Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley Bishop Hooper c. 9. The Doctrine delivered in the Book of Articles touching the five controverted points 10. An answer to the Objection against these Articles for the supposed want of Authority in the making of them 11. An Objection against King Edwards Catechism mistaken for an Objection against the Articles refelled as that Catechism by John Philpot Martyr and of the delegating of some powers by that Convocation to a choice Committee 12. The Articles not drawn up in comprehensive or ambiguous terms to please all parties but to be understood in the respective literal and Grammatical sense and the Reasons why I Have the longer stood upon the answering of this Objection to satisfie and prevent all others of the like condition in case it should be found on a further search that any of our godly Martyrs or learned Writers who either suffered death before the Reign of Edward VI. or had no hand in the carrying on of the Reformation embraced any opinions in Doctrine or Discipline contrary to the established Rules of the Church of England For otherwise as we must admit all Tyndals Heterodoxies and Friths high flying conceits of Predestination which before we touch'd at so must we also allow a Parity or an Identity rather in Priests and Bishops because John Lambert another of our Godly Martyrs did conceive so of it In the primitive Church saith he there were no more Officers in the Church of God than Bishops and Deacons that is to say Ministers as witnesseth beside Scripture S. Hierom in his Commentaries on the Epistles of S. Paul Whereas saith he that those whom we now call Priests were all one and no other but Bishops and the Bishops no other but Priests men ancient both in age and learning so near as could be chosen nor were they instituted and chosen as they be now a days the Bishop and his Officer only opposing them whether they can construe a Collect but they were chosen also with the consent of the people amongst whom they were to have their living as sheweth S. Cyprian But alack for pity such elections are banished and new fashions brought in By which opinion if it might have served or a Rule to the Reformation our Bishops must have been reduced to the rank of Priests and the right of Presentation put into the hands of the people to the Destruction of all the Patrons in the Kingdom If then the question should be asked as perhaps it may On whom or on whose judgment the hrst Reformers most relied in the weighty business I answer negatively First That they had no respect of Calvin no more than to the judgement of Wicklef Tyndal Barns or Frith whose offered assistance they refused when they went about it of which he sensibly complained unto some of his friends as appears by one of his Epistles I answer next affirmatively in the words of an Act of Parliament 2. 3. Edw. 6. where it is said That they had an eye in the first place to the more pure and sincere Christian Religion taught in the Scriptures and in the next place to the usages of the Primitive Church Being satisfied in both which ways they had thirdly a more particular respect to the Lutheran Plat-forms the English Confession or Book of Articles being taken in many places word for word out of that of Ausberg and a conformity maintained with the Lutheran Churches in Rites and Ceremonies as namely in kneeling at the Communion the Cross in Baptism the retaining of all the ancient Festivals the reading of the Epistles and Gospels on Sundays and Holy-days and generally in the whole Form of External Worship Fourthy in reference to the points disputed they ascribed much to the Authority of Melancthon not undeservedly called the Phoenix of Germany whose assistance they earnestly desired whose coming over they expected who was as graciously invited hither by King Edward the Sixth Regiis literis in Angliam vocari as himself affirms in an Epistle to Camerarius His coming laid aside upon the fall of the Duke of Sommerset and therefore since they could not have his company they made use of his writings for their direction in such points of Doctrine in which they though it necessary for the Church to declare her judgment I observe finally That as they attributed much to the particulars to the Authority of Melancthon so they ascribe no less therein unto that of Erasmus once Reader of the Greek Tongue in Cambridge and afterwards one of the Professors of Divinity there whose Paraphrases on the four Evangelists being translated into English were ordered to be kept in Churches for the use of the People and that they owned the Epistles to be studied by all such as had cure of souls Concerning which it was commanded by the injunctions of King Edward VI. published by the advice of the Lord Protector Somerset and the Privy Council Acts and Mon. fol. 1181. in the first year of the said Kings Reign 1. That they should see provided in some most convenient and open place of every Church one great Bible in English with the Paraphrase of Erasmus in English that the People might reverently without any let read and hear the same at such time as they listed and not to be inhibited therefrom by the Parson or Curate but rather to be the more encouraged and provoked thereunto And 2. That every Priest under the degree of a Batchellour of Divinity should have of his own one New Testament in English and Latine with the Paraphrases of Erasmus upon the same and should diligently read and study thereupon and should collect and keep in memory all such comfortable places of the Scripture as do set forth the Mercy Benefits and Goodness of Almighty God towards all penitent and believing persons that they might thereby comfort their flock in all danger of death despair or trouble of Conscience and that therefore every Bishop in their Institution should from time to time try and examine them how they have profited in their studies A course and care not likely to have entred into the thoughts of the Lord Protector or any of the Lords of the Council if it had not been advised by some of the Bishops who then began to have an eye on the Reformation which soon after followed and as unlikely to be counselled and advised by them had they intended to advance any other Doctrine than what was countenanced in the Writings of that Learned man Whereupon I conclude the Doctrine of the points disputed to be the true and genuine Doctrine of the Church of England which comes most near to the plain sense of holy Scripture the general current of the Fathers in the Primitive times the famous Augustane Confession the Writings of Melancthon and the Works of Erasmus To which Conclusion I shall stand till I find my self encountred by some stronger Argument to remove me from it The ground thus laid I shall proceed unto the Reformation
Free-will can do without Grace is but sin c. fol 269. In which passages of those godly Martyrs as there is nothing in it self not Divine and Orthodox so find we somewhat in their writings which doth as truly and Religiously express the workings of Gods Spirit in the heart of man without depriving him of the ability of co-operation which afterwards was taught and countenanced by the Church of England Of which thus Tyndal in his Path-way Collection of his works sol 382. When the Evangelion is preached saith he the Spirit of God entreth into them whom God hath ordained and appointed to Everlasting life and openeth their inward eyes and worketh such a belief in them when the woful Consciences feel and taste how sweet a thing the bitter death of Christ is and how merciful and loving God is through Christs Purchasing and Merits so that they begin to love again and consent to the Law of God how that it is good and ought so to be and that God is righteous that made it and desire to fulfil the Law as a sick man desireth to be whole According to which Doctrine 19. Sund. after Trin. the Church hath taught us to pray thus viz. O God forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee grant that that working of the Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts through Christ our Lord Amen More of which Prayers might be produced to the same effect were not this enough the point concerning the necessity of Gods grace towards mans Conversion not being in Dispute between the Parties Now for Gods Grace according as it is set forth in the Church of England we shall consider it in the general offer and extent the efficacious workings of it and the concurrence of mans will in the beginning and accomplishment of his own Conversion And first as to the general offer of the Grace of God we find Bishop Hooper thus discoursing in the sixth Chapter of his Exposition of the Ten Commandments Thus did S. Paul saith he convince the Gentiles of sin because they knew the evil they did was condemned by the testimony of their own Conscience for the Law of God to do well by is naturally written in the heart of every man He that will diligently search himself Exposi cap. 6. shall sometime find the same and in case man should behold his own misery both in body and soul although there were no Law correcting nor no Heavens over our heads to testifie the justice and judgment of God and the equity of an honest life mans Conscience would tell him when he doth well and when he doth evil Further saith he the judgment and discovery of Reason directs not only to live just in this World but also to live for ever in Eternal felicity without end And that cometh by the similitude of God which remaineth in the soul since the sin of Adam whereby we plainly see that those excuses of ignorance be damnable when man sees that he could do well if he followed the judgment of his own Conscience Our Articles indeed say nothing to this particular but our Liturgy doth and somewhat is found also of it in the Book of Homilies For what can be more clear and full than that clause in the Collect where it is said if God Almighty That he sheweth to all men being in errour the light of his truth to the intent they may return to the way of righteousness c. What more comfortable to a man deprived of the outward benefit of the Word and Sacraments than that clause in the Homily where it is said Exhortation to Holy Scripture Hom. p. 5. That if we lack a Learned man to instruct and teach us God himself from above will give light unto our minds and teach us those things which are necessary for us If then it be demanded How it comes to pass that this general Overture of Grace becomes so little efficacious in the hearts of men we shall find Bishop Hooper ascribing it in some men to the lack of faith and in others to the want of repentance Touching the first Pres to the Expost of the Law he tells us this That S. Paul concludes and in a manner includeth the Divine Grace and Promise of God within certain terms and limits that only Christ should be profitable and efficacious to those that apprehend and receive this abundant Grace by faith and to such as have not the use of faith neither Christ nor Gods Grace to appertain After which he proceedeth in this manner toward the other sort of men which make not a right use of this general Grace for want of Repentance d. ib. Howbeit saith he that we know by the Scripture that notwithstanding this imperfection of faith many shall be saved and likewise notwithstanding that Gods promise be general unto all people of the world yet many shall be damned These two points must therefore diligently be discussed first how this faith being unperfect is accepted of God then how we be excluded from the promise of grace that extendeth to all men c. To which first it is thus answered That S. Paul S. John and Christ himself damneth the contemners of God or such as willingly continue in sin and will not repent these the Scripture excludeth from the general promise of Grace Here then we have the Doctrine of the Church of England delivered in the Liturgy and the Book of Homilies more punctually pressed and applied in the words of godly Bishop Hooper concerning Universal Grace and somewhat also of the reasons of its not being efficacious in all sorts of men relating to that liberty which remains in man of closing or contending with it as he is either ruled by reason or else misguided by the tyranny of his lusts and passions But before I come unto this point we may behold the necessary workings of Gods Grace preventing man by the inspirations of his holy Spirit and the concurrence or co-operation of mans will being so prevented which is the Celestial influences of the Grace of God Of which the Church hath spoken so fully in all the Authentick Monuments and Records thereof that no true English Protestant can make question of it Artic. 10. For thus she tells us in the tenth Article of her Confession viz. That the condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable unto God without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will In the first clause the Church declares her self against the old Pelagians and some of the great School-men in the Church of Rome and in the last against the Manichees and some of the more rigid Lutherans in the
Adeo Argumenta ab absurdo petita ineptos habent exitus said Lactantius truly Now for my History and my proceedings in it that must next be known my business being to make good the matter of Fact that is to say that in all Ages of the Church there hath been an imparity of Ministers that the chief of these Ministers was called the Bishop that this Bishop had the Government of all Presbyters and other Christian people within his Circuit and finally that the powers of Jurisdiction and Ordination were vested in him In which particulars if the Affirmative be maintain'd by sufficient evidence it will be very difficult if not impossible to prove the Negative And for the better making good of the Affirmative I have called in the ancient Writers the holy Fathers of the Church to testifie unto the truth of what is here said either as writing on those Texts of Scripture in which the Institution and Authority the Church in their several times in the Administration and Government whereof they had most of them some special interess Their Testimonies and Authorities I have fully pondered and alledged as fully not misreporting any of them in their words or meaning according to the best of my understanding as knowing well and having seen experience of it that such false shifts are like hot waters which howsoever they may serve for a present pang do in the end destroy the stomach And for those holy and renowned Authors thus by me produced I desire no more but that we yieldas much Authority unto them in Expounding Scripture as we would do to any of the Modern writers on the like occasion and that we would not give less credit to their Affirmations speaking of things that hapned in their own times and were within the compass of their observation than we would do to any honest Country Yeoman speaking his knowledg at the Bar between man and man And finally that in relating such orrurrences of Holy Church as hapned in the times before them we think them worthy of as much belief as we would give to Livy Tacitus or Suetonius reporting the Affairs of Rome from the Records Monuments and Discourses of the former times This is the least we can afford those Reverened Persons whether we find them acting in publick Councils or speaking in their own private and particular Writings and if I gain but this I have gained my purpose I hope to meet with no such Readers as Peter Abeilard of whom Saint Bernard tells us that he used to say Omnes Patres sic ego autem non sic though all the Fathers hold one way he would hold the contrary To such if any such there be I shall give no other answer at this time but what Dr. Saravia gave to Beza in this very case viz. Qui omnem Patribus adimit Authoritatem nullam sibi relinquit that is to say He which takes all Authority from the ancient Fathers will in fine leave none unto himself I should proceed next to the Canonical Ordination of Priests and Deacons the Stewards which the Lord hath set over his Houshold the ordinary Dispensers of Mysteries of Eternal life which like the Angels ascending and de scending upon Jacobs Ladder offer the People Prayers to God and signifie Gods good pleasure and commands to the rest of the People Offices not to be invaded or usurp'd by any who are not lawfully Ordained that is to say who are not inwardly prompted and inclined unto it by the Holy Spirit outwardly set apart and consecrated to Gods publick service by Prayer and imposition of Hands A point so clear as to the Designation of some persons unto sacred Offices that it hath been universally received in all times and Nations The sanctifying of the Tribe of Levi for the service of the Tabernacle amongst the Jews the instituting of so many Colledges of Priests for the service of their several Gods by the ancient Gentiles Acts 13. v. 2. the Separating of Paul and Barnabas to the work of the Ministery in the first dawnings of the Gospel sufficiently evidence this truth And no less clear it is as to the Laying on of Hands in that Sacred action retained since the Apostles times in all Christian Churches at the least deservedly so called And this the Presbyterian-Calvinists saw well enough who though profest Adversaries to all the old Orders of the Church do notwithstanding admit none amongst them to the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments but by the Laying on of the Hands of their Presbyteries But if it be objected that there is no such thing required by the Ordinance of approbation of publick Ministers bearing date March 20. 1653. I answer that that Ordinance relateth not to Ordination but to Approbation and Admission it being supposed that no Man is presented to any Benefice with cure of souls or unto any publick Lecture and being so presented craves to have Admission thereunto who is not first lawfully Ordained That Ordinance was made for no other end but to great Admission to such fit persons as were nominated and presented to them and thereby to supply the place of Institution and Induction which had been formerly required by the Laws of the Land And therefore the said Ordinance declares very well that in such Approbations and Admissions there is nothing sacred no setting apart of any Person to a particular Office in the Ministery that being the sole and proper work of Ordination but only by such trial and approbation to take care that places destitute may be supplyed with able and faithful Preachers throughout the Nation The Question is not then about Ordination or about Laying on of Hands in which all agree but what it is which makes the Ordination lawful whose Hands they are which make it to be held Canonical The Genevians and the rest of Calvins Discipline challenge this power to their Presbyteries a mungrel company not heard of till these latter times consisting of two Lay-elders for each preaching Minister The Lutherans with better reason appropriate it to their Superintendents which in their Churches execute the place of Bishops But all Antiquity Councils Fathers the general usage of the Churches of the East and West with those also of the Aethiopian or Habassine Empire carry it clearly for the Bishop who hath alone the power to Ordain and Consecrate and by the imposition of Hands to set apart some Men to the publick Ministery though he call in some Presbyters as Assistants to him Saint Jerom no great friend to Bishops doth acknowledg this Quid facit Episcopus excepta Ordinatione quod Presbyter non faciat What doth a Bishop saith the Father but what a Presbyter may do also except Ordination And to the disquisition of these Canonical Ordinations I shall next proceed as hath been promised in the Title But I have said so much to that Point in the Course of the History as Part 1. Cap. 2. Num. 11 12. Cap. 4. Num. 2,3 Cap. 5.
Scripture there is no question made amongst Learned men but they were Obligatory to the Church for succeeding Ages The blessing of the Bread the breaking of it and the distributing thereof unto his Apostles the blessing of the Cup and the communicating of the same to all the Company those formal Energetical words Take eat this is my Body and drink ye all of this this is the Cup c. and all this to be done in remembrance of me Are rites and actions so determined words so prescribed and so precisely to be used that it is not in the Churches power unless she mean to set up a Religion of her own devising for to change the same And this I take it is agreed on by all Learned Protestants Certain I am it was so in the Churches practice from the first beginning as may appear to any one who will take the pains to compare the Rites and Form of administration used by S. Paul and his Associates in the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 11.24.25 with that which was both done and prescribed by Christ according as it is related in the holy Gospel A further proof hereof we shall e're long Nor find I any difference considerable amongst moderate men touching the Priest or Minister ordained by Christ for the perpetuating of this Sacrament for the commemoratingof his death and passion until his coming unto judgement The publick exercises of Religion would be but ill performed without a Priesthood and that would soon be brought to nothing at least reduced unto contempt and scorn if every one that listeth might invade the Office Our Saviour therefore when he did institute this Sacrament or as the Fathers called it without offence in those pious times the Sacrifice of the blessed Eucharist Cum novi Testamenti novam docuit oblationem Prenaeus cont hares l. 4. c. 32. to use the words of Irenaeus give an hoc facite unto his Apostles a faculty to them and their successors in the Evangelical Priesthood to do as he had done before that is to take the Bread to bless to break it and to distribute it amongst the Faithful to sanctifie the Cup and then to give it to the Congregation Men of on Orders in the Church may edere bibere as the Lord appointed and happy 't is they are permitted to enjoy such sweet refection But for hoc facere that 's the Priests peculiar And take they heed who do usurp upon the Office lest the Lord strike them with a fouler Leprosie than he did Vzzah 2 Chron. 26.20 when he usurped upon the Priesthood and would needs offer Incense in the House of God These points are little controverted amongst sober men The matter most in question which concerns this business is whether our Redeemer used any other either Prayers or Blessings when he did institute this blessed Sacrament than what were formerly in use amongst the Jews when they did celebrate their Passeover and if he did then whether he commended them unto his Apostles or left them to themselves to compose such Prayers as the necessities of the Church required and might seem best to them and the Holy Ghost This we shall best discover by the following practice in which it will appear on a careful search that the Apostles in their times and the Church afterwards by their example did use and institute such Forms of Prayer and Praise and Benedictions in the Solemnities of the blessed Sacrament of which there is no constat in the Book of God that they were used at that time by our Saviour Christ And if they kept themselves to a prescript Form in celebration of the Eucharist as we shall shortly see they did then we may easily believe it was not long before they did the like in all the acts of publick Worship according as the Church increased and the Believers were disposed of into Congregations And first beginning with the Apostles it is delivered by the Ancients that in the Consecration of the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood they used to say the Lords Prayer Hierom. adv Pelagium l. 3. There is a place in Hierome which may seem to intimate that this was done by Christs appointment Sic docuit Apostolos suos saith that Reverend Father ut quotidie in corporis illius sacrificio credentes audeant loqui Pater noster c. Whether his words will bear that meaning I can hardly say Certain I am they are alledged to this purpose by a late Learned writer Steph. Durantes de ritibus Ecelesiae Cathol l. 2. c. 46. who saying first Eam i. e. orationem Dominicam in Missae sacro dicendam Christus ipse Apostolos docuit that Christ instructed his Apostles to say the Lords Prayer in the Celebration of that Sacrament or in the Sacrifice of the Mass as he calls it there doth for the proof thereof vouch these words of Hierome But whether it were so or not most sure it is that the Apostles are reported to have used that Prayer as often as they Celebrated the Communion Mos fuit Apostolorum saith S. Gregory ut ad ipsam solummodo orationem Dominicam oblationis hostiam consecrarent It was Gregor M. Epist l. 7. Ep. 54. V. Bellarm. de Missa l. 2. c. 19. Durand Ration divinorum l. 4. saith he the use or custom of the Apostles to Consecrate the Host or Sacrament with reciting only the Lords Prayer Which passage if he took from that of Hierome as some think he did the one may not unfitly serve to explain the other The like saith Durand in his Rationale The Lord saith he did institute the Sacrament with no other words than those of Consecration only Quibus Apostoli adjecerunt orationem Dominicam to which the Apostles added the Lords Prayer And in this wise did Peter first say Mass you must understand him of the Sacrament in the Eastern parts Platina in vita Sixti Platina saith the like as to S. PETER Eum ubi consecraverit oratione Pater noster usum esse That in the Consecration of the Sacrament he used to say the Lords Prayer or the Pater noster See to this purpose Antonius tit 5. cap. 2. § 1. Martinus Polonus in his Chronicon and some later Writers By which as it is clear and evident that the Apostles used the Lords Prayer in the Celebration of the holy Mysteries which is a most strong argument that it was given them to be used or said not to be imitated only So it may seem by Gregories solummodo that they used the Lords Prayer and nothing else And therefore that of Gregory must be understood either that they used no other Prayer in the very act of Consecration or that they closed the Form of Consecration with that Prayer of Christs which may well be without excluding of the words of Consecration which our Saviour used or such preparatory Prayers as were devised by the Apostles for that great solemnity For certainly
