Superstition and Idolatry avert them from our Church and make them sit down in the scorners chair Doth not this say in effect that all those good laws formerly made against Papists and all penalties and mulcts by virtue thereof inflicted were most unjust in punishing them for refusing to join with us in that form of worship which we our selves cannot approve of We may say with the Athenians Auximus Philippum nos ipsi Athenienses We have strengthned the hands of our Enemies against us by our own divisions and contentions It is an odious quality and that which obscures the lustre of all the commendable vertues which Franzius notes of the Cranes that oftentimes they are so vehemently enraged one with an other and maintain such a combate among themselves that they neither observe nor fear the coming of the Fowler Yea that they rather desire his approach and to be taken by him than to be reconciled to their mates with whom they are faln out It is a thing much to be feared that these men will never be at quiet and peace in the Church untill they make that true of themselves which I have read objected to the aforesaid people of Athens by way of reproach that they would never vouchsafe to treat or hear of peace but in mourning gowns namely after the loss of their friends and fortunes in the wars He hath no mind that considers not this nor heart that condoles it not Put the case that though the Liturgy of our Church was composed with so much piety and prudence yet there might remain any thing capable of amendment as a freckle in a fair Face what if it be not in all things suitable with every man's judgment or fancy as there is nothing in the world the Directory it self not excepted so well done that doth not displease some the best cook'd dishes please not every Palate yet as St. Augustine of old answered the Donatists Si peccavit Caecilianus non ideo haereditatem suam perdidit Christus Shall God therefore loose his publick worship and service shall it be trampled upon slighted and prophanely neglected because we differ about black and white as Bishop Ridley told Bishop Hooper in a Letter to him And though in these latter days preaching hath gotten ground of the Prayers of the Church in the opinion of some whom we shall see present now and then at the former but seldom or never at the latter yet withouâ— any detraction to that excellent ordinance of God be it spoken this most despised part of God's worship must needs be granted to have the preheminence of the other especially in these days wherein the Church is so maturely composed and throughly setled in the faith and the Book of the holy Scriptures so complete and common amongst us in our own Language by him that considers 1. First that it is the most proper and immediate worship of God and preaching but mediate as it is the means which God hath ordained to teach men how to pray and to fit them for that duty For how can they call upon him in whom they have not believed And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher 2. Secondly it is a duty simply and entirely moral good in respect of its own nature and quality before any external constitution passed upon it and may be resolved into one of the dictates and principles of the Law of Nature imprinted universally in the hearts of all men at the creation For before the Law of the ten Commandments men began to call on the name of the Lord as being taught by the light of Nature that in God we all live move and have our being and that he is the Father of lights from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift But preaching and hearing are acknowledged by all to be instituted worship and moral onely by an external imposition and mandate of the Supreme Lawgiver 3. Thirdly it is a duty of longer duration than preaching the one being onely for this life the other for the life to come also the one proper and peculiar to men as members of the Church militant the other common to men and Angels in the Church triumphant The knowledge is small which we have on Earth concerning things done in Heaven notwithstandings thus much we know even of Saints in Heaven that they pray 4. Fourthly it is a duty of larger extent and benefit than Preaching is this onely profiteth those that be present that do hear it and attend upon it but Prayer is available even for those that are far distant yea though they be in the remotest parts of the world When Lot's preaching did no good at all to his hearers yet Abraham's prayers might have been so effectual as to have saved five wicked Cities if there had been but ten righteous persons in them What our Blessed Saviour's judgment was in this case we may easily gather by that place in the Gospel where he calls the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an house of Prayer not of Preaching Whence in the Primitive times all the Christian Temples were called and known by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oratories And publick Prayers of the Church have as much the preheminence of private as the duty it self hath of preaching in â—egard there is more force in these Prayers wherein the whole Church joyn together as one man than there can be in those that