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A66361 The chariot of truth wherein are contained I. a declaration against sacriledge ..., II. the grand rebellion, or, a looking-glass for rebels ..., III. the discovery of mysteries ..., IV. the rights of kings ..., V. the great vanity of every man ... / by Gryffith Williams. Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672. 1663 (1663) Wing W2663; ESTC R28391 625,671 469

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keep and look to thy foot when thou goest to the House of God which is as God himself expoundeth the meaning thereof unto Moses saying Put off thy shooes from thy Exod. 3. feet that is to make clean thy waies and bring no filth nor any carnall affections nor worldly desires into the House of God because The place whereon thou standest is Holy ground that is by reason of Gods gracious and speciall presence in that place where Moses stood and where God is prayed unto and praised by the Minister and Worshipped by the rest of his faithfull servants And if any man desires fuller proofs of this truth I refer him to Cardinall Bellarmin and to that excellent and Learned Sermon of Master Mede upon the 1 Cor. 11. 22. Yet I deny not but the prime Primitive Christians and the Church The prime primitive Christians had no stately Churches and why which was at Jerusalem and received that Religion that is the Faith of Christ which the Scribes and Pharisees and their laws did not allow of were constrained many times to hide their heads in desolate places and were inforced by stealth to exercise and discharge the duties of their profession in vaults and private houses where they might be most safe though the places were not sutable to their service the swords of their enemies were so sore against them But at length between times by sufferance and connivency and sometimes through favour and protection they began to be imboldened and to reare up Oratories and Churches though but simple and of mean aspect because the estates of most of them were but mean and very low as S. Paul sheweth Not many Rich not many Noble are called which was indeed a 1 Cor. 1. 26. good way to suppress the danger of malignity that looks not so much after poor estates and a good way to increase their number and propagate their design with more safety And as by this means the Church began to take root and to grow stronger and the wealthier nobler and wiser men began to be in love with the Christian Religion So then they loved nothing more than to build Churches answerable for their beauty to the d●gnity of How zealously the fi●st Christians were affected how bountifully they contributed towards the building of their Churches their Religion and for their greatness to the number of their Professors And the devotion of these Christians was so large and did so liberally contribute towards the erecting of their Churches as the Israelites in the dayes of Bezaliel did chearfully present their Gifts and Free-will-offerings towards the setting up of the Tabernacle no man was backward and no man a niggard in this work which they conceived to be so profitable and so necessary for them to do and that in two special respects 1. The good that is effected 2. The evils that are prevented by the publick meeting of the people in these Churches 1. The meeting of the Congregation publickly in a lawful place and a The double benefit that we reap by our coming to the Publick meeting in the Church 1. Benefit consecrated Church assures them they offend not the Laws either of God or man and so secures them from all blame and prevents the occasion to traduce and to suspect the lawfulnesse of the holy Duties that we perform when as Veritas non quaerit angulos Truth and the performance of just things and holy actions need not run and hide themselves in private hidden and unlawful places but may shew themselves and appear so publickly as they might not be subject to any the least unjust imputation 2. The meeting in a publick consecrated Church and not in a private 2. Benefit Conventicle escapes those dangerous plots and machinations that are very often invented and contrived in those Conventicles that are vailed for that purpose under the mantle and pretence of Religion And it freeth the comers unto the Church from those seditious Doctrines and damnable Divinity which the Sectaries and Hereticks do scatter and broach in those unlawful Conventicles which are the fittest places for them to effect their wicked purpose and must needs be sinful and offend both God and man because they are contrary to the Laws both of God and man Whenas the coming unto the Church quits my conscience from all fear of offending because that herein I do obey and do agreeable to the Laws both of God and man And who then that hath any dram of wit would not avoid private and forbidden meetings and go to serve God unto the publick Church which is the House of God erected and dedicated for his Service CHAP. X. The Answer to the Two Objections that the Fanatick-Sectaries do make 1. Against the Necessity And 2ly against the Sanctity or Holiness of