Yet doe not wee pray for the world but against it that we may follow Christ Christ prayed for the Jewes and Gentiles that persecuted him to death father forgive them for they know not what they doe yet he prayes not for the world that lies in wickednesse but that it come out and serve God so wee pray once more against their wickednesse but wee pray for their Persons As farre as our charity tends so farre our Prayers extend and I am sure wee must doe good to all But if God shall reveale any speciall Persons that have sinned unto death wee will not pray for them In the meane time give us leave if you have so much charity to pray that there may bee none such Yea but say they wee pray in that Litany for all that travaile by land or by water and so for thieves and pyrats too yea and I know not for what Devills in mens braines who compasse the earth too and fro Where is their charity The pious Church provideth a Prayer for Men and not for Devils who are out of hope and out of all Communion with her and for all men that are within a saveable condition in that word Our Father So shee prayes for theeves and pyrats to make them better or else against them to maintaine Gods just providence in their future punishments If these bee all their exceptions against our good Litany as they are all I have heard I hope they will give me leave to use it as I doe and use it with me in peace The second degree of our Church worship is the middle of it when wee reade the commandements of our great God with Prayer when we read the Epistles and Gospels more fully to strengthen our faith and pray for the whole Church In the first they doe except that we kneele when the commandements are reade as if it were a Prayer Noe wee doe it not to make it a Prayer it is none But yet wee doe it partly to testifie our subjection to the God that gave it as the People on mount Sinai fell downe at the publication of it and as wee kneele before the King and partly because it is joyned with that submissive Prayer Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this law Next come the Epistles as indeede the whole word is an Epistle written to our soules wherein wee have sometimes prayers but mostly fit rules of holinesse of life and after the Gospels that wee may know the benefits of which we must live worthy These strengthen our faith in all the articles and further our thankfulnesse for all Gods mercies by Christ and his Apostles I know nothing worth notice that is heere excepted against If they call them shreads of scripture yet they are scriptures and fit texts applyed to every season And if Christ would not onely preach truths but fit truths for the people and if they themselves I hope will choose fit texts for feasts and fasts times of solemnity and times of mourning I hope also that the Church cannot bee denyed this liberty If they say they are applyed to divers holidayes which are not of Christs appointment Yet are they not without Christs leave and permission If Christ have permitted them though God saith six daies thou shalt labour yet to use their liberty according to discretion upon any of the six to refresh themselves or spend in holy exercises is he an harder master yea husband unto his Church Surely as occasion is offered they may choose any fit dayes either to feast or to fast But alasse say they all this in that common-prayer booke is but an English masse taken out of the masse-booke of Rome Belike then wee had it out of the Temple of God where that man of sinne sitteth well bee it so A thiefe hath got a true mans purse may not Justice deliver it to him againe and leave the thiefe to his Judge and punishment Such is our case The Pope could not have hid himselfe so long but under the banner of Christ and the service of God with the Saints Therefore hee gets the Leitourgy or common-prayer booke of the blessed Fathers and adds to it of his owne rubbish as Masses for quicke and dead Dirges Requiems Praying to Saints and ANGELS blessing of Bells and Candles to give power to drive away Devils When this was espyed by the breaking out of the beames of the glorious Gospel the blessed Martyres challenge their owne and leave the wicked trash to the founder And is not this Justice If these men had gold and silver mingled with durt and poyson would they cry out all durt all poyson and worke for more No they would wash cleanse purifie and keepe the gold and silver for their uses So have we done and noe more Wee have taken off the spots and keepe the garments We have washed away the filth from the gold of the first great Saints and Martyres If this bee a fault wee rejoyce in it and commend to others as Doctour Rowland Taylour when hee was going to be burned next unto the Bible the Service-booke to bring up our children in the feare of God And so I passe that The last degree is the end of our common-prayer worship which is the administration of Sacraments The wit of Men and Angels cannot devise a better way of GODS worship in them Such grave exhortations effectuall Prayers propounding of warrants laying downe of promises confident expectations of their making good by Christ to Children Parents and all penitent and believing Christians are there upon record that