GODS HOLY HOVSE AND SERVICE According to the primitive and most Christian forme thereof described by Foulke Robarts Batchelor of Divinity and Prebendary of NORVVICH Psal 26. 8. I have loved the habitation of thine house and the place where thine honour dwelleth LONDON Printed by Tho. Cotes and are to be sold at the Grey-hound in Saint Pauls Church yard 1639. To all such as through weakenesse of judgement with some superstitious feare and not by any malevolent spirit of opposition and schisme are offended at the Decency of our Churches and the Reverend demeanure of our outward expressions in Gods publique Worship Loving Brethren THe worship of God hath of late yeares beene so carried in many places among us as if therein men were not about any businesse relating unto God The places of meetings being so ruinous and sordid the people in the act of prayers and praises demeaning themselves so as if they sate in counsell with God a gesture of which Tertulian saith that in prayer it is irreligiosissimum a most irreligious L. de orat thing rather than devoute and humble worships Much irreverence was in administring and receiving the holy Communion I have often conceived hereupon that either Papist Turke or Pagan observing our fashion would thinke that either our Churches were not the houses of the holy God or that the people in them were not about Gods worship Our present most reverend Metropolian hath in his Metropoliticall visitation layd those grounds which have already reformed much and I trust will by Gods mercy soone reduce all things in Gods worship to due decency and reverence all England over Not doubting of the like successe in other places which we finde in the Diocesse of Norwich For while the right reverend Father now Lord Bishop of Elie for the time his Lordship was our Diocesan as an other Elishaeus in the spirit of Elias his Lordship so proceeded in this pious worke as that the worke of the Lord prospered in his hands The house and service of God shineth among us in the primitive splendor to the great good liking of all sober Christians But as when S. Paul preached of the resurrection Some beleeved others mocked Act. 17. So upon sight of this good worke so happily begunne and so effectually followed some joyfully conformed others frowardly opposed The one encouraged the other exasperated my poore zeale first by preaching and private communications now by printing this slender treatise to put forth my selfe a weak labourer under such Aholiabs Bezaliels master workemen I doe not in all this little treatise frame any one proposition which I doe not in my conscience conceive to be the truth of God Nor doe Iuse any argument or reason but such as I apprehend naturally to inferre the conclusion My desire herein God knoweth is your satisfaction and right information in that which not a little concerneth Gods glory and your good Thinke not that I would reduce all Gods worship to bodily gestures Neither imagine that it belongeth to the soule alone The soule is the most excellent part whose intentions recommend the expressions of the body unto God But the body is a part and an essentiall part of the man and must beare his part with the soule in Gods worship If the body act alone then doth God say Man where is thy soule If the soule alone take all upon it then saith God where is or what doth thy body Where are thine eyes thy hands thy knees thy legges to declare and accompany the lifting up the humility and the confidence of thy soule Thy whole man is to be imployed in my worship It is for God and for his glory that I do pleade thus earnestly with my bretheren How decent a thing is it in the eye of man to behold bodies and soules accord and joyne together in the holy worke How doth the visible and expressive devotion of one Christian beget and encrease the same in an other And how powerfully shall the reverend behaviours and gestures of an whole Congregation together worke one upon an other Is not God the more glorified when our devotion is quickned and advanced O my bretheren be not froward but meeke and tractable Boy strous men in a spirit of error or opposition or both have made too much stirre troubled and affrighted honest hearts On the other side some men expressing devotion outwardly give too much scandall through want of probity But I beseech you turne away your eyes from men turne them upon God and then turne them home upon your selves And then tell me doe you not perceive the Majesty of God to be so great as that it becommeth the whole man soule and body to demeane himselfe in all points of humility and reverence inward and outward when he is in Gods speciall presence Is not the excellent goodnesse of God such as drawes all mens eyes upon him and feedes them all with expectation Is not his bounty such as filleth every living thing with plenty of his goodnesse Shall not the eye then looke up towards God in admiration and hope Shall not the hand be lifted up shewing the heart