bottome of their hearts and with cheerefull mindes praysing and giving thankes they worshipped God the Author of all their good Saint Augustine at the like solemnity hath these words Consecrationem altaris hodie Celebramus fratres Serm. 255. custè ac merito celebramus festivitatem in qua unctus esse lapis in quo nobis divina Sacrificia consecrantur i. We this day brethren celebrate the Consecration of the Altar and good cause have we to Celebrate that festivity wherein that stone hath beene anoynted upon which the Divine sacrifices are consecrated for us And yet further as when Macchabaeus had reconciled or new dedicated the Sanctuary of God and new built the Altar of burnt offerings which the heathen had prophaned they doe not onely Celebrate that Dedication with great joy at that time but also ordaine an anniversary or yearely commemoration and continuation thereof to posterity So also the primitive Christians when they had once consecrated a Church did use ever after to keepe a solemne yearely feast upon the consecration day for a thankefull memoriall of that blessing as may appeare by the title of divers Sermons of Saint Augustines In anniversario Tom. 10. de temp dedicationis Templi vel Altaris i. In the yearely solemnity of the Dedication of the Temple or Altar In one of which Sermons hee speaketh thus Quotiescunque fratres Chrissimi alt aris Serm. 252. vel templi festivitatem colimus si diligenter ac fideliter attendimus sancte ac juste vivimus quiâ—quid in Templis manufactis agitur id totum in nobis spirituali aedificatione completur i. as often as most deare brethren we keepe the Feast day of the Temple or Altar if we diligently and faithfully heede it and live uprightly and godlily then whatsoever is done in the Temples made with hands that is all fulfilled in us by spirituall edification And when Constantine had built that faire Sozom. l 2. c. 25. Niceph. hist ed. l. 8. c. 50. and famous Temple in Mount Calvary as he drew thither all the Bishops from the Councell of Tyre for the consecration thereof So from that time the Church of Ierusalem did yearely for the space of eight dayes together celebrate the commemoration or remembrance of that Dedication Nazianzen saith de eccaenijs celebrandis Naz. orat in nav domicum orat 43. legem veterem esse eamque perclare constitutam i. That the Law for the yearely commemorations of the Dedications of Churches is both ancient and worthily enacted And to this day as in other parts of the Christian world so in this Realme and Kingdome we doe celebrate these commemorations in divers Parishes though men know not that the Wake-day-feasts as we call them which they yeerely keepe are the dayes of the consecration of their Churches in those Parishes and therefore should be celebrated with more seriousnesse reverence and devotion then usually they doe About the one and thirtieth yeare of Henry 8. Holy dayes were growne to such an unreasonable number as that men had almost no time to worke and intend the businesse of their callings servants had so many play dayes and poore people so few working dayes as began to breed much inconvenience by reason of so much idlenesse Wherefore there came forth injunctions from the King by the Convocation for the restraint thereof and whereas every Parish generally had two speciall and peculiar holy dayes of their owne every yeare the one to the memoriall of the Saint by whose name the Church was called whom they of the blinder times superstitiously adoring stiled the Patron of the place The other was in commemoration of the dedication of the Church it is injoyned that the Feast of the Saint or Patron be no longer observed as an holy day but that it shall be lawfull to all and singular persons to goe to their worke mystery or occupation upon the same day except the sayd feast be such as else must be universally kept as an holy day But the Feast of the Dedication of the Church the Injunction will have it still to be continued though yet so as it must not be celebrated upon any working day but in all places alwayes on the first Sunday in October but we finde that in most places both these festivals are let downe and so farre discontinued as that there is no remembrance of them left though yet in many places in this Kingdome there is a plaine continuation of the one of them or rather of them both contracted into one For where the Wakes in England are yet in use I conceive that they continue a remainder of the eccaenia or Dedication Feasts First for that those festivals are of so great antiquity and therefore the liker for the reverence thereof to be continued Secondly for that they were wont to bee celebrated with so great solemnity as kept them the rather from being forgotten and by ancient Councells were placed in the same ranke with Concil Mogunt de sest an ca. 36. Concil Lugdun de consecr dist 3. c. 1. Easter day Ascention day and Whitson day and other such great and eminent festivals In a Councell held at Oxford Anno. 1222. the