Aedes Christi in Academiâ Oxoniensi THE SECOND PART OF A PLAIN DISCOVRSE OF AN VNLETTERED CHRISTIAN WHEREIN BY WAY OF demonstration hee shevveth vvhat the reasons bee vvhich hee doth ground upon in refusing conformity to kneeling in the act of receiving the Lords Supper * ⎠* By Tho. Dighton Gent. PSAL. 119. 113. I hate vaine inventions but thy law doe I loue Printed in the yeare 1619. TO ALL FAITHFVL MINISTERS AND CHRISTIANS WHO ARE perswaded of the lawfulnes of kneeling in the act of receiving the Lords Supper grace in Christ Iesus and satisfaction by these presents AL this whole world and all the learning and wisdome thereof lies in wickednes or darknes and cannot possibly discerne or judge and find out whether any gesture be indifferent or if they were which is the fittest gesture for he that walketh in darknes knoweth not whither he goeth whither he conforme to a right gesture or to a wrong it is all oneto him Harken not then to the arguments or reasons of Darknes or of flesh bloud though all the chosen chariots of Egipt go before thē but let vs goe to the light not in the doctrine onely but in the Ceremonie also not in the substance onely but in the gesture also for no error may be conformed vnto in either and whatsoeuer is not warranted by the light must needs bee darknes yea if it come not from the truth of necessity it is erroneous and dangerous and therefore not to bee conformed vnto If then Christ bee the light of the world and his word be the onely truth in the world then whosoever followes not Christ in the gesture according to the testimony of the word walkes in darknesse and conformes to errour therein Howsoever therefore I doe with all thankefulnesse to God and due respect of you confesse and acknowledge that I doe highly reverence you with Peter yet I doe avow in the sight of God and of all his Churches that all those are worthy to be blamed who either iustifie or approue conformity to kneeling in that manner and order as it is urged and by the meaner or poorer sort refused or especially that presse it with such violence as if they would take it by force yea herein I am bold through Christ to resist you because I know Whosoever be his gifts never so excellent and admirable doth any thing in substance or in ceremony presumptnously against the apparant practise of the Apostolicall primitiue Churches grounded in the evidence of the spirit upon the plaine testimony of the inspired Scriptures being approved by Christ himselfe in the very institution and haue no warrant from the word of God for their so doing do directly blaspheme the Lord which place that I be not censured to abuse or any other at any time upon this occasion mentioned by me this once for alwayes I doe in all humility desire the godly to consider and remember that howsoever every place of Scripture hath a particular intendment or speciall respect yet in the large extent thereof as it hath relation unto all ages Churches and persons there is also and that warrantably a more generall drift and purpose directly intended though therefore I presse them not in that speciall or particular intent yet if according to the true Analogie of faith I use and urge them in the larger sence and respectiue meaning of the Holy Ghost I hope I may sasely yea in the assurance of faith iustifie that I erre not from the direct purpose of the spirit of truth As for example the Holy Ghost saith that not to heare the the voyce of Christ even in all things will harden the heart Whence I conclude from the large extent and generall scope of these places That not to heare and regard the word of God which is the voyce of Christ which plainly declares that Christ hath approued a table-gesture and no other and yet to declare and teach the people that any gesture ordained by the Church and in particular this in question is lawfull and ought onely to be conformed to or in cases of extremity may bee vndergone as a burden though Christ haue given no warrant for it I say such positions and courses taken and maintained will harden the wisest most learned best disposed and most zealous heart or hearts of the sincerest teachers and professors in the best reformed Churches in the world Againe it is said When Christ commeth hee will tell us all things the particular intent of this place concernes the publicke worship of God from the larger and generall scope whereof I hold it a most warrantable conclusion that Christ in his word hath certainly made knowne what gesture we may conforme to in the act of receiving the Lords Supper being essentially necessary in this part of his worship but in the whole Scrip. Christ hath not given approbation to any but a Table-gesture therefore no other may bee conformed unto For these things were not written for them of those times onely but for us also yea for all the churches to the end of the world Another thing I also desire not to be mistaken in namely that though I do verily beleeue and therfore confidently affirme that Conformitie to any gesture of religious vse in the worship of God being not warranted by the word is absolutly vnlawfull and sinfull yet do I not thereby Iudge or hold all Conformitants to be vile and wicked persons or that such Congregations are not the true Churches of Christ for I know it is God which works both the will and the deede euen of his good pleasure as he sees