of their Commission is this That God hath used Christ as a means to make peace between Him and the sinful World not by pardoning their sins whilst they remain in them but by admitting them to repentance by calling them and using admirable methods of mercy in revealing himself unto them which word of reconciliation is put into the Ministers hands that they may upon all needful occasions make known the means of grace and advise and perswade all who need it especially the sick and grieved in conscience to make use of it The Ministers imployment is to be as Negotiators for Christ to supply Christ's place on earth and to treat with Men after the same manner as Christ did when he was upon the Earth by calling them to repentance and beseeching them to reform their lives and make themselves capable of the return of God's favour to them 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. When the Minister hath done this and the sick party hath received some large measure of satisfaction from him then upon his serious and unfeigned repentance if it be desired he is to give him absolution saying I absolve thee c. But here we are to take notice that there are three opinions touching the Ministers absolution 1. That it is only optative and precarious So in the Absolution for the Communion-Office 2. That it is only declaratory pronouncing the Penitent absolved by applying God's promises to the signs of his contrition So in the Absolution at the beginning of the Service-Book 3. That it is Authoritative as deriving Power and Commission from God not only to declare the party absolved but to absolve him in words denoting the first Person so in this Office for the Visitation of the Sick not that the Minister can absolve any whom God absolves not or that any sick Person can receive any benefit of absolution but upon the condition of his sound and sincere repentance The power of absolution is 1. Absolute and original which belongs only to God Mark 2.8 2. Delegate and in the Charter of the Church belonging to the Ministers and them only Matth. 16.19 Matth. 18.18 John 29.23 Vid. Bishop Andrew's Serm. in Locum See the Form of Ordination of Priests Vid. Montag Appell Caesar cap. 35.36 Vid. Fisher Visitation of the Sick upon the Service-Book lib. 1. c. 16. Vid. Reeve B. D. his Christian Divinity out of the Service-Book cap. 63. Vid. Bishop Morton in his appeal pag. 270. Sacerdos utitur ipsissima Christi potestate in remittendis peccatis Bullinger in Diatrib pag. 267. Sacerdos absolvendo confitentem pronunciat absolutum non remittit peccatum Sacerdotes dimittunt ostendendo manifestando habent se ad modum demonstrantis non directe sed dispositive ea adhibent per quae Deus dimittit peccata dat gratiam Aliter Deus solvit vel ligat aliter ecclesia Vid. Montag appell Caesar cap. 36. Our Lord Jesus Christ c. Note This absolution is grounded on Matth. 16.19 Matth. 18.18 John 29.23 And here the Minister first prays to God to absolve before he absolves himself and what he doth he doth in the Name of the Trinity acts so far as he receives Power and Commission from the Trinity and no further Rubrick And then the Priest shall say the Collect following Let us Pray O most merciful God c. Note This is the Principle and chief Prayer in the Office every word grounded upon Scripture and therefore Let us pray is prefixed to make the Minister and People present more intent upon it and serious and fervent in it It is grounded upon many clear Texts of Scripture not only the Materials of it but the very phrase is taken out of the Scripture Jam. 5.14 15. Heb. 8.12 Psal 51. c. Rubrick Then shall the Minister say this Psalm Psal 71. Note This Psalm is a Prayer for deliverance in time of distress which happens to a Man in the latter end of his life and therefore very fitly is it made to bear a part in this Office Paraphrase Vers 1. Lord all my trust and confidence is in Thee I trust not in any secular aid but depend upon Thee only Let not my dependance on Thee be disappointed and frustrated Vers 2. Thou art the Patron of all who are in distress and hast promised relief to all who constantly wait on Thee for it Lord grant me a portion in this thy promised mercy and let thy faithfulness and mercy give me a seasonable deliverance at this time Vers 3. Be Thou my sure place of retreat to which I may resert in this time of danger and grant me the performance of that mercy which Thou hast promised to all who constantly depend upon thee for it Vers 4. Keep me out of the snares of the wicked and let not the enemy of Souls have any advantage over me nor approach to hurt me Vers 5. I have ever depended and relied upon Thee as thy Creature and peculiar Client Vers 6. I acknowledge it thy work of continual protection by which I have been supported every hour of my life and it is of thy primary gift that I ever had any being in the World for both which I am obliged continually to bless thy Name Vers 7. Some carnal Men may wonder to hear me talk of relief from Heaven who am brought so low in the eye of Man but yet I am not disheartned at this I know whom I trust and there is no security like my dependance upon Thee Vers 8. Therefore be pleased to send me relief that so I may be able to confute those vain Men and divulge to others the glorious advantages of thy service Vers 9. Reject me not O God now I am in the Wane of my Age feeble and destitute of strength for I have none to flie unto but Thee only Vers 10. and 11. Refute the obloquies of those who look upon me as a Person forsaken of God and confute their rash descants upon me by sending me a most gracious deliverance Vers 12. Arise speedily O God to my relief who have no other dependance but on Thee Vers 13. So shall those vain Persons be brought to shame by seeing themselves frustrate and disappointed Vers 14. What-ever they talk and discourse they shall not drive me from my fast and sure hold nor from proclaiming to all Men the exceeding goodness of that God on whom I wait The less reason they conceive I have so to do still the more will I magnifie thy greatness and profess my dependance on Thee Vers 15. My mouth shall number thy faithful and gracious dealings toward me though I know not the number of them I will spend my whole life in this task and when I have so done I will confess my self to fall far short of giving Thee thy due praises for thy goodness towards thy Servant is infinitely above the imperfect measures either of my valuation or expression Vers 16. What-ever I do or undertake shall not be in any confidence of my
