Evidence nay the Demonstration he produced against the truth of this charge in these words That your people are in Publick Teachings yearly Catechised in which Exercise all the Mysteries of the Christian Religion are Explained to them But I answer First That I did not overlook this but particularly answered it where I thought most proper Admon p. 23. and shewed that there is no Rule in Your Directory that requires your Ministers to examine either Privately or Publickly so that their performances in this point are meerly Voluntary and therefore their Hearers can have no security by this Secondly I added that your Directory doth exclude Catechising from being any part of God's Publick Worship either Ordinary or Extraordinary as appears from the preface to it which proposes it as rules for all parts of Publick Worship and likewise from the Title which pretends the same And yet the book says not one word concerning Catechising but excludes it by excluding our Common-prayer Book that requires it as a part of publick Worship so that amongst you whatever Mr. B. pretends Catechising is No Publick Teaching nor are your people by any rule that I know amongst you obliged to attend it in publick and this I reckon as another inexcusable defect of your Directory Thirdly Your way of Catechising is not sufficient for this purpose Mr. B. describes your manner of Catechising thus Rem p. 85. They divide their Parishes into so many Districts and accordingly for every District once a Year they Publickly appoint the time and place when they intend to Catechise them and accordingly go thro' the whole Catechism with ' em I will add the account I had of this matter from good hands The Dissenters practice in instructing and Examining the Younger sort is in this manner The Minister has a Meeting for this purpose in six several places in this Parish and Examins once a Year in each place His Method is to take four or five heads of their Catechism and to ask questions concerning them and expound them according to which method if they took the Catechism in Order which yet I do not find they do the Minister would be at least ten Years in going over the whole of it in one place Let us suppose then a man constantly to attend Catechising in his District once a Year yet it is impossible the Minister should teach him all the Mysteries of our Religion sufficiently at one time and if he take one Mystery at once which is as much as he can do if he explain it as he ought you see what it comes to He has no security of hearing them all explained at any time your Ministers not being bound to any method and if they should bind themselves to one yet so many years are required to go thorow them that a man has no security to live so long But further I find that Catechising is generaly amongst you only in Order to a Sacrament and whilst there are no Sacraments Administered there is usually no publick Catechising and then Judge in what condition those places were that wanted Sacraments for Seven Ten or more years And perhaps to avoid the trouble of examining was the very reason that there were none Celebrated as Mr. B. himself partly confesses The truth is this seems to me a meer pretence set up to excuse your Ministers for their Negligence in Preaching the Gospel that is the greatest the highest and most necessary parts of it it being plain that a man may remain ignorant of them all his life notwithstanding your publick Teaching whatever Mr. B. pretends to the contrary IV. But Secondly He objects that your Ministers most frequently insist on the particular mysteries of the Christian Religion Vind. p. 12 and quotes a passage from one of them affirming it and taxing me most severely for asserting the contrary But I Answer These are but general Affirmations of the Persons accused without any particular proof I told you in my Admonition p. 18. That the Greatest Mysteries of the Gospel are the Conception Birth Passion Resurrection Ascention and final coming of our Saviour to judge the quick and dead the Doctrine of the Trinity in whose Name we are Baptized and the descent of the Holy Ghost Let me add to these tho' they are included in them the manifestation of our Saviour to the Gentile World which the Scriptures reckon a great Mystery the Communion of Saints in one Catholick Church and the Doctrine of Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins Each of these are and ought to be at least once or twice a Year solemnly and professedly taught in our Church at their proper and appointed times and in the Explanation of our Catechism so that we are sure that at least we shall hear them so often Now to know whether Your Ministers or Ours preach the Gospel most Diligently Faithfully and Expresly it is not sufficient to say in general that you do it often but we must know how often each Minister has solemnly professedly and in a full discourse explained and enforced each of these Mysteries V. For Secondly it is not sufficient for one to pretend that by the by and on occasion they have touched these Mysteries for they are of that nature and moment that people ought to be taught that these and none else are the peculiar Mysteries of the Gospel that all other Knowledge or Preaching is of little value in respect of teaching these and the Ministers that teach them plainly diligently and solidly are the true Preachers of the Gospel and those that preach them slightly and seldom are unfaithful Stewards That each of them is of that consequence that to explain them prove them from Scripture enforce them and press and shew the Benefits and Effects of them requires frequent and particular sett Discourses upon them and the least that can be expected is that they be handled once every Year solemnly fully and professedly