Old Testament a very fit original Archetype to answer our Evangelical Terestrial Sacrifice That was the Manna which was called Bread by Moses and was indeed Rained from Heaven and is called the Food of Angels by the Psalmist No doubt to shew its Heavenly Mystical Nature far exceeding the Nature of our common Bread It is called also a Body prepared as the same Apostle Quotes the Words of the Old Testament These are the very Expressions us'd by our blessed Saviour concerning his own Sacrament in St. Joh. vi He also calls it Manna Bread from Heaven and his own Body exactly according to these Mystical Reasonings from the Old Testament We never find any mention of an Archetypal Heavenly Beast answering those Bloody Sacrifices Yet the whole Benefit of these Sacrifices depended on these Archetypal Patterns answering them in Heaven Thence follow'd the Obligation of God to ratify in Heaven what was performed by the Priest on Earth in giving or denying the Mystical Benefits of the Sacraments as the Priest shall think fit to give or deny the Sacramental Elements Thence the Union between the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant on account of the Union between the Caelestial Archetype and the Terrestrial Eucharistical Sacrifice Thence the Union between the Patriarchal Church of the Old Testament and the Apostolical of the New because the whole efficacy of those old Sacrifices of Beasts was derived from their representing and applying the Death of our blessed Saviour as commemorated and apply'd in our Christian Eucharistical Sacrifice Thence the Union of all the visible Churches in the World with the Caelestial Church and among themselves and the Reason obliging all particular Churches in Earth to ratify each others Censures which was that which made their Admissions into Communion and their Excommunications Catholick tho' the Acts themselves were only the Acts of single Churches The Reason was because every particular in admitting a Member intitled the Member so admitted to the Heavenly Church with which all the particularly Churches in the World were one and therefore were obliged to own such a Member for a Member of themselves And every particular Church in Excommunicating a Member deprived the Excommunicated of his Right to the Heavenl Church which whosoever wanted could not be owned by any particular Church which pretended to be one with that which was Heavenly of so much consequence was this whole Mystical Reasoning greater perhaps than our Adversary was aware of However this Reasoning gives a clear Account that tho' Instrumental Musick were as indifferent as we conceive it to be it would not therefore follow that it would be Indifferent or in the Power of any Church to restore the Custom of Bloody Sacrifices I know not whether it be worth XXII No Reason for opposing the first Impositions whilst Lawful for fear of Rigours afterwards the while to take notice of another Consequence much insisted on by the Party that is the Danger of exceeding in Impositions if the first Impositions be submitted to But truly conscientious Reasoners would first have prov'd the Hurtfulness of many lawful Impositions if submitted to by the Ecclesiastical subject The Government might indeed be blamed for it but in the subject for whom they are concern'd tho' the Imposition were indeed hard yet submission to it for Peace sake would for that Reason be highly commendable as an Act of the greater self-denyal and the greater Zeal for Pecae and Discipline and the greater Abhorrence of needless Division whilst nothing Sinful were impos'd Then they would have given some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the due Number that might be impos'd that might neither be too small nor too numerous This they would have done if they had desir'd to have purged themselves to God and their own Consciences that they had not oppos'd subjection to those who were over them in the Lord but Rigours of those who had abus'd the just Authority committed to them But to stop at the first Impositions before they can pretend them Rigorous looks as if Flesh and Blood as if Stomach and Resentment as if an aversation to subjection it self had been the original of their Quarrel It runs into the opposite extreme as indeed their Defences of their Schism generally do as if the Authority it self not any Tyrannical use of it were the thing regretted by them The Topick it self they cannot defend nor justifie the Consequences of it who are notwithstanding so forward to warn others of Consequences There is hardly any thing necessary in Humane Life but what excess may make pernicious Eating is so Yet how great a part do Surfeits make in our Bills of Mortality Will they therefore think it reasonable for avoiding Surfeits to disswade from Eating If they had no design of running into an extreme of opposing all Impositions in things indifferent our Churches Impositions whatever the Out-cry has been against them have been so few that I cannot tell how even our Adversaries themselves could charge our Churches Impositions with being excessive if they had allowed of any Impositions at all If they allow of none they would do well