purgatory to be papisticall inventions The outward Court where all the people assembled might well signifie that part of the Church visible on earth which have not yet attained to that true measure of holinesse which others have yet are in the Churches pale by admission into it by circumcision and baptisme and so are in the Churches suburbs which is troden even by profane people Rev. 11.2 but none entreth into the holy state of the Church but the upright and worker of righteousnesse Psal 15. Mathe. What signification have the adjuncts and vessels of these rooms Phila. The utensils and vessels in generall may well signifie holy persons or holy gifts 1. Holy persons whether Ecclesiastick or Civill as 2 Tim. 2.20 21. In a great house are vessels of gold and silver Raban on Exod. wood and stone some for honour and some for dishonour If a man purge himselfe from them of dishonour he shall be a vessell of honor sanctified and meet for the masters use and prepared to every good work Which vessels may be sometime captived as those of the Temple by Babels King and Romes Antichrist yet they shall still remain Gods vessels and be returned to their right use by reformation in due time 2. As they be taken for gifts they set forth those divine graces by which God is served in his Church which graces may sometime be captived like Gods Ark by the Philistins 1 Sam. 4. but yet shall be received and returned to Gods service again by true zeale and repentance Mathe. I pray declare the signification of the particular utensils Phila. Those in the Sanctum or Holy place were The Altars the Laver the Table for Shew bread and the Candlestick 1. The Altars which were two of redemption which was that on which creatures were offered by fire and signified our redemption effected by the bloodshedding of Jesus Christ Gen. 4.4 Num. 28.3 John 2.29 1 Pet. 1.18 Exod. 40.6 Lev. 23.24 who was slain virtually from the beginning of the world and actually in the last age of the world he was slain for redemption of his people This Altar stood at the door of the sanctum without side to shew that none can have fellowship with the holy God or his people that makes not entrance into the Church by the sole sufficient sacrifice of Christ Next was the Altar of perfume for perfume was offered thereon every morning it stood neer the mercy seat but a vaile of the most holy place was between Exod. 30.6 7. signifying the praiers and intercessions of Christ for us as may be collected from Ephes 5.2 where Christ is called a sweet smelling savour for so he was in his death and in the devotion of his life Heb. 5.7 for he was heard for himselfe of him that is able to save And so he is for us by his mediation making our devotion acceptable by the sweetnesse of his intercession as Rev. 8.3 who is the one only Mediator betwixt God and man 1 Tim. 2.5 either for redemption signified by the bloody Altar covered with brasse or for intercession signified by the Altar of perfume which was covered with gold typing that in heaven Rev. 8.3 And therefore it is profane Idolatry to set up any other Chem. contra Trid. Co. as the Papists doe in their Rosary and also in their Manual of praiers chapt 1.11 and in many other of their tracts to that purpose Also these two Altars may well set forth a Christians offering up of himselfe to God by a reasonable sacrifice Rom. 12.1 as also our devotions in praier and thanksgiving related to by Malachie cap. 1.11 In every place incense shall be offered to my name Tertul. adv Marcion Hieron in Mal. 1. Rupert on Malac. Justin Martyr Cam. Triphon even a pure offering i. of praier and praise such as St Paul intimates 1 Tim. 2.8 willing the Gentiles to lift up pure hands in all places and to give alms which is a sacrifice of a sweet smell Phil. 4.18 and very acceptable to God as was that of Cornelius Acts 10.4 Mathe. What might be signified by the Laver Phila. It was made of brasse for endurance to hold water and of glasse Exod. 30.18 Exod. 38.8 that the Priests who were to wash therein before they went to the Altar might discern their cleannesse or foulnesse It was called a molten sea 2 Chron. 4.6 This might signifie the Laver of our new birth Eph. 5.23 and Tit. 3.5 namely Baptisme wherein we are purged by the blood of Christ through the eternall spirit and also our faith by whose operation hand and heart head and foot affection and action is to be cleansed Jam. 4.8 when we draw neer unto God and that we may lift up pure hands 1 Tim. 2.8 and look to our feet when we enter into the house of God Eccles 4.17 And to monish us hereof the Church thought fit in ancient times to set the font for baptisme at the entrance of the Church as this Laver stood at the entrance of the Holy place that as they so we might be cleansed before we offered our selves to God at the Altar of praier or praise and to examine our selves by the glasse of the word Jam. 1.23 as the Priests by the Lavers glasse placed in the foot thereof observe their spots or their purity And as our selves so our devotions are to be washed and cleansed also as the sacrifices were in the Temple in the ten Caldrons 1 Kin. 7.38 so our devotions to the equity of the ten Commandements though for the perfection of them we trust only upon the Lamb of God by whose merits we come boldly to the throne of grace This Laver and Solomons sea 1 Kin. 7.23 was answered by the sea of glass Rabanus in Rev. and Bale on that place Rev. 4.6 and the glasse of one and the chrystall of the other might well represent the clear word of God which God hath joined to the Sacraments by which through his spirit Aug in John tract 17. Bed in Rom. 10 the Sacraments are made efficacious And thus we are made clean by the word also which Christ hath spoken to us Mathe. What signified the Table of Shew-bread Phila. This table with the bread and frank insence set thereon prefigured divers things in the New Testament Orig in Lev. 24. The table might the holy Scripture and the bread of proposition the Ministers because the table was never to be removed but the bread was every seventh day Bed l. 1. c. 7. and new set on upon the Sabbath So the Ministers having finished their course are taken off by death and others come in their place But more properly the Table of the Lord named 1 Cor. 10.21 by St Paul and is never called an Altar by the ancient writers but only because there is a sacramentall seale of Christs body broken and his blood shed though the Papists love to call it so the more easily to make people
killed him and therefore Christ himselfe called that murther the blood of righteous Abel So though Christ did so many good works among the Jewes yet they would have stoned him and though they could not convince him of fin yet they crucified him whose blood notwithstanding speaks better things then the blood of Abel for that cried for revenge but Christs for remission The next is Henoch the seventh from Adam Henoch and so a sabbaticall person pointing out him in whom mankind must only rest as on the sabbath His name signified Taught or dedicated so Christ was taught of God in the humanity for he increased in wisedome and favour with God Exod. 21.6 Luke 2.52 and was dedicated to God as a perpetuall servant * Arias Mont. Pagnin Psal 40.6 7 8. mine eare hast thou bored so the word erithus signifies though the Apostle turn it and a body thou hast given me to shew how his body was to be given as a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour Ephes 3.2 Againe Henoch was a Prophet Jude 14. so was Christ Henoch walked with God so did Christ * Cat. Arab. c. 20. fol. 27. a. Rabanus in Gen. 5. Jacob Brocard in Gen. 5. Henoch sorrowed three hundred years for Adams fall and Christ wept often but never laughed that the Scripture mentioneth Henoch was taken away of God and so Christ from death Henoch was no more seen nor shall Christ till he commeth to judgement The next was Melchisedeck after the flood Melchisedeck in his generation Heb. 7.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Council Ephe. He signified or shadowed Christ in his generation name and office 1. In his generation being without father or mother or kindred without beginning of daies or end of life So said because his generation was very obscure nor committed to letters or the Genealogy in those times So Christ had no father as man nor mother as he was God yet the Council did rightly stile the blessed Virgin Mary the mother of God that is of the hypostaticall union not of his eternall generation she was the medium of uniting the manhood and Godhead together but no beginning of his subsisting in the Godhead which never had beginning of daies nor can have end of Being Yet who was this Melchisedecks father is hard to say Some say he was Shem the son of Noah But others say of one Heraclim the son of Phaleg who married Salathiel Vide Epipha and the Arabic Catenam the daughter of Gomer by whom he had this Melchisedeck 2. 