Books I needed sometime 800. to give away Because I was scarce rich enough to buy so many I agreed with the Bookseller my Neighbour to allow 18. d. a Ream which is not a penny a quire out of his own gain towards the buying of Bibles and some of the practical Books which he printed for the poor Covenanting with him that he should sell my Controversal Writings as cheap and my Practical Writings somewhat cheaper then books are ordinarily sold. To this hour I never received for my self one penny of mony from them for any of my Writings to the best of my remembrance but if it fell out that my part came to more than I gave my friends I exchanged them for other Books My accounts and memory tell me not of 5. li. that ever was returned for me on these accounts which was on literaâ—y occasions so that my many hundreds a year is come to never a penny in all but as abovesaid in some exchange of Books And the price I set on my Books which I exchanged for theirs at the dearest rates is as followeth Treat of Conversion 2. s. Treat of Crucifying the World 2. s. Disput. of â—ustificat 2. s. 4. d. The Call to the Unconverted 8. d. Disput. of saving Faith 5. d. Of the Grotian Religion 6. d. Directions for sound Conversion 1. s. 8. d. Disput. of Right to Sacraments Edit secund 2. s. 4. d. These are all my bargains and my gains And I chose the honestest Booksellers that I could meet with according to my small measure of wit and acquaintance who told me they still made good their Promises And now censorious Slanderer tell me what thou wouldst have had me to have done more If I had got Food and Rayment out of my own hard labors had it been unlawful or dishonourable when Booksellers get so many hundred pounds by one Book that never studied nor spent their time and cost for it as I have done And yet dost thou reproach me that receive not a groat But because I will not oblige my self to the same course for the future and that thou mayst know at what rates I serve thee let me tell thee that in these labors early and late my body is wasted my precious time laid out and somewhat of my Estate and somewhat of the labor of my friends I cannot have twenty quire of my writing well transcribed under fifty pounds And who shall pay for this or maintain me in thy service I have troubled a Neighbour-Minister in the tedious work of transcribing my Characters for some books for which neither he nor I had ever one penny These personal matters are unsavory to me and I take it for a great injury that thou puttest upon me a necessity of mentioning them But I have yielded this once to thy unrighteous importunity that thou mayest hereafter learn what to believe and utter and make more conscience of thy censures and reports And that thou mayst have the utmost relief that I can procure thee for the time to come I shall agree with my Booksellers to sell all that I publish at three farthings a sheet and to print the price of every book at the bottom of the Title page Farewell Richard Baxter October 11. 1658. * Of the difference between Election and Ordination and that neither gives the Ius or Power but Christ only See Groâ—ius de Imperio Sum. Potest c. 10. p. 269 270. * I comprehend in the word Directive all that is after expressed in the following Propositions †Quae ante Imperatores Christianos in Synodis conscripta sunt ad ordinem aut ornatum facientia Leges non vocantur sed Canones habenâ—que aut solam Concilii vim ut in his quae singulos magis spectaâ—â— quam universos aut obligant per modum pacti volentes nolentes etiam pauciores ex necessitate determinationis ac proinde ex lege naturali non ex humano aliquo Imperio Grotius de Imperio pag. 209 210. Lege cap. 9. per totum * That Synods are not absolutely necessary and he thinks not of Scripture Institution but Natural direction see Grot. dâ— Imperio Cap 7. per totum Apâ—stoli vere erant Presbyteri atque ita sâ—ipsos vocant Nulli tamen loco ascripta â—â—rum functio Evangelistae quoque Presbyteri â—â—ant sed nulli loco alligati Sic multo post à Demetrio Alexandriae Episcopo Panâ—aenus ab Athanasio Frumentius ordinati missique ut Evangeâ—ium per Indiâ—m praedicarent qâ—od â—odie quo 〈◊〉 vidâ—mus Atque utinâ—m diligâ—ntius fieret ☞ â—rotius de Imperio p. 271. And of the Can. Concil Calced 6. against ordaining Presbyters sine titulo he saith Quum ut recte notat Balsamon Ipse Canon indicio est aliter fieri solitum Etiam post Calced Synod Iustinianus Periodentarum meminit quorum in Laodicenâ aliisque veteribus Synodis est mentio Ibid. * Authority is 1. Rational and of meer Interest upon Consenters 2. Imperial over Dissenters also * If one were not meant of Confirmation or giving the Holy Ghost and the other of Ordination which I rather incline to think Essentiale fuiâ— quod ex Dei ordinatione perpetua necesse fuit est erit ut Presbyterio quispiam loco dignitate primus actioni gubernandae praesit cum â—o qâ—od ipsi divinitus attributum est jure Beza de Minist Evang. Grad cap. 23. * I know Bishop Usher in his papers to the King doth say that by the Order of the Church of England all Presbyters are charged in the form of Ordering of Priests to administer the Discipline of Christ But the Bishops understood that only of their publishing their Censures For no such Administration was known among us or allowed Nor would they suffer men to suspend them from the Sacrament as the Rubrick in the Common Prayer Book requiâ—eth * It s an easie matter to preach or write a strict Lesson but they that would practically when they have done open a gap to licentiousness and overthrow all Discipline almost will hardly perswade men that they mean as they teach or are themselves such as they describe or really would promote a holy life especially when Scorners â—t a godly life were favoured more then the practisers of it See my Preface to Mr. Pierce of Grotius Religion Were Prelacy now tolerated only as Presbyterie and the Congregational way are doth any man think it would cast or keep out Heresieâ— Functiones in Ecclesiâ perpetuae sunt duae Presbyterorum Diaconorum Presbyteros voco cum omni Ecclesia veteri eos qui Eccâ—esiam pasâ—unt vâ—rbi praedicatione Sacramentis Clavibus quae Iure Divino sunt individua he meaneth inseparable so that its inseparable from a Presbyter to have the Power of the Keyes Grot. de Imperio pag. 267. c. 1â— Pastorum ergo est Ordinare Pastores neque id officium eis competit qua hujus auâ— illius Ecclesiae Pastores
