points that no controversies or opinions will shake his faith or destroy his love to God or man Thirdly He will honour God by upright practise and shew forth the power and excellency of religion in the true success upon the heart and life His Religion which begins in solid faith will grow up into sincere Love and good works Fourthly He will be without partiality a Lover of all the servants of Christ and therefore escape temptations to faction and division because his Religion consisteth in those common truths and duties which all profess Fifthly he will not only safely receive all further truths from these principles but all his knowledge and disputes will be sanctified as being all subservient to faith and love and holiness Whereas he that taketh the contrary course and presently falleth to the study of by-opinions and layeth too much upon them will prove too like a superficial hypocrite and a deceiver of himself by thinking that he is something when he is nothing Gal. 6. 5 6. And he will make a pudder in the world for nothing as children do in the house about their babies and their bawbles He will make but an engine of his by-opinions to destroy true Piety and Christian Love in himself first and then in all that will believe him He will first make himself and then many others believe that Religion is nothing but proud self-conceit and faction And he will be the shame of his profession and the hardener of the wicked in their sin and misery by perswading them that the Religious are bnt a few ignorant whimsical fanaticks These are too sad experienced truths DIRECT XXXII Lay not a greater stress upon your different words or manner of prayer than God hath laid And take heed either of scorning reproaching or slighting the words and manner of other mens worship when it is such as God accepteth from the sincere IT is an easie thing to turn the native heat of Religion into a feaverish out-side zeal about words or circumstances or ceremonies whether it be for them or against them O what a wonder is it that by so palpable a trick as thâ—s the Devil should deceive so many and make such a stir and disturbance in the Church I know that one party will cry up Order the other will cry up Spirituality and both will say that God maketh not light of the smallest matters in religion nor no more must we And in this general position there is some truth But if nothing could be said for both their errours they would then be no deceits nor be capable of doing any mischief Some things that you contend about God hath left wholly undetermined and indifferent And some things in which your brother erreth his errour is so small a fault as not at all to hinder his acceptance with God nor with any man that judgeth as God doth Had you ever understood Rom. 14 15. you would have understood all this It would make a knowing Christian weep between indignation and compassion to see in these times what censures and worse are used on both sides about the wording of our prayers to God! How vile and unsufferable some account them that will pray in any words which are not written down for them And how unlawful others account it to pray in their imposed forms some because they are forms and some because they are such forms and some because that Papists have used them and some because they are imposed when God hath given them no command but to pray in faith and fervency according to the state of themselves and others and in such order as is agreeable to the matter and in such method as he hath given them a Rule and Pattern of But of all quarrels about forms and words he hath never made any of their particular determinations no more than whether I shall preach by the help of Notes or study the words or speak those which another studied for me It is a wonder how they that believe the Scriptures came first to make themselves believe that God maketh such a matter as they do of their several words and forms of prayer That he loveth only extemporary prayer as some think and hateth all prescribed forms Or that he loveth only prescribed Forms as others think and hateth all extemporary prayers by habit Certainly in Christs time both Liturgies by forms and also prayers by habit were used And yet Christ never interposed in the Controversie so as to condemn the one or the other He condemneth the Pharisees for making long prayers to cover their devouring widdows houses and for their praying to be seen of men But whether their prayers were a Liturgy and set forme or whether they were extemporary he taketh no notice as telling us that he condemned neither And it s like the Pharisees long Liturgy was in many things worse than ours though the Psalms were a great part of it And yet Christ and his Apostles oft joyned with them and never condemned them Nay as far as I can find the Pharisees and other Jews were not in this so blind and quarrelsome as we nor never made a controversie of it nor ever presumed to condemn either Liturgies or Prayers by habit I shall now pass by their errour who are utterly against publike prayers from a habit as having spoken of it at large elsewhere when I had opportunity I shall now only answer the contrary extreme Obj. Where hath God given any men power to prescribe and impose forms for others or commanded others to obey them Answ. First where ever he hath given any power to teach their inferiours to pray who cannot do it in a better way He hath given Parents this power where he hath bid them Bring up their Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Is it not by the Law of nature the Parents duty to teach their children to pray And is not the learning of the words first profitable to their learning of the sense May they not teach their Children