III. What directions there are in the Scripture for the instructing of others in respect both of matter method means c. NOw that there is no such peculiar way or means as is mentioned in the Case for the instructing of the ignorant either from promise or precept or example warranted in the Word will appear if we consider what direction we have in the Scripture about this part of Ministerial Service and Worship of God namely the instructing our people §. 1. 1 The matter to bee taught Whatsoever Christ hath commanded Mat. 28.20 the Word of the Lord 2 Tim. 4.2 the whole Counsel of God Act. 20.27 c. 2 Method or way Taking some text of Scripture and so preaching upon it as Luke 4.17.21 or expounding the Scripture all along as we read it Neh. 8.8 or occasionally discoursing as Providence offereth matter Joh. 15.1 Acts 10.3 4. 13.16 17. or by Parables as in the Gospels or by reasoning and disputing as Acts 9.29 Mar. 9.34 Acts 17.17 or by resolving Cases or Questions proposed by our Children and such as are desirous to learn 1 Cor. 10.25 Exo. 12.26 27. Josh 4.6 Matth. 19.16 17. 3 The end to give knowledge of Salvation to worke conversion to save our selves and those that hear us Jer. 23.23 Acts 26.18 1 Tim. 4.16 4 For the Gesture and Posture standing or sitting wee have examples of both Nehemiah 8.4 Matth. 23.2 higher than the rest of the people in a Pulpit Nehem. 8.4 5. a chair or seat Matthew 23.2 §. 2. But that wee may come yet neerer to our present Case we have direction also in the Word about the 5 Manner Our instructions ought to be 1 Plaine and to the lowest capacity Neh. 8.8 1 Cor. 14. 2 With authority and command Tit. 2.15 1 Tim. 4.11 In demonstration of the Spirit and not with the inticing words of mans wisdome 1 Cor. 2.4 3 With dexterity and skilfulness 2 Tim. 2.15 which standeth much in dividing the word and respective application to each soul ¶ There is a variety in the capacity and frame of spirit found in those under our charge as simple ones Babes weake in faith others more knowing established of full age perfect there are unruly and scandalous erroneous and gainsayers Hereticks and Apostates Hypocrites and Dissemblers there are also such who are found in the faith sincere and upright spirits without guile c. so also certaine sorts of truth Principles Fundamentals milk strong meat and certaine methods and wayes of applying our selves and truths to such persons respectively there are Doctrines Reproofs Corrections Consolations Rebukes Disputings c. 4 With quick and suitable affections some save with fear others with boldnesse and courage others to bee treated with in tenderness compassion love meekness c. It is a work requires more than ordinary abilities and watchfulness to distinguish the Spiritual state of souls in their great variety to collect and gather fit and sutable matter dividing and cutting out truths to each state and to get hearts and affections sutable In the last place therefore let it be considered the § 3. 6 Means or the helps and provision Christ hath made for his Ministers and what he requires of them that they may bee sufficiently furnished to this great work 1 The Bible a book put into our hands by the Lord himself that hath in it up and down all materials and furniture necessary to this great work 1 Tim. 3.6 holding fast the faithful word that hee may bee able by sound Doctrin both to exhort and convince the gainsayers and 2 Tim. 3.16 All Scriptures are given 17. that the man of God the Minister may be perfect throughly furnished to all good Ministerial works 2 Gifts given by Christ upon his ascention to this end Eph. 4.10.12 knowledge and utterance not onely able but apt to teach having a stock or treasure they have a gift also to communicate it Nature giveth Nipples as well as milk to the breasts And none to be taken into this blessed work according to Christs Directory but such as are so qualified 3 Industry and diligence search the Scriptures attend to reading a giving our selves wholly to the work Truths are delivered in the Scriptures not in such a sorted or methodial way that you may finde the concernments of each Doctrin or each mans condition all together in one place but are let fall here and there in an occasional way as in an Epistle or story or Prophecy or song c. and not onely in gathering together fit and sutable matter but it must bee put into a method and order The Preacher Eccl 12.9 did not only seek out but set in order many Proverbs as the Priests Lev. 24.4 were to order their lamps Peter did not onely search out matter but it s said Act. 11.4 he expounded it in order unto them Luk. 1.3 It must bee a part of our industry also to improve our gift of utterance by searching after fit and significant expressions that the Trumpet may give a certain sound that is intelligent and distinct sweet and pleasant 3 The blessed spirit of God that sheweth us the things of Christ and of God and hath its fruit in words or utterance as well as in knowledge and matter as in that antithesis 1 Cor. 2.4 my speech was not but in c. 4 Stirring affections as before a great help to utterance and elocution where clearness of knowledge a gift of expression in the general matter chosen out and sorted to such and such persons and then affections sutable there will bee a tongue as the pen of a ready writer there will be such a stirring emphasis even in the very words Interior affectus quasi naturali impetu movet linguam and so much of the similitude and likeness of our affectionate hearts as t is impossible in any form of words composed by another or it may bee by our selves at another time or in a cold deliberation to speak in any measure answerable or so edifying who could have taught Paul so wel as his sanctified passion taught him to express himself Phil. 3.18 §. 