and Rulers of the Church and that the Apostles after his ascension did ordain the Deacons to be the Ministers of their Episcopal function and the necessities of the Church Saint Ambrose doth affirm the same Ambros in 1. ad Cor. c. 12. Caput it aque in Ecclesia Apostolos posuit c. Christ saith he made the Apostles the head or supreme Governours of his Church they being the Legats or Ambassadours of Christ according unto that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.20 And then he adds Ipsi sunt Episcopi that they were Bishops More plainly in his Comment on the Ephesians Apostoli Episcopi sunt Prophetae explanatores Scripturarum The Apostles saith he In Comment in Ephes 4. are Bishops and Prophets the Expositors of Scripture But because question hath been made whether indeed those Commentaries are the works of Ambrose or of some other ancient Writer he tells us in his Notes on the 43. Psalm that in those words of Christ Pasce oves meas Peter was made a Bishop by our Lord and Saviour De Repub. Eccles l. 2. c. 2. n. 4. Significat Ambrosius Petrum Sacerdotem hoc est Episcopum electum illis verbis Pasce oves meas as the place is cited by the Arch-Bishop of Spalato And thus Saint Chrysostom speaking of the election of the Seven saith plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that then there were no Bishops in the Church Chrys hom 14. in Act 6. but only the Apostles But what need more be said in the present business than that which is delivered in the holy Scripture about the surrogation of some other in the place of Judas wherein the place or function of an Apostle is plainly called Episcopatus Acts 1.20 Episcopatum ejus accipiat alter let another take his Bishoprick as the English reads it His Bishoprick i. e. saith Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Principality his Priesthood Chrys hom 3. in Act. 1. the place of government that belonged unto him had he kept his station A Text most plain and pregnant as the Fathers thought to prove that the Episcopal dignity was vested in the persons of the Lords Apostles The Comment under the name of Ambrose which before we spake of having said Ipsi sunt Episcopi Ambros in 1. ad Cor. c. 12 that the Apostles were Bishops adds for the proof thereof these words of Peter Episcopatum ejus accipiat alter And the true Ambrose saying of Judas Id. Serm. 50. that he was a Bishop Episcopus enim Judas fuit adds for the proof thereof the same very Text. Finally to conclude this matter Saint Cyprian shewing that Ordinations were not made without the privity of the people in the Jewish Church Nisi sub populi assistentis conscientia lib. 1. ep 4. adds that the same was afterwards observed by the holy Apostles Quando de ordinando in locum Judae Episcopo when Peter spake unto the people about the ordering of a Bishop in the place of Judas But for a further proof of this that the Apostles were ordained Bishops by our Lord and Saviour we shall see more hereafter in convenient place Vide chap. 6. n. 12. when we are come to shew that in the government of the Church the Bishops were the proper Successors of the Apostles and so esteemed to be by those who otherwise were no great friends unto Episcopacy In the mean time we may take notice of that impudent assertion of Jobannes de Turrecremata viz. Quod solus Petrus à Christo Episcopus est ordinatus Lib. 2. Summae de Eccl. c. 32. ap Bell. de Rom Pont. that Peter only Peter was made Bishop by our Saviour Christ and that the rest of the Apostles received from Peter their Episcopal consecration wherein I find him seconded by Dominicus Jacobatius lib. 10. de Concil Art 7. A Paradox so monstrous and absurd that howsoever Bellarmine doth reckon it amongst other the Prerogatives of that Apostle in his first Book de Romano Pontifice cap. 23. yet upon better thoughts he rejects it utterly in his 4th Book upon that argument Cap. 22. and so I leave it Thus having shewn in what estate the Church was founded by our Saviour and in what terms he left it unto his Apostles we must next see what course was taken by them to promote the same what use they made of that authority which was trusted to them CHAP. II. The foundation of the Church of Hierusalem under the Government of Saint James the Apostle and Simeon one of the Disciples the two first Bishops of the same 1. Matthias chosen into the place of Judas 2. The coming of the Holy Ghost and on whom it fell 3. The greatest measure of the Spirit fell on the Apostles and so by consequence the greatest power 4. The several Ministrations in the Church then given and that in ranking of the same the Bishops are intended in the name of Pastors 5. The sudden growth of the Church of Hierusalem and the making of Saint James the first Bishop there 6. The former point deduced from Scripture 7. And proved by the general consent of Fathers 8. Of the Episcopal Chair or Throne of Saint James and his Successors in Hierusalem 9. Simeon elected by the Apostles to succeed S. James 10. The meaning of the word Episcopus and from whence borrowed by the Church 11. The institution of the Presbyters 12. What interest they had in the common business of the Church whilst S. James was Bishop 13. The Council of Hierusalem and what the Presbyters had to do therein 14. The Institution of the Seven and to what Office they were called 15. The names of Ecclesiastical functions promiscuously used in holy Scripture OUR Saviour Christ having thus Authorized his Apostles to Preach the Gospel over all the World to every Creature and given them power as well of ministring the Sacraments as of retaining and remitting sins as before is said thought fit to leave them to themselves Luk. 24.49 only commanding them to tarry in the City of Hierusalem until they were indued with further power from on high whereby they might be fitted for so great a work Act. 1.9 And when he had spoken those things while they beheld he was taken up and a Cloud received him out of their sight No sooner was he gone to the Heavenly glories but the Apostles with the rest withdrew themselves unto Hierusalem as he had appointed where the first care they took was to fill up their number to surrogate some one or other of the Disciples in the place of Judas that so the Word of God might be fulfilled Psal 69.26 which he had spoken by the Psalmist Episcopatum ejus accipiat alter A business of no small importance and therefore fit to be imparted unto all the Brethren not so much that their suffrage and consent herein was necessary as that they might together joyn in prayer to Almighty God Act. 1.21
scattered and dispersed abroad the Gospel was by them disseminated in all the parts and Countreys where they came and Saul himself being taken off even in the middle of his fury became the greatest instrument of Gods power and glory in the converting of the Gentiles For presently upon his own Conversion we find him Preaching in the Synagogues of Damascus Act. 9.20.22 Gal. 1.17 18. Act. 9 30. Act. 11.26 thence taking a long journey into Arabia from thence returning to Hierusalem afterwards travelling towards Tarsus his own native soyl and thence brought back to Antioâ—h by the means of Barnabas And all this while I look upon him as an Evangelist only a constant and a zealous Preacher of the Gospel of Christ in every Region where he travelledâ— His calling unto the Apostleship was not until the Holy Ghost had said unto the Prophets Lucius Act. 13.1 2. Simeon and Manahen ministring then in Antiochia Separate mihi Barnabam Saulum separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them An extraordinary call and therefore done by extraordinary means and Ministers For being the persons here employed in this Ordination neither were Apostles nor yet advanced for ought we find unto the estate and honour of Episcopacy it most be reckoned amongst those Extraordinaries which God pleased to work in and about the calling of this blessed Apostle Of which we may affirm with Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostom hom 20. in Act. that of the things which did befall S. Paul in his whole vocation there was nothing ordinary but every part was acted by the hand of God God in his extraordinary works ties not himself to ordinary means and courses but takes such ways and doth imploy such instruments as himself best pleaseth for the more evident demonstration of his power and glory So that however Simeon Manahen and Lucius did lay hands upon him yet being the call and designation was so miraculous he might well say that he was made an Apostle neither of men nor by men but of Jesus Christ and God the Father Chrysostom so expounds the place Not of Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 1. v. 1. Hom. 27. in Act so to make it manifest that he received not his call from them not by men because he was not sent by them but by the Spirit As for the work to which he was thus separated by the Lord ask the said Father what it was and he will tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was the office of an Apostle and that he was ordained an Apostle here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might Preach the Gospel with the greater power Ask who it was that did ordain him and he will tell you that howsoever Manahen Lucius and Simeon did lay hands upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet he received his Ordination by the Holy Ghost And certainly that he had not the Apostleship before may be made manifest by that which followed after For we do not find in all the story of his Acts that either he ordained Presbyters or gave the Holy Ghost or wrought any miracles which were the signs of his Apostleship before this solemn Ordination 2 Cor. 12.11 or imposition of the hands of the said three Prophets as afterwards we find he did in several places of that book and shall now shew as it relates unto our present business in that which followeth Paul being thus advanced by God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ to the high place of an Apostle immediately applyeth himself unto the same Preaching the Word with power and miracles in the Isle of Cyprus Act. 13.11 c. from thence proceeding to Pamphylia and other Provinces of the lesser Asia every where gaining Souls to Almighty God Having spent three years in those parts of Asia and planted Churches in a great part thereof he had a mind to go again to Antioch Act. 14.26 from whence be had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which he had fulsilled But fearing lest the Doctrine he had Preached amongst them might either be forgotten or produce no profit if there were none left to attend that service Before he went he thought it fitting to found a Ministery amongst them in their several Churches To this end They i.e. He and Barnabas ordained them Presbyters in every Church with prayer and fasting Act. 14.23 and that being done they recommended him unto the Lord in whom they believed This is the first Ordination which we find of Presbyters in holy Scripture though doubtless there were many before this time The Church could neither be instructed nor consist at all without an ordinary Minister left amongst the people for the Administration of the Word and Sacraments However this being as I said the first record thereof in holy Scripture we will consider hereupon first to what Office they were called which are here called Presbyters Secondly by whom they were Ordained And thirdly by what means they were called unto it First for the Office what it was I find some difference amongst Expositors as well new as old Beza conceives the word in a general sense and to include at once Pastors and Deacons and whoever else were set apart for the rule and government of the Churches to them committed Annot. in Act. 14. v. 23. Presbyteros i.e. Pastores Diaconos alios Ecclesiae gubernationi praefectos as his own words are Here we have pastors Deacons Governours included in this one word Presbyters Ask Lyra who those Governours were Lyra in Act. 14. which Beza calls praefecti in a general name and he will tell you they were Bishops Nomine Presbyterorum hic intelliguntur etiam alii Ecclesiae Ministri ut Episcopi Diaconi Under the name of Presbyters saith he are comprehended also other Ecclesiastical Ministers as Bishops and Deacons Gloss Ordinar in Act. 14. The ordinary gloss agrees herewith as to that of Bishops and gives this reason for the same Illo autem tempore ejusdem erant nominis Episcopi Presbyteri that in that time Bishops and Presbyters were called by the same name Oecum in Act. 14. And Oecumenius holds together with them as to that of Deacons nothing that Paul and Barnabas had Epifcopal Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that they did not only ordain Deacons but also Presbyters So that it seemeth Saint Paul provided here against all occasions fetling the Churches by him planted in so sure a way that there was nothing left at random which either did relate to government or point of Doctrine And yet if any shall contend that those who here are called Presbyters were but simply such according to the notion of that word as it is now used I shall not much insist upon it I only shew what other Authors have affirmed herein and so leave it off The next thing here to be considered is who they were that were the
in person or sent from place to place on his occasions and dispatches as may appear by looking on the concordances of holy Scripture Now that Titus was ordained the first Bishop of Crete hath been affirmed by several Authors of good both credit and antiquity For first Eccles hist l. 3. c. 4. Eusebius making a Catalogue of Saint Pauls assistants or fellow-labourers and reckoning Timothy amongst them whom he recordeth for the first Bishop of the Church of Ephesus adds presently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so was Titus also the first Bishop of Crete Ambr. praef in ep ad Titum Saint Ambrose in the Preface to his Commentaries on the Epistle unto Titus doth affirm as much Titum Apostolus consecravit Episcopum the Apostle consecrated Titus a Bishop and therefore doth admonish him to be solicitous for the well ordering of the Church committed to him Saint Hierom writing on these words in that Epistle Hieron in Tit. c. 1. v. 5. For this cause left I thee in Crete c. doth apply them thus Audiant Episcopi qui habent constituendi Presbyteres per singulas urbes potestatem Let Bishops mark this well who have authority to ordain Presbyters in every City on what conditions to what persons for that I take to be his meaning Ecclesiastical orders are to be conferred Which is a strong insinuation that Titus having that authority must be needs a Bishop More evidently in his Catalogue of Writers or in Sophronius at the least Id. de Scrip. Eccles in Tit. if those few names were by him added to that Catalogue Titus Episcopus Cretae Titus the Bishop of Crete did preach the Gospel both in that and the adjacent Islands Apud Oecumen Praef. ad Tim. Theodoret proposing first this question why Paul should rather write to Timothy and Titus than to Luke and Silas returns this answer to the same that Luke and Silas were still with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but those had entrusted with the government of Churches But more particularly Titus a famous Disciple of Saint Paul Ap. eund in Praef. ad Tit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was by him ordained Bishop of Crete being a place of great extent with a Commission also to ordain Bishops under him Theoph. in praef ad Tit. Oecum in Tit. c. 1. v. 5. Theophylact in his preface unto this Epistle doth affirm the same using almost his very words And Oecumenius on the Text doth declare as much saying that Paul gave Titus authority of ordaining Bishops Crete being of too large a quantity to be committed unto one alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having first consecrate or made him Bishop Finally the subscription of this Epistle calls Titus the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians which evidence though questioned now of late is of good Authority For some of late who are not willing that Antiquity should afford such grounds for Titus being Bishop of the Church of Crete have amongst other arguments devised against it found an irreparable flaw as they conceive in this Subscription Beza Annot at in Ep. ad Tit. in fine who herein led the way disproves the whole Subscription as supposititious because it is there said that it was written from Nieopolis of Macedonia A thing saith he which cannot be for the Apostle doth not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will winter here but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illic I will winter there and therefore he was somewhere else when he wrote this Epistle But Athanasius who lived neerer the Apostles times In Synopsi sacr script Ad Paulum Eustochium Comment in Ep. ad Tit. affirms it to be written from Nicopolis and so doth Hierome in his Preface unto that Epistle The Syriack translation dates it also thence as is confessed by them that adhere to Beza Theophylact and Oecumenius agree herein with Athanasius and the ancient Copies As for the criticism it is neither here nor there for Saint Paul being still in motion might appoint Titus to repair unto Nicopolis letting him understand that howsoever he disposed of himself in the mean time yet he intended there to Winter and so he might well say though he was at Nicopolis when he writ the same That Titus is there called the first Bishop of Crete Smectym p. 54. or of the Church of the Cretians is another hint that some have taken to vilifie the credit of the said Subscription asking if ever there were such a second Bishop Assuredly the Realm of England is as fair and large a circuit as the Isle of Crete And yet I do not find it used as argument that Austin the Monk had neither any hand in the converting of the English or was not the first Archbishop of the See of Canterbury Beda hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 27. because it is affirmed in Beda's History Archiepiscopus genti Anglorum ordinatus est that he was ordained the Archbishop of the English Nation Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And for an answer to the question we need but look into Eusebius where we shall find Pinytus a right godly man called in plain terms Bishop of Crete Cretae Episcopus saith the Latin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Original the self-same stile which is excepted at in Titus Now whereas it is said that Titus was left no otherwise in Crete than as Pauls Vicar General Commissary or Substitute to order those things in such sort as he had appointed which he could not dispatch himself when he was there present this can by no means be admitted the Rules prescribed unto him and Timothy being for the most part of that nature as do agree with the condition of perpetual Governours and not of temporary and removable Substitutes As for the anticipation of the time which I see some use relating that Saint Paul with Titus having passed through Syria and Cilicia to confirm the Churches did from Cilicia pass over into Crete where the Apostle having preached the Gospel left Titus for a while to set things in Order although I cannot easily tell on what Authority the report is built yet I can easily discern that it can hardly stand with Scripture We read indeed in the 15. Chapter of the Acts that he went thorow Syria and Cilicia confirming the Churches ver ult and in the first words of the following Chapter Acts 14.6 Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we find him at Derbe and Lystra Cities of Lycaonia the very next Province to Cilicia Northward from which it is divided by a branch of the Mountain Taurus Now whether of the two it be more probable that Paul should pass immediately from Cilicia unto Lycaonia upon the usual common Road or fetch a voyage into Crete Smectymn p. 50. as these men suppose and be transported back again into Lycaonia being an in-land Countrey far from any Sea which could not be without
of the Holy Ghost his first Epistle being inscribed ad Parthos as some Antients say But that he came at last to Asia and there preached the Gospel is a thing past question Eusebius out of Origen doth expresly say it August qu. Evang l. 2. chap. 39. Eccl. Histor l. 3. cap. 1. And though that piece of Origen be lost out of which Eusebius took the same yet we may take it on his word without more authority Nor did he only preach the Gospel in those parts of Asia strictly and properly so called but he also planted many Churches and founded in them many Bishopricks All the seven Churches except that of Ephesus to which he writ his Revelation were partly if not totally his foundation and in all them he constituted Bishops as we shall manifest and declare anon And as for Ephesus although he came too late to plant it yet he came time enough to water it to settle and confirm the same being much weakned and endangered by the sorceries and devices of Apollonius Tyanaeus who for some time did therein dwell as also by the Heresies of Ebion and Cerinthus who at that time lived and therefore rightly doth Ignatius who then lived also joyn him with Paul and Timothy as a Co-founder of that Church Ignat. Epist ad Ephes p. 22◠Edit Vedelian But being in the middle of his course he was sent prisoner unto Rome Anno 92. thence confined to Patmos where he continued till the death of the Emperour Domitian which was in Anno 99. during which time he writ the Revelation And of those Churches I conceive it was that Tertullian speaketh where pleading in defence of the Catholick Faith delivered by the Apostles to the Churches by them severally planted and by the Bishops of those Churches taught and in their successions he thus brings them in Habemus Johannis alumnas Ecclesias c. We have saith he Tertul. lib. 4. contra Marci cap. 5. the Churches founded by Saint John For howsoever Marcion doth reject his Revelation Ordo tamen Episcoporum yet the succession of their Bishops reckoned up unto their original will stand for John to be their founder And probable at their request it was that he writ his Gospel Hier. descrip Fcc. in Johan prooem in Evang 8. Matth. For that he writ it at the intreaty of the Asian Bishops Rogatus ab Asiae Episcopis is positively affirmed by Hierom though like enough it is that other Bishops besides those of his own foundation might contribute their requests and importunities to so good a purpose being all equally afflicted with the pest of Heresies The quality and condition of these Asian Churches Saint John doth punctually describe in his Revelation written in Anno 97. when as he had been four or five years confined to Patmos It seemeth those Churches most of them at the least on the calamity which befel the Apostle in his deportation being deprived of the benefit of so Divine and excellent a Spirit and pressed by the importunity of these active Hereticks willing to make the best advantage of the present time began to stagger in the faith wax cold in their affection to the Gospel and to give way to such false Teachers as were crept in amongst them to rectify what was amiss amongst them and to inform them of their errours did he direct unto them his Apocalypse Apoc. 1.4 To the seven Churches in Asia so it doth begin But when he comes unto particulars to give them every one their particular charge from him who walked in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks then he addresseth his discourse to the Angels only Apoc. 2.1 Cap. 8.12 the Angels of those several Churches Unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus and to the Angel of the Church of Smyrna and to the Angel of the Church of Pergamus sic de caeteris Now ask the Fathers what those Angels were and they will tell you that they were the Bishops of those several Churches Saint Austin writing on these words Vnto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus c. makes this observation August Ep. 162. in fine Divina voce sub Angeli nomine laudatur praepositus Ecclesiae that the Bishop or Governour of the Church remember what was said before of the word Praepositus is praised by the voice of Christ Vid. chap. 3. n. 5. under the name of an Angel But first he gives a reason of his resolution shewing that this Expostulation could not be applyed to those Ministring spirits in the Heavens because they still retained their first Love to God and therefore must be understood de praepositis Ecclesiae of the Rulers or Governours of the Church who had given way to false Apostles The like occurreth in his Comment on the Revelation wherein he maketh the Angels of these Churches to be Episcopi aut praepositi Ecclesiarum the Bishops or Rulers of the same The Commentaries under the name of Ambrose pointing unto this place of the Apocalypse Amb. in 1 Cor. cap. 11. give us this short note Angelos Episcopos dicit that by Angels there he meaneth Bishops And these ascribed to Hierom writing on those words Because of the Angels Hier. ib. 1 Cor. 11. observes the same Angelos ecclesiis presidentes dicit that there by Angels Saint Paul intends the Presidents or Rulers of the Churches Finally Oecumenius saith the same Oecumen ca. 1. in Apoca. who speaking of the seven Churches in Asia to whom Saint John addresseth his Discourses observe that John ascribes to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an equal or proportionable number of governing Angels And on those words Id. cap. 2. in Apocal. the seven stars are the Angels of the seven Churches makes this gloss or Comment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he calleth these Angels governours of Churches by the name of stars because they borrow all their light from the Sun of Righteousness For Protestant Writers which affirm the same I begin with those which speak most generally and indefinitely Citat apud Marlorat in cap. ◠Apoca. v. 20. Bullin con 6. in Apocal. Id. in con 9. where first we have Sebastian Meyer Ecclesiarum Praefecti stellae Angeli in sacris literis dicuntur the Governours of Churches are called saith he in holy Scripture by the name of Stars and Angels Bullenger to the same effect Angeli sunt legati Dei Pastores Ecclesiarum the Angels are the Messengers of God the Pastors of the Churches in which lest possibly we might mistake his meaning in the word Pastor he tells us not long after that he means the Bishop for speaking of the Angel or the Pastor of the Church of Smyrna he tells us that he was that Polycarpus as it was indeed Ordinatus ab Apostolis ab ipso inquam Johanne Episcopus who was ordained Bishop of that Church by the Apostles nay by John himself Paraeus is as general as the other two but
especially appointed for the same are called Holy days Rot for the matter or the nature either of the time or day c. for to all days and times are of like holiness but for the nature and condition of such holy works c. whereunto such times and days are sanctified and hallowed that is to say separated from all prophane uses and dedicated not unto any Saint or Creature but only unto God and his true worship Neither is it to be thought that there is any certain time or definitive number of days prescribed in holy Scripture but the appointment both of the time and also of the number of days is left by the authority of Gods Word unto the liberty of Christs Church to be determined and assigned orderly in every Countrey by the discretion of the Rulers and Ministers thereof as they shall judg most expedient to the true setting forth of Gods glory and edification of their people Nor is it to be thought that all this Preamble was made in reference to the Holy days or Saints days only whose being left to the authority of the Church was never questioned but in relation to the Lords day also as by the Act it self doth at full appear for so it followeth in the Act Be it therefore enacted c. That all the days hereafter mentioned shall be kept and commanded to be kept Holy days and none other that is to say all Sundays in the Year the Feasts of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Epiphanie of the Purification with all the rest now kept and there named particularly and that none other day shall be kept and commanded to be kept holy day and to abstain from lawful bodily labour Nay which is more there is a further Clause in the self-same Act which plainly shews that they had no such thought of the Lords day as that it was a Sabbath or so to be observed as the Sabbath was and therefore did provide it and enact by the Authority aforesaid a bat it shall be lawful to every Husbandman Labourer Fisherman and to all and every other person or persons of what estate degree or condition be or they he upon the holy days aforesaid in Harvest or at any other times in the year when necessity shall so require to labour ride fish or work any kind of work at their free-wills and pleasure any thing in this Act unto the contrary notwithstanding This is the total of this Act which if examined well as it ought to be will yield us all those propositions or conclusions before remembred which we collected from the writings of those three particular Martyrs Nor is it to be said that it is repealed and of no Authority Repealed indeed it was in the first year of Queen Mary and stood repealed in Law though otherwise in use and practice all the long Reign of Queen Elizabeth but in the first year of King James was revived again Note here that in the self-same Parliament the Common Prayer-Book now in use being reviewed by many godly Prelates was confirmed and authorized wherein so much of the said Act as doth concern the Names and Number of the Holy days is expressed and as it were incorporate into the same Which makes it manifest that in the purpose of the Church the Sunday was no otherwise esteemed of than another Holy day This Statute as before we said was made in Anno 5. 6. of Edward the sixth And in that very Parliament as before we said the Common-Prayer-Book was confirmed which still remains in use amongst us save that there was an alteration or addition of certain Lessons to be used on every Sunday of the Year 1 Eliz. cap. 2. the form of the Letany altered and corrected and two Sentences added in the delivery of the Sacrament unto the Communicants Now in this Common Prayer-Book thus confirmed in the fifth and sixth years of King Edward the sixth Cap. 1. it pleased those that had the altering and revising of it that the Commandments which were not in the former Liturgy allowed of in the second of the said Kings Reign should now be added and accounted as a part of this the people being willed to say after the end of each Commandment Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law Which being used accordingly as well upon the hearing of the fourth Commandment as of any others hath given some men a colour to persuade themselves that certainly it was the meaning of the Church that we should keep a Sabbath still though the day be changed and that we are obliged to do it by the fourth Commandment Assuredly they who so conclude conclude against the meaning of the Book and of them that made it Against the meaning of the Book for if the Book had so intended that that Ejaculation was to be understood in a literal sence according as the words are laid down in terminis it then must be the meaning of the Book that we should pray unto the Lord to keep the Sabbath of the Jews even the seventh day precisely from the Worlds Creation and keep it in the self-same manner as the Jews once did which no man I presume will say was the meaning of it For of the changing of the day there is nothing said nor nothing intimated but the whole Law laid down in terminis as the Lord delivered it Against the meaning also of them that made it for they that made the Book and reviewed it afterwards and caused these Passages and Prayers to be added to it Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Ridley Bishop of London and certain others of the Prelates then and there assembled were the same men by whose advice and counsel the Act before remembred about keeping Holy days was in the self-same Parliament drawn up and perfected And is it possible we should conceive so ill of those reverend persons as that they would erect a Sabbath in the one Act and beat it down so totally in the other to tell us in the Service-Book that we are bound to keep a Sabbath and that the time and day of Gods publick Worship is either pointed out in the fourth Commandment or otherwise ordained by Divine Authority and in the self-same breath to tell us that there is neither certain time nor definite number of days prescribed in Scripture but all this left unto the liberty of the Church I say as formerly I said it is impossible we should think so ill of such Reverend persons nor do I think that any will so think hereafter when they have once considered the non sequitur of their own Conclusions As for the Prayer there used we may thus expound it according to the doctrine and the practice both of those very times viz. that their intent and meaning was to teach the people to pray unto the Lord to incline their hearts to keep that Law as far as it contained the Law of Nature and had been
