word participation of the sacraments Commemoration of divine misteries may be performed upon the ordinary sabbath but to make up a festival day Bellarm. requireth a determination of a day signification and representation of the misteries wrought on such dayes Scaliger observeth that the ordinary sabbothes were never called Chaggim as the anniversarie solemnities were 1. Reason against festivall dayes Six dayes shalt thou labour and doe all that thou hast to doe These words are either a command to doe the works of our calling as many both Iewish and Christian divines doe interprete or els a permission as others doe interpret If they contein a command no countremand may take it away If a permission no human authority may spoile men of the liberty that God hath granted unto them as long as they haue any maner of worke to doe for the sustentation of this life The Muscovits therefore say very well that it is for Lords to keepe feasts and abstien from labour The Citizens and Artificers amongst them upon the festivall dayes after divine service do betake themselues to their labour and domestick affaires as Gaguinus reporteth It may be objected that Constantine the Emperour made a law that none but the Prince may ferias coÌ„dere erect an idle day the Prince then may inioyne a day of Cessation Answer The Lawes of the â—od are not rules of theologie A Prince may not inioyne Cessation from Oeconomicall and domestick works but for weapon shewing exercise of armes defence of the country or other publick works and affaires But that is not to injoyne a day of simple Cessation but to inioyne a politick work in place of the oeconomicall Every particular member ceassing from their particular work exerciseth another work serving for the preservation of the whole bodie The curse that Adam shall eate with the sweate of his browes is mitigated by the permission of six dayes labour The Lord permitteth unto man six lest he devoure the seventh day which is sanctified What if the Kirk representatiue injoyne a weekly holy day as another sabboth ought the Kirke to be obeyed what power hath the Kirk representatiue to inioyne an anniversary day more then a weekly or hebdomadary holy day If a day of simple Cessation from all maner of work Oeconomicall and politicall may not be inioyned a festivall day may not be inioyned I say further that the poore craftsman can not lawfully be commanded to lay aside his tooles and goe passe his time no not for an houre let be for a day as long as he is willing to worke and perhaps urged with the sharpnes of present necessity And yet farther that he ought not to be compelled to leaue his worke to goe to divine service except on the day that the Lord hath sanctified The second Reason It is the priuiledge of Gods power to appoint a day of rest and to sanctifie it to his honour as our best Divines mainteine Zanchius affirmeth that it is proper to God to choose any person or any thing to consecrate and sanctifie it to himselfe as it belongeth to him alone to justify Catechismus Hollandicus saith no wise man will deny that this sanctification belongeth onely to God that it is manifest sacriledge to attribute these things to men which are onely of divine ordination Willet sayth It belongeth onely to the Creator to sanctifie the Creature In the booke of Ecclesiasticus cap. 33.7.8 it is demanded Why doth one day excell another when as the light of every day of the yeare is of the Sun It is answered By the knowledge of the Lord they were distinguished and he altered seasons and feasts Some of them hath he made hie dayes and hallowed them Some of them he hath made ordinary dayes The common tenent of the Divines was acknowledged by the pretended Bishop of Galloway in his Sermon at the last Christmas It may offend you sayd he that this is an holy day I say there is no power either civill or Ecclesiasticall can make an holy day no King no Kirk onely the Lord that made the day and distinguished it from the night he hath sanctified the seventh day The like was acknowledged by M. P. Galloway in his Christmas Sermons If the speciall sanctification of a day to an holy use dependeth upon Gods commandement and institution then neither King nor Kirke representatiue may make an holy day The observers of dayes will say they count not their anniverserie daies holier then other dayes but that they keep them only for order and policie that the people may be assembled to religious exercises Answer The Papists will confesse that one day is not holier then another in its owne nature no not the Lords day for then the Sabboth might not haue been changed from the last to the first day of the weeke But they affirme that one day is holier then another in respect of the end and vse And so doe wee They call them holy dayes and so doe wee They vse them as memoriall signes of sacred mysteries whereof they carie the names as Nativitie Passion Ascension c. And so doe wee The presence of the festivitie putteth a man in minde of the mysterie howbeit he haue not occasion to be present in the holy Assembly We are commanded to obserue them in all points as the Lords day both in the publick Assemblies and after the dissoluing of the same Yea it is left free to teach any parte of Gods word on the Lords day but for solemnitie of the festiuall solemne texts must be chosen Gospels Epistles collects Psalmes must be framed for the particular service of these dayes and so