would give them life by his ordinary as well as by his extraordinary Ministers For we cannot but say that those are words of eternal truth as well as of eternal comfort Psal 73. 1. Truly God is loving unto Israel even unto such as are of a clean heart for there is no doubt of Gods being loving unto Israel no more then of Israels being of a clean heart If they be of a clean heart they must be of Gods Israel though they may be of several Tribes And if they be of Gods Israel they are sure of Gods love He will here guide them with his counsel and hereafter receive them with glory For he sanctifieth them by his Truth that he may save them by his mercy And accordingly S. Paul saith to Timothy Take heed unto thy self and unto the Doctrine continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee 1 Tim 4. 16. Thereby shewing he had left the people of Ephesus sufficient means of being saved in that he had left them an infallible doctrine though he had not left them an infallible Doctor For if Timothy by taking heed unto himself and to the Doctrine he had received was able to save both himself and those who were committed to his charge t is evident the people of Ephesus had no more need in Gods account of an infallible Bishop to teach them then they had of an impeccable Bishop to govern them and indeed infallibility cannot be in the understanding without impeccability in the will since the will doth necessarily follow the last dictate of the understanding and it self being depraved may corrupt and deprave both the first and the last dictate of it Nay yet more lest we should make light account of the authority of particular Churches because we can neither prove nor believe their infallibility any more then we can their impeccability we find plainly that S. Paul calleth the particular Church of Ephesus even that Church with which Timothy was entrusted and in which he was taught by this Epistle how to behave himself The house of God the pillar and ground of the truth 1 Tim 3. 35. Though we may justly and should willingly infer that if a particular Church by cleaving to the word of Truth deserved to be called the pillar and ground of Truth then sure the Universal Church much more For so the argument will proceed à minore ad majus If one Minister shall be able to teach the saving Truth whilst he swerves neither to the right hand nor to the left from the word of Truth then much more a whole National Church and most of all the Catholike and Universal Church that is diffused over all Nations if she carefully attend and stedfastly cleave to that same word of Truth And if any man think this condition unnecessary let him consider that those four general Councils which Saint Gregory received as four Gospels did set the Bible upon a Throne in the midst of their assembly appealing to it for all their Doctrines and proving by it all their determinations which if all other general Councils at least so reputed had done since that time well we might have had fewer Articles but certainly we must have had a surer Creed and a founder faith nor can we deny but some provincial Councils by cleaving to the Text have more truly shewed themselves the pillars of Truth then some reputed general Councils that have forsaken it as the Council of Gangra which had in it but thirteen Bishops yet suppressed no less then twenty Schismatical opinions together whereas the Council of Constance that consisted almost of all Nations making light regard of Christs institution and order concerning the Eucharist though it ended the Schism of the Popes yet it began such a Schism in the Church as is like to continue to the worlds end for surely there will alwaies be some conscionable men who will prefer the Institution of Christ in his own Sacrament above the constitution of a Council and who will think there can be no Schism either less curable or more damnable then that which dares set up the pretended authority of the Church against the undoubted Authority of Christ This is most certain Saint Paul took it for granted that the Church of Ephesus was instructed in the whole Doctrine of the Scriptures for in the first Chapter he mentions both the Law and the Gospel and that she also followed those instructions before he called her the house of God the pillar and ground of Truth For indeed the first part of every Churches Trust is the Word of God which she is entrusted withal in a threefold respect 1. That she should keep it 2. That she should expound it 3. That she should obey it Wherefore those men who of late have cavilled at the written Word thereby thinking to resolve all Religion into the Authority of the Church have in truth taken a direct course to resolve the Authority of the Church into nothing For if the Church hath not been Gods faithful Trustee in keeping the substance or letter of his word who can think her faithful in expounding the sense or in observing the commands of the same And so then farewell to the Churches faithfulness and consequently to her authority which is grounded chiefly upon her faithfulness For it is as just an exception now as it was in the Apostles times Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then unto God judge ye Act. 4. 19. The intent of your arguments against the Scriptures is to advise us not to hearken unto God that we might only hearken unto you But the reason and force of your arguments will certainly â—eep us from hearkning unto you because they make it evident that you have not hearkned unto God Nay you have set light by his Word that you might not hearken unto him But this argument is good only against the men not against the cause and it is therefore best when it is against the worst men Those who have least hearkned to Gods voice have given the greatest cause to others not to hearken unto their voices And if they will needs be angry with us let them consider that God is first angry with them and therefore they ought to be angry with themselves For they took not only a very impious but also a very indiscreet way by vilifying the authority of Gods word to magnifie the authority of their own And yet to speak the plain truth this is rather to be called a cavil then an argument For let all the Original Bibles be examined both of the Papists and of the Protestant Churches we shall find them all exactly agreeing in one Hebrew and Greek Text and their disagreement to be only in their several glosses and Translations in so much that all these parts of Christendom would soon be of one and the same profession as well as they are of one and the same
Religion if all Churches would agree in the sense as they do agree in the Letter of Gods holy Word To let pass the Old Testament wherein all Protestant Churches are as willing to be tryed by the King of Spains as by Buxtorses Hebrew Bibles I know Bezaes Greek Testament is censured by some as a most bold piece of Scripture but upon comparing his Text with that of Pope Sixtus Quintus I find very little ground for that censure and less Truth in it Because both Texts generally agree in the very same words and that even in those very places wherein both disagree from the Vulgar Latine And I believe the same may be said concerning the Greek Text that is received in all other Churches That they all agree in the same Original Texts evinceth they have been faithful in their Trust of keeping the Holy Scriptures That many of them disagree in their glosses upon and translations of that Text only sheweth that each particular Church is willing to discharge its own particular Trust in expounding the Holy Scriptures That they all labour not to continue and increase their disagreement but to end or to diminish it for so the Churches do though the men do not is also a good sign that no one of them is willing to be faulty in their Trust of observing and obeying the holy Scriptures And therefore though it must be confessed that the Church like Queen Vasthi hath not performed the commandment of her King so readily and so entirely as she ought yet may not any rigid Memucan suppose that there shall ever go forth a royal commandment that she come no more before the King Ahasuerus for though she may unhappily have been peccant in her obedience she hath not been peccant in her faith though she may have failed in her behaviour she hath not failed in her Trust though she hath been undutiful yet she hath not been false she hath not been unfaithful to her King that he should seek a divorce and give her royall estate unto another that is better then she Let no man think that our blessed Saviour the Prince of peace the King of Saints will so easily part with his Spouse concerning whom he hath said I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgement and in loving kindness and in mercies I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness and thou shalt know the Lord Hos 2. 19 20. And since Christ will not so easily be parted from his Church how is it that we do so easily part and depart from her If we did rightly distinguish betwixt the Church and the Men we would soon all bless God for the Truth and Faith of his Church though we should blame one another for our own falseness and unfaithfulness we would find that the Church hath been true to her trust in keeping in expounding in obeying Gods word and that only the Men have been faulty Thus Saint Paul blamed the Men not the Church at Corinth for their factions and schisms It hath been declared to me of you my brethren that there are contentions among you 1 Cor. 1. 11. He said they were contentious he said not the Church was so For as they were a Church so they were sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints and calling upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord ver 2. The men were sinners the Church were Saints the men were contentious the Church was Religious Truth and peace were in the Church whilst errours and schisms were in the men The treasure was heavenly though the vessels which held it were earthly We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God not of us 2 Cor. 4. 7. Will you reject the Treasure because of the Vessel you were as good to say you would have the excellency of the power in converting and saving souls to be of men not of God The Vessel is certainly brittle and may possibly be foul but the treasure is neither brittle nor foul that 's a lasting treasure for Truth is so that 's a pure Treasure for holiness is so As a Treasure it will enrich your soul as a pure Treasure it will purge your soul as a pure and lasting Treasure it will purge and enrich your soul not for a moment but for ever T is confessed that this Treasure was at first in much better Vessels then now it is when neither perversness sought to sophisticate the truth nor prophaneness to corrupt the holiness of the Christian Religion but the Treasure it self is still the same it first was For Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. The wickedness of man hath not destroyed cannot destroy the goodness of God He hath still his communion of Saints amongst these great divisions of sinners he hath still one Catholick and Apostolical Church amongst our many divided and distracted Churches And blessed be his name he first provided against our divisions and distractions before he suffered us to make them For it was from his singular providence that the Romans Emperours should keep entire their dominion over all the Christian world till they had called those general Councils wherein was the confutation of the grand heresies and the establishment of the true Christian Faith in the first ages of the Church whilst the greatest part of the Ministry in all Churches rightly understood and zealously maintained the Faith of the Catholick Church For else it is much to be feared that these after-ages of Christians which have been so much wedded to State Policy and so resolved on self-interest would have been much to seek for the truly antient Catholick and Apostolick Faith now briefly summed up in those Creeds which as they are undeniable proofs of the Apostles assertion that the Church is the ground and pillar of truth so they are also the infallible guides of particular Churches to retain and follow that Truth to the worlds end Wherefore God having left us his own undoubted word and such incomparable summs of the saving Truths therein contained as is the Apostles Creed and those other antient Creeds of the Church there is now no particular Church in the world which hath these helps and will carefully and conscionably make use of them but may be sure of believing the Catholick Faith and consequently of professing the true Christian Religion whereby to know Christ and of persisting in the true Christian Communion whereby to enjoy him though perchance the factions of men may be so great and the Judgement of God because of those factions may be so just as never again to let the Church enjoy the happiness of a true general Council And without doubt every particular Church which professeth the Christian Faith according to the Scriptures and those Creeds and hath a practice agreeable to her profession may justly be called the ground and pillar of truth and may
that written word was that all Christians might have the grounds of One Communion And the right way of edification for all Churches is certainly to lay their foundation upon these grounds which God hath given them that is to establish a set form of Doctrine whereby to maintain the Truth of Religion and a set form of devotion whereby to maintain the Peace of Communion 3. It is requisite that the publick worship of God should not relie upon the personal abilities of the Ministers in praying but should be performed by constant set forms of prayer in regard of the Ministers themselves that they be not led into temptation either through pride vilifying others or through vain glory magnifying themselves and that they be not led into sin particularly the sins of heresie and schism which are desperate sins in private men but damnable sins in Ministers yet must needs be incident to those who rely upon their own gifts in praying more then upon Gods or their Churches prayers For if their gift forsake them as who dares promise its certain continuance they may easily fall into an erroneous expression which rather then recant they may as stiffly maintain by perverse argumentation there 's the danger of heresie And if they abuse their gift they may easily fall into the humour and love of ostentation and so scorn to be regulated and confined by their Church upholding their abominable ostentation by a more abominable separation there 's the danger of schism Besides such men commonly refuse to tie themselves so precisely to any particular form of words though it be of their own making but they may sometimes add alwayes alter according as any emergen occasion offered or affection suggested shall require so that they can never truly say with the Psalmist Paratum cor meum Deus Paratum cor meum O God my heart is ready my heart is ready which yet the Psalmist thought twice worth his saying sc Psal 57. ver 7. Psal 108. ver 1. And much less can they say O God my tongue is ready my tongue is ready though that be the readiness they most labour for and most glory in for every new affection may unsettle their heart and every new phansie may unsettle their tongue so that either the heart must be false to its own preparation because it may be changed by a new affection or the tongue must be false to the heart because it may take a new expression I have a very good precedent though a bad occasion to put the gift of prayer in the lowest forms of Gods gifts that concern the exercise of Religion For Saint Paul in effect hath done it before me who put diversitie of tongues not only after the gift of healing but also after helps in government 1 Cor. 12. 28. or helps and governments that is lay-Elders and Deacons if some late glosses may be embraced and surely the gift of prayer must come under the gift of tongues as comprehended in it or come below the gift of tongues as outpassed by it so I may well put it below the Desk when Saint Paul according to them puts it below the poor mens Box And Saint Chrysostome gives this reason for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost hom 29. 32. in Corinth Because they thought so highly of themselves for the gift of tongues therefore Saint Paul alwayes nameth that in the last place after all the rest There is the same reason now why Saint Pauls Successors in the Ministry should do the like concerning the gift of prayer yet I would have laid my hand upon my mouth before I would have spoken so unkindly to or of my brethren were it not to make them lay their hands upon their hearts before they speak so confidently nay indeed so uncomely to Our Father For as it were better my tongue should cleave to the roof of my mouth then I should disparage the gift of prayer so it were better their tongues should cleave to the roofs of their mouths then they should abuse that gift either to ostentation or to faction or which is yet worse to Irreligion For by such abuse not only man is grosly deceived but also God is grievously dishonoured Doubtless he that bids both Priests and people keep their feet when they go to the house of God that they may be more ready to hear then to give the sacrifices of fools doth much more bid the Priests keep their hearts and their mouths that they may not tempt the people to give the fools sacrifice for want either of such affections or of such expressions as may truly be fit to be offered upon Gods Altar And this is plain from the ensuing words Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God Eccles 5. 1. 2. Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Al Tebahal gnal Pica ne feâ—tines super tuo ore Do not make haste upon your mouth Here may easily be much more haste then good speed For your mouth may make haste upon your heart uttering what is scarce yet suggested and you may make haste upon your mouth uttering what is scarce yet digested The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bahal is sometimes to be fearful sometimes to be hasty and thence signifies to make such haste as men use to make in frights when fear hath wholly surprized their wits And such a haste as goes without wit perchance without fear too for men who are audacious are seldom timorous is in a mans own house great imprudence but in Gods house t is moreover great impiety And let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God The better to keep us from the haste of the tongue he disswades us from the haste of the heart for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh therefore if the heart be fraught with hasty affections the tongue will soon be fraught with hasty expressions For he that will permit his heart to love without deliberation will also permit his mouth to speak without it since it is very easie for the heart to come into the mouth when once the assent is come into the heart Therefore he saith Let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing though utterance belongs properly to the mouth the reason is because if the heart hath once spoken it within the mouth will hardly refrain from speaking it without Accordingly the Psalmist when he prayed set a watch O Lord before my mouth and keep the door of â—y lips he did also pray Incline not mine heart to any evil thing Psal 141. 3 4. for there could be no watch set upon his mouth unless it were first set upon his heart And indeed here is such a reason alledged as is enough to set a watch both upon all our mouths and upon all our hearts in that it is said For God is in heaven thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few Were he on earth with thee