And here let me desire you to recollect your Memory and consider whether you have heard each of these treated thus before my Book appeared if you did you have reason to think your Ministers preached in earnest the Gospel to you but if they omitted any of these if they did not give you at least one Sermon on each of these great Articles in a competent time they omitted so much of the Gospel and were unfaithful Stewards of the Mysteries committed to them and must be judged so if they continue in this Neglect I shall be glad if they amend it but am sure the Order in Our Church provides better against it VI. We hear Complaints every day as if the Gospel were not preached in Our Church we are reproached as if we taught little but Morality and Mr. B. talks of Desolate Congregations amongst us Now while these Mysteries are Solemnly Constantly Solidly and Professedly taught at least once a Year in every one of our Churches bating Accidents of Sickness c. Judge with your selves how unjustly we are accused
year This he interpreteth Vind. p. 17. only of the most devout and serious which is very different from the Generality since if One do it the words may be true in the sense he gives of them but I have allowed as you see before One in Four of your Communicants to be thus devout and serious III. Secondly He affirmed 〈◊〉 136. That all of you have the opportunity of Communicating 10 12 or 15 times a Year if you will take the advantage of receiving it as often as it is administred within a few Miles of your respective Habitations This he interprets Vind. p. 19. To be Estimated from those parts where the main Body of Dissenters are to be found and p. 19. That he is not obliged to prove it concerning every particular one in the Remotest parts of the Province of Ulster As if the Diocess of Ardmagh Clogher Rapho Derry Drummore with a considerable part of the Diocess of Down and Connor were more in the Remote parts of Ulster than Antrim Carrickfergus Glenarm and the other places he mentions But I fully shewed in my Admonition that there is no Congregation in the Diocess of Derry nor I believe in any of the other places named in which the people may Communicate ten times a year without Riding 40 Miles which is very unreasonable to expect let them take what advantage they will Nor had I any intention to consine you to one Diocess as Mr. B. wou'd insinuate Vind. p. 18. I mean honestly and plainly in what I say and never designed to help out a Cause by Equivocations And as to those places Mr. B. has mentioned they are all in a Nook or Corner as may be seen by the Mapp and yet by his own Confession it requires 24 Miles Riding to attend them and sometimes 30 which are not a few Miles for the Generality of Country People being an unreasonable Charge and impracticable by many especially by Women and Servants who have as good a title to the Lord's Supper and are often as serious and devout as the Masters of Families This contrivance therefore of sending People from their Parish Churches no ways answers either in point of Conveniency or Order to the frequent Administration of that Sacrament in every Parish nor is Equivalent to it as he suggests p. 32. IV. Thirdly Whereas he asserts Rem p. 13. That it is Universally usual in every Meeting where an Ordained Minister is settled to have the Lords Supper Administred twice in the larger Towns every Year He now tell us Vind. p. 17 That the twice a Year in the Larger Towns was intended and is true of Belfast Carrickfergus and Antrim As if Lisburn Colerain and Londonderry were not larger Towns then Antrim and as if Strabane Newry Ballymenagh Ballymony Ardmagh Dungannon Downpatrick and many others were not in an equal rank with it And yet he has not produced any Voucher that this practice has been constant in these very three Towns or how long These and many such are the favourable Interpretations he allows himself V. But then as to us he is resolved to put what sence on our words he pleases and oblige us to stand by it Thus he will needs know my design in publishing my Book better than my self and oblige me to design it for the generality of Dissenters in England as well as in Ireland Vind. p. 6. Tho' the whole scope of it the Addresses in it my Management of the Impression and the very Title I sent with it to the Press For the use of this Diocess tho' lost there as the Printer must acknowledge and another substituted in place of it without my knowledge sufficiently declare the contrary VI. Secondly He will pretend to know the design of our Church's using the Cross in Baptism better than all her Sons from the Learned Hooker to this day as you may see Vind. p. 44. VII Thirdly Our Church in her Catechism in answer to that question What is required of Persons to be Baptised determines that Repentance and Faith are required Mr. B. after Mr. Baxter puts a very absurd sense on these words and then disputes against them alledging that by Repentance and Faith is meant present Faith and Repentance Vind p. 35. directly against the Catechism which requires only present Faith and Repentance in those that are capable of them But of Children who have a right to Baptism and are not capable at present of actual Faith c. She accepts a rational Presumption that they will believe when capable and an Engagement made by the Parents and Congregation under whose power they are solemnly declared by their Proxies and Vouchers the Godfathers and Godmothers It shews a mighty Prejudice against the Established Church and a delight to find fault in those that insist on such forced and disowned Construction of our words if we should deal thus with the Holy Scripture it wou'd expose even them VIII Fourthly Whereas I quote your Directory for a certain Position Chap. 2. Sect. 3. N. 