to own that their Disputes are not against Abuses only of Authority but against Authority it self Their doing so would let the Favourers of Comprehension see that our Disputes are not indeed of so trivial an Importance as they are commonly conceiv'd to be That they are indeed whether we shall have any Authority which our Adversaries shall think themselves oblig'd in Conscience to own and to be concluded by when nothing but Conscience can oblige them to it in a State of Persecution That is indeed whether we our selves shall have any Body Politick when they are once receiv'd into it For we cannot any longer have such a Body than we have the Authority essential to the Constitution of such a Body Then it would become the Favourers of Comprehension to consider whether any Grants of our Adversaries can make amends for so great a Concession on our Parts as the Dissolution of our selves Or whether any other independent Body in the World would think fit to admit Enemies to their Constitution into their Body together with their hostile Opinions or whether they could think any Pretences how fair soever they might seem otherwise to be sufficient to compensate a Reconciliation of so fatal Consequence The rather so because it perfectly discharges Persons reconcil'd on such Terms from all Obligations to perform what should afterwards be perform'd as a Condition of the Reconciliation on their Parts For it is only their Difference to our common Authority that can make them really one with us when they are admitted into our Assemblies The giving this up to them as a Condition of their coming in to us is like opening a Gap which may seem to let them in whilst themselves please but lets them out again as soon as their old Animosities shall put them on laying hold of new Pretences or retrieving the old ones But
rather which they would seem to be offended at more out of a pretence to keep up a Separation than that any Offence can be justly taken at the things themselves And that this is no uncharitable or groundless surmise is evident from their Aversion to Alterations in the time of the Sessions of the last Convocation as they were before in that of 1660. And the Conference at the Savoy when they might have been satisfied in any thing could they have agreed in what would have satisfied them besides a total Subversion of the English Constitution which is at this time in an especial manner and always has been since the Reformation the greatest Bullwark of the Protestant Religion against Popery of any in the whole Christian World And 't was sadly apparent what great advances Popery made in the late times of Anarchy and Confusion when this excellent Constitution was subverted and thro' the Policy of the Church of Rome her most Zealous and Religious Defenders were traduc'd as Popishly affected and by their Instigation cut off because in truth they were the most irreconcilable Enemies to the Tyranny and Corruption of that Church as any People whatsoever Witness besides the Royal Martyr himself the incomparable Arch-Bishop Laud * Called by Mr. Long the Papists Scourge and Horrour who if Times would have favour'd him had Zeal and Courage and Learning and Interest enough to have driven Popery out of any Kingdom in Christendom And for certain the return of it in this Kingdom will for ever be prevented whatever is pretended by ill designing Men if the Doctrine and Discipline of our Church be but maintain'd with a like Resolution and Christian Bravery as he maintained them when he adorned the See of Canterbury The sticking close to which is the readiest Course that can be taken to keep out Popery and nothing else will be able to do it For notwithstanding the Out-cry of Popery be at every turn made against our Church Service which is one of the grossest and foulest Slanders that ever was invented or credited and could proceed from nothing so much as an ill Design against her * Nothing can make an honest Man suspect our Church of Popery but his Ignorance what Popery is London Cases p. 493. or from great Ignorance of what Popery is were this excellent Constitution destroy'd Popery in all probability would soon destroy the Protestant Religion quite and we should be clearly over-run with the Tyranny as well as Superstition of that corrupt Church which at present domineers over so great a part of Christendom and threatens Ruin and Desolation to all the rest We see too much what would be our own Case by the barbarous Persecution of the Protestants in France Savoy c. notwithstanding the Edicts and Oaths and Declarations of those Princes to the contrary if we should through the subtilty of the Court of Rome be perswaded by any of our Dissenters to alter our English Constitution or so much as admit of the desired Comprehension under the plausible pretence of Union but in truth it would be a means of dividing and weakning us the more among our selves than we could hope to win from abroad 'T is plain we might gratifie our Enemies thereby but we should never oblige our Friends nor strengthen our Interest nor one jot the less be calumniated as Popish But that the Church of England is free from any such Imputation of Popery