes of Rome themselves did obey them For saith he these
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
Religion if all Churches would agree in the sense as they do agree in the Letter of Gods holy Word To let pass the Old Testament wherein all Protestant Churches are as willing to be tryed by the King of Spains as by Buxtorses Hebrew Bibles I know Bezaes Greek Testament is censured by some as a most bold piece of Scripture but upon comparing his Text with that of Pope Sixtus Quintus I find very little ground for that censure and less Truth in it Because both Texts generally agree in the very same words and that even in those very places wherein both disagree from the Vulgar Latine And I believe the same may be said concerning the Greek Text that is received in all other Churches That they all agree in the same Original Texts evinceth they have been faithful in their Trust of keeping the Holy Scriptures That many of them disagree in their glosses upon and translations of that Text only sheweth that each particular Church is willing to discharge its own particular Trust in expounding the Holy Scriptures That they all labour not to continue and increase their disagreement but to end or to diminish it for so the Churches do though the men do not is also a good sign that no one of them is willing to be faulty in their Trust of observing and obeying the holy Scriptures And therefore though it must be confessed that the Church like Queen Vasthi hath not performed the commandment of her King so readily and so entirely as she ought yet may not any rigid Memucan suppose that there shall ever go forth a royal commandment that she come no more before the King Ahasuerus for though she may unhappily have been peccant in her obedience she hath not been peccant in her faith though she may have failed in her behaviour she hath not failed in her Trust though she hath been undutiful yet she hath not been false she hath not been unfaithful to her King that he should seek a divorce and give her royall estate unto another that is better then she Let no man think that our blessed Saviour the Prince of peace the King of Saints will so easily part with his Spouse concerning whom he hath said I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgement and in loving kindness and in mercies I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness and thou shalt know the Lord Hos 2. 19 20. And since Christ will not so easily be parted from his Church how is it that we do so easily part and depart from her If we did rightly distinguish betwixt the Church and the Men we would soon all bless God for the Truth and Faith of his Church though we should blame one another for our own falseness and unfaithfulness we would find that the Church hath been true to her trust in keeping in expounding in obeying Gods word and that only the Men have been faulty Thus Saint Paul blamed the Men not the Church at Corinth for their factions and schisms It hath been declared to me of you my brethren that there are contentions among you 1 Cor. 1. 11. He said they were contentious he said not the Church was so For as they were a Church so they were sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints and calling upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord ver 2. The men were sinners the Church were Saints the men were contentious the Church was Religious Truth and peace were in the Church whilst errours and schisms were in the men The treasure was heavenly though the vessels which held it were earthly We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God not of us 2 Cor. 4. 7. Will you reject the Treasure because of the Vessel you were as good to say you would have the excellency of the power in converting and saving souls to be of men not of God The Vessel is certainly brittle and may possibly be foul but the treasure is neither brittle nor foul that 's a lasting treasure for Truth is so that 's a pure Treasure for holiness is so As a Treasure it will enrich your soul as a pure Treasure it will purge your soul as a pure and lasting Treasure it will purge and enrich your soul not for a moment but for ever T is confessed that this Treasure was at first in much better Vessels then now it is when neither perversness sought to sophisticate the truth nor prophaneness to corrupt the holiness of the Christian Religion but the Treasure it self is still the same it first was For Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. The wickedness of man hath not destroyed cannot destroy the goodness of God He hath still his communion of Saints amongst these great divisions of sinners he hath still one Catholick and Apostolical Church amongst our many divided and distracted Churches And blessed be his name he first provided against our divisions and distractions before he suffered us to make them For it was from his singular providence that the Romans Emperours should keep entire their dominion over all the Christian world till they had called those general Councils wherein was the confutation of the grand heresies and the establishment of the true Christian Faith in the first ages of the Church whilst the greatest part of the Ministry in all Churches rightly understood and zealously maintained the Faith of the Catholick Church For else it is much to be feared that these after-ages of Christians which have been so much wedded to State Policy and so resolved on self-interest would have been much to seek for the truly antient Catholick and Apostolick Faith now briefly summed up in those Creeds which as they are undeniable proofs of the Apostles assertion that the Church is the ground and pillar of truth so