Councils since Scripture times at least there have beeen no such things nor any thing like them unless the Roman Empire yea a piece of it be the whole world I know therfore no humane Vniversal Laws whether it be for forms of Government Liturgies Holy dayes or any thing else Sect. 14. But the principal matter that tends to end our dâ—fference is the right understanding of the Nature of that Government that is properly Ecclesiastical What is it that we must have Diocesans and Metropolitans to do besides what I have granted to Apostolical Bishops in the third Dispute Is it to Teach or Rule the people of the particular Churches They cannot do it at so great distance not knowing them nor conversing with them at least so well as they that are on the place as the ancient Bishops were Is it to Rule the Presbyters only Why then hath not every Church a Bishop to Rule the flock but a Presbyter that is forbidden to Rule them in all that which they call Iurisdiction themselves And how is it that Presbyters shall be Ruled by Diocesans and the Diocesans by Provincials not by force For the Pastors have no coercive power by violence or touching mens bodies or estates Is it by bare commanding Why what will that do on dissenters that disobey shall they depose the Bishops or Presbyters that disobey them But how Not by any force but command or exhortation or Excommunication They can do no more that I know of And what if they excommunicate a Pastor Let the case be supposed as now it is among us What if a Bishop with the few that adhere to him excommunicated all the Pastors in the County that are not satisfied of the Divine Right of Diocesans or of the lawfulness of all his imposed Ceremonies and Forms The people will take it to be their duty most generally where the Ministry hath been savingly effectual to own their Pastors notwithstanding such an Excommunication and the Pastors will take it to be their duty to go on with their work and the excommunication will do no good unless perhaps to make some Division and make both parties the scorn of the ungodly or procure the rabble to rail more bitterly at their Pastors and hate all their advice be a desireable good And as when the Pope excommunicated them some Bishops again excommunicated the Pope so some of these Pastors its like would excommunicate their Metropolitans And why a Bishop or at least a Synod of Bishops may not cast a wicked Metropolitan out of their communion is past my understanding to conceive Synods are for Communion of Churches and if we had a Monarchical National Church in conformity to the Common-wealth I know not how it would stand with the Law of God for the whole Nation to hold Communion with an Heretical Primate A Roman Synod deposed John the thirteenth and other Popes have been deposed by Councils I conclude therefore that what ever power men claim if the Magistate interpose not which is extrinsick to the Church-Government in question it will work but on mens Judgements call it Deposing Excommunicating or what you please and this power no man can take from you but by hindring you to speak You may now depose thus and excommunicate whom you please and when they have sleighted it or excommunicated you again you will have done Nay I think you do excommunicate us already For you withdraw from our Communion and draw many with you and so you exercise your power I mean it of that party that in the second Disputation I have to do with Sect 15. Much of my Opposition to the English Prelacy dependeth on the supposition that they took all the people and not only the Presbyters for the objects of their Government or for their charge And I find some of the younger sort that are sprung up since their fall do doubt of this But 1. all men in England that knew but twenty year ago what belonged to these matters are past doubt of it And I have no mind to dispute against them that contradict the common knowledge of the Nation as if they should doubt whether we had ever a King in England 2. Read over the Canons and the yearly Visitation Articles which the Church-wardens ordinarily sware to present by before they had ever read the Book or heard what was in it and then judge 3. Their arguing for the sole Iurisdiction of Bishops and that they only were properly Pastors and that Presbyters had not the Key of Discipline but of Doctrine is some evidence 4. It is known to the Nation that the Pastors of the Parish Churches had no power by their Laws or sufferance to cast out any the most enormous sinner or Heretick from the Church nor to bring them to open confession of their sin nor to Absolve the penitent but by Reading of their Sentence and publishing what they sent from their Courts and consequently could do nothing of all the means in order hereto For the means cannot be used where the end is known to be impossible All the obstinate scandalous persons and scorners at a holy life we must take as members of our Churches having no power to cast them out Indeed we had the same power as the Church-wardens to put our names to their presentments But a power of accusing to a Chancellors Court is not a Power of Governing especially when Piety under the name of Preciseness and Puritanism was so hated and persecuted that to have accused a man for meer prophaness would have been so far from obtaining the end as that it was like to have been the undoing of the accuser except he had been out of the suspicion of Preciseness as they called it himself But I need not dispute the with any but those that being bred iâ— better times though far from what we desire are unacquainted with the casâ— of their Predecessor Sect. 16. Object But do you not contradict your self in saying the Pastors were degraded or suspended as to the exercise of so great a part of their work and yet say here Pref. to the Reformed Pastor that the Power of Discipline was given them Answ. 1. In their Ordination the Bishops said to them Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins thou dost remit they are remitted whose sins thou dost retain they are detained And in the Book of Ordination it was asked of them Whether they would give their faithful diligence always to administer the Doctrine and Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realm hath received the same according to the Commandements of God And the Rubrick of the Common Prayer Book enableth the Curate to admonish open and notorious evil livers by whom the Congregation is offended and those that have wronged their neighbors that they come not till they have openly declared that they have repented and amended But 1. This doth but serve to leave them unexcusable that acknowledged Discipline to