that is a Romish error for all that Rome holds is 〈◊〉 â—oneous let them take the Common-pâ—â—â—â—â—â—ook and Book of xxxix Articles and the â—â—eed look no further for a confutation Truly I never had yet the confidence which some Men have to call the Pope Antichrist and the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon and yet the very same Men have fastned the same titles of disgrace upon the Bishops and Church of England but I could wish the Pope more l ke the Primitive Bishops and Rome more like her Primitive self that so that Church ours may both be reconciled upon such terms of reconciliatâ—on as is consistent with Christian rules and so upon their union it is to be hoped another party would be disappointed of their foul ends who are for the Church of Rome and England one while and and another while call them both Whores only to destroy both and to set up themselvs Farewel The a ORDER for the Burial of the DEAD Rubrick I. Here is to be noted that the Office ensuing is not to be used for any that die b unbaptized or b excommunicate or b have laid violent hands upon themselves II. The c Priest and Clerks méeting the Corps at the entrance of the Church-yard and going before it either into the Church or towards the Grave shall say or sing Annotat. a ALl Offices to be performed to Christians living or dead are to be done according to the custom of the Church which is the rule of decency and according to the order directions and appointment of our lawful Superiours 1 Cor. 14.40 b These Three are denied Christian Burial The First because they were never visibly received into the bosom of the Church for Baptism is Introitus in Ecclesiam The Second because for some notorious crimes they are by just censure cast out of the bosom of the Church The Third and last because guilty of so foul a crime which is directly contradictory to Christian profession yet ought we to judg charitably of the first especially when born of believing Parents and where there was rather the want than the contempt of Baptism The Second we leave to the mercies of God neither are they absolutely denied the external rites of decent Funeral when repentance for the faults of such offenders is before their deaâ—h signified to those who have power to receive them into the Church upon their repentance as they had power to cast them out in a legal way for their crimes But if they die in a state of impenitency then these and the last who in their life and death would be as Pagans are not judged fit to be as Christians in their Burial All that authority can do to such Persons is to put their Carkasses to shame and to deny them the honour of seemly Sepulture For it hath been the practice of very Heathens Aegyptians Athenians and others to deny Burial to those who were notoriously wicked and self-murderers Athenienses decreverunt ne si quis se interfecisset sepeliretur in agro Attico August de civitat dei lib. 1. This difference God himself made in Jezebel 2 King 9.36 The King of Babylon Isay 14.19 Jehojakim Jerem. 22.18 19. And the Church hath frequently done the same by this means if possible to keep others in good courses and to terrify them from committing those horrid acts which have rendred some uncapable of Christian Burial Those Grecian Virgins who feared not death were yet restrained with the fear of shame after Death It hath been a usual practice thus to lay open the faults of Persons notoriously criminal by putting them to exemplary punishments and denying them the solemnity of honest Sepulture So Eusebius calls it Splendidissima Sepultura lib. 7. c. 15. Corah who rebelled against Moses and Aaron died not the common death of Men nor was buried after the manner of Men but went down quick into the ground opening under him Numb 16.32 Baana and Rechab who rose up against their Lord had their quarters set upon Poles 2 Sam. 4.12 Bigthan and Thares were fairly hanged upon a Tree Esth. 2.22 So Absalom came to a strange end 2 Sam. 18.14 So Sheba 2 Sam. 20.22 All the punishments of Rebels and Traytors now in use are collected and drawn together from the several examples we meet with in the Book of God Now these exemplary punishments are inflicted upon some to terrifie many and vengeance is taken in such manner upon such sinners that the just Cum viderit vindictam Psal 58.10 may wash his Feet or Hands in the blood of the wicked And then do the just wash their Hands and Feet when by other Mens punishments they learn to amend their own lives And there is a necessity to make some Persons thus exemplary in their Deaths and Burials 1. For the punishment of the offence for sins not corrected are incouraged 2. For a vindication of the Laws and Authority against which the offence is For such a disrespect unpunish'd would in time breed a contempt of all Law and Authority 3. For a terrour to others that other Mens punishments may be our instruction As David intitles his Psalm wherein he reports Israel's punishments a Psalm to give instruction Psal 78. That Man is desperately a Fool whom other Mens harms cannot make wise The Fox was warned when he saw the tracks of other Beasts leading to the Lyons Den but none returning So the foot-steps of others may be a warning to us to fix us upon firmer and better Principles that we do not fall and perish as they did The Foot-steps of the fallen Angels may check us for our pride The ashes of Sodom admonish us of our filthiness Ex eorum cinere fiat nobis lixivium The Gibbet of Hamman be an allay to our ambition Achans heap of stones in the Vally of Achor give check to our Sacriledge And the fearful examples of Absalom Corah Zimry Sheba Judas and others antidote us against Sedition Rebellion and Treason Miror quorum facta imitamur eorum exitus nos non perhorrescere c By the Priest and Clerks we are to understand the chief Minister of the Congregation and his Assistants who are either Clerici or Ministerialis ordinis candidati These are for the more solemnity to meet the Corps or dead Body at the entrance of the Church-Yard which Church-Yard is the usual and accustomed place of Burial Vid. Mins Diction expressed in the Teutonick German and other Languages by such words which signify Gods Glebe-Land the Churches Orchard or Garden noting unto us that the dead Bodies are there sowne like Seeds in the Furrow of the Grave and shall ripen into a fruitful and joyful Harvest at the Resurrection They are sown in tears but shall be reaped in joy they are sown in dishonour shall be raised in glory sowne in weakness shall be raised in power 1 Cor. 15.43 As Trees and Plants in the Winter they are as dead for a time but shall bud and spring
