worship It is easier to agree upon few things than upon many upon great and certain and necessary things than upon small uncertain and unnecessary things and upon things that God himself hath revealed or appointed than upon things that proceed from no surer an Original than the wit or will of man The strict prohibition of adding to or diminishing from the things commanded by the Law-giver of the Church Deut. 12. 3â— doth put such a fear in the minds of multitudes of the loyal subjects of Christ lest by such additions or diminutions in the matters of his worship they should provoke him to displeasure as will bee a certain perpetual hindrance to any common unity or Concord in such humane impositions of which many of the servants of the jealous God will have a continual jealousie With grieved hearts wee now renew the lamentable divisions occasioned already by these Impositions ever since the Reformation in the daies of King Edward 6th and the grievous fruits of those Divisions How they destroyed Charity the character of Christs Disciples and exasperated mens minds against each other How they corrupted mens prayers and other exercises of devotions and made them pray and preach against one another How their tongues were emboldned to the censuring of each other one party calling the other Factious Schismatical Singular and Disobedient and the other calling them Antichristian Proud Tirannical Superstitious Persecutors and Formalists And such language still increasing the uncharitableness and divisions till the increase of imposing rigour on the one side and of impatience under Sufferings on the other side was too great a preparation to those greater calamities which are yet bitter to the remembrance of all whose interests or passions have not Conquered their humanity And the continuance of so much of the causes and effects doth infallibly prove that if the same impositions bee setled upon us the same Heart-divisions will bee still continued Brethren will disdain the name and love of Brethren to each other which yet Christ himself by condiscending and reproving love vouchsafeth to them all Instead of loving one another with a pure heart fervently there will bee if not hating yet grudging at one another censuring and despising one another Which effects will still increase their cause and make one side think that they are necessitated to bee more rigorous in their Coercions and the other think that they are allowed to bee more censorious against those by whom they suffer And how many thousands on both sides by such a stream of temptations will undoubtedly bee carried on in a course of Sin from day to day and by heart sin and tongue sin by Pulpit sins or sins in other parts of Worship will dishonour God and provoke him to indignation against them and the Land wee may not without astonishment and grief of heart foresee or foretell And its easie to foresee how the innocent will bee numbred with the faulty and those that do but feel their sufferings and the sufferings of the Church on these occasions and do but groan and sigh to God and pray for succour and deliverance will bee thought to bee guilty of discontent and faction and bringing the Government of the Church and consequently of the Kingdome into hatred or dislike and so their sufferings will be increased And hee that is commanded by the Laws of humanity to be compassionately sensible of the Calamities of others shall bee thought an offender for being sensible of his own It s easie to fore-see how those expressions in mens Sermons or Prayers or familiar Conference which seem to any mis-understanding or suspicious or masicious hearers to intimate any sense of sufferings will be carried to the ears of Rulers and represented as a crime And nature having planted in all men an unwillingness to suffer and denied to all men a love of calamity and necessitated men to feel when they are hurt and made the tongue and countenance the Index of our sense these Effects will be unavoidable while such Impositions are continued and while a fear of sinning will not suffer men to swallow and digest them and what wrong such divisions about Religion will be to the Kingdome and to His Majesty wee shall not mention because our Governours themselves may better understand it On the other side what universal ease and peace and joy would be the fruits of that happy unity and concord which the reasonable forbearances which wee humbly petition for would certainly produce how comfortable would our Ministerial labours bee when wee had no such temptations burdens or disquietments When wee lay not under the Reproofs of Conscience nor the suspicions or displeasure of our Superiours but might serve the Lord without distraction and bee among his servants without such fears Phil. 1. 14. 1 Cor. 16. 10. How much would the hands of the Builders be strengthened for the work of God when they speak the same things and there are no divisions among them but they are perfectly joyned together in the same minde and judgement 1 Cor. 1. 10. when they are like-minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde doing nothing through strife or vain glory which will never be while the one calls the other factious and schismatical and the other calleth him superstitious and tyrannical but when Christ hath taught us in lowliness of minde to esteem others better than our selves and not to look every man on his own things his own gifts and virtues and worth and interest but every man also on the things of others and till the same mind bee in us that was in Christ Jesus that humbled himself and took upon him the form of a servant and made himself of no Reputation Phil. 1. 