was only by the King's Authority by vertue of the Headship or Supremacy which by way of recognition was vested in him by the Clergy either co-operating and concurring with them in their Convocations or else directed and assisted by such learned Prelates with whom he did advise in matters which concerned the Church and did relate to Reformation By virtue of which Headship or Supremacy he ordained the first and to that end caused certain Articles or Injunctions to be published by the Lord Cromwel then his Viear General Anno 1536. And by the same did he give order for the second I mean for the saying of the Letany in the English Tongue by his own Royal Proclamation Anno 1545. For which consult the Acts and Monuments fol. 1248 1312. But these were only preparations to a greater work which was reserved unto the times of K. Edw. 6. In the beginning of whose Reign there passed a Statute for the administring the Sacrament in both kinds to any person that should devoutly and humbly desire the same 1 E. 6. c. 1. In which it is to be observed that though the Statute do declare that the ministring of the same in both kinds to the people was more agreeable to the first Institution of the said Sacrament and to the common usage of the primitive Times Yet Mr. Fox assures us and we may take his word that they did build that Declaration and consequently the Act which was raised upon it upon the judgment and opinion of the best learned men whose resolution and advice they followed in it fol. 1489. And for the Form by which the said most blessed Sacrament was to be delivered to the common people it was commended to the care of the most grave and learned Bishops and others assemby the King at His Castle of Windsor who upon long wise learned and deliberate advice did finally agree saith Fox upon one godly and uniform zOrder for receiving of the same according to the right rule of Scriptures and the first use of the primitive Church fol. 1491. Which Order as it was set forth in Print Anno 1548. with a Proclamation in the name of the King to give Authority thereunto amongst the people so was it recommended by special Letters writ unto every Bishop severally from the Lords of the Council to see the same put in execution A copy of which Letters you may find in Fox fol. 1491. as afore is said Hitherto nothing done by Parliament in the Forms of Worship but in the following year there was For the Protector and the rest of the Kings Council being fully bent for a Reformation thought it expedient that one uniform quiet and godly Order should be had throughout the Realm for Officiating God's divine Service And to that end I use the words of the Act it self appointed the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and certain of the most learned and discreet Bishops and other learned men of the Realm to meet together requiring them that having as well eye and respect to the most pure and sincere Christian Religion taught in Scriptures as to the usages in the Primitive Church they should draw and make one convenient and meet Order Rite and fashion of Common Prayer and Administration of Sacraments to be had and used in this his Majesties Realm of England Well what did they being thus assembled that the Statute tells us Where it is said that by the aid of the Holy Ghost I pray you mark this well and with one uniform agreement they did conclude upon and set forth an Order which they delivered to the Kings Highness in a Book entituled The Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church after the use of the Church of England All this was done before the Parliament did any thing But what was done by them at at last Why first considering the most godly travel of the King's Highness and the Lord Protector and others of his Highness Council in gathering together the said B. and learned men Secondly The Godly Prayers Orders Rites and Ceremonies in the said Book mentioned Thirdly The motive and inducements which inclined the aforesaid learned men to alter those things which were altered and to retain those things which were retained And finally taking into consideration the honour of God and the great quietness which by the grace of God would ensue upon it they gave his Majesty most hearty and lowly thanks for the same and most humbly prayed him that it might be ordained by his Majesty with the assent of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament and by Authority of the same that the said Form of Common-Prayer and no other after the Feast of Pentecost next following should be used in all his Majesties Dominions with several penalties to such as either should deprave or neglect the same 2 and 3. E. 6. cap. 1. So far the very words of the Act it self By which it evidently appeareth that the two Houses of Parliament did nothing in the present business but impose that Form upon the people which by the learned and religious Clergy-men whom the K. appointed thereunto was agreed upon and made it penal unto such as either should deprave the same or neglect to use it And thus doth Poulton no mean Lawyer understand the Statute who therefore gives no other title to it in his Abridgement publish'd in the year 1612. than this The penalty for not using uniformity of Service and Ministration of the Sacrament So then the making of one uniform Order of celebrating divine Service was the work of the Clergy the making of the Penalties was the work of the Parliament Where let me tell yu by the way that the men who were employed in this weighty business whose names deserve to be continued in perpetual memory were Thomas Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury George Day Bishop of Chichester Thomas Goodrich B. of Ely and Lord Chancellour John Ship Bishop of Hereford Henry Holbeck Bishop of Lincoln Nicholas Ridley Bishop of Rochester translated afterwards to London Thomas Thirlby Bishop of Westminster Dr. May Dean of St. Pauls Dr. Taylor then Dean afterwards Bishop of Lincoln Dr. Hains Dean of Exeter Dr. Robertson afterwards Dean of Durham Dr. Redman Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and Dr. Cox then Almoner to the King afterward Dean of Westminster and at last Bishop of Ely men famous in their generations and the honour of the Age they lived in And so much for the first Liturgy of King Edwards Reign in which you see how little was done by Authority or power of Parliament so little that if it had been less it had been just nothing But some exceptions being taken against the Liturgy by some of the preciser sort at home and by Calvin abroad the Book was brought under a review And though it had been framed at first if the Parliament which said so erred not by the ayd of the Holy Ghost himself yet to comply with
trust them with a power to meddle with matters of Religion this Convocation being holden the sixth year of his Reign when Gardiner Bâ—nner Day and Tunstall and others of the stiffest Romanists were put out of their places most of the Episcopal Sees and Parochial Churches being filled with men according unto his desires and generally conformable to the Forms of Worship here by Law established Thirdly the Church of England for the first five years of Queen Elizabeth retained these Articles and no other as the publick tendries of the Church in point of Doctrine which certainly she had not done had it been recommended to her by a less Authority than a Convocation lawfully assembled and confirmed And fourthly that it is true that the Records of Convocation during this King and the first years of Queen Mary are very defective and imperfect most of them lost amongst others those of this present year And yet one may conclude as strongly that my Mother died Childless because my Christening is not to be found in the Parish Register as that the Convocation of this year was barren because the Acts and Articles of it were not entred in the Journal Book To salve this sore it is conceived by the Objector that the Bishops and Clergy had passed over their power to some select Divines appointed by the Kings in which sense they may be said to have made these Articles themselves by their delegates to whom they had deputed their Authority the case not being so clear Id. Ib. but that it occasioned a Cavil at the next Convocation the first of Queen Mary when the Papists therein assembled renounced the legality of any such former transactions And unto this it shall be answered That no such defect of legality as was here pretended was charged against the book of Articles it self but only against a Catechism which was bound up with it countenanced by the Kings Letters Patents prefix'd before it approved by many Bishops and learned men and generally voiced to be another of the products of this Convocation And therefore for so much as concerns this Catechism it was replyed by Mr. John Philpot Archdeacon of Winchester who had been a member in the former and was now a member of the Convocation in the first of Queen Mary That he thought they were deceived in the Title of it Acts and Monum fo 1282. in that it owned the Title of the last Synod of London many which were then present not being made privy to the making or publishing of it He added That the said former Convocation had granted the Authority of making excellent Laws unto certain persons to be appointed by the Kings Majesty so as whatsoever Ecclesiastical Laws they or the most part of them did set forth according to a Statute in that behalf provided might be well said to be done in the Synod of London though such as were of the house had no notice thereof before the promulgation And thereupon he did infer That the setters forth of the Catechism did not slander the House as they went about to persuade the World since they had the Authority of the Synod unto them committed to make such Spiritual Laws as they thought convenient and necessary for the good of the Church In which Discourse we may observe that there was not one word which reflects on the Book of Articles all of it being made in reference to the Catechism before remembred though if the Objection had been made as indeed it was not against the Articles themselves the defence of that learned man and godly Martyr would have served as fully for the one as it did for the other But whatsoever may be said in derogation to the Authority of the Book of Articles as it was published in the time of King Edward the sixth Anno Dom. 1552. certain I am that nothing can be said unto â—â—e contrary but that they were received and the far greater part of them agreed upon in full Convocation Anno 1562. And therefore for avoiding of all Disputes I am resolved to take them in this last capacity as they were ratified by Queen Elizabeth Anno 1563. confirmed by King James An. 1604. and finally established by the late King Charles with his Majesties Royal Declaration prefixt before them Anno 1628. Less doubt there is concerning the intent of this Convocation in drawing up the Articles in so loose a manner that men of different judgments might accommodate them to their own Opinions which I find both observed and commended in them by the former Author by whom we are informed that the Articles of the English Protestant Church Chur. Hist lib. 9. fol. 72. in the infancy thereof were drawn up in general terms foreseeing that posterity would grow up to fill the same meaning that these holy men did prudently discover that differences in judgment would unavoidably happen in the Church and were loth to unchurch any and drive them off from any Ecclesiastical communion for petty differences which made them pen the Articles in comprehensive words to take in all who differing in the branches meet in the root of the same Religion This hath been formerly observed to have been the artifice of those who had the managing of the Council of Trent and is affirmed to have been used by such men also as had the drawing up of the Canons at the Synod of Dort But the Composers of the Articles of the Church of England had not so little in them of the Dove or so much of the Serpent as to make the Articles of the Church like an upright shoe which may be worn on either foot or like to Theramenes shoe as the Adage hath it fit for the foot of every man that was pleased to wear it and therefore we may say of our first Reformers in reference to the present Book of Articles as was affirmed of them by Dr. Brancroft then Bishop of London in relation to the Rubrick in private Baptism that is to say that those reverend and learned men intended not to deceive any by ambiguous terms for which see Conf. at Hampton Court Confer p. 15. And to this supposition or imagination it is also answered That the first Reformers did not so compose the Articles as to leave any liberty to diffenting judgments as the said Author would fain have it in some words preceding but did not bind men to the literal and Grammatical sense they had not otherwise attained to the end they aimed at which was ad tollendam Opiniorum Dissentionem consensum in vera Religione firmandum that is to say to take away diversity of Opinions and to establish an agreement in the true Religion Which end could never be effected if men were left unto the liberty of dissenting or might have leave to put their own sense upon the Articles as they list themselves For where there is a purpose of permitting men to their own Opinions there is no need of definitions and
