far from the true Christian knowledge or from directing it to the right end which is charity and the edification of our Brethren Vers 3. If any Man loves God sincerely and so adheres to him in time of danger he truly knows him and consequently is acknowledged by him Vers 4. We know indeed that an Idol is nothing in the World no part of Gods first Creation only an invention and fancy of Mâ—n there is but one true God all the rest are fictions of wicked Men who were first the formers and then the worshipers of them Vers 5. There may be many such fictitious deities called by that title whether in Heaven or in Earth Vers 6. But we Christians are assur'd the e is but One true God the Creator of all things to whom all Mens Prayers must be addressed from whom we had our being and to whom we are obliged to be his Servants and to make all our applications to Him and there is but One Mediator and Lord Christ by whom all things were created and by whom as the only Mediator betwixt God and us all our Prayers are addressed to Heaven Vers 7. Yet all Men are not of this perswasion that these Idols are nothing for sure if they thought so they would not worship them nay some are of Opinion that they are something and are able to hurt them and therefore they continue their Heathenish custom to be present at the Idol-Feasts notwithstanding these very Persons have received the faith of Christ so that their sick and sinful Consciences are defiled and polluted by so doing Vers 8. Now a Man who is not of this perswasion towards the Idol if he goes to the Idol-Temple with the Idol-Worshipers may be a means of confirming them in their Error it being certain that they will think he comes as they come with the same Opinion of the false deity and of reaping some benefit by it which inconvenience must needs be very dangerous Vers 9. For though the being there or not being there be not of it self of any great moment in the sight of God yet this care would befit every Christian so to use his own liberty as not to be an occasion of sin or of continuance in sin to others by confirming them in their sinful courses Vers 10. For if any Man who through an erroneous Conscience goes to an Idol-Feast sees another at the same Feast who knows within himself an Idol to be nothing and eats not out of any religious Opinion but only as of ordinary meat Will not he by this means be confirmed to go on in his erroneous course Vers 11. So that the Christian of an erroneous Conscience shall go on in his sin and be in danger to be ruined by reason of the others practise who presumes upon his knowledge and so goes confidently to the Idol as a meer vanity and thing of nought not at all considering the erroneous Conscience of his weak Brother and so he makes himself guilty not only of uncharitableness to his Brother but of injury to Christ in betraying a Soul to ruine for the saving of which Christ died Vers 12. And be it granted that for one who understands his Christian liberty to be present at an Idol-feast be not impiety against God yet is it an act of great uncharitableness against the weak Brethren in bringing them to a confirmation in those sinful practises wherein through error they are already and so it may be an impiety and sin against God too who is concerned in them Vers 13. Therefore if to eat a Feast in an Idol-Temple or any use of my liberty in the same kind be an occasion of confirming any Christian in an erroneous sinful practise or of bringing him to do any thing which is unlawful I will be sure to deny my self the use of that liberty supposed it be such as by the Laws of Christ truly belongs to me when it shall prove of such dangerous consequence to my fellow-Christians Note Whatever hath been spoken by way of a plain Paraphrase out of the forementioned places of Scripture makes nothing at all against any Mans conformity to the use of the Common-Prayer-Book now by Law established 1. Nothing out of Rom. 14. makes against it for these following reasons 1. Because no Man who is a Christian can possibly be so weak in the faith unless he be wilful too as to scruple at prayer as such it being the great duty of a Christian or at Prayer in a set-form because it is authorized out of both Testaments and was ever the practise of Christs Church so to pray or at the set-form of Common-Prayer established in our Church because it is conform to all ancient Liturgies and to the Liturgy of the Roman-Church too is not denied so far as that is conform to the Prayers of the ancient and primitive Church but no otherwise besides every branch of it is reducible to the Lords Prayer the Creed and Ten Commandements is agreeable to Scripture and most delivered in the very Scripture-phrase and framed up according to St. Paul's prescribed Model 1 Tim. 2.1 2. Vid. Dr. Hammond Annot. in Locum 2. All this supposed and as easie to be proved as supposed I believe no Christian can pretend to that tenderness of conscience as to