Mixture of Scholastical Divinity with Practical Part 2, Excerpt and reply 7 – Excerpt and reply 8
Dr. Hammond. sect. 15.
This is indeed his meaning, which (though somewhat darkned in that his expression) will appear but consequent to the two things which he hath premised in this matter from Amesius his notion of decency. p. 64. in marg. 1. that … requires not that any sacred things be instituted de …, but onelyonly that those things which are instituted by God, be used in that … which is agreeable to the dignity of them. 2. That as order, so decency belongs to civil offices, as well as sacred things, in which indecorum est vitium oppositum debito illi modo, qui … ad corum justum finem, & usum consequendum, … is a vice opposed to that due manner which is … to the obtaining the just end, and use of those things. Now if in the … of …, the mode he speaks of, as agreeable to the dignity of those things which are …, be it self-supposed by him to be … by men, then must he acknowledge humane … of … ceremonies, which being so contrary to his design, I must … … to be … … by him; but rather, … as the sacred things … instituted by …, so the mode which is consentaneous to their dignity is instituted … God also, and … … is decent in sacris, which is not so instituted. And so … … on the second …, that of civill …. For that indecency, which is a vice or sin, must be … to … Law of Gods, and so also that which is … to the … manner which is …; … so is necessary either necessitate medii, or praecepti also to obtaining a just end, this sure is more than the omission of an indifferent …, … may, or may not be continued without any offence against nature, even the omission of strict universal duty, either natural decency, or somewhat that bears proportion with it.
Jeanes.
Both Ames and my poor self …, … God hath by the Canon of the Apostle, and by the light of Nature, appointed and commanded, that … in his worship and service, the neglect … would be undecent; but that hee holds that there is need of a special divine institution to render a thing decent, is disclaimed by Ames in several places of his writings: Medul. Theol. lib. 2. c. 14. sect. 24, 25, 26. Hujusmodi igitur …, quae … naturâ sunt civiles, aut communes. nen sunt particulariter in … praeceptae, partim, quia in … hominum sensum incurrunt; & …, quia infra dignitatem & … legis … …, ut talia … in illa praescribantur, hâc … ratione … … fuissent singulari lege cavenda: Exempli gratiâ, ne in ecclesiastico, … … in … sinu sese colocaret, in alterius … …, out ne … … in sacris actionibus. Habendae … sunt … ex … Dei …. 1. Quta in genere …, sub lege ordinis, decori, & …. 2 Quia pleraeque … … sequuntur ex … quae … … sunt … constituta. … enim … constituit, … fideles omnis generis convenirent, ad … nomen & … …, … etiam …, ut … & … … locum habeant, in quo possint convenire, & … etiam assignatam, qua … … …; … etiam minister à Des sit constitutus ad alios … instituendos, fimul etiam constituitur, ut … & fitum corporis illum habeat, qui tali … congruit.
25. Illa igitur quae pertinent ad ordinem & decorum, non ita relinquuntur … …; ut …, quod … libet, sub illo nomine … …; … partim determinantur … … …, … natura ipsarum rerum, & partim circumstantiis illis, quae ex occasione sese ….
26. Variae enim … & … circumstantiae tales sunt, ut nulla institutione publica accedente, debeant tamen à singulis observari, neque … … hominibus prohiberi sine ….
24. Such like circumstances therefore, which of their own nature are civil or common, are not particularly commanded in the Scriptures, partly because they come into mens common sense, and partly because it would not stand with the dignity and majesty of the Law of God, that such things should be severally prescribed in it. For by this … many ridiculous … should have been provided for by a special Law; as for example, that in the Church assenibly one should not place himself in anothers …, spit in anothers face, or should not make monthes in holy actions: Yet they are to be accounted as commanded from God: 1. Because they are … in generall under the Law of …, Decency, and …. 2. Because most of them doe necessarily follow from those things which are … appointed by God. For when God appointed that the faithfull of all sorts should meet together to celebrate his name, and worship, he did consequently … that they should have a sit and conventent place, wherein they may meet together, and an hour also assigned at which they may be … together: when also there is a Minister appointed by God to teach others publiquely, it is withall appointed that he have a seat which is meet for such an action.
25. Those things therefore which pertain to order and decency, are not so … to mens wills, that they may under the name of that, … what they please upon the …: but they are partly determined by the general precepts of God, partly by the nature of the things themselves, and partly by those circumstances which doe offer themselves upon occasion.
26. For divers circumstances of order and decency are such, as though there be no publique institution of them, yet they … to be observed of every one, neither can men forbid them without sin. Unto this adde another place in his … soit against Ceremonies, disput. pag. 29. We never said, or thought, that all particular rites pertaining to order and decency are punctually determined in the Scripture. We never dreamed, that all such … being beside the particular determination of the Scripture, are against it, we speak of double, or treble rites as the Rejoinder … them, … no meer order and decency doth … require, but onelyonly the meer will of man …. That which is instituted by God in his worship, … … … well to be a part of Gods worship; but that decency … no part of Gods worship, Ames in his disput. pag. 176. proves by a Reason quoted out of …. …, Def of Mr. …. pag 844 Order and comeliness (saith the Popish Bishop) is some part of … worship. But (saith Dr. Abbot) who taught him this deep point of Philosophy, that an accident is a part of the subject, that the beauty or comelinesse of the body is a part of the body, order and … properly and immediately respect men, and therefore can be no parts of the worship of God. To be instituted by God, if we speake … & properly, is to be injoyned by a divine positive Law superadded unto the law of …; and in conformity hereunto it is that our Author Ames divides Gods worship, Med. lib. 2. cap. 5. into natural and instituted: Now if this be your meaning, when you impute unto Ames and me, that our opinion is, that nothing is decent in …, which is not instituted by God, as the charge is false in it self, so it proveth not that which you bring it for, viz. that in our sense decency in the Apostle, is only that decency which the law of nature prescribes; but … the clean contrary, because that which is instituted by a positive law superadded to the law of nature, is not prescribed … and immediatè by the law of nature.
