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A49123 Mr. Hales's treatise of schism examined and censured by Thomas Long ... ; to which are added, Mr. Baxter's arguments for conformity, wherein the most material passages of the treatise of schism are answered. Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Mr. Baxter's arguments for conformity against separation. 1678 (1678) Wing L2974; ESTC R10056 119,450 354

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needs no proof to any that is judicious 2. Nor yet for any evil in this particular form for in this part the Common-prayer is generally approved 3. Nor yet because it is imposed for a command maketh not that unlawful to us which is lawful before but it maketh many things lawful and duties that else would have been unlawful accidentally 4. And the intentions of the Commanders we have little to do with And for the consequents they must be weighed on both sides and the consequents of our refusal will not be found light In general I must here tell the People of God in the bitter sorrow of my Soul that at last it is time for them to discern that temptation that hath in all ages of the Church almost made this Sacrament of our union to be the grand occasion or instrument of our divisions And that true humility and acquaintance with our selves and love to Christ and one another would shew some men that it was but their pride and prejudice and ignorance that made them think so heinously of other mens manner of worship And that on all sides among true Christians the manner of their worship is not so odious as prejudice and faction and partiality representeth it And that God accepteth that which they reject And they should see how the Devil hath undone the common People by this means by teaching them every one to expect salvation for being of that Party which he taketh to be the right Church and for worshipping in that manner which he and his Party thinketh best And so wonderful a thing is prejudice that every Party by this is brought to think that ridiculous and vile which the other party accounteth best But to magnifie any one Church or Party so as to deny due love and communion to the rest is Schism To limit all the Church to your party and deny all or any of the rest to be Christians and parts of the Universal Church is Schism by a dangerous breach of Charity It is Schism also to condemn unjustly any particular Church as no Church And it is Schism to withdraw your bodily communion from a Church that you were bound to hold communion with upon a false supposition that it is no Church or is not lawfully to be communicated with And it is Schism to make Divisions or Parties in a Church though you divide not from that Church The holiness of the Party that men adhere to is made a pretence to excuse Schism but this must make but a gradual difference in our esteem and love to some Christians above others If really they are most holy I must love them most and labour to be as holy as they But I must not therefore unjustly deny communion or due respect to other Christians that are less holy nor cleave to them as a Sect or divided Party whom I esteem most holy For the holiest are most Charitable and most against the divisions among Christians and tenderest of their unity and peace Own the best as best but none as a divided Sect espouse not their dividing interest confine not your especial love to a party but extend it to all the members of Christ Deny not local communion when there is occasion for it to any Church that hath the Substance of true worship and forceth you not to sin Love them as true Christians and Churches even when they drive you from their Communion I have found that Reformation is to be accomplished more by restoration of Ordinances and administrations to their primitive nature and use than by utter abolition Of the Liturgy My Opinion as to Liturgy in general is 1. That a stinted Liturgy is in it self lawful 2. That a stinted Liturgy in some parts of Publick Service is necessary 3. In the parts where it is not necessary it may not only be submitted to but desired when the peace of the Church requireth it 4. It is not of such necessity to take the matter and words out of the Holy Scriptures but that we may joyn in a Liturgy or use it if the form of words be not from Scripture This is thus proved 1. That which is not directly or consequentially forbidden by God remaineth lawful A stinted Liturgy is not directly or consequentially forbidden of God Therefore it remaineth lawful The major is undoubted because nothing but a prohibition can make a thing unlawful where there is no Law there is no transgression Yet I have heard very reverend men answer this That it is enough that it is not commanded though not forbidden which is plainly to deny both Scripture and Civil principles Now for the Minor That a stinted Liturgy is not forbidden we need no other proof than that no prohibition can be produced If it be lawful for the people to use a stinted form of words in Publick prayer then is it in it self lawful for the Pastors But it is lawful for the people c. for the Pastors prayer which they must pray over with him and not only hear it is a stinted form to them even as much as if he had learnt it out of a book It is lawful to use a form in preaching therefore a stinted Liturgy is lawful 1. Because preaching is a part of that Liturgy 2. Because the reason is the same for prayer as for that in the main That which hath been the practice of the Church in Scripture times and down to this day and is yet the practice of almost all the Churches of