Domino crucifixo mortuo discipulis fugientibus de resurrectione desperantibus in illâ solâ tota fides remansit Because the Disciples being fled and despairing of the Resurrection when they saw their master was dead the whole Christian faith remained in the blessed Virgin alone specially that day wherein Christ himself lay in the grave that was the Sabbath day or Saturday as if he had been captivated under death The foundation is unsound and so is the superstruction But we are sure whatever the Disciples frailty was in our Saviours Passion yet their zeal and constancy were both very eminent after his resurrection For then they attended diligently and constantly upon their master till they saw him taken up from them and they lost nothing by their diligent and their constant attendance For his Valediction was a Benediction as he left them he blessed them A good example for us how we ought to leave this world though never so injurious to us never so oppressive of us for a Benediction is the only true Christian Valediction and there is no ascending into heaven without that They who part and go away hence in discontents and grudgings which are but secret curses of the heart against God or man can scarce go to heaven by Christs assistance because they desire not to go thither after his example But let their names be enrolled in the records of eternity who notwithstanding all the provocations and insolencies of unjust and unrighteous men have died with more patience and contentedness then we dare live Sure even they also did see Christ in his Ascention though so many hundred years after it or they could not so exactly have followed his pattern But whatever we may think or say of them sure we cannot deny but some others did see it full as many hundred years before as Moses Deut. 33. 26. Ascensor coeli auxiliator tuus He that ascendeth the heavens iâ— thy helper for not only Saint Hierom but also Jarchi so expounds those words And David Psal 47. 7. Ascendit Deus in jubilatione God is ascended with a shout Nay many more it seems did see this Ascention together with him upon whom he calls earnestly to glorifie God for it Psalm 68. 4. O sing unto God and sing praises unto his name magnifie him that rideth upon the heavens as it were upon an horse what could the Apostles say more when they saw our Saviour triumphantly sitting upon the cloud and so ascending up Praise him in his name yea and rejoyce before him Concerning which places the Angelical Doctor hath thus determined Quòd autoritates illae propheticè dicuntur de Deo secundum quod erat incarnandus 3. p. qu 57. art 2. ad 1m Those authorities were spoken prophetically of God the Son in respect to his Incarnation And a more truly Angelical Doctor did in effect so determine long before him and that was Saint Paul when he applyed those words of Psalm 68. 18. Thou art gone up on high thou hast led captivity captive c. directly and expresly to the ascension of our Saviour Christ Thus were there many witnesses of our blessed Saviours Ascension long before it come to pass and therefore certainly that truth and consquently the rest tending to it may not want its witnesses to the worlds end This is clearly evidenced from Saint Pauls words who saith that when he ascended he gave gifts unto men that there should be a succession of witnesses to testifie of him till his coming again for this is the effect of those words Eph. 4. 11 12. He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ The meaning is that the testimony of his Truth should not expire with the first witnesses of it but should continue by a succession of other witnesses to the worlds end even as long as there should be a Church to be edified or Saints to be perfected or the work of the Ministry to be performed Let these men consider whether they come not near denying Christs Ascension who do in effect deny the Apostles proof it He proves that Christ was ascended because he had established a Ministry they say there is no no need of a Ministry they were as good say That Christ is not ascended Again others there are that will have a Ministry but yet set up new officers in it or with it for the edifying of the body of Christ which Christ himself never instituted at his ascension and reject those which were of his own undoubted institution These men ought not to obtrude upon the Church any office as of Christs erecting that is not comprehended among those in this Text since they cannot shew us another Ascension much less ought they to disturb some of those which Christ himself then erected and his Church hath ever since acknowledged and retained unless they will be thought disturbers of this Article of their Christian faith He ascended into heaven For that institution cannot be only for a time which hath a reason that continues for ever And such is the reason here given by Saint Paul for instituting these Church-officers to wit The perfecting of the Saints the work of the Ministry and the edifying of the body of Christ A reason which is to hold till the end of the world and therefore doubtless so also must the Institution But we may â—ot stray away from our Mount Gerizim on which not the Sons of men but the eternal Son of God hath blessed us to follow after those whose delight is to be upon Mount Ebal to revile and to curse their Brethren nay their Mother the Church Let us then fix our eyes and our hearts upon our blessed Saviour for though one cloud received him out of his Disciples sight whiles he was ascending yet not all the clouds nor the whole body of heaven was able to keep Saint Stephen from seeing him after he was ascended for so we read Acts 7. 55. But he being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God what he did then see with the eye of flesh we may still see with the eye of faith especially if with him we suffer couragiously and contentedly and not only so but also thankfully for Jesus sake we shall with him likewise see Jesus standing on the right hand of God Behold I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God v. 56. Adstantem ad dexteram Dei i. e. Paratum ad me confirmandum in veritatis confessione recipiendum ad sese saith Beza I see him standing that is ready to confirm me in the confession of his truth and as ready to receive me for confessing it And he borrowed this his gloss from Saint Gregory in his Sermon upon the Ascension
those Presbyters of the Church of Ephesus were as much ordained and appointed by men as any can be of any Church till the worlds ends supposing they be rightly ordained to whom yet the Apostle saith Take heed unto all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers Act. 20. 28. For the ordination of Ministers though it is by man yet is it not of men but of God even as also is the Gospel which they are ordained to preach so that to resist them and their Doctrine is not to resist men but God so said he who first ordained Ministers of the Gospel and still assisteth them in their ministrations He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Luk. 10. 16. How shall any man go on this errand without Gods sending when the eternal word himself would not preach till he was sent How shall any man despise those whom the Word hath sent and not despise the Word that sent them and the Father that sent the Word And how shall any man despise the Father and the Son and not grieve the Holy Spirit who proceedeth from them So impossible is it for any to despise the Church which God hath set over him and not sin against God the Father Son and Holy Ghost For the argument is à minori ad majus if it be dangerous to despise one much more to despise all if to undervalue a Disciple much more an Apostle For as the Apostles had a greater trust then the 70. Disciples so hath every National Church which is as it were the grand Apostle of its Nation a greater trust then any particular Bishop or Presbyter of the same and the Church now hath that trust as the Apostles first had it from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Saint Paul saith of himself but doubtless he saith it for more then himself that he was an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God that is of God the Father 1 Tim. 1. 1. Saint Luke saith of him that t was God the Son even Jesus our blessed Saviour who called him to be an Apostle who said unto him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and who said of him He is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and Kings and the Children of Israel Acts 9. 4 15. The same Saint Luke saith in another place that he was called to the Function of the Apostleship by the commandment of God the Holy Ghost Act. 13. 2. The Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereto I have called them Which variety of expression doth not only verifie that common axiome of Divinity Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa The works of the blessed Trinity in regard of any external product are indivisible so that what is externally done by one person is done by all But it doth also testifie the great trust which was laid upon every one of the Apostles in that he received his commission from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost And as this trust hath since been and still is derived to the Church so it hath been and is derived by the same glorious and blessed Trinity Whereby we see the large Exposition that is to be given to those words he that heareth you heareth me Luk. 10. 16. for it is all one as if it had been said he heareth God he heareth the Son of God he heareth the Spirit of God Wherefore supposing that this national Church wherein we live is as Gods Apostle to this Nation no sectary can justly pretend to God or Christ no Enthusiast can justly pretend to the Spirit of God and Christ why he should not hearken to the dictates and follow the directions of this Church which God and Christ and the Spirit of God and Christ hath set over him I find in the antient Calenders on the twenty sixth of May this Title Augustini Anglorum Apostoli The feast of Saint Augustine the Apostle of the English He was looked upon as one that had planted the Christian Faith amongst us and was therefore in the judgement of the Latine Church esteemed and called our Apostle I will not dispute the ground but only admit the Title for if one single Priest or Bishop was not unfitly called the Apostle of our Nation Then much more may a whole company of Bishops and Presbyters be so called and ought to be so esteemed who have more generally propagated more firmly established and more carefully preserved amongst us the true Christian Faith It is Saint Pauls own argument to the Corinthians If I be not an Apostle unto others yet doubtless I am to you for the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord 1 Cor. 9. 2. As if he had said no Embassadour can more justifie his trust and his authority by his Princes seal annexed to his Credential letters then I can justifie my Apostleship towards you in that by my preaching you have been converted to the Lord and are confirmed in him what Saint Paul was to the Corinthians in bringing them to the knowledge and to the communion of Christ to the knowledge of Christ by preaching the word to the communion of Christ by administring the Sacraments that our Church hath been and still is to us And therefore what Saint Paul said to the Crinthians that our Church may justly say to us Since these things were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come 1 Cor. 10. 11. If I be not an Apostle unto others yet doubtless I am to you For the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord Though others may pretend they have some cause to doubt the trust and the authority of our Church as if she had not a true succession of Ministers which in truth is but a meer pretence or rather a cavil as the learned Mason hath sufficiently demonstrated and should be least objected by them who will have the whole Church depend upon the Pope and cannot deny that they have had many and long lived Anti-popes to disturb their succession yet sure we our selves can neither have cause nor pretence to doubt it since we cannot reasonably deny but our Church hath a true succession of Doctrine so that for us who have not only the speculative but also the practical the experimental knowledge of the Gospel unless we have been grosly wanting to our selves and impiously wanting to our Saviour for us I say to doubt of our Church is little other then to doubt of our Religion as if that either had not come from Christ or could not bring us to Christ and keep us with him For there can be no doubt of the Embassadours authority if there be no doubt of his Princes seal and if we our selves be not the seal of our Churches Apostleship in the Lord the fault is meerly our own t is because we would not
the difference of opinion concerning this sacrifice such was also the difference in the ordination of those men who were appointed to offer it For the manner of ordination in the Greek Church supposed the man ordained only as a Minister to the administration of the sacrament for the Bishop that ordained him put the consecrated bread into his hand saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Take this holy thing committed to your charge and keep it till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ when he will call you to an account how you have disâ—osed of it This man so ordained had delivered to him the Trust and charge only of a Sacrament But the manner of ordination in the Latine Church supposeth the man ordained as a Priest to the offering of a Sacrifice for the Bishop that ordained him put the Communion plate and chalice into his hand saying Accipe potestatem offerre Sacrificium Deo Missamque celebrare tam pro vivis quam pro defunctis in nomine Domini c. Receive the power of offering a Sacrifice to God and of celebrating the Mass both for the quick and the dead in the name of our Lord c. And agreeable to this is the benediction of the Presbyters after this ordination in the same Church Benedictio Dei omnipotentis Patris filii spiritus Sancti descendat su er vos ut sitis benedicti in ordine sacerdotali oâ—feratis placabiles hostias pro peccatis atque offensionibus populi c. The blessing of God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost descend upon you that you may be blessed in the order of Priests and offer acceptable sacrifices for the sins and offences of the People Pontifical Rom. Venetiis editum An. 1561. This man so ordained had delivered to him the trust and charge not of a Sacrament but of a sacrifice But in the ordination of the Church of England and some other Protestant Churches the Bishop saith to him that he ordains Receive the Holy-Ghost whose sins you forgive they are forgiven whose sins you retain they are retained but be thou a faithfull dispencer of the word of God and of his holy sacraments in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy-Ghost This man so ordained hath delivered unto him the trust and charge of no sacrifice but only of the Sacraments and also of the word and it were to be wished that those whom it nothing concerns would neither invade nor disturb this trust especially since it is so exactly agreeable with the Text which in all the new Testament hath not recommended to the Church the trust and charge of a Sacrifice but only of the Word and Sacraments And it can be no shame for us to confess that in the judgement of our Church the holy Eucharist is a Sacrament not a Sacrifice unless it be in a mystical sense a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving or in a figurative sense a commemoration or representation of a sacrifice but by no means a repetition of Christs corporal sacrifice since the Apostle hath expresly said concerning that We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all Heb. 10. 10. According to which our Church doth believe and profess in different words the very same truth saying That Christ made upon the cross by his one oblation of himself once offered a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world and I will ever rejoice in this belief and profession since he that hath made a full satisfaction for the sins of the whole world hath not left his father unsatisfied only for my sins CAP. IV. Christ admired in his Application SECT I. Christ in his Propitiation and Satisfaction doth not benefit us without a particular Application TRuly to know Christ is truly to know the whole Christian Faith as hath been said For truly to know Christ in his person is to know the Christian Faith in the ground or substance of it And truly to know Christ in his Propitiation Satisfaction Application is to know the Christian Faith in the power or vertue of it Accordingly Saint Paul is not content to know Christ only in his Person saying that I may know him but he will also know him in his Propitiation Satisfaction and Application saying and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil. 3. 10. To know Christ in the power of his resurrection is to know him in his propitiation for he was delivered for our offences and raised again for our Justification Rom. 4. 25. To know Christ in the fellowship of his sufferings is to know him in his satisfaction whereby he slaked body for body soul for soul in our stead that he might satisfie for all the sins both of our bodies and of our souls And to know Christ so as to be made conformable to his death is to know him in his Application for we cannot apply the merit of his death till we be conformed to it by dying unto sin and rising again to newness of life for the Application of Faith doth no less require that man apply himself to God by holâ—ness of conversation then that he apply God unto himself by strength of perswasion And truly the one cannot be without the other since it is impossible for that man to lay hold on Gods promise of mercy who looks not after the conditions on which it is promised to wit a hearty repentance of his sins and an amendment of his sinful life for Gods promises of mercy are not made to all sinners but only to penitent sinners so that where is no true repentance there can be no true faith and where is true repentance there cannot be too much for if man perform his part of the Covenant of grace he may assure himself that God will perform his part nay he must assure himself so unless he will remain in the state of infidelity For a true and lively faith is a full perswasion of the heart grounded upon the promises of God that whatsoever Christ hath done or suffered for the salvation of man he hath done and suffered for me as well as for others And I must never be satisfied with my self nor think I am in a good state or condition till I have gotten such a faith as will give me such a perswasion For the satisfaction of Christ in general will afford me but little comfort without the application thereof in particular to mine own soul Wherefore my labour must be to put my self in such a condition that though I cannot but think my self unworthy of the invaluable blessing of this satisfaction yet I may not think much less make my self uncapable of it SECT II. The ground of that application iâ— Christs threefold conjunction with us in his person in his nature and in his office from which proceedeth the marriage of the soul with Christ I
