another They command us to imitate them give us leave then to imitate them at least in all things that your selves confess to be lawfull for us § 30. Reas. 28. Hath not God purposely already in the Scripture determined the Controversie supposing your Ceremonies which is their best to be indifferent He hath interposed also for the decision of such doubts He hath commanded Rom. 14.1 3. that we Receive him that is weak in the faith but not to doubtfull disputations much less to imprisonment or banishment Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth for God hath received him Nay we must not so much as offend or grieve our brother by indifferent things Verse 13.15.21 to the end And so Chap. 15.1 We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves So that the case is decided by the Spirit of God expresly that he would have weak Christians have liberty in such things as these and would not have Christians so much as censure or despise one another upon such accounts And therefore Prelates may not silence Ministers nor excommunicate Christians on this account nor Magistrates punish them especially to the injury of the Church § 31. Object But this is spoken only to private Christians and not to Magistrates or Prelates Answ. 1. If there had been any Prelate then at Rome we might have judged it spoken to them with the people And no doubt but it was spoken to such Pastors as they then had For it was written to all the Church of whom the Pastors were a part And if the Pastors must bear with dissenters in things indifferent then most certainly the Magistrates must do so 2. If Magistrates are Christians then this command extendeth also unto them God hath sufficiently told us here that he would have us bear with one another in things of such indifferency as these If God tell private men this truth that he would have men born with in such cases it concerns the Magistrate to take notice of it Either the error is tolerable or intolerable If intolerable private men must not bear with it If tolerable Magistrates and Pastors must bear with it It is as much the duty of Private Christians to reprove an erroneous person and avoid him if intolerable and impenitent as it is the duty of a Magistrate to punish him by the sword or the Pastor by Church-censures If therefore it be the duty of Private men to tolerate such as these in question by a forbearnce of their rebukes and Censures then is it the duty of Magistrates to tolerate them by a forbearance of penalties and of Pastors to tolerate them by a forbearance of excommunication Who can believe that God would leave so full a determination for tolerating such persons and yet desire that Prelates should excommunicate them or Princes imprison banish or destroy them Some English Expositors therefore do but unreasonably abuse this text when they tell us that Magistrates and Prelates may thus punish these men whom the rest of the Church is so straitly commanded to bear with and not offend § 32. So Col. 2.16 to the end Let no man judge you in Meat or Drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new Moon or of the Sabbaths c. ver 20. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to Ordinances Touch not taste not handle not which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will-worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh Here also God sheweth that it is his will that such Matters should not be made Laws to the Church nor be imposed on his servants but their freedom should be preserved Many other texts express the same which I need not cite the case being so plain § 33. Reas. 29. Moreover me thinks every Christian should be sensible how insufficient we are to perform the great and many duties that God hath imposed upon us already And therefore they should have little mind to be making more work to the Churches and themselves till they can better discharge that which is already imposed on them by God Have not your selves and your flocks enough to do to observe all the precepts of the Decalogue and understand all the doctrines of the Gospel and believe and obey the Gospel of Christ but you must be making your selves and others more work Have you not sin enough already in breaking the Laws already made but you must make more Laws and duties that so you may make more sin If you say that your precepts are not guilty of this charge you speak against reason The more duty the more neglect we shall be guilty of See how the Lord Falkland urgeth this Objection on the Papists And it is considerable that by this means you make your selves unexcusable for all your neglects and omissions toward God Cannot you live up to the height of Evangelical Sanctity Why then do you make your selves more work Sure if you can do more it may be expected that you first do this that was enjoyned you If you will needs be Righteous materially overmuch you are unexcusable for your unrighteousness § 34. Reas. 30. Lastly consider also that all your Mystical Teaching Signs are needless things and come too late because the work is done that they pretend to God hath already given you so perfect a directory for his worship that there is nothing more that you can reasonably desire Let us peruse the particulars 1. What want you in order to the Teaching of our understandings Hath not God in his word and his works and his Sacraments provided sufficient