the Lords Prayer or a Psalm though it be a Form And why not then other words which are agreeable to their State And he that taught his own Disciples a Form and Rule of Prayer and telleth us that so Iohn taught his Disciples and saith to his Apostles As my Father sent me so send I you by making them Teachers to his Church did allow them to teach either by forms or without as the cause required All the Scripture is now to Preachers a form of Teaching And when we read a Chapter we read a prescribed form of Doctrine And it haâ—h many forms of prayer and praise and forms of Baptizing administring the Lords Supper If you say that the Apostles had an infallible spirit I answer True And that proveth that that their Doctrine was more infallible than other mens but not that they only and not other men may teach by the way of forms All the Books of Sermons now written are
near to sinners as we can by Love and all the offices of Love neither following them in any sin nor flying from them in any thing that is lawful that they may be convinced that it is not humour and disdain and pride but true necessity and Gods command which maketh us differ from them as we do And that we may not be disabled by any contrary errours of our own from evincing and oppugning theirs DIRECT XLVII When ever you are avoiding any errour or sin forget not that there is a contrary extream to be avoided of which you are in danger as well as of that which you are opposing THe minds of most men are so narrow that they cannot look many wayes at once If they be intent on one thing they forget another But it is a narrow bridge betwixt dangerous gulfs which Christian faith and obedience must pass over And he that looketh on the one side with the greatest fear and caution is undone if he look not also on the other The common way of avoiding any errour oâ— vice is to run into the contrary And on those terms satan himself will be Orthodox and a reformer and an enemy to vice I gave you some instances even now He is a rare person that is so wise and happy as to flye from every errour and sin with an impartial awakened fear of the contrary And thence it is that the most judicious old experienced Christians are usually in controversies for a middle way and in the croud of contentious sects they commonly are the reconcilers Not only because they are more calm and moderate and peaceable than others but especially because they have seen the errour on both extreams when others see only the errour on one side Only in our inclination to our ultimate end that is in our Love to God we never need to fear over-doing But all the means may be perverted and turned into sin by extreams Many that observe the pollution of the Church by the great neglect of holy Discipline avoid this errour by turning to a sinful separation And many that are offended at separation avoid it by a gross neglect of Christian discipline and taking it for a needless thing Many who observe how heartlesly and hypocritically prescribed forms of prayer are used by too many do avoid it by denying the lawfulness of all forms And many who see the errour of this opinion do escape it by turning to meer formality and deriding all prayer which is not written in a book or prescribed by another If any who see how those that were baptized in Infancy are admitted to adult Communion without ever understanding or seriously owning the Covenant into which they were then entered and seeing how the Church is corrupted hereby do avoid this errour by denying the baptism of Infants And many that see the errour of the Anabaptists do avoid it by countenancing the aforesaid Church-corruption and if Infants be but baptized they never care whether they be called at years of discretion to the solemn renewing and owning of their Covenant And many that see both these extreams do plead for Confirmation as the middle way But they turn it into a meer Ceremony and defeat the ends of it and never bring the baptized to a solemn renewall of their holy Vow And many who see the Papists abuse of Confirmation do wholly cast it off and deny the healing use aforesaid Many who see the effects of Papal tyranny dislike all General Ministery which taketh the care of many Churches And many who see the incoherence of Independent Churches and the calamity of sects do incline to Papal Usurpation Many who see the evils of Indepency in respect of Council and Concord are inclined to a Regimental dependency and subordination of one Church to another as of Divine appointment And many who see that there is no proof that God ever appointed such a Regimental dependency do turn to Independency in point of Council and Concord Many who observe the grossness of their error who would have the people have the power of the Keys and govern the Church by the major Vote do deny the people the liberty of choosing their Pastors and being guided in spirituals as Volunteers And many who see this errour of denying the people liberty do give them the fore-said power of the Keyes and make them Governours of themselves by Vote Many who hear the Papists talk so much of merits and of good works do deny our own Faith and Love and Repentance the place that God hath assigned them in order to pardon and salvation in subordination to Christ And many who hear the presumptuous boast of being Righteous by Christs imputed Righteousness without any fulfilling of the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace on their parts do make as a jest of imputed Righteousness as it is taken in a sound and warrantable sense and do ascribe too much to the works of man Many who hear the Socinians make faith and obedience to be all one do deny that the faith by which we are justified is a giving up