Reproaches of a spiteful World and do what lies in us to stop the Mouths at least if not to gain the Hearts of our Enemies For the Real Esteem which Men have of others is not to be gained by the little Arts of Address and Insinuation much less by complying with them in their Follies but by a steady and resolute Practice of our own Duties joyned with a gentle and easie and obliging Behaviour to others so far as is consistent with them But a proud supercilious morose Behaviour towards our greatest Enemies doth but make them much more so if any thing softens them and makes them more tractable it will be joyning a Firmness of Mind as to our plain Duties with Humility and Kindness in other Matters But what are these Duties we are obliged to so much Care in the Performance of There is a Twofold Obligation lying upon us I. That which is more General from the Nature and Design of our Imployment which is the Cure of Souls and that requires great Diligence and Faithfulness frequent Recollection and Consideration serious Application of our selves to Divine Studies and Imployments a prudent Use of the best Methods for the convincing Reproving Directing and Assisting those who are committed to our Care And all these are implied in the Nature of our Office as it is set forth in holy Scripture wherein we are described as Laborers and therefore must take Pains and not spend our time in vain and idle Company As Teachers and therefore ought to be stored with a good Stock of Knowledge our selves and be ready to communicate it to others As Pastors and so we ought to look after our Flock and not leave them to the careless Management of others who are not so concerned for their Welfare as we ought to be As Ambassadors from Christ and therefore we are bound to look after the Business we are sent upon and the great Weight and Importance of it as to your own Salvation as well as others As Stewards of the Mysteries of God and the first thing required in them is to discharge their Trust honestly and faithfully remembring the Account they must give to God But these you may say are only general Things and do not determine and limit our Duties within certain Bounds what is there which doth fix and determine our Duties as to the Station we have in this Church II. I come therefore to the Special Duties which by the Ancient Constitution of this Church and the Ecclesiastical Laws of it are incumbent upon you And you are to consider that as the Law hath taken Care for your Maintenance and Subsistence in doing your Duties so it doth suppose your careful Performance of them not only in regard to the general Rule of Conscience but to that particular Obligation you are under as Members of this Church And therefore I shall enquire into Two things I. The Duties you are under this Obligation to II. The Incouragement which the Law gives in Consideration of it I. The Duties are of two sorts 1. Publick and Solemn 2. Private and Occasional 1. Publick and Solemn and those either respect the Time or the Duties themselves 1. As to the times of Solemn and Publick Worship which are the Weekly Lord's Days and the other Holy-days 1. I begin with the Observation of the Lord's Days which I shall now make appear to have been set apart for the solemn Worship and Service of God especially by the Clergy from the first Settlement of a Parochial Clergy in this Church In a Provincial Council held at Cloveshoo or Cliff A. D. 747. the King and Nobility being present where the Archbishop and Bishops Assembled for Regulating the Worship of God in Parochial Churches then newly erected in many places the Fourteenth Canon is express That the Lord's Day ought to be celebrated with due Veneration and devoted only to Divine Worship Divino tantum cultui dedicatus and the Presbyters are required to officiate in their several Churches both in Preaching and Praying and the People are required to let alone their common worldly Affairs and to attend the publick Worship of God The Canons of Egbert Archbishop of York are as clear and full for the Northern Province as the other for the Southern Can. 104. That nothing is to be done on the Lord's Day but what tends to the Worship and Service of God And Can. 36. That Christ sanctified the Lord's Day by his Resurrection But because these Canons of Egbert will be often used something ought to be observed to clear their Authority Sir H. Spelman saith there are several Ancient MSS. of them Mr. Selden owns the Cotton MS. to be of the time of H. 1. but he suspects that another made the Collection and put it under his Name But it was no strange thing for the great Bishops to make such a Collection of Canons for so it was done by Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury by Theodulphus of Orleans Isaac Lingonensis Chrodegangus Herardus Hincmarus c. And Egbert was not only a great Man Brother to the King of the Northumbrians but a great Promoter of Learning and Ecclesiastical Discipline as appears by his Dialogue about the latter and the other by Alcuin's Epistles about him and Bede's Epistle to him a little before his death And the Agreement between the Capitulars and these Canons might come from Alcuin's carrying them over into France with him In the Saxon Canons c. 24. it is said that the Lord's Day on