thing that may sound strange to them that find the charge of Teaching the Law laid upon the Priests and Levites from the beginning in divers passages of it But if we view those passages at a near distance it will appear that they speak not of TEACHING the Law at any Religious Assemblies for such purpose but of deciding cases emergent or giving Judgement in causes arising upon it Deut. xxiiii 8. Take heed in the Plague of Leprosie that thou observe diligently and do according to all that the Priests the Levites shall TEACH you as I commanded them so shall ye observe to do In Leviticus there is much provided concerning the Priests proceeding in judging Leprosies but that the people should stand to their judgement provision is not made Here is declared that in those cases they did not resort to the Priests as to Physicians to follow their sentence so farre as their own respect should advise but that their sentence called here TEACHING had the force of binding them to stand to it 2. Chron. xviii 18. Josaphat in the third year of his reigne sent his Princes to TEACH in the Cities of Judah and with them he sent Levites and Priests R. Solomon Jarchi there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it lay upon the Priests and Levites to teach and instruct as it is written Deut. xxiii 8. ACCORDING TO ALL THAT THE PRIESTS AND LEVITES SHALL TEACH And the Princes went with them that none might disobey them and to constrain them to heare them and observe to do according to the command of the Judges like that Deut. xvi 18. JUDGES AND OFFICERS â—HALT THOU MAKE THEE Judges to judge he people and Officers to constrain them to do he command of the Judges This TEACHING â—hen consisted in declaring the obligation of â—he Law by the Judges of it the Priests and Levites and the Princes were officers with power to inforce the execution of it Mal. ii â— The Priests lips should preserve knowledge â—nd the Law they should require at his mouth For he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts In â—he Chaldee of Jonathan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ecause he ministreth before the Lord of Hosts From which Translation some of the Jews expound this reason thus You shall have recourse to the Priests to determine matters doubtfull in the Law for standing to minister before the Lord in the Temple he is alwayes ready for such purposes R. Isaac Aâ—arbinel upon Deut. xvii 9. But however this prove if we consider what followeth there vers 9. You have been partiall in the Law we shall find the glosse of David Kimchi to be most true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You accept the persons of great men in matter of the Law which saith Levit. xxii 22. YE SHALL NOT OFFER THESE UNTO THE LORD And when they bring an offering with a stain you are afraid to reprove them and tell them this Offering is not allowable So that the intent of this Text also pointeth at the deciding of difficulties emergent about the Law of Moses Levit. x. 8. where the Priests are forbidden to drink wine during the time of their service there followeth a further reason vers 10. And that you may put difference between holy and unholy and between unclean and clean and that ye may TEACH the children of Israel all the Statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses To resolve where the Law took hold or not in particular cases of that nature is to divide between unholy and holy between clean and unclean Therefore we have cause to think that the Generall which followeth of TEACHING all Statutes is commanded to the same purpose in matters of other nature And that of Deut. xxxiii 10. They shall TEACH Jacob thy Statutes and Israel thy Law Abarbinel expoundeth to the same effect For he observeth that it goeth before thus Who saith unto his father and to his mother I have not seen him neither doth he acknowledge his brethren nor know his own children as the reason of that which followeth They shall TEACH Jacob thy Statutes and Israel thy Law Because they take no notice of their dearest relations in Judgement therefore they shall TEACH Jacob thy Statutes and Israel thy Law by deciding the controversies of it And all this because the Originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is proper to signifie instruction by way of precept from whence the Law is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the declaration of the obligation or not obligation of it is in the language of their Doctours called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither is it materiall though some of these Scriptures be otherwise understood For my purpose is not to say that the people was not taught at all by the Priests and Levites at Religious Assemblies but not as such It is for divers reasons to be believed That the most part of Prophets and disciples of Prophets were Priests and Levites They were free from the care of Estates and Inheritances They were the men that came nearest to God by their Office in his Ceremoniall Service which an extraordinary degree of the knowledge and fear of God best suited with But it is as certain that the charge of Teaching the people belonged as well to the Prophets that were not Priests and Levites The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses chair saith our Lord in the Gospel which is very well expounded in the words