can be produced to depose for the Sacrifice of the Eucharist than the sense of those Scriptures of the New Testament already handled which are in a maner all that have any mention of it will inferr and allow There is much noise made with the Priesthood of Melchisedeck of whom wee reade Gen. XIV 19 24. And Melchisedeck King of Salem brought forth bread and wine for hee was the Priest of the most High God And hee blessed him saying Blessed be Abraham of the most High God which owneth heaven and earth In reference whereunto the Psalmist speaking of Christ Psal CX 4. The Lord sware and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck And the Apostle taking for granted that hee is a figure of Christ in the mystical sense Ebr. VII 13. argueth the voiding of the Levitical Law from the purpose of setting up another Priesthood declared by the Psalm But no where in all that Chapter which is all spent about the Exposition of it so much as intimateth the Priesthood of Christ to consist in any thing but in offering up to God in heaven his own body and bloud sacrificed upon the Crosse to make expiation for the sins of his people and to obtain of God that grace and assistance that comfort and deliverance which their necessities from time to time may require Be it granted neverthelesse that seeing of necessity Melchisedeck is the figure of Christ those things which Melchisedeck is related to have done are also necessarily figures of things done by our Lord Christ For otherwise were not the mystical sense of the Old Testament a laughing stock to unbelievers if it should hold in nothing but that which the Spirit of God hath expounded in the New Testament by our Lord and his Apostles I have therefore to the best advantage translated the words of Moses For not and hee was the Priest of the living God That whoso will may argue thereupon that his bringing forth bread and wine was an act of his Priesthood Which if I would deny no man can constrain mee by virtue of these words to acknowledg But I cannot therefore allow that Translation which sayes Obtulit panem vinum that as Priest hee offered bread and wine in sacrifice to God The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so evidently signifying protulit not obtulit hee brought forth not that hee offered that hee brought forth bread and wine to refrâ—sh Abraham â—nd his people returning weary from the slaughter of the Kings not that hee offered them in sacrifice to God as his Priest the mention of his Priesthood râ—ther advancing the reason why hee blessed them than why hee fed them As both Moses in the words next afore and the Apostle also Ebr. VII 1. intimateth or declareth the intent why hee brought them forth Though if I should grâ—nt that custome which was common to all Idolaters to have been in forâ—e under the Law of nature because wee see it retained and inâ—cted by the Law of Moses not to taste of any thing till some part of it had been dedicated to God in the nature of first-fruits to the sanctifying of the whole till when it was not to be touched I say though I should grant this for a reâ—son why hee may be thought to have offered bread and wine to God not why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be translated protulit hee brought forth no man would have cause to thank mee for any advantage from thence For still the correspondence between Melchisedeck â—nd our Lord Christ would lye in this that our Lord by appointing this Sacrâ—ment brings forth bread and wine to strengthen the peoâ—lâ— of Abraham in their warfare against the powers of darknesse as in the dayes of his flâ—sh hee fed those that attended upon his doctrine least they should faint in their travail Now this will first inferr that it is bread and wine which our Lord feeds us with in the Eucharist And again that it hath the virtue of sustaining us by being made the body and bloud of Christ as in a Sacrament by virtue of the consecration past upon it Which is all that which I say to a hair that by being made a Sacrament it becomes the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Crosse to be feasted upon by Christians In like maner be it granted that the words of the Prophet Malachy I. 11. From the rising of the Sun to his going down my name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered to my name and a pure meat offering For my name shall be great among the Gentiles saith the Lord of Hosts is a Prophesie of the institution of this Sacrâ—ment because it is contained in those kindes of breâ—d and wine which served for meat and drink offerings in the Law of Moses But this being granted what shall wee do with the incense and the meat offering which the Prophet speaks of unlâ—sse wee say that they signifie that which corresponds to the meâ—t and drink offerings of the Law and their incense under the Gospel And will not thâ—t prove to be the spiritual sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving which God under the Gospel is served with by all Nations Though those prayers and prâ—â—es of God being by the institution of the Eucharist limited and determined to be such as the celebration thereof requires it is no inconvenience nay it will be necessâ—ry to grant that the sacrifice thereof is fore-told by these words not signifying neverthelesse the nature of it to require any thing more thâ—n is exprâ—ssed by the premises Be the same therefore said if you please of all the Sacrifices of the Old Law of all the Prophesies in which the service to be rendred to God in the New Testament is described by the offering of Sacrifices As for the words of our Lord to the woman of Samaria John IV. 23. The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth For the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth Though I grant as afore that this is fulfilled by the celebration of the Eucharist when once wee suppose our Lord to have limited the worship of God under the Gospel to the form of it yet there can be no consideration of a sacrifice signified by these words which neither suppose nor expresse the sacrifice of Christ upon the Crosse the Eucharist no way bearing the nature of a sacrifice but as it is the same with it But for the same reason and by the same correspondence between the sacrifices of the Law and that of Christs Crosse it may be evident that it is not nor can be any disparagement to the Sacrifice of our Lord Christ upon the Crosse to the full and perfect satisfaction and propitiation for the sins of the world which it hath made that the Eucharist should be
manisest that by the leter of the Law Deut. XIV 23. XVIII 4. Num. XVIII 12. of all fruits of the earth onelyCome and Oile and Wine are Tithable Of living creatures the Tith goes not to the Levites who payed the Priesthood the Tenth of their Tithes but to the Altar that is they are to be sacrificed to God So that by this means the Priests and Levites themselves paid this Tith as well as other Israelites and that no more to the interest and advantage of the Priesthood than the Paschal Lambs which they also sacrificed for Tithe cattel went to the owners as the Paschal Lambs did the Law having provided onely that they should be holy to the Lord Levis XXVII 32. that is sacrificed to God their bloud sprinkled upon the Altar and their flesh eaten in Jerusalem Which Law providing also that this Tith he onely of the Herd or of the flock that is of Bullock Sheep or Goat that passeth under the rod they that will derive the Churches claime of Tithes from the Levitical Law must by consequence tye themselves to these Terms Which would be not to abridge the claime but to destroy it For though many kindes besides these were Tithable among the Jewes by virtue of the Constitutions of the Synagogue yet that would not advantage the Church which forsaking the Synagogue for refusing Christianity cannot avail it self of the authority of it And truly hee that would insist that the Law is in force for the payment of Tithes to the Church will never be able to give a reason why it should not be in force for observing the Sabbath that is the Saturday for being circumcised and keeping all the Festivals and Sacrifices and Purifications of the Ceremonial Law and much more the Civil Law of that people as much contrary to the Civil Law of Christian people as to Christianity seeing that whatsoever is contained in that Law which is made void by Christianity must be understood to be void till it appear to be contained and imported in that Act which introduceth and establisheth Christianity in stead of the Law Indeed I must not say that the Levitical Law is the onely evidence that is alleged for the right of Tithes in the Church For every man knowes that Abrahams paying Tithes to Metchiseck the Priest of the most high God Gen. XIV 20. and Jacobs paying Tithes or vowing to pay them Gen. XXVIII 22. are alleged as indeed they ought to be alleged to show that paying of Tithes was in force under the Law of Nature that is in the time of the Patriarchs before the Ceremonial Law In which regard God faith that Tithes are his Levis XXVII 30 to wit by a Law introduced afore And the consequence hereof seems to be more effectual to the Church than that which is drawn from the Levitical Law in that consideration which the Fathers of the Church do presse with advantage enough against the Jewes that the Patriarchs were the fore-runners of Christians and that Christianity is more ancient than Judaisme in regard that the same service of God in spirit and truth by the inward obedience of the heart was in being in the lives of the Patriarchs as the Gospel requires before the scrupulous and precise and supperssitious observation of bloudy sacrifices and smoke of fat and incense and troublesom purifications of the outward man and the rest of Moses positive Law was required For if the Law of Nature and the conversation of the Patriarchs under it is indeed the pattern of Christianity and of the life of Christians under the Gospel expressed by deed before wee finde it indented for by Covenant Then certainly that which ought to be out-done by the Church is not abrogated by Christianity But this argument being made and allowed to be of force hee that therefore should say that the Church claimeth this right by virtue of that Law whereby it was in force under the Patriarchs would be presently lyable to peremptory instances of the difference of clean and unclean creatures Gen. Vll. 2. Of raising up feed to a brother deceased Gen. XXXVIII II. Of the Polygamy of the Patriarchs and others which though then in force under the Gospel hold not Wherefore it is not to be said that the Law of that time is the act whereby the Church claimes but a ground whereupon the act whereby the Church claimes was done In like maner hee that should affirm this right due to the Church by virtue of the Levitical Law would meet with these exceptions peremptory as I suppose that have been advanced But when it hath been said and made good that the Levitical Law supposing the Gospel ordained by God to succeed it yields a sufficient ground to argue that a provision answerable thereunto was to be established in the Church as the correspondence between the Law and the Gospel between the Synagogue and the Church requireth I say this being premised there remaines nothing in question but how the establishing of it may be derived from the act of them that had the settling of the Church in their hands Considering then that provision is made by the Law onely for the maintenance of Gods Ceremonial service confined to Jerusalem for a powerfull evidence that the intent of that Covenant expressed no more than the Land of Promise that the promise of bringing the Gentiles to Christianity and the real destruction of the Law with the Place of this service inferrs the service of God in all places in spirit and truth to succeed it under the Gospel and by it that no order for all Nations that should be converted to resort to this service can be maintained without a Society or Corporation of the Church visibly telling them whither to resort for that purpose Upon these premiâ—es it will be of necessary consequence that the like provision for the maintenance of that service of God which the Church professeth be made to that which had been made for the service of God at Jerusalem during the time of the Synagogue Now the maintenance of Gods service in the Church with the maintenance of the Church subsisting for no other end than that service consists in the maintenance of those persons that are to attend on Gods service Of which persons there are two sorts The first is of those that attend either upon the Government of the Church or else upon the minisâ—ring of those Offices which God is served with by his Church unto the Assemblies of his people The second sort is of those that to preserve this temporal life being obliged to attend upon the imployment of it cannot spare themselves and their time to attend on Gods service It was therefore necessary that Christian people should contribute the first-fruits of their goods in Tithes and oblations to the Church by which those that attended upon the publick government of it as well as upon ministring the Offices of Christianity should both maintain themselves and be trusted to maintain the