which our Saviour rose from the dead is to be devoted wholly to the Service of God excepting only Works of Necessity and Charity These Canons are translated from those of Theodulphus Bishop of Orleans A. D. 786. And it is observable that as the Christian Religion prevailed in these Northern Parts so the Religious Observation of the Lord's Day was enforced as appears by the Canons of the Gallican Church as well as this As in the famous Canon of the Council of Mascon A. D. 585. where the Bishops Assembled complain of the Neglect of the Lord's Day and agree to put the People upon a stricter Observance of it And so before in the Council of Orleans A. D. 538. But in both these Canons they avoid a Iewish Superstition as well as profane Neglect They allowed both Works of Necessity and Conveniency and did not place the Observation in a bare Rest but in Attendance on the Worship of God and forbad all manner of Secular Imployments which were inconsistent with it Nay Theodulphus his Canon goes higher Tantummodo Deo vacandum the whole Day ought to be spent in Religious and Charitable Imployments The greatest Men in our Saxon Churches asserted the same Bede saith That the Apostles appointed the Lord's Day to be observed with Religious Solemnity and therein we ought to devote our selves to the Worship of God tantum divinis cultibus seviamus And to the same purpose speaks Alcuin who was bred up under Egbert
Archbishop of York and calls Bede the greatest Master of his Time and in another place he saith One Seventh Day is set apart among Christians as another had been among the Iews for the Service of God and that therein we ought to attend to the Care of our Souls and to lead a spiritual Life Bede distinguishes between the Patriarchal and Iewish Sabbath The latter he calls a Carnal and the other a Spiritual Sabbath the former lay in a strict Abistnence from Labour but the other in Prayer and Devotion and Spiritual Contemplations The Iewish Rest he saith was inutile 〈◊〉 luxuriosum For the 〈…〉 â—llowed Recreations and Sports on their Sabbaths vacant ab opere bono saith he non ab opere nugatorio Vacant ad nugas saith S. Augustin but he saith they had better plow or dig than dance on that Day or sit in the Theater And he tells us That the Heathens objected against the Iews That they spent one Day in the Week in Idleness For they supposed the bare Rest to be the Sanctification of the Day which was commanded and the spending any part of it in the publick Worship to be voluntary Devotion But the better sort of the Iews thought the Rest was appointed for the Knowledge of the Law and Spiritual Imployments So Philo Iosephus Aben-Ezra Kimchi and Menasseh ben Israel It seems most reasonable in this Case to distinguish between the Legal Rest strictly required by the Fourth Commandment and the Original Rest in Remembrance of God's resting from the Work of Creation The former was a Sign between God and the People of Israel as it is often called in Scripture and the other was a Commemorative Sign but such as excited them to the Worship of the Creator and therefore the Patriarchal Sabbath as Bede observes was of a spiritual Nature And such a spiritual Sabbath as S. Augustin calls it ought to be observed by Christians in the Duties of God's Worship as well as in spiritual and holy Thoughts But the Iewish Sabbath he often-saith doth not oblige Christians I the rather mention him because Bede followed his Doctrine herein and that of Gregory I. who was the great Instrument of promoting the Conversion of our Ancestors to Christianity And he declares himself fully both as to the Cessation of the Iewish Sabbath and the religious Observation of the Lord's day It seems there were some then as there are among us now who were for the strict Observation of the Saturday-Sabbath But Gregory saith They might as well insist upon Circumcision and Sacrifices as the Iewish Sabbath But yet he adds We ought on the Lord's day to abstain from worldly Imployments and devote our selves unto Prayers that we may make some Amends for the Weeks Negligence by the Devotions on that Day And this devoting the Lord's day to the Service of God is entred into the Body of the Canon Law and taken out of Ivo and by him from the Canons of the Gallican Church as appears by several Councils Our Lyndwood mentions that Canon as in force here Die Dominicâ nihil aliud agendum nisi Deo vacandum And he takes some Pains to explain it by distinguishing 1. Works servile materially and formally as Plowing Sowing Markets Law-days c. these are generally forbidden 2. Acts spiritual materially and finally as all Acts of Piety and Devotion and these we ought to attend upon with Care and Diligence 3. Acts not servile in themselves but done for a servile End as Studies and Designs for Gain 4. Acts servile in themselves but not so in their End as the Man's taking up his Couch on the Sabbath-day whom Christ cured He affirms that there is a Moral Part in the Fourth Commandment which he saith is a spiritual Rest or a Time set apart for God's Service Which he takes from Aquinas who saith the Substance of the Command is Moral but he doth not make it to be One day in Seven but some determinate time which he saith the Church may appoint but then it must be imployed in the