Acts 15. That when the Apostles and Elders with the whole Congregation were gathered together to pacifie the hearts of the faithful dwelling at Antioch which were disquieted through the false Doctrine of several Jewish Preachers they sent word to the Brethren That it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to them to charge them with no more than with necessary things Among others they willed them to abstain from Idolatry and Fornication from which said they if you keep your selves ye shall do well Note here how these holy and blessed Fathers of Christ's Church would charge the Congregation with no more things than were necessary Mark also how among those things from the which they commanded the Brethren of Antioch to abstain Fornication and Whoredom are numbred It is therefore necessary by the determination and consent of the Holy Ghost and the Apostles and Elders with the whole Congregation that as from Idolatry and Superstition so likewise we must abstain from Fornication and Whoredom It is necessary unto Salvation to abstain from Idolatry So it is to abstain from Whoredom Is there any nigher way to lead unto damnation than to be an Idolater No even so neither is there any nearer way to damnation than to be a Fornicator and a Whoremonger Now where are those People which so lightly esteem breaking of Wedlock Whoredom Fornication and Adultery It is necessary saith the Holy Ghost the blessed Apostles the Elders with the whole Congregation of Christ it is necessary to Salvation say they to abstain from Whoredom If it be necessary unto Salvation then woe be to them which neglecting their Salvation give their Minds to so filthy and stinking a Sin to so wicked Vice and to such detestable abomination The Second Part of the Sermon against Adultery YOU have been taught in the First Part of this Sermon against Adultery how that Vice at this day reigneth most above all other Vices and what is meant by this word Adultery and how Holy Scripture dissuadeth or discounselleth from doing that filthy Sin and finally what corruption cometh to Man's Soul through the Sin of Adultery Now to proceed further let us hear what the blessed Apostle St. Paul saith to this matter writing to the Romans he hath these words Rom. 13. Let us cast away the Works of Darkness and put on the Armour of Light Let us walk honestly as it were in the day time not in eating and drinking neither in chambering and wantonness neither in strife and envying but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts of it Here the Holy Apostle exhorteth us to cast away the Works of Darkness which among other he calleth gluttonous eating drinking chambering and wantonness which are all Ministers unto that Vice and preparations to induce and bring in the filthy Sin of the Flesh He calleth them the Deeds and Works of Darkness not only because they are customably in Darkness John 3 Matth. 25. or in the night time for every one that doth evil hateth the Light neither cometh he to the Light lest his Works should be reproved but that they lead the right way unto that utter Darkness where weeping and gnashing of Teeth shall be Rom. 8. And he saith in another place of the same Epistle They that are in the Flesh cannot please God We are Debtors not to the Flesh that we should live after the Flesh for if ye live after the Flesh ye shall die 1. Cor. 6. Again he saith Flee from Whoredom for every Sin that a Man committeth is without his Body But whosoever committeth Whoredom sinneth against his own Body Do ye not know That your Members are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is in you whom also ye have of God and ye are not your own For ye are dearly bought Glorifie God in your Bodies c. And a little before he saith Do ye not know That your Bodies are the Members of Christ Shall I then take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of a Whore God forbid Do ye not know That he which cleaveth to a Whore is made one Body with her There shall be two in one Flesh saith he but he that cleaveth to the Lord is one Spirit What godly Words doth the blessed Apostle St. Paul bring forth here to dissuade and discounsel us from Whoredom and Uncleanness Your Members saith he are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which whosoever doth defile Gâ—d will destroy him as saith St. Paul If we be the Temple of the Holy Ghost how unfitting then is it to drive that Holy Spirit from us through Whoredom and in his place to set the wicked Spirits of Uncleanness and Fornication and to be joined and do Service to them Ye are dearly bought saith he 1. Pet. 1. therefore glorifie God in your Bodies Christ that innocent Lamb of God hath bought us from the Servitude of the Devil not with corruptible Gold and Silver Esaiah 38. but with his most precious and dear heart blood To what intent That we should fall again into our old Uncleanness and abominable Living Luke 1. Nay verily But that we should serve him all the