the mysticall dayes of mans appointment shall not onely equall but in solemnity surpasse the morall sabboth appointed by the Lord. Doth not Hooker say that the dayes of publick memorials should be cloathed with the outward robes of holines They aledge for the warrant of anniversary festivities the Ancients who call them Sacred and misticall dayes If they were instituted only for order and policie that the people may Assemble to religious exercises Wherefore is there but one day appointed betwixt the Passion and Resurection fortie dayes betwixt the Resurrection and Ascension Ten betwixt the Ascension and Pentecost Wherefore follow we the course of the Moone as the Iewes did in our moveable feasts making the christian Church cloathed with the Sunne to walk vnder the Moone as Bonauentura alludeth Wherefore is there not a certain day of the moneth kept for Easter as well as for the nativitie Doth not Bellarmine giue this reason out of Augustine that the day of the Natiuity is celebrate only for memorie the other both for memorie and for sacraments Ille celebratur solum ob memoriam ideo semper die 25. Decembris at lâ—fe celebratur ob memoriam sacramentum ideo variatur If the anniversarie commemorations were like the weekely preachings as the two forenamed preachers made the comparison why
Kirke There is another reason to proue that there were no other dayes appoynted in the Apostles times The Apostle had occasions to treat of holy dayes reasoning against the observation of Iewish dayes they direct them to no other as the purpose required The Apostle condemneth not onely the observation of the Iewish daies nor the Iewish observation of the Iewish daies to a typicall use For the converted Iewes did not obserue them as shadowes of things to come for then they had denied Christ but he condemneth observation of dayes as a Iewish custome and rite as a pedagogicall and rudimentary instruction not beseeming the Christian Kirke Zanchius speaketh to this purpose after this manner Magis consentaneum est cum prima institutione cum scriptis Apostolicis ut unus tantum dies in septimana sanctisicetur It is more agreeable to the first institution and the writings of the Apostles that one day of the weeke onely be sanctified Against this Argument is first alledged that the Apostle compareth with the observation of dayes Rom. 14.5.6 Answ. The Apostle beareth with the infirmity of the weake Iewes who understood not the fulnesse of the Christian liberty And the ceremoniall law was as yet not buried But the same Apostle reproveth the Galatians who had attained to this libertie and had once left off the observation of daies Next the Iudaicall dayes had once that honour as to be appointed by God himselfe but the anniversary dayes appointed by men haue not the like honour It is secondly obiected that seeing the Lords day was instituted in remembrance of Christs resurrection the other notable acts of Christ ought likewise to be remembred with their severall festivities Answer It followeth not that because Christ did institute in remembrance of one benefite therefore men may institute for other benefites 2. Christs resurrection was a benefite including the rest as an accomplishment of the worke of redemption and answered anagogically to the common benefit of creation by the beginning of a new creation 3. We deny that the Lords day was appointed to celebrate the memory onely of Christs resurrection For then the Lords resurrection the proper subiect of all Homilies Sermons Gospels Epistles Collects Hymnes and Psalmes belonging to the Paschall seruice should be the proper subject of deuine seruice euery Lords day Then the Lords day shovld be a festivall day and it were vnlawfull to fast on it It was instituted for the remembrance of all his actions and generalie for his worship Athanasius sayth In Sabathâ— conuenimus ut Dominum Sabathi Iesum adoremus Wee conuene on the Sabboth that wee may adore Iesus the Lord of the Sabboth Augustin sayth Domineus hic dies idâ—irco dicitur quia eo die Dominus resurrexit vel ut ipso nomine doceret illuÌ„ Domino consecratum esse debere It is called the Lords day because the Lord rose that day or that the name might teach us that it ought to be consecrate to the Lord. It is called the Lords day either becase the Lord did institute it as the dayes of Purim are called Mordecaies dayes in the second of the Maccabees and the communion is called the Lords Supper Or els because it was instituted to the Lords honour and worship The Iewish Sabboth was the Sabboth of the Lord our God The Christian sabboth is the Sabboth of Christ our Lord God and Man The name of Lord was more frequent in the mouths of Christians in the Apostlick times then the name of Christ as Rhenanus hath obserued When it is called commonly the Lords day it is all one as if it were commonly called Christs day Changeing the title but not the purpose If the ordinary sabboth be Christs day appointed by himselfe or his Apostles at his direction for the remembrance of all his actions and for his worship in generall to diuide his actions and appoint anniversary and mysticall dayes for their remembrance is superstitious wil-worship and a Iudaicall addition to Christs institution Christs day answereth analogicallie to the morall sabboth It may be applied to the remembrance of Christs resurrection seeing he rose that day and in some sort to bâ— a signe of the heavenly rest But that is typus communis factus A common type fitted to resemble such things But not typus distinâ—â—us appointed by God for that end It resteth then that Christs day or the Lords day is the Christian sabboth a continuation of the morall sabboth and to be obserued in a morall maner for all the paise of Gods worship in and through Christ and not in a misticall maner for the joyfull remembrance of Christ resurrection onely It is thirdly objected that Paul kept the feast of Pentecost Act. 20. 