promoting Atheisme Arch-Bishop Grindal in his Fair Warning Part 2. Edit 1663 expressed his great fear of two things Atheism and Popery and both arising out of our needless differences By these the Enemies of our Religion gain this that nothing can be established by Law in the Protestant Religion whose every part is not opposed by some or other of her own Professors so that things continuing loose and confused the Papists have their Opportunity to urge their way which is attended with Order and Government And our Religion continuing thus distracted and divided some vile Wretches lay hold on the Arguments on one side to confute the other and so hope at last to destroy all Judge Hales 's Discourse of Religion p. 49. When Men see so much Heat and Passion so much Fervour and Contention such Reproaches and Revilings such Exasperations of Authority on either Party such mutual Prosecutions one of another that more could not possibly be done between Dissenters in those points which both agree to be Fundamental Atheistical Spirits are apt to conclude that probably those points that both sides supposed to be of greater moment are Ejusdem Farinae as those in Contest which all Men take to be small and inconsiderable Mr. Hooker 's Ecclesiastical Politie p. 18. Speaking of Atheistical persons by our Contentions their Irreligious Humour is much strengthened Also by the hot persuit of lower Controversies among Men professing Religion and agreeing in the principal Foundation thereof they conceive hope that about the higher Principles themselves time will cause Alteration to grow Abner 's Plea for Accommodation p. 41. It will cast a scandal on Religion it will open the Mouths of the Adversaries of the Truth The Name of God is blasphem'd among the Gentiles through you saith the Apostle Rom. 2.24 The worst sort among them scoff at it it is meat and drink to them And the better sort are stagger'd by it discouraged from coming within the pale of the Church when they observe Christians as Contentious as Pagans Believers as quarrelsome as Infidels Vnity of Catholick Christians The many Divisions and Animosities which have distracted and separated the parts of Christendom these have opened the Mouths and whet the Tongues of its professed Enemies to Reviling and Railings and Prophane Scoffs against our Blessed Lord and Saviour and his Holy Religion and stifled the first thoughts of admitting the most Convincing Truths to a debate among Jews Turks or Pagans and stopt their Ears against the wisest Charmes To no one cause can we more reasonably impute the small progress which Christianity hath made in the World for a Thousand years past The same contents have a pernicious influence at home upon the Faith and Manners of those within the Pale of the Church Men are hereby too soon tempted into some degree of Sceptiscism about very material points of Christian Doctrine in which they observe so many to differ among themselves Bishop Hacket on Acts 15.39 Where many Sects spring up it calls the Truth more into question and the fewer Proselytes will be gained Secondly By bringing Men to a Lukewarmness and Indifferency in the great things of Religion Bishop Whitgift 's Letter to the Council in Fullers Hist L. 9. That in King Edwards Time and in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths before the heat of these Contentions the Gospel mightily prevailed But since this Schism and Division the contrary Effects have happened Design of Christian p. 236. It is too visibly apparent to be denied that those who have such a scalding hot Zeal or contend so earnestly either for or against things of no certainty and no necessity are many of them as their Predecessors the Pharisees were in the very other Extream as to not a few of the weightiest matters of Religion Conformists Plea for the Nonconformists Part 4. pag. 17 It renders the Labours of the Worthiest suspected and despised by the contrary-minded The most useful profitable searching Books which the World hath most need of are not as much as look'd into by many but rejected because the Books of F s as they are called Yea more if a Conformist have the Name of F some of our Church-P will not come nigh the door-posts of Wisdom Mr. Kidder 's Sermons 1 Pet 3.11 We quarrel for Trifles and neglect our unquestionable Duty to God and Man Doctor Burnet Bishop of Salisbury Matth. 