nor can any man give a true assent to that whose truth he cannot discern nor has any overpowering reason to believe This our own experience upon reflection must fully convince us of Or if any that have immortal souls within them and are quite sunk into rottenness and clay so that they will not or cannot intend their minds to receive satisfaction within themselves yet if they have sense enough to be common Christians of the lowest form in the School of our Lord the authority of his Apostle must convince them and they must on divine revelation believe that praying in an unknown tongue must be nonsence and folly in him that thus offers to God he knows not what and consents to that of which he has no knowledge at all If I know not says S Paul the meaning of the voice I shall be to him that speaketh a Barbarian and he that speaketh a Barbarian unto me 1 Cor. 14.11 And verse the 16. When thou shalt bless with the spirit that is as before in an unknown tongue how shall he that possesseth the room of the unlearned say Amen i. e. give his assent at thy giving of thanks since he understandeth not what thou saiest To speak or write more in such a plain case would apparently disparage an Auditory and a Reader and a man might be accused of wasting time and of rendring our adversaries very considerable in the defence of such a point in the management of which they have little or nothing to say for themselves besides this That Latin Service being formerly their custom when it was commonly understood in the Western Empire they think it fitting and honourable to continue it still lest a change might make them lose the credit of Antiquity though the principal reason of uttering Divine Service in this language is gone and becomes an argument that points a quite contrary way and directs all Churches to their vulgar language since the Latin is so far from being the common tongue in which the multitude of men express their thoughts and come to the understanding each other even in those places in which by the Roman Church the publick Service is injoyn'd to be used that the common people do not understand it even in Italy it self But the Church of Rome has one reason for it above all that the great ones will let us know from themselves but yet they do not here in England stop our mouths so that blessed be God we can speak it for them though they had rather that we would still hold our tongues Yet the reason is this Because hiding under an unknown tongue the abomination and false opinions which they practise and uphold in their publick offices their people are kept in great ignorance and dark devotion nourishes them into a great zeal and blind obedience that the Priests may make impressions on them and they may receive and embrace those instrumental principles that pick their Pockets for the advantage of holy Church and empty their Purses into the Popes Coffers And this is the most weighty reason for their religion in those particulars in which it is departed from Primitive Christianity But yet methinks I have so much confidence in the rational natures of mankind that where they could understand they would examine and if they once arrived at that they would quickly reject every Article of the Church of Rome which they have added to the Apostles Creed and what the Reformed Protestant Church of England owns And I am fully perswaded that the generality of the English Nation who cannot if they have been any thing serious but be well acquainted with the necessary points delivered in the Scriptures would so loath and abhor the Roman Breviaries and mass-Mass-Books were they faithfully translated into our common Language so that both parties might sign the Copy that the people would confute them themselves without the toil or pains of another But the Romanists had rather still lurk behind the Curtain deal with the credulous and lock up the Key of Knowledge by keeping the Scriptures from the searches of the people unless they are such particular parts as they think fit to afford them the perusal of This better serves their turn than to permit a bold and inquisitive multitude to view all that they may make discoveries and twattle to one another and so at last make enquiries into those Services of their Church which the Governours are willing should be accounted divine till the people should be able by due search to confute the Roman Prayers by the Scriptures and then in a little time more the Capitol it self must be delivered when they had no more Geese to defend it I see therefore in the Roman way the blind must lead the blind till both together fall into the ditch where I shall at present leave them as to this point of Latin Service till their Seers are able to pluck them out For when error is attended with an obstinate resolution to maintain it even against the testimony of an Apostle the persons thus possessed with it are only to be treated as things insensible not minding the authority by which Christian Religion is established And when people thus present petitions to Almighty God which they cannot so much as pretend to understand 't is plain that they offer the sacrifice of fools and their Priests sacrifice to their own net and 't is in vain to perswade in such a case where the people delight in their own slavery and the Priests