set up his Reasons against the Letter of it as I have observed him often to do To conclude That the Assemblies of Christians are places for secret Prayers of each apart when they do not interfere with any Publick Office as well as for Publick appears from the whole tenour of the Scripture and the constant practice of the Churches of God Antient and Reformed And that those secret Prayers ought to be offered with Adoration as well as the Publick is likewise manifest And therefore the Directory by forbidding Adoration at our first coming into Church has excluded it where it was most proper III. But Thirdly I take it for granted that when an Old Law or Rule is laid aside and a new substituted in the place of it all things contained in the Old repealed Law or Order are laid aside which are not contained and again injoyned in the New By which Rule the Directory doth plainly exclude all Bodily Worship For in the Preface to it we are told that They resolve to lay aside the former Liturgy with the many Rites and Ceremonies formerly used in the Worship of God and have agreed on this following Directory for all the parts of Publick Worship at Ordinary and Extraordinary Times Here then the Liturgy with all the Rites and Ceremonies used formerly in the Worship of God are laid aside not only our Praises Prayers c. are excluded but all the Rites and Ceremonies with which they were performed such as Kneeling Standing c. And instead of these we are oblig'd to no more than is ordered in the Directory Prayers Praises c. are there indeed Ordered and the way of performing them prescribed but not a word of Bodily Worship and therefore it is plainly excluded among the other Rites and Ceremonies that are laid aside IV. All that Mr. B. alledges to prove that this Bodily Adoration is required by the Directory is Rem p. 109. That it requires such as come into the Congregation after Publick Worship is begun Not to betake themselves to their private Devotions but Reverently to compose themselves to joyn with the Assembly in that Ordinance of God that is then in hand which can import no less than putting themselves into a bodily posture most suitable to that Ordinance But I answer This passage imports no such thing the Assembly has no where explained Reverence in this sence or given the least reason to believe that they thought one posture more suitable to one Ordinance than another except Sitting at the Lords Supper which posture they seem to approve thro' the whole Service for they require those that come in To take their Seats or Places which in common acceptation is to sit down and they never require them to rise It was therefore incumbent on Mr. B. to prove that by Joyning Reverently in Prayers or Thanksgiving for Example is meant Standing or Kneeling at them or else this is no Vindication of the Directory But Secondly We are not left to guess what is meant by Joyning Reverently in the Ordinance then in hand The Sentence immediately going before explains it where the Assembly tells how the people are to Joyn in Publick Worship even by forbearing to read any thing Abstaining from private Whisperings Conferences Salutations or doing Reverence to any Persons From all gazing sleeping and other indecent behaviour which may disturb the Minister or People This is the way they are to joyn in the Service of God But not one word of putting themselves into a Bodily Posture most suitable to the Ordinance that is in hand It is plain therefore as I said before that they excluded these when they laid aside the many Rites and Ceremonies used formerly in the Worship of God and never restored them V. Let me add further That Reverence and Worship are very different things We ought to behave our selves Reverently to all our Betters and at all times But Worship is peculiarly to our Superiours who have power over us And as the things are different so there are different outward Acts that express them and neither Your Directory Confession of Faith or Catechism or any other Authentick Rule that I know of amongst you require any one visible Act peculiar to Worship in Your Assemblies Nor do I see by what Authority your Ministers can exact it from their People where they pretend to Conform to the Directory nor can it be pretended that the Composers of it forgot this For it is manifest that they remembred it so far as to forbid all Adoration where it was most proper that is at our coming into the Assembly and never require nor allow it any where after VI. Thirdly What I have said concerning the sense of the Assembly that Composed your Directory is agreeable to the Notion Dr. Twiss their Chairman had of this Matter as appears from his Letter directed to Mr. Mede dated July 27. 1635. 'T is the 59 in the Collection In which he gives this censure of Bodily Worship The Lord requires the true Worshippers should Worship him in Spirit and Truth in distinction from Worshipping him either at Jerusalem or in the Mount the Woman spake of but as to the outward gestures I doubt I shall prove a Novice as long as I breath and we affect not to make Ostentation of our Devotion in the face of the World the rather because thereby we draw upon our selves the censure of Hypocrisy And sometimes if a Man lift up his eyes he is censured as a P. I confess there is no outward gesture of Devotion which may not be as handsomly performed by as carnal a heart as breaths And in his thirteenth Letter being the seventieth in the forementioned Collection he adds And as for outward Complements nothing more pleases a Natural Man in Religious Worship and he finds himself apt enough in it yea far more apt than he who knowing and considering that God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit are most carefull for the performance thereof Whereupon while their Minds are intent they find themselves not so free for outward Complements the care whereof is apt to cause avocation and disturbance in that unum necessarium Hence in the same Letter he blames himself for being prevailed with to rise up at the solemn Glory given to the Father Son and Holy Ghost and commends one that could never be perswaded to it Thus you see how the Prolocutor of the Assembly ridicules Outward Worship under the Names of Outward Postures and Complements You find himself likewise alledging in opposition to it our Saviours Command of Worshipping in Spirit Jo. 4. 