Sacras holy or Sacred houses For Euseb de vit const l. 3. c. 1. they are set a part from common use they are assigned to Gods Worship they are consecrated with solemne and speciall rites and given up into Gods possession and their Dedications have long beene commemorated with yearely solemnites whereupon it was decreed in the Councell of Gangra Si quis docet domum Dei Contemp ibilem esse vel congregationes quae in ea fiant Anathema Cap. 5. fit i. If any man teach that the house of God or the Congregations there assembled are to be contemned or slighted let him be accursed And further the words in that Councell are Domos Cap. 21. Dei honoramus conventus qui in iis fiunt tanquam sanctos utiles suscipimus non claudentes pietatem in domibus sed omnem locum in Dei nomine aedificatum honoramus i. Wee doe honour the houses of God and embrace the assemblies there as holy and good Not that we shut up Pietie in houses but that wee honour all places which are built to the name of God So then the Pietie of those times reputed Churches holy places and yet no otherwise holy than by a Relative holinesse viz. in regard of their consecration and the use whereto they are thereby assigned which yet giveth no man liberty ever the more to slight the Church For though creatures beneath the reasonable be capable of no other holinesse than this Relative holinesse yet have they soundly smarted who have dared to prophane such holy things Nabuchadonosor 2 King 25. burnt up the houses of the Lord and the Pillars of the basesse and the brazen Sea did the Caldaeans breake in peeces c. But then marke what followed it is not long before that Nabuchadonosor is called to his account for all this when his Kingdome is departed from him and he driven Dan. 4. from men doth eate grasse as Oxen hath his body wet with the dew of heaven his haire grow like Eagles feathers and his nailes like the birds talons Baltasar will needes prophane the holy vessels and command them from the house of Dan. 5. God for himselfe to carouse in among his Concubines But the wrath of God doth quickely powre him out a Cup of vengeance and sad newes that night he lost his life and the Medes and Persians possessed his Kingdome Antiochus 1 Mac. 1. maketh the like havocke in the Temple and the holy things thereof as Nabuchadonosor had done before and not long after he is met withall by the hand of God which smote him with an invisible and incureable plague tormenting his bowels and inward parts his flesh rotting his carkasse swarming with Lice and stinking so grievously as not to be endured and in this wretched case he dyed miserably on the wilde Mountaines And one maine motive stirring God to expose the Iewes to the fury of the Chaldaeans was for that 2 Chro. 36. 14. they polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Ierusalem Doth not the fearefull death of Vzzah tell us how wary we must be and what heede we must take of medling with things hallowed or Consecrated for what did he but onely touch the Arke with his hand in no contempt or evill meaning but with a good respect to keepe it from falling But the Arke was holy and Vzza his hand was not to meddle therewith he therefore dyed for this presumption and yet the holinesse of the Arke was but relative holinesse What should I say of the Sabboth day among the Iewes or of the Lords day among the Christians was the one Or is the other holy otherwise than by a relative holinesse And yet wee know how severely they have beene punished which violated the holinesse of the Sabboth in the Old Testament and we have knowne of many terrible judgements which have overtaken such as have abused the other Ierusalem is the holy Citty and heaven it selfe is an holy place yet no otherwise holy than in relation to God there specially present If then heaven be holy Ierusalem holy the Lords day holy the Sabboth was holy then the Church or place consecrated for Christians to assemble in for the publicke worship of Almighty God is therefore holy because being so consecrated it hath such relation to God and his worship CAP. VI. Names whereby Churches under the Gospell have beene called OUr English word Church which in Scotland is sounded Kyrke commeth of the Greeke word ΚυÏιακὴ of the word ΚÏÏιοσ a Lord so ΚυÏιακὴ or Church is as if you should say belonging to the Lord answerable whereto is the Latine name Dominicum by which the Church was anciently called of the word Dominus a Lord so wee have it Ruffin l. 1. c. 3. Sequere me ad Dominicum i. De verbis dominii Ser. 15. Follow me to the Church Saint Augustine telleth us the reason why the Church is so called Quemadmodum tempus Deo sacrum dicitur dies Dominicus Ita locus Deo dicatus dicitur Dominicum i. As the time which is holy unto God is called the Lords day so the place which is dedicated unto God is called Dominicum i. The Lords house And thus the Church in the new Testament agreeth in phrase with our forefathers in the Old Testament who usually call the Temple and places of Gods Worship the house of the Lord. Places of Christian and Religious meetings have had the names of Cryptae i. hiding places For sometimes in the heate of persecution the Christians though sincere yet either timorous or rather provident not to be disturbed at their holy meetings did assemble in Caves in the earth in Woods and desarts as the Apostles themselves Iuel apol part 2. art 3. Ioh. 20. 