2 to 9. How much should wee honour the Body the Spirit the Hope the Lord the Faith the Baptism the God and Father of all Beleevers which are one if wee were one among our selves which will never be till with lowliness and meekness and long-suffering wee forbear one another in love instead of hating reviling and persecuting one another and till wee endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit though given in various degrees rather than an unity in unnecessary things in the bond of peace Ephes 4. 2 3 4 5 6 7. and till the well-joynted and compacted body do edifie it self in love by a due contribution of mutual supply and grow in Christ the proper head instead of contending with it self and dis-joynting and tearing it self into peeces because of our different measure of understanding and our unavoidable differences about some small unnecessary things vers 13 14 15 16. How beautiful would our holy Assemblies be and how delightful the worship of God there celebrated if wee had all laid by the unchristian spirit of hatred envy emulation murmuring wrath variance strife heresies seditions and all uncharitableness and with one minde and one mouth did glorifie God Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Rom. 15. 16. which will never
estéem other better than himself and let all men know that wée are Christs Disciples by our fervent love to one another Let us be heartily and entirely thy Subjects beléeving that thou art just and the Rewarder of them that diligently séek thée kéep us from Atheism Idolatry and Disobedience from Infidelity Ungodliness and Sensuality from Security Presumption and Despair Let us study to please thée in all things Let thy Law bée written in our hearts and let us delight to do thy Will Let our Faith and Lives be ruled by thy Word which is able to make us wise unto Salvation let us love it search it and understand it and meditate in it day and night Let us not please our selves or other men against thee nor be led by the wisdome or desires of the World and Flesh nor regard lying vanities nor through carelesness rashness or presumption offend thée As all Nations must be judged by thée let them be ruled by thy Laws and not make them void by mens traditions nor worship thée in vain teaching for Doctrine the Commandments of men But what ever thou commandest let them take héed to do it Let them add nothing thereto nor take ought therefrom Let us not take thy holy Name in vain but use it in truth and reverence Kéep us from all Blasphemy Perjury Prophane swearing from lying before the God of Truth and from contempt and forgetfulness of thy presence from false unworthy unreverent thoughts or spéeches of God and holy things and from neglecting or abusing thy holy Word and Worship Help us to kéep holy thy Day in remembrance of the blessed work of our Redemption and reverently to attend thée in Publick Worship and obediently to receive thy Word and fervently to call upon thy Name and to delight our selves in Thanksgiving and joyful Praises to thy Holiness in the Communion of thy Saints and let us carefully sée that our housholds and all within our gates do serve thée and not abuse thy holy Day Have mercy on the Kings and Rulers of the Earth that they may escape the Temptations of Worldly Greatness Honours and Prosperity which would captivate them to the flesh and draw their hearts from thée thy Laws and Waies and would engage them against thée and thy Servants And as they are thy Ministers and Magistracy is thine Ordinance sanctifie and dispose them to be Nursing Fathers to thy Church to own thy Interest and Rule for thée Especially have mercy on thy Servant Charls our King illuminate and sanctifie him by thy holy Spirit that above all things hée may séek thy Glory the increase of Faith and Obedience to thy Laws and may rule us as being thy Minister for good not to be a terrour to good Works but to Evil that under him wée may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Have mercy upon all the Royal Family the Lords of the Counsel and all the Nobility the Judges and Magistrates of these Lands Cause them to fear thee and to be Eminent in Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness to protect the Innocent and be a terrour to the Wicked hating Injustice Covetousness and Pride Let every soul be subject to the Higher Powers and not resist Let them obey the King and all that are in Authority under him not onely for wrath but for conscience sake as knowing that they rule by thée and for thée Give all the Churches able holy faithful Pastors and cause them laboriously to preach and rightly to divide the Word of truth to féed thy People with Knowledge and lead them in the way of Faith and Love of Holiness and Peace and to watch for their souls as those that must give account over-seeing and ruling them not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind not as being Lords over thy Heritage but as the Servants of all and Ensamples to the Flock That when the chief Pastor shall appear they may receive a Crown of Glory Let the Congregations know those that have the ruling of them and are over them in the Lord that labour among them preaching to them the Word of God Let them submissively and obediently hear and esteem them very highly in love for their works sake and account them worthy of double honour Let Parents bring up their Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord diligently teaching them thy Word talking of it when they are in their house and when they walk by the way when they lye down and when they rise up that they may know their Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier in the daies of their youth And cause Children to hear love honour and obey their Parents that they may have the blessing of thine especial Promise unto such Let Husbands love