from them till you hear them And if you hear them guilty of such after a First and Second admonition avoid them But let not wicked uncharitable censures be an argument against the worship of God You know not but a Physitian may poison you and yet you will choose the best you can and then trust your lives with him You may much more do so by a Minister because you proceed not by so implicite a faith in the matters of your Salvation You may refuse any evil that the Minister offereth Object 3. But many of them speak nonsence and unreverent words and abuse Gods worship Answ. Get better in their stead that are able to do Gods work in a more suitable manner But see that your quarrelsome capricious wits do not odiously aggravate imperfections or make faults where there are none And remember that you have not Angels but men to be your Pastors and therefore imperfections must be expected But a blessiâ—g may accompany imperfect administrations But if People Patron and Ordainer will choose weak men when they may have better they may thank themselves A Common Prayer book will make but an imperfect supply instead of an able Minister Though in some cases I am for it as aforesaid Object 4. But prayer is a speaking to God and therefore men should say nothing but what is exactly weighed before hand Answ. 1. We grant all this But men may weigh before hand the matter of their requests without preparing a form of words or a man may fore-consider of his words without a Prayer-book 2. Preaching is a speaking in Gods name as though God speak by us and as Christs embassadors in his stead 2 Cor. 5.19 20. And to speak as in Christs stead and Gods name requireth as great preparation as to speak to God in the peoples name It seems more as it were to represent Christ in speaking then to speak to Christ while we represent but the people And therefore by this argument you should let no man preach neither but by a book prescribed 3. God is not as man that looks most at oratory and fine words It is an humble contrite faithfull honest heart that he looks at And where he sees this with earnest desires and that the matter of Prayer is agreeable to his will he will bear with many a homely word One Cold request or the lest formality and dulness of affection and carelesness and disesteem of the mercy is more odious with God then a thousand Barbarisms and Solaecisms and unhandsome words Yet the tongue also should carefully be lookt to but men should not mistake themselves and think that God judgeth by the outward appearance and as man judgeth 4. Still I say get Ministers that are able to do better if you have insufficient ones A man on a common prayer-book is likelier to provoke God by a careless heartless customary service and meer lip labour let the the words be never so exact then another that fears God is like to provoke him by disorderly or unhandsome words Though both should be avoided Object 5. Our minds are not able to go along with a Minâ—ster on the sudden unless we knew what he will say before hand Answ. A diligent soul that marketh what is said may with holy affections go along with a Minister without knowing what he will say before hand The experience of Christians confuteth this objection 2. And this would not only plead for a form but shut out all other prayer which is sufficient to disgrace it with any understanding man Object 6. The publick Prayers of the Church are they that we must own by our concurrence His own conceived Prayers are but the Private Prayers of the Minister Answ. The Minister is a publick person and his prayers publickly made for and in the Church are as much the Publick prayers of that Church as if they were read out of an imposed Book But indeed when many Churches Agree in a form that form may so far be called the Common Prayers of all those Churches but it s no more the Publick Prayers of any one Church then sudden conceived prayer is And when there is no form yet the matter may be the Common Prayer of all Churches Object 7. But what confusion will it â—ake in the Church if one Congregation shall have a Form and another none and every man shall be left to do what he list in Prayer Answ. This is the voice of that Ignorance Pride and Dividing usurpation that hath caused all the Schisms and troubles of the Church Must the Churches have no Peace but on your imposed terms Must none be endured but all cast out of the Church of God that dare not say your forms of prayer though they are as wise and pious and peaceable as you Nothing but Proud arrogancy and uncharitable cruelty will say so 2. But if we must needs all Agree in the manner of our Prayers we must shut out all forms and agree all to be without them which yet I consent not to For there is no one Form that you can expect that all should agree in that 's of humane invention Not but that we may well do it but it will not be 3. How had the Church Unity before any of your forms were known 4. If it be no blemish for several Nations to have several Forms and manners it is tolerable for several Congregations 5. How did the Ancient Churches maintain thâ—ir Unity when Liturgies were in use and the variety was so great as is commonly known Many Churches had no singing of Psalms Vid. Pamel in Cyprian de Orat. Dom. Not. 6. Others used it by the whole Assemblies see Ball 's Friendly Tryal page 60. citing the Authors that attest it Other Churches did use to sing by course or two at a time See it proved by Ball ibid. out of many witnesses This variety and much more consisted then with Unity and may do now when forced uniformity will not 6. We are all now at Liberty what Gesture we will use in singing Psalms c. and is here any discord hence arising But men were forced to kneeling only in Receiving the Lords Supper and there came in discord Mens fancies makes that seem confusion that is no such thing No more then that all that hear or pray have not the same coloured cloaths complections c. Object 8. But should not men obey Authority in forms and mâ—â—ters of indifferency Answ. They should if they be indeed indifferent But should Authority therefore ensnare the Church with needless Impositions All men will not be satisfied of the Indifferency I have heard many say that they would preach in a fools Cap and Coat if authority command them But is it therefore fit that Authority should command it All men will not judge it lawfull to obey them in such cases and so there will be needless snares laid to intrap and divide men Object 9. But antiquity is for set forms
