were as expresly set down in the Gospel to be used or for born in the publick worship of God as the rites and circumstances concerning Sacrifices were in the ceremonial law yet as the Sacrifices themselves much more the modes of preparing and offering them might be used or omitted for the performance of moral duties so doubtless if things of an external ceremonial nature had been commanded or forbidden in express terms they might yet be observed or omitted as the substantial service of God and obedience to his greater commands for charity and peace might be best performed But these things being not determined particularly by the Gospel but left under general rules for decency and order may doubtless be determined by a lawful authority such as that of our Church under our Gracious Soveraign is and being so determined and imposed there is an advantage on the side of Authority against a scrupulous conscience which ought to over-rule the practice of such who are members of that Church It remains only that I endeavour to remove an objection or two against what is here said Object 1. If the ceremonies be things of such indifferency Why do not they who are in authority dispense with the use of them or totally lay them aside for the sake of peace and unity Answ 1. The Magistrate doth but his duty in providing for the solemnity of Divine worship according to those general rules for decency and order prescribed by the Apostles 2ly What the Magistrate doth is not only agreeable to his private discretion and conscience for he practiseth the same things that he prescribes but according to the deliberate determinations of the most wise and pious persons of the Nation in their solemn Assemblies and doubtless as St. Ambrose wrote to St. Augustine if they had known any thing better they would have practised that 3ly It will very much impair the authority and reputation of Magistrates so to comply with the importune clamours of scrupulous persons as to alter or abrogate their laws and constitutions as oft as discontented or seduced persons shall demand it And though it be very uncertain that the craving party will be satisfied when they are indulged in all that they desire yet it is certain that others will be incouraged to make new supplications and so create perpetual disturbances And the gratifying of a few weaklings or male-contents may give just cause of offence to a greater and better party who are desirous to worship God in the beauty of holiness and are really grieved at the irreverence and disorders which are and have been too observable in the Meetings of dissenting parties 4ly Hereby the Magistrate should tacitly confess himself guilty of all those accusations that have been charged upon him and his predecessors of imposing unlawful superstitious and Popish ceremonies and persecuting the godly and conscientious people that could not conform to them And 5ly It would greatly defame those worthy Martyrs who not only thought fit to retain them and gave cogent arguments for the lawful use of them but sealed the established worship and discipline with their bloud not only in the Marian days but under the late Usurpation also 6ly It is an unreasonable thing to demand that which they themselves would deny if they were in the Magistrates place for let me ask them whether they being well perswaded of their discipline and order viz. that it is agreeable to the Word of God to antiquity and reason would comply with the desires of dissenting parties to make such alterations as should from time to time be required by others contrary to their own judgments and consciences and to this we need no other answer than the practice of the Objectors when they were in Authority And who can doubt but that they who being subjects do assume to themselves a power of directing and prescribing to the Magistrate if they were in the Magistrates place would take it very ill to be directed by their Subjects 7ly If the established ceremonies were removed others of a like nature would succeed as unscriptural and symbolical as they such as sitting at the Sacrament and lifting up the hands to Heaven it being impossible almost to perform divine service with any decency without such and seeing that for many centuries of the Primitive Church wherein other ceremonies have been complained of by Saint Augustine and others no man ever objected against the ceremonies which are used in our Church and which were by those famous Reformers and Martyrs retained in our Liturgy it is no argument of a meek or quiet spirit to make objections and cause divisions upon pretence of Superstition in the Liturgy and ceremonies and to expect that the Church to salve their reputation should betray her own and by abrogating her sanctions give the world more reason than yet hath been given to believe that the Church of England even from the first Reformation hath been in a dangerous error and the Factions that opposed her have had truth and justice on their side In the second Objection Papists and Sectaries joyntly say That other dissenters may as well justifie