judgement zeale courage constancy unity unamity in the love of the Truth that such a perfect Reformation may be wrought as Christ at this time calleth for as his word appointeth as all Gods people every where thirst after and as the whole Antichristian faction is afraid of that so when Christ alone shall be set upon his Throne over our soules to rule us according to his word and to dwell among us by his Spirit the Kings throne may be for ever established in justice and judgement and Gods people in this Land may enjoy both inward and outward peace unto the day of Christ and so our posterity after us may blesse God and for ever call this Parliament The blessed Parliament Let the Reader correct as here he sees cause Errata PAge 4. line 1. reade 3. hundred l. 11. blot out 1. p. 6. l. 12. r. possibly be l. 20. r. as is usuall p. 7. l. 10. r. may be proved p. 11. l. 19. r. truly ancient p. 16. l. 8. r. order sake l. ult. r. of false p. 20. l. 10. r. of Prelates p. 16. l. 11. r. forme of Liturgie p. 24. r. in the Test. l. 26. r. Commandements of men p. 28. l. 23. r. grievances p. 31. l. 18. r. accommodate p. 34. l. 11. r. and is surest p. 38. l. 9. r. out of the way p. 50. l. 16. r. said Articles p. 66. l. 4. r. and lay p. 67. l. 14. r. 〈◊〉 CASES OF CONCIENCE CASE I. Whether Diocesan Bishops as they are commonly called be by Divine right THe answer is negative They are not The reasons are First Because the Scripture knoweth no such creatures as Diocesan Bishops for the Bishops mentioned in Scripture are none other than Presbyters whereof one or moe were set over their several congregations respectively as we clearly reade Tit. 1. 5 7. Act. 20. 17 â—8 So Act. 14. 23. compared with Philip 1. 1. So as Presbyters Bishops in Scripture are convertible termes every Presbyter a Bishop and every Bishop a Presbyter Secondly Because all such prelaticall jurisdiction and domination as our Diocesans usurpe and exercise is expresly forbidden by Christ himselfe as Mat. 20 25 26. Mark 10. 42 43. Luke 22. 25 26. Thirdly Because the Apostles condemned all such jurisdiction and domination as our Prelats use As 2 Cor. 1. 24. 2 Cor. 11. 20. 2 Thess. 2. 4. 1 Pet. 5. 3. 3 Joh. 9. 10. Fourthly Because Apostles themselves whose successors Prelats pretend to be never used any such jurisdiction as the Prelats doe neither in Ordination of Ministers nor in excommunication both which they doe most grosly abuse nor in making of Canons or setting up or imposing of Ceremonies both of meer humane invention which the Apostles utterly condemned Gal. 4. 9. 10. Col. 2. 8 c. Fiftly Because the Prelats are never able to prove by any demonstration from Scripture that their jurisdiction is of Divine authority their allegations are meere pervertings of scripture as they alledge first Christs ordaining twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples here was an inequality say they Ergo a superiority of jurisdiction But neither can hee prove here any such authority as they pretend or much lesse any subordination of the seventy unto the Twelve for the Twelve neither ordained nor sent forth the Seventy Secondly they alledge the post-scripts after the second Epistle to Timothy and after that to Titus which say That those two were Bishops But 't is cleare that those postscripts are no part of the Text as Beza well sheweth Nor are they to be found in the vulgar Latine translation which was at the least an hundred yeares after Christ Timothy and Titus were both Evangelists not resident anywhere but as the Apostles called them from Country to country as we read in Pauls Epistles and if they were to bee called Bishops according to the scripture they must have beene Bishops over one Congregation respectively Thirdly they aledge those seven Angels 1 Revel 2 3. These say they were seven Bishops This they can never prove And if Bishops yet Diocesans they were not seeing for some hundreds of yeares after there were no such Diocesse extant And our last Translation in the contents of the second Chapter of the Revelation calls those Angels the Ministers of those Churches And for the Angel to be meant of one single man doth imply many absurdities as that God should destroy a whole Church for one mans sake for God threatneth the Angell of Ephesus if hee repent not to remove his Candlesticke out of his place to wit that whole Church But God never doth so there is not in all the whole scripture any one example that God ever rooted out a whole State or Church generall or particular for one mans sinne be he Magistrate or Governor And if God for one pretended Prelates sin should remove or destroy a whole Church as that of Ephesus as there he threatens the Angell who alone is charged with one onely sinne which was a declination from his first love Then what security or safety can the whole Church or State of England long promise to it selfe so long as it harboreth in the bosome and bowels thereof such a crew and confederacy of most notorious and apostatised Prelates who have