Christ on earth is not like to be unlawful But such is the use of some stinted forms c. I have shewed that it is was so in the Jewish Church That it hath been of ancient use in the Church since Christ and at this day in Africk Asia Europe and the Reformed Churches in France Holland Geneva c. is so well known that I need not stand to prove it and those few that seem to disuse it do yet use it in Psalms and other parts of worship As for the Common-prayer it self I never rejected it because it was a form or thought it simply unlawful because it was such a form but have made use of it and would do again in the like case Object But if a faulty manner of praying be prescribed and imposed by a law I know it before-hand and am guilty of it Answ If the thing be sinful either it is 1. because the prayers are defective and faulty or 2. because they are imposed or 3. because you knew the fault before-hand but none of these can prove your joyning with them sinful 1. Not because they are faulty for you may joyn with as faulty prayers you confess if not imposed 2. Not because imposed for that is an extenuation and not an aggravation For 1. it proveth the Minister less voluntary of the two than those are that do it without any command through the error of their own judgments 2. Because though
1 2. Ps 15. 3. Rom. 1. 30 c. i. e. raising false reports reproaching our neighbours strife and debates should not be communicated with especially when not one of these offenders is called to repentance for it what answer will you give to this which will not confute your own objections against communion with many parish Churches in this land As to Popery The interest of the Protestant Religion must be much kept up by the means of the Parish Ministers and by the doctrine and worship there performed and they that think and endeavour contrary to this of which side soever shall have the hearty thanks and concurrence of the Papists Nor am I causelesly afraid that if we suffer the principles and practices which I write against to proceed without our contradiction Popery will get by it so great advantage as may hazard us all and we may lose that which the several parties do contend about Three ways especially Popery will grow out of our divisions 1. By the odium and scorn of our disagreements inconsistency and multiplied Sects they will perswade people that we must either come for unity to them or else all run mad and crumble into dust and individuals Thousands have been drawn to Popery or confirmed in it by this argument already And I am perswaded that all the Arguments else in Bellarmine and all other books that ever were written have not done so much to make Papists in England as the multitude of Sects among our selves Some Professors of Religious strictness and great esteem for Godliness having run from Sect to Sect and finding no consistency turned Papists themselves 2. Who knows not how fair a game the Papists have to play by our divisions Methinks I hear them hissing on both parties saying to one side Lay more upon them and abate them nothing And to the other Stand it out and yield to nothing hoping that our divisions will carry us to such practices as shall make us accounted seditious rebellious and dangerous to publick peace and so they may pass for better subjects than we or else that they may get a toleration together with us And shall they use our hands to do their work We have already served them unspeakably both in this and in abating the odium of the Gunpowder plot and other Treasons 3. It is not the least of our danger lest by our follies extremities and rigors we so exasperate the common people as to make them readier to joyn with the Papists than with us in case of competitions invasions or insurrections against the King and kingdoms peace The Papists account that if the Puritans get the day they shall make great advantage of it for they will be unsetled and all in pieces and not know how to settle the government Factions and distractions say they give us footing for continual attempts To make all sure we will secretly have our party among Puritans also that we may be sure to maintain our interest Let the Magistrate cherish the disputations of the Teachers and let him procure them often to debate together and reprove one another for so when all men see that there is nothing certain among them they will easily yield saith Contzen the Jesuit Of Spiritual Pride Proud men will not grow in the same field or Church where tares do grow but will transplant themselves because God will not pluck up the tares especially if any ministerial neglect of discipline be conjoyned and instead of blaming their own pride lay the blame on the corruptions of the Church The Pharisees Liturgy is frequent in separate Assemblies God I thank thee I am not as other men But this is very remarkable that it is a pretence of our impurity and a greater purity with you that is pleaded by such as first turn over to you and that this height of all impieties should be the usual issue of a way pretended so exact and clean doubtless it is not Gods mind by this to discourage any from purity and true reformation but to shew his detestation of that spiritual pride which maketh men to have too high thoughts of themselves and too much to contemn others and to desire to be further separated from them than God in the day of grace doth allow of Consider this it is the judgment of some that thousands are gone to hell and ten thousands on their march thither that in all probability had never come there if they had not been tempted from the Parish Churches for injoyment of communion in a purer Church He that causeth differences of judgment and practice contendings in the Church doth cause divisions though none separate from the Church If you may not divide in the Church nor from it then you may not causelesly divide from it your selves And commonly appearance advantage interest and a taking tone and voice do more with the most than solid evidence of truth But they who desire to have a party follow them and are busie in perswading others to be of their mind and speak perverse things c. are guilty of Church divisions Do not you condemn a carnal state Remember they are carnal who are contentious dividers in the Churches 1 Cor. 3. 