manners Some ignorantly say you have no power you can do nothing That you have power this meeting shews you calling us hither and I hope for some good end Let your power and authority I beseech you be exercised as St. Pauls was 2 Cor. 10. 8. for edification That it may appear we live in a flourishing Christian Church where good Laws are and they well observed and executed where Religion is professed and practised where the youth are catechised and principeled in Religion where the Sacraments are duly and orderly administred where the houses of God are solemnly frequented where Schisms and Factions are discountenanced where vice is punished and vertue encouraged where mens lives are reformed so that obedience to Governours charity and righteousness to men may and do appear and according to this Scripture Canon all things are done decently and in order The POSTSCRIPT I Reading in Mr. Howel Engl. speaking thus I that have Englands Tears pag. 2. been accounted the Queen of Isles the darling of Nature and Neptunes minion I that have been stiled by the character of the first Daughter of the Church that have converted eight several Nations I that made the morning beams of Christianity shine upon Scotland upon Ireland and a good part of France I that did irradiate Denmark Swedland and Norway with the light thereof I that brought the Saxons with other Germanes high and low from Paganism to the knowledge of the Cospel I that had the first Christian King that ever was Lucius and the first reformed King the eight Henry to reign over me I out of whose bowels sprung the first Christian Emperor that ever was Constantine I that had five several Kings viz. John King of France David King of Scotland Peter King of Bohemia and two Irish Kings my captives in less than one year I under whose Banner that great Emperor Maximilian took it an honour to serve in person and receive pay from me I that did so abound with Bullion c. Behold behold I am now become the object of pity to some of scorn to others of laughter to all people my children abroad are driven to disavow me for fear of being jeered they dare not own me their Mother upon the Rialto of Venice the Borle of Auspurge the New-bridge of Paris the Cambios of Spain or upon the Quoys of Holland for fear of being bafled and hooted at I reading in Mr. Vines what we had been a people His last Sermon March 10. 1646. of as powerful godliness as any in the world that practical divinity was improved to a great height of clearness and sweetness and his lamenting our miserable declination in the same Sermon from the life and power of godliness which is come to pass within these few years so that our practicals our inward and close wayes of walking with God in faith and love are sublimed into fancies and vapours into fumes of new opinions and which is worst of all we take this Dropsie to be growth and conceive our selves more spiritual Page 56. and refined because more airy and notional Liberty of Religions is become the golden calf of the times And Page 2. the Ministers are laid low in order to a twofold liberty the one of prophesying every one to set up Trade who is Page 23. able and liberty of lusts and ways of looseness I considering In his Fast Sermon March 10 1646. what Mr. Hodges saith we have long enjoyed as clear light and as full discoveries of fundamental truths as any Church others have lighted their Tapers more at our flame than we at theirs our Church once the great eye-sore to Hereticks envy of Papists refuge of Orthodox glorious for Doctrine a praise in the earth the Mother of many Stars of the first magnitude faithful Martyrs famous Confessors and innumerable souls in Heaven c. and yet after his preaching in his Epistle he saith the Prince of flies hath raised such swarms of flies in every corner of our Land that many of our Congregations and Families are miserably fly blown with Heresies and corrupt Tenets I reâ—â—mbring some passages in Sir Edward Deerings Speeches Octob. 23. pag. 23. in Parliament at the beginning of it saying if we let forth the Government into a lose liberty for all Religions we shall have none Libertinism will beget Atheism a little after Men upon whose merit let my credit stand or fall in this House complain with grief of heart to see their now infected sheep after long pastoral vigilance and faithful Ministery to run and straggle from them more in these ten Nov. 20. pag. 98. moneths than in twenty years before in another he saith there is at present such an all-daring liberty such a lewd licentiousness for all mens venting their several senses sensless senses in Matters of Religion as never was in any Age or any Nation until this Parliament was met together Thus the Church of England once the glory of the Reformed Religion is miserably torn and distracted so that you can hardly say which is the Church of England c. These shew what we have lost and what we have found And I living in the best times that ever England had and seeing what I see cannot but wish with Jeremy That my eyes were a Jer. 9. 