by the holy Ghost in the reasonable creature And this holinesse is either inhaesive or expressive In haesive holinesse is that seasoning and gratious constitution wherewith the heart and conscience is Ps 51. inwardly so qualified by the holy Ghost as disposeth it wholy to the will honour and glory of almighty God And this is it which David hungered after when he said Create in me a mew heart and Eph. 4. 24. renew a right spirit within mee Yea this is that Image of God according whereunto man was fist created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Expressive holinesse is the outward manifestation of the former by the words of our mouthes and by the performances and gestures of the rest of the lymbes of our bodyes as in their severall kindes we be occasioned to make use of them and this is fully required at our hands Ro. 12. 1. present your bodyes a living Sacrafice holy and acceptable unto God This expressive holinesse is to be practised two wayes First in our conninuall conversation before God Secondly in our speciall approaching unto God As the duty of a Servant to his Master is first in being diligent and faithfull in all his businesse Secondly in his respective behaviour when he commeth to his Masters presence or is in speach with him and yet more specially when he is to crave favor or to give thankes for favors received from him So the Servant of God having his heart possessed with the feare of God is first very carefull that he offend not in the tounge that there be no pride nor lust in his eyes that his feete neither walke nor stand in the way of the ungodly that his hands be free from bribery oppression and all iniquity And finally that all his members be instruments of righteousnesse unto God and his conversation honest before the world That his light may so shine before men that they may see his good workes and glorifie his father which is in heaven God hath made as well the body as the soule And therefore he is to be served as well by the outward members of the body as by the inward abilities of the soule He that saith by Solomon Sonne give me thine heart Saith also by Saint Paul present your bodyes a living sacrifice And as there must bee no strife among the members so neither must the soule and bodye disagree But joyne sweetly both 1 cor 6. 20. as one in the Service of God And therefore he saith Glorifie God in your bodyes and spirits for they are Gods And of all this we must be constantly carefull Ps 16. 8. so to set God alwayes before our eyes and to have alwayes a good conscience both towards God and towards Act. 24. 16. man that when we come to give an accompt of our Stewardship we may with joy heare that comfortable approbation of our Lord and Master well done good and faithfull servant But when the servant of God approacheth unto God in his holy House ai his holy Table to speake to God by holy Prayer to heare him in his holy word to give him thankes for received blessings for health food rayment manifold preservations forgivenesse of sinnes the hope and expectation of the joyes of heaven to begge all things requisit for body or soule to receive the holy Sacrament of the body and blood of his blessed Saviour thereby to be sealed to the day of Redemption Then as to be specially reverend and devoute in heart within so to expresse the same by such behaviour and respect without as may shew the reverence and humility suitable to and becomming the holy servant of the holy God in so holy a businesse in the holy place And in all this there is no Superstition CHAP. IX Gods worship is to be performed with outward expressions THat in the common way of our ordinary conversation wee must conscionably serve God as well with the members of our bodyes as with the faculties of our soules None except peradventure some bruitish familists a generation given over to a reprobate sence will deny But I finde it beyond exceptation difficult to perswade diverse men who yet will seeme specially zealous Pro. 23. 28. to have God rightly worshiped that in Gods worship there is any use of any more then the soule or minde alone And that because it is sayd sonne give me thine heart And herein they deale with us as the Papists do in another case For when we teach that a man is justified by faith in Christ They presently charge us that we exclude workes as not requisite in a Christian So these men hearing us urge that the members of the body must be used in the worship of God except against us as if we excluded the heart from this duty But I would gladly request my bretheren to understand that as being justifiâ—d by Jac. 2. 18. faith wee labour to shew our faith by our workes knowing that to be no true or lively faith which doth not fructifie and bring forth good workes So by the outward gestures of our bodies we declare that worship which is in the heart assuring our selves that there is no devotion in the heart of that man who maketh no expression thereof in his outward behaviour And whereas God saith sonne give me thine heart I conceive under correction that God dealeth herein as a tender father who seeing his sonne plunged into some dangerous gulph saith sonne give me thine hand not that the father intendeth to reskue onely the childes hand But because the hand is the gainfullest limbe for the child to reach out and for the Father to take hold on to draw the whole childe out of danger So almighty God seeing his childe at a lametable passe ready to sinke to the bottome of hell saith sonne give me thy heart That so God having gayned hold on the heart may thereby draw the whole man to eternall safety There is such correspondency and sympathy between the Soule and the body as maketh to accord one with an other like those Creatures and wheels mentioned by the Prophet Ezech. when those went these went when those stoode these stoode when those were lifted up these were lifted up for the spirit of the living Creatures was in the wheeles So may I well say when the Soule moveth forward in devotion Eze. 1. 