necessary in Gods Service What kinde of signification requisite Not enough for the Presbyterians to allow Ceremonies THe determining of times and places and persons by The Lords Day observed by the authority of the Church which and at which of the Circumstances and Ceremonies of the Form and order according to which the service of God is to be celebrated is the Office and therefore is within the power of the Church The substance of Christianity wherein salvation consisteth was determined by our Lord in person to his Apostles That which hee trusted them with was the regulating of his Church supposing the same Christianity that God might bee served by the Assemblies of such as might appear to profess it That which he trusted the Apostles with the Church remains of necessity trusted with by the Apostles saving the personal Gift of the Holy Ghost in the Apostles rendring their Acts blameless in that estate for which they were made though not sufficient for all estates of the Church Otherwise the power of the whole Church is the power of the Apostles and obligeth the parts of the Church not to transgress the Acts of it Because the Unity of the Church is equally concerned in them and the substance of Christianity in neither of both This discovereth the Superstition of that Imposture which is pretended by deriving the Obligation of the Lords Day from the Jewish Sabbath For what reason can endure that the Church should bee bound to keep the first day of the week by that Precept which tyed the Synagogue to keep the last day of the week Seeing then the Obligation of it is to bee derived from the Act of the Apostles that is from the power of the Church For being once received by the whole Church it is for ever received to the same effect if the premises bee true it is the same Obligation that tyes all to observe the times appointed for the service of God by the Church whether Fasting days or Festivals The Example of the Primitive Christians at Jerusalem justifieth St. Hierome and others of the Fathers affirming that the Church should and would serve God continually in publick could the business of the world stand with it And therefore that order is to bee accounted most Christian that provides most opportunity for frequenting the publick service of God If this were considered it would appear a meer Imposture Therefore other Festivals and times of Fasting are to bee observed to demand that the Lords day bee celebrated with Sermons morning and evening and arbitrary prayers to usher them in and out treading underfeet all other times set apart by the whole Church for the service of God by such Offices as it enjoyneth If wee weigh by our own Weights and mete by our own Measures not only the mysteries of our Lords dispensatiâ—n in the Flesh but the memories of his Apostles and Saints not only the time of Lenâ— and the Wednesdays and Fridays But the time of Advent the Evens of Festivals the Ember and Râ—gation dayes once appointed to that purpose must still bee solemnized for the Festivals and Fasts of Gods Church To set a peculiar mark upon the Lords Day as if the time of it were more obliging then other time that is appointed to the same purpose is to change the day but to retain the Jews Superstition as Calvin most truely hath told them who in other things commit Idolatry to his Opinion But wherein he follows the whole Church in this point and in the state of souls before the Resurrection bid him farewell The Case is the same in the qualities of places as well as of How places and persons become qualified for Gods Service Preaching not convertible with ministring the Sacraments persons For the exercise of Christianity by the Law of this Kingdom there must bee places where all must meet they must bee limitted by the authority of the Church they must not bee balked for other places of mens private choise but by those that are willing to bee charged with Schisme for doing it They that quarrel the Bishops power in all other things must call this also in question when they mean to weigh by their own Weights and mete by their own Measures They are very studious to confound the difference between Priests and Deacons by having all called Ministers being a Term that may serve all Orders ministring those Offices which the Church enableth them to minister But they who would impose this sense upon the stile of Ministers of Gods Word and Sacraments that all and no other but they who are ordained to Preach are ordained also to Baptize and celebrate the Eucharist must bee told that this is an Imposture till they shew better reason for it then hitherto hath been shewed For I conceive I have shewed sufficient reason that the power of celebrating the Eucharist is convertible with the power of the Keys qualifying all Christians for the Eucharist which in the Bishop onely extendeth to publick causes concerning his whole Church or Diocese But in all Presbyters to private Causes wherein it may bee questionable between God and the Conscience whether a Christian bee qualified for the Eucharist or not As for the