is so clearly and candidly evinc'd by the learned Dr. Hooper the present Dean of Canterbury in his excellent Treatise on that Subject at the end of the London Cases that it will be needless for any one to say more to it for those that will not be convinced of the contrary by his Reasons do but expose their Ignorance to the World or what is worse their Prejudice or ill Design Among other things which some of those who dissent from us dislike and against all Honesty and Reason make to be a part of Popery is the Practice of Instrumental Musick in our Church Service But 't is a very ridiculous Argument to say so because the Church of Rome uses it and very uncharitable and unjust while the generality of Protestant Churches abroad as well as ours at home which are any where established have the use of it as well as that and have had so ever since the Reformation Our first Reformers were certainly wiser than to account that for Popish and to be quite abolished which was as useful then in the Christian Church as before and which they did Reform where they found it grosly abused but did never think fit to abolish the use of it or account it a piece of Popery to be cast off Those excellent Men were not possessed with such a Spirit of Opposition as against all Sense and Reason to run away from every thing in Divine Worship which the Papists did use or allow this would be bad indeed and a much greater Errour than that which they pretend to avoid for then they must disown God and his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ because the Papists believe them then they must lay aside the Hierarchy because the Papists maintain it and have no Places nor Times set a part for divine Worship nor set Forms of Prayer to address themselves by to the great God of Heaven and Earth because the Papists have them nor indeed have any Decency or Comliness in the House of God because such are to be seen in the Church of Rome No 't is the Corruptions and Superstitions of the Church of Rome we are Reform'd from and 't is not requisite we should be still a Reforming what is thought Decent Regular Primitive and Edifying in our Church And I Challenge any even the most Bigotted Dissenters from the Church of England to shew any one Superstitious Rite or corrupt Doctrine of the Church of Rome which is allowed or maintained in our establish'd Church They may accuse the Surplice for being such but with what shew of Reason to satisfie an unprejudiced Man Why they may as well account a Black Gown to be Popish or a Judges Scarlet being the Grab of the Whore of Babylon or Rev. 17. 4. a grey Cloak because it is worn by some of the Friars And so for the * This Sign both Tertullian and St. Cyprian allow was used from the time of the Apostles continued in use in the time of Constantine the Great and therefore could not be an Invention of the Papists Opus p. 326. Mr. Long 's Calv. Redivivus p. 72. Cross after Baptism for there is no such in it the Ministers making that Sign as a significant Ceremony that in Token hereafter the Child which is Baptized shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified c. is no more Popish than the speaking those Words is Popish nor those decent and significant Rites and Ceremonies which our Church Governors have thought fit to appoint for the more
this Practice of Instrumental Musick might have been reserved to the Apostolical Church till that Church was utterly extinguished by the Death of the last Apostles After the last residence of the Apostolical Body at Ephesus in Trajan's time all the Churches in the World were equal to that Church where the Apostles had made their last residence and equal withal among themselves Then they might if they pleased have taken up that same Custom universally But were very unlikely to do so having never till that time used it And for any one single Church to have done so when the rest did not so would have been thought invidious and assuming It might have been Interpreted as a Challenge of the Catholick Jurisdiction to have alone exercis'd the Prerogative of that Church which before had a Right to a Catholick Jurisdiction So Solomon Interpreted it in his Brother Adonijah that de desired one of the Royal Concubines For they also followed the right of the Crown as appears from the 2 Sam. xii 8. This was far from the Humility of those Times and gives a clear Account why it might have been universally disus'd how lawful soever it might have been thought otherwise But this could be no hindrance why it might not have been resumed afterwards by any particular Church that pleased when there was no danger of that Consequence When the memory of the Apostolical prerogative was lost and when no Title could be pretended for any particular Church in the World why it should succeed to the Apostolical prerogative The pretence of the Church of Rmeisfar later than these earliest itmes of Christianity of which I am now speaking However it was very natural for their earliest Successors when they sound this Practice discontinued in Fact to impute the discontinuance of it to some disapprobation it had receiv'd from the Christian Religion and to bethink themselves