because the children of Jews in covenant were circumcised For let the particular differences be never so many in this they agree That they are both sacraments of initiation and so belong to them that be in covenant sc the faithfull and their seed The Papists put many differences betwixt circumcision and the sacraments of the new Testament and yet this is a good strong argument Circumcision is a seal of the righteousnesse of faith therefore the sacraments are seals of the covenant of grace For however circumcision and baptisme and the Lords supper differ in their particular natures in the common authour nature and end of sacraments they agree This is a sound and good reason that lay-men and midwives ought not to baptize Because God hath coupled together the authoritative preaching of the word and administration of the sacraments and yet it is no hard matter to assigne many particular differences betwixt the word and sacraments A caviller might easily have found out many particular differences betwixt the sin of the angels and the Sodomites and those against whom the Apostle writeth but that had not infringed his argument from those examples It is a superfluous thing to heap up differences which are nothing to the point in hand And if we compare this answer with the reasons marshalled to fight against a stinted form of prayer it doth plainly overthrow and put them to slight For thus they must needs run Means of Divine worship not ordained of God are unlawfull to wit in stinted prayer but not in forms of praising God All strange worship is unlawfull But a stinted form of prayer is strange worship sc when the minister speaketh alone to God but not when the congregation pronounceth every word with the minister for then either a devised form is not strange worship or all strange worship is not unlawfull Mens inventions in Gods worship are unlawfull what all inventions or devised forms No but devised forms in prose not in verse when we pray not when we praise God when we speak to God not when we admonish one another Because this answer cometh often I desire our brethren to consider whether any other construction can possibly be made of it then this and whether ought can be spoken more grosse and contradictory to their positions The discourses that I have seen against stinted forms of prayer in generall need no other confutation but an understanding reader to observe how in this answer they turn the edge of their own weapons against themselves The penmen of the psalmes were prophets extraordinarily assisted and immediately by God designed to that work so are not the authours of the Liturgie This is not to the purpose For the psalmes penned by the prophets are paterns and forms of spirituall songs but not set forms prescribed to us as psalmes to be sung in those very words and forms Though the psalmes be parts of the canonicall scripture our brethren must esteem the use of them as a prescript form to be the devise of man because God hath not given them to that end nor by his commandment tied us and all churches to them and none others in the precise form of words When in the new Testament we are exhorted to sing psalmes they will not say that we are tied to Davids psalmes or other songs given by immediate Divine inspiration If therefore a prescript form of psalmes be lawfull it must be of such as are devised by men and not immediately inspired by the holy Ghost Besides we cannot say that the psalmes as they are sung in metre in our churches or for ought I know in any churches in the Christian world are the immediate and infallible truth of God given by inspiration of God any more then we can say of an holy paraphrase upon the scripture that it is the scripture it self In the new Testament since Christ we have no precedent of any stinted form of singing recorded in scripture and if we look to the practice of the times after the Apostles we shall find the church used other hymnes and not scripture-psalmes onely There is a necessity of having forms of psalmes set down in words not so of prayers In psalmes there is of necessitie required a certain known form of words that two or more may sing together according to the nature of the ordinance wherein many joyning vocally do make concent or harmony By which it appeareth how unadvisedly these ministers and others do thus again and again urge set forms of psalmes to prove set forms of prayers In the new Testament we have no precedent for the manner of singing recorded in scripture and in the primitive churches following the Apostles times it was various according to the custome of severall nations sometimes by one the rest hearing sometimes by course or quire-wise as the women answered the men Exod. 15. See Jun. Exod. 15. and sometimes by the whole multitude and sometimes it was but like fair long reading with modulation of the voyce The primitive Fathers therefore did not judge it necessary that the psalmes should be sung by the whole multitude that were present And if it be necessary yet is not a prescribed form in that respect necessary In preaching and prayer both before that people can joyn with the minister a stinted form of words is necessary and this is all can be said of singing This or that form prescribed is necessarie in neither a stinted form is necessary in both The people cannot sing with the minister unlesse what is to be sung be represented unto them in a set form of words nor can they joyn in prayer or attend to the word preached unlesse the matter of prayer or preaching be conveyed to their understanding in a set form of words Is a minister able to expresse the necessities of the people or the doctrine of salvation in a form of words devised and studied by himself and is he not able by meditation and study to dictate or compose a psalme to be sung by the people as occasion requireth And if he be able to compose a psalme in respect of the form of words and method is not a stinted form of singing a devised help an arbitrary help to him and so forbidden as it was said of prayer Christ hath given gifts unto his ministers for preaching and prayer hath he not for singing of psalmes also And if it be a dishonour to Christ as some affirm that they should use a form of prayer devised by others is it not a dishonour likewise that they should use a form of singing devised by others as not enabled with gifts of themselves to furnish the necessities of the church When prescribed and set forms of psalmes were necessary in the church of the Jews did the Lord commit this office to the priests Levites or ordinary officers of the church or to the prophets extraordinarily inspired and called of God to this purpose To