the soul in Covenant to Christ intirely in all his office even as our Redeemer and Lord and so an engagement to obedience by subjection And many that hear men say that faith justifieth us only as an instrument apprehending Christs satisfaction and meritorious righteousness as their own do confound our faith and obedience and forget that the faith by which we are justified is our becoming Christians or Assent and Consent to the Covenant which we make in Baptisme nothing more or less and not our living as Christians in after obedience which is the fruit or effect of faith And even in civil things many who observe how Turkish Tartarian Japonian China's and other Heathenish and Infidel Tyranny is the chief Resister of the Gospel and Suppresser of Christianity to the damnation of millions of souls And how Papal tyranny and Muscovian and Spanish cruelties are the chief Maintainers of ignorance and unreformedness in the Churches are ready hereupon to think dishonourably of Monarchy it self and to murmure at the power of Christian Princes and to rush into seditions and rebellions And many that see the mischiefs of seditions conspiraciesâ— and rebellions are ready to forget the grand and heynous sin of Tyranny and the calamity of Souls and Churches and Kingdoms thereby As Campanella saith The abuse of the Potestative Primality is Tyranny the abuse of the Intellective Primality is Heresie and the abuse of the Volitive Primality is Hypocrisie Though indeed he should have mentioned both extreams In a word woe be to the Reformer who feareth not running into the Extream which is contrary to the Errour and Sin which he would reform DIRECT XLVIII Think more and talk more of your faults and failings against others especially against Princes magistrates and Ministers than of their faults and failâ—ngs against you THe Reason of this Counsel is very obvious and past contradiction Another mans sin as
so many prescribed words or forms of teaching And if we may use forms of Teaching as well as the Apostles why not also forms of praying If you say that the Apostles prescribed the Church no Liturgy I answer That only proveth that no one is universally necessary nor to be universally imposed but not that therefore no use of forms of prayer are lawful May we not now use the Lords Prayer or pray in some other Scripture form Obj. But the Apostles compelled none to use them Answ. Christ and his Apostles assumed not the civil Sword and therefore so compelled men to nothing But yet their authority bound the conscience when Christ said when ye pray say Our Father c. he bound them in duty to do as he bid them though he forced them not But Secondly tell me if you can where God forbiddeth you to use good and lawful words in prayer meerly because the Magistrate or Pastor bids you use them Is this the meaning of all the Precepts of honouring and obeying your Superiors Do nothing which they bid you do though otherwise lawful O strange exposition of the Fifth Commandment If you command your Child to learn a Catechism or Form of Prayer before his meat or for other times will you teach him to say Father or Mother it had been lawful for me to use this Form if neither you nor any body had bid me But because you bid me now it is unlawful O whither will not partiality lead men Obj. But though it be lawful to impose forms on children yet not upon aged Christians Answ. Aged persons have too many of them as much need of such forms as children Age maketh not the difference We are fain to teach many aged persons forms of Catechism as well as children Why not therefore forms of prayer Obj. But it is not lawful to impose forms publikely on whole Congregations of Believers Answ. All sects in the world do it I never heard any Separatist or Anabaptist or any other publike Minister but he imposed a form of prayer upon all the Congregation He is void of common sense that thinketh that his extemporary prayer is not as truly a form to all the people as if it had been written in a book The order and words are not of your own invention but invented by another to your hand and imposed upon you to use For I hope you come together to pray and not to hear a prayer only But the difference is First that one imposeth every day a new form on you and the other imposeth every day the same Secondly And that one telleth you not what words you shall pray in before you hear them and the other writeth them down for you to know before hand For my part I wonder why written or unwritten long-premeditated or suddenly expressed prayers should be taken for unlawful But however do not think the difference to lie where it doth not For doubtless to the people they are both formes and both imposed though not imposed by the same persons and authority Obj. But at least you have no proof for imposing forms â—n the Ministers themselves Ans. First I know no man that questioneth but some form of prayer and praise were imposed by God himself on the Iewish Ministers And one was taught by Christ to his Apostles And a form of Profession of faith and of Baptism and the Lords supper is imposed on all the Ministers of the Church And Ioel 2. 