Lord be thou pleased to give us this grace so to instruct us and convince us of the shortness of our lives that we may by this consideration be brought to pay that constant reverence and obedience which is due to Thee and wherein the true wisdom consists for there cannot be any greater folly imaginable than to provoke Thee by our sins and to run the adventure of being cut off by Thee in our sins Vers 13. And O Lord if it stand with thy good pleasure reverse the sentence of excision which is gone out against us let it suffice that thy wrath hath swept away so many of us vouchsafe at last to be pacified and reconciled with us Vers 14. We have lain very long under thy wrath delay not now to afford us the full streams of thy mercy which we have so long wanted and impatiently thirsted after that so for the remainder of our time we may have some matter of rejoycing after so much sadness Vers 15. May the days of our rejoyceing hold some proportion with the days of our mourning and let our comforts be answerable to our calamities Vers 16. Magnifie thy glorious work of grace and mercy which is properly thy work to us and our posterity Vers 17. Shew thy loving kindness and light of thy countenance towards us look in mercy upon us give us thy grace to direct us all our days and in all our ways work in us both to will and to do and then by thy good providence prosper our designs and undertakings Vid. Dr. Hammond Note Why Gloria Patri concludes this and the foregoing Psalms I have given my Reasons in another Book upon the Common-Prayer Rubrick Then shall follow the Lesson taken out of the Fiftéenth Chapter os the former Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians Paraphrase Note This Lesson indeed the whole Office sets forth the peculiar hope of the Church touching the Resurrection of the Dead Which is Primarium Evangelii caput The Predominant Article that presupposeth all the rest It is Nexus Articulorum Fidei The tying Knot upon which all other links of holy Faith depend By this hand Religion is held up by the head 1 Cor. 15. vers 20. ad finem Vers 20. All the hope of a Christian is not terminated with this life of his here on Earth for if it were so Christians would be the most unhappy Persons and the most proper objects of compassion in the World But blessed be God for it it is much otherwise for Christ is risen and he by raising himself raiseth all others with him as in the consecration of the first fruits the whole Harvest is also consecrate So that we Christians who are miserable here shall be rewarded hereafter for Christ's Resurrection is a most certain proof of ours As the Head must rise before the Members so the Members are sure to follow the Head Christus est typus Christianorum Christus resurgens non solum est auspex exemplar sed fide-jussor chirographum nostrae resurrectionis Vers 21. As one Man brought death into the World so another Man brought Resurrection into the World Vers 22. For as upon Adam's sin All who are partakers of his nature are concluded under the sentence of his death so all regenerate believers who are like to Christ and belong to him shall be raised to immortal life Vers 23. But yet with some distance of Time shall this be Christ the first fruits shall rise some time before and all regenerate Christians shall rise after Him at his last coming to Judgment Vers 24. And then at the Conclusion of this World and of the spiritual Kingdom of Christ in the Church here below he shall deliver up all his power exercised by Himself and his Commissioners into the hand of God his Father having first destroyed all earthly Dominions pronouncing sentence upon the mightiest as well as the meanest Men subduing all to his Power either by their conversion or their destruction Vers 25. For this was the promise which was made to Christ Psal 110. that his Spiritual Kingdom on Earth should last so long till God had brought all the World to be subject to Him Vers 26. The last Enemy to be subdued by him is death and that must be therefore subdued that Men may be raised again from death to life Vers 27. The evidence is clear that God will subdue all enemies and things without exception under Christ only God is excepted from being so subdued from whom Christ hath received this power Vers 28. And when all things shall thus be brought in subjection to Christ then shall Christ lay down that Office which til then he exerciseth and in which he is conspicuous in his Church And then shal God Father Son Holy Ghost fill all the Elect with endless Bliss and Glory Vers 29. Now if the dead rise not why do Men at their Baptism make profession of the belief of it for the Resurrection of the dead is one of the prime Articles of belief into which Christians are Baptized and to which Baptism refers as a significant emblem first of Christs then of our Resurrection from the Grave The putting in and taking out of the Water being a sign of descending into the state of the dead and ascending from thence To be a Baptized Christian and not to believe the Resurrection is a ridiculous thing an Hypocrisie which will never be answer'd to God or men Note These words of St. Paul which are plain and easie and rational enough in the sense before mentioned are by some diversly rendred and strangely too 1. Stapleton and others prove from hence a Purgatory Vid. Du Moulin in his Confutation of Purgatory pag. 268. 