holy-day in rejoycing at our welfare especially when we are converted from our sins Above all we desire to glorifie God himself who sanctified them on earth inabled them to do and suffer gloriously and hath now enroll'd them in them in the Calender and dipticks in Heaven He is wonderful in all his Saints We make no shrines for them or go a pilgrimage to visit their remains We fall not down to their representing pictures only we retain their hystorical memorial that we may shew our selves their genuine posterity as the Romans by beholding the Images of their Noble Ancestours were inflam'd to an imitation of their Heroical Acts. 'T is true the Apostle told the Colâ—ssians he was afraid of them in that they observed dayes but I take in the whole verse and there follows Mouthes and Yeares ' which makes it plain those dayes were Jewish feasts not only preceding but prefiguring Christ who was to come and who doubts but that such festivals were abolish'd in Gospel-times There is yet another Bank cast up against Holy-dayes They contradict the fourth Commandment which sayes Six dayes shalt thou labour Therefore none of those dayes are to be set apart for recreation or festivity This was prest upon me by a plain person under my own charge yet 't is easie to divine out of whose quiver this shaft was derived or on whose Anvil it was hammer'd Grotius unties this knot For the Imperative Mood sayes he in this place or which is all one among the Hebrews the Future Tense Sensum tantum sinendi habet doth only signifie permission Thou shalt that is thou may'st work six dayes I may add those words are to be understood Hypothetically that is thou shalt labour six dayes if the Church do not otherwise determine of any of those dayes for prayer praises or fasting As many universal propositions in Scripture are to be understood in a particular and limited sence so many things absolutely spoken are to be interpreted by way of supposition as is evident in Jonahs famous Sermon concerning the destruction of Nineveth such texts as seem pâ—remtory and to tye us up to what is injoyned in them must be understood in such a latitude that they do not contradict other Scritures As Take no care what you shall eat â—â—at 6.26 that is in comparison of the next World And those words Take no staves that is Mat. 10.1 to strike or fight withall otherwise they are contrary to Mark 6.8 Take nothing save a staffe that is to walk withal as Travellours 20. Another offence you take at the Calender is some lessons are taken out of the Apocripha 'T is true what Jerom sayes Librum Apocriphum Ecclesia non recepit Those Books are not looked upon as any part of Canonical Scripture Their Authority is not to be depended upon as to prove any Article of Faith or to be a rule of that doctrine which is necessary to salvation Yet who is ignorant except those who never read those ancient Books that therein are many excellent Lectures of morality much conducing to the regulation of mens manners though I will not commit Scripture with Scripture nor compare the Apocrypha with any part of the Old and New Testament yet I refer it to your own consideration whether many Chapters in the Apocrypha may not seem to convey more of edification to the generality of people than many abstruse geneological Chapters in the Old Testament I am sure our Saviour had an eye to this end when in his quotations out of the Old Testament he hath more regard to the reading of the Septuagint than of the Original Hebrew Because that was more common and better understood by his Auditours And whether it was for this reason that the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. 13.25 quotes that place out of Apocrypha 2 Maccab. 7.7 It deserves your second thoughts If you except against these Books as of humane authority only and therefore not to be read in the Congregation I demand of you whether the Scriptures as divided into Chapters and read in our translations as also the Psalms sung in our metre and contents of Chapters are not so neither is it any strange thing to read in the Church occasionally even Books of humane composure as well as Clements Epistles in the primitive times But if all this will not reconcile your minds to our Calendar prescribing some Chapters out of the Apocrypha what follows methinks should more than satisfie any rational men who are not pertinaciously resolv'd to lye under their own doubts and fears Rather than lose your communion and the execution of your Ministry upon this account the Church is so indulgent as in this matter almost to leave you to your own liberty I mean so far as to exchange one Chapter for another the Apocrypha for Canonical Sripture as appears by the Preface to the second part of the Book of Homilies O that there were such an heart in you as to be sutably dispos'd Ruendo in occursum by meeting so tender a Mother in complying with her innocent constitutions 30. Some of you for 't is rare to find many of you in the same mind have not much to say against the body of the Liturgy were it left to your free will to use or not to use it if Ministers that are heavy and unexperienc'd might have the assistance of these crutches but those that have more elevated parts and are men of activity might be left to their own Leggs If such as have but barren inventions and stammâ—ring expressions