GODS HOLY HOVSE AND SERVICE According to the primitive and most Christian forme thereof described by Foulke Robarts Batchelor of Divinity and Prebendary of NORVVICH Psal 26. 8. I have loved the habitation of thine house and the place where thine honour dwelleth LONDON Printed by Tho. Cotes and are to be sold at the Grey-hound in Saint Pauls Church yard 1639. To all such as through weakenesse of judgement with some superstitious feare and not by any malevolent spirit of opposition and schisme are offended at the Decency of our Churches and the Reverend demeanure of our outward expressions in Gods publique Worship Loving Brethren THe worship of God hath of late yeares beene so carried in many places among us as if therein men were not about any businesse relating unto God The places of meetings being so ruinous and sordid the people in the act of prayers and praises demeaning themselves so as if they sate in counsell with God a gesture of which Tertulian saith that in prayer it is irreligiosissimum a most irreligious L. de orat thing rather than devoute and humble worships Much irreverence was in administring and receiving the holy Communion I have often conceived hereupon that either Papist Turke or Pagan observing our fashion would thinke that either our Churches were not the houses of the holy God or that the people in them were not about Gods worship Our present most reverend Metropolian hath in his Metropoliticall visitation layd those grounds which have already reformed much and I trust will by Gods mercy soone reduce all things in Gods worship to due decency and reverence all England over Not doubting of the like successe in other places which we finde in the Diocesse of Norwich For while the right reverend Father now Lord Bishop of Elie for the time his Lordship was our Diocesan as an other Elishaeus in the spirit of Elias his Lordship so proceeded in this pious worke as that the worke of the Lord prospered in his hands The house and service of God shineth among us in the primitive splendor to the great good liking of all sober Christians But as when S. Paul preached of the resurrection Some beleeved others mocked Act. 17. So upon sight of this good worke so happily begunne and so effectually followed some joyfully conformed others frowardly opposed The one encouraged the other exasperated my poore zeale first by preaching and private communications now by printing this slender treatise to put forth my selfe a weak labourer under such Aholiabs Bezaliels master workemen I doe not in all this little treatise frame any one proposition which I doe not in my conscience conceive to be the truth of God Nor doe Iuse any argument or reason but such as I apprehend naturally to inferre the conclusion My desire herein God knoweth is your satisfaction and right information in that which not a little concerneth Gods glory and your good Thinke not that I would reduce all Gods worship to bodily gestures Neither imagine that it belongeth to the soule alone The soule is the most excellent part whose intentions recommend the expressions of the body unto God But the body is a part and an essentiall part of the man and must beare his part with the soule in Gods worship If the body act alone then doth God say Man where is thy soule If the soule alone take all upon it then saith God where is or what doth thy body Where are thine eyes thy hands thy knees thy legges to declare and accompany the lifting up the humility and the confidence of thy soule Thy whole man is to be imployed in my worship It is for God and for his glory that I do pleade thus earnestly with my bretheren How decent a thing is it in the eye of man to behold bodies and soules accord and joyne together in the holy worke How doth the visible and expressive devotion of one Christian beget and encrease the same in an other And how powerfully shall the reverend behaviours and gestures of an whole Congregation together worke one upon an other Is not God the more glorified when our devotion is quickned and advanced O my bretheren be not froward but meeke and tractable Boy strous men in a spirit of error or opposition or both have made too much stirre troubled and affrighted honest hearts On the other side some men expressing devotion outwardly give too much scandall through want of probity But I beseech you turne away your eyes from men turne them upon God and then turne them home upon your selves And then tell me doe you not perceive the Majesty of God to be so great as that it becommeth the whole man soule and body to demeane himselfe in all points of humility and reverence inward and outward when he is in Gods speciall presence Is not the excellent goodnesse of God such as drawes all mens eyes upon him and feedes them all with expectation Is not his bounty such as filleth every living thing with plenty of his goodnesse Shall not the eye then looke up towards God in admiration and hope Shall not the hand be lifted up shewing the heart ready to receive the blessing and to reach out thankes Speake to God with the intention judgement and fervency of the soule Speake also by the expressions of the members of thy body Speake by thy tongue Speake by thine eyes Speake by thine hands and by thy knees The tongue interpreteth the meaning of the soule by words The eyes and hands interpret the confident expectation of the soule by their elevation The knees interpret the humilitie of the soule by bowing And so the rest of our decent gestures doe interpret the soule every one in its owne language which God intendeth understandeth and accepteth when they truly declare outwardly what the soule conceiveth inwardly But I am asked what neede these gestures and postures more now than heretofore Whereto I answer that there is no more neede to use these decent and reverend gestures and expressions in the worship of God now than heretofore And that if heretofore wee have been defective in what was requisite it is time that now we be reformed Againe if by heretofore yee understand the space of 40. or 50. yeares last passed I confesse that what we performe now may seeme a novelty But if by heretofore you meane the best and primitive times of the ages next the Apostles and before the dayes superstition crept on then I say that there is no more required now than what was in use in the practise of Christians heretofore God therefore give us grace to discerne truth from error and light from darkenesse and not to bee put out of the way of true devotion through a panike feare of a supposed superstition heartily prayeth At my Study in Norwich March 4. 1638. Your loving brother Fowlke Robarts The Contents Cap. 1. OF Holinesse 2 Of the holy place 3 Of the consecration of Churches 4 Consecration of Churches is