others though never so many make apart any where else I say unto you saith our Saviour that if two of you shall agree on Earth touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven Much more then if a Thousand and more if the whole Church They are two excellent and remarkable sayings of St. Chrysostome to this purpose which are quoted by Bishop Iewel in his reply to Harding's answer Non aeque exoras cum solus dominum obsecras atqâ—e cum fratribus tuis Est enim in hoc plus aliquid videlicet concordia conspiratio copula amoris charitatis sacerdotum clamores Praesunt enim ob eam rem sacerdotes ut populi orationes quae infirmiores per se sunt validiores eas complexae simul in câ—elum evehantur Thou dost not so soon obtain thy desire when thou prayest alone unto the Lord as when thou prayest with thy Brethren for herein is somewhat more the concord the consent the joyning of love and charity and the cry of the Priest For to that end the Priests are made overseers that they being the stronger sort may take with them the weaker Prayers of the People and carry them up into Heaven Again he saith Quod quis apud seipsum precatus accipere non poterit hoc cum multitudine precatus accipiet Quare Quia etiamsi non propria virtus tamen concordia multum
of the Apostle to the Corinthians I am jealous over you with a Godly jealousie Sumpta est metaphora à procis zelotypis as Beza notes a Metaphor taken from the manner of a Person espoused to a Woman who cannot endure any one to be a Companion or sharer with him in her affections For as a King cannot endure a rival with him in his Kingdom nor an Husband in the Marriage-bed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So neither can a Minister in his Parish And though in regard of internal spiritual everlasting and inseparable union Christ himself is the Husband of the Catholick Church Yet in regard of external and ministerial duty a particular Minister of Christ may be said to be married to that particular flock or portion of God's People over whom in a regular and orderly manner the Holy Ghost hath set him This made St. Ambrose expound that place of St. Paul A bishop must be the Husband of one wife allegorically unius uxoris Si ad superficiem tantum literae respiciamus prohibet digamum Episcopum ordinari si vero ad altiorem sensum conscendamus inhibet Episcopum duas usurpare Ecclesias If we respect the Letter of the text saith he St. Paul forbids any that hath had two Wives to be ordained a Bishop but if we ascend to an higher sense he forbids a Bishop to take to himself two Churches And St. Hierome argues out of those words Eph. 5. Husbands love your wives Audiant Episcopi audiant Presbyteri audiant Doctores subjectis suis se esse subjectos Let Bishops Priests and Doctours learn in this that when they have married themselves to a Flock or Congregation they are become subject to their Subjects How subject to their Subjects What are they become inferiour to their Flocks In no wise They are over you in the Lord saith St. Paul underlings then they are to none of them But they are so subject to their flock as an Husband is subject to his Wife and no otherwise Now she is to be subject to him and he by God's Law to rule over her So that the subjection he means is the subjection of Love As Pliny told Trajan the Emperour Nihil magis à te subjecti animo factum est quim quod imperare coepisti A King doeth nothing so like a subject as to love his subjects to devise ways and to use his power for their good Such a subjection is that of the Husband to the Wife and that of a Pastour to his flock to whom he is married and to no other Whence as Mr. Prinn observes he is stiled Parochus and his People Parochia by the Canonists and Lawyers because he is espoused to that peculiar Parish And to this agreeth the 15 th Canon of the Nicene Council matrimonium inter Episcopum Ecclesiam esse contractum c. There are several things that prove a very near relation betwixt a lawfull Pastour and his People 1. The titles the Holy Ghost gives in Scripture to Ministers and their People They are called watchmen and shepherds Es. 62. 6. These their flock over whom they watch and whom they keep Act. 20. 28. They are called Fathers 2. King 6. 21. 1 Cor. 4. 15. 1 Thes. 2. 11. These their Children 1 Cor. 4. 14. 2 Cor. 6. 13. â—al 4. 19. 1 Tim. 1. 2. Philom 10. 1 Ioh. 5. 21. Ministers are called husbandmen and builders and their people God's tillage and building 1 Cor. 3. 9. They are called steward their people God's household to whom they are to give their portion of meat Luâ— 12. 41. 