HOLY DECENCY

IN THE

WORSHIP OF GOD.

BY JOSEPH HALL, BISHOP OF NORWICH.

I KNOW, that a clean heart, and a right spirit, is that, which God mainly regards: for, as he is a spirit, so he will be served in spirit; John iv. 24: but, withal, as he hath made the body, and hath made it a partner with the soul, so he justly expects, that it should be also wholly devoted to him: so as the Apostle, upon good reason, prays for his Thessalonians, that their whole spirit, and soul, and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; 1 Thess. v. 23: and beseeches his Romans, by the mercies of God, that they present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God; Rom.

xii. 1.

Now, as the body is capable of a double uncleanness; the one, moral, when it is made an instrument and agent in sin; the other, natural, when it is polluted with outward filthiness: so, both of these are fit to be avoided, in our addresses to the pure and holy God: the former, out of God's absolute command, who hath charged us to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness, both of the flesh and spirit; 2 Cor. vii. 1. the latter, out of the just grounds of decency and expedience: for though there be no sinful turpitude, in those bodily uncleannesses, wherein we offer ourselves to appear before the Lord, our God; yet there is so deep and unbeseemingness in them, as places them in the next door to sin.

Perhaps, God's ancient people, the Jews, were too superstitiously scrupulous, in these external observations: whose Talmud tells us of one of their great Rabbies, that would rather suffer under extremity of hunger and thirst, than taste of ought with unwashen hands, as counting that neglect equal to lying with a harlot; and who have raised a great question, whether, if any of their poultry have but dipped their beak in the bowl,

the water may be allowed to wash in; forbidding to void the urine standing, except it be upon a descent of ground, lest any drop should recoil upon the feet; and, in case of the other evacuation, beside the paddle-staff, and other ceremonies in uncovering the feet, enjoining to turn the face to the south, not to the east or west, because those coasts had their faces directed towards them in their devotions. What should I speak of their extreme curiosity, in their outward observances concerning the Law; which no man might be allowed to read, while he was but walking towards the unloading of nature, or to the bath, or near to any place of annoyance? No man might so much as spit in the temple, or before that sacred volume, or stretch forth his feet towards it, or turn his back upon it, or receive it with the left hand. No man might presume to write it, but upon the parchment made of the skin of a clean beast; nor to write or give a bill of divorce, but by the side of a running stream: yea, the very Turks, as they have borrowed their circumcision, so also religious niceties, from these Jews; not allowing their Alcoran to be touched by a person that is unclean.

But, surely, I fear these men are not more faulty in the one extreme, than many Christians are in the other: who place a kind of holiness, in a slovenly neglect; and so order themselves, as if they thought a nasty carelessness in God's services were most acceptable to him. Hence it is, that they affect homely places for his worship; abandoning all magnificence and cost, in all the acts and appendances of their devotion: clay and sticks please them better, than marble and cedars. Hence it is, that their dresses make no difference of festivals: all stuffs, all colours are alike to them, in all sacred solemnities: hence, that they stumble into God's house, without all care or show of reverence; and sit them down at his table, like his fellows, with their hats on their heads: hence, that they make no difference of coming with full paunches to that heavenly banquet; and that the very dogs are allowed free access and leave, to lift up their legs, at those holy tables, where we partake of the Son of God".

For the rectifying of which misconceits and practices, let it be laid down as an undoubted rule, That it is a thing wellpleasing to God, that there should be all outward cleanliness, gravity, reverent and comely postures, meet furniture, utensils, places, used and observed in the service of the Almighty: a truth, sufficiently grounded upon that irrefragable canon of the Apostle: Let all things be done decently, and in order ; 1 Cor. xiv. 40: whereof order refers to persons and actions decency, to the things done, and the fashion of doing them.

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■ In quibus populi vota et membra Christi portata sunt. Optat. Milevit. 1. vi.

Disorder therefore and indecency, as they are a direct violation of this apostolic charge; so, doubtless, they are justly offensive to the Majesty of that God, whose service is disgraced by them.

As for Disorder, it falls not into our present discourse. In matter of Indecency, the main disquisition will be, how it may be judged and determined.

To know what is comely, hath been of old noted to be not more commendable than difficult; for the minds of men may be of a different diet: one may approve that for decent, which another abhors as most unbeseeming". A cynic cur or some Turkish Saint may think it not uncomely, to plant his own kind in the open market place: and Xenophone tells us of a certain people, called Mosynecians, whose practice was to do all those acts in public, which other men, placing shame in them, are wont to reserve for the greatest secrecy; and, contrarily, to do those things in private, which other nations thought fit for the openest view. And we find that the stigmatical Saint of the Church of Rome, who could say of himself that God would have him fatuellum quendam, thought it no shame to go stark naked through the streets of Assisium. So did Theodore the tailor, and seven men, and five women, Anabaptists, strip themselves, and run naked through Amsterdam®.

But, certainly, there are unquestionable rules, whereby decency may be both regulated and judged. The great Doctor of the Gentiles, when he would correct an indecent practice in his Corinthians, uses these three expressions, Judge in yourselves: is it comely? Doth not nature itself teach you? We have no such custom, nor the churches of God; 1 Cor. xi. 13, 14, 16. Wherein he sends us, for the determination of decency, to the judgment of our Right Reason, Undebauched Nature, and Approved Custom: and, surely, if we follow the guidance of these three, we cannot easily err in our decision of comeliness, both in our carriage in human affairs, and in the services of God.

