evident Ephes 4. 1 2 3 c. I therefore the Prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit See 1 Cor. 1. 10. and Rom. 15. vers 5. 6. ut suprá in the bond of peace There is one body and one Spirit even as ye are called in one hope of your calling One Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all And Rom. 16. 17. Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them That they recommended Uniformity and Order to preserve that Unity is no less evident and upon this account their Order was a Prospect of so much pleasure to the Great Apostle in the Church of the Colossians Col. 2. 5. For though I be absent in the flesh yet am I with you in the Spirit joying and beholding your Order and the Stedfastness of your Faith in Christ * Vide R. P. E. S. Jo. Davenant in Locum When men begin to break Order they grow loose in their Faith both to God and man This is the First Principle 2. The Apostles at their first preaching of the Gospel did not establish that Order which the State of the Church did afterwards require This is evident from those Decrees made in the first Council at Jerusalem Act. 15. and from that of the Apostle The rest will I set in order when I come The Second Principle 3. They exspected such a settlement to be made by those to whom they did intrust the Government of the Church This is evident from St Paul's Epistle to Titus Chap. 1. 5. where he tells him For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldst set in order the things that are left undone according to the Original From which words these two things do naturally follow 1. That at his first preaching of the Gospel St Paul had left some things undone which even in his own judgment were afterwards fit to be done which shews the vanity and falshood of that pretension That because the Apostles did not establish such and such things therefore forsooth they did not think them convenient to be established at all 2. From hence it follows That he exspected the accomplishment hereof from the care of Titus The Third Principle 4. They gave certain Canons or general Rules to direct the Governours of the Church in making such Establishments Such are those mentioned in St Paul's Epistles Let all things be done to the glory of God Let all things be done to edification Let all things be done decently and in order Hereupon * Institut lib. 3. cap. 19. §. 15. Calvin writing of Ecclesiastical Constitutions doth acknowledge some of them to be lawful ut Dei verbo consentaneae as being consonant to the Word of God And * In confes Fidei cap. 5. §. 17. Beza saith Necesse est ut in domo Dei omnia ordine fiant cujus Ordinis una quidem est universalis ratio ex verbo Dei petenda sed non una eadem forma quibusvis circumstantiis conveniens That is It is necessary that in the house of God all things be done in Order of which Order the one Universal Rule or Reason is to be taken out of the Word of God though there be not one and the same form agreeing in all circumstances And again Ejusmodi §. 16. constitutiones saith he quod attinet ad finem fundamentum nempe generale illud decorum quod nobis observandum praecipitur divinae sunt coelestes That is Such Constitutions as to the end and foundation of them to wit that General Decorum which we are commanded to observe are divine and celestial The Fourth Principle 5. They left it to the Judgment of the Governours of the Church to determine of the Particulars to be established according to These Rules That the Church hath power to institute External Rites and prescribe Forms and to make Canons and Constitutions to assist her Children and regulate their Practice in the Publick Worship and Service of God is the Confession of All Churches And this is consonant to the Word of God too For that Word or God by it which is all one gives a charge to the Church as hath been said to doe all things to Edification and the Glory of God and to this end it injoyns her to perform all her Holy Offices decently and in order and to worship God in the beauty of Holiness This the Word of God commands but does not determine the Particulars wherein that Order beauty decency do consist It follows therefore that This Word of God supposeth a Power in the Church to institute Rites and prescribe Forms and make Canons to this purpose And where shal we find this power lodged by the Apostle at that time when there were no Kings that were nursing Fathers to the Church For this cause I left thee Titus a single Person and at least a Bishop in Crete that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting Tit. 1. 