the Jews or Christians Considering therefore they appeal'd to the ancient practice of the Jews and Christians I was resolved that to the ancient practice they should go for their justification and to that end drew down the Pedigree and Descent of Liturgies among the Jews from the time of Moses unto CHRIST carrying it on thorow the constant practice of the Greeks and Romans and finally thorow the whole state of the Christian Church from the time of CHRIST our Saviour till the death of Saint Augustin when Liturgies and Set Forms of Prayer were universally received in all parts of Christendom But hardly had I finished my Undertaking Plutarch in Mario when the War broke out and I knew well as Marius was once heard to say in another case That the voice of the Laws could not be heard for the noise of Weapons the Dispute being then like to be determin'd by stronger Arguments than could be urged on either side by pen and paper On which consideration the Work lay by me as it was till the Ordinance of the third of January 1644. did seem to put an end to the Disputation by abolishing the Book of Common Prayer and authorizing the Directory or New Form of Worship to be observed in the three Kingdoms But finding in that Directory that all set times of Publick Worship were reduced to One that one supposed to be commanded in the Scripture and that the Festival days vulgarly called Holy-days Direct pag. ult having no warrant in the Word of God were not to be continued longer I took that hint or opportunity to enlarge my self in laying down the ancient practice both of Jews and Christians in appointing Holy-days and recommending them to the pious practice of all men which did desire to live conformably to establisht Laws And finding afterwards that notwithstanding the Care taken by that Directory That Places of publick assembling for worship among us should be continued and employed to their former use Ibid. some Men began to threaten them with a speedy destruction and breathed out nothing but Down with them Down with them even unto the ground reproaching them in the mean time with the name of Steeple-houses I interserted also in convenient places the pious care of the Jewish Nation in erecting Synagogues and Oratories for Gods publick Worship and of the Primitive Christians not to say any thing of the like care in the ancient Gentiles in building consecrating and adorning Churches for the like employments And this I did to let the Reader understand that the accustomed times and places which were designed and set apart for Gods publick service had more authority to rest on than those Men gave out the Liturgy it self being apt enough to be beaten down without any such Ordinance if once those times and places should be discontinued By these degrees and on these several occasions the whole Work came to that perfection in which it is now presented to thee not to be now presented to thee neither if the necessity of doing my Duty unto God and the Church and offering something unto the consideration of the Higher Powers had not prevailed with me above all respects of my private interest Liturgies and Set Forms of Worship being thus asserted my next care was to vindicate the Church in that Form of Prayer which is prescribed to be used by Preachers before their Sermons Can. 55. For certainly the Church had not sufficiently provided for the Common peace if she had tied her Ministers to Set Forms in the Daily Office and left them to their own liberty in conceiving Prayers to be used by them in the Pulpit before their Sermons The inconvenience which that liberty hath brought upon us in these latter days being so apparent that it is very hard to say whether the Liberty of Prophesying or the Licenciousness in Praying what and how we list hath more conduced to these distractions which are now amongst us And if there were no such effect too visible of this licentiousness which I desire the present State to take notice of the scandal which is thereby given unto our Religion in speaking so irreverently with such vain repetitions and tautologies to Almighty God as in extemporary and unpremeditated Prayers is too frequently done seems a sufficient consideration to bring us back again to that ancient Form which the wisdom of the Church prescribed to prevent the Mischief Such was the care and providence of the elder times and happiest ages of the Church as to ordain that no unlearned person should make use of any of those Prayers which himself had framed nisi prius eas cum instructioribus fratribus contulerit Concil Carthag Can. 23. before he had conferred about them with more learned men The reason of which is thus given in the Council of Milevis Can. 12. Ne forte aliquid contra fidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum for fear lest any thing should escape them against faith and piety either through the ignorance of the Composer or carelesness in the Composition And if such care were taken of Mens private Prayers no question but a greater care is to be observed in ordering those publick Prayers which are to be offered unto God in the Congregation Never did Men so literally offer unto God the Calves of their lips as they have done of late since the extemporary way of Praying hath been taken up And if it were prohibited by the Law of Moses to offer any thing unto God in the way of the legal Sacrifices which was maim'd spotted or imperfect how can it rationally be conceived that God should be delighted with those Oblations or Spiritual Sacrifices which have nothing almost in them but maims spots and blemishes In which respect I have subjoyned to the Tract of Liturgies a brief Discourse about restraining Preachers to that Form of Prayer which is prescribed them by the Church and that not only in the Canon of 603. but in the Injunction of King Harry the 8th King Edward the 6th and Queen Elizabeth of famous memories till the predominating Humour of drawing all Gods publick Worship to the Pulpit-prayer carried all before it But here it is to be observed that one of the chief reasons for abolishing the publick Liturgy was that the Ministers might put forth themselves to exercise the Gift of Prayer with which our Lord Jesus Christ pleaseth to furnish all his servants whom he calls to that Office Pref. to the Direct p. 2 3. and that nothing was less effected than the end intended For first the Directory which prescribes not alone the Heads but the sense and scope which is the whole matter of the Prayers and other parts of publick Worship Ibid. p. 4. doth in effect leave nothing to the Ministers spirit but the wording of it which if it be not a restraining of the Gift of Prayer I am much to seek the Spirit being as much restrained and
in their Convocations as well by the common assent as by subscriptions of their hands 5 6. Edw. 6. chap. 12. And for the time of Q. Elizabeth it is most manifest that they had no other body of Doctrine in the first part of her Reign then only the said Articles of K. Edward's Book and that which was delivered in the Book of Homilies of the said Kings time In which the Parliament had as little to do as you have seen they had in the Book of Articles But in the Convocation of the year 1562. being the fifth of the Q. Reign the Bishops and Clergy taking into consideration the said book of Articles and altering what they thought most fitting to make it more conducible to the use of the Church and the edification of the people presented it unto the Queen who caused it to be published with this Name and Title viz. Articles whereupon it was agreed by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London Anno 1562. for the avoiding of diversity of Opinions and for the establishing of Consent touching true Religion put forth by the Queens Authority Of any thing done or pretended to be done by the power of the Parliament either in the way of Approbation or of Confirmation not one word occurs either in any of the Printed Books or the Publick Registers At last indeed in the 13th of the said Queens Reign which was 8 years full after the passing of those Articles comes out a Statute for the Redressing of disorders in the Ministers of holy Church In which it was enacted That all such as were Ordained Priests or Ministers of God's Word and Sacraments after any other form then that appointed to be used in the Church of England all such as were to be Ordained or permitted to Preach or to be instituted into any Benefice with Cure of souls should publickly subscribe to the said Articles and testifie their assent unto them Which shews if you observe it well that though the Parliament did well allow of and approve the said Book of Articles yet the said Book owes neither confirmation nor authority to the Act of Parliament So that the wonder is the greater that that most insolent scoff which is put upon us by the Church of Rome in calling our Religion by the name Parliamentaria-Religio should pass so long without controle unless perhaps it was in reference to our Forms of Worship of which I am to speak in the next place But first we must make answer unto some Objections which are made against us both from Law and Practice For Practice first it is alledged by some out of Bishop Jewel in his Answer to the Cavil of Dr. Harding to be no strange matter to see Ecclesiastical Causes debated in Parliament and that it is apparent by the Laws of King Ina King Alfred King Edward c. That our Godly Fore-fathers the Princes and Peers of this Realm never vouchsafed to treat of matters touching the Common State before all Controversies of Religion and Causes Ecclesiastical had been concluded Def. of the Apol. part 6. chap. 2. sect 1. But the answer unto this is easie For first if our Religion may be called Parliamentarian because it hath received confirmation and debate in Parliament then the Religion of our Fore-fathers even Papistry it self concerning which so many Acts of Parliament were made in K. Hen. 8. and Q. Maries time must be called Parliamentarian also And secondly it is most certain that in the Parliaments or Common-Councils call them which you will both of King Inas time and the rest of the Saxon Kings which B. Jewel speaks of not only Bishops Abbots and the higher part of the Clergy but the whole Body of the Clergy generally had their Votes and Suffrages either in person or by proxie Concerning which take this for the leading Case That in the Parliament or Common-Council in K. Ethelberts time who first of all the Saxon Kings received the Gospel the Clergy were convened in as full a manner as the Lay-Subjects of that Prince Convocati Communi Concilio tam Cleri quam Populi saith Sir H. Spelman in his Collection of the Councils Anno 605. p. 118. And for the Parliament of King Ina which leads the way in Bishop Jewel it was saith the same Sr. H. Spelman p. 630. Communi Concilium Episcoporum Procerum Comitum nec non omnium Sapientum Seniorum Populorumque totius Regni Where doubtless Sapientes and Seniores and you know what Seniores signifieth in the Ecclesiastical notion must be some body else then those which after are expressed by the name of Populi which shews the falshood and absurdity of the collection made by Mr. Pryn in the Epistle to his Book against Dr. Cousins viz. That the Parliament as it is now constituted hath an ancient genuine just and lawful Prerogative to establish true Religion in our Church and to abolish and suppress all false new and counterfeit Doctrines whatsoever Unless he means upon the post fact after the Church hath done her part in determining what was true what false what new what ancient and finally what Doctrines might be counted counterfeit and what sincere And as for Law 't is true indeed that by the Statute 1 Eliz. cap. 1. The Court of Parliament hath power to determine and judge of Heresie which at first sight seems somewhat strange but on the second view you will easily find that this relates only to new and emergent Heresies not formerly declared for such in any of the first four General Councils nor in any other General Cuncil adjudging by express words of holy Scripture as also that in such new Heresies the following words restrain this power to the Assent of the Clergy in their Convocation as being best able to instruct the Parliament what they are to do and where they are to make use of the secular sword for cutting off a desperate Heretick from the Church of CHRIST or rather from the Body of all Christian people 5. Of the Reformation of the Church of England in the Forms of Worship and the Times appointed thereunto THIS Rub removed we now proceed unto a view of such Forms of Worships as have been setled in this Church since the first dawning of the day of Reformation in which our Parliaments have indeed done somewhat though it be not much The first point which was altered in the publick Liturgies was that the Creed the Pater-noster and the Ten Commandements were ordered to be said in the English Tongue to the intent the people might be perfect in them and learn them without book as our Phrase is The next the setting forth and using of the English Letany on such days and times in which it was accustomably to be read as a part of the Service But neither of these two was done by Parliament nay to say truth the Parliament did nothing in them All which was done in either of them
no good by having the Scripture read publickly unto them in their national Languages sed etiam caperet detrimentum but on the contrary are like to receive much hurt However acciperet facillime occasionem errandi because thereby they would most easily be led into errors which gave occasion unto some as he tells us there to call the Scripture Librum Haereticorum the Hereticks Book So he in his 2. Book and 15th chapter De verbo Dei The like saith Harding in his Answer to Bishop Jewel's Challenge Art 3. Sect. 31. The Nations saith he that have ever had their Service in the vulgar Tongue where note that some Nations never had it otherwise have continued still in Errors Schisms and certain Judaical Ceremonies c. In the next place they reckon this that by permitting Scripture and the publick Liturgies to be extant in the Vulgar Tongues all men would think themselves Divines and the Authority of the Prelates would be disesteemed So Harding in his Answer to Jewels Apologie l. 5. fol. 460. that the people not content with hearing or reading the holy Scripture would first take upon them to be Expositors and at last to be Preachers also which in effect is that which is charged by Bellarmine And for this last the present Distempers and confusions in the Church of England out of which they suck no small advantage gives them great rejoycing as seeing their predictions so exactly verified In answer to the first we need say no more then that there have been Sects and Heresies in all times and Ages never so many as in the first ages of the Church witness the Catalogue of S. Augustine Philastrius and Epiphanius in which the Scripture was translated into fewer Languages than it is at the present 2. That this is no necessary effect of such Translations for we see few new Heresies started up of late in France or Germany where such Translations are allowed of but a meer possible Contingency which either may be or may not be as it pleaseth God to give or to withdraw his grace from a State or Nation And 3. That as according to the Divine Rule of the Apostle we must not do a thing positively evil in hope that any good how great soever may come of it So by Analogy thereunto we must not debar the people of God from any thing positively good for fear that any contingent mischief may ensue upon it But of this I shall not say more now as being loth to travel on a common place The point hath been so canvassed by our Controversors that you may there find Answers unto all Objections That which doth most concern me to consider of is the second consequent because it doth relate more specially than the other did to the present condition and estate of the Church of England Although the Charge be general and equally concerning all the Protestant and Reformed Chrrches yet the Application makes it ours as before I said and as ours properly within the compass of my present design And though I will not take upon me to Advocate for the present distempers and confusions of this wretched Church which no man can lament with a greater tenderness or look on with more indignation than I do and I think you know it yet I must tell you that it is neither Novum crimen C. Caesar nor ante haec tempora inauditum for those of the inferiour sort to take upon them the inquiry into sacred matters to turn Expositors and Preachers as the spirit of delusion moves them The people have had an itch this way in all times and Ages The Satyrist thus complained of it amongst the Heathens Ecce inter pocula quaerunt Romulides saturi quid dia Poemata narrant That is to say The well fed Romans in their Cups do sit And judge of things contain'd in holy Writ And the Apostle doth complain of it among the Christians where he informs us of some ignorant and unstable men which wrested some hard places of S. Pauls Epistles as they also did the other Scriptures to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.26 and wrest them so they could not I am sure of that did they not take the liberty of expounding also Look lower to S. Basils time when learning did most flourish in the Church of Christ and we shall find the Emperors Cook or the Clerk of his Kitchen at the best as busily dishing out the Scriptures as if it were no more than serving up his Masters diet from the Kitchin-hatch paid home by that good Father for his over-great sawciness with this handsome scoff Tuum est de pulmento cogitare non Divina deeoquere that it belonged unto his office to provide good Pottage for the Court not to Cook the Scriptures But this was not the folly only of this Master Cook who perhaps though better fed than taught might now and then have carried up the Chaplains Mess and having heard their Learned conferences and discourses was apt enough to think himself no small fool at a joynt of Divinity That whole Age was extreamly tainted with the self-same peccancy of which S. Hierome in his Epistle to Paulinus makes this sad complaint Whereas saith he all other Sciences and Trades have their several and distinct professors Sola Scripturarum ars est quam omnes passim sibi vendicant only the Art of opening or rather of undoing a Text of Scriptue as the phrase is now was usurped by all Hanc garrula anus hanc delirus senex c. The pratling Gossip and the doting Sire the windy Sophister and in a word all sorts of people do presume upon dismembring the body of the Scriptures and teaching others before they have learnt any thing that is worth the teaching Some with a supercilious look speaking big words discourse of holy Scripture among silly Women others the more the shame learn that of Women which afterwards they may teach to Men and some with no small volubility of tongue and confidence teach that to others which they never understood themselves Not to say any thing of those who having a smack of humane learning and coming so prepared to handle the Holy Scriptures do with inticing words feed the ears of the people bearing their Auditors in hand quicquid dixerint legem Dei esse that whatsoever they deliver is the Word of God nor will vouchsafe to learn what the Prophets and Apostles do conceive of the matter but very incongruously produce some Testimonies out of holy Writ to make good their corrupt imaginations as if it were an excellent not a pernicious way of teaching to wrest the sense of holy Scripture and thereby to accommodate it to their present purposes Hath not the Father given us in this place and passage a most excellent Mirrour wherein to see the ill complexion of the present times Doth not he set them forth in such likely colours as if he rather did delineate the confusions of the present Age than lament the
use of a Liturgy surther than to be an help in the want or to the weakness of a Minister and thereupon it is inferred with contempt enough that if any Minister appear insufficient to discharge the duty of conceived Prayer it may be imposed on him as a punishment to use set forms and no other If these two Propositions did proceed from the same one spirit as no doubt they did the extream falshood of the last doth prove sufficiently that neither of them did proceed from the Spirit of Truth King Edward VI. the Lord Protector then being and the learned Prelates of that time were our first Reformers the two first approving and confirming the last labouring and acting in that weighty business but all contributing to the passing of an Act of Parliament for uniformity of Service and Administration of the Sacraments 2 and 3. Ed. 6. cap. 1. and in that Act it is said expresly That all Ministers in any Cathedral or Parish Church or other place within this Realm of England Wales and other the Kings Dominions shall from and after the Feast of Pentecost next coming be bounden to say and use all Mattens Evensong Celebration of the Lords Supper commonly called the Mass and Administration of each of the Sacraments and their common and open Prayer in such order and form as is mentioned in the same Book and none other or otherwise Which clause continued still in being notwithstanding the alteration of the Liturgie till K. Edward's death and was revived again in the Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. cap. 2. By which the second Liturgie was confirmed and ratified Assuredly they that are bound to officiate by a Form prescribed to use no other Form but that and to use that Form no otherwise than the Law requireth and requireth under several penalties contained in it cannot be said to be at liberty to use or not to use it as they list themselves nor can pretend in any reason nor with common sense That the first Reformers of Religion did never intend the use of a Liturgy further than to be an help in the want or to the weakness of a Minister What the Reformers did in other Countreys was no Rule to ours who in the modelling of that great work had not only an eye and respect as the forementioned Statute telleth us to the most sincere and pure Christian Religion taught by the Scripture as probably the others had but also to the usages in the Primitive Church which certainly the others had not So that the second Position which the proud Inference thence deducted being blown aside the whole weight of the cause must wholly rest upon the first which whether it be of strength enough to support the same is the main disquisition and enquiry which we have in hand For when this Proposition was first vented and the point had been somewhat ventilated betwixt the humble Remonstrant on the one part and the Smectymnians on the other I was required by those who had Authority to command me to try what I could do in drawing down the Pedegree and the descent of Liturgies from the first use and institution of them amongst the Jews till they were setled and established also amongst the Christians For since the Smectymnians had appealed to the ancient practice of the Jews and Christians affirming positively that no such Liturgies that is to say no stinted and prescribed Forms of Administration were anciently used by either of them it is most fit and just they should be tryed by the Records and practice of those elder times to which they have Appealed for their justification So that the point between us being matter of Fact I shall pursue it in the way of an Historical Narration in which the Affirmative being made good by sufficient evidence it will be very difficult if not impossible to prove the Negative And for the better making good of the Affirmative I have taken in the Jewish Rabbins and other Antiquaries of that people of most faith and credit the holy Fathers and other Ecclesiastical Authors since the times of Christ to testifie unto the truth of what here is said either by way of explication of such Texts of Scripture which do relate unto this cause or in the way of declaration as laying down the practice of the Jews or Christians in their several times And that it may be seen that Liturgies or Set Forms of worship were of general usage I have made diligent search into the best and most unquestioned monuments of the ancient Gentiles and traced out many of their Forms of prayer and sacrifice used by them in the most religious acts of those performances and placed that search betwixt the practice of the Jews and that of the Christians And I have placed it in that order to the end that it may appear that the Christians had not only some ground of Scripture Tradition Apostolical and the best judgments of their own times to direct this business but that they were also guided in it by the light of Nature the Word of God amongst the Jews and the constant practice of that people in the times precedent Nor have I only took this pains in tracing out the constant practice of all people in respect of Liturgies but also with relation unto the necessary adjuncts and concomitants of them Set Forms of Worship require set times and places to perform them in which gives occasion to insert some notes or observations touching the Festivals or days of Religious offices taken up by the Authority of the Church in several Ages according as the commemoration of some signal benefits or Gods special mercies toward them might invite them to it The like I have done also in the erecting and dedicating of those sacred places which have been destinated in all times to Religious offices from the first Consecrating of the Tabernacle by Gods own appointment till the last dedication of the Temple in the time of Herod and from the first deputing of some places by the Lords Apostles for the divine performances and administrations of the Christian Faith till calmer times permitted the erecting of those stately Fabricks which the Gentiles looked upon with envy and admiration Some other things are intermingled touching the Habit of the Priests or Ministers under either Testament in the time or act of their officiating as also of the Gestures used both by Priests and People according to the several offices and acts of worship And this I have drawn down unto the time of S. Austin's death when neither Superstition in point of worship nor Heterodoxie in point of Doctrine had gotten any predominancy in the Church of Christ which was then come unto her height both for peace and purity By which the Reader may perceive how warrantably this Church proceeded in her Reformation as to this particular how strict an eye was had therein as well to the most sincere and pure Christian Religion taught by the Scripture as to the usages
