THis Text, I conceive, is not unfit for this time. In the text is synaxis, a meeting; and at this time there is synodus, a meeting.

In the text is a meeting of Disci­ples; and such is the meeting at this time. Hee that called the Disciples together, and sate President in that meeting, was the [Page 2]Apostle Paul; and he that called us hither, and sits President in this meeting, is our Diocesan; who can derive himselfe the successour of an Apostle: other­wise we should have taken his call for the voice of a stranger, and not have here appeared. It is Saint Au­stines resolution,S. Aug. cont. M [...]nich. ep. c. 4. [...]om. 6. Successio Episcoporum ab ipsâ sede Pe­tri, is that which, amongst other things by him named, keepes us in gremio Ecclesiae, and subjects us to our Bishops jurisdiction. The meeting in the text is inten­ded for two Actions, Breaking of bread, and Preaching. And the especiall intent of this meeting is, to receive our Bishops directions for the administration of the Sa­craments and Preaching, as his Articles informe us. Hitherto, if I can but hold me by my text, I hope not to fall into impertinencies. But in the next place the day of meeting in the text jumpeth not with the day of meeting for this our Synod. For that is the first day of the weeke: yet this comes as neere it as may be, for with Jacob it holds his brother by the heele; this is the second. And had it beene appointed on a Sunday, the authority of the Councell of Constantinople, Ephe­sus, and Chalcedon, would have justified it against all Sabbatarians. For by the Emperours edict they were precisely commanded to meet, and did meet, and sate, and gave suffrages, and dispatched letters on a Sun­day.

But in the other circumstances the text and the time are nothing at all allied. The place of meeting then was an upper chamber, ours a Church dedicated & consecra­ted for those holy duties in the text, and used also for Synods. That meeting was in the night, ours in the day. They had the benefit of many lights, we of one [Page 3]great light that ruleth the day. In the text the Sermon continued till midnight; but herein if I leave not my text, you will leave me. And if none of us all follow St. Paul in preaching in an upper chamber, in the night, and till midnight, neither he, nor his successours will taxe us. For Saint Luke is faine to make an Apologie for him in these respects, He was to depart the next mor­row. So that necessitie put him upon that time and place; and the importunitie of his Disciples would not be satisfied with a shorter discourse. For fons abiturus, (saies Saint Austine) they knew they should never see his face any more,S. Aug. ep. 86. nor refresh their thirstie soules with those waters of life that issued from the fountaine of his blessed lips; that he which could shake the Viper from his hand, could not finde in his heart to cast these Babes from his breasts. Therefore, contrary to his owne rules given to the Corinthians, he did administer the Sacrament and preach, where men did both eat and drinke, and continued the same (out of order) till mid­night. And so without any curious division, I come, af­ter my plaine manner, to handle the words in the text: and for your better memorie take them up as they lie in order, and begin with the time of this meeting.

Upon the first day of the weeke.] Herein I conceive foure things considerable. 1. what is meant by the first day of the weeke. 2. & 3. next, when and by whom was that day appointed for holy assemblies to meet on. 4. when doth the holy observation of that day begin.

For the first.S Basil H [...]xam. [...]om. 2. & a [...] S [...]. S [...]ct. 27. The words in the Originall are one day of the Sabbaths, one being put for first (saies S. Basil) as the evening and the morning were one day, i.e. the [Page 4]first. So una Sabbathi is that quam primam dicimus, (saies St. Ambrose) as we finde it written,S. Amb. ps. 47. Mat. 28.1. Vesperi Sabbathi quae lucescit in primam Sabbathi, In the end of the Sabbath when the first day of the week began to dawne.S. Aug. ep. 86. For that day (saies Saint Augustine) which three of the Evangelists call unam Sabbathi, one Sabbath, prima Sabbathi à Matthaeo dicitur, Saint Mat­thew expounds them, and calls the first day of the weeke. And it is manifest (saith the same Father) that this first day of the weeke is that day, qui posteà dies Dominicus appellatus est, which afterward was called the Lords day.S. Cyril. in Jo­han. l. 8. c. 58. Saint Cyril affirmes the very same; Christ appeared to his Disciples una Sabbathi, on one Sabbath, or on the first day of the weeke, i.e. die Do­minico, on the Lords day. It is manifest then, that by one day of the Sabbaths is meant the first day of the weeke; and the first day of the weeke is the Lords day. So wee see what is meant by the first day of the weeke, it is the Lords day.

The next points are, when and by whom was the observation of the Lords day appointed. The Church (saith St. Ignatius) hath set apart one day,S Ignat. ep. ad Magnes. and called it the Lords day, in confutation of those sonnes of per­dition that deny the Lords worke performed on that day, that is, his resurrection. So have you the time when, and the authority that did appoint the observa­tion of the Lords day, delivered by Ignatius scholar to Saint John,Niceph. l. 2. c. 35 that first so called it; and, as it is recorded, one of those babes whom our Saviour tooke up into his armes, as his master was received in his bosome. The time was the time the Apostles lived in. The authori­tie was the Church.

[Page 5] What meane you by the Church? Take that clee­red out of St. Augustine,S. Aug. ep. 119. Apostoli & Apostolici viri sanxerunt, the Apostles and Apostolike men have or­dained, that the first day of the weeke should be set a­part for the religious and solemne service of God, because our Redeemer arose on that day; and there­fore it is called ever since dies Dominicus, the Lords day, & ex illo caepit habere festivitatem, and from the very Apostles time and from their constitution, it be­gan to be kept as a festivall day.

A festivall day! what meane you by that? Why à sanctis patribus constitutum & mandatum (saies the same Father) it is a constitution and command received from our holy Fathers,S. Aug▪ serm. 251. de temp. that men should leave all worldly businesse on Saints daves, & maximè diebus Dominicis, and especially on the Lords day, that they may betake themselves wholly to the Lords service. The first day of the week then is the Lords day, appointed to be kept as a holy feast for the Lords service, by the Apostles themselves in their owne time. And this day which the Apostles call the Lords day,S. Justin. ora [...] ad Anton▪ St. Justine Martyr an A­postolike man calls Sunday. Solis autem die communi­ter omnes conventum agimus ad preces & supplicationes, on Sunday we all meet together to prayers and suppli­cations, because that is primus dies, the first day on which our Saviour arose. For he was crucified pridiè Saturni diei, the day before Saturday, and the next day after Saturday, qui sc. Solis est dies, which is Sunday, A­postolis & Discipulis suis apparuit, he appeared to his Apostles and Disciples. And hereupon his Apostles and Disciples thought fit to appoint and command this day to be kept holy. The Lords day then is by the [Page 6]Apostles so called, and by this Apostolike man na­med Sunday; and may fitly so be called, because (saies Saint Ambrose) in eo ortus Sol justitiae illuminat, S. Amb ser. 61. the Sun of righteousnesse then arose, that enlightneth every one of us. The first day of the weeke then is the Lords day, and Sunday. And the Lords day was by the A­postles themselves in their owne time appointed for holy assemblies to meet on, as on a feast day dedicated to the Lords service. And so hath that day beene cal­led, and used ever since in the true Catholike Church of God for 1554. yeares together without interrupti­on, both in the Greeke and Latine Church.

What shall we thinke then of Knox and Whitting­ham,Troubles at [...]. pag. 30. and their fellowes, that in their letter to Calvin depart from the constitution, ordinance, and practice of the Apostles and Apostolike men, and call not this day the Lords day, or Sunday, but with the pietie of Jero­boam make such a day of it, as they have devised in their owne hearts, to serve their owne turne, and ana­baptizing of it after the mind of some Jew hired to be the god-father thereof, call it the Sabbath, and so disgui­sed with that name become both the first that so called it, and the Testators that have so bequeathed it to their Disciples and Proselites to be observed accordingly?

It was full thirtie yeares before their children could turne their tongues from Sunday to hit on Sab­bath: and if the Gileadites that met with the Ephrai­mites before they could frame to pronounce Shibbo­leth, had snapt these too, before they had got their Sabbath by the end, their counsell had brought much peace to the Church. For this name Sabbath is not a bare name, like a spot in their foreheads to know [Page 7] Labans sheepe from Jacobs; but indeed it is a myste­rie of iniquitie, intended against the Church. For al­low them but their Sabbath, and you must allow them the service that belongs to their Sabbath. Then must you have no Letanie, for that is no service for their Sabbath, (containing suffrages devised by Pope Gre­gory) but for Sundayes; nay,Troubles at Frankf. pag. 30. for Wednesdayes and Fridayes, which must not so be used, for sixe dayes thou must labour: nay, you must have no part of the Service in the Communion booke used, for that is Ser­vice also for holy dayes,Welph. detemp [...] l. 2. c. 4. which are abominated as ido­latricall, being dedicated to Saints. Well then, the Sabbath must be yeelded them, otherwise there will be no day left for God to be served on.

What Service then must you allow them for their Sabbath? Why nothing but preaching. How shall that be knowne? Why out of their owne mouthes. Thus soone after the Conventicle in London in 84. a­bout the 31^th. yeare of the Sabbaths nativitie, writeth one of them in his letter to some Superintendent a­mongst them, to whom he gives an account of his Sab­baths exercise: Ego singulis Sabbath is, si non alius ad­veniens locum suppleat, (cum praescriptà Leiturgeias formulâ nihil habens commercit) in caetu concionem ha­beo, idque reverendorum fratrum consilio; I preach e­very Sabbath in the congregation, (having nothing at all to doe with the order prescribed in the booke of Common Prayer;) and this he does, not of his owne head, but by the counsell of the reverend brethren, delivered doubtlesse in that late Synode.