by the holy Ghost in the reasonable creature And this holinesse is either inhaesive or expressive In haesive holinesse is that seasoning and gratious constitution wherewith the heart and conscience is Ps 51. inwardly so qualified by the holy Ghost as disposeth it wholy to the will honour and glory of almighty God And this is it which David hungered after when he said Create in me a mew heart and Eph. 4. 24. renew a right spirit within mee Yea this is that Image of God according whereunto man was fist created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Expressive holinesse is the outward manifestation of the former by the words of our mouthes and by the performances and gestures of the rest of the lymbes of our bodyes as in their severall kindes we be occasioned to make use of them and this is fully required at our hands Ro. 12. 1. present your bodyes a living Sacrafice holy and acceptable unto God This expressive holinesse is to be practised two wayes First in our conninuall conversation before God Secondly in our speciall approaching unto God As the duty of a Servant to his Master is first in being diligent and faithfull in all his businesse Secondly in his respective behaviour when he commeth to his Masters presence or is in speach with him and yet more specially when he is to crave favor or to give thankes for favors received from him So the Servant of God having his heart possessed with the feare of God is first very carefull that he offend not in the tounge that there be no pride nor lust in his eyes that his feete neither walke nor stand in the way of the ungodly that his hands be free from bribery oppression and all iniquity And finally that all his members be instruments of righteousnesse unto God and his conversation honest before the world That his light may so shine before men that they may see his good workes and glorifie his father which is in heaven God hath made as well the body as the soule And therefore he is to be served as well by the outward members of the body as by the inward abilities of the soule He that saith by Solomon Sonne give me thine heart Saith also by Saint Paul present your bodyes a living sacrifice And as there must bee no strife among the members so neither must the soule and bodye disagree But joyne sweetly both 1 cor 6. 20. as one in the Service of God And therefore he saith Glorifie God in your bodyes and spirits for they are Gods And of all this we must be constantly carefull Ps 16. 8. so to set God alwayes before our eyes and to have alwayes a good conscience both towards God and towards Act. 24. 16. man that when we come to give an accompt of our Stewardship we may with joy heare that comfortable approbation of our Lord and Master well done good and faithfull servant But when the servant of God approacheth unto God in his holy House ai his holy Table to speake to God by holy Prayer to heare him in his holy word to give him thankes for received blessings for health food rayment manifold preservations forgivenesse of sinnes the hope and expectation of the joyes of heaven to begge all things requisit for body or soule to receive the holy Sacrament of the body and blood of his blessed Saviour thereby to be sealed to the day of Redemption Then as to be specially reverend and devoute in heart within so to expresse the same by such behaviour and respect without as may shew the reverence and humility suitable to and becomming the holy servant of the holy God in so holy a businesse in the holy place And in all this there is no Superstition CHAP. IX Gods worship is to be performed with outward expressions THat in the common way of our ordinary conversation wee must conscionably serve God as well with the members of our bodyes as with the faculties of our soules None except peradventure some bruitish familists a generation given over to a reprobate sence will deny But I finde it beyond exceptation difficult to perswade diverse men who yet will seeme specially zealous Pro. 23. 28. to have God rightly worshiped that in Gods worship there is any use of any more then the soule or minde alone And that because it is sayd sonne give me thine heart And herein they deale with us as the Papists do in another case For when we teach that a man is justified by faith in Christ They presently charge us that we exclude workes as not requisite in a Christian So these men hearing us urge that the members of the body must be used in the worship of God except against us as if we excluded the heart from this duty But I would gladly request my bretheren to understand that as being justifiâ—d by Jac. 2. 18. faith wee labour to shew our faith by our workes knowing that to be no true or lively faith which doth not fructifie and bring forth good workes So by the outward gestures of our bodies we declare that worship which is in the heart assuring our selves that there is no devotion in the heart of that man who maketh no expression thereof in his outward behaviour And whereas God saith sonne give me thine heart I conceive under correction that God dealeth herein as a tender father who seeing his sonne plunged into some dangerous gulph saith sonne give me thine hand not that the father intendeth to reskue onely the childes hand But because the hand is the gainfullest limbe for the child to reach out and for the Father to take hold on to draw the whole childe out of danger So almighty God seeing his childe at a lametable passe ready to sinke to the bottome of hell saith sonne give me thy heart That so God having gayned hold on the heart may thereby draw the whole man to eternall safety There is such correspondency and sympathy between the Soule and the body as maketh to accord one with an other like those Creatures and wheels mentioned by the Prophet Ezech. when those went these went when those stoode these stoode when those were lifted up these were lifted up for the spirit of the living Creatures was in the wheeles So may I well say when the Soule moveth forward in devotion Eze. 1. 21. towards God the body will not be left behinde but will beare the Soule company If the Soule in humility be dejected then the body with a bare head a bowing waste and bended knees is in all gestures of submission If the Soule be elevated and encouraged by desire and hope towards God then the eye looketh up and the hand is lifted up towards heaven expressing outwardly the inward disposition of the Soule And on the other side every man findeth in his owne experience that his Soule doth sympathise with the temper of his body For if the body be tired with labour the minde becometh heavy