2. meaning thereby that Book which commonly goes under that Name among You and whose words one of your own Ministers Mr. Craghead quotes as the Express words of the Directory p. 45. Mr. B. will oblige me to mean The Directory made by the Assembly of Divines for Publick Worship Whereas I meant not that part of the Book but the Directions which are your Directory for Private Worship as the other for the Publick and which being bound together with the other and with the Directory for Ordination of Ministers and other pieces do all commonly pass under the Name of the Directory and are so quoted by one of your own Ministers as I have already shewed Yet this he imputes to me as a very unpardonable mistake and repeats it again in his Vind. p. 23. I suppose every Body sees this is nothing to the matter whether that Position I quoted was in the Directory for Publick Worship or in the Directions for Private since both are owned and received by you to whom I wrote Therefore for Mr. B. to insist on it a second time plainly shews that his business is with the Person not the Cause and that he writes for a Party not the Truth otherwise he would not offer a matter the second time that is nothing to the purpose and for which there was no ground besides his being unacquainted with the terms used among you IX Fifthly Whereas I laid it down as a thing that wou'd be granted me by you that all ways of Worship are displeasing to God That are not expresly contained in Scripture or Warranted by Examples of Holy Men mentioned therein Mr. B. misrepresents my sense Vind. p. 30. as if I had intended by this Rule to exclude such things as may be deduced by clear consequence or parity of Reason from them Now I desire you to compare this Rule with your Catechism and you will find it expressed there in these words The Second Commandment forbiddeth the Worshiping
of God by Images or any other way not appointed in his Word And in your Confession of Faith Chap. 21. N. 1. thus The acceptable way of Worshiping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited to his own revealed Will that he may not be Worshiped according to the imaginations and devises of Men or the suggestions of Satan under any visible Representations or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture This Rule is stricter and needs greater Limitations than the words of my Book For First Here is no Allowance for things Warranted by Scripture tho' not prescribed as many things are Secondly There is no Authority given to the Examples of Holy Men in Scripture which are sufficient to warrant a Religious practice in Gods Worship tho' they do not amount to an appointment or prescription and are not alwayes obligatory In short your Catechism and Confession of Faith if we take them according to the Letter make all wayes of Worship unacceptable and unlawful that are not prescribed and appointed in Scripture Whereas my Rule allows Examples and Precedents of Holy Men to be a sufficient Warrant I supposed and I think with reason that you understood this Rule in your own Catechism and Confession of Faith with due Limitations and therefore had no reason to suspect but you would understand it with the same Limitations in my Book it being a manifest partiality to except against it when used by me and yet allow of it tho' expressed with less caution in your Catechism and Confession of Faith which yet ought to be more exact in wording a Rule than is necessary in a private Man's Writings Of this partiality Mr. B. is guilty and plainly discovers by it that he has one Rule for interpreting the words of his own Party and another for interpreting those of his Adversary But Secondly I desire you to observe That in my whole Book I never used this Rule otherwise than with those Limitations that I have now expressed nor has Mr. B. produced one instance wherein I did otherwise As for Example I tax you with bringing in the Inventions of Men into the Service of God in your Use of the Psalms not for singing the Meetre Psalms for that I allow lawful but for introducing them without necessity to the exclusion of the Prose Psalms for Singing of which we have Scripture-Warrant and Example I taxed you likewise with introducing a Human Invention into the Worship of God in your Expounding Scripture not that Expositions of Scripture are unlawful but to make them necessary every time the Scripture is read is Literally such an invention and so is likewise your excluding the Regular and Orderly Reading the Word of God as he has appointed for the Edification of his Church to make room for your Lectures of both which you have been guilty these Fifty Years last past I past the same Censure on your Extemporary Prayers not that I condemned them in all Cases but because on the account of them you had turned the Lord's Prayer prescribed in God's Word and the Use of Forms in the Ordinary Prayers of the Assembly which is the Scripture way of Praying on such Occasions out of your Meetings Whereas it is manifestly a Teaching for Doctrine the Commandments of Men to Teach as you do that Praying extemporary is more acceptable to God or more edifying than Praying by a Form there not being the least colour in Scripture for such a Doctrine I might shew the like in every place of my Book where I used this Rule either in proving the Orders of our Church or in disproving yours so that Mr. B. had no reason to find fault with it But Thirdly The Rule needs not these Limitations it being agreed by all sober Interpreters That whatever can be deduced from Scriptures by Clear Consequence or Parity of Reason is sufficiently warranted by them though not expresly contained in them so there was no necessity to explain the Rule though I was willing to avoid the Exceptions even of