ordained is the Remembrance of God And consequently they best keep the Sabbath who best remember God and without doubt they remember him best who serve him best who have an established publick worship most befitting his glorious Majesty Others though they make never so much noise of God yet if they remember his name they forget his nature The Seraphims durst not do so when they came to praise him They agreed before hand what should be the set form of their Praise for one cryed unto another and said Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory Isaiah 6. 3. They cryed one unto another to shew they all were agreed upon the same anthymn that they had prepared their song of praise before they came to sing it And Saint Ambrose tells us they still continue the same song To thee Cherubims and Seraphims continually do cry Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbath There is no true singing Holy Holy Holy unto God without preparing the song before hand and a song that is well prepared is as well continued Let us imitate the Seraphims in our care of preparation that we may imitate them in our ardency of affection for we shall little less then lye to God if we say The whole earth is full of his glory whiles our own hearts are empty SECT X. Certainty is more to be regarded in the publick exercise of Religion then Variety Hence the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Decalogue righteously taken into our Liturgie but unrighteously omitted by Innovators who vainly obtrude Variety to mens consciences instead of Certainty THE ready way to make men irreligious is to bring them to an uncertainty in Religion For Constancy is founded upon Certainty and therefore those men who are most uncertain what to do must needs be most unconstant in their doings For this cause the Church which is Gods Trustee for Religion thinks it a great part of her trust to deal therein altogether upon Certainties not upon Varieties and to have such a publick worship of God as should first make the people certain of their Religion then zealous and constant in it Hence was the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments taken in as parts of our Liturgie because they are not only the compleat summes but also the certain rules of all those duties of Faith Hope and Charity in which consists the very body and substance of Religion For as they are the compleat summes of those Religious duties so they must fully declare the glory of God These short abridgements of Gods own making shewing more of the Truth then all the copious enlargements which we can make And as they are the certain rules of those duties so they most readily advance the edification of men whose souls are more truly edified by adhering to these fundamental certainties then by cleaving to all our additional varieties which are but additions of hay and â—tubble unless they be grounded upon these Wherefore those men who are so furiously bent against the publick use of these in our Liturgies were best seriously to consider whether or no they do not grosly oppose the glory of God in rejecting such unparalleld summes of Piety but surely they do grievously oppose the edification of men in rejecting such undoubted rules of certainty For their work is though I hope their aim be not to bring all the world to an uncertainty in Religion To an uncertainty in Believing for all Doctrine to novelty to an uncertainty in Praying for all Devotion to Phancie to an uncertainty in Doing for all practice to Inconstancy Hence that heavenly Creed which was the Rule of the Apostles Preaching is willingly if not purposely omitted in their Assemblies lest it should discover the nakedness and novelty of their Doctrine Hence the Lords most holy Prayer which was not only the Rule but also the chiefest part of antient Liturgies as willingly omitted by them lest it should discover the emptiness the levity the uncharitableness the irregularity and in one word the phantasticalness of their Prayers Lastly Hence the Decalogue which is the short rule of life and morality as willingly omitted as the rest lest it should discover the impiety and check the inconstancy of their doings for this is the readiest if not the best reason we can give why they should quarrel with Gods own hand-writing in our Liturgy denying us to repeat each Commandment with a solemn invocation for mercy testifying our repentance the best part of our innocency and as solemn an invocation for Grace imploring the amendment of our sinful lives the best part of our repentance This is too too palpable That they generally preach such Doctrines vent I cannot say make such prayers and use such practises as are not agreeable with these rules and therefore they may judiciously if not justly be thought to leave out the rules lest they should be checked from their own mouths and thereby awaken the yet sleeping checks of their hearts for such Preachings such Prayings and such Doings And if any of them take this for an uncharitable gloss let him know it is more charitable for us to question their superstructions then for them to condemn our foundations For if one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him but if a man sin against God who shall intreat for him 1 Sam. 2. 