the English Parishes compiled for the Churches use by other men not infallibly guided by God to be said or read out of a Book by their Ministers as the Churches Prayers And that this is your meaning may appeare from your Letter it self wherein you complain that divers in many parts of that Kingdome have left their Assemblies because of a stinted Liturgy Now we know not of any other stinted Liturgy from which the people do absent themselves but onely that which is in use in the English Churches For as for a forme of Prayer in generall wee conceive your meaning cannot be of that For it is evident that many Preachers constantly use one set form of Prayer of their own making before their Sermons with whom the people refuse not to joyn 2 By stinted and set you mean such Prayers as are so imposed upon the Churches and Ministers as that they are limited to that very form of words expressed in the Book without addition diminution or alteration for that Liturgy and forme among you is in this sense set and stinted 3 By unlawfull you mean that we looking at that form as swerving from the Rule neither dare first practice it our selves nor secondly approve the use of it by others This being the true state of the question so far as it appears to us from the letter We answer 1 For our own practice the Churches here doe not use any stinted forme of Prayer and set Liturgy for these and other such Reasons 1 Because we finde no necessity of any stinted Liturgy to be used among us by vertue of any divine precept And seeing the Commission of the Apostles limited them to â—each men to observe and do onely what Christ did command them in matters of this nature Math. 28. 20. Who are we and what are our Churches that we should presume above this Commission And we hope it will not be offensively taken by any godly Brethren That we stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free in this as well as in all other things Secondly because the lawfulnesse of set forms and stinted Liturgies is questioned and doubted of by many faithfull servants of God whereas for Church-officers to edifie the Churches by their own gifts as well in praying as in preaching all sorts without controversie grant it to be lawfull Now spirituall prudence guideth believers when two ways are set before them one doubtfull though ventured on by some the other certainly safe and good though neglected by many to choose that which is safe declining the other Thirdly Because Primitive paterns of all the Churches of God in their best times when as touching this point they kept the rule in their eye whether Jewish before Christ or Christian above a 100 yeers after Christ yield not the least footstep to shew us another safe way to walk in then this which we have chosen As for after times towards the end of the second and beginning of the third Century we know how far the Churches were then degenerated and declined from the first purity neither do we marvell at it seeing in the Apostles time the mystery of iniquity began to work and it was then foretold that the power of godlinesse would be in aftertimes exchanged for empty formes In which respect we look not at them as our guides neither in this nor other particulars not warranted by the Rule herein following the advise of Cyprian who himself saw the corruption of those times Non est attendendum quid aliquis ante nos faciendum putaverit sed quid qui ante omnes est Christus fecerit faciendum praeceperit To conclude seeing our Christian liberty freeth us from binding our selves to any religious observances whereunto the written word doth not bind us And seeing spirituall prudence directs us to choose those ways which on all hands are confessed to be sâ—fe avoiding those that be doubtfull and hazardous And seeing it will not be safe for us needlesly to swerve from the constant practice of all Churches that are recorded in Scripture and there held forth as a cloud of Witnesses for us to follow in matters of this nature wee therefore may not doe not dare not use set forms of Prayers and stinted Liturgies in these Churches More particularly in that we doe not use that forme of Prayer and stinted Liturgy which is in use among your selves these and such other like Reasons have induced us thereunto 1 The many and just exceptions whereunto that Liturgy is lyable both for matter and manner for the proofe whereof wee referre you to those faithfull servants of God who have gone before us in witnessing against the same Amongst others to Master Cartwright and the Abridgment 2 In as much as that Liturgy was never commanded of God and hath been greatly abused to Idolatry and Superstition and is not of any necessary use and therefore we are affraid to bring it into the Worship of God as knowing the jealousie of the Lord in matters of this nature Exod. 20 and how strictly hee commandeth his people that all monuments and remnants of Idolatry and Superstition should be abolished from among them Deut. 5. 25 26. Exod. 23. 13. Esay 30. 2â— 2 Cor. 6. 17. In which respect the holy Ghost hath greatly commended Iacob David Iehu Hezechia and Iosiah for taking away the remembrance of such things Gen. 35. 2 4. Psal 16. 4. 2 King 10. 26 27. 18. 4. 2â— all the Chapter And where other Kings of Iudah came short of the like zeale the Scripture notes it as a blemish in them that the high places were not taken away albeit the people did not sacrifice in them to false gods but onely to the Lord 2 Chron. 15. 17. 20. 33. 33. 17. Yea moreover it appeareth by the Scripture that somethings that had a good Originall and use if they be not still necessary and commanded of God are unlawfull when once they are knowne to be defiled by Idolatry and abused to it 2 King 18. 4. Hos 2. 16 17. As the brazen Serpent was at the first an Institution though but temporary but when the children of Israel burned Incense to it Hezechiah is commended for breaking it in pieces and the Lord witnesseth of him that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and according to his Commandement which he commanded Moses 2 King 18. 3 6. how much more in the like case ought other things to be removed which never were commanded of God but onely were devised by men And that that Liturgy hath been superstitiously abused may be cleer to any that shall consider that it is the same for substance that was used in the days of Popery And therefore when the Papists in Devonshire and Cornwall had made a Commotion and Rebellion upon the change of Religion in the days of King Edward the Sixth It was told them by the King for the pacifying of them That it was the self-same
