of the Law either as a distinct and special duty or as an ordinary part of the publick Liturgy during the standing of the first Temple which was that of Solomon For further proof whereof if we but look into Chronology it will there appear that the finding of the book of God before remembred did happen in the 3412. yer of the worlds Creation Tornielli Annales A. M. 3412. not forty years before the desolation of that Temple in which short space the Princes being careless and the times distracted we have no reason to expect such a blessed Ordinance But in the second Temple or rather whilst it stood and flourished the Law of Moses grew to be read more constantly unto the people than it had been formerly Not every seventh year only on the feast of Tabernacles as had before been ordered and set down by Moses but upon every Sabbath day and each solemn meeting and sometimes on the week-days also nor only in the Temple of Hierusalem as it used to be but in the Towns and principal places of each several Tribe and then and there they did not only read the book of Deuteronomy which was the book prescribed by Moses but the whole body of the Law Which excellent and useful Ordinance is generally referred to Ezra a Priest by calling and very skilful in the Laws of Moses who having taken great pains to seek out the Law and other parts and portions of the book of God digested and disposed them in that form and method in which we have them at the present Of this see Irenaeus l. 3. c. 25. Tertullian de habitu mulierum Clemens Alexandr Strom. l. 1. Chrysost Homil. 8. in epist ad Hebraeos and divers others And if we place this Ordinance or Institution introduced by Ezra Id. anno 3610. in the 3610. year of the Creation which was the time wherein that solemn reading of the Law was kept which we find mentioned in the viii of Nehemiah there will occur betwixt that time and the first general Council holden in Hierusalem 490. years or thereabouts Which might be ground enough to the Apostle to affirm of Moses that in the old time he had them that preached him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day Act. 15.21 and yet not go so high as Philo and Josephus do to setch the pedigree or original rather of the Institution This then I take to be unquestionable that the weekly reading of the Law was brought into the Jewish Church in the time of Ezra and being brought in I take it as unquestionable that it was used as a part of the daily Office an ordinary portion of the publick Liturgy Not to be read at the discretion of the Minister as his own choice or chance directed and much les as an exercise to take up the time whilst one man tarried for anothers coming until the Congregation were grown full and fit for other business as in some Churches of the Reformation it is used of late but as a special portion of the service which they did to God And this appears by the division of the Law of Moses into those great sections which they call the Parasha being in number 54. which they read in the 52 Sabbaths of the year joyning two of the shortest twice together that the whole might be finished in a years space Aynsw Annot. in Gen. 6. Of this thus write the Hebrew Doctors It is say they a common custom throughout all Israel that they finish wholly the reading of the Law in one year beginning in the Sabbath which is after the feast of Tabernacles at the first section of Genesis in the second at These are the Generations of Noah in the third at The Lord said to Abraham Gen. xii 1. c. So they read and go on in this order till they have ended the Law at the feast of Tabernacles Maim ap Aynsw ibid. By which it seems that as the form of their publick service was not voluntary so neither were the parts thereof uncertain but all set down in rule and order by the authority of the Church and the wisdom of the Governours and chief Rulers in it as might conduce best to the glory of God and the edification of his people Nor was this all that Ezra did in the advancement of Gods service of his publick worship For unto him appointed thereunto by the Authority of the Consistory the Rabbins generally ascribe those eighteen Prayers or Benedictions so much in use amongst the Jews Of which thus Maimony Descripsit cunctas benedictiones Ezra Maim ap Selden in Eutych Alex. p. 51. c. Ezra saith he composed all those Benedictions which by the Consistory were enjoyned to be perpetually observed so that it was not lawful to change or alter them neither to add unto them or diminish from them every alteration of those formulas which by their Wise-men were devised and confirmed in those Benedictions being accounted for a fault And this was done as the same Rabbin doth inform us in another place Vt scilicet in cujuslibet ore bene disponerentur omnesque eas discerent c. That every man might have them in his mouth and be perfect in them Id. ap eundem p. 44. and that thereby the prayers of the rude and ignorant might be as compleat as those of a more eloquent tongue Of these eighteen the three first and the three alst related to the glory of God the other twelve as it is noted in the Gemara Hierosolymit ad ea quae humano generi necessaria Ap. tundem Pâ— 43. to such things as were necessary for the life of man or as it is inlarged by Maimony to all those things quae singulis hominibus habenda in votis which either do concern particular men or are thought necessary to the State or Nation These Prayers or Benedictions thus composed were not alone thought necessary for all sorts of people and therefore called by the Jews preces officii necessario praestandi an office of necessity to be performed Ap. tund p. 47. but used both by Priest and People as an ordinary part of their publick Liturgy Whereof we are thus told by Rabbi Maimony Publicus Minister seu universitatis aut populi Apostolus liberat plebem ab officio suo hic praestando c. Id. p. 47.48 The publick Minister or the Apostle as they called him of the Congregation did ease the people of this service if when he said the prayers they did hearken to him and unto every Benediction answered AMen for by so doing the people also are conceived to pray But this saith he is only in such cases w hen the people is not perfect in those prayers or cannot say the same by heart for they who can repeat the prayers do not aright discharge their duty as they ought to do in case they did not pray themselves with the publick Minister And so much for the
Prayers and Benedictions devised by Ezra Which had they been the very first stinted forms of prayer which ever had been heard of in the Jewish Church Smectymn indicat p. 20. as some men give out although indeed it be not so it would make more than they imagine both for the Authority and Antiquity of set forms of worship But to return again unto the Reading of the Law set on foot by Ezra besides that by this institution the reading of the Law of Moses became an ordinary part of the Jewish Liturgy for the Sabbath days he caused it also to be read upon the second and the fift days being our Monday and Thursday that they might not rest three days from hearing the Law and at the Evening prayer of the Sabbath days because of idle persons who perhaps were absent at the Morning service Id. in Tephillah ubircath c. 12. cited by H. Thorndike In his religious Assemblies c. 8. The difference was only this that in these Readings on the by if I may so call them the Minister or the Reader was not tyed to read the whole Section or Parasha as upon the Sabbath but was therein left unto himself conditioned that he read no less than ten verses at each several reading and that there were three men to read it on the days aforesaid Now to this reading of the Law in the Congregation every Sabbath day was also added at some times and on some occasions the Exposition of the same and that I find to have been done two ways either by way of Comment and Application or else by reading with the Law some part of passage of the Prophets as seemed most parallel unto it Of these the first may seem to take beginning from the Act of Ezra who in that famous reading of the Law mention whereof is made in Nehemiah cap. viii not only caused a Pulpit of wood to be provided for that purpose that so he might be heard the better but placed about the same divers Priests and Levites to expound the Text and give the sense and meaning of it that so the people might the better understand the reading Whereof as of a thing never used before the reason is thus given by Torniellus because the Hebrew tongue wherein the Scriptures were first written was grown strange unto them Torniel annal A.M. 3610. n. 9. Chaldaico seu Syriaco idiomate in locum ejus surrogato the Syriack or Chaldee language being generally received in the place thereof And hereunto agrees Cunaeus who saith expresly that whilst the former Temple stood Interpretatio magistrorum commentatio nulla there was no gloss or exposition of the Law made as of course unto the people Cunaeus de Repub. Jud. l. 1. c. 17. That office being supplyed when there was occasion by such holy Prophets as God raised amongst them at extraordinary times and for no ordinary purposes But that these Expositions of the Law thus begun by Ezra were afterwards used constantly amongst the Jews every Sabbath day as I do no where find it so I dare not say it If so it were it could not be done presently but in tract of time of which more anon In the mean time we will behold the second kind of Exposition which before we spake of that which was made by reading with the Law some part or passage of the Prophets which came near unto it The first beginning of the which the Jews refer unto the furious raging of Antiochus furnamed Epiphanes who had not only defiled the Temple and forbid the use of Circumcision but also did prohibit the reading of the Law of Moses upon pain of death On which occasion and to prevent the mischief which might thereby grow if the reading of the Law should be quite left off they chose chapters and divisions out of the writings of the Prophets which were most answerable to those parts of the Law of Moses which were read before as for this Section of the Law In the beginning God Created c. They made choice of that in Esa xlii 5. So saith the Lord the Creator of Heaven and Earth continuing to the 11. verse of the xliii These fractions of the Law they called Haphtara And though the tyranny of Antiochus being over-blown Christ Synag lib. 1. cap. 4. they fell again unto the reading of the Law of Moses as was used before yet they continued still the reading of the holy Propohets as finding it a very wholsome institution and sometimes joyned thereunto such Expositions as the Scribes and Rabbins made upon the same according to their several Talents Certain I am that so it was in our Saviurs time and in the time of his Apostles For thus we find in S. Luke's Gospel that when our Saviour came into the Synagogue of Nazareth and stood up to read Luk. 4.16 c. there was delivered him the book of the Prophet Esay and that when he had read the place he closed the Book and gave it again unto the Minister the Apostle of the Congregation as the Rabbins call him and afterwards expounded and applyed the Text. And in his History of the Apostles we find that Paul and Barnabas being present at the Synagogue of Antiochia Act. 13.14 15. on the Sabbath day sate down and that after the reading of the Law and Prophets the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto them saying Ye Men and Brethren if ye have any word of Exhortation for the people say on c. In which we have at once the custom of those latter times for the expounding of the Law in the Congregation as being by this time made a part of Gods holy Service as the place and room also which it held in the publick Liturgy that is to say next to the reading of the Law and Prophets as now the Sermon followeth on the reading of the Epistle and the Gospel As for the gesture which was used by these several Ministers in the discharge of those distinct and several Offices I find that the reading of the Law and Prophets and the exposition of the same was with the face of him that did it towards the face of the people whereof see Luk. iv 16. And that the Minister who read the Prayers whom they called the Apparitour of the Synagogue stood with his back towards the people his face being turned unto the Ark. This leads me on unto another Institution not known before the building of the second Temple or the times of Ezra which was the setting up of Synagogues and Oratories throughout the Countrey Of these we find no mention in the former times and but little Use the total sum of all Gods publick worship being cast into the Temple of Hierusalem For where it is supposed by some that there were Synagogues of the Jews in the time of David who for the proof thereof did produce these words They have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land Psal lxxiv. the supposition
