Members as questionable as the Title of the Pastor under whom they live with many other absurd Inferences contrary to the Literal Assertions of my Book which therefore he would perswade us contradicts it self But the World knew me too well to need being troubled with a Justification and tho' I had prepared one my Friends assured me it was unnecessary to publish it and I still am of the same opinion XI For I must let you know that I said no more in those Words than the generality of Protestants said before me Some in the same Words and the rest in effect and meaning even those of your party not excepted For I take it for a general Principle of Protestants That the Preaching of the Word of God and due Administration of the Sacraments are the true Marks of the Catholick Church and that a lawful Ministry is necessary to these insomuch that your own Confession of Faith tells us That neither Sacrament may be dispensed by any but by a Minister lawfully Ordained Chap. 27. Chap. 28. That the Outward Element in Baptism is Water wherewith the Party is to be Baptized in tâ—e Name c. by a Minister of the Gospel lawfully called thereunto And the Confession of the Church of Scotland has declared Chap. 23. That Sacraments be rightly Ministrate we judge two things requisite The one that they be Ministrate by Lawful Ministers The other That they be Ministrate in such Elements and in such sort as God hath appointed or else we affirm that they cease to be the right Sacraments of Christ. You see then from the Declaration of your own Party that a lawful Ministry is required to the due Administration of the Sacraments and without such Administration there can be no true Church and a Man that is not duly Baptized is not yet a visible Member of the Catholick Church though he may belong to it From these it were easie if one would imitate Mr. B's way of Reasoning to draw the same Consequences as he doth from my Words indeed worse and to argue that these Positions make every Man's Baptism as uncertain as the Ordination of the Minister that Baptized him and that every Church is as uncertain of her being a True Church as of the Lawful Calling of her Ministers And all those Questions Mr. B. starts concerning the Lawful Calling of Ministers and Governors will come in here as properly as he brings them against me but whoever should draw such Consequences from these Principles which are common to most Reformed Churches would be as unjust to them as Mr. B. is to me For in this the sincere will and endeavour is accepted both by God and Man for the deed and therefore neither the Assembly of Divines nor the Church of Scotland intended to make void the Baptism of those who out of the sincerity and simplicity of their hearts received it from such as they supposed lawfully called Ministers but were not neither did I ever intend to exclude from the Catholick Church such as either out of weakness of Judgment submitted themselves to Pastors whom they believed lawful or out of necessity when they could not get others to officiate to them submitted to such as they found settled And this I shewed to be my Sense from St. Augustint's Words quoted at large in the Sixth Page of my Answer to Mr. Manby of which Mr. B. never took any notice when he made all his Consequences for me tho' there needed no more to destroy them all XII But I must now tell you that this is no comfort to such as out of Interest or Passion divide the Church and heap up to themselves Teachers according to their own Lusts nor to such as knowingly or out of wilful negligence joyn themselves to such These I take to be the Hereticks St. Paul commands us to reject after the first and second Admonition and they are Self-condemned for the Church can condemn them no otherwise but by casting them out by Excommunication and they have thus condemned themselves already by their separation and I see no reason any one has to be displeased at these Principles except he be conscious that out of Interest or Passion he has divided the Church as I am afraid many are or think it a small matter to make such Divisions Or Lastly is indifferent whether his Minister is lawfully called or no as indeed too many are who are not much concerned how a man came by his Ordination so he preach to their mind But I suppose the best way to deal with a Papist will be to assert not only the Lawfulness but Regularity of our Ministry and I thank God we have done it effectually if Mr. B. could have done as much for his Party he needed not have gratified Papists tho' his Party at that time were caress'd by them in endeavouring to Answer a Book grounded on Principles which they could not Reply to as appeared by the event But this has always been the Method of those that separated from the Church so Tertullian tells us De Prescriptionibus Cum hoc sit Negotium illis non ethnicos convertendi sed nostros evertendi hanc magis Gloriam captant si stantibus ruinam non si jacentibus elevationem operantur c. The Sense of which is