them How Forms may be imposed publickly on the Congregations of Believers and on the Ministers yea though the Forms imposed be worse than the exercise of their own gifts though among us no Man be forbidden to use his own gifts in the Pulpit The Pharisees long Liturgy it is like was in many things worse than ours yet Christ and his Apostles often joyned with them and never condemned them I shall now only add that the Lord's Prayer is a Form directed to God as in the Third Person and not to Man only as a directory for Prayer in the Second Person it is not Pray to God your Father in Heaven that his name may be Hallowed his Kingdom come c. But Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy name c. And it seems by the Disciples words that thus John taught his Disciples to pray Luke 11. 1. and we have in the Scripture the mention of many Set Forms of Service to God which therefore we may well use And I desire the Reader again to Note that though Prayer was corrupted by the Pharisees yet Christ usually joyned in their Synagogues Luke 14. 17. and never medled with our controversie about the lawfulness of Set Forms This Mr. Baxter infers from Calvins note on Matth. 6. before the Preface to the Defence Pag. 76. Of Concord I constantly joyn with my Parish Church in Liturgy and Sacraments and hope so to do while I live I take the common-Common-Prayer to be better incomparably than the Prayers or Sermons of many that I hear As for the Common Prayer it self I never rejected it because it was a Form or thought it simply unlawful because it was such a Form but have made use of it and would again in the like case He that separates upon the account of the unlawfulness of our Liturgy and the badness of our Ministry doth separate upon a reason common to almost all of the far greatest part of the Churches See the Defence p. 54. The defects of the Liturgy and the faults of those by whom we suffer are easily heightned even beyond desert Defence p. 68. Apology p. 9. Having perused all the Foreign and Antient Liturgies in the Bibliotheca Patrum I doubt not but our own is incomparably better than any that is there That which is not unlawful in it self is not therefore unlawful because it is commanded Obedience to Superiors is our duty and not our sin unless in sinful things p. 152. Christ Direct 2d Edit Of Obedience to our Pastors We are indangered by divisions principally because the self-conceited part of Religious people will not be ruled by their Pastors but must have their way and will needs be rulers of the Church and them But pleasing the ignorant Professors humors is a Sin that shews us to be too humane and carnal and hath always sad effects at last It is a high degree of pride for persons of ordinary understandings to conclude that almost all Christs Churches in the World for Thirteen Hundred Years at least have offered such Worship to God as that you are obliged to avoid it and all their Communion in it and that almost all the Catholick Church on Earth at this day is below your Communion for using Forms Mark Is it not more of the Women and Apprentices that are of this mind than of old experienced Christians I think till we have better taught even our godly People what credit and obedience is due to their Teachers and Spiritual Guides the Church of England shall never have peace or any good or established Order We are broken for want of the knowledge of this truth till this be known we shall never be well bound up and healed The People of the New Separation so much rule their Ministers that many of them have been forced to forsake their own judgments to comply with the violent Labour to maintain the Ordinances and Ministry in esteem The Church is bound to take many a Man as a True Minister to them and receive the Ordinances from him in Faith and expectation of Blessing upon promise who yet before God is a sinful invader an usurper of the Ministry and shall be condemned for it How much more then to respect their lawful Bishops and Pastors Of Lay-Elders For Lay-Elders As far as I understand the greatest part if not three for one of the English Ministers are of this mind That unordained Elders wanting power to Preach or Administer Sacraments are not Officers in the Church of God's appointment Of this number I am one and Mr. Vines was another In the Worcester Agreement Printed 1653. Mr. Baxter declared that neither Scripture nor Antiquity knew of any such Officers as Lay-Elders In the Third Defence p. 58. It was notorious that the Parliament yielded to Presbytery to exclude Episcopacy because they had no other way to uphold their Wars without which they had no way to hold up themselves but by help of the Scots My first Book Viz. the Preface to Saints Rest disclaims Lay-Elders Pag. 109. to Hinckly Of Bishops Page 832. of Mr. Baxter ' s Directory Q. 56. Mr. Baxter tells you in the Margin of those Reasons for a larger Episcopacy That in the Apostles Days there were