ready to receive the blessing and to reach out thankes Speake to God with the intention judgement and fervency of the soule Speake also by the expressions of the members of thy body Speake by thy tongue Speake by thine eyes Speake by thine hands and by thy knees The tongue interpreteth the meaning of the soule by words The eyes and hands interpret the confident expectation of the soule by their elevation The knees interpret the humilitie of the soule by bowing And so the rest of our decent gestures doe interpret the soule every one in its owne language which God intendeth understandeth and accepteth when they truly declare outwardly what the soule conceiveth inwardly But I am asked what neede these gestures and postures more now than heretofore Whereto I answer that there is no more neede to use these decent and reverend gestures and expressions in the worship of God now than heretofore And that if heretofore wee have been defective in what was requisite it is time that now we be reformed Againe if by heretofore yee understand the space of 40. or 50. yeares last passed I confesse that what we performe now may seeme a novelty But if by heretofore you meane the best and primitive times of the ages next the Apostles and before the dayes superstition crept on then I say that there is no more required now than what was in use in the practise of Christians heretofore God therefore give us grace to discerne truth from error and light from darkenesse and not to bee put out of the way of true devotion through a panike feare of a supposed superstition heartily prayeth At my Study in Norwich March 4. 1638. Your loving brother Fowlke Robarts The Contents Cap. 1. OF Holinesse 2 Of the holy place 3 Of the consecration of Churches 4 Consecration of Churches is
by the holy Ghost in the reasonable creature And this holinesse is either inhaesive or expressive In haesive holinesse is that seasoning and gratious constitution wherewith the heart and conscience is Ps 51. inwardly so qualified by the holy Ghost as disposeth it wholy to the will honour and glory of almighty God And this is it which David hungered after when he said Create in me a mew heart and Eph. 4. 24. renew a right spirit within mee Yea this is that Image of God according whereunto man was fist created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Expressive holinesse is the outward manifestation of the former by the words of our mouthes and by the performances and gestures of the rest of the lymbes of our bodyes as in their severall kindes we be occasioned to make use of them and this is fully required at our hands Ro. 12. 1. present your bodyes a living Sacrafice holy and acceptable unto God This expressive holinesse is to be practised two wayes First in our conninuall conversation before God Secondly in our speciall approaching unto God As the duty of a Servant to his Master is first in being diligent and faithfull in all his businesse Secondly in his respective behaviour when he commeth to his Masters presence or is in speach with him and yet more specially when he is to crave favor or to give thankes for favors received from him So the Servant of God having his heart possessed with the feare of God is first very carefull that he offend not in the tounge that there be no pride nor lust in his eyes that his feete neither walke nor stand in the way of the ungodly that his hands be free from bribery oppression and all iniquity And finally that all his members be instruments of righteousnesse unto God and his conversation honest before the world That his light may so shine before men that they may see his good workes and glorifie his father which is in heaven God hath made as well the body as the soule And therefore he is to be served as well by the outward members of the body as by the inward abilities of the soule He that saith by Solomon Sonne give me thine heart Saith also by Saint Paul present your bodyes a living sacrifice And as there must bee no strife among the members so neither must the soule and bodye disagree But joyne sweetly both 1 cor 6. 20. as one in the Service of God And therefore he saith Glorifie God in your bodyes and spirits for they are Gods And of all this we must be constantly carefull Ps 16. 8. so to set God alwayes before our eyes and to have alwayes a good conscience both towards God and towards Act. 24. 