out those Nations which were greater and stronger then themselves it is oftentimes said there Deut. IV. 37 38. VII 1. IX 1. XI 23. And this David sets forth Psalm XLIV as the ground of the prayer which he makes that God would shew them the like grace in their present distresse which is the whole businesse of the same And the like you may see Psalm CXLIV and in many other Psalms if the very story of their coming out of Egypt were not evidence beyond all evidence for this But there is besides in the Old Testament another sort of sayings and sentences of prayers and promises and thanksgivings whereby the inward and spirituall obedience and worship of God which the Law of Moses covertly intimateth though expresly it do not covenant for it as I have shewed is either on mans part acknowledged to the grace of God or on Gods part promised to men that are qualified for it at that time under the Law correspondently to those dispositions which qualify us under the Gospel for the like promises And to say truth in these intimations of the worship and service of God in Spirit and truth required assisted or rewarded in the Old Testament lies the effect and truth of that which hath been so often said that the New testament is contained though darkly in it And those who by the light of that time were reduced under this obedience are the men whom S. Augustine speakes of divers times that though they lived under the Old Testament yet they belonged to the New And Eusebius and divers of the Fathers besides when they insist upon this against the Jewes that Christianity is more ancient then the Law of Moses It is neither possible nor requisite to repeate here all of this nature that is found in the Old Testament Some thing for an essay I shall produce that the reader may know by them what passages of the Old Testament they are upon which I understand this point of Christianity to be grounded I cannot name any thing more eminent then that promise of God by the Prophet Jeremy XXXI 31-34 which the Apostle hath expounded of the times of the Gospel Heb. VIII 8 but by the rule afore laid and grounded must have been fulfilled in the return of the people from the Captivity though more perfectly and in a higher sense in the redemption from sinne whereby God promiseth to make a new Covenant with them which is no more then the renewing of the Old under which they should not need to be taught to know God because they should have his Law written in their hearts as of a Truth we know they did not fall away any more unto Idols The like Promises you have Jer. XXXII 37-41 XXXI 1 2 3. Isa II. 1-4 Micah IV. 1-5 Ezek. XVI 60. XI 17-21 XXXVI 21-29 And the fulfilling of them at least in part and according to the measure of that time in the renewing of the Covenant Neh. X. I must write out a great part of the book of Psalms if I would repeate here the many prayers and praises of God which are tendered in it not onely for the temporall estate of David and the maintenance of it against the enemies of his title to the kingdome but for the grace whereby he and every good Christian is either enlightned in the knowledge of Gods Law to wit according to the inward and spirituall intent of it or guided in it and inabled to keep it The CXIX alone may serve for the rest But you read besides every where Mine eyes are ever looking to the Lord for he shall pluck my feet out of the net The Lord ordereth a good mans going and maketh his way acceptable to himself Thy loving kindnesse shall follow me all the dayes of my life And much more to the same purpose the prayer of David at the consecrating of his and the Princes goods to the building of the Temple 1 Chron. XXIX 15-20 For he thanks God not onely for the gold and silver which they had to bestow but for the good heart they bestowed it with And prayes not onely that Solomon might build it but that he might live in obedience to Gods Law In the third place there are some Prophesies concerning the Messias intimating the kingdome which God designed for him to stand upon his obedience tendered to God which is as much to them that believe this kingdom to consist in the spirituall obedience which Christians render his Gospel as that the helps which inable them to render this obedience are granted in consideration of his Psal XLV 8. Thou hast loved righteousnesse and hated iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladnesse above thy fellowes The anointing of Christ is his advancement therefore the oil of gladnesse which he is anointed with containeth those graces which he is inabled to bestow upon it The sword which he girds upon his thigh the prosperous course in which he rides on the sharpnesse of his arrows entring into the bowells of his enemies and the subduing them to him which are the meanes by which he reigns over those to whom God hath annointed him King must be imputed to that obedience for which he is anointed with the oil of gladnesse above his fellows The like is to be said of the conquest of Christ and the conflict whereby it is obtained Psal CX The Lord said to my Lord sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool here is Christ anointed But when it follows by and by He shall judge among the Gentiles he shall fill all with corpses he shal wound the head over a great land He shal drink of the brook in the way therefore shall he lift up the head It must needs be understood that he fights Gods battaâ—les in all this and that therefore he is exalted to the right hand of God till his enemies be made his footstool But there is nothing more manifest then that of Isa LIâ—â— 10 11 13. When thou shalt make him a trespasse offering he shall see a seed he shall prolong his daies and the good pleasure of the Lord shall prosper under his hâ—nd He shall see and be satisfied of the travail of his soul by his knowledge shall my righteous servant make many righteous For he shall bear their iniquities Therefore will I divide him a share among the great ones and he shall part the spoile with the strong Because he poured forth his soul to death and was numbred among rebells and bare the sins of many and made intercession for the rebels This as it is the clearest Prophesie of the Crosse of Christ in all the Oâ—d Testament so it speakes most expresly of the Christian Church to be raised and gathered in consideration of the sufferings of Christ and the help of that grace which they have purchased at Gods hands that he should give And they who believe all the deliverances of Gods ancient people to have been
in the judgement of many that think themselves the most refined Christians that they allow it not that common sense in managing the businesse of Christianity which they must needs allow Jews Pagans Mahometans in faithfully serving their own faithlesse suppositions and which all experience shows us that it serves all mankind to what purpose soever it is imployed and that notwithstanding so great a triall of it as the governing of so great a Body as the Church is in unity so farre and so long as this Unity hath prevailed it is therefore necessary to give a reason why the Church so used them Which supposing the premises it will be as easie as it is necessary for me to give and that more sufficient if I mistake not then can possibly be given not supposing the same For if the secret of the resurrection the general judgement and the World to come if the mystery of the Holy Triniâ—y consisting in the Word or Wisdome and Spirit of God if the inward and spiritual service of God in truth of heart be more clearly opened in them by the work of Providence dispensing the effect of Canonicall Scripture by the occurrences of time then in the Law and the Prophets themselves which I have showed both that so it is and why so it is from the ground of the difference between the Old and the New Testament then I suppose there is sufficient reason why those who admit the Old Testament to be made for common edification in the Church should not put any question concerning those Scriptures Those new lights among us who do not allow the Psalter to be pertinently and reasonably imployed for the publick service of God upon all occasions as the Church hath alwaies imployed it may assure us that they understand not why the Scriptures of the Old Testament are read in the Church because they understand not the correspondence between the Old and the New Testament in the understanding whereof the edification of the Church by the Scriptures of the Old Testament consisteth There may be offence taken at divers things in these Scriptures I deny not But there may be offence taken in like maner at divers things in the Canonicall Scriptures of the Old Testament The humility of Christians requires them edifying themselves in that which they understand in the Scriptures according to our common Christianity in the rest which they understand not to refer themselves to their Superiours The Church understood well enough this difference and this correspondence to be discovered by these writings as the time required when it appointed Learners to read them And though I stand not upon terms yet I conceive they are more properly called Ecclesiastical because the Church hath imployed them to be read in the Church then Apocryphal according to the use of that word in the Church to signifie such writings as the Church suspecteth and therefore alloweth not to be read whither in publick or in private Whereupon I conceive also that the term of Canonical Scripture hath and ought to have two senses one when we speak of the Jews Canon in the Old Testament another when we speak of the Canon of the Church For seeing the Tradition of the Synagogue is perfect evidence what Scriptures of the old Testament are to be received as inspired by God the word Canon in that case may well signifie the Rule of our Faith or maners But because the Church cannot pretend to create that evidence originally but onely to transmit what she receiveth from the Synagogue Pretending neverthelesse to give a Rule what shall be read for the edification of the Church the word Canon therefore in that case will signifie onely the list or Catalogue of Scriptures which the Church appoints to be read in the Church which seems to reconcile the diverse accounts extant in severall Records of the Church CHAP. XXIII The consideration of the Eucharist prescribed by Tradition for the mater of it Lords Prayer prescribed in all services The mater of Prayers for all estates prescribed The form of Baptism necessary to be prescribed The same reason holdeth in the forms of other Offices IN the next place I do maintain that the Order of celebrating the Eucharist and the Prayer which it was was from the beginning solemnized with were from the beginning prescribed the Church by unwritten custome that is by Tradition from the Apoâ—â—les containing though not so many words that it was not lawful to use more or lesse for these were always occasions for celebrating the Eucharist emergent which must be intimated in fewer or more words in the celebrating of it yet the mater and substance of the Consecration of it together with the mater and substance of the necessities of the Church for which it was offered that is to say for which the Church was and is to pray at the celebration of it as hoping to obtain them by the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross which it representeth as received from the beginning was every were known to be the same This I inferr from that which I have said in the Book afore quoted of those Texts of S. Paul where those Prayers of the Church which the Eucharist is consecrated with are called Eucharistia or Thanksgiving if not rather the thanksgiving because it was a certain form of Thanksgiving well known to all Christians by that name from whence the Sacrament â—o consecrated was also so called from the time that our Lord hâ—ing blessed or given thanks to the Father over the Elements had said This is my body this is my blood and order is given that at the celebration thereof Prayers be made for the necessities of the Church and of all people 1 Cor. XIV 25. 26. 1 Tiâ—â— II. 1-8 Together with those passages of primitive antiquity from whence it appeareth there that the form of consecrating the Eucharist used and known generally in the Church is called Eucharistia and that the custome of interceding for all the necessities of the Church and for the reducing of unbelievers to the same is and hath been taken up and ever frequented by the Church in obedience to and prosecution of the said precept of the Apostles This observation might perhaps be thought too obscure evidence â—o bring to light a point of this consequence were it not justified by all that I produced afore to show that the Eucharist is consecrated by the Prayers of the Church which celebrateth it upon the faith of our Lords institution and promise For the mater of these Prayers tending to a certain purpose that the Elements may become the Body and Blood of Christ and convay his Spirit to those who receive them with living faith the Consecration which is the effect of them requires that the form of them be prescript and certain though not in number of words yet in sense in tent and substance And this by the evidence there produced may appear to have been maintained from the beginning by Tradition in