1. Cor. 16. I answer It was the Iewish Pentecost whereof mention is made in these places Paul needed not to haue travelled to Ierusalem for he might haue observed the Christian Pentecost euery where Bellarmin himself wil not be so bold as to affirme that it was the Christian Pentecost Francolinus putteth it out of doubt and sayth it is against the common exposition of the interpreters for sayeth he Tune temporis non erant celebres christianorum festivitates cum Euangelium non esset ad huc plenè promulgatum the festiuities of Christians were not as yet celebrated for the Gospell was not yet fully published It is fourthly objected out of the Epistles of Policarpus Pollycrates extant in the history of Eusebius and out of Beda following Eusebius that the Apostles kept the feast of Easter Answer Beda was but a fabler and a follower of fabulous reports Eusebius was little better treading vnknowne foot-steps as himself confesseth in the beginning of his storie The Epistles alledged are counterfeit for it is said in these Epistles that Iohn was a Priest and bare on his forehead the Patalum that is the golden plate like that of the high Priests Exod. 37.36 But no man will graunt sayth Scaliger Neutrum concedit quisciverit nullam Christi Apostolum sacerdotem fuisse nulli preterquam Summo Sacerdoti Petalon gestare licuisse That either Iohn or Iames bare it who vnderstand that none of Christs Apostles was a priest and that it was lawfull to none but the hie priest to beare the golden plate And yet these Epistles are the eldest records that Eusebius can ground vpon The Bishop of Elie in his sermon taketh needlesse pains to prove the antiquity of Ester But when he proveth it to be Apostolicall he shooteth short His eldest antiquity is the counterfeit Epistles before alledged His proofe out of scripture Psalm 118.8 1. Cor. 5.7.8 are very weake For the first testimonie is applyed to euery Lords day and is not to be restrained to Pasche day Christ crucified and refused of the builders was demonstrate to be the corner stone For that day he was demonstrate to be the son of God by his resurrection according to Dauids Prophesie To
is objected and said that wee may pray in the act of receaving therefore wee may kneele in the act of receaving Answer This objection insinuates that kneeling is the proper and onely commendable gesture of prayer and therefore the Bishop of Rochester exponeth the standing of the publican Luk. 18.11.13 to haue been kneeling because sayeth he the Iewish custome was to pray kneeling But if he had remembred the Lords owne saying Ierem. 15. though Moses and Samuell stood before me c. he might haue understood that they prayed standing as wel as kneeling Drusius observeth that of old they prayed standing that therfore prayers were called stations or standings And Rabbi Iuda had a saying that the world could not subsist without statioÌ„s or standings And where it is said Abram stood before the lord Manabem an Hebrew Rabine expoundeth it he prayed before the Lord. Next the prayer meant of is either some publicke prayer uttered by the Minister or the mentall prayer of the communicant As for the prayer of the Minister in the act of distribution it is flat against the institution as I haue already sayd The Minister is ordained by the institution to act the person of Christ and pronounce the words of promise This is my body as if Christ himselfe were pronouncing these words and not change the promise into a prayer Fenner in his principles of Religion layeth this down as a ground That in the second commandement we are forbidden the practise and use of any other rite or outward meanes used in the worship or service of God then he hath ordained Ioh. 4.22 2 King 18.4 and that by the contrary we are commanded to practise all those parts of his worship which he in his word hath commanded and to acknowledge onely the proper use of every rite and outward meanes which the Lord hath ordained Deut. 12.32 2. King 17.26 Further we are forbidden by the second commandement to pray by direction before any creature This publicke prayer is but a pretended cause of kneeling as the Ministers of Lincolne make manifest in their abridgement for no Canon of our neighbour Kirke hath directed any part of this kneeling in the act of receiving to be assigned to the said prayer In populous congregations where there is but one Minister the communicants sit a quarter of an houre before the Minister repaire to them with the sacrament And last the prayer is ended before the delivery of the elements As for our Kirk no such prayer is ordained to be uttered by the Minister therefore no such prayer can be pretended In the late Canon it is sayd That the most reverent and humble gesture of the body in our meditation and lifting up of our hearts best becommeth so divine an action Meditation is not prayer and the heart may be lifted up by the act of faith and contemplation as well as by