12.25 p. 5. The ill Effects of this Zeal or Contentiousness upon our selves will be That as this Temper grows upon us all our inward seriousness will in a great measure abate and turn meerly to a Form And with that many other Sins will creep in upon us we will bear with many ill things in others because they are of our Party whom otherwise we would detest for their ill Lives and by Conversing much with them we will contract at least a Familiarity with their Vices and perhaps imagine That by our rage and heat we offer up some acceptable Sacrifice to God to compensate for our other Disorders Causes of Decay of Piety p. 251. When bitter Zeal was once fermented the Orthodoxy or Heresie of Lives became soon Tearms out-dated and Men were measured only by Opinions Item p. 301. They are not much discomposed to see Men of no Religion 't is only the having one different from their own that makes their Indignation Mr. Cook 's Sermons on Rom. 12.18 p. 24 What a siding is there with this and the other Zealous and Conscientious Sect even by those that have neither Zeal nor Conscience but are Deriders of both and of strict Holiness in all sorts of Professors Appendix to the third part of the Friendly Debate p. 143 Doctor Jackson tells us the first ground of his dislike to the chief Solicitors of Reformation in our Church was the deformity of their Zeal not moving them to redress known Enormities of the Common-wealth much more material and much more nearly concerning the Advancement of the Gospel than those doubtful Controversies of Formality about which they strove Bishop Wilkins on Rom. 14.17 18 Let a Man but indifferently look round about him amongst all the kinds of Parties in our times even those who in his own judgment he esteems the best and then say Whether both our Common Peace and the Power of Religion hath not suffered exceedingly upon the account of our Zeal in lesser matters Another Mischief it destroys Charity Doctor Steward 's Englands Case p. 26 In such Divisions as these Men are extreamly apt to forget all Bonds of Peace and for possession sometimes of a little supposed Truth quit indeed their whole state of Charity Mr. Kidder 's Sermons 1 Pet. 3.11 We do indeed fiercely contend with each other but it is because we want Charity We neglect that plain Duty whilest we are fond of some Opinion of our own which is often false and at best but doubtful Pref. to Usher 's Body of Divinity Men falling into Sects and Schisms break the Bond of Love and
fall off from the Communion of Saints as though it were no Article of their Creed and being in Love with their own New Tenets they contend more for them than any Fundamental Truths and hate Malign most bitterly and Uncharitably all those that differ from them in their Opinions though never so Conscientious and Religious as though they professed not the same Faith yea served not the same God nor believed in the same Christ Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety p. 284. It is apparent in too many That they are apt to confine even the Common Offices of Humanity to their own Sect and others who do not so yet shew so great partiality in dispensing them as discovers that the Name of Christian is not half so charming as that of their own particular Faction Mr. Cook 's Serm. Rom. 12.18 How dreadful is it to consider what we may plainly observe that Dissention Hatred and Rancour is not so Violent and Irreconcileable betwixt Extream Opposites who dissent utterly as Pagans and Christians for Example as it commonly is betwixt subordinate Professors who agree upon Generals and in the main Substance but dissent in Particulars Those of the Church of Rome this day rather Tolerate do not so extreamly hate a Turk a Jew a Pagan as they do a Protestant and some Protestants to be quit with them do in affection and kind usage too plainly prefer a Heathen or Mahometan before them Judge Hales 's Discourses of Relig. p. 37. It often comes to pass that not only the Common Bond of Charity and of Christian Love is broken between the Professors of the same Substantials in Christianity but there is most ordinarily much more Severity and Persecution and Implacableness and Irreconcileableness more Endeavours to undermine and supplant and disgrace Dissenters more Scorns and vilifying and reproach and Insolence one towards another in their vicissitudes of Advantage than there is between Men of the most loose and prophane Lives and Professors of Christianity between Orthodox and Hereticks nay between Christians and Turks or Infidels many times Bishop of Salisburies Exhortation to Peace p. 11. Luther and Zuinglius difference about the Sacrament has raised such an alienation that in many places the Lutherans are no less and in some more fierce against the Calvinists than against Papists Bishop Reynold 's Brotherly Agreement p. 8. Through the prevalency of Corruption the Affections of good Men so dissenting are often Alienated and Estranged one from another Glanvil 's Catholick Charity p. 8. Though I see never so much eagerness for an Opinion or heat for an Indifferent Circumstance out the Conscience of Christian Love I shall never call that forwardness for those little things Zeal or Religion yea though those warm Men should sacrifice their Lives to their beloved Trifles I should not think them Martyrs but fear rather that they went from one fire to another and a worse as 1 Cor. 13.3 Mr. Cook 's Sermons on Rom. 12.18 p. 3. Though some divided Parties may in their several wayes exercise many Acts of true and substantial Worship yet whilest the Members thereof retain in their hearts any unpeaceable Disposition or bitter Envy though thay call it Zeal against another Party all the Effects of their Religion must necessarily be