25. As if the good old Priest had said No man ought to speak the least word for him that sins against God with an high hand and no man can speak too much against him But I hear a great noise of Variety making more then ample amends for that Certainty in the publick exercise of Religion which we think is diminished if not destroyed but they say is only changed and by its change augmented I could easily answer Quid verba audio dum facta videam To what purpose do men offer good words in excuse for bad deeds As if they could prove that others eyes are shut because they say their own are opened Or as if men came to Church rather for curiosity then for conscience rather like Athenians only to hear and to hear some new things to please their curiosities then like Christians to pray for so it was in Christs time Two men went up into the Temple to pray Luke 18. 10. Or if to hear yet not to hear such solid Truths as might nourish their souls and such fundamental Truths as might establish their consciences But because they will needs say with Saul I have performed the commandment of the Lord I have done nothing but according to his Holy Word I will also answer with Samuel What meaneth then this bleating of sheep in mine cars and the lowing of the Oxen which I hear 1 Sam. 15. What meaneth this Bleating and Lowing instead of Praying and Preaching not bleating of sheep and lowing of Oxen for thence might come an acceptable sacrifice at last though nothing but an hideous noise at first but
my hands accept of any offering SECT XIII A new song for the coming of Christ God the Father Son and Holy Ghost carefully observed the time of our Saviours coming into the world therefore it can be no true piece of Reformation for men not to observe it THE Church had a new song put into her mouth meerly for the knowledge of the great mercy of her Saviours Nativity How much more then for the enjoyment of it He hath put a new song in my mouth saith the Psalmist even a Thanksgiving to our God Psalm 40. 3. And Saint Paul tells us wherefore this new song was put into his mouth in that he applyes this very Psalm to the coming of our Saviour Christ Heb. 10. 5 c. Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not but a body hast thou prepared me which words are quoted out of this same very Psalm and point as directly at Christs coming into the flesh as that finger of the Baptist did point at him after he was come when he said Behold the Lamb of God which finger for that very cause as some would perswade us could not be burnt with the rest of his body Gentiles ossa collegerant cumbusserant sed digitus ille quo Dominum ad Jordanum venientem monstravit dicens ecce agnus Dei non potuit comburi Durandus in rationali lib. 7. de decollatione S. Johannis This was indeed a sufficient cause why a New song should be put in the mouth even of the sweet singer of Israel To shew that great was his Thanksgiving yet greater his Thankfulness for this inestimable and undeserved mercy as it appears Psalm 40. 6 7. O Lord my God great are thy wonderous works which thou hast done like as be also thy thoughts which are to us-ward If I would declare them and speak of them they should be more then I am able to express And all these wonderous works and thoughts are summed up together by the Apostle in this saying when he cometh into the world as indeed they were consummated and compleated by Christ himself in his coming when he cometh into the world he saith And yet the words were said above five hundred years before he came It seems God the Son was so long before observing the time of his own coming into the world surely not that the sons of men should labour to forget and resolve not to observe it And God the Father did the like Heb. 1. 6. When he bringeth in the first begotten into the world he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him Pointing as it were at the very day of Christs Nativity or coming into the world yet some men perswade themselves they do enough if they believe his going out of the world and think only upon his Death and Passion And God the Holy Ghost did the same as being the Pen-man and Interpreter of these Texts and the Applyer of them to our blessed Saviour For he it was that spake both by the Prophets and by the Apostles God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost did look and point very punctually at Christs coming into the world Telling the Angels of it that they might worship him and the Angels accordingly sing a most heavenly Hymn of Thanksgiving at his Birth not only in heaven for their own Joy and Exultation for which they are alwaies singing to him there but also on the earth or at least very near it so near as that the Shepherds did both hear and see them singing for our comfort and imitation And therefore it cannot justly be accounted a Piece of Reformation to teach men to look away as far as they can from that time wherein the Church doth celebrate the memorial of Christs coming as if God who had bid the Angels worship him had bid