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pascha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 herba amara 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Azymus Their Annuntiation belonging to the Passeover was how God passed their Fathers over that night wherein he destroyed the first born of the Egyptians Their annuntiation belonging to the bitter herbs was of their Fathers grievous servitude and bondage in Egypt which made even their lives bitter unto them And their annuntiation belonging to the unleavened bread was their happy and sudden deliverance from that bondage for the Egyptians were so urgent upon the people that they took their dough before it was leavened their kneading troughs being bound up in their cloathes upon their shoulders Exod. 12. 24. We had at the same time a much greater deliverance and why should we have a less Annuntiation For where the mercy it self is much greater why should the memorial thereof be so much less God gives a signal intimation to the Jew Exod. 12. 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haec ista non illa This is that very night as if there were not demonstrative pronouns enough to shew that this mercy was to be as particular in their thankful commemoration as it had been in Almighty Gods free donation And Saint Paul seems to speak as signally to the Christian when he saith The same night that he was betrayed 1 Cor. 11. 23. as if he would not have us forget the particular time when he cometh so near the very words of Moses This is that very night to be observed to the Lord And indeed why should not we keep a Christian Passeover as well as a Christian Sabbath were they not both alike feasts of the Jews and as so are they not both alike abolished by the Apostle Gal. 4. 10. saying ye observe daies and moneths and times and years I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you labour in vain A Jewish observation of daies which observes daies for themselves is without doubt destructive of Christianity for it places Religion in things meerly ceremonial Not so a Christian observation of daies for duties for that places Religion only in morals Again why hath not the Christian Church as good Authority if not as justifiable warrant to observe an Anniversary as it hath to observe a Weekly festival as well the feast of the Christian Passeover once a year as the feast of the Christian Sabbath once a week for both are alike recommended in the Law and neither is directly commanded in the Gospel and we may not add to Gods commands no more then we may take from them nor may we think the New Testament defective in any necessary command or doctrine unless we will advance Judaism above Christianity Therefore since it will pose the best Divine in Christendom to shew that Text in the New Testament which commandeth the observation of a Sabbath and we cannot run to the letter of the fourth Commandment to keep the first day in stead of the seventh we must be contented in this case with the general equity of the Law and that gives the Church power to consecrate Annual as well as Weekly Festivals to the honour of God and condemneth our profaness in neglecting our perversness in despising the one as well as the other Besides it is evident we cannot or if we can sure the Apostles could not keep a Lords day all the year but as a repetition of Easter-day which was the first Lords day even the very day of his resurrection wherefore we must either say it is a Jewish not a Christian Sabbath or say it is a Lords day from the great Lords day the day of our Lords resurrection For though Saint John telling us He was in the Spirit on the Lords day pointeth clearly at our Sunday the weekly remembrance of Christs resurrection and not at Easter-day the annual remembrance of it because in those Churches of Asia to which he writ Easter-day was not yet confined to the first but might be kept on any other day of the week yet without doubt he called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day for that it was a weekly repetition of that very day which our Lord had consecrated to himself by rising from the dead called for that reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Lords day by the primitive Christians And shal we then not think it worth our notice that our blessed Saviour himself chose such a time for his Passion and Resurrection as by the unerring Characters of heaven might be exactly observed all the world over to the worlds end were it so that our Civil year were made agreeable with the Tropical or that the Catholick Church of Christ in its first and purest age would have been so careful to find out and so zealous to settle the time of this Festival if the Fathers of these blessed ages which were less quarrelsom but more pious then any have been since had not thought it highly concerned the honour of Christ and the propagation and justification of the Christian Religion Surely we cannot easily more gratifie the Jews then by putting down the memory of that time wherein they crucified Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh nor can we more easily scandalize good Christians then by putting down the memorial of that time wherein he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 3 4. And God deliver his Church from such practises as are fit to gratifie Jews but to scandalize good Christians SECT IV. Of the antient contention about the observation of Easter That the Apostles zeal more about Duties then about Daies doth not overthrow the observing of particular daies in the service of God And that those daies ought to be observed by Preaching Praying Administring of the Sacrament and also by Almes-deeds So that false administration sc of the Holy Eucharist in one kind and false Devotions and false Doctrine and sordid illiberality in not relieving the poor are allâ— alike Profanations of a Festival FAmous was the controversie betwixt Policrates and Victor the one Bishop of Ephesus the other Bishop of Rome concerning the celebrating of Easter-day For the Churches of Asia would needs keep the very day of the first full moon in Spring conceiving the Apostles condescention to the Iew to have been a dogmatical sanction to the Christian but the Western Churches who had no conversation with the Iews and therefore were not moved through compliance with them at first to forsake their Christian liberty and at last the Christian truth for the Quartadeciâ—… were in proâ—ess of time declared Hereticks would not keep the very day of that full Moon but the Sunday after it for their Easter-day the learned Scaliger gives this reason for their difference The Jewish Converts following their old custom kept still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Passeover in remembrance of Christs Passion
life which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ I doubt not but the Church might for her liberty have changed more of those Collects then she thought fit to change but infinitely bless God that she valued her Christian charity above her Christian liberty so that she hath never at all changed but for the better not desiring to depart from other Christians but only to come nearer to our Saviour Christ And truly when the Contest was once broached between the Church and the Scriptures in point of authority the most unhappy Contest that ever was broached among Christians for some Church men by laying aside the Authority of Christ did in effect teach other men to lay aside the authority of the Church I say when this unhappy Contest was once broached between the Church and the Scriptures in point of Authority it was high time for our Church to cleave to the Scriptures that she might profess her desire and intention of remaining truly Christian wherein she did but follow Saint Peters own example saying Lord to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of eternal life John 6 68. For surely our blessed Saviour did not bring down with him the words of eternal life to carry them back again to heaven but to leave them here on Earth and where hath he left them if not in the holy Scriptures Wherefore since Christ himself alledged the Scriptures to confirme the Apostles in their faith who yet believed because they had seen him with their their own eyes John 20. 29 How shall any Christian Church deny the People to read the Scripture c. and not hinder the confimation of their faith in Christ For when the Church hath done all that she can to make true believers she must confess that their faith doth not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2. 5. and that the word of God is the chiefest instrument of his Power according to that of the holy Apostle For the word of God is quick and powerfull and sharper then any two edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4. 12. In which words the Spirit of God setteth forth the excellency of the word of God from its nature and from its effects from its nature that it is quick and powerfull neither a dull nor a dead letter but quick in motion and powerfull in operation from its effects that it pierceth that it devideth that it discerneth the thoughts and intents of the Heart Piercing the thoughts by entring into the botom of our hearts to make us sound and sincere Christians against Hypocrisie Dividing the thoughts by separating good from evil Truth from falshood in our Religion to make us Orthodox Christians against Heresie and discerning the thoughts by shewing us the first truth and the chiefest good in our religion to make us firm and constant Christians against Apostasie For that man never yet discovered Christ in his Religion who could be perswaded to fall away from it He was at the best but a divider of the truth from falshood He was not a Discerner of the first Truth in that Truth which he professed for then he would have been immovable in his Profession Wherefore if you would indeed perswade or rather tempt me for t is properly a temptation which induceth to evil to leave the Scriptures that I may cleave to the Church you must first be able to shew so much in behalf of the Church as is here said in behalf of the Scriptures or you were as good perswade and tempt me to quit my reason that I may get Religion or to cease to be a man that I may begin to be a Christian SECT II. The Apparition to above five hundered at once cleared And Christ considered in his Instructions before he ascended That these Instructions are more particularly to be observed as more directly conducing to the Constitution and the Conservation of his Church Those Instructions briefly explained as they are set down Mat. 28. 19 20. THE proper work of a Christian is to consider and contemplate his Saviour Christ in all his sayings and in all his doings for never any speak like him who was the eternal word of God never any did like him who was the eternal son of God but more particularly in those which come neerest his Ascention for all those his sayings and doings do more immediately and directly concern the Constitution and the conservation of his Church it pleasing the blessed Redeemer and lover of Souls to give his special directions and instructions to his holy Apostles when he was even now to be taken away from them that so he might leave behind him in their minds the stronger impressions of his all-saving Truth and the greater assurance and perswasions of his everlasting love Wherefore though no one word that ever our blessed Saviour was pleased to speak either concerning his love towards us or our duty towards him should be let fall to the ground without our observation because he was so much our friend yet the words that he spake last of all should most diligently be received most carefully retained and most conscionally regarded because they were the words not only of a loving but also of a parting friend and by consequent such words as should both represent him and comfort us during his absence though never so long and keep him in our remembrance till his coming again when he will undoubtedly exact a severe account both of the Ministers of the people how they have observed those words For this cause though our blessed Saviour did after the day of his Resurrection make five more apparitions before his Ascension as that after eight dayes when S. Thomas was now with the rest of the Apostles Joh. 20. 26. And that to his Disciples who went a fishing Joh. 21. 4. And that to his eleven disciples on the mountain in Galilee Mat. 28. 16. And those two spoken of by S. Paul which are not at all mentioned by the Evangelists the one to above five hundred brethren at once the other to S. James alone 1 Cor. 15. 6 7. Yet I will omit all these because the words he spake to his Apostles were spoken on the very day of his Resurrection as well as at the time of his Ascension Only I cannot but wish that Beza had spared his Criticism upon S. Pauls words 1 Cor. 15. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod si vero scriptum erat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Quinquaginta Non certè mirum est quingentos hic fratres commemorari quum postea coacto universo coetu numerentur duntaxat centum viginti Act. 1. 15. What if it were at first written by the numeral letter◠which signifies fifty and that fifty come after to be made five hundred for we see that all the