All these will tell us, that it is most meet, that all outward cleanliness, gravity, modesty, reverence, should be used in all the actions of divine worship; and will inform us, that whatsoever fashion of deportment is held rude and uncivil in human conversation, is so much more indecent in divine actions, by how much the person whom we deal with is more awful, and worthier of the highest observance.

It is no other than an error therefore, in those men, who think,

b Suarum rerum nemo non mitis arbiter et pins judex. Petrarch. Bapẞaρórarοi Távτwv Moσvvoikoì. &c. Xenoph. de Exped. Cyri. 1. v.

C

Dixit mihi Dominus, quòd volebat me esse unum futuellum in hoc mundo, Conform. Separat.

Guy de Bres. Idem fecit coram Episcopo Assisii. lib. Conform. p. 211,

that, if they look to the inward disposition of the soul, it matters not, in what posture or what loathsome turpitude, the body appears before the Almighty. Even that slovenly cynic, when he saw a woman bowing herself forward too low in her devotion, could chide her for her unregard to those deities, which beheld her on all sides. Our Blessed Saviour, though he had good cheer at the Pharisee's house; yet he somewhat taxeth his host, for want of a due compliment: I entered into thy house; thou gavest me no water for my feet; my head with oil didst thou not anoint, &c. Luke vii. 44, 46. He looks still, for meet formalities of good entertainment, as well as the substance of the dishes. It was God's charge, that no steps should be made to go up to his altar; lest the nakedness of the sacrificer should be discovered; Exod. xx. 26. For this cause it was, that he, who made the first suit of skins for our first parents, ordained linen breeches for his priests, in their minis

trations.

God hath no where commanded us to cut our nails or our hair; but it were a foul indecency, not to do both. And, if we would justly loath a man, that should come to our table like wild Nebuchadnezzar in the desert, with hair to his waist, and claws on his fingers; how much more odious would this seem in a man, that should thus thrust himself in to the Table of the Lord! And, if our displeasure would justly arise at that barbarous guest, which should come to our board with his hands besmeared with ordure or blood; how can we think it can be otherwise than ill-taken of the holy God, that we should, in a beastly garb, offer ourselves into his presence?

It is not only in regard of spiritual filthiness, that the evil spirits are called unclean; but even of external also: wherein how much they delight, we may well appeal to the confessions of those witches and sorcerers, which, upon their conviction and penitence, have laid open the shameful rites of their nightly meetings. Neither was it without cause, that some of their prime agents, in the Ancient Church, were called Bopßopírat, from those filthy fashions, which were in use amongst them.

Contrarily, what pleasure the pure and holy God takes in the cleanness, both of flesh and spirit, is abundantly testified, by those many and strict injunctions of lotions and purifications, which we find, upon every occasion, in his ancient Law: and, though those laws be not now obligatory, as being for the substance of them ceremonial and typical; yet they have in them so much tincture of an eternal morality, as to imply a meetness of decent cleanliness in the services of God.

Bodin. Demonomania, &c.

Gnostici borborita quasi cænosi, ob turpitudinem in suis mysteriis, &c. Augustin 1. de Hæres. Philastr. de Hæres.

In the observation whereof, it is meet for us to hold a middle way, betwixt superstition and neglect.

servances.

It is easy to note, how, in the former extreme, a superstitious curiosity hath crept into the Church of Rome : insomuch as it may well vie with the Jewish, for multitude and niceness of obTheir altar-cloths must not be touched, but with a brush appropriated to that service: their corporals must first, ere they be delivered forth, be washed by none but those, that are in sacred orders; in a vessel proper only to that use; with soap and ley; and, after, with pure water; which, after the rinsing, must be poured into the sacrarium": their chalices must not be touched by one, that is not in orders: no glove may be worn in their quire: no woman or layman may make their host; neither may any lay person so much as look at that sacred wafer out of his window: their missal cushions may not be brought, so much as for the bishop to kneel on": the stones of a demolished church may be sold to laymen, but with reservation of uses; neither may so much as a house for the curate, be built upon the same floor, but by the Pope's licence": upon the burial of a heretic within the precincts, the church must be reconciled, and the walls scraped: the grass in the church-yard may not be used to any pasturage P: their AgnusDei may not be touched by a layman; no, not with gloves on, or with a pair of tongs. What should I instance in more? A just volume would not contain the curious scruples of their nice observances, in their vestments, consecrations, sacramental rites; and, indeed, in the whole carriage of their religious devotions in all which, they bring themselves back under the bondage of more than judaical ceremonies; placing God's worship in the ritual devices of men, and bringing their consciences under servile subjection to human impositions. That liberty, wherewith Christ hath made us free, calleth us to the avoidance of this unjust excess.

:

But, withal, our reverential fear of the God of Heaven, calls us to eschew, in the other extreme, all sordid incuriousness and slovenly neglect, in his immediate services.

To which purpose, let it pass for a sure rule, That there is a kind of relative holiness, in Persons, Things, Times, Places, Actions relative, I say: not inherent in themselves, but in reference to their use and destination.

And, in the second place, That even this kind of holiness challengeth a reverent respect from us.

A Person, whose profession is holy, by his solemn consecra

Bartol. Gavant. part 5. de Nitore et Mundite Sacræ Supellectilis.

Idem. Tit. Calix.

1

V. Processio Ibid. Gavant.

" Gavant. V. Ecclesia.

k Tit. Canon. munera.

m Moresin. Scot. de Orig. Papat. 9.

• Abradendi parietis sic et Donatistæ. Optat. 1. 6.

P Tit. Cemiteria.