up strong cryes to him that is able to save So did Christ himself Heb. 5.7 Let his example stirâ—u up Let us wrestle with God as Jacob did Gen. 32.26 He said I will not let thee go except thou bless me and he had success Importunity and uncessancy in prayer is a token for good When God pours out a spirit of prayer and so prepares our hearts he will cause his ear to hear Now follows the gracious audience I cryed and he heard me God will hear the cry of the distressed he will regard their importunity and help them in their extremity For he is merciful and full of compassion he waits that he may be gracious When he delays his help he doth but wait for our preparedness But when he sees our unfeigned humiliation and our earnest faith in his mercy and our fervent and uncessant desire of his relief then his bowels yearn over us Aâ— he saith c ncerning Ephraim in such a frame of spirit My bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him Jer. 31.20 This is for the comfort of a praying people whose great distress raiseth their importunity in prayer Let it comfort us to think upon it that our voice is heard out of the belly of Hell In the extremity of evll we are not shut out from a gracious audience Our prayer reacheth Gods ear V. 3. For thou hast cast me in t tâ—e deep in the midst of thâ— seas and the floods compassed me abâ—ut all thy billows and thy waves passed over me Here he enlargeth the narration of his trouble He shews he had to do with an angry God who pursued him in his just and high displeasure God may pursue his people in his just anger for their high provocations and cast them into overwhelming trouble he may plunge them into the depth of misery He may make them know that he pursues his controversie with them and that because they have walked contrary to him he also will walk contrary to them and he will greatly distress them For God will maintain his honour and make it known that it cannot be well with any in going cross to him no not with his dear children Who hath hardned himself against him and hath pâ—ospered Job 9.4 Let the p ople and servants of God take heed of provoking him to anger and raising his just displeasure and so engaging him against them We provoke God by any wilful contrariety to him especially by persisting in it as was the case of Jonah Here let us consult our own peace and the peace of our Nation Let us therefore fear before him stand in awe and sin not Psal 4.4 Beware of him provoke him not Thus the Lord warns the Israelites concerning the Angel their Conductor supposed to be the Son of God the Mediator Exod. 20.21 Behold I send my angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared Beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for he will not pardon your transgressions for my Name is in him He will not pardon your transgressions that is he will not let any wilful indignity and contempt offered to him pass unpunished or without taking notice of it for your humiliation and abasement Carefully prevent provoking sins and if there be any provocation speedily cease from it V. 4 Then I said I am cast out of thy sight yet will I look again towards thy holy Temple He further expresseth his exercise in his tryal wherein is his conflict betwixt Faith and Unbelief Hope and Despair and the prevalence of his Faith and Hope His Confl ct in these words Then I said I am cast out of thy sight Hence we learn That the children of God are put to confl ct not only with outward afflictions but with inward temptations even temptations to unbelief and despair They are apt to draw sad conclusions from their outward troubles even to conclude their being rejected of God One great reason hereof is the terror of their own guilt Conscience flies in their face And if Conscience condemn them they think the holy God is much more against them 1 Joh. 3.20 If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things And so they are amazed Another reason is their proneness to judg of Gods respect to them and their interest in him by sence and outward appearance Under afflictions we are to prepare for assaults of sad temptations which are indeed a greater burden and danger to us than the outward affliction Our wisdom is to prevent such temptations under affliction as may arise from the terror of our own guilt and horror of conscience to prevent them I say by keeping peace with God and carefully avoiding breaches with him If upon breaches with him such terror do arise our business is upon our unfeigned humiliation and repentance to look by faith to the boundless mercy of God in Christ and to stay our selves thereon that we may not sink in despair Likewise under inward temptations we are to raise our Faith above sense that we may judg of Gods respect to us not according to appearance but according to truth That how sad soever the case be we may be able to say there is hope concerning this thing Now follows the prevalence of his Faith and Hope in these words Yet will I look again t wards thy holy Temple Gods children may for a season be born down by temptations yet they recover themselves after a while They recollect themselves and judg of things more calmly and considerately and thereupon see ground of hope As the Church Lament 3.1 This I recall to my mind therefore have I hope Herewithall they set themselves to resist the temptation and strive against unbelief as dishonourable to God and hurtful to their own souls and unreasonable in it self And they resolve to trust in the Name of the Lord and to stay themselves on their God Isa 50.10 They rebuke themselves for their unbelief and charge themselves to hope in God Psal 42. Why art thou cast down O my soul hope thou in God And God is with them and doth uphold them by the help of his grace He doth also so regulate and moderate the temptation that they may be able to bear it And he doth open a way for them to escape according to the promise Let us not lye under temptations to despair or despondence or confusion of mind which disables us to any good and tends to drive us from God and utterly ruine us Let us not give way to them for they arise from the darkness of our mind and the evil root of unbelief and from the malice of the Devil They are enforced upon us by our adversary for our destruction Therefore it behoves us not to give place to him Let us not quit all nor thus abandon our selves but look again towards God as a harbour to the distressed Let us help our selves
