the Orders of the Church and by offring at a Sermon which is not enjoyned although the Court-practise may be our President let go the very Office of the Day which is enjoyned Give me leave now to acquaint you with a penitential Service placed at the end of the Service Book which may be used at other times of the Year but must always be used upon this Day It consists of the Litany which is a good penitential Prayer and of choice Sentences taken out of both Testaments which are very fit for the work of repentance and of Psalm 51. which is a penitential Psalm and other choice Prayers following fitted to the state and condition of Penitents But because there are many curses in it and the People are enjoyned to answer Amen after every curse lest any should take occasion thence to quarrel the Service as if we were enjoyned to curse our selves and as Jacob said to call down a curse upon our own Heads and not a blessing Gen. 27.12 To remove this scruple I am first to tell you That the Churches Voice herein is God's Voice the Church enjoynes no more than what God himself enjoynes Deut. 27.15 Now for the word Amen give me leave to explain it it is not always a wish or prayer but sometimes only an assent to the truth of that to which it is added and so is it in this place we do not wish that these curses may fall upon our Heads but only affirm with our own Mouths that the curse of God is indeed due to such sins as the Church here propounds it And the use of it is to deter us from such and the like sins to make us repent of them if we are guilty as very well knowing that God's curse and vengeance doth deservedly follow such sins and sinners So that however we are enjoyned with Moses as it were to go into Mount Ebal this day and to pronounce these curses which can be no very pleasing task For according to the Hebrew Proverb we must creep into Ebal and leap into Gerizim that is be swift to bless and slow to curse Let them note this who were not many years since so ready at their Curse ye Meroz wresting and abusing a Text of Scripture against the clear sense and meaning of it rather than the King Loyal Nobility and Clergy and all the faithful People of the Land should not be cursed which considering how this Church of ours both in her Articles of Religion Liturgy and Canons stands divided from Rome so far as she is divided from her ancient self may perswade any rational Man to believe that they received their Orders from the Conclave of Rome so to do they wanted nothing but the Ceremony of Bell Book and Candle to speak them as very Papists as ever upheld the Popes interest Their Curse ye Meroz as they apply'd it differ'd nothing from the Pope's Bull and his thundering Curse of Excommunication for how it wrought upon the seduced vulgar and drew them off from their Allegiance is apparent to all but only those who are resolvedly blind and will not see But I go on now to speak of the Curses in the Commination Office For if we can but avoid the cursed thing avoid the cause which makes the Curse to fall it may hover over but not alight nay it may flie over as a Bird but not fall down upon us as a Bird of prey If we do but frame our practise up to the Churches meaning these Curses pronounced will be but like Jonathan's Arrows shot to David to warn us but not to wound us For be confident whatever evil of punishment may fall upon us for our evil of sin if we go on and continue in it The one will never fall the evil of punishment if we flie the other the evil of sin Our Repentance if it be as it ought will cause God's Repentance If we turn from the evil we have done he will turn from us the evil which he may justly do and inflict upon us even all those evils as it is in our Service-Book which we most righteously that is most justly have deserved So that unless we have a mind to continue in our sins and to turn to them like the Dog to his vomit or the Swine to her wallowing in the Mire rather than turn from them as Moses from his Rod when it was a Serpent there can be no danger in reading the Commination and the many Curses in it for upon our turning from sin and turning to God God can turn these Curses all away and instead of them leave a blessing behind him But then as it follows in the last part of this Text. 3. Harden not your Hearts Hardness of heart was Pharaoh's great sin and his punishment as well as his sin So that God is said one while to harden Pharaohs heart and in that sense hardness of heart was a punishment God did harden it that is God did not soften it Pharaoh is said another while to harden his own heart and in that sense Hardness of heart was a sin Pharaoh did harden it that is Pharaoh did stand out against Moses and Aaron by a perpetual Rebellion and would rather run the hazard of having all Aegypt destroy'd then let the People of God go out of his tyrannous hands But those very People of God how little warning did they take by Pharaoh's wounding How were they guilty of that very sin for which they saw Pharaoh and all Aegypt smarted insomuch that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hardness of heart became as it were the proper note of the Jewish Nation As little as Moses Miracles wrought upon Pharaoh so little did Christ's Miracles work upon them The Miracles which would have converted Tyre and Sydon could not reclaim Chorazin and Bethsaida The mighty Works which might have preserved Sodom could not keep Capernaum from destruction Matth. 