the action of prayer so that neither publick nor mentall prayer is expressed in our act But let the words be interpreted of mentall prayer even mentall prayer is not the principall exercise of the soule in the act of receiving the sacramentall elements the minde attending on the audible words the visible elements the mysticall actions and making present use of them men should not be diverted from their principall worke and meditation upon the Analogie betwixt the signes and things signified The soule may send up in the meane time some short ejaculations and darts of prayer to heaven to strengthen her owne weaknesse and returne to her principall worke of meditation and application of the benefites represented These short ejaculations of the minde are onely occasionall as a Christian feeleth his owne present estate and are incident to all our actions both civill and religious In the act of receiving our earthly food in going out the way in hearing the word If a man be moved inwardly when he heareth that the word was made flesh shall he kneele as they do in the Romane Kirke If a man should kneele at every inward motion of the minde when he heareth the word what confusion would there be in the congregation A man looking occasionally to a crucifix may remember Christ and send up some ejaculations shall he therefore kneele The three children prayed mentally no doubt when they were brought before the golden Image but lawfully they might not kneele before it Perkins destinguisheth notably betwixt publick private and secret worship the secret and mentall worship must be yeelded to God and the signes thereof concealed from the eyes and hearing of men as Nehemiah when he prayed in presence of the King Nehem. 2.4 In a word the Institution and the second commandement hinder kneeling at this time suppose mentall prayer were the principall exercise of the soule I heare there is alledged a third sort of prayer to wit that the very act of receiving is of it selfe a reall prayer Is not this as much as to say that craving and receiving is all one Bellarmine sayth That prayer of iâ— selfe and of the own proper office doth impetrate and that a sacrifice hath the force and power of obtaining or impetrating because it is Quaedam oratio realis non verbalis a certaine reall prayer not a verball We may forgiue him to say this of the sacrifice of the Masse where there is an offering of a sacrifice to God But Bellarmine was never so absurd as to call the act of receiving from God a reall prayer to God Their other obiection that we may praise God in the act of receiving therefore we may kneele may be answered after the same manner There is no publicke thankesgiving ordained to be made at the delivery of the elements mentall praise therefore must be meant Mentall praise is no more the principall worke of the soule then mentall prayer what was sayd of the ejaculations of the one let it be applied to the short eâ—aculations of the other The name of Eucharist given to this Sacrament helpeth them nothing for it is a name given by Ancients and not by the Scripture Next as it is called Eucharistia so it is called Eulogia for the words he gaue thankes and he blessed are indifferently used by the Evangelists Some parts of this holy celebration stand in thankesgiuing as the beginning and the end and therefore is the whole action denominated from a part saith Causaubon Eulogia Eucharistia utraque vox à parte una totum Domini actionem designat It followeth not that all the parts of this holy ministration are actions of thankesgiving Obiect What we may craue of God upon our knees we may receiue on our knees Ans. It is false I may on my knees Giue us this day our daily bread but I may not receiue it on my knees The people of Israel prayed for food yet they were not esteemed unthankfull for not kneeling when they received the Manna It is again objected that in the act of receauing we receaue
diocesse Our opposits are forced to confesse that it is not the proper and essentiall part of a Bishops office but it was given them for honor of their preisthood according to the saying of Hieromie neither was this universall in Hieromes time for he saith Multis in locis id esse tantum factum reperimus ad honorem potiùs sacerdotij quam ob legis necessitatem In many places not all places it was so their honour proved prejudicall to the will of the Kirk Balthasar Lydius saith it was untolerable superstition that the Priest might annoint the breist and the shoulder but all behoued to abstein from the forhead except only the Bishop Beda saith Confirmatio propter arrogantiam non est concessa singulis sacerdotibus sicut et multa alia That for the arrogancie of Bishops confirmation and many other things were not permitted to Preists This appropriation of confirmation to Bishops hath made confirmation that is my Lord Bishops baptisme to be preferred to the Lords baptisme parents must bring their children to them many miles as if the holy Ghost could no where breath but from their fingers they will scarce once in three yeare goe to them and so great numbers depart this life without confirmation They vilipend in their deeds that which they magnifie in their words and the solemne entrance into the society of the communicants which should be made at home in presence of their owne congregation is taken away with their Lordly Bishoping I end with the saying of Tindal After that Bishops had left