Church the unhappy contentions about it the worst of Devils would soon hasten its destruction Mr. Jekylls Sermon on Jer. 5.29 p. 21. But there is one thing which if not speedily prevented will before we are aware let in that which we so much fear and cry out against viz. Popery and which perhaps too too many of us more or less may be accessary to I mean those unnatural heats and divisions amongst our selves amidst which though we are not altogether swerved from the Form yet we are strangely degenerated from the true Spirit and Power of Godliness and Christianity How sad the effect and consequence of these heart-burnings and animosities unchristian strifes and debates will be I am afraid to think of Item p. 25. We are distracting our own Devotions yea and provoking I had almost said devouring one another whilst our Adversaries in the day they look for which God grant may never come will make no difference but swallow us up together Principles and Practices p. 10. of Ep. It is high time to be reconciled to Moderation and Sobriety to lay aside our uncharitable and therefore unchristian heats against each other and to throw water upon those flames that threaten our destruction and but for Gods infinite Mercy would have effected it before now instead of adding more fewel unto it Mr. Kidder on 1 Pet. 3.11 p. 29. The several Sects and Quarrels of the Jews among themselves and the fury of their Zealots were but a prologue to their miserable destruction Bishop Taylors Coll. of Discourses Ep. before Liberty of Proph. For my own particular I cannot but expect that God in his Justice should enlarge the bounds of the Turkish Empire or some other way punish Christians by reason of their pertinacious disputings about things unnecessary undeterminable and unprofitable Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety p. 427. It is the usual Oeconomy of Divine Justice to make our Crimes our Punishment and to give us up to those ills which were at first our own depraved choice And God knows we have too much reason to fear this may be our case that we who have so perversly violated all the bonds of Unity wantonly wrangled our selves out of all inclinations to Peace should never be able to resume them Item p. 428. This alass as it is the fearfullest so is it the probablest issue of our wild contentions such as nothing but the miraculous effluxes of Divine Clemency can avert To conclude as well we may with this as an undoubted Truth from Mr. Kidders Sermon on 1 Pet. 3.11 p. 22. These Contentions have done more mischief than all the Persecutions put together more have fallen and more dangerously this way than by the Swords of Tyrants and avowed Enemies of our Religion Arguments for taking the Ceremonies away or leaving the Vse of them indifferent especially the Sign of the Cross HEre is the most proper place to premise somewhat concerning the Lawfulness of Ceremonies least I should in any thing which follows be thought to condemn my own practice in point of Conformity to these Ceremonies As to Kneeling at the Sacrament I think the Rubrick should satisfie Persons it speaks very plainly It is hereby declared that no Adoration is intended or ought to be done either unto the Sacramental Bread and Wine there Bodily received or unto any Corporeal Presence of Christs Natural Flesh and Blood For the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very Natural Substances and therefore may not be Adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians and the Natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven c. Mr. Bayns Christian Letters p. 201. Kneeling is neither an occasion nor by participation Idolatry Kneeling never bred Bread-Worship and our Doctrine of the Sacrament known to all the World doth free us from suspition of Adoration in it Thus he though a Nonconformist Mr. Tombs Theodulia p. 168. That whatsoever Gesture our Saviour used it doth not oblige us because the Gesture seems not to have been of choice used by Christ 2. Because St. Paul omits the Gesture which he would not have done if it had been binding 3. He mentions the Night and calls it the Lords Supper and if the Time be not necessary much less the Gesture 4. If the Gesture doth oblige then Christians must use the self-same that Christ used i. e. Lying down or Leaning c. Mr. Baxter in his Christian Directory I think speaking of the Sacrament tells us he thinks Mr. Paybodies Book in defence of Kneeling to be unanswerable As to the Surplice Platina mentions it to be brought in very early into the Church in the days of the good Bishops of Rome Anno Domini 250 by Stephen a Martyr under Decius the Emperour And none can deny but that in the Apostles days after Baptism the Baptized in those hot Countries of the East being commonly at least dipped or plunged in the Water with their naked Bodies the persons Baptized put on new white Vestments to shew the Purity of a Christian Whence the Lords day after Easter which Easter was their chief time of Baptizing was called Dominica in Albis the Lords day in White Mr. Leighs Annotations on the New Testament tell you those expressions of putting on the Lord Jesus and putting off the Old Man have allusion to the Garments Peter Martyr speaks in his Answer