null and void because in our Religion we can find no sort of dispensation for an Uncharitable Temper Glanvil's Catholick Char. p. 55 56. If therefore we are Friends to Christian Love let us avoid and oppose this its most fatal Enemy and consider that we should exercise our Zeal about the necessary certain things and our Charity about the rest That Divisions are Ruinous of a Church Bucer I see with what Art Satan doth resist i. e. the Reformation While he goeth about to stir up so many pernitious Contentions as well in Doctrine as Rites For surely except we remove so manifest dishonourings of God whereby the whole Kingdom of God may be renewed Oh how intolerable Wrath of God shall be kindled against this Rhealm In another place With this crafty slight hath that Ancient Enemy driven miserable Germany unto these present Calamities wherewith they be now oppressed in King Edward the VI. dayes God forbid Christ Jesus I say our only Saviour forbid that he prevail against England with this crafty subtilty Bishop Andrew 's Sermon p. 913. Let us begin with the motion for Fire from Heaven upon the Samaritans Luke 9.55 Let us begin with that which was the beginning of all this quarrel dissent in Religion between the Samaritan and the Jew We see the fruit of it here and what Spirit it makes Men of mutual and mortal hatred breaking forth upon every occasion And these two the Samaritans and the Jews made not an end of it till it made an end of them In Josephus you shall see in the days of Claudius Cumanus then Deputy the very like quarrel to this here upon the very same occasion taken up wholly by the Zelotae and pursued hard opened the way to the Jews War which never ended till the utter rooting out and desolation of them both Injunct of K. James I. to the Bishops 1626. One thing there is which proves a great hinderance of this State and not continued amongst the people without great offence against God detriment both to Church and State and our great disservice in this and all other business It is the breach of Unity which is grown too great and common amongst all sorts of men The danger of this goes far for in all States it has made way for enemies to enter Mr. Hookers Answer to Mr. Travers Supplicat p. 30. There can come nothing of Contention but the natural waste of the parties contending till a common Enemy dance in the ashes of them both Halls Works Bishop of Norwich p. 413. If we desire the grief of our common Mother the languishing of the Gospel the extirpation of Religion the loss of Posterity the advantage of our Adversaries which way could these be effected more than by our Divisions Mr. Vertues Plea for Peace p. 25. Falling out among our selves we stand aloof off one from another suffering our selves to be devoured by the common Foe while we look on Yea happily we shall be ready to act one against another and so to save the Enemy a labour as Moab against Ammon and Ammon against Moab and Edom against both sheathing their Swords each in other so that Jehosaphat and his Jews needed not to strike a stroke 2 Chron. 20.3 Isa 9.21 Gal. 5.15 It is a Dutch device and a good one to this purpose of two earthen pots swimming on the water frangimur fi collidimur we are broken all to pieces if we clash one against another Idem p. 31. Besides that God doth often punish breaches and divisions in the Church among Christians by raising up some storm against them which may teach them better to agree we being in this too like to Sheep which on a fair Sun-shine day are
the Word Secondly It was more seasonable at the Reformation than another Worship because it receded least from their former Worship leaving that only in what was plainly and undoubtedly evil and so was it more safe upon the same account For it is a common Rule in all Changes in Bodies Natural and Political that the Change be no more then needs must it being dangerous to run from one extream into another And that Change which they did make in the Worship was not without its danger for in Devonshire and Cornwall there was a Rebellion upon the account of changing their Worship But there would be no danger of Rebellion now upon some just alterations It caused one indeed in Scotland as before which infected England Thirdly It was more satisfactory and acceptable to the generality of the Nation at the time of the Reformation than any other So that we do not read of any that separated from it in Edward VI. days And though when they were at liberty in Germany some were for another Worship at Frankford yet we do not read but they Conformed to it in England until near the Spanish Invasion when a party of Jesuits and Roman Priests were found crying up a sort of Free Prayer drawing some off from the Common-Prayer though not men of note And in the Act Primo Elizabethae you may find the esteem they had for this Worship It saith to the great decay of the due Honour of God and discomfort to the Professors of the Truth of Christs Religion the Common-Prayer Book and the Act for it was repealed and taken away in Queen Maries days But now the