1. You will disallow a fleshly mind and life Remember then that the works of the flesh are these As adultery fornication c. so hatred or enmity variance emulations wrath strife seditions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dividings into parties When once parties are ingaged by their opinions in Anti-Churches and fierce disputings the flesh and Satan will be working in them against all that is holy sweet and safe Of Superstition Do you not hate Superstition Consider then what superstition is it is the making of any new parts of Religion to our selves and fathering them upon God Of this there are two sorts positive and negative When we falsely say This is a duty commanded by God or when we falsely say This is a sin forbidden by God take heed of both For instance The Scripture telleth us of no Church-Elders but what were ordained and of none but such as were of the same office with the preaching Pastors or Elders of none that had not authority to baptize and administer the Lords Supper nor doth Church-History tell us of any other as a divine office But now we have concluded that there is a distinct office of Ruling Elders who need not be ordained and who have no power to baptize or to administer the Lords Supper This I think is Superstition for we feign God to have made a Church-office which he never made That it is simply unlawful to use a form of prayer or to read a prayer on a book That if a School-master impose a form upon a Scholar or a Parent on a child it maketh it become unlawful That our presence maketh us guilty of all the errors or unmeet expressions of the Minister in publick worship at
most absolute master of polite various and universal learning besides a deep insight into Religion In the search after which he was curious and of the knowledge of it studious as in the practice of it he was sincere And as strictly just in his dealings so he was extraordinarily kind sweet affable communicative humble and meek in converse and inimitably as well as unusually charitable giving away all that he had but his choice books and was forced to sell them at last He was as good a man as he was a great Scholar and as Bishop Pearson said of him It was near as easie a task for any one to become as knowing as so obliging He had so long and with such advantage and impartiality judged of all books things and men that he was the Oracle consulted by all the learned men of the Nation Dr. Hammond Mr. Chillingworth c. in cases that concerned either Whereupon he used to say of learned mens letters That they set up tops and he must whip them for them There are no monuments of his learning save the great Scholars made by his directions and assistance extant but Sir Henry Savil's Chrysostome which he corrected with great paines in his younger dayes and illustrated with admirable notes for which he is often honourably mentioned by Mr. Andrew Downs Greek Professor of Cambridge and a Collection of some choice Sermons and Letters made by Mr. Garthwait He was very tender of judging any but himself and never spake with complacency of any of his own works but his Sermon intitled Dixi Custodiam on Psalm 36. 1. And indeed had he been as good at the Custodiam as he was at the Dixi he had been an incomparable man For Bishop Pearson in his Preface to his Remains saith He was a man of as great sharpness quickness and subtilty of wit as ever this or perhaps any Nation bred His Industry did strive if it were possible to equal the largeness of his capacity Proportionable to his reading was his meditation which furnished him with a judgment beyond the vulgar reach of man So that he really was a most prodigious example of an acute and piercing wit of a vast and illimited knowledge of a severe and profound judgment Although this may seem as in it self it truly is a grand Eulogium yet I cannot esteem him less in any thing which belongs to a good man than in those intellectual perfections And had he never understood a Letter he had other ornaments sufficient to endear him As a Christian none ever more acquainted with the nature of the Gospel because none more studious of the knowledge of it or more curious in the search which being strengthned by those great advantages before mentioned could not prove otherwise than highly effectual He took indeed to himself a liberty of judging not of others but for himself And if ever any man might be allowed in these matters to judge it was he who had so long so much so advantagiously considered and which is more never could be said to have the least worldly design in his determinations He was not only most truly and strictly just in his secular transactions most exemplary meek and humble notwithstanding his perfections but beyond all example charitable giving unto all preserving nothing but his books to continue his learning and himself which when he had before digested he was forced at last to feed upon at the same time the happiest