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book_n	according_a	common_a	prayer_n	2,718	5	6.1677	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27050	A treatise of episcopacy confuting by Scripture, reason, and the churches testimony that sort of diocesan churches, prelacy and government, which casteth out the primitive church-species, episcopacy, ministry and discipline and confoundeth the Christian world by corruption, usurpation, schism and persecution : meditated in the year 1640, when the et cætera oath was imposed : written 1671 and cast by : published 1680 by the importunity of our superiours, who demand the reasons of our nonconformity / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing B1427; ESTC R19704	421,766	406

and as his instrument that he doth not in the distinct person of a Presbyter He that payeth money or delivereth possession in his Masters name doth it not in his own So that if really they mean as they say that quoad personam legalem quamvis non naturalem it be the Bishop that doth Teach and Officiate per alios then no Presbyter is indeed endued with any power of Teaching Officiating or Ruling in the person of a Presbyter but only to be the Servant and Instrument of the Diocesane 2. No Presbyter hath power to judge whom he shall Baptize or whom to refuse but is to Baptize all without any exception that have Godfathers and Godmothers who will but say the words in the book The Canon 78. is No Minister shall refuse or delay to Christen any Child according to the book of Common prayer that is brought to the Church to him upon Sundays or Holidays to be Christened Else suspended three months from his Ministry Yea that is it that pays for all So Can. 79. he is bound to do in houses in case of danger Yet Can. 29. No Parent shall be urged to be PRESENT nor be admitted to answer as Godfather for his own child Now the Liturgy requireth not any Godfather to Adopt the Child and take it for his own Nor doth it allow us to refuse the Children of Turks Jews or Heathens And if these Godfathers be known Atheists Turks Jews or Heathens or the filthiest Adulterers or wicked persons if they did ever in their lives receive the Sacrament and will say as the Book bids them the Priest cannot refuse the Child But if the godliest Parent can get none to be such Godfathers or Godmothers his Child must not be Baptized I told the Bishops my self that I had a notorious Infidel boasted that he would bring his Child to be baptized and say the words of the book and see who durst refuse it And I was answered that if the Child had Godfathers there was no scruple but I should Baptize him But when I ask what if these Infidels professedly such be the Godfathers and say before-hand I will say those words and refuse me if you dare they have nothing to say that common reason should regard Now he that is but sent to Baptize those even all whomsoever that others bid him baptize and hath no more discerning or judging power of the persons capacity than a Lay-man hath is in this no Presbyter but a Prelates messenger or servant 3. They have no power to instruct admonish or reprove in secret or publick or in their own houses any one Ignorant Heretical Infidel Atheistical or scandalous wicked man that will but refuse to speak with them or to hear them And yet he must give this person the Sacrament at least till he prove that by him which his refusal to speak to him maketh impossible to be publickly proved If I have great reason by some private occasional speech or report to believe that many of the Parish know no more of Christ than Pagans do or that they among their own companions who will not accuse them profess Atheism Infidelity or Heresie or if after scandalous fames I would admonish them to repent If they refuse to speak with me or suffer me not to come and speak to them I have no remedy but must still continue them in the Communion of the Church Obj. You would not have such men forced your self Answ But I would not be forced then my self to give him the Sacrament of Communion as his Pastor who refuseth to speak with me or to hear me as his Pastor but would have power to refuse that Pastoral administration to him that refuseth the rest 4. They have no power to judge of the fitness of any one for the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in point of knowledge faith or Covenanting with God nor whether he understand what the Sacrament is any more than an Infidel or ideot so be it the Bishop do but confirm him in his childhood or he will say that he is ready to be confirmed Indeed all are required to send their children to be Catechised But 1. few Ministers use it 2. few persons in a parish come 3. If they refuse we cannot prevent their further communicating 4. It is but to say over the words of that Catechism which they are called to which experience tells us children will do like Parrots without understanding what they say And we must not ask them any other questions It is true also that they who are confirmed by the Bishop should bring a Certificate from the Minister that they can say the Creed Lords prayer Commandments c. But they may choose and not one of many doth it I went my self at thirteen years of age or fourteen to the worthy Bishop Morton with the rest of the School-boyes without any Certificate and without any examination he hastily said as he passed on three or four lines of a prayer over us when I