16. man that when we come to give an accompt of our Stewardship we may with joy heare that comfortable approbation of our Lord and Master well done good and faithfull servant But when the servant of God approacheth unto God in his holy House ai his holy Table to speake to God by holy Prayer to heare him in his holy word to give him thankes for received blessings for health food rayment manifold preservations forgivenesse of sinnes the hope and expectation of the joyes of heaven to begge all things requisit for body or soule to receive the holy Sacrament of the body and blood of his blessed Saviour thereby to be sealed to the day of Redemption Then as to be specially reverend and devoute in heart within so to expresse the same by such behaviour and respect without as may shew the reverence and humility suitable to and becomming the holy servant of the holy God in so holy a businesse in the holy place And in all this there is no Superstition CHAP. IX Gods worship is to be performed with outward expressions THat in the common way of our ordinary conversation wee must conscionably serve God as well with the members of our bodyes as with the faculties of our soules None except peradventure some bruitish familists a generation given over to a reprobate sence will deny But I finde it beyond exceptation difficult to perswade diverse men who yet will seeme specially zealous Pro. 23. 28. to have God rightly worshiped that in Gods worship there is any use of any more then the soule or minde alone And that because it is sayd sonne give me thine heart And herein they deale with us as the Papists do in another case For when we teach that a man is justified by faith in Christ They presently charge us that we exclude workes as not requisite in a Christian So these men hearing us urge that the members of the body must be used in the worship of God except against us as if we excluded the heart from this duty But I would gladly request my bretheren to understand that as being justifiâ—d by Jac. 2. 18. faith wee labour to shew our faith by our workes knowing that to be no true or lively faith which doth not fructifie and bring forth good workes So by the outward gestures of our bodies we declare that worship which is in the heart assuring our selves that there is no devotion in the heart of that man who maketh no expression thereof in his outward behaviour And whereas God saith sonne give me thine heart I conceive under correction that God dealeth herein as a tender father who seeing his sonne plunged into some dangerous gulph saith sonne give me thine hand not that the father intendeth to reskue onely the childes hand But because the hand is the gainfullest limbe for the child to reach out and for the Father to take hold on to draw the whole childe out of danger So almighty God seeing his childe at a lametable passe ready to sinke to the bottome of hell saith sonne give me thy heart That so God having gayned hold on the heart may thereby draw the whole man to eternall safety There is such correspondency and sympathy between the Soule and the body as maketh to accord one with an other like those Creatures and wheels mentioned by the Prophet Ezech. when those went these went when those stoode these stoode when those were lifted up these were lifted up for the spirit of the living Creatures was in the wheeles So may I well say when the Soule moveth forward in devotion Eze. 1. 21. towards God the body will not be left behinde but will beare the Soule company If the Soule in humility be dejected then the body with a bare head a bowing waste and bended knees is in all gestures of submission If the Soule be elevated and encouraged by desire and hope towards God then the eye looketh up and the hand is lifted up towards heaven expressing outwardly the inward disposition of the Soule And on the other side every man findeth in his owne experience that his Soule doth sympathise with the temper of his body For if the body be tired with labour the minde becometh heavy
and dull And do wee not perceive plainely that when we betake our selves to our knees for prayer the Soule is humbled within us by this very gesture And when when wee lift up our hands and our eyes towards God wee feele an elevation of the Soule also towards the throne of grace There is an instance in the booke of Exod. which fully illustrateth this point For when Israel was in fight with Ameleck Moses Aaron and Hur went up Exo. 17. 10. 11. to the tope of the hill And it came to passe when Moses lift up his hand Israel prevailed And when he let downe his hand Amaleck prevailed Shall we thinke that there was a charme in this his holding up and letting downe of his hand Is it not manifest that Moses was heard at his prayers to God for his people and that as his handes were borne up his soule did beare up also in the greater measure of zeale and faith whereby his prayer became the more Lyr. powerfull per hoc ostendttur suae orationis efficacia i. by this is manifested the efficacie or force of his prayer Nec contra Amalechitas tantum vis armorum Orig. in num hom 13. quam Moysis valuit or atio Vt enim elevasset manus ad Deum vincibatur Amalech remissae vero dejectae vinci faciebant Israel i. The force of armes was not so powerfull against Ameleck as the prayer of Moses For as he lifted up his hands to God Ameleck went by the worst but if his hands setled or fell downe Israel tooke the foyle St. Aug. speaketh to the same effect And may we not conceive Ser. de tom 93. that Saint Paul meaneth the same thing when he will have menat their prayers to lift up pure hands A learned interpreter speaketh full home to this 1 Tim. 2. 