men not worship him which is surely a strain of very bad Logick and of far worse Divinity SECT XIV Everlasting Thankfulness is due to God for this Everlasting Mercy THE Psalmist teacheth us a Lesson of everlasting Thankfulness for this everlasting Mercy as appears Psalm 72. The chief argument of the Psalm is Christ as is proved in the 8. and 9. verses from the extent of his Dominion far beyond Solomons even to the worlds end and much more in the 10. and 11. verses from the excellency of his Person That All Kings should fall down before him And particularly That the Kings of Arabia and Saba should bring him gifts which was literally fulfilled in the Presents of the wise men Mat. 2. who by the Antients were both called and reputed Kings And the Conclusion that is inferred from these Premises is Thanksgiving The argument of the Psalm is everlasting mercy even the mercy of God to man in Christ and the Conclusion of it is everlasting Thankfulness for so it follows ver 18. 19. Blessed be the Lord God even the God of Israel which only doth wonderous things and this wonderous thing above all the rest That the Son of God was made the Son of man that we who were by nature the children of wrath might be made the Sons of God there 's the Thankfulness And blessed be the name of his Majesty for ever and all the earth shall be filled with his Majesty Amen Amen There 's the everlasting Thankfulness Heaven was from the first instant of its creation filled with his Majesty but now the earth was also filled with it And if heaven and earth are both filled with his Majesty what shall we say if our sinful souls be empty For if we be not filled with his Majesty How shall we come to be filled with his Mercy SECT XV. Time not perfect in Gods account from our Creation but from our Redemption The Jews not destroyed and Time not Vntimed meerly in relation to the coming of Christ Time still continued for the world to make a right use of his coming No other Time perfect in Gods account but that wherein he gives his Son and no other Time should be perfect in our account but that wherein we receive him GOD accounted that only the Perfection of Time wherein he wrought the work of our Redemption as if all that had passed before that from the beginning of the Creation had been but an imperfect Time He had no rest in the Creation till he made man He had no rest after it till he Redeemed him Divinely Saint Ambrose in his Hexameron and not the less Divinely because he took it out of Saint Basil for the Latine Fathers borrowed of the Greek-Fathers as later Divines have since borrowed from them Fecit Deus coelum non lego quod requieverit fecit solem lunam stellas nec ibi lego quod requieverit sed lego quod fecerit Hominem tunc requieverit habens câ—i Peccata dimitteret God made Heaven and I do not read that he did rest He made the Earth and I do not read that
to man in teaching him how to rejoyce for his Redemption Hymns expressing that joy may be only to the honour of God and directed to him The evil spirit silenced at the coming of Christ but the mouth of the good Spirit was opened THere is no man but naturally desires joy and delight as a remedy against his labours naturaliter appetit delectationes medicinas contra labores sensuum motuum saith Aquinas The reason why the natural man looks so much after his delights is because he looks upon them as medicines to heal his sicknesses or as remedies against the continual labours of his sense and of his motion And for this reason the spiritual man ought much more to look after his spiritual delights because he is much more under the labours of sense and motion then is the natural man for there is no sense so irksom as the sense of Gods wrath and of mans unworthiness and no motion so toilsom as that which seeks to climb up from earth to heaven and this is the sense this is the motion of the spiritual man he is continually feeling the burden of flesh and much more of sin upon his soul there 's his sense He is continually panting and â—ighing after God for rest there 's his motion In so great a labour both of his sense and of his motion how should he be able to subsist if it were not for the comfort of spiritual delight which proceeds only from Gods Holy Spirit For delight cannot be but from some good that is convenient and present and known to be so Ad delectationem duo requiruntur conjunctio boni convenientis cognitio hujus conjunctionis saith the same Aquinas A man cannot have delight without two things first the conjunction or acquisition of some convenient good then the knowledge of that conjunction so is it in this case The Redemption of our souls from death is undoubtedly both a convenient and a present good and yet few men have true joy and delight from it because few apprehend it as actually present Wherefore it is the singular gift and love of God the Holy Ghost to any man to give him the true knowledge of his Saviour that he may give him the true joy of his salvation For this indeed is the joy in the Holy Ghost and comes only from him It is he that teacheth the Church Militant to sing a new song on earth for her joy in Christ it is he that teacheth the Church Triumphant to sing a new song in heaven for the same joy O sing unto the Lord a new song saith the Psalmist Psal 98. and that Psalm is nothing else but a song of Joy and Thanksgiving for the Redemption of mankind by Jesus Christ there 's the new song on earth and again Rev. 5. 