we may see by what Authority they proceed in their Constitutions and then declare what was acted by the Clergy in that Reformation In which I shall begin with the ejection of the Pope and setling the Supremacy in the Crown Imperial of this Realm descending next to the Translation of the Scriptures into the English tongue the Reformation of the Church in Doctrinals and forms of Worship and to proceed unto the Power of making Canons for the well ordering of the Clergy and the direction of the people in the exercise of their Religion concluding with an Answer to all such Objections by what part soever they be made as are most material And in the canvassing of these points I doubt not but it will appear unto you that till these late busie and unfortunate times in which every man intrudeth on the Priestly Function the Parliaments did nothing at all either in making Canons or in matters Doctrinal or in Translation of the Scriptures Next that That little which they did in reference to the Forms and Times of Worship was no more than the inflicting of some temporal or legal penalties on such as did neglect the one or not conform unto the other having been first digested and agreed upon in the Clergy way And finally that those Kings and Princes before remembred by whose Authority the Parliaments did that little in those Forms and Times did not act any thing in that kind themselves but what was warranted unto them by the Word of God and the example of such godly and religious Emperors and other Christian Kings and Princes as flourished in the happiest times of Christianity This is the sum of my design which I shall follow in the order before laid down assuring you that when you shall acquaint me with your other scruples I will endeavour what I can for your satisfaction 1. Of calling or assembling the Convocation of the Clergy and the Authority thereof when convened together AND in this we are first to know that anciently the Arch-bishop of the several Provinces of Canterbury and York were vested with a power of Convocating the Clergy of their several and respective Provinces when and as often as they thought it necessary for the Churches peace And of this power they did make Use upon all extraordinary and emergent cases either as Metropolitans and Primates in their several Provinces or as Legati nati to the Popes of Rome But ordinarily and of common course especially after the first passing of the Acts or Statutes of Praemuniri they did restrain that power to the good pleasure of the Kings under whom they lived and used it not but as the necessities and occasions of these Kings or the distresses of the Church did require it of them and when it was required of them the Writ or Precept of the King was in this form following Rex c. Reverendissimo in Christo Patri N. Cantuariensi Archiepiscopo totius Angliae Primati Apostolicae sedis Legato salutem Quibusdam ardius urgentibus negotiis defensionem securitatem Ecclesiae Anglicanae ac pacem tranquillitatem bonum publicum defensionem Regni nostri subditorum nostrorum ejusdem concernentibus Vobis in Fide dilectione quibus nobis tenemini rogando mandamus quatenus praemissis debito intuito attentis ponderatis universos singulos Episcopos vestrae Provinciae ac Decanos Priores Ecclesiarum Cathedralium Abbates Priores alios Electivos exemptos non exemptos nec non Archidiaconos Conventus Capitula Collegia totumque Clerum cujuslibet Dioceseos ejusdem Provinciae ad conveniendum coram vobis in Ecclesia Sancti Pauli London vel alibi prout melius expedire videritis cum omni celeritate accommoda modo debito Convocari faciatis Ad tractandum consentiendum concludendum super praemissis aliis quae sibi clarius proponentur tunc ibidem ex parte nostra Et hoc sicut nos statum Regni nostri ac honorem utilitatem Ecclesiae praedictae diligitis nullatenus omittatis Teste meipso c. These are the very words of the antient Writs and are still retained in these of later times but that the Title of Legatus sedis Apostolicae then used in the Arch-bishops style was laid aside together with the Pope himself and that there is no mention in them of Abbots Priors and Convents as being now not extant in the Church of England And in this Writ you may observe first that the calling of the Bishops and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury to a Synodical Assembly belonged to the Arch-bishop of that Province only the like to him of York also within the Sphere or Verge of his Jurisdiction Secondly that the nominating of the time and place for this Assembly was left to the Arch-bishops pleasure as seemed best unto him though for the most part and with reference unto themselves and the other Prelates who were bound to attend the service of the King in Parliament they caused these Meetings to be held at the time and place at and to which the Parliament was or had been called by the Kings Authority Thirdly That from the word Convocari used in the Writ the Synodical Meetings of the Clergy were named Convocations And fourthly That the Clergy thus assembled in Convocation had not only a power of treating on and consenting unto such things as should be there propounded on the Kings behalf but a power also of concluding or not concluding on the same as they saw occasion Not that they were restrained only to such points as the King propounded or were proposed in his behalf to their consideration but that they were to handle his business with their own wherein they had full power when once met together In the next place we must behold what the Arch-bishop did in pursuance of the Kings command for calling the Clergy of his Province to a Convocation who on the receipt of the King 's Writ presently issued out his Mandate to the Bishop of London Dean by his place of the whole Colledge of Bishops of that Province requiring him immediately on the sight hereof and of the King 's Writ incorporated and included in it to cite and summon all the Bishops and other Prelates Deans Arch-Deacons and capitular Bodies with the whole Clergy of that Province that they the said Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons in their own persons the Capitular Bodies by one Procurator and the Clergy of each Diocess by two do appear before him at the time and place by him appointed and that those Procurators shouldbe furnished with sufficient powers by those which sent them not only to treat upon such points as should be propounded touching the peace of the Church and defence and welfare of the Realm of England and to give their counsel in the same sed ad consentiendum iis quae ibidem ex communi deliberatione ad honorem Dei Ecclesiae in praemissis contigerent
Elders as Josephus telleth us Antiqu. Jud. 1. cap. was no less pleasing unto God nor less valid in the eyes of all his Subjects than those of Jehosaphat and Hezekiah in their riper years and perhaps acting singly on the strength of their own judgments only without any advice Now that there should be Liturgies for the use of the Church that those Liturgies should be celebrated in a Language understood by the people That in those Liturgies there should be some prescribed Forms for giving the Communion in both kinds for Baptizing Infants for the reverent celebration of Marriage performing the last office to the sick and the decent burial of the Dead as also for set Feasts and appointed Festivals hath been a thing of primitive and general practice in the Christian Church And being such though intermitted or corrupted as before is said the King advising with his Bishops and other Church-men though not in a Synodical way may cause the same to be revised and revived and having fitted them to edification and increase of piety either commend them to the Church by his sole authority or else impose them on the people under certain penalties by his power in Parliament Saepe Coeleste Regnum per Terrenum proficit The Kingdom of Heaven said Reverend Isidore of Sevil doth many times receive increase from these earthly Kingdoms in nothing more than by the regulating and well ordering of Gods publick worship We saw before what David did in this particular allotting to the Priest the Courses of their Ministration appointing Hymns and Songs for the Jewish Festivals ordaining Singing-men to sing and finally prescribing Vestments for the Celebration Which what else was it but a Regulating of the Worship of God the putting it into a solemn course and order to be observed from time to time in succeeding Ages Sufficient ground for Christian Princes to proceed on in the like occasions especially when all they do is rathe the reviving of the Ancient Forms than the Introduction of a new Which as the King did here in England by his own Authority the Body of the Clergy not consulted in it so possibly there might be good reason why those who had the conduct of the Kings affairs thought it not safe to put the managing of the business to a Convocation The ignorance and superstition of the common people was at that time exceeding profitable to the Clergy who by their frequent Masses for the quick and dead raised as great advantage as Demetrius and the Silver-Smith by Dianas shrines It hapned also in a time when many of the inferiour Clergy had not much more learning than what was taught them in the Massals and other Rituals and well might fear that if the Service were once extant in the English tongue the Laity would prove in time as great Clerks as themselves So that as well in point of Reputation as in point of Profit besides the love which many of them had to their former Mumpsimus it was most probable that such an hard piece of Reformation would not easily down had it been put into the power of a Convocation especially under a Prince in Nonage and a state unsettled And yet it was not so carried without them neither but that the Bishops generally did concur to the Confirmation of the Book or the approbation of it rather when it passed in Parliament the Bishops in that time and after till the last vast and most improvident increase of the Lay-nobility making the most considerable if not the greatest part of the House of Peers and so the Book not likely to be there allowed of without their consent And I the rather am inclined unto that Opinion because I find that none but Tunstal Gardiner and Bonner were displaced from their Bishopricks for not submitting in this case to the Kings appointments which seems to me a very strong and convincing argument that none but they dissented or refused conformity Add here that though the whole body of the Clergy in their Convocation were nto consulted with at first for the Reasons formerly recited yet when they found the benefit and comfort which redounded by it to good Christian people and had by little and little weaned themselves from their private interesses they all confirmed it on the Post-fact passing an Article in the Convocation of the year 1552. with this Head or Title viz. Agendum esse in Ecclesiae linguae quae fit Populo nota which is the 25th Article in King Edwards Book Lay all that hath been said together and the result of all will be briefly this that being the setting out of the Liturgy in the English Tongue was a matter practical agreeable to the Word of God and the Primitive times that the King with so many of his Bishops and others of the Clergy as he pleased to call to Counsel in it resolved upon the doing of it that the Bishops generally confirmed it when it came before them and that the whole body of the Clergy in their Convocation the Book being then under a review did avow and justifie it The result of all I say is this that as the work it self I say was good so it was done not in a Regal but a Regular way Kings were not Kings if regulating the external parts of Gods publick worship according to the Platforms of the Primitive times should not be allowed them But yet the Kings of England had a further right as to this particular which is a power conferred upon them by the Clergy whether by way of Recognition or Concession I regard not here by which they did invest the King with a Supream Authority not only of confirming their Synodical Acts not to be put in execution without his consent but in effect to devolve on him all that power which formerly they enjoyed in their own capacity And to this we have a parallel Case in the Roman Empire in which there had been once a time when the Supream Majesty of the State was vested in the Senate and people of Rome till by the Law which they called Lex Regia they transferred all their Power on Caesar and the following Emperors Which Law being passed the Edicts of the Prince or Emperor were as strong and binding as the Senatus Consulta and the Plebiseita had been before Whence came that memorable Maxim in Justinians Institutes that is to say Quod Principi placuerit legis habet vigorem The like may be affirmed of the Church of England immediately before and in the Reign of K. Henry VIII The Clergy of this Realm had a Self-authority in all matters which concerned Religion and by their Canons and Determinations did bind all the Subjects of what rank soever till by acknowledging that King for their Supream Head and by the Act of Submission not long after following they transferred that power upon the King and on his Successors By doing whereof they did not only disable themselves upon concluding any thing in their Convocations