Festivalls are distributed into three rankes and the Feast of the Dedication of a Church is numbred with those which are omni veneratione observanda i. To be kept with all solemnity and devotion And thirdly seeing that when the other viz. the Feast day of the Saint was dissanulled this of the Dedication is ratified All which being layd together doe make it very probable that the Wake day Feast is of the two the continuation of the Dedication Feast for one of them if not a conjunction of both it is certainely and yet not without some reference to the day of the Saint For if men where these Feasts are yet in use looke well into it they shall plainely finde that the dayes whereon they keepe these Wakes are the dayes of the memoriall of those Saints respectively by whose names the severall Churches are called I can insist in many and the British word whereby the Britaines doe call those solemnities Gwul-Mab-Sant i. The Saints holy day or festivals doth import as much For though the Churches were built and houses unto God for his Worship yet to distinguish one from another they have every one the name of some Saint whose memory the Bishop Founders and people then thought good to continue So that each of our Churches is the house of God and the memoriall of some Saint according to the words of Saint Augustine Nos martyribus nostris De Civit. dei l. 22. c. 10. non templa sicut diis sed memorias sicut hominibus mortuis quorum apud deum vivunt spiritus fabricamus i. We build not any Temples to our Martyrs as if they were Gods but memorialls as of dead men whose soules are alive with God and yet they reputed those Churches or so called them Aedes
And the commandes of God to Moses concerning Altars to be made Exod. 20. cap. 27. 30. and Deut. 27. relate not so much to the Altars themselves as the materials whereof the formes wherein and the uses for which they shall be made For it had long or rather ever beene the use to have an Altar to specifie the place of Gods worship insomuch as Abraham returning from Egypt went to the place of the Altar which he had made at the first and there he called on the name of the Lord. And all this was long-before the Institution of the Leviticall Priesthood and therefore before any Leviticall ceremony had any being which sufficiently proveth that neither an Altar nor an oblation upon an Altar nor the worship of God at an Altar is any thing Levitical though of use in the Leviticall worship no more then many of our Churches are therefore Popish because that either they are now or heretofore have beene used by Papists Vnto Moses God gave order to make a Tabernacle a building or an house whereat and wherein he would be worshipped And such a building it was as sorted with the condition of the people at that time being rather a booth or tent than an house For as the people having then no setled abode but being on their journey in the wildernesse had not then for their private harbour any houses fastned and immoveâ—ble on their foundations but tents or boothes which might be taken up carried along and pitched againe as they should be occasioned so also the Roome which they had for Gods worship was accordingly remooveable and portable Yea and after their setling in the Land of Canaan the Arke of God though divers times removed from place to place yet for a long time it remained in a tent or under curtaines 2 Sam. 7. 2. This when holy David considered he thought it unreasonable that he though a King yet a man should dwell in a better house than any that God had for his owne worship and thereupon resolved to provide God of a more magnificent habitation or place of worship but God would not have it of Davids building who had beene a man 1 Chro. 28. 3. of warre and shed much blood Salomon therefore chosen thereto by God undertooke and finished the worke which continuing in glory the space of 400. yeares to the 19. of the Raigne of King Nabuchadnozor was burnt downe by the Caldaeans who also carryed away the people of Iudah Captives to Babylon where when they had continued the space of 70. yeares they returned home and builded a second house for Gods worship which with some magnificent alterations in the time of Herod the great continued the space of 490. yeares unto the 7â— yeare of the incarnation of our blessed Saviour After the assention of our Saviour into heaven the Apostles and Disciples being dispersed on broad and thereby the Gospell Preached over the world men were begotten to the Church saith and assembled themselves as they might in See Mead Churches private houses in woods in dennes and caves yet so as their meeting places were certaine and set a part from common use to the worship of God and Church edification and though the malice of the heathen was great raising frequent and cruell persecutions against the Churches yet they beganne betimes to builde Churches and as their number and meanes increased to enlarge and adorne them insomuch as in this Island Ioseph of Arimathca having here