to Bishop Hoopers Letter The Defenders of this Ceremony may pretend some honest and just signification and Zepperus himself though no Friend to the Sign of the Cross in the Baptismal Office as Mr. Sprint tells us in his Cassander Anglicanus speaking of the Papists saith thus We read nothing of the Superstitious Habits in the Monuments of Antiquity except only of the White Vesture Qua usi sunt sine superstitione in signum Commone factionem honestatis vitae So that if it were a significative Ceremony as it is not in the Church of Englands use of it yet in their judgments the use of it might be innocent Bishop Taylors Ductor Dubitantium p. 668. Great Reason have we to honour the Wisdom of the Church of England which hath in all her Offices retained but one Ritual or Ceremony that is not of Divine Ordinance or Apostolical Practice and that is the Cross at Baptism Which though it be a significant Ceremony and of no other use yet as it is a compliance with the Antient Church so is it very innocent in it self and being one alone is not troublesome or burthensome Archbishop Whitgift said the Surplice was not enjoyned as a significant Ceremony The Canon about the Surplice mentioneth nothing of using it for signification of purity or unspotted innocency We do not wear it as monitory or instructive to keep the inner man pure and clean but as a Garment of use in the Antient Church and transmitted down from them to us and retained at our Reformation And some urge it to be decent and no ways
unbecoming a Minister of the Gospel who may wear certainly White as lawfully as Black without placing Holyness or Unholyness in any Garment If we see not so great reason for the imposition or continuance yet we may see sufficient reason for the submission It is not used by us as by the Papists who must have it hallowed or consecrated by Praying over it that it may defend him that wears it from the Devil They use it indeed with a Superstitious opinion of Holyness but we have no Consecrating Surplices nor any such opinion that it is a fence against the Devil or preservative from his assaults and temptations Several Nonconformists have said they would be content to Preach the Gospel in a Fools coat rather than be silent as the Famous Mr. Daille of France being asked his judgment by some Nonconformists of England said as I am told by a French Minister and that he had seen it mentioned in a Book wrote by one of our Bishops That our Ceremonies were good and before he would make a rent in the Church for such things as the Surplice c. If the King of France would give him leave to Preach at Paris which the King forbid him he would Preach though it were in a Fools coat As to the Lawfulness of the Sign of the Cross at Baptism It is I Baptize I Baptize thee in the Name of the Father c. which is all that is Essential to Baptism or the Substance of that Ordinance Then it follows We receive this Baptized Child into the Congregation of Christs Flock as the Priviledge Baptism makes him a Member of the Catholick Church and particularly of that Church into which he is Baptized But the owning and receiving into Communion is the Churches Act. Then follows and sign him with the Sign of the Cross in token c. as significative and with the words declarative of that Duty which he is obliged and bound unto by Baptism to own the Faith of Christ Crucified c. And though the Words are In token that he shall not be ashamed to own c. It is only in the Judgment of Charity what the Church hopeth and expecteth from him hereafter when he is come to years to know Good and Evil his Faith Profession and Obedience to the Trinity according to his Baptism And thus Dr. Bourges in his Subscription with Explication of his meaning allowed by King James the First and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and declared to be the sense of the Church of England Where the Book saith And do sign him with the Sign of the Cross in token c. I understand saith he that Book not to mean That the Sign of the Cross hath any Vertue in it to effect or further this Duty but only to intimate and express by that Ceremony by which the Ancients did avow their profession of Christ Crucified what the Congregation hopeth and expecteth hereafter from that Infant And therefore also when the Twentieth Canon saith That the Infant is by that Sign Dedicated unto the Service of Christ I understand that Dedication to import not a real Consecration of the Child which was done in Baptism it self but only a Ceremonial Declaration of that Dedication like as the Priest is said to make clean the Leper whose being clean he only declared There was undoubtedly a lawful use of the Cross in some Primitive Christians while they lived among professed Jews and Heathens Enemies of the Cross of Christ as Phil. 3.18 upbraiding the Christians that their God dyed upon a Cross It began at his Crucifixion Matth. 