not now declined in some degrees from the faith formerly professed but have openly oppressed and persecuted the Preachers and preaching of the Gospel and that even unto bloud And againe to goe about to proove the lawfulnesse of Prelacy by the Word of God from a word of a darke and figurative signification against cleer and expresse testimonies of Scripture to the contrary is most absurd and too presumptuous For for Angell here to signifie a Prelate cannot possibly because the Scripture elsewhere as before damneth all Prelacy in the Church of Christ And there be many other reasons to confute them that these Angells were no such Bishops other than Scripture Bishops as aforesaid and that which was spoken to one was by a Senechdochae spoken to all as is usually in Scripture and cleare in all those seven Epistles Sixtly The wisest and learnedest of the Prelats at this day among us doe warily decline the Scripture in this point dare not stand to their authority as being point blanke against them but they fly to Custom and antiquity as the Papists doe for all their unwritten Traditions CASE II. Whether the next Age immediately succeeding the Apostles be not a sufficient warrant for Prelaticall jurisdiction seeing it may be mooved say they that there were then Bishops THe Answer is negative first because it is not a sufficient warrant to build the government of the Church upon any Humaine example which hath not expresse warrant from Gods Word Secondly Because those who were there called Bishops cannot be proved to have been Diocesan Bishops or to have had or exercised such a jurisdiction as our Prelates usurpe Thirdly could that be proved yet being not according unto but directly against the Scripture
Reformed Protestant Churches beyond the seas have their set formes of publique prayer and sacraments 'Ts true but I take it that the Ministers are not tied to those forms further than they will themselves As we see the Ministers of the Kirke of Scotland now in England use no set formes of prayer but doe discharge the duty of prayer with an excellent freedome of spirit with such an apt accommodation thereof to the present condition of the hearers and of the state of Gods church as that it serves greatly to the edification and raising up of the spirits of Gods people sympathising with it and is first of all other kindes of prayer to speed with the Prayer-hearing God who best knowes the meaning and language of that spirit of his by which such prayers are poured forth And surely were this well exercised by our Ministers in England in publique as I know it is by many both Ministers people in private it would no doubt much facilitate and hasten the accomplishment of that great worke of a thorow-reformation so happily begun and hopefully proceeded in if flesh and bloud bee not too much consulted with and humane policy which should have no hand in setting out or authorising any devised forme of Gods worship imposed on the conscience too much relied upon CASE VIII What is the most ready and easie way or Method of finding out or obtaining Christs government FOr resolution It is usuall with those that stand for the Hierarchy to stop all ways of finding this out by laying many stumbling blocks in our way But if we will goe roundly to worke first of all of necessity all false government as that of the Hierarchy must be quite taken out of the way as the maine stumbling blocke As hee that intends to build a new house in the place where the old standeth must first pull downe the old and rase it from the very foundation that hee may lay a new foundation to beare up the new fabricke But because he that thus intends to build doth usually make a draught or model of his house before named so it is thought necessary by some that a modell of Christs government be first drawn up according to which the new fabrick may be in a readinesse to bee erected presently upon the removal of the old This indeed stands with good reason especially for the satisfaction of all doubts and for the better accommodation of the Church and as a preparation of the materialls to the more speedy setting forward of the worke of Reformation And yet this I dare say That if in the first place the Hierarchy with all the trumpery and baggage of their Ceremonies will-worship in Gods service were quite abandoned and taken away so as the ground where these degenerate plants doe grow were cleared and purged that not a root of them were left the work of Reformation were more than halfe done so as Christs governement would even sponte sua of its owne accord come in and be set up without the noyse of so much as a hammer especially in all such Congregations where godly and discreet Ministers are Yet not so as that we can expect such a perfection at the first specially in this land which hath been so long pestered and corrupted with the tyrannous and licentious prophane government of the Prelates and where godly Ministers are so scarse and most men through long custome and want of