Mr. Hildersham Mr. R. Rogers and such old Non-conformists are in so good esteem among good People where they will read them urging the People not only against Separation but to come to the very beginning of the publick Worship and preferring it before their private duties When I think what holy Learned Men the old Conformists were my heart riseth against the thoughts of separating from them If I had come to their Churches when they used the Common Prayer and administred the Sacrament could I have departed and said It is not lawful for any Christian here to communicate with you What! to such Men as Mr. Bolton Whateley Fenner Dent Crook Dike Stock Smith Dr. Preston Sibbs Stoughton Taylor and abundance other such yea such as Bishop Jewel Grindal Hall Potter Davenant Carleton c. Dr. Field Smith Jo. White Willet c. yea and the Martyrs too as Cranmer Ridley Hooper himself Farrar Bradford Fillpot Sanders c. Could I separate from all these on the Reasons now in question Yea Calvin himself and the Churches of his way were all separated from by the Separatists of their times And though ministerial Conformity is now much altered as to ingagements many of the Assembly of Divines that are yet living do conform again nor would I shun communion with the Reverend members of that Assembly Twiss Gataker Whitaker and the rest if again they used the Liturgy among us And if the old Conformists such as Bolton c. were alive and used now the same Liturgy and Ceremonies as they did then which was worse than now I could not think their communion in Prayer and Sacraments unlawful nor censure that man as injurious to the Church who should write to perswade others not to separate from them Read over some of the old Non-conformists Books against Separation as Mr. Jacobs the Independent against Johnson and Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. Gataker's defence against Cann Mr. Gifford Darrell Paget c. and fullest of all at the beginning of our troubles Mr. John Ball in three Books In these you will find the same objections answered or more and greater And I profess my judgment That our ordinary boasters that think they know more in this controversie than the old Non-conformists did as far as I am able to discern are as far below them almost as they are below either Chamier Sadeel Whitaker or such other in dealing with a Papist Objections Answered But what if there be gross and scandalous sinners are members of the Church Answ If you be wanting in your duty to reform it it is your sin but if bare presence made their sin to be ours it would also make all the sins of the Assembly ours But what if they are sins committed in the open Assembly even by the Minister himself in his praying preaching and other administrations Answ 1. A Ministers personal faults may damn himself and must be matter of lamentation to the Church who ought to do their best to reform them or get better by any lawful means But in case they cannot his sin is none of theirs nor doth it make his administration null or ineffectual nor will it allow you to separate from the Worship which he administreth You may not separate from him unless you can prove him or his ministry utterly intolerable by such faults as these 1. An utter insufficiency in knowledge or utterance for the necessary parts of the ministerial work As if he be not able to teach the necessary points of Christian Religion nor to administer the Sacraments and other parts of publick Worship 2. If he set himself to oppose the ends of his Ministry and preach down godliness or any part of it that is necessary to Salvation Or be a Preacher of heresie preaching up any damning error or preaching down any necessary saving truth 3. If he so deprave the publick Worship as to destroy the substance of it as in putting up blasphemy for prayer or praise or commit idolatry or set up new Sacraments or impose any actual sin on the People But there are other ministerial faults which warrant not our Separation as 1. Some tolerable errors of judgment or envy and pettish opposition to others Phil. 1. 15. 2. It is not unlawful to join with a Minister that hath many defects in his ministration or manner of Worship as if he preach with some ignorance disorder unfit expressions or gestures and the like in Prayer and Sacraments 3. It is not unlawful to join with a Minister that hath some material error or untruth in preaching or praying so be it we be not called to approve it and so it be not pernicious and destructive to the ends of his ministry If we run away from all that vent any untruth or mistake in publick or private worship we shall scarce know what Church or Person we may hold communion with For 1. A small sin may no more be done or owned than a greater 2. And then another man's weakness may disoblige me and discharge me from my duty Of Subscription with Assent and consent particularly concerning Infants baptized Q. 152. Is it lawful to subscribe or profess full assent and consent to any religious books beside the Bible seeing all are fallible 3. Answ It is lawful to profess or subscribe our assent and consent to any humane writing which we judge to be true and good according to the measure of its truth and goodness As if Church-confessions that are sound be offered us for our consent we may say or subscribe I hold all the Doctrine in this book to be true and good Q. 35. Is it certain by the Word of God that all Infants baptized and dying before actual sin are undoubtedly saved Answ I think that all the children of true Christians do by