for Order Difference and Decency Thus you plainly see This Christian Liberty which is pretended cannot be Extended to things Indifferent in themselves or to these Ceremonies being Indifferent in themselves and Lawful in themselves no way Repugnant to the word of God and Instituted and Injoyned onely in a Civil and Politick way for Difference Order and Decency without laying any necessity upon them for Salvation or placing any Religion or Holyness in them Therefore These that either Stubbornly contemne them or Odiously contend against them cannot but give just Occasion of Scandal and Offence As they are guilty of the Breach of Charity so they Break the very Bond of Order and deny their Obedience which is due unto the Magistrate But you will still Reply We cannot be perswaded that you take these Ceremonies to be Indifferent in themselves to be done or left undone But that you lay some kind of necessity upon them because they are so strictly Urged Required and Commanded and thereby our Christian Liberty is Infringed To this we Answer All acknowledge that these things are in their own nature Indifferent which are neither necessary to be done nor sinful being done may be done or left undone without sin which are morally neither Good nor Evil and in Scripture neither Commanded nor Forbidden Thus these things These Ceremonies in their own Nature are neither Good nor Evil neither Commanded in Scripture nor Forbidden But being set up appointed and Commanded by our Governours and Magistrates our Obedience to them is necessary as long as no Impiety is found in them as not contrary to the Word of God and not Indifferent We have shewed you already the Difference between the Necessity of the Imposition of a thing and our Necessity of Obedience to it when it is Imposed To cleer it farther to you take it thus There be two kind of Necessities which are incident to Humane Ordinances in the cases of Indifferent things 1. The Necessity of Obedience to the Commandment This Necessity of Obedience to Humane Precepts and Commands in things Lawful and Indifferent is so far from prejudicing Christian Liberty that God himself hath Established this Necessity in his Church Rom. 13. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 13. Eph. 6. 7. Tit. 3. 1. This Necessity of Obedience cannot properly contradict our Christian Liberty though accidentally by reason of the multitude of Impositions it may be much wronged 2. The Necessity of the Doctrine of that Commandment The Opinion of the Necessity of the Imposition of it This Doctrinal Necessity is when a Man shall give to any Humane Constitution any of those Properties which are Essential to Divine Ordinances These Properties are principally Three 1. Immediately to Bind the Consciences of Men. 2. To be a Necessary meanes to Salvation 3. To hold it altogether unalterable by the Authority of Man These Points do Infer a Doctrine of Divine Necessity Such kind of Prescriptions and Orders which contain in them any Opinion of Doctrinal Necessity whensoever they shall be Ordained of Man though they concern onely the outward Ceremonies of Gods worship yet are contrary to the Word of God Acts 10. 11 12 15. We may not stamp the mark of necessity upon any Doctrine whereupon God hath set his Stamp of Indifferency to use it or not to use it So that it is the Doctrinal Opinion concerning Ceremonies That is the onely Proper cause of depriving Christians of that Liberty in Question which Christ commended to his Church in respect of things Indifferent Polanus reduceth those Errours which make Circumstances of Worship truely Superstitious to Four Heads 1. Meriti when thereby we think to purchase Gods Favour To Merit at Gods hand and that he is bound to reward our Inventions 2. Cuâ—â—us Dei when things are required as Essential parts of Gods Worship when we put Holiness in them 3. Perfectionis when we think that the Perfection of Christianity consisteth in Humane Inventions 4. Necessitatis when such things are required as simply Necessary in their Nature when they are but things Indifferent Danaeus expressing the several Properties of the Opinion of Necessity whereby Christian Liberty is dissolved reduceth them also to these Four When there is an Opinion 1. That Humane Ceremonies are Necessary to Salvation 2. When they put Holiness in them 3. When they place an Opinion of Merit in them 4. When they make them Necessary Parts of Gods Worship And Chemnitius saith Opinio Necessitatis tollit Libertatem So that by all these you see that Christian Liberty is properly impeached by a Doctrinal Necessity by teaching Men to believe some thing to be Necessary in it self which our Saviour Christ by the power of his New Testament hath left to his Church as free and Indifferent Thus Calvin sheweth that it is not the Necessity of Obedience to Mans Commandment but the Necessity in Opinion of the Commandment of Man The Opinion of the Necessity of the Commandment of Man that annuileth our Liberty our Christian Liberty in things of themselves Indifferent Now though our Church doth challenge a Necessity of Obedience to her Command yet doth she not Command or Teach any use of these Ceremonies in any Opinion of the Necessity of them but that they are Retained for Discipline and Order and on just causes may be altered and changed and not to be equal to Gods Law But still Three Objections may be made Object 1. There should be no Laws made for the Government of the Church besides the Express Rule of the Word of God but such as are made by Christ Deut. 12. 