wil-worship and superstition That the general equity of the Levtical Law as far as it was not Typical is still in force concerning the solemnities of Religion and that approves Anniversary as well as weekly Festivals Sect. 4. Of the antient contention about the observation of Easter That the Apostles zeal more about duties then about days doth not overthrow the observing of particular days in the service of God And that those days ought to be observed by Preaching Praying Administring the Sacraments and also by Alms-deeds so that false administration sc of the Holy Eucharist in one kind and false devotions and false doctrine and sordid illiberality in not relieving the poor are all alike profanations of a Festival Sect. 5. The practice of the Primitive Christians in observing the Feast of Easter and that there was no superstition in that practice Sect. 6. That the Lords day which is observed weekly is to be observed in memory of our Saviours Resurrection And hath a double sanctification one by relation to its duty which is publickly to serve God and to give him thanks for our redemption by Christ and is the Principal The other by institution as consecrated to this duty and is the less principal That the Antisabbatarian Doctrine which advanceth duties above days is not only of Christs but also of Moses his own teaching and makes most for the true observation of the Sabbath which yet is more properly called the Lords day then the Sabbath Sect. 7. That Sunday hath a better Title to holiness and unchangeableness as the Lords Day then as the Sabbath And that the Lords Day and the Lords labourers or Ministers are both to continue to the worlds end by virtue of Gods command in general and of Christs determination and institution in particular Sect. 8. That Sunday as the Lords Day is most truly a Christian Festival and ought to be most religiously observed and so ought also other Festivals instituted in honour of Christ as being likewise our Christian Sabbaths Sect. 9. The fourth Commandment was not given to limit the First and therefore excludes not other Festivals shewing our true love of Christ but rather commands them The true manner of observing any Christian Festival particularly Easter is to account and make it a day of observations by observing our selves and our Saviour Our selves what we have been what we are what we desire to be Our Saviour what he was in his humiliation what he is in his exaltation what he will be in his Retribution Sect. 10. That the end of this and of all other Christian Festivals is our spiritual Communion with Christ and therefore they ought to be celebrated more with spiritual then with carnal joys that though our carnal joys are greater in their proportion yet our spiritual joys are greater in their foundation Sect. 11. A zealous observation of this Christian Festival proceedeth from the true love of our Redeemer and thankfulness for our redemption A set form of praise fittest to express that thankfulness CAA. 2. That God is to be adored only in Christ Hath four Sections Sect. 1. THat no man whilst he is in the state of sin cares to come neer God and that Adam after his sin could not have adored God rightly if Christ had not been revealed to him as the propitiation for his sins Sect. 2. That no Religion adoreth God rightly which adoreth him not in Christ and of the excellencies of the Christian Religion That no other Religion teacheth such conformable truths to right reason declareth an expiation for sin promiseth so great a reward sheweth so pure a worship or so innocent a conversation Sect. 3. The reason why God cannot be rightly adored but only by Christians is because he cannot be truly known and loved but only by those who know and love him in Christ The true way to gain that knowledge and to shew and keep that love is universal obedience both to his affirmative and negative precepts without which there can be no saving knowledge of God That the Christians do know and worship God in Christ cleerly and substantially and that the Jews did so know and worship him in Types and Figures so that the Jewish and the Christian Religion differ not in substance but only in degrees of perfection Sect. 4. That those Christians who adore God by any other Mediator then by Christ alone do not rightly adore him And that those who do rightly adore him ought not to be discouraged in their Religion and much less be deterred from it Christ glorified in his Ascension Hath a Prooem and three Chapters The Proeem That our blessed Saviours Ascension is not so truly observed by our Commemoration as by our imitation and the manner how to consider the history of his Ascension The first Chapter is Christ considered before his Ascension The second Chapter is Christ considered whilst he was Ascending The third Chapter is Christ considered after he was Ascended CAP. 1. Christ considered before his Ascension Hath three Sections Sect. 1. Christ considered in his Apparitions before he ascended as to Mary Magdalen and to Saint Peter c. The wrong use that hath been made the right use that may be made of those Apparitions Sect. 2. The Apparition to above five hundred at once cleared And Christ considered in his instructions before he Ascended That those instructions are more particularly to be observed as more directly conducing to the Constitution and the conservation of his Church Those instructions briefly explained as they are set down Mat. 28. 19 20. Sect. 3. That the words which our Saviour Christ spake to his Apostles before he ascended may be reduced to these three heads Words of instruction consolation benediction That the effect of them all is registred in the Text not left to unwritten Tradition That the Apostles though thus instructed comforted and blessed yet preached not the Gospel till the coming of the Holy Ghost upon them whereby they had not only ability but also authority or Mission and Commission in a full degree CAP. 2. Christ considered whilst he was ascending Hath three Sections Sect. 1. THat the words used to express Christs ascension did manifest his twofold claim or title to heaven the one by inheritance as God the other by merit or purchase as man And that Christ in his ascension wrought a twofold miracle one in the conquest of Earth the other in the conquest of Heaven and what comfort and benefit redounds to us Christians from these Titles and these Miracles Sect. 2. The time of Christs ascension particularly named in the Text and the observation of that Day is founded upon the practise of the Apostles which in the exercise of Religion is to be embraced as precept why the Apostles left not many precepts concerning circumstances of worship to the Christian Church The place of the ascension was Bethany in Mount Olivet and what considerations arise from thence Sect. 3. The persons before whom our Saviour Christ ascended
of the fourth Commandment who cryes up the Day but beats down the other adjuncts and also the very Duty of the Sabbath That Duty being to glorifie God in Christ by Publick worship for the Redemption of the world whereas they discountenance Liturgie and Festivals though both instituted in honour of our Redeemer Sect. 4. The sincerity of Christian Communion may be violated either Causally by a false Religion or Formally by an unjust separation Both violations are abominable The care which the primitive Christians used to avoid both by cleaving to the antient Creeds and Gloria Patri and also by their Communicatory Letters The reason of that care was that both Priest and People laboured only to serve Christ not to serve themselves of him The Touchstone to try all Churches is the Advancing Christ both in their Religion and in their Communion The Iustification of the Church of England Consisteth of three Chapters The first Chapter sheweth That the Church of England is Gods Trustee for the Christian Religion as to the people of this Nation The secend Chapter sheweth That the same Church of England hath carefully discharged her Trust concerning Religion as a most Christian or most Catholick Church The third Chapter sheweth That the Communion of the said Church of England is conscionably embraced and reteined by All the people of this Nation and not rejected much less renounced by any of them but against the Rules of Conscience CAP. 1. That the Church of England is Gods Trustee for the Christian Religion as to the People of this Nation Sect. 1. CHrist delivered the Trust of his Word and Sacraments to his Apostles They delivered the same to Bishops and Presbyters their successors But the Apostles had an illimited their successors have a limited Trust The necessity of the succession of these Trustees to the worlds end yet is the succession of Doctrine more necessary then the succession of Persons Sect. 2. The Trust and nature of the Catholick Church best gathered from particular Churches The first part of their Trust is concerning the word of God Sect. 3. The second part of the Trust of particular Churches is concerning the people of God What that Trust is and how it comes to be derived to them is shewed from Saint Pauls speech Acts 20. to the particular Church of Ephesus and from Saint Pauls Epistles to Timothy and Titus and from other several Epistles of his to particular Churches Sect. 4. The third part of the Trust of particular Churches is concerning the worship of God The written Word of God is the Rule whereby they are to manage that Trust the readyest way to beget a Christian Communion among all Churches and a Christian Peace in each particular Church Sect. 5. The Prince as the Supreme Governor of the particular Church in his own dominions is Gods Trustee concerning the outward exercise of Religion not to manage or perform but to propagate and to protect it The antient Divines acknowledged this Trust and the antient Princes discharged it and Princes now are bound so to do because it is their right by the Law of nature and because without the discharge of this Trust there can neither be the face nor the due order of Religion among any People Sect. 6. The limitation both of the Princes and of the Priests Trust in matters of Religion That neither may deviate from the Law of God And that the Authority of the Churches Laws is most enfeebled by them who make least esteem of the Law of God casting the aspersions of obscurity and of uncertainty upon the Holy Scriptures Sect. 7. The Trust of each particular Church is sufficient for the Peoples salvation if she take heed to her self and to the Doctrine God hath given her in his written Word and in the antient Creeds of the Catholick Church Sect. 8. The Trust of particular Churches is immediately from God himself both in regard of the Magistrate and of the Minister That trust much stood upon in the Primitive times and ought to be so still because it is founded in the Holy Scriptures And that this Doctrine concerning the trust of particular Churches doth not Canton or dis-joynt the Catholick Church Sect. 9. What Trust is given to other particular Churches in the Holy Scriptures is also given to our particular Church of England from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost That our Church is accordingly bound to magnifie her Trust and therefore we bound not to vilifie it And that it is both rational and religious to maintain the Trust and Authority of our own particular Church CAP. 2. That the Church of England hath most carefully discharged her Trust concerning Religion as a most Christian or most Catholick Church Sect. 1. GODS intent in Trusting the Church with Religion was her Honour and Happiness which should cause our thankfulness to God and our reverent esteem of his Church Sect. 2. The Churches Trust concerning Religion is to see there be right Preaching Praying and Administring the Holy Sacraments Preaching belongs rather to the knowledge then to the worship of God and ought not to thrust out Praying which is the chiefest act of Gods worship and most regarded by him especially when many Pray in one Communion Sect. 3. Preaching is twofold either by Translating or by Expounding the Holy Scriptures The great excellency and necessity of both And that our Church is entrusted with both and cannot justly be charged as defective in either Sect. 4. Praying a greater part of the Churches Trust then Preaching The Church hath God the Fathers Precedent and Precept for making set forms of Prayer and shall answer for all the blemishes that may be in publick Prayers for want of a set form Sect. 5. The Church hath God the Sons Precedent and Precept for making set forms of Prayer and is accordingly obliged both to make and to use them Sect. 6. The Church hath God the Holy Ghosts Precedent and Precept for making and using set forms of Prayer Sect. 7. The Church hath Gods Promise for his blessing upon set forms of Prayer Sect. 8. The Church is obliged to make set forms of Prayer according to the Pattern of the Lords most holy Prayer that there be no Peccancy neither concerning the Object nor the Matter nor the Manner of publick Prayer and that our Church hath exactly followed that Pattern in hers and that other Churches ought to follow the same in their Liturgies A short Historical Narration concerning our Common-Prayer Book and the Anti-prayer book set up against it Sect. 9. Reformation not to be pretended against Religion The abolishing of Liturgie no part of a true Reformation That God hath not given any Church power to abolish Liturgie And that no Church ought to assume that power because Liturgie directly tends to the keeping of the third and of the fourth Commandments Sect. 10. Certainty is more to be regarded in the publick exercise of Religion then Variety Hence the Creed the Lords Prayer