Sacrament of Baptisme that as the Bishop only allows it in any case that may bee questionable so the ministring of it may come to a Deacon in the Priests absence nay to a Lay-man rather then that any Child should dye unbaptized Neither is the Office of preaching restrained either to Priests or Deacons alone by any other authority then that of Gods whole Church Which being once passed in the Case by the general Custom and Practice of it it must bee the greatest Sacrilege in the World that is the Sacrilege of Schisme to transgress it The respect due to the memories of the Apostles and other Times places persons and things consecrated to Gods Service under the Gospel Saints and Martyrs of Christ is a reason sufficient to determine the time and place for the service of God To question that they are not just occasions for the consecrating of Festivals and of Churches to the service of God in honour of their memories is a just presumption that men seek to bee saved by some other Christianity then that which their Doctrine and their Blood planted But their names and the Festivals and the Churches that bear their names are but circumstances determining that service to bee acceptable to God which is performed in the Unity of his Church the authority whereof assigneth them to that purpose No more are the Utensils and Ornaments of Churches the Vessels in which the Sacraments are celebrated But they who think it Superstition that these things should bee set apart from Vulgar use and reserved only for Gods service plainly commit Idolatry to their own Imaginations in it For it is manifest that Consecration was in force not only by the Law of Moses but before it under the Law of nature as the
would bee were the Pope Antichrist and the Papistâ— Idolaters Though to those that believe them so because they believe them so the measure and the bounds of Reformation will never appear to stand where indeed they do But let them look to the consequence of their own imaginations This one must needs render them Schismaticks to God abhorring communion upon imaginary reasons But will render us with them Schismaticks both to God and to his Church if wee make all that to bee Reformation which their imaginations tainted with such a prejudice would have to bee Law to this Church and Kingdom CHAP. XXII The present State of the Question concerning our Service The Reformation pretended abominable Such Preaching and Praying as is usual a hindrance of salvation rather then the means to it What Order of Service the continual Communion will require What form of Instruction this Order will require Of that which goes before the Preface in our Communion Service Of the Prefaces and the Prayer of Consecration Of the Prayer of Oblation and the place of it Of the Commemoration of the dead in particular Why the Communion Service at the Communion Table when no Eucharist A secondary Proposition according to present Law I conceive I have by this time shewed a reason for that The present state of the Question concerning our Service which I said in the beginning that there is so much in question between us and the Puritans comprising in that name all the parties into which it stands now divided as if it were decided for them would give the Papists the advantage against the Protestants Now as for the great question amongst us concerning our Service if it were truly stated it would soon be at an end If it may bee once considered that the question is indeed and in truth whether Sermons shall drive the Communion out of the Church or not whether or no arbitrary Prayers in the Pulpit shall chase out of the Church those which St. Paul commanded to bee made and the Church by his command hath frequented ever since I conceive the Dispute would bee easily decided And that is the thing in question indeed and in effect how little soever it appear Certainly if there were never any common Prayers made in the Pulpit if there were always common Prayers made at the Altar they who had no common Prayers but at the Eucharist had the Eucharist as oft as they had common Prayers Not as if the Church did never assemble but when the Eucharist was celebrated But because their desire and endeavour was to celebrate the Eucharist once every day and that in the morning unless it were a Fast and always at dismissing the Assembly as the principal Office of it For hence the Eucharist came in time to bee called the Mass which had formerly been the name of the Assembly it self from the dismissing of it And they who endeavoured to celebrate the Eucharist every day were not like to let Lords days and Festivals pass or think them solemnized as they should bee by Christians without it Since therefore I claim that this came by Tradition of the The Reformation pretended abominable Church from St. Pauls order I will infer no less then I have proved That to change the Communion every Lords day and Festival together with Morning and Evening Prayer every day in the Church and that with the Litanies upon Wednesdays and Fridays which the Law of the Land hitherto requireth for two