Oracles are committed to it which may moderate and conclude those endless wrangles and disputes which the capricious humours the differing sentiments and various interests of men dispose them to That God hath discharged his Gospel-worship from the burdensome Law of beggarly Ceremonies is most evidently asserted in Scripture and thankfully accepted by all his true Worshippers But therefore to abandon all Ceremonies would be at once to explode the Christian Religion and banish the worship of God out of the world that is all external worship which cannot possibly exist in actu exercito without the use of some such things as we have no better name for than Ceremonies But of Ceremonies there are divers kinds some of a Civil others of a Religious use with the first we have not to do at present The Religious Ceremonies are either of Humane or Divine Institution and Original The Humane are either Decretal or Traditional the Decretal are such as on some pretence or other have receiv'd the stamp of humane Authority or Injunction of which there are more than a good many and in the rigid Imposition of which Church-tyranny doth mainly consist The Traditional are such as steal in as other fashions do without the midwifry of any Authority Humane or Divine and grow up with time into a custom or use and are various according to the variety of Times and Places and ought to be called in question by those that desire to preserve the Worship of God in its due chastity and integrity and that dare not miscere sacra prophanis Those of Divine Institution are either Judaical or Evangelical The Judaical are such as were appointed of God and calculated for the Church and Polity of the Jews and all dyed with it at the coming of the Gospel-ministration The Evangelical Ceremonies are either natural or instituted The natural either common or proper The common natural ceremonies of Religion are such as are equally used in Civil and in Religious matters as bowing the knee uncovering the head and some other things which respect that civil order reverence and decency which ought to be observed in the external and especially in the publick worship of God The proper are such as are not used but in the matters of Religion The Instituted ceremonies of the Gospel strictly and properly taken in contradistinction to natural and which are designed to be of perpetual use are only the two Sacraments unless perhaps we may add the Imposition of hands in Ordination Tho' the Sacraments indeed are Ceremonies and somewhat more viz. Seals of the New Covenant yet in a large sense even natural ceremonies and matters of real decency and order that is such things as are ex naturâ rei pro hic nunc necessary hereunto and acceptable in the Worship of God are instituted too i. e. commanded either implicitely or explicitely for nothing offered by man especially in Worship which is not in obedience to God by virtue of some command is honourable or acceptable to God but what God hath commanded he hath thereby instituted So then the matter in hand will fall under the notion of a common natural ceremony of Religion pertaining to the Decency or Reverence of Gods Worship in the publick Assemblies of his Saints And what authority it brings from the Supreme Lord and Lawgiver we shall next enquire CAP. I. Of Gospel-Worship DIvine Worship says Mr. W. Bradshaw is internal only or external also Internal Worship is meerly spiritual and performed only within the temple of mans heart of which none are witnesses but God and a mans own conscience All the inward motions of the heart directed unto God are parts of this Worship as Faith Hope Confidence Love Fear and Joy in God c. which are all of them divers acts and parts of inward worship in every one of which God is honoured All which spring from the apprehension of our own wants and Gods infinite exeellency and goodness towards us External Worship is an expressing and setting forth of the internal by outward signs and rites by which as by outward bodily shadows and colours the spiritual inward worship of God is made visible and sensible to others The Internal Worship may be considered either as Habitual or Actual As Habitual and so we are bound to worship God at all times the obligation holding both semper ad semper As Actual and so we are bound to worship him on all occasions the circumstances whereof make it a duty so to do The External Worship is either publick domestick or secret in all which he ought to be worshipped in spirit and in truth as becomes his super-excellent Greatness and Infinite Holiness As God is the Origin and Fountain so he ought to be the Center of all Honour and Reverence and the immediate and only object of all Religious worship and adoration And as Honour and Reverence is due to him at all times so especially in his Worship I will be sanctified in all that come nigh me Lev. 10.3 And the more publick the Worship is the more strictly all kinds of Religious reverence are to be observed And before all the people I will be glorified Ibid. But the more private the duties of Worship are the greater latitude is indulged in the external part or signs of reverence and honour For tho' these outward expressions compositions or gestures of the body be the genuine effects