return to the Lords Table and thereby reading some Select portions of Scripture to stir up the people to acts of Alms-giving Charity and Piety yet to the eternal stain of the Piety and Charity of our Priests and people be it spoken it is but in very few places observed Many of our Priests who seem to be zealous observers of the Liturgy of our Church are notwithstanding to save their own purses and because they will not give good example unto others very loose in practising this principal part of it and rarely or never unless upon some extraordinary occasion do they stir up their people to Almsgiving and Charity exposing themselves thereby to that woe which our saviour in the Gospel pronounced against the Scribes and Pharisees Mat. 23.23 for their strict observing the lesser matters of the law the tything of Mint Annise and Cummin and their neglect of the weightier matters thereof the practise of Judgment Mercy and Faith And though most of our people think that their ready and chearful paying of these rates and taxes which are required of them for the relief of the poor and the repairing of the Church will excuse them for not giving any thing at the Offertory yet they must know that in paying these rates and taxes there is nothing of Religion more then obedience unto the Law and it is no more than Turks and Pagans if they lived amongst us should pay or than the Heriticks and Schismaticks that do live amongst us do pay God approves of no forced oblations and nought but Free-Will offerings will please him and therefore if you will find favour in his sight and be accepted when you present your selves before him you must not come empty handed but must bring your presents with you when you come into his Courts saith David Psal 96.8 your gifts when you come to his Altar saith Christ Matth. 5.13 Never Oh never think brethren that God who hath given you all that you have will accept at your hands those cheap sacrifices of Prayer Praise or Hearing that lost you but a little lip and ear-labour You know who it was that said It is a more blessed thing to give then to receive And there is assuredly more of Christianity and true Religion in one merciful tender hearted compassionate act of mercy and charity than there is in the fruitless hearing of an hundred Sermons or in the vocal uttering a thousand Prayers and Praises And verily if men would but spare something out of their weekly superfluities and idle expences to bring with them on Gods day to Gods house there to offer it up unto him as a Testification of their gratitude and thankfulness unto him for the many Mercies he hath bestowed upon them they would find it so far from impairing that it would improve their estates and draw down a blessing upon all the works of their hands The 3. Thing that we must learn of these Primitive Christians if we will keep and preserve our selves in the Church and in the State of Salvation is to be constant Guests at Gods holy Table and to continue stedfast in the breaking of bread for they c. By breaking of bread is here signified the holy Communion and the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in the Celebration of which for our better apprehension of his Death and Passion and to set him forth as it were evidently crucified before our Eyes our Lord commanded that bread should be broken and Wine poured out and delivered to the Church and Congregation of the Faithful Breaking of bread and eating of bread are oft I grant in the Old Testament used to signifie an ordinary and common meal but in the New Testament especially after our Saviours instituting of his holy Supper it is used to signifie the Holy Communion of the Body and Bloud of our Lord and in this sense it is not only used here but also in Acts 20.7 And in this sense it is still used by some of our Sectaries who usually express the Sacrament of the Lords Supper by the terms of breaking of bread And verily the thankful remembrance of his Death which Christ hath required of us so oft as we eat of this Brend and drink of this Cup should to manifest the gratitude that lodges in our heart and that we always carry about in our Bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus be always i.e. as oft as opportunity is offered celebrated in us Seldom met the Fathers of our Faith the Apostles and primitive Christians especially on the Lords Day but they had with the Word preached and Prayer the Holy Sacrament also administred among them And in imitation of this Apostolical primitive practise it is the constitution of our Mother the Church of England That the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper should in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches where there are many Priests and Deacons who being Christs menial Servants ought chiefly to commemorate his Death should on every Lords Day and Festival be administred in Oppidal and great Congregations monthly in Rural and the least Assemblies quarterly And to mind the people of this most Christian Duty and to shew his readiness to administer if the people were piously disposed to receive the Holy Sacrament is the Priest by the Rubrick of our Church injoyned on every Lords Day and Festival to stand at the Communion Table and there to read all the Communion Service appointed for that Day No greater testimony assuredly can any man give of his Christianity and that he is truly thankful unto God for giving his Son to dye for his sins and hopeful by virtue of his death to escape eternal death and damnation than when he finds joy and delight and spiritual pleasure in that great mistery of our Religion the oft communicating and feeding on the Body and Bloud of his Saviour the only means which he hath ordained to make us always mindful of what he did and suffered for us This this the truely Pious man wishes might not only be his yearly quarterly and monthly food but even his daily bread and he is even sick of spiritual hunger when he comes to the Church and finds not a Communion there And surely they who when the Holy Sacrament is administred in that particular Church and Congregation whereof they are members refuse without some lawful cause and impediment to come and Communicate with the Church ipso facto Excommunicate and put themselves out of the state of Salvation The 4. Thing which we must learn of these primitive Christians here is to continue stedfast in prayer For they c. By Prayer is not here meant private prayer the prayers that are composed by private persons and said in private places but by prayer is here meant publick or common Prayer the Apostles Prayer the Churches Prayer such Prayers as by the Apostles and their Successors the Governors of the Church are composed for the use of the Church with which all the Congregation are well acquainted