preached the Gospell builded a Church in the Isle of Avalon or Aveland in Somerset-shire which afterwards Devi Bishop of Saint Davids repaired and lastly King Ivor Converted to a Monastery Neither onely in this Island but also all over the world Churches became by degrees to bee builded enlarged and adorned And though often the fury of persecutors demolished them yet still as the Churches obtained any peace and favour they repaired enlarged and beautified their Churches In which as also in their former lesse conspicuous and sumptuous places of religious meetings they might neither buy nor sell nor treate of worldly matters nor eate and drinke other than at holy Communions So were the Tert. Apol. places of an holy esteeme Holy Places CAP. III. Of Consecration of Churches NEither are Churches therefore holy onely because they are applyed to holy uses but they are first made holy by speciall dedication and consecration of which the learned Zanchius giveth this definition Consecratio est praemissis precibus cum gratiarum actione templa ad In 4 precepâ— c. 19. q. 2. solum divini cultus usum deputare ordinare que ac benedicere incipere jam usurpare i. Consecration is with prayers and thankesgivings to depute and to ordaine and blesse Temples to the onely use of the worship of God and accordingly to begin to put them in ure In which words we may consider three things 1. The Alienation 2. The Assignation 3. The Solemnity of the Act. 1. The Alienation is when the ground whereon a Church is built together with the Church or building it selfe and so much ground about it as is intended for the Churchyard being all yet but common ground and building i. such as the owner may retaine in his owne hands and convert to what use he will either publicke or private is surrendred into the hands of the Bishop to the end that it may be made holy unto God whereby the right which the owner had therein is quite determined and the common use whereto it might have beene put is for ever prevented and put by As when King David intended to build an Altar unto God in the threshing floore of Araunah he first buyeth it out of the right and possession of Araunah that when the Altar is there built hee may consecrate it unto God and Araunah for ever be excluded and debarred from any claime thereto 2. The Assignation is the investing of Almighty God in the right and possession of that ground and building For when the owner hath surrendred it into the hands of the Bishop and given livery and seizin thereof to the Bishop so as now the Bishop is thereof fully possessed yet is the Bishop herein but Gods Atturny so seized and possessed of this ground and building to Gods use to the which he doth by speciall ceremony and solemnity assigne it Whereupon it becommeth now the house and ground of God and God himselfe is thereof specially possessed In the Old Testament we finde that God upon the performance of the Dedication doth visibly shew himselfe in possession for when Moses who Exod. 40. is commanded to Annoint and hallow the Tabernacle and all that is therein had verse 23. finished the whole worke i. done all in manner and forme as he had beene directed then v. 34. A Cloud covered the tent of the Congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle So also 1. King 8. when the Temple being finished all things had beene set in their
toppē to the bottome and an end be put to the Typicall and Leviticall Worship Yet the Temple was not then throwne downe but continued standing the space of 40. yeares after the ascention of our Saviour into heaven for Morall worship and Service and was accordingly used by Christian people for prayer and preaching as is evident Act. 3. 1. and cap. 5. 20 21. And no doubt but that to this day it might have continued the house of God for morall worship if the impietie of the Iewes had not provoked God to bring the Romans upon them to destroy both them and their Temple The necessitie that lay upon the Temple to bee throwne downe in regard of the Prophecie of our Saviour Christ foretelling the ruine thereof proceeded from our Saviour his foreknowledge looking to the vengeance which the people deserved for their sinnes and not from the nature of the Temple which might have continued for morall worship though the Leviticall be ceased And to that effect the Masters of the Centuries well knowne to be no friends to superstition observed well in these words The Christians are Cent. 2. c 7. dayly in the Temple with one accord Act. 2. The Apostles ceased not dayly there to teach and to Preah Christ Act. 5. Peter and Iohn went up to the Temple to pray and they did Preach to the People when they flocked together in Salomons Porch Act. 3. And the Apostles being delivered out of prison are commanded not to Preach the Gospell in the Temple Act. 5. And the whole congregation came together with one accord in Salomons Porch and S. Paul also is apprehended in the Temple and all this was after that our blessed Saviour had by his death and