Service in English which had been before in Latine and if the Service of the Church was good in Latine it remayneth good in English for nothing is altered Fox Acts and Monuments Edward 6. And Pope Pius the fifth did see so little variation in it from the Latine Service that had been formerly used in that Kingdome that he would have ratified it by his authority if Q. Elizabeth would have so received it And many of the people put such holinesse in it that they think God is not rightly worshipped nor his Sabbath well observed nor the Sacraments sufficiently administred if there be no reading of that Service And others put such holinesse and necessity in it that they preferre it before Gods holy Ordinance of preaching the Word In so much as the Ministers are in the danger of being called in question and of being censured if they doe not read that Liturgy every Lords day without omitting any part thereof either in respect of preaching or otherwise 3 In regard of the many wofull scandals and dangerous consequences of using that Liturgie of which we suppose you are not ignorant To mention but two Viz. The hardning of Papists who are imboldned to think better of their own Breviaries masse-Masse-Books Portuisses seeing that Liturgie hath bin extracted out of those books and rather fetched from them then from the forms used in any of the reformed Churches 2 The conntenancing and establishing of an unlearned Idol Ministery of not-Preaching curates Non-residents Pluralities c. in whose skirts is to be found the blood of so many mens souls living and dying in their sins while they ignorantly content themselves with and harden themselves in some empty forms of Religion and blinde devotion which are begotten and cherished chiefely by such prayers and ministers Neither is there lesse scandall hereby we meane not onely taken but given then by the eating of an Idolathite in the Idols Temple condemned by the Apostle 1 Cor. 8. 7 10. For if the eating of an Idolathite by him that had knowledge and knew that an Idol was nothing and that all meats were lawfull did imbolden others to honour the Idol and therefore was a scandall given so also it is in this case 4 Seeing that booke is so imposed as that the minister in reading of it is limited to the very words set downe without any diminution addition or alteration therefore we dare not use it For 1 The Lord himselfe hath not limited his people to his own formes and therefore we see not how it can be lawfull to be limited to other mens formes For in thus doing we should subject our selves to the exercise of such an authority and power of the Prelates as in this case puts forth a stronger act of limiting power then Christ himselfe who doth not limit us to those formes which himselfe hath set downe in Scripture For though we acknowledge the Lords prayer and other formes set down in Scripture may be lawfully used as prayers due cautions being observed yet there is not a limitation lying upon the Churches in the use of those prayers And therefore we do not find that the Apostles ever used that form taught by Christ in those very words much lesse limited themselvs to it when they prayed nor did they teach the Churches so to doe 2 If the Lord would not have us limit our selves in our own forms whiles we are exercising our own gifts which he hath specially sanctified to edify his Church Act. 6. 4. Eph. 4. 8. 1 Cor. 12. 7. least we should quench or at least straiten his spirit in prayer 1 Thes 5. 19. would he then have us limited to other mens forms which have not beene in like sort sanctified of God but will rather quench or straiten the spirit of God whiles we are so limited to them 3 The entertainment of this form hath been a manifest snare unto the Churches who upon the same ground on which they have received this forme into the desks have beene limited to others in the pulpit by meanes whereof the poore Church of Christ hath bin wholly deprived of the publike use of the Ministers gifts in prayer and the spirit of prayer in the Ministers in publike hath beene greatly restrained As for our Judgement concerning the practice of others who use this Liturgie in our native Countrie we have alwayes beene unwilling to expresse our mindes there against unlesse we have been necessarily called thereunto and at this time we thinke it not expedient to expresse our selves any further concerning this matter as loath to intermeddle with the affaires of other Churches but contenting our selves with and blessing the Lord for those liberties which we by the mercie of God do here enjoy reserving also due reverence to the judgements of our beloved brethren and deere Countreymen who may concerning this matter be otherwise minded Reply THis position cannot beare that meaning which you give it if you take it according o our mindes and the plain construction of the words We never questioned why you made not use of a stinted Liturgy much lesse why you did not wholly and in every part tye your selves unto and approve of that forme in use amongst us You might well thinke we had little to doe to put forth such