of Philo alledged afore for he telleth us That it was the custome from the time of Moses for the Chief to teach and the people to learn to live as he taught Then the Chair of Moses is the Chair of Doctrine as well as of Judgement and Moses the Chief of Doctours as well as of Judges But it is well known what the Lord said unto Moses Numb xi 16 17. Gather unto me seventy men of the Elders of Israel whom thou knowest to be Elders of the people and Officers over them and I will take of the Spirit that is upon thee and put it upon them These that were known to be Elders of Israel in their severall Tribes or their Officers in Egypt as we reade Exod. iiii 29. v. 19. are chosen to receive their share of Moses his spirit whereupon it followeth vers 29. And it came to passe that when the spirit rested upon them they prophesied and ceased not The Jews Doctours seem to apprehend the nature of the Gift which these men received not amisse Moses Maimoni in More Nebochim ii 45. Abarbinel upon the place They tell us that the meanest degree of Gods spirit was that whereby men found themselves moved and inabled to those works of wisdome and courage which otherwise they thought not themselves fit to undertake with assurance that all was from above This is the Grace say they which the Judges received when it is said THE SPIRIT OF GOD INVESTED GEDEON OR CAME UPON SAMPSON for example The second is when men are moved to speak of
the times when the freedome of the people was abated and that great Court reduced from governing the State to judge the greatest of those matters wherein they were left to their own Laws Which fitteth the present purpose neverthelesse Because from it we shall perceive the imployment of their Scribes together with the fashion of their Consistories and of their Synagogues in consequence whereupon that which is to follow dependeth R. Moses in Sanedrin C. ii num 1. They place not in any Sanedrin great or little but WISEMEN men abounding in knowledge of the Law men of large knowledge in other Sciences And straight afterwards They place not in the Sanedrin but Priests and Levites and Israelites of birth sit to be of Alliance to the Priesthood as it is said Numb xi 16. AND THEY SHALL STAND THERE VVITH THEE of men like thee in wisdome and godlinesse and birth And it is a precept that there be Priests and Levites of the Great Sanedrin as it is said Deut. xvii 9. AND THOU SHALT COME UNTO THE PRIESTS THE LEVITES But if none be found though there be none but Israelites it is allowable Israelites of birth were not assumed for their birth for the Priests and Levites that were counted among them of best birth sate not there unlesse their learning were answerable The High Priest himself unlesse he were fit for his wisdome had no place in the Sanedrin of Seventy one in Jerusalem as it followeth straight afterwards Now the manner of breeding here requisite is to be understood from the description of the second Court of three and twenty which he maketh in the first Chapter there afore Num. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Judge that is of greatest wisdome among them is Head over them the rest sit in a round as it were a half Circle that the Head may see them all And again Numb 7. Before every Sanedrin they place three ranks of Disciples of Wisemen three and twenty in every rank the first near the Judges the second lower then that the third lower then the second and in every rank they sit according to their degree in Wisdome Out of these as need requireth they assume the next in rank to assist in Judgement when the Bench is not complete by Imposition of Hands as it followeth there because finable Causes that belonged to this middle Court were not judged but by Masters made by Imposition of hands But the lowest of their Courts was thus Cap. 1. num 6. In Cities of lesse then sixscore Families they place THREE Judges as in no Court lesse then three that it may have more and lesse if they chance to be divided in a Cause When there are not in a City two Great Wisemen one fit to teach and decide in all the Law the other that can understand and dispute ask and answer they place no Sanedrin in it though it have two thousand of Israel where there are these two one to understand and one to speak it is a Sanedrin where there are three it is mean where foure whereof three can speak that is a Sanedrin of Wisdome For as you have it there afterwards C. ii num ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though a Court of three be a full Court it is commendable whensoever there are more and better that a Cause be decided by eleven then by ten and it is requisite that all that sit in the Court be Disciples of the WISE and fitting So though this Court reaching but to money matters require not Imposition of hands yet you see what qualities it requireth in two that are necessary and in all that may sit in it And thus it appeareth how that is verified in particular which was generally affirmed afore That none could come to sit in any of their Courts of Justice but their Scribes but their Wise but the Disciples of Wise but those that were bred to the knowledge of the Law But it concerneth my purpose to observe further in that description of the middle Court the three ranks of Disciples that sate beneath the Judges by degrees according to their knowledge because the like order took place at their religious Assemblies in the Synagogues the people sitting flat on the floores S. Ambrose upon the words of the Apostle 1. Cor. xiiii 29 30. Let the Prophets speak two or three and let the other judge If it be revealed to another as he SITTETH let the first hold his peace Traditio Synagogae est quam nos vult sectari ut sedentes disputent Seniores dignitate in Cathedris sequentes in subselli is novissimi in pavimento super mattas It is a Tradition or custome of the Synagogue which he would have us to follow to dispute sitting The Eldest in dignity in Chairs the next upon Benches the last upon matted floores To this purpose speak those words alledged to us from the Talmudists Gem. Horaioth C. iii. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Masters say When the Prince cometh in that is the Head of the High Court of seventy one all the people stand up to him and sit not down till he bid them when the Father of the Court cometh in that is his mate they make him two ranks one on this side another on that and sit not down till he is set when the Wiseman cometh in that is the next that alwayes sate on the left hand to the Prince one standeth up and one sitteth still Disciples of the Wise and their Children when the people want them step over the heads of the people though it is an imputation for a Disciple of the Wise to come in last If he go out for his necessities he cometh in and sitteth down in his place Sonnes of Disciples of the Wise that are deputed Pastors of the Synagogue when they have understanding to learn come in and sit before their fathers with their backs to the people while they have not they come in and sit behind their fathers with their faces to the people R. Eleazar sonne of R. Sadock said At Feasts also they set them each beside their Fathers Here you see how the Elders sate in a Round in the face of the people sitting before them upon the floore The manner whereof in the Synagogue is thus further expressed in Maimoni Tephillah ubircath Cohenim cap. xi 4. for having told us that in every Synagogue in the Quarter towards which they pray looking to the Temple they build a place which they call therefore the Hecall where they lay a Copy of the Law and set the Ark out of which they take the book of the Law which they reade in the Synagogue with the back to this Hecall and the face to the people he pursueth it thus Num. 4. How sit the people in the Synagogue The Elders sit with their faces towards the people and their backs towards the Hecall and all the people sit rank before rank the face of every rank toward the back of the rank before it so
may please to consider S. Cyprians Order which alloweth their presence for their satisfaction not their voices to decide As they are present at Councels but not called to give sentence But since Kingdomes and Commonwealths are become Christian the Laws of those Kingdomes and Commonwealths as they inforce the Ministers of the Church to execute their office according to such Rules as they inforce so they constrain the people to yield outward effect to the same The good order and peace of the Church cannot be preserved otherwise All this while the Office of Ministers continueth the same No part of it accrueth to the Secular powers By becoming Christians they purchase themselves no more right then the Charge of maintaining the Ministers of the Church in doing their Office containeth Onely as all Christians have the judgement of particular discretion to discharge unto God even in matters of Religion the account of what themselves do so is this judgement of particular discretion by publick persons but most by the Sovereigne of right imployed in all that in which they lend or refuse their assistance to the Ministers of the Church in their Office alwayes under the account due to God and to the Sovereigne What is then the meaning of that which we reade in these dayes That all Jurisdiction of the Church exercised by the Ministers of it even that of Excommunicating call it Jurisdiction for the present though the term be proper where there is power to constrain is inherent and derived in and from the Common-wealth that is in our particular from the Crown of this Kingdome From whence it will follow by just and due consequence that the Office charged upon the Ministers of the Church by the Scriptures cannot be executed by them of right so long as Kingdomes and Commonwealths are enemies of the Faith So that whatsoever the Church did under the Empire before it was converted to the Faith was an attempt upon the Laws of it And the Church must of necessity die and come to nothing for want of right to execute and propagate the Ministeries which it standeth incharged with by the Scripture The Canonists have done well to distinguish between Order and Jurisdiction in the Ministeries of the Church provided that the ground be right understood upon which these terms are distinguishable according to the Scriptures That will point the effect of it to a farre other purpose but we must not be beholden to the Canonists for it being indeed this Because he that receiveth the Order of Presbyter in the Church for example is not of necessity by the same Act deputed to the exercise of all that his Order importeth and inableth to exercise without receiving the Order anew I say by the Scriptures he is not confined