under Christ in the Universal Church many general Officers that had the care of gathering and over-seeing Churches up and down and were fixed by stated Relation unto none And most Christian Churches think that though the extraordinary Gifts Privileges and Officers cease yet Government being an ordinary part of their Work the same Form of Government which Christ and the Holy Ghost did settle in the first Ages tho' not with the same extraordinary Gifts and Adjuncts were settled for all following Ages 1. Because we read of settling that Form viz. general Officers as well as Particular but never of any Abolition 2. Because if we affirm a Cessation without Proof we seem to accuse God of Mutability as setting a Form of Government for one Age only 3. And we leave room for audacious Wits to question other Gospel-Institutions as Pastors Sacraments c. 4. It was general Officers that Christ promised to be with to the end of the World Matth. 28. 20. And in this Premonition he says he doth not dispute the Lawfulness of Arch-Bishops over Parochial-Bishops as Successors to the Apostles and other general Officers of the first Age in the ordinary continued parts of their Office And in his Plea for Peace p. 263. Some of us incline much to think that Arch-Bishops i. e. Bishops that have over-sight of many Churches with their Pastors are lawful Successors of the Apostles in the ordinary part of their Work So also First Plea p. 35. and of his accepting two parts of Episcopacy not varying the Species in the Preface to the second Plea In Church-History p. 37. and in Plea for Peace p. 66. the Bishops in Cyprian's time had the best ordered Churches in the World
side 9. Yet must we in great and doubtful cases not take up with the suspected judgment of a single Pastor but apply our selves to the unanimous Pastors of other Churches 10. Christians should not be over busie in prying into the ☞ work of their Governours nor too forward to suspect their determinations But when they know that it is their Rulers work to guide them by determining of due Circumstances of Worship they should without causeless scruples readily obey till they see just reason to stop them in their obedience They must not go out of their own places to search into the Actions of another Man's Office to trouble themselves without any cause No reason can be given why a lawful thing should become unlawful Because a lawful Superior doth command it else Superiors may take away all our Christian Liberty and make all things unlawful by commanding them you would take it ill from a Child or Servant when you bid them learn a Form of Prayer or Catechism if they should say it was lawful for us till you commanded it but because you bid us it is unlawful § 4. And now I intreat all humble Christians readily to obey both Magistrates and Pastors in all lawful things and to consider to that end of these Reasons following Reas 1. If you will not obey in Lawful things you deny Authority or overthrow Government it self which is a great Ordinance of God established in the fifth Commandment with promise And as that Commandment respecting Societies and common good is greater than the following commands as they respect the private good of our Neighbours or are but particular means to that Publick good whose Foundation is laid in the Fifth Commandment so accordingly the sin against this Fifth Commandment must be greater than that against the rest § 5. Reas 2. In disobeying the lawful commands of our Superiors we disobey Christ who ruleth by them as his Officers Even as the disobeying a Justice of Peace or Judge is a disobeying of the Soveraign Power yea in some cases when their Sentence is unjust Some of the Ancient Doctors thought that the Fifth Commandment was the last of the First Table of the Decalogue and that the Honouring of Governors is part of our Honour to God they being mentioned there as his Officers with whom he himself is honoured or dishonoured obeyed or disobeyed For it is God's Authority that the Magistrate Parent and Pastor is endued with and empowred by to rule those that are put under them § 6. Reas 3. What confusion will be brought into the Church if Pastors be not obeyed in things lawful For instance If the Pastors appoint the Congregation to Assemble at one hour and the People will scruple the time and say it is unlawful and so will choose some of them one time and some another what disorder will here be and worse if the Pastors appoint a Place of Worship and any of the People scruple obeying them and will come to another place what confusion will here be People are many and the Pastors are few And therefore there may be some Unity if the People be ruled by the Pastors but there can be none if the Pastors must be ruled by the People for the People will not agree among themselves And therefore if we obey one part of them we must disobey and displease the rest And their ignorance makes them unfit to rule § 