and Factions increased Pag. 31. Were not the former Conquests of these Nations the effects of our own Divisions God grant that saying may never be applyed to us which was used of our Fore-Fathers that whilst they severally quarrel'd among themselves they were all overcome by the common Enemy Item They are convinced that a number of petty Sects and divided Interests cannot long maintain their ground against the Roman Forces Mr. Cooks Sermon on Rom. 12.18 p. 4. Were it not for that security the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it that is the Church the unhappy contentions about it the worst of Devils would soon hasten its destruction Mr. Jekylls Sermon on 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 or 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 this Christian Directory I think speaking of the Sacrament tells us he thinks Mr Paybodies Book in defence of Kneeling to 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
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 2 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 wife 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 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
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 the Word Secondly It was more seasonable at the Reformation than another Worship because it receded least from their former Worship leaving that only in what was plainly and undoubtedly evil and so was it more safe upon the same account For it is a common Rule in all Changes in Bodies Natural and Political that the Change be no more then needs must it being dangerous to run from one extream into another And that Change which they did make in the Worship was no without its danger for in Devonshire and Cornwall there was a Rebellion upon the account of changing their Worship But there would be no danger of Rebellion now upon some just alterations It caused one indeed in Scotland as before which infected England Thirdly It was more satisfactory and acceptable to the generality of the Nation at the time of the Reformation than any other So that we do not read of any that separated from it in Edward VI. days And though when they were at liberty in Germany some were for another Worship at Frankford yet we do not read but they Conformed to it in England until near the Spanish Invasion when a party of Jesuits and Roman Priests were found crying up a sort of Free Prayer drawing some off from the Common-Prayer though not men of note And in the Act Primo Elizabethae you may find the esteem they had for this Worship It saith to the great decay of the due Honour of God and discomfort to the Professors of the Truth of Christs Religion the Common-Prayer Book and the Act for it was repealed and taken away in Queen Maries days But now the generality of Dissenters and many that follow the Parish Ministers are dissatisfied in it and have little or no liking to it and whatever is the matter the genius of the people will not bear it or some things in it or at least not otherwise then as a Burthen and a Grievance Arg. IV. For proof that the Common-Prayer according to the Acts for Vniformity is inconvenient in some respects because of the confinement of Ministers to the use of it not only in the publick but in their Families in a manner wholly excluding all other manner of Prayer even the most sober and discreet use of the Gift as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vpon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer Book Sect. 4. I am not against a grave modest discreet and humble use of Ministers gifts even in publick the better to excite their own and the peoples affections to the present occasions Again upon denying him his Chaplains Sect. 16. Which gift as I do not wholly exclude from publick occasions so I allow it its just liberty and use in private and devout retirements And the Act for Vniformity in the beginning of King Edwards Reign did give Liberty to use any other Prayers and Psalms taken out of the Bible at any due time not letting or omitting thereby the Service or any part thereof More may be spoken to enforce this part that Ministers should labour after some measure of the gift and ability to utter their minds to God in Prayer without keeping strictly to a Form. First Ejaculatory Prayer calls for some measure of this gift as when we lift up our Hearts to God upon any present occasion in some short Prayer as in time of Temptation upon sudden Danger or news of the Sickness or Death of a Friend or Judgment or Mercy befalling the Nation or Parish in which we live or according to the Discourse and Company which we are in or matter which we read Bishop Taylor in his Rules to his Clergy That they should teach their People to be much in this Ejaculatory Prayer Secondly For some gift and ability to Pray without a Form is because that Examination of our Hearts and Lives upon set days of Fasting and Humiliation before a Sacrament and in times of Affliction and Sickness or any Calamity the dayly Examination also according to many sober Heathens practice Pythagoras his Advice to his Scholars to that purpose and which is the practice of good men and serves only to find out our sins that we may beg pardon of them and power against them or be thankful to God for his Grace keeping us from sin or enabling us to do good and this cannot be done in one set Form. Thirdly Ministers Sermons should be begun continued and ended with Prayer Prayer for Direction to a suitable Subject such as the necessities of the people call for Method Matter Language that all may be done to edifying And when it is finished it is fitting to recommend it unto God for his Blessing upon it The more Prayer the more power working with our Sermons You will find such Sermons take most effect they will be weak without it And after Preaching that the Word Preached may be put in practice Some Ministers in the Country having a short Prayer after Sermon respecting the principal matter of the Sermon as the Duties Graces Truths of our Christian Religion or Sins as 2 Tim. 3.16 The Word being profitable for Doctrine Reproof to convince Gainsayers for Correction and Amendment of evil Manners and for Instruction in Righteousness or Holiness by an exercise of the Graces performance of the Duties of our Religion Now Prayer must accompany all the Ordinances of God to sanctifie and get Gods Blessing on them Fourthly It is fit that all should vary in their Prayers so much as occasions serves our Sins our Wants our Mercies Neither those of the Nation nor a particular Congregation are the same always not altogether though much the same Therefore it is fit our Petitions Intercessions and Thanksgivings should admit of some alteration Arg. V. For some ability to pray without an exact Form is that in Phil. 4.6 In every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving let your Requests be made known unto God In every thing of great concernment and importance in our Lives be it Worldly or Spiritual matters Besides in the two first Centuries this sort of Prayer prevailed in all probability and a mixt Worship in the third partly by Form and part otherwise 'T is too apparent to be denied and hath been the observation of too many and their complaint too that Ministers take occasion from the use of the Common-Prayers to neglect the sober use of free and conceived Prayer being insufficient to pray upon an emergent occasion to the scandal of their Function
which seems to them though through great weakness and a more unreasonable prejudice when the Rubrick is so expresly against the Idolatry and Adoration of the Sacramental Bread a symbolizing with Idolaters which things have bred no small perplexity of mind and outward trouble to some Godly Persons said Mr. Sprint in his days Cass Anglic. I shall conclude this with Dr. Preston on the Lords Prayer p. 89. Thy Kingdom come We intreat the Lord that he would curse and cross all Antichristian Plots and Practices and we are to Pray against all lets and 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 Godliness 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