Apologet cap. 39. disciplinam nihilominus praeceptorum inculcationibus densamus We meet saith he in an Assembly or Congregation that we may besiege God in our prayers as with an Army Such violence is acceptable unto God We pray for Emperors and their Ministers and Potestates for the state of the whole world the quiet government of the affairs thereof and for the putting off of the last day We are assembled to commemorate or hear the holy Scriptures if the condition of our present state doth either need to be premonished or reviewed Assuredly by the repetition of those holy words our faith is nourished our hope assured our confidence confirmed yet so that the severity of discipline is strengthened by the frequent inculcating of Gods Commandments In which description of their meetings there is no mention of the Eucharist not that it was not Celebrated then in all publick Assemblies but because as Cassander well observeth ad Paganos nondum initiatos sermo haberetur he did address his whole discourse to Heathen-men such as were not yet initiated in the faith of Christ to whom the Christians of those times imparted not the knowledge of the holy Mysteries In other of his books especially in those entituled ad uxorem there 's enough of that Nor is it to be thought because Tertullian speaks not of the present place nor Justin Martyr in the passage produced before that they sung no Psalms nor gave that part of worship no convenient place in the performance of their Service We find that and the course of their publick worship thus pointed at unto us in another place Jam vero prout Scripturae leguntur aut Psalmi canuntur aut adlocutiones proferuntur Id. de Anima cap. 9. aut petitiones delegantur ita inde materae visionibus subministrantur Now saith he as the Scriptures are read or Psalms sung or Exhortations made or Prayers tendred so is matter ministred unto her visions Where we may see that singing of the Psalms was in use amongst them as well as any other part of publick worship of what sort soever Conceive by singing here as in other Books and Authors about this time such singing of the Psalms as is now in use in the Cathedrals of this Kingdom after a plain tune as it is directed in the Rubricks of the Common-prayer book and not the singing of the Psalms in Metre as hath been used and is still in Parochial Churches The singing in those times in use was little more than a melodious pronunciation though afterwards upon occasion of a Canon made in the Council of Laodicea it came to be more perfect and exact according to the rules of harmony and in St. Austins time was so full and absolute that he ascribes a great cause of his conversion to the powers thereof calling to mind those frequent tears quas fudi ad cantus Ecclesiae tuae which had been drawn from him by this sacred Musick by which his soul was humbled and his affections raised to the height of godliness But whatsoever was the Musick of these first times Musick assuredly they had in their publick service as Tertullian tells us whom we may credit in this point And if we please to look we may be also sure to find the same in that place of Pliny which before we touched at Which here take more at large in the Authors words The Christians on examination did acknowledge Plin. Ep. 97. l. 10. Euser hist Eccl. l. ◠c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod soliti essent state die ante lucem convenire carmenque Christo tanquam Deo canere secum invicem seque sacramento non in scelus aliquod obstringere sed ne furta ne larocinia ne adulteria committerent ne fidem fallerent ne depositum appellati abnegarent His peractis morem sihi discedendi fuisse rursusque coeundi ad capiendum cibum promiscuum tamen innoxium They did confess saith he that they were accustomed to assemble on their appointed times before day-light and to sing Hymns or Songs of praise to Christ as to a god amongst themselves and to bind themselves by Oath or Sacrament not to the doing of any wickedness but not to commit Thefts Robberies or Adulteries demanded and this being done they used to depart and then meet again to eat together their meat being ordinary and the manner of their eating inoffensive Which last was added as I take it to clear them of the slander which was raised against them by their malicious Enemies who charged them with eating humane flesh and the blood of Infants as you may see in most of the Apologies which the Christians published in those times Note also that their meeting thus to eat together which is here last spoken of by Pliny was for their Love-feasts or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 described so fully by Tertullian in his Apologetick and by him also joyned to the description of their course or order at their publick meetings But here perhaps it will be said that the question is not at the present about a set order or Rubrick of Administrations but about set and imposed Forms of prayer Vindication of Smectymn p. 19 And that although Tertullian do describe a set course and order yet he is quite against a set From of prayer where he saith That the Christians of those times did in their publick Assemblies pray sine monitore quia de pectore without any prompter but their own hearts Smectym p. 7. And say they that it should be so the same Father as they call him proves in his Treatise de Oratione Sunt quae petuntur c. There are some things to be asked according to the occasions of every man the lawful and ordinary prayer that is the Lords prayer being laid as a foundation it is lawful to build upon that foundation other prayers according to every ones occasion So they and to them it may thus be answered that either those two passages of Tertullian are ill laid together or else they must be understood of private not of publick prayer For that the latter place is meant of those private prayers which every man may make for his own occasions is beyond all question And in their private Prayers it is not denied but men may use what words and what Forms they please so they consider as they ought what it is they ask and of whom they ask it And if this place be meant of private prayer as by the Authors drift and scope it appears to be then must the other passage be so understood or else they are ill laid together as before was said Now that the other place so insisted on is also meant of private not of publick Prayers will appear by this that there Tertullian speaks of the private carriage of the Christians and of their good affections to the Roman Emperors but medleth not with their behaviour as a publick body assembled and convened for a
one to whom that charge or Office appertained began some other Psalm or Hymn and all sung together after him by which variety of singing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some Prayers being interserted or mingled with it they past over the night and on the dawning of the day all of them joyned together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if they had but one heart and one mouth amongst them and sung unto God a Psalm of Confession most likely one of the seven penitential Psalms and after every one made in his own words a profession of his penitence and so all returned Where note that howsoever this Form of Service was fitted only for a company of private Men who had embraced the Monastick life and to be used only by them in their private Oratories yet the most part thereof was borrowed from the publick Forms at that time extant in the Church Of the which Rites or Forms retained amongst them were the beginning of their service with a confession of their sins then p rayers to God and then the singing of the Psalms That which was singular herein and needed the Apology was that they met together before day and spent more time upon the Psalmody than in reading or preaching of the Word or in Common-prayer or any of the other parts of publick Worship Basil could tell as well as any wherein the Form of Service used amongst his Monks agreed with that which was received and used in publick Churches and wherein it differed as having took the pains to compose a Liturgie or rather to compleat and polish and fit unto the publick use such as had formerly been extant And though that Copy of it which occurs in the Bibliotheca and in the writings of Cassander have some things in it which are found to be of a latter date yet we shall clear that doubt anon when we come to Chrysostom against whose Liturgy I find the like Objections Mean time take this of Basil for a pregnant Argument that in his time and long before it the Service of the Chruch was not only ordered by Rules and Rubricks but put into set Forms of Worship which we have noted in his Books De spiritu sancto and is this that followeth For speaking there touching those publick Usages which came into the Church from the tradition of the Apostles Easil de sancto spiritu c. 27. he instanceth in these particulars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The signing with the sign of the Cross all those who place their hopes in Christ what writing teacheth that in our prayers we should turn towards the East where is it taught us in the Scripture And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those words of invocation wherewithal in the holy Eucharist we consecrate the Bread and Cup of Benediction which of those blessed Saints have left in writing For not content with those things which the Apostles or the Gospel have committed to us many things have been added since both in the way of preface and of conclusion which are derived from unwritten Tradition And not long after thus of Baptism having first spoke of consecrating the Water of the Chrism or Oyl and the three Dippings then in use Those other things saith he which are done in Baptism viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Abrenuntiation which is made to Satan and to all his Angels out of what Scripture is it brought Next for S. Cyrsostom the evidence we have from him is beyond exception 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysost in 2. ad Corinth hom 18. It is no now saith he as in the old Testament wherein the Priests eat this and the people that it being unlawful for the people to eat those things which were permitted to the Priest It is now otherwise with us For unto all is the same Body and the same Cup presented And in our very prayers it is easily seen how much we attribute unto the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For both those who are possessed with the devil the Energumeni and those who yet are under penance both by the People and Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common Prayers are made and we say all one and the self same Prayer even that which is so full of mercy Where by the way though in the Greek it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they say all one Prayer yet in the Latin it runs thus omnes unam eandemque precem concipiunt which would make well for unpremeditated and extemporary Prayers if it were possible that all the Congregation both Priest and people should fall upon the same conception But to go on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Again saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when we repell all such from the holy Rayls which cannot be partakers of the holy Table there is another Prayer to be said and we all lie alike upon the ground and all rise together Then when the Peace or sign of peace is mutually to be given and taken we do all equally salute or kiss each other Thus also in the celebration of the sacred Mysteries as the Priest prayeth for the people so do they for him these usual words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And with thy Spirit importing nothing else but this And finally Et cum spirtu tuo Gratlas agamus Deo that Prayer wherein we give thanks to the Lord our God is common unto both alike the Priest not only giving thanks to God but the whole Assembly For when he hath demanded their suffrage first and they acknowledg thereupon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dignum est justum that it is meet and right so to do then he begins the holy Eucharist Nor is it strange nor should it seem so unto any that the people should thus hold conference with the Priest o Minister considering that they sing those holy Hymns together with the Cherubins and the powers of Heaven So he And all this out of question Ideo cum Angelis Archangelis must needs be understood of prescribed Forms such as the people said by heart or could read in Books that either lay before them or were brought with them such as they were so throughly versed in as to make answer to the Minister upon all occasions For what else were those common Prayers those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he speaks of what else that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that one self-same Prayer that Prayer so full of mercy in which all did joyn were they not so determinate the prescribed that all could say them with the Minister And were not those returns and Answers so prescribed and set that all the people knew their Q. and were not ignorant of their turn when they were to speak Several other passages of the antient Liturgies might here and there be gathered from this Fathers writings if one would take the pains to seek them But I shall save that pains at present and indeed well may For what
bring greater trouble to the Clergy than is yet considered and far less profit to the Countrey than is now pretended which is the third and last of my Propositions and is I hope sufficiently and fully proved or at the least made probable if not demonstrative I have said nothing in this Tract of the right of Tithes or on what motive or considerations of preceding claim the Kings of England did confer them upon the Clergy Contenting my self at this time with the matter of fact as namely that they were setled on the Church by the Kings of this Realm before they granted out Estates to the Lords and Gentry and that the Land thus charged with the payment of Tithes they passed from one man to another Ante Concilium Lateranense bene toterant Laici decimas sibi in feudum retinere vel aliis quibuscunque Ecclesiis dare Lindw in Provinc cap. de decimis until it came unto the hands of the present Occupant which cuts off all that claim or title which the mispersuaded subject can pretend unto them I know it cannot be denied but that notwithstanding the said Grants and Charters of those ancient Kings many of the great men of the Realm and some also of the inferiour Gentry possessed of Manours before the Lateran Council did either keep their Tithes in their own hands or make Infeodations of them to Religious houses or give them to such Priests or Parishes as they best affected But after the decree of Pope Innocent the third which you may find at large in Sir Edw. Cokes Comment upon Magna Charta and other old Statutes of this Realm in the Chapter of Tithes had been confirmed in that Council Anno 1215 and incorporated into the Canons and conclusions of it the payment of them to the Minister or Parochial Priest came to be setled universally over all the Kingdom save that the Templars the Hospitalers and Monks of Cisteaux held their ancient priviledges of being excepted for those Lands which they held in Occupancy from this general rule Nor have I said any thing of Impropriations partly because I am persuaded that the Lords and Gentry who have their Votes or Friends in Parliament will look well enough to the saving of their own stakes but principally because coming from the same original grant from the King to the Subjects and by them setled upon Monasteries and Religious houses they fell in the ruine of those houses to the Crown again as of due right the Tithes should do if they be taken from the Clergy and by the Crown were alienated in due form of Law and came by many mean conveyances to the present Owners Onely I shall desire that the Lords and Commons would take a special care of the Churches Patrimony for fear lest that the prevalency of this evil humour which gapes so greedily after the Clergies Tithes do in the end devour theirs also And it concerns them also in relation to their right of Patronage which if this plot go on will be utterly lost and Churches will no longer be presentative at the choice of the Patron but either made Elective at the will of the People or else Collated by the Trustees of the several Counties succeeding as they do in the power of Bishops as now Committee-men dispose of the preferments of the Sequestred Clergy If either by their power and wisdom or by the Arguments and Reasons which are here produced the peoples eyes are opened to discern the truth and that they be deceived no longer by this popular errour it is all I aim at who have no other ends herein but only to undeceive them in this point of Tithes which hath been represented to them as a publick grievance conducing manifestly to the diminution of theâ—â— gain and profit If notwithstanding all this care for their information they will run headlong in the ways of spoil and sacrilege and shut their eyes against the light of the truth shine it never so brightly let them take heed they fall not into that â—â—â—â—tuation which the Scripture denounceth that seeing they shall see but shall not perceive and that the stealing of this Coal from the Altars of God burn not down their Houses And so I shut up this discourse with the words of our Saviour saying that no man tasteth new wine but presently he saith that the old is better ECCLESIA VINDICATA OR THE Church of England VINDICATED PART II. Containing the Defence thereof V. In retaining the Episcopal Government AND VI. The Canonical Ordination of Priests and Deacons Framed and Exhibited in an HISTORY of EPISCOPACY By PETER HEYLYN D. D. HEB. XIII 17. Obedite Praepositis vestris subjacete eis Ipsi enim pervigilant quasi rationem pro Animabus vestris reddituri ut cum gaudio hoc faciant non gementes CYPRIAN Epist LXV Apostolos id est EPISCOPOS Praepositos Dominus elegit Diaconos autem post Ascensum Domini in coelos Apostoli sibi constituerunt Episcopatus sui Ecclesiae Ministros LONDON Printed by M. Clark to be sold by C. Harper 1681. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THE Quarrels and Disputes about Episcopacy had reposed a while when they broke out more dangerously than in former times In order whereunto the people must be put in fear of some dark design to bring in Popery the Bishops generally defamed as the principal Agents the regular and establisht Clergy traduc'd as the subservient Instruments do drive on the Plot Their actings in Gods publick Worship charged for Innovations their persons made the Common subjects of reproach and calumny The News from Ipswich Bastwicks Let any and the Seditious Pamphlets from Friday-street with other the like products of those times what were they but Tentamenta Bellorum Civilium preparatory Velitations to that grand encounter in which they were resolved to assault the Calling The Calling could not be attempted with more hopes of Victory than when it had received such wide wounds through the sides of those persons who principally were concerned in the safety or defence thereof The way thus opened and the Scots entring with an Army to make good the pass the Smectymnuans come upon the Stage addressing their discourse in Answer to a Book called An Humble Remonstrance to the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled Anno 1640. amongst whom they were sure beforehand of a powerful party to advance the Cause which made them far more confident of their good suocess than otherwise they had reason to expect in a time less favourable And in this Confidence they quarrelled not the Rocket or the Officers Fees the Oath ex officio the Vote in Parliament or the exorbitant jurisdiction of the High-Commission at which old Martin and his followers clamoured in Queen Elizabeths time Non gaudet tenui sanguine tanta sitis Their stomach was too great to be satisfied with so small a sacrifice as the excrescences and adjuncts of Episcopacy which seemed most offensive to their Predecessors
the governance of the Church was trusted one who was vested with a constant and fixed preheminence as well over the Clergy as the Laity committed to his charge such as both Timothy and Titus are described to be in S. Pauls Epistles V. Chap. 5. De civ Dei l. 19. c. 19. of whom we shall say more hereafter S. Austin rightly understood the word and the original of it when he told us this Graecum est enim atque inde ductum vocabulum quod ille qui praeficitur eis quibus praeficitur superintendit c. The word saith he is Greek originally and from thence derived shewing that he which is preferred or set over others is bound to take the oversight and care of those whom he is set over And so proceeding unto the Etymology or Grammar of the word he concludes it thus ut intelligat se non esse Episcopum qui praeesse dilexerit non prodesse that he deserves not to be called a Bishop which seeketh rather to prefer himself than to profit others Saint Austin being himself a Bishop knew well the meaning of the word according to the Ecclesiastical notion and sense thereof And in that notion the Scriptures generally and all the Fathers universally have used the same out of which word Episcopus whether Greek or Latine the Germans had their Bischop and we thence our Bishop If sometimes in the holy Scripture the word be used to signifie an ordinary Presbyter it is at such times and such places only when as the Presbyters had the chief governance of the Flocks next and immediately under the Apostles and where there was no Bishop properly so called established over them as we shall see hereafter in the Churches of S. Pauls plantation Having thus seen the sudden and miraculous growth of the Church of God in and about the City of Hierusalem and seen the same confirmed and setled in Episcopal government our next enquiry must be made into the Clergy which were to be subordinate to him and to participate of the charge to him entrusted according to his directions And in this search we first encounter with the Presbyters the first as well in time as they are in dignity The Deacon though exceeding ancient yet comes short in both We shewed you in the former Chapter how our Redeemer having chosen the Twelve Apostles appointed other Seventy also and sent them two and two before him 1 Cor. 12. Eph. 4.8 to prepare his way Of these the Lord made choice of some to be Evangelists and others to be Prophets some to be Pastors and Teachers and others to be helps in Government according to the measure and the purpose of his grace bestowed upon them in the effusion of his Spirit And out of these thus fitted and prepared for the work of God I doubt not but there were some chosen to assist S. James in the discharge of the great trust committed to him by the common Counsel and consent of the Apostles Such as were after added unto them according to the exigences of that Church I take it to be all of Saint James ordaining who being a Bishop and Apostle is not to be denied the priviledg of ordaining Presbyters it being a thing which both the Apostle Paul did do in all the Churches which he planted and all succeeding Bishops since have done in their several Dioceses Certain it is that there were Presbyters in the Church of Hierusalem before the election of the Seven Ignat. ep ad Hieron Ignatius telling us that Stephen did minister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. to James and to the Presbyters which were in Hierusalem And certain also it is that the Apostles first and Bishops afterwards ordained Presbyters to be assistant with them and subservient to them in their several charges and this they did according as the Fathers say in imitation of our Lord and Saviour who having chose his twelve Apostles Hier. ad Fabiolam appointed Seventy others of a lower rank Seciendos Christi Discipulos as S. Hierom calls them Not that the Presbyters of the Church do succeed the Seventy who were not founded in a perpetuity by our Saviour Christ De Rep. Eccles l. 2. c. 2. n. 6. Concil Neo-Caesar Can. 13. as the Arch-Bishop of Spalato hath well observed but only that they had a resemblance to them and were ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Council of Neo-Caesarea affirmed before as secondary and subservient Ministers in the Church of God And this is that which Beda tells us in his Comment on the Gospel of Saint Luke Beda in Luc. 10. that as the Twelve Apostles did premonstrate the Form of Bishops so the Presbyters did bear the figure of the Seventy Another resemblance between the Presbyters and the Seventy may perhaps be this that as our Saviour in the choicing of these Disciples related to the number of the Elders in the state of Jewry so the Apostles thought it fit to give unto the Ministers thus by them ordained though they regarded not the number the name of Elders according to the custom of that State before Presbyters they are called in the Greek originals which being often rendred Seniores in the vulgar Latin occasioned that our first Translators who perhaps looked no farther than the Latin turned it into Elders though I could heartily have wished they had retained the name of Presbyters as the more proper and specifical word of the two by far But for these Presbyters of the Church of Hierusalem from whencesoever they may borrow or derive their name we find thrice mention of them in the Book of the Acts during the time Saint James was Bishop viz. in the 11.15.21 In the first place we read that when the Disciples which dwelt at Antioch Acts 11. ult Cap. 18. in Act. Apostol had made a contribution for the brethren of Judaea they sent it to the Elders there by the hands of Barnabas and Saul Ask Oecumenius who these Elders were and he will tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were the Apostles And like enough it is that the Apostles may be comprehended in that general name In Act. 11. they being indeed the elder brethren Ask Calvin why this contribution was sent unto the Presbyters or Elders being there were particular Officers appointed to attend the poor as is set down in the 6. Chapter of the Acts and he will tell you that the Deacons were so appointed over that business that notwithstanding they were still inferiour unto the Presbyters nec quicquam sine eorum auctoritate agerent v. 18.19 c. and were not to do any thing therein without their authority So for that passage in the 21. S. Luke relates how Paul at his last going to Hierusalem went in unto James and that all the Elders were present and adds withal what counsel and advice they gave him for his ingratiating with the Jews Here find we James the Bishop
