into the true Faith and that in the Unity of Gods Church For though the names of Hereticks and Schismaticks have been made only Bug-bears to fright children with in this time of our troubles yet so long as Christianity continues those that separate themselves from the Church upon pretenses concerning the substance of Faith shall be properly called Hereticks But if the cause concern not the substance of Christianity Schismaticks And therefore Christianity consisting not only in believing or purposing with the heart but also in professing with the mouth first sincerely then the true Faith lastly by being baptised he that professeth himself free to renounce his Christianity as farre as the mouth hath effectively renounced it Because he hath effectively drawn back that promise upon condition whereof he was baptized of professing Chistianity to the death And truly if every Christian State be the Church of God within the territories thereof then cannot all Churches concurr to make up that one visible Church of God which our Creed professeth For there is nothing more evidently true than the saying of Plato that all States are naturally enemies one to another especially those that are borderers And this enmity in our dayes consisteth visibly in those differences of Religion upon which the neighbor Soveraignties of Christendome are now at distance It is therefore no way imaginable how all Christian States should concur to make up that one visible Church whereinto by being Baptized we obtain the spirituall and eternall priviledges of Christians But that it is the profession of the whole Rule of Christianity that makes any people or State a part of the visible Church being governed by such rules in the exercise of Gods service as may make it the same Society with that which was once unquestionably Gods Church or part of it For otherwise how should the visible Church continue one and the same from the first to the second comming of our Lord And here you have the second point of our differences For all our Sects under the title of Gods free grace do maintain that the promises of the Gospell and our right in them depends not upon the truth of mens Christianity As if God were not free enough of his Grace if he should reserve himself a duty of being served as by Christians upon those whom he tenders life everlasting to upon such termes It is no new thing in England to hear of those who professe that God sees not nor can see any sinne in his elect So that in their opinion there is no mortall sinne but repentance because that must suppose that a man thought himself out of the State of grace by the sin whereof he repents I think I am duly informed of a Malefactor dying upon the Gallows that professed to the strengthening of his brethren that he had overcome all temptation to repentance acknowledging that since his being in Prison he had been strongly moved to repent And that one of Hackets three conspirators when he was come to himself continued to profess that he thought himself in the State of Gods grace all the while But I will go no further then the words which I have quoted in another place out of a Pamphlet written to satisfy the Godly party in Wales being offended at the late Usurpers proceedings which alledgeth that we are not to be judged at the last day either by our works or by our faith but by Gods everlasting purpose concerning each of us By virtue whereof Christ being alive at the heart the violation of all his ingagements to them by usurping over them as over others made no difference in his estate towards God Whosoever writ this I think I am duly informed that himself caused it to be published But I am certain that to the everlasting infamy of a Christian Nation if reparation be not made it is supposed to be the sense of all the Godly in it And to the same effect my memory assures me to have read in one of his speeches That there are at this day inspirations of Gods Spirit besides the Scriptures though not against the Scriptures Now certainly that which a man hath by virtue of the Scriptures that is of Christianity can by no means be understood to be besides the Scriptures And certainly he that presumeth upon any motion of Gods Spirit not supposing Christianity that is not supposing the Scriptures may by the same reason prefume of his own Salvation not supposing that he believes and lives as a Christian The same is the consequence of a Position I will not say injoyned by any party but notoriously allowed among us That justifying Faith consisteth in believing that a man is one of them that are predestinate whom God sent our Lord Christ to redeem and none else For how can he think himself obliged to make good the profession of a Christian who thinks himself assured of all that he can attain to by so doing not supposing it Indeed it may be said that our Antinomians and Enthusiasts and other Sects among us whom no conceit without this could have seduced to their several frenzies do think themselves justified from everlasting by Gods decree to send Christ for that purpose whereas this opinion dateth Justification from the instant that God revealeth the said decree by his spirit in which revelation they think that justifying Faith consisteth And certainly there can be no reason why God receiving men into grace only in consideration of Christs obedience should suspend their reconcilement upon that knowledge of his purpose which he giveth them by Faith For what can be more unreasonable than that God should justifie a man by revealing to him that he is justified But the opinion is not the less destructive to Christianity because it is the more unreasonable Now it is possible that the effect of this position may bestifled and become void in some by reason of other truths which contradict the same in deed and yet are believed by