27.41 42 The Chief Priests mocking him with the Scribes and Elders said If he be the King of Israel let him now come down from the Cross and we will believe him The more others scoffed at the Christians for their Crucified Saviour with the greater Courage Resolution and Constancy did the Christians own and make profession of him And this was a sign professing Christ which at the sight of Jews and Infidels in the Markets and any where else was of common use among the Christians used at their Meals many times and Translated to Baptism When the Empire became Christian Constantine used it and others in their Ensigns of War to signifie Christ Crucified was the God they owned and expected Victory in Battel from him In their Coats of Arms in their Coynes at this day it is used as of Old to shew the Religion of the Persons or the Countries that they were Christians If any Object that was a Civil use of it and not Religious I say it was of Religious signification there Yet indeed with Peter Martyr for mine own part I wish that all things may be done simplicissime most free from Humane mixtures in the Worship of God Again Its signification and use is ad hominem and not ad Deum For first If it were permanent and imprinted on the Forhead which in Scripture is used to signifie boldness and confidence in a good and in all ill sense as Ezek. 3.8 Jer. 3.3 And so the sign of the Cross made there signifieth of the Child boldness Christian Courage and Confidence that he shall not be ashamed c. it would signifie to Men and not to God unto Christians that he was one of their number Secondly The use of it among the Primitive Christians was to signifie to Christians among themselves or more especially to Jews and Heathens their Christian Profession Thirdly The Dissenters call them significant teaching signs and bring that as an Argument against them but do we teach God or Man surely Man is fit for Instruction And as to Addition the Curse is equally against diminishing as adding But the Love-kiss Signaculum reconciliationis Washing the Disciples Feet a token of Humility The Feasts of Charity mention'd at the Sacrament by St. Jude the Community of Goods the Deaconesses c. Things of this Nature are not of the substance of the Word or the Ordinances but are Circumstantials and may be changed added or taken away safely I could cite too an Eminent Nonconformist where he saith it cannot be called an Addition in Scripture sense unless the Governours stamp Holyness upon it or Necessity as a necessary Duty Doctrinal Necessity he means Or unless by adding they mean giving the same Efficacy to Humane Institutions as God doth to his by making them to confer Grace upon the rightly disposed and by diminishing that the Service is not compleat without it I shall conclude with a saying of Mr. Calvin Let not any think me so austere or bound up as to forbid a Christian to accommodate himself to the Papists in any Ceremony or Observance For it is not my purpose to condemn any thing but what is clearly Evil and openly Vitious I have said thus much lest some that are uncharitable to our Church should think I wrote Because I was pinched and could not tell how to satisfie my Conscience in Conformity Doctor More 's Mystery of Godliness Pref.
A New SURVEY of the BOOK of Common Prayer Humbly proposed to this Present PARLIAMENT In Order to the Obtaining a New Act of UNIFORMITY By a Minister of the Church of England LONDON Printed for the Author 1690. THE PREFACE GOD hath wrought very graciously and in an Extraordinary manner for the deliverance of this Church and State from Popery and Arbitrary Power in such a way of Peace as other Ages can scarce parallel But Beneficium postulat Officium God's great Goodness calls for some suitable return in the way of Love Thankfulness and Obedience And no doubt but the Lord expects some Work that is Great and Excellent somewhat more than ordinary for the good of that Church which he hath so wonderfully preserved And if you would know what we shall render unto the Lord for all his Benefits What more What better than for Protestants with one Heart and one Mouth to glorifie God the Father of all our Mercies and to Worship him with one consent And oh that the All-wise God would inspire this Great Council of the Nation with Wisdom from above what and how to act effectually for this Blessed Vnion Which as Mr. De L' Angle in his Letter to his Lordship the Bishop of London will rejoyce Men and Angels and bring down a Thousand Blessings of Heaven and Earth upon those that shall contribute the most unto it Vnreas of Separ p. 424. It is to be hoped that the Glory of so Great and Good a Work will be due to our present Governours next under God And since we are told in the Preface before the Common Prayer that in the Reigns of several Princes of Blessed Memory since the Reformation the Church upon just and weighty Considerations her thereunto moving hath yielded to make such Alterations in some particulars as in their respective times were thought convenient Therefore I have added Arguments for such Concessions and Alterations in this Worship as may be effectual in order to the Desired Vnion Though I have had God's Glory for my end yet I know no Mans Integrity in the Cause of God and of Religion nor the most unfeigned Desires and Endeavours for the good and Peace of Church and State can exempt him from the common fate that attends things of this Nature which are sure to be unacceptable with some if not pass for an unpardonable Offence against the Church of England If I knew that there were any thing but Truth and Charity