beginning of the World hath Predestinated in Christ unto Eternal life Thus do I wade in Predestination in such sort ' as God hath patesied and opened it Though to God it be the first yet to us it is the last opened and therefore I begin with Creation from whence I come to Redemption so to Justification so to Election On this sort I am sure that warily and wisely a man may walk it easily by the light of Gods Spirit in and by his Word seeing this faith is not to be given to all men 2 Thes 3. but to such as are born of God Predestinated before the World was made after the purpose and good will of God c. Which judgment of this holy man comes up so close to that of the former Martyrs and is so plainly cross to that of the Calvinistical party that Mr. Fox was fain to make some Scholia's on it to reconcile a gloss like that of Orleance which corrupts the Text and therefore to have no place here however it may be disposed of at another time But besides the Epistle above mentioned there is extant a Discourse of the said godly Martyr entituled The sum of the Doctrine of Predestination and Reprobation in which is affirmed That our own wilfulness sin and contemning of Christ are the cause of Reprobation as is confessed by the Author of the Anti-Arminianism p. 103. though afterwards he puts such a gloss upon it as he doth also on the like passages in Bishop Hooper as makes the sin of man to be the cause only of the execution and not of the decree of Reprobation But it is said That any one that reads the Common-Prayer-book with an unprejudiced mind Justifi Fatâ—â—s cannot chuse but observe divers passages that make for a Personal Eternal Election So it is said of late and till of late never so said by any that ever I heard of the whole frame and fabrick of the Publique Liturgy being directly opposite to this new conceit For in the general Confession we beseech the Lord to spare them that confess their faults and restore them that be penitent according to his promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord In the Te Deum it is said that Christ our Saviour having overcome the sharpness of death did open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers In the Prayer for the first day of Lent That God hateth nothing which he hath made but doth forgive the sins of all them that be penitent In the Prayer at the end of the Commination That God hath compassion of all men that he hateth nothing which he hath made that he would not the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from sin and repent In the Absolution before the Communion That God of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them which with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him Can any one which comes with an unprejudiced mind to the Common-Prayer book observe any thing that favoureth of a Personal Election in all these passages or can he hope to find them in any other Look then upon the last Exhortation before the Communion in which we are required above all things To give most humble and hearty thanks to God the Father and the Holy Ghost for the Redemption of the World by the death and passion of our Saviour Christ both God and man who did humble himself even to the death upon the Cross for us miserable sinners which lay in darkness and the shadow of death More of which nature we shall find in the second Article Look on the Collect in the form of publique Baptism in which we pray That whosoever is here dedicated unto God by our Office and Ministry may also be endued with Heavenly vertues and everlastingly rewarded through Gods mercy O blessed Lord God c. And in the Rubrick before Confirmation where it is said expr sly That it is certain by Gods Word that Children being baptized have all things necessary to their salvation and be undoubtedly saved Look on these passages and the rest and tell me any one that can whether the publique Liturgy of the Church of England speak any thing in favour of such a Personal and Eternal Election that is to say such an absolute irrespective and irreversible Decree of Predestination and that of some few only unto life Eternal as is maintained and taught in the Schools of Calvin Some passages I grant there are which speak of Gods People and his chosen People and yet intend not any such Personal and Eternal Election as these men conceit unto themselves Of which sort these viz. To declare and pronounce to his People being penitent O Lord save thy People and bless thy Heritage that it would please thee to keep and bless all thy People and make thy chosen People joyful with many others intersâ—ers'd in several places But then I must affirm withal that those passages are no otherwise to be understood than of the whole bo y of the Church the Congregation of the faithful called to the publique participation of the Word and Sacraments Which appears plainly by the Prayer for the Church Militant here on earth where having called upon the Lord and said To all thy People give thy Heavenly grace we are taught presently to add especially to this Congregation here present that is to say the members of that particular Church which there pour forth their prayers for the Church in general More to their purpose is that passage in the Collect for the Feast of All-Saints where it is said That Almighty God hath knit together his Elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of his Son Jesus Christ though it doth signifie no more but that inseparable bond of Charity that Love and Unity that Holy Communion and Correspondency which is between the Saints in Glory in the Church Triumphant and those who are still exercised under the cares and miseries of this present life in the Church here Militant But it makes most unto their purpose if any thing could make unto their purpose in the Common-Prayer book that at the burial of the dead we are taught to pray That God would please of his gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the number of his elect and to hasten his Kingdom From whence as possibly some may raise this inference That by the Doctrine of the Church of England there is a predestinated and certain number of Elect which can neither be increased nor diminished according to the third of the nine Articles which were agreed upon at Lambeth So others may perhaps conclude That this number is made up out of such Elections such Personal and Eternal Elections as they have fancied to themselves But there is nothing in the Prayer which can be useful to the countenancing of any such fancy the number of the Elect and the certainty of that number being known only unto God in the way of his
Christ came to be a Lamb without spot who by the Sacrifice of himself once made should take away the sins of the world Than which there can be nothing more conducible to the point in hand And to this purpose also when Christ our Saviour was pleased to Authorize his Holy Apostles to preach the good Tidings of Salvations he gave them both a Command and a Commission To go unto all the World and preach the Gospel to every Creature Mark 16.15 So that there was no part of the World nor any Creature in the same that is to say no rational Creature which seems to be excluded from a Possibility of obtaining Salvation by the Preaching of the Gospel to them if with a faith unfeigned they believe the same which the Church further teacheth us in this following Prayer appointed to be used in the Ordering of such as are called to the Office of the holy Priesthood viz. Almighty God and Heavenly Father which of thine Infinite Love and Goodness toward us hast given to us thy only and most Dear Beloved Son Jesus Christ to be our Redeemer and Author of Everlasting Life who after he had made perfect our Redemption by his Death and was ascended into Heaven sent forth abroad into the world his Apostles Prophets Evangelists Doctors and Pastors by whose labour and Ministry he gathered together a great Flock in all the parts of the World to set forth the Eternal Praise of his Holy Name For these so great Benefits of thy Eternal Goodness and for that thou hast vouchsafed to call thy Servant here present to the same Office and Ministry of Salvation of Mankind we render unto thee most hearty thanks and we worship and praise thee and we humbly beseech thee by the same thy Son to grant unto all which either here or elsewhere call upon thy Name that we may shew our selves thankful to thee for these and all other thy benefits and that we may daily increase and go forward in the knowledg and faith of thee and thy Son by the Holy Spirit So that as well by these thy Ministers as by them to whom they shall be appointed Ministers thy Holy Name may be always glorified and thy Blessed Kingdom enlarged through the same thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ who liveth and reigneth with thee in the Vnity of the same Holy Spirit world without end Amen Which Form in Ordering and Consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons I note this only by the way being drawn up by those which had the making of the first Liturgy of King Edward the sixth and confirmed by Act of Parliament in the fifth and sixth of the said King was afterwards also ratified by Act of Parliament in the eighth year of Queen Elizabeth and ever since hath had its place amongst the publick Monuments and Records of the Church of England To these I shall only add one single testimony out of the Writings of each of the three godly Martyrs before remembred the point being so clearly stated by some of our Divines commonly called Calvinists though not by the Outlandish also that any longer insisting on it may be thought unnecessary First then Bishop Cranmer tells us in the Preface to his Book against Gardiner of Winchester aforementioned That our Saviour Christ according to the will of his Eternal Father when the time thereof was fully accomplished taking our Nature upon him came into this World from the high Throne of his Father to declare unto miserable Sinners the Goodness c. To shew that the time of Grace and Mercy was come to give light to them that were in darkness and in the shadow of death and to preach and give Pardon and full Remission of sin to all his Elected And to perform the same he made a Sacrifice and Oblation of his body upon the Cross which was a full Redemption Satisfaction and Propitiation for the sins of the whole World More briefly Bishop Latimer thus The Evangelist saith When Jesus was born c. Serm. 1. Sund. after Epiph. What is Jesus Jesus is an Hebrew word which signifieth in our English Tongue a Saviour and Redeemer of all Mankind born into the World This Title and Name To save appertaineth properly and principally unto him for he saved us else had we been lost for ever Bishop Hooper in more words to the same effect That as the sins of Adam Pref. to the ten Commandments without Priviledg or Exemption extended and appertained unto all and every of Adams Posterity so did this Promise of Grace generally appertain as well to every and singular of Adams Posterity as to Adam as it is more plainly expressed where God promiseth to bless in the seed of Abraham all the people of the World Next for the point of Vniversal Vocation and the extent of the Promises touching life Eternal besides what was observed before from the Publick Liturgy we find some Testimonies and Authorities also in the Book of Homilies In one whereof it is declared That God received the learned and unlearned and casteth away none Hom. of Holy Scrip. p. 5. but is indifferent unto all And in another place more largely that the imperfection or natural sickness taken in Adam excludeth not that person from the promise of God in Christ except we transgress the limits and bounds of this Original sin by our own folly and malice If we have Christ then have we with him Hom. against fear of death p. 62. and by him all good things whatsoever we can in our hearts wish or desire as Victory over death sin hell c. The truth hereof is more clearly evidenced in the Writings of the godly Martyrs so often mentioned as first of Bishop Latimer who discourseth thus We learn saith he by this sentence that multi sunt vocati that many are called c. that the preaching of the Gospel is universal that it appertaineth to all mankind Serm. Septure that it is written in omnem terram exivit sonus eorum through the whole world their sound is heard Now seeing that the Gospel is universal it appeareth that he would have all mankind be saved that the fault is not in him if they be damned for it is written thus Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would have all mankind saved his salvation is sufficient to save all mankind Thus also in another place That the promises of Christ our Saviour are general they appertain to all mankind He made a general Proclamation saying Qui credit in me 1 Serm Lincol habet vitam aeternam Whosoever believeth me hath eternal life And not long after in the same Sermon That we must consider wisely what he saith with his own mouth Venite and me omnes Hook pres to Commo c. Mark here he saith mark here he saith Come all ye wherefore should any body despair or shut out himself from the promises of Christ which be general and appertain to the whole
turneth his faced for the time and as long as he so doth so should they more and more â—â—ir us to cry unto God with all our heart that we may not be brought into the state which doubtless is so sorrowful so miserable and so dreadful as no Tongue can sufficiently express nor any heart can think for what deadly grief can a man suppose it is to be under the wrath of God to be forsaken of him to have his holy Spirit the Author of all goodness to be taken from him to be brought to so vile a condition that he shall be lâ—ft meet for no better purpose than to be for ever condemned to Hell for not only such places of David de shew that upon the turning of Gods face from any persons they stall be lâ—ft bare from all goodness and far from hope of remedy but also the place rehearsed last before of Isaiah doth mean the same which sheweth that God at length doth so fosake his unfruitful Vineyard that he will notonly suffer it to bring forth weeds bryars and thorns but also further to punish the unfruitfulness of it he saith he will not cut it he will not delve it and he will command the clouds that they shall not rain upon it whereby is signified the teaching of the holy Word which St Paul after a like manner expressed by planting and watering Meaning that he will take that away from them so that they shall be no longer of his Kingdom they shall be no longer governed by his holy Spirit they shall be put from the grace and benefits they had and ever might have enjoyed through Christ they shall be deprived of the heavenly light and life which they had in Christ whilst they abode in him they shall be as they were once as men without God in the world or rather in a worse taking And to be short they shall be given into the power of the Devil which beareth the rule of all men which be cast away fro God as he did in Saul and Judas and generally in all such as work after their own wills the Children of wistrust and unbelief let us beware therefore good Christian people lest that we rejecting or casting away Gods Word by which we obtain and retain true faith in God be not at length cast so far off that we become as the Children of unbelief which be of two sorts far diverse yea almost clean contrary and yet both be very far from returning to God the one sort only weighing their sinful and detestable living with the right judgment and straitness of Gods righteousness be so without content and be so comfortless as they all must needs be from whom the Spirit of counsel and comfort is gone that they will not be persuaded in their hearts but that either God cannot or else that he will not take them again to his favour and mercy the other hearing the loving and large promises of Gods mercy and so not conceiving a right faith thereof make those promises larger than ever God did Trusting that although they continue in their sinful and detestable living never so long yet that God at the end of their life will shew his mercy upon them and that then they will return And that both these two sorts of men be in a damnable estate and yet nevertheless God who willeth not the death of the wicked hath shewed means whereby both the same if they take heed in season may escape The first as they defend Gods rightful justice in punishing sinners whereby they should be dismayed and should despair indeed as touching any hopes that may be in themselves so if they would constantly and stedfastly believe that Gods mercy is the remedy prepared against such despair and distrust not only for them but generally for all that be sorry and truly repentant and will therewithal stick to Gods mercy they may be sure they shall obtain mercy and enter into the Port or Haven of safeguard into the which whosoever do come be they before time never so wicked they shall be out of danger of everlasting damnation as godly Ezekiel saith What time soever a sinner doth return and take earnest of true Repentance I will forgive all his wickedness The other as they be ready to believe Gods promises so they should be as ready to believe the threatnings of God as well believe the Law as the Gospel as well that there is an Hell and everlasting fire as there is an Heaven and everlasting joy as well they should believe damnation to the threatned to the wicked and evil doers Ezek. 3. as salvation to be promised to the faithful in Word and Works as well they should believe God to be true in the one as the other And for sinners that continue in this wicked living they ought to think that the promises of Gods mercy and the Gospel pertain not unto them being in that state but only the Law and those Scriptures which contain the wrath and indignation of God and his threatnings which should certifie them that as they do over-boldly presume of Gods mercy and live dissolutely so doth God still more and more withdraw his mercy from them as he is so provoked thereby to wrath at length that he destroyeth such presumers many times suddenly for of such St Paul said thus When they shall say it is peace there is no danger then shall sudden destruction come upon them 1 Thess 5. let us beware therefore of such naughty boldness to sin For God which hath promised his mercy to them that be truly penitent although it be at the latter end hath not promised to the presumptuous sinner either that he shall have long life or that he shall have true Repentance at the last end But for that purpose hath he made every mans death uncertain that he should not put his hope in the end and in the mean season 〈◊〉 to Gods high displeasure live ungodlily Wherefore let us follow the counsel of the Wise man let us make no tarrying to turn unto the Lord let us not put off from day to day for sudenly his wrath comes and in time of vengeance he will destroy the wicked let us therefore turn betimes and when we turn let us pray to God as Hosea teached saying Forgive ad our sins receive us graciously Hosea 14. And if we turn to him with an humble and a very penitent heart he will receive us to his favour and grace for his holy Names sake for his Promise sake for his Truth and Mercies sake promised to all faithful Believers in Jesus Christ his only natural Son To whom the only Saviour of the world with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour glory and power world without end Amen These are the very words of the second Himily touching falling from God in which we have many evident proofs not only that there is a Falling and a frequent Falling but also a Total yea a final
and the proof are alike infirm For not to quarrel the Translation which is directly different from the Greek and Vulgar Latine and somewhat from the former English this Psalm if writ by David was not meant by him of any present misery which befel the Church There had been no such havock made thereof in all David's time as is there complained of And therefore Calvin rather thinks ad tempus Antiochi referri has querinonias that David as inspired with the spirit of Prophecy Calv. in Psal 74. reflected on those wretched and calamitous times wherein Antiochus made such havock of the Church of God Nor was there any Use of them in those former times because no reading of the Law of ordinary course in the Congregation as before was said But when the former course was changed and that the reading of the Law to the People of God was not licensed only but enjoyned then began the Jews to build them Synagogues which afterwards increased so strangely that there was no Town of any moment throughout all Judaea nor almost any City where they dwelt as Strangers in which they did not build some Synagogue God certainly had so disposed it in his holy Counsels that so his Word might be more generally known over all the world and a more easie way laid open for the receipt of the Messiah whom he meant to send that so Hierusalem and the Temple there might by degrees be lessened in their reputation and men might learn that neither of them was the only place where they ought to worship As for their Oratories which before I spake of although I find not their Original yet I can tell you of their Use For this saith Epiphanius of them Epiph. Haeres 80. n. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. There were saith he amongst the Jews without their Cities certain Oratories whither the people did sometimes resort to make their prayers unto the Lord. And this he proves out of the xvi of the Acts where it is said And on the Sabbath we went out of the City by a Rivers side where prayer was wont to be made vers 3. i.e. Vbi de more consuetudine haberi conventus consueverant as Beza notes upon the Text. The Latines called them from the Use they were put unto Proseuchas as in qua te quaero Proseucha in the Poet Juvenal Beza in Annot. in Act. 16.13 And although Beza take those Proseuchas to be the very same with the Jewish Synagogues Juvenal Sat. 5. Beza in Act. 16. yet sure there was a special difference between them For in those Proseuchas or Oratories they might only pray in the Synagogues they might not only make their prayers but also read the Law and Prophets and expound the same and in the Temple of the Lord besides those former duties they might offer Sacrifice which was not lawful to be done in other places And to these times when now the Jewish Church was settled and Synagogues erected in almost all places for reading and expounding the Law of God we must refer those passages from Philo and Josephus before remembred which cannot possibly be made good of the former times wherein this people wanted all conveniencies for those weekly meetings Thus have we seen what care the Rulers of that Church took for providing fit and convenient places for the performance of Gods publick worship and all the sacred Offices thereunto belonging Had they not think we equal power of adding days and times to the commemorating of Gods goodness and laying before him their afflictions s well as in appointing places Assuredly such power they had and made Use thereof according as they saw occasion Witness the feast of Purim ordained by Mordecai and Hester with the consent and approbation of the whole people of the Jews to be obsered on the 14 and 15 days of the moneth Adar yearly throughout their Generations for evermore Hest 9.17 c. that they should make them days of feasting and joy and of sending portions unto one another and gifts to the Poor Nor was this all to make them days of feasting and good fellowship and no more than so for this had been to make their belly their God and so by consequence their glory must have been their shame but in all probability there were ordained set forms of praise and prayer for so great a mercy and the continuance of the like Those who conceived themselves to have Authority of instituting a new Festival to the Lord their God could not but know they had Authority of instituting a new form of prayer and praise agreeable to the occasion And so much we may guess by that which remains thereof it being affirmed by one Antonius Margarita a converted Jew once one of the Professors for the tongue I take it in the University of Leipsich Fevardent in Hest cap. ult Hospinian de Origine Fest fol. 133. that to this day legunt diebus illis in Synagogis suis historiam istam they read upon the days of the said Feast of the book of Hester and anciently 't was not the custom of the Jewish Church to read the Scripture without set forms of Prayers and appointed Ceremonies The like may also be affirmed of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Feast of Dedication A Feast ordained by Judas Maccabeus and the Elders of the Jewish Nation who having cleansed the Temple and set up the Altar which had been impiously profaned by Antiochus did dedicate the same with Songs and Citternes 1 Maccab. 4.59 c. and with Harps and Cymbals and that being done ordained that the days of the Dedication should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of eight days c. with mirth and gladness Here we find mirth and gladness as before in the feast of Purim And doubt we not but there was in the Celebration of it as much spiritual mirth and gladness at least in the intention of the founders as there was of carnal although the forth and manner of it have not come unto us Our Saviour Christ had never honoured it with his blessed presence as we shall see he did hereafter if it had been otherwise Besides which annual Feasts recorded in the holy Scripture they had another which they called festivitatem legis or the feast of the Law ordained by the Rulers of the Church of Jewry for joy that they had finished the publick reading of the Law in their Congregations For as before I told you the Jews began the reading of the Law upon the Sabbath after the feast of Tabernacles and finished it at 5a readings against the feast of Tabernacles came about again Now 't is observed by Joseph Scaliger that the feast of Tabernacles beginning always on the 15th of the month Tisri and holding on until the 22d inclusively this Festival was always held on the morrow after being the three and twentieth of this month Which Feast