meanes as before are not by reason of ignorance though perhaps too quicke sighted in worldly matters so well fitted to apprehend and to entertain such an exact government as God requires and his Word prescribes CASE IX Whether though the Prelacy with its usurped jurisdiction Lordships Tempralties Power Pompe c. be quite removed out of the wayes yet it be not expedient at least if not necessary to retaine the name of Bishops as a title appointed to those who are to be the principall among and above other Ecclesiasticall persons in the government of the Church FOr answer First we ought not to abuse those titles which the Scripture appropriates and ties to the persons and office of the true Pastors of the Church by impropriating them from the true owners and transferring them to such as at the best beeing considered as Pastors over their severall Congregations respectively have but a common right with other Pastors and no peculiar title as proper to themselves alone And wherefore shall such onely be still called Bishops more than others As having the only oversight over all other Churches and their Ministers and that by being invested in a perpetuity of such a dignity What is this but a clipping of those wings and a payring of those clawes which will in time grow againe * Can the Aethyopian change his skinne or the Leopard his spots Can we so quickly forget what spirit the spirituall ambition of these men is of Or can we imagine that they will leave their old haunt in frequenting the Court and in courting the favor of great ones and from whose corrupt flatteries not the eares of the best Princes can plead an exemption And may wee not justly feare that if but the stump of this banefull tree be left unstubd up by the roots so as not so much as the bare long usurped name thereof do remaine may not the root still spread it selfe under ground insencibly and the stem through the sent of water put forth such sprouts and fruits as by the bitternesse thereof therof the whole land may be troubled And may it not be just with God yet againe to bring more plagues upon this State by its suffering of such miscreant remainders when hee had given so faire an opportunity to cut them off root and branch Did not Saul for sparing one Agag lose his kingdome And did not Ahab for sparing the life of his false brother Benhadad lose his owne life And were not those Canaanites thornes and prickes in the Israelites eyes and sides Nor is it so small a matter to alienate the property of a name or title from the right owners to whom alone God hath made it peculiar and proper For such an alienation is an alteration not onely of the true property of the name but also of the nature of that office to which it was first given of God For as is shewed before the name of Bishop is proper quarto modo to every Pastor over that Congregation to which hee is lawfully called and the name Episcopus or in English Bishop or Over-seer sets forth the office of such a Pastor over his flocke So as to take away this name from the Pastor and to appropriate it to one single man set over other Ministers to wit one that is by man stiled and denominated a Diocesan Bishop What is this but utterly to pervert overthrow Christs ordinance and the nature of his true Church and the office of a true Pastor who being stripped of his proper title is
withall stript of his office and so of his flock wherof another now is made the Overseer or Bishop and the title and Office of a Curate onely is left him according to the Collect for Bishops and Curates Or if there be a mentall reservation to every Minister of a congregation of the office of Pastorship yet when the title of Bishop is given to one above him even thus also is an invasion made upon Christs owne title and prerogative who is the onely {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the chiefe Shepheard or chiefe Bishop of his Church besides whom and above whom all the Pastors acknowledge none And if of Pastors some onely be called Bishops and the rest not here also Christs sheepehooke is wrung out of his hand as where he is called the Shepheard and Bishop of our soules So easie a thing it is by the alienation or impropriation of a name to set up such an office and government in the Church as wherby Christs government the proper office of his true Ministers are cast to the ground trampled under foot Moreover if ever this governement of Bishops falsly so called shall bee set up or continued in maner aforesaid yet farre bee it from those Worthies of the land whose justice is so cleare and unpartiall in other things and namely in the cutting off of all Monopolies in the civill State to erect or ratifie or any way to countenance such a Monopoly in Christs kingdome so derogatory to his incommunicable prerogative and to that stile and office wherein he hath so highly dignified and intrusted all faithful Ministers For what a Monopoly is this to take away the title wherein the Office of all true Pastors is comprehended and to transfer