of that inward reverence of the mind and so due to the divine Majesty yet it is with special reference unto men that others may see how God is and ought to be feared of his Saints So that such things which are necessary in publick worship are not alway so necessary in private or secret and that which a person finds to be most advantageous to the right performance of his worship in secret may not be so expedient in publick because there is not the like reason in both Though Gospel-worship be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spiritual Worship in opposition to the irrational Idolatries of the Gentiles and the Corporeal Sacrifices and Services of the Jews yet it is a worship of the Body as well as of the Soul And though bodily exercises profiteth little without true Godliness yet while we sojourn in the body God expects that the body as well as soul and spirit be offered up to him and bear its part in his Worship But of this more hereafter In Gods Worship there must be nothing tender'd up to God but what we have expresly or consequentally warrant for from the Word of God therefore to worship him in body or mind any otherwise than he hath required is to adulterate or prophane his Worship and to offer strange fire and exposes the Worshippers to his just indignation In the matters of Worship the jealous God stands upon little things that is what we perhaps call little as modes and gestures Lev. 10.2 Cap. 9.27 and other circumstances he calls great Nadab and Abihu erred only
the Man but not to this end or for this use Not that this covering is enough for the Woman though it had been enough to answer its end as a symbole of her subjection to the Man had she abode in innocency but this shews that her head ought to be covered proportionably as all her other parts are and the head especially because uature it self intimates it and thereby teaches it But now to reduce this to the Argument in the former verse where he was reasoning ab indecoro Judge in your selves is it comely The assumption he proves in these two verses by the indications of Nature q. d. the very works of God in nature are sufficient to convinceus that the Woman ought to be covered and then by the same reason and rule of opposition that the Man ought to be uncovered at least in the solemn publick worship of God Hence I infer Inf. 1. That Christians ought not to disregard the moral dictates and indications of nature Inf. 2. That it is a shameful unnatural thing for men to pride themselves or to glory in the curiosities of hair after the manner of Women Inf. 3. That length of hair is given of God unto the Woman not only for her covering but for her ornament though not for pride or levity Inf. 4. That for men and Women mutually to interchange modes and fashions in wearing their hair is unnatural and abominable Ver. 16. But if any man seem to be contentious we have no such custom neither the Churches of God We are now arrived to the conclusion of this Dissertation of the Apostle where for a close we meet with three well accoutr'd Arguments more in a breast But if any man seem to be contentious Thus he speaks by way of Anticipation if any one hath a mind to quarrel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to maintain his contrary opinion not for truths sake but for satisfying of his ill humour that he may seem to prevail by his Sophisms and Fallacies and will not acquiesce in these our Arguments and Determinations as every one will do that is not of a contentious schismatical Spirit Here we have one Argument more insinuated which may be formed thus To dispute against a clear truth or plain duty is the property of a contentious wrangling person but to dispute against what hath been here asserted and prov'd is to dispute against a clear truth and a plain duty Erg. We have no such Custom What Custom Some will tell you No custom to be contentious or to insist peremptorily or stifly upon frivolous matters I believe it this were indeed a great shame for an Apostle a Planter and Pillar of the Churches to be once guilty of it much more to make a Custom or Trade of it But what is this to his purpose Can we imagine that he would tell them thus Well! notwithstanding all the Medimns I have used and all the words I have wasted to prove my Argument 't is but a frivolus thing if any one seems he hath any thing to object I have done 't is a business that is not worth the arguing any one may do as he seems best whatever I have said to the contrary Certainly if this had been his mind he had done much better both for the Churches peace and his own credit to have took his pen and scratcht it all out again and not to have troubled the sacred Canon with so trifling a matter But when he says we have no such custome I think he tells them quite another thing He here informs them what the Custom and Practice of the Apostles was in the case whereof he had been speaking and assures them that he had herein laid no other burden upon them than he himself and all the rest of his Brethren the Apostles had always born and took to be their duty so that here in the close of his discourse he seems to look back on the first verse where he began it and so to knit up both ends together Be ye followers of me And then the