generality of Dissenters and many that follow the Parish Ministers are dissatisfied in it and have little or no liking to it and whatever is the matter the genius of the people will not bear it or some things in it or at least not otherwise then as a Burthen and a Grievance Arg. IV. For proof that the Common-Prayer according to the Acts for Vniformity is inconvenient in some respects because of the confinement of Ministers to the use of it not only in the publick but in their Families in a manner wholly excluding all other manner of Prayer even the most sober and discreet use of the Gift as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vpon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer Book Sect. 4. I am not against a grave modest discreet and humble use of Ministers gifts even in publick the better to excite their own and the peoples affections to the present occasions Again upon denying him his Chaplains Sect. 16. Which gift as I do not wholly exclude from publick occasions so I allow it its just liberty and use in private and devout retirements And the Act for Vniformity in the beginning of King Edwards Reign did give Liberty to use any other Prayers and Psalms taken out of the Bible at any due time not letting or omitting thereby the Service or any part thereof More may be spoken to enforce this part that Ministers should labour after some measure of the gift and ability to utter their minds to God in Prayer without keeping strictly to a Form First Ejaculatory Prayer calls for some measure of this gift as when we lift up our Hearts to God upon any present occasion in some short Prayer as in time of Temptation upon sudden Danger or news of the Sickness or Death of a Friend or Judgment or Mercy befalling the Nation or Parish in which we live or according to the Discourse and Company which we are in or matter which we read Bishop Taylor in his Rules to his Clergy That they should teach their People to be much in this Ejaculatory Prayer Secondly For some gift and ability to Pray without a Form is because that Examination of our Hearts and Lives upon set days of Fasting and Humiliation before a Sacrament and in times of Affliction and Sickness or any Calamity the dayly Examination also according to many sober Heathens practice Pythagoras his Advice to his Scholars to that purpose and which is the practice of good men and serves only to find out our sins that we may beg pardon of them and power against them or be thankful to God for his Grace keeping us from sin or enabling us to do good and this cannot be done in one set Form Thirdly Ministers Sermons should be begun continued and ended with Prayer Prayer for Direction to a suitable Subject such as the necessities of the people call for Method Matter Language that all may be done to edifying And when it is finished it is fitting to recommend it unto God for his Blessing upon it The more Prayer the more power working with our Sermons You will find such Sermons take most effect they will be weak without it And after Preaching that the Word Preached may be put in practice Some Ministers in the Country having a short Prayer after Sermon respecting the principal matter of the Sermon as the Duties Graces Truths of our Christian Religion or Sins as 2 Tim. 3.16 The Word being profitable for Doctrine Reproof to convince Gainsayers for Correction and Amendment of evil Manners and for Instruction in Righteousness or Holiness by an exercise of the Graces performance of the Duties of our Religion Now Prayer must accompany all the Ordinances of God to sanctifie and get Gods Blessing on them Fourthly It is fit that all should vary in their Prayers so much as occasions serves our Sins our Wants our Mercies Neither those of the Nation nor a particular Congregation are the same always not altogether though much the same Therefore it is fit our Petitions Intercessions and Thanksgivings should admit of some alteration Arg. V. For some ability to pray without an exact Form is that in Phil. 4.6 In every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving let your Requests be made known unto God In every thing of great concernment and importance in our Lives be it Worldly or Spiritual matters Besides in the two first Centuries this sort of Prayer prevailed in all probability and a mixt Worship in the third partly by Form and part otherwise 'T is too apparent to be denied and hath been the observation of too many and their complaint too that Ministers take occasion from the use of the Common-Prayers to neglect the sober use of free and conceived Prayer being insufficient to pray upon an emergent occasion to the scandal of their Function and derision of Dissenters If one unexpectedly light upon a sick person and be desired to pray for him it is a pitiful excuse for him to say he hath not his Book with him In case of any Calamity befalling a Parish Fire any Infections Disease or much Sickness c. Or any National Judgment as upon poor Ireland or Mercy as the Miracle of Mercy and Deliverance wrought for us of this Nation it will be expected or at least it is fit that Ministers should put in Occasional Expressions for such matters