mistake and fearefully wrest the words bodily exercise Concerning the meaning whereof Interpreters do not readily agree But this I am sure of that of all the Interpreters which I have seene and I have purposely made some search not one doth understand them of those gestures of the body in Gods worship which we now treate of And it is manyfest that the bodily exercises whereof S. Paul speaketh are such as he setteth in opposition unto true godlines and yet such as wherein foolish people perverted by hypocrites and guided by idle conceits and no better then old wives fables do place Religion Abstinency from meate and from marriage v. 3. unto which we may adde long and frequent watchings pronouncing of long and many prayers lying on the cold ground wearing haire cloth and the like with such kind of disciplining of the body may profit something as they may be used Cor. 7. 26. For S. Paul deemeth those people happy in regard of the present necessity which were unmarried And he alloweth those which are married sometimes and upon some occasions to withdraw one from an other that they may the better dispose themselves to fasting and prayer Watching fasting and such other chastisings of the body are also of profitable use to tame the flesh and to bring it into subjection to the spirit and so to make the whole man the fitter for devotion But if men place true Godlinesse to consist in these very exercises and so conceive with themselves that whilest they performe them they are eo nomine for that alone very good people though otherwise they live in the custome and practise of foule and known sinnes then shall they finde that their bodily exercises do profit little that is nothing at all and that in vaine have they wearyed themselves therein And so if a man thinke that though he neglect the true duties of godlinesse he is yet a godly man because he is very exact in all the gestures of outward reverence in Gods worship I paralell that man with an other sect of hypocrites whose whole godlinesse consisteth in going to to some selected Church and in being present where a Sermon is though in the meane time they learne nothing and practice as little of any true godlinesse Both these sorts of men I acknowledge to be an hypocriticall and superstitious generation both a like And of them both I say that they have a forme of Godlines but deny the power thereof Though then bodily exercises profit not those who place their whole Religion and goodnesse in them as they are meer bodily actes Yet are they not unprofitable for Christian men who make the right use of them either to tame the body and to bring it into subjection by fasting sack cloth and ashes and the like or to make outward expression of inward devotion as by bending the knee bowing the body lifting up the hands and eyes and such like gestures in Gods worship As for the wordes of our blessed Saviour God is a spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in Psâ— 95. 6. trutb I aske those men which alledge them against outward reverence what they will say to holy and devoute David when he saith O come let us worship and fall downe and kneele before the Lord our maker Doth not the spirit of God here require the gestures of bowing downe and kneeling to be used in Gods worship But for further satisfaction herein we will spend a few lines though one would thinke words needlesse in so cleare a case in the exposition of our Saviours wordes Wee therefore give our brethren to understand that the word Spirit in scripture hath divers sinifications as i. The regenerate man is called the Spirit Matth. 26. 41. The Spirit is willing the flesh is weak 2 The will or inclination 2 Cron. 36. 22. The Lord stirred up the Spirit of Cyrus 3 The courage of a man Josh 5. 1. There was no spirit in them any more because of the children of Israel 4 Vnderstanding and knowledge Dan. 5. 12. An excellent Spirit and understanding and knowlegde were found in Daniell 5 Doctrine or teaching 1 Joh. 4. 1. Beleeve not every Spirit but try the Spirits So then take the word Spirit in any of these significations and it will nothing hinder the use of corporall or bodily gestures in the worship of God For to worship God in Spirit is to worship him with a regenerate or new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holynesse Eph. 4. 24. It is no compassing of Gods Altar without hands washed in Innocency Ps 26. 6. no praying to God without pure handes lifted up 1 Tim. 8. No comming into the marriage feast without a wedding garment Mat. 22. So it is not for any to performe the holy act of worship to the holy God that is not regenerate and holy and will so worship in spirit and truth i. in true holinesse For God requireth such to worship him 2. God must be worshiped in Spirit i. with a willing ready and chearefull mind Deborah in her song Iudic. 5. 2. doth prayse God for the people that became so willing And 1 Pet. 5. 2. Gods flock must be fed not by constraint but willingly and so Gods worship must be performed in Spirit that is willingly 3. God must be worshiped in spirit i. Not faintly and droopingly but couragiously and zealously in the fervency of the spirit as Rom. 10 11. 5 God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth i. with understanding and knowledge rightly informed Lastly God must be worshiped in spirit and truth i. Guided by the holy spirit of God as all the sonnes of God are led by the spirit Rom. 8. 14. which leadeth unto all truth Joh. 16. 13. And this is home to the text in spirit and truth when in Gods worship we so make use of either body or soule as by Gods word and spirit wee are thereto directed Corporall actes may be done in the Spirit as our Saviours going up to the mount Mat. 4. was a Corporall act and yet it was done in the Spirit For he was led by the Spirit v. 1. And to this effect are the words of the Schoole-man cleare and full in in the place before alledged Adoratio Corporalis in Spiritu fit in quantum ex spirituali devotione procedit ad eam ordinatur i. Bodily worship is 2. 2. q 84. ar i done in the spirit in as much as it proceedeth from spirituall devotion and is made to serve thereunto When our brethren Pray or Preach do they not use a bodily member viz. the toung to expresse themselves withall The using of the tounge is a bodily exercise as well as the bowing of the knee And yet I hope they thinke that they do both Preach and Pray in the spirit Are not eating and drinking bodily actions And yet I trust wee do eate and drinke in the spirit when wee do it in the feare of God and