8. purpose saying upon that text Voluit hoc symbolo significare vim orationis Elevatio enim manuum contentionem orationis remissio manuum remissionem orationis adumbrabat Elevans manus elevabat mentem Cornel. a lap intendebat in Deum Cum vero lassus remittebat manus remittebat orationem i. He would by this symbol set out the force of prayer For the lifting up of his hands did signifie the earnestnesse of his prayer and the setling of his hand the slaking of his devotion In lifting up his hand he rowsed up his spirit and dealt with God the more fervenly but when growen weary he let fall his hand then he cooled in his prayer As for my part Whensoever I see any man using outward reverence in the act of Gods worship I shall judge him to be the more devoute within by how much the more he doth outwardly expresse in reverened gestures Neither can I ever be perswaded that that man is inwardly affected with reverence towards God who doth not outwardly declare the same by the reverend behaviour of his â— a. 2 a. q. 94. body For as Aquinas alleadgeth out of S. Aug. Exterior cultus est confessio quaedam cultus interioris i. The outward worship is a certeine confession of the inward worship Wee cannot deny but that men may make a faire outward shew of holinesse and devotion when they are most foul within through hypocrisie and prophanesse as the Pharisies made long prayers whilest they intended to devoure widdowes houses But yet let me prevent or represse insolent censures with the words of St. Paul Who Râ—â— 14. 4. art thou that judgest another mans servant Thou dost with thine eyes see reverence in the outward behaviour Thou seest not what is within in the heart 1 Cor. 13. 7. But Christian charity beleeveth all things and hopeth all things and requireth that wee judge the best according to the outward appearance God only is the judge of the heart we are to judge according to what wee see and not according to what we see not Wee are taught to be devout and reverend both within and without And to performe worship to God not with the body alone nor with the Soule a-alone but with body and Soule both that so wee may not seperate those which God hath conjoyned No doubt but there is too often an outward shew of much devotion and reverence where there is none or very little within For impiety can dissemble Sathan can change himselfe into an Angell of light The woolfe can put on Sheepes cloathing But there can be no inward reverence or devotion in the heart which doth not shew it selfe outwardly except peradventure when some perplexing terrour may for a time make a Christian man discover humane frailety for true Religion loveth not to dissemble The Angell of light will not transforme himselfe into a Divell of darkenesse nor will the sheepe cloath it selfe with the skinne of a woolfe And the man which hath a devout and Religious heart will not seeme prophane but will declare his piety and probity outwardly by the holinesse of his workes in his conversation and by the reverendnesse of his behaviour in the worship of God The Schoole-men make a threefold act of adoration Pined in 3. q. 25. ar 2. whereof the first is in the understanding apprehending and conceiving the excellencie of the object or that which is to be worshiped The second in the will inclyning and disposing a man to honor that object And both these they call inward worship The third act is the expression of that inward apprehension and inclination by sensible signes as by word deede or gesture and this they call outward worship Ex duplici natura Compositi sumus intellectuali sensibili Duplicem adorationem deo offerimus Spirituale qua consistit in interiori mentis devotione corporalem 2. 2. q. 14. ar 2. in exteriore corporis humiliatione i. Wee consist of a two fold nature intellectuall and sensible Wee performe to God a two fold worship The one Spiritual consisting in the outward devotion of the minde and the other corporall in the outward humiliation of the body But here my brethen are ready to tell me that by these words of Aquinas what is done by the Object body is but a corporall worship and that the spirituall worship consisteth in inward devotion and then they urge the words of our Saviour saying Josh 4. 24. 1 Tim. 4. 8. God is a spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and trueth whereto they adde the words of St. Paul bodily excercise profiteth little It may be thought by these words first of Saint Ans Paul that bodily exercise doth profit some thing though but a little and we are not to neglect much more to abhorre that which may afford the least furtherance in the way of Godlynesse and in Gods worship But if my brethren tell me that I do much mistake the meaning of the word litle in this text I must tell them that they in thus applying it to our behaviour in the worship of God do much more
