which we confesse and beleeve in the Apostles Creed so that as they pray to God for our good in generall in like manner we praise God for them in particular account their memory precious set their examples before us as the glasses of our lives and desire to be made partakers with them of the glorious resurrection in the life to come I would to God therefore that none but Puritanes were guilty of this sinne in sleighting such Holy Dayes others also cut off their esteeme more than is meet For that I may close up all with full satisfaction our Church appoints no set dayes for titular Saints such is are many in the Church of Rome but for such as were Apostles Evangelists and Martyrs indeed whom Christ honoured so much as to make some of them establishers and others as it were founders of that Kingdome which cost him his dearest blood and accounted them worthy to suffer death for his sake so that as one truly saith Mr Dow of the Sabbath and Lords Day pag. 62.64 and I speake it in his owne words we may justly solemnize either the dayes wherein those burning and shining Lights first appeared to the world or the dayes of their departure hence which were the dayes of their happy inauguration into the Kingdome of Glory when they both left to the Church Militant the glorious example of their Christian fortitude and became an occasion of new joy to the Church Triumphant by the accession of new citizens to that heavenly society On which dayes we honour God as the authour of all that good which either they or we by them are partakers of for our prayers and prayses are to him though with reference to them in what they have done So that they are honoured only as God's instruments and as those who having beene imitatours of our blessed Saviour are worthy patternes of our imitation Neither is such a day more holy than another but in relation to the separation of it to such holy and religious duties which the Church ordaineth to be performed on it And therefore lest in the revolution of time ingratefull forgetfulnesse should obliterate the blessed memory of such just ones we have these solemne Feasts and set Dayes in an annuall memoriall of them to the glory of him whose Instruments they were And so an end to this Section SECT IV. I Come now to a fourth particular namely that the people no way hinder their spiritual Fathers whether Bishops or others from going on cheerfully in their offices for if through default of their flocke they goe on Gementes it cannot in conclusion but be wofully grievous unto those over whom they watch Heb. 13.17 Consider therefore and marke it well and withall observe that he who hath said Touch not mine Anointed 1 Chron. 16.22 Psal 105.15 said also And doe my Prophets no harme Yea and further that the word of God may have a free passage Pray for us saith another Scripture For as we desire that to you may be a doore of entrance Ephes 6.19 whereby you may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus so is it also on your parts to provide that our doore of utterance bee not barred through your occasion All which in a word tends to this that you afflict not trouble or molest your ghostly Fathers For if you must study to be quiet 1 Thess 4.1 Rom. 12.18 1 Thess 5.13 Ephes 6.15 Esa 32.17 and have peace with all men then much more with those who preach the glad tidings of such good things as Peace and divide aright unto you the Bread of Life on which your soules except you meane to be damned dye and perish must bee sure to feed What I wonder is it that * You who vex your Pastors peace Luke 10.3 you thinke You are but Wolves if you worry those who are sent like Lambes among you Christ hath said it nay did foresee it and the Church of God especially the Ministers of truth Gal. 4.16 have alwayes found it and may therefore in the Herauldry of their Divinity take up the Crosse as their most significant Armes and paint it forth in a sable field portraying for the Crest a Wolfe rampant crushing in his pawes an Innocent Dove or an Harmlesse Lambe out of whose mouth may come this Posie or Motto Facere bonum habere malum For thus it was with Christ Hee pittied Iohn 7. and was mocked hee healed and was hurt Yea and thus hath it beene not seldome since with those whom he sendeth after him bee they never so wary how they walke or never so carefull how they instruct SECT V. BUt here is not all Impoverish not is another branch Luke 10.7 Jam. 5.4 For the Labourer is alwayes worthy of his hire and to detaine it from him is a crying sin The old Pharisee was therefore in this an honest man Hee would not rob the Church but payed tithes of all that he possessed not neglecting so much as Mint Annise and Rue Which practice of his was welapproved by our Saviour not as a thing arbitrary but as a thing necessary Christ setteth an oportet upon it Math. 23.23 Luke 11.42 or a necessity of so doing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things