THE WAY TO HEAVEN MOST CLEARLY DISCOVERED AND The manner how to walk in this Way exactly described With a brief Vindication of the Church of England Against all her Enemies By Nicholas Philips late Chaplain to His Majesty's Garrison in the Isles of Silly Isa 30.21 This is the way walk in it LONDON Printed for T. Brown 1681. To my Dear Mother The Church of England Dearest Mother I Esteemed it a great happiness that I had the honour to have my New Birth from thy Womb and to be suckled up from my Cradle with the sweet Milk of thy syncere Doctrine And if thou be not ashamed of such a Son next to my Christianity I esteem it my greatest glory to have had such a Mother But I esteem it a greater happiness that I had the Grace given me to stick to thee in thy adversity and not to leave thee nor to turn from following after thee when thou wert turn'd from a Naomy into a Marah and all thy beauty and pleasantness was changed into deformity and sorrow But O I esteem it my greatest happiness that upon the turning of thy Captivity and the recovering of thy pristine Beauty and Splendour thou hast not cockered me with thy Smiles and Favours Prosperity being of all estates the most dangerous Enemy unto Piety but kept me under with thy Frowns and Censures the Furnance of Affliction always causing the Fire of Piety to burn the brighter And though the unkindness of Friends wound deeper than do the Swords of Enemies yet as no opposition of Foe could so no unkindness of Friend shall divorce me from thee And I am as unseparably devoted to thee as Ruth was unto her Naomy The Lord do so to me and more also if ought but Death part thee and me And I am immutably Thy Dutiful and Obedient Though Unworthy Son Nich. Philips The Way to Heaven clearly Discovered c. Acts 2. 47. The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved THese words are the conclusion of the History which St. Luke gives us of the first gathering of the Holy Catholick Church by the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour immediately upon his glorious Ascension into Heaven and the gracious Descension of the Holy Ghost upon them at Jerusalem upon the day of Pentecost Christs Church like a grain of Mustard Seed unto which he compares it in the Gospel from a small Seed grew up by dâ—grees into so great a tree that it was able in a short time to afford shelter and protection to the Fouls of the Air unto such as from all parts of the world unto which the Air lies open should repair unto it And according to the prediction of the Gospel Prophet Esay ch 60. ult his little one soon became a thousand and his small one a great Nation Christ at the first Gathering of his Church called only the twelve Apostles Mat. 10. Afterward he enlarged their number by adding to them the 70 Disciples Luke 10. After his glorious Ascension into Heaven and when the Church was met together for the chusing of an Apostle into the room of the Traitor Judas we find them increased to the number of an hundred and twenty Acts 1.15 But upon the gracious Descension of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles at Jerusalem upon the day of Pentecost we find it to grow up so fast that on that very day as is testifyed here v. 41. no less than 3000 Souls were added unto it And these 3000 being by the Apostles miraculous speaking of all Languages gathered from out of all Nations under Heaven were Primitiae Ecclesiae Catholicea The First Fruits of the Holy Catholick Church Hitherto the Church had been national and singular confined within the limits of the Jewish Nation with whom God dealt better than with other people gave his word unto Jacob his Statutes and Ordinances unto to Israel Psal 147.19 But from henceforth it grew to be Catholick and Universal extending it self into all Lands and consisting of the Faithful in all Nations who though divided in body are united in Soul knit together by Faith as the Members of a Natural Body are by joynts and sinews in one Communion and Fellowship in the Mystical Body of Christ having all one Lord one Faith one Baptism Eph. 4.5 And that there is no salvation to be obtained by any one of what people nation or Language of what Age Sex or Condition soever that is not added unto and made a Member of this Holy Catholick Church The sacredly-inspired penman of the Holy Ghost St. Luke here assures us by telling us That the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved In handling of which sacred Maxim and Position I shall Grace assisting me shew you 1. What the Church is 2. That Salvation is not to be obtained any other way than by being added unto it 3. That the principal Agent in this work of Salvation is Almighty God and that it is the Lord that daily adds men unto the Church 4. The means and instruments which God ordinarily makes use of in this great work of Mans Salvation 5. And lastly the means which men who are put into the state of Salvation and added to the Church must be careful to use if they will keep themselves in the Unity and Community of the Church and in the state of Salvation And First Of the Church Church is a word of various signification and in several senses shall we find it used in holy Scripture but chiefly it signifies and mostly it is there used for the whole number of the Elect that ever were or ever shall be in the world in what place soever either in Heaven or Earth they are dispersed So that this Holy Catholick Church consists of two principal parts 1. Of the Triumphant part in Heaven where the departed Saints and such as are loosed from the burthen of the flesh are rejoycing for the Conquest which they have gotten over the World the Flesh and the Devil a singing continually of Hallelujahs of Songs and Psalms and Thanksgivings unto God for giving them the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 2. Of the Militant part of Earth where the living Saints are still a fighting against the World the Flesh and the Devil a sighing for their manifold frailties and fleshly corruptions and a longing to be dissolved and to be with Christ Now though this Militant Church of Christ be but one body and Christ saith of his Dove his undefiled one That she is but one the onely one of her Mother Cant. 6.9 Yet as the vast Ocean which is but one and the same Concourse of Waters hath divers Appellations changeth its Name and is distinguished by the several Regions on which it borders and there is the Spanish Ocean the British Ocean the German Ocean and which make but one and the same Sea so the Holy Catholick Church which is but one body hath divers names and is distinguished by the several Countries