love their covetousness too well to forsake the Trade in which they can so easily impose on those whom by such means they keep in ignorance and so make an outside godliness their gain Certain it is that the people under the Roman yoke can only draw nigh to God in their Publick Service with their lips at best when their hearts and minds being under an impossibility of accompanying them must of necessity be far from him and they lose also the blessed influence of all their Publick Prayers on themselves in raising their affections acting their graces mortifying their sins and prompting them to their duty all which prayers well composed uttered and understood must needs effect upon the minds of well inclined Devotionists And so I proceed to another Argument we have against the Publick Prayers of the Romanists That they pray to Creatures when they ought to pray to God alone That God only is to be the object of our prayers in divine worship I have already shewed in the Third Chapter of this Discourse And that the Romanists pray to Angels and Saints departed their Service is so full and frequent an evidence of it that they themselves will not deny it They endeavour therefore to justifie the thing by the bold assertions of their own Authors and without any plain authority but from the Heathens and themselves and without any solid and substantial argument Yet that I may give the Reader an hint or two that none unless
part of those who being otherwise minded have separated from it And it may give some rebuke to the bold confidence of such men as are not so hardned that they think there is no need of repentance or that the shame which attends it will be worse to them than the want of the thing it self and check the rude presumption of those who to exalt themselves assume too large a familiarity with their Maker And now I shall trouble the Reader with very little more being conscious to my self how much I have already tired any that has had patience to read this Discourse quite through Yet because extravagant and very lofty men pretend to inspiration in such matters as these as if the holy Spirit dictated matter and words to all Saints when they thus pray extempore If it be true I acknowledge my self to have blasphemed in this Discourse But if it be false as I verily believe it is then they themselves have blasphemed the Holy Spirit of God And to make a judgement in this case I shall only intreat treat the impartial Reader who I suppose is come thus far with me to our journeys end 1. to consider if what I have said be argumentative to convince him then the blasphemy remains in the presumption of our Adversaries on their own side 2. If their prayers were thus inspired they would be equally Canonical with the Scriptures For what made the Scriptures a Rule of life but because they were given by inspiration from God 2 Tim. 3.16 And Saint Peter informs us that holy men of God spake in old time as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 And though men have been at sundry times and in divers manners spoken unto in the Old and New Testament yet it was God who delivered his messages unto men Heb. 1.1 And because he inspired the Writers of the Old Testament and the New to a delivery of what their words and writings have presented to the world therefore we receive them as the Oracles of God and endeavour to manage our lives by them God Almighty has no where declared what Books are Scripture and what not But this we learn by such arguments as convince us that the men that wrote them were inspired by the Holy Ghost Now could these mens prayers of which we now discourse be proved to be dictated by the Holy Ghost they would be equally valid with the Scriptures For as in the proof of the truth of the holy Scriptures if the Historical part be proved to be true the Doctrines that are included in the History will by the same evidence appear true also So if we allow the confessions petititions and thanksgivings of these persons to be inspired the propositions on which they are founded and all the Doctrines insinuated in them will be admitted as an effect of the inspiration also and then what inspired Controversies should we have Nay there would not only be additions to the Sacred Canon which St. John is quoted by themselves to have prohibited And Doctrines also and prayers too that have no foundation in that Sacred Writ which has been derived as a compleat rule for sundry Ages But we must receive such large Appendixes that they would not only surmount all Popish traditions though they should superadd those of the Jews But it might be said in the words of the Evangelist without any or but a little Hyperbole That if they were written the world it self could not contain the Books because the prayers of these are so various and long And beside this it would level the Prophets our Saviours and his Apostles prayers to the rude and indigested and extravagant conceptions which our natural Enthusiasts utter in those which all men call extempore prayers 3. If these men had that extraordinary assistance from the Spirit of God or such an inspiration to which so bold a pretence is made Then the Spirit of God must be rendered inconsistent with it self Since it would frame tedious and long prayers contrary to that plain fulness and