Now you see the Common Prayer booke, which the Kings Majesties authority in causes Ecclesiasticall, [Page 8]with the Convocation house, have appointed, and the Parliament the reunto assented, is clean cast out of their Sabbath, and no service allowed or used but preaching. Marvaile not then at the casting out of lawfull sports; their zeale could and did dispence with them well e­nough for a long time together, as they of Genevah and the Low-countries (even sitting the Synode of Dort) did, and still doe. But the plot with us will not beare them, for they must gaine elbow roome for their Sabbaths exercise, or preaching, falsely so called, being for the most part (as their hearers will justifie) but violent discourses, and personall invectives against the present State, and settled lawes of the Land, with the Governours, thereby to get themselves magnified for the great power of God with Simon, that having cryed downe all Lawes, Ecclesiasticall and Temporall too in time that sute not with their Sabbath doctrine, they may be able (making their reliance on their in­veigled thousands whereof they bragge) to put their hands to their mouthes,Mar. ju. epiles. and to say with him in the sto­ry,Petition to his Majestie in 1603. Richard. 2 [...]. Behold the fountaine from whence all lawes for go­vernement of Church and Common wealth must shortly spring.

You see then what the plot was that bred, and still keepes the name of Sabbath on foot; that if St. John or the Apostles that first called and appointed the Lords day, should come amongst them, and happen to call it the Lords day, they would quickly finde him to be none of their Tribe, nor for their turne, being [...], without his watch word of the Sabbath. But if Justin that blessed Martyr should be so profane as to call it Sunday, he would be in danger under their [Page 9]discipline to be martyred the second time for not ado­ring their idoll Sabbath, as he was under Antonius for not worshipping Jupiter.

Ob. Secondly, if the Lords day was appointed and kept by the Apostles, what shall we say to those turbu­lent spirits (as master Calvin calls them) qui tumultu­antur ob diem Dominicum, Calv. i [...]s [...]. [...] c. 8 S. 33. [...] 3 [...] that are all up in a hurly-bur­ly for being abridged of their Christian libertie, and made to observe dayes and Feasts, and particularly the Lords day? Whereupon it was sadly demurr'd upon, even in Genevah,Barcl [...]i [...] paroen. l. 1 c. 13. to have that day altered to Thurs­day; and himselfe holds it alterable. What shall wee thinke also of the Centurists,Cent. 1. l. 2. c.6. de fe [...] [...]. that not onely say there is no place of Scripture to command the observation of the Lords day;Cent. 2. c. 6. pag. 11 [...]. but that the contentions raised by Ani­cetus and Victor, Popes of Rome, touching the obser­vation of Easter on the Lords day, doe sufficiently de­clare, that for two hundred yeares after Christ some kept the Sabbath holy, some the Lords day; and that they were false Apostles that attempted at first to bind the Church to the observation of Feasts, as of the Lords day: and for this cause they sticke the mysterie of iniquitie on the foreheads of those two blessed Mar­tyrs.

Sol. To that part of the objection which is framed out of the Centurists, some perhaps would answer, that the guise of the Centurists is to use the Catholike Fa­thers and holy Martyrs as Balaam used his Asse. For if they wil not go that way that they would have them, though Gods Angel suffer them not so to doe, but the Spirit of truth lead them quite otherwise, they fall up­on them, and use them as rudely as he did the Asse. A [Page 10]wrong which cannot but bee highly displeasing to that good God, who was so moved upon the sight of the injury done the poore beast, that hee was upon the point to have taken a sharpe revenge upon the false hypocrite, in habit of a Prophet, for the same.

But with cruell Balaam I will not compare them, because he wisht for a sword to be avenged of the poore Asse; whereas these, like diligent Schoolemasters, ex­amine the exercises of the ancient Fathers, shew them their errours, tell them of the many spots and blots they finde in them, and let them see how they are put to the trouble to correct them at every turne; where­upon their patience is so moved, that they rebuke them sometime with very sharpe language: and when all is done, they are so ashamed of divers things they heare from them, that they set them to schoole againe to learne their lessons backward.

This their diligence and paines in correcting and wi­ping the Fathers, as one wipes a dish that turneth it up­side downe, is not well accepted on all hands: for some passionate men thinke they whip the Fathers without cause, and for not running the way of their errours, which these Auditors account to be so many, and so costly too, that the Merchant payes more for them than for all the truths, [...]. morall, naturall, supernaturall, that are in Aristotle, Plato, or the blessed Bible, though you give the Apocrypha leave to be bound up with it. I would be loath to say as Saint Paul doth of the testi­monie of Epimenides, This witnesse is true. But be it truth, or some counterfeit, like Jeroboams wife, their credit is eclipsed, and their testimonie abated by their doings. So I leave them till anon.

[Page 11] Secondly, I answer, true it is, that Saint Paul and o­ther Apostles preached to the Jewes in the Synagogue on the Sabbath day, because they would meet upon no other: but it is untrue, that they set that day apart to preach unto the Gentiles, or the Jews either. They were false Apostles that laboured to lay that yoak on the Di­sciples neckes, whom Saint Paul opposed with all his might, Col. 2.16. Gal. 4.10. and did utterly reject their Sabbath, and appointed no day of publick meetings but the first day of the weeke, when their collections were ever made, 1 Cor. 16.1. and so continued to be made on that day, and on no day else, in all succeeding ages. And because Saint Paul did keepe the first day of the weeke, and opposed the observation of the Jewish Sab­bath, therefore the Ebionites (say St. Irenaeus and Epi­phanius) rejected his writings, Apostatam legis dicentes, S. Irer. l. 1. c. 26. S. Ep [...]ph [...]h [...]e. 31. rating him for an Apostata.

So likewise the blessed Martyrs in the Primitive Church,Euseb. l. 3. c. 24. S. Ignatap. 3. ad M [...]g. by the doctrine and example of Saint Paul and the Apostles, so unfeignedly abhorred the observation of the Jewish Sabbath, that they esteemed the obser­vers thereof, and the contemners of the Lords day, the very sonnes of perdition, enemies of our Saviour, and sellers of Christ: and, as Saint Justin Martyrtells Trypho,S. Just. [...]. Triph. Tom. 2. they gladly endured the most horrible tor­ments that men and divels could devise to inflict upon them, rather than yeeld Sabbatha vestra & solennes dies observare, to keepe your Sabbaths and dayes of solemne assemblies; which (saith he) could not hurt us, were they not forbidden us by the doctrine and pra­ctice of the Apostles, and Christ himselfe.S. Just. ad An­ton. But the observation of Sunday was so generally and religiously [Page 12]observed of all Christians, that then was the common meeting of all, qui vel in oppidis vel rure degunt, both Citizens and Country men. All sorts of Christians met on Sundayes, and none on the Sabbath day but Jewes onely.

With what face then dare the Centurists vent such untruths, that the keeping of the Lords day was a thing indifferent for two hundred yeeres? And with what conscience dare they forge those to be false Apo­stles, that were the bringers in of the observation of Feasts, and particularly of the Lords day? Or with what conscience dare they use the Martyrs of God, members of Christs body, so unworthily, as to make the blessed Saints in heaven, fellow heires with Christ Jesus, meet vessels for the mysterie of iniquitie to be­gin to worke in, who did no more than either was ap­pointed by the Apostles and Apostolike men before themselves, or was afterward confirmed by the Coun­cell of Nice, the Edicts of Constantine and his succes­sours, the Decrees of the Councell of Constantinople, and other Synods, as well in the Greeke as Latine Church, in all succeeding ages?

Ob. But they say there is no place of Scripture to command the observation of the Lords day, but onely the Tradition from the Apostles; therefore the day may be altered.

Sol. Be it so: yet (as Chemnitius excellently saies) though we be not bound by any necessity of law in Novo Testamento, C [...]em. Exam. de [...]est. 4. pars. in the New Testament to observe the Lords day for solemne assemblies, barbarica tamen petulantia, yet were it barbarous saucinesse to refuse to observe the custome of the Apostles and Primitive [Page 13]Church. For (as Saint Augustine saies) wherein the Scripture hath determined nothing, mos populi Dei, S. Aug. ep. Cas. 86. & instituta majorum pro lege tenenda sunt, the custome of Gods people, and the ordinance of our Elders, are to be observed as lawes. And in this case for any man to doubt whether he should relinquish and abandon his owne new devices, & ita faciendum, and that it be­comes him to doe as he sees the whole Church of God to doe, insolentissimae insaniae est, is an insolencie with madnesse to boot (saies Saint Augustine.S. Aug aep. 119. Ja.) And to talke with such, interminata orietur luctatio, were to uphold wrangling world without end.

3 If the first day of the weeke be the Lords day, we must looke to doe the Lords worke on it, and not trench upon him by doing our owne worke thereon. For no excuse of businesse ought to keepe us from the service of God on that day. No necessitie is a greater tyrant than poverty, yet is that no good excuse for thy absence from Church (saies Saint Chrysostome) to say thou art poore, and must follow thy businesse.S. Chrysoft. hom. 24. de bap. Christi. For God hath not taken to himselfe the greatest part of the dayes of the weeke, but hath given thee sixe, unam vero sibi reliquit, and left himselfe but one; yet wilt thou finde out the thiefe povertie to steale that away from him too, as sacrilegious persons doe consecrate things. But what doe I speake de integro die, of a whole day? Doe but that in keeping the Lords day which the widow did in her almes, that gave two mites, sic tu duas horas, so give the Lord two houres. This if you doe not, beware you lose not integrorum annorum labores, the labours of many whole yeares.