scattered each from other upon the Mountains but a storm brings them together So doth Eusebius relate that the Church enjoyed much peace and freedom immediately before the Persecution raised against it by Dioclesian and making no better use of it than to fall asunder into Divisions and Factious Contentions instantly God took a course by way of punishment to cover the Daughter of Zion with a Cloud in his Anger and to cast down from Heaven to Earth the beauty of Israel and not to remember his footstool in the day of his Anger setting up the Right-hand of his Churches enemies and making their adversaries to rejoyce Lam. 2.1 Psal 39.42 Mr. Ward of Ipswich 's Sermons p. 253. Charity Charity is the builder of Churches Strife about trifles hath wasted many famous ones and placed the Temple of Mahomet where the Golden Candlestick was wont to stand We pity the former Ages contending about leavened and unleavened Bread keeping of Easter Fasting on Sundays the future Ages will do the like by us Pygots Abners Plea for Accommodation in 43. p. 33. Take heed your private dissentions do not expose you as a prey to the common adversary I remember the dying Fathers admonition to his Sons Having call'd them all together he caused a Faggot to be brought into the Room and commanded the stoutest of them to break it they tryed one after another but none of them could do it then he bade them undo the band and take them stick by stick and so they snapped them asunder like a twined thread Thus shall it be with you my Sons saith the Old Man when I am dead if you continue united and knit together in the bond of Peace and Love no Enemies shall be able to hurt you but if you once break the bond and fall into differences among your selves you 'l presently be broken to pieces and come to nothing Item p. 42. The wild Boar of the Forest I mean the Turk had never made such inrodes into Christendom had it not been for the dissention of Christian Brethren 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vpon the Rebellion in Ireland Ejac. 3. Because we have not more loved thy Truth and practiced in Charity thou hast suffered a Spirit of error and bitterness of mutual and mortal hatred to arise among us Bishop Reynolds Broth. Agreement p. 18. Cites holy Cyprian who in his time looked upon it as one great cause of that fore Persecution which God sent upon the Church Had Unanimity and Peace said he been amongst the Brethren we had long ago obtained our Petitions from Divine Mercy neither had we been thus long tossed with those Tempests which endanger our Faith and Salvation Imo vero nec venissent Fratribus haec mala si in unum fraternitas fuisset animata Bishop Hacket on Acts 15.39 p. 8 9. The passage is well known about Constantine the Great how he remov'd from his Palace in the East because every corner of the Imperial City was filled with adverse disputations about Religion much more you may presume that God will depart from that Church where the flames of notorious discords are Causes of decay of Christian Piety p. 304. As to the extirpation of the Eastern Churches he that shall examine the Records of those Times will have cause to say their janglings and divisions were not only in a Moral and Divine but even in a proper natural sence the Instruments of it the Turk only coming in at those breaches which themselves have made Glanvells Cath. Charity p. 17. The greatest evils that have or can happen to the Church have been the effects of the decay of Charity and of those intestine divisions that have grown up in it From these she hath always suffered more than from external Persecutions The flames within have consumed her when those from without have only sing'd her garments Bishop of Salisbury 's Exhort to Peace and Vnion on Matth. 12.25 p. 3. There is nothing that defeats the end of Religion more and doth more naturally lead to all manner of sin and impieties which must end in Temporal as well as Eternal ruine then our Divisions Pag. 9. In Divisions either party will be so intent on their little designs that the whole may perish and they will bite and devour one another till they are either consumed one of another or made an easie Conquest to those that both see and improve all their advantages Item Exhort p. 10 11. The Africans continued quarrelling about Cecilian and his ordainers till the Vandals came and destroyed both the one and the other Item p. 11. And can we think without astonishment that the difference of the Procession of the Holy Ghost could ever have rent the Greek and Latin Churches so violently one from another that the Latins rather than assist the other look'd on till they were destroyed by the Ottoman Family which has ever since been so terrible a Neighbour to the rest of Europe Mr. Hesketh on Lam 3.20 21. p. 25. It were seasonable to have made some reflections upon the unchristian heats and unreasonable differences that are among us things that render us not only sinners