17. a form of prayer is taught the Priests Secondly But we are not now pleading for the needless imposing of any forms nor the causless restraint of extemporarary prayers I have fully born my testimony against that in due season But many things are lawfully and necessarily obeyed which are not lawfully commanded as I shall shew you more anon I could heartily wish that we could say that all Ministers of any party were such as were wholly above the need of forms Or at least such whose own composures were better for for the Church than any that could be offered them by others If it were not a contradiction But all that I now expect from the Objectors is that they tell me or themselves what proof they have that it is a sin for a Minister only to use an imposed form when all the Congregation else may use it Answer this well before you go And I pray let all the people note here that it is not nor cannot be denied but that a form even a new one every day may be lawfully be imposed upon all them and that the question is only of the Ministers use of imposed forms Obj. But our Ministers do not impose their prayers by forcâ— Answ. Do you think that there is no imposition but by force Your Pastor is your guide in the worship of God and God hath imposed it on you to to follow him and joyn with him in lawful prayer And what the words shall be and what the matter and order chosen for that time time the Speaker chooseth for you And so he bindeth you by his Ministerial authority which is a true and lawful imposing though he compel you not by the sword or force Obj. But Christ hath given gifts to all his Ministers and commanded them to use them And they use them not when they use imposed formes Therefore we must not obey men against Christ. Answ. No doubt but all that are lawful Ministers have such gifts as are necessary to the essential works of their office But the degrees of their gifts have very great variety as Paul fully sheweth in 1 Cor. 12. and oft elsewhere And the necessary gift for hearty acceptable prayer is true Desire excited by the spirit of supplication which sometime venteth it self but by sighes and groans Rom. 8. 16 26. But the Ministerial gift of prayer is Knowledge and Utterance by which a Minister may be able to express the desires and wants of the people unto God which includeth memory in some degree Even as Knowledge and Utterance are his Gift of preaching And some have more Knowledge and worser Vtterance And some have better Vtterance and less Knowledge And some through want of memory are defective in both The lowest rank of lawful Ministers may be so defective in their own gifts both of Knowledge Memory and Utterance as to have need of the help of the gifts of others who much excel them As a Minister who hath tollerable Gifts for preaâ—hing may yet need the writings of other men before hand and may bring both their Matter and Method into the Pulpit yea and oft times their words so that though he have Gifts yet being weak he may use the gifâ—s of others I have been counselled since I was silenced to compose Sermons my self and give them in writing to some weak Minister that hath an excellent Voice and utterance and to let him preach them And really if I had not known that such have good books enough at hand for such a use
I think I should have done it And who can prove that this had been his sin And yet this was a using of another mans gifts instead of his own And I have heard men that are much against Parish Churches and Liturgies wish that some unlearned men of good utterance might read some excellent Sermonâ—books to the people in ignorant places that can get no better And who can prove the reading of a Homily unlawful Moreover Christ hath given to all his members such gifts as are suitable to their places as well as to Ministers such gifts as are suitable to theirs And the place of a Master of a family requireth the gift of Catechising and instructing the family And they are as truly obliged to use their gifts as Ministers are theirs And yet who doubteth but it is lawful for Parents to teach and catechize their children by such books and forms of Catechisms as are composed by the gifts of abler men Moreover Prayer is the duty of every one and specially of the heads of families And therefore every true Christian hath gifts procured by Christ for so much as is his duty And he is bound to use his gifts And yet those gifts are so low in many that I fear not to call that man effectively an enemy to families souls and prayer who forbiddeth all such to use such forms of prayer as are composed by the gifts of others The famousest Divines in the Church of God even Luther Zwinglius Melancthon Calvin Perkins Sibbs and abundance of Nonconformists of greatest name in England did ordinarily use a form of prayer of their own before their Sermons in the Pulpit and some of them in their families too Now these men did it not through idleness or through temporizing but because some of them found it best for the people to have oft the same words and some of them found such a weakness of memory that they judged it the best improvement of their own gifts Now besides the first composure of these prayers which perhaps was done 20 years before none of these men did use their own gifts any moâ—e than if they had used a form composed by another For the memory utterance is the same of both These all were famous worthy men whom no wise man judgeth to be insufficient for the Ministry for want of gifts But if such as these may so many years forbear the exercise of their gift of extemporary prayer much more may far weaker Ministers do it Abundance of young Ministers are trained up under aged experienced Divines what if one of these should sometimes make use of the same words of prayer which the aged Minister used the day before as finding them fitter than any that he could devise himself Must he forbear to do better because he cannot do so well by the use of his own gifts alone And in some Ordinances as Baptism and the Lords supper c. the same things must be daily prayed for And he that thinketh he must not frequently speak the same things will quite corrupt the Ordinance of Christ. And he that will imâ—gine that he must have always new words will at last have new things or worse than nothing If then it be meet