32. Whatsoever I command you take heed to do it Thou shalt put nothing thereto nor take ought therefrom God by Christ Jesus hath given full and perfect Laws for his Church Jam. 4. 12. There is one Lawgiver who is able to Save and to Destroy Answ We acknowledge Christ to be the Head of the Church as it is Colos 1. 18. And that he hath given full and perfect Laws to his Church for the Matter and Substance of his Worship and in some things for the Manner of his Worship But we must know Laws are of Generals Thus there be General Rules or Laws given by Christ which for matter of Substance may not be altered we may neither adde to them nor diminish from them but for matters of Circumstance that being Indifferent and variable in the Particulars they may be altered or abolished as the Peace and Edification of the Church shall require So that Christian Princes with the State and Church may Ordain such Orders by those General Rules as may be Judged fitting by them for Order Decency and Edification of the Church so that the Service of God be not put in them but appointed onely for Discipline and Order This is no addition to Gods Command we adde nothing Essential to the Doctrine or Worship of God That which is added is onely Accidental and Circumstantial the better to inforce Gods Command and the better to perform
an Hearb climb a Tree to kill or catch a Flea upon the Sabbath-day you know the story of the Jew who falling into the Jakes would not be helped out because it was their Sabbath-day This we count Superstition Super Statutum To add any thing to Gods Law or to be too strict in Tying our selves to more then God requireth of us 3. From Super-Stare thus I conceive we may not unfitly call him Superstitious who in matters of Religion standeth too much upon his own opinion Judgment will or affections who is so high in his own conceit and wedded to his own affections puffed up with his own pride and self conceit that he will not yeild an Inch to the Judgment of others standing upon Trifles and poor needless things which in their own nature are indifferent so making a Rupture breach and Schism in the Church as if those poor indifferent things were such as wherein the very Soul substance and heart of Religion did consist and were the summ of all and life of all whereas they are such as scarce come nigh to touch the Fringe of Christs vesture and very unworthy to be made matter and fuel of contention in the Church We should all strive to preserve Peace and Unity in the Church bearing one with another and supporting one another yea yielding one to another in things which in themselves are indifferent Indeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Thus a man may Super-Stare and be accounted this way Superstitious two manner of ways 1. In his opinion and judgment When he standeth too much upon his own judgment and is too wise in his own eyes Thus too many are too strongly too highly conceited of themselves lifted up with the conceit of their own knowledg gifts and Parts thinking themselves wiser then all others and so will not vouchsafe to submit to not so much as to ask or hear the judgment of others or their reasons Yet Solomon doth tell us Prov. 26. 12. Seest thou a Man wise in his own eyes there is more hope of a fool theâ— of such a one He is one of Solomons incurable fools Bray him in a Mortar yet will his folly return say what you will you cannot Convince him All the Reason in the world cannot bear him down Some we know in these late times of Liberty have been bold to Brand all the Rites Customes and Ancient Fashions which were Instituted by our Forefathers with the name of Idolatry and Superstition yea Christian Burial it selfe That for a Minister to accompany the Dead Body to the Grave and there to give an Exhortation was Idolatry and Superstition yet there we neither Worshipped the Dead nor Prayed for the Dead onely gave an Exhortation to the Living and at that time and there in that place at the Grave to give some honour to the Dead To put some difference between the Burial of a Christian and the Burial of a Beast Surely our Saviour made no such difference of places by his own Example but one may be as Lawful to Teach in as another He Taught sometimes upon a Mount sometimes in the Synagogue sometimes in a House sometimes in a Ship by the Sea-side Some again have conceited our Fonts to be Superstitiously placed in the lower part of the Church Though our very Churches and all that belong unto our Churches if that people did understand the Grounds and true Reasons of those things were Ordered Setled and Disposed of with so much Knowledge Wisdome and Discretion that no man who understandeth himself can justly except against them For all that was done by our Forefathers though we judge our selves to be much wiser then they were all that was Instituted and appointed by them in those things for Order Time Manner Place and all such Circumstances was very Significant though all know not the Grounds of them as may easily appear by Particulars 1. Our Churches are all generally Built upon Mounts Hills and Hillocks with an Ascending up unto them To teach us that when we come up unto the Church we should Mount up in our Hearts and Affections unto God leaving all earthly thoughts and things below Setting your affections on things above and not upon things below as it is Coloss 3. 