baptism receive a publick investiture by God's appointment into a state of remission adoption and right to salvation at present sent though I dare not say I am undoubtedly certain of it But I say as the Synod of Dort Art 1. That believing Parents have no cause to doubt of the salvation of their children that dye in infancy before they commit actual sin that is not to trouble themselves with fears about it For if such Infants were admitted to outward priviledges only then which is my 2d Reason we have no promise or certainty or ground of Faith for the pardon and salvation of any individual Infants in the World and if there be no promise there is no faith of it nor no baptism to seal it and so we make Antipaedobaptism unavoidable Whereas some mis-interpret the words of the old Rubrick of Confirmation in the English Liturgy as if it spake of all that are baptized whether they have right or not the words themselves may serve to rectifie that mistake And that no man shall think any detriment shall come to children by deferring of their confirmation he shall know for truth that it is
â—MPRIMATUR GVIL JANE Nov. 24. 1677. Mr. HALES's TREATISE OF SCHISM Examined and Censured By THOMAS LONG B. D. and Prebendary of EXETER To which are Added Mr. BAXTER's ARGUMENTS FOR Conformity WHEREIN The most Material Passages OF THE TREATISE of SCHISM ARE ANSWERED LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1678. Mr. HALES's TRACT OF SCHISM AND Schismaticks Printed by the Original Copy EXAMINED AND CENSURED Who is it can think to gain acceptance and credit with reasonable Men by opposing not only the present Church conversing in Earth but the uniform consent of the Church in all Ages Mr. Hales in his Miscellanies set forth by Mr. Garthwait Anno 1673. p. 260. LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1678. TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD THOMAS LORD BISHOP OF EXETER IT was prophesied of our Saviour that the Government should be upon his shoulders Is 9. 6. and though he have devolved that burden upon mortal men which is Angelicis humeris formidandum yet doth he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put under his shoulder and help them to bear it or they would soon sink under it For however it fares with the Church whether it be under persecution none are so much exposed to a fiery trial as they or whether it enjoy peace and plenty Pride and contention swels up some corrupt members to the daily vexation of their Heads Governors And how blameless soever their Persons be their Office is made a Crime Better things might have been expected from the Author of the Treatise hereafter considered wherein there is so much contempt poured out upon the Episcopal Office and on all Church authority and administrations that the Ink is not more black than the Calumny But where should the impetus of discontent and faction vent it self but against those rocks that are set by God Himself to give check and bounds unto it Now that in the Apostles days this sacred Order was appointed among other great ends as a remedy against Schism is acknowledged by such as are its reputed Adversaries In the Church of Alexandria from the time of St. Mark the Evangelist they were continued as a bulwork against Schism saith St. Hierom in his Epistle to Evagrius And in the Church of Corinth when Men begun to say I am of Paul and I of Apollo this Office was appointed that the seeds of Schism might be taken away saith the same Father on the first Chap. to Titus And he tells the Luciferians in a Dialogue with them That unless an eminent and uninterrupted power be by all given to the chief Pastors there will be as many schisms as there are Priests In all this St. Hierom followeth the more ancient Fathers Passibus aequis for Ignatius advised the Trallians to do nothing without their Bishop Which advice he repeating again tells them It is not my word but the Word of God and if ye suspect me to say this as understanding that there are Divisions among you he is my witness for whom I am in bonds that it was not man but the Spirit that declared this to me St. Clemens in his Epistle to the Corinth p. 57. says That the Apostles foreseeing that Divisions would arise as Christ had foretold did establish Bishops And the 32. Canon of the Apostles ordained That if any Presbyter or Deacon should make conventions without his Bishop he should be deposed In the 4th Oecumenical Council of Calcedon consisting of 630. Fathers there was read an Ancient Canon of the Council of Antioch to this effect If any Presbyter or Deacon contemning his Bishop shall separate and erect another Altar and will not obey the Bishop calling him home once and again we do utterly condemn such a one Which Canon being read by Aetius an Arch-Deacon the Fathers with one consent proclaimed This is a righteous Canon of the Holy Fathers In the Second Council of Carthage by the Eighth Canon it was provided That if any Presbyter lifted up with pride should make a Schism against his Bishop let him be accursed But in defiance of all these Canons and curses they have been accounted the only blessed Men in our times who have most vehemently decryed this holy Order and successfully maintained a Faction against them To whom if they are yet capable of any Counsel I would commend the moderation of Mr. Calvin who speaking of Popish Bishops Instit l. 4. c. 10. S. 6. saith If they were true Bishops I would yield them though not so much authority as they do require yet as much as is requisite for the