in Gods Service It beeing also a strange presumption for any man to think that either he hath authority to prescribe how God should bee worshipped or that God should be pleased with any such will-worship when in stead of being pleased hee saith In vain they worship me teaching for Doctrine the Comments of men For surely with vaine worship God is neither pleased nor honoured Againe seeing we are here fallen upon the consideration or examination of the Service booke let all wise hearted and well instructed schollers in Christs schoole that have learned the art of separating the pretious from the vile but tell me what they think of Apocryphall bookes publiquely read in Churches as if they were the holy Scriptures What of the whole Letanie so stuffed with Tautologies or vain repetitions What of the prayer in the Letanie and of the Collect wherein Bishops or Prelates are prayed for being Antichristian and false Bishops and all other Ministers are prayed for as being the Curates of those Bishops than which what can be a greater reproach and shame to the Ministers of the Church of England What of so many carvings of Scriptures into Epistles and Gospels with their severall Collects for the maintenance and celebration of Saints days called Holydayes What of the lame and incongruous yea senseles translations of those sundry Scriptures with the Psalmes What of prayers at the buriall of the Dead What of Churching of women aliâs Their Purification as some call it and which answers to that under the Law What of Priestly absolution with many more particulars too long here to rehearse And in a word What of so many prayers injoyned to be read enough to blunt the edge of any true devotion and so to tyre out the strongest sided Minister as hee hath neither strength nor time left for Gods Ordinance namely the preaching of the Word And to say the very truth this kind of long Service was devised by the Popes successively to that very end namely to entertaine the people with a blinde devotion and to retaine them in ignorance when now no roome was left for preaching which was by this meanes thrust by the head and sholders out of their Churches And thus what a deale of pretious time is taken up with a long dull and dead forme of prayer which might and ought to be spent to edification of Gods people on the Lords owne Day which should be sanctified not in humane devises but in Gods owne Ordinances to the glory of Him who is the Lord of the day I say againe for I speake nothing definitively as passing myne own private judgement of these things let this wise and grave Senate now assembled for a thorow-reformation and removall of all abuses and grievanand primarily in the matters of God and of Christ maturely judge CASE VII Whether any set forme of a Liturgie or publique Prayer be necessarie to bee used in the publique Worship of God FOr answer Indeed if it bee necessary to have unpreaching Ministers and dumb dogs over the people of the Lord who can nor preach nor pray then it will bee no lesse necessary to have some form of Booke prayers or Liturgy for such to officiate by And for this cause the Prelates have had some reason to hold up their Liturgy to the full as without which there had beene nothing for their Mutes to do in the Church Now though dumbe Priests have need of such a Liturgy yet it doth not follow that therfore able godly Ministers that know how to fit their prayers to all such severall occasions as do continually present themselves which a set prayer in a booke cannot do should be tied to any such precise set forme For otherwise this were to quench the spirit of prayer and to muzzle the mouth of prayer and to stoppe the course of Gods spirit which doth wonderfully improve it self in all those both Ministers and people on whom God hath powred the spirit of grace and supplication and who do by daily exercise grow unto such a habit of prayer and which doth powre it selfe forth in such a life and power as is not possible for any set read prayer to exercise or have For true fervent effectuall prayer is that which is the hearts expression by the Spirit of God As the Apostle saith I will pray with my Spirit and Phil. 19. Prayer is supplied by the Spirit of Jesus Christ This is that prayer which is first in the heart before it come to the mouth and is dictated by Gods spirit before it be uttered with the lippes whereas a read prayer is in the mouth before it can come unto the heart which in prayer is a speaking unadvifedly with the lips before the heart hath first digested and suggested the matter This is an abortive birth which never had a right conception But a godly Minister that is best acquainted with the state of his flocke and of the church of God can accordingly so inlarge and apply his prayer by the supply of Gods spirit as may be most usefull to the Congregation as beeing most occmmodate to their spirits when they finde the matter of the prayer to be that the want whereof they are most sencible of so as there is here a concurrence of the spirits both of the Minister and people which causeth a prayer to bee so much the more effectuall lively powerfull and operative and that not onely with God but in the hearts of all those whose joint praier it is Whereas a read prayer is in comparison a dead and dull formal prayer without any life or power either to prevaile with God or to profit the people as beeing such a prayer as suits only such Readers as are destitute of the spirit of Grace and supplication and of faith and sanctification and therefore such