means for our instruction unless you add your Mystical signs Will your Ceremonies come after and teach us better then all these Means of God will do We see by the Disciples of Ceremonies what a Master they have 2. What want you for the exciting of dull affections that God hath not provided you already Have you Ceremonies that can give life and are more powerfull remedies against Corruptions and more effectuall means of Grace then all the institutions of God Or hath God left any imperfection in his institutions for your Ceremonies to supply Would you have plain Teaching in season and out of season This God hath appointed already and setled the Ministry to that end Would you have men taught by a Form of words Why you have a copious Form The whole Scripture is a form of words for mens instruction And yet we deny not but out of this Form you may gather more contracted forms for the instruction of your flocks Catechizing and publick and private teaching are Gods own Ordinances Would you have a Directory for Prayer Confession and
seek to reclaim the wandring strengthen the weak comfort the distressed openly rebuke the open obstinate offendors and if they repent not to require the Church to avoid their Communion and to take cogniscance of their cause before they are cut off as also to Absolve the penitent yea to visit the sick who are to send for the Elders of the Church and to pray with and for them c. yea and to go before them in the worship of God These are the acts of Church Government that Christ hath appointed and which each faithful Shepherd must use and not Excommunication and other Censures and Absolution alone 2. But if they could prove that Church Government containeth only Censures and Absolution yet we shall easily prove it Impossible for the late English Episcopacy to do that For 3. It is known to our sorrow that in most Parishes there are many persons and in some greater Parishes very many that have lived common open swearers or drunkards and some whoremongers common scorners of a godly life and in many more of those offences for which Scripture and the ancient Canons of the Church do excommunicate men and we are commanded with such no not to eat And it s too well known what numbers of Hereticks and Seducers there are that would draw men from the faith whom the Church-Governours must after the first and second admonition reject 4. And then it s known what a deal of work is Necessary with any one of these in hearing accusations examining Witnesses hearing the defendants searching into the whole cause admonishing waiting re-admonishing c. 5. And then it s known of how great Necessity and moment all these are to the honour of the Gospel the souls of the offendors to the Church to the weak to them without c. So that if it be neglected or unfaithfully mannaged much mischief will ensue Thus in part we see what the Government is Next let us see what the English Episcopacy is And 1. For the extent of it a Diocess contained many score or hundred Parishes and so many thousands of such souls to be thus Governed Perhaps some Diocesses may have five hundred thousand souls and it may be London Diocess nearer a million And how many thousand of these may fall under some of the forementioned acts of Government by our sad experience we may conjecture 2. Moreover the Bishop resideth if not at London as many of them did yet in his own dwelling many miles perhaps twenty or thirty from a great part of his Diocess so that most certainly he doth not so much as know by face name or report the hundreth perhaps the thousandth or perhaps the second or third thousandth person in his Diocess Is it Possible then for him to watch over them or to understand the quality of the person and fact In Church Cases the quality of the person is of so much moment that without some knowledge of it the bare knowledge of the fact sometimes will not serve 3. And then it is known that the English Episcopacy denyeth to the Presbyters all power of Excommunication and Absolution uâ—less to pronounce it as from the Bishop when he hath past it And they deny him also all power so much as of calling a sinner to open Repentance which they called Imposing penance and also they denied all power of denying the Lords Supper to any without the Bishops censure except in a sâ—dden case and then they must prosecute it after at the Bishops Court and there render the Reason of that suspension So that the trouble danger labour time would be so great that would be spent in it that scarce one Minister of a hundred did venture on it once in seven and seven years except only to deny the Sacrament to a man that would not kneel and that they might do easily and safely 4. And then Consider further that if the Minister should be one of an hundred and so diligent as to accuse and prosecute all the open scandalous offendors of his Parish before the Bishops Court that so he might procure that act of Government from them which he may not perform himself it would take up all his time and perhaps all would not serve for half the work considering how far he must ride how frequently he must attend c. And then all the rest or most of the Pastoral work must be neglected to the danger of the whole Congregation 5. It is a great penalty to an innocent man to travail so far to the trial of his â—ause But the special thing that I note is this that it