a modest man would wonder how any exceptions could be found out Yet three things are there that much trouble them and us by them 1 Kneeling at the Communion 2 Crosse in Baptisme and 3 The responses or answeres in Baptisme As for kneeling I shall indeavour with Gods helpe to doe two things shew that they may lawfully worship God in the use to this Sacrament kneeling and take away their maine rubs in the way That which is for Christ they may lawfully doe but kneeling at the Sacrament is for Christ for what is not against him is for him If it bee against him let them shew where hee hath forbidden it If they cannot they may lawfully kneele Againe that which is neither commanded nor forbidden by God they may lawfully doe for the Apostle saith of such things all things are lawfull yea they must necessarily doe it now not out of conscience to the gesture but out of conscience to the command of our Christian King and Church But kneeling at the Communion is neither commanded nor forbidden by God but commanded by the King and Church therefore they may they must kneele Againe if they kneele not but sit as an act of Religion they make it essentiall to the supper and the Apostle Paul an unfaithfull servant to so good a
those rams-hornes of old when we are in publicke worship There yee have not onely the spirit promised which will lead you into all saving truth convince convert and comfort you till yee are of full stature in Christ but yee have many hands to help you in confession supplication deprecation intercession and giving of thankes There ye have many encouragements to hold on in the way of Christ There is the word to promise sacraments to confirme prayer to procure and many of Gods people to give you the right hand of fellowship till you come to your journeyes end The first step to apostacy is the neglect of publick assemblies As a man that hath an inclination to take wicked courses withdrawes himselfe from good company as Iudas when he went out from Christ and his disciples and yoaked with the high-priest and elders so if a man encline to warp hee declines the assemblies of Gods people as one wearie of such a course But if hee stick unto them his hands are strengthened to hold God fast by the word of precept promise and correction by the sacraments wherein a bargaine is strook betweene God and us by the prayers of our selves and others which bring God neere to helpe and by the examples of others which have a compelling vertue to good as well as ill When therefore yee consider this bundle of profit yee cannot wonder that Gods people have so constantly tyed themselves to watch at the gate and wait at the postes of the doores where publicke worship hath beene prepared Oh that all Gods people that ate good and would be better would lay these things to heart and not forsake our assembling together God workes by these meanes and if wee forsake them wee forsake the hands of the God of strength which are in them stirred up to come and help us Forsake church assemblies and yee turne your backes upon Gods face angels saints and comforting acts of worship Forsake church assemblies and ye sad the hearts of Gods people strengthen the hands of wickednesse and shew no reverence to worship Forsake church-assemblies and yee let loose thousand of temptations upon you against faith and manners the Devill will take you upon his owne ground You wil say happily that great presence and profit is talked of but ye see none nor feele any upon you It maybe so yet without the fault of our assemblies and with the fault of none but your unworthy selves Take therfore this advice in Gods feare and speed better hereafter First come with prepared hearts that is hearts unloaded of the guilt of wilfull sins hearts standing in awe of Gods presence and worshipping in feare and hearts sincerely purposing to bee better Yee know Gods advice lay apart all filthinesse and superfluity of naughtinesse and receive with meeknesse the ingraffed word which is able to save your souls Ye know Peters proposition now are we all here present before God to heare all things that are commanded thee of God and Daevids practise In thy feare wil I worship towards thy holy temple Ye know the prophecy that went of you of old and Davids resolution to keepe the law yea to observe it with his whole heart according to grace given Do but you thus and yee shall find presence and profit Secondly bring an humble soule along with you to God house If God doe meete with you in our assemblies hee acknowledgeth a Publican before a Pharisee hee calls no man Benjamin the sonne of his right hand but those whom their owne hearts call Benoni in their humility hee salutes them not Naomi beautifull who doe not humbly feele themselves Marah bitter The humble God wil teach and the humbled God will lift up for he fills the hungry with good things Bring but such senses and yee shall see presence and profit But if yee bee swift to heare and not slow to speak slow to wrath God sends such rich ones emptie away and casts such mighty ones from their thrones Thirdly carry your hearts along thorough the whole service Loose your hearts and loose your comforts in any thing ye do It was sweetly sung of old rejoyce the