to use often the same words why may not a weak Minister use the better words of others when he hath none meerly of his own that are so fit Nay is it not the Duty of such to do it Every man is bound to do Gods service in the best manner that he can Cursed be the deceiver that hath a better in his flock and bringeth that which is corrupt But to utter prayers and praise to God in a full methodicall and congruous manner and in words suitable to the Majesty of the worship of God is better to the people and to the honour of Religion then to do it in a more confused disorderâ—y broken manner with barrenness and incongruity of speech But this lâ—st is the best that many honest Ministers can do by their own giâ—ts when they may do it in the former better manner by making use of the words and gifts of otherâ— Therefore it is a duty for such men so far to use others gifâ—s of inventing words before their own And among us there is no man forbidden in the Pulptt to use his own gifts to the utmost and pray without any set form of his own or other mens And I would at last desire any of the Objectors but to name that text of Scripture which directly or indirectly commandeth every Minister to use his gift of inventing words and method or his gift of extemporary prayer every time that he prayeth to God Or which forbiddeth to use the gifts of others though better than his own Obj. But what if the forms imposed be worse than the exercise of our own gifts Answ. First That may be below one mans own invention which is above-anothers Secondly And that may be more defective than your own invention could reach to which yet may be more desirable for other advantages As if all the Churches for some good ends should agree to to use one mode or method or form as now we do in singing Psalms the benefit of that concord might do more to the Churches service than my singular better form or words could do And if the lawful Rulers commanded me that which perhaps I could somewhat exceed my self I should do much in obedience to their command Or if the people had a greater averseness or unfitness for my more congruous words than for others more fective I should take that for the best food or physick which is most agreeable to the stomack and disease But especially if I am restrained from the publick preaching of the Gospel or exercise of any of my Ministry unless I will use a more disordered or defective form I shall take it for my duty then to use it Because it is more to the Churches edification In a word God hath bound all his Ministers to use all their gifts to the Churches greatest edification But to use a more defective form with liberty to use my best gifts also and to exercise my Ministry publickly to all is more to the Churches edification than to use my own gifts only a few days in a corner and then to lie in prison and use them no more Though no man must of choise prefer the less congruous before the more congruous when he is free which I confess is a sin yet it is a duty to prefer a less congruous order before none or before a better for a day with a restraint of that and all our Ministery hereafter For my part I have often truly professed that I look at many Liturgies which I have read as I do at the prayers of some honest men who use little method nor very meet words and often toss Gods name through weakness who put that last which should be first that first which should be last but yet the
matter is honest good I would not prefer such a man in a Congregation before an abler man who will speak more composedly agreeable to the matter But yet I would not be so peevish as utterly to refuse to joyn with such a one But as God doth not reject his prayers notwithstanding all his weakness no more would I. And I had rather have such prayers than none at all O that men would discern what is the true worth of prayer and how little God is taken with the Oratory of them in comparison of the faith and love and desire which is the soul of prayer And O that men would lay no greater stress on their peculiar modes and words than God doth and condemn no mens prayers further than they are condemned by God nor separate from any further then God rejecteth them or commandeth our separation I cannot forbear telling you the aggravation of this kind of sin It seemeth to me akind of blasphemy against God As if you would make the world believe that God is so much for your modâ— and words that he overlooketh all the desires of the Spirit and all his promises and all mens interest in Christ and forgetteth all his love to his people so that Christ shal not intercede for them or shal not prevail unless they pray to God in the words and mode which you have fancied to be best whether with a Book or without in these words or in those Me thinks you are renewing the old controversie whether in this Mount or at Ierusalem men ought to worship and knew not that the time is come that God will neither accept men for worshipping at this Mount or at Ierusalem here or there with a book or without book but the true worshippers whom he chooseth do worship him as a Spirit in Spirit and in truth as well with Forms as without them And yet some are more wicked than barely to condemn their brethrens prayers because they be not cloathed just as their own They will also break jests and scorns at them and take this for the ingenuity of their piety Like men of several Countreys who thâ—nk the fashions of all Countryes save their own to be ridiculous and laugh at strangers as if they were cloathed in fools Coats So many do by the cloathing of other mens devotions Some scorn at extemporary prayers and some scorn at Forms and Liturgies And the Litany they call conjuring and the Responses they take for