THE REMAINS OF THE REVEREND and LEARNED Mr John Corbet Late of Chichester Printed from his own Manuscripts LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel 1684. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER HERE thou hast the Remains of the Reverend and Learned Mr. Corbet late of Chichester Those that knew him say That he was a man endued with the wisdom that is from above that is first pure and then peaceable gentle meek moderate and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality without hypocrisie Therefore it is conceived that any thing which he had designed for publick use may be well accepted of by all those that desire to follow after peace with all men so far as is consistent with purity Whether the design of these Remains of his be not to vindicate the truth and to promote purity first and then peace is left to thee to judg after thou hast impartially perused and considered them in the fear of God and if in any measure they conduce to so good an end it is hoped thou wilt be thankful to God for the benefit which the Church of Christ and therein thy self mayst receive by the use of them Thou hast them just as they were left under his own hand if himself had lived to publish them thou mightest possibly have had them better Polisht but it is not thought fit that any other person should take upon him to alter any thing in them There are printed of this Authors and sold by Thomas Parkhurst The Kingdom of God among men together with a Tract of Church Unity and Schism Self-employment in Secret containing Evidences upon Self-Examination Thoughts upon painful Afflictions Memorials for Practice OF THE CHURCH § 1. Of the Church and Ministry as related to each other WHETHER the Church or the Ministry be first in nature is to be considered that for the more orderly handling of both we may know which of them to begin with For that seems to require the precedency of handling that hath the priority of nature or the being whereof is presupposed to the being of the other Now some have thus resolved it As the question whether the Hen or the Egg be first is resolved by the Creation That God made the Hen first so is the Question Whether the Church or Ministry be first by the consideration of the first Institution of Christ And it appears that the Ministry was first Instituted or at least that it was first in existence In setting up the Christian Church Christ set up the Ministry first to convert men or make them Christians Moreover the Ministry as taken for the collective body of Ministers is a constitutive part of the Church considered not entitativè but organicè as some Phrase the distinction that is not as a meer company of Believers gathered to Christ but as a Political Society or Spiritual Commonwealth in this World And the Constitutive parts should be distinctly treated of before the Whole that is constituted of them On the other hand the Church is the end of the Ministry Eph. 4.11 and in design or intention before it and consequently the Ministry hath a respect of subserviency to the Church and is Adapted to the state thereof Likewise the Ministry is in the Church as the lesser in the greater as a part in the whole as a thing residing in the seat of its residence as Stewardship in a Family This indeed holds principally and perpetually of the Church Universal 1 Cor. 12.28 Moreover the Ministers power and vertue is theirs as they are the Churches which indeed hath the propriety of them and their Ministerial gifts as being all under God and Christ finally for its behoof Upon these considerations I shall discourse first of the Church and then of the Ministry § 2. Of the Church its Name and Nature THE word Ecclesia is noted to signifie 1. An Assembly called together by a Superior 2. Any multitude gathered into one place 3. According to the use of the holy Scripture a certain multitude that retain the Name as well when they are a part as when they are met together An Assembly at large is called Ecclesia but Appellativè but they that are now so called by special appropriation of the word are a Society standing in a special Relation to God as his devoted People and that both when they are assembled and when they are apart and whether they be the Universal Society of Gods People or the particular Societies that are the integral parts of the Universal The word Church is the English of Ecclesia in its appropriated signification and it is taken divers ways but all agreeing in the aforesaid Notion 1. For the whole Company of Gods Elect comprising the uncalled and the Militant and the Triumphant Eph. 5.25 26. 2. For the whole Company of the faithful both Militant and Triumphant Col. 1.18 Heb. 12.23 3. For all professors of the Faith of Christ or visible Christians Acts 5.11 Acts 8.3 Acts 12.1 4. For the Catholick Visible Church as a political Society 1 Cor. 12.28 5. For the particular Churches parts of the Catholick as comprising the Church Officers and the people or Community of the faithful as the Church at Corinth 1 Cor. 1.2 The Churches of Galatia Gal. 1.2 and in many other places 6. For the members of the Church or Community of the faithful as distinct from their spiritual Rulers Acts 15.4 22. 7. For the Governours of the Church as distinct from the governed Mat. 18.17 18 19. 8. For a Church-Assembly come together for Divine Worship 1 Cor. 14.19 34. 9. For the faithful in some one family Rom. 16.5 Philem. 2. if it do not signifie a Church meeting in those houses These several acceptions of the word agree in the said common Notion of a number of People associated in a peculiar and Spiritual Relation to God yet the said Notion is more noble and compleat in some of them than in others Besides all these there is the vulgar use of the Word for the House set a part for the Church to meet in for Gods Publick Worship And no doubt but the Word may be lawfully so used it being a trope in ordinary use to put the name of the persons contained upon the place containing as also the name of the place containing upon the persons contained But that there is any such use of the word in Holy Scripture to me is not evident As for the Text 1 Cor. 11.22 Have ye not houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the Church of God it seems not to me to be inferred from it For the Church of God there said to be despised may be understood rather of Gods People assembled § 3. The Church is a Society distinct from the Commonwealth IT hath been well noted That there can be no greater Evidence of real distinction than actual separation And the Church and Commonwealth are separate wheresoever there