best not alike at all times nor to all persons but some shall remaine ignorant of some truths yet not to be therfore seperated from Others hate all Inventions yet not therfore to be runne after as if they were the onely true churches and salvatiō no where els to be found some I say ignorantly conforme to error others according vnto knowledge abhorre and hate all false waies and yet both of these the true Churches and faithfull servants of God Onely my desire before the Lord is to strip hypocrits of that conceite which they haue of their wisdom learning authoritie and great estimation which they haue purchased or obtained in the world for nature or the naturall man putting on the shew of grace or the name and title of the spirituall man as the Asse in the lyons skinne is presently conceated that forthwith they are Canonically holy spirituall or diuine because such traditionall titles are successiuoly compounded for thē though none in the world be more lycentious and profane then euen some of thē yea and that in these outward forms of Godlines divised by man for Gods diuine worship and service the verie substance of Religion so farre as it is outward and subiect to sence doth in a speciall or principall parte consist for they hold that no man neede or
not done in obedience it is not done in faith and then you will confesse it is sinne and then you know we may not conforme unto it though we might prevent thereby never so great and fearefull mischiefes and procure never so many benefits blessings it cannot be done in obedience of faith unlesse a commandement goe before for looke whom you obey his servants you are that therefore cannot be Gods divine service which God doth not by his divine word command or that cannot be an action of faith which is not commanded by the word and every action of religious use which is not of faith is expressely forbidden Try your selues therfore whether in conforming to kneeling in the act of receiving the Lords holy Supper you stand in the faith or no if you say you looke to God and haue powred out your soules before him as your consciences and many other can beare you witnesse and you dare appeale to him how deere your ministery is unto you and how loath you are to leaue your flockes to a company of roaring boyes or raging beasts c. I answer if you looke to God then you must look to him in his word for else whatsoever you intend he doth not intend to be God unto you if you haue not his warrant therein you do not looke to the true God no more then the Barbarian or Turke doth but do make a very Idoll of him I meane our God doth not blesse or approue of any thing of religious use in his worship as good and lawfull to bee conformed unto but onely those things which himselfe requires in his word and he that will accept of any thing which is not commanded in the word is an Idoll and not the true God for all things concerning him or his worship are onely made known to his Church by the scriptures and the Churches never erre in these things but when they want the commandement or warrant of the word the defect whereof all the learning devotion wisedom authority and zeale of the whole world cannot supply I confesse you make goodly shewes for excusing your conformity but what haue you sayd or what can you pretēd which Ieroboam would not haue accepted at the hands of those Priests who left their places and charges because they would not conform to the ceremonies of the calues And if it be lawfull in you why not in them I confesse that which you obiect that their conformity overthrew the very substance of Gods worship but not that you will not say which was inward but that only which was outward and which is required in the second commandement for the doctrine of the inward substance was in the intention of that provision preserued sound but the forme of Gods outward worship was mainly and diversly I confesse perverted and I also acknowledge that your conformity is nothing so grosse and abhominable as theirs yet this I dare say and testifie that it is of the same nature and that it corrupts and perverts this part of Gods worship in the act of receiving the body and bloud of Christ so that though they differ and differ very greatly yet it is onely in the Species and not in the Genus Without further contention therefore let us bring it to the true rule Whence doth your conformitie come It is a matter concerning Gods outward worship and divine service and so appertaining to the second commandement What must bee the cause of this for if the cause be good the effect is good faith is the cause of all true obedience and that obedience or conformity which is not an effect of faith cannot by all the trickes and devises in the world ever be made good for where the cause is there is the effect and where the effect is there is the cause the effect can never bee in truth whatsoever is conceited or pretended where the cause is not If therefore kneeling as it is urged bee an effect of faith then haue you a precept a promise for it is in the word upon which your faith is grounded and so your obedience and conformity is holy but if it bee not in this very kinde required therein it cannot possibly be an effect of faith and therefore set the best face you can upon it it is but an Idoll of mans invention and therefore conformitie thereto upon what pretence or in what