I would blot it out If it be possible and as much as in me lyeth I would live peaceably with all Men. The Motives and Inducements to write were these First A Zeal for God God's Honour is intimately concerned in his Worship What Soul that hath any sense of God and Religion can bear so much dishonour as is done to God in his Worship Several casting a contempt upon it by their unhandsom Speeches and ill Examples prejudiced and prejudicing others against it Many scarce look upon it as the Worship of God and mind nothing less than to be devout in it And since the Worship of God lies under contempt or a great abuse and unprofitableness in the performance of it is there not reason to be offended at it I am not satisfied and cannot be satisfied without some endeavour to redress the Evil. Second Motive was a desire to discharge this part of my Ministerial duty to my own and the Peoples better Edification Does the VVorld think it is nothing to Ministers that have a concern for the Peoples Souls to see how little this VVorship is done to Edifying How great a guilt lies upon their Congregations upon that very account Surely guilt enough to lay them low in misery And the sense of this put me upon another Design which was first in my intention a short piece Argumentative for Conformity to the Prayers And therein first to satisfie Peoples Consciences in a peaceable Submission and Communion in this Worship though they do not like every thing in it best I urge that they themselves will not suffer their Children and Servants to leave their Worship in their Families under pretence that anothers is better But the Governours Authority over the several Families in the Nation reacheth as far as theirs in their own Family in all things Sin only excepted so far as they may be obeyed without disobeying God Secondly To excite them to a Devout use of the Prayers with some Helps and Directions for their Edification in it Thirdly To keep them within the Bounds of Christian Charity towards those that differ from us as knowing that without Charity all is nothing worth Time and Opportunity called for this first though less studied or accurate and plain in its Language Third Motive was a compassionate Concern for some who have suffered much by the severity of the Laws and a desire to prevent their future sufferings I know there are those that dissent from this Worship that would very heartily would if their Consciences had been satisfied have Conformed to it If they did not they knew they were like to pay for it But by such Concessions as to take them in they will be safe for the future from fear of Trouble and Sufferings Fourth Motive was a desire to do my part towards the remedying the Evils which have eventually followed the Act for Uniformity And surely in an Age that hath smarted so much as this hath done for Contentions about these Common-Prayers it concerns every one to put to his helping hand I shall conclude with a Pathetical and Affectionate Speech of that Reverend Prelate Dr. Hall who used to say War with none but Rome and Hell and was a true Son of Peace Bishop Hall's Works p. 426. But thou O Lord How long How long shall thy poor Church see the Dear Sons of her Womb bleeding about these Apples of Strife Speaking of some things in the Common Prayers Ceremonies especially Ye Men Brethren and Fathers help for Gods sake put to your hands for the quenching of these Common Flames The one side by Humility and Obedience the other by Compassion i. e. to the weak and unsatisfied both by Prayers and Tears that so that Passage in His Majesties Declaration may take Effect for Establishing such Laws as should make a good Agreement between the Church of England and Protestant Dissenters May that Agreement be in the Worship of God The Great God of Heaven and every True-hearted Protestant say Amen to it Arguments for Concessions and Alterations in the Common-Prayer and in the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England in order to the desired Vnion in Worship CErtainly that man is no friend to Church and State who is an enemy to their Peace and Union in matters of Religion For as the Eminent Mr. Le Moyn of Holland saith in his Letter to his Lordship the present Bishop of London at the end of Vnreasonableness of Separation In England the good of Church and State depends absolutely upon Vnion
of the People in point of Religion and one cannot there press an Vnion too much For there is never like to be an effectual Reformation of Peoples unreformed Lives without an Union when Conforming and Nonconforming Ministers may joyn together encourage and assist each other in that blessed work And as to an Union Mr. Baxter in his Life and Death of Sir Matthew Hale saith p. 19 20. that the said Judge told him the only means to heal us was a new Act of Uniformity Therefore I shall apply my self to the Governours of the Church that are Lawfully called and have Authority to appoint and alter matters of this nature respecting the Service and Worship of God I shall in all Humility recommend to the Governours Consideration some Arguments for Concessions and Alterations in the Common Prayer and then in the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England And to show that I am not