not put it in the power and will of his Church to give unto his people the words of eternal life that they should run away either from her doctrine or from her communion The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God John 5. 25. Sweet Jesus make the dead to hear thy voice for the living do little less then scorn it And this document or instruction as it much concerns the word preached so it much more concerns the word written which hath alwayes in all ages and in all Churches been taught more incorruptly and more impartially by Translations then by Expositions For in Translations men generally follow Gods truth but in expositions they too too often follow their own inventions if not their own interests Thus have men little reason to depart from the Church because therein Christ teacheth by his word and yet much less because he therein teacheth by his spirit for it is clear that the spirit goeth along with the word in that Saint Stephen saith unto the Jews Ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7. 51. When as they had only resisted the words of the Prophets Therefore we may confidently and comfortably affirm that they who carefully observe and conscionably obey Gods holy Ordinances in his Churchâ— will be able at the last day to say unto him not as Sectaries and wanderers will be able to say Thou hast taught in our streets Lake 13. 26. to whom he will answer I tell you I know you not whence you are depart me from all ye workers of iniquity ver 27. but Thou hast taught in our hearts for I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. And indeed this doctrine concerning the state of true Christianity and the knowledge of that state and the comfort of that knowledge is a most heavenly doctrine and therefore can have its teacher only from heaven The teaching Priest is not enough to instruct us in it but we need also The teaching God Miserable was the condition of Israel to have been without a teaching Priest but irrecoverable would have been their misery had they been also without a teaching God had not the Spirit of God come upon Azariah to teach them 2 Chron 15. 1. 3. Man may teach us the way of Gods statutes and we may never keep that way at all but if God once teach it us we shall noâ— only keep it but we shall also keep it unto the end Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes and I shall keep it unto the end Psal 119. 33. Thus hath Saint John said And ye need not that any man teach you but as the same annointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lye and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him 1 John 2. 27. His intent is not that they to whom he writ should despise his teaching he is only willing to commend them to a far better teacher for the Apostle might teach them and yet they might not abide either in the Church or in the truth but if the Annointing if the Spirit did teach them they were sure to abide both in him and in his doctrine for ever And therefore saith holy Job who teacheth like him Job 36. 22. Though he be not the only teacher for man teacheth with him yet he is the only irresistible and infallible teacher for man teacheth not like him He is the only infallible teacher because he convinceth the understanding he is the only irresistible teacher because he converteth the will teaching us by the representation of himself unto our Souls as the chiefest good from which we cannot turn away and against which we will not resist For God teacheth the soul by his own presence revealing unto it himself and his everlasting blessedness saith Alensis against which the will of man cannot resist in the judgement of some Philosophy and therefore the scoff of irresistible Grace must needs be far from the Judgement of sound Divinity The Church in the Collect for Whitsunday sheweth both the infallibility and the irresistibility of Gods teaching he teacheth irresistibly in that he teacheth the Heart which useth to make resistance against all teaching of the ear unless it self be taught in the first place wherefore none can be an irresistible Teacher but he that can teach the heart he teacheth also infallibly in that he teacheth by the light of his holy Spirit wherefore none can be an infallible teacher but he that teacheth by the Holy Ghost God which hast taught the hearts of thy faithfull people by sending to them the light of thy holy Spirit Here 's a teacher that subdues my perversness and makes me willing to learn in that he teacheth my heart here 's a teacher that enlightens my darkness and makes me able to learn in that he teacheth by the light of his holy spirit And the doctrines which he teacheth are agreeable with the manner of his teaching Recta sapere in ejus consolatione gaudere To have a right judgement in all things that is in all things of Salvation as if you would say to have a right judgement in the state of true Christianity and of your being in that state and evermore to rejoyce in his holy comforts as if you would say to comfort your self against all temptations and taibulations that you have such a right judgement Let me never uâ—dervalue much less forsake that School wherein this heavenly master is pleased to teach for fear I should lose both the right judgement and the Holy comfort which he is pleased to bestow upon his Scholars And let me not doubt but this Church wherein I have been trained up is a part of that school since it hath taught me nothing that is either Antichristian or unchristian for where I cannot deny the doctrine of Christ I may not doubt of the spirit of Christ Wherefore it is a false and an envious principle of divinity which some have so much improved of late to the advantage of their Church but to the disadvantage of Religion if at least any Christian Church can be advanced by that doctrine by which the Christian Religion is depressed and disparaged That our Saviour Christ hath set up one chair from which he would have all the world to take the documents and determinations of Christianity For the state of true Christianity is not to be confined to any one Church since the author and teacher of it is over all God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. The Apostle proves that God vouchsafed his Grace to the Gentiles no less then to the Jews by this argument is he the God of the Jews only is he not also the God of the Gentiles yes of the Gentiles also Rom. 3. 29. and again There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him
that spirit in the bond of peace Whence we may gather this Negative definition of a true Catholick that he is such a one who is neither Heretick nor Schismatick nor Hypocrite and this positive definition of a the Catholick Church that it is such a number Christians as profess the faith of Christ in Verity Unity and Sincerity in verity and so are distinguished from Hereticks in unity and so are distinguished from Schismaticks in sincerity and so are distinguished from Hypocrites And this is the Catholick Church perfectly and properly so called And of this Catholick Church are those words of Epiphanius to be understood at the end of Colorbasii or his thirty-fifth heresie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My dove my undefiledis but one saith Christ Cant. 6. 9. that is his holy spouse the Catholick Church called a dove for her mildness innocency and purity and called undefiled for the perfect grace and knowledge she hath received from God through our Saviour Christ by the holy Ghost But yet we must acknowledge that the Catholick Church commonly so called is of a larger signification then to express and of a larger extension then to comprize only these choice and selected Christians For all that outwardly embrace the truth and worship of Christ do make but one Catholick Church for as much as they all concur in the outward profession of faith in the same common Saviour and in the outward use of those means of Salvation which he hath appointed though they neither profess the faith so incorruptly as it was taught nor use the means so inoffensively as they were appointed And this Divinity That all Christians are incorporated into one body of Christ or one Catholick Church hath been taught us by Saint Paul who saith That he might reconcile both Jew and Gentiles unto God in one body Eph. 2 16. and again That the Gentiles should be of the same body Eph. 3. 6. that is to say of the same body externally by the same word and Sacraments and of the same body internally by the same spirit of Christ Wherefore the unity of this body of Christians as t is a visible body is from one thing and as t is a mystical body is from another For the unity of the Mystical body of Christ is only from the Holy-Ghost joining all the members together and each particular member to the Head But the unity of the visible body of Christ is from one Lord one Faith one Baptism all the members of the Church as t is visible being to be discerned and known by this character even by the outward profession of that truth and by the outward use of those means which Christ their common Lord and Saviour hath instituted and ordained for their Salvation Wherefore all men that have the profession of Christs saving truth and do practice the means of salvation must be acknowledged to belong to one Christian or to one Catholick Church as being sanctified by the profession of that truth and the use of those means though their ptofession be not so entire nor their practice so exact as it ought to be Whence the Apostle writing to the Corinthians though much over run with Heresie and Schism yet writeth on this manner Vnto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 1. 2. For in that they were of the Christian Church by the outward profession of Christs truth and the practice of his commands they were sanctified in Christ Jesus though some of them were Hereticks and denied the resurrection others were Schismaticks and denied the Apostles authority For even Hereticks and Schismaticks though they do not hold in verity and in unity the entire profession of Christs Truth yet are they of the Christian Church generally so called for that truth which they do hold and as far as they remain parts of the true Christian Church so far they may be a means of saving others either by preaching the word or administring the Sacraments though by reason of their Heresie and Schism they themselves without repentance are not in the state of Salvation And surely we cannot reasonably think that there were neither Hereticks nor Schismaticks in the Churches of Ephesus Philippi and Colosse and yet the same Apostle saith To the Saints which are at Ephesus Ephes 1. 1 To all the Saints which are at Philippi Phil. 1. 1. and to the Saints and faithfull brethren in Christ which are at Colosse Col. 1. 2. In all which Epistles doubtless Saint Paul writ to the visible body of the several Churches and sent his letters to the visible head of that body as Saint John did his epistles to the Angels of the several Churches Rev. 2. 13 and yet he called them Saints and faithfull brethren not that they were all really such but that they were indeed called of God to be such and if they were not so in their own inward affection t was their own fault He was sure they were so in their outward profession and therefore might justly be so called It was their parts to make good that glorious title not his part to forbear it for they were indeed sanctified through the outward profession of Christs saving Name and Truth and therefore he could not in charity but think and say they were also sanctified by the inward affection of the same Nor may any man suppose that the Apostle did send his directions and instructions to the mystical but to the Visible body of Christ unless he will say that the Apostle intended to bring confusion into the Church which for its singular order is called acies ordinata a well ordered army wherein not one man is suffered to be out of rank or that he intended to gratifie some proud contentious spirits by laying such grounds of schism and faction as might breed strifes and quarrels about the right of Church Government unto the worlds end For who can tell by looking in a mans forehead that he is one of the mystical body of Christ having communion with him through the Holy-Ghost whence it will follow that those who are best conceited of themselves will violently invade at least readily usurp the government of others and consequently pride and presumption will challenge universal jurisdiction for they who have so much pride as to say they are more neerly linked in communion with Christ then their brethren have seldome so much piety as to make good that saying Wherefore it is safest for men to believe that though the promises of grace chiefly concern the mystical yet the precepts chiefly concern the visible Church for as much as Christ hath intrusted that both with the doctrine and with the means of salvation with the ministry both of his Word and Sacraments For these are without question deposited with the visible Church though none are benefited by them so far as to attain Salvation but only those that are of the invisible Church or the mystical body of Christ But
God calls his sons how shall we not call our brethren unless we will deny him to be our Father Whence it must follow that Christian communion is of as great a latitude or extent as is the Christian Church according to that of Saint Paul ye are all one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3. 28. Having said before ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus to shew they were of the same Christian Church he now saith ye are all one in Christ Jesus to shew they were also of the same Christian communion And this principle we may not gain-say if we will acknowledge the excellency of true Christian communion for it cannot be so excellent if it depend on man as if it depend on God if it depend on Christs Vicar as if it depend on Christ himself if it be confined to one party of Christians as if it be extended to all for undenyable is that rule in reason Bonum quo communius eo melius Every good the more common it is the better it is and much more undenyable is it in charity when it is applyed to our Christian Communion For it is against the nature of God to be under a restraint or a Monoply God the fountain of goodness is an universal good He is good unto all and every other good the more it partakes of his goodness the more it partakes of his universality and is the more diffusive of it self being good only to it self whiles it is not diffused and therefore diffusing it self that it may also be good to others Much more is this to be seen and confessed in the good of Christian Communion which is therefore good because it is a common good and may not be abridged of its Community without being also abridged of its goodness Saint Paul will have us if it be possible to live peaceably with all men Rom. 12. 18. therefore much more with the best of men with Christians who have the name the word the image the Spirit of Christ with all men we must keep an external and civil but with Christians we must moreover maintain an internal and spiritual peace Our hand is bound to the good behaviour in regard of Christs enemies but our heart is so bound in regard of his servants We may not break the outward peace with those that persecute him much less may we break the inward peace with those that love him There is a great difference betwixt our Civil and our Christian conversation or communion The Civil depends upon the body and is accordingly confined to time and place but the Christian depends chiefly upon the soul and therefore may be extended as far as the souls apprehension and affection to know and to love the Truth Whence Saint John saith to that elect Lady Whom I love in the truth and not I only but also all they that have known the truth though they had not known her for the truths sake which dwelleth in us and shall be with us for ever 2 John 1. 2. As far as truth and love do extend so far extends our Christian Communion the foundation whereof is truth the building whereof is love Communio spiritualis est in consensu vero vel interpretativo Spiritual communion consists either in an explicit or an implicit consent with other Christians Alensis par 2. qu. 161. m. 10. which as I may not afford to any Christians as they abide in errour so I may not deny to any Christians as they embrace the Truth For wherever the Truth is it calls for my interpretative or virtual consent not to deny or gain-say it and where I know it to be there it calls for my actual and explicit consent to love and follow it I may not turn Donatist to confine the spirit of truth nor may I turn Familist to confine the spirit of love For as it cannot be denyed but that the spirit breatheth where it listeth so it may not be disputed but I must love wheresoever the spirit is pleased to breath Either I must deny the spirit of Truth to breath upon all those Christians that are not of my profession or the spirit of love to breath upon me if I will not allow them to be of my Christian Communion So that I must first limit and confine the Catholick Church before I can limit and confine the Communion of Saints for as is the Church so is the communion if the one be Catholick the other is so too If I will make a particular Christian communion I must make a particular Christian Church and consequently make that two Articles of my Faith which Christ and his Apostles have made but one even The holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints Saint John the beloved Disciple loved for the Truths sake and so must I where God hath not denyed his truth there may not I deny my love If there be such a Christian Church in the world which I cannot well love for its own sake yet even that Church must I love for the truth sake as far as it hath my Saviours Truth so far it must have my souls love And though that Church may most justly claim my love which hath most entirely Christs truth yet no Christian Church but may in some sort claim it since no Christian Church but hath Christs Truth by which it is made Christian Some have this truth mingled with many and gross errours but God forbid that the tares which the enemy hath sowed should make me out of love with that good seed which I know came from Christ himself For why should I be alwaies looking on the mote in my brothers eye and not rather see the beam in mine own To his own master he standeth or falleth and God is willing to make him stand why should I be willing to make him fall or to keep him down If I would look on the Christian not on the man I should account him a brother whom now I think an enemy for what he is in Christ is most amiable though not what is he in himself God looks on me in Christ to love me and why should not I so look on my Brother to love him Gods love in Christ towards me covers a multitude of my sins and why should not my love in the same Christ towards my Brother cover a few of his mistakes Sure I am my Saviour hath made Charity a necessary condition to the forgiveness of my sins and therefore I must willingly cover my brothers faults or I cannot hope that God will cover mine If I will needs lay open his miscarriages to my sight I shall but lay open mine own miscarriages to the sight of God for he that cursed Cham meerly for not covering will certainly never bless me only for discovering either my fathers or my brothers nakedness I cannot judge him but I shall bring my self into Judgement and therefore I must pass by his faults as I would have God to pass by mine This is