but great fools and plain contrivers for our own Ruine For these are evils that will destroy us alone and by their own weight sink us into destruction Divided Societies last not long the experience of all Ages confirms it for a Truth and I do not see what reason we have to expect an exemption from the common fate Dr. Mores Mystery of Iniquity p. 554. What harm is it to presage so well of the Reformation as that after the decursion of the years of their Childhood God will ripen them into a more Manly sence of the great and indispensable Duties of the Gospel that he will not tolerate nor connive any longer at their Childish squabling about Nut-shells Counters and Cherry-stones and menace them even with destruction if they leave not off their animosities and asperities of mind about toys and trifles and hold fast to the Royal Law of Love If ye bite and worry one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another Gal. 5.15 Mr. Hancocks Sermon on Luke 19.42 If the judgments of God which we have already groaned under cannot sure the dangers that threaten us and our Religion might help to abate our heats and suppress our differences Did not Christianity decay in the Church of Corinth as their Schisms and Factions increased Pag. 31. Were not the former Conquests of these Nations the effects of our own Divisions God grant that saying may never be applyed to us which was used of our Fore-Fathers that whilst they severally quarrel'd among themselves they were all overcome by the common Enemy Item They are convinced that a number of petty Sects and divided Interests cannot long maintain their ground against the Roman Forces Mr. Cooks Sermon on Rom. 12.18 p. 4. Were it not for that security the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it that is the
Sect. 10. The Cross so seasonable at the first Institution of it while professed Pagans were mingled among Christians and so significant alwayes that if the Church cannot make such an Additional as this in his Judgment she can make none at all True State of Prim. Christ p. 18 I will name another Ceremony which gives great offence with greater reason the bowing towards the Altar which in my own Judgment I allow and practise in some measure when I come into such Congregations as generally use it avoiding still to give offence to any as far as I may with safe Conscience I affirm it is a very fitting thing to shew Reverence in the House of God and to shew it by bowing as well as any other means and to bow that way to the East as well as any other way Bowing towards the Altar is grown into abuse by the Papists supposing Christ to be Corporally present there With us the Minister bows to shew some particular Reverence in that place where the Blessed Sacrament is Consecrated Let this pass for good though something also may be said against it Ceremonies not to be Innovated or Multiplyed BIshop Taylor 's Ductor Dubit L. 3. Ch. 4. Rule 4. Sect. 19 20. That this Rule of Order and Decency is not to be extended to such Decencies as are only Ornament but is to be limited to such as only rescue from Confusion the reason is because the Prelates and Spiritual Guides cannot do their Duty unless things be so orderly as that there be no Confusion but if it can go beyond this Limit then it can have no Natural Limit but may extend to Sumptuousness to Ornament for Churches to rich Utensils c. But because this is too subject to abuse and gives a Secular Power over Mens Estates and is not any part of Spiritual Government it 's more than Christ gave to Ministers Id. Rules to his Clergy 39. R. Let no Minister of a Parish introduce any Beremony Rites or Gestures though with some seeming Piety and Devotion but what are commanded by the Church and Established by Law and let these also be wisely and usefully Explicated to the People that they may understand the Reasons and Measures of Obedience but let there be no more introduced lest the people be burthened unnecessarily and tempted or divided Idem And though significant Ceremonies may be for Edification yet it is to be considered whether the introducing of such things does not destroy the Church not only in her Christian Liberty but in the Simplicity and Purity and Spirituality of her Religion by insensibly changing it into a Ceremonial and External Service True State of the Primitive Church p. 18. With us the Minister bows at the Altar to shew some particular Reverence in that place where the Blessed Sacrament is Consecrated though something may be said against that Yet I pray tell me Why the Reader passing from one side of the Church to the other and the Minister passing from one end of the Altar to the other bows again I verily believe 't is meerly a causeless Custom taken up one from another the common beginning of all Superstitions having no reason for it but much against it giving thereby great scandal to weak ones and ground of slaunder to malitious ones who lay hold on any occasions to accuse them of Papistry For certainly it is done with little or no Reason or with a great deal