4. Now for any man to go further that is in any of those particulars to bee more particular When Christ hath sufficiently instructed his scribe and taken off his hand as being able now to form his own work for the Magistrate or a Synod to take him into tutorage to adde more safe and particular rules and Laws for the direction of the Ministers of Christ in their Ministerial imployment what is this but to doe worke after the King Eccles 2.12 wee impose these Lawes upon Ministers such as are approved both for their grace and gifts for their Doctrin and Life as persons fit and able for this work After Christ hath given his Ministers a Book as before the Scriptures and given it to this end that they may be perfect 1 Tim. 3.16 17. and thorowly furnished to all imployments yet others are
not satisfied he must have another Book a Prayer book and another Book an instructing or preaching Book a Catechisme book and to the same end that hee may bee better furnished for his work that by this means it may bee done more perfectly more to edification as the Common Prayer-book formerly There is a precise appointment with what words and sentences Gods Name shall be called upon saith Mr. Hooker that the endless and senslesse effusions of indigested Prayers may not bee Pol. p. 239. and another of them The end of these formes is to bee a meanes to banish utterly out of Christs Church all extemporal invention of unsound prayer Covel against Burgis p. 70 71. So for the other part of our Ministerial work wee have beene furnished with a Homily Book and now a Catechisme Book which some would have imposed upon Ministers utterly to banish out of Christs Church all other Catechismes as also a more particular help and means then any Christ hath furnished his Ministers with for the better understanding of the Principles and for the better propagating the Gospel and preserving men sound in their knowledge which is to like ends as was those set formes formerly imposed § 5. To conclude this Argument our demand is of those that have so zealously stickled for such an imposition and have a mind to bring Ministers to their Books againe from whose necks this yoak hath been and that by a mighty hand of God so lately taken off I demand whether any thing in those reasonings of our suffering Brethren against Apocrypha Common Prayer-books and Homily-books he of any consequence from this topick the bringing of other books into the solemne Service of God besides those of Divine Authority Neither the Levites saith many of our Brethren together in the Abridgement nor Christ Abrid p. 6. nor his Apostles did ever read preach or interpret any other writing for the instruction of the Church but only the Canonical Scripture Againe in the same place It is the proper Office of Christ to be the Teacher of his Church and therefore no writings may bee appointed to bee read in the Congregation for instruction but only such as have been indited by his Spirit Mr. Cartw. in Cat. maketh it a breach of the Second Commandement and against Doctor Whitg about reading of Homilies in the Church hee writeth thus Neither the Homilies nor the Apocripha are to bee read at all in the Church It is good to consider the order which God kept with his people in times past when hee commanded that no Vessel nor instrument either Beesome or Flesh-hook c. should come into the Temple but those only which were sanctified and set apart for that use And hee will have no other Trumpets to call the people together but those only which were set apart for that purpose what should the meaning of this Law bee The matter of other common Vessels and Trumpets was the same oftentimes which theirs was the same forme also and Trumpets able to serve for the uses of sounding c. as well as those of the Temple and as those which were set apart wherefore might not these as well be used in the Temple as others forsooth because the Lord would by these Rudiments teach that he would have nothing brought into the Church but that which hee had appointed no not although they seemed in the judgement of men as good the Homilies be they ever so learned and pithy c. see Parker on the Cross 1 part Doctor Chadderton on Rom. 12. and divers others to the same purpose I demand againe what shew of Scripture there is for any such method or way as prescribed by Christ or Authority left by him to any other person to prescribe any such Utensile or Instrument What warrant hath any man to carry on the Directory for instruction further and more particularly than Christ himself hath thought fit to doe and thus to establish a Humane forme in a setled stated Sabbath-service without Scripture warrant And whether he may not as lawfully collect matter and put it in a set method and forme of words and furnish the Minister with a Booke as a help or means for the better edification of the people in any other or in all other the works and parts of the