particular supplication that they may be remedied and yet none are more averse from particular Confession then those that are most angry with the Church for the want of such particular Petitions But to say the truth The Church hath sufficiently provided for such particulars in that she hath taken the Psalms of David into her publick Devotions which Book is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to use Epiphanius his word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arcula medica a Box of Medicines for all diseases Here he that hath a dead heart shall find affections to enliven it he that hath a slow tongue expressions to quicken it Nor is it possible for that man to want either faith or repentance or thankfulness or any other true spiritual good to comfort and strengthen him either against the evil of sin or the evil of punishment who can truly apply the prayers of the Psalmist to his own heart and truly apply his heart to God and no Prayer whatsoever can either comfort or strengthen him without this twofold application viz. of the Prayer to his own heart and of his heart to God And as for variety of words let him not trouble himself for he were better cordially say with David Have mercy upon me O God after thy great goodness or In thee O Lord have I put my trust let me never be put to confusion then verbally expatiate in greater discourses but lesser desires of this Mercy or of this Trust He will find more true contentment to his soul from the use of one short ejaculation of Gods then in the use of many enlargements of his own making And he were better in brief say with the Publican God be merciful to me a sinner which equally concerns any other true Penitent then make a long prayer with the Pharisee which may only concern himself For it is more like Heathen then like Christians for men to think they shall be heard for their much speaking Mat. 6. 7. and yet if they will needs speak much it is more probable God will hear them speaking in his words then in their own So that if God hath sufficiently provided for our occasional necessities in the holy Scriptures our Church hath likewise sufficiently provided for the same in translating those holy Scriptures and making them a great part of her publick service that we may know how to use them upon and how to apply them to our several occasions For as that general promise whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed Rom. 10. 11. doth warrant every good Christian to make particular application of Gods promises to his own soul by special faith so that other general promise whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Rom. 10. 13. doth warrant every good Christian to make particular application of his own soul to God by special Prayer And as the holy Scriptures are most abundantly sufficient in the rules and examples of special faith so also in the rules and examples of special prayers And as we justly say That the holy Scriptures do shew their original to have been from God because they speak so much in so little containing so many Truths in so few words for only he that understood all things at once was able to intend and comprize so many things together so we as justly say The Church hath taken the best course she could to improve our understandings in those divine Truths in that she hath made it easie for us to understand the holy Scriptures And consequently though she had devised millions of particular prayers for no other purpose but to instruct us to pray upon particular occasions yet she could not have instructed us half so well as now she hath meerly by imparting to us Gods own Instructions And till the Church of Rome shall do the same it will be vain for her Champions to object that she hath out-gone the Protestant Churches in the care of the peoples souls but this by the way to shew the grounds we go upon in our Religion are equally good against the Papists and against the Enthusiasts But neither is this all that we can say for our Church in this behalf for in truth she hath provided such admirable prayers as are not only according to the Rule of Gods holy Word but also very much according to the Genius of it comprizing much in little having more of Faith Hope and Charity in one of her little collects then is to be found in many of their long prayers who either revile her Devotions or renounce her Communion So that if we will not be as wasps good for nothing but to buz and sting but rather as Bees ready to gather honey even from weeds and much more from the roses of Sharon we shall easily find to the joy of our own hearts and the stopping of others mouths That our Church in her Common-Prayers hath taught us such Generals as may sufficiently supply for all particulars And hath taught us such eternals as ought to be in our account as they are in themselves infinitely beyond all Occasionals our blessed Saviour himself hath taught us this lesson concerning the manner of our prayers Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him Mat. 6. 8. as if he had said you need not ask your heavenly Father as you need your earthly parents in many words but only with true and upright hearts this made our Church delight in short prayers because she rather desired to shew a relenting heart then an over-flowing tongue as praying to him that weigheth only hearts not words in the ballance of his Sanctuary A short prayer best suits with an hearty desire which is too earnest to be long in uttering and also with the desires of our hearts in regard of heavenly things which most commonly are too weak to be long in desiring The Church in her short prayers hath taken a great care for our earnestness and withal provided a certain cure for our weakness and if any man think that Through Jesus Christ our Lord comes in too soon because the Prayers are short or too often because they are many let him know That this one single observation in these five words speaks more to God for us then we by thousands of continued Periods in our longest prayers are able to speak for our own selves and if there were no other reason but this yet for this reason alone were many short prayers to be preferred before one long prayer both in our private and in our publick Devotions Again our blessed Saviour hath also taught us this lesson concerning the matter of our Prayers Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Mat. 6. 33. as if he had said Regard chiefly your Continual not your Occasional your Spiritual not your Temporal necessities in your Prayers be earnest with God to give you Faith Hope Charity Religion Repentance Obedience
glory Thus Aristotle lib. 6. Eth. cap. ult ingeniously answereth their objection who would make Prudence to be above Sapience because Prudence commandeth Sapience and he answereth it by this distinction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Illius causa praecipit non autem illi Prudence commands for Sapience but not over her we are willing to look upon Christs Church as upon the best Prudence in the world but withall we must look upon Christ himself as the only Sapience the only true and eternal wisdom and accordingly say That the Church commandeth for Christ but not over him He that commandeth over another is certainly his superiour but he that commandeth for another is not so but rather his inferiour As Physick commandeth or prescribeth for health and therefore in that regard is not superiour but inferiour to health being made subservient to its recovery or continuance And if we will not allow this distinction we must according to Aristotle affirm the state or Common-wealth to be above God himself for she prescribeth his worship and if we will allow it we may not deny the Church to be under him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle wherefore if it be absurd in the judgement of a heathen to allow the civil state a power eminent above or equal with the false Gods because she commandeth their worship Then much more ought it to be absurd in the judgement of a Christian to allow the Ecclesiastical State a power eminent above or equal with the true God meerly upon the ground and reason of the same command Yet on the other side as Prudence ought to prescribe for Sapience so the Church ought to prescribe for Christ And as he that neglecteth the particular prescriptions of Prudence is the further from attaining the general dictates of Sapience So he that neglecteth the particular directions of Christs Church is the farther from apprehending the General instructions of Christs Word I must then take both Christs Word and Christs Church for my guides in the choice of my Christian Communion His Word for my guide that I be not guilty of superstition His Church for my guide that I be not guilty of Faction And having taken these two guides either I shall meet with no objections from mine own conscience and it is no matter what I meet with from other mens tongues against my Religion or I shall meet with very good solutions to answer them As for example Let this be the Catechism concerning my Religion Quest 1. Vpon what authority do you profess your Religion Answ Upon the highest authority in heaven and in earth the authority of God and of his Church The authority of God for 't is consonant to his word as my Rule The authority of Gods Church for 't is consonant to her Practice as my Example Quest 2. Do you think that you are bound to ground your Religion upon this twofold authority Answ I do especially as to the publick exercise or profession of it For without the first I shall have superstition instead of Religion without the second I shall have faction instead of Communion Quest 3. How can you prove that your particular Church hath authority from God to order you in the outward exercise of Religion Answ By the same proofs of the Text which prove any Church whatsoever to have that authority For Christs commission to Saint Peter Feed my sheep John 20. 16. is by him derived unto other Pastors Feed the Flock of God which is among you 1 Pet. 5. 2. He saith not Feed that part of my flock which is among you to help or to assist me but Feed the Flock of God to honour and obey him And he saith the flock of God which is among you to shew that the flocks needed no more look abroad for their Pastors then the Pastors needed look abroad for their flocks since they were actually one among the other And yet if the words had been less punctual they had not been less prevalent For feed the flock of God must alike concern all Churches since no prophesie or command of the Scripture is of any private interpretation 2 Pet. 1. 20. and therefore this command must alike concern all Churches Quest 4. What need you look after the Authority of God in the choice or practice of your Religion is not his Church allotted you for your only guide Answ No it is not for my Religion though it be for my Communion For if I serve God with a blind obedience I cannot serve him with my conscience and that is no other then a blind obedience to serve him upon anothers not upon his own command They that would perswade me to this should make the ninth Article of the Apostles Creed the First and teach me to say I believe the holy Catholick Church before I say I believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost For all the world cannot deny but my belief in God is the only ground of all my Faith even as my love of God is the only ground of all my obedience And since all Religion consists in faith and obedience well I may look upon my Church as the conveyance but I must look upon God only as the Donor and Giver or the Author of my Religion SECT II. That the Communion of the Church of England is truly Christian in Doctrine free from Heresie and from the necessary cause thereof a false ground or foundation of Faith that is Believing upon the Authority of man instead of God I had little Reason and should have less Religion to be true to my Church if my Church were not true to my Saviour the eternal Truth Therefore I must needs acquit my Church from Heresie that I may keep my self from Apostasie For if she hath fallen away from Christ I might lawfully fall away from her at least internally by with-drawing my affection which ought to be fixed upon Gods Truth if not externally by with-drawing my person which ought not to disturb the Churches Peace Let me see then how my Church hath kept Gods Truth that I may learn how to keep my Church And herein I cannot but perswade my self that what our blessed Saviour once spake to those Jews which believed on him he still speaketh to us Christians who profess the same belief If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free John 8. 31 32. And by the rule of contraries If we continue not in his word then are we not his Disciples in deed but only in shew and we shall not know the Truth and the Truth shall not make us free Therefore no Church can boast of being his Disciple which doth not continue in his Word that she may continue in his Truth And in this respect I cannot but continue in my Church that I may continue both in his Word and in his Truth because I see she hath continued in both so that the Truth
witnessing to our Consciences that through Christ we are not under the Law but under Grace and made the children of God by Adoption Hath nine Sections Sect. 1. THE spiritual man more wants joy then the carnal man as being under greater labours both of sense and motion God the Holy Ghosts love 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 Sect. 2. God the Holy Ghosts love to man in giving him the assurance of his particular redemption without which there can be no joy for his Creation It had been good for that man if he had never been born spoken of Judas according to our Saviours own judgement not our Apprehensions that Gloss an abusing of the Text The joy of our Redemption is not to be lost Sect. 3. That this redemption whereof the Holy Ghost assureth us is twofold First privative because we are not under the Law that is not under it as condemning us though we be under the Law as regulating and restraining us Secondly Positive because we are under Grace and know that we are so The right way to attain that knowledge Sect. 4. The great joy of Christians for being under Grace or for being Adopted in Christ And how that joy is to be moderated by the consideration of our own frailty and of Gods impartial Justice in the Judgement to come Sect. 5. Our Adoption in Christ not spoken of by Saint John without a double Preface One Practical Another Speculative and is here according to the likeness of his Grace shall be hereafter according to the likeness of his Glory The threefold image of God in man Sect. 6. Christians are more eminently the children of God then were the Jews The difference betwixt the Adoption and other spiritual blessings of the Jews and of Christians That though they were Adopted to be Heirs as we are yet were they tutoured as Infants till the coming of Christ by whom was wrought a true Reformation Sect. 7. A Particular time appointed to rejoyce in Christ not by way of Restriction but by way of Application The Christians joy far above the Iews both for his Redemption and for his Adoption The priviledge of true Faith And how the Redemption by Christ is larger then the Adoption by him and the Adoption greater in his Giving then in our Receiving Sect. 8. Christs most holy Prayer a very comfortable testimony and assurance of our Adoption in him How nearly it concerns us in our Prayers to say Our Father not Our Brother which art in heaven The conclusion of the Lords Prayer answerable to this beginning and not to be questioned 'T is ill quarreling with that Prayer and much worse discountenancing and deserting it Sect. 9. Whether a man that is not assured of his Adoption in Christ can truly and rightly by vertue of his Baptism only the outward seal of his Adoption say to God Our Father or lawfully and laudibly use the Lords Prayer And that the assurance of our-Adoption is according to the assurance of our conjunction with our Saviour Christ Christ admired in his Passion Hath four Chapters The first Chapter is Christ admired in his Person The second Chapter is Christ admired in his Propitiation The third Chapter is Christ admired in his Satisfaction The fourth Chapter is Christ admired in his Application CAP. 1. Christ admired in his Person Hath three Sections Sect. 1. THat the eye of man cannot be fixed with comfort upon God in himself but only upon God in Christ Sect. 2. In what sense Saint Paul cared not to know Christ in the flesh and yet Christ in the flesh only is comfortably known Sect. 3. True knowledge of and faith in Christ not without true knowledge of and faith in the blessed Trinity That the Protestants Faith The great loveliness of Christ in the flesh as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as God and man and the great mysteries of his two natures in one Person CAP. 2. Christ admired in his Propitiation Hath four Sections Sect. 1. THE manner of knowing divine Truths what it ought to be and the great benefit of knowing Christ in his Propitiation He that will read the Scripture to the benefit of his Soul must have Christ crucified in his thoughts Sect. 2. Christ set down in the Scripture as our Propitiation under the Title of the Pass-over and what that signifies to our souls Sect. 3. Christ set down in the Scripture as our Propitiation under the title of the Paschal Lamb and how many excellent Doctrines and Comforts of Christianity are to be learned from that Title Sect. 4. The great vertue of this Propitiation and the great goodness wisdom justice and power of God in finding it for us and giving it to us CAP. 3. Christ admired in his Satisfaction Hath two Sections Sect. 1. THE necessity if Christs satisfaction for that he was the only Sacrifice to expiate sin Sect. 2. The commemoration of Christs sacrifice enjoyned not the Repetition of it And that the ordination of Ministers for administring the Sacraments not of Priests for the offering of Sacrifice is most agreeable with the institution of Christ and the constitution of a true Christian Church CAP. 4. Christ admired in his Application Hath two Sections Sect. 1. CHrist in his propitiation and satisfaction doth not benefit us without a particular Application Sect. 2. The ground of that Application is Christs threefold conjunction with us in his Person in his Nature and in his Office from which proceedeth the Marriage of the soul with Christ Christ adored in his Resurrection Hath two Chapters The first Chapter sheweth That Christ is to be adored chiefly in his Resurrection The second Chapter sheweth That God is to be adored only in Christ CAP. 1. That Christ is to be adored chiefly in his Resurrection Hath eleven Sections Sect. 1. THE Resurrection of Christ the grand cause of joy to Christians but strongly opposed by the Jews whose Commentaries are not to be followed on those Texts which concern our Saviour Christ though even those Texts have not been corrupted by them Sect. 2. The necessity of our Christian Festival called Easter as it is an Anniversary Feast to express the Christians joy for the Resurrection of Christ That thereby the Christians Jubilee or joy in Christ is not confined but enlarged and that by the same reason the Spirit of Prayer is not confined or hindred but rather assisted and helped by set forms of words Sect. 3. The memorials instituted by God are chiefly of his Justice and of his mercy There is one terrible memorial of Gods Justice against those who invaded the Priest-hood but many memorials of his mercy It is a vain fear which possesseth some men as if the Anniversary memorial of Christs Resurrection were not instituted and could not be observed without
have known Christ and Christianity That Christ teacheth us by his voice in holy Scripture more certainly then by his voice in holy Church and that the Scripture is to teach the Church as the Church is to teach the people Sect. 4. That the state of true Christianity is to be learned only in the Church of Christ For there only doth Christ teach by his word which the Church is bound to translate that the people may understand it And by his Spirit accompanying his word which teacheth both infallibly and irresistibly by taking away our resistance That the state of true Christianity is not confined to any one particular Church for that Christ teacheth more or less in all Christian Churches and yet this is no ground for Sectaries to run from the Church Sect. 5. That the certainty in true Christianity or the state thereof is from the Word and Spirit of Christ the uncertainty from our selves Of doubtings in good Christians concerning their state That some are by way of admiration others by way of Infirmity but none by way of Infidelity CAP. 2. Of the knowledge of the state of true Christianity Hath two Sections Sect. 1. THE knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity is from our keeping the words of Christ That Antinomians cannot be much less know they be in the state of true Christianity Sect. 2. Three Practical principles necessary to be maintained by all those who desire to be good Christians and to know themselves to be in the state of true Christianity 1. That Christ hath words to be kept as well as to be believed 2. That true love of Christ will make us labour to keep his words 3. That true faith in Christ was never yet without this Love CAP. 3. Of the comforts that arise from the knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity Hath three Sections Sect. 1. THE first comfort arising from the knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity is That we are thereby assured of the Love of God Sect. 2. The second comfort arising from the knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity is That we are thereby assured of Communion with God The cause the work and the effects of that Communion The cause of Communion with God is God The work of it contemplation of God and consultation with God The effects of it That it makes a man live for to with and in God Sect. 3. The third comfort arising from the knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity is That we are thereby assured of the continuance of our Communion with God For his Desertion will be only for Tryal not for Punishment unless we become unfaithful and unfruitful Christ Reteined in the true Christian Communion Hath a Prooem and three Chapters The Prooem Christian Communion is to be considered in its Authority in its Excellency in its Sincerity The first Chapter is of Christian Communion in its Authority The second Chapter is of Christian Communion in its Excellency The third Chapter is of Christian Communion in its Sincerity CAP. 1. Of Christian Communion in its Authority Hath six Sections Sect. 1. CHrist requires our Communion by his own Authority as our Head which hath the most noble and most powerful influence upon the members The nature the reasons the cause the proofs of our Communion with Christ Sect. 2. That our Communion with Christ is as our Participation of Christ External or Internal The one may be the Communion of Hypocrites the other only of good Christians The way to be a good Christian in a bad Church Sect. 3. That our internal Communion with Christ is through his Spirit and our Faith which may not be a phansie or fiction much less a faction but a faith Knowing by Evidence Approving by Adherence Applying by Affection and Working by Practise That such a faith will make our Communion with Christ real and substantial in the thing it self though in the manner it be only spiritual and mystical Sect. 4. Christian Communion beginneth with the Church but endeth with Christ both in the Word and Sacraments and Prayers And that the Church is bound in all these to advance not to hinder our Communion with Christ either by denying the People the use of the Scriptures or by teaching them superstitious prayers as to Saints and Angels wherein Christ neither can nor will communicate with men The ready way to have Communion with Christ is by Peace and Holiness and wherein that Communion chiefly consisteth Sect. 5. That the Catholick Church requires our Communion by the authority of Christ as his Body That the whole Christian Church is this Catholick Church and that it is known to be so by the undoubted Word of Christ And how a particular Church may be sure to keep Communion with the Catholick Church Sect. 6. The Catholick Church properly so called hath in it neither Hereticks Schismaticks nor Hypocrites but commonly so called comprizeth all those Christians who outwardly embrace the truth and worship of Christ That our own particular Church keeping Communion with the Catholick requireth our Communion by the authority of the Catholick Church The Authority and Trust of particular National Churches from Scripture and Councils A sober and pious resolution not to sin against the Authority of the Church by wilful Schism and the reasons of that resolution CAP. 2. Of Christian Communion in its excellency Hath two Sections Sect. 1. THE excellency of Christian Communion because of its large extent as reaching to all Christians though of different perswasions and professions Sect. 2. The excellency of Christian Communion as holding of Christ and from him having Immortality Piety Verity and Charity And that the Church is the proper Place Angels and men the Company and God the Author of this Communion CAP. 3. Of Christian Communion in its Sincerity Hath four Sections Sect. 1. THE sincerity of Christian Communion consists in this That it gives all to Christ Hence those Christians justified who do so in their Festivals The Sabbatarians questioned for not so doing The Apostles new method of teaching Christian Divinity by interlining of prayers and praises that Christ might be the more glorified and the Christian Religion the less adulterated Sect. 2. The sincerity of Christian Communion is the Bullwark of its authority and first to be regarded by every Christian Church as being the glory of her Prosperity and the comfort of her Adversity Such a sincere Communion never to be deserted when once happily attained Sect. 3. The sincerity of Christian Communion comprehendeth both the Purity and the Solemnity of Religion and is the whole Duty of the first Table The Purity or Substance of Religion being enjoyned in the three first Commandments The solemnity or publick exercise of it with the adjuncts thereto belonging being enjoyned in the Fourth The Exercise of Religion from the End the adjuncts from the Letter of the Law The Sabbatarian the greatest opposer