24 And the very same Arguments that I mentioned and Answered in my Discourse Chap. 4. Sect. 3. Plainly intimating withal that it is a piece of Ostentation to use these Acts of Bodily Worship a sign of a carnal heart to be pleased with them and to neglect them a sign of an Heart intent on God's Spiritual Service Yet Mr. B.
had reformed effectually these Abuses I should not have troubled my self with a Vindication for my design was not to Accuse but Reform you yet I thank God my Endeavours have not altogether proved unsuccessful upon you even in this point VIII Mr. B. affirms Rem p. 111. That your Ministers frequently in their Discourses to their People recommend Standing or Kneeling in their publick Prayers and p. 112 That they have faithfully declared to their people their dislike of Sitting Now pray let me give you this easie Test to distinguish your Faithful Ministers from the Unfaithful Those of them that have frequently and heartily reproved you for Sitting at your publick Prayers before my Book appeared count them in this point Faithful Ministers of the Gospel and those that have not done so reckon them as they truly are Unfaithful and conniving Shepherds And take heed how you trust them in other cases I thank God for it that by all I can learn my Book has done more to reform this Unseemly Practice as Mr. B. himself calls it Rem p. 112. amongst you than all your Ministers these 50 years and plainly shews that they need some inspection to mind them of their Duty Sect. X. Concerning the Practise of Bodily Reverence by Dissenters 1. A Seventh Matter of Fact with which Mr. B. anew charges me Vind. p. 23. is That I affirm that the Dissenters are Taught that external postures of Bodily Worship may in no case be practised for which he quotes my Discourse p. 137. I wish that Mr. B. while he taxes me for Accusing you Unjustly and misrepresenting you were careful of avoiding such dealings toward others If you look into the place quoted you will neither find the Words nor Sence of what he alledges against me my Words are That in case of Necessity we think our Outward Performances may be lawfully omitted but you are Taught that in no case they may be lawfully practised You are Taught rather to stay at home and not to Worship God at all publickly than to conform in Outward Gestures or Circumstances In which words it is plain First That I address my self to you in particular and not to Dissenters in general as he represents me Secondly It is evident I spake here of the Outward Gestures and Circumstances to which our Church requires you to conform in order to joyn in her publick Worship and not of all External Postures of Bodily Worship And it is too sad a Truth that above Twenty thousand of you in this Diocess refrain and have refrained every Lord's day from all Publick Worship for many Years rather than joyn in these and that you have counted our Standing Kneeling c. idolatrous heretofore appears not only from your Practice and Profession but from your Authors Witness the Reasons for which the Service-book urged upon Scotland ought to be refused printed 1638 in which the Third Reason is because it hath a number of Popish Superstitious and Idolatrous Ceremonies amongst which are reckoned the Priest's Standing Kneeling Turning to the People and the Peoples Standing at Gospels at Gloria Patri c. Creeds their Answering the Minister and many such-like in number above Fifty These unchristian and unjust Censures are still in many of your Minds and for ought I find they are the chief Objections you have against our Service and I beseech God in his Mercy to grant that either my Reasons or Mr. B's Concessions may remove them so that we may hear no more from you of the Idolatry Superstition or Popery of our Ministers Kneeling at their Prayers or standing at their Blessings or of our Peoples Kneeling at their Confessions of Sins at their Prayers and Communions or Standing at their Praises Thanksgivings Professions of Faith and other parts of our Service that require a more solemn attention and concern Sect. XI Concerning the Praises of God 1. I Shall add an Eighth Matter of Fact that has relation to the same Affair and that is concerning your praising God Mr. B. alledges Vind. p. 23. these as my words and puts them as such in Italian Characters That You have no other way of Praising God but by singing a Verse or two of a Psalm And quotes my Discourse p. 24 for them but if you look into the place you will find that these are neither my words nor sense I am there only comparing your use of Psalms and Hymns in the Praises of God with ours and I observed that our Church praises God every day with five or six Psalms besides other Hymns Whereas You only praise him in a piece of a Psalm of a few Verses A thing so notoriously true that without perverting the words 't is impossible to find any Exception against them He objects indeed That your Directory prescribes Extemporary Thanksgivings and spends many Pages in his Remarks about them But I answer Thanksgivings and Praises are different things tho' they commonly go together and your Extempory Thanksgivings are reckoned in your