2 In his Name His name signified the King of righteousnesse and as King of Salem it signified peace so Christ was both King of righteousness that was his name Jer. 23.6 and the King of peace Isa 9.6 because he wrought it Isa 53.5 by suffering chastisement for us he made peace through the blood of his crosse Col. 1.20 In which regard St Paul cals him our peace Eph. 1.14 and our righteousnesse 1 Cor. 1.30 So that as in his generation so in his name he shadowed Christ also For as Melchisedecks parents were unknown to that time so were Christs in his time for few beleeved his father was God or that his mother was a virgin And as Melchisedeck seemed to be without beginning or end of daies in respect of any expresse account given of it So Christ had no beginning in his divine nature nor no end of his Mediatorship for his Godhead and his manhood making one person never to be dissolved he is a Mediator without end yea he lived while his body was dead in the grave which he raised again by the eternall spirit And thus what was spoken of Melchisedeck respectively was fulfilled in Christ simply and fully So Melchisedeck was called King of righteousnesse and peace in regard 1. That he stood unchallenged of injustice in that time when the four Kings made war against the five Kings his neighbors for injustice and rebellion after twelve years subjection 2. Gen. 14.4 He was called King of peace not only because he was King of the City Salem afterward Jerusalem signifying peace but because he was in peace when all his neighbours were at wars round about him But Christ was King of both righteousnesse and peace radically universally and effectually in himselfe and in all beleevers 3. In his Office he was a King and a Priest King of that City Shalem 3. In Office which afterward was possessed of the Jebusites and called Jebushalem a disordered place after which it being inhabited by Israel and King David it was called Jerushalem the vision of peace and so a type of heaven He appeared like a King by his munificence when he brought forth bread and wine to Abrahams wearry troops Gen. 14.18 Chrys in Psal 106. Isid de Eccl. off l. 1. c. 18. Cyprian Basil Jerom. signifying Christs Sacrament of Bread and Wine given to all the faithfull to refresh them in their battels against spirituall enemies 2. He was a Priest to the most high God and so no idolatrous Priest He shewed himselfe a Priest in blessing Abraham and in receiving tithes of him So he shadowed forth him that was to be both King and Priest after his own order not of Aaron but of Melchisedeck Heb. 5.6 The next shadowe was Isaac whose name signified laughter Isaac Luke 2.10 and Christ was the joy of all people He was begot and born in Abrahams old age so was Christ in the latter daies and old age of the world Isaac was freely offered up by his father Heb. 1.1 Beda in Gen. 22.6 so Christ was freely given of God for the world Isaac carried the wood and Christ carried his crosse Isaac died not John 19.17 Heb. 11.9 Clem. Alex. paedag l. 1. c. 5. Greg. in 6. Hom. in Ezek. but Abraham received him from the Altar in a similitude i. of Christ For as he died not on the Altar so neither did Christ as he was the only begotten Son of God For his divinity could not die but was like the scape goat that went from the sight of men into the wildernesse or the land of sequestration while his humane nature like the Ram that died in Isaac's room was caught in the thorns of our sins signified by that crown of thorns put on his head Gen. 22.4 Isaac was delivered the third day after that he was voted to death so Christ was raised the third day after that he died The place of his deliverance was called by Abraham Jehovah jireh The Lord will provide in the mount so God on mount Calvary provided for us a sacrifice and a Saviour also These were shadowes of Christ before the Law Mathe. What other shadowes of Christ were under the Law Phila. The first Personall shadowe under the Law was Aaron whose name signifieth an high mountain So it is prophecied of Christ and his Church that in the latest of daies the mountain of the Lords house shall be established
rich mens estates and marking them out for destruction by fire and sword God keep his people from becomming their prey Mathe. What are our Antisabbatarians Phila. Such as are against the keeping of any Sabbath whether the Jewish Sabbath or the Christians Lords day Of which opinion was one Hetherington a Box-maker who said not only the Jewes Sabbath day was of no force since Christs time and the Apostles but also taught that every day was a Sabbath as much as the Lords day But he recanted his error at Pauls Crosse God be praised And good reason for though the Jewish Sabbath being but a shadow of Christ be now abolished and we are not to be judged by the keeping of it Col. 2.16 yet the morality of that Commandement is observed in keeping still one day in seven holy to the Lord for delivering us from the bondage of sin by Christs resurrection as the Jewes kept theirs in remembrance of their freedome from the bondage of Egypt Deut. 5.15 And thus the Law by the Christians observing the first day of the week Rom. 3.31 is not made void but established It is true that there is no precept for the changing of it because there was no need for the morall intent of the Law commanded only that one day in seven be kept so that if the Patriarchs before the Law was given by Moses kept a seventh day in respect to the creation and the Jewes kept a seventh in respect of their liberation from Egypt and the Christians keep their seventh day in relation to Christs redemption that Commandement is fulfilled so far as it requireth an holy seventh day And though we have no precept for changing yet we have their practice and examples who had the mind of Christ For the first day of the week called since Christs time the Lords day was first kept at Jerusalem Acts 2.1 upon which the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles Then again at Troas Acts 20.7 in which verse is declared that it was their usuall meeting day And the holy Fathers have alwaies observed it Epist ad Magnes and urged the keeping of it as Ignatius scholler to St Iohn the Apostle his auditor about thirty years the second Bishop of Antioch and a Martyr but 107 years after Christ in the raign of the Emperour Trajan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He saith let every one that loveth Christ instead of the Sabbath celebrate the Lords day And Basil saith that when all daies prescribed by the Law are abolished yet there remains one great day of the Lord which shall never be abolished Of this opinion for the seventh day Jewish Sabbath and against the celebration of the Lords day Traskilus was one Iohn Trask and Theophilus Brabourn but both recanted their errors for which glory be to God Trask preached against eating of blood and unclean creatures upon mistake of the injunction of the first Councill of the Apostles to the Gentiles Acts 15.2 where blood and things strangled do not relate to such things prepared for meat but to the barbarous or canibal eating of things halfe alive and halfe dead in their blood or eating any thing that was torn from a living creature therefore Paul saith that every creature of God is good Mathe. What are your Soule-sleepers Phila. Those that revive that Sect in the time of Origen Soul-sleepers in the third centurie of years after Christ who held the soule did sleep in the dust with the body after death because God said to Adam Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return not perceiving this was spoken of the body only not of the soule which came not from thence Gen. 2.7 And also because Solomon saith Eccle. 