knew not what he said And after this no Minister can refuse any one at age the Sacrament The Rubrick saith They should openly own their Baptism c. But few do it and none can be refused for not doing it And so the transition from the number of Infant members into the number of the adult is made without the Ministers Consent Though the Kings Declaration once yielded to the contrary And Communicants croud upon him in utter ignorance because they were Baptized in Infancy Nay few in a Parish not one of many hundred of my acquaintance is ever confirmed by the Bishop at all so much as ceremoniously or regard it 5. They have no power to choose what Chapter they will read to the Church in publick though a word before the Homilies lib. 2. seemed once to allow it them But every day in the year even week-days and Holidays they are tyed up to the Chapters imposed on them though Bell and the Dragon Judith Susanna Tobit and other Apocryphal writings be appointed for Lessons even about 106 Chapters of the Apocrypha in two months And though any scandal or other occasion in his Church would direct him to choose some other subject for the peoples good 6. He hath no power to choose what words to use in his publick prayers to God no not to use any that are not written for him to read out of the book And though custom hath so used Ministers to pray without book in the pulpit yet this is but connived at because it cannot easily be remedied One of them wrote a book against it as answering that part of our Savoy Reply 1660 Dr. Heylin hath largely laboured to prove that it is contrary to the Canon which indeed doth seem express against it And that 's not all However their Consciences digest it all the Conformists in England do subscribe as ex animo a covenant or promise that they will use the form in the said book prescribed in publick prayer and

administration of the Sacraments and no other Canon 36. Mark No other And the Bishops that endure this are forced to say that these Pulpit prayers are not the Churches prayers but our own But yet they are Publick prayers and therefore I doubt a breach of the Canon-Covenant 7. A Presbyter as such hath no power to preach the Gospel The words of his Ordination do but give him power to preach when he shall be lawfully called yea his Presentation Institution Induction and possession of a Pastoral Charge do not all make up this Lawful call nor may he preach one Sermon after all this till he have a particular Licensing Instrument from the Bishop So that he preacheth not meerly as a Presbyter nor as a possessed Incumbent but as Licensed by the Bishop 8. When he visiteth the sick he hath no Power left him to judge Whether the person be penitent and fit to be Absolved or not But if the wickedest liver will but say or swear that he repenteth of Swearing of Adultery of Perjury though such expressions or circumstances be such as plainly tell a present Minister that he hath nothing like to a serious repentance yet must this Minister be forced even in Absolute words to Absolve him from all his sins When a Popish Confessor would require more I do not in all this lay the fault that this Minister hath not power to keep away any of these persons from Baptism Confirmation the Lords Table Absolution c. but only that he hath no Power to forbear his own action and application and leave them to others that are satisfied to do it Nor not so much as to delay till he give a reason of his doubt to his Lord Bishop 9. When he buryeth the dead he hath no power to judge so far as to the performing or restraining of his own act whether the deceased person must needs be declared and pronounced blessed Three sorts of persons he must deny Christian burial to 1. Those that die unbaptized though they be the Children of the holiest Parents 2. Those that kill themselves though they be the faithfullest persons of godly and blameless lives who do it in melancholy deliration a phrenzy feaver or distraction 3. All that are Excommunicate though by a Lay Chancellor for not paying their fees or though it be because they durst not take the Sacrament from the hands of an ignorant ungodly drunken Priest to whose ministery neither they nor other of the Parish did ever consent or that it be the Learnedest Godly Divine that is excommunicate for dissenting from the Prelatists But all others without any exception that are brought to Church they must bury with a publick Declaration that they are saints viz. That God in mercy hath taken to himself the soul of this our dear brother And without Holiness no man shall see God So great difference in Holiness there is between the Holy Church of Rome and ours that they Canonize one Saint in an age by the Pope and we as many as are buryed by the Priest Though it was the most notorious Thief or Murderer or the most notorious Atheist or Infidel or Heretick who either writeth or preacheth or disputeth that there is no God or no life to come or useth in his ordinary talk to mock at Christ as a deceiver and to scorn the Scriptures as nonsence and contradiction or though it be a Jew who professeth enmity to Christ Much more if it be a common blasphemer perjured person adulterer drunkard a scorner at a godly life c. who never professed repentance but despised the Minister and his counsel to the last breath yet if he be brought to the Church for buryal the Priest must pronounce him saved in the aforesaid words so be it he be not