Service of God vacare rebus divinis as things were said to be sanctified under the Law which were applied to God's Service But notwithstanding this Judgment of Aquinas some great Men in the Church of Rome have thought One day in Seven Moral and that the Proportion which God himself had appointed cannot be lessened For altho' Mankind could not by natural Reason find out the Proportion yet being once revealed it doth not cease to oblige unless something figurative and symbolical or peculiar to the Iewish Nation be discovered in it Bellarmin makes that the Reason of the Institution of the Lord's day because God's Law required that One day in Seven should be set apart for the Worship of God but the Apostles thought it not fit to observe the Iewish Sabbath and therefore changed it into the Lord's day Covarruvias saith That all Divines agree with Aquinas That there is something Moral in the Fourth Command which continues to oblige and that the Lord's day is of Divine Institution And to him the Roman Editors of the Canon Law referr as to this matter Azorius confesseth That the Observation of the Lord's day hath something of the Divine and Natural Law in it which requires One day in a Week should be consecrated to the Service of God and that it is most agreeable to Reason And he adds That Panormitan Sylvester and other Canonists held the Lord's day to be of divine Institution Suarez saith That the Church doth observe One day in Seven by Virtue of the divine Law that Proportion being so agreeable to Natural Reason that it cannot be altered Thomas Waldensis who lived here in the time of H. 5. observes That even then there were two Extreams in Mens Opinions about the Observation of the Lord's Day some allowed no kind of Work and others any But he shews That the Law of Nature requires some Solemn Days for Divine Worship and that then there ought to be a Rest from other Labours because they hinder the Mind from that Attention necessary to the Service of God And necessary Works are left to a few that others may be more at Liberty In the Saxon Laws we find many against the Profanation of the Lord's day by slavish Imployments by Markets and Trading by Folkmotes and Law-suits c. So that great care was taken then that the Lord's day should be duly observed After the Norman times we have several Constitutions to inforce the strict Observation of the Lord's day In the time of H. 6. Hubert de Burgo saith That Custom may derogate from other Holy-days but not from the Lord's day because they are not commanded by God as that is Since the Reformation our Book of Homilies goes upon the same Grounds which were used in
the Saxon times viz. That the Iewish Sabbath doth not oblige us but however to observe the like Proportion of time and devote it to the Service of God Mr. Hooker saith That we are to account the Sanctification of one day in Seven a Duty which God's immutable Law doth exact for ever But what is meant by this Sanctification of One day in Seven If it be understood according to the old Canons it will fill scrupulous Minds with more Doubts and Fears about the right Observation of it Origen saith The Observation of the Christian Sabbath lies in these things 1. A Forbearance of worldly Business 2. Attendance on the Publick Worship 3. Divine Meditation on Things invisible and future Haec est observatio Sabbati Christiani And in another place he requires besides Publick Worship private Meditation and Reading the Holy Scriptures S. Chrysostom insists very much upon the same in several places and on different Occasions And altho' it be in his popular Sermons yet he would certainly not put them upon any thing but what he thought very fit to be done And they must have a mean Opinion of him who think his Eloquence carried him too far in this matter I shall conclude with the Opinion of Lyndwood a Learned and Judicious Canonist and he observes a Threefold Sanctification of the Lord's day 1. By Abstinence from Sin which is necessary at all times 2. By Abstinence from such bodily Labours as hinder the Mind's Attendance upon God's Service 3. By the whole Imployment of our Minds in Divine Matters and this he calls the perfect Observation of it These things I have the more largely insisted upon to shew That the Religious Observation of the Lord's day is no Novelty started by some late Sects and Parties among us but that it hath been the general Sense of the best part of the Christian World and is particularly inforced upon us of the Church of England not only by the Homilies but by the most ancient Ecclesiastical Law among us But this is not all for the Ancient as well as Modern Canons require the Observation of Holy-days likewise The Canons of Egbert require not only Prayers but Preaching then Can. 1. 