not done in obedience it is not done in faith and then you will confesse it is sinne and then you know we may not conforme unto it though we might prevent thereby never so great and fearefull mischiefes and procure never so many benefits blessings it cannot be done in obedience of faith unlesse a commandement goe before for looke whom you obey his servants you are that therefore cannot be Gods divine service which God doth not by his divine word command or that cannot be an action of faith which is not commanded by the word and every action of religious use which is not of faith is expressely forbidden Try your selues therfore whether in conforming to kneeling in the act of receiving the Lords holy Supper you stand in the faith or no if you say you looke to God and haue powred out your soules before him as your consciences and many other can beare you witnesse and you dare appeale to him how deere your ministery is unto you and how loath you are to leaue your flockes to a company of roaring boyes or raging beasts c. I answer if you looke to God then you must look to him in his word for else whatsoever you intend he doth not intend to be God unto you if you haue not his warrant therein you do not looke to the true God no more then the Barbarian or Turke doth but do make a very Idoll of him I meane our God doth not blesse or approue of any thing of religious use in his worship as good and lawfull to bee conformed unto but onely those things which himselfe requires in his word and he that will accept of any thing which is not commanded in the word is an Idoll and not the true God for all things concerning him or his worship are onely made known to his Church by the scriptures and the Churches never erre in these things but when they want the commandement or warrant of the word the defect whereof all the learning devotion wisedom authority and zeale of the whole world cannot supply I confesse you make goodly shewes for excusing your conformity but what haue you sayd or what can you pretēd which Ieroboam would not haue accepted at the hands of those Priests who left their places and charges because they would not conform to the ceremonies of the calues And if it be lawfull in you why not in them I confesse that which you obiect that their conformity overthrew the very substance of Gods worship but not that you will not say which was inward but that only which was outward and which is required in the second commandement for the doctrine of the inward substance was in the intention of that provision preserued sound but the forme of Gods outward worship was mainly and diversly I confesse perverted and I also acknowledge that your conformity is nothing so grosse and abhominable as theirs yet this I dare say and testifie that it is of the same nature and that it corrupts and perverts this part of Gods worship in the act of receiving the body and bloud of Christ so that though they differ and differ very greatly yet it is onely in the Species and not in the Genus Without further contention therefore let us bring it to the true rule Whence doth your conformitie come It is a matter concerning Gods outward worship and divine service and so appertaining to the second commandement What must bee the cause of this for if the cause be good the effect is good faith is the cause of all true obedience and that obedience or conformity which is not an effect of faith cannot by all the trickes and devises in the world ever be made good for where the cause is there is the effect and where the effect is there is the cause the effect can never bee in truth whatsoever is conceited or pretended where the cause is not If therefore kneeling as it is urged bee an effect of faith then haue you a precept a promise for it is in the word upon which your faith is grounded and so your obedience and conformity is holy but if it bee not in this very kinde required therein it cannot possibly be an effect of faith and therefore set the best face you can upon it it is but an Idoll of mans invention and therefore conformitie thereto upon what pretence or in what case of extremity soever is unlawfull and wicked It is confessed and professed publikly by some of you that the magistrate sins greevously in requiring this conformity but yet you do well in yeelding thervnto rather then to suffer such a world of incōveniences which you wisely carfully foresee wil otherwise fall vpon Church Cōmonweale Cōpare your case with former times Dauid sinned grevously though not presūptuously as I think some of you do not in bringing the arke from Gibeah in a new Carte this Arke or outward worke the glory of Israell in this iorney was so dangerously shaken by the oxen at the threshing floore of Ornan as if Vzza had not put to his hand it was like to haue bin broken all to peeces did not Vzza cōmendably therfore in putting forth his hand to preuent such a mischeif is not this your very argument many inseparable euils cleaue to this cōsequence he was not stricken for touching the ark for that the Leuits might do but onely for the manner and order of touching it being in a cart which was not warranted by God and I tell you the best and most learned men in the whole world are but as oxen and put the Arke of Gods word into the most temperate Cart of their newest and best reformed Invention they will grieuouusly shake the verie substance of it Seing then the sacraments and whatsoeuer is sacramentall as a gesture in the act of receaving is are ordeined not by man but by God not for any worldly carnall or civill respects as to testifie our obedience to the magistrate which yet I confesse must most cheerfully be manifested but meerly and properly for spirituall vses euen to nourish our soules by sealing vp unto our hearts the assurance and certeintie of the couenant of grace in the free pardon of all our sins through the sole merit of the most pretious blood of our Lord Iesus Christ most liuely represented and truly or effectually exhibited to every faithfull beleeuer herein let vs hold fast the right order and forme of administration thereof in all the signs elementall or ceremoniall euen in all the actions gestures or ceremonies which by Christ himself in the first administration being vsed and neuer after repealed not any other by his warrant established come within the compasse of diuine institution Ieast wittingly though wee pretend vnwillingly conforming to the alteration of the signe though but ceremoniall wee depriue our selues of that which stands in relation therevnto which is substantiall The sacraments with all the essentiall properties therein together with the scepter of