our Material Churches which in derision and contemptuously they call Steeple houses ANd yet for all this and all that we can say for the Church of God I find Four sorts of Objections that are made by our Fanaticks and 4 Sorts of Objections against our Material Churches Skenimastices against our Material Churches As 1. Against the Necessity 2. Against the Sanctity 3. Against the Beauty Glory 4. Against the impurity Impiety of them 1. They do object there is no Necessity of any Material House or Church 1. Objection against the necessity that we have no need of Churches of God for his servants to meet in to serve God because the woman of Samaria discoursing with Christ about the place where God would be worshipped Whether in that Mountain where the Fathers worshipped or in Hierusalem which as the Jews said was the place where men ought to worship Our Saviour tells her plainly They worshipped they knew not what for the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet in Hierusalem worship the Father but the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth because God is a Spirit and they that worship John 4. 20 23. him must worship him in Spirit and in truth and such worshippers the Father seeks and such he loves And therefore so we have clean hearts and pure consciences and worship God with our souls and spirits faithfully to pray unto him and to praise his Name it is no matter for the place where we do it in a Church or in a Barn because God looks rather to the inward heart than to the outward place where we stand To this I answer Maledicta glossa quae corrumpit textum and our Saviours Sol. words gives them no colour to extort such consequences and to draw such conclusions from them for the words are plain enough that although formerly before Moses his time Jacob had a Well near Sichar and he with the other Fathers worshipped God in that Mountain and afterwards God required them to worship him in the place that he should chuse to put his Name there which after the time of David and
the building of his Temple by Solomon was to be Hierusalem and no where else to perform the commanded Publick Service of God under the punishment of cutting off that soul from his people that should do otherwise Yet the hour cometh and now is that is coming or beginning to come that the partition-Wall betwixt the Jews and the Gentiles shall be broken down and the bounds and borders of Gods Church and the true worshippers of God shall be inlarged and they may lawfully without offence worship God not only in Jury where God was only formerly known aright but also in all the Nations and in any Kingdom of the World so they worship him in spirit and in truth as they ought to do But here is not one syllable intimating that they should not or needed not to meet to serve God in the Publick Church but that whensoever and wheresoever in any Kingdom of the Earth they should gather themselves together in the Publick Church to worship God they should worship him in spirit and in truth otherwise their worship is to no purpose and will avail them nothing though they should do i● publickly in the Church This is the true meaning of our Saviours words 2. We have another sort of Sectaries that yield it requisite and convenient Obj. 2 for the Saints and servants of God to meet and gather themselves together for the Service of God and do acknowledg the great benefits that may accrew and be obtained in a Congregation rather than by any single person but they think there is no necessity of their meeting in a Material Church or a Steeple-house as they call it rather than in a house or a chamber or a barn or any other place where they shall appoint to meet because God hath made all places and there is no reall Sanctity in any one place more than in any other but the sanctity or holiness must be in the hearts of the men and not in the place which is not capable of any sanctity and therefore it is rather our superstition than Gods injunction to require and command men to come to such Material Churches as to the more sanctified places rather than to such private houses where these Saints do publickly meet to serve God To make a full Answer to this their Objection you must understand Sol. that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy is derived from the privative particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth the Earth as if to be holy were nothing else but to be pure and clean and separated from all earthly touch And it is taken two wayes 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simply Holiness taken two wayes 1. Way 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In some respects And 1. Way God only is Holy and the Author of all Holiness and as the Blessed Virgin saith Holy is his Name And therefore those Seraphims which Esaias saw and those wonderous creatures which S. John saw did Esay 6. 3. Apoc. 4. 