5. The Power and Authority is lodged in the Governours that is the Bishops of the Church The Fifth Principle Remember Mr Baxter's Doctrine before mentioned of the Authority of the Governours of the Church 6. That all Subjects and Members of the Church are obliged in Conscience to submit to and obey such Determinations For 't is most certain where some are impowered to command others are injoyned to obey else the Power given to Superiors would be to no effect Hereupon Beza acknowledgeth That although these Ecclesiastical Constitutions be Humane and mutable and do not propriè per se properly by themselves bind the Conscience yet si quidem probae justae sunt if they be just and honest we are so far forth obliged to observe them as they conduce to the Ut Ecclesiae aedificationi cedant offendiculum vitemus Beza ubi suprá edification of the Church and that we may avoid Scandal Thus Beza And the Presbyterian Divines do acknowledge as much in their Grand Debate pag. 92. The Subjects say they are bound to obey a * Was O. Cromwell's a true Authority you thought your selves bound to obey that true or false true Authority in such impositions as they are there speaking of where the matter belongs to the Cognizance and Office of the Ruler But suppose I should scruple my Obedience thinking my Superiour's impositions to be against the commands of God Why even in this case I am obliged to lay aside my own scruples and to bring such thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ who hath commanded me to obey those Hebr. 13. 17. that have the Rule over me My doubting whether the Command
Caesarea and Gregory Thaumaturgus before him at Neocaesarea and all Pastours in Justin Martyr 's and Tertullian 's days What all Pastours that is all Bishops did in those days we have no leisure neither are we much concern'd now to examine Indeed Nicephorus tells us Non omnes quamvis ejusdem Eccles Histor lib. 12. cap. 34. opinionis essent easdem traditiones in Ecclesiis servarunt c. All that were of the same opinion did not hold the same Traditions And they which maintained the same Faith did not observe the same Customs And he gives a reason why the first Ministers of the Word left such observances free to every ones choice Ut quisque non metu ibid. aut necessitate quapiam adductus quod bonum est deligere sequi posset That every one might follow what is good out of choice and not be led to it out of fear and necessity But to fetch the ground of this diversity from the very first Original we may consider that where the Apostles planted the Christian Faith they likewise establish'd such an Order such Rites and Forms as they thought most apt to promote the Worship of God and the Edification of his Church But because they did not consult aforehand about the institution of these Rites c. as they had done about the Faith which they were more chiefly concerned to plant and propagate Evenit ut statos ritus ab aliis diversos suae quisque provinciae servandos tradiderit hence it came to pass that every one of them delivered to his own Province such Rites to be observed as were different from the rest Which Rites so diversly established by them were out of a reverence to their Authority and Memory still retained by their Successors for so Nicephorus concludes Dissensiones tales in Ecclesiis invaluisse opinor reverentiâ ibid. eorum qui eis ab initio praefuerunt qui illis deinde successerunt Nam ii tanquam leges quasdam ab illis acceptas per manus posteris tradidere non satis pium neque ferendum esse arbitrati si traditiones in quibus educati essent non honorificè colerent sed contemptim rejicerent The like hath * Hist Eccles lib. 7. cap. 19. Sozomen before him But there is besides another reason for the continuance of this diversity of Rites and Usages in the Churches of several Nations because the rage of Tyrants would not suffer the Governours of the Church to meet together to consult and by their common Suffrages to establish one Form and Order for the Universal Church And yet what was done by Basil and other Bishops in their several Dioceses doth not at all favour the Pretensions of these Dissenters for whatever the Bishops were allowed to doe yet the single Presbyters were alwaies obliged to use such forms as were duely examined and prescribed for them witness that ancient Canon which we find though with some small variety in three or four * Justell Codex Can. Eccl. Afric Can. 103. Conc. Carthag 3 Can. 23. Conc. Milevit Can. 12. several places in these words Placuit ut Preces vel Orationes seu Missae quae probatae fuerint in Concilio sive Praefationes sive Commendationes seu Manûs impositiones ab omnibus celebrentur Nec aliae omnino dicantur in Ecclesia nisi quae à Prudentioribus tractatae vel comprobatae in Synodo fuerint nè fortè aliquid contra Fidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum They would allow no Prayers to be used in the Church but such as were compiled by the most Prudent or approved of in a Synod lest through Ignorance or Carelesness any thing should be delivered contrary to the Faith And we find that such as were intrusted with Cure of Souls were obliged to give account at certain times to the Bishop whether the rites and ceremonies of that Church to which they were subject were observed The words of the * Franc. Synod Capitul li. 5. cap. 2. Synod are these Presbyter in parochia habitans in Quadragesima rationem ordinem Ministerii sui sive de Baptismo sive de Fide Catholica sive de Precibus ordine Missarum Episcopo reddat ostendat And this was a thing judged most reasonable by * in Epist ad Magnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ignatius a Contemporary with the Apostles Let there be nothing amongst you that may divide you saith he but be united to your Bishop by him be subject to God in Christ As therefore the Lord doth nothing without the Father for I can doe nothing Joh. 5. 