were instituted in Scripture times Now as a pretended Presbyters administrations are Valid to the innocent receiver of the Sacrament so a pretended Bishops administration in Ordination is as Valid to the innocent caeteris paribus Sect. 43. Argument 15. They that have the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven have the power of Ordination But Parochiall Pastors called Presbyters have the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven therefore they have the power of Ordination Sect. 44. The Minor is granted commonly by Papists and Protestants as to some of the Keyes but it is by many denyed as to other They say that every Pastor hath the Key of doctrine and of Order but not the Key of Jurisdiction But 1. Christ gave the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven together and never divided them Therefore they are not to be divided He did not give one Key to one and another to another but all to the same men And what God hath joyned together let no man put asunder 2. The Apostles in delivering these Keyes to others are never found to have separated them For Subject Presbyters were not instituted in Scripture-times Therefore all that were then Ordained Presbyters had all the Keyes together and so that of Iurisdiction as it is called with the rest 3. That Presbyters had the Key of Order will prove that they may Ordain as is aforesaid 4. But that English Presbyters had the Key of Iurisdiction is proved 1. In that they were with the Bishops to Ordain by Imposition of hands 2. In that they were by the Book of Ordination charged to administer Discipline though this was disused and the Prelates frustrated their power Sect. 45. I shall recite the words of Reverend Vsher for the proof of this Reduction of Episcopacy c. By Order of the Church of England all Presbyters are charged in the Book of Ordination to administer the Doctrine of Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realm hath received the same and that they might the better understand what the Lord hath commanded therein the exhortation of St. Paul to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus is appointed to to be read unto them at the time of their Ordination Take heed unto your selves and to all the flock among whom the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to Rule the Congregation of God which he hath purchased with his blood Of the many Elders who thus in common ruled the Church of Ephesus there was one President whom our Saviour in his Epistle unto this Church in a peculiar manner stileth the Angel of the Church of Ephesus And Ignatius in another Epistle written about twelve years after unto the same Church calleth the Bishop thereof Betwixt the Bishop and the Presbyterie of that Church what an harmonious consent there was in thâ— ordering of the Church Government the same Ignaâ—iâ—â— doth fully there declare by the Presbyterie with St Paul understanding the Community of the rest of the Presbyters or Elders who then had a hand not only in the delivery of the Dâ—ctrine and Sacraments but also in the Administration of the Discipline of Christ For further proof of which we have that known Testimony of Tertullian in his General Apology for Christians â—n the Church are used exhortations chastisements and divine censure for judgement is given with great advice as among those who are certain they are in the sight of God and it is the chiefest foreshewing of the Iudgement which is to come if any man have so offended that he be banished from the Community of Prayer and of the Assembly and of all holy fellowship The Presidents that bear rule therein are certain approved Elders who have obtained this honour not by Reward but by good report who were no other as he himself intimates elsewhere but those from whose hands they used to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist For with the Bishop who was the chief President and therefore stiled by the same Tertullian in another place summus Sacerdos for distinction sake the rest of the dispensers of the Word and Sacraments joyned in the common Government of the Church and therefore where in matters of Ecclesiastical judicature Cornelius Bishop of Rome used the recieved form of gathering together the Presbyterie of what persons that did consist Cyprian sufficiently declareth when he wisheth him to read his Letters to the flourishing Clergy which there did preside or rule with him The presence of the Clergy being thought so requisite in matters of Episcopal audience that in the fourth Council of Carthage it was concluded That the Bishop might hear no mans cause without the presence of the Clergy and that otherwise the Bishops sentence should be void unless it were confirmed by the presence of the Clergy which we find also to be inserted into the Canons of Egbert who was Archbishop of York in the Saxon times and afterwards into the body of the Canon-Law it self True it is that in our Church this kind of Presbyterial Government hath been long disused yet seeing it still professeth that every Pastor hath a right to rule the Church from whence the name of Rector also was given at first unto him and to administer the Discipline of Christ as well as to dispence the Doctrine and Sacraments and the restraint of the exercise of that right proceedeth only from the custom now received in this Realm no man can doubt but by another Law of the Land this hinderance may be well removed Sect. 46. And indeed the stream of Antiquity and the Authors that are principally rested on for Episcopacy are full against them that deny the Government of the people to the Presbyters And it is the principal mischief of the English Prelacy thus to degrade or quoad exercitium to suspend at least all the Presbyters from their office Not as it is a denying them any part of their honour that 's not to be much regarded but as it is a discharging them of their work and burden and consequently leaving the Churches ungoverned And for the Government of Presbyters themselves in Cyprians dayes the Bishop did not could not Ordain or censure any Presbyter without his Clergy and Councils have decreed that so it should be Yea and the plebs universa also was consulted with by Cyprian Sect. 47. And now I come to the Major of my Arrgument which I prove thus Either Ordination is an act of the exercise of the power of the Keyes or of some other power But of no other power therefore of the Keyes If it be the exercise of any other power it is either of a secular power or an Ecclesiastick but neither of these therefore of no other Not of another Ecclesiastick power for there is no Ecclesiastical power at least which Ordination can be pretended to belong to but the power of the Keyes not of a secular power for that belongeth not to Ministers nor is it here pretended Sect. 48. And I think it
