prophesying these may be as variable as the other are constant it is no more possible to fit all Churches and Countreys with one form then to fit all bodies with one suit or all limmes with one size Neither can I with learned Beza and Cappellus think that prophesying here is taken for the hearing of prophesyes these things were extraordinarily done till they were restrained In those Primitive times there were some women extraordinarily gifted by Gods Spirit who took upon them to preach and pray publickly which afterwards St. Paul forbad to his Timothy 1 Tim. 2.12 They exercising these manly functions presumed to take upon them manly fashions whereas therefore bare-headednesse was in Corinth as also in all Greece and Rome a token of honour and superiority and covering the head a token of subjection these forward women usurpe upon the fashions of their husbands and will have their faces seen as well as their voyces heard as the Jesuitesses of late time dared both to attempt and practise till the late restraint of Pope Urban curbed and suppressed them Our holy Apostle who was zealously carefull to reforme even Soloecismes in the outward deportment of Gods service controlls this absurd disorder and as the great Master of holy ceremonies injoynes a modest vail to the women when they will show themselves in these acts of publique devotion For this cause the women ought to have power on their head because of the Angels Wherein your selves without me observe two remarkable heads of our discourse 1. An Apostolicall Canon 2ly The carriage or grounds of it The Canon is fully and home-charged The women ought to have power on their head The grounds are double one precedent For this cause The other subsequent Because of the Angels which in the vulgar and in St. Ambrose is brought in by a Copulative or etiam propter Angelos From the Canon it self in the generality you would of your selves in my silence easily inferre that spirituall superiors must take care not only of the substantiall parts of Gods worship but of the circumstantiall appendances of it what is a meerer ceremony then our cloathes what can seem of lesse consequence then a vail left off or put on the head may be as good and as full of holy thoughts bare or covered what is that you would think to the heart of our devotion yet the chosen vessel fears not to seem too scrupulous in laying weighty charges upon us in so small and as we might imagine unimporting a business Certainly my beloved though the Kings Daughter be all glorious within and there lies her chief beauty yet her clothing is of wrought Gold too And if in the Tabernacle Gods first dwelling place upon Earth it pleased him to give order for the principal stuffe of the vails and curtaines and frame for the matter and form of the Ark and Altars and Tables of the Face-bread yet he thought good not to neglect the punctuall directions for the Taches Snuffers Snuff-dishes beesomes and the meanest requisites of that sacred Fabrick Justice and Judgment which are the main businesses of the law must be chiefly regarded but yet even the tithing of mint and anyse and cummin may not be neglected Had not Simon the Pharisee meant an hearty welcome to our Saviour he had never undergone the envy of inviting him to his house but yet our Saviour finds him short of his due complements of the hospitall kiss of washing and anoynting Let no man say what matter is to be made of stuffes or colours or postures God is a Spirit and will be worshipt in Spirit and truth these bodily observations are nothing to that spirituall and infinite essence what Corinthian Gossip might not have said so to our Apostle yet he sees the respect of these circumstances so necessary that the neglect of them may yea will marr the substance and surely in all experience were it not for ceremonies what would become of state goverment conversation religion and yet of these there is great difference some ceremonies are no less then substance to others and beside the latitude of their nature they have one aspect as they look toward an imposing authority and another as they look toward an arbitrary use It is one thing what men take up out of will or custome another thing what they conform to out of duty and obedience so as what our superiors to whom we must leave to see further then our selves think fit to injoyne us out of their estimation of decency and order is not now left to the freedom of our election it is for them to judge it is for us to obey neither have we the like reason to censure them for imposing things indifferent which are found by them to conduce unto holy ends that they have to censure us for not observing them herein they are wise and just whiles we are conceitedly refractory I know how little I need to press this to a people where I can find nothing but an universal conformity only this touch was needfull if but to second and revive those late meet and expedientorders which we lately commended to your carefull and Christian observation This from the generall and confused view of this Apostolicall charge cast your eyes now upon the particular injunction The Woman ought to have power on her Head what is this power but a signification of her husbands power over her for it is worth observing that the Hebrew word which signifies a vail 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies also power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being derived from a root of that sense so as the meaning plainly is The woman ought to wear that on her head which may import and testifie that she is under her husbands power which is as the Valentinians read it not amiss in Irenaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a