ought ye to have done And Saint Paul also teacheth it in such Texts of Scripture as I shall afterwards mention Howbeit men for the most part now are of another minde For that which God requires not only as a token of his Universall dominion and liberall donation but as a meanes to uphold his worship and service is too eagerly cried down by them who rob the Church saying as did Iudas of the precious ointment Ad quid perdito haec Wherefore is all this waste For thus do the sacrilegious worldlings in their hungry zeale gape after the spoile and ruine of the Church And although many of them may perhaps seeme more devote than the residue of that crew yet may we expect as little good from them to the Church of God as from the rest who march more openly For many will goe with the Wisemen from the East to seeke Christ yea and will fall downe and worship him but they are grown too wise to open their treasures except it be in a manner of a scant almes to a wandring Levite fitting to their fancies or if more perhaps some miserable mod cum by way of stipend to a discontented Separatist who beareth as little love to the Church in her Governours as they in her revenewes or honourable maintenance This makes us heare much talke many times of competencies stipends and benevolence But as for tythes if the Clergy should have them all then farewell to the Laity cry these small friends to God Almighty They would therfore that tythes should be every where abolished excepting from their owne hands that thereby they may the better bring the Priests to impotency scorne and misery Not remembring that whilst they contend to
abhorre publicke meetings is to deny ourselves to be any of Gods people For as we are all members of one body we must joyntly assemble to one place so shall we keep the unitie of the spirit in the bond of peace and be so in the number of Gods people here that we may the better know how to be taken into the number of them heareafter For the Prophet is witnesse that God will teach his wayes to those who shall go and say Come and let us ascend to the Mountaine of the Lord to the house of the God of Iacob Esay 2.3 III. But as I sayd before some be Truants and care not for comming Others be Recusants and may not come to joyne themselves with us A third sort be Schismaticks and will not come except where they affect and when they please And last of all there be others which make no great scruple of comming but in respect of the end their comming and hearing is in vaine they are yet in their sinnes First the Truants are of two sorts either such as hate the Word in respect of it selfe or such as are ill affected towards it for some by respect The first of these esteeme preaching but folly There is much adoe in it and about it but it is to small purpose They can see no good that it doth to have one stand an houre together perking in a pulpit for this doth but hinder the people from their businesse as Pharaoh once said to Moses and Aaron Let him that is a Preacher say there what he list they will beleeve but what they please The Minister must doe something for his living and if he could not talke for it he could doe little And yet that which he doth seemes in their judgement to be as much as nothing Wherefore if all were of their mindes he might speak long enough before he be regarded To whom I answer that although the wisedome of God be foolishnes to the wicked world yet it hath pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching to save those that beleeve 1 Cor. 1.18 to ver 28. chap. 2.14 And there fore if our Gospell be hid it is hid to them that be lost whose mindes are darkned by the god of this world 2 Co. 4.3 4. Sathan that prince of darknesse who striveth to extinguish the glorious light that it bringeth with it It is without question that the time may come when these men since they call it talking may talke for mercy too Prov. 28.9 Rom. 1.16 and go without it Wherefore I am not ashamed of the Gospell of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that beleeveth to the Jew first and also to the Centile And in a word as lightly as these account of the Gospell Rom. 2.16 and the preaching thereof it shall one day judge them Yea and now whilst they live in this valley of the shadow of death if they were well grounded in it and humbly devoted towards it they might finde comfort in what they have learned from thence when all the world beside is but a dry and a barren tree and can afford nothing of so sweet a nature We are not mad men to maccrate our selves in studying away our blood spirits strengty and health but that we know God hath ordain'd us to be Labourers in his harvest 2 Pet. 3.9 and would that the worst under us should of tares become good corne If therefore these men perish let them thanke themselves for they resist the Holy Ghost There is no fault in the Word but in them