of some such Reasons as these produc'd by them why it might have been disliked by them who discontinued it as unsuitable to the Dignity of the new Peculium But I have shewn that this Reasoning of theirs in this particular could not possibly be the Reasoning of the Apostolical Age who both actually Communicated with Instrumental Musick and who allowed it a place in Heaven which was not accounted the Place of Rudiments and Children according to the Hypothesis of mystical Reasoning This is abundantly sufficient to discharge us from any Obligation to be concluded by the Reasonings of these Fathers in this particular how great a Veneration soever we may profess for their Authority in attesting Traditions either of their own Age or the Apostles Indeed the whole design of this Topick of Reasoning from the State of Nonage and Rudiments was not to prove the observation even of the externals of the Mosaic Law unlawful but the stopping at them so as not to admit the farther Discoveries of the Gospel The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is opposed to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. iv 13. And to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was when God sent his son made of a woman made under the Law Gal. iv 4. This was to stop at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Law is called Gal. iii. 24. whose Office was to bring us to Christ if then they refused to be taught by Christ but chose rather still to continue under the Discipline of the Paedagogue That was indeeed a keeping themselves back from enjoying the Benefit of that fullness of Age which as we have seen commenced with our Saviour's Dispensation And it was a listing themselves with Children to keep still to the Paedagogue who by the Discipline of that Age was a perpetual Companion and Guardian of the Morals of unadult Persons till they reached those Years of Discretion that might make it safe to trust them to themselves This did not therefore in the least make the practice of the Law Childish whilst they used it as the Apostles themselves did in subordination to the new Discoveries of the Gospel that is whilest they observed only those particulars of the Law which were consistent with the Gospel Which will neither save the ends of those Fathers nor our Adversaries The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plainly allude to the things wherein those Youths which were under the Discipline of Paedagogues were usually Instructed Especially during the former part of that Discipline That was Grammatical Learning wherein they were Instructed by their Grammarians and Literators the Letters themselves being properly call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But as this Word is used here it plainly denotes the Ectypal resemblances of the Law in opposition to the Evangelical Heavenly Archetypes which were supposed to answer them under the Gospel So Mount Sinai is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. iv 25. Here we have the true Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is used by St. Paul Mount Sinai in Arabia the portion of Hagar the Handmaid is supposed to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is in opposition to Mount Sion the Mountain of the true Peculium which answered is as the portion of Sarah the Free-woman the Mother of the true Peculium So the very antient Author teaches de Montibus Sinai Sion by some ascribed to St. Cyprian Agreeably enough to the Notions of the new Testament where we frequently find Mount Sion mentioned as that wherein the Archetypal Mystical Peculium was alone concerned Rom. ix 33. xi 26. Heb. xii 22. 1 Pet. ii 6. Rev. xiv 1. This being indeed the Title by which the Peculium is designed in the old Testament wherein it is so frequently called the Daughter and the Virgin Daughter of Sion never of Sinai tho' thence it was that Moses received his Law Accordingly the Jerusalem that is now is said also to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is another Fellow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the same Sense wherein the Word had been used of Mount Sinai in opposition to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Mother of us all Gal. iv 26. In both Cases the Worldly Figures are so called in opposition to the Heavenly Archetypes of the Gospel They are therefore called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. iv 3. Col. ii 8 20. As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. vi 12 in opposition to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is always ascribed to the Messias So the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. ix 1 is opposed to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 24. And as I have shewn that the Church here on Earth is called Heaven so the deserting the Church is called the loving this present World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. iv 10. opposed as I said to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Messias These 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. iv 9. They are first called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