it to one alone among many Ob. But here it may be objected That the Reformed Churches beyond the seas as even Geneva it selfe have their Overseers which is a title and office equivalent to our Diocesan Bishops Episcopus signifying an Overseer why then is it not as lawfull to have the like in England I answer The case is farre different for such Overseers or Moderators as in other reformed Churches they are called as in the Kirke of Scotland are chosen by the Ministers and Elders and that but for one yeare and whose office is to call the Synods at certaine fixed times and to collect the votes the like But some say that our usurping Bishops shall bee perpetuall for their lives and how farre the power of their place and dignity may be extended especially when they have their election from the Court either immediate and absolute per se or by the means of a Conge de lier as whom so designed above the Ministers of the Diocesse in stead of the Deane and Chapter are bound to elect Or if they be but Triennial so to come under the visitation of a Trienniall Parliament yet who knows but such spirits may so work as in time to make Parliaments as geason as heretofore when some of them have confessed that they never dreamed to see a Parliament againe Or if they shall be continued from three yeare to three yeare yet this is also more than is used in forreine Reformed Churches And however for them to retaine the name of Bishop still as before is against Gods Word and not onely derogatory to Christs true Ministers for the present but also very prejudiciall to their liberty when such Bishops holding their favor in Court and their neerenesse to the Chaire of State may by that means grow awfull to those their Curates among whom some and perhaps too many may be found ready to prostitute their officiousnesse unto their Bishop in stead of Christ out of a hope to be made the heires apparant of the Bishopricke which though it be now cropt and deplumed yet will be still a bait for ambition which must be doing and will rather play small game than sit out All which considered I leave it to the Wise to judge what may bee the consequents thereof whether by this means either we or our children may come to see as great corruption both in doctrine and manners as now we doe For as I sayd before the time may come when God in his justice may deny this State the like opportunity so armed with a necessity of reformation as we neither could have wished nor any more can hope for to reforme Episcopall insolencie Or suppose a possibility of Prelates to become no worse than as the Parliament shall leave them yet the least rag of Prelacie making a rent in Christs coat as it beeing the head of such a Government as is condemned by the Word of God ought no more to be pieced to Christs livery seeing it destroyeth Christian liberty both in Ministers and people And all this I say ariseth from the very name of Bishop so misplaced for which cause it ought to be with the whole Bishopricke utterly extirped and that no lesse than the heathen Romans rooted out the very name of the Tarquins for the tiranny which they had exercised CASE X. Whether the whole Hierarchy being abolished the 39 Articles which were agreed upon in 62 by the Archbishops and Bishops c. in both Provinces doe any longer binde or that Ministers are bound to subscribe unto them I Answer First That these 39 articles taken conjunctim together no man can with a good conscience rightly informed subscribe unto them For secondly There be some of those articles which are very false as Article 20 which saith The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and authority in Controversies of faith Both which are false as before is noted and were added since the same article was first made in King Edward the sixt his dayes Againe the 36 Article is no lesse false which saith The booke of ordination of Archbishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests c. doth containe all things necessary to such consecration and ordering Neither hath it anything that of it selfe is superstious and ungodly And therefore all so consecrated and ordered according to the Rites prescribed c. wee decree to bee rightly orderly and lawfully consecrated and ordered Now to this article all Ministers subscribe although they be false Bishops consecrated after the order of Rome and false Priests that are by false bishops so ordered Thirdly Art 3. it is sayd As Christ died for us and was buried so is it to be beleeved that he went down into hell Which going downe into hell imports a locall going downe into the place of hell which hath no proof in Scripture nor holds any proportion or analogie of faith but crosseth the truth of Scripture and the current of all sound interpreters and therefore not to bee beleeved as Christs death and buriall Fourthly some Articles are made of late by the enemies of grace the Prelates of so doubtfull and double a sence as those especially about Grace and Freewill that they have procured a