their separation from us on pretence of the Ceremonies retained by our Church as we can justifie our separation from the Church of Rome by reason of the Ceremonies injoyned by her To which I shall not need to make any other answer than a short appeal to the Consciences of all unprejudiced persons Whether the Church of England requiring the use of three Ceremonies declared by her self to be indifferent and acknowledged by her enemies not to be unlawful can be thought by any sober person to give as great and just a cause of Separation from her as all that load of Superstition in the Church of Rome of which St. Augustine complained in his days that the Jewish yoke was less heavy To require Prayers in an unknown Tongue and to Saints and Angels is doubtless more offensive than to use a solemn plain form of words taken either from the Scripture or the ancient Liturgies of the Church What is the Surplice Cross in Baptism and kneeling at the Sacrament for devotion if compared to their Adoration of the transubstantiated Host worshipping of Images invocation of Saints their doctrines of the Popes Supremacy and Infallibility of Purgatory and Indulgences besides the innumerable ceremonies daily practised by them And as the Sectaries will not condemn the Church of England for receding from these extreams so neither can the Romanists blame her for want of moderation in retaining both purity of Doctrine and decency of Worship and abhorring those other extreams of Sacriledge and profanation of holy things of Rebellion and Bloud shed though under pretence of Religion wherewith with both they and the Sectaries have defiled themselves It was the pious care of the Pilots of our Church to conduct their Successors between the two rocks of Superstition and Idolatry on one hand and irreverence and irreligion on the other in the same course
and do no more so wickedly and so it may prove a means of preventing the judgments of God from falling down upon the Land God himself will not be merciful to them that offend of malicious wickedness Psal 59.5 though he have said Misericordiam volo I will have mercy c. Which words commend unto us this seasonable and necessary instruction that Doctr. To be busie and scrupulous about the external worship of God to the neglect of moral duties to God and our Brethren is a Pharisaical temper contrary to the Will of God For the proof of which position I shall weigh Mercy and Sacrifice in the ballance of the Sanctuary that you may clearly see of what different esteems they are in the sight of God And first of Sacrifice whose Antiquity might justly gain a great veneration among that people for though I do not think it as ancient as the state of Innocency as Bellarmine and Greg. de Valentia the better to countenance their Sacrifice of the Mass do affirm Bellar. de missâ l. 1. c. 20. Valent. de missae Sacrif l. 1. c. 4. yet it is almost as old as Adam who taught his Sons to offer both of the fruits of the earth and the fatlings of the Flock which was done as some learned men affirm immediately upon that Covenant made to the promised seed which was solemnized by Sacrifices as the Apostle intimates Hebr. 9.18 22. And the Skins wherewith we find Adam and Eve clothed shortly after the fall and which were afterward made the Priests portion Levit. 8.8 were given them by God he having first had the flesh in Sacrifice to be Symbolum propitiationis a sign of that Propitiation by which their sins were covered Secondly Sacrifices were of greater esteem for their Institution than their Antiquity God himself having commanded the several sorts of them and the particular circumstances concerning them As first the Peace-offering for the fruits of the earth Secondly the Sin-offering for Atonement and pardon of Transgressions Thirdly the Burnt-offering as an acknowledgment of Homage to God the Soveraign Lord of all The book of Leviticus is but a Directory for these Thirdly They were very considerable for their usefulness First as they were to be Signa innocentiae testimonies and declarations of Innocency For as the creatures offered unto God ought to be only such as were clean for their kind so particularly they ought to be without spot or blemish and no beasts or birds of prey but the Ox and the Lamb the Turtle and the Dove harmless and useful creatures only must be brought to the Altar and the offerer was to lay his hands on the beast either to profess his innocence that he was not guilty of bribes or of bloud of fraud or violence or if he were then to confess his sins and deprecate the wrath of God by virtue of that Covenant whereof the Sacrifice was a testimony and so it was propitiatory They were Secondly Eucharistical pledges and earnests of their gratitude expressing their readiness to forgoe all or to return it to him from whom they received it Thirdly they were Admonitions to the guilty persons to repent of their sins or else that they must perish as those beasts did Fourthly By external Sacrifices they were minded of their internal duties as mactare propriam voluntatem to mortifie all beastly