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A47442 A second admonition to the dissenting inhabitants of the diocess of Derry concerning Mr. J. Boyse's Vindication of his Remarks on A discourse concerning the inventions of men in the worship of God : with an appendix containing an answer to Mr. B's objections against the sign of the cross / by William, Lord Bishop of Derry. King, William, 1650-1729. 1696 (1696) Wing K534; ESTC R4453 121,715 288

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Religious Duty and a part of worship Now the Church of Scotland in the form of Excommunication in Knoxes Liturgy orders a murtherer to confess his Crime thus He shall stand three several Sundays in a place before the Church-door bare footed and bare Headed cloathed in base and abjected Apparel having the same Weapon which he used in the Murther or the like bloody in his Hand and in conceived Words shall say c. Undoubtedly they that Ordered this made no Question but we might express the sense of our Minds in Religious Matters by Signs as well as Words These were not to express inward Worship in general nor are they meer bodily Gestures but symbolick Signs and Badges of Repentance Mr. B. may think himself unconcerned in these two last instances but I believe you will not IV. His third Objection against my Proof of Scriptures Warranting the use of the sign of the Cross is That the same Argument will serve as well to Justifie many other Rites which the Romish Church has added to Baptism and the other parts of God's Worship Vind. p. 48. Now to this I Answer 1st That it was incumbent on Mr. B. in this Point as I told you in my Admonition to prove by Scripture that it is unlawful to signifie or express the particular Duties we undertake in the Sacraments by Actions that are by general Custom expressive of those Duties and to answer the Scriptures I produced but he has not produced one single Instance from Scripture where such Signs or Expressions of a particular Duty are condemned meerly because they thus signified or expressed it Which I take to be a plain Consession that he wants direct Proofs and till he produce some such Scripture-Proof he cannot acquit himself of teaching that to be unlawful which God has not made so the Sin of those that forbad Meats and Marriage 1 Tim. 4. 2dly To condemn a thing for imagined Consequences without direct Proof is a very uncertain and which is worse a very dangerous Method for it lays a Snare in the way of the Weak A Man that knows that the Church of God has used the Sign of the Cross since the Apostle's time universally that the Church of England and Ireland approve of it together with the Protestant Churches of Sweden Denmark and the Lutheran Churches of Germany and sees what can be said for it will not easily be perswaded that it is unlawful and when he hears Protestants affirm that the many Rites which the Romish Church has added may as well be Justified and that the first Reformers seem to be unreasonable in rejecting them as Mr. B. alledges Vind. p. 49. he will be apt to conclude that there is no great harm in them and I doubt not but the imprudent drawing such consequences has actually reconcil'd many to Popery and some to Atheism and therefore a man that loves his Religion will be very sparing of Drawing them for he will consider if he have direct or Scripture Proof for a thing they are needless and if he have no direct or Scripture proof for his Tenent he has reason to suspect the truth of it For I suppose every ill thing is forbidden in Scripture and may be Condemned from thence As for the drawing Consequences they may serve to render a Tenent Odious but rarely serve to satisfie a reasonable Man without direct Proof 3dly The Advocates of the Church of Rome are deeply concerned to defend their own Worship and have produced all the Arguments they could against us and yet I think I may say have failed in them all and I do not believe Mr. B. will pretend to manage them better than they have done tho' this be not the first time he has lent them his Assistance with what design I will not judge But this consideration alone were sufficient to excuse me from answering this Argument Yet lest it should really have that influence on weak Minds that such Arguments sometimes have in the mouths of pretended Friends or professed Enemies to make them have a better Opinion of the Roman Rites than they deserve I will endeavour to give you a true account of this matter that you may see what Rites we condemn in the Romish Church I think this due to the justification of our Reformers reflected on by Mr. B. as unreasonable 1st Then We condemn such Rites and Ceremonies as signifie any peculiar presence or power of God to be in any place or thing where he has not promised it because it is not in the power of man to dispose of God's Influence or Presence or to tye them to any Action Thing or Place without his own Act Upon this account the Heathen Images Temples and Altars were all unlawful and so are those of the Papists if we take them as they pass in the Estimation of the Vulgar 2dly We condemn all Representations of any glorious Being in order to worship it as being against the Second Commandment expresly 3dly We reject all such Signs as pretend to carry any supernatural efficacy or vertue with them because all such efficacy and vertue must proceed from God and we ought not to presume that he will communicate them to Signs or Rites except we have his Promise for it and on this account we judge the Popish Holy Water Oyl Spittle Crossing c. to be superstitious 4thly Such Rites as by their number or quality engage the Thoughts and divert them from attention on God's Service such are the many Crossings two hundred if I remember right in one Office Bowings Kneelings Kissings and frequent motions from one place to another in the Mass. 5thly Such Signs as are not easily understood Dark and Dumb Ceremonies as our Church calls them whose design and signification are not easily comprehended by the People such are the many Vestments of the Popish Priests the Furniture of their Altars the Lights Oyl and Salt in their Baptism c. 6thly Such as neither present universal Custom or Nature have made proper and significant of the things they are designed to express or if formerly they have been significant are now antiquated having lost their signification by time as words do the Custom that made them significant being changed as it has happen'd to putting off the Shooes at our coming into the House of God covering the Head the Kiss and Feasts of Charity the dipping in Baptism and changing the Cloathing the continuance of which we count burthensome and superfluous 7thly Such as are not proper to influence Mens Minds and engage them to perform the Office they are about with more seriousness and attention or as our Church expresses it that are not apt to stir up the dull Minds of Men by some notable signification such are many Gestures of the Priests in the Mass and many other Ceremonies of the Roman Church 8thly Such as pretend to propitiate or reconcile us unto God because that can only be done by means of his own appointment on this