they are also the infallible guides of particular Churches to retain and follow that Truth to the worlds end Wherefore God having left us his own undoubted word and such incomparable summs of the saving Truths therein contained as is the Apostles Creed and those other antient Creeds of the Church there is now no particular Church in the world which hath these helps and will carefully and conscionably make use of them but may be sure of believing the Catholick Faith and consequently of professing the true Christian Religion whereby to know Christ and of persisting in the true Christian Communion whereby to enjoy him though perchance the factions of men may be so great and the Judgement of God because of those factions may be so just as never again to let the Church enjoy the happiness of a true general Council And without doubt every particular Church which professeth the Christian Faith according to the Scriptures and those Creeds and hath a practice agreeable to her profession may justly be called the ground and pillar of truth and may
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
set day may not as much hinder and obstruct his gift of prayer in respect of time as a set form can hinder and obstruct his gift of prayer in respect of words For it is as strict and as strong a confinement both to the spirit and gift of prayer to say Pray on this day as to say Pray in these words and we may as justly blame the Church for prescribing a set day as for prescribing a set form of prayer in both which notwithstanding she hath exactly followed our blessed Saviours own example and in prescribing the set form hath moreover followed his command SECT VI. The Church hath God the Holy-Ghosts Precedent and Preâ—ept for making and using set forms of Prayer IT is a heavenly prayer and much befitting a Christian Divine which is hinted by Saint Dionysius in the beginning of his sublime book concerning mystical Theologie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. O thou holy and blessed Trinity super abundant in essence in deity and in Goodness the Overseer of our Christian Divinity which is a wisdom of from and for God be pleased to direct us in the search of those more then hidden mysteries which we can neither find without thy guidance nor see without thy light nor utter without thy power He beginneth his book as many antient Divines began their Sermons In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost And though we of late have used longer prayers before our Sermons I will not say out of pretence but I must say Not out of Obedience for our Church did not command it and t is probable did scarce approve it yet we have not filled the world with much better Piety and sure we have filled it with much worse divinity For we have given occasion to many ignorant people to deny that Trinity which we our selves do disown in that we neither will begin in his name nor will end with his glory Tell me if there be any Jew in the world that will not pray to the great and dreadfull God or in the acknowledgement of his incomprehensible Majesty as well as we If therefore we our selves would not be thought nor have others to be made Jews or which is as bad Anti-trinitarians let us not think we pray as Christians unless in our prayers we do indeed glorifie God the Father Son and Holy Ghost For we are alike indebted to all three Persons of the blessed Trinity in regard of our prayers The Father accepteth the Son recommendeth the Holy Ghost suggesteth them nay indeed if they be truly acceptable they are suggested to us from the Father for the Son and by the Holy-Ghost And this was the grand reason that the primitive Christians did gather out of the holy Scriptures the greatest part of their publlike if not of their private devotions because they were sure that all such prayers as they found in the holy Bible came to them from the Holy Ghost and they could not desire better expressions then his in their mouths as not better motions then his in their hearts not doubting but God would readily hear the words as he would readily own the motions of his own spirit For this is the confidence that we all have in the Son of God that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us 1 Joh. 5. 14. and we cannot but think that one ready way to ask any thing according to his will is to ask it according to his words And his are all the words that are written either by the Prophers or by the Apostles for our instruction for they all came from they all lead to the eternal word So that in truth all those heavenly forms of prayer and praise which we meet with in the Old and New Testament are no other then so many set forms of infallible and impeccable Liturgy given to the Church from God the Father through God the Son and by God the Holy Ghost and the Church would shew but little dutifulness and less thankfulness if she did not accordingly make a frequent and a good use of them in her own Liturgies or if she did not make Liturgies of her own both in imitation of those and in obedience to those Liturgies which she hath received from God And as for the using set forms it is no less recommended to the Church by the Spirit of God then is the making them Thus in the ninth of Nehemiah we find eight several Levites Praying and Preaching at one time each in his several congregation for the multitude was so great that it was divided into eight congregations saith Tremelius But t is evident there was but one Form of prayer and praise for them all whether at one time in several congregations or at several times in one congregation for one of these must be granted to avoid confusion still they all had but one form for the text saith expresly then the Levites Jeshua and Kadmiel c. said Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever and blessed be thy glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise v. 5. Thou even thou art Lord alone c. v. 6. and so along to the end of the chapter where all the eight Levites named together in the fift verse do make a most religious confession of Gods goodness a confession of Praise and of their Fathers and their own wickedness a confession of sin and all of them make but one and the same confession using exactly the same words For when the Text saith expresly Then the Levites naming all eight of them said Stand up and bless the Lord c. t is not for us to imagine that one of all the eight did not say these or did say other then these very words Again it is said Neh. 12. 