the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it The Sabbath in respect of its duty is without doubt of Divine right in respect of its day may without derogation to the fourth commandment in the Judgement of many good Divines be said to be of Ecclesiastical right For the duty is matter of Religion which God hath reserved wholly to himself the day is matter of order which God hath in part left unto his Church even in this very case for though he hath determined a set day for his publike worship yet he hath not confined his Church to that day as he hath to the worship it self by his determination Therefore we may not deny Gods Church that liberty which he hath given her though we are willing to say he hath given it with this limitation or restriction that where the Apostolical Church hath positively determined any thing in the practice of Religion as in the weekly festival for the honour of Christ 〈…〉 Church after it may not lawfully alter the determination And where the Catholick Church hath determined to the same purpose as in the yearly Festivals for the honour of Christ particular national Churches may not with sobriety or with safety determine against it For though neither of these in it self is against the substance of Religion yet both are against the order and exercise of it and therefore against God who is the God of order and hath commanded the exercise of Religion We conclude then that though the Sabbath in special is abolished that is to say that determinate set day no less then that Temple and that Priesthood yet not others instead of them which having been since determinately pointed out and appointed by the authority of Christ and his Apostles have as much real holiness in them as the other ever had and that by virtue of the same Commandment which requires as a holy a publike worship now as it did then since the same God who said to the Jews in the old hath said to the Christian in the new Testament be ye holy for I am holy 1 Pet. 1. 16. Wherefore the name Sabbath cannot add to the Religion of the worship but it may add to the superstition of the worshippers And t is safest for us now to look upon it as a name of the old use though it signifie a thing of the new use wherein it is not amiss to take notice of Eustathius his Criticism upon the third of the Iliads concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words that are still of the old usage as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still signifies a head-peice though now it be not made of a sea doggs skin for which cause it was first called so And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Arms though now they are not made of brass but of yron So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is still used for to write though now our writing be not by ingraving or making any hollow impressions many other of the like kind may be observed both in the Greek and Latine tongue wherein the same word is still retained though the thing be quite out of use And by this rule we may still retain the words Priest Altar Temple Sacrifice as well as sabbath viz. all of them by way of custom but none of them all by way of contestation And God himself calling the day of Attonement a sabbath Lev. 16. 31. though it came but once a year hath licenced us to give the name Sabbath as well to our Aniversary as to our weekly Festivals But indeed the question is not about Sunday a Sabbath as if Caesar-like it would admit of no Superiour but of Sunday the Sabbath which Pompey-like will admit of no Equal and I answer That to call Sunday the Sabbath by way of eminency though it were lawful yet it is not laudable and is therefore better omitted then practised for besides that every language in the Christian world takes the Sabbath day for Saturday save only our late new English and God himself hath taken the seventh day and the Sabbath for terms convertible and all the wit of man cannot take the first day for the seventh day it is neither safe for us nor for our festival to seek to derive its holiness from the Jewish Sabbath not safe for us because it will make us Judaize at least in other mens judgements if not in our own which is a thing that Saint Paul if he were amongst us would be much afraid of for our sakes Gal. 4. 10 11. and therefore much more should we be afraid of it for our own sakes Not safe for our festival which by that means will be made rely upon a broken reed for the broken reeds are more now in Judaea then in Egypt and so be subject to a downfall For the Sabbath is as alterable to the Christian as to the Jew but the Lords day is eternal And if we have such a Sabbath as is subject to alteration we must have such a Sabbath as is subject to annihilation for the one is naturally not only a fore-runner of but also a preparation to the other Wherefore let my soul look after such a Sabbath as may lead me not to an outward and temporal but to an inward and eternal rest of which the Apostle speaketh Heb. 4. 9. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the keeping of a Sabbath but it is such a Sabbath as hypocrites cannot keep nor Atheists hinder good men from keeping whereas this outward Sabbath may be most observed by hypocrites and altogether opposed by Atheists But this is such a Sabbath as Hypocrites cannot keep for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only for the people of God And such as Atheists cannot hinder good men from keeping for the text saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relinquitur They that can take away all other things cannot take away this Sabbath from us they must still leave that behind them though they have plaied at sweep-stakes with all the rest This is a Relique that I must highly prize because they cannot plunder according to that admirable gloss of Epiphanius adver Her Manich. upon these very words of Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord Iesus Christ himself is our Sabbath and our rest and in this sense we had need both labour and pray that we may be Sabbatarians SECT VII That Sunday hath a better title to holiness and unchangeableness as the Lords day then as the Sabbath And that the Lords day and the Lords Labourers or Ministers are both to continue to the worlds end by vertue of Gods command in general and of Christs determination and institution in particular WILL you plead for a Sabbath in Paradise from Gen. 2. 2 you will not from thence be able to advantage our weekly Festival For besides that the Fathers are of another mind particularly Justine Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho who quarrels not with him about that Tenent though being a
of Religion to be true doth require my assent by the authority of the first truth and whatsoever appears to me to be good doth require my love and obedience by the authority of the cheifest good So that if I cannot but confess my Churches sincerity woe will be unto me if I deny much more if I withstand her authority For if I cannot justly find fault with her Religion I must be irreligious if I forsake her communion God have mercy upon those Christians who on the one side are so zealous for their Church as not to be scrupulous about their Religion or who on the other side are so scrupulous about their religion as not to be zealous for their Church the one sinning against the verity the other against the unity of faith and therefore neither but hath a spice of infidelity in their sin and since God hath made me a Christian why should I make my self an Infidel either by superstition sinning against my God or by faction sinning against his Church I will therefore take the best care I can both about my Religion and about my communion though I will first take care of my Religion and then of my communion SECT III. The sincerity of Christian communion comprehendeth both the purity and the solemnity of Religion And is the whole duty of the first table The purity and substance of Religion being enjoynd in the three first commandments The solemnity and publick exercise of it with the adjuncts thereto belonging being enjoyned in the Fourth the one from the end the other from the letter of the Law The Sabbatarian the greatest opposer of the fourth Commandment who cryes up the day but beats down the other adjuncts and also the very duty of the Sabbath That duty being to glorifie God in Christ by publick worship for the Redemption of the world whereas they discountenance Liturgie and Festivals though both instituted in honour of our Redeemer EVery man is born an enemy to the true Christian communion because his corrupt nature filleth him with vain fears to make him superstitious and with outragious malice to make him factious And the true Christian communion is equally opposed by superstition which corrupts the sincerity and by faction which destroys the solemnity of Gods publick worship Wherefore God hath given us a Law which taketh care not only for the Religion of his Church against superstition but also for the Communion of his Church against faction though it first take care for the Religion and after that for the communion For Religion knits and unites us immediately to God But communion knits and unites us one to the other Religion is the very knowledge and worship of God communion is only the agreement in that knowledge and worship Religion makes the Saints communion only shews and declares them Religion makes true worship communion makes publick worship Accordingly God first provided for the duty then for the solemnity first for the Religion then for the communion Thus in the three first precepts of the decalogue he requires the true knowledge and worship of God which constitute our Religion and in the fourth he requires the publick profession of that knowledge and exercise of that worship which constitute our communion For the first commandment requires us to have right apprehensions and affections concerning God by the internal acts of our souls in trusting believing loving him above all things The second and third require us to testifie those our inward apprehensions and affections concerning him by our outward adoration or reverence and by our outward confessing or glorifying his holy name Then follows the fourth requiring us to muster up our apprehensions and affections adorations and glorifications altogether in one publick entire and holy communion So that the fourth Commandment is little other then a new ratification or establishment of the three first all in one to be observed or performed solemnly and publickly enjoyning us to do those holy duties on some set dayes openly and joyntly in one communion which were before enjoyned every day severally and privately in one Religion And consequent the 4th Commandment is in effect an establishment of the Church as the three first are an establishment of Religion For the consecration of times places persons maintenance and forms of worship is here commanded though time only be named and all for this end that God may be publickly glorified and our souls edified in the communion of Saint Wherefore those that prophane the places oppose the persons rob the maintenance and reproach the forms consecrated to the publick worship of God are as great Sabbath-breakers as those that prophane the time nor is there in truth a greater enemy to the Sabbath then the Sabbatarian as not a greater enemy to faith then the Solifidean the one crying up the Sabbath in the day but beating it down in the duty advancing the circumstance of time but depressing and debasing not only other circumstances but also the very substance of worship The other making a noise of faith which fils the phansie with strong perswasions but neglecting the work of faith which fils the soul with holy affections What do we think our Saviour Christ said in vain Father glorifie thy name or that God himself answered in vain by a voyce from heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again John 12. 28. If not let us acknowledge this to be the main end of our Christian Religion to glorifie the name of God and then we shall be afraid to oppose any thing directly conducing to his praise and glory For certainly those words are never to grow out of date This voice came not because of me but for your sakes John 12. 30. We know it was the whole work of Christ to glorifie God and what else can we think is the work of the Christian Religion Let this then I mean the glory of God be taken for the ballance of the Sanctuary wherein to weigh all our Tenents and all our practices and we shall never put a parsimonious much less an envious gloss upon the fourth Commandment as if it had taken care only for one circumstance of publick worship but neglected all the rest that 's a parsimonious gloss or as if it had provided for the circumstances alone and not much more for the substance of Gods publick worship and service that 's an envious irreligious gloss For in truth as in the Creed every subsequent Article of faith presupposeth the belief of all before it that it self may be rightly believed the same truth being first in the order of nature which is there put first in the order of Revelation So also in the decalogue especially in the first table every subsequent commandment presupposeth the obedience of all before it that it self may be rightly obeyed the same duty being first in the order of nature which is there put first in the order of injunction God in his very Method of revealing truths and
