goods and comfortable conditions exposing vs to open disgrace and contempt or at worst can but take a way our liues then to offend him that can do all this then cast our bodies and souls into hell Let no mā therefore by conformity to kneeling intimate disability in the institutor or insufficiencie in the institution for either is a blasphemous sin He that is sole author of the sacrament is sole author of all the ceremonies and significant signs therein either concerning minister or people for he that is the sole author of the blessing must needs be sole author of the means and instrument wherby he wil giue it therefor seing the Lord onely giues the spiritual blessing signified represented and verily exhibited by the gestures and ceremonies therein and his word neither by precept nor example giues any warrant for any other gesture in the act of receaving then that of the Institution which on all sides is graunted to be a table gesture how dare wee by conformitie varie from Christs owne practise without Christs owne warrant It is said and that truly but how fitly and wisely let others iudge that God is the author of kneeling euen in his divine worship therefore we ought to conform vnto it in the act of receiving I answere that God is the author of images euen in his diuine worship as the Arke and Cherubims yea differing from the first institution as the brasen serpent therefore wee may conforme to the calues at Dan and Bethell which are but images and consecrated onely to his worship and diuine service but either let the Lord be God in the order of the outward ceremonies as well as in the inward substance of his worship or if you will conforme to Ball in the gesture or in the order follow him euen in all for God is the God of the order as well as the God of the substance of his worship Inward or outward let him be therfore either all in all or els not God at all By the word of God and by it onely the minister knowes what to deliuer and what not how to deliuer and how not to whom to deliuer and to whom not the guests also or communicants doe thereby vnderstand at whose hands to receaue and at whose not what to receue and what not and with what gesture to receaue and what gesture not to conforme vnto in the act of receiving for the word of God is the life or soule as I may say of the sacrament and that not onely in generall but even of euery particular of absolute necessity required therein as a gesture is so that whatsoeuer is ordained to be of holy vse therein as the gesture in the act of receauing is if it receaue no life or quickning warrant from the word of God it is absolutely dead or vncleane and defiles and therfore may not vpon any terms be conformed vnto as good and lawfull The word of institution sets forth first the precept of Christ Doe this secondly the promise of Christ This is my body Thirdly the practise of the Apostles having relation to the comandement or precept in their obedience and in their faith having reference to the word of promise now this being the type of all the true administrations of this sacrament to the end of the world doth plainly and vndeniably teach this truth that what soeuer is of absolute necessity in the sacrament as a gesture in the act of receauing is must both in minister and people haue relation to the precept of Christ that so it may be donne in obedience and also to the promise of Christ that so it may be donne in faith or els it is absolutely sin and then though kneeling which in that act manner as it is vrged hath neither precept nor promise of Christ would convert Turke and Pope too yet I hope you wil confesse we ought not to conforme thereto Is kneeling in the act of receaving the sacrament of the altar the gesture of the masse let all that abhorre the grosse Idolatry of that neuer conforme to the likenes of this vnlesse they haue dispensation from the scripture so to doe because in similitude though not in intention it holds proportion with and hath Relation to the Coporall and Reall presence locally Yea let all faithfull Christians holde themselues onely to the name and gesture and to what soeuer els in the institution and word of God is established and was therein by our blessed Lord sanctified and ordained to be of perpetuall vse unles him selfe in the word shall teach otherwise The sacraments even whatsoever is sacramentall were ordained of God not to giue any novelty or new thing by way of tran or con-substantiatiō or like humane devise but having respect to our weaknesse to bee a helpe unto us in sealing up that righteousnesse which is by faith even to increase that assurance of faith which we haue through the word in a greater measure and degree then is had by the ministery thereof let every one labour to haue the feeling of this use if then it be dangerous to add unto the doctrine of the word being the hand writing of the King even his most gracious pardon for all our sins and offences and his patent also for our liuelihood and hope