is a Christian Church in a Commonwealth that is not Christian indeed in that Case the Christians taken personally are members not severed from the Commonwealth but parts of it but the Spiritual Society which they make is no part of it but really severed from it When a Commonwealth becomes Christian the Church is not to be looked upon as swallowed up in the Commonwealth but they remain distinct Societies notwithstanding the intimate conjunction that is between them and they differ in their kind and formal state from each other The foundation upon which the Commonwealth rests and its constitutive parts formally taken are of another nature than the foundation on which the Church rests and its constitutive parts formally taken The former is immediately founded in humane Laws and Compacts and Essentially made up of several orders and ranks of men diversly indued with temporal qualifications powers and liberties joyned by Civil Bands and Subordinate one to another but the latter is immediately founded in Divine Laws not only natural but positive and Essentially made up of several orders and ranks of men spiritually distinguished and indued with spiritual qualifications Powers and Liberties joyned by Spiritual Bands and Subordinate one to another Hereupon none become Members of the Church merely as Members of the Commonwealth and none become Cives or Members of the Commonwealth merely as Members of the Church and they that are deprived of the Rights of the Commonwealth may still injoy the Priviledges of the Church and they that are deprived of the Priviledges of the Church may still injoy the Rights of the Commonwealth Indeed a Christian Commonwealth ultimately intends those high and excellent ends which the Church doth nextly and immediately viz. The Glory of God and the Eternal happiness of men and procures the same in its own way as the Church doth in its way And the Magistrates and Officers of a Common-wealth must proceed by the Rules of Christianity in their Civil Administrations as well as the Ministers of the Church in their Sacred Administrations and they are the Servants of Christ the Mediator not only as Christians but as Magistrates And Christianity doth influence its professors considered as Members of the Commonwealth as well as of the Church In these respects such a Commonwealth hath attained a more excellent State and exists in a more perfect mode than other Commonwealths Nevertheless the Church is another and higher thing than that higher mode of the Commonwealth as Christian and hath an Essentially different Polity being a Society of another foundation and specifically different Constitution It is questionable to say the least whether the Civil Power of the Commonwealth and the Spiritual Power of the Christian Church may lawfully reside in the same person I do not now speak of that Power in the Church which is objectively Ecclesiastical but formally Civil such as is the Kings Supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons Ecclesiastical within his Dominions but of Power formally Spiritual And if both Spiritual and Civil Power may lawfully reside in the same person yet that person tho naturally but one would be politically two and the People subordinate to him in those two capacities tho they be the same persons yet they would be two Societies distinguished in their Essential forms When the Commonwealth fails the Church may still subsist and when the Church fails the Commonwealth may still subsist The Commonwealth of the Jews that was a Theocracy suffered an Intercision during the Babylonish Captivity yet their Church then remained tho it were greatly wounded it was not extinct And afterwards when they were no Commonwealth of themselves but a Province of the Roman Empire their Ecclesiastical Society and Polity stood intire till it was to give place to the Christian Church § 4. Of the Church as Visible and Invisible THE notion of Visible and Invisible must not here be taken strictly for that which is or is not the object of seeing only but of other sensitive perception or of any humane intuition All other Societies of men admit not this distinction because they are constituted in their formal being by things that do appear outwardly But this of the Church is constituted in its formal being primarily by things that in themselves do not appear outwardly and but secondarily by things that appear as expressions of the things that in themselves appear not The Church is a Society of regenerate persons joyned to the Lord Christ as their Head and to one another as fellow-members by a mystical union through the Holy Gost residing in them all and through faith unfeigned towards God in Christ and holy love toward one another justified sanctified and adopted to the inheritance of Eternal Glory Now the said Qualifications Relations and Priviledges being in themselves hid from mens knowledg and judgment do primarily constitute