19. 1 King 18. 13. when they assembled in the night with the doores shut for feare of the Iewes and as the Prophets were hidden by fifty in a Cave by the good Obediah But O! the goodnesse of our mercifull God who hath placed unto us our Churches in most open view and made both the way thither and our being there safe and comfortable We neede not with Nicodemus goe to Christ by night The Church doores are open at noone day wee are in no danger in going to or being at Church but expose our selves to punishment by keeping away Happy are the eyes which see the things which we see And God give us grace to make good use of so great blessings Churches have also the names of Oratories of the Latine Word Orare to pray For that Christians in all their meetings used to prayse God and to pray unto him Eusebius writing of the joyfull L. 8. c. 1. dayes with the zeale and devotion of the Christians before the persecution began under Dioclesian saith Quis aggregationes multitudinis insignesque concursus ad oratoria describeret i. who was able to describe the gathering together of the multitude and their goodly flocking to the
mistake and fearefully wrest the words bodily exercise Concerning the meaning whereof Interpreters do not readily agree But this I am sure of that of all the Interpreters which I have seene and I have purposely made some search not one doth understand them of those gestures of the body in Gods worship which we now treate of And it is manyfest that the bodily exercises whereof S. Paul speaketh are such as he setteth in opposition unto true godlines and yet such as wherein foolish people perverted by hypocrites and guided by idle conceits and no better then old wives fables do place Religion Abstinency from meate and from marriage v. 3. unto which we may adde long and frequent watchings pronouncing of long and many prayers lying on the cold ground wearing haire cloth and the like with such kind of disciplining of the body may profit something as they may be used Cor. 7. 26. For S. Paul deemeth those people happy in regard of the present necessity which were unmarried And he alloweth those which are married sometimes and upon some occasions to withdraw one from an other that they may the better dispose themselves to fasting and prayer Watching fasting and such other chastisings of the body are also of profitable use to tame the flesh and to bring it into subjection to the spirit and so to make the whole man the fitter for devotion But if men place true Godlinesse to consist in these very exercises and so conceive with themselves that whilest they performe them they are eo nomine for that alone very good people though otherwise they live in the custome and practise of foule and known sinnes then shall they finde that their bodily exercises do profit little that is nothing at all and that in vaine have they wearyed themselves therein And so if a man thinke that though he neglect the true duties of godlinesse he is yet a godly man because he is very exact in all the gestures of outward reverence in Gods worship I paralell that man with an other sect of hypocrites whose whole godlinesse consisteth in going to to some selected Church and in being present where a Sermon is though in the meane time they learne nothing and practice as little of any true godlinesse Both these sorts of men I acknowledge to be an hypocriticall and superstitious generation both a like And of them both I say that they have a forme of Godlines but deny the power thereof Though then bodily exercises profit not those who place their whole Religion and goodnesse in them as they are meer bodily actes Yet are they not unprofitable for Christian men who make the right use of them either to tame the body and to bring it into subjection by fasting sack cloth and ashes and the like or to make outward expression of inward devotion as by bending the knee bowing the body lifting up the hands and eyes and such like gestures in Gods worship As for the wordes of our blessed Saviour God is a spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in Psâ— 95. 6. trutb I aske those men which alledge them against outward reverence what they will say to holy and devoute David when he saith O come let us worship and fall downe and kneele before the Lord our maker Doth not the spirit of God here require the gestures of bowing downe and kneeling to be used in Gods worship But for further satisfaction herein we will spend a few lines though one would thinke words needlesse in so cleare a case in the exposition of our Saviours wordes Wee therefore give our brethren to understand that the word Spirit in scripture hath divers sinifications as i. The regenerate man is called the Spirit Matth. 26. 41. The Spirit is willing the flesh is weak 2 The will or inclination 2 Cron. 36. 22. The Lord stirred up the Spirit of Cyrus 3 The courage of a man Josh 5. 1. There was no spirit in them any more because of the children of Israel 4 Vnderstanding and knowledge Dan. 5. 12. An excellent Spirit and understanding and knowlegde were found in Daniell 5 Doctrine or teaching 1 Joh. 4. 