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A10268
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Church-customes vindicated in tvvo sermons preached at Kingstone upon Thames: the one at the primary visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God Richard by the grace of God late L.B. of Winton, anno 1628. The other at the first metropoliticall visitation of the Most Reverend Father in God William by the grace of God Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his grace, &c. July 9. 1635. By William Quelch B.D. and R. of East-horsly Surrey.
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Quelch, William.
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1636
(1636)
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STC 20555; ESTC S115487
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34,301
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63
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so much as your obedience to the custome and if you be so stiffe and cruell to your mother that she may not enjoy her ancient customes why should she allow your ancient discipline as you call it which you can never demand upon better warrant You say the Apostles had the Discipline but we are sure of this they had the customes and if you seeke to rob us of those rites which we know the Apostles once delivered why should we give way to your new pretended forme of Geneva discipline which I doubt the Apostles never heard of Shew us that warrant for your discipline as wee have shewed you for our customes and wee shall have cause to hearken to you In the meane while wee have right enough to enjoy our ceremonies by the Apostles leave if not by yours and though you thinke it a ragge of Rome and a relique of Popery and superstition yet we shall rejoyce and triumph at all your taunts as long as we can say with the blessed Apostle habemus consuetudinem wee have a custome c. To have a custome is not much Right of the Chu in holding the customes but all the matter is by what pretended right wee hold the customes No man heares of the customes of the Church for the ordering and disposing of Gods service but presently he begins to examine our Patent and to renew the question of those Priests and Elders Qua potestate Mat. 21.23 By what authoritie doe you these things and who gave you that authority The Church I trow will doe nothing without a warrant and if shee have that warrant from her husband bequeathed unto her in his Testament reade us the Will and it sufficeth But if shee take her power from the will of man or from the favour of Princes or from the authoritie of her governours then you must give us leave to put in a caveat untill it be tryed by the Law Loe this is the plea of all the sectaries in the world Nulla specie illustriore sâ—duci pos sunt miseri Christians c. Calv. adver Anabapt Shew us your ceremonies in the word of God and we shall be willing to obey and it prevailes the more with many a man because it seemes to give to the written word but if it appeare upon just tryall that the word of God with honour and reverence be it spoken was never constituted as the judge for the speciall designation of particular ceremonies then wee come upon them Luk. 11.22 like the strong man armed in the Gospell that take away their weapons wherein they trust and liave them nothing to object Whilest I take upon me to make this good Particular customes depend not upon the immediate and expresse warrant of the word let no man thinke I dishonour the Scriptures let shame and confusion fall to my portion if I cast any blurre upon that sacred volume I know well that it is the priviledge of the Scripture to bee the onely rule of faith and manners and it was the only scope of the holy Apostles * Ioh. 20.30 to leave a perfect record of all those things that might essentially conduce to our salvation For other accidentall adventitious circumstances that were no part of the service of God but onely an ornament to the service it seemed not good to the Spirit of God that they should passe by the same Patent Well may they passe in generall tearmes as many things are conveyed in every deed under the name of the appurtenances but they are never expressed in that gracious Patent by any speciall intimation Well may they belong to those traditions which the Apostle delivered by word of mouth 2 Thes 2.15 but they can be no part of that holy tradition which he delivered to the Church by his written Epistle Well may you referre them to those rituall orders which our Apostle promised to compose when he came to Corinth ver ult but you cannot referre them to that heavenly doctrine of which the Apostle sayes a little before Accepi à Domina ver 23. I have received from the Lord. The truth is all that I can finde in the new Testament concerning ceremonies is nothing else but a generall warrant that you have in expresse tearmes 1 Car. 14.40 1 Cor. 14.40 That all things bee done decently and According to order but for the speciall practisie and application of this order whether this or that be more agreeable to the rule there the word is so mute and â—â—lent that you 〈◊〉 finde the least title No doubt the Apostles composed some speciall orders Calvin Theophil aâ—â— in 〈◊〉 S. Paul 〈…〉 composed the Churches observed what he delivered and if 〈◊〉 of those can bee found in 〈◊〉 Scriptures why should we look for a speciall warrant for the ordering and disposition of things indifferent If the Churches were bound to those strait conditions The Church is not tiâ—d to any 〈◊〉 such warrant in matter of custome there is none of them all for ought I can see but have forfeited their recognisance long agoe in asmuch as they have used some speciall customes which were not expressed in the sacred Scriptures Cartwright himselfe Pag. 22. sect 1. 2. apud Dr. Whitgift answer to the defence c. the great scourge of all our customes while hee seekes to binde us to the speciall warrant of the word for all particulars is forced to confesse for the Iewish Church that shee had many and sundry customes at least twenty for our one about sacrificing and preaching and burying and marrying and fasting c. which were no where expressed in the law of Moses Vid. S. Bas ep 63. Cypr l. 10. ep 12. l. 4 ep 6. Epist ad Vict. Rom apud Eâ— seb l. 5. cap. 25. 26. Whether the Christian Church had the same liberty no man can doubt that hath read any thing for beside the records of the ancient Fathers who give us some hints of sundry customes about prayer and baptisme and singing of Psalmes and celebration of Easter which I could never finde in the word of God * Adver Praxeam lib. de corona militis Tertullian for his part is resolute and peremptory upon his own knowledge that for matter of rite and outward order Si legem expostâ—â—es scriptuâ—â—r 〈◊〉 iâ—venies nuâ—â—am If you looke for the Law of the word of God you shall be sure to finde none But to shew this liberty of the Church in some particulars Vid. Hila. praefat in Ps Ieâ—oâ—â— advers Lucifer Just Mart. lib. quaest idem confirmat Synod Niâ— can 20. Where can you finde in the holy Scriptures that we ought to pray standing on the Lords day yet that was the custome of the ancients for a certaine season to preserve the memory of the resurrection Where can you shew in the word of God that we ought to communicate every day yet that was