vail or covering here therefore ye have an evident Metonymy the thing signified which is the husbands power is put for that which signifies it which is the womans vail so as this proposition then lies open to a double consideration the one in reference to the thing signified which is the husbands power over the wife the other in reference to the sign implying it which is the wifes vail or covering of the head of both briefly The first that the husband hath power over the wife is so clear both in nature and reason that I shall willingly save the labour of a proof it is enough that by her Creatour she was made for an helper and an helper doth necessarily argue a principall it is enough for matter of instiution that he who gave her a will appointed it should be subject to the will of her husband which how deep an impression it took in very Heathens appears clearly enough in the Persian sages censure of Vashti Est. 1. And that it may appear the liberty of the Gospell doth no whit alter the case How do the blessed Apostles St. Paul and St. Peter redouble the charge of
of evil inclinations and actions which yet will never reach to evince our son-ship to God How easily were it for me to name you divers Heathens which have been eminent in all these and yet for ought we know never the nearer to Heaven yet lower there are some speciall gifts of the Spirit which we call Charismata rare endowments bestowed upon some men excellent faculties of preaching and praying power of miraculous workings as no doubt Judas did cast out Devils as well as the best of his fellow-Apostles gifts of tongues and of Prophesie and the like which do no more argue a right to the son-ship of God then the Manuaries infused skill of Bezaleel and Aâ—oliab could prove them Saints yet lastly there may be sensible operations of the Spirit of God upon the soul in the influences of holy motions into the heart in working a temporary faith and some fair progresse in an holy profession and yet no sonship the world is full of such glow-wormes that make some show of Spiritual Light from God when they have nothing in them but cold crudities that can serve for nothing but deceit Will ye then see what leading of the Spirit can evince us to be the Sons and Daughters of God know then that if we will hope for a comfortable assurance hereof we must be efficaciously led by his sanctifying Spirit first in matter of judgment secondly in our dispositions and thirdly in our practise For matter of judgment ye remember what our Saviour said to his Disciples When the Spirit of truth is come he will lead you into all Truth John 16.13 That is into all saving and necessary truthes so as to free us from grosse ignorance or main errour Whosoever therefore is enlightned with the true and solid knowledg of all those points of Christian doctrine which are requisite for salvation is in that first regard led by the Spirit and in this behalf hath a just title to the son-ship of God as contrarily those that are grosly and obstinately erroneous in their judgment of fundamental truthes let them pretend to never so much holinesse in heart or life shall in vain lay claim to this happy condition of the Sons of God For our disposition secondly If the holy Spirit have wrought our hearts to be right with God in all our affections if we do sincerely love and fear him if we do truely believe in him receiving him as not our Saviour only but as our Lord If our desires be unfained towards him If after a meek and penitent self-dejection we can find our selves raised to a lively hope and firm confidence in that our blessed Redeemer and shall continue in a constant and habitual fruition of him being thus led by the Spirit of God we may be assured that we are the Sons of God for flesh and blood cannot be accessary to these gracious dispositions Lastly for our practise it is a clear word which we hear God say by Ezekiel I will put my Spirit into the midst of you and will by it cause you to walk in my statutes and keep my laws Ezech. 36.27 Lo herein is the main crisis of a soul led by the Spirit of God and adopted to this heavenly son-ship It is not for us to content our selves to talk of the lawes of our God and to make empty and formal professions of his name Here must be a continued walk in Gods statutes it will not serve the turne for us to stumble upon some acceptable work to step aside a little into the pathes of godlinesse and then draw back to the World no my beloved this leading of Gods Spirit must neither be a forced angariation as if God would feoffe grace and salvation upon us against our wills nor some suddain protrusion to good nor a meer actual momentany transient conduction for a brunt of holinesse and away leaving us to the sinful wayes of our former disobedience and to our wonted compliances with the World the Devil and the Flesh but must be in a steady uninterrupted habitual course of holy obedience so as we may sincerely professe with the man after Gods own heart My soul hath kept thy Testimonies and I love them exceedingly Psal 119.67 Now then dear Christians lay this to heart seriously and call your selves sadly to this triall What is the carriage of our lives What obedience do we yeild to the whole law of our God If that be entire hearty universal constant perseverant and truly conscientious we have whereof to rejoyce an unfailing ground to passe a confident judgment upon our spiritual estate to be no lesse then happy But if we be willingly failing in the unfained desires and indevours of these holy performances and shall let loose the reins to any known wickednesse we have no part nor portion in this blessed condition Mark I beseech you how fully this is asserted to our hands