one other Reading of it publickly and before the people related in the thirteenth of Nehemiah when it was neither Feast of Tabernacles nor sabbatical year for ought we find in holy Scripture Therefore most like it is that it was the Sabbath which much about those times began to be ennobled with the constant reading of the Word in the Congregation First in Hierusalem and after by degrees in most places else as men could fit themselves with convenient Synagogues Houses selected for that purpose to hear the Word of God and observe the same Of which times and of none before those passages of Philo and Josephus before remembred Chap. 6. n. 4. touching the weekly reading of the Law and the behaviour of the people in the publick places of Assembles are to be understood and verified as there we noted For that there was no Synagogue nor weekly reading of the Law before these times besides what hath been said already we will now make manifest No Synagogue before these times for there is neither mention of them in all the body of the old Testament nor any use of them in those days wherein there were no Congregations in particular places And first there is no mention of them in the old Testament For where it is supposed by some that there were Synagogues in the time of David and for the proof thereof they produce these words Psal 74.8 they have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land the supposition and the proof are alike infirm For not to quarrel the Translation which is directly different from the Greek and vulgar Latine and somewhat from the former English this Psalm if writ by David was not composed in reference to any present misery which fefell the Church There had been no such havock made thereof in all Davids time as is there complained of Therefore if David writ that Psalm he writ it as inspired with the spirit of Prophecy and in the spirit of Prophecy did reflect on those wretched times wherein Antiochus laid waste the Church of God and ransacked his inheritance To those most probably must it be referred the miseries which are there bemoaned not being so exactly true in any other time of trouble as it was in this Magis probabilis est conjectura ad tempus Antiochi referri has querimonias as Calvin notes it In Psal 74. And secondly there was no use of them before because no reading of the Law in the Congregation of ordinary course and on the Sabbath days For had the Law been read unto the people every Sabbath day we either should have found some Commandment for it or some practice of it but we meet with neither Rather we find strong arguments to persuade the contrary We read it of Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 17.7 that in the third year of his reign he sent his Princes Ben-hail and Obadiah and Zechariah and Nathaneel and Micaiah to teach in the Cities of Judah These were the principal in Commission and unto them he joyned nine Levites and two Priests to bear them company and to assist them It followeth And they taught in Judah Verse 9. and had the book of the Law of the Lord with them and they went about throughout all the Cities of Judah and taught the people And they taught in Judah and had the Book of the Law with them This must needs be a needless labour in case the people had been taught every Sabbath day or that the Book of the Law had as then been extant and extant must it be if it had been read in every Town and Village over all Judaea Therefore there was no Synagogue no reading of the Law every Sabbath day in Jehosaphats time But that which follows of Josiah is more full than this 2 Kings 12. That godly Prince intended to repair the Temple and in pursuit of that intendment Hilkiah the Priest to whom the ordering of the work had been committed found hidden an old Copy of the Law of God which had been given unto them by the hand of Moses This Book is brought unto the King and read unto him And when the King had heard the words of the Law he rent his cloths And not so only Verse 11. Chap. 23.1 2. but he gathered together all the Elders of Judah and Hierusalem and read in their ears all the words of the Book of the Covenant which was found in the house of the Lord. Had it been formerly the custom to read the Law each Sabbath unto all the people it is not to be thought that this good King Josiah could possibly have been such a stranger to the Law of God or that the finding of the Book had been related for so strange an accident when there was scarce a Town in Judah but was furnished with them Or what need such a sudden calling of all the Elders and on an extraordinary time to hear the Law if they had heard it every Sabbath and that of ordinary course Nay so far were they at this time from having the Law read amongst them every weekly Sabbath that as it seems it was not read amongst them in the sabbath of years as Moses had before appointed For if it had been read unto them once in seven years only that vertuous Prince had not so soon forgotten the contents thereof Therefore there was no Synagogue no weekly reading of the Law in Josiabs days And if not then and not before then not at all till Ezras time The finding of the Book of God before remembred is said to happen in the year 3412. of the Worlds Creation not forty years before the people were led Captives into Babylon in which short space the Princes being careless and the times distracted there could be nothing done that concern'd this business Now from this reading of the Law in the time of Ezra unto the Council holden in Hierusalem there passed 490 years or thereabouts Acts 15.21 Antiquity sufficient to give just cause to the Apostle there to affirm that Moses in old time in every City had them that preached him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day So that we may conclude for certain that till these times wherein we are there was no reading of the Law unto the people on the Sabbath days and in these times when it was taken up amongst them it was by Ecclesiastical institution only no divine Authority But being taken up on what ground soever it did continue afterwards though perhaps sometimes interrupted until the final dissolution of that Church and State and therewithal grew up a liberty of interpretation of the holy words which did at last divide the people into sects and factions Petrus Cunaeus doth affirm that howsoever the Law was read amongst them in the former times either in publick or in private De repub l. 2. ca. 17. yet the bare Text was only read without gloss or descant Interpretatio magistrorum commentatio nulla But in
Hom. 131. Gualter more generally that the Christians first assembled on the Sabbath day as being then most famous and so most in use but when the Churches were augmented preximus à sabbato dies rebus sacris destinatus the next day after the Sabbath was designed to those holy uses If not before then certainly not so commanded by our Saviour Christ and if designed only then not enjoyned by the Apostles Apoc. 1.10 Yea Beza though herein he differ from his Master Calvin and makes the Lords day meetings to be Apostolicae verae divinae traditionis to be indeed of Apostolical and divine Tradition yet being a Tradition only although Apostolical it is no Commandment And more than that he tells us in another place that from St. Pauls preaching at Troas and from the Text. In Act. 20. 1 Corinth 16.2 non inepte colligi it may be gathered not unfitly that then the Christians were accustomed to meet that day the ceremony of the Jewish Sabbath beginning by degrees to vanish But sure the custom of the people makes no divine Traditions and such conclusions as not unfitly may be gathered from the Text are not Text it self Others there be who attribute the changing of the day to the Apostles not to their precept but their practice So Mercer Apostoli in Dominicum converterunt In Gen. the Apostles changed the Sabbath to the Lords day in Gen. 2. Paraeus attributes the same Apostolicae Ecclesiae unto the Apostolical Church or Church in the Apostles time quomodo autem facta sit haec mutatio in sacris liberis expressum non habemus but how by what authority such a change was made is not delivered in the Scripture In Thesib p. 733. And John Cuchlinus though he call it consuetudinem Apostolicam an Apostolical custom yet he is peremptory that the Apostles gave no such Commandment Apostolos praeceptum reliquisse constanter negamus So Simler calls it only consuetudinem tempore Apostolorum receptam a custom taken up in the Apostles time And so Hospinian De sestis Chr. p. 24. although saith he it be apparent that the Lords day was celebrated in the place of the Jewish Sabbath even in the times of the Apostles non invenitur tamen vel Apostolos vel alios lege aliqua praecepto observationem ejus instituisse yet find we not that either they or any other did institute the keeping of the same by any law or precept but left it free In 4. praecept Thus Zanchius nullibi legimus Apostolos c. We do not read saith he that the Apostles commanded any to observe this day We only read what they and others did upon it liberum ergo reliquerunt which is an argument that they left it to the Churches power To those add Vrsin in his Exposition of the fourth Commandment liberum Ecclesiae reliquit alios dies eligere In Catech. Palat. and that the Church made choice of this in honour of our Saviours Resurrection Aretius in his Common-places Christiani in Dominicum transtulerunt Gomarus and Ryvet in the Tracts before remembred Both which have also there determined that in the chusing of this day the Church did exercise as well her Wisdom as her Freedom her freedom being not obliged unto any day by the Law of God her wisdom ne majori mutatione Judaeos offenderet that by so small an alteration she might the less offend the Jews who were then considerable As for the Lutheran Divines it is affirmed by Doctor bound that for the most part they ascribe too much unto the liberty of the Church in appointing days for