3. The Council of Cloveshoo Can. 13. distinguishes the Holy-days relating to our Saviour from the rest and saith They are to be observed in a solemn and uniform Manner and the rest according to the Roman Martyrology Which I suppose were those repeated then in the Diptychs of the Church which Custom continued longer at Rome than in other Churches but it was generally disused before the time of Charles the Great The Custom in Rome in Gregory's time was to observe the Saints Days with the solemn Service at one Church as appears by his Homilies on the Evangelists which were many of them preached on those Occasions as of S. Felicitas Hom 3. S. Agnes Hom. 11 12. S. Felix Hom. 13. S. Pancrace Hom. 27. c. and of others who were Roman Martyrs and therefore had a particular Solemnity appointed for them But as to other Saints Days it appears by the Antiphonarius and Sacramentary of Gregory I. that they had particular Anthems and Collects proper for them in the Offices of the Day but I do not find that the Generality of the People were so strictly tied up when the Offices were over as they were on the Lord's days and the greater Festivals relating to our Saviour In the Council of Cloveshoo Can. 13. I observe that the Natalitia Sanctorum i.e. the Anniversary Saints Days were observed with particular Psalmody and Anthems and Can. 17. the Days of Gregory and Augustin the Two great Instruments of converting the Nation were only to be kept as Holy-days by the Clergy without any particular Obligation on all the People So that the Holy-days of strict Observation then seem to have been no other than those which relate to our Saviour called Dominicae Dispensationis in carne Festivitates the rest had some proper Offices which were performed on their Days but the People were to attend them as well as they could but after there was not this strictness required as upon the greater Holy-days and as it was in the Church of Rome afterwards when they made the Obligation of Conscience to extend to all Holy-days appointed by the Church But it is observable 1. That this Obligation is taken from those Canons which mention only the Lord's day as appears by Bellarmin 2. That they kept up the Distinction of greater and lesser Holy-days 3. That they allow the Bishop to dispense as to some Works on Holy-days Lyndwood observes that the Abstinence from Work is not alike but as the Church hath required it and that if a Bishop's Licence cannot be had a less will serve Our Church Can. 13. requires Holy-days to be observed with Works of Piety Charity and Sobriety but gives no Rule as to Abstinence from Works or the strict Obligation of Conscience 2. I now come to the particular Duties of the Clergy on the Days which are solemnly devoted to the Service of God 1. The constant and devout Attendance upon and solemn Reading the Prayers of the Church as they are appointed In the old Saxon Canons the Presbyters are required to officiate constantly at Prayers in their Churches so in the Council at Cloveshoo Can. 8. the Canons of Egbert Can. 2. Canons of Edgar Can. 45. But how if the People will not come to the Prayers You ought what lies in you to remove the Causes of such Neglect which arises generally from these things either a gross Stupidity and Regardlesness of Religion which is too common in the World or from Prejudice and Principles of Education or the Interest of a Party or from not Reading the Prayers with that Attention and Devotion which is fit to raise an Esteem of them The other two you ought to do what you can to remove but this is your own Fault if you do it not We are not to please the Fancies of People by an affected Variety of Expressions in Prayers but we ought to do what we can to excite their Affections which is done as much by the due manner of Reading as by Figures in Speaking And the People are uneasie at staying when they see the Minister read them so fast as though he minded nothing so much as to be at the end of them or when he mangles them so as if he had a mind to make the People out of love with them 2. The next Duty is Preaching and truly that need to be looked after when the Esteem of our Profession depends so much upon it We have none of those Methods which those on both sides make so much use of we can neither comply with the People in Gestures and Phrases and Enthusiastick Heats nor with the Superstitious Devotions and Priest-craft of others Of all Churches ours hath the least Reason to be charged
Lord of hosts Mal. 2. 7. If this held in the Levitical Priesthood much more certainly under the Gospel where the Rates and Measures of our Duties are not to be determined by Levitical Precepts but by the general Reason and Nature of Moral Actions VIII Among the Duties of Publick Worship I must put you in mind of a Frequent Celebration of the Lord's Supper There is generally too great a Neglect of this which is the most proper part of Evangelical Worship The Duties of Prayers and Praises are excellent and becoming Duties as we are Creatures with respect to our Maker and Preserver The Duty of hearing the Word of God read and explained is consequent upon our owning it to be the Rule of our Faith and Manners and all who desire to understand and practise their Duty can never despise or neglect it But that solemn Act of Worship wherein we do most shew our selves Christians is the celebrating the Holy Eucharist For therein we own and declare the infinite Love of God in sending his Son into the World to die for Sinners in order to their Salvation and that this is not only a true Saying but worthy of all Men to be credited Therein we lift up our Hearts and give Thanks to our Lord God we joyn with Angels and Archangels in lauding and magnifying his glorious Name Therein we not only commemorate the Death and Sufferings