Qu. May then no worke of our owne be done on [Page 12] [...] [Page 13] [...] [Page 14]the Lords day, not so much as out of the times of the Lords service?

Resp. Out of doubt there may; yea, though we should suppose that Christians are bound to keepe the Lords day as strictly as our Saviour kept the Sabbath. For our Saviour (saies Epiphanius) non artem fabri­lem, lignariam, S. Epip [...] 2. [...] 2. ber. 66. p. 229. aut ferrariam, did not follow the trade of a Carpenter or Smith on the Sabbath day, though he was so poore that he used Josephs trade, and made both Carts and Ploughs, yet conversatione & doctrinâ, by his doctrine and course of life he shewed that some workes of our owne might be done on the Sabbath out of the times of divine service; for himselfe made clay, est autem opu [...] lutum subigere, and to make clay is a kinde of worke: a worke neither of necessity nor charity; for had it so pleased him, the worke of charity had taken place before the clay could have been tempered. He commanded also the Cripple, grabba­tum tollere, to carry away his bed, which then needed not, for the arrantest Pharisee theefe in Jerusalem would not have medled with it on that day. The Di­sciples also by his doctrine and example (saies the same Father) spicas vellunt, torrent, & edunt, do plucke and parch their corne on the Sabbath day. And there was no law (saies Saint Irenaeus) that forbade them so to doe: [...] metere autem & colligere in horreum lex vetabat, but the law forbade reaping and carrying into the barne on the Sabbath day. His reason is this, continere enim se jubeb at lex ab omni opere servili, (i.e.) ab omni avaritiâ quae per negotiationem & reliquo terreno actu [...]gitatur, The law forbiddeth all servile workes, wherein covetousnesse sticketh as a naile betweene two [Page 15]stones. Some small chares then of our owne may be done on the Lords day, out of the times of the Lords service.

Secondly, meate may be drest, and Feasts may be kept on the Lords day by Christs example,S. Luc. 14.13. who was at a feast on the Sabbath day; and none ought to blame us for doing the like. For rectè Ecclesiae festa colunt, S. Aug. de temp. ser. 253. & 255. qui Ecclesiae filios se esse recognoscunt, they doe well to keepe the Feasts of the Church, that remember them­selves to be the sonnes of the Church. This doctrine Saint Augustine taught his people, Novit sanctitas ve­stra fraires, my brethren, your holinesse knoweth very well that to day consecrationem altaris celebramus, we celebrate the Feast for the consecration of the Altar, in quo unctus vel benedictus est lapis, in quo divina sacri­ficia consecrantur, ac meritò gaudentes celebramus; and wee doe well to keepe this feast with joy, not with wanton, lewd, or unchaste joy. (Saint Austine is no Proctor to plead for Baal, nor any that follow him.) For, nescio qua fronte (saith he) I cannot tell with what conscience he can shew a cheerefull countenance in al­taris consecratione, that is not precise in cordis sui altari munditiam custodire, to preserve purity in the altar of his heart.

The Lords day then is and ought to bee kept as a Feast, as the Sabbath was.Judith. 10.2. For magnum scandalum (saies Saint Augustine) nay magnum nefas (saies Ter­tullian) it is a great scandall,S. Aug. ep. 86. Tert. de Coro. Mil. and a foule sinne to fast on the Lords day. Therefore we condemne the Mani­chees (saies Saint Ambrose) that fast on Sundayes. S. Amb. ep. 33. l. 10. We are bound to fast on Fridayes, and of feast on Sundayes; so have we a day & amaritudinis & laetitiae; in illo [Page 16]jejunemus, illo reficiamur; to fast on the one, to feast on the other. The Jewes themselves (saies Tertullian) kept not their Sabbath with fasting: for pridianâ pa­raturâ, by their provision of two Omers for a man, it plainely appeareth that they made as large a meale on the Sabbath as on any day else.

Ob. But they were commanded to dresse their Sab­bath dinner the day before, and the Commandement saies, On it thou shalt doe no maner of worke.

Sol. Not to dispute it further,S. Aug. ep. 119. c. 12. how, or to what the Jewes were bound upon their Sabbath, however, this nothing concernes us Christians, if we understand the Commandement aright: for though all the nine Com­mandements sic observantur ut sonant, are to be kept according to the letter; observare tamen diem Sabba­thi, non ad literam jubemur secundum etium ab opere corporali, sicut observant Judaei, yet we Christians are not commanded to observe the Sabbath after the letter by a strict rest, as did the Jewes; nor the Lords day af­ter the maner of the Jewish Sabbath: for of all the ten Commandements, the third, which concerneth the Sabbath, figurativè intelligendum est, is to be under­stood figuratively. For this Commandement was gi­ven for no other end but onely for a signe (saies Saint Irenaeus) out of the Prophet Ezechiel, [...]. Iren. l. [...]. c. 30. cap. 20. and out of the Law of Moses, Exod. 31. and then shewes whereof it was a signe. Sabbath a perseverantiam totius diei erga Deum deservitionis edocebant, their Sabbath taught our continuall service of God;Orig. ho [...]. 2 [...]. in [...]. 28. which Origen calls Sabbathum Christianum, a Christian Sabbath. And because no man is justified either by the Sabbath or Circumcision, therefore in signo data sunt populo, [Page 17]they were given the people for a signe. This Theodo­ret largely sheweth out of the plaine words of the Prophet Ezechiel, cap. 20. ver. 11.S. Theod. in E­zech. The Sabbath was none of those Commandements that could give life to the observers, but was given them onely to be a signe, in signum temporis illius, Tert. de pr [...] lib. c. 4. (as Tertullian speakes) and not in sallutis praerogativam, not to bring them sal­vation, but to make them knowne from other Nations. Other Nations that descended of Abraham used cir­cumcision as well as the Jewes, but no Nation kept the Sabbath but Jewes onely. Therefore 1541. years they were knowne by that signe to be Gods people: but the keeping of the Sabbath made neither them nor the Pharisees to be Gods people. This is evident. For A­braham (saith Saint Irenaeus) was justified and called the friend of God,S. Iren. l. 4. c. 30. sine observatione Sabbathorum, without keeping any Sabbaths.

Nay, there was not any of the Patriarchs (saith Tertullian) that kept the Sabbath, neither Adam,Tert. adv. [...]u­daeos de praeser [...] c. 2.4. Enoch, Noah, Abraham, nor Melchizedek, for 2455. years, yet were they just men, and obtained salvation. This is so cleare a truth, that the Jewes could not denie it: and Trypho doth confesse it, being pressed thereunto by Saint Justin. And for this 1635.S. Just. i [...]. Tryph. Tom. 2. yeares it hath not beene kept in the Christian world. Manifestum est igitur (saies Tertullian) it is manifest therefore, that that cannot be morall, nor perpetuall, that began but with Moses,S. Tusti [...]. [...] ve­rit. l. 2. in Tryph (as Saint Justin Martyr sayes) and en­ded with Christ, when hee nailed all the ceremoni­all law to his Crosse, with those words, Consumma­tum est, it is finished. Therefore the third Com­mandement, (as Saint Austine) or the fourth (as [Page 18]Josephus and other Fathers call it) touching the Sab­bath, must be understood onely figuratively, and not after the letter, as the other nine commandements are. This is the doctrine of antiquitie, which hath gotten a placet from Gomarus,Goma. invest. sab. c. 3. whose followers may perhaps embrace the same.

Ob. Dicunt autem Judaei, quòd primordio, &c. Tertul. de prae­scrip. c. 2. & 4. But a Jew will object and say (saies Tertullian) that God from the beginning did sanctifie the Sabbath, and there­fore the Sabbath ought to be kept holy, and no maner of worke must be done thereon.

Sol. This is the very argument which Marcion lear­ned of the Pharisees,John. 9.16. and blasphemously useth to prove Christ not to the Sonne of God, because he carried himselfe so crosse to his Fathers actions and Lawes. For the Sabbath which his Father sanctified and rested on, operatione destruxit, Tert. in Mar. l. 4. he profaned and overthrew by working on it: so did his Disciples, for cibum operati (marke how pure this blasphemous Hereticke was) they dresse their meate on the Sabbath. My answer therefore is this, that the Law-giver best knew how to observe his owne lawes; and if his Fathers rest did not binde him from doing some worke, no more doth it us. Besides, we see the Patriaches, even Melchizedek himselfe, a Priest of the most high God, did not take themselves bound to rest on the Sabbath at all. For though they saw Gods example, yet they heard no commandement to enjoyne them to rest on that day as he did; therefore they never observed the Sabbath.

Thirdly, though a Jew will little regard what the Patriarches did, or what all good Christians resolve [Page 19]and practice, but will force the Law-giver to keepe his owne law, not after his owne meaning but after theirs, as the Pharisees did our Saviour, saying, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day, viz. as they construed and expounded the Comman­dement for the observation thereof: yet that nothing concernes us that keepe the Lords day by vertue of A­postolical constitution and tradition of holy Church, and not the Sabbath by force of the fourth Comman­dement, which the Apostles by Christs doctrine and example understood solutum, to be dissolved. And, cujus vis soluta nec nomen haerebat, S. Amb [...]th Lu. 6. l. 5. (saies Saint Am­brose) when the Sabbath lost his force it forfeited the name; therefore ought not so to be called: and so having lost both force and name, is become nothing at all but a meere Idoll. An Idoll hath the shape of something, but because it hath eyes and sees not, &c. it is nothing in the world. So though their Sabbath hath the name of one of the Jewes holy dayes, yet keepeth it not neither the day they kept, nor the service belonging to it, and so is become nothing in the world.