mistake and fearefully wrest the words bodily exercise Concerning the meaning whereof Interpreters do not readily agree But this I am sure of that of all the Interpreters which I have seene and I have purposely made some search not one doth understand them of those gestures of the body in Gods worship which we now treate of And it is manyfest that the bodily exercises whereof S. Paul speaketh are such as he setteth in opposition unto true godlines and yet such as wherein foolish people perverted by hypocrites and guided by idle conceits and no better then old wives fables do place Religion Abstinency from meate and from marriage v. 3. unto which we may adde long and frequent watchings pronouncing of long and many prayers lying on the cold ground wearing haire cloth and the like with such kind of disciplining of the body may profit something as they may be used Cor. 7. 26. For S. Paul deemeth those people happy in regard of the present necessity which were unmarried And he alloweth those which are married sometimes and upon some occasions to withdraw one from an other that they may the better dispose themselves to fasting and prayer Watching fasting and such other chastisings of the body are also of profitable use to tame the flesh and to bring it into subjection to the spirit and so to make the whole man the fitter for devotion But if men place true Godlinesse to consist in these very exercises and so conceive with themselves that whilest they performe them they are eo nomine for that alone very good people though otherwise they live in the custome and practise of foule and known sinnes then shall they finde that their bodily exercises do profit little that is nothing at all and that in vaine have they wearyed themselves therein And so if a man thinke that though he neglect the true duties of godlinesse he is yet a godly man because he is very exact in all the gestures of outward reverence in Gods worship I paralell that man with an other sect of hypocrites whose whole godlinesse consisteth in going to to some selected Church and in being present where a Sermon is though in the meane time they learne nothing and practice as little of any true godlinesse Both these sorts of men I acknowledge to be an hypocriticall and superstitious generation both a like And of them both I say that they have a forme of Godlines but deny the power thereof Though then bodily exercises profit not those who place their whole Religion and goodnesse in them as they are meer bodily actes Yet are they not unprofitable for Christian men who make the right use of them either to tame the body and to bring it into subjection by fasting sack cloth and ashes and the like or to make outward expression of inward devotion as by bending the knee bowing the body lifting up the hands and eyes and such like gestures in Gods worship As for the wordes of our blessed Saviour God is a spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in Psâ— 95. 6. trutb I aske those men which alledge them against outward reverence what they will say to holy and devoute David when he saith O come let us worship and fall downe and kneele before the Lord our maker Doth not the spirit of God here require the gestures of bowing downe and kneeling to be used in Gods worship But for further satisfaction herein we will spend a few lines though one would thinke words needlesse in so cleare a case in the exposition of our Saviours wordes Wee therefore give our brethren to understand that the word Spirit in scripture hath divers sinifications as i. The regenerate man is called the Spirit Matth. 26. 41. The Spirit is willing the flesh is weak 2 The will or inclination 2 Cron. 36. 22. The Lord stirred up the Spirit of Cyrus 3 The courage of a man Josh 5. 1. There was no spirit in them any more because of the children of Israel 4 Vnderstanding and knowledge Dan. 5. 12. An excellent Spirit and understanding and knowlegde were found in Daniell 5 Doctrine or teaching 1 Joh. 4. 1. Beleeve not every Spirit but try the Spirits So then take the word Spirit in any of these significations and it will nothing hinder the use of corporall or bodily gestures in the worship of God For to worship God in Spirit is to worship him with a regenerate or new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holynesse Eph. 4. 24. It is no compassing of Gods Altar without hands washed in Innocency Ps 26. 6. no praying to God without pure handes lifted up 1 Tim. 8. No comming into the marriage feast without a wedding garment Mat. 22. So it is not for any to performe the holy act of worship to the holy God that is not regenerate and holy and will so worship in spirit and truth i. in true holinesse For God requireth such to worship him 2. God must be worshiped in Spirit i. with a willing ready and chearefull mind Deborah in her song Iudic. 5. 2. doth prayse God for the people that became so willing And 1 Pet. 5. 