we ought not to regard it Fourthly the very next age after the Apostles produced many grosse errours and superstitions as Eusebius tells us and as the Apostles premonished Act. 20. 29. yea they complained of it in their own times while they yet lived For the mysterie of Iniquity saith Paul doth already worke c. which mysterie was that of Prelacy as appeares clearely from that Text where the Man of sin who exalts himself over the Church is set forth as the head and top of that mysterie namely of the Hierarchy which is and hath been the Lâ—rna or source of all iniquity And Jerome who lived in the fourth Century said That Prelation over the rest of the Ministers was a thing of humane presumption and not of Divine Ordination and though it was first devised for a remedy against schisme yet it proved in time the greatest schisme that ever was namely the schisme of Antichrist and all his crew of Prelates from Christ the Hierarchy being a meer enmity against Christs kingdome betweene which two there is as great a Chasma or gulfe as between Paradise and Hell CASE III. But seeing Episcopacy is of very great and reverend antiquity as they say is it not best to reduce the present Prelacy to the antient condition of Bishops in the Primitive Church NO unlesse they can proove these Bishops to bee such as Gods Word alloweth Wee reverence that antiquity which is joyned with verity But antiquitie without verity is oldnesse of error as said old Tertullian When one asked Christ If it were lawfull for a man to put away his wife for every cause Christ gave no indulgence at all but reduced that antient abuse among the Iewes to the primitive institution of God in Paradise Secondly The matter in hand is of higher moment than to be regulated by any humane ordinance or reduced to any antiquity other than the Scripture it selfe For the thing here in question concernes no lesse than the honour of Christs Kingdome and his royall prerogative in the government of his kingdome as we shall further see Thirdly that which is originally vicious cannot by tract of time bee made good Custome we see hath not made Prelates better but worse and worse in all ages An evil egge brings forth an evill Bird And Christ saith An evill tree cannot bring forth good fruit And Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall bee hewen downe and cast into the fire And Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be plucked up by the roots And Either make the tree good and the fruit good or make the tree evill and the fruit evill If therefore the tree of Prelacie be originally and in its owne nature evill as having no foundation in Scripture as being none of Gods planting it ought to be so far from being a patterne for its antiquity as it ought utterly to be rooted up as being a novelty and not antiquity for that only is truly currant which is antiently true CASE IV. But if the Prelacy be plucked up and quite taken away what government shall be left for the Church of God FOr resolution whereof wee are to consider these necessary things First That that Government alone be set forth which Christ himselfe hath left us in his Word For who but the King and Law-giver of his Church and kingdome of Grace should give Lawes and appoint how it shall be governed Secondly we are not to think that Christ who was the Law-giver of the Old Testament was not also the Law-giver of the New and hath left us sufficient direction therin for the government of his people both for faith and manners Now in the Old Testament all must bee done according to the Pattterne shewed to Moses in the Mount even to the least pin in the Tabernacle So also for the Temple and the forme thereof David received all in writing by the Spirit of God 1 Chr. 28. 12. 19. No place is left nor power given to men to invent any thing or impose the least ceremony in the worship of God So in the New Testament is layd downe a perfect platforme of wholsome words which is profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction for instruction in righteousnesse that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto every good worke CASE V. But we see great difference in mens opinions concerning that forme of Government which Christ hath left in his Word What then shall we do in this case or what is that forme of Governement which we shall pitch upon FOr answere hereunto first however all such governement as is contrary unto and expresly condemned in the Word of God such as the Hierarchy is ought in no case to be admitted or maintained Secondly as wee cannnot doubt but that Christ hath left an exact prescript forme of governement in his Word for the Church of the New Testament so we ought diligently in the use of all good meanes to enquire after that good old way and to finde as much of it as wee can and to follow what we know Thirdly if after all our search there be not a full agreement in all godly mens judgements in some things which seem somwhat more difficult or doubtfull we must not therefore