Sacrament we reject together with the consequentiall Idolatry of worshiping the bread Also the sacrilege of detaining the Cup of the Lord from the people we cannot allow as being contrary both to the primitive practise of the Church and to the express command of Christ in the Institution which was after also revealed to St. Paul by Christ himself Yet still we use and observe the Sacramentall Elements with the same high estimation and veneration which pious and purest antiquity ever did bear to that Sacred mysterie how ever we forbear to use some of their expressions whose Oratory occasioned in part the after error which mistook that as spoken of the Bread in its nature which magnified it only in the Sacramentall use and mysterie which is indeed very high retaining both the Elements words and holy form which Christ instituted and Christians alwayes used not so much disputing and determining the manner of Sacramentall union as endevouring after those graces which may make us worthy Communicants and reall partakers of the Body and Bâ—ood of Jesus Christ when we do receive that dreadfull yet most desirable seal of our Faith which consigns fuller to us and confirms in us those comforts which as sinners we want and may have most really and only from Christ not by eating his flesh in a bodily and gross way with our mouths but by receiving him by a true and lively faith into our souls as he is set forth to us in the Scriptures to be God incarnate the only Saviour of the world of whose merit death passion body and blood we are by the same faith though in less degrees of strength really partakers and nourished to eternall life before we receive him in that Sacrament of the Lords Supper yea though we never should have opportunity so to receive him which is but the same object received by the same faith to the same end though in a different manner and with different degrees So for Baptism Baptism we retain the substance of that holy Sacrament as we find it in the Scriptures rejecting only those superfluous dresses of Salt Spittle Oyl Insufflation and the like which cumber and deform that duty and Ordinance but they do not destroy it nor do ever any Protestants that are of any name or honour for Religion re-baptise those who were baptised in the Roman Church Concil Laodicenum omits only the Apocal. Apocrypha Books Hieron in Prolog Galaten Josephus l. 1. cont Appio we i. e. the Jews have not infinite and diffâ—rent Books but only 22. which are justly called Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mosis 5. Prophet 13. Psal 4. The rest from Artaxereâ— to these times have not the like credit because not a certain succession of Prophets The Apocryphall additions of the Romish Church to the Canon of the Scriptures we reject from being rules of faith however we approve their excellent morals And this we do upon the same grounds that the Jewish Church of old and the Primitive Christian for the most part ever did yet we retain those books as oracles of God which we have received with and from the Romish Church as of divine inspiration according to that testimony which both the Jewish and Christian Churches fidelity have given us of them The eâ—une dull and spiritless and formall devotions Prayers in a language not vulgar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nis de Placilla orat Funcb Delinquens soli Deo cognitus de reatis nudare apud homines verecunda conscientia non cogitur Ser. 34. Chrysol So Ber. s 42. Non expedit omnibus omnia inâ—â—tescere quae scimus de nobis in Cant. Liturgies and prayers used by the Romanists in any tongue unknown to the most and with so many vain repetitions we refuse yet still we retain the holy custom of Christians assembling in publike and worshipping God by publike Liturgies prayers and praises In somethings we hold nothing common with them either in opinion or practise as in the profitable fancy of purgatory the popular fashion of worshipping Images or adoring God in and by Images of oblations and prayers for the dead of praying to Saints and Angels of Auricular confession of dispensing by Indulgences the merits or supperogating righteousness of some Christians to others Since in these and the like matters which I only touch it being not my work now to handle those controversies which have been so fully discussed by many learned men of this Church of Engand whose works praise them We find no Scripture ground either for precept or permission So likewise in the ambitious claim of the Popes Infallible judgement His universall jurisdiction and Supreme Authority over all Churches and Councils We deny it as un usurpation gotten by indulgences of some times and Princes also by the flatteries frauds cruelties power and policies of severall Popes in their successions but not grounded on any Law or right either humane or divine neither by the Institution of God nor by the consent of all Churches Yet we deny not to the Pope such a primacy of place or priority of order and precedency as is reasonable and just either in the Roman Diocess as a Bishop or in a Councill as Bishop of that famous City In like manner for the sacred