Church the unhappy contentions about it the worst of Devils would soon hasten its destruction Mr. Jekylls Sermon on Jer. 5.29 p. 21. But there is one thing which if not speedily prevented will before we are aware let in that which we so much fear and cry out against viz. Popery and which perhaps too too many of us more or less may be accessary to I mean those unnatural heats and divisions amongst our selves amidst which though we are not altogether swerved from the Form yet we are strangely degenerated from the true Spirit and Power of Godliness and Christianity How sad the effect and consequence of these heart-burnings and animosities unchristian strifes and debates will be I am afraid to think of Item p. 25. We are distracting our own Devotions yea and provoking I had almost said devouring one another whilst our Adversaries in the day they look for which God grant may never come will make no difference but swallow us up together Principles and Practices p. 10. of Ep. It is high time to be reconciled to Moderation and Sobriety to lay aside our uncharitable and therefore unchristian heats against each other and to throw water upon those flames that threaten our destruction and but for Gods infinite Mercy would have effected it before now instead of adding more fewel unto it Mr. Kidder on 1 Pet. 3.11 p. 29. The several Sects and Quarrels of the Jews among themselves and the fury of their Zealots were but a prologue to their miserable destruction Bishop Taylors Coll. of Discourses Ep. before Liberty of Proph. For my own particular I cannot but expect that God in his Justice should enlarge the bounds of the Turkish Empire or some other way punish Christians by reason of their pertinacious disputings about things unnecessary undeterminable and unprofitable Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety p. 427. It is the usual Oeconomy of Divine Justice to make our Crimes our Punishment and to give us up to those ills which were at first our own depraved choice And God knows we have too much reason to fear this may be our case that we who have so perversly violated all the bonds of Unity wantonly wrangled our selves out of all inclinations to Peace should never be able to resume them Item p. 428. This alass as it is the fearfullest so is it the probablest issue of our wild contentions such as nothing but the miraculous effluxes of Divine Clemency can avert To conclude as well we may with this as an undoubted Truth from Mr. Kidders Sermon on 1 Pet. 3.11 p. 22. These Contentions have done more mischief than all the Persecutions put together more have fallen and more dangerously this way than by the Swords of Tyrants and avowed Enemies of our Religion Arguments for taking the Ceremonies away or leaving the Vse of them indifferent especially the Sign of the Cross HEre is the most proper place to premise somewhat concerning the Lawfulness of Ceremonies least I should in any thing which follows be thought to condemn my own practice in point of Conformity to these Ceremonies As to Kneeling at the Sacrament I think the Rubrick should satisfie Persons it speaks very plainly It is hereby declared that no Adoration is intended or ought to be done either unto the Sacramental Bread and Wine there Bodily received or unto any Corporeal Presence of Christs Natural Flesh and Blood For the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very Natural Substances and therefore may not be Adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians and the Natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven c. Mr. Bayns Christian Letters p. 201. Kneeling is neither an occasion nor by participation Idolatry Kneeling never bred Bread-Worship and our Doctrine of the Sacrament known to all the World doth free us from suspition of Adoration in it Thus he though a Nonconformist Mr. Tombs Theodulia p. 168. That whatsoever Gesture our Saviour used it doth not oblige us because the Gesture seems not to have been of choice used by Christ 2. Because St. Paul omits the Gesture which he would not have done if it had been binding 3. He mentions the Night and calls it the Lords Supper and if the Time be not necessary much less the Gesture 4. If the Gesture doth oblige then Christians must use the self-same that Christ used i. e. Lying down or Leaning c. Mr. Baxter in his Christian Directory I think speaking of the Sacrament tells us he thinks Mr. Paybodies Book in defence of Kneeling to be unanswerable As to the Surplice Platina mentions it to be brought in very early into the Church in the days of the good Bishops of Rome Anno Domini 250 by Stephen a Martyr under Decius the Emperour And none can deny but that in the Apostles days after Baptism the Baptized in those hot Countries of the East being commonly at least dipped or plunged in the Water with their naked Bodies the persons Baptized put on new white Vestments to shew the Purity of a Christian Whence the Lords day after Easter which Easter was their chief time of Baptizing was called Dominica in Albis the Lords day in White Mr. Leighs Annotations on the New Testament tell you those expressions of putting on the Lord Jesus and putting off the Old Man have allusion to the Garments Peter Martyr speaks in his Answer to Bishop Hoopers Letter The Defenders of this Ceremony may pretend some honest and just signification and Zepperus