might help themselves out with such a form it would not be amiss But to confine such as have pregnant heads and voluble tongues within such bounds that they must alwayes move in the same circle This is little less than preventing their own growth and proficiency by being staked down always to their alphabet and having their wings pinion'd by this means the Talents of able men will be rapp'd up in a Napkin the Church deprived of their gifts and the Spirit quenched within them What must Sauls head and shoulders be cut off that he may be equal to his brethren When I read or hear such harrangs as these I am prone to suspect that these Seraphick Doctours notwithstanding all their sublime Notions and refin'd pretences are not well acquainted with the very essentials of prayer or at least have not those apprehensions of God who is the only object of prayer as they ought to have Alass Do we think to charm his ears 〈◊〉 upon pride at anâ—â—â—â— but specially in prayer Holder shâ—m on Ps 51. p. 310. with a multiplicity of pompous words or think we that our prayers are the more acceptable to him because they are presented to him every day in a new dress Qâ—â—s pulmo animae praelargus Anhelat because they are accoâ—ted in some odd tone and set off by some unusual looks God delights not in variety of phrases nor rejects our
before he stood in competition with Matthias and a good Casuist gives the reason Ordination is an external Rite Baldwin P. 1040. and no Sacrament therefore it may be itarated or repeated Were not many in these late times married by a Minister and afterwards by a Justice of peace Yet what a dust and a bustle do you make You pretend that you are willing to exercise the office of your mnistiry yet you are so stiff that you will not come in to have your patents sealed What though many of you scarce ever dipt your feet in fonte Caballino I mean were never graduated in the University by way of preparation to receive Orders in the Church yet I am assur'd ye would have found the Fathers of the Church so indulgent to you that notwithstanding this defect they would have flown upon your necks and rejoyc'd over you as their fellow-labourers in the Lords vineyard The door is not yet shut Why do you stand deliberating and demurring whether you should perform your duty by entring in Though 't is the eleventh hour of the day yet you may earn your penny if you will lay your shoulders to the work and with sincere and double diligence redeem the time you have lost But if you still resolve to go on whispering in the dark and to continue in your claudestine vaults do not study what answer you may give unto me but what return you will make to your master and mine at the great day of accounts how you will evade that woe which Saint Paul pronounced against himself had he not preached the Gospel which very words did so far prevail with an eminent person of your perswasion that as Saint Austin was converted from libertism by those words not in chambering and wantonness c. So was he reclaim'd from Non-conformity by Wo is me if I preach not the Gospel Mr Sprint Go ye and do likewise lay the same Text close to your hearts not as a charm but a cataplasma and if there be any life left it will setch you again if this phisick will not work upon your Tempers what think you of this expedient Were Saint Austin Saint Ambrose Calvin Perkins Nay were Christ and his Twelve Apostles here upon the Earth and met together in our English World would they think ye lurk in holes and seal up their mouths I dare say they would rather break forth into exultation and wonder saying How beautiful are thy Tents and thy Gates O England CHAP. VII A Transition or Introduction to the main Reasons which are pretended to obstruct Conformity VVE have hitherto been but in the Suburbs and grappled onely with your out-works The main Forts and Cittadels in which you incamp your selves against our batteries are yet untouc'd and unshaken All that hath been yet said is but pickeering some velitations with your forlorn hope like the Turkish Asapi which were to abate their enemies first furious onset and blunt their Swords to make way for the Janizaries The main battel is yet behind Just as Sophisters make a flourish with some inconsiderable and prelusory Sillogism before they pinch and wound with their keener Arguments Methinks I see your very Triarij divided into three Battalia's marching up yonder Hill like Hannibals Troops climing up the Alp's and in a Gigantick rage defying all the hosts of little David that shall stand in your way and oppose your thundering Legions Confident of victory and prodigal of death Your defensive Armour is not like that Ephes 6.14 15 16. But 't is the Covenant upon your breasts whilst you are clad with this you think your selves invulnerable and charm'd into a profound security Who can pierce this Coat of Male Your offensive Weapons are Swords and Javlings furbush'd with Lawfulness of War against the King and overturning the Government of the Church and State In the Rear are Volleys of Canonshot against the Book of Common Prayer This must be dragg'd along like a Royal Captive to adorn your Chariots and set off your Trophies These are your Cerberus-Heads these are your frightful Mormo's in these threefold cords twisted together lies your strength as Sampsons did in his