3.10 that man and beast all return to one place yet they might have considered that he saith also the spirit of a beast goeth downward and the spirit of a man goeth upward even to God that gave it Eccles 12. and that the soules of the righteous are in the hands of the Lord Wisd 3. In the sight of the unwise they seem to die but they are in peace Mathe. What are your seekers Phila. Surely people that have so long contended about truth and the Church Seekers that they have quite lost it and therefore they say there is no true Church nor Minister nor Ordinances yet they expect and seek with Loe here it is and then there it is and catch at every thing but hold nothing like one that leaps out of a boat into the water and then catches at every rush and flag to save himself Mathe. What are your Divorcers Phila. Another sprout of the Anabaptists Divorcers who like the Jewes would put away their wives for a small cause under pretence that he finds her not an help meet for him But this is contrary to Christs rule Mat. 5.31 and c. 19.9 that no man should put away his wife but for whoredome lest he cause her to commit adulterie or another man to marry her and so he commit adultery Mathe. Is there any more such weeds in the Churches field Phila. Yes surely for I hear of some that account the Scriptures a thing of nought both the holy books of the Old and New Testament such were put to death under Moses Law Heb. 5.28 But we live in greater times of liberty I may say Libertinisme The Lord hold the reine which Magistrates let too slack lest these unruly creatures hurry both the Church chariot and the horsemen of Israel to destruction Mathe. I pray what are the Shakers Phila. A kind of people that pretend to have the spirit by fits But what spirit it is that casts them into these seeming or swooning extasies I know not but I doubt much whether it be the spirit of God or of Satan or of dissembling I have read of the spirit of Apollo that used such feats upon the bodies of those whom he had possessed namely of shaking and quaking which being past they have spoken some words which have been received for his Oracles So I have read and heard of Nuns pretended to be possessed by evill spirits beyond the seas which the Friers can expell at their pleasure But I never knew nor ever read in any credible author that the spirit of God doth or hath entred the body of men in any such manner but hath enlightned the mind with sober knowledge and sound repentance and comfortable faith and well grounded speeches that are unreprovable and lead them in a life unblameable But these Quakers their speeches are confused and yet perverse and peremptorie Their lives erroneous not knowing or refusing to use the creature of God as lawfully they may I find them people of no sound knowledge yet despising learning and rejecting Gods Ministers and Ordinances by which they may be better instructed They dare not use their own native language as the word you either because the Scripture useth the word thou or else because they think
Luke the Physitian So the Lord allowed schools for the Prophets as we do Academies to be as medicines for the rude manners of the people If these men had more learning they would see they wanted more but having none they find none they want But however let them prove they have the spirit without learning the able minister shall prove he hath the spirit by learning as one may shew his faith by his works more evidently then another can shew faith without them Mathe. But why do you advise me to the publike meeting places as Churches rather than to chambers and conventicles surely one is as holy as the other is it not Phila. Yes in respect of any inherent holinesse in them for neither hath any but the Church hath the holinesse of dedication and separation from all other use as the Jewes Temple had till the abomination that maketh desolate was set there i. the Roman souldier And therefore God looketh it should be used with discrimination for holinesse becommeth his house for ever and sure a decent handsomnesse and behaviour doth not mis-become it But I do advise you to Churches the rather then chambers because Christ hath forewarned you of seeking him in the private chambers Mat. 24.26 Mathe. But I see as much disorder in Gods service there as in the chambers both in service and at the Communion by divers gestures Phila. The more pitty for they that pretend to sanctifie Gods name ought to make an holy discrination between those things that are called by his name and other things that are not As Gods word and Gods house and the Lords table I confesse in some things people may be borne withall as not kneeling at praiers when the Church and seats are so full that they cannot do it So at the Communion every Church have thought fit to have one gesture by themselves because people come to the Communion with one faith to feed upon one Christ and in one love and charity So some Churches beyond the seas stand some walk some sit the English Church was wont to kneele Now since our discipline is dissolved all these forrein gestures are crept into our Church and being there is no power to reduce them to their pristine gestures ministers can do no more then to instruct them to be well satisfied in their own minds and to have a charitable opinion of them For it may be they that receive it standing look on it in relation to the Passeover a type thereof which was eaten standing They that take it walking conceive it as a viaticum or a refreshment in their journie towards the land of eternall rest They that take it sitting look upon it as a spirituall banquet set before them to feed upon by faith They that kneel conceive it as a pardon sealed and delivered to them of God and so think good to take it kneeling By this charitable construction one Church or Christian shall not condemn another for a thing indifferent Mathe. But the Sabbath is not a thing indifferent yet some allow none or at least not the Lords day but Saturday the Jewes Sabbath Phila. They that will allow none deny the fourth Commandement which requires a morall Sabbath They that will not have the Lords day understand not the sense of that Commandement which bindeth not all men to the seventh which the Jewes kept but to a seventh For the Jewes themselves seem to me to have the seventh day from the creation altered as well as the beginning of the year at the Passeover of which Moses gives a reason Deut. 5.15 in repetition of the Commandement saying because God delivered thee out of Egypt therefore he commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day Nor do we find a Sabbath day kept till the reigning of Manna but that they marched one day as well as another yet if the day from the creation was altered by a new designation of a day yet the law was not broken which only intended a seventh day rest from six daies labor whensoever God should prescribe or fix the day to begin Neither is the law broken by Christians because the day is altered for the intent of the law is kept which bindeth to keep holy one in seven only the day is altered upon good ground for as the Jewes kept their day in remembrance of Gods delivering them from Pharaoh so the Christians keep one in seven i. the first day of the week in remembrance of Christs deliverance of them by his resurrection from satan sin and death and so hath performed indeed to us what was but typed forth to the Jewes by whose Holy daies and Sabbaths we are not now to be judged Col. 11.16 17. Mathe. But what need we keep a day in remembrance of Christs resurrection if we shall have no benefit by it if some say true that there is neither heaven nor hell Phila. These men shall find their error to their griefe at the resurrection which shall be procured by Christs resurrection who is the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. Concerning hell I have already shewed you That there must be a resurrection there needs no proofe since the wicked must be punished and the just rewarded which commonly falleth out contrary in this world and that many things may be revealed which yet lie hid as well sacred mysteries as mysteries of iniquity Rom. 2.16 And for heaven no doubt it is the place of felicity where Gods elect shall enjoy eternall life whither Christ is gone before to prepare a place for them the happinesse of which place is called by St Paul our house from heaven and the excellency of the inheritance is set down by the name of crowns and kingcomes and an eternall weight of glory of which unbeleevers must look for no part but such as have fought a good fight against corruptions and kept the faith in a pure conscience which God of his mercy give you and I grace to do through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom I commend you and so take leave for this time because important occasion cals me away Mathe. Gods peace be with you Phila. And Gods grace be with you Amen FINIS The Table of the Contents OF mans happiness p. 1 Of mans propagation p. 3 Of Christs humanity p. 9 Of principles leading to felicity p. 12 How man came to wander from it p. 13 That there is a God proved by reason p. 15 How men came to worship false deities p. 16 When came in false gods p. 17 Of Atheisme p. 19 No true God but one p. 20 Christians worship that God ibid. Persons in the Godhead three and no more p. 21 The means to know God p. 25 The Scriptures are Gods Word p. 26 Canonicall books p. 29 The Jewes have not corrupted the Text of the Old Testament p. 30 No contradiction in the Scriptures p. 31 Confutation of those that reject Scriptures p. 32 Of Scriptures translation p. 33 The judge of Scriptures sense p.