alone and that it is not a project of my own which hath no countenance or encouragement from others I shall mention greater Names in favour of the same Argument and urge their concurrence and that shall be my first Plea First Plea For some Concessions and Alterations in this Worship because there are some things which in the judgment of several eminent Conformists may be altered without any detriment or dishonour to the Church Divers Reverend Bishops and Doctors in a Paper in Print before the unhappy Wars in King Charles I. Reign yielded to the laying aside of the Cross and the making many material Alterations as the Archbishop of Armagh the Bishop of Lincoln Dr. Prideaux Dr. Ward Dr. Brownrigg Dr. Featly met together by Order of the Lords at the Bishop of Lincolns in Westminster besides some Innovations in Discipline given in hinted their desire of the Alteration of many things in the Book of Common-Prayer as the Reading of the Psalms according to the New Translations Lessons of Canonical Scripture instead of the Apocrypha leaving out the Hymn of Benedicite and the saying Gloria Patri after every Psalm changing with my Body I thee Worship into these I give thee Power over my Body I Absolve thee in the Visitation of the Sick into these I pronounce thee Absolved c. Grand Debate p. 31. Again the Bishop of Armagh p. 130 131. from Dr. Barnard to this effect That for the healing of those distractions and divisions among Ministers and others and the moderating of each extream in relation to the use of the Liturgy whereby there might be a return of that wished for Peace and Unity which of late years we have been strangers to he conceived some prudent and moderate accommodation might be thought of by wise men in order to the continuance of the substantial part each side yielding somewhat after the example of St. Paul Rom. 14. Idem Directions about the Liturgy After his Vindication of the Liturgy yet it cannot be denied but that there are naevi in pulchro corpore and as it were to be wished that these were altered so it were to be done without much noise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon the Ordinance against the Common Prayer Sect. 4. Our publick Liturgy or Forms of constant Prayers must be abolished and not amended in what upon free and publick advice might seem to sober men inconvenient for matter or manner to which I should easily consent Idem To the Prince of Wales In this Church I charge you to persevere as coming nearest to Gods Word with some little amendment c. King Charles the Seconds Declaration from Breda 1660. Since we find some exceptions made against several things in the Liturgy we will appoint an equal number of Divines of both perswasions to review the same and to make such alterations as shall be thought most necessary and some additional Forms and it shall be left to the Minister to chuse one or other In the mean time we desire that Ministers would read those parts against which there lie no exceptions yet in compassion to those that scruple it our will and pleasure is that none be punished or troubled for not using it until it be effectually Reformed as aforesaid The Bishop of Corks Protestant Peacemaker p. 29. What most of the Dissenters would be at no Liturgy no Episcopacy may not be cannot be without Schism we are ready to sacrifice all we can otherwise to the publick peace and safety Idem p. 33. But notwithstanding what I have said of the excellency both of the Common-Prayers and of Cathedral Performances I do not conceive the alteration of an Expression or here and there of a whole Prayer or two by Law or dispensing with some Ceremonies I do not conceive such relaxation as this would break the Harmony and Beauty of our Worship or disturb the Union and Peace of our Church There are some Collects and perhaps Rubricks too which with all duty and submission I humbly conceive might be altered for the better Page 118 119. Mr. Hales in his Tract of Schism p. 215. Propounds it as a remedy to prevent Schism to have all Liturgies and publick Forms of Service so framed as that they admit not of particular and private fancies but contain only such things in which all Christians do agree Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Reading of Scriptures in the most plain and simple manner were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient Liturgy though nothing either of private Opinion or of Church Pomp of Garments or prescribed Gestures of Imagery or Musick of matter concerning the Dead of many superfluities which creep into the Church under the names of Order and Decency did interpose it self The great Dean of St. Pauls in the Vnreasonableness of Separation Pref. About the Book of Common-Prayer it ought to be considered whether for satisfaction of the scrupulous some more doubtful and obscure passages may not yet be explained or amended Whether the new Translation of the Psalms were not fitter to be used especially in Parochial Churches Whether portions of Canonical Scripture were not better put instead of Apocrypha Lessons Whether the Rubrick about the Salvation of Infants might not be restored to its former place in the Office of Confirmation and so the present exceptions against it be removed Whether those Expressions which suppose the strict exercise of Discipline in Burying the Dead were not better left at Liberty in our present case Such a review made by Wise and Peaceable Men not given to wrath and disputing may be so far from being a dishonour to this Church that it may add to the glory of it And whether using the Liturgy and Approbation and Promise of the use of it may not be sufficient instead of the late Form of declaring their Assent and Consent which hath been so much scrupled by our Brethren True state of the Primitive Church p. 23. Now in Christ I humbly beseech the Governours of the Church calmly to consider were it not better to have such a Form of Service as