lusts and affections Fifthly They were fences and boundaries to the Religion God commanding the Jews to Sacrifice those very beasts which their Idolatrous neighbours did worship as the Ox the Sheep and Dove which were worshipped as Gods among the Egyptians and Zabii to maintain a greater detestation of Idolatry in their hearts Sixthly They were as so many penalties and forfeitures taken on that people upon every trespass which also served not only as a present punishment but a future terror minding them that they had forfeited their own lives and Souls which God was pleased to spare expecting better obedience even a living Sacrifice And yet all this notwithstanding though Sacrifices were venerable for their Antiquity more for their usefulness as well to the Religion in general as to the Reformation of particular persons but most of all for its divine Instution the Levitical Law being but a Rubrick or directory for the Sacrifices Misericordiam volo c. I will have mercy For if hypocritical Jews should have amassed all these Sacrifices in one as the Prophet Jer. 7.21 speaks Put your burnt-offerings to your Sacrifices and eat flesh If they should go with their Flocks and heards to seek the Lord Hos 5.6 If they should have presented a Sacrifice as magnificent as that of Solomon 22000 Oxen and 120000 Sheep If they should have invented more costly ones 1 Kings 8.63 thousands of Rams and ten thousand rivers of Oil their first-born for their transgression the fruit of their bodies for the sin of their Souls yet to do justice and to love mercy is preferred to them all Mic. 6.8 For though Sacrifices were commanded yet not for any intrinsical goodness in them but with respect to some greater good Eze. 20.25 I gave them Statutes that were not good and judgments whereby they should not live they were not originally good as the duties of the Moral Law these were commanded because they were good the other good only because they were commanded they did not make the Offerer but he made them acceptable as in the case of Cain and Abel Thus God speaks to wicked men Psal 50. that gave their mouths to evil ver 19 20. and did sit and speak against their Brother and slander their own mothers son I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices or burnt-offerings Offer to God Thanksgiving c. And Psal 51.16 Thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it thee The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Solomon tells us after that he had presented that costly Sacrifice To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifice Prov. 21.3 for it is true of the house of God what he says of ours Better is a dry morsel with quietness than a house full of Sacrifices with strife Prov. 17.1 In this therefore the young Scribe was better instructed than these Pharisees for he consented with our Saviour Mark 12.33 That to love the Lord with all our heart c. and our neighbours as our selves is more than all whole burnt-offerings and Sacrifice In a word our Saviour hath told us that whatever our gift be that we bring to the Altar if we remember that our Brother hath ought against us i. if we are conscious of any injury or unkindness wherewith he may charge us it is our duty to go first and be reconciled to our Brother before we presume to offer our gift though it be of prayer or praise God will never accept of a peace-offering from them that live in enmity with their Brethren
their Consciences than to go against the judgment and offend the Consciences of a few weak Brethren who neither have the advantages to inform themselves of the nature of things nor that authority or concern to provide for the publick peace as their Superiours have but may be easily imposed on by crafty men that lay in wait to deceive Judge in your selves Brethren how intolerable would that Servant be in your Family that should be always quarrelling at his Masters habit or the directions given him for his work and though he have good and wholsom food in plenty yet dislikes the Cookery and being reproved for his pride and curiosity is obstinate and instigates his fellow-servants to desert the Family But herein the Apostles example may direct us better how far we may or may not do things indifferent and such as have some appearance of evil in them to others rather than to give offence to a Brother as in the case of meats which had been declared unclean by the Law but that difference was by the Gospel abrogated and were much more accounted polluted by having been offered unto Idols yet the Apostle says 1 Cor. 8.8 meat commendeth us not to God for neither if we eat are we the better neither if we eat not are we the worse it is grace and not meat by which the heart is established our Christian liberty is an Amulet against any corruption in such things for though the practice be determined the judgment is free there is libertas ad oppositum So in the case of Circumcision before mentioned which was so abrogated that S. Paul says if ye be circumcised i. e. with an opinion says if ye be circumcised i. e. with an opinion of the legal