order and function of the Ministry we reject what ever imaginary power or will-worship is annexed to the office by humane superstition but we approve the antient form of Commission and Divine Authority derived by them to Presbyters and Bishops for Preaching the word celebrating the Sacraments reconciling penitents use of the Keys in doctrine or jurisdiction and Government In the Roman Pontificall The Bishop to be consecraâ—ed is charged after many Ceremonâ—es and pompous modes with this as his office and duty To judge to interpret to consecrate to confer holy orders to offer to Baptize aâ—d to confirm after that the Consecratorâ— laying the Bible on his shoulder and their hands on his head say these words Receive the holy Spirit i. e. the gifts and power to be a Bishop or chief Pastor to teach and rule in the Church So the Presbyter is by the Bishop ordeyning and otheâ—s with him imposing their hands on the head enjoyned To offer to bless to govern to Preach and to Baptise as becomes his place and Office Mar. 13.25 Also of the continued power of Ordination for a succession of Ministers in the Church In all these and the like what ever we find to be spurious issues of meer humane invention of Scripture-less opinions of groundless traditions obtruded as matters of Religion upon the consciences of Christians we use that just severity which we think the Apostles and Primitive fathers would have done to dash these Babylonish brats against the stones yet still we redeem and preserve alive the legitimate succession the Sons of Sion the Israel of God and justify the Children of true wisdom and of the Heavenly Jerusalem that is the divine and truly religious
yet punctually been fulfilled chiefly in the coming of the Messias the sum center and consummation of all prophecies and promises which setting forth the nature love life and death of Jesus Christ were all most exactly accomplished in him and by him on whom were those notable signatures and characters of the divine wisdom and power John 1.14 that his glory appeared to men as the glory of the onely begotten Son of God full of grace and truth The freeness and fulness of this Evangelical grace and truth by Jesus Christ the faithful Soul further discerns in the sacred emblems and seals of the holy Sacraments by which the divine goodness is represented and conveyed to us under the notions and efficacy of those things which are most necessary to our lives either for Being or Ornament to nourish us to cleanse us and to chear us Moreover the pious Soul sees God in the exemplary patience of the holy Martyrs in the miraculous constancy of the heroick Confessors in the humility of true Penitents in the purity and amendment of real Converts in the contentedness of true Believers in the mertifulness and charity of true Christians in the mortifyings and self-denyings as to this world of all true Saints which are followers of Christ and lastly in that holy ordination and succession of the Evangelical Ministry which as Christ instituted for the Churches good so he hath through all the vicissitudes of times amidst all oppositions preserved it to these days and by it the knowledge of God and the faith of Christ in the World The devout Soul still guided and going on by the light of the Ministry discerns something of God which is yet more retired secret and ineffable in the enlightnings softnings serenities enlargements calmings and comforts which are made by a divine power and supernatural influence upon it self where it beholds the brightest glimpses of divine glory through the face of Jesus Christ and by the efficacies of his most sweet and holy Spirit who is both God and man subject to our infirmities sensible of them and victorious over them Him the Soul answerably loves as man with a love of union and complacency as God with the love of admiration and extasie as both God and man with a love of adherence and satisfaction Heb. 7.25 As one that hath undertaken and is able to save it to the uttermost reconciling it with preparing it for and uniting it to the supreme Good God All these excellencies of Christ it sees diffused and derived to it by convenient means instituted and continued in the Church which as pipes laid into the Oceans unexhaustible fulness draw from it not to what measure it can give but to what we want and can receive At length this devout Soul by this daily confluence of many heavenly Meditations holy Motions and happy Experiments flowing like lesser rivolets from all parts of the Creation from Scripture and from its own with others experiences to this stream of the knowledge of God It findes it self by degrees advanced like Ezekiels Ezek. 47. waters from vulgar and shallow conceptions and answerable affections to mighty and profound contemplations which gathering strength by their daily increasings like an imperious and irresistible torrent carry away the devout Soul in its holy propensities and impetuous fervencies toward God Impatient of any stop or hinderance till at last it comes as all Rivers into the Ocean to be wholly resigned and happily resolved into its Alpha and Omega its principle and