2. Thomas Aquinas by the dead understandeth sins which are dead works 3. Claudius Guiliandus understands it of Martyrdom for the Faith of the Resurrection 4. Some interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over the dead as if it had been the manner of some to Baptize over the Graves of the dead to cherish their hope of the Resurrection but this custome is no where read of 5. Others think it may allude to an ancient custome of the faithful Jews who to strengthen their hopes of a Resurrection used to wash the Bodies of their dead and then embalm them before they buried them 6. Calvin following Epiphanius interprets it to refer to the custome of such Conveâ—ts in Religion who neglected Baptism til their death approached 7. Franciscus Junius interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not super but insuper as if the Apostle had said why is Baptisme still continued in the Church for the comfort of the Living as it was found of comfortable use to those who are now dead if the dead rise not 8. St. Ambrose understands it of a Sacramental washing applied unto some living Man in the name and behalf of his Friend dying without Baptism 9. Du Moulin applies it to the manner of Baptisme used By plunging the Body in Water to
Tertullian is very plain and full Vid. Melanct. in Evangel domin in loc commun And Mr. Calvin is very express That Christ alone is enter'd into the Sanctuary of Heaven and that he presents unto God the Prayers of the People who remain in a remoter Court till the end of the World Instit lib. 3. c. 20. Sect. 20. lib. 3. cap. 25. sect 6. in Luc. cap. 16. vers 22. vid. Marlorat vid. Calvin lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Pet. 3.19 2 Pet. 2.4 Luc. 23.43 Mat. 8. Genes 5. de raptu Enochi Job 14. Philip. 1.6 2 Cor. 5.1 2 Cor. 12.13 Instit lib. 4. cap. 4. sect 12. in Catechism In all which places he will not define or determine any thing in terminis only holds as we do that they are in bliss but shall not have their perfect consummation and bliss till the Resurrection and Day of Doom The Collect. O merciful God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life in whom whosoever believeth shall live though he die and whosoever liveth and believeth in him shall not die eternally Joh. 11.25 26. who also hath taught us by his holy Apostle St. Paul not to be sorry as Men without hope for them that sleep in him 1 Thes 4.13 14. We meekly beseech Thee O Father to raise us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness Rom. 6.3 4. 1 Cor. 15.34 That when we shall depart this life we may rest in him as our hope is this our _____ doth and that at the general Resurrection in the last day we may be found acceptable in thy sight and receive that blessing which thy well beloved Son shall then pronounce to all that love and fear Thee saying Come ye blessed Children of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the World Mat. 25.34 Grant this we beseech thee O merciful Father through Jesus Christ our Mediator and Redeemer Amen Note This Collect sums up all the remarkableness of the Burial Office in a short devout prayer and brings all home in pious application Herein we declare our hope concerning all who depart this life in the bosom of the Church for so long as we are in the bosome of the Church we are in the state of pardon however if we are sometimes mistaken in our hope as to particulars yet it is ever a testimony of our charity It is Error amoris in case it happen at any time to be an errour 2 Cor. 13.14 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all ever more Amen Viz. The charity of God the Son the love of God the Father and the bounty or liberal effusion of the graces of God's Holy Spirit be in us with us and upon us now and ever Amen POSTSCRIPT Christian Reader IN the first place I am to desire thee to have so much charity for our reviving Mother the Church of England as not to think her any way addicted to an affected singularity in her prescribed Office for the Burial of her dying Children for as in her other Offices so in this she holds exact conformity with her other Sisters the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas so far as they may be permitted to hold conformity with her Vid. Mr. Durel Touching the conformity of other reformed Churches with the Reformed Church of England pag. 34. sect 38. pag. 48. sect 60. Besides take notice of the words of the most judicious Hooker Take away saith he these prayers praises and holy Lessons which were ordained at Burials to shew the peculiar hope of the Church touching the Resurrection of the dead and in the manner of the dumb Funerals what one thing is there whereby the World may perceive that we are Christians Hook Eccles Pol. lib. 5. sect 75. Some few Rites more I shall add observed at Funerals together with their Reasons annexed only to give satisfaction to those better sort of weak Christians who quarrel at their use more out of tenderness of conscience than out of turbulency or any contentious spirit as for such who are contentiously given who are ill-willers to Sion who are enemies to the peace of the Church who delight in nothing but dreadful confusions and make it a great part of their Religion to quarrel the ancient practises of the Church and just Orders of Superiours I leave them to the severest execution of the Laws of the Land and the power of those who are invested with Jurisdiction to punish them as schismatical and seditious Persons and as the nature of their offence shall deserve and truly I think Superiours may be blamed for their indulgence in such cases as well as for their severity Our Church will never be at peace and our State never at quiet from the working of some Mens spirits and intemperate zeal Si vitiis Principum irasci liceat insidiari bonitati But enough of this I proceed now to speak of the few other Rites rather practised at Funerals than by Law or Canon prescribed and to account for them with what brevity and perspicuity I can 1. The ringing of the Passing-bel or Soul-bell as we call it is not intended to help the passage of the Soul when departed out of the Body but only to stir up devout Christians to pray for its happy passage out of its Body and to move those who are living to make reflexions upon their own mortality and seriously to consider of their later end This Bell is like St. Paul's Trumpet 1 Cor. 14.8 which gives such a certain sound that all within the hearing of it may prepare themselves to the Battel which is to be fought in the Field of Death 2. It was an ancient custom and is still practised to bury the Dead with their Faces turning towards the East to shew that they were as sure of an uprise as the Sun that comes forth of his Eastern Chamber and that they lie waiting for that Sun of Righteousness Malach. 