35. of my self saith He so also let it be amongst you whether Priest or Deacon or Lay-person let him doe nothing without the Bishop Let nothing seem reasonable to you without his judgment for that thing whatsoever it be is irregular and offensive to God Come unanimously together to your devotions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let there be one Common Prayer one mind one hope c. From all which evidences it appears that the Liberty which we find used among the Ancients of varying in the publick Forms or Rites of the Church did not belong to single Presbyters but was the peculiar priviledge of the Bishops in their several Dioceses and through the good Providence and Grace of God that liberty was at last restrained and an Uniformity brought into the Church For so * ubi suprà lib. 12. c. 34. in pr. Nicephorus acknowledgeth Mores saith he qui antea quidem sic variè obtinuerunt nunc autem per Gratiam Dei cum tempore mutati ad consentientem concordiam apud omnes pervenerunt And besides the good Providence of God concurring to this effect 't is very well observed by a very worthy person * Mr. Thorndike The Service of God at Religious Assemblies pag. 398. that The reason why a Set Order in the Parts of Publick Service is now preferred before the disposition of the Guides of the Church from time to time is the same for which men chuse to live by positive Law rather then by the Will of their Rulers And a little after he saith Besides in Ecclesiastical matters by a set Order we attain Uniformity with other Churches to help towards the unity of the whole we avoid disputes about what is most fitting which in matters of this probable nature must needs be endless we avoid jealousies and umbrages upon that which is not customable But now 't is high time for some dutiful Sons to step in and plead the Cause of the Fathers of the Church and are not these Dissenters very like to prove good Advocates for them Heare them argue And how injurious is it to the Publick Offficers of Christ the Bishops and Pastours of the Churches to be called private men But you know if you be not too hasty to consider it Volenti non fit injuria there is no harm done
upon Ministers but what they may perform in ignorance and idleness as well as the judicious and the diligent Let any man but consider what a charge is laid upon Priests at their Ordination and he must needs be convinced that the Work then and there assigned them is enough to exercise all their ablest Parts as well in the Pulpit as out of it and therefore you might have consulted your own credit better had you forborn that following exprobration That in Catechizing in private Baptism and Communion and in the Visitation of the Sick their work is also such as a School-boy may doe as well as they To which impudent Slander we shall confront the Charge aforesaid and that will be sufficient to confute it Thus then the Holy Church conjures all that enter into those Sacred Orders We exhort you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to have After the Oath of Supremacy is administred this Charge is given to the Priests to be Ordained in remembrance into how high a dignity and to how chargeable an Office ye be called that is to say the Messengers the Watchmen the Pastours and the Stewards of the Lord to teach to premonish to feed and provide for the Lords Family to seek for Christs sheep that be dispersed abroad and for his Children which be in the midst of this naughty world to be saved through Christ for ever Have alwaies therefore printed in your remembrance how great a treasure is committed to your charge for they be the Sheep of Christ which he bought with his death and for whom he shed his bloud The Church and Congregation whom ye must serve is his Spouse and his Body And if it shall chance the same Church or any Member thereof to take any hurt or hinderance by reason of your negligence ye know the greatness of the fault and also of the horrible punishment which will ensue Wherefore consider with your selves the end of your Ministery towards the children of God towards the Spouse and Body of Christ and see that you never cease your labour your care and diligence untill you have done all that lieth in you according to your bounden duty to bring all such as are or shall be committed to your Charge unto that agreement in Faith and Knowledge of God and to that ripeness and perfectness of age in Christ that there be no place left among you either of Errour in Religion or for Viciousness in Life Then forasmuch as your office is both of so great excellency and of so great difficulty ye see with how great care and study ye ought to apply your selves as well that you may shew your selves kind to that Lord who hath placed you in so high a dignity as also to beware that neither you your selves offend neither be occasion that others offend Howbeit ye cannot have a mind and a will thereto of your selves for that power and ability is given of God alone Therefore ye see how ye ought and have need earnestly to pray for his holy Spirit And seeing that you