convenient brevity which we find in those that are recorded in Sacred Writ as delivered by the Prophets or Apostles or even our Saviour himself And then the examples mentioned in the Book of God will seem to be changed by extraordinary motions from his own Spirit Lastly Consider that notwithstanding all our extempore mens pretensions their prayers cannot be the product of inspiration dictating to the speaker matter and words Because this sudden deceiving Knack is plainly discoverable by those that know and can use it also as well as themselves to be the effect of quickness of invention in one who remembers Scripture Phrases who has a voluble and ready tongue and 't is gained only by frequent use together with little arts in the composure At several times 't is done by changing the places of expressions or altering the method so that it cannot easily be observed by the vulgar And all is but like the exercise of a Military Company of men whole front or reer ranks or files are quickly altered by one or few words of Command And this great gift as 't is called by some advances or grows weak according to the increase or decay of natural abilities the abatement of knowledge or the sprightlyness and activity of mens parts the strength of memory or the infirmity of it the volubility of speech or the hesitations and stops in it and the practice or disuse of this extempore way c. To which we may add boldness and bashfulness fear and a good assurance and the like Hence a Right Reverend Prelate not long since deceased when before he arrived at this honour though he was alwaies a very great man he was pleased to write concerning this gift of prayer was willing to subject it to the rules of Art that so the Holy Spirit of God in all its infusions into good men might be supposed only to spiritualize their judgments and affections that they might be both sanctified and raised which may as well be in forms of devotion as in conceived and extempore prayers And now I have done with all that I intend at present to write on this Subject But if any Reader shall find an objection which is neither in this Discourse obviated in the state nor already answered in particular instances I must then refer him to several Cases of Conscience published by sundry Ministers of London very lately exhibited to the World and more yet that are to come forth and when they receive a full answer I may perhaps be convinced by it Although the most that I have yet seen seem to me to have prickles in them that for their Brethren as they call them to attempt a reply will render them like things gnawing thistles Yet men may adventure at what they please and I 'll assure them it shall be all one to me whether Don Quixot encounters a flock of Sheep or a Wind-mill The Conclusion THE Learned Vossius
he has a brow of brass may say to those who understand not or else never look'd into their allowed Breviary or their common and established Mass-Book that we charge them with what they are not guilty of I must instance in a few particulars in which prayers are made to glorified creatures and to some inanimate things too in the publick Offices of the Roman Church since some of the professors of that Religion are so bold and apparently wicked that to serve a turn they will affirm 't is dark in the face of the Sun and light even in the midst of darkness and nothing almost according to their principles of equivocation and mental reservation if they take also the Doctrine of probable opinions in to their assistance can be propounded but they may either affirm or deny as it makes for the advantage of their Church Nay they are bound according to the determination of Bellarmin to say that Vertue is Vice or Vice Vertue if the Pope so concludes either But yet my present charge is so apparently true that all must own it to any that have knowledge of their publick Service whatever they may at any time reply to the ignorant that receive the charge upon the authority of others For in their Commune Apostolorum there is an Hymn consisting both of prayer and praise in which we find these expressions Vos saecli justi judices c. speaking to the Apostles they say O ye just Judges and Lights of the world we beseech you with the desires of our hearts to hear the prayers of your supplicants ye that shut the heavens with a word and unlock them again loose us we pray you from all our sins by your command you to whose authority is subject both the health and misery of all c. In their Office to the Blessed Virgin you have these expressions O Mary Mother of Grace Mother of Mercy protect us from the enemy and receive us at the hour of death And let the Virgin Mary together with her off-spring bestow her blessing upon us and the like I shall instance yet in one more although many know I might translate a multitude of the same nature into this Discourse and that shall be in the service relating to one who was the Founder of one of the most pernicious Sects that ever infested the Christian world in comparison to many of whom the Gnosticks were Saints the Goths and Vandals were of a Religious Order the Great Turk becomes a Christian and the wild Fanatick is temperate and mild I mean Ignatius Loyola who founded the first Society of the Jesuits to perplex and confound the Councils of Princes and