resurrection put an end to all Leviticall ceremonies If any object here that when the Romans had burnt downe and destroyed the Temple the anger of God was so great against it as not to suffer any rebuilding of it any more the answere is ready viz. that the anger of God was not against the being of an house for his worship in that place but because the unbeleeving Iewes as they did hate Christ so being animated by that grand enemie of Christ the Apostate Iulian endeavoured to erect there a Temple for Leviticall worship and ceremonies to be set up againe in defiance and slander to the Crosse of Christ and prejudice of the Gospell For the Christians did afterward in that very place where the Temple stood and where the Iewes were not permitted by God to rebuild set up a very faire and goodly Church for Christian worship which Church was long blessed of God and became a Patriarchall seate CAP. V. That Consecration belongeth also to our Churches under the Gospell OUr Churches under the Gospell are in the same condition with the third region of the Temple among the Iewes viz. Gods house of prayer to all nations And therefore as that was so ours must be no house of Merchandize but set a part from all common use for the worship of God thankesgiving Novel 6. prayer preaching and the like acts and exercises of Religion Iustinian made a Law that ecclesiasticall persons should not celebrate divine offices in places not consecrate And so hath the Church anciently accustomed to make the places of Religious meetings peculiar and proper for onely religion and devotion by the solemne rites of consecration Saint Augustine preaching 1200. yeares since Serm. de temp 256. at the consecration of a Church beginneth thus Celebritas hujus congregationis dedicatio est domus orationis i. The solemnity of this meeting is the dedication of the house of prayer Saint Ambrose L. 1. Ep. 5. telleth us that he and Felix had beene invited ad consecrationem basilicae per Bassianum i. to the consecration of a Church by Bassianus Athanasius Ep. ad Const doth divers times mention the consecration of Churches Before all these Alexander Bishop of Apol. ad Const. Alexandria as testifieth Athanasius consecrated a Church with great solemnity Eusebius relateth that upon the death of the tyrant Maximianus L. 10. c. 3. Optatum exhibetur spectaculum Celebrationes viz. eccaeniorum per Civitates Oratoriorum recens structorum consecrationes i. There appeareth a very joyfull spectacle or sight viz. the yearely comemorations of the Dedications of Churches and Consecrations of others newly set up And howsoever Pope Higinus about the yeare 140. Decr. de consec dist i. e. omnes Basilicae made a Decree that Churches should be consecrated yet it is plaine that that Decree was but the ratification of what was then in use rather than any innovation or bringing in of a new fashion For there were Consecrations of Churches under Pope Evaristus about 40. yeares before that Decree Gratia of Higinus and that either something before or presently after the death of Saint Iohn the Evangelist for I finde some uncertainety here in matter of Chronologie though the space of the time in difference is not long And indeede how can we imagine otherwise but that so soone as the Christians had any certaine places for their religious meetings they did for the more Comfortable expectation of Gods blessing in them dedicate them unto God by prayer and thankesgiving Yea and the Primitive Christians were wont at the dedication of their Churches to bee exceedingly affected and taken with excessive joy at these Dedications whilest they considered that God had as it were taken an house among them therein to entertaine feede feast and cloath them with his owne speciall presence his holy Word the blessed Sacraments and the righteousnesse of Iesus Christ where also they might Communicate and impart themselves by their prayers unto God and confidently begge and have for all their necessities and occasions sufficiency of releefe and therefore as in the Old Testament we finde that when Salomon Dedicated the Temple he held a great feast the space of 14. dayes And 1 King 8. then he blessed the people and the people blessed him and went to their tents joyfull and glad of heart for all the goodnesse which the Lord had done for David his servant and for Israel his people and as in the 6. Chapter of the booke of Ezra They kept the Dedication of the house of God with joy c. So also the primitive Christians used with much gladnesse and rejoycing to solemnize the Dedications of their Churches Eusebius in the place last cited addeth these words Hic Psalmodiis ac reliquis divinitus L. 10. nobis traditis elogiis Illic divinis ac mysticis mysteriis c. ecclesiarum presides panegyricis conventus ornabant and then totis animi viribs hilarique mente precando gratias agendo deum bonorum authorem venerabantur i. Here with Hymnes and divine prayses There with sacred and deepe Misteries c. yea and the governors of the Churches did with publicke speeches solemnize the meetings and with songs and prayses from the