a formal jocular playing with holy things when in all these the humble heavenly Christian is lifting up his soul to God By this petulant carnal kind of zeal I remember our divisions were here raised at the first To deridâ— the Common prayer and deride them that used it was too common with some kind of religious people And they excused it by Elias his example As if Idolaters and the true worshippers of God that differ from us in a Form or Ceremony were all one I remember how some of the contrary mind were inflamed to indignation by such scorns when they were going into the Churches in London and heard some Separatists that lookt in at the Church door say The Devil choke thee art thou not out of thy pottage yet because the Common Prayer was not ended So little did men know what spirit they were of But wise and holy Mr. Hildersham Mr. Iohn â—all Mr. Bradshaw Mr. Iohn Paget and other learned Non-conformists of old did foresee and greatly fear this Spirit It is a dangerous thing to scorn and jest at any thing that is done about Gods worship though it should be it self unwarrantable while you scorn at one anothers worship of God you raise a bold unreverence and contempt of holy things in the heâ—rerâ— and perhaps before you are aware in your selves too And you will teach the Atheist to scorn you all unless 〈…〉 where the very object is to be derided as being no God you should be very suspicious of this way I am afraid of making a mock of the grossest erroneous worship of the true God It is fitter to confute it in a way that more expresseth our reverence to the Object God himself our respect to that pious affection which may be engag'd in it I have seldom seen the best tempered people inclined to this way of jesting at other mens manner of worship nor have I observed much good come by it But I have oft seen that it is the way by which young prâ—ud self-conceited persons do kindle a carnal dividing zeal and a contempt of their brethren and quench all holy sober zeal and love together DIRECT XXXIII When you are sure that other mens way of worship is sinful yet make it not any other or greater sin than indeed it is and speak not evil of that much in it which is Good And accuse not God to be a hater or rejecter of all mens service which is mixed with infirmities AS St. Iames saith 3. 2. In many things we â—ffend all but he that â—ffendeth not with his tongue is the perfect man So we may here say in the same sense In many particulars of our prayers and other worship we all offend God But he that bridleth not his tongue from the reproaching of his brothers different way of worship may prove the greatest Offendor of all It would move a charitable understanding hearer to grief and pity to read and hear one party call all prayer by habit no better than crudities whinings bold talking to God and nonsence and whatsoever bitter scorn can speak And to read and hear many on the other extreme to call the Liturgy no less than Idolatry I desire the Reader to peruse a judicious Treatise of Mr. Tombes in answer to one of this language As much as he and I have written against each others opinion about Infant Baptisme our concenting admonition to you should so much the rather be accepted in this And what pitiful arguments have they to prove this charge of Idolatry False worship of the true God is idolatry as well as worshipping a false God But such is the Liturgy Ergo This is all that these rash preachers must trouble the Church and seduce men into a hating factious zeal with But what mean these men by false worship Do they mean worship contrary to Gods word That is which is sinful And do they mean All such sinful worship or some only If they mean all such sinful worship than these words of theirs are Idolatry For they are part of their preaching which is part of Gods worship in their own sense And it is false doctrine and tendeth to mens perdition And so they and all false Teachers should be idolaters By this they would turn all sins in worship into one It is all Idolatry Is not every confused prayer sinful which hath unmeet expressions and disordered and hath wandering thoughts and dull affections Is there any of these Love-killers that dare say they pray without sin And
Answ. Do not barely affirm but prove that all fore-knownâ—faults of the Pastors words in prayer are mine if I separate not How doth fore-knowing them make them mine Take heed that thus you make not God the greatest sinner and the worst being in all the world For God fore-knoweth all mens sins and God is present when they commit them and he giveth them all that life and time and strength and breath by which they do them and he hath communion with all the prayers of the faithful in the world what faults soever be in the words or forms he doth not reject them for any such failings Will you say therefore that God approveth or consenteth to all these sins I know before hand as is said before that every man will sin that prayeth either by defect of desire love faith or fervency or by wandering thoughts or disordered words c. And I know that every erroneous person commonly doth use to put his errours into his prayers and preaching But how doth all this make it mine I am bound to hold communion with all Gods people on earth as I have occasion not as they are sinners but as they are Saints And I come as to the Communion of Saints And though both they and I do bring our sins to that communion and I fore-know them yet I lament both theirs and mine and so far am I from consenting to them that they are my grief and I beg forgiveness both for them and me Obj. But you said that it belonged to the Pastors office to word his own Sermons and Prayers Therefore prescribed forms destroy the Pastors