as God regardeth not So as a true Minister of Christ ought not to be tyed with the bonds and lines of a written forme of prayer that must bee read forasmuch as hereby the spirit of prayer in him is bound up and both he and the people of God deprived both of the benefit of such a gift and of that profit also which the prevailing prayer of Christs spirit procures of God Yea not even a set written prayer which the Minister makes saith by heart though he reade it not and though it bee better to say it by heart than to read it out of a booke yet is or can be so lively and powerfull as that prayer which is not tied to a set forme of words From such a prayer as is uttered by heart as we say the memory is more exercised than the understanding and affections within him there beeing now a suspension of that worke of the spirit of supplication and grace which breatheth forth with a lively power in a conceived prayer wherein not the memory so much as the whole mind soule spirit affections have their joint operation But it may be objected That the
Reformed Protestant Churches beyond the seas have their set formes of publique prayer and sacraments 'Ts true but I take it that the Ministers are not tied to those forms further than they will themselves As we see the Ministers of the Kirke of Scotland now in England use no set formes of prayer but doe discharge the duty of prayer with an excellent freedome of spirit with such an apt accommodation thereof to the present condition of the hearers and of the state of Gods church as that it serves greatly to the edification and raising up of the spirits of Gods people sympathising with it and is first of all other kindes of prayer to speed with the Prayer-hearing God who best knowes the meaning and language of that spirit of his by which such prayers are poured forth And surely were this well exercised by our Ministers in England in publique as I know it is by many both Ministers people in private it would no doubt much facilitate and hasten the accomplishment of that great worke of a thorow-reformation so happily begun and hopefully proceeded in if flesh and bloud bee not too much consulted with and humane policy which should have no hand in setting out or authorising any devised forme of Gods worship imposed on the conscience too much relied upon CASE VIII What is the most ready and easie way or Method of finding out or obtaining Christs government FOr resolution It is usuall with those that stand for the Hierarchy to stop all ways of finding this out by laying many stumbling blocks in our way But if we will goe roundly to worke first of all of necessity all false government as that of the Hierarchy must be quite taken out of the way as the maine stumbling blocke As hee that intends to build a new house in the place where the old standeth must first pull downe the old and rase it from the very foundation that hee may lay a new foundation to beare up the new fabricke But because he that thus intends to build doth usually make a draught or model of his house before named so it is thought necessary by some that a modell of Christs government be first drawn up according to which the new fabrick may be in a readinesse to bee erected presently upon the removal of the old This indeed stands with good reason especially for the satisfaction of all doubts and for the better accommodation of the Church and as a preparation of the materialls to the more speedy setting forward of the worke of Reformation And yet this I dare say That if in the first place the Hierarchy with all the trumpery and baggage of their Ceremonies will-worship in Gods service were quite abandoned and taken away so as the ground where these degenerate plants doe grow were cleared and purged that not a root of them were left the work of Reformation were more than halfe done so as Christs governement would even sponte sua of its owne accord come in and be set up without the noyse of so much as a hammer especially in all such Congregations where godly and discreet Ministers are Yet not so as that we can expect such a perfection at the first specially in this land which hath been so long pestered and corrupted with the tyrannous and licentious prophane government of the Prelates and where godly Ministers are so scarse and most men through long custome and want of meanes as before are not by reason of ignorance though perhaps too quicke sighted in worldly matters so well fitted to apprehend and to entertain such an exact government as God requires and his Word prescribes CASE IX Whether though the Prelacy with its usurped jurisdiction Lordships Tempralties Power Pompe c. be quite removed out of the wayes yet it be not expedient at least if not necessary to retaine the name of Bishops as a title appointed to those who are to be the principall among and above other Ecclesiasticall persons in the government of the Church FOr answer First we ought not to abuse those titles which the Scripture appropriates and ties to the persons and office of the true Pastors of the Church by impropriating them from the true owners and transferring them to such as at the best beeing considered as Pastors over their severall Congregations respectively have but a common right with other Pastors and no peculiar title as proper to themselves alone And wherefore shall such onely be still called Bishops more than others As having the only oversight over all other Churches and their Ministers and that by being invested in a perpetuity of such a dignity What is this but a