You are by this time, I hope, conscious of the great injury you have done unto poor Dr. Ames, in … unto him so irrational an opinion, and hereupon I shall be bold to give you this advertisement, that however you may despise him as a mean Author, unworthy of your perusal, yet, if you undertake to … and refute him, you must read him, or else you will be very lyable unto the breach of the ninth Commandement, Thou shalt not bear false witnesse against thy neighbour.
But you will perhaps say in defence of your self, that if it were not the opinion of Ames, it is the sequele of his words; and for this you have two reasons.
The 1. because the mode or manner agreeable unto the dignity of sacred things is instituted by God, as the sacred things are instituted by God: But this proposition, if it be particular, … nothing, and if it be universal, is false, as you might have seen in the next reason of Ames, but that you cannot see wood for trees, as the Proverb is; There is a mode or manner in the use of sacred things agreeable unto their dignitie, that is not adequate, proper, and peculiar to them, but common unto civill matters of a grave nature together with them; and this is a matter inculcated by Dr. Ames in many places, which if you had weighed, you would never have troubled the Reader with this objection, Medul. Theol. lib. cap. 14. th: 23. … igitur hujusmodi circumstantiae vocari soleant à nonnullis ritus & ceremoniae religiosae, … ecclesiasticae, nihil tamen habent in sua natura, quod proprium est religionis, atque adeo in iis non propriè consistit cultus …, … ex corum neglectu, & contemptu violatur aliquo modo … cultus religiosi; quia communis illa ratio ordinis & decori quae aequè convenit religiosis actibus, … que civilibus, à religioso cultu non potest separart, quin oliquo modo … ipsius dignitas & majestas. Although these circumstances of time, place, and other like, are wont by some to be called rites, or religious Ecclesiastical ceremonies, yet in their nature they have nothing that is proper to Religion, and therefore religious worship … not properly consist in them, however by neglect and contempt of such circumstances, the sanctity of such religious worship is in some sort violated, because the common respect of order and decency, which do equally agree to religious and civil actions cannot bee severed from religious worship, without diminishing of the sanctity and dignity of it.
Thus also largely in his Manuduction to the dispute about humane Ceremonies, pag. 55, 56. If men and … come purposely in their best apparel to Church, if they compose themselves to a grave posture, give the upper place to the chiefest persons, and take such to themselves as they may hear the … in, and yet have no exception taken against them for it, if all the places and seats be made cleanly, and fit for a meeting, to be held in a … fashion, all these are Ceremonies according to the Rejoinder his definition, yet no man but out of contention will affirm, they are meerly religious or ecclesiasticall: For all these in the same manner, and to the same immediate end, the same persons would doe, if the meeting were to hear the Magistrate propound unto them a grave civil businesse, concerning the Commonwealth affairs. And surely that which remaining the same may be civil, is not meerly and properly ecclesiastical, but common to both uses, and rather meerly civil, than meerly ecclesiastical; because civility is supposed and included in ecclesiastical affairs, but ecclesiastical proceedings are not supposed and included in civil. Dr. Jackson in his original of unbelief, pag. 337. doth well observe, that decent behaviour doth change the subject onelyonly, not alter its own nature and form, whilst it is used in matters sacred, nor is the habit of civil complement, or good manners, such an unhallowed weed, as must be layd aside when wee come into the Sanctuary. And indeed there is no more reason to shut civility out of the Church or sacred businesse, than to shut Religion out of the Town house, or civil affairs.
Dr. Hammond. sect. 15.
And so likewise on the second head that of civill offices, for that indecency which is a vice or sin must be contrary to some law of God, &c.
Jeanes.
Indecency in things civil, however it may be a vice in Ethicks against civility and good manners, yet it is not alwaies a sin in divinity contrary to some law of Gods but undecency in things sacred in the worship and service of God, if it be voluntary and avoydable, is against the command of the Apostle, which is a rule of the law of nature, saith Hooker; and this I beleeve you will not deny in cold blood: and indeed you have no reason to deny it; for it will not hereupon follow that the Apostle injoyneth onelyonly that decency which is immediately prescribed by the Law of Nature, and my reason is, because as the Apostle, so the light of Nature injoyneth as that decency the neglect whereof would be undecent by the light of nature; so also that, the omission whereof would be uncomely by … custome, and therefore as undecency by the light of nature is against the light and Law of Nature immediately, so also undecency by civill custome is against the law of nature mediately. The long hair of women is one note by which custome hath distinguished them … men; and therefore 'tis undecent for men to wear such long hair as women, and this supposed, mens wearing of such long hair is a mediate … of the Law of nature; whereupon the Apostle propounds this smart interrogation unto the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 11. 14 Doth not even nature it self teach you, that … a man have long hair, 'tis a shame to him? We may say the same of the long garments of women: doth not even nature teach you … if a man wear such garments it is a shame unto him, and very undecent, and yet the undecency thereof ariseth immediately from civil custome, and not … any immediate Law of Nature.