ceasing of Prophecy that is in the time of Maccabees which will not easily be granted Besides that we reade not that Antiochus cast any fire into the Temple Now if it speak of the vastation by Nebuchadnezzar then had the Jews before that time not onely a Sanctuary for sacrifice but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coâ—…ticula Dei that is either Proseucha's or Synagogues for either will serve my purpose But now you will say what profit is there of this long discourse were it so or were it not so as I have endeavoured to prove of what use is the knowledge thereof to us yes to know it was so is usefull in a threefold respect First for the right understanding of such places of the Old Testament where a House of God and assembling before the Lord are often mentioned there where neither the Ark of the Covenant nor the Tabernacle at such time were as besides the places before alledged we reade in the tenth of the first Book of Samuel of Sauls meeting with three men going up to God to Bethel and of a place called The Hill of God whence a company of Prophets came from the high place there prophesying with a Tabret Pipe and Harp before them in neither of which places can we finde that ever the Tabernacle was and as for the Ark we are sure it was all this time at Kiriathjearim till David solemnly fetcht it thence and if at any time the Ark might as now it was not be transferred to any of them upon occasion of some generall Assembly of the Nation that so they might have opportunity to ask counsell of the Lord and offer Sacrifice yet were they not the ordinary station thereof Secondly we may learn from hence that to have appropriate places set apart for prayer and Divine duties is not a circumstance or rite proper to legall worship onely but of a more common nature For as much as though Sacrifice wherein the legall worship or worship of the old Covenant consisted were restrained to the Ark and Tabernacle and might not be exercised where they were not yet were there other places for Prayer besides that which are no more to be accounted legall places then bare and simple prayer was a legall Dutie Lastly we may gather from this Description of Proseucha's which were as Courts encompassed onely with a wall or other like enclosure and open above in what manner to conceive of the accommodation of those Altars we reade to have been erected by the Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Book of Genesis namely that the ground whereon they stood was fenced and bounded with some such enclosure and shaded with trees after the manner of Proseucha's as we may reade expresly of one of them at Beersheba That Abraham there planted a Grove and called upon the Name of the Lord the everlasting God Yea when the Tabernacle and Temple were the Altar of God stood still in an open Court and who can beleeve that the place of those Altars of the Patriarchs were not bounded and separated from common ground And from these patterns in likelihood after the Altar for Sacrifice was restrained to one onely place the use of such open places or Courts for prayer garnished with trees as I have shewed Proseucha's to have been continued still 1 TIM 5. 17. Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour especially they that labour in the Word and Doctrine THere are two things in these words to be explicated First what is meant here by Elders Secondly what is this double-honour due unto them For the first there is no question but the Priests or Ministers of the Gospel of Christ were contained under this name for so the New Testament useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Presbyter for the Ministers of the Word and Sacraments in the Gospel whence commeth the Saxon word Priester and our now English word Priest And the Ancient Fathers thought these onely to be here meant and never dreamed of any other But in our time those who obtrude a new Discipline and Government upon the Church altogether unknown and unheard of in the ancient will needs have two sorts of Elders or Presbyters here understood one of such as preach the Word and Doctrine whom they call Pastours another of Lay-men who were neither Priests nor Deacons but ned as assistants to them in the exercise of Ecclesiasticall Discipline in admonitions and censures of manners and in a word in the execution of the whole power of the Keys These our Church-men call Lay-Elders and the Authors of this new device Presbyterians these Presbyters or Elders they will have meant in the first words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elders that rule or govern well whom therefore they call Ruling-Elders the other whom they call Pastours to be described in the latter words they who labour in the Word and Doctrine whom therefore they distinguish by the name of Teaching-Elders This is their exposition and this exposition the ground and foundation of their new Discipline but none of the Fathers which have commented upon this Place neither Chrysostome Hierome Ambrose Theodoret Primasius Oecumenius or Theophylact as they had no such so ever thought of any such Lay-Elders to be here meant but Priests only which administred the Word and Sacraments But how will you say then is this Place to be understood which may seem as they alledge to intimate two sorts of Elders some that ruled only others that laboured also in the Word and Doctrine The Divines of our Church who had cause when time was to be better versed in this question then any others have given divers expositions of these words none of which give place to any such new-found Elders as the Fautors of the Presbyterian Discipline upon the sole Authority of this one place have set up in divers forain Churches and would have brought into ours I will relate four of the chief of these expositions to which the rest are reducible The first is grounded upon the use of the participle in the Greek tongue which is often wont to note the reason or condition of a thing and accordingly to be resolved by a causall or conditionall conjunction According whereunto this Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 duplici honore digni habeantur or dignentur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be resolved thus Elders or Presbyters that rule or govern the Flock well let them be accounted worthy of double honour and that chiefly in respect and because of their labour in the Word and Doctrine And so this manner of speech will imply two duties but not two sorts or orders of Elders and that though this double honour be due unto them for both yet chiefly and more principally for the second their labour in the Word and Doctrine and this way goes S. Chrysostome and other Greek Writers A second exposition is taken from the force and signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Now for Synagogues the common opinion is that they were not before the Captivity of Babylon and that necessity first taught the Jews the use of them in that Captivity which afterward they brought with them at their return into their own Country The reason why men so think is I suppose the absolute silence of them in Scripture untill the time of the second Temple but though the name were not it is possible the thing might be howsoever because it is most received that they were not we will let it passe for currant But as for Proseucha's such as we have described them none that I know have affirmed or determined ought of their antiquity it may be not taken it into consideration either because they had no occasion to think of any such matter or because they confounded them altogether with Synagogues The matter therefore being free and undecided I will make bold to affirm that if Synagogues were not yet Proseucha's that is open places for Prayers were a long time before the Captivity yea even from the dayes of Ioshuah the son of Nun. And though the Jews had or were to have but one Altar or place of Sacrifice that namely which the Lord should choose to place the Ark of his Covenant there the Tabernacle or Temple yet had they other places for devotion and religious use And that this Sanctuary of God here mentioned in my Text at Sichem which was a Leviticall City was such a one my reasons are these First because it is incredible that the Israelites having but one Temple for the whole Nation whereat they were bound to appear and those the males onely but thrice a year should have no other places of prayer nearer their dwellings whither they might resort on Sabbath dayes the Temple or Tabernacle being from some of them above an hundred miles distant at the least Secondly because as I have already shewed this sanctuary at Sichem could not be the Tabernacle which was then at Shiloh not at Sichem and yet must have some stable and fixed place because the situation of the Oak is designed by it yea must have been still there when this story of Ioshuah was written which is thought to have been long after his death surely this Chapter was written after it where both his death and buriall are recorded wherefore to say the Ark was brought thither upon this occasion will not serve turn Thirdly this place should be a Proseucha because of that circumstance of trees growing in it which as it proves it not to have been the Tabernacle where no such thing was lawfull to be so seems it to be a Characteristicall note of a Proseucha For though it were not lawfull to have trees near the Altar of God that is in or about the Court of the Tabernacle Yet was it not so with Proseucha's yea they seem to have been ordinarily garnished and beset with them This may be gathered from a passage of Philo Iudaeus where relating the barbarous outrage of the Gentiles at Alexandria against the Jews there dwelling in the time of Caius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of some of the Proseucha's they cut down the Trees others they demolished to the very Foundations The same is implied by that of Iuvenal speaking of a Jewish Wizard or Fortune-teller conducta sub arbore conjux And again in his sixth Satyre Arcanam Iudaea tremens mendicat in aurem Interpres legum Solymarum magna sacerdos Arboris ac summi sida internuncia coeli Interpres legum Solymarum that is of Moses Lawes Magna Sacerdos Arboris because of the Trees in their Proseucha's or Places of worship The same appears also out of those verses of his third Satyre complaining that the once sacred Grove of Fons Capenus where Numa used to meet with the Goddesse AEgeria was then let out to the beggerly Jews for a Proseucha and that every Tree such were the times must pay rent to the people by which means the woods which formerly had been the habitation of the Muses were become dens for beggerly Jews to mutter their Orizons in hear his words Hic ubi nocturne Numa constituisset amicae Nunc sacri Fontis nemus delubra locantur Iudaeis quorum cophinus foenumquâ— supellex Omnis enim populo mercedem pendere jussa est Arbor ejectis mendicat sylva Camoenis Whence comes this connexion of Iews and Trees but from their having trees in their Proseucha's unto which their situation without the Cities conduced as also it did for privacy and retirement Thus you see how well the description and mark of a Proseucha agrees to this Sanctuary in my Text. And that the Jews had many other such in other places as well as at Sichem even in those elder times as at Mispah Bethel and Gilgal I make little doubt which we reade to have been places of Assembly for the people and the two last sanctified of old by Divine apparition as Sichem was Of Mispah the Author of the first of Maccabees in his third Chapter if I understand him testifieth as much when he tels us that whilst the holy City lay desolate and the Sanctuary was trodden down by the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes Iudas Maccabaeus and those of the people which adhered unto their God assembled together at Maspha to make there their supplications unto their God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because at Maspha or Mispah had been a place of prayer in former time for Israel as much as to say there had been a Proseucha of old And do we not reade in that story of the â—…jamiticall war in the Book of Iudges That the Iabernacle being at Shiloh as appears by the last Chapter yet in the Chapter going before it is said that the whole Congregation of Israel was gathered together as one man unto the Lord in Mispah and that in the twenty sixth verse is mention of an house of God there where the people prayed and fasted It is said indeed that the Ark of the Covenant was upon that extraordinary occasion brought thither but it being certain out of the next Chapter that the Tabernacle was still at Shiloh this House of God could be none of it Nay perhaps we may hence learn that when the Ark upon occasion of such a generall and extraordinary assembly was to be removed they used to bring it to such places as these which were as holy Courts ready prepared for it and that then it was lawfull but not else to sacrifice in them Of these Courts for prayer we may understand that also in the seventy fourth Psalm They have cast Fire into thy Sanctuary they have burnt up all the Conventicula Dei in the Land namely in the Captivity by Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed both their Temple and their Proseucha's For if we understand it of the persecution of Antiochus as some do it must then follow that some Canonicall Scripture was written after Malachi and the