of eternall life Surely it cannot in any respect be lesse dangerous seeing nothing passes by the writing alone without the seale I speake herein after the manner of men to make or conforme to any innovation in the Kings seale even in any thing which is of sacramentall institution being speciall and effectuall parts instrumentally of our spirituall Evidences or assurance which is by faith through the word But if such cōformity be committed against our knowledge I leaue it to the iudgement of the godly learned whether the wilfull persisting therein doe not though not alter the outward essentiall forme yet diminish and lessen every time more and more the powerfull effect and comfortable benefit of this blessed and most holy sacrament For seeing in the institution this ceremoniall signe hath relation to that spirituall supper and most heavenly food or divine nourishment it is most apparant to all that will not winke lest they should perceiue that in the very manner of a table gesture there is by intimation a grounded expectancie and good assurance of partaking that holy and divine nourishment visibly represented unto us a thing which in the matter the Lord saw to be needful for his blessed Apostles and therefore purposely caused them to use this very manner to be a helpe herein unto them and so to every communicant though never so learned and well instructed This sacrament is called a communion sealing up unto us our holy communion with God in Christ by the holy Ghost and our fellowship with all the Saints faithfull children of God Can there bee by any possible meanes therefore any good discretion or decencie humilitie or devotion to leaue a Table gesture which
not done in obedience it is not done in faith and then you will confesse it is sinne and then you know we may not conforme unto it though we might prevent thereby never so great and fearefull mischiefes and procure never so many benefits blessings it cannot be done in obedience of faith unlesse a commandement goe before for looke whom you obey his servants you are that therefore cannot be Gods divine service which God doth not by his divine word command or that cannot be an action of faith which is not commanded by the word and every action of religious use which is not of faith is expressely forbidden Try your selues therfore whether in conforming to kneeling in the act of receiving the Lords holy Supper you stand in the faith or no if you say you looke to God and haue powred out your soules before him as your consciences and many other can beare you witnesse and you dare appeale to him how deere your ministery is unto you and how loath you are to leaue your flockes to a company of roaring boyes or raging beasts c. I answer if you looke to God then you must look to him in his word for else whatsoever you intend he doth not intend to be God unto you if you haue not his warrant therein you do not looke to the true God no more then the Barbarian or Turke doth but do make a very Idoll of him I meane our God doth not blesse or approue of any thing of religious use in his worship as good and lawfull to bee conformed unto but onely those things which himselfe requires in his word and he that will accept of any thing which is not commanded in the word is an Idoll and not the true God for all things concerning him or his worship are onely made known to his Church by the scriptures and the Churches never erre in these things but when they want the commandement or warrant of the word the defect whereof all the learning devotion wisedom authority and zeale of the whole world cannot supply I confesse you make goodly shewes for excusing your conformity but what haue you sayd or what can you pretēd which Ieroboam would not haue accepted at the hands of those Priests who left their places and charges because they would not conform to the ceremonies of the calues And if it be lawfull in you why not in them I confesse that which you obiect that their conformity overthrew the very substance of Gods worship but not that you will not say which was inward but that only which was outward and which is required in the second commandement for the doctrine of the inward substance was in the intention of that provision preserued sound but the forme of Gods outward worship was mainly and diversly I confesse perverted and I also acknowledge that your conformity is nothing so grosse and abhominable as theirs yet this I dare say and testifie that it is of the same nature and that it corrupts and perverts this part of Gods worship in the act of receiving the body and bloud of Christ so that though they differ and differ very greatly yet it is onely in the Species and not in the Genus Without further contention therefore let us bring it to the true rule Whence doth your conformitie come It is a matter concerning Gods outward worship and divine service and so appertaining to the second commandement What must bee the cause of this for if the cause be good the effect is good