well-ordering of Ecclesiastical Government And what he means by true Bishops he explaineth S. 1. The form of the Ancient Church sets before our eyes a pattern of the Divine institution for the order of governing his Church For though the Bishops of those times did set forth many Canons in which they seemed to express more than was expressed in the Holy Scripture yet they composed their whole Oeconomy with such caution according to that only rule of God's Word that you may easily perceive that they held nothing in this respect differing from the Word of God And in S. 4. he repeats the same Si rem intuemur reperiemus veteres Episcopos non alium regendae Ecclesiae formam voluisse fingere ab eâ quam Deus verbo suo praescripsit With how much truth and reverence doth this Learned man speak of those ancient Bishops of whom he says not only that they did not actually swerve from God's Word as to their Government but that they would not This Candor is much wanting in such as pretend to be Mr. Calvin's Disciples with whom this Sacred Function and all its Administrations are defamed as Antichristian and Popish and a Covenant for extirpating them root and branch is still pertinaciously adhered to But though the authority of these men be despised yet methinks that of our Saviour who hath made them his Ambassadors and Apostolus cujusque is est quisque and hath told us Luke 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth me he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me should not be rejected nor those severe penalties under which he exacts our obedience to his Officers be slighted For whoever will not hear the Church is to be accounted as a Heathen or Publican and Mark 6. 11. Whosoever shall not receive you nor hear you It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of Judgment than for them And though wicked men do securely despise the censures of the Church yet hath Christ said Matth. 18. 18. of his Officers Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven which authority the Church of God would not have exercised in the purest and most primitive times by so many and dreadful Anathema's if their great Lord had not authorized them or if they had not experienced the good effects
civilized or religious Nations As therefore it is said of the rise of Nile which in plentiful streams spreads it self over Egypt and yet the Origin of it cannot be found that it comes from Heaven so these solemnities of Assemblies and sacred Rites for the Worship of God being found to abound every where and no humane institution can be alledged as the rise of them we may conclude them to flow from Heaven into the Souls and Consciences of Men. But St. Chrysostome on Hebrews 10. asks how God came to command it and he answers by condescending only and submitting himself to humane infirmities which condescension Oecumenius thus expresseth Because men had a conceit that it was convenient to offer up some part of their substance unto God and they were so strongly possessed with this conceit that if they offered it not to him they would have offered it up to Idols God saith he rather than they should offer unto Idols required them to offer unto himself The third Proposition is That it is a result of the Law of Nature that such Societies should have a power to preserve themselves For seeing God nor Nature do any thing in vain and without this power all Societies will soon be dissolved and perish it follows that both by the Law of God and Nature those Societies that are assembled for the Worship of God should have a power to maintain and preserve themselves This Mr. Hales affirms There is a necessity of disproportion or inequality between Men for were all persons equal the World could not subsist Now this inequality and power implie a superiority in some and a subordination in others for par in parem non habet potestatem if every one were left at his own liberty as none could rule so none would obey That therefore there should be both sub and supra is of the same Law of Nature without which there could be no government or order at all either in Civil or Ecclesiastical Societies And seeing as Aristotle observed that the Paternal power was the Original of all Government Pol. l. 1. c. 2. every Father governing his Family both as a Prince and as a Priest in the most ancient times it is evident that both by Nature and Religion there ought to be a sub and supra and if so our Saviour never did nor intended to alter such Laws but to reinforce and to confirm them which that he did hath been already proved However whether this power shall be exercised by one or more Persons and be derived by Succession or applied by election this is to be regulated according to some positive determination either Divine or Humane And if the Law of God or where that is silent which I think it is not in the case of sub and supra in Ecclesiastical officers the Law of Man shall set up one or more Governors for the government of the Church the Persons advanced by such authority ought to have more than a Superiority of Reverence namely of obedience and a willing submission in all lawful and honest commands I conclude therefore with my Author p. 193. Communion is the strength and ground of all Society whether Sacred or Civil whoever therefore they be that offend against this common Society and Friendliness of men and cause separation and breach among them if it be in Civil occasions are guilty of Sedition or Rebellion if it be by Occasion of Ecclesiastical differences they are guilty