my hands accept of any offering SECT XIII A new song for the coming of Christ God the Father Son and Holy Ghost carefully observed the time of our Saviours coming into the world therefore it can be no true piece of Reformation for men not to observe it THE Church had a new song put into her mouth meerly for the knowledge of the great mercy of her Saviours Nativity How much more then for the enjoyment of it He hath put a new song in my mouth saith the Psalmist even a Thanksgiving to our God Psalm 40. 3. And Saint Paul tells us wherefore this new song was put into his mouth in that he applyes this very Psalm to the coming of our Saviour Christ Heb. 10. 5 c. Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not but a body hast thou prepared me which words are quoted out of this same very Psalm and point as directly at Christs coming into the flesh as that finger of the Baptist did point at him after he was come when he said Behold the Lamb of God which finger for that very cause as some would perswade us could not be burnt with the rest of his body Gentiles ossa collegerant cumbusserant sed digitus ille quo Dominum ad Jordanum venientem monstravit dicens ecce agnus Dei non potuit comburi Durandus in rationali lib. 7. de decollatione S. Johannis This was indeed a sufficient cause why a New song should be put in the mouth even of the sweet singer of Israel To shew that great was his Thanksgiving yet greater his Thankfulness for this inestimable and undeserved mercy as it appears Psalm 40. 6 7. O Lord my God great are thy wonderous works which thou hast done like as be also thy thoughts which are to us-ward If I would declare them and speak of them they should be more then I am able to express And all these wonderous works and thoughts are summed up together by the Apostle in this saying when he cometh into the world as indeed they were consummated and compleated by Christ himself in his coming when he cometh into the world he saith And yet the words were said above five hundred years before he came It seems God the Son was so long before observing the time of his own coming into the world surely not that the sons of men should labour to forget and resolve not to observe it And God the Father did the like Heb. 1. 6. When he bringeth in the first begotten into the world he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him Pointing as it were at the very day of Christs Nativity or coming into the world yet some men perswade themselves they do enough if they believe his going out of the world and think only upon his Death and Passion And God the Holy Ghost did the same as being the Pen-man and Interpreter of these Texts and the Applyer of them to our blessed Saviour For he it was that spake both by the Prophets and by the Apostles God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost did look and point very punctually at Christs coming into the world Telling the Angels of it that they might worship him and the Angels accordingly sing a most heavenly Hymn of Thanksgiving at his Birth not only in heaven for their own Joy and Exultation for which they are alwaies singing to him there but also on the earth or at least very near it so near as that the Shepherds did both hear and see them singing for our comfort and imitation And therefore it cannot justly be accounted a Piece of Reformation to teach men to look away as far as they can from that time wherein the Church doth celebrate the memorial of Christs coming as if God who had bid the Angels worship him had bid men not worship him which is surely a strain of very bad Logick and of far worse Divinity SECT XIV Everlasting Thankfulness is due to God for this Everlasting Mercy THE Psalmist teacheth us a Lesson of everlasting Thankfulness for this everlasting Mercy as appears Psalm 72. The chief argument of the Psalm is Christ as is proved in the 8. and 9. verses from the extent of his Dominion far beyond Solomons even to the worlds end and much more in the 10. and 11. verses from the excellency of his Person That All Kings should fall down before him And particularly That the Kings of Arabia and Saba should bring him gifts which was literally fulfilled in the Presents of the wise men Mat. 2. who by the Antients were both called and reputed Kings And the Conclusion that is inferred from these Premises is Thanksgiving The argument of the Psalm is everlasting mercy even the mercy of God to man in Christ and the Conclusion of it is everlasting Thankfulness for so it follows ver 18. 19. Blessed be the Lord God even the God of Israel which only doth wonderous things and this wonderous thing above all the rest That the Son of God was made the Son of man that we who were by nature the children of wrath might be made the Sons of God there 's the Thankfulness And blessed be the name of his Majesty for ever and all the earth shall be filled with his Majesty Amen Amen There 's the everlasting Thankfulness Heaven was from the first instant of its creation filled with his Majesty but now the earth was also filled with it And if heaven and earth are both filled with his Majesty what shall we say if our sinful souls be empty For if we be not filled with his Majesty How shall we come to be filled with his Mercy SECT XV. Time not perfect in Gods account from our Creation but from our Redemption The Jews not destroyed and Time not Vntimed meerly in relation to the coming of Christ Time still continued for the world to make a right use of his coming No other Time perfect in Gods account but that wherein he gives his Son and no other Time should be perfect in our account but that wherein we receive him GOD accounted that only the Perfection of Time wherein he wrought the work of our Redemption as if all that had passed before that from the beginning of the Creation had been but an imperfect Time He had no rest in the Creation till he made man He had no rest after it till he Redeemed him Divinely Saint Ambrose in his Hexameron and not the less Divinely because he took it out of Saint Basil for the Latine Fathers borrowed of the Greek-Fathers as later Divines have since borrowed from them Fecit Deus coelum non lego quod requieverit fecit solem lunam stellas nec ibi lego quod requieverit sed lego quod fecerit Hominem tunc requieverit habens câ—i Peccata dimitteret God made Heaven and I do not read that he did rest He made the Earth and I do not read that
teach and redeem us The title of the chief corner stone blasphemously applyed to the Pope Christ was not an Apostle one sent from God but an Exapostle one sent out of God I must needs confess that being in this Eden of God in this Paradise contemplating the tree of life I am unwilling to divert my eyes from that tree and much more my heart from that contemplation but am desious to perswade my self that I see the Prophet Isaiahs vision turned into action and God acting it in heaven no less then the Prophet acting it on earth Isa 6. 8. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send or who will go for us then I said here am I send me For God the Father did as it were consult with himself saying whom shall I send and God the Son did forthwith answer him Here am I send me For as there was faciamus hominem Gen. 1. 26. God consulting and deliberating with his Son his eternal wisdom and with his Spirit his eternal power about our creation so there was redimamus hominem God consulting and deliberating with his Son his eternal righteousness and with his spirit his eternal love about our redemption For Gods goodness is as infinite as himself and that hath made him impart to man not only his goodness but also himself Hence that saying of the sublime Areopagite quod ipse Deus propter amorem est exstasin passus That love made God as it were go out of himself For great love is never without some kind of exstasie and therefore as it makes man go out of himself and be not where he lives but where he loves so it also made God the Son as it were go out of himself and come and be in man whom he had loved with an eternal love Thus hath love brought God from God to be in man and thus should it also bring man from man to be in God For this is the end of that blessed Mysterie and more blessed mercy which we commemorate when we celebrate the incarnation of the Son of God he was made of us that we might be new made by him he made one flesh with us that we should be one spirit with him Saint Peter accounted it a great mercy that God had sent his Angel to deliver him from the hand of Herod Act. 12. 11. How much more ought we to account it a great mercy that he hath sent his only Son to deliver us from the power of sin and Satan which persued us much more fiercely and would have wounded us much more desperately He considers his deliverance ver 12. and shall not we especially since the Apostle hath shewed us the way how to enlarge this consideration Heb. 1. 1 2. God who at sundry times and in divers maaners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son It was a great mercy that he spake to the Fathers by holy men a greater that he spake to them by the holy Angels for that was one of the divers manners of his speaking But the greatest mercy of all was that he hath spoken to us by his son and the reason is intimated in the following words for in time past was the beginning the inchoation of his love when he spake by his Prophets and Angels but in these last dayes hath been the accomplishment and consummation of it when he spake to us by his Son Before he had made the world and upheld all things by the word of his power but now he hath redeemed the world and having purged our sins upholds it by the hand of his mercy For till our sins were purged it was only the power of God upheld the world that he might purge it But now our sins are purged t is the mercy of God upholds the world that he may save it This is the only reason Saint Peter gives us why the last day that shall destroy all things by fire is so long in coming 2 Pet. 3. 9. The Lord is not slack but is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance The same mercy that made him hasten his first coming makes him delay his second And was it not a mercy not only beyond our expression but also beyond our admiration that the Son of God who was the brightness of his glory should become the brightness of his enemies and the glory of his people Yet so saith Saint Luke 2. 32. to be a light to lighten the Gentiles there he was the Bridegroom of his enemies and to be the glory of thy people Israel there he was the glory of his own people It was a mercy that we could never deserve and therefore must ever acknowledge that God was pleased to send his Apostles to teach us his saving truth and to shew the way of salvation for they were the pillars of the Church Gal. 2. 9. But infinitely greater was the mercy that he pleased to send his own Son to teach the Apostles for he is the cheif corner stone 1 Pet. 2. 5. For it is observable that Saint Peter himself was content to be accounted a pillar of the Church and leaves it only for Christ to be called the chief corner stone And therefore that Preface of Bellarmine which he once made in the Roman Schools Praefatio habita in gymnasio Romano and hath since prefixed before the third general controversie of his first Tome which is de summo Pontifice had need of all the waters of Tiber to wash it from gross flattery if not from detestable blasphemy since he is pleased therein to wrest those words of the Prophet Isaiah Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone a tryed stone a precious corner stone a sure foundation and to apply them to Saint Peters Successor which Saint Peter durst not apply unto himself but leaves them only for Christ the eternal Son of God We cannot too much prize the voice of the Apostles as for example Saint Pauls Epistles cannot be in too great esteem which saith Saint Hierom bring him every day more glory as Christ more converts But the voice of the eternal word calling to Saint Paul from heaven Act. 9. 4 5. and in him to us who can ever hear with sufficient care and attention who can embrace with sufficient reverence and estimation who can follow with sufficient alacrity and devotion Saint Paul was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one sent from God and yet how greatly doth he magnifie that office in every one of his Epistles but our Saviour Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one sent out of God to man for so saith Paul Gal. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God sent forth his son that is God sent him not only from himself as he sent the Apostles but also out of himself as he sent none but only his beloved Son SECT VIII The Mother of Christ so