the assembly of the people which is plain confession But for particulars Brentius as Doctor Prideaux tells us calls it civilem institutionem a civil institution and no commandment of the Gospel which is no more indeed than what is elsewhere said by Calvin when he accounts no otherwise thereof than ut remedium retinendo ordini necessarium as a fit way to retain order in the Church And sure I am Chemnitius tells us that the Apostles did not impose the keeping of this day as necessary upon the consciences of Gods people by any Law or Precept whatsoever sed libera fuit observatio ordinis gratia but that for orders sake it had been voluntarily used amongst them of their own accord Thus have we proved that by the Doctrine of the Protestants of what side soever and those of greatest credit in the several Churches eighteen by name and all the Lutherans in general of the same opinion that the Lords day is of no other institution than the authority of the Church Which proved the last of the three Theses that still the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other will follow of it self on the former grounds the Protestant Doctors before remembred in saying that the Church did institute the Lords day as we see they do confessing tacitely that still the Church hath power to change it Nor do they tacitely confess it as if they were affraid to speak it out but some of them in plain terms affirm it as a certain Truth Zuinglius the first Reformer of the Switzers hath resolved it so in his Discourse against one Valentine Gentilis a new Arian Heretick Audi mi Valentine quibus modis rationibus sabbatum ceremoniale reddatur Tom. 1. p. 254. ◠Harken now Valentine by what ways and means the Sabbath may be made a ceremony if either we observe that day which the Jews once did or think the Lords day so affixed unto any time ut nefas sit illum in aliud tempus transferre that we conceive it an impiety it should be changed unto another on which as well as upon that we may not rest from labour and harken to the Word of God if perhaps such necessity should be this would indeed make it become a ceremony Nothing can be more plain than this Yet Calvin is as plain when he professeth that he regardeth not so much the Number of seven ut ejus servituti Ecclesias astringeret as to enthral the Church unto it Sure I am Doctor Prideaux reckoneth him as one of them who teach us that the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other and that John Barclaie makes report In orat de Sab. how once he had a Consultation de transferenda Dominica in feriam quintam of altering the Lords day unto the Thursday Bucer affirms as much as touching the Authority and so doth Bullinger and Brentius Vrsine and Chemnitius as Doctor Prideaux hath observed Of Bullinger Bucer Brentius I have nought to say because the places are not cited but take it as I think I may upon his credit But for Chemnitius he saith often that it is libera observatio a voluntary observation that it is an especial part of our Christian liberty not to be tied to Days and Times in matters which
their Authority and power in Spiritual matters from no other hands than those of Christ and his Apostles their Temporal honours and possessions from the bounty and affection only of our Kings and Princes their Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in causes Matrimonial Testamentary and the like for which no action lieth at the common Law from continual usage and prescription and ratified and continued unto them in the Magna Charta of this Realm and owe no more unto the Parliament than all sort of Subjects do besides whose Fortunes and Estates have been occasionally and collaterally confirmed in Parliament And as for the particular Statutes which are touched upon that of the 24 H. 8. doth only constitute and ordain a way by which they might be chose and consecrated without recourse to Tome for a confirmation which formerly had put the Prelates to great charge and trouble but for the form and manner of their Consecration the Statute leaves it to those Rites and Ceremonies wherewith before it was performed and therefore Sanders doth not stick to affirm that all the Bishops which were made in King Henries days were Lawfully and Canonically ordained and consecrated the Bishops of that time not only being acknowledged in Queen Maries days for lawful and Canonical Bishops but called on to assist at the Consecration of such other Bishops Cardinal Pool himself for one as were promoted in her Reign whereof see Masons Book de Minist Ang. l. c. Next for the Statute 1 E. 6. cap. 2. besides that it is satisfied in part by the former Answer as it relates to their Canonical Consecrations it was repealed in Terminis in the first of Queen Maries Reign and never stood in force nor practice to this day That of the Authorizing of the Book of Ordination in two several Parliaments of that King the one à parte ante and the other à parte post as before I told you might indeed seem somewhat to the purpose if any thing were wanting in it which had been used in the formula's of the Primitive times or if the Book had been composed in Parliament or by Parliament-men or otherwise received more Authority from them then that it might be lawfully used and exercised throughout the Kingdom But it is plain that none of these things were objected in Queen Maries days when the Papists stood most upon their points the Ordinal being not called in because it had too much of the Parliament but because it had too little of the Pope and relished too strongly of the Primitive piety And for the Statute of 8 of Q. Elizabeth which is chiefly stood on all that was done therein was no more than this and on this occasion A question had been made by captious and unquiet men and amongst the rest by Dr. Bonner sometimes Bishop of London whether the Bishops of those times were lawfully ordained or not the reason of the doubt being this which I marvel Mason did not see because the book of Ordination which was annulled and abrogated in the first of Queen Mary had not been yet restored and revived by any legal Act of Queen Elizabeths time which Cause being brought before the Parliament in the 8th year of her Reign the Parliament took notice first that their not restoring of that Book to the former power in terms significant and express was but Casus omissus and then declare that by the Statute 5 and 6 E. 6. it had been added to the Book of Common-prayer and Administration of the Sacraments as a member of it at least as an Appendant to it and therefore by the Statute 1 Eliz. c. 2. was restored again together with the said Book of Common-prayer intentionally at the least if not in Terminis But being the words in the said Statute were not clear enough to remove all doubts they therefore did revive now and did accordingly Enact That whatsoever had been done by virtue of that Ordination should be good in Law This is the total of the Statute and this shews rather in my judgment that the Bishops of the Queens first times had too little of the Parliament in them than that they were conceived to have had too much And so I come to your last Objection which concerns the Parliament whose entertaining all occasions to manisest their power in Ecclesiastical matters doth seem to you to make that groundless slander of the Papists the more fair and plausible 'T is true indeed that many Members of both Houses in these latter Times have been very ready to embrace all businesses which are offered to them out of a probable hope of drawing the managery of all Affairs as well Ecclesiastical as Civil into their own hands And some there are who being they cannot hope to have their sancies Authorized in a regular way do put them upon such designs as neither can consist with the nature of Parliaments nor the Authority of the King nor with the privileges of the Clergy nor to say truth with the esteem and reputation of the Church of Christ And this hath been a practice even as old as Wickliffe who in the time of K. R. 2. addressed his Petition to the Parliament as we read in Walsingham for the Reformation of the Clergy the rooting out of many false and erroneous Tenets and for establishing of his own Doctrines who though he had some Wheat had more Tears by odds in the Church of England And lest he might be thought to have gone a way as dangerous and unjustifiable as it was strange and new he laid it down for a position That the Parliament or Temporal Lords where by the way this ascribes no Authority or power at all to the House of Commons might lawfully examine and reform the Disorders and Corruptions of the Church and a discovery of the errors and corruptions of it devest her of all Tithes and Temporal endowments till she were reformed But for all this and more than this for all he was so strongly backed by the Duke of Lancaster neither his Petition nor his Position found any welcome in the Parliament further than that it made them cast many a longing eye on the Churches patrimony or produced any other effect towards the work of Reformation which he chiefly aimed at than that it hath since served for a precedent to Penry Pryn and such like troublesome and unquiet spirits to disturb the Church and set on foot those dreams and dotages which otherwise they durst not publish And to say truth as long as the Clergy were in power and had Authority in Convocation to do what they would in matters which concerned Religion those of the Parliament conceived it neither safe nor fitting to intermeddle in such business as concerned the Clergy for fear of being questioned for it at the Churches Bar. But when that Power was lessened though it were not lost by the submission of the Clergy to K. H. 8. and by the Act of the Supremacy which ensued upon it then did the Parliaments