7. Reas 4. Moreover Disobedience in matters of Circumstance will exclude and overthrow the Substance of the Worship it self God commandeth us to pray If one part of the Church will not joyn with a stinted form of Prayer and the other part will not joyn without it but both Parties cannot be pleased and so one part must cast off Prayer it self or separate from the rest God commandeth the Reading and Preaching and Hearing of the Scripture and the Singing of Psalms But he hath left it to Man to make or choose the best Translation of Scripture or Version of the Psalms Now if the Pastor appoint one Version and Translation and the Church joyn in the use of it if any Members will scruple joyning in this Translation or Version they must needs forbear the whole duty of Hearing the Scripture and Singing Psalms in that Congregation If they pretend a scruple against the appointed time or place of Worship they will thereby cast off the Worship it self For if they avoid our Time or Place they cannot meet with us nor Worship with us § 8. Reas 5. And when they are thus carried to separate from the Congregation upon such grounds as these they will be no where fixt but may be still subdividing and separating from one another till they are resolved into individuals and have left no such thing as a Church among them For they can have no assurance or probability that some of themselves will not dissent from the rest in one Circumstance or other as they did from their Pastors and the Church that they were of before § 6. Reas 9. By this means the Wicked that are Disobedient to their Teachers and reject the Worship of God it self will be hardened in their Sin and taught by Professors to defend their Ungodliness For the very same course that you take will serve their turns They need not deny any Duty in the Substance but deny the Circumstance and so put off the Substance of the Duty If a Wicked Man will not hear the Word Preached he may say I am not against Preaching but I am unsatisfied of the lawfulness of your Time or Place I am in judgment against coming to your Steeple-house or against the Lord's Day And so he shall never hear though he say he is for Heating If a Wicked Man will not be personally instructed or admonished or be accountable to the Church or Pastors for any scandals of his life nor submit to any Discipline he may say I am for Discipline I know it is my duty to be instructed but I am not satisfied that I am bound to come to you when you send for me or to appear at such a place as you appoint the Word of God nameth no time or place and you shall not deprive me of my Liberty If a Wicked Man would not hear or read the Scripture or sing Psalms he may say that he is for the Duty but he is only against this and that Translation and Version And so while every Version is excepted against the Duty is as much evaded as if it were denied it self By this device it is that the Rebellion of unruly People is defended They run to the Circumstances of the Duty and ask Where are they bound to come to a Minister or to be examined by him in order to a Baptism or Lord's Supper or to speak their consent to be Church-members or to subscribe to a Profession or to read an English Bible or to hear in a Steeple-house with many such like Thus also it is that they put off
tenderest of their Unity and Peace Own the best as best but none as a divided Sect espouse not their dividing interest confine not your especial love to a Party but extend it to all the Members of Christ Deny not local Communion when there is occasion for it to any Church that hath the Substance of True Worship and forceth you not to sin Love them as true Christians and Churches even when they drive you from their Communion I have found that Reformation is to be accomplished more by restoration of Ordinances and Administrations to their Primitive Nature and Use than by utter abolition Mr. Bagshaw objected to Mr. Baxter that he chose to communicate in a very populous Church upon Easter-day purposely that it might be known To this Mr. Baxter Answers p. 76. If a Man by many Years forbearing all Publick Prayer and Sacraments should tempt others to think that he is against them or thinks them needless How should he cure that Scandal but by doing that openly pleading for it which he is supposed to be against Ministers being bound to teach by Example as well as Doctrine Of the Liturgy § 1. Mr. Baxter in the 2d page of his exceptions against the Liturgy urged an Objection of Mr. Hales in these Words To load our Publick Forms with Private Fancies on which we differ is the most soveraign way to perpetuate Schism See also p. 48. The Bishops gave this Answer to the Objection We heartily desire that according to this Proposal great care may be taken to suppress private Conceptions of Prayer lest private Opinions be made matter of Prayer as it hath and will be if private Persons take liberty to make publick Prayers To this I agreed