church wherewith the faithfull may hold communion without sin or at least the faithfull may lie hid in such a corrupt society and hold communion with them in the exercises of religion without sin And if the Jews had not power to cast out an offender the materiall part of that church was not visible Saints whom God was pleased to take into covenant but the whole body of the Jewish nation ignorant impenitent prophane obstinate even all that were not cut off by bodily death the sacraments must not be dispensed according to the promise made to the faithfull and their seed but promiscuously to all that came of the loins of Jacob according to the flesh the faithfull might and ought to have communion as one body with the wicked and prophane who remain in unbelief and both revile and persecute the truth Then a company of impenitent sinners might and did remain the true church being to the judgement of men irrecoverable then such as are altogether averse to the end of their holy calling may be received into covenant and though the society be never so much sowred with the unclean conversation of the ungodly yet the faithfull may dip in their meal and live in that society without fear of pollution dishonour to God encouragement to the wicked or scandal to the brethren And what then is become of the heaps of quotations whereby they would prove that the members of the church must be holy visible saints a people converted in covenant separated to the Lord and that the church is onely true whiles it continueth such and false when it degenerateth from this disposition and of their confident arguing That if it were the will of God that persons notoriously wicked should be admitted into the church then should he directly crosse himself and his own ends and should receive into the visible covenant of grace such as were out of the visible state of grace and should plant such in his church for the glory of his name as served for none other use then to cause his name to be blasphemed That all true churches from the beginning to the end of the world are one in nature and essentiall constitution and the first the rule of the rest and if it was not lawfull for the godly to contract with the wicked in the civil covenant of marriage how much more in the religious covenant of the church That God gave unto Abraham and to his family the covenant of circumcision which the Apostle calleth the seal of the righteousnesse of faith And to affirm that the Lord would seal up with the visible seal of the righteousnesse of faith any visible unrighteous and faithlesse person were a bold challenge of the most High for the prophanation of his own ordinances These and many the like are broken to pieces by this observation That the whole nation of the Jews sinfull laden with iniquity corruptours revolters in course of life were Gods separated people by covenant and might lay claim unto and could not be debarred from the visible seals of the righteousnesse of faith though in themselves faithlesse and unrighteous And if it was no pollution to the Jews to suffer notorious wicked ones amongst them so they discharged such other duties as were enjoyned them by the Lord because they had not power to cast them out it is no pollution for private and particular Christians who have not the power of excommunication in their hand given unto them by Christ to suffer such as be ignorant and scandalous to communicate in the ordinances of grace with them if they perform all other duties which God requireth at their hands Moreover if the Jews had not power to cast out a wicked person they had power to cut off the presumptuous and the neglect of the one is as inexcusable as of the other And so the whole controversie turneth upon this one hinge Whether one or two or some few private Christians have power to cast out and excommunicate whole societies churches for some remissenesse or abuse in bearing with or admitting scandalous offenders in the societies so long as the doctrine of grace is purely taught the sacraments rightly administred for substance Christ is pleased to tolerate and bear with their manners continueth the visible signes of his presence among them and is present by speciall grace to blesse his ordinances to the worthy receiver A few words one would think might suffice in this matter but seeing the strength of the cause lieth therein in the chapters following it shall be handled more at large In the church of Corinth there were divisions fects emulations contentions and quarrels and going to law one with another for every trifle and that under the infidels Pauls name and credit was despitefully called in question there whom they should have honoured as a father the resurrection of the dead which is the life of Christianity was denied that wickednesse was winked at there which is execrable to the very heathen the Lords supper was horribly profaned in that some came to it drunken there was fornication and such like sins not repented of things indifferent were used with manifest offense and idolatry committed in eating at the tables of idoles meats sacrificed to devils Notwithstanding all which abuses that societie is called and was the church of God and the faithfull did and might communicate with others without pollution The Galatians had so farre adulterated the Gospel of Christ that the Apostle telleth them they were removed to another Gospel pronounceth that they were bewitched and if they still persisted to joyn circumcision and the works of the law with Christ they were fallen from grace and Christ could not profit them and yet they are called churches of Galatia Ephesus was extremely decayed in her first love she was not onely cooled a little but had left it In Pergamus there were some that held the doctrine of Balaam and of the Nicolaitanes In Thyatira the woman Jezebel was suffered to teach and seduce the servants of Christ Of Sardis the holy Ghost saith she had a name to live but was dead her works were not perfect before God there were but a few there who had not defiled their garments Of Laodicea it is recorded that she was neither hot nor cold and then it is not hard to conceive how she was overgrown with disorders and yet Christ was present with her by his grace and the faithfull are exhorted to repent or beware of her sinne and not to forsake her society Of the abuses in the church of Rome something hath been noted before Of corruptions and disorders in other churches the scriptures give plentifull testimony But you shall never find that the faithfull are warned to separate from the worship of God in these assemblies but to keep themselves pure and undefiled and labour the reformation of others by all means lawfull In the