guide the people And by the same rule as you will conclude it better that e. g. Wales Ireland c. have private men to read good books rather then none lest they turn heathens I may also conclude that it is better for them to have Churches and Pastors of this weaker sort then to have none and leave their children unbaptized and live without the Sacraments and Church-Communion and Government 2. Consider I beseech you which moves me more then any thing else the state of the Christian world In Aethiopia Syria Armenia Russia Grecia and abundance of other Churches of Christ â—here are very few Preachers but meer Readers And can any man think that it is best for all these Churches to be without Ministers and Sacraments rather then to have such O that God would give them better But till then I shall pray that he will continue these among them rather then leave them destitute I know many godly judicious men of able parts for conference that yet are unable to compose a Sermon though if they could it were a form that yet I am confident by Reading such Practical Books as are now extant and by prudent oversight might be tolerable Pastors for many a Congregation in Wales that now have none 2. In a time and place where no obligation by Magistrates Commands or Churches Agreements is laid upon us for the use of forms I am fully perswaded we should make no more use of them then Necessity compelleth us to do But the thing being lawfull the Command of a Magistrate or the agreement of the Churches may go far in moving us And indeed must prevail with us unless in cases where there are weightier Accidents to weigh down on the other side For obedience and Agreement or Concord in Lawfull things is our duty where we have not some greater reason to forbid it There is much difference between men that are left at liberty and men that are bound by lawfull Governours Yea though they do not well in commanding yet may we be bound to obey when the matter is such as belongeth to their jurisdiction and not forbidden by God 3. A man is also much to regard the minds of his people not out of man-pleasing disposition but in order to their good Prudence will tell us which way is likest to attain our Ends. Food is to be fitted to mens tempers and stomacks and Physick to their diseases If a Church be so weak that they cannot bear the disuse of forms and others so weak that they cannot bear the use of them the Pastor must fit his practice to their Edification till he can bring them to a wiser judgement that so they may receive that which indeed is most fit to edifie them Prudence must guide us in the circumstantials of worship which are left to our Determination that we may vary them as the condition of our flock requireth to their good of which more anon Prop. 5. THE Ministers and Churches that earnestly desire it should not by the Magistrate be absolutely and generally prohibited the use of a convenient stinted Liturgy Note here that I speak not of the desires of any inconsiderable persons contrary to the desires of that whole Church If a few ignorant or wilfull people should be eager for a form when the Pastor is able and willing to manage the work of God without it and the Congregation professeth that it hindereth their Edification by what accident soever I am not now questioning it is fit that those unreasonable persons should be denyed their desires in that Church rather then the whole Congregation Also if the Magistrate should perceive that a whole Congregation or many or the Pastors themselves are eager for some one particular form out of a corrupt humour and in any ill design to the disturbance of the Churches Peace or that they will needs have an unlawfull Form that for matter is erroneous or for manner absurd or apt to breed unreverence or hinder Edification the Magistrate should prohibite this Yet so that Prudence and Moderation measure out his penalties in such a sort as that he Churches Edification be not hindered by his over-rigorous correcting mens distempers But out of these and such like Cases when it is meer weakness that causeth Pastors or people to be set upon a lawfull form The Magistrate ought not to prohibite them by such restraints as shall deprive them of the liberty of worshipping God or hinder their Edification The Reasons of this Proposition are these 1. Because the thing being Lawfull no Power should causelesly restrain men from the use of Lawfull things God having left men to their Liberty none should without great reason deprive them of it 2. The Magistrate should not hinder the Peoples Edification in the manner of Gods worship But in many places a stinted Liturgy is most for the peoples Edification Therefore c. Whether it be the Ministers weakness or the peoples that makes it most usefull to them yet when the Magistrate cannot cure that weakness he must bear with them It was the weakness of Nicodemus that made him he could not bear the day-light in coming to Christ yea and such a weakness as shewed or was joyned with an unregenerate state and yet Christ would rather teach him privately then not at all 3. Where Consciences are scrupulous and think it a sin to worship publikely without a form though it be their error yet the Governors are not to drive them away from it because then they will not publikely Worship God at all And no worship is worse then a lawful form of worship 4. A Minister that is for the Necessity of a form though erroneously may be in other respects so usefull to the Church that he should not be laid by and lost to the Church for such a thing as this 5. The use of some forms as aforesaid being necessary and of other forms not only lawfull but of almost common reception through all the Churches on earth Governors should be very cautelous in denying men liberty in that which almost all the Churches have Liberty in and more even that which is their constant use Prop. 6. TO prescribe a Form of Prayer Preaching or other service where is no Necessity of it and to lay a Necessity on it as to the thing it self or the Churches Peace c. and to punish silence suspend exâ—ommunicate or reproach as Schismaticks the able godly peaceable Ministers or People that justly or unjustly dare not use it is so great a sin that no Godly Ministers should desire or attempt it nor any godly Magistrate suffer it This was the great sin of the late Magistrates and Prelates in England and it is the main difference between their party and others at this day The Magistrate doth not forbid men using a form or Liturgy though they forbid one particular Liturgy more strictly then I could wish But there is a very few of these men that I know of