the sword without the authority of the Soveraigne And therefore wee see that afterwards the good King Jehosaphat manifestly gives commission to these Judges at Jerusalem as well as to their inferiours when he restores them to the exercise of theire office according to law upon what occasion soever it may seeme to have been interrupted 2. Chron. XVII 7 8. 9. XIX 4 5 6 7 8 9 And hereupon the Psalme saith CXXII 5. There is the seat of judgement even the seat of the house of David But the Leviathan hereupon argues That as Solomon consecrated the Temple by his own prayers so Christian Princes may in their owne person consecrate Churches and not onely that but ordaine and celebrate the Eucharist and Preach and do all thiâ—gs themselves which their subjects may doe who are but their ministers The answer to which is first That herein he contradicts his own position that by the scriptures that is by Gods Law the right of designing persons to be Ordained and of doing other things of like nature belonges to the people of every Church But the office of solemnizing the ordination by imposition of hands and in like maner of executing other acts of like nature to the ministers of those Churches succeeding the Apostles Seconâ—ly that he is not able to show a reason why the great Turk should not by consequence be able to consecrate Eucharist Preach and do any office wherein Christianity obligeth his Christian subjects to communicate and they accordingly stand bound to receive them at his hands For he challenges not this right for the Soveraigne as Christian but as Soveraigne And therefore a Christian Soveraign can no more do that which every Christian his subject cannot do of this nature then a Soveraign that is not a Christian Lastly that the consequence is not true nor can be proved for the reason aforesaid which if it were not all that he inferreth though never so grosse would follow Indeed there were as I observed three estates established by the Law in that people The Priests the Judges and the Prophets And because established by the Law therefore successive The Priests by birth yet a Corporation by Law as by Law indowed with the rights of their Tribe Therefore when it comes to settle their courses and ministeries in the Temple I have observed in my booke of the rights of the Church p. 230. that this is not done by David alone but with the assistance of the principall of that Tribe For the Judges there is no reason why we should not believe the Tradition of the Jewes that they were all qualified to fit in any of their Courts by imposition of the hands of some that had received the same from Moses and his Judges Though this quality made them onely capable of being Judges to which they were still actually to be chosen by the King or by the Court. So that when the Talmudists relate that King David ordained XXXM on one day they understand that he did not this as King but as qualified to ordaine though as King he might actually make Judges But being zealous of the Law as they describe him spending his time about the niceties of it and having his guard of Cerethites and Pelethites whom they understand to be Doctors all or Scholars of the Law they consequently make us believe that he meant to store the nation wiâ—h persons qualified to be Judges As for the succession of the prophets tha depended meerely upon Gods free Grace though a course of learning and discipline was without question founded by Moses and maintained by his successors to make them fit by such education for the Grace And these being the Schools of the prophets in the Scriptures when the spirit of prophesy failed became the schools of Scribes Doctors and learners of the Law out of whom Judges came As Prophets then had their authority immediately from God so were they the forerunners of our Saviour Christ and his Apostles as our Saviour showeth when he saith Mat. XXIII 34. Behold I send unto you Prophets and Scribes and wisemen and of them ye shall kill and crucifie and of them you shall scourge in your Synagogues and persecute from city to city For God having appointed them by the Law of Deut. XVIII 18-22 to have recourse also to the prophets which he should raise untill the Messias should come in whom S. Steven challengeth that Law to be fulfiled Acts VII 37. if Prophets preaching by Gods commission displeased evill rulers they easily found pretences to quarel the evidence of their commission and to put them to death as false prophets which was that which they did to our Saviour Christ and his Apostles and those who preached Christ afterwards These then having commission from God alone had in them as I showed afore the qualities both of Priests in offering to God that service in spirit truth which Christianity pretendeth and of judges in determining that which should become questionable in the Church And as the Kings of Israel were bound by Gods Lawes to maintaine all those qualities in the execution of their office So the Church being founded and having subsisted three hundred years by this power of the Apostles Constantinâ— and all Christian Princes aster him finding â—â— in that estate become obliged by Gods Law to maintaine the Church whereof they became members by professing Christianity in that estate and quality wherein they become member of it And upon these termes have the Kings of England and all other Christian Princes the same rights in Church matters which the godly Kings of Israel and Christian Emperors are found to have exercised Whereof it shall be enough here to give the most eminent instance that can be alledged in the Heresy of Arius and all the factions that were canvased in the Church to restore it being once suppressed by the Synode of Nicaea Which one act of the Church though the whole power of the Empire in two Emperors Constantius and Valius though perhaps with far different intents laboured to make voide yet they never tooke upon them to do it immediately of themselves but by meanes of Synods which they might work to their intent or by the meanes of persons apposted by them to have the power of the chief Churches And therefore whereas that Synode as it was an act of the Empire was easily recalled by the breath of either of those Emperors as it was an act of the Church it prevailed over all their intentions and by the prevailing of it we continue untainted with the heresy of Arius The reason because the right of the Church was so notorious to all Christians that those Emperors that did not professe Christianity when they did not persecute it made good the acts of it As it is to be seen in that eminent example of Aureliane which I will repeate againe because it is still alledged to argue that Paulus Samosatenus was excommunicated by the secular power of Aureliane But when
AN EPILOGUE TO THE TRAGEDY OF THE Church of England BEING A Necessary Consideration and brief Resolution of the chief Controversies in Religion that divide the Western Church Occasioned by the present Calamity of the CHURCH of ENGLAND In three BOOKS viz. Of I. The Principles of Christian Truth II. The Covenant of Grace III. The Lawes of the Church By HERBERT THORNDIKE LONDON Printed by J. M. and T. R. for J. Martin J. Allestry and T. Dicas and are to be sold at the sign of the BELL in St PAUL's Church-yard M.DC.LIX A PREFACE To all Christian Readers IT cannot seem strange that a man in my case removed by the force of the Warr from the Service of the Church should dedicate his time to the consideration of those Controversies which cause division in the Church For what could I do more to the satisfaction of mine own judgment than to seek a solution what truth it is the oversight whereof hath divided the Church and therefore the sight whereof ought to unite it But that I should publish the result of my thoughts to the world this even to them that cannot but allow my conversing with those thoughts may seem to fall under the Historians censure Sâ—ipsum fatiganâ—o nihil aliud quâm odium quaerere extremae esse dementiae That to take pains to get nothing but displeasure is the extremity of madness Socrates if wee believe his Apology in Plato could never rest for his Genius alwayes putting him upon disputes tending to convict men that they knew not what they thought they knew The displeasure which this got him hee makes the true cause of his death The opinion which I publish being indeed the fruit of more time and leisure of less ingagement to the world than others are under will seem a charge upon those who ingage otherwise And when besides so much interest of this world depends upon the divisions of the Church what am I to expect but Great is Diana of the Ephesians My Apology is this The title of Reformation which the late Warr pretended mentioned onely Episcopacy and the Service The effect of it was a new Confession of Faith a new Catechism a new Directory all new With chapter and verse indeed quoted in the margine but as well over against their own new inventions as over against the Old Faith of the Church This burthen was as easily kicked off by the Congregations as layed on by the Presbyteries As carrying indeed no conviction with it but the Sword and what penalties the Sword should inforce it with Which failing what is come in stead of it to warrant the salvation of Christians but that the Bible is preached which what Heresie disowneth and by them whom the Tryers count godly men Make they what they can of it I from my non age had embraced the Church of England and attained the Order of Priesthood in it upon supposition that it was a true Church and salvation to be had in it and by it Owning nevertheless as the Church of England did own the Church of Rome for a Church in which salvation though more difficult yet might be had and obtained That there is no such thing as a Church by Gods Law in the nature of a Body which this state of Religion requireth is opposite to an Article of my Creed who alwayes thought my self a member of such a Body by being of the Church of England The issue of that which I have published concerning that title of Reformation which the Warr pretended was this That they are Schismaticks that concurr to the breaking or destroying of the Church of England for those causes And the objection there necessarily starting Why the Church of England no Schismaticks in Reforming without the Church of Rome My answer was that the cause of Reforming must justifie the change which it maketh without consent of the Whole Church For the pretense of Infallibility in the Church on the one side the pretense of the Word and Sacraments for marks of the Church on the other side I hold equally frivolous As equally declaring a resolution never to be tried by reason in that which wee alwayes dispute For what dispute remains iâ— the Decrees of the Council of Trent be Infallible If that form of Doctrine and ministring the Sacraments which the Reformation may pretend be marks to distinguish a Church from no Church If they were where there is no such form there are no such marks And therefore no such thing as a Church Nor is it so easie to destroy these doubts in mens judgments as the Laws by which the Church of England stood And if the salvation of a Christian consist in professing the common Christianity as I show you at large shall not the salvation of a Divine consist in professing what he hath attained to believe when hee thinks the exigent of the time renders it necessary to the salvation of Gods people How shall hee otherwise be ministerial to the work of Gods Grace in strengthening them that stand in comforting and helping the weak in raising them that are fallen in resolving the doubtfull without searching the bottom of the cause Nay how shall hee make reparation for the offenses hee may have given by not knowing that which now hee thinks hee knows The causes of division have a certain dependence upon common principles a certain correspondence one with another which when it cannot be declared the satisfaction which a man intends is quite defeated when it is declared that dissatisfaction which the consideration of particulars of less waight causeth must needs cease Whether it were the distrust of my own ability or the love of other imployment or whatsoever it were that diverted mee from considering the consequence of those principles which I alwayes had till I might come to that resolution which now I declare Neither was I satisfied till I had it nor having it till I had declared it And if I be like a man with an arrow in his thigh or like a woman ready to bring forth that is as Ecclesiasticus saith like a fool that cannot hold what is in his heart I am in this I hope no fool of Solomons but with S. Paul a fool for Christs sake Now the mischiefs which division in the Church createth being invaluable all the benefit that I can perceive it yield is this that the offenses which it causeth seem to drown and swallow up as it were that offense which declaring the truth in another time would produce For Unity in the Church is of so great advantage to the service of God and that Christianity from whence it proceedeth that it ought to overshadow and cover very great imperfections in the Laws of the Church All Laws being subject to the like Especially seeing I maintain that the Church by divine institution is in point of right one visible Body consisting in the communion of all Christians in the offices of Gods service and ought by humane administration in point
to a Christian but due from all that will be what they professe So the indowing of the Church to those purposes for which the communion thereof standeth though called Alms even by the Laws of this Land had never prevailed over all Christendom had not the obligation thereof been a part of our common Christianity But now as concerning the Power of determining Controversies of Faith I do here insist upon this argument That because no Secular Power is inabled by God to determine Controversies of Faith therefore God hath provided a Society of the Church for preservation of unity among Christians by such determinations as may reasonably satisfie the consciences of those for whom they are made Though not in order to any penalty of this world pretending by outward force to constrain obedience but onely in order to the Communion of the Church that is to the holding or loosing of it as a man conforms to the determination or not All outward force and constraint being acknowledged to proceed from the power of the Sword which the Soveraign beareth This difficulty onely the Leviathan answers they who denying the Power of Excommunication dissolve the Communion of the Church and the Society thereof into the Community of a Christian Common-wealth contenting themselves to name godly Magistrates which term I use not because incompetible to the Soveraign or Christian Powers as if their godlinesse or Christianity did intitle them to this Power though it might have concerned them to show how the Profession of Christianity comes to oblige Christian Subjects to the determinations of Christian or godly Powers if they would not be thought to begg the question which they tye themselves to answer For I also say that all Christians stand bound to the decrees of godly Powers because I suppose and the presumption of piety implies them to suppose that it is a part of godliness to profess one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church the unity whereof once professed obliges a private Christian to be of it a publick person to maintain it Which if the Soveraign do then must hee maintain those persons who by the Society of the Church have right to act in behalf of the Church both in doing their duty and in giving force to their Acts. For I acknowledge as I have already done two points of that right which Secular Power hath in the acting of Church maters The first is that which the trust of Secular Power importeth in all maters As they hold it not by their Christianity and therefore not by the Church