the Law Levitical was given to Moses and all the Rites and ceremonies of the same prescribed and limited which plainly shews that Instrumental Musick in the celebrating of Gods publick worship is not derived at any hand from the Law of Moses or to be reckoned as a part of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Levitical Sacrifices And lest this intermixture of Songs and Musick in the officiating of the Moral worship of God might either be conceived to have been introduced by the Jews in the declining times of their zeal and piety or else ordained by David without good Authority and never practised in the purer times of the Jewish Church we will look into the Acts of Solomon Hezekiah Ezra Of Solomon and Ezra more anon Of Hezekiah this at present of whom it is recorded in the Book of Chronicles that in the restauration of Gods worship being much corrupted When the Burnt-offering began the Song of the Lord began also with Trumpets and with the Instruments ordained by David king of Israel And all the Congregation worshipped and the Singers sang and the Trumpeters sounded 2 Chron. 29.27 28. and all this continued till the Burnt-offering was finished Where note that this was some appointed and determinate song which had been formerly set out for the like occasions that which is here entituled the Song of the Lord or canticum Traditum as the word is rendred by Tremelius as also that the intermixture of Musical Instruments in Gods holy Service is referred to David And so 't is also in the Book of Nehemiah Neh. 12.46 where both the Singers and the songs are referred to him For in the days of David and Asaph of old there were chief of the Singers and songs of praise and thanksgiving unto God saith the holy Scripture Of Solomon and Ezra next the greatest and most memorable action of whose times was the building of the first and second Temples immensae opulentiae Templum Tacit. hist l. 5. as the last is called by the Historian For that of Solomon as soon as it was fitted and prepared for the Service of God that godly and religious Prince to whom the Lord had given a large and understanding heart as the Scripture tells us did not think fit to put it unto publick Use till he had dedicated the same to the Lord his God by Prayer and Sacrifice The pomp and order of the Dedication we may see at large 1 King viii To which add this considerable passage from the Book of Chronicles where it is said 2 Chron. 5.12 13. with reverence unto Davids Institution that the Levites which were the Singers all of them of Asaph of Heman of Jeduthun with their Sons and their Brethren being arayed in white linen having Cymbals and Psalteries and Harps stood at the East end of the Altar and with them an hundred and twenty Priests sounding with Trumpets And that it came to pass as the Trumpeters and Singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord that they lift vp their voice with the Trumpets and Cymbals and Instruments of Musick and praised the Lord saying For he is good for his mercy endureth for ever In which we may observe two things first that in Celebrating Gods publick worship and in that part thereof which was meerly moral the Levites were arayed in a white linnen Rayment such as the Surplice now in Use in the Church of England And secondly that they were prescribed what song or Psalm they were to sing being the 136. of Davids Psalms beginning with Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus quoniam in aeternum misericordia ejus And this we may the rather think to be a certain and prescribed Hymn not taken up at the discretion of the Priests and Levites because we find the same expresly in laying the foundation of the second Temple For we are told in the book of Ezra Ezr. 3.10 11. that when the Builders laid the foundation of the Temple of the Lord they set the Priests in their Apparel with Trumpets and the Levites the Sons of Asaph with Cymbals to praise the Lord after the Ordinance of David the King of Israel where not that still this Institution is referred to David And they sung together by course Quire-wise in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord because he is good for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel Lyra observes upon the place that the Psalm here sung ab ipso Davide factum ad hoc ordinatum was made by David for this very purpose Lyr. in Ezr. cap. 3. v. 1. 1 Chron. 28. who had not only left command to Solomon about the building of the Temple but gave him patterns of the work and much of the materials for the same Add finally that at the Dedication of each Temple there was a great and sumptuous Feast provided for the People of God whereof see 1 King viii 65. and Ezra vi 16. Which as it was the ground of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Feast of Dedication established after by the Maccabees so gave it no small hint unto the Christians to institute the like Feasts on the like occasions whereof more hereafter In the mean time to look a little back on Solomon if question should be made to what particular end he did erect that magnificent Structure I answer that it was most specially for an House of Prayer The legal Sacrifices were all of them performed in the outward Courts and there were all the utensils and vessels which did pertain unto the same The Priest that offered Sacrifice came not thither he had no place nor portion in it 'T is true there was an Altar in it but 't was the Altar of Incense not the Altar for Sacrifices That stood indeed within the Temple as at the first by Gods own Ordinance and appointment within the Tabernacle where it was placed before the Veil Exod. 30.6 7 8. And it was placed there to this end and purpose that Aaron might burn Incense on it every morning when he dressed the lamps and when he lighted them at even By this was figured the offering up of the Prayers of the Saints to the Lord their God We find it so expresly in the Revelation Apocal. 8.3 4. And another Angel saith the Text came and stood at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given unto him much Incense that he should offer is with the Prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar that was before the Throne and the smoak of the Incense which came with the Prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand And hereto David doth allude in the book of Psalms Let my prayer saith he be set forth before thee as Incense and the lifting up of my hand as the Evening Sacrifice Psal 141.2 1 King 8. But that which makes the matter most clear and evident is the whole scope of Solomons
what the Gentiles did who being another of those integral parts whereof the Church of Christ consisted both Jews and Gentiles making up one Church to our Lord and Saviour and having their own forms and rites of religious worship if the Idolatrous service of their gods may be so entituled are in the next place to be looked upon that we may see how univerfally all sorts of people have agreed in this to institute set forms and determinate rites whereby to order and direct their whole devotions And having shewn out of their most unquestionable Records and Monuments with what a general consent they entertained those publick formulas which had been recommended to them by the former times we shall proceed to the affairs of the Christian Church so far forth as they do concern this present business And then I hope it will seem reasonable to the indifferent and sober Reader that if a prescribed Form of Worship hath been admitted in the world semper ab omnibus ubique according to the rule of Lyrinensis at all times formerly in all places too and by all sorts of people of what Sect soever It must needs be a most unheard of novelty to reject them now and hazard all the publick worship of Almighty God either upon no Forms at all or such as no man is obliged to observe and hold to A matter which which the very Gentiles though men of excellent wits and eloquence thought not fit to do their gods though gods of earth made of gold and silver and far worse materials being conceived of too great Majesty to be spoken unto in such an unprepared and unpremeditated manner as some men now affect to speak in to the God of Heaven And this we shall deliver in one Chapter only with as much brevity as may be and so pass forward to the Forms or Liturgies used from the first beginnings of the Christian Church which is the matter most especially to be looked into CHAP. IV. That antiently the Gentiles had their Liturgies or prescribed Forms of publick Worship 1. The use of Sacrifice amongst the Gentiles before Moses time 2. Times Priests and Temples sanctified and selected by the Gentiles for the publick service of their gods 3. A general proof that anciently the Gentiles had their Liturgies and set forms of Worship 4. Preparatory forms used at the Celebration of their Sacrifiees 5. The rites and forms used in the Sacrifice it self 6. Several short forms of words observed amongst the Gentiles both Greek and Latine in their publick Sacrifices 7. Set forms of Prayer used unto Jupiter Mars Janus Juno and other of the gods and goddesses 8. The solemn form used by the Gentiles in evocation of the gods of besieged Cities 9. As also in devoting themselves or Enemies to a certain ruine for preservation of the Common-wealth 10. The several gestures of the Gentiles in the act of publick worship prescribed and regulated 11. The rites and forms used by the Greeks particularly in the solemn Sacrifices 12. A prescript form of Matrimony amongst the Romans IT is observed by Epiphanius Epiphan in Pan. l. 1. c. 1. n. 5. that from the time of Adam unto that of Serug there were no different opinions in the world about Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no sides nor factions fostered by the Sons of men in matters which concerned Gods worship but that Gods Servants were distinguished from other men by the piety and integrity of their conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was the piety and impiety of their lives saith he which made all difference But in the times of Serug the people being scattered and divided into several Languages and not communicating with each other as before they used began to take up several opinions in the things of God which brought them at the last unto Idolatry their errors in the point of practice being grounded on their mispersuasions in point of judgment Yet so that there accrewed unto them no particular name by which to difference them from the rest till the days of Abraham from which time forward the world began to be divided into Jew and Gentile Id. adv haeres 8. num 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he