2. The duties imposed by God on either party prove a very near relation betwixt them As a Minister is commanded to take the oversight of them to feed them and to perform the office of a faithfull servant of Christ that he may give an account to him for his flock So the People also are charged with many duties towards their Pastours As 1. To know and love them dearly as the Galatians did St. Paul and as he enjoins all Christians to doe toward their Ministers We beseech you Brethren to know them that labour amongst you and over you in the Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly in love for their works sake Indeed the vulgar Latin reade it ut noveritis But Beza renders it ut adnoscatis that you acknowledge them as your Pastours and Teachers And as Learned Zanchi pro pastoribus vestris ac patribus reverenter amplectamini that ye reverently receive and embrace them as your Pastours and Fathers And as David saith in theâ—â—â—â—lms I will not know a wicked perâ—â—â— where not to know is to contemn so to know is to have in reverence and honour Thus our Saviour professeth to wicked men I never knew you Which places are urged both by Beza and Zanchi to prove their exposition And that you highly esteem them in love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some reade it abundantly Some exceedingly It properly signifies more than exceedingly Love in abundance in an overflowing measure an overplus of love Beza renders the same expression in another place summâ cum exuperantiâ with the greatest exuberance of love And here ut supra modum charos ducatis that you account them above measure dear to you 2. To obey them and submit to their pastoral office and rule over them Heb. 13. 17. 3. To afford them an honourable and liberal maintenance Matt. 10. 10. 1 Cor. 9. 6-15 Rom. 15. 27. Gal. 6. 6-8 1 Tim. 5. 17 18. Not out of charity as a free gift but of justice as a due debt 3 Ioh. 9. 4. To seek their comfort and to give them all duâ—â— encouragement that they may doe the work of the Ministry among them with joy and not with grief Heb. 13-17 All which duties would not have been enjoined on both parties pastour and people were there not a very near relation between them Whereas none at all of these are required either of a stranger to them or of them to a stranger And this is the Language both of the Presbyterian and Independent Ministers when they speak of the relation that is betwixt them and their People they say they are married to their Flock Now where one of these Demagogues and Patrons of Conventicles shall intrude himself into a Town or Parish and take upon him there to set up a course of house-preaching to administer the Sacraments to visit the sick and such like duties to the Ministry as they doe it tends directly to the breaking this bond and near relation that is betwixt Pastour and People and breeds such alienation of affection in them towards him as was betwixt the Iews and Samaritans between whom the Scripture saith there was no â—onverse For they being conscious to themselves of the guilt of that which upon a general presumption they cannot but believe he can in
it ought to be nothing else as if the whole day were to be spent at Church and in keeping publick Assemblies so far as conveniency and edification of the people will permit Why else did Holy David desire to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Why prayed he that he might be so happy One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life Therefore if Conscience to obey God or desire to doe him service did draw them to his house at any time or to any part of his Worship the same would induce them at all times and to all parts of it The liberty then that such persons take in God's service as if all were Arbitrary argues much of hypocritical wantonness nothing of sound or sincere godliness They who are fed with Corn from Heaven meat to the full are thus faln to loath the Mannah that Rained down upon them twice every Sabbath-day Of a third sort I could inform the Reader who being weak yet I hope well-meaning Christians not knowing the depths of Satan under a specious pretence of Piety are not content with what they hear at Church but must afterwards fill their heads with notions which they hear at Conventicles wherewith they feast themselves without fear after they have been fed to the full in God's house with Angels food Without fear I say of offending God by breaking the order he hath set in his Church by countenancing abetting or joining themselves with such unlawfull and ungospel-like Assemblies without fear of offending or provoking the Rules of the Church which they are bound to obey by seeing their Laws despised and affronted without fear of exposing themselves to the temptation and hazard of falling so fearfully as they cannot but see that some of their Brethren and Neighbours have done And without fear of losing what they have heard in publick by departing immediately from the Church to a Conventicle as if all Religion did consist in nothing but hearing and all the Service of God were but according to the French scoff a mere Preach If this be the way of keeping the Sabbath where is room then for Meditation which the Scripture as much enjoins as hearing Thou shalt meditate on the Law that thou mayst observe to doe according as is written Mary therefore kept Christ's sayings because she pondered them in her heart David therefore grew to be wiser than his teachers because God's Law was his meditation Conference with Neighbours and Family-instructions will by this means also be issued out Thus shall you say every one to his neighbour and every one to his brother what hath the Lord answered and what hath he spoken The best of Hearers even Christ's own Disciples took another course than these now doe When they had heard