and not to give that honour unto Jesus Christ or to give it unto any other is a breach of the first commandment It is true that inward and outward worship both when they are both of one nature or kind are required in the first precept as if I must pray unto God in the mediation of Jesus Christ or pray unto Jesus Christ mine onely Saviour I may kneel or prostrate my self or bow my body in the exercise of religion and these actions must be referred to the same commandment It is also true that the second commandment reacheth to the heart and requireth that we rightly conceive of allow approve and affect the ordinances of instituted worship appointed of God as well as exercise and maintein it but seeing the worship it self commanded is instituted it is also outward Besides there be some things of mere nstitution which pertein to the third and fourth commandments as the institution and observation of the seventh day from the creation in time of the Law and of the first day in the week in time of the Gospel M r Jacob himself saith The fourth commandment in the word Sabbath setteth down one particular even the ordinary seventh day of rest but understandeth all holy dayes instituted of God that they are likewise to be sanctified By his own confession then all instituted doctrines and ordinances are not referred to the second commandment The just and true generall matter of the second commandment is a free and voluntary institution or matter instituted onely or specially in the exercise of Gods worship wherein it hath no way any necessary use of it self This is the generall matter or full extent of the second commandment even in the mind and purpose of God himself the authour of it And it is likewise the just and full definition of Gods instituted worship in generall that is whether true or false This is obscure and doubtfull If the meaning be that all instituted or positive worship of God which carrieth the Lords stamp and approbation must be referred to this commandment and that all worship devised by men for nature use and end one with the worship instituted of God is a breach of the second commandment it will be granted freely and might have been delivered plainly But if the meaning be that all free and voluntary institutions whatsoever must be referred to the second commandment if of God as just and allowable if of men as sinfull it hath no ground of truth or probability For many free institutions cannot be referred to the second commandment and concerning the instituted worship of God God hath left many things undetermined wherein the church may take order and give direction without sinne unto what commandment soever in generall the things may be referred The Lord forbidding to bow down unto or serve an image doth therein forbid all approbation liking or reverence though never so small shewed towards any institutions and inventions of men set up in the room of or matched with the Lords own instituted worship But an invention for nature and use one with the true worship of God and an institution in the exercise of religion are not one and the same There ought to be very clear and plain proof in Gods word to warrant every visible church if the members thereof desire to have comfort to their own souls because this is even the first and weightiest matter in religion that can concern us viz. to be assured that we are in a true visible and ministeriall church of Christ For out of a true visible church ordinarily there is no salvation and by a true visible church and not otherwise ordinarily we come to learn the way of life Therefore above all things it is necessary that every Christian do rightly discern of the divers kinds of outward ordinances in this behalf chiefly of visible churches and withall to understand which kind or form thereof is the true visible church of Christ or kingdome of heaven upon earth which is the onely way and in it the onely truth ordinarily leading to eternall life hereafter For the true visible church of Christ is but onely one questionlesse in nature form and constitution There are expresse and pregnant texts of scripture which shew what is the true visible church of God whereunto Christians may and ought to joyn themselves in holy fellowship in the ordinances of worship As where the covenant of God is there is the people of God and the visible church For communication and receiving the tables of the covenant is a certain signe of a people in covenant For what is it to be the flock sheep or people of God but to be in covenant with God to be the church of God The word maketh disciples to Christ and the word given to a people is Gods covenanting with them and the peoples receiving this word and professing their faith unto God is their taking God to be their God Those assemblies which have Christ for their Head and the same also for their foundation are the true visible churches of Christ It is simply necessary that the assemblies be laid upon Christ the foundation by faith which being done the remaining of what is forbidden or the want of what is commanded cannot put the assembly from the title and right of a church For Christ is the foundation and head-corner-stone of the church The form is coming unto Christ and being builded upon him by faith the matter is the people united and knit unto Christ and so one unto another Now where the matter and form of a church is there is a church Every society or assembly professing the intâ—re and true faith of Christ and worshipping God with an holy worship joyning together in prayer and thanksgiving enjoying the right use of the sacraments and keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace is the true church of Christ The Gospel may be preached to Infidels some supernaturall truths may be professed by hereticks the use of the sacraments may be in adulterate churches but the intire profession of all fundamentall articles of faith to be believed and main precepts and morall laws for practice to be acknowledged the dwelling of the truth amongst men and the right use of the sacraments which is ever joyned with true doctrine and to be esteemed by it is proper to them that be in covenant with God The laws and statutes which God gave to Israel was the honour and ornament of that nation a testimony that the Lord had separated them from all other people even the Gentiles themselves being judges This is your wisedome and your understanding in the sight of the people He gave his law unto Jacob his statutes and ordinances unto Israel Thou gavest them right judgements and true laws ordinances and good commandments Who received the lively oracles to give unto us They have Moses and the Prophets Sound doctrine