case of extremity soever is unlawfull and wicked It is confessed and professed publikly by some of you that the magistrate sins greevously in requiring this conformity but yet you do well in yeelding thervnto rather then to suffer such a world of incōveniences which you wisely carfully foresee wil otherwise fall vpon Church Cōmonweale Cōpare your case with former times Dauid sinned grevously though not presūptuously as I think some of you do not in bringing the arke from Gibeah in a new Carte this Arke or outward worke the glory of Israell in this iorney was so dangerously shaken by the oxen at the threshing floore of Ornan as if Vzza had not put to his hand it was like to haue bin broken all to peeces did not Vzza cōmendably therfore in putting forth his hand to preuent such a mischeif is not this your very argument many inseparable euils cleaue to this cōsequence he was not stricken for touching the ark for that the Leuits might do but onely for the manner and order of touching it being in a cart which was not warranted by God and I tell you the best and most learned men in the whole world are but as oxen and put the Arke of Gods word into the most temperate Cart of their newest and best reformed Invention they will grieuouusly shake the verie substance of it Seing then the sacraments and whatsoeuer is sacramentall as a gesture in the act of receaving is are ordeined not by man but by God not for any worldly carnall or civill respects as to testifie our obedience to the magistrate which yet I confesse must most cheerfully be manifested but meerly and properly for spirituall vses euen to nourish our soules by sealing vp unto our hearts the assurance and certeintie of the couenant of grace in the free pardon of all our sins through the sole merit of the most pretious blood of our Lord Iesus Christ most liuely represented and truly or effectually exhibited to every faithfull beleeuer herein let vs hold fast the right order and forme of administration thereof in all the signs elementall or ceremoniall euen in all the actions gestures or ceremonies which by Christ himself in the first administration being vsed and neuer after repealed not any other by his warrant established come within the compasse of diuine institution Ieast wittingly though wee pretend vnwillingly conforming to the alteration of the signe though but ceremoniall wee depriue our selues of that which stands in relation therevnto which is substantiall The sacraments with all the essentiall properties therein together with the scepter of
height of dark ignorance from it can none diminish to assume such power is direct presumption Hath Christ sanctified a Table-gesture Come let us worship and fall downe and kneele before the Lord our Maker euen giue this honour of devising his owne worship and service both in matter and manner both in substance order to him onely to non other for his is the kingdome in devising his own service and the power in making it effectuall to his church and the glory of praise and honour for making known and exhibiting his eternall loue thereby for ever and ever Amen The Egyptians by reason of the grievous plagues which God sent amongst them were content to let Israel goe so that they would leaue their hoofes or cattell behinde them We haue thrust the Egyptians out let us send their hoofes after them lest they come to fetch them and God by a more grievous hand then ever yet we felt make us willing through experience of their blouddy cruelty to be rid of all their Reliques and Remainders whatsoever ROM 1. 16. I Am not ashamed of the Gospell of Christ saith the Apostle nor I of that gesture which the Gospell mentions that our Sauiour Christ approued in the Institution of his Supper Philip. 3. 17. Be followers of me looke on them which walke so as yee haue vs for an exsample 1. Cor. 11. 1. Be yee followers of me as I am of Christ But Christ and all his discriples vsed a table gesture and therfore vnles our adversaries can proue that they vsed some other gesture we may not followe or conforme to any other then a table gesture in the act of receaving 1. Cor. 3. 11. For other foundation can no man lay then that which is laid which is Iesus Christ We haue this foundation for the elements and for the gesture to conforme therefore to other elements or another gesture is to lay another foundation and so to follow some other Christ then our Christ or his Apostles but we haue not so learned Christ Hebr. 4. 14. Seing then wee haue such an high priest let us hold fast our profession Euen professe him to be our high preist as well in the gesture as in the elements in the ceremonie as well as in the substance 1. Cor. 11. 24. Do this in remembrance of me Master speakest thou this to vs also All actions of Institution are for Imitation 1. Ioh. 1. 6. 7. If we say we haue fellowship with him and walk in darknes whether it be in substance or in ceremonie wee lie and do not truely 1. Ioh. 2. 