Mercury and then worshipped them for gods and called the daies of the week after their names and so made their superstitions more permanent Mathe. Why do we still retain these superstitious names to our daies and months Phila. By custome that ancient Tyrant which loveth no alteration although for the best otherwise we might find out twelve Apostles to name the months by and the first six Deacons if Nicholas be not liked to name the daies and as many noble martyrs to name the daies by and as many images of notable men actions and things named in Scripture Duhartas to configure with the celestiall constellations on the sphere better then Icarius Dog or Europa's Bull Hercules Hydra or Theseus Trull Since the whole world was made for the Scriptures I conceive it would conduce much to the honour of Christian Religion as it did to Rome to cal some months by the name of their Emperors as July and August But how much more if some parts of Scripture were turned into the text Latin and Greek of Poets and Orators and read in schools instead of the more vain prophane authors surely it would be a means to state verity in the place of vanity and so season tender years that so they might read those prophane books in riper years and not be infected Thus heaven and earth might meet together in one symphony without discord And to add one thing by the way Certainly as this being done would make Religion more setled in mens minds so if the memorable Feast of Christs Nativity had been fastned to the Lords day which by the account of some Chronologers hapned that year to be the 25. of December on which Christ was born the celebration would have been more certainly continued and yet this change could have altered no more the calculation then the difference of Astronomers among themselves about the Epoche of Christs birth some of them differing from others * Mercator Christianus Jos Scalig. Sethus Calvisius against the Quarte decemani 1 2 3 4 5. years Or then the alteration of Easter hath from the time of Constantine the Great who in the great Councill of Nice caused that Easter should be generally kept upon the Lords day and not on the 14. of the month Nisan and therefore made a new Decem novall or Golden number differing from the Roman This constitution continued not above seven years But the contention between the Latin and Greek Churches about it lasted 200. years Then about the time of Justinian the Emperor one Dionysius Abbas drew the Paschall tables which were confirmed by the Councill of Chalcedon that none should keep Easter but according to the Roman account and statute but should be accounted an Heretick and this held till the year 1582. yet they finding that the Equinoctium went back from the 21 of March to the eleventh the Romans corrected their Calender and so there is sometimes 28 daies difference between them and us as 1557. and sometimes 25. daies as in the year 1565. So they reformed their Paschall tables and appointed the Feast of Easter according to the Councill of Nice in Pontus 322. to be celebrated the Sunday after the first full moon that should happen after the Sun entred Aries we see still difference between us and them but yet all conclude it on the Lords day And indeed the very just day of either the Nativity or Resurrection is not much to be stood upon so the Feast be kept 1 Cor. 5.8 Mathe. God having made the world what did he next Phila. He made man of the earth and woman of man and then made them Lords of all he had made as Isa 45.12 I have made the earth and created man upon it And this we know by Scriptures the ground of that most excellent science called Divinity which leads us to the knowledge of God that made us Plutarch in the life of Theseus speaks of some such people called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 least we should imagine our selves sprung up of our selves though many will give more for a Parrat then a Preacher and to a Painter for the picture of their face then to one that can delineate their souls I suppose the reason is because Divinity is no flattering science it shewes our moules and spots where they are As Alexanders Limner did who drew his finger upon his face which he laied there to hide a skar It is the corruption of man that will make more of him that shapes his body in cloths though he deform it than of him that shewes him the God that made his soule and body Like Crates Laertius who gave in his Testament ten talents to his Parasite to his Harlot one 2 Talent is 375. l. to his Cook ten pound to his Physitian a groat and to his Philosopher but three halfe pence And why so little to the best science but because rich men know not the want of philosophy Diogenes though Philosophers know the want of monie They think with Laodicea they be happy enough but consider not that science which shewes them how to live when they are dead Mathe. Doth God immediately make all men Phila. He made the first man immediatly by himselfe and the first woman of the man but all other mediately by them two 1 Cor. 11.12 as the woman is of the man by creation so the man is of the woman by generation by the speciall concurrence of Gods providence It was impossible he should make himselfe any more then the world could For if it were nothing before it was something how could something come out of nothing Nor could any creature make him Pythag. ex nihilo nil fit he being above them both in eminence and excellence consisting of an heavenly and earthly nature his form is a reasonable soule his body upright beholding the heavens Ovid. Metam lib. 1. this body is more curiously made then any other creatures Psal 139.14 15. like unto rich Arras work The anatomy of it convinced Galen of a Godhead It was made in number weight and measure in weight that the earthy body might balast the light and nimble soule in number by the four qualities or temperaments of hot cold moist and dry in measure because at first each of them kept their several proportions though since the fall one invading the other breeds severall diseases A rare body it was being composed of so mean a matter as earth shewing thereby the most excellent skill of the workman Lecham is Lechem But now our flesh is become the bread of worms as Herod Agrippa's body proved not giving glory to God Acts 12.23 Mathe. Wherein doth it appear more excellent then other creatures Phila. Surely as Adams body was more excellent then other mens being Gods immediate worke so no doubt our bodies are more excellent then the common creature Adams body was so because it had in it potentially all the rare qualities which are dispersed now among
the mothers affection the more to the child and childs affection the more to the mother whom she may justly adjure upon just occasion by the paps which they have sucked when she so lovingly embraced them which no bruit can do Mathe. What contemplation yieldeth the inward parts Phila. The Lungs by which we breath and speak being placed neer the heart sheweth that speech is the interpreter of the heart and therefore we should not breath out one thing and think another but every man speak truth to his neighbour and not practise equivocations and mentall reservations So the ribs shew the care of God to defend the vitall parts comprized in the heart and the liver well expressed in Scripture by Abner his smiting Asahel under the fifth rib and Ioabs smiting him and also Amasa in the same place and by the souldiers piercing Christ there about that rib where hangs the Pericardia out of which issued water and blood to all which pectorals John 19.34 Vid. Syria-Paraphra if we add the breast-plate of righteousnesse the spirituall heart will be the safer So the bowels may mind us of the bowels of compassion which Christ had Mark 6.34 when his bowels did yearn at the peoples want of provision so the word signifieth for he was a merciful High-Priest Heb. 4.15 So the hungry gut should put us in mind of fasting till we feel that part complain and remember us what affliction of soule we should suffer for offending God But as one is called a blind gut so the belly is said to want ears to hear this doctrin such like the Cyclops know no God but their belly So our kidnies which are the most secretly enclosed should teach us to walk sincerely with God who searcheth the reins Psal 139. lest we like hypocrites have God neer in our mouths but put him far from our reins Ier. 12.1 For want of this we see what man is come to as appears in Psal 5.9 and Rom. â— 13 His throat is an open sepulchre seet swift to shed blood his right hand is a hand of falshood a womans beauty is like a jewell of gold in a swines snout We find the proverb too true the properest man at the gallowes and the fairest woman in the stewes So that we may cry out O most excellent soul what a vile lodging hast thou gotten The five senses that have their beginning from common sense which can judge of all objects absent as the five do of the object present are all worthy our consideration as to behold how every organ of sense hath his proper object the Eie colors the Ear sounds the Tongue meats pleasant or not pleasant the Nose odours or evill savours the Nerves are especially the seat of feeling as well as the means of motion and therefore they being