Sermons every Sabbath with arbitrary Prayers afore or after them would not bee Reformation but Apostasie For it is manifest that at the Reformation the Eucharist was in possession in all Churches though the Communion had been surceased Nor was it ever excepted that the frequenting hereof had in it any colour of abuse or abatement to that very Christianiâ—y which wee receive from our Lord and his Apostles The abuse was in private Masses It was also a just complaint that the people were not taught their duty out of the Holy Scriptures and that the instructing of them by preaching was neglected beyond all reason and conscience But was it ever pretended that the reforming of the abuse in private Masses consisteth in two Sermons a Sabbath for wee must speak like Jews if wee will not offend tender consciences with the Prayers of the people such as the Minister shall please before or after it which is the Reformation now pretended Had it been said that this is Reformation when abuses were so visible that the name of Reformation was popular it had been easily answered that this were to bring the chief Office of Christianity to little or nothing And therefore if this bee the form that was called Reformation in some places it must bee said that it was easieâ— to see what ought not to bee then to settle what should bee But for a Christian Kingdom having upon deliberation setled an order whereby the Eucharist is to bee celebrated all Lords days and Festivals for Reformations sake to leave Ministers of tender consciences free not to celebrate it above thrice a year and that having a competent number to communicate which may bee not once in seven years as now is demanded I hope it shall never bee said in the streets of Gath that it past undetested It is necessary for him that is come to the state of salvation Such Preaching and Praying as is usual a hindrance of salvation rather then the means to it as a Christian to learn how hee is to live as a Christian and to grow every day in the knowledg of his duty that hee may discharge it But shall hee bee able to do this by hearing two Sermons every Sabbath and as many more as if hee did nothing else Or may hee not bee able without it Certainly that which their Preachers now do is so far from being necessary that it is no fit means to the salvation of the generality of Gods people They may easily make it a trade never to fail to while out an hour or two in the Pulpit in discoursing the meaning of their text in framing Doctrines out of it and proofs of those Doctrines more plentiful a great deal when they are so manifest that they need not then when they are so obscure that they cannot bee proved to the generality of Christians and upon these Doctrines and Proofs Exhortations Invectives Instructions Reproofs such as the driving of Faction shall require and yeâ— hee that would learn his duty shall bee as far to seek after many thousands of such Sermons as afore And yet it shall bee an act of no less charity to Preach a Sermon of Christian instruction and exhortation in and to the known duties of all or the generality of Christians then it hath always been reputed by Gods Church But let not a man therefore think if hee have any doubt in some difficult point of Doctrine in some nice case of Conscience in the meaning of some leading text of
have not received the Order of Priesthood shall pretend to celebrate it For the Scripture interpreted by the un-interrupted practice of the Church allows no man under the Order of a Priest to celebrate the Eucharist Not as if those who call themselves Ministers did commit this Sacrilege in consecrating the Eucharist For though the name of Ministers signifies no more then Deacons and that it is truly Sacrilege for Deacons to celebrate the Eucharist Yet they whom they call Ministers if Ordained were Ordained Priests with power to celebrate the Eucharist For they call them Ministers to impose upon the World an opinion which they cannot prove by the Scripture That they are the only Ministers of the Word and Sacraments The second because they know not nor acknowledge the Consecration that is requisite to the celebration and being of this Sacrament by the same Scriptures understood according to the un-interrupted custome and practice of the Church For the whole Church of God allowing the elements consecrated to bee the Body and Bloud of Christ mystically or in the Sacrament alloweth this change to bee made by the consecration before which they were only Bread and Wine Not as if after the Consecration they were not so but because they are then become that which they were not afore to wit the Sacrament of Christs Body and Bloud or the Body and Bloud of Christ spiritually and mystically that is in the Sacrament This Consecration being exactly maintained by the Church of England they that presume to celebrate the Eucharist without acknowledging the same and pretending to destroy the Law by which it is exercised must bee presumed not to acknowledge the necessity thereof to the being of this Sacrament And therefore they and