Sacras holy or Sacred houses For Euseb de vit const l. 3. c. 1. they are set a part from common use they are assigned to Gods Worship they are consecrated with solemne and speciall rites and given up into Gods possession and their Dedications have long beene commemorated with yearely solemnites whereupon it was decreed in the Councell of Gangra Si quis docet domum Dei Contemp ibilem esse vel congregationes quae in ea fiant Anathema Cap. 5. fit i. If any man teach that the house of God or the Congregations there assembled are to be contemned or slighted let him be accursed And further the words in that Councell are Domos Cap. 21. Dei honoramus conventus qui in iis fiunt tanquam sanctos utiles suscipimus non claudentes pietatem in domibus sed omnem locum in Dei nomine aedificatum honoramus i. Wee doe honour the houses of God and embrace the assemblies there as holy and good Not that we shut up Pietie in houses but that wee honour all places which are built to the name of God So then the Pietie of those times reputed Churches holy places and yet no otherwise holy than by a Relative holinesse viz. in regard of their consecration and the use whereto they are thereby assigned which yet giveth no man liberty ever the more to slight the Church For though creatures beneath the reasonable be capable of no other holinesse than this Relative holinesse yet have they soundly smarted who have dared to prophane such holy things Nabuchadonosor 2 King 25. burnt up the houses of the Lord and the Pillars of the basesse and the brazen Sea did the Caldaeans breake in peeces c. But then marke what followed it is not long before that Nabuchadonosor is called to his account for all this when his Kingdome is departed from him and he driven Dan. 4. from men doth eate grasse as Oxen hath his body wet with the dew of heaven his haire grow like Eagles feathers and his nailes like the birds talons Baltasar will needes prophane the holy vessels and command them from the house of Dan. 5. God for himselfe to carouse in among his Concubines But the wrath of God doth quickely powre him out a Cup of vengeance and sad newes that night he lost his life and the Medes and Persians possessed his Kingdome Antiochus 1 Mac. 1. maketh the like havocke in the Temple and the holy things thereof as Nabuchadonosor had done before and not long after he is met withall by the hand of God which smote him with an invisible and incureable plague tormenting his bowels and inward parts his flesh rotting his carkasse swarming with Lice and stinking so grievously as not to be endured and in this wretched case he dyed miserably on the wilde Mountaines And one maine motive stirring God to expose the Iewes to the fury of the Chaldaeans was for that 2 Chro. 36. 14. they polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Ierusalem Doth not the fearefull death of Vzzah tell us how wary we must be and what heede we must take of medling with things hallowed or Consecrated for what did he but onely touch the Arke with his hand in no contempt or evill meaning but with a good respect to keepe it from falling But the Arke was holy and Vzza his hand was not to meddle therewith he therefore dyed for this presumption and yet the holinesse of the Arke was but relative holinesse What should I say of the Sabboth day among the Iewes or of the Lords day among the Christians was the one Or is the other holy otherwise than by a relative holinesse And yet wee know how severely they have beene punished which violated the holinesse of the Sabboth in the Old Testament and we have knowne of many terrible judgements which have overtaken such as have abused the other Ierusalem is the holy Citty and heaven it selfe is an holy place yet no otherwise holy than in relation to God there specially present If then heaven be holy Ierusalem holy the Lords day holy the Sabboth was holy then the Church or place consecrated for Christians to assemble in for the publicke worship of Almighty God is therefore holy because being so consecrated it hath such relation to God and his worship CAP. VI. Names whereby Churches under the Gospell have beene called OUr English word Church which in Scotland is sounded Kyrke commeth of the Greeke word ΚυÏιακὴ of the word ΚÏÏιοσ a Lord so ΚυÏιακὴ or Church is as if you should say belonging to the Lord answerable whereto is the Latine name Dominicum by which the Church was anciently called of the word Dominus a Lord so wee have it Ruffin l. 1. c. 3. Sequere me ad Dominicum i. De verbis dominii Ser. 15. Follow me to the Church Saint Augustine telleth us the reason why the Church is so called Quemadmodum tempus Deo sacrum dicitur dies Dominicus Ita locus Deo dicatus dicitur Dominicum i. As the time which is holy unto God is called the Lords day so the place which is dedicated unto God is called Dominicum i. The Lords house And thus the Church in the new Testament agreeth in phrase with our forefathers in the Old Testament who usually call the Temple and places of Gods Worship the house of the Lord. Places of Christian and Religious meetings have had the names of Cryptae i. hiding places For sometimes in the heate of persecution the Christians though sincere yet either timorous or rather provident not to be disturbed at their holy meetings did assemble in Caves in the earth in Woods and desarts as the Apostles themselves Iuel apol part 2. art 3. Ioh. 20. 