himself though no Friend to the Sign of the Cross in the Baptismal Office as Mr. Sprint tells us in his Cassander Anglicanus speaking of the Papists saith thus We read nothing of the Superstitious Habits in the Monuments of Antiquity except only of the White Vesture Qua usi sunt sine superstitione in signum Commone factionem honestatis vitae So that if it were a significative Ceremony as it is not in the Church of Englands use of it yet in their judgments the use of it might be innocent Bishop Taylors Ductor Dubitantium p. 668. Great Reason have we to honour the Wisdom of the Church of England which hath in all her Offices retained but one Ritual or Ceremony that is not of Divine Ordinance or Apostolical Practice and that is the Cross at Baptism Which though it be a significant Ceremony and of no other use yet as it is a compliance with the Antient Church so is it very innocent in it self and being one alone is not troublesome or burthensome Archbishop Whitgift said the Surplice was not enjoyned as a significant Ceremony The Canon about the Surplice mentioneth nothing of using it for signification of purity or unspotted innocency We do not wear it as monitory or instructive to keep the inner man pure and clean but as a Garment of use in the Antient Church and transmitted down from them to us and retained at our Reformation And some urge it to be decent and no ways
would satisfie most The Fathers of our Church when they Reformed this Nation from Popery were desirous to fetch off as many as they could retaining for this cause all the Ceremonies and Forms of Prayer they could with a good rectified Conscience Some other things I could mention in the Book of Common-Prayer though not ill in themselves yet fit to be altered and would obviously appear to every wise man once resolved to compose such a Form as to take in most of this Nation which I humbly conceive Governours should in Conscience endeavour becoming all things to all men to gain some though not all yet happily gain all in process of time Principles and Practises of Moderate Divines c. They would be very glad if some things that most offend were taken out of the way particularly that there might be no expressions in our Forms of Prayer that contain disputable and uncertain Doctrines p. 335. Vid. Mr. Wakes Sermon on Rom. 15.5 6 7. p. 23. And that no such weight be laid on lesser things as that they should be inlisted on to the endangering those of an higher nature and hazarding the Churches Prosperity and Peace Serious and Compassionate Enquiry into the causes c. That it will be no Hypocritical tergiversation no wrong either to our Religion or our Consciences if when the case so requires it we change any phrase of Speech how fit soever in our apprehension for one less fit but more acceptable and currant or any Rite or Ceremony that we have great kindness for for one that is more grateful unto others and that according to the saying of the Lord Bacon we learn of the elder times what is lawful and of the present what is fittest Mr. De L' Angles Letter to his Lordship the present B. of London I am sure that if there were nothing wanting to cure your Divisions but the abstaining from some Expressions the quitting some Ceremonies and the changing of the colour of some Habits you would resolve to do that and something more difficult than that with great pleasure Conformists Plea for the Nonconformists Part 3. Pref. It is clear there must be a Liturgy and very many even to Dr. Sherlock mention some Alterations in the several parts of it as desirable and advisable Without any positive arrogance in a matter of this nature I do offer my observation Some that expect much profit by Preaching do think first and second Service too long and tiresome Others that care less for Preaching are very busie in the Interlocutory parts of the Service grow careless and too often prate and stare about and whisper in the Lessons and sleep under our Sermons both are too long for them also All that I will suggest in the last case is First That the second Service or Communion-Service may be then only read when there is a Communion or when there is no Sermon upon Holy-days Secondly That only one of the three Creeds be used at one time in the same Service Thirdly That the so often Repetitions of the Lords Prayer in the same Service may be limited All cannot most do not keep Curats The work of Reading the ordinary first and second Service besides incidental Offices as Baptism Churchings c. make it very expensive to most mens Strength and Spirits and wearisome to the People and the constant necessary work of Preaching and Catechising is hardly endured by the young and healthful but impossible to be performed by the infirm and aged And therefore in King Edward VI. days some Ministers were dispensed with in not Reading the whole as Grand Debate mentions p. 5. It is true indeed if a mans Conscience will bear it a Minister may be both short and seldom in the Pulpit but then it is with two great hazards First Of losing his Auditory or of his Auditories great loss to their Souls This humble Proposal for omitting the second Service hath a fair Countenance from the Rubricks Rubrick the last immediately before the Lords Prayer hath a supposition that the Communion is Celebrated every Lords day c. I mean to conclude with an excellent Citation from Bishop