Worship will hardly consist with their Everlasting Welfare much less attain the ends of Devotion Thirdly Consider further That this great abuse of God's VVorship and unprofitable performance of it is like to be an hindrance to you as to God's Blessing on the remaining Duties And will that do no hurt if the Prayers as some think will do no good VVe are forbid to quench the Spirit and his Grace Imagine we Men to be warmed and fervent in Spirit and in frame for Holy things at their first coming to Church this Heavenly warmth and zeal must needs be quenched and cooled by their dull and dead-hearted formality in this VVorship You know one Sin grieves the Holy Spirit and makes him withdraw further from us One Duty carelesly and negligently performed makes him the more unwilling to assist in other duties They that regard not the Word read God will regard them the less in the Word preached They that give not God the Honour in his Praises due to his Name God will regard their Prayers the less And if your first praying in the publick Prayers be turned into Sin shall not their latter Service be less acceptable with him than if every Duty and every Service were performed in a Spiritual manner to Edifying Again Thirdly The Peoples Prejudice and ill Opinion of some things in this Worship does work in them an ill Opinion of the Governours in Church and State who enjoyn them They are ready to think that the Governours have little care and concern for the good of their Souls little regard to their Edification who continue those things which in their Judgments are no edifying and their continuance notwithstanding all the Objections and Exceptions against them Again Fourthly Their prejudice hindereth them from discerning what is good or useful and excellent in the Common Prayer and disposeth them on the contrary to cavil and find fault with it in what is inconvenient to gather the doubtful and obscure passages and to stretch every thing to the worst sense even beyond the intention and design of them when a good liking and approbation of it would dispose them to judge Charitably and Charity you know covers a multitude of lesser faults Cure of these Prejudices I doubt not but that by the Blessing of God such Concessions and Alterations in the Common Prayers as to take in our Dissenting Brethren as certainly the more sober and moderate Ministers of the Presbyterian Perswasion would come in upon some Concessions would weaken much Peoples Scruples and Objections against the Prayers For we know non minus exempla trahunt quam praecepta docent the People are lead by the Example of their Teachers as much as by their Doctrines When they shall find the ablest Ministers among the Dissenters to read and conform to it in their Practice and in their Preaching to defend and vindicate it exhort and perswade others to conform thereunto as even the Old Nonconformists not to the Prayers but to the Ceremonies and the subscription by Canon used to do the People at least in some considerable measure may come to be convinced of their Errour in the disesteem of these Prayers Besides that their Prejudices Opinionative Conceits and Scruples will fall of themselves when the things that offend them are taken out of the way Then People will profit more when prejudice is abated and be ashamed to carry themselves so negligently and contemptuously as before and the whole Worship of God the Prayers and Office of the Desk as well as of the Pulpit be done to Edifying not clashing one against another nor contending for the Pre-eminence Holy-Dayes of the Churches appointment by that means will be more improved as Peoples prejudices against the Service shall cease or decay and we may hope to see the Lord worshipped in the Beauty of Holyness and somewhat like the Zeal and Devotion Grace and Spirit which the Primitive Christians manifested in their Forms of Prayer Whereas now we bear only or chiefly a Conformity to them in the External Modes of our Worship while we have lost the inward Life and keep the Form of their Godly Prayers without that Power and Spiritual Affection which they had as Tertullian tells us Besieging God with their Prayers as it were piercing the Heavens to the Throne of Grace doing Violence unto it to take Heaven or Heavenly and Spiritual Blessings by force We are told too how forward the Primitive Christians used to be and earnest to be present at the beginning of their Worship with Sighs and Tears in their Eyes manifesting their Internal and unfeigned Devotion And if Peoples prejudices should once be overcome