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pascha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 herba amara 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Azymus Their Annuntiation belonging to the Passeover was how God passed their Fathers over that night wherein he destroyed the first born of the Egyptians Their annuntiation belonging to the bitter herbs was of their Fathers grievous servitude and bondage in Egypt which made even their lives bitter unto them And their annuntiation belonging to the unleavened bread was their happy and sudden deliverance from that bondage for the Egyptians were so urgent upon the people that they took their dough before it was leavened their kneading troughs being bound up in their cloathes upon their shoulders Exod. 12. 24. We had at the same time a much greater deliverance and why should we have a less Annuntiation For where the mercy it self is much greater why should the memorial thereof be so much less God gives a signal intimation to the Jew Exod. 12. 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haec ista non illa This is that very night as if there were not demonstrative pronouns enough to shew that this mercy was to be as particular in their thankful commemoration as it had been in Almighty Gods free donation And Saint Paul seems to speak as signally to the Christian when he saith The same night that he was betrayed 1 Cor. 11. 23. as if he would not have us forget the particular time when he cometh so near the very words of Moses This is that very night to be observed to the Lord And indeed why should not we keep a Christian Passeover as well as a Christian Sabbath were they not both alike feasts of the Jews and as so are they not both alike abolished by the Apostle Gal. 4. 10. saying ye observe daies and moneths and times and years I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you labour in vain A Jewish observation of daies which observes daies for themselves is without doubt destructive of Christianity for it places Religion in things meerly ceremonial Not so a Christian observation of daies for duties for that places Religion only in morals Again why hath not the Christian Church as good Authority if not as justifiable warrant to observe an Anniversary as it hath to observe a Weekly festival as well the feast of the Christian Passeover once a year as the feast of the Christian Sabbath once a week for both are alike recommended in the Law and neither is directly commanded in the Gospel and we may not add to Gods commands no more then we may take from them nor may we think the New Testament defective in any necessary command or doctrine unless we will advance Judaism above Christianity Therefore since it will pose the best Divine in Christendom to shew that Text in the New Testament which commandeth the observation of a Sabbath and we cannot run to the letter of the fourth Commandment to keep the first day in stead of the seventh we must be contented in this case with the general equity of the Law and that gives the Church power to consecrate Annual as well as Weekly Festivals to the honour of God and condemneth our profaness in neglecting our perversness in despising the one as well as the other Besides it is evident we cannot or if we can sure the Apostles could not keep a Lords day all the year but as a repetition of Easter-day which was the first Lords day even the very day of his resurrection wherefore we must either say it is a Jewish not a Christian Sabbath or say it is a Lords day from the great Lords day the day of our Lords resurrection For though Saint John telling us He was in the Spirit on the Lords day pointeth clearly at our Sunday the weekly remembrance of Christs resurrection and not at Easter-day the annual remembrance of it because in those Churches of Asia to which he writ Easter-day was not yet confined to the first but might be kept on any other day of the week yet without doubt he called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day for that it was a weekly repetition of that very day which our Lord had consecrated to himself by rising from the dead called for that reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Lords day by the primitive Christians And shal we then not think it worth our notice that our blessed Saviour himself chose such a time for his Passion and Resurrection as by the unerring Characters of heaven might be exactly observed all the world over to the worlds end were it so that our Civil year were made agreeable with the Tropical or that the Catholick Church of Christ in its first and purest age would have been so careful to find out and so zealous to settle the time of this Festival if the Fathers of these blessed ages which were less quarrelsom but more pious then any have been since had not thought it highly concerned the honour of Christ and the propagation and justification of the Christian Religion Surely we cannot easily more gratifie the Jews then by putting down the memory of that time wherein they crucified Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh nor can we more easily scandalize good Christians then by putting down the memorial of that time wherein he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 3 4. And God deliver his Church from such practises as are fit to gratifie Jews but to scandalize good Christians SECT IV. Of the antient contention about the observation of Easter That the Apostles zeal more about Duties then about Daies doth not overthrow the observing of particular daies in the service of God And that those daies ought to be observed by Preaching Praying Administring of the Sacrament and also by Almes-deeds So that false administration sc of the Holy Eucharist in one kind and false Devotions and false Doctrine and sordid illiberality in not relieving the poor are allâ— alike Profanations of a Festival FAmous was the controversie betwixt Policrates and Victor the one Bishop of Ephesus the other Bishop of Rome concerning the celebrating of Easter-day For the Churches of Asia would needs keep the very day of the first full moon in Spring conceiving the Apostles condescention to the Iew to have been a dogmatical sanction to the Christian but the Western Churches who had no conversation with the Iews and therefore were not moved through compliance with them at first to forsake their Christian liberty and at last the Christian truth for the Quartadeciâ—… were in proâ—ess of time declared Hereticks would not keep the very day of that full Moon but the Sunday after it for their Easter-day the learned Scaliger gives this reason for their difference The Jewish Converts following their old custom kept still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Passeover in remembrance of Christs Passion
Iew he would have been zealous to have proved his Sabbath before Moses could he have made good his proof and that these words seem to be spoken by way of anticipation to continue the history like that of the Saints rising at our Saviours death Saint Mat. 27. 52. which yet was not so till after his resurrection for Christ was to be the first that should rise from the dead Act. 26. 23. The reason of the name Sabbath depends upon the creation of which God repented soon after as saith Moses it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart Gen. 6. 6. when as the reason of the name Lords day depends upon the Redemption of which he cannot repent For Christ rising again from the dead now dieth not death from henceforth hath no power upon him for in that he died he died but once to put away sin but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Rom. 6. 9 10. And as Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more so neither can this Festival die which is consecrated to the memory of his resurrection but as long as the first day of the week shall last so long it must be our Lords day and not our own As is the mercy immortal so is the duty that recordeth it and as is the duty so is the day on which it is recorded As is the Lord himself so is his day as much as a day can be the same yesterday and to day and for ever The same in all ages and successions of the Church Not changeable now by the Authority of his present Catholick Church because that hath a power for edification not for destruction 1 Cor. 10. 8. and in this change the Church that is now would but pull down what the Church when it was under the master-builders hands did set up Not changeable by the Authority of Angeis for they in so doing would in effect preach another Gospel another Christ delivered for our offences and risen again for our Iustification and so being themselves under Saint Pauls anathema Gal. 1. 9. I dare further say and I hope it is no presumption sure it is intended with reverence not changeable by Christ himself according to his power of excellency whereby he is head of the Church and founder of all Christian Institutions because though the change be Metaphysically possible that is in its own nature for that all daies are alike in themselves as to Gods worship yet it is not morrally possible that is in the end and reason of the change because Christ cannot rise again from the dead and consequently there cannot be another day as a memorial of his resurrection More daies then this may be set apart for the honour of Christ by the example and from the reason or end of this for the duty is of extent large enough to employ many daies and God having consecrated time to his own service hath made it lawful or rather necessary for the Church to do so too and we find the Jews did ordain the feasts of Purim and Dedication without any peculiar precept from the text and yet are justified for so doing But this day must be set apart by the example of Christ himself who made it his free-will-offering to God by making on it the first ordination of the ministers of his Gospel Other daies are authorized by vertue of this but this day is authorized by vertue of Christ who chose it for the day whereon to ordain his Apostles the Teachers and Governors of his Church and also to give unto them the power of ordaining others So that both the circumstances of time and person the day and the Ministers of Gods publick worshp have no less then the chief corner stone for their foundation For they both are grounded upon the practise of Christ on the day of his resurrection though builded upon the practise and precepts of his Apostles So we read John 20. 19. The same day at evening being the first day of the week came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them Peace be unto you the same day at evening the evening follows the morning in the Christian but went before it in the Iewish account of daies The evening and the morning made the first Sabbath but the morning and the evening made the first Lords day what other reason can we give of the change but because the Lord rose from death in the morning Being the first day of the week Why is the first day of the week so punctually named Surely not to tell the Apostles what day it was but to tell us that should be after them that we might know the very day on which Christ had purchased for and bestowed on his Church such unvaluable mercies and so know it as to keep it as it followeth ver 21. Theu said Jesus unto them again Peace be unto you Now it is more then an ordinary salutation it is certainly a most solemn benediction Peace be unto you as my Father hath sent me even so send I you and when he had said this he breathed on them and saith unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost We have here the practise and example of Christ for solemnizing the day of his resurrection and for the ordaining of his Ministers We have his example for the observation of the Lords day which as he made holy by his own rising so he kept holy by his blessing and ordaining the Apostles on it And we have his example for the ordination of the Lords Ministers and there is little reason why we should easily and much less slightly pass by the former since we are sure that the latter is to continue till the worlds end for this is the full meaning of the words As my Father sent me and endued me with the Holy Ghost or with spiritual authority to be the teacher and governor of his universal Church So I send you and endue you with the Holy Ghost or with spiritual authority and power to be teachers and governors of the Church after me And as the Father sent me with power and authority of sending others and of giving them the Holy Ghost or my spiritual power So do I send you with the power of sending others and giving unto them the Holy Ghost or this spiritual authority and power of sending others still after them even to the worlds end This is the full meaning of those words and therefore the antient Fathers particularly Saint Cyprian and Firmilian did rightly apply this Text to prove by it the authority of the Church in their daies and we may as rightly alledge it now to justifie the same authority For the Bishops are obliged by this Text to ordain a succession of Ministers even to the worlds end One must be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection saith Saint Peter Acts 1. 22. If God say One must be ordained it is not for
