set up his Reasons against the Letter of it as I have observed him often to do To conclude That the Assemblies of Christians are places for secret Prayers of each apart when they do not interfere with any Publick Office as well as for Publick appears from the whole tenour of the Scripture and the constant practice of the Churches of God Antient and Reformed And that those secret Prayers ought to be offered with Adoration as well as the Publick is likewise manifest And therefore the Directory by forbidding Adoration at our first coming into Church has excluded it where it was most proper III. But Thirdly I take it for granted that when an Old Law or Rule is laid aside and a new substituted in the place of it all things contained in the Old repealed Law or Order are laid aside which are not contained and again injoyned in the New By which Rule the Directory doth plainly exclude all Bodily Worship For in the Preface to it we are told that They resolve to lay aside the former Liturgy with the many Rites and Ceremonies formerly used in the Worship of God and have agreed on this following Directory for all the parts of Publick Worship at Ordinary and Extraordinary Times Here then the Liturgy with all the Rites and Ceremonies used formerly in the Worship of God are laid aside not only our Praises Prayers c. are excluded but all the Rites and Ceremonies with which they were performed such as Kneeling Standing c. And instead of these we are oblig'd to no more than is ordered in the Directory Prayers Praises c. are there indeed Ordered and the way of performing them prescribed but not a word of Bodily Worship and therefore it is plainly excluded among the other Rites and Ceremonies that are laid aside IV. All that Mr. B. alledges to prove that this Bodily Adoration is required by the Directory is Rem p. 109. That it requires such as come into the Congregation after Publick Worship is begun Not to betake themselves to their private Devotions but Reverently to compose themselves to joyn with the Assembly in that Ordinance of God that is then in hand which can import no less than putting themselves into a bodily posture most suitable to that Ordinance But I answer This passage imports no such thing the Assembly has no where explained Reverence in this sence or given the least reason to believe that they thought one posture more suitable to one Ordinance than another except Sitting at the Lords Supper which posture they seem to approve thro' the whole Service for they require those that come in To take their Seats or Places which in common acceptation is to sit down and they never require them to rise It was therefore incumbent on Mr. B. to prove that by Joyning Reverently in Prayers or Thanksgiving for Example is meant Standing or Kneeling at them or else this is no Vindication of the Directory But Secondly We are not left to guess what is meant by Joyning Reverently in the Ordinance then in hand The Sentence immediately going before explains it where the Assembly tells how the people are to Joyn in Publick Worship even by forbearing to read any thing Abstaining from private Whisperings Conferences Salutations or doing Reverence to any Persons From all gazing sleeping and other indecent behaviour which may disturb the Minister or People This is the way they are to joyn in the Service of God But not one word of putting themselves into a Bodily Posture most suitable to the Ordinance that is in hand It is plain therefore as I said before that they excluded these when they laid aside the many Rites and Ceremonies used formerly in the Worship of God and never restored them V. Let me add further That Reverence and Worship are very different things We ought to behave our selves Reverently to all our Betters and at all times But Worship is peculiarly to our Superiours who have power over us And as the things are different so there are different outward Acts that express them and neither Your Directory Confession of Faith or Catechism or any other Authentick Rule that I know of amongst you require any one visible Act peculiar to Worship in Your Assemblies Nor do I see by what Authority your Ministers can exact it from their People where they pretend to Conform to the Directory nor can it be pretended that the Composers of it forgot this For it is manifest that they remembred it so far as to forbid all Adoration where it was most proper that is at our coming into the Assembly and never require nor allow it any where after VI. Thirdly What I have said concerning the sense of the Assembly that Composed your Directory is agreeable to the Notion Dr. Twiss their Chairman had of this Matter as appears from his Letter directed to Mr. Mede dated July 27. 1635. 