21. towards God the body will not be left behinde but will beare the Soule company If the Soule in humility be dejected then the body with a bare head a bowing waste and bended knees is in all gestures of submission If the Soule be elevated and encouraged by desire and hope towards God then the eye looketh up and the hand is lifted up towards heaven expressing outwardly the inward disposition of the Soule And on the other side every man findeth in his owne experience that his Soule doth sympathise with the temper of his body For if the body be tired with labour the minde becometh heavy
onely for Dormitories or burialls but also for divine worship and have borne the name of Oratories for there they did hold Synods sing Psalmes Dur. deritibs and administer the Sacraments And before we enter into any of our Churches we may in the Church yard take notice of the quarrell which our brethren make to the very situation of them as having their fore part or upper end standing alwayes to the East Of whom I aske and why not to the East Is there any danger in setting the upper end of a Church into the East Or is there any Commandement against it If we ascribed any holinesse to the East more than to any other quarter or that wee deemed any Church or Chappell unholy for not being placed so into the East then might this be accounted a superstitious observation of the East But when this is now done in imitation of the practise of Primitive times continued unto this present And for order and conformitie of one Church with another And it may be for some documentall signification as that we under the Gospell looke into the East as acknowledging the Sonne of righteousnesse to have risen unto us and to bee shining upon us with light and comfort whereas the Temple for Leviticall worship looked Westward as it were towards the night in token of the Clouds and darkenesse under which the people were at that time These and divers other good considerations might there bee in the first placing of our Churches in this manner without touch of superstition But I am tould that when we are within the Church we find it divided and a partition or some marke of distinction set between the Church and the Chancell as we call it and one part of the service is to be read in one place and another in another Wee are now entred into the Church and wee find it indeed as here it is described But as yet we find no Superstition Distinctions of severall places in the house of God are not any conceit crept in with Poperie but such as have been Constituted and put in ure very early in the Primitive Church by what partitions or boundaries every one of them was severed from other I cannot so fully finde out neither is it materiall Only this is agreeable with good reason order and comelines free from any colour of Superstition that as there be severall rancks of people professing Church-unity so they have their places in their severall distances Some are unworthy to Come within the doores of the Church and therefore are to stand without Some are fit to be received in to be baptized Some to be instructed in the grounds of Religion and to repaire with the rest of the Congregation All which is done in the nave and body of the Church And as men profit in knowledge and a working Faith to discerne the Lords body They are admitted into a higher roome where the Sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus Christ is to be administred at the holy Table in the Chancell which devideth it from the rest of the Church Seeing then there are severall offices orduties to be performed in the Church what Superstition is it if there be distinct and severall places for them If all places be by nature holy alike and by Consecration the whol Chuch and every part thereof be set apart for Gods worship Then why is it not as lawfull to pray in one place thereof as in another Is it lawfull and and no Superstition to pray sometimes in the Desk or reading pew and sometimes in the Pulpit and sometimes at the Font why then may not it be as free from offence to pray sometimes at the Communion Table and yet in a fift or sixt place if the Church require it at our hands And whereas our bretheren say that one part of the Service is read in one place and another part in another place they are mistaken For those prayers which are read at the Communion Table are not severall parts of the same but are distinct Services and so are they called the first and second service The first hath been antiently called matutinae and by Contraction Mattins or the early Service whereunto came al that would being not excommunicated into the nave or body of the Church Which being ended the fashion was after a while to give warning by a small bell And then the second Service beganne at the Communion Table At which the company antiently was the fewer demissa Catechumenorum turba the Company of those that were not yet fit for the Communion being sent away In that