19. 1 King 18. 13. when they assembled in the night with the doores shut for feare of the Iewes and as the Prophets were hidden by fifty in a Cave by the good Obediah But O! the goodnesse of our mercifull God who hath placed unto us our Churches in most open view and made both the way thither and our being there safe and comfortable We neede not with Nicodemus goe to Christ by night The Church doores are open at noone day wee are in no danger in going to or being at Church but expose our selves to punishment by keeping away Happy are the eyes which see the things which we see And God give us grace to make good use of so great blessings Churches have also the names of Oratories of the Latine Word Orare to pray For that Christians in all their meetings used to prayse God and to pray unto him Eusebius writing of the joyfull L. 8. c. 1. dayes with the zeale and devotion of the Christians before the persecution began under Dioclesian saith Quis aggregationes multitudinis insignesque concursus ad oratoria describeret i. who was able to describe the gathering together of the multitude and their goodly flocking to the
Prayer be of equal use and power in all places not as the place but as the Grace of God shall give the blessing What Superstition is it to kneele at the rayle more then at thy stoole or what sinne is it to leane upon the one more then upon the other Only I should thinke that the neerer a man approacheth to that table whereupon he Seeth with his eyes the sacred body blood of his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ layd forth for him to feede upon to everlasting life the more should he find himselfe ravished with devotion not skared with an immagination of Superstition But wee see already in many Churches and do feare that shortly we shall behold the like in all the Communion Table mounted up and elevated diverse stepps or degrees and encloased with rayles But the font which is the laver of regeneration standing at the lower end of the Church and left open to the allyes All this is true and yet ye may be without feare that in all this there is not any Superstition For still here is neither any false God worshiped nor any false manner of worship in all this But whereas the party to be baptized is to be entred or taken into the Congregation the font or laver by the which he must be admitted standeth beneath at the entrance of the Church ready to receive and entertayne him There is he made one of the Company of those which have right and interest in the priviledges of that part of the Church where the font is placed viz. the water of Baptisme to wash away his sinnes the word for his instruction and prayer whereby to Communicate himselfe to almighty God untill he be fitted to be further preferred to the holy Table which is therefore elevated or set downe upon an higher floore then the rest of the pavement to be the more in the eyes and view of the people that so for their edification they may the better behold the behaviour of the Preist Consecrating and setting apart the elements to become a Sacrament And that the very sight of the holy Table at all times may beget in the beholders an hunger and thirst after that blessed food The Table is inclosed with rayles to Preserve it from abuses whereto else it would be subject In which case the Church antiently used to be very carefull And if as in some Churches it is the font were decently with rayles enclosed it were I speake under correction more suteable to the reverence due thereunto But to proceed in our Search Let us looke well about least any nooke yet shrowde some superstition Here are the Kings armes set up not for any matter of divine worship But to professe and testifie the subjection of every soule to the higher power For as the written sentences upon the walls by letters so these Scutchions by their expressions do put us in minde of that Defender of the Faitb and of our duty to him who is next and immediately under God supream governor over al persons and causes as well ecclesiasticall as Temporall in all his Majesties Realmes Dominions And in all this there is no Superstition O but looke sayth one upon the Church windowes and then tell me what meane those images Quest and pictures which are in the glasse They are not there set for any matter of worship of either God Saint or Angell but for history and ornament No Christian so far as I know holdeth Ans it unlawfull to make an image or to use for memoriall Cognisance History or Ornament For if it were utterly