cannot by any other means compass the doing of so weighty a work pertaining to the salvation of man but with doctrine and exhortation taken out of the holy Scriptures and with a life agreeable unto the same ye perceive how studious ye ought to be in reading and learning the Scriptures and in framing the manners both of your selves and of them that specially pertain unto you according to the Rule of the same Scriptures And for this self-same cause ye see how ye ought to forsake and set aside as much as you may all worldly cares and studies Now we appeal to your own Consciences whether the Church imposeth upon Priests when she ordains them to the Ministery no other work then what a School-boy may doe as well as they or but such a work as in ignorance and idleness they may perform as well as the judicious and the diligent If you will be so just as to repair the Honour of the Church as you are obliged for thus aspersing and reproaching her we will grant your following assertions with some additional amendments That the Priests Ministerial work is to shew men their sins and to preach the wonderful Mysteries of the Gospel to help men to search and understand the Scriptures and to search and know their hearts and to know God in Christ and to be subject to principalities It seems Obedience to Governours makes not one of the links in your chain of Vertues that leads men to Salvation and powers to obey Magistrates the King as Supreme and them that are commissioned under him as his Ministers to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's to pay all due reverence and submission to all Governours as well Ecclesiastical as Civil that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all Godliness and honesty and upon this account to hope for the glory that is to be revealed and fervently to pray for the success of his endeavours and the blessing of the Gospel on the people and chearfully to praise God for his various benefits And we confess this cannot be well done without abilities Though it becomes not a good Christian to make ostentation of his good works yet we acknowledge 't is his duty so to make his light shine before men that they may see it and be edified by it to the advancement of God's Glory And our own judgment and experience tells us as well as you that God ordinarily proportioneth the success and blessing to the skill diligence and holiness of the Instruments and blesseth not the labours of ignorant ungodly droans as he doth the labours of faithful able Ministers And also that the readiest way to bring the Gospel into contempt in the world and cause all Religion to dwindle away into Formality first and then to Barbarism and Brutishness is to let in an ignorant idle vicious Ministry that will become the peoples scorn yea that this is the way to extirpate * And will not Sedition and Rebellion provoke all Princes and Civil Magistrates to root out that Religion that doth teach and patronize such practices Christianity out of any Countrey in the World and 't is a sign it is decaying apace when men grow ignorant of the nature and reasons of it and unexperienced in its power and delightful fruits and when the Teachers themselves grow unable to defend it We say therefore with Gelasius in Epist ad Episcopos Lucaniae cap. 18. Literis carens Sacris non potest aptus esse Mysteriis He that wants Learning is unfit to dispense the Sacred Mysteries and as it is in Concilio Toletano 4. cap. 24. Ignorantia mater cunctorum Errorum maximè in Sacerdotibus vitanda est qui docendi officium Populi susceperunt Ignorance the Mother of all Errors is especially to be avoided in the Priests whose Office it is to instruct others Hereupon we do
where it is resolved That we may easily be deceived by our Enlargements because there are many winds and gales blowing from several quarters which may set the Soul in active going and doing as Popular applause high opinions of the Preacher taking-Expressions in Prayer flourishing Novelties and notions in a Sermon Satanical infusions common and ordinary Inspirations of the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to Reprobates Hebr. 6. 4 5 6. All which or any of which may so draw and delight the heart that as Orpheus 's Pipe they may make the heart dance in a duty and yet for all this it may be possible yea probable the heart may dance after the Devil's pipe And you must give other men leave to have their own experience and observation as well as you And when we see in you more Humility Self-denial Resignation of will and self-conceit and more obedience to Superiours which are under a divine command and of indispensable necessity to Salvation we shall be the more inclinable to believe your pretensions that some proficiency in the way of solid Vertue and Devotion is to be made by the course you plead for But it is not the affirmations of all the men in the world speaking in their own behalf and in favour of their own conceits that can so far unman us as to make us interpret those practices to be the effects of the Holy Spirit which contradict the Principles of Christianity extinguishing both Charity and Obedience But admit the effects you boast of were