charge to go teach all Nations Id. 28.19 And when he found them backward in pursuit thereof he quickned Peter by a Vision and called Paul as it were of purpose Act. 10.11 to bear his name before the Gentiles to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness unto light Act. 9.17 and from the power of Satan unto God So that although the Jews and Gentiles were not collected into one body in our Saviours time Act. 26.18 I mean the time in which he pleased to sojourn here upon the Earth yet being done by his Authority and by the conduct and direction of his blessed Spirit it can be said of none but him quod fecit utraque unum that he made both one bringing them both into one Church Ephes 2.14 and making both partakers of the same communion who were before at such a distance as was conceived to be irreconcilable Unto the constituting of which Church our Saviour brought not any thing of Rite or Ceremony determined nothing that we meet with in his holy Gospels touching the time or place of publick Worship the Form and manner of the same save that he gave a general intimation that Hierusalem should no longer be the place in which men should be bound to Worship Joh. 4.21 The pains he took were principally spent in points of Doctrin clearing the truths of holy Scripture from those false glosses and corrupt traditions which had been put upon it by the Scribes and Pharisees and setting forth a new and clearer body of Divinity than had been taught the people in the Law of Moses that the Father might be worshipped in succeeding times with a greater measure of the spirit and a more perfect knowledge of the truth Joh. 4.23 24. than he had been formerly As for the circumstances and out-parts of Worship he left them in the state he found them that is to say to the disposing of the Church in whose power it was to institute such Rites and Ceremonies as might apparently conduce to the increase of Piety and to the setting forth of Gods praise and glory Himself had given a personal and most exemplary obedience to the Church of Jewry conforming to such Rites and Ordinances wherein there was no deviation from the Law of God as had in former times been setled by the power thereof And therefore had no cause of his collecting a Church conducted in those points which pertain to godliness by such a visible co-operation of the Holy Ghost especially considering what a fair example of Conformity he should leave behind him Besides all people of the world both Jews and Gentiles were setled at that time in a full perswasion of the necessity of set times and determinate places for the assembling of themselves together in the acts of Worship and had their prescribed Forms both of Prayer and Praise their Rituals and established Ceremonies and therewith also an opinion that those things were to be eprformed by the Priest alone Which being agreed on in the general both people might be brought with more facility to fall on some particular conclusions to which they were inclined already by their common principles And so indeed it proved in a short event times places and set Forms for worship being unanimously and universally received amongst them within a very little while after our Lords departure The Jews already had their Synagogues their Proseuchas or Oratories as before was said How small a labour was it to the blessed Apostles and their successors in that work to turn those Synagogues of theirs into Christian Churches for Preaching of the Word of God and the administration of the Sacraments accordingly as they did win upon the Jews to embrace the Gospel Nor is this only a bare speculation it was done de facto it being recorded in a book ascribed unto Athanasius that on the converting of the Jews Inhabitants of Beritus to the faith of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanas de passione imaginis Dom. nostri To. 2. gr l. p. 631. that the Bishop who had laboured in it converted the Synagogue of the Jews into a Christian Church and dedicated it to our Lord and Saviour And for the Temples of the Gentiles when once their superstitions were suppressed and the Gospel countenanced by Authority they were converted also to the self-same use Vid. Bed hist Eccles 1. as the Jewish Synagogues had been in other places Gods Servants being in the mean time contented with such safe retreats as their necessities inforced them to make use of in those fiery times or with such publick places of Assembly but mean and under the degree of envy as either upon sufferance or by special leave they were permitted to erect As soon if not more suddenly all parties also were agreed on the times of worship which was reduced with general and joynt consent unto the first day of the week the Lords day or the Sunday call it which you will wherein all members of the Congregation were to meet together for Gods publick Service A business wherein the Church proceeded with great care and wisdom setting apart one day in seven to hold the fairer quarter with the Jews who were so zealous of a Sabbath but altering the day it self and paring off those legal Ordinances which had made it burdensome the better to content the Gentiles Yet so that they had also their daily meetings as occasion served for celebration of the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist in those fiery times Whereof as being instituted for the Christian Sacrifice and of the Evangelical Priesthood to attend the same we shall speak anon In the mean time the next thing here to be considered is the form and order wherein the Church did celebrate Gods publick Service in those purer times those Forms of Prayer and Invocation wherewith they did address themselves to the Lord their God That all Religious offices in the House of God should be performed in form and order 1 Cor. 14. is not only warranted but enjoyned by the Apostles Canon made for those of Corinth and consequently for all Churches else And that for the avoiding of Battologies and all effusions of raw and undigested prayers besides what hath been shewn before to have been generally in use both with Jew and Gentile in being bound and regulated by set Forms of Prayer We have a Form laid down by our Lord and Saviour both for our use and imitation And first that it was made for our imitation is generally agreed on even by those who otherwise approve not set Forms of Prayer Calv. in Harm Evangel Calvin doth so resolve it saying In hunc finem tradita est haec regula ad quam preces nostras exigere necesse est si legitimas censeri Deoque probari cupimus And in the words not long before Non jubet Christus suos conceptis verbis orare sed tantum ostendit quorsum vota omnia precesque referri
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I believe in one unbegotten and only true God Almighty Father of Christ maker of all things and in our Lord Jesus Christ his only begotten Son c. Next after followeth a set Form of prayer used by the Bishop in Consecrating of the Oyl or Chrism and sanctifying of the Water And finally this prayer to be said by them who were newly brought into the Church by Baptism Id. ibid. c. 47. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Almighty God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ give me a body undefiled a pure heart a watchful mind knowledge without error together with the presence of the holy Spirit that I may both attain and hold fast the truth without doubt or wavering through Christ our Lord with whom be glory unto thee in the Holy Ghost world without end Amen The sum of what is said before in these two last Authors Clemens I mean and Dionysius because the Writings attributed to them are by the Learned thought to be none of theirs we shall find presently confirmed in the words of those who lived shortly after and are of an unquestioned credit amongst all Divines both of the Protestant party and the Church of Rome In the mean time we will sit down and repose our selves concluding here so much of the present search as may be found in any of the Writings of the holy Apostles or such as claim the reputation of being Apostolical men the Scholars and Successors of the blessed spirits though now disclaimed for such by our choicer judgements And yet before I leave this Age I will see if any thing occur in St. Ignatius touching a Form of Common-prayer or Invocation used by the Christians of his time who being said to be that Child on whom our Saviour laid his hands saying Except ye receive the Kingdom of Heaven as a little Child c. But howsoever questionless the Apostles Scholar and Successor to S. Peter in the See of Antioch hath informed us thus in his Epistle to the Magnesians of which no scruple hath been raised amongst Learned men omnes ad orandum in idem loci convenite una sit communis precatio una mens una spes in charitate Ignat. Epist ad Magness c. By which it seemeth that as the Magnesians had a Church or meeting place to which they usually resorted as a House of Prayer of which more hereafter so they had also una Communis precatio one certain Form of Common-prayer in which they all concurred as if spirited by one soul and governed by one hope in charity and faith unblamable in the Lord Christ Jesus Which is as much as we could look for in those times and from a man whose writings are not many nor of any greatness his custom being to express himself as briefly as the nature of Epistles could invite him to That in this Age the day of worship was translated from the last day of the week to the first or to the Lords-day from the Sabbath will not here be doubted nor can it be much questioned amongst sober men but that the Chrisitans of these times did Celebrate the Feast of Easter together with that of Whitsontide as we call them now in honour of the Resurrection of their Lord and Saviour and of the coming down of the Holy Ghost according to the Annual Revolution of those great occasions That which hath most been doubted for this Time and Age is whether the Christians had their places of publique worship and whether those places of worship had the name of Churches both which I think may be concluded in the affirmative by convincing arguments And first it is affirmed for an old Tradition in the Church of Christ and proved so to be by Adricomius out of several Authors that the Coenaculum or upper Chamber in which the Apostles met together after Christs Ascension was by them used for a place of publick worship Luk. 22.12 this being said to be that Room in which our Saviour Instituted the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood the same in which the Apostles met for the choice of one in the place of Judas Act. 1.13 Act. 2.1 Act. 6.4 6. Act. 15.6 the same in which the Holy Ghost descended on them at the Feast of Pentecost the same in which they were Assembled to elect the seven And finally the same in which they held the first General Council for pacifying the disputes about Circumcision and other ceremonial parts of the Law of Moses This was called then by the name of Coenaculum Sion or the upper Chamber of Sion supposed by some to have been a part of the House of Simon the Leper but howsoever of some Disciple of rank and quality who willingly had devoted it to the use of the Church it being the custom of such men in those early days when they were not suffered to erect more magnificent Fabricks to dedicate some convenient part of their dwelling houses for the Assembling of Gods people and the acts of worship Thus find we in the Recognitions of Clemens that the House of Theophilus in the City of Antioch to whom S. Luke dedicated both his Gospel and Book of Acts was by him converted to a Church for the use of Christians and in the Acts of Pudens whom we find mentioned by S. Paul in the second to Timothy that he gave his House unto the Church for the same use also and such an House or such an upper Chamber rather so given and dedicated is that thought to be in which S. Paul preached at Troas and from a window whereof Eutychus fell down and was took up dead Act. 20.8 But to return again to the Coenaculum Sion before-mentioned certain it is that in relation to those duties of Religion which were there performed it was inclosed afterwards with a beautiful Church commonly called the Church of Sion and by S. Cyril a godly Bishop of Jerusalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Hier. catech 16. the upper Church of the Apostles in which the Holy Ghost is there said by him to have fallen upon them begirt in following times with the Cels or Lodgings of religious persons in the form of a Monastery of which Bede thus In superiori montis Sion planicie Beda Tom 3. de locis sanctis monachorum cellulae Ecclesiam magnam circundant illic ut perhibent ab Apostolis fundatam eo quod ibi spiritum sanctum accepere in qua etiam locus coenae Domini venerabilis ostenditur That is to say in the uppermost plain of Mount Sion the Cels of Monks begirt a fair and spacious Church there founded as it is affirmed by the holy Apostles because in that place they had received the Holy Ghost and where they shew the place in which the Lord did institute his holy Supper Where by the way this Church is said to have been founded by the Apostles not that they built it from the ground but because being
publick end For if he should it must needs sound exceeding harshly that every Member in the Congregation should be left unto the liberty of his own expression and their Devotions if so ordered could be entituled nothing less than Common-prayers by which name Justin Martyr calls them as before was shewn But that we may the better understand Tertullians meaning we will first take the words at large Tertullian Apologet c. 30. and then conjecture at the sense The words are these Illuc suspicientes Christiani manibus expansis quia innocuis capite nudo quia non erubescimus sine monitore quia de pectore oramus precantes summs omnes semper pro omnibus Imperatoribus vitam illis prolixam imperium securum domum tutam exercitus fortes senatum fidelem populum probum orbem quietum quaecunque hominis vel Caesaris vota sunt We Christians looking towards Heaven pray with our hands stretched out to protest our innocence bare-headed because not ashamed without a Monitor because by heart an happy Reign a secure House valiant Souldiers faithful Counsellors an industrious People and whatsoever else the Prayers of a private man for it is hominis not hominum or those even of the Emperor himself can extend unto And this he sheweth to be the subject of those Prayers which he himself did use to make for the Roman Emperors in the words next following Haec ab alio orare non possum quam à quo me scio consecuturum I pray for all this to no other than to him alone of whom only I am certain to obtain the same And sure Tertullian was a private person nor de we find that he prayed thus with others in the Congregation or if he did yet being the heads are certain which are spoke of here the Form may also be prescribed for ought appears unto the contrary which was used there And for the Monitor 't is true the Gentiles had of old their Monitors not only to direct them in what words but to what God also they should make their Prayers Which thing the Christians needed not who knew they were to make their Prayers unto God alone and being accustomed to pray in the Congregation according to the Form prescribed for the Emperors safety and the prosperity of his affairs could without any Monitor or Prompter pray by heart for those things which concerned the weal and safety of the Emperors and those who were in Office and Authority by and under them What the Prayers were used by the Christians of those times it is hard to say there being so little of them extant in Authors of unquestioned credit but that they used set Forms of prayer is not hard to prove as we shall see in the next Century when we have looked into the works of Origen and spent a little time in S. Cyprians writings If in their Books one of which was cotemporary with Tertullian the other living very near him if not with him also we find prescribed Forms of prayer I hope it will be granted without great difficulty that in Tertullians time they had prescribed Forms although those Forms appear not upon good record But first before we come to that we will lay down the course and order of the ministration according as I find it in the Constitutions ascribed to Clemens The Author of the which whosoever he was lived about these times and may perhaps be credited in a matter of fact although of no Authority with the Learned in a point of Doctrine Now he describeth both the Churches and the service thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constitut Clement l. 2. c. 57. c. When thou he speaks unto the Bishop doest call the Congregation to Assemble as being the Master of the Ship command thy Deacons as the Mariners that places be provided for the Brethren who are as passengers therein First let the Church be built in form of an Oblongum looking towards the East and let the Bishops Throne or Chair be placed in the midst thereof the Presbyters sitting on each side of him and the Deacons ready and prepared to attend the Ministry to whom it appertaineth to place the lay-people in their ranks and seats and set the Women by themselves Then let the Reader from the Desk or Pulpit placed in the middle of the people read the Books of Moss as also those of Josuah Judges Kings and Chronicles and that of Ezra touching the return from Babylon as also those of Job and Solomon and the sixteen Prophets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Two Chapters being read let one begin the Psalms of David and let the people answer the Acrosticks i. e. the closes or the burden of the song as we use to say Then let the Acts be read and the Epistles of S. Paul which he inscribed to several Churches by the suggestion of the Holy Ghost Afterwards let the Presbyter or Dacon read the Gospels which Matthew Mark Luke and John have left behind them And whilst they read the Gospel let the people stand and hearken to the same with silence For it is written Take heed and hearken O Israel and in another place Stand thou there and hearken Then let the Presbyters speak a word of Exhortation to the people not all at once but one by one and the Bishop last This done all of them rising up and turning towards the East the Catechumeni and those which are under Penance being first departed let them direct their Prayers to God after which some of the Deacons are to attend upon the Sacrifice of the holy Eucharist others to have an eye on the Congregation and to see that silence be well kept Then let the Deacon which assists the Bishops thus bespeak the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no man here have malice against his Brother let no man harbour any dissimulation Which said the men salute the men the women those of their own Sex with an holy kiss After the Deacon saith the Prayer for the whole Church the universal World and the parts thereof as also for fertility for the Priests the Magistrates for the Bishop and King and the peace of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This done Id. l. 8. c. 22. the Deacons are to bring the offerings to the Bishop laying the same upon the Altar the Priests assisting on each side as the Disciples do their Master Then the Bishop praying to himself together with the Priests or Presbyters and being arrayed in a white Vesture standing at the Altar and maing the sign of the Cross upon his forehead shall say The Grace of God Almighty and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you all and all the people shall return this Answer And with thy spirit Then shall the Bishop say Lift up your hearts and they reply We lift them up unto the Lord. The Bishop thus Let us give thanks unto the Lord the people
and doth not only reach the Priests but caeteros omnes praesEntes all who were present in the Church Anastas Ep. ap Binium in To. 2. Concil And doubtless 't was in use before though but now enjoyned Sozomen blaming it in the Alexandrians and he lived long before the time of Anastasius that at the reading of the Gospels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop stood not up as in other places Sozomen hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 19. Yet you must understand it so that they used not to stand upright sed curvi venerabundi saith the letter decretal but with the bowing of the body as in the way of adoration and more than so too if the name of Jesus did occur in the reading of it they used with all reverence and duty to bow the knee which in those parts and times was the greatest sign both of humility and subjection Of this we need no other witness than the great S. Ambrose whose speaking in his Hexaemeron Ambros in opera Hexaem l. 6. c. 9. touching the particular office of each several member he makes the bowing of the knee at the name of Jesus the proper duty of that part Kneeling they used both in the act of Prayer and Invocation as also in the participation or receiving of the blessed Sacrament First in the act of Prayer or Invocation for when Tertullian blamed it in the Gentiles that they did assidere sub aspectu contraque aspectum ejus Tertullian de Orat. cap. 12. Origen in Numer Homil. 5. sit down irreverently before their Gods as soon as they had done their Prayers And when as Origen asks the reason quod genua flectimus orantes why we should kneel upon our knees in the time of Prayer both of them put it out of question that in the act of Prayer or Invocation the Christians of those early times were upon their knees Next for the reverence which they used in the time of Participation the least that can be said of them is that they received the Sacrament upon their knees What else can be the meaning of that of Ambrose where he informeth us of the Christians of his time that they did carnem Christi in mysteriis adorare adore the flesh of Christ in the holy mysteries Ambros de Sp. S. lib. 3. c. 12. Chrysost Homil. 3. in Ephes or that of Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When thou seesT all things ready at the great Kings Table the Angels ministring at the same the King in presence and thou thy self provided of a Wedding garment cast thy self down upon thy knees at least and so Communicate And what else think you caused the Gentiles to accuse the Christians living in S. Austins time for worshipping Ceres and Bacchus two good Belly-gods August contra Faustum Man l. 20. c. 13. but that they were observed to kneel when they received the Bread and Wine in the blessed Eucharist And all this done with hands stretched out and heads uncovered manibus expansis Tertullian Apologet. c. 30. Basil Ep. 63. capite nudo as Tertullian hath it and as S. Basil doth observe of Gregory Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he used not to be covered in the time of prayer Add that they turned towards the East in the act of worship whereof consult with Justin Martyr in his Book of Questions and Answers ad Orthodopes Qu. 118. Tertullian in his Apologetick chap. 16. Origen in his 5. Homily on the Book of Numbers not to say any thing of those who came after them And then we have a perfect view of the most usual and material orders used by the Primitive Christians in Gods publique service Before I do conclude this Age I shall subjoyn some few notes on the Gloria Patri retained on so good grounds in this Church of England so oft repeated in the divine service of the same so solemnly and reverently pronounced by those who either understand their own Christian duties or the intentions of the antient holy Catholick Church And those remembrances I shall reduce unto these three heads First I shall shew the Antiquity and Original of it Secondly when and by what Authority it became a part of the publick Liturgies And thirdly in what posture Gods people used to put themselves as often as there was occasion to pronounce the same Concerning the Antiquity of the Gloria Patri I know it is referred by some to the Council of Nice or the times immediately succeeding and that it is by them conceived to have been framed of purpose for a Counterpoise to the Arian Heresie and to train up the people in the right perswasion of the holy Trinity And were it so it need not be ashamed of its Original or look into the world for a better petigree the space of 1300 years and more being abundantly sufficient to procure it credit and set it far enough above the reach of contentious men But yet S. Basil who lived near that Council Basil de Sp. S. c. 27. Id. ibid. c. 29. goes a great deal higher and fetcheth the Original of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the tradition of the Apostles and cites some of the antient Fathers and amongst them S. Clemens the Apostles Scholar and Dionysius of Alexandria who died long time before this Council and in whose writings this doxology was expresly found For the Apostles being commanded by their Lord and Saviour to teach and Baptize all people in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost there is no question to be made but that in due conformity to their Masters pleasure they did accordingly proceed and for a preparatory thereunto required of such as were to be added to the Church a solemn profession of that Faith into which they were to be Baptized And this Confession of the Faith he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Original and mother as it were of that Doxologie then and of long time used in the Church of Christ Id. ibid. c. 27. And then it followeth in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That as they had received so they did Baptize and as they did Baptize so they did believe Id. ibid. Ep. 78. and as they did believe so they also glorified But they Baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and they believed in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Ghost and therefore also had some Form of ascribing Glory to the Father Son and Holy Ghost which was the Form remaining on record in those antient Fathers whose names there occur And this he further proves by an antient ceremony used of old at Candle tinding which he ascribeth also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the tradition of the Fathers but by which of them devised or first introduced that he could not tell Onely he noteth that at the first bringing in of the Evening lights the people were
holy Trinity than by this Form and in the constant uniformity of that antient Gesture which hath been recommended to us from the purest Ages and the most glorious lights of the Christian World CHAP. VIII Touching the Dedication of Churches and the Anniversary Feasts thereby occasioned 1. Dedication of Religious places used antiently by all Nations and the Reasons why 2. A Repetition of some things that were said before with reference and application to the point in hand 3. The Tabernacle consecrated by Gods own appointment and the consequents of it 4. Antiquity of the like Dedications amongst the Romans and by whom performed 5. The Form and Ceremonies used in those Dedications by the Antient Romans 6. The Antiquity and constant usage of such Dedications in the Church of Christ 7. Titulus and Encoenia what they signifie in the Ecclesiastical notion 8. The great Solemnities and Feasts used by the Jews and Gentiles in the Dedication of their Temples 9. As also by the Primitive Christians 10. Dedication Feasts made Anniversary by the Roman Gentiles 11. And by the Christians in the times of their greatest purity 12. Continued till our times in the Church of England 13. The Conclusion of the whole and the Authors submission of it to the Supreme Powers HAving thus found out Liturgies and set Forms of Worship in the best and purest times of the Christian Church together with certain places and appointed times for the performance of those Offices of Religious Worship in the said Liturgies prescribed It remains now that we speak somewhat as by way of Corollary touching the Dedication of those places in which those Acts and Offices of Religious Worship were to be performed it being consonant to Reason that holy Actions should be celebrated in an holy place and places are not otherwise hallowed than by the Dedication of them unto holy Use For howsoever in themselves they be but ordinary Houses made of Lime and Stone and may be put to any use which the Founder pleaseth yet being once consecrated by the Word and prayer they become forthwith Holy Ground and carry with them such an awful reverence in Religious minds as is not given to other houses houses to eat and drink in as the Scripture calleth them And so we are to understand that of Thomas Aquinas who in the stating of this Question hath resolved it thus Quod Ecclesia Altare alia hujusmodi inanimata consecrantur non quia sunt gratiae susceptiva Thom. 3. par qu. 83. Artic. 3. sed quia ex consecratione adipiscuntur quandam spiritalem virtutem per quam apta redduntur divino cultui Churches saith he Altars and things inanimate are not therefore consecrated because they are susceptible of any divine Grace conferred upon them but because they do obtain thereby some spiritual fitness which before they had not and which doth render them more proper for Religious Offices Besides which influence which they gain by these Consecrations on the minds of such who piously refort unto them they are thereby exempted also from the power of those by whom they were first built or founded who otherwise might challenge a propriety in them That which the ground and charge of building made the house of Man is made by Consecration the House of God and being once dedicated to his holy Service the property thereof is vested in him and in him alone The Founder cannot take it back or reserve any part of it for his own private use or pleasure without sin and sacriledg Such was that of Ananias Acts 5.2 who when he sold his House kept back part of the money as if he would divide the sum betwixt God and himself The Gentiles by the light of Nature had discerned thus much and therefore in the Consecration of their Temples they did use these words Se ex profano usu humano jure Templum cellam Alex. ab Alex. Gen. Dier l. 6. c. 14. mensas arulas quaeque eo pertinent eximere That is to say That they exempt from the right of Men and all profane and common usage the Temple Table Vaults and Altars and all things which pertained unto them appropriating them unto the service of that God to whom the Fabrick was intended in the Dedication A matter of such general use that it was commonly observed both by the Patriarchs before the Law by the Jews under the Law by the Gentiles without the Law and finally by the Christians being a body made up both of Jews and Gentiles in the times of the Gospel In looking over whose proceedings touching this particular and thereby justifying the right use of those Dedications we will first search into the Antiquity Universality and first Authors of them next into the great Solemnities and magnificent Feasts accustomably observed in them and finally on the Annual Revolution of those solemn Feasts appointed by all sorts of Men in memorial of them And first for laying down the Antiquity and first Authors of them it is necessary that we look back on something which was said before touching the practice of the Patriarchs and some of the godly Princes of the House of Jacob. And first whereas the Scripture telleth us of Abraham that he planted a Grove in Beersheba and called there on the Name of the Lord Gen. 21.33 the everlasting God The meaning of which place is by Expositors left uncertain as before we noted yet the succeding practice both of Jews and Gentiles in consecrating Groves for superstitious and Idolatrous Uses mention whereof is very frequent in the Scriptures makes it plain and evident that they concdeived this planting of a Grove by Abraham was but the consecrating of it to the service of God for invocating on the Name of the Lord Jehovah Greater Antiquity than this as we need not seek so a more holy Author of those Dedications we can hardly find And yet the practice and Authority of Jacob is not much short of it either in point of reputation or respect of time of whom it is recorded that he took the Stone which he had put for his Pillow Gen. 28.17 and set it up for a Pillar and poured Oyl on the top of it and then and not till then that it was thus consecrated he called the name of the place BETHEL which by interpretation is the House of God Look what effect this Act of Jacob did produce and we shall find first that God took unto himself the name of the God of Bethel as a place dedicated for his Worship Gen. 31. v. 13. And secondly that in reference to this Consecration it was thought the fittest place for Jacob even by God himself to offer sacrifice to the Lord and to pay his vows Gen. 35.16 Nor can I doubt but that when Jeroboam the Son of Nebat made choice of Bethel 1 Kings 12.9 to be the seat for one of his Golden Calves he had respect unto the consecration of this place by the