second Argument you have thus It is the duty of all Christians to follow the examples and practice of the Apostles in all things that are according to the wil of God but this was the practice of the Apostles and according to the will of God as was proved before Erg. Neither the Churches of God That is the primitive Gospel-Churches planted by the Apostles where we have the third Argument thus That which was the general practice of the primitive Churches of Christ by Apostolical institution ought to be the practice of all succeeding Churches But this was the general practice of the primitive Churches and that by Apostolical institution Erg. And now you have heard the Apostles sense of the Question and our sense of the Apostle whence I conclude at once That for a Man to have his head covered or a Woman to have her head uncovered in the time and place of Gods solemn publick Worship is a disorderly irreverent uncomely unnatural shameful schismatical antiapostolical and unchristian-like practice And thus much by way of Exposition wherein I hope I have not run beyond my Text. CHAP. III. Answers a few Objections and Scruples upon the case NOtwithstanding what hath been hitherto said perhaps some may seem to be contentious in our times as well as in the Apostles which I shall answer as I am able And truly I wish I had now before me all that the Art of Contention could produce against our Thesis But before we meddle with the Objections we will consider how far all or most are agreed upon the matter 1. Then I suppose that all with whom I have to do are agreed That there is a reverence of the body as well as of the mind and soul due to the Worship of God on the account of that God whom we worship and adore The body is the Lords as well as the Spirit and by both he ought to be Worshipped with those explicite signs and demonstrations of Reverence and Veneration which are proper to both For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your Spirit which are Gods 1 Cor. 6.20 O come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker Psal 95.6 The humblest and most abject postures and self-abasing prostrations of body as well as of soul a covering of the lip a laying the mouth in the dust are all too little to express the distance that is between the holy God and sinful Man Besides where there is the truth of that inward fear and Reverence that is due to God in the heart it will naturally and necessarily seek to express its self externally in such a way and by such signs as are apt and proper to shadow it forth by True Devotion is like fire which cannot be shut up but will discover it self but where there is no symptom of life in the exterior parts we rationally conclude that the
aptly expressive of it is both profitable and acceptable The case is the same as that of St. James between Faith and Works either being alone is dead and unprofitable that is where both are requir'd but in conjunction they are amiable and absolutely necessary to the right performance of the duty 3. If it be unnecessary because a bodily exercise then all bodily exercise must be condemn'd by the same Law as unnecessary in the Worship of God The giving of Alms the visiting the Sick the going to hear the using of the voice in Prayer Preaching Singing Hearing Reading Conference and the like or the bowing the knee before God and many other things are all but bodily exercises and if therefore unnecessary this will at once throw all the visible worship of a Deity out of the world and turn it into meer Atheism But 4. God hath required us to glorifie him with our bodies as well as with our Spirits 1 Cor. 6.20 and on this account because both are Gods both are his and by both he will be worshipped Nay our bodies as well as our souls are the members of Christ ver 15. and the Temple of the Holy Ghost ver 19. therefore it were very impious to deny him the Worship of both But this is more than enough for so triffing an Objection Ob. 4. Others there be that will allow it to be necessary by the Rules of Decency and Reverence to be uncovered in prayer and in singing and perhaps in reading of the Scriptures too but not in preaching And their reason is because in preaching we have not the pure word of God but mixt with mens own private opinions and improvements Ans 1. The truth is I cannot but blush to look upon the wickedness of this Argument and the more that any men of sobriety and learning should own it It 's a sign the cause is bad when such poor shifts are made to uphold it But 2. As for the venting of mens private opinions in their preaching I answer thus 1. So they may and often do in their praying too and yet it seems the Argument will not be allowed in that Ordinance though the reason of the Argument be the same 2. Either those private opinions which they vent are true or false if they are true then are they one where or other expresly or consequentially contain'd in the Scriptures and so are a part of the sense of Scripture and the very mind and will of God though it may be impertinently applied If they be false they ought to be reproved and disciplin'd according as such errors do deserve But it is an hard case if there be no other way to correct anothers impertinencies or extravagancies but by our