dare say nearest to those of the Primitive times and shall I hope come every day more neare then other to them insomuch that if then it might be truly said not only that the Kings daughter was all glorious within but that her clothing likewise was of wrought gold so also now For whereas the factious from time to time together with their silly Proselytes have endeavoured to cry downe that uniformity which best becommeth God's publike worship it is more like to be advanced now then ever since the dayes of Reformation And 't is for certaine a good and pious worke God's blessing therefore light upon them who do their best to set it forward for it will cause that beauty of holinesse to be apparent which best beseemes devote sincere and pious worshippers 3. The third sort are Schismaticks a perverse and peevish generation who will not come but where they affect and when they please and yet these be they who are all for hearing For were it not for Sermons it were more then a miracle to see them approach God's holy Temple And so Saint Chrysostome observed of some in his time Chrysost hom 3. in 2 Thess saying thus Why therefore do we enter the Church except we may heare one stand up and preach And yet not every one neither For it is seldome when that their owne Pastor can please them They have an itch in their braines and must be fed by such as they best affect and as for Learning and Conformity they grinne and snarle against it This maketh them runne to and fro to seeke out such as spit against set forms of prayer disrespect Churches delight in the breach of Canons hate Discipline contemne orders and despise Bishops although the Scriptures teach them a lesson which is cleane contrary and in particular telleth not obscurely that He who wil not obey the Church must be accounted as an Heathen and a Publican Math. 18.17 But let the Scripture say what it wil if it makes against them such is their humour that they care not for it and therefore they who be most disordered are best affected These they will follow from parish to parish from town to towne from city to city from one kingdome to another people yea from one England to another And if it be that upon necessity they must sometimes frequent their owne parish Churches they will if it be possible be Tardè venientes Late commers for what care they for Common prayers That kinde of Service may not be touched they contemne they scoffe they inveigh against it But let them take heed that this foule sinne be never laid unto their charge They sinke without recovery who persisting kicke at what they should embrace And therefore let them take heed I say that God wipe not out their names out of the Booke of life for scorning that Booke which as I have else where shewed containes the services of the living God in which I know nothing contrary to his holy Word For although the Prayers be short mixed with many ejaculations and the forme of them be set and not conceived by men ex tempore yet is it no just plea to except against them It is enough for Heathens and bragging Pharisees Math. 6.7.8.9 Math. 23.14 Mark 12.14 Luke â—0 47 Eccles 5.2 to make long and idle babling prayers but as for those who will avoid the censure of our Saviour and vanities which Solomon observed in divine Service it is for them not only to let their words be few but also to regard that they be not rash with their mouthes nor hasty to utter any thing before God It was certainely in another case that Christ would not have his Apostles to be carefull what to speake for this was in cases of persecution Math. 10.19 when they should be enabled to speake before those unto whose judgement Seate they should be brought a singular gift in those dayes to the holy Martyrs But for Prayer he gave his rule of Pray thus and that even then when he blamed such as prayed otherwise Thus or after this manner That 's first Let thy words be few and next Let the forme be Set. And so thou hast a perfect Thus made up of these two as hath been the Churches practise in all Ages ever since For first they did not onely pray in those very words and season all their service with that Prayer of the Lord but even the Prayers that they made were Creberrimae brevissimae frequent and full of fervent brevitie Because in a long and tedious Prayer not well compacted as there may be many vaine and idle repetitions 1 Cor. 14.16 so a weake devotion may be lost but being short often Amens and answers are required and so the attention kept the better waking And by how much the more earnest by so much the shorter and fuller of ejaculations as in the end of our Letanie well appeareth We doe not conjure then nor cut our Service into shreds when with instant cryings the eager spirit doth shew how fervently it Askes it Seekes it Knocks And so also for the second they used formes set and digested least somewhat might be uttered through ignorance or carelessenesse which might be contrary to the Faith as in ancient councells is declared Concil 3. of Carth c. 23. Concil Milv Chrysost hom 18. in 2 Cor. 8 And so also speaketh holy Chrysostome Our Prayers sayth he are common all say the same Prayer Nor was it but an injuction to Aaron and his Sonnes to use a short set forme when they blessed the people Numb 6.23 Nor was it likewise but the practise of holy