46. For in the dayes of David and Asaph of old there were chief of the Singers and Songs of praise and thanksgivings unto God No man can doubt who reads the inscriptions of the Psalms and obâ—â—râ—eâ— what he reads but that the Songs were as publikely known and as particularly appointed as the singers And â—aâ—â— David tells us plainly in his comment upon the third Psalm that the Psalms were not called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Songs at the time they were made but at the time they were sung and that they were accordingly in process of time sung in the Temple some before some after the Captivity However it is undeniable that the Psalms were the greatest part of the Jews Liturgie or publike worship and the matter is not great whether we look on them as Songs or as Supplications For if there were particular forms of praise without stinting of the Spirit as without doubt the spirit which appointed and commanded the use of these forms stinted not himself I say if there were particular forms of praise without stinting of the spirit why not also forms of Prayer Since it is evident the same
Christians in their protestations There is a great distance betwixt superstition and Atheism False-Liturgy is Superstitious but no Liturgy is Atheistical For it must bring Religion to uncertainties may bring it to impieties Uncertainties are as nothing Impieties are worse then nothing Uncertainties cannot honour God as God Impieties must dishonour him may defie him tell me what can Atheism do more No Liturgy in effect bids Christians do like the Mariners in Jonah Cry every man unto his God nay it leaves every man to make his God for it leaves every man to make his Religion and he that hath a Religion of his own making must also have a God of his own making For the true God cannot be worshipped as men please to phansie him but as he hath revealed himself And therefore it is the high way to Atheism for men to be left to their own phansies in the exercise of Religion which must needs be where the exercise of Religion is not under a set form that so it may be compared with the word of God and accordingly not embraced till it be found agreeable with his word Will you think to convert a Papist by inviting him to no Liturgy you may as well think to convert him by inviting him to no Religion for with him t is No Liturgy no Religion Will you think to confirm a Protestant by inviting him to no Liturgy you may as well think to confirm him by inviting him to no Communion for with him it must be No Liturgy no Communion since he did not depart from a corrupt Liturgy to have none but to have a better and justifies his departure from the Church of Rome that leaving her he might come to the Catholick Church so his business was not only to protest against a false but also to protest for a true publick worship unless you will say he was only careful not to be a Schismatick in having good grounds of his separation but not careful not to be a Heretick in not having as good grounds of his Communion Some things were in the Church of Rome as a local or national Church some things were in it as a member of the Catholick Church There is no wilfull receding from these without being Anti-Catholick and that is all one with being Anti Christian Liturgy was one of these so truly and undoubtedly Christian that Hâ—ppolytus an antient Bishop and Martyr saith of Antichrist In those days shall be no Liturgy In diebus illis Liturgia extinguetur Orat de consummatione mundi ac de Antichristo in Bibliotheca Patrum Tom. 2. And sure we are that there was never yet any Christian Church in the world either national or provincial which had not its Liturgy which Cassanders Liturgicks doth sufficiently manifest without any other tedious way of proof the whole business whereof is to shew the several forms and rites of administring in several Churches So that to deny Liturgy to be Christian is in effect to deny the Catholick Church to be Christian and to blot a whole article of faith out of the Apostles Creed as also to affirm that there is will-worship in having Liturgy is in effect to affirm that the whole Catholick Church hath for 1500. years together been guilty of wil-worship and consequently hath not had the true Religion such a negative must needs be dangerous which thrusts the Catholick Church out of the Creed But such an affirmative must needs be damnable which thrusts the Christian Religion out of the Catholick Church For the whole Church having placed the publick practice of Religion in Liturgy if that be indeed wil-worship t is palpable Religion as to its publick practice or exercise hath been hitherto out of the Church unless we will allow wil-worship to be Religion However sure we are that God hath not given any Church power to abolish Liturgy because the power God hath given his Church is for edification and not for destruction 2 Cor. 10. 