Taylor Duct Dubit p. 375. In Rituals and Ceremonies and little circumstances of Ecclesiastical Offices and Forms of Worship in the punctualities of Rubricks in the order of Collects in the number of Prayers and fulness of the Office upon a reasonable cause or inducement to the omission or alteration these things are so little and fit to be entrusted to the conduct of those sober obedient and grave persons who are thought fit to be entrusted with the Cure of Souls And things of such little concernment are so apt to yield to any wise mans reasons and sudden occasions and accidents and little and great Causes that these were the fittest instances of this Rule i. e. of Latitude if Superiours would not make too much of little things All just Governments give the largest interpretation to Churches Orders in these things to persons of a peaceable Mind and obedient Spirit that such circumstances may not pass into a solemn Religion and the Zeal of good Men their Caution and Curiosity may not be spent in that which doth not profit In many cases a Latitude according to Equity may be presumed but if it be expresly denied it may not be used Which is the case of our Conformists as to those things wherein a Latitude might be taken according to the Law of Equity when they carry some considerable inconvenience along with them and reason for the contrary yet we being strictly bound up by the Church it must bring a guilt upon the persons disturb their peace of Conscience and prove vexatious and troublesome to them that way if they often offend in these matters And this I presume to be the case of those who in their common practice do not come up to the strictness of their bounden and promised Conformity though in some cases when extra casum scandali contemptus they may do otherwise than the express Letter of the Law requires and be guiltless as our Casuists affirm I beg the favour with all Humility and with Submission to the Will and Wisdom of our Governours to offer to their Consideration whether it were not desirable to have a Prayer for particular Graces in the Evening Service the Petitioning part being less perfect then and at such times when the Letany is not used We have such a Prayer in the Whole Duty of Man called a Prayer for Grace comprehensive of particular Graces And then no doubt the use of it would be more acceptable in Families than it is now when it runs out so much in Intercessions and so little in Petition Again I offer to their Consideration whether the Hymns and Offices of Praise after the Lessons especially in the Evening Service are not become less edifying in their present use where those Spiritual Songs are barely Read as in Parish Churches and not Sung there being one way
convenient and fit for continuance or alteration accordingly Fourth Answer The present terms of Conformity will be the same as to their Lawfulness or Unlawfulness whether there be any condescensions for Dissenters or none at all As I am a Conformist both in judgment and practice so I could offer Arguments in defence of my present Conformity as well as for Concessions to the Nonconformists Yet the Learned Bishop Cosins declared in his last Testament that it was the great duty of us all to Unite and I am sure it is so and that it is no duty of any at all to censure or condemn the present terms of Conformity as Unlawful upon the account of any concessions or recessions from them for so good an end as an happy Re-union and Comprehension I need not remind you in how many Precepts this Duty is enjoyned how tenderly and compassionately the Apostles of our Lord dealt with weak ones how earnestly they charged us to receive them to bear with them to become all things to them to gain the weak to please them to their edification c. Arguments enough to convince us that it is our duty whatever the World say or think of us to yield somewhat to the weakness of our Brethren and to relax as the Author of the Serious and Compassionate Enquiry has it p. 102. Making the terms of Communion more free and easie this is highly recommended by some good men as the most proper expedient for a Protestant Church in our condition Another Objection It would be a dishonour say some to our first Reformers to take away those things which they Established To which I Answer as True state of the Primitive Church The Fathers of this Church when they Reformed this Nation from Popery were desirous to fetch off as many as they could retaining for this cause all the Ceremonies c. Certainly we cannot do our Fore-Fathers a greater honour than to observe their Rule of Reason to conform to the times and therefore they are grosly mistaken who think it a dishonour to them for us to take away what they have Established when we keep close to the reason wherefore they did Establish it Iren. p. 225. This Temper was used by our Reformers in composing our Liturgy in reference to the Papists to whom they had then an especial eye as being the only party then appearing whom they desired to draw into their Communion by coming as near them as they well and safely could I say the same reason which at that time made them yield so far to them would now have perswaded them to alter and lay aside those things which yield matter of offence to any of the same perswasion with themselves For surely none will be so uncharitable towards those of his own Profession