soule of thy servant for unto thee doe I lift up my soule Let that plummet runne downe to the ground and the wheeles of your actions will not runne to your content Therefore do but you come with prepared hearts humbled soules and binde your hearts for hearty service in the whole and then the presence in our assemblies shall bee for you and the profit for you too as well as for others who are thus vertuous as not to forsake our assemblings together SECT 3. The vice of those that forsake publick Communion 1 of the prophane ALl that can be said will not prevaile with all There are so many vices to overwhelm that as it was of old so is it stil it is the manner of some to forsake our assemblings together The Apostle saw it of old and laboured against it as an enemy to perseverance in the unity of faith and manners we see it stil and must labour against this act of many vices I le speake thorough Gods helpe but of two sorts of persons too neere unto us who give themselves unto this fault the first are prophane the second would be accounted truely religious The prophane shew themselves by foure degrees of forsaking our assemblies The first is coming to our assemmblies like those that are unwilling These that doe so are not altogether withdrawn in body but in heart are too farre from us The godly say let us go speedily and pray before the Lord they are like the Isles that wait for the law because they are willing people But they come as if they were in fetters and bolts like Zachariahs women pressed into an Epha with a talent of lead Lord how slow is their pace as if it were to the jaile or Bridewel The second is loving to be any where rather then in the assembly Surely when any act this though sometimes they come yet they forsake apace Gods people cannot rejoyce in such commers when God told Ezekiel that hee should goe to a rebellious people that were unwilling to submit hee went in bitternesse and indignation of spirit Such needes must be the movings of the heart of the assembly about such commers These thinke not that they should come to doe homage to God as David presseth give give unto the Lord glory strength worship due unto his name They thinke not that hee that despiseth the ministery done in assemblies despiseth not man but Christ therefore they love any meetings rather then them They account church-assemblies rather matters of complement then necessitie They need no soule reparations so their bodies bee fat and well-liking Wee read of one Victorinus of old who would bee a Christian but frequented not christian assemblies But godly Simplicianus met him
ascension Christ had a true Church before Deacons were thought of Put case Bishops did no hurt this way yet they impose oathes upon good men to accuse themselves say they which is against the law of nature justice and religion Certainely nature is for the preservation of the whole body and head and so is justice and religion too If therefore such oathes are for the maintenance of the head and body in publicke peace and tranquility why they may not stand with nature justice and religion I cannot see If one man bee intrusted with another mans goods which perish and he pretend that it be dead or stolne then saith the law an oath of the Lord shall bee betweene them and the loser shal accept it or the wronger shal make restitution What is heere but an imposing an oath upon a man to accuse or excuse himselfe If a man trespassed against his neighbour an oath was to be layed upon him to cause him to sweare before the altar in Gods house yea and if any person were concealed from the King he tooke an oath of the kingdome and nation that they found him not as Obadiah saith to Elijah what is heere againe but an oath imposed to excuse or to accuse a mans selfe And what doe our Bishops more then thus If Iacob bound Esau by an oath to secure that which he had bought of him If Salomon bound Shimeâ— by an oath to his confinement in Ierusalem because hee knew hee had a wicked heart against governement from his grievous curse against David to secure his peace why may not our Bishops having law in their hand secure the rights of the Church and peace of the state by the like oath also How is it possible that the Church and state can ever live securely when false brethren come in privily to bring us into bondage when they creep into houses and lead captive simple women when certaine men creep in unawares whose words eate as doth a canker being closely conveyed and having secret operations upon weake spirits I say how is it possible to bee safe from thâ—se but by the oath of God to make them manifest Aâ— when treason is detected suspected presumed or fained I hope no man thinke it unfit that the king who is worth tenne thousand of us should be secured by an oath though it bee to the losse of thousands of lives so nor I thinke can they judge it unfit that the Church the spouse of Christ should be secured of her rights and peace by an oath though thousands doe suffer in goods and liberty by it But say they if Bishops may be excused in former things yet can they not in the base usage of the censure of excommunication I am yet glad that they doe so highly account of it for it is a fearefull censure