their Master Preach they spent their time after Sermon in conferring among themselves about what they had heard and went to their Teacher to be better informed and to have all doubts resolved For want of so doing it comes to pass with too many as sometimes it did with some of them that though they had seen their Lord's mighty power in feeding five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes yet their Faith was never the stronger And this was the reason They considered not the miracle of the Loaves for their heart was hardned They had seen the miracle but they had not considered it nor meditated on it and therefore it did them no good at all In the judgment of the Presbyterian Divines themselves the way these people take is not the right For the Assembly of Divines in their Directory for Worship give this rule for the Sanctification of the Lord's day that what time is vacant between or after the Solemn meetings of the Congregation in publick be spent in Reading Meditation Repetition of Sermons especially by calling their Families to an account of what they have heard and Catechising of them holy conferences prayer for a blessing upon the publick Ordinances singing of Psalms visiting the Sick relieving the Poor and such like duties of piety charity and mercy accounting the Sabbath a delight In a word I could inform the Reader what impious devices have been used not onely to make a rent in the Church but also to keep it open that it should never close again by endeavouring that an irreconcileable prejudice might be perpetuated in the minds of people against the publick Ministry and Ministers of the Church And to the end that those poor deluded Souls which have been drawn off from their due attendance to God's publick Ordinances to wait on these men in their clanculary and irregular conventions might never return to the Church any more I have observed that the absence of one of these Masters of Conventicles in the places where they are held have ever been carefully supplied by the presence of some other Domestick Chaplain to keep up their House-meetings As if Ieroboam's impious policy should never be forgotten who not daring to trust his new divided Tribes in a joint resort to the Temple at Ierusalem set up his Calves to be Worshipped by them nearer home But I will not rake any longer in this puddle lest it stink in the nostrils of pious and sober Christians as it cannot but doe in God's already Now I appeal to all my judicious and learned Brethren of the Clergy and to all persons else of stayed principles and piety whether for a stranger thus to pluck the work of a Pastour of a Congregation out of his hands be tollerable in the Church of Christ or no Whether this practice that tends thus to divide betwixt Minister and People breaking the near bond of relation that is and ought to continue between them robbing him of his flock and taking them off from dependance on him for the enjoyment of the work of his ministry be of God or no And whether he hath ordained any such course as the means of Grace in his Church or whether this be not rather a strategem of Satan to introduce all manner of impiety and ungodliness The Presbyterian Divines themselves have given their judgment on my side already in this case In these words To make a Rupture in the body of Christ and to divide Church from Church and to set up Church against Church and to gather Churches out of true Churches And because we differ in something therefore to hold Communion in nothing this we think hath no warrant out of the word of God and will introduce all manner of confusion in Churches and Families and not onely disturb but in a little time destroy the power of Godliness purity of Religion peace of Christians and set open a wide gap to bring in Atheism Popery Heresie and all manner of wickedness So also in their Preface to the Ius divinum of Church-government
are baptized into one body so by the other we are made to drink into one spirit And therefore the Apostle from our Communion together at the Lord's Table concludes our Union one with another incorporation into not the essential but the spiritual body of Christ. We being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread A Father thus comments on that place Omnes unum corpus sumus in Christo quia etsi multi sumus unum támen in eo sumus omnes enim de uno pane participamus We are therefore all one body in Christ because though we are many in our selves yet in him we are all one for we all partake of one bread Nam si in humanis mensoe salis communicatio amoris causa est signum quanto magis id erit in communione mensoe panis Domini If among men the communicating together at one table and in one dish is both a cause and sign of love how much more then would it be so in the communicating together at the Table and of the bread of the Lord Yea the very assembling of Christians together in the Church is by St. Chrysostome called the Communion of Saints That then which tends to make rents and parties in the Church and divides Christians each from other in external Conjunction of publick duties as well as internal concord of hearts and affections as the practice in question hath been proved