a demand viz. whether you thinke it lawfull to approve in others and practice your selves what swerveth from the rule and we thinke it strange you should give our words such a meaning The thing we craved resolution in was whether in your judgements all stinted and set formes of prayer and Liturgies be unlawfull The reason hereof was because in writings from New-England we had seene all set liturgies and set formes of prayer condemned as devised worship which God would not accept and partaking in the Sacraments of the Supper in our assemblies therefore disallowed because administred in a stinted Liturgie which things were received with such likeing among some brethren with us and by them imparted and recommended to others that they occasioned that rent and distraction whereof we complain It is true the people among us separate from our forme of prayer or liturgy but the reason hereof is because it is stinted not because this or that or ours in particular You confesse you want not some brethren among you who look at all set formes of Prayer invented by one of another age or congregation and prescribed to their brethren to be read out of a booke for the prayers of the Church as Images and Imaginations of man forbidden in the second Commandement and that the lawfulnesse of Liturgies and set formes is questioned and doubted of by many faithfull servants of God such also as come over occasionally who withdraw themselvs from the Sacraments in the congregation doe it on this pretence that a stinted Liturgie is a humane invention And if we examine the reasons brought against stinted formes and Liturgies we shall finde them to strike at all formes and Liturgies though devised
faults such as one Christian cannot or must not tolerate in another without breach of charity For if the errour be such as may be tolerated and I am called to be present by such fault I am not defiled though knowne before If the error be such as in conscience may not be tolerated though not knowne before hand I am bound if present some way to professe against it This distinction of personall and ministeriall faults in this case untill it be cleared by some Text of Scripture or sound reason from the word must goe for the devise of man A Church a Minister or a Christian may be stiffe in an error being misperswaded it is a truth after many meanes long used to convince them with whom yet we must hold communion in the ordinances of Religion and the error may be such as we cannot without hypocrisy or denyall of the truth hold communion though such meanes of conviction have not gone before But the corruptions alleadged against our forme of prayer for matter or manner are such as one Christian may and must tolerate in another where he hath no power to redresse them Hath not Christian wisdome and experience of humane frailties lessoned you deere brethren to beare one with another in matters of greater consequence then any have or can be objected truly against the form of prayer in use among us And why such corruptions should not be ascribed to humane frailty we see not For if a godly Minister make use of a book in things which he judgeth lawfull for matter and manner the corruption in him that useth it according to his judgement from what cause can it spring but humane ignorance and frailty We rest assured you question not the integrity of many who make much more use of the booke then onely in a few select prayers From the bottome of our hearts we desire and pray that God would remove out of his Church and worship whatsoever offendeth for matter or manner and that all things may be so done not onely that they may be tolerated but that they might be approved in the conscience of all men But we are perswaded that not onely some few select prayers but many prayers other exhortations may lawfully be used with fruit and edification to Gods people To aggravate faults especially when it tends to draw away people from the Ordinances of God is no lesse fault then to excuse them it may be greater and therefore we dare not esteeme the prayers read by a godly and faithfull Minister according to the booke in use among us a corrupt sacrifice whether in such as read them or them that be present In them that join according to Christs command and liberty of absence from Christ hath not beene shewed notwithstanding the corruptions we hold the prayers to be an holy and acceptable sacrifice to God and pleasing to Jesus Christ The corrupt sacrifice is that which the deceiver bringeth voluntarily and out of neglect having a male in his flock but the faithfull bringeth himself and his godly desires according to the will of God and as for corruptions whether respecting matter or forme they are none of his they cleave not to his Sacrifice to staine or pollute it As for the Text of the Prophet Mal. 1. 13 14. it is cited by many in this businesse and to many purposes applyed but we cannot finde that in the Prophet for which it is here brought The deceiver is accursed that offereth a corrupt thing to the Lord. This we reade and beleeve but that a godly man being present at this forme of prayer among us read by a godly and faithfull Minister is the deceiver who offereth a corrupt thing unto the Lord that is not proved No argument can be brought from this place to the purpose but by analogy which is a kinde of arguing of all other most ready at hand but lyable to most exceptions and apt to draw aside if great care be not had which in this place we finde not to take the proportion in every materiall point just and right And we desire such as alleadge this passage of Scripture against simple presence at the prayers of our Liturgy advisedly to consider whether God allow them to make such application of his truth which wee much doubt of to say no more Your third proposition That as you are very tender of imputing sinne to