them not seeing the consequence of their own perswasions But those who besides this position do pertinaciously hold absolute predestination to glory those I maintain are in an errour destructive to Christianity that is in an Heresy And therefore this Doctrine being such it is no way enough that it is no way injoyned to be taught but it is requisite that it be disclaimed by those that pretend to recover the unity of a visible Church For there can be no Church where any thing destructive to Christianity which the being of the Church supposeth is notoriously allowed to be taught Novv betvveen these two points of our differences I am to observe a vast difference For this latter is necessary for all Christians to knovv as being the principle of all those actions vvhich being just for the matter of them must render the men acceptable to God in order to life everlasting And therefore he that thinketh he can be regenerate or justified or the child of God or indovved vvith Gods Spirit
became possessed of them scraped over their Altars being Tables of wood in detestation of them as Apostates persecutors while the Catholicks called them brethren and acknowledg'd them rightly baptized and received them that were converted from that Schism in their respective Orders The unity of the Church is of such consequence to the salvation of all Cristians that no excess on one side can cause the other to increase the distance but they shall be answerable for the souls that perish by the means of it And therefore not departing from the opinion which I have declared concerning the termes upon which all parties ought to reconcile themselves untill I shall have reason showed me why I should do it I shall now go no further then the matters that are actually questioned among us not extending my discourse to points that may perhaps more justly become questionable then some of those which have come into dispute Professing in the beginning that I believe they may and ought to be setled by a Law of the Kingdom obliging all parties beside Recusants But that the matter of that Law ought to be limited by the consent and Authority of the Church respective to this Kingdom And withall that I think it ought to be held and shall for mine own part hold it an act meerly ambulatory provisionall for the time For though there is no hope of reconcilement with the Church of Rome as thinges are yet is there infinite reason for all sides to abate of their particular pretensions for the recovering of so incomparable a benefit as the unity of the whole If ever it shall please God to make the parties appear disposed to it Now the errors which we are to shut out if â—e will recover the unity of a visible Church that is of Gods whole Church are two in my judgment First though some things have been disputed in other parts from whence the same consequence may be inferred yet England is the place and ours the times which first openly and downright have maintained that there is no such thing as a Church in the nature of one visible Communion founded by God But it is maintained by severall parties among us upon severall grounds For some do not or will not understand that there can be any Ecclesiasticall Power founded by that act of God which foundeth Christianity where there is Secular Power founded also by those acts of God whereby he authorizeth and inforceth all just Soveraignties Though all times all parts all Nations of Christendom since Constantine profess to maintain the Church in that Power in which they found it acknowledged by Christians when he first undertook to maintain that Christianity which he professed all this must be taken either for meer hypocrisy or meer nonsense Others there are that do not think themselves obliged to the unity of Gods Church upon farre different Principles There are of our Enthusiasts such as are themselves every one a Church to themselves and by themselves as being above Ordinances and the Communion of the Church provided only for proficients But all Independent Congregations make the same profession and are manifestly grounded upon the same For how can they imagine themselves members of one visible Church who profess that they cannot be obliged to hold communion with any Congregation but their own And yet with favour the same consequence insuing upon so different pretenses there must be some supposition common to both upon which both do ground themselves And it is easily visible what that is Both opinions must suppose that a man may be heir to Christs Kingdom and indowed with Gods Spirit without being or before he be a member of Gods Church And the Independents indeed do manifestly profess that knowing themselves and others to be Gods Children and indowed with his Spirit they are in a capacity to joyn in Ecclesiasticall Communion with those whom they know to be such So they become members of a Church being Gods Children before without considering how they shall be members of the Whole Church The others are satisfied that by being members of a State which professeth Christianity they are also members of that one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church which by our Creed we profess to believe A ground which holdeth accidentally so long as that State constituteth a visible member of the Whole or the Catholick Church But not imaginable to serve the turn when States differ in point of Christianity and may every day appeal to force whither is the true Church and whither the false For is it not manifest that the professions of the Lutheranes the Calvinists the Greekes the Abyssines are protected by Soveraign Powers as well as the profession of the Church of Rome or the Church of England Is it not manifest that the Powers that profess them maintain them respectively to be Gods truth Why then do we dispute any longer which is