of Schism And it shall alway be a part of my Litany From all sedition privy conspiracy and rebellion from all false Doctrine Heresie and Schism from hardness of heart and contempt of thy Word and Commandments good Lord deliver us I shall consider only one instance more of the Author 's too great indulgence to Schism and Heresie and then leave it to the Reader to judge Whether the opinion of the Ancients as it is generally received by our Modern Divines or the fond conceptions of the Author be more agreeable to the nature of the things or conducing to the peace and prosperity of the Church The instance is that of the second Council of Nice of which he says p. 211. That until that Rout did set up Image-worship there was not any remarkable Schism upon just occasion of fact To this our Author gives an Answer himself page 201. where he describes Schism on matter of fact to be such a separation as is occasioned by requiring something to be done by us which either we know or strongly suspect to be unlawful and concludes p. 202. that the first notable Schism of which we read in the Church viz. that concerning the observation of Easter did contain in it matter of fact Now how can these two assertions be reconciled That until the Schism occasioned by setting up Image-worship there was not any remarkable Schism upon just occasion of fact And that the first notable Schism that we read of in the Church viz. that about Easter did contain matter of fact and it was 600. Years before a Schism so notable as that our Author thinks p. 203. all the World were Schismaticks And if our Author be right the occasion of fact was just for he determines it to be so when something is required to be done by us which either we know or strongly suspect to be unlawful And the Asian Churches thought it unlawful for them to submit to the authority of the Bishop of Rome who would impose on them a rite contrary to an ancient custome of theirs to be received as a matter of faith of which before Again he instanceth in the Schism of the Donatists which was a complete Schism by our Author 's own rules for they did not only erigere Altare contra Altare set up Bishop against Bishop to which our Author observes that St. Cyprian imputed the Original of all Church-disorders page 222. but they erected also new Churches and Oratories for the dividing Party to meet in publickly which serves to make a Schism complete p. 196. so that there were notable Schismes long before that occasioned by setting up Image-worship To that which follows in our Author p. 211. concerning Image-worship set up by the second Council of Nice I fully accord That in this the Schismatical party was the Synod it self and such as conspired with it For concerning the use of Images in Sacris first it is acknowledged by All That it is not a thing necessary 2. That it is by most suspected 3. It is by many held utterly unlawful and that the injoining of such a thing can be nothing but abuse And the refusal of communion here cannot be thought any other thing than duty All this is true but our Author speaks not the whole truth he calls that only schism which was heresie in a fundamental point concerning the Worship of God according to his express will in the second Commandment And when that Council had the confidence to condemn them as Hereticks that were
the Iconoclastae or adversaries to the worshipping of Images we may with more truth account them who were Iconolatrae worshippers of Images Hereticks if not Idolaters By the way let me observe that if it be my duty to withhold communion from such as set up a false way of worshipping God as this Council did it is my duty also to withdraw from the Communion of such as profess false opinions of the true God as the Arrians c. did to whose assemblies the Author sees no reason but we may joyn our selves p. 215. Though this be contrary to his own rule p. 218. It is alike unlawful to make profession of known or suspected falshoods as to put in practice unlawful or suspected Actions I hope the Reader will not think his patience injured if on this occasion I give him a brief account how Images were first brought into the Church of God and what reception they found in the Primitive times of both which I shall speak briefly They were first brought in by lewd hereticks and simple Christians newly converted from Paganism the customs whereof they had not fully unlearned Bishop Usher in his Answer to Maloon p. 508. gives this particular that the Gnostick hereticks had some Images painted in colours others framed of gold silver and other matter which they said were the representations of Christ made while he was in the power of Pontius Pilate The Collyridians who at certain times offered Cakes to the Virgin Mary did also cause Images of her to be made Carpocrates and Marcellina his companion brought the Images of Jesus and Paul to Rome in the time of Anicetus and worshipped them But the more plentiful seeds of this Idolatrous worship were sown by the heathen converts as Epiphanius observes We have seen the pictures of Peter and Paul and of Christ himself saith he for that of old they have been wont by a heathenish custom thus to honour them whom they counted their benefactors or Saviours And the Arrians and Donatists having for a long time rent the Church of God and pulled down the Fences both of Church and State they made way for vast numbers of Infidels to enter among whom the Christians being mixed and living in subjection to them in divers places they learned this custom also