those men that joyne in some select prayers read by an able and godly Minister so on the other side you are not without feare least such joyning may be found unlawfull unlesse it may appeare that the Ministers with whom the people have communion in reading those Prayers neither give any scandall by reading them nor give unlawfull honour to a thing abused to Idolatry and Superstition nor doe suffer themselves to be sinfully limited in the reading of them 1 We cannot conceive how you should imagine the practice of a godly Minister in reading some few select prayers to be scandalous or offensive in their congregations when the people generally not in their assemblies onely but throughout the whole land were perswaded of the lawfulnesse of that course till now of late some have beene drawne away to separate who yet by warrant of Scripture produce nothing of weight to countenance that practice 2 If the booke should be as you take it an idolathite latent offence doth not oblige If any man say unto thee this is sacrificed to Idols eat it not so that if it doe not manifestly appeare that this practice is scandalous it is not lawfull for the people to withdraw themselves 3 The book we speake of the Liturgie so far as it is sound and good by your confession is no Idolathite neither was it taken out of the Masse-book in such sense as you object but rather the masse other Idolatrous prayers were added to it for popery is as a scab or leprosie cleaving to the Church and many truths belonging to the Church as her proper legacie were stollen and heaped together in that denne And why the true man may not challenge his goods where ever he finds thē or the thiefe plead title to the true mans goods by prescription we know not It is no hard taske to shew that our Service-booke was reformed in most things according to the purest Liturgies which were in use in the Church long before the masse was heard of in the world And if that could not be shewed yet formes of speech generally taken we speak not of this or that speciall word or phrase is no more defiled by Idolatry then the light aire or place where Idolatry is committed It is not unlawfull to pray Lord helpe or Lord have mercy or to give thankes praised bee God because the Papists say Lady helpe or praised be God and the Virgin Mary Fourthly Put case the Minister in reading such prayers gives offence or attributes unlawfull honour to a thing abused to Idolatry and Superstition or suffer himselfe
the many rich precious treasures of his grace wherewith the Lord hath furnished sandrie of you above your Brethren which causeth us with great reverence to accept and receive what further light God may be pleased to impart unto us by you But as we have beleeved so have we hitherto practised and so have most of us spoken this our Answer to your particulars most of us we may say because there wants not some Brethren amongst us who proceed further even to looke at all set formes of Prayer invented by men of another age or congregation and prescribed to their Brethren to be read out of a book for the prayers of the Church as Images or Imaginations of men forbidden in the second Commandement But as we leave them to their libertie of their own judgements without prejudice so do we also concurre with the rest of them so farre as we all goe in bearing witnesse against any set formes or the corruptions in them In dispatching whereof we have been the more slow because it behoved us first to inquire into and to settle some controversies amongst our selves before we could well attend to entertaine discourse about forraigne questions which do not so neerely concerne our present estate and practise Besides your Letters being sent to the Ministers of the Churches and some of us dwelling farre asunder it was not an easie thing for all of us often to meet together to consider of these Questions much lesse to resolve upon one just answer But having at length by the assistance of God brought our Answers to this issue we commend it to the blessing of the Lord and in him to your Christian and judicious consideration where if all things bee found safe and duely warranted from Scripture grounds do you also as seemeth vigilant Watchmen of the Lords flock and faithfull witnesses to God If any thing seeme doubtfull to you consider and weigh it very well before you reject it If any thing appeare to be unsound and dissonant from the Word which we for our parts cannot discerne we shall willingly attend to what further light God may send unto us by you In the meane while wee intreat you in the Lord not to suffer such apprehensions to lodge in your minds which you intimate in your Letters As if we here justified the wayes of riged separation which sometimes amongst you we have formerly borne witnesse against and so build againe the things we have destroyed you know they separate from your Congregations as no Churches from the Ordinances dispensed by you as meere Antichristian and from your selves as no visible Christians But wee professe unfainedly we separate from the corruptions which we conceive to be left in your Churches and from such Ordinances administred therein as we feare are not of God but of men And for your selves we are so farre from separating as from no visible Christians as that you are under God in our hearts if the Lord would suffer it to live and die together and we looke at sundrie of you as men of that eminent growth in Christianitie that if there by any visible Christians under heaven amongst you are the men which for these many yeeres have been written in your foreheads Holinesse to the Lord which we speake not to prejudice any truth which our selves are here taught and called to professe but we still beleeve though personall Christians may be eminent in their growth of Christianitie yet Churches had still need to grow from apparent