and dull And do wee not perceive plainely that when we betake our selves to our knees for prayer the Soule is humbled within us by this very gesture And when when wee lift up our hands and our eyes towards God wee feele an elevation of the Soule also towards the throne of grace There is an instance in the booke of Exod. which fully illustrateth this point For when Israel was in fight with Ameleck Moses Aaron and Hur went up Exo. 17. 10. 11. to the tope of the hill And it came to passe when Moses lift up his hand Israel prevailed And when he let downe his hand Amaleck prevailed Shall we thinke that there was a charme in this his holding up and letting downe of his hand Is it not manifest that Moses was heard at his prayers to God for his people and that as his handes were borne up his soule did beare up also in the greater measure of zeale and faith whereby his prayer became the more Lyr. powerfull per hoc ostendttur suae orationis efficacia i. by this is manifested the efficacie or force of his prayer Nec contra Amalechitas tantum vis armorum Orig. in num hom 13. quam Moysis valuit or atio Vt enim elevasset manus ad Deum vincibatur Amalech remissae vero dejectae vinci faciebant Israel i. The force of armes was not so powerfull against Ameleck as the prayer of Moses For as he lifted up his hands to God Ameleck went by the worst but if his hands setled or fell downe Israel tooke the foyle St. Aug. speaketh to the same effect And may we not conceive Ser. de tom 93. that Saint Paul meaneth the same thing when he will have menat their prayers to lift up pure hands A learned interpreter speaketh full home to this 1 Tim. 2. 8. purpose saying upon that text Voluit hoc symbolo significare vim orationis Elevatio enim manuum contentionem orationis remissio manuum remissionem orationis adumbrabat Elevans manus elevabat mentem Cornel. a lap intendebat in Deum Cum vero lassus remittebat manus remittebat orationem i. He would by this symbol set out the force of prayer For the lifting up of his hands did signifie the earnestnesse of his prayer and the setling of his hand the slaking of his devotion In lifting up his hand he rowsed up his spirit and dealt with God the more fervenly but when growen weary he let fall his hand then he cooled in his prayer As for my part Whensoever I see any man using outward reverence in the act of Gods worship I shall judge him to be the more devoute within by how much the more he doth outwardly expresse in reverened gestures Neither can I ever be perswaded that that man is inwardly affected with reverence towards God who doth not outwardly declare the same by the reverend behaviour of his â— a. 2 a. q. 94. body For as Aquinas alleadgeth out of S. Aug. Exterior cultus est confessio quaedam cultus interioris i. The outward worship is a certeine confession of the inward worship Wee cannot deny but that men may make a faire outward shew of holinesse and devotion when they are most foul within through hypocrisie and prophanesse as the Pharisies made long prayers whilest they intended to devoure widdowes houses But yet let me prevent or represse insolent censures with the words of St. Paul Who Râ—â— 14. 4. art thou that judgest another mans servant Thou dost with thine eyes see reverence in the outward behaviour Thou seest not what is within in the heart 1 Cor. 13. 7. But Christian charity beleeveth all things and hopeth all things and requireth that wee judge the best according to the outward appearance God only is the judge of the heart we are to judge according to what wee see and not according to what we see not Wee are taught to be devout and reverend both within and without And to performe worship to God not with the body alone nor with the Soule a-alone but with body and Soule both that so wee may not seperate those which God hath conjoyned No doubt but there is too often an outward shew of much devotion and reverence where there is none or very little within For impiety can dissemble Sathan can change himselfe into an Angell of light The woolfe can put on Sheepes cloathing But there can be no inward reverence or devotion in the heart which doth not shew it selfe outwardly except peradventure when some perplexing terrour may for a time make a Christian man discover humane frailety for true Religion loveth not to dissemble The Angell of light will not transforme himselfe into a Divell of darkenesse nor will the sheepe cloath it selfe with the skinne of a woolfe And the man which hath a devout and Religious heart will not seeme prophane but will declare his piety and probity outwardly by the holinesse of his workes in his conversation and by the reverendnesse of his behaviour in the worship of God The Schoole-men make a threefold act of adoration Pined in 3. q. 25. ar 2. whereof the first is in the understanding apprehending and conceiving the excellencie of the object or that which is to be worshiped The second in the will inclyning and disposing a man to honor that object And both these they call inward worship The third act is the expression of that inward apprehension and inclination by sensible signes as by word deede or gesture and this they call outward worship Ex duplici natura Compositi sumus intellectuali sensibili Duplicem adorationem deo offerimus Spirituale qua consistit in interiori mentis devotione corporalem 2. 2. q. 14. ar 2. in exteriore corporis humiliatione i. Wee consist of a two fold nature intellectuall and sensible Wee performe to God a two fold worship The one Spiritual consisting in the outward devotion of the minde and the other corporall in the outward humiliation of the body But here my brethen are ready to tell me that by these words of Aquinas what is done by the Object body is but a corporall worship and that the spirituall worship consisteth in inward devotion and then they urge the words of our Saviour saying Josh 4. 24. 1 Tim. 4. 8. God is a spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and trueth whereto they adde the words of St. Paul bodily excercise profiteth little It may be thought by these words first of Saint Ans Paul that bodily exercise doth profit some thing though but a little and we are not to neglect much more to abhorre that which may afford the least furtherance in the way of Godlynesse and in Gods worship But if my brethren tell me that I do much mistake the meaning of the word litle in this text I must tell them that they in thus applying it to our behaviour in the worship of God do much more
as St. Paul adviseth to 1 Cor. 10. 31. Gods glory Wee read in Rev. 4. v. 10. of foure and twenty Elders who fell downe on their faces worshipped him who liveth for ever Shall wee say that they woshiped not in Spirit and truth because they used a gesture of humilitie and reverence in falling downe upon their faces It is lamentable to behold men pretending sincerity and love of trueth thus perversly wringing Gods holy word and willfully shutting their eyes against so cleare light of so manifest a truth When the knee is bent the body bowed or the hand lifted up devoutly unto God these are indeede bodily exercises or actes done by the members of the body as outward expressions of inward devotion but no acts of Superstition CHAP. X. The severall gestures used by Gods Servants in his worship are all free from Superstition WEE have hitherto made scearch in and about the house of God or place of Christian assembly wee have carefully pryed into every nooke and corner thereof and observed the Servants of God performing worship unto God so as their inward devotions are declared and expressed by their outward gestures and demeanures God being so worshipped by their whole man body and Soule But in all this wee have found no Superstition But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things decently and in good order Come we now and examin those outward demeanures gestures and expressions severally and perticularly And all that wee do in our Churches in their distinct formes and postures