and Ministers shall move the people to joyn with them in Prayer in this Form or to this effect as briefly as conveniently they may Ye shall pray for Christs holy Catholick Church that is for the whole Congregation of Christian people dispersed through the whole world and especially for the Churches of England Scotland and Ireland And herein I require you most especially to pray for the Kings most excellent Majesty our Sovereign Lord James King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governour in these his Realms and all other his Dominions and Countreys over all Persons in all causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal Ye shall also pray for our gracious Queen Ann the noble Prince Henry and the rest of the Kings and Queens Royal Issue Ye shall also pray for the Ministers of Gods holy Word and Sacraments as well Archbishops and Bishops as other Pastors and Curats Ye shall also pray for the Kings most honourable Council and for all the Nobility and Magistrates of this Realm that all and every of those in their several callings may serve truly and painfully to the Glory of God and the edifying and well-governing of his people remembring the accompt they must make Also ye shall pray for the whole Commons of this Realm that they may live in true Faith and fear of God and humble obedience to the King and Brotherly Charity one to another Finally let us praise God for all those that are already departed out of this life in the Faith of Christ and pray unto God that we may have grace to direct our lives after their good examples that this life ended we may be made partakers with them of the glorious Resurrection in the life everlasting Always concluding with the Lords Prayer So far the Letter of the Canon in which there was not any purpose nor in the makers of the same to introduce into the Church any Form of Prayer or Invocation save those which were laid down in the Common prayer Book nor indeed could they if they would the Statute 1 Eliz. being still in force but to reduce her Ministers to the antient usage of this Church which had been much neglected if not laid aside The Canons then established were no late Invention as some give it out but a Collection of such Ordinances and pious Customs as had been formerly in use since the Reformation which being scattered and diffused in several Injunctions Orders and Advertisements published by K. Henry VIII K. Edward VI. and Q. Eliz. or in the Canons of particular Convocations in those times assembled or otherwise retained in continual practice was by the care and wisdom of the Clergy in the Synod at London An. 1603. drawn up together into one body and by his Majesty then being Authorized in due form of Law And being so Authorized by his Majesty the Canons then made had the force of Laws and were of power to bind the Subjects of all sorts according to their several and respective concernments as fully and effectually as any Statute or Act of Parliament can bind the Subject of this Realm in their goods and properties For which consult the Statute 25. H. 8. cap. 19. and the practice since Which as it may be said of all so more particularly of the Canon now in question of which it is to be considered that the main body of the same had been delivered formerly almost verbatim in the Queens Injunctions published by her Royal and Supream Authority in the first year of her Reign Anno 1559. which I will therefore here put down that by comparing both together we may the better see the true intention of that Canon and what is further to be said in the present business The Queens Injunction is as followeth The title this The Form of bidding the Prayers to be used generally in this uniform sort and then the body of it is this Ye shall pray for Christs holy Catholick Church that is for the whole Congregation of Christian people dispersed throughout the whole world and especially for the Churches of England and Ireland and herein I require you most especially to pray for the Queens most excellent Majesty our Soveraign Lady Eliz. Queen of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and supream Governour of this Realm as well in causes Ecclesiastical as Temporal You shall also pray for the Ministers of Gods holy Word and Sacraments as well Archbishops and Bishops as other Pastors and Curats Ye shall also pray for the Queens most honourable Council and for all the Nobility of this Realm That all and every of these in their callings may serve truly and painfully to the glory of God and edifying of his people remembring the accompt they must make Also you shall pray for the whole Commons of this Realm that they may live in true faith and fear of God in humble Obedience and brotherly Charity one to another Finally let us praise God for all those that are departed out of this life in the faith of Christ and pray unto God that we may have grace to direct our lives after their good example that after this life we may be made partakers of the glorious resurrection in the life everlasting These are the very words of the Injunction wherein it is to be observed that as the Canon hath relation to this Injunction so neither this Injunction nor any thing therein enjoyned was of new erection but a Reviver only of the usual Form which had been formerly enjoyned and constantly observed in King Edwards days as we shall see by looking over the Injunction published and the practice following thereupon in the said Kings Reign Now the Injunction of King Edward the 6. is in this Form following The Title thus The Form of bidding the Common prayers and then the Form it self You shall pray for the whole Congregation of Christs Church and especially for this Congregation of England and Ireland wherein first I commend to your devout prayers the Kings most excellent Majesty supreme Head immediately under God of the Spiritualty and Temporalty of the same Church And for Queen Katharine Dowager and also for my Lady Mary and my Lady Elizabeth the Kings Sisters Secondly you shall pray for my Lord Protectors grace with all the rest of the Kings Majesties Council for all the Lords of this Realm and for the Clergy and Commons of the same Beseeching Almighty God to give every one of them in his degree Grace to use themselves in such wise as may be to Gods glory the Kings honour and the weal of this Realm Thirdly you shall pray for all them that be departed out of this world in the faith of Christ that they with us and we with them at the day of Judgment may rest both Body and Soul with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven This was the Form first published in the beginning of the Reign of King Edward VI. and it continued all
They are all now for Root and Branch for the very Calling that having grubbed up those goodly Cedars of the Church the Bishops they might plant a stinking Elder as a noble person well observed in the place thereof Never was Learning so employed to cry down the encouragements and rewards of Learning The Branches needs must wither when the Root decays and what could else befall Cathedras as we see it too evidently but the inevitable exposing of them to a present ruin by making them Oblations unto Spoil and Rapine And now or never was the time for those that had a care of the Churches safety to put themselves into a posture of defence and be provided for the Battel In which if few appeared at the first on the Churches side it was not that they durst not give the onset but that they were reserved for succours For whilst the Humbly reverend Remonstrant was pleased to vindicate as well his own as the Churches honour there was small cause or rather none that other men should interpose themselves at all or rob him of the glory of a sole encounter Parque novum fortuna videt concurrere Bellum atque virum as in a case not much unlike was observed by Lucan But when that Reverend pen grew wearied not with the strength or number of his Adversaries but their importunity who were resolved to have the last words as himself observeth and that he hath been pleased to give way to others to shew their duty and affection in so just a cause it was then no hard matter to persuade me to such further courses as might be thought on and pursued for the Churches peace And I the rather was resolved to do somewhat in it because the Smectymnuans in a manner had ingaged me in the undertaking It seems they have forgotten what their own Darling HEILTN c. Smectym pag. 16 17. by giving me the Title of the Bishops Darling a Title which though given in scorn had been ill bestowed should I be wanting unto those of that Sacred Order which were supposed to let me hold so principal a place in their affections Doubly ingaged by duty and this provocation which I could not take but for a challenge I took their Book into my hand in which I found the whole dispute as it relates to the Episcopal Government reduced to these Propositions viz. 1. That the Impropriation of name and Imparity of place between Bishops and Presbyters was not of divine right and Apostolical institution but of humane invention and occasionally only and that a Diabolical occasion also and no more than so 2. That the eminent Superiority and Power of Ordination and Jurisdiction which our Bishops claim was both unknown to the Scripture and the Primitive times 3. That antiently in some places of the World the Episcopal Government was never known for many years together the people in those places being instructed in the faith without help of Bishops Hereupon they infer in the close of all That Bishops or Episcopacy being at the best a meer humane Ordinance may by the same Authority be abrogated by which it was first established This last I must confess delivered in the way of Quere but so delivered as to carry a Position in it more pertinent to their aim and purpose than the other three In prosecuting of which points as they have shewed the greatest of their wit and cunning to give the fairest colours to a rotten Cause so have they brought no new Objections against the Episcopal Order and Jurisdiction but what are either answered or prevented in the Learned works of B. Bilson B. Downham and other Worthies of this Church now in bliss with God Nihil dictum quod non dictum fuit prius had been an Answer new enough for an old Objection But seeing that these Men though they could bring no new supply of Arguments is make good their Cause would not rest satisfied with those old Answers which had been given in former times to their Predecessors I was resolved to deal with them in another way than what hath formerly been travelled Not in the way of Argumentation or a Polemical discourse there being no likelihood of any end in such Disputations as long as men had so much Sophistry as either to evade the Argument or find some sleight to weaken and shift off the Answer I rather chose having found good success in that kind before to manage the whole Controversie as it lay between us in the way of an Historical Narration as in point of fact which I conceive to be the readiest means to convince gainsayers and silence the dispute for the times to come For if History be Testis temporum the surest and most faithful witness of mens actions in the carriage of all publick businesses as no doubt it is it cannot but be also Magistra vitae both which the Orator affirms of it the best Instructress we can have in all Affairs of like nature as they come before us The History of Episcopacy collected from the Writings of the Antient Fathers cannot but be of special use and efficacy in setting forth the Government of the Church in the purest times especially when those Fathers are produced on no other occasion but either as writing on those Texts of Scripture in which the Institution and Authority of Bishops is most clearly evidenced or speaking of the condition of the Church in their several times in the Administration and Government whereof they had most of them some especial interess Out of whose testimonies so digested and compared together I doubt not but it will appear most evidently to an indifferent and impartial Reader first That our Lord and Saviour JESVS CHRIST laid the foundation of his Church in an imparity of Ministers and that according unto his example the Apostles did the like ordaining the three several Orders and Degrees of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the holy Ministry Next that the Government of Bishops being founded thus was propagated over all the World with the faith it self there being no Nation which received the one without the other And finally that in matter of Authority and Jurisdiction the Bishops of the primitive and purest Ages had full as much as ours of England in these latter times And if I have done this as I hope I have it may more rationally be inferred though perhaps not so safely as the times now are that Bishops or Episcopacy being of Divine and Apostolical institution no humane invention cannot with piety be abrogated by a less Authority than that by which it was ordained at the first appointment This is the sum and this is the end of my design In prosecution of the which I had drawn down my story to the times of Constantine by whose power and favour the Church began to settle in all parts of the Empire where it had formerly been persecuted with all kind of Extremities which either the wit of Tyranny could invent or an
and Rulers of the Church and that the Apostles after his ascension did ordain the Deacons to be the Ministers of their Episcopal function and the necessities of the Church Saint Ambrose doth affirm the same Ambros in 1. ad Cor. c. 12. Caput it aque in Ecclesia Apostolos posuit c. Christ saith he made the Apostles the head or supreme Governours of his Church they being the Legats or Ambassadours of Christ according unto that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.20 And then he adds Ipsi sunt Episcopi that they were Bishops More plainly in his Comment on the Ephesians Apostoli Episcopi sunt Prophetae explanatores Scripturarum The Apostles saith he In Comment in Ephes 4. are Bishops and Prophets the Expositors of Scripture But because question hath been made whether indeed those Commentaries are the works of Ambrose or of some other ancient Writer he tells us in his Notes on the 43. Psalm that in those words of Christ Pasce oves meas Peter was made a Bishop by our Lord and Saviour De Repub. Eccles l. 2. c. 2. n. 4. Significat Ambrosius Petrum Sacerdotem hoc est Episcopum electum illis verbis Pasce oves meas as the place is cited by the Arch-Bishop of Spalato And thus Saint Chrysostom speaking of the election of the Seven saith plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that then there were no Bishops in the Church Chrys hom 14. in Act 6. but only the Apostles But what need more be said in the present business than that which is delivered in the holy Scripture about the surrogation of some other in the place of Judas wherein the place or function of an Apostle is plainly called Episcopatus Acts 1.20 Episcopatum ejus accipiat alter let another take his Bishoprick as the English reads it His Bishoprick i. e. saith Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Principality his Priesthood Chrys hom 3. in Act. 1. the place of government that belonged unto him had he kept his station A Text most plain and pregnant as the Fathers thought to prove that the Episcopal dignity was vested in the persons of the Lords Apostles The Comment under the name of Ambrose which before we spake of having said Ipsi sunt Episcopi Ambros in 1. ad Cor. c. 12 that the Apostles were Bishops adds for the proof thereof these words of Peter Episcopatum ejus accipiat alter And the true Ambrose saying of Judas Id. Serm. 50. that he was a Bishop Episcopus enim Judas fuit adds for the proof thereof the same very Text. Finally to conclude this matter Saint Cyprian shewing that Ordinations were not made without the privity of the people in the Jewish Church Nisi sub populi assistentis conscientia lib. 1. ep 4. adds that the same was afterwards observed by the holy Apostles Quando de ordinando in locum Judae Episcopo when Peter spake unto the people about the ordering of a Bishop in the place of Judas But for a further proof of this that the Apostles were ordained Bishops by our Lord and Saviour we shall see more hereafter in convenient place Vide chap. 6. n. 12. when we are come to shew that in the government of the Church the Bishops were the proper Successors of the Apostles and so esteemed to be by those who otherwise were no great friends unto Episcopacy In the mean time we may take notice of that impudent assertion of Jobannes de Turrecremata viz. Quod solus Petrus à Christo Episcopus est ordinatus Lib. 2. Summae de Eccl. c. 32. ap Bell. de Rom Pont. that Peter only Peter was made Bishop by our Saviour Christ and that the rest of the Apostles received from Peter their Episcopal consecration wherein I find him seconded by Dominicus Jacobatius lib. 10. de Concil Art 7. A Paradox so monstrous and absurd that howsoever Bellarmine doth reckon it amongst other the Prerogatives of that Apostle in his first Book de Romano Pontifice cap. 23. yet upon better thoughts he rejects it utterly in his 4th Book upon that argument Cap. 22. and so I leave it Thus having shewn in what estate the Church was founded by our Saviour and in what terms he left it unto his Apostles we must next see what course was taken by them to promote the same what use they made of that authority which was trusted to them CHAP. II. The foundation of the Church of Hierusalem under the Government of Saint James the Apostle and Simeon one of the Disciples the two first Bishops of the same 1. Matthias chosen into the place of Judas 2. The coming of the Holy Ghost and on whom it fell 3. The greatest measure of the Spirit fell on the Apostles and so by consequence the greatest power 4. The several Ministrations in the Church then given and that in ranking of the same the Bishops are intended in the name of Pastors 5. The sudden growth of the Church of Hierusalem and the making of Saint James the first Bishop there 6. The former point deduced from Scripture 7. And proved by the general consent of Fathers 8. Of the Episcopal Chair or Throne of Saint James and his Successors in Hierusalem 9. Simeon elected by the Apostles to succeed S. James 10. The meaning of the word Episcopus and from whence borrowed by the Church 11. The institution of the Presbyters 12. What interest they had in the common business of the Church whilst S. James was Bishop 13. The Council of Hierusalem and what the Presbyters had to do therein 14. The Institution of the Seven and to what Office they were called 15. The names of Ecclesiastical functions promiscuously used in holy Scripture OUR Saviour Christ having thus Authorized his Apostles to Preach the Gospel over all the World to every Creature and given them power as well of ministring the Sacraments as of retaining and remitting sins as before is said thought fit to leave them to themselves Luk. 24.49 only commanding them to tarry in the City of Hierusalem until they were indued with further power from on high whereby they might be fitted for so great a work Act. 1.9 And when he had spoken those things while they beheld he was taken up and a Cloud received him out of their sight No sooner was he gone to the Heavenly glories but the Apostles with the rest withdrew themselves unto Hierusalem as he had appointed where the first care they took was to fill up their number to surrogate some one or other of the Disciples in the place of Judas that so the Word of God might be fulfilled Psal 69.26 which he had spoken by the Psalmist Episcopatum ejus accipiat alter A business of no small importance and therefore fit to be imparted unto all the Brethren not so much that their suffrage and consent herein was necessary as that they might together joyn in prayer to Almighty God Act. 1.21
and shewing what perfections were in them required then adds Quos Successores relinquebant sunm ipsorum locum magisterii tradentes whom they did leave to be their Successors delivering unto them their own place of government Cypr. Epist 42. vel l. 2. ep 10. S. Cyprian next writing to Cornelius then Bishop of Rome exhorts him to endeavour to preserve that unity Per Apostolos nobis Successoribus traditam which was commended by the Apostles unto them their Successors So in another place speaking of the commission which our Saviour gave to his Apostles he adds that it was also given to those Praepositi Id. Epist 69. vel l 4. ep 10. rulers and governours of the Church Qui Apostolis Vicaria ordinatione succedunt which by their ordination have been substituted as Successors to them And lest we should mistake his meaning in the word Prupositi Firmilianut anothe â—i shop of those times Firmil ep Cy. Epist 79. in an Epistle unto Cyprian useth instead thereof the word Episcopi not varying in the rest from those very words which Cyprian had used before Hieron ad Marcell adv Mont. Hierom although conceived by some to be an adversary of the Bishops doth affirm as much Where speaking of Montanus and his faction he shews this difference betwixt them and the Church of God viz. that they had cast the Bishop downwards made him to be the third in order Apud nos Apostolorum locum Episcopi tenent but in the Catholick-Church of Christ the Bishops held the place or room of the Apostles The like he saith in his Epistle to Euagrius Id. ad Euagr. where speaking of the parity of Bishops amongst themselves that the eminency of their Churches did make no difference in their authority he gives this reason of the same Omnes Apostolorum successores sunt because they were all Successors to the Apostles So also in his Comments on the Book of Psalms writing upon those words Id. in Psal 44. Instead of thy Fathers thou shalt have Children he tells us that at first the Apostles were the Fathers of the Church but they being gon Habes pro his Episcopos filios the Church had Bishops in their stead which though they were her Children as begotten by her Sunt tamen patres tui yet they were also Fathers to her in that she was directed and guided by them August in Psal 44. S. Austin on the same words hath the like conceit the Fathers of the Church saith he were the Lords Apostles Pro Apostolis filii nati sunt tibi constituti sunt Episcopi instead of those Fathers the Church hath Children Bishops that be ordained in her such whom she calleth Fathers though her self begat them constituit in Sedibus patrum and placed them in the seats or thrones of those holy Fathers August Epist 42. The like the same Saint Austin in another place to the same effect The root saith he of Christian Religion is by the seats of the Apostles Successiones Episcoporum and the succession of the Bishops dispersed and propagated over all the world Grego Magn. hom 26. And so S. Gregory discoursing of the power of binding and loosing committed by the Lord unto his Apostles applies it thus Horum nunc in Ecclesiâ locum Episcopi tenent that now the Bishops hold their places in the Church of Christ Not that the Bishops do succeed them in their personal graces their mighty power of working Miracles speaking with tongues giving the Holy Ghost and others such as these which were meerly temporary but in their Pastoral charge and government as the chief Rulers of the Church the ordinary Pastors of the Flock of Christ Now that the Bishops are the ordinary Pastors of the Church and so conceived to be by the ancient Fathers will be made evident by as good authority as the point before Ignatius Ignat. Epist ad Antioch who conversed with most of the Apostles writing unto the Antiochians requireth them to call to mind Euodius who was his Predecessor in the See of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertull. de fuga in persecut their most blessed Pastor Tertullian discoursing on those words of Christ The hireling seeth the Woolf coming and fleeth but that the good Shepherd layeth down his life for the Sheep Joh. 10. inferreth thereupon Praepositos Ecclesiae in persecutione fugere non oportere that the Prelates or Governours of the Church are not to fly in persecution By which it is most clear not to dispute the truth of his assertion that Pastor Praepositus Ecclesiae do come both to one Cypr. de Aleatore S. Cyprian in his tract de Aleatore is more plain and positive Nam ut constaret nos i. e. Episcopos Pastores esse ovium Spiritualium c. that it might evidently appear saith he that we the Bishops are the Pastors of the Flock of Christ He said to Peter feed my Sheep And in another place for fear the former Book may prove none of his expostulating with Pupianus Id. Epist 69. who charged him as it seemeth for some defect in his administration he thus drives the point Behold saith he for these six years Nec fraternitas babuerit Episcopum neither the Brother-hood hath had a Bishop nor the People a Praepositus or Ruler nor the Flock a Pastor nor the Church a Governour nor Christ a Prelate nor God a Priest Where plainly Pastor and Episcopus and so all the rest are made to be the same one function More clearly in another place of the same Epistle where he defineth a Church to be Plebs sacerdoti adunata Pastori suo grex adhaerens that is to say a People joyned or united rather to their Priest a Flock adhering to their Pastor Where by Sacerdos as before and in other Authors of the first times he meaneth no other than a Bishop as doth appear by that which followeth Vnde scire debes Episcopum in Ecclesia c. From whom thou oughtest to understand saith he the Bishop to be in the Church and the Church to be also in the Bishop and that whoever is not with the Bishop is not in the Church Optatus saith the same in brief Opta de schismate lib. 1. by whom Pastor sine grege Episcopus sine populo a Bishop without a Church or People and a Pastor without a Flock are joyned together as Synonyma S. Austin speaking of two sorts of Over-seers in the fold of Christ some of them being Children and the others hirelings then adds Praepositi autem qui filii sunt Pastores sunt Augâ—st Traâ—â— 46. in Job the Rulers which are Children of the Church they are the Pastors And in another place not long since cited speaking of Episcopale judicium the condemnation that attends the Bishops sentence he presently subjoyns Pastoralis tamen necessitas Id de corrâ—pt grat c. 15. that yet the necessity