hair What We give our Assent and Consent to the Common Prayer diselaim all War against the King Renounce the Covenant wee 'l never do it And indeed I tremble at this part of my perswasive since I am come to uncase the head and must be tampering with your right eyes lest both my Rhetorick and my skill should be defective in accomplishing my peaceable design and crowning my desires after unanimity Methinks I am essaying to carry a vast Mountain upon my back and to reconcile antipathies For though I had Logick enough to deal with your understandings and Engines to batter or undermine this Capitol yet you have so many reserves in those secret Corners and Caverns of your wills that I much doubt the force of my Oratory to inchant you out of them Yet as I have run with your footmen so I shall now endeavour to keep what pace I can with your Horsemen and like Horatius I will fiest separate these Ter gemini and then Auspice Christâ— plead with them apart CHAP. VIII Assent and Consent not unlawful to be given to the Common-Prayers and Rites of the Church of England I Have never been more transported with wondoer than when some of your classis those none of the lowest have maintained most dogmatically in conference with my self That neither the Greek nor Latin Churches had any forms of Prayer This made me almost to turn a Sceptical Academick and to doubt of all things of which I took my felf to have some knowledge I was even tempted to dis-beleive my own senses as if all things were but spectra phantasmes and empty apparitions which I beheld As if Geographers and Travelours had impos'd upon me when they told me of such a place as Constantinople For I thought I had as good evidâ—ne for these forms of Prayer which my eyes have looked upon and have been handed down to our age by the uncontroleable Tradition and unanimous consent of former generations as I could have of any objective verity below divine Revelations That cause must needs stand upon a tottering Basis that is usher'd in with so strange an Hypothesis Mat. 26.44 which amounts to no less than an incredible Paradxe As for the lawfulness of a form it is an indisputable indisputable warrant unto me that we have not only our Saviours practise who went the third time and prayed the same words but his command too When ye pray say And if you will have measure pressed down see the practise of Hezekiah who after he had compos'd an Ode of thansgiving for his recovery from sickness 〈◊〉 Iia 30. and thanksgiving you know is a part of prayer he vow'd to sing the same to the tuned instrument all the dayes of his life And the very same song which Moses began Exod. 15.1 Miriam repeated
words in the confession There is no health in us with the Letany as if it were a role of curses with kneeling at that short prayer at the end of the commandements Lord have mercy vpon us and incline our hearts to keep thy Law Alass Conscientis minus scrupulosa noscitur ex vitis these are poor vulgar cavils your scruples run higher concerning assent and consent And here you are very critical learned and curious in finding out gins to intangle and perplex your own consciences as if you had found out a spititual Microscope to discern what is invisible to our duller eyes Not only your wills say you must Consent to the use of it as good but your understanding is ingaged in the truth of the Liturgy And indeed I had thought these two acts had been so twisted together in rational men that ordinarily one doth suppose and infer the other When I consent with my will to use the prayers of the Church this ariseth from the conviction of my reason that I may and ought to do so And the act of my will would be brutish and irregular like that of Medea who was hurried only with the Ocstrum of her wilful passions if it were not steer'd by the dictate of my understanding this is to do it in judgment therefore you-do but put a fallacy upon your selves a bene conjunctis c. And whereas you say some of you that you could read our prayers if you might be abated your Assent n = * The Church in her best ages hath secur'd her vitals with an hedge of subscription In Austins time such as were admitted to the ministry were to renounce the errors of the Manichees Arrians Novatians and Pelagians to declare whether they allowed of first and second marriages the eating of flesh repentance after lapses Whether original concupiscence were a sin or whether such as were out of the Church might inherit eternal life in the Synode of Nice not only the Bishops but Constantine himself subscribed to the decrees of that Synode with his own hands So in Luthers time when the Church was pestered with Anabaptists Servetus Canipanus Stuckfoldius and other Furies it defended it self by prescribing bounds to those that were in the ministry which they should not pass See Melancton Tomo tertio Declarationum selectavum Cap de calumnijs Osiandri p. 699 700. And why should not the Church of England after these and other laudable examples fortifie and preserve the Capitol of her peace against turbulent invaders and pernicious incendiaries by limiting mens exorbitant excursions in joyning their consent to her wholsome discipline saying hitherto shall ye go and no further and Consent 't is all one to me as if if you should say you would use them in hypocrisie But if after all this strife