8. cry Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts three times together which we do not read of any other Attribute of God And the Lord himself in that golden Pla●e that was to be on Aarons forehead caused these words to be ingraven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holiness is of the Lord as Tremellius reads it or Sanctum Domino Holiness belongeth to the Lord as the Vulgar hath it 2. Way Many other things are stiled holy by communication of holiness 2. Way and receiving their holiness from this Fountain of Holiness And so 1. The Man Christ Jesus 2. The faithful Members of Christ 3. The Outward Professors of the Christian Religion 4. All things Dedicated and that have relation to God Service as Times Persons Places and Things are termed holy sanctitate relativa 1. The Man Christ is perfectly and singularly Holy as Beda saith And that 1. By reason of his Hypostatical union with the Godhead 2. By reason of the most perfect qual●ity of Holiness impressed by the Holy Ghost into his Humanity 2. The true Members of Christ are truly styled holy by reason of that holiness which the Holy Spirit of God worketh in them and they practise in their lives and conversations 3. All those that do outwardly profess the holy Religion of Jesus Christ are called Saints by the holy Apostles and so they are in respect of all Rom. 1. others that either do prophane abuse or neglect the same 4. All the things that are Consecrated by the prayers of the Bishop for the Service of God and those things that are Dedicated and given for the furtherance and maintenance of God's Worship as Lands Houses and the like are by a relative sanctity rightly termed holy things because they are separated and set apart as S. Paul saith of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for holy uses to bring men to holiness to honour serve and worship God that is Holiness it self And in this respect we say that the very ground walls windows and timber of the Material Church that are set forth Dedicated and Consecrated for God's Service are holy things not by any inherent reall sanctity infused into them but by a relative holiness ascribed and appropriated unto them by their Dedication and Consecration for God's Worship which makes them more holy and so to be deemed than all other earthly things whatsoever And though I will not lose my time and waste my paper to shew the folly and vanity of that ridiculous deduction of the Confuter of Will. Apollonius Grallae pag 29. in the 29. page of his Grallae against secondary or dependent holiness yet I will justifie the holiness and religious reverence that we owe and should render unto all the Material Churches that are Consecrated for Divine-Service against all prophaners of them Independents and Fanaticks whatsoever And for the satisfaction of every good and sober man that is not drunk with a prejudicate conceit against God's House I shall desire him to look into 2 Chron. 3. 1. and chap. 6. where he may find the Consecration of God's House and the prayer that Solomon made at the Consecration of it and the benefits the manifold benefits that they should reap which served God in that House And if he reads over that Chapter at his leisure and read it often and then seriously consider it and withal remember that of this House and the like Consecrated places that are Dedicated for God's Worship the Lord himself saith My House shall be Esay 56. 7. Matth. 21. 1● Jerem. 7. 10. Psal 132. 15. called the House of prayer for all people and our Saviour Christ confirmeth the same that the Church which is the Publick place or place of Publick Prayers is rightly called the House of God and the House which is called by his Name and of which he saith This shall be my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have a delight therein Will he not confess that Gods House
the whole Kingdom into my hands then they do all answer We are willing to do all this And then he saith again Therefore from hence-forth oris mei sermo gladius meus erit the word of my mouth shall be the sword of my power then all the people do applaud him And a little after he saith in ejus manibus seu potestate omnia sunt all things are in his hands and power no Aubarus l. 8. p. 141. man dare say this is mine or that is his no one man may dwell in any part of the Land but in that which is assigned unto him by the King Nomini licèt imperatoris verba mutare nomini latae ab illo sententiae qualicunque modo contraire and no man dares alter the Kings words nor gain say his sentence whatsoever it is And we read that the Turk is as absolute in his Dominions and as readily obeyed in his commands as the Tartar and yet these Subjects learn this duty of honour and obedience unto their Kings onely by the light of nature and if grace and the Gospel hath made us free from this slavish subjection should we not be thankful unto our God and be contented with that liberty which he hath given us but because we have so much we will have more * And as the Poet saith Like Subjects arm'd the more their Princes gave They this advantage took the more to crave Lucan lib. 1. and seeing God hath delivered us from the rage of tyrannous Kings we will free our selves from all government and disobey the commands of the most ●l●ment Princes We may remember the fable of the Frogs