their complices in the Communion thereof to bee guilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ as not distinguishing a sign of mans institution from a Sacrament of Gods appointment and Ordinance As for the Office of Preaching and Praying which they pretend to in behalf of the Church I will mark you out two monstrous Impostures in all the Sects of this time The first is this ground of the now pretended Reformation of Religion in England That the Church is not to assemble for the Service of God but when there is Preaching This seems to stand upon a very gross mistake of those passages of the Apostles writings which declare the necessary means of salvation to consist in hearing the Gospel preached As if they were meant of Sermons in the Pulpit which are onely made to those that are already Christians not of publishing the Gospel to those that knew it not afore convincing them that it is true and instructing them wherein it consists Or as if those that are already Christians wanted any thing necessary to salvation supposing them to persevere in the Christianity which they have professed Not as if their Christianity did not oblige them to hear Sermons when the authority of the Church assures them to bee without offense But because the Offices of publick Prayers and the Praises of God especially in celebrating the blessed Eucharist are the end of all that instruction in Christianity which Christians receive from the Church and therefore all Preaching subordinate to the same as the means to the End And because they may bee daily so frequented without offense and to the increase of the reverence due to Christianity as the experience of our time shows that Preaching cannot bee The second is that the first day of the week called Sunday is the Sabbath by force of the fourth Commandment A mistake so gross that it may well serve for an instance what Faction can do with men that are sober otherwise That God by commanding the Jews to keep the seventh day of the week to wit that day on which hee ended the Creation of the world and for that very reason commanding it should bee thought to command Christians to keep the first day of the week on which hee began the Creation and our Lord Christ arose from the dead That is that the same words of the same Commandment in writing should oblige Jews to rest on the Saturday which oblige Christians to rest on the Sunday is a thing which when this fit of frenzie shall bee past us will scarse bee believed that ever any man would believe True it is this first day hath been observed in and ever since the Apostles time but not by virtue of that Law which their Office was to declare expired and out of date but by the Act of their own authority whereby they gave Laws to Christs Church Let us now only compare the daily morning and evening Sacrifice of Prayer and the Praises of God established by the Order of the Church of England together with the more solemn service of Lords days and Festivals with a bare Sermon upon Sundays ushered in and out with a Prayer of every mans own conceit setting aside the Haeresie and false Doctrine the Faction and Schism the Blasphemy and Slander the ridiculous Follies which this Sermon and Prayer may and which wee have known them contain I say comparing these together the Reformation pretended is and ought to bee accounted the abomination of desolation in comparison of that Order which it destroyeth And therefore upon this account alone those who not being invested with that ordinary Power by which the Church is inabled to correct abuses in the Church shall usurp the Power of the Church to introduce this disorder are thereby Schismaticks themselves and those that acknowledge them for their Pastors complices of Schismaticks It will bee said that these Laws will bee amended as it was many times said awhile since that the Parliament would settle a Ministery To this I say that those who shall bee sent you by virtue of these Laws have every way as good authority as any the Power that made these Laws joyned with a Parliament can give to them that are not otherwise qualified by the authority of the Church That is that this Power and the power of a Parliament together though advising with Divines can do no more then this Power with advise of those Divines which it useth hath done Because both are Secular and able to make men their Ministers to maintain the Interest of that Government which their Power constituteth but not Ministers of the Church to maintain the Interest of that Faith and Service of God which it is trusted with If it bee said that in most parts of the Reformation those from whom the Ministery is propagated had not received by their Ordination Power to ordain others For answer I suppose That the abuses crept into the Church were so great that particular Churches that is part of the whole might and ought to reform themselves without consent or concurrence of the whole I suppose that though there bee in the Church a succession of persons indued with authority in behalf of it as well as of Faith and of Rules or Laws Yet the