in this saith the beloved Apostle the Children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousnesse is not of God neither he that loves not his brother 1 Joh. 3.10 Observe I pray you what test we are put to ye hear him not say who so talks not holily or who so professes not godlinesse in these an hypocrite may exceed the best Saint but whosoever doth not righteousnesse withall see what a clause the Disciple of love superadds to the mention of all Righteousnesse neither he that loves not his brother surely the Spirit of God is a Loving Spirit Wisdom 1.6 and St. Paul hath the like phrase Rom. 15.30 To let passe then all the other proofes of our guidance by the spirit Instance but in this one Alas my Brethren what is become of that charitable and christian carriage of men towards one another which God requires of us and which was wont to be conspicuous amongst Christian compatriots Wo is me instead of that true and hearty love which our Saviour would have the Livery of our Disciple-ship the badg of our holy profession what do we see but emulation envy malice rigid censures and rancorous heart-burnings amongst men In stead of those neighbourly and friendly offices which Christians were wont lovingly to performe to each other what have we now in the common practise of men but underminings oppressions violence cruelty Can we think that the Spirit of him who would be styled Love it self would lead us in these rugged and bloody pathes No no this alone is too clear a proof how great a stranger the Spirit of God is to the hearts and waies of men and how few there are that upon good and firme grounds can plead their right to the son-ship of God Alas alas if these dispositions and practises may bewray the sons of an holy God what can men do to prove themselves the children of that hellish Apollion who was a man-slayer from the beginning For us my beloved Oh let us hate and bewaile this common degeneration of Christians and as we would
clear and piercing and therefore it is purposely added for the further Emphasis In him is no darkenesse Oh the infinite clearnesse of the Divine knowledg to which all things lye open both past present and to come which doth not only reach in one intuition to all the actions motions events of all Creatures that have been are shall be but which is infinitely more then all these extends to the full comprehension of himself his whole Divine nature and essence to which the World though full of innumerable varieties is lesse then nothing The Sun is a goodly globe of Light The visible World hath nothing so glorious so searching and yet there are many things lye hid within the bosome of the Earth and Sea which his eye never saw never shall see Neither can it ever see more then half the World at once darkness the while enwraps the other nor indeed of any much lesser if round body And though it give light unto other Creatures yet it gives not light to it self like as our eye sees all other objects but it self it cannot see And though it enlighten this materiall Heaven both above and below it self as also this lower Air and Earth yet the Empyreal Heaven transcends the beames of it and is filled with a more glorious illumination But God the Light of whom we speak who is the Maker of that Sun sees the most hidden secrets of Earth and Hell sees all that is done in Earth and Heaven at one view sees his most glorious self and by his presence makes Heaven Most justly therefore is God Light by an eminence Now the reflection of the first quality of Light upon us must be our clear apprehension of God the World and our selves and by how much more exact knowledg we shall attain unto of all these by so much more do we conform our selves to that God who is Light and by how much less we know them so much more darkness there is in us and so much less fellowship have we with God If the eye have not an inward Light in it self let the Sun shine never so bright upon it it is nevertheless blind What are we the better for that which is in God if there be not an inward Light in our Souls to answer and receive it How should we love and adore God if we know him not How shall we hate and combat the World if we know it not How shall we value and demean our selves if we know not our selves Surely the want of this Light of knowledg is the ground of all that miserable disorder which we see daily break forth in the affections in the carriages of men I know the common word is that we are fallen into a knowing age such as wherein our speculative skill is wont to be upbraided to us in a disgracefull comparison of our unanswerable practise our forward young men out-run their years bragg that there is more weight in the down of their chins then in the gray beards of their aged Grandsires Our artificers take upon them to hold argument with and perhaps control their Teachers neither is it any newes for the shop-board to contest with the schooles every not Knight or Rook only but Pawn too can give check to a Bishop The Romish Church had lately her Shee-Preachers till Pope Urban gagg'd them and our Gossips now at home in stead of dresses can tattle of mysteries and censure the Pulpit in stead of neighbours Light call you this No these are fiery flashes of conceit that glance through vain minds to no purpose but idle ostentation and satisfaction of wild humours without stability or any available efficacy to the soul Alas we are wise in impertinencies ignorant in main truths neither doth the knowledg of too many go any deeper then the verge of their brains or the tip of their tongue I fear true solid knowledg is not much less rare then when our unlett'red Grand-fathers were wont to court God Almighty with false Latin in their