the Authority of the Pastors but as they are made for the present or absent Pastors who are separately of equal Office Power they are no Laws except in an equivocal sense but only Agreements Now in judging between these two ways of the subordination enquired of let it be considered first That every particular church hath power of government within it self as hath been before observed 2. That a particular church doth not derive that power from any other particular church or collective body of churches but hath it immediately from Christ 3. That yet the acts of government in every particular church have an influence into all the churches being but integral parts of one whole the Catholick church and consequently they are all of them nearly concerned in one another as members of the same body 4. Thereupon that particular churches combine in such collective bodies and associations as have been before mentioned is not arbitrary but their duty 5. That the greater collective bodies are in degrees more august and venerable than the lesser included in them and in that regard ought to have sway with the lesser and not meerly in regard of agreement For tho in the greater there be but the same power in specie with that in the lesser yet it is more amply and illustriously exerted 6. That in all Societies every part being ordered for the good of the whole and the more ample and comprehensive parts coming nearer to the nature and reason of the whole than the lesser and comprehended the more ample parts if they have not a proper governing power over the lesser have at least a preeminence over them for the ends sake and this preeminence hath the force of a proper superior power in bearing sway 7. Hence it follows that the acts of Synods if they be not directly acts of government over the particular Pastors yet they have the efficacy of government as being to be submitted to for the ends sake The general good § 22. What is and what is not of Divine Right in Ecclesiastical Polity WE must distinguish between things that belong to the church as a church or a Society divers in kind from all other Societies and those things that belong to it extrinsecally upon a reason common to it with other regular societies The former wholly rest upon Divine Right the latter are in genere requisite by the Law of Nature which requires decency and order and whatsoever is convenient in all societies and so far they rest upon Divine Right but in specie they are left to human determination according to the general Rules given of God in Nature or Scripture And it is to be noted That such is the sulness of Scripture that it contains all the general Rules of the Law of Nature What soever in matter of Church government doth go to the formal constitution of a church of Christ is of Divine Right The frame of the Church catholick as one spiritual society under Christ the head as before described wholly rests upon Divine Right and so the frame of particular churches as several spiritual Polities and integral parts of the Catholick church as before described is also of Divine Right if such Right be sufficiently signified by the Precepts and Rules given by the Apostles for the framing of them and by their practise therein Moreover the parcelling of that one great Society the Church-catholick into particular Political Societies under their proper spiritual Guides and Rulers is so necessary in nature to the good of the whole that the Law of Nature hath made it unalterable It is intrinsick to all particular stated Churches and so of Divine Right that there be publick Assemblies thereof for the solemn Worship of God that there be Bishops Elders or spiritual Pastors therein and that these as Christs Officers guide the said Assemblies in publick Worship that therein they authoritatively preach the Word and in Christs Name offer the mercies of the Gospel upon his terms and denounce the threatnings of the Gospel against those that despise the mercies thereof that they dispence the Sacraments to the meet partakers and the spiritual censures upon those that justly fall under them that the members of these Societies explicitely or implicitely consent to their relation to their Pastors and one towards another It doth also intrinsecally belong to particular churches as they are integral parts of one Catholick church of which all the particular Christians contained in them are members and consequently it appears to be of Divine Right that they hold communion one with another and that they be imbodied according to their capacities in such Associations as have been before described As for all circumstantial variation and accidental modification of the things aforesaid with respect to meer decency order and convenience according to time and occasion being extrinsick to the spiritual frame and Polity of the Church as such and belonging in common to it with all orderly Societies they are of Divine Right only in genere but in specie they are left to those to whom the conduct and government of the church is committed to be determined according to the general Rules of Gods word Much of the controversie of this Age about several forms of Church-government is about things extrinsick to the church-state and but accidental modes thereof tho the several parties in the controversie make those Forms to which they adhere to be of Divine Right and necessary