p. 201. Cure of Divisions in these words Every Separatist Anabaptist Antinomian doth too willingly put his Errors into his Prayers The Sense of which Mr. Bagshaw thus expounds p. 7. Of his Antidote by mentioning of Separatists as a distinct body of Men from the Antinomian Anabaptists c. It is evident he can mean no other but his Presbyterian and Congregational-Brethren § 2. That which God prescribed is lawful but God prescribed Forms of Prayer as the Titles and Matter of many of the Psalms prove which were daily used in the Jews Synagogues Christ Direct 2d Edit p. 139. Q. 74. Is it lawful to impose Forms on the Congregation in publick Worship Answ Yes and more than lawful It is the Pastors duty so to do for whether he forethink what to pray or not his Prayer is to them a Form of Words and they are bound to concur with him in Spirit or Desire and to say Amen So that every Minister by Office is daily to impose a Form of Prayer on all the People only some Men impose the same Form many times over or every day and others impose every day a new one pag. 140. Ibid. Pag. 142 143. Mr. Baxter shews the conveniencies and inconveniencies both of see and prescribed Prayers and adds My own judgment is that somewhat of both ways joyned together will best obviate the inconveniencies of both though by this I cross the conceits of prejudiced Men on both extremes I think I cross not the judgment of the Church of England which alloweth free Prayers in the Pulpit and at the Visitation of the Sick Nor of the Famous Non conformists Cartwright Hildersham Greenham Amisius Perkins Bains c. Mr. Cartwright all the time that he lived abroad used the same Form before Sermon and after and read Prayers in the Church and concluded with the Lords Prayer § 4. Pag. 102. Of Mr. Baxter ' s life Part 1. Under pretence of the purity of their Churches the Separatists set themselves against the same Men that the Drunkards and Swearers set against doing what they could to make them odious and put them down only they did it more profanely than the Profane in saying Let the Lord be glorified let the Gospel be propagated abusing Sacred Scripture to their purpose All this began in unwarrantable Separations and too much aggravating the faults of the Churches and Common People and Common-Prayer-Book and Ministry which because they thought they needed amendments it required their obstinate Separation and allowed them to make odious any thing that was amiss and if any Man had rebuked them for making it more faulty than it was they called him a pleader for Antichrist and Baal and every eror in the mode of Worship was Idolatry Popery Antichristianism Superstition Will-worship c. When many of their own Prayers were full of Carnal Passion Faction Disorder vain Repetitions unsound and loathsome Expressions and their Doctrine full of Errors and Confussion § 5. Pag. 169. Part. 3. Of B' s Life I wrote a Book called Cain and Abel intending a third Part to tell Dissenters why I went to the Parish Church and Communicated and why they should not suffer as Separatists least they suffer as Evil doers which a Bookseller importuned me to let him Print but for Reasons then given I delayed it but at last consented to publish the Reasons of my Communicating in the Parish Churches and against Separations But a Manuscript of Dr. Owen's containing Twelve Arguments against joyning with the Liturgy in Publick Churches was sent me which I answered whereupon a swarm of Revilers powred out their keenest Censures whom I answered Another said that my Treatise of Episcopacy fully proved the duty of Separation whereupon I explained that Treatise and all these things together I Published in a Treatise in defence of Catholick Communion to which I refer such as desire farther Satisfaction § 7. I shall name but one Passage more on this Head in his Defence of the Principles of Love pag. 88. The Covenant he saith bindeth us to Reformation according to God's Word and the Example of the best Reformed Churches But to prefer no Publick Worship or a worse before the Liturgy is Deformation and Profaneness and it is greater Reformation to prefer the Liturgy before none than to prefer Extemporate Publick Worship before the Liturgy for all the Reformed Churches in Christendom do commonly profess to hold Communion with the English Churches in the Liturgy if they come among us where it is used so that it seems in Mr. Baxter's Judgment a breach of the Covenant to prefer no Publick Worship before the Liturgy or to refuse Occasional Communion in the use of the Liturgy as if it were unlawful when in Mr. B's as well as in the Judgment of all the Reformed Churches it is to be preferred to Extemporate Publick Worsip My Opinion as to Liturgy in general is 1. That a stinted Liturgy is in it self lawful 2. That a stinted Liturgy in some parts of Publick Service is necessary 3. In the parts where in is not necessary it may not only be submitted to but desired when the peace of the Church requireth it 4. It is not of such necessity to take the matter and words out of the