carry on mischievous designs against us as well by those who have been at the top as those that remain at the bottom of the Ladder In the Service at the Celebration of his Festival there is this Prayer or Collect on the one and thirtieth day of July O God! who for the greater propagation of thy glory hast strengthened thy Church militant properly so indeed under the command of a Jesuit with a new aid by blessed Ignatius grant that we who strive or fight on earth by the imitation and help of him may deserve with him to be crowned in the heavens And if they all deserve the same lot may they together possess the same place for fear they should be as troublesome to us in the other world as they have been in this But I will no longer employ my self in translating their prayers Many instances of their petitions to Saints and Angels have been exposed to view in most Books that have been by Protestants written against them I heartily wish that those who use such prayers understood them better because they would then more easily see how poyson is wrap'd in gilded pills Why should I relate the Attributes which the Church of Rome gives to the Cross of Christ as great as to him who suffered on it and yet have no method to shift their blasphemy but by the same way in which they translate their prayers and praises too from the Cross to him who died upon it And though I love not to pursue a Lion to his den for fear that being weary he may be hungry too and take some opportunity to rend and devour Yet it would be a strange expression from a Protestants mouth that which must needs grate upon the ears of all the devout worshippers of God and such as believe that their prayers are heard only through the merits and intercession of Christ Sancta Crux or a pro nobis Holy Cross pray for us And Ave Crux spes unica Hail Cross our only hope would be words that to us would not only seem ridiculous but abominable and if at all considered to any that hope in the mercy of God through him who suffer'd and dyed upon the Cross But notwithstanding all these are things as common with the Papists as whining and another sort of nonsence are among some Separatists that pretend to set themselves at the greatest distance from them Nay any may see if they have skill and leisure to peruse it in an office of or relating to the Holy Cross Printed at Paris 1664. by publick authority such strange expressions as these are After it has begun with a Prayer to God to free men from their enemies by the Sign of the Cross which if we should make a thousand times upon our selves we should hardly be quit from those that are so devout to it we find afterwards these expressions O Crux venerabilis c. I know not how they may edifie in Latin but I am sure that they sound harsh in English and good or bad thus they run O venerable Cross who hast brought salvation to us miserable with what praises shall I extoll thee because thou hast prepared heavenly life for us And in the close of another Hymn the style tho' a new one is in these words O victory of the Cross and admirable sign make us to triumph in the Celestial Court or the Court of Heaven But this is an ungrateful task to me thus to transcribe the most abominable Popish Prayers and as unpleasant as it can be to Protestants to read it And therefore I shall not fill these Papers with those particular addresses which many of them make to individual Saints as they account them who are departed this life for particular things which they suppose to be in the power of them singly to bestow whilst they appropriate one faculty to one and a second to another whilst they constitute a first to be a Patron to their Horses another to their Sheep a third to their Hoggs and another to keep off some Disease from themselves or at least to cure it And so they make them Grooms or Farriers or Swiniards or Shepherds or Physicians or Mountebanks or what they please For I am weary of raking in such a dunghill in which there is neither Barley-corn nor Jewel
But notwithstanding all their pretensions to the Spirit of which I shall hint something before I end which advances their rudeness into perfect Blasphemy If praying extempore they are at any time methodical and faultless 't is owing to their good chance and fortune And they have an escape when they have taken no pains at all for it But when David was bartering for the threshing-floor of Araunah and for Oxen also for a burnt Sacrifice nay the very wood to kindle the fire all which he might have been presented with for nothing David refused so Royal a gift And his reason as himself expressed it was because he would not offer burnt offerings unto the Lord his God of that which should cost him nothing 2 Sam. 24. 