the Church which is thereupon in its primary consideration a Society Mystical and Invisible It is also a Society of persons professing Christianity or Regeneration and externally joyned to Christ and to one another by the profession of unfeigned faith and love and by the Symbols of that profession and partakers of the external Priviledges belonging to it And according to this external Constitution which is necessary tho it be not primary it is named Visible So then the Church Invisible and Visible are not two Societies but the same Society distinguished by its divers formal considerations and constitutions the one primary the other secondary and the former is not for the latter but the latter for the former These two distinct considerations or modes or forms of the same Society are not commensurate to each other but the Church in its Visible form is of a larger extent than in its Invisible form For many profess Christianity or Dedication to God in Christ that are not really that is heartily and intirely so dedicated This Society as understood in the compleat notion thereof cannot be extended any further then its primary that is its Invisible form doth reach Whatsoever lies without that compass is but the shadow without the substance the image without the life thereof And therefore all they that are joyned to it meerly according to its Visible form are of it not adequately univocally and simply but inadequately analogically secundum quid They that upon their credible profession are of this Society but analogically as to the external form only have just Right and Title to its external Priviledges according to their capacity and disposedness before them that can discern and directly judg only of things that appear outwardly so that if men debar them of those Priviledges they do them wrong For tho God allows them not and thâ—y have no right in his judgment which is always according to truth and not bate appearance yet he hath commanded men to admit them and consequently given them right before men Credible profession in whatsoever degree higher or lower can ground but a judgment of charity
provinces of narrower circuits of ground And how doth it appear that an Oecumenical council rightly so named can be For suppose it be not necessary to consist of all the bishops in the world but of some as delegates in the name of all yet it must consist of so many proportionably delegated from all in the several quarters as may signifie the sence and consent of all Hereupon let it be considered whether there be a possibility of such assemblies much more whether there be a possibility of the continuation or of the succession of them in such frequency as would be requisite in case such an assembly were Head of the Church Nor doth it stand with reason that an Oecumenical council in case it were existent can possibly execute the authority that belongs to the head of the Universal Church in overseeing all in receiving appeals from all in making authoritative determinations for all either immediately by it self or mediately by subordinate councils judicatories and ministers to be superintended regulated and determined by it in their proceedings Nor is there any notice given of the said headship of a General council more than of the Popes or any other bishops universal headship in the primitive and authentick records of the Charter that Christ hath given to his Church to wit the Holy Scriptures Nor is any rule given therein for the constitution of a General council whether it shall be made up only of the Clergy or only of such bishops as are of a higher order thâ—â— Presbyters or of all such bishops of the Catholick Church or if of some in the name of all what number there must be either definite or indefinite and proportionate to the number of those that are represented It is evident de facto that the officers of the Catholick Church as the particular bishops or pastors and the associations and conventions of them do not derive their spiritual authority from a General council Nor doth it appear that de jure they should derive their power from it any more than from the Pope § 11. The infallibility of the Catholick Church examined THE Romanists assert an insallibility about matters of faith somewhere seated within the Catholick Church as the perpetual priviledg thereof some of them place it in the Pope and others in a General council Hereupon this priviledg is to be considered whether it be and what it is The meaning of the term is a being not liable to be deceived or to deceive about those matters about which it is said to be That the catholick church is infallible in the essentials of the christian religion is a most indubitable truth for every member of the catholick church so remaining is infallible so far it involves a a contradiction that any such should err therein for it were as much as to be a christian and no christian The Query therefore is whether it be liable to errour in the integrals aâ—d accidentals of Religion Now the church remaining such is not necessarily or in its nature infallible so far and therefore if it be infallible it must be so from the free grant of Christ But it doth not appear in the Holy Scripture that any such grant is made to the church What was the Apostles doctrine and consequently the doctrine of the Church in their days obedient to their authority we know what the church universally held in any one age touching all the integral parts of religion much more concerning accidentals I conceive extreamly difficult if not impossible to be known But that the church hath de facto if not universally yet very generally erred in the same errour about some integrals of religion appears by the ancient general practise of some things now generally accounted