XVI. Church as may be to the discharge of the people, the honour CHAP. of God, and of Christianity; yet the law of the land must be changed, as supposing that which we see is not. The weak112 nesses and imperfections, the falsehoods, the blasphemies, the slanders, the sedition, the schism, that we have known vented in such prayers, oblige us to conclude, that there is no such gift in all ministers; at least not of God's Spirit: and, therefore, that we must not forsake God's Church; changing the form that is ruled by the pattern thereof, and the eucharist to boot, for the arbitrary prayers, that every minister's gift shall vent in the pulpit. CHAPTER XVII. THE LORD'S DAY OBSERVED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. THERE- TIMES, PLACES, PERSONS, AND THINGS, CONSECRATED TO GOD'S SERVICE NOT THE determining of times and places and persons, by which The Lord's and at which, of the circumstances and ceremonies, of the day observed by form and order, according to which, the service of God is to the authority of the be celebrated, is the office, and therefore is within the power, Church. of the Church P. The substance of Christianity, wherein salvation consisteth, was determined by our Lord in person to His apostles. That which He trusted them with, was the regulating of His Church, supposing the same Christianity; that 113 God might be served by the assemblies of such, as might appear to profess it. That which He trusted the apostles with, the Church remains of necessity trusted with by the apostles; saving the personal gift of the Holy Ghost in the apostles, rendering their acts blameless in that estate for which they were made, though not sufficient for all estates of the Church. Otherwise, the power of the whole Church is the power of the XVII. CHA P. apostles; and obligeth the parts of the Church not to transgress the acts of it: because the unity of the Church is equally concerned in them, and the substance of Christianity in neither of both. This discovereth the superstition of that imposture, which is pretended, by deriving the obligation of the Lord's day from the Jewish sabbath. For what reason can endure, that the Church should be bound to keep the first day of the week by that precept, which tied the synagogue to keep the last day of the week? Seeing then the obligation of it is to be derived from the act of the apostles (that is, from the power of the Church; for being once received by the whole Church it is for ever received to the same effect, if the premisses be true); it is the same obligation, that ties all to observe the times appointed for the service of God by the Church, whether fasting days or festivals'. The example of the primitive Christians at Jerusalem justifieth St. Hieromes, and others of the fathers; affirming, that the Church should and would serve God continually in public, could the business of the world stand with it. And, therefore, that order is to be accounted most Christian, that provides most opportunity for frequenting the public service of God. Therefore other festi times of § 2. If this were considered, it would appear a mere imvals, and posture, to demand, that the Lord's day be celebrated with sermons morning and evening, and arbitrary prayers to usher fasting, are them in and out; treading under feet all other times, set apart by the whole Church for the service of God by such offices as it enjoineth. If we weigh by our own weights, and mete by our own measures;' not only the mysteries of our to be ob served. See Epilogue, Bk. III. Of the See Epilogue, ibid. § 30, 31: and In answer to one objecting, that Deo, nec possunt, imo nolunt, toto in ecclesia vitæ suæ tempore congregari, et ante humanos actus Deo orationum suarum offerre sacrificium." S. Hieron., In Epist. ad Galat., lib. ii. ad c. iv. ; Op. tom. iv. P. i. pp. 271, 272. See e. g. S. Clem. Alex., Strom., lib. vii. c. 7. p. 851: "'AuéλEL TO Yévos τὸ ἐκλεκτὸν, Επτάκις τῆς ἡμέρας ᾔνεσά Σοι, φησί, κατ' ἐντολὴν δικαιούμενον ὅθεν οὔτε ὡρισμένον τόπον, οὐδὲ ἐξαίρετον ἱερὸν, οὐδὲ μὴν ἑορτάς τινας καὶ ἡμέρας ἀποτεταγμένας, ἀλ λὰ τὸν πάντα βίον ὁ γνωστικός ἐν πάντι τόπῳ, καν καθ ̓ ἑαυτὸν μόνος ὢν τυγχάνῃ, καὶ ὅπου τινὰς ἂν τῶν ὁμοίως πεπιστευκότων ἔχῃ, τιμᾷ τὸν Θεὸν.” XVII. Lord's dispensation in the flesh, but the memories of His CHAP. apostles and saints, not only the time of Lent and the Wednesdays and Fridays, but the time of Advent, the evens of festivals, the Ember and Rogation days, once appointed to that purpose, must still be solemnized for the festivals and 114 fasts of God's Church". To set a peculiar mark upon the Lord's day, as if the time of it were more obliging than other time that is appointed to the same purpose, is to change the day, but to retain the Jews' superstition: as Calvin most truly hath told them, who in other things commit idolatry to his opinion, but wherein he follows the whole Church (in this point, and in the state of souls before the resurrection "), bid him farewell. and persons be lified for vice. § 3. The case is the same in the qualities of places, as well How places as of persons. For the exercise of Christianity by the law of this kingdom, there must be places where all must meet; come quathey must be limited by the authority of the Church; they God's sermust not be balked for other places of men's private choice, but by those that are willing to be charged with schism for doing it. They, that quarrel the bishop's power in all other things, must call this also in question, when they mean to 'weigh by their own weights,' and 'mete by their own measures.' They are very studious to confound the difference See Epilogue, Bk. III. Of the Laws of the Ch., c. xxi. § 31, 32, 52— 55. "Paulo hic cogor esse longior, quod hodie ob diem Dominicum tumultuantur nonnulli inquieti spiritus: plebem Christianam quiritantur in Judaismo foveri, quia retinet aliquam dierum observationem. Ego autem respondeo, citra Judaismum dies istos a nobis observari; quia longo intervallo differimus in hac parte a Judæis. Non enim ut ceremoniam arctissima religione celebramus, qua putemus