defects to puritie and from reformation to Reformation age after age till the Lord have utterly abolished Antichrist with the breath of his mouth and the brightnesse of his comming to the full and cleare revelation of all his holy Truth especially touching the ordering of his house and publick worship as a pledge of this our estimation of you and sincere affection to you we have sent you these Answers to your demand and shall be readie by the help of Christ to receive back againe from you wise and just and holy Advertisements in the Lord. Now the Lord God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ your Lord and ours lead us all unto all Truths purge out all Leaven out of his Churches and keepe us blamelesse and harmlesse in his holy Faith and feare to his heavenly kingdome through him that hath loved us In whom we rest Your very loving Brethren the Elders of the Churches in New-England Reverend and dearely beloved Brethren IT is not to be doubted but while we live here we shall have just cause to search and try our ways look back upon former courses and call things done to more strict examination For being over-clouded with ignorance compassed about with infirmities and beset with many temptations to sinne knowing what we know best but darkly and in part no marvell if in many things we offend ignorantly of frailty for want of due consideration rashly mistaking Errour for Truth condemning Truth for Errour suspecting evill without cause and not suspecting where is just reason drawing erronious conclusions from sound principles and maintaining truths upon weak grounds so that in examination of our wayes and endevours of their Reformation wee had need to looke warily that wee turn not to the right hand or to the left for in the one we add to the Word of God as well as in the oother and of our selves are apt to strike aside to both A loose conscience will be profane a tender scrupulous It stands us therefore upon to have our selves in suspition in as much as experience teacheth that many have swerved from the path of sound peace and comfort on each hand Wherefore Beloved Brethren if since your comming into New England upon serious Review of former actions you have discovered any truths heretofore not taken notice of we shal be so far from rejecting them because of your former judgment and practice that we shall heartily desire to know and imbrace the same with you and blesse God for you as the happy instruments of his glory our Instruction the advancement of the truth But if the discoveries be of the like nature with the positions mentioned in the Letter as before so still we conceive them to be new opinions and not warranted by Scripture which is the true Antiquity Opinions we say not practices for not changing your opinion you might lawfully alter your practice nay what you did tolerate formerly as a burthen in case not free you might well forgoe being at your liberty Your judgement being the same you might use your liberty in forbearance of a set Liturgie and yet retaine the same judgement of a stinted Liturgie that you had before you might forbeare for a time upon speciall Reason such as present state and occasion might suggest to receive to the Sacrament approved Christians not set members of a particular Congregation as some Brethren do who yet dare not think it unlawfull to communicate with such in the act of worship or deem
it just and right altogether to debar them as having no right nor title to those priviledges of the Church It is your opinions whereto we had respect not simply your practice It never entred into us to perswade you to a set Liturgy much lesse to complain that you had not accepted ours But that all stinted Liturgies should be condemned as devised worship and so condemned as that none may lawfully be present at or pertake of the Sacraments administred in a stinted or devised forme this wee called a new opinion Neither do we mention it because we knew it to be the private opinion of some Brethren among you whom we had left to the liberty of their owne judgment so far as the maintenance of the Truth and a just call did not ingage us but because it was cryed up and advanced with all diligence and endeavour of some among us standing affected England-ward as if a chief point of holinesse consisted in separation You know how great a fire a little sparkle kindles And seeing this Distraction and Rent had its originall growth and continuance from some Brethren in those parts or affected to that way when in loving and friendly manner we could neither receive grounds at home for our conviction nor procure just satisfaction to the contrary what could wee doe lesse then call upon you joyntly to know your judgment and either by sound proof to be by you convinced if happily you should approve their separation which we esteem groundlesse rash unlawfull and prejudiciall to outward peace or being backed by a testimony of its dislike from you we might the better be both incouraged and furnished to endevour the quenching of that fire which was kindled but in too many places In other perticulars also wee conceive you goe beyond Commission given of God granting them authority to whom God hath not committed it debarring others from the priviledge of the Sacraments who have title thereto by the Covenant of grace Your love in that you were pleased to signifie first your kinde and respective acceptance of our Letter and now also to send us an answer thereto we acknowledge it with all thankfulnesse and shall endevour through the grace of God to return like affection in truth of heart if in measure we fall short Of your respect to us in particular we make no question your expressions are beyond that we could expect as also what we dare own But we humbly beseech the Lord to direct uphold and guide us that in some measure we may walk worthy of