erroneous as for instance the giving of the Lords Supper to infants Moreover it is evident that the whole Church in its several parts hath erred some in one point some in another and that no part thereof hath been found in which hath appeared no error in some point of Religion or other And if all the parts may variously err in several points why may not they also harmoniously err all of them in one and the same point If the Catholick Church be not infallible in all doctrines of Faith much less is any such Council infallible as was ever yet congregated or is ever like to be congregated Hereupon it follows that in all Controversies of doctrine we cannot stand finally to the decision of the Catholick Church if it were possible to be had or to the decision of any the largest Council that can possibly convene We cannot tell what the Catholick Church is nor what particular Churches or persons are sound parts thereof but by the holy Scriptures For what Criterion can be brought besides them Mens bare testimony of themselves is not to be rested on How can we know that the first Nicene Council was orthodox in its determination about the Sacred Trinity and the second Nicene Council erroneous in its determination for Image-worship but by finding that the former was consonant and the latter dissonant to the Scripture in their aforesaid determinations If it be said That of Councils called General those that consist of greater numbers of bishops must carry it against those that consist of lesser numbers let some proof either from Scripture or Reason be given for it What ground is there from either to conclude that in the time of the Arrian Heresie the major part of bishops in the Roman Empire or the major part of those that assembled in Council and for instance in the first Council at Nice might not possibly have been Arrians Moreover if the major part were to carry it in the first six Centuries why not also in the ten last That promise of Christ Mat. 28. I am with you always to the end of the world may imply That there shall be a successive continuation of Bishops or Pastors in the Catholick Church to the worlds end that shall be Orthodox in the Essentials yea and in the Integrals of Religion yet it doth not imply that they shall be the greater number of those that are called and reputed bishops or pastors within Christendom nor that the greater number of those being convened in Councils shall not err in their Conciliar determinations about matters of Faith § 12. Of the Indefectibility of the Catholick Church CHRIST hath promised the perpetuity of the Church in general in saying that he would build it on a Rock and the gates of Hell should not prevail against it and I am with you always to the end of the world but how far and in what respect this perpetuity and indefectibility is promised ought to be enquired into lest we expect or insist upon more than the promise hath ensured That which Christ hath promised cannot be less than that there be always upon earth a number of true believers or faithful Christians made visible by their external profession of Christianity successively
Calendar yet in other chapters appointed to be read this person who speaks that which was untrue is set forth for a holy Angel And c. 7.3 both the Angel and Tobias are reported to say to Raguel that which was false on the Angels part viz. that they were of the sons of Naphtalim who were captives in Niniveh Tho we read in Scripture that Angels were sometimes taken to be men and so called by them that took them to be such yet we do not read therein that any Holy Angels affirmed that they were men and such particular men by name Tob. 12.15 The Angel is reported to say I am Raphael one of the seven holy Angels which present the prayers of the Saints and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy one The presenting of the prayers of the Saints before God looks like a mediatory act And suppose it here signifies but an act of ministry not of mediation yet I question whether it be right to consent to the use of such a passage as seems to imply the mediation or intercession of Angels for us and which may give an occasion to believe it and be made use of to prove that opinion The story of Bell and the Dragon is thought to be fabulous and there may be some regret in consenting to its being appointed to be read at a time when it being omitted the first Chapter of Isaiah would come in course to be read Moreover the reading of the Apocrypha hath been excepted against as it excludeth much of the Canonical Scriptures and taketh in such Books in their stead as are commonly reputed fabulous yet read for real History Of the Tables and Rules for Holy dayes and times IN this Book is contained the appointment of divers Festivals and other solemn times Now tho I scruple not to join in the publick Worship of God performed in those days yet I hesitate about the expresâ— declaring of assent and consent to the use of Tables and Rules directing to the solemnizing thereof It is to me doubtful whether any humane power may lawfully institute such times and days as some of these are I confess there be arguments for the lawfulness of such institution which I cannot well answer and there be other arguments against it which also I cannot well answer and this later sort I crave leave to propound in this place The occasions of these days and times were existent in the Apostles times and if God would have had these days appointed he could as easily and fitly have done it by his Apostles and have left it recorded in Scripture as he did other like things If the institution of these days and times were necessary it is equally necessary in all ages and parts of the Catholick Church and is the matter of an universal Law and so belongs