no Transgression but here is no Law of God commanding Christmas day or the other Holy daies therefore there is no transgression in not keeping them And then 9. it is not so sure that there is no transgression in keeping them therefore the surer side is to be taken 10. And it seems strange that we find not so much as any ancient general Council making any mention of Christmas or such daies though of the Martyrs daies some do All these reasons which I run over hastily and many more which for brevity I pretermit do seem to make it a very hard question whether the keeping of this sort of Holy daies be lawfull § 47. And it is not to be much stuck at that a Day to Christ doth seem more necessary and pious then a Day in commemoration of a Martyr or a particular Mercy For in the highest parts of Gods worship God hath left man least to do as to Legislation and Decisions and usurpations here are far most dangerous A weekly Day is somewhat more then an Annâ—versary And yet I think there is few of the contrary minded but would doubt whether man might impose on the Church the observation of another weekly Holy day in commemoration of Christs Nativity The worship of God is a more excellent and necessary thing then the veneration due to a worthy person And yet we have not so much liberty to make new waies of worshiping God as of veneration to men So is it here though even the Daies that are for the memorial of the Saints are ultimately for the honour of God yet those that are set apart directly and immediately to commemorate the work of Redemption are Relatively much higher and therefore seem to be more exempted from the Determination of humane laws § 48. By this and much more I am fully satisfied 1. That the keeping of these daies is a thing of it self unnecessary 2. And that there being none on earth that can justly pretend to a power of universal Government over the whole Catholick Church it is certain that none on earth can bind the Catholick Church to such observances The Canons of Pastors are Authoritative Directions to their own flocks that are bound to obey them so it be in lawful things but to other Churches or to their fellow Pastors they are but Agreements and how far they bind I shall shew anon 3. And even in a single Church or a Province or Nation I am satisfied that it is a great sin for Magistrates or Pastors to force all that scruple it to the observation of these daies and to lay the unity or Peace of their Churches on it and to cast out censure reproach or punish them that dare not obey such impositions for fear of sining against God And it is a most dsingenuous thing to insinuate and put into the minds of men accusations of the Impiety of the dissenters and to perswade the world that it is irreligiousness or humorous singularity when it is so known a thing to all that know them that the persons that scruple or disown these daies do ordinarily walk in uprightness and the fear of God in other matters and profess that it is only a fear of breaking the Laws of God that keeps them from conformity to the will of others and that they are reproached by the multitude of the observers of these daies for their spending the Lords Day in Holy exercises which the reproachers spend too much in idleness sensuality or prophaness and it is not long since many of them were cast out of the Ministerial service or suspended for not reading a Book authorizing Dancing and other recreations on the Lords day In a word to reproach them as Precisians and Puritans for the strictness of their lives and yet at the same time to perswade men that they are ungodly for not keeping Holy daies or not kneeling at the Sacrament is not ingenuous dealing and draws too neer the Manners of the Pagans who called the Christians ungodly because they durst not offer their sacrifices and when they dragd them to the judgement-seats they cryd Tollite impios as iâ— themselves were the Godly men I compare not the matter of the causes here but only the temper of the persons and manner and justice of proceedings § 49. And yet for all this I am resolved if I live where such Holy daies as these are observed to censure no man for observing them nor would I deny them liberty to follow their judgements if I had the power of their Liberties provided they use not reproach and violence to others and seek not to deprive them of their Liberties Paul hath so long agoe decided these cases Rom. 14. 15. that if men would be Ruled by the word of God the controversie were as to the troublesome part of it at an end They that through weakness observe a Day to the Lord that is not commanded them of God should not judge their brethren that observe it not and they that observe it not should not despise or set at naught their weaker though censorious brethren that observe it but every one should be fully perswaded in his own mind The Holy Ghost hath decided the case that we should here bear with one another § 50. Yea more I would not only give men their Liberty in this but if I lived under a Government that peremptorily commanded it I would observe the outward rest of such a Holy day and I would preach on it and joyn with the Assemblies in Gods worship on it Yea I would thus observe the Day rather then offend a weak brother or hinder any mans salvation much more rather then I would make any division in the Church I think in as great matters as this did Paul condescend when he circumcised Timothy and resolved to eat no flesh while he lived rather then offend his brother and to become all things to all men for their good Where a thing is evil but by accident the greatest Accidents must weigh down the less I may lawfully obey and use the day when another doth unlawfully command it And I think this is the true case § 51. 7. And for the next ceremony the Name and form of an Altar no doubt it is a thing indifferent whether the Table stand this way or that way and the Primitive Churches used commonly the names of Sacrifice and Altar and Priest and I think lawfully for my part I will not be he that shall condemn them But they used them but metaphorically as Scripture it self doth Heb. 13.10 15 16. Rom. 12.1 Ephes. 5.2 Phil. 2.17 4.18 All believers are called Priests and their service Sacrifices 1 Pet. 2.5 9. Rev. 1.6 5.10 20.6 I conceive that the dislike of these things in England the form and name of an Altar and the Rails about it was not as if they were simply evil But 1. because they were illegal innovations forced on the Churches without Law or any just authority
