Works of Joseph Hall, Section 37
SECTION XXXVII.
Whether our Ordinary and Seruice booke be made Idols by vsus.YEt … Idolatry? And which is more, New, and ſtrange▪ ſuch (I dare ſay) as will n…er be found in the two … Commandements. Behold, here two now Idols, Our Ordinary, and our Seruice booke, a ſpeaking Idoll, and a written Idoll. Calecute hath …ne-ſtrange Deitie the Deuill, Siberia many, whoſe people worſhip eueryevery day what they ſee firſt. Rome hath many merry Saints: but Saint Ordinary, and Saint Seruice booke were neuer heard of till your Canonization. In earneſt, doe you thinke we make our Ordinary an idoll? What elſe? you kneele deuoutly to him when you receiue either the Oath or Abſolution. This muſt needs be religious adoration: is there no remedy? You hauehave twice kneeled to our Vice-Chancellor, when you were admitted to your degree; you hauehave oft kneeled to your Parents, and Godfathers to receiue a bleſſing, did you make Idols of them? the party to be ordained, kneeles vnderunder the hand of the Presbyterie: doth he religiouſly adore them? Of old they were wont to kiſſe the hands of their Biſhops, ſo they did to Baal: God and our Superiours hauehave had euer one and the ſame outward geſture: Though here,Paulus in vita Ambroſ. not the Agent is ſo much regarded, as the Action: if your Ordinary would hauehave ſuffered you to hauehave done this peece of Idolatry, you had neuer ſeparated.
But the true God Bel, and Dragon of England is the humane-Diuine-Seruice-Booke: Let vsus ſee what aſhes or lumpes of pitch this Daniel brings: We worſhip God in, and by it, as Papiſts doe by their Images: Indeed, we worſhip God in, and by prayers contained in it: Why ſhould we not? Tell me, why is it more Idolatry for a man to worſhip God in, and by a prayer read, or got by heart, than by a prayer conceiued? I vtter both, they are both mine: if the heart ſpeake them both, feelingly and deuoutly, where lies the Idoll? In a conceiued prayer, is it not poſſible for a mans thought to ſtray from his tongue? in a prayer learned by heart, or read, is it not poſſible for the heart to ioyne with the tongue? If I pray therefore in ſpirit, and heartily vtter my deſires to God, whether in mine owne words, or borrowed (and ſo made mine) what is the offence? But (ſay you) if the Lord Ieſus in his Teſtament hauehave not commanded any ſuch Booke, it is accurſed and abominable: But ſay I, if the Lord Ieſus hath not any where forbidden ſuch a Booke, it is not accurſed nor abominable: Shew vsus the place where, that we may know it with you: Nay, but I muſt ſhew you where the Apoſtles vſed any ſuch Seruice booke: ſhew you mee, where the Apoſtles baptized in a Baſin: or where they receiued women to the Lords table: (for your foreign, 1 Cor. 11.Paſſag. twixt Caluin and Smith. Egyptij vbi lautè epulati ſunt, poſt coe…a …d ſ…cuint. Socr…. 5. c. 22. will not ſerue) ſhew me that the Bible was diſtinguiſht into Chapters and Verſes in the Apoſtles time: ſhew me that they euer celebrated the Sacrament of the Supper at any other time than euening, as your Anabaptiſts now doe: ſhew mee that they vſed one prayer before their Sermons alwaies, another after; that they preached euer vponupon a Text: where they preached ouer a Table: or laſtly, ſhew mee where the Apoſtles vſed that prayer which you made before your laſt prophecie; and a thouſand ſuch circumſtances. What an idle plea is this from the Apoſtolike times?Platin. initio. And if I ſhould tell you that Saint Peter celebrated with the Lords Prayer, you will not beleeue it: yet you know the Hiſtorie. But let the Reader know that your quarrel is not againſt the matter, but againſt the Booke; not as they are prayers, but as ſtinted, or preſcribed: Wherein all the world beſides your ſelues are Idolaters: Behold, all Churches that were, or are, are partners with vsus in this crime. Oh idolatrous Geneua, and all French, Scottiſh, Daniſh, Dutch Churches! All which both hauehave their ſet Prayers with vsus, and approue them.Caluin Epiſt. ad Proteſt. Angl. Epiſt. 87. Quod ad formulam, &c. As concerning a forme of Prayers and Rites Eccleſiaſticall (ſaith Reuerend Caluin) I doe greatly allow that it ſhould be ſet and certaine, from which it ſhould not be lawfull for Paſtors in their function to depart. Iudge now of the ſpirit of theſe bold Controlers, that dare thus condemne all Gods Churches through the world, as idolatrous. But ſince you call for Apoſtolike examples; did not the Apoſtle Paul vſe one ſet forme of apprecations, of benedictions? What were theſe but leſſer Praiers? The quantity varies not the kinde: Will you hauehave yet ancienter precedents? The Prieſt was appointed of old to vſe a ſet forme vnderunder the Law, Num. 6.23. ſo the people Deu. 26.3, 4, 5, &c. 15. Both of them a ſtinted Pſalme for the Sabbath, Pſal, 92.Anſw. to the Miniſt. Counterpoyſ. 