by the art of Ecclesiasticall men Secondly you will hardly alledge any particular occasion of these Songs especially of the two former N. But of the last wee may For Simeon desired to die because hee had seene Christ I. Hee desired to bee dismissed in peace because he had seene Gods promise fulfilled And so may wee desire to be with Christ vpon the acknowledgement of his reuealed will in the Gospell N. The second thing that we dislike is That these Psalmes are more often repeated then the Psalmes of Dauid I. You know it is written That the least in Luke 7. 8. the Kingdome of Heauen is greater then Iohn the Baptist So we say That the Songs of the New Testament are greater and more to our edification then those of the Old Couenant because they concerne the Gospell which is both a greater and a neerer light N. Wee will speake more of the Magnificat when wee come to treate of the translations The second kinde of Hymnes was inuented by men As Te Deum and Benedicite wherein first we dislike that mens inuentions should bee obtruded vpon the Church I. Why set you before vs twice sodden Coleworts Set Prayers to bee lawfull wee haue proued before Now Hymnes inuented by men are nothing but Set Prayers And therefore lawfull N. In the Te Deum wee dislike those words When thou hadst ouercome the sharpnesse of death thou didst open the Kingdome of Heauen to all beleeuers Whereby wee suspect you meane that Christ after his death deliuered the Fathers from Limbus from which time all beleeuers immediatly enter into Heauen I. Did not Christ first goe into Heauen to Iohn 3. 13. 14. 2. Heb. 9. 8. 1â— 11. 40. prepare a place for vs as saith the Scripture N. Hee went thether first not actually but virtually because hee merited our going thether I. Did hee merit it by any other meanes then by the vertue of his Death Resurrection and Ascention N. Hee did not But we feared some Snake lurking vnder this grasse I. I leaue your iealous suspitions Forasmuch as you know that Lymbus Patrum is generally reiected by Our Church CHAP. X. Of Collects and Creeds N. I Should speake of the Benedicite but that it is amongst the Apocryphall Bookes and therefore it shall be deferred till we speak of the Lessons Now from the Ordinarie Prayers wee proceed to the Collects whereof the most be extraordinary But in the forefront of them we will place the third Collect for Grace being also an ordinarie Praier and taking part of both wherein wee approue not these words Grant that this Day wee fall into no sinne Against which we thus reason It is vnpossible that wee fall into no sinnes And therefore to pray for it vtterly vnlawfull I. Your Antecedent is ambiguous as may thus appeare Not to sinne is possible But to fall into no sinne is all one with not to sinne and therefore possible The Maior is proued by Saint Iohn who saith hee that is 1. Iohn 3. 9. borne of God sinneth not neither indeed can sinne N. That place admitteth sundry good expositions As first the regenerate cannot finally fall into sinne Secondly no not totally for a time Thirdly a man so farre forth as hee is regenerate cannot sinne but only in regard of the flesh which lusteth against the spirit I. Which-soeuer of these interpretations you apply to this place there may be sufficient iustifications to the words of the Collect especially the two former For it is very lawfull for vs to pray that wee may neither finally nor totally for a time fall into sinne That is as the Prophet saith that wee may bee kept Psal 19. 3. from sinnes presumptuous Againe this truth may be thus manifested Not to bee led into temptation is possible But not to fall into sinne is all one in effect with not to bee led into temptation And therefore equally possible N. Your Minor seemes to reele For a man may bee led into temptation and yet not fall into sinne For Christ sinned not and yet was led into temptation I. The speech were blasphemous were it not vttered of ignorance For to bee led into temptation is to be carried into the midst thereof and to bee ouercome by it which as you know cannot agree to Christ This exposition may thus bee proued Either wee pray that wee may not bee led into temptation or that wee may not yeeld to temptation The latter to bee lawfull no man doubts But the former I hope you will not auer It remaines therfore That the scope of the Prayer is that wee may not bee surprised with temptation so that it may occasion vs to fall into any crying and habituall sinne N. There bee other Proper Collects at whose words and doctrine wee are offended The first Defect in the words is obscuritie I. By this argument you might condemne many of the Psalmes which though they bee meere Prayers yet in many places are as obscure as truth which is hidden in Democritus pit But what is the obscuritie which you pretend N. In the Collect vpon Trinitie Sunday as you terme it These words are as darke as the leaues of Sibilla and in the power of the Maiestie to worship the vnitie I. No maruell in a matter as profound as Hell if some phrase be not so cleere For if a man should demand of you the difference betweene the generation of the Sonne and the proceeding of the Holy Ghost Or how the Sonne should be called a Distinct Person and yet be in his Father Or how the Father should communicate all his being to his Sonne and yet continue his owne being distinct from that of his Sonne Or how the Father by the Sonne should actiuely breath out the Holy Spirit Or how the wisdome of God should differ from his iustice considering in God there can bee admited no composition I beleeue though you had the aid of all Phrasologistes you would hardly reconcile and explaine these phrases which notwithstanding are receiued in the Church as most necessarie But as for the difficultie at which here you stumble it is of no moment For it is plaine that we worship the Vnitie of the Three Persons in the power of the Diuine Maieistie acknowledging them Three to be one in powerfull Maiestie or Maiesticall power according to a vulgar a Hest 1. 