so that they suffer it not to be invaded upon pretense of Christianity and the Power of the Church For as experience hath showed that there may be such pretenses So the reasons whereupon I ground the Society and right of Soveraign Power show that Christianity abridgeth not the Soveraign Power in any thing that may concerne the publick peace The second arises from Christianity Which as it giveth all Christians an interest both in all Christian truth and in the Communion of the Church as the common birth-right of Christians So it giveth publick Powers a publick interest in the maintenance of the same That is of all truth which the Church by the acts of the Church done by the Power of the Church for the preservation of Christianity stands possest of and of all Lawes whereby the Communion of the Church in the service of God according to Christianity is duely maintained But this interest presupposeth therefore a Society of the Church by the acts whereof Christian truth and the unity of the Church is to be maintained And importeth in the Soveraign a Right to constrain even those that act in behalf of the Church not to transgresse their own profession that is either the due power of determining things questionable which the Society of the Church inferreth or the acts which have been duely done by the same Therefore not supposing this Society that is such an Act of the Church as it may be evident that the Soveraign may or ought to maintain because it may be evident that the Church transgresses not those grounds which it professes and supposing Controversies among Christians about Christianity I say the Secular Power can have no right to determine them that is to oblige those that are under their Power to stand to the determination which they shall makeâ— unlesse wee do grant that by their Christianity they may be obliged to believe one thing and by their Allegiance to professe another For seeing there be Soveraignes that professe Christianity whereof some are of the Eastern others of the Western Church and of these some of the Communion of the Church of Rome others that are departed from it some Calvinists others Lutherans and Socinus his Sect no man knowes how soon some Soveraign may follow besides new Religions that appear how shall the common profession of Piety or Christianity oblige several Nations to obey those Lawes whereby several Soveraignties may establish contrary things in Christianity but by obliging them to professe contrary to what they believe For what contradictions soever are held among Christians neverthelesse they are sensible that no mans private spirit that is any evidence of Christian truth in the minde of one man can oblige another man to follow it because it imports no evidence to make that which hee thinks hee sees appear to others What becomes then of the Christianity of Christian Subjects obliging them to stand to the Determination of their Soveraignes in all things questionable If the Soveraign Power have right to limit all that is questionable this right will create an obligation of professing and doing the contrary of that which Christianity will oblige a man to believe and to think fit to be done Unlesse all the Subjects of each Soveraign have the strange hap to believe as their Soveraigns in all things questionable Besides if the Soveraign Power have right to determine them it will be impossible to show a reason why this Power in him that is no Christian should not have the same right Seeing it is plain that the common profession of Christianity being in Soveraigns that command contrary things does it not and the Soveraign Power which remains is the same in those that are not Christians as in those that are And therefore I conceive that the Leviathan hath done like a Philosopher in this to object unto himself the greatest of those difficulties that his opinion is liable to and hath but pursued his own principles when hee inquires what a Christian should do when a Soveraign that is no Christian commands him to renounce Christianity For when hee argueth that every Soveraign by being a Soveraign is the chief Teacher of his people whom it is manifest that Soveraigns Teach not but by their Laws or commands but that Christianity onely inableth to use this Power right Hee must know that there is no Power that will not oblige when it is used amisse though not to all purposes
the Church provided for the service of God upon supposition of this common Christianity evidently destroyeth what it pretendeth to maintain I leave the case at present for their plea who cannot obtain the consent of the whole if they reform themselves But you see what reason I have to deny that this Reformation consisteth in voiding the obligation of the acts and decrees of the Church For the same reason the authority of Pastors is as visibly derived from the act of the Apostles in primitive Churches as their own authority is visible in the Scriptures And unlesse all Christendom could be cousened or forced at once to admit such an imposture they can be no Churches further than the name in which it is derived from the Law of nature and reason and the liberty left private Christians to dispose of themselves in Ecclesiastical communion where they please For of that liberty neither the Scriptures nor all Christianity since the time of them will yield one example I marvel therefore that S. Pauls commission to Timothy 1 Tim. V. 17. should seem to import no more then a reproof and that at the discretion of him that is reproved whether hee will admit it or return him as good as hee brings For if S. Pauls commission to Timothy extend no further what could hee have done more himself had hee been present And the Apostle injoyning obedience to those who first brought the Gospel and to those who presently ruled those Churches in the same terms Hebr. XIII 7 17. must needs be thought to give the successors their predecessors authority saving the difference observed afore So certain is it which I have advanced in another place that this opinion is not tenable without denying the authority of the Apostles in the quality of Governours of the Church For as to the exception that may be made concerning the use of this Power I have already demurred to the doubt that may rest in difference between the succession of Faith and the succession of persons In fine not to insist here what the respective interests of publick and private persons in the Church are and ought to be because it is a point that cannot here be voided It shall be enough to say that of necessity the authority of publick persons in and for the whole must be such as may make and maintain the Church a Society of reasonable people not a Common-wealth of the Cyclopes in which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no body is ruled by any body in any thing according to Euripides As for the Synagogues that may be presumed rather then evidenced to have subsisted in the ten Tribes during the Schisme Let him make appear what hee can hee shall never have joy of it towards his intent so long as the difference between the Law and the Gospel stands which I have â—ettled that the Church and the State were both one and the same Body under the Law as standing both by the same title of it But several under the Gospel the one standing upon the common ground of all Civil Government the other upon the common Faith of Christianity which ought to make all Christian States one and the same whole Church For in the two Tribes who were at their freedom to resort to the Temple for that service of God which was confined to the Temple which all could neither alwayes do nor were bound to do there is no record of any settled order for assembling themselves to serve God either in the Law obliging of right or actually practised according to Historical truth How much lesse in the ten Tribes being fallen from the Law by the Schism And if there wanted not those who had not bowed the knee to Baal nor Prophets and schools of Prophets under whom they might assemble themselves yet was this far from a Society formed by a certain Rule and Order for communicating in Gods service as I have shewed the Church is And therefore hee who upon that account thinks himself free from the Rule of Gods service under which wee now have in the Church of England must first either nullifie the Gospel as owning no such thing as one visible Church or prove the Church in which hee received his Christianity to be apostate Now I confesse our Doctor here makes use of an assumption which I intend not to deny being an evident truth That every man hath the Soveraign Power of judging in mater of Religion what himself is to beleeve or to do For how should any man be accountable to God for his choice upon other termes But hee will intangle himself most pitifully if hee imagine That God hath turned all men loose to the Bible to make what they can of it and professe the Religion that they may fansie to themselves out of it Even those who make men beleeve the Infallibility of the Church must in despite of themselves appeal to the judgement of whomsoever they perswade to pronounce that so it is And for the rest how much soever he referre himself to him that hath intangled him in that snare it proceeds wholly upon this supposition to which hee hath once made his understanding a slave But if all the world should do as men do now in England make every fansy taken up out of the Bible a Law to their Faith not questioning whether ever professed owned or injoined by the Church or not it would soon become questionable whether there be indeed any such thing as Christianity or not these that professe it agreeing in nothing wherein they would have it consist And for my part the the mater is past question supposing what hath been said That God provided from the beginning of Christianity that all Churches should be linked together by a Law of visible Communion in the service of God and so to make one Church For by this means to become a Member of any Church was to become a Member of the whole Church by the right of visible Communion with all Churches into which all Members of any Church were baptized And this it is which made the Church visible For when a man had no further to enquire but what Christians they were who in every City communicated with all Christians besides the choice was ready made without further trial avoiding the rest for Hereticks or Schismaticks And this choice being made there was no fear of offense by reading the Scriptures the sense whereof this choice confined to the Faith and Rules received through the whole Church So that speaking of Gods Institution every man is Soveraign to judge for himself in mater of Religion supposing the Communion of the Church and the sense of the Scripture to be confined within that which it alloweth But hee who thereupon takes upon him to judge of Religion out of the Scripture not knowing what bounds the Communion of the Church hath given the sense of it shall never impute it to Gods Ordinance if hee perish by chusing amisse Now if it be objected
course that Constantius had done in the mater of Arius to reconcile Egypt to the Church by waiving the Council of Chalcedon for an expedient of his of his own for Constantius sought no more than to reconcile all by waiving of the Council of Nicaea and Acacius by communicating with Hereticks did necessarily as all offenders do make them their Superiors who maintain the Laws for the good of the whole In fine that whatsoever the Popes did by virtue of the Canon can be no ground for any irregular Power in themselves the Canon as justly maintaining the poor Britaines against the Pope as the Pope against Zeno and Acacius But the first General Council makes full recompence for all the Church of Rome may pretend to have gained by the business of Acacius Pope Vigilius being in Constantinople and refusing at the summons of the Emperor and Council to sit it proceeds and condemns three Articles which hee had declared for and so prevails that he himself thought best at length to concurr to the Act And all this being done is disowned by the Bishops of Africk Facundus by name whom hee had set on work to write for the three Articles and Istria till all was reconciled I question not the point of Heresie either in this case or that of Honorius whose constitution whereby hee thought to silence the dispute concerning the two wills in our Lord Christ made him to be condemned for an Heretick in the sixth General Council Onely I count it a pitifull excuse to imagine that the Synod is falsified in this point the VIIth Synod in the last session bidding anathema to Honorius and so many records testifying the same And where it is said that the Synod might err in point of fact that Honorius held Heresie though not in point of right in condemning that for Heresie which is not as the Jansenists at this day admitting the condemnation of five propositions by the late Pope admit not that they are contained in Jansenius his book not to dispute of that it will appear that the Pope may be judged by the Church in other cases besides that of Heresie if Honorius being no Heretick is by the Council condemned for an Heretick Indeed there is no cause that concerns the whole Church but the whole Church may judg it Nor can any cause lightly concern a Pope that concerns not the whole Church The reason why Popes have been so seldom judged is not for want of right but for fear of division in the Church which makes it not expedient to use that right There are many particulars of less consequence pleaded for the Popes Power which I will not examine admitting a regular pre-eminence for him above all other Bishops which is seen in the recourse had to him before others in maters concerning the whole Church but denying that infinite Power which nothing can be alleged to prove I acknowledg indeed that this regular pre-eminence not onely might but supposing the Church to continue in Unity must needs be further and further determined by Canon or by custom whether inlarging or restraining it as by the Canons of Sardica allowing appeals to him in the causes of Bishops For the causes of Bishops do not all necessarily concern the