as to think there is not as much reason to yield in compliance with them as with the Papists Further Lloyds State Worthies in Quarto p. 998. in the Life of Archbishop Laud he brings in that Bishop disliking Mr. Calvins words of Censure Tolerabiles ineptias who knew not said the Bishop the temper of the Nation requiring then not what was absolutely best but most conveniently good And thus our Reformers did what was best in their days or most conveniently good Even as Aristotles Organon might be best in the days of old but now the case is altered and the reading Lectures out of that Book is commonly with less profit than other Logicks would be the case may be applicable to some things at least in the Common-Prayers if not the Worship it self as not done so much to edifying c. And the Reformers reason for their Imposition ceaseth which was the enlargement of the Church by gaining and winning as many as could be to our Communion The Papists came to this Worship till the 10th or 12th year of Queen Elizabeths Reign But now it hinders and shuts some of our Reformed Protestant Brethren out of our Church and so the reason which made at first for the imposition maketh as much now for the abrogation of some things therein I say again not a dishonour to our first Reformers because a due acknowledgment may be made of their worth and the work of Reformation in their days that it was the best the fittest or at least praise-worthy Our Forefathers who knew what Popery and a Mass-book was by sad Experience rejoyced that they had Prayers sound for the substance and purged from the Corruptions of the Mass book and looked upon it as a wonderful Blessing from Heaven and were thankful And if somewhat be inconvenient and less suitable to the genius of the people in these days not sinful and unlawful or unmeet for good Christians to joyn in I presume no dishonour will be done to our first Reformers who as several are apt to imagine if they had lived in these days would have taken at least some few things away for the enlargement of our Communion Thirdly Gods Honour is greater than that of our first Reformers but God is highly dishonoured by this Worship as it is at present performed carelesly negligently under contempt by many and by most I am afraid little regarded as to the devout use of it And the Question must end in this whether God will be more Honoured by the continuance of the Common-Prayers as at present or whether with Submission to the Wisdom of our Governours it may not admit of an alteration in some things for the better Whether it is like to do most good to Souls and best attain the ends of Worship in its present use or any Amendments or Concessions for a Comprehension So be it Gods Worship be done to edifying by the greater part of our Congregations in the City and Country both God will have the Glory and all good Christians will be satisfied Another Objection What need of a Comprehension Are we not as well without it What shall we be the better for it To which I Answer There are no doubt a Thousand Blessings of Heaven and Earth accompanying that Church state which like the Heavenly Society is at Unity in it self If there were any Community here upon Earth that enjoyed a perfection of Love and Peace how ambitious would Mortals be to enter into that Peaceful Society But the nearest approach that we can make unto it is by a Philadelphian state An Heavenly thing is Unity as Nazianzen well observed Pugnas dissidia nescire Deum Angelos No broyls no jars in Heaven nothing but Peace there and it is a kind of Heaven upon Earth when Brethren dwell together in Unity Psal 133.1 Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is c. Pleasant to behold a lovely sight to see an Army marching in an exact order and as amiable and acceptable to hear people of the same Parish Town City and Kingdom pouring out their joint requests with one Mouth and one Heart praying for the Peace and Prosperity of Zion O the Benefits of Union are
Primitive Christians who used the Sign of the Cross often and very early after the Apostles dayes as Justin Martyr saith in foro in agris And thus the Church of England showed she left the Church of Rome only in her Innovations and would go along with her in what the Ancient Church practised that she might be the more inexcusable and justly condemned if she rejected Communion with us But now the case is altered the Papists are hardned by it and encouraged upbraiding us as Bishop Vsher said of them If our Flesh be not good why do you drink of our Broth But our Protestant Brethren stumble at it and it is disused by other Reformed Churches and therefore in condescention to the weakness of the one and Uniformity with the other Reformed Churches perhaps it were to be wished that how the use of it were forborn V. Against the Imposition of the Ceremonies is because of the many Objections against them especially against the Cross as a significant Ceremony not instituted by Christ as a Dedicating Covenanting Sign as a Sacramental Sign or as having the semblance of a Sacrament or against the use of it in that place immediately after Baptism and the Duties of the Baptized more expresly assixed to that Sign than to the Sacrament it self as a medium cultus Again as Superstitious and Scandalous because of the Popish abuse of it as a cursed Addition to the Word of God and the