Directory under the Head of Prayers The Title under which they are prescribed is that of publick Prayer after Sermon The Rule is The Sermon being ended the Minister shall give Thanks c. And then the Prayer ended let a Psalm be sung I had no intention to deny these but reckoned them as your Directory doth with your Prayers Which gives no other Rule for the Praises of God but under the head of singing Psalms the words there are It is the Duty of Christians to praise God by singing of Psalms the only Rule for the Praises of God in the whole Directory Properly speaking Psalms and Hymns are the Scripture way of praising God tho' in a large sense we praise him by our Confessions of Sins and Faith and by our Prayers as well as by our Thanksgivings Sect. XII Concerning the Rule of Human Prudence 1. A Ninth Matter of Fact is concerning the Rule of Human Prudence that we find Rem p. 7 9 he charges me Vind. p. 28 with Mistaking that Rule and supposing that he denied that God had given us any particular Directions at all in reference to the Modes of Worship But I must declare I neither did nor intended to ascribe any such Opinion to him I knew very well that he owned many such but he positively affirmed Rem p. 7. That tho' God has commanded publick Prayer Praise Hearing Celebration of the Lords-Supper c. yet at what time or place we shall assemble in in what order these parts of Worship shall be performed what particular devout posture we shall use among several equally expressive of our religious Reverence what Translation of the Bible or Version of the Psalms we shall chuse what portion of the Scripture shall be Read Explained and Applied what Utensils shall be employed in the celebration of the Sacraments and a multitude of such Circumstances and Modes of that kind are left to Human determination only therein the general Rules of Scripture must be regarded Now tho'
A Second Admonition TO THE Dissenting Inhabitants Of the Diocess of DERRY CONCERNING Mr. J. Boyse's Vindication of his Remarks on a Discourse Concerning The Inventions of Men IN THE Worship of GOD. With an APPENDIX Containing an Answer to Mr. B's Objections against the Sign of the Cross. By WILLIAM Lord Bishop of Derry London Printed for R. Clavel at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard 1696. Heads of the Discourse CHAP. I. Matters of Fact Sect. I. THE Numbers of those that Neglect all Publick Worship on the Lord's Day p. 3. II. The frequency of Sacraments p. 11 III. The Number of Communicants p. 20 IV. The Directory a hindrance to Communions p. 24 V. Mr. B's Excuses for few Communions Examined p. 27 VI. The Reading the Scriptures p. 38 VII The Mysteries of Religion p. 44 VIII The Catechism p. 54 IX Bodily Worship p. 59 X. The Practice of Reverence by Dissenters p. 75 XI The Praises of God p. 77 XII The Rule of Human Prudence p. 79 XIII The 3d 4th and 5th Canons p. 97 XIV Mr. B's Demands p. 99 XV. Mr. Sq. p. 107 XVI Personal Vindication p. 112 CHAP. II. Of the Reasoning part of Mr. B's Book Sect. I. MR. B's stating the Case as to purity of Worship and Discipline p. 126 II. Mr. B's Partiality p. 138 APPENDIX Containing an Answer to Mr. B's Objections against the Sign of the Cross. Sect. I. THE proper Method to discover the true Nature of Sacraments as Signs p. 159 II. That Sacraments are primarily Signs of God's Grace not of our duty 171 III. That the Scriptures Warrant us to use other Signs that are not Sacraments for the several uses assigned by Mr. B. to Sacraments 201 IV. Of Representing Signs 208 V. Of Obliging Signs 221 VI. Of Distinguishing Signs 240 VII That the Cross is such a Sign as the Scriptures Warrant 251 Conclusion 274 A SECOND ADMONITION TO THE Dissenting Inhabitants Of the Diocess of DERRY Concerning Mr. J. Boyse his Vindication of his Remarks on a late Discourse of William Lord Bishop of DERRY CONCERNING The Inventions of Men in the Worship of GOD. CHAP. I. Concerning Matters of Fact I. I Thought it necessary in a former Admonition to give you some account of my design in my Book concerning The Inventions of Men in the Worship of God in order to enable you to pass a judgment on Mr. Boyse's Remarks on it He has thought himself concerned to write a Vindication of them And tho' I do not suppose it very necessary I shall give you a few Reflections on it It consists of Matters of Fact and Reasonings I shall say a little to each of them and leave you to judge of it And I pray most heartily to God that it would please him to direct you The matter is of great moment since it concerns the Worship of God and whatever Mr. Boyse would suggest the true point is Whether about Nine in Ten of you shall Worship God publickly any where on the Lord's Day or stay at home If I can prevail with you to come to the Established Worship you may easily and conveniently Worship God in your Parish Churches every Lords Day or oftner and receive the Lords-Supper four times every Year at least and oftener if you desire it But if I cannot perswade you to this about Nine in Ten of you must stay at Home as you have done for many Years and perhaps not have a fit opportunity of Communicating afforded you once in Seven Years Sect. I. Concerning the Numbers of those that neglect all Publick Worship on the Lord's Day THis then shall be the First Matter of Fact of which I shall endeavour to make you sensible since Mr. Boyse questions it and jests at my concern about it Vind. p. 2. The account he opposes to it is in these words That in the Parish of Templemore alias Derry there are two Meetings in which there will be found above 2400 who ordinarily Worship God every Lord's Day the least Congregation amongst you are ordinarily 600 and some above a thousand that do Worship God every Lord's Day so that