and an affirmative Precept which betwixt them do comprize the obligation of the whole Law There 's a negative Precept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that he saith You may not do your own pleasure nor speak your own words And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an affirmative Precept in that he saith you must call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and must accordingly honour him therein Nor can we reasonably think our selves unconcerned in this Precept unless we will think or make our selves unconcerned in the promise that is annexed to it of delighting our selves in the Lord and being fed with he heritage of Jacob v. 14. so that this text was without doubt written also for our instruction though not as Iews yet as Christians And therefore as the Apostle hath said We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle Heb. 13. 10. So may we say we have a Sabbath whereof they have no right to be observers who serve the Tabernacle And this text of the Prophet will as much concern our Sabbaths as it did theirs For we must turn away our feet that is our affections from these Sabbaths not seeking on them any rest or delight in our selves but only in our God Thus did the primitive Christians keep their feasts as is affirmed by Nazianzene orat 44. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We also keep holy day but as it seemeth good to the Holy Ghost either saying or doing something of our duty So that our keeping of a Feast is nothing else but laying up treasure for our souls or laying in provision upon which we may live in another world Wherefore it shall be my labour and my prayer so to keep all the Feasts which are kept truly in honour of my Saviour That I may at last be a guest at his own wedding Feast and be numbred among those of whom it is written Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage Supper of the Lamb Rev. 19. 9. And though I cannot deserve it by my service yet I will hope by being his constant and faithful servant That he who maketh the marriage Supper will bestow on me the wedding garment and clothe me with his own righteousness that I may be a guest prepared to come to and set at his heavenly table to keep one everlasting Feast with him and his world without end Amen CAP. II. That God is to be adored only in Christ SECT I. That no man whiles he is in the state of sin cares to come near God and that Adam after his sin could not have adored God rightly if Christ had not been revealed to him as the propitiation for his sins IT is the property of a sinner to run from God and therefore no man that is a sinner and looketh upon God as angry for his sins can truly worship him For he that will worship God must come unto him but he that looks upon God as angry will be sure to flie from him And it is much to be observed that after Saul knew God had rejected him for his disobedience he desired to worship him only in shew not in reality 1 Sam. 15. 30. Then he said I have sinned yet honour me now I pray thee before the Elders of my people and before Israel and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord thy God Here was a worshipper but such an one as worshipped more to honour himself then to honour his Maker Honour me now I pray thee before my people not a word of honouring God by his worship which is still the practise of such wicked miscreants and will be to the worlds end to make a shew of Religion not for Gods sake but for their own not to serve him but to serve themselves For where is much of sin there must be little of Religion little in truth though perhaps not in shew it being the property of sin to drive us from God but of Religion to draw us to him And accordingly Saul being in the state of sin professeth in effect that he was desirous to keep at a distance from God saying unto Samuel Turn again with me that I may worship the Lord thy God He durst not say the Lord my God for he had too much provoked him by his sin and too little sought to be reconciled to him by repentance to claim any interest in his mercy Sin wilfully committed drives a man from God sin carelesly unrepented keeps a man from him so that whiles the man is in sin whether it be willfully or carelesly he cannot come near God but is either driven or at least kept from him yea let him come never so near to God yet by his sin he is sure to be kept far from him for he so draweth near him with his lips as to be far from him with his heart It is not to be doubted but David made many a fair shew of worshipping God during that year that he continued in the guiltiness of his murder and of his adultery And yet it is not to be thought much less believed that during that guiltiness he was a true worshipper for it is plain from his own mouth that sin had shut up his lips because he prayed God to open them and as plain that sin shutteth not up the lips but where it hath first shut up the heart since the heart is the first mover in the order of Religion and consequently the first stander-still in the neglect of that order No wonder then if the Text saith God heareth not sinners John 9. 31. for how can he hear those that do not speak or if they do speak yet they do not pray because they have only Verbum oris non verbum mentis because they speak only with their lips not with their hearts God is not as man to be approached unto by outward addresses and applications if the tongue move without the heart the man sits still and doth not at all draw near in Gods account whatever he may do in his own Therefore the Apostle ascribeth it to one and the same faith that we please God and that we come unto him Heb. 11. 6. Without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe The words will afford this Syllogism He that doth come to God doth alone please God he that hath not faith doth not come unto God Therefore he that hath not faith doth not or cannot please God And this Syllogism will afford us this Doctrine That we must come to God if we will please him and must have faith if he will come unto him For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him That he is God the fountain of all goodness and that they who thirst after shall drink deep of this fountain Nay yet more as the words are alledged to prove Enoch had faith they must have this
doth not love those who do not love him and they do not love him who do not keep his commandments This is such a Doctrine as our Saviour did not think he could teach too much and therefore sure we cannot learn enough If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14. 15. and ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you John 15. 14. Love is the inchoation of friendship and that is not shewed without some obedience If ye love me keep my Commandments But friendship is the consummation of love and that is not shewed without an universal obedience Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you he that will be thus universally obedient must be sure to interpret all Christs commands after the true rules of Logical supposition that an universal Affirmative must hold in every particular as thou shalt love thy neigbbour as thy self must reach to all mankind and to all offices of love thou shalt honour thy father must reach to all our governours and to all offices of reverence and honour We may not leave out any one particular either of the subject or of the predicate but we shall make a false supposition in Logick and a false interpretation in Divinity And so on the other side that an universal negative must hold in no one particular as do no wrong bindeth us to our good behaviour not only in our wordâ— and deeds but also in our very thoughts and that in regard of all men whatsoever and much more in regard of those to whom we have been obliged either for natural or civil or spiritual benefits So that if I have but an uncharitable thought of any man living I do him wrong but I do my self more wrong in sinning against this Commandment Wherefore though other men be never so confident of their own innocency yet will I weigh my self in this ballance for this is the ballance of the sanctuary and I am sure God will one day weigh me in it that seeing I have many wayes been a delinquent for want of obedience I may not accumulate my delinquencies by want of repentance For this I cannot but see that if Zaccheus had not at last been as willing to give and to restore as he was at first to take away he would not easily have gotten that comfortable saying from our Saviours own lips to which all the comforts of this world are comfortless This day is salvation come to this house for so much as he also is the son of Abraham Luke 19. 9. And let not my profit be the impediment of my piety for what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Mat. 16. 26. I know that my Saviour hath given his blood in exchange for my soul that he might redeem it from death and damnation and therefore as I will love my soul above my estate because it was redeemed at so great a price so I will love my Saviour above my soul because he paid that price for my redemption to make me of an enemy a servant of a servant a friend that I might not only be in his love but also abide in it Therefore I will offer my soul to him to do whatsoever he commandeth me for I cannot hope to be confirmed in his love as his friend unless I be desirous to offer unto him this universal obedience or at least be sorry that I have not offered or cannor offer it A little of this affection will more strengthen my faith in Christ then my greatest perswasion can strengthen it And I shall more truly know my Saviour by devoting my will then my understanding to him by obeying his law then by studying it Therefore I will pray the Lord to make me increase and abound in love to the end he may establish my heart unblameable in holiness 1 Thes 3. 12 13. For himself hath told me If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God John 7. 17. That is he and he only shall have an experimental knowledge of Religion that it will bring him to God who labours to do the will of God such a man shall know that Christ is the way the truth and the life and that the Christian Religion is the way to Christ not only by a speculative knowledge which swims in his brain and may be ejected thence by arguments of Sophistry but also by an effective knowledge which sinks into his heart and which he will keep as carefully and as faithfully as he will keep his heart Thus to know Christ is truly to have him manifested in our souls and this manifestation is not gotten so much by speculation as by practice not so much by knowing Gods will as by doing it For it is undeniable by Saint Pauls argument Gal. 3. 1. That though Jesus Christ were evidently set forth crucified among the Galatians yet it was before their eyes only not in their hearts whilst they obeyed not the truth And that the Jews had not known Christ though he had stretched out his hands unto them all the day long because they were still a disobedient and a gainsaying people Rom. 10. 20 21. And Saint John saith expresly hereby we do know that we do know him if we keep his Commandments 1 John 2. 3. Telling us of a twofold knowledge of God and of Christ the one inefficacious to salvation such as hypocrites may have who know God but glorifie him not as God Rom. 1. 21. or who profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate Tit. 1. 16. The other is a saving knowledge of God and of Christ such as only good Christians can have who keep his Commandments for this knowledge is joyned with obedience and that is the cheif ground of its assurance hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments A man may have some evidence of faith without obedience but he cannot have the assurance of faith without it Whence we may gather that the true knowledge of God is not that which enables a man to talk sublimely of his essence or to talk confidently of his secrets but that which knows him in his precepts and in his promises seriously obeying the one no less then truly relying on the other And only he that thus knows God knows him truly to salvation because he only knows him truly in his Saviour and only he so knows God as to love him because only he knows him in the Son of his love Thirdly it may be demanded whether the Jews before the comming of Christ had the same love of God that we Christians now have since they seem not to have had the same knowledge or manifestation of Christ I answer yes they had the same love of God for they had the same knowledge or manifestation of Christ