devotions For did the true Light shine into the hearts of men in the knowledg of God the World themselves how could they how durst they live thus Durst the leud tongues of men rend the holy name of God in peices with oaths and blasphemies if they knew him to be so dreadfull so just as he hath revealed himself Durst the cruell oppressors of the World grind faces and cut throats and shed blood like water if they were perswaded that God is a sure revenger of their outrages Durst the goatish adulterer the swinish drunkard wallow in their beastly uncleannesse if they knew their is a God to judge them an Hell to fry in Durst the rebellious seditionary lift up his hand against the Lords Anointed and that under a colour of religion if the fool had not said in his heart There is no God Could the covetous fool so admire and adore his red and white Earth could the ambitious so dote upon a little vanishing honour as to sacrifice his soul to it if he knew the World could the proud man be so besotted with self-love as that he sees his God in his glass if he knew himself Surely then the true Light is as rare as it is precious and it is as precious as life it self yea as life eternall This is eternall life to know thee and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ What were the World without Light and what the soul without the Light of knowledg We condemne Malefactors to darkness that is one great part of the horrour of their durance Jo. 17. â— and by how much more haynous their crime is so much darker is their dungeon Darkness of understanding then is punishment enough alone as it is also the entry into hell which is described by blackness of darkness None but savage Creatures delight in darkness Man naturally abhorres it in all things If our eyes be dim we call for glasses if our houses be dark we make windows if the evening grow dark we call for lights and if those lights burn dim we call for snuffers and shall we avoid darkness in every thing except our soules which is our better and more Divine part Honourable and beloved as we love and tender those dear soules of ours let us labour to furnish them with the Light of true and saving knowledg What is this Gospell which shines thus daily and clearly in your faces but the Vehiculum lucis the carriage of that heavenly Light to the World Send forth thy Light and thy Truth saith the Psalmist Thy Word is Truth saith our Saviour that word of truth then is the body of that Light which God showes to men Oh let it not shine upon us in vain let us not trample upon the beams of it in our floore as that foolish woman that St. Austin speaks of did to those of the Sun with a Calco Manichorum Deum But now while God gives these happy opportunities let us enlarge our hearts to receive
in this place when it is said Christ our passover is sacrificed for us So as here is a trope or figure twice told First the lamb is the passover Secondly Christ is that paschal Lamb. You would think this now far-fetched here was a double passing over The Angels passing over the Israelites the Israelites passing out of Egypt both were acts the one of God the other of men as for the lamb it is an animal substance Yet this Lamb represents this passover This is no newes in sacramental speeches The thing signed is usually put for the sign it self My covenant shall be in your flesh that is circumcision the sign of my covenant the rock that followed them was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 that is Christ was represented by that rock This cup is the new testament So here Christ our passover Gen. 17.13 that is Christ represented by the Paschal-lamb What an infatuation is upon the Romish party that rather then they will admit of any other then a grosse literall capernaiticall sence in the words of our Saviours sacramental supper This is my body will confound Heaven and Earth together and either by a too forceable consequence endeavour to overthrow the truth of Christs humanity or turne him into a monster a wafer a crum a nothing Whenas St. Austin hath told us plainly sacramentaliter intellectum vivificabit Take it in a sacramental sence there is infinite comfort and spiritual life in it As for his body St. Peter hath told us the heavens must contain him till the time of the restitution of all things Acts 3.21 Yea when our Saviour himself hath told us the words that I speak are spirit and life Jo. 6. Now what a marvellous mercy was this of God to Israel thus to passe over them when he slew the first-borne of Egypt There was not an house in all Egypt wherein there was not mourning and lamentation no roof but coverd a suddainly made carcasse what an unlook't for consternation was here in every Egyptian Family Only the Israelites that dwelt amongst them were free to applaud this judgment that was inflicted upon their tyrannous persecutors and for their very cause inflicted for this mercy are they beholden under God to the blood of their Paschal-lamb sprinkled upon their door-posts Surely had they eaten the lamb and not sprinkled the blood they had not escaped the stroak of the destroying Angel This was in figure In reality it is so It is by and from the blood of our redeemer sprinkled upon our souls that we are freed from the vengeance of the Almighty Had not he dyed for us were not the benefit of his precious blood applyed to us we should lye open to all the fearful judgments of God and as to the upshot of all eternall death of body and soul As then the Israelites were never to eat the Paschal-lamb but they were recalled to the memory of that saving preterition of the Angel and Gods merciful deliverance from the fiery furnaces of the Egyptians so neither may we ever behold this