Nature and in that Morall Law which is written in the heart of man That such dayes there must be is Morall and this is Morall too that all things in the seruice of God bee done in order and this also that obedience be giuen to Superiours in those things wherein they are Superiors And therfore it was to the Iewes as well Morall to obserue the certaine dayes which God had determined as to obserue any at all Not that Gods commandement limitting the dayes infused a Moralitie into those particular dayes for Moralitie is perpetuall and if that had been Morall it must haue been so before and it must bee so still Gods determining the dayes did not infuse not induce a Moralitie there but it awakened a former Moralitie that is an obedience to the commandement for that time which God had appoynted that for them for this Obedience and Order is perpetuall and so Morall We depart therfore from that error which those ancient Heretiques the Ebionites begun and some laboured to refresh in Saint Gregories time and which continues in practise in some places of the world still To obserue both the Iewes Sabbath and the Christians Satterday and Sunday too because the Sabboth is called Pactum sempiternum for to that any of Saint Augustines Answeres will serue either that it is called euerlasting because it signified an euerlasting rest where be pleased to note by the way that Holy dayes Sabbaths are not onely instituted for Order but they haue their Mystery and their Signification for Holy dayes as the Text calls them there and New Moones and the Sabboth were but shadowes of things to come or else the Sabboth was called euerlasting to them because it bound them euerlastingly and they might neuer intermit it as some other ceremonies they might But their Sabboths bind not vs we depart from them who thinke so and so we doe from them who think we are bound to no Festiualls at all or at least to none but the Sabboth For God requires as much seruice from vs as from the Iewes and to them hee enlarged his Sabboths and made them diuers But those were of Gods immediat institution but all that the Iewes obserued were not so and that 's our next consideration Festiualls instituted by the Church At first when God was alone it is but Faciamus let vs vs the Trinity make man This was when God was as we may say in Coelibatu But after God hath taken his spouse maried the Church then it is Capite nobis vulpes doe you take the little Foxes you the Church for our vines haue grapes the vines are ours yours and mine sayes Christ to the Church and therfore do you looke to them as well as I. The Tables of the law God himselfe writ and gaue them written to Moses he left none of that to him not a power to make other Lawes like those lawes but for the Tabernacle which concern'd the outward worship of God that was to be made by Moses Iuxta similitudinem according to the paterne which God had shewed him God hath giuen the Church a paterne of Holy dayes in those Sabboths which hee himselfe instituted and according to the paterne the Church hath instituted more and Recte festa Ecclesiae colunt quise Ecclesiae filios recognoscunt They who disdaine not the name of sonnes of the Church refuse not to celebrate the daies which are of the Churches institution There was no immediate commandement of God for that Holy day which Mor dechai by his letters establish'd but yet the Iewes vndertooke to do as Mordechai had written to them There was no such commandement for this Holy day in the Text and yet that was obferued as long as they had any beeing And where the reason remaines the practise may The Iewes did we may institute new Holy dayes And not onely transitory daies for a present thanks giuing for a present benefit but Anniuersaries perpetuall memorials of Gods deliuerances And that 's our next step Both the Holy dayes which we named before which were instituted with out speciall Commaundement from God were so That of Mordechai he commanded to be kept euery yeare for two dayes and this in the Text Iudas Maccabeus commanded to be kept yearely for eight dayes which was more then was appoynted to any of the Holy dayes instituted by God himselfe for the Festiuall alone According to which paterne one Bishop of Rome ordained that the Festiuals of the Dedication of Churches should bee yearely celebrated in those places and another extended the Festiuall to eight dayes at least at the first dedication thereof if not euery yeare that God might not onely be put into the possession of the place but setled in it God by Moses made the children of Israel a Song because as hee sayes howsoeuer they did by the Law they would neuer forget that Song that Song should be his witnesse against them Therefore would God haue vs institute solemne memorialls of his great deliuerances that if when those dayes come about we doe not glorifie him that might aggrauate our condemnation Euery fift of August the Lord rises vp to hearken whether we meet to glorifie him for his great deliuerance of his Maiesty before the blest vs with his presence in this Kingdome and when he finds vs zealous in our thankes for that he giues vs farther blessings Certainly he is vp as early euery fift of Nouember to hearken if we meet to glorifie him for that deliuerance still and if hee should finde our zeale lesse then heretofore hee would