in which they may all safely joyn and unto which they may all chearfully say Amen Prayer is indeed a Duty unto the performance of which God hath oft in Scripture made promise of Salvation but no Prayers are so acceptable unto him or so pleasant with him as are publick and common prayers And never are his ears so open to hear nor his mercy so ready to grant requests as when he is called upon in the voice of his Church and all the Congregation of the faithful joyn together in prayer with one Accord as did the Apostles Acts 1.14 when with one voice and one heart with one mouth and with one mind with the same words and the same Spirit they presented their Supplications unto him And though some of our Priests who are more observant of the Peoples humour than of the Constitutions of the Church and seek rather to gain applause to themselves than glory to their God use according to the Geneva Mode a private spirited Prayer of their own conception in the publick Congregation before their Sermon yet in so doing they not only cross the practice of the primitive Church which never allowed any thing to be said before the Sermon but the Lords Prayer or gemina Salutatio but also the Orders and Constitutions of our National Church which instead of allowing any such thing expresly forbids it in her 55 Canon no private spirited prayer then being allowed to be used in our Church no such Prayer can be used without wilful and manifest contempt and disobedience which as we are assured 1 Sam. 15.22 will mar the best of Sacrifices and make them unacceptable unto God And as no Prayers ought to be said in the publick Congregation but the Apostles Prayer the Churches Prayer Common-Prayer so in the performance of this Duty we must be stedfast and permanent and with these primitive Christians continue stedfastly in prayer And surely such an Apostolical such a primitive such a religious way of serving God doth our Church prescribe in her Liturgy that she endeavours to make our whole Life Angelical and Divine for it not only prescribes a Form of Prayer to be used on Sundays and Holydays but a Form to be used on every day of the week And the Curate that ministreth in every particular Church or Chappel of this Nation is bound by the Rubris of the Church daily Morning and Evening to say Common Prayer in the Church wherein he Ministreth To be the Lords Remembrancer daily morning and evening to mind him of the peoples wants and to intercede for them is what ever the world thinks of it the chief and principal part of the Priestly office But alas such Priests are here now a days as rare to be found as black swans And the world had not more cause of old to complain of unpreaching Ministers than she has now of unministring Preachers most Ministers contenting themselves with a single preachment on the Lords day altogether neglecting the principal parts of their Priests office daily morning and evening to offer up unto God the Prayers and Praises of the Church in behalf of the people I know the Priests are wont to lay the fault on the People and to say that they will not come to joyn with them in Prayer on the week days and the People again retort it back upon the Priests and say that they will not be constant and continue in the practise of this duty But to speak truth to the shame of both parties it is from the profaness and impiety the worldliness and wickedness that now a days harbours in the hearts both of Pastor and People that this Heavenly imployment is altogether neglected amongst us and men can find time for the doing of any thing rather than the service of God But let him go what ever he be both for a worldly and a wicked one too who thinks he can make better use of his time than to bestow it upon God and his service or that any part of his time is better spent than that which is spent in his house in Prayer and Praises A man may I grant build a Church in his bosom and serve God in his heart though he never cloath his thoughts with words and he doth so whenever with holy Hannah he prayeth silently in his heart unto God A man may build a Church at his beds side and he doth so whenever he doth humbly prostrate himself in prayer before God A man may make a Church of his House and he doth so as oft as he there with his Family offers up the Sacrifice of Prayer and Praise unto God But oh it is the highest exaltation the noblest Devotion of a truly pious Soul when it praiseth God in his Sanctuary praiseth him in the Congregation of his Saints and he is with David Psal 122.1 Even ravished with joy and gladness whenever he is called upon to go into the House of the Lord to perform this Pray pray pray my beloved Brethren always in all places and upon all occasions but by no means neglect ye the publick Prayers of the Church Carry always about within you good thoughts and pious meditations and live ye holily and well so shall you make a Temple of your bodies and have always a Church within you Govern well your own families and bring up your Children and Servants in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and let the Burnt offering of prayer and praise be daily Morning and Evening offered up there so shall you always dwell in Hallowed ground and have with Philemon a Church at home in your own house But O let your feet never fail to to tread Gods Courts and to frequent his house of prayer when ever publick common Prayer though nothing else be said there so shall you manifest your selves to be Gods menial and houshold servants and shall not fail to partake of the blessings which he hath promised Psal 84.5 to those that dwell in his house and are always praising him Gloria in excelsis Deo FINIS