their Wives and prudently guide them in knowledge and holiness And let Wives love honour and obey their Husbands as méet helpers to them Let Masters rule their Servants in Holiness and mercy remembring they have a Master in Heaven and let Servants reverently singly and willingly bée obedient and do service to their Masters as to the Lord from him expecting their reward Kéep us from Murder Uiolence and all injury to our neighbours life or health from malice cursing reviling and unadvised Anger Let us not resist evil with evil but forbear one another and not give place to wrath Kéep us from Adultery Fornication and all uncleanness and the occasions and appearances thereof Let us take care as becometh saints that they bée not immodestly named among us and that no Corrupt Communication procéed out of our Mouths Kéep us from Chambering and wantonness from lustfull thoughts and all immodest attire behaviour looks and actions Kéep us from Theft and Oppression and any way wronging our Nieghbour in his Propriety and Estate Kéep us from False witness-bearing lying and deceiving from slandering backbiting unjust uncharitable censuring or reproaching from all perverting of justice and wronging the reputation of our Neighbour and from all consent or desire of such wrongs Kéep us from Envy and from coveting any thing that is our Neighbours to his wrong and from séeking our own or drawing to our selves to the Injury of his welfare but let us love our Neighbours as our selves and do to others as wée would they should do to us Teach us to love Christ and his holy Image in his Members with a dear and special love and to love our Enemies and pray for them that hate and persecute us and to do good to all as wée are able but Especially to them of the Houshold of faith Cause us with patience to submit to all the Disposals of thy Will and wait thy End and to love the demonstrations of thy Holiness and iustice though grievous to the Flesh and kéep us from Impatient Murmurings and discontent and Arrogant reasoning against thy Will Give us
A Petition for Peace with the REFORMATION OF THE LITURGY As it was Presented to the Right Reverend BISHOPS BY THE DIVINES Appointed by His Majesties Commission to treat with them about the alteration of it LONDON Printed Anno Dom. MDCLXI A Petition for Peace To the most Reverend Archbishop and Bishops and the Reverend their Assistants commissioned by His Majesty to treat about the Alteration of the Book of Common-Prayer The humble and earnest Petition of others in the same Commission Most Reverend Fathers and Reverend Brethren THe special Providence of God and His Majesties tender regard of the Peace and Consciences of His Subjects and his desire of their concord in the things of God hath put into our hands this opportunity of speaking to you as humble Petitioners as well as Commissioners on the behalf of these yet troubled and unhealed Churches and of many thousand souls that are dear to Christ on whose behalf wee are pressed in spirit in the sense of our duty most earnestly to beseech you as you tender the peace and prosperity of these Churches the comfort of His Majesty in the union of his Subjects and the peace of your souls in the great day of your accounts that laying by all former and present exasperating and alienating differences you will not now deny us your consent and assistance to those means that shall bee proved honest and cheap and needful to those great desirable ends for which wee all profess to have our offices and our lives The things which wee humbly beg of you are these 1. That you will grant what wee have here proposed and craved of you in our Preface Even your charitable interpretation acceptance of and consent unto the alterations and additions to the Liturgy now tendered unto you that being inserted as wee have expressed it may bee left to the Ministers choice to use one or other at his discretion upon His Majesties approbation according to his gracious declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs And that seeing wee cannot obtain the form of Episcopal Government described by the late Reverend Primate of Ireland and approved by many Episcopal Divines wee may at least enjoy those benefits of Reformation in Discipline and that freedome from Subscription Oaths and Ceremonies which are granted in the said Declaration by the means of your charitable Mediation and Request 2. Seeing some hundreds of able holy faithful Ministers are of late cast out and not onely very many of their Families in great distress but which is of far greater moment abundance of Congregations in England Ireland and Wales are overspread with lamentable ignorance and are destitute of able faithful Teachers And seeing too many that are insufficient negligent or scandalous are over the Flocks not meaning this as an accusation of any that are not guilty nor a dishonourable Reflection on any party much less on the whole Church wee take this opportunity earnestly to beseech you that you will contribute your indeavours to the Removal of those that are the shame and burdens of the Churches and to the Restauration of such as may bee an honour and blessing to them And to that end that it bee not imputed to them as their unpardonable Crime that they were born in an Age and Country which required Ordination by Parochial Pastors without Diocesans And that Re-ordination whether absolute or hypothetical bee not made necessary to the future exercise of their Ministry But that an Universal Confirmation may bee granted of those ordained as aforesaid they being still responsible for any personal insufficiency or crime Were these two granted The Confirmation of the Grants in His Majesties Declaration with the liberty of the Reformed Liturgy offered you