necessity of it Christ shall profit you nothing Gal. 5.2 Yet to the Jews that he might win them he became as a Jew and then used Circumcision Acts 16.3 and to them that were without the Law as without Law that he might win the Gentiles and then he would not Circumcise and in all this he was Christs Freeman though he made himself a servant to all The Apostle knew that his Christian liberty was founded in freedom of Judgment and not of practice and that neither Circumcision nor Vncircumcision were any thing 1 Cor. 7.19 but the keeping of the Commandments Now no actions of ours that are required in obedience to our Superiours about the Publick Worship are so obnoxious to censure and scandal as these were but are under our Christian liberty And as we ought to serve one another in love in obedience to Gods commands so ought we in obedience of the same to submit our selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake and not use our liberty as a Cloke of Maliciousness or an occasion to the flesh to cast off either our Love to our Brethren or Obedience to Magistrates For to what end hath God according to his promise raised up Kings to be Nursing Fathers to his Church or what possibility is there that they should provide for its peace if they have not power in these External things If therefore the things commanded be indifferent it is certain that obedience to the Magistrate is no indifferent thing but as necessary as peace and unity which cannot otherwise be preserved Seventhly The means are alway as subservient so inferior to the end Now the end of the Commandment is Charity as the Apostle saith Col. 3.14 and therefore both he and St. Peter require charity above all things 1 Pet. 4.8 When therefore these externals of religion become apples of contention they are forbidden fruit which cannot be injoyed without the breach of the great Commandment and if they had each of them a particular precept yet when lesser duties come in competition with greater they cease to oblige Private Laws yield to publick humane Laws to the Laws of God and among God's Laws Positive Precepts yield to those that are moral and natural A Vow or an Oath concerning a thing lawful if it hinder Majus bonum Naturale ceaseth to oblige The Corban might not be pleaded in Bar to the relieving of Parents much less may any Covenant oblige against the Peace of the Church and the Publick Parent as some still plead for that which they call the National Covenant Those things therefore which are matters of Discipline and external order how precisely soever injoyned ought to give place to those that are the more substantial parts of Religion such as mercy and obedience to Magistrates charity peace and unity among Christians and as we may disuse some things which have been generally received in the Church of God as were the kiss of charity the love-feasts and anointing of the Sick so certainly we may use some other things which are injoyned by our Superiors for the sake of Order and Unity When St. Paul had established the Doctrine of Faith in the Church of Corinth he tells them 1 Cor. 11.16 that if about rites and ceremonies Any man seem to be contentious we have no such custome neither the Churches of God that is the custom of the Church is a sufficient Plea against such contentious persons Thus when the Council of Nice had composed the Articles of Faith in that Creed they all with one consent approved of the Ancient rites and customes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Sozomen says it was ever esteemed an unreasonable thing for those that agreed in the Substantials of Religion L. 7. c. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to separate from each other for customes and matters of doubtful disputation And it is generally agreed that the Churches which are sui Juris agreeing in the same Faith may differ in Rites and Ceremonies which they have power to alter or abrogate and therefore Calvin says they are Mali filii wicked Sons that will disturb the Peace of the Church their Mother for such external rites and as the Pharisees in the Text seek to withdraw the Disciples by such objections against their Master Why eateth your Master with Publicans and Sinners And yet certain it is that the Authors of Sects and Divisions among us have no better grounds for all the disorders and confusion the proud contempt and unchristian censures the slander and vexation that have been as so many evil spirits raised among us and I desire that such as are yet in the fault would not only consider the insufficiency of the grounds but also the mischievous consequences of our divisions how directly opposite to our Saviour's rule in the Text I will have mercy c. Now that there are Divisions among us may be proved by the same arguments that the Apostle useth to prove that there were Divisions in the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 3.4 viz. when one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos c. which Divisions as they cannot be warranted but on a supposition of some great corruption in our Doctrine or