them as Scripture The order for reading the Scripture appears necessary by the Of reading the Scriptures commonly called Apocryphâ— jealousies of this time For were it arbitrary how obvious would it bee to deprave publick or private proceedings by Lessons chosen on purpose That the Books called Apocrypha are not the Writings of Prophets inspired is agreed Though those Writings are properly called Apocrypha which the Church authorizeth not to bee read Whereas these being always read in the Church are therefore properly called Ecclesiastical by Rufinus The chief objections against them resolve into some passages that seem not to agree with the Doctrine of the New Testament But so that the like are found in the Old The Fact of Razias the Proceeding of Judith the Lye of Tobits Angel are the greatest blocks of offense Not considering the Fact of Jael or that of Sampson or the Lyes that seem to bee rewarded under the Law If offense bee taken at them why not at these But it is no offense to good Christians because good Christians do not presume the Law and the Gospel to bee both one And therefore are content to know their duty under the Gospel letting that which agreeth not therewith in the Old Testament pass without offense In the mean time it is evident that the Doctrine of Christianity beginneth to bee discovered in them more clearly then it stands discovered in the Law and the Prophets Hereupon the Wisdom of the Primitive Church imployed them for the instruction of the Catâ—câ—umeni that were yet but learners of Christianiny And therefore wee are to insist upon the use of them for edification of the Church in the better understanding of the manners and good works of Christians much abased by those who would put these Books to silence But the whole Church having always used them to lay them aside now were not to restore the Church but to build a new one As concerning the necessity of preaching so effectually set What Preaching it is that the Scripture câ—mmendeth forth by the Scriptures there is utterly a mistake in the meaning of them That preaching which the Scripture maketh absolutely necessary to salvation is the publishing of the Gospel to those that know it not The instruction of Christians in their duty is called teaching in the Scripture I have made evidence of this difference The Apostles Commission is to teach them whom they have baptized all that the Lord had commanded them The Kingdom of God is not in word but in power But if wee call the teaching of Christians preaching then it must bee such for mater and for manner both as may indeed convict Christians of the duty of Christians and that not in the opinion of him that preacheth but according to the Doctrine of the Church Whosoever thinketh himself tâ—ed to Preach that which the Church tyes him not to Preach not tyed to Preach that which it tyeth him to preach is in a fair way to edifie the people to ruine by improving an undue zeal to the dividing of the Church In the mean time the Church preacheth without Sermons by There may bee Preaching without Sermons and Sermons without Preaching the Psalms and the Scriptures and by that order in which it provideth that they bee read Besides all those Forms in which it prescribeth the Offices of Gods Service to bee performed Which if they contain all that is necessary generally and probably to the salvation of all Christians supposing them duly Catechized in those things which the salvation of all and which their particular estate requires they that never heard many Sermons may have heard more and better preaching then hundreds and thousands of Sermons dangerous if not destructive to salvation a thing which experience proves more then possible can furnish them who shall do nothing but run from Sermons to Sermons I grant it was a just complaint at the Reformation that the people were not taught their duty But I do not grant either that they cannot bee taught their duty without two Sermons every Lords day Or that they are like to bee taught their duty by two Sermons every Lords day It is not possible to have men for all Churches fit to preach twice a day to the edifying of the people It will not bee possible to maintain their preaching such as may bee accompted an Office of Gods service In the antient Church for divers hundred years all that The difference between the second Service in the antient Church and our Communion Service were admitted to stay all this while that is till the Sermon were done were not to bee present at the Eucharist were not to communicate As Converts not baptized as the relapsed as the possessed by unclean spirits in which ranck the Lunaticke the Epilepticke the Frantick were accounted And reason good for they were not to communicate at least till death And yet they were not to bee dismissed without the prayers of the Church Prayers fitting their several estates for their proficience or for their recovery that they might come to communicate I will not here undertake that all which remained did always communicate though I doubt not I may undertake