11.21 It was indeed their hardness of heart their obstinacy and resolved impenitency that kept many out of Canaan who came out of Aegypt and transported many into Babylon who came into Canaan That brought them under the scourge of Nebuchadnezar and the Rod of Ashur and at last under the Roman Eagles to be prey'd upon wasted and consumed to nothing so that that Nation which was God's own Nation adorned with many Priviledges and Prerogatives above other Nations is now no Nation but dispersed among all Nations to be a warning to all Nations That as Tertullian hath it Ex cinere Judaeorum fiat lixivium Christianorum out of the very Ashes of that ruin'd Nation we may gather up some this Ashwednesday and make a Lee of them to besprinkle our Eys and to supple and mollifie our hard hearts that the same sin which procured theirs prove not also our ruine Hardness of heart brought such a fall upon them that unless our hearts are as hardned as theirs we cannot choose but fear at their fall and look to our own standing when we
Eve had passed their Examination Confession had received the Sentence of their Penance and were cloathed with Skins like Poenitentiaries then they presented themselves at the Door of Paradise and were driven thence So He drove out the Man and ancient Writers conclude it to be much about this time of the Year and therefore in imitation of God's practise did the Primitive Church about this time of the Year cause all Penitents to present themselves at the Church door cloathed in Sack-cloth with their Feet bare and Visages dejected and while they were so presented they were led into the Church by their Penitentiaries all the whole Church lying Prostrate on the Floor to bewail their offences and after the Seven Penitential Psalms were sung the chief Governor or Bishop of the Church the Presbyters in a fraternal consociation joyning with him did sprinkle ashes upon their heads covered them with Sackcloth and with sighs and sobbs denounced this Sentence against them that as Adam was expelled out of Paradise so they were thrust out of the Church for their iniquities and after this they were driven out all the Clergy pursuing them with this Respond In the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eat thy Bread Gen. 3.19 That so these poor sinners seeing holy Church so afflicted and disquieted for their sins might be made the more sensible of their Penance This is briefly the Scheme of the ancient godly Discipline which may easily be proved as to the most material parts of it out of the Evangelists the Writings of the Apostles and Apostolical Men. But now there are scarce any Foot-steps of it remaining and that is certainly the Reason why the Christian World is grown so prodigiously vicious onely we have here an Office appointed in the stead of it to be read upon this day wherein we do not wish that curses may fall upon our own heads as some slanderously report of us only we affirm with our own mouths that the curse of God is indeed due to such sins as the Church here propounds it The use of this Office is to make us flee such Vices for the future and earnestly to repent of them if we be guilty as we acknowledg that the curse and vengeance of God doth deservedly follow such sins and sinners A SERMON Upon Ashwednesday Or the first Day of Lent Psal 95.7 To Day if ye will hear his Voice harden not your hearts c. FRom the words that I may bring the Text to the Time and the Time to the Text and that we may be all the better for this Days Meeting and depart not only wiser but better than we came for the end of these Solemn Meetings is not only to make us wiser but to make us better not only to inform our Judgment but to reform our lives I shall observe unto you these Particulars to be insisted on 1. A Day to be taken notice of To Day 2. A Duty to be done upon it To hear his Voice 3. A Direction to make the Duty suitable to the Day that we may do Opus Diei in Die suo the Work on this Day which is most proper for this Day Harden not your hearts 1. To Day Why what 's to Day it should not be as Yesterday was Yesterday we were perhaps in the 6th of Amos devoted to our pleasures feasting and fatting our pamper'd Bodies for what was Yesterday according to the vulgar mode and corrupt custom but Festum Bacchantium ante longum jejunium A Day of full feed whereon we feasted our Bodies liberally which we