great advantages that Satan hath got upon the Church through the Sin of the Pastors in these days is by Division by this he hath promoted all the rest of his Designs Our Divisions gratifie the Papists greatly hazard the Protestant Religion more than most of you seem to regard or believe it advantageth Profaneness and greatly hinders the Success of the Ministers it pleaseth Satan and builds up his Kingdom Preface to Confession The hand of God is apparently gone out against the Separatists you see you do but prepare for a further progress Seekers Ranters Quakers and too many professed Infidels do spring up from among you as if this were the Journeys end and perfection of your Revolt By such fearful Dissertions did God formerly witness his detestation of those that withdrew from the Unity of the Church Parties will arise in the Separate Churches and separate again from them till they are dissolved I beseech you my Brethren to open their Eyes so far as to regard Experience How few separated Churches do now Exist that were in being 100 years ago Can you name any and would you have all the Churches of Christ dissolved Of Communion in the Lord's Supper Q. 2. May we communicate with unworthy persons Answ It is your duty to communicate with that Church which hath a true Pastor and where the denominating part of the Members are capable of Church-Communion though there may some Infidels or Heathen or uncapable Persons violently intrude or scandalous Persons are admitted through the neglect of Discipline in case you have not your choice to hold personal communion with a better Church and in case also you be not guilty of the Corruption but by seasonable and modest professing your dissent do clear your self of the guilt of such intrusion and corruption If we Sin not by omitting our own Duty it will be no Sin of ours to communicate with the Church where Scandalous Sinners or Hereticks are permitted the Pastors and Delinquents Sins are not ours Q. 3. But what if I cannot communicate unless I conform to an imposed gesture as kneeling Answ I never yet heard any thing to prove kneeling unlawful there is no Word of God for or against any gesture Christ's example cannot be proved to oblige us in this and his gesture was not such a sitting as ours The nature of the Ordinance is mixt And if it be lawful to take a Pardon from the King upon our Knees I know not what can make it unlawful to take a Sealed Pardon from Christ by his Ambassador upon our Knees As for this Ceremony of kneeling at the Sacrament especially since the Rubrick is inserted which disclaimeth both all Bread-worship and the bodily Real-presence my judgment was ever for it God having made some gesture necessary and confined us to none but left it to humane determination I shall submit to Magistrates in their proper Work I am not sure that Christ intended the example of himself in this as oligatory but I am sure he hath commanded me obedience and peace Mr. Perkins was for kneeling and Mr. Baines in his Letters writes for it and answers objections against it Pag. 133. of Mr. B' s Life I cannot be so narrow in my Principles of Church Communion as many are who are so much for a Liturgy or so much against it so much for Ceremonies or so much against them that they can hold Communion with no Church that is not of their mind or way If I were among the Greeks the Lutherans the Independants yea the Anabaptists I would hold sometime Communion with them as Christians I cannot be of their Opinion that think God will not accept him that prayeth by the Common-Prayer-Book and that such Forms are a Self-invented Worship which God rejecteth Q. 4. But what if I cannot Communicate but according to the Administration of the Common-Prayer-Book Answ 1. That it is not unlawful to receive according to the Administration of the Common-Prayer-Book because it is a Form needs no proof to any that is Judicious 2. Nor yet for any evil in this particular Form for in this part the common-Common-Prayer is generally approved 3. Nor yet because it is imposed for a Command maketh not that unlawful to us which is lawful before but it maketh many things lawful and duties that else would have been unlawful accidentally 4. And the intentions of the Commanders we have little to do with And for the consequents they must be weighed on both sides and the consequents of our refusal will not be found light In general I must here tell the People of God in the bitter sorrow of my Soul that at last it is time for them to discern that temptation that hath in all Ages of the Church almost made this Sacrament of our Union to be the grand occasion or instrument of our Divisions And that true Humility and Acquaintance with our selves and Love to Christ and one another would shew some Men that it was but their Pride and Prejudice and Ignorance