unlawfull to make an image there should not have been so many yea any at al in the Temple or Tabernacle Neither would God have taught Aholiah and Bezaliel the making of them For though many things in the Tabernacle and Temple were typicall yet might nothing be there which was against the Morall law or in it selfe evill and unlawfull And many things were there as well for ornament and decency as for typicall signification Images Tert. Bazil Nissen Aug. Cyril Greg. Euseb Chris Justin Orig. Nazian then may be made they have been made and by the Primitive Churches frequently used in their Churches Chalices no word of God prohibiteth the setting of them up in Churches we performe no worship unto them nor to any other by them And therefore their being in our Churches is neither Leviticall nor Superstitious It is too poore a conceit for any to fasten superstition upon our Churches because of that which the Papists do practise in theirs For what is Superstitious among them wee leave unto them And wee performe only that which is lawfull decent and pious The Papists do in many things the same which wee do but we omit many things though not all things which they practice we looke not to the actions of Papists for our direction but to the word of God and practice of antient and Orthodox Christians where the Papist is so guided wee gladly approve him and do as he doth where he innovateth and swarveth from this rule we are sory for him and there leave him We think not the worse of any true Doctrine Christian act or devout demenure for that a Papist doth or maintaine the one or performe the other But we thinke the better of a Papist the neerer he commeth to truth and devotion And the like course we hold with others so long and no longer to hold with them as in Doctrine practice they are devout and Christian If any take exception against any rich furniture and utensill in our Churches and tell us of some Superstition in them I wish that our brethen could as well shew us our Churches so rightly furnished as we can cleare them from being therein Superstitious In most of our Churches besides the bible the Service or Common Prayer booke with the apology the Preists vestments meane inough a pewter flagon and a silver cup what have we else except wee will rekon the bels in the steeple How many meane yomen be there in many parishes in England whose plate and rich stuffe is more worth then all the whol furniture of his Parish church In some great Parishes in rich Corporations as also in divers but not in all Cathedrall Churches there is some better provision to adorne the Church to set out the Service and commend our profession of which though some grudging say which you know who what needeth this waste yet is herein no Superstition For was there any Superstition in them that brought silver gold for the use of the Tabernacle or Onix stone and other pretious stones for the Ephod more then in them that bestowed but Rames skins or goates hayre if any say that these things were for Leviticall worship I must request them to understand that the Leviticalnesse of things of the Tabernacle or Temple consisted not in their materials as gold silver or the like but in their typicall relation to Christ and things in Christ
as St. Paul adviseth to 1 Cor. 10. 31. Gods glory Wee read in Rev. 4. v. 10. of foure and twenty Elders who fell downe on their faces worshipped him who liveth for ever Shall wee say that they woshiped not in Spirit and truth because they used a gesture of humilitie and reverence in falling downe upon their faces It is lamentable to behold men pretending sincerity and love of trueth thus perversly wringing Gods holy word and willfully shutting their eyes against so cleare light of so manifest a truth When the knee is bent the body bowed or the hand lifted up devoutly unto God these are indeede bodily exercises or actes done by the members of the body as outward expressions of inward devotion but no acts of Superstition CHAP. X. The severall gestures used by Gods Servants in his worship are all free from Superstition WEE have hitherto made scearch in and about the house of God or place of Christian assembly wee have carefully pryed into every nooke and corner thereof and observed the Servants of God performing worship unto God so as their inward devotions are declared and expressed by their outward gestures and demeanures God being so worshipped by their whole man body and Soule But in all this wee have found no Superstition But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things decently and in good order Come we now and examin those outward demeanures gestures and expressions severally and perticularly And all that wee do in our Churches in their distinct formes and postures least yet under any of them some peece of superstition be paradventure concealed and here I must confesse some evill Surmisers have unjustly caused much suspition For our justification therefore and the manifesting of truth to Gods glory