our vocation and approv our selves faithfull to your consciences It was one end of our writing to be satisfied in this point whether you approve the ways of Separation whereof wee complain and their courses who laboured with all their might when they conceived hope to be heard to perswade therunto Against which if we knew your judgment you testified among us You know they that separate are not all of one straine and temper Some deny all communion with us publick and private some admit of private but deny all publick and some joyne in Prayer before and after Sermon as also preaching of the Word because in their esteeme this may be done without communion in a Church-way but refuse to partake of the Sacraments All which Separations wee judge uncharitable contrary to the Commandement of Christ and have ever thought that you whilst with us and we were of one minde herein If of late we have conceived fears of some of you deere Brethren as leaning too much to what formerly you disliked we beseech you weigh what urgent and pressing Reasons forced us thereunto and we shall most gladly wee heartily desire you to rest assured lay hold of every line and syllable that may tend to dislodge such apprehensions For as we conceive the dispute to be unreasonably moved the Rent offensive the opinions themselves prejudiciall to the cause of God and the advancers thereof to have passed the limits prescribed by God so wee shall esteem it an inestimable blessing if now what hinders being removed wee might joyn with one heart and soule in one way of God to promote his glory and seek the good of his Church and people We trust in the Lord we should not draw back in any course wherein wee may see the Lord going before us nor be an offence to any to keep the Lords way wee seek the truth and are perswaded it is the cause of God which we defend we plead for Communion with the Churches of Christ no further then they hold communion with Christ still desiring to keepe the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace with your selves and all others who walke in the right way of truth peace and comfort How the Lord may be pleased to deale with us or dispose of us wee know not his blessed will be done But of this we are resolved through his grace not willingly to raise trouble or dissention among you if through ignorance or infirmity we shall not so fall in as to be of one minde with you in these matters And here we desire you to consider that in these particulars you dissent as much one from another as we dissent from you and that wherein we dissent from you and perhaps from the lesser part of you you dissent from the judgement and practice of all Reformed Churches This wee speake not to prejudice your cause but to intreat your serious re-examination of what you have sent us and this tryall thereof by the Touchstone of the Word For if we mistake not in many things it will not abide the Test You have written in great love and tendernesse that your Positions might be so scanned and wee shall endeavour with such affection to try all things and hold fast that which is good And now beseeching the guidance of the Spirit with your leave wee shall endeavour to deale fully and plainly as the nature of the cause requireth intreating you impartially to consider the grounds whereupon we go and weigh what wee shall say in the ballance of the Sanctuary The Lord of his rich mercy in Jesus Christ direct us in discerning what is right and pleasing in his sight Cast offences out of the Church close up Rents and Divisions reveal his Truth more and more set up and mayntain the purity of his own Ordinances unite the hearts of his people to the love and feare of his holy Name teach us self-deniall and keep us blamelesse to the comming of the Lord Jesus Christ Amen I POSITION That a stinted forme of Prayer and set Liturgie is unlawfull Answ BEfore we proceed to declare our selves concerning this position It will be needfull that some thing be premised for the explication of the terms thereof We suppose 1 By a Liturgy and forme of Prayer you mean not a forme of private Prayers composed for the helpe and direction of weaker Christians but the System or body of publike Prayers generally used in
by men of the same age and congregation and to be used but now and then or but once on set purpose and that either in publike or in private as elsewhere we may have occasion to shew You say it is evident many Preachers constantly use a set forme of Prayer of their own making before their Sermons with whom the people refuse not to joyne And you know we doubt not that such set formes are disliked also And if the grounds be examined in our understanding they make as much against the one as the other View but the reasons why you admit not a stinted Liturgie and forme of prayer and see whether the two last will not in the same terms directly conclude gainst both But what ever is to be thought herein or whether mens practises agree with their opinions we now dispute not This is plaine and manifest that mens opinions are to be judged by their expresse words and reasons not by their practises The Brownists as they are commonly called can separate from no stinted Liturgie amongst us but that which is in use and for ought we know they may joyne with their owne Pastors though they oft use the same forme of prayer in whole or in part in thanksgiving before meat or in prayer before Sermon or the like And yet their opinion is that all stinted Liturgies and set Formes of prayer be unlawfull humane inventions forbidden by the second Commandement But if any thing had beene left doubtfull in the Letter that it might be strained to another sence either because we were short in expression or many of you not informed in the passages which gave occasion to the question it is well knowne what the words meane in ordinary construction