Religion if all Churches would agree in the sense as they do agree in the Letter of Gods holy Word To let pass the Old Testament wherein all Protestant Churches are as willing to be tryed by the King of Spains as by Buxtorses Hebrew Bibles I know Bezaes Greek Testament is censured by some as a most bold piece of Scripture but upon comparing his Text with that of Pope Sixtus Quintus I find very little ground for that censure and less Truth in it Because both Texts generally agree in the very same words and that even in those very places wherein both disagree from the Vulgar Latine And I believe the same may be said concerning the Greek Text that is received in all other Churches That they all agree in the same Original Texts evinceth they have been faithful in their Trust of keeping the Holy Scriptures That many of them disagree in their glosses upon and translations of that Text only sheweth that each particular Church is willing to discharge its own particular Trust in expounding the Holy Scriptures That they all labour not to continue and increase their disagreement but to end or to diminish it for so the Churches do though the men do not is also a good sign that no one of them is willing to be faulty in their Trust of observing and obeying the holy Scriptures And therefore though it must be confessed that the Church like Queen Vasthi hath not performed the commandment of her King so readily and so entirely as she ought yet may not any rigid Memucan suppose that there shall ever go forth a royal commandment that she come no more before the King Ahasuerus for though she may unhappily have been peccant in her obedience she hath not been peccant in her faith though she may have failed in her behaviour she hath not failed in her Trust though she hath been undutiful yet she hath not been false she hath not been unfaithful to her King that he should seek a divorce and give her royall estate unto another that is better then she Let no man think that our blessed Saviour the Prince of peace the King of Saints will so easily part with his Spouse concerning whom he hath said I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgement and in loving kindness and in mercies I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness and thou shalt know the Lord Hos 2. 19 20. And since Christ will not so easily be parted from his Church how is it that we do so easily part and depart from her If we did rightly distinguish betwixt the Church and the Men we would soon all bless God for the Truth and Faith of his Church though we should blame one another for our own falseness and unfaithfulness we would find that the Church hath been true to her trust in keeping in expounding in obeying Gods word and that only the Men have been faulty Thus Saint Paul blamed the Men not the Church at Corinth for their factions and schisms It hath been declared to me of you my brethren that there are contentions among you 1 Cor. 1. 11. He said they were contentious he said not the Church was so For as they were a Church so they were sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints and calling upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord ver 2. The men were sinners the Church were Saints the men were contentious the Church was Religious Truth and peace were in the Church whilst errours and schisms were in the men The treasure was heavenly though the vessels which held it were earthly We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God not of us 2 Cor. 4. 7. Will you reject the Treasure because of the Vessel you were as good to say you would have the excellency of the power in converting and saving souls to be of men not of God The Vessel is certainly brittle and may possibly be foul but the treasure is neither brittle nor foul that 's a lasting treasure for Truth is so that 's a pure Treasure for holiness is so As a Treasure it will enrich your soul as a pure Treasure it will purge your soul as a pure and lasting Treasure it will purge and enrich your soul not for a moment but for ever T is confessed that this Treasure was at first in much better Vessels then now it is when neither perversness sought to sophisticate the truth nor prophaneness to corrupt the holiness of the Christian Religion but the Treasure it self is still the same it first was For Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. The wickedness of man hath not destroyed cannot destroy the goodness of God He hath still his communion of Saints amongst these great divisions of sinners he hath still one Catholick and Apostolical Church amongst our many divided and distracted Churches And blessed be his name he first provided against our divisions and distractions before he suffered us to make them For it was from his singular providence that the Romans Emperours should keep entire their dominion over all the Christian world till they had called those general Councils wherein was the confutation of the grand heresies and the establishment of the true Christian Faith in the first ages of the Church whilst the greatest part of the Ministry in all Churches rightly understood and zealously maintained the Faith of the Catholick Church For else it is much to be feared that these after-ages of Christians which have been so much wedded to State Policy and so resolved on self-interest would have been much to seek for the truly antient Catholick and Apostolick Faith now briefly summed up in those Creeds which as they are undeniable proofs of the Apostles assertion that the Church is the ground and pillar of truth so they are also the infallible guides of particular Churches to retain and follow that Truth to the worlds end Wherefore God having left us his own undoubted word and such incomparable summs of the saving Truths therein contained as is the Apostles Creed and those other antient Creeds of the Church there is now no particular Church in the world which hath these helps and will carefully and conscionably make use of them but may be sure of believing the Catholick Faith and consequently of professing the true Christian Religion whereby to know Christ and of persisting in the true Christian Communion whereby to enjoy him though perchance the factions of men may be so great and the Judgement of God because of those factions may be so just as never again to let the Church enjoy the happiness of a true general Council And without doubt every particular Church which professeth the Christian Faith according to the Scriptures and those Creeds and hath a practice agreeable to her profession may justly be called the ground and pillar of truth and may
teach and redeem us The title of the chief corner stone blasphemously applyed to the Pope Christ was not an Apostle one sent from God but an Exapostle one sent out of God I must needs confess that being in this Eden of God in this Paradise contemplating the tree of life I am unwilling to divert my eyes from that tree and much more my heart from that contemplation but am desious to perswade my self that I see the Prophet Isaiahs vision turned into action and God acting it in heaven no less then the Prophet acting it on earth Isa 6. 8. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send or who will go for us then I said here am I send me For God the Father did as it were consult with himself saying whom shall I send and God the Son did forthwith answer him Here am I send me For as there was faciamus hominem Gen. 1. 26. God consulting and deliberating with his Son his eternal wisdom and with his Spirit his eternal power about our creation so there was redimamus hominem God consulting and deliberating with his Son his eternal righteousness and with his spirit his eternal love about our redemption For Gods goodness is as infinite as himself and that hath made him impart to man not only his goodness but also himself Hence that saying of the sublime Areopagite quod ipse Deus propter amorem est exstasin passus That love made God as it were go out of himself For great love is never without some kind of exstasie and therefore as it makes man go out of himself and be not where he lives but where he loves so it also made God the Son as it were go out of himself and come and be in man whom he had loved with an eternal love Thus hath love brought God from God to be in man and thus should it also bring man from man to be in God For this is the end of that blessed Mysterie and more blessed mercy which we commemorate when we celebrate the incarnation of the Son of God he was made of us that we might be new made by him he made one flesh with us that we should be one spirit with him Saint Peter accounted it a great mercy that God had sent his Angel to deliver him from the hand of Herod Act. 12. 11. How much more ought we to account it a great mercy that he hath sent his only Son to deliver us from the power of sin and Satan which persued us much more fiercely and would have wounded us much more desperately He considers his deliverance ver 12. and shall not we especially since the Apostle hath shewed us the way how to enlarge this consideration Heb. 1. 1 2. God who at sundry times and in divers maaners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son It was a great mercy that he spake to the Fathers by holy men a greater that he spake to them by the holy Angels for that was one of the divers manners of his speaking But the greatest mercy of all was that he hath spoken to us by his son and the reason is intimated in the following words for in time past was the beginning the inchoation of his love when he spake by his Prophets and Angels but in these last dayes hath been the accomplishment and consummation of it when he spake to us by his Son Before he had made the world and upheld all things by the word of his power but now he hath redeemed the world and having purged our sins upholds it by the hand of his mercy For till our sins were purged it was only the power of God upheld the world that he might purge it But now our sins are purged t is the mercy of God upholds the world that he may save it This is the only reason Saint Peter gives us why the last day that shall destroy all things by fire is so long in coming 2 Pet. 3. 9. The Lord is not slack but is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance The same mercy that made him hasten his first coming makes him delay his second And was it not a mercy not only beyond our expression but also beyond our admiration that the Son of God who was the brightness of his glory should become the brightness of his enemies and the glory of his people Yet so saith Saint Luke 2. 32. to be a light to lighten the Gentiles there he was the Bridegroom of his enemies and to be the glory of thy people Israel there he was the glory of his own people It was a mercy that we could never deserve and therefore must ever acknowledge that God was pleased to send his Apostles to teach us his saving truth and to shew the way of salvation for they were the pillars of the Church Gal. 2. 9. But infinitely greater was the mercy that he pleased to send his own Son to teach the Apostles for he is the cheif corner stone 1 Pet. 2. 5. For it is observable that Saint Peter himself was content to be accounted a pillar of the Church and leaves it only for Christ to be called the chief corner stone And therefore that Preface of Bellarmine which he once made in the Roman Schools Praefatio habita in gymnasio Romano and hath since prefixed before the third general controversie of his first Tome which is de summo Pontifice had need of all the waters of Tiber to wash it from gross flattery if not from detestable blasphemy since he is pleased therein to wrest those words of the Prophet Isaiah Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone a tryed stone a precious corner stone a sure foundation and to apply them to Saint Peters Successor which Saint Peter durst not apply unto himself but leaves them only for Christ the eternal Son of God We cannot too much prize the voice of the Apostles as for example Saint Pauls Epistles cannot be in too great esteem which saith Saint Hierom bring him every day more glory as Christ more converts But the voice of the eternal word calling to Saint Paul from heaven Act. 9. 4 5. and in him to us who can ever hear with sufficient care and attention who can embrace with sufficient reverence and estimation who can follow with sufficient alacrity and devotion Saint Paul was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one sent from God and yet how greatly doth he magnifie that office in every one of his Epistles but our Saviour Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one sent out of God to man for so saith Paul Gal. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God sent forth his son that is God sent him not only from himself as he sent the Apostles but also out of himself as he sent none but only his beloved Son SECT VIII The Mother of Christ so
sorrow and incessant supplications I may get him to return again as it were by a glorious resurrection after death and in his power as the mighty God to restore his Church in his mercy as the everlasting Father to bless it and in his dominion as the Prince of peace to govern and establish it for ever Thus had I rather suffer with him in his shame then reign with his enemies in their glory and I shall rejoyce more in my sorrows then they shall in their joyes For in their joyes they may if they will see their sins but in my sorrows I shall see my Saviour The fifth and last apparition which our blessed Saviour made on the day of his resurrection was that which Saint Mark hath recorded in these words Cap. 16. ver 14. Afterward he appeared to the eleven as they sate at meat and upbraided them with their unbelief and heardness of heart because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen Our blessed Saviour upbraided them yet were they more truly believers in their unbelief then many of us are in our faith for Saint Luke faith They yet believed not for joy and wondred Luk. 24. 41. They believed not for joy and admiration but many of us so believe as neither to rejoyce nor admire at the grounds of our belief in so much that their infidelity was much better then our faith for we have too hasty a faith to have a sure and a sound faith and that makes us fall away in these times of temptation and rather then want temptation become our own tempters Whereas if we did with the Bereans examine whether these things were so before we believed or with the Apostles did rejoyce and admire to see them so when we believe it would not be possible for those that can so easily turn the times more easily to turn our faith but being sure that we are indeed in a true conjunction and communion with Christ we would never suffer any thing of this world to separate us from that holy conjunction nor to divert us from that blessed communion Thus it is for want of joy and admiration that we dayly turn unbelievers whereas the Apostles did not yet believe for joy and wonder therefore were they the more true believers for what kept them from believing did in truth strengthen their belief And accordingly we may suppose our blessed Saviour checked their incredulity not so much that he might blame and reprove their faith as that they might the more labour to increase and to improve it for that they could never have that faith too much setled and fixed in themselves which they were now bound to preach to others And withall that they should not be soon discouraged in their preaching if they found not the event presently answerable to their pains since it was long before they themselves did believe though they had met with infinitely a far better Preacher For this Rule When thou art converted strenghthen thy brethren Luk. 22. 32. holds not only in the substance but also in the degree of that charitable duty those being bound to take the greatest pains in converting others who most know how much the spirit of God hath laboured about their conversion For he that considers how long his Saviour hath tarryed for him will never think that he can tarry too long for his brother And yet there is one more particular very observable in this apparition that it was when the Apostles were gathered together to hear what Saint Peter and the rest could say concerning their Masters resurrection And as they thus spake Jesus himself stood in the midst of them Luke 24. 