four Sees in those early days 7. The use made of this Episcopal succession by Saint Irenaeus 8. As also by Tertullian and some other Ancients 9. Of the Authority enjoyed by Bishops in Tertullians time in the administration of the Sacraments 10. As also in enjoyning Fasts and the disposing of the Churches Treasury 11. And in the dispensation of the Keys 12. Tertullian misalledged in maintenance of the Lay-Presbytery 13. The great extent of Christianity and Episcopacy in Tertullians time concludes this Century HAVING thus setled the affairs of the Church of Britain we will look back again towards Rome where we find Victor sitting as successor unto Eleutherius and the whole Church though free from persecutions yet terribly embroyled with Schisms and Heresies For in the later end of Eleutherius Blastus and Florinus two notorious Hereticks had broached this doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Eccl. hist l. 5. c. 19. that God was the author of sin and possibly might have spread the venom of their Heresie exceeding far if Irenaeus that great and learned Bishop of Lyons being then at Rome had not prescribed a speedy and a sovereign Antidote in several Tractates and Discourses against the same But Eleutherius being dead and Victor in his place there hapned such a Schism in the Church of Christ by his precipitance and perversness that all the water which Irenaeus and many other godly men could pour into it Id. l. 5. c. 23. 24. was hardly sufficient to quench the flame The business which occasioned it was the feast of Easter or indeed not the Feast it self upon the keeping of the which all Christians had agreed from the first beginnings but for the day in which it was to be observed wherein the Churches of Asia had an old Tradition differing from the rest of Christendom For whereas generally that festival had been solemnized in the Church of Christ on the Lords Day next after the Jewish Passeover as being the day which our Redeemer honoured with his Resurrection the Christians of the Asian Churches kept it upon the 14th day of the month precisely being the very day prescribed for the Jewish Passeover A business of no great importance more than for a general conformity in the Church of Christ yet such as long had exercised the patience of it even from the time of Pius Pope of Rome who first decreed it to be kept on the Lords Day Die Dominico Pascha celebrari as it is in Platina Platina in vita Pii Pont. Euscb Ecc. hist l. 5. c. 24. but followed with most heat and violence by this Victor perhaps upon the Omen of his name Of whom Eusebius thus reporteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that he attempted to cut off the whole Church of Asia together with the Churches adjacent from the Communion of the Catholick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if they had maintained some heterodox or dangerous Doctrine contrary to the Faith of Christ A matter taken very tenderly not only by the Asian Bishops whom it most concerned but also by some other of the Western parts who more endeavoured the preservation of the Churches peace than the advancement and authority of the See of Rome those of chief note which interessed themselves therein being Irenaeus Polycrates the one Bishop of the Metropolitan Church of Lyons in France the other of the Church of Ephesus the Queen of Asia both honourable in their times and places And first Polycrates begins deriving the occasion and descent of their observation from Philip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. one of the twelve Apostles not of the seven Deacons as our Christopherson most ridiculously and falsly doth translate it who died at Hierapolis a City of Phrygia and from Saint John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who rested on the bosom of our Lord and Saviour as also from Polycarpus and Thracias Bishops of Smyrna and both Martyrs Sagaris B. of Laodicea Papyrus and Melito and many others who kept the feast of Easter as the Asians did As for himself he certifieth that following the Traditions of his Elders he had done the like that seven of his kindred had been Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself being the eighth and all which did so observe the feast of Easter when the Jews did prepare the Passeover that having served God 65 years diligently canvassed over the holy Scriptures and held both intercourse and correspondence with many of the brethren over all the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was the least disturbed at those Bruta fulmina Adding withal that he might here commemorate those several Bishops that were assembled at his call to debate the point 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that this bare retital of their names was too great a trouble who though they could not but be sensible of his imperfections yet thinking that he bare not those gray hairs for nought did willingly subscribe unto his Epistle So far Id. ibid. c. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to this purpose he And on the other side Irenaeus writing unto Victor utterly dislikes that his severe and rigid manner of proceeding in cutting off so many Churches from the Communion of our Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only because they did adhere to the Tradition of their Ancestors in a point of Ceremony shewing how much he differed in this business from the temper and moderation of his Predecessours Soter Anicetus Pius Higinus Sixtus and Telesphorus who though they held the same opinions that he did did notwithstanding entertain the Asian Bishops when they came unto them with great affection and humanity sending to those who lived far distant the most blessed Eucharist in testimony of their fellowship and Communion with them Nor did he write thus unto Victor only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to the Governours or Bishops of many other Churches also And certainly it was but need that such a Moderator should be raised to atone the difference the billows beating very highly and Victor being beset on every side for his stiff perversness by the Prelates of the adverse party 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sharply assaulting him both with words and Writings For the composing of this business before it grew to such a heat there could no better means be thought of than that the Bishops of the Church in their several quarters should meet together to debate and determine of it And so accordingly they did Euseb hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and many Synods and assemblies of the Bishops were held about it viz. one in Caesarea of Palestine wherein Theophilus B. of the place and Narcissus B. of Hierusalem did sit as Presidents another at Rome a third of all the Bishops of Pontus in the which Palmas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the chief amongst them of that Order did then preside A fourth there was of the French or Gallick Churches in the which Irenaeus sat
day that now they will not be persuaded that it is a Dream For the awakening of the which and their reduction to more sound and sensible Counsels next to my duty to Gods Church and your Sacred Majesty have I applied my self to compose this Story wherein I doubt not but to shew them how much they have deceived both themselves and others in making the old Jewish Sabbath of equal age and observation with the Law of Nature and preaching their new Sabbath-Doctrines in the Church of Christ with which the Church hath no acquaintance wherein I doubt not but to shew them that by their obstinate resolution not to make Publication of your Majesties pleasure they tacitely condemn not only all the Fathers of the Primitive times the Learned Writers of all Ages many most godly Kings and Princes of the former days and not few Councils of chief note and of faith unquestionable but even all states of Men Nations and Churches at this present whom they most esteem This makes your Majesties interest so particular in this present History that were I not obliged unto your Majesty in any nearer bond than that of every common Subject it could not be devoted unto any other with so just propriety But being it is the work of your Majesties Servant and in part fashioned at those times which by your Majesties leave were borrowed from Attendance on your Sacred Person your Majesty hath also all the rights unto it of a Lord and Master Institut l. 1. tit 8. §. 1. So that according to that Maxim of the Civil Laws Quodcunque per servum acquiritur id domino acquirit suo your Majesty hath as absolute power to dispose thereof as of the Author who is Dread Soveraign Your Majesties most Obedient Subject and most faithful Servant PET. HEYLYN A PREFACE To them who being themselves mistaken have misguided others in these new Doctrines of the Sabbath NOT out of any humour or desire of being in action or that I love to have my hands in any of those publick quarrels wherewith our peace hath been disturbed but that Posterity might not say we have been wanting for our parts to your information and the direction of Gods People in the ways of truth have I adventured on this Story A Story which shall represent unto you the constant practice of Gods Church in the present business from the Creation to these days that so you may the better see how you are gone astray from the paths of Truth and tendries of Antiquity and from the present judgment of all Men and Churches The Arguments whereto you trust and upon seeming strength whereof you have been emboldned to press these Sabbatarian Doctrins upon the Consciences of poor people I purpose not to meddle with in this Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They have been elsewhere throughly canvassed and all those seeming strengths beat down by which you were your selves misguided and by the which you have since wrought on the affections of unlearned men or such at least that judged not of them by their weight but by their numbers But where you give it out as in matter of fact how that the Sabbath was ordained by God in Paradise and kept accordingly by all the Patriarchs before Moses time or otherwise ingraft by Nature in the soul of man and so in use also amongst the Gentiles In that I have adventured to let men see that you are very much mistaken and tell us things directly contrary unto truth of Story Next where it is the ground-work of all your building that the Commandment of the Sabbath is Moral Natural and Perpetual as punctually to be observed as any other of the first or second Table I doubt not but it will appear by this following History that it was never so esteemed of by the Jews themselves no not when as the observation of the same was most severely pressed upon them by the Law and Prophets nor when the day was made most burdensome unto them by the Scribes and Pharisees Lastly whereas you make the Lords day to be an institution of our Saviour Christ confirmed by the continual usage of the holy Apostles and both by him and them imposed as a perpetual Ordinance on the Christian Church making your selves believe that so it was observed in the times before as you have taught us to observe it in these latter days I have made manifest to the world that there is no such matter to be found at all either in any writings of the Apostles or monument of true Antiquity or in the practice of the middle or the present Churches What said I of the present Churches So I said indeed and doubt not but it will appear so in this following Story The present Churches all of them both Greek and Latin together with the Protestants of what name soever being far different both in their Doctrine and their practice from these new conceptions And here I cannot chuse but note that whereas those who first did set on foot these Doctrines in all their other practices to subvert this Church did bear themselves continually on the Authority of Calvin and the example of those Churches which came most near unto the Plat-form of Geneva In these their Sabbath-speculations they had not only none to follow but they found Calvin and Geneva and those other Churches directly contrary unto them However in all other matters they cryed up Calvin and his Writings Hooker in his Preface making his Books the very Canon to which both Discipline and Doctrine was to be confirmed yet hic magister non tenetur here by his leave they would forsake him and leave him fairly to himself that they themselves might have the glory of a new invention For you my Brethren and beloved in our Lord and Saviour as I do willingly believe that you have entertain'd these Tenets upon mis-persuasion not out of any ill intentions to the Church your Mother and that it is an errour in your judgments only not of your affections So upon that belief have I spared no pains as much as in me is to remove that errour and rectifie what is amiss in your opinion I hope you are not of those men Quos non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris who either hate to be reformed or have so far espoused a quarrel that neither truth nor reason can divorce them from it Nor would I gladly you should be of their resolutions Qui volunt id verum esse quod credunt nolunt id credere quod verum est who are more apt to think all true which themselves believe than be persuaded to believe such things as are true indeed In confidence whereof as I was first induced to compose this History so in continuance of those hopes I have presumed to address it to you to tender it to your perusal and to submit it to your censure That if you are not better furnished you may learn from hence that you have trusted
kept from the Creation to the Flood 1. Gods rest upon the Seventh day and from what he rested 2. Zanchius conceit touching the Sanctifying of the first Seventh day by Christ our Saviour 3. The like of Torniellus touching the Sanctifying of the same by the Angels in Heaven 4. A general demonstration that the Fathers before the Law did not keep the Sabbath 5. Of Adam that he kept not the Sabbath 6. That Abel and Seth did not keep the Sabbath 7. Of Enos that he kept not the Sabbath 8. That Enoch and Methusalem did not keep the Sabbath 9. Of Noah that he kept not the Sabbath 10. The Sacrifices and devotions of the Ancients were occasional HOW little ground there is whereon to build the original of the Sabbath in the second of Genesis we have at large declared in the former Chapter Yet we deny not but that Text affords us a sufficient intimation of the equity and reason of it which is Gods rest upon that day after all his works that he had made Origen contra Cels l. 6. Not as once Celsus did object against the Christians of his time as if the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. like to some dull Artificer was weary of his labours and had need of sleep for he spake the word only and all things were made There went no greater labour to the whole Creation than a dixit Dominus De Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 14. Therefore Saint Austin rightly noteth nec cum creavit defessus nec cum cessavit refectus est that God was neither weary of working nor refreshed with resting The meaning of the Text is this that he desisted then from adding any thing de novo unto the World by him created as having in the six former days fashioned the Heaven and Earth and every thing in them contained and furnished them with all things necessary both for use and ornament I say from adding any thing de novo unto the World by him created but not from governing the same which is a work by us as highly to be prized as the first Creation and from the which God never resteth Sabbaths and all days are alike in respect of providence in reference to the universal government of the World and Nature Semper videmus Deum operari Hom. 23. in Num. Sabbatum nullum est in quo Deus non operetur in quo non producat Solem suum super bonos malos No Sabbath whereon God doth rest from the administration of the World by him Created whereon he doth not make his Sun to shine both on good and bad whereon he rains not plenty upon the Sinner and the Just as Origen hath truly noted Nor is this more than what our Saviour said in his holy Gospel I work and my Father also worketh Contra Faustum Man l. 16. c. 6. A saying as Saint Augustine notes at which the Jews were much offended our Saviour meaning by those words that God rested not nec ullum sibi cessationis statuisse diem and that there was no day wherein he tended not the preservation of the Creature and therefore for his own part he would not cease from doing his Fathers business ne Sabbatis quidem no though it were upon the Sabbath By which it seemeth that when the Sabbath was observed and that if still it were in force it was not then and would not be unlawful unto any now to look to his estate on the Sabbath day and to take care that all things thrive and prosper which belong unto him though he increase it not or add thereto by following on that day the works of his daily labour And this according to their rules who would have Gods example so exactly followed in the Sabbaths rest who rested as we see from Creation only not from preservation So that the rest here mentioned was as before I said no more than a cessation or a leaving off from adding any thing as then unto the World by him Created Upon which ground he afterwards designed this day for his Holy Sabbath that so by his example the Jews might learn to rest from their wordly labours and be the better fitted to meditate on the works of God and to commemorate his goodness manifested in the Worlds Creation Of any other Sanctification of this day by the Lord our God than that he rested on it now and after did command the Jews that they should sanctifie the same we have no Constat in the Scriptures nor in any Author that I have met with until Zanchies time Indeed he tells us a large story of his own making how God the Son came down to Adam and sanctified this first Sabbath with him that he might know the better how to do the like De creat hominis l. 1. ad finem Ego quidem non dubito c. I little doubt saith he I will speak only what I think without wrong or prejudice to others I little doubt but that the Son of God taking the shape of man upon him was busied all this day in most holy conferences with Adam and that he made known himself both to him and Eve taught them the order that he used in the Worlds Creation exhorted them to meditate on those glorious works in them to praise the Name of God acknowledging him for their Creator and after his example to spend that day for ever in these pious exercises I doubt not finally saith he but that he taught them on that day the whole body of divinity and that he held them busied all day long in hearing him and celebrating with due praises their Lord and God and giving thanks unto him for so great and many benefits as God had graciously vouchsafed to bestow upon them Which said he shuts up all with this conclusion Haec est illius septimi diei benedictio sanctificatio in qua filius Dei una cum patre spiritu sancto quievit ab opere quod facerat This was saith he the blessing and sanctifying of that seventh day wherein the Son of God together with the Father and the Holy Ghost did rest from all the works that they had made How Zanchie thwarts himself in this we shall see hereafter Such strange conceptions See n. 5. though they miscarry not in birth yet commonly they serve to no other use than monsters in the works of nature to be seen and shewn with wonder at all times and sometimes with pity Had such a thing occurred in Pet. Comestors supplement which he made unto the Bible it had been more tolerable The Legendaries and the Rabbins might fairly also have been excused if any such device had been extant in them The gravity of the man makes the tale more pitiful though never the more to be regarded For certainly had there been such a weighty conference between God and Man and so much tending unto information and instruction it is not probable but that
day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once a month beginning their account with the New-moon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that the Jews did keep every seventh day constantly It 's true that Philo tells us more than once or twice how that the Sabbath was become a general Festival but that was rather taken up in imitation of the Jess than practised out of any instinct or light of nature as we shall see hereafter in a place more proper Besides which days before remembred the second day was consecrate to the bonus Genius Hospin de orig Fest cap. 5. the third and fifteenth to Minerva the ninth unto the Sun the last to Pluto and every twentieth day kept holy by the Epicures Now as the Greeks did consecrate the New-moons and seventh day to Phoebus the fourth of every month to Mercury and the eighth to Neptune sic de caeteris So every ninth day in the year was by the Romans anciently kept sacred unto Jupiter the Flamines or Priests upon that day offering a Ram unto him for a Sacrifice Nundinas Jovis ferias esse ait Granius Licinius Saturnal l. 1. c. 16. siquidem Flaminica omnibus nundinis every ninth day in regia Jovi arietem solere immolare as in Macrobius So that we see the seventh day was no more in honour than either the first fourth or eighth and not so much as was the ninth this being as it were a weekly Festival and that a monthly A thing so clear and evident 2. Edit p. 65. that Dr. Bound could tell us that the memory of Weeks and Sabbaths was altogether suppressed and buried amongst the Gentiles And in the former page But how the memory of the seventh day was taken away amongst the Romans Ex veteri nundinarum instituto apparet saith Beroaldus And Satan did altogether take away from the Graecians the boly memory of the seventh day by obtruding on the wicked Rites of Superstition which on the eighth day they did keep in bonour of Neptune So that besides other holy days the one of them observed the eighth day and the other the ninth and neither of them both the seventh as the Church doth now and hath done always from the beginning It 's true Diogenes the Grammarian Sueton. in Tiber. c. 32. did hold his disputations constantly upon the Saturday or Sabbath and when Tiberius at an extraordinary time came to hear his exercises in diem septimum distulerat the Pedant put him off until the saturday next following A right Diogenes indeed and as rightly served For coming to attend upon Tiberius being then made Emperour he sent him word ut post annum septimum rediret that he would have him come again the seventh year after But then as true it is De illustrib Grammat which the same Suetonius tells us of Antonius Gnipho a Grammarian too that he taught Rhetorick every day declamaret vero non nisi nundinis but declaimed only on the ninth But then as true it is which Juvenal hath told us of the Roman Rhetoricians that they pronounced their Declamations on the sixth day chiefly Nil salit Arcadico juveni cujus mihi sextâ Sat. Quâque die miserum dirus caput Annibal implet As the Poet hath it All days it seems alike to them the first fourth sixth eighth ninth and indeed what not as much in honour as the seventh whether it were in civil or in sacred matters I am not ignorant that many goodly Epithets are by some ancient Poets amongst the Grecians appropriated to this day which we find gathered up together Clem. Strom. l. 5. Euseb Praepar l. 13. c. 12. by Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius but before either of them by one Aristobulus a learned Jew who lived about the time of Ptolomy Philometor King of Egypt both Hesiod and Homer as they there are cited give it the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an holy day and so it was esteemed amongst them as before is shewn but other days esteemed as holy From Homer they produce two Verses wherein the Poet seems to be acquainted with the Worlds Creation and the perfection of it on the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the seventh day all things were fully done On that we left the waves of Acheron The like are cited out of Linus as related by Eusebius from the collections of Aristobulus before remembred but are by Clemens fathered on Callimachus another of the old Greek Poets who between them thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which put together may be thus Englished in the main though not verbatim On the seventh day all things were made compleat The birth-day of the World most good most great Seven brought forth all things in the starry Skie Keeping each year their courses constantly This Clemens makes an argument that not the Jews only but the Gentiles also knew that the seventh day had a priviledg yea and was hallowed above other days on which the World and all things in it were compleat and finished And so we grant they did but neither by the light of Nature nor any observation of that day amongst themselves more than any other Not by the light of Nature For Ariftobulus from whom Clemens probably might take his hint speaks plainly that the Poets had consulted with the holy Bible and from thence sucked this knowledg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Author saith of Hesiod and Homer Which well might be Ap. Euseb considering that Homer who was the oldest of them flourished about five hundred years after Moses death Callimachus who was the latest above Seven hundred years after Homers time Nor did they speak it out of any observation of that day more than any other amongst themselves The general practice of the Gentiles before related hath throughly as we hope removed that scruple They that from these words can collect a Sabbath had need of as good eys as Clemens who out of Plato in his second de republ Strom. l. 5. conceives that he hath found a sufficient warrant for the observing of the Lords day above all the rest because it is there said by Plato That such as had for seven days solaced in the pleasant Meadows were to depart upon the eighth and not return till four days after As much a Lords day in the one as any Sabbath in the other Indeed the Argument is weak that some of those that thought it of especial weight have now deserted it as too light and trivial Ryvet by name who cites most of these Verses in his notes on Genesis to prove the Sabbath no less ancient than the Worlds Creation doth on the Decalogue think them utterly unable to