24. But these bold men with whom to our sorrow we have to do confidently present to Almighty God that in which no pains were taken in the composure Only a tatling and talkative Service stuff'd with little besides gibberish and impertinency that others who consider what and to whom they offer it cannot without falshood and irreverence join with them in But the halt and the blind are their common Sacrifices and strong lungs the best Altar on which these oblations are made Yet all this they think to smother when they are kindled into passion and fury in the obscurity of those phrases and length of those sentences in which they pretend to offer their comon supplications unto God And they expect the joint consent of a Congregation to what they never heard of before Nor could they understand when it was uttered For their raptures so muffle up their notions and both are so mix'd with their petitions which they wrap in Clouds and obscure Metaphors that the meaner sort cannot understand them But sigh and groan they know not why And the more considering part that are not blind have just cause to suspect such Religion which the Patrons and promoters endeavour with so much care to secure from a more severe and strict examination All that I admire in it is how they can be dark at noon-day and mount out of sight on a sudden and extempore Unless whatever their pretensions are to quickness of invention they study such unusual expressions designedly to amuse but not to inform the judgements of men As Cotta in Tully speaks of Heraclitus de nat Deor. lib. 3. Quae diceret intelligi noluit That he would not have what he said to be understood But in prayer to God when 't is made vocal men are supposed to declare their wants and petition for relief And this especially when any Community joins in it ought to be managed with an honest plainness without any mysterious riddles or equivocal language or petitions wrap'd up in mourning Metaphors as if they were to be buried amongst the Dead or any other Coptical and Egyptian expressions that are difficult to decipher and much more to be understood For these are things that as well baffle the minds of the simple as too frequently vail the hypocrisie of him that makes the oblation Nay very often amuse those of better understanding so that they are not able with any judgment to say Amen at the close of all Nay it hazards also and too frequently destroys that faith which ought to be earnestly contended for and safety preserved pure and unspotted For it 's as easie and indeed attended with less difficulty to introduce a strange Creed by using this unbounded liberty in prayer as it is by an unstinted latitude in preaching and to insinuate into mens minds either old or new condemned Heresies by a frequent repetition of those things that tend to their promotion or establishment in our prayers to God When the souls of those that join in the devotions are very intent and open to receive what we say with greediness and desire Especially when men are busied in raising their affections to their utmost height There 't is not hard to introduce false Doctrine into the belief of others Which like a false story that by frequent relation comes at last to be received as true Not only by the hearers who are easily imposed on But he that tells it having so often related it forgetting that he once knew it to be false at last thinks it to be really true Nay in prayer where a false point in Religion is misted and wrap'd up in a petition 't is affected and swallowed with the petition And more easily digested than if it were declared in an Homily or Sermon Because in hearing Sermons men imploy their judgments more than their affections But in prayer the affections are usually more busie than their understandings And that it is very common with those extempore men that take upon them to conceive prayer in a Congregation to insinuate Doctrines in their petitions is so manifest to all observing persons who have been present at such meetings that a person of any judgment at all may certainly judge of the opinion of the gifted Brother that prayeth by his Confessions Petitions and Thanksgivings to God And then where people are led by the authority or examples of those whom they embrace for their Ministers which in many things the common multitude must and in most points it is notorious in many of our Separatists what they use in their prayers and speeches unto God must needs obtain a greater reputation with them than what is only address'd to men Because they then think their Ministers to be most serious cautious and devout too This therefore was warily and exceedingly well provided against after the extraordinary operations of the Spirit ceased by the Council at Laodicea Can. 18. where the Fathers Assembled injoined their Churches to use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same Liturgy or form of prayer both Morning and Evening And in the fifty ninth Canon of the same Council it was Ordained that the vulgarly composed Psalms which were the labours of persons who had not sufficient understanding in these things or any Books that were not Canonical should not be sung or read in the Churches Where also for mens satisfaction against the Papists in this matter you may find the Titles or Names of those Books which the Council then received as Canonical And in the Milevitan Council Can. 12. it was Decreed that those Prayers and Offices which were approved by an Assembly or Council should only be used excluding others in all their publick Administrations Lest any thing should either through inconsideration or ignorance be uttered before the people that might contradict the common faith received and continued among them And if the Governours of Churches in those daies were so Prophetical and cautious in their Establishments for the present and transferring the most Holy Christian Religion from their own Age to the succeeding so as nothing might be conveyed to Posterity but what was Orthodox and of Primitive constitution And to obviate that extravagant itch of men which since we have found increasing into a
