from the hand of his Prince When David allowed Mâ—phiboshâ—th to eate bread at his table he bowed himselfe Behold Christ hath provided a better Table for us feeding us with that Bread of Life which came downe from Heaven and is it not fit that wee should humble our selves even unto the dust Gen. 17 in thankfull acknowledgement of so great a benefit When Abraham received the promise of the blessed Seed he fell on his face And shall we think it much to kâ—eel when wee receive the performance of that promise even the blessed Seed himselfe All these considerations may move us to put a difference between Christs Supper and a common supper even in our gesture and outward behaviour when we partake of that holy Banquet Againe if we confider what our selves are besides the respects arising unto us from the consideration of the Sacrament as namely That wee are in Gods presence worshipping him offering unto him receiving from him inestimable benefits We shall find that in the Sacrament we sustaine the persons of Poenitentiaries petitioners praysers First Poenitentiaries for we have before our eyes a lively representation of the bitter death and passion of our Blessed Saviour whereof our sinnes was the cause and we our selves as guilty as Iudas Pilate or the Iewes which must needs breed in us sorrow and bitter lamentation The Passeover was eaten with bitter herbes Exod. 12.8 2. Chron. 30.22 and with confession of their sinnes So ought wee to eate this New Passeover with the soure sauce of sorrow and contrition for sinne For if Christ for our sinnes did sweat water and blood yea shed his hearts blood should not wee our selves shed bitter teares should not our hearts bleed for them Chap. 12.20 This was foretold by the Prophet Zachary They shall looke upon him whom they have pierced as we must needs behold him in this Sacrament crucified before our eyes and they shall mourne for him as one mourneth for his only sonne Now nature it selfe and the common custome of all countreyes teach us that kneeling or prostration is the fittest gesture for Paenitentiaries who come to acknowledge their offence The Syrians came in before Achab with sackcloath upon their loynes and rapes about their neckes in token of their guiltinesse 1. Kings 20 3â— because that they heard that the Kings of Israel were mercifull Even so should we present our selves before the Lord in the Sacrament wherein we celebrate the remembrance of Christs death for our sinnes with all manner of submission Next In the Sacrament we are Petitioners it is a wonder unto me that they who stand so much upon a civill custome urge sitting at the Sacrament because it is the gesture used at civill meales will not remember that kneeling is the gesture used by petitioners if it be unto the King much more in our prayers unto God as is evideÌ„t by the practise of the godly throughout the whole Scripture And in the Sacrament we are petitioners praying unto Almighty God that we may have an Interest in that precious death the remembrance whereof we then celebrate The Disputer sayeth It is not our maine action to pray namely in the Sacrament but to meditate upon the passion of Christ As if these two were opposite whenas meditation is a mentall prayer and true prayer alwayes joyned with meditation Take away the intention from prayer it is no prayer but the sound of words and what is intention but meditation Meditation and prayer are of such asâ—inity that one Hebrew word comprehends them both Gen. 24.63 Isaac went out to the field to meditate Or as others render it To pray The Hebrew word Lashuach beares both Finally In the Sacrament we praise God for the worke of our redemption yea the whole action is a reall thanksgiving And kneeling is a gesture which hath beene commonly used by them who give solemne thanks In the 95. Psalme the Prophet calls us To sing unto the Lord to come before his preâ—ence with thankâ—giving And a litle after he shewes what should be our deportment O come let us worship and bow downe Let us kneele before the Lord our maker Abrahams servant worshâ—pped the Lord bowing himselfe to the earth Gen. 24 52. in thankfull acknowledgment of the good successe God gave him in his journey Exod. 4.31 The people When they heard that the Lord had visited thâ— children of Israel that he had looked on their affliction then they bowed their heads and worshipped And that was but upon the report of their approaching deliverance from corporall thraldome But in the Sacrament we receive a pledge of our spirituall deliverance from sinne Satan hell it selfe by the death of our blessed Saviour When Ezra blessed the Lord the great God Nehem. 8.6 All the people bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with heir faces to the ground Solomon kneeled downe upon his knees before all the Congregation 2. Chron 6.13 2. Chron. 7.3 and gave thanks unto God The children of Israel bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement and worshipped and praysed the Lord. â— Chron. 