1. Beleeve not every Spirit but try the Spirits So then take the word Spirit in any of these significations and it will nothing hinder the use of corporall or bodily gestures in the worship of God For to worship God in Spirit is to worship him with a regenerate or new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holynesse Eph. 4. 24. It is no compassing of Gods Altar without hands washed in Innocency Ps 26. 6. no praying to God without pure handes lifted up 1 Tim. 8. No comming into the marriage feast without a wedding garment Mat. 22. So it is not for any to performe the holy act of worship to the holy God that is not regenerate and holy and will so worship in spirit and truth i. in true holinesse For God requireth such to worship him 2. God must be worshiped in Spirit i. with a willing ready and chearefull mind Deborah in her song Iudic. 5. 2. doth prayse God for the people that became so willing And 1 Pet. 5. 2. Gods flock must be fed not by constraint but willingly and so Gods worship must be performed in Spirit that is willingly 3. God must be worshiped in spirit i. Not faintly and droopingly but couragiously and zealously in the fervency of the spirit as Rom. 10 11. 5 God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth i. with understanding and knowledge rightly informed Lastly God must be worshiped in spirit and truth i. Guided by the holy spirit of God as all the sonnes of God are led by the spirit Rom. 8. 14. which leadeth unto all truth Joh. 16. 13. And this is home to the text in spirit and truth when in Gods worship we so make use of either body or soule as by Gods word and spirit wee are thereto directed Corporall actes may be done in the Spirit as our Saviours going up to the mount Mat. 4. was a Corporall act and yet it was done in the Spirit For he was led by the Spirit v. 1. And to this effect are the words of the Schoole-man cleare and full in in the place before alledged Adoratio Corporalis in Spiritu fit in quantum ex spirituali devotione procedit ad eam ordinatur i. Bodily worship is 2. 2. q 84. ar i done in the spirit in as much as it proceedeth from spirituall devotion and is made to serve thereunto When our brethren Pray or Preach do they not use a bodily member viz. the toung to expresse themselves withall The using of the tounge is a bodily exercise as well as the bowing of the knee And yet I hope they thinke that they do both Preach and Pray in the spirit Are not eating and drinking bodily actions And yet I trust wee do eate and drinke in the spirit when wee do it in the feare of God and
us to sit whilest the minister is reading or expounding any part of the word of God for our instruction and while doctrines are taught and applyed for our further edification But when we come to utter an hymne or petition then the minister who before spake unto the people doth now joyn with the people and both minister and people with one heart and voice joyn in a language to almighty God And therefore compose themselves to a gesture of solemne adoration and worship which I never knew sitting to be neither do I thnike that any president can be found in all the whole Bible of any either Congregations assembled or persons in privat sitting at their solemn worship of almighty God We find in the revelation Apoc. 4. 2. God described upon his throne and foure and twenty Elders wearing crownes sitting upon so many seates round about the throne And anon those Elders betake themselves to worship him that sitteth on the throne But now they keepe themselves no longer on their seates when they are to performe the act of solemne worship But they fall downe before him that sate on the throne and cast their crownes before the throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory c. So also cap. 11. ver 16. there are 24 Elders who sit before God on their seates But when they worship they fall downe on their faces We read also of some that worshipped God standing So did the publican 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 standing a far off he said God be mercifull to me a sinner And a great company whom no man could number did stand before the Luc. 18. 13. throne in the sight of the Lambe and cryed with a loud Apoc. 7. 8. voice saying Salvation from our God which sitteth on the throne And therefore we give glory to the father sonne and holy Ghost or recite some hymne appointed by the Church to be pronounced by the Minister and people joyntly to glorifie and praise God withall standing both in imitation of these examples and also accompting it the more reverend gesture then sitting which we never finde used in the solemne and publique worship by Gods people And in all this no man can point out any Superstition Againe we use the gesture of standing when wee publiquely rehearse the articles of our faith or attend unto those choise portions of the Gospell appointed for their speciall times and occasions And both these are the same For the Creede is the breviate of the Gospell and the Gospell is in the Creede or the articles of our Faith at large At the rehearsing of the one and at the reading of the other we stand up The reason is to signifie and expresse hereby our resolution and readynesse to stand and persevere to the end in this Faith which we do professe And this expression is according to scripture which by the metaphor of standing setteth out Christian fortitude and perseverance as Rom. 5. 