perfection its fountain and its fulness God So then when the Soul in ways of true Religion comes to know and love and serve God it is not conversant in vagrant fancies in uncertain speculations in in-significant notions but it so far really enjoys him as it loves him and loves him as it sees him and sees him as it seriously and deliberately observes him there being nothing of true Religion in volatile spirits and transient glances which it doth most evidently though not perfectly darkly yet truly in those glasses of the Creatures in the Scriptures 1 Cor. 13.12 and in its own Conscience in all ways of Goodness Truth and Holiness in lights Natural Moral and Evangelical by all which the Soul as the Eye sees somewhat of the divine glory of that invisible Sun in the descents scatterings and aptitudes of its beams whose infinite and intire brightness it cannot without injury to it self fully and immediately behold Exod. 33.20 So that herein we see true and solid Religion both by its light and holiness its truth and practise abundantly discovers the fancifulness levity pride vanity fondness and futility of all those giddy opinions and pretensions by which some men seek to amuse the world and to abuse honest hearts And also it shews its own real worth beauty dignity fulness usefulness wisdom and power by all which it fits and fills the Souls various faculties and vast capacity And in so doing it gives the devout Soul the greatest evidences and surest demonstrations of its own immortality Malunt impii extingui quà m ad supplicia reparari Mi. Fael Souls immortality discovered in true Religion beyond what any arguments drawn from ordinary reason and philosophy can do All which the Atheistical impudence of some men easily eâ—ude having no experimental knowledge of God and living without God in the world they are content to imagine an utter extinction of their souls Whereas the sanctified Soul concludes and glories in its immortality which it endeavors to improve to a blessed eternity when it considers seriously and alone whence can those high and holy enlargements desires and designs arise so far above and beyond all worldly objects and enjoyments whence that unsatisfiedness which carries the soul of man with ambitious impatiencies to this height of coveting after a blessed eternity Rom. 2.7 and the supreme Good God blessed for ever Whence this magnetick tendency and divine traction of love to God and to his infinite goodness but onely from the Father of our spirits and Fountain of our souls God And why all these meditations desires and motions planted in us by so good and wise a Creator if never to be enjoyed by us in those satisfactions which onely can flow from some divine and perfective object Sure it is all one to omnipotent goodness to fill us with the perfect good desired as to endue us with the desires of that good which are but our torments and imperfections if never to be in completion Our very desires of Heaven would else be our Hell and our longings after happiness our misery Nor is it agreeable to the methods of divine wisdom and goodness to plant frustaneous and vain desires or Tantalising tendencies in mans nature which he hath done in no other Creature who attain whatever they naturally covet or have innate propensities to The same divine power having prepared the object hath also implanted the desire This unproportionableness of the Creators dealing with
the Law Quicquid deficiunt aliae unica supplet charitatis gratio qua in aeternum non de ficiet Bern. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nis Prius chari quaÌ„ proximi Min. Fael 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just M. Tâ—ypl o. and all Churches was Scripture Truth the Cement Charity the Beauty Unity and the Strength orderly and social Government O thou fairest of ten thousands Christian Charity which were the wonder of the World in the Primitive times Which didst so spread thy wings over all the Earth like the Spirit of God on the face of the great deep the ocean of mankinde that every man might and every Christian did enjoy the vital heat and diviner influence of thy fosterings on their souls So far that what weaker Christians came short of in believing or failed in understanding or were defective in doing they made up in loving of Christ and for his sake one another Yea what the very enemies and persecutors of Christians wanted of that humanity which is as the morn and dawning of Christian Charity true Christians sought to relieve them by their prayers and to cover their horrid cruelties with their own kindness to them while killed by them and devotions for them while they were dying under them as the bâ—essed Martyr Stephen did and the Crown of Martyrs Christ Jesus They forgat not to pray for those that persecuted them which made Christians in their furthest dispersions greatest distances and grievousest sufferings still admired by all men though hated by them still endeared well acquainted and united in love to each other before they had seen or were personally known to each other O thou potent flame of celestial fire which the love of Christ Charitas est oleum unde clara virtutuÌ„ omnium lampas sustentatur Religio sine charitate est lampas sine oleo Bern. ep 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 28. So Just Martyr Ep. ad Diog. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 14. stronger than death had kindled in the souls of the first and best Christians No Seas no solitudes no poverty no pains no sufferings no torments no offences no injuries were able to damp or quench thee of old but still thou didst gloe to so fresh an heat that it warmed and melted the hardest Rocks of Heathen persecutors and tormentors Who before they believed the Gospel or love of God in Christ covered to be of that Christian society where they saw men love one another so dearly so purely so constantly as to be ready to die with and for each other Alas now every small drop of fancy every novelty of fashion in Religion every atome of Invention every dust of Opinion every mote of Ceremony every shadow of Reformation every difference of Practice damps rakes up buries puts out thy sacred sparks and embers in Christians hearts yea and kindles those unholy cruel and dreadful fires of contrariety jealousies scorn hatred enmity revenge impatience of union and zeal for separation to so great heights of all-devouring flames that nothing but the flesh of Christians will serve for fuel to maintain them and nothing but the blood of Believers to extinguish them So that no Christians now love further than they conspire and contend to destroy and conquer all but their own party and faction Thus the want of this holy grace of charity wastes us by the fires of unchristian fewds and even presages the approaching of those last dreadful conflagrations which shall consume the world and those eternal flames which shall revenge this sin of sins among Christians the want of charity which sins against the love of God the blood of Christ the Churches peace and our own souls How shall we uncharitable wretches not dread the coming of our Judge or how can we love his appearance in flaming fire who have thus singed and burnt that livery of Christs love wherewith we were clothed which was dipped and died in his own blood that so it might stanch the further effusions of blood among Christians and cover the stayns of that bloud which had been passionatly shed among them How can we hope our souls should be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus when we spend our dayes in damming and destroying each other and scarce suffer any to possess their souls in patience or in any degree of charity amidst the wasts and troubles of this conflicting and tottering Church Which like a great tree whose roots are loosned round and almost cut through stagger too and fro threatning to fall on every side being nothing now but weakness over-laden with weight and labouring with the burthen of it self is ready to destroy both it self and others by the suddenness and violence of its fall O you excellent Christians hasten as Lot should have done out of Sodom to withdraw your selves from the interests designs zeal devotion and Religion of this uncharitable and self destroying world wrap your selves in the mantle of charity peaceableness and patience hasten to hide your selves in the holes of this rock the love of Christ your Redeemer till he come who is at the dore and will not tarry Charitas sanctitatis Custos Chrysol ser 94. O pretious and inestimable grace of Charity the only Jewel of our lives the viaticum for our Deaths the greatest ornament of a Christian profession the sweetness of our bitterness the Antidote of our poysons the Cordiall in our infirmities the comforter under our dejections the supplyer of our defects the joy in our sorrows the witness of our sincerity the Crown of our graces the Seal of our hopes 1 Joh. 3.14 the stay and Pillar of our Souls amidst the tears tossings Dilectio suÌ„muÌ„ fidei sacramentum Christiani nomini thesaurus Tertul lib. de Patientia Mat. 5.44 Humanum est amicos Christianum inimicos diligere Hilar. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. de Christian dissid or 14. fears and conflicts of our mortall Pilgrimage In which we then only joy when we either love or are loved by others but then we have most cause of pious joy when being hated and cursed and persecuted by others we can yet love them and pray for them and bless them for Christs sake Thou that madest Martyrs and Confessors and all true Christians more than Conquerors of death and enemies men and Devils O how have we lost thee how have we banished thee how have we not injured thee yea how have we grieved thee more in this that we are loth to find thee But most in this that we seek thee among Heresies Schisms Apostacies seditions furies perjuries tyrannies superstitions sacrileges causeless disputes endless janglings yea cruell murthers of bodies and Anathemaes of souls But the highest indignity and greater than the greatest insolency offerd thee is That we boast and proclaim we have found thee in what we have most lost thee that we have raised thee by what we have ruined thee that we are most Churches when we are least Christians or most