29.28 All the Congregation worshipped and the singers sang Luc. 17.16 And bowed themselves The Samarimne fell downe on his face at Iesus feete giving him thanks Revel 4.10 Ch. 5.8 Ch. 7.11 Ch. 11.16 Ch. 19.4 The foure and twentie Elders fall downe before the Throne singing prayse and Allelujahs unto him who sitteth on the Throne And never was there such an occasion of thanksgiving as is offered unto us in this Sacrament Now let us take all these considerations together That in the Sacrament are the signes of Gods presence That therin we worship God offer our service yea our selves unto him receive wonderfull benefites from him confesse our sinnes with poenitent hearts pray unto God for his grace and praise him for his wonderfull mercies And it will appeare that humility should be the maine affection of our soules It is Immility that praepares us to come to the Lords Table And humility must present us at his table Humility is required in all Christian actions but especially in receiving the holy Sacrament for at the Institution of that Sacrament Christ gave unto his disciples a lesson of humility by washing their feete And were it not strange If he would have us to expresse humility one towards another in the Sacrament and not also towards himselfe considering that he is represented unto us in this Sacrament as crucified for us And if ther should be humility of the soule why not also humiliation of the body Here I have alleadged many motives the least wherof were sufficient to perswade us to kneele though we were at our owne choyce what gesture to use in the receiving of the Sacrament But as the case stands ther is a necessity of kneeling if we will receive the Sacrament for the Church will not minister the same unto those who contumaciously despise her wholsome Orders And how can it stand with the peace of a mans conscience to spend and end his dayes without the comfort of the Sacrament Shall this be a good plea before the Tribunal of Christ at that great day Lord I did not ease at thy supper because I could not be permitted to receive it as I doe my ordinary meales Will not Christ answer them as Samnel to Saul Hath the Lord so great delight in civill fashions or gestures as in obeying the voyce and ordinance of the Lord We are commanded to eate and to drinke but ther is no Commandement for any gesture And will any man lose the substance for the Ceremony If he doe not only Gideons souldiers but even Abrahams camels shall condemne him Gen. 24.11 who kneeled downe for to drinke water And in the Sacrament is the water of life which some will rather never drinke then bow for it I beseech them to consider how to the disturbance of the Churches peace and great prejudice of their owne soule they contest about trifles Ther are other things wherein they may exercise their zeale Contending for the faith which was once given unto the saints striving to enter in at the strait gate to goe one before another in goodnesse fighting against the lusts which warre in their members beating downe the pride of their owne hearts and wrestling against principalities and powers This were a strife worthy of a Christian But as for Ceremony or no Ceremony kneeling or sitting a white garment or a black The kingdome of God consists not in these things Rom. 14.17 But in righteousnesse and peace and Ioy in the holy Ghost As many sayeth the Apostle as walke according to this rule Gal. 6.16 peace shall be upon them and mercy and upon the Israel of God And let us marke the rule even that Circumcision is nothing nor uncircumcision that is Ceremonie nor no Ceremonie But the substantiall a new creature Now The God of truth and peace open the eyes of them that are out of the way and restore peace to his disturbed Church that as there is one sheep heard so we may all become one sheâ—â—fold worshipping the only true God through his sonne Iesus Christ in the unity of the spirit and in the bond of peace AMEN ERRATA PAg. 36. in marg l. 4. contendi read contendendi p. 51. l. 24. this gesture read his p. 54. l. 29. he brake it read he blessed it p. 67. l. 6. in the Sacrament read in this p. 80. l. 7. Niddus reade Niddui p. 96. l. 21. far read fare p. 123. l. 9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and l. 34. were it not a strange reade were it not strange p. 133. l. 14. many forces read maine p. 144. l. 33. if ye should read if he c. p. 155. l. 11. est qui qui read est qui. p. 163. l. 24. to turne to the read to turne the. p. 173. l. 33. to Gods read to God p. 179. l. 25. would follow read will p. 182. l. 5. te read to