that the rule of the Church required them always to communicate For when the world was come in to the Church the Rule that prevailed in time of persecution there is no marvel that it could not then prevail By St. Chrysostome alone it appears sufficiently that the Rule was well enough known but not in force even in his time So when they that might not communicate were dismissed they that would not communicate remained nevertheless For the Eucharist was not to bee set aside for their negligence This is the difference between the first and second Service which is not the same with our Communion Service For the first Service ended when the prayers of the Church began Our Communion Service is that which is properly called the Liturgy in Greek Namely the Office which the Eucharist is to bee celebrated with That which goes before the Offertory belongs not properly to the second Service according to the Primitive Form For the presenting of the Elements was always every where the beginning of it The prayers of the Church began with Thanksgiving to God The General Preface and the Prayers of the Church at the Eucharist for making man and setting him over the creatures for taking care of him after his Fall teaching the Patriarches giving the Law sending the Prophets and when all this did not the effect required for sending our Lord Christ From this Thanksgiving both the Action of the Sacrament and the consecrated Elements are still called the Eucharist And it is called a Preface in a very antient African Canon to wit to the consecration of the Elements which followed Which as I said before is nothing else but a prayer that God would send the Holy Ghost upon the present Elements and make them the Body and Blood of Christ that
never appear I grant that there were miraculous Graces under the Apostles Apostolical Graces subject to Order which St. Paul directs the use of in ministring the prayers of the Church But that all Ministers had them they who require an ordinary Gift in all Ministers to that purpose cannot prove Much less that this ordinary Gift is to succeed those miraculous graces in all Ministers For even then St. Paul saith that the Spirits of the Prophets were to bee subject to the Prephets because God is not the God of confusion but of order And therefore charges all that pretended to such graces to acknowledg the Grace of an Apostle in him and to bee subject to the Orders which there hee gives out If the immediate inspirations of Gods Spirit were so dispensed that inferiors could presume nothing to the prejudice of Order against Superiors upon that pretense Much more now that Christianity is setled and the Unity of the Church a part of it are the Gifts of inferiors to bee ruled by the gifts of Superiors that Order in which Unity consisteth may bee preserved Of the Graces of the Spirit in St. Paul and the Original of Litanies St. Paul saith that the Spirit maketh intercession for the Saints with groans unutterable And St. Chrysostome saith thereupon that they who had these Miraculous Graces being imployed to minister the prayers of the Church did offer them to God with those deep sighs and groans which could hardly express what the Spirit suggested But addeth that the Deacon did the same in his time And this is visibly true by all that remains of the Liturgy in the Records of the Church It is evident that though the Bishop or Priest celebrating the Eucharist did offer the Common Prayers which I have described yet the Deacon also indited the same to the people from point to point as you have it to this day in our English Litanies the people answering from point to point Lord have mercy or some such acclamation as our Litanies do direct So far is the Catholique Church from the Maxime now pretended that the Priest alone is the mouth of the people in their prayers And the sighs and groans of that deep devotion which St. Paul saith the Spirit then moved and St. Chrysostome that the people answering the Deacon then expressed the form of our Litanies now containeth and expresseth And indeed those prayers which the Deacon indited are called Litanies in divers of the antient Liturgies Shewing that our Litanies are but a Transcript of them for the use of other occasions besides the Celebration of the Eucharist And Smectymnuus may remember how much they mistook Justine Martyr thinking hee had said that the Minister prayed thus according to his Gift Who saith indeed that hee prayed with all his might to wit with all the Devotion he could use Which devotion as it is not to bee found in their Pulpit Prayers pretending to apply the Gift to the present occasion so it visibly breathes in the Litanies through all occasions of Gods Church When miraculous Graces failed the prayers of the Church The Prayers of the Eucharist how prescribed by the Apostles were not to fail And the Apostles having delivered that which I have said to the Church whosoever was authorized to celebrate the Eucharist both must bee and easily might bee instructed how hee should discharge that Office There is so much agreement