to a Church-state or as some speak a Church-organical Now in the said controverted Forms of Government there may be a great difference for some may be congruous to the divine and constitutive frame of the Church and advantageous to its ends others may be incongruous to it and destructive to its ends § 23. Of a True or False Church MANY notes of a true Church are contentiously brought in by those that would darken the truth by words without knowledg But without more ado the true and real being of a Church stands in its conformity to that Law of Christ upon which his Church is founded This Law is compleatly written in the Holy Scriptures The more of the aforesaid Conformity is sound in any Church the more true and sound it is and the less of it is found in any church the more corrupt and false it is and the more it declines from truth and soundness A Church may bear so much conformity to its Rule as is sufficient to the real being or essential state of a Christian church and yet withall bear such disconformity to its Rule as renders it very enormous A church holding all the essentials of Faith Worship Ministry and Government together with the addition of such Doctrine Worship Ministry and Government as is by consequence a denial of those essentials and a subverting of the foundation is a true church as to the essentials tho very enormous and dangerous And they that are of the communion of such a church who hold the essentials of Religion
is not properly a punishment to the Infant but meerly a non-deliverance or a being left in the state of sin and wrath wherein he is by nature I still query Whether the aforecited assertion That it is certain by Gods word that Children which are baptized dying before they commit actual sin are undoubtedly saved be not contained under the Declaration It being the matter of a directing Rubrick and for use as I suppose Moreover this Rubrick seems evidently included in the injoyned Subscription and to be justified thereby as not contrary to the word of God Now the same things that are objected about the saving Regeration of all baptized Children may be objected in reference to this also Besides to affirm the certainty of this position by the word of God is much harder than to admit it as a probable truth only Whereas it is said that this position may be acknowledged as certainly true of children indefinitely without denying it to be true universally I answer That to understand it but of children indefinitely is to make it an insignificant and useless Assertion unworthy to be matter of a Rubrick as shewing no more but that it is certainly true that all baptized children are not damaned but some saved This is not rationally apprehended to be the meaning thereof According to the order prescribed in the Liturgy Children are devoted to God and brought into the Covenant of Grace and the Baptismal Vow by Godfathe s and Godmothers who have no propriety in them nor right of dedicating them to God or bringing them into his Covenant and the Parents who have right and by whom the Infants have title to this priviledg are excluded It is not mans Law that can authorize any to bring children into the bond of the Covenant with God And there is no Law of God that authorizeth any besides Parents Proparents or Proprietors so to do Tho the taking in of Sureties in conjunction with the Parents for a greater assurance of the Infants Christian Education may be commendable and useful if those Sureties did indeed concern themselves therein and not make it a matter of meer formality as generally it is made yet there can be no reason for such a rigid insisting upon Sureties the use of whom at the most is but expedient for greater caution about the Childs future education and in the mean time to overlook yea to exclude the Parents open and solemn dedication of the infant which is necessary That form of speaking to the Infant by the Sureties Dost thou renounce c. dost thou believe c. wilt thou be baptized c. wilt thou obediently keep c. and the taking of several answers as from him by the Sureties is not a form of words expressing ones being devoted or brought into Gods Covenant by another but of ones own professed present actual believing desiring and vowing If it be said This is spoken to the Sureties in the Childs name and 't is a declaring of what the child undertakes by his baptism I answer The child is not capable of doing any thing in the case and the child doth not and cannot undertake any thing by another as in his name To say the Infant doth these things passively and that he doth passively accept the Covenant is that which I do not understand I grant that baptized infants are under a vow of dedication to God but not a vow made by themselves but by those whom God hath authorized to dedicate them and by which they are bound as much as by a vow actually made by themselves when they are capable Of the CATECHISM EVery baptized person is taught thus to answer in my baptism wherein I was made a member of Christ the child of God and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven By the very receiving of baptism neither infants nor the adult are first put into a state of grace but those who by their own faith or by the faith of their Parents were before in the Covenant of Grace are by Baptism solemnly invested in that Grace Ones being in the Covenant of Grace is a prerequisite condition to the saving use of this Sacrament which is the soleâ—n dedication to God of one so qualified and his solemn investiture in the Grace of the Covenant But whether the said words be understood of the first consering of those benefits or of the solemn investiture therein nevertheless be it considered Whether it be fit to teach every Catechised person to believe That by his baptism he was made a pertaker of or solemnly invested in those high priviledges which only the children of true believers do receive by their