of a spirituall or holy use and such none can be but those gestures and ceremonies onely which are ordained by our holy God In all and euery one of which being faithfully vsed as there is certeinly and infallibly a blessing to be obtaind so whatsoeuer of religious vse is known not to be ordained by God but onely by man it is at least vtterly voide of all spirituall blessing if not filled with contrary effects and therefore not in any respect to be conformed vnto But such is this ceremony and therefore vnlawfull They that conforme to a right gesture or ceremonie in the sacrament and want the inward eye mouth and hand of the soule receiue onely the elements with Iudas not the spirituall things signified by which vnworthines they eate and drinke their owne damnation because they discern not the Lords body though they truly discerne vse the Lords gesture wil not by any means conforme to any other for they trample vnder foote the blood of Christ as an unholy thing not that they esteem it so in their minde for this trampling is inward or spirituall but where faith is wanting there is unworthy partaking and faith is as necessary in the action or gesture of taking as in the act it selfe for this whole action of the sacrament and not some speciall or principall parts therin is the evidence or seal of our assurance of partaking the divine mysteries or holy things signified even of our true and spirituall cōmunion with Christ To conforme then to a wrong gesture having no promise of any blessing cannot be an action of faith aud therefore sin Eating and Drinking are sacramentall phrases applying that to the soule which is proper to the body but doe necessarily imply that there must of absolute necessity be a spirituall eating and drinking in the very act of the corporall eating or els no benefit or spirituall blessing can possibly be sealed up by that action which necessarily inferres that such a gesture is onely lawfull in this action as in the nature thereof holds proportion with eating and drinking and hath relation thereunto which onely a table gesture doth and therefore was selected and chosen by Christ the Lord of the sacrament and sanctified in the institution and so not onely by his using preferred before all other but no other being commanded in the word it is thereby made onely usefull in the act of receiving and no other to be conformed unto If a corporall or visible and locall coniunction which yet cannot profit the soule or any other learned device of the spiritualtie were sufficient to bee conceited or with strong imagination to be beleeved then indeed any gesture or ceremony of carnall devising were indifferent or good enough and might safely be conformed unto but faith being invisible lookes according to the nature thereof not to reason and sence wisedom and discretion or other like humane considerations but to the things that are invisible and therefore in all the actions and ceremonies of Gods worship dare onely conforme to such as by his appointment who is invisible haue an inseparable relation by his divine institution to the invisible things signified or represented yea and verily exhibited in them and dare not conform to any other though by the learned Cleargie the same relation be appointed thereunto Reason and Sence even in Nicodemus cry mainly out How can this be It is impossible And in others Can this man giue us his flesh This is a hard saying who can choose but be offended at it So also in Naaman Why should not the rivers of Damascus being used with the like good intention and purpose be as full of vertue to wash away sin or leprosie as that of Iorden it is but an idle conceit of guiddy heads that makes this difference yea what good argument can any such finde out that is able to assure their consciences they do well in suffering for refusing conformity herein Even so concerning this blessed sacrament some cry out How can a peece of bread or a suppe of wine nourish my soule or increase my faith or patience humility and contentment Others which is a branch springing from the same root with open mouth exclaim Why should not all gestures in the act of receiving be alike or any gesture in the worship of God though deuised by man be indifferent What reason can bee given that one should be better then another and therefore why should not kneeling be as good as the table-gesture Here wisedom learning discretion reason and experience in a temperate and graue modesty lay hand upon their mouthes and for peace sake in this case of extremity by silence doe subscribe but faith knowes full well as a thing never denied unlesse by carnall and worldly minded persons that every thing is therefore onely good and better then all other because God hath commanded it and that nothing can possibly be of good or holy use in the holy worship of our most holy God but that onely which himselfe hath commanded instituted or ordained and therefore that whatsoever of religious use in his