wonder why Gods principall his radicall Holy day the Sabbath had a weekly returne his other Sabbaths instituted by himselfe and those which were instituted by those paternes that of Mordechai that of the Maccabees those of the Christian Church They all return once a yeare God would keepe his Courts once a yeare and see whether wee make our apparances as heeretofore that if not hee may know it Feastes in generall Feastes instituted by the Church alone Feasts in their yearely returne and obseruation haue their vse and particularly those Feasts of the Dedication of Churches which was properly and literally the Feast of this Text. It was the Feast of Dedication As it diminishes not preiudices not Gods Eternitie that wee giue him his Quando certaine times of Inuocation God is not the lesse yesterday and to day and the same for euer because wee meet here to day and not yesterday so it diminishes not preiudices not Gods Vbiquitie and Omnipresence that wee giue him his Vbi certaine places for Inuocation That 's not the lesse true that the most High dwells not in Temples made with handes though God accept at our hands our dedication of certaine places to his seruice manifest his working more effectually more energetically in those places then in any other for when we pray Our Father which art in
some men that Caluins Institutions were a Catechisme would they not loue Catechising the better for that name And would they not loue it the better if they gaue mee leaue to tell them that of which I had the experience An Artificer of this Citie brought his Childe to mee to admire as truly there was much reason the capacitie the memory especially of the child It was but a Girle and not aboue nine yeares of age her parents said lesse some yeares lesse wee could scarse propose any Verse of any Booke or Chapter of the Bible but that that childe would goe forward without Booke I began to Catechise this childe and truly shee vnderstood nothing of the Trinitie nothing of any of those fundamentall poynts which must saue vs and the wonder was doubled how she knew so much how so little The Primitiue Church discerned this necessitie of Catechising And therefore they instituted a particular Office a Calling in the Church of Catechisers Which Office as we see in Saint Cyprians 42. Epistle that great man Optatus exercised at Carthage and Origen at Alexandria When St. Augustine tooke the Epistle and the Gospell and the Psalme of the day for his Text to one Sermon did he think you much more then paraphrase then Catechise When Athanasius makes one Sermon and God knowes a very short one too Contra omnes Haereses To ouerthrow all Heresies in one Sermon did he think you any more then propose fundamentall Doctrines which is truly the way to ouerthrow all Heresies When Saint Chrysostom enters into his Sermon vpon the 3. Chapter to the Galatians with that preparation Attendite diligenter non enim rem vulgarem pollicemur Now hearken diligently sayes he for it is no ordinary matter that I propose There he proposes Catechisticall Doctrine of faith and works Come to lower times when Chrysologus makes sixe or seuen Sermons vpon the Creed and not a seuerall Sermon vpon euery seuerall Article but takes the whole Creed for his Text in euery Sermon and scarse any of those Sermons a quarter of an houre long will you not allowe this manner of Preaching to bee Catechising Goe as lowe as can bee gone to the Iesuites and that great Catechizer amongst them Canisius sayes Nos hoc munus suscipimus Wee wee Iesuites make Catechising our Profession I doubt not but they doe recreate themselues sometimes in other matters too but that they glory in that they are Catechisers And in that Profession sayes hee wee haue Saint Basil Saint Augustine Saint Ambrose Saint Cyrill in our Societie and truly as Catechizers they haue as State-Friers as Iesuits they haue not And in the first Capacitie they haue him who is more then all for as hee sayes rightly Ipse Christus Catechista Christs owne Preaching was a Catechising I pray God that Iesuites conclusion of that Epistle of his be true still There he sayes Sinihil aliud If nothing else yet this alone should prouoke vs to a greater diligence in Catechising Improbus labor indefessa cura That our Aduersaries the Protestants doe spend so much time as he sayes day and night in catechizing Now if it were so then when he writ and bee not so still amongst vs wee haue intermitted one of our best aduantages and therefore God hath graciously raised a blessed and a Royall Instrument to call vs back to that which aduantaged vs and so much offended the Enemy That man may sleepe with a good Conscience of hauing discharged his dutie in his Ministery that hath preached in the forenoone and Catechised after Quaere sayes Tertullian and he sayes that with indignation an Idolatriam committat qui de Idolis catechizat Will any man doubt sayes he whether that man be an Idolatrer that catechises Children and Seruants in Idolatry Will any man doubt whether hee bee painfull in his Ministerie that catechises children and seruants in the sincere Religion of Christ Iesus The Roman Church hath still made her vse of vs of our fortunes when she gouernd here and of our example since she did not They did as they saw vs doe And thereupon they came to that order in the Councell of Trent