and unreprovable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ Now Timothy was not like to live till Christs second coming the Apostle past all question never meant it so therefore the power and charge here given to exercise the same according to the Apostles Rules and Precepts was not personal only but such as was to appertain to him and to his successours for ever even till the appearing of our Lord and Saviour The like expression do we find in Saint Matthew when our Redeemer said unto his Apostles Matth. 28. ult Behold I am with you always even unto the end of the world Not always certainly with his Apostles not to the end of the World with those very men to whom he did address himself when he spake these words for they being mortal men have been dead long since Non solis hoc Apostolis dictum esse this was no personal promise then saith Calvin truly Harmon Evangel In Matth. 28. With them and their successours he might always be and to the end of the world give them his assistance Cum vobis successorlbus vestris as Denis the Carthusian very well observeth Saint Paul then gives this charge to Timothy and in him unto all his successors in the Episcopal function which should continue in the Church till Christs second coming And therefore I conceive the annotation of the ordinary gloss to be sound and good in Timotheo omnibus successoribus loquitur Apostolus Glossa Ordinar in 1 Tim. 6. that this was spoke in Timothy unto all his successors And so the Commentaries under the name of Ambrose do inform us also saying that Paul was not so solicitous for Timothy as for his successors ut exemplo Timothei Ecclesiae ordinationem custodirent In 1 Tim. 6. that they might learn by his Example i.e. by practising those directions which were given to him to look unto the ordering of the Church This ground thus laid we must next look on the authority which the Apostle gave to Timothy and Titus and in them to all other Bishops And the best way to look upon it is to divide the same as the School-men do into potestas ordinis and potestas jurisdictionis the power of Order and the power of jurisdiction in each of which there occur divers things to be considered First for the power of Order besides what every Bishop doth and may lawfully perform by vertue of the Orders he received as Presbyter there is a power of Order conferred upon him as a Bishop and that 's indeed the power of Ordination or giving Orders which seems so proper and peculiar to the Bishops Office as not to be communicable to any else Paul gives it as a special charge to Timothy to lay hands hastily on no man Tim. 5.22 which caution doubtless had been given in vain in case the Presbyters of Ephesus might have done it as well as he And Titus seems to have been left in Crete for this purpose chiefly Tit. 1. v. 5. that he might ordain Presbyters in every City which questionless had been unnecessary in case an ordinary Presbyter might have done the same The Fathers have observed from these Texts of Scripture that none but Bishops strictly and properly so called according as the word was used when they lived that said it have any power of Ordination Epiphanius in his dispute against Aerius Haeres 75. n. 4. observes this difference betwixt Bishops and Presbyters whom the Heretick would fain have had to be the same that the Presbyter by administring the Sacrament of Baptism did beget children to the Church but that the Bishop by the power of Ordination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did beget Fathers to the same A power from which he utterly excludes the Presbyter and gives good reason for it too for how saith he can he ordain or constitute a Presbyter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in his Ordination did receive no power to impose hands upon another Hom. 11. in 1 Tim. c. 3. Chrysostom speaking of the difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter makes it consist in nothing else but in this power of Ordination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. only in laying on of hands saith he or in Ordination a Bishop is before or above a Presbyter and have that power only inherent in them Epistola ad Euagr. which the others have not Hierom although a great advancer of the place and Office of the Presbyter excludes him from the power of Ordination or any interest therein Quid enim facit excepta ordinatione Episcopus quod Presbyter non faciat What saith he doth a Bishop saving Ordination more than a Presbyter may do Neither doth Hierom speak de facto and not de jure quid facit not quid debet facere Smectymn p. 37. as I observe the place to be both cited and applyed in some late Discourses Hierom's non faciat is as good as non debet facere and they that look upon him well will find he pleads not of the possession only but the right and Title And we may see his meaning by the passage formerly alledged upon the words of Paul to Titus cap. 1. v. 5. Audiant Episcopi qui habent constituendi Presbyteros per singulas urbes potestatem By which it seems that Bishops only had the power of ordaining Presbyters and that they did both claim and enjoy the same from this grant to Titus For further clearing of this point there are two things to be declared and made evident first that the power of Ordination was so inherent in the person of a Bishop that he alone both might and did sometimes ordain without help of Presbyters and secondly that the Presbyters might not do the same without the Bishop And first that anciently the Bishops of the Church both might and did ordain without the help or co-assistance of the Presbyters Euseb hist Eccl. l. 6. c. 7. n. appeareth by the ordination of Origen unto the Office of a Presbyter by Theoctistus Bishop of Caesarea and Alexander Bishop of Hierusalem who laid hands upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as my Author hath it Which act of theirs when it was quarrelled by Demetrius he did not plead in bar that there were no Presbyters assistant in it but that the party had done somewhat and we know what 't was by which he was conceived to be uncapable of holy Orders Id. l. 6. c. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So when the Bishop whosoever he was out of an affectation which he bare unto Novatus not being yet a Separatist from the Church of God desired 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Clergy being all against it to ordain him Presbyter the matter stood upon as the story testifieth was not the Bishops being the sole agent in it but because it was forbidden by the ancient Canons that any one who had been formerly baptized being sick in bed and that had been Novatus case should be
I think we may according to the general meaning of that word in its native sense the Presbyters and Deacons both being but subservient Ministers unto the Bishop who did allot them out their turns and stations in the officiating of Gods divine Service the Presbyters not having yet assigned them their particular bounds wherewith to execute the same as in the time succeeding it is plain they had Of which more hereafter In the mean time we must examine whether the Church of Corinth to which Clemens writ had not been setled by the Apostle in that Form of Government which had been every where established in the neighbour Cities And certainly I can see no reason why Corinth should not have a Bishop aswell as Athens or Philippi or the Thessalonians Hierom. in Titum cap. 1. in Epist ad Euagr. or any other Church of Greece or Macedon I see much reason why it should For if that Bishops were first instituted in Schismatis remedium for remedy of Schism as Saint Hierom saith assuredly the Church of Corinth being first pestered with that foul Disease should first of all in all congruity be fitted with the remedy so proper and peculiar to it A Bishop then they were to have by Saint Hieroms Rule and that as soon as any other Church what ever but who this Bishop was is not yet so evident By Dorotheus in Synopsi Silas Saint Pauls most individual Companion is said to be the Bishop of this Church Corinthiorum constitutus est Episcopus as his words there are Baron in Rom. Martyrol Julii 13. wherein Hippolitus concurring with him doth make the matter the more probable And though I will not take upon me to justifie the reports of Dorotheus where there is any reason to desert him as there is too often yet when the point by him delivered doth neither cross the holy Scripture nor any of the ancient Writers as in this he doth not I know not why his word may not pass for currant Nay if we please to search the Scripture we may find some hint for the defence of Dorotheus in this one particular For whereas we find often mentioned that Silus did accompany Saint Paul in many of his peregrinations the last time that we find him spoke of is in the 18. of the Acts which time he came unto Saint Paul Verse 5 to Corinth After there is no mention of him in the book of God And possibly the reason of it may be this in brief that he was left there by Saint Paul to look unto the government of that mighty City Which when he could not do by the Word and Doctrine Saint Paul reserving for a time the jurisdiction to himself V. Chap. 4. n. 5. as before was said and that the Factions there did increase and multiply for want of ordinary power to suppress the same Saint Paul might then invest him with authority making him Bishop of the place both in Power and Title This if it may be counted probable I desire no more And then as we have found the first Bishop in the Church of Corinth we shall with greater ease and certainty find out a second though his name were Primus for proof of whose being Bishop here Ap. Easeb Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 21. x 6. Ibid. c. 24. x 5. Id. lib. 5. c. 21. x 6. we have the testimony of Egisippus who took him in his Journey towards Rome and abode long with him giving him special commendation both for his Orthodoxy and Humanity After succeeded Dionysius next to him Bachyllus of both which we shall speak hereafter in convenient place From the Epistle of this Clemens unto those of Corinth which is his undoubtedly proceed we next unto the Canons commonly called the Apostles Canons Bellarm. Baron alii Tertul. adver Praxeam supposed to be collected by him but so supposed that still there is a question of it whether his or not That they are very ancient is unquestinable as being mentioned by Tertullian and cited in some of the ancientest Councils whereof the acts and monuments are now remaining on Record But being it is confessed on all hands Binius in natis ad Can. Apo. quosdam ab haereticis corruptos that some of them have been corrupted by the Hereticks of old the better to advance their cause by so great a Patronage we must be very wary how we build upon them And howsoever Bellarmine be exceeding confident Lib. De Seriptor Eccl. in Clemente Annal. An. 102. n. 17. that the first 50 are most true and genuine and probably it may so be yet I conceive it safe to admit them on those sober cautions which are commended to us by Baronius who on a full debate of the point in question doth resolve it thus Illi tantum nobis ex Apostolieis fontibus c. Those Canons only seem to us saith he to be derived from the Apostolical fountains which have either been admitted and incorporated by the Fathers into the Canons of succeeding Councils or confirmed by the authority of the Bishops of Rome aut in communem usum Ecclesiasticae disciplinae or otherwise have been continually practiced in the Churches Discipline The first and last these three cautions I conceive to be exceeding sound and should not stumble at the second had the Decrees and Ordinances of the ancient Popes come incorrupted to our hands Which ground thus laid we will now see what the Apostles Canons have delivered in the present business and that we shall distribute as it doth relate to Bishops either in point of their Admission how and by whom they are to be Ordained or of their carriage and behaviour being once admitted how far to disoblige themselves from the employments of the World or of their Jurisdiction over the inferiour Clergy whom they are to govern These are the points which are most clearly offered us to be considered of in the aforesaid Canons and these we shall present and then consider of them accordingly And first in way of their Admission to that sacred Function it seemeth to be the first care of the Collector that it be done according to the mind and meaning of the holy Apostles and therefore it is put in the very front viz. That a Bishop is not to be ordained but by three Bishops or by two at the least 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Canon hath it Canon Apost 1. A Canon which hath all the Rules and cautions required by Baronius for proof of its antiquity and Apostolical institution as being confirmed by many of the Decretals in case they were of any credit incorporated first into the Canons of the Council of Arles Concil Arelat Can. 21. Nicen. Can. 4. as afterwards in those of Nice and generally continued in the constant practice and perpetual usage of the Church Only the difference is that the old Canon doth admit of Ordinations made by two Bishops if a third may not conveniently be had
Catechist in the Church Hieron de Script Eccl. in Origine and afterward a publick Reader in the Schools of Alexandria a man in whom there was nothing ordinary either good or ill for when he did well none could do it better and when he erred or did amiss none could do it worse The course and method of his studies the many Martyrs which he trained up in the School of Piety the several Countreys which he travelled either for informing of himself or others belong not unto this Discourse Suffice it that his eminence in all parts of Learning and his great pains in his profession Euseb bist Eccl. l. 6. c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ib. c. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made him most grateful for a time unto Demetrius the Patriarch of Alexandria though after upon envy at the mans renown he did endeavour to diminish his reputation For on occasion of the Wars in Egypt seeing he could not stay in safety there he went unto Caesarea the Metropolitan See of Palestine where though not yet in holy Orders he was requested by the Bishop not only to dispute in publick as his custom was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also to expound the Scriptures and that too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the open Church Which when it came unto the knowledg of Demetrius he forthwith signified by Letters his dislike thereof affirming it to be an unaccustomed and unheard of thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that any Lay-man should presume to Preach or Expound Scripture in the Bishops presence But hereunto it was replyed by Theoctistus Bishop of Caesarea and Alexander Bishop of Hierusalem who was also there that he had quite mistook the matter it being lawful for such men as were fit and eminent to speak a word of exhortation to the People or to preach unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they were thereunto required by the Bishop instancing in Euelpis Paulinus and Theodorus godly brethren all who on the like authority had so done before and they for their parts being of opinion that others besides them had done so too In agitation of which business there are these two things presented to us first the regard and reverence which was had in those Pious times unto the person of a Bishop and then the power and authority that was vested in them For first it seems that men of whatsoever parts though of great spirit and abilities did notwithstanding think it an unfitting thing to meddle with expounding Scripture or edifying of the People in case the Bishop was in place And yet as strange and uncouth as it was or was thought to be the Licence of the Bishop made it lawful But then withal we must conceive of Preaching in this place and story not as a Ministerial Office but only as an Academical or Scholastical exercise according as it is still used in our Universities where many not in holy Orders preach their turns and courses And yet indeed Demetrius was not so much out as they thought he was but had good ground to go upon though possibly there was some intermixture of envy in it For whatsoever had been done in the Eastern Churches the use was otherwise in Alexandria and in the Churches of the West in which it was so far unusual for Lay-men to expound or preach in the Bishops presence that it was not lawful for the Presbyters For in the neighbour Church of Carthage it was thus of old in these times at least For when Valerius Bishop of Hippo a Diocese within that Province being by birth a Grecian and not so well instructed in the pronunciation of the Latin Tongue perceived his Preaching not to be so profitable to the common People for remedy thereof having then lately ordained Augustin Presbyter eidem potestatem dedit coram se in Ecclesia Evangelium praedicandi Possidon in vit Aug. c. 5. he gave him leave to preach the Gospel in the Church though himself were present And this saith Possidonius who relates the story was contra usum consuetudinem Ecclesiarum Africanarum against the use and custom of the African Churches and many Bishops thereabouts did object as much But the old man bearing himself upon the custom of the Eastern Church where it was permitted would not change his course By means whereof it came to pass that by this example some Presbyters in other places acceptâ ab Episcopis potestate being thereto licenced by the Bishop did preach before them in the Church without controul For Austin being afterwards Bishop of Hippo in the place of Valerius applauds Aurelius the Metropolitan of Carthage Aug. Ep. 77. for giving way unto the same commending him for the great care he took in his Ordinations but specially de sermone Presbyterorum qui te praesente populo infunditur for the good Sermons preached by the Presbyters unto the People in his presence But this permission or allowance was only in some places in some Churches only perhaps in none but those of Africk For Hierom writing to Nepotian being himself a Presbyter in the Church of Rome complains thereof ut turpissimae consuetudinis Hieron ad Nepotianum as of a very evil custom that in some Churches the Presbyters were not to preach if the Bishop were by And though he was a man of great authority with Damasus and others his Successours Popes of Rome yet got he little by complaining the custom still continuing as before it was And this is clear by the Epistle of Pope Leo in which as it is declared unlawful to perform divers other Sacred Offices in the Bishops presence Leon. Ep. 88. without his special Precept and Command so also is there a non licet in this point of Preaching which was not to be done nec populum docere ncc plebem exhortari if the Bishop were then present in the Congregation So that this being then an ancient and received custom must needs be now in force when Demetrius lived and as it seems by his expostulation in the case of Origen had been no less observed in Alexandria than in Rome or Africk There was indeed a time and that shortly after in which the Presbyters of Alexandria might not preach at all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in Socrates Socrat. hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 21. Which general restraint as it was occasioned by reason of the factions raised by Arius or other troubles of that Church in the beginning of the Age next following so it continued till the times of Socrates and Sozomen Sozom. hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 19. who lived about the middle of the sixth Century and take notice of it So that as it appeared before in the case of Austin that the Bishops have a power to Licence so it appears by that of Arius that they also have a power to silence But to return again to Origen the Bishops of Caesarea and Hierusalem finding how profitable a Servant
we should have heard thereof in the holy Scriptures And finding nothing of it there it were but unadvisedly done to take it on the word and credit of a private man Non credimus quia non legimus was in some points Saint Hieroms rule and shall now be ours As little likelihood there is that the Angels did observe this day and sanctifie the same to the Lord their God yet some have been so venturous as to affirm it Sure I am Torniellus saith it Annal. d. 7. And though he seem to have some Authors upon whom to cast it yet his approving of it makes it his as well as theirs who first devised it Quidam non immerito existimarunt hoc ipso die in Coelis omnes Angelorum choros speciali quadam exultatione in Dei laudes prorupisse quod tam praeclarum admirabile opus absolvisset Nay he 38.4.6 and they whoever they were have a Scripture for it even Gods word to Job Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth when the morning stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy Who and from whence those Quidam were that so interpreted Gods words I could never find and yet have took some pains to seek it De Civit. Dei l. 11. c. 9. Sure I am Saint Austin makes a better use of them and comes home indeed unto the meaning Some men it seems affirmed that the Angels were not made till after the six days were finished in which all things had been created and he refers them to this Text for their confutation Which being repeated he concludes Jam ergo erant Angeli quando facta sunt sydera facta autem sunt sydera die quarto Therefore saith he the Angels were created before the Stars and on the fourth day were the Stars created Yet Zanchius and those Quidam be they who they will fell short a little of another conceit of Philos De vita Mosis lib. 3. who tells us that the Sabbath had a priviledge above other days not only from the first Creation of the World though that had been enough to set out the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but even before the Heavens and all things visible were created If so it must be sanctified by the holy Trinity without the tongues of Men and Angels and God not having worked must rest and sanctifie a time when no time was But to return to Torniellus however those Quidam did mislead him and make him think that the first Sabbath had been sanctified by the holy Angels Annal. d. 7. yet he ingenuously confesseth that sanctifying of the Sabbath here upon the earth was not in use till very many Ages after not till the Law was given by Moses Veruntamen in terris ista Sabbati sanctificatio non nisi post multa secula in usum venisse creditur nimirum temporibus Mosis quando sub praecepto data est filiis Israel So Torniellus So Torniellus and so far unquestionable For that there was no Sabbath kept amongst us men till the times of Moses the Christian Fathers generally and some Rabbins also have agreed together Which that we may the better shew I shall first let you see what they say in general and after what they have delivered of particular men most eminent in the whole story of Gods Book until the giving of the Law And first that never any of the Patriarchs before Moses time did observe the Sabbath Justin the Martyr hath assured us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dial. cum Tryph. None of the righteous men saith he and such as walked before the Lord were either circumcised or kept the Sabbath until the several times of Abraham and Moses And where the Jews were scandalized in that the Christians did eat hot meats on the Sabbath days the Martyr makes reply that the said just and righteous men not taking heed of any such observances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obtained a notable testimony of the Lord himself Adv. haeres l. 4. c. 30. So Irenaeus having first told us that Circumcision and the Sabbath were both given for signs and having spoken particularly of Abraham Noah Lot and Enoch that they were justified without them adds for the close of all that all the multitude of the faithful before Abraham were justified without the one Et Patriarcharum eorum qui ante Mosen fuerunt and all the Patriarchs which preceded Moses without the other Adv. Judaeos Tertullian next disputeth thus against the Jews that they which think the Sabbath must be still observed as necessary to salvation or Circumcision to be used upon pain of death Doceant in Praeteritum justos sabbatizasse aut circumcidisse sic amicos Dei effectos esse ought first of all saith he to prove That the Fathers of the former times were Circumcised or kept the Sabbath or that thereby they did obtain to be accounted the friends of God Then comes Eusebius the Historian and he makes it good Hist l. 1. c. 4. that the Religion of the Patriarchs before Moses Law was nothing different from the Christian And how proves he that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were not Circumcised no more are we they kept not any Sabbath no more do we they were not bound to abstinence from sundry kinds of meats which are prohibited by Moses nor are we neither Which argument he also useth to the self-same purpose in his first book de demonstr Evang. and sixth Chapter And in his seventh de praeparatione he resolves it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 6. c. The Hebrews which preceded Moses and were quite ignorant of his Law whereof he makes the Sabbath an especial part disposed their ways according to a voluntary kind of piety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 framing their lives and actions to the law of nature This argument is also used by Epiphanius Adv. haereses l. 1. n. 5. who speaking of the first Ages of the World informs us that as then there was no difference among men in matters of opinion no Judaism nor kind of Heresie whatsoever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but that the faith which doth now flourish in Gods Church was from the beginning If so no Sabbath was observed in the times of old because none in his I could enlarge my Catalogue but that some testimonies are to be reserved to another place when I shall come to shew you that the Commandment of the Sabbath was published to Gods People by Moses only See Ch. 4. and that to none but to the Jews After so many of the Fathers the modern Writers may perhaps seem unnecessary yet take one or two First Musculus 2 Edit p. 12. as Doctor Bound informs me for I take his word who tells us that it cannot be proved that the Sabbath was kept before the giving of the Law either from Adam to Noah or from the Flood to the times of Moses or
so many manners of work as that day they did However as it was our blessed Saviour did account these works of theirs to be a publick prophanation of the Sabbath day Read ye not in the Law saith he Math. 12.5 how that upon the Sabbath days the Priests in the Temple do prophane the Sabbath Yet he deelared withal that the Priests were blameless in that they did it by direction from the God of Heaven The Sabbath then was daily broken but the Priest excusable For Fathers that affirm the same see Justin Martyr dial qu. 27. ad Orthod Epiphan l. 1. haer 19. n. 5. Hierom. in Psal 92. Athanas de Sabb. Circumcis Aust in Qu. ex N. Test 61. Isidore Pelusiot Epl. 72. l. 1. and divers others These were the Offices of the Priest on the Sabbath day and questionless they were sufficient to take up the time Of any other Sabbath duties by them performed at this present time there is no Constat in the Scripture no nor of any place as yet designed for the performance of such other duties as some conceive to appertain unto the Levites That they were scattered and dispersed over all the Tribes is indeed most true The Curse of Jacob now was become ' a blessing to them Forty-eight Cities had they given them for their inheritance whereof thirteen were proper only to the Priests besides their several sorts of Tithes and what accrewed unto them from the publick sacrifices to an infinite value Yet was not this dispersion of the Tribe of Levi in reference to any Sabbath duties that so they might the better assist the People in the solemnities and sanctifying of that day The Scripture tells us no such matter The reasons manifested in the word were these two especially First that they might be near at hand to instruct the People Levit. 10.10 11. and teach them all the Statutes which the Lord had spoken by the hand of Moses as also to let them know the difference between the holy and unholy the unclean and clean Many particular things there were in the Law Levitical touching pollutions purifyings and the like legal Ordinances which were not necessary to be ordered by the Priests above those that attended at the Altar and were resorted to in most difficult cases Therefore both for the Peoples ease and that the Priests above might not be troubled every day in matters of inferiour moment the Priests and Levites were thus mingled amongst the Tribes A second reason was that there might be as well some nursery to train up the Levites until they were of Age fit for the service of the Tabernacle as also some retirement unto the which they might repair when by the Law they were dismissed from their attendance The number of the Tribe of Levi in the first general muster of them from a month old and upwards was 22000. just out of which number all from 30 years of age to 50. being in all 8580 persons were taken to attend the publick Ministery The residue with their Wives and Daughters were to be severally disposed of in the Cities allotted to them therein to rest themselves with their goods and cattel and do those other Offices above remembred Which Offices as they were the works of every day so if the People came unto them upon the Sabbaths or New-moons as they did on both to be instructed by them in particular cases of the Law 2 King 23. no doubt but they informed them answerably unto their knowledge But this was but occasional only no constant duty Indeed it is conceived by Master Samuel Purchas on the authority of Cornelius Bertram Pilg. almost as modern as himself That the forty-eight Cities of the Levites had their fit places for Assemblies and that thence the Synagogues had their beginnings Which were it so it would be no good argument that in those places of Assemblies the Priests and Levites publickly did expound the Law unto the People on the Sabbath days as after in the Synagogues For where those Cities were but four in every Tribe one with another the People must needs travel more than six furlongs which was a Sabbath days journey of the largest measure as before we noted or else that nice restriction was not then in use And were it that they took the pains to go up unto them yet were not those few Cities able to contain the multitudes When Joab not long after this did muster Israel at the command of david 2 Sam. 24. he found no fewer than thirteen hundred thousand fighting men Suppose we then that unto every one fighting man there were three old Men Women and Children fit to hear the Law as no doubt there were Put these together and it will amount in all to two and fifty hundred thousand Now out of these set by four hundred thousand for Hierusalem and the service there and then there will remain one hundred thousand just which must owe suit and service every Sabbath day to each several City of the Levites Too vast a number to be entertained in any of their Cities and much less in their synagogues had each house been one So that we may resolve for certain that the dispersion of the Levites over all the Tribes had no relation hitherto unto the reading of the Law or any publick Sabbath duties CHAP. VII Touching the keeping of the SABBATH from the time of David to the Maccabees 1. Particular necessities must give place to the Law of Nature 2. That Davids flight from Saul was upon the Sabbath 3. What David did being King of Israel in ordering things about the Sabbath 4. Elijahs flight upon the Sabbath and what else hapned on the Sabbath in Elijah's time 5. The limitation of a Sabbath days journey not known amongst the Jews when Elisha lived 6. The Lord become offended with the Jewish Sabbaths and on what occasion 7. The Sabbath entertained by the Samaritans and their strange niceties therein 8. Whether the Sabbaths were observed during the Captivity 9. The special care of Nehemiah to reform the Sabbath 10. The weekly reading of the Law on the Sabbath days begun by Ezra 11. No Synagogues nor weekly reading of the Law during the Government of the Kings 12. The Scribes and Doctors of the Law impose new rigours on the People about their Sabbaths THUS have we traced the Sabbath from the Mount to Silo the space of forty five years or thereabouts wherein it was observed sometimes and sometimes broken broken by publick order from the Lord himself and broken by the publick practice both of Priest and People No precept in the Decalogue so controuled and justled by the legal Ceremonies forced to give place to Circumcision because the younger and to the legal Sacrifices though it was their elders and all this while no blame or imputation to be laid on them that so prophaned it Men durst not thus have dallied with the other nine no nor with this neither had it