that made them think so heinously of other Mens manner of Worship And that on all sides among true Christians the manner of their Worship is not so odious as Prejudice and Faction and Partiality representeth it And that God accepteth that which they reject And they should see how the Devil hath undone the common People by this means by teaching them every one to expect salvation for being of that Party which he taketh to be the right Church and for Worshipping in that manner which he and his Party thinketh best And so wonderful a thing is prejudice that every Party by this is brought to think that ridiculous and vile which the other Party accounteth best But to magnifie any one Church or Party so as to deny due love and communion to the rest is Schism To limit all the Church to your Party and deny all or any of the rest to be Christians and parts of the Universal Church is Schism by a dangerous breach of Charity It is Schism also to condemn unjustly any particular Church as no Church And it is Schism to withdraw your bodily communion from a Church that you were bound to hold communion with upon a false supposition that it is no Church or is not lawfully to be communicated with And it is Schism to make Divisions or Parties in a Church though you divide not from that Church The holiness of the Party that Men adhere to is made a pretence to excuse Schism but this must make but a gradual difference in our esteem and love to some Christians above others If really they are most holy I must love them most and labour to be as holy as they But I must not therefore unjustly deny communion or due respect to other Christians that are less holy nor cleave to them as a Sect or divided Party whom I esteem most holy For the holiest are most Charitable and most against the Divisions among Christians and
Holy Scriptures but that we may joyn in a Liturgy or use it if the Form of Words be not from Scripture This is thus proved 1. That which is not directly or consequentially forbidden by God remaineth lawful A stinted Liturgy is not directly or consequentially forbidden of God Therefore it remaineth lawful The major is undoubted because nothing but a prohibition can make a thing unlawful where there is no Law there is no Transgression Yet I have heard very Reverend Men Answer this That it is enough that it is not commanded though not forbidden which is plainly to deny both Scripture and Civil Principles Now for the Minor That a stinted Liturgy is not forbidden we need no other proof than that no Prohibion can be produced The main Body of Non-Conformist Ministers did judge that the Ordinary Liturgy appointed for Publick Worship was such as a good Christian might lawfully joyn in Apol. p. 148. If it be lawful for the People to use a stinted form of Words in Publick Prayer then is it in it self lawful for the Pastors But it is lawful for the People c. For the Pastors Prayer which they must pray over with him and not only hear it is a stinted Form to them even as much as if he had learnt it out of a Book It is lawful to use a Form in Preaching therefore a stinted Liturgy is lawful 1. Because Preaching is a part of that Liturgy 2. Because the reason is the same for Prayer as for that in the main That which hath been the practice of the Church in Scripture times and down to this day and is yet the practice of almost all the Churches of Christ on earth is not like to be unlawful But such is the use of some stinted Forms c. I have shewed that it was so in the Jewish Church That it hath been of ancient use in the Church since Christ and at this day in Africk Asia Europe and the Reformed Churches in France Holland Geneva c. is so well known that I need not stand to prove it And those few that seem to disuse it do yet use it in Psalms and other parts of Worship As for the Common-Prayer it self I never rejected it because it was a Form or thought it simply unlawful because it was such a Form but have made use of it and would do again in the like case Object But if a faulty manner of praying be prescribed and imposed by a Law I know it before-hand and am guilty of it Answ If the thing be sinful either it is 1. Because the Prayers are defective and faulty Or 2. Because they are imposed Or 3. because you knew the Fault before-hand but none of these can prove your joyning with them sinful 1. Not because they are faulty for you may joyn with as faulty Prayers you confess if not imposed 2. Not because imposed for that is an extenuation and not an aggravation For 1. it proveth the Minister less voluntary of the two than those are that do it without any command through the errour of their own Judgments 2. Because though lawful things oft become unlawful when Superiours forbid them yet no reason can be given why a lawful thing should become unlawful because a lawful Superiour doth command it else Superiours might take away all our Christian Liberty and make all things unlawful to us