where Ministers are settled you do not know of one in twenty that do not ordinarily attend Publick Worship This account he says he has from your Ministers You will easily be Judges of the truth of it and therefore I desire you to consider II. First That even in Derry there are Congregations much less than 600 and seldom in Burt above 400 or 500 and that those two Meeting-Houses tho the largest will not hold 1200 to Hear I sent to count and am assured both have not a thousand ordinarily 2dly I desire you to remember that tho' these Meeting-Houses are both in the Parish of Derry yet the Inhabitants of 11 Parishes depend on them who have no nearer or more convenient Meetings to go to That is to say Fanthen Desertegny Clonmany Coldagh Clonca Donagh Movill Clandermot part of Faughanvale part of Cumber and part of Donaghedey a District in length from Malin to Donaghedey Church about 33 Miles and in breadth from the Church of Faughanvale to the lower end of Inch about 14 Miles In which there are 14 Churches and Chappels and in which 12 Conformable Clergy-Men continually Officiate Preaching in the Morning and Catechizing for about one half of the Year in the Afternoons with an Explanation of some heads of the Catechism This scope of ground is well Inhabited and if I mistake not is near as big as the County of Dublin and contains at least one fourth part of the whole Diocess and if there be in the Parish of Templemore of your perswasion 2400 as Mr. Boyse intimates and I do believe there are there can hardly be less in the other 11 Parishes than 4 times as many and then in all about 12000 depend on these two Meeting-Houses Of which I doubt if a thousand attend Publick Worship on one Lord's Day with another And if we allow 1200 as Mr Boyse suggests yet it doth not mend the matter for it is still but a tenth part of the whole III. Your next Meeting is yet in a worse condition for there depends on it Tamlaghfinlagan alias Ballykilly Drumchose Aughanlow Balteagh Dongevin Banagher part of Cumber part of Faughanvale and of Tamlanghard a District containing some of the richest and best planted Parishes in the County of Londonderry and in length from the point of Magilligan to the further part of Banagher at least 20 Miles and in breadth from the Church of Faughanvale to the utmost part of Balteagh or Drumchose about 14. Yet here the Meeting-House will not contain as I am informed above 400. The like may be said of the Meeting of Aghadowy upon which there depend the Parishes of Aghadowy Kilrea Desertoghill Erregill part of Macosquin part of Tamlaghocrielly and the Chappel of Fagevy in length from the old Church of Camus to the most distant parts of Tamlaghocrielly 13 or 14 Miles and from the Ban River to the most
distant parts of Desertoghill about 10 or 12. The like might be shewed of Maghâ—ra Ardstra and Donaghmore and there needs no more to prove the truth of this than to consult the Maps of the Counties IV Let me add that even these are not constantly supplyed for the Ministers what on account of assisting their Neighbour Ministers at Sacraments what on account of their visiting other parts of the Kingdom and what on account of their private Affairs do frequently miss and disappoint their People Insomuch that in Ardstra for Example their Minister has been absent at least 7 or 8 Months If then we lay these things together and take one Meeting and one Sunday with another I think my Computation was very modest when I conjectured that hardly one in ten of you Worshiped God any where on the Lords-day V. But because I would have as little dispute with Mr. Boyse as possible I will take his own Computation and allow 1st That there are 9 Meeting-Houses in the Diocess tho really for the last 2 Years there has been only 8 and for the last 7 or 8 Months only 7 2dly I will allow that there are 700 at each Meeting Mr. Boyse sayes 600 ordinarily and some above 1000 tho' really take one Sunday and one Meeting with another there are not 300. 3dly I will allow that there are but 30 thousand Dissenters in the Diocess tho really there are more And now let us see how many Worship God on the Lords day and how many prophane it by staying at home according to Mr. Boyse's own account And it is thus Nine times 700 make 6300 the Number of Worshipers which taken out of 30000 there remains 23700 that stay at home and attend no Worship at all Perhaps half as many as Worship God in all the Dissenters Meetings in Ireland A thing that deserves a serious Consideration and Concern and tho Mr. B. seemes to make light of it Vind. p. 2. yet sure to use my endeavours to perswade these 23000 to attend their Parish Churches rather than to stay at home on the Lords day was my duty as a Christian Bishop and Pastour And how Mr. B. will Answer to God that he has contributed to hinder my Endeavours tho he professes he did not design it I leave it to our Common Judge and Master VI. Neither Mr. Boyse nor your Ministers could be ignorant of this since it arises clearly from their own Compuration And I leave you to judge whether it looks not like amusing the World and serving a Party to publish such an Account as he and they have done For to tell us of two Meeting-Houses in one Parish when indeed there are only those two in one quarter of the Diocess I am sure looks like such a Design Yet this has been your case for many years past and is like to be in a great measure for many to come For when can you expect Ten Ministers more than you have in the District of Derry and Burt And yet these would be rather of the fewest to accommodate each place with a Meeting at a due distance VVhen can you expect Seven instead of one in the District of Ballykelly or Six in the District of Aghadowy and proportionally in the rest VII