either reject so much as is cleare or yet breake Communion and fellowship with those Churches which differ from us in judgement or practise so long as they maintaine not any government which cannot be warranted by the Word of God holding that rule of the Apostle Let us saith he as many as be perfect be thus minded God shall reveale even this unto you Neverthelesse whereto we have already attained let us walke by the same rule let us mind the same thing CASE VI How can the Church be without prelates in these respects especially 1. For ordaining of Ministers 2. For inflicting of Censures 3. For calling of Synods 4. For determining of doubts arising in matters of Faith 5. In appointing of Ceremonies 6. For Orders sake 7. For Confirmation of children 8. For dedication of Churches 9 For the forme of Doctrine FOr answer hereunto First in generall there is no need at all of any such Officers in the Church as are not of any divine Institution as Prelats are not as aforesaid yea such officers in stead of any profitable usefulnesse are most unprofitable and pernicious as the Lord saith to false Prophets I have not sent them therfore they shall not profit this people at all Secondly and particularly First Prelates are no way requisite or necessary for ordaining of Ministers First because they ordaine rather a new order of Priests than true Ministers for which cause the Booke of Ordination calls them Priests whereas true Ministers are never called in the new Testament priests Secondly They ordaine no true Ministers of the Gospell if wee may beleeve their practise but rather a sort of dumbe Priests for when they have ordained a
full Minister as they call it having put the Bible into his hand saying Take thou authority to preach the Word of God yet for all this hee may not must not preach at all till he have obtained the Prelates License which he must purchase for a good fee Again they make such Priests as are dumb dogs and cannot barke being meere Ignoramuses and Sir John-Lacke-Latines abusing those words Receive thou the holy Ghost And Take thou authority to preach the Word of God And lastly They make no true Ministers of Christ seeing they bind all with the Oath of Canonicall obedience to be subject to their lawlesse laws in the execution of their Ministry Secondly There is no use nor need of Prelates for inflicting of Censures Their power practise of Excommunication is altogether unlawfull a meere usurpation and contrary to Gods Ordinance and that in many respects First because the Prelate is not the Pastor of that Congregation whose member is cut off by Excommunication Because the Prelate doth it alone hee or his Surrogate and this perhaps either a Lay-man or a dumb priest without any consent of the people Thirdly he excommunicates a man for every triviall cause that without due summons rashly and for his fee absolves him without any repentance or reformation without satisfaction to the people offended Whereas excōmunication is the highest censure is to be done by the Minister congregation joyntly after much means used to reclaim the offēdor for grievous scandals not to be restored without hearty repētance in a sad serious solemn maner Lastly if Prelats for the causes here alledged be of no use for the high censure of excommunication how much lesse need is there of thē for inflicting corporall or criminall punishment upon reputed Delinquents as deprivation of liberty by imprisonmēt of the ministry by deprivation degradation suspēsion deprivation of means and livelihood by imposing of intolerable fines and restraining men from the exercise of their particular Calling to the undoing of them and theirs Thirdly for calling of Synods cannot this bee without a Prelate may not this be by a Law dormant giving liberty when occasion shall be to have a Synod for the better ordering whereof a Moderator for the time being is by votes elected Fourthly For determining of doubts arising in matters of Faith what need is there for Prelats Are they fit or competent Iudges in such things Yea are they not herein egregious usurpers presumptuous and arrogant men Yea Antichrists in sitting thus in the Temple of God over mens consciences as Lords over mens faith Is not this a meere evacuating of the authoritie and sufficiencie of the Scripture which is the sole judge and rule of Faith Yet this Prelates presume to doe and challenge as their proper right so as in the twentieth Article which is of the Authority of the Church these words have beene of later dayes foisted in namely that the Church hath authority in Controversies of faith Fiftly Neither in appointing of Ceremonies are Prelates needfull Yea for prelates or Church or any humane power to ordaine and impose Ceremonies to binde the consciences in the worship of God this is expressely condemned and forbidden both by Christ himselfe and by the Prophets and by the Apostles Man may not impose the least Ceremony in Gods worship if hee doe he therein denies Christ Col. 2. 