Come and see all that is done in our Churches Wee confesse our sinnes unto God Wee begge pardon at the hands of God Wee give God thanks for what wee have received Wee crave from God what wee stand in need of Wee remember the afflictions of all distressed people with our prayers for them all and our almes to the poorer sort We reade and heare read the holy Bible and godly expositions homilyes and sermons whereby the ignorant are instructed the unruly admonished the backward exhorted the hard-hearted terrefied the feeble encouraged the aflicted conscience comforted We administer the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords supper Is any of these any superstitious act Our scrupulous brethren allow all this But then thus they take exception In your very entrance into the Church you Object put off your hats and kneele downe and pray as if either God were not in other places or that wee might not pray but in the Church If we taught men that they ought not to pray Ans anywhere else but in a Church or place consecrated or that we did not use to pray in any other place then there were some cause to object thus against us But we are in our Churches from time to time called upon to pray continually and in all things to give thankes Is it not thus extant in our booke of common prayer It is very meete right and our bounden duty that we should at all times and in all places give thankes to thee O holy father Lord of heaven and earth Is there not in that booke speciall service to be used in privat houses at the bed side of sick people Is not the booke it selfe free and vendible by every Stationer not only for the publick worship in Churches but also for the use of every private man in his own house Be there not also plenty of other bookes in print of formes of prayers to be made unto God upon severall occasions at any time in any place by any man whose soule is possessed with so good devotion And therfore it is plaine that our devotion and discipline doth not therfore encline us to pray when we come within a Church as if we held that the only place where a man may pray but for that the Church is an house of prayer as we have already shewed this very place putteth a man in mind and calleth upon him there specially to pray in somuch that it is a place purposely set apart for that very end and purpose that whatsoever a man doth elsewhere yet here he should pray because this is the house of prayer We uncover our heads in the Church as in the presence Chamber on earth of the King of heaven and earth And when we pray we kneele because kneeling is the gesture of humility becomming a man who preferreth his petition to the God of heaven In the fourth Century a time abounding with prodigious haeresies arose one Eustachius who among others of his prophane opinions wherwith many became infected maintained that Churches Concil Gangr and meetings therein are to be despised Damascus and Saint Augustin mention this to have been the haeresie of the Messalini otherwise called Euchites and Enthusiastes who also had so meane an opinion of Baptisme and the Lords supper as that they held Dan. de haeres 8 Aug. Serm. contra Arrianos l. 4. C. 11. de ecliis c. 37. them altogether uneffectuall and unprofitable as Theodoret reporteth Turrecremata telleth us that the fratricellian haeritiques a most impure sect maintained among other things Eccelsiam non plus valere ad orandum quam porcorum stabulum i. That the Church avayleth a man for prayer no more then a swine-sty O my brethren conforme not yourselves to the abominable fancies of these filthie dreamers odious to God and in the judgment of the Church damned haeretiques To pray is no superstitius act To pray kneeling is no superstition To pray in a Church as we shewed cap. 4. is no superstition To use reverend gestures and behaviour of humility in the presence of God is no superstition To repute the Church to be Gods house is no superstition Therefore for a man entring into a Church to put off his hat and being come in to kneele downe and to pray to God are no superstition but pious acts of christian devotion You have so many severall gestures and postures Ob. sometimes sitting sometimes kneeling sometimes standing sometimes bowing Why may not men use what gestures they please so that the heart be right I have already shewed that a reverend heart can Ans not but produce reverend demeanure in Gods worship And yet further to answer this cavill I say It is not inough that our gestures be reverend and sober in the generall except also they be suteable and fit to expresse the present act whereto they are applyed And first for sitting If humane frailty specially in aged people could endure it sitting would not at all be used in the house of God specially during the holy businesse of Gods service But in consideration of the infirmity of flesh and blood Rest is sometimes requisite least too much weakenesse either diminish or disturb devotion Therefore the indulgence of the Church permitteth