Infant-baptism Be it also considered whether it tends not to cause many who are yet in the state of sin to believe that they are in the state of grace Of the Order of Confirmation ANY such baptized persons as are come to a competent age and can say in their Mother-tongue the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments and also can answer to other questions of the Catechism and to the Bishops interrogatory touching the renewing of the Vow made in their name at their Baptism and their consenting thee unto shall answer I do are according to the Rule of this Book sufficiently qualified for confirmation Be it considered Whether all this may not be said by a person in whom appears no credibility of a sincere yea or of an intelligent profession If it be said it is left to the Bishops discretion by these words of the Rubrick and if the bishop approve of them he shall confirm them nevertheless the Rule here set down doth express and require no more The Query is Whether I may consent to the use of a Rule insufficient for its end Confirmation is reserved to the Bishop alone yet it is ordinarily impossible for him to take due notice of all persons to be confirmed within his Diocess and consequently it cannot be duly administred to a multitude of persons that are to be brought to it Whereas it is alledged That this reservation was the usage of the ancient Church let it be considered that the primitive or more ancient bishops were bishops but of one particular Church and were capable of taking the oversight of every particular person of their flock and did personally perform the same But the present bishops being bishops of many hundred Churches have commonly more souls in their several Diocesses than an hundred bishops can personally watch over In the prayer immediately before the act of Confirmation it is said of all persons admitted to it That God hath vouchsafed to regenerate them by water and the Holy Ghost and hath given them the forgiveness of all their sins I enquire Whether this be warrantable and according to truth considering what is the corruption of human nature and what the inclinations and behaviour of most young ones are and what regeneration by the Holy Ghost doth import and how such as are far from any credible
is a Christian Church in a Commonwealth that is not Christian indeed in that Case the Christians taken personally are members not severed from the Commonwealth but parts of it but the Spiritual Society which they make is no part of it but really severed from it When a Commonwealth becomes Christian the Church is not to be looked upon as swallowed up in the Commonwealth but they remain distinct Societies notwithstanding the intimate conjunction that is between them and they differ in their kind and formal state from each other The foundation upon which the Commonwealth rests and its constitutive parts formally taken are of another nature than the foundation on which the Church rests and its constitutive parts formally taken The former is immediately founded in humane Laws and Compacts and Essentially made up of several orders and ranks of men diversly indued with temporal qualifications powers and liberties joyned by Civil Bands and Subordinate one to another but the latter is immediately founded in Divine Laws not only natural but positive and Essentially made up of several orders and ranks of men spiritually distinguished and indued with spiritual qualifications Powers and Liberties joyned by Spiritual Bands and Subordinate one to another Hereupon none become Members of the Church merely as Members of the Commonwealth and none become Cives or Members of the Commonwealth merely as Members of the Church and they that are deprived of the Rights of the Commonwealth may still injoy the Priviledges of the Church and they that are deprived of the Priviledges of the Church may still injoy the Rights of the Commonwealth Indeed a Christian Commonwealth ultimately intends those high and excellent ends which the Church doth nextly and immediately viz. The Glory of God and the Eternal happiness of men and procures the same in its own way as the Church doth in its way And the Magistrates and Officers of a Common-wealth must proceed by the Rules of Christianity in their Civil Administrations as well as the Ministers of the Church in their Sacred Administrations and they are the Servants of Christ the Mediator not only as Christians but as Magistrates And Christianity doth influence its professors considered as Members of the Commonwealth as well as of the Church In these respects such a Commonwealth hath attained a more excellent State and exists in a more perfect mode than other Commonwealths Nevertheless the Church is another and higher thing than that higher mode of the Commonwealth as Christian and hath an Essentially different Polity being a Society of another foundation and specifically different Constitution It is questionable to say the least whether the Civil Power of the Commonwealth and the Spiritual Power of the Christian Church may lawfully reside in the same person I do not now speak of that Power in the Church which is objectively Ecclesiastical but formally Civil such as is the Kings Supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons Ecclesiastical within his Dominions but of Power formally Spiritual And if both Spiritual and Civil Power may lawfully reside in the same person yet that person tho naturally but one would be politically two and the People subordinate to him in those two capacities tho they be the same persons yet they would be two Societies distinguished in their Essential forms When the Commonwealth fails the Church may still subsist and when the Church fails the Commonwealth may still subsist The Commonwealth of the Jews that was a Theocracy suffered an Intercision during the Babylonish Captivity yet their Church then remained tho it were greatly wounded