be grieved in his conscience for doing that which is so agreeable to God's Word and the practise of all the Church-Christian all the World over 2. Nothing out of 1 Cor. 8. makes against Conformity unless these weak Christians will say which I know they will not least they should be accounted wicked rather than weak 1. That God is an Idol 2. That to pray to God in his House of Prayer or to be present at Christian Festivals and Services in his Temple is Idolatry besides if any should be so perverse and yet mask it under pretence of tenderness of conscience as to be offended at us in so doing and by so doing discharging our duty I do not see how we can leave off these things to gratifie them for we have consciences as well as they have and as tender apt to be grieved as theirs and we understand our Christian liberty as well as they do and it may be in some things better too for we know this liberty is not so in our power as to use it and not use it when we please to gratifie and comply with every passion and distemper but we are bound up by Laws which by Authority deriv'd from God's Laws have power to bind the conscience to serve God in such set-forms and at such set-times neither do I see how any power upon earth can disoblige us from obedience to those just Laws which are impos'd upon us by lawful Superiors how can we to satisfie another Mans conscience take off our obedience from those whom we are commanded to be subject to not only for wrath but also for conscience sake Rom. 13.5 our Christian liberty hath freed us from the Ceremonial
wherein the Woman is to return her praise and thanks to God for her deliverance when the pain is ovâ—r and the danger is past Had the Church never enjoyn'd this our own reason may tell us this is fit to be done First to pray to God for his mercy we would receive and then to praise God for his mercy received That so our duty may keep pace with God's bounty and our grateful devotions answer in some proportion God's gracious deliverances Certainly as the Apostle speaks this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A very rational Service a Service that hath very much of reason in it Rom. 12.1 and none but such who have little reason and less religion in them can be against it No Christian who hath grace and gratitude in him but will blush at that pitiful and poor Objection which is made against it as if forsooth in returning thanks for every one thus delivered and vouchsafed this mercy we should be like the Messilian Hereticks who do nothing else but pray Indeed I think of the two it is better being like such Heretiques who do nothing but pray than to be like such Schismatiques and disquiet Spirits who do nothing but rail and quarrel at whatever is so prudently ordered and established by lawful Authority and this is the judgment of a very reverend Man Hook Eccles Polic. lib. 5. sect 74. David tells us it is a good thing a thing very well becoming the just and religious Persons to be thankful Psal 92.1 Psal 33.1 I like not that godliness which teacheth any Man to be unthankful Among the Ten Lepers which were cleansed our Saviour took notice but of one that returned to acknowledg the mercy Luk. 17.17 18. Christ in commending of him condemned the other Nine Yet we read not of any special command injoyning one or other to return back and to give thanks only the nature of the benefit received did in all reason require it By which it is evident that when God is merciful to us we are bound up by reason as well as Religion to be thankful to him And where can a Woman express her thanks to God for so great a mercy better than in the Congregation and that for these reasons 1. To evidence her own thankfulness 2. To provoke others to the like thankfulness by her example 3. To excite all to make some reflexion upon the first sin which laid so heavy a curse exposing them to so great a danger upon Woman-kind 4. To work in Children an impression of love duty and obedience towards those Mothers of theirs who did undergo so much pain and sorrow to bring them into the World Neither know I how or which way Children can ever make amends or sufficiently requite their Parents Now in regard this return of Thanks is to be performed in the publick and in the Face of the Congregation it is intitled The Churching of Women For so soon as God gives them strength and they have retired themselves so long time as is consistent with the Christian rules of modesty and sobriety it is very fit they should come in decent and humble manner and make a publick acknowledgment of Gods great mercy to them in the presence of God's People then met together in Gods house neither do I conceive how the great end of this Office according to the Churches intention can be exactly performed and discharged to have it hudled up in silence and obscurely in their private houses nor indeed done at all unless the Ordinary grant forth a dispensation in a case of apparent