9. They sung a new song saying Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood there 's the new song in heaven to express the joy of the same Redemption For the Holy Spirit teacheth them to practise this new song in earth who are to sing their part of it in heaven For those men are not like to come to Abrahams bosom who are not Abrahams sons and those men are not yet Abrahams sons who have not his faith and do not his works Now this was the Faith of Abraham to see the day of Christ and this was his work to joy in that sight John 8. 56. Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exultavit gestivit He rejoyced and he desired to express his joy His desire encreased his joy and his joy inflamed his desire He did see it a far off by faith the eye of his soul and he desired to see it nearer by sense with the eye of his body the joy of the one did not hinder but advance the joy of the other for if the heart of them must rejoice that seeke the Lord Psal 105. 3. then much more must the heart of them rejoce that have found him Accordingly good Christians do indeede shew no other then Abrahams faith by desiring to looke on Christ and no other then Abrahams worke by rejoycing in that vision which we may well suppose was the cause that the Latine Church antiently used and still useth some such peculiar hymns before the nativity of Christ as it is hard to determine whether they have more of desire in them to see his day comming or of joy to see it come our Calander still retains the memory of the first of those hymns which was O sapientia on the 17 of December but the hymns themselves in the Latine Church hold out till Christmas eve I will give you a short scheme of them 1. O Sapientia veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae O Thou who art the eternal wisdom of God come and Teach us the way of true wisedom 2. O Adonai veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento O thou who art the Lord of might come and redeem us by thy mighty hand 3. O radix Jesse veni ad liberandum nos O thou root of Jesse come and deliver us 4. O Clavis David veni educ vinctum de domo carceris O thou Key of David come and open the prison doors and let out the Prisoners 5. O oriens splendor lucis aeternae veni illumina sedentes in tenebris umbrâ mortis O thou Day-spring of eternal light come and enlighten us who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death 6. O Rex gentium salva hominem quem de limo formasti O thou who art the King of the Nations come and save man whom thou hast formed of the dust of the earth 7. O Emanuel veni ad salvandum nos Domine Deus noster O thou who art God with us be also a God to us and save us O Lord our God These greater and more solemn hymns called Antiphone majores were at first made only in the honour of Christ though in process of time after the Invocation of Saints had crept into the Church there were two more added to them O Thoma Didyme and O virgo Virginum as Hugo testifieth in his Commentary upon the 38. Psalm which now the office it self of the blessed Virgin blusheth at and taketh no notice of at all and it were to be wished it had left out other prayers to the Blsseed Virgin which are as grosly superstitious as were those Hymns For they that believe Christ to be God must confess him to be a jealous God and that he hath said I am the Lord that is my name and my glory will I not give to another Isa 42. 8. and what is his glory but that of Prayer and of Praise Accordingly it is observable that at the time of his coming in the flesh the Oracles of Jupiter Apollo Hecate were
those our gifts and sacrifices Why doth this particle Therefore begin the Prayers at the Mass but only to shew as saith the Ritualist that the Angels and Saints in heaven have begun and that we men on earth do but only continue and as it were conclude this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God And why then should we otherwise continue or conclude then they have begun it Will they join with us in this our new worship or is that not a new worship meerly of our own inventing wherein they cannot will not join with us Since they glorifie God only in Christ how shall we venter to glorifie him in any other unless we will perswade God to accept one manner of glorifying him whiles it is our duty and another manner of glorifying him when it shall be our reward and so make grace not the inchoation but as it were the contradiction of glory or unless we will perswade our selves that it is not best practising such Songs on earth as we know we shall sing in heaven but such as we know we shall not sing there if so be our singing them here do not indeed keep us from coming thither and from singing there nor is this a causeless fear For he that in the case of his worship hath proclaimed himself a jealous God hath in effect told us that