Ministerial Function as in this and as lawfully impose such Books to bee used by him and no other nor any other thing done by him but what is done by Book If hee may bee by such meanes better enabled for one part of his Ministry he may likewise for another and if for all why should it not be rather chosen CHAP. IV. Divers Objections answered no shew of Scripture for it nor necessity nor requisite for uniformity or obliged to it by our Covenant I Shall now faithfully give an account of whatever I have either read or heard or imagine can be pleaded as a warrant in this case § 1. Obj. 1 The notation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to teach by voyce from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 autem sonum sive simplicem sive ex reflexa repercussione geminatum significat and hence wee have our English word Eccho which is as it were an answering againe Ans There is no such distinct meaning in the Scripture use of the word but most ordinarily for preaching or instructing by voyce and so interpreted by our Translators 1 Cor. 14.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by my voyce I might teach others Gal. 6.6 wee doe not beleeve the Ministers maintenance is to rise from those that learn Catechismes only such as are unmarried and under the age of twenty one years yet the same word there and is translated teaching and the Scripture speaking of such to whom this Catechistical way seems to bee most sutable it expresseth their instruction and teaching by another word Heb. 5.12 You have need that one teach you the first Principles of the Oracles of God the word there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word is used also for a story or any report by hear-say Luke 1.4 Acts 21.21 24. Obj. 2. Those Scriptures are objected that mention Principles Fundamentals which are reckoned up Heb. 6.1 Psal 34.11 Come yee children hearken unto me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. And 2 Tim. 1.13 a pattern of sound words in faith and love and Rom. 2.20 the forme of the knowledge of the truth is spoken of Ans In none of these Scriptures any set forme for method and words and if so yet not with injunction to bee held to only that principles and lower truthes are to bee taught and to those of a lower capacity in a more familiar and plaine method and way this is confirmed by those Scriptures and is a duty of that evidence from Scripture that the Civil Magistrate may impose and compel Ministers
any other profession some that are expert and able in it have done I say when these were taken away a very great incouragement to Learning was removed and such as will be felt in the following age Not that the continuance of such places is in the least desirable no they were sinful and ought to bee removed But let Gods dealing and providence in removing of them bee remarkably observed and especially in this namely That when the Lord took from this Tribe those invitations that did ballance the hazard of a long and chargeable education and other uncertainties At the same time these Ceremonies and subscriptions the tenure by which they were held and those great and breaking penalties of ejection and deprivation for Non-Conformity were also happily removed which was so great an incouragement on the other hand as it held up mens minds to the Ministry notwithstanding But now to see these penalties upon one occasion or other returning upon us again but those encouragements or any equivalent never likely to return and that after they have been so lately and twice taken away and to return again in as strict a severity upon this almost sunk generation of men as ever they were inflicted It will cause multitudes to turn their backs upon this Profession more than upon any other and more than ever they have done heretofore I must professe I have long feared and doe still more than ever considering these things and upon what uncertain terms also that maintenance depends which the Law hath allowed for the Ministers support and how long struck at I mean Tithes and petitioned against and I doubt had been taken away before this time were it not for the Lay-interest so much spoken against by some of Appropriators And also with what difficulty some Tithes especially in Cities and Towns are now recovered and gotten in I say when I thus consider and lay all together I fear this Nation which hath been worthily famous throughout the world for learned powerful able Preachers In a short time if such discouragements should bee brought in again upon the Ministry our Governours will bee constrained either 1 To take the course they doe in the Netherlands where the Ministers being low and mean their Children comming to the charity of the State are bred up to the Ministry again for a supply when their Fathers go off by death And for their Professors places men are called ordinarily from other parts to supply them Or 2 To put into the Ministry persons bred up to some other Calling or Trade who though not able in conscience to conform to what is or what may bee imposed in Discipline or Worship yet if it so happen can take up their Shops or Trades again Having been so provident as not to cast their youth into such a way of breeding as will hang their necessary livelihood upon such an uncertain turning hinge §. 