That vpon Sundayes and Holydayes they should Preach in the forenoone and Catechise in the afternoone till we did both they did neither Except yee become as little Children yee shall not enter into the Kingdome of Heauen sayes Christ. Except yee yee the people bee content at first to feed on the milke of the Gospell and not presently to fall to gnawing of bones of Controuersies and vnreuealed Misteries And except yee the Ministers and Preachers of the Gospell descend and apply your selues to the Capacitie of little Children and become as they and build not your estimation onely vpon the satisfaction of the expectation of great and curious Auditories you stopp theirs you loose your owne way to the kingdome of Heauen Not that wee are to shut vp and determine our selues in the knowledge of Catechisticall rudiments but to bee sure to know them first The Apostle puts vs vpon that progresse Let vs learne the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ and goe on to perfection Not leaue at them but yet not leaue them out endeauour to encrease in knowledge but first make sure of the foundation And that increase of knowledge is royally and fatherly presented to vs in that which is another limne of his Maiesties directions the 39. Articles The Foundation of nceessary knowledge is in our Catechismes the Superedification the extention in these Articles For they carry the vnderstanding and the zeale of the ablest Man high inough deepe inough In the third Article there is an Orthodoxe assertion of Christs descent into Hell who can go deeper In the 17. Article there is a Modest declaration of the Doctrine of Predestination who can go higher neither doe these Articles onely build vp Positiue Doctrine If the Church had no aduersaries that were ynough but they imbrace Controuersies too in poynts that are necessarie As in the two and twentieth Article of Purgatorie of Pardons of Images of Inuocations and these not in generall onely but against the Romish Doctrine of Pardons of Images of Inuocation And in the eight and twentieth Article against Transubstantiation and in such tearmes as admit no meeting no reconciliation but that it is repugnant to the plaine wordes of Scripture and hath giuen occasion to many Superstitions And in one word we may see the purpose and scope of these Articles as they were intended against the Romane Church in that Title which they had in one Edition in which though there were some other things that iustly gaue offence yet none was giuen nor taken in this That these Articles were conceiued and published to condemne the Heresies of the Manichees of the Arrians of the Nestorians of the Papistes and others And therefore in these reasons which his Maiestie hath descended to giue of his Directions himselfe is pleased to assigne this That the
behalfe no testimony may be accepted but he is the most miserably Intestable of all the most detestably intestable that discredits another man by speaking well of him and makes him the more suspitious by his commendations A Christian in profession that is not a Christian in life is so intestable so hee discredits Christ and hardens others against him Iohn Baptist was more then a Prophet because he was a Witnesse of Christ and he was a Witnesse becaue hee was like him he did as hee did he lead a holy and a religious life so he was a Witnesse That great and glorious name of Martyr is but a Witnesse Saint Stephen was Proto-martyr Christs first VVitnesse because hee was the first that did as he did that put on his colours that drunke of his Cup that was baptised with his Baptisme with his owne bloud so hee was a VVitnesse To be Witnesses for Christ is to be like Christ to conforme your selues to Christ and they in the Text you are to be witnesses of Christ in Ierusalem and in all Iudaea and in Samaria and vnto the vttermost parts of the Earth Saint Hierome notes that Iohn Baptist was not bid to beare witnesse in Ierusalem in the Citie but in the Wildernesse he and none but he there were but few men to witnes to there those few that were came thither with a good disposition to be wrought vpon there and there there were fewe witnesses to oppose Iohns Testimony few tentations few worldly alluremēts few worldly businesses One was enough for the Wildernesse but for Ierusalem for the Citie where all the excuses in the Gospell doe alwaies meete they haue bought commodities and they must vtter them they haue purchased Lands they must state them they haue maried Wiues and they must study them to the Citie to Ierusalem Christ sends all his Apostles and all little inough Hee hath sent a great many Apostles Preachers to this Citie more then to any other that I know Religious persons as they call them Cloistered Friars are not sent to the Citie by their first Canons they should not preach abroad but for those who are to doe that seruice there are more in this Citie then in others for there are more Parish Churches heere then in others Now beloued if in this Citie you haue taken away a great part of the reuenue of the Preacher to your selues take thus much of his labour vpon your selues to as to preach to one another by a holy and exemplar life and a religious conuersation Let those of the Citie who haue interest in the Gouernment of this Plantation be Witnesses of Christ who is Truth it selfe to all