2. we are by faitb admitted to this grace wherein we stand And cap. 11. 20. Thou standest by faith So 1 Cor. 16. 13. Stande in the faith And 1 Pet. 5. 12. This is the grace wherein yee stand So then we by this gesture of standing at the Creede or Gospell professe our constancy or perseverance But when the scripture speaketh of standing in Ob. grace or in the faith it doth not intend a bodily but a spirituall standing It is very true And when wee by our bodily standing do professe our spirituall standing we do Ans herein no whit swarve from the meaning of the Scripture But what the Scripture expresseth in word we declare by a gesture of the same signification And so in this is no superstition One would think that no body should be so absurd as to dislike the gesture of kneeling in prayer But because I have seene with mine eyes and that not seldome whole troops of men and women and those not of the meanest in the time and place of divine Service while prayers and supplications were made unto God sit all the while I think not altogether needlesse to free the gesture of kneeling in Gods worship from all suspition of superstition And that by precept practise and reason For precept take the words of the Psalmist Ps 95. 6. O come let us worship and fall downe and kneele before the Lord our maker For practice we will looke upon the farest president Our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ kneeled downe and prayed If Luc. 22. 41. men will be ruled by reason they will not when they are to petition the King of Kings omit such a gesture of humility as kneeling is being the most suitable for a man at his prayers and for this cause we kneele at the holy Communion receiving whereat we both lift up thankfull hearts unto God for the death and resurection of Jesus Christ as also beg of God that by the merits thereof our bodies and Soules may be preserved to everlasting life It is not denyed but that a man may pray sitting walking standing or layd along For we ought to pray alwayes But when a man betaketh himselfe to a set exercise of prayer and that specially in the publique Congregation kneeling is the fittest and no Superstitious gesture But though divers things in use with you in Ob. your worship might in themselves be something indifferent and tollerable yet there are some gestures used in your Churches very offensive to weake Consciences and therefore ought to be forborne How weake the consciences of these men be I must leave it to God to judge of But I must needes thinke that their fancies are strong whilest they will not beleeve but that they have better knowledge then their teachers and more wisdome then their Governors For they will prescribe what the minister must teach and how both Church and Common-wealth must be ordered And wherein their Ministers teach or their Governours Command otherwise then they like of they will slight the one and disobey the other But to come to the point What is that which is so offensive above the rest Let it come forth and shewe its Superstitious face that when wee see it to be such wee may abhor it thereafter It is as I am told for else I should never have magnified it The bowing which wee use at the name of Jesus and at the Communion Table For as the name of Jesus the plaine text telleth me that every knee shall bow thereat But forward people thinke to evade the authority of this text Phil. 2. 10. by saying that the word Name doth in scripture sometimes signifie power And this wee deny not and wee acknowledge further that it also signifieth divers other things as fame or renoune 2 Cro. 26. 8. His name went forth to the entrance of Aegypt So it signifieth also Posterity Deut. 25 7. My husbands brother refuseth to raise up a name unto his brother It is taken for memory or remembranâ—â— Es 56. 5.
in other Ans names of God expressing his Majesty Power Justice and the like This is the only name of God which fully setteth out unto us the mercy of God to eternall salvation For therefore is he called Jesus because he shall save his people from their sinnes And there is no other name under heaven given Matth. 1. 21. Luc. 4. 12. whereby we must be saved For so much therefore as in this name we find the greatest yea unspeakable Comfort It is agreeable to good reason that we be by this name stirred up and affected with unspeakable joy within and that we make expression thereof to the glory of God by devout outward reverence I would my brethren which are so scrupulous in this point would without prejudice read the learned and cleare tteatises which are extant on this argument and specially that exquisite peece of that most learned and judicious Bishop Andrews And that setting aside their causelesse quarrell against his being Lord Bishop they would weigh his reasons with an humble spirit and an heart lifted Joh. 16. 