therefore we have the Communion Service at the Communion Table this is no Superstition but an orderly sorting of the place to the businesse after the example of the purer and devouter times whereto we are reduced from the disorder that these latter dayes have produced The Minister before he beginneth the Communion goeth up into the pulpit with an Homily or Sermon to prepare the Communicants I hope no body will find fault that a Sermon is made in the Pulpit which ended the Minister returneth to proceed in that which concerneth the Communion at the Table for the Communion If we held that some prayers were not accepable to God except they were made precisely in this or that place Or if we reputed the Supper of the Lord uneffectuall if it be not received in the Chancell then here were superstition But when we do thinges not upon any such fancy but in obedience and conformity to discipline and order for decency and comelynesse we are no way to be either taxed or suspected for Superstition Why is it not as free from Superstition to administer the Sacrament in one place of the Church and to pray in an other as to pray in one place and to preach in an other and to baptize in a third Why is it not Superstition for the people to draw nere to receive the Holy Sacrament to their comfort at the Holy Table more then for the Minister to walke up and downe the Church and to Crowde into thronged stooles with the sacred body and blood of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in his handes In the people cōming up to the holy Table where is their spiritual food made ready for them is no Superstition But in the ministers going so from stool to stool or pew to pew there is much irreverence disorder ill beseeming the administration of such a Sacrament O my bretheren you are not called up to worship any but the true God nor to worship the true God after any manner otherwise then God requireth meekly kneeling upon your knees Some have grudged to receive the holy communion kneeling But that errour hath long since been discovered and reformed and now you take a new offence not at the posture of the body but the place where because it is at the rayle before the Communion Table Do you not know and confesse that the word the Sacrament and
Prayer be of equal use and power in all places not as the place but as the Grace of God shall give the blessing What Superstition is it to kneele at the rayle more then at thy stoole or what sinne is it to leane upon the one more then upon the other Only I should thinke that the neerer a man approacheth to that table whereupon he Seeth with his eyes the sacred body blood of his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ layd forth for him to feede upon to everlasting life the more should he find himselfe ravished with devotion not skared with an immagination of Superstition But wee see already in many Churches and do feare that shortly we shall behold the like in all the Communion Table mounted up and elevated diverse stepps or degrees and encloased with rayles But the font which is the laver of regeneration standing at the lower end of the Church and left open to the allyes All this is true and yet ye may be without feare that in all this there is not any Superstition For still here is neither any false God worshiped nor any false manner of worship in all this But whereas the party to be baptized is to be entred or taken into the Congregation the font or laver by the which he must be admitted standeth beneath at the entrance of the Church ready to receive and entertayne him There is he made one of the Company of those which have right and interest in the priviledges of that part of the Church where the font is placed viz. the water of Baptisme to wash away his sinnes the word for his instruction and prayer whereby to Communicate himselfe to almighty God untill he be fitted to be further preferred to the holy Table which is therefore elevated or set downe upon an higher floore then the rest of the pavement to be the more in the eyes and view of the people that so for their edification they may the better behold the behaviour of the Preist Consecrating and setting apart the elements to become a Sacrament And that the very sight of the holy Table at all times may beget in the beholders an hunger and thirst after that blessed food The Table is inclosed with rayles to Preserve it from abuses whereto else it would be subject In which case the Church antiently used to be very carefull And if as in some Churches it is the font were decently with rayles enclosed it were I speake under correction more suteable to the reverence due thereunto But to proceed in our Search Let us looke well about least any nooke yet shrowde some superstition Here are the Kings armes set up not for any matter of divine worship But to professe and testifie the subjection of every soule to the higher power For as the written sentences upon the walls by letters so these Scutchions by their expressions do put us in minde of that Defender of the Faitb and of our duty to him who is next and immediately under God supream governor over al persons and causes as well ecclesiasticall as Temporall in all his Majesties Realmes Dominions And in all this there is no Superstition O but looke sayth one upon the Church windowes and then tell me what meane those images Quest and pictures which are in the glasse They are not there set for any matter of worship of either God Saint or Angell but for history