Meses who was faithfull in the house of God to have one set forme of blessing Heb. 3.2 which he used at the removing and resting of the Arke Numb 10.35.36 And did not Saint Paul blesse often in the same words read his Epistles and 't is apparent and chiefely see what he sayth in the 1 Cor. 14.26 How is it when ye come together that every one of you hath a Psalme hath a Doctrine hath a Tongue c. Let all things bee done unto edifying Nay more even he who taught his Disciples to pray in that manner formerly mentioned did also pray before his Passion more then once or twice not in other but in the same words For looke in what words he prayed to the Father at the first of the three times there recorded in those he prayed at the second and third time also And will none of these things move thee to come betimes to Gods house and to performe all duties as well as some or art thou so singular by thy selfe as that thou scornest to pray with thy neighbours at the appointed time after the appointed manner and in the appointed place If thou art then Scalam in Coelum erigito Make thee a Ladder and ascend up into heaven from us as Constintine once said to Acesius Sozom. lib. 1. c. 21. for
me close up this point and say Auris bona est quae libentèr audit utilia prudentèr discernit audita obedientèr operatur inteliecta Meaning that That is a good eare which willingly heareth things profitable wisely discerneth things heard and obediently performeth hirgs discerned For as Hierom speaketh Ille plus didicit qui plus facit He hath learned most who practiseth or doth most 2. And now from Obedience unto Doctrine I passe to that of Government This hath relation to those Fathers in especiall who as the Apostle saith are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 13.17 Praelati that is such as are set to have the oversight and government of the Church watching labouring for the good of mens soules not only like unto other ordinary Priests where when occasion shal require who are indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est intendere but much more in caring for the Church as men peculiarly set over it and are therefore said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est superintendere supervigilare For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is one thing and belongs to every Priest but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is another and pertaines solely to such of the Clergy as have a Key of Jurisdiction as well as a Key of Order These then are they who as I said doe watch and labour for the good of mens soules not only like unto other ordinary Ministers where and when occasion shall require but much more in caring for the Church as men peculiarly set over it to see to the preserving of peace and truth order and decency in Gods publike worship without which neither could the Church consist nor Gods worship be maintained but soules sinke for want of helpe Such watchmen then are not set up in vaine but are without doubt as needfull as was pitch was for the Ark of Noah to keep it from drowning under the waters Obey them therefore and submit your selves unto them 't is the voice of God and not of man which calls you to it Heb. 13.17 Nor is there cause why ye should refuse it For if the politicall lawes of even Heathen Princes Rom. 13.1.5 Dan 3. Acts 4.15 are to be obeyed for conscience sake except where they enjoine disobedience unto God then much more these that are for the maintenance of truth concord order and decency in his publike worship Or if you will take up the reason thus Civill powers appertaine to the defence of corporall life and civill society and cannot therefore be disobeyed without detriment to the Common weale But powers Ecclesiasticall have to doe with Religion and the worship of God They meddle with men not as men but as men called to lead a spirituall life and therefore cannot be disobeyed without harme or detriment to that end for which they were first ordained Or thus there is but one God who is the authour of both powers so that if we must obey on the one hand we may not disobey on the other except we make it a thing of nothing to fight against the ordinances of our heavenly Father Tit. 3.2 Put them in remembrance saith the Apostle that they be subject to Principalities and Powers and that they be obedient This for the one So also Obey them that have the over sight of you Heb. 13.17 and submit your selves for they watch for your soules That for the other Herein agreeing to the doctrine of our Saviour delivered by himselfe Goe and tell the Church Math. 18.17 and if he refuse to heare the Church let him be unto thee as an Ethnicke and a Publican Christian Princes have indeed to doe in these things as in the rankes of Church Governours I have already shewed but not to the disanulling of the power For they be sent of God as Nursing Fathers to his Church and are therefore to defend and maintaine the power thereof against all sorts of opposites that oppose themselves against it And verily a law and custome of the Church was heretofore of greater weight than to be of light esteeme The ancients thought it to be a good argument of it selfe alone to convince others in their strugglings Hereupon that holy Father Saint Austin could urge This is the authority