the Captious and there fore put in the Explication you find in my Second Edition Fourthly Mr. B. excepts against my using the Phrase of Ways of Worship and alledges I used it frequently to signifie Circumstantiâ—â— Modes of it Vind. p. 30. But I Answer That I used the Phrase with which you were acquainted whereas I believe few of you ever heard of Circumstantial Modes of Worship before and I used it in the Sense you generally do when you ask for Scripture to warrant our using the Psalms by way of Answering our using Forms of Prayer our singing with Instrumental Musick our joyning our Voices in some Prayers our Receiving the Sacrament in a Worshiping posture and the other particulars against which you except in our Publick Service and I shewed these Ways are not only warranted but prescribed for the most part in Scripture Whereas those Ways you have introduced in the place of them have neither Command or Precedent in Scripture If these that I have named in our Service and yours be Circumstantial Modes they are the chief and greatest Exceptions that I ever found any of you make against joyning with us and they are the great matter of Reformation set forth in your Directory tho' Mr. B. seems to make light of them From the whole I think it appears That Mr. B. has both perverted and misapplyed my Rule and yet on this perverted sense of my Words are founded most of his Arguments against our publick Worship X. Lastly This Method of sixing Principles upon me and then writing a Book to Confute them is not new with Mr. B. He did it once before at a very unseasonable time and still persists in Taxing me with his own Consequences as if I indeed owned them Thus Vind. p. 25. he charges me with passing a Vertual Sentence of Damnation publickly upon you by Denying you to be a part of the Catholick Church and this he puts in Italian Letters as if they were my Words but there are no such Words in any Book I have yet written nor any just Ground to fix such a Sentence on me the whole Mystery of this so far as I know it is thus Mr. Manâ—y formerly Dean of Derry on his turning Papist published his Motives which prevailed with him to do so To these I wrote an Answer in the Year 1687 by which I thank God the Protestant Cause lost nothing and it was so well approved that it was Twice Reprinted in England But Mr. B. cou'd not digest it and therefore wrote Reflections on it and the greatest Exception he has against it is that I say in it That I meant by the Catholick Church the whole Body of Men professing the Religion of Christ and living under their Lawful Governours From which Words Mr. B. draws many strange and absurd Consequences alledging that they Un-Church all Dissenters all foreign Churches and render the Relation of all true Christians to our Blessed Lord as his
read in them I reckon that the Word of God as God requires it for the Instruction of his Church is cast out of those Meetings and that they act directly contrary to his Command Therefore except Mr. B. produce Vouchers that in most of your Meetings the whole Word of God or the most material parts of it have been read in a competent time he will never acquit them before God or impartial Men of this fault If the Books that have been Read and the time be specified the Truth will then appear but without this I shall look on any general assertion as a subterfuge and a declining the light II. The Second thing asserted by me is That in many of your Meetings seting aside a verse or two for a Text or Quotation at the Discretion of the Minister the Voice of God is never heard This is owned by Mr. B. to be true in effect as to the Winter-Quarter in most of your Meetings Rem p. 92. but how far this Winter-Quarter is stretched wants being cleared for some have stretched it very far And as to those that he affirms now to Lecture in Winter in this Diocess I desire to know how long they have thus Lectured Last Winter I believe they did but I must see a good Voucher before I believe that either all of them Lectured any part of every Year before or all but one constantly in the winter Secondly You have Meetings in the Afternoons as well as in the mornings and the Scriptures ought to be read in them but in these you have only a Text and Quotations and therefore what I affirmed is true not only of many of your Meetings but of one half of them all III. The Third thing opposed by Mr. B. is That perhaps in all the Meetings in the North there is not so much Scripture read as in our Church in one day To prove this I took Mr. B's own Concessions Rem p. 92. and according to them shew'd that there was really four times more Scripture Read in our Church in one Day than in all the Meetings in the North in a Year But he seems not willing to stand to these Concessions and farther excepts Vind. p. 9. that eleven Psalms which I reckon as Chapters read for Instruction were Forms of Thanksgiving But I answer That these agree very well together the Apostle having Commanded us to Teach and Admonish one another in them at the same time we speak or sing them as appears from Ephes. 5. 19. and Col. 3. 16. And indeed it is manifest that the Psalms were written for Publick Instruction as well as for Publick Thanksgivings and Prayers Twelve of them bear the Title For Instruction before them as most of them are called Prayers Psal. 72. 20. c. Thirdly He will have Two Chapters allowed for Quotations in your Sermons every day but I particularly excepted Quotations from the account And quoting Scripture is not Reading it nor is that the way God appointed his Word to be Read Deut. 31. 