13. up to God through Jesus Christ to be guided by that Spirit of truth which our Saviour promised to send to guide us all into all truth Then I make no doubt but they would soone see that in bowing the knee to God at the mention of the name of Jesus there is no Superstition But you call the Communion table an altar and Ob. you adore it by bowing and doing reverence thereunto We are not by any Canon or rule that I know required to call it an altar And the now Lord Ans Bishop of Elie a man specially zealous to restore Gods publique worship to the primitive lustre in the articles which he lately exhibited in his visitation when he was Bishop of Norwich doth Chrys Nyssen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not at all call it by the name altar but sometime the Communion table and sometime in the words of the Fathers the holy Table And yet it hath antiently been called indifferently by either name Coale from the Altar Altar Christianum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antid Lincol. Altar or Table and may indifferently beare either name as is abundantly cleared of late by divers learned pennes who have eased me from any labour in this point and are sufficient to satisfie any reasonable spirit Neither know I any particular or oppositive law enjoyning us to bow at the altar or Cōmunion table Yet the devotion of those which do practice it being grounded upon the custome of the Catholick Church of Christ is in my poore judgment not only justifiable but also commendable For what is there to be said against it It is superstition in Gods worship to bow or do Ob. reverence to any creature Wee do not bow to the table but at the table Ans as a man in his onw house praying either in his closet by himselfe or in some roome amongst his family kneeleth at his chaire or table is not sayd to kneele to his stoole or table So we that bow at the Communion table do our reverence there not to the table but to God at the table And why there more then any where else Quest I answer first by such another question Why Ans not there as well as any where else what is there to forbid me to do my duty reverently unto God in that place Againe I aske my brother why was Moses commanded Exod. 3. 5 at the fire bush to put his shooes from his feet rather there then in any other place I hope he will answer me with Gods own reason and words viz. because the place was holy ground Then I ask once more what made that place holyer then an other will it not be confessed to be Gods speciall presence there specially manifested in the voice that spake and the fire which burned not the bush All this is cleare and undeniable And from hence then thus it followeth necessarily A place where God by speciall signes manifesteth his speciall presence is more holy then another place though not in nature yet in use and relation And there men are to demeane themselves with special reverence therefore But the Communion table is a place where God manifesteth himselfe specially present in the Sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And therefore men ought there to demeane themselves with speciall reverence towards God there specially present For when a man considereth the love of God in Jesus Christ sealed unto him by the body and blood of Christ whereof the Communion table doth specially put him in minde as being a table specially set up and set apart for that banquet then the heart if it be right is lifted up in reverend thankefullnesse to our mercifull God and the body boweth to expresse that reverence and thankfulnesse which the heart conceiveth If the Sacrament were alwayes on the table Ob. then this argument might have some shew of reason but we see men bow when nothing is on the table The Communion table being appropriated for the Service of the Communion retaineth still Ans its relation to that Sacrament and still calleth upon us to remember the love of God to us in the body and blood of Christ and therefore to be reverently thankfull And so it continueth still an holy Table in the regard of the holy things which belong unto it though they be not really present upon it If this matter of permanent relation seemeth Gen. 28. harsh to any let him consider a passage in the book of Gen. where the case is thus God in a dreame exhibiteth unto Jacob speciall signes of his speciall presence in that place where Jacob was then sleeping In the morning Jacob awaketh But then there appeareth not any of those signes And yet in relation to that presence of God which had in the night before appeared unto him in those signes he saith O how dreadfull is not was this place It is not was the house of God Is the place now the house of God and a place to affect Jacob with dread though the signes be not present upon the place And shall not the Communion table be stil the table of God and an holy Table to affect us with reverence though the sacrament be not alwayes actually on the table Did not our Saviour call the Temple an house of Prayer and not allow it to be at all an house of Merchandise Neither might it serve the turne of the money changers to save them from the whip to have said wee will not trade in the Temple in the time of Sacrifice or of Prayer or of Preaching but only when the Service is ended For the Temple is alwayes an house of prayer whether men be there at Matt. 13. 21. Praiers or not And so the holy Table is alwaies the Communion Table or Table of the Lord whether the Sacrament be upon it or not Doth not our Saviour also tell us that he which