and most unfortunate Helluo of books the grand Exemplar of learning and of the envy and contempt which followeth it None was more solicited to write and thereby to teach the world than he yet none more resolved against it yet did he not hide his Talent being so communicative that his Chamber was a Church and his Chair a Pulpit So far Bishop Pearson who testifieth also that of all the Sermons Miscellanies c. then published for his we may be confident they were his And now you see the reason why Mr. Hales the famed Author of such a work was so highly esteemed by the Brethren of the Factions as that such of either the Presbyterian or Independent faction as defended their divisions and separations made him their Coryphaeus he being for parts and learning head and shoulders above the tallest of them The Treatise was printed as I find in an unhappy time Anno 1642. and although I am of the mind that by the weakness of the Arguments the Author intended rather to betray than defend the Schism yet the Separatists wanting better reasons made a great noise with these as if they were justified in their Schism by this work notwithstanding the demerits of their own The fame of this and some other Opinions of our Author came to the cognizance of that great Lover of learning and learned men Arch-bishop Laud who sent for him on purpose to admonish him of his faults and he being come to the Palace in the morning the Arch-bishop presently gives order to delay Dinner probably that he might have the more time for discourse with Mr. Hales and taking him to his Garden with him they continued their conference for some hours after which they were very good friends the Arch-bishop studying to prefer him and he praying for the Arch-bishop as his Chaplain And whereas he had been heard to say in his former days that he thought he should never dye a Martyr yet he was known to live a Confessor and if we will believe Mr. Marvel he dyed little less than a Martyr for the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England being by the enemies thereof deprived of all his livelihood and reduced to such extremities as did contribute to the shortning of his days Dr. Heylen in the Life of the Arch-Bishop tells us of another Book called Disquisitio brevis ascribed to Mr. Hales in which some of the principal Socinian Tenents were cunningly inserted pretending them for the best expedients to appease some controversies between us and Rome And that the Treatise of Schism not then Printed was transmitted from hand to hand in written Copies intended chiefly for the incouragement of our great Masters of wit and reason to despise the Authority of the Church the dispersing of which gave the Arch-Bishop occasion to send for him to Lambeth And that the Arch-bishop knew his abilities while he lived in Oxon For Dr. Heylen says he was a man of infinite reading and no less ingenuity free of discourse and as communicative of his knowledge as the celestial bodies of their light and influences And that after the discourse above intimated which continued from Nine of the Clock till the usual time of Dining was past and the Lord Conway and other Persons of Honor being there some of the Servants thought it necessary to give him notice how the time had passed away and then coming in high coloured and almost panting for want of breath enough to shew there had been some heats between them Mr. Hales met with Dr.
resolved by Tharasius malum perpetuò idem est aequale That evil is alway the same which sounding too Stoical one Epiphanius a Deacon and representative of Thomas Arch-Bishop of Sardinia solves it by saying That it held true especially in causes Ecclesiastical Aquibus decretis cùm parvis tùm magnis errare idem est siquidem in utrisque lex divina violatur for to erre from such decrees whether in small matters or great is a contempt of the Divine law But John a Monk Deputy for the Oriental thrones pronounceth this heresie worse than all other heresies and of all evils the worst as disturbing the whole Oeconomy of Christ However their penitents being but few for we find not above three or four mentioned they restore three of them to their dignities and one other Gregory Bishop of Neocaesareae who was judged to be a chief Leader of the Iconoclastae was admitted only to the Communion of the Church not to his Bishoprick although he declared for Image-worship But the Anathema is denounced against many others who abhorred this Idolatrous practice professing they did reject all images made by the hands of men and worshipped that only Qua filius Dei in Sacramento panis vini ante passionem seipsum expressit as did the whole Council of Frementum Theodosius Bishop of Ephesus Sisinnius of Pastilla Basilius and others And shortly after Charles the Great assembleth a Council of the Bishops of Italy France and Germany at Francfort Anno 792. of the transactions whereof we have four books yet extant in which we have not only the Canons of that Council but many Imperial Edicts for the taking away of Images and forbidding any worship to be given them Sir Henry Spelman p. 305. of his first Volume of Councils acquaints us that Charles the Great sent a book to Offa King of the Mercians wherein Images were decreed to be worshipped by this Synod of Nice of which he tell us from Hoveden That in that book many things disagreeing and contrary to the true faith were found especially that Images ought to be worshipped which the Church of God doth utterly condemn And that Alcuinus Master to Charles the Great but by birth a Britan in an Epistle written in the name of the Bishops