indeed when men by it are separated from publike Communion and fellowship with Christ in his ordinances of salvation and so bound and held under the guilt of sinne Too many doe too highly esteeme it and because some zealous men in former times have called the Excommunication of the Pope and his clergy when it was whetted against grace and the true worship of God a woodden dagger therefore they think that they may doe the like against ours Why not say the Brownists seeing the Bishops doe ingrosse it to themselves when it is a common power to the whole Church They doe use it no otherwise than Paul who while hee kept that key in his owne hands by his owne spirit and authority cast out the incestuous person as I have said before Nay they doe not ingrosse it to themselves for they doe denounce it according to Canons and rules which are made in Synods and convocations of Bishops and Presbyters gathered by the authority of their Princes But say they they are decreed by Chancellors Commissaries and Officials By them indeed as servants to the Lawes and Canons of the Church under their jurisdiction for execution For the censures are not referred to them or any but according to Lawes and Constitutions which they are sworn to execute justly and impartially I thinke that they cannot blame this service of theirs if they consider the originall First Bishops judged ecclesiasticall causes in person under which burthen they groaned and the Church was deprived of other comforts Then when causes increased by the increase of the Church and all ordinary cases were ruled by the canons of Counsels there was lesse need of Bishops presence And when matters of Tythes Testamentary and Matrimoniall by the favour of Princes were referred to Ecclesiasticall cognisance then such assistants were ordained as by such study and industry were usefull to serve the Church under Bishops and what hurt is here Sweet servants indeed say they who having this spirituall Sword in their hands doe thus abuse it Doe we not see indulgences and pardons by their absolutions and suspensions of processes flye abroad for money in their commutations and purse penances As for Indulgences they are of two sorts Papall and Evangelicall the Pope grants them out of Papall authority by way of mitigation of these satisfactions we owe to God these we abhorre and disclaime as impious But in our Church they are granted upon repentance and promise of amendment by way of mitigation of that satisfaction wee owe to men offended by us Of these Paul doth speake sufficient to such a man is this punishment yee ought to forgive him lest he be swallowed up with too much sorrow And if this be not regulated aright the fault is in persons not in this good order It is true that this is granted when offenders doe but say to them I am sorry I repent I will doe it no more which though it be not enough to take off the merit of sinne before God yet is it enough to take off the censure of excommunication For this is a sure rule that that which is enough to constitute an outward member of the visible Church is enough to admit a wounded member into the outward priviledges of it And for purse penances and commutations of which you speake let it be considered that it hath some ground in the Word of God For if there may bee a commutation by the purse for murther as ye may see in the law of the owners Oxe killing a man as I have said why not for lesse matters when it is well regulated Yea but say they doe we not see more abominations yet Is not power by their dispensing of Excommunications taken from Churches to remove scandals and purge out wicked livers to the annoyance of the Kingdome of Christ Put case wee had not power to remove scandals must they therefore separate If they abstained from the approbation of sinne and labored to supply the defect of this power by holinesse of life might they not thus judge the world
and spread forth his hands toward heaven did hee corrupt the worship of God because Moses commanded it not If Princes hold their people faithfully to them to serve God and the King this is commanded them as the Law is committed to them but if Ioshuah doe it by setting up a stone in Shechem if Asa doe it by an oath and if Nehemiah doe it by subscription who hath required it Is Moses unfaithfull Are not these things permitted to them and us To remember Gods benefits is commanded but for Mordecai and the Iewes to doe it by the Feast of Purim who hath required it was it not onely permitted So it is with us wee have precepts and permissions under generall rules In conscience to the precepts wee preach and heare the word wee administer and receive the Sacrament wee pray both publikely and privately But in conscience to the permission we heare and preach from the Pulpit or from none with one in a gowne or cloake in white or in blacke wee receive standing sitting or kneeling we pray standing lying or sitting as necessity and order is put upon us by God and our superiours and as the worship of God may bee best advanced And what hurt is heere But say they these permissions are put upon us by peremptory Lawes contrary to our Christian liberty By a Law indeed they are bound to them with us but not contrary