Disciples who were in Jerusalem at S. Peters first Sermon were but 120. He is afraid of an imaginary miscief but fals into a real inconveniency the mischif was meerly imaginary as if S. Paul to the Corinthians had clashed with S. Luke in the Acts whereas Saint Luke saith not there were then in Jerusalem but 120. disciples only there were but one hundred and twenty of such note as the Apostles had called together to consult about the election of a new Apostle accordingly he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the number of the names that is such as were notorious and eminent in the Church not denying but there might be many hundreds of the inferiour sort of people which are called by the Poet sine Nomine turba the common sort that are without a Name who were at that time reckoned among the disciples though they had not been called to the election of Saint Matthias Thus the mischief he feared was meerly imaginary but he fell into a real inconveniency For this supposition that it is possible there should have been such chopping and changing in the Text tends directly to the enervating of the Authority of the Scriptures and the fidelity and veracity of the Catholick Church for both Greek and Latine Churches do now read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 five hundred and if they read not now as they found it delivered to them they are defective in their Veracity if it was not delivered to them as it was at first written their forefathers were defective in their Fidelity for this is too great a change to come in by the mistake of a writer though it is very improbable that the whole Church should be so careless as to suffer any such mistakes However in this particuler Eusebius will justifie our present reading of the Text against all conjectures whatsoever for he lib. 1. Histor Eccles cap. 12. setteth down this very apparition of our blessed Saviour totidem verbis not by numeral letters but in so many several express words as Saint Paul had before saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is an undeniable argument that these words were so writ at large from Saint Pauls own hand Having given this hint only out of zeal to Gods holy word which must sway my faith against the practice of whole Churches much more against the phansies of private men I pass to the words which our blessed Saviour spake immediately before he ascended for without all question he then again repeated them though he had spoken them several times before Saint Luke records them as spoken on the very day of his Resurrection Luke 24. 47. Saint John records them as spoken also on the very same day John 20. 19 20 21 22. Saint Mathew records them as spoken after that day sc on the mountain in Galilee Mat. 28. 16 19. And Saint Mark records them as spoken both on the day of his resurrection for so was the Apparition to which he annexeth them and also on the day of his Ascension for such is the manner of his annexion So then after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into heaven For what was it that the Lord had spoken unto them but these words concerning the discharge of their Apostolical Office or Function Go ye therefore and teach all Nations c. which is yet more evidently attested by Saint Luke Acts 1. 9. where it is said when he had spoken these things that is those things which concerned their Function whiles they beheld he was taken up For Saint Matthew's Go ye therefore and teach all Nations And Saint Mâ—â—k's Go ye into all the world And Saint Lukes ye are witnesses of these things And Saint Johns As my Father sent me even so send I you do all of them concern one and the same office of preaching the Gospel and administring the Sacraments and whatever else the Apostles were bound to do in order to the gathering or preserving or governing the Church of Christ And we cannot deny but these same words or at least words to this effect were solemnly spoken at three several times by our blessed Saviour to his Apostles that is to say On the day of his Resurrection and afterwards again in Galilee and yet a third time also after that immediately before his Ascention to shew what a necessity was laid upon them to discharge that sacred function when he thought it necessary so often to repeat their charge as if it had been his only business from his Resurrection to his Ascention And doubtless if we seriously consier the words themselves we shall easily see and willingly confess that as they did concern the constitution of the Church at that time so they do concern the constitution of the Church at this day and will concern both its constitution and conservation to the worlds end I will accordingly explain them briefly as I find them in the Evangelists yet so as to make Saint Matthew the standard for the rest having already explained the words as they are recorded by Saint John And thus Saint Matthew records the words All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth our blessed Saviour had all the power of heaven and earth given to him from the Father both as he was the Son of God and as he was the Son of man as he was the Son of God so this power was given him by eternal generation as he was the Son of man so the same power was given him by free donation partly at his first conception by vertue of his union with the God-head but more fully after his resurrection for the merit of his death and passion So that though he exercised this power in his life time by choosing Apostles and instituting the Holy Sacraments yet after he was risen again he exercised the same much more eminently in a threesold respect Quoad modum quoad statum quoad usum First because he was possessed of it after a more excellent manner as having merited it by his death Secondly because he was possessed of it in a more excellent state as now being past all fear and danger of dying Thirdly because he was possessed of it for a more excellent end as being how to use it not for the conversion of one people but of all the world as it follows Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Go ye therefore relying upon my authority which is founded upon all power both in heaven and in earth whereas any authority that can forbid you to go is founded only upon the power in earth And teach all Nations This the Apostles could not do no more then they could continue to the end of the world in their own persons Therefore our Saviour Christ speaks these words to their Successors as well as to them And so this Precept was given to make good that Promise Mat. 24. 14. The Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all Nations and then shall
Roman Souldiers would not do but also his body raising factions and schisms in the Church not only against the decency and order which are as it were the coat or cloathing but also against the very substance of worship which is in some sort the body of Christ So then the Church may still in this regard claim and continue the power of Exorcism saying with Saint Paul I exhort or command you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ or we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth And if the evil spirit of Schism being thus adjured shall answer Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are yâ— making no more account of the Ministers of Christ then if they were indeed so many vagabond Jews it will shew it self not only a factious but also a lying spirit saying It knows Christ when it doth not know him They profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate Tit. 1. 16. Such a lying spirit deserves not to be confuted by the spirit of Truth which saith Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 5. shewing that the societies or corporations of Christians may no more take their spiritual food together without their ministers then other Corporations do usually take their corporal food without their Stewards I say such a lying spirit as this which pretends to know both Jesus and Paul but indeed knows neither deserves not to be confuted by the spirit of Truth but by the spirit errour and indeed hath found such a confutation For Satan in this foul affront of Christ is devided against himself and one of his own most false and wicked spirits could not but say of Gods Stewards or Ministers These men are the Servants of the most high God which shew unto us the way of salvation Acts 16. 17. This truth when some men did gainsay after the father of lyes himself durst not deny could not dissemble it they gave occasion to Luther of falling into these bitter expressions As hitherto men have seemed possessed with Devils even so now the Devils themselves do seem to be possessed of far worse Devils and so rage above the fury of Devils and again For who ever heard to pass over the abominations of the Pope so many monsters to burst out at once in the world as we see at this day in the Anabaptists alone in whom Satan breatheth out as it were the last blast of his kingdom through horrible uproars as if he would by them suddenly not only destroy the whole world with Seditions but also by innumerable Sects swallow up and devour Christ wholly with his Church Prefat in Gal. So Luther in his zeal to Christ and his Church for he saw the one could not be devoured without the other he saw the Church could be thrown down but Christ would also be involved in the downfall Without doubt it is a most horrid sin for men to cry up the shadow that they may beat down the substance of the Law and yet this is the sin of many men who cry up the Sabbath in the Day that they may throw it down in the Duty making it their business to discountenance the solemn exercise of Religion in common Prayer to disadvantage Gods publike worship and service to disgrace his Ministers to defile his ordinances to revile and contemn and pollute his Sanctuaries whereas in truth these are all alike sanctified to the hallowing of Gods name by vertue of the fourth Commandment and if we will needs make a separation betwixt the letter and the end or reason of that commandment where God hath made a most strict conjunction we must give the pre-eminence and superiority not to the circumstances or adjuncts but to the substance of Religion The Jew in his typical worship was first to look after the Time the Place the Person as the Sabbath the Temple the Priest which were the adjuncts of his worship and then to offer his sacrifice which was the substance of it But the Christian in his moral worship is first to look after substance then after circumstances though he hath commission to neglect neither but rather hath express command to look after both Nay indeed the Jew himself was to do this in his moral worship even to prefer the Substance before the circumstance for we find that Ezra did read in the book of the Law and blessed the Lord the great God and all the people answered Amen Amen with lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground Ezra 8. 5 6. All these were acts of moral worship and accordingly we find them not confined to the Temple for its evident They were all performed before the Street that was before the water-gate verse 3. And it is as evident that the duties of Preaching and Praying were exercised by the Jews in their Synagogues whereas their sacrifices were offered only in the Temple The reason we may conceive was this Because their Typical worship was to continue but for a time and to shew it deserved not to continue for ever there was in it this kind of absurdity that the accessory did draw the Principal the Temple the Sacrifice the Circumstance the Substance But their moral worship was to continue for ever and therefore in that the Principall was to draw the accessories the substance the circumstances blessing the Lord the great God bowing the head and worshipping the Lord reading the Law and giving the sense of it that the People might understand the reading these being all duties of moral worship were unconfinable either to place or time either to the Temple or Sabbath to shew they were above them both and were to remain after them as they had been before them This was the main subject of Saint Stephens Sermon Acts 7. That Abraham and the Fathers worshipped God rightly long before Moses was born to give them any Laws either about the Tabernacle or the Temple and consequently about the Sabbath and that all those outward ceremonies which were afterwards ordained by Moses were to last but for a time but till the coming of Christ And the Jews themselves who call the Sabbath the foundation of the Decalogue because the precept of the sabbath was given before the rest for that was certainly given in the wilderness of Zin Exod. 16. where as the rest were not given till they came to Mount Sinai Exod. 20. yet do ingenuously confess that Abraham did not keep the Sabbath so saith Hospinian who yet was very zealous for the Sabbath Judaei ipsi in minori expositione in Genesin arbitrantur Abrahamum non observasse Sabbatum The Jews themselves in the lesser exposition upon Genesis do think that Abraham did not keep the Sabbath Nay the Fathers do plainly say they know he did not For Tertullian proves against the Jews that