That those Separatists made it their Business to oppose and draw off the Members of the Church and set up their Petty Sects but did not joyn against the common Enemy XIII I must put you in mind that there are some Men espouse a Party and resolve to make themselves the Champions of it and when they want direct Proofs against their Adversaries they draw strange and absurd Consequences from their Opinions And though they know very well that those to whom they ascribe them detest these consequences as much as themselves yet they set them up as if they were really held by those to whom they impute them and endeavour by strains of Rhetorick and vehement Interrogations to render them odious This may take with such as are heated with Faction and love Books for ill Language and Violence but understanding Men know such Treatment to be only an Artifice to keep up the Spirit of a Party and make a shew of Reason where direct Proofs are wanting And that it is really a giving up a Cause to fly to these Arts and therefore they deserve no Consideration Neither should I have troubled the World or my Self to tell you that I hold none of the absurd Consequences Mr. B. fixes on me or that they do not follow from any principle of mine had not one of your Ministers that ought to have had more Integrity and Justice improved this Calumny on Mr. B's Authority so far as to affirm that I Held and Published that such as you belong not to the Catholick Church being without Christ having no hope and without God in the world All which he puts in the Italian Letters as if they were my Words Mr.
set up his Reasons against the Letter of it as I have observed him often to do To conclude That the Assemblies of Christians are places for secret Prayers of each apart when they do not interfere with any Publick Office as well as for Publick appears from the whole tenour of the Scripture and the constant practice of the Churches of God Antient and Reformed And that those secret Prayers ought to be offered with Adoration as well as the Publick is likewise manifest And therefore the Directory by forbidding Adoration at our first coming into Church has excluded it where it was most proper III. But Thirdly I take it for granted that when an Old Law or Rule is laid aside and a new substituted in the place of it all things contained in the Old repealed Law or Order are laid aside which are not contained and again injoyned in the New By which Rule the Directory doth plainly exclude all Bodily Worship For in the Preface to it we are told that They resolve to lay aside the former Liturgy with the many Rites and Ceremonies formerly used in the Worship of God and have agreed on this following Directory for all the parts of Publick Worship at Ordinary and Extraordinary Times Here then the Liturgy with all the Rites and Ceremonies used formerly in the Worship of God are laid aside not only our Praises Prayers c. are excluded but all the Rites and Ceremonies with which they were performed such as Kneeling Standing c. And instead of these we are oblig'd to no more than is ordered in the Directory Prayers Praises c. are there indeed Ordered and the way of performing them prescribed but not a word of Bodily Worship and therefore it is plainly excluded among the other Rites and Ceremonies that are laid aside IV. All that Mr. B. alledges to prove that this Bodily Adoration is required by the Directory is Rem p. 109. That it requires such as come into the Congregation after Publick Worship is begun Not to betake themselves to their private Devotions but Reverently to compose themselves to joyn with the Assembly in that Ordinance of God that is then in hand which can import no less than putting themselves into a bodily posture most suitable to that Ordinance But I answer This passage imports no such thing the Assembly has no where explained Reverence in this sence or given the least reason to believe that they thought one posture more suitable to one Ordinance than another except Sitting at the Lords Supper which posture they seem to approve thro' the whole Service for they require those that come in To take their Seats or Places which in common acceptation is to sit down and they never require them to rise It was therefore incumbent on Mr. B. to prove that by Joyning Reverently in Prayers or Thanksgiving for Example is meant Standing or Kneeling at them or else this is no Vindication of the Directory But Secondly We are not left to guess what is meant by Joyning Reverently in the Ordinance then in hand The Sentence immediately going before explains it where the Assembly tells how the people are to Joyn in Publick Worship even by forbearing to read any thing Abstaining from private Whisperings Conferences Salutations or doing Reverence to any Persons From all gazing sleeping and other indecent behaviour which may disturb the Minister or People This is the way they are to joyn in the Service of God But not one word of putting themselves into a Bodily Posture most