necessity which it concerns the Church to be very wary in granting in regard as I have observed in this irreligious Age we have so many gross and dead-hearted Christians that they are apt to pretend a necessity where really none is and Midwifes in such cases made too often guilty of the midwifery of lies by which means the publick Offices of the Church are too much abused and scandalously slubber'd over in private Houses Rubrick The Woman at the usual time after her delivery shall come into the Church decently apparelled and there shall knéel down in some convenient place as hath béen accustomed or as the Ordinary shall direct And then the Priest shall say unto her Note 1. By usual time we are to understand so soon as ever she shall be able Statim post partum Ecclesiam ingredi non prohibetur Canon Law Dist. 5. c. Haec quae Levit. 12. Decretal lib. 3. Tit. 4. And yet by the civil Law and according to the Tradition of the Church in case the Woman be like to live the usual time is Forty Days after her delivery not as if the Woman were so long time to be adjudged unholy or lying under any uncleanness mentioned in the Levitical Law which Law so far as Ceremonial we hold utterly abolished but only upon a ground of Christian modesty and to chastize intemperance and the like are Women so long restrained from the carnal delights of the Matrimonial Bed as appears by the Canon Law Dict. 5. c. and the Constitution 17th of Leo. Neither can any modest or sober Christians cavil at this unless they will cavil also at that prudent advise given by the Apostle for married Persons upon occasion by mutual consent to abstain from those things which are lawfully enjoyed at other times 1 Cor. 7.5 Note 2. By decent apparel is doubtless meant some distinguishing habit by which the Woman who is to give her thanks is to be taken notice of from other Women No such habit either commanded or forbidden but left as an indifferent thing Vid. Haman L'estrange neither can any conscience which is not scandalously and shamefully weak so weak indeed as it may rather be interpreted stubbornness of will than weakness of conscience take any just offence at this for according to the judgment of Tertullian I cannot conceive what hurt can possibly be in a Vestment where the wearers are not faulty Tertul. lib. de pall And St. Paul hath fully determin'd in the case touching all indifferent things That to the pure all things are pure Tit. 1.15 that is they who strictly abstain from unlawful freedom may with a safe Conscience use any lawful liberty But the usual Vestment worn for distinction at this time by the Woman was a comely Veil to be as a token of her modesty and subjection for the use of the Veil had that meaning in it in the Apostles time 1 Cor. 11.10 So Photius tells us in his Epist 210. The Woman ought to be subject to the Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to bear the sign of her subjection a covering on her Head Such kind of covering every Woman ought to wear in the Congregation 1 Cor. 11.5 But if the Woman be singled out from the rest to joyn with the Minister in discharging any Christian duty as in this case Then questionless she ought to have a Veil not only for decency but for distinction too
nature of the things themselves but the just Laws of lawful Superiours make necessary indeed neither are to be Judg one of another in such things but Christ is to be the Judg of all being sent by his Father and commissionated to that Office Vers 11. As it was long before predicted Isay 45.23 which Prediction was to have its completion in Christ incarnate Phil. 2.9 10 11. who is constituted the one Supreme Judg of all to whose Judicature every one must submit and give account for his own actions Therefore it is very unreasonable that one private Christian should judg another and reject one another from Communion for this belongs only to Christ and those Governours of his Church who are his delegates and are endowed with the power of the Keys and Censures Vers 12. Therefore let this fault be mended by you that are fellow-Christians do not any longer censure and separate from one anothers communion for such indifferent and circumstantial things as these are only be careful not to scandalize the weaker Christians by putting stumbling blocks in their way to hinder their coming clear over to Christianity cast no gall-traps in the way of weak Judaizing Christians to wound their Consciences and to cause them to fall back from Christianity which they will be in danger to do when they see those liberties used among Christians which they deem utterly unlawful Vers 14. I am confident and make no question but that by the coming of Christ the Mosaical difference of Meats is taken away and all Meats are lawful in themselves to be eaten by Christians but yet the same Meats are unlawful to those who are so perswaded in their conscience and have not yet attained to the right understanding of their Christian