other Gouernours of Companies in all true and iust proceedings that as CHRIST said to them who thought themselues greatest Except you become as this little Childe so we may say to the Gouenours of the grearest Companies Except you proceed with the integrity with the iustice with the clearenesse of your little Sister this Plantation you doe not take you doe not follow a good example This is to beare witnesse of Christ in Ierusalem in the Citie to bee examples of Truth and Iustice and Clearenesse to others in and of this Citie The Apostles were to do this in Iudaea too their seruice lay in the Countrey as well as in the Citie Birds that are kept in cages may learne some Notes which they should neuer haue sung in the Woods or Fields but yet they may forget their naturall Notes too Preachers that binde themselues alwaies to Cities and Courts and great Auditories may learne new Notes they may become occasionall Preachers and make the emergent affaires of the time their Text and the humors of the hearers their Bible but they may loose their Naturall Notes both the simplicitie and the boldnesse that belongs to the Preaching of the Gospell both their power vpon lowe vnderstandings to raise them and vpon high affection to humble them They may thinke that their errand is but to knocke at the doore to delight the eare and not to search the House to ransacke the conscience Christ left the Ninteie and nine for one Sheepe populous Cities are for the most part best prouided remoter parts need our labour more and we should not make such differences Yeoman and Labourer and Spinster are distinctions vpon Earth in the Earth in the graue there is no distinction The Angell that shall call vs out of that dust will not stand to suruay who lyes naked who in a Coffin who in Wood who in Lead who in a fine who in a courser Sheet In that one day of the Resurrection there is not a forenoone for Lords to rise first and an afternoone for meaner persons to rise after Christ was not whip'd to saue Beggars and crown'd with Thornes to saue Kings he dyed he suffered all for all and we whose bearing witnesse of him is to doe as hee did must conferre our labours vpon all vpon Ierusalem and vpon Iudaea too vpon the Citie and vpon the Country too You who are his witnesses too must doe so too preach in your iust actions as to the Citie to the Countrey too Not to Seale vp the secrets and the misteries of your businesse within the bosome of Merchants and exclude all others who nourish an incompatibility betweene Merchants Gentlemen that Merchants shall say to them in reproach you haue plaid the Gentlemen and they in equall reproach you haue playd the Merchant but as Merchants growe vp into worshipfull Families and worshipfull Families let fall branches amongst Merchants againe so for this particular Plantation you may consider Citie and Countrey to bee one body and as you giue example of a iust gouernment to other companies in the Citie that 's your bearing witnesse in Ierusalem so you may be content to giue reasons of your proceedings and account of moneyes leuied ouer the Countrey for that 's your bearing witnes in Iudaea But the Apostles Dioces is enlarged farther then Ierusalem farther the Iudaea they are carried into Samaria you must beare witnesse of me in Samaria Beloued when I haue remembred you who the Samaritans were Men that had not renounced GOD but mingled other Gods with him Men that had not burnt the Law of GOD but made Traditions of Men equall to it you will easily guesse to whom I apply the name of Samaritans now A Iesuit hath told vs an ill Intelligencer I confesse but euen his Intelligencer the Deuill himselfe sayes true sometimes Maldonate sayes the Samaritans were odious to the Iewes vpon the same grounds as Heretiques and Scismatiques to vs and they we know were odious to them for mingling false Gods and false worships with the true And if that be the Caracter of a Samaritan wee knowe who are the Samaritans who the Heretiques who the Scismatiques of our times In the highest approach to Christ the Iewes said Samaritanus es Daemonium habes Thou art a Samaritan hast a Deuill
lifting vp the eyes and hands and many very many others which either testified their deuotion that did them or exalted their deuotion that sawe them done are not therefore excluded the Church because they were in vse amongst the Iewes That Pope whom we named before Hyginus the eighth after Saint Peter he instituted Ne Basilica sine Missa consecretur That no Church bee consecrated without a Masse If this must binde vs to a Masse of the present Romane Church it were hard and yet not very hard truely for they are easily had But that word Masse is in Saint Ambrose in Saint Augustine in some very ancient Councels and surely intends nothing to this purpose but the Seruice the Common Prayer of the Church then in vse there And when the Bishop Panigarola sayes in his Sermon vpon Whitsunday that the Holy Ghost found the blessed Virgin and the Apostles at Masse I presume hee meanes no more then that they were mett at such publique Prayer as at those times they might make Sure Pope Clemens and Pope Hyginus meane the same thing when one sayes Missa consecretur and the other Diuinis Precibus One sayes Let the Consecration bee with a Masse the other with Diuine Seruice the Liturgie the Diuine