preaching then sained they this dumbe ceremony of confirmation to haue somewhat at the leastway whereby they might reign over their Diocese They reserved unto themselues also the christning of bels and conjuring or hollowing of Churches and Churchyards and of alters and superalters and hallowing of chalices and so forth whatsoeuer is of honor or profite which confirmations and the other conjurations also they haue now committed to their suffragans because they themselues haue no leasure to minister such things for their lusts and pleasures and abundance of all things and for the cumbrance that they haue in the Kings matters and busines of the Realmes One keepeth the privie seale another the great seale the third is confessor that is to say a privie traytor and a secret Iudas he is presedent of the Prince his Councel he is an Embassadour an other sort of the Kings secret Counsell Woe is unto the Realmes where they are of the Counsell As profitable are they verily unto the Realmes with their Councill as the woules unto the sheep or the foxes unto the geese thus farre Tindall Of the Administration of the Sacraments in priuate places IN the ninth head of the first booke of discipline it was thought expedient that baptisme be ministred vpon the ordinary dayes of preaching not that it is unlawfull to baptise whensoeuer the word is preached but to remoue a grosse error wherewith many are deceived thinking that children be damned if they die without baptisme and to make the people hold the administration of the Sacraments in greater reverence In the order of baptisme set dovn before the Psalmes in metre it is said that the Sacraments are not ordained of God to be vsed in priuate corners as charmes or sorceries but left to the Congregation and necessarily annexed to Gods word as seales of the same In the Assembly holden at Edinburgh anno 1581. in October it was ordained that the sacraments should not be ministred in private houses but solemnly according to the good order hitherto observed vnder the paine of deposition In the confession of faith the cruell judgement against infants departing without the sacrament and the absolute necessity of baptisme are damned This lawdable order hitherto observed was altered in the late pretended Assembly holden at Perth where was made an act anent the administration of baptisme in priuate houses when necessity requireth Item an act anent the administration and giuing of the holy communion in private houses to sick and infirme persons A Sacrament is a publick action to be performed publickly by publick ministers neither can any necessity or sufficient cause be alledged wherefore any sacred and publick action should passe in priuate Because Gods ordinance is to vs a Supreame law and necessity which we ought to obey rather then foster popular ignorance and infirmity These are Tilenus words The Sacraments were appointed not onely to be signes and seales of invisible graces bvt also to be testimonies before the world of our piety and thankfulnes towards God and badges of our profession distinguishing true Kirks from false All Sacraments are certain kindes of protestations of our faith sayeth Aquinas They ought therefore to be conspicuous and publick We haue spirituall and invisible fellowship and communion with the whole Kirke Outwardly we professe the same faith and kind of worship but we doe not communicate with the whole Kirk in the publick exercises of religion and ministration of the Sacraments except only mediatly in some particular congregation Visible communion in the holy things of God is the end of our vnion and consociation with a particular Kirke That which we may not attain to in our communion with the whole Kirke militant immediatly we do it mediatly in our communion with a particular congregation This communion ought not to be violate The minister in ministration of the Sacraments hath not the only and cheife interest but togither with the minister the kirk witnessing consenting approving and concurring with praier and thanksgiving He is the mouth but he is not all The keies of the sacraments are giuen to the Kirke howbeit the exercise and dispensation of them bee concredited to the pastours All other actions which concerned the whole Kirk were done with consent and in presence of the Kirke as elections ordinations excommunications By the same reason ought the Sacraments to be ministred with consent and in presence of the Kirk seeing they are workes of publick nature and publick fruit belonging to all Sacraments ought to be preserved from contempt neglect and corruption The Sacraments are irreligiously handled when they are ministred in private places The Imperiall constitution in Iustinian dischargeth that holy things be ministred in private houses Not onely are the Sacraments ministred irreligiously in priuate brought in contempt and the publik vse neglected but also hereticks take occasion to corrupt the pure administration of the Sacraments by these privie practises The Sacraments are not tyed to the materiall Kirkes made of dead stones but the Kirke made of liuely stones If therefore the congregation bee in a woode a house or a Caue the Sacraments may bee ministred in a house a woode or a caue But then the Sacraments are ministred not in priuate but in publick because they are ministred in the sight of the whole Congregation Christs promise to be in the midst of two or three conuened