True it is, that some that with great zeale and little judgement exclaime against recreations, and dressing of meat, and the like, on Sundayes, must make a Sabbath of Sunday, and keepe up that name, otherwise their many citations of Scripture, mentioning onely the Sabbath of being applied to Sunday, will appeare so ridiculously distorted and wry-neckt, that they will be a scorne and derision to the simplest of their now deluded Auditors, who are abused with the name of a Christian Sabbath out of Origen, which is not kept on Sunday onely, [...] but every day. Christ is our Christian Sabbath (saith [Page 20]Origen) and he that lives in Christ, semper in Sabbatho vivit, requiescendo ab operibus malis, operatur autem opera justitiae incessanter.

Others also for the plot-sake must uphold the name of Sabbath, that stalking behind it they may shoot a­gainst the Service appointed for the Lords day. Hence it is that some for want of wit, some for too much, a­dore the Sabbath as an Image dropt downe from Jupi­ter, and cry before it, as they did before the golden Calfe, This is an holy day unto the Lord; whereas indeed it is the great Diana of the Ephesians as they use it, whereby the mindes of their Proselytes are so per­plexed and bewitched, that they cannot resolve whe­ther the sinne be greater to bowle, shoot, or daunce on their Sabbath, than to commit murder, or the father to cut the throate of his owne childe. All which doubts would soon be resolved by plucking the vizzard of the Sabbath from the face of the Lords day, which doth as well and truely become it as the Crowne of thornes did the Lord himselfe. This was platted to expose him to damnable derision, and that was plotted to impose on it detestable superstition.

Yet to die for it they will call it a Sabbath, presu­ming in their zealous ignorance or guilefull zeale, to be thought to speake the Scripture phrase, when indeed the dregs of Ashdod flow from their mouthes. For that day which they nickname the Sabbath, is either no day at all, or not the day that they meane. It were well therefore that they would forbeare to speake strange languages in the Church for Saint Pauls sake, and use them then when they all meet together in new England amongst them that understand the language; [Page 21]for with us the Sabbath is Saturday, and no day else. No ancient Father, Father! Nay, no learned man, Heathen or Christian, tooke it otherwise from the beginning of the world till the beginning of their schisme in 1554. And if wee finde the word other­wise used in some writings that of late come unto our hands, blame not the Clerkes, good men, for it, nor intitle the misprision any higher, or otherwise than to these pretenders to pietie, who for their owne ends have for a long time deceived the world with their zealous and most ignorant or cunning cla­mours, and rung the name of Sabbath so commonly into all mens eares, that not Clerkes onely, but men of judgement, learning and vertue, not heeding per­adventure so much as is requisite, what crafty and wicked device may be menaged under the vaile of a faire word used in Gods law, doe likewise suffer the same often to scape the doore of their lips, that de­test the drift of the devisers in the closet of their hearts.

I will now shut up this point in Saint Hilaries words.S. Hilar. l. 6. Non sum nescius difficillimo me asperrimo (que) tempore haec disserere, multis jam per omnes fermè Romani Imperii provincias Ecclesiis morbo pestiferae hujus praedicationis infectis, & velut ad piae fidei hu­jus malà usurpatam persuasionem, longo doctrinae usu, & ementito nomine verae religionis imbutis, non igno­rans difficilem esse ad emendationis profectum, volun­tatem: quam in erroris sui studio per plurimorum as­sensum authoritas publicae sententiae contineret. Gra­vis enim est, & periculosus error inplurimis, & mul­torum lapsus, etiamsi se intellig at, tamen exurgendi pu­dore [Page 22]authoritatem sibi praesumit, ex numero habens hoc impudentiae, ut quod errat, intelligentiam esse ve­ritatis asserat, dum minus erroris esse existimatur in multis.

There are so many that see so little benefit will be suckt out of the constitutions of the Apostles, pra­ctice and tradition of holy Church, doctrine of god­ly and learned Fathers, that they have got them­selves heapes of teachers, that to serve their owne turnes will call and keep the Lords day as a Sabbath, and so proclaime it with such lowd outcries, that the voice of truth will become silence, and her selfe made errour, and so made to beleeve of her selfe, or to forgoe her owne modesty, and to beleeve none but her selfe.

But with Moses, liberavi animam meam, being called hither very unwillingly, I have set before you good and evill, light and darknesse, life and death, the doctrine and practice of the Church of God, and the leaven of Pharisees, and fashion of Schisma­tickes and Novellists; chuse which you will, and the Lord be your guide. Onely of this be you well assured, that if you will have Manna rained downe unto you, you must forgoe your Sabbath, and sticke onely to the Lords day: for in nostrâ Dominicâ die semper Dominus pluit Manna, Orig. super 15. Exod. hom. 7. & in Sabbatho non pluit.

The last point touching the day of meeting is, When doth the Lords day begin?

Resp. I answer,S. Ambra. in Ps. [...]7. out of Saint Ambrose, The first day of the weeke began when the Sabbath ended. The Sabbath ended when Christ arose. Christ the [Page 23]true light arose with the light and spring of the mor­ning; for vesperi Sabbathi quae lucescit in primam Sabbathi, are Saint Matthews words. Nihil pul­chrius, nihil expressius (saith hee) this place is as fit and pat for our purpose as may be. The Sabbaths evening is in the light of the first day of the weeke.

So Saint Leo resolveth Dioscorus Patriarch of Alexandria, vespera Sabbathi initium diei Dominici, S. Leo epist. [...]d Diosc. the beginning of the Lords day is in the end of the Sabbath. The end of the Sabbath is in the light of the first day of the weeke. Looke then for Jacobs hand on Esau's heele, or the beginning of the Lords day in the end of the Sabbath. But Saint Nyssen is more punctuall and cleere:S. Nyssen. dere­sur. orat. 2. the Lords day (saith he) begins at Cock-crowing, atque in hoc ipso articulo temporis, and at that very knot and joint of time: For then end we our Sabbaths, or Saturdaies fast, and then begin we nos oblectare & laetari, to keepe our Sundayes feast, and that by an ancient custome, which all are bound to observe. For [...] (saith he) doth not signifie the evening, or that part of the night which is post occasum Solis, after Sun set; but the rise of the morning, with which the Sabbath ended.

Yet for all this the Church by way of preparation for the better sanctification of the Lords day, hath prudently and piously appointed holy offices to be used on the Eve before. And in obedience to this po­sitive constitution of holy Church Saint Augustine would have his hearers to observe the Lords day,S. Aug. ser. de tem. 25. à vesperâ ad vesperam, from Even to Even, sicut anti­quis praeceptum est de Sabbatho, as it was also com­manded [Page 24]the Jewes concerning the Sabbath. And therefore (saith he) look that from Saturday at Even, us que ad vesperam diei Dominici, till the Lords day at even, we set aside all rurall and worldly businesse, ut solo divino culiui vacemus, that we may attend onely on the Lords service, and begin to repaire to the Church to evening prayer on Saturday nights; and he that cannot so doe, let him be sure to pray at home.

Remember then that you which will needs have the Lords day a Sabbath, doe set aside all businesse, and flocke to the Church to say or heare Service on Saturday Evens; which hitherto you have not done, notwithstanding the order of the Church, which prescribeth that part of that day to prepare us for the more devout observation of the Lords day. Thus much of the day of meeting, The first day of the weeke.

2 In the next place, we have in the next words to consider of the persons that then met. These were not Jewes, for then the Sabbath had beene the day of their meeting; but Gentiles, Asians, Macedonians, Thessalonians, Paul, with his companions and Disci­ples. Now Paul had ordered before this time in Ga­latia, and in Corinth, that his Disciples were to have their meetings on the first day of the weeke, where­unto they submitted themselves. For on the first day of the week they now met, and so did the whole Church of God by their example for ever after. Wherefore their obedience and humility would bet­ter beseeme us, than the pride and opposition of Di­otrephes against St. John, and St Paul, and the whole [Page 25]Church of God, about the day of meeting, or the Service thereon used, onely for preheminence sake.

3 Now I come in the next place to the holy duties wherin the Apostle and his Disciples spent the Lords day. The first of these is breaking of bread. How is that done? St. Augustine tells us, sicut frangitur in Sacramento corporis Christi, S. Aug. ep. 86. not as bread is broken in a Taverne, but as it is broken in the Sacrament of the Lords body. Therefore the Syriac plainely calleth this breaking of bread, receiving the Eucharist. So doth Justin Martyr. And none is so fit as he to ex­pound St. Austins sicut, to tell us how bread was bro­ken in the holy Eucharist in those primitive times. This he doth in his information given thereof unto Antoninus plus.

Sunday (saies he) is the day of our meeting,S. Justin. orat, ad Anton. for taking that nourishment which with us is called the Eucharist. Then the brethren come together ad communes preces & supplicationes, to common pray­ers and supplications: then are read the writings of the Prophets and Apostles: deinde Lectore quiescente, when the Reader hath finished all divine Service, Praesidens orationem habet, he that hath the chiefe place maketh an Oration or Sermon, and instructs the people, and exhorts them to imitate those excel­lent things which they have heard read.

Here is reading of prayers and lessons, both out of the Old and New Testament, and after them a Sermon; and the Sermon doth not justle out any part of divine Service, though the President or Bi­shop himselfe made it. Thus the first Service en­deth with a Sermon.