tells us after Upon which ground it may be probably inferred that in the worshipping of those Idols Ninus or whosoever else brought in Idolatry retained that form of Sacrifice and publick Worship which they had seen observed and practised in the Service of God For Belus the Assyrian Monarch the Son and Successor of Nimrod from whom the Jews and Gentiles in succeeding times borrowed the names of Bel and Baal being the first whose Statua or Image was advanced and worshipped 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Alex. contr Julian l. 3. as mine Author hath it by those that lived under his Dominion was the first also unto whom they offered Sacrifices and other rites of divine worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Father plainly Now Bel and Serug were Contemporaries as appears evidently in all Chronology And therefore when Lactantius tell us of Meliseus King of Crete Lactant institut divin l. 1. c. 22. primum diis sacrificasse that he was the first who offered Sacrifice unto the Gods it must be understood with no doubt reference to Europe and these Western parts of the world Or else it must be meant that he set forth the Sacrifices of the gods after a more pompous and magnificent manner than formerly had been accustomed ac ritus novos sacrorumque pompas introduxisse as the words next following do seem to intimate Cicero de natura deorum So that however it be true which Tully tells us nulla gens tam barbara that there was never any Nation known so rude and barbarous which was not well enough persuaded that there was a God and that it was imprinted in their souls by the stamp or character of nature that God was to be Worshipped by them and that too in the first place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said the Grecian Orator yet for the form and manner of his Worship Isocrat orat ad Demon. the Rites and Sacrifices which they used in the first times of their Idolatry I rather think they took it on tradition and from hand to hand than that the light of nature did direct them in it But be this as it will it comes all to one as to the business now in hand which aims no further than to shew that anciently the Gentiles had their Sacrifices when yet no Sacrifices were enjoyned by the Law of Moses And if they had their Sacrifices as 't is plain they had and took them up upon the practice of Gods Servants as 't is most probable they did we may conceive that with those Sacrifices they did joyn such Prayers and Praises as were agreeable to their occasions and necessities when they made their Offerings accordingly as had been done by the holy Patriarchs Unto what purpose did
they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the word that Cyril useth were it not that they made their Prayers to those wretched Idols and implored their favours And it was partly thus in the times succeeding For when the Tribes of Israel were disposed and setled into a Constituted Church and had their prescribed Rites of Sacrifice their Temple Priests their solemn and appointed times and set forms of Worship it was not long before the Gentiles had the like The difference was no more but this that the first Sacrifices and the rites thereof which had been used amongst the ancient Gentiles descended on them by tradition whereas those later adjuncts of Religious Worship pardon theh profanation of the phrase were taken up on imitation And therefore as they had their Sacrifices and their Altars in the former times in the unpolished ages of Idolatry so by degrees as they grew more exact and punctual in their wicked ways they set apart selected times for the performance of their Idol-worship made choice of persons to attend that Service and Consecrated sumptuous Houses to be the seat or receptacle of those several gods to whom that service was intended The several Gods in Rome if one went no further the stately and magnificent Temples unto them belonging the several monthly Festivals and annual Solemnities together with those many Colledges of Priests maintained and founded for the Service of those several Gods were proof enough of this if there were no more And though we might content our selves with this general note yet we will speak a word or two of those times and places which they had dedicated to the service of the gods they worshipped to shew that though they could not reach the height of the true Religion and knew not the intent of those legal Sacrifices which were imposed upon the Jews yet they resolved to come as near it as they could and miss First for the time the Grecians hallowed constantly three days in the every moneth Hesied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. the first the fourth the seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in Hesiod whereof the first was consecrated to Apollo the fourth to Mercury the seventh again unto Apollo as is observed by Alexander ab Alexandro Alexand. ab Alex. dies Genial l. 3. c. 18. Scholiast in Hesiodum Plut. in vita Thesei And this the last I mean is noted by the Scholiast also A novilunio exorsus laudat tres omnes sacras dicens septimam etiam ut Apollinis natalem celebrans Particularly the Athenians did offer unto Theseus their greatest and more solemn Sacrifice upon the eighth day of October because of his arrival on that day from Crete and kept an half holiday as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the eighth day of every moneth because of his descent from Neptune to whom the eighth of every month had before been Consecrated The sect of Epicures hallowed the 20th day of every Moon it may be to their god the belly others the last of every moneth to Pluto Hâ—spinian de Origine Fest c. 5. So for the Romans who came after in respect of time besides the second day of every moneth to the Bonus Genius and the fifteenth to Minerva they consecrated the ninth to Jupiter which was indeed the greatest and most solemn of their monthly Holidays Nundinas Joyis ferias esse ait Gravius Licinius as it is noted by Macrobius Besides which monthly times of worship Macrob. Saturnal lib. 1. c. 16. and those which ever private man might separate for his own occasions both people also had their solemn standing Anniversaries kept with great pomp and celebrated with variety of Rites and Sacrifices the Catalogue of the which who list to see may find them gathered to his hand in that laborious Treatise of Hospinian entituled De Origine festorum By which we see that though the Gentiles did not keep the weekly Holiday which was imposed upon the Jews yet they had several days each moneth as many as the Jews though not the same for publick worship and for the number of their Annual feasts their times of pompous and more solemn worship they went far beyond them But that wherein they came most near the Jews was in the building of their Temples which in the Form and distribution of the parts were so contrived as if their workmen had proceeded by the pattern of King Solomons Temple For as the Temple taking it in the circuit and out-works thereof did contain three parts viz. the Courts the Sanctum and the Sanctum Sanctorum according to their several ministeries by the Law required so were the Temples of the Gentiles cast into three parts also that is to say the Courts or Areas Rosinus Antiqu Rom. l. 2. c. 2. the body of the same which they called Basilicas and last of all their Adyta or more secret places wherein the worshipped deity was supposed to be The Areas of these Temples and the Porticos together with the nave or body of them were easily accessible to all sorts of people but for their Adyta they were conceived to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to be trod upon Jul. Pollux l. 2. cap. 1. num 8. or looked into but by the Priests And hereto Caesar doth agree where speaking of the occulta remota Templi the secret and remote parts of their Temples which sometimes they called Penetralia and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he adds this brief note Caesar de Belle Civil l. 5. Quo praeter sacerdotes adire fas non est that none were suffered but their Priests to go into them Thus have we found amongst the Gentiles Temples and Priests as well as Gods and Sacrifices and more than so prescribed and determinate times whereon those Priests and Temples were to be imployed on which those gods were to be feasted with Oblations and made fat with Sacrifices The next thing here to be considered are the certain Forms if any such be to be found amongst them which were accustomably used in those solemnities For that some certain Forms there were from which it was not lawful for the Priest to vary in the performance of his office nor for the people to dissent when they made their Prayers or brought their Offerings is evident to any one that hath consulted with the Ancients many of which shall be collected and presented in that which followeth These they comprised together in a Book or Volume which was committed to the Priests for their instruction direction to be made use of in their Sacrifices or other parts of Worship as occasion was So witnesses Agellius plainly or A. Gellius if you will for I dispute not of the name so I have the man Comprecationes deorum immortalium quae ritu Romano diis fiunt expositae sunt in libris sacerdotum Populi Romani A. Gellius Noctes Atticae l. 13. c. 21. in plerisque antiquis orationibus
Patriarch Jacob there being otherwise many places in his new gotten Kingdom of more convenience for his Subjects and less obnoxious to the Power of the Kings of Judah than this Bethel was The Act of Jacob in consecrating the Stone at Bethel gave the same hint to Jeroboam to profane the place by setting up his Golden Calves as Abrahams Grove gave to the Idolatrous Jews and Gentiles for polluting the like places with as impure abominations And probable enough it is that by these Acts of Abraham and Jacob the Macchabees proceeded to the Dedication of the Altar when profaned by Antiochus though they made use only of their own Authority in honouring that work and the celebration of it with an Annual Feast of which see Macc. 1. Chap. 4. v. 59 c. Which Feast being countenanced by our Saviour as is elsewhere said gave the first ground unto the Anniversary Feasts of Dedication used in the best and happiest times of Christianity De Eccles Officiis l. 1. c. 3. of which thus Isidore of Sivil Annuas Festivitates dedicationis Ecclesiarum ex more veterum celebrari in Evangelio legimus ubi dicitur facta sunt Encoenia c. Where we have both the custom and the reasons of it that is to say the antient practice of Gods people amongst the Jews occasionally mentioned and related too in the holy Gospel This being repeated and applyed we must next see by what Authority Gods people afterward proceeded on the like occasions Greater Authority we find for the Dedication of the Tabernacle than for the consecrating the Grove or Pillar which before we spake of even the command of God himself who though he had appointed it to be made prescribed as well the matter as the Form thereof descending even unto the nomination of the Workmen that were to take care of the Embroydery of it did not think fit it should be used in his publick Worship till it had first been dedicated to that end and purpose For thus saith God to Moses in the way of Precept And thou shalt take the anointing Oyl and anoint the Tabernacle and all that is therein and shalt hallow it and all the Vessels thereof and it shall be holy and thou shalt anoint the Altar of the Burnt-offering and all his Vessels and sanctifie the Altar Exod. 40.9 1. and it shall be an Altar most holy c. And thus did Moses in conformity to the Lords Commandment of whom it is affirmed Thus did Moses according to all that the Lord commanded him so did he That is to say he reared up the Tabernacle Verse 16 and disposed of every thing therein in its proper place hallowing the Tabernacle and the Altar and the Vessels of it as the Lord commanded and then and not till then was it thought fit for the Acts of Sacrifice and to be honoured with the presence of the Lord their God For as it followeth in that Chapter first Moses offered on the Altar so prepared and consecrated a Burnt-Offering and a Meat-Offering as the Lord commanded ver 29. And secondly A Cloud then covered the tent of the Congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle v. 34. No Fathers need be called in here to explain these Scriptures which every one can understand