the true Religion and which is the false if it be enough for Christians to resolve all the doubt they can have concerning Religion into the command of their Soveraigns only professing Christianity Is it not manifest that Soveraigns do use to punish their Subjects that conform not to their Lawes concerning Religion but follow that Religion which is in force under other Soveraignties Is it possible to imagine that Subjects can be obliged by one and the same will of God to follow contrary Lawes under severall Soveraigns Or that Soveraigns can be inabled by one and the same Law of God to punish their Subjects for serving God according to contrary professions True it is Subjects that suffer in a good cause shall be gainers thereby gaining Heaven by their losses of this world But what shall become of the Soveraigns that persecute them being in a good cause Or how shall not some of them bepersecuted in a good cause who are persecuted in contrary causes I know not whither this peremtory difficulty was the cause But I am sure recourse hath been had to a more desperate answer that every Subject is bound to profess the Religion of his Soveraign yea though it injoin him to renounce Christ with his mouth remaining bound all the while to believe in him with his heart and that by this belief he shall be saved as a Christian Neither is this position tenable but upon this answer nor doth this answer import any less than the utter renouncing of Christianity I know that in the records of the ancient Church those who only professed to believe Christianity who were called Catechumeni or Scholars to the Church are sometimes called by the name of Christians But I know withall that they were never counted in the state of Salvation till they had taken upon them the profession of Christianity by being admitted to the Sacrament of Baptisme I know also that this Baptisme though it was not counted void when it was Ministred in due form yet it was never counted effectuall to Salvation but when a man is baptised
THE DUE WAY OF COMPOSING The differences on FOOT Preserving the CHURCH According to the opinion of HERBERT THORNDIKE LONDON Printed by A. Warren for John Martin James Allestry and Thomas Dicas at the Bell in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLX I Have found my self obliged by that horrible confusion in Religion which the late Warre had introduced to declare the utmost of mine opinion concerning the whole point of Religion upon which the Western Church stands divided into so many parties And now finding no cause to repent me of doing it can find no cause why I should not declare the consequence of it in setling of that which remains of our differences For middle waies to so good an end are now acceptable meerly as middle waies and tending to drive a bargain without pretending that they ought to be admitted How much more an expedient pretending necessity from reasons extant in publick and not contradicted The chief ground that I suppose here because I have proved it at large is the meaning of that Article of our Creed which professeth one Catholick Church For either it signifies nothing or it signifies that God hath founded one Visible Church That is that he hath obliged all Churches and all Christians of whom all Churches consist to hold visible communion with the whole Church in the visible offices of Gods publick service and therefore I am satisfied that the differences upon which we are divided cannot be justly setled upon any terms which any part of the whole Church shall have just cause to refuse as inconsistent with the unity of the whole Church For in that case we must needs become Schismaticks by setling our selves upon such Laws under which any Church may refuse to communicate with us because it is bound to communicate with the whole Church True it is that the foundation of the Church upon these terms will presuppose the intire profession of Christianity whether concerning Faith or manners For otherwise how should those offices in which all the Church is to communicate be counted the service of God according to Christianity And this profession is the condition upon the undergoing whereof all men by being baptized and made Christians are also admitted to communion with the Church as members of it But nothing can make it visible to the common reason of all men what communion they are to resort unto for their Salvation but the visible Communion of all parts of the Church which having been maintained for divers ages of the Church is now visibly interrupted by the Reformation and before by the breach between the Greek and Latin Church and therefore though it be visible to reason rightly informed what communion a man is to imbrace for his Salvation yet it is not now visible to the common reason of all men that seek it If this be true then no power of the Church can extend to farre as to make any thing a part of the common Christianity which was not so from the beginning but it must needs extend so farre as to limit and determine all matters in difference so as the preservation of Unity may require And therefore the Unity of all parts supposing the profession of Christianity whole and intire we shall justly be chargeable with the crime of Heresie if we admit them to our communion who openly disclaim the Faith of the whole Church or any part of it For those men have been and are justly counted Hereticks as to the Church that communicate with those who profess Heresie though no Hereticks as to God as not believing it themselves But the unity of all parts being subordinate and and of inferiour consideration to the Unity of the whole we shall justly be chargeable with the crime of Schisme if we seek unity within our selves by abrogating the Laws of the whole as not obliged to hold communion with it I confess I am convicted