it was not extinct And afterwards when they were no Commonwealth of themselves but a Province of the Roman Empire their Ecclesiastical Society and Polity stood intire till it was to give place to the Christian Church § 4. Of the Church as Visible and Invisible THE notion of Visible and Invisible must not here be taken strictly for that which is or is not the object of seeing only but of other sensitive perception or of any humane intuition All other Societies of men admit not this distinction because they are constituted in their formal being by things that do appear outwardly But this of the Church is constituted in its formal being primarily by things that in themselves do not appear outwardly and but secondarily by things that appear as expressions of the things that in themselves appear not The Church is a Society of regenerate persons joyned to the Lord Christ as their Head and to one another as fellow-members by a mystical union through the Holy Gost residing in them all and through faith unfeigned towards God in Christ and holy love toward one another justified sanctified and adopted to the inheritance of Eternal Glory Now the said Qualifications Relations and Priviledges being in themselves hid from mens knowledg and judgment do primarily constitute the Church which is thereupon in its primary consideration a Society Mystical and Invisible It is also a Society of persons professing Christianity or Regeneration and externally joyned to Christ and to one another by the profession of unfeigned faith and love and by the Symbols of that profession and partakers of the external Priviledges belonging to it And according to this external Constitution which is necessary tho it be not primary it is named Visible So then the Church Invisible and Visible are not two Societies but the same Society distinguished by its divers formal considerations and constitutions the one primary the other secondary and the former is not for the latter but the latter for the former These two distinct considerations or modes or forms of the same Society are not commensurate to each other but the Church in its Visible form is of a larger extent than in its Invisible form For many profess Christianity or Dedication to God in Christ that are not really that is heartily and intirely so dedicated This Society as understood in the compleat notion thereof cannot be extended any further then its primary that is its Invisible form doth reach Whatsoever lies without that compass is but the shadow without the substance the image without the life thereof And therefore all they that are joyned to it meerly according to its Visible form are of it not adequately univocally and simply but inadequately analogically secundum quid They that upon their credible profession are of this Society but analogically as to the external form only have just Right and Title to its external Priviledges according to their capacity and disposedness before them that can discern and directly judg only of things that appear outwardly so that if men debar them of those Priviledges they do them wrong For tho God allows them not and thâ—y have no right in his judgment which is always according to truth and not bate appearance yet he hath commanded men to admit them and consequently given them right before men Credible profession in whatsoever degree higher or lower can ground but a judgment of charity
are not immediately inspired of God have sufficiently certain evidence in reason to the discerning and chusing of infallible guides that are immediately inspired § 15. Whether Infallibility admit of degrees and in what respect EVery truth is equally impossible to be false for all things that imply a contradiction are equally because utterly impossible All are alike infallible in that wherein they are infallible and therein they cannot be more infallible because therein it is utterly impossible that they should be deceived and so it cannot be more impossible than it is already Nevertheless there are different degrees of evidence for being infallible in such or such a matter Likewise there are different degrees of clear apprehension of being infallible and so the sure knowledg of being infallible admits of degrees That knowledg that is sufficiently certain may be advanced to be abundantly certain and that which is abundant may be advanced to yet more abundant Whereupon I conclude that though infallibility in its formal reason admits of no degrees yet there are different degrees of the evidence and the clear apprehension thereof Moreover infallibility is in a more noble and perfect state in one subject than in another And so the infallibility of a superior intellect as that of Angels is in a more perfect and excellent than the hypothetical and the unlimited than the limited In the same subject infallibility may be in a more perfect state at one time than another according to the rising or falling of the evidence thereof § 16. Of the Infallibility of Sense THAT which is agreeable to sense rightly circumstantiated is impossible to be false and that which is repugnant to sence rightly circumstantiated is impossible to be true For that the one should be false and that the other should be true implies a contradiction supposing the sensitive faculty to be true And if the sensitive faculties be not true it infers that impious and absurd opinion that God cannot or will not govern the material world but by falshood The Popish opinion of Transubstantiation is no deception of the sense but of the understanding for they that have persuaded themselves to believe it do not say they see or tast or feel Christs body and blood but acknowledg what they see feel and tast to be the accidents of the bread and wine which they say remains after Transubstantion Wherefore the imposing is not upon the senses but upon the understanding which ought to judg by sense of matters that are the proper objects