I desire you to observe that Mr. B. p. 26. declares That it was not his design to hinder you from joyning with the Established Church in our ordinary Lords-day Service and Expresly declares his own Opinion for the Lawfulness of it I hope your own Ministers are of the same Opinion since he professes p. 24. That he had a just call to write his Remarks and that from the Dissenting Ministers of this Diocess And Three of them by their Certificates seem to approve of his Performances If then it be their Opinion that it is lawful for you to joyn in Our Publick Worship at least when you cannot go to your own Meetings and that you had better do so than stay at home especially where the Established Ministers are sober able orthodox and diligent as those of this Diocess I presume generally are I desire you to call to mind whether your Ministers have declared their opinion to you in this point or no. If they have consider how you will answer your neglect of God's Publick Worship so long at the last day when it shall appear you might lawfully have joyned in it But if your Ministers have not made any such Declaration of their Opinion in this point tho they know it to be Lawful judge with your selves whether they have discharged the Office of Faithful Guides to you in revealing to you the whole will of God as they ought to have done since they have suffered for many Years and yet do suffer about Nine in Ten of you to stay at home on the Lord's day and joyn in no Publick Service of God rather than joyn in the Worship Praises Prayers and Sacraments Celebrated in your own Parish Churches or hear the Scriptures Read and the great Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven opened to you by such Ministers as you cannot but in your Conscience acknowledge and many of you have acknowledged to be equal to your own in Piety Learning Diligence and Industry and who would have been eminent amongst you if they had been of your Party I conceive the resolution of this Question to be of great Moment to you and a great step to our Peace and Union and therefore you ought every one of you to require your Ministers direct and positive Resolution in it By which you will perceive whether your Guides are of one mind in this weighty Affair and if they be you 'l consider how you came to be ignorant of it as your Practice and Profession declare you are and where the fault is to be laid I the rather press this because I know that several are willing and desirous to frequent the publick Worship but dare not fearing the malice and hatred of their Neghbours who treat them as Apostates that do so and contrive their Ruine The truth is Your Ministers have Preached you into a Dislike of the Established Worship they have represented it as Idolatrous and by these means they have entirely separated you from us as to all publick Worship and have got you to depend on themselves And now when they have you they are not able to supply you but have dealt with you as the false Mother did with the Child before Solâ—mon they would rather you should not worship God at all than with us But whether this looks like Zeal for God's Worship I must leave it with you to judge As for my self I hope I shall not be reputed I am sure I shall not become your Enemy because I tell you the Truth And shall apply the words of St. Paul Gal. 4. 17. To you and your Teachers They zealously affect you but not well they would Exclude you or rather Us as in the Margine of your Bibles that you may
affect their Sect. II. Concerning Frequency of Sacraments I. BUt Secondly Because the Frequency of your Sacraments which is the next greatest Matter of Fact has a great dependance on this Last I shall consider it next and compare my Assertions with Mr. Boyse's and engage you to judge who comes nearest the Truth My words at which Mr. Boyse takes so great Exception are these Dis. Chap. 5. Sect. 3. N. 3. When People were relaxed from the particular and certain Rules of our Church by the first breaking off of those of your Perswasion from us the Lord's Supper was laid aside wholly for several Years by some Congregations I appeal to you whether it is not yet reckoned a great thing among you if once in a Year or two a Communion be Celebrated in one of your Meetings nay among some of you it is omitted for several Years By the best enquiry I could make I could not compute that one in ten that go to your Meetings ever Receive thro' the whole course of their Lives I should be glad to find that I were mistaken in this Computation Mr. B. denies every one of these with many hard words and asserts p. 136. That it is Universally usual in every Meeting where an Ordained Minister is to have the Lord's Supper Administred once a Year and twice in the larger Towns To convince the World of the Truth of what I said and of Mr. Boyse's mistake I laid down the account I received of this Matter and found that the Sacrament was Administred but about Nine times in Seven Years in all the Meeting-Houses of the Diocess before the writing of my Admonition which was May 1694 as appears from the date of it Mr. B. is very ill pleased with my Computation and alledges that a very particular enquiry has been made Vind. p. 16. The Account of which he sums up in these words The Year 88 falling within the Compass of the Seven Years mentioned by the Bishop you had it in that Seven Years 22 or 23 times If it had been thus it is very little to the purpose since even so it doth not amount to once a Year in every Meeting where there was an Ordained Minister But Mr. Boyse might have observed that Eight of these were Celebrated amongst you last Summer since my Admonition that is at Burt Strabane Donaghmore Ardstra Ballykelly Aughadowy Maghera and Derry This Last appears by the Derry