by commanding them You would take it for a wild Conceit in your Children or Servants if they say when you bid them learn a Catechism or use a Form of Prayer It was lawful for us to do it till you commanded us but because you bid us do it it is unlawful If it be a Duty to obey Governours in all lawful things then it is not a Sin to obey them 3. It is not your knowing before hand that makes it unlawful for 1. I know in general before hand that all imperfect Men will do imperfectly and though I know not the particular that maketh it never the lawfuller if fore-knowledge it self did make it unlawful 2. If you know that e. g. an Antinomian or some mistaken Preacher would constantly drop some words for his Errour in praying or preaching that will not make it unlawful in your own Judgment for you to joyn if it be not a flat Heresie 3. It is another Man's Errour or Fault that you foreknow and not your own 4. God himself doth as an Universal Cause of Nature concur with Men in those Acts which he foreknoweth they will sinfully do yet is not the Authour or Approver of the Sin We the Commissioners 1663. all thought a Liturgy lawful and divers Learned and Reverend Nonconformists of London met to consider how far it was their duty or lawful to Communicate with the Parish Churches where they lived in the Liturgy and Sacrament and I proved four Propositions 1. That it is lawful to use a Form 2. That it is lawful to joyn with some Parish Churches in the use of the Liturgy 3. That it is lawful to joyn with some Parish Churches in the Lord's Supper 4. That it is to some a duty to joyn with some Parish Churches three times a year in the Lord's Supper and none of the Brethren seemed to dissent but took the Reasons to be valid Were I in Armenia Abassia or among the Greeks I would joyn in a much more defective Form than our Liturgy rather than none And this is the judgment of many New-England Ministers conform to the old Non-conformists who did some of them read the Common Prayer and the most of them judged it lawful to joyn in it or else Mr. Hildersham Mr. Richard Rogers c. would not write so earnestly for coming to the beginning and preferring it before all private Duties And truly I am not able to bear the thoughts of separating from almost all Christ's Churches upon Earth but he that separates from one or many upon a reason common to almost all doth virtually separate from almost all and he that separates from all among us upon the account of the unlawfulness of our Liturgy and the badness of our Ministry doth separate from them upon a reason common to almost all or the far greatest part as I conceive Those Forms of Liturgy which now are most distasted were brought in by the most zealous religious People at the first The many short Invocations Versicles and Responses which the People use were brought in when the Souls of the Faithful did abound with Zeal and in holy fervors break out in such expressions and could not well endure to be bare Auditors and not vocally to bear their part in the praises of God and prayers of the Church I have shewed at large How far God hath given Men power to prescribe and impose Forms for others and commanded others to obey them when Christ said When ye pray say Our Father c. he bound the Disciples in duty to do as he bid
Interest and a taking Tone and Voice do more with the most than solid evidence of truth But they who desire to have a party follow them and are busie in perswading others to be of their mind and speak perverse things c. are guilty of Church divisions Do not you condemn a carnal state Remember they are carnal who are contentious dividers in the Churches 1 Cor. 3. 1. You will disallow a fleshly mind and life Remember then that the works of the flesh are these As Adultery Fornication c. So Hatred or Enmity Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dividings into Parties When once Parties are ingaged by their Opinions in Anti-Churches and fierce disputings the Flesh and Satan will be working in them against all that is holy sweet and safe The Fire is blown up when Men are desirous to have a party follow them and cry them up and thereupon are busie in perswading others to be of their Mind and do speak perverse things to draw away Disciples after them to be accounted Masters of a Party Christ Direct p. 52. part 3. Church dividers are the most successful Servants of the Devil being Enemies to the Family of Christ in his Livery They gratifie Satan and all the Enemies of the Church and do the very works that he would have them do more effectually than open Enemies could do As mutineers in an Army may do more to destroy it than the power of the Enemy p. 60. It is a Sin that contradicteth all Gods Ordinances and means of Grace A Sin against as great and lamentable experiences as almost any Sin can be this is a heinous aggravation of it that commonly it is justified and not repented of yea it is fathered upon God every