of sense § 17. Of Infallibility of Reason IF Sense may be the subject of Infallibility why may not the Understanding be so which is a more excellent Faculty in the kind of perception or knowledg If the Understanding be the subject of Certainty why not also of infallibility in that limited sense as hath been before explained The proper object of Certainty is not that which may or may not be but that which must be or which is known to be such An indubitable Certainty is acknowledged and from an indubitable Certainty properly so called I think a good inference is made unto an infallible Certainty To be indubitable in a matter is to be sure that I am not therein deceived And I cannot rationally be sure that I am not deceived unless I am sure that it cannot be that the thing be otherwise than I apprehend And if I am sure that it cannot be otherwise than I apprehend I am as to that particular infallible Because men in their most confident persuasions are commonly deceived by prejudice from passion interest education and the like it follows not that none can be secure from deception that is to know that it cannot be that they should be deceived in such or such a matter Certainly an impartial and unbiassed judgment may be found § 18. Logical Physical Moral and Theological Conclusisions as well as Mathematical admit of demonstrative Evidence UPON the foregoing enquiries I judg it very disadvantageous to the cause of Religion to speak as some do of a lower evidence for it than demonstration and such as the matter is capable of whereas I suppose there is not surer and clearer Evidence for any thing than for true Religion Not only Mathematical but Logical Physical Moral and Theological Conclusions admit of demonstrative evidence Whereas some say the existence of God is not Mathematically demonstrable because only Mathematical matter admits such kind of evidence if it be meant of that special evidence that is in the Mathematicks it is nothing to the purpose but if it be meant of evidence in general as demonstrative as Mathematical evidence it is false for this Truth admits the clearest and strictest demonstration This Proposition That God is is demonstrative in the strictest sense by a demonstration a posteriori viz of the necessary cause from the effect it being evident that the existence of God is absolutely necessary to the existence of the World for that we cannot attribute the being of the Phanomena or visible things in the world to any other cause than such a Being as we conceive God to be but we must offer violence to our own faculties This Proposition That every word of God shall be fulfilled according to the true and full intent of it is demonstrative in the strictest sense a priori from the veracity of God it being as evident that God is true as that he is As the Existence so the Attributes of God have demonstrative Evidence unless you had rather call them indemonstrable principles as having the greatest self-evidence From the Essence and Attributes of God and mans dependance on him and relation to him Moral and Theological Truths of demonstrative evidence are inferred as touching Gods moral law the good of conformity and the evil of inconformity thereunto and a just retribution to men according to that difference § 19. Of the infallible knowledg of the truth of the Christian Religion and Divine Authority of the Scripture UPON the grounds here laid as the Existence and Attributes of God and mans dependance on him and relation to him and his obligations thence arising may be demonstrated so also that the Christian Religion and the Holy Scriptures are of God as the Author and that the contrary would involve a contradiction And I take this to have been demonstrated by learned men and need not here be largely insisted on Only I shall set down a little of that much that hath been written by Mr. Baxter We may infallibly know the Christian Doctrine to be of God by his unimitable image or impression which is upon it supposing the truth of the historical part Likewise the truth of the historical part namely that this doctrine was delivered by Christ and his Apostles and that those things were done by him and them which the Scriptures mention we may know infallibly The Apostles and other first witnesses knew it infallibly themselves by their present sense and reason with the concomitance of
the forms of sacred administrations but also all the Rubricks together with the Calender and Tables and every part thereof comes within the compass of this declaration As concerning the import of the assent and consent to be given thereunto I take it unquestionably to signifie according to the genuine sense of the words our approbation or allowance of the use of all things as aforesaid and not meerly to bind us for peace sake not to oppose them Wherefore if the use of any one thing great or small therein comprehended be not allowable there is just ground of refusing this declaration Assent and consent to the use of all things supposeth that all are lawful it supposeth also that all things are so far fit to be used as to have no such evil consequence as may justly forbid their use it supposeth also that the whole and every part of this book is so far true as to have no errors which doth entrench upon the Christian Faith or hath bad influence on mens lives I think I may comply for charity and peace sake in the use of indifferent things of no hurtful tendency tho they be unuseful or unprofitable yet I query whether I may declare my unfeigned assent and consent to the use of those unuseful or unprofitable things or to the using of them instead of things useful and profitable I think some little errors and untruths of inconsiderable consequence such as little mis translations or misapplications of Scripture-phrase may be tolerated in the service of God yet I query whether I may declare such assent and consent to all and every thing