327. What ſaith your Doctor to theſe? Becauſe the Lord (ſaith he) gaue formes of Prayers and Pſalmes, therefore the Prelates may? Can we think that Ieroboam had ſo ſlender a reaſon for his calues? Marke (good Reader) the ſhifts of theſe men: This Anſwerer cals for Examples, and will abide no ſtinting of Prayers, becauſe we ſhew no patterns from Scripture: We doe ſhew patterns from Scripture, and now their Doctor ſaith, God appointed it to them of old, muſt wee therefore doe it? So, whether we bring examples or none, wee are condemned: But Maſter Doctor, whom, I beſeech you, ſhould we follow, but God in his owne ſeruices? If God hauehave not appointed it, you cry out vponupon inuentions: if God hauehave appointed it, you cry, Wee may not follow it: ſhew then where God euer inioyned an ordinary ſeruice to himſelfe, that was not ceremoniall (as this plainly is not:) which ſhould not bee a direction for vsus? But if ſtinting our prayers bee a fault (for as yet you meddle not with our blaſphemous Collects) it is well that the Lords prayer it ſelfe beareth vsus companie,Counterpoyſ. and is no ſmall part of our Idolatrie: Which, though it were giuen principally as a rule to our prayers, yet, ſince the matter is ſo heauenly, and moſt wiſely framed to the neceſſitie of all Chriſtian hearts;Omnibus arietibus gregis (id eſt) Apoſiolis ſuis dedit morem orandi, Dimitte nobis, &c. Aug. epiſt. 89. to deny that it may be vſed intirely in our Sauiours words, is no better than a fanaticall curiouſneſſe: yeeld one and all, for if the matter bee more diuine, yet the ſtint is no leſſe faultie: This is not the leaſt part of our patchery: except you vnrip this, the reſt you cannot. But might not God be purely and perfectly worſhipped without it? Tell me, might not God be purely and perfectly worſhipped without Churches, without houſes, without garments, yea, without hands or feet? In a word, could not God be purely worſhipped, if you were not? Yet would you not ſeeme a ſuperfluous creature: ſpeake in your ſelfe: Might not God bee intirely worſhipped with pure and holy worſhip, though there were no other Bookes in the World, but the Scripture? If yea, as who can denie it, that knowes what the worſhip of God meaneth? What then doe the Fathers and Doctors and learned Interpreters? To the fire with all thoſe curious Arts and Volumes, as your Predeceſſors called them: Yea, let me put you in minde, that God was purely and perfectly worſhipped by the Apoſtolicke Church, before euer the New Teſtament was written. See therefore the idleneſſe of your proofes; God may be ſerued without a preſcription of Prayer, but (if all Reformed Churches in Chriſtendome erre not) better with it: The Word of God is perfect, and admits no addition: curſed were we, if we ſhould adde ought to it: curſed were that which ſhould be added: But curſed be they that take ought from it, and dare ſay, Ye ſhall not pray thus, Our Father, &c. Doe wee offer to make our Prayers Canonicall? doe we obtrude them as parts of Gods Word? Why cauill you thus? Why doth the ſame Prayer written adde to the Word, which ſpoken addeth not? Becauſe conceiued Prayer is commanded, not the other: But firſt, not your particular Prayer: Secondly, without mention either of conception, or memorie, God commands vsus to pray in ſpirit, and with the heart: Theſe circumſtances onelyonly as they are deduced from his Generals, ſo are ours: But whence ſoeuer it pleaſe you to fetch our Booke of publike Prayer, from Rome or Hell; or to what Image ſoeuer you pleaſe to reſemble it; Let moderate ſpirits heare what the pretious IEVVEL of England ſaith of it: We hauehave come as neere as we could to the Church of the Apoſtles,Apolog. p. 170. Acceſſimus, &c. H.Burr. againſt Gyfford. &c. neither onelyonly hauehave we framed our Doctrine, but alſo our Sacraments, and the forme of publike Prayers according to their Rites and Inſtitutions. Let no Iew now obiect Swines-fleſh to vsus: He is no iudicious man (that I may omit the mention of Cranmer, Bucer, Ridley, Taylor, &c. ſome of whoſe hands were in it, all whoſe voyces were for it) with whom one IEWEL will not ouer-weigh ten thouſand Separatiſts.
SEP.
The number of Sacraments ſeemes greater amongſt you by one at the leaſt, than Chriſt hath left in his Teſtament, and that is Marriage; which howſoeuer you doe not in expreſſe termes call a Sacrament (no more did Chriſt and the Apoſtles call Baptiſme and the Supper Sacraments,) yet doe you in truth create it a Sacrament, in the adminiſtration and vſe of it. There are the parties to bee married and their marriage, repreſenting Chriſt and his Church, and their ſpirituall vnion: to which myſterie, ſaith the Oracle of your Seruice-Booke expreſly, God hath conſecrated them: there is the Ring hallowed by the ſaid Seruice-Booke, (whereon it muſt bee laid) for the Element; there are the words of conſecration; In the Name of the Father, and of the Sonne, and of the Holy Ghoſt: there is the place, the Church; the time vſually, the Lords day▪ the Miniſter, the Pariſh Prieſt. And being made as it is a part of Gods Worſhip, and of the Miniſters office, what is it if it be not a Sacrament? It is a part of Prayer, or preaching, and with a Sacrament it hath the greateſt conſimilitude: but an Idoll I am ſure it is in the celebration of it, being made a Miniſteriall duty and part of Gods worſhip, without warrant, call it by what name you will.