10. And if this also be added the SEASON and a consideration of these times in which 1 Ministers work never lay heavier upon those that are faithful and 2 The hands never fewer to bear it up than at this present which will adde weight and aggravation to our discouragement For the first when a reformation is made of what is amisse in Religion when the Worship of God comes to bee purged of old wonts and superstitions these are such things as the common people are more unwilling to part with than their gold or silver 1 Pet. 1.18 Judg. 18.24 Jer. 32.35 or any thing else they have in this world A more Spiritual Gospel Light also in reforming times breaketh forth upon such as naturally love darkness rather than light At such times therefore there hath ever been great stirrings and distempers of spirit through the generality of a whole Nation The Ministers they only stand as it were in the front of contention and receive all the shot of opposition Though the alterations be by the Lawes of the Nation and the resolutions of their own representatives yet they are willing to look no further than their Ministers in whose hands indeed these changes first appear as those that make them Our Minister saith one will not use the common-prayer-Common-prayer-Book not Marry nor Bury nor Church as we were wont to have it our Minister will set up Discipline keep us from the Sacrament say others When Ministers had to doe only with the Doctrine of the Gospel and discharged their Consciences in a faithful and searching application of it to each person such a mans condition was not much better than Ishmaels of whom it is said Gen. 16.12 His hand is against every man and every mans hand against him But Gospel Discipline provokes and displeaseth ten times more and this also is now Ministerial work and it is a New work to the common people especially it being exercised by so mean a hand as they account it a common Minister Formerly it was done by a Bishop a Spiritual Court under Seal and by those that exercised a great deal of state in their Ecclesiastical proceedings like the Princes of this world that have dominion over their people Thus we see Ministers have discouragements enough at such a time from the work it self if performed as it should be in so much as in many places they are enforced to sit down with half the means the Lawes give them and what they doe get is with such uncomfortable contentions as did not necessity urge they were better bestow their pains amongst them for nothing And this hath been the Ministers condition upon all changes and further reformations who being not able in Conscience to satisfie their people in such superstitious vanities as they formerly enjoyed the people put them to the utmost extremity and molestation in every thing they have to doe with them in And so it is at this time in so much as his Highnesse commiserating the sufferings in this kind Proclamation for the better encouragement of godly Ministers Nov. 25. 1658. of the most conscientious Ministers throughout the Nation was graciously pleased with the advice of his Council by a seasonable Proclamation to require all persons concerned to deal more righteously in this matter And it being thus at present with the faithful Ministers of the Gospel and especially with those that are most zealous to carry on this work of reformation If to this severe Discipline of the people who take from him half his means because he dischargeth his Conscience in some things such Discipline of the Magistrate bee added the taking away his whole means because he cannot goe against his Conscience in some other things I say if it be thus with this profession and on each hand beset with such discouragements it is not for us to expect any thing in the future but a very low Ministry through the Nation some few persons being off the Stage that more encouraging times engaged to come on §. 11. For the Second As the work it self hath
in Edw. 6. first reformation were at that time only commended as it were and all that while there was no matter of strife about them The sad and sorry contentions came in with those destructive imposings The Litourgie and Rites in the reformed Churches which they term their Agenda are not such bones of Contention any where as with us and this is the reason they have not been enforced under pain of deprivation for not conforming And in the present CASE what variety of Catechisms though a form setled by the State for almost an age were in use in the several Congregations throughout this Nation and yet in all that age neither by Pen or Pulpit the least noyse of contention about it which could not have been if that or any one form had so severely been imposed §. 