days of our Life in Holiness and Righteousness that we should glorifie him in our Bodies by purity and cleanness of Life He declareth also That our Bodies are the Members of Christ How unseemly a thing is it then to cease to be incorporate or imbodied and made one with Christ and through Whoredom to be enjoined and made all one with a Whore What greater dishonor or injury can we do to Christ than to take away from him the Members of his Body and to join them to Whores Devils and wicked Spirits And what more dishonor can we do to ourselves than through Uncleanness to lose so excellent a Dignity and Freedom and to become Bond-slaves and miserable Captives to the Spirits of Darkness Let us therefore consider First the Glory of Christ then our Estate our Dignity and Freedom wherein God hath set us by giving us his Holy Spirit and let us valiantly defend the same against Satan and all his crafty Assaults that Christ may be honored and that we lose not our Liberty or Freedom but still remain in one Spirit with him Eph. 5. Moreover in his Epistle to the Ephesians the blessed Apostle willeth us to be so pure and free from Adultery Fornication and all Uncleanness that we not once name them among us as it becometh Saints nor Filthiness nor foolish Talking nor Jesting which are not comely but rather giving of Thanks For this ye know saith he that no Whoremonger 1 Cor. 6. neither unclean Person or covetous Person which is an Idolater hath any Inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God And that we should remember to be holy pure and free from all Uncleanness the holy Apostle calleth us Saints because we are sanctified and made holy by the
of the First Part was promised that this Truth and Doctrine concerning the forbidding of Images and Worshipping of them taken out of the Holy Scriptures as well of the Old Testament as the New was believed and taught of the old Holy Fathers and most ancient Learned Doctors and received in the Old Primitive Church which was most uncorrupt and pure And this Declaration shall be made out of the said Holy Doctors own Writings and out of the ancient Histories Ecclesiastical to the same belonging Tertullian a most ancient Writer and Doctor of the Church who lived about One Hundred and Threescore years after the Death of our Saviour Christ both in sundry other places of his Works and specially in his Book Written against The manner of Crowning Lib. contra coronandi morem and in another little Treatise Entituled Of the Souldiers Crown or Garland doth most sharply and vehemently write and inveigh against Images or Idols And upon Saint John's words the First Epistle and Fifth Chapter saith thus Saint John saith he deeply considering the matter saith My little Children 1 John 5. keep yourselves from Images or Idols He saith not now keep yourselves from Idolatry as it were from the Service and Worshipping of them But from the Images or Idols themselves that is from the very shape and likeness of them For it were an unworthy thing that the Image of the living God should become the Image of a dead Idol Do you not think those Persons which place Images and Idols in Churches and Temples yea shrine them even over the Lords Table even as it were of purpose to the Worshipping and Honouring of them take good heed either to Saint John's Counsel or Tertullian's For so to place Images and Idols is it to keep themselves from them or else to receive and embrace them Origen in his Book against Celsus saith thus Christian Men and Jews when they hear these words of the Law Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and shalt not make any Image do not only abhor the Temples Altars and Images of the Gods but if need be will rather die than they should defile themselves with any impiety And shortly after he saith In the Common-Wealth of the Jews the Carver of Idols and Image-maker was cast far off and forbidden lest they should have any occasion to make Images which might pluck certain foolish Persons from God and turn the Eyes of their Souls to the Contemplation of Earthly Things And in another place of the same Book It is not only saith he a Mad and Frantick part to Worship Images but also once to dissemble or wink at it And a Man may know God and his only Son and those which have had such Honour given them by God that they be called Gods But it is not possible that any should by Worshipping of Images get any knowledge of God Athanasius in his Book against the Gentiles hath these Words Let them tell I pray you how God may be known by an Image If it be by the matter of an Image then there needeth no shape or form seeing that God hath appeared in all material Creatures which do testifie his Glory Now if they say he is known by the form or fashion Is he not better to be known by the living things themselves whose fashions the Images express For of surety the glory of God should be more evidently known if it were declared by reasonable and living Creatures rather