in that same case it is the best and surest way for every man to have his fears and jealousies Those holy prayers and praises which are offered up to God through Christ Jesus we are sure do glorifie him and consequently we cannot but fear that those which are offered up unto him through any other Mediator or Intercessor do not cannot tend to his glory Nor is it either just or safe to appeal to the practise of Gods Church at any time much less in the corruptest times against the Precept of Gods Word For we cannot be assured that any Church is his Church but from his word and we are sure that we have indeed the determination of a most infallible Doctor if we can truly say that we have the determination of his spirit in his holy Word For as what prayers go from man to God by our Saviour Christ are undoubtedly true worship so what precepts come from God to man by him are unquestionably true Doctrine Wherefore since See thou do it not I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren thaet have the testimony of Jesus worship God is one of his precepts and that twice repeated almost in the very same words Rev. 19. 9. 22. 9. How shall we dare to do it and not think to make his Doctrine as well as our own worship both alike questionable Saint Augustine gives us such a definition of a Mediator as will quite exclude all but one and that is our blessed Saviour Qui pro omnibus interpellat pro quo nullus is verus est Mediator ac Intercessor noster lib. 2. contra Parmen cap. 8. He that intercedeth for all and none intercedeth for him is our true Mediator and Intercessor Mark how he makes Mediator and Intercessor both one though some of late would make a great difference betwixt them by that new distinction of Mediator redemptionis intercessionis saying that Christ alone is a Mediator of Redemption but Saints and Angels may also with him be Mediators of Intercession A distinction not known in Aquinas his daies who concludes positively that to be a Mediator betwixt God and man is proper only to Christ and proves his position by Saint Pauls words There is one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5. He did not think of eluding this text by saying Mediator est duplex redemptionis intercessionis A Mediator is twofold of Redemption and of Intercession for that had been to say Vnus est duplex one is two a singular is a plural for there cannot be the ground of a distinction unless there be two and therefore a singular subject cannot be distinguished but by making one two or a singular a plural and the Apostle having said Vnus Mediator declared the subject of his proposition so numerical and singular that it could not be capable of a distinction For it is not possible to make of one subject numerically the same two specifically distinct And it is evident that a Mediator meerly of intercession and not of redemption is not a Mediator in the Apostles account for he proves that Christ only is a Mediator for all because he gave himself a ransom for all ver 6. How then can any be a Mediator to intercede for me who hath not been a Redeemer to ransom me or why should I go to them for Intercession to whom I cannot go for Reconciliation Doth not the blood of Christ speak better things then the blood of Abel to my soul and why should I then not wholly pant and gasp after his blood Is it not folly in me to leave the better and take the worse Nay is it not impiety in me to neglect the Son of God and go a gadding after the sons of men To neglect the Mediator God hath given me and to set up others of my own makeing Can I bestow any of my hope in praying to Saints and Angels and none of my Faith and Charity go along with it or have I too much of these excellent vertues in my soul that I could take or translate some part of them from my God were they indeed to be fixed on any creature Can I devote my self too much to a true Invocation or will not a false Invocation set up a false Religion and a false Religion calumniate the truth and endanger the benefit of my redemption Well then Tutior Sanior pars must needs be my rule in a matter that so nearly concerns my Saviours honour and mine own salvation and I will leave the Saints out of my prayers because it is both safer and sounder so to do For all the world cannot object against me for going to God only by his Son but I must object against my self for going to God by the best of his servants in conjunction with much more in derogation to his Son Wherefore I must resolve to let the Saints stand in my Calander but not let them come into my Liturgie for fear I should either exclude my Saviour out of his own office of Intercession or at least exclude my self and my prayers out of the blessing of his Communion For this I am sure of He will not join with me in my prayers which I make to any but only to his Father and it is dangerous for me to pray without his Intercession if not damnable for me to pray out of his Communion Wherefore though others be careless in this point who pretend to a perfection if not to a supererogation of righteousness yet I have work enough to pray against my sins dare not willingly admit a sin into my