1 2. fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the divisions and destractions in England I now seeing the truth of Mr. Burtons saying superstition will run along like a Murrain Melanch pag. 606. in Cattel scab on sheep nulla scabies superstitione scabiosior He who is bit of a Mad dog bites others and all in the end become mad either out of affection of novelty simplicity blind zeal hope fear the giddy headed multitude will embrace it So he Mahomet was but a poor Orphan he Mr. Alexand Rosse History of the World p. 109. marryed his Mistriss Chediga whom he made believe that his falling sickness proceeded from the sight of Angels which appeared to him yet he was the beginner of the Mahumetans which are so multiplyed some following Alli some Endocar some Acmar and some Ozimen Mahomets successors whose followers are subdivided into seventy two Melanc p. 582. Englished by Sir Rob. Stapelton sorts as Leo Affricanus reports saith Mr. Burton and also that Poland is a receptacle for all Religions No marvel then if Fabianus Strada calls heresie the School of Pride and affirms that for a man to be an Heretick and a good subject is impossible and saith it is with less difficulty kept out than shut up And sad experience doth fully demonstrate how errors and heresies swarm amongst us so that Mr. Saltmâ—â—sh in his groans for liberty pleads Whether an hundred and fourscore Opinions are more to be cast into the face of Religion Groans p. 13. l. 1. c. 2. p. 15. than six hundred in the dayes of Nazianzen and a little after because of our many Opinions and divisions he crys out where is the Church now not
not fasting but after supper and must the deliverer wash the receivers feet 2. Christ did not make his example our pattern in such circumstances of time Communicants gesture c. but left his to be guided by his Church in all matters of comeliness and order We read of St. Pauls setting things in order yea seeming to cross the order of Christ forbidding the Corinthians to sup before 1 Cor. 11. 21. And the Church in St. Augustines time did receive the Communion fasting Epist 18. Chap. 6. he saith the whole Church the world over received it fasting that Christ left the manner of receiving to the Apostles that they appointed it to be received fasting and that the altering of the receiving of it after supper to take it fasting was the Ordinance of the holy Ghost for the honour of the Sacrament to have it enter before any external meat Object Christ did sit Mat. 26. 20. Answ Christ did not sit as we do but according to the custom of those Eastern Countreys did administer as the Passeover so his Supper lying on the floor upon couches Esth 1. 6. Mr. Beza from Josephus concludes that they did lye upon couches that one lay upon his next fellow with their feet laid outward And the Greek word shews as much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 26. 20. Macc. 14. 18. Joh. 13. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to sit upon a bed to take meat after the ancient custom And in Luk. 22 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to lye along to lye down The posture was therefore leaning or lying along not sitting besides the gesture was changed from God's appointment Exod. 12. 11. Obj. What Christ did not we must not do Christ did not kneel therefore we may not Answ Christ did not give it in the morning nor to Lay-men to no women not in a Church Christ did not give nor the Apostles receive it standing nor sitting as not kneeling therefore he left such particulars to the wisdom of the Church to order are agreed since what Christ did and commanded us to do we must do 2. What Christ did not we must not do what not baptize not communicate with women What Christ did we must do what take after Supper with a Lamb only with twelve 3 Some things Christ did as God some as Mediator some as man and as man he did many things necessary for us to follow him and he did some actions as man indifferent left free not for our imitaion 4. Churches who understand the duty and gestures used by Christ better than such objectors leave all Churches to their liberty not particular members in them to theirs and hence it is that some take it standing some kneeling and some as the Church of Poland either standing or kneeling but not allowing sitting because the wicked Arrians receive it sitting as implying their equality with Christ as man or at least derogatory from his divinity as God Our Rubrick shews there is no adoration of the Elements and it is manifest that adoration came not in amongst the Papists until after Transubstantiation which came in about 1215. and adoration about 1226. nor did Honorius appoint adoration to be used in the act of receiving but at the elevation and when carried about I pray suppose a Malefactor may have his pardon sealed with many priviledges to boot provided he will take it upon his knees not else and he will rather die than take it so because some take it on horse-back others sitting would not men condemn his stubbornneâ—s and say he justly