till nine the sixth which began at nine and ended at twelve the ninth which held from twelve to three in the afternoon and the eleventh which was from three until six at night According to which distribution they had three several hours of Prayer viz. the third the sixth the ninth as before was said For thus saith David of himself Evening and Morning and at Noon-day will I pray unto thee Psal lv 17. And so the Scriptures say of Daniel that turning towards Hierusalem he kneeled upon his knees and prayed and gave thanks before his God three times a day as he had formerly been accustomed Dan. vi 10. David who had the opportunity to repair unto the Tabernacle or the House of God joyned with the Congregation in those Prayers which were appointed for those times But Daniel who lived an exile in a strange Land and at a time in which there was no Temple at Hierusalem only conceived himself obliged to observe the hours which had been antiently in Use with the Jewish Nation without being punctual in the forms for ought I can find It 's true the Jews used to repair unto the Tabernacle as afterwards unto the Temple and other places set apart for this pious duty of which more anon to offer up their private Prayers and Vowes to Almighty God For so we read of Hannah in the first of Samuel chap. 1. v. 10. c. and so in other places of Gods Book of divers others Of which none is more eminent because not any one so much objected as that of the Publican and the Pharisee of whom we find mention in the Gospel who going into the Temple to pray as who else did not are confidently said to use no prayer that was of regular prescription because the prayer which they are said to make in the Book of God Smectymn p. 8. was of a present conception But this if pondered as it ought can be no Argument I trow that therefore there was then no set form of publick worship to be performed in those holy places because Gods Servants used as occasion was to make therein their private Prayers to the Lord their God No better argument than if it should be proved that there is no set Liturgy in the Church of England because devout and godly men use oftentimes to have recourse unto the Church or Temple for their private prayers In those though poured forth in the Temple the proper and appointed place of publick worship the people were at liberty to make Use of their own conceptions But it was otherwise in those acts of worship so far forth as they do relate unto Invocation which were to be performed with the Congregation And so it is resolved by the best and learnedest of all the Rabbins by whom it is affirmed that in the publick Congregation a private or a voluntary prayer was not to have been offered to the Lord their God Quoniam nec Ecclesia seu caetus publicus offerebat ex lege sacrificium ultroneum because the Church or Congregation was not to offer any Sacrifice but such as was prescribed and ordered by the Law of God Maim ap Selden in Eutych Alex. p. 49 Which rule as it was constantly observed in all other days and at the several hours of prayer in each several day so most especially upon the Sabbaths and the other Festivals and that upon the self-same reason viz. Quoniam in eis non offerendum erat ultroneum quid because no voluntary oblation might thereon be offered as in some cases might be done on the other days but only such as were appointed in the Law Now that there were set forms of prayer for these several hours besides what is affirmed by a Learned Writer of our own as appeareth by that memorable passage of Peter and John's going up into the Temple Selden Comment in Eutych Alex. p. 46 47. sub horam orationis nonam at the ninth hour being an hour of prayer For if the prayer they went to make were rather of a sudden and extemporary Conception Smectymn p. 8. than of a regular Prescription what needed they to have made Use of such a time when as the Congregation was assembled for Gods publick worship And on the other side that the prayer which the two Apostles went up to make was such as was prescribed the Congregation is evident by that of Ludovicus Capellus the French Oracle of Hebrew Learning as one truly calls him who saith expresly B. Hall Answ to the Vindication Orationem eam cujus causa Petrus Johannes petebant templum fuisse eam quae à Judaeis dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quae respondet oblationi vespertinae lege praescriptae The prayer saith he for which Peter and John went up into the Temple is that which the Jews called the lesser oblation answering to the evening Sacrifice prescribed by the Law And indeed Calvin intimates no less to my apprehension For when he askes the question An Apostoli in Templum ascenderint ut secundum legis ritum precarentur whether the Apostles went into the Temple to pray according to the rites prescribed in the Law Calv. in Act. although he thinks that they went thither at that time to have the better opportunity to promote the Gospel yet he confesseth by the question that at that time there were set prayers made in the Temple after the manner of the Jews But to go on from Moses unto David I find but little changed or added in things that did concern Gods publick worship and the forms thereof But in the time of David and by his Authority there was a signal alteration made much outward form and lustre added to the service of God For whereas formerly the Levites were appointed by the Law of Moses to bear about the Tabernacle as occasion was the Tabernacle being by David fixt and setled in Hierusalem there was no further Use of the attendance of the Levites in that kind or ministery He therefore thought it fit to set them to some new imployment some to assist the Priests in the publick offices of Gods holy worship some to be over-seers and Judges of the people some to be Porters also in the House of God and others finally to be Singers to praise the Lord with Instruments that he had made with Harps with Viols and with Cymbals 1 Chron. 23.4 5 c. Of these the most considerable were the first and last the first appointed to assist at the Daily Sacrifices as also at the offering of all Burnt-offerings unto the Lord in the Sabbaths the moneths and at the appointed times according to the number and according to their custom continually before the Lord. Ibid. ver 31. Id. ch 35.7 The other were instructed in the Songs of the Lord not only such as had been made before in the former times but such as he composed himself according to the influence of the holy Spirit Josephus tells us
for their gods so were they also regulated by a prescript Form in which their gods were to be Worshipped their Sacrifices to be tendred But to return again to the Roman Forms to put an end to this discourse we will a little look on their Forms of Marriage so far forth and no further as they did relate to religious Worship and Invocation of their gods For though they made no care nor conscience in breaking of the Bond of Marriage upon all occasions yet did they seldom make a Marriage to which the gods were not invited or not called upon For anciently there was no making of a Marriage wherein the Soothsayers or Auspex was not consulted This Servius hath observed in his notes on Virgil Servius in Virg. Aeneid l. 1. Romani nihil nisi captatis faciebant auguriis praecipue NVPTIAS the Romans did not any thing saith he without consulting with the Augur especially in point of Marriage In celebrating of the which as there were certain formal words so were there also solemn Sacrifices First for the formal words of Marriage Boetius doth report them thus Coemptio certis solennitatibus peragebatur sese in coemendo invicem interrogabant Vir ita an sibi mulier materfamilias esse vellet illa respondebat velle item Mulier interrogabat an sibi vir Paterfamilias esse vellet ille respondebat velle c. That kind of Marriage saith he which is called Coemption Boetius Comment in Ciceronis Topica l. 2. was done with certain and determinate solemnities proposing to each other these Interrogatories The Man demanded of the Woman if she would be his Wedded Wife and she said I will And then the Woman asked the Man if he would be her Wedded Husband and he said he would which said the Man took the Woman into his hands and from thenceforth she was his Wife Next for the solemn Sacrifice performed at Weddings there was a Form of Marriage which they called Confarreatio because the Married couple used to eat of a Barley cake which had been offered in the Sacrifice From whence perhaps the use of Bride cakes came first into this Countrey with the Romans as many other of their customs did And this was Solemnized saith the great Lawyer Vlpian Cited by Rosinus Antiqu. Rom. l. 5. c. 37. Certis verbis testibus decem praesentibus solenni sacrificio facto in quo panis farreus adhibetur under a certain and prescribed Form of words ten Witnesses at the least being present and a solemn Sacrifice wherein the Barley-cake was used which before we spake of The Beast prepared for the Sacrifice Varro de re Rustica l. 2. c. 4. was commonly a Swine or Porker as it is in Varro And if a Sacrifice were offered as it seems to be no question but it was attended with Prayers and Orizons unto the gods for the prosperity of the parties This affirmed plainly by Valerius Flaccus in his Argonautica Inde ubi sacrificas cum conjuge venit ad aras Aesonides unaque adeunt pariterque precari Incipiunt c. Finally Valer. Flaccus Argonaut l. 8. besides the laying down of money at the time of Marriage in the way of dowry from whence it seemeth to be called Coemption the Bridegroom used to put a Ring on the fourth finger of his Spouse when he made the Contract The thing affirmed by Juvenal amongst the Ancients Juvenal Sat. 6. where speaking of a Contract or Espousal he thus glanceth at it Jamque à tonsore magistro Pectoris digitis pignus fortasse dedisti The reason of it given by Gellius A. Gellius Noct. Attic. l. 10. c. 10. and since him by others because it was observed by the Auatomists repertum esse nervum quendam tenuissimum ab eo uno digito ad Cor hominis pergere ac pervenire That from that finger there passEd a small and slender nerve to the heart of man More of this we may see hereafter when we are come unto the Form of Marriage in the Christian Church to the determinate Forms whereof we are come at last CHAP. V. That in the times of the Apostles Liturgies or Set Forms of ministration in the Christian Church were composed and used 1. The Jews and Gentiles made one Church by Christ our Saviour 2. A Form of Prayer prescribed by Christ to his Disciples 3. The Institution of the Christian Sacrifice with the set Form thereof by our Lord and Saviour 4. That the Lords Prayer with other Benedictions were used by the Apostles in the Celebration of the blessed Eucharist 5. A Form of Celebrating Gods publick Service prescribed in the first of S. Paul to Timothy according to the judgment of the Fathers 6. The Form and manner of Gods publick Service described in the first to the Corinthians 7. The Hymns and Psalms used in the Church of Corinth were not voluntary but prescribed and set and of the Musick therewith used 8. That is it probable that the Apostles ordained Liturgies for the publick use 9. What may be said touching the Liturgies ascribed unto S. Peter Mark and James 10. The Form of ministring the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist described by Dionysius the Areopagite 11. That of the ministring the Sacrament of holy Baptism described by him and seconded by the Constitutions ascribed to Clemens 12. Places appointed in this Age for Gods publick Worship and honoured with the name of Churches THus have we taken a distinct and several view of those Forms of Worship which anciently were used by the Jews and Gentiles whilst they stood divided whilst they were separated by that partition-wall which the Apostle speaks of whereby they were indeed divided both in opinions and affections But that partition-wall being broken down by our Lord and Saviour Ephes 2.14 c. he did withal abolish in his flesh that enmity which had been between them even the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances for to make in himself of twain one new man so making peace between the parties ut reconciliaret ambos in unto corpore that he might reconcile both to God being united in one body by the Cross of Christ And indeed how could he do otherwise who was as well designed by Almighty God to be a light to lighten the Gentiles as to be the glory of his People Israel Luk. 2.32 The promise which God made to Abraham was not unto his Seed alone but to all the Nations of the World by it And although Shiloh was to come from the loins of Judah yet was he also expectatio Gentium as the Vulgar reads it Gen. 49.10 and to him should the gathering of the People be Therefore however he was pleased to declare at first that he was tnot sent but to the lost Sheep of the House of Israel Mat. 10.6 and did accordingly grant out a limited Commission unto his Disciples yet he enlarged it in the end Mat. 10.5 giving them an especial