and the restoring of able faithful Ministers to a capacity to bee serviceable in the Church of God without forcing them against their consciences to bee Re-ordained how great would bee the benefits to this unworthy Nation How glad would you make the peoples hearts how thankful should wee bee for the cause of Christ and the souls of men to those that grant them and procure them being conscious that wee seek not great things for our selves or for our Brethren that wee are ambitious of no greater wealth or honour than our daily bread with such freedome and advantage for the labours of our Ministry as may most conduce to the success the increase of holiness and peace wee shall take the boldness to second these Requests with many of our reasons which wee think should prevail for your consent chusing rather to incur whatsoever censures or offence may by any bee taken against our necessary freedome of expression than to bee silent at such a time as this when thousands of the servants of the Lord that are either deprived of their faithful Teachers or in fears of losing them together with the freedome of their consciences in Gods worship do cry day and night to Heaven for help and would cry also in your ears with more importunate Requests if they had but the opportunity as now wee have And 1. Wee beseech you bear with us while wee remember you that you are Pastors of the flock of Christ who are bound to feed them and to preach in season and out of season and to bee laborious in the Word and Doctrine but are not bound to hinder all others from this blessed work that dare not use a Cross or Surplice or worship God in a form which they judge disorderly defective or corrupt when they have better to offer him Mal. 1. 13 14. Is it not for matter and phrase at least as agreeable to the holy Scriptures If so wee beseech you suffer us to use it who seek nothing by it but to worship God as neer as wee can according to his will who is jealous in the matters of his worship If indeed yours have more of strength and ours of weakness yet let not Fathers cast the children from the House of God because they are sick or weak and need the more compassion let not our Physicians resolve their Patients shall all bee famished or cast off whose temperature and appetites cannot agree to feed on the same dish with the same preparation and sauce Hee that thrice charged Peter as hee loved him to feed his Lambs and Sheep did never think of charging him to deny them food or turn them out of his fold or forbid all others to feed them unless they could digest such forms and ceremonies and superscriptions as ours 2. May wee presume to minde you that the Lord of the Harvest hath commanded us to pray that more Labourers may bee sent into the Harvest For still proportionably the Harvest is great and the Labourers are few Mat. 9. 37. And that the Lord hath not furnished them with his gifts in vain nor lighted these Candles to put under a Bushel but to bee set on a Candlestick that they may give light to all that are in the house Mat. 5. 15 And that there are few
Nations under the Heavens of God as far as wee can learn that have more able holy faithful laborious and truly peaceable Preachers of the Gospel proprotionably than those are that are now cast out in England and are like in England Scotland and Ireland to bee cast out if the old Conformity bee urged This witness is true which in Judgement wee bear and must record against all the reproaches of uncharitableness which the Justifier of the Righteous at his day will effectually confute Wee therefore beseech you that when thousands of souls are ready to famish for want of the bread of Life and thousands more are grieved for the Ejection of their faithful Guides the Labourers may not bee kept our upon the account of such Forms or Ceremonies or Re-ordination at least till you have enow as fit as they to supply their places and then wee shall never petition you for them more 3. And wee beseech you consider when you should promote the joy and thankfulness of His Majesties Subjects for his happy Restauration whether it bee equal and seasonable to bring upon so many of them so great calamities as the change of able faithful Ministers for such as they cannot comfortably commit the conduct of their souls to and the depriving them of the Liberty of the Publick Worship calamities far greater than the meer loss of all their worldly substance can amount to In a day of Common Joy to bring this causelesly on so many of His Majesties Subjects and to force them to lye down in heart-breaking-sorrows as being almost as far undone as Man can doe it this is not a due requital of the Lord for so great deliverances Especially considering that if it were never so certain that it is the sin of the Ministers that dare not bee Re-ordained or conform its hard that so many thousand innocent people should suffer even in their souls for the faults of others 4. And if wee thought it would not bee mis-interpreted wee would here remember you how great and considerable a part of the three Nations they are that must either incur these sufferings or condole them that undergo them and how great a grief it will be to His Majesty to see his grieved subjects and how great a joy it will bee to him to have their hearty thanks and prayers and see them live in prosperity peace and comfort under his most happy Government 5. And wee may plead the nature of their cause to move you to compassionate your poor afflicted Brethren in their sufferings It is in your own account but for refusing Conformity to things indifferent or at the most of no necessity to salvation It is in their account for the sake of Christ because they dare not consent to that which they judge to be an usurpation