And we doubt not but many brethren among you might and could fully informe you of our meaning that there need no such straining to find it out That which followeth in your answer to the position as you interpret it wee passe over because it is not to the matter intended And wee are as unwilling to trouble you with the affaires of other Churches taking you from your owne weightie occasions as you are unwilling to be interrupted Onely in regard of promise and because plaine dealing serves to maintaine love we thinke good to advertise you these few things 1 That your reasons why you accept not of a stinted Lyturgie be ambiguously propounded for sometimes you plead onely for your libertie herein and that a stinted forme is not necessary and sometime you speake so as they that looke at Stinted Lyturgies as Images forbidden in the second Commandement will easily draw your words to their meaning 2 The reasons you bring against a set forme of prayer or Liturgie doe hold as strong against a set forme of Catechisme confession and profession of faith blessing baptizing and singing of Psalmes 3 Wee have not called upon you at this time to witnesse for or against the corruptions in the Communion-Booke This you fall upon by straining the sense of our demands contrary to the true meaning thereof The reasons which you bring against it we cannot approve them all The exceptions which have bin taken both from the matter and manner thereof we know But to esteeme the whole for some corruptions found therein a monument of Idolatry that we have not learned The Argument in the abridgement which is used against conformity to the Ceremonies did not in their judgement who were authors of the Booke hold against the Lyturgie of which opinion we are also 4 If these reasons be intended onely to shew why you receive not our forme of administration it is that which we are perswaded you know we never required of you If to disallow the use of the Booke amongst us altogether in things lawfull good and pertinent they will not hold weight 5 You are generally as you say loath to meddle with the affaires of other Churches unlesse you have been necessarily called thereunto But when some upon the request as we suppose of private friends and others out of their zeale and forwardnesse have laboured to draw many to separation from the Sacrament because ministred in a stinted Lyturgie wee cannot apprehend any just ground of this apologie The Rent is wide and some brethren had their hands deepe therein which made us at this present to crave your judgements and the reasons thereof to make up the breach 6 I. D. objecteth to Master P. that his manner of preaching was disorderly in carrying that matter he speakes of to the Classes before he had declared to the Church the equity of his refusing the Ministers desired by the Scriptures And may not we with like reason object that this manner of proceeding is disorderly in seeking to draw men to Separation because of stinted Liturgie before you had shewed to us or other brethren whom it may concerne by Scripture or reasons drawne from thence that a stinted Liturgie was unlawfull but of this wee may intreat more fully elsewhere II. POSITION That it is not lawfull to joyne in prayer or receive the Sacraments where a stinted Liturgie is used or as we conceive your meaning to be in this as in the former question viz. where and when that stinted Liturgie is used Answer IT seemeth by this your letter the ground of this Position hath beene the separation of divers from your assemblies because of a stinted Liturgie and we are not ignorant of the rigid separation of divers people who withdraw themselves from an able faithfull ministry as no ministry of Christ and from their godly congregations as no Churches of Christ because of some corruptions from which through want of light not love of the truth they are not throughly cleansed Against which practise we have ever witnessed As for our Judgement concerning the Position it selfe we would promise two things First concerning the persons reading this Liturgie which may be either an ungodly or unable Minister or an able and a godly Secondly concerning the Liturgie it selfe which may be either of the whole or some select prayers which may be conceived to be the least offensive Now if the question be of joyning in prayer with and when that whole Liturgie is used or where that which is used is read by an unable and ungodly Minister we then see not how it can be lawfull to joyne in prayer in such cases For 1 The prayers of the Minister are not his private prayers but the publike prayers of the whole assembly whose mouth he is to God And when the prayers offered up by the Minister as a living holy and acceptable service to God are not through humane frailty but otherwise for matter and manner corrupt wee see not what warrant any one hath to joyne with such prayers Mal. 1. 13. 14. 2 When men ioyne therein with an insufficient Ministry they doe not only countenance them in their place and office whom the Lord hath rejected from being his Priests Hos 4. 6. but also set