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I believe in one unbegotten and only true God Almighty Father of Christ maker of all things and in our Lord Jesus Christ his only begotten Son c. Next after followeth a set Form of prayer used by the Bishop in Consecrating of the Oyl or Chrism and sanctifying of the Water And finally this prayer to be said by them who were newly brought into the Church by Baptism Id. ibid. c. 47. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Almighty God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ give me a body undefiled a pure heart a watchful mind knowledge without error together with the presence of the holy Spirit that I may both attain and hold fast the truth without doubt or wavering through Christ our Lord with whom be glory unto thee in the Holy Ghost world without end Amen The sum of what is said before in these two last Authors Clemens I mean and Dionysius because the Writings attributed to them are by the Learned thought to be none of theirs we shall find presently confirmed in the words of those who lived shortly after and are of an unquestioned credit amongst all Divines both of the Protestant party and the Church of Rome In the mean time we will sit down and repose our selves concluding here so much of the present search as may be found in any of the Writings of the holy Apostles or such as claim the reputation of being Apostolical men the Scholars and Successors of the blessed spirits though now disclaimed for such by our choicer judgements And yet before I leave this Age I will see if any thing occur in St. Ignatius touching a Form of Common-prayer or Invocation used by the Christians of his time who being said to be that Child on whom our Saviour laid his hands saying Except ye receive the Kingdom of Heaven as a little Child c. But howsoever questionless the Apostles Scholar and Successor to S. Peter in the See of Antioch hath informed us thus in his Epistle to the Magnesians of which no scruple hath been raised amongst Learned men omnes ad orandum in idem loci convenite una sit communis precatio una mens una spes in charitate Ignat. Epist ad Magness c. By which it seemeth that as the Magnesians had a Church or meeting place to which they usually resorted as a House of Prayer of which more hereafter so they had also una Communis precatio one certain Form of Common-prayer in which they all concurred as if spirited by one soul and governed by one hope in charity and faith unblamable in the Lord Christ Jesus Which is as much as we could look for in those times and from a man whose writings are not many nor of any greatness his custom being to express himself as briefly as the nature of Epistles could invite him to That in this Age the day of worship was translated from the last day of the week to the first or to the Lords-day from the Sabbath will not here be doubted nor can it be much questioned amongst sober men but that the Chrisitans of these times did Celebrate the Feast of Easter together with that of Whitsontide as we call them now in honour of the Resurrection of their Lord and Saviour and of the coming down of the Holy Ghost according to the Annual Revolution of those great occasions That which hath most been doubted for this Time and Age is whether the Christians had their places of publique worship and whether those places of worship had the name of Churches both which I think may be concluded in the affirmative by convincing arguments And first it is affirmed for an old Tradition in the Church of Christ and proved so to be by Adricomius out of several Authors that the Coenaculum or upper Chamber in which the Apostles met together after Christs Ascension was by them used for a place of publick worship Luk. 22.12 this being said to be that Room in which our Saviour Instituted the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood the same in which the Apostles met for the choice of one in the place of Judas Act. 1.13 Act. 2.1 Act. 6.4 6. Act. 15.6 the same in which the Holy Ghost descended on them at the Feast of Pentecost the same in which they were Assembled to elect the seven And finally the same in which they held the first General Council for pacifying the disputes about Circumcision and other ceremonial parts of the Law of Moses This was called then by the name of Coenaculum Sion or the upper Chamber of Sion supposed by some to have been a part of the House of Simon the Leper but howsoever of some Disciple of rank and quality who willingly had devoted it to the use of the Church it being the custom of such men in those early days when they were not suffered to erect more magnificent Fabricks to dedicate some convenient part of their dwelling houses for the Assembling of Gods people and the acts of worship Thus find we in the Recognitions of Clemens that the House of Theophilus in the City of Antioch to whom S. Luke dedicated both his Gospel and Book of Acts was by him converted to a Church for the use of Christians and in the Acts of Pudens whom we find mentioned by S. Paul in the second to Timothy that he gave his House unto the Church for the same use also and such an House or such an upper Chamber rather so given and dedicated is that thought to be in which S. Paul preached at Troas and from a window whereof Eutychus fell down and was took up dead Act. 20.8 But to return again to the Coenaculum Sion before-mentioned certain it is that in relation to those duties of Religion which were there performed it was inclosed afterwards with a beautiful Church commonly called the Church of Sion and by S. Cyril a godly Bishop of Jerusalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Hier. catech 16. the upper Church of the Apostles in which the Holy Ghost is there said by him to have fallen upon them begirt in following times with the Cels or Lodgings of religious persons in the form of a Monastery of which Bede thus In superiori montis Sion planicie Beda Tom 3. de locis sanctis monachorum cellulae Ecclesiam magnam circundant illic ut perhibent ab Apostolis fundatam eo quod ibi spiritum sanctum accepere in qua etiam locus coenae Domini venerabilis ostenditur That is to say in the uppermost plain of Mount Sion the Cels of Monks begirt a fair and spacious Church there founded as it is affirmed by the holy Apostles because in that place they had received the Holy Ghost and where they shew the place in which the Lord did institute his holy Supper Where by the way this Church is said to have been founded by the Apostles not that they built it from the ground but because being
Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are great exercise auhtority upon them Vobis autem non sic Matth. 20.25 Luke 22.25 But so it shall not be amongst you Where plainly it appears both by the Text and context first that this strife and contestation was only amongst the twelve Apostles and therefore howsoever it may prove that there was to be a parity or equality amongst themselves yet it will never prove but that they were and might be still superiour unto the Seventy And secondly that Christ our Saviour doth not prohibit them the use and exercise of all authority on those who were inferiour and subordinate to them but only such authority as the Princes of the Gentiles and the great Lords and Ministers about them did exercise upon their Subjects The power and government of the Apostles in the Church of Christ was meerly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as a Father beareth unto his children but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Lordly and imperious Rule such as a Master exerciseth on his slaves and servants 1 Pet. 5.3 2 Cor. 2.24 Chrysost in oper imper in Mat. hom 35. Not as Lords over Gods inheritance but as the helpers of their joy say the two Apostles and herein stands the difference according unto that of Chrysostom Principes mundi ideo fiunt ut dominentur minoribus suis The Princes of the Earth were made to this end and purpose that they might Lord it over their inferiours and make them slaves and spoil them and devour them abasing them unto the death for their own profit and glory Principes autem Ecclesiae fiunt c. But the Governours or Princes of the Church were instituted to another end viz. To serve their inferiours and to minister unto them all such things as they have received from the Lord. This eminence and superiority over all the Church which was thus setled in the Apostles by our Lord and Saviour will appear more fully if we consult the several ministrations committed unto them and to them alone For unto them alone it was that Christ committed the whole power of preaching of his holy Word administring his blessed Sacraments retaining and forgiving sins ruling and ordering of his flock giving them also further power of instituting and ordaining such by whom these several Offices were to be performed till his second coming None but the Twelve were present with him when he ordained the blessed Sacrament of his body and blood Luke 22.19 and unto them alone was said Hoc facite do this i. e. take bread and break and bless it and distribute it in remembrance of me To the eleven alone it was that he gave commission to go into all the World and preach the Gospel to all creatures Matth. 28.19 baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost They only had that powerful and immediate mission John 20.21 John 20.22 23. Sicut misit me Pater As my Father sent me so send I you and upon them alone he breathed saying Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins ye do remit they are remitted unto them and whose sins you do retain they are retained Finally they and none but they were trusted with the feeding and the governance of the Flock of Christ the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek doth imply them both for howsoever Pasce oves meas John 21.15 16. was in particular spoken to Saint Peter yet was that charge incumbent on them all as before we noted from Saint Austin By all which passages and Texts of Scripture it is clear and manifest that the Apostles were by Christ ordained to be the sole and ordinary Teachers Bishops and Pastors of the Church next and immediately under his most blessed self Heb. 13.20 1 Pet. 2.25 who still continueth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Shepheard of the Sheep as Paul the Shepheard and Bishop of our Souls as Saint Peter calls him The Seventy had no part in this new Commission the dispensation of the Word and Sacraments but at second hand as they were afterwards intrusted with it by the holy Apostles either as Prophets Presbyters or Evangelists according to the measure of the Grace which was given unto them or specially designed to some part therein after the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour by the immediate designation of the Holy Ghost And when they were entrusted with a part thereof yet were they still secundi Ordinis Ministers of a second rank inferiour unto the Apostles both in place and power to whom all latitude of power was given Nay the Apostles took an hint from this different mission to institute two several sorts of Ministers in the Church of Christ the one subordinate unto the other as were the Seventy unto them And this by vertue of these words in their Commission Ita mitto vos i. e. as the Arch-Bishop of Spalato very well applyeth it De Repab Eccl. l. 2. c. 3. n. 7. Sicut ego à Patre habui potestatem eligendi Ministros etiam diversi ordinis ita vos pariter habeatis As I received power from my