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
howsoever it was with those of Jewry such of their Countrymen as dwelt abroad amongst other Nations made no such scruple of the Sabbath but that they were prepared if occasion were as well to bid the Battel as to expect it as may appear by this short story which I shall here present in brief leaving the Reader to Josephus for the whole at large Two Brethren Asinaeus and Auilaeus born in Nearda in the territory of Babylon began to fortifie themselves and commit great outrages which known the Governour of Babylon prepares his Forces to suppress them Having drawn up his Army he lies in Ambush near a Marsh and the next day which was the Sabbath wherein the Jews did use to rest from all manner of work making account that without stroke stricken they would yield themselves he marched against them fair and softly to come upon them unawares But being discovered by the scouts of Asinaeus it was resolved amongst them to be far more safe valiantly to behave themselves in that necessity yea though it were a breaking of the very Law than to submit themselves and make proud the Enemy Whereupon all of them at once marched forth and slaughtered a great many of the Enemies the residue being constrained to save themselves by a speedy flight The like did Anilaeus after being provoked by Mithridates another Chieftain of those parts This happened much about the year 3957. that of the Maccabees before remembred Anno 3887 or thereabouts Happy it was these Brethren lived not in Judaea for had they done so there the Scribes and Pharisees would have taken an order with them and cast them out of the Synagogues if not used them worse For by this time those Sects which before we spake of began to shew themselves and disperse their Doctrines Josephus speaks not of them till the time of Jonathan who entred on the Government of the Jewish Nation Anno 3894. Questionless they were known and followed in the former times though probably not so much in credit their dictates not so much adored as in the Ages that came after Of those the Pharisees were of most Authority being most active in their courses severe professors of the Law and such as by a seeming sanctity had gained exceedingly on the affections of the common people The Sadduces were of less repute though otherwise they had their dependants as men that questioned some of the common principles denying the Resurrection of the dead the hope of immortality As for the Essees or Esseni they were a kind of Monkish men retired and private of far more honesty than the Pharisees but of far less cunning therefore their tendries not so generally received or hearkened after as the others were In matters of the Sabbath they were strict alike but with some difference in the points wherein their strictness did consist Joseph de bello li. 2.7 In this the Essee seems to go beyond the Pharisee that they not only did abstain from dressing meat and kindling fire upon the Sabbath as probably the others did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But unto them it was unlawful to remove a dish or any other Vessel out of the place wherein they found it yea or to go aside to ease Nature And on the other side the Pharisee in the multiplicity of his Sabbath speculations went beyond the Essee all which were thrust upon the people as prescribed by God and grounded in his holy Law the perfect keeping of the which seemed their utmost industry There is a dictate in the Scripture that No man go out of his place on the Sabbath day Exod. 16. This was impossible to be kept according to the words and letter therefore there must be some device to expound this Text and make the matter feasible Hereupon Achiba Simeon and Hillel three principal Rabbins of these times found out a shift to satisfie the Text and yet not bind the people to impossible burdens This was to limit out the Sabbaths journey allowing them 2000 foot to stir up and down for the ease and comfort of the Body by which devise they thought the matter well made up the people happily contented and the Law observed This was the refuge of the Jews when afterwards the Christians pressed them with the not keeping of this Text R. Achiba Simeon Hillel magistri nostri tradiderunt nobis ut bis mille pedes ambularemus in sabbato as St. Hierom tells us Ad Algesiâ—m But this being somewhat of the least they afterwards improved it to 2000 Cubits then to three quarters of a mile as before we noted and this with this inlargement too that in their Towns and Cities they might walk as much and as far as they listed though as big as Nineveh This Rab. Hiliel above named lived in the year 3928. which was some fifteen years after Jonathans death and therefore to be reckoned of these times in the which we are The other two for ought we know were his Coaetanei and lived about the same times also So for the other Text Thou shalt not kindle fire on the Sabbath day this also must be literally understood and then comparing this with that in Exodus Bake that which ye will bake to day it needs must follow that no meat must be made ready on the Sabbath We shewed before that generally the people did use to fast on the Sabbath day till they came from Church that so they might be more attent unto the reading of the Law this might suggest a plausible pretence unto the Pharisee to teach the people that they should forbear from dressing meat that so their servants also might be present when the Law was read Hence came the saying used amongst them Qui parat in parasceve vescetur in Sabbato he that doth cook it on the Eve may eat upon the Sabbath There is a Text in Jeremy expresly against bearing of burdens on the Sabbath day Chap. 17. v. 11. This by the Christian Fathers is interpreted of the burden of sin Custodit animam suam qui non portat pondera peccatorum in die quietis sabbati as St. Hierom hath it on the place See the same Father also on the 58 of Esay and Basil on the first of the same Prophet And certainly had Gods intent been plain and peremptory that whosoever did bear any burden on the Sabbath day should never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven our Saviour never had commanded the poor lame man to take up his Bed upon the Sabbath But for the Pharisees they have so dallied with the Text that they have made both it and themselves ridiculous For finding it impossible that men should carry nothing at all about them to salve the matter they devised some nice absurdities A man might wear no nailed shoos on the Sabbath day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 4. because the nails would be a burden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which a man did carry on one shoulder only
said in holy Scripture that he was seen of them by the space of forty days as much on one as on another His first appearing after the night following his Resurrection which is particularly specified in the Book of God was when he shewed himself to Thomas who before was absent That the Text tells us John 20.26 was after eight days from the time before remembred which some conceive to be the eighth day after or the next first day of the week and thereupon conclude that day to be most proper for the Congregations or publick Meetings of the Church Diem octavum quo Christus Thomae apparuit In Joh. l. 17. cap. 18. Dominicum diem esse necesse est as Saint Cyril hath it Jure igitur sanctae congregationes die octavo in Ecclesia fiunt But where the Greek Text reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 post octo dies in the vulgar Latine after eight days according to our English Bibles that should be rather understood of the ninth or tenth than the eighth day after and therefore could not be upon the first day of the week as it is imagined Now as the premisses are untrue so the Conclusion is unfirm For if our Saviours apparition unto his Disciples were of it self sufficient to create a Sabbath then must that day whereon Saint Peter went on fishing John 21.3 be a Sabbath also and so must holy Thursday too it being most evident that Christ appeared on those days unto his Apostles So that as yet from our Redeemers Resurrection unto his Ascension we find not any word or Item of a new Christian Sabbath to be kept amongst them or any evidence for the Lords day in the four Evangelists either in precept or in practice The first particular passage which doth occur in holy Scripture touching the first day of the week is that upon that day the Holy Ghost did first come down on the Apostles and that upon the same Saint Peter Preached his first Sermon unto the Jews and Baptized such of them as believed there being added to the Church that day three thousand souls This hapned on the Feast of Pentecost which fell that year upon the Sunday or first day of the week as elsewhere the Scripture calls it but as it was a special and a casual thing so can it yield but little proof if it yield us any that the Lords Day was then observed or that the Holy Ghost did by selecting of that day for his descent on the Apostles intend to dignifie it for Sabbath For first it was a casual thing that Pentecost should fall that year upon the Sunday It was a moveable Feast as unto the day such as did change and shift it self according to the position of the Feast of Passeover the rule being this that on what day soever the second of the Passeover did fall upon that also fell the great Feast of Pentecost Emend Temp. l. 2. Nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 semper eadem est feria quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Scaliger hath rightly noted So that as often as the Passeover did fall upon the Saturday or Sabbath as this year it did then Pentecost fell upon the Sunday But when the Passeover did chance to fall upon the Tuesday the Pentecost fell that year upon the Wednesday sic de caeteris And if the rule be true as I think it is that no sufficient argument can be drawn from a casual fact and that the falling of the Pentecost that year upon the first day of the week be meerly casual the coming of the Holy Ghost upon that day will be no argument nor authority to state the first day of the week in the place and honour of the Jewish Sabbath There may be other reasons given why God made choice of that time rather than of any other As first because about that very time before he had proclaimed the Law upon Mount Sinai And secondly that so he might the better conntenance and grace the Gospel in the sight of men and add the more authority unto the doctrine of the Apostles The Feast of Pentecost was a great and famous Festival at which the Jews all of them were to come unto Hierusalem there to appear before the Lord and amongst others those which had their hands in our Saviours blood And therefore as S. Chrysostom notes it did God send down the Holy Ghost at that time of Pentecost In Act. 2. because those men that did consent to our Saviours death might publickly receive rebuke for that bloody act and so bear record to the power of our Saviours Gospel before all the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Father hath it So that the thing being casual as unto the day and special as unto the business then by God intended it will afford us little proof as before I said either that the Lords Day was as then observed or that the Holy Ghost did select that day for so great a work to dignifie it for a Sabbath As for Saint Peters Preaching upon that day and the Baptizing of so many as were converted to the faith upon the same it might have been some proof that now at least if nor before the first day of the week was set apart by the Apostles for religious exercises had they not honoured all days with the same performances But if we search the Scriptures we shall easily find that all days were alike to them in that respect no day in which they did not preach the word of life and administer the Sacraments of their Lord and Saviour to such as either wanted it or did desire it Or were it that the Scriptures had not told us of it yet natural reason would inform us that those who were imployed in so great a work as the Conversion of the World could not confine themselves unto times and seasons but must take all advantages whensoever they came But for the Scripture it is said in terms express first generally that the Lord added daily to the Church such as should be saved and therefore without doubt Acts 2.47 the means of their salvation were daily ministred unto them and in the fifth Chapter of the Acts Verse 42 and daily in the Temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ Acts 8. So for particulars when Philip did Baptize the Eunuch either he did it on a working day as we now distinguish them and not upon the first day of the week and so it was no Lords day duty or else it was not held unlawful to take a journey on that day as some think it is Saint Peters Preaching to Cornelius and his Baptizing of that house was a week-days work as may be gathered from Saint Hierom. That Father tells us that the day whereon the vision appeared to Peter was probably the Sabbath Advers Jovinian l. 2. or the Lords Day as we call it now fieri potuit ut
his Book adv Psychicos About the middle of this Century did Saint Cyprian live another African and he hath left us somewhat although not much which concerns this business Aurelius one of excellent parts Lib. 2. Epist 5. was made a Reader in the Church I think of Carthage which being very welcome news to the common People Saint Cyprian makes it known unto them and withal lets them understand that Sunday was the day appointed for him to begin his Ministery Et quoniam semper gaudium properat nec mora ferre potest laetitia dominico legit So that as Sunday was a day which they used to meet on so reading of the Scripture was a special part of the Sundays exercise Not as an exercise to spend the time when one doth wait for anothers coming till the Assembly be compleat and that without or choice or stint appointed by determinate order as is now used both in the French and Belgick Churches for what need such an eminent man as Aurelius was be taken out with so much expectation to exercise the Clerks or the Sextons duty But it was used amongst them then as a chief portion of the service which they did to God in hearkening reverently unto his voice It being so ordered in the Church Preface to the Common Prayer that the whole Bible or the greatest part thereof should be read over once a year And this that so the Ministers of the Congregation by often reading and meditation of Gods Word be stirred up to godliness themselves and be the more able to exhort others by wholesome doctrine and to confute them that were Adversaries to the truth as that the People by daily hearing of the Scriptures should profit more and more in the knowledge of God and be the more inflamed with the love of his true Religion Now for the duties of the people on this day in the Congregation as they used formerly to hear the Word and receive the Sacraments Dâ—eru l. 5. c. 7. and to pour forth their souls to God in affectionate prayers So much about these times viz. in Ann. 237. it had been appointed by Pope Fabian that every man and woman should on the Lords day bring a quantity of bread and wine first to be offered on the Altar and then distributed in the Sacrament A thing that had been done before as of common course but now exacted as a duty for the neglect whereof Saint Cyprian chides with a rich Widdow of his time who neither brought her offering nor otherwise gave any thing to the Poor-mans Box and therefore did not keep the Lords day as she should have done De pietat Eleemos Locuples dives dominicum celebrare te credis quae Corbonam omnino non respicis quae in Dominicum here he means the Church sine sacrificio venis quae partem de sacrificio quod pauper obtulit sumis In after times this custom went away by little and little instead of which it was appointed by the Church and retained in ours that Bread and Wine for the Communion shall be provided by the Churchwardens at the charge of the Parish I should now leave Saint Cyprian here V. l. 3. Epi. 8. but that I am to tell you first that he conceives the Lords day to have been prefigured in the eighth day destinate to Circumcision Which being but a private opinion of his own I rather shall refer the Reader unto the place than repeat the words And this is all this Age affords me in the present search For other Holy-days instituted by the Church for Gods publick service in those three Centuries precedent besides the Lords day or the Sunday which came every week Origen names the Good Friday as we call it now the Parasceve as he calls it there Cont. Cels l. 8. the Feast of Easter and of Pentecost Of Easter we have spoken already For Pentecost or Whitsontide as it began with the Apostles so it continues till this present but not in that solemnity which before it had For antiently not that day only which we call Whitsunday or Pentecost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but all the fifty days from Easter forwards were accounted holy and solemnized with no less observation than the Sundays were no kneeling on the one nor upon the other no fasting on the one nor upon the other Of which days that of the Ascension or Holy-Thursday being one became in little time to be more highly reckoned of than all the rest as we shall prove hereafter out of S. Austin But for these 50 days aforesaid Tertullian tells us of them thus De Coron milit ca. 3. Die Dominico jejunium nefas ducimus vel de geniculis adorare Eadem immunitate à die Paschae in Pentecosten gaudemus which makes both alike Which words if any think too short to reach the point he tells us in another place that all the Festivals of the Gentiles contained not so many days as did that one Excerpe singulas solennitates nationum in ordinem texe De Ido l. c. 14. Pentecosten implere non poterunt The like he hath also in his Book adv Psychicos The like Saint Hierom. ad Lucinum the like Saint Ambrose or Maximus Taurinens which of the two soever it was that made those Sermons Serm. 60.61 In which last it is said expresly of those fifty days that every one of them was instar Dominicae and qualis est Dominica in all respects nothing inferior to the Lords day And in the Comment on Saint Luke which questionless was writ by Ambrose cap. 17. l. 8. it is said expresly Et sunt omnes dies tanquam Dominica That every day of all the fifty was to be reckoned of no otherwise in that regard especially than the Sunday was Some footsteps of this custom yet remain amongst us in that we fast not either on S. Marks Eve or on the Eve of Philip and Jacob happening within the time The fast of the Rogation week was after instituted on a particular and extraordinary occasion Now as these Festivals of Easter and of Whitsontide were instituted in the first Age or Century and with them those two days attendant which we still retain whereof see Austin de Civit. Dei li. 22. ca. 8. Nyssen in his first Hom. de Paschate where Easter is expresly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the three-days-feast So was the Feast of Christs Nativity ordained or instituted in the second that of his Incarnation in the third For this we have an Homily of Gregory surnamed Thaumaturgus who lived in An. 230. entituled De annunciatione B. Virginis as we call it now But being it is questionable among the Learned whether that Homily be his or not there is an Homily of Athanasius on the self same argument he lived in the beginning of the following Century whereof there is no question to be made at all That of the Lords Nativity began if not before in the
that many an honest and well-meaning man both of the Clergy and the Laity either because of the appearance of the thing it self or out of some opinion of those men who first endeavoured to promote it became exceedingly affected towards the same as taking it to be a Doctrin sent down from Heaven for encrease of Piety So easily did they believe it and grew at last so strongly possessed therewith that in the end they would not willingly be persuaded to conceive otherwise thereof than at first they did or think they swallowed down the hook when they took the bait An hook indeed which had so fastned them to those men who love to fish in troubled waters that by this Artifice there was no small hope conceived amongst them to fortifie their side and make good that cause which till this trim Deceit was thought of was almost grown desperate Once I am sure that by this means the Brethren who before endeavoured to bring all Christian Kings and Princes under the yoke of their Presbyteries made little doubt to bring them under the command of their Sabbath Doctrines And though they failed of that applauded parity which they so much aimed at in the advancing of their Elderships yet hoped they without more ado to bring all higher Powers whatever into an equal rank with the common people in the observance of their Jewish Sabbatarian rigours So Doctor Bound declares himself pag. 171. The Magistrate saith he and Governours in authority how High soever cannot take any priviledg to himself whereby he might be occupied about worldly business when other men should rest from labour It seems they hoped to see the greatest Kings and Princes make suit unto their Consistory for a Dispensation as often as the great Affairs of State or what cause soever induced them otherwise to spend that Day or any part or parcel of it than by the new Sabbath Doctrine had been permitted For the endearing of the which as formerly to endear their Elderships they spared no place or Text of Scripture where the word Elder did occur and without going to the Heralds had framed a Pedigree thereof from Jethro from Noahs Ark and from Adam finally so did these men proceed in their new devices publishing out of holy Writ both the antiquity and authority of their Sabbath day No passage of Gods Book unransacked where there was mention of a Sabbath whether the legal Sabbath charged on the Jews or the spiritual Sabbath of the Soul from sin which was not fitted and applied to the present purpose though if examined as it ought with no better reason than Paveant illi non paveam ego was by an ignorant Priest alledged from Scripture to prove that his Parishioners ought to pave the Chancel Yet upon confidence of these proofs they did already begin to sing Victoria especially by reason of the enterteinment which the said Doctrines found with the common people For thus the Doctor boasts himself in his second Edition Anno 606. as before was said Many godly learned both in their Preachings Writings and Disputations did concur with him in that Argument and that the lives of many Christians in many places of the Kingdom were framed according to his Doctrine p. 61. Particularly in the Epistle to the Reader that within few years three several profitable Treatises successively were written by three godly learned Preachers Greenhams was one whoseever were the other two that in the mouth of two or three witnesses the Doctrine of the Sabbath might be established Egregiam verò laudem spolia ampla But whatsoever cause he had thus to boast himself in the success of his new Doctrines the Church I am sure had little cause to rejoyce thereat For what did follow hereupon but such monstrous Paradoxes and those delivered in the Pulpit as would make every good man tremble at the hearing of them First as my Author tells me it was preached at a Market Town in Oxfordshire that to do any servile work or business on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man or commit adultery Secondly preached in Somersetshire that to throw a Bowl on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man Thirdly in Norfolk that to make a Feast or dress a Wedding Dinner on the Lords day was as great a sin as for a Father to take a knife and cut his childs throat Fourthly in Suffolk that to ring more Bells than one on the Lords day was as great a sin as to commit Murder I add what once I heard my self at Sergeants Inn in Fleetstreet about five years since that temporal death was at this day to be inflicted by the Law of God on the Sabbath-breaker on him that on the Lords day did the works of his daily calling with a grave application unto my Masters of the Law that if they did their ordinary works on the Sabbath day in taking Fees and giving Counsel they should consider what they did deserve by the Law of God And certainly these and the like conclusions cannot but follow most directly on the former Principles For that the fourth Commandment be plainly moral obliging us as straitly as it did the Jews and that the Lords day be to be observed according to the prescript of that Commandment it must needs be that every wilful breach thereof is of no lower nature than Idolatry or blaspheming of the Name of GOD or any other deadly sin against the first Table and therefore questionless as great as Murder or Adultery or any sin against the second But to go forwards where I left my Author whom before I spake of being present when the Suffolk Minister was convented for his so lewd and impious Doctrine was the occasion that those Sabbatarian errours and impieties were first brought to light and to the knowledg of the State On which discovery as he tells us this good ensued that the said books of the Sabbath were called in and forbidden to be printed and made common Archbishop Whitguift by his Letters and Visitations did the one Anno 1599. and Sir John Popham Lord Chief Justice did the other Anno 1600. at Bury in Suffolk Good remedies indeed had they been soon enough applyed yet not so good as those which formerly were applied to Thacker and his fellow in the aforesaid Town of Bury for publishing the books of Brown against the service of the Church Nor was this all the fruit of so bad a Doctrine For by inculcating to the people these new Sabbath speculations teaching that that day only was of Gods appointment and all the rest observed in the Church of England a remnant of the will-worship in the Church of Rome the other holy days in this Church established were so shrewdly shaken that till this day they are not well recovered of the blow then given Nor came this on the by or besides their purpose but as a thing that specially was intended from the first beginning from