and the Decalogue righteously taken into our Liturgie but unrighteously omitted by Innovators who vainly obtrude Variety to mens consciences instead of Certainty Sect. 11. The Gift of Prayer examined That it is not a Gift of sanctifying Grace That Prayer as a Duty is above Prayer as a Gift That the Spirit of Prayer is often without the Gift of Prayer and yet the Gift of Prayer is not perfect without the Spirit of it Those Christians who have attained the Gift of Prayer most compleatly that is joyntly with the Spirit of it are not thereby qualified to be the mouths of the Congregations Those Ministers who have not attained that Gift are not for that reason to be despised as not sufficiently qualified for the Ministry And those Ministers who have attained it may not for the exercising thereof be allowed to reject set forms of Prayer in their Congregations because set forms in publick are more for the Ministers and the Peoples good more for Gods glory and more agrecable with Gods command Sect. 12. Set forms and conceived Prayers compared together That set forms do better remedy all inconveniences and more establish the conscience Are not guilty of will-worship nor of quenching the Spirit nor of superstitious formalities and that it is less dangerous if not more Christian to discountenance the Gift then the Spirit of Prayer Sect. 13. That forms of publick Prayer are not to be disliked because they cannot or at least do not particularly provide either Deprecations against private mens occasional miseries or thanksgivings for their occasional mercies yet our Church not defective in occasionals though chiefly furnished with eternals The danger of contemning Religious forms of Prayer and gadding after conceived Prayers Sect. 14. The third and last part of the Churches Trust concerning Religion is touching the holy Sacraments wherein our Church is not faulty either in the number or in the administration of Them as exactly following our Saviours Institution Nor in the manner of Administring as following it with reverence CAP. 3. That the Communion of the Church of England is conscionably embraced and reteined by all the People of this Nation and not rejected much less renounced by any of them but against the rules of conscience Sect. 1. EVery particular man ought to labour to be of such a Communion as he is sure is truly Christian both in Doctrine and in Devotion The Rule whereby to choose such a Communion the Proofs whereby to maintain it Sect. 2. That the Communion of the Church of England is truly Christian in Doctrine free from Hereâ—ie and from the necessary cause thereof a false ground or foundation of faith That is Believeing upon the Authority of men instead of God Sect. 3. That the Communion of the Church of England is truly Christian in Devotion free from impiety either by corrupt Invocation or Adoration Sect. 4. That the Communion of the Church of England obligeth those in conscience who are members of that Church to retein â—â— and not to reject it much less to renounce it by no less then five Commandments of the Decalogue Errata PAge 7. line 4. read Menologie p. 26. l. 35. r. fatlest p. 34. l. 19. r Tria p. 39. l. 4. r. brightness p. 47. l. 3. r. ut p. 56. l. 28. r. They p. 60. l. 20. r. It is p. 61. l. 11. 12. r. likeness p. 66. l. 22. r. protension p. 77. l. 26. r. This p. 78. l. 28. dele not p. 82. l. 17. r. as p. 100. l. 23. r. He p. 101. l. 16. r. greater p. 105. l. 3. r. Turning p. 106. l. r. r. their p. 116. l. 32. dele that p. 120. l. 14. r. without p. 126. l. 36. r. Nor p. 148. l. 14. r. bring p. 150. l. 14. r. of p. 169. l. 1. r. we p. 178. l. 2. r. fully p. 178. l. 15. r. take p. 180 l. 1. r. iniquities p. 182. l. 32. r. affective p. 198. l. 22. r. before p. 208. l. 17. 1. Quid p. 208. l. 18. r. Nam p. 292. in the Contents l. 6. r. Them p. 319. l. 5. r. comely p. 345. l. 3. r. sound p. 415. l. 31. r. Then p. 449. l. 1. r. persection ibid. l. 31. r. such a division p. 549. l. 19. â— beats p. 634. l. 14. r. certainty p. 656. l. 30. r. unpremeditated p. 674. l. 5. r. Obsecration p. 680. l. 4. r. bind ibid. l. 5. r. hands Christ wellcomed in his Nativity CAP. I. The Motives of Christs welcome from God and from his Church both Triumphant and Militant SECT I. Christs image repairs the loss of Gods image in man The Churches desire that Christ should be formed in us and that Christs humiliation is the Christians exaltation IN the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost one God everlasting Blessed be the Holy and undivided Trinity world without end Amen I had once the image of God the Father in my creation and I soon lost it wherefore I now desire to have the image of God the Son in my Redemption which I may never lose O thou eternal Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son vouchsafe to breath in my soul this breath of life that I may live eternally O thou who didst form the eternal Son of God in the womb of a pure Virgin be pleased also to form him in my impure and sinful heart That Christ being formed in me I may not be an Abortive to the life and light of righteousness Thy holy Apostle travelled as in birth till Christ was formed in the Galatians so doth thy holy Church travail as in birth til Christ be formed in me Oh then let the end of her travail be the beginning of my rest that my Saviour being formed in me I may be fitted and prepared for his salvation He once condescended to be made man for me Oh that he will now give me the benefit of that condescention and be made man in me That I may put on the Lord Jesus Christ even as he hath put on me That as he dwelleth in my flesh by a personal union so he may also dwell in my Spirit by a powerful Communion That as by dwelling in my flesh he emptied himself so by dwelling in my Spirit he may fill me For Christs emptiness is the Christians fulness He that filled Heaven and Earth from the beginning of the Creation did in the declining Age of Time Empty himself that he might fill us Them he filled with his Majesty but us with his Mercy And if his emptiness was our fulness what is his fulness but our glory If his fall was our rising what is his resurrection but our salvation If the humiliation of Christ was the riches of the world how much more his exaltation If he enriched us by his Poverty how much more will he enrich us by his Glory The Apostle can mention nothing but fulness when he treats of Christ emptiness Gal. 4. 4 5. SECT II. Christs
end a more perfect establishment of Christianity which before was not rightly practised This was truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a time of rectification or direction for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is properly said of them who are directed immediately to their journeys end whereas before they were going the farthest way about and such indeed was the Jews way to heaven God leading them about through the wilderness into Canaan as well in the Mysterie as in the History as well in regard of the Coelestial as of the Terrestrial Hierusalem SECT VII A particular time appointed for rejoycing in Christ not by way of restriction but by way of Application The Christians Joy far above the Jews both for his Redemption and for his Adoption The priviledge of true Faith And how the Redemption by Christ is larger then the Adoption by him And the Adoption greater in his giving then in our receiving TO be glad in the Lord and to rejoyce in him makes Christmass last all the year yet is that no better reason why we should not keep Christmass-Day then our rest and contentation in God which we have or may have all the week is a reason why we should not keep the Sabbath or the Lords own day for it is very bad Logick and worse Divinity which argues from the position of the Duty to the eversion of the Day wherein we ought to exercise it for if the Duty must be exercised how can we reasonably deny the time of its exercise Yet do I not think that a particular time is to be allotted to rejoyce in Christ by way of restriction or limitation as if we should not rejoyce in him at other times for that is the malignant gloss which some of late have put upon the fourth Commandement confining Gods solemn publick worship only to the Sabbath not considering that the Jews had other grand festivals not prescribed in the Law and yet were more strictly bound to the letter of that Commandment then we Christians but I say that a particular Time ought to be allotted to rejoyce in Christ by way of application or of specification that we may more eminently and notoriously rejoyce in him at some time though our joy in him is to be confined to no time For the spiritual joy of the Jew was unconfined and much more the spiritual joy of the Christian who in a larger proportion hath received the Spirit of joy And therefore its observable that though in the Old Testament we are earnestly called upon to rejoyce in God yet are we not called upon for so much joy as in the New Testament let this one instance serve for all Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart so the Prophet concludeth the 32. Psalm and in the same strain beginneth the 33. saying Rejoyce in the Lord O ye righteous for praise is comely for the upright calling for a very great proportion of Joy from the Jew but yet the Apostle in saying Rejoyce in the Lord alway again I say rejoyce Phil. 4. 4. hath called for a far greater proportion of joy from the Christian For here is not only the same joy that was before to wit joy in the Lord but here is the same joy in a greater degree of extension for he saith rejoyce in the Lord alway and in a greater degree of intension for he saith again I say rejoyce And if we further consider who are called the just and righteous and upon what terms they are called so we shall find also a greater degree of extension for that where is the greatest measure and diffusion of righteousness there must needs be the greatest measure and diffusion of joy And it is evident that they who trust in the Lord not in themselves are by the Psalmist called the just and the righteous or the upright For it is the priviledge of true faith not only to make us just but also to make us upright not only to justifie us but also to rectifie us it justifies us in that it absolves from sin it rectifies us in that it directs in righteousness and therefore the disobedient as well as the unbelieving heart the stubborn as well as the faithless generation is said not to trust in God Psal 78. 7 8 and the faithless generation is there known as well by this Character that set not their heart aright as by this whose spirit was not stedfast with God For true faith hath the priviledge first to set the heart to God then to settle it in God first to make the spirit right then to make it stedfast The heart is made right when it points directly towards God moving as a line from the circumference to the Center and the heart is thus made right or set towards God by the same faith that it is made stedfast or settled in God Wherefore since true faith at the same time both Rectifies and Justifies the soul of man it is no wonder if it cause its unspeakable as well as its unmoveable joy And where shall we look for this true faith if not in Christians for though the act of faith is as expresly set down in the Old Testament as in the New yet the object of faith is much more plainly declared in the New Testament So that Christians having a more perfect faith in Christ then had the Jews must needs have a greater joy in Christ then they could have And indeed what joy like the joy of the Redeemed by Christ or rather what joy like the joy of the adopted in Christ Since the joy of the Redemption is not to be had without the joy of the Adoption For many more have been Redeemed by Christ then do truly rejoyce in him because many more have been Redeemed then are adopted For the Redemption which man hath by Christ is of a greater latitude then is the Adoption because the Redemption concerns all mankind in general but the Adoption is restrained to some particular persons sc to those only within the Pale of the Church and that not only in their number and outward profession but also in their merit or inward affection as Aquinas hath laid the ground of that distinction 22◠qu. 1. art 9. ad tertium in these words Talis enim fides sc formata invenitur in omnibus illis qui sunt numero merito de Ecclesia A true and lively faith is found in all those who are meritoriously as well as numerically members of the Church And where the true faith is found there and there only is the true joy in Christ or the joy of adoption And these two may very well agree that the Redemption it selfe should be universal and concern the whole nature of man which Christ assumed and therefore redeemed but yet the benefit thereof in the adoption of sons should be onely particular that is concerne those alone to whom God doth give special grace to make a right
of the sixteenth Psalm for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt suffer thine holy one to see corruption rather then he would allow them their own plain proper sense whereby they did necessarily infer his resurrection from the dead in whose person they were spoken which is the more to be observed for that himself had acknowledged some peculiar eminence of this Psalm from the Title of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he therefore had thus glossed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 T is glorious or precious as Gold t is a Golden Psalm and yet he would not see that mysterie in it which alone had given it that glorious title in the judgement of the best Divines even the Mysterie of Christs Resurrection SECT II. The necessity of our Christian Festival called Easter as it is an Anniversary feast to express the Christians joy for the resurrection of Christ that thereby the Christians Jubile or joy in Christ is not confined but enlarged and that by the same reason the Spirit of Prayer is not confined or hindred but rather assisted and helped by a set form of words SInce we cannot deny the Christians unspeakable joy for the Resurrection of Christ why should we go about to diminish it by opposing the grand Christian Festival which hath been instituted to express that joy For excellently Greg. Naz. and most like a true Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 39. the sum or business of a Festival is the remembrance of God and to put the Thesis into an Hypothesis the sum and business of this Festival is to remember Christ in whom alone we Christians must remember God so that to oppose this Festival is in effect to oppose the remembrance of God in Christ and to shake the very foundations of Christianity For we cannot oppose this Anniversary but we must also oppose our weekly Lords day Therefore did that Council judiciously which began its reformation of abuses in the Church with this Canon Custodite diem Dominicam quae nos denuo peperit à peccatis omnibus liberavit estote omnes in hymnis laudibus Dei animo corporeque intenti si aliter fecerit rusticus aut servus gravioribus fustium ictibus verberabitur Concil Matiscon 2. cap. 1. Keep the Lords day which hath begotten us anew and delivered us from all our sins Be all of you intent in body and soul to the praises of God and if any country man or servant do otherwise let him be soundly cudgelled for his pains And Bullinger in his Decades upon the fourth Commandment gives an excellent reason why set times and seasons should be consecrated and set apart for the publike worship and honour of God saying Oportet autem definitum tempus consecratum esse exercitio religionis ut Dominicum idem sentiendum arbitror de pauculis quibusdam Christi Domini festis quibus peragimus memoriam Nativitatis incarnationis circumcisionis resurrectionis ascentionis in coelum missionis Spiritus Sancti in discipulos libertas enim Christiana non est licentia dissolutio Ecclesiasticae piaeque observationis juvantis provehentis gloriam Dei charitatem proximi There must be some set and certain time consecrated to the exercise of Religion by vertue of this fourth Commandment as the Lords day and I think the same of those other Festivals instituted and observed in memory of Christ as his Nativity incarnation circumcision resurrection ascention into heaven and sending down the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples For Christian liberty is not a licentious dissolution of such holy and pious Ecclesiastical observations as tend wholly to the glory of Christ and the edification of our Christian Brethren Yet do we most willingly confess that the Christians feast of Jubile is not to be confined to a day because he that is the cause of it Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. And indeed so doth Saint Chrysostome expound that Text of Saint Paul 1 Cor. 5. 8. Therefore let us keep the feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He saith not Let us keep the feast because it was then Easter or Whitsuntide when he writ this Epistle but to shew that a good Christians life is a continual Feast and therefore every day might serve him for a Festival So that in Saint Chrysostomes judgement Saint Pauls Let us keep the Feast is little other then a short extract of the Psalm of Jubile Jubilate Deo omnis terra O keep your Jubile in the Lord all ye lands Psalm 100. 1. Only the reason is much more express in the New then in the Old Testament Be ye sure that the Lord is God saith the Psalmist It is he that hath made us but much more forcible is the Apostles reason It is he that hath redeemed us We are his people and in that regard ought to hold a feast unto him Exod. 5. 1. but much rather because he hath been a sacrifice for us that we might be his people we are the sheep of his pasture and ought to hear his voice much rather because he hath been our Paschal Lamb that we might be his sheep The whole Psalm is nothing else but a song of Jubile in one verse and the reason of it in the next as ver 1. O be joyful in the Lord with gladness and with a song there 's the Jubile but ver 2. The Lord he is God it is he that hath made us there 's the cause of it And again ver 3. O go your way into his Gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise and be thankful unto him there 's the Jubile But ver 4. For the Lord is gracious his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth from generation to generation there 's the reason of it Grace mercy and truth are all met together in the Lord saith the Psalmist a grace without repenting the Lord is gracious that is still continues so notwithstanding our multiplied provocations a mercy with ending His mercy is everlasting and a truth without failing His truth endureth from generation to generation But the Apostle tels us moreover in whom they are met and the ground of their meeting when he saith For Christ our passover is sacrificed for us For the cause of the grace is that this Christ is ours made ours by conjunction The cause of the mercy that he is our sacrifice by propitiation and the cause of the truth which is one and the same from Genesis to the Revelation is this that the same Christ was this sacrifice of the passover according to the prediction so long foreshewed in the Paschal Lamb Exod. 12. and so long foretold in the Prophets particularly Isa 53. 7. He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter so that though a stranger from the Common-wealth of Israel could ask the question Of whom speaketh the Prophet this he was led like a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before the