Excommunicate of which sort of late there are too great numbers risen up in so much that the sober Prelatists themselves cry out of the growth and peril of Atheism Infidelity and most horrid filthiness and profaneness The words of the Canon are Can 68. No Minister shall refuse or delay to bury any corps that is brought to the Church or Churchyard convenient warning being given thereof before in such manner and form as is prescribed in the book of Common Prayer And if he shall refuse except the party deceased were denounced Excommunicated Excommunicatione majori for some grievous and notorious crime and no man able to testifie of his repentance he shall be suspended by the Bishop of the Diocese from his Ministry by the space of three months But the New Rubrick in the Liturgy saith The office ensuing is not to be used for any that die unbaptized or Excommunicate or have laid violent hands on themselves The Office saith Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the Soul of our dear brother here departed c. And We give thee hearty thanks that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world And yet as self-contradicters and condemners if any man do but say of one that hath been openly against the Prelates or Conformity that he was a godly honest man much more one that was against the King and especially a downright Traitor who so lived and died impenitently they take it for a heinous crime as in the latter case they well may do And yet except those whose quarters they set up upon the gates or deny Christian burial to by the Magistrate the poor Priest must pronounce them all at the Grave to be the Bishops dear brethren and saved as aforesaid 10. They have no Power to give the Sacrament of Communion with Christ and his Church to any the most Learned holy Christian who dare not receive the Sacrament kneeling for fear of bread-worship in appearance c. which though I think is unwarrantably scrupled yet hath so much of Universality and Antiquity as maketh it ill beseeming those same men who cry up the Church Councils Customes and Antiquity to cast out of Communion those that conform to all these for so doing For who knoweth not by Can. 20. of Concil Nic. 1. and the consent of Antiquity that they took it for a custome and tradition and Canon of the Universal Church that none should at all adore God kneeling on any Lords day in the year nor on any week-day between Easter and Whitsunday 11. They have no power to forbear denying the Sacrament of Communion to any how faithful and holy soever who is against the Diocesanes Confirmation and is unwilling that those whom he taketh to be no true Bishops should use that which he taketh as used by them to be no true Ordinance of God but a taking of his name in vain or if on any other account he be unwilling of it For the new Rubrick is There shall none be admitted to the holy Communion until such time as he be Confirmed or be ready and desirous to be Confirmed So that

readeth the whole Book of Canons and the Visitation Articles may see they being too many for me to recite Besides a multitude of Cases about Marriages to be contracted dissolved separation and Testaments and the Goods of Intestate persons Priests Deacons and Lay-men are judged in these Courts The final constraining penalty is Excommunication or before that Suspension and other degrees of Church punishment before mentioned as belonging to the Bishop The supposed offenders are no otherwise dealt with to bring them to true Repentance than as in Civil Courts by other Lay-Judges They that appear not and they that pay not the Fees of the Court and Officers are Excommunicate and they that obey not the Orders of the Court. In Excommunications and Absolutions the Lay-Chancellor is Judg but he writeth the Decree in the Bishops name And at least sometimes pro formâ some Priest or other is procured to be present no Bishop to utter the Sentence which the Lay Judge Decreeth This Sentence is sent by the Chancellor to the Minister of the Parish where the offender liveth who must publish it in the Church openly as the Cryer doth the Kings Proclamation But if it be the Minister himself that is Excommunicated another Minister readeth it The whole process of their Judicial Tryals Sentences and Executions you may see in Cosin's Tab. 9. 10. Besides the Chancellor's Courts called the Bishops the Archdeacons have certain inferiour Courts where they enquire after faults and return the great ones to the Bishops Courts And they Induct or give possession of Benefices As for the Parish Priests or Ministers ordinary Parishes have but one to each but Great Parishes cannot be served as they call it without a Curate and each Chapel hath a Curate but all under One that hath the sole possession of the Benefice whether he be Parson or Vicar These Priests are Ordained by the Bishop some one two or three Presbyters if present also imposing hands They are chosen to the Church and Benefice by the Patron who presents them to the Bishop who giveth them Institution for Title and Induction for possession When he is Ordained Instituted and Inducted he must not Preach to his People till he hath got a License from the Bishop of that Diocess no though he were before Licensed in another Diocess Nor must he Preach or Officiate or have any Benefice or Church till he have subscribed and done as is expressed in the Act of Uniformity And he must declare his Assent