really the gifts of God and truly tended to the advancement of his pure Love in you would this warrant you to contemn or omit the established Liturgie of the Church All the Masters of Devotion that I have met withall do resolve otherwise To this purpose consider what Augustin Baker Sanct. Soph. ubi suprà cap. 2. saith in his Treatise of Vocal Prayer As for that Vocal Prayer saith he either in Publick or Private which is by the lawes of the Church of obligation no manner of pretences of finding more profit by internal exercises ought to be esteemed a sufficient ground for any to neglect or disparage it For though some Souls of the best disposition might perhaps more advance themselves towards perfection by internal exercises alone yet since generally even in Religion Souls are so tepid and negligent that if they were left to their own voluntary devotions they would scarce ever exercise either Vocal or Mental Prayer therefore inasmuch as a manifest distinction cannot be made between the Particular dispositions of Persons it was requisite and necessary that all should be obliged to a Publick external performance of divine Service praising God with the tongues also which were for that end given us that so an Order and decorum might be observed in God's Church to the end it might imitate the imployment of Angels and glorified Saints in a solemn united joyning of hearts and tongues to glorify God This was necessary also for the edification and invitation of those who are not obliged to the Office who perhaps would never think of God were they not incouraged thereto by seeing good Souls spend the greatest part of their time in such solemn and allmost hourly praying to and praising God Thus he And this perhaps you may be induced to subscribe to if we can get you in a good mood as you now seem to be for you tell us in your next words that some Formes have their laudable use to cure the errour and vice that lyeth on the other extream It seems then there is a Mediocrity and now you are resolved to hit it In good time for hitherto you have done more then insinuate That Formes are not a worship of God in Spirit and truth not effectuall and fervent but a dead Religion that ordinarily they hurt the heart that they are a dose of Opium that doth extinguish understanding-serious-godliness and the life of Religion What could you have said more to load them with contempt yet now you confess some Forms are not only lawful but laudable This looks like Bellarmine's Tutissimum that gave a defeat to his whole designe He writes five Books against Justification by Faith and then concludes the Controversie with a Confutation of all that he had written of it Propter incertitudinem propriae justitiae periculum inanis gloriae Tutissimum est fiduciam totam in sola Dei misericordia benignitate reponere So our Deformalists after a miserable stuctuation are glad to come to an Anchor to their Tutissimum and to take fanctuary from an impendent storm by confessing that some Forms are Lawful Lawfull but for what for nothing but to make a medicine to kill the itch that of pride curiosity and novelty the errour and vice that lyeth on the other extream 'T is well Forms are good for something in your opinion But let a wise and an humble man use them and they will serve very well to entertain and exercise a sound Faith and a sincere Love and a substantial Devotion But by this we see these men can speak truth if they list especially when their reputation and interest is concerned in it witness that Position of Mr Baxter's * In his Unsavoury Volume against Mr. Crandon or his Nosegay presented to Mr. Joseph Caryll page 83. ante finem which if his Party had the conscience to practise it would put an end to our Divisions and settle us in a happy state of Uniformitie for thus he saith Let me be bold to tell my opinion to my Brethren of the Ministry that though I deny them to have either credit or Authority against the known Word of God yet so great is their credit and Authority even as Teachers Guides of the Church in Causes agreeable to the Word And in Causes to the people doubtful and unknown and in Causes left by the Word to their determination the Word determining them but generally that I think the ignorance of this truth hath been the main cause of our sad Confusions and Schisms in England and that the Ministers have been guilty of it partly by an over-modest concealing An important truth falls from the pen of Mr. Baxter if he could say and hold their Authority and partly by an indiscreet opposition to the Papists errour of the Authority of the Church and I think that till we have better taught even our Godly people what credit and obedience is due to their Teachers and Spiritual Guides the Churches of England shall never have peace or any good or establisht Order I say again we are broken for want of the knowledg of this truth and till this be known we shall never be well bound up and healed This is Mr Baxter's sober Concession and he thought it so signal a verity when he wrote it that he set a hand in the margent to remark it and point it out to every Reader as most worthy his observation Let him preach the same Doctrine still and