where they prayed unto Jupiter to haue a King and what was the success thereof omnia dat qui just a negat and he that undutifully denyeth his due obedience may unwillingly be forced to undue subjection as the Israelites not contented with just Samuel shall be put under an unjust Saul So God may justly deal with us for our injustice towards our King to deny that honour unto him which God commanded to be given and the very Heathens have not detained from their Kings But 3. ●est with Saint Paul we should be blamed though unjustly for bringing 3. Christians the uncircumcised Greeks into the Temple for alleadging the disorderly practice of blinde Heathens to be a pattern for these zealous Christians which thing notwithstanding our Saviour did when he preferred Sodom and Gomorrha before Capernaum yea Tyrus and Sidon before Corazin and Bethsaida we Matth. 11. 21. cannot want the example of good Christians and a multitude of most holy Martyrs 1. Christ himself exhibited all due honour unto wicked kings to shame the practice of these prophane hypocrites For 1. Christ himself the authour and the finisher of our faith never left any plainer mark of his religion then to propagate the same by patience as on the other side there cannot be a more suspitious sign of a false Religion then to enlarge it and protect it by violence and therefore when the Inhabitants of a certain Samaritane village refused to admit Christ and his Disciples into their Luke 9. 54. 1 Reg. 18. 2 Reg. 1. Town and so renounced him and his Religion James and John two principal members of his Court remembring what Elias did in the like case asked if they should not command fire to consume them as Elias did that is if they should not use their best endeavours and be confident of Gods assistance to destroy those prophane rejecters of Christ and refusers of his religion Our Saviour though ever meeke yet now moved at this their unchristian thought rebuked them with that sharpness as he did Saint Peter when he committed the like errour and said You know not what manner of spirit you are of as if he had said Matth. 16. 23. you understand not the difference betwixt the profession of Elias and my religion for he was such a Zelot that jure zelotarum and the extraordinary instinct of Gods spirit that was in him might at that time when the Jews were governed by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus saith and God presiding as it were their King amongst them and interposing rules by his Oracles and other particular directions that should oblige and warrant them as well as their standing Law do this or the like act though not authorized by any ordinary Law and those actions thus performed are as just and as legal as any other that proceed from the authority of the supreame Magistrate but that dispensation of the Prophets is now ended and the profession of my Disciples must be far otherwise for I do not authorize my servants to pretend to the spirit of Elias or to do as Phineas and others extraordinary men among the Jews have done but they must learn of me to be meeke and lowly in heart and rather to suffer wrong of Matth. 11. 29. others then to offer the least injury unto their meanest neighbour much less to resist their supreame Magistrate And when Christ was apprehended not by any legal power of the supreme How Christ carried himself before Pilate and the High-Priests Magistrate but by the rude servants of the High Priests and Saint Peter as zealous for his Master as our Zealots are for their Religion drew his sword and smote off Malchus ear a most justifiable and commendable act a man would think to defend Christ and in him all Christianity our Saviour bids him put up his sword and he adds a reason most considerable to all Christians for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword that is all they that without lawful authority take the sword to defend me and my religion with the sword they deserve to suffer by the sword and it is very well observed by the Author of resisting the lawful Magistrate upon colour of religion that the two parallel places Pag. 6. quoted in the margent of our Bibles are very pertinent to this purpose for that Law concerning the effusion of bloud being not any prohibition to the legal Gen. 9. 6 cutting off of Malefactors is notwithstanding urged against S. Peter to shew that his shedding of bloud in defence of religion was altogether illegal and prohibited by that Law and the other place where immediately after these words He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword the Holy Revel 13. 10. Ghost adjoyneth here is the patience and the faith of the Saints doth most clearly shew that all forcible resistance is inconsistent with the religion of the Saints because their faith must be ever accompanied with their patience and it is contrary to their profession to save themselves by any violent opposition of them that have the lawful authority But that example which is unparallel'd is the suffering of Christ under Pontius Pilate for the whole course of their proceeding against Christ was illegal when as no Law can be