19. he holds not the Head And yet the aforesaid Article boldly affirmes saying The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies So as this Article whether meaning by Church the Prelates as they meane it or any other humane power ought to be to Christians no article of Faith or binding any mans Conscience Sixtly For orders sake for what order-sake are Prelates necessary or any way requisit what order they keep all men know what order can there be in a Babylonish goverment as the prelatical altogether is 7. For confirmation of children This also is a Babylonish Sacramēt as if it did confer some grace ex opere operato or some vertue dropping out of the Bishops Lawn sleeve Indeed this confirmation is a pretty knack to win credit to the Prelacy frō the blinde Vulgar which to everie wel taught Christian is both superstitious and ridiculous 8 For dedication of Churches this is a most notorious Romish Popish superstition is rather a meer prophanation than any dedication except it be to superstition idolatry as they at Rome do use their Temples they would make the world beleeve that by their many superstitious ceremonies in crossings censings adorations the like which they use in their dedication there goes forth a vertue by which holynes is infused into the wals pews especially into their sacred chancel Ninthly for the form of Liturgy if we goe no farther than our Service booke which is an extract out of Romes Latine service Missall or Masse-booke as it is confessed in the Booke of Martyrs the Romane Latine being turned into English if there were no more in it than this that it is the forme of Romes Worship and so as King Iames once called it an ill sayd Masse it might a little startle such Christians as hold that Christianity to be the purest which hath least conformitie with Antichrist and his superstitiōs For if wee be commanded to come out of Rome to have no communion with her idolatrous service let it then be well considered whether Christians may with a good conscience be present at the English Liturgy which is for the maine the Masse turned into English For although it be objected that it is purged from the Popish drosse yet if it should be brought to the Touchstone or tried in the Text let the wisest then judge how free from Popish drosse it is when therein they shall finde Romish superstitious Ceremonies maintained and prest upon mens consciences as the Surplice Crosse in Baptisme kneeling at the Sacrament standing at the Creed attended with their severall significations as if man had a power to set up any significant Ceremonies in Gods worship when as wee finde all kinde of signes and ceremonies in Gods service under the Old Testament though ordained by God himselfe to be utterly abolished by Christ and forbidden to Christians under the New Testament and much more all such as are of humane invention all which are of that nature as the Apostle cals them the Yoke of Bondage to such as are intangled therein exhorting all Christians to stand fast in the libertie wherewith Christ hath made us free And Col. 2. he plainly shewes all such ordinances to be an evacuation of Christs death and so an apostacie from Christ And no Christian I hope will plead for the use of humane ordinances in Gods worship when Christ hath abrogated all ceremonies of divine institution and hath left no footstep for any one Ceremonie in the New Testament and flatly condemns all commandements of men
in Gods Service It beeing also a strange presumption for any man to think that either he hath authority to prescribe how God should bee worshipped or that God should be pleased with any such will-worship when in stead of being pleased hee saith In vain they worship me teaching for Doctrine the Comments of men For surely with vaine worship God is neither pleased nor honoured Againe seeing we are here fallen upon the consideration or examination of the Service booke let all wise hearted and well instructed schollers in Christs schoole that have learned the art of separating the pretious from the vile but tell me what they think of Apocryphall bookes publiquely read in Churches as if they were the holy Scriptures What of the whole Letanie so stuffed with Tautologies or vain repetitions What of the prayer in the Letanie and of the Collect wherein Bishops or Prelates are prayed for being Antichristian and false Bishops and all other Ministers are prayed for as being the Curates of those Bishops than which what can be a greater reproach and shame to the Ministers of the Church of England What of so many carvings of Scriptures into Epistles and Gospels with their severall Collects for the maintenance and celebration of Saints days called Holydayes What of the lame and incongruous yea senseles translations of those sundry Scriptures with the Psalmes What of prayers at the buriall of the Dead What of Churching of women aliâs Their Purification as some call it and which answers to that under the Law What of Priestly absolution with many more particulars too long here