done this trespasse ver 31. I wish that our brethren who are offended at our kneeling and other Ceremonies upon an erroneous conceipt of Popery and superstition were as apt to be informed of the trueth and then perceiving the innocency of our Church which hath beene so often manifested and that she observeth these things onely to retaine a Communion with the Ancient Catholicke Church that it may appeare that she hath a part in that God whom they worshipped They would not persist to accuse her but with Phineas blesse God that she hath not done that trespasse And yet we have a better warrant for kneeling at the Communion and a more necessary use of it then the Reubenites â—â—ed for their Altar It being a uaturall gesture which God hath sanctified for his worship and which these men themselves use in other ordidances And here I would be beholding unto the brethren if they would shew me a true reason why it should be lawfull for them to kneele in prayer and not at the Communion which is a reall prayer and thanksgiving When that gesture hath beene Idolatrously abused by the Papists oftener in prayer then in receiving of the Sacrament a thousand times for one Can the Popish abuse of kneeling make it uncleane to us in one Ordinance and not also in another where it hath beene more defiled Let them wynd themselves out of this if they can I thought I had sufficiently taken away the first exception That kneeling at the Sacrament hath beene abused to Idolatry by shewing that all things so abused are not to be abolished albeit the inventions of man That kneeling is no invention of man And that our kneeling neither was nor is abused to Idolatry But perusing the Libell againe I find some Scripture alleadged by the Disputer to prove his assertion with as much fidelity as the devill did alleadge Scripture in the Gospell Yet I will stay to examine it The place is Deuter. XII 4. Yee shall not doe so unto the Lord your God and ver 30.31 From whence he labours to inferre that it is unlaw full to kneele at the Communion because in so doing Wee serve our God without warrant as Idolaters serve their God contrary to that Commandement Where this clause without warrant is inserted by him only to make way for an escape But he will find his passage stop't if he will be pleased but to observe what he may learne from what I have already said especially in my Sermon namely that in the word of God without relation to any Ecclesiasticall constitution there is as much warrant for kneeling at the Sacrament as for sitting standing or any other gesture and more for kneeling then for either of them the same being more sutable unto worshippers And that now the Church according to that liberty which God hath allowed her to determine such circumstances having ordayned that gesture we have not only a warrant but also a necessity laid upon us to observe it forasmuch as it is necessary to obey authority necessary to maintaine the Peace of the Church necessary to preserve the liberty of our ministeries necessary to receive the holy Sacrament And as the case stands unlesse wee kneele we disobey authority disturbe the Churches peace lose the liberty of our ministery and the comfort of the Sacrament Let us see then whether kneeling at the Sacrament come within the compasse of that prohibition ye shall not doe so unto the Lord your God namely as the nations did And certainely that precept concernes not kneeling for the nations bowed unto their gods yet must we bow unto the Lord our God for that Negative in the second Commandement Thou shalt not bow downe to them nor worship them includes an affirmative Thou shalt bow downe unto the Lord thy God and worship him Besides if we must not use any of these gestures which Idolaters have used in their idol-Idol-worship then we must not worship God at all for if you take away all gestures you must take away all the outward worship of God forasmuch as it is not possible for us to worship God but in some position of body And take away one gesture upon that ground that it hath beene used in Idol-worship Then take away all for all gestures have been abused by Idolaters in their Idol-worship and are common to them and us in our service of the true God They kneele so doe we They stand so doe we They sit so doe we And because the Disputer sayes A man cannot commit Idolatry sitting I shall desire him to consider what the Apostle speaketh of sitting at Table in the Idols temple I. Cor. VIII 10. and what he may reade in prophane writers how that sitting was commonly used at the sacrifices of Hercules Macrob Saturn lib. III. c. 16. But it is not heathenish Idolatry that offends these men but Popish that not so much in any other Ordinance as in this of the Sacrament Let them therefore know that all maine gestures have been applyed by the Papists unto their Sacrament of the Altar standing sitting kneeling The Priest stands the Pope sitts the people kneele Now shall it be unlawfull for us to use the gesture of the people and not also unlawfull to use the gesture of the Pope So that if that Commandement forbid one gesture used by Idolaters to be used in the service of God it forbids all and makes more strongly against them then against us But