of our Lord but are made Partakers of his Body and Blood after a Real but Sacramental Manner Therein we offer up our selves to God to be a Reasonable Holy and Lively Sacrifice unto him Therein we Adore and Glorifie the ever Blessed Trinity and humbly implore the Grace and Assistance of our ever Blessed Mediator And what now is there in all this which is not very agreeable to the Faith Hope and Charity of Christians Nay what Duty is there which so much expresses all these together as this doth Nor whereby we may more reasonably expect greater Supplies of Divine Grace to be bestowed upon us What then makes so many to be so backward in this Duty which profess a Zeal and Forwardness in many others If we had that Warmth and Fervor of Devotion that Love to Christ and to each other which the primitive Christians had we should make it as constant a part of our publick Worship as they did but this is not to be expected Neither did it always continue in the Primitive Church when Liberty and Ease and worldly Temptations made Persons grow more remiss and careless in the solemn Duties of their Religion S. Chrysostom takes notice in his time of the different Behaviour of Persons with respect to the holy â—â—charist There were some who pretended to greater Holiness and Austerity of Life than others who withdrew from the common Conversation of Mankind and so by degrees from joining in the Acts of publick Worship with them Which did unspeakable Mischief to Christianity for then the Perfection of the Christian Life was not supposed to consist in the Active Part of it but in Retirement and Contemplation As tho' our highest Imitation of Christ lay in following him into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil and not in walking as he walked who frequented the Synagogues and went about doing good But this way of Retirement happening to be admired by some great Men the Publick Worship came to be in less esteem and others upon Reasons of a different Nature withdrew themselves from such Acts of Devotion as required a stricter Attendance and a more prepared Temper of Mind And there were some who did abstain because they were not so well satisfied with themselves as to their own Preparations and such as these S. Chrysostom seems to favour rather than such who came often without due care as to the whole Course of their Lives only out of custom or out of regard to the Orders of the Church From hence many thought it better to forbear as long as they did it not out of Contempt And so by degrees the People were content to look on it as a Sacrifice for them to be performed by others rather than as an Office wherein they were to bear a part themselves at least they thought once or thrice a Year sufficient for them And to this as appears by our old Provincial Constitutions they were forced by severe Canons When the Reformation began this Disuse of this holy Sacrament was looked on by the chief Reformers as a great Abuse and Corruption crept into the Church which ought by all means to be reformed and the frequent Celebration of it set up in the Reformed Churches But unreasonable Scruples in some and Misapprehensions in others and a general Coldness and Indifference as to Matters of Religion have hitherto hindered the Reviving this Primitive Part of Devotion among us I do not go about to determine the Frequency in your Parishes which the Scripture doth not as to the Christian Church but supposes it to be often done but I may require you to take care that Christ's Institution be observed among you and that with your utmost care both as to the Decency and Purity of it The last thing I recommend to you all is To have a great care of your Conversations I do not speak it out of a distrust of you I hope you do it already and your Case will be so much worse if you do it not because you very well know how much you ought to do it For the Honour of God and Religion and the Success of your Ministry as well as your own Salvation depend very much upon it Lead your Flock by your Example as well as by your Doctrine and then you may much better hope that they will follow you for the People are naturally Spies upon their Ministers and if they observe them to mind nothing but the World all the Week they will not believe them in earnest when on the Lords Days they perswade them against it And it takes off the Weight of all Reproof of other Mens Faults if those they reprove have reason to believe them guilty of the same I do not think it enough for a Preacher of Righteousness merely to avoid open and scandalous Sins but he ought to be a great Example to others in the most excellent Virtues which adorn our Profession not only in Temperance and Chastity in Iustice and ordinary Charity but in a readiness to do good to all in forgiving Injuries in loving Enemies in evenness of Temper in Humility and Meekness and Patience and Submission to God's Will and in frequent Retirements from the World not meerly for Study but for Devotion If by these and such things you shine as Lights among your People they will be more ready to follow your Conduct and in probability you will not only stop their Mouths but gain their Hearts For among all the Ways of advancing the Credit and Interest of the Church of England one of the most succesful