and Consent to all things contained in and prescribed by three Books the Liturgy the Book of Ordination and the Articles And he must swear obedience to his Bishop His Office is when after Licensed to Preach to Read the Scriptures and the Apocrypha and many Acts of Parliament and Homilies to read the Liturgy or Prayers To give notice of Holy-days and Fasting-days To Baptize all Children without exception that are offered him by Godfathers and Godmothers the Parents not Covenanting for them but others To Marry persons To Church Women after Child bearing To hear Children in Church say the Catechism that is in the Liturgy but many have been forbidden by the Bishops to expound it or tell the Children the meaning of the words which they say by rote To celebrate and give the Sacrament to the Parishioners To visit the Sick and absolve them if they say they repent To bury the Dead affirming of them all that God in mercy hath taken their souls as our dear brethren to himself excepting only 1. Those that die unbaptized though Children of Princes or godly Parents 2. Those that are Excommunicate usually such as durst not Conform to them 3. And those that kill themselves though in a Frensie To use the Cross Surplice and other Ceremonies of the Church And to joyn with the Church-Wardens if they please in presenting such to the Bishops Courts as break their Laws And if he deny any notorious offender the Sacrament he must become his Accuser before the Chancellour or Bishops Court This is the Office of a Parish Priest Where you must note 1. in general that he hath no Judicial Administration in the Church They ordinarily say that he hath no Jurisdiction but meer Priestly Orders As if they knew not that Priestly Order is nothing but the Sacred Office and that that Office is the Power of the Keys or essentially containeth the Power of Guiding the Flock in Teaching Worship and Discipline under Christ the Chief Prophet Priest and King Civil Jurisdiction over the Church is the Kings and Spiritual is part of the Priestly Office or Order as to the subject people to be governed 2. Particularly note 1. that the Minister hath in England no power to Judge whom to Baptize and whom not but must Baptize all that are offered though the Children of Jews Infidels Turks Apostates 2. That he hath no power to hinder the admission of any so baptized into the state of adult Members by the Bishops Confirmation For though it be said Children shall bring his Certificate that they can say the Catechism yet 1. those Children may go without it and do ordinarily When I was confirmed my self none was required nor did I ever see any given 2. And if it were the poor Children seldom understand any thing that they say or much 3. There is not one of multitudes in our Churches that ever sought or minded such Confirmation because of its abuse 3. That he hath no power to hinder any confirmed or adult persons from the Sacraments on the account of the grossest ignorance or infidelity when multitudes among us know not what the Sacrament is nor know the essentials of the Christian Faith 4. He hath no power to convent any open offender before him to call him to repentance They may chuse to come to him or to open their doors to him or speak to him if he come to them 5. He hath no power to call them to Repentance openly before the Church or pray by name for their Repentance or admonish them 6. He hath no power to judge any person to be Excommunicate 7. Nor to absolve any that is penitent after Excommunication But only to read the Lay-Chancellours sentences sent him in the Bishops name 8. He hath no power to forbear giving the Lords Supper to any one how notorious an offender soever unless he will prosecute him at the Bishops Court nor then but for once So that if he pay his Fees and be Absolved there though the Minister know him to be never so bad he must give the Sacrament the next time And the prosecution is so odious and fruitless that I never knew any do it except against the Nonconformists 9. He that seeth never so great signs of Impenitency in any man that is sick or will but say that he is sick hath no power to deny him private Absolution and the Sacrament if he do but say I Repent 10. He hath no power to

prescribed in Scripture professed that it was always his opinion And joyned with us in our proposals for Bishop Ushers Model Dr Stillingfleet in his Irenicon hath said so much against the Jus Divinum of our Prelacy as can never be answered I have talked with many of the Bishops and Episcopal Conformists my self of these matters and I do not remember that ever I spake to one accounted a Learned man that did not confess when driven to it that the Greatness of the Diocesses and the Chancellors Government by the Church Keyes were causes of so great a lapse of discipline as is to be groaned under And can shew us no probability it possibility of restoring it while it so stands And yet they would have us subscribe and swear never to endeavour any alteration of the Church Government not excepting in our place and calling by petition or otherwise no though the King commanded us Bishop Hall in his Mod. Offer doth confess the faultiness and desires reformation and in his excellent Peace-maker would take up even with a presidencie durante vita as sufficient to reconcile us Dr. Hammond himself oft complaineth of the lapse of discipline and the clergies and peoples vices thereupon The Liturgy