[Page 26] And now begins the second Service. Sub haec con­surgimus omnes, &c. prayers being finished, and the Sermon done, we all stand up at once and poure out our prayers. Stand up and pray! Marvaile not at this. For in the Primitive Church prayers on the Lords day were performed standing, in memory of Christs resurrection. And it was not lawfull de ge­niculis adorare, to pray kneeling, as appeares out of Tertullian,Tertul. de Co­ron. mil. Concil. Nic. Can. 30. S. Bafil. de Sp. Sancto. c. 27. S. Aug. ep. 119. S. Epiph. l. 3. To. 2. and the Nicene Councell, and the Fathers that succeeded.

Then precibus finitis, prayers being ended, ei qui fratribus praeest, offertur panis, &c. Bread, wine, and water are offered to the Priest, who taketh the same, and with all his might courageously preces & grati­arum actiones profundit, poures out prayers and be­nedictions over them: and then all the people give a cheerefull acclamation, and cry Amen. Then is di­stribution made cuique praesenti, to every one pre­sent; doubtlesse to lay men as well as to Priests and Deacons. Then also the richer sort contribute what they thinke fit, which is laid up for the use of the poore.

Here are reading of prayers and lessons, expoun­ding of Scripture, supplications, benedictions, ob­lations to the Priest, collections for the poore, distri­bution of the Sacrament, all required to breaking of bread, ficut frangitur in Sacramento corporis Christi, as it is broken in the Eucharist. And so we see how the use of our first and second Service is founded on, and agreeth with the practice of the Primitive Church, by the testimonie of this holy Martyr. Yet this may more clearely be delineated out of the [Page 27]Fathers that succeeded him. Christian Churches in the Primitive times had these distinct places in them: there was Sacrarium, Presbyterium, and Auditori­um: the Sacrarium or holy place, was distinguished from the Presbyterie by certaine lists and railes: the Presbyterie also was divided from the Auditorie, Nave, and body of the Church per cancellos, by a certaine partition that gave it the name of a Chaun­cell. In the holy place stood the Altar, or Lords boord, and not in the body of the Church. In the Presbyterie was placed Cathedra Episcopi, & exedrae Presbyterorum, the Bishops Chaire or Throne, and stalls for Priests. For anciently none else, not so much as Deacons, were permitted to sit in the Church. In the Auditorie stood the Pulpit, or Readers Tribunall (as Saint Cyprian calls it.) Now the Service that was performed in Sacrario, was much different from that which was done in Auditorio. None were allowed to come and stand within the lists of the ho­ly place, where the Altar was fixed, but the Priests,Concil. Arel. Can. 15. S. Cyp. l. 1. ep. 9. whose office it was, non nisi altari deservire, to stand and serve at the altar, and none but they.Concil. Constan­tinop. 6. Can. 69. And the Ca­non in the sixth generall Councell excludeth all lay men from thence, unlesse it were to come in to offer. And the passages in Theodoret between S. Ambrose and Theodosius make it manifest:S. Theod. l. 5. c. 18. and they are much mistaken that produce the Councell of Constanti­nople, to prove that communion Tables stood in the midst of the Church.

But the Service in the Auditory might, and was much of it performed by such as had onely a tole­ration to read from the Bishop, without imposition [Page 28]of hands by the Presbyterie as Celerinus had from Saint Cyprian.S. Cypri. 2. ep. 7. And such had authority to goe into the Pulpit, and read the Service appointed: and when the Reader had finished the Ecclesiasticall office, then the Expounder or Preacher went up into the Pulpit, and did expound some place of Scripture formerly read.Tert. depraeser. c. 16. Eusch. l. 6. c. 34. S. Cypr. l. 4. ep. 2. &. l. 2. ep. 1. & l. 1. ep. 7. & 4. At this Service were present Cate­chumeni, Competentes, Neophyti, and all sorts of Au­ditors, beleevers or unbeleevers. But at the second Service (which began in Sacrario, when this first Ser­vice ending with a Sermon was done in Auditorio) none were admitted to be present but only the faith­full. And these kneeled behind the Deacons in the midst of the Presbytery, or Chauncell, and with them such Priests as after penance done ad limina Ecclesiae, were admitted only in communionem lai­corum. For Penitents were permitted to kneele to­gether with the faithfull, but that was post exomolo­gesin, as Tertullian thinkes fit to call it, after confessi­on and penance; which was so district and severe in those primitive times performed in sackcloth and ashes, and the Penitents casting themselves downe at the thresholds of the Church doores, and after ad­mission into the Church, with much adoe granted, then casting themselves downe upon their knees be­fore the Altar, or Lords boord, to receive the Priests absolution, that our silken eares will be in danger to be galled with the hearing of so rough a discipline. Yet all of us confesse in the Commination, ‘That in the Primitive Church there was such a godly disci­pline, whereby notorious sinners were put to open penance; and that it is a thing much to be wished for, [Page 29]that such discipline were restored againe.’ Bishop Latimer soone missed it, or some such thing, and complaines of the want thereof; therefore he, with the other godly Bishops of his time, send their wishes after it to fetch it againe, till God be plea­sed to provide meanes powerfull for the restoring thereof.

Tertullian taxeth the Heretickes of his time for neglect of this decent and godly discipline.Tertul. de praeser. c. 16. They kept no distinction of places, nor of Service in their Conventicles. Quis catechumenus, quis fidelis incer­tum est; pariter adeunt, pariter audiunt, pariter orant. The whole heard of them ranne in a rout together, both to Prayers, Sermon, and Sacrament, that you could not know one from another.Euseb. l. 5. c. 28 & l. 6. c. 34. It was quite o­therwise in the holy Catholike Church. That which Zepherinus required of Natalius, Fabianus of Phi­lip, and Saint Cyprian of the Penitents of his time,S. Cyp. l. 2. ep. 7 make it manifest, that there were distinction of pla­ces in the Church to ranke all sorts of Christians in. And Saint Ambrose his practice sheweth a distincti­on of Service. The Catechumeni being dismissed, missam facere caepi; S. Amb. ep. 33. Saint Ambrose began not the se­cond Service, as our Church calleth it, at the Altar,Booke of Fast 1. D [...]m. R [...]gi [...] before the first Service in the body of the Church was finished, and the Catechumeni sent out: which still is the custome in our Church, and none will ever goe about to put that sweet harmonie which wee keepe with the Primitive Church out of tune, but such as Tertullian complaines of, Schismatickes and Sectaries. And so we see that all those holy actions which are distinctly performed both in the first and [Page 30]second service, are all included in this action of brea­king of bread, sicut frangitur in Sacramento corporis Christi. And so I come to the second holy a­ction.

2. This is Preaching. The Preacher is Saint Paul. What kinde of Sermon then did Saint Paul make? for fit it is that his action be our directi­on.

Saint Pauls preaching is of three kinds: 1. [...], he reasoned with them, or taught them by way of dialogue. 2 [...], he continued his speech. 3 [...], ver. 11. he used a long homily, which held from midnight till morning.

For the first: Saint Pauls preaching did not stand onely in making a long discourse, which some, piti­fully perishing in a dearth of matter, and in an inun­dation of light and froathie words, trumpet up for the onely preaching: But he gave others leave to speake as well as himselfe; for that must needs be to hold up the dialogue in the text, yet he preached for all that. Wherefore if the Curate catechise in the afternoone, as he is commanded, by question and answer, which makes the dialogue in the text, this man preacheth. There is therefore no cause at all why some should take the matter so grievously, that charge should be given by the King (whom they ne­ver meane to obey therein) that afternoone Ser­mons should be turned into catechising, that is, that one kinde of preaching should be exchanged for an­other, the lesse profitable for the more usefull. Cer­taine also it is, that whether they travell all the Scriptures over, and then passe on to the ancient [Page 31]Fathers, they shall finde no ground at all for the fruitlesse and disobedient exercise of their after­noone talent, till they come home to their owne wilfull selfe-conceitednesse. Our Saviour came not to breake the law, but to fulfill it, who being at Capernaum on a Sabbath day preached but once. For statim è Synagogâ from the Synagogue he went immediately to Simons house to dinner, where Si­mons wives mother ministred unto them, Mar. 1.31. and there stayed healing diseases till sunne set, and went no more to the Synagogue to preach in the afternoon. The law that enjoined afternoon Sermons for keeping their Sabbath, was not then knowne to the Pharises themselves, who else were apt enough to have laid it in his dish at supper;Troubles at Franckford, pag. 194. no nor to these mens progenitors for 1565. yeares after, as by their owne confession may appeare.

True it is Saint Peter preached once at the ninth houre, or at three a clocke in the afternoone, Act. 3.1. but the occasion, place, and other circumstances be­ing so extraordinary, his example binds us no more to doe the like, than Saint Pauls here doth to preach in an upper chamber all night long.

The holy Fathers also in the best times had their Sermons in the forenoons, and it will be hard for the best or stubbornest of them all to shew a Sermon preached by any of the Fathers in the afternoone, Saint Basil onely excepted, who had his second and ninth homily in the afternoone;Socrat l. 5. c. 21. Niceph. l. 12. c. 34. because as Socrates and Nicephorus affirme, the custome in Caesare a was not to preach in the forenoone, but Episcopi & Sa­cerdotes post lucernarum accensiones sacras Scripturae [Page 32]populo exponunt, the people have the Scripture, ex­pounded to them in the afternoone. Their preaching was but expounding (as they call it) and that but once neither. Why then should they not yeeld to change their afternoone discoursing into preaching by way of dialogue, as St. Paul here did?

Secondly, St. Paul preached [...], all the while he was in his Homilie. What his Homilie was, it is hard for me to say; whether it was one that himselfe made, and did not reade; or one that he read, and an­other made. An Homilie I am sure it was, and it may be made by all the Apostles, or the chiefe of the A­postles, as (Bucer saies) our Homilies were penned by some eminent Preachers.