and they come to any good Appetite to this Spiritual Food they would be as sure to come to the beginning of God's VVorship as commonly they do to the beginning of a Feast or at least few that will stay until that is over before they come and few that would lose the benefit of so much of God's VVorship as they do by coming late and worshipping God in an outward lifeless way without an inward Conformity which is the unhappiness of our times and is never like to be remedied while Peoples prejudices continue and the things that they disgust as the length of the Prayers the often use of the Lord's Prayer the Sign of the Cross Reading the Second Service at the Communion Table or Altar with bowing towards it Godfathers c. Arg. 3. For Alteration in the Prayers is from the difference of the present Case from that at the Reformation First This Worship considered with the several Forms Orders c. was more necessary then when the Ministers were very ignorant many of them and more fit to read others Sermons as they did the Homilies with profit and to use others Prayers than either to make Sermons or Prayers of their own They were so ignorant that it was complained some of them could scarce Read and many of them did not understand Latin and then a Form of anothers making sound in Doctrine and Worship was profitable if not necessary least they should have put in Errors or Heresies into their own Prayers For they would have made very pitiful stuff sorry matter of it if they were to have made any long Prayer of their own though a Form But now there is more Light and Knowledge in these days to give that Argument a just weight insomuch that if Ministers be not very idle and negligent so many good Books of Devotion and excellent pieces of Divinity as the Church of Christ abounds with they may be able to make such Prayers as may be sound and comprehensive suitable and edifying Nay they may attain to some ability to express their desires to God without an exact Form if they are such persons as are much in the practice of this Duty as it is fit Ministers should be after the example of the Apostles Acts 6.4 But we will give our selves continually to Prayer and the Ministry of
stumbling blocks that would hinder the proceedings of the Gospel that he would abandon all things that do offend even all Remnants and Reliques of Superstition and such Ceremonies as do but ensnare the Consciences of men and draw a great many into Persecution and Trouble A Second Mischief to the Church hath been great in respect of Conformists blind submission to this Ceremony One not long before I entred into the Ministry and who lived in the same Parish where Providence placed me afterwards when Dying lay under great troubles of his Conscience for his Conformity being bred up a Nonconformist I have read in Mr. Sprints Cassander Anglicanus of one or two more not mentioned by name as Conforming against their Consciences without sufficient satisfaction have lamented it at last as also of others who have dyed very peaceably and comfortably satisfied in their Conformity Some Conformists have certainly run into a wrong defence of this Ceremony as Dedicating the Child unto the Service of him who dyed upon the Cross which is done in Baptism And others have thought it above the peoples capacity However they may understand somewhat of what was said before and that Signing with the Cross is none of their act and deed Not they but the Minister that is to wear the Surplice and to Baptize and Sign with the Cross The Minister is concerned to look to that the Lawfulness of these And Mr. Baxter as also Mr. Croftons Reformation no Separation p. 24. Mr. Nyes Case of great use p. 10. Mr. Balls Tryal of the grounds of Separation p. 308. And the Author of a Discourse of Scandal in his Christian Directory among his Cases of Conscience hath resolved it that Parents dissenting from it may suffer their children to be Signed with the Cross after Baptism declaring to the Minister in private or their Neighbours that it was Baptism only that they desired and that they disowned the Sign of the Cross which they held to be unlawful So that Parents are neither bound to the personal practice of it nor to the profession of its Lawfulness And this appears to have been the Judgment and concurrent Practice of the Nonconformists of former times who constantly joyned in the Prayers and other Acts of Worship although they scrupled some Particular Ceremonies All that we desire is to have the Liberty of our Consciences allowed us in that which is not theirs but ours to practise And if there be offence given it is not from us said Dr. Saunderson in his Treatise of Scandal or at least not so much in the present case of the Church there being a necessity laid upon us as to the use of it if our Consciences be satisfied therein So that whatever we would do if it were left to our Liberty to use or forbear it since we are not allowed to exercise our Ministry otherwise than upon Conformity to it it is Prudentially good and Spiritually necessary for us to Conform to it even in the Judgment of the Reformed Churches abroad Geneva as Beza Colladonus Goulartius Franciscus Port Henricus Stephanus declared in a Letter sent to the Brethren in England that