who doe so lightly and slightly esteeme it For though to them it be meere foolishnesse yet to God and the faithfull it is farre otherwise And as for the second they be such as hate the Word and the hearing of it because it crosseth them in their wicked projects and divelish practices For cannot a Tyrant be bloody an Oppressour crush and grinde the poore a Tradesman lye and sweare a Flatterer dissemble an Hypocrite weare a mask a Gallant frequent the stews an Usurer undoe his brother an Incloser depopulate a Drunkard reele in the streets and know the way to an Ale-house better then to God's house or cannot a Blasphemer curse and sweare a Church-robber commit sacriledge a Backbiter detract a Malicious man wreck his spleene a Monopolist engrosse a Proud man look aloft a wanton Dame use her paintings a Cormorant withhold his corne to the starving of the poore a Poore man despise the rich a Land-lord undoe his tenants a Voluptuous man bath himselfe in sinfull lusts vanities and wicked pleasures but the Pulpit must needs proclaime it Hinc illa lachrymae this is their great Cordolium If we could but let them alone and not hinder them in their travell to Tophet then all were well But because we call them back from their evill wayes crosse them in their proiects and in the cleare glasse of God's word let them see their faces they hate the hearing of the Word detract and backbite the Preachers of it 1 King 22.8 like unto Ahab King of Israel who hated Michaiah because he prophesied contrary to his liking He prophesieth saith he no good to me but evill Or like unto those in the Acts Act. 16.19 Act. 19 24 who abominated the doctrine of the Apostles because it crossed those wicked gaines which their divelish and heathenish practices brought in unto them By which it appeareth that as Truth loves no corners so neither would they beare hatred to it if their deeds were but such as might abide the tryall 2. The next are Papists or Recusants a people so wedded to the Church of Rome that they may not ioyne themselves with us in our Assemblies and this not because they have any iust quarrell against our Liturgy but because they are afraid of the Popes curse As for our doctrine if That displease them I am sory the Truth should prove distastfull Or if we have enough in our Religion necessary to salvation what need we more And that we have so much is witnessed by a Pope Pius Quintus by name who signified in a Letter to Queene Elizabeth of blessed memory before the time of his excommunication denounced against her that he did allow our Bible and Book of Divine Service See Iudge Cook in his Charge at Norwich Assises Anno Dom. 1606. as it is now used among us to be authentick and not repugnant to truth and that therein was contained enough necessary to salvation as in a charge given at Norwich Assises in the yeare of our Lord 1606 was openly avowed And if enough then without question we need not the help of any Pope to supply us with more Unto which this I adde that it can be no harme to the Papists to turne unto us for in departing from them we made not a New Church but reformed the old and among the Churches reformed this of England comes I
jurisdiction and a Court for determining of Ecclesiasticall affaires What then remaineth but that the Officers belonging to such Iudicatures make uprightnesse their ayme that thereby all just cause of scandall may bee taken away from these their lawfull Courts For when they have done their best either ignorance or malice or both will be readie enough to traduce them and therefore so much the more are they like to be exclaimed against when indirect courses are plaine and manifest But herein care must be had that the scandall of injustice be not layd upon such as are free enough from it If some base minded under Officers abuse their places it is no good argument to prove that therefore Bishops are maintainers of unjust practises For we know for certaine the Church like a carefull Mother hath provided Laws to suppresse such abuses as she feared might be fostered in these her Courts Witnesse those many Canons concerning the jurisdiction of Arch bishops See the Canons of out Church Bishops and Archdeacons yea concerning Iudges Proctors Registers and Apparatours As in Canon the 92. that none bee cited into divers Courts for Probate of the same Will And in Canon 115 that Ministers and Churchwardens bee not sued for presenting And in the 116 and 117 Canons that Churchwardens bee not troubled for not presenting oftner then twice a yeare excepting at Visitations or that the custome of the Dioces be otherwise And in Canon the 121 that none be cited into severall Courts for one and the same crime but that the officers cerrifie each to other what hath beene presented to them And in Canon the 123 that no act be sped but in open Court And in Can. 127. 