own irreverence and indecencies 3. I would know what other reason can be given why men should be uncovered in time of praying or singing c. but this because it is the Ordinance of God whose Worship we are bound to reverence both with body and soul If this be not the reason I would fain learn what it is And if so I would as willingly understand by what Rule in Divinity it is found that preaching is not altogether as much Gods Ordinance as praying or singing or any other For my own part I ever took Preaching to be the great Ordinance of the Gospel for I never heard that Christ sent forth his Apostles to sing or to pray though these indeed be included as parts of his Worship but always sent expresly to preach the Denomination of their office being taken a Majori Now if one Ordinance be to be reverenced because it is sacredly instituted shall onother which is more expresly instituted be prophaned as unholy In prayer and singing we speak to God or of God in Preaching God speaks to us is there not as great a Reverence due when God speaks to us as when we speak to him Shall I speak to my Prince uncovered but as soon as my tale is out clap on my Hat while he speaks to me as if I owed the honour to my own words not to his Methinks the bare mention of such unavoidable absurdities should be enough to make the frivilous Objectors blush 4. It seems very strange and audacious that Preaching should be excluded while the Apostle himself hath expresly joyn'd it with Praying I wonder out of what arbitrary Court this Bill of divorce first issued for the putting asunder what God had joyned together or how it came to pass that prophesying hath so forfeited its Honour What hath Preaching done that the Greeks scorn it as foolishness and babling The Jews look on it as a stumbling-block and Christians themselves so degrade it and rob it of its due Reverence and respect what hath preaching done to deserve this Why it hath beaten down the strong holds of the Devil in the World and erected the Kingdom and Scepter of the Lord Jesus Christ and for this will the Devil be reveng'd on it as he is able because he cannot banish it out of the World he will pour what contempt he can upon it But it is sad that such as call themselves Professors should be his Instruments in so cursed a Design Ob. 5. Others it seems argue after this fashion This uncovering of the head in Divine Worship is a thing that hath been so abus'd and rested in by a company of dead Formalists and so zealously affected by such as dote on foolish and superstitious Ceremonies that to shew our dislike of their ways we think it expedient to act contrary to them in this thing also and not to symbolize with their Superstitions Ans Had I not heard it from some that pretended to sobriety I could not have expected such an Objection from any but a mad-man For 1. By this Rule we must cast off every thing that belongs to the external Worship of God yea and the Worship it self too because it hath been abused by such as are formal and superstitious To argue the unlawfulness or inexpediency of a thing from the abuse of it would make mad work in the world for what good thing is there that hath not been by some or other abused 2. As for such things as are of our own device and appointment in the Worship of God for the more orderly and profitable performance of it if any thing of that nature in length of time come to be generally abused and lose their first end and use and cannot be restored to their true intention and service it is expedient to lay them aside and to supply the defect by that which is more proper to reach the good end and by this measure all humane institutions ought to be dealt with But the matter in question is no Humane but a Divine institution and that express therefore he that will cut this off from the publick Worship of God had need first to cut it out of his Bible 3. To rest in the bare external and outward Ceremonies of Worship is gross
formality and for a man to pray or prophecy with his head covered is gross irreverence but what is there no way to avoid one sin but by another must I needs run my self into the guilt of irreverence to escape the contagion of another's formality This is the Devils work to hurry men from one extream to another and I doubt it proceeded from a secret Spirit of Faction opposition and discontent or Church-Atheism and not honest Zeal What though some ceremonious Bigots among many other things needless and vain require also what God himself by his Apostles hath required shall I rebel against God to shew my dislike of superstitious men God forbid I will rather bless God for any thing that is right in those that in other things I dissent from Ob. 6. But there are yet others that think they have more to say than all this Their bodily infirmities are such as that they cannot bear it to be so long uncovered without hazard of their health But God will have mercy and not sacrifice Ans 1. It is true God will have mercy and not Sacrifice where he cannot have both Mercy rather than Sacrifice and if the case be so that the health of the body cannot be preserved without the covering of the head I know no body that questions the lawfulness of covering it But 2. There is both a Natural and Artificial covering