both for mater and manner in that which remains of it in the Records of the Church as to justifie those that affirm it to bee received by Tradition from the Apopostles Thus was the Forme prescribed from the beginning In time abuses might come For what Rule can there bee in humane business that shall not bee subject to abuse Therefore the African Canon which I spake of Orders that Bishops should confer the Forms which they used to wit through their Dioceses with their fellow Bishops Other Canons succeeding that the same Form should bee used throughout every Province In time the Church of Rome obtained that the Form thereof should bee received all over the West Wee see in the mean time what this pretense of Gifts tends Prayers of the Reformed Churches in the Pulpit but by a form to Even to shut the Eucharist out of doors or to confine it to thrice a year in case there bee company which case may bee so managed that a man need not bee tied to celebrate the Eucharist all his life time This is the satisfaction the Church hath for their withholding the Eucharist so many years from those that could not indure the ignorance malice and insolence of their Buckram Triers I grant that Calvins Reformation brings the Common Prayers from the Altar into the Pulpit And by that means confines the Communion to four times a year But are wee to follow Calvin in that wherein the whole Church of God is against Calvin Wherein the Rule of this Church and the Law of the Kingdom agrees with the whole Church against Calvin Was it the way to reform the abuse of private Masses to shut out the Communion excepting four times a year It must bee said that it was not the Reforming but the Deforming of the Church And the reforming thereof consists in restoring the Eucharist into the place that it ought to hold among the Offices of the Church So that the Communion thereof may bee most generally and continually frequented by Christians most prepared But Calvin dreamed of no Gifts all the while The Form of Common Prayer is as much prescribed according to Calvin as according to the Church of England though it bee read in the Pulpit It is the new Gospel of the Long Parliament that setup the The effect of the Long Parliament Prayers by the Spirit pretense of praying by the Spirit the Gift whereof is now claimed for every Ministers privilege in bar to Gods Church Though it bee manifest that the greatest part have no such gift so to minister the Offices of the Church as may bee to the discharge of the people the honour of God and of Christianity yet the Law of the Land must bee changed as supposing that which wee see is not The weaknesses and Imperfections the Falshoods the Blasphemies the Slanders the Sedition the Schisme that wee have known vented in such prayers oblige us to conclude that there is no such Gift in all Ministers At least not of Gods Spirit And therefore that wee must not forsake Gods Church changing the Form that is ruled by the Patern thereof and the Eucharist to boot for the Arbitrary prayers that every Ministers Gift shall vent in the Pulpit CHAP. XVII The Lords Day observed by the Authority of the Church Therefore other Festivals and times of Fasting are to bee observed How places and persons become qualified for Gods Service Preaching not convertible with Ministring the Sacraments Times places persons and things consecrated to Gods Service under the Gospel Ceremonies signifying by institution
necessary to the Salvation of Christians as Christians are by that mark for ever distinguished from things necessary to the Salvation of Christians as Members of the Church Because the Salvation of private Christians is concerned in not understanding the intent of the former sort But in the latter sort cannot bee concerned by not understanding the intent of them but by violating that Order and Unity of the Church which the Regular Use of them serveth to maintain That which I am to say of them here consists of two points That they are Ofâ—â—ces necessary to bee â—inistred to all Christians concerned in them And that they are to bee solemnized with those Ceremonies for which they are without any cause of offense called Sacraments by the Fathers of the Church How necessary iâ— it that those that are baptized Infants when Why the Bishop only Confirmeth they come to discretion and to receive the Eucharist should give account of the hope that is in them and undertake their Christianity upon which it is grounded For hee hath not this hope to God hee appeareth not to the Church to have it but upon these terms And thus far the parties seem content But why should not Presbyters Confirm as well as Bishops that can baptize and celebrate the Eucharist which is more to the Salvation of Christians By Commission from Bishops that they may do it is a point very disputable The practise of the Greek Church in the case is not new Besides some appearance of the like under S. Gregory in the West But that serves not the turn They must have the Catechising of them after their mode and make the grounds of Salvation what they please and