128. that Iudges and Surrogates be well qualified And in Canon the 129 that no Proctors retaine causes unlawfully And in Canon the 133 that Proctors be not clamorous in Courts And in Canon the 134 that Registers abuse not their places And in Canon the 135 that no Ecclesiasticall officer exact more than his ordinary fees And in Can. 136 that a Table of their said feees be set up in open view in Courts and Registers And in Canon the 138 that Apparitours shall not take upon them the office of Promoters or Informers for the Court. All which had beene never done if the Prelates had intended the upholding of wrong and robbery for by these Constitutions it well appeareth that they are no wayes bent to countenance the courses of unjust proceedings but to punish and subdue all such offenders And therefore to be as many I thinke are too ready to blame Bishops for maintainers of pouling Courts is as one truly speakes a matter in a slanderer to be punished and not a fault in a Bishop to be blamed In a word such is the generall loosenesse of these miserable times This was proved true a long while since as may be seen in an old ancient booke called an Admonition to the people of England printed anno Dom 1589. that all kinde of justice among too many is growne into hatred and contempt and men disdaine to bee ruled by it And therefore when they are called convented and punished for such things wherein they have offended or be bridled from that they would do disorderly they grudge at it their stomackes rise against it and thinke all that is done to be unlawfull although it be never so just And because they are not able otherwise to be revenged they cry out that they be cruell and pouling Courts But as I said before in advice to officers Let uprightnesse be their ayme so now to offenders in the words of God by his holy Prophet Esay 5.18.20 21. Woe be to them that draw on iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cartrope that call good evil evil good that put light for darknes and darknes in the stead of light that thereby they may the better nouzle themselves in feigned colours and imagined excuses although in so doing they do but like unto that wicked generation Who curse their Father and doe not blesse their Mother I should now come to the next particular were it not that stil I find another thing which the factious first and others next distaste and sleight too much And that 's the celebration of such holy dayes as they who live within the pale of our Church are urg'd to keepe But let mee tell them that in this they also go astray For though some sticke not to affirme that it is a * This they affirme because the Commandement saith Six daâ—es 〈◊〉 on shalt labour breach of the fourth Commandement and so a sinne to make more Holy Dayes than one in seven yet shall they never be able to prove why it should be a sinne rather now than heretofore For shall the Iewes be no transgressors of the Law though they have more daies than their weekly Sabbath and must the Christian offend in consecrating dayes beside the Sunday Yes say some for they were led thereunto by God's expresse command For some I grant they were but for other some againe they were appointed no otherwise than their Church ordained Ester 9.21 For did they not every yeare solemnize and keepe holy the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the moneth Adar in remembrance of their great delivery from the treason of Haman 1 Mac. 4.59 And had they not likewise their yearly feast of Dedication Ioh. 10.22.23 for the observation of which there was no precept and yet Christ himselfe refused not to observe it with them 'T is sure they had And therefore to say Sixe dayes thou shalt labour and not let to keepe holy any other day than one is an idle cavil and scarce worth the answering Howbeit for thy further satisfaction take this also with thee that God who might challenge all our time for his worke doth there shew that he is willing to remit * Which part is ordinarily six dayes though not alwayes as the Iewes themselves do beare us witnesse part of his right for thine owne workes yet so as he doth not restraine thee from doing publike service to him on any of those dayes which the Church shall appoint for except there be superstitious ends aymed at on the dayes set apart this which I say must needs be granted But say some againe though we yeeld to the observing of such weekly dayes as are either in honour of the Saviour of the world for the diverting of some judgment or for the testification of thankes for some great benefit yet why should the Church presse upon us the keeping of Saints dayes too as well as these Why because the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance as the Psalmist speaketh Psal 112.6 and the memory of the just be blessed Prov. 10.8 as the sonne of the Psalmist hath expressed Or because of that knot of fellowship which is betweene the dead Saints and the living this being that Communion