leave the seventh year free and the exaction of every debt Where still observe that they had no less care of the annual Sabbaths yea of the Sabbaths of years than of the weekly and Marketting not more restrained on the weekly Sabbaths than on the Annual A Covenant not so well performed as it was agreed For Nehemiah who was principal on the Peoples part being gone for Babylon at his return found all things contrary to what he looked for I saw saith he Chap. 13.15 in Judah them that trode Wine presses on the Sabbath and that brought in Sheafs and which laded Asses also with Wine Grapes and Figgs and brought them into Hierusalem on the Sabbath day and others men of Tyrus that brought Fish and all manner of Ware Verse 16. and sold it on the Sabbath unto the Children of Judah a most strange disorder So general was the crime become that the chief Rulers of the People were most guilty of it So that to rectifie this misrule Nehemiah was not only forced to shut up the Gates upon the Even before the Sabbath yea and to keep them shut all the Sabbath day whereby the Merchants were compelled to rest with their Commodities without the Walls but to use threatning words unto them that if from that time forwards they came with Merchandize on the Sabbath he would forbear no longer but lay hands upon them A course not more severe than necessary as the case then stood Nor had those mischiefs been redressed being now countenanced by custom and some chief men among the People had they not met a man both resolved and constant one that both knew his work and had a will to see it finished This reformation of the Sabbath or rather of those foul abuses which had of late defiled it and even made it despicable is placed by Torniellus An. 3629. which was above an hundred years after the restitution of this people to their Native Countrey So difficult a thing it is to overcome an evil custom Things ordered thus and all those publick scandals being thus removed there followed a more strict observance of the Sabbath day than ever had been kept before The rather since about these times began the reading of the Law in the Congregation Not every seventh year only and on the Feast of Tabernacles as before it was or should have been at the least by the Law of Moses but every sabbath day and each solemn meeting not only in the Temple of Hierusalem as it is used to be but in the Towns and principal places of each several Tribe Ezra first set this course on foot a Priest by calling one very skilful in the Laws of Moses who having taken great pains to seek out the Law and other Oracles of God digested and disposed them into that form and method in which we have them at this present Of this see Iren. l. 3.25 Tertullian de habitu mulierum Clem. Alexandr l. 1. Strom. Chrysost hom 8. ad Hebraeos and divers others This done and all the people met together at the Feast of Tabernacles Anno 3610 Nehem. 8.4 which was some ninty years after the return from Babylon as before was said he took that opportunity to make known the Law unto the people For this cause he provided a Pulpit of Wood that so he might be heard the better and round about him stood the Priests Verse 4.7 Verse 8. Verse 18. and Levites learned men of purpose to expound the Text and to give the sense thereof that so the people might the better understand the reading And this they did eight days together from the first day until the last when the Feast was ended Now in this Act of Ezra's there was nothing common nothing according to the custom of the former times neither in time or place or any other circumstance For the time although it was the Feast of Tabernacles yet was it not the seventh year as Moses ordered it that year which was the first of Nehemiahs coming unto Hierusalem Neh. 8.1 3. not being the sabbatical year but the third year after as Torniellus doth compute it Then for the place it should have been performed in the Temple only as both by Moses Ordinance and Josiahs practice doth at large appear but now they did it in the street before the Water-gates as the Text informs us So for manner of the Reading it was not only published as it had been formerly but expounded also An. 3610. n. 9. Whereof as of a thing never known before this reason is laid down by Torniellus quod lingua Hebraica desierat jam vulgaris esse Chaldaico seu Syriaco idiomate in ejus locum surrogato because the Hebrew tongue wherein the Scriptures were first written was now grown strange unto the people the Chaldee or the Syriack being generally received in the place thereof And last of all for the continuance of this Exercise it held out eight days all the whole time the Feast continued whereas it was appointed by the Law of Moses that only the first and last days of the Feast of Tabernacles should be esteemed and solemnized as holy convocations to the Lord their God Levit. 23.35 36. Here was a total alteration of the ancient custom and a fair overture to the Priests who were then Rulers of the people to begin a new a fair instruction to them all that reading of the Law of God was not confined to place or time but that all times and places were alike to his holy Word Every seventh day as fit for so good a Duty as every seventh year was accounted in the former times the Villages and Towns as capable of the Word of God as was the great and glorious Temple of Hierusalem and what prerogative had the Feast of Tabernacles but that the Word of God might be as necessary to be heard on the other Festivals as it was on that The Law had first been given them on a Sabbath day and therefore might be read unto them every Sabbath day This might be pleaded in behalf of this alteration and that great change which followed after in the weekly Sabbaths whereon the Law of God was not only read unto the people such of them as inhabited over all Judaea but publickly made known unto them in all the Provinces and Towns abroad where they had either Synagogues or habitations God certainly had so disposed it in his heavenly Counsels that so his holy Word might be more generally known throughout the World and a more easie way layed open for the admittance and receipt of the Messiah whom he meant to send that so Hierusalem and the Temple might by degrees be lesned in their reputation and men might know that neither of them was the only place John 4.20 where they ought to worship This I am sure of that by this breaking of the custom although an institute of Moses the Law was read more frequently than in times of old there being
said in holy Scripture that he was seen of them by the space of forty days as much on one as on another His first appearing after the night following his Resurrection which is particularly specified in the Book of God was when he shewed himself to Thomas who before was absent That the Text tells us John 20.26 was after eight days from the time before remembred which some conceive to be the eighth day after or the next first day of the week and thereupon conclude that day to be most proper for the Congregations or publick Meetings of the Church Diem octavum quo Christus Thomae apparuit In Joh. l. 17. cap. 18. Dominicum diem esse necesse est as Saint Cyril hath it Jure igitur sanctae congregationes die octavo in Ecclesia fiunt But where the Greek Text reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 post octo dies in the vulgar Latine after eight days according to our English Bibles that should be rather understood of the ninth or tenth than the eighth day after and therefore could not be upon the first day of the week as it is imagined Now as the premisses are untrue so the Conclusion is unfirm For if our Saviours apparition unto his Disciples were of it self sufficient to create a Sabbath then must that day whereon Saint Peter went on fishing John 21.3 be a Sabbath also and so must holy Thursday too it being most evident that Christ appeared on those days unto his Apostles So that as yet from our Redeemers Resurrection unto his Ascension we find not any word or Item of a new Christian Sabbath to be kept amongst them or any evidence for the Lords day in the four Evangelists either in precept or in practice The first particular passage which doth occur in holy Scripture touching the first day of the week is that upon that day the Holy Ghost did first come down on the Apostles and that upon the same Saint Peter Preached his first Sermon unto the Jews and Baptized such of them as believed there being added to the Church that day three thousand souls This hapned on the Feast of Pentecost which fell that year upon the Sunday or first day of the week as elsewhere the Scripture calls it but as it was a special and a casual thing so can it yield but little proof if it yield us any that the Lords Day was then observed or that the Holy Ghost did by selecting of that day for his descent on the Apostles intend to dignifie it for Sabbath For first it was a casual thing that Pentecost should fall that year upon the Sunday It was a moveable Feast as unto the day such as did change and shift it self according to the position of the Feast of Passeover the rule being this that on what day soever the second of the Passeover did fall upon that also fell the great Feast of Pentecost Emend Temp. l. 2. Nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 semper eadem est feria quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Scaliger hath rightly noted So that as often as the Passeover did fall upon the Saturday or Sabbath as this year it did then Pentecost fell upon the Sunday But when the Passeover did chance to fall upon the Tuesday the Pentecost fell that year upon the Wednesday sic de caeteris And if the rule be true as I think it is that no sufficient argument can be drawn from a casual fact and that the falling of the Pentecost that year upon the first day of the week be meerly casual the coming of the Holy Ghost upon that day will be no argument nor authority to state the first day of the week in the place and honour of the Jewish Sabbath There may be other reasons given why God made choice of that time rather than of any other As first because about that very time before he had proclaimed the Law upon Mount Sinai And secondly that so he might the better conntenance and grace the Gospel in the sight of men and add the more authority unto the doctrine of the Apostles The Feast of Pentecost was a great and famous Festival at which the Jews all of them were to come unto Hierusalem there to appear before the Lord and amongst others those which had their hands in our Saviours blood And therefore as S. Chrysostom notes it did God send down the Holy Ghost at that time of Pentecost In Act. 2. because those men that did consent to our Saviours death might publickly receive rebuke for that bloody act and so bear record to the power of our Saviours Gospel before all the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Father hath it So that the thing being casual as unto the day and special as unto the business then by God intended it will afford us little proof as before I said either that the Lords Day was as then observed or that the Holy Ghost did select that day for so great a work to dignifie it for a Sabbath As for Saint Peters Preaching upon that day and the Baptizing of so many as were converted to the faith upon the same it might have been some proof that now at least if nor before the first day of the week was set apart by the Apostles for religious exercises had they not honoured all days with the same performances But if we search the Scriptures we shall easily find that all days were alike to them in that respect no day in which they did not preach the word of life and administer the Sacraments of their Lord and Saviour to such as either wanted it or did desire it Or were it that the Scriptures had not told us of it yet natural reason would inform us that those who were imployed in so great a work as the Conversion of the World could not confine themselves unto times and seasons but must take all advantages whensoever they came But for the Scripture it is said in terms express first generally that the Lord added daily to the Church such as should be saved and therefore without doubt Acts 2.47 the means of their salvation were daily ministred unto them and in the fifth Chapter of the Acts Verse 42 and daily in the Temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ Acts 8. So for particulars when Philip did Baptize the Eunuch either he did it on a working day as we now distinguish them and not upon the first day of the week and so it was no Lords day duty or else it was not held unlawful to take a journey on that day as some think it is Saint Peters Preaching to Cornelius and his Baptizing of that house was a week-days work as may be gathered from Saint Hierom. That Father tells us that the day whereon the vision appeared to Peter was probably the Sabbath Advers Jovinian l. 2. or the Lords Day as we call it now fieri potuit ut
Battels and Assaults which we shall sum up briefly in their place and time And first for Coronations which as before I said are mixt kind of actions compound of sacred and of civil William surnamed Rufus was crowned at Canterbury by Archbishop Lanfrancke the 25 of Septemb. being Sunday Anno 1087. So was King Stephen the 21 of Decemb. being Sunday too Anno 1135. On Sunday before Christmas day was Henry the second crowned at London by Archbishop Theobald Anno 1155. and on the Sunday before Septuagesima his Daughter Joane was at Palermo crowned Queen of Sicily Of Richard the first it is recorded that hoysing Sail from Barbeflet in Normandy he arrived safely here upon the Sunday before our Lady day in Harvest whence setting towards London there met him his Archbishops Bishops Earls and Barons cum copiosa militum multitudine with a great multitude of Knightly rank by whose advise and Councel he was crowned on a Sunday in September following Anno 1189. and after crowned a second time on his return from Thraldom and the Holy Land Anno 1194. on a Sunday too The Royal and magnificent form of his first Coronation they who list to see may find it most exactly represented in Rog. de Hoveden And last of all King John was first inaugurated Duke of Normandy by Walter Archbishop of Roane the Sunday after Easter day Anno 1200. and on a Sunday after crowned King of England together with Isabel his Queen by Hubert at that time Archbishop of Canterbury For Synods next Anno 1070. A Council was assembled at Winchester by the appointment of King William the first and the consent of Alexander then Pope of Rome for the degrading of Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury and this upon the Sunday next after Easter And we find mention of a Synod called by Richard Archbishop of Canterbury Anno 1175. the Sunday before holy Thursday ad quod concilium venerunt fere omnes Episcopi Abbates Cantuariensis dioeceseos where were assembled almost all the Bishops and Abbots of the whole Province For Councils of Estate there was a solemn meeting called on Trinity Sunday Anno 1143. in which assembled Maud the Empress and all the Lords which held her party where the Ambassadours from Anjou gave up their account and thereupon it was concluded that the Earl of Gloucester should be sent thither to negotiate his Sisters business So in the year 1185 when some Embassadours from the East had offered to King Henry the second the Kingdom of Hierusalem the King designed the first Sunday in Lent for his day of answer Upon which day there met at London the King the Patriarch of Hierusalem the Bishops Abbots Earls and Barons of the Realm of England as also William King of Scotland and his Brother David with the Earls and Barons of the Countrey habito inde cum deliberatione concilio c. and then and there upon mature deliberation it was concluded that though the King accepted not the Title yet he would give his people leave to put themselves into the action and take up the Cross For civil Business of another nature we find it on Record that on the fourth Sunday in Lent next following the same King Henry Knighted his Son John and sent him forthwith into Ireland Knighthood at those times being far more full of ceremony than now it is Which being but a preparation to War and military matters leads us unto such Battels as in these times were fought on Sunday Of which we find it in our Annals that in the year 1142. upon a Sunday being Candlemas day King Stephen was taken prisoner at the battel of Lincoln as also that on Holy-Cross day next after being Sunday too Robert Earl of Gloucester Commander of the adverse force was taken Prisoner at the battel of Winchester So read we that on Sunday the 25th of August Anno 1173. the King of France besieged and forced the Castle of Dole in Brittain belonging to the King of England As also that on Sunday the 26th of Septemb. Anno 1198. King Richard took the Castle of Curceles from the King of France More of the kind might be remembred were not these sufficient to shew how anciently it hath been the use of the Kings of England to create Knights and hold their Councils of estate on the Lords day as now they do Were not the others here remembred sufficient to let us know that our Progenitours did not think so superstitiously of this day as not to come upon the same unto the Crowning of their Kings or the publick Synods of the Church or if need were and their occasions so required it to fight as well on the Lords day as on any other Therefore no Lords day Sabbath hitherto in the Realm of England Not hitherto indeed But in the Age that followed next there were some overtures thereof some strange preparatives to begin one For in the very entrance of the 13th Age Fulco a French Priest and a notable Hypocrite Rog. de Hoteden as our King Richard counted him and the story proves lighted upon a new Sabbatarian fancy which one of his Associates Eustathius Abbat of Flay in Normandy was sent to scatter here in England but finding opposition to his doctrine he went back again the next year after being 1202. he comes better fortified preaching from town to town and from place to place ne quis forum rerum venalium diebus Dominicis exerceret that no man should presume to market on the Lords day Where by the way we may observe that notwithstanding all the Canons and Edicts before remembred in the fifth Chapter of this book and the third Section of this Chapter the English kept their markets on the Lords day as they had done formerly as neither being bound to those which had been made by foreign states or such as being made at home had long before been cut in peeces by the sword of the Norman Conqueror Now for the easier bringing of the people to obey their dictates they had to shew a warrant sent from God himself as they gave it out The title this Mandatum sanctum Dominicae diei quod de coelo venit in Hierusalem c. An holy mandat touching the Lords day which came down from Heaven unto Hierusalem found on S. Simeons Altar in Golgotha where Christ was Crucified for the sins of all the world which lying there three days and as many nights strook with such terrour all that saw it that falling on the ground they besought Gods mercy At last the Patriarch and Akarias the Archbishop of I know not whence ventured to take into their bands that dreadful letter which was written thus Now wipe your eyes and look a while on the Contents which I shall render with as much brevity as the thing requires Ego Dominus qui praecepi vobis ut observaretis diem sanctum Dominicum non custodistis eum c. I am the Lord which hath commanded to keep
to the judgment of the Protestants before remembred 2. The Lords day and the other Holy days confessed by all this Kingdom in the Court of Parliament to have no other ground than the authority of the Church 3. The meaning and occasion of that clause in the Common-Prayer book Lord have mercy upon us c. repeated at the end of the fourth Commandment 4. That by the Queens Injunctions and the first Parliament of her Keign the Lords day was not meant for a Sabbath day 5. The doctrine in the Homilies delivered about the Lords day and the Sabbath 6. The sum and substance of that Homily and that it makes not any thing for a Lords day Sabbath 7. The first original of the New Sabbath Speculations in this Church of England by whom and for what cause invented 8. Strange and most monstrous Paradoxes preached on occasion of the former doctrines and of the other effects thereof 9. What care was taken of the Lords day in King James his Reign the spreading of the doctrines and of the Articles of Ireland 10. The Jewish Sabbath set on foot and of King James his declaration about lawful sports on the Lords day 11. What Tracts were writ and published in that Princes time in opposition to the doctrines before remembred 12. In what estate the Lords day and the other Holy days have stood in Scotland since the reformation of Religion in that Kingdom 13. Statutes about the Lords day made by our present Sovereign and the misconstruing of the same His Majesty reviveth and enlargeth the Declaration of King James 14. An exhortation to obedience unto his Majesties most Christian purpose concludes this History THUS are we safely come to these present times the times of Reformation wherein whatever had been taught or done in the former days was publickly brought unto the test and if not well approved of layed aside either as unprofitable or plainly hurtful So dealt the Reformators of the church of England as with other things with that which we have now in hand the Lords day and the other Holy days keeping the days as many of them as were thought convenient for the advancement of true godliness and increase of piety but paring off those superstitious conceits and matters of opinion which had been entertained about them But first before we come to this we will by way of preparation lay down the judgments of some men in the present point men of good quality in their times and such as were content to be made a sacrifice in the common Cause Of these I shall take notice of three particularly according to the several times in the which they lived And first we will begin with Master Frith who suffered in the year 1533. who in his declaration of Baptism thus declares himself Our forefathers saith he Page 96. which were in the beginning of the Church did abrogate the Sabbath to the intent that men might have an ensample of Christian liberty c. Howbeith because it was necessary that a day should be reserved in which the people should come together to hear the Word of God they ordained instead of the Sabbath which was Saturday the next day following which is Sunday And although they might have kept the Saturday with the Jew as a thing indifferent yet they did much better Some three years after him Anno 1536. being the 28. of Henry the eighth suffered Master Tyndall who in his answer to Sir Thomas More hath resolved it thus As for the Sabbath we be Lords over the Sabbath Page 287. and may yet change it into Monday or into any other day as we see need or may make every tenth day Holy day only if we see cause why Neither was there any cause to change it from the Saturday but to put a difference between us and the Jews neither reed we any Holy day at all if the people might be taught without it Last of all bishop Hooper sometimes Bishop of Gloucester who suffered in Queen Maries Reign doth in a Treatise by him written on the Ten Commandments and printed in the year 1550. go the self-same way age 103. We may not think saith he that God gave any more holiness to the Sabbath than to the other days For if ye consider Friday Pag. 103. Saturday or Sunday inasmuch as they be days and the work of God the one is no more holy than the other but that day is always most holy in the which we most apply and give our selves unto holy works To that end did he sanctifie the Sabbath day not that we should give our selves to illness or such Ethnical pastime as is now used amongst Ethnical people but being free that day from the travels of this World we might consider the works and benefits of God with thanksgiving hear the Word of God honour him and fear him then to learn who and where be the poor of Christ that want our help Thus they and they amongst them have resolved on these four conclusions First that one day is no more holy than another the Sunday than the Saturday or the Friday further than they are set apart for holy Uses Secondly that the Lords day hath no institution from divine authority but was ordained by our fore-fathers in the beginning of the Church that so the people might have a Day to come together and hear Gods Word Thirdly that still the Church hath power to change the day from Sunday unto Monday or what day she will And lastly that one day in seven is not the Moral part of the fourth Commandment for Mr. Tyndal saith expresly that by the Church of God each tenth day only may be kept holy if we see cause why So that the marvel is the greater that any man should now affirm as some men have done that they are willing to lay down both their Lives and Livings in maintenance of those contrary Opinions which in these latter days have been taken up Now that which was affirmed by them in their particulars was not long afterwards made good by the general Body of this Church and State the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and all the Commons met in Parliament Anno the fifth and sixth of King Edward the sixth 5 6 Edw. 6. cap. 3. where to the honour of Almighty God it was thus enacted For as much as men be not at all times so mindful to Iaud and praise God so ready to resort to hear Gods holy Word and to come to the holy Communion c. as their bounden duty doth require therefore to call men to remembrance of their duty and to help their infirmity it hath been wholsomly provided that there should be some certain times and days appointed wherein the Christians should cease from all kind of labour and apply themselves only and wholly unto the aforesaid holy works properly pertaining to true Keligion c. Which works as they may well be called Gods Service so the time