least yet under any of them some peece of superstition be paradventure concealed and here I must confesse some evill Surmisers have unjustly caused much suspition For our justification therefore and the manifesting of truth to Gods glory Come and see all that is done in our Churches Wee confesse our sinnes unto God Wee begge pardon at the hands of God Wee give God thanks for what wee have received Wee crave from God what wee stand in need of Wee remember the afflictions of all distressed people with our prayers for them all and our almes to the poorer sort We reade and heare read the holy Bible and godly expositions homilyes and sermons whereby the ignorant are instructed the unruly admonished the backward exhorted the hard-hearted terrefied the feeble encouraged the aflicted conscience comforted We administer the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords supper Is any of these any superstitious act Our scrupulous brethren allow all this But then thus they take exception In your very entrance into the Church you Object put off your hats and kneele downe and pray as if either God were not in other places or that wee might not pray but in the Church If we taught men that they ought not to pray Ans anywhere else but in a Church or place consecrated or that we did not use to pray in any other place then there were some cause to object thus against us But we are in our Churches from time to time called upon to pray continually and in all things to give thankes Is it not thus extant in our booke of common prayer It is very meete right and our bounden duty that we should at all times and in all places give thankes to thee O holy father Lord of heaven and earth Is there not in that booke speciall service to be used in privat houses at the bed side of sick people Is not the booke it selfe free and vendible by every Stationer not only for the publick worship in Churches but also for the use of every private man in his own house Be there not also plenty of other bookes in print of formes of prayers to be made unto God upon severall occasions at any time in any place by any man whose soule is possessed with so good devotion And therfore it is plaine that our devotion and discipline doth not therfore encline us to pray when we come within a Church as if we held that the only place where a man may pray but for that the Church is an house of prayer as we have already shewed this very place putteth a man in mind and calleth upon him there specially to pray in somuch that it is a place purposely set apart for that very end and purpose that whatsoever a man doth elsewhere yet here he should pray because this is the house of prayer We uncover our heads in the Church as in the presence Chamber on earth of the King of heaven and earth And when we pray we kneele because kneeling is the gesture of humility becomming a man who preferreth his petition to the God of heaven In the fourth Century a time abounding with prodigious haeresies arose one Eustachius who among others of his prophane opinions wherwith many became infected maintained that Churches Concil Gangr and meetings therein are to be despised Damascus and Saint Augustin mention this to have been the haeresie of the Messalini otherwise called Euchites and Enthusiastes who also had so meane an opinion of Baptisme and the Lords supper as that they held Dan. de haeres 8 Aug. Serm. contra Arrianos l. 4. C. 11. de ecliis c. 37. them altogether uneffectuall and unprofitable as Theodoret reporteth Turrecremata telleth us that the fratricellian haeritiques a most impure sect maintained among other things Eccelsiam non plus valere ad orandum quam porcorum stabulum i. That the Church avayleth a man for prayer no more then a swine-sty O my brethren conforme not yourselves to the abominable fancies of these filthie dreamers odious to God and in the judgment of the Church damned haeretiques To pray is no superstitius act To pray kneeling is no superstition To pray in a Church as we shewed cap. 4. is no superstition To use reverend gestures and behaviour of humility in the presence of God is no superstition To repute the Church to be Gods house is no superstition Therefore for a man entring into a Church to put off his hat and being come in to kneele downe and to pray to God are no superstition but pious acts of christian devotion You have so many severall gestures and postures Ob. sometimes sitting sometimes kneeling sometimes standing sometimes bowing Why may not men use what gestures they please so that the heart be right I have already shewed that a reverend heart can Ans not but produce reverend demeanure in Gods worship And yet further to answer this cavill I say It is not inough that our gestures be reverend and sober in the generall except also they be suteable and fit to expresse the present act whereto they are applyed And first for sitting If humane frailty specially in aged people could endure it sitting would not at all be used in the house of God specially during the holy businesse of Gods service But in consideration of the infirmity of flesh and blood Rest is sometimes requisite least too much weakenesse either diminish or disturb devotion Therefore the indulgence of the Church permitteth
us to sit whilest the minister is reading or expounding any part of the word of God for our instruction and while doctrines are taught and applyed for our further edification But when we come to utter an hymne or petition then the minister who before spake unto the people doth now joyn with the people and both minister and people with one heart and voice joyn in a language to almighty God And therefore compose themselves to a gesture of solemne adoration and worship which I never knew sitting to be neither do I thnike that any president can be found in all the whole Bible of any either Congregations assembled or persons in privat sitting at their solemn worship of almighty God We find in the revelation Apoc. 4. 2. God described upon his throne and foure and twenty Elders wearing crownes sitting upon so many seates round about the throne And anon those Elders betake themselves to worship him that sitteth on the throne But now they keepe themselves no longer on their seates when they are to performe the act of solemne worship But they fall downe before him that sate on the throne and cast their crownes before the throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory c. So also cap. 11. ver 16. there are 24 Elders who sit before God on their seates But when they worship they fall downe on their faces We read also of some that worshipped God standing So did the publican 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 standing a far off he said God be mercifull to me a sinner And a great company whom no man could number did stand before the Luc. 18. 13. throne in the sight of the Lambe and cryed with a loud Apoc. 7. 