who is able to read them and every one who understandeth them may conclude from hence that God had never took such order for consecrating of the Tabernacle the Altars and other Vessels of it had he not meant to leave it for a Document and Example to succeeding times that no place should be used for his publick Worship till it was sanctified with Prayer and set apart by some Religious Ceremonies for that holy purpose According to which great Example we find a solemn dedication of the Temple when first built by Solomon performed by Prayer and Sacrifices in most solemn manner 1 Kings 8. A second Dedication of it when first restored by Zorobabel in the time of Ezra where it is said That the children of Israel Ezra 6.16 the Priests and the Levites and the rest of the children of the Captivity kept the Dedication of this House of God with joy And finally Josephus telleth us Antiq. Juda. l. 15. c. 14. that when Zorobabels Temple was pulled down by Herod and built again after a more magnificent manner than before it was with what alacrity and pomp the Jews did celebrate the Dedication of the same A Temple gloriously set out to the outward view immensae opulentiae Templum it is called by Tacitus as before was said and dedicated by the Founder with as great magnificence of which more hereafter Sufficient evidence to prove that whether the Temple be considered as a House of prayer or a place for Sacrifice it was not to be used for either not sanctified and set apart for those holy Actions Having thus seen what was done in those solemn Acts of Dedication by the Lords own people as well before as under the Law of Moses let us next see how far those Actions of Gods people have been followed by the antient Gentiles who though without the Law of Moses yet were instructed well enough by the light of Nature that Sacred Actions were not to be used in unhallowed places And here to go no further than the Roman story being the best compacted and most flourishing estate among the Gentiles we have in the first Infancy thereof a Temple dedicated by Romulus unto Jupiter Feretrius of which thus Livy Jupiter Feretri inquit Romulus haec tibi victor Rex Regia arma fero Templumque iis Regionibus quas meo animo metatus sum dedico sedem opimis spoliis quae Regibus Ducibusque hostium caesis me Autorem sequentes posteri ferent Unto which words of Romulus being the formal words of the Dedication Livy adds his own Hist Rom. Dec. 1. l. 1. Haec Templi est origo quod omnium primum Romae sacratum est That is to say this is the Original of that Temple which first of all was dedicated in the City of Rome Concerning which we are to know that Romulus having vanquished Tolumnius a poor neighbouring King in the head of his Army and brought his Armour into Rome in triumphant manner designed a Temple unto Jupiter from hence named Feretrius for the safe keeping and preserving of those glorious Spoils And having so designed the Temple thus bespeaks the gold viz. O Jupiter Feretrius I by this favour made a Conquerour do here present unto thee these Royal Arms and dedicate or design a Temple to thee in those Regions which in my mind I have marked out for that great purpose to be a seat for those rich Spoils which Posterity following my example having slain Kings or such as do command in chief shall present unto thee Which formal words did so appropriate that place to the service of Jupiter that afterwards it was not to be put unto other uses This done by Romulus
the Levites were appointed in the times before to bear about the Tabernacle as occasion was the Tabernacle now being fixed and setled in Hierusalem there was no further use of the Levites service in that kind 1 Chron. 23.4 5. Therefore King David thought it good to set them to some new employments and so he hid some of them to assist the Priests in the publick Ministery some to be Overseers and Judges of the people some to be Porters also in the house of God and finally some others to be Singers to praise the Lord with instruments that he had made with Harps with Viols and with Cymbals Of these the most considerable were the first and last The first appointed to assist at the daily Sacrifices Verse 31. as also at the Offering of all Burnt-offerings unto the Lord in the Sabbaths in the months and at the appointed times according to the number and according to their custom continually before the Lord. Those were instructed in the songs of the Lord. Cpap. 25.7 The other were chiefly which were made for the Sabbath days and the other Festivals and one he made himself of his own enditing entituled a Song or Psalm for the Sabbath day Psalm 92. Calvin upon the 92 Psalm is of opinion that he made many for that purpose as no doubt he did and so he did for the Feasts also Josephus tells us Antiq. Jud. l. 7. c. 10. that he composed Odes and Hymns to the praise of God as also that he made divers kinds of instruments and that he taught the Levites to praise Gods Name upon the Sabbath days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the other Festivals as well upon the Annual as the weekly Sabbath Where note that in the distribution of the Levites into several Offices there was then no such Office thought of as to be Readers of the Law which proves sufficiently that the Law was not yet read publickly unto the people on the Sabbath day Nor did he only appoint them their Songs and Instruments but so exact and punctual was he that he prescribed what Habit they should wear in the discharging of their Ministery in singing praises to the Lord which was a white linnen Rayment such as the Surplice now in use in the Church of England 2 Chron. 5.12 13. Also the Levites saith the Text which were the singers being arrayed in white linnen having Cymbals and Psalteries and Harps stood at the East end of the Altar c. praising and thanking God for his Grace and wercies And this he did not by commandment from above or any warrant but his own as we find and that he thought it fit and decent David the Prophet of the Lord knew well what did belong to David the King of Israel in ordering matters of the Church and setling things about the Sabbath Nor can it be but worth the notice that the first King whom God raised up to be a nursing Father unto his Church should exercise his regal power in dictating what he would have done on the Sabbath day in reference to Gods publick Worship As if in him the Lord did mean to teach all others of the same condition as no doubt he did that it pertains to them to vindicate the day of his publick service as well from superstitious fancies as prophane contempts and to take special order that his name be glorified as well in the performances of the Priests as the devotions of the people This special care we shall find verified in Constantine the first Christian Emperour of whom more hereaster in the next Book and third Chapter Now what was there ordained by David was afterwards confirmed by Solomon whereof see 2 Chron. 8.14 who as he built a Temple for Gods publick Worship for the New-moons and weekly Sabbaths and the solemn Feasts as the Scripture tells us so he or some of his Sucessours built a fair feat within the Porch thereof wherein the Kings did use to sit both on the Sabbath and the annual Festivals The Scripture calls it tegmen sabbati the covert for the Sabbath that is saith Rabbi Solomon 2 Kings 16. locus quidam in porticu templi gratiose coopertus in quo Rex sedebat die sabbati in magnis festivitatibus as before was said So that in this too both were equal From David pass we to Elijah from one great Prophet to anotyher both persecuted and both fain to flie and both to flie upon the Sabbath Elijah had made havock of the Priests of Baal and Jezebel sent a message to him that he should arm himself to expect the like The Prophet warned hereof arose and being encouraged by an Angel 2 Kings 19.8 he did eat and drink and walked in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights until he came to Horeb the Mount of God What walked he forty days and as many nights without rest or ceasing So it is resolved on Elijah as we read in Damascen De fide Orthod l. 4. c. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disqueting himself non only by continual fasting but by his traveling on the Sabbath even for the space of forty days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did without question break the Sabbath yet God who made that Law was not at all offended with him but rather to reward his vertue Andae qu. 122.8.15.4 appeared to him in Mount Horeb. So Thomas Aquinas speaking of some men in the old Testament qui transgredientes observantiam subbati non peccabant who did transgress against the Sabbath and yet did not sin makes instance of Elijah and of his Journey Wherein saith he it must needs be granted that be did travel on the Sabbath And where a question might be made how possibly Elijab could spend forty days and forty nights in so small a Journey Tostatus makes reply that he went not directly forwards but wandred up and down and from place to place ex timore inquiectudine mentis In locum partly for fear of being sound and partly out of a disquieted and afflicted mind Now whiles Elijab was in exile Benbadad King of Syria invaded Israel and incamped near Aphek where Ahab also followed him and sat down by him with his Army And saith the Text they pitched one over against the other seven days 1 Kings 20.29 and so it was that in the seventh day the Battel was joyned and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians an bundred thousand footmen in one day Ask Zanchius what this seventh day was and he will tell you plainly that it was the Sabbath 14 4 Mandat For shewing us that any servile works may be done lawfully on the Sabbath if either Charity or unavoidable necessity do so require he brings this History in for the proof thereof And then he adds Illi die ipso sabbati quia necessitas postulabat pugnam cum hostibus commiserunt c. The Israelites saith he fighting against their Enemies
Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley Bishop Hooper c. 9. The Doctrine delivered in the Book of Articles touching the five controverted points 10. An answer to the Objection against these Articles for the supposed want of Authority in the making of them 11. An Objection against King Edwards Catechism mistaken for an Objection against the Articles refelled as that Catechism by John Philpot Martyr and of the delegating of some powers by that Convocation to a choice Committee 12. The Articles not drawn up in comprehensive or ambiguous terms to please all parties but to be understood in the respective literal and Grammatical sense and the Reasons why I Have the longer stood upon the answering of this Objection to satisfie and prevent all others of the like condition in case it should be found on a further search that any of our godly Martyrs or learned Writers who either suffered death before the Reign of Edward VI. or had no hand in the carrying on of the Reformation embraced any opinions in Doctrine or Discipline contrary to the established Rules of the Church of England For otherwise as we must admit all Tyndals Heterodoxies and Friths high flying conceits of Predestination which before we touch'd at so must we also allow a Parity or an Identity rather in Priests and Bishops because John Lambert another of our Godly Martyrs did conceive so of it In the primitive Church saith he there were no more Officers in the Church of God than Bishops and Deacons that is to say Ministers as witnesseth beside Scripture S. Hierom in his Commentaries on the Epistles of S. Paul Whereas saith he that those whom we now call Priests were all one and no other but Bishops and the Bishops no other but Priests men ancient both in age and learning so near as could be chosen nor were they instituted and chosen as they be now a days the Bishop and his Officer only opposing them whether they can construe a Collect but they were chosen also with the consent of the people amongst whom they were to have their living as sheweth S. Cyprian But alack for pity such elections are banished and new fashions brought in By which opinion if it might have served or a Rule to the Reformation our Bishops must have been reduced to the rank of Priests and the right of Presentation put into the hands of the people to the Destruction of all the Patrons in the Kingdom If then the question should be asked as perhaps it may On whom or on whose judgment the hrst Reformers most relied in the weighty business I answer negatively First That they had no respect of Calvin no more than to the judgement of Wicklef Tyndal Barns or Frith whose offered assistance they refused when they went about it of which he sensibly complained unto some of his friends as appears by one of his Epistles I answer next affirmatively in the words of an Act of Parliament 2. 