fear least the earth should open under him and heaven should be shut above him and against him for that he is a sinner against his own soul Numb 16. 38. and doth provoke God to make him as Corah and his company In this one case we have a memorable example of Gods justice and as exemplary a memorial thereof and we have scarce any other such as this but we find very many exemplary memorials of his mercy Scarce any singular blessing bestowed upon the Iews but there was a special feast appointed in the Church to propagate and to perpetuate its remembrance Thus was the feast of tabernacles instituted that your generations may know that I made Israel to dwell in bothes when I brought them out of the Land of Egypt Levit 23. 43. Thus without Gods immediate command was ordained the feast of Purim Esther 9. which yet was faithfully observed and the observation thereof looked on as a religious not as a superstitious practise by God and man Nay yet more we find another feast after this not mentioned in the Canonical Scripture but only in the Apocrypha the feast of the Dedication of the Altar 1 Macchab. 4. 59. and yet this feast was not only carefully observed by the Iews but the observation of it was also approved by our Saviour himself John 10. 22 23. which is warrant more then enough both for the Church to constitute still such festivals to the honour of God and for us to observe the Festivals that are so constituted And it is also check more then enough to their insolency and perversness if they would take notice of it who in matters of the Christian Religion will pretend to be wiser not only then Christs Church but also then Christ himself For if the argument be undenyable concerning marriage from John 2. 1 2. which holy estate Christ adorned and beautified with his presence and first miracle that he wrought in Cana of Galilee Then it is as undenyable concerning Festivals from Iohn 10. 22 23. which holy institution Christ himself adorned and beautified with his presence in that he went to the Temple at the feast of the Dedication as well as at other feasts which were immediately commanded in the text In a word Thus the feast of the Passover was instituted to commemorate to the Jews how God had passed over them when he slew the Egyptians Exod. 12. 12. And the Christian Church hath appointed this Gospel Anniversary feast of Easter to succeed that legal Anniverâ—…y feast of the Passeover not so much to shew her Authority which however cannot be denyed without Heresie nor resisted without Schism as to discharge her trust For the Apostle 1 Cor. 9 10. saying that those words Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the corn were written no doubt for our sakes hath laid it for an immoveable grouud of our Christian faith that the general equity even of the Levitical Law as far as it was not typical is still in force among Christians concerning the solemnities of Religion and must be so till the worlds end And if we will stick fast to this ground All our late contests about the times places and persons belonging to Gods publick worship will soon be determined if we will not stick to it we shall in effect put aside the Apostles Divinity that we may bring in our own By this ground Aerius his Heresie will soon be ejected out of the Church who taught That Imparity of the Ministry was condemned and Parity commended in the word of God as saith Saint August lib. de haeres haeres 53. Dicebat Presbyterum ab Episcopo nullâ differentiâ debere discerni For it is evident out of the Levitical Law alone That God himself ordained and instituted an Imparity in the Priesthood and as evident That he hath since not reversed but plainly approved if not established an imparity in the Ministers of the Gospel as appears by the power of Jurisdiction given by Saint Paul to Timothy over Presbyters 1 Tim. 5. 19. unless we will say That he might receive accusations against Presbyters pass sentence upon them without having jurisdiction over them Again By this ground tithes and all other provisions made for the Ministry will rather be encreased then diminished for the Gospel being so much above the Law doth rather call for a greater then for a lesser maintenance so that if the Ox that trod out the corn might not be muzzled then much less now Churches will no longer be nick-named much less unfrequented or profaned and the Sabbath will no more afford us matter of Disputation but of Devotion if we will stick to this ground for that God himself hath said Keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary Levit. 19. 30. and the same God that hath forbad us to profane the time hath also forbad us to profane the place of his worship Levit. 21. 23. that ye profane not my sanctuaries for I the Lord 〈…〉 sanctifie them I say by this ground all our late contests about the times places and persons belonging to Gods publick worship may easily be determined â—nless we will needs say for wilful men will say any thing That Gods commands about Oxen contain in them matter of precept for our Christian conversation and obedience though the Apostle plainly telleth us That God careth not for Oxen But not so his commands about the time and place and persons of his own worship concerning which God himself hath professed that he is solicitous and careful even to a jealousie And by this same ground it is evident That as the Jew under the Law â—as so the Christian under the Gospel is obliged to commemorate Gods extraordinary benefits to his Church with extraordinary thanksgivings And as God prescribed the Jews a set form of Catechism to instruct their children in the reasons of this solemn festival Exod. 12. 24 25 26. which Solomon Jarchi calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon Exod. 13. 8. that is to say The Annuntiation of the Passeover so did the Christian Church think fit to require catechizing specially against Easter and more particularly because of those who addressed themselves to the Holy Communion which never failed heretofore to be administred at that time and is our true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most full and exact Annuntiation of our spiritual deliverance nor is it improbable that Saint Paul alluded to this very Text of Exod. 13. 8. Annuntiabis filio tuo and to this very custom of the Jews grounded thereon of making their Catechetical annuntiations when he used the very same word concerning the blessed Sacrament saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Annuntiatis mortem Domini 1 Cor. 11. 26. thereby himself calling or at least licencing us to call the holy Eucharist the annuntiation of the death of Christ And it is remarkable that the Jews used this manner of Catechizing only at this feast and their Catechism consisted of these three heads 〈◊〉
sorrow and incessant supplications I may get him to return again as it were by a glorious resurrection after death and in his power as the mighty God to restore his Church in his mercy as the everlasting Father to bless it and in his dominion as the Prince of peace to govern and establish it for ever Thus had I rather suffer with him in his shame then reign with his enemies in their glory and I shall rejoyce more in my sorrows then they shall in their joyes For in their joyes they may if they will see their sins but in my sorrows I shall see my Saviour The fifth and last apparition which our blessed Saviour made on the day of his resurrection was that which Saint Mark hath recorded in these words Cap. 16. ver 14. Afterward he appeared to the eleven as they sate at meat and upbraided them with their unbelief and heardness of heart because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen Our blessed Saviour upbraided them yet were they more truly believers in their unbelief then many of us are in our faith for Saint Luke faith They yet believed not for joy and wondred Luk. 24. 41. They believed not for joy and admiration but many of us so believe as neither to rejoyce nor admire at the grounds of our belief in so much that their infidelity was much better then our faith for we have too hasty a faith to have a sure and a sound faith and that makes us fall away in these times of temptation and rather then want temptation become our own tempters Whereas if we did with the Bereans examine whether these things were so before we believed or with the Apostles did rejoyce and admire to see them so when we believe it would not be possible for those that can so easily turn the times more easily to turn our faith but being sure that we are indeed in a true conjunction and communion with Christ we would never suffer any thing of this world to separate us from that holy conjunction nor to divert us from that blessed communion Thus it is for want of joy and admiration that we dayly turn unbelievers whereas the Apostles did not yet believe for joy and wonder therefore were they the more true believers for what kept them from believing did in truth strengthen their belief And accordingly we may suppose our blessed Saviour checked their incredulity not so much that he might blame and reprove their faith as that they might the more labour to increase and to improve it for that they could never have that faith too much setled and fixed in themselves which they were now bound to preach to others And withall that they should not be soon discouraged in their preaching if they found not the event presently answerable to their pains since it was long before they themselves did believe though they had met with infinitely a far better Preacher For this Rule When thou art converted strenghthen thy brethren Luk. 22. 32. holds not only in the substance but also in the degree of that charitable duty those being bound to take the greatest pains in converting others who most know how much the spirit of God hath laboured about their conversion For he that considers how long his Saviour hath tarryed for him will never think that he can tarry too long for his brother And yet there is one more particular very observable in this apparition that it was when the Apostles were gathered together to hear what Saint Peter and the rest could say concerning their Masters resurrection And as they thus spake Jesus himself stood in the midst of them Luke 24. 36. That is then and not till then he appeared to them when they were thus prepared to receive him O my God make me zealously to follow all those means which thou hast given me of knowing thy eternal Son my blessed Lord and Saviour that pursuing after those means with an active industry I may overtake them with a happy speed and lay hold on them with immortal joy and make use of them with unwearied care and constancy Let me never absent my self from the assemblies and meetings of thy Apostles the guides and governours of thy Church for fear I should lose the opportunity of seeing thee whilst I am absent from them For thou hast promised to be with them alway even to the end of the world if therefore I will not be with them how can I hope thou wilt be with me For surely of all men that are gathered together in thy name upon the face of the earth they are most so gathered whom thou hast commanded to gather others and therefore thou hast promised to be most in the midst of them for as much as they are thy Trustees whom thou hast entrusted with thy name and with thy truth and with thy blood with thy name lest Atheists should blaspheme it with thy truth lest Hereticks should corrupt it with thy blood lest Apostates should prophane it O then let thy unworthy servant be alwayes gathered together with them that I be never guilty either of Atheism or of Heresie or of Apostasie And when I am gathered together with them make me to open mine eyes to look and mine ears to hearken diligently after thee and not only after them that thou mayest open my heart to receive thee And make all guides and governours of thy Church still to follow the footsteps of thy Apostles and to enquire what is written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning thee ver 44. For how shall they know thee to whom thou dost not reveal thy self or where dost thou reveal thy self but in thy word Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures Luke 24. 45 that is when they had used all the means they could to understand them then and not till then he opened their understanding And who can tell but t is a judgement immediately from God and a judgement worthy of God inflicted upon many great Scholars not to understand the Scriptures so much to their salvation as some private unlearned men do understand them because they had rather cast their reproaches then their affections upon Gods most holy word inventing arguments to keep others from reading it whilst they should be making prayers that God would bless their own reading of it for unless he that hath the key of David open the understanding in vain do we labour to open the Text Wherefore the Church of England did upon unquestionable grounds recede from the Latine Liturgy in the second Sunday of Advent to bring in this most excellent prayer Blessed Lord which hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning grant that we may in such wise hear them read mark learn and inwardly digest them that by patience and comfort of thy holy word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting
to examine the other exigencies which this excellent Divine is put to that he may gratifie his Church by seeking to make good this Tenent but sure other Churches look upon it as an invasion of their Christian liberty and as a Doctrine which cannot pretend to Christian verity or antiquity though it may fondly pretend to some external unity T is certain the Greek Church took it for a Novelty and therefore would not admit this position as a dispensation from the Anathemas denounced by the two Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon against such as should presume to alter the former Creeds And yet in truth the alteration was more in word then in sense and the Greek Church had the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son in their Faith though not in their Creed And this appears plainly by Simeon the Metaphrast who lived about the year eight hundred and fifty after Christ neer the same time with Walefridus Strabo yet useth these words in the Greek Menology on October 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Lord Christ is Ascended into heaven and returned to his Fathers throne and from thence hath sent down the Holy Spirit which proceedeth from himself upon his Disciples He saith in his Faith the Spirit proceeded from the Son though neither he nor any of his Church would change their Creed to say so And upon this ground the Western Churches may still retain the use of Athanasius his Creed in their Liturgies notwithstanding the addition of Filioque without cutting off the Greek Church from the hope of salvation though they allow not that addition because the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son is also in their Faith according to the sense though not according to the words of the Article And to speak the plain truth in this controversie concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son as well as from the Father the animosity was greater betwixt the Greek and Latine Church then the disagreement the quarrel larger then the difference And thus much Scotus ingenuously confesseth in these words Sed forte si duo sapientes unus Graecus aâ—ter Latinus uterque verus amator veritatis non propriae dictionis de hac visa contrarietate disquirerent pateret utique tandem ipsam contrarietatem non esse veraciter realem sicut est vocalis Alioquin vel ipsi Graeci vel nos Latini sumus verè haeretici Sed quis audet Johannem Damascenum Basilium Gregorium Theologum Nazianzenum Cyrillum similes patres Graecos arguere haereseos Quis iterum argueret haereseos B. Hieronymum Augustinum Aâ—ibrosium Hilarium consimiles Latinos Verisimile igitur est quod non subest dictis verbis contrariis contrariorum Sanctorum sententia discors Scotus in 1. Sent. dist 11 qu. 1. But happily if two wise men the one of the Greek the other of the Latine Church did enquire concerning this seeming contrariety and both of them would prefer the truth above their own words or expressions they might in time find that this is but a verbal not a real controversie For if it be real either the Greeks or the Latines must needs be hereticks But who shall dare to accuse Damascene or Basil or Gregory the Divine or Gregory Nazianzene or Cyril and the rest of the Greek Fathers of heresie Again who dares take Saint Hierom Saint Augustine Saint Ambrose Saint Hilary and the rest of the Latine Fathers for hereticks It is therefore most probable that in these contrary expressions was no contrary sense but they both meant one and the same truth concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost Thus far Scotus and indeed no less appears in the Council of Florence where from the twentyeth Session to the twenty fifth exclusively is a long disputation betwixt Johannes Provincialis for the Latine Church and Marcus Ephesius for the Greek Church And the Ephesian professing that the Spirit did proceed from the Father by the Son the Provincial confesseth it was in effect the same as from the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That by is here as much as from saith Johannes Concil Flor. Sessione 24. For the Father begetting and the Son begotten and the Holy Ghost proceeding being all confessedly coequal and coeternal whether it be said the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son or from the Father by the Son the Doctrine of the blessed Trinity is uncorrupt and inviolable for the three distinct persons with their three distinct properties are believed in one God none afore or after none greater or lesser then other In personis proprietas in essentia unitas in Majestate aequalitas property in the persons unity in the essence equality in the Majesty of the Godhead being no less acknowledged and believed by the Greek then by the Latine Fathers which is the short confession of the Doctrine of the blessed Trinity For it is manifest that the Greeks who denyed not the Son to be consubstantial with the Father could not exclude him in the procession of the Holy Ghost Wherefore we must needs reject that harsh and heavy doom which Bellarmine hath left upon record against the Grecians Ac ut intelligant causam exitii sui esse pertinaciam in errore de processione Sp. S. in ipsis â—eriis Sp. S. capta fuit Constantinopolis à Turmay understand the cause of their destruction to be their pertinacy in their error concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost in the very Festival of the Holy Ghost that is at Whitsontide was Constantinople their cheif City taken by the Turks This he thinks he hath sufficiently proved but the learned Scaliger thinks no man can sufficiently prove and laments this Queen Regent of the East in these words ut cujus calamitas ignorari non potest dies calamitatis ignoretur And though he incline to their opinion who said that City was besieged the morrow after Easter and taken upon the day of Pentecost yet he concludes it dangerous to determine so much Sed periculosum est haec definire De anno quidem non dubito fuisse 1452. sed de mense delibero utrum sc mense Maii an mense Aprilis capta fuerit Scal. lib. 5. de emend temp He dares not define the month whether it were in April or in May and sure Whitsontide cannot fall in April much less the week or the day he sayes t is dangerous to assert it was taken in Whitsontide but sure it is dangerous to assert it with so much uncharitableness against a whole Church whose ruine should be thought on with pitty not with insolency However though the assertion it self be true yet the argument is fitter for a Souldier then for a Divine to appeal to the success of the sword for the justification of the cause and will much better advance Turcism which hath full six parts then Christianity which in all the several professions of it hath but five parts of thirty in the known habitable world
preached by Paul and Silas because they found it agreeable with the written Word These were more noble in that they searched the Scriptures whether those things were so therefore many of them believed Acts 17. 11 12. And sure we are to go in the same way they did go unless we can prove that either the Scripture is now less Dogmatical then it was in those days or the Church more Apostolical And there is great Reason for it as well as great Religion For we plainly see that the Church is much ordered according to the will of man but weare sure the word was wholy ordered according to the will of God For the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 21. We must say the same of the New what he saith of the Old Testament for as came the Prophecy of old time so also came the Gospel in the latter times not by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost And from hence we must conclude the Authority of the Scripture to be the highest authority that can be in setling and establishing the Christian Religion For if the Prophets and Apostles did not only speak but also write as they were moved by the Holy Ghost it must needs follow that the doctrine of the Church must have its force and weight from their doctrine but their doctrine from it self as that which came directly and immediately from the Holy Ghost the infallible Spirit of God which best knew his mind as being his own Spirit and hath most truly derived his mind and meaning to us as being his infallible Spirit So it is evident The Scripture is no less to teach the Church then the Church is to teach the People according to that irrefragable determination of their irrefragable Doctor Si enim aliquis asserit aliquid quod non sit determinatum in sacra Scriptura vel quod non sequatur directe ex fide mortaliter peccat quia se constieuit supra Deum Judex enim est supra id de quo debet judicare Qui ergo suâ authoritate asserit aliquid de Deo ponit se supra Deum quia judicat de Deo Haec est superbia Intellectus quam prohibet Apostolus Rom. 12. Non plus sapere quà m oportet sapere sed sapere ad sobrietatem Alensis par 1. qu. 68. mem 1. ar 2. If any Doctor and consequently if any Church which is but a company of Doctors doth positively affirm any thing as matter of Faith or Religion which is is not directly determined in the holy Scriptures or doth not inevitably follow from the Faith therein revealed he sinneth mortally because he exalteth himself above God For the Judge is above that of which he is to judge Therefore he who without warrant from God positively asserteth any thing of God putteth himself above God in that he judgeth of God which is the Spiritual pride forbidden by the Apostle Rom. 12. 3. Be not wise above what is required but be wise to Sobriety Therefore surely the Church cannot teach that as a Doctrine of Christianity which she hath not learned of Christ and where hath she learned of Christ but in his Word SECT IV. That the state of true Christianity is to be learned only in the Church of Christ for there only doth Christ teach by his word which the Church is bound to translate that the People may understand it and by his spirit which teacheth both infallibly and irresistibly That the state of true Christianity is not confined to any one particular Church for that Christ teacheth more or less in all Christian Churches and yet this is no ground for Sectaries to run from the Church THE state of Christianity as it came by our Saviour Christ in being so also in knowing It hath its being from his merit its knowing from his word whence it follows by undeniable consequence that the state of true Christianity is to be learned only in the Church of Christ for there only is the word of Christ by which he teacheth to mens conviction there only is the Spirit of Christ by which he teacheth to mens Conversion For the voice must needs proceed from the body and the Church is his body Col. 1. 24. therefore it is to be feared that those who care not to be of the body either do not hear his voice or do not much profit by hearing it For it is not to be doubted but Christ hath intrusted his Church with his word as appears Rom 3. 2. Vnto them were commited the oracles of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were intrusted with the oracles of God The Jewish Church with the Oracles of the Old Testament and the Christian Church with the oracles of the new And this precious Talent was intrusted with the Church not to be wrapped up in a Napkin but to be imployed to Gods glory the peoples good for so we find that the law and the Prophets were read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day Acts 13. 15. 27. And by the same reason the Christian Church is still bound to take care that the Gospel or New Testament be also read in our Churches which because it cannot in the original tongue wherein it was written to the Edification of the people the Church is bound to translate it into such languages as the people do understand that she may not be defective in her trust which is to use the word of God most for Gods glory and for his peoples good And that Church doth in this particular best discharge her trust which sets forth the word of God in the truest and fittest translation not rigidly according to the words in all places but yet exactly according to the sense for neither doth Christ himself nor his holy Apostles cite the Old Testament so much according to the words as according to the sense And if men had no other obligation to their Church but only this That they could not know what God had said in his holy word unless their Church had taught them yet this alone if rightly weighed would keep them both from Heresie and from Schism from Heresie in receding from that doctrine which came from God and from Schism in receding from that communion wherein they were first made partakers of that doctrine This is certain the Text saith plainly The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved Acts 2. 47. which would never have been written if to depart from the doctrine or to be out of the communion of the Church were the ready way of Salvation Therefore as S. Peter once said to our blessed Saviour so ought all good Christians still to say unto his Church for rightly translating the word of Christ Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life John 6. 68. for without question God did