10. The malignity and evil of such penal impositions and how prejudicial and binding when we would try the truth and reasonablenesse of mens assertions is demonstrated by our suffering Brethren in their Case with the Bishops thus A superstitious or some doubtful practice with the Magistrates establishment and consequences of it put together in one scale and what is evidently a necessary Scripture DVTY into the other and you you finde that in the common esteem and judgement of men this duty is of little weight or consideration in comparison 2. But on the other hand let these prejudices and carnal intrests be removed and nothing but truth and Scripture grounds on each side weighed one with another you will hardly find the weight of a feather for their Cause or against ours 3 Let the same impositions and penalties bee put into the other scale against Episcopacy and Ceremonies If the Law had said it shall be the losse of a mans Living to practice or preach for Episcopacy common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book or Ceremonies these things even in their own opinions would have been light as vanity That you may have our Brethrens own words in this experiment There were presented certain Propositions to King James in Anno 1606. as their tenets and opinions against Episcopacy c. and for Presbytery and thereupon they thus write The former Propositions are such as there will not bee found any one conformable Minister in this Kingdome except he be a masked Papist that will refuse to subscribe to any one of them if so bee it would please the King and State by Law to urge them thereupon under such penalties as the Ministers are urged to subscribe to the Articles devised by the Prelats Yea we are out of all doubt that the Prelates themselves if it were pressed upon them by the King and State under paine of deprivation from their Bishopricks would not stick to avouch upon their oathes that the Ceremonies and subscription for which the Ministers stand suspended and deprived are wicked and ungodly and such as no good Christian ought to yeeld unto Nay if the case stood but upon the saving of their temporalties thereby which else they should lose wee doubt not but with heart and hand to subscribe to any one of the aforesaid Propositions The conjecture or ghesse our Brethren made of the Episcopal party wee have found very true having been so happy as to see some comfortable changes and the trials of their spirits in them For when the authority and countenance of our superiours came to bee set as much against these superstitions as it was formerly for them how easily were they laid down by those that were most zealous for them before And we find very few truly conscientious if any silenced rather than not to use the Ceremonies whereas formerly of those that were against the use of them near three hundred eminently godly were deprived in the space of a year All which declares in effect that the Ceremonies and these forms are not of any such necessity or real worth in themselves It is that to which they are raised by the Magistrates authority and settlement that hath rendered them the matter of such contention the imposers themselves doe in a manner say so The keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self considered Preface to Com. Pr. Book is but a SMALL THING yet the transgression of a Common Order is no small offence before God There is nothing in the Service and Worship of God offensive to him but the omission of some DVTY or the transgression of some Commandement about it And therefore when such small things as are neither of these come to be thus greatned and more offences against God in his service by reason of Human impositions then God himself hath made and the faithful Labourers of Christ turned out of his Vineyard for such offences only this is the Gravamen And against this thraldome and bondage our Brethren the Servants of God in the former age did humbly contend in their generation that is to have no more nor other things imposed or received as necessary and duties in the service of God but what hee in his Word hath made so And this is the great felicity and happinesse through their prayers and sufferings the Lord by the present reformation hath restored unto us And we have been possessed now some years with the sweet fruition of that liberty those our Brethren saw only afarre of rejoycing in the hopes of it and so fell asleep in the Lord. I say to suffer our selves again to bee brought into bondage and not to stirre and doe our duty and what belongs to each in our places for the preventing hereof is to degenerate in respect of the courage our Fathers had for the Lord in their times Had they prevailed for themselves by their contests with the Episcopal party and enjoyed ten or twelve years freedom as grear or greater than was hoped for and tasted the sweetnesse of it in the purity of Ordinances for such a time would they have been the more or lesse patient in being brought again to their former thraldome Can any reasonable man imagine then that the returning of like impositions in as great severity again as ever formerly and for the like matters will not occasion greater contentions and differences Schisms and distractions amongst the people of God than ever was heretofore especially when besides Scripture-light that laies it upon our Consciences thus to contend Jude 3. Gal. 5.1 and stand fast in our liberty wee have had also the experience which our Fathers never had that such humble yet zealous contendings and strivings for truth and purity of Ordinances hath been blessed and made successeful There have not been any reformed Churches in the world more oppressed in this kind or any that have prayed and sought God more in their sufferings no people that have obtained of the Lord a more full deliverance and greater Gospel liberty than the godly people of England this day enjoy abroad formerly but at home also now Can it bee imagined that a people after an age of praying and sufferings after part of an age