has caused me to omit some things here But because there is a place usually quoted out of Tertullian Apol. cap. 30. that I find has been conveyed as low as the Anabaptists and the Sectaries have gotten it by heart I shall present the Text with the Notes upon it which are enough to satisfie reasonable men that they plainly mistake the meaning of it For this Father shewing how the Christians prayed for the health and safety of the Emperors That they called on the eternal true and living God and looking up to Heaven with hands spread forth because innocent and bare headed for that they were not ashamed Denique sine Monitore quia de pectore oramus pro omnibus Imperatoribus vitam illis prolixam imperium seourum c. Lastly without a Monitor or Promptor said the Anabaptist and out of the breast or by heart the Christians then prayed for all Emperors that they might have a long life an happy Government a safe Palace strong Forces a faithful Senate an honest people a quiet World and what things soever are the desires of Mankind and Caesar And from the expressions of sine Monitore and de pectore the Schismatick framed an Argument as he was able for extempore prayer But in one thing I cannot but be of Pamelius's mind and of Rigaltius's in another with reference to the understanding this Text. The former inferrs from the practice of Christians here mentioned that apt and decent Ceremonies are to be used in prayer since Tertullian sayes even when he was making an Apology for them ' They lifted up their eyes to signifie a faithful though humble confidence in the God to whom their prayers were addressed They spread out their hands to testifie their innocence and were bare-headed to let the naked truth of their Religion appear and thereby profess'd such a vertue and piety and truth too in their faith and manners that they need not cover their heads which was a token of shame nor vail their faces no nor hold their Hats before them neither since they had no cause to blush for their Religion nor to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ These it seems were in those dayes Symbolical Ceremonies But I have reason also to take some hints from the latter Interpreter of this place in Tertullian to prove that another thing is meant by sine Monitore and de pectore than what the Separatists knavishly suggest viz. That the Monitor here denotes a particular Officer among the Heathen called by that title and was one who in their publick devotion read to the people the prayer set down in writing that there might neither be an omission of words or any expressions uttered preposterously He mentions also another Officer to attend to this and another Custos who called on the people not to be too loud Now the second of these seems to be a person who kept the Catalogues of the Roman Deities to whom several Petitions and Services were directed and might for ought I can find to the contrary have the custody of the written prayers themselves This some would have to be a kind of Nomenclator who signified the Names of the Heathen Gods and the particular Deities to whom at any time addresses were to be made suitable to particular occasions and wants For these like the Canonized Saints in the Church of Rome were not equally to be invoked for all things but one for this and another for that Now this Custos in Rigaltius's Note which he refers us to Pliny for hearkned and instructed the Monitor when he failed and brought forth or delivered the Book and declared the Name of the God to be invok'd that so they might not absurdly pray to Mars for Patience to Bacchus for Wisdom or Apollo for Wine and the like Now the Christians addressing themselves only to one God could not be liable to such mistakes and therefore need neither Custos nor Monitor because frequent use had made their prayers familiar so that all had them perfectly by heart and therefore joyned with them with their very souls and were not so ignorant in their daily devotions as if they never heard their prayers before or were every day to change their prayers and their God together But if the strength of the Separatists argument shall lay in the reason why as Tertullian sayes they needed not this Monitor because they prayed de pectore and so needed not so much as a form to direct them this can no more be proved from this place than that because they prayed sine Monitore the Christians then had no Minister to direct the people either by premeditated or conceived prayer The sense of the place therefore must be this that the Christians needed not a Custos or a Monitor neither any to direct them to what particular God they should pray since they owned but one nor any to put them in mind to pray for the Emperours because this they were willingly inclined to and did it from or with all their hearts And this is a very probable account of the place because Tertullian here making an Apology for the Christians to Alexander Severus and Antoninus his Son shewes how heartily and sincerely they prayed for the Emperours and that their Religion could not disturb but