Sect pretending Gods Authority and it represents his Kingdom worse than that of the Devil which is not divided Of Superstition Do you not hate Superstition Consider then what Superstition is it is the making of any new parts of Religion to our selves and fathering them upon God Of this there are Two sorts Positive and Negative When we falsely say This is a duty commanded by God or when we falsely say This is a sin forbidden by God take heed of both For instance The Scripture telleth us of no Church-Elders but what were ordained and of none but such as were of the same Office with the Preaching Pastors or Elders of none that had not Authority to Baptize and Administer the Lord's Supper nor doth Church History tell us of any other as a Divine Office But now we have concluded that there is a distinct Office of Ruling Elders who need not be Ordained and who have no power to Baptize or to Administer the Lord's Supper This I think is Superstition for we feign God to have made a Church Office which he never made That it is simply unlawful to use a Form of Prayer or to read a Prayer on a Book That if a School-master impose a Form upon a Scholar or a Parent on a Child it maketh it become unlawful That our presence maketh us guilty of all the errors or unmeet expressions of the Minister in publick Worship at least if we before know of them and therefore that we must joyn with none whose Errors or Mis-expression we know of before That we are guilty of the sins of all unworthy or scandalous Communicants if we communicate with them though their admission is not by our fault That he whose judgment is against a Diocesan-Church may not lawfully joyn with a Parish-Church if the Minister be but subject to the Diocesin That whatsoever is unlawfully commanded is not lawful to be obeyed That it is unlawful to do any thing in the Worship of God which is imposed by Men and is not commanded in the Scripture These and more such as these are Superstitions which some Religious People have brought in And by all such inventions fathered upon God and made a part of Religion the minds of Men are corrupted and disquieted and the Churches disturbed and divided Most of our Acquaintance think it their duty to keep up the Reputation of the Publick Conformable Ministry p. 246. of Plea and p. 109. We are far from designing any abasement of the Clergy nor do we deny or draw others to deny any due Reverence or Obedience to them I repent that I no more discouraged the peevish Spirit of quarelling with Superiors and Church Orders And that I encouraged such by speaking too sharply against those things which I thought to be Church Corruptions Admonition to Bagshaw The People are ready to scorn the Gravest and Wisest Pastors we are indangered by Divisions chiefly because the Self-conceited part of the Religious People will not be ruled by their Pastors Cure of Divisions p. 393. I repent that I no more discouraged the Spirit of peevish quarrelling with Superiors and Church Orders and though I ever disliked and opposed it yet that I did sometime too much encourage such as were of their temper by speaking too sharply against those things which I thought to be Church Corruptions and was too loath to displease the Contentious for fear of being uncapable to do them good and meeting with too few Religious Persons that were not pleased with such invectives P. 52. to Bagshaw In The Preface to Christ Direct It is said That my Writeings differing from the common judgment had already caused offence to the Godly Answ 4. If God bless me with opportunity and help I will offend such Men much more by endeavouring further than ever I have done the quenching that Fire which they are still blowing up and detecting the Folly and Mischiefs of those Logomachies by which they militate against Love and Concord and inflame and tare the Church of God And let them know that I am about it Of Prejudice Take heed of suffering Prejudice and Fancy to go for reason and raise in your Minds unjustifiable distasts of any way or mode of Worship It is wonderful to see what Fancy and Prejudice can do get once a hard Opinion of a thing and your Judgments will make light of all that is said for it and will see nothing that should reconcile you to it Partiality will carry you away from Equity and Truth Abundance of things appear now false and evil to Men that once imagined them to be so which would seem harmless and laudable if tried by a Mind that is clear from Prejudice Of Censoriousness Is not Censoriousness and Rash Judging a Sin Yet one Congregation of the Division labours to make others odious and contemptible and that is called the Preaching of Truth and purer Worshipping of God I have seen this grow up to the height of Ranters in horrid Blasphemies and then of Quakers in disdainful Pride and Surliness and into Seekers that were to seek for a Ministry a Church a Scripture and consequently a Christ I have lived to see it put to