8. But the abolishing of Liturgy is nothing at all for edification but wholly for destruction T is nothing at all for edification neither in regard of the weak for it helps not their infirmities but takes away those helps God in mercy hath afforded them neither in regard of the strong for it must put them upon uncertainties may put them upon impieties And t is altogether for destruction because it destroyes Religion because it destroyes Communion It destroyes Religion in the learned making a way for them to run into any heresies in the unlearned not making a way for them to come out of Ignorance It destroyes Communion in the most setled times of the Church by disturbing it but in unsetled times by distracting it teaching men when they are at best not to be of one Communion but when they are at worst to be of many divisions of as many divisions as of interests of as many interests as of minds and of as many minds as men This is proof enough that God hath not given any Church power to abolish Liturgy It remains in the next place to be proved that no Church ought to assume that power For it is not for any Christian Church to assume such a power as directly tends to the destruction either of Christian Religion or of Christian Communion and abolishing of Liturgy directly tends to both these as hath been said Again It is not for any Christian Church to assume such a power as to abolish any thing which directly tends to the fulfilling of any of Gods Commandments for our Saviour Christ hath said If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14. 15. But a true laudable form of prayer directly tends to the fulfilling of two of Gods Commandments to wit the third and the fourth It directly tends to the fulfilling of the third Commandment in that it keeps some from taking Gods name in vain and teaches others truly to glorifie his name And it directly tends to the fulfilling of the fourth Commandment in that it provides for the duty of the Sabbath to wit the service of the Sanctuary the publick worship of God which is the end of the fourth Commandment and therefore the fittest rule by which to expound and observe the letter of it For the letter of the Law being subservient to the end of the Law we cannot rightly observe the day according to the letter unless we rightly observe the duty according to the end of this Commandment For by the reason of our blessed Saviours own Logick Mat. 23. If the Altar sanctifie the gift then much more the service sanctifies the Altar If the Temple sanctifie the Gold then much more the Glory of God sanctifies the Temple If the Day was appointed for the sanctification of man much more was the Duty appointed for the sanctification of the Day The Jews were commanded to keep the Sabbath that they might remember God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Justine Martyr to Trypho so that the end wherefore the Sabbath was
certainly hold much more in Gods Church Militant then in Gods State Militant Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defie the armies of the living God 1 Sam. 17. 26. They say we discountenance the Gift of Prayer we know we do not only we prefer the Gift of Prayer in the Church above the Gift of Prayer in particular Ministers or the Gift of Prayer as it is exercised to edification above the same gift as it is or may be exercised to ostentation wherein we follow Saint Pauls Doctrine who dehorteth the Ministers of his time from arrogancy in the use of their spiritual gifts first from the efficient cause of those gifts that they have them not from themselves but from God As God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith Secondly from the final cause of those Gifts that they have them not for themselves but for their neighbours not for ostentation but for edification So we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another Rom. 12. 3 5. And we say moreover it is more Christian to discountenance the Gift then the Spirit of Prayer For the Gift may be and often is meerly from natural or from customary abilities But the Spirit of Prayer is only from the Grace of God And it is unjust and ungodly That either nature or custom should dare stand in competition with Grace and much more in defiance against it 1. Whereas now a daies if some grave and sober Minister say Prayers either of Gods or of the Churches making though he say them with a most firm attention and a most devout affection yet his person is disregarded his function disparaged his prayers despised 2. But if some meer novice perchance a meer lay-man tumble out his own extemporary thoughts scarce fit to be esteemed or called prayers though with more readiness of expression then holiness of affection yet he is presently admired as one strangely assisted by the Spirit and the People are in effect taught to say with them of Lycaonia concerning such Enthusiasts The Gods are come down to us in the likeness of men Acts 14. 