is Naturally Impossible for the Bishop to hear try and judge all these causes yea or the fifth or hundredth of them or in some places one of five hundred Can one man hear so many hundred as in a day must be before him if this discipline be faithfully executed By that time that he hath heard two or three Causes and examined Witnesses and fully debated all the rest can have no hearing and thus unavoidably the work must be undone It is as if you set a Schoolmaster to teach ten or twenty thousand Schollars Must they not be needs untaught Or as if you set one Shepherd to look to two or three hundred several flocks of Sheep that are every one of them three or four miles asunder and some of them fourty miles from some of the rest Is it any wonder thâ—n if many of them be lost 6. But what need we further witness then the sad experience of the Church of late Are we not sure that discipline lay unexercised and our Congregations defiled and Gods Laws and the old Canons were dead letters while the Bishops keep up the lame and empty name of Governours How many drunkards swearers whoremongers raylers Extortioners scorners at a godly life did swarm in almost every Town and Parish and they never heard of discipline except it were one Adulterer or fornicator once in seven years within twenty miles compass where I was acquainted that stood in a white sheet in the Church We know that there was no such Matter as Church Government exercised to any purpose but all left undone unless it were to undoe a poor Disciplinarian as they therefore scornfully called them that blamed them for neglect of Discipline For my part the Lord my Judge knows that I desire to make the matter rather better then it was then worse then it was and I solemnly profess that for the Peace of the Church I should submit to almost any body that would but do the work that is to be done Here is striving between the Episcopal Presbyterian and Independent who it is that shall Govern I would make no great stirr against any of them all that would but do it effectually Let it be done and it s not so much matter by whom it is done as it is to have it lie undone But I can never be for that party that neither did the work when
are none of the prohibited Additions but left to humane determination But such is the form in question God hath bid us Preach but not told us whether we shall study a form of express words alwayes before hand but left that to prudence more instances will be added under the next Argument and therefore I shall now forbear them Argum. 2. The Prudential Determination of such Modes and Circumstances of worship as God hath left to humane Determinanation is Lawfull A stinted form or Liturgy may be such a Determination therefore a stinted form or Liturgy may be or is in it self lawfull The Major is past doubt if the Hypothesis be first proved that some modes and circumstances of worship are left to humane Prudential Determination And that 's easily proved thus Those Modes or Circumstances of worship which are Necessary in Genere but left undetermined of God in specie are left by God to humane Prudential Determination else an Impossibility should be necessary But many such there are that are Necessary in Genere but left undetermined of God in specie therefore many such are left to humane Prudential Determination The Minor is sufficiently proved by instances God hath made it our Duty to Assemble for his Publick Worship But he hath not told us in what place nor in what seats each person shall sit Yet some place is necessary and therefore it is left to mans Determination Nor hath he tied us for weekly Lectures to any one day nor on the Lords day to begin at any one certain hour and yet some day and hour is necessary which therefore man must determine of So God hath commanded us to read the Scriptures But hath not told us whether they shall be printed or written whether we shall read with Spectacles or without what Chapter we shall read on such or such a day nor how much at a time Ministâ—rs must preach in season and out of season But whether they must stand or sit or what text they shall preach on or how long and whether in a prepared form of words or not whether they shall use notes or not or use the Bible or recite texts by memory c. none of these things are determined by God and therefore are left to humane prudential determination Abundance of such undetermined circumstances may be enumerated about Singing Praying Sacraments and all duties Now that the form of Liturgy is of this nature is manifest God hath bid us Pray but whether in fore-conceived words or not or whether in words of other mens first conceiving or our own or whether oft in the same words or various and wheâ—her with a Book or without these are no parts of Prayer at all but only such undetermined Circumstances or Modes as God hath left to our prudential Determination And the forementioned Instances about Reading Preaching Singing c. are as pertinent to our question as this of Prayer they being all parts of the Liturgy or publick service as well as this Argum. 3. There are many express Examples in Scripture for forms of Gods service therefore they are unquestionably lawful The Psalms of David were of common use in the Synagogues and Temple-worship and also in Private and indited to such ends Hezekiah commanded the Levites to sing Praise unto the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer 2 Chron. 