of his Kingly power and an accusation of his Laws as insufficient and because they dare not bee guilty of addition to or diminution of his Worship or of worshipping him after any other Law than that by which they must bee judged or such as is meerly subordinate to that Suppose they bee mistaken in thinking the things to bee so displeasing to God yet it is commendable in them to bee fearful of displeasing him and careful to obey him a disposition necessary to all that will bee saved and therefore to bee loved and cherished in them by the Pastors of the Church who should bee very tender of putting them to suffering or casting them out of the Church because they dare not do that which they judge to bee so great a sin against the Lord deserving damnation to themselves Should not the love of Christ command us to bee tender of those that are so tender of his honour and to take heed what wee do to men for taking heed of sin and being afraid to offend the Lord and should not the special love of Christians and the common love of men command us to bee loath to drive men by penalties upon that which they judge doth tend to their everlasting damnation and which indeed doth tend to it because they judge it so to do For hee that will do that which hee thinks to bee so great a sin as is before described to please men or to escape their punishment no doubt deserveth the wrath of God and should wee not bee loath to drive men upon sin and condemnation though wee were sure that their own infirmity is the occasion If it bee said that by this Rule nothing shall bee commanded if men will but scruple it Wee answer Things in themselves necessary or commanded by God must bee commanded by man because scruples make them not unnecessary and make not void the Laws of God and it will bee a sin even to the scrupulous to disobey But things dispensible and of themselves unnecessary should not bee rigorously urged upon him to whom they would bee a sin and cause of condemnation It is in case of things indifferent in your own judgement that wee now speak If it bee said that it is humour pride or singularity or peevishness or faction and not true tenderness of conscience that causeth the doubts or non-conformity of these men Wee answer such crimes must bee fastened onely on the Individuals that are first proved guilty of them and not upon multitudes unnamed and unknown and without proâ—â— and you know it is the prerogative of God to search the heart and that hee hath said Judge not that yee be not judged for with what judgement yee judge yee shall bee judged and with what measure yee mete it shall bee measured to you again Mat. 7. 1 2. And who art thou that judgest another mans servant to his own Master hee standeth or falleth yea hee shall bee holden up for God is able to make him stand Rom. 14. 4. And who can pretend to bee better acquainted with their hearts than they are themselves For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him 1 Cor. 2. 11. And they are ready to appeal to the dreadful God the searcher of hearts and the hater of Hypocrisie that if it were not for fear of sinning against him and wounding their consciences and hazarding and hindering their salvation they would readily obey you in all these things That it is their fear of sin and damnation that is their Impediment they are ready to give you all the assurance that man can give by the solemnest professions or by oath if justly called to it And one would think that a little Charity might suffice to enable you to beleeve them when their non-compliance brings them under suffering and their compliance is the visible way to favour safety and prosperity in the world And if men that thus appeal to God concerning the intention of their own hearts cannot bee beleeved even when the State of their worldly interest bears witness to their professions but another shall step into the Throne of the heart-searching God
and your Father and to my God and your God And lest you should say that hee will not own those little ones that whether for Truths sake or for their infirmities do bear disgraceful titles in the world Remember that at the day of udgement hee will say Inasmuch as you did it not or did it to one of the least of these my Brethren you did it not or did it unto mee Mat. 25. 40. 45. If his Elect cry to him day and night though hee bear long hee will avenge them and that speedily Luke 18. 7 8. Bear with us while wee add this terrible passage which wee once before made mention of Mat. 18. 5 6. Who so shall receive one such little childe in my name receiveth mee but whose shall offend one of these little ones that beleeve in mee it were better for him that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and that hee were drowned in the depth of the Sea Undoubtedly if you consider duly by such passages how Christ will take it to have his servants not onely notvisited not-relieved but to bee afflicted not onely in body but in soul with that great affliction to be cast out of the Ministry or Church for an unavoidable dissent in things indifferent you will never joyn with those that shall stretch forth a hand against them for such a cause as this If yet the old pretence be made that they suffer as Schismaticks and disobedient wee must say again if any shall make men disobedient by imposing things unnecessary which they know are by learned pious peaceable men esteemed sins against the Lord and then shall thus heavily afflict them for the disobedience which they may easily cure by the forbearance of those impositions let not our souls come into their secret nor our honour be united to their Assembly If they shall smite or cast out a supposed Schismatick and Christ shall finde an able holy peaceable Minister or other Christian wounded or mourning out of doors let us not be found among the Actors nor stand among them in the day of their accounts when tribulation shall be recompenced to the Troublers of beleevers 2 Thes 1. 