that as things stand we are not to expect any reason from the Church of Rome and those who hold communion with it in restoring the unity of the Church upon such Laws as shall render the means of Salvation visible to all that use them as they ought And this and only this I hold to be the due ground upon which we are inabled to provide an establishment of Unity in Religion among our selves as heretofore a Reformation in Religion for our selves without concurrence of the whole But if we should think our selves at large to conclude our selves without respect to the Faith and Laws of the whole Church we may easily bring upon our selves a just imputation of Hereticks for communicating with Hereticks but a juster of Schismaticks if we abrogate the Laws of the whole Church to obtain Unity among our selves as declaring thereby that we are not content to hold unity with the whole unless a part may give Law to the whole So farre am I from that madness which hath had a hand in all our miseries of thinking the right measure of Reformation to stand in going as far as it is possible from the Church of Rome For were it evidenced as it neither is nor ever will be evidenced that the Pope is Antichrist and all Papists by their profession Idolaters yet must we either rase the Article of one Catholick Church out of our Creed or confess that the Pope can neither be Antichrist nor the Papists Idolaters for or by any thing vvhich is common to them vvith the vvhole Church I knovv some vvill think it strange that the Pope should excommunicate us on Maundy-Thursdays that vve should svvear in the Oath of Supremacy that no forreign Prelate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction or Authority Ecclesiastical in this Kingdom and yet vve be subject to do such Acts for vvhich the Church of Rome may justly renounce communion vvith us But the vvord ought in that Oath is Indicative and not Potential not deberet but debet For it vvere a contradiction for the Church of England to pray for the Catholick Church and the unity thereof and yet renounce the Jurisdiction of the whole Church and the General Councile thereof over it self King James of excellent memory acknowledgeth the Pope to be Patriarch of the west that is Head of the general Council of the Western Churches And the right R. Father in God Thomas L. B. of Winchester under Q. Elizabeth in his answer to the Seminaries Apology being demanded why we own him not so in effect answereth bluntly but truely because he is not content with the right of a Patriarch For should he disclaim the pretence of dissolving the bond of Allegiance should he retire to the Priviledge of a Patriarch in seeing the Canons executed the schisme would lye at our door if we should refuse it Now if they curse us while we pray for the unity of the whole Church is it not the case of the Catholicks with the Donatists For these rebaptized them whom those had baptized whited over the inside of their Churches when they
not supposing that he undertakes and performs the profession of a Christian renounces the Article of his Creed concerning one baptisme to remission of sins But the being of Gods visible Church consisteth in that Unity which ariseth upon the agreement of all Christians to hold communion in the visible Offices of Gods service And therefore though it be an Article of our Creed to believe one Catholick Church yet can it not concern the Salvation of every particular Christian to understand the nature of that Society or Corporation which the bond of this Unity createth Nay even they who are best seen in that Government by which this Unity is preserved may well fail in comprehending the reason thereof by reflecting their discourse upon it In the mean time it is necessary for all that believe their Creed to think themselves tied by this Article to maintain the Unity of the Church according to their estate That is for every ones part not to be accessory to any Schism that dissolveth it And therefore to deny the crime of Schism is to deny this Article The consequence of this observation will be the difference which the Church hath reason to use in reconciling parties at distance from it to the unity thereof according to the difference of those pretenses upon which they are at distance For those who have only disputed against the being of the Church upon misunderstanding the right of secular Power which they think the being of the Church inconsistent with shall be sufficiently reunited to the Church by conforming to the Law by which the Church is and was and may be established For that there ought to be provision against such disputes for the future it concernes not me to give warning Only where willfullness hath proceeded so farre in maintaining a false position as to make no bones of denying Christianity and teaching Atheism by obliging to renounce Christ if the Soveraign command it it concerneth the Christianity of the Nation to see reparation made But where the Hereticall positions mentioned afore have notoriously been maintained especially where Congregations have been framed and used for the exercise of Religion upon pretense of them there will it be absolutely necessary that they be expressly renounced and disclaimed either by persons in particular or in Body by Congregations To this head I reduce all Anabaptists and Congregations of Anabaptists Those of the fift Monarchy and Congregations of the fifth Monarchy Quakers and Congregations of Quakers Nay all Independent Congregations in my opinion ought to be reduced under this measure Not only because their profession is grounded upon the denial of one visible Church But because they suppose themselves Children of God and indowed with his Spirit before they be members of Gods Church That is setting aside their Baptism and the Covenant which is solemnly inacted