suitable to the Ordinance that is in hand It is plain therefore as I said before that they excluded these when they laid aside the many Rites and Ceremonies used formerly in the Worship of God and never restored them V. Let me add further That Reverence and Worship are very different things We ought to behave our selves Reverently to all our Betters and at all times But Worship is peculiarly to our Superiours who have power over us And as the things are different so there are different outward Acts that express them and neither Your Directory Confession of Faith or Catechism or any other Authentick Rule that I know of amongst you require any one visible Act peculiar to Worship in Your Assemblies Nor do I see by what Authority your Ministers can exact it from their People where they pretend to Conform to the Directory nor can it be pretended that the Composers of it forgot this For it is manifest that they remembred it so far as to forbid all Adoration where it was most proper that is at our coming into the Assembly and never require nor allow it any where after VI. Thirdly What I have said concerning the sense of the Assembly that Composed your Directory is agreeable to the Notion Dr. Twiss their Chairman had of this Matter as appears from his Letter directed to Mr. Mede dated July 27. 1635. 'T is the 59 in the Collection In which he gives this censure of Bodily Worship The Lord requires the true Worshippers should Worship him in Spirit and Truth in distinction from Worshipping him either at Jerusalem or in the Mount the Woman spake of but as to the outward gestures I doubt I shall prove a Novice as long as I breath and we affect not to make Ostentation of our Devotion in the face of the World the rather because thereby we draw upon our selves the censure of Hypocrisy And sometimes if a Man lift up his eyes he is censured as a P. I confess there is no outward gesture of Devotion which may not be as handsomly performed by as carnal a heart as breaths And in his thirteenth Letter being the seventieth in the forementioned Collection he adds And as for outward Complements nothing more pleases a Natural Man in Religious Worship and he finds himself apt enough in it yea far more apt than he who knowing and considering that God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit are most carefull for the performance thereof Whereupon while their Minds are intent they find themselves not so free for outward Complements the care whereof is apt to cause avocation and disturbance in that unum necessarium Hence in the same Letter he blames himself for being prevailed with to rise up at the solemn Glory given to the Father Son and Holy Ghost and commends one that could never be perswaded to it Thus you see how the Prolocutor of the Assembly ridicules Outward Worship under the Names of Outward Postures and Complements You find himself likewise alledging in opposition to it our Saviours Command of Worshipping in Spirit Jo. 4. 24 And the very same Arguments that I mentioned and Answered in my Discourse Chap. 4. Sect. 3. Plainly intimating withal that it is a piece of Ostentation to use these Acts of Bodily Worship a sign of a carnal heart to be pleased with them and to neglect them a sign of an Heart intent on God's Spiritual Service Yet Mr. B.
of God by Images or any other way not appointed in his Word And in your Confession of Faith Chap. 21. N. 1. thus The acceptable way of Worshiping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited to his own revealed Will that he may not be Worshiped according to the imaginations and devises of Men or the suggestions of Satan under any visible Representations or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture This Rule is stricter and needs greater Limitations than the words of my Book For First Here is no Allowance for things Warranted by Scripture tho' not prescribed as many things are Secondly There is no Authority given to the Examples of Holy Men in Scripture which are sufficient to warrant a Religious practice in Gods Worship tho' they do not amount to an appointment or prescription and are not alwayes obligatory In short your Catechism and Confession of Faith if we take them according to the Letter make all wayes of Worship unacceptable and unlawful that are not prescribed and appointed in Scripture Whereas my Rule allows Examples and Precedents of Holy Men to be a sufficient Warrant I supposed and I think with reason that you understood this Rule in your own Catechism and Confession of Faith with due Limitations and therefore had no reason to suspect but you would understand it with the same Limitations in my Book it being a manifest partiality to except against it when used by me and yet allow of it tho' expressed with less caution in your Catechism and Confession of Faith which yet ought to be more exact in wording a Rule than is necessary in a private Man's Writings Of this partiality Mr. B. is guilty and plainly discovers by it that he has one Rule