as doth express a justifying of those little errors and untruths or an allowing of the retained use of them My bare using of them necessarily signifies no more than that I judg them to be tolerable but my declaring consent to the required use of them signifies that I judg them to be allowable I think I may joyn in a prayer as it is sound and good for the substance tho it hath some little error doctrinal or historical couched in it yet I query whether I may personally use or consent â—o the use of such error I query whether I may declare unfeigned assent and consent to the use of things in themselves indifferent if I heartily wish they were not used in regard of inconveniences or offences arising from them I query also Whether I may declare my assent and consent to the use of a Rubrick being an injunction if I disallow the injoining of the thing prescribed in it and in consenting to a rule or law as such I consent not only to the doing of the thing prescribed but to the prescribing or enjoining thereof Forasmuch as I am not sufficiently clear whether the words unfeigned assent and consent do import only an acknowledgment of the things as simply lawful and passable or besides this an approbation thereof as laudable and desirable I do here in some particulars resolve diversly according to the different supposition of the higher or lower meaning of the said words Of the Second Article of Subscription required by the Thirty sixth Canon THo the declaration of assent and consent be restrained to the use of things yet it doth not appear that the subscription required by the Thirty-sixth Canon is so restrained For these words thereof That the Book of Common-prayer and of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons contains nothing contrary to the word of God seem plainly comprehensive as well of things asserted as of things to be done or used and the truth of the one sort seems to be acknowledged as well as the use of the other sort to be allowed And to say That nothing therein is contrary to the word of God seems to me as much as to say that all things therein are agreeable to the word of God The word of God is the Rule by which all things in the Liturgy ought to be regulated Now for a thing that is under a Rule to be not contrary to the Rule is all one as to be agreeable thereunto Any moral act not contrary to Gods Law is agreeable to it and what is not agreeable to it is contrary to it Here followeth a Consideration of divers particulars contained in the Liturgy Of the Order how the Holy Scripture is appointed to be read I Do not think it in it self unlawful or utterly unfit that some Apocryphal Chapters should be read in the Church But I question whether I may consent to the use of the Calendar and Tables so far as they direct to the reading of Apocryphal Chapters in the same place and under the same title with Canonical Chapters also to the reading of the proper lessons tho apocryphal rather than the lessons in the ordinary course tho canonical I grant that the Church in her Articles of Religion doth sufficiently distinguish between the Canonical and Apocryphal Books nevertheless the aforesaid use of the Apocryphal Chapters in the liturgy without any distinction of the Canonical there given may tempt the Vulgar to take them for Gods word It is to be noted that in the order of reading the lessons the title of holy Scripture and Old Testament is given to the Apocrypha I am more concerned to know whether there be no sufficient objection against the matter of any of the Apocryphal Chapters appointed to be read which may prove them not fit to be used in Divine service Judith c. 9. approveth the fact of Simeon against the Sichemites as performed by divine assistance and approbation and desires the like assistance in her enterprize Chap. 10. and C. 11. she speaks things untrue In defence of the prescribed use of these Chapters it is said that these things are related historically and not for imitation as many things are in the Canonical Scripture Such as were Elijah's intercession against Israel and both his and Jonah's passionate desire of death But this doth not satisfie for those unwarrantable passages which in Canonical Scripture are related historically are sufficiently signified to be unwarrantable as in particular those speeches of Elijah and Jonah are plainly notified to be their weaknesses But the aforesaid passages in Judith seem to be recorded in way of approbation being deliberate in a solemn prayer for success in an enterprize and she expresly prays for success in her deceit and nothing of the disallowance of these things is intimated in that story I ask Whether the reading hereof as a holy lesson doth not tend to the imboldning of men in such undertakings and at least whether it hath not the appearance of evil from which we ought to abstain by the Apostles precept I might further object That there is little evidence of the Historical truth of this Book But on this I insist not Tob. 5.12 The Angel Raphael is brought in telling a falshood in express terms viz. that he was Azarias the son of Ananias the great of Tobits brethren Tho this fift chapter be left out of the