36. That is then and not till then he appeared to them when they were thus prepared to receive him O my God make me zealously to follow all those means which thou hast given me of knowing thy eternal Son my blessed Lord and Saviour that pursuing after those means with an active industry I may overtake them with a happy speed and lay hold on them with immortal joy and make use of them with unwearied care and constancy Let me never absent my self from the assemblies and meetings of thy Apostles the guides and governours of thy Church for fear I should lose the opportunity of seeing thee whilst I am absent from them For thou hast promised to be with them alway even to the end of the world if therefore I will not be with them how can I hope thou wilt be with me For surely of all men that are gathered together in thy name upon the face of the earth they are most so gathered whom thou hast commanded to gather others and therefore thou hast promised to be most in the midst of them for as much as they are thy Trustees whom thou hast entrusted with thy name and with thy truth and with thy blood with thy name lest Atheists should blaspheme it with thy truth lest Hereticks should corrupt it with thy blood lest Apostates should prophane it O then let thy unworthy servant be alwayes gathered together with them that I be never guilty either of Atheism or of Heresie or of Apostasie And when I am gathered together with them make me to open mine eyes to look and mine ears to hearken diligently after thee and not only after them that thou mayest open my heart to receive thee And make all guides and governours of thy Church still to follow the footsteps of thy Apostles and to enquire what is written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning thee ver 44. For how shall they know thee to whom thou dost not reveal thy self or where dost thou reveal thy self but in thy word Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures Luke 24. 45 that is when they had used all the means they could to understand them then and not till then he opened their understanding And who can tell but t is a judgement immediately from God and a judgement worthy of God inflicted upon many great Scholars not to understand the Scriptures so much to their salvation as some private unlearned men do understand them because they had rather cast their reproaches then their affections upon Gods most holy word inventing arguments to keep others from reading it whilst they should be making prayers that God would bless their own reading of it for unless he that hath the key of David open the understanding in vain do we labour to open the Text Wherefore the Church of England did upon unquestionable grounds recede from the Latine Liturgy in the second Sunday of Advent to bring in this most excellent prayer Blessed Lord which hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning grant that we may in such wise hear them read mark learn and inwardly digest them that by patience and comfort of thy holy word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting
unto me saith Christ not go from me there 's the temper of charity to invite and embrace not to repell and reject others for I am meek and lowly in heart there 's the temper of humility lowly in heart and cannot be of that pride as to forget my self meek in heart and cannot be of that presumption as to disdain and reproach my brother where you find not this temper there you may not seek for Christ where you do find the contrary distemper in the forenamed works of the flesh there you are sure not to find the Spirit of Christ and therefore must come with your libera nos Domine though you care not to have the Letanie and say Good Lord deliver me from such professors and from such a profession of the Christian Religion where I can neither find the temper nor the Spirit of Christ SECT IV. Vnsetledness in Religion shews we have not learned it from our heavenly Master or from Gods Exapostole The Holy Ghost being given us from the Father by the Son sheweth there is no salvation to them who believe not the Trinity The mixture of Praises with Prayers in the Psalms was the Abba Father of the Old Testament and proceeded from joy in the Holy Ghost which is a Joy both unsequestrable and unspeakable The Sacrifices and Hymns answerable to that joy IT is very easie for a man to depart and fall away from God but not so easie to return and to cleave unto him No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him saith our blessed Saviour John 6. 44. The Father draws us before we go unto his Son and he draws us with loving-kindness Jer. 31. 3. with bands of love Hos 11. 4. that is by the power of the Holy Ghost who is the Spirit of love The Father draws by his Spirit to his Son He that believes not the Trinity cannot hope to be thus drawn and he that is not thus drawn cannot hope to come unto God which is plainly shewed by the Apostle when he saith God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. The Greek word is very observable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for here 's another Exapostle even God the Holy Ghost as in the fourth verse we had before one Exapostle God the Son There it was God sent forth his Son here it is God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son that is He sent such a Messenger as was not only an Apostle one sent from God but also an Exapostle One sent out of God There was one Exapostle to plant the Christian Religion in the world God sent forth his Son and there is another Exapostle to plant it in our hearts God hath sent forth the Spirit of his son into your hearts the same word is used in both places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God made use of Exapostles as well as of Apostles for the planting of the true Religion Messengers sent from God would not have served the turn to make men believe the truth much less to love and practise it unless there had been also Messengers sent out of God Therefore God sent forth his Son and the Spirit of his Son that he might settle and stablish our hearts in the Christian faith So that if we be unsettled in our Religion and carried away with every blast of vain Doctrine as being not firmly established in the truth of the holy Gospel it is a plain case we have not inclined our ears and much less our hearts to those two Messengers who came immediately out of God even his own Son and his own Spirit and therefore it is no wonder if we slightly esteem of all Gods other Messengers God the Father hath sent out God the Son And God the Father and Son hath sent out God the Holy Ghost The salvation of one is the work of three the salvation of one sinful soul is the work of all three persons of the blessed Trinity The Father sending the Son the Father and Son sending the Holy Ghost which of these three persons can we lose or let go and not withall lose or let go our own Salvation which of these three needs not work as God a work of All-mighty power of All seeing wisdom of All-sufficient and All-saving goodness to turn us from our evil waies that we may be sanctified and to keep us in the waies of righteousness that we may be saved God the Son sent out of the Father into your flesh and God the Holy Ghost sent out of the Father and the Son into your hearts His Son and your flesh his Spirit and your hearts both certainly most miraculous conjunctions the one the cause of the other For his Spirit and your hearts could never have met in man had not his Son your flesh met together in God And this produceth yet another miraculous conjunction a conjunction of Prayer and of praise both together in the same mouth and from the same heart and at the same time that a righteous man cannot be so over-burdened with sorrow in himself as not to be relieved and refreshed with joy in his Saviour Thus Hannah was was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore but she found that joy and comfort in her prayer that the Text saith She went her way and did eat and her countenance was no more sad So that in effect she was so of a sorrowful Spirit as also of a joyful Spirit and as her sorrow afforded matter of Prayer so her joy afforded matter of Praise Her own spirit made her sorrowful but Gods Spirit made her joyful And this was indeed the Abba Father of those in the Old Testament who had but dark promises of a Saviour yet did with joy draw water out of the wells of salvation Isa 12. 3. who had scarce any knowledge or revelation of the person yet were very well acquainted with the joyes of the Holy Ghost Hence it is that most of the Psalms as they are exceeding devout prayers wherein Gods own Spirit teacheth us to pray and helpeth our infirmities in praying so they are also most thankful praises wherein the same spirit teacheth us to rejoyce in God for hearing our prayers They are not only prayers but they are also praises concerning the same deliverance whether it be corporal or spiritual whether it be from bodily or from Ghostly enemies as for example The 30. Psalm is a prayer to be delivered from sickness and death and damnation as that noble Champion of Christ both for his Church and for his Truth and for his Authority hath piously and judiciously stated it in his Book of Collects upon the Psalms which should never be out of the hands of good Christians till it be fully imprinted in their hearts I say the 30. Psalm is a Prayer to be delivered from sickness and death and damnation three such sad considerations as were enough to make
God the searcher of hearts hath reserved the knowledge of the invisible Church only to himself and requireth all Christians to join in communion with that visible Church wherein they live if so be that therein is preserved the outward sincere profession of Gods truth and worship and the right administration of his Sacraments which is a condition not to be excepted against unles we will deny men the use of reason there only where they most want it in the choice of their religion and yet allow it in the choice of their Church and think it enough for them to serve God according to the dictates of others consciences when we are sure they shall be acquitted or condemned in the last judgement according to the dictates of their own Wherefore we must allow an outward sincere profession of Gods truth and word and a right administration of his Sacraments to the constitution of that visible Church which obligeth us to her communion as a member of the true Catholick Church And if we cannot make it appear out of the written Word of God that our own Church is faulty in either of these we may not forsake her communion since by vertue of these she is to us instead of the Catholick Church and by authority of the Catholick Church bindeth us to her communion For if we acknowledge our Church to be Catholick in her profession which we are bound to do unless we can prove the contrary we must also acknowledge her to be Catholick in her obligation because where is unquestionable purity there must be unquestionable Authority unless we will say that Religion is a matter of indifferency and leaves men at their liberty either to practice or to despise it as they please This was not the opinion of the Primitive Christians of whom it is said And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers Acts 2. 42. They thought themselves bound to continue stedâ—astly in that communion wherein was a sincere profession of Gods truth and worship here expressed by doctrine and Prayers and a right administration of the Sacraments here expressed by breaking of bread And so must we likewise think our selves bound to continue stedfastly in their Communion who succeed the Apostles in the publick exercise of the same religious duties or deny that this Scripture was written for our learning So that unless it be evident to us that the Church wherein we live is faulty either in doctrine or in Prayers or in administration of the Sacraments we may not recede from her communion without being guilty of schism and faction and then Saint Augustine unless you will say Fulgentius was the author of that book will tell us our doom in these words Firmissime tene nullatenus dubites non solùm omnes Paganos sed etiam omnes Judaeos Haereticos atque Schismaticos qui extra Ecclesiam Catholicam praesentem finiunt vitam in ignem aeternum ituros qui paratus est diabolo angelis ejus Aug. de fide ad Patr. Daph. c. 38. You must firmly believe and in no wise doubt that not only all Pagans but also all Jews and Hereticks and Schismaticks who end this present life out of the communion of the Catholick Church shall go into that eternal fire which was prepared for the Devil and his Angels For he that willfully lives and dies out of the communion of his own Church being a true member of the Catholick lives and dies at least in the perverse disposition of his soul out of the communion of the Catholick Church and consequently lives and dies in the state of damnation so neerly doth it concern every Christian not to break communion with his own Church unadvisedly and undeservedly for that is in effect to break communion with the Catholick Church but to try the Spirits whether they are of God and to know there is no warrantable disobedience of that command Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace unless it be evident That the Spirit is not of God And yet even in that case men ought to be very cautelous and wary that they so forsake the communion of the Church as not to disturb the peace of it for that was all that those seven thousand did who bowed not their knee to Baal in the general defection of the Church of Israel 1 King 19. 18. And that is all we are bound to do in the like case if we will have Gods mark set upon us to preserve us from wrath in the day of wrath for so saith the Prophet Ezekiel Set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof sc of Jerusalem Ezech. 9. 4. Sighing and crying for those abominations we cannot help is enough to discharge us from the guilt of them and this may be done if not without making of a noise yet sure without making of any tumult And this is according to Saint Augustines advice Misericorditer corripiat homo quod potest quod autem non potest patienter ferat dilectione gemat atque lugeat donec aut ille desuper emen det corrigat aut usque ad mâ—ssem differat eradicare zizania palâ—am ventilare ut tamen securi de salute sua bonae spei Christiani inter desperatos quos corripere non valent in unitate versentur auferant malum à seipsis id est ut in ipsis non inveniatur quod in moribus aliorum eis displicet Aug. lib. 3. contra Parmen cap. 2. Let every man correct what he can with mildness and what he cannot let him bear with patience And let him sigh and mourn in love till God from above amend what is amiss or at the harvest pluck up the tares and blow away the chaff yet that Christians who have a good hope may without danger of their own salvation live in unity among those desperate wretches whom they cannot amend let every man reform one that he may not find that in himself which he dislikes in another This is the safest way for every particular man to be sure not to be out of the communion of the Catholick Church and yet not to be in the corruptions of his own Church For he that sighs for the abominations shews he loves Gods truth and he that only sighs shews he loves his neighbours peace His love to Gods truth will keep him in the actual communion of the Catholick Church his love to his neighbours peace will not let him violate the communion of his own Church although he refuse to communicate in its corruptions It is not to be doubted but holy David all the while he lived in Sauls house or was afterwards driven from Jerusalem was under the affliction and temptation of evil company yet he saith of himself I have walked in my integrity I have not sate with vain persons neither will I go