of Superstition Serious and Compassionate Enquiry c. To do all that I may without danger to my self and not at all to regard what others can comply with or to use my own Liberty to the offence of others is to be Unchristian and Uncharitable And in this sence only are we to understand all the Discourses of the Apostle about Scandal and Offence where there is Materia libera For he that will provoke his Brother to sin by doing that which he may omit without sin is guilty of sin in so doing It. p. 245. To the end that we may prevail with them to deny themselves in somethings for the Publick Good we should do well to give them Examples of our own Self-denyal and abridging our own Liberty in Condescention to them in such things as are not the matter of the Law and that we will not out-run the Laws to contradict and vex them in what we may forbear without sin Doctor Barrow 's Sermons of Love p. 181. An Act of Charity to abstain from any thing which either may occasion him to commit Sin or disaffect him to Religion or discourage him in the practice of Duty or which any wise may discompose vex or grieve him the Apostle having said That if thy Brother be 〈◊〉 grieved with thy Meat now walkest thou not Charitably Rom. 14.15 Having premised somewhat in Defence of the Ceremonies and against Innovations c. I shall proceed to those Arguments for leaving the Use of the Ceremonies Indifferent ARGVMENT I. COnsider first That by leaving the Ceremonies Indifferent Conformists have their Liberty allowed them to use them Where Ministers scruple the use of that sign of the Cross but the Parents are for it they may get any Neighbouring Minister that is of the same Opinion to Baptize their Child after their manner If their Parents be against it the Minister holding it but a thing indifferent why may he not forbear the use of it for satisfaction of the Parents II. I do not read of any that lived and dyed Nonconformists but scrupled the Sign of the Cross which shows they are not satisfied in Conscience about it But our Consciences will bear the yielding of it up for Peace because we hold Ceremonies to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things Indifferent in themselves neither good nor evil If indifferent let us not contend so earnestly for their use as for necessary things and matters of Faith but manifest an indifferency for their Continuance or Abrogation III. The Ceremonies are inutilia Coelo of little or no use for the winning of Souls and I see not but that Prelates Speech was truly Christian who said we had rather lose a Ceremony than a Soul As it was said of some Meats neither if we eat them are we the better nor if we eat not are we the worse so we are nothing better'd by these Ceremonies Indifferent things have no Spiritual Vertue or Efficacy in them We do not hold with the Papists that Surplices being hallowed defend him that wears them from the Devil And Canon Thirty saith that the Sign of the Cross doth neither add any thing to the Vertue and Perfection of Baptism Nor being omitted doth detract any thing from the Effect and Substance of it IV. The Reason for the first use of the Ceremonies ceaseth much They were kept partly out of Compliance with the Papists to gain upon them because the People could not be so wholly drawn off from the use of the Sign of the Cross and somewhat too out of Compliance with the
Primitive Christians who used the Sign of the Cross often and very early after the Apostles dayes as Justin Martyr saith in foro in agris And thus the Church of England showed she left the Church of Rome only in her Innovations and would go along with her in what the Ancient Church practised that she might be the more inexcusable and justly condemned if she rejected Communion with us But now the case is altered the Papists are hardned by it and encouraged upbraiding us as Bishop Vsher said of them If our Flesh be not good why do you drink of our Broth But our Protestant Brethren stumble at it and it is disused by other Reformed Churches and therefore in condescention to the weakness of the one and Uniformity with the other Reformed Churches perhaps it were to be wished that how the use of it were forborn V. Against the Imposition of the Ceremonies is because of the many Objections against them especially against the Cross as a significant Ceremony not instituted by Christ as a Dedicating Covenanting Sign as a Sacramental Sign or as having the semblance of a Sacrament or against the use of it in that place immediately after Baptism and the Duties of the Baptized more expresly assixed to that Sign than to the Sacrament it self as a medium cultus Again as Superstitious and Scandalous because of the Popish abuse of it as a cursed Addition to the Word of God and the Sacrament of Baptism as imposed on Ministers and Children of those Parents that scruple and are not satisfied in Conscience about the use of it as well as those that are as the Likeness and Image of Christ Crucified forbidden say they in the Second Commandment as will Worship as disused in other Protestant