2. 2. Our Churches are all Uniformely Built Set East and West and the Seats for the People both in Hearing the Word and in Praying to look Eastward And why To remember us of the Benefits which we have by the Lord Jesus our Saviour The first News of whose Birth was brought to Jerusalem by the wise Men Matth. 2. 2. from the East The Jews counted the East to be a Coast 1. Hateful because there was the first sin committed by Adam and Eve in Paradise in the Garden of Eden which was Eastward Gen. 2. 8. Eating the Forbidden Fruit. 2. Unclean because there the first Blood was shed by Cain who slew his Brother Abel and was an Inhabitant of the East Gen. 4. 26. 3. Cursed because there was the first Curse laid upon the Earth Gen. 3. 17. for the sin of Man Cursed be the Earth for thy sake c. Therefore God in his wisdome appointed That as the first beginning of sin was in the East so thence should come the first News of our Salvation by the Birth of our Saviour Christ Jesus The uncleanness of the East should be purged by the appearing of the Star in the East and the Curse laid on the Earth taken away and blotted out by the Blessing of Christ Wherefore whereas the Jews did ordinarily Pray towards the West The Moores and Saracens toward the South We Christians Pray towards the East and it was the Ancient custome in Baptisme when they Renounced the Devil and all his Works To turn themselves toward the West but when they made Confession of their Faith to look and turn towards the East And it is an Ancient Tradition of the Church That when Christ shall come to Judgement at the last day He shall first arise and appear in the East and accordingly you see we make our Graves for the Dead and lay in our Dead with their Faces toward the East as if they should rise and stand upon their Feet at the Resurrection to meet the Lord in the East 3. Our Fonts are placed usually in the lower part of the Church and not far from the Entry into the Church To shew that by the Sacrament of Baptism we are admitted into the Church Matriculated and so made Partakers of all the Priviledges of the Church For the Sacrament of Baptism was called by the Ancients Sacramentum Initiationis Janua Caeli Primus Christianorum Introitus The Door of Entrance into the Church The Door of Admission The Gate of Heaven Out of the Church there is no Salvation He that hath not the Church for his Mother shall never have God for his Father 4. The very Yew Trees which in most places of our Coast capable of their
Commanded Rom. 13. 1. Let every Soul be subject to the higher powers I and without this If we deny our Rulers this power That they have no Authority to make Laws in indifferent things we do not onely weaken the Arme of Authority but we break all Government in Church and Common wealth and cannot but see what unnatural Consequences of all Disorder are like to insue upon it in Church in State in Families in all Societies of the world Confusion will and of Necessity must follow if they have no power to make Laws for Edifying Decency and Order in Things indifferent and not contrary to the Word of God But if they have power by Laws to Regulate the Circumstances of Gods Worship in indifferent things for Peace Unity Order and Decency as the Apostle adviseth 1 Cor. 14. 40. Let all things be done Decently and in Order Then it must needs be granted that it is our Duty to Obey them in such their Determinations Thus you see there is and will be a Necessity of our Obedience To apply this plainly and fully we acknowledge there is no Necessity of the Imposition of this Ceremony of the Cross in Baptism or after Baptism because we neither Judge it in it self necessary any way to Salvation nor put any Holiness in it but in that respect it may be as well left out and omitted as used neither can we think that our Governours themselves put any Opinion of Necessity or Religion in it seeing they do openly Declare themselves to the contrary in the Doctrine of our Church as you may easily perceive if you look upon our Book of Canons and Examine the xxx Canon The title whereof is The Lawful Use of the Cross in Baptism Explained But seeing this Ceremony hath been so Anciently and Constantly Used in the Primitive Churches still used in our Church and never put down by any Lawful Authority but still retained and Established by our Laws yet onely for Discipline and Order and upon no other account of Holiness or Necessity There is a Necessity of our Obedience in it to the Command of our Governours and to the Authority of the Church as long as the Ceremony it self is Lawful in it self not Contrary to the Word of God may be Lawfully used upon this Account and that it is the pleasure of King and Parliament to Injoyne it Require it and Command it Things in their own nature Indifferent being Commanded or Forbidden by a Lawful Magistrate do in some sort alter their nature in respect of the Tie of our Obedience And therefore because this Ceremony is Prescribed and Commanded by Authority the Church expecteth Obedience at our hands Thus you may plainly