of our Mother the Church Hoc habet authoritas Matris Ecclesiae Hoc Ecclesia commendat saluberrima authoritas Premitur mole Matris Ecclesiae c. In which testimonies we see that this blessed pillar of Gods House accounted the Laws and Ordinances of the Church to be a strong and conquering weapon against the adversaries of the Church But such are the humours of these times and so thwart to all lawfull authority that one and the same act which would be willingly performed if it were left to every ones free choice may not be done when it comes backt with authority For though it were accounted lawfull or indifferent before is now as if the nature of it were altered or not so warrantable as before it was commanded Why else doe they question what the Church enjoyneth and like quarrelsome high-minded people love to dwell in the fiery flames of contention It is a signe of some distemper a distemper that commeth of an heat or humour of pride for as Solomon speaketh Only by pride commeth contention Prov. 13.10 but with the well advised is wisedome But what care they for that for let it but be that they may cry loudest and have the last word they are still bigger in conceit and falsely take it as a truth that they have answered all sufficiently whereas on the other side a modest disputer knoweth it is to little purpose to contend with a man full of words or reason with a resolved and selfe willed opposite Quid prodest Simiae si videatur esse Leo But be not you who are such See the 2d Epish to Tim. chap. 3. 2 Pet. 2.10 be not I beseech you so heady high-minded fierce despisers of government presumptuous selfe-willed c. as to disobey or speake evill of dignities for these are humours best befitting the lewdnesse of lawlesse persons and loosenesse of licentious livers who have indeed an outward forme of godlinesse but have denyed the power thereof witnesse their creeping into houses to lead captive simple women who as the Apostle speaketh are laden with sinnes ◠Tim. 3.6 and led with divers lusts These are like Iannes and Iambres which resisted Moses as if God had not given him that power and authority which he had After whom was Corah and his company a seditious sect but smarted for it by a suddaine judgement Or to speake with Saint Peter 2 Pet. 2.10 They are bold and stand in their owne conceit not fearing to speake evill of them that be in place of dignity or authority especially against men of the Church But as Saint Iohn saith of Love so may I say of Obedience namely How can they obey God whom they have not seene if they will not
shall shew thee the sentence of judgement Upon which ground David setting the Kingdome in better order then in processe of time it was growne into 1 Chro. 23.4 appointed sixe thousand Levites to bee Indges and Magistrates over the people and beyond Iordan towards the West 1 Chron. 26.30 a thousand and seven hundred both to serve God in the place of Levites and also to serve the King in offices of State ibid. verse 32. Hee also set two thousand and seven hundred to bee over the Tribes of Ruben Gad and Manasseth to heare and determine in causes both Ecclesiasticall and Civill The like also did Iehosophat in his reformation of the Church and Common-weale 2 Chron. 19.5.8.11 Ezra was a Priest Ezr. c. 7. 8. yet who but he that first of all after the Captivitie ordered all matters both for the Church Nehe. c. 1. and State Nehemiah came not up untill 13. yeares after for Nehemiah was in the twentieth and Ezra in the 7. yeare of Artaxerxes Zorobabel I grant was long before but he did little or nothing for the reducing of things into a forme of government or suppose he did Ezra we are sure did a great deale more Neither was it 1 Sam. c. 2.18 c. 7.15.16 but that even before all these Samuel as a Priest ministered before the Lord in a linnen Ephod and as a Iudge did ride his circuit every yeare over all the land yea and in the daies of Saul although he was the annointed King yet Samuel ruled joyntly with him so long as they lived each with other or at the least was such a Counseller to him as that after hee was dead and buried he seeks to heare what he would advise or answer standing then destitute of such direction as he had usually received from him Nay sooner yet for Phineas was sent Ambassadour to proclaim war against the Rubenites the Gadites the half tribe of Manasses Iosh 22.12.3 The Priests overthrew the Citie Iericho Iosh 6. Nor did they afterwards but sound their Trumpets and bid the battell in the warre of Ahiiah against Ieroboam 2 Chron. 