in every part the sense of feeling is in every part and the other four are in the head only and though they be so neer in seat to each other yet one invadeth not another nor can do as the other These since mans fall are become brokers to set our hearts to sale to the devill and the world for the price of a few momentany delights and so the precious soul would be ravished out of Christs hands but the spirit of God interposeth and by the word of God insureth us of the interpellation of the Son of God by which he hath promised to marry our souls to himselfe in righteousness and everlasting glory So the heart of man is the seat of passions a choice vessell that is first formed in generation and first reformed in spirituall regeneration And as it first lives so it dieth last So the life of grace first begins there and is last left there This is that which God strives for against the devill the world and the flesh as Michael did with the devill for Moses body Iude 9. But when we answer Gods request who crieth to us Myson give me thy heart then the battell ceaseth This heart before the fall was like the holy land upon which God set his eies day and night or like the Ark from which God gave his Oracles for the answer of the heart is from the Lord or like a throne where God ruleth by his scepter of righteousnesse or like Moses Tables wherein God writes his Law But since the fal that man set up Idols in his heart God hath turned it as Iehu did the house of Baal into a draught house so that now as it is full of all uncleannesse so out of it proceeds by nature nothing else Mat. 15. It was once wise now a foolish heart and ful of darkness Rom. 1. It was once more inclinable to the right but now the left hand Eccles 10.2 which makes us do all things sinisterly Mathe. Whether was mans body immortall before the fall Phila. Not essentially for so only God is immortall nor by the gift of creation as the Angels and the souls of men are but potentially only and upon condition if he had continued in obedience which he not doing his body cannot be made immortall now but by the gift of a new creation which will be at the resurrection So that his body was immortall naturally so long as he kept the condition of immortality It is true his body might have died before the fall for it was as possible to die as he was possible to fall But this possibility would never have been reduced into act if he had not fallen For as the Angels could not die neither was it necessary they should die so Adam might have died but it was not necessary that without sin he should have died so being corrupted by sin it was necessary he should die but not before he fell For we see by the reliques of immortality left in Adam that the Fathers before the flood lived a mighty great age as Adam to 930 years and Methuselah lived 969. which was not so many moons as some think for then they had hardly reached the age of man and so the world would have been a long time peopling and though Adam might well beget Sheth about twelve years after his creation because he was made at first a perfect man yet if Adam begat not his third son till he was 130. moons old surely then Sheth began too young who at 105. years from his birth begate Enos which by the moons account was but eight years and five months But sure their age was measured by the years of the Sun i. twelve months to a year And it is no more wonderfull then that Israels cloths should last forty years in the wildernesse Deut. 29.5 And the manna in the golden pot many hundreds of years Joseph's bones 215. years Joshua 24.32 And the mummies of Egypt are kept by art so many 1000. years in full proportions as when alive What could not God have done to the body of Adam if he had not sinned Mathe. Whether is mans soule immortall Phila. Yea and it may be
lying in the grave three daies was to answer to Ionas his type in the whales belly and to make good the prophecie of Hosea 6.2 after two daies he will revive us and the third day he will raise us and we shall live in his sight But you will say he did not lie in the grave three whole daies and nights yet according to the Jewish account he might be said so to do for a day is reckoned by evening and morning Now the former evening and Good Friday on which he was buried made the first day then Friday evening and the Sabbath following made the second day and the Sabbath evening and the next morning of his Resurrection was the third day It may be you may think it strange that Christ would lie in the grave on the Sabbath day but this he did to shew the work of redemption was finished and therefore he rested the seventh day as God was said to do after the six daies work of creation Also to shew that with him was buried the ceremoniall part of the Sabbath namely the seventh day formerly appointed And surely the first Christians so understood it and therefore they kept their holy meeting afterward upon the first day of the week Rev. 1. which St Iohn called the Lords day Now in all this time Christs body corrupted not First because he was without sin which is the cause of corruption and therefore he was preserved by the power of God Psal 16.10 Beside men that die violent deaths are not so apt to corrupt as those that die of diseases by which they are partly corrupted before they are dead otherwise a dead body may possibly be without corruption sixty hours and upwards and Christ was dead not much above forty and so might justly be said not to see corruption By all which he gave us a pledge of an eternall sabbath of rest and that our bodies after death should rise incorruptible And this doctrin of Christs buriall is full of comfort and instruction Of comfort because that now this storm of Gods anger is allaied by our Jonas being cast into this whales belly of the grave which by his body is fanctified for us It teacheth us also to bury our sins with Christ Rom. 6.4 and there let them lie as dead carcasses separated from us for ever and grow loathsome and at last wear out of memory in respect of either by affection or practice and we may live to newnesse of life by vertue of Christs resurrection Mathe. But before I enquire of you the mystery of Christs resurrection I pray resolve me what you think of Christs descending into hell which is an Article of that Creed commonly called the Apostles and in that of Athanasius but not in the Nicene Creed nor in any other that I know Phila. You put a Question of great controversie yet of more then needs if the phrase of hell were rightly understood For in the Old Testament it hath two names given to it namely 1. The congregation of the dead Pro. 21.16 according to which translation it may be understood for the grave and if it be translated word for word with the Hebrew then it may be taken for the depths of water In caetu Riphaim or Gigantum in which the rebell giants of the old world were drowned which Job calleth Sheol infernus or the low place Job 26.7 and so doth David Sheol Psal 16.10 which is translated the grave Afterward about the captivity it is called Tophet or Gehinnom Gebenna which are only words borrowed from that execrable place in the vallie of Hinnom where the Jews burned their children in sacrifice to Moloch i. the devill to expresse hell which they beleeved to be a place of torment This term or word held long among the Jewes and Christ used it as the vulgar expression in his time Mat. 5.22 yet Luke 16.23 he useth another word as it is in the Greek text namely Hades which there signifieth hell for it is said Hades the rich man was in hell in torments But it is taken oftner for the grave and the condition of men deceased as Gen. 42.38 Iob 7.9 Psal â—â— â— Pro. 23.14 Acts 2.31 1 Cor. 15.55 and most plainly Rev. 20.13 death and Hades i. the grave shall be cast into the lake of fire Now see how Christ may be said to descend into these for into the grave he had descended and therefore it need not be said again in relation thereunto that he descended into hell If taken for the waters what should he do there 1 Pet. 3.19 except you will suppose that he went to preach to the rebellious spirits that were there imprisoned for their disobedience in the daies of Noah But how he went and when and wherefore how whether in soule or body or both then in what time whether before he rose or afterward and why whether to preach for their conversion or to confirm their damnation would be resolved or whether he went thither to suffer any thing or to triumph surely not to suffer for us for on the crosse all his sufferings were finished nor to triumph for that he did upon his crosse Col. 2.14 15. Beside we are to consider where Hell should be if Christ descended locally thither for we conceive it to be a place ordained for the devill and his angels and wicked men Now if the Devill and his be not yet confined thither what should Christ descend thither for either to confirm damnation or to triumph over them that were not there Now that they are not yet confined to the place appointed is plain because St Paul calleth him the Prince that ruleth in the aire because yet they have great liberty in tempting men Also because the devill besought Christ not to torment him before the time And because both St Peter 2 Pet. 2.4 and St Iude ver 6. say that they are as yet only reserved in chains of darknesse to the judgement of the great day Just Mart. Iren. l. 5. c. 26. Hieron in 6. cap. Ephes Drusius Aug. lib. de civit dei l. 8. c. 22 23. And so held the fathers of the first 400. yeers after Christ St Peter in his second Epistle the second chapter the ninth and seventeenth verses saith so of wicked people Therefore some writers of great account have said that from the earth to the firmament is not a meer empty space but full of spirits which were cast down from the high heavens into these lower parts of the aire as into a prison till the last judgement together with other wicked of their society Now descension cannot properly be applied to the aire but rather ascention Therefore by Christs descending into hell we may as I judge safely understand those inward sorrowes which he suffered in his agony in the garden and on the crosse which pressed him to cry so bitterly my God my God why hast thou forsaken me which internall sorrowes were as neer