3. Edw. 6. where it is said That they had an eye in the first place to the more pure and sincere Christian Religion taught in the Scriptures and in the next place to the usages of the Primitive Church Being satisfied in both which ways they had thirdly a more particular respect to the Lutheran Plat-forms the English Confession or Book of Articles being taken in many places word for word out of that of Ausberg and a conformity maintained with the Lutheran Churches in Rites and Ceremonies as namely in kneeling at the Communion the Cross in Baptism the retaining of all the ancient Festivals the reading of the Epistles and Gospels on Sundays and Holy-days and generally in the whole Form of External Worship Fourthy in reference to the points disputed they ascribed much to the Authority of Melancthon not undeservedly called the Phoenix of Germany whose assistance they earnestly desired whose coming over they expected who was as graciously invited hither by King Edward the Sixth Regiis literis in Angliam vocari as himself affirms in an Epistle to Camerarius His coming laid aside upon the fall of the Duke of Sommerset and therefore since they could not have his company they made use of his writings for their direction in such points of Doctrine in which they though it necessary for the Church to declare her judgment I observe finally That as they attributed much to the particulars to the Authority of Melancthon so they ascribe no less therein unto that of Erasmus once Reader of the Greek Tongue in Cambridge and afterwards one of the Professors of Divinity there whose Paraphrases on the four Evangelists being translated into English were ordered to be kept in Churches for the use of the People and that they owned the Epistles to be studied by all such as had cure of souls Concerning which it was commanded by the injunctions of King Edward VI. published by the advice of the Lord Protector Somerset and the Privy Council Acts and Mon. fol. 1181. in the first year of the said Kings Reign 1. That they should see provided in some most convenient and open place of every Church one great Bible in English with the Paraphrase of Erasmus in English that the People might reverently without any let read and hear the same at such time as they listed and not to be inhibited therefrom by the Parson or Curate but rather to be the more encouraged and provoked thereunto And 2. That every Priest under the degree of a Batchellour of Divinity should have of his own one New Testament in English and Latine with the Paraphrases of Erasmus upon the same and should diligently read and study thereupon and should collect and keep in memory all such comfortable places of the Scripture as do set forth the Mercy Benefits and Goodness of Almighty God towards all penitent and believing persons that they might thereby comfort their flock in all danger of death despair or trouble of Conscience and that therefore every Bishop in their Institution should from time to time try and examine them how they have profited in their studies A course and care not likely to have entred into the thoughts of the Lord Protector or any of the Lords of the Council if it had not been advised by some of the Bishops who then began to have an eye on the Reformation which soon after followed and as unlikely to be counselled and advised by them had they intended to advance any other Doctrine than what was countenanced in the Writings of that Learned man Whereupon I conclude the Doctrine of the points disputed to be the true and genuine Doctrine of the Church of England which comes most near to the plain sense of holy Scripture the general current of the Fathers in the Primitive times the famous Augustane Confession the Writings of Melancthon and the Works of Erasmus To which Conclusion I shall stand till I find my self encountred by some stronger Argument to remove me from it The ground thus laid I shall proceed unto the Reformation
albeit the light of Reason doth abide yet is it much darkned and with much difficulty doth discern things that be inferiour and pertain to this present life but to understand and perceive things that be spiritual and pertain to that everlasting life it is of it self unable And so likewise there remains a certain freedom of the will in those things which do pertain unto the desires and works of this present life yet to perform spiritual and heavenly things Freewill of it self is unsufficient and therefore the power of mans Freewill being thus wounded and decayed hath need of a Physician to heal it and one help to repair it that it may receive light and strength whereby it may be so and have power to do those godly and spiritual things which before the fall of Adam it was able and might have done To this blindness and infirmity of mans Nature proceeding of Original sin the Prophet David hath regard when he desired his eyes to be lightened of Almighty God that he might consider the marvellous things that be in his Law And also the Prophet Jeremy saying Psalm 115. Jer. 16. Heal me O Lord and I shall be made whole Augustin also plainly declareth the same saying We conclude that Freewill is in man after his fall which thing whoso denieth is not a Catholick man but in spiritual desires and works to please God it is so weak and feeble hat it cannot eithre begin or perform them unless by the Grace and help of God it be prevented and holpen And hereby it appeareth that mans strength and Will in all things which be helpful to the soul and shall please God hath need of the graces of the holy Ghost by which such things be inspired to men and strength and constancy given to perform them if we do not wilfully refuse the said Grace effered to them And likewise as many things be in the Scripture which do shew Freewill to be in man so there be now fewer places in Scripture which declare the Grace of God to be so necessary that if by it Freewill be not prevented and holpen it neither can do nor will any thing good and godly of which sort be these Scriptures following Without me you can do nothing no man cometh to me except it be given him of my Father John 15. Jon. 6.1 Cor. 3. We be not sufficient of our selves as of our selves to think any good thing According unto which Scriptures and such other like it followeth That Freewill before it may will or think any godly thing must be holpen with the grace of Christ and by his Spirit be prevented and inspired that it may be able thereunto And being so made able may from thenceforth work together with grace and by the same sustained holpen and maintained may both accomplish good works and avoid sin and persevere also and increase in grace It is true of the grace of God only that first we are inspired and moved to any good thing but to resist temptations and to persist in goodness and go forward it is both of the Grace of God and our Freewill and endeavour And finally after we have persevered unto the end to be crowned with glory therefore is the gift and mercy of God who of his bountiful goodness hath ordained that reward to be given after this life according to such good works as be done in this life by his Grace Therefore men ought with much diligence and gratitude of mind to consider and regard the inspiration wholesom motions of the holy Ghost and to embrace the Grace of God which is offered to them in Christ and moveth them to work good things And furthermore to go about by all means to shew themselves such as unto whom the Grace of God is not given in vain And when they do settle that notwithstanding their diligence yet through their infirmity they be not able to do that they desire then they ought earnestly and with a fervent devotion and stedfast faith to ask of him which gave the beginning that he would vouchsafe to perform it which thing God will undoubtedly grant according to his promise to such as persevere in calling upon him For he is naturally good and willeth all men to be saved and careth for them and provideth all things by which they may be saved except BY THEIR OWN MALICE they will be evil and so by the righteous judgment of God perish and be lost For truly men be to themselves the AVTHOR OF SIN and DAMNATION God is neither the AVTHOR OF SIN nor the CAVSE OF DAMNATION and yet doth he most righteously damn those men that do with Vices corrupt their Nature which he made good and do abuse the same to evil desires against his most holy will wherefore men be to be warned that they do not impute to God their Vice or their damnation but to themselves who by Freewill have abused the grace and benefits of God All men be also to be monished and chiefly Preachers that in this high matter they looking on both sides so attemper and moderate themselves that neither they so preach the Grace of God as to take away thereby Freewill Nor on the other side so extol Freewill that injury be done to the grace of God Such was the judgment of the Bishops and Clergy assembled in Convocation Anno 1543. touching the nature of Freewill and the co-operations of it with the grace of God In which I can see nothing not agreeable to the present establish'd Doctrine of the Church of England And if it be objected as perhaps it may that this Convocation was held in times of Popery and managed by a Popish Clergy it may be answered that the Bishops and Clergy then assembled were such as had a principal hand in the Reformation and generally subscribed unto the Articles of Religion agreed upon and published in King Edwards time Anno 1552. At which time fifteen of the Bishops which had been present at the Convocation Anno 1543. were not only living but present and consenting to the Articles in King Edwards time that is to say Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Parfew Bishop of Saint Asaph Buchely Bishop of Bangor Bush Bishop of Bristol Sampson Bishop of Litchfield Barlow Bishop of Saint David Goodrich Bishop of Ely Ship Bishop of Hereford Folgate Bishop of Landaff and afterwards Archbishop of York King Bishop of Oxon Chambers Bishop of Peterborough Cepon Bishop of Sarum Thirlby then Bishop of Westminster Aldrich then Bishop of Carlile and Bird Bishop of Chester By which proportion we may conclude that a far greater number of the Deans and Arch-deacons who have a personal right of voting in all Convocations and coming to the number of eighty and thereabouts must be living and consenting also to the Reformation as being younger men than the Bishops were not to say any thing of the Clerks or Procurates of Cathedral Churches and those of the Diocesan Clergy as being variable and changeable
