Works, Book 4 · Letter 59 – Letter 60
EPISTLE LIX.
Dr. Twisse's Ninth Letter to Mr. Mede, thanking him for his pains in the foregoing Letter, and desiring his resolution of a Doubt concerning the 7 Lamps signifying the 7 Angels in Zach. 4.
Right dear and Right worthy Sir,
I AM somewhat of a more chearful spirit than when I wrote my*Viz. his Letter of Iuly 21. at what time he was very sick. The Letter contains his thanks for the foregoing large Letter, and also for some other Papers Mr. Mede sent, particularly that about the Sabbath and the Lord's Day, (printed now in Book 1, pag. 55.) on which argument he exspatiates in that letter, which need not be printed, there appearing no Answer to it among Mr. Mede's. MSS. last—I have gotten more liberty of spirit to consider your large Discourse, savouring of great Learning, no less Iudgment, and a distinctive Apprehension of things of good importance; and that not in my judgment only, but in the judgment of others; though all require serious and further consideration. And for mine own particular, I cannot but reflect upon my self how deeply I am beholden unto you for intrusting me in so liberal a manner with these your Speculations. We can never offend in putting difference between the Holy and Prophane; neither can we offend in presenting our selves too reverently at the Lord's Table. Never was the Mercy-seat so well known in the days of the Old Testament as in these days of the New: We now behold the glory of the Lord with open face; and accordingly our Saviour tells us, the Lord requires the true worshippers should worship him in spirit and in truth, in distinction from worshipping him either at Ierusalem or in the Mount the woman spake of: And in this kind of worship we cannot exceed. But as for outward Gestures, I doubt I shall prove but a Novice as long as I breath; and we affect not to make ostentation of our Devotion in the face of the world, the rather because thereby we draw upon our selves the censure of Hypocrisie; and sometimes if a man lifts up his Eyes, he is censured for a P. and I confess there is no outward Gesture of Devotion which may not be as handsomly performed by as carnal an heart as breaths. I am confident you are far from studia partium; so should we be all, and be ambitious of nothing but of the love and favour of God, and of our conformity unto him in truth and holiness. I heartily thank you for all, and particularly for these Pieces which now I return. I hope they will arrive safely in your hands.
What I wrote the last time I have almost utterly forgotten, saving the clearing of one Objection concerning*He means Mr. Mede's Discourse on Zach. 4. 10. (printed now in Book 1. pag. 40.) and his Objection was this, Do not the Olive …r…es by the oyl which they drop maintain the Lamps? … surely they maintain not those Seven Angels, they rather maintain u…. the Seven Angels standing before the Throne, represented by the Seven Lamps, which I much desired; it arising from the Text it self, the Lamps being maintained by the Oile which drops from the Two Olive-trees, which are interpreted to be Zorobabel and Ieshua. But I have troubled you so much, that I fear the aspersion of immodesty in troubling you any further: I cannot sufficiently express my thankfulness for that I have already received. I desire ever to be found
Newbury, Iuly 27. 1635. Yours in the best respect, Will. Twisse.
EPISTLE LX.
Dr. Twisse's Tenth Letter to Mr. Mede, desiring him to reveal unto him those Pluscula in Zach. chapters 9, 10, 11. which fit not so well Zachary's time as Ieremy's; as also to resolve a Doubt about the 7. Lamps in Zach. 4. with some reflexions upon Mr. Mede's large Letter about Temples and Altars and the Christian Sacrifice.
Worthy Sir,
DO you not miss your*See this printed in Book III. pag. 569. Letter ad Ludovicum de Dieu? And do you not find it strange it is not returned with the rest? I assure you, I took no notice of it till Wednesday last, two days after the last week's Letter I wrote unto you. In every particular it was welcome unto me, as all yours always are. But your‖…See Book III. pag. 571. and Book IV. pag. 786. Variae lectiones concerning the Old Testament, and the pregnant evidences thereof which you alledge, do astonish me; and above all,‖…See Book III. pag. 571. and Book IV. pag. 786. your adventure to vindicate unto Ieremy his own Prophecy, which so long hath gone under the name of Zachary. I never was acquainted with any better way of reconciliation than that which Beza mentions, of the likeness of abbreviations of each name, which might cause a mistake by the Transcribers. O that you would reveal unto me those Pluscula, which in those three Chapters of Zachary 9, 10, 11. do more agree (as you observe) to the time of Ieremy than to the time of Zachary! Why may you not have a peculiar way also to reconcile the Genealogie in the LXX with that in the Hebrew, where Kainan is found in the one, which is not in the other? Thus I make bold to put you to new trouble; but I presume it is no more trouble to you than the writing; like as that other whereabout I moved you, How the Seven Lamps are maintained by the oyl derived from the two Olive-Trees, if by the Seven Lamps are meant the Seven Angels that stand before the Throne of God.