be subject to God and Christ by the intervention of the people onely they have it from them and not from God but they preach or administer the Sacraments rule or feed and if they depend immediately upon the faithfull viz. two or three gathered together in covenant they must draw what in order they are to preach unto them in the name of the Lord For from him must the Ambassadour learne his arrand from whom he receiveth his Commission We forbeare to presse the confessions and reasons of such as maintaine this opinion that the officers of Christ be both of and for the people and that in relation as the officers are called servants the Church may be called Lord. 4. Moreover if the power of the keyes be given first and immediately to the community of the faithfull what reason can be alledged why in defect of Officers the Church might not rule governe feed bind loose preach and administer the Sacraments or if any faile in any office why she might not supply that want by her power For the power of the keyes doth containe both authority and exercise power being given to this end that it might be exercised as it is vouchsafed But the Church when she is destitute of Officers cannot exercise those acts of rule nor by her power supply the want of any Officer Onely she hath a ministery of calling one whom Christ hath described that from Christ he may have power of office given him in the vacant place For these reasons not to insist on any more we judge the multitude or community of the faithfull not to be the immediate receptacle of Ecclesiasticall authoritie and so the power of excommunication not to belong to them If consent of the Churches of God be asked in this point to omit others the Churches of Scotland speake fully and expresly for us in the second book of Disci cap. 1. The Church as it is taken for them that exercise spirituall functions in the congregation of them that professe the truth hath a certain power granted by God according to which it useth a proper Jurisdiction and government exercised to the comfort of the whole flocke Power is an Ecclesiasticall authority granted by God the Father through the Mediator Jesus Christ unto his Kirke gathered and having its ground in the word of God and to be put in execution by them unto whom the spirituall government of the Church by lawfull calling is committed The policie of the Kirke flowing from this power is an order or spirituall forme of government which is exercised by the members appointed thereto by the Word of God and therefore is given immediately to the office-bearers by whom it is exercised to the weale of the whole body Vt universam scripturam evolvat D. Erastus nunquam tamen inventurum verba Ligandi Solvendi aliis quam publico ministerio fungentibus quidem met aphoricè divinae videlicet spiritualis potestatis respectu tribui Sunt enim judicialia haec verba c. Beza de Presb. p 60. See Helvet conf ca. 18. Sect. Nunc ergo c. Belgic confess art 3. Argentinens conf art 13. Bohem. confes art 14. VI. POSITION That none are to be admitted as members but they must promise not to depart or remove unlesse the Congregation will give leave Answer OUr Answer hereto is briefly this We judge it expedient and most according to rule that such brethren as are in covenant with the Church and ours as fellow-members and have committed their soules to our charge as Ministers should not forsake our fellowship nor obruptly breake away from us when and whither they please but first approve themselves therein to their brethrens consciences and take their counsell in so weightie a matter For which we propound to confider these two reasons following The former is drawne from the nature of the Church-Covenant which consists in these foure particulars 1. Every member at his admission doth openly professe and solemnly promise that by Christs helpe assisting he will not onely in generall give up himselfe as to the Lord to be guided by him so to the Church according to God to be directed by it which is no more then the members of the Church of Macedonia did in a parallel case 2 Cor. 8. 5. but also in particular that he will performe all duties of brotherly love and faithfulnesse to all the members of the body as of diligent watchfulnesse over all his brethren thereby to prevent sin so of faithfull admonition after their falls to regaine them to the Lord from their sinne the former being injoyned Hebr. 3. 13. And the want thereof deeply condemned in Cain that would not acknowledge that duty of being his brothers keeper Gen. 4. 9. the latter given in charge to the Church-members of Israel by the hand of Moses Levit. 19. 17. and so by Christ himself Matth. 18. 15. And by Paul also to the Galat. c. 6. 1 2. Secondly the ingagements are not made onely by the members admitted into the Church but by the Church back again to the member So that thereby the whole Church in generall and every member thereof in particular stand as well in conscience bound to performe all duties of love and watchfulnesse to him as he doth to them And this we do according to the golden rule of love and equitie injoyned by our Saviour Matth. 7. 12. fearing that contrary practise of Scribes and Pharisees so much condemned by Christ of laying greater burthens upon others then we our selves are willing to undergo Matth. 23. 4. 3. These promises thus lawfully and mutually made that member as also the whole Church are bound not onely every one for himselfe actively to performe them but passively also to suffer his brethren to do those offices upon and towards himself If he neglect the former he shall falsifie his covenant so solemnly before God Angels and men made and so not onely breake promise to his brother contrary to Psal 15. 4. but also in some sort commit the sinne of Ananias and Saphira in lying against the holy Ghost condemned and punished severely by Gods own hand Act. 5. 3. 5. 10. If he faile in the latter he shall not onely be guiltie of the same sinne of breach of Covenant with God and man as in the former but shall also be guilty of this folly of despising counsell so much condemned Prov. 12. 15. and 1. 7. and shall also proclaime this his folly and pride by shewing to all the Church that he is wise in his own eyes and leanes to his own wisedome both reproved Prov. 3. 7. and 23. 4. Seeing need of no further light to be held forth by his brethren then what he apprehends himselfe which is one of the greatest properties of folly 4. From all these things premised it appears that we can do no lesse and yet we do no more then require a member before he depart according to our covenant thus lawfully