when he receiveth the Order when where how what part of those things he shall exercise which the Order inableth to do True it is when the Canon that prohibited Ordinations without Title of Office was in force to the true purpose of it by receiving the Order a man was deputed to the Service of the Church in which he received it as a Bishop is now when first he is ordained And the nearer the Course of Law cometh to this Canon the better I conceive it is in that regard But as this deputation was alterable so was the execution of it of necessity limitable in them that received it What Law of God what Command of Scripture what Rule or Practice of the whole Church is there to hinder him that is deputed to one Service to undertake another for the good of the Church Or to inable all that have received the Order of Presbyter for example indifferently to exercise the power of the Keys and of Ordaining so farre as it belongeth to that Order of right much lesse to exercise it according to their own sense and not according to Rules prescribed by the Church Therefore when the Order is given if you please to call the right of exercising that which it importeth in such time and place and sort as he that receiveth it is or may be deputed to do without receiving the Order anew the power of Jurisdiction this power of Jurisdiction may be given or limited by other acts besides though habitually and afarre off it be contained in the Order of Presbyters and exercised without receiving the Order anew so soon as a man is deputed to the exercise of it If further the question be made From whom this power of Jurisdiction that is the right of exercising that which the Order thus inableth to do is derived and in whom the power of Jurisdiction that is the right of giving this right resideth which the Canonists derive from the Pope upon the whole Church The answer is plain that it must rest in them and be derived from them upon whom the Government of particular Churches and that which falleth under them is estated according to the Scriptures In as much as no Law of God inforceth the rest of Churches to be Governed by one further then the Law of Charity inforceth all to concurre to the unity of the whole In the outward Jurisdiction of the Church in charitable causes settled here upon Bishopricks the matter is somewhat otherwise in as much as it is not so settled by expresse provision of Scripture And yet not so strange from the Scripture and that which is provided there but that it may seem originally to have been derived from thence 1. Cor. vi The Apostle reproving them for impleading one another in the Courts of unbelievers sheweth that the Church was disparaged in that course as if it had none fit to decide their controversies whereas it had been better to referre their causes to the meanest of the Church then to sue before Infidels That is the meaning of his words there vers 4. If ye have causes concerning matters of this life set them to judge who are least esteemed in the Church Not spoken by way of precept commanding them to let the simplest of the brethren judge their causes that were a strange course where there were abler men to do it but by way of Concession that it were better so to do then as they did do For the practice of the Church argueth that the Custome grew upon this Order of the Apostle to referre their causes to the chief of the Church as the Church that is to the Bishop and Presbyters In the Constitutions of the Apostles ii 47. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let your Consistories be upon the Mundayes that if there arise opposition to your sentence having leisure till the Sabbath you may set the opposition straight and make them friends that are at variance among themselves against the Lords day And the Deacons also an◠Presbyters be present at the Consistory judging without respect of persons as men of God c. 45. afore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But suffer not the Magistrates of the world to give sentence on ours Not withdrawing obedience
the more discreet speaketh of other Services such as that Canon of Laodicea concerneth but being of no more credit it deserveth not to be sifted so near Adde to all this the Tradition in the lives of the Popes what this or that Pope added to the Prayers that the Eucharist was celebrated with which there is no reason to discredit for the whole and it will appear both that there was a set Form from the beginning and that it was subject to continuall alterations the true reason why the Primitive forms cannot now be exhibited I am not so credulous as to intitle the Liturgies fathered upon S. James S. Mark S. Peter no nor S. Basil or S. Chrysostome as now we have them to the persons whose names they wear But I am confident they are the Services frequented in the Churches of Jerusalem Alexandria Rome Constantinople and the parts of the East that followed S. Basil in celebrating the Eucharist from the time that they were put in this frame and that to this frame they are reduced through those changes which severall ages have brought to passe from a prescript form at the beginning though not this For example That which is called S. Peters is word for word the Canon of the Romane missall with some parts of the Eastern Liturgies which I find not yet to have been frequented in the Western From hence we