and ornament No Christian so far as I know holdeth Ans it unlawfull to make an image or to use for memoriall Cognisance History or Ornament For if it were utterly unlawfull to make an image there should not have been so many yea any at al in the Temple or Tabernacle Neither would God have taught Aholiah and Bezaliel the making of them For though many things in the Tabernacle and Temple were typicall yet might nothing be there which was against the Morall law or in it selfe evill and unlawfull And many things were there as well for ornament and decency as for typicall signification Images Tert. Bazil Nissen Aug. Cyril Greg. Euseb Chris Justin Orig. Nazian then may be made they have been made and by the Primitive Churches frequently used in their Churches Chalices no word of God prohibiteth the setting of them up in Churches we performe no worship unto them nor to any other by them And therefore their being in our Churches is neither Leviticall nor Superstitious It is too poore a conceit for any to fasten superstition upon our Churches because of that which the Papists do practise in theirs For what is Superstitious among them wee leave unto them And wee performe only that which is lawfull decent and pious The Papists do in many things the same which wee do but we omit many things though not all things which they practice we looke not to the actions of Papists for our direction but to the word of God and practice of antient and Orthodox Christians where the Papist is so guided wee gladly approve him and do as he doth where he innovateth and swarveth from this rule we are sory for him and there leave him We think not the worse of any true Doctrine Christian act or devout demenure for that a Papist doth or maintaine the one or performe the other But we thinke the better of a Papist the neerer he commeth to truth and devotion And the like course we hold with others so long and no longer to hold with them as in Doctrine practice they are devout and Christian If any take exception against any rich furniture and utensill in our Churches and tell us of some Superstition in them I wish that our brethen could as well shew us our Churches so rightly furnished as we can cleare them from being therein Superstitious In most of our Churches besides the bible the Service or Common Prayer booke with the apology the Preists vestments meane inough a pewter flagon and a silver cup what have we else except wee will rekon the bels in the steeple How many meane yomen be there in many parishes in England whose plate and rich stuffe is more worth then all the whol furniture of his Parish church In some great Parishes in rich Corporations as also in divers but not in all Cathedrall Churches there is some better provision to adorne the Church to set out the Service and commend our profession of which though some grudging say which you know who what needeth this waste yet is herein no Superstition For was there any Superstition in them that brought silver gold for the use of the Tabernacle or Onix stone and other pretious stones for the Ephod more then in them that bestowed but Rames skins or goates hayre if any say that these things were for Leviticall worship I must request them to understand that the Leviticalnesse of things of the Tabernacle or Temple consisted not in their materials as gold silver or the like but in their typicall relation to Christ and things in Christ
in other Ans names of God expressing his Majesty Power Justice and the like This is the only name of God which fully setteth out unto us the mercy of God to eternall salvation For therefore is he called Jesus because he shall save his people from their sinnes And there is no other name under heaven given Matth. 1. 21. Luc. 4. 12. whereby we must be saved For so much therefore as in this name we find the greatest yea unspeakable Comfort It is agreeable to good reason that we be by this name stirred up and affected with unspeakable joy within and that we make expression thereof to the glory of God by devout outward reverence I would my brethren which are so scrupulous in this point would without prejudice read the learned and cleare tteatises which are extant on this argument and specially that exquisite peece of that most learned and judicious Bishop Andrews And that setting aside their causelesse quarrell against his being Lord Bishop they would weigh his reasons with an humble spirit and an heart lifted Joh. 16. 13. up to God through Jesus Christ to be guided by that Spirit of truth which our Saviour promised to send to guide us all into all truth Then I make no doubt but they would soone see that in bowing the knee to God at the mention of the name of Jesus there is no Superstition But you call the Communion table an altar and Ob. you adore it by bowing and doing reverence thereunto We are not by any Canon or rule that I know required to call it an altar And the now Lord Ans Bishop of Elie a man specially zealous to restore Gods publique worship to the primitive lustre in the articles which he lately exhibited in his visitation when he was Bishop of Norwich doth Chrys Nyssen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not at all call it by the name altar but sometime the Communion table and sometime in the words of the Fathers the holy Table And yet it hath antiently been called indifferently by either name Coale from the Altar Altar Christianum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antid Lincol. Altar or Table and