6. 14. Wee beseech you also to consider that men have not their understandings at their own command much less can they be commanded by others if they were never so willing to beleeve all that is imposed on them to bee lawful they cannot therefore beleeve it because they would the intellect being not free And to dissemble and say and swear and do the things which they beleeve not is such an aggravated hypocrisie being in the matters of God and joyned with perfidiousness as wee may suppose cannot render them acceptable to any that have not renounced Religion and Humanity much less should they bee constrained to it And when it is known that mens judgements are against the things imposed and that penalties are no means adapted to the informing and changing of the judgement but to force men to do the things they know wee conceive they should not bee used and so used in the case of things indifferent where they are not necessary to the common good and where the sufferers have never had sufficient means to change their judgements If it be said that it is their own sault that their judgements are not changed and that the means have been sufficient Wee answer That it is their fault is the point in question which the Sword can easilier take for granted than the Tongue or Pen can prove But if it be so it is their fault as it is that they are the Sons of Adam partakers of the common corruption of humane nature and as it is their fault that they are not all of the highest form in the School of Christ above the common ignorance and frailties of beleevers and that they are not all the most judicious Divines of the most subtile wits and had not the same education and society to advance your opinions and represent things to their understandings just as they are represented unto yours And if men must be cast out of the Church or Ministry because they are not wiser than such learned men as the Pastors of the most of the Reformed Churches and as Hildersham Barâ—e Parker Ames Dod Ball Nichols and many such others as have here taken this conformity to be a sin how few alas how very few will there be left And if it be said that men do willingly keep out the light We must say that few men are obstinate against the opinions that tend to their ease and advancement in the world and to save them from being viâ—ified as Schismaticks and undone and when men profess before the Lord that they do impartially study and pray for knowledge and would gladly know the will of God at the dearest rate wee must again say that those men must prove that they know the dissentors hearts better than they are known to themselves that expect to be beleeved by charitable Christians when they charge them with wilful ignorance or obstinate resisting of the truth 15. And wee crave leave to ask whether you do not your selves in some things mistake or may not do so for ought you know and whether your understandings are not still imperfect and all men differ not in some opinions or other And if you may mistake in any thing may it not be in as great things as these can it be expected that wee should all be past erring about the smallest Ceremonies and Circumstances of worship And then should not the consciousness of your own infirmity provoke you rather to compassionate humane frailty than to cast out your Brethren for as small failings as your own 16. And wee further offer to your consideration whether this be doing as you would be done by would you be cast out for every fault that is as bad as this and doth this shew that you love your neighbours as your selves Put your selves in their case and suppose that you had studied conferred and prayed and done your best to know whether God would have you to be Re-ordained to use these Forms or Ceremonies or Subscriptions or not and having done all you think that God would be displeased if you should use them would you then be used your selves as your dissenting Brethren are now used or are like to bee love them as your selves and wee will crave no further favour for them 17. But nothing more affecteth us than to think of the Lamentable divisions that have been caused and are still like to bee whilest things unnecessary are so imposed And on the contrary how blessed an unity and peace wee might injoy if these occasions of division were removed and wee might but have leave to serve God as his Apostles did As in Doctrinals ten thousand will sooner agree in an Explicite belief of the Creed than an hundred in an Explicite belief of all that Ockam or Scotus have determined So in the matters of Government and
and these words which I command thee this day shall bee in thy heart and thou shalt reach them diligently unto thy Children and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in the house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up Joshuah saith Josh 24. 15. As for mee and my house wee will serve the Lord. And Paul saith of Timothy 2 Tim. 3. 15. From a Childe thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus Then say to the People thus or to this sense YOu have heard Beloved how great a dignity we were advanced to in our Baptism to how great duty wee are all ingaged O search and try whether you have kept or broken the Convenant which you made and have lived according to the dignity of your Calling And if any of you bee Atheists Unbeleevers or Ungodly and love not God above all and neglect Christ and his Salvation and are yet unsanctified and live after the Flesh the Devil and the World which you here renounced As you love your souls bewail your perfidious Convenant-breaking with God Trust not the water of Baptism alone if you are not born again of the Spirit also you cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Joh. 3. 