faith is the cause of all true obedience and that obedience or conformity which is not an effect of faith cannot by all the trickes and devises in the world ever be made good for where the cause is there is the effect and where the effect is there is the cause the effect can never bee in truth whatsoever is conceited or pretended where the cause is not If therefore kneeling as it is urged bee an effect of faith then haue you a precept a promise for it is in the word upon which your faith is grounded and so your obedience and conformity is holy but if it bee not in this very kinde required therein it cannot possibly be an effect of faith and therefore set the best face you can upon it it is but an Idoll of mans invention and therefore conformitie thereto upon what pretence or in what case of extremity soever is unlawfull and wicked It is confessed and professed publikly by some of you that the magistrate sins greevously in requiring this conformity but yet you do well in yeelding thervnto rather then to suffer such a world of incōveniences which you wisely carfully foresee wil otherwise fall vpon Church Cōmonweale Cōpare your case with former times Dauid sinned grevously though not presūptuously as I think some of you do not in bringing the arke from Gibeah in a new Carte this Arke or outward worke the glory of Israell in this iorney was so dangerously shaken by the oxen at the threshing floore of Ornan as if Vzza had not put to his hand it was like to haue bin broken all to peeces did not Vzza cōmendably therfore in putting forth his hand to preuent such a mischeif is not this your very argument many inseparable euils cleaue to this cōsequence he was not stricken for touching the ark for that the Leuits might do but onely for the manner and order of touching it being in a cart which was not warranted by God and I tell you the best and most learned men in the whole world are but as oxen and put the Arke of Gods word into the most temperate Cart of their newest and best reformed Invention they will grieuouusly shake the verie substance of it Seing then the sacraments and whatsoeuer is sacramentall as a gesture in the act of receaving is are ordeined not by man but by God not for any worldly carnall or civill respects as to testifie our obedience to the magistrate which yet I confesse must most cheerfully be manifested but meerly and properly for spirituall vses euen to nourish our soules by sealing vp unto our hearts the assurance and certeintie of the couenant of grace in the free pardon of all our sins through the sole merit of the most pretious blood of our Lord Iesus Christ most liuely represented and truly or effectually exhibited to every faithfull beleeuer herein let vs hold fast the right order and forme of administration thereof in all the signs elementall or ceremoniall euen in all the actions gestures or ceremonies which by Christ himself in the first administration being vsed and neuer after repealed not any other by his warrant established come within the compasse of diuine institution Ieast wittingly though wee pretend vnwillingly conforming to the alteration of the signe though but ceremoniall wee depriue our selues of that which stands in relation therevnto which is substantiall The sacraments with all the essentiall properties therein together with the scepter of
Aedes Christi in Academiâ Oxoniensi THE SECOND PART OF A PLAIN DISCOVRSE OF AN VNLETTERED CHRISTIAN WHEREIN BY WAY OF demonstration hee shevveth vvhat the reasons bee vvhich hee doth ground upon in refusing conformity to kneeling in the act of receiving the Lords Supper * ⎠* By Tho. Dighton Gent. PSAL. 119. 113. I hate vaine inventions but thy law doe I loue Printed in the yeare 1619. TO ALL FAITHFVL MINISTERS AND CHRISTIANS WHO ARE perswaded of the lawfulnes of kneeling in the act of receiving the Lords Supper grace in Christ Iesus and satisfaction by these presents AL this whole world and all the learning and wisdome thereof lies in wickednes or darknes and cannot possibly discerne or judge and find out whether any gesture be indifferent or if they were which is the fittest gesture for he that walketh in darknes knoweth not whither he goeth whither he conforme to a right gesture or to a wrong it is all oneto him Harken not then to the arguments or reasons of Darknes or of flesh bloud though all the chosen chariots of Egipt go before thē but let vs goe to the light not in the doctrine onely but in the Ceremonie also not in the substance onely but in the gesture also for no error may be conformed vnto in either and whatsoeuer is not warranted by the light must needs bee darknes yea if it come not from the truth of necessity it is erroneous and dangerous and therefore not to bee conformed vnto If then Christ bee the light of the world and his word be the onely truth in the world then whosoever followes not Christ in the gesture according to the testimony of the word walkes in darknesse and conformes to errour therein