what if these words Assent and Consent are but exegitical where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same thing is expressed in several terms as it is very usual in Scripture and import no more than that you shall constantly and unseignedly use this form in publick excluding all others Not as if our Assent to these definitions were in the same manner internal as that is which we give unto decrees as infallible but such as we give to those which are not contrary to the fundamentals of faith out of submission for peace sake Stilling fl desenee of the Arch-Bishop 82. l 509. as one well expresses it whose reading and judgment out-strips his years Whereas some of you have told me you would conform were you not injoyned to do do what is absolutely sinful These are but swelling words of vanity For I must tell you again prove what you say and you shall have more companions If any thing in the Common-prayer were contrary to any part of Gods word we have authority from our subscription to disclaim it It is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to the word of God or besides the same They are the very words of our twentieth Article of Religion so far is she from imposing any thing that is sinful so unlike is our Church to the Church of Rome if Cardinal Peroon hit her meaning right when he told King James pressing him that the cup in the Sacrament was according to Christs institution That t is lawful for the Church to dispense with Christs institutions or if this single Cardinal be no competent Interpreter of that Churches sense yet the counsel of Constance cannot be denied affirming that although Christ hath appointed the Sacrament to be received under both kinds yet Hoc non obstante we decree that the lay-people shall only receive under the species of bread I only add this that by the illustration of contraries ingrateful men might be brought to see their own happiness who breath in the air of the English Church I bless God for his mercy and conclude with those words of remarkable D. Downham Though envy cannot say but our Church holds all substantial points of Divinity and uses the ordinary means of salvation as other Churches testifie yet so wanton in Religion are men through spiritual pride that they care not for the sound food of their souls unless they may have their own sauce 10. Besides your giving Assent and Consent you stumble again very unluckily at the very threshold of the Liturgy The very Calendar you say is intollerable For therein is injoyned the observation of festival dayes by the institution of man I will not dispute with you about the change of the Sabbath day from the seventh to the first day of the week I had rather grant that to be by Apostolical and divine Authority than raise any dust about it Yet this hinders not but that it is in the power of the Church to set apart other dayes especially I am confirmed herein because I find dayes of thanksgiving and fasting set apart in the Scriptures by comission from men and I have seen the like practised by your selves I find the feast of Pu rim so lemnly observed in the Old Joh. 10.22 and the feast of the dedication owned by Christ himself in the New Testament Those Agapae or Love feasts the Apostle speaks of were taxed by him not simply as feasts but as abused by the Corinthians 'T is easie to mention the Homilies and Orations which the Ancients made upon the Nativity of Christ and other festivals That is a false plea against Saints dayes as if they were equalliz'd to the Lords own day For look what difference there is between the Lady and her Maid Christ and his servants the same we acknowledge twixt the Sabbath and other festivals We Honour the Saints and if we should not I find by experience we should give the Papists just offence yet we do not adore them We desire to imitate those vertues and graces that were in the Saints We rejoyce at their conquest over the World their triumph in Heaven because they keep an
bring in Pelagianism Arminianism Popery and I know not what Thus you are still afraid of shadows and by your active fancies frame such chymera's of danger which have no footing in nature That this assertion is no new invention or addition of our times Dr. Ward will inform you In his determinations p. 50. who affirms that it was anciently set down in the Rubrick before confirmation And he doth as soundly prove in the same place that Infants Baptized are without doubt justified Rom. 8 30 and if justified then they shall be also glorified for the Apostle will by no means sever these two and I hope you will not say this grave and eminent Divine was either Pelagian Arminian or Papist I hope you have the like charity for Bishop Davenant De Justitis Habituali Cap. 7. p. 233. yet he will tell you that the guilt of Original sin is presently taken away in Baptism though the contagion of it remains and dyes by parcels And if the guilt or damning power of sin be taken away sure such Infants as dye before they have contracted any new guilt shall not be damned and will it not necessarily follow then that they shall be saved Except you will maintain a third place A limbus Infantum betwixt both This Doctrine was part of Luthers Creed I beleive sayes he that Infants Baptized sâ— in prima aetate extincti sint Classe so cundd p. 1â—3 salvatos esse And long before