5 6. Baptism will not save you if you have not the answer of a good conscience unto God 1 Pet. 3. 21. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. Much less those wretches that hate Sanctification and despise and scorn a holy life when they were by Baptism engaged to the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier Can you think to bee saved by the Covenant which you keep not O no! your perfidiousness aggravateth your sin and misery Eccles 5. 4 5. When thou vowest a vow to God defer not to pay it for hee hath no pleasure in Fools Pay that which thou hast vowed better it is that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay O bless the Lord that it is a Covenant of such Grace which is tendred to you that yet upon true Repentance and Coversion even your Covenant-breaking shall bee forgiven And therefore penitently cast down your selves before the Lord and beleevingly cast your selves on Christ and yeeld to the teachings and sanctifying operations of the Holy Ghost yet know the day of your Visitation and forsake the Flesh the Devil and the World and turn to God with all your hearts and give up your selves intirely to your Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and hee will have mercy upon you and will abundantly pardon you But if you still live after the Flesh you shall dye And if you continue to neglect this great Salvation there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of Judgement and Fire which shall devour the Adversaries Let no Children bee privately baptized nor any Minister forced to baptize them any where besides in the Publick Assembly unless upon some special weighty cause if there be occasion for baptizing the Adult let the Minister accordingly sute his expressions Of Catechizing and the Approbation of those that are to bee admitted to the Lords Supper SEEing none can bee saved at years of discretion that do not actually beleeve and personally give up themselves in Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Therefore as Parents must do their parts so Ministers must catechize the Ignorant and Diligently labour to cause them both to learn the Form of wholsome words even the Lords Prayer and the ten Commandements and some brief yet full and sound Catechism and to understand the meaning of them and to engage their hearts into the love of God and a holy Obedience to his Laws To this end let the Minister either every Lords Day before the Evening Prayers or at some convenient hour or on some other day of the week as oft as hee can examine publickly such as are not admitted to the Lords Supper and take an account of their learning and understanding the Creed the ten Commandements the Lords Prayer and the Catechism And let him by questioning and explication help them to understand them And let such of the several Families of the Parish come in their turns when they are called by the Minister to bee thus Catechized Also let the Minister either go to their houses or rather appoint the persons aforesaid in their courses at a certain hour and place in the Church or any other fit place to come to him for personal Instructions where hee may confer with those that are unmeet to bee catechized Publickly or unwilling to submit to it and there with humble prudent serious Instruction and Exhortation let him indeavour to acquaint them with the substance of Christian-Faith and Duty and to help them to make sure their Calling and Election and to prepare for Death and Judgement and exhort them to love and to good works and warn them lest they bee hardened through the deceltfulness of sin But let him not in publick or private meddle with Impertinencies or spend the time about smaller matters or singular Opinions nor sift people to know things unfit or unnecessary to bee disclosed nor meddle with matters that do not concern him as a Minister to inquire after But help them to learn and understand and practise the Christian Religion expressed in the Catechism The Catechism LEt none be admitted by the Minister to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper till they have at years of discretion understood the meaning of their Baptismal Covenant and with their own mouths and their own consent openly before the Church ratified and confirmed and also promised that by the Grace of God they will evermore endeavour themselves faithfully to observe and keep such things as by their own mouth and confession they have assented to And so being instructed in the Christian Religion do openly make a credible Profession of their own Faith and promise to bee obedientt o the Will of God A Profession is credible when it is made understandingly seriously voluntarily deliberately and not nullified by contradiction in Word or Deed And that Profession is incredible that is made ignorantly ludicrously forcedly rashly or that is nullified by verbal or practical contradiction And it must bee practice first that must make words credible when the person by perfidiousness hath forfeited his Credit It is not private persons onely but the Pastors of the Church that must approve of this Profession Therefore before any are admitted to the Lords Supper they shall give a good account of their Knowledge Faith and Christian Conversation conformable thereunto unto the Pastors of their respective Congregations or else shall produce a certificate that they have been approved or admitted to the Lords Supper in another Congregation of which they were members and that by an allowed Minister upon such approved Profession as aforesaid If the