for interpreting the words of his own Party and another for interpreting those of his Adversary But Secondly I desire you to observe That in my whole Book I never used this Rule otherwise than with those Limitations that I have now expressed nor has Mr. B. produced one instance wherein I did otherwise As for Example I tax you with bringing in the Inventions of Men into the Service of God in your Use of the Psalms not for singing the Meetre Psalms for that I allow lawful but for introducing them without necessity to the exclusion of the Prose Psalms for Singing of which we have Scripture-Warrant and Example I taxed you likewise with introducing a Human Invention into the Worship of God in your Expounding Scripture not that Expositions of Scripture are unlawful but to make them necessary every time the Scripture is read is Literally such an invention and so is likewise your excluding the Regular and Orderly Reading the Word of God as he has appointed for the Edification of his Church to make room for your Lectures of both which you have been guilty these Fifty Years last past I past the same Censure on your Extemporary Prayers not that I condemned them in all Cases but because on the account of them you had turned the Lord's Prayer prescribed in God's Word and the Use of Forms in the Ordinary Prayers of the Assembly which is the Scripture way of Praying on such Occasions out of your Meetings Whereas it is manifestly a Teaching for Doctrine the Commandments of Men to Teach as you do that Praying extemporary is more acceptable to God or more edifying than Praying by a Form there not being the least colour in Scripture for such a Doctrine I might shew the like in every place of my Book where I used this Rule either in proving the Orders of our Church or in disproving yours so that Mr. B. had no reason to find fault with it But Thirdly The Rule needs not these Limitations it being agreed by all sober Interpreters That whatever can be deduced from Scriptures by Clear Consequence or Parity of Reason is sufficiently warranted by them though not expresly contained in them so there was no necessity to explain the Rule though I was willing to avoid the Exceptions even of the Captious and there fore put in the Explication you find in my Second Edition Fourthly Mr. B. excepts against my using the Phrase of Ways of Worship and alledges I used it frequently to signifie Circumstantiâ—â— Modes of it Vind. p. 30. But I Answer That I used the Phrase with which you were acquainted whereas I believe few of you ever heard of Circumstantial Modes of Worship before and I used it in the Sense you generally do when you ask for Scripture to warrant our using the Psalms by way of Answering our using Forms of Prayer our singing with Instrumental Musick our joyning our Voices in some Prayers our Receiving the Sacrament in a Worshiping posture and the other particulars against which you except in our Publick Service and I shewed these Ways are not only warranted but prescribed for the most part in Scripture Whereas those Ways you have introduced in the place of them have neither Command or Precedent in Scripture If these that I have named in our Service and yours be Circumstantial Modes they are the chief and greatest Exceptions that I ever found any of you make against joyning with us and they are the great matter of Reformation set forth in your Directory tho' Mr. B. seems to make light of them From the whole I think it appears That Mr. B. has both perverted and misapplyed my Rule and yet on this perverted sense of my Words are founded most of his Arguments against our publick Worship X. Lastly This Method of sixing Principles upon me and then writing a Book to Confute them is not new with Mr. B. He did it once before at a very unseasonable time and still persists in Taxing me with his own Consequences as if I indeed owned them Thus Vind. p. 25. he charges me with passing a Vertual Sentence of Damnation publickly upon you by Denying you to be a part of the Catholick Church and this he puts in Italian Letters as if they were my Words but there are no such Words in any Book I have yet written nor any just Ground to fix such a Sentence on me the whole Mystery of this so far as I know it is thus Mr. Manâ—y formerly Dean of Derry on his turning Papist published his Motives which prevailed with him to do so To these I wrote an Answer in the Year 1687 by which I thank God the Protestant Cause lost nothing and it was so well approved that it was Twice Reprinted in England But Mr. B. cou'd not digest it and therefore wrote Reflections on it and the greatest Exception he has against it is that I say in it That I meant by the Catholick Church the whole Body of Men professing the Religion of Christ and living under their Lawful Governours From which Words Mr. B. draws many strange and absurd Consequences alledging that they Un-Church all Dissenters all foreign Churches and render the Relation of all true Christians to our Blessed Lord as his