may indifferently beare either name as is abundantly cleared of late by divers learned pennes who have eased me from any labour in this point and are sufficient to satisfie any reasonable spirit Neither know I any particular or oppositive law enjoyning us to bow at the altar or Cōmunion table Yet the devotion of those which do practice it being grounded upon the custome of the Catholick Church of Christ is in my poore judgment not only justifiable but also commendable For what is there to be said against it It is superstition in Gods worship to bow or do Ob. reverence to any creature Wee do not bow to the table but at the table Ans as a man in his onw house praying either in his closet by himselfe or in some roome amongst his family kneeleth at his chaire or table is not sayd to kneele to his stoole or table So we that bow at the Communion table do our reverence there not to the table but to God at the table And why there more then any where else Quest I answer first by such another question Why Ans not there as well as any where else what is there to forbid me to do my duty reverently unto God in that place Againe I aske my brother why was Moses commanded Exod. 3. 5 at the fire bush to put his shooes from his feet rather there then in any other place I hope he will answer me with Gods own reason and words viz. because the place was holy ground Then I ask once more what made that place holyer then an other will it not be confessed to be Gods speciall presence there specially manifested in the voice that spake and the fire which burned not the bush All this is cleare and undeniable And from hence then thus it followeth necessarily A place where God by speciall signes manifesteth his speciall presence is more holy then another place though not in nature yet in use and relation And there men are to demeane themselves with special reverence therefore But the Communion table is a place where God manifesteth himselfe specially present in the Sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And therefore men ought there to demeane themselves with speciall reverence towards God there specially present For when a man considereth the love of God in Jesus Christ sealed unto him by the body and blood of Christ whereof the Communion table doth specially put him in minde as being a table specially set up and set apart for that banquet then the heart if it be right is lifted up in reverend thankefullnesse to our mercifull God and the body boweth to expresse that reverence and thankfulnesse which the heart conceiveth If the Sacrament were alwayes on the table Ob. then this argument might have some shew of reason but we see men bow when nothing is on the table The Communion table being appropriated for the Service of the Communion retaineth still Ans its relation to that Sacrament and still calleth upon us to remember the love of God to us in the body and blood of Christ and therefore to be reverently thankfull And so it continueth still an holy Table in the regard of the holy things which belong unto it though they be not really present upon it If this matter of permanent relation seemeth Gen. 28. harsh to any let him consider a passage in the book of Gen. where the case is thus God in a dreame exhibiteth unto Jacob speciall signes of his speciall presence in that place where Jacob was then sleeping In the morning Jacob awaketh But then there appeareth not any of those signes And yet in relation to that presence of God which had in the night before appeared unto him in those signes he saith O how dreadfull is not was this place It is not was the house of God Is the place now the house of God and a place to affect Jacob with dread though the signes be not present upon the place And shall not the Communion table be stil the table of God and an holy Table to affect us with reverence though the sacrament be not alwayes actually on the table Did not our Saviour call the Temple an house of Prayer and not allow it to be at all an house of Merchandise Neither might it serve the turne of the money changers to save them from the whip to have said wee will not trade in the Temple in the time of Sacrifice or of Prayer or of Preaching but only when the Service is ended For the Temple is alwayes an house of prayer whether men be there at Matt. 13. 21. Praiers or not And so the holy Table is alwaies the Communion Table or Table of the Lord whether the Sacrament be upon it or not Doth not our Saviour also tell us that he which
sweareth by the Temple sweareth by him that dwelleth in the Temple The Temple was ordeined for the worship of God And therefore God dwelled in the Temple in speciall manner Idcirco jurans per templum juratper Lyr. Deum qui colitur in Templo i. For that very cause he that sweareth by the Temple sweareth by God which is worshiped in the Temple Will any body now be so idle as to say that this rule doth hold if a man sweare just then when they are at Prayer or at Sacrifice in the Temple and not else but that a man swearing by the Temple when the Service is done doth not sweare by God Is it not also in the same Chapter sayd by the same sacred mouth that he which sweareth by the Altar sweareth by it and by all that is upon it Should he not now shew himselfe senceles who should say that this rule holdeth only so longe as there is any Sacrifice or Oblation on the Altar and no longer This were right to follow the prophane sence of strang people in this age who inmitate or comply with the