13.12.14 The land also is divided among the Tribes by Eleazar and Ioshua Numb 34.17 A thousand likewise of every Tribe is sent out to war against the Midianites under the conduct of Phineas Numb 31.6 And in the same warre the spoyles were divided among the Souldiers by Moses and Eleazar the Priest and the cheife Fathers of the Congregation verse 26. The people also were numbred by Moses and Eleazar in the plaine of Moab as they had been numbred formerly by Moses and Aaron in the wildernesse of Sinai Numb 26.63.64 From which testimonies it is plaine and manifest that some such Priests as the King thinks fit may when he pleaseth be lawfully employed in civill affaires or offices and may even thus be honoured as were those Priests of old And whereas some object that arguments drawne from the old Testament An objection answered prove nothing now under the New it is answered First that they may as well deny the arguments taken from thence against the Popes authority and domineering power over Christian Kings and Princes as denie these arguments for proofe of that civill honour which is thus given to the Ministers of the Gospell And therefore it is not love but envie which would seeme to bolster out things with such new Divinitie Secondly the Ministers of the Gospell as one hath well observed may with more convenience be employed in civill offices then those Priests under the Law whose time is not now taken up as then it was with attendance on the daily sacrifices great number of feasts solemnities and such like occasions by which their leisure was lesse to heare civill matters then now to the Minister under the Gospell Thirdly the Ministers of the Gospell have succeeded in a place of the Levites and looke what in that kinde was lawfull for them to doe is not unlawfull now especially seeing these employments pertained not to things typicall figurative or ceremoniall And fourthly although Christ and his Apostles were never thus employed yet is that nothing against our tenet For who made me a judge over you sayth Christ Intimating Luke 12.14 that unlesse the supreame Magistrate shall assigne Clergie-men to such offices they may not meddle with them But had the Church and Common-wealth been both one then it had beene as lawfull as in the daies of old which appointment or assignation was never like to bee so long as the Church was in the Kingdome of heathen tyrants Certain it is that when the Emperours became Christians some men of the Church were thus employed And although the condition of the Ministers of Christ differed not in this from that of the Levites yet it could not shew it selfe till then Examples are not wanting Theod. lib. 2. c. 30. Theodorit makes mention of one Iames Bishop of * Called also Nysibit Antioch in Mygdonia who shined with Apostolicall grace and yet was both Bishop and governour of the aforesaid Citie Or if this testimonie be obscure see another Saint Ambrose was twice employed in the office of an Ambassadour by the Emperour Valentinian and not without good successe Socrates also makes mention of one Marutha Socrat. lib. 7. c. â— Bishop of Mesopotamia whom the Emperour of Rome sent in an Ambassage to the King of Persia which employment likewise proved good both to the Church and Common-weale Neither can this bee called an inuasion of the offices of the civill Magistrate or be contrary to the rule of any auncient Canon when it is done by the consent and appointment of the chiefe Magistrate as in the lawes of Iustinian alledged by Saravia is apparent Lib. de honore Prasulibus et Presbyt debito cap. 20. And although the the Popes lawes have decreed the contrary yet it is not fit sayth one that we which are a reformed Church and have long since abandoned the Popes authority Dr Dove of Church govern pag. 40. should now forsake God and the examples of the holy Bible to follow the Pope and his Canons Fiftly and lastly Saint Paul thought it lawfull to spend his spare time in the worke of his hands But if the necessitie of Domesticke affaires may excuse a Pastour of the Church for so doing then much more may they be excused for doing such offices when the King thinkes it fit that they bee called thereunto as shall benefit the common wealth wherein they live Neither doth this appertaine to the entangling of our selves with the things of this World For that text where this is mentioned striketh at those whose covetous hands and greedie hearts are so glewed to the earth for the gathering to themselves a private estate that they forget every such thing as may tend to the good either of the Church or State wherein they live which every good Christian and therefore every upright man of God
at their payments to the Church Poore or to their Ministers The Prodigall thinkes all too little for himselfe and therefore is loath to spare any thing from the feeding of his owne unthrifty vanities And last of all the proud like Corah and his company thinke Ministers take too much upon them They scorne they contemne they despise to be ruled by them and therefore being without religion they judge it good policie to curtall the Ministers maintenance that by that meanes they may keepe him under and do what they list Object Oh Object 8 but Christ and his Apostles tooke no tythes they were content with a poore and meane estate therefore the Ministers of the Gospel may not be rich they may not claime the Tenth as their proper due Answ This was as Master Robarts well observeth at the first the subtilty of the crafty Friars to undermine the Incumbents Answ and beneficed Curates and is now the practise of not a few to seduce such as are either envious or ignorant It is indeed requisite as well for Ministers as for all other Christians both to bee and to seeme regardlesse of worldly things yet must we not be as hee againe observeth either so superstitious as to fling away and abhorre or so carelesse as to despise or specially so bad as to betray that faire portion wherewith God hath endowed our callings Neither againe secondly is it a fit argument to say because