whole Church unless the subject of them be mater of Faith or otherwise that which calleth in question the Unity of the Church and then Lay-mens causes are no less So an appeal to Rome so constituted is properly an appeal there to be sentenced in the last resort But when recourse is had to the Pope in the first place that is no appeal but a course to bring the cause to the sentence of the whole Church whereof his sentence is the first part and a great prejudice to that which follows because of the respect which all that depend upon that Church owe his sentence And this increase of the Popes power I do think to be always a just cause of excluding from the Unity of the Church for refusing obedience to it For the Unity of the Church being of Gods Law and so inâ—bling to limit the terms upon which the Power of the Church is held and exercised by Canonical right it cannot be in the power of any part to cast off those Laws by which it is bounded within the compass of Gods Law at pleasure because they are the conditions upon which the Unity of the whole stands which no part can say they will renounce unless they may hold it upon such terms as they please But whether these limitations may not be so excessively abusive to the liberty of the whole so prejudicial to the service of God in the truth of Christianity for which they and the whole Church stands that parts of the Church may and ought to provide for themselves and their Christianity against the oppression of them that I referr to the last consideration when I shall have showed how maters in difference are to be valued by the principles that are setled In the mean time I must observe that from the time that the Pope was re-imbursed of his loss of Jurisdiction and possessions in those Provinces which upon his rebellion the Emperor with-drew from his obedience by the liberality of Pepin and Charlemaine bestovving upon him the Exarchate vvhich vvith the Kingdom of the Lombards they had taken from the Greekish Empire Though I cannot say that from that time regular proceedings were laid aside in the Western Churches Yet I must say that from thence the Popes had a ground to reduce the regular proceedings of Councils to their own will interest to introduce their own rescripts in stead of all Canons for Law to the Western Church And this though I must not prove here yet here I may allege why I go no further here in this dispute It remains that I gather up some fragments of instances that have been produced to show that Episcopacy is not of divine right because from the beginning either all or some Churches have had none Of the authors whereof I must first demand whether the Unity of the Church be of divine right or not For unless they will put the whole cause upon a new issue that there is no Law of God that the Church should be one I demand of them how this Unity could have been preserved by the equality of all Presbyters which by the Hierarchy I have showed was maintained Till they show mee this I think my self secure of all their litle objections For if the Hierarchy cannot be imputed to chance or to the voluntary agreement of all Christians as uncertain as chance certainly Episcopacy the first ingredient of it can be imputed to nothing but the provision of the Apostles And therefore I must here renew my answer to the question that is made Supposing the superiority of Bishops to consist in the Power of doing some act which a Priest cannot do what act is it that a Bishop by his Order can do a Priest cannot
if the fourth Commandment be in force they cannot be obliged to keep the Lords day Is it not an even wager that not doubting the fourth Commandment to be in force as they are told they shall keep the Saturday which if it be in force they ought to keep rather then the Lords day which finding no reason for it because they are told none they will presently imagine to be a Popish custome I know there is one argument which is very plausible to induce well meaning Christians into that zeal which we see they have for the strict keeping of the Lords day which they call the Sabbath Because this opinion will oblige the world to exercise more works of godlinesse and to abstain from more of those debauches which Festivals occasion in vulgar people then otherwse To which for the present I will say onely this That having showed the truth to be as it is I can oblige all Christians to believe that Gods glory and the advancement of his service cannot be grounded well but upon the truth And therefore I may well demand their patience till I come by and by to show the ground of the mistake which they are carried away with to think that Gods glory and service is not more plentifully provided for by the Laws and customes of the Catholick Church then by strict keeping the Sabbath upon a false ground which hindring the effect of those Laws by consequence hinders Gods service But now all this being setled what is there remaining to alledge why Christians should be bound to keep the Lords day but the act of the Apostles by virtue whereof it came into force among all Christians in all Churches For it would be too ridiculous to allege that it is grounded upon those Scriptures whereby it appeareth that it was kept under the Apostles either as a reason sufficient or as distinct from the authority of the Apostles For these Scriptures being the Scriptures of the Apostles we can derive no authority from them but that which we first suppose in the Apostles I suppose here that no man will say that our Lords appearing to his Disciples after his resurrection upon that day was enough to make it a Law or evidence that it was so made unlesse his Apostles could testifie that he appeared to that purpose As for the rest if it may by circumstance appear that under the Apostles they did assemble to the service of God upon the Lords day will it therefore follow that all Chistians are bound to do the same Or can any more then this appear by that which I alledged out of the Apostles writings If there could the writings of the Apostles being their act as much as any act whereby they could declare an intent to oblige the Church there will be nothing to bind it to keep the Lords day but the authority of the Apostles But he that will give his own common reason leave to speak shall hear it say that it is not their words that oblige us to it but the originall and universall custome of the Church evidencing that they used to celebrate that day with an intent to introduce the obligation of it into the Church For of this original and universal custome having as yet found no question made on any side I hold it superfluous to take pains to make evidence of that which no man questions When Justine the Martyr presenting to the Empire an Apology for all Christans declareth that their custome was to assemble on the Lords day to serve God with the offices of Christianity which there he describeth had it not been to abuse himself and the Empire to declare that for the custome of all Christians which was indeed the custom of some but of others not Whither Easter was to be kept upon the fifteenth day of the first Moon upon which our Lord suffered or upon the next Lords day upon which he rose again was a dispute in the Church as ancient as the Apostles The former custome having been delivered to the Churches of Asia by S. John the later to the West by S. Peter and S. Paul But what ground could there be for this dispute had not the first day of the week been honoured and observed above the rest in regard of our Lords rising again Certainly the Eâ—ionites were one of the ancientest sects thar rose up against the Church and they as Eusebius Eccles Hist III. 27. keeping the Sabbath as the Jews and because the Jews kept it observing also the Lords day because the Christians kept it It is true that among the Eastern Christians the Saturday was observed for the service of God many ages after condescension to the Jews in regard whereof the observation of Moses law was in use after Christ in some parts of the Church more in some lesse was quite out of date But that is no argument that the Lords day was not kept when the Sabbath was kept to them who see S. Paul keep the Lords day Act. XX. 7. within the time of compliance with the Jewes For the offices which God is served with by the Church are pleasing to him at all times as well as in all places whereas the keeping of the Sabbath upon any day but a Saturday would have been a breach of his Law For when the other Festivals of the Jews are called Sabbaths in the Law that is not to say that the Sabbath was kept upon them for I have showed you two severall measures of rest due upon them by the Law but that they participated much of the nature of the Sabbath and therefore may be called with an addition such or such Sabbaths but not absolutely the Sabbath Therefore when Christians afterwards continued the custome of serving God upon the Sabbath that is the Saturday it is to be understood that they served God with the offices of Christianity not with the rest of the Jews Sabbath If it be further demanded whither the obligation of the Lords day do not depend upon the precepâ— of the Sabbath so that it may be called with an addition the Sabbath of Christians though not absolutely the Sabbath because that nâ—me is possessed already by the Saturday in the language of all Christians as well as Jews till men affected an abuse in the name to bring their mistake into mens minds To this I answer that if the Lords day had no dependance upon the precept of the Sabbath we could not give a reason why one day of seven is observed For the choice of the number could not come by chance And I cautioned afore that the Resurrection of Christ was as sufficient a reason why the Church should serve God on the Sunday as the creation of the world was why the Synagogue should serve God on the Saturday But this dependance was not immediate because I showed also that this was not enough to introduce the obligation upon us The act of the Apostles intervening was the means to make the obligation necessary
requiring of those who acknowledge the same absolute conformity in things altogether needlesse to the unity of the Church the true end of all due Power in the Church For were conformity in this point necessary to the unity of the Church had the Power of the Church of Rome and of the Pope in behalf of it been such by virtue of the first instituting of it as might have required it why then was it not required from the beginning that the service of God through the whole Empire should be celebrated in Latine being the language which the mother Church of the mother City did use and farr more frequented then in Greece than now in the West which is forced to use it Seeing then it appeareth that there is nothing at all to be alleged for so great an inconvenience but that which I have alleged for it and which I acknowledge to be truly alleged and justly but not justly admitted it remaineth that the Church is provided by God of other Laws the observation whereof is and would be a cure to the danger alleged from the change of the publick service of God into the vulgar languages For this danger proceedeth from nothing but from the false pretense of absolute and infallible authority in the Church which is indeed limited by the truth of that Christianity whereupon the Church is grounded and for the maintenance whereof it subsisteth For though this pretense may be a mean to contain simple people in obedience to any thing which shall be imposed so long as they know not any thing better that they ought to have yet if conscience be once awaked with reasons convincing that the authority instituted by God in his Church is abused to the prejudice and hinderance of the salvation of Gods people it is no marvail either that they should neglect all their interest of this world to seek themselves redress or that they should mistake themselves in seeking it and think the redress to be the destroying of all authority in the Church So that the preventing of danger by the necessary reformation of abuses in Church maters must not be thought to consist in pretenses as inconsistent with the common good of the Churches as with the truth of Christianity But in submitting to those bounds which the grounds of Christianity evidently establisheth And which unlesse Christianity make people more untractable then all the rudenesse which they are born and bred with makes barbarous Nations and wilde Beasts the sense of those mischiefs which difference of Religion hath brought in and maintained in Christendome must needs have disposed them to imbrace and to cherish for the future avoiding of the same In the next place supposing the Eucharist as the rest of the service to be celebrated in a language vulgarly understood we are to debate whither the Eucharist require Communion or whether the private Masses now allowed and countenanced in the Church of Rome be of the institution of our Lord and his Apostles Nor shall I need to use many words to free the term of private Masses from the exception which is sometimes made That all Masses are publick actions of the Church repeating the Sacrifice of Christ crucified to the benefit of his Church For seeing the term of a private Mass signifieth a thing visible The celebration of that Eucharist whereof no body but the Priest that consecrates it doth communicate I ask no man leave to use the term signifying no more by it but putting the rest to debate whither as de facto in the Church of Rome so de jure according to the institution of our Lord and his Apostles the sacrifice of Christ crucified is and ought to be either repeated or represented and commended by celebrating the Eucharist so as no body but the Priest that consecrates to communicate or whether the institution of our Lord require that Christians communicate in the Eucharist which they celebrate A dispute wherein nothing that is said in the Scripture concerning the order and practice of our Lord and his Apostles can leave any doubt For though there may be mention of celebrating the Eucharist where there is no mention of communicating in it which is an argument meerly negative not from the