have ground enough to imagine why it hath been called S. Peters That of S. James we may discern to be the service of the Church of Jerusalem by the particulars of it related to in the Catechises attributed to Cyrill of Jerusalem Catech. v. That of S. Mark may be discerned for the Service of the Church of Alexandria by the great agreement it carrieth with that of S. Cyrill sometimes Patriarch and with the Ethiopick received from thence as from their Mother-Church both in Biblioth Patrum But as for the alterations to which it is to be believed these Liturgies have been subject from time to time we have this confession of Victorius Sciatach the Maronite at Rome in his Preface to Velseius of Ausburg before the three Liturgies which at the request of his friends he turned for him out of the Arabick Copy sent him by Scaliger Nam ut Latini ipsi Graeci Pontifices multa deinceps in suis Liturgiis quas jam indè ab Apostolis acceperant pro re nata vel immutarunt vel addiderunt ità etiam ab Alexandrinis Aegyptiis par est credere pro temporum opportunitate factitatum For as the Latine and Greek Prelates either added or changed upon occasion divers things afterwards in the Liturgies which they received even from the Apostles so is it meet to think was done according to the occasion of times by those of Alexandria and Egypt Of the Alterations made in the Romane Service by the Popes Gelasius and Gregory the Great beside others the remembrance is quick and fresh in divers Writers The like it is reasonable to conceive of other active Prelates This he very pertinently argueth afterwards from the Copie which he translated in which the Liturgie called S. Basils was couched at large Of the two that remain intitled to Gregory the Divine and S. Cyrill nothing was set down but the passages of difference from that of S. Basil Though being subject to such continuall alterations we cannot be bound to believe them as they are to have been composed by those persons whose names they bear And this truth we must take notice to be of great advantage to the cause of that Reformation which we professe For presuming as we do that an alteration in matter of Religion hath come to passe what better account can we give how it should be effected what more reasonable way can we assigne of conveighing it into the minds of the people then by unsensible alterations in the form of publick service which so long as we know in generall to have been done there is just cause otherwise to presume that it hath been to that purpose which we oppose And if the traces hereof were well hunted in particular perhaps it might be made to appear to common sense in the main particulars which we professe to reform So when demand is made to exhibit the Copies of Primitive Liturgies the case is much as it was of old at Athens in the dispute about Theseus his ship in Plutarch Whether this which had been so changed that no man could tell what part of it remained were the same or not Suppose we leave the Probleme to those keen wits of Greece that started it I suppose it could not be questioned on any side that there had been once such a ship of Theseus In our case I shall hope to produce some ribs or limbes of the service practised and prescribed by the Apostle for the substance of it And therefore though I presume not with that Maronite that the Apostles themselves prescribed the form and delivered to those which succeeded them having showed afore That for that time the parts of it were ministred by immediate inspiration of Gods Spirit yet this I will take upon me to conclude out of the premises that as it had been in the Synagogue afore so in the Church afterwards when those inspirations were ceased they betook themselves on all hands to prescript forms which at the first derived from the Primitive practice retained that agreement in severall places which in the substance of them still appeareth And being propagated from the greatest Churches at the first have at length all yielded in a manner to the principall By Balsamon in Can. xxxii Sex Syn. and his answer to Mark Patriarch of Alexandria it appeareth how desirous the service of S. Chrystostome that is of Constantinople was to put down these of Jerusalem and Alexandria And it is well enough known how the Romane Masse which was once the Gregorian Service hath abolished the Spanish Gaulish and Germane Orders and confined that which is intitled to S. Ambrose to his own Church of Millain That this perpetuall practice of the Church of prescript forms of Service is not against the Principles of the Reformation or the judgement of chief Reformers a few words shall serve to conclude In particular in this of England for which I plead That the Principall of the Clergie should be imployed to advise the whole kingdome assembled to inact a Form of Service to the purpose that those which could make no Prayers of their own head might use it as cork to help them to swim with not for any of these considerations expressed afore especially the practice of it once inacted having been without interruption ever since is a thing so farre from common reason to conceive that it is hard to believe that those which speak it believe themselves in it In Luthers Reformation the question is not made though there is no reason to be showed why their example should not be drawn into consequence here As for the