Certificate it self to have been July 22 1694 near three Months after my Admonition was Written which shews that he includes the Sacraments of Summer 1694. There remains then confessedly but about 14 and I do not think it material to contend about five Sacraments in a whole Diocess in Seven Years II. But Secondly Mr. B. is so far from shewing any mistake in what I asserted that I think he has furnished me with a sufficient proof of it for he affirms p. 16. That after a very particular Enquiry he finds in the Years 87 and 88. The Sacrament was administred in Derry twice in Donagheede twice in Drumrah twice in Ardstra twice in Urny twice in Donaghmore twice in Lifford once in Clandermot once These then are all the Sacraments that your ministers on a particular Enquiry could find Administred in these two Years in this Diocess and indeed I perceive they took great pains in the Enquiry sending Quaeries about to this purpose It appears then that in other Meetings in this Diocess there was none Administred in those two Years and of such as had Ordained Ministers there was these following 1 Burt. Mr. Ferguson their present Minister No Sacrament in 1687 or 88. They had before Mr. Grahms Mr. Haunton Mr. Haliday These Officiated about 20 Years and had but three Sacraments that I can find 2 Ballykelly Mr. Crooke their present Minister has served above 30 Years No Sacrament in 87 or 88. When or how often before not known 3 Aughadowy Mr. Boyd their present Minister for above 30 Years No Sacrament in 87 or 88. Nor can I find when or how often before 4 Tamlaghocricly Mr. Gilchrest for many Years before the Troubles No Sacrament in 87 or 88. Nor any before that I can find 5 Macosquin Mr. Lowry before the Troubles No Sacrament in 87 or 88. Before him they had Mr. Boyd Mr. Wilson Mr. Eliot but no Sacrament for 16 Years that I can find 6 Maghera Mr. Kilpatrick who officiated above 20 Years No Sacrament in 87 or 88. The Sacrament Administred Seven or Eight times and no more in those 20 Years that I can find 7 Dumboe Mr. Wilson till the troubles and four Years before No Sacrament in his time Mr. Blair before no Sacrament two Years before he died I cannot find how many before 8 Strabane Mr. Wilson before the troubles for 20 Years No Sacrament in 87 or 88. But one or two at the most in his time as I can find Here you may observe that Eight Meetings in this Diocess for the Years 87 and 88 had no Sacrament at all of the rest some had one some had two as is alledged which to shorten the dispute I will take for granted since this is sufficient to prove that it is a great matter if a Sacrament be Administred in one of your Meetings in a Year or two which was my Assertion And I have been so far from wronging you in it that it appears after the most strict Enquiry that none had above one in a Year in which number Mr. B. reckons six two had but one in two Years and Eight Meetings had none at all in these two Years But Secondly How they behaved themselves before those two Years appears sufficiently from the Account I have added and if there should happen to have been twice more Sacraments than I have an Account of yet it would not excuse your Ministers from a very Criminal Neglect and fully justifies my Assertion That the Sacrament is often omitted for several Years together in some of your Meetings and in some places for ten Years or more In which Number are Tamlaugh o Crilly Macosquin and Strabane the second best Town in the Diocess Thirdly It shews what you are to judge of Mr. B's Assertion p. 14. That it is Universally usual in every Meeting where an Ordained Minister is settled to have the Lords-Supper Administred constantly once a Year Here are eight had none in two years and I doubt whether it has been a constant Custom in any one Meeting to have it once a year at least I have seen no Voucher for it III. As to his asserting Your having the Lord's Supper administred constantly twice a Year in the larger Towns I have told you in my Admonition p. 153 That I can call only three such in this part of the Country that is Londonderry and Strabane in this Diocess and Colrain in the border of it Now as to Londonderry it has had this Sacrament administred but twice in Six or Seven Years and Colrain but once in that time
by blackening another and when that is done without truth as the case is here it is a grief to a good Man to think that serving a Party should Influence any to do it V. But Mr. B. gives me very hard words Vind. p. 15. for looking back no further than my own time in my account of Sacraments administred in the Establish'd Church whereas I give an account of yours for seven Years If I had for 30 I do not see any harm in it but the truth was that many Ministers were dead and I could not meet with any that readily could inform me But to satisfy you that I had no design in this I will not give you the best Account I can get for these three Years that are omitted Tho' I suppose all are not come yet to my knowledge In the Year 1688 the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was Administred in the Cathedral 12 times In the Parish Churches 83 times In the Cathedral in the Year 1689 12 times In the Parish Churches 41 times In the year 1690 in the Cathedral 12 times In the Parish Churches 39 times In all 199 And now I do not see what advantage it was to me to have omitted this or why Mr. B. should express such resentment at it St Paul cautions us against Evil Surmisings 1 Tim. 6. 