to Christian liberty for then Titus was in vaine left in Creta to set in order things that are wanting if Christians in the outward carriage of things might doe what they list Therefore I wish them brotherly to consider something concerning ceremonies and something concerning Christian liberty Ceremonies may be considered two wayes Before a Law hath bound this or that way and After the bond of a Law Before they may have not onely variety but contrariety and yet not displease God One eateth another eateth not yet God receiveth both one esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth every day alike yet if they bee charitable and fully perswaded in their own hearts God is not displeased But when a Law hath passed upon them those things that are permissions in themselves are precepts in their use as when the Church decreed the abstaining from stranguled and bloud so long as was convenient for the Churches of the Iewes As God loves that we should keepe the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace in one faith so Paul joyes when hee beholds the order among the Colossians that all their things were done in love So long as wee are free wee are like the daughters of Zelophehad who so they kept within their owne tribe might marry whom they pleased so wee may looke which way we please and settle according to our pleasure But when the law of expediency is put upon us wee must say all things are lawfull but all things are not expedient When the law of Charity is put upon us wee must say if meate make my brother to offend I will eate no flesh while the world standeth And when the law of loyalty is put upon us we must say thou O Christian king art worth ten thousand of us the scandall of thee swallowes up the scandall of ten thousand persons therefore wee must doe as Ioab number the people no sinne in it selfe though we see inconveniences that may fall upon it Next concerning Christian liberty it doth not make us lawlesse for then were it vaine for any Church whatsoever to determine what is fit for ceremonies to bee done by them for then every one might flye to Christian liberty and say I will doe what I list my Christian liberty shall beare me out And how unfit this were every religious soule câ—n judge but it is a liberty that frees our consciences from inward bondage that we be not brought under the dominion of any thing I eate fish or flesh as is appointed but I am brought under the dominion of neither I weare white or blacke I stand or sit or kneele but I am brought under the dominion of none of them In my conscience my Christian liberty hath set me free but in my practise I am bound in these things to expediency charity or loyalty for the establishing of good order in the Church or in the coÌ„mon-weale If they would but duely consider these two things they would never talk of permissions turned into lawes to prejudice Christian liberty Yea Christian wisedome would learne them too that religious worship is called by the name of outward ceremonies used in them as God calls praying bâ—wing of the knees and swearing lifting up our hands not because these are commanded duties in such acts of worship but because God permits and loves our well carriage in his worship according to generall rules though we have no particular precepts Yea but say they our ceremonies are typicall and Iewish ceremonies which hurt our worship They meane as I conceive they are teaching ceremonies not ceremonies of meere order but significant to put us in minde of duty I am sorry that this should be accounted a fault If they did not signifie how could they edifie Were they types and shadowes of the mysteries of the Gospell invented by men indeed Christ were ill advised not to ordaine them But being onely moâ—al documents and monitors of some duties I wonder where their guilt lies If I had an hundred boxes in my house for my uses and some few of them had a marke upon them to direct me where my mony lay that I might be carefull of that doth this savour of want of naturall wisedome So neither doth it taste of want of spirituall wisedome to set a marke upon some few ceremonies to put me in minde of my duty to Christ What are these say they but images set up to our selves for religious use What to worship to adore God in or by No but to reminde us of what we ought to doe And this was the practise of the Church in all ages Abraham put his servants hand under his thigh in swearing surely to signifie his subjection to him in that businesse about the promised seede Moses set up an Altar when Amaleck was overthrowne and called it Iehovah Nissi to signifie that the Lord was their banner The two tribes and a halfe built an altar not to distinguish their borders but to signifie that they were Gods people and that they had all one God to whom they and their posterity must sacrifice upon his owne altar Samuel set up a stone when the Philistims were discomforted and called it Eben-Ezer to signifie that the Lord helped them When Christ the truth was come hee used humane significant ceremonies as the feast of dedication sitting at the Passeover a signe of rest the water pots of the jewish purifications the custome of embalming beside other formalities of