things were thus and thus in the beginning of the Gospel under an heathen Magistrate and in such times as persecution made havocke of the Church and put all things out of square that therefore they ought not to have bin otherwise Things were then so well as the times and occasions would suffer not so well as by degrees they came afterwards to be and yet even then could the Apostle urge the Lords ordinance to be still of force and that the Hearers ought to communicate to their Teachers in all their goods Which liberty though lawfull they could not but suspend for a time for feare of hindring a new plantation and so the Apostle speaketh in the first Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 9. Verse 12. Howbeit the fact doth not alwayes prove the Right no not in this very thing as it is at the 4.5 and 6. verses of the forenamed Chapter nor ever were things setled or brought into their due order on a sudden witnesse both our owne experience in what wee have seene as also the experience which Paul himselfe had of the first times why else did hee say That the rest he would set in order when he came 1 Cor. 11.34 And therefore to speake in the words of a learned Writer as Circumcision was laide aside for a time Dr. Carlt. of tythes c. 4. pag 22. whilst Israel travelled through the wildernesse not because the people of right ought not then also to have used it but because it was so incommodious for that estate and time of the Church See Iosh Chap. 5. that it could not without great trouble be practised Even so the use of tythes in the time of Christ and his Apostles was laid aside not because it ought not but because it could not on the suddaine without great inconvenience be admitted And as Circumcision was resumed as soon as the estate of the Church could beare it so tythes were reestablished as so one as the condition of the Church could suffer it Besides the Apostles as their callings to the Ministery were immediate so their gifts were extraordinary and therefore Saint Paul could preach without study and so had much spare time for other busines wherein it was convenient for the present to get his living rather then to require the tythes and offerings as was wont to be done of old by those who did the service And why not require them I have already shewed Wereas wee though God hath given us gifts and these of sundry measures yet without study wee cannot doe so with them as is fit wee should Wee therefore study both to increase them and also profitably to employ them And so doing wee have more reason to claime our just dues then they of the first times For meanes you know is requisite if for no other cause yet for this that wee may bee the better furnished with Bookes and such necessary helpes as may make us the more able to goe on the more powerfully in the workes of our calling praying alwayes for Gods blessing upon our labours and studious endeavours for it is not labour alone without prayer nor prayer without paines-taking that can doe it I my selfe have knowne this example of Saint Pauls working with his owne hands not seldome urged against the honourable maintenance of our present Clergy but we see God be thanked that it is to very little purpose It was not ordinary for all the Apostle to doe the like nor yet out of the power of either Paul or Barnabas to have done other wise For which see the proofe in the 1 Cor. 9.5.6 Moreover tythes were payed to the Priests and Levites in the time of Christ and his Apostles And we know that the Iewish Synagogue must be first buried before these duties could bee ordinarily performed towards the Ministers of the Gospel and so when the Synagogue was buried and the state of the Church of Christ such as could beare the practise of paying tythes they were brought into use in the Church of Christ as formerly in the dayes of the Iewish Synagogue Also in the Churches nonage or first infancy her Ministers were but few and unsetled whereas afterwards they were otherwise and must then be hospitable ready to entertaine and be freely devoted to workes of Charity but without thier due revenew how could they performe any part of this duty for Charity wee know begins at home and a man must first have wherewithall before he can give It was not long therefore before order was taken for their honourable maintenance Something vvas done at the very first vvherein some Churches as Saint Paul speaketh vvere more forward then others were and unto this vvas added daily more and more not in one kind alone Mr. Rob. pag. 61. but in a second Insomuch that in a short space provision was made for the Ministers of the Church two manner of wayes partly by the bounty of well disposed people which tooke place at the first and partly by tythes and offerings as soone as might bee which were paid them More Levitarum as formerly to the Levites And herein Zanchie hath well collected what wee find in ancient Writers viz. that these revenues both of tythes and offerings were wont to be paid to the Bishop of each Diocesse at whose direction they were distributed among the Ministers appertaining to every such division For in the beginning of those times the whole Clergy did in common attend the whole flocke the Bishop and the Ministers for the most part living as it were in common together But