to the Universal Lawgiver If the Universal Lawgiver hath reserved any thing to his own power it can be no less than the making of such Laws and Ordinances as are universally and perpetually necessary To affirm such institution to be universally necessary when God hath made no Law concerning it in Scripture is to overthrow the sufficiency of Scripture as a Catholick Rule of divine faith and worship For men to institute Ordinances of Worship supposed to be universally and perpetually necessary to the Church supposeth a defect in the divine universal and perpetual Ordinances to be made up by adding other Ordinances by way of supplement The fourth Commandment being one of the Decalogue seems to be of so high a nature that man may not presume to make the like The Table of all the Feasts to be observed begins All Sundays in the year so it calls the Lords day which it seems to put upon the same level with feasts of humane institution And there seems as great a sacredness if not greater conferred upon some of the high festivals as upon the Lords day which is of divine appointment The Lords day doth sufficiently answer the ends for which those festivals that relate to our Saviour are appointed for that being in memory of his Resurrection implies a memorial of all things done for mans redemption If such Institutions as these be not prohibited Deut. 4 2. Deut. 12.32 I enquire of what sort is the prohibited addition there spoken of The prohibition seems to me to be not meerly of adding to the Rule to wit the written law but of doing more than that Rule required as the precept is not of preserving the Rule but observing what is commanded in it I do not question the lawfulness of such humane institutions in divine Worship as are in meer subordination to divine institution and serve for the more convenient modifying and ordering thereof and which indeed are not properly additions thereunto because they are not of the same nature and use but are meerly accidentals of worship But I doubt of such humane Ordinances of divine worship as are coordinate with the divine Ordinances and express the same nature reason end and use with them and are additions properly so called The festival days appointed by the Church of England are in the Table of feasts set in coordination with the Lords day and they are not meerly the accidentals but very important integral parts of divine service in this Church In reason it must needs be that God hath sufficiently provided for his honour in the worship which he hath instituted as much as belongs to the reason and end of those things which he hath instituted Thereupon I enquire Whether it be not a presuming of our own against the divine wisdom to add to the divine Ordinances by way of supplement humane ordinances of the same reason and intent with the divine There is no question of the lawfulness of appointing some certain times besides the Lords day either fixed or variable to be spent in publick worship wherein God is to be glorified for Jesus Christ and the work of redemption wrought by him There is no question of the lawfulness of appointing days of humiliation and thanksgiving either for once or anniversarily upon special occasions and that besides the special occasions of those days things of universal and perpetual concernment ought to be minded in the religious exercises then performed In these cases the appointed days and times are only adjuncts of worship which as all other things must be performed in some certain time and they are for the worship but the worship is not for them and they are not intrinsecally holy but only by extrinsick denomination from the holy worship then solemnizâ—d But these concessions do not infer as I suppose the warrantableness of days appropriated to the same use and ends for which the Lords day is designed of God and made intrinsecally and permanently holy and sanctifying the worship as well as sanctified by it so that it were profaneness to alienate them to other uses Now as I assuredly believe that the Lords day is intrinsecally and
permanently or unalterably holy as well sanctifying the duties therein performed as sanctified by them so I suppose that the appointed feasts or at least some of them are set apart by the Church to a state of like holiness I confess that as touching the dedication of such days and times as some of those are which are appointed by the Church I have not a clearness of judgment to determine for or against the warrantableness thereof Nor would I break with the Church upon this account but would make those days an occasion of joining in the unquestionable divine worship then celebrated But I know not how to declare an unfeigned assent and consent to the sanctifying of those days because in so doing I should not speak the truth while I doubt of the warrantableness thereof Of the Order for Morning and Evening-prayer THE second Rubrick before Morning-prayer is taken to enjoin the use of the Surplice Supposing that the use thereof is not in it self unlawful nevertheless I question whether I may lawfully consent to a Rule enjoining the use of it to such Ministers and in such Congregations by which the use thereof is judged unlawful or to which it is odious or greatly offensive by invincible or inveterate prejudice I enquire Whether a consent to the use of this Rubrick doth not imply a consent to the enjoining of this Vestment for the enjoined retaining and using of it so that sacred Ministrations shall not be performed without it is the subject matter of the Rubrick I enquire also Whether I may lawfully declare my consent to the use of this Vestment supposing that tho I do not scruple the bare lawfulness of using it yet I wish in my heart the use thereof were not retained but laid aside in