4.2 who shall at the last day return with his healing Wings and quicken and revive all the dead Bodies of his Servants by his healing and life-giving influence when he comes with his Prodi Lazare or Surge qui dormis then the Graves shall set open their Marble Doors and restore their deposita When the Arch-Angel shall sound the Trump of Collection then the scattered bones of Gods Saints shall be gathered together with sinews and those sinews incorporated with flesh and that flesh covered over with skin all mortality being purged away and by a new 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Pythagoras never dreamed of the same Soul shall re-enter the same Body These and the like Ceremonies the Church hath practised in her Funerals to be as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so many significant emblems to strengthen and confirm her living Children in the hopes of a joyful resurrection 3. It was an
well be for we who live in this age cannot be ignorant how many good Laws have been made for the correcting of vice and how few executed either we love vice so well that we will not or we have indulged it so much that we dare not bring it to open Penance But God who was neither pleased with it nor afraid of it did for when Adam the first of Man-kind and King of the whole World under God had transgressed his positive Law and committed a great sin in breaking an easie Commandement he brought him to his confession his open and full confession though he came unwillingly to it and used many evasions and equivocations which the Tempter taught him to use who first taught him to sin he gave him an Ash-Wednesday Lecture for the Ceremony of Ashes from whence this Day derives the name came from his Pulvis es Dust thou art Gen. 3.19 and he put him to his Penance In moerore in sudore In sorrow shalt thou eat and in sweat He who abused his indulged innocent pleasures should live with afflictions thorns and thistles Gen. 3.17 18 19. The promised Seed gave him hopes of pardon Gen. 3.15 but he must pass this Penance first and that he might pass it he must quit his Paradise be driven for a time from the presence of the Lord. So He drove out the Man c. This was the first great Specimen of Church Discipline it is Primitive and ancient enough as ancient as the Church it self and it is authentick and authoritative enough for God himself was the author of it and it was practised in the Church before the Law till sin was so imperious that nothing could reform it but a Deluge and under the Law till wickedness was so predominant that nothing could quell its power but a Babylonian captivity in the time of the Messias till Vice was so prevalent amongst the Jews that nothing could check the rage of it till the Roman Eagles fell upon Jerusalem like Birds of Prey upon a Carkass and in the Christian Churches of the Apostles planting till sin was grown so much in defiance of the light that God was pleased not only in Justice but in Mercy too to withdraw the Candlestick and in all Churches of the Christian World was this Christian Discipline used this godly Discipline and where it was most used there Christianity most flourished till corruption had gotten the start of Christianity and Christianity and Covetousness or something worse had made a match But now it is every where either too much abased or else almost totally abandoned so that it is no wonder Christians in name should be worse than Heathens in manners when the Christian Church is without Discipline when the Tares and the Wheat the Goats and the Sheep the Chaff and the good Corn the Dross and the Gold the Unclean and the Clean the Vile and the Precious must all promiscuously make up one communion in the participation of most holy things and no Judicial Discipline is used to make so much as a tolerable separation so that in the Church Militant here on Earth sin is only the Triumphant part But in Heaven where no unclean thing shall ever enter it shall not be so For flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither corruption inherit incorruption 1 Cor. 15.50 God hath here in the History of the first original of all our humane race opened to us this great truth wherein there is a History as well as a Mystery what is spoken of Adam and Paradise of Adam placed in Paradise whilst he remained innocent and of Adam brought to confession penance and removed out of Paradise when he became notoriously criminal is historical but it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of a type and ensample in respect of us and so is mystical shewing that all notorious criminals who live in the bosom and bowels of the Christian Church and are a reproach to the Christian name and a scandal to Christian profession are to be removed are to be brought to their confession penance and to remain sometime separate from the community of Christians whose holy Laws and Lives they will not conform to This was God's Law and this was Gods practice but as godly as we pretend our selves to be I do not see that we transcribe God's Copy and draw his practise into imitation We suffer many scandals in the Church seek no removing of them suffer Vice to be accounted Vertue and Vertue to be accounted criminal and seek no redressing of it Adam innocent and Adam a transgressor is all one to us he shall remain in Paradise though the curse of briars and thorns grow up and remain with him he may eat of the tree of sin and when he hath done so come without any controul to the