4. 7. Acts 8. 23. Hebraisme knowne to children N. There are some other words in shew dangerous as first the tearme of Penance in the Collect vpon Iohn Baptists day I. Either Penance is an old word signifying Repentance or else it betokeneth the Ecclesiasticall Absolution which is giuen to men that shew the signe of penitence N. The former signification is vncertaine Of the latter wee will reason in the Visitation of the sicke Your second perillous terme is that of Chances in the first Collect after the Offertorie Whereas this name Chance howsoeuer it bee vsed by the Heathen Philistim Priests yet is
of which we treated before in the Crosse N. Then I say that your kneeling is directly Popish and Idolatrous as may thus first appeare To worship God in at or before a Creature is Idolatrie and Poperie But such is your kneeling Ergo. I. You ioyne Idolatrie and Poperie as if they sounded all one thing whereas many kinds of Idolatrie bee not Popish and many Papisticall things haue no agreement with Idols But to your Maior May not wee worship God in the Earth at a Church before Angels and Men and are not these Creatures Indeed to ascribe inherent or reflexiue holines to Creatures in God's worship is a kind of Idolatrie But yet to denie that they haue holinesse by assistance is meere way-wardnesse N. Secondly I thus argue To worship Christs manhood as present when indeed it is absent is Idolatry But such is your kneeling Ergo. I. Were your Maior true then none should worship Christs manhood but those that had seene him walke vpon the earth or those that triumph with him in heauen whereas indeed we are bound to worship the Whole Person of Christ and consequently his Manhood As for your Minor it is most weake For men may kneele without consideration of Christ's Manhood John 9. 38. Ephes 1. 21 22. Heb. 1. 6. I meane it was possible before Christ's comming though now it bee vnlawfull For to worship halfe Christ is partly Heresie partly Idolatrie Besides your argument may bee thus retorted vpon you Where by the vnion of the spirit Christ and God are present with a gracious presence there to kneele praying is lawfull But so it is in the Sacrament for the Spirit assisting the bread vniteth vs to Christs Manhood and so to his Godhead and consequently the Deitie of the Father Our kneeling therefore cannot but be lawfull N. By this reason men should kneele at a Sermon for there also is the Spirit present I. If men could pray and heare at once kneeling were not there vnlawfull N. Another thing in the receiuing wee dislike that you say Christs Bodie and Bloud is verily and indeed receiued of the faithfull I. These words verily and indeed refute the common errour making Sacraments bare signes But these of the faithfull refell the Lutheran and Papist who make the Reprobate aswell as the Elect partakers of Christ CHAP. XVI Of the Visitation of the Sicke N. FRom the Sacrament belonging to the Sound I passe to the Visitation of the Sicke which is compounded of two corrupted Sacraments Priuate Communion and Penance In the former we dislike the necessitie and Priuatenesse thereof Touching the necessitie wee maruell much that you make it a thing so needfull to saluation I. Besides my former arguments vsed in Baptisme I adde first this distinction That a thing needfull to saluation is either a proper working cause thereof Or any thing that is helpfull and comfortably expedient to the same In this latter sense we speake of Sacraments as also of good workes Secondly I propound this reason That thing whereby ordinarily Gods Spirit is conuayed namely by the way of assistance only to strengthen our faith against daily suddaine temptations that thing is needfull and helpfull to saluation But such is the Eucharist Ergo. N. Though we should grant that in this sense the Sacrament is needfull yet the necessitie thereof is to much vrged when it is giuen in priuate I. Doe you call it priuate in regard of Place or Person N. In both respects I. First for Place I haue declared in Baptisme that Sacraments may bee in priuate administred Secondly in regard of the Person they can by no pretence bee so tearmed both because the Person administring is Publique As also because a priuate Communion is so called when the Priest alone doth receiue the Sacrament in both kindes the people in the meane time gazing as fruitlesse spectators Or if they communicate being bereaued of the Cup whereas with vs not only the Minister but euen the sicke man and as many assistants as can be conueniently assembled doe receiue in both kinds N. From Priuate Communion then