for ever that is they should sing the one hundred and sixth Psalm or one hundred thirty sixth which begin in this manner and were both of them not unfit for such an occasion And when they began to sing and praise saith the Text the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon Moab and Mount Seir which were come against Iudah and they were smitten A second place where such kinde of Prophets and prophecying as we speak of is mentioned is that in the first of Samuel in the story of Sauls election where we reade That when he came to a certain place called the Hill of God he met a company of Prophets comming down from the high place or Oratory there with a Psaltery a Tabret and a Pipe and a Harp before them and they prophecied and he with them Their Instruments argue what kinde of Prophecy this was namely praising God with spirituall songs and melody In what manner is not so easie to define or specifie But with an extemporary rapture I easily beleeve And if we may conjecture by other examples one of them should seem to have been the Praecentor and to utter the verse or ditty the rest to have answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the extremes or last words of the verse For after this manner we are told by Philo Iudaeus that the Essens who were of the Iewish Nation were wont to sing their Hymnes in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or worshipping places And after the self-same manner Eusebius tels us did the Primitive Christians having in all likelihood learnt it from the Jews whose manner it was the same is witnessed by the Author Constitutionum Apostolicarum in his second Book and fifty seventh Cha. where describing the manner of the Christian service after the reading of the Lessons of the Old Testament saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let another sing the Psalms of David and the people succinere or answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the extremes of the verses Some footsteps of which custome remain still with us though perhaps in somewhat a different way when in those short versicles of Liturgy being sentences taken out of the Psalms the Priest says or sings the first half and the People answer the latter quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As for example in that taken out of Psal. 51. 17. the Priest says O Lord open thou our lips The People or Chorus answer And our mouth shall shew forth thy praise But whatsoever the ancient manner of answering was thus much we are sure of that the Iews in their divine lauds were wont to praise God after this manner in Antiphones or Responsories as to let passe other testimonies and the use of their Synagogues to this day derived from their Ancestors we may learn by two speciall Arguments one from the Seraphims singing Esay the sixth where it is said that the Seraphims cried one unto another saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts the whole earth is full of his Glory Note they cryed one unto another Secondly from the use of the Hebrew verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the proper and native signification thereof being to answer is also used for to sing as in the Psalm where we translate Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving sing praise upon the Harp unto our God in the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Answer unto the Lord in thanksgiving sing praise upon the Harp unto our God And Isay 27. 2. In that day sing ye unto her a vineyard of red wine In the Hebrew Answer ye unto her And Numbers 21. in Israels song of the Well Spring up O Well sing ye unto it In the Hebrew it is Answer unto it And Moses speaking of those that were worshipping the golden Calf Exodus 32. 18. It is not the voyce of them that shout for mastery nor the voyce of them that cry for being overcome but the noise of them that sing do I heare In the Hebrew the voyce of them that answer one another And so in other places But to put all out of doubt look Ezra 3. 11. where it is expresly said The Levites the sons of Asaph sung together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord because he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Hence was derived the manner of praying and praising God in the Christian service alternis vicibus in a musicall way and as it were by way of prophecying and versifying even though we do but speak it only as you know the Poet says Amant alterna Camaenae Thus I have taken occasion somewhat to enlarge this particular That we our selves might the better understand the reason of what we do and what precedents and whose example we follow therein And thus much of prophecying I come now to the second thing I propounded to speak of namely what was that fault among the Corinthians which the Apostle here taxeth For the right understanding whereof I say two things First for the offenders that they were the women and not the men That which the Apostle speaketh concerning men being by way of supposition only and to illustrate his Argument against the uncomly guise of the women à pari this appears because his conclusion speaks of women only and nothing at all of men Secondly for the quality of the fault it was this that the women at the time of praying and prophecying were unveiled in the Church notwithstanding it was then accounted an unseemly and immodest guise for women to appear open and bare-faced in publique How then will you say should it come to passe that Christian women should so much forget themselves as to transgresse this decorum in Gods House and service which they observed other where I answer from a phantasticall imitation of the manner of the she-Priests and Prophetesses of the Gentiles when they served their Idols as their Pythiae Bacchae or Maenades and the like who used when they uttered their Oracles or celebrated the rites and sacrifices of their Gods to put themselves into a wild and extaticall guise having their faces discovered their hait dishevelled and hanging about their ears This these Corinthian women conceiting themselves when they prayed or prophecied in the Church to be acting the parts of she-Priests uttering Oracles like the Pythiae or Sibyllae or celebrating sacrifice as the Maenades or Bacchae were so fond as to imitate as that sex is prone to follow the fashion and accordingly cast off their veils and discovered their faces immodestly in the Congregation and thereby as the Apostle speaks dishonoured their heads that is were unseemly accoutred and dressed on their head which he proveth by three Arguments partly from Nature which having given women their hair for a covering taught them to be covered as a sign of subjection the manner of this covering being to be measured by the custome of the Nation Lastly by an Argument à pari from men