sacramental representation of the death of our blessed Saviour but we should bethink our selves of the infinite mercy of our good God in saving us from everlasting death and rescuing us from the power of hell This is the first figure That the Lamb is the Passover The se-second followes That Christ is that Paschal-Lamb Christ then being the end of the Law it is no marvell if all the ceremonies of the Law served to prefigure and set him forth to Gods people but none did so clearly and fully resemble him as this of the paschal Lambe whether we regard 1. the choyce 2. the preparation 3. the eating of it The choice whether in respect of the nature or the quality of it the nature ye know this creature is noted for innocent meek gentle profitable such was Christ our Saviour His fore-runner pointed at him under this stile Behold the Lamb of God what perfect innocence was here No guile found in his mouth Hell it self could finde nothing ro quarrel at in so absolute integrity What admirable meekness He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so opened be not his mouth Esay 53.7 Doth his own treacherous servant betray him to the death Friend wherefore art thou come Mat. 26.50 Do the cruel tormentors tenter out his pretious limmes and nail his hands and feet to the tree of shame and curse Father forgive them for they know not what they do Oh patience and meeknesse incident into none but an infinite sufferer 2ly The quality Every Lamb would not serve the turne it must be agnus immaculatus A lamb without blemish that must be paschal Exod. 12.5 Neither doth it hinder ought that leave is there given to a promiscuous use either of lamb or kid for the sacramental supper of the passover For that was only allowed in a case of necessity as Theodoret rightly and as learned Junius well in the confusion of that first institution wherein certainly a lamb could not be gotten on the suddain by every Israelitish house-keeper to serve six hundred thousand men and so many there were Exod. 12.37 This liberty then was only for the first turne as divers other of those ceremonious circumstances of the passover were namely the four daies preparation the sprinkling of the blood upon the door-cheeks eating with girded loines and staves in their hands which were not afterward required or practised The lamb then must represent a most holy and perfectly sin-less Saviour could he have been capable of the least sin even in thought he had been so far from ransoming the World that he could not have saved himself Now his exquisite holinesse is such as that by the perfection of his merits he can and doth present his whole Church to himself glorious not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing as holy and without blemish Ephes 5.27 Canst thou therefore accuse thy self for a sinful wretch a soul blemished with many foul imperfections Look up man lo thou hast a Saviour that hath holinesse enough for himself and thee and all the World of beleevers close with him and thou art holy and happy Behold the immaculate lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world thine Therefore if thou canst lay hold on him by a lively faith and make him thine This for the choice the preparation followes so Christ is the paschal lamb in a threefold respect in resemblance of his killing sprinkling his blood and roasting 1. This Lamb to make a true passover must be slain So was there a necessity that our Jesus should dye for us The two Disciples in their walk to Emaus hear this not without a round reproof from the mouth of their risen Saviour Oh fooles and slow of heart to beleeve all that the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory Luc. 24.26 Ought not there is
more peculiar manner now his very senses help to nourish his soul and by his eyes his hands his tast Christ is spiritually conveighed into his heart to his unspeakable and everlasting consolation But to put all scruples out of the mind of any reader concerning this point Let that serve for the upshot of all which is expressely set down in the 5th Rubrick in the end of the Communion set forth as the judgment of the Church of England both in King Edwards and Queen Elizabeths time though lately upon negligence omitted in the impression In these words Least yet the same kneeling might be thought or taken otherwise we do declare That it is not meant thereby that any adoration is done or ought to be done either unto the sacramental bread and wine there bodily received or unto any real and essential presence there being of Christs natural flesh and blood For as concerning the sacramental bread and wine they remain still in their very natural substances and therefore may not be adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithfull Christians and as concerning the natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ they are in Heaven and not here for it is against the truth of Christs natural body to be in more places then one at one time c. Thus the Church of England having plainly explicated her self hath left no place for any doubt concerning this truth neither is she any changeling in her judgment however some unsteddy minds may vary in their conceits away then with those nice scruplers who for some further ends have endeavoured to keep us in an undue suspense with a non licet inquirere de modo and conclude we resolutely that there is no truth in divinity more clear then this of Christs gracious exhibition and our faithful reception of him in this blessed Sacrament Babes keep your selves from Idols Amen A LETTER FOR THE OBSERVATION OF THE FEAST OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY Sir with my Loving Remembrance IT cannot but be a great grief