filthy Fratricellians before mentioned which allow no difference betweene a Church and a Barne when Service is ended or betweene the Communion Table and thier own common table when the administration of the sacrament is over But know we who in duty and humility submit our selves to be taught by God in his holy word that as between God and the Temple betweene the Oblation and the Altar in the old Testament so now between God and the Church between the Communion table the body blood of Christ under the Gospell the relation doth continue So that whensoever the holy table commeth into our eyes it ought to put us in minde of the mercy of God in the blood and merit of Jesus Christ And shall not then this object beget thankfullnesse and reverence in my heart Or may not that reverence which is conceived in mine heart be expressed in the gestures of my body we do reverence at our entrance into the Kings Chamber of presence and al the while we are there and specially when we come neere the chaire of state though his Majesty be not there in person And our brethren do not call this Superstition But let them then tell me Should we not much more do so when we come into the Church which is the presence of God and while we are there and specially when we approach the holy Table But they tell us that it is not the like reason because the one is Civill and the other a Religious reverence Whereas if their reason could reach it or if their frowardnesse would acknowledge it the reason or argument is most strong and drawne à minori ad majus from the lesser to the greater thus If we reverence a King who is a mortall man at the simboles of his Majesty and memorials of his Soveraignity how much more the God of heaven in our entrance into his house and drawing neere his holy Table Neither let them flatter themselves with the misseunderstood and misseapplyed distinction of Religious and Civill reverence When Religion doth not lesse bind us to reverence God with our whol man body and soule then civility doth oblige us to respect man neither doth religion bar but regulate actions and matters of civility Therefore by how much more God is greater then man and the Soveraigne more to be honoured then his Deputy we are to be more reverent in the Church then in the Kings Chamber of presence and at the Communion Table then at the chaire of State If we are to reverence the King not with the body alone but also with the heart so are we to reverence God not only with the heart but also with the body And so God in the King and the King for God with the whol man So that this very gesture of bowing at the Communion Table rightly performed is not at all any Superstition but rather a Christian duty CHAP. XI They who unjustly charge us with Superstition are themselves most Superstitious WEE have made search in the tents of Jacob Leah and the handmaydes narrowly but but have not found yet any of Labans Idols That is we have considered the Cathedrall and and parochian Churches and taken notice of every corner and of every particular thing and gesture done and used in the same But God be thanked we have not in any of them found any Superstition And therefore we confidently returne à non est inventus i. There is no Superstition found in all our Churches Come we now then into the Tent of Rachell I mean the society of those who challenge us of Superstition I hope it wil not offend thē that we give them the name of Rachell For as she was the fayrest of al the wives of Jacob so these men conceive them selves to be the purest and sincerest so the fayrest worshippers of all the rest But we no sooner come into her tent but that we find her verbally very respective of her Father Yet really and in deed very undutifull and hypocriticall Let it Gen. 31. not displease my Lord that I can not rise For the custome of women is upon me Let it not displease is very smooth language The terme Lord as indeed it was a word of reverence in the mouth of Sarah to her husband so it seemeth a little of respect from the tounge of Rachell to her Father But the playne truth is that it is not the displeasure of her Father but the retaining of her Idolls and persevering in her Superstition that she regardeth Nor is she ashamed to tell her Father I can not rise And least she might be suspected to speak falsly as she did shee hath like a cunning dissembler quickly found a faire Cloake to palliate her iniquity and to make her lye to seeme a truth The Custome of women is upon her Fallitur pater commento muliebri ac honestissima ratione ac specie deluditur The Father is deluded with a tricke of a womans wit and beguiled with a faire pretence and semblance I am not very willing to fasten these conditions and tricks of Rachell too hard upon my brethren Yet what is true is true And God give us all grace neither uncharitably to misconster nor perversly or unadvisedly to give cause to be suspected of either frowardnesse hypocrisie or any other impiety But as for those of our brethren which seperate from us in their practice and fashion of worshiping God they will many if not the most of them give when they list unto our Fathers and Governors calme and submissive langvage at least to their faces But withall they cannot rise they cannot stand they cannot bow they cannot come up They cannot stand nor rise to make confession of their Faith nor to praise God in the congregation with hymnes and doxologies They cannot bow at the name of Jesus They cannot draw neere and come up to