to rehearse And in a word What of so many prayers injoyned to be read enough to blunt the edge of any true devotion and so to tyre out the strongest sided Minister as hee hath neither strength nor time left for Gods Ordinance namely the preaching of the Word And to say the very truth this kind of long Service was devised by the Popes successively to that very end namely to entertaine the people with a blinde devotion and to retaine them in ignorance when now no roome was left for preaching which was by this meanes thrust by the head and sholders out of their Churches And thus what a deale of pretious time is taken up with a long dull and dead forme of prayer which might and ought to be spent to edification of Gods people on the Lords owne Day which should be sanctified not in humane devises but in Gods owne Ordinances to the glory of Him who is the Lord of the day I say againe for I speake nothing definitively as passing myne own private judgement of these things let this wise and grave Senate now assembled for a thorow-reformation and removall of all abuses and grievanand primarily in the matters of God and of Christ maturely judge CASE VII Whether any set forme of a Liturgie or publique Prayer be necessarie to bee used in the publique Worship of God FOr answer Indeed if it bee necessary to have unpreaching Ministers and dumb dogs over the people of the Lord who can nor preach nor pray then it will bee no lesse necessary to have some form of Booke prayers or Liturgy for such to officiate by And for this cause the Prelates have had some reason to hold up their Liturgy to the full as without which there had beene nothing for their Mutes to do in the Church Now though dumbe Priests have need of such a Liturgy yet it doth not follow that therfore able godly Ministers that know how to fit their prayers to all such severall occasions as do continually present themselves which a set prayer in a booke cannot do should be tied to any such precise set forme For otherwise this were to quench the spirit of prayer and to muzzle the mouth of prayer and to stoppe the course of Gods spirit which doth wonderfully improve it self in all those both Ministers and people on whom God hath powred the spirit of grace and supplication and who do by daily exercise grow unto such a habit of prayer and which doth powre it selfe forth in such a life and power as is not possible for any set read prayer to exercise or have For true fervent effectuall prayer is that which is the hearts expression by the Spirit of God As the Apostle saith I will pray with my Spirit and Phil. 19. Prayer is supplied by the Spirit of Jesus Christ This is that prayer which is first in the heart before it come to the mouth and is dictated by Gods spirit before it be uttered with the lippes whereas a read prayer is in the mouth before it can come unto the heart which in prayer is a speaking unadvifedly with the lips before the heart hath first digested and suggested the matter This is an abortive birth which never had a right conception But a godly Minister that is best acquainted with the state of his flocke and of the church of God can accordingly so inlarge and apply his prayer by the supply of Gods spirit as may be most usefull to the Congregation as beeing most occmmodate to their spirits when they finde the matter of the prayer to be that the want whereof they are most sencible of so as there is here a concurrence of the spirits both of the Minister and people which causeth a prayer to bee so much the more effectuall lively powerfull and operative and that not onely with God but in the hearts of all those whose joint praier it is Whereas a read prayer is in comparison a dead and dull formal prayer without any life or power either to prevaile with God or to profit the people as beeing such a prayer as suits only such Readers as are destitute of the spirit of Grace and supplication and of faith and sanctification and therefore such as God regardeth not So as a true Minister of Christ ought not to be tyed with the bonds and lines of a written forme of prayer that must bee read forasmuch as hereby the spirit of prayer in him is bound up and both he and the people of God deprived both of the benefit of such a gift and of that profit also which the prevailing prayer of Christs spirit procures of God Yea not even a set written prayer which the Minister makes saith by heart though he reade it not and though it bee better to say it by heart than to read it out of a booke yet is or can be so lively and powerfull as that prayer which is not tied to a set forme of words From such a prayer as is uttered by heart as we say the memory is more exercised than the understanding and affections within him there beeing now a suspension of that worke of the spirit of supplication and grace which breatheth forth with a lively power in a conceived prayer wherein not the memory so much as the whole mind soule spirit affections have their joint operation But it may be objected That the