not what the Church appointeth So the Answer is easie For neither is Baptism or the Eucharist ministred but by authority from the Bishop And to Catechize beside that Form which the Church allowes is to sow the seed of everlasting dissention in matter of Faith Hee that thinks there was a Reason why S. Peter and S. John should come to Confirm those whom the Deacon S. Philip had baptized can never want a reason why the Bishop alone should do it For hee cannot minister the means of Salvation alone But the Faith and the Unity of his Church with the rest is not to bee preserved without him Therefore the Gift of the Holy Ghost which Baptism promiseth dependeth upon the Bishops blessing because it dependeth upon the Unity of the Church Therefore Haereticks and Schismaticks who by departing from the Unity of the Church barre themselves of the effect of their Baptism being received with the Bishops blessing in the Primitive Church were justly thought to recover their Title to it If Ordination were taken for the conveying of publick Authority The effect of Ordination requireth Ceremony in giving it to minister the Offices of Gods Church by the act of those that have received by their Ordination authority to propagate the same there would bee no mervail that S. Paul should suppose a Grace received by Timothy through the laying on of his hands or the hands of the Presbytery For if the profession of Christianity inferre the Grace of Baptism shall not the profession of that Christianity which the state of the Clergy in general or that particular degree to which every man is ordained importeth inferre the Grace which the discharge of it requireth What is there to hinder it but the want of sincerity in undertaking that which the Order that a man undertakes requires him to undertake This is that which renders those Prayers of the Church of no effect as to God whereby the power is effectually conveyed as to the Church In the mean time shall not those Prayers bee solemnized with Why the Ordinations of our Presbyters are void due Ceremony by which so great a Power in the Church is conveyed Now seeing Presbyters never received by their Ordination authority to ordain others seeing no Word of God gives it them seeing all the Rules of the Whole Church take it from them The Attempt of our Presbyters in Ordaining without and against their Bishops must needs bee void and to no effect but that of Schisme in dividing of the Church upon so unjust a Cause They could not receive the Power of the Keyes from them that had nothing to do to give it And therefore in celebrating the Eucharist they do nothing but profane Gods Ordinance Therefore the lawful Ordaining of them is not re-ordaining but Ordination indeed instead of that which was only so called If a Christian after Baptism fall into any grievous sin voiding The necessity of Penance the effect of Baptism can it fall within the sense of a Christian to imagine That hee can bee restored by a Lord have mercy upon mee No it must cost him hot tears and sighs and groans and extraordinary prayers with fasting and almes to take Revenge upon himself to appease Gods Wrath and to mortifie his Concupiscence If hee mean not to leave an entrance for the same sin again If his sin bee notorious so much the more Because hee must then satisfie the Church that hee doth what is requisite to satisfie God that is to appease his wrath and to recover his Grace The Church may bee many ways hindred to take account of notorious sin But the power of the Keyes which God hath trusted it with is exercised only in keeping such sinners from the Communion till the Church bee so satisfied And for this Exercise the time of Lent hath always been deputed The observation of Leâ—â— and the use of it by the Church The Fast before the Feast of the Resurrection stands by the same Law by which that stands For the Feast was from the beginning the end of the Fast So the Lent-Fast and the keeping of the Lords day stand both upon the same authority For the Lords day is but the Remembrance of the Resurrection once a week It doth not appear that the Fast was kept forty days from the beginning That it was kept before Easter whensoever Easter was kept that is from the time of the Apostles it doth appear The baptizing of Converts the restoring of the Relapsed and the preparing of all by extraordinary Devotion to solemnize the Resurrection was the work of it Did this Church desire the restoring of this Order and yet disowne Lent Daniel abstained from pleasant meat when hee fasted The Jewes forbad all that comes of the Vine on the day of Attonement The Whole Church of God always forbore Flesh and Wine when they fasted And shall our Licentiousness make the difference of meats superstitious Then let the late Parliament Fasts bee Reformation that provided a good break-fast to fast with and heard a Sermon as well after Dinner as before If Sin bee not notorious there is no cause why it should not The necessity of private Penance for the cure of secret sins bee pardoned without help from the Church supposing that the