Howsoever therefore I doe with all thankefulnesse to God and due respect of you confesse and acknowledge that I doe highly reverence you with Peter yet I doe avow in the sight of God and of all his Churches that all those are worthy to be blamed who either iustifie or approue conformity to kneeling in that manner and order as it is urged and by the meaner or poorer sort refused or especially that presse it with such violence as if they would take it by force yea herein I am bold through Christ to resist you because I know Whosoever be his gifts never so excellent and admirable doth any thing in substance or in ceremony presumptnously against the apparant practise of the Apostolicall primitiue Churches grounded in the evidence of the spirit upon the plaine testimony of the inspired Scriptures being approved by Christ himselfe in the very institution and haue no warrant from the word of God for their so doing do directly blaspheme the Lord which place that I be not censured to abuse or any other at any time upon this occasion mentioned by me this once for alwayes I doe in all humility desire the godly to consider and remember that howsoever every place of Scripture hath a particular intendment or speciall respect yet in the large extent thereof as it hath relation unto all ages Churches and persons there is also and that warrantably a more generall drift and purpose directly intended though therefore I presse them not in that speciall or particular intent yet if according to the true Analogie of faith I use and urge them in the larger sence and respectiue meaning of the Holy Ghost I hope I may sasely yea in the assurance of faith iustifie that I erre not from the direct purpose of the spirit of truth As for example the Holy Ghost saith that not to heare the the voyce of Christ even in all things will harden the heart Whence I conclude from the large extent and generall scope of these places That not to heare and regard the word of God which is the voyce of Christ which plainly declares that Christ hath approued a table-gesture and no other and yet to declare and teach the people that any gesture ordained by the Church and in particular this in question is lawfull and ought onely to be conformed to or in cases of extremity may bee vndergone as a burden though Christ haue given no warrant for it I say such positions and courses taken and maintained will harden the wisest most learned best disposed and most zealous heart or hearts of the sincerest teachers and professors in the best reformed Churches in the world Againe it is said When Christ commeth hee will tell us all things the particular intent of this place concernes the publicke worship of God from the larger and generall scope whereof I hold it a most warrantable conclusion that Christ in his word hath certainly made knowne what gesture we may conforme to in the act of receiving the Lords Supper being essentially necessary in this part of his worship but in the whole Scrip. Christ hath not given approbation to any but a Table-gesture therefore no other may bee conformed unto For these things were not written for them of those times onely but for us also yea for all the churches to the end of the world Another thing I also desire not to be mistaken in namely that though I do verily beleeue and therfore confidently affirme that Conformitie to any gesture of religious vse in the worship of God being not warranted by the word is absolutly vnlawfull and sinfull yet do I not thereby Iudge or hold all Conformitants to be vile and wicked persons or that such Congregations are not the true Churches of Christ for I know it is God which works both the will and the deede euen of his good pleasure as he sees best not alike at all times nor to all persons but some shall remaine ignorant of some truths yet not to be therfore seperated from Others hate all Inventions yet not therfore to be runne after as if they were the onely true churches and salvatiō no where els to be found some I say ignorantly conforme to error others according vnto knowledge abhorre and hate all false waies and yet both of these the true Churches and faithfull servants of God Onely my desire before the Lord is to strip hypocrits of that conceite which they haue of their wisdom learning authoritie and great estimation which they haue purchased or obtained in the world for nature or the naturall man putting on the shew of grace or the name and title of the spirituall man as the Asse in the lyons skinne is presently conceated that forthwith they are Canonically holy spirituall or diuine because such traditionall titles are successiuoly compounded for thē though none in the world be more lycentious and profane then euen some of thē yea and that in these outward forms of Godlines divised by man for Gods diuine worship and service the verie substance of Religion so farre as it is outward and subiect to sence doth in a speciall or principall parte consist for they hold that no man neede or