Churches as against Christian Liberty as unsuitable to the simplicity of the Gospel as needless unprofitable and causing Divisions in the Church Although none of the Objections or Arguments that I can find against it convince me that the submission to it and the use of it is utterly unlawful yet it should seem inconvenient to continue a thing which hath so plausible and numerous Objections against it VI. For making some allowances in respect of the Ceremonies God himself dispenseth with his own Commands about Rituals or smaller matters in case of necessity or when great good or hurt stands on the other side to outweigh them 1 Sam. 21.6 David in his hunger eats the Shewbread which only the Priests were to eat and Christ on the same account lets the Disciples pluck and rub the ears of Corn on the Sabbath-day 1 Kings 8.64 Solomon hallows the middle of the Court for an Altar because the Brazen Altar of the Lord was too little for the Offerings A multitude did eat the Passover otherwise than appointed 2 Chron 30.18 on the Second Moneth for they could not keep it at the time appointed as the Second and Third Verses An Ox or an Ass is to be watered or pulled out of a Pit on the Sabbath day Periculum vitae dissolvit Sabbatum as the Proverb says though by many good Men a matter of Controversie or thought to be Moral and not Ceremonial Surely then lesser matters upon great and weighty Occasions when Spiritually necessary for the Churches Good and Peace and for the Labours of able Men in the Work of the Ministry may very well be dispensed with For Humane Ceremonies cannot pretend to a like Authority or Necessity much less a greater than those of Divine appointment That Ceremonies must yield to substance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or King James I. Instructions to his Son p. 15. Learn wisely to discern between points of Salvation and indifferent things betwixt Substance and Ceremonies As for the latter spare not to use or alter them as the necessity of the Times shall require Bishop Halls Works p. 1092. Our Saviour justifies the act of Abimelechs giving David Holy Bread and the Sword Ceremonies must give place to Substance God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice Charity is the summe and the end of the Law that must be aimed at in all our actions Bishop Taylors Duct Dubit p. 735. Thus if a Church commands such Ceremonies to be used such Orders such Prayers they are to be observed when they may but if I fall into the hands of an enemy to that manner of Worship who will kill or afflict me greatly for using it I am in that case disobliged even as Periculum vitae dissolvit Sabbatum Serious and Compassionate Enquiry p. 159. On Davids eating the Shew-bread It is sufficiently intimated that God doth not only prefer Moral acts before Ceremonial but also doth make great allowances limitations and exceptions in the one case and not in the other For it is as if our Saviour had said Had you censorious Pharisees understood either God or Religion you would have known that so long as there is not Contumacy and Contempt in the neglect of those Rituals but the excuse of a just necessity or the Rational Consideration of a greater good to preponderate the omission God doth not impute it for a sin Bishop Saunderson on Rom. 3.8 Sect. 31. Affirmative Duties do not obligare ad semper as being many it is impossible they should And many times Duties otherwise necessary in case of Superiour Reason and Duties do cease to be necessary pro hic nunc and then to omit them is not to do evil Bishop Wilkins p. 413 414. Now Divine Laws themselves are capable of relaxation which is the meaning of that Proverbial saying so frequent in Scripture That God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and therefore much more will Humane Laws admit it True state of the Primitive Church As to Ceremonies I wonder men of any tolerable discretion should be so eager either for or against them our Salvation no ways depending on them but much hazarded by our contentions about them breaking Peace the principal thing recommended to us by the Gospel of Peace VIII Another Argument for Concessions in the Ceremonies several of our Eminent Men in Queen Elizabeths Reign were for the taking of them away as their Letters to Bullinger inform us mentioned by the Bishop of Salisbury in his Travels Letters of things remarkable in Switzerland c. by Dr. Burnet Bishop of Salisbury tell us that there is a vast Collection of Letters at Zurich written either to Bullinger or by him Bishop Jewel in a Letter Feb. 8. 1566. wishes that the Vestments together with all the other Remnants of Popery might be thrown both out of their Churches and out of the minds of the People and laments the Queens fixedness to them So that she would suffer no change to be made And in January the same year Sands Archbishop of York writes Contenditur de Vestibus Papisticis utendis vel non utendis dabit Deus his quoque finem Horn Bishop of Winchester in a Letter July 16. 1565. He writes of the Act concerning the Habits