8. voice saying Salvation from our God which sitteth on the throne And therefore we give glory to the father sonne and holy Ghost or recite some hymne appointed by the Church to be pronounced by the Minister and people joyntly to glorifie and praise God withall standing both in imitation of these examples and also accompting it the more reverend gesture then sitting which we never finde used in the solemne and publique worship by Gods people And in all this no man can point out any Superstition Againe we use the gesture of standing when wee publiquely rehearse the articles of our faith or attend unto those choise portions of the Gospell appointed for their speciall times and occasions And both these are the same For the Creede is the breviate of the Gospell and the Gospell is in the Creede or the articles of our Faith at large At the rehearsing of the one and at the reading of the other we stand up The reason is to signifie and expresse hereby our resolution and readynesse to stand and persevere to the end in this Faith which we do professe And this expression is according to scripture which by the metaphor of standing setteth out Christian fortitude and perseverance as Rom. 5. 2. we are by faitb admitted to this grace wherein we stand And cap. 11. 20. Thou standest by faith So 1 Cor. 16. 13. Stande in the faith And 1 Pet. 5. 12. This is the grace wherein yee stand So then we by this gesture of standing at the Creede or Gospell professe our constancy or perseverance But when the scripture speaketh of standing in Ob. grace or in the faith it doth not intend a bodily but a spirituall standing It is very true And when wee by our bodily standing do professe our spirituall standing we do Ans herein no whit swarve from the meaning of the Scripture But what the Scripture expresseth in word we declare by a gesture of the same signification And so in this is no superstition One would think that no body should be so absurd as to dislike the gesture of kneeling in prayer But because I have seene with mine eyes and that not seldome whole troops of men and women and those not of the meanest in the time and place of divine Service while prayers and supplications were made unto God sit all the while I think not altogether needlesse to free the gesture of kneeling in Gods worship from all suspition of superstition And that by precept practise and reason For precept take the words of the Psalmist Ps 95. 6. O come let us worship and fall downe and kneele before the Lord our maker For practice we will looke upon the farest president Our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ kneeled downe and prayed If Luc. 22. 41. men will be ruled by reason they will not when they are to petition the King of Kings omit such a gesture of humility as kneeling is being the most suitable for a man at his prayers and for this cause we kneele at the holy Communion receiving whereat we both lift up thankfull hearts unto God for the death and resurection of Jesus Christ as also beg of God that by the merits thereof our bodies and Soules may be preserved to everlasting life It is not denyed but that a man may pray sitting walking standing or layd along For we ought to pray alwayes But when a man betaketh himselfe to a set exercise of prayer and that specially in the publique Congregation kneeling is the fittest and no Superstitious gesture But though divers things in use with you in Ob. your worship might in themselves be something indifferent and tollerable yet there are some gestures used in your Churches very offensive to weake Consciences and therefore ought to be forborne How weake the consciences of these men be I must leave it to God to judge of But I must needes thinke that their fancies are strong whilest they will not beleeve but that they have better knowledge then their teachers and more wisdome then their Governors For they will prescribe what the minister must teach and how both Church and Common-wealth must be ordered And wherein their Ministers teach or their Governours Command otherwise then they like of they will slight the one and disobey the other But to come to the point What is that which is so offensive above the rest Let it come forth and shewe its Superstitious face that when wee see it to be such wee may abhor it thereafter It is as I am told for else I should never have magnified it The bowing which wee use at the name of Jesus and at the Communion Table For as the name of Jesus the plaine text telleth me that every knee shall bow thereat But forward people thinke to evade the authority of this text Phil. 2. 10. by saying that the word Name doth in scripture sometimes signifie power And this wee deny not and wee acknowledge further that it also signifieth divers other things as fame or renoune 2 Cro. 26. 8. His name went forth to the entrance of Aegypt So it signifieth also Posterity Deut. 25 7. My husbands brother refuseth to raise up a name unto his brother It is taken for memory or remembranâ—â— Es 56. 5.
sweareth by the Temple sweareth by him that dwelleth in the Temple The Temple was ordeined for the worship of God And therefore God dwelled in the Temple in speciall manner Idcirco jurans per templum juratper Lyr. Deum qui colitur in Templo i. For that very cause he that sweareth by the Temple sweareth by God which is worshiped in the Temple Will any body now be so idle as to say that this rule doth hold if a man sweare just then when they are at Prayer or at Sacrifice in the Temple and not else but that a man swearing by the Temple when the Service is done doth not sweare by God Is it not also in the same Chapter sayd by the same sacred mouth that he which sweareth by the Altar sweareth by it and by all that is upon it Should he not now shew himselfe senceles who should say that this rule holdeth only so longe as there is any Sacrifice or Oblation on the Altar and no longer This were right to follow the prophane sence of strang people in this age who inmitate or comply with the filthy Fratricellians before mentioned which allow no difference betweene a Church and a Barne when Service is ended or betweene the Communion Table and thier own common table when the administration of the sacrament is over But know we who in duty and humility submit our selves to be taught by God in his holy word that as between God and the Temple betweene the Oblation and the Altar in the old Testament so now between God and the Church between the Communion table the body blood of Christ under the Gospell the relation doth continue So that whensoever the holy table commeth into our eyes it ought to put us in minde of the mercy of God in the blood and merit of Jesus Christ And shall not then this object beget thankfullnesse and reverence in my heart Or may not that reverence which is conceived in mine heart be expressed in the gestures of my body we do reverence at our entrance into the Kings Chamber of presence and al the while we are there and specially when we come neere the chaire of state though his Majesty be not there in person And our brethren