11. Thus is the Spirit of Prayer and with it the grace of God vilified in the one whiles nothing but the Gift of Prayer and with it custom or perchance only nature is magnified in the other For natural parts in attaining that gift do go beyond all acquired abilities so that nature is exalted but studie as well as Grace is debased by it for it is clear that where natural abilities of Phansie and confidence and volubility are wanting all the pains that men can take in searching the Scriptures and all the documents they can get by searching them will not enable them to attain this gift So little Religion is there in our late advancing the Gift of prayer by depressing the Spirit of prayer and yet only upon this mistake I might have said upon this mischief hath it come to pass That the Personal abilities of men have been accepted and approved in Gods own service not only without but also against Gods own Commission SECT XIII That forms of publick Prayer are not to be disliked because they cannot or at least do not particularly provide either Deprecations against private mens occasional miseries or Thanksgivings for their occasional mercies yet our Church not defective in Occasionals though chiefly furnished with Eternals The danger of contemning religious forms of Prayer and gadding after conceived Prayers NO man ought to pretend the Spirit of God either for rejecting Gods authority in his Church or forbear disobeying Gods command in his holy word And if these two may bear the sway set forms of Prayer will justly claim the preheminence in Gods publick worship above all conceived Prayers whatsoever yet there is one main Plea why Ministers should labour to attain the gift of Prayer and that is That they may be able to speak where commonly their Church is silent and as need shall require either make deprecations against private mens occasional miseries or thanksgivings for their occasional mercies And yet even in this respect The gift of Prayer may be more safely used upon premeditation then without it For supposing a Minister furnished with abilities of expressing himself readily and fitly upon all emergencies yet there being at least a possibility of miscarriage in his suddain effusions and those miscarriages which intervene in prayer being doubtless unsufferable if not unpardonable it would scarce be prudent if it were pious in such a man to adventure himself wholly upon his extemporary faculty But even in such a case either to form his Prayer in his mind if he have time or to use some form already in his memory if he have not So that his Prayer though it may seem conceived in regard of the Occasion yet will be little other then formed in regard of the premeditation But this by way of Caution in the use of the Gift As for the Gift it self be it said not only by way of Concession but also of Congratulation that in this respect and for this end it is to be most chiefly desired and may be most profitably exercised by any Minister so that in regard meerly of this ministration we may not unfitly apply unto such Ministers as have this Gift that eulogie of Saint Paul Qui benè ministraverint gradum bonum sibi acquirent multam fiduciam in fide quae est in Christo Jesu 1 Tim. 3. 13. They that have ministred well shall purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the Faith which is in Christ Jesus No doubt but they have ministred and do minister very well who minister to the people of God in their corporal and much more in their spiritual necessities and such Ministers do purchase to themselves a good Degree in the Ministry and a great boldness in the Faith only they were best take heed That they turn not this great boldness in their faith to a greater boldness in their Ministry For boldness in their faith may be commended when boldness in their Ministry may be justly condemned And they will turn the boldness of their faith into the boldness of their Ministry if they minister though in this excellent kind not as Demetrius who had a good report of all men and of the truth it self but as Diotrephes who loved to have the preheminence prating against others with malicious words and not only casting the Brethren out of the Church but also casting the Church out of the Nation under pretence of the want of this Gift For which intolerable pride and presumption not only an Apostle of Christ but also a meer heathen Poet will one day rise up Judgement against them who maketh Agamemnon say thus of Achilles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ilid α. If so be the Gods have made him a most famous warriour Have they therefore licenced him to reproach other men If God Almighty hath
Doctrine and to practise our Devotion and consequently are not only obliged to our internal but also to our external Communion And this obligation is so great as to reach the very Conscience and so strong as to bind it For where Religion binds the conscience by vertue of the three first Commandments there Communion must needs bind the Conscience by vertue of the fourth Commandment that not only every man in private but also all men in publick may glorifie God in Heart and Body and Words and Works This being the undoubted End for which God instituted the Sabbath and therefore the undoubted Duty which belongs to its institution And this would God have the meanest of his people know and practise and accordingly put the Psalms concerning it into an Alphabetical method that they might be the more diligently observed and the more easily remembred by all the Jews as for example the 111. Psalm is written Alphabetically the whole argument whereof is nothing else but the Praise of God for his works of Creation Preservation Redemption and teacheth us to praise him not only privately in our own houses but also publickly in his for so it is said ver 1. I will give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart secretly among the faithful that is according to the duty of Religion in the three first Commandments and in the Congregation that is openly among the faithful according to the duty of Communion in the fourth Commandment so also the hundred forty and fifth is written Alphabetically which is so properly a Psalm of praise that the Title of it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tehillah Laus because it is nothing else but the praise of God whence the Jews called him a son of the