by it between God and each soul And though I do referre my self to the wisdom of Superiors in what form this reconciliation be solemnized yet I must express my opinion thus far that there can be none so fit as that which the wisdom of the Catholick Church from the beginning hath allwayes frequented By granting them the blessing of the Church with Imposition of hands renouncing for their part their severall Sects and errors That is by the prayers of the Church for the spirit of God to rest upon them who have barred their baptism to give it by opposing the peace of the Church which now they retire unto For how shall the unity of the Church be secured but by declaring them who violate the same accursed of God Nor let it be thought that our Sectaries of their own accord retiring themselves unto the Communion of this Church it will be requisite for the Church to admit them without taking notice of any thing that hath passed For neither is it to be presumed that they who have made their own wills their Law for so many yeares will so much as profess conformity to the Rule of the Church And if they did profess it there is no reason to think that they should stand to it having a dispensation dormant of the Spirit to stand to their profession as the interest of their faction shall require So their coming to Church would be only an advantage for them to infect others And how should that Communion be counted a Church which intertains Hereticks as Hereticks and Schismaticks as Schismaticks that is without renouncing positions destructive to the Faith without obliging themselves for the future to hold Unity with the Church Certainly there is no just answer for this if the Church of Rome should object it for the reason why they refuse to hold communion with us Certainly S. Augustine when he was charged by the Donatists that the Church received their Apostates without rebaptizing them and in their respective Orders could have had no answer if he had not had this That the Church received them not as Donatists but as converted from being Donatists they not refusing to profess so much Certainly it may be and perhaps is justifiable for the Secular power to grant them the exercise of their Religion in private places of their own providing under such moderate penalties as the disobeying of the Laws of a mans Countrey might require For persecution to death for that cause the whole Reformation condemneth in the Church of Rome And I conceive there is no reason for that which will not condemn persecution to banishment But this would require the like moderation to be extended to Recusants of the Church of Rome True it is in mine opinion those Papists that think themselves tied by the Bull of Pius V. against Queen Elizabeth or that they may be tied by the like Acts of his Successors against hers are justly lyable to the utmost of penalties as professed enemies to their Countrey But besides that it is manifest that all Papists are not of that opinion which the said Bull presupposeth The State may easier he secured of Papists against all such power in the Pope than of our Sectaries against that dispensation to their Allegiance which the pretense of Gods Spirit may import when they please And whereas it is manifest that many Papists hold against those equivocations and reservations which destroy all considence of the Soveraign in his Subjects allegiance How shall a State be secured against that infamous falsehood of the late Usurper in any man that pretends Gods Spirit upon his terms which I mentioned afore Besides the Recusants being for the most part of the good Families of the Nation will take it for a part of their Nobility freely to professe themselves in their Religion if they understand themselves whereas the Sectaries being people of mean quality for the most part cannot be presumed to stand upon their reputation so much So if they cannot be tolerated in the exercise of their Religion it must be provided upon what terms they may be received by the Church And by that which
that originally the indowment of the Diocese was the Patrimony of the Mother Church and afterwards appropriated to Parish Churches by abating the right of the Mother Church upon particular contracts appearing to be for the good of the parts For if the Mother Church have abated so much of her common right when it was for the good of the Parishes Is it not necessary that the Parishes now abate of their property in their respective indowments by Pensions to these Colleges now they appear to be for the good of the Diocese And this I am now bold to profess before the judgement of Superiors be declared because I am confident that by this position I abate not a hair of that Power which the Bishops in England now use But I adde much to the strictness of discipline that is in effect of Christianity by requiring all Ordinations all acts of Jurisdiction in foro exteriori to pass both the Presbyters and the Bishop in severall instances And further then this I extend not the opinion of a divine to particulars but leave the rest intire to the wisdom of superiors And this may serve to show that there is no cause why the difference on foot concerning the Government of the Church may not settle into a change conducing to the advancement of the common Christianity Which will hold till stronger in the other concerning the Service if men take their measures by the common interest of Christianity not by their particular prejudices For I conceive I may well suppose that the Sectaries pretense of praying by the Spirit is content to be buried in oblivion and silence considering that the excesses are evident and horrible which that pretense hath brought forth Besides that no man now stands to that dangerous position That the offices of Gods service are of no effect when they are ministred by