4. And whether the imputing this to Disingenuity in me be of that sort I leave you to judge if you compare the two years of the Troubles there is 104 of ours to none among you VI. The last excuse Mr. B. makes for your Ministers is their Sickness this he alledges in behalf of Mr. Wilson for Strabane Mr. Rowat for Lâ—fford and Mr. Crooke for Ballykelly but this is no excuse These were as negligent when well as sick and none of them was a year without Preaching several Sundays twice And it is full as easy to Administer the Sacrament to two or three hundred as to Preach a Sermon It is usual for 3 or 4 of your Ministers to assist at Neighbouring Sacraments and one assistant would have prevented any disappointment of the People which Mr. B. says Vin. p. 16. hapned twice at Balindret Ministers that are infirm may very lawfully omit one of their Sermons on the Lords Day and Administer the Sacrament in lieu of it In which Case there is no hardship on them since the People give it to one another amongst you without any blessing at the delivery to each Neither doth your Directory require the Minister to make any Exhortation whilst the People are receiving nor after they have received only says he may in a few words put them in mind c. And therefore whilst your Ministers make two Sermons a-day and yet pretend disability for Administring the Lords-Supper we must reckon this another instance of your making void the Commands of God by your own Tradition A Sermon that justles out the Sacrament is a Human Invention as much as Alms that hinder a Man from relieving his Parent Mark 7. 11. VII These are all the excuses that Mr. B. seem to have made for you and I doubt they will appear very slender in the eyes of God when he calls your Teachers to an account for their Stewardship in dispersing the Misteries of God It had been much more proper methinks for a Christian Minister to have reproved you for your negligence than to have denied plain Matter of Fact and pleaded such Excuses Mr. B. doth both in his Remarks and Vindication object to us the Diocess of Down and Conor I think he has little reason to do it to Me But I must now tell you that the neglects there were neither so Universal nor unexcusable as these of your Ministers have been in this particular and had you been in Chancery Michaelmas Term last you would have heard as much said for the most negligent there as Mr. B. has written for your Ministers which only shews that Money and interest will find colours for every thing But the negligence of your Ministers sufficiently shews the want of Discipline amongst them and that the Inspection of a Bishop would do them no harm And I hope this Admonition will not hurt you nor them I shall think I have done a good work and thank God for it if I can awaken you to more care for the future and reckon that the nearer you come to the Scripture-Rule the nearer you will come to us and there will be the more hopes of an Union which I shall always heartily endeavour Sect. VI. Concerning the Reading the Scriptures I. THE third Matter of Fact in dispute between Mr. B. and Me is concerning your Reading the Holy Scriptures The words he excepts against are these Disc. Chap. 3. S. 3. N. 3. but the most sad and deplorable defect of your performances of this Duty is your casting out the Word of God from most of your Publick Assemblies directly contrary to God's Institution and Ordinance for the Instruction of his Church insomuch that in many of your Meetings setting aside a Verse or two for a Text or Quotation at the discretion of the Minister the voice of God is never publickly heard amongst them And in all the Meetings in the North of Ireland in a whole Year perhaps there is not so much Scripture Read as in one day in our Church And 't is a sad thing that a man may go to most meetings many years and never hear One entire Chapter read in them The things Asserted here are First That the Reading of the Word of God as God Instituted and Ordained it for the Instruction of his Church is cast out of most of your Meetings I shewed that God ordered his Word to be read Regularly and in Order and that this Reading of it is cast out not only of most of your Meetings but out of all of them there not being one of them that yet appears to have read either Testament through in 30 Years before the writing of my Discourse or indeed ever that I can learn And therefore till I see good Vouchers that the Word of God has been thus Read I think there can be no question of the Truth of this Fact It is not only the manner of Reading is here in Dispute and denied by me but the thing it self of which we can never be sure without the Manner be settled for when there is a certain method for Reading the Word of God as in our Church we can be sure that it is Read But this is so far otherwise with you that no man that ever I yet met with or could have an account of could vouch that he heard so much of the Bible read in your Meetings in his whole Life as is read in the Cathedral of Derry every Year and in many other Churches and ought by our Rules to be in all Now when a Man has been a Hearer 50 years in your Meetings and cannot affirm that ever he heard two intire Books of the Bible