the sign of the Cross as well as by Baptism we are entred into a state of Christianity and so it is an Investing Sacramental sign It listeth us under the banner of Christ Crucified And that is the very essential nature of the Sacrament of Baptism it self As Listing investeth the soldier in his Relation and consequently in his Priviledges so doth Baptism by Gods appointment and Crossing is supposed by mans appointment to invest men in the Relation of the soldiers of Jesus Christ. § 60. Yea more then is expressed in the Definition of a Sacrament in the Common prayer-prayer-book if you judge it essential to a Sacrament to be an engaging Covenanting sign the Cross is instituted to this end Yea more then that if you judge it essential to a Sacrament to be an engaging sign in the very Covenant of Grace it self and not only in some particular promise this also is the end of its appointment It is to engage our selves to a Crucified Christ as our Captain and Saviour by his Cross and to bind our selves to the Duty of Soldiers or Christians to our lives end aâ—d consequently to teach us to expect the priviledges of faithfull servants and Soldiers from a Crucified Christ. § 61. All this is expressed in the very words of Ministerial application in the common Prayer-book which are these we receive this Child into the Congregation of Christs flock and do sign him with the sign of the cross in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified and manfully to fight under his banner against sin the world and the Devil and to continue Christs faithfull soldier and servant unto his lives end Amen So that you see here it is used as a listing investing Covenant sign engaging us to be Christs soldiers and not to be ashamed of his Cross or to confess his faith and manfully to fight c. and to persevere What 's wanting here to make a Sacrament § 62. Yet had it been but a bare Professing sign like writing or lifting up the hand to signifie consent instead of words I durst not have concluded so hardly of it And thus it seems in ancient times it began to be brought into use and the voluntary use of the cross on several occasions in many countries at this day doth seem to be no other But for my own part I dare not be guilty by consent of making a humane Sacrament or stating such an engaging Sacramental sign to all these uses in the publick worship of God I had rather suffer or leave my Ministry them venture on this while I see so much to make me fear that it is a sin But again I say as I reverence the ancients that used the cross I think amiss and yet more warrantably then we so I presume not to censure them that judge it lawfull but only give the reasons that make me doubt and rather think it to be unlawfull though still with a suspicion of my own understanding and a love and honour to dissenters § 63. As for the Common prayer it self I never rejected it because it was a form nor thought it simply unlawfull because it was such a form but have made use of it and would do again in the like case But I must needs say 1. That the shreding it into such abundance of small parcels seemeth to me very inconvenient It seems too light and ludicrous to toss sentences so formally between the Priest and Clerk and to make such a multitude of Prayers consisting but of a sentence or two at most And it seemeth to be tautologie and vain repetition to repeat over the same word so oft and a taking of Gods name in vain or too unreverently to begin with his Titles and Attributes and end with his name again and the merits or sake of Christ and this at almost every sentence as if we had done with him and were taking our leave and had forgot somewhat that called us to begin again and thus we begin and end and begin and end again it may be twenty times together 2. But the enforcing imposition of these Prayers is most to be condemned of which I have spoken in the former Disputation But for my part I censure none that use them nor take them to be therefore men of another Religion or worship It is but a modal difference in the same worship § 64. The Emperor Constantine was very much for Liberty for Dissenters and against persecution of them upon tolerable differences yet he himself was wont to write Prayers and Orations or Sermons of his own making Euseb. in vita Constant. l. 4. c. 55. 32. 29. and readeth some common prayers himself to the Congregation in his house c. 17. For he made his house a Church and preached in it ordinarily himself though he was both a Lay-man and unbaptized His sermon about Christianity to the Clergie is published by Eusebius and he preached a funeral Oration about the Immortality of the soul in his ordinary preaching place a little before his death Euseb. ib. c. 55. c. 29. c. 17. He giveth his soldiers a form of Prayer ib. c. 20. commanding them that were Christians to observe the Lords Day and spend it in holy exercises and not to labour on that day ib. c. 18.19.23 and also to honour the Holy daies consecrated to the Martyrs c. 23. that is to their memorial And commanding the very Heathen soldiers to pray as they could though not in the Church but in the fields together And in none of this dare I condemn him § 65. The summ of all that I have said is this that Man may determine of modes and circumstances of worship Necessary and Commanded in genere but not determined by God in specie But to make new worship-ordinances or institute Sacraments or Sacramental signs or any thing else for which in genere he hath no commission this is simply unlawfull § 66. But this is not all There is a second thing unlawfull also and that is the misdetermining of those same modes and circumstances which he is authorized to determine For he is as is said to do it by Gods General Rule Here therefore we must thus conclude 1 that every misordering of such great affairs is the sin of them that do it 2. But yet that the subject is not exempted from obedience by every such mistake of the Governor but by some he is § 67. If the mischoosing of such circumstances by Church-governors be but an inconvenience and do not destroy the ordinance it self or frustrate the ends of it we are to obey 1. For he is the judge in his own work and not we 2. the thing is not sinfull though inconvenient 3. Obedience is commanded to our lawfull Governors Of this we shall say more in the last Chap. § 68. But if a Governor so misdetermine but a mode or circumstance as will overthrow the substance and ends of the worship I