shortly after were to came Praejejunales feriae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Day most-what so spent as if our Belly was our God and eating and drinking our Godliness In Primitive times it is most certain the practise was otherwise but the best customes in tract of time gather Corruptions That which was once a Day of shriveing confession and penance and a more severe preparative to the Fast ensuing hath of late Years by a too much indulged liberty gained a scandalous Name of Guttage-Tuesday among the Plebs as if Eat Drink and be merry was the Motto of the Day and Work of the Day too Was it possible like the Philosopher mounted on the top of a Hill to have noted and taken a view of all Yesterday-passages we should scarce have met with any like the passages of this Day No one passage fit to usher this Day in but many administring cause enough to have such a severe and godly Discipline which the Church wishes the restoring of to follow at the heels of it Yesterday Vivebant Bacchanalia qui hodie Curios simulant What debauchery and intemperance in many Places What lusting after the Flesh-Pots which we were so shortly to leave The Bell that rang Yesterday was no Saints Bell I am certain no Service no Sermon-Bell Venter non habet aures We were too full fed to be well taught Vox Populi the Voice of the People was so loud that Vox Dei the Voice of God could not be heard The Cocks of Themistocles might be brought forth to prepare themselves for the Battel first to feast our Eye and then to fill our Bellies but I am confident St. Peter's Cock could not be heard amongst them to call us to Repentance and to prepare us to the Battel to fight against sin and to War against those Lusts which War against the Soul So that this Text as Yesterday would not have timed right well let us see what it will do to Day To Day if ye will hear his Voice Why what is to day Dies Diem docet The very Day teacheth us what the Day is and what is to be done upon it Ashwednesday The word is Vox decomposita twice compounded and out of it we may pick a double meaning Wednesday that was ever in the Greek Church which we follow in many of our Customes a Day of Solemn Fasting every Wednesday throughout the Year unless it chanced upon a Festival and the Reason is because upon a Wednesday it was that Christ was betrayed and sold by Judas a gracious Saviour betrayed by a graceless sinner a good Master sold by a wicked Servant Well why Ashwednesday This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or nomen superadditum which sprinkles the day with ashes and Christens it by a new name intimates something indeed it minds us of a Ceremony used by Christians as upon this Day as I noted before which was to give Ashes one to another The Ceremony is gone what is there of the substance left The ashes are blown away but I hope not the memory of them what-ever becomes of the Ceremony the substance would be retained Did these Ashes mind us of our Mortality of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. James phrase is Jam. 3.6 of Natures Wheel ever turning and turning some Daily into the Dust No that was not the meaning of them For Dust had been more proper to have done that Dust to dust our Mortality is
read of them fallen Miror quorum facta imitamur eorum exitus nos non perhorrescere But what is it think you that causeth this hardness of heart Whence proceedeth it Truly it proceeds from the heart it self from some errour there They err in their hearts not in their heads but in their hearts Heb. 3.10 It lies not so much in the understanding as in the will a weak understanding doth not contribute so much to this Soul-murdering sin as a wicked will Therefore the Apostle's caution is not so much against an erroneous head as an evil heart Heb. 3.12 An unfaithful unthankful heart a heart apt to tempt God to provoke God a heart that is more inclinable to grieve God with sin Forty Years together then to be grieved for sin A heart that will depart from God rather than depart from sin from the living God rather than from any one beloved sin When an evil heart and the deceitfulness of sin meet together when Sin and the wily Serpent both joyn to deceive the heart and the heart is as willing to be deceived by them this is it which produceth in time hardness of heart Heb. 3.13 But now to keep us from this sin which unless we are kept from Salvation it self cannot keep us from perishing the Church hath appointed such times of austerity as these to mortifie our lusts and to mollifie our hearts And hath framed up a Service proper for this Day to bring the heart if possible into a good frame So that the sins which we are most prone to are presented to us with a sting in the tayl of them usher'd in with a Maledictus Cursed is such a sinner for such a sin and closed up with an Amen so it is God says it and the People seal it The Minister goes before with a