I pray you tell me, (when Saint Paul went through divers Churches, as now he did, to establish them in the faith, and to that end took with him dogmata, the decrees made by the Apostles and Elders that were at Jerusalem,Act, 16.4. and delivered them to the Chur­ches to be kept) whether he did reade them or no, or delivered them as a Roll sealed up? If he read them, there's his homilie. And most certaine it is he read them, even by his owne rule. For if he caused Epi­stles from some one man to be read in the Church by him that brought them, it is more than evident that himselfe bringing the Decrees of the Apostles and Elders, he would not in any sort transgresse his owne rule, but doe the decrees, himselfe and the Church that right as to reade them, that the Chur­ches might see what it was that he delivered them to keep, and be fully assured that himselfe walked in the selfe same steps with the rest of the Apostles, and [Page 33]so be enabled to stop the mouths of all false Apostles, who objected that against him, and thereby be fully established in the faith, which was the only end of his comming; which could not have beene wrought nor obtained, if these Decrees had not beene read at all, or read by any other. Wherefore I take it for a cleare truth, that St. Paul read the Decrees, and sure I am by the word used in the text, that when he read them and did no more but reade them, without adding or diminishing, that he preached by way of Homi­lie: [...]

Reading of Homilies then is preaching,Concil. Rhem. Can. 15. and so adjudged by the learned Bishops in the Councell of Rhemes. The Canon concerneth Bishops them­selves, Ut Episcopi Sermones & Homilias sanctorum Patrum, prout omnes intelligant, secundum proprieta­tem linguae praedicare studeant. The Canon saies not praedicari studeant, but praedicare; themselves must give good example, not only in preaching Sermons of their owne making, as it is appointed, Can. 14. (which some cry up for the only preaching) but al­so read and interpret the Homilies of holy Fathers themselves, which is also here called preaching.

So likewise when the Diptychs, containing the De­crees of the foure first generall Councels,Constantinop. 5. Act. 10. and of Saint Leo were read, pro utilitate & pace Ecclesiae praedicantur, they are said to be preached for the profit and peace of the Church. This reading of Decrees is called preaching in the Councell of Con­stantinople.

If then reading of decrees of the Apostles, and by that president reading of Diptychs and Homilies be [Page 34]preaching, and used for the profit and peace of the Church, and for the establishing of them in the faith, then surely is reading of lessons, Epistle and Gospel, much more preaching, and the Reader is a Prea­cher.

The Councell of Aquisgrane layeth downe the office of a Reader,Concil. Aq. c. 3. and to prevent all exceptions ex ca­nonicâ authoritate, and saith thus, Lectores sunt qui verbum Dei praedicant, Readers are Preachers. This they might learne of Saint Ambrose,S. Ambr. in eph. c. 4. v. 11. S. Cypr. ep. 4. l. 4. & ep. 5. l. 2. and he of Saint Cyprian. Saint Cyprian gives onely a toleration to read unto Celerinus nobly descended, yet sayes it will make more for his honour in coelesti praedicatione fieri generosum, to be made a Gentleman for his hea­venly preaching; yet this preaching was but rea­ding. And further saith, that there is nothing wherein a Confessour magis prosit, can more profit his brethren, than by reading the Gospel, unde Mar­tyres fiunt, whereby Confessours are made Martyrs. This was the doctrine of Origen before him.Orig. hom. 10. in Gen. Rea­ding then is preaching, nay heavenly preaching; and there is nothing more profitable for the Church, nor more powerfull to make the most perfect men of God of all other, even to make Martyrs.

What shall we thinke then of T. C. and such as he hath seduced, that traduce Readers for dumb dogs, blinde guides, empty feeders, and say that rea­ding is so farre from making the man of God perfect, that rather the quite contrary may be confirmed? Whether doe you not thinke that this blessed Arch­bishop and Martyr, and these holy and learned Bi­shops would not sharpely have censured the broa­chers [Page 35]of such doctrine within their Diocesses? or will you condemne them, their doctrine and Canons, to deifie T.C.?

For my part, qui Bavium non odit, amet tua Car­mina Maevi, he that detesteth not the Father of such Schismatickes, with their Brood, I wish him no worse but that he may fall so farre in love with the pure zeale of those wandring Danites, their refined brethren led by such guides, that they may beleeve their spies, and follow them per mare, per terras, into new Laish, to dwell in a Land of their owne,Cottons Ser­mon. and to goe no more out, but make themselves happy with­out corrivalls, under an Ephod and Priest of Micha's owne making. And surely if they did beleeve their owne doctrines, and would be honest and true to their owne positions, I cannot see how they should stay here longer than for a good wind. The govern­ment of our Church (they say) is Babylonish: while they stay here they are in the midst of Baby­lon, therefore the rites of Babylon they will not use; and there is no reason that they should. Why then doth not that loud cry awaken their consciences that calls them out hence, Come out of her my people, that you be not partaker in her plagues? How doe they thinke that any man should trust them, that are so false to their owne friends, their own followers, their owne faith and doctrine, and will forsake them all, and with Demas embrace this present world in the midst of Babylon, with so great hazzard of the plagues of Babylon?

Doubtlesse these Church Schismatickes are the most grosse, nay the most transparent Hypocrites, [Page 36]and most void of conscience of all others. They will take the benefit of the Church, but abjure the doctrine and discipline of the Church. These are whorish and Babylonish: But tythe milke is not whorish, if it be not mingled with water; nor a tithe sheafe Babylonish, till it be as big as great Babylon it selfe. Is not this ridiculous hypocrisie? If their stomackes be so queazie to rise against these things, because their pure nostrill resenteth the dip of the Popes foot in them, let them begin to abandon the Pope in that which he hath by Canons and Bulls al­lowed, viz. in tiths and offrings; and not in that which he never allowed, in our Booke of Common Prayer, wherein is set downe the onely direction we have for keeping the Lords day in such godly duties as the text specifieth. If their condemnation or want of the Popes confirmation of that holy booke, were of power to hang a mill-stone about it, and to cast it into the bottome of the sea of their abominations, we might lie downe in sorrow, and cry our last Icha­bod, the glorie is departed from Israel: And they might with the voice of melody sing and say, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed to make her a very Babylon, and to cause her to sit in the dust, and never to rise any more. But praised be the Lord, whose day we wil ever keep, and not their Sabbath, that hath delivered us as a prey out of their teeth.

I will now conclude this point. We see that brea­king of bread, and preaching in such sort as hath beene explained, are the holy exercises used by St. Paul and his Disciples, and by the holy Martyrs and [Page 37]godly Fathers in the Primitive Church for the ob­servation of the Lords day.

From hence then we may conclude who are pro­faners of that most holy day; not those that use harmlesse recreations, or do some small usefull chare, or perhaps take a nap on the Lords day: But those that do these with Eutichus when Paul is preaching, or (as St. Austine saies) caeteris ad Ecclesiam pergen­tibus, S Aug. Ser. de tem. 251. when others goe to Church, or in such sort that publicum impediunt ministerium (as Chemnitius speakes) they hinder them from the publicke service of God.Chem. de Fest. p. 4. Those also are profaners of the Lords day, (as Origen saies) qui sacris lectionibus ter­ga vertunt, Orig. hom. 11. in Jer. that make base account of Scripture read; and such (as Saint Cyrill sayes) that will not Ecclesiastico officio interesse, S. Cyril. in Je, l. 8. c. 5. come to Church till Ser­vice be ended, and the Sermon to begin: and such (as St. Austine sayes) that cogunt Sacerdotem ut abbrevi­et missam, make the Priest to curtaile divine Service,S. Aug. Ser. de tem. 251. aut ut ad eorum libitum cantet, or sing or say it after their fancy, not antiphonatim, the Priest one verse and the people another; which factious disposition St. Basil reproves in some Clergie men of Neocaesa­rea,S. Basil. ep. 45 [...] that being against the practice of the universall Church continued from Ignatius, who was directed thereunto by an Angell, as Socrates affirmeth. Those yet are worse profaners of the Lords day,Socrat. l. 6. c. 8. that will not reade the Letanie on it, for excitavit Diabolus (saies St. Chrysostome in plaine termes) the Divell himselfe, and no body else,S. Chrys. Ser. antequam iret in exil. Bed. his. l. 1. c. 25. hath stirred up those that make brabbles [...], about the Letanie to bring it into contempt, which was the meanes of the [Page 38]first conversion of our English Nation.

Trypho the Jew alledgeth Isa. 58.13. to prove Justin Martyr a breaker of the Sabbath, who tells him that the Prophet I say requireth no more than was before commanded by Moses in the law,S. Just. in Tryph. Tom. 2. where­unto he had given his answer.

This very place of Scripture our zealous Sabba­tarians his issue, borrow of that Jew, and use as a sword to cut off all sports and recreations on their Sabbath, with all other actions of our owne, because we are forbidden to doe our owne will, or to speake our owne words, or vaine words on the Sabbath. But let them beware that with Saul they fall not upon their owne sword. For I pray you deale clearely, and say, whether those that will neither preach, pray, cate­chise, administer the Sacraments, nor performe any part of divine Service, as Gods Magistrate appoints, doe not their owne wills? His I am sure they doe not. And when they make new glosses and exposi­tions of Scripture, never received in the Church of God, nor delivered by any ancient Father, whom by Canon they are bound to follow, and call the Lords day a Sabbath, Lib. Can. An. 1571. Can. 19. whether they doe not speake their owne words?