and by experience is found to doe must needs hinder the Communion of Saints Union being broken there can be no Communion for it flows from Union and is no other in the Etymology of the word than common Union And as there is nothing that obstructs Christian Communion so much as divisions do so when once they are made there is nothing more hard to be composed again A Brother offended is harder to be won than a strong City and their contentions are like the barrs of a Castle For as no bond is so strong as that of Religion so no Hostility so cruel and outragious as that which difference in Religion occasioneth Think not saith our Saviour that I am come to send peace on the earth I came not to send peace but a sword for I am come to set a man at variance against his Father and the Daughter against her Mother and a man's foes shall be they of his own house This is commonly through the policy of Satan and malice of men the fruit of divisions in point of Religion amongst Brethren And if the bond of Communion betwixt the members be broken I see not but that the bond of Union with Christ their head must be broken also How can they exist as members of Christ's body which have left their coupling and conjunction with the other members of the same Neither they nor those that cause it can in the judgment of St. Austine Ii qui a compage corporis membra alia avellere conantur seipsos a Christi unitate separant They that draw the members from Communion one with the other do cut off themselves from their Union with Christ. Impium enim sacrilegum divortium est eos qui in Christi veritate consentiunt distrahere Saith Calvin It is an impious and sacrilegious divorce to divide those who would otherwise agree in the truth of Christ. The same is acknowledged by the Presbyterian Divines If we be the body of Christ do not they who separate from the body separate from the head also And by the unanimous consent of the ancient godly and learned Nonconformists in their grave and modest confutation of the errours of the Brownists and Separatists where in the first words of their Book they say That the Church of England is a true Church and such a one as from which whosoever wittingly and willingly separateth himself cutteth himself off from Christ. And they prove it at large by unanswerable arguments in the following pages of their Book A proesumptione igitur illicitâ excusari nequeunt qui nimis amando sententiam suam usque ad proecidendoe communionis audaciam perveniunt They are therefore no way to be excused from sinfull presumption who out of a fondness to their own opinion proceed to that boldness and hardiness as to interrupt Christian Communion Malunt nullam habere quam non suam They had rather there should be no Religion at all than that their own should not take place They that are any way instrumental to break unity that true-Lovers knot which every Christian should wear in his breast all days of his life will find at last by miserable experience that destruction will follow it if repentance precede not to prevent it For if the God whom we serve be the God of peace Iesus Christ our head and Saviour be the Prince of peace the spirit of Holiness the worker of peace the Blessed Trinity in Unity of Deity the authour of peace and lover of concord as our Church expresseth it how then can it join it self with the disturbers of both and not rather separate from those which separate from their Brethren and are instrumental to draw as many after them as they can Fourthly It gratifies at least two main sinfull Corruptions to which people are naturally prone both mentioned together by St. Paul in one place The first is their discontent with their own Pastors who are regularly and orderly sent of God to them After their own lusts they will heap to themselves teachers 1. The great fault here prophesied to be in the latter times was heaping up many teachers One will not serve a peoples turn but they must have a multitude A woman that forsakes her Husband's bed will be ready to pour out her fornications to every one that passeth by and not content her self with the embraces of one single stranger alone but be ready to prostitute her body to any one 2. And there is an Emphasis in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to themselves They will be their own chusers They will not accept nor submit to those who by the hands of the Rulers of the Church God shall place over them but take to themselves upon their own judgment and choice whom they please This is according to his opinion who expounding the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in this place by St. Paul saith quod sine judicio temere sunt collecturi doctores suos They shall rashly gather together teachers of their own 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teachers as they esteem and use them in contradistinction to Pastours for they will not admit of any to have a pastoral rule and care over them but teachers to tickle their Ears and please their fancies And which is yet worse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to their own Lusts. Such as do best please their humours such as are of the same party with themselves that are in