let vs come to your Popish Penance For although you make no mention of Contrition or of Auricular Confession yet Absolution you absolutely retaine N. Tell mee I pray you why some of your combination desired to haue the Absolution At the Conference in Hampton Court tearmed a Remission N. Because Absolution implyeth forgiuing of sinnes with authoritie Remission onely by the way of Declaration whereof this latter may be permitted to men but the former is peculiar to God and therefore you are in this point too much the Apes of Poperie I. Let the Papists eate their owne Crabs which they haue caught Only it were to be wished that men by telling needlesse falshoods would not discredit themselues in the most needfull truthes But to let them passe as also your distinction of Absolution and Remission not worth the refuting Wee auouch that pardoning of sinnes with authoritie is double Namely with authority absolute or delegate The former is Gods prerogatiue The latter is in the Charter of the Church For I demand If a Murther be committed doth the Prince onely declaratiuely pardon or condemne the offender Doth he not also the same with authoritie delegate from God May any priuate man well skilled in Lawes and most able to declare the merit or demerit of the partie delinquent attempt this thing without authoritie Is not the difference betweene authoritie and declaration manifest N. I will not be endangered with these matters of State I. No maruell For many of your wing haue succeeded but ill with them N. Returne I pray you to the matter How proue you that Ministers may pardon sinnes with authoritie I. They to whom the Keyes are deliuered and the power of binding and loosing m Mat. 16. 19. 18. 18. Iob 20. 23. sinnes may absolue sinners not onely declaratiuely but euen with authority But these things are giuen to the Ministers of the Church They therefore may absolue with authoritie N. They may absolue by the preaching of the Word sinnes in generall but they may not apply their Absolution to particular men because they cannot know their speciall repentance whether it be sound or hollow I. That they may particularize their censures appeares by the words of n 2. Sam 12. 13 Nathan o Iob 33. 23 24 Elihu and Saint p 1. Cor. 5. 1. Paul For what May they not excommunicate particular q Math. 18. 17. men Can they binde and not loose Is loosing any other thing then Absolution As for your Confirmation it is most infirme For were it sound we should not ordinarily administer the Sacraments to any forasmuch as we are ignorant whether mens faith be entire or only in collusion of appearance These fancies doe smell of Swingfeldius and H. N. and taste not only of a desire of noueltie but euen of anarchie So that with equall vanitie you haue condemned both our generall Absolution
of Paul I. I might tell you how some coniecture that Paul wrote it in Syrian and that Clemens or Luke translated it into Greeke To let this passe If Moses were the Authour of Iob. How doth the stile differ from that in Deuteronomy If this bee but probable how doth the stile of the Canticles differ from that of the Prouerbs Will any man reading the two Epistles of Peter denie a diuersitie of stile N. But the Authour excludeth himselfe from the number of them which had m Heb. 2. 3. heard Christ I. Hee had not heard him when hee was aliue vpon the earth Againe he speaketh by a n A figure called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Figure numbring himselfe among the multitude as also doth Saint o 1. Pet. 4. 3. Peter N. Your errour in the honour which you ascribe to Marriage is double For you make it both an holy thing and a Sacrament The former appeareth First by this that you aske the Banes in the Church whereas Marriage belongeth to the Magistrate I. The Couenant of God may bee published by the Priest But such is p Prou. 2. 17. Marriage and therefore may by the Priest be promulgated N. How doe you explaine your Minor I. The Couenant which makes a wife is here called God's Couenant But such is q Mal. 2. 14. Marriage Marriage therefore is Gods Couenant Besides it is an Oath or Vow made in Gods presence N. An Oath may be tendred before a Magistrate And therefore Marriage in this respect may be but a ciuill action I. A Praier may be repeated before a Magistrate is it therefore ciuill N. Hee hath no iurisdiction in Prayer as bee hath ouer an Oath I. Is not prayer a good thing May not hee command you to doe that which is good Nay is not an oath a kind of prayer Againe I thus reason Where publique prayer is expedient that thing may be done in the Church But such is in Marriage And therefore in the Church it may bee celebrated And by consequent the Banes asked for the preuention of all fraud and couin The Minor thus appeareth As the action is so must bee the prayer thereto belonging But the action of Mariage is publike and therefore such must bee the Prayer thereto appertaining When I say it must be I meane it is most expedient I meane then it must be vpon conueniencie not vpon necessitie N. But God neuer commanded the Hebrew Priests to marrie the people at the Tabernacle or Temple I. It had been something laborious to haue brought all the people to bee married at the Temple of Ierusalem Neuerthelesse the Iewish r Rabbi Mose Ban Maimone in Cuâ—pa Rabbins tell vs that Marriage was celebrated in a Tent set vpon foure barres ouer against the Synagogue to which Tent Å¿ Psal 19. 