Scripture but from this or that Scripture and of no consequence to say S. Paul 1 Cor. XIV 14-17 1 Tim. II. 1-6 mentioneth the celebration of the Eucharist not mentioning any Communion therefore no body did communicate yet are we farr from the least inckling of any circumstance to show that there was this Sacrament celebrated when there was none but he that consecrated it to communicate Nay if we regard the institution Do this in remembrance of me referring as much to take eat and drinke as to the blessing or thanksgiving whereby I have showed that our Lord did consecrate If we regard S. Paul affirming that the bread which we bless and the cup which we drinke is the communion of the body and blood of Christ 1 Cor. X. 16. and reproving the Corinthians because the rich prevented the poor and suffered them not to communicate in their Oblations out of which the Eucharist was consecrated as I showed afore We shall be bold to conclude that so farr as appears by the Scripture all that did celebrate did communicate as all that assisted did celebrate if that be true which I proved afore that the Prayers of the Congregation is that which consecrates the Eucharist to wit supposing Gods Ordinance The same appears by Justine Martyr and other the ancientest Records of the Church that describe this office But I canot better express the sense of the Church in this point then by alleging the decretall Epistles of the Popes before Innocent the I. or his Predecessor Syricius which being forged by Isidore Mecater some DCC years after Christ as hath been discovered by men of much learning do notwithstanding contain this Rule that he who communicates not be not admitted to the service of the Church Which he that forged them would never have fathered upon the ancient Popes had it not been evident to all that were seen in the Canons of the Church that it was of old a mater of censure to be present at celebrating the Eucharist and not to communicate in it A thing evident enough by many Canons of Councils yet extant and foisted into those decretals to no other purpose but to make men believe in after ages that those Canons were made to prosecute and to bring to effect those things which the Popes had decreed afore as if their authority had been always the same as it was at the time of this forgery Now it is well enough known what pretenses have been made and what consequences drawn from the speculation of the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross repeted or represented by this Sacrament to perswade Christendom that the benefit thereof in remission of sinnes and infusion of grace and all the effects of Christs Passion is derived upon Gods
supposing that difference between the Law and the Gospell which I have setled in the first book they may advance in the knowledg of Christianity by the preaching of those who understand it But not distinguishing that which is necessary from that which is not necessary by supposing that which is necessary they may heare Sermons all their life long and not know wherein their salvavation consists a thing found by experience when there was a Rule of doctrine agreeable to the Scriptures and not knowing the ground there laid forth upon which the Old Testament beares witnesse to the New they may gaine nothing by hearing sermons all theire life long but mere dissatisfaction in the grounds of our common Christianity Whereas going into the scriptures with those two principles and the humility of Christians they may teach themselves that edification which they ought not to expect from those that acknowledg them not As for the present order which suppresseth all Assemblies for the service of God when there is no Preaching It is manifest that I will not say no understanding no eloquence but no lungs or voice For of a truth this order makes the service of God a worke rather of the lungs and of the voice then of any thing else can furnish entertainement for the assemblies of the church with that which is worth the hearing so oft as it is fit for the people of God to assemble for his service This makes the businesse for which the greatest part now goes to Church to be no more the service of God but to get mater of discourse or debate for the Sabbath as they call it how well the man preached or how well he prayed For whereas they were wont to object against the Church that it was not praying but reading prayers which was ministred to the Church as if attention of mind devotion of spirit could not aswel go a long with him that reades as with him that is to study what to say when he praies now the censures that passe upon mens prayers do shew that the hearers minds cannot be imployed in praying when they are taken up with judging how well the prayer they heare is made Much more justly may the same be said if it be considered how a man is obliged to discerne what the mater of the prayer is whether it be from blasphemy Heresy Slander Rebellion or not least before he be aware he joine in such horible crimes by saying Amen to their prayer which he is no otherway secured to be free from the same Now it may be considered that the prayers which usher sermons in out by the order of the church of England but by the faction that destroyeth it though they exclude the service of God out of the Church upon pretense of praying as the spirit indites yet are indeed no lesse provided aforehand then the prayers of the Church 〈◊〉 a little from time to time as occasion may require to make the people believe that they are ex tempore dictates of the spirit So that the change which many men call reformation consists in this that the peoples devotions are now confined to that which every one that dare mount the Pulpit dare say instead of that which the Church upon mature deliberation had appointed to be said But if it be thus in prayers which are alwaies for substance the same what shal we say of Sermons the substance whereof changeth according to the compasse of the Scripture and all the points of it which the texts upon which men take their rise occasion them to intreat experience in the decay of that reverence devotion which the publick service of God is to be performed with may easily point a man of common understanding to the sourse of it in those false weak suppositions upon which the order or rather the disorder of the present chang standeth Instead whereof therefore acknowledging that there was just cause at the time of the Reformation to complain upon the want of Preaching and instruction of the people I do and am to maintaine that there was never any pretense that the communion of the Eucharist and the service of God that it is to be celebrated with ought to give way and to be excluded the assemblies of christians to bring in that rule which is now in effect a cheife point of the chang that is made with us that without preaching no assembly for Gods service And thereupon though I desire that the more solem service of God when the Eucharist is celebrated may have a sermon for part of it as I have showed both by the Scriptures and by the primative practice of the Church that the use was under the Apostles and in the next ages yet that the order prescribed by the Church of England for the celebrating of the same when and where there is not meanes for a Sermon such as ought to be had is not to be deserted upon any pretense of frequenting Sermons As for more oridinary occasions of assembling for the service of God having proved afore that they ought to be frequented for the celebrating of other Offices of Gods service besides preaching I take it for proved that the order prescribed by the Church of England for the celebrating of Gods service upon such occasions is no way to be deserted but meanes to be sought for the frequenting of it Acknowledging with all the zeale and the joy which S. Paul expresseth for the further edification of those Churches to whom he directeth his Epistles in that Christianity which they had received 1 Cor. I. 5 6 7. Eph. I. 17. 18. Phil. I. 9 Col I. 9. Rom. I. 11. 12. as a strong motive to the Church to procure preaching as frequent as it can be procured and maintained without these offenses That the same S. Paul incourageth directeth frequent ample use of these miraculous graces which God granted the Churches of that time unto that purpose 1. Cor. XIV 1-31 Eph. IV. 7-16 But supposing alwaies the Spirits of the Prophets to be subject to the Prophets because God is not the God of unquietnesse but of peace as in all Churches of the Saints 1 Cor. IV. 32 33. And that there is one body and one spirit even as we are called in one hope of our calling the unity of which spirit is to be preserved in the bond of Peace Eph. IV. 3 4. By vertue of that Order which God had setled in his Church for preserving unity in it declaring his meaning by bestowing the most Eminent Graces upon the most eminent persons of his Apostles by meanes whereof the spirits even of Prophets became subject to greater Prophets for avoiding of unquietnesse and preserving of peace as S. Paul further declareth when he addeth by and by 1. Cor. XIV 36. 37. What came the word of God out from you or came it to you onely if any man think himselfe a Prophet or spirituall let him acknowledg the things I write
in nature as the worship of the true God and the worship of the Devil for God because that is done before an image Let us survay the matters of fact which we have in the Scriptures Moses thus warneth the Israelites Deut. IV. 15-19 Take heed unto your selves least you corrupt your selves and make you a graven image the similitude of any figure the likenesse of male or female the likenesse of any beast that is on the earth the likeness of any winged foul that flieth in the aire the likenesse of any thing that creepeth on the ground the likenesse of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth And least thou lift up thine eyes to heaven and when thou seest the Sunne and the Moone and the Starres even all the host of heaven shouldest be pushed aside to worship them and to serve them which the Lord thy God hath imparted unto all nations under the whole heavens It is like enough that the first Idolatry that ever was practised was the worship of the Sunne the Moone and the Stars But that it was a part of the Gentiles Idolatries by the Scripture alone it is evident and certaine The Jewes as Moses Maimoâ—i relateth in the Title of Idolatry at the beginning tell us that out of admiration of the beauty and constant motions of those glorious bodies men began of themselves to conceive that it would be a thing pleasing to God to addresse themselves to him by the mediation of those creatures which they could not chuse but think so much nearer to him then themselves That this conceit being seconded with pretended revelations to the same purpose brought forth in time the offering of sacrifices to them and making of images of them by meanes whereof the blessings of God might be procured through their influence And Origen often gathereth out of those words that God allowed the Gentiles afore the Law to worship the Sunne and the Moone and the Starrs that they might proceed no further to worse Idolatries Though so farre as I have observed he is not seconded herein by any of the Fathers Nor can he in my opinion be any further excused then the Booke of Wisdome doth excuse him making the worship of the Elements of the World the lightest sort of Idolatries Wisd XIII 10. It is a thing agreeable to all experience that by degrees and not in an instant mankind should be seduced to forget God having had the knowledge of God at the first derived unto them from their first parents and to take his creatures for God But will any man therefore undertake that when they were come so farre as to worship the Sunne and the Moon and the Starres by sacrifices and incense and all those actions whereby the honour of God was first expressed all this was done in honour to God because they were conceived to be nearer him then other of his creatures How will he then answer S. Paul when he saith Rom. I. 25. That the Gentiles changed the true God into a ly and worshipped and served the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides or parallel to the Creator who is God blessed for evermore For where was the ly but in taking the creature for God And how could they worship and serve the creature hand in hand with God but by degrading God into the rank of his creature and advancing the creature into the rank to which God was degraded by their false and lying conceit How could they expresse this honour by actions formerly appropriated to the service of God had they not first been seduced in the conceit of that honour which they robbed God of to give it his creatures But it is a thing certaine and palpable in the Idolatries of the Gentiles that they deified dead men by attributing unto them the names of the Heavens the Sunne the Moone the rest of the Planets and other Constellations of the Aire the Earth the Waters in fine of the World and the Elements of it So that Idolatry was committed both to the men and to those worldly bodies at once In this case will any man be so willfull as to hold still that these worldly Bodies were no otherwise honoured then in relation to God as his creatures when as it appeareth that the honour due to God alone was studiously procured for dead men by insinuating ridiculous perswasions into the mindes of people seduced to think that they were deified in those Bodies Wherefore it is not to be denied that those creatures were advanced to the honour of God by degrading God into the rank of his creatures as if there might as well be more Gods then one as more creatures of a kind then one Againe when Moses warneth them of making the image of any creature can any man doubt that his reason is least it should be worshipped with the same honour which immediately he forbids the Sunne and Moone and Starres to be honoured with And could the meer priviledge of being Gods creature move any man to take any before another and to make an image of it that under it he might honour God that made it Or was it requisite that first men should conceive an excellence in the creature which if expressed with the same actions whereby they honoured God of necessity it must be taken for the same which they attributed to God And what is that but the opinion of more Gods Can any man find fault with that which the Fathers have so frequently objected to the Gentiles that the gods whom they worshipped were dead men seeing before his eyes in the records of the Romanes Macedonians and Persians during the time of Historicall truth that their Princes were of course as it were deified and worshipped as gods after their death And was all this done in relation to one true God whose graces they had been the meanes to convey to so great a part of mankind Or in despite of that light of one true God though inshrined in their brests they suffered to be overwhelmed with that ignorance which custome had brought to passe Is it possible to imagine that the Egyptians should tremble at those living creatures or those fruits of their gardens which they honoured for their gods if they had taken them for creatures of one true God whom they intended to honour by and under those his creatures Or was it necessary that they should further conceive the Godhead in one City to be inclosed in this creature in another in that and thereupon find themselves obliged to honour the same for God In fine doth not the Scripture in many places plainly declare that which I pointed at in proposing my argument that the Idolatry of the Gentiles was the worshipping of Devils in stead of God Why the Israelites are commanded to sacrifice no where but before the Tabernacle the reason is given Levit XVII 7. And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils after whom they have gone a whoring Deut. XXXIII 17. They