than by dead and unmoveable Images Therefore when ye do Grave or Paint Images to the end to know God thereby surely ye do an unworthy and unfit thing And in another place of the same Book he saith The invention of Images came of no good but of evil and whatsoever hath an evil beginning can never in any thing be judged good seeing it is altogether naught Thus far Athanasius a very Ancient Holy and Learned Bishop and Doctor who judgeth both the first beginning and the end and altogether of Images or Idols to be naught Laclantius likewise an Old and Learned Writer in his Book of The Original of E rour hath these words God is above Man and is not placed beneath but is to be sought in the highest Region Wherefore there is no doubt but that no Religion is in that place wheresoever any Image is For if Religion stand in godly things and there is no godliness but in heavenly things then be Images without Religion Lib. 2. c. 16. These be Lactantius his words who was above Thirteen Hundred years ago and within Three Hundred years after our Saviour Christ Cyrillus an Old and Holy Doctor upon the Gospel of Saint John hath these words Many have left the Creator and have Worshipped the Creature neither have they been abashed to say unto a Stock Thou art my Father and to a Stone Thou begottest me For many yea almost all alas for Sorrow are fallen unto such folly that they have given the Glory of Deity or Godhead to things without Sense or Feeling Epiphanius Bishop of Salamine in Cyprus a very Holy and Learned Man who lived in Theodosius the Emperors time about Three Hundred and Ninety years after our Saviour Christs Ascension writeth thus to John Patriarch of Jerusalem I entred saith Epiphanius into a certain Church to pray I found there a Linen Cloth hanging in the Church Door Painted and having in it the Image of Christ as it were or of some other Saint for I remember not well whose Image it was therefore when I did see the Image of a Man hanging in the Church of Christ contrary to the Authority of the Sâ—â—â—ptures I did tear it and gave Counsel to the 〈◊〉 of the Church that they should wind a 〈…〉 â—hat was Dead in the said Cloth and 〈…〉 And 〈…〉 same Epiphanius sending another 〈…〉 for that Painted one which 〈◊〉 â—ad 〈…〉 said Patriarch writeth thus I pray you 〈…〉 Elders of that place to receive this Cloth which 〈…〉 sent by this bearer and Command them 〈◊〉 from henceforth no such Painted Cloths contrary to our Religion be hanged in the Church of Christ For it becometh your goodness rather to have this care that you take away such scrupulosity which is unfitting for the Church of Christ and offensive to the People committed to your charge And this Epistle as Worthy to be Read of many did Saint Jerome himself Translate into the Latin Tongue And that ye may know that Saint Jerome had this Holy and Learned Bishop Epiphanius in most high Estimation and therefore did Translate this Epistle as a Writing of Authority hear what a Testimony the said Saint Jerome giveth him in another place in his Treatise against the Errours of John Bishop of Jerusalem where he hath these words All notable Bishops were then called Popes Thou hast saith Saint Jerome Pope Epiphanius which doth openly in his Letters call thee an Heretick Surely thou art not to be preferred before him neither for Age nor Learning nor
Christians and none other for that were to bind Gods People unto the yoke and burthen of Moses his Policy yea it were the very way to bring us which are set at liberty by the freedom of Christs Gospel into the bondage of the Law again which God forbid that any man should attempt or purpose But to this end it serveth to shew how far the order of Fasting now used in the Church at this day differeth from that which was then used Gods Church ought not neither may it be so tyed to that or any other Order now made or hereafter to be made and devised by the Authority of Man but that it may lawfully for just causes alter change or mitigate those Ecclesiastical Decrees and Orders yea recede wholly from them and break them when they tend either to Superstition or to Impiety when they draw the People from God rather than work any edification in them This Authority Christ himself used and left it to his Church He used it I say for the Order or Decree made by the Elders for washing oft times which was diligently observed of the Jews yet tending to Superstition our Saviour Christ altered and changed the same in his Church into a profitable Sacrament the Sacrament of our Regeneration or New Birth This Authority to mitigate Laws and Decrees Ecclesiastical the Apostles practised when they writing from Jerusalem unto the Congregation that was at Antioch Acts 15. signified unto them that they would not lay any further burthen upon them but these necessaries that is that they should abstain from things offered unto Idols from blood from that which is strangled and from fornication notwithstanding that Moses Law required