clipping of those wings and a payring of those clawes which will in time grow againe * Can the Aethyopian change his skinne or the Leopard his spots Can we so quickly forget what spirit the spirituall ambition of these men is of Or can we imagine that they will leave their old haunt in frequenting the Court and in courting the favor of great ones and from whose corrupt flatteries not the eares of the best Princes can plead an exemption And may wee not justly feare that if but the stump of this banefull tree be left unstubd up by the roots so as not so much as the bare long usurped name thereof do remaine may not the root still spread it selfe under ground insencibly and the stem through the sent of water put forth such sprouts and fruits as by the bitternesse thereof therof the whole land may be troubled And may it not be just with God yet againe to bring more plagues upon this State by its suffering of such miscreant remainders when hee had given so faire an opportunity to cut them off root and branch Did not Saul for sparing one Agag lose his kingdome And did not Ahab for sparing the life of his false brother Benhadad lose his owne life And were not those Canaanites thornes and prickes in the Israelites eyes and sides Nor is it so small a matter to alienate the property of a name or title from the right owners to whom alone God hath made it peculiar and proper For such an alienation is an alteration not onely of the true property of the name but also of the nature of that office to which it was first given of God For as is shewed before the name of Bishop is proper quarto modo to every Pastor over that Congregation to which hee is lawfully called and the name Episcopus or in English Bishop or Over-seer sets forth the office of such a Pastor over his flocke So as to take away this name from the Pastor and to appropriate it to one single man set over other Ministers to wit one that is by man stiled and denominated a Diocesan Bishop What is this but utterly to pervert overthrow Christs ordinance and the nature of his true Church and the office of a true Pastor who being stripped of his proper title is
upon the Priest And even many Protestants are of opinion that Ordination cannot be performed but by a Prelate or at least by Ministers onely as without whose imposition of hands it were no Ordination or as if it did confer such an order Whereas the prime and proper conferring of this Order is by Christ himselfe inwardly calling and gifting a man for the work of the Ministry Secondly then what is that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ordaining and appointing of Ministers and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Imposition of hands which the Scripture speakes of I answer {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifying properly a stretching out of the hand it was used either in lifting up of the hands in token of sufferage in election of officers or in stretching out of the hand upon the head of the man chosen for confirmation Also when it was used by the Apostles it pleased God to bestow therwith the gifts of the holy Ghost and on some recovery of health This was very frequent in the Apostles times But afterwards in successive ages there was no such gift annexed to the laying on of hands Secondly Therefore it was of use according to its antient and ordinary custome in sufferages in elections of officers to declare assent and approbation of those for such and such places when after prayer hands were layd on them But by whom was this Imposition of hands used at the choice of Ministers I answer By those who gave their sufferages or votes to the election and those were sometimes the congregation it selfe and sometime others at their request joyning with them as we reade Act. cap. 6. 5 6. And all Ecclesiasticall stories tell us that antiently the election of Ministers was by every congregation respectively So as to them also of right belonged the laying of their hands as a token of their approbation and confirmation of him that was so chosen to that office And though we reade in one place That the Apostle layd his hands upon Timothy as 2 Tim. 1. 6. yet in another we reade as 1 Tim. 4. 14. that the Presbyterie layd their hands upon him Which Presbyterie comprehends as well the Elders of the people as those of the Ministry Accordingly wee exclude not the Elders or Ministers of other neighboring congregations from joyning in that worke for assistance especially in prayer for a blessing upon the new chosen Minister For so farre must we be from excluding any in this kinde that wee highly commend consociation and communication of gifts for assistance where it may be conveniently had Onely reserving to each congregation that peculiar interest and right which every true Church of Christ hath in chusing their owne Ministers and other Church officers And this stands with good reason for not onely antiquity both in and from the Apostles times pleadeth for this but even naturall reason and equity For reason willeth that such as chuse should ratifie Secondly Those who give the maintenance should chuse the Officer Thirdly Who have commonly better Ministers than those Congregations that upon good advice and counsell chuse them themselves Fourthly Where is greater love betweene Minister and people than where the liberty of such a choyce is enjoyed Fiftly What vertue at any time doth a Prelates imposition of hands adde to Ministers so ordained by him Or what bee those Ministers whom Prelates usually place over the people And I would aske any reasonable Christian whether hee would not rather have the approbation prayer and imposition of hands of the poorest godly man than of the most glorious Prelate Yea though hee were stiled even Grace it selfe For as James saith The effectuall fervent prayer of a righteous man prevaileth much It is not sayd The prayer of a great or learned man CASE XII How far may and ought true reformed Christian Congregations to hold communion among themselves and with other Reformed Churches FOr answer in generall First in generall it is agreeable to good and approved examples in Scripture to make firme leagues and faithfull Covenants for the maintenance of the true faith and religion of Christ See for this 2 Chron. 