2. Gods flock must be fed not by constraint but willingly and so Gods worship must be performed in Spirit that is willingly 3. God must be worshiped in spirit i. Not faintly and droopingly but couragiously and zealously in the fervency of the spirit as Rom. 10 11. 5 God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth i. with understanding and knowledge rightly informed Lastly God must be worshiped in spirit and truth i. Guided by the holy spirit of God as all the sonnes of God are led by the spirit Rom. 8. 14. which leadeth unto all truth Joh. 16. 13. And this is home to the text in spirit and truth when in Gods worship we so make use of either body or soule as by Gods word and spirit wee are thereto directed Corporall actes may be done in the Spirit as our Saviours going up to the mount Mat. 4. was a Corporall act and yet it was done in the Spirit For he was led by the Spirit v. 1. And to this effect are the words of the Schoole-man cleare and full in in the place before alledged Adoratio Corporalis in Spiritu fit in quantum ex spirituali devotione procedit ad eam ordinatur i. Bodily worship is 2. 2. q 84. ar i done in the spirit in as much as it proceedeth from spirituall devotion and is made to serve thereunto When our brethren Pray or Preach do they not use a bodily member viz. the toung to expresse themselves withall The using of the tounge is a bodily exercise as well as the bowing of the knee And yet I hope they thinke that they do both Preach and Pray in the spirit Are not eating and drinking bodily actions And yet I trust wee do eate and drinke in the spirit when wee do it in the feare of God and
onely for Dormitories or burialls but also for divine worship and have borne the name of Oratories for there they did hold Synods sing Psalmes Dur. deritibs and administer the Sacraments And before we enter into any of our Churches we may in the Church yard take notice of the quarrell which our brethren make to the very situation of them as having their fore part or upper end standing alwayes to the East Of whom I aske and why not to the East Is there any danger in setting the upper end of a Church into the East Or is there any Commandement against it If we ascribed any holinesse to the East more than to any other quarter or that wee deemed any Church or Chappell unholy for not being placed so into the East then might this be accounted a superstitious observation of the East But when this is now done in imitation of the practise of Primitive times continued unto this present And for order and conformitie of one Church with another And it may be for some documentall signification as that we under the Gospell looke into the East as acknowledging the Sonne of righteousnesse to have risen unto us and to bee shining upon us with light and comfort whereas the Temple for Leviticall worship looked Westward as it were towards the night in token of the Clouds and darkenesse under which the people were at that time These and divers other good considerations might there bee in the first placing of our Churches in this manner without touch of superstition But I am tould that when we are within the Church we find it divided and a partition or some marke of distinction set between the Church and the Chancell as we call it and one part of the service is to be read in one place and another in another Wee are now entred into the Church and wee find it indeed as here it is described But as yet we find no Superstition Distinctions of severall places in the house of God are not any conceit crept in with Poperie but such as have been Constituted and put in ure very early in the Primitive Church by what partitions or boundaries every one of them was severed from other I cannot so fully finde out neither is it materiall Only this is agreeable with good reason order and comelines free from any colour of Superstition that as there be severall rancks of people professing Church-unity so they have their places in their severall distances Some are unworthy to Come within the doores of the Church and therefore are to stand without Some are fit to be received in to be baptized Some to be instructed in the grounds of Religion and to repaire with the rest of the Congregation All which is done in the nave and body of the Church And as men profit in knowledge and a working Faith to discerne the Lords body They are admitted into a higher roome where the Sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus Christ is to be administred at the holy Table in the Chancell which devideth it from the rest of the Church Seeing then there are severall offices orduties to be performed in the Church what Superstition is it if there be distinct and severall places for them If all places be by nature holy alike and by Consecration the whol Chuch and every part thereof be set apart for Gods worship Then why is it not as lawfull to pray in one place thereof as in another Is it lawfull and and no Superstition to pray sometimes in the Desk or reading pew and sometimes in the Pulpit and sometimes at the Font why then