perceive the difference between the Necessity of the Imposition of it and the Necessity of our Obedience and Submission to it when it is Imposed and Injoyned 2. For the Surplice there is no reasonable Man but will allow of Distinction of degrees among Men. Then how shall they be known but by their several Vestments Cloaths and Habites Judges are discerned by their Robes Serjeants at Law by their Coifes Aldermen by their Gowns Schollers in the Universities and their several Degrees by their several Habites Caps and Hoods why then should it be any way inconvenient or accounted an Indecorum or unseemly thing in Ministers to have some Distinction in their Apparel from others to be known and differenced from others and if we Examine this Vesture of the Surplice we shall find it Used before Popery was in the world So that Diversity of Apparel and more particularly of this Vestment had not his beginning from the Pope Eusebius Recordeth out of the most Ancient Writers That John the Apostle wore at Ephesus a Bishops Attire upon his Head terming it Pelatum seu Lamina Pontificalis and Pontius the Deacon Writeth of Bishop Cyprian the Martyr That a little before he should be Beheaded he gave to him that should Behead him his Vesture called Birrus and to his Deacon his Vesture called Dalmatica and so stood himself in Linnen And that the Apparel of the Priests and Ministers of the Church was Distinct from Lay-men in the old Church of the Primitive Times is Apparent by the Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret lib. 2. cap. 27. And by the Writings of Socrates lib. 6. cap. 22. Yea there was a Distinct Apparel between the Christians and Gentiles we find it was the Custome when Christians were first Converted and came to Christs Religion and were admitted into the Church Instead of a Gown they did wear a Cloak for which cause when they were mocked of the Gentiles Tertullian Wrote a Learned Book De Pallio In defence of the Cloak of that Fashion and Custome And as they had their several Distinctions of Apparel between Christians and Gentiles so especially between Ministers and Lay-people And that white Linnen for Ministerial Apparel was used in the Church is plain to all Chrysostome in his Homil. 38. on St Matthews Gospel speaking of Ministers saith This is your Dignity your Stay your Crown not that you walk through the Church in white Vestments c. And Hierom. lib. 1. contra Pelagium speaks of the Ecclesiastical Order which in the Administration of the Sacrifices went in white Vestures We find that that the Jews Gods own people especially the Nobler sort of them were wont to Wear and were much delighted in white Cloaths Therefore Solomon speaketh thus to the Epicure Eccles 9. 8. At all times let thy Garments be White that is Be merry put on thy best Cloaths and keep Holy day Their Nobles were called in the Hebrew Tongue Chorim that is Candidi White Thus you shall find it 1 Reg. 21. 8. Jezabel there sent Letters in Ahabs Name Sealed with his Seal to the Elders and Nobles of the City where Naboth dwelled Who in the Hebrew Tongue are there called Chorim and hence we may suppose came the Word Candidati which is so much used among our Lattin Authors for Men in Office Men of Note or in Authority because they were usually Cloathed in White It is worth our observation which the Evangelists note out unto us You find that the Souldiers of Pilate the Romane Deputy put upon our Saviour Christ a Scarlet Robe Matth. 27. 28. or as Mark hath it Mark 15. 17. and John Joh. 19. 5. a purple Garment which is also a very pleasant Red. But the Souldiers of Herod King of Jewry as you read Luk. 23. 11. araied Christ in White and sent him again to Pilate Both was in mockery yet it sheweth the different Fashion of those two Nations The Jews and Romans and that White was the Colour of Honour among the Jews And no man can deny but that the Christians in the Primitive times had a great Vessel called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their Churches and that in those hot Countries they who were Baptized were first dipped in the water of that Vessel with their naked Bodies and after covered with new
Conscience sake That is in respect of the Ordinance of God which commandeth us to Obey those Laws of the Magistrate which are not Repugnant to the Laws of God This Liberty also the Apostle giveth to the Church to make such Orders as tend to Edification 1 Cor. 14. 26. Let all things be 〈◊〉 to Edifying And again 1 Cor. 14 40. Let all things be 〈…〉 and in Order Those Actions Things and Rites which in their own nature are Indifferent neither precisely Commanded nor expressely Forbidden in the Word of God As to Eate such a day Flesh and such a day Fish to keep such a kind of diet at one time and such a kind at another To wear at such a time such and such Vestures and Garments especially upon a Politick and Civil Account being Commanded and Required by the Magistrate are then not to be accounted indifferent to us because they are Injoyned to be observed of us and required by the Magistrate to whom we owe Subjection by the Law of God Thus you see this Christian Liberty whereon we stand is not a Liberty of Licentiousness to do what we list neither is it a Civil or Corporal Liberty of our Bodies from all kind of Service and Servitude under others Neither