29.30 The 92. Psalm is entitled A Psalm or song for the Sabbath day Psal. 102 is entitled A Prayer of the afflicted when he is overwhelmed and poureth out his complaint before the Lord. The rest were of ordinary publike use Psalms are Prayers and Praises to God for the most part and both as Prayers and Praises and as Psalms they are part of the Liturgy 1 Chron. 16.7 On that day David delivered first this Psalm to thank the Lord into the hands of Asaph and his brethren The song of Moses is delivered in form Exod. 15. And the Saints in the Revelations 15.3 are said to sing the song of Moses Numb 10.35 36. there is an oft-repeated form of Moses prayer There is a form for the people Deut. 21.7 8. Iudg. 5. there is Deborahs Song in form There is a form of Prayer Ioel 2.17 Abundance more may be mentioned but for tediousness I shall now only add 1. That the Lords 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 Iohn taught his Disciples to pray Luk. 11.1 So that we have in the Scripture the mention of many set forms of service to God which therefore we may well use Argum. 4. It is lawful to pray to God in the set words that we find in Scripture but so to pray in the set words of Scripture is a form therefore a form is Lawful I do not here plead example as in the last Argument but the Lawfulness of praying in Scripture words They that deny this must be so singular and unreasonable as that there is no need of my confutation for the manifesting of their error And that it is to us a set form if we take it out of Scripture as well as if we compose it or take it out of another Book is past all question A multitude of the prayers of holy men are left on record in the Scripture beside those that were the prescribed forms of those times He that will but turn to his Concordance to the word O Lord and then to all the cited Texts shall find many score if not hundred Texts that recite the prayers of the Saints which when we use we use a form which we there find written Argum. 5. Christ hath left us his Approbation of such forms therefore we may use them His Approbation is proved 1. By his owning and citing Davids Psalms Luk. 20.42 24.44 c. 2. By his using a Hymn with his Disciples at the Passover or Eucharist which we have great reason to think was a form that had been of use among the Jews But however if Christ had newly then composed it yet was it a form to his Disciples 3. By his thrice repeating the same words in his own prayer 4. By his teaching his Disciples a form as Iohn taught his 5. By his never expressing the least dislâ—ke of the old Jewish custom of using forms nor doth Scripture anywhere repeal it or forbid it 6. The Apostles command the use of Psalms and Hymns which cannot be ordinary in the Church without forms All this proveth Christs approbation Argum. 6. If it be lawful for the people to use a stinted form of words in publike prayer then is it in it self lawful for the Pastors but it is lawful for the people for
of his Government and Justice And the laying the hand upon the Book or Kissing it is but a Professing sign of my own Intentions such as my words themselves are and therefore is left to humane choice and a lawfull thing And I have met but with very few among all our Ceremonies that questioned this § 45. 5. And for Organs or other instruments of Musick in Gods worship they being a Help partly natural and partly artificial to the exhilarating of the spirits for the praise of God I know no argument to prove 〈◊〉 simply unlawfull but what would prove a cup of wine unlawful or the tune and meeter and melodie of singing unlawful But yet if any would abuse it by turning Gods worship into carnal Pomp and levity especially by such non-intelligible singing or bleating as some of our Choristers used the Common people would have very great reason to be weary of it aâ— accidentally evil § 46. 6. And as for Holy daies there is great difference between them Those are lyable to most question that are obtruded on the Church with the greatest confidence As for such daies as are appointed upon some emergent occasions that arose since Scripture was indited and are not common to all times and places of the Church there is no more question whether the Magistrate may command them or the Pastors agree upon them then whether a Lecture-day or fast-day or thansgiving-day may be commanded or agreed on some time for Gods worship besides the Lords Day must be appointed And God having not told us which the Magistrate may on fit occasions And this is no derogation from the sufficiency of Scripture For the occasion of the day was not exâ—stent when the Scripture was written such occasions are various according to the various state of the Church in several ages and Countries And therefore to keep an Anniversary day of Thanksgiving such as we keep on the fifth of November for our deliverance from the Papists powder plot is no more questionable then to keep a â—ecture Nor for my part do I make any scruple to Keep a Day in Remembrance of any eminent servant of Christ or Martyr to praise God for their doctrine or example and honour their Memorial But the hardest part of the Question is whether it be lawfull to keep daies as holy in celebrating the memorial of Christs Nativity Circumcision Fasting Transfiguration Ascention and such like And the great