People and I must hear this Church as I would have the benefit of his Sons blood as I would have the instructions of his holy Spirit and as I would not forfeit the salvation of mine own Soul Wherefore though the whole world turn round to a meer spiritual diziness or reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man yet this shall be the sober resolution of my soul I will not sin against that authority which God hath set over me He hath called his Ministers his friends I will not call them mine enemies least I put my self out of his friendship I find that God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost hath set them over me and how shall I answer it to this blessed Trinity if I oppose my self against them or rather set my self over them T is St. Athanasius his observation Ath. lib. de communi essentiâ Patris Filii Sp. S. That the election of Ministers in Gods Church is in the book of God equally attributed to all three persons of the holy and blessed Trinity Saint Paul attributeth it to God the Father 1 Cor. 12. 28. God hath set some in the Church first Apostles Secundarily Prophets Thirdly Teachers c. Again The same S. Paul attributeth this work to God the Son Eph. 4. 11. And he gave some Apostles sc He that had descended into the lower parts of the earth and was now ascended into heaven and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers And lastly the same Saint Paul attributeth the choice of Ministers to God the Holy-Ghost Acts 20. 28. Take heed unto your selves and to all the flock over the which the Holy-Ghost hath made you Overseers God the Father Son and Holy Ghost hath made them my Overseers and shall I strive to make them my Underlings And what shall I answer at the last day to this God whose authority I have contemned and whose power I shall not be able to resist when he will call me to an account and pronounce against my soul and execute upon it the sentence of eternal dammnaton for my contempt He hath said expresly Obedite praepositis vestris subjacete eis Heb. 13. 17. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you There are some certain men that have charge of the peoples souls and are accordingly to give an account of that charge Those are here called their Rulers or Leaders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Captains to train and lead them under Christs banner A word of great humility in regard of their communion with them in the same Christian duties and combates but a word of great authority in regard of their command over them in so much that Gregor Nazian in the first of his steliteuticks calls the Ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The order of those that govern and the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are under that order of government or those who are to be governed The one are set over the other are set under by the power of God the Father by the wisdom of God the Son and by the goodness of God the Holy-Ghost so that to disturb and to destroy this order is little less then to proclaim enmity against the eternal power and wisdom and goodness of God This is reason enough why we should obey because God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost hath made them our Rulers but yet the words enforce another reason of our obedience because they watch for our souls And are accordingly called watch-men in the Text Son of man I have made thee a watch-man to the house of Israel therefore hear the word at my mouth and give them warning from me Ezek. 3. 17. Speculatorem dedi te speculator qui est aliis vice oculorum i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Calvin upon the place A watch-man is one who is to others instead of eyes that is an Overseer or a Bishop we find here God hath divolved to him a double trust here is verbum commissum Animae commissae Gods word is committed to his care and mens souls are committed to his cure He is entrusted with Gods word hear the word at my mouth and he is entrusted with his neighbours Souls Give them warning from me His office was instituted meerly for the glory of God and the salvation of men and I cannot oppose it but I must be an enemy both to God and Man And if I be an enemy to Gods glory here how shall I hope to enjoy it hereafter If I oppose the Salvation of others how shall he that came to be their Saviour take a care to save me For I do what is in me to trample his blood under my feet and how can I hope that he should sprinkle it upon my soul nor may I say that these Texts were only occasional or this trust was only temporal such as concerned the Prophets and Apostles but not others after them unless I will moreover say which in truth I am afraid to think That God hath now a less care then he had then both of his own glory and of our salvation both of his own word and of our souls These spiritual watch-men were as necessary in Saint Pauls time as in Ezekiels and in our times as then And consequently they are to us what the Prophets were to the Jews or the Apostles to the Primitive Christians saving only their extraordinary commission and endowments Ezekiel was to give warning to the Jews and Saint Paul was to give warning to the Gentiles for so himself saith whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus Col. 1. 28. And our watch-men are now to give warning unto us by vertue of the same commissions and therefore Saint Paul speaketh in the plural number saying whom we preach comprizing the whole body of the Ministry wherefore also he saith warning every man and that we may present every man which was impossible for himself alone and indeed for all the Preachers of his time because there were to be infinite sucessions of men which could not be their auditors whereby it is evident that as long as there shall be men to be warned and taught and presented perfect in Christ Jesus so long there must be Preachers to warn and teach and to present them whose duty and office is accordingly here described 1. In the nature of it To warn and to teach not only to deliver sound doctrine which is teaching but also to apply it by particular exhortations according to the capacities or wants of theit auditors which is warning or admonishing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 putting your mind to theirs that they may understand what you say not soaring aloft in sublime speculations above their apprehensions or putting
indear it self withall Christians to remember and much more to practice it for then all outrages in words and deeds which are now so scandalously heightned would be peaceably composed because every one would look upon anothers injury as his own and consequently would be afraid of wronging his brother that he might not wrong himself Thus would the peace of God rule in all our hands and tongues if it did first rule in all our hearts which is also required as the cheifest means whereby to preserve Christian communion and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body and be ye thankful ver 15. Where the Apostle exhorteth us to Christian unity and concord for three reasons First because God is the author and lover of it whence it is called the peace of God and we may be amazed to see that men should say in their dayly prayers Deus author pacis amator O God which art the author of peace and lover of concord and yet not love it themselves Secondly because it is a badge or rather an ingredient and part of our Christian calling whence it is said To the which also ye are called in one body that as there is no schism in the body but the members have the same care one for another and whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it or one member be honoured all the members rejoice with it so it might also be with us now we are the body of Christ and members in particular 1 Cor. 12. 27. For Christ hath called us to be of one body and how then shall we not be of one mind Thirdly because it is an expression of that thankfulness which we owe to God for giving us that peace which this world were it never so quiet could not give and be it never so quarrelsome cannot take away whence it is said and be ye thankful to wit for that peace of a good conscience here and a blessed eternity hereafter which Christ hath purchased for you of which the same Apostle speaketh Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ We can never be truly thankful for that peace of God which our blessed Saviour hath purchased for us unless we labour earnestly to have peace one with another Nor may we pretend that the love of truth makes us to have but little regard of peace for the Apostle supposeth that peace and truth may very well be joyned together in our conversation in that after the command for peace he giveth the command for truth and first saith Let the peace of God rule in your hearts and after that Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom He first requireth the peace and then the truth inverting the order by confirming the authority of the Prophet Zachariah who first requireth the truth and then the peace therefore love the truth and peace Zach. 8. 19. For as it is an undeniable argument that the tenth Commandment of the decalogue cannot fitly be divided into two several precepts because the order of the words being changed in Exodus and in Deuteronomy it could not be known which of the two precepts were to be set down first for Exod. 20. 17. first is forbidden the desire of our neighbours house but Deut. 5. 21. First is forbidden the desire of our neighbours wife so that in both places is forbidden but one inordinate desire in regard of the act though two in regard of the object and consequently both inordinate desires come under one and the same precept or we must be posed to shew which of the two prohibitions makes the ninth which makes the tenth commandment So is it in this command of loving peace and truth the Prophet first names the Truth the Apostle first names the Peace that we not knowing which of the two we are bound to follow first might be the more industrious to follow both being as much afraid of forsaking the peace to follow the truth as of forsaking the truth to follow the peace for that we can do neither but we must invert the order and pervert the intent of Gods command which yet more plainly appears from the words of the same Apostle Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 4. 15. Speaking the truth in love or doing the truth in love for so the Vulgar Latine veritatem facientes in charitate we may render the words Be ye true in love shew your selves true men in that you are charitable men for here is plainly but one precept for the exercise of both virtues to shew we cannot be defective in the love but we must also be defective in the truth I will then be as zealous for Christian love as for Christian truth and not think I can do my Saviour good service whilst I am so intent upon the truth of his Religion as not to regard the peace of his communion Communicant and Christian must be to me terms convertible as far as reacheth the Christianity so far also reacheth the communion For he that is a good Christian doth communicate with Christ and how can I exclude the one without excluding the other out of my communion What is truly Christian in the worst of Christians is lovely for Christs sake and though I exceedingly rejoyce in old Simeons happiness to take my Saviour from the arms of a pure Virgin Church as he did from the arms of his pure Virgin Mother Luke 2. yet I will not run from him if I find him talking with a woman of Samaria revealing himself to her that liveth in the state of incontinency John 4. It shall be my desire to meet with him dayly in mine own Church that is not defiled either with superstition or with faction but it shall be my joy to meet with him in any other Church though she be actually defiled with both and run a whoring after her own inventions For I may not refuse to communicate with any Church in that wherein she is truely Christian unless I will venter to divide and separate from Christ himself Wherefore I will communicate with all Christian Churches as far as they are so in the disposition of my soul though I cannot in the presence of my body so shall I be sure neither to be a schismatick in a Church that is truly Catholick and moreover I shall be a Catholick in a Church that may be guilty of schism Animus Catholicus in Ecclesia Schismatica is in my account a better temper then Animus schismaticus in Ecclesia Catholica I had rather have a Catholick spirit in a schismatical Church then a schismatical spirit in a Catholick Church for the one is an antidote to allay the poyson I meet withall the other is able to turn an antidote into poyson To have a Catholick Spirit in an Anticatholick Church may keep me a true Catholick in the communion of Schismaticks
enjoyning duties shewing us that we cannot take any of either but we must take all And this is most evident in the present case for the fourth Commandment plâ—inly presupposeth all that is enjoyned in the three former commandments concerning holy duties or the whole substance of Religion both internal and external and then also farther addeth an obligation of consecrating time and other adjuncts for the publick exercise thereof that God may be the more solemnly glorified and men the more truely edified whilst the duties of Religion are all practised together in a full communion of Saints the Church Militant being obliged in this to imitate the Church Triumphant that it invite men on earth to glorifie God with one accord as the Angels do glorifie him in heaven And in this respect we may easily believe and readily confess the first Sabbath to have been both instituted and kept in Paradise for the Church was there founded and the Communion of Saints there first established That is the communion of holy men with the holy Angels and with themselves joyning together to sing Halleluiahs to God their blessed Creator which was indeed the principal end of their creation And accordingly men were at first enabled to the discharge of this great duty as well as the Angels having the right and acceptable forms of praising God imprinted in their hearts and when through transgression they had disabled themselves it pleased God of his infinite goodness to grant them as it were a new impression and to give them a second edition of those praises in his holy Scriptures which before had been written in their own hearts but were now very much slurred and defaced if not quite obliterated and blotted out This great and undeserved mercy of God those men either shamefully forget or ineffectually remember who cry up the Sabbath day but beat down the Sabbath Duty making little or no use of the written Word of God in their publick worship and making little or no account of those forms of praâ—er and praise which are either contained therein or agreeable thereto but setting up their own private gifts against that publick communion which should be in Gods house and service by virtue of this fourth Commandment discountenancing the exercise of Religion in known forms of heavenly prayers able to establish the heart and encouraging new-fangled devices which are only fit to busie and tickle the phansie By which ungodly practice for so it must be called though it pretend to the greatest measure of godliness they in effect throw the fourth Commandment out of the Church whilst they pretend to set it up over the Altar since not sitting still or keeping an outward rest but comming together that we may all labour inwardly in Hallowing the name of our Father which is in heaven is the cheif moral duty of the Sabbath For as in the promise of the fifth so in the precept of the fourth Commandment the Lawgivers expression containeth the least part of his intention and we may no more confine this precept in the duty then we may that promise in the reward Therefore as we would be loth to look no farther then the Land of Canaan for our inheritance so we should be wary how we assert that God looks no farther then the Sabbath day for our obedience Truth is it pleased God to train up the Jews in his fear by types and figures and as it were to wrap up heaven in earth spirituals in temporals morals in ceremonials substances in circumstances to them as well in his precepts as in his promises particularly in that precept which concerned his publick worship because that amongst the Jews was for the most part Ceremonial and figurative Wherefore if we desire rightly and fully to understand the fourth Commandment we must conceive it in so great a latitude as to comprize all those Commissions injunctions invitations and exhortations which we find in the Old and New Testament given either to Kings or Ministers or People concerning the ordering establishing reforming practicing professing or promoting the solemn publick worship of Almighty God which is in truth the principal end thereof unless we will say that all those moral duties are reducible to none of the ten commandments in the decalogue and consequently that all they were will-worshippers who either professed or promoted or practised them For as such duties of Religion are to be done publickly and solemnly by many together in one communion they are not reducible to any of the three first commandments which speak to single persons but only to the fourth which alone speaketh to whole families or to many persons joyned together in one community And therefore it is not amiss to say that Hallowed be thy name is that Petition which most directly prayes for Grace to perform the duty of the fourth Commandment since all other things are hallowed for his names sake God sanctifying times places persons and forms of prayers and praise unto us that he may sanctifie us unto himself nor is it amiss to say that the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints is that Article of faith which most directly professeth to believe the truth of the fourth Commandment for it is only the Catholick Church the Communion of Saints which doth rightly hallow and praise Gods holy name The Hallowing of Gods most holy name belonging equally to the decalogue and to the Creed and to the Lords most holy prayer belonging to the decalogue as it is a duty to be performed belonging to the Creed as it is a truth to be believed and belonging to the Lords Prayer as it is a good to be desired as we are all bound to pray that we may perform this duty and believe this truth For Faith Hope and Charity are not to be separated from one another but do alike belong to supernatural Truths and to religious or moral duties because both truths and duties do equally call for our faith to know and believe them and for our hope to crave and desire them and for our Charity to love and embrace them But if we take the outward sanctification of a day for the principal morality of the Sabbath we shall scarce find a Petition in the Lords most holy and most perfect prayer relating to such a Duty nor an Article in the Apostles Creed relating to such a Truth and so we shall phansie to our selves such a morality as is without a good to be desired and without a truth to be believed for without doubt The Lords Prayer briefly containeth all the good we are bound to desire and the Apostles Creed briefly containeth all the Truths we are bound to believe as well as the Decalogue briefly containeth all the Duties we are bound to practise and perform Whereas on the other side if we look upon hallowing the name of God in our publick worship as upon the principal moral duty that is enjoyned in the fourth Commandment we shall find the Decalogue and the Creed and