many other observances This Authority to change the Orders Decrees and Constitutions of the Church was after the Apostles time used of the Fathers about the manner of Fasting as it appeareth in the Tripartite History Tripart hist l. 9. c. 38. where it is thus written Touching Fasting we find that it was diversly used in divers places by divers men For they at Rome fast three weeks together before Easter saving upon the Saturdays and Sundays which Fast they call Lent And after a few lines in the same place it followeth They have not all one uniform Order in Fasting For some do fast and abstain both from fish and flesh Some when they fast eat nothing but fish Others there are which when they Fast eat of all water-fowls as well as of fish grounding themselves upon Moses that such Fowls have their substance of the Water as the Fishes have Some others when they Fast will neither eat Herbs nor Eggs. Some fasters there are that eat nothing but dry bread Others when they Fast eat nothing at all no not so much as dry bread Some fast from all manner of food till Night and then eat without making any choice or difference of meats And a thousand such like divers kinds of Fasting may be found in divers places of the World of divers men diversly used Euseb lib. 5. cap. 24. And for all this great diversity in Fasting yet Charity the very true bond of Christian Peace was not broken neither did the diversity of Fasting break at any time their agreement and concord in Faith To abstain sometimes from certain meats not because the meats are evil but because they are not necessary this abstinence saith St. Augustine is not evil Dogma Ecclesiast c. 66. And to restrain the use of meats when necessity and time shall require this saith he doth properly pertain to Christian men Thus ye have heard good People first that Christian Subjects are bound even in Conscience to obey Princes Laws which are not repugnant to the Laws of God Ye have also heard that Christs Church is not so bound to observe any Order Law or Decree made by Man to prescribe a form in Religion but that the Church hath full Power and Authority from God to change and alter the same when need shall require which hath been shewed you by the example of our Saviour Christ by the practice of the Apostles and of the Fathers since that time Now shall be shewed briefly what time is meet for Fasting for all times serve not for all things but as the Wise man saith Eccles 3. All things have their times There is a time to weep and a time again to laugh a time to mourn and a time to rejoyce c. Our Saviour Christ excused his Disciples and reproved the Pharisees because they neither regarded the use of Fasting nor considered what time was meet for the same Which both he teacheth in his answer Mat. 9. saying The children of the marriage cannot mourn while the bridegroom is with them Their question was of Fasting his answer is of Mourning signifying unto them plainly that the outward Fast of the Body is no Fast before God except it be accompanied with the inward Fast which is a mourning and a lamentation of the Heart as is before declared Concerning the time of Fasting he saith The days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them in those days they shall fast By this it is manifest that it is no time of Fasting while the Marriage lasteth and the Bridegroom is there present But when the Marriage is ended Luke 5. Mat. 6. and the Bridegroom gone then is it a meet time to Fast Now to make plain unto you what is the sense and meaning of these words We are at the marriage and again The bridegroom is taken from us Ye shall note that so long as God revealeth his mercy unto us and giveth us of his benefits either Spiritual or Corporal we are said to be with the Bridegroom at the Marriage So was that good Old Father Jacob at the Marriage when he understood that his Son Joseph was alive and Ruled all Egypt under King Pharaoh So was David in the Marriage with the Bridegroom when he had gotten the Victory of great Goliath and had smitten off his Head Judith and all the People of Bethulia were the Children of the Wedding and had the Bridegroom with them when God had by the Hand of a Woman slain Holofernes the grand Captain of the Assyrians Host and discomfited all their Enemies Thus were the Apostles the Children of the Marriage while Christ was corporally present with them and defended them from all dangers both spiritual and corporal But the Marriage is said then to be ended and the Bridegroom to be gone when Almighty God smiteth us with Affliction and seemeth to leave us in the midst of a number of Adversities So God sometimes striketh private men privately with sundry adversities as trouble of Mind loss of Friends loss of Goods long and dangerous Sicknesses c. then is it a fit time for that man to humble himself to Almighty God by Fasting and to mourn and bewail his sins with a sorrowful heart and to Pray unfeignedly saying with the Prophet David Turn