reasons of the doubt are 1. Because the occasions of these holy daies was existent in the Apostles daies and therefore if God would have had such daies observed he could as easily and fitly have done it by his Apostles in the Scripture as he did other the like thingâ— 2. And this is a business that if it were Necessary would be Equally necâ—ssary to all Ages and Parts of the Catholick Church And therefore it cannot be necessary but it must be the Matter of an universal Law And God hath made no such Law in Scripture And â—o Scripture sufficiency as the Catholick Rule of faith and universal Divine obediâ—nce is utterly overthrown which if we grant and turn Papists to day we shall have as strong temptations to make us turn Infidels to morrow so poor is their evidence for the supplemental Traditional Law of God 3. And God himself hath already appointed a day for the same purposes as these are pretended for For the Lords Day is to commemorate the Resurrection as the great Triumphant act of the Redeemer implying all the rest of his works so that though it be principally for the Resurrectiâ—n above any single work of Christ yet also for all the work of Redemption And the whole is on that day to be commemoraâ—ed with holy Joy and Praise Now when God himself hath set apart one day in every week to commemorate the whole work of Redemption it seems an accusing of his Institutions of insufficiency to come after him to mend them and say we must have an anniversary day for this or that part of the work 4. The fourth Commandment being one of the Decalogue seems to be of so high a nature that man is not to presume to make the like Else why may we not turn the ten commandments into twenty or a hundred But it seems a doing the same or of like nature to what God hath done in the fourth commandment if any will make a necessary staâ—ed holy day to the universal Church 5. And it seems also that these Holy daies excepting Easter and Whitsontide and other Lords daies are but of later iâ—troduction Many passages of Antiquity seem to intimate that Christmas Day it self was not of many hundred years after Christ. I remember not any before Gregory Nâ—zianzene that seem to speak of it The allegations out of spurious authors and that of later date such as the counterfeit Clement Dionysius Cyprian c. are brought to deceive and not to convince 6. Yea more the time was a matter of controversie among the Churches of the East and West for many â—undred years after Christ Epiphanius and the Churches of Iudaea and all those Eastern parts took the sixth of Ianuary to be the day see Casaubones Exercitat on this and Cloppenburgius more fully in Thâ—s Chrysostome saith it was but ten years before he wrote that Homilie that the Church at Constantinople was perswaded by them at Rome to change their account of the day And is it possible that when for about four hundred years or more the Churches were utterly disagreed of the day that it was then Commonly kept as an Holy day The keeping oâ— it would sure have kepâ— a common knowledge of the day Or at least the difference of observation would have raised conâ—ention as the difference about Easter did can any believe that the famous Council of Nice and the vigilant Emperour that were so exceeding impatient of a diversity of observations of Easter would have let a diverse observation of Christmas alone without once thinking or speaking of it when they were gathered about the like work if the Church had commonly observed it then as a Holy day Or was the Church of Iudaea where Christ arose in any likelyhood to have lost the true account of the day if it had been observed by Apostolical Tradition from the beginning 7. And it seems that God did purposely deny us the observation of this Day in that he hath certainly kept the time unknown to the world The confidence of some bewrayes but their ignorance Chronologers are never like to be agreed of the year much less of the moneth or day some think we are four years too late some two years c. Many think that Christ was born about October as Scaliger Broughton Beroaldus c. and many still hold to the old Eastern opinion for the Epiphany being the Nativity on Ian. 6. and others are for other times but none are certain of the time 8. Sure we are where there is no Law there is
And 2. because the way of those times did cause men to suspect that somewhat worse was intended to be brought in by such preparatives especially when the Ministers were cast out § 52. 8. But of all our Ceremonies there is none that I have more suspected to be simply unlawfull then the Cross in Baptism The rest as I have said I should have submitted to rather then hinder the Service or Peace of the Church had I been put to it For living in those daies in a Priviledged place I had my liberty in all save Daies and the Gesture But this I durst never meddle with And yet I know that many think it as reasonable and more venerable then any of the rest Yet dare I not peremptorily say that it is unlawfull nor will I condemn either Antients or Moderns that use it nor will I make any disturbance in the Church about it more then my own forbearance will make only my own practice I was forced to suspend and must do if it were again imposed on me till I were better satisfied The Reasons that most move me I shall give you in the end but some of them take at the present § 53. 