office And I may not consent to such usurpations by tyrannical men Answ. First the Pastor is the mouth of God to the people of the people to God And he doth word his own Sermons and Prayers or else his voice could not conduct you But if he that is conscious of his own infirmity do take the help of others in wording them that doth not destroy his office but help him in the exercise of it If a weak Minister learn a prayer out of the writings of some abler Divine and use it in the Pulpit this is no destroying of his office Secondly and if they that fear the effect of Ministers weakness shall force them to use the words of others the speaker still maketh them his own words before you joyn with him And if it did hinder the free exercise of all his office it doth not destroy it Obj. But he doth it voluntarily whereas the weakness of conceived prayer is involuntary Answ. It is with more probability said that a man is involuntary in doing that which another compelleth him to do than that which no man but himself only is the author of It is said to him that readeth the Liturgy Do this or nothing But no body saith to an erring weak confused Minister Put in your errours into your prayers or pray disorderly or you shall be punished Every Separatist Anabaptist and Antinomian doth too willingly put his errours into his prayers Obj. But the Liturgy is imposed on the ablest as well as on the weakest Ministers Answ. Whether it be well or ill imposed is none of the question now in hand No nor whether it be lawfully used by the Speaker But whether you may lawfully joyn in it And however it be imposed till the Minister consent to use it you shall not be put to joyn with him in it And when he doth consent he maketh it his own words and for reasons which seem good to him he doth choose those expressions rather than others Even because he must use those or none so that he is still in the exercise of his office And it is his personal fault if it be a fault to use those words and none of yours Whether he do it willingly as the best or do it with a half will as of necessity or whether there be tyranny in the imposing them or not you are not guilty of any of this by joyning with a Christian Church that useth them DIRECT XXXVI Yet know what Pastors you may own and what not and what Church-communion you may remove from or forbear And think not that I am perswading you to make no difference THis is a point that I have more largely handled elsewhere and can give you now but these brief hints lest I be too tedious First He that is not at all able to do the essential works of the Ministry that is to teach the people the Christian faith and a holy life and to pray and praise God with them and administer the Sacraments and in some measure oversee the manners of the flock is no Minister nor to be owned For he wanteth the essential qualifications As an illiterate man can be no Schoolmaster nor he a Physician a Pilot an Architect who is utterly ignorant of their work Secondly he that preacheth Heresie that is denieth any essential point of Christianity or Godliness after the first and second admonition is to be avoided Thirdly he that in his application endeavoureth to disgrace a Godly life and to disswade the people from it on false pretenses and encourage them to a life of wickedness is a traytor to Christ and not to be owned in the Ministery In a word Any one whose Ministery is such as tendeth to destruction more than to edification and to do more harm then good But then remember that it is not partiality and passion that must here be judge Nor is every one an opposer of Godliness who opposeth the errours of a party or the faults or follies of godly men Fourthly that Pastor or Church who will not let you have communion with them unless you will say or subscribe some falshood or commit any sin of wilful choice doth drive you from their communion by their unlawful terms and it is not you that are the Separatists but they Fifthly When you are to choose what Minister or Church you will statedly have your ordinary communion with you should not prefer a less reformed Church or a less worthy Pastor or one that is erroneous before a better but choose that which is most to your true edification Sixthly If you live under a worse and unreformed Church or unprofitable Minister if necessity hinder not you may remove your dwelling to a better Seventhly and where Churches are near and there is no great hurt or disorder will follow it you may joyn with another Church without removing your dwelling But this you may not do when the hurt to the publick is like to be greater than the good to you Eighthly and you must not conclude that the more faulty Church and Minister may not lawfully be communicated with though for your benefit you choose a better for this is the true crime of sinful separation But surely a mans soul is so precious that all men should prefer the greatest helps for their salvation before the less and think no just means too dear