such as are not in the state of grace For I presume it is not nor can be supposed on any hand that all whom the Church must imploy are indowed with Gods spirit that is are in the state of grace I suppose further as not questioned on any hand that the publick service of God is to consist of the praises of God by the Psalmes of David and other Hymnes of Gods Church of the reading of the Scriptures of the instruction of Gods people out of them in fine of the Prayers of the Church and in the chief place of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and those prayers which it is to be celebrated with Some of our Sects have been bold to pretend that the Psalter or Psalmes of David are impertinent to the Devotions of Christians as concerning the particular condition of David and composed whith regard to it Whereby they overthrow the foundation of Christianity standing upon this supposition that the old Testament is the figure ad shadow of the new and that Christ hath the key of the writings as well as of the house of David For seeing Christ and his mystical Body the Church are all one the meaning and intent of the Psalmes cannot concern Christ but it must end in his Church But seeing the Church is but shadowed in the Psalmes being part of the Old Testament I can expect no dispute of the necessity of other Hymnes composed under Christianity in the solemnizing of Gods publick service And seeing the question on foot concerns the setling of the form of Gods service by a Law of the Kingdom there can remain no dispute concerning the necessity of a setled Order in reading the Scriptures and using the Psalmes and Hymnes of the Church Nor do I know any man sincerely professing the Reformation that could not wish with all his heart that the whole order and form which shall be setled with the circumstance of the same might be according to the primitive simplicity and naked plainness of the ancient Church supposing the difference between the state in which the Church lived under persecution and now that being protected by the secular Power it receiveth all the World to take part in the service of God For what difference this will inferre in the Order and Rule of Gods service to be inacted by a Law of this Kingdom common reason and the perpetual practice of Gods Church together with the precedents recorded in Scripture must be admitted to Witness These things supposed no man doubts that the form of service now in force by the Law of this Land may be acknowledged capable of amendment without disparagement either to the wisdom of the Church that prescribed or of the Nation that inacted it For what positive Law of man is there that is not Nay what arrogance can it be in a particular person having bestowed more consideration upon it then it is possible that those who had the framing of it should have leisure to do to think that he knows some particulars in which it might be mended For neither doth it follow that it is better to indanger the spoyling of it by calling it in question than to let it rest as it is And that particular person whosoever he is that should think his own opinion necessary to be followed without com-promising it to the publick would justly incurre the mark of arrogance Since therefore that this is the time for such a debate if any change be pretended and that the reasons mentioned afore are of sufficient consideration to oblige all sides to prefer unity before prejudice what remains but that either it be left intire in that State wherein it stands or that nothing be changed without sufficient debate of reason upon the whole what is fit to be changed what not But one thing I must here expresly stand upon because the forme of Gods service which hath been usurped during the Schisme protesteth against the Law in force I acknowledge that the whole Reformation protesteth against the insufficience and defects of the Church of Rome in the course which it taketh for the instruction of Christian people in the duties of their Christianity against the abuses there practised in celebrating the Eucharist without any pretense of a Communion in private Masses and in serving God in a Language which the people understand not For these abuses are a principal part of the ground for that change which we justly maintain to be Reformation The boldness of those that opposed it being come to such a height as openly to maintain that it concerneth not Christian people to know or to mind what is done at the Mass being the ordinary service of God for which they come to Church or what is said But that the intention of the Priest is enough to apply the sacrifice of Christ to all that are present which they think it doth no less to them that are absent and therefore leave us unsatisfied why people should come to Church who need do nothing but say their Paters and their Aves These abuses I do acknowledge But be the World my witness and all that know
what hath passed for the matter of Religion in the World was it ever protested by those who demanded Reformation in the Church that the Eucharist cught to be celebrated but four times or twelve times in the year That by Gods Law there ought to be two Sermons every Sunday in every Church That other Festivals beside the Sunday and set times of fasting oughr not to be solemnized with the service of God That the Church doors ought not to be open but when there is preaching Take the primitive practice of the Church along with the Scripture and they shall tell you another tale that Prayer and the praises of God is the more principal end of Christian Assemblies than Preaching The reason is unanswerable For the one is the end the other the means That the celebration of the Eucharist is the most principal Office of Gods service under Christianity is no less evident For other Offices are common to Judaisme