consequently if the Scriptures have in any wise lost their authority they have lost it by the Church and it were a wonder if the Church should cause the Scriptures to lose their authority and yet keep her own We will then take it for granted that the Catholick Church cannot be fully and infallibly proved to be Christian but only by the Holy Scriptures and that she her self seeks for no other and cannot find a better proof And from hence it must neede follow that every particular Church as far as it is truly Christian is willing to submit it self to be tryed by the written Word of God and that if nothing but true Cbristianity had gotten into the Church men would never have withdrawn their necks and much less their hearts from that known and certain tryal for that all the world is not able to prove any thing that is unwritten whether it be Tradition or Revelation to be the undoubted Word of God but only as far as it is agreeable with what is written according to that admirable Rule delivered by Saint Athanasius who having been vexed by the Arrian hereticks above forty years together hath taught us how best to confute that and all other heresie saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius in Epist de decretis Nic. Synodi ad finem There are much more exact and perfect proofs of the divine truth to be taken from the Scripture alone then all the whole world beside is able to afford us wherefore it must needs follow again that the best way for a particular Church to keep communion with the Catholick Church is to keep close to the Scriptures wherein alone are revealed those Truths the bare profession whereof makes a Church and the entire profession whereof makes it truly Catholick That Curch which hath the written Word of God for the foundation of her faith and practice is sure to have communion with all good Christians in what she truly believeth and practiseth according to that word And in case she deviate through humane error or infirmity in some particular deductions yet that deviation or mistake shall not overthrow her faith because it is sure and certain in the foundation and consequently shall not break off her communion with Christ the head nor with the Catholick Church his body because that same holy Spirit on whose dictates she relies is the sole author and maintainer of that communion whereas if a Church should believe all the Articles of the Christian faith upon any other ground then that of Divine revelation which we cannot now be assured of but only from the written Word of God as she could not have a true Divine saith not being grounded upon a Divine foundation so she could not in that faith have communion with those Christian Churches who allowed no other ground of their belief And such were all the Christian Churches of the Primitive times for though Saint Athanasius in the place fore-alledged doth on the Arrians behalf bring in an objection against the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as not being used in the Text and therefore not to be used concerning Christ for that we may not speak otherwise of him then he in his word hath spoken of himself yet he alloweth this very objection to be according to his own heart and sure he was a very good Chatholike and enforceth it with the reason afore cited That the most exact proofs of Divine truths were to be taken from the Scriptures and withal avoweth that those about Eusebius who was a chief upholder of the Arrians were such egregious turn-cotes and cavillers that the Bishops assembled in the Council of Nice were in a manner compelled more clearly to expound those words of the text which did immediately strike at the root of their heresie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereby it appears that the Nicene Fathers did assume to themselves only the power of Exposition in matters of faith not of Addition or of Invention They did expound that more clearly which they found in the Scriptures and in the Apostles Creed they did not ad or invent that which they found not As they were expounders they might and did hold communion with the Catholike Church whereof they were then the Representative which did wholly rely up-the word of God for all the Doctrines of faith whereas if they had taken upon them to be Inventers they must have forsaken the main ground of Christian communion the undoubted word of Christ and have been the authors of a faction and of a division And for this cause we see that in that famous Council of Chalcedon wherein were assembled six hundred Christian Bishops The Holy Gospel was placed in the midst of them as that on which they relyed and to which they appealed in all their determinations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the words found in the first action of that Council The most holy and most pure Gospel being set before them And Baronius tells us that the same had been done before in the Council of Nice and gives the reason why it was done out of Saint Cyril who saith thus concerning the Council of Ephesus Christum assessorem capitis loco adjunxit venerandum enim Evangelium in throno collocavit tantum non in aures sacerdotum clamans Justum judicium judicate Liber igitur ille in sede regia collocatus divinam prae se ferebat personam secundum illud Psalmi Deus stetit in synagoga Deorum in medio autem Deos dijudicat They looked upon Christ as head or president of their assembly for they placed his holy Gospel on a throne amongst them that it might represent the person of God the Judge of all men and they placed it in the midst that all might cast their eyes upon it and be afraid in the presence of their Judge to pass an unrighteous judgement Thus saith the Psalmist God stood in the midst of the congregation of Gods and he that was in the midst judged the other Gods Baron An. 325. num 66. And the same saith Binius in his notes upon the Council of Ephesus In medio Patrum consessu sedem enm Evangelio collocarunt cujus intuitu omnes admonerentur Christum omnium inspectorem ac judicem adesse Synodique praesidem agere In the midst of the fathers of the Ephesine Council was the Holy Gospel placed on a throne that all the Fathers seeing it might be admonished of Christs own presence to overlook them as their Judge and to overawe them as president of their Council and he saith no more then is truth for that form of adjuration mentioned by Fidus the Bishop of Joppe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whom we beseech and adjure by the Holy Gospel here set before us Council Eph. par 2. act 1. doth plainly witness as much although at the first session of the Bishops there is no mention of the Holy Gospels being placed among them as was afterwards at the first session of the Council of Chalcedon But
t is plain that the New Testament was not only before their eyes but also within their hearts for they proved all their several Doctrines out of it particularly this position that Christ is God by the union of the manhood with the God-head they proved 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the Apostle Saint Pauls writings among which is also reckoned up the Epistle to the Hebrews 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the Epistles general of Saint Peter Saint John Saint Jude 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the Gospels peculiarly so called Concil Ephes par 1. And t is most evident that the Doctrines delivered by the four first general Councils in their Creeds are all plainly to be proved by the Scriptures so that we may easily grant that they placed the Holy Gospel in the midst of their Synods as it were to make protestation that they intended to obtrude no other faith to the world then what they had met with there and could prove from thence and consequently not to desire other mens communion with them in their Doctrines further then themselves had in the same Doctrines communion with the Holy Ghost Wherefore this is the ready way for every particular Church to be sure to keep communion with the Catholick Church in her Doctrine to adhere stedfastly to the written Word of God which is the only indisputable ground of that Doctrine For this Word alone sheweth that the Jews in Moral worship had communion with Christians and that both the Jews then had and Christians now have in the same worship communion with Christ They have Moses and the Prophets saith our blessed Saviour let them hear them Luke 6. 29. And again If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead ver 31. We Christians have not only Moses and the Prophets but also the Apostles for the foundation of our Churches and as we are sure that Moses and the Prophets were delivered incorrupt to our first Fathers for else our Saviour Christ would not have appealed unto them but rather have reproved the Jews for corrupting them so ought we to be sure that the Apostles are now delivered as incorrupt unto us unless we will say that the Christian Church hath been less faithful then the Jewish Synagogue in keeping the Text and by so saying quite disannul her authority in expounding it and so cut our selves off from one of the best means of our salvation Why thou should not these writings of Moses and the Prophets and the Apostles which are the only proof of our Churches be also the grand establishment of our communion For as t is the faith that makes the Church so t is the agreement in the Faith that makes the communion of the Church truely Christian Accordingly our own Church hath taught us to pray most exquisitely for this Christian communion in these words Beseeching thee to inspire continually the universal Church with the Spirit of truth unity and concord and to grant that all they that do confess thy holy Name may agree in the truth of thy holy word and live in unity and godly love A prayer so full of true Christian affection that its Christianity will acquit it from Novelty though it be scarce to be found in any antient Greek or Latine Liturgie for it setteth forth true Christian communion in all its four causes in its efficient cause the Spirit of truth unity and concord in its material cause the universal Church in its formal cause the agreement in the truth of Gods holy Word and in its final cause to live in unity and godly love How can any man that heartily saith this prayer be either an Heretick by willingly sinning against the truth of Gods Word or a schismatick by wilfully sinning against the unity of Gods Church We may conclude then That all the several Christian Churches in the world which have been are and shall be do concur together as members to make up the body of Christ or the Catholick Church and that all of them as Christian are joyned together though thousand of miles and years asunder in one outward communion by agreeing in the same word of Christ and in one inward communion by enjoying the same Spirit of Christ The outward communion joyns the members to the body and I would to God that they were not so much disjoyned and disjoynted The inward communion joyns the body to the head and I bless God that in that respect there can be no disjunction T is dangerous to be a separatist from the first but t is damnable to be a separatist from the second communion to communicate with Gods most holy Spirit in Gods most holy Word is the most sure and ready way to communicate with the Catholick Church aud that will keep us from being hereticks for no heretick as such doth communicate either with Gods Word or with Gods Spirit To communicate with the Catholick Church is the most sure and ready way to communicate with Christ himself and that will keep us from being Schismaticks for no Schismatick as such doth communicate with Christ either in his body or in himself But still we must remember that communion with the Word and with the Church is nothing worth without communion with Christ and with the Spirit and that will keep us from being hypocrites For no hypocrite doth communicate with Christ and with his Spirit either in his word or in his Church And we have need in these dangerous times of all three cautions for never was there any Heresie without a Schism and seldome is there any desperate Schism without most damnable hypocrisie SECT VI. The Catholick Church properly so called hath in it neither Herereticks Schismaticks nor Hypocrites but commonly so called comprizeth all those Christians who outwardly embrace the truth and worship of Christ That our own particular Church keeping communion with the Catholick requires our communion by the authority of the Catholick Church The authority and Trust of particular National Churches from Scripture and Councils A sober and a pious resolution not to sin against the authority of the Church by willfull Schism and the reasons of that resolution THE special number of right believing and therefore righteously doing Christians in all the several Churches of the Christian world which communicate in all things wherein Christians should is alone truly and properly named the Catholick Church because it consisteth of them only that without addition diminution alteration or innovation in matter of doctrine hold the common faith once delivered to the Saints so that t is impossible for them to be Hereticks And without all particular or private division or â—actâ—on retain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace so that t is impossible for them to be either Hypocrites or Schismaticks they cannot be hypocrites because they have the spirit of God and they cannot be Schismaticks because they hold the unity of
that spirit in the bond of peace Whence we may gather this Negative definition of a true Catholick that he is such a one who is neither Heretick nor Schismatick nor Hypocrite and this positive definition of a the Catholick Church that it is such a number Christians as profess the faith of Christ in Verity Unity and Sincerity in verity and so are distinguished from Hereticks in unity and so are distinguished from Schismaticks in sincerity and so are distinguished from Hypocrites And this is the Catholick Church perfectly and properly so called And of this Catholick Church are those words of Epiphanius to be understood at the end of Colorbasii or his thirty-fifth heresie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My dove my undefiledis but one saith Christ Cant. 6. 9. that is his holy spouse the Catholick Church called a dove for her mildness innocency and purity and called undefiled for the perfect grace and knowledge she hath received from God through our Saviour Christ by the holy Ghost But yet we must acknowledge that the Catholick Church commonly so called is of a larger signification then to express and of a larger extension then to comprize only these choice and selected Christians For all that outwardly embrace the truth and worship of Christ do make but one Catholick Church for as much as they all concur in the outward profession of faith in the same common Saviour and in the outward use of those means of Salvation which he hath appointed though they neither profess the faith so incorruptly as it was taught nor use the means so inoffensively as they were appointed And this Divinity That all Christians are incorporated into one body of Christ or one Catholick Church hath been taught us by Saint Paul who saith That he might reconcile both Jew and Gentiles unto God in one body Eph. 2 16. and again That the Gentiles should be of the same body Eph. 3. 6. that is to say of the same body externally by the same word and Sacraments and of the same body internally by the same spirit of Christ Wherefore the unity of this body of Christians as t is a visible body is from one thing and as t is a mystical body is from another For the unity of the Mystical body of Christ is only from the Holy-Ghost joining all the members together and each particular member to the Head But the unity of the visible body of Christ is from one Lord one Faith one Baptism all the members of the Church as t is visible being to be discerned and known by this character even by the outward profession of that truth and by the outward use of those means which Christ their common Lord and Saviour hath instituted and ordained for their Salvation Wherefore all men that have the profession of Christs saving truth and do practice the means of salvation must be acknowledged to belong to one Christian or to one Catholick Church as being sanctified by the profession of that truth and the use of those means though their ptofession be not so entire nor their practice so exact as it ought to be Whence the Apostle writing to the Corinthians though much over run with Heresie and Schism yet writeth on this manner Vnto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 1. 2. For in that they were of the Christian Church by the outward profession of Christs truth and the practice of his commands they were sanctified in Christ Jesus though some of them were Hereticks and denied the resurrection others were Schismaticks and denied the Apostles authority For even Hereticks and Schismaticks though they do not hold in verity and in unity the entire profession of Christs Truth yet are they of the Christian Church generally so called for that truth which they do hold and as far as they remain parts of the true Christian Church so far they may be a means of saving others either by preaching the word or administring the Sacraments though by reason of their Heresie and Schism they themselves without repentance are not in the state of Salvation And surely we cannot reasonably think that there were neither Hereticks nor Schismaticks in the Churches of Ephesus Philippi and Colosse and yet the same Apostle saith To the Saints which are at Ephesus Ephes 1. 1 To all the Saints which are at Philippi Phil. 1. 1. and to the Saints and faithfull brethren in Christ which are at Colosse Col. 1. 2. In all which Epistles doubtless Saint Paul writ to the visible body of the several Churches and sent his letters to the visible head of that body as Saint John did his epistles to the Angels of the several Churches Rev. 2. 13 and yet he called them Saints and faithfull brethren not that they were all really such but that they were indeed called of God to be such and if they were not so in their own inward affection t was their own fault He was sure they were so in their outward profession and therefore might justly be so called It was their parts to make good that glorious title not his part to forbear it for they were indeed sanctified through the outward profession of Christs saving Name and Truth and therefore he could not in charity but think and say they were also sanctified by the inward affection of the same Nor may any man suppose that the Apostle did send his directions and instructions to the mystical but to the Visible body of Christ unless he will say that the Apostle intended to bring confusion into the Church which for its singular order is called acies ordinata a well ordered army wherein not one man is suffered to be out of rank or that he intended to gratifie some proud contentious spirits by laying such grounds of schism and faction as might breed strifes and quarrels about the right of Church Government unto the worlds end For who can tell by looking in a mans forehead that he is one of the mystical body of Christ having communion with him through the Holy-Ghost whence it will follow that those who are best conceited of themselves will violently invade at least readily usurp the government of others and consequently pride and presumption will challenge universal jurisdiction for they who have so much pride as to say they are more neerly linked in communion with Christ then their brethren have seldome so much piety as to make good that saying Wherefore it is safest for men to believe that though the promises of grace chiefly concern the mystical yet the precepts chiefly concern the visible Church for as much as Christ hath intrusted that both with the doctrine and with the means of salvation with the ministry both of his Word and Sacraments For these are without question deposited with the visible Church though none are benefited by them so far as to attain Salvation but only those that are of the invisible Church or the mystical body of Christ But