world to come who did every day say this Psalm not only with his mouth but also with his heart And this Psalm is not contented with private praises I will magnifie thee O God my King and I will praise thy name for ever and ever ver 1. but requireth also publick praises so that men shall speak of the might of thy marvellous acts ver 6. and all thy works praise thee O Lord and thy Saints give thanks unto thee ver 10. The private praise is according to the duty of Religion in the three first the publick praise is according to the duty of Communion in the fourth Commandment Wherefore since the fourth Commandment presupposeth the three former in its observation it can do no less then presuppose them also in its obligation so that a true and right publick worship of Almighty God obligeth all to come who are called to it by no less then four of Gods own Commandments and we may be sure that our blessed Saviour who will condemn us at the last day or our wilfull omissions of any one Commandment belonging to the second will much more condemn us for our wilful omissions of all the Commandments belonging to the First Table If he will say Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire because ye gave me no meat ye gave me no drink then much more because ye gave me no honour ye gave me no praise If because ye took me not into your houses then much more because ye took me not into your hearts If because ye cloathed me not then much more because ye glorified me not If because ye visited me not in the prison then much more because ye visited me not in the Temple Thus we have as much obligation upon the conscience as can be from the first Table of the Decalogue to keep Communion with our Church in the publick worship of God because she inviteth us to nothing but what is our indisputable and indispensable duty towards God even to profess our belief in him our fear of him our love to him with all our heart with all our mind and with all our soul and to practice what we profess by giving him thanks by calling upon him by honouring his holy Name and his Word and by serving him truly all the days of our life And we have also as much obligation upon the conscience as well can be from the second Table of the Decalogue to keep Communion with our Church in the same publick worship of Almighty God I speak of such obligations as arise from the order and relation of man to his neighbour which all flow from the fifth Commandment whereby every man is obliged to submit himself to those spiritual Pastors and Guides which God hath set over him and much more when they all agree in one which we call the authority of this our Church Then Obedite praepositis vestris Obey them that have the guide or rule you and submit your selves Heb. 13. 17. obligeth most certainly to an undeniable and were not this age given to question every thing but its own inventions I would also have said to an unquestionable obedience And this obligation which binds us to our spiritual Pastors and Guides hath not lost its force and vertue though we may think we have lost our Church First because of the authority which the Church hath to bind us secondly because of the duty to which we are bound First because of the authority which the Church hath to bind us since God hath committed us to her charge For Christ taught as one having authority Mat. 7. 29. So doth his Church He taught as one having authority from God she teacheth as one having authority from Christ T is not matter of custome or of conveniency that the Church doth teach and we do learn but matter of command and of conscience Therefore saith Saint Paul to Titus These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority Tit. 2. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum omnis imperio with all power and command for as Prudence hath three acts consiliari judicare praecipere to consult to judge and to command so hath the Church which God hath appointed as an external Prudence to guide and govern us in the exercise of Religion t is not enough for her to advise and to judge but she must also command in the name of God And this is Beza his own gloss upon the place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cum omni imperio id est cum autoritate summa tanquam Dei legatus nequesuo sed illius nomine agens omnia itaque adiecit Nemo te Despiciat Quibus verbis grex potius videtur à Paulo quam Pastor ipse officii admoneri with all power and command that is with the highest authority as Gods Legate saying and doing nothing in his own but all in Gods Name And therefore he addeth Let no man despiso thee By which words the Apostle seems not to admonish the Priests but the people of their duty So Beza and most truly for to say in relation to the Priest that hath nothing but prayers and tears for his defence Let no man despise thee were the ready way to make him most despicable But to say it