to any wise and moderate Christian to see zealous well meaning souls carried away after the giddy humour of their new teachers to a contempt of all holy and reverend antiquity and to an eager affectation of novel fancies even whiles they cry out most bitterly against innovations When the practise and judgment of the whole Christian world ever from the dayes of the blessed Apostles to this present age is pleaded for any form of government or laudable observation they are straight taught That old things are passed and that all things are become new making their word good by so new and unheard-of an interpretation of Scripture Whereby they may as justly argue the introducing of a new Church a new Gospel a new Religion with the annulling of the old And that they may not want an all-sufficient patronage of their fond conceit our blessed Saviour himself is brought in who in his sermon on the mount controlled the antiquity of the pharisaical glosses of the law Ye have heard that it was said by them of old thus and thus but I say unto you c as if the Son of God in checking the upstart antiquity of a mis-grounded and unreasonable tradition meant to condemn the truely-antient and commendable customes of the whole Christian Church which all sober and judicious christians are wont to look upon with meet respect and reverence And certainly whosoever shall have set down this resolution with himself to sleight those either institutions or practises which are derived to us from the Primitive times and have ever since been intertained by the whole church of Christ upon earth that man hath laid a sufficient foundation of Schisme and dangerous singularity and doth that which the most eminent of the Fathers St. Augustine chargeth with no less then most insolent madnesse For me and my friend God give us grace to take the advice which our Saviour gives to his spouse to Go forth by the footsteps of the Flock and to feed our Kids beside the Shepheards tents Cant. 1.8 and to walk in the sure paths of uncorrupt antiquity For the celebration of the solemn Feasts of our Saviours Nativity Resurrection Ascention and the comming down of the Holy Ghost which you say is cryed down by your zealous lecturer one would think there should be reason enough in those wonderful and unspeakable benefits which those dayes serve to commemorate unto us For to instance in the late feast of the Nativity when the Angel brought the newes of that blessed birth to the Jewish shepheards Behold saith he I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people for unto you is borne this day a Saviour If then the report of this blessing were the best tidings of the greatest joy that ever was or ever could be possibly incident into mankind why should not the commemoration thereof be answerable Where we conceive the greatest joy what should hinder us to expresse it in a joyfull festivity But you are taught to say the day conferred nothing to the blessing that every day we should with equal thankfulnesse remember this inestimable benefit of the incarnation of the Son of God so as a set anniversary day is altogether needless know then and consider that the all wise God who knew it fit that his People should everyday think of the great work of the creation and of the miraculous deliverance out of the Egyptian servitude and should daily give honour to the Almighty creator and deliverer yet ordained one day of seven for the more special recognition of these marvellous works as well knowing how apt we are to forget those duties wherewith we are only encharged in common without the designment of a particular rememoration Besides the same reason will hold proportionably against any monethly or annuall celebration whatsoever the Jewes should have been much to blame if they had not every day thankfully remembred the great deliverance which God wrought for them from the bloody design of cruel Haman yet it was thought requisite if not necessary that there should be two special dayes of Purim set apart for the anniversary memorial of that wonderful preservation The like may be said for the English Purim of our November it is well if besides the general tye of our thankfulness a precise day ordaind by authority can enough quicken our unthankful dulness to give God his own for so great a mercy shall we say now it is the work of the year what needs a day As therefore no day should passe over our head without a grateful acknowledgment of the great mystery of God incarnate So withall the wisdome of the primitive Church no doubt by the direction of the holy Ghost hath pitched upon one special day wherein we should intirely devote our thoughts to the meditation of this work which the Angels of heaven can not enough admire But you are told that perhaps we miss of the day since the season
ESTABLISHED WOrthy Sir when leud and debauched persons drop away from us we lament their loss not our own but when Men of worth leave us it is not their loss more then ours with so much more indignation must we needs think of those Cheaters for so I construe St. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that would fain win you from us with meer tricks of mis-suggestion the attempt whereof hath given occasion to these warm lines which my true zeal of your safety hath drawn from me So much hath been already spoken to this cavill that would you please but to cast your eye upon Bishop Mortons treatise of the grand imposture and Bishop Bedells Epistles to Wadsworth you could not desire other satisfaction thither give me leave to referr you at your best leasure in the mean time least I should seem willing to spare my own indeavors let me shortly discover the vanity of that stale collusion which some Seducers would put upon you Certainly Sir the more you look into these quarrels the more you find that Templum Domini was not a more mocking plea amongst the Jews of old then Ecclesia Catholica is this day among Christians those challenge it whole that have it not and those that have right to it are excluded with equal importunity Blessed be God you were born and bred in a noble and renowned Daughter of that great and universal Mother the Church of England what reason can an Enemy show you why you should repent you of such a parentage and spit in the face of so gracious a Mother and nurse nothing it seems is urged to you but her age It is a killing word with those Romish Imposters where was your Church before Luther then which there was never any plea more idle more frivolous when it falls under a wise and judicious discussion for consider I beseech you Did we go about to lay the foundations of a new Church the challenge were most just Primum verum was the old and sure rule of Tertullian we abhorr new Churches and new Truths find ours either to be or to be pretended such and forsake us But when all our claim all our endeavour is onely the reforming and repairing of an old Church faulty in some mouldred stones and mis-daubed with some untempered and lately laid morter what a frenzy is this to ask where that Church was which we show them sensibly thus repaired had it not been before how could it have been capable of this amendment and if it be but reformed by us It was formed before and having been since deformed by their errors is only restored by us to the former beauty As sure as there is any Church any truth in the World this is the true and only State of this controversie the mis-prision whereof hath been guilty of the loss of many thousand souls To speak plainly it is onely the gross abuses and palpable innovations of the Church of Rome which we have parted from set these aside they and we are and will be one Church let this be done and if their cruelty and uncharitableness would sever us our unity of faith and Christian love shall make us one in spight of malice If their mis-zealous importunity will needs so incorporate those which we can convince for new errours as to make them essential to the very being of their Church they are more injurious to themselves then their Enemies can be we can but lament to see them guilty of their own mischief For us we have erred in nothing but this that we would not err to demonstrate this in particulars were a long-some task and that which I have already performed in that my treatise of the Old Religion may it please you to let fall your eye upon that plain and moderate discourse you shall confess this truth made good every parcel whereof I am ready to justifie against all gainsayers when these Men therefore shall ask where our Church was answer them boldly where it is It is with Churches as with those severall persons whereof they consist give me a Man that having been Romish for opinion is now grown wiser and reformed he hath still the same form or essence though not the same errors he is the same Man then yea I add he is the same Christian that he was whiles he holds firmly all those Articles of Catholick faith which are essentiall to Christianity if he now find reason to reject those hideous novelties of the inerrability of a Man of sin of the new and monstrous but invisible incarnation of his Saviour by charm of a sinfull Priest of marting of sins of purgatory flames and the rest of that upstart rabble of the Tridentine Creed whiles he undoubtedly believes all those truths which carried our Fathers who lived before the hatching of these devices safely and directly to Heaven who can deny him the honor of true Catholicisme and Christianity No otherwise is it in whole Churches whereof every believeing soul is an abridgment if any of them find just cause to refuse some newly obtruded opinions which the rest are set to maintain whiles in the mean time the foundation remains entire this can be no ground to dis-Church that differing company of Christians neither are they other from themselves upon this diversity of opinion But I hear what some whisperers say It is the determination of the Church which makes what points she thinks fit de fide and fundamental Let me confidently say this is the most dangerous innovation that can fall into the ears hearts hands of Christians If the Church can make another God another Christ another Heaven other Prophets and Apostles she may also lay another foundation But the old rule of the chosen Vessel wheron I securely cast my soul is Fundamentum aliud ponere nemo potest But that You may perfectly discover the fraud what Church is it I beseech you to whom this power ir arrogated and by whom is it usurped None but the Roman and what is that but a particular Church I speak boldly there was never so grosse a gullery in the World as this what interest hath Rome in Heaven more then Constantinople then Paris then Prague then Basil then London or any other City under Heaven or what priviledg hath the Italian Church above the Greek French Germane English It is the charge of the Apostle My Brethren have not the faith of God in respect of persons I may upon the same Grounds say in respect of places the locality of truth is the most idle and childish plea that ever imposed upon wise men Away with this foppery the true divinity of St. Peter was and is in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him the climate makes no difference and if more respect have been antiently given to that See then to others it was the soveraignty of the City which then drew on those honours to the Church which upon the very same reason were no