4. He that saith I knowe him and kepeth not his commandements is a lyar the truth is not in him Yea but how may wee know in this controversie what his commandement is Vers 5. He that kepeth his word in him is the loue of God perfect indeede hereby we knowe that we are in him And hereby we know are assured our reverent pastors are of him and our godly brethren are in him bycause they keep his commandements refuse Conformity to nothing but what is not in his word nor groūded thereon whosoeuer therefore professeth or saith he remaineth in him ought even so to walke both in substance and in Ceremonie as he hath walked Vers 6. and so haue they doone in these Controuersies neuer broaching or reviving any new commandement but the old which was from the beginning even the Word vers 7. which directs alwayes to the institution and never so much as inferrer any kinde of alteration from the same Math. 12. 50. Whosoever doth the will of my father which is in heaven the same is my brother and sister and mother Christ preferres spirituall kindred before carnall because they heare and obey the word of God And we preferre this spirituall gesture of the table being according to the Scriptures and warranted by Christs own practise in the institution before that carnall gesture of kneeling having no warrant from scripture and therefore cannot be the will of our father which is in heaven Accept my willing endevours heerein good Reader choosing rather to expose my selfe the malice of the ambitious then the light of this truth shall not be maintained All that loue the truth helpe me with your prayers DEMONSTRATIVE REASONS AGAINST conformity to kneeling in the act of receiving the Lords Supper HAVE you not read in the Scripture The stone which the Builders refused is become the head of the corner And must a Table-gesture which Christ himselfe and all his Apostles in the first institution used as the very sole foundation for all future ages to build upon bee therefore now reiected and another conformed unto as farre more seemly and significant because it pleases learned and wise men of speciall note and eminencie in the Church by profession and reputation even chiefe pillars and arch-builders to lay that imputation upon it so by their canons to conclude and determine against it I beseech you rather to to consider whether this disgracefull foundation thus openly laid upon the divine doctrine of the holy ceremony presage not though they pretend the contrary some evill intendment closely to depraue and corrupt by degrees the very heavenly substance Looke to their positions obserue their discourses compare their pretences and practises together and so proceed to sentence May any thing appropriated to religious use in the publick worship of God be prophane or carnall And are not the best devised devotions of the holiest and devoutest persons that ever were or ever possibly can be of this very nature yea doth not the Scripture usually set in direct opposition unto God himselfe whatsoever being essentially necessary in his worship as a gesture in the act of receiving is which is not ordained by God or warranted by his word stiling them with the titles of Novelty Innovation or devises imaginations of their own hearts new gods strange or other gods c. not that ever thereby in the Church especially any other Deitie was once imagined or any foundation concerning the doctrine of the blessed Trinity shaken or controverted but though they held the doctrine of the inward substance sound as Ieroboam did yet in the outward actions and ceremonies of his worship or outward manner of his service they erred not onely from the particuler directions of the ceremoniall law but from the generall scope of the second commandement viz. to serue God onely as hee requires in his word Gods worship is either inward or outward that concernes the soule and is contained in the first commandement this pertaines to the bodily exercises and is taught in the doctrines appertaining to the second commandement forbidding all other not required therein not that these may bee separated though distinguished for as soule and body make an entire person so do these two make an entire worship and neither of them can in this world be performed alone for as the inward is the life and soule of
redemption so I confesse there is difference betwixt the elementall signes bread and wine and the ceremoniall signes the actions and gestures but as the substance and the benefits or vertues are inseparable for where the one is in truth the other is also in power and that not in hypocrisie though perhaps in marvellous great weaknesse so the signes exhibiting or giving the substance or in which the substance is given or exhibited and the signe in the act of receiving or partaking the substance or by and with which the substance is taken and received may not be parted changed nor displaced least by degrees the sacrament it selfe be perverted for he that instituted one instituted all even whatsoever is sacramentall and a gesture in the act of receiving is as essentially necessary as the visible signes in giving or delivering I meane there is as absolute necessity of that as of these Now therefore if you can shew vs the like divine warrant for kneeling or any other gesture in the act of receiving as all the Christian world sees there is for a table gesture even by our Saviours owne practise and most holy and matchlesse example in the behaviour of all his Apostles we will most willingly and readily conforme unto you therein but if heaven and earth true Churches nor false or counterfet Churches cannot possibly produce such warrant conformity thereunto is not onely a most heynous sin in all that command it but a fearefull transgression in all that wittingly though