sacrificed unto Idolâ— which were not God To gods whom they knew not to new gods that came newly up whom your Fathers seared not Sacrificing to new gods they sacrificed to devils Psal CVI. 35 37 38. And they served their Idols which were a snare to them yea they sacrificed their sonnes and daughters unto devils and shed innocent bloud even the bloud of their sonnes and daughters whom they offered to the Idols of Canaan and the land was defiled with bloud Offering their sons and daughters to the Idols of Canaan they offered them to devils And S. Paul 1 Cor. X. 19 20 21. What say I then that an Idol is any thing Or that which is offered in sacrifice to Idols is any thing As afore VIII 4. we know that an Idol is nothing in the world and that there is but one God but I say that the thinges which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to devils and not to God And I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils Ye cannot be partakers of the Lords table and the table of devils Having said that an Idol is nothing and that things sacrificed to Idols are nothing because they are sacrificed to that which is nothing and that because there is but one God how doth he inferre that things sacrificed to Idols are sacrificed to devills Surely idols are nothing because there is but one God in regard they pretend to be gods that is to say images of gods whereas indeed there can be no more Gods but one And if this were all since nothing can have no effect sacrificing to idols being nothing could not pollute the sacrifices as some Christians alledged to prove that they might eat of things sacrificed to Idols But because in sacrificing to nothing the devill steps into Gods place having caused that nothing to be taken for a God and maintaining that conceit by the same wayes which he raised it with therefore all that communicated in serving those idols which all did that communicated in the feasts which they made of those sacrifices communicated in the worship of devils Whereby it is evident that idolatry presupposeth an erroneous opinion of a false Godhead under which the devil suborneth himself to be worshipped whom did men take for that which Christians take him for they would be farre enough from worshipping him for God And herewith agreeth the reason of idolatry in the worshipping of images For by the premises it is evident that idolatry is more ancient then the worship of images and perhaps the truth is it came not in till the custome came up to worship dead men for gods which as I said afore I believe was later then the worshipping of the elements of the world though I go not out of my way to prove it nothing obliging me so to do Now it appeares by Varrâ— in S. Augustine De Civitate Dei IV. 31. that the Romanes had subsisted above CLXX yeares before they had images But let no man therefore imagine that they were not idolaters during that time For it is evident that there is no record of learning so ancient among the Gentiles as their Idolatries onely the Scripture recordeth time before the same The words of Varro there recorded by the said Saint Augustine tell us truth in that businesse that those who brought in images errorem addidisse metum dempsisse Increased error abated Religion For it is not strange that a knowing man as Varro was should bear witnesse to that truth which the Centiles imprisoned in unrighteousnesse by acknowledging an error in the multitude of their Gods which was by that time grown so ridiculous that a child should it have spoken what reason indited might have reproved it This Error then Varro saith not that it sprung from Images but that they were the means to increase it though to the a batement of Religion which could be but counterfeit when men tooke upon them to make their own Gods But was it thus with the Romans onely was not the case the same with the Grecians also before Sculpture and Picture and other waies of Imagery were devised chiefly for the advancement of this error as the wise Jew Wisdom XIV 18-21 and diveres of the ancient Fathers of the Church as S. Austine de civitate Dei XVIII 24. in Psalm CIII do often alleage Why doe we reade then in Pausanias his most excellent survay of Greece that of old time they worshiped stones onely sharpned at the top for their Gods Could they have found in their heart so to doe had they not formerly imagined a Deity which they meant to remind themselves of by so grosse a marke rather then image But is not this madnesse an evidence that they came by degrees to the representation of those Dieties which they had imagined afore and sought onely meanes to have them alwaies present Joseph Scaliger in that learned appendix to his book de Emendatione Temporum showeth us that the Phenicians had the like custome of having of rude stones for the symboles of their Gods And no marvile For by the act of Jacobs pouring oyle upon the stone at Bethel it appeareth that the Fathers themselves used such records of the true God and of his worship which Idolaters afterwards imagined their false Gods to be present at and thereupon no marvrile that the Law prohibited afterwardes Levit. XXVI 2. seeing it is evident by the writings of the Grecians and the Romans that Idolatry increasing it became an ordinary custome to make every stock and every stone a monument of that Worship which every superstitious sool thought he had cause there to tender to his God by pouring oil upon it as Jacob did Gen. XXVIII 18. by dedicating garlands or the like as Tilullus hath expressed in these verses Et veneror seu stipes habet desertus in agris Sive quiâ— exiguus florea serta lapis with infinite more authors to that purpose And can any man doubt that the Idolatrie of the Persians were not as bad as these though they had neither statues nor pictures Surely those Hethen Philosophers found it otherwise who being weary of the Empire under Justinian because of the ill countenance they found there in favour to Christianity and betaking themselves into Persia as Agathias in his second book relateth found themselves quickly weary of it in regard of those barbarous customes as they understood them which the Idolatries of the Persians had introduced Thus much for certaine that worship which the fire was served with by the Persians was not that which could be tendred in honour of God that made it as conceiving it a prime creature So that considering these things without prejudice wee must needs stand convict that Idolatry in generall is more ancient then the worship of images though particular Idolatries must needs be advanced by it And in that instance that the wise Jew propoundeth for the beginning of idolatry
it could be the same crime in them to worship the true God under an image as in the Gentiles to worship the elements of the world dead men imaginations in effect the Devile under the like image They made a calfe in Horeb and worshiped the molten image Thus they turned their glory into the similitude of a Calfe that eateth hay saith David Psalme CVI. 19. 20 of this act of the Isralites They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four footed beasts and creeping things saith S. Paul Rom. I. 23. of the Gentiles who as I have showed did truly intend to worship those creatures for Gods And therefore must conclude that whatsoever Aaron might pretend to represent to the Israelits by this Calfe that they intended to worship for God And when the Israelites joined themselves to Baal Peor and ate the offerings of the dead Psal CVI. 23 Num. XXV 3-8 and Moses commandeth to hang up the Princes and the Judges to slay every one his man that were joyned to Baal Peor Phineas out of his zeale to God executeth his command not out of a private inspiration whereof nothing could appeare as hath fondly and perniciously been imagined and killeth a Prince among the Israelites But when Moses comming downe from the mount saw the calfe made he caused the Levites to revenge the fault by slaying three thousand of those that were guilty of it Ex. XXXII 25-30 And is it possible for any man to believe that the same punishment is assigned by God to the offering of sacrifices to a dead man as to the offering of it to the living God under or before an image Not that I intend to say this of Aaron or what his intention might be in complying with them and avoiding their mutiny without ever imbracing in his heart that idolatry to which he pretended to conâ—urre with them nor will I much contend with him that shall say he chose that figure which might represent something concurring to that worship of God which himselfe had commanded but the act of them that mutinousely constrained him to make them a God to goe before them I can by no meanes distinguish from the idolatries of Egypt which it was but late that they had forsaken As for Jeroboam it is most truly alleged that nothing obliged him to demand of the Isralites to worship any false God or to require of them more then Aaron had done upon their motion concurring himselfe to their Idolatry But then I must say also that by setting up his calves and constraining the people to resort to them for that worship which the Law obliged them to tender to God he certainely knewe that he must needs occasion the greatest part of the people to worship an other God besides the true God howsoever some of them might do that which Aaron had done in concurring with the rest of their people And perhaps the truth is that Jeroboam for this reason made choice of the same image wherein Aaron had offended afore But otherwise the appearance of the Idolatry of the gentiles in the act of Jeroboam that is in the service tendred his calves is evident in the scripture Otherwise how should the prophet Ahiah charge him that he had set up other Gods and molten images and groves 2. Kings XIV 9 15 16. as by Jeroboams owne fin And Baasha that walked in the way of Jeroboam 2. Kings XV. 24. as did also Omri after him 1 Kings XVI 26. are said to have provoked the Lord God of Israell to anger with their vanities 1. Kings XVI 13. 26. And Abia reproches Jeroboam 1 Chron. XIII 9. and his party that they had made them Pristes after the manner of the nations and other lands so that whosoever cometh to fill his hand with a bullock and seven Rames may be a Priest of no Gods For what are vanities or no gods but imaginary deities as Saint Paul saith that he preached to the Gentiles to turn from those vanities unto the living God Acts XIV 15. And the Prophet Jonas in his prayer II. 8. they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in David Psal XXXII 7. Lying vanities is the same that S. Pauls ly when he saith the Gentiles changed the truth of God into a ly in worshipping the creature besides the creator God blessed for evermore Rom. I. 25. So also Deut. XXXII 22. 2 Kings XVII 15. Jeremy II. 5. VIII 19. X. 15. XIV 22. And why should the Prophet Osee object VIII 6. The workman made it therefore it is not God but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces Had not the calfe been taken for God And againe Os XIII 2. They say of them let the men that sacrifice kisse the calves For that this kissing was a signe of worshipping that which was taken to be God you have from Job XXXI 26 27. If I beheld the Sunne when it shined or the Moone walking in her height and my heart hath been seduced and my mouth hath kissed my hand The Sunne and the Moone being at a distance because they whose hearts were seduced to think them gods could not kisse them they kissed their hands to them in signe that they honoured them for gods Therefore they that kissed the calves whom they might come nigh did it in signe that they honoured them for gods As the answer of God to Elias saith I have reserved my self seven thousand men all the knees that have not bowed unto Baal all the mouthes that have not kissed him 1 Kings XIX 18. And therefore it seemeth very probable that these calves are also called Baalim by the said Prophet when he saith Osee XIII 1 2. When Ephraim offended in Baal he died And now they sin more and more and have made them molten images of their silver and Idols according to their own understanding all of it the work of craftsmen They say of them let the men that sacrifice kisse the calves The author of Tobit is for his antiquity more to be credited in the understanding of the Scriptures then all the conjectures we can make at this distance of time And he saith that the ten tribes went up to offer sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tobit I. 5. to the heifer Baal Whereupon it is thought that S. Paul also when he quoteth the answer of God to Elias 1 Kings XIX 18. I have reserved my self seven thousand men that have not bowed the knee to Baal in the feminine gender 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. XI 4. referreth to the feminine substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if these calves were of the nature of Baalim it cannot be denied that they signified imaginary godheads such as the Baalim were Wherefore when it is objected in the first place that Aaron proclaimed a feast to the Lord by the name of the true God and that both he and Jeroboam said This is the