perished Apply it I pray Oh my beloved brethren shall we deprive our selves of this sign to present this seal to confirm and this means to convey Christ and his benefits to us for we know not what for an harmless gesture savouring of humility in our selves and obedience to Governours which Mr. Beza calls a shewing Epist 12. opusc tom 3. pag. 2â—0 of holy Christian adoration Is this our thankfulness to God for planting us in the most flourishing Church in the world Is this our respect we bear to our first Reformers who sealed the Reformation with their blood and to such who have happily defended it Is this the care and love we have to our selves to quarrel at and deprive our selves of God's Ordinances for an harmless gesture Is the Communion a badge of Christianity and shall we be ashamed of Christianity so of Christ Is it a means to feed and nourish our souls spiritually and shall we slight it as not needing such nourishment Are we to receive to testifie our thankfulness for the death of Christ for which we can never be sufficiently thankful and shall we think much to do it Is our coming to the Lord's Table to testifie our Communion with God with Christ with his Spirit and Church and to increase the same that we may live more in unity love and concord and shall we neglect it 5. The Church enjoyns all to come to the prayers of the Church decently and in order And this is agreeable to all reformed Churches who have their forms To the ancient Church of the Jews meeting solemnly at their hours of prayers and to the directions of God Numb 6. 23. Deut. 26. 3 5. Mr. Calvin hath his reasons for set forms in publick an help for the weak to keep uniformity c. In Epist ad Protector Angliae yet alas we have with us who say they are abominable stumbling blocks walking with crutches c. yet such were appointed by God and our Saviour and used by the Prophets and Apostles Consider whether is better to pray with consideration or without whether he doth best who deliberates or he who doth not whether we can pray beter than Scripture prayers Although we may enlarge and vary them to make them more particular and pertinent to our personal occasions Whether he who prayes devoutly the Lord's prayer doth not pray with the Spirit since Christs Spirit taught it whether it is not as fit to offer ex tempore preaching to the people as ex tempore prayer to God See Mr. Durel pag. 64 184. And as for the prayers of our Church we have the approbation of the Reformed Churches And I have read that Gilbertus a German propounds ours for a sample of the forms of the ancient Chuâ—ch We have also the approbation of an Army of Martyrs Mr. Sanders in a Sermon affirms that the service set forth by King Edward was good because according to God's Word and the order of the primitive Church Dr. Tayler saith that that book was so fully perfected according to the Rules of Christian Religion that no Cristian conscience could be offended with any thing therein contained Bishop Ridley a little before his Martyrdom hearing that Mr. Knox did fault the Common-Prayer-Book said Alas that brother Knox could not bear with our Common-Prayer a man of parts and wit as he is may produce popular arguments against it yet I suppose
That killing themselves to avoid punishment for their errors is Martyrdom They said the Son was inferiour to the Father the holy Ghost to the Son and they boasted of Revelations In the fourth Century arose above twenty of which the Pelagians was one of Pelagius who taught that Adam should have died if he had not sinned That Adams sin did hurt only himself That there is no Original sin That men have free will sufficient to do well and that God gives grace to the merits of works The fifth Century had some and the sixth brought forth as some others so those grand errors of Mahumetanism and Papism Mahumetanism of Mahomet which hath overspread many Kingdoms under the Turk and other Kings They deny the being of persons in the Trinity They say God is corporeal That Christ was not God but a creature yet a great Prophet That Christ did not suffer nor was not crucified That the Devil in the end shall be saved That Eternal Life consists in bodily pleasures They observe Circumcision Washings with some other Judaical Ceremonies They swear by Creatures and War for Religion to which they say men are to be compelled They allow of many Wives and Divorce without cause They hope to be saved by works They deny pardon for ever to them who forsake their Religion They hold venial and mortal sins They pray towards the East a set number daily but not for unbelievers And they take away the Sacraments ordained by Christ Papism arose under Phocaâ— the Emperor and Boniface the third Popes of Rome Luther was born at Isleben in Saxony Sleidan Anab. 1483. He when Leo the tenth sent forth pardons 1516. opposed them Preaching in Saxony there arose Nicolas Stocks and Thomas Muncer preaching that goods should be common Upon this fourty thousand rose in Suevia and Franconia plundering and killing but the Princes arming took