service is not in the word directly commanded is by direct consequence by the same word forbidden my reason is because every action of Gods worship is either performed in obedience or disobedience if it be in disobedience though in a case of extremity and danger or in case of commodity and advantage is it not if performed against our knowledge direct rebellion as in Saul And you cannot for shame say that your conformity is obedience unlesse a commandement from God go before For if our holy intentions and good considerations and purposes or zealous devotions could make our devised gestures and actions in Gods service works of obedience which of all the Kings of Iuda had not iust cause to punish and kill the Prophets for reproving them for their inventions which had as many good intentions as any in these dayes can haue But the old rule holds Whatsoever is not done in faith especially in actions gestures and ceremonies of religious use is sinne If then you bring faith to make triall of the lawfulnesse of these things in question it will not hearken what Canons this Convocation made nor regard what that Councell decreed or what such a State commanded or such reformed Churches practised or those reverent preachers godly people conforme unto but what God commands or what saith the Lord in his word and in this particular controversie faith retires to the institution wherein is set downe upon divine record what the Apostles received of the Lord concerning the gesture for their direction in laying the foundation for the ceremony in the act of receiving the Sacrament in any Church whatsoever yea faith dare not conforme to any thing of divine use in Gods publicke worshippe without Gods direct warrant in the word though all the wise and learned men in the world do never so highly commend and extoll it So that if it be
verie child of perdition invented and ordeined for this is a most undoubted truth looke how farre the commaundement extends so farre doth the blessing of the commander euen of Iesus Christ our Lord extend and no further Therefore whatsoeuer in the same sacrament you haue not a commandement for and is of necessary vse therein you haue no promise from Christ for his blessing thereon dare wee then conforme to a gesture which the Lord hath not promised to blesse yea which being not warranted by his word he will verely curse and bring contempt vpon though all the world blesse it I confesse the table gesture doth not so liuely expresse and call to remembrance the death of Christ his torments and breaking of his body his greevous passion and sheading of his most pretious bloud as some other ceremoniall signes do for which cause it was not ordained to that end and the breaking of the bread and powering out of the wyne were appointed as perfectly sufficient for that purpose and vse but no other gesture in the world can possibly so liuely expresse our communion with Christ our Lord through our assured pettaking truely and really the verie things themselues and the whole merit thereof which spiritually are represented and exhibited to euery faithfull receauer in the visible elements assuring vs that they are as verely ours as if wee had done and suffered the same things our selues which are herein called to our remembrance Let not conformity therefore to any other gesture intimate a grevous indiscretion in Christ either in leauing this waightie matter vncerteine and to be varied according to the humors of times or if making it certeine then in choosing and so causing all his Apostles representing all the communicants to the end of the world to conforme to a gesture in the act of receaving nothing so deâ—rnt and seemly as that which Antichrist ordained especially nothing so comely and significant as the similitude thereof which others hauing purged haue also canonized In the institution of this holy sacrament there was nothing vsed or approued by our blessed Lord but what was holy necessary and neuer being by him repealed is still most pretious Let all that loue him labour to keepe it from the vile and neuer conforme to any humane deuise in the stead thereof which all the canons of all the learned men in the world cannot possibly make a holy or pretious vse It is necessary for al that desire to be saued or to haue by worthy pertaking this sacrament assurance of falvation to haue good assurance for their certeine persvvasion in these things vvhom therefore in al hearty humility pray and beseech that they labor and striue to get the vvedding garment and it vvill quickly teach them the supper gesture Revel 14 3. And they sang as it were a new song before the throne and before the fowre beasts and the Elders and no man could learne that song but the hundred forty and fowre thouand which were bought from the earth Verse 4. These are they which are not defiled with woemen for they are Virgins these follow the Lamb whither soeuer he goeth these are bought from men being the first fruits vnto God and vnto the Lamb. Verse 5. And in their mouth was found no guile for they are without spot before the throne of God Ezek. 16. 2. Sonne of man cause Ierusalem to knowe her abominations Ps 64. 2. 3. Hide me from the conspiracie of the wicked and from the rage of the workers of iniquity which haue whet their tongue like a sword and shoote for their arrowes bitter words Hebr 2. 8. Thou hast put all things in subiection vnder him and left nothing that should not bee subiect to him Epes 1. 22. FINIS 1. Ioh. 5. 19 Eph. 5. 8. Ioh. 12. 35. Ioh. 8. 12. Ioh. 17. 17. Gal. 2. 11. Numb 15. 30 heb 3 13. 15 with Act. 3. 22. Ioh. 4. 25. Ro. 4. 23. ver 24. Phil. 2. 13. ps 119. 113. ps 119. 104. 120. Heb. 4. 2. with 3. 19. Act. 26. 28. Rom. 11. 32 Luk. 24. 25 Esa 53. 1. Ioh. 12. 43. Ioh. 5. 44. vers 47. Ioh. 4. 50. Eccles 3. 14. psal 95.