be feared we have no true faith in him and consequently no true communion with him Did we indeed look upon our Saviour as the beginning we would begin in his fear and in his faith not in our own phansies and much less in our own factions that we might live to him did we look upon him as the first born from the dead we would go on in his favour that so we might at last die to him and through him be made partakers of a joyful resurrection from death to everlasting life This would we all do if indeed we had communion with our Saviour Christ and we would before and above all things seek to have communion with him if we did rightly understand or could sufficiently value not only the future but also the present excellencies of his communion For what excellency is there not to be found here and not to be expected hence He is the beginning that 's ground for Christian piety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to begin with God or else we must begin without our beginning He is from the dead that 's ground for Christian verity no religion in the world teaching this truth of the resurrection but only the Christian and that teaching it as the consummation of all other truths And lastly he is the first born from the dead that 's ground for our Christian unity or charity in that we are all under the same Captain of our Salvation and therefore should upon no pretences fall into mutinies and much less into outrages one against another For that Disciple who leaned in his Masters bosome and therefore probably knew most of his heart plainly tells us we cannot have a share in the resurrection of this first born from the dead or at least not know we have it unless it be from our love to those that are to follow after him We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren He that loveth not his brother abideth in death 1 John 3. 14. Were it possible for any man to pass from death to life who loveth not his brother yet it were not possible for him to know so much We know that we have passed because we love therefore they who will not have this love cannot have this knowledge and indeed they cannot have this passage for he that abideth in death hath not yet passed from death unto life And he that hath not passed from death hath not yet communion with the first born from the dead and consequently is no less destitute of piety and of verity then he is of charity I was willing to find out all these three heavenly virtues together in the Apostles expression but sure I am I shall find them altogether in my Saviours communion for without doubt therein is piety to keep us from being hypocrites verity to keep us from being hereticks and unity to keep us from being schismaticks or sectaries agreeably to those three honourable compellations given to the Colossians by Saint Paul and in them to all good Christians the Saints and faithful brethren in Christ Col. 1. 2. Saints faithful and brethren Saints from the piety faithful from the verity and brethren from the unity that is in the true Christian Religion wherein he is adored who is the beginning author of the piety who is from the dead author of the verity and the first born from the dead to raise us all after him author of the unity I must now confess with Saint Chrysostome That those of Saint Pauls Epistles have something more of Divinity in them which were written in his bonds as this was to the Colossians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 since I find both the grounds and the excellencies of all Christian Religion twice fully expressed in three words once speculatively in those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beginning first born from the dead another time practically in those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saints Faithful brethren I cannot hear those compellations of Christ the Beginning the first born from the dead but I think my self called to the blessed speculation of piety verity and charity I cannot hear those compellations of Christians Saints faithful brethren but I must confess my self called to the more blessed practice of them since he is not a Saint who is without piety he is not faithful who is without verity and he is not a brother who is without charity Wherefore the best and readiest way to be a good Christian is to have communion immediately with Christ for by this means we shall be sure never to be destitute either of piety or of verity or of charity to make us perfect Christians or of immortality to make us happy Christians but in the midst of hypocrites we shall have piety in the midst of hereticks we shall have verity in the midst of schismaticks we shall have Charity there is our purchase in the midst of death and destruction we shall have immortality there is our happiness In the midst of life we be in death as men but in the midst of death we be in life as Christians And for this cause I conceive the Church did more peculiarly enjoyn Communions at Easter because then she did more especially commemorate the resurrection of Christ thereby putting us in mind that if we did indeed communicate with him we should not only be partakers of his piety verity and charity but also of his immortality and be not only strengthened against the errours of our life but also against the terrours of our death For through his blessed resurrection even the grave it self hath teemed to eternity and is become a second Eve to be called the mother of all living at least in respect of the true life that is to say the life everlasting For by vertue of this first-born from the dead corruption it self is become a father and the worm is become a mother to bring forth children to incorruption and to immortality So that what was holy Jobs complaint I have said to corruption thou art my father and to the worm thou art my mother and my sister Job 17. 14. must be our joy and triumph ever since that text hath been verified Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption For ever since that day hath our corruptible put on incorruption in our blessed Saviour and our mortal hath put on immortality so that although we still carry about us mortality in our condition yet we have already put on immortality in our Communion Hence was the time between the Resurrection and Ascention of Christ antiently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Cedrenus calls that week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Zonaras calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Meursius partly for the historie that our Saviour abode in Galilee altogether after his resurrection till his ascension but much rather for the mysterie the reason why he chose Galilee for the place of his abode and that
oppose them in their praying and preaching in his name And accordingly we find when they would needs oppose them such an answer returned as could not but make them condemn themselves for that opposition Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then unto God judge ye Act. 4. 19. And this Answer was given by the Apostles that it might serve as a Ruled case for their Successors to the worlds end whom God hath constituted his Trustees for his publick worship That his name may be rightly invocated and adored his word rightly preached his Sacraments rightly and duly administred and who are bound to lose not only their livelyhoods but also their lives rather then to forsake or betray their Trust And if they are bound thus to stick to the Truth then surely the people are bound to stick to them that they may all be one sheep-fold under one shepherd and as it were one Diocess under one and the same Bishop of their souls Saint Paul did not think his authority confined with his Person when being a prisoner at Rome he did write to Philemon at Coloss calling upon him for the effectual communication of his faith ver 6. and telling him that he was to be Ministred unto in the bonds of the Gospel ver 13. and requiring him to put some wrongs and losses upon his account ver 18. and all upon this ground Thou owest unto me even thine own self besides ver 19. Is not the Church to us what Saint Paul was to Philemon Since by her Ministry God hath called us to the knowledge of his Truth and to Faith in his Son or can we indeed owe even our own selves to her and not be bound to pay our best acknowledgements by effectually communicating in her devotions diligently ministring to her necessities patiently suffering in her losses readily obeying her commands constantly persisting in her Doctrine and continually praying for her deliverance If we deny these acknowledgements to that Church to the which we owe them all because we do own even our own selves besides shall we not shew our selves untrue in denying our debt as well as unjust in denying our duty For a true Christian Church cannot lose her right of obliging us to her communion because she is in Bonds with Saint Paul or in persecution with the other Apostles since it is evident that the precept of Heb. 13. 17. Obedite praepositis vestris Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls c. was given to the people when the Apostles were all grievously persecuted and was carefully observed during the unhappy time of the ten first Persecutions And the reason as we may guess was this that the Church required the peoples communion upon no other terms then Christ himself had required it So that to break communion with the Church had been then to break communion with Christ and this appears from that profession of faith which was made by the Fifth General Council the second of Constantinople in the third collation as it is set forth by Binius in these words Confitemur fidem tenere praedicare ab initio donatam à magno Deo Salvatore nostro Jesu Christo Sanctis Apostolis ab illis in universo mundo praedicatam quam Sancti Patres confessi sunt explanaverunt Sanctis Ecclesiis tradiderunt maxime qui in Sanctis quatuor Synodis convenerunt quos per omnia in omnibus sequimur c. We profess our selves to hold and preach that faith which was at first given from God and our Saviour Jesus Christ to the holy Apostles and by them preached in all the world which faith the holy fathers did confess and explain and deliver to the Churches most especially those who met in the four first general Councils whom we exactly follow in all things And again Et omnia quae à praedictis Sanctis quatuor Conciliis sicut praedictum est pro una eademque fide definita sunt suscipimus omnes condemnatos praedictis Sanctis quatuor conciliis tanquam condemnatos anathematizatos habemus una cum aliis haereâ—icis And we receive all those Definitions or Determinations concerning the Christian Faith which have been delivered by the four first general Councils and all that were condemned and accursed by them we condemn and accurse as we do all other Hereticks If this confession was Catholick in that general Council how is it since that time Schismatical in us And if they were Catholicks who cleaved to the Apostles Creed and to the Creeds of the four first Councils which had none of those additional Articles that have since made the breach in Christs Church and are like to continue it to the worlds end if they themselves continue so long for there will be still many consciencious men who cannot take that for Christian Doctrine which they find not in the Word of Christ nor that for Christian practice which they find rejected by his Word I say if they were Catholicks who cleaved to the Apostles Creed and to the explanations thereof the Creeds of the four first Councils which are accordingly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Expositions of the Faith sc of that faith in the Apostles Creed why are not we Catholicks too who profess and maintain the same Faith And if we be Catholicks how are they not Hereticks who willfully oppose our Doctrine how are they not Schismaticks who maliciously recede from our communion And surely it will be hard to prove that the Primitive Christians did for the first six hundred years after Christ reject any men much less Churches from their communion as Hereticks who did make profession of the Catholick Faith according to the Creeds delivered by the four first Councils That moderation professed by Saint Cyprian in the third Council of Carthage was followed by the Catholick Church long after his time Superest ut de hac ipsare quid singuli sentiamus proferamus neminem judicantes aut à jure communionis aliquem si diversum senserit amoventes It remains that we declare our opinions concerning this business but so as to condemn none for being of a contrary opinion nor for that reason thrusting him out of our Christian communion The cause they met about was the rebaptizing of those who had been baptized by Hereticks wherein though the Catholick Church hath rejected their Determination yet it hath alwayes followed their moderation suffering particular Churches in those Doctrines which did not immediately corrupt the faith to continue in their different opinions or different expressions and yet to be of one and the same Christian communion And this appears from the first Nicene Council which denounceth Anathema only against the Arrians who denyed the Divinity of Christ being contented to establish the Canons about Ecclesiastical order and government with lesser punishments in so much that Athanasius plainly saith Patres Nicenos
divinae gratiae Symbolum This wise and wholsome Creed of the divine Grace was sufficient for the knowledge and confirmation of Godliness They both highly extoll this Creed as a peculiar Testimony of Gods grace to his Church and as an exact Breviary of the Christian Religion containing the whole summe of saving faith saith the one of Godliness saith the other Council and what can be wanting to that Christian Communion which hath in it true faith Godliness or how can we be wanting to such a communion and not be wanting to the Christian Religion But the council at Chalcedon gives this reason why they account the Constantinopolitan Creed a perfect Breviary of the Christian Religion for so they mean when they say it is sufficient both for the knowledge and Proof of Godliness saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Patre enim Filio spiritu sancto perfectionem docet ac domini nostri inhumanationem fideliter accipientibus repraesentat For it teacheth perfectly the knowledge of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and plainly representeth to all that will receive it with faith the mysterie of our Lords incarnation or Inhumanation And indeed under these heads are all the mysteries of our Christian Religion briefly contained though not fully explained and therefore when this Council of Chalcedon had used all exactness of care and diligence in the further explication of such Truths concerning our Saviour Christ which the perverseness of Hereticks had made disputable though it could not make doubtfull Shewing that two compleat Natures in him made but one Person it was high time in their opinion to put an end to the making of any more new Creeds and accordingly they forbid all men either to speak or write or make or think or teach a new faith for these are their own words at the end of their fift Action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His igitur cum omni undique exacta cura diligentia à nobis dispositis definivit sancta universalis Synodus alteram Fidem nulli licere proferre aut conscribere vel componere aut sentire aut alios docere I will not here argue how they can answer this Prohibition who have since added twelve new Articles to the Creed as it was delivered by the Council of Constantinople and have obliged all that will be Ministers of their Church to swear all that will be members of their Church to profess to live and dye in the belief of those additional no less then of the other Articles as the only true Catholick Faith by which men may be saved it is enough for my present purpose and it may be enough for others future certainty and constancy in their Religion that all the Christians that were saved for one thousand and five hundred years after Christ were saved without the necessary belief of those additional articles And it is clear that the Church of Rome her self denyed not anciently her communion to other Churches if so be they professed and maintained only that faith which was declared in the known and received Creeds of the universal Church for so Optatus Milevitanus testifieth that all the Churches of the world did hold communion among themselves and with the Church of Rome by vertue of their communicatory letters His words are these lib. 2. contra Parm. c. 7. Cum quo nobis totus orbis commercio Formatarum in una communionis societate concordat with whom having named Siricius then Bishop of Rome we and all the Christian world besides do by vertue of our communicatory letters accord in one fellowship or communion But in those communicatory letters was contained nothing save only the confession of the Catholick Faith as it had been declared in the known and received Creeds of the universal Church saith Bishop Davenant in that small but excellent piece of his old age called Sententia de pace inter Evangelicos procuranda And we may gather as much not only from the Epistles of several Bishops in several Synods but also from the unhappy fate of those two Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia which both consisted of Orthodox Bishops and yet for want of communicatory letters were at last brought to subscribe the Arrian heresie For all the Bishops of the East gathered at Seleucia did presently agree to the true faith and sent the Emperour notice of their agreement And among the numerous company of the Western Bishops at Ariminum above four hundered held the Truth scarce 80. opposed it yet the Arrians abusing each Synod with perswasions that the other had yielded saith incomparable Hooker surprized both which we may say they could never have done had each Synod acquainted the other with their assents to the Nicene Faith by communicatory letters This Faith then was and still is ground enough to all Christian Churches for their communion one with another in doctrine And Prayers and Sacraments according to this faith are also ground enough for their communion in worship or devotion so that if all Christian Churches Believed and prayed and administred exactly according to the rule of this Faith it would not be possible for any man to be a Schismatick in denying his communion without first being a Heretick in denying his Religion For if I am required to call only upon him in whom I have believed and to do this only in remembrance of him on whom I am bound to call how can I deny my communion either in Prayers or in Sacraments to any Christian Church and not deny the faith that hath been taught me by the Catholick Church This seems to have been the ground of Christian communion in Saint Basils dayes who in his seventy eighth Epistle which is a confesâ—ion of his faith saith thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We must be baptized as we have received from the Lord We must believe as we are baptized and we must give glory as we have believed Glorifying the Father Son and Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But we must abstain from their communion who are not of this Faith as being open Blasphemers In that he saith we must abstain from the communion of those that are blasphemers it is evident he will not have us abstain from the communion of those who are true believers and right worshippers For where the Baptism and consequently the other Sacrament is according to Christs institution and the faith is according to the Baptism and the glory is according to the Faith there not to joyn in Communion at least in vote and desire is so a peice of desperate schism as it is also a point of damnable heresie for it comes neer their Sect of whom the Apostle hath said Denying the Lord that bought them by reason of whom the way of Truth is evil spoken 2 Pet. 2. 1 2. And upon this account the Gloria Patri was so much looked after by the primitive Christians in their publick worship as being a right Profession of Faith in the Trinity