15. 12 13. and Chapter 34. 31 32 33. Ezra 10. 3 Nehem. cap. 9. 38. Severally in particular It stands both with Christian piety and prudence for all the members of a particular Church or congregation to enter into a firme covenant among themselves to maintain a holy communion together in the profession of the truth and practise of a holy life as becommeth the communion of Saints Thirdly It stands with the like Christian piety and prudence to hold a sweet and inviolable bond and communion with all other churches or congregations rightly constituted as we conceive according to Christs ordinance and walking according unto it Fourthly If there be any Christian Churches that doe in some small circumstances differ from us in that forme of government which wee conceive and beleeve Christ hath set up in his Word so as therein they may seem to come short of that exactnesse that is required nor yet are able to attaine unto it either in regard of some outward difficultie or human imperfection and frailty the judgement being as yet not fully enlightned and perswaded concerning which the Apostles rule is Let every man bee fully perswaded in his owne minde wee do notwithstanding not with-hold from them the right hand of fellowship but hold communion with them as the churches of Christ they holding the Orthodox Truth and the substance of the government which is suteable to the Church of Christ and joyning with us against the Common Adversaries of the Gospell concluding with that excellent saying of our Savior Christ They that are not against us are on our part The EPILOGVE or Conclusion HAving thus freely and faithfully though briefely as the present straits of time would permit declared what I have and doe conceive and beleeve concerning Christs kingdome and that forme and frame of the government thereof in his Church as I finde it recorded in the Scripture whereof I am in my conscience fully perswaded as my earnest prayer and trust is That Christ by his spirit and Word will leade his into all truth necessary to salvation so my hope is that however perhaps those things which I have here delivered according to the simplicity of my conscience will not so bee relished of all but that they wil seem bitter especially to the ignorant and carnall minded who savour not the things of Christ yet my confidence is that all the wise hearted and wel affected to Iesus Christ For If any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ that is love not to have Iesus Christ set up as Lord over their soules let him be Anathema Maranatha will embrace Christs yoke and to the uttermost of their power labour to advance his throne in all Churches or if that through Sathans malice cannot bee effected yet that they will set him up as sole Lord and King over their owne soules and so will joyne in communion with all those that doe or shall desire heere to serve Iesus Christ according to that purity of conscience which is required in every true Christian as the Apostle professed of himselfe and in that way wherein the name of Christ shall bee most magnified and his kingdome exalted heere on earth And this shall the better be done if a Law be made this present Parliament that as Antichrists kingdome in the Prelacy shall and must be cast out so Christs kingdom may bee freely set up in this kingdome while his people even as many as will are suffered freely to enjoy Christs Ordinances in their puritie and so may at length recover that Christian liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and for which his precious bloud was poured forth and whereof this Land by the Hierarchy hath beene till now deprived it being our hearts desire rather to live under Christs governement in this our owne native Countrey than for want thereof bee forced to flye into forreigne parts where how can wee so sweetely enjoy Christ without the bitter remembrance of our Native Soile which wee shall never cease to wish worse unto than to our owne Soules FINIS Acts 15. 16. Ezra 5. 6. Nehem. 4. Cum reflavit affligimur Cic. So D. Hall in his Booke of Episcopacie 2 Thess. 2. 7. Mat. 19. 3. Mat. 7. 17. Mat. 15. 13. Mat. 12. 33. 2 Ti. 1. 13. 3. 16. Phil. 3. 15 16 Ier. 23. 32. Mat. 18. 17. 1 Cor. 5. Mat. 15. 9. Ecc. 29. 13. Col. 2. 8. 18. Vol. 2. p. 667. print ed. 1631 Gal. 4. 9 10. Col. 2. 16. Gal. 5. 1. 1 Thess. 5. 1 Cor. 14. 15 * Ier. Heb. 12. 1 Sam. 1 King 1 pet. 5. 4. 1 Pet. 2. 25. Rom. 8. Act. 26. a Act. 20. Tit. 1. 5. 7. b Eph. 4. 11. c Luke 1. 2. 2 Cor. 11. 23. d Luk. 10. 7. 1 Cor. 3. 9. Act. 6. 4. Mat. 28. 20. Act. 20. 7. Mat. 20. 25 26. Heb. 13. 17. Quest Answ. Act. 15. Act. 15. 28. Act. 15. 21. Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. 14. * D. Hall in his Episcopacy by Divine right Act. 8. 17. Mar. 16. 18. Iam. 5. 16. Mark 9. 40. 1 Cor. 16. 22. 2 Tim. 1. 3.