indeed neither that commandement nor any other in the Word of God can bee extended unto gestures or any other actions which are lawfull in themselves as shall easily appeare if we take a view of the places Deut. XII 2.3.4.5 Yee shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which yee shall possesse served their gods upon the high mountaines and upon the hills and under every greene tree And you shall everthrow their Altars and breake their pillars and burne their groves with fire and you shall hew downe the graven linages of their gods and destroy the names of them out of that place Ye shall not doe so unto the Lord your God But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there even unto his habitation shall yee seeke and thither thou shalt come And againe ver 30.31 Take heed to thy selfe that thou be not snared by following them after that they be destroyed before thee that thou enquire not after their gods saying how did these nations serue their gods even so will I doe likewise Thou shalt not doe so unto the Lord thy God for every abomination to the Lord which he hateth have they done unto their gods for even their sonnes and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods In which places foure things used by the Idolatrous nations are forbidden and made unlawfull unto Gods people I. Their Idols and Images of their gods which must be destroyed you
in worship that there be some constitutions about them otherwise if they be left arbitrary every Parish yea every Priest will have a fashion by himselfe as his humor leades him So there shal be Quot capita tot schismata saith Hierome And what will follow thereupon but infinite distraction confusion and disorder in the Church as I observed before out of Calvin S. §. 23. III. As Ceremonies are necessary for outward expression of Gods worship so if they be of good choyce as ours are they are of singular use for they tend to edification they nourish piety and are helpes and furtherances to Religion They informe the understanding as having a cleare signification of some duty required of us As for example imposition of hands in Ordination of Ministers Doth put the party ordayned say your owne Authors in minde of his separation to the worke of the Lord. Eccles discip fol. 51. And so all the Ceremonies of our Church serve to put us in minde of something fit to be observed As thrice dipping in Baptisme puts us in minde of the Trinitie and once of the Vnitie of the God-head so the blacke garment may admonish the Minister of gravity the white of puritie Againe they worke upon the heart stirring up in it affections sutable to the action in hand namely reverence devotion humility confidence attention As when we pray kneeling by the bending of the knee we expresse the bending of the heart and when we confesse our faith standing wee manifest boldnesse and resolution But especially they helpe the memory for as the eye is of all other the most apprehensive sense so things that are seene make the deepest inpression Words spoken are many times but as winde they goe in at one care and out at another and so vanish in the ayre and so the memory of them is not so durable as is the memory of visible signes which being not so common doe more strongly moove the fancy In a word Ceremonies serve to preserve religion as salt doth meate or the barke the tree or the leaves the budd Therefore are sacred actions cloathed with Ceremonies that the outward Majesty which they carry may procure unto them the greater reverence They distinguish publicke actions from private businesses and sometimes Christians from those that are aliens from the Church Therefore Epiphanius wryting against all heresies rehearseth all the Ceremonies of the Church as certaine markes whereby shee was then distinguished from other Sects The learned Schooleman Aquinas 1◠2ae q 103. Art 4. Con. calleth the Ceremonies of the Church Protestationes fidei protestations of our fayth Lib. IV. Instit c. X sect 27.29 And the judicious Calvin termeth them exercitia pietatis exercises of pietie and Nervi Ecclesiae the very nerves and sinewes of the Church without which it needs must bee dissolved In the next place sect 30 I will consider your owne practise and there I finde that you use Ceremonies almost as many as the Church injoynes and some of them of a very bad choice First Sitting at the Communion must be a Ceremonie if kneeling be for all gestures are of one kinde Yea you have made sitting a significant Ceremonie The authors of the admonition say See Whitgift p. 599. Sitting at the Communion signifieth rest that is a full finishing of the Ceremoniall Law and a perfect worke of redemption wrought that giveth rest for ever Others have given it a worse signification saying that it imports a Coheirship Communion fellowship equality with Christ And I pray you shall it bee lawfull for you to appoint a Ceremonie yea a significant Ceremonie in Gods worship And shall it not bee lawfull for the whole Church to doe the like But you will say that sitting is a Ceremonie of Christs Institution So some of your unworthy Authors have said that sitting is even a part of the Sacramentall signe Repl. partic to Bishop Morton p. 36. Wherein first you forsake your standard bearer Mr Cartwright could not finde it within the compasse of Christs Institution T. C. Reply p. 165. 