more than Apollos Temple at Delphos could which after this was destroied by thunder and earthquakes Theo. l. 3. c. 11. as if God meant to put an end to Judaisme and to Heathenisme and to set up Christianity And though the Emperor Julian out of hatred to Christianity Sozom. lib. 5. c. 19 20. permitted the Jewes to re-edifie their Temple yet God by storms and tempests earthquakes and fire flashing out of the earth resisted it Mathe. They being thus destroied and their Religion expunged among what people did God then plant his Church and true Religion Phila. Among Christians of what Nation soever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which you read Acts 2.5 there were sojourners at Jerusalem Jewes devout men of all nations which were not Jewes by Country but rather by profession and yet Jewes by blood but dispersed abroad called men of Israel Acts 2.22 39. yet others were there and therefore ver 10. called proselytes and Act. 17.4 worshipping Greeks or Gentiles Now these * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselytes were such as disclaimed heathenisme and joined themselves to the Jewes They were of two sorts 1. A Proselyte of the Covenant or of Righteousnesse 2. Of the gate Deut. 14.21 The first subjected himselfe to Circumcision and to all the Law of Moses and therefore was admitted to the Jewish society and priviledges even to stand in the first Court of the Temple where the Lay-people of the Jewes assembled to worship The second sort subjecting themselves only to Noahs seven precepts which were 1. To renounce all Idolatry Schindler in Pentaglot p. 1530. 2. To worship the true God that created all things 3. Not to murther 4. To forbear all unlawfull copulations 5. To abstaine from theft 6. To do * Iren. l. 3. c. 12 to doe as they would be done unto justice and judgement on malefactors 7. To refraine from eating like Canibals flesh with blood as any member torn from living creatures of which sort of proselytes as is thought was Naaman the Syrian the Eunuch and Cornelius These were not admitted into the Jewes Court of the Temple as the other proselytes were but stood in the Court of the Gentiles which was separated from the other by a little low wall after the second Temple was built In this place they suffered beasts and birds to be sold for the use of the Temple to sacrifice and thought it a place fit enough for such proselyts to worship God in among the unclean Maâ—k 7.11 But Christ comming thither drives out those market men and calleth even that place his house of praier where these despised Gentiles were allotted their place of worship So beginning there to break down the partition wall between Jew and Gentile alluded to by St Paul Eph. 2.13 15. making way for one to come as neer the throne of grace as another Here was the first sign of admission of the Gentiles to worship God in Oratories as well as the Jewes in their Temple Court by Christs acceptation Againe we find these Gentiles called worshippers of God as in Acts 17.4 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far as they were lead by the knowledge of the Law and the Prophets by which they were lead to the hope of eternall life and the expectation of Christ which knowledge made the Gospel find the more easie passage into their hearts upon the Apostles preaching and expounding the Prophets to them concerning Christs Death and Resurrection or else we must suppose them to be miraculously converted so many thousands at once without their Will and Understanding and so could give no reason of their faith and beleefe These latter proselytes received the Gospell with great joy and of these converts Christ built his New Testaments Church by the ministry of his Apostles through preaching which he confirmed by signs and wonders Acts 15.10 For when it was questioned whether the Gentiles that beleeved or should beleeve should conform to circumcision or not it was concluded by St Peter that no such burden should be laid upon them Acts 10.28 because he had received no such order from God in his vision at Ioppa from whence he was immediately sent to Cornelius an uncircumcised proselyte between whom and Jewes God put no difference Acts 15.9 but purified their hearts by faith and gave them also the Holy Ghost Acts 15.8 9. to whom also St Iames assented Acts 15.19 God therefore did most wisely dispose that the comming down of the Holy Ghost should be at that time when Jewes and Proselytes were assembled from all parts round about Canaan to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost at Ierusalem that so they being converted might upon their return home disperse the same to others These both Jewes and worshipping Gentiles no doubt were the first founders and dispersers of Christian Religion and it may be the Apostle thought they were no farther bound to preach to the Gentiles but to these only that came from the adjacent places from every nation But God made it appear otherwise to Peter Paul and Silas who were by the spirit separated and sent to that purpose to the remote Gentiles Mathe. What visible association were there of the Gospell people at first beside conversion of people Phila. The first was of the Apostles and Disciples Acts 1.13 14. together with the mother of Jesus and other women after Christ was taken from them into heaven Unto these more were added ver 15. then the number was 120. These being assembled in an upper room in Jerusalem after praier Peter stood up and advised to chuse one in the place of Judas Iscariot which lot fell upon Matthias Acts 1.15 26. When they had thus filled up the number of the twelve Apostles their next meeting was upon the day of Pentecost a Feast of the Jewes Levit. 23.11 15. called a Feast of weeks or fifty daies begun on the sixteenth day of Nisan or the second of the Passeover or the morrow after the Feast of the Passeover which was the fifteenth as the killing of the Passeover was on the fourteenth of the same month at even On this sixteenth day they were to offer a sheafe of their first corn and the Priest was to wave or shake it before the Lord. Upon which day Christ the first fruits of the dead rose out of the grave with an earthquake This feast ended with the offering of two waved loaves as a sign at the finishing of harvest at the end of fifty daies So Christ having compleated the harvest of mans redemption and presented himselfe in both natures divine and humane to God as intercessor he sent upon his Apostles the holy Ghost with plenty of celestiall gifts to feed and sustain his Church In respect of which candid gifts of sight it was stiled rightly Whitsunday and the Christians were clothed in white garments Their next association was in the Temple at praier time and at breaking of bread in their houses
I pray what be your Levellers Phila. They seem to me to be like those Hereticks of old In the third century of years after Christ called Apostolici in that affected wilfull povertie These seem to do so too by their digging in commons and receiving mens charitie But their new name intimates as if they would levell mens estates to make an equality because people did in the Apostles daies for the better propagation of the Gospell and sustentation of the Gospell-professors bring their wealth and made distribution to every ones need They seem now poor enough but what they may do when they are a fit number I know not but I am sure the way they take is not warrantable nor savours of any true knowledge of Gods providence or of mans prudence Mathe. Have all these wicked Hereticks escaped without any signe of Gods displeasure shewed upon them Phila. No for as he hath suffered many of them to fall into foule sins so upon them have fallen fearfull punishments As for foule sins many of them are caught in the birdlime of lust Simon Magus had one Helena Apelles Philumena Montanus had Maximilla Donatus had Lucilia Elpidius had Agape Priscilianus had Galla the Nicolaitans had wives in common The Popes have been as bad Sergius had Marozia Gregory the seventh had Matildis Alexander the sixt had Lucretia Leo the tenth had Magdalena Paul the third had Constantia and Pope Joan it seems had a Paramour The Anabaptists most unclean because they maintain unlawfull divorces and Polygamie and adulterie under a colour of spirituall marriage by which they are become all one body But I will say no more there is enough discovery made of them in divers books But Gods judgements have followed Hereticks Simon Magus would needs flie and was killed by a fall Hayn compend Eccles hist l. 1. Cerinthus with the fall of an house at a bath Elymas the Sorcerer was strook blind Priscilla and Maximilla hanged themselves Manes was flead alive Arrius voided his guts at a privie Nestorius his tongue rotted off And our late Sectaries have not all escaped for as these beyond the seas came to lamentable ends by wars and other executions of justice Sleid. comment lib. 10. as you may read in Sleidan's Comment in Pontanus and others so even these among us have been marked out by Gods judgements Puntan Cat. Heret Gastius de Anab. exorb Hâ—res Chron. p. 456. 