free him yet by his Doctrine of Predestination he hath laid such grounds as have involved his followers in the same guilt also For not content to travel a known and beaten way he must needs find out a way by himself which either the Dominicans nor any other of the followers of S. Augustine's rigors had found out before in making God to lay on Adam an unavoidable necessity of falling into sin and misery that so he might have opportunity to manifest his mercy in the electing of some few of his Posterity and his justice in the absolute rejecting of all the rest In which as he can find no Countenance from any of the Ancient Writers so he pretendeth not to any ground for it in the holy Scriptures For whereas some objected on Gods behalf De certis verbis non extare That the Decree of Adams Fall and consequently the involving of his whole Posterity in sin and misery had no foundation in the express words of Holy Writ Institut l. 3. c. 23. Sect. 7. he makes no other Answer to it than a quasi vero as if saith he God made and created man the most exact Piece of his Heavenly Workmanship without determining of his end And on this Point he was so resolutely bent that nothing but an absolute Decree for Adams Fall seconded by the like for the involving of all his Race in the same prediction would either serve his turn or preserve his Credit For whereas others had objected on Gods behalf that no such unavoidable necessity was laid upon man-kind by the will of God but rather that he was Created by God unto such a perishing estate because he foresaw to what his own perversness at the last would bring him He answereth that this Objection proves nothing at all or at least nothing to the purpose Calv. Institut lib. 3. cap. 23. sect 6. which said he tells us further out of Valla though otherwise not much versed as he there affirmeth in the holy Scriptures That this question seems to be superfluous because both Life and Death are rather the Acts of Gods Will than of his Prescience or fore-knowledge And then he adds as of his own that if God did but fore-see the successes of men and did not also dispose and order them by his Will then this Question should not without cause be moved Whether his fore-seeing any thing availed to the necessity of them â—aâ—m â—â— sect 7. But since saith he he doth no otherwise fore-see the things that shall come to pass than because he hath decreed that they should so come to pass it is in vain to move any Controversy about Gods fore-knowledge where it is certain that all things do happen rather by divine Ordinance and appointment Yet notwithstanding all these shifts he is forced to acknowledge the Decree of Adams Fall to be Horribile decretum a cruel and horrible Decree as indeed it is a cruel and horrible Decree to pre-ordain so many Millions to destruction and consequently unto sin that he might destroy them And then what can the wicked and impenitent do but ascribe all their sins to God by whose inevitable Will they are lost in Adam by whom they were particularly and personally necessitated to death and so by consequence to sin A Doctrine so injurious to God so destructive of Piety of such reproach amongst the Papists and so offensive to the Lutherans of what sort soever that they profess a greater readiness to fall back to Popery than to give way to this Predestinarian Pestilence by which name they call it to come in amongst them But howsoever having so great a Founder as Calvin was it came to be generally entertained in all the Churches of his Plat-form strongly opposed by Sebastian Castellino in Geneva it self but the poor man so despightfully handled both by him and Beza who followed him in all and went beyond him in some of his Devises that they never left pursuing him with complaints and clamours till they had first cast him out of the City and at the last brought him to his Grave The terrour of which example and the great name which Calvin had attained unto not only by his diligent Preaching but also by his laborious Writings in the eye of the World As it confirmed his power at home so did it make his Doctrines the more acceptable and esteemed abroad More generally diffused and more pertinaciously adhered unto in all those Churches which either had received the Genevian Discipline or whose Divines did most industriously labour to advance the same By means whereof it came to pass as one well observeth That of what account the Master of the Sentences was in the Church of Rome Hooker in eccle Pol. Pres p. 9. the same and more amongst the Preachers of the Reformed Churches Calvin had purchased so that they were deemed to be the most perfect Divines who were most skilful in his Writings His Books almost the very Canon by which both Doctrine and Discipline were to be judged The French Churches both under others abroad or at home in their own Country all cast according to the Mold which he had made The Church of Scotland in erecting the Fabrick of their own Reformation took the self same pattern Receive not long after in the Palatine Churches and in those of the Netherlands In all which as his Doctrine made way to bring in the Discipline so was it no hard matter for the Discipline to support the Doctrine and crush all those who durst oppose it Only it was permitted unto Beza and his Disciples to be somewhat wilder than the rest in placing the Decree of Predestination before the Fall which Calvin himself had more rightly placed in Massa corrupta in the corrupted Mass of Man-kind and the more moderate Calvinians as rightly presuppose for a matter necessary before there could be any place for the Election or Reprobation of particular persons But being they concurred with the rest as to the personal Election or Reprobation of particular persons the restraining of the Benefit of our Saviours sufferings to those few particulars whom only they had honoured with the glorious name of the Elect the working on them by the irresistible powers of Grace in the Act of Conversion and bringing them infallibly by the continual assistance of the said Grace unto life everlasting there was hardly any notice taken of thier Deviation they being scarce beheld in the condition of erring brethren though they differed from them in the main fountain which they built upon but passing under the name of Calvinists as they thus did And though such of the Divines of the Belgick Churches as were of the old Lutheran stock were better affected unto the Melancthonian Doctrine of Predestination than to that of Calvin yet knowing how pretious the name and memory of Calvin was held amongst them or being unwilling to fall foul upon one another they suffered his Opinions to prevail without opposition And so
in his Understanding Will Affections and all his other faculties that so he may be able to understand think will and bring to pass any thing that is good according to that of St. John 15.5 Without me you can do nothing IV. Of the manner of Conversion The Grace of God is the beginning promotion and accomplishment of every thing that is good in us insomuch that the Regenerate man can neither think well nor do any thing that is good or resist any sinful Temptations without this Grace preventing co-operating and assisting and consequently all good works which any man in his life can attain unto are to be attributed and ascribed to the Grace of God But as for the manner of the co-operation of this Grace it is not to be thought to be irresistable in regard that it is said of many in the holy Scripture that they did resist the Holy Ghost as in Acts 7. and in other places V. Of the uncertainty of Perseverance They who are grafted into Christ by a lively Faith and are throughly made partakers of his quickning Spirit have a sufficiency of strength by which the Holy Ghost contributing his Assistance to them they may not only right but obtain the Victory against the Devil Sin the World and all infirmities of the flesh Most true it is that Jesus Christ is present with them by his Spirit in all their Temptations that he reacheth out his hand unto them and shews himself ready to support them if for their parts they prepare themselves to the encounter and beseech his help and are not wanting to themselves in performing their unties so that they cannot be sedoced by the cunning or taken out of the hands of Christ by the power of Satan according to that of St. John No man taketh them out of my hand c. Cap. 10. But it is first to be well weighed and proved by the holy Scripture whether by their own negligence they may not forsake those Principles of saving Grace by which they are sustained in Christ embrace the present World again Apostatize from the saving Doctrince once delivered to them suffer a Shipwrack of their Conscience and fall away from the Grace of God before we can publickly teach these doctrines with any sufficient tranquility or assurance of mind It is reported that at the end of the Conference between the Protestants and Papists in the first Convocation of Queen Maries Reign the Protestants were thought to have had the better as being more dextrous in applying and in forcing some Texts of Scripture than the others were and that thereupon they were dismissed by Weston the Prolocutor with this short come off You said he have the Word and we have the Sword His meaning was That what the Papists wanted in the strength of Argument they would make good by other ways as afterwards indeed they did by Fire and Fagot The like is said to have been done by the Contra Remonstrants who finding themselves at this Conference to have had the worst and not to have thrived much better by their Pen-comments than in that of the Tongue betook themselves to other courses vexing and molesting their Opposites in their Classes or Consistories endeavouring to silence them from Preaching in their several Churches or otherwise to bring them unto publick Censure At which Weapon the Remonstrants being as much too weak as the others were at Argument and Disputation they betook themselves unto the Patronage of John Van Olden Burnevelt a man of great Power in the Council of Estate for the Vnited Belgick Provinces by whose means they obtained an Edict from the States of Holland and West-Friezland Anno 1613. requiring and enjoying a mutual Toleration of Opinions as well on the one side as the other An Edict highly magnified by the Learned Grotius in a Book intituled Pietas Ordinum Hollandiae c. Against which some Answers were set out by Bogerman Sibrandus and some others not without some reflection on the Magistrates for their Actings in it But this indulgence though at the present it was very advantageous to the Remonstrants as the case then stood cost them dear at last For Barnevelt having some suspition that Morris of Nassaw Prince of Orange Commander General of all the Forces of those Vnited Provinces both by Sea and Land had a design to make himself the absolute Master of those Countreys made use of them for the uniting and encouraging of such good Patriots as durst appear in maintenance of the common liberty which Service they undertook the rather because they found that the Prince had passionately espoused the Quarrel of the Contra Remonstrants From this time forwards the Animosities began to encrease on either side and the Breach to widen not to be closed again but either by weakning the great power of the Prince or the death of Barnevelt This last the easier to be compassed as not being able by so small a Party to contend with him who had the absolute command of so many Legions For the Prince being apprehensive of the danger in which he stood and spurred on by the continual Sollicitations of the Contra Remonstrnats suddenly put himself into the Head of his Army with which he march'd from Town to Town altered the Guards changed the Officers and displaced the Magistrates where he found any whom he thought disaffected to him and having gotten Barnevelt Grotius and some other of the Heads of the Party into his power he caused them to be condemned and Barnevelt to be put to death contrary to the fundamental Laws of the Countrey and the Rules of the Union This Alteration being thus made the Contra Remonstrants thought it a high point of Wisdom to keep their Adversaries down now they had them under and to effect that by a National Council which they could not hope to compass by their own Authority To which end the States General being importuned by the Prince of Orange and his Sollicitation seconded by those of KIng James to whom the power and person of the Prince were of like Importance a National Synod was appointed to be held as Dort Anno 1618. Barnevelt being then still living To which besides the Commissioners from the Churches of their several Provinces all the Calvinian Churches in Europe those of France excepted sent their Delegates also some eminent Divines being Commissioned by King James to attend also in the Synod for th eRealm of Britain A Synod much like that of Trent in the Motives to it as also in the managing and conduct of it For as neither of them was assembled till the Sword was drawn the terrour whereof was able to effect more than all other Arguments so neither of them was concerned to confute but condemn their Opposites Secondly The Council of Trent consisted for the most part of Italian Bishops some others being added for fashion-sake and that it might the better challenge the Name of General as that of Dort consisted for the most part
Clergy Mr. John Hooker Bishop of Gloucester and Martyr of whose Exposition of the Ten Commandments and his short Paraphrase on Romans 13. we shall make frequent use hereafter a man whose works were well approved of by Bishop Ridley the most learned and judicious of all the Prelates who notwithstanding they differed in some points of Ceremony professeth an agreement with him in all points of Doctrine as appears by a Letter written to him when they were both Prisoners for the truth and ready to give up their lives as they after did in defence thereof Now the words of the Letter are as followeth But now my dear Brother forasmuch as I understand by your works which I have but superficially seen that we throughly agree and wholly consent together in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our Religion Acts and Mon. fol. 1366. against the which the world now so rageth in these our days Howsoever in times past in certain by-matters and circumstances of Religion your wisdom and my simplicity and ignorance have jarred each of us following the abundance of his own sense and judgment Now I say be you assured that even with my whole heart God is the witness in the bowels of Christ I love you in truth and for the truths sake that abideth in us and I am persuaded by the grace of God shall abide in us for evermore The like agreement there was also between Ridley and Cranmer Cranmer ascribing very much to the judgment and opinion of the learned Prelate as himself was not ashamed to confess at his Examination for which see Fox in the Acts and Monuments fol. 1702. By these men and the rest of the Convocation the Articles of Religion being in number 41 were agreed upon ratified by the Kings Authority and published both in Latine and English with these following Titles viz. Articuli de quibus in Synodo Londinens A.D. 1552. ad tollendam opinionum dissentionem consensum verae Religionis firmandum inter Episcopos alios eruditos viros convenerat Regia authoritate Londin editi that is to say Articles agreed upon by the Bishops and other learned men assembled in the Synod at London Anno 1552. and published by the Kings Authority for the avoiding of diversities of opinions and for the establishing of consent touching true Religion Amongst which Articles countenanced in Convocation by Queen Elizabeth Ann. 1562. the Doctrine of the Church in the five controverted points is thus delivered according to the form and order which we have observed in the rest before 1. Of Divine Predestination Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the World were laid he hath constantly ordered by his Council Artic. 17. secret unto us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom be hath chosen in Christ out of man-kind and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation as vessels made to honour Furthermore we must receive Gods promises in such wise at they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and in our doing the will of God that is to be followed which we have expresly declared to us in the Word of God 2. Of the Redemption of the World by the faith of Christ The Son which is the Word begotten of the Father begotten from everlasting of the Father c. and being very God and very Man did truly suffer was Crucified Dead and Buried Artic. 2. to reconcile his Father to us and be a Sacrifice not only for Original guilt but also for the actual sins of men The Offering of Christ once made Artic. 31. is this perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction to all the sins of the whole world both Original and Actual 3. Of mans will in the state of depraved nature Artic. 9. Man by Original sin is so far gone from Original righteousness that of his own nature be is inclined to evil so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit and therefore Works done before the grace of Christ Artic. 13. and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make men meet to receive grace or as the School Authors say deserve grace of Congruity 4. Of the manner of Conversion The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works Artic. 10. to faith and calling upon God wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will 5. Of the uncertainty of Perseverance The Grace of Repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after Baptism in regard that after we have received the Holy Ghost Artic. 16. we may depart from grace given and fall into sin and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives and therefore they are to be condemned which say they can no more sin as long as they live here or deny the place of Repentance to such as truly repent Now in these Articles as in all others of the book there are these two things to be observed 1. What Authority they carried in respect of the making And 2. How we are to understand them in respect of the meaning And first for their Authority it was as good in all regards as the Laws could give them being first treated and agreed upon by the Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation and afterwards confirmed by the Letters Patents of Edw. VI. under the Great Seal of England But against this it is objected That the Records of this Convocation are but a degree above blanks that the Bishops and Clergy then assembled had no Commission from the King to meddle in Church business that the King durst not trust the Clergy of that time in so great a matter on a just jealousie which he had of the ill affections of the major part and therefore the trust of this great business was committed unto some few Confidents cordial to the cause of Religion and not unto the body of a Convocation To which it hath been already answered That the Objector is here guilty of a greater crime than that of Scandalum magnatum making King Edward VI. of pious memory no better than an impious and lewd Impostor in fathering those children on the Convocation which had not been of their begetting For first the Title to the Articles runneth thus at large Articuli de quibus c. as before we had it which Title none durst adventure to set before them had they not really been the products of the Convocation Secondly the King had no reason to have any such jealousie at that time of the major part of the Clergy but that he might
the Reformation of Religion in points of Doctrine 2. The Article of Freewil in all the powers and workings of it agreed on by the Prelates and Clergy of that Convocation agreeable to the present Doctrine of the Church of England 3. An Answer to the first Objection concerning the Popishness of the Bishops and Clergy in that Convocation 4. The Article of Freewil approved by King Henry the eighth and Archbishop Cranmer 5. An Answer to the last Objection concerning the Conformity of the Article to the present established Doctrine in the Church of Rome BUT First I am to take in my way another evidence which though it hath not so directly the forced of Law to bind us to consent unto it and perhaps may not be considered amongst the Monuments and Records of the Reformation yet it speaks plainly the full sense of our first Reformers I speak this of a pithy but short Discourse touching the nature of Freewil contained amongst some others in the Book published by the Authority of King Henry the cighth in the year 1543. entituled A necessary Doctrine and Erudition for all Christian men Concerning which as we have spoken at large already in Ch. 8. of this Work so now we must add something touching this particular of which there was no notice taken in the Bishops book For when the Bishops Book which had been printed in the year 1537. under the Title of An Institution for a Christian man had for some time continued without alteration it was brought under the review of the Bishops and Clergy assembled in their Convocation An. 1543. and having been reviewed in all the parts and members of it a particular Treatise touching the nature of Freewil which in those times had exercised the greatest wits Of which I find this Memorandum in the Acts of the Convocation that is to say Art of Confes 1543. Aprill ult That on Monday being the last of April Lecto publice exposito Articulo Liberi Arbitrii in vulgari c. The Article of Freewil being read and publickly expounded in the English Tongue the most Reverend Archbishops delivered it into the hands of the Prolocutor to the end that he should publish it before the Clerks of the lower House of Convocation as is accustomed in such cases Quo lecto per eos approbato which being read and approved by them it was returned with the residue to the upper House of Convocation with this Approbation Quod pro Catholicis Religiosis acceperunt necnon gratias ingentes patribus egerunt quod tantos labores sudores vigilias Religionis Reipublicae causa unitatis gratia subierant that is to say that they embraced them all for sound and Orthodox rendring unto the Fathers their most humble thanks for the great care and pains which they had undertaken for the good of the Church and Commonwealth and the preserving of peace and unity among the people Which passage I have at large laid down to shew by whose hands and by what Authority as well the Book it self which we have spoken of before as this particular Treatise in it was at first fashioned and set forth And that being said I shall first present the Treatise or Discourse it self and after Answer such Objections as either prejudice or partiality may devise against it Now the article followeth in haec verba The Article of Freewill The Commandments and threatnings of Almighty God in Scripture whereby man is called upon and put in remembrance what God would have him to do Rom. 12. 1 Tim. 4. 1 John 2. Matth. 19. most evidently do express and declare that man hath Freewil also now after the fall of our first Father Adam as plainly appeareth in these places following Be not overcome of evil neglect not the grace that is in thee Love not the World c. If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments Which undoubtedly should be said in vain unless there were some faculty or power left in man whereby he may by the help and grace of God if he will receive it when it is offered him understand his Commandments and freely consent unto and obey them which thing of the Catholick Fathers is called Freewill which if we will describe we may call it conveniently in all men A certain power of the Will joyned with Reason whereby a reasonable creature without constraint in things of Reason discerneth and willeth good and evil but it willeth not the good which is acceptable to God except it be holpen with Grace but that which is ill it willeth of it self And therefore other men define Freewill in this wise Freewill is a power and Reason of Will by which good is chosen by the assistance of Grace as evil is chosen without the assistance of the same Howbeit the state and condition of Freewill was otherwise in our first Parents before they sinned than it was either in them or their Posterity after they had sinned For our first Parents Adam and Eve until they wounded and overthrew themselves by sin had so in possession the said power of Freewill by the most liberal gift and grace of God their Maker that noe only they might eschew all manner of sin but also know God and love him and fulfil all things appertaining to their felicity and welfare For they were made righteous and to the image and similitude of God 1. 〈◊〉 16. having power of Freewill as Chrysostom saith to obey or disobey so that by obedience they might live and by disobedience they should worthily deserve to die A For the wise man affirmeth of them that the state of them was of this sort in the beginning saying thus God in the beginning did create man and left him in the hands of his own counsel he gave unto him his Precepts and Commandments saying If thou wilt keep these Commandments they shall preserve thee He hath set before thee fire and water put forth thy hands to whether thou wilt before man is life and death good and evil what him listeth that shall he have From this must happy estate our first Parents falling by disobedience most grievously hurted themselves and their posterity for besides many other evils that came by that transgression the high power of mans Reason and Freedom of will were wounded and corrupted and all men thereby brought into such blindness and infirmity that they cannot eschew sin except they be made free and illuminated by an especial grace that is to say by a supernatural help and working of the holy Ghost which although the goodness of God offers to all men yet they only enjoy it which by their Freewill do accept and embrace the same Nor they also that be holpen by the said grace can accomplish and perform things that be for their wealth but with much labour and endeavour So great is in our Nature the corruption of the first sin and the heavy burden hearing us down to evil For truly