Seruice was then the Masse In a word a constant forme of Consecrations wee finde none that goes through our Ritualls the Ceremonies were still more or lesse as they were more or lesse obnoxious or might bee subiect to scandalize or to be mis-interpreted And therefore I am not heere either to direct or so much as to remember that which appertaines to the manner of these Consecrations onely in concurring in that which is the Soule of all humble and heartie prayer that God will heare his Seruants in this place I shall not offend to say that I am sure my zeale is inferiour to none And more I say not of the first Part The Holy place and but a little more of the other though at first it were proposed for an equall part The Holy Person That at the Feast of the Dedication Iesus walked in the Temple in Salomons Porch In this second part wee did not spread the words not shed our considerations vpon many particulars the first was that euen Iesus himselfe had recourse to this Holy place In the new Ierusalem in Heauen there is no Temple I saw no Temple there sayes Saint Iohn for the Lord God Almightie and the Lambe are the Temple of it In Heauen where there is no danger of falling there is no need of assistance Heere the Temple is called Gnazar that is Auxilium A Helper the strongest that is needs the helpe of the Church And it is called Sanctificium by Saint Hierom a place that is not onely made holy by Consecration but that makes others holy by GOD in it And therefore Christ himselfe whose person and presence might consecrate the Sanctum Sanctorum would yet make his often repayre to this Holy place not that hee needed this subsidie of Locall holinesse in himselfe but that his example might bring others who did neede it and those who did not and that euen his owne Preaching might haue the benefite and the blessing of Gods Ordinance in that place hee sayes of himselfe Quotidie apud vos sedebam docens in Templo and Semper docui in Synagoga in Templo as in the Actes the Angell that had deliuered the Apostles out of prison sends them to Church Stantes in Templo loquimini plebi The Apostles were sent to preach but to preach in the Temple in the place appropriated and consecrated for that holy vse and employment He came to this place and he came at those times which no immediate command of God but the Church had instituted Facta sunt Encaenia sayes the Text It was the Feast of the Dedication Wee know what Dedication this was That of Salomon was much greater A Temple built where none was before That of Esdras at the returne was much greater then this An intire reedification of that demolished Temple where it was before This was but a zealous restoring of an Altar in the Temple which hauing beene prophaned by the Gentiles the Iewes themselues threw downe and erected a new and dedicated that Salomons Dedication is called a Feast a Holy day by the very same name that the Feast of vnleauened bread and the Feast of the Tabernacle is called so often in Scripture which is Kag The Dedication of Ezra is sufficiently declared to bee a solemne Feast too But neither of these Feastes though of farre greater Dedications were Anniuersarie neither commanded to be kept euery yeare and yet this which was so much lesser then the others the Church had put vnder that Obligation to bee kept euery yeare and Christ himselfe contemnes not condemnes not disputes not the institution of the Church But as for matter of doctrine hee sends euen his owne Disciples to them who sate in Moses Chayre so for matter of Ceremony he brings euen his owne person to the celebrating to the authorizing to the countenancing of the Institutions of the Church and rests in that Now it was Winter sayes the Text Christ came etsi Hyems though it were Winter so small an inconuenience kept him not off Beloued it is not alway colder vpon Sunday then vpon Satterday nor at any time colder in the Chappell then in Westminster Hall A thrust keepes some off in Summer and colde in Winter and there are more of both these in other places where for all that they are more content to be Remember that Peter was warming himselfe and hee denyed Christ. They who loue a warme bed let it bee a warme Studie let it bee a warme profit better then this place they deny CHRIST in his Institution That therefore which CHRIST sayes Pray that your flight bee not in the Winter nor vpon the Sabboth we may apply thus Pray that vpon the Sabboth I tolde you at first what were Sabboths the Winter make you not flie not abstaine from this place Put off thy shooes sayes God to Moses for the place is holy ground When Gods ordinance by his Church call you to this holy place put off those shoes all those earthly respects of ease or profit Christ came Etsi Hyems But then Quia Hyems Because it was Winter Hee did walke in Salomons Porch which was couered not in Atrio in that part of the Temple which was open and expos'd to the weather We doe not say that infirme and weak men may not fauour themselues in a due care of their health in these places That he who is not able to raise himselfe must alwayes stand at the Gospell or bow the knee at the name of Iesus or stay some whole houres altogether vncouered heere if that increase infirmities of that kinde And yet Courts of Princes are strange Bethesdaes how quickly they recouer any man that is brought