powers contradicted And certainly all such disuse began with a few and proceeded further we are allowed then to disuse such things § 12. It would grieve a man that loves the Church to hear the name of the Church abused by many dark though confident disputers when they are pleading for their Ceremonies and Holy dayes and laying about them with the names of Schismaticks against all that will not do as they do O say they These men will separate from the Catholick Church and how then can they be the Children of the Church And 1. Which is it that is called by them the Catholick Church Little do I know nor am able to conjecture Did the Catholick Church make the English Common-Prayer Book what were the then Bishops in England that consented in that work the whole Church of Christ on earth God forbid Or did ever any General Council authorize it I think not And if they would tell us what General Council commanded Christmas Day or Kneeling at the Sacrament c they would do us a pleasure but I think they will not § 13. And 2. What if these things had all been commanded by a General Council May not a man disuse them without separating from the Church I think as good as you are you do some things your selves that God himself hath forbidden you to do and yet will be loth to be therefore taken for men that separate either from the Church or God And when you read the Books of Heathen Philosophers when you adore not toward the East or when you pray receive the Sacrament Kneeling on the Lords Dayes would you be taken to separate from the Catholick Church for crossing its ancient customs or Canons But these perverse and factious reasonings we must hear to the dishonour of Christianity and Reason it self and that from men that scorn the supposed meanness of others yea and see poor souls seduced into separation by such empty words And this is one of the present judgements on this land CHAP. X. Prop. 10. If it be not our Lawfull Governours that command us but usurpers we are not formally bound to obey them though the things be lawfull which they command § 1. WE may be bound by some other Obligation perhaps to do the thing which they command us but we are not formally though sometime Materially bound to obey them For it is not formally obedience unless it be done eo nomine because commanded or for the Authority of the Commander If the Pope or any usurper should command me to pray or to give alms I will do it but not because he commandeth me but because God commandeth me and therefore I will not obey him but God But if a Parent or Magistrate or Pastor command it me I will do it both because it is commanded me by God and them and so I will obey both God and them If an usurper command me to do a thing in it self indifferent I will not do it because he commandeth it but yet if accidentally it become my duty by conducing to anothers good or avoiding their offence or hurt or any other accident I will use it for these ends though not for his command § 2. The Pope 1. As the Vice-christ or universall Head is an usurper and therefore hath no authority to command me or any man in that relation the smallest Ceremony 2. The Pope as Patriarch of the West is an humane creature and not of Divine institution and was indeed a sinfull institution from the first of his creation but if it had been otherwise yet since is that Patriarchship become unwarrantable since he hath forfeited it and the world hath found the mischiefs of it So that no man is therefore bound to use one lawfull Ceremony because the Pope as Patriarch of the West commandeth it 3. If this were not so yet Brittain and Ireland were from the beginning none of his Patriarchate nor did at Nice consent to it and therefore have the less appearance of any obligation § 3. The Authority of General Councils cannot be pretended as obliging men in Conscience to the English Ceremonies 1. Because indeed General Councils are not a superiour Power for proper Government of the Church having authority to command particular Bishops or Synods as their subjects but they are only necessary for Union and Communion of Churches and mutual assistance thereby and so their Canons bind but by virtue of the General commands that require us to maintain the Unity and Communion of the Churches § 4. And 2. If it were otherwise there is few if any of these Ceremonies that are commanded by any true General Council They that can prove any such thing let them do it but till we see it we will not be forward to believe it Yea 3. Some of them General Councils have made Canons against as I before shewed in the Case of Kneeling at the Sacrament on the Lords dayes And therefore the neglecters of our Ceremonies sin not against a General Council § 5. The Common plea is that we are bound to use these Ceremonies in obedience to the Church of England and that we are not true sons of this Church if we refuse it But what is it that is called by them The Church of England In a Political sense I know no such thing as a Church of England or of any Nation on earth that is There is no one Society united in any one Ecclesiastical Soveraign that can truly be called the Church of England or of any other Nation The whole Catholick Church is One as united in Christ the Head And every particular Chuâ—ch associated for personal Communion in Gods Worshâ—p is one being a part of the Catholick Church and united in and individuated by their relation to their several Pastors But a National Church under one chief Ecclesiastick Government I find no mention of in Scripture but contrarily the Churches of Judaea Galatia c. or any other Countrey where there were many are alway mentioned in the Plural number and never called one Church § 6. Yet will we quarrel with no men about meer names or words If by a National Church â— be meant any of these following we acknowledge that there is such a thing 1. If all the particular Churches in a Nation do Associate for Communion and mutuall assistance and so use to meet by their officers in one National Assembly I confess the Association usefull if not necessary and the Assemblies to be maintained and for unity sake obeyed in things lawfull And though Scripture call not such National Associations by the name of a Church in the singular number yet we shall leave men to their Liberty in such names If all the Schoolmasters in England should hold General Assemblies to agree what Books to read in their Schools c. if any man would therefore call all the Schools in England in the singular number by the name of the School of England I would not differ with him for a