Tree of Life if it was possible without doing his penance so little do we regard who comes or what is done in the Church which is the Paradise of God Church Officers are much to be blamed as to this particular who do not duly and truly present such Criminals But God would not have it so would not suffer it to be so For He drove out the Man c. That I may give you an exact model of the godly Discipline which the Primitive Christian Church used at the beginning of Lent or much about this time of the Year I shall take my Scheme from this first pattern of it set by God himself in his severe dealings with lapsed Adam 1. Adam so long as he kept his integrity remained innocent and had done nothing notoriously criminal to deface that divine and glorious Image which God his Maker had stamped upon him had all Paradise at his command he might freely take the fruition of God's Creation and enjoy his Creator in a happy and a contemplative life Thus he was In statu instituto in his first and innocent estate but when he became a delinquent and a Transgressor and stood convicted of a notorious sin against his Maker when the Serpent in subtilty had beguiled Eve and Eve in simplicity had deceived Adam and under the specious pretence of being like unto God and wise in knowing good and evil he made himself a sinner against God lost that wisdom which he had by refusing the good and choosing the evil then God took a severe course with him to humble him for his pride and to mortify him for his presumption Paradise the Garden of his pleasure was turned into a place of his penance and punishment and he lost the liberty of those fruitions which he had made a forfeiture of by a too great licentiousness God put upon him his Penance Robes cloathed him in skins the badges of his sin and the covers of his shame Gen. 3.21 So in imitation of this practise of God the Church in the Primitive times did deal with her criminals such as apostatized from Christianity in times of Persecution or such as
our debauched souls with thy grace extirpate sin that grace may be implanted break the power of sin in us bruise Satan under our feet and set up the Throne and Scepter of Jesus Christ in our hearts bring down every exalting thought and proud imagination in us to the obedience of Christ translate us out of the kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of thy dear Son Let not Sin nor Satan reign in us but let thy Son reign in us by the Scepter of his Holy Spirit May thy Kingdom of Grace come to us that we may come to thy Kingdom of Glory 3 Petit. And O Lord we desire Thee to cloath our Souls with those Divine affections that we may love the same love choose the same objects and delight in unions and holy conformities with Thee Lord so incline our hearts and affections that we may make thy providence which is the guide of the World the measure of our desires that we may be patient in all accidents and conform to thy will both in doing and in suffering that we may submit to all changes even to persecutions for thy Holy Name Make us to do thy will in the manner of Angelical obedience promptly readily cheerfully and with all our faculties as the Angels in Heaven serve Thee with concord harmony and peace so may we joyntly serve Thee here on Earth with peace and purity and love unfeigned That we may have nothing in us that may displease Thee but that quitting all our own desires and pretensions we may live in all Angelical conformity Make our Souls subject to Thee and our passions to our Souls that thy will may be done by us here on Earth as it is done by the Holy Angels in Heaven 4 Petit. And O Lord we pray Thee to give us all that is necessary for the support of our lives that portion of bread which is Day by Day needful for us we pray Thee for the poor who want it and have it not but as it is deposited in thy hand Let thy mercy O Lord ploughing the Fields of Heaven bring them in their Meat in due season we pray Thee for the rich who have it and yet may stand in need of thy blessing with it From the highest to the lowest we all wait upon Thee that thou would'st be pleased to feed us with food convenient for us We beg but for a Day that we may always have our dependance on Thee to minister to us as we need it 5 Petit. And seeing every sin entertained with a free choice and a full understanding is an obstruction to our Prayers keeping our Prayers from Thee and thy blessings from us as sinful delinquents and penitent Servants we desire Thee to pardon and forgive us all our sins not only our sins of infirmity invasion and sudden surprize which through natural weakness may adhere to most of our best actions but also our sins of a deeper dye our sins of wilfulness and wickedness Pardon O Lord what is past in thy mercy and keep us from such presumptuous sins and all other for the time to come by thy grace And when we ask forgiveness of Thee incline our hearts to discharge the obligation which thy condition of pardon hath laid upon us in forgiving one another May the indearing mercy of Thee our Father lay an engagement upon our Souls not to contrive the least revenge or entertain the least malice against our erring brethren and follow Christians who have in the least been injurious to us we implore thy mercy to forgive our grand trespasses which are talents and we beg thy grace that we may forgive petty injuries done to us which are but pence 6 Petit. And seeing O Lord we are in this World hemm'd about with many dangers and lie exposed to many afflictions as Persons placed in the midst of dangers we make our addresses to Thee the only great and most gracious deliverer humbly beseeching Thee to guard and defend us from all adversities which may happen to the Body and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the Soul Lord suffer us not to be led into temptation but if through frailty and weakness we fall into any gross sin give us the grace of repentance to rise again and work in us such a detestation of sin for the time to come that we may stand the firmer after our fall may the fear of falling with thy supporting grace be for ever after the best tenure of our standing 7 Petit. Deliver us O