and Princes of England and sent back to Charles the Great did wonderfully overthrow that opinion of the Nicene Council by testimonies of Holy Scripture which moved him to call that Synod of Francfort consisting of 300 Fathers who refuted and condemned this decree of worshipping Images which is the cause saith that Author why the Monuments of that Synod are suppressed And I suppose that all the Reformed Churches especially the Church of England cannot but abhor those that established so great an iniquity by a Law I remember the learned Doctor Jackson p. 113. of his Treatise of the Church saith that by the self same stroke by which this Council did de facto thrust all other out of the visible Church that would not worship Images they declared themselves to be excommunicated de Jure from the Holy Catholick Church and by consequence from Salvation When therefore our Author endeavours by his Rhetorical flourishes to make such destructive errors to dwindle into schisms and allows only the names of schism p. 213. to Arrianism Eutychianism c. I thought I had just cause to except against his first Paragraph especially when I found how much it took not only with the Fanaticks and some witty men of our days but with persons of real worth and learning one of which whom I forbear to name repeats the whole clause in a book of good note in these words It is very well observed by a learned and judicious Divine quoting the Tract of Schism which he calls that little but excellent Tract of Schism that heresie and schism as they are commonly used are two Theological Scar crows with which they who use to uphold a party in Religion use to fright away such as making inquiry into it are ready to relinquish and oppose it if it appear either erròneous or suspicious For as Plutarch reports of a Painter who having unskilfully painted a Cock chased away all cocks and hens that so the imperfection of his Art might not appear by comparison with nature so men willing for ends to admit of no fancy but their own endeavour to hinder an enquiry into it by way of comparison of somewhat with it peradventure truer that so the deformity of their own might not appear This story of a Cock I shall Answer with another of a Hen for I have seen a Countrey-man with the picture of a Hen Pheasant artificially drawn on a stained cloth and a little Pipe to call the Cock-pheasants to draw them from place to place until in pursuit of their pleasures they have been taken in a Snare The reputation of the Author is as a Pipe which calls unwary Persons to view the Pictures on that stained cloth whereof they that grow too fond may follow them to their own destruction Our Author page 215. gives his advice for the composing of Liturgies Were Liturgies and publick forms of service so framed as that they admitted not of particular and private fancies but contained only such things as in which all Christians do agree schisms on opinion were utterly vanished For consider of all Liturgies that are or ever have been and remove from them whatsoever is scandalous to any Party and leave nothing but what all agree on and the event shall be that the publick service and honour of God shall no way suffer Whereas to load our publick forms with the private fancies upon which we differ is the most soveraign way to perpetuate Schism to the Worlds end Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Reading of Scriptures Exposition of Scripture Administration of Sacraments in the plainest and simplest manner were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient Liturgy though nothing either of private opinion or of Church-pomp of Garments of prescribed Gestures of Imagery of Musick of matter concerning the Dead of many superfluities which creep into the Churches under the Name of Order and Decency did interpose it self for to charge Churches and Liturgies with things unnecessary was the first beginning of all Superstition We have a Devonshire Proverb He that builds his house by every ones chop Shall never see his Ouice drop If every Man's fancy should be complied with in the framing of a Liturgy it is most certain we should never have any seeing as there is scarce any part against which some do not except so others are offended at the very form as being a stinting of the Spirit and the opposing of a Directory to the Ancient Liturgy shews that this was the sense of the Presbyterians themselves which appears also by this that when they had in the Grand Debate given in their Objections to the Liturgy some of the Brotherhood had prepared another form but a great part of their Brethren objected many
which we translate Priests Sacrifice and Altars and our translation is not intolerable if Priest come from Presbyter I need not prove that if it do not yet all Ministers are subordinate to Christ in his Priestly office And the word Sacrifice is used of us and our offered Worship 1 Pet. 2. 5. Hebr. 13. 15 16. Phil. 4. 18. Eph. 5. 2. Ro. 12. 1. And Hebr. 13. 