may not it be as free from offence to pray sometimes at the Communion Table and yet in a fift or sixt place if the Church require it at our hands And whereas our bretheren say that one part of the Service is read in one place and another part in another place they are mistaken For those prayers which are read at the Communion Table are not severall parts of the same but are distinct Services and so are they called the first and second service The first hath been antiently called matutinae and by Contraction Mattins or the early Service whereunto came al that would being not excommunicated into the nave or body of the Church Which being ended the fashion was after a while to give warning by a small bell And then the second Service beganne at the Communion Table At which the company antiently was the fewer demissa Catechumenorum turba the Company of those that were not yet fit for the Communion being sent away In that therefore we have the Communion Service at the Communion Table this is no Superstition but an orderly sorting of the place to the businesse after the example of the purer and devouter times whereto we are reduced from the disorder that these latter dayes have produced The Minister before he beginneth the Communion goeth up into the pulpit with an Homily or Sermon to prepare the Communicants I hope no body will find fault that a Sermon is made in the Pulpit which ended the Minister returneth to proceed in that which concerneth the Communion at the Table for the Communion If we held that some prayers were not accepable to God except they were made precisely in this or that place Or if we reputed the Supper of the Lord uneffectuall if it be not received in the Chancell then here were superstition But when we do thinges not upon any such fancy but in obedience and conformity to discipline and order for decency and comelynesse we are no way to be either taxed or suspected for Superstition Why is it not as free from Superstition to administer the Sacrament in one place of the Church and to pray in an other as to pray in one place and to preach in an other and to baptize in a third Why is it not Superstition for the people to draw nere to receive the Holy Sacrament to their comfort at the Holy Table more then for the Minister to walke up and downe the Church and to Crowde into thronged stooles with the sacred body and blood of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in his handes In the people cōming up to the holy Table where is their spiritual food made ready for them is no Superstition But in the ministers going so from stool to stool or pew to pew there is much irreverence disorder ill beseeming the administration of such a Sacrament O my bretheren you are not called up to worship any but the true God nor to worship the true God after any manner otherwise then God requireth meekly kneeling upon your knees Some have grudged to receive the holy communion kneeling But that errour hath long since been discovered and reformed and now you take a new offence not at the posture of the body but the place where because it is at the rayle before the Communion Table Do you not know and confesse that the word the Sacrament and
as St. Paul adviseth to 1 Cor. 10. 31. Gods glory Wee read in Rev. 4. v. 10. of foure and twenty Elders who fell downe on their faces worshipped him who liveth for ever Shall wee say that they woshiped not in Spirit and truth because they used a gesture of humilitie and reverence in falling downe upon their faces It is lamentable to behold men pretending sincerity and love of trueth thus perversly wringing Gods holy word and willfully shutting their eyes against so cleare light of so manifest a truth When the knee is bent the body bowed or the hand lifted up devoutly unto God these are indeede bodily exercises or actes done by the members of the body as outward expressions of inward devotion but no acts of Superstition CHAP. X. The severall gestures used by Gods Servants in his worship are all free from Superstition WEE have hitherto made scearch in and about the house of God or place of Christian assembly wee have carefully pryed into every nooke and corner thereof and observed the Servants of God performing worship unto God so as their inward devotions are declared and expressed by their outward gestures and demeanures God being so worshipped by their whole man body and Soule But in all this wee have found no Superstition But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things decently and in good order Come we now and examin those outward demeanures gestures and expressions severally and perticularly And all that wee do in our Churches in their distinct formes and postures least yet under any of them some peece of superstition be paradventure concealed and here I must confesse some evill Surmisers have unjustly caused much suspition For our justification therefore and the manifesting of truth to Gods glory Come and see all that is done