10. Nor did the People of God so Read it Nor doth your Directory prescribe this as Reading but Preaching Lastly no body knows what or how many these are or how they are applied all these depending on the Discretion of Your Ministers But after all he makes his Computation and concludes that in a whole Year there is near as much Read in your Meetings as in two Days in our Church for saith he Vind. p. 10. In the Nine Meetings of this Diocess there are Read in a year 1287 Chapters of which 936 are Quotations and in one day in our Church but 714 which is a little more than half what is Read in those Nine Meetings in the whole Year This is truly his Conclusion and I value your time more than to dispute about it and therefore let it stand so IV. The last thing I asserted in this matter was That a man might go to most Meetings many Years and never hear one intire Chapter Read in them What has been done may be done and I have met with several that have thus frequented Meetings several Years and could not say they had heard an intire Chapter Read at a time I sent one to enquire and he returned an account only of six Verses read for a Text to the Lecture and I have been informed that usually no more were read And therefore whereas Mr. B. asserts Rem p. 92. that usually a whole Chapter was read this may be true since my Book but that it was otherwise before is Notorious But when it appears what Books have been Read in each Meeting every Year before 't will be easy to judge how much has been read each Lords-Day and without this it is impossible to judge exactly of it and till I see particular Evidence to the contrary I must suppose that what hapned in these times when I sent to enquire was what was usual Upon the whole the slight you put on the Word of God by throwing it out of your Meetings when you cannot have time to put your own Glosses on it your allowing two hours to your Sermons and not ten Minuits to the Reading God's Word are faults that Mr. B. may endeavour to palliate but will never solidly justify The true way to answer them is to mend them and I am heartily glad to hear that you have made some progress that way tho' far from what is requisite Sect. VII Concerning the Mysteries of Religion I. A Fourth Matter of Fact denied by Mr. B. is That a man may frequent your Meetings all his life and yet have no security or hardly possibility of Learning from your publick Teaching all the great Mysteries of his Religion I laid before you in my former Admonition p. 17. the excellent Method our Church had taken to secure the Publick Teaching of all the great Mysteries of Christianity to all her Members by appointing a certain time in the Year for each of them whereas there is no such Rule or Order for your Ministers And whereas Mr. B. asserted there was an obligation put on you by the Directory to teach all those mysteries I shewed he was mistaken and he now contends Vind. p. 12. that you need none besides the Scriptures which is as I shewed in my Admon p. 20. a very great defect since the Scriptures require we should have such a Rule besides II. Secondly I shewed that I had examined and put it to many of your perswasion whether they ever heard any of your Ministers that professedly made a whole discourse on the Trinity Conception Nativity Resurrection or Ascension of our Saviour or on his sending down the Holy Ghost And I did and do profess that I never met one Man that could satisfy me in it or assure me that his Minister had done it And I concluded from hence that it was a most dangerous matter to leave these things to mens choice III To this Mr. B. replies Vind. 11. that I overlooked the plain
from hindering it from being a Sign that it proves it to be one there is no surer Sign of Charity than real Expressions and instances of it effects are the surest Signs of causes If we should appoint such a Feast now to be celebrated in Church with the Sacrament none wou'd doubt its being a Religious rite and perhaps some wou'd call it an Imposition 9thly To be buryed to Sin is a particular priviledge of Baptism and infers a Duty which was signified by dipping under Water to this Mr. B. answers first that it is not certain the Apostles words Rom. 6. 4. refer to the dipping under Water but to this I reply it is certain that generally the Primitive Christians used this way tho' in particular cases they dispensed with it as we do with the use of the Cross secondly it is certain the best Interpreters do thus understand this place with which concur your Assemblys Notes who tell us that in this Phrase the Apostles seems to allude to the Ancient manner of Baptism which was to dip the Parties Baptized and as it were to bury them under the Water for a while and then to draw them out and lift them up to represent the Burial of the Old-Man and our Resurrection to newness of Life nor is there any other Just reason of the Phrase to be given and therefore Mr. B's doubt concerning the certainty of it without any reason for he gives none for his doubting is in all probability to be attributed to his prejudice for if this be true it intirely ruins his notion of humane Sacraments since here is a Representing Obliging and Distinguishing Sign added to Baptism which is all the Exception he has against the Cross. But secondly he alledges that I ought to prove that the Christians of that Age had Arbitrarily and without warrant from Christ or his Apostles set it up but I think it sufficient for me to shew that it was set up and that it is a Rite distinct from Baptism both which are apparent it is incumbent on Mr. B. to shew where Christ or his Apostles instituted it 'T is manifest that it is not in the first institution by our Saviour for that requires only washing with Water which may be performed either by dipping or pouring on water This then is a Rite Superadded to Baptism of a representing and obliging nature and so interpreted by St. Paul himself therefore all such Rites are not Sacraments or unlawful It is manifest St. Paul approved the Rite but there is no evidence of its Divine Institution and therefore the Church has made no scruple to lay it aside and that without any absolute necessity for the warming Water for Baptism used in some Places to this day might prevent the inconveniency of a cold Country which is all Mr. B. alledges for disusing it Vind. p. 52. but cou'd not excuse us if this were part of the institution 10thly To change our condition in Baptism from the power of Sin to Holiness from Sons of Wrath to Sons of God is a special Privilege and to live accordingly a Duty Now this was signified by the change of Cloaths when Persons were Baptised and to this as I shewed in my Admonition the Apostle alludes Gal. 3. 