populares magistratus ad moderandum Regum libidinem constituti quales olim erant qui Lacedaemoniis Regibus oppositi erant Ephori aut Romanis Consulibus Tribuni Plebis aut Atheniensium Senatui Demarchi qua etiam foric potestate ut nune res habent funguntur in singulis Regnis tres Ordâ—nes quunt primarios conventus peragunt adeo illos ferocienti Reguin licentiae pro officio intercedere non veto ut si Regibus impotenter grassanttbus humili plebeculae insultantibus conniveant eorum dissimulationem nefariâ perfidiâ non carere affirmem quia populi libertatem cujus se Dei Ordinatione tutores positos norunt fraudulenter produnt But still I must be understood of private persons For if there be now any Popular Officers ordained to moderate the licentiousness of Kings such as the Ephori of old set up against the Kings of Sparta the Tribunes of the people against the Roman Consuls and the Demarchi against the Athenian Senate and with which power perhaps as the World now goes the three Estates are furnished in each several Kingdom when they are solenmly assembled sofar am I from hindering them from putting a restraint on the exorbitant power of Kings as their Office binds them that I conceive them guilty rather of a persidious dissimulation if they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insult on the common people in that they treacherously betray the Subjects Liberty of which they know they were made Guardians by Gods own Ordinance and appointment But this must always be excepted in the obedience which we have determined to be que to the commands of our Governors and first of all to be observed that it draw us not from that obedience which is due to him to whose will all the commands of Kings must be subordinate to whose decrees their strongest mandates must give place and before whose Majesty they are bound to lay down their Scepters For how preposterous were it to incur his anger by our compliance with those men whom we are bound no otherwise to obey than for his sake only The Lord is King of Kings who when he speaks is to be heard for all and above them all We must be subject to those men who have rule over us but in him alone If against him they do command us any thing it is to be of none account Nor in such cases is the dignity of the Magistrate to be stood upon to which no injury is done if in regard of the more eminent and supream power of God it be restrained within its bounds Dan. 6.22 In this respect Daniel denied that he had trespassed any thing against the King in not obeying his prophane and ungodly Edict because the King had gone beyond his proper limits and being not only injurious against men but lifting up his horns against God himself had first deprived himself of all Authority The Israelites are condemned on the other side for being so ready to obey their King in a wicked action when to ingratiate themselves with Jeroboam who had newly made the Golden Calves they left the Temple of the Lord and betook themselves to a new superstitious worship And when their Children and posterity with the like facility applied themselves unto the humours of their wicked Kings the Prophet doth severely rebuke them for it So little praise doth that pretence of modeâ—ly deserve to have with which some Court parasites do disguise themselves and abuse the simple affirming it to be a crime not to yield obedience to any thing that Kings command as if God either had resigned all his rights and interess into the hands of mortal men when he made them Rulers over others or that the greatest earthly power were a jot diminished by being subjected to its Author before whom all the powers of Heaven do trembling supplicate I know that great and imminent danger may befall those men who dare give entertainment to so brave a constancy considering with what indignation Kings do take the matter when they once see themselves neglected whose indignation is as the messenger of death saith the Wise man Solomon But when we hear this Proclamation made by the heavenly Cryer that we ought to obey God rather than men let this consideration be a comfort to us Acts 5.29 that when we yield that obedience unto God which he looks for from us when we rather choose to suffer any thing than to deviate from the way of godliness And lest our hearts should fail us in so great a business St. Paul subjoyns another motive 2 Cor. 7 2â— that being bought by Christ at so great a price we should not re-inthral our selves to the lusts of men much less addict our selves to the works of wickedness These are the very words of Calvin from which his followers and Disciples most extreamly differ both in their doctrine and their practice First for their practice Calvin requires that we should reverence and respect the Magistrate for his Office sake and that we entertain no other than a fair esteem an honourable opinion both of their actions Sect. 2â— and their Counsels His followers like silthy dreamers as they are do not only dispise dominion but speak evil of dignities that is to say Jude 8. they neither reverence the persons of their Supream Magistrate nor regard their Office and are so far from cherishing a good opinion of those higher powers to which the Lord hath made them subject that their hearts imagine mischief against them all the day long and though they see no cause to condemn their actions they will be sure enough to misconstrue the end Calvin requires that we should manifest the reverence and respect we bear them by the outward actions of obedience Sect. 23. and to the end that this obedience should proceed from the very heart and not to be counterfeit and false he adds that we commend there health and flourishing estate in our prayers to God Ibid. His followers study nothing more than to disobey them in every one of those particulars which their Master speaks of refusing to obey their laws and to pay them tribute and to undergo such services and burdens as are laid upon them in reference to the publick safety and spare not as occasion serves to manifest the disaffection of their hearts by such outward acts as disâ—bedience and disloyalty can suggest unto them and are so far from praying for them that many times they pray against them blaspheming God because he will not curse the King and making that which they call Prayer so dangerous and lewd a Libel that their very prayers are turned to sin Calvin requires such moderation in the Subject that they neither intermeddle in affairs of State nor invade the Office of the Magistrate and that if any thing be amiss in the publick Government which stands in need of Reformation they presume not to put their hands unto the work
times the Kings did graciously vouchsafe to pass the whole Bill in that Form which the Houses gave it or to reject it wholly as they saw occasion yet still the Privy Council and the Judges and the Council learned in the Laws have and enjoy their place in the House of Peers as well for preservation of the Kings Rights and Royalties as for direction to the Lords in a point of Law if any case of difficulty be brought before them on which occasions the Lords are to demand the Opinion of the Judges and upon their Opinions to ground their Judgment As for Example In the Parliament 28 of Hen. VI. The Commons made suit that William de la Pole Duke of Suffolk should be committed to Prison for many Treasons and other Crimes and thereupon the Lords demanded the Opinion of the Judges 28 Hen. 6. whether he should be committed to Prison or not whose Answer was that he ought not to be committed in regard the Commons had not charged him with any particular offence but with generals only which Opinion was allowed and followed In another Parliament of the said King held by Prorogation one Thomas Thorpe the Speaker of the House of Cemmons was in the Prorogation-time condemned in 1000 l. damages upon an Action of Trespass at the suit of Richard Duke of York and was committed to Prison for execution of the same The Parliament being reassembled the Commons made suit to the King and Lords to have their Speaker delivered to them according to the Privilege of Parliaments The priviled of the Barons p. 15. the Lords demanded the Opinion of the Judges in it and upon their Answer did conclude that the Speaker should stilll remain in Prison according to Law notwithstanding the privilege of Parliament and according to this resolution the Commons were commanded in the Kings name to chuse one Tho. Carleton for their Speaker which was done accordingly Other Examples of this kind are exceeding obvious and for numbers infinite yet neither more in number nor more obvious than those of our Kings serving their turns by and upon their Parliaments as their occasions did require For not to look on higher and more Regal times we find that Richard the 2d a Prince not very acceptable to the Common people could get an Act of Parliament 21 Ric. 2. to confirm the extrajudicial Opinion of the Judges given before at Notingham that King Henry IV. could by another Act reverse all that Parliament entail the Crown to his posterity 1 Hen. 4. and keep his Dutchy of Laneaster and all the Lands and Scigneuries of it from being united to the Crown that King Edward the 4th could have a Parliament to declare all the Kings of the House of Lancaster to be Kings in Fact but not in Right 1 Ed. c. 1. and for uniting of that Dutchy to the Crown Imperial notwithstanding the former Act of separation that King Richard the 3d could have a Parliament to bastardize all his Brothers Children Speeds Hist in K. Richard 3. Verulams Hist of K. Hen. 7. 11 Hen. 7. c. 10. to set the Crown on his own Head though a most bloody Tyrant and a plain Usurper that K. Henry VII could have the Crown entailed by an Act of Parliament to the issue of his own body without relation to his Queen of the House of York which was conceived by many at that time to have the better Title to it another for paying a Benevolence which he had required of the Subject though all Benevolences had been damned by a former Statute made in the short but bloudy reign of King Richard the 3d that King Henry VIII could have one Act of Parliament to bastardry his Daughter Mary in favour of the Lady Elizabeth 65 Hen. 8. c. 22 28. c. 7. 35 H. 8. c. 1. another to declare the Lady Elizabeth to be illegitimate in expectation of the issue by Queen Jane Seymour a third for setling the succession by his Will and Testament and what else he pleased that Queen Mary could not only obtain several Acts in favour of her self and the See of Rome but for the setling of the Regency on the King of Spain 1 Mar. ses 2. c. 1 2. 1. 2 Ph. M. c. 8.10 in case the Children of that Bed should be left in non-age And finally that Queen Elizabeth did not only gain many several Acts for the security of her own Person which were determinable with her life but could procure an Act to be passed in Parliament for making it high Treason to affirm and say That the Queen could not by Act of Parliament bind and dispose the Rights and Titles which any person whatsoever might have to the Crown 13 Eliz. c. 1. And as for raising moneys and amassing Treasures by help of Parliaments he that desires to know how well our Kings have served themselves that way by the help of Parliaments let him peruse a book entituled the Privilege of Parliaments writ in the manner of Dialogue between a Privy Counsellor and a Justice of Peace and he shall be satisfied to the full Put all that hath been said together and sure the Kingdom of England must not be the place in which the three Estates convened in Parliament have power to regulate the King or restrain his actions or moderate his extravagances or where they can be taxed for persidious treachery of they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insult on the Common-people or otherwise abuse that power which the Lord hath given them Calvin was much mistaken if he thought the contrary or if he dreamt that he should be believ'd on his ipse dixit without a punctual enquiry into the grounds and probability of such a dangerous intimation as he lays before us But against this it is objected that Parliaments have disposed of the Militia of the Kingdom of the Forts Castles Ports and the Navy Royal not only without the Kings leave but against his liking that they have deposed some Kings and advanced others to the top of the Regal Throne And for the proof of this they produce Examples out of the Reign of King Henry III. Edw. II. and King Richard the second Examples which if rightly pondered do not so much prove the Power as the Weakness of Parliaments in being carried up and down by the private conduct of every popular pretender For 't is well known that the Parliaments did not take upon them to rule or rather to over-look K. Henry III. but as they were directed by Simon Montfort Earl of Leicester who having raised a potent faction in the State by the assistance of the Earls of Glocester Matth. Paris Henr. 3. Hereford Derby and some others of the great Lords of the Kingdom compelled the King to yield unto what terms he pleased and made the Parliaments no other than a means and instrument to put a popular gloss on his wretched purposes And