which consist with the Rules of Reverence and Decency The natural covering is the hair Now though the Apostle requires the uncovering of the head in Divine Worship yet he allows the hair to be worn though not after the manner of Women as was shewed before Therefore he doth not absolutely forbid all covering but only that which is inconsistent with that Reverence which we owe to him whom we pretend to honour if then the infirmities of Nature be such as that this natural covering be not sufficient to answer its end God allows us to supply the defect by art with succedaneous coverings as Wigs or Caps which may be in the stead of the natural so that the phantastical excesses of Pride or Vanity be avoided And that to have the head thus covered in case of Infirmity is not inconsistent with Reverence no one that is well in his wits can doubt for it would seem an odd kind of Ceremony between man and man if they should pull off their Hats and Wiggs or Caps and all in complement to one another this would be a quaint kind of Caress Now that which would be thought superfluous indecent or ridiculous in humane Conversation is no less in the Worship of God There are ways enough to avoid irreverence in Gods Worship without violating the sixth Commendment or any other Moral Precept Ob. 7. Others think to say something in this if this had been such a Duty wherefore have our Teachers been so long silent Why had we not heard of this sooner Ans 1. I wish that such Objectors may not think it yet too soon to yield their Obedience to the truth What hath been done ignorantly may obtain mercy but obstinacy after admonition makes the sin double 2. How came it to pass that this should be a secret since that God hath delivered you from the Tyranny of Antichrist and hath given you the free use of your Bibles and in your own Mother-tongue and the words of the Apostle being so plain and express in the case 3. The Reasons why the Ministers of Christ have said so little of it may be 1. Because in those late days of Confusion they have had greater work on their hands to fix and establish the people in the fundamentals and essentials of Christianity for the preservation of their Faith and Comfort and to support the main buildings while the house of God hath been so shaken 2. It may be many of them have been guilty of the same error being carried away by the force of the Torrent from one extream to another upon that fall of Episcopal Ceremonies which was in England almost forty years ago since which time especially this piece of prophanity hath obtain'd the fashion among Dissenters And perhaps the sense of their own guilt hath made some the more slow to speak in this matter 4. The generality of Non-conforming as well as Conforming Ministers have taught you at least by their examples what their sense of the Apostle hath been and which the people should have observ'd as their Patterns in it yea some have adventured to reprove it publickly too though the capricious humours of the people have kickt at it and such as think themselves wiser than their Teachers have made ill use of it and been ready to shew what phantastical and schismatical Principles they are acted by I know not at present what more hath been or can be objected against our Thesis and how little these objections sigsignifie I leave to the judgment of all sober minds CHAP. IV. Backs the Proposition with some further Reasons and Considerations IF all that hath been hitherto said be yet too little to reduce the Worship of God to the Apostolical Rule in this particular I shall offer but these few things more and leave them to consideration 1. Suppose that Christ himself the supreme Lord and Master of the Assembly were present in person among you in your places of Worship Would you be covered or uncovered I hope you will allow him the reverence that you allow your earthly Master or Prince This Argument is but what God himself urges in onother Quarrel about his Worship Mal. 1.8 Offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person If the best that we have must be taken for an offering to a Governour or Prince who is but a man is the best too good for God And if the humblest tokens of Reverence be due to a Creature whom God hath set in Authority over us is it not much more due to God who is our Absolute and Supream Governour and Lord Ob. But perhaps you may say This is the way to bring in Superstition into the Church and makes as if all those Modes of civil Worship or Reverence which are due to Man are much more due to God so we may bring in Cirching and Bowing and making a Leg and a hundred other phantastical Gestures and quaint Goggles into the Worship of God which are used in mens Courtly Addresses to their Superiors Ans 1. This Proposition is as far from favour of Superstition or any uninstituted Ceremony as that of the Prophet before quoted is from Idolatry where God says Offer it now to thy Governour 2. There are Ceremonies in Gods Worship which are common as was said before Chap. 1. that is such as are equally used in Civil and Religious Matters as bowing the knee uncovering the head c. which signifie the Reverence that is due to God in his solemn Worship and yet the same Ceremony is lawfully used also toward the Magistrate