unwillingly yeeld unto it The gesture as it is commanded and used in Gods service in the act of receiving is either holy or unholy though in civill actions it may be indifferent and all holinesse comes from the Lord for the Lords using or commanding any thing though it were never so vile and uncleane before makes it holy and his not using or commanding any thing makes it in his worship and service abhominable and unholy what reverend opinion soever men yea good men haue thereof Either then you must proue that kneeling as it is urged in this act of receiving comes from God and was used or commanded by him or else it is unholy though all the holy men in the world say to the contrary and then conformity thereto is unholy and sinfull Not onely the outward signes and visible substance or elements but the very outward forme and visible order also of the sacrament even a table gesture was sanctified by Christ and being never repealed nor any other by divine warrant established the sacrament being perpetuall and a gesture in the act of receiving therein essentially necessary must needs be of divine institution for it was once divine a face of brasse cannot deny it unlesse therefore you can proue it by divine warrant repealed or some other commanded it is perpetually to be observed yea no other in any case or upon any condition to be conformed unto The Church may not though civill authority for some urgent or weightie occasions neerely and deeply concerning the welfare of the whole State do approue thereof appoynt Beefe or Lambe Bacon or Veale to be used in stead of bread in the act of receiving the Sacrament nor Beare Ale Milke or Water in stead of Wine the fruit of the vine no though wee hold and teach the doctrine of the invisible things signified never so soundly and zealously and free all the poynts thereof from Popish Apostasie or other humane absurdity And may any pervert the order of delivering or receiving these unchangeable signes without a command from God as to deliver first the wine and then the bread may Christians in cases of extremity conforme to such a Canon or to vary froÌ„ the gesture of the institution either in forme or in order without a divine warrant hath not the Lord alwayes reserved this honour of devising all the parts whether actions gestures or ceremonies of his outward worship to himselfe And though hee haue given many high prerogatiues and very great preferments unto his deputies and vice gerents yet hee never imparted this to any creature but was alwayes very iealous of it as the very top of his supremacie yea doe they not by a direct consequence destroy or deny this essentiall property or attribute of God who hold and teach that the Magistâ—ate and Church may devise the visible parts or actions and gestures of Gods outward worship even those that are of absolute necessity therein as a gesture in the act of receiving is is not this the very proper and peculiar obiect of his burning and consuming iealousie Let them be consumed and destroyed then that herein rise up against him Conformity therefore in this case is the ready way to destruction It is obiected that the whole action of the Sacrament is a thâ—nksgiving and kneeling being the fittest gesture for thankesgiving doth best beseeme the whole action and therefore also this particular act of receiving The whole action cannot be said properly to be a thanksgiving though it may be safely acknowledged that in the whole action and every part thereof there is thankesgiving but the speciall end of this Sacrament is to work in us a more liuely feeling of our union with God the increase whereof he conferres in this Sacrament and onely for the effecting thereof did ordaine it and howsoever he would not haue his Disciples unthankfull in the very act of receiving so inestimable a blessing yet in his wisedom which is sufficient for our warrant and a plaine proofe that this obiection is but a drugg of human wisedom he consecrated a table gesture for them in the act of receiving and not kneeling or any other gesture proper to thanksgiving I confesse to be unthankfull is to be unfaithfull but as the proper time for preparation goes before and according to the truth and measure thereof so is the blessing so the fittest time for thankesgiving comes after the act of receiving the benefit and blessing and according to the truth and measure thereof so is the true comfort and spirituall consolation Let the practise of Christ stop the mouth of babbling â—ence and iangling reason and howsoever in respect of the soule these duties are so mixed as they cannot be one without another but are inseparably united yet there is a distinct propriety of time peculiar to every one of them the sensible manifestation whereof giues true denomination to the proper manner of their seasonable existence and visible subsisting Howsoever therefore the soule in one and the same act and instant can heare see receiue taste and be thankfull yet cannot the body possibly in one and the same act and instant performe and use proper and fit gestures to manifest and expresse the same and if it could yet the patterne of the institution proclaimes silence to all the wit and learning in the world and therefore kneeling cannot bee the fittest gesture in the act of receiving no though it should be granted that the whole action were a thankesgiving