that it was not used in the first Celebration by our Saviour with his Disciples nor in the Apostles time as doth any way appear nor afterwards when General Councils forbad kneeling in any act of adoration on the Lords day To this it may be answered that it is not the enjoyning but the using of this gesture that is consented to and the objected inconvenience follows not the using but the enjoyning thereof in the rigor as to debar from the Sacrament those that scruple it But I further inquire Whether a consent to the use of a Rubrick which hath the nature of an injunction doth not imply a consent not only to the using but to the injoyning of the thing therein prescribed Moreover the very using or observing of this Rubrick by the Minister is an injunction in respect of the people because it includes an obligation upon him not to deliver the Sacrament to them except they use this gesture In the Rubrick after the Communion Note that every Parishioner shall communicate at the least three times in the year whereof Easter to be one That it is the duty of every Parishioner to be fit to receive the Sacrament and accordingly to receive it also that the Church may require this duty of all her Members and Censure those who continue wilfully unfit is not to be questioned But this Rubrick injoyns all Parishioners to communicate and the Parish-Ministers to admit them without any proviso here made touching their fitness or due caution elsewhere taken for it that I know of when it is sadly known that in most Parishes too many Parishioners are notoriously unfit And we see the practice consequent to this Rule a constant general admission or intrusion of notoriously ignorant or ungodly Persons who pollute the Communion of the Church and eat and drink Damnation to themselves Besides this Infidels Papists and such as secretly at least renounce the Communion of the Parish-Churches are Parishioners in many places Now tho such may be compelled to use those means which God hath made universally necessary to bring the ignorant and erroneous to the knowledg of the truth yet I do not see that they may be injoyned in word or deed to profess what they believe not or to take that which is the special Priviledg of Visible Church-Members Of the Order of Baptism THE sign of the Cross in Baptism hath been more suspected to be unlawful than any other ceremony injoyned in the Church of England I shall first set down what hath made me question the lawfulness of it and afterwards what may be said in answer to it Against the lawfulness of the sign of the Cross it is thus objected It is not a meer circumstance but an ordinance of Divine Worship of mans devising and as great as an external rite can be and hath in it the nature of a Sacrament Here is an outward Visible sign of an inward spiritual Grace The outward sign is the representation of the Cross the instrument of Christs Suffering the spiritual Grace is the Grace of being a Christian or a Soldier and Servant of Christ and of Christian fortitude consequent thereunto as the Words of the Liturgy do import And we sign him with the sign of the Cross in token hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified and to fight manfully under his banner against Sin the World and the Devil and to continue Christs faithful Soldier and Servant unto his lives end If it were granted it hath not the compleat Nature of a Sacrament yet one essential part thereof is most apparently in it that is to be an engaging-sign for our part in the Covenant of Grace For in the Liturgy it is declared to be a token of our engagement to Christ crucified in the relations of his Soldier and Servant and to perform the duties of those relations Moreover as Baptism dedicates to Christ so doth the sign of the Cross according to the express words of the Canon viz. It is an honourable badge whereby the party baptized is dedicated to the Service of him that dyed upon the Cross Hereupon I inquire Whether an Ordinance that is of the same import with the Sacraments of the Covenant of Grace or an essential part thereof may be instituted by humane authority or lawfully used by those that are under authority Tho the Imposers say it is not a Sacrament yet while they declare its meaning to be of the formal Nature of a Sacrament they make it to be one indeed tho in word they deny it Whereas to avoid this Argument some say it is imposible for man to make a Sacrament therefore the sign of the Cross cannot be such it is answered That tho God only can institute a lawful and valid Sacrament of his Covenant yet man may presume to institute an Ordinance of the same nature and reason and intent with a Sacrament of divine institution tho it be unlawful and of no effect And such an Ordinance is truly and properly a Sacrament tho an unlawful one as any other Ordinance devised by man that hath the Nature and formal Reason of Religious Worship is truly and properly Worship whatsoever may be said of the lawfulness or unlawfulness thereof The Reply The grand objection against the lawfulness of the sign of the Cross as used in Baptism supposes that it is of the same Nature with a Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace whereupon the proper Nature of such a Sacrament is necessary to be considered Sacraments are signs appointed to ratisie seal and confirm the Covenant of God and to tender and exhibit the Grace of that Covenant to us And if any humane authority constitute any sign to this end it would be a high intrenchment upon the soveraignty of God But the sign of the Cross in Baptism is not used to this end and purpose It is used indeed as a token by way of remembrance and as a testimony of engagement that the party baptized stands obliged to maintain the Christian profession and warfare And altho such profession and engagement be included in a Sacrament yet it is not peculiar thereunto or of its specifically differencing nature Standing at the Creed is a professing and engaging sign of Christianity yet it is not a Sacrament It appears both by the 30th Canon and by the Liturgy it self That the Infant baptized is by vertue of Baptism before it be signed with the sign of the Cross received into the Congregation of Christs Flock as a perfect member thereof and not by any power ascribed to the sign of the Cross And tho it be declared by the Canon That it is an honourable badge whereby the party Baptized is dedicated c. yet this Dedication by the Cross is wholly distinct from the baptismal Dedication to be a Member of the Church We must understand that the Church by this sign engageth the party upon her account to the Service of Christ The Minister acting in the