were unsatisfied in their Conformity to this Ceremony and desired to know their Judgment And so have the late Ministers in France as Mr. Daille Mr. Claud Mr. De L' Angle tells us in his Letter My Opinion in this matter is the same that is held by our Churches Mr. Calvin seemed to look upon it as tolerable and to be born with Zancy and others though they did not fully approve of the Imposition III. Mischief In respect of the censoriousness of some Separatists inveighing against these Ceremonies as Limbs of Antichrist reliques of Popery Additions Superstitious will Worship c. as before in the Objections against them condemning as my Lord Hales in his Discourse of Religion calls them these blameless Ceremonies as confidently as if they were infallibly assured of their unlawfulness reviling and censuring the Men that use them as if he could not be a good Man that submitteth to the Ceremonies but must needs conform to them against his Conscience out of Complyance with the Government and for his Preferment sake It is hard for Ministers who submit to these things according to their Consciences though it be with great Charity and Moderation to those that differ from them to be termed Time-servers Formalists Luke-warm Men wanting the Power of Codliness as some conceited Persons who have more Heat than Light more Zeal than Knowledge do not stick to affirm Sure this becometh not Christian Charity in 1 Cor. 13.4 Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up with a conceit of its own Judgment as if it were infallible and they must needs be in the right Again Charity thinketh no Evil and doth not behave it self unseemly But surely if we judge of their thinking by their evil speaking and unseemly deportment towards their Governours and others there must be an abundance of censoriousness in the Heart For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh In 2 Pet. 2.12 You there read of those that speak evil of things they understand not applicable to these Men. Mr. Baxter saith thus in his Book of Church-Government Of all our Ceremonies there is none that I have suspected more to be simply unlawful than the Cross yet dare not I peremptorily say that it is unlawful nor will I condemn either Ancients or Moderns that use it nor will I make any disturbance in the Church about it any farther than my own forbearance of it And those Grave Men at the Grand Debate it being doubtful whether God hath given Men power to institute such Mystical Teaching Signs as being not necessary in general fall not under the particular Rules c. They are by some held sinful and unlawful in themselves by some not as of another Judgment it seems by others very inconvenient and unsuitable to the simplicity of the Gospel-Worship c. p. 9. Of the Grand Debate But the new Generation of Dissenters are grown wiser than the Grave Aged and Judicious that speak more modestly leaving the lawfulness of it as doubtful and sub Judice and seem to wonder at those before them that they should see no farther not to the utter unlawfulness of these Ceremonies and some of the Prayers too which they say they see as clear as the Light to be Popish and Antichristian and against Scripture I profess that the Objections are so many and the ill Circumstances that attend its use at present that after all I dare not be positive and peremptory that it is lawful nor will I be over-confident charitably allowing my Brethren their Liberty to dissent and desiring the like Charity from them as to my own Conformity upon prevailing probable Arguments leaving it to God who only is Infallible to decide the Case at the day of Judgment Where I trust his Mercy will pardon me if I have erred as having sought for the Spirit to guide me into Truth and as having also the Ancient Church and the Modern Reformed Forreign Divines approbation of Conformity thereunto It is from the strict and severe Imposition the blind submission of others not being able to give any tolerable account of it to their People nor Answer Objections against it And from the censoriousness and ill Names that have been given this Ceremony of the Cross that they have brought such an Odium upon it and wrought such an ill Opinion in our Conforming People against it Further they hate Popery and Papists use this so much and abuse it to Idolatry and Superstition that they hate and disgust the use of it upon that account I know our Governours never intended to make us Odious in the Eyes of the People but I am sure there could scarce be a more effectual way and means to do it than by enjoyning these things so strictly the which People are so much set against that they disaffect those that use them and the Governours that impose them even against the gust of the Congregation If there had not been a little of the old grudge in some at the Grand Debate sure they had been yielded up then and not have remained unto this day troubling the peace of the Church I shall conclude with the common Assertion of the Reformed Churches That all Churches should labour as much as possible may be after Apostolical simplicity and fewness of Ceremonies which they judge the safest the purest and the best as Peter Martyr Bucer Calvin Beza Zanchy and indeed almost all good Men affirm FINIS