Yet have I not done with your large Letter concerning Temples and Altars. Since the writing of my last, while I was reading that large Letter of yours to some Divines, who were much taken with admiration at the Learning contained therein in an Argument wherein we had been so little versed, I say in the reading of it, I observed one thing which in all my former readings I took no notice of, and that is in these words; This is a point of great moment and consequent, worthy to be looked into by all the Learned of the Reformed Religion, lest while we have deservedly abolished the prodigious and blasphemous Sacrifice of the Papists, wherein Christ is again hypostatically offered to his Father, we have not (but very implicitely and obscurely) reduced that ancient Commemorative Sacrifice of Christians, wherein that one Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross was continually by that sacred Rite represented and inculcated to his Father; his Father put in mind thereof by those monuments set before him, wherein we testified our own mindfulness thereof to his sacred Majesty, that so he would for his sake, according to the Tenour of the New Covenant in his Bloud, be favourable and propitious to us miserable sinners. In which words, upon better and more serious consideration, I observe you acknowledge, 1. A Commemorative Sacrifice of Christians continually performed in ancient times. 2. This hath been miserably corrupted by the Papists, and transformed by the Papists into that Service which is called their Mass in distinction from their Mattins. 3. That Protestants have justly abolished this prodigious and blasphemous Sacrifice of theirs. 4. But they have not done well, in that they have not reduced that ancient Commemorative Sacrifice of Christians, save implicitly and obscurely.
Now in two things I am to seek for the understanding of your meaning. 1. How we have reduced it in that implicite and obscure manner you speak of. 2. How you would have it reduced in conformity to the Ancients, and wherein this Conformity doth consist. I remember what you alledged out of Clemens, of foreign, which were to be performed in times prescribed by Analogie to the courses of Devotion commanded in the Old Testament. Now this I guess you deliver not so much in respect unto the Sabbath-Service, as unto the daily Sacrifice of a Lamb every morning. I imagine you would have the celebration of that Service which we call the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to be daily; but I presume not in a private manner, but in the way of a Communion: but unless it be twice a-day, it is not congruous to the daily Sacrifice which was of a Lamb every evening, as of a Lamb every morning. And then again I find amongst the Ancients no small difference: For a time it was celebrated in the evening only, at least in some places, and that with some difference: for some celebrated it after they had eaten; some fasted all the day before, that they might come j…juni thereunto. Now I would hear your judgement both of the practice of the Ancients in this particular, wherewith I am not so well acquainted. Our Saviour saith, Do this in remembrance of me: this prescribes nothing concerning the frequency of it. S. Paul adds, This do, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me: Where also we find no certain time prescribed. Act. 2. 42. We read that they continued in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship, and breaking of bread, and prayers: here likewise is no signification that this breaking of bread (which I understand of the celebration of that Sacrament) was performed daily. And whereas vers. 46. it is said, that they continued daily with one accord in the Temple, and breaking bread at home did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart; I have conceived it to be spoken of refreshing natural, not Sacramental and Spiritual. And Act. 20. 7. their meetings for breaking of bread seem to have been restrained to the First day of the week, that being the day of their assembling themselves, as it seems by 1 Cor. 16. 2. And Iustin Martyr makes relation of their Christian meetings when the Sunday comes. 2. I would gladly know how far you think fit that custom of the Ancients you speak of (whatsoever it be) should be reduced, and that clearly, not implicitly and obscurely. For I assure you, I am much to seek in the meaning of this; yet I have read in some sort Mornay upon the Mass, and Bishop Morton too, and somewhat in Baronius concerning this. And I am in doubt whether the Papists themselves, were it not for their Doctrine of Transubstantiation, would not be as much to seek herein as we are.
That which you touch concerning the German War, and the Causes of it, and the Sinmark, I willingly profess doth make me melancholick; for I cannot but sympathize with them—Yet although, as I understood when I was in the Palatinate, none was more free from such Sacrilegious courses than the Palatine, not only Bishopricks but even Monasteries continuing there of his Ancestors foundation; yet have they suffered as much as any, both first and last, if not much more.
In the close of that large Letter of yours you signifie that you reserve one thing, lest it might undergoe censure; which otherwise you would communicate. Good Sir, you have no cause to distrust my censure. I hear by Mr. B. it is concerning Cornelius, whom you take to have been no Proselyte in any degree; the contrary whereunto supposed in our Divinity-Schools was one of the first things I was acquainted with upon my coming to Oxford; and since I find confessed by Schindler on the root foreign in the interpretation of foreign. Yet I pray let me see your Discourse thereon, and let me know how you salve it; for I am confident you are no Arminian. The Text acknowledgeth him to be not only foreign, but foreign and one of good report amongst all the Iews; and Act. 11. they that opposed Peter's going to him and his are said to be foreign. I heartily desire to know the most and worst that can be said against any Tenet of mine. I shall be no loser by Truth; & Veritas magna est, & praevalebit against all opposition: For that is from God; Error and Falshood is from the Creature. You may see by this I make you a great, if not the greatest, part of my study; especially considering my infirmity at this time, which requires I should rather be lying upon my Bed than either going or sitting up. Your Answer to these particulars, Zachary in two places, the Prophecy of the*Concerning the 7 Lamps. fourth Chapter, and that other of the 9, 10, 11. The sight of Cornelius, and your explicating the Practice of the ancient Churches in their continual celebrating of that Commemorative Sacrifice, in distinction from that which we do implicitly and obscurely, will be a great refreshing to my spirit, and consequently may prove some ease to my bodily infirmity also. And I hope I shall trouble you no more, unless it be to excite you to go on upon the Revelation. The Lord give a blessing to all your studies, and in good time perfect them to the consolation of his Church in these sorrowful days of Christendom.
Newbury, 3. Aug. 1635. Your loving friend in the surest bond, W. Twisse.
Post-script.
It is time to return that of yours ad Ludov. de Dieu, which herewith I do. Mr. B. knows him well, and he desires to be heartily remembred unto you, with many thanks for your kind and free entertainment of him.