those Presbyters of the Church of Ephesus were as much ordained and appointed by men as any can be of any Church till the worlds ends supposing they be rightly ordained to whom yet the Apostle saith Take heed unto all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers Act. 20. 28. For the ordination of Ministers though it is by man yet is it not of men but of God even as also is the Gospel which they are ordained to preach so that to resist them and their Doctrine is not to resist men but God so said he who first ordained Ministers of the Gospel and still assisteth them in their ministrations He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Luk. 10. 16. How shall any man go on this errand without Gods sending when the eternal word himself would not preach till he was sent How shall any man despise those whom the Word hath sent and not despise the Word that sent them and the Father that sent the Word And how shall any man despise the Father and the Son and not grieve the Holy Spirit who proceedeth from them So impossible is it for any to despise the Church which God hath set over him and not sin against God the Father Son and Holy Ghost For the argument is à minori ad majus if it be dangerous to despise one much more to despise all if to undervalue a Disciple much more an Apostle For as the Apostles had a greater trust then the 70. Disciples so hath every National Church which is as it were the grand Apostle of its Nation a greater trust then any particular Bishop or Presbyter of the same and the Church now hath that trust as the Apostles first had it from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Saint Paul saith of himself but doubtless he saith it for more then himself that he was an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God that is of God the Father 1 Tim. 1. 1. Saint Luke saith of him that t was God the Son even Jesus our blessed Saviour who called him to be an Apostle who said unto him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and who said of him He is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and Kings and the Children of Israel Acts 9. 4 15. The same Saint Luke saith in another place that he was called to the Function of the Apostleship by the commandment of God the Holy Ghost Act. 13. 2. The Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereto I have called them Which variety of expression doth not only verifie that common axiome of Divinity Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa The works of the blessed Trinity in regard of any external product are indivisible so that what is externally done by one person is done by all But it doth also testifie the great trust which was laid upon every one of the Apostles in that he received his commission from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost And as this trust hath since been and still is derived to the Church so it hath been and is derived by the same glorious and blessed Trinity Whereby we see the large Exposition that is to be given to those words he that heareth you heareth me Luk. 10. 16. for it is all one as if it had been said he heareth God he heareth the Son of God he heareth the Spirit of God Wherefore supposing that this national Church wherein we live is as Gods Apostle to this Nation no sectary can justly pretend to God or Christ no Enthusiast can justly pretend to the Spirit of God and Christ why he should not hearken to the dictates and follow the directions of this Church which God and Christ and the Spirit of God and Christ hath set over him I find in the antient Calenders on the twenty sixth of May this Title Augustini Anglorum Apostoli The feast of Saint Augustine the Apostle of the English He was looked upon as one that had planted the Christian Faith amongst us and was therefore in the judgement of the Latine Church esteemed and called our Apostle I will not dispute the ground but only admit the Title for if one single Priest or Bishop was not unfitly called the Apostle of our Nation Then much more may a whole company of Bishops and Presbyters be so called and ought to be so esteemed who have more generally propagated more firmly established and more carefully preserved amongst us the true Christian Faith It is Saint Pauls own argument to the Corinthians If I be not an Apostle unto others yet doubtless I am to you for the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord 1 Cor. 9. 2. As if he had said no Embassadour can more justifie his trust and his authority by his Princes seal annexed to his Credential letters then I can justifie my Apostleship towards you in that by my preaching you have been converted to the Lord and are confirmed in him what Saint Paul was to the Corinthians in bringing them to the knowledge and to the communion of Christ to the knowledge of Christ by preaching the word to the communion of Christ by administring the Sacraments that our Church hath been and still is to us And therefore what Saint Paul said to the Crinthians that our Church may justly say to us Since these things were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come 1 Cor. 10. 11. If I be not an Apostle unto others yet doubtless I am to you For the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord Though others may pretend they have some cause to doubt the trust and the authority of our Church as if she had not a true succession of Ministers which in truth is but a meer pretence or rather a cavil as the learned Mason hath sufficiently demonstrated and should be least objected by them who will have the whole Church depend upon the Pope and cannot deny that they have had many and long lived Anti-popes to disturb their succession yet sure we our selves can neither have cause nor pretence to doubt it since we cannot reasonably deny but our Church hath a true succession of Doctrine so that for us who have not only the speculative but also the practical the experimental knowledge of the Gospel unless we have been grosly wanting to our selves and impiously wanting to our Saviour for us I say to doubt of our Church is little other then to doubt of our Religion as if that either had not come from Christ or could not bring us to Christ and keep us with him For there can be no doubt of the Embassadours authority if there be no doubt of his Princes seal and if we our selves be not the seal of our Churches Apostleship in the Lord the fault is meerly our own t is because we would not
shall bless id est ye shall use this very prescript form of blessing And to shew that this precept was to be looked on as doctrinal and not as occasional as general not as particular we find Moses himself putting it in practise in another case for when the Ark set forward he said Rise up Lord and let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee and when it rested he said Return O Lord unto the many thousands of Israel Numb 10. 35 36. He that considers how oft the Ark moved and rested must needs confess that Moses used this set form of prayer very often If to the stinting of the Spirit or excluding of the gift of prayer let us blame Saint Paul for saying Moses verily was faithful in all his house Heb. 3. 9. but if rather for the solemnity and reverence and certainty of Religion that all Israel might pray with him and knowing his prayer before hand might pray in the greater assurance and comfort of Faith then let us not blame Gods Church for following the example of his faithfulness For indeed this is a general rule concerning Gods publick worship and the Church cannot be faithfull unless she carefully observe this rule If it have any ill blemish thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the Lord thy God Deut. 15. 21. Though it be a lamb yet if it hath any ill blemish it is all one as to thy sacrifice as if it were a Hog This is in effect Jarchies gloss upon the place to shew that a lamb might no less be excluded for his il-favoredness then a hog for his uncleanness Nay indeed this is in effect Gods own gloss Mat. 1. 8. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evill or if ye offer the lame and sick is it not evil as if he had said though the offering you bring be not unclean in it self yet if it be blind or lame or sick t is unclean in its use for it may not be offered as a sacrifice And the more either to conform their obedience to this command or to convince their disobedience against it he appealeth to common sense and in that to conscience saying offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person q. d. If it be against thy sense to offer it to thy Governour let it be much more against thy conscience to offer it to thy Maker For if man who creepeth on the earth then much more God who sitteth on the heavens will disdain thy blind and lame and sick offerings Now let us consider seriously to whose care and charge did God commit the sacrifices and offerings did he trust every man to bring what he pleased or did he trust only the Priests as to offer so also to see what was fit to be offered Surely we shall find that he who said Cursed be the deceiver ver 14. did not so much curse the people for deceiving their Priests as he did curse the Priests for deceiving their God These were the grand impostors these were the most unpardonable deceivers because to all other deceits they added this also that they deceived their trust God had laid a trust upon them and they so negligently performed it as if they had undertaken rather to deceive then to discharge that trust Accordingly all his contestations are with them all his expostulations against them as ver 6. If I be a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Master where is my fear saith the Lord of hosts unto you O Priests that despise my name And ye say wherein have we despised thy name ye offer polluted bread upon mine Altar and ye say wherein have we polluted thee in that ye say the Table of the Lord is contemptible ver 7. If Gods publick worship be either contemned for want of due honour or prophaned for want of due fear if either his name be despised or his Altar be polluted he expostulates not with the people but only with the Priests either about the contempt or about the prophanation which plainly sheweth that the Priests alone were his Trustees both for â—â—s Name lest that should be despised and also for his Altar lest that should be prophaned And is there a less care to be taken about our spiritual then was about their material sacrifices about the Calves of our lips then about the Calves of their stalls about the offerings of our souls then about the offerings of their Heards about our Prayers then about their Bullocks Are not our prayers real sacrifices when as their bullocks were but Typical as saith Athenagoras most divinely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us lift up pure hands to him and what need will he have of any other Hecatomb of any other magnificent sacrifices For sure one pure head is more to God then an hundred Oxen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What should I look after whole burnt offerings which God needeth not yet let me offer unto him an unbloody sacrifice even that of prayer and praise which proceedeth from my soul Nor did God himself say otherwise under the Law but that he set a much higher value upon the offerings of the soul then of the flock Thinkest thou that I will eat Bulls flesh and drink the blood of goats There he makes light esteem of the offerings of the Flock Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most Highest there he makes great esteem of the offerings of the soul Psal 50. Then let us know assuredly that God is no less angry with us for blemishes in our Prayers then he was with them for blemishes in their sacrifices And that as then his anger was chiefly against the Priests of the Temple so it is now chiefly against the Ministers of the Church for it is their part to oversee the prayers as it was the Priests part to oversee the sacrifices upon which ground the second Milevitane Council would not allow any other Prayers to be used in the Churches of Africa but such as had been perused and approved in some Synod Placuit ut nullae aliae preces omnino dicantur in Ecclesia nisi quae à prudentioribus tractatâ— vel comprobatae in Synodo fuerint ne forte aliquid contra fidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum Concil Milev 2 Can. 12. We have determined that no other Prayers should be used in our Churches but such as have been perused by some wise men or have been approved in some Synod lest any thing contrary to sound and saving Faith should either out of ignorance or out of carelesness have scaped the composers of any publick prayers They rightly Judged they were to answer for other mens sins in Gods service and if they did not accordingly prevent them they would no longer be other mens sins but theirs And this without all doubt was one main ground of Liturgies that men
10. Sund. after Trin. Let thy merciful ears O Lord be open to the prayers of thy humble servants and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as shall please thee No Congregation of Christians can pray in faith of obtaining their petitions unless they pray in faith of asking such things as please God and they cannot well do this unless they know before-hand what they shall ask of him in their prayers and in what words they shall ask it because else for ought they know they shall ask such things as may not please him or ask in such a sort as may displease him SECT VIII The Church is obliged to make set forms of prayer according to the pattern of the Lords most holy prayer that there be no peccancy neither concerning the object nor the matter nor the manner of publick prayer that our Church hath exactly followed that pattern in Hers and that other Churches ought to follow the same in their Liturgies A short historical narration concerning our Common prayer Book and the Anti-prayer Book set up against it REligion is the motion of the reasonable soul to God as to its first beginning and to its last end but Christ alone is the way by and in which the soul doth make this motion so that to have a Religion without Christ is to have a Religion without God that is to have no Religion For the soul of man being finite cannot be joyned to God who is infinite but by the help of a Mediator nor can any be a Mediator betwixt finite and infinite but he that partakes of both which is only our Saviour Christ who partaketh of finite as man of infinite as God He alone is able to joyn finite and infinite in one Communion who hath joyned them in one person and therefore to him alone we must repair as often as we desire to be joyned with God Our Religion without him were nothing for it could not bring us unto God and since our prayers are the chiefest part of our Religion they also would be nothing without him Therefore it neerly concerns the Church to make sure of such prayers wherein Christ may joyn with her for else she will pray in vain because without his intercession nay indeed she will pray in sin because against his command Accordingly hath Christs own most holy Prayer been looked upon in all Ages of the Church as the ground and platform of Liturgy to make other set forms of prayer from it as a warrant by it as a pattern This was the judgement of the Church in Saint Augustines time delivered by himself in his Epistle to Proba Si recte congruenter oramus nihil aliud dicere possuneus quam quod in ista oratione Dominica positum est If we pray rightly and fitly rightly in the object fitly in the matter and manner of our prayers We can say nothing else but what is already briefly said in the Lords Prayer And this was likewise the judgement of the Church in Aquinas his time as it is also delivered by himself In oratione Dominica non solum petuntur omnia quae recte desiderare possumus sed etiam eo ordine quo desideranda sunt ut sic haec oratio non solum instruat postulare sed etiam sit informativa totius nostri affectus 22ae qu. 83. art 9. c. In the Lords most holy prayer are not only desired all things which are truly desirable but also in that Method and order in which we must desire them So that this prayer doth not only regulate our expression teaching us of whom and what to ask but also our affection teaching in what Method to ask it For this prayer teacheth us to pray unto God only Our Father which art in heaven and in our prayers first to desire God for himself and after that all other things for God God for himself as he is in himself Hallowed be thy name God for himself as he may be enjoyed by us Thy Kingdom come God for himself as he ought to rule and reign over us Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven And it teacheth us to desire all other things for God whether they concern our present subsistence Give us this day our daily bread or our present deliverance from the guilt of sin and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us or our future deliverance from the guilt of sin and lead us not into temptation or our present and future deliverance from the punishment of sin But deliver us from evil Even all these deliverances are prayed for in relation to God for as much as the guilt of sin doth immediately separate from his holiness the punishment of sin doth immediately separate from his blesedness much more is our present subsistence prayed for in relation to him that we may not subsist in and for our selves who are worse then nothing but in and for our God who is all in all And all these things are prayed for in a right order first God for himself as he is in himself Then God for himself as he is in his Church Triumphant by his Glory after that as he is in his Church Militant by his Grace Then we pray for all other things in relation to God and amongst them first we desire desire him to give those things which may be as instruments to bring us to him as our corporal and much more our spiritual food after that we desire him to remove those things which are as impediments to keep us from him our sins our temptations our punishments We cannot answer it to God or men if we refuse to pray with those who thus pray with Christ for such men cannot be peccant either in the object or in the matter or in the manner of their prayers wherein the Liturgy of the Church of England hath a singular pre-eminence which maketh her prayers only to God and such prayers as are only for God Prayers exciting holy affections agreeable with a holy God Prayers affording holy expressions agreeable with holy affections Prayers least defective either in religious affections or in religious expressions and therefore prayers most befitting the publick exercise of Religion which will not endure either of these defects Prayers which no man doth say cordially but he is assured of his hearts being with his God Prayers which every man should say cordially because when he is assured of his hearts being with his God he may be ashamed of his tongues not being with his heart As for that objection which some make against our Liturgy that it cometh too neer the Popish Mass book t is in truth its vertue 1. Because thereby our Reformers intended the promotion of true Christian Communion by not making a needless much less a scandalous separation from other Christians in those devotions wherein they had not separated from Christ 2. Because they intended to promote true Christian
Christians in their protestations There is a great distance betwixt superstition and Atheism False-Liturgy is Superstitious but no Liturgy is Atheistical For it must bring Religion to uncertainties may bring it to impieties Uncertainties are as nothing Impieties are worse then nothing Uncertainties cannot honour God as God Impieties must dishonour him may defie him tell me what can Atheism do more No Liturgy in effect bids Christians do like the Mariners in Jonah Cry every man unto his God nay it leaves every man to make his God for it leaves every man to make his Religion and he that hath a Religion of his own making must also have a God of his own making For the true God cannot be worshipped as men please to phansie him but as he hath revealed himself And therefore it is the high way to Atheism for men to be left to their own phansies in the exercise of Religion which must needs be where the exercise of Religion is not under a set form that so it may be compared with the word of God and accordingly not embraced till it be found agreeable with his word Will you think to convert a Papist by inviting him to no Liturgy you may as well think to convert him by inviting him to no Religion for with him t is No Liturgy no Religion Will you think to confirm a Protestant by inviting him to no Liturgy you may as well think to confirm him by inviting him to no Communion for with him it must be No Liturgy no Communion since he did not depart from a corrupt Liturgy to have none but to have a better and justifies his departure from the Church of Rome that leaving her he might come to the Catholick Church so his business was not only to protest against a false but also to protest for a true publick worship unless you will say he was only careful not to be a Schismatick in having good grounds of his separation but not careful not to be a Heretick in not having as good grounds of his Communion Some things were in the Church of Rome as a local or national Church some things were in it as a member of the Catholick Church There is no wilfull receding from these without being Anti-Catholick and that is all one with being Anti Christian Liturgy was one of these so truly and undoubtedly Christian that Hâ—ppolytus an antient Bishop and Martyr saith of Antichrist In those days shall be no Liturgy In diebus illis Liturgia extinguetur Orat de consummatione mundi ac de Antichristo in Bibliotheca Patrum Tom. 2. And sure we are that there was never yet any Christian Church in the world either national or provincial which had not its Liturgy which Cassanders Liturgicks doth sufficiently manifest without any other tedious way of proof the whole business whereof is to shew the several forms and rites of administring in several Churches So that to deny Liturgy to be Christian is in effect to deny the Catholick Church to be Christian and to blot a whole article of faith out of the Apostles Creed as also to affirm that there is will-worship in having Liturgy is in effect to affirm that the whole Catholick Church hath for 1500. years together been guilty of wil-worship and consequently hath not had the true Religion such a negative must needs be dangerous which thrusts the Catholick Church out of the Creed But such an affirmative must needs be damnable which thrusts the Christian Religion out of the Catholick Church For the whole Church having placed the publick practice of Religion in Liturgy if that be indeed wil-worship t is palpable Religion as to its publick practice or exercise hath been hitherto out of the Church unless we will allow wil-worship to be Religion However sure we are that God hath not given any Church power to abolish Liturgy because the power God hath given his Church is for edification and not for destruction 2 Cor. 10. 8. But the abolishing of Liturgy is nothing at all for edification but wholly for destruction T is nothing at all for edification neither in regard of the weak for it helps not their infirmities but takes away those helps God in mercy hath afforded them neither in regard of the strong for it must put them upon uncertainties may put them upon impieties And t is altogether for destruction because it destroyes Religion because it destroyes Communion It destroyes Religion in the learned making a way for them to run into any heresies in the unlearned not making a way for them to come out of Ignorance It destroyes Communion in the most setled times of the Church by disturbing it but in unsetled times by distracting it teaching men when they are at best not to be of one Communion but when they are at worst to be of many divisions of as many divisions as of interests of as many interests as of minds and of as many minds as men This is proof enough that God hath not given any Church power to abolish Liturgy It remains in the next place to be proved that no Church ought to assume that power For it is not for any Christian Church to assume such a power as directly tends to the destruction either of Christian Religion or of Christian Communion and abolishing of Liturgy directly tends to both these as hath been said Again It is not for any Christian Church to assume such a power as to abolish any thing which directly tends to the fulfilling of any of Gods Commandments for our Saviour Christ hath said If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14. 15. But a true laudable form of prayer directly tends to the fulfilling of two of Gods Commandments to wit the third and the fourth It directly tends to the fulfilling of the third Commandment in that it keeps some from taking Gods name in vain and teaches others truly to glorifie his name And it directly tends to the fulfilling of the fourth Commandment in that it provides for the duty of the Sabbath to wit the service of the Sanctuary the publick worship of God which is the end of the fourth Commandment and therefore the fittest rule by which to expound and observe the letter of it For the letter of the Law being subservient to the end of the Law we cannot rightly observe the day according to the letter unless we rightly observe the duty according to the end of this Commandment For by the reason of our blessed Saviours own Logick Mat. 23. If the Altar sanctifie the gift then much more the service sanctifies the Altar If the Temple sanctifie the Gold then much more the Glory of God sanctifies the Temple If the Day was appointed for the sanctification of man much more was the Duty appointed for the sanctification of the Day The Jews were commanded to keep the Sabbath that they might remember God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Justine Martyr to Trypho so that the end wherefore the Sabbath was