1. This is not the meer circumstance of a Duty but a substantial humane ordinance of worship nor is it necessary in genere that man ordain any such symbolical Mystical signs for Gods worship And therefore it is a matter totally exempt from humane Power There must be some Time some place some gesture some vesture some utensils c. But you cannot say that There must be some teaching symbols or mystical signs stated by humane institution in Gods worship There is no command to man in Scripture de genere to institute any such thing And therefore in the case of Circumstantials I shall usually of which more anon obey the Magistrate even where he doth mistake because it is his own work though he misdoe it But here his action is like that of a judge in alieno foro in another court where he hath no power and therefore his judgement is null It is not an act of Authority to make and state new mystical signs that are such in their primary use in Gods worship For there is no Power but of God And God hath given no such power They that say he hath let them prove it if they can Natural and Artificial helps we disallow not But Instituted signs that have what they have by Institution and that as a solemn stated ordinance I know not that ever God required or accepted from the invention of man I doubt this will prove a meer usurpation and nullity and worse § 54. 2. Yea I suspect it will prove a humane Sacrament either fully a Sacrament or so neer a kin to Sacraments as that man hath nothing to do to institute it The common prayer saith that a Sacrament is an outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace given to us ordained by Christ himself as a means whereby we receive the same and a pledge to assure us thereof in the Catech. Let us try by this definition whether the Cross in Baptism as used in England be a Sacrament § 55. And 1. I may take it for granted that the want of the Name makes it not to be no Sacrament And 2. whereas in the definition it is said that it is ordained by Christ himself that belongs to a Divine Sacrament only and not to a humane Sacrament devised by usurpers Otherwise you must say that there is no such thing possible as a humane Sacrament imposed by usurpers on the Church what if all the essentials of a Sacrament such as are found in Baptism and the Lords supper be invented by man and forced on the Church is it therefore no Sacrament or only no Divine Sacrament However let us not differ about bare names and words It is the same thing that you call a Sacrament when God is the ordainer and sure it will not prove it lawfull because man is the ordainer that 's it that makes it unlawfull because he wants authority and acts as an usurper The Papists affirm that man hath not power to make new Sacraments no not the Pope himself Let not us go further § 56. And 1. the outward visible sign here is the Cross made in the fore-head 2. The inward and Spiritual grace is a holy Resolution to fight manfully under the banner of Christ and to persevere therein The Cross signifieth the Instrument of the sufferings of Christ aad that we do own this Crucified Saviour and are not ashamed of him and will manfully fight under him So that here is 1. a signification of Grace to be wrought on the Soul and given us by God 2. an engagement to perform the duties of the Covenant our selves On Gods part we are to receive by this sign both Qualitative or actual Grace and Relative Grace 1. The Cross is to teach our understandings and help our memories and quicken up our dull affections by minding us of a Crucified Christ and the benefits of his Cross. § 57. That it is ordained for this use appeareth from the words anon to be recited in the use of it and by those words prefixed before the the Common prayer-book of Ceremonies why some are abolished and some retained where they say that they be not darke and dumb Ceremonies but are so set forth that every man may understand what they do mean and to what use they do serve and that they are such as are apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God by some notable and special signification whereby he might be edified So that this and such other if there be more such are appointed by their signification to teach the Understanding and stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God Which are good works but to be done only by good means § 58. And that this is a way of working Grace in the same kind as Gods word and Sacraments do is undeniable For the word and Sacraments do work Grace but Morally by propounding the object and so objectively Teaching Remembring and Exciting and thus working on the Understanding Memory and Will and Affections However the spirit may work within its certain that the ordinances work no otherwise And not only Protestants are agreed on this but one would think that the Jesuits and all of their mind should be most of all for it For faculties they that will not confess any Physical determination of the but make all operations both of Word Sacraments and Spirit it self to be but suasory or Moral one would think should hold more tenaciously then others that Sacraments work Grace but Morally And if no Sacraments do more then objectively Teach and excite and the Cross is appointed to do as much in this then there is no difference between them to be found § 59. And then for Relative Grace it is plain that by