do not call this Superstition But let them then tell me Should we not much more do so when we come into the Church which is the presence of God and while we are there and specially when we approach the holy Table But they tell us that it is not the like reason because the one is Civill and the other a Religious reverence Whereas if their reason could reach it or if their frowardnesse would acknowledge it the reason or argument is most strong and drawne à minori ad majus from the lesser to the greater thus If we reverence a King who is a mortall man at the simboles of his Majesty and memorials of his Soveraignity how much more the God of heaven in our entrance into his house and drawing neere his holy Table Neither let them flatter themselves with the misseunderstood and misseapplyed distinction of Religious and Civill reverence When Religion doth not lesse bind us to reverence God with our whol man body and soule then civility doth oblige us to respect man neither doth religion bar but regulate actions and matters of civility Therefore by how much more God is greater then man and the Soveraigne more to be honoured then his Deputy we are to be more reverent in the Church then in the Kings Chamber of presence and at the Communion Table then at the chaire of State If we are to reverence the King not with the body alone but also with the heart so are we to reverence God not only with the heart but also with the body And so God in the King and the King for God with the whol man So that this very gesture of bowing at the Communion Table rightly performed is not at all any Superstition but rather a Christian duty CHAP. XI They who unjustly charge us with Superstition are themselves most Superstitious WEE have made search in the tents of Jacob Leah and the handmaydes narrowly but but have not found yet any of Labans Idols That is we have considered the Cathedrall and and parochian Churches and taken notice of every corner and of every particular thing and gesture done and used in the same But God be thanked we have not in any of them found any Superstition And therefore we confidently returne à non est inventus i. There is no Superstition found in all our Churches Come we now then into the Tent of Rachell I mean the society of those who challenge us of Superstition I hope it wil not offend thē that we give them the name of Rachell For as she was the fayrest of al the wives of Jacob so these men conceive them selves to be the purest and sincerest so the fayrest worshippers of all the rest But we no sooner come into her tent but that we find her verbally very respective of her Father Yet really and in deed very undutifull and hypocriticall Let it Gen. 31. not displease my Lord that I can not rise For the custome of women is upon me Let it not displease is very smooth language The terme Lord as indeed it was a word of reverence in the mouth of Sarah to her husband so it seemeth a little of respect from the tounge of Rachell to her Father But the playne truth is that it is not the displeasure of her Father but the retaining of her Idolls and persevering in her Superstition that she regardeth Nor is she ashamed to tell her Father I can not rise And least she might be suspected to speak falsly as she did shee hath like a cunning dissembler quickly found a faire Cloake to palliate her iniquity and to make her lye to seeme a truth The Custome of women is upon her Fallitur pater commento muliebri ac honestissima ratione ac specie deluditur The Father is deluded with a tricke of a womans wit and beguiled with a faire pretence and semblance I am not very willing to fasten these conditions and tricks of Rachell too hard upon my brethren Yet what is true is true And God give us all grace neither uncharitably to misconster nor perversly or unadvisedly to give cause to be suspected of either frowardnesse hypocrisie or any other impiety But as for those of our brethren which seperate from us in their practice and fashion of worshiping God they will many if not the most of them give when they list unto our Fathers and Governors calme and submissive langvage at least to their faces But withall they cannot rise they cannot stand they cannot bow they cannot come up They cannot stand nor rise to make confession of their Faith nor to praise God in the congregation with hymnes and doxologies They cannot bow at the name of Jesus They cannot draw neere and come up to
the Communion table But why can they not They have the ability of their limmes God be thanked but more truly then Rachell may these men say the custome of women is upon them Longe since the woman beganne and ever since both men and women have gotten a custome to affect and pretend more wisdome and knowledge then ever God laid out for them forgetting the rule of the Apostle that no man thinke of himselfe more highly then he ought to thinke but to thinke soberly as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith and Rom. 22. 3. v. 16. not to be wise in their owne conceits But when against plaine evidence of Scripture and grounds of common reason men persist and be overcarried against authority what is this but frowardnesse and wilfulnesse a very Custome of women the poverty of whose judgement in the weakenesse of their sexe is captivated to the unrulinesse of their affections ut non persuadeas etiamsi persuaseris i. They will do what they list in despight of reason And then what is this but flat Idolatry when their owne conceits are so preferred and magnified and God in his ordinances sleighted But our brethren will plead that it is not conceit or fancy but Conscience that withdrawes them from conforming with us in the formes and gestures used by us in Gods worship And then I must tell them that when the things in use are both by authority required and by primitive and purer antiquity practised and in their nature sutable to the actions which they accompany and nowhere forbidden by the word of God Their standing out in these things cannot be true Conscience which is ever guided by the will of God But fancy and selfe-conceit doth overbeare men and take up that roome and power in their hearts and that authority over their affections and practises which belong properly to almighty God And so Conceit and Fancy is obeyed and followed and become an Idoll shutting out the Soveraignty of God and placing it selfe or rather placed by men as a God in their hearts For his servants ye are to whom ye obey And whatsoever we submit our selves unto contrary to the word and ordinance of God that is by us made our God and Idoll and we therein are become plaine Idolaters worshipping the Creature above the Creator And the time will come when they shall plainly understand that their stifnesse of body and mind will be found out to be meere Idolatry When our humble and reverend bowings shall be approoved for gestures of Christian Devotion And yet further seeing that Superstition as we shewed before Consisteth not only in overvaluing and too much doating upon the Creature but also in starting at the lawfull use of the creature so as a man thinketh himselfe ipso facto defiled in his soule by touching tasteing or handling of any thing which is touched tasted or handled without any breach of any law of God or lawfull constitution of man As for example if a man should now abstaine from eating Swines flesh in a conceit that it doth now defile or make a man a sinner This were plaine Superstition So if in time of Lent or on any of the dayes upon the which we are commanded by Law to abstaine from eating flesh a man should imagine now that it is a sinne to eate flesh not so much in regard of the wholsome Lawes of the State and Church which do indeede binde the conscience 1 Pet. 2. 