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A94295 The due way of composing the differences on foot, preserving the Church, / according to the opinion of Herbert Thorndike. Thorndike, Herbert, 1598-1672. 1660 (1660) Wing T1048; Thomason E1838_3; ESTC R210159 28,326 70

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course be taken that all Christians may frequent that which shall appear to be indeed the service of God instead of the Masse Let no Preachers flatter themselves with an opinion that they shall ever make Christians so perfectly Jewes as to perswade them to dress no meat on the Sundayes If Servants must stay at home to dress meat on Sundayes and for other occasions they must stay at home besides that will not the way to repair that breach be to injoyne several Assemblies in all Parish Churches upon all Sunday mornings that several Persons of several Estates and qualities may have opportunity to attend the publick service of God at several hours of the same Sundayes and Holy-dayes For though I understand very well that this would impose upon the Church that is upon my hrethren of the Clergie a greater burthen than an afternoons meal of a Sermon which all men know is furnished of the cold meat of the forenoon yet I would have the Word cleared of this imposture that reigneth that two Sermons every Sunday is the due way of keeping the Sabbath among Christians or of advancing Gods publick service I will not here dispute that the Lent-Fast was instituted by the Apostles But this I maintain to be evident that the Fast afore the Resurrection of Christ is and was as antient as the Feast of his Resurrection and that more antient than the keeping of all Lords dayes in the year being meerly the reflection of that one all the weeks of the yeaar Nor will any man that knows what he sayes ever question that the inlarging of it to forty dayes is a just Law voluntarily undertaken by the whole Church not to be condemned without the like mark of Schisme For since the World is come into the Church is there not manifest reason that more time should be taken for the expiating of more sins which are the sins of more people to prepare as well the Elder to renew their Christianity by communicating at Easter as the yonger to be confirmed and come first to the Communion at Easter now they are baptized Infants Which in former ages was the time of their first coming to Baptism As for the Wednsdayes and Fridayes if we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven unless our Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharises And if it be evident as evident it is that the Scribes and Pharises prescribed Mundayes and Thursdayes for dayes of less solemne Assemblies then the Sabbath How shall we enter into the Kingdom of Heaven if in despite of the whole Church which hath hitherto used Wednesdayes and Fridayes in lieu of Mundayes and Thursdays used by the Synagogues we void the Law of England by which they are in force Of the Ceremonies the same is to be understood Not because it can be within the compass of common reason to imagine that the same Ceremonies have continued from the time that the Church was persecuted into holes and caves of the Earth to this time in which the question is of setling Christianity by the Law of this Kingdom It were want of common understanding to think that the same could serve But because so few and so innocent as we use cannot be condemned without condemning not only Gods whole Church but also Gods antient people who will evidently be found in the same cause One thing hath been cast forth in barre to all this which we must not swallow whole unless we mean to impose upon our selves It is the pretense of complying with the Reformed Churches For it is evident that there are four forms of Reformation extant One according to Luther another according to Calvine the third is that of the Church of England and in the last place though first for time because least known and protected by no Soveraign I name that of the Union in Bohemia For we are to know that the followers of John Husse having sent Deputies to the Council of Basil they accorded to reunite the Nation upon four Articles The chief whereof was the Communion in both kinds They that stood to the accord are to this day called thereupon Calixtin or sub utraque in Latine But another part of those that were at distance thinking themselves betrayed by their Deputies in that accord proceeded to settle themselves in a form of Religion and the service of God by that which they held the pure truth of God in all points that had been disputed The Emperour Ferdinand I. King of Bohemia having subdued his subjects there that rose with the Protestants in Germany cast a good part of these out of the Country who finding shelter in Polonia and Prussia there planted and propagated their form till the troubles of our time when by the Emperours victory in Bohemia and the late troubles in Poland they seem to be at a loweble though they impute it to the decay of their first discipline They that would reform the Church of England professing already that Reformation which it found best will they not first show us reason why we are to leave Luther for Calvine For if they mean his form when they talk of conforming us to the reformed Churches because of the Scotts Presbyteries they must have better arguments then either the learning or the Christianity of the Scottish Presbyterians will yeild to perswade us They say those that framed the Reformation in England beeing bred under Melancthon among the Lutheranes followed them much an end in the order and form which they prescribed But is that any reason for any change before it appear which is in the right I freely profess I find Melancthon the better learned and the more Christian spirit But the Church of England which in divers points differeth from both why should it be thought to follow either for any reason but as either agrees with the Catholick Church And for that I prefer the Unity of Bohemia before both For they had the rule of Vincentius given them to take their measure by the consent of the Catholick Church and these things which have allwayes and every where been professed and practised in it And had they done nothing but what is justifiable by that Rule I should not blame them for that which I blame in them most But where they agree not with Luther and Calvine wherein do they not agree with the Church of England In particular they sent all over the World to inform themselves of a visible succession of Bishops whose profession was such that they might derive the Ordination of Bishops for their Churches from their hands They took the superstitions of the Greekes to be such that they could not own it from them In that I think they were in the wrong For I doubt not the Greekes would have granted them Ordination onely under the profession of the Catholick Church and that had been enough But thinking themselves in a strait of necessity they chose twelve by lots And hearing that the Waldenses lived in