166. for he saith It is not necessary that we should receive the Communion sitting And againe I admonish the reader that sitting at the Communion is not holden to be necessary II. You condemne all Churches that are or have beene as breakers of Christs institution and depravers of the Sacrament sitting never being allowed in any Church except amongst your selves not in France not in Geneva not amongst many of your owne brethren in England who receive the communion standing And lastly You doe shamefully abuse the world by pretending Christs institution when there is neyther commaundement nor example binding us to sit There is no commaundement for the using of any gesture Christ bids us in the institution eate Bread and drinke Wine in remembrance of his death but he bids us not receive these Elements sitting And St Paul who delivered unto the Corinthians whatsoever he received of the Lord touching this Sacrament hath delivered nothing touching sitting Neyther is there any gesture commaunded as necessary in any of the Sacraments either under the Law or under the Gospell But all of them left free And what gesture was used in Circumcision and in Baptisme no man can tell me And albeit God hath sometimes injoyned other gestures upon occasion to be used in some acts of his worship yet hee did never upon any occasion commaund the use of sitting in any part of his worship And as there is no precept so there is no example for sitting Here that it may appeare how vainely you doe pretend the example of Christ I will examine the grounds whereupon you build and make it evident both that Christ did not sit in the celebration of this Sacrament And also that albeit Christ had used sitting yet this gesture doth not bind us to imitation As to the former sect 31 I finde not in all the booke of God so much as a probability to induce men to thinke that Christ sate at the ministration of the Sacrament and on the other part I finde it most probable that he used another gesture and for your satisfaction I offer unto you these considerations which I beseech you to weigh in the scales of unpartiall Iudgement and God graunt you understanding in all things I. There is no mention in any of the Evangelists of the gesture Christ used in the Eucharisticall Supper wherein I cannot but reverence the good providence of God and wisedome of his Spirit which of set purpose hath omitted his gesture to shew that wee are not bound to follow it more then any other As God hid the body of Moses least the Iewes should abuse his grave unto Idolatrie So hath he concealed the gesture which hee used in the first Supper as foreseeing that you would make an Idol of it Possible and easie it was for the Evangelists to mention Christ's gesture as wel as in other services so many times in the Bible
large that the abuse of kneeling by others makes not that gesture uncleane unto us the same being a naturall gesture which God hath sanctified for his owne worship I will goe further and justifie that if a man were cast into Groanland where for diverse months he wanted the light of the sunne afterwards upon the first returne of the same it were not unlawfull for him to fall downe upon his knees praise God for the comfort of that light albeit the Sunne of all other things hath beene made the greatest Idol and is the same Individuall body which hath beene so abused III. If there be any force in that Argument or rather assertion it makes more strongly against the Sacrament it selfe then against kneeling in Gods worship for it was the bread which was made the Idol and not kneeling which being a naturall gesture alwayes was and ever will be common to true worshippers and false IV. It is a shamelesse calumnie in the Disputer to charge us thaâ— we kneele in reverence of the mysteries Lerit 19.30 We professe indeed to reverence them for there is reverence due to all holy things which for distinctions sake we call not worship but Veneration yet that is not the ground or cause of our kneeling but a consequent that issues from the gesture our kneeling 〈◊〉 directed unto God alone who vouchsafes to communicate himselfe unto us in these Elements yet out of that gesture directed to Gods reverence ariseth to the Elements we comming to God so reverently when we doe receive them 〈…〉 But to speake properly the veneration of the Elements stands not in speciall gestures directed unto them but only in comely and decent using of them V. Albeit we neither kneele to the Elements nor in reverence of them yet we worship God receiving the Sacrament with a religious respect unto the same as unto that which ministers unto us the present occasion of worship And that this is most lawfull may appeare by the common practise of Gods people in the like cases They did fall downe and worship God being occasioned thereunto by some such object either audible or visible sometimes when they heard his voyce Gen. 17.3 Matth. 