have an universal Trust Nay the Text bids us say the quite contrary for Saint Paul thus writeth to Titus For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting or that are yet left undone and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee Tit. 1. 5. He limits Titus his commission and much more the rest of the Ministers that were under him to that people only which was in Crete and leaves him not to take the particular care of any other People or Nation they were to have other Trustees appointed for them Again The same Saint Paul writeth thus to Timothy I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other Doctrine 1 Tim. 1. 3. Where it is as plain that Saint Timothies Trust was confined only to the people of the Church of Ephesus and that he was Gods chiefest Trustee though he was not Gods only Trustee for that people because the same Saint Paul saith to all the Presbyters of the same Church Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the Flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishops to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Acts 20. 28. where it is evident whose Trustees they were for he saith The Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers or Bishops and what was their trust for he saith Take heed to your selves and to all the Flock to feed the Church of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so to feed as t is also to govern or to guide for so doth a shepheard his sheep Pascere saith Beza to feed Regere saith the Vulgar Latine to govern the word requires both and accordingly their trust is not only to feed their Flocks but also to govern them Here is a commission not only for Doctrine but also for Discipline and this commission is given only to the Presbyters or Doctors of the Church of Ephesus He sent to Ephesus and called the Elders of the Church ver 17. If you ask what Elders T is plain by their office what they were even such as were to answer for the blood of those who perished in their sins if they did not teach repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ For so the Apostle argues for himself I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you ver 20. I testified Repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ ver 21. I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God ver 25. Wherefore I take you to record this day That I am pure from the blood of all men ver 26. He alludes without doubt to those words of Ezekiel Because thou hast not given him warning he shall die in his sin but his blood will I require at thine hand Ezek. 3. 20. So that Saint Paul gave this commission only to such Elders as were to succeed him in his office of preaching and governing or in the Ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God ver 24. Thâ—se Elders he appointed his Successors in the Church of Ephesus when he was now quite to be taken from thence and by the same appointment hath established the succession of the Ministry in all other Churches For as the Apostles observing the first day of the week for the publick worship of Christ hath made it necessary for all Christian Churches to observe the same day for their publick worship to the worlds End so their appointing the Ministers as their Successors for the discharge of that publick worship hath much more laid upon all Churches the necessity of a successive Ministry yet Saint Paul looks upon the succession of Persons without a succession of Doctrine as a poor evidence and a poorer priviledge of a Christian Church because he saith Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them v. 30. In that he saith Of your own selves shall men arise he plainly sheweth they should have a succession of Persons but in that he saith speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them he as plainly sheweth they should in that succession of persons not have a succession of Doctrine T is a miserable condition when men shall put asunder those two which God hath joyned together but if we will needs phansie for God forbid we make or fear much more that we should suffer for the division better it were for the succession to be divided from the Ministry then for the Ministry to be divided from the Doctrine For the Ministry is necessary for the Doctrine but the Doctrine is necessary for it self And those Churches which most pretend an uninterrupted and an undoubted succession in their Ministry yet would be loth to be no surer of their Doctrine then they are of their Ministry For all the world cannot make them have more then a Moral certainty of the succession of their Ministers whereas they cannot be good Christians if they have not a Theological certainty of the succession of their Doctrine for he that believes the truth not knowing it to be true and to have proceeded from the God of truth is not formally but only materially a true Believer and leaves himself in a capacity if he doth not put himself into a disposition to believe a lye For by the same reason that he can bestow his Faith upon an uncertainty He may also bestow it upon a Falsity SECT II. The trust and nature of the Catholick Church best gathered from particular Churches the first part of their Trust is concerning the Word of God HE that would not miss or lose his way to the Sea had best follow the conduct of some particular River and he that would not be mistaken in his judgement concerning the Catholick Church were best guide himself by the consideration and the observation of particular Churches Vniversalia priora sunt particularibus ordine naturae Particularia Vniversalibus â—rdine Doctrinae Universals are before particulars in the order of nature but particulars are before universals in the order of Doctrine wherefore we must first enquire into the nature of particular Churches if we would fully understand the nature of the Catholick or universal Church For as Universals have no subsistence in themselves but only in their Individuals so neither hath the universal Church any actual subsistence but only in particular Churches And as we rightly understand an universal by abstracting it from the conditions and imperfections of the individiuals and taking only the perfections of the same So shall we rightly understand the Catholick Church by abstracting it from the imperfections of particular Churches and imputing to it only their excellencies and perfections Thus though I see lameness in one man blindness in another perversness in a third ignorance in a fourth and falseness in all yet I consider
communion Thus doth Saint Paul briefly but pithily define a Christian Church 1 Thes 1. 1. To the Church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ We cannot imagine the Thessalonians were in God before they were with God so that the one presupposeth the other and we may hence collect this definition of a true Christian Church that it is a company of men Ministers and People though here Saint Paul chiefly write to the Ministers calling them the Church as appears in that he chargeth them to read this Epistle to all the Holy brethren cap. 5. v. 27. which sheweth that he sent it only to the Ministers I say that a true Christian Church is a company of Men Ministers and People who are with the God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ by their Religion nay more who are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ by their communion And all the men in the world who are thus with and in God the Father and God the Son by the power of God the Holy Ghost do make up the whole present Christian or Catholick Church They may be several Churches in their Denominations and Jurisdictions They are but one Church in their Religion and in their spiritual communion Thus faith the same Saint Paul Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular 1 Cor. 12. 27. that is ye Christians of all Nations are the mystical body of Christ aud ye Christians of Corinth of this or that Nation are members in particular of that body and members in particular one of another as all together make up that body or as all particular Churches make up the Catholick Church SECT IX What Trust is given to other particular Churches in the Holy Scriptures is also given to our particular Church of England from God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost That our Church is accordingly bound to magnifie her Trust and therefore we bound not to vilifie it And that it is both Rational and Religious to maintain the Trust and Authority of our own particular Church IF he be justly reproached for dishonesty who doth not carefully discharge his Trust which he hath received from man how much more they who do not carefully discharge their Trust which they have received from God And this is the case of Ministers above all other men who have received such a Trust from God as all the power of the world could not give them and all the malice of the world cannot deny them Indeed it is the case of every particular Minister much more of the whole Ministry or of a whole Church which is more eminently Gods Trustee and hath a much greater Trust then either the arrogancy of any one can challenge or the ability of any one can discharge And therefore if the spirit of God give that charge to one particular Archippus Take heed to the Ministery which thou hast received in the Lord that thou fulfill it Col. 4. 17. much more doth it give the same charge to the whole Church of Colosse which had in a more ample manner and for a more general end received the same Ministery And though the Church of Colosse it self was soon after swallowed up with an Earth-quake in the dayes of Nero as saith Orosius yet not so the Instructions nor the authority given to it they must remain till the worlds end Take heed to the Ministery which thou hast received in the Lord is not to be swallowed up by the cleaving and dividing of the earth no more then it is to be revoked or recalled by any voice from heaven And so was it also with the Church of Ephesus as appears from Saint Pauls charge to the first Bishop of that Church I give thee charge in the sight of God and before Christ Jesus that thou keep this commandment without spot unrebukeable untill the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 6 13 14. In that he chargeth him to keep the commandments he had received concerning Religion without spot unrebukeable he sheweth the Churches trust in that he addeth to his charge untill the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ he sheweth that Trust is to continue till the worlds end For in this case we must alwayes remember those words of our Saviour Mar. 13. 37. And what I say unto you I say unto all Watch For what Saint Paul said to the first Bishop of Ephesus he said to all Bishops that ever should be after him as well as to all that were then with him For the Apostolical Epistles though in their inscriptions or Title they concerned some special Churches yet in their Instructions and use they concerned all Churches as plainly appears from Saint Pauls own words Col. 4. 16. And when this Epistle is read amongst you cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and that yee likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea So that what Instruction or Authority or charge was given to one Church was given to all Churches in that one And consequently we may thus argue by way of Induction The Trust of Religion was given by God to the Church of Rome and of Corinth and of Galatia and of Ephesus and of Philippi and of Colosse and of Thessalonica therefore the same trust is given by God to our own Church of England and indeed to all the several particular Churches in the Christian world For if each particular Bishop and Presbyter have his Trust originally from the Holy-Ghost though derived by the hands of men Then much more have all the Bishops and Presbyters their Trust from the Holy Ghost Hence that expression in the first Council of Bishops Act. 15. 28. It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and to us Which hath in some sort been followed by other Councils since Particularly the sixth which confirming the five oecumenical before doth it in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This our holy and Oecumenical Synod hath by inspiration from God confirmed those former Councils Which is in effect as much as if they had said It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and us to confirm them Concil Constant 3. Act. 17. Graece sed 18. Latine A sufficient proof that the Apostles spake not those words for themselves alone but also for the Church after them which was thereby authorized as to act by the power so to act in the name of the Holy-Ghost And if any shall be so refractory as to say otherwise he may look upon another place not only as a confirmation of this truth but also as a confutation of his own refractoriness Acts 7. 51. Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do always resist the Holy Ghost For whosoever is stiff-necked and will not hear nor obey the word of truth though in the mouth of a weak and sinful man sent from God to speak it doth make himself guilty of this detestable and damnable resistance even of resisting the Holy Ghost For