regard of the great offence taken at it it being a thing unnecessary and the worship of God being as decently and profitably performed without it as with it Moreover what were those Ornaments in the Church which were in use by authority of Parliament in the second year of the reign of King Edward the sixth I do not well know Some say this Rubrick seems to bring back the Cope and other Vestments forbidden in the Common-prayer-book 5 6. of Edw. 6. to the use whereof I do not see it fit for me to declare my consent The Responsals of the Clerk and people the multiplied repetitions of the Gloria Patri and the Lords Prayer the omission of the Doxology in the Lords Prayer the composure of many short Collects instead of one continued prayer I can submit unto and declare my consent to them as to things passable But if the declaration of consent imply not only the simple allowableness but also the laudableness and comparative usefulness or expediency of these things I am not clear therein Of the Creed of St. Athanasius I Heartily own the whole Doctrine of the Trinity and of the incarnation of the Son of God as set forth in this Creed yet I am not satisfied to declare my assent to these assertions Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly Also This is the Catholick faith which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved Also he therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity This Creed doth contain deep mysteries as that the Son is not made nor created but begotten That the Holy Ghost is neither made nor created nor begotten but proceeding The difference between eternal generation and eternal procession being a mystery wherein the greatest Divines see but darkly we may be justly afraid to condemn all persons as uncapable of salvation who do not understand and explicitely believe these mysteries Likewise the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son being here delivered as a part of the faith concerning which it is asserted That except every one do keep whole without doubt he shall perish everlastingly the undoubted damnation of those Churches and Christians who hold that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father only seems to be thence inferred The best answer to these objections that I have seen I here transcribe out of a book lately written It is to be considered That in this Creed there be some things contained and expressed as necessary points of Faith and other things for the more clear and useful explication of the truth tho they be not of equal necessity to be understood and believed even by the meanest capacity Thus if we first consider the contexture of this Creed the Faith declared necessary concerning the Trinity is thus expressed in the beginning thereof The Catholick Faith is this That we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance After this follows an explication useful to set forth the true Christian Doctrine which begins For there is one person of the Father c. After which explication the same necessary doctrine to be known and believed is thus again expressed and distinguished from that explication in these words So that in all things as aforesaid the Vnity in Trinity and the Trinity in Vnity is to be worshipped he therefore who will be saved must thus think of the Trinity What is contained in this consideration is the more clear by the following observation That our Church doth both here and in her Articles evidently receive the Athanasian Creed and yet from the manner of using the Apostles Creed in the form of Baptism as containing the profession of that Faith into which we are baptized in the Catechism as containing all the Articles of the Christian Faith and in the Visitation of the sick as being the Rule to try whether he believe as a Christian man should or not it is manifest that no more is esteemed in our Church of necessity to salvation for all men to believe than that only which is contained and expressed in the Apostles Creed Hereunto I make this Reply In this point the question is not What the Church of England but what the Athanasian Creed appointed by this Church to be read on certain solemn days instead of the Apostles Creed declares to be of necessity to salvation Now the thing that is manifestly asserted in this Creed to be of necessity to salvation is the intire belief of the Catholick Faith as it is there expressed For it is said Which Faith except every one keep whole c. Wherefore to distinguish the summary of the doctrine of the Trinity set down in the beginning and the conclusion from the whole intermediate explication thereof as if the belief of the one but not of the other were affirmed to be necessary to salvation is a very forc'd and unwarrantable narrowing of the intendment of the Words The explication as well as the said Summary is set forth as that Catholick Faith which except every one keep whole and undefiled he shall without doubt perish everlastingly Yea it is expresly said in