And when they use vaine repetitions, and babling in their prayers and preaching, saying, Lord, Lord, oftener in one prayer, than there are words in all the Lords prayer, doe not use vaine words, and take the Lords name in vaine; and be not punctually those whom our Saviour reproves by Saint Marke, cap. 7. ver. 7. In vanum me colunt, they honour me with vaine words, vaine glosses and expositions, vaine [Page 39]babling and repetitions, crying, Lord, Lord, and all in vaine, for they doe not the thing that I say. For I say, when you pray say Our Father, &c. and thus you will not doe, but will pray an houre together before a Sermon: yet though Christ and his Church com­mand them to say it, they will not doe it.

He that can say Corban, and cry up the Sabbath, the Sabbath, it is a sufficient Supersedeas, it is duty and piety enough, though he neither honour Father nor Mother, Christ, nor the King his Vicegerent, nor the Church his Spouse. Let those then that are so violent against such as recreate themselves civilly and modestly, in such wise as Gods Magistrate doth allow, to prove them Sabbath breakers, which is no sin at all, look they be not found such as with an high hand and stiffe neck profane the Lords day in despite of Authority, and so adde drunkennesse to thirst, namely, to their open profanation, rebellion or dis­obedience, which is as the sinne of witchcraft. From which leprosie washing seven times in Jordan will not cleanse them, unlesse they can prove Gods Ma­gistrate Nebuchodonosor, and themselves the three children.

Sure I am their disobedient and scornfull contempt of our Church Liturgie is to many godly and lear­ned men, farre their Superiours in these respects, ve­ry scandalous; and may drive many that reverence antiquity with us, and for that cause stand well affe­cted to our Church, to withdraw themselves from us. That it is not to be wondred at if Recusants should increase, but rather it is a wonder that there are no more. For how can any man of judgement [Page 40]and discretion like that Liturgie and forme of divine Service, which our selves (they say) contemne, scorne, mangle, and misuse as we list, and some reject utterly as unlawfull and Antichristian? Doe we tell them it is poison, and doe they see us cast it out of our hands, and doe we wonder that they will not run and take it up and eat it, or that they refuse the use of it, as we doe, or rather forbeare the Church till it be used?

They will use no Crosse forsooth, nor Surplice, meet no coarse at the Church gate, Church no wo­men, read no Service on Wednesdayes, Fridayes, Saturdayes, Holy dayes, nor on their Eeves, will not stand at the Creed, nor Gospel, kneele at the Com­munion, nor bowe the knee at the blessed name of the Lord JESUS, nor goe in procession, or keep their perambulations, nor doe any thing at all as the Church appoints; yet the worst is, they would be esteemed members, nay pillars of the Church: whereas indeed they are neither the one nor the o­ther, but a disease, a fretting canker, a dangerous fa­ction in the Church. They are wandring starres, and disasterous planets, who have and doe blast the most flourishing and glorious Church under the cope of Heaven, were it not that these withered branches doe appeare her onely spots of disgrace. And because they are such, hence it is that the Church for her owne safety is faine to renounce all defence of them and their doctrines against the Ro­manists. Therefore she ought not in right to be up­braided or deserted for any thing they say or doe.

The Church knoweth, and every member there­of [Page 41]of seeth, that this generation had eaten out her bow­els long since, like Vipers, and become her destructi­on, but that by Gods providence they have as suffi­ciently discovered their malicious projects to be bent alike for the casting downe of Crownes and Scepters, and lawes of the Land, and the Professours thereof, as for the trampling under their feet of Mi­ters and corner'd Caps, Bishops and such as exercise jurisdiction under them, together with our Booke of Common Prayer, and Canons Ecclesiasticall. There­fore the Church hath little cause to honour them as her children, with her defence, before they will be brought to honour her and her orders, nay to ho­nour the Lord and his day, in breaking of bread, and preaching in such sort as shee hath learned of St. Paul, and delivered in the Booke of Common Prayer. And now I have done with them.

The last point, with which I will conclude, is the place where Saint Paul preached: In an upper cham­ber.

Let no man thinke from hence, that he hath got a warrant to doe so in these dayes. This is the third time Paul came to Troas. At the first time, being 41. yeares of age (as some account) he was called a­way by a vision into Macedonia, and made no stay at all.Acts 16. About three yeares after he came thither again to looke for Titus,2 Cor. [...] but not finding him, he onely fa­luted the brethren, and went away in great heavi­nesse. Now in the 47^th. yeare of his age he comes hither againe, and stayes but seven dayes; so that he had no time to take order for building of a Church to preach, and to celebrate the Euchrist in. [Page 42]Follow him therefore to Corinth, where he stayd a yeare and sixe moneths, where we shall not take him preaching in an upper chamber.Acts 18.11. For so soone as the Jewes had driven him out of the Synagogue, and beaten Sosthenes the Ruler of the Synagogue for suffering him to preach on the Sabbath day, and also blasphemed his doctrine in all probability tou­ching the observation of the Lords day, saying, as it was maliciously reported amongst the Jewes, that the Lord was not risen, but that his Disciples stole him away, therefore the day of his resurrection ought not to be kept, nor preached on their Sab­bath, tending so much to the overthrow thereof. Upon this or the like blasphemy St. Paul tooke just occasion to renounce them and their Synagogue, saying, From henceforth I goe unto the Gentiles. And so immediately he tooke order for a publike place to meet in, so large, that men and women, learned and unlearned, beleevers and unbeleevers might all meet together. And this place was a CHURCH.

If the whole Church be come together into one Place, they may speake languages, provided that they doe interpret, 1 Cor. 14.33. Yea, but how doth it appeare that this one place is a Church? Why be­cause himselfe calls it so, saying, In the church I had rather speake five words, &c. ver. 19. So their com­ming together to eat the Lords body was into one place, 1 Cor. 11.20. and this one place was a Church, ver. 18. When yee come together in the Church, I heare, &c. this is not to eat the Lords body.

This Church, or publike place of meeting is ma­ny wayes distinguished from private houses. The [Page 43]Church was free for all to come into, Jewes or Gen­tiles, beleevers or unbeleevers, 1 Cor. 14.24. so were not private houses. In private houses women might speake: not so in the Church. In private houses men might be covered, and women uncovered:S. Chrys. in Act. ho. 21. & de Sa­cer dot. l. 6. & hom. de eucha, in encaeniis. not so in the Church. In the Church reverence was to be given to the Angels which attend the Lord our Sa­viour at his table in tremendis mysteriis (as St. Chry­sostome speakes) where he is truely and really pre­sent: not so in private houses. In private houses they might eate and drinke: not so in the Church. These Churches had Bishops set over them, which had power of excommunication, penance, and absoluti­on; which was not used in private houses, but onely in the Church, 1 Cor. 5.5. 2 Cor. 2.7. To these Chur­ches belonged stockes of money, whereby Wi­dowes and others were maintained at the discretion of the Bishop, 1 Tim. 4.9. which authority they had not in private houses: but were at the curtesie of the owners to be received or not.Mat. 10.10. In these Churches stood the Lords boord, which was not placed in any private house, 1 Cor. 10.21. This table of the Lord is called also an Altar, 1 Cor. 8.13. They that waite of the Altar are partakers of the Altar; which is not to be understood of Israel after the flesh. For ha­bemus Altare, we under the Gospel have an Altar, Heb. 15.10. And so is the word Altar, and Lords ta­ble indifferently and alike anciently used in the wri­tings of the Fathers, who best knew how to expound Scripture. These were some Tables or Altars of stone, quia Christus est lapis angularis: some were of wood, the better to expresse his death on the [Page 44]tree,S. Just. in Tryph. Tom. 2. Tert. l. 4. adv. Marcion. posuerunt lignum in panem ejus, Jer. 11. These woodden Altars or Tables the furious Circumcelli­ons brake downe in St. Augustines time.

So that from the 47^th. yeare of Saint Pauls age, which was the 57^th. of our Sauiour, we may count out of Scripture, that the devotion of Gods people began in building of Churches for breaking of bread and preaching, and with them began the solemne ex­ercise of the jurisdiction of Bishops in excommunica­tion, penance, confession, and absolution, which with­out Churches could not well be exercised. But in Ec­clesiasticall writers we find the beginning more early, and so the use continued without interruption in the midst of all their persecutions for 287. yeares toge­ther, untill Dioclesians time.

I might be infinite in this kinde, but I will give you but a touch thereof.Euseb. l. 5. c. 17. The Apostles and disciples staid in Jerusalem after Christs resurrection twelve yeares together, and preached to the Jewes in their Syna­gogues: but because they kept the Sabbath no bet­ter than their Lord did, but began to keepe the Lords day, which the Jewes detested, and to neglect the Sabbath, S. Justin. de ve­rit. l. 2. in Try. which they onely doted on as necessary to salvation, they are driven out of Jerusalem, and dis­persed into sundry Nations. And in the first yeare of their dispersion, which was about the 47^th. of our Sa­viour, they began to build Churches to preach and administer the Sacraments in on the Lords day.

About this time or before a goodly room in The­ophilus his house in Antioch,An Christi 38. Hieron. in ep. 2. ad Gal. & Euseb. in Chr. S. Clemen. re­cogd. l. 10. where ten thousand met at one time, was consecrated for a Church by St. Pe­ter, and there was placed St. Peters chaire, which [Page 45]for a long time after there continued.