mysterium spirituale figurari: sed suscipimus, ut remedium retinendo in Ecclesia ordini necessarium." Calvin, Instit., lib. II. c. viii. § 33: Op. tom. ix. p. 100." Ita evanescunt nugæ pseudoprophetarum, qui Judaica opinione populum superioribus sæculis imbuerunt, nihil aliud afferentes nisi abrogatum esse quod ceremoniale erat (id vocant sua lingua diei septimæ taxationem), remanere autem quod morale est, nempe unius diei observationem in heb domade. Atqui id nihil aliud est, w See Epilogue, ibid., c. xxix. § 37. § 10: and Epilogue, Bk. III. Of the vertible sacra ments. CHAP. between priests and deacons by having all called ministers; XVII. being a term that may serve all orders, ministering those Preaching offices which the Church enableth them to ministery. But not con- they, who would impose this sense upon the style of “miniswith ministers of God's word and sacraments,”—that all, and no other tering the but they, who are ordained to preach, are ordained also to baptize and celebrate the eucharist',-must be told, that this is an imposture, till they shew better reason for it than hitherto hath been shewed. For I conceive I have shewed sufficient reason, that the power of celebrating the eucharist is convertible with the power of the keys, qualifying all Christians for the eucharist which, in the bishop only, extendeth to public causes, concerning his whole Church or diocese; but in all presbyters, to private causes, wherein it may be questionable between God and the conscience, whether a Christian be qualified for the eucharist or not. As for the sacrament of baptism: that, as the bishop only allows it in any case that may be questionable, so the ministering of it may come to a deacon in the priest's absence; nay, to a layman, rather than that any child should die unbaptized". Neither is the office of preaching restrained either to priests or deacons alone by any other authority, than that of God's whole Church; which being once passed in the case by the general custom and practice of it, it must be the greatest sacrilege in the 115 world, that is, the sacrilege of schism, to transgress it. Times, places, persons, § 4. The respect due to the memories of the apostles, and other saints and martyrs of Christ, is a reason sufficient to and things, determine the time and place for the service of God 4. To question, that they are not just occasions for the consecrating conse crated to See Prim. Gov. of Ch., c. ix. § 5. note p: Rt. of Ch. in Chr. St., c. iii. § 37, c. v. § 96. And so also in Baxter's Accompt &c. before quoted, throughout and especially (as in the substitution of "minister" for "priest" in the rubric before the form of absolution at the Hampton Court Conference-see L'Estrange, Alliance of Div. Off, c. iii. note H. p. 189, so) in the Except. to the Bk. of Comm. Prayer in 1661, requesting that as the word minister, and not priest or curate, is used in the Absolution and in divers other places, it may throughout the whole book be so used instead of those two words" (Cardwell, Conferences, c. vii. pp. 307, 308). See ibid.: and Cartwright as quoted in Epilogue, Conclusion, § 16. note g. a Serv. of God at Rel. Ass., c. x. § 77, sq.; Rt. of Ch. in Chr. St., c. iii. § 13, sq. and especially § 35. b See Rt. of Ch. in Chr. St, c. iii. § 23; Epilogue, Bk. II. Of the Cov. of Gr., c. xix. § 12; Bk. III. Of the Laws of the Ch., c. viii. § 11. See Prim, Gov. of Ch., c. ix. § 4; Serv. of God at Rel. Ass., c. xi. § 4; Rt. of Ch. in Chr. St., c. iii. § 22; and Review of it, c. iii. § 20; Epilogue, Conclusion, § 16. See Epilogue, Bk. III. Of the Laws of the Ch., c. xxxi. § 15. of festivals and of churches to the service of God in honour CHA P. XVII. of their memories, is a just presumption, that men seek to be God's sersaved by some other Christianity than that, which their doc- vice under trine and their blood planted. But their names, and the the Gospel. festivals and the churches that bear their names, are but circumstances, determining that service to be acceptable to God, which is performed in the unity of His Church; the authority whereof assigneth them to that purpose. No more are the utensils and ornaments of churches, the vessels in which the sacraments are celebrated. But they, who think it superstition, that these things should be set apart from vulgar use and reserved only for God's service, plainly commit idolatry to their own imaginations in it. For it is manifest, that consecration was in force, not only by the law of Moses, but before it, under the law of nature, as the fathers call it ; under those precepts, which God gave Noah after the flood, as the Jews will have it 5. And, therefore, it tended not only to figure Christ to come, but to maintain the service of God, and that reverence which it ought to be performed with. What colour can there be, that the consecrations that were in force by the Law were figurative of Christ to come? And the sacrilege of Judas, as well as of Ananias and Sap- [John xii. phira, remain unquestionable; because the subsistence of the 6; Acts v. 1-10.j Church upon oblations consecrated to that purpose from the beginning is as visible as the Churchi. As for the sense of the Catholic Church from the beginning', he that believes the unity thereof cannot question it. They therefore, that have the impudence to make that superstition, which the people of God both before and since Christ have always used for the service of God; do they not commit idolatry to their own imaginations, which they prefer so far before all the world besides? Indeed the solemnity of consecration requires See Rt. of Ch. in Chr. St., c. iv. § 52-59. See Epilogue, Bk. II. Of the Cov. of Gr., c. xxix. § 11. note o. See ibid., c. iii. § 7. note g. h Ceremonies are 64 a bar to the Jews' conversion. ... Is not their unbelief and incredulity touching the Messiah strengthened and confirmed from the retention of those very things in the Christian Church, whereby He was typed and prefigured?" Oear@pwπos or the Great Mysterie of Godliness &c., See Epilogue, Bk. I. Of the Pr. of See Serv. of God at Rel. Ass., |