For if any reason may be given why ungifted men should be thought not sufficiently qualified for the Ministry or set Prayers not sufficiently qualified for gifted men That reason must relate either to God or to the People or to the Ministers But they who consult with their consciences before they speak and then speak according to the result of those consultations are not afraid to averr That in all these respects it is most requisite that the publick worship of God should not rely upon the personal abilities of the Ministers in praying but should be performed and discharged by constant set forms of Prayer not by uncertain and much less by premeditated effusions 1. In respect of God whose name is by set forms glorified more truly because they are deliberate and judicious more zealously because they are propper and efficacious more univerly because they are known to all both as judicious and as efficacious And what can be desired more in Gods publick worship then that it be truly Christian in it self without heresie truly Christian in us without hypocrisie and truly Christian in us all without singularity For if it be so it will certainly not be defective either for want of truth and verity or for want of zeal and sincerity which are both to be in it as it is a duty of Christian Religion Nor yet for want of extent or universality which is to be in it as it is a duty of Christian Communion 2. It is requisite that the publick worship of God should not rely upon the personal abilities of the Ministers in praying but should be performed by constant set forms of prayer in regard of the people because they are thereby more truly edified being edified in their understandings not led on hood-winckt by an implicite saith to blind obedience in the greatest performances of Religion Being edified in their wills not distracted by attention when they should be united in affection for the soul being finite cannot be wholly busied in the one but it must partly neglect the other And also being edified in their memories for by often hearing the same prayers they are taught to pray when their occasions will not permit them to resort to the house of prayer In a word being edified in their consciences in that they are taught and inured to come to the holy work of Religion not as Judges to make them proud and censorious nor as spies to make them peevish and captious but as communicants to make them devout and Religious For whilst the Minister is praying what the people know not beforehand they are in truth but as Judges unless you will have them resign their souls upon uncertainties But whilst they are praying with him in a known form of prayer they are certainly as Communicants Therefore it is an unsufferable injury to the people to be tied to speak to God in prayer only by the mouth of their Minister First because it doth not satisfie their consciences which cannot be satisfied but with certainty as well as piety for though the will or affection may assent to a desire in a prayer not known before yet not with the same full assent as if it had been known partly because the soul is assenting whilst it is praying and so what it bestows upon one act it takes from the other and partly because the soul cannot assent so fully nor so firmly upon the suddain as it can upon deliberation not so fully because not upon the same evidence not so firmly because not upon the same assurance of faith Secondly because it doth disturb if not destroy their Communion with Christ which is the chief end that Christians ought to aim at in all their prayers For not being sure that their prayer will be such as to joyn their Saviour with them in the same intercession they cannot be sure it will be such as to joyn them with their Saviour in the same Communion and so they are in danger of losing both the benefit and the comfort of all their publick prayers for the benefit of them depends altogether upon Christs intercession the comfort of them depends altogether upon Christs Communion Thirdly because it doth disturb if not destroy their Communion one with another which destructive way ought to be most carefully avoided and most hatefully detested by all good Christians For next to the breach of piety in Religion they ought to abominate the breach of charity in Communion For love and concord is the very soul of Christianity By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another Joh. 13. 35. And it was the Characteristical note of the first and best Christians And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul Act. 4. 32. And doubtless nothing doth more immediately nor more powerfully conduce to unity in affection then unity in Religion Wherefore since the same common devotions are the most effectual means to produce and to preserve this unity they who are implacable enemies to the one cannot be cordial friends to the other It is reported of Julian the Apostate that after he had conceived an inveterate hatred against the Christians he had no readier way to execute his hatred against them but by endeavouring to make them hate one another And so gathering the most dissenting Christian Bishops and the most factious of the people into his own Palace he advised them to lay aside all Civil discords and to keep the peace of the State but every one securely to follow his own Religion without any regard to the peace of the Church Vt civilibus discordiis consopitis suae quisque Religioni sâ—rviret intrepidus saith Ammianâ—s Marcellinus But what his intent was by this advice Saint Augustine as a Divine more clearly explaineth then their Historian Eo modo â—â—â—abat Christianorum nomen posse perire de terris si unitati Ecclesiae de qua lapsus fuerat inâ—ideret sacrilegas dissensiones liberas esse permitteret He thought that by this means the very name of Christians would perish from the earth if according to his envy against the Church from which he had fallen he should permit the Priests and the people a free liberty of sacrilegious dissentions If we turn this Thesis into an Hypothesis it may not be amiss to say that a free liberty of maintaining what doctrines and of exercising what Devotions every man thinks fit is a liberty of sacrilegious dissentions for consent in Doctrine and in devotion commonly go together and this is indeed a sacrilegious liberty because it robs God of his chiefest glory even of his publick worship and Gods Church of her best Patrimony even of her truth and peace Which may be a liberty of mans taking but sure not of Gods giving for Gods intent in giving us a written word was that all Christians might have the grounds of One Religion And his intent in giving so many patterns of prayer in
given to some particular Minister a special endowment hath he therefore given him leave either to condemn his Brethren or to condemn his Church Surely no and much less upon so slight a ground either of Reason or of Religion For neither ought there to be so great provision made for occasional emergencies as for continual necessities and if there ought yet is not the Church bound to make it First there ought not to be so great provision made for occasional emergencies as for continual necessities because these emergencies whether corporal or spiritual yet as they are occasional they are meerly temporal for occasion is the opportunity of time but Christianity is chiefly to busie it self about eternals Again as they are occasional they are meer contingencies but Religion is chiefly to busie it self about certainties The Form by which Saint John Baptist taught his Disciples to pray is lost without any mischief to Religion because it was meerly Occasional the reason thereof expiring with its use But the Form by which our blessed Saviour taught his Disciples to pray God would not suffer to be lost for fear Religion might have been lost with it because that Prayer is doctrinal and eternal never to expire either in its reason or in its use And how shall we then seek to advance Occasionals above Eternals in our Praying Surely he that saith Pray continually 1 Thes 5. 17. supposeth such matter of our Prayers as is constant not as is emergent as is continual not as is occasional So that if I first provide for occasionals in my Devotions and Eternity may be subservient to Time the accessory may chance draw the principal which is against the dictates of nature but if I first provide for eternals Time is subservient to Eternity the Principal will undoubtedly draw the accessory which is according to the dictates of Grace T is an excellent Prayer of our own Church to Almighty God That thou being our ruler and guide we may so pass through things temporal that finally we lose not the things eternal If God be my ruler and guide I shall slightly glance upon temporals as upon things in my passage but I shall wholly fix upon eternals as upon things that belong to my journeys end Fear not Zacharie saith the Angel for thy prayer is heard and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear a Son This man doubtless prayed for eternals in the discharge of his Priestly office yet hath a grant of temporals On the other side Hannah prayed for temporals that she might have a son yet gives thanks in her Song as if she had received eternals Religious souls distill all their thoughts in a pure limbeck so as to admit no dross nor dreggs of the earth in their distillation If you look upon the occasion of those heavenly prayers in the Psalms you will think many of them personal and particular such as belonged only to King Davids temporals wants and distresses But if you look upon the matter of these prayers you will find all of them doctrinal and universal such as do belong to all good Christians spiritual wants and distresses The Spirit of God teacheth us in our prayers to turn occasionals into eternals not to turn eternals into occasionals we justly dislike that Tenent which would make the Rule of our Religion the holy Scriptures rather occasional then doctrinal And how can we like that invention which would make the practice of our Religion our publick Prayers not so truly Doctrinal as Occasional that is indeed not so truly Eternal as Temporal Attention is best in Prayer when it is fixed wholly upon God and why not Affection too Conversion to my self may be an aversion from my God but surely conversion to my God cannot possibly be an aversion from my self I may easily so look after occasionals as to neglect eternals to my great loss and greater sin but if I look well after eternals it can be neither loss nor sin in me though I should chance to neglect occasionals So that it is both irrational and irreligious to say That there ought not to be so great provision made for occasional emergencies as for continual necessities in our private prayers but if there ought yet surely the Church is not bound to make that provision in her publick Prayers and if this be made good too then the Gift of Prayer though it may be of excellent use in private houses yet can have no pretence to cast set forms of Prayer out of Gods house And surely this Assertion That the Church is not bound to make provision for occasional emergencies but only for continual necessities in her ordinary publick Prayers may be made good from the very nature of Common-Prayer which is to be of common concernments such as are no more to be restrained to particular times then to particular persons Thus Saint Chrysostom himself explaineth what he meaneth by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his common supplications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath given us grace to make our common suppplications and teacheth us what we should mean by our Common Prayers when he saith Granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth and in the world to come life everlasting For common supplications or common Prayers are such as all other good Christians would be ready to make as well as we for that the matter of them concerns them All as well as Vs To wit knowledge of God and life in God Such Petitions as these which are common to all Christians alike are those which properly constitute Common-Prayer for that ought to be common in its matter before it be common in its use And such common Petitions as these is the Church bound to make as she is Catholick or Christian and as for other less common Petitions the Church makes them only as she is National A common good is the proper subject of Common-Prayer that is to say A spiritual good which is common to all Christians or a temporal good which is common to all of one Society as they all are one either by the union of Nature or by the union of Grace and Love These goods are certain and known to all and the Churâ—h which hath the common care of all is bound to provide such prayers as may best express our desires concerning these And upon any publick occasion though it be temporal our Church doth accordingly still make such Provision both for occasional Prayers and Praises But as concerning any particular good which this or that private man may need upon this or that particular occasion it is uncertain and unknown it comes not under the Churches knowledge and how can it come under the Churches care Such particulars are infinite and as infinite they cannot be the object of the Churches certain knowledge much less should they be the subject of the Churches constant prayers There needs a particular confession that such occasional necessities or distresses may be known before there can be a
not justly be condemned by another Church much less opposed or deserted by her own state For that such a Church is without doubt Gods Trustee and hath not been faulty in the discharge of her Trust and may not be hindred or molested in dischaging it SECT VIII The Trust of particular Churches is immediately from God himself both in regard of the Magistrate and of the Minister That Trust much stood upon in the Primitive times and ought to be so still because it is founded on the holy Scriptures And that this Doctrine concerning the Trust of particular Churches doth not canton or disjoynt the Catholick Church T IS no hard matter to prove That particular Churches are Gods immediate Trustees though they have but a limited Trust For else will follow the greatest absurdity that can be imagined and much greater that may be granted viz. That God hath left the blood of his Son the dictates of his Spirit the honour of his name exposed to all the contempts and prophanations and corruptions of perverse and ignorant and wicked men if he hath not entrusted them all with some such persons who are bound to see them neither prophaned nor contemned nor corrupted And who were those his Trustees at first but only his Apostles and who have they been ever since but their Successors Bishops and Ministers Take heed unto the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers Acts 20. 28. O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy Trust 1 Tim. 6. 20. The Minister whether Bishop or Priest is immediately intrusted with the care of souls and with those truths and administrations which directly concern the soul For the civil Magistrate though he be Christian yet is not capable of discharging the spiritual part of this Trust being not called of God as was Aaron to do the office of a Priest though he be called of God as was Moses to have power and dominion over Priests For in that he is governour of the State he is also governour of the Church which is in and within the State and in that he is governour of the Church he must needs have his share in the Trust of the Church concerning Religion as far as Religion is liable to the government of the State sc to be ordered protected and defended by it For as God at first used the extraordinary power of miracles to maintain his word and Sacraments and to strike the opposers and profaners of them either with death or with other corporal punishments as S. Paul saith of the Corinthians For this cause many are weakly and sick among you and many sleep 1 Cor. 11. 30. sc because of your profaning the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ So in process of time he was pleased to use the ordinary power of the Civil Magistrate for the same purposes never leaving himself without witness having given a directive and spiritual power to the Ministery a coactive and external power to the Magistracy for the suppressing of wickedness and vice and for the promoting of true Religion and Virtue Therefore both Magistracy and Ministery have the immediate Trust of Religion and God hath commanded both to assist hath allowed neither to oppose the other in the execution of his Trust Both are obliged to see there be a right exercise of Religion the one to perform it the other to countenance and protect it And both have their Trust immediately from God and this is that which I call the Trust of particular Churches nor is it to be imagined That if God had given the Trust of all Churches to some general Vicar of his who derived his power immediately from him and was to derive the same to others but that he would have given some notice of this universal Trustee that others might not invade this Trust without his leave much less manage it without his Authority yet this he was willing to plead for who said Petrus Paulo dedit licentiam praedicandi Gl. in Grat. Dist 11. cap. 11. that Saint Peter gave Saint Paul a licence to preach and that Authoritate Domini by Gods own command who said Acts 13. Sepatate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereto I have called them He will needs bring Saint Peter from Jerusalem to Antioch of purpose to lay his hands on Saint Paul though the Holy-Ghost reckons up these particular men who were bid do that work and reckons not Saint Peter among them nay though Saint Paul himself plainly tels us that he had Preached full three years before he once saw Saint Peter Gal. 1. 17 18. and then was fain to go up to Jerusalem not to Antioch to see him and only to see him not to receive commission or Instruction from him So Saint Chrysostome upon the words Gal. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He wanted Peter for nothing but being equal in honour with him that I may say no more now yet he went up to him as to his Superiour and his Ancient And he tell us this of purpose saith he that we should not think the ensuing reprehension proceeded either out of hatred or envy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it is plain he loved the man and respected him more then any other of the Apostles for he saith Other of the Apostles saw I none Yet he did but go to see him not to learn of him much less to receive spiritual power from him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I did but see him I did not learn of him saith the same Saint Chrysostome And indeed it is scarce imaginable that Saint Paul was rapt up into the third Heaven the proper dwelling place of God to hear unspeakable words to be Tongue-tied on earth by any man so as not to be able to preach without his License Nay on the contrary it is clearly evident from the Holy Scriptures and from all Antiquity that not only Saint Paul but also all the other Apostles did Preach the Gospel found Churches ordain Bishops excommunicate offenders without any delegation from Saint Peter only by their own immediate Authority And it is also evident that they all derived their Authority to their several Churches after them and that those several Churches did very much insist upon that authority which they could not lawfully have done had it not been derived to them by the Apostles Thus Saint Cyprian pleads for his Church of Carthage Ne quisquam se Episcopum Episcoporum constituat aut tyrannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem collegas suos adigat quando habeat omnis Episcopus pro licentia libertatis potestatis suae arbitrium proprium tanquam judicari ab alio non possit quà m nec ipse possit alterum judicare Neither let any man make himself a Bishop of Bishops nor by his tyrannical threats seek to compell his collegues to be his Vassals since every Bishop hath his own native liberty and power to determine for himself as one that may neither Iudge his fellow-Bishop