in our Churches Wee confesse our sinnes unto God Wee begge pardon at the hands of God Wee give God thanks for what wee have received Wee crave from God what wee stand in need of Wee remember the afflictions of all distressed people with our prayers for them all and our almes to the poorer sort We reade and heare read the holy Bible and godly expositions homilyes and sermons whereby the ignorant are instructed the unruly admonished the backward exhorted the hard-hearted terrefied the feeble encouraged the aflicted conscience comforted We administer the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords supper Is any of these any superstitious act Our scrupulous brethren allow all this But then thus they take exception In your very entrance into the Church you Object put off your hats and kneele downe and pray as if either God were not in other places or that wee might not pray but in the Church If we taught men that they ought not to pray Ans anywhere else but in a Church or place consecrated or that we did not use to pray in any other place then there were some cause to object thus against us But we are in our Churches from time to time called upon to pray continually and in all things to give thankes Is it not thus extant in our booke of common prayer It is very meete right and our bounden duty that we should at all times and in all places give thankes to thee O holy father Lord of heaven and earth Is there not in that booke speciall service to be used in privat houses at the bed side of sick people Is not the booke it selfe free and vendible by every Stationer not only for the publick worship in Churches but also for the use of every private man in his own house Be there not also plenty of other bookes in print of formes of prayers to be made unto God upon severall occasions at any time in any place by any man whose soule is possessed with so good devotion And therfore it is plaine that our devotion and discipline doth not therfore encline us to pray when we come within a Church as if we held that the only place where a man may pray but for that the Church is an house of prayer as we have already shewed this very place putteth a man in mind and calleth upon him there specially to pray in somuch that it is a place purposely set apart for that very end and purpose that whatsoever a man doth elsewhere yet here he should pray because this is the house of prayer We uncover our heads in the Church as in the presence Chamber on earth of the King of heaven and earth And when we pray we kneele because kneeling is the gesture of humility becomming a man who preferreth his petition to the God of heaven In the fourth Century a time abounding with prodigious haeresies arose one Eustachius who among others of his prophane opinions wherwith many became infected maintained that Churches Concil Gangr and meetings therein are to be despised Damascus and Saint Augustin mention this to have been the haeresie of the Messalini otherwise called Euchites and Enthusiastes who also had so meane an opinion of Baptisme and the Lords supper as that they held Dan. de haeres 8 Aug. Serm. contra Arrianos l. 4. C. 11. de ecliis c. 37. them altogether uneffectuall and unprofitable as Theodoret reporteth Turrecremata telleth us that the fratricellian haeritiques a most impure sect maintained among other things Eccelsiam non plus valere ad orandum quam porcorum stabulum i. That the Church avayleth a man for prayer no more then a swine-sty O my brethren conforme not yourselves to the abominable fancies of these filthie dreamers odious to God and in the judgment of the Church damned haeretiques To pray is no superstitius act To pray kneeling is no superstition To pray in a Church as we shewed cap. 4. is no superstition To use reverend gestures and behaviour of humility in the presence of God is no superstition To repute the Church to be Gods house is no superstition Therefore for a man entring into a Church to put off his hat and being come in to kneele downe and to pray to God are no superstition but pious acts of christian devotion You have so many severall gestures and postures Ob. sometimes sitting sometimes kneeling sometimes standing sometimes bowing Why may not men use what gestures they please so that the heart be right I have already shewed that a reverend heart can Ans not but produce reverend demeanure in Gods worship And yet further to answer this cavill I say It is not inough that our gestures be reverend and sober in the generall except also they be suteable and fit to expresse the present act whereto they are applyed And first for sitting If humane frailty specially in aged people could endure it sitting would not at all be used in the house of God specially during the holy businesse of Gods service But in consideration of the infirmity of flesh and blood Rest is sometimes requisite least too much weakenesse either diminish or disturb devotion Therefore the indulgence of the Church permitteth