Sacrament of Baptism as imposed on Ministers and Children of those Parents that scruple and are not satisfied in Conscience about the use of it as well as those that are as the Likeness and Image of Christ Crucified forbidden say they in the Second Commandment as will Worship as disused in other Protestant Churches as against Christian Liberty as unsuitable to the simplicity of the Gospel as needless unprofitable and causing Divisions in the Church Although none of the Objections or Arguments that I can find against it convince me that the submission to it and the use of it is utterly unlawful yet it should seem inconvenient to continue a thing which hath so plausible and numerous Objections against it VI. For making some allowances in respect of the Ceremonies God himself dispenseth with his own Commands about Rituals or smaller matters in case of necessity or when great good or hurt stands on the other side to outweigh them 1 Sam. 21.6 David in his hunger eats the Shewbread which only the Priests were to eat and Christ on the same account lets the Disciples pluck and rub the ears of Corn on the Sabbath-day 1 Kings 8.64 Solomon hallows the middle of the Court for an Altar because the Brazen Altar of the Lord was too little for the Offerings A multitude did eat the Passover otherwise than appointed 2 Chron 30.18 on the Second Moneth for they could not keep it at the time appointed as the Second and Third Verses An Ox or an Ass is to be watered or pulled out of a Pit on the Sabbath day Periculum vitae dissolvit Sabbatum as the Proverb says though by many good Men a matter of Controversie or thought to be Moral and not Ceremonial Surely then lesser matters upon great and weighty Occasions when Spiritually necessary for the Churches Good and Peace and for the Labours of able Men in the Work of the Ministry may very well be dispensed with For Humane Ceremonies cannot pretend to a like Authority or Necessity much less a greater than those of Divine appointment That Ceremonies must yield to substance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or King James I. Instructions to his Son p. 15. Learn wisely to discern between points of Salvation and indifferent things betwixt Substance and Ceremonies As for the latter spare not to use or alter them as the necessity of the Times shall require Bishop Halls Works p. 1092. Our Saviour justifies the act of Abimelechs giving David Holy Bread and the Sword Ceremonies must give place to Substance God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice Charity is the summe and the end of the Law that must be aimed at in all our actions Bishop Taylors Duct Dubit p. 735. Thus if a Church commands such Ceremonies to be used such Orders such Prayers they are to be observed when they may but if I fall into the hands of an enemy to that manner of Worship who will kill or afflict me greatly for using it I am in that case disobliged even as Periculum vitae dissolvit Sabbatum Serious and Compassionate Enquiry p. 159. On Davids eating the Shew-bread It is sufficiently intimated that God doth not only prefer Moral acts before Ceremonial but also doth make great allowances limitations and exceptions in the one case and not in the other For it is as if our Saviour had said Had you censorious Pharisees understood either God or Religion you would have known that so long as there is not Contumacy and Contempt in the neglect of those Rituals but the excuse of a just necessity or the Rational Consideration of a greater good to preponderate the omission God doth not impute it for a sin Bishop Saunderson on Rom. 3.8 Sect. 31. Affirmative Duties do not obligare ad semper as being many it is impossible they should And many times Duties otherwise necessary in case of Superiour Reason and Duties do cease to be necessary pro hic nunc and then to omit them is not to do evil Bishop Wilkins p. 413 414. Now Divine Laws themselves are capable of relaxation which is the meaning of that Proverbial saying so frequent in Scripture That God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and therefore much more will Humane Laws admit it True state of the Primitive Church As to Ceremonies I wonder men of any tolerable discretion should be so eager either for or against them our Salvation no ways depending on them but much hazarded by our contentions about them breaking Peace the principal thing recommended to us by the Gospel of Peace VIII Another Argument for Concessions in the Ceremonies several of our Eminent Men in Queen Elizabeths Reign were for the taking of them away as their Letters to Bullinger inform us mentioned by the Bishop of Salisbury in his Travels Letters of things remarkable in Switzerland c. by Dr. Burnet Bishop of Salisbury tell us that there is a vast Collection of Letters at Zurich written either to Bullinger or by him Bishop Jewel in a Letter Feb. 8. 1566. wishes that the Vestments together with all the other Remnants of Popery might be thrown both out of their Churches and out of the minds of the People and laments the Queens fixedness to them So that she would suffer no change to be made And in January the same year Sands Archbishop of York writes Contenditur de Vestibus Papisticis utendis vel non utendis dabit Deus his quoque finem Horn Bishop of Winchester in a Letter July 16. 1565. He writes of the Act concerning the Habits