and what ill terms I should have received if I had charged you with such a Crime when your Innocency was so demonstrable But till you produce as plain certain and obligatory a Rule for the teaching of them as I have done amongst us you can never be so secure of learning them from your Ministers publick Teaching as we are I must profess again that I have put it to many of you my self and have got others to do the same and could never be assured that they heard one Discourse professedly on the Trinity Conception Nativity Resurrection or Ascension of our Saviour or his sending down the Holy Ghost much less one or two every Year as it is with us And till Mr. B. produce Vouchers of the times and places I shall believe those that have been thus put to it would have told a thing so remarkable and in which the Honour of their Ministers is so much concerned if they could have done it with truth VII Fifthly Those people that have for many years complained that Christ and the Gospel was not preached amongst us may justly be suspected not to understand what the Gospel is And whilst they accused us of preaching nothing but Morality I am afraid that they reckon these Mysteries and our pressing the necessity of a good Life from them only dead and moral preaching and that they expect some greater and more spiritual Mysteries from us But if any pretend to such they are unfaithful Teachers and fall under the Apostle's Censure Gal. 1. 8. VIII Lastly Let me say one word to you of our own Communion You see my Brethren what an excellent Order our Church has establish'd to secure your being taught all the Mysteries of the Gospel by appointing a peculiar time of the year for teaching each of the principal of them This way of keeping the great Works and Mercies of God in memory is what Nature teaches us as the most effectual method and it is also approved by Presidents in both the Old and New Testament and is of such force that Experience shews us that this one Rule well observed has been the principal means of preserving Christianity in the worst of Times and under the most barbarous Tyranny and Persecution of the Turks and therefore let me entreat you as you love your Saviour and expect a share in the Happiness of his Kingdom that you would diligently observe those times appointed by the Church for the instructing you in the Mysteries of his Kingdom whilst you do so you are sure that you will be fed with the true Bread of Life the old and substantial Articles of your Faith that are able to save your Souls and will not be led away with every Wind of Doctrin or new coined Mysteries of great Pretenders Therefore let neither the Abuses or Arguments of your Adversaries discourage you nor much less Covetousness or Laziness divert your attendance And remember if at any time your Ministers do not teach them it is contrary to the Order of our Church and proceeds generally from your Non-attendance and then you only are guilty of the Neglect Sect. VIII Concerning the Catechism I. A Fifth Matter of Fact denied by Mr. B. is That hardly one in ten get your Catechism by heart nor one in five hundred retain it This I proved by my own Experience and can by the Testimony of many Witnesses that were present at the Tryals to which Mr. B. replies Vind. p. 13. That this is to be imputed to the sullenness or the bashfulness of those I examined But I found no such thing as bashfulness in them and as to sullenness many of them were under obligations to me being my Tenants or otherwise obnoxious and they generally endeavour'd to answer but could not remember either the Words or Matter I got several to make the same Experiment and they returned me the like account II. Mr. B. alledges that there are in the Parish of Derry two Meetings And in those two Congregations 600 can give a good account of and repeat the Assembly's Catechism To this I reply First That this tryal is since my book and doth not come home to the time of which I speak I am glad if so many can do this and believe my Book contributed to it Secondly There are in those Meetings 2400 Hearers in their Rolls and then after all their Labour and pains only one in four has gotten it Thirdly There are many in this Parish that do not enter themselves in your Books and yet go to your Meetings and no where else there is no account of these who are the most ignorant Fourthly Here is no account of the whole District that depends on these Meetings of which 600 is not the tenth if the twentieth part Fifthly A Catechism is chiefly designed for the ignorant and such as cannot read and here is no Voucher that one such has it and they generally speaking are never like to get it so that Your Catechism is useless to those to whom it is most necessary Sixthly Here is no assurance how many of these will retain it for any considerable time An Experiment has been made of this and a Man of good Natural parts has not been able to retain it a Month after Examination I am sure some Eminent Persons of your Perswasion could not give an Account of it sometime before I Published my Book I accidentally discoursed four or five of them about repairing a burying place and prov'd to them that it was a duty so to do from that question in your Catechism What benefits do Believers receive from Christ at death To which the answer is that The souls of Believers are at their death made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into Glory and their Bodies being still United to Christ do rest in their Graves till the Resurrection Therefore to expose their Bodies to Doggs or Swine or any other Indignity is to affront Christ to whom they are United They seemed surprized at this and as I understood afterward did not believe me till they went and consulted the Catechism From whence I concluded that they did not know or believe the Doctrine thereof much less remember the words which indeed I did not expect from them Lastly I do not believe your Ministers can certainly tell who have the Catechism and who have not The Questions they ask are so few of each and so confin'd to one head as I am informed that perhaps there are very few for whom they could vouch on such Examinations And often the Persons guess before-hand in what place of the Catechism they shall be Examined and prepare for it Upon the whole I am afraid my conclusion is too near a Truth and I am confirmed in it by experiments every day In which I do not expect the repeating the Catechism but the Lords-Prayer and Ten Commandments and Belief which many either never learned or have forgotten These then are not rash or mistaken Accusations as Mr.