Errour is a common cause of separations but such as will suffer no two men to joyn together but will turn all Churâ—â—es into confusion and crumble them to dust if it be fully practised For there is no man alive that worshippeth God without some sin as I said before Do you ever pray your selves in secret or in your families without sin Must all separate from you for this Or may not you bear anothers failings as patiently as your own Your own you are still guilty of because they are your own but not of another mans which you cannot help If I believed that I were partaker of the guilt of all the false doctrine or faulty preaching or prayer which was used in the Church where I am I would flye from all the Churches in the world But whither to go I could not tell Obj. But If I joyn with them that worship God amiss do I not approve of their sin or signifie my consent to it Answ. Approving and consenting are acts of your own mind and whether you do so or not is best known to your self But it is a Profession of consent that we have now to speak of And I say that our presence at the prayers of the Church is nâ— profession of consent to all that is faulty in those prayers Why do you not offer to prove it to be so but barely affirm it without any proof I never heard a word of proof for this bare assertion to this day But it s easily disproved First no man can in reason and justice take that for my Profession which I never made by word nor deed according to the common sense of words and actions But according to this common sense I never did by word or deed profess that I consent to all which is uttered by the Pastor in the publike prayers Secondly When the profession which we make by our Church-communâ—on is publikely declared to be another thing totally distinct from this no man may justly interpret it to be this which is quite different But it is another thing which we profess by our Church-communion That is I profess my self only to be a Christian in my Baptism when I enter into the Church and in my daily communion with it And I profess to be a member of a Christian Society and to hold Communion with them in Faith and Love and in worshipping God according to his word And I proâ—ess subjection to the particular Pastors of that Church as Christian Pastors who are to teach the people that word of God and guide them in worship and discipline according to that word This is every mans profession in his Church-communion and no more unless he make some some further particular expression of more as every sect useth to do in professing the opinions of their party Why then should any lyar charge me to make a profession which I never made when my profession in my Christian communion is described by Christ himself who instituted it And why should I turn lyar against my self and say that my presence is a profession of that consent which I never made the least profession of Thirdly The wording of the publike prayers is the Pastors work and none of mine It is part of his office as the wording and methodizing of his Sermons is And if he do it well the praise is not mine but his And if he do it ill the dispraise is not mine but his Why should any hold me guilty of another mans fault which I neither can help nor belongeth to any office of mine to help any further than to admonish him Fourthly I do not profess an approbation and consent to all the faults of my own secret or family prayers Much less to another mans who is not in my power I have dâ—sorders and defects and incongruities and other faults in all my prayers And if my very speaking and committing them signifie not my approbation of them how much less is it signified where it is not I but another man that speaketh and committeth them Fifthly And as I have said This opinion would make it unlawful to joyn with any Pastor or Church on earth because no sin must be approved of and consented to and every one mixeth sin with their prayers Obj. But say those on the one extream if I joyn with one that is known to be a Separatist an Anabaptist an Antinomian an Arminian c. his own profession doth before hand bid me to expect not only that the manner but the matter of his prayer be erroneous Answ. First it is granted that no man may in his choise prefer an erring person or mode of worship before a better Secondly But when the question is not whom you should prefer but whom you may joyn with it is not his errours that are yours nor his profession that is yours I come to joyn with him as a Christian Pastor whose office is to preach the Gospel And while men are the agents I know that all that they do will be imperfect and â—aulty And it is not my knowing their â—aults that makes them mine but rather may preserve me from them Obj. But for ought I know he may put heresie or blasphemy into his prayers when I know not what he will say before I hear it Answ. For ought you know your Physician or your Cook may give you poison and your Nurse may poison your child But though that should make you careful whom you trust yet somebody must be trusted for all that You go not upon certainty in any case where man is to be trusted but upon probability Men are not to be distrusted in their own profession if they be lawfully called to it by cautelous and able triers till they have forfeited their trust And as he would not mend the matter who should make a Law that no Physician shall give any medicine but one and the same to all in such diseases and that fetcht from the Kings Apothecary And no Cook shall sell any meat but what is drest by the Kings Cooks for fear lest they should poison men so he that would say No Pastor shall preach or pray but in prescribed words lest he should speak heresie or blasphemy would but destroy the Pastoral office for fear lest it should be abused But here you have no great temptation to this errour Because though a man may poison your bodies against your wills yet no one can poyson your souls but by your own consent If he speak words of heresie or blasphemie if you disown them in your minds and consent not to them they are none of yours nor can do you hurt They may be your temptation and your grief but they are not your sin And yet I shall tell you in the next direction how far they are to be avoided Obj. But say those on the other extream When I know before hand by their common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book what their errour in worship is and yet joyn in it do I not seem to approve it