heavenly Father of instituting Ministers even of divers Orders so I give it you And therefore whatsoever the Apostles did therein they did it after Christs example and by his authority and consequently the imparity of Ministers by them ordained was founded on the Law of God and the original institution of our Saviour Christ by whom the power of Ordination was to them committed and by them unto their Successours in the Church for ever To bring this Chapter to an end our Saviour Christ having thus furnished his Apostles with those several powers faculties and preheminences which before we spake of he thought it best to recommend them to the blessings of Almighty God whose work they were to go about And therefore being to take his fare-well of them Luke 24.50 did in a very solemn manner bestow his benediction on them Elevatis manibus suis benedixit eis he lifted up his hands and blessed them as Saint Luke hath it Which benediction Saint Austin takes to be a consecrating of those holy men unto the power and dignity of Bishops Aug. quaest N. Test qu. 14. Ipse enim priusquam in caelos ascenderet imponens manum Apostolis ordinavit cos Episcopos as the Father hath it Which whether it were so or not I mean so done with such an outward Form and Ceremony and in that very point of time is perhaps uncertain But sure I am that for the thing it self which is here delivered the Fathers many of them do agree with Austin affirming passim in their writings that the Apostles were made Bishops by our blessed Lord. Saint Cyprian voucheth it expresly The Deacons ought to understand Cyp. lib. 3. Ep. 9. quoniam Apostolos i. e. Episcopos Praepositos Dominus elegit that the Lord Christ himself did chuse the Apostles that is the Bishops
maximi eorum fanis jus Asyli manere c. neque cogi ad praestanda vadimonia sabbatis aut pridie sabbatorum post horam nonam in Parasceve Quod si quis contra decretum ausus fuerit gravi poena mulctabitur This Edict was set forth Anno 4045. and after many of that kind were published in several Provinces by Mar. Agrippa Provost General under Caesar Phil. legat ad Caium as also by Norbanus Flaceus and Julius Antonius Proconsuls at that time whereof see Josephus Nay when the Jews were grown so strict that it was thought unlawful either to give or take an Alms on the Sabbath day Augustus for his part was willing not to break them of it yet so to order and dispose his Bounties that they might be no losers by so fond a strictness For whereas he did use to distribute monthly a certain Donative either in Mony or in Corn this distribution sometimes happened on the Sabbath days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo hath it whereon the Jews might neither give nor take neither indeed do any thing that did tend to sustenance Therefore saith he it was provided that their proportion should be given them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the next day after that so they might be made partakers of the publick benefit Not give nor take an Alms on the Sabbath day Their superstition sure was now very vehement seeing it would not suffer men to do the works of mercy on the day of mercy And therefore it was more than time they should be sent to School again to learn this Lesson I will have mercy and not sacrifice And so indeed they were sent unto School to him who in himself was both the Teacher and the Truth For at this time our Saviour came into the World And had there been no other business for him to do this only might have seemed to require his presence viz. to rectifie those dangerous Errours which had been spread abroad in these latter times about the Sabbath The service of the Sabbath in the Congregation he found full enough The custom was to read a Section of the Law out of the Pentateuch or five Books of Moses and after to illustrate or confirm the same out of some parallel place amongst the Prophets That ended if occasion were and that the Rulers of the Synagogue did consent unto it there was a word of Exhortation made unto the people Chap. 13.15 conducing to obedience and the works of Piety So far it is apparent by that passage in the Acts of the Apostles touching Paul and Barnabas that being at Antioch in Pisidia on the Sabbath day after the reading of the Law and Prophets the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto them saying Ye men and brethren if ye have any word of exhortation to speak unto the people dicite say on As for the Law I note this only by the way they had divided it into 54 Sections which they read over in the two and fifty sabbaths joyning two of the shortest twice together that so it might be all read over within the year beginning on the Sabbath which next followed the Feast of Tabernacles ending on that which came before it So far our Saviour found no fault but rather countenanced and confirmed the custom by his gracious presence and example But in these rigid Vanities and absurd Traditions by which the Scribes and Pharisees had abused the Sabbath and made it of an ease to become a drudgery in those he thought it requisite to detect their follies and ease the people of that bondage which they in their proud humours had imposed upon them The Pharisees had taught that it was unlawful on the sabbath day either to heal the impotent or relieve the sick or feed the hungry but he confutes them in them all both by his Acts and by his Disputations Whatever he maintain'd by Argument he made good by Practice Did they accuse his followers of gathering Corn upon the Sabbath being then an hungred he le ts them know what David did in the same extremity Their eating or their gathering on the Sabbath day take you which you will was not more blameable nay not so blameable by the Law as David's eating of the Shew-bread which plainly was not to be eaten by any but the Priest alone The Cures he did upon the Sabbath what were they more than which themselves did daily do in laying salves unto those Infants whom on the Sabbath day they had Circumcised His bidding of the impotent man to take up his Bed and get him gone which seemed so odious in their eyes was it so great a toyl as to walk round the walls of Hiericho and bear the Ark upon their shoulders or any greater burden to their idle backs than to lift up the Ox and set him free out of that dangerous Ditch into the which the hasty Beast might fall as well upon the Sabbath as the other days Should men take care of Oxen and not God of Man Not so The Sabbath was not made for a lazy Idol which all the Nations of the World should fall down and worship but for the ease and comfort of the labouring man that he might have some time to refresh his spirits Sabbatum propter hominem factum est The Sabbath saith our Saviour was made for man man was not made to serve the Sabbath Nor had God so irrevocably spoke the word touching the sanctifying of the Sabbath that he had left himself no power to repeal that Law in case he saw the purpose of the Law perverted the Son of man even he that was the Son both of God and Man being Lord also of the Sabbath Nay it is rightly marked by some that Christ our Saviour did more works of Charity on the Sabbath day than on all days else Zanchius observes it out of Irenaeus In Mandat 4. Saepius multo Christum in die Sabbati praestitisse opera charitatis quam in aliis diebus and his note is good Not that there was some urgent and extream necessity either the Cures to be performed that day or the man to perish For if we look into the story of our Saviours actions we find no such matter It 's true that the Centurions son and Peters mother-in-law were even sick to death and there might be some reason in it why he should haste unto their Cures on the Sabbath day But on the other side the man that had the withered Hand Matth. 13. and the Woman with her flux of Blood eighteen years together Luke 13. he that was troubled with the Dropsie Luke 14. and the poor wretch which was afflicted with the Palsie John 5. in none of these was found any such necessity but that the Cure might have been respited to another day What then Shall it be thought our Saviour came to destroy the Law No. God forbid Himself hath told us that he came to fulfil it rather He came to let them understand
vel sabbatum esset vel dies Dominicus as the Father hath it and choose you which you will we shall find little in it for a Christian Sabbath In case it was on the Sabbath then Peter did not keep the Lords day holy as he should have done in case that day was then selected for Gods worship for the Text tells us that the next day he did begin his journey to Cornelius house Acts 10.24 In case it was upon the Lords day as we call it now then neither did Saint Peter sanctifie that day in the Congregation as he ought to do had that day then been made the Sabbath and his conversion of Cornelius being three days after must of necessity be done on the Wednesday following So that we find no Lords day Sabbath either of S. Peters keeping or of S. Philips or else the preaching of the Word and the administring the Sacraments were not affixed at all unto the first day of the week as the peculiar marks and characers thereof So for Saint Paul the Doctor of the Gentiles who laboured more abundantly than the other Apostles besides what shall be said particularly in the following section it may appear in general that he observed no Lords-day-sabbath but taught on all days travelled on all days and wrought according to his Trade upon all days too when he had no employment in the Congregation That he did teach on all days is not to be questioned by any that considers how great a work he had to do and how little time That he did travel upon all days is no less notorious to all that look upon his life which was still in motion And howsoever he might rest sometimes on the Lords day as questionless he did on others as often as upon that day he Preached the Gospel yet when he was a Prisoner in the hands of the Roman Souldiers there is no doubt but that he travelled as they did Lords days and Sabbaths In Dominieam 17. post Trinit all days equally many days together Of this see what Saint Luke hath written in the last Chapters of the Acts. Lastly for working at his Trade which was Tent-making on the Lords day as well as others Conradus Dietericus proves â—t out of Hierom that when he had none unto whom to preach in the Congregation he followed on the Lords day the works of his Occupation Hieronymus colligit ex Act. 18. vers 3. 