wisheth the godly Discipline restored but doth it not as if in our case it could not be done Abundance of their Writers lament the scandals of clergy and people which have abounded of which I shall say somewhat more anon 2. And this is yet plainlier confessed by the Actual omission of discipline We need not to dispute whether that can or be ever like to be done by our Prelacy which is no where done and never was done no not by any one man of them not excepting the very best so that if they had not come neer the Erastian opinion in their hearts and thought this use of the Keyes to consist but in bare Teaching or the rest to be of no great need it had not been possible that they should have quieted their Consciences Or at least if they did not do it by saying I cannot help it It is not long of me As Bishop Goodman layeth it on the King in the case of Chancellours and most lay it on the Church-Wardens and Ministers for presenting no more But all must confess that little is done besides the troubling of Nonconformists It is not one of a thousand in a Diocesse I am confident that ever is brought under the excercise of Church discipline that ought to be Nor one of many thousand that should be so according to the ancient Canons of the Churches If I should give no other instance than the ordinarie neglect of all Gods publick worship Preaching Prayer and Sacraments in publick Churches or any other Religious Assemblies I do not think but ten thousand persons in this Diocesse and twenty thousand if not fourty in London Diocesse are guilty that were never questioned by the Church I may therefore argue thus That which never was done by any one Bishop in England being the confessed work of their office is naturally or Morally Impossible to be done or if it have a possibility it is as bad as none when it never was once reduced into act But the true exercise of Church discipline on all or the hundredth or many hundredth person that it is due to was never done by one Bishop in England that can by any credible History be proved since the deformation or reformation Ergo. The strength of the Major is plain 1. From the Bishops own mouths who use to praise themselves as the Wisest Learn dst and best of the Clergie and therefore fitter to be trusted with the Government of the Church than all or any of the Presbyters though but under then And they would take it heynously if we question their wisdom conscience or honesty and if they are all or most so good sure it is long of the state and constitution of their places and not long of their persons that their very proper work is made but a shaddow and a dream 2. But though this be but ad homines yet really we have had very worthy and excellent persons to be Bishops what a man was Jewell Arch-bishop Grindal had Godliness enough and resolution too to make him odi●s and favoured Lectures and Preaching c. Enough to bring him down if Cambden Godwin or Fuller are to be believed but never could do this work of discipline upon one of hundreds or thousands under him We had an excellent Arch-Bishop-Abbot afterwards good enough to be reproached by Heylin and to suffer what I need not mention but never able to do this work What Learned Judicious worthy men were his Brother Robert Abbot and after him Davenant Bishops of Salisbury And how good a man was peaceable Bishop Hall so Usher in Ireland Moron and many more But no such thing was done by any of them what should I say now of Bishop Reignolds and Bishop Wilkins Men Learned and extraordinary honest in these times But let any man enquire whether any such thing as the discipline in question is exercised on the thousandth Criminal in their Diocese Indeed we have heard in Bishop Reignolds Diocese of a great number censured for Nonconformity And it is his praise that it was not his doing but his Chancellours though heretofore Judge Advocate in Fairefaxes or Cromwells Army And to say now that it is long of Church-Wardens Chancellours c. Is but to say that the Church is corrupted the Episcopal discipline almost quite cast out and all the remedy is to say It is long of somebody Like the Physician whose Praise was that his patients dyed according to the rules of art or the nurse whose praise was that though most of the Children perished it was long of themselves or somebody else IV. But the fullest experience which so far satisfieth me that all the books in the world cannot change me in this is my own and the rest of my Brethren in the Ministry I have lived now through Gods wonderful mercy threescore years wanting lesse than four In all this time whilst the Bishops ruled I never heard one man or woman called openly to repentance for any sin nor one ever publikely confess or lament any sin Nor one that was excommunicate in any Country where I came except the Nonconformists Nor did I hear of any but one man to my remembrance who did formal penance for Fornication I doubt not but there have been more But the number may be conjectu●ed by this I lived under a great number of drunken and ignorant Curates that never preached and Schoolmasters my self and many more were round about us that were never troubled with discipline or cast out I never lived where drunkards and swearers were not common but never one of them underwent the Churches discipline But those that met to fast and pray and went to hear a Sermon two miles off when they had none at home But yet this is the last