5. Dauid t Ioel 2 16. Ioel and u Math. â—5 1. Luke 12. 36. Christ himselfe do allude and therefore it seemeth that the Priest did something intermeddle with these matters Whereupon both Pagans Turkes and Christians all with one consent in all Ages Countries and Sects haue reputed Marriage as a sacred thing and haue solemnized it with sundrie Ceremonies N. The second thing whereby you imitate the holinesse of Marriage is that you cause the parties to kneele before the Communion Table and withall insinuate as though it were fit to haue a Communion annexed to euery Marriage I. I know not what herein may offend you but onely that this Law is not put in execution as it were to be wished for these causes First That the parties might be put in minde of mingling spirituall with earthly ioy Secondly that they might bee aduertised touching the end of Matrimony which is the enlarging of the number of the Saints whose Communion is most liuely represented in the Lord's Supper Thirdly that they might bee effectually warned to remember the vnion of Christ and the Church his Spouse which is most plainly exhibited in the Sacrament N. By this last clause you declare that you make Matrimonie a Sacrament I. If that were true to what end should we ioine another Sacrament to it N. I will proue that you make Wedlocke a Sacrament both by the causes and by the signe The causes are the finall and formall The finall is set downe in these words of one of your Prayers which hast consecrated it to such a mysterie I. What will you proue hereby N. Two things First that by these words you create a new Sacrament Secondly that the words be arroneous Touching the first I thus reason That thing which is consecrated to such an excellent mysterie that in it is signified and represented the spirituall Marriage and Vnitie betweene Christ and his Church That thing is a Sacrament But such is the state of Matrimonie in your opinion among the Sacraments therefore to be reckoned I. Your Maior is mistaken in regard of the Consequence thereof For a thing may be consecrated to a mysterie eitherto apply it or to signifie it The former way both Water in Baptisme as also Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper are sanctified For they doe apply and conuay vnto vs the Spirit of God and consequently both Christ and his Father namely by the Vnion of Assistance In the latter sence Marriage is consecrated only to signifie the spirituall vnitie or vnion betweene Christ and his Church And this is the true cause why Matrimonie is no Sacrament as Baptisme and the Lord's Supper N. That the words be erroneous I thus proue That which was before the mysterie could not be consecrated to signifie the same But Marriage was before the mysterie of this vnion And therefore could not be so consecrated I. The Maior is like the verses of Dionysius which could not be corrected but by blotting of them all out Let your Maior be thus inuerted A thing must bee before it signifie and then it will bee true Were there not Lambes before the Passeouer Water before Baptisme Bread and Wine before the Lord's Supper Againe your Minor is vntrue For the Second Person in Trinitie was the Mediatour of the Church before the fall of man and consequently by order of nature though not of time was before Matrimonie I meane as it was a cause not as it was a thing signed For Relatiues are together in nature N. That which doth only signifie parabolically that cannot bee consecrated to signifie a mysterie vnlesse wee will imagine that euery Vine with the Branches and Head with the Members are so consecrated because they are so resembled by x John 15 1. Christ and the y 1 Cor. 12. 11. Apostle But Marriage doth only parabolically signifie this z Ephes 5. 32. mysterie Therefore we may not say that it is consecrated I. It seemeth by Saint Paul that he maketh more then a Parable thereof As before him both a Psal 45 tâ—tum Dauid and b In the Canticks Salomon yea and c Ezek 16. totum
Ezekiel had done So that it seemeth Matrimonie was consecrated by these Diuine Pens to the opening of this mysterie N. But doe you find no other consecration of Matrimonie then this I. Wee doubt not to say with Antiquitie that Euah being taken out of the side of sleeping Adam was a figure of the Church proceeding from the vertuous side of the Second Adam sleeping in Death God therefore deliuering Euah to the Man did consecrate Marriage to represent this Mysterie N. From the end I passe to the forme which in these words is set downe I pronounce that they be man and wife together In the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost Amen which differs little from the forme of Baptisme I. What call you the forme of Baptisme properly N. These words I Baptize thee in the name of the Father c. I. What Scripture haue you for this opinion N. Is it not written d Math. 28. 