4. quod die etiam Dominica quando quibus in publico conventu concionaretur non habebat manibus suis laboravit So Dietericus speaking of our Apostle Now what is proved of these Apostles and of S. Philip the Evangelist may be affirmed of all the rest whose lives and actions are not left upon record in holy Scripture Their Ministery being the same and their work as great no question but their liberty was correspondent and that they took all times to be alike in the advancing of the business which they went about and cherished all occasions presented to them on what day soever What further may be said hereof in reference to Saint John who lived longest of them and saw the Church established and her publick meetings in some order we shall see hereafter in his own place and time Mean while we may conclude for certain that in the planting of the Church he used all days equally kept none more holy than another and after when the Church was setled however he might keep this holy and honour it for the use which was made thereof yet he kept other days so used as holy but never any like a Sabbath Proceed we next unto Saint Paul in this particular of whom the Scripture tells us more than of all the rest and we shall find that he no sooner was converted but that forthwith he Preached in the Synagogues that Jesus was the Christ Acts 9.20 If in the Synagogues most likely that it was on the Jewish Sabbath the Synagogues being destinate especially to the Sabbath days So after he was called to the publick Ministery he came to Antiochia Acts 13.14 and went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and there Preached the Word What was the issue of his Sermon That the Text informs us And when the Jews were gone out of the Synagogue the Gentiles besought that these words might be Preached again the next Sabbath Verse 42 Saint Paul assented thereunto and the next Sabbath day as the Text tells us Verse 44 came almost the whole City together to hear the Word of God It seems the Lords day was not grown as yet into any credit especially not into the repute of the Jewish Sabbath for if it had Saint Paul might easily have told these Gentiles that is such Gentiles as had been converted to the Jewish Church that the next day would be a more convenient time and indeed opus diei in die suo the doctrine of the Resurrection on the day thereof This hapned in the forty sixth year of Christs Nativity some twelve years after his Passion and Resurrection and often after this did the Apostle shew himself in the Jewish Synagogues on the Sabbath days which I shall speak of here together that so we may go on unto the rest of this Discourse with less interruption And first it was upon the Sabbath that he did preach to the Philippians and baptized Lydia with her houshold Acts 16. Amongst the Thessalonians he reasoned three sabbath days together out of the Scriptures Acts 17. At Corinth every sabbath day with the Jews and Greeks Acts 18. besides those many Texts of Scripture when it is said of him that he went into the Synagogues and therefore probably that it was upon the Sabbath as before we said Not that Saint Paul was so affected to the Sabbath as to prefer that day before any other but that he found the people at those times assembled and so might preach the Word with the greater profit Saint Chrysostom for the Ancients have resolved it so In Acts 13.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father hath it So Calvin for the modern Writers makes this the special cause of St. Pauls resort unto the places of Assembly on the Sabbath day quod profecium aliquem sperabat In Acts 16.13 because in such concourse of people he hoped the Word of God would find the better entertainment Any thing rather to be thought than that S. Paul who had withstood so stoutly those false Apostles who would have Circumcision and the Law observed when there was nothing publickly determined of it would after the decision of so great a Council wherein the Law of Moses was for ever abrogated eieither himself observe the Sabbath for the sabbaths sake or by his own example teach the Gentiles how to Judaize which he so blamed in St. Peter The sabbath with the legal Ceremonies did receive their doom as they related to the Gentiles in that great Council holden in Hierusalem which though it was not
until after he had preached at Antiochia on the sabbath day yet was it certainly before he had done the like either at Philippos Thessalonica or at Corinth For the occasion of that Council it was briefly this Amongst those which had joyned themselves with the Apostles there was one Cerinthus a sellow of a turbulent and unquiet spirit and a most eager Enemy of all those Counsels whereof himself was not the Author This man had first begun a faction against St. Peter for going to Cornelius and preaching life eternal unto the Gentiles and finding ill success in that goes down to Antiochia and there begins another against Saint Paul This Epiphanius tells us of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 1. har 28. n. 1. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The like Philaster doth affirm Seditionem sub Apostolis commovisse De haeres in Cerintho that he had raised a faction against the Apostles which was not to be crushed but by an Apostolical and general Council This man and those that came down with him were so enamoured on the Ceremonies and Rites of Moses that though they entertained the Gospel yet they were loth to leave the Law and therefore did resolve it seems to make a mixture out of both Hence taught they that except all men were circumcised after the manner of Moses they could not be saved Where note Acts 15.1 that though they spake only of Circumcision yet they intended all the Law sabbaths and other legal Ordinances of what sort soever Docuit Cerinthus observationem legis Mosaicae necessariam esse circumcisionem sabbata observanda as Philaster hath it The like saith Calvin on the place Sola quidem circumcisio hic nominatur sed ex contextu facile patet eos de tota lege movisse controversiam The like Lorinus also amongst the Jesuits Nomine circumcisionis reliqua lex tota intelligitur Indeed the Text affirms as much where it is said in terms express that they did hold it needful to circumeise the people Acts 15.5 and to command them to keep the Law of Moses whereof the Sabbath was a part For the decision of this point and the appeasing of those Controversies which did thence arise it pleased the Church directed by the Holy Ghost to determine thus that such amongst the Gentiles as were converted to the faith should not at all be burdened with the Law of Moses but only should observe some necessary things viz. that they abstain from things offered unto Idols and from blood and that which is strangled Verse 29 and from fornication And here it is to be observed that the Decree or Canon of this Council did only reach unto the Gentiles as is apparent out of the Proeme to the Decretal which is directed to the Brethren which are of the Gentiles and from the 21. Chapter of the Acts where it is said that as concerning the Gentiles which believe we have written and determined that they observe no such thing as the Law of Moses So that for all that was determined in this Council those of the Jews which had embraced the saith of Christ were not prohibited as yet to observe the Sabbath and other parts of Moses Law Acts 16.3 as before they did in which regard St. Paul caused Timothy to be circumcised because he would not scandalize and offend the Jews The Jews were very much affected to their ancient Ceremonies In Acts 21.23 and Calvin rightly hath affirmed Correctionem ut difficilis erat ita subitam esse non potuisse that a full reformation of that zeal of theirs as it was full of difficulty so could it not be done upon the sudden Concil Tom. 1. Bin. Therefore it pleased the Apostles as it is conceived in their fourth Council holden at Hierusalem mention whereof is made in the 21. of the Acts to make it lawful for the Jews to retain Circumcision and such legal Rites together with the faith in Christ Quamdiu templum sacrificia legis in Hierusalem stabant as long as the Jewish Temple and the legal sacrifices in Hierusalem should continue standing Not that the faith of Christ was not sufficient of it self for their salvation Sed ut mater Synagoga paulatim cum honore sepeliretur but that the Synagogue might be layed to sleep with the greater honour But this if so it was was for no long time For when the third Council holden in Hierusalem against Cerinthus and his party was held in Anno 51. and this which now we speak of Anno 58. the final ruin of the Temple was in 72. So that there was but one and twenty years in the largest reckoning wherein the Christian Jews were suffered to observe their Sabbath and yet not as before they did as if it were a necessary Duty but as a thing indifferent only But that time come the Temple finally destroyed and the legal Ceremonies therein buried it was accounted afterwards both dangerous and heretical to observe the Sabbath or mingle any of the Jewish leaven with the Bread of life St. Hierom roundly so proclaims it caeremonias Judaeorum perniciosas pestiferas esse Christianis that all the Ceremonies of the Jews whereof before he named the Sabbath to be one were dangerous yea and deadly too to a Christian man Sive ex Judaeis esset five ex Gentibus whether he were originally of the Jews or Gentiles To which Saint Austin gives allowance Ego hanc vocem tuam omnino confirmo in his reply unto St. Hicrom That it was also deemed heretical to celebrate a sabbath in the Christian Church we shall see hereafter In the mean time we must proceed in search of the Lords day and of the Duties then performed whereof we can find nothing yet by that name at least The Scripture tells us somewhat that St. Paul did at Troas upon the first day of the week which happening much about this time comes in this place to be considered The passage in the Text stands thus Acts 20.7 Vpon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech until midnight Take notice here that Paul had tarried there seven days before this hapned Now in this Text there are two things to be considered first what was done upon that day and secondly what day it was that is there remembred First for the action it is said to be breaking of bread which some conclude to be administring the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and Pauls Discourse which followed on it In locum to be a Sermon But sure I am Saint Chrysostom tells us plainly otherwise who relates it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Their meeting at that time saith he was not especially to receive instruction from Saint Paul but to eat bread with him and there upon occasion given he discoursed unto them See saith the Father how