379. 679. 765. 766. For as Servetus was condemned at Geneva and Phiser suffered at Muthus Munerus rackt and headed by the Duke of Saxony John of Leiden and Chipperdolling executed and their bodies hung up in iron cages so you may read in our Chronicles of some burned others hanged of the Brownists for seditious books as Barrow Greenwood Studley and Billet and Penry the author of Mart. Marp Bul. adv Anab. Disco of Brow Brow Donat. proph schisme You may read more of them then I am willing to write in many good authors cited in the margent Some women Antinomians have brought forth fearfull monsters even thirty at one birth and another woman of one female with horns and clawes See Mr Wels his book of Antinomians And for the Antisabbatarians one makes mention of some that laboring on the Lords day have had their corn and houses burnt and of one great man that used to hunt upon that day had his Lady delivered of a child that had an head like an hound which might teach people to take heed that their rest upon the Lords day be not vain and fruitlesse but sequestring themselves from worldly businesse they do on that day give themselves to holy exercises Mathe. But I find some have troubled the Church about ceremonies and forms of government as much as these by their erroneous opinions as those which some call Prelaticall and others called Presbyterians Phil. I cannot deny but that the Prelaticall or Canonicall Ministers have been of late about 1635. more strict than formerly about Church-order and Ceremonies And the Presbyterian hath been more extream then needed against the Prelatical ministrie and Episcopall government since both of them agree in divine truths God hath given them both a right to his house but they quarrell who should have the upper or who the lower rooms and both contend which of them should keep the keies The Lord make them of one heart that the people may be freed of those distractions in which they are bred by their disagreements It were happy if all would take the counsell of Irenaeus to Victor Bishop of Rome who did rashly excommunicate the Eastern Churches for dissenting from his judgement in fasting and celebrating of Easter For he told him they did all agree in one faith and therefore it was more fit for him to study peace unitie and love This controversie was afterward setled by the generall Councill of Nice that Easter being universally kept should also be uniformly kept by all Churches not on the fourteenth of Nisan but on the Lords day So it had been more happy for the Church if these men had suppressed passion and put on patience till the State had called a nationall Councill to have determined those controversies lately risen Mathe. I pray what was the main quarrell about Phila. About superintendency Liturgie and ceremonie By superintendency I mean Episcopacy which word in English signifies the office of Bishops which word Bishop was made so odious by the envious learned to the ignorant Lay-people about 1641. that a Bishop was thought as bad as the Pope either for Idolatry or superstition and so were decried under the colour of a Reformation by the peoples exclamations and their government deposed before any other was setled which hath bred divisions and libertinisme ever since And I conceive if envy had not overswaied equitie faults might have been corrected and yet the dignitie of the office have been preserved which hath been venerable in all antiquitie Mathe. But we find them of no more authority nor antiquity then Presbyters Phila. I suppose you mean not Lay Elders for they were not used till of late years not so much as in Ecclesiasticall censures much lesse in ordination which Calvin himselfe never allowed And if you mean Priestly Elders it will not be found that ordination was committed to them alone without a Bishop for that place 1 Tim. 4.14 which saith that Timothy had the hands of the Presbyterie laied upon him Sedulius Hieron surely that was not ordination * Primasius ad 1 Tim. cap. 4. Oecumen in cap. 9. in 1 Tim. cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of him to be a Presbyter but of the Prelacie to make him a Bishop or else the laying on of St Paul hands was but imposition not ordination for he was not surely ordained twice 2 Tim. 1.6 or else both was but imposition of hands by blessing him Indeed the words in Greek are both the same but ordination is expressed by another word Acts 14.23
Church and ordaining Bishops Others at Ancira in Galatia and in France and at Antioch against Montanus Others at Rome about the celebration of Easter But when the Emperour Constantine turned to the Christian faith he called the generall Councill of Nice in Bythinia against Arrius who denied Jesus Christ the Son of God to be of the same substance with the Father which opinion was there condemned and accursed and Easter day setled to be kept upon the Lords day and not on the Jewes fourteenth of Nisan And so Councils were usually called till the Pope usurped the power striving to wrest it from the Emperour and to set himselfe above Councils But had Charls the fift dealt as roundly with him about the Councill of Trent as the Emperour Sigismund did in the Council of Basil it had not been twenty five years in calling nor so long in sitting and so little good done But that they governed the Church by Councils it may appear from the great Councill of Nice Concil Nic. Can. 5. Con. Ant. Ca. 20 which decreed that there should be in every Province a Synod twice a year So concluded the Councill of Antioch so did the first Councill of Constant Can. 2. So the Council of Chalcedon Can. 29. So the third Council of Toledo Can. 18. So the second Councill of Turo Can. 1. And so good and approved was this government that when the Synod of Antioch sixty years before that of Nisen had condemned Paulus Samosatenus for heresie and he would not yeeld up his Church but kept it by violence they complained to the Emperour Aurelianus an heathen and he drove him out to his shame from Antioch Mathe. Why then are Bishops so much cried down in these latter times Phila. 1. By that spirit that lusteth to envy And 2. By selfe love which if it cannot swell us to be as big as others we do strive like Satan to pull down others to be like our selves 3. By covetousnesse which loves to part Christs coat or to cast lots for it many had rather cloath themselves with the Churches means then Christs merits and wrap themselves warm in his coat rather then trust to the purchase of his Crosse These are the motives whatever the pretences are or else why was not the Abby and Bishops lands reserved to pious uses I beleeve the Commonwealth was more rich by the Churches leases then ever she was by the Churches purchases The Farmer then grew from a Yeoman to a Gentleman and most of the purchasers are now fallen from Gentry to beggery But beside all this it is no wonder if that be cried down in these times of Libertinisme Hieron in 1. Epist ad Titum which was set up for the preventing of schism and heresie whose ground is alwaies pretended liberty of conscience which kind of people are alwaies adverse to Christ and his Spouse the Church and therefore ever persecute the overseers of the flock Cypr. Ep. 55. that they may the better adorn themselves with the ruines of the Church and are no doubt the followers of the great Antichrist and forerunners of the last apostacy of this world since the Church hath been governed by them Simler de rep Helvet fol. 148 for 1500 years and upward or by none or else by a disorderly confusion as we see in those Churches who have cast off Episcopacy as in Switzerland where a Lay man is President of their Consistory And at Zurick and Basil their Consistories are wholly Lay and Ministers are only to advise Yea in other places Ministers are not so much as assistants so that they may use their Ministers like minstrels and chuse whether they will hear them or no for they have no power nor hardly a right derivation of their ministry from the order of Christ and his Apostles Mathe. Whether can you derive your own aright having originally received it from Rome by Popish Bishops Phila. You think it seems that our Bishops took their ordination there at first or that there were no Bishops in England to ordain others but they must needs travell to Rome for it or take it from Rome by delegation and if so you take our Bishops