advantage their Government Because praying thus heartily for them they could not but wish and act for their welfare And this argument certainly holds among all those who are sincere in Religion But there is no fence against a Pharisee or an Hypocrite only we must remit all such to the judgment of that God to whom they pretend to pray I shall conclude this with a small animadversion or rather advice to those who are so pleased with extempore prayer that they usually deliver themselves in this duty without a serious and orderly premeditation That they would impartially consider whether when their minds and souls are so intent on the invention of matter and words to express it they can so well reflect on the object of their prayer especially since our quickest and most retired thoughts cannot admit of divers objects at the same moment And if not then whilst men are inventing matter and expressions to fill their prayers it may be worth inward reflections upon themselves whether whilst they are busie to find out their devotions they do not at the same time lose their God And now I have written all that my present thoughts suggest and have endeavoured to prove by the strongest arguments which my slender abilities are able either to collect or invent that the worship of the Separatists as 't is commonly managed is not suitable to the Being and Attributes of the God whom they pretend to adore the dependence of Mankind on him nor the infinite distance and disproportion that is betwixt him and themselves Which may perhaps add something to the fortification of the members of our own Church if it cannot cause some sad reflections in the better natur'd
of the mischievousness and sinfulness of Schism lib. 5. Cap. 21. Schism saies he is a grievous sin 1. Because it is against Charity to our Neighbour 2. B cause it is against the Edification of him who makes the Separation in that he deprives himself of Communion in Spiritual good 3. Because it is against the honor of Christ in that as much as in it lyeth it takes away the Unity of his Mystical Body And 4. It makes way to Heresie and separation from Christ from whence they conclude that Schism is a sin by all good men to be abhor'd Nay if we look into Pag. 112. we shall find that when men separate from what they acknowledge to be a true Church 'T is Schism And to set up a Church against a Church and as the Ancients call'd it Altar against Altar This is the weakning the hands of the Church hindering the glorious work of Reformation causing the building of Gods House to cease and is a Deformation instead of a Reformation Upon such a dismal state and farther prospect of worse times if any could be so within less than a year after the Throne followed the downfal of the Episcopal Church of England these London Ministers gathered together in a Provincial Assembly thus exhort the people Pag. 110. After their being humbled for the evils that so much abounded for which as they say even those in their daies of Reformation the Earth mourned and the Heavens were black over them when they had mourned seriously every one a part Their desire and advice to them is this That you would put away the iniquity that is in your hand That you would be tender of the Oaths which you have taken and those which may be offered to you That you would prize the Publick Ordinances and reverence your Ministers That you would sanctifie the Sabbaths and hate Hypocrisie and self-seeking That you would receive the love of the truth lest God give you over to believe lies That you would not trust to your own understanding lest God blind your understanding That you would conform to the truths you already know that God may discover to you the truths ye do not know That ye would not have such itching ears as to heap to your selves Teachers nor embrace any Doctrines for the persons sake That ye would seek the truth for the truths sake and not for any outward respect That ye would study Catechism more diligently by degrees be led on to perfection And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity These were the excellent exhortations of a Province of Divines then separated from the Episcopal Church of England And why should not such admirable instructions and advice be prevalent in this paper since they are transcribed from their own To conclude therefore in the language of this Provincial Assembly If we are a true Church of Christ which the late Doctrine of occasional Communion sufficiently proves and Christ holdeth Communion with us why do any separate from us If we are the Body of Christ do not they who separate from the Body separate from the Head also If the Apostle calls those divisions in the Church of Corinth by the name of Schisms 1 Cor. 1.10 Though Christians there did not separate into divers formed Congregations of several Communions in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper May not your Secession from us and the profession that you cannot join with us as members and setting up Congregations of another Communion be more properly called Schisms Especially when Churches were gathered out of Churches as this Provincial Assembly there complains If any are willing to see more of this let them peruse the Book And the good God give us all a right understanding in all things FINIS