divinae gratiae Symbolum This wise and wholsome Creed of the divine Grace was sufficient for the knowledge and confirmation of Godliness They both highly extoll this Creed as a peculiar Testimony of Gods grace to his Church and as an exact Breviary of the Christian Religion containing the whole summe of saving faith saith the one of Godliness saith the other Council and what can be wanting to that Christian Communion which hath in it true faith Godliness or how can we be wanting to such a communion and not be wanting to the Christian Religion But the council at Chalcedon gives this reason why they account the Constantinopolitan Creed a perfect Breviary of the Christian Religion for so they mean when they say it is sufficient both for the knowledge and Proof of Godliness saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Patre enim Filio spiritu sancto perfectionem docet ac domini nostri inhumanationem fideliter accipientibus repraesentat For it teacheth perfectly the knowledge of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and plainly representeth to all that will receive it with faith the mysterie of our Lords incarnation or Inhumanation And indeed under these heads are all the mysteries of our Christian Religion briefly contained though not fully explained and therefore when this Council of Chalcedon had used all exactness of care and diligence in the further explication of such Truths concerning our Saviour Christ which the perverseness of Hereticks had made disputable though it could not make doubtfull Shewing that two compleat Natures in him made but one Person it was high time in their opinion to put an end to the making of any more new Creeds and accordingly they forbid all men either to speak or write or make or think or teach a new faith for these are their own words at the end of their fift Action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His igitur cum omni undique exacta cura diligentia à nobis dispositis definivit sancta universalis Synodus alteram Fidem nulli licere proferre aut conscribere vel componere aut sentire aut alios docere I will not here argue how they can answer this Prohibition who have since added twelve new Articles to the Creed as it was delivered by the Council of Constantinople and have obliged all that will be Ministers of their Church to swear all that will be members of their Church to profess to live and dye in the belief of those additional no less then of the other Articles as the only true Catholick Faith by which men may be saved it is enough for my present purpose and it may be enough for others future certainty and constancy in their Religion that all the Christians that were saved for one thousand and five hundred years after Christ were saved without the necessary belief of those additional articles And it is clear that the Church of Rome her self denyed not anciently her communion to other Churches if so be they professed and maintained only that faith which was declared in the known and received Creeds of the universal Church for so Optatus Milevitanus testifieth that all the Churches of the world did hold communion among themselves and with the Church of Rome by vertue of their communicatory letters His words are these lib. 2. contra Parm. c. 7. Cum quo nobis totus orbis commercio Formatarum in una communionis societate concordat with whom having named Siricius then Bishop of Rome we and all the Christian world besides do by vertue of our communicatory letters accord in one fellowship or communion But in those communicatory letters was contained nothing save only the confession of the Catholick Faith as it had been declared in the known and received Creeds of the universal Church saith Bishop Davenant in that small but excellent piece of his old age called Sententia de pace inter Evangelicos procuranda And we may gather as much not only from the Epistles of several Bishops in several Synods but also from the unhappy fate of those two Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia which both consisted of Orthodox Bishops and yet for want of communicatory letters were at last brought to subscribe the Arrian heresie For all the Bishops of the East gathered at Seleucia did presently agree to the true faith and sent the Emperour notice of their agreement And among the numerous company of the Western Bishops at Ariminum above four hundered held the Truth scarce 80. opposed it yet the Arrians abusing each Synod with perswasions that the other had yielded saith incomparable Hooker surprized both which we may say they could never have done had each Synod acquainted the other with their assents to the Nicene Faith by communicatory letters This Faith then was and still is ground enough to all Christian Churches for their communion one with another in doctrine And Prayers and Sacraments according to this faith are also ground enough for their communion in worship or devotion so that if all Christian Churches Believed and prayed and administred exactly according to the rule of this Faith it would not be possible for any man to be a Schismatick in denying his communion without first being a Heretick in denying his Religion For if I am required to call only upon him in whom I have believed and to do this only in remembrance of him on whom I am bound to call how can I deny my communion either in Prayers or in Sacraments to any Christian Church and not deny the faith that hath been taught me by the Catholick Church This seems to have been the ground of Christian communion in Saint Basils dayes who in his seventy eighth Epistle which is a confesâ—ion of his faith saith thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We must be baptized as we have received from the Lord We must believe as we are baptized and we must give glory as we have believed Glorifying the Father Son and Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But we must abstain from their communion who are not of this Faith as being open Blasphemers In that he saith we must abstain from the communion of those that are blasphemers it is evident he will not have us abstain from the communion of those who are true believers and right worshippers For where the Baptism and consequently the other Sacrament is according to Christs institution and the faith is according to the Baptism and the glory is according to the Faith there not to joyn in Communion at least in vote and desire is so a peice of desperate schism as it is also a point of damnable heresie for it comes neer their Sect of whom the Apostle hath said Denying the Lord that bought them by reason of whom the way of Truth is evil spoken 2 Pet. 2. 1 2. And upon this account the Gloria Patri was so much looked after by the primitive Christians in their publick worship as being a right Profession of Faith in the Trinity
knowledge of God she is trusted with preaching which teacheth that knowledge And because she is trusted with the worship of God she is trusted with praying and with administring the holy Sacraments which constitute that worship So that we may see how incongruously some men do seek to turn all the worship of God into preaching when as in truth that more properly belongs to the knowledge then to the worship of God and though knowledge may direct our worship yet it cannot constitute it Wherefore God himself speaking of his publick worship as it was exercised among the Jews on their Sabbath calleth the Temple wherein it was exercised the house of Prayer I will make them joyful in my house of Prayer Isa 56. 7. And our blessed Saviour speaking of the same worship as it should be exercised among Christians calleth the place of its exercise the House of prayer My house shall be called of all Nations the house of prayer Mark 11. 17. In that he saith of all Nations he includeth the Christians who were so to be whereas the Jewish worshippers were but only of one Nation and in that he alloweth the Christians to have amongst them Gods house as well as the Jews t is evident he calleth not only the Temple at Hierusalem Gods house but also all other Temples or Churches which should ever after be set apart for Gods worship plainly sheweth that his zeal was not so much for that house whereof in few years after not one stone was to be left upon another as for those houses which were to continue to the worlds end And lastly in that he calleth the Temple though set apart for all the acts of Gods worship The house of prayer that whilst sacrifices were not yet abolished t is evident he would have prayer looked upon as the chiefest act of Gods worship as chiefly belonging to Gods house and that therefore no act of Religion should cast prayer out of Gods house which is the house of prayer as no act of irreligion should cast Gods house out of any Nation which is the house of prayer for All Nations Preaching was ordained for Praying not against it to teach us how to make our supplications to God not to exclude our making them Which truth is either so palpable as to obtain all mens consent or so powerful as to extort it for even they who are most zealous for preaching do not think fit to preach without praying nay they commonly turn their Sermons into prayers as if the one without the other were either an ineffectual or an incompleat act of Religion whereas prayer alone is neither thought ineffectual nor incompleat thereby giving that pre-eminence to prayer in the truth of their Judgements which they arrogate to preaching in the perversness of their practice that is To be the chiefest act of Religious worship No Christian Divine ought so to betray his own Vocation much less his Religion as to undervalue preaching nor yet so to betray his Trust as to overvalue it above Prayer either of them is the publick manifestation of Gods excellency which to do according to Gods command is both the greatest duty of a Christian and the greatest glory of Christianity But whereas Gods excellency may be manifested three wayes First by way of Enuntiation as in that of the Psalmist Great is the Lord and marvellous worthy to be praised Psal 145. 3. Secondly by way of admiration as O Lord our Governour how excellent is thy name in all the world or What is man that thou art mindful of him Psalm 8. 1 4. Thirdly by way of invocation as In thee O Lord have I put my trust let me never be put to confusion Psalm 71. 1. T is evident that preaching can magnifie God only by way of enuntiation declaring his greatness and goodness or by way of admiration extolling it and I wish from my heart that our preaching did truly hit either of these marks which ought to aim at both But t is only praying which can magnifie him by way of invocation not only declaring and admiring his greatness and goodness but also Trusting it Therefore is this the highest degree of glory which man can give to God and t is as great a shame to give it to any else as not to give it him because this comprizeth as well as the other the act of enuntiation which is the work of the tongue and the act of admiration which is the work of the head but moreover addeth a most holy Affection which is the work of the heart and then is God most truly glorified as to the manifestation of his excellency when he is glorified both with tongue and head and heart How much more when all these meet together not only in one man but also in many millions which joyn together in one heavenly form of prayer whom though their number may make many Congregations yet their uniformity in prayer will not let make any more then one Communion These Congregations as they give most glory to God so they have most power with him and most blessings from him amongst the rest the blessings of Charity and concord which others who more delight in variety of Prayers as they do not so truly desire so they cannot so firmly enjoy according to the excellent gloss upon Rom. 15. Benè rogat Apostolus minores pro se orar◠multi enim minimi dum congregantur unanimes fiunt magni multorum preces impossibile est non impetrare illud quod est impetrabile If the effectual fervent prayer of one righteous man availeth much then of many righteous men much more especially when they all pray as one man with one heart and with one mouth and though many in speaking yet but one in Praying though many as men yet but one as Christians unanimously beseeching for the Grace and mercy of Christ who having joined two natures in one person loves to see us joyn many persons in one communion SECT III. Preaching is twofold either by Translating and Reading or by Expounding the Holy Scriptures The great excellency and necessity of both and that our Church is entrusted with both and cannot justly be charged as defective in either GOD first instructed men in his own person till their wickedness made them unworthy of so good company then withdrawing himself to heaven he instructed them by his Prophets because though their sin had made them destitute of his good company yet his mercy would no let them be destitute of his good instruction Thus was God pleased to preach unto those under the Law by himself and by his Prophets And after the same manner was he also pleased to preach to us under the Gospel by his Son and by his Apostles So that all Preaching hath in Truth its beginning from God should have its continuance with him its end in him For those Doctrines which are now Preached by his ordinary Ministers may not differ the least tittle from those