Frantus executed Muncer Phifer and hundreds more The City Munster having received the Gospel John Becâ—ld a Taylor came from Leyden thither where keeping Conventicles in few months he gets a great party they obtain freedom for their Religion and after grow so strong as to drive all the Protestants out This John of Leyden is made King he gave leave to have many Wâ—ves himself took fifteen Being vanquished he with Knipperdoling were tyed to a stake their flesh pul'd in pieces with hot pâ—ncers he recanted his errors Knipperdoling did not but died like a mad man These Anabaptists maintained as Mr. Paget shews us ten errors not to be tollerated in the Church Four not to be suffered in a Common-wealth and three not in a Family as community of goods putting away of Wives of a contrary Religion and that Christians may have many Wives Thousands of these perished in Germany by the sword and in Qâ—een Elizaâ—eths time some of them in England recanted and some were burnt After these arose the Brownists called Separatists because Mr. Paget they separate from all reformed Churches then one from another Robert Brown School-master in Southwark preached in a gravel-pit neer Islington Mr. Fox refused to talk with him Mr. Greenham perswaded him but could not prevail so to little purpose for he led his company beyond Sea where seeing their divisions he left them returned into England took the Parsonage of a Church in Northamptonshire and died as I have been informed since the beginning of our late troubles He and his followers left our Church as they said for our many abominations The Barrowists following yet more they compared our Church to Sodom Babylon Egypt as Barrow Brewis Bois Rutter c. The Wilkinsonians went a step higher affirming they were the Apostles and denied Communion to all who would not give them that title Mr. Paget The Lemmarists maintained a monster of Heresies Mahumetanism denying the Trinity and the eternal Godhead of Christ Judâ—ism affirming Christ to come shortly to reign on the earth Papism affirming a meer creature may be worshipped Lutheranism maintaining consubstantiation Anabaptism affirming that Christ took not flesh of the Virgin Mary Libertinism holding no visible Church on earth Brownism holding separation separating from all Churches excommunicating and cursing on another Mr. Paget also tells us that the begining of the Independents was thus Mr. Robinson leaving Norwich in discontent became a rigid Brownist but after by conference with some learned men he recanted his opinions yet derived this his way of Independency to his separate Congregation at Leyden and part of that Congregation did carry it to Plymouth in new England where the ashes of Independency did break out into a burning flame And Mr. Bâ—yly sets down the fruits of Mr. Bayly this Independency in new England in the opinions of some for I suppose he speaks not of all there being amongst them many sober Ministers and Magistrates who opposed and overthrew those opinions And they refusing to own the late powers is an Argument of their sobriety Besides there hath been great conversion of the Indians in so much that the Bible is translated and Printed in their Tongue as I am informed How it placeth many thousands of Christians in the condition of Pagans how it marr'd the conversion of Pagans to Christian Religion how it brought forth the foulest Heresies that ever yet were heard of in any Protestant Church to the number of fourscore and eleven That their piety seemed singular their malice was singular against all who opposed them especially Orthodox Ministers That their contempt of Magistrates was grievous their errors in opinion did draw on such seditious practises which did well near overturn both their Church and State That their proud obstinacy against all admonitions was marvellous that in the midst of their profession of piety the prophanity of many of them was great Of these particulars he speak largely and shews his warrant for what he saith in many particulars In Queen Elizabeths time Mr. Barrow Greenwood Percy and some others were executed Studly Billet and Bowly had judgment to be so The first Proposition is clearly evident That men yea the best of men are subject to err humanum est errare and have need to be called on not to err for they who have most light here have much darkness in them and we are more prone to follow the darkness of our spirits than the light of Gods Spirit He who thinks he cannot err reckons himself more than a man for whilst there remains corruption in the will the understanding cannot be wholly free from corruption The wills affections and understandings of Saints on earth have some corruption remaining in them as their practise so their opinions are soyld and faulty yea oftentimes good men continue long in error Jobs friends did multiply but not mend their answers for as it is hard to part Job 21. 34 with an evil practise so and much more with an ill opinion c. error in opinion because that reflects on the reputation of the best faculty the judgment And