fit for a private person to say what might be condescended to for the reunion of the Church stopping the way upon those mischiefs which the flourishing times of the Church have not prevented While all bounds are refused all extreamities maintained I alledge it for one of the most considerable titles for reformation without the consent of the whole As for the remaines of the Saints bodies and the honour of them having said this of their Souls whereof their bodies had been the instruments I shall need to say but a little Gennadius I will not forget De Eccles dogmat Cap. LXXIII Sanctorum corpora praecipue beatorum Martyrum reliquias acsi Christi membra sincerissime honoranda Basilicas eorum nominibus appellatas velut loca sancta divino cultui mancipata affâ—ctu piissimo devotione fidelâ—ssima adeundas credimus Si quis contra hanc sententiam venerit non Christianus sed Eunomianus Vigilantianus est We believe that we are most sincerely to honour the corpses of the Saints specially the reliques of the Martyres as of the members of Christ And to come to the Churches called by their names with most pious affection and most faithfull devotion If any man do against this sentence he is no Christiane but a follower of Eunomius and Vigilantius At the first the places of their buriall and times of their triumphs determined the circumstances of Gods service Afterwards when more Churches were requisite then there were Saints to bury their remaines where the Eucharist was celebrated seemes an honor proper for the purpose Nay though S. Jerome confesse that those pore women which lighted candles in houour of them had the zeale of God not according to knowledg supposing both Jewes and Gentiles had a custome to light candles on all occasions which they would honourably celebrate why should it seeme a ceremony unfit to expresse mens esteeme of Gods Grace in them If Vigilantius could not downe with this I have nothing to doe with Vigilantius But there were abuses even before that time Lucilla reproved by Cacilianus Deacon of Carthage for kissing the reliques of some questionable Martyre before the Eucharist by her mony and faction raised the schisme of the Donatist upon his being chosen Bishop Optatus I. S. Austin knew many Christians that worshipped tombes and pictures de moribus Eccles Cath. cap. XXXIV Vigilantius might desire onely that bounds might be put to prevent abuses and in that might be borne out by those Prelates whom S. Jerom taxes In that I doe not find Vigilantius condemned by the Church And those bounds were easily determined if prayer to Saints did not transgresse the bounds of revealed truth For were nothing done that should suppose that they heare the prayers that are made them there should be no considerable occasion to transgresse the bounds of honour due unto their reliques As for the worshipping of images of necessity the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or carved Image in the second commandement must either stand for any similitude so the making or having of any maner of image will be forbidden by the precept Or for the similitude of any imaginary Godhead And so no image but those are forbidden by it According to that former sense the making of the brazen serpent the Cherubins over the Arke is a dispensation of God in his own positive law which is easily understood But Solomon making the Buls the Lions Eagles Cherubins in his temple will be no lesse and wil require a revelation to warrant it According to the later making of images will be no more prohibited the Jewes then other nations by the Law But God having constituted a power in the Nation to limit the Law and so to make a hedge for it as the Jewes speake that which they forbid will be by that meanes prohibited by the Law And so there might be such an image in Davids house as we read of 1. Sam. XIX 12. that is such an one as was not so prohibited And by the sâ—me reason the tribute money might have Caesars picture on it which otherwise must be against the Law And when Josephus saies that Solomon incurred blame â—y making images of living creatures in the Temple it will appear that their constitutions in his time forbad the making of such Tertullian contra Marc II. 22. manifestly affirms the making of the Brazen Serpent Cherubines not to have been against the Law because not made for Idoles alleging the words of the precept Thou shalt not worship them nor serve them For a restriction limiting the generality of a carved image And this opinion I doubt not to be true and that there is no third to be named For if it be said that the meaning of the precept is Thou shalt make no Image that may give occasion to worship it Noâ— supposing a conceit of more Gods then one an image is not a thing that can make a man thinke so supposing the conceite of a God besides the true God without an image a man will worship the same Now either God by saying Thou shalt make no image that may give occasion to worship it refers it to every man to judge whether the image that he may make gives occasion to worship it or not And then he leaves it to every man to make any image which he judges to give none Or he refeâ—â— it to the power which he appointeth to oblige the nation in that behalfe to judge Which is that which I say And therefore seeing no man is left to himselfe to judge in that which God hath appointed a power to determine of necessity this sense is the same which I maintaine The consequence whereof is that it is in the power of the Church to judge whether images are to be had and that in Churches or not For the power that concludes the Church being the same with the power that concludes the Synagogue as the Synagogue and the Church are both one and the same people of God under the Law and the Gospell It is not possible to limit this power under the Gospell not to place images in Churches by vertue of this Law which provides nothing concerning Churches The case would come to be the same if we should suppose the precept to prohibit the making of an Image For then the matter would necessarily evidence that it was positive and given onely the people of the Jewes for that estate which the Law introduced Seeing not onely that which is ceremoniall but also that which is positive in Moses Law necessarily ceaseth to oblige Christians The reason why the Law provideth not to the contrary is that which I have alleged why Christians are not tyed to parte with wives or husbâ—nds that are Idolaters as the Jewes were out of S. Austine That whilst the blessings of the world were the promises which God conditioned to give them that should keepe his Lawes the prosperity of this world might move Israelites according to
restoreth and establisheth it not is not Baptisme or the Eucharist but by equivocation of words which so long as we are not secured of how should the word and Sacraments which such establishments hold forth be that word those Sacraments which are the marks of Gods Church And are they not revenged of the seven Sacraments in the Church of Rome beyond the measure of moderate defense who to renounce them for Sacraments suppresse the offices which by them are solemnized If they allow the Baptisme of Infants and the Covenant of Baptisme what reason can they have to abolish the solemne profession of it at yeares of discretion with the blessing of the Church for the performance of that to which their profession obliges What account will they give either for not blessing Marriages leaving private Christians to contract without the authority of the Church Or for blessing them without being warranted by the Law of the Church that they are such as Christianity alloweth Are they not most Christianly revenged of extreme Unction by providing no visitation for the sick Of auricular confession by consining the Keyes of the Church to the taking away not of sinne from before God but of scandall from before the Church Ordinations I mervaile not that all are forced to maintaine for how should altar be set up against altar not providing who should minister at it As for the ceremonies and circumstances of Gods service doth not superstitious strictnesse in abolishing them oblige reasonable men to think that they imagine themselves nolesse acceptable to God for neglecting them then the Papists for multiplying them beyond that which the order of them to their end can require That the memories of the Saints should be fit occasions of serving God which the Christianity of the ancient Church made one of the powerfullest means to extinguish Hethenisme is now so abhorred as if we had found out some other Christianity then that which it served to introduce That there should be set times of Fasting is so fâ—rre from the care of Reformers as if there were no such office of Christianity to be exercised by Gods Church In fine what is become of the substance while we talke of ceremony and circumstance Whether Churches were provided revenues founded persons consecrated to the intent that the service of God might daily and hourely sound in them by the Psalmes of his praises by the instruction of his word by the prayers of his people by the continuall celebration of the Eucharist Or that there should be two Sermons a sunday with a prayer at the discretion of him that preaches before and after it Provided nothing be done to signify that humility of mind that reverence of hart that devotion of spirit which the awfull majesty of God is to be served with I report my selfe to the piety of Christendome from sunne to sunne This I see woe worth my sinnes that have made me live to see it an effectuall course is taken that the Church dores be allwayes shut and no serving God there unlesse some body preach This is the summe of that which the premises inable me to allege why I can have no part in the present reformation so called Besides the utter want of all pretense for authority the whole title and pretense upon which and the end to which an equitable mind might question whether ordinary authority though of Gods institution and appointment may be superseded in a case of extrarodinary necessity to restore the true Faith and service of God which all authority of the Church presupposeth for the ground and proposeth for the end of all communion with it is found utterly wanting upon the best inquiry that I have been able to make I am to seek for a point any one point wherein I can justly grant that the change is not for the worse Even that frequency of preaching which was the outside of the businesse even granting it to be by the Rule of true Faith Yet hath the performance of it been so visibly so pittifully defective that he must have a hard heart for our common Christianity who can think that there is wherewith to defend it from the scorn of unbelievers had they nothing to do but to minde it I confesse as afore I allowed the Church of Rome some excuse from the unreasonablenesse of their adversaries So here considering the horrible scandales given by that communion in standing so rigorously upon Lawes so visibly ruinous to the service of God and the advancement of Christianity and the difficulty of finding that meane in which the truth stands between the extreames as our Lord Christ between the theeves saith Turtulliane I doe not proceed to give the salvation of poor soules for lost that are carried away with the pretense of Reformation in the change that is made even to hate and persecute by word or by deed those who cannot allow it For as for the appearance of Heresy though the mistake be dangerous to the soule because if followed it becomes the principle of those actions which whoso doeth shall not inherit the kingdome of God Yet it may be so tenderly held as not to extinguish other points of Christianity which necessarily contradict it For though indeed they do not stand with it yet it is possible that those who through the difficulty of finding the truth have swallowed a mistake may not proceed to act according to the consequence of it but of the rest of that Christianity which they retaine and contradicteth it For as for the authority of the Church the neglect wherof creates that obstinacy in consideration whereof heresy is held heretically the rigorousnesse of the Church of Rome extending it beyond all bounds that our common Christianity can allow and necessitating well disposed Christians to waive it what mervaile if the due bounds becoming in visible to common sense by communion with the Church the misprision of Heresy possesse them with the esteeme of Christianity And the difficulty of avoiding the temptation create an excuse to God for them whose intentions are single As for the crime of schisme justly sticking to them who presuming upon their understanding in the scriptures by the scriptures alone which God hath no where promised to assist without using the helpes which he hath provided by his Church though the sacrilege thereof justly render void of effect the ordinances of God which are ministered by virtue of that usurpation which it involveth yet there being abundance of soules that may live and dye without knowing any better much lesse that can ever be able to judge the best upon true principles why should I not hope that God passing by the nullities which it createth will make good the effect of his Grace to those who with singlenesse of heart seek it in a wrong way when by his Law he cannot be tied to concurre to the meanes But this resolution being the result of the premises demonstrateth how much reason the parties that is those