17.6 Sometimes when they received a message from him Gen. 17.17 Exâ—d 4.31 Chap. 12.27 Sometimes when they saw some visible signe of his presence as the Clowdie Pillar Ex. d. 33.10 The glory of the Lord that is some excellency visible to the eye 2 Chron. 7 3. The Arke of the Covenant Iâ—sh 7.6 1. Kings 8 54. The Temple Ezra 10. 1. Psal 5.7.138 2. His holy â—ill Ps l. 99 9. His holy Oracle Psal 28 2. His footstoole Psa 99 5. Psal 132.7 The fire that came downe from heaven and consumed the sacrifices Levit. 9.24 2. Chron. 29 28 29. Micah 6 6. All these things were occasions of their worshipping and in worshipping they had a religious respect unto them so are the Elements in the Sacrament to us as being more lively testimonies of Gods presence then any of the former and therfor we have good cause to worship God with a religious respect unto them for as Athanasius sayes â—p ad Adelph Sirectè fecerunt Iudaei c. If the Iewes did well to adore the Lord where the Arke and Cherubims were shall we refuse to adore Christ where his body is presents shall we say Absisâ—e à corpâ—re or a Sacramento corporis ut te adoremus Keepe thee from the Sacrament if thou would be worshipped But that which misleades the brethren is they doe not distinguish betweene worshipping a creature De heat Sanct. â—b 1. â—ap 11. and worshipping before a creature Even as Bellarmine would prove that it is lawfull to worship a creature because we are called to worship God at or before his footstoole So would they prove that we unlawfully worship the Sacrament because we worship God at or before it But these two must be distinguished The former never was is nor can be lawfull But the latter namely to worship God in his owne Ordinance and so before a creature occasionally is not onely lawfull but sometimes necessary as the former instances doe sufficiently declare But here I know they will say They had a speciall warrant for what they did which we have not To let passe what I have manifested before in this discourse that we have warrant both by precept and president to kneele in any part of Gods worship and consequently in receiving of the blessed Sacrament I will desire them first to consider that if to worship before a creature were all one as to transferre adoration unto it as they understand the matter then no warrant could make it lawfull it is so necessarily repugnant unto the eternall Law that God could not command it for God cannot deny himselfe and he sayeth Isa 42.1 My glory I will not give unto another Againe there was no Commandement for Ioshuah and the Elders of Israel to fall downe before the Arke nor for any other before Davids time yet they did it as lawfully before as after no Commandement to worship before the Clowdie pillar nor before the glory of the Lord which came downe upon the house nor before the fire and the sacrifices no Commandement for the people to fall downe and worship when they heard the word of the Lord from Moses Aaron and Iehaziel So though we had no particular warrant yet were it lawfull for us to kneele at the Sacrament as it was for them upon these occasions I have now mentioned I will yet cleere the matter by other instances The Apostle speaking of a sinner convinced by prophecying sayeth That falling downe on his face I. Cor. 14.25 he will worship God and report that God is in them The ministers are the occasion of his worshipping and in the act of worshipping he hath a religious respect unto them who preach unto his conscience So that it is not unlawfull for a man even in hearing of the word when his affections are strongly moved to kneele downe and worship God And yet the hearing of the word is not properly and immediately a part of Gods worship as is the receiving of the Sacrament A minister being to be ordayned kneeles downe before the party who is to consecrate him and takes the booke of God in his hand yet he neither worships the Bisho nor the Bible But God in whose name he is ordayned and with a religious respect unto his ordination A Poenitentiarie who is to acknowledge his offence publickly and satisfie the congregation which he hath scandalized kneeles to God purposely before the minister and congregation and with a respect unto them namely that they may joyne with him in prayer forgive his offence and after his repentance receive him into their Communion When we present a child to Baptisme we kneele downe before the font and pray God to receive that child as a member of his Church with a religious respect unto thaâ— Ordinance In a