of making and honouring the Images of those whom they accounted their Patrons and benefactors Men of heretical perswasions were the first that were tainted worshipping the Graves and Pictures of their Leaders then these painted toyes insnared the vulgar and at Rome under Gregory the Second the worship of them is first practised and defended but at the same time opposed by Leo Isauricus and his successors And in a Council at Constantinople 338 Bishops condemned it Anno 754. the primitive Fathers having before that time constantly disputed against the very making and painting of Images as well as worshipping them whose testimonies against Images it will be in vain to heap up here I think it enough to observe that since Bishop Jewel challenged the Church of Rome to shew but one authority out of the Ancients for setting up of Images in the Churches and worshipping them during the first 600 years there hath not yet been any tolerable reply made But in the year 787. Hadrian being Bishop of Rome and Tharasius of Constantinople like Herod and Pilate were reconciled in this mischievous design and having the opportunity of a female Governess for Dux foemina facti they prevailed with Irene the Mother of Constantine to assemble a Council at Nice which the Papists call the seventh Oecumenical Council but by the Ancients was condemned as a Pseudo-synod This Irene was a Pagan the daughter of a Tartarian King and an Imperious tyrannical woman who in despite to the Council of Constantinople that had decreed against Images summoned this Synod which she so far defended that she caused the eyes of her own son Constantine to be pulled out because he would not consent to the Idolatrous having of Images as Bp. Jewel observes in the Article of Images where you may see more of the ignorance and impiety of this Synod This was the woman that called this meeting of the Bishops and you may guess under what fears they were of the cruelty of that woman who was so unnatural to her Son He that will be satisfied more fully concerning the Ignorance of this Synod may read it in their Acts mentioned by Binius or Surius or in Bishop Jewel concerning the Worshipping of Images ubi suprá Mittens Irene convocavit omnes Episcopos saith Baronius ad annum 787. so that the Pope had not then the power of calling Councils by the Cardinals own confession There was great intercourse of Letters between Hadrian and Tharasius before this Council was assembled which was done at last by Tharasius perswading of Irene and then there met 350 Bishops who agreed in this base decree for the adoration of Images as Bishop Usher calls it In this Synod the question for admission of lapsed Bishops and Presbyters was first proposed and although the Bishops that were readmitted were tainted with Arrianism as appears by the Synods demand that they should in the first place make an acknowledgment of the blessed Trinity yet Baronius slightly passeth over that and makes mention only of their submission to that point which as well the Cardinal as that Synod chiefly designed to advance i.e. the worshipping of images Basilius of Ancyra Theodorus of Myrene and Theodosius Bishop of Amorium are first called and these three post confessionem Sanctissimae Trinitatis of which the Cardinal says nothing more make a large profession of their sorrow for having adhered so long to the Iconoclastae or oppugners of Image-worship and present a confession of the Orthodox Faith as he calls it in opposition to those errors and hereticks to which they had adhered Now what that Orthodox faith was appears by the Confessions mentioned by Baronius wherein they did Anathematize them that broke down the images as Calumniators of Christians and such as did assume the sentences that are in the Scriptures against Idols and apply them to the venerable Images with much more to the like purpose But concerning their reception into the Church the question is greatly agitated and the books being produced by which it did appear that Athanasius Cyril and other ancient Pillars of the Church had received notorious hereticks into the Church a Bishop of the Province of Sicilia objects that the Canons of the Fathers which had been produced were enacted against the Novatians Encratists and Arrians hujus autem haeresis magistros quo loco habebimus but in what rank saith he shall we place the Masters of this heresie To which it was replyed by a Deacon of the same Province that it should be considered Minórne est quae nunc novata est haeresis an major illis quae hactenus fuere whether this new-sprung heresie were greater or less than those that were before it This is
certain by Gods word that children being baptized have all things necessary for their Salvation and be undoubtedly saved where it is plain they mean they have all things necessary ex parte Ecclesiae or all Gods applying Ordinances necessary though they should die unconfirmed supposing they have all things necessary to just baptism on their own part which is but what the Ancients were wont to say of the baptized adult but they never meant that the infidel and impenitent were in a state of life because he was baptized but that all that truly consent to the Covenant and signifie this by being baptized are saved So the Church of England saith that they receive no detriment by delaying confirmation but it never said that they received no detriment by their Parents or Responses infidelity or Hypocrisie or by their want of true right coram Deo to be baptized Q. 39. What is the true meaning of