this consisting most in Prayers consists of those Prayers which are proper to Christianity that is to those causes wherein our Salvation consisteth And can there be question how frequent it ought to be Shall not the practice of the whole Church from the beginning decide the question if any remain The single life of the Clergie prevailed for this end that they might be alwaies ready to celebrate the Eucharist say the Fathers and the Canons which I alledged afore It is a question in Gennadius de dogmatibus Ecclesiasticis whither every man ought to communicate every day or not But therefore no question that it ought to be celebrated every day that who so would might communicate In conscience would they be bound to Preach every day that are so much for Preaching After the reading of the Scripture follows the Sermon and after that the Eucharist This is the primitive order of the whole Church at that solemne service when the Eucharist on Fasting-dayes in the Evening on other dayes before Noon was Celebrated After the Scriptures were read the people were taught their duty out of them A thing necessary and possible Not that every Curate should be bound to declame by the Glass But that he should be bound to instruct his Parish out of the Scriptures which are read If he be tied to Preach as often as the Church door opens the Church door must be shut because no sides can hold out so oft as Christians ought to meet for Gods service I call the World to witness Is it not as much a work of lungs and sides as an Office of Gods service which takes up the time of their Church Assemblies Is not the way opened by this means to declame of publick Government in Church and State to intertain the Hearers For alas should men confine themselves to that which the generality of their audience might edifie by in their Christianity the Trade would be obstructed For let me freely say the undoubted truth of the common Christianity which no Sermons ought to exceed because they pretend the edification of the generality of Christians is contained in so narrow a compass that no eloquence much less the eloquence of all that must come into the Pulpit can change the seasoning and serving of it so as to make it agreeable to mens palats without fetching in matter impertinent if not destructive to the common Christianity And the same is for more peremptory reason to be said of arbitrary Prayers For the very posture of him that pretendeth to prefer the devotions of Gods people to the Altar which is above strongly impresseth upon the hearts of simple Christians an opinion that thereby they discharge to God the duty which their creation and redemption requires at their hands Which if the matter of those Prayers be such as the common Christianity requires they may do indeed But if it be possible that Rebellion Slander Nonsense and Blasphemy may be the matter of them as well as Christianity then is it not Religion but Superstition which such devotions exercise Nor can that Kingdom stand excused to God which shall gratifie that licentiousness whereof they see the effect before their eyes All reason of Christianity concurres with the practice of the whole Church to witness that the interest of Christianity requires the service of God to be maintained and exercised daily yea hourly were it possible not only by particular Christians but by Assemblies of Christians so far as the business of the World will give leave and as there is means to maintain mens attendance upon it There may come abuse in the order the forme the matter of that which is tendred to God for his Service But instead of reforming those abuses to take away the means the Rule the obligation of such meetings is meer Sacriledge in destroying under pretense of Reforming his Church And though I charge no such designe upon those who maintain the obligation of the Sabbath to consist in two Sermons yet I do maintain it is manifest to common reason that the forme which that opinion introduceth necessarily tends to that effect Strange it is that a Nation capable of sens in an age improved by learning should be intangled with the superstition of so vain an imagination that God by the same fourth Commandment should oblige both Jews to keep the Saturday Christians the Sunday Especially no man daring to maintain that both were or are tied to the same measure of resting And therefore though rather than cross the stream of such a superstition For let no man think that all superstition can be shut out of Gods Church I am ready to conform to the Order that shall take place so far as the strength of my body shall inable me Yet provided that the Ecclesiastical Laws of England being the Laws of the whole Church be not abated so as to stick an evident mark of Schisme upon the Church of England For the Law that is recommending the celebration of the Eucharist upon all Sundayes and Festivals but commanding the service to be used as well on Festivals and Fasting dayes as upon Sundayes besides the week dayes at the publick Assemblies of respective Congregations To change this Order for two Sermons on the Sunday alone what is it but to renounce the whole Church for the love of those that have divided from the Church of England upon causes common to it with the whole Church They that would have the Reformation of the Church to be indeed that which the Law of the Land calleth it should first provide a course to be established for Law by which all Christian soules who have equal interest in the common Salvation might serve God in publick all Sundaies and Festivals For seeing there was a course in Law before the Reformation for all servants as well as others to be at Masse all Sundayes and Festivals And the Church was inabled to require account of it at their hands It will not be Reformation to abrogate the abuses of the Mass till a