point unto an end with some small alteration of my Authors words To him who doth consider the grievous and scandalous inconveniencies whereunto they make themselves daily subject when any blind and secret corner is made a fit place for Common-Prayer the manifold Confusions which they fall into which cry down all the difference of days and times the irksome Deformities whereby through endless and senseless Effusions of indigested Prayers they oftentimes disgrace in most unsufferable manner the worthiest part of Christian duty towards God who being subject herein to no certain order do pray both what they list and how they list to him I say which duly weigheth all these things the reason cannot be obscure why God so much respects in publick Prayer not only the solemnity of places where and the conveniency of the times when but also the precise appointment even with what words or sentences his Name should be called on amongst his people I have said little all this while of the Priest or Minister with whom Gods people are to joyn themselves in this publick action as with him that standeth and speaketh for them in the presence of God because I could not tell what place or Ministry to assign him in the discharge of this imployment unless we first premise a set form of Prayer as a point necessary to be granted For in effusion of extemporal Prayers I cannot see what greater priviledge belongs to him than any other of the People or why each member of the Congregation may not as well express his own conceptions in the House of God as he who calls himself the Minister For being that the ability if I may so call it of pouring out extemporary prayers doth come by gifts and not by study in which regard themselves entitle it most commonly the gift of Prayer Why may not other men pretend unto that gift as much as he or on opinion that they have it may not make use thereof in the Congregation Why may not any one so gifted or so opinionated of his gift say unto his Minister as Zedekiah did unto Micaiah in case he do not also strike him upon the cheek Mene ergo dimisit Spiritus Domini locutus est tibi 1 King 22 24. Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee Assuredly the gift of prayer is as much restrained in the People by hearkening only to those expressions which are delivered by their Minister as that of the Minister can be be he who he will by tying up his spirit to those forms which are prescribed by the Church This if it be a quenching of the Spirit as some please to make it is such a quenching of the Spirit as hath good ground from God himself who did not only prescribe unto his Priests those very words Numb 6.23 wherewith they were to bless the People as we shall see hereafter in due place and time Mat. 6.9 but did instruct both Priests and People both the Apostles and Disciples how they were to pray in what set form they might present their souls and desires unto him So little priviledge hath the Priest or Minister more than other People to speak his own thoughts in the Congregation by way of voluntary and extemporal prayers on the grounds they go on that on the same the meanest of the multitude may pretend the like and that as well in other parts of publick worship as in that of prayer which what a Chaos of devotion it would introduce I leave to every sober minded man to judge by that which followeth For if we look into the publick Service of Almighty God according as it standeth in all well-regulated Churches it doth consist of these three parts Prayer Praise and Preaching Taking the word Preaching here in the largest sense for publishing or making known the will of God by whatsoever means it be touching mans salvation The Church of England so conceives it when in the general Invitation she informs her Children that the chief reasons why they do assemble and meet together Dearly beloved Brethren c. are to set forth Gods most holy praise to hear his most holy Word and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary as well for the body as the soul The Brethren of the Separation as they call themselves do conceive so too though with some variation of the terms saying there be three kinds of spiritual worship Praying Prophesying and Singing of Psalms H. Smith in a Book entituled The differences of the Churches of the Separation 1606. cap. 18. Id. cap. 11. Id. cap. 10. They add with truth enough in the affirmation were there but any sense in the application that there is the same reason of helps in all the parts of spiritual worship as is to be admitted in any one during the time of performing the worship What then Observe I pray you the illation and the necessity thereof on the former grounds Therefore for so they do infer as in Prayer the Book is laid aside and that by the confession of the ancient Brethren of the separation so must it also be in Prophesying and in Singing of Psalms as we are perswaded What are they but perswaded of it and no more than so Yes sure they are more positive and affirm for certain Id. ibid. that as in Prayer the Spirit only is our help and there is no outward help given of God for that kind of worship so also in Prophesying and Singing And in another place more plainly therefore whether we Pray Prophesie or Sing it must be the Word or Scripture not out of the book but out of the heart Id. cap. 18. Add here these Quaeres raised on the former Thesis Id. in fine libri 1. Whether in a Psalm a man must be tyed to Metre Rhythm and Tune and whether voluntary be not as necessary in tune and words as in matter 2. Whether Metre Rhythm and Tune be not quenching the spirit 3. Whether a Psalm be only thanksgiving without Metre Rhythm and Tune yea or no. Put this together and then tell me truly whosoever thou art if when a great and populous Congregation should be met together every one of them in that part of worship which consists in Singing should first conceive his own matter deliver it in Prose or Metre as he list himself and in the same instant chant it out in what Tune soever that which comes first into his head Tell me I say if ever there were heard so black a Sanctus such a confused and horrid noise of tongues and voices if any howling or gnashing of the teeth whatever can be like unto it And yet it follows so directly on the former Principles that if we banish all set forms of Common-prayer which is but one part only of Gods publick worship we cannot but in justice and in reason both banish all studied and premeditated Sermons from the House of God and utterly
cast out all King Davids Psalms whether in Prose or Metre that comes all to one and all divine Hymns also into the bargain This though it be sufficient to discover the great and scandalous inconveniencies that necessarily would follow in Gods publick Service if once the solemn and set forms thereof were quite laid aside or any ground of hope given unto that confusion which some have pleased to call the liberty of the Spirit of God so may there somewhat else be added to set forth the necessity of those publick forms which they so labour to put down For if we cast a careful eye upon the business we may perceive without much difficulty that as a prescript form of Common-prayer as well amongst the Jews as Christians proceeded either from the Example of God who in some cases so prescribed it or from the Wisdom of God guiding the counsels of his Church as before was noted So by the Law and light of Nature which was the way whereby he pleased to manifest himself and make known his will unto the Gentiles they also were directed to set forms of Worship though otherwise mistaken utterly in the object of it For being taught by Nature that there was a God one universal supream Power that disposed of all things and that that God was to be served and worshipped by them even with the best of their devotions It was not long before they had agreed on set times and places for the performance of that Worship as also of some special Minister by whom to tender some solemn forms of words in which to represent their said devotions The ignorance and blindness of their hearts occasioned them to set up Idols in the place of God and to serve many Gods instead of one But in the service of those gods in the adoring of those Idols they thought it did concern them in an high degree to do it with the most solemnity with the greatest majesty that wisest of them could devise prescribing as it were by common counsel and advice whatever they intended to have done therein both for form and matter So that it will appear on a diligent search that in all publick Congregations of men met together for the performance of Religious Offices whether they did adhere to false gods or adore the true there was not any thing almost left arbitrary nothing almost which was not limited and prescribed by Rules or Rubricks no kind of service to be done for which there was not some set form prescribed in their established and received Liturgies The following of which search is the intent and Argument of this present work In which I doubt not but to make it plain and evident by the continual and constant practice of the former times that in all publick Congregations whether of the Jews under the Law or of the Gentiles without the Law or of the Christians being a body of men made up both of Jews and Gentiles both Priests and People have been tied to set forms of worship And therefore that the use of a publick Liturgy is no such new matter in the world as some men have made it who will needs have it a device either of a lazy zeal or Popish ignorance But first before we do proceed in this search of Liturgies we must take notice of the word and explain the same lest being mistaken in the ground the building prove unsure and faulty And here for the quid nominis Suidas derives the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suidas in Lexico which signifieth publick and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any work or office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith that old Grammarian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which doubtless is the true and proper Etymologie the old word being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we find in Stephanus Stephanus in Thesauro linguae Grae. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. d. opus publicum faciens and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opus aliquod publicum facio and shortly after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ejusdem significationis For the quid rei next it signifieth as we see by the Etymologie ministerium vel munus publicum a publick charge or ministry in what kind soever whether it be sacred or profane and is so used in Classick and approved Authors Isocrates in some of his Orations Isocrat orat useth the word pro Magistratuum functione for the power and office of the Civil Magistrate Rom. 13 6. So also doth S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing Sometimes it signifieth the doing or offering a mans service to the Common-wealth as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Politic. l. 4. in the great Philosopher in which regard such wealthy Citizens as were able to supply the publick wants from their private Coffers are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to serve the Common-wealth with their proper goods Rom. 16.27 And so the word is used also by the great Apostle For if saith he the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things their duty also is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to minister unto them in carnal things And in this sense the word is taken several times in the Epistle unto the Philippians Polyn. ib hist Rom. viz. cap. 2. vers 25. vers 30. I might here add that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in Polybius for munifex in castris or an Engineer as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the same Author pro ministerio castrensi for a charge or office in the camp and that in Clemens Alexandrinus the word is used to signifie those businesses and imployments which attend on Marriage where he informeth us that the Married state hath several duties Clemens Alexan. Stromat l. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof a reckoning or accompt must be made to God But these being the acceptions of the word in the civil sense and meaning only I shall pass them over As for the sacred sense or meaning of it we find in Aristotle that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are those publick offices to be performed unto the gods with expence and cost Arist Politic. l. 7. From which acception of the word the Septuagint made use thereof to signifie the Worship and Service due to God who is not to be Served or Worshipped but with the best of our Devotions as in the Jewish Church with the best also of their substance The word so used by them in their Translation of the Old Testament became in fine a word of Art or speciality amongst the Writers of the New For in the first Chapter of S. Luke's Gospel the Ministry of the Jewish Priesthood is called by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 1.23 as where it is said of Zacharias how it came to pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that as soon as the days of his