set up his Reasons against the Letter of it as I have observed him often to do To conclude That the Assemblies of Christians are places for secret Prayers of each apart when they do not interfere with any Publick Office as well as for Publick appears from the whole tenour of the Scripture and the constant practice of the Churches of God Antient and Reformed And that those secret Prayers ought to be offered with Adoration as well as the Publick is likewise manifest And therefore the Directory by forbidding Adoration at our first coming into Church has excluded it where it was most proper III. But Thirdly I take it for granted that when an Old Law or Rule is laid aside and a new substituted in the place of it all things contained in the Old repealed Law or Order are laid aside which are not contained and again injoyned in the New By which Rule the Directory doth plainly exclude all Bodily Worship For in the Preface to it we are told that They resolve to lay aside the former Liturgy with the many Rites and Ceremonies formerly used in the Worship of God and have agreed on this following Directory for all the parts of Publick Worship at Ordinary and Extraordinary Times Here then the Liturgy with all the Rites and Ceremonies used formerly in the Worship of God are laid aside not only our Praises Prayers c. are excluded but all the Rites and Ceremonies with which they were performed such as Kneeling Standing c. And instead of these we are oblig'd to no more than is ordered in the Directory Prayers Praises c. are there indeed Ordered and the way of performing them prescribed but not a word of Bodily Worship and therefore it is plainly excluded among the other Rites and Ceremonies that are laid aside IV. All that Mr. B. alledges to prove that this Bodily Adoration is required by the Directory is Rem p. 109. That it requires such as come into the Congregation after Publick Worship is begun Not to betake themselves to their private Devotions but Reverently to compose themselves to joyn with the Assembly in that Ordinance of God that is then in hand which can import no less than putting themselves into a bodily posture most suitable to that Ordinance But I answer This passage imports no such thing the Assembly has no where explained Reverence in this sence or given the least reason to believe that they thought one posture more suitable to one Ordinance than another except Sitting at the Lords Supper which posture they seem to approve thro' the whole Service for they require those that come in To take their Seats or Places which in common acceptation is to sit down and they never require them to rise It was therefore incumbent on Mr. B. to prove that by Joyning Reverently in Prayers or Thanksgiving for Example is meant Standing or Kneeling at them or else this is no Vindication of the Directory But Secondly We are not left to guess what is meant by Joyning Reverently in the Ordinance then in hand The Sentence immediately going before explains it where the Assembly tells how the people are to Joyn in Publick Worship even by forbearing to read any thing Abstaining from private Whisperings Conferences Salutations or doing Reverence to any Persons From all gazing sleeping and other indecent behaviour which may disturb the Minister or People This is the way they are to joyn in the Service of God But not one word of putting themselves into a Bodily Posture most suitable to the Ordinance that is in hand It is plain therefore as I said before that they excluded these when they laid aside the many Rites and Ceremonies used formerly in the Worship of God and never restored them V. Let me add further That Reverence and Worship are very different things We ought to behave our selves Reverently to all our Betters and at all times But Worship is peculiarly to our Superiours who have power over us And as the things are different so there are different outward Acts that express them and neither Your Directory Confession of Faith or Catechism or any other Authentick Rule that I know of amongst you require any one visible Act peculiar to Worship in Your Assemblies Nor do I see by what Authority your Ministers can exact it from their People where they pretend to Conform to the Directory nor can it be pretended that the Composers of it forgot this For it is manifest that they remembred it so far as to forbid all Adoration where it was most proper that is at our coming into the Assembly and never require nor allow it any where after VI. Thirdly What I have said concerning the sense of the Assembly that Composed your Directory is agreeable to the Notion Dr. Twiss their Chairman had of this Matter as appears from his Letter directed to Mr. Mede dated July 27. 1635. 'T is the 59 in the Collection In which he gives this censure of Bodily Worship The Lord requires the true Worshippers should Worship him in Spirit and Truth in distinction from Worshipping him either at Jerusalem or in the Mount the Woman spake of but as to the outward gestures I doubt I shall prove a Novice as long as I breath and we affect not to make Ostentation of our Devotion in the face of the World the rather because thereby we draw upon our selves the censure of Hypocrisy And sometimes if a Man lift up his eyes he is censured as a P. I confess there is no outward gesture of Devotion which may not be as handsomly performed by as carnal a heart as breaths And in his thirteenth Letter being the seventieth in the forementioned Collection he adds And as for outward Complements nothing more pleases a Natural Man in Religious Worship and he finds himself apt enough in it yea far more apt than he who knowing and considering that God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit are most carefull for the performance thereof Whereupon while their Minds are intent they find themselves not so free for outward Complements the care whereof is apt to cause avocation and disturbance in that unum necessarium Hence in the same Letter he blames himself for being prevailed with to rise up at the solemn Glory given to the Father Son and Holy Ghost and commends one that could never be perswaded to it Thus you see how the Prolocutor of the Assembly ridicules Outward Worship under the Names of Outward Postures and Complements You find himself likewise alledging in opposition to it our Saviours Command of Worshipping in Spirit Jo. 4. 24 And the very same Arguments that I mentioned and Answered in my Discourse Chap. 4. Sect. 3. Plainly intimating withal that it is a piece of Ostentation to use these Acts of Bodily Worship a sign of a carnal heart to be pleased with them and to neglect them a sign of an Heart intent on God's Spiritual Service Yet Mr. B.