S. Mark also about the same time caused divers Chur­ches to be built about Alexandria,Euseb. l. 2. c. 16. wherin it was unlaw­full to eat and drinke; but they were used onely for rea­ding, preaching, and meditating on Gods word, praying, singing of Psalmes, and the like. In the yeare 57. S. Paul caused a Church to be built in Corinth, and in divers o­ther places. Anno 63. Joseph of Arimathea caused a Church to be built in Glastonbury.Hist. Eccles. Angl. Erat haec Ecclesia ab ipsis Apostolis Domini aedificata, witnesseth Henry the se­cond in his Letters Patents: For being burnt in his time, he takes a Princely care for the building of it againe, as the Kings Majestie now doth for the repairing of that goodly edifice of S. Pauls Church, now fallen to decay. Anno 71. Crescens sent into Galatia by St. Paul,Euseb. l. 3. c. 4 Ado. would not content himselfe to preach in private houses, but by S. Pauls example caused a Church to be built at Vienna. Anno 79. St.Euseb. l. 3. c. 20. John caused a goodly Church to be built about Ephesus, where himself, with an Archbishop & di­vers Bishops of severall Churches in Asia, met at a Sy­node. This Church stood over against the hill where he robbed whom S. John converted.Euseb. l. 2. c. 25 Gaius Bishop of Rome affirmeth, that til his time for 220. years together Chur­ches had continued neere unto the Vaticane, built by the Apostles, which had Church-yards belonging to them, and where were to be seen the Tombs and Monuments of the Apostles. Anno 110. Ignatius reproved Trajan in a Church. Anno 117.Niceph. l. 3. c. 19 Dion. in A­drian. Adrian caused Churches to be built for Christians, wherein he forbade any of the Ro­mane gods to be placed. Anno 160.Euseb. l. 5. c. 25. Polycarpus received the Sacrament publikely in the Church of Rome. Anno 197.Bed. l. 1. c. 4. Lucius King of Great Britaine desired of Eleuthe­rius, [Page 46] ut per ejus mandatum fieret Christianus, which being granted, [...]lores hist. he dedicated the Temples of the Heathen gods to the worship of the true God, and made Churches of them, and placed in them 28. Bishops, and three Archbi­shops Seas.Tertul. adv. Va [...]en. & in A­polog. Anno 203. Tertullian maketh mention of these Churches built before his time, and saith that com­monly they were built upon an hill, (as Isaac was offe­red and Christ crucified on an hill) and looked towards the East, Nostrae columbae Domus in editis & apertis, & Orientem amat. Hence it is (saith he) that the Heathen traduce us for worshipping the Sun, quòd innotuerit nos ad Orientis regionem praecari, because it is openly known that all we Christians pray unto God in our Churches with our faces to the East: and if they stand not so, they are not like Christian Churches, nor judged to be conse­crated by Christian Bishops.S. Ire [...]. l. 3. c. 3. Anno 180. Irenaeus saw Poly carpus sit in his Bishops chaire in Smyrna. S. James his chaire stood in the Church of Jerusalem for 326. yeares together, saith Eusebius, and was there to be seen in St. Austins time,Euseb. l. 5. c. 20. & l 7. c. 19. notwithstanding Dioclesians Decree. Anno 239.S. Aug. l 2. Con. lit. P [...]ttl. c. 51. Cus [...]b. l. 6. [...] 34. Fabianus suffered not Philip the first Chri­stian Emperour to joyn with the faithfull in the Church, before he had stood in loco poenitentium. And so you see the zeale of Christians in building of Churches began in the Apostles times, and continued for 280. yeares toge­ther at least.

And how necessary it was for the Apostles and their successours, planters of the Gospel, to build Churches, and not to pray, preach, administer the Sacraments, or exercise Ecclesiasticall discipline of excommunication and absolution in private houses,S. Aug contr. M [...]n [...]. epis. [...]. 4 [...]m. 6. Irenaeus, Tertullian, St. Augustine, and divers godly Fathers tell us. For hereby [Page 47]Catholickes and good Christians were knowne from Heretickes. For nullus Haereticorum basilicam suam au­det ostendere, Heretickes had no Churches to shew, nor chaire wherein they succeeded the Apostles.

Thus Irenaeus confoundeth Valentinus,S. Iren. l. 3. c. 3.4.5. Cerdon, and Marcion; they could not shew how they succeeded the Apostles: but he could prove his owne succession, and reckon up all those that succeeded the Apostles in their severall Churches; and so sheweth who succeeded Pe­ter and Paul in the Church of Rome. Whereby their vanity may in part appeare, that against all Antiquity, upon idle ghesses, make fooles beleeve that St. Peter was never at Rome, making the succession of Bishops and truth of the Latine Churches as questionable as the Centurists orders.

Thus Tertullian putteth Valentinus and Apelles to it to shew their descent.Tertul. de pra [...]. ser. c. 11. If they will not be accounted Heretickes, aedant origines Ecclesiarum suarum, evolvant ordinem Sacerdotum, &c. it a ut primus sit aliquis ex A­postolis, let them shew when their Church began, so that the first founder be an Apostle: as Polycarpus was placed by St. John in Smyrna, and Clemens by St. Pe­ter in the Church of Rome. Confingant tale quid & Hae­retici, let Heretickes lay their heads together,Tert. de prae [...] ser c. 17. and produce such a pedigree of their faith. Which he was sure they could not doe: for sine matre, sine sede extor­res vagantur, & Ecclesias non habent. They were not Christians that had no Churches for 200. yeares after Christ: but it plainely appeares by St. Irenaeus and Ter­tullian, that they were Hereticks that were so long with­out Churches. These had no Church for their Mother, no Sea for their Bishops, nor succession of them from [Page 48]the Apostles, but were meere stragglers. And for this cause (saies St. Cyprian) Haereticus sanctificare non potest, S. Cyp. l. 1. ep. 12. quia nec Ecclesiam nec Altarehabet; an Hereticke can­not consecrate the Sacrament, because he hath neither Church nor Altar; for Eucharistia in Altari sanctifica­tur. Without Churches no Sacrament could be conse­crated, nor received.

In this sort St. Augustine confoundeth the Donatists and Sectaries of his time;S. Aug l. 2. cont. Petil. c. 51. Numerate Sacerdotes, vel ab ipsa sede Petri, & in illo ordine, quis cui successit videte; Reckon up your Priests, who succeeded one another af­ter St. Peter in his chaire, if you will be esteemed mem­bers of the Church. Hereby we may by Gods mercy make good the truth of our Church. For we are able lineally to set down the succession of our Bishops from St. Peter to S. Gregorie, and from him to our first Arch­bishop St. Austin, our English Apostle as Bishop God­win calls him, downeward to his Grace that now sits in his chaire, Primate of all England, and Metropoli­tane.

This succession of Bishops to the Apostles, and exer­cise of Ecclesiasticall discipline, preaching of the word of God, and consecrating of the Eucharist on the Lords Boord, or holy Altar, was judged a thing so necessary by the Apostles and their successors,Eus [...]. l. 8. c. 1. that (as Eusebius reports) Christians never ceased building, repairing, and inlarging of Churches, even in the hottest times of per­secution. And though the Pastours were many times driven out of them, and wandred up and down in Moun­taines, and Dens, and Caves of the earth, yet they found such favour with the Emperours, that the Churches still continued. And their chaires were never empty, nor the [Page 49]succession of their Bishops interrupted, no not in Dio­clesians time, when so many Churches were demolished.

True it is Cecilius in Minutius Foelix, and Celsus in Origen, and other Gentiles reviled Christians, and called them Atheists, quia nec templa nec deos haberent, because they had neither temples nor Gods. And indeed they had no such temples, nor worshipped such gods as they did. Yet Christians were never without Churches to serve the true God in. Howbeit, they were not called Temples, or Basilicae, before the Emperour Constan­tines time, who built them in that stately and magnifi­cent maner, that they might equalize or surmount the sumptuous Temples erected by the Heathen to Diana, Venus, Jupiter, or other heathen gods.

Thus necessity of Gods service, and exercise of Eccle­siasticall discipline, caused and continued the use of Churches from time to time, and their zeale inflamed them to beautifie and adorne them in the most sumptu­ous maner that might be, that with David and Solomon they might shew (so farre as their poverty would suffer them) in such glorious and magnificent buildings, and by the sumptuous costlinesse bestowed in adorning of them with gold, silver, and precious stones, the incomparable glory, and infinite greatnesse of the Majestie of their God, to whom that poore house was dedicated, and be­fore whom they presented themselves to performe such service as himselfe and his Vicegerents have appointed: which doubtless (as by the practice of S. Paul and the A­postles, and the best Saints of God, may appeare) is much more acceptable unto him, being performed in an house of his own, than if it had been continued in one of ours, in some upper chamber, as now upon necessity it was.

[Page 50] Wherefore since by Gods mercy we doe in part en­joy the piety and bounty of our Predecessours, and have the houses of God left us to serve God in; let us aban­don the irregular fashion of straggling Schismatickes, in making Conventicles, praying, preaching, and breaking bread in corners, private houses, and dining rooms. And on the other side, let us conforme our selves in fre­quenting the Lords house, to the practice of the Lords Church, especially on the Lords day, and say with Da­vid, O come let us goe into the house of the Lord, and fall flat on our faces before his footstoole.

And if we doe not onely bend or bowe our body to his blessed Boord, or holy Altar, but fall flat on our fa­ces before his footstoole so soone as ever we approach in sight thereof, what Patriarch, Apostle, blessed Martyr, holy or learned Father, would condemne us for it? or rather would not be delighted to see their Lord so ho­noured, and their devotion so reverently imitated, and so good hope given to have it in such sort continued in the Lords house, on the Lords day, by the Lords servants, unto the Lords comming againe, who doubtlesse will then ratifie what he hath already pronounced, Bles­sed are those servants whom the Lord when he commeth shall finde so doing? Amen.