CHVRCH-CVSTOMES VINDICATED IN TWO SERMONS PREACHED AT Kingstone upon Thames THE ONE At the Primary Visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God RICHARD by the grace of God late L. B. of Winton Anno 1628. THE OTHER At the first Metropoliticall Visitation of the Most Reverend Father in God WILLIAM by the grace of God Lord Arch Bishop of Canterbury his Grace c. July 9. 1635. BY WILLIAM QUELCH B. D. and R. of East-horsly SURREY ROM 16.17 Now I beseech you brethren marke them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have received and avoid them c. LONDON Printed by M. F. for Nathaniel Butter neare S. Austins Gate at the Signe of the Pyde Bull. 1636. To the courteous Readers especially my Brethren of the CLERGIE Peace be multiplyed c. FOr this end I first set upon this worke and for the same I thought good to set it forth had it found the effect of my first desire I had never thought of a second publication But when I understood upon later experience by the frivolous exceptions cast out against me how much I had failed of my expectation I knew not which way to come off from private censure unlesse I should put my selfe and my poor endevors upon the tryall of publique censure To hear of contentions breaking out against the customes of the Church is no news at all neither must it stumble us Ver. 19. he that for the tryall of his children suffers heresie hath his ends in the least and smallest oppositions and if it be the will and pleasure of God by the light skirmishes of some few to bring to passe a greater good I shall learne to magnify the wisedome of the Almighty that turns the cavills of contentious men to the further enlargement of his glory Howsoever it be thou hast the same that was first delivered nothing is altered but the outward dresse much lesse any word or sentence changed which I could heare was subject to exception If thou light upon any thing worth the reading thank not me for my good will who never intended to make it publique but thank the ill will of those carping hearers who put me upon it in mine owne defence and thinke of me as of the poorest unworthy Minister of Christ Iesus who shall be ever ready upon all occasions to approve my selfe Thine in all Christian offices to be commanded W. Q. PErlegi has duas Conciones in 1. Ep. ad Cor. Cap. 11. ver 16. in quibus nihil reperio sanae doctrinae aut bonis moribus contrarium quominus cum utilitate publicâ imprimantur ita tamen ut si non intra quinque menses proximè sequentes typis mandentur haec licentia sit omnino irrita Ex Aedibus Lambethanis 14. Cal. Martii GUIL BRAY Rmo P. D. D. Arch. Cant. Sacel Domesticus CHVRCH-CVSTOMES VINDICATED The first Sermon 1 COR. 11.16 If any man lust to bee contentious Wee have no such Custome nor the Churches of God THE customes of the Church through the stubborne humours of contentious men are growne so obsolete and out of custome in most places that I feare I may bee thought to breake the custome while I seeke to vindicate and defend her customes But when I looke back unto purer times and finde how the Church could stand upon her customes in the very infancy and childhood of the Gospell Aetatem habet Ipsu interrogate Ioh. 9.23 before the customes were come to age I make no doubt but the same customs being grown at length to mans estate in the ripenesse and maturity of the Church may now have leave to speak for themselves at least in their owne defence Si quis videtur contentiosus If any seeme c. Contentions and customes appeare unto us at the first sight like two sturdy and valiant Champions ready to assault each other in a single combat Contention stands up like proud Goliah swelling and powting against all the customes of the Churches 1 Sam. 17.4 Custome stands up like little David to accept the challenge of Contention and bids defiance to the proud Philistime Upon the issue of this Skirmish hangs all the peace and liberty of the Church for if Contention win the day and chance to prove maister of the field then farewell the Church and all her customes but if the Church prevaile and get the maistery then downe the winde goes contention and down goe they that love contention You would be glad I trow to see the issue of this battell stay but a while and stand your ground and when the Philistime hath brav'd himselfe against the armies of the living God you shall see how little David shall knock him downe as it were with a stone taken from the Churches Scrip. Non habemus consuetudinem Divis We have c. Contention is the first that makes the challenge and if you desire to know the ground of this deadly quarrell you must be pleased to consider three things 1. Time and place where the quarrell first began and that was in the Church in the Church of Corinth in her yong dayes when S. Paul himselfe was yet alive 2. The nature and quality of this contention for it was a poore and slender quarrell against a Ceremony and no more 3. By whom the quarrell was begun and that 's implied here to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some busie fellow of a wrangling humour that loved contention more then peace Loe this you have for the notifying of contention and then for the Churches-customes you have three like circumstances 1. The nature and quality of the customes for wee must not stand upon every custome but upon a decent and reverend custome 2. Who they are that maintaine the customes noted here to be Churches of God 3. Who were the founders of the customes and they are implyed here to bee the Apostles of Christ that could not erre in doctrine much lesse in the ordination of a custome These are the chief heads both of this custome and of that contention and when I shall come in the end to compare them both together and to lay mouth to mouth eyes to eyes and hands to hands I meane such a grave and decent custome against such a slight and trifling quarrell 2 Kings 4.34 the Churches of God that kept the custome against that one single Church that broke the custome 3 the Apostles of Christ the founders of this custome against that one contentious man the ringleader and broacher of innovation I shall thinke it fit to refer the cause to your own judgement whether ye thinke such a custome maintained by all the Churches and allowed by the warrant of the blessed Apostles be not worthy to beate downe such a fond and frivolous quarrell but newly brought into the Church of Corinth by that filly sect-master that stands upon record for a contentious man Of all these I shall have faire occasion to speak something And first