should not dishonour Gods Name when they met to honour it For that were doubly to take his Name in vain not only as men but also as Christians not only as sinners but also as Saints Not only as offenders but also as worshippers Therefore the Church thought her self bound in duty and conscience to provide such a form of prayer as she was sure had no blemish in it but had holy expressions exactly agreeable with holy affections and holy apprehensions that Gods holy name might be certainly glorified and her own Trust carefully discharged For it neerly concerned the Church to take great care there should be no blaspheming instead of publick praying when she was like to answer for all those blasphemies which through her default should be vented in publick prayers SECT V. The Church hath God the Sons precedent and precept for making set forms of prayer and is accordingly obliged both to make and to use them IT was an unsufferable malice in the Jews to cry out upon the Christians as Hereticks when they proved their Religion by the holy Scriptures But it was an unpardonable madness in them to cry out upon the Christians as Atheists when they practised their Religion by continual and incessant prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Heresie of the Christians was a calumny but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Heresie of the Atheistical Christians was a meer Phrensie for there could be no greater confutation of Atheism then that which was constantly used by the Christians even daily and lowly addresses to God by prayer and supplication And it were to be wished that we who can easily clear our selves from Heresie by proving our Religion did as zealously seek to clear our selves from Atheism by practising it For without doubt it well becometh Christians to follow the example of Christ and if we will so do we must above all things seek to follow his example in praying Justine Martyr in Quest Resp ad Orthodoxos qu. 105. hath this excellent contemplation Since prayer is a necessary help or remedy against the infirmities of our humane nature and our blessed Saviour as Lord of all had from himself power against those infirmities what is the reason that he is recorded to have been so often at his prayers even oftner then any of his Apostles Surely for this reason saith he because in after-ages some would doubt of the truth of his being a Man whereas none would make that doubt about his Apostles therefore is he so often described at his prayers to remove or answer all doubts concerning the truth of his humane nature For if some Hereticks have questioned the truth of Christs being made man notwithstanding he took upon him all our infirmities how would they not have thought they might have turned that question into a demonstration if they had never read of his making prayers to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 often praying was an irrefragable proof that Christ was the Son of Man often praying is an irrefragable proof that Christians are the Sons of God This was the reason the Apostles were so desirous to imitate him in his praying and desired him to teach them how to pray that they might not be mistaken in their imitation Luke 11. 1. And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place when he ceased one of his Disciples said unto him Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his Disciples And he said unto them when ye pray say Our Father c. Where we have both the precedent and the precept of God the Son for making set forms of Prayer His precedent in that he made this form Our Father which art in Heaven His precept in that he commanded his Disciples to use it When ye pray say Our Father from whence naturally flow these three dogmatical conclusions 1. That the people are bound to desire the Church to teach them to pray unless they will profess themselves not Disciples but Masters so far ought they to be from scoffing or rejecting thier Churches prayers 2. That the Church is bound to teach the people to pray after a set form for so our Saviour Christ taught his Disciples 3. That the Church is bound to command the people to use that set form for so our Saviour Christ commanded his Disciples to use his Prayer When ye pray say Our Father c. If any man shall make light of these deductions concerning praying in a set form he may with as great a pretence of reason but must with as great a scorn of piety make light of praying on a set day and so by consequence either undervalue or overthrow the whole publick exercise of Religion For from this place alone may as much be pleaded for the Duty of publick worship as from all other places of the New Testament for the day of it Ex. gr Vpon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Acts 20. 7. is alledged as a pregnant place for our solemn meetings on the Lords day and the like to this is that of 1 Cor. 16. 2. yet that proof concerning the day is not so full and clear as this concerning the duty for that may seem to be short in the precedent because there is mention made in the second of the Acts of meetingâ—…y â—…y and breaking bread from house to house Act. 2. 40. Whereby it is evident that if breaking bread were confined to the holy Eucharist yet the holy Eucharist was not confined to a set day But sure it is short in the Precept for it hath no command annexed which bids us assemble more on the first day of the week then another But this proof concerning the duty is not short in the precedent for the Disciples desired to be taught to pray as Johns were that is by a set form and Christ accordingly so teacheth them Nor is it short in the precept for our blessed Saviour commands them to use the set form which he had taught them If you will further alledge that other Text I was in the spirit on the Lords day Rev. 1. 10. you will thence righly plead for the day of publick worship because those words plainly infer that particular day to have been consecrated to the Lord since no better reason can be given why it should be called the Lords Day But yet still this our Text of Saint Luke will be a stronger proof for the duty of publick worship All to use a set form of Prayer then that Text of Saint John for the day of it all to meet on a set day because this hath precedent as well as that and moreover hath precept which that hath not And it is not to be imagined that any can easily come to that depth of sottishness or height of impudence and impiety as to say the Lords day is a means to put him in the Spirit but the Lords prayer is a means to put him out of it Or that a
set day may not as much hinder and obstruct his gift of prayer in respect of time as a set form can hinder and obstruct his gift of prayer in respect of words For it is as strict and as strong a confinement both to the spirit and gift of prayer to say Pray on this day as to say Pray in these words and we may as justly blame the Church for prescribing a set day as for prescribing a set form of prayer in both which notwithstanding she hath exactly followed our blessed Saviours own example and in prescribing the set form hath moreover followed his command SECT VI. The Church hath God the Holy-Ghosts Precedent and Preâ—ept for making and using set forms of Prayer IT is a heavenly prayer and much befitting a Christian Divine which is hinted by Saint Dionysius in the beginning of his sublime book concerning mystical Theologie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. O thou holy and blessed Trinity super abundant in essence in deity and in Goodness the Overseer of our Christian Divinity which is a wisdom of from and for God be pleased to direct us in the search of those more then hidden mysteries which we can neither find without thy guidance nor see without thy light nor utter without thy power He beginneth his book as many antient Divines began their Sermons In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost And though we of late have used longer prayers before our Sermons I will not say out of pretence but I must say Not out of Obedience for our Church did not command it and t is probable did scarce approve it yet we have not filled the world with much better Piety and sure we have filled it with much worse divinity For we have given occasion to many ignorant people to deny that Trinity which we our selves do disown in that we neither will begin in his name nor will end with his glory Tell me if there be any Jew in the world that will not pray to the great and dreadfull God or in the acknowledgement of his incomprehensible Majesty as well as we If therefore we our selves would not be thought nor have others to be made Jews or which is as bad Anti-trinitarians let us not think we pray as Christians unless in our prayers we do indeed glorifie God the Father Son and Holy Ghost For we are alike indebted to all three Persons of the blessed Trinity in regard of our prayers The Father accepteth the Son recommendeth the Holy Ghost suggesteth them nay indeed if they be truly acceptable they are suggested to us from the Father for the Son and by the Holy-Ghost And this was the grand reason that the primitive Christians did gather out of the holy Scriptures the greatest part of their publlike if not of their private devotions because they were sure that all such prayers as they found in the holy Bible came to them from the Holy Ghost and they could not desire better expressions then his in their mouths as not better motions then his in their hearts not doubting but God would readily hear the words as he would readily own the motions of his own spirit For this is the confidence that we all have in the Son of God that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us 1 Joh. 5. 14. and we cannot but think that one ready way to ask any thing according to his will is to ask it according to his words And his are all the words that are written either by the Prophers or by the Apostles for our instruction for they all came from they all lead to the eternal word So that in truth all those heavenly forms of prayer and praise which we meet with in the Old and New Testament are no other then so many set forms of infallible and impeccable Liturgy given to the Church from God the Father through God the Son and by God the Holy Ghost and the Church would shew but little dutifulness and less thankfulness if she did not accordingly make a frequent and a good use of them in her own Liturgies or if she did not make Liturgies of her own both in imitation of those and in obedience to those Liturgies which she hath received from God And as for the using set forms it is no less recommended to the Church by the Spirit of God then is the making them Thus in the ninth of Nehemiah we find eight several Levites Praying and Preaching at one time each in his several congregation for the multitude was so great that it was divided into eight congregations saith Tremelius But t is evident there was but one Form of prayer and praise for them all whether at one time in several congregations or at several times in one congregation for one of these must be granted to avoid confusion still they all had but one form for the text saith expresly then the Levites Jeshua and Kadmiel c. said Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever and blessed be thy glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise v. 5. Thou even thou art Lord alone c. v. 6. and so along to the end of the chapter where all the eight Levites named together in the fift verse do make a most religious confession of Gods goodness a confession of Praise and of their Fathers and their own wickedness a confession of sin and all of them make but one and the same confession using exactly the same words For when the Text saith expresly Then the Levites naming all eight of them said Stand up and bless the Lord c. t is not for us to imagine that one of all the eight did not say these or did say other then these very words Again it is said Neh. 12. 46. For in the dayes of David and Asaph of old there were chief of the Singers and Songs of praise and thanksgivings unto God No man can doubt who reads the inscriptions of the Psalms and obâ—â—râ—eâ— what he reads but that the Songs were as publikely known and as particularly appointed as the singers And â—aâ—â— David tells us plainly in his comment upon the third Psalm that the Psalms were not called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Songs at the time they were made but at the time they were sung and that they were accordingly in process of time sung in the Temple some before some after the Captivity However it is undeniable that the Psalms were the greatest part of the Jews Liturgie or publike worship and the matter is not great whether we look on them as Songs or as Supplications For if there were particular forms of praise without stinting of the Spirit as without doubt the spirit which appointed and commanded the use of these forms stinted not himself I say if there were particular forms of praise without stinting of the spirit why not also forms of Prayer Since it is evident the same
Apostles rule Hold fast that which is good is not to be observed in all good but only in the very best The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words and that which was written was upright even words of Truth Eccles 12. â—10 If he that preacheth ought to seek for acceptable words that is words sutable both to the matters he speaks of and the persons he speaks to then much more he that prayeth since praying ought to be more carefully provided and more conscionably performed then preaching For in preaching a man speaks to men but in praying a man speaks to God And for this cause the Church thinks it her duty to provide for us acceptable words in praying whilst she leaves us to provide our own acceptable words in preaching The Prophet Hosea exhorteth the Israelites to take with them words and turn to the Lord Hos 14. 2. He asks not Gold nor Silver not burnt offerings saith Rabbi David but good words from you that with them you will confess your sins and return unto the Lord with all your heart and not only with your lips Here t is plain by his Gloss that the Prophet enjoyns a form of confession and bids them take good words that they may have good hearts nay t is plain by the Text it self for those good words or that form of confession is particularly expressed as well as enjoyned in the next words Say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously But it were in vain to pray unto God to receive us graciously if we did pray ungraciously therefore taking with us words according to Gods command in Hosea must needs well agree with the Spirit of grace and of supplications according to his promise in Zechariah Zech. 12. 10. And as the Papists do vainly arrogate and more vainly appropriated the Title of Religion to their monastical vows so the Enthusiasts do as vainly arrogate and more vainly appropriate the Title of the Spirit to their phantastical prayers and good Protestants have no more reason to think they want these prayers to make them spiritual then that they want those vows to make them Religious I do not discourage or discountenance any particular mans gifts for I do heartily wish as Moses did I would to God all the Lords people were Prophets but I must needs profess that he which ascended on high led captivity captive to give gifts unto men hath given the greatest gifts where he hath given the greatest promises and he hath given greater promises to his Church then to any member or Minster of the same If I follow the Church making use of the gift of prayer which God hath given her I do that which God hath required of me For the Church hath commission from God to teach me to pray or that of Luk. 11. 1. was not written for our instruction But if I follow any other mans gifts who hath not that commission I may justly fear that God who will one day say to him Who hath required this at your hands for making such prayers will not say much less to me for hearing them As for that slight objection of deadness formality men are subject to more from set forms then from conceived prayers t is in its consequence a blasphemy against the holy Scriptures for it reacheth the prayers penned there by the Holy Ghost as well as penned here by the Church so that I hope none will blame me for calling the objection slight now I have proved it wicked For how is it possible for any man to say that prayer by book is flat and dead without undervaluing all the prayers in the holy Bible and contemning the very Book of books Let him next say Evangelium Atramentarium away with this Inkie-Gospel but withal let him know that he cannot thus turn Enthusiast unless he will first turn Papist So he shall turn to the worse for his person and he cannot depend upon suggestions instead of books but he must turn prayer from being an act of Reason nay from being an act of Faith to be an act of phansie if not of faction And so he shall turn to the worse also for his prayers yet all this while we cannot but take notice that our adversaries are very hard put to it for an accusation when they are fain to fetch it from our hearts which they cannot know should not judge dealing with us as some of the Rabbies dealt with Job for when the Text had said of him In all this Job sinned not with his lips as we doubt not but it doth also in effect say of our Church concerning her Common Prayers two of them sc Ralbag and Jarchi are pleased to add this gloss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abal belibbo Chata But yet sure he sinned in his heart To conclude a set form of Doctrine we must have or be Heretical A set form of Discipline we must have or be irregular and why not also have a set form of devotion or be irreligious for we cannot well be unanimously Religious without a set form of publick prayer and the want of unanimity will soon beget the want of Religion for God is love and therefore we cannot be without love but we must be without God and consequently men cannot be long without true charity but they will also be without true piety And as for making the Common Prayer Book an Idol if it be not an objection of great impiety by calling true Religion Idolatry yet it is an argument of great absurdity because it may cast the Bible must cast the Sabbath out of the Church For men may Idolize one good Book as well as another so the Bible may go ere long but some have already Idolized the Sabbath so that must stay no longer I do the rather instance upon this latter for that it comes neerest our present case 1. Because publick prayer is the duty of the Sabbath and that ought to be publick in its substance that is in its matter and form as well as in its Accidents that is time place and persons 2. Because the same Method is to be observed in words as in time Gods consecration is to be the rule of ours in them both he hath consecrated we may what he hath consecrated we must he hath said make holy we may he hath said make holy the Sabbath day we must he hath said when ye pray say thus we must he hath said after this manner therefore pray we may Had he not given us that latitude we might not have taken it but must have only used such prayers in his publick worship as his holy Spirit had left us in the holy Scriptures Now he hath given this latitude we must make the best use of it by making and using such prayers as we know are after this manner though not in these Words we have as great need of set forms of prayers to find our tongues as of set forms of Laws to bind our heads to