Lord from the evil of sin by thy grace from the evil of punishment by thy mercy From our selves O Lord deliver us from the allurements of the flesh from the temptations of the World from the suggestions of the Devil From evil men from the Men of this World from all their plots plausible snares terrible threats violent and rude armes may their power only prevail to exercise our patience but not to subvert our faith or destroy our confidence in Thee Shelter us under the covert of thy Wings against all fraud and every violence that no temptation may destroy our hopes weaken our strength alter our state or overthrow our glories this we beg for our selves for thy whole Church hear them we pray Thee for us hear us for them and thy Son Jesus Christ for us all Doxology To whom with Thee and the Holy Spirit be ascribed all honour power and glory for thine One God in Essence distinguished in Personality is the Kingdom Power and Glory now and for ever Amen So it is Lord so be it Minister O Lord save thy Servants c. Note These short Ejaculatory Prayers by way of Response for which the reason is already given in my first essay upon the Service-Book are so grave so clearly Scriptural that they are delivered in the very Scripture phrase so that I look upon it as a very needless task to put my self to any further trouble about the recommending of them to the vulgar I know rational Men are able to give a right judgment upon rational things and to acquiesce and truly for the inferiour sort of People whom I have no small value for they costing Christ as dear as the most Potent in Superiority I advise them to trust the judgment of the Church in the ordering of these external things which are not contrariant to the Word of God and assure them withall that their obedience in such matters is better than Sacrifice or any exteriour act of Religion performed meerly in a customary manner and for fashion-sake as I fear too many are guilty of Minister Let us pray Note The reason for this I have given already it is only when we are turning our selves as it were to any special part of devotion required in any special and distinct Office to be intent upon it and to make it our Hoc age O Lord we beseech thee mercifully c. O most mighty God c. Note These are for the substance Scriptur'd
nature of the things themselves but the just Laws of lawful Superiours make necessary indeed neither are to be Judg one of another in such things but Christ is to be the Judg of all being sent by his Father and commissionated to that Office Vers 11. As it was long before predicted Isay 45.23 which Prediction was to have its completion in Christ incarnate Phil. 2.9 10 11. who is constituted the one Supreme Judg of all to whose Judicature every one must submit and give account for his own actions Therefore it is very unreasonable that one private Christian should judg another and reject one another from Communion for this belongs only to Christ and those Governours of his Church who are his delegates and are endowed with the power of the Keys and Censures Vers 12. Therefore let this fault be mended by you that are fellow-Christians do not any longer censure and separate from one anothers communion for such indifferent and circumstantial things as these are only be careful not to scandalize the weaker Christians by putting stumbling blocks in their way to hinder their coming clear over to Christianity cast no gall-traps in the way of weak Judaizing Christians to wound their Consciences and to cause them to fall back from Christianity which they will be in danger to do when they see those liberties used among Christians which they deem utterly unlawful Vers 14. I am confident and make no question but that by the coming of Christ the Mosaical difference of Meats is taken away and all Meats are lawful in themselves to be eaten by Christians but yet the same Meats are unlawful to those who are so perswaded in their conscience and have not yet attained to the right understanding of their Christian liberty Vers 15. But if thou who understandest thy liberty dost for a matter of this nature despise and cast off thy Fellow-Christian who understands it not and by so doing dost discourage him from going on in Christianity Surely thou walkest contrary to the rule of Christian charity which is to draw all to piety and to drive none away and this will be a great fault in thee for so light a thing as this to drive him from Christianity and so destroy him for the saving of whom Christ was content to lay down his Life Vers 16. Ye may use your Christian liberty but ye do not well if ye so use it as to make it tend to an others hurt for that will be the defaming of that which is in it self indifferent or innocent Vers 17. Christianity consists not in such external matters when left indifferent in their use as they are in their nature and not commanded by lawful Superiors for decency and order but in the practise of Christian vertues such as â—bedience to the Laws of Superiours iâ— things not sinful mercy peace delight to do one another good to build up one another in piety not dividing and hating and excommunicating one another Vers 18. All these are acts of obedience to Christ that are sure to be accepted by God and to be of good report among all good men Vers 19. Therefore let us most zealously attend to these things which may thus preserve peace between all sorts of Christians though of different perswasions and which tend to the drawing Men to Christianity not driving them from it Vers 20. Let not so inconsiderable â—aâ—ters as these external things wherein no Man who is instructed in his Christian liberty places any Religion further than obedience to the just Laws of lawful Superiours disturb that peace and unity which ought to be among Believers though of different perswasions about indifferent things For a Man may eat any thing simply consider'd but if by so doing he aliens others from the Gospel by despising and avoiding them who dare not do so this is a sin in him Vers 21. It is not charitable to make use of any part of Christian liberty when by thy so doing another Man is deterred from the Christian faith and by some unhappy