27. For as many of you as have been Baptized into Christ have put on Christ to this Mr. B. Answers as to the former that it is not certain the Apostle alludes to this Custom but here again I have the best interpreters thus Expounding it I have the Practice of the Church of God using this Rite from the Apostles time I have the necessity of the thing to prove it was done in their time for Dipping in Water cou'd not be without putting off or change of Cloaths and there is no other Reason given of the Phrase and therefore Mr. B's Doubt without reason is of no moment in such a Case he may justly be suspected to doubt out of Prejudice that must lose his Cause if the thing prove true that he doubts of But 2dly he argues that if the Apostles expression refers to these two Rites as used to these purposes it will be more reasonable to conclude that they are part of the ordinance of Baptism and consequently to be still retained and used by us Vind. p. 52. I think it much more reasonable to suppose that Mr. B. is mistaken in his account of Sacraments than to suppose either of these Rites were part of the ordinance of Baptism or that we are obliged to retain or use them we have the ordinance delivered to us twice in Scripture and neither of these rites are mentioned in it and therefore they are no part of it They were certainly used in Baptism in the Apostles time and to those purposes I have mentioned and the Consequence is that Mr. B's charge is groundless that wou'd make such Rites humane Sacraments and unlawful and approaches near to the Doctrine that makes that unlawful which God has not made so 1 Tim. 4. 1 2 3. 11thly To reject a person from the means of Grace is a religious Act and belongs to the power of the Keys Now the Scriptures warrant us to do this by shaking off the dust of our feet which doth not signify our duty in general but in particular our detestation and abhorrence of the Obstinacy of the persons against whom we use it or rather indeed Gods rejecting them and it no more makes Confirmation a Sacrament because in it we assure the Persons Confirmed of Gods favour by laying on of hands than it made shaking off the dust from the feet a Sacrament because it was used to assure the persons against whom it was done of Gods rejecting them from his grace and the like may be said of the Sign of the Cross. 12thly To receive a penitent member into the Society of a Church is a particular and Religious Duty Now this the Church of Scotland Orders to be done not only by words but Signs also So in the first book of Discipline in the order for publick offenders The Minister ought to exhort the Kirk to receive that penitent brother in their favours and in Sign of their Consent the elders and chief men in the Kirk shall take the penitent by the hand and one or two in the name of the rest shall kiss and embrace him with reverence and gravity as a member of Christ Jesus From which it appears that this Church for which I suppose you have a value thinks that it is lawful to express our thoughts about religious things by Signs as well as Words And I do not see but taking by the hand kissing and embracing a Man in token that he is admitted as a reconciled member of Jesus Christ is every whit as much a Sacrament as Signing him with the Sign of the Cross in token that he shall not be ashamed to confess Christ Crucified 13thly To confess and acknowledge our scandalous sins to God and his Church is a particular
such Books as I thought most fit and necessary for him When the time drew near that I intended to have an Ordination he Petitioned to be admitted to the Publick Examination which was to precede it I read the petition written in his own Hand but the Latin so false and improper that it appeared by it he was not Master of the Grammar much less of the Latin Tongue I consulted some of the Clergy about him and came to a resolution not to admit him but to do it in the softest way I cou'd I discours'd him again shewed him his Defects and that it wou'd Expose him to be Examined publickly especially at the same time when others were to be Examined of Parts and Learning and therefore advised him to delay till some other time and till he cou'd get a Certificate from the Colledge without which I could not regularly Ordain him He seemed Discontented and the next thing I heard was that the Sunday after he went to the Meeting and declared against the Church This is the Truth of the matter and I must declare that I never admitted any to any Order Benefice or Curacy in this Diocess who were not by many Degrees his Superiors in Learning Parts and Steadiness of Thoughts and as to those that were Preferred in the Diocess before my coming to it I suppose that Mr. Sq. himself will have more Modesty than to compare himself with them I must add that he is not the only person has served me at this rate II. And from this you may observe First That no people are more impatient of Discipline than such as would perswade the World that they are the Great Patrons