that day and wheresoever Divine service was done that day as in Towns which have always Morning and Evening Prayers they were perceived to resort in greater numbers on that day than on any other to the Church As for King James of happy memory he did not only keep the said great Festivals from his youth as there is said but wished them to be kept by all his Subjects yet without abuse and in his Basilicon Doron published Anno 1598. thus declares himself that without superstition Plays and unlawful Games may be used in May and good Cheer at Christmas Now on the other side as they had quite put down those days which had been dedicated by the Church to Religious Meetings so they appointed others of their own authority For in their Book of Discipline before remembred it was thus decreed viz. That in every notable Town a day besides the Sunday should be appointed weekly for Sermons that during the time of Sermon the day should be kept free from all exercise of labour as well by the Master as by the Servant as also that every day in the said great Towns there be either Sermon or Prayers with reading of the Scriptures So that it seemeth they only were afraid of the name of Holy days and were contented well enough with the thing it self As for the Lords day in that Kingdom I find not that it had attained unto the name or nature of a Sabbath day until that Doctrine had been set on foot amongst us in England For in the Book of Discipline set out as formerly was said in 560. they call it by no other name than Sunday ordaining that upon four Sundays in the year which are therein specified the Sacrament of the Lords Supper should be administred to the people and in the year 1592. an Act of King James the third about the Saturday and other Vigills to be kept holy from Evensong to Evensong was annulled and abrogated Which plainly shews that then they thought not of a Sabbath But when the Sabbath doctrine had been raised in England Anno 1595 as before was said it found a present entertainment with the Brethren there who had before professed in their publick Writings to our Puritans here Davison p. 20. that both their causes were most nearly linked together and thereupon they both took up the name of Sabbath and imposed the rigour yet so that they esteem it lawful to hold Fasts thereon quod saepissime in Ecclesia nostra Scoticana factum est and use it often in that Church which is quite contrary unto the nature of a Sabbath And on the other side they deny it to be the weekly Festival of the Resurrection Non sunt dies Dominici festa Resurrectionis as they have resolved it Altare Damasc p. 669. which shews as plainly that they build not the translation of their Sabbath on the same grounds as our men have done Id. 696. In brief by making up a mixture of a Lords day Sabbath they neither keep it as the Lords day nor as the Sabbath And in this state things stood until the year 1618. what time some of the Ancient holy days were revived again in the Assembly held at Perth in which moving some other Rites of the Church of England which were then admitted it was thus determined viz. As we abhor the superstitious observation of festival days by the Papists and detest all licentious and prophane abuse thereof by the common sort of Professors so we think that the inestimable benefits received from God by our Lord Jesus Christ his Birth Passion Resurrection Ascension and sending down of the Holy Ghost was commendably and godly remembred at certain particular days and times by the whole Church of the world and may be also now Therefore the Assembly ordains that every Minister shall upon these days have the Commemoration of the foresaid inestimable benefits and make choice of several and pertinent Texts of Scripture and frame their Doctrine and Exhortation thereunto and rebuke all superstitious observation and licentious prophanation thereof A thing which much displeased some men of contrary persuasion first out of fear that this was but a Preamble to make way for all the other Holy days observed in England And secondly because it seemed that these five days were in all points to be observed as the Lords day was both in the times of the Assembly and after the dissolving of the same But pleased or dispeased so it was decreed and so still it stands But to return again to England It pleased his Majesty now Reigning whom God long preserve upon information of many notable misdemeanors on this day committed 1 Carol. 1. in his first Parliament to Enact That from thence-forwards there should be no Meetings Assemblies or concourse of people out of their Parishes on the Lords day for any sports or pastimes whatsoever nor any Bear-baitings Bull-baitings common Plays Enterludes or any other unlawful Exercises or Pastimes used by any person or persons in their own Parishes every offence to be punished by the forfeiture of 3 s. 4 d. This being a Probation Law was to continue till the end of the first Session of the next Parliament And in the next Parliament it was continued till the end of the first Session of the next 3 Carol. 1. which was then to come So also was another Act made in the said last Session wherein it was enacted That no Carrier Waggoner Wain-man Carman or Drover travel thence-forwards on the Lords day on pain that every person and persons so offending shall lose and forfeit 20 s. for every such offence And that no Butcher either by himself or any other by his privity and consent do kill or sell any Victual on the said day upon the forfeiture and loss of 6 s. 8 d. Which Statutes being still in force by reason that there hath not been any Session of Parliament since they were enacted many both Magistrates and Ministers either not rightly understanding or wilfully mistaking the intent and meaning of the first brought Dancing and some other lawful Recreations under the compass of unlawful Pastimes in that Act prohibited and thereupon disturbed and punished many of the Kings obedient people only for using of such Sports as had been authorized by his Majesties Father of blessed memory Nay which is more it was so publickly avowed and printed by one who had no calling to interpret Laws except the provocation of his own ill spirit That Dancing on the Lords day was an unlawful Pastime punishable by the Statute 1. Carol. 1. which intended so he saith to suppress Dancing on the Lords day as well as Bear-baiting Bull-baiting Enterludes and common Plays which were not then so rife and common as Dancing when this Law was made Things being at this height King Charles Declarat it pleased his excellent Majesty Observing as he saith himself how much his people were debarred of Recreation and finding in some
in his Understanding Will Affections and all his other faculties that so he may be able to understand think will and bring to pass any thing that is good according to that of St. John 15.5 Without me you can do nothing IV. Of the manner of Conversion The Grace of God is the beginning promotion and accomplishment of every thing that is good in us insomuch that the Regenerate man can neither think well nor do any thing that is good or resist any sinful Temptations without this Grace preventing co-operating and assisting and consequently all good works which any man in his life can attain unto are to be attributed and ascribed to the Grace of God But as for the manner of the co-operation of this Grace it is not to be thought to be irresistable in regard that it is said of many in the holy Scripture that they did resist the Holy Ghost as in Acts 7. and in other places V. Of the uncertainty of Perseverance They who are grafted into Christ by a lively Faith and are throughly made partakers of his quickning Spirit have a sufficiency of strength by which the Holy Ghost contributing his Assistance to them they may not only right but obtain the Victory against the Devil Sin the World and all infirmities of the flesh Most true it is that Jesus Christ is present with them by his Spirit in all their Temptations that he reacheth out his hand unto them and shews himself ready to support them if for their parts they prepare themselves to the encounter and beseech his help and are not wanting to themselves in performing their unties so that they cannot be sedoced by the cunning or taken out of the hands of Christ by the power of Satan according to that of St. John No man taketh them out of my hand c. Cap. 10. But it is first to be well weighed and proved by the holy Scripture whether by their own negligence they may not forsake those Principles of saving Grace by which they are sustained in Christ embrace the present World again Apostatize from the saving Doctrince once delivered to them suffer a Shipwrack of their Conscience and fall away from the Grace of God before we can publickly teach these doctrines with any sufficient tranquility or assurance of mind It is reported that at the end of the Conference between the Protestants and Papists in the first Convocation of Queen Maries Reign the Protestants were thought to have had the better as being more dextrous in applying and in forcing some Texts of Scripture than the others were and that thereupon they were dismissed by Weston the Prolocutor with this short come off You said he have the Word and we have the Sword His meaning was That what the Papists wanted in the strength of Argument they would make good by other ways as afterwards indeed they did by Fire and Fagot The like is said to have been done by the Contra Remonstrants who finding themselves at this Conference to have had the worst and not to have thrived much better by their Pen-comments than in that of the Tongue betook themselves to other courses vexing and molesting their Opposites in their Classes or Consistories endeavouring to silence them from Preaching in their several Churches or otherwise to bring them unto publick Censure At which Weapon the Remonstrants being as much too weak as the others were at Argument and Disputation they betook themselves unto the Patronage of John Van Olden Burnevelt a man of great Power in the Council of Estate for the Vnited Belgick Provinces by whose means they obtained an Edict from the States of Holland and West-Friezland Anno 1613. requiring and enjoying a mutual Toleration of Opinions as well on the one side as the other An Edict highly magnified by the Learned Grotius in a Book intituled Pietas Ordinum Hollandiae c. Against which some Answers were set out by Bogerman Sibrandus and some others not without some reflection on the Magistrates for their Actings in it But this indulgence though at the present it was very advantageous to the Remonstrants as the case then stood cost them dear at last For Barnevelt having some suspition that Morris of Nassaw Prince of Orange Commander General of all the Forces of those Vnited Provinces both by Sea and Land had a design to make himself the absolute Master of those Countreys made use of them for the uniting and encouraging of such good Patriots as durst appear in maintenance of the common liberty which Service they undertook the rather because they found that the Prince had passionately espoused the Quarrel of the Contra Remonstrants From this time forwards the Animosities began to encrease on either side and the Breach to widen not to be closed again but either by weakning the great power of the Prince or the death of Barnevelt This last the easier to be compassed as not being able by so small a Party to contend with him who had the absolute command of so many Legions For the Prince being apprehensive of the danger in which he stood and spurred on by the continual Sollicitations of the Contra Remonstrnats suddenly put himself into the Head of his Army with which he march'd from Town to Town altered the Guards changed the Officers and displaced the Magistrates where he found any whom he thought disaffected to him and having gotten Barnevelt Grotius and some other of the Heads of the Party into his power he caused them to be condemned and Barnevelt to be put to death contrary to the fundamental Laws of the Countrey and the Rules of the Union This Alteration being thus made the Contra Remonstrants thought it a high point of Wisdom to keep their Adversaries down now they had them under and to effect that by a National Council which they could not hope to compass by their own Authority To which end the States General being importuned by the Prince of Orange and his Sollicitation seconded by those of KIng James to whom the power and person of the Prince were of like Importance a National Synod was appointed to be held as Dort Anno 1618. Barnevelt being then still living To which besides the Commissioners from the Churches of their several Provinces all the Calvinian Churches in Europe those of France excepted sent their Delegates also some eminent Divines being Commissioned by King James to attend also in the Synod for th eRealm of Britain A Synod much like that of Trent in the Motives to it as also in the managing and conduct of it For as neither of them was assembled till the Sword was drawn the terrour whereof was able to effect more than all other Arguments so neither of them was concerned to confute but condemn their Opposites Secondly The Council of Trent consisted for the most part of Italian Bishops some others being added for fashion-sake and that it might the better challenge the Name of General as that of Dort consisted for the most part
of Heavenly gifts he had no spot of uncleanness in him he was sound and perfect in all parts both outwardly and inwardly his reason was uncorrupt his understanding was pure and good his will was obedient and goldly he was made altogether like unto God in Righteousness in Holiness in Wisdom in Truth to be short in all kind of perfection After which having spoken of mans Temporal Felicities relating to the delicacies of the Garden of Eden and the Dominion which God gave him over all the Creatures the Homily doth thus proceed viz. But as the common nature of all men is in time of prosperity and wealth to forget not only themselves but also God even so did this first man Adam who having but one Commandment at Gods hand namely That he should not eat of the Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil did notwithstanding most unmindfully or rather most wilfully break it Hom. of the Nativity p. 168. in forgetting the strait charge of his Maker and giving ear to the crafty suggestion of the evil Serpent the Devil whereby it came to pass that as before he was blessed so now he was accursed as before he was loved so now he was abhorred as before he was most beautiful and precious so now he was most vile and wretched in the sight of his Lord and Maker instead of the Image of God he was now become the Image of the Devil instead of a Citizen of Heaven he was now become the Bond-slave of Hell having in himself no one part of his former purity and cleanness but being altogether spotted and defiled insomuch that now he seemed to be nothing else but a lump of sin and therefore by the just judgment of God was condemned to everlasting death This being said touching the introduction of the body of Sin the Homily doth first proceed to the propagation and universal spreading of it and afterwards to the Restitution of lost man by faith in Christ This so great and miserable plague for so the Homily proceedeth if it had only rested in Adam who first offended it had been so much the easier and might the better have been born but it fell not only on him but also in his Posterity and Children for ever so that the whole brood of Adams flesh should sustain the self same fall and punishment which their forefather by his offence most justly had deserved S. Paul in the fifth to the Romans saith By the offence of only Adam the fault came upon all men to condemnation and by one mans disobedience many were made sinners By which words we are taught that as in Adam all men universally received the reward of sin that is to say became mortal and subject unto death having in themselves nothing but everlasting condemnation both of body and soul c. Had it been any marvel if man-kind had been utterly driven to desperation being thus fallen from life to death from salvation to destruction from Heaven to Hell But behold the great goodness and tender mercy of God in this behalf albeit mans wickedness and sinful behaviour was such that it deserved not in any part to be forgiven yet to the intent be might not be clean destitute of all hope and comfort in time to come he ordained a new Covenant and made a sure promise thereof namely that he would send a Mediater or Messias into the world which should make intercession and put himself as a stay between both parties to pacifie the wrath and indignation conceived against sin and to deliver man out of the miserable curse and cursed misery whereunto he was fallen head-long by disobeying the Will and Commandment of the only Lord and Maker Which ground thus laid we will proceed unto the Doctrine of Predestination according to the sense and meaning of the Church of England which teacheth us according to the general current of the ancient Authors before Augustins time that God from all Eternity intending to demonstrate his power and goodness designed the Creation of the World the making of man after his own Image and leaving him so made in a perfect liberty to do or not to do what he was commanded and that foreknowing from all Eternity the man abusing this liberty would plung himself and his posterity into a gulf of miseries he graciously resolved to provide them such a Saviour who should redeem them from their sins to elect all those to life eternal who laid hold upon him leaving the rest in the same state in which he found them for their incredulity And this I take to be the method of Election unto life Eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord according to the Doctrine of the Church of England For althought there be neither prius nor posterius in the will of God who sees all things at once together and willeth at the first sight without more delay yet to apply his acts unto our capacity as were the acts of God in their right production so were they primitively in his intention But Creation without peradventure did forego the fall and the disease or death which ensued upon it was of necessity to be before there could be a course taken to prescribe the cure and the prescribing of the cure must first be finished before it could be offered to particular persons Of which and of the whole doctrine of Predestination as before declared we cannot have an happier illustration than that of Agilmond and Lamistus in the Longobardian story of Paul the Deacon In which it is reported That Agilmond the second King of Lombardy riding by a Fish-pond saw seven your Children sprawling in it whom their unnatural Mothers as the Author thinketh had thrown into it not long before Amazed whereat he put his hunting spear amongst them and stirred them gently up and down which one of them laying hold on was drawn to land called Lamistus from the word Lama which is the Language of that People and signifies a Fish-pond Trained up in that Kings Court and finally made his Successor in the Kingdom Granting that Agilmond being forewarned in a Vision that he should find such Children sprawling for life in the midst of that pond might thereupon take a resolution within himself to put his hunting spear amongst them and the which of them soever should lay hold upon it should be gently drawn out of the water adopted for his Son and made Heir of his Kingdom No Humane story can afford us the like parallel case to Gods proceeding in the great work of Predestination to Eternal Life according to the Doctrine of the ancient Fathers and the Church of Rome as also of the Lutheran Churches and those of the Arminian party in the Belgick Provinces Now that this was the Doctrine also of the Church of England will easily appear upon a due search into the Monuments and Records thereof as they stand backed by those learned religious men who had a principal hand in carrying on the great work of the Reformation
which was built upon it first taking in my way some necessary preparations made unto it by H. 8. by whom it had been ordered in the year 1536. That the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments should be recited publickly by the Parish Priest in the English Tongue and all the Sundays and other Holidays throughout the year And that the people might the better understand the duties contained in them it pleased him to assemble his Bishops and Clergy in the year next following requiring them Vpon the diligent search and perusing of Holy Scripture to set forth a plain and sincere Doctrine concerning the whole sum of all those things which appertain unto the Profession of a Christian man Which work being finished with very great care and moderation they published by the name of an Institution of a Christian man containing the Exposition or Interpretation of the common Creed the seven Sacraments the Ten Commandments Epls Dedit the Lords Prayer c. and dedicated to the Kings Majesty Submitting to his most excellent Wisdom and exact Judgment to be by him recognized overseen and corrected if he found any word or sentence in it amiss to be qualified changed or further expounded in the plain setting forth of his most vertuous desire and purpose in that behalf A Dedication publickly subscribed in the name of the rest by all the Bishops then being eight Archdeacons and seventeen Doctors of chief note in their several faculties Amongst which I find seven by name who had a hand in drawing up the first Liturgy of King Edward VI. that is to say Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Goodrich Bishop of Ely Hebeach then Bishop of Rochester and of Lincoln afterwards Skip then Archdeacon of Dorset after Bishop of Hereford Roberson afterwards Dean of Durham as Mayo was afterwards of S. Pauls and Cox of Westminster And I find many others amongst them also who had a principal hand in making the first Book of Homilies and passing the Articles of Religion in the Convocation of the year 1552. and so it rested till the year 1643. when the King making use of the submission of the Book which was tendred to him corrected it in many places with his own hand as appeareth by the Book it self remaining in the famous Library of Sir Robert Cotton Which having done he sends it so corrected to Archbishop Cranmer who causing it to be reviewed by the Bishops and Clergy in Convocation drew up some Annotations on it And that he did for this intent as I find exprest in one of his Letters bearing date June 25. of this present year because the Book being to be set forth by his Graces censure and judgment he would have nothing therein that Momos himself could reprehend referring notwithstanding all his Annotations to his Majesties exacter judgment Nor staid it here but being committed by the King to both Houses of Parliament and by them very well approved of as appears by the Statutes of this year Cap. 1. concerning the advancing of true Religion and the abolition of the contrary it was published again by the Kings command under the title of Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian man And it was published with an Epistle of the Kings before it directed to all his faithful and loving Subjects wherein it is affirmed To be a true Declaration of the true knowledge of God and his Word with the principal Articles of Religion whereby men may uniformly be led and taught the true understanding of that which is necessary for every Christian man to know for the ordering of himself in this life agreeable unto the will and pleasure of Almighty God Now from these Books the Doctrine of Predestination may be gathered into these particulars which I desire the Reader to take notice of Institut of a Christian that he may judge the better of the Conformity which it hath with the established Doctrine of the Church of England 1. That man by his own nature was born in sin and in the indignation and displeasure of God and was the very child of Wrath condemned to everlasting death subject and thrall to the power of the Devil and sin having all the principal parts or portions of his soul as reason and understanding and free-will and all other powers of his soul and body not only so destituted and deprived of the gifts of God wherewith they were first endued but also so blinded corrupted and poysoned with errour ignorance and carnal concupiscence that neither his said powers could exercise the natural function and office for which they were ordained by God at the first Creation nor could he by them do any thing which might be acceptable to God 2. That Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God the Father was eternally preordained and appointed by the Decree of the Holy Trinity to be our Lord that is to say to be the only Redeemer and Saviour of Man-kind and to reduce and bring the same from under the Dominion of the Devil and sin unto his only Dominion Kingdom Lordship and Governance 3. That when the time was come in the which it was before ordained and appointed by the Decree of the Holy Trinity That Man-kind should be saved and redeemed Necessary prayer than the Son of God the second Person in the Trinity and very God descended from Heaven into the world to take upon him the very habit form and nature of man and in the same nature of suffer his glorious Passion for the Redemption and Salvation of all Man-kind 4. That by this Passion and Death of our Saviour Jesus Christ not only Corporal death is so destroyed that it shall never hurt us but rather that it is made wholesome and profitable unto us but also that all our sins and the sins also of all them that do believe in him and follow him be mortified and dead that is to say all the guilt and offence thereof as also the damnation and pains due for the same is clearly extincted abolished and washed away so that the same shall never afterwards be imputed and inflicted on us 5. That this Redemption and Justification of Man-kind could not have been wrought or brought to pass by any other means in the world but by the means of this Jesus Christ Gods only Son and that never man could yet nor never shall be able to come unto God the Father or to believe in him or to attain his favour by his own wit and reason or by his own science and learning or by any of his own works or by whatsoever may be named in Heaven or Earth but by faith in the Name and Power of Jesus Christ and by the gifts and graces of his Holy Spirit But to proceed the way to the ensuing Reformation being thus laid open The first great work which was accomplished in pursuance of it was the compiling of that famous Liturgy of the year 1549 commanded by King Edward VI. that is to
Clergy Mr. John Hooker Bishop of Gloucester and Martyr of whose Exposition of the Ten Commandments and his short Paraphrase on Romans 13. we shall make frequent use hereafter a man whose works were well approved of by Bishop Ridley the most learned and judicious of all the Prelates who notwithstanding they differed in some points of Ceremony professeth an agreement with him in all points of Doctrine as appears by a Letter written to him when they were both Prisoners for the truth and ready to give up their lives as they after did in defence thereof Now the words of the Letter are as followeth But now my dear Brother forasmuch as I understand by your works which I have but superficially seen that we throughly agree and wholly consent together in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our Religion Acts and Mon. fol. 1366. against the which the world now so rageth in these our days Howsoever in times past in certain by-matters and circumstances of Religion your wisdom and my simplicity and ignorance have jarred each of us following the abundance of his own sense and judgment Now I say be you assured that even with my whole heart God is the witness in the bowels of Christ I love you in truth and for the truths sake that abideth in us and I am persuaded by the grace of God shall abide in us for evermore The like agreement there was also between Ridley and Cranmer Cranmer ascribing very much to the judgment and opinion of the learned Prelate as himself was not ashamed to confess at his Examination for which see Fox in the Acts and Monuments fol. 1702. By these men and the rest of the Convocation the Articles of Religion being in number 41 were agreed upon ratified by the Kings Authority and published both in Latine and English with these following Titles viz. Articuli de quibus in Synodo Londinens A.D. 1552. ad tollendam opinionum dissentionem consensum verae Religionis firmandum inter Episcopos alios eruditos viros convenerat Regia authoritate Londin editi that is to say Articles agreed upon by the Bishops and other learned men assembled in the Synod at London Anno 1552. and published by the Kings Authority for the avoiding of diversities of opinions and for the establishing of consent touching true Religion Amongst which Articles countenanced in Convocation by Queen Elizabeth Ann. 1562. the Doctrine of the Church in the five controverted points is thus delivered according to the form and order which we have observed in the rest before 1. Of Divine Predestination Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the World were laid he hath constantly ordered by his Council Artic. 17. secret unto us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom be hath chosen in Christ out of man-kind and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation as vessels made to honour Furthermore we must receive Gods promises in such wise at they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and in our doing the will of God that is to be followed which we have expresly declared to us in the Word of God 2. Of the Redemption of the World by the faith of Christ The Son which is the Word begotten of the Father begotten from everlasting of the Father c. and being very God and very Man did truly suffer was Crucified Dead and Buried Artic. 2. to reconcile his Father to us and be a Sacrifice not only for Original guilt but also for the actual sins of men The Offering of Christ once made Artic. 31. is this perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction to all the sins of the whole world both Original and Actual 3. Of mans will in the state of depraved nature Artic. 9. Man by Original sin is so far gone from Original righteousness that of his own nature be is inclined to evil so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit and therefore Works done before the grace of Christ Artic. 13. and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make men meet to receive grace or as the School Authors say deserve grace of Congruity 4. Of the manner of Conversion The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works Artic. 10. to faith and calling upon God wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will 5. Of the uncertainty of Perseverance The Grace of Repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after Baptism in regard that after we have received the Holy Ghost Artic. 16. we may depart from grace given and fall into sin and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives and therefore they are to be condemned which say they can no more sin as long as they live here or deny the place of Repentance to such as truly repent Now in these Articles as in all others of the book there are these two things to be observed 1. What Authority they carried in respect of the making And 2. How we are to understand them in respect of the meaning And first for their Authority it was as good in all regards as the Laws could give them being first treated and agreed upon by the Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation and afterwards confirmed by the Letters Patents of Edw. VI. under the Great Seal of England But against this it is objected That the Records of this Convocation are but a degree above blanks that the Bishops and Clergy then assembled had no Commission from the King to meddle in Church business that the King durst not trust the Clergy of that time in so great a matter on a just jealousie which he had of the ill affections of the major part and therefore the trust of this great business was committed unto some few Confidents cordial to the cause of Religion and not unto the body of a Convocation To which it hath been already answered That the Objector is here guilty of a greater crime than that of Scandalum magnatum making King Edward VI. of pious memory no better than an impious and lewd Impostor in fathering those children on the Convocation which had not been of their begetting For first the Title to the Articles runneth thus at large Articuli de quibus c. as before we had it which Title none durst adventure to set before them had they not really been the products of the Convocation Secondly the King had no reason to have any such jealousie at that time of the major part of the Clergy but that he might