is it such a Liberty as doth Exempt us from Obedience to our Lawful Magistrates and to the Just Laws of our Land requiring nothing of us which is contrary to the Word of God You will say now What kind of Liberty then is it which the Apostle doth here perswade us to stand fast in wherewith Christ hath made us Free We answer it is a Spiritual Liberty of the Soul and Spirit whereby we serve the Lord Christ willingly and cheerfully in Spirit and Truth being freed from the Bondage of the old Law If you look upon the Words there going before and following after you will plainly find and all Interpreters do agree upon it that the Apostle St. Paul speaketh there of that Liberty whereby we are freed by Christ from the Observation of the Law which he calleth there the Yoke of Bondage Thus St. Peter also speaketh of them Acts 15. 10. Why tempt ye God to lay a Yoke on the Disciples Neckes which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear For presently after St. Paul insisteth upon Circumcision because Circumcision was the Ground of all the Service of the Law and that which was chiefly urged by the false Apostles Thus he speaketh there v. 2. Behold I Paul say unto you If you be Circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing that is If you be Circumcised with that mind and meaning which the false Apostles pretend as that you look and Believe to be Justified by Circumcision and by keeping of the Law then shall Christ profit you nothing Christ profiteth onely them which Renounce their own Righteousness the Righteousness of the Law and fly to the Promise of Grace made in Christ by Believing and by Faith applying to themselves the Merits of the Death of Christ and resting upon him alone and upon that Promise of mercy made in him for the Forgiveness of their Sins and for the Salvation of their Souls For no man can keep the Law therefore no man can expect to be Saved by the Law But the Curse of the Law must needs lie upon him without Christ This is that Liberty which the Apostle there doth insist upon If you desire to be farther satisfied in this Point of Christian Liberty Be pleased to take it in these Particulars Our Christian Liberty Consisteth 1. In a Liberty or Freedom from the Power or Dominion of Sin as the Apostle speaketh Rom. 6. 14. For sin shall not have the Dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace From the Tyranny and Bondage of Satan Hebr. 2. 14 15. Christ took part with us that he might destroy through death him that had the power of death which is the Devil and that he might deliver them which for fear of death were all their life time subject unto Bondage And from the Torments of the Second Death Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus So that true Believers though they have sin still dwelling and abiding in them yet are delivered from the Power Raign Rule and Dominion of sin are not Slaves and in Bondage under Satan nor in danger of Eternal Death 2. In a Liberty and Freedome from the Moral Law but not in respect of Obedience but in respect of the Rigour Curse and Condemnation of the Law The Obligation to punishment For whereas the Law requireth of us perfect Righteousness we do not look to be Justified by the Righteousness of the Law but by the Righteousness of Christ according to that Galath 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree 3. In the Liberty of the Spirit The gift of the Holy Ghost which doth inwardly Seal unto us the former Mercies Rom. 8 15 16. For we have not Received the Spirit of Bondage to fear again but we have Received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father This Spirit of God taketh away the vail of Ignorance Darkness and Blindness from our Hearts Inlightneth us by the Preaching of the Gospel in the true saving knowledge of Christ Converting us to God and Quickning us with the life of Grace willingly and cheerfully to obey God according to that 2 Cor. 3. 17. Now the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty 4. In a Freedom from the Ceremonial Law of Moses from the Sacraments Sacrifices and Services of the Old Law which were Imposed on the people of God and were Types and Shadowes of things to come and ended in Christ The Apostle tells us Galat. 2. 4. of false Brethren which were craftily sent in and crept in privily saith he of those times to spâ—e out our Liberty which we have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into Bondage To whom we gave not place by Subjection for an hour that the Truth of the Gospel might continue with you And from the necessity of observing those Legal Rites Orders and Ordinances which concerned things Indifferent The choice of certain Meats thé Observations of daies and the like As also from all the Traditions of Men Instituted in the worship of God as necessary to Salvation or putting Religion in them Christ hath delivered us from all these Yet notwithstanding all this Christian Liberty doth not at all Exempt us from our Obedience to our Lawful Magistrates or to the Laws of our Land Commanding and requiring that which is Lawful and not contrary to the Word of God and Instituting and Injoyning those things without any opinion of placing any Religion Worship or Necessity in them but in a Civil and Politick manner onely for the Edification of the Church onely