Commination and the Congregation follows after with a Confirmation But that none of these Curses to be pronounced by us may fall upon us but all beside us I desire you that as you have heard God's Voice spoken by me so now ye would with a little more patience hear God's Voice spoken by the Church and so having given you in part the Reason for this Days observance I come now to conclude with the proper Office framed up for the better observance of it and so in the close we shall shut up with the Ministers Benediction the better to secure us from Moses Malediction that when we have heard the severe curses against sin we may depart from sin and so all the forementioned curses may depart from us and we depart with God's blessing Note This Sermon was preached before the reading of the Commination Office the better to acquaint the People with the Reasons of it and to remove some scruples A COMMINATION OR Denouncing of God's anger and judgments against sinners with certain Prayers to be used on the first day of Lent and at other times as the Ordinary shall appoint Rubrick After Morning Prayer the Litany ended according to the accustomed manner the Priest shall in the Reading-Pew or Pulpit say Note 1. THe learned Bucer as touching this Office gives this full commendation in few words Cum primis salutaris est ceremonia c. And whereas it was formerly used but upon one day it was by his motion brought in to be used at several times in the Year which times are not settled by any prescribed rule only we read in the Visitation Articles of Arch-Bishop Grindal three days mention'd as relating to this Office Ann. Dom. 1576. One before Easter another before Pentecost a third before Christmass and Ashwednesday or the first day of Lent must be always supposed to have been another day as appears by the following Preface However as sins abound and God's judgments follow at the heels of them in order to the Reformation of the one and the Removal of the other it is left to the Ordinary of the place and Men impowred for the ordering of Ecclesiastical affaires to indict days as they shall see occasion provided nothing be done contrary to any established Law or prescribed Rules Note 2. This Office is a very necessary Office to lay open Mens gross sins unreformed and unsanctified lives for which the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven Rom. 1.18 Rom. 1.32 that seeing the guilt of their sin in the glass of their punishment they may reform their lives and so keep themselves both from the wrath present which is as a spark and the wrath to come which is as a great Fire Note 3. It is an Office very proper for the first day of Lent commonly called Ashwednesday because this was Caput jejunii the Head of the Lent-Fast and was a day of extraordinary humiliation called Dies cinerum or Ashwednesday from a Ceremony of Ashes wherewith Christians used to sprinkle themselves partly to mind them of their mortality but chiefly to mind them of that Fire which is of sins kindling those everlasting burnings Isay 33.14 which nothing but the tears of unfeigned repentance and the Blood of Jesus can quench This is the terrour of the Lord 2 Cor. 5.11 which the Ashes of this Day once preached that by our fasting penance mortification and amendment of life we might keep our selves from the wrath to come and the wrath to come from us Matth. 3.7 However the Ceremony is gone yet I hope the substance is not though the Ashes are blown away yet the memory of them should remain the substance should not be blown away after the Ceremony This and the three days following were added to the Lent-Fast by Gregory the Great to supply the Six Sundays falling in Lent which were never fasted on Ignatius accounts them Schismatiques to say no worse who fast upon the Lord's Day and to make up the just number of Forty Days which is about the tenth part of the Year by which the Church seemed to devote to God as well a tenth of their time as of their fruits Here is to be noted also once for all Psal 6. Psal 32. Psal 38. Psal 102. Psal 130. Psal 143. that there are proper Psalms now added to Ashwednesday which were not in our former Liturgy Psalms admirably chosen by the Church being Psalms penn'd by David or others upon some occasion of special humiliation for confession of sins and averting of God's judgments Note 4. The Place injoyned the Priest for the reading of the Commination was the Pulpit in the former Service-Book but now the Minister may make his choice of Pew or Pulpit and use his discretion to take the fittest of these two places for the People to hear him and joyn in their Amens to the Commination The Pulpit which is now made use of only for popular Orations was anciently the place where a great part of the Service was performed Injunct 22. Edward 6. and Injunct 4. Ann. 1547. Injunct 5. Elizabeth The Reading-Pew or Desk we read not of till Can. 82. Ann. Dom. 1603. However the