occasion of thy misused liberty is so galled and wounded in his Conscience as that he cannot with any inward comfort or satisfaction go on in the discharge of his Christian duty Vers 22. If thou hast a clear understanding of thy Christian liberty it is well for thee but use it betwixt God and thy self not always before Men when it may be in danger to hurt them and when it is not necessary to reveal thy practâ—se in such matters yet when commanded by lawful Authority things indifferent in their nature become necessary in their use He is a happy Man who when he knows a thing lawful doth so manage the practise of it that he hath therein no reason to accuse or condemn hmself Vers 23. But there is no reason that the scrupulous Christian should be evil intreated by thee for not daring to do as thou dost when he thinks himself in conscience otherwise obliged for it would be a damning sin in him to do what his conscience tells him is an unlawful action For whoever does any thing though the thing be in it self lawful which is in his perswasion sinful and unlawful he certainly sins in so doing Rom. 15. Vers 1. The more instructed Christians who rightly understand the nature and extent of their Christian liberty ought to help and relieve those who do not understand it and to be watchful to keep them from falling into sin not to please themselves too much by presumeing upon their own strength and knowledg so as to neglect and despise others who have not so much Vers 2. We should all of us rather do what good we can towards the edification of other Men. Vers 3. Herein following the most imitable Example of our Saviour who did not so much consider the pleasing of himself as to do what was of publick concernment reckoning all that befell his Father to fall upon him and being as tender of God's honour as of his own 1 Cor. 8. Vers 1. We who are Orthodox Christians have that knowledg of our Christian liberty and therefore ought not to be despised by those who in pride of heart separate themselves from us that together with our knowledge we hold charity and the love of God which inclines us to suffer any thing for Christ's sake so that an Idol-feast is no trouble to our Consciences for we need not to come at them to save us from persecution a little of this courage and love of Christ is much better than all the pretended deep knowledge of those who choose to comply with any Religion which their own Conscience tells them is false rather than confess and suffer for Christ and that Religion which their own Conscience tells them is the only true Religion Vers 2. Therefore if Men please themselves with an Opinion of knowledg from such subtilties as these and so come to despise other Men and not consider what tends to their good and edification they are
Law of Moses but not from any Christian rules left us by Christ and his Apostles We must not use our liberty for a cloak of maliciousness 1 Pet. 2.16 nor pretend it to destroy Christian duty Christ hath freed us from many yokes but not from that of subjection to God and lawful Superiors I desire as the Apostle speaks that our moderation and meekness may be made known unto all Men. Philip. 4.5 Yet we must not be so moderate to Men as to be cruel and injurious to God whatever the Law of Christ forbids may not be tolerated any thing in its own nature besides is tolerable enough there is nothing intolerable but sin and for Magistrates to tolerate that who have a power to restrain it is to make themselves guilty of the commission of it To deny the true God and set up a false is intolerable it is against the first Commandement To worship God after our own wills and not according to Gods will is intolerable it is against the Second To take God's Name in vain in words or works in words to swear for him in works to swerve from him to pretend for Him in words and practise against him in works is intolerable it is against the Third To make all things common and nothing sacred is intolerable against the Fourth To destroy order and bring in confusion to cry down Magistracy and Ministry to bring in a parity where God would have a superiority to impower the Servant against the Master the Child against the Parent the Subject against the Soveraign and so make one Mans will a Law to take away another Man's life is very intolerable and a breach of the Fifth Commandement This is the Commandement we have most a spite aâ— but it is the commandment which pâ—eserves us all and in the well keeping of it consists upon the matter the well observance of all the rest To give another Man power to take away my life to defile the Matrimonial Bed to injure a Man in his goods or good name to have a will to do it when he cannot and actually to do it whenever he can are all intolerable and breaches of the other Commandements If such things as these may be tolerated nothing is intolerable nay nothing but will be intolerable though tolerated for I think it as intolerable to live where all things are tolerated as where nothing is No Man who hath any Religion at all can pretend a Toleration for these things which are against all Religion and all Reason too Now because the Laws of God have so little influence upon Mens lives unless there be Custodes utriusque tabulae in the Church to see that both Tables be kept that of Religion and that other of Justice Therefore God hath invested Magistrates with a power and authority and lest many Precepts to command our obedience and subjection to them for to make other humane Laws to press on the observance of God's Laws and that Gods Law of Religion may be observ'd in the best manner the Church hath framed up Liturgies instituted decent Rites and Ceremonies all according to Apostolick Rules 1 Tim. 2.1 2. 1 Cor. 14.40 and if Men may be indulged a liberty to be exempt from humane Laws which are as the Ark wherein Religion is preserved God's Laws will in time be of very little regard among us Thus have I good Reader only to give some People satisfaction if possible taken upon me this task upon the Common-Prayer-Book to work People into a better esteem of it and that they may without any scruple of Conscience conform to it Farewell FINIS