liberty Vers 15. But if thou who understandest thy liberty dost for a matter of this nature despise and cast off thy Fellow-Christian who understands it not and by so doing dost discourage him from going on in Christianity Surely thou walkest contrary to the rule of Christian charity which is to draw all to piety and to drive none away and this will be a great fault in thee for so light a thing as this to drive him from Christianity and so destroy him for the saving of whom Christ was content to lay down his Life Vers 16. Ye may use your Christian liberty but ye do not well if ye so use it as to make it tend to an others hurt for that will be the defaming of that which is in it self indifferent or innocent Vers 17. Christianity consists not in such external matters when left indifferent in their use as they are in their nature and not commanded by lawful Superiors for decency and order but in the practise of Christian vertues such as â—bedience to the Laws of Superiours iâ— things not sinful mercy peace delight to do one another good to build up one another in piety not dividing and hating and excommunicating one another Vers 18. All these are acts of obedience to Christ that are sure to be accepted by God and to be of good report among all good men Vers 19. Therefore let us most zealously attend to these things which may thus preserve peace between all sorts of Christians though of different perswasions and which tend to the drawing Men to Christianity not driving them from it Vers 20. Let not so inconsiderable â—aâ—ters as these external things wherein no Man who is instructed in his Christian liberty places any Religion further than obedience to the just Laws of lawful Superiours disturb that peace and unity which ought to be among Believers though of different perswasions about indifferent things For a Man may eat any thing simply consider'd but if by so doing he aliens others from the Gospel by despising and avoiding them who dare not do so this is a sin in him Vers 21. It is not charitable to make use of any part of Christian liberty when by thy so doing another Man is deterred from the Christian faith and by some unhappy occasion of thy misused liberty is so galled and wounded in his Conscience as that he cannot with any inward comfort or satisfaction go on in the discharge of his Christian duty Vers 22. If thou hast a clear understanding of thy Christian liberty it is well for thee but use it betwixt God and thy self not always before Men when it may be in danger to hurt them and when it is not necessary to reveal thy practâ—se in such matters yet when commanded by lawful Authority things indifferent in their nature become necessary in their use He is a happy Man who when he knows a thing lawful doth so manage the practise of it that he hath therein no reason to accuse or condemn hmself Vers 23. But there is no reason that the scrupulous Christian should be evil intreated by thee for not daring to do as thou dost when he thinks himself in conscience otherwise obliged for it would be a damning sin in him to do what his conscience tells him is an unlawful action For whoever does any thing though the thing be in it self lawful which is in his perswasion sinful and unlawful he certainly sins in so doing Rom. 15. Vers 1. The more instructed Christians who rightly understand the nature and extent of their Christian liberty ought to help and relieve those who do not understand it and to be watchful to keep them from falling into sin not to please themselves too much by presumeing upon their own strength and knowledg so as to neglect and despise others who have not so much Vers 2. We should all of us rather do what good we can towards the edification of other Men. Vers 3. Herein following the most imitable Example of our Saviour who did not so much consider the pleasing of himself as to do what was of publick concernment reckoning all that befell his Father to fall upon him and being as tender of God's honour as of his own 1 Cor. 8. Vers 1. We who are Orthodox Christians have that knowledg of our Christian liberty and therefore ought not to be despised by those who in pride of heart separate themselves from us that together with our knowledge we hold charity and the love of God which inclines us to suffer any thing for Christ's sake so that an Idol-feast is no trouble to our Consciences for we need not to come at them to save us from persecution a little of this courage and love of Christ is much better than all the pretended deep knowledge of those who choose to comply with any Religion which their own Conscience tells them is false rather than confess and suffer for Christ and that Religion which their own Conscience tells them is the only true Religion Vers 2. Therefore if Men please themselves with an Opinion of knowledg from such subtilties as these and so come to despise other Men and not consider what tends to their good and edification they are