Christians in their protestations There is a great distance betwixt superstition and Atheism False-Liturgy is Superstitious but no Liturgy is Atheistical For it must bring Religion to uncertainties may bring it to impieties Uncertainties are as nothing Impieties are worse then nothing Uncertainties cannot honour God as God Impieties must dishonour him may defie him tell me what can Atheism do more No Liturgy in effect bids Christians do like the Mariners in Jonah Cry every man unto his God nay it leaves every man to make his God for it leaves every man to make his Religion and he that hath a Religion of his own making must also have a God of his own making For the true God cannot be worshipped as men please to phansie him but as he hath revealed himself And therefore it is the high way to Atheism for men to be left to their own phansies in the exercise of Religion which must needs be where the exercise of Religion is not under a set form that so it may be compared with the word of God and accordingly not embraced till it be found agreeable with his word Will you think to convert a Papist by inviting him to no Liturgy you may as well think to convert him by inviting him to no Religion for with him t is No Liturgy no Religion Will you think to confirm a Protestant by inviting him to no Liturgy you may as well think to confirm him by inviting him to no Communion for with him it must be No Liturgy no Communion since he did not depart from a corrupt Liturgy to have none but to have a better and justifies his departure from the Church of Rome that leaving her he might come to the Catholick Church so his business was not only to protest against a false but also to protest for a true publick worship unless you will say he was only careful not to be a Schismatick in having good grounds of his separation but not careful not to be a Heretick in not having as good grounds of his Communion Some things were in the Church of Rome as a local or national Church some things were in it as a member of the Catholick Church There is no wilfull receding from these without being Anti-Catholick and that is all one with being Anti Christian Liturgy was one of these so truly and undoubtedly Christian that Hâ—ppolytus an antient Bishop and Martyr saith of Antichrist In those days shall be no Liturgy In diebus illis Liturgia extinguetur Orat de consummatione mundi ac de Antichristo in Bibliotheca Patrum Tom. 2. And sure we are that there was never yet any Christian Church in the world either national or provincial which had not its Liturgy which Cassanders Liturgicks doth sufficiently manifest without any other tedious way of proof the whole business whereof is to shew the several forms and rites of administring in several Churches So that to deny Liturgy to be Christian is in effect to deny the Catholick Church to be Christian and to blot a whole article of faith out of the Apostles Creed as also to affirm that there is will-worship in having Liturgy is in effect to affirm that the whole Catholick Church hath for 1500. years together been guilty of wil-worship and consequently hath not had the true Religion such a negative must needs be dangerous which thrusts the Catholick Church out of the Creed But such an affirmative must needs be damnable which thrusts the Christian Religion out of the Catholick Church For the whole Church having placed the publick practice of Religion in Liturgy if that be indeed wil-worship t is palpable Religion as to its publick practice or exercise hath been hitherto out of the Church unless we will allow wil-worship to be Religion However sure we are that God hath not given any Church power to abolish Liturgy because the power God hath given his Church is for edification and not for destruction 2 Cor. 10. 8. But the abolishing of Liturgy is nothing at all for edification but wholly for destruction T is nothing at all for edification neither in regard of the weak for it helps not their infirmities but takes away those helps God in mercy hath afforded them neither in regard of the strong for it must put them upon uncertainties may put them upon impieties And t is altogether for destruction because it destroyes Religion because it destroyes Communion It destroyes Religion in the learned making a way for them to run into any heresies in the unlearned not making a way for them to come out of Ignorance It destroyes Communion in the most setled times of the Church by disturbing it but in unsetled times by distracting it teaching men when they are at best not to be of one Communion but when they are at worst to be of many divisions of as many divisions as of interests of as many interests as of minds and of as many minds as men This is proof enough that God hath not given any Church power to abolish Liturgy It remains in the next place to be proved that no Church ought to assume that power For it is not for any Christian Church to assume such a power as directly tends to the destruction either of Christian Religion or of Christian Communion and abolishing of Liturgy directly tends to both these as hath been said Again It is not for any Christian Church to assume such a power as to abolish any thing which directly tends to the fulfilling of any of Gods Commandments for our Saviour Christ hath said If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14. 15. But a true laudable form of prayer directly tends to the fulfilling of two of Gods Commandments to wit the third and the fourth It directly tends to the fulfilling of the third Commandment in that it keeps some from taking Gods name in vain and teaches others truly to glorifie his name And it directly tends to the fulfilling of the fourth Commandment in that it provides for the duty of the Sabbath to wit the service of the Sanctuary the publick worship of God which is the end of the fourth Commandment and therefore the fittest rule by which to expound and observe the letter of it For the letter of the Law being subservient to the end of the Law we cannot rightly observe the day according to the letter unless we rightly observe the duty according to the end of this Commandment For by the reason of our blessed Saviours own Logick Mat. 23. If the Altar sanctifie the gift then much more the service sanctifies the Altar If the Temple sanctifie the Gold then much more the Glory of God sanctifies the Temple If the Day was appointed for the sanctification of man much more was the Duty appointed for the sanctification of the Day The Jews were commanded to keep the Sabbath that they might remember God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Justine Martyr to Trypho so that the end wherefore the Sabbath was
which hath made her free hath made me a bondman for I am not free to go from the Church whiles she is free by coming to and abiding in the Truth I must be contented to lose my Liberty that I may keep my Piety wherein though I have a seeming loss yet I have a real gain even the gain of godliness which is great gain in this world by sanctifying the soul but greater in the next by saving it And this is according to our blessed Saviours Prayer Sanctifie them through thy Truth thy word is Truth John 17. 17. The same is the Holy Religion to sanctifie us which is the True Religion to save us The sanctification it hath from Gods Truth the Truth it hath from Gods Word and consequently a Religion that is not built upon Gods Word can neither have Sanctification nor Truth This is the only certain and infallible foundation of the Catholick Faith according to that of Saint Paul Ye are of the houshold of God and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone Eph. 2. 19 20. Vpon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets that is upon the Old and New Testament Supra novum vetus Testamentum as saith Saint Ambrose And Epiphanius doth in effect give the same gloss in saying That our blessed Saviour is called the chief corner-stone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because he did bind as it were in one knot both the People and the Truths of the Old and New Testament so that we must have the holy Scriptures for our foundation or we cannot have our Saviour Christ for the chief corner-stone of our building The same Epiphanius tels us that our blessed Saviour was therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magni consilii Angelus for so the Seventy have rendred that Text Isa 9. 6. The Angel of the great Counsel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph. in Hâ—r Arian because he declared the will of his Father unto men And sure we must go to the Holy Scriptures if we desire to find that declaration Nay indeed Aquinas also wâ—tnesseth the same in saying that t is most proper for Divinity to argue from authority and not from reason because she hath all her principles from Revelation Argumentari ex authoritate est maximè proprium hujus Doctrine eo quod principia hujus Doctrinae per revelationem habentur in 1. par qu. 1. ar 8. ad 2. And least we should doubt where to look for that Revelation and consequently for that authority from which we ought to argue he tels us presently after we must look for it from the Apostles and Prophets in the Canonical Scriptures and from no body else Innititur fides nostra revelationi Apostolis Prophetis factae qui Canonicos libros scripserunt non autem revelationi siqua fuit aliis doctoribus facta Our faith relyeth upon the revelation that was made to the Apostles and Prophets who writ the Canonical Scriptures and not upon any Revelation made before or since to any other Doctor whatsoever And he proves his assertion from Saint Augustine in an Epistle to Saint Hierom wherein he saith thus Solis enim scripturarum libris qui Canonici appellantur didici hunc honorem deferre ut nullum auctorem eorum in scribendo errasse aliquid firmissime credam Alios autem ita lego ut quantalibet sanctitate doctrinaque praepolleant non ideo verum putem quod ipsi ita senserunt vel scripserunt I have learned to give this honour only to the Canonical Books of the Holy Scriptures that I firmly believe the Authors of those books to have erred in nothing But as for other Authours though of never so great learning and piety yet I do not think the Doctrine true because they have writ it I will add but one more Testimony and that shall be from Gratian himself the Father of the Canonists who in the second part of the Decree cause 8. quest 1. cap ult citeth these words out of reverend Bede Quibus in sacris literis una est credendi pariter Vivendi regula praescripta To whom in the Holy Scripture there is prescribed one rule both of believing and of living Quibus to whom he means to Clergy-men and to Lay-men though the gloss is pleased to add Laicis tamen sufficit Pictura pro Doctrina Pictures may suffice for Lay-mens Books T is to no purpose to cite moreover the authority of Councils for sure School-men Fathers and Canonists are enough to out-weigh a few later Jesuites who would sain have us go to man rather then to God for the foundation of our Faith In controversiis Religionis ultimum judicium est summi Pontificis saith Bellarmine lib. 4. de Pontif. cap. 1. § Sed nec In controversies of Religion the last Judgement belongs to the Pope And again Solum Petrum Christus vocavit Petram fundamentum non Petrum cum Concilio ex quo apparet totam firmitatem Conciliorum esse à Pontifice non partim à Pontifice partim à Concilio ib. c 3. § Contra. Our blessed Saviour called Peter alone a Rock and a foundation not Peter with a Council From whence it is evident that the whole validity of Councils and by conâ—equent of the Catholick Church is wholly from the Pope not partly from the Pope and partly from a Council If the Council of Constance and of Basil had been of this belief the contrary would never have been defined for a Catholick verity Veritas de potestate Concilii generalis universalem Ecclesiam repraesentantis supra Papam quemlibet alterum declarata per Constantiense hoc Basiliense generalia Concilia est veritas fidei Catholicae Consil Basil sess 33. This truth declared by the general Councils of Constance and Basil of the power of a general Council representing the universal Church above the Pope or any other is a truth belonging to the Catholick Faith To which they add this for a second That the Pope cannot dissolve or remove a General Council without their own consents and after that bring in this for a third verity of the Catholick faith Veritatibus duabus praedictis pertinaciter repuâ—nans est censendus Haereticus He that pertinaciously opposeth the two former verities is to be accounted an Heretick Which their three Catholick verities are again repeated in the thirty eighth Session and in the fortieth Session Pope Foelix upon his knees takes a solemn Oath to maintain the decrees of these two as well as of the other general Councils and after he hath so done subscribes the same Oath with his own hand offereth it upon the Holy Altar and promiseth to take it again in the first publick Consistory that he should hold sc at Rome with the Cardinals Hanc autem professionem mea manu subscripsi tibi omnipotenâ—i Deo cui in die tremendi judicii redditurus sum de hoc aliis meis operibus rationem pura