'T is the 59 in the Collection In which he gives this censure of Bodily Worship The Lord requires the true Worshippers should Worship him in Spirit and Truth in distinction from Worshipping him either at Jerusalem or in the Mount the Woman spake of but as to the outward gestures I doubt I shall prove a Novice as long as I breath and we affect not to make Ostentation of our Devotion in the face of the World the rather because thereby we draw upon our selves the censure of Hypocrisy And sometimes if a Man lift up his eyes he is censured as a P. I confess there is no outward gesture of Devotion which may not be as handsomly performed by as carnal a heart as breaths And in his thirteenth Letter being the seventieth in the forementioned Collection he adds And as for outward Complements nothing more pleases a Natural Man in Religious Worship and he finds himself apt enough in it yea far more apt than he who knowing and considering that God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit are most carefull for the performance thereof Whereupon while their Minds are intent they find themselves not so free for outward Complements the care whereof is apt to cause avocation and disturbance in that unum necessarium Hence in the same Letter he blames himself for being prevailed with to rise up at the solemn Glory given to the Father Son and Holy Ghost and commends one that could never be perswaded to it Thus you see how the Prolocutor of the Assembly ridicules Outward Worship under the Names of Outward Postures and Complements You find himself likewise alledging in opposition to it our Saviours Command of Worshipping in Spirit Jo. 4. 24 And the very same Arguments that I mentioned and Answered in my Discourse Chap. 4. Sect. 3. Plainly intimating withal that it is a piece of Ostentation to use these Acts of Bodily Worship a sign of a carnal heart to be pleased with them and to neglect them a sign of an Heart intent on God's Spiritual Service Yet Mr. B.
it the people standing as appears by the fifth Verse Then the Levites Jeshua and Cadmiel Bani Hashabniah Sherebijah Hodijah Shebaniah said Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever And so they go on with the Confession and it is like the People joyned their Voices also for they used to joyn in the Blessings and Praises of God to do which the Levites now invite them And in the latter end of the Confession it is said V. 18. Because of all this We make a sure Covenant and Write it This Confession is then plainly the Preface to that Covenant and therefore these are no clear Instances as he alledges or Precedents for Extemporary Prayers in an Ordinary Setled Congregation much less is there any Command for such Whereas the Precedents for Forms of Prayer are express and the Command to use the Lord's Prayer in particular literal Luk. 11. 2. When you pray say Our Father to which Mr. B's Interpretation is a Contradiction When you pray you need not say Our Father c. either in Ordinary publick Addresses to God or Occasional V. Let me observe further that tho' Mr. B. gives me such hard words for not distinguishing between the Spirit of Prayer and the Grift Rem p. 60. yet he doth not bring one place of Scripture where they are distinguished It was directly my business to shew That there was no such Ordinary Gift without the help of Forms necessary or promised either to the Children of God or which is the same thing as Mr. B. now states it Rem p. 59. to all Ministers or private Christians In the diligent use of such helps as they are furnished with and frequent exercising themselves in this excellent Duty This is a point so material that we ought to have plain Scripture for it and a clear promise that God will give this Gift to us on all occasions ordinary and extraordinary without the help of Forms if we use the means endeavour it heartily and exercise our selves in it But Mr. B. has not produced one particular much less clear promise to this purpose only he argues the Conveniences of it from general Rules which signifie nothing when duly examined neither ought to be put in the balance with our Saviour's Command and Scripture Precedents And therefore I had good reason to suppose that Mr. B. set up his Rule of Human Prudence to the exclusion of any particular Rule or Precedent in Scripture in these Duties he mentioned Nay I had good Warrant to believe that he allows a dispensing Power even against express Scripture-Rules and Precedents when his Human Prudence judges them contrary to Edification He asserts this positively in the matter of Ordination and I had reason to believe the same as to matter of Worship Saith he Reflect p. 37. Positive Precepts must always yield to Moral and Matters of meer Order to the end of the Duty ordered and the former must never be pleaded against the latter This I take to be a dangerous Position for it is in effect to say that all the particular Rules in Scripture about the Worship of God and Discipline of his Church cease to be Obligatory on any party of Men that think them contrary to Edification Whereas we ought to suppose that they never are contrary to it and therefore are never to be laid aside and that tho' they seem to us to be