year after Christs Nativity he lays it positively down that the Sabbath was now abrogated with the other Ceremonies which were to vanish at Christs coming Let no man judg you Colos 1.16 saith the Apostle in meat and drink or in respect of an holy-day or of the New moon or of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ In which the Sabbath is well matched with meats and drinks new-moons and holy days which were all temporary Ordinances and to go off the stage at our Saviours entrance Now whereas some that would be thought great sticklers for the Sabbath conceive that this was spoken not of the weekly moral Sabbath as they call it which must be perpetual but of the annual ceremonial Sabbaths which they acknowledg to be abrogated this new device directly crosseth the whole current of the Ancient Fathers who do apply this Text to the weekly Sabbath It is sufficient in this point to note the places The Reader may peruse them as leisore is and look on Epiphan lib. 1. haeres 33. n. 11. Ambrose upon this place Hieroms Epistle ad Algasâ—qu 10. Chrysost hom 13. in Hebr. 7. August cont Judaeos cap. 2. cont Faust Manich. l. 16. c. 28. Praesat in Gala. Apocal. 10. I end this list with that of Hierom Nulius Apostoli sermo est vel per Epistolam vel praesentis in quo non laboret docere antiquae legis onera deposita omnia illa quae in typis imaginibus paaecessere i. e. atium Sabbati circumcisionis injuriam Kalendarum trium per annum solennitatum reaursns c. gratia Evangeln subrepente cessâ—sse There is saith he no Sermon of the Apostles either delivered by Epistle or by word of mouth wherein he labours not to prove that all the burdens of the Law are now laid away that all those things which were before in types and figures namely the Sabbath Circumcision the New moons and the three solemn Festivals did cease upon the Preaching of the Gospel And cease it did upon the Preaching of the Gospel insensibly and by degrees as before we said not being afterwards observed as it had been formerly or counted any necessary part of Gods publick worship Only some use was made thereof for the enlargement of Gods Church by reason that the People had been accustomed to meet together on that day for the performance of religious spiritual duties This made it more regarded than it would have been especially in the Eastern parts of Greece and Asia where the Provincial Jews were somewhat thick dispersed and being a great accession to the Gospel could not so suddenly forsake their ancient customs Yet so that the first day of the week began to grow into some credit towards the ending of this Age especially after the final desolation of Hierusalem and the Temple which hapned Anno 72. of Christs Nativity So that the religious observation of this day beginning in the Age of the Apostles no doubt but with their approbation and authority and since continuing in the same respect for so many Ages may be very well accounted amongst those Apostolical traditions which have been universally received in the Church of God For being it was the day which our Redeemer honoured with his Resurrection it easily might attain unto that esteem as to be honoured by the Christians with the publick meetings that so they might with greater comfort preserve and cherish the memorial of so great a mercy in reference unto which the Worlds Creation seemed not so considerable By reason of which work wrought on it it came in time to be entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day Apotal 10. which attribute is first found in the Revelation writ by Saint John about the 94th year of our Saviours Birth So long it was before we find the Church took notice of it by a proper name For I persuade my self that had that day been destinate at that time to religious duties or honoured with the name of the Lords day when Paul Preached at Troas or writ to the Corinthians which as before we shewed was in the fifty-seventh neither Saint Luke nor the Apostle had so passed it over and called it only the first day of the week as they both have done And when it had this Attribute affixed unto it it only was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as before we said by reason of our Saviours Resurrection performed upon it and that the Congregation might not be assembled as well on them as on the other For first it was not called the Lords Day exclusively but by way of eminency in reference to the Resurrection only all other days being the Lords as well as this In Psal 23. Prima sabbati significat diem Dominicum quo Dominus resurrexit resurgendo isti seculo subvenit mundumque ipso die creavit qui ob excellentiam tanti miraculi propriè dies Dominica appellatur i. e. dies Domini quamvis omnes sunt Domini So Bruno Herbipolensis hath resolved it And next it was not so designed for the publick meetings of the Church as if they might not be assembled as well on every day as this For as Saint Hierom hath determined In Gal. 4. omnes dies aequales sunt nee per parasceven tantum Christum crucifigi die Dominica resurgere sed semper sanctum resurrectionis esse diem semper eum carne vesci Dominica c. All days are equal in themselves as the Father tells us Christ was not Crucified on the Friday only nor did he rise only upon the Lords day but that we may make every day the holy-day of his Resurrection and every day eat his blessed Body in the Sacrament When therefore certain days were publickly assigned by Godly men for the Assemblies of the Church this was done only for their sakes qui magis seculo vacant quam Deo who had more mind unto the World than to him that made it and therefore either could not or rather would not everyday assemble in the Church of God Upon which ground as they made choice of this even in the Age of the Apostles for one because our Saviour rose that day from amongst the dead so chose they Friday for another by reason of our Saviours passion and Wednesday on the which he had been betrayed the Saturday or ancient Sabbath being mean-while retained in the Eastern Churches Nay in the primitive times excepting in the heat of persecution they met together every day for the receiving of the Sacrament that being fortified with that viaticum they might with greater courage encounter death if they chanced to meet him So that the greatest honour which in this Age was given the first day of the week or Sunday is that about the close thereof they did begin to honour it with the name or title of the Lords day and made it one of those set days whereon the People
met together for religious exercises Which their religious exercises when they were performed or if the times were such that their Assemblies were prohibited and so none were performed at all it was not held unlawful to apply themselves unto their ordinary labours as we shall see anon in the following Ages For whereas some have gathered from this Text of the Revelation from S. John's being in the spirit on the Lords day as the phrase there is that the Lords day is wholly to be spent in spiritual exercises that their conceit might probably have had some shew of likelihood had it been said by the Apostle that he had been in the spirit every Lords day But being as it is a particular case it can make no rule unless it be that every man on the Lords day should have Dreams and Visions and be inspired that day with the spirit of Prophecy no more than if it had been told us upon what day Saint Paul had been rapt up into the third Heaven every man should upon that day expect the like Celestial raptures Add here how it is thought by some â—â—omarus de â— abbat c. 6. that the Lords day here mentioned is not to be interpreted of the first day of the week as we use to take it but of the day of his last coming of the day of judgment wherein all flesh shall come together to receive their sentence which being called the Lords day too in holy Scripture that so the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord 1 Cor. 5.5 S. John might see it being rapt in spirit as if come already But touching this we will not meddle let them that own it look unto it the rather since S. John hath generally been expounded in the other sence by Aretas and Andreas Caesariensis upon the place by Bede de rat temp c. 6. and by the suffrage of the Church the best expositor of Gods Word wherein this day hath constantly since the time of that Apostle been honoured with that name above other days Which day how it was afterwards observed and how far different it was thought from a Sabbath day the prosecution of this story will make clear and evident CHAP. II. In what estate the Lords day stood from the death of the Apostles to the reign of Constantine 1. Touching the orders setled by the Apostles for the Congregation 2. The Lords day and the Saturday both Festivals and both alike observed in the East in Ignatius time 3. The Saturday not without great difficulty made a Fasting day 4. The Controversie about keeping Easter and how much it conduceth to the present business 5. The Feast of Easter not affixed to the Lords day without much opposition of the Eastern Churches 6. What Justin Martyr and Dionysius of Corinth have left us of the Lords day Clements of Alexandria his dislike thereof 7. Vpon what grounds the Christians of the former times used to pray standing on the Lords day and the time of Penteco st 8. What is recorded by Tertullian of the Lords day and the Assemblies of the Church 9. Origen as his Master Clemens had done before dislikes set days for the Assembly 10. S. Cyprian what he tells us of the Lords day and of the reading of the Scriptures in S. Cyprians time 11. Of other holy days established in these three first Ages and that they were observed as solemnly as the Lords day was 12. The name of Sunday often used for the Lords day by the primitive Christians but the Sabbath never WE she wed you in the former Chapter whatever doth occur in the Acts and Monuments of the Apostles touching the Lords day and the Sabbath how that the one of them was abrogated as a part of the Law of Moses the other rising by degrees from the ruins of it not by Authority divine for ought appears but by Authority of the Church As for the duties of that day they were most likely such as formerly had been used in the Jewish Synagogues reading the Law and Prophets openly to the Congregation and afterwards expounding part thereof as occasion was calling upon the Lord their God for the continuance of his mercies and singing Psalms and Hymns unto him as by way of thankfulness These the Apostles found in the Jewish Church and well approving of the same as they could not otherwise commended them unto the care of the Disciples by them to be observed as often as they met together on what day soever First for the reading of the Law In Jos hom 15. Origen saith expresly that it was ordered so by the Apostles Judaicarum historiarum libri traditi sunt ab Apostolis legendi in Ecclesiis as he there informs us To this was joyned in tract of time the reading of the holy Gospel and other Evangelical writings it being ordered by S. Peter that S. Marks Gospel should be read in the Congregation HIst l. 2.15 1 Thes ca. ult v. 17. as Eusebius tells us and by S. Paul that his Epistle to the Thessalonians should be read unto all the holy Brethren and also that to the Colossians to be read in the Church of the Laodiceans as that from Laodicea in the Church of the Colossians By which example Ca. ult v. 16. not only all the writings of the Apostles but many of the writings of Apostolical men were publickly read unto the People and for that purpose one appointed to exercise the ministry of a Reader in the Congregation So antient is the reading of the Scriptures in the Church of God To this by way of comment or application was added as we find by S. Paul's directions the use of Prophesie or Preaching 1 Cor. 14. v. 3. interpretation of the Scriptures to edifying and to exhortation and to comfort This exercise to be performed with the head uncovered as well the Preacher as the hearer 1 Cor. 11.4 Every man Praying or Prophesying with his head covered dishonoureth his head as the Apostle hath informed us Where we have publick Prayers also for the Congregation the Priest to offer to the Lord the prayers and supplications of the People and they to say Amen unto those prayers which the Priest made for them These to contein in them all things necessary for the Church of God which are the subject of all supplications prayers intercessions 1 Tim. 2. and giving of thanks and to extend to all men also especially unto Kings and such as be in Authority that under them we may be godly and quietly governed leading a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty For the performance of which last duties with the greater comfort it was disposed that Psalms and Hymns should be intermingled with the rest of the publick service which comprehending whatsoever is most excellent in the Book of God and being so many notable forms of praise and prayer were chearfully and unanimously to be sung amongst them 1 Cor. 14.26 And thereupon S. Paul reprehended