19. Goe teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father c I. But doth Christ command vs to vse these verie words In the name of the Father c N. So all thinke but Papists who say That this forme doth depend vpon the vertue of Tradition I. The plea of Tradition is here impertinent For tell me is not Baptisme a Sacrament Is not a Sacrament an Action Can the forme of an action be words Againe is the forme in those words I Baptize Or in these In the name of the Father To auouch the former is vaine For can the forme of Baptisme bee to Baptize The latter is as vntrue For by the Name of the Father c. is meant the Authoritie of the Trinitie By which is rather intimated an efficient cause then a forme of Baptisme N. Doe not we generally say that the Arrians erre in the forme of Baptisme because they vse thus to baptize Infants In the name of God the Father and of the Sonne a Creature And of the holy Ghost a Creature I baptize thee I. What thinke you of him that baptized an Infant In nomine Patria Filia Spirita Sancta Did hee erre in the forme of Baptisme N. No doubt his errour was in the forme of the words his Latine being not congruous yet the Baptisme was no nullitie neither might be iterated because the substance and forme were still retained I. You see then that this phrase is but meerely popular So that by forme is only meant forme of words that is a forme representatiue not reall For it is neither inward nor outward Not inward For that is the vnion of Christ's bloud with vs Not Outward For that must be Visible not Audible a Deed not a Word But were all this granted will you make euery thing a Sacrament wherein these words are vsed In the name of the Father c If Paul instead of these words I e Acts 16. 18. command thee in the name of Iesus to goe out of her had said I command thee in the name of the Trinitie had he spoken any thing vnfit or vntrue N. Nothing lesse except wee thinke that those which were baptized in the Name of Iesus f Acts 19. 5. Christ were not baptized in the Name of the Trinitie which to maintaine were little lesse then Heresie I. What then Did Saint Paul make dispossession of Deuils a Sacrament because hee vsed words equipollent to these In the name of the Father N. He did only declare by what authoritie he cast out the euill spirit I. So when we say in Matrimonie In the the name of the Father we only shew in what Name and by what Authoritie we pronounce them to be man and wife namely in the Name of that God which conioyned the first couple in the Paradise of Pleasure N. As the causes so the signe namely the â—ing shewes Marriage to be a Sacrament which being a meere humane inuention is to be exploded out of the Church I. What thinke you of the Eare-rings which g Gen. 24. 22. 30. Abrahams seruant gaue to Rebecca N. Hee thought shee should be wife to Isaake and therefore presented her with these symbols of nuptiall amitie But what Can this warrant the prophaning of the Church with a Ciuill Ring I. What conceiue you of the h Rom. 16. 16. holy kisse enioyned by the Apostle N. It was a signe of spirituall amitie and therefore vsed in the Church I. But was the signe also spirituall N. It was indeed drawne from a ciuill custome of the East yet amplified and conuerted to bee an argument of spirituall coniunction I. But yet it was commanded by the Apostle why is it not still practized in the Church N. It was not iudged so decent by reason of the contrarie custome in some parts of Europe I. By this you may vnderstand that the thing was but indifferent and mutable and yet for a time enioyned by Apostolique and Ecclesiasticall Authoritie as were also the i Acts 15. 20. 28 29. Loue Feasts and likewise abstaining from things strangled and from bloud From which last instance we thus argue Abstinencie from things strangled and from bloud were for a time necessarie by reason of the Churches iniunction And yet the same things were then but indifferent and changeable as all men doe confesse Some things indifferent therefore may by the Church bee imposed as necessarie I meane in regard of the externall order not of eternall life N. Yea but the Ring is not a thing indifferent being laden with so many mysticall significations I. That is mysticall which exceedeth naturall capacitie But the significations of the Ring are such as all men by the light of nature may obuiously vnderstand as namely that the gold doth signifie the price and puritie the roundnesse the perpetuitie the poesie the perspicuitie of loue the putting thereof vpon the fourth finger of the left hand doth represent that it is heartie because to that finger there comes an arterie from the heart These significations cannot properly be tearmed mysticall The like is to be said of the ioyning of hands Besides doe you imagine that as many mysticall senses might not be framed of the holy kisse and yet that was no cause why it should be banished out of the Church CHAP. XVIII Of Churching and Buriall N. A Consequent of Matrimonie as you pretend is the Churching and Purification of Women Against the which I thus reason Purification is a thing Iewish And therefore to be abrogated I. If your Antecedent be allayed with a limitation it will agree with the consequent like clay with iron Publique Prayer as it was Iewish and respected the Temple of Salomon doth now vtterly cease Shall we thereupon conclude that all Publique Prayer is to be prohibited In like manner wee say that Iewish Purification is indeed to be abrogated so farre forth as it is Iewish But that is impertinent to our Churching N. The end of Purification is abrogated which was the k For now