and ministry to be meerly antichristian But suppose we had it from thence that will no more prove our ministry antichristian or popish then our very Bible Gospell or Baptisme if we received it from thence For superstition cannot annihilate the ordinances of God given at first from Christ no more then building stubble upon the foundation can destroy it or than a spring water is utterly spoiled by running from a rock through a clay But our Bishops and Presbytery we derive from the Apostles as we do also our Protestant doctrine professed which though held in unrighteousnesse in the Church of Rome like a captive for a time yet at last redeemed it selfe and came to light and shewed it selfe the true child of God begotten at first in Rome by the word of truth from which shee deviating the truth chose another foster-mother to dwell withall that will maintain her with goods and life and not forsake her to the death So our Bishops and Clergy came not at first from Rome though Rome hath made bold to invade the Church of England But for the first three hundred years after Christ the Pope had nothing to do out of his own Diocesse as may be seen by the Councill of Ephesus order Con. Ephes p. 1. act 7. made in the behalfe of the Cyprian Bishops against the Patriarch of Antioch who challenged their ordination That Councill decreed that the Cyprian Bishops should not be violated in their right and also that no Bishop should busie himselfe afterwards in anothers Province or invade others priviledges Ruff. hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 6. which they enjoied from the beginning By which the Bishop of Rome was shut up within his owne City and Suburbs And we find for certain that the Brittish Bishops did not acknowledge any obedience due from them to the Pope Spel. Conc. anno 601. which they must needs have done if they had their ordination from him and they had reason to stand upon it being Brittany was the elder Church planted by Joseph of Arimathea in Tiberius Caesars time Gild. de conq Brit. and Peter came not to Rome till the second year of the Emperor Claudius to settle that Church Mathe. How came the Brittish Bishops to be consecrated Phila. Some think by those that came with Joseph of Arimathea into England having Apostolike authority such as Simon Zelotes who was crucified in Brittany Jerom. in Catal. script Eccles Others think that some were ordained by Eugaâ—ius and Damianus whom Elutherius Bishop of Rome sent to baptize at the request of King Lucius himselfe and people And if it were so there is no reason to find fault with our Bishops succession from thence he being an holy man and martyr and his two messengers being faithfull Pastours
in the Primitive time the people stood up at praier every Lords day from Easter to Whitsontide to argue their belief of Christs resurrection which is not now enjoin'd or used So the French prophecie or preach with their heads covered to shew their dominion of teaching their people are uncovered to shew their subjection to his doctrin which is contrary to the Apostles order to the Corinthians All ceremonies are not so fit for all times the Church hath liberty to settle or abrogate them as shee seeth cause which liberty no wise man ever denied the Church but holdeth significant ceremonies to be profitable for the people Calv. opusc p. 344. Calv. instit lib. 4. cap. 10. Chem. Exam. part 4. tract de Imag. p. 13. Zeppe Leg. Mos l. 4. c. p. 312 Juni cont lib. 4. p. 283. Chem. Exam. part 2. p. 32. so that such a mean be kept that Christ be illustrated not obscured I beleeve upon this ground it is that Luther Chemnitius and Calvin allow of pictures in the Church done by way of historicall narration both for ornament and remembrance without any superstition So Holydaies are and may be celebrated in remembrance of some speciall benefit received from God about that time or by some eminent person that he hath emploied for the Churches good And indeed none of these things were thought superstitious till opinion of merit and of efficacious operation was annexed to them But to conclude if ceremonies of humane institution being significant to some duty which Gods worship requireth be unlawfull I see not but men may refuse to take a lawfull oath because ones laying their hand on the book and kissing it Deut. 6.13 signifieth a worshipping God the author of that book in taking the oath and that one doth aver the truth of his conscience towards man as well as his faith towards God in so doing Nor can a man keep the Lords day religiously if it be not a mystical and significant sign to him of the resurrection of Christ past Heb. 4.9 and of our spiritual rest from sin of that eternal rest which is promised to the people of God Nor do I see how people can have any religious respect to Churches if they take them not as signs or shadowes of the celestiall Temple Zanch. de Redemp l. 1. tract de tempt col 703. where the spirits of the faithfull are collected together praising the Lord. Nor can we keep any festivall without casting an eie upon what it relates to in his signification And truly if ceremonies had no signification they were the more fit to be cast out of the Church as unprofitable and as such as the Papists use that want sign and sense Mathe. But having been superstitiously abused they ought rather to be abolished then used in the Church services Phila. Yet in Josh 6.19 the spoile of Jericho is commanded by Joshua to be brought into Gods treasury And Gideon was commanded to take the wood of the idolatrous grove and offer sacrifice Judg. 6.26 We find also that those things which the Jewes abused was continued by godly men Bishops of Jerusalem in the Primitive times as Circumcision though not as a Sacrament but as a sign to shew they came of the line of Abraham So the Feast of Easter was kept by many reverend and worthy Bishops and Martyrs before the Councill of Nice on the same manner and day as did the Jewes but not with the same end as the Jewes did So the Councill of Nice did not abolish the feast of Easter but changed it into the Lords day So the Papists have abused the Lords Supper by erroneous opinions and idolatrous adorations of it which sheweth many good things may be abused and yet are not therefore to be disused this were to deny the use of the Sun because Absalom lay with his fathers concubins in the open light Surely a ceremony washed from superstitious dirt may be used in the Church by mutation or correction Clem. Exam. p. 34. c. 1. Zanc. de Red. in 4. precept p. 678. without utter abscission for they being thus purged are sanctified to holy use And so the Church of England only retained three the Surplice to warn the Minister of purity the Crosse to warn Christians of constancy and kneeling to admonish communicants of humility We know the Papists have abused these and others to superstition but abuse makes nothing evill which is not evill in it selfe And therefore the best reformed Divines have concluded even as ancient fathers have done before them who did not demolish all that was dedicated to idolatrie Calv. opuscul tracb de vitand superst p. 78. but converted them to better use So neither doth Mr Calvin approve of that morosity in men who because some ceremonies of the Papists may not be observed therefore none may yea some non Conformists have written that though the Papists have dedicated Churches to idolatry yet there being a good use for them among us they may be retained as also Popish vestments may be altered and make ornaments for the Church And surely they say well in that and it were good if the rest would not wrest away the liberty of the Church in such things which may make a lawfull use of indifferent ceremonies for conveniency without offence to God Mathe. But yet they are offensive to many good men and therefore to be left off Phila. First we must consider whether they be offensive in themselves or made offensive by the intention of the Church Theo. l. 3. c. 16. as Julian the Apostate set up his image in the Market place among the images of the heathen gods that he that gave eivill respect to his image might be thought also to do honour to them or if they did no respect then they might seem to despise both the gods and the Emperour So he set an Altar neer his throne with a fire upon it and incense upon a table Sozo l. 3. c. 17. and all Officers of his army that came to receive his largesse of gold did first cast some incense into the fire by which many were scandalized or caused to stumble So he caused all the fountains in the region of Antioch to be dedicated to the heathen goddesses and all the meat in the Market to be sprinkled with heathenish holy water yet the Christians were so wise as not to avoid their drink and meat knowing that to the clean all things are clean Tit. 1.15 and also bought what was sold and made no scruple as 1 Cor. 10.25 Then next we must consider whether the offence arises not from our own ignorance and weaknesse and so we be not straitned by the Church but in our own bowels and so like little children that complain their cloaths are to little when their bellies are too full The offence must lie in one of these If it lie in the Agent it is either directly evill as Davids matter of Vriah 2 Sam.