of it and most Zealous for it This Gentleman that is now joyned with you for purer Ordinances and Discipline was so disgusted by the strictness of ours that he left our Church Secondly You may observe that some people are resolved to be Ministers at any rate and when those that have the Keys of the Church will not admit them they leap over the Wall Thirdly You see by this how much Men advance their Reputation and Interest by being of a Party Here is a Gentleman that had so little Reputation amongst us for learning and sufficiency that he was not thought fit to be a Deacon by two Bishops and several Clergy Men And yet by joyning with you most of your Party that knew him in Dublin where they are best able to judge prefer him to many of the Clergy of this Diocess So unjust and partial are Men in their Judgments where their Party is concerned and thus it has been since Divisions were first in the Church St. Paul hints at it 2 Cor. 10. 12. And Tertullian speaks to it in point above 1400 Years ago in his Book De Prescriptionibus where he observes of those that divided from the Church that they Ordained Apost at as nostros ut gloria eos obligent quia veritate non possunt Nusâ— quam facilius proficitur quam in Castris Rebellium 'T were too severe to Translate these words but the meaning is that so a Man left the Church he might have Reputation and Orders easily amongst the divided Parties Fourthly You may observe that it is not always Conviction of Conscience brings Men to your Party Here in the beginning of the week a Gentleman gave in a Petition in his own hand writing and was earnest to be admitted into Orders and being put off next Sunday he declares himself of Your Party against the Church He must have great Charity that will suppose this to proceed from meer Conviction of Conscience Fifthly You may observe how unfit Judges the People are of the Ability and Qualifications of Men for the Ministery and how easy it is to deceive and impose on them in which I have had Experience in three or four other Cases Sixthly This shews the misery and mischief of Parties in the Church and how impracticable they render Discipline I have taken what care I cou'd to obviate this and have refus'd to admit some that were driven out of Scotland by the fury of the Rabble till they brought a Certificate from their Adversaries of their Lives and Conversations and that they had no other Exception against them except their not complying with the Church Government there Established Whether your Party take the same Measures they know best that admitted Mr. Sq. to Preach Sect. XVI Personal Vindication I. THere is one thing further that I am obliged to take Notice of rather indeed to comply with the suggestions of my Friends than that I judge it necessary or so much as convenient It concerns my own Person and not the Cause and I reckon where ever a man that pretends to answer a Book meddles with the Person or Personal Affairs of his Adversary it is a plain Confession that he has the worst of the Argument and that he is forced to make up with Slight and Art what is wanting in point of Reason Yet this Mr. B. has done in several places of his Remarks and has employ'd most of those Arts that popular Lawyers make use of to carry their Clients Cause at the Barr but are very improper to be used by the Advocates of Truth who ought to have no view but the Glory of God the Advancement of his true Worship and the Peace and Unity of his Church I am conscious to my self that I had no other aim in the writing my Book and I hope I may say that the deep concern I had for the due Observation of the Worship of God and the danger of such as neglect it did influence every Sentence in it I had before me the great Obligation that lay on me as a Pastour and Father in the Church even the great and solemn Oath of God made in my Ordination I remembred that the truest Evidences of the presence of the Spirit of Christ and hardest to be counterfeited are Gentleness Goodness and Meekness and I called to mind that a tender Father wou'd not reprove his erring Children nor a Man treat his Friend with Bitterness Pride Scoffing or Lightness That a Pastour has no less reason for bowels of compassion towards his straying Sheep than a Father towards his Children That a Christian was as deeply obliged to Meekness towards his erring Brother as any Man towards his dearest Friend And tho' that Brother be mistaken in his Judgment and alienated in his Affections to the highest degree even to Railing and Madness yet the injured person ought still to treat him with the same gentleness and tenderness and look on all those Extravagancies as the effects of a Spiritual Feaver which to a Mind truly affected with the love of Christ are as little provoking as the ravings occasioned by a natural one and much more to be pitied II. These were the Considerations I had before me and the Measures I took in writing my Book and I hope in God they shall always remain with me and