lay it upon the Predestination of God and would excuse it by ignorance or say he cannot be good because he is otherwise destined which in the next words he calls A Stoical Opinion refuted by those words of Horace Nemo adeo ferus est c. But that which makes most against the absolute irrespective and irreversible Decree of Predestination whether it be life or death is the last clause of our second Article being the seventeenth of the Church as before laid down where it is said that we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and that in all our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared to us in holy Scriptures And in the holy Scripture it is declared to us That God gave his Son for the World or for all mankind that Christ offered himself a Sacrifice for all the sins of the whole World that Christ redeemed all mankind that Christ commanded the Gospel to be preached to all that God wills and commands all men to hear Christ and to believe in him and in him to offer grace and salvation unto all men That this is the infallible truth in which there can be no falshood otherwise the Apostles and other Ministers of the Gospel preaching the same should be false witnesses of God and should make him a liar than which nothing can be more repugnant to the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination which restrains Predestination unto life in a few particulars without respect had to their faith in Christ or Christs sufferings and death for them which few particulars so predestinate to eternal life shall as they tell us by an irresistible Grace be brought to God and by the infallible conduct of the holy Spirit persevere from falling away from grace and favour Nothing more contrary to the like absolute decree of Reprobation by which the infinitely greatest part of all mankind is either doomed remedilesly to the torments of Hell when they were but in the state of Creability as the Supralapsarians have informed us and unavoidably necessitated unto sin that they might infallibly be damn'd or otherwise as miserably leaving them under such a condition according to the Doctrine of the Sablapsarians which renders them uncapable of avoiding the wrath to come and consequently subjected them to a damnation no less certain than if they were created to no other purpose which makes it seem the greater wonder that Dr. Vsher afterwards Lord Primate of Ireland in drawing up the Article of predestination for the Church of Ireland Anno 1615. should take in so much as he doth of the Lambeth Articles and yet subjoyn this very clause at the foot thereof Article of Ireland Numb 12.14 17. which can no more concorporate with it than any of the most heterogeneous metals can unite into one piece of refined Gold which clause as it remaineth in the Articles of the Church of England how well it was applyed by King James and others in the Conference at Hampton Court we shall see hereafter In the mean time we must behold another Argument which fights more strongly against the positive decree of Reprobation than any of the rest before that is to say the reconciliation of all men to Almighty God the universal redemption of mankind by the death of Christ expresly justified and maintained by the Church of England For though one in our late undertaking seem exceeding confident that the granting of universal redemption will draw no inconvenience with it as to the absoluteness of Gods decrees or to the insuperability of converting Grace Cap. 10. or to the certain infallible perseverance of Gods Elect aftec Conversion Yet I dare say he will not be so confident in affirming this That if Christ did so far die for all as to procure a salvation for all under the condition of faith and repentance as his own words are there can be any room for such an absolute decree of Reprobation Antecedaneous and precedent to the death of Christ as his great Masters in the School of Calvin have been pleased to teach him Now for the Doctrine of this Church in that particular it is exprest so clearly in the second Article of the five before laid down that nothing needs be added either in way of explication or of confirmation howsoever for avoiding of all doubt and hesitancy we will first add some farther testimonies touching the Doctrine of this Church in the point of universal Redemption And secondly touching the applying of so great a benefit by universal Vocation and finally we shall shew the causes why the benefit is not effectual unto all alike And first as for the Doctrine of Universal Redemption it may be further proved by those words in the publick Catechism where the Child is taught to say that he believeth in God the Son who redeemed with him all mankind in that clause of the publick Letany where God the Son is called the Redeemer of the World in the passages of the latter Exhortation before the Communion where it is said That the Oblation of Christ once offered was a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD in the proper Preface appointed for the Communion on Easter day in which he is said to be the very Paschal Lamb that was offered for us and taketh away the sins of the world repeated in the Gloria in excelsis to the same effect Hom. Salvation p. 13. And finally in the Prayer of Conservation viz. Almighty God our heavenly Father which of thy tender mercies didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our Redemption who made there by his own Oblation of himself once offered a firm and perfect and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD To this purpose it is said in the book of Homilies That the World being wrapt up in sin by the breaking of Gods Law God sent his only Son our Saviour Christ into this world to fulfil the Law for us and by shedding of his most precious blood to make a Sacrifice and Satisfaction or as it may be called amends to his Father for our sins to asswage his wrath and indignation conceived against us for the same Out of which words it may be very well concluded That the World being wrapt up in sin the Recompence and Satisfaction which was made to God must be made to him for the sins of the World or else the plaister had not been commensurate to the sore nor so much to the magnifying of Gods wonderful mercies in the offered means of Reconcilement betwixt God and man the Homily must else fall short of that which is taught in the Articles In which besides what was before delivered from the second and 31. concerning the Redemption of the world by the death of Christ it is affirmed in the 15. as plain as may be That
whether he be worthy of hath or love of Wisdom which commandeth not to be without fear of these sins pardoned of Saint Peter to work out our salvation with fear and trembling of Saint Paul who said of himself though my Conscience accuse me not yet I am not thereby justified These Reasons and Testimonies together with many places of the Fathers were brought and amplified especially by Levipandus Vega and Soto But Catarinus and Marinarus had other places of the same Fathers to the contrary which shewed they had spoken accidentally in this particular as the occasions made most for their purpose sometimes t comfort the scrupulous sometimes to repress the audacious yet they kept themselves close to the authority of the Scripture They said that to as many as it is read in the Gospel that Christ hath forgiven sins to all them he said Believe that your sins are forgiven and it would be an absurdity that Christ should give an occasion of temerity and pride or if the contrary were profitable or a merit that he would deprive all men of it That the Scripture bindeth us to give God thanks for our justification which cannot be given except we know that we have obtained it for to give them when we are uncertain would be most foolish and impertinent That St. Paul doth plainly confirm the certainty when he putteth the Corinthians in mind to know that Christ is in them except they be Reprobates And when he saith we have received from God the Spirit to know what is given us by his divine Majesty and more clearly that the holy Spirit doth bear witness to our spirit that we are the Sons of God and it is much to accuse them of rashness who believe the Holy Ghost that speaketh with them For St. Ambrose saith that the Holy Ghost doth never speak unto us but doth make us know that it is he that speaketh After this he added the words of Christ in St. John that the world cannot receive the Holy Ghost because it seeth him not nor knoweth him but that the Disciples shall know him because he shall dwell in them Calarinus did fortifie himself strongly by saying that it was the opinion of a man in a dream to defend that Grace is valuntarily received when we know not whether we have it or not as if to receive a thing willingly it be not necessary that the willing receive should know it is given him that he doth really receive it and that after it is received he doth possess it The force of these Reasons made them first retire a little that censured the opinion of Temerity and yield that there might be a conjecture though not an ordinary certainty yet they acknowledged a certainty in the Martyrs in the newly Baptized and in some by special revelation and from conjecture they were brought to call it moral Faith And that Vego who in the beginning admitted probability only overcome by these Reasons and beginning of favour the certainty for fear of conforming himself to the Lutheran opinion said that there was so much certainty as did exclude all doubt and could not be deceived yet that it was not Christian Faith but humane and experimental But Catarinus and his party which were all the Carmelites not resting satisfied either in the terms of an experimental faith or a moral persuasion did press the certainty so far that many of the Prelates began to incline to that opinion and to persuade themselves that certainty of Grace was founded upon such an assurance as might in some sort be called divine though when they came to draw up the Decree therein they found themselves involved in more perplexities than they were aware of For the Point being followed with great heat between the parties and each of them conceiving that the truth was clearly on their side it was found necessary to cast the Decree into such a mold as those of the two contrary opinions might repose themselves on it And certainly he that looks on the ninth Chapter of the sixth Session of the Council entituled Contra inanem Haereticorum siduciam may easily perceive into what streights they were reduced by seeking to content the Leaders of the several factions For when the Decree came to be discussed it was no hard matter to make them joyn against that confidence which was maintained by many of Luthers followers as if a man were no otherwise justified than by the confidence which he had in his own justification yet when they came to express that certainty which had occasioned that intricate and perplexed dispute they were not so well able to state the point as not to shew their own irresolution and uncertainty in it For in the conclusion of the Decree in which they were to declare some cause for which no man could certainly know that he hath obtained Grace at the hands of God the Cardinal to satisfie one part added certainty of faith and he with the Dominicans not thinking it to be enough urged him to add the word Catholick to it so that the sence thereof might seem to be to this effect that no man could assure himself of obtaining Grace by any such certainty of Faith as may come under the notion of Catholick But because the Adherents of Catarinus were not so contented Hist of the Coun. of Trent fel. 215. instead of those words of Catholick Faith no which the Dominicans insisted it was thought necessary to declare that they meant it not of such a faith cui non potest subesse falsum which cannot be subject to falshood And thereupon the conclusion was drawn up in these following words viz. Quilibet dum seipsum suamque propriam infirmitatem indispositionem respicit de gratia formidare timere potest cum nullus scire valeat certitudine Fidei cui non potest subesse falsum se gratiam Dei esse consecutum that every one in regard of his own disposition and infirmity may doubt with himself whether he hath received this Grace or not because he cannot know by certainty of infallible faith that he hath obtained it A temperament which contented both sides For one party inferred that all the certainty of faith which could be had herein might be false or fallible and therefore to be thought uncertain the others inferred with equal confidence and content that the certainty therein declared could have no doubt of fashood or fallibility Hict of Coun. p. 21â— for the time that it remained in us and that it could no otherwise become false or fallible than by changing from the state of grace to the state of sin as all contingent truths by the alteration of their subjects may be made false also By which last clause it doth appear that all the certainty which Catarinus and the Carmelites contended for was no more but this that the Regenerate and righteous man might be certain of grace and his own justification quoad statum praesentem but not that he
Prin and his Shadow so declare themselves Anti-Armin Pag. 48. the one affirming that all these passages are directly for them and punctually opposite to their Arminian Antagonists the other crying out with some admiration How do the Master and Scholar plainly declare themselves to bâ— no friends to the Tenents which the English Arminians how contend for but notwithstanding all this cry I fear we shall get but little wool when we come to consider of those passages in Poynets Catechism which are most relied on and which hâ—re follow as I find them in the Anti-arminianism without alteration of the words or syllables though with some alteration in the method of the Collection Now the passâ—ges collected out of Poynets Catechism are these that follow viz. The Image of God in man by original sin and evil custom was so obscured in the beginning and the natural judgment so corrupted Caâ—â—â—â— Pag. 7.8 12. Page 9. that man himself could not sufficiently understand the difference between good and bad between just and unjust c. As for the sacrificings cleansings washings and other Ceremonies of the Law they were Shadows Types Images and Figures of the true and eternal sacrifice that Jesus Christ made upon the Cross by whose benefit alone all the sins of all Believers from the beginning of the World are pardoned by the sole mercy of God Page 13. and not by any merit of their own As soon as ever Adam and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit they both died that is that they were not only liable to the death of the body but likewise lost the lise of the soul which is righteousness and forthwith the Divine Image was obscured in them and those lineaments of Righteousness Holiness Truth and knowledge of God exceeding comely were disordered and almost obliterated the terrene Image only remained coupled with unrighteousness fraud carnal affections and great ignorance of Divine and Heavenly things from thence also proceeded the infirmity of our flesh from thence corruption and confusion of affections and desires hence that plague hence that seminary and nutriment of sin wherewith all man-kind is infected which is called Original sin Moreover nature is sodepraved and cast down that unless the goodness and mercy of Almighty God had helped us by the medicine of grace as in body we were thrust down into all the miseries of death so it was necessary that all men of all sorts should be cast into eternal torments and fire which cannot be quenched â—eâ— 18. Those things which are spiritual are not seen but by the eye of the spirit He therefore that will see the Divinity of Christ on Earth let him open the eyes not of the body but of the mind and of Faith and he shall see him present whom the eye doth not see he shall see him present in the midst of them Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in his Name he shall see him present with us to the end of the World What have I said he shall see Christ present yea he shall both see and feel him dwelling in himself no otherwise than his own soul for he doth dwell and reside in the soul and in the heart of him who doth place all his confidence in him Above all things this cannot be concealed that the benefits which are brought unto us by the Death 〈◊〉 23. the Resurrection and Ascention of Christ were so great and ample that no tongue either of men or Angels can express it c. From these and from other actions of Christ two benefits do accrew unto us One that whatsoever he did he did it all for our profitand commodity so that they are as much ours if we cleave fast to him with a firm and lively faith as if we our selves had done them He verily was nailed to the Cross and we are crucified with him and our sins are punished in him He died and was buried we likewise with our sins are dead and buried and that so as that all the memory of our sins is utterly abolished he rose again and we also are risen with him being made partakers of his resurrection and life that henceforth death might no more domineer in us for there is the same Spirit in us that raised Jesus from the dead Lastly as he ascended into Celestial glory so we are exalted together with him Fol. 30. The Holy Ghost is called holy not only for his own holiness but because the Elect of God Fol. 31. and the Members of Christ are made holy by him The Church is the company of them who are called to eternal life by the Holy Ghost by whom she is guided and governed which time she cannot be understood by the light of sense or nature is justly placed amongst the number of those things which are to be believed and is therefore called the Catholick that is the universal Assembly of the faithful Fâ—â— 44 45. because it is not tied to any certain placed God who rules and governs all things can do all things No man is of so great power that he can so much as withst and him but he gives whatsoever he shall decree according to his own pleasure and those things which are given to us by him he is able to take them away After the Lord God had made the Heavens and Earth he determined to have for himself a most beautiful Kingdom 〈◊〉 from Pag. 37. to 41. and holy Commmon-wealth The Apostles and Ancient Fathers that writ in Greek called it Ecclesia in English a Congregation or Assembly into the which he hath admitted an infinite number of men that should be subject to one King as their Soveraign and only Head him we call Christ which is as much as to say Anointed or to the furnishing of this Common-wealth belong all they as many as do truly fear honour and call upon God daily applying their minds to holy and godly living and all those that putting all their hope and trust in him do assuredly look for bliss of everlasting life But as many as are in this Faith stedfast were fore-chosen predestinate and appoined to everlasting life before the World was made witness whereof they have within their hearts the merit of Christ the Authour earnest and unfailable pledge of their Faith which Faith only is able to perceive the mysteries of God only brings peace unto the heart only taketh hold on the Righteousness which is in Christ Jesus Master Doth then the Spirit alone and Faith sleep we never so securely or stand we never so reckless or slothful work all things for us as without any help of our own to convey us to Heaven Scholar Just Master as you have taught me to make a difference between the Cause and the Effect The first principal and most proper cause of our Justification and Salvation is the goodness and love of God whereby he chose us for his before he made the World After that God
XVIII A Declaration of the Doctrine in the Points disputed under the new establishment made by Queen Elizabeth 1. the Doctrine of the second Book of Homilies concerning the wilful fall of Adam the miserable estate of man the restitution of lost man in Jesus Christ and the universal redemption of all man-kind by his death and passion 2. The doctrine of the said second Book concerning universal grace the possibility of a total and final falling and the co-operation of mans will with the grace of God 3. The judgment of Reverend Bishop Jewel touching the universal redemption of mankind by the death of Christ Predestination grounded upon faith in Christ and reached out unto all them that believe in him by Mr. Alexander Poynets 4. Dr. Harsnet in his Sermon at St. Pauls Cross Anno 1584. sheweth that the absolute decree of Reprobation turneth the truth of God into a lie and makes him to be the Author of sin 5. That it deprives man of the natural freedom of his will makes God himself to be double minded to have two contrary wills and to delight in mocking his poor Creature Man 6. And finally that it makes God more cruel and unmerciful than the greatest Tyrant contrary to the truth of Scripture and the constant Doctrine of the Fathers 7. The rest of the said Sermon reduced unto certain other heads directly contrary to the Calvinian Doctrines in the points disputed 8. Certain considerations on the Sermon aforesaid with reference to the subject of it as also to the time place and persons in and before which it was first preached An Answer to some Objections concerning a pretended Recantation falsly affirmed to have been made by the said Mr. Harsnet 10. That in the judgment of the Right Learned Dr. King after Bishop of London the alteration of Gods denounced judgments in some certain cases infers no alteration in his Counsels the difference between the changing of the will and to will a charge 11. That there is something in Gods decrees revealed to us and something concealed unto himself the difference between the inferiour and superiour causes and of the conditionalty of Gods threats and promises 12. The accommodating of the former part of this discourse to the case of the Ninevites 13. And not the case of the Ninevites to the case disputed THese Obstacles being thus removed I shall proceed unto a Declaration of the Churches Doctrine under this new establishment made by Queen Elizabeth And first all Arguments derived from the publick Liturgy and the first book of Homilies being still in force we will next see what is delivered in the Homilies of the second part establisht by a special Article and thereby made a part of the doctrine here by Law established And first as touching the doctrine of Predestination it is declared in the Homily of the Nativity That as in Adam all men universally sinned so in Adam all men received the reward of sin that is to say became mortal and subject unto death having in themselves nothing but everlasting condemnation both of body and soul that man being in this wretched case ti pleased God to make a new Covenant with him namely that he would send a Mediator or Messias into the world which should make intercession and put himself as a stay between both parties to pacifie wrath and indignation conceived against sin and to deliver man out of the miserable curse and cursed misery whereunto he was fallen headlong by disobeying the Will and Commandment of the only Lord and Maker Nor secondly was this deliverance and redemption partial intended only for a few but general and universal for all man-kind the said Homily telling us not long after that all this was done to the end the promise and covenant of God made unto Abraham and his Posterity Hom. p. 172. concerning the Redemption of the World might be credited and believed to deliver man-kind from the bitter curse of the Law and make perfect satisfaction by his death for the sins of all People For the accomplishment whereof It was expedient saith the Homily that our Mediator should be such an one as might take upon him the sins of Man-kind and sustain the due punishment thereof viz. Death to the intent he might more fully and perfectly make satisfaction for man-kind which is as plain as words can make it and yet not more plain than that which followeth in the Homily of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament Fol. 200. Nor doth the Homily speak less plainly in another place concerning Universal Grace than it doth speak to this in reference to Universal Redemption as appears evidently by the first part of the Sermon against the peril of Idolatry Hom. 1. part against the peril in which it is declared in the way of paraphrase on some passages in the 40. Chapter of the Prophet Isaiah That it had been preached to men from the beginning and how by the Creation of the World and the greatness of the work they might understand the Majesty of God the Creator and Maker of all things to be greater than it should be expressed in any image or bodily similitude And therefore by the light of the same instruction had they not shut their eyes against it they might have come unto a further knowledg of the Will of God and by degrees to the performance of all moral duties required of them before Christ coming in the flesh And in the third part of the same Sermon there are some passages which do as plainly speak of falling from God the final alienation of the Soul of a man once righteous from his love and favour Where it is said how much better in were that the Arts of Painting and we had never been found than one of them whose Souls are so precious in the sight of God should by occasion of Image or Picture perish and be lost And what can here be understood by the souls which are so precious in the sight of God but the souls of the Elect of justified and righteous persons the souls of wicked men being vile and odious in his sight hated by God as Esau was before all Eternity as the Calvinians do informs us And what else can we understand by being perished and lost but a total or final alienation of those precious souls Hom. of the Resurrection p. 139. from his grace and favour more plainly speaks the Homily of the Resurrection in which the Church represents unto us what shame it should be for us being thus clearly and freely washed from our sin to return to the filthiness thereof again What a folly it would be for us being thus endued with Righteousness to lose in again What a madness it would be to lose the inheritance we be now set in for the vile and transitory pleasure of sins And what an unkindness it would be where our Saviour Christ of his mercy is come unto us to dwell with us as our guest to drive him from