contrary yet they are not but are some way misapplied which is to be amended without Dispensing with them Thus I may be assured that praying to God by a Form is very edifying because I find Precedents for doing so in Scripture and I ought to look on it as a very corrupt Human Prudence that suggests the contrary And herein as I take it lies the principal difference between Mr. B. and Me concerning this Rule I argue that Forms of Prayer singing Prose-Psalms c. are edifying because I find them used in Scripture he argues That they ought not to be generally used because his Human Prudence and Observation finds them contrary to Edification I must leave you to judge which of us pay the greatest deference to the holy Scripture or have the greatest opinion of our own Prudence VI. To conclude this Head I will deal easily with Mr. B. and allow him the Interpretation of his Rule which he now gives and tho' he says That only the general Rules must be regarded yet I will allow he did not intend to exclude particular Directions and I will take the Rule as Mr. Baxter has it from whence I suppose Mr. B. took it in these words Conformity stated p. 13. We never held that the Scripture is a particular Rule commanding every Accident and Circumstance about God's Worship but only a general Rule requiring all to be done in Love and Peace and to Edification and decently c. in those Circumstances which must be some way determined and God hath left to variable Human Determinations such as are Time Place Utensils Translations Sections Metres Tunes Methods and Words in Preaching and Prayer Habits Gestures and many such-like This Rule is laid down in the Name of all your party and I hope you will stand by it for it not only justifies our Holy-days Communion-Table Rails Habits Desks Pulpit and Fonts as I shewed in my Admonitton but also our Office for the Dead for we have a general Rule in Scripture to pray always more especially when we meet with any loss or cause of sorrow And I suppose our Human Prudence doth determine that the death of a Friend is a very sensible loss that the time of his burial is a very proper time for Prayer and his Grave where we take our last farewell of him is a very proper place to express our hope of his Resurrection and to thank God for that hope which is the sum of that Office of our Church The same may be said for the Thanksgiving of Women after Child-birth and indeed for every other Office appointed by our Church and every practice even of our reading the Apocrypha and Standing at the Gospel the one being a gesture within the very Letter of the Rule and as the Prudence of the Church has judged for many Ages very edifying and the other full as warrantable as your Ministers Reading the Covenant and Acknowledgment of Sins which they were ordered to do two Lord's days Octob. 6. 1648. Nay it justifies that which we are no ways obliged to justifie tho' Mr. B. often objects it to us that is Bowing towards the East or Altar it being no Rule of our Church or universal practice For God has in general commanded us to worship him with our Bodies and it is very convenient decent and solemn that the whole Congregation should bow one way without meeting each others Faces If therefore Human Prudence determine that this gesture shall be used at certain times and that it shall be towards the East or Communion-Table it only does what the Rule
such Books as I thought most fit and necessary for him When the time drew near that I intended to have an Ordination he Petitioned to be admitted to the Publick Examination which was to precede it I read the petition written in his own Hand but the Latin so false and improper that it appeared by it he was not Master of the Grammar much less of the Latin Tongue I consulted some of the Clergy about him and came to a resolution not to admit him but to do it in the softest way I cou'd I discours'd him again shewed him his Defects and that it wou'd Expose him to be Examined publickly especially at the same time when others were to be Examined of Parts and Learning and therefore advised him to delay till some other time and till he cou'd get a Certificate from the Colledge without which I could not regularly Ordain him He seemed Discontented and the next thing I heard was that the Sunday after he went to the Meeting and declared against the Church This is the Truth of the matter and I must declare that I never admitted any to any Order Benefice or Curacy in this Diocess who were not by many Degrees his Superiors in Learning Parts and Steadiness of Thoughts and as to those that were Preferred in the Diocess before my coming to it I suppose that Mr. Sq. himself will have more Modesty than to compare himself with them I must add that he is not the only person has served me at this rate II. And from this you may observe First That no people are more impatient of Discipline than such as would perswade the World that they are the Great Patrons of it and most