13. as in a conceit that flesh as it is flesh eaten on such a day hath a speciall power to defile or make a man a sinner this also were meere Superstition For in both these cases a man conceiveth himselfe defiled and made a sinner by that use of the Creature which God simply forbiddeth not And as thus the rule holdeth in the use of the Creatures of God so doth it also in the actions of men which are in themselves indifferent i. neither good nor bad but as they be applyed As for example to kneele to bow to stand to go from one place to another are things in themselves indifferent No where forbidden by any Law of God or man And therefore for a man to thinke that he doth sinne in the performance of any of these or to abstaine from them for feare of sinning thereby is plaine Superstition For it imputeth sinne unto that which hath none in it If my brethren yet alleage that they do not abstaine from these actions or gestures meerely as they are actions or gestures but as they are applied in the worship of God Then I desire to know of them whether kneeling bowing standing or going do of things indifferent in themselves then become a sinne when I kneele to God stand up to God or go to God And I dare boldly inough affirme it neither need it any proofe that there is not in our worship of God any other kneeling bowing standing or going required or used but unto God Let men insist where they will and they shall soone see if they be not wilfully blinde the case most manifest and that not wee observing these things but our brethren in their either timerous starting at them or in their wilfull opposing of them are the superstitious people as more fully appeareth by what we have said of this kind of superstition before cap. 7. It is true indeed that our brethen seem desirous to shun Popish superstition But then not discerning between Popish superstition and true outward devotion they fall upon an other worse superstition For true Religion and devotion is a vertue placed betweene two extreames whereof the one is secundum excessum i. in the excesse or too much according to the words of Aquinas And such is much of the superstition of Popery ascribing too much to the creature The other extreame secundum defectum i. in the defect or too little And wtih this is the Anabaptist and Brownist and the rest of the sectaries that go in that tracke much infected not permitting garments or the lymbes of our bodies or the like to be any use in the worship of God And therefore these may be compared to those in the Prophet Amos whose case is as if a man did fly from a Lyon and a beare met him or went into In moral the house and leaned on the wall and a serpent bit him according whereto is the observation of St. Gregory Quidam dum fugiunt latrones aut feras in avia incidunt aut barathra Sic quidam Superstitionem ita fugiunt ut incidant in impietatem i. Some do so run a way from theeves or wild beasts as that they fall upon Gulfes and unpassable places And so some do so avoyd or shun Superstition as that they become impious or irreligious If this language seeme too harsh to any of my brethren I request them to consider that these actions and gestures of ours in Gods worship being in themselves indifferent and withall applyed not unto any Idol or unlawfull act but unto God and that also according to antient Christian practice and constitutions ecclesiasticall not onely of foraigne councels but of our owne state and hierachy under so Christian a Prince they that refuse herein to be conformed specially in those things which be expressely injoyned are therein not onely Superstitious but also guilty of one of the greatest sinnes worse than witch craft disobedience which is also iniquity and IDOLATRIE Thus have we cleared our holy house of God his servants and Service as wee doe performe it from all Idolatry and Superstition We have also made it manifest that our accusers themselves are while they are not aware a Superstitious people And therefore I say Brother pull the beame of Superstition out of thine owne eye and then I trust in God thou shalt clearely see that there are no such motes in our eyes as thou diddest imagine Remember that the members of thy body do in their kinde owe service and worship unto God as well as the abilities and faculties of the soule Robbe not God then of his due least under a pretence of abhorring Idols thou committest Sacrilege FINIS Imprimatur tractatus hic cui Titulus est Gods holy House and Service modò intra decem menses proximè sequentes typis mandetur Fulhamae Iulii ultimo 163◠Sa. Baker Diverse quotations in the Margine something out of their due places and imperfect pointings in the pages the Reader is requested to pardon But such errours as pervert the sence of the Author are to be mended thus Page 3. line 22 and 23. for immediatly reade mediately p. 4. l. 2 for immediately r. mediately p. 5. b. 24. for to be r. where was p. 7. l. 14. blot out it p. 8. l. 8. and 13. for Church r. Christian p. 12. l. 30. for it is r. is it p. 21. l. 3. for custè r. iustè and l. 4. for esse r. est p. 32. l 16. for because Church v. because the Church and l. 18. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 37. l. 21. for were r. where p. 38. l 28. blot out and p. 39. in marg for dives r. divis p. 41. l. 18. for Church r. Christian p. 43. l. 25. blot out not p. 46. l. 22. for to use r. to use it p. 48. l. 2. for rightly r. richly l. 16. for which you r. with you l. 24. for of things r. of the things p. 50. l. 20. for and other r. and another p. 52. l. 10 for thyrstie r. thriftie and l. 22. for set r. get p. 55. l. 18. for the is r. there is p. 56. l. 7 8. for charged r. cheared and l. 9. for that man r. that that man p. 61. l. 31. for maketh to r. maketh them to p. 63. l. 3. for heard r. hard and l. 11. for vincibatur r. vincebatur p. 66. l. 2. for spirituale qua r. spiritualem quam p. 72. l. 11. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 74. l. 29. for Damascus r. Damasus p. 77. l. 31. blot out in p. 80. l. 15. for magnified r imagined and l. 18 for for as r. as for and l. 20. for forward r. froward p. 86. l. 21. for oppositive r. positive p. 93. l. 13. for little r. title p. 98. l. 11. for be any r. be of any