not only a strong interruption for the present to the proceeding of the Church but an occasion also of great discord and dissention in it for the time to come For many of our Divines who had fled beyond the Sea of avoid the hurry of her Reign though otherwise men of good abilities in most parts of Learning returned so altered in their principals as to points of Doctrine so disaffected to the Government Forms of worship here by Law established that they seem'd not to be the same men at their coming home as they had been at their going hence yet such was the necessity which the Church was under of filling up the vacant places and preferments which had been made void either by the voluntary discession or positive deprivation of the Popish Cleergy that they wer fain to take in all of any condition which were able to do the publick service without relation to their private opinions in doctrine or discipline nothing so much regarded in the chice of men for Bishopricks Deanries Dignities in Cathedral Churches the richest Benefices in the Countrey and places of most command and trust in the Universities as their known zeal against the Papists together with such a sufficiency of learning as might enable them for writing and preaching against the Popes Supremacy the carnal presence of Christ in the blessed Sacrament the superstitions of the Mass the half Communion the celebrating of Divine service in a tongue not known unto the People the inforced single life of Priests the worshipping of Images and other the like points of Popery which had given most offence and were the principal causes of that separation On this account we find Mr. Pilkington preferred to the See of Durham and Whittingham to the rich Deanry of the Church of which the one proved a grear favourer of the Non-conformists as is confessed by one who challengeth a relation to his blood and family the other associated himself with Goodman as after Goodman did with Knox for lanting Puritanism and sedition in the Kirk of Scotland On this account Dr. Lawrence Humphrey a professed Calvinian in point of doctrine and a Non-conformist but qualified with the title of a moderate one is made the Queens Professor for Divinity in the University of Oxon Thomas Cartwright that great Incendiary of this Church preferred to be the Lady Margarets Professor in the University of Cambridge Sampson made Dean of Christ-church and presently propter Puritanismum Exacutoratus Godw. in Catal Episc Oxon. turned out again for Puritanism as my Author hath it Hardiman made one of the first Prebends of Westminister of the Queens foundation and not long after deprived of it by the high Commissioners for breaking down the Altar there and defacing the ancient utepsils and ornaments which belonged to the Church And finally upon this account as Whitehead who had been Chaplain to Queen Anne Bullain refused the Archbishoprick of Canterbury before it was offered unto Parker and Coverdale to be restored to the See of Exon which he had chearfully accepted in the time of K. Edward so Mr. John Fox of great esteem for his painful and laborious work of Acts and Monuments commonly called the Book of Martyrs would not accept of any preferment in the Church but a Prebends place in Salisbury which tied him not to any residence in the same And this he did especially as it after proved to avoid subscription shewing a greater willingness to leave his place than to subscribe unto the Articles of Religion then by Law established when he was legally required to do it by Arch-bishop Parker Of this man there remains a short discourse in his Acts and Monuments of Predestination occasioned by a Letter of Mr. Bradfords before remembred whose Orthodox doctrine in that point he feared might create some danger unto that of Calvin which then began to find a more general entertainment than could be rationally expected in so short a time And therefore as a counter-ballance he annexeth this discourse of his own with this following title viz. Notes on the same Epistle and the manner of Election thereunto appertaining As touching the Doctrine of Election whereof this Letter of Mr. Bradford and many other of his Letters more do much intreat three things must be considered Fox in Acts and Mon. fol. 1505. 1. What Gods Election is and what the cause thereof 2. How Gods Election proceedeth in working our salvation 3. To whom Gods Election pertaineth and how a Man may be certain thereof Between Predestination and Election this difference there is Predestination is as well to the Reprobate as to the Elect Election pertaineth only to them that be saved Predestination in that it respecteth the Rebate is called Reprobation in that it respected the saved is called Election and is thus defined Predestination is the eternal decreement of God purposed before in himself what shall befal all men either to salvation or damnation Election is the free mercy and grace of God in his own will through faith in Christ his Son choosing and preferring to life such as pleaseth him In this definition of Election first goeth before the mercy and grace of God as the causes thereof whereby are excluded all works of the Law and merits of deserving whether they go before faith or come after so was Jacob chosen and Esau refused before either of them began to work c. Secondly in that the mercy of God in this Definition is said to be free thereby is to be noted the proceeding and working of God not to be bound to any ordinary place or to any succession of choice nor to state and dignity of person nor to worthiness of blood c. but all goeth by the meer will of his own purpose as it is written spiritus ubi vult spirat c. And thus was the outward race and stock of Abraham after flesh refused which seemed to have the preheminence and another seed after the Spirit raised by Abraham of the stones that is of the Gentiles So was the outward Temple of Jerusalem and Chair of Moses which seem'd to be of price forsaken and Gods Chair advanced in other Nations So was tall Saul refused and little David accepted the Rich the Proud and the Wise of this world rejected and the word of salvation daily opened to the poor and miserable abjects the high Mountains cast under and the low valleys exalted c. And in the next place it is added in his own will by this falleth down the free will and purpose of man with all his actions counsels and strength of nature according as it is written non est volentis neque currentis sed miserentis Dei c. It is not him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that sheweth mercy So we see how Israel ran long and yet got nothing The Gentile runneth began to set out late and yet got the game So they which came at the first which did labour more
the custom of the Alexandrian and Western Churches Page 292 5. Origen ordained Presbyter by the Bishops of Hierusalem and Caesarea and excommunicated by the Bishop of Alexandria Page 293 6. What doth occur touching the superiority and power of Bishops in the Works of Origen ibid. 7. The custom of the Church of Alexandria altered in the election of their Bishops Page 294 8. Of Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria and his great care and travels for the Churches peac Page 295 9. The Government of the Church in the former times by Letters of intercourse and correspondence amongst the Bishops of the same ibid. 10. The same continued also in the present Century Page 296 11. The speedy course taken by the Prelats of the Church for the suppressing of the Heresies of Samosatenus Page 297 12. The Civil Jurisdiction Train and Throne of Bishops things not unusual in this Age Page 298 13. The Bishops of Italy and Rome made Judges in a point of title and possession by the Roman Emperour Page 299 14. The Bishops of Italy and Rome why reckoned as distinct in that Delegation Page 300 CHAP. VI. Of the estate wherein Episcopacy stood in the Western Churches during the whole third Century 1. Of Zepherinus Pope of Rome and the Decrees ascribed unto him concerning Bishops Page 301 2. Of the condition of that Church when Cornelius was chosen Bishop thereof Page 302 3. The Schism raised in Rome by Novatianus with the proceedings of the Church therein Page 303 4. Considerable observations on the former story Page 304 5. Parishes set forth in Country Villages by P. Dionysius ibid. 6. What the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do signifie most properly in ancient Writers Page 305 7. The great Authority which did accrue unto the Presbyters by the setting forth of Parishes Page 306 8. The rite of Confirmation reserved by Bishops to themselves as their own Prerogative Page 307 9. Touching the ancient Chorepiscopi and the Authority to them entrusted Page 308 10. The rising of the Manichean Heresie with the great care taken by the Bishops for the crushing of it Page 309 11. The lapse of Marcellinus Pope of Rome with the proceedings the Church in his condemnation Page 310 12. The Council of Eliberis in Spain what it decreed in honour of Episcopacy Page 311 13. Constantine comes unto the Empire with a brief prospect of the great honours done to Bishops in the following Age Page 312 14. A brief Chronology of the estate of holy Church in these two last Centuries Page 314 The History of the Sabbath BOOK I. From the Creation of the World to the destruction of the Temple CHAP. I. That the Sabbath was not instituted in the Beginning of the World 1. THE entrance to the Work in hand Page 325 2. That those words Gen. 2. And God blessed the seventh day c. are there delivered as by way of anticipation Page 326 3. Anticipations in the Scripture confessed by them who deny it here Page 327 4. Anticipations of the same nature not strange in Scripture Page 328 5. No Law imposed by God on Adam touching the keeping of the Sabbath Page 329 6. The Sabbath not ingraft by Nature in the soul of man ibid. 7. The greatest Advocates for the Sabbath deny it to be any part of the Law of Nature Page 330 8. Of the morality and perfection supposed to be in the number of seven by some learned men Page 331 9. That other numbers in the confession of the same learned men particularly the first third and fourth are both as moral and as perfect as the seventh ibid. 10. The like is proved of the sixth eighth and tenth and of other numbers Page 332 11. The Scripture not more favourable to the number of seven than it is to others Page 333 12. Great caution to be used by those who love to recreate themselves in the mysteries of numbers Page 334 CHAP. II. That there was no Sabbath kept from the Creation to the Flood 1. Gods rest upon the Seventh day and from what he rested Page 335 2. Zanchius conceit touching the Sanctifying of the first Seventh day by Christ our Saviour Page 336 3. The like of Torniellus touching the Sanctifying of the same by the Angels in Heaven ibid. 4. A general demonstration that the Fathers before the Law did not keep the Sabbath Page 337 5. Of Adam that he kept not the Sabbath ibid. 6. That Abel and Seth did not keep the Sabbath Page 333 7. Of Enos that he kept not the Sabbath Page 339 8. That Enoch and Methusalem did not keep the Sabbath ibid. 9. Of Noah that he kept not the Sabbath Page 340 10. The Sacrifices and devotions of the Ancients were occasional ibid. CHAP. III. That the Sabbath was not kept from the Flood to Moses 1. The Sons of Noah did not keep the Sabbath Page 341 2. The Sabbath could not have been kept in the dispersion of Noahs Sons had it not been commanded Page 342 3. Diversity of Longitudes and Latitudes must of necessity make a variation in the Sabbath Page 343 4. Melchisedech Heber Lot did not keep the Sabbath Page 344 5. Of Abraham and his Sons that they kept not the Sabbath ibid. 6. That Abraham did not keep the Sabbath in the confession of the Jews Page 345 7. Jacob nor Job no Sabbath-keepers ibid. 8. That neither Joseph Moses nor the Israelites in Egypt did observe the Sabbath Page 346 9. The Israelites not permitted to offer Sacrifice while they were in Egypt ibid. 10. Particular proofs that all the Moral Law was both known and kept amongst the Fathers Page 347 CHAP. IV. The nature of the fourth Commandment and that the Sabbath was not kept among the Gentiles 1. The Sabbath first made known in the fall of Mannah Page 348 2. The giving of the Decalogue and how far it bindeth Page 349 3. That in the judgment of the Fathers in the Christian Church the fourth Commandment is of a different nature from the other nine Page 350 4. The Sabbath was first given for a Law by Moses Page 351 5. And being given was proper only to the Jews Page 352 6. What moved the Lord to give the Israelites a Sabbath ibid. 7. Why the seventh day was rather chosen for the Sabbath than any other Page 353 8. The seventh day not more honoured by the Gentiles than the eighth or ninth Page 354 9. The Attributes given by some Greek Poets to the seventh day no argument that they kept the the Sabbath Page 355 10. The Jews derided for their Sabbath by the Grecians Romans and Egyptians Page 356 11. The division of the year into weeks not generally used of old amongst the Gentiles Page 357 CHAP. V. The practice of the Jews in such observances as were annexed unto the Sabbath 1. Of some particular adjuncts affixed unto the Jewish Sabbath Page 358 2. The Annual Festivals called Sabbaths in the Book of God and reckoned as a
out the mysteries of this number the better to advance as they conceive the reputation of the Sabbath Aug. Steuchius hath affirmed in general In Gen. 2. that this day and number is most natural and most agreeable to divine employments and therefore in omni aetate inter omnes gentes habitus venerabilis sacer accounted in all times and Nations as most venerable and so have many others said since him But he that led the way unto him and to all the rest is Philo the Jew who being a great follower of Platos took up his way of trading in the mysteries of several numbers wherein he was so intricate and perplexed that numero Platonis obscurius did grow at last into a Proverb This Philo therefore Platonizing Tall. ad Attie l. 7 â—pl 13. 〈◊〉 opisiâ—â—o first tells us of this number of seven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he persuâ—â—les himself there is not any man able sufficiently to extol it as being far above all thâ— powers of Rhetorick and that the Pythagoreans from them first Plato learnt those trifles did usually resemble it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even to Jove himself Then that Hippocrates doth divide the life of man into seven Ages â—aâ—â— age câ—nteining seven full years to which the changes of mans constitution are all framed and fitted as also that the Bear or Arcturus as they use to call it and the constellation called the Pleiades consist of seven Stars severally neither more nor less He shews us also how much Nature is delighted in this number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De legis Alleg. l. 1. as viz. that there are seven Planets and that the Moon quartereth every se venth day that Infants born in the seventh month are usually like enough to live that they are seven several motions of the body seven intrails so many outward members seven holes or out-lets in the same seven sorts of excrements as also that the seventh is the Critical day in most kinds of maladies And to what purpose this and much more of the same condition every where scattered in his Writings but to devise some natural reason for the Sabbath For so he manifests himself in another place Ap. Euâ—â—b Praepar l. 8. c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Now why God chose the seventh day and established it by Law for the day of rest you need not ask at all of me since both Physicians and Philosophers have so oft declared of what great power and vertue that number is as in all other things so specially on the nature and state of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thus saith he you have the reason of the seventh-day Sabbath Indeed Philosophers and Physicians and other learned men of great name and credit have spoken much in honour of the number of seven and severally impute great power unto it in the works of Nature and several changes of mans Body Whereof see Censorinus de die natali cap. 12. Varro in Gellium lib. 3. c. 10. Hippocrates Solon Hermippus Beritus in the sixth Book of Clemens of Alexandria besides divers others Nay it grew up so high in the opinion of some men that they derived it at the last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. ab insita majestate So Philo tells us Macrobius also saith the same Apud veteres 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocitatur De legis Allegor quod graeco nomine testabatur venerationem debitam numero Thus he in somnio Scipionis But other men as good as they find no such mystery in this number but that the rest may keep pace with it if not go before it and some of those which so much magnifie the seventh have found as weighty mysteries in many of the others also In which I shall the rather enlarge my self that seeing the exceeding great both contradiction and contention that is between them in these needless curiosities we may the better find the slightness of those Arguments which seem to place a great morality in this number of seven as if it were by Nature the most proper number for the service of God And first whereas the learned men before mentioned affix a special power unto it in the works of Nature Respons ad qu. 69. Justin the Martyr plainly tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that the accomplishment of the works of Nature is to be ascribed to Nature only not unto any period of time accounted by the number of seven and that they oft-times come to their perfection sooner or later than the said periods which could not be in case that Nature were observant of this number as they say she is and not this number tied to the course of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Therefore saith he this number hath no influence on the works of Nature Then whereas others attribute I know not what perfection to this number above all the rest Cicero affirming that it is plenus numerus Macrobius that it is numerus solidus perfectus De Republ. l. 4. Bodinus doth affirm expresly neutrum de septenario dici potest that neither of those Attributes is to be ascribed unto this number that the eighth number is a solid number although not a perfect one the sixth a perfect number also Now as Bodinus makes the eighth more solid and the sixth more perfect So Servius on these words of Virgil In Georgic 1. Septima post decimam foelix prefers the tenth number a far deal before it Vt primum locum decimae ferat quae sit valde foelix secundum septimae ut quae post decimae foelicitatem secunda sit Nay which may seem more strange than this Oratio secunda the Arithmeticians generally as we read in Nyssen make this seventh number to be utterly barren and unfruitful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to go forwards in this matter Macrobius who before had said of this number of seven that it is plenus venerabilis hath in the same Book said of this number of one that it is principium finis omnium and that it hath a special reference or resemblance unto God on high which is by far the greater commendation of the two And Hierom In Amos 5. that however there be many mysteries in the number of seven prima tamen beatitudo est esse in primo numero yet the prime happiness or beatitude is to be sought for in the first So for the third Origen generally affirms that it is aptus sacramentis even made for Mysteries In Gen. hom 8. and some particulars he nameth Macrobius findeth in it all the natural faculties of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rational 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or irascible Ad Antioch qu. 51. and last of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or concupiscible Saint Athanasius makes it equal altogether with the seventh the one being no less memorable for the holy Trinity than the other for
the Worlds Creation And Servius on these words of Virgil numero Deus impare gaudet saith that the Pythagoreans hold it for a perfect number and do resemble it unto God In Eclog. 8. à quo principium medium finis est Yet on the contrary De Republ. l. 4. Bodinus takes up Aristotle Plutarch and Lactantius for saying that the third is a perfect number there being in his reckoning but four perfect numbers in 100000 which are 6.28.496 8128. De mundi opif. Next for the fourth Philo not only hath assured us that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a perfect number wherein Bodinus contradicts him but that it is highly honoured De Abrahamo as amongst Philosophers so by Moses also who hath affirmed of it that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both holy and praise-worthy too And for the mysteries thereof Clemens of Alexandria tells us that both Jehovah in the Hebrew Strom. l. 5. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek consisteth of four Letters only and so doth Deus in the Latin Orat. 44. Nazianzen further doth enform us that as the seventh amongst the Hebrews so was the fourth honoured by the Pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that they used to swear thereby when they took an Oath Yet for all this Saint Ambrose thought this number not alone unprofitable but even dangerous also Numerum quartum plerique canent Lib. 4. c. 9. In Levit. hom 16. inutile putant as he in his Hexaemeron Then for the fifth Macrobius tells us that it comprehendeth all things both in the Heavens above and the Earth below And yet by Origen it is placed indifferently partly in laudabilibus partly in culpabilibus there being five foolish Virgins for the five wise ones Now let us look upon the sixth which Beda reckoneth to be numerus perfectus and Bodin In Gen. 2. De Rep. l. 4. De mundi opif. Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 4. In Levit. 12. primus perfectorum Philo and generally the Pythagoreans do affirm the same Yet the same Bodin tells us in the self-same Book that howsoever it be the first perfect number such as according unto Plato did sort most fitly with the workmanship of God Videmus tamen vilissimis animantibus convenire yet was it proper in some sort to the vilest creatures As for the eighth Hesychius makes it an expression or figure of the World to come Macrobius tells us that the Pythagoreans used it as an Hieroglyphick of Justice quia primus omnium solvitur in numeros pariter pares because it will be always divisible into even or equal members Nay whereas those of Athens did use to sacrifice to Neptune In Theseo on the eighth day of every month Plutarch hath found out such a mystical reason for it out of the nature of that number as others in the number of seven for the morality of the Sabbath They sacrifice saith he to Neptune on the eighth day of every month because the number of eight is the first Cube made of even numbers and the double of the first square 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth represent an immoveable stedfastness properly attributed to the might of Neptune whom for this cause we name Asphalius and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth the safe keeper and stayer of the Earth As strong an Argument for the one as any mystery or morality derived from Numbers can be for the other But if we look upon the tenth we find a greater commendation given to that than to the seventh yea by those very men themselves to whom the seventh appeared so sacred Philo affirms thereof that of all Numbers it is most absolute and compleat De mundi opif. D. congress qu. erudit gr De Decalogo not meanly celebrated by the Prophet Moses most proper and familiar unto God himself that the Powers and Vertues of it are innumerable and finally that leaned men did call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it comprehended in it self all kind of numbers With whom agree Macrobius who stiles it numerum perfectissimum Strom. l. 6. and Clemens Alexandrinus who gives it both the Attributes of Holiness and Perfection Qu. ad Antioch 51. Orat. 42. Nazianzen and Athanasius are as full as they And here this number seems to me to have got the better there being nothing spoken in disgrace of this as was before of the seventh by several Authors there remembred So that for ought I see in case the argument be good for the morality of the Sabbath we may make every day or any day a Sabbath with as much reason as the seventh and keep it on the tenth day with best right of all Adeo argumenta ab absurdo petita ineptos habent exitus said Lactantius truly Nay by this reason we need not keep a Sabbath oftner than every thirtieth day or every fiftieth or every hundredth because those numbers have been noted also to contain great mysteries and to be perfecter too than others In Gen. hom 2. For Origen hath plainly told us that if we look into the Scriptures invenies multa magnarum rerum gesta sub tricenario quinquagenario contineri we shall find many notable things delivered to us in the numbers of thirty and fifty De vita contempl Of fifty more particularly Philo affirms upon his credit that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holiest and most natural of all other numbers and Origen conceived so highly of it that he breaks out into a timeo hujus numeri secreta discutere and durst not touch upon that string In Num. hom 8. So lastly for the Centenary the same Author tells us that it is plenus and perfectus no one more absolute We may have Sabbaths at our will either too many or too few In Gen. hom 2. if this plea be good Yea but perhaps there may be some thing in the Scripture whereby the seventh day may be thought more capable in Nature of so high an honour Some have so thought indeed and thereupon have mustered up all those Texts of Scripture in which there hath been any good expressed or intimated which concerns this number or is reducible unto it Bellarmine never took more pains out of that fruitless topick to produce seven Sacraments than they have done from thence to derive the Sabbath I need not either name the men or recite the places both are known sufficiently Which kind of proof if it be good we are but where we were before amongst our Ecclesiastical and humane Writers In this the Scriptures will not help us or give the seventh day naturally and in it self more capability or fitness for Gods Worship than the ninth or tenth For first the Scriptures give not more honour to this number in some Texts thereof than it detracts from it in others and secondly they speak as highly of the other numbers as they