10. saith we have an Altar which word is frequently used in the Revelations in relation to Gospel-times We must not therefore be quarrelsome against the bare names unless they be abused to some ill use The Ancient Fathers and Churches did ever use all these words so familiarly without any question or scruple raised by the Orthodox or Hereticks about them that we should be wary how we condemn these words lest we give advantage to the Papists to tell their followers that all antiquity is on their side The Lords Supper is by Protestants truly called a Commemorative Sacrifice Of the Communion table c. Qu. 123. May the Communion Tables be turned Altarwise and railed in and is it lawful to come up to the rails to communicate Answ 1. God hath not given a particular command or prohibition about these circumstances but only general rules for edification unity decency and order 2. They that do it out of a design to draw men to Popery or to incourage men in it do sin 3. So do they that rail in the Table to signifie that Lay-Christians must not come to it but be kept at a distance 4. But where there are no such ends but only to imitate the Ancients that did thus and to shew reverence to the Table on the account of the Sacrament by keeping away dogs keeping boys from sitting on it and the professed doctrine of the Church condemneth Transubstantiation the real corporal-presence c. in this case Christians should take these for such as they are indifferent things and not censure or condemn each other for them 5. And to communicate is not only lawful in this case where we cannot prove that the Minister sinneth but even when we suspect an ill design in him which we cannot prove yea or when we can prove that his personal interpretation of the place name scituation and rail is unsound for we assemble there to communicate in and according to the professed doctrine of Christianity and the Churches and our own open profession and not after every private opinion and error of the Minister Of the Creed Qu. 139. What is the use and authority of the Creed is it of the Apostles framing or not Answ It s use is to be a plain explication of the Faith professed in the baptismal covenant And for the satisfaction of the Church that men indeed understand what they did in Baptism and professed to believe 2. It is the Word of God as to the matter of it whatever it be as to the order or composition of the words 3. It is not to be doubted but the Apostles did use a Creed commonly in their days which was the same with that now called the Apostles and the Nicene in the main 4. And it is easily probable that Christ composed a Creed when he made his Covenant and instituted baptism Matth. 28. 19. 5. That the Apostles did cause the baptizable to understand the three Articles of Christs own Creed and Covenant and used many explicatory words to make them understand it 6. It is more than probable that the matter opened by them was still the same when the words were not the same 7. And it is also more than probable that they did not needlesly vary the words lest it should teach men to vary the matter And lastly no doubt but this practice of the Apostles was imitated by the Churches and that thus the essentials of Religion were by the tradition of the Creed and Baptism delivered by themselves as far as Christianity went long before any book of the New Testament was written And the following Churches using the same Creed might so far well call it the Apostles Creed Of the Apocrypha Qu. 150. Is it lawful to read the Apocrypha or Homilies Answ It is lawful so be it they be sound doctrine and fitted to the peoples edification 2. So be it they be not read scandalously without sufficient differencing them from God's book 3. So they be not read to exclude or hinder the reading of the Scriptures or other necessary Church duty 4. So they be not read to keep up an ignorant lazy Ministry that can or will do no better 5. And especially if Authority command it and the Churches agreement require it Of the Oath of Canonical Obedience Qu. 153. May we lawfully swear obedience in all things lawful and honest either to Usurpers or to our lawful Pastors Answ If the King shall command us it is lawful So the old Nonconformists who thought the English Prelacy an unlawful office yet maintained that it is lawful to take the Oath of Canonical obedience because they thought it was imposed by the King and Laws and that we swear to them not as Officers claiming a divine right in the spiritual Government but as Ordinaries or Officers made by the King according to the Oath of Supremacy Of the Holiness of Churches Qu. 170. Are Temples Fonts Utensils Church-lands much more Ministers holy and what reverence is due to them as Holy Answ Temples Utensils Lands c. devoted and lawfully separated by man for holy uses are holy as justly related to God by that lawful separation Ministers are more holy than Temples Lands or Utensils as being nearlier related to holy things and things separated by God are more holy than those justly separated by man And so of Days every thing should be reverenced according to the measure of its holiness And this expressed by such signs gestures actions as are fittest to honour God to whom they are related And so to be uncovered in Church and use reverent carriage and gestures there doth tend to preserve due reverence to God and to his Worship 1 Cor. 16. 20. Of the power of the Magistrate in Circumstantials Those modes or circumstances of Worship which are necessary in genere but left undetermined by God in specie are left by God to humane prudential determination else an impossibility should be necessary It is left to humane determination what Place the publick Assemblies shall be held in And to determine of the time except where God hath determined already and what Utensils to imploy about the publick Worship Some decent Habit is necessary either the Magistrate or the Minister or associated Pastors must determine what I think neither Magistrate nor Synod should do more than hinder indecency if they do and tye all to one habit and suppose it were an indecent habit yet this is but an imprudent use of power it is a thing within the Magistrates reach he doth not an aliene work but his