of the Cross in Baptism are these 1. That it is not a meer circumstance but an Ordinance of Worship as important as an external rite can be 2. That being a solemn and stated Symbolical sign of a Divine Mystery and devised of men it is of that classis or rank of things which are not necessary in genere and so not allowed to be determined and imposed by men as things necessary in genere are allowed 3. That either the whole nature of a Sacrament or at least a part thereof is in it That it is a Sacrament is thus proved It is an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual Grace The outward sign is the representation of the Cross the instrument of Christs sufferings and the inward spiritual Grace is fortitude in the Christian warfare according to the words of the Liturgy Here is a signification of Grace to be given us of God and of our duty according to that Grace Likewise this sign hath assigned unto it the moral efficacy of a Sacrament for working Grace by teaching and exciting us to the spiritual warfare and minding us of Christ crucified Also it signifies and seals our Relation to Christ or the Grace of being a Christian And the Liturgy so speaks We receive this Child into the Congregation of Christs Flock and sign him c. in token c. The pretence that no rite can be a Sacrament but what God hath instituted is answered before Sect. 4. And tho the imposers thereof say it is not a Sacrament yet if they so declare its meaning as to be of the formal nature and reason of a Sacrament they make it to be one indeed tho in word they deny it If it were granted that it hath not the compleat or intire nature of a Sacrament yet there is one essential part of a Sâ—crament most apparently in it that is to be an ingaging sign on our part in the Covenant For we use it as a token of ingaging our selves to Christ crucified as our Captain and Saviour by his Cross and to perform the duties of his Soldiers and Servants to our lives ends And as Baptism dedicates to Christ so doth the sign of the Cross according to the express words of the Canon viz. It is an honourable badg whereby the party Baptized is dedicated to the Service of him that dyed on the Cross So it hath that in it which is essential to a Sacrament and part of the nature thereof at least Besides it seems to be an Ordinance of that nature and kind which Christ our Lawgiver hath reserved to himself from the reason in Sections 3 4 5. § 12. Of Holy-days THAT some time of every day is to be spent in Religious exercises and that whole days of Humiliation and Thanksgiving are to be kept upon special occasions and that there may be an Anniversary commemoration of great Mercies or Judgments is little doubted I see no reason why it is not lawful for a Nation or People to institute an Anniversary Commemoration of some eminent person sent of God as a great light among them as the first propagator of the Gospel or great Restorer of true Religion among them as of Luther among the Germans and Calvin among the French Protestants For scarce a greater blessing doth arise to a Nation Mr. R B. saith That an Apostolical Ministry being so eminent a mercy he can see no reason why the Churches of all succeeding Ages may not keep an Anniversary day for Peter or Paul c. but he saith also that whether it be lawful to separate an Anniversary for the commemoration of Christs Nativity Circumcision and such like things c. which were equally existent in the Apostles days and the reasons for observing them then equal with the following times is hard for him to determine being not able to prove it lawful and yet not seeing a plain prohibition of it Yet he gives these reasons of doubting their lawfulness First the occasions of these days were existent in the Apostles times and if God would have had these days observed he could as easily and fitly have done it by his Apostles in the Scripture as he did other like things 2. If it were necessary it would be equally necessary in all Ages and parts of the Catholick church and therefore must be the matter of an universal Law and God hath made no such Law in Scripture and therefore to say it is necessary is to overthrow the sufficiency of Scripture as the Catholick Rule of Faith and Universal Divine obedience 3. God himself hath appointed a day for the same purposes as these are pretended for the Resurrection implies all the rest of the Works of the Redeemer 4. The Fourth Commandment being one of the Decalogue seems to be of so high a nature that man is not to presume to make the like He accounts it plainly unlawful for any Earthly Power to appoint a Weekly day in commemoration of any part of our Redemption and so make another stated Weekly Holy-day because it is the doing of the same thing for one day which God hath done by another and so seems an usurpation of power not given and an accusation of Christ and the Holy Ghost as if he had not done his Work sufficiently I think it also an usurpation of Power not given for any Human Authority to make any day or time permanently and unmovably holy as a perpetual oblation to God and not only sanctified by the duties therein performed but also sanctifying the duties and making them the more acceptable But as to the observation much more to the imposing of the observation of Holy-days of human institution regard is to be had not only to what is lawful but also to what is expedient And it is as easie to offend by excess as by defect in the instituting of set-times and days appropriated to Divine Worship § 13. Of a LITVRGY ANY particular form whether stinted or free is not of the essence of prayer but only its accidental shape or mode and pertains to it not as to a holy action but as to an action in general And for that no action can be performed but in some particular mode or other this holy action cannot otherwise be performed Now neither Scripture nor the nature of the thing hath made either a stated and stinted or a free and extemporal form in it self necessary and therefore either the one or the other may be used as expedience requires according to due choice and judgment As on the one hand they are too weak and ill advised that reject all set-forms so they on the other hand are too opinionative that reject all immediately conceived yea or preconceived forms that are not prescribed And both of them shew that they are too much addicted to their Parties § 14. Of Religious Austerities as acts or matter of Divine Worship THere are Austerities inconvenient in their kind such as the self cutting and lancing of Baals Priests and