Sponsors or Godfathers and is it lawful to make use of them Answ My Opinion is that they did both witness the probability of the Parents fidelity and also promised that if they should either Apostatize or dye they would see that the children were piously educated If you take them but as the ancient Churches did for such as do attest the Parents fidelity in their perswasion and do promise first to mind you of your duty and next to take care of their pious education if you die I know no reason you have to scruple this much yea more it is in your power to agree with the Godfathers that they shall represent your own persons and speak and promise what they do as your deputies only in your names and what have you against this Object When the Churchmen mean another thing this is but to juggle with the world Answ How can you prove that the authority that made or imposed the Liturgy meant any other thing 2. If the Imposers had meant ill in a thing that may be done well you may discharge your Conscience by doing it well and making a sufficient profession of your better sense Q. 42. How is the Holy Ghost given to Infants in Baptism whether all the children of true Christians have inward sanctifying grace c. Ans My judgment agreeth more in this with Davenant's than any others saving that he doth not appropriate the benefits of Baptism to the children of true Believers so much as I do And though by a Letter impleading Davenant's cause I was the occasion of printing good Mr. Gataker's Answer to him yet I am still most inclined to his judgment Not that all the baptized but that all the baptized seed of true Christians are pardoned justifyed adopted and have a title to the spirit and Salvation And we must choose great inconveniences if this opinion be forsaken viz. that all infants must be taken to be out of Covenant with God and to have no promise of Salvation whereas surely the law of Grace as well as the Covenant of works included all the seed in their capacity Of the Responses Q. 83. May the people bear a vocal part in Worship and do any more than say Amen Answ The people bear an equal part in singing the Psalms which are prayer and praise and instruction if they may do so in the Psalms in metre there can be no reason given but they may lawfully do so in Psalms in Prose for saying them and singing them are but modes of utterance and the Ancient singing was liker our Saying than our tunes The Primitive Christians were so full of zeal and love to Christ that they would have taken it for an injury and a quenching of the Spirit to have been wholly restrained from bearing their part in the praises of the Church The use of the tongue keepeth awake the mind and stirreth up God's graces in his servants It was the decay of zeal in the people that first shut out the Responses while they kept up the ancient zeal they were inclined to take their part vocally in the Worship And this was seconded by the pride and usurpation of the Priests thereupon who thought the people of God too prophane to speak in the Assemblies and meddle so much with holy things Yet the very remembrance of former zeal caused most Churches to retain many of the words of their predecessors even when they lost the life and spirit which should animate them and so the same words came into the Liturgies and were used by too many customarily and in formality which their Ancestors had used in the fervour of their Souls And if it were not that a dead-hearted formal people by speaking the Responses carelesly and hypocritically do bring them into disgrace with many that see the necessity of seriousness I think few good people would be against them now It is here the duty of every Christian to labour to restore the life and spirit to the words that they may again be used in a serious and holy manner as heretofore Exod. 19. 8. In as solemn an Assembly as any of ours when God gave Moses a form of words to preach to the people all the people answered together and said All that the Lord hath spoken we will do So Exod. 24. 3. and Deuter. 5. 27. which God approved of v. 28 29. See Levit. 9. 24. 2 Kings 23. 2 3. 1 Chron. 1. 35 36. It is a command Ps 67. 3 5. Let all the people praise thee O God c. And he that will limit this to single persons or say that it must not be vocally in the Church or it must be in metre only and never in prose must prove it lest he be proved one that addeth to Gods word Q. 84. Is it not a Sin for our Clerks to make themselves the mouth of the people Answ The Clerks are not appointed to be the mouth of the people but each Clerk is one of the people commanded to do that which all should do lest it should be wholly left undone If all the congregation will speak all that the Clerk doth it will answer the primary desire of the Church Governors who bid the people do it Of Bowing at the name Jesus And of Priests Altars c. Q. 86. Is it lawful to bow at the name of Jesus Answ That we may lawfully express our reverence when the names God Jehovah Jesus Christ c. are uttered I have met with few Christians who deny nor know I any reason to deny it If I live and joyn in a Church where it is commanded and peremptorily urged to bow at the name of Jesus and where my not doing it would be divisive scandalous or offensive I will bow at the name of God Jehovah Jesus Christ Lord c. My judgment of standing at the Gospel and kneeling at the Decalogue when it is commanded is the same Q. 122. May the name Priests Sacrifice and Altars be lawfully used Answ The New Testament useth all the Greek names