Zealous for it This Gentleman that is now joyned with you for purer Ordinances and Discipline was so disgusted by the strictness of ours that he left our Church Secondly You may observe that some people are resolved to be Ministers at any rate and when those that have the Keys of the Church will not admit them they leap over the Wall Thirdly You see by this how much Men advance their Reputation and Interest by being of a Party Here is a Gentleman that had so little Reputation amongst us for learning and sufficiency that he was not thought fit to be a Deacon by two Bishops and several Clergy Men And yet by joyning with you most of your Party that knew him in Dublin where they are best able to judge prefer him to many of the Clergy of this Diocess So unjust and partial are Men in their Judgments where their Party is concerned and thus it has been since Divisions were first in the Church St. Paul hints at it 2 Cor. 10. 12. And Tertullian speaks to it in point above 1400 Years ago in his Book De Prescriptionibus where he observes of those that divided from the Church that they Ordained Apost at as nostros ut gloria eos obligent quia veritate non possunt Nusâ— quam facilius proficitur quam in Castris Rebellium 'T were too severe to Translate these words but the meaning is that so a Man left the Church he might have Reputation and Orders easily amongst the divided Parties Fourthly You may observe that it is not always Conviction of Conscience brings Men to your Party Here in the beginning of the week a Gentleman gave in a Petition in his own hand writing and was earnest to be admitted into Orders and being put off next Sunday he declares himself of Your Party against the Church He must have great Charity that will suppose this to proceed from meer Conviction of Conscience Fifthly You may observe how unfit Judges the People are of the Ability and Qualifications of Men for the Ministery and how easy it is to deceive and impose on them in which I have had Experience in three or four other Cases Sixthly This shews the misery and mischief of Parties in the Church and how impracticable they render Discipline I have taken what care I cou'd to obviate this and have refus'd to admit some that were driven out of Scotland by the fury of the Rabble till they brought a Certificate from their Adversaries of their Lives and Conversations and that they had no other Exception against them except their not complying with the Church Government there Established Whether your Party take the same Measures they know best that admitted Mr. Sq. to Preach Sect. XVI Personal Vindication I. THere is one thing further that I am obliged to take Notice of rather indeed to comply with the suggestions of my Friends than that I judge it necessary or so much as convenient It concerns my own Person and not the Cause and I reckon where ever a man that pretends to answer a Book meddles with the Person or Personal Affairs of his Adversary it is a plain Confession that he has the worst of the Argument and that he is forced to make up with Slight and Art what is wanting in point of Reason Yet this Mr. B. has done in several places of his Remarks and has employ'd most of those Arts that popular Lawyers make use of to carry their Clients Cause at the Barr but are very improper to be used by the Advocates of Truth who ought to have no view but the Glory of God the Advancement of his true Worship and the Peace and Unity of his Church I am conscious to my self that I had no other aim in the writing my Book and I hope I may say that the deep concern I had for the due Observation of the Worship of God and the danger of such as neglect it did influence every Sentence in it I had before me the great Obligation that lay on me as a Pastour and Father in the Church even the great and solemn Oath of God made in my Ordination I remembred that the truest Evidences of the presence of the Spirit of Christ and hardest to be counterfeited are Gentleness Goodness and Meekness and I called to mind that a tender Father wou'd not reprove his erring Children nor a Man treat his Friend with Bitterness Pride Scoffing or Lightness That a Pastour has no less reason for bowels of compassion towards his straying Sheep than a Father towards his Children That a Christian was as deeply obliged to Meekness towards his erring Brother as any Man towards his dearest Friend And tho' that Brother be mistaken in his Judgment and alienated in his Affections to the highest degree even to Railing and Madness yet the injured person ought still to treat him with the same gentleness and tenderness and look on all those Extravagancies as the effects of a Spiritual Feaver which to a Mind truly affected with the love of Christ are as little provoking as the ravings occasioned by a natural one and much more to be pitied II. These were the Considerations I had before me and the Measures I took in writing my Book and I hope in God they shall always remain with me and