influence my words and actions and I thank God they yield me a comfort and satisfaction above all that the World can afford me But this was very different from what many of your Party expected they measured me not from what I am or from what I do and say but from the Representations some of themselves had made of me 'T was from these that a rumour went abroad whilst my Book was in the Press that I was publishing a most furious Book full of bitterness and railing and that I wou'd now discover what a passionate angry Man I was This went current But when my Book appeared I thank God it was of a different sort and and very much surprised those whose interest it was to represent me and it otherwise and by all I can learn nothing displeased them more than the Seriousness Charity and Civility with which it was Written III. Mr. B. seems to be sensible that this gives my Book some advantage and takes great care to prevent it Sometimes he makes slight of it sometimes endeavours to expose it as ridiculous But his greatest endeavour is to perswade you that it is not real and sincere in me To make this appear probable he produces several Arguments both in his Preface and in his Remarks In the last he insists on one p. 157. on which he thinks fit to enlarge again in his Vindication p. 25 'T is taken from a Clause in the Leases of the See of Derry whereby the Tenants are obliged not to sett to Mass-Priests or Dissenting Ministers This he thinks will excuse all the hard words he gives me and prove me guilty of unfair dealing but this is to censure Actions before he knows the reason of them as I suppose every body may observe and since it concerns only my own Person I did not think it necessary to make any Apology for it and I assure you my tenderness to you and indeed to our common Christianity obliged me rather to suffer the reproach as I have done in many other Cases than to Publish those things of which I apprehended the common Enemies of our Religion might make advantage And had not the importunity and perswasions of my Friends to whose Judgments I have a Deference required it now from me no provocations of my Answerers shou'd have done it However I shall endeavour to give an account of this matter in the least offensive way I can and if any thing seem hard in it the blame must be justly theirs who gave the occasion IV. I find this Clause verbatim so far as relates to Popish Priests in the oldest Leases of this See of Derry in which there has been since the Reformation a succession of Wise Learned and Pious Men my Predecessors Dr. Montgomery Dr. Babington Dr. Downam Dr. Bramhall Dr. Wild Dr. Mossom Dr. Ward and Dr. Hopkins were Men generally famous for their Works yet remaining and for their Eminent Service they did to the Church of God These found it necessary to put this Clause into their Leases at the first making of them or to continue it in as many as were renew'd So far therefore this is no new Clause it being as I have said in the oldest Leases of the See and put in by Wise and Good Men for good Reasons I found the same Reasons not only to continue it but to extend it to all Teachers Dissenting from the Church and should have thought my self answerable to my Successors if whilst the Reasons were as good I had departed from the wise Conduct of my Predecessors That the Reasons are as good will appear from what follows My Predecessors found that their Tenants liv'd easily as to Rents and freest of any from Exactions or Oppressions and that this made as it still makes those that are averse to the Office and Revenues of a Protestant Bishop yet desirous to be their Tenants That the Popish Priests especially found their Advantage in living under them both to their Temporal and Spiritual Interest for they had such influence on their own Party that none of them durst come in competition with them in taking their Farms and so they had them at what rate they pleas'd and where they had such influence the Protestants durst not take them by which means they were able to keep them waste if they could not get them to themselves which I have effectually found in a Farm where one of them had crept in And as to their Spiritual Interest it was no ill Policy to secure those places where the Bishop had greatest influence I am sure these things are true of your Ministers and these or the like Motives so far prevail'd on them that before the Troubles they had at least one half of their Meetings on the Church Lands Again no one would willingly have a Tenant that looks on him as an Usurper or is sworn to Extirpate him as soon as he can this was a good reason to refuse Popish Priests for Tenants and holds no less against such of your Teachers as adhere to the solemn League and Covenant I must mind you also That Coshering and Exacting on Tenants by way of Meat and Lodging is against the Laws of this Kingdom and the Popish Priests lived by such ways but were not near so oppressive to their Neighbours as your Meetings are Your Sacraments especially are attended with a most oppressive Coshering and so it is and must be where Four or Five thousand meet together from distant places and stay several days And indeed none that live near the Meeting House can call their Meat or Drink or Grass or Houses their own during these times or dare refuse them to those Cosherers if they would live quietly And here I must declare That I had private Information from several of my Tenants of this Oppression and they were heartily glad when they found I had contrived a way to ease them tho' they durst not publickly own it There is a further Reason and that is That Men whose avowed Principle it is to tolerate no body when they have power ought not to pretend to the same Favour with other People that are moderate This is a just Exception against Popish Priests and for ought yet appears it is no less against your Teachers some of which seem to be of as persecuting a Spirit as they and have so far influenced the most zealous of their Hearers that they already persecute as far as they have Power those that Dissent from them insomuch that as I observed before some that are heartily desirous to come to Church dare not for fear of being undone by their Neighbours And no Wonder it should be so since you are taught in your very Catechism to Oppose all False Worship and according to each ones Place and Calling to remove it And Tolerating a False Religion is reckoned in express terms a Breach of the Second Commandment A Clause very unfit for a Catechism that ought to contain only the Principles of our