him Saint Jerome tells us Vetus Adam in lavacro totus moritus novus cum Christo suscitatur in Baptismate Apollogia adversus Rufinum p. 212. Perit choicus nascitur super Coelestis Shall such as are Baptiz'd be buried and rise again with Christ and shall they not ascend into Heaven after him Col. 2.12 But pray tell me was there not a reason that this part of Catholick Doctrine should be reviv'd was not Baptism too much vilified in your dayes not only in the bold administration of it by those who were never lawfully ordained and appointed thereunto But also by a cursed indifferency whereby many persons began to be careless of water-Baptism as they call'd it as if at best it did but serve as the marking an Horse for a Common as if it were an empty sign without a seal Was it not time then to vindicate the power and efficacy of this blessed Sacrament from such incroachments and to rub off this moss which was growing over it As Saint Paul magnified his office most and gloried in his education sufferings visions when impostors and false Brethren went about to debase him The Primitive Christians put the cross into their Banners and made a shew of it openly when the Heathens did most of all reproach it As if by a kind of an Antiperistasis ' other mens scorn did but adde to their honourable esteem of it This I take to be the reason why the Ancients are so voluminous against Heathen-Worship and such Hereticks as deprav'd the Doctrine of the Trinity and say so little concerning our differences with the Papists or among our selves because that kind of Idolatry did most infest and assault the Church and these controversies were not yet brought forth by Satans Mid wifery in those dayes Object But if Infants dying after Baptism are saved then those that dye before Baptism are damned Sol. Here is a desperate sequele There 's no thing in our Articles of Religion Canons or Lyturgy to make it good no such durâ— patres Infantum in our Church What though Baptism be the ordinary means of salvation Yet who ever affirm'd that God is a Physical Agent or tyed him up to the use of means Such secrets we leave to the Lord who acts most freely and graciously We are so farre from passing sentence on poor Infants dying without Baptism that we are ready to say with Calvin If none can be saved but such as are Baptised Necesse erit Retrahi latronem de Regno Dei The Theif must be thrown out of Paradise Epist 244. CHAP. X. How Infants are Regenerated in Baptism HAd those two or three lines concerning the salvation of Infants been left out yet you would have been as angry so long as the word Regenerate is retained in this service allthough the words immediately following And grafted into the body of Christ's Church and again Incorporated into the boly Church may seem to such as are peaceable and willing to take things in the most candid sence to import no more but that by Baptism a dore is opened into the Church and we thereby inroll'd into the Album or blessed Register of Gods people accounted in the number of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are discipled for the Kingdom of Heaven and so distinguish'd from other Nations of the World or if you would but have the patience to take a distinction along with you it might prove a Salvo to this doubt Actual regeneration is when we come to yeares of understanding Dr. John Burges on Baptismal regeneration But 't is no absurdity to say that such as are Baptized are regenerated with Potential Habitual Passive or Initial Regeneration which takes away the guilt of Original sin These are Regenerate act u primo in that the seed of regenerating grace is sown and planted in their hearts but not in Actu secundo until they be in a condition of bringing forth the fruit thereof As Infants have a rational soul but exercise not any rational acts untill some yeares have pass'd over their heads Hence it is that Baptism is call'd the washing of Regeneration and is also compared to Noahs Ark because it saves us from the deluge of Gods wrath Tit. 35. 1 Pet. 3.21 by wafting and transplanting us into the Harbour of Christs death or as the Apostle speaks Baptizing us into one body This is the meaning of that Prophecy from the mouth of John the Baptist 1 Cor. 12.13 He shall Baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire Not as if the whole efficacy of Baptism did shew it self when 't is administred but some then Mat. 3.11 some afterwards In this sense I understand Basil the great The whole life of man is the time of Baptism that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P. 187. to shew forth its energetical vertue in The Ancients are full in asserting the power of Baptisme they call such as are Babtiz'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as were illummated from above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Infants are influenced with the grace of Baptism And Cyril of Jerusalem advertis'd such as came to be Baptized Justin Martyr p. 424. p. 16. that they did not come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to naked water but together with the water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Saint Jerome calls it Secundam Nativitatem Epist ad Gerontiaâ— p. 91. our second birth Therefore Constantine thought himself so happy when Baptized that when others wished him a longer