Faith as it cometh not by mans will as the Papists falsly pretend but only by the Election and free gift of God so it is only the immediate cause whereto the promise of our salvation is annexed according as we read And therefore of faith is the inheritance given as after grace that the promise might stand sure to every side Rom. 4. and in the same Chapter Faith believing in him that justifieth the wicked is imputed to righteousness And this concerning the causes of our salvation you see how Faith in Christ immediately and without condition doth justifie us being solicited with Gods mercy and Election that wheresoever Election goeth before Faith in Christ must needs follow after And again whosoever believeth in Christ Jesus through the vocation of God he must needs be partaker of Gods election whereupon resulteth the third note or consideration which is to consider whether a man in this life may be certain of his election To answer to which question this first is to be understood that although our election and vocation simply indeed be known to God only in himself a priore yet notwithstanding it may be known to every particular faithful man a posteriore that is by means which means is Faith in Christ Jesus crucified For as much as by Faith in Christ a man is justified and thereby made the child of salvation reason must needs lead the same to be then the child of election chosen of God to everlasting life For how can a man be saved but by consequence it followeth that he must also be elected And therefore of election it is truly said de electione judicandum est à posteriore that is to say we must judge of election by that which cometh after that is by our faith and belief in Christ which faith although in time it followeth after election yet this the proper immediate cause assigned by the Scripture which not only justifieth us but also certifieth us of this election of God whereunto likewise well agreeth this present Letter of Mr. Bradford wherein he saith Election albeit in God it be the first yet to us it is the last opened And therefore beginning first saith he with Creation I come from thence to Redemption and Justification by faith so to election not that faith is the cause efficient of election being rather the effect thereof but is to us the cause certificatory or the cause of our certification whereby we are brought to the feeling and knowledge of our election in Christ For albeit the election first be certain in the knowledge of God yet in our knowledge Faith only that we have in Christ is the thing that giveth to us our certificate and comfort of this election Wherefore whosoever desireth to be assured that he is one of the Elect number of God let him not climb up to Heaven to know but let him descend into himself and there search his faith in Christ the Son of God which if he find in him not feigned by the working of Gods Spirit accordingly thereupon let him stay and so wrap himself wholly both body and soul under Gods general promise and cumber his head with no further speculations knowing this that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish Joh. 3. shall not be confounded Rom. 9. shall not see death Joh. 8. shall not enter into judgment Joh. 5. shall have everlasting life Joh. 3.7 shall be saved Matth. 28. Act. 16. shall have remission of all his sins Act. 10. shall be justified Rom. 3. Gal. 2. shall have floods flowing out of him of the water of life Joh. 7. shall never die Joh. 11. shall be raised at the lest day Joh. 6. shall find rest in his soul and be refreshed Matth. 11. c. Such is the judgment and opinion of our Martyrologist in the great point of Predestination unto life the residue thereof touching justification being here purposely cut off with an c. as nothing pertinent to the business which we have in hand But between the Comment and the Text there is a great deal of difference the Comment laying the foundation of Election on the Will of God according to the Zuinglian or Calvinian way but the Text laying it wholly upon faith in Christ whom God the Father hath Predestinate in Christ unto eternal life according to the doctrine of the Church of England The Text first presupposeth an estate of sin and misery into which man was fallen a ransom paid by Christ for man and his whole Posterity a freedom left in man thus ransomed either to take or finally to refuse the benefit of so great mercy and then fixing or appropriating the benefit of so great a mercy as Christ and all his merits do amount to upon such only as believe But the Comment takes no notice of the fall of man grounding both Reprobation and Election on Gods absolute pleasure without relation to mans sin or our Saviours sufferings or any acceptation or refusal of his mercies in them As great a difference there is between the Author of the Comment and Bishop Hooper as between the Comment and the Text Bishop Hooper telleth us cap. 10. num 2. that Saul was no more excluded from the promise of Christ than David Esau than Jacob Judas than Peter c. if they had not excluded themselves quite contrary to that of our present Author who having asked the question why Jacob was chosen and not Esau why David accepted and Saul refused c. makes answer that it cannot otherwise be answered than that so was the good will of God And this being said I would fain know upon what authority the Author hath placed Nachor amongst the Reprobates in the same rank with Esan Pharaoh and Saul all which he hath marked out to reprobation the Scripture laying no such censure on Nachor or his Posterity as the Author doth Or else the Author must know more of the estate of Nachor than Abraham his Brother did who certainly would never have chosen a Wife for his Son Isaac out of Nachors line if he had looked upon them as reprobated and accursed of God I observe secondly that plainly God is made an accepter of persons by the Authors doctrine For first he telleth us that the elder Son had a better will to tarry by his Father and so did indeed but the fatted Calf was given to the younger Son that ran away and thereupon he doth infer that the matter goeth not by the will of man but by the will of God as it pleaseth him to accept I observe thirdly that Vocation in the Authors judgment standeth upon Gods Election as the work thereof whereas Vocation is more general and is extended unto those also whom they call the Reprobate and therefore standeth not on Election as the Author hath it For many are called though out of those many which are called but a few are chosen Fourthly I observe that notwithstanding the Author builds the doctrine of Election on Gods
regulated by the three Estates 6. Of what Authority they have been antiently in the Parliaments of Scotland 7. The King of England always accounted heretofore for an absolute Monarch 8. No part of Sovereignty invested legally in the English Parliaments 9. The three Estates assembled in the Parment of England subordinate unto the King not co-ordinate with him 10. The Legislative power of Parliaments is properly and legally in the King alone 11. In what particulars the power of the English Parliament doth consist especially 12. The Kings of England ordinarily over-rule their Parliaments by themselves their Council and their Judges 13. Objections answered touching the power and practice of some former Parliaments and the testimonies given unto them 14. No such Authority given by God in Holy Scripture to any such Popular Magistrates as Calvin dreams of and pretends 15. The Application and Conclusion of the whole discourse I Have been purposely more copious in the former Chapter because I thought it necessary to declare and manifest who made the three Estates in each several Kingdom which are pretended by our Author to have such power of regulating the Authority and censuring the actions and the persons of their Sovereign Princes And this the rather in regard it is thought of late and more than thought presented to the world in some publick writings especially as it relates to the Realm of England that the King the Lords and Commons make the three Estates which brings the King into an equal rank with the other two in reference to the business and affairs of Parliament A fancy by what accident soever it was broached and published which hath no consistence either with truth or ordinary observation or with the practice of this Realm or of any other For the proof of this my position that the King is none of the three Estates as is now pretended if all proofs else should fail I have one from Calvin whose judgment in this point amongst many of us will be instar omnium Calvin instit 4. cap. ult For where he saith in singulis Regnis tres esse Ordines that there are three Estates in each several Kingdom and that these three Estates convened in Parliament or by what other name soever they call their meeting are furnished with a power Regum lididinem moderandi of moderating the licentiousness of Kings and Princes and that they become guilty of perfidious dissimulation si Regibus impotenter grassantibus c. If they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insult on the common people I trow it cannot be conceived that the King is any one of the three Estates who are here trusted or at least supposed to be intrusted with sufficient power as well to regulate his authority as to control his actions If Calvin be allowed to have common sense and to have wit and words enough to express his meaning as even his greatest Adversaries do confess he had it must be granted that he did not take the King of what Realm soever to be any of the three Estates or if he did he would have thought of other means to restrain his insolencies than by leaving him in his own hands to his own correction Either then Calvin is mistaken in the three Estates and if he be mistaken in designing the men he aims at may he not be mistaken in the power he gives them or else the King is none and indeed can be none of the three Estates qui primarios conventus peragunt who usually convene in Parliament for those ends and purposes before remembred But not to trust to him alone though questionless he be ideoneus testis in the present case Let us behold the Assembly of the three Estates or Conventus Ordinum in France from whence it is conceived that all Assemblies of this kind had their first Original and we shall find a very full description of them in the Assembly des Estats at Bloys under Henry III. Anno 1577. of which thus Thuanus Rex in sublimi loco sub uranisco sedebat Thanus in histor sci temp l. 63. c. The King saith he sate on an high erected Throne under the Canopy of State the Queen-Mother and the Queen his Wife and all the Cardinals Princes Peers upon either hand And then it followeth Transtris infra dispositis ad dextram suam sacri Ordinis Delegati ad laevam Nobilitas infra plebetus ordo sedebat that on some lower forms there sate the Delegates of the Clergy towards the right hand of the King the Nobility towards the left and the Commissioners for the Commons in the space below We may conjecture at the rest by the view of this Of those in Spain by those Conventions of the States which before we spake of at Burgos Monson Toledo and in other places in which the King is always mentioned as a different person who called them and dissolved them as he saw occasion For Scotland it is ordinary in the stile of Parliaments to say the King and the Estates do ordain and constitute for which I do refer you to the Book of Statutes which clearly makes the King to be a different person from the Estates of that Kingdom And as for England Statutes of Scotland besides what may be gathered from the former Chapter we read in the History of Titus Livius touching the Reign and Acts of King Henry V. that when his Funerals were ended the three Estates of the Realm of England did assemble together and declared his Son King Henry VI. being an Infant of eight months old to be their Sovereign Lord Tit. Liv. M. S. in Bibl. Bodl. as his Heir and Successor And in the Parliament Rolls of King Richard III. there is mention of a Bill or Parchment presented to that Prince being then Duke of Glocester on the behalf and in the name of the three Estates of this Realm of England that is to wit of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and of the Commons by name which forasmuch as neither the said three Estates nor the persons which delivered it on their behalf were then Assembled in form of Parliament was afterwards in the first Parliament of that King by the same three Estates Assembled in this present Parliament I speak the very words of the Act it self and by Authority of the same enrolled Ap. Speed in K. Rich. 3. recorded and approved And at the request and by the assent of three Estates of this Realm that is to say the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of this Land Assembled in this present Parliament and by Authority of the same it be pronounced decreed and declared that our said Sovereign Lord the King was and is the very and undoubted Heir of this Realm of England 1 Eliz. cap. 3. c. And so it is acknowledged in a Statute of 1 Eliz. cap. 3. where the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in that Parliament assembled being said
Princes and Ecclesiastical Governors yet the Apostle calleth not Princes an humane Creation as though they were not also of Gods Creation for there is no power but of God but that the form of their Creation is in mans appointment All the Genevians generally do so expound it and it concerns them so to do in point of interesse The Bishop of that City was their Sovereign Prince and had jus utriusque gladii as Calvin signified in a Letter to Cardinal Sadolet till he and all his Clergy were expelled the City in a popular Tumult Anno 1528. and a new form of Government established both in Church and State So that having laid the foundation of their Common-wealth in the expulsion of their Prince and the new model of their Discipline in refusing to have any more Bishop they found it best for justifying their proceedings at home and increasing their Partizans abroad to maintain a parity of Ministers in the Church of Christ and to invest the people and their popular Officers with a chief power in the concernments and affairs of State even to the deposing of Kings and disposing of Kingdoms But for this last they find no warrant in the Text which we have before us For first admitting the Translation to be true and genuine as indeed it is not the Roman Emperor and consequently other Kings and Princes may be said to be an humane Ordinance because their power is most visibly conversant circa humanas Actiones about ordering of humane Actions and other civil affairs of men as they were subjects of the Empire and Members of that Body politick whereof that Emperor was head Secondly to make Soveraign Princes by what name and Title soever called to be no other than an humane Ordinance because they are ordained by the people and of their appointment must needs create an irreconcileable difference between St. Peter and St. Paul by which last the Supream Powers whatsoever they be are called the Ordinance of God The Powers saith that Apostle are ordained of God and therefore he that resisteth the Powers resisteth the Ordinance of God Upon which words Deodate gives this gloss or comment That the Supream Powers are called the Ordinance of God because God is the Author of this Order in the world and all those who attain to these Dignities do so either by his manifest will and approbation when the means are lawful or by his secret Providence by meer permission or toleration when they are unlawful Now it is fitting that man should approve and tolerate that which God approves and tolerates But thirdly I conceive that those words in the Greek Text of St. Peter viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not so properly translated as they might have been and as the same words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are rendred by the same Translators somewhat more near to the Original in another place For in the 8th Chapter to the Romans vers 22. we find them rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the whole Creation and why not rather every Creature as both our old Translation and the Rhemists read it conform to omnis Creatura in the vulgar Latine which had they done and kept themselves more near to the Greek Original in St. Peters Text they either would have rendred it by every humane Creature as the Rhemists do or rather by all Men or by all Man-kind as the words import And then the meaning will be this that the Jews living scattered and disperst in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia and other Provinces of the Empire were to have their conversation so meek and lowly for fear of giving scandal to the Gentiles amongst whom they lived as to submit themselves to all Man-kind or rather to every Man unto every humane Creature as the Rhemists read it that was in Authority above whether it were unto the Emperor himself as their supream Lord or to such Legats Prefects and Procurators as were appointed by him for the govenment of those several Provinces to the end that they may punish the evil-doers and incourage such as did well living conformably to the Laws by which they were governed Small comfort in this Text as in any of the rest before for those popular Officers which Calvin makes the Overseers of the Sovereign Prince and Guardians of the Liberties of the common people If then there be no Text of Scripture no warrant from the Word of God by which the popular Officers which Calvin dreams of are made the Keepers of the Liberties of the common people or vested with the power of opposing Kings and Sovereign Princes as often as they wantonly insult upon the people or willingly infringe their Priviledges I would fain learn how they should come to know that they are vested with such power or trusted with the defence of the Subjects Liberties cujus se Dei oratione Tutores positos esse norunt as Calvin plainly says they do If they pretend to know it by inspiration such inspiration cannot be known to any but themselves alone neither the Prince or People whom it most concerneth can take notice of it Nor can they well assure themselves whether such inspirations come from God of the Devil the Devil many times insnaring proud ambitious and vain-glorious Men by such strange delusions If they pretend to know it by the dictate of their private Spirit the great Diana of Calvin and his followers in expounding Scripture we are but in the same uncertainties as we were before And who can tell whether the private Spirit they pretend unto and do so much brag of 1 Ring 22.22 may not be such a lying Spirit as was put into the mouths of the Prophets when Ahab was to be seduced to his own destruction Adeo Argumenta ex absurdo petita ineptos habent exitus as Lactantius notes it All I have now to add is to shew the difference between Calvin and his followers in the propounding of this Doctrine delivered by Calvin in few words but Magisterially enough and with no other Authority than his ipse dixit enlarged by David Paraeus in his Comment on Rom. 13. into divers branches and many endeavours used by him as by the rest of Calvins followers to find out Arguments and instances out of several Authors to make good the cause For which though Calvin scap'd the fire yet Paraeus could not Ille Crucem pretium sceleris tulit hic Diadema For so it hapned that one Mr. Knight of Brodegates now Pembroke Colledge in Oxford had preach'd up the Authority of these popular Officers in a Sermon before the University about the beginning of the year 1622. for which being presently transmitted to the King and Council he there ingenuously confessed that he had borrowed both his doctrine and his proofs and instances from the Book of Paraeus above mentioned Notice whereof being given to the University the whole Doctrine of Paraeus as to that particular was drawn into several Propositions which in a full and frequent Convocation
Clergy in the Church of of God hath been or is maintained with less charge to the Subject than the established Clergy of the Church of England Page 167 2. That there is no man in the Kingdom of England who payeth any thing of his own towards the maintenance and support of his Parish-Minister but by his Easter-Offering Page 171 3. That the change of Tithes into Stipends will bring greater trouble to the Clergy than is yet considered and far less profit to the Countrey than is now pretended Page 174 The History of Episcopacy PART I. CHAP. I. The Christian Church first founded by our Lord and Saviour in an imparity of Ministers 1. THE several Offices of Christ our Saviour in the Administration of his Church Page 187 2. The aggregating of Disciples to him Page 188 3. The calling of the Apostles out of them and why twelve in number ibid. 4. Of the Name and Office of an Apostle Page 189 5. What things were specially required unto the making of an Apostle Page 190 6. All the Apostles equal in Authority amongst themselves ibid. 7. The calling and approinting of the 70 Disciples Page 191 8. A reconciliation of some different Opinions about the number Page 192 9. The twelve Apostles superiour to the Seventy by our Saviours Ordinance ibid. 10. What kind of superiority it was that Christ interdicted his Apostles Page 193 11. The several powers faculties and preheminences given to the Apostles by our Saviour Christ Page 194 12. That the Apostles were Bishops averred by the ancient Fathers ibid. 13. And by the text of holy Scripture Page 195 CHAP. II. The foundation of the Church of Hierusalem under the Government of Saint James the Apostle and Simeon one of the Disciples the two first Bishops of the same 1. Matthias chosen in the place of Judas Page 196 2. The coming of the Holy Ghost and on whom it fell Page 197 3. The greatest measure of the Spirit fell on the Apostles and therewithal the greatest power ibid. 4. The several Ministrations in the Church then given and that in ranking of the same the Bishops are intended in the name of Pastors Page 198 5. The sudden growth of the Church of Hierusalem and making Saint James the first Bishop there ibid. 6. The former point deduced from Scripture Page 199 7. And proved by the general consent of Fathers ib. 8. Of the Episcopal Chair or throne of James and his Successors in Hierusalem Page 200 9. Simeon elected by the Apostles to succeed Saint James Page 201 10. The meaning of the word Episcopus and from whence borrowed by the Church ibid. 11. The institution of the Presbyters Page 202 12. What interest they had in the common business of the Church whilst St. James was Bishop ib. 13. The Council of Jerusalem and what the Presbyters had to do therein Page 203 14. The institution of the Seven and to what Office they were called ibid. 15. The names of Ecclesiastical Functions promiscuously used in holy Scripture Page 204 CHAP. III. The Churches planted by Saint Peter and his Disciples originally founded in Episcopacy 1. The founding of the Church of Antioch and that Saint Peter was the first Bishop there Page 205 2. A reconciliation of the difference about his next Successors in the same Page 206 3. A List of Bishops planted by him in the Churches of the Circumcision Page 207 4. Proofs thereof from St. Peters general Epistle to the Jews dispersed according to the exposition of the Ancient Writers ibid. 5. And from Saint Pauls unto the Hebrews Page 208 6. Saint Pauls Praepositus no other than a Bishop in the Opinion of the Fathers ibid. 7. Saint Peter the first Bishop of the Church of Rome Page 209 8. The difference about his next Successors there reconciled also ibid. 9. An Answer unto such Objections as have been made against Saint Peter's being Bishop there Page 210 10. Saint Mark the first Bishop of Alexandria and of his Successors Page 221 11. Notes on the observations of Epiphanius and Saint Hierom about the Church of Alexandria Page 212 12. An observation of Saint Ambrose applyed unto the former business ibid. 13. Of Churches founded by Saint Peter and his Disciples in Italy France Spain Germany and the Isle of Britain and of the Bishops in them instituted Page 213 CHAP. IV. The Bishoping of Timothy and Titus and other of Saint Pauls Disciples 1. The Conversion of Saint Paul and his ordaining to the place of an Apostle Page 214 2. The Presbyters created by Saint Paul Acts 14. of what sort they were Page 215 3. Whether the Presbyters or Presbytery did lay on hands with Paul in any of his Ordinations Page 216 4. The people had no voice in the Election of those Presbyters by Saint Paul ordained Page 217 5. Bishops not founded by Saint Paul at first in the particular Churches by him planted and upon what reasons ibid. 6. The short time that the Churches of Saint Pauls Plantation continued without Bishops over them Page 218 7. Timothy made Bishop of Ephesus by Saint Paul according to the general consent of Fathers Page 219 8. The time when Timothy was made Bishop according to the holy Scripture Page 220 9. Titus made Bishop of Cretans and the truth verified herein by the antient Writers Page 221 10. An Answer unto some Objections against the subscription of the Epistle unto Titus ibid. 11. The Bishoping of Dionysius the Areopagite Aristarchus Gaius Epaphroditus Epaphras and Archippus Page 222 12. As also of Silas Sosthenes Sosipater Crescens and Aristobulus Page 223 13. The Office of a Bishop not incompetible with that of an Evangelist ibid. CHAP. V. Of the Authority and Jurisdiction given unto Timothy and Titus and in them to all other Bishops by the Word of God 1. The authority committed unto Timothy and Titus was to be perpetual and not personal only Page 224 2. The power of Ordination intrusted only unto Bishops by the Word of God according to the exposition of the Fathers Page 225 3. Bishops alone both might and did ordain without their Presbyters Page 226 4. That Presbyters might not ordain without a Bishop proved by the memorable case of Colluthus and Ischyras ibid. 5. As by those also of Maximus and a Spanish Bishop Page 227 6. In what respects the joint assistance of the Presbyters was required herein Page 228 7. The case of the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas objected and declared ibid. 8. The care of ordering Gods Divine Service a work peculiar to the Bishop Page 229 9. To whom the Ministration of the Sacraments also doth in chief belong Page 230 10. Bishops to have a care that Gods Word be preached and to encourage those that take pains therein ibid. 11. Bishops to silence and reprove such Presbyters as preach other Doctrines Page 231 12. As also to correct and reject the Heretick ibid. 13. The censure and correction of inferiour Presbyters in point of life and conversation doth
luck in making choice of three such instances which if true would not serve his turn Page 681 8. The danger which lyeth hidden under the disguise of such popular Magistrates as are here instanced in by Calvin Page 682 9. What moved Calvin to lay these dangerous stumbling-blocks in the Subjects way Page 683 10. The dangerous positions and practices which have hence ensued in most parts of Europe Page 684 11. The sect of Calvin professed Enemies to Monarchy and the power of Princes Page 685 CHAP. V. What are the three Estates in each several Kingdom of which Calvin speaks and what particularly in the Realm of England 1. Of the division of a People into three Estates and that the Priests or Clergy have been always one Page 687 2. The Priests employed in Civil matters and affairs of State by the Egyptians and the Persians the Greeks Gauls and Romans Page 688 3. The Priests and Levites exercised in affairs of Civil Government by Gods own appointment Page 680 4. The Prelates versed in Civil matters and affairs of State in the best and happiest times of Christianity Page 690 5. The Clergy make the third Estate in Germany France Spain and the Northern Kingdoms Page 692 6. That anciently in the Saxon times the Ecclesiasticks of this Realm were called to all publick Councils Page 694 7. The Prelates an essential fundamental part of the English Parliament ibid. 8. Objections answered and that the word Clerus in the Legal notion doth not extend unto the Prelates Page 698 9. That the inferior Clergie of the Realm of England had anciently their Votes in Parliament to all intents and purposes as the Commons had Page 700 10. Objections answered and that the calling of the Clergie to Parliaments and Convocations were after different manners and by several Writs Page 703 11. The great Disfranchisement and Slavery obtruded on the English Clergy by the depriving of the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament Page 705 12. A brief discussion of the question whether any two of the three Estates conspiring or agreeing together can conclude any thing unto the prejudice of the third Page 706 CHAP. VI. That the three Estates of every Kingdom whereof Calvin speaks have no Authority either to regulate the power or controll the Actions of the Sovereign Prince 1. The Bishops and Clergy of England not the King make the third Estate and of the dangerous consequences which may follow on the contrary Tenet Page 708 2. The different influence of the three Estates upon conditional Princes and an absolute Monarch Page 710 3. The Sanhedrim of no Authority over the Persons or the actions of the Kings of Judah Page 711 4. The three Estates in France of how small Authority over the actions of that King Page 712 5. The King of Spain not over-ruled or regulated by the three Estates Page 713 6. Of what Authority they have been antiently in the Parliaments of Scotland Page 714 7. The King of England always accounted heretofore for an absolute Monarch Page 715 8. No part of Sovereignty invested Legally in the English Parliaments Page 716 9. The three Estates assembled in the Parliament of England subordinate unto the King not co-ordinate with him Page 719 10. The Legislative power of Parliaments is properly and legally in the King alone Page 720 11. In what particulars the power of the English Parliament doth consist especially Page 723 12. The Kings of England ordinarily over-rule their Parliaments by themselves their Council and their Judges Page 724 13. Objections answered touching the power and practice of some former Parliaments and the testimonies given unto them Page 726 14. No such Authority given by God in Holy Scripture to any such Popular Magistrates as Calvin dreams of and pretends Page 727 15. The Application and Conclusion of the whole Discourse Page 728 De jure Paritatis Episcoporum The Right of Peerage vindicated to the Bishops of England Page 739. FINIS