be the Spirit of God dwell in you and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 9. The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are one and the same Spirit for Christ is God And it were also to deny the greatest and chiefest comfort of Christianity which is this That the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in us to revive our souls now from the death of sin to revive our bodies hereafter from the death of the grave the Apostle plainly attributeth thr Resurrection of the soul from sin and of the body from death only to the dwelling of Christs Spirit in us Rom. 8. 10. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righeeousness there 's the resurrection of the soul from sin and again ver 11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you There 's the resurrection of the body from death And this is also from the Spirit that dwelleth in us as well as the other the Spirit of Christ raiseth the soul from sin the Spirit of Christ raiseth the body from death so that to deny the Holy Ghost to be the Spirit of Christ is to deny both our Regeneration and our Resurrection Wherefore this being of so dangerous a consequence The Master of the sentences would not impute this Tenent to the Greek Church as if they denyed the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son though they would not say in their Creed I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father and the Son but only who proceedeth from the Father who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified But he saith plainly that the Greek Church did agree with the Latine Church concerning that Article of Faith in sense though not in words Sensu nobis conveniunt dum aiunt Spiritum Sanctum esse Patris Filii They agree with us in the sense whilst they say that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son only we speak a little more plainly saying who proceedeth from the Father and the Son nor are we to be blamed saith he for adding to the Creed much less to be anathematized because our addition is not of a contrary assertion but of a necessary interpretation Nos enim non praedicamus contrarium sed addimus quod deerat ideoque non subjecti anathemati Lomb. 1. Sent. Dist 11. He is more careful to justifie his own Church for adding to the Creed then to condemn the Greek Church for not allowing that addition But his Scholars are not so moderate for Aquinas taxes Damascene of Nestorianism in the case and saith he was carried away with the Schism of the Greeks Damascenus sequitur errorem Nestorii Quod Sp. S. non procedit à Filio quia fuit tempore quo incepit illud Schisma Graecorum Aqu. 3. par qu. 36. art 2. ad 3. And Bonaventure is yet much mor fierce when he saith that the Greek Church denyed this article out of ignorance pride and perverseness Graecos negâsse hunc articulum ex ignorantiâ superbiâ pertinaciâ Bonav in lib. 1. sent dist 11. Three unmerciful words from a Church-mans mouth against a whole Church and surely altogether underserved For the Greek Church always acknowledged the Holy Ghost to be consubstantial with the Son as well as with the Father as appears by the Confession of Faith exhibited by Charisius in the Council of Ephesus in the sixth Action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spirit of truth the comforter being of the same essence or substance with the Father and the Son which plainly shews the Greek Church did not deny the article though they were loth to change their Creed wherein they found it was thus expressed Who proceedeth from the Father no mention at all made of the Son For this is their own profession in the Council of Florence in the 25. Session 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have our Creed from seven general Councils and weneither add thereto nor take therefrom And t is evident that the Latine Church it self did a long time demurr about this addition of Filioque to the Greek Creeds Nay Leo the third did strongly oppose it and that not only Papally in his Chair but also Episcopally in his Chancel for he did absolutely refuse this addition when he was thereto intreated by Charles the great and did set up the Creed over the Altar at Rome without it nor did Filioque get into the Article till the time of Benedict the seventh saith Binius in Syn. Constant which was above nine hundred and fifty years after Christ and about six hundred years after the divulging of that Creed But without doubt the Addition it self is to be justified for it was not Additio corrumpentium Symbolum sed perficientium as saith Bonaventure not an addition to corrupt the Creed but to perfect it or rather an explication not an addition as Bellarmine seems to distinguish Explicatio Doctrine non additio contrarii but the manner of maintaining it seems altogether unjustifiable For those of the Latine Church shewed little temper and as little charity in rejecting the Greek Church for hereticks which was trampled on enough by Turks and needed not Christians to help tread it more under foot for not admitting the same addition meerly because they thought themselves under the curse which the Latines are willing to put off by a distinction if they should recede but one tittle or syllable from the language of their own Creeds But this it seems was the fault of the Greek Church which hath been ever since accounted damnable Schism in all other Churches they could not swallow much less digest that crude position Ad summum Pontificem pertinet fidei Symbolum ordinare It belongs to the Pope to order and dispose of the Creeds A position so unreasonable that Aquinas himself the greatest Master of reason among all the Schoolmen is fain to fly to Gratians decree to fetch a proof for it and that proof depends altogether upon the Authority of some few Popes who were very partial Judges in their own cause This is clear that the objection about Athanasius his Creed doth so puzzle him that he is fain in effect to say his Creed is no Creed because he cannot find the Popes hand was in the making of it Athanasius non composuit manifestationem fidei per modum Symboli sed per modum cuiusdam Doctrin◠Athanasius did not set out this manifestation of the faith as a Creed but as a Doctrinal institution notwithstanding the very title of it in Greek is the same which is prefixed to the Apostles Creed and the Latine Church calleth it Symbolum Athanasii unto this day It is not suitable with my purpose and much less with my desire