that the Infidel and Impenitent were in a state of Life because he was baptized but that all that truly consent to the Covenant and signifie this by being baptized are saved So the Church of England saith that they receive no detriment by delaying Confirmation but it never said that they received no detriment by their Parents or Responses Infidelity or Hypocrisie or by their want of true Right coram Deo to be baptized Q. 39. What is the true meaning of Sponsors or Godfathers and is it lawful to make use of them Answ My Opinion is that they did both witness the probability of the Parents fidelity and also promised that if they should either apostaize or die they would see that the Children were piously educated If you take them but as the ancient Churches did for such as do attest the Parents fidelity in their perswasion and do promise first to mind you of your Duty and next to take care of their pious Education if you die I know no reason you have to scruple this much yea more it is in your power to agree with the Godfathers that they shall represent your own Persons and speak and promise what they do as your Deputies only in your Names and what have you against this Object When the Church-men mean another thing this is but to juggle with the World Answ How can you prove that the Authority that made or imposed the Liturgy meant any other thing 2. If the Imposers had meant ill in a thing that may be done well you may discharge your Conscience by doing it well and making a sufficient Profession of your better Sense As for the Antiquity of God-fathers the current consent of Historians assures us that Hyginus Bishop of Rome did first ordain God-fathers at the Baptism of Infants He lived but forty years after St John Preface to Infant Baptism Christ Direct p. 116. Part 3. Q. 41. Whether they are really baptized who are baptized according to the English Liturgy and Canons where the Parents seem excluded and those to consent for the Infant who have no power to do it Answ p. 117. That the Parents Consent is supposed though he be absent 2. The Parent is not required to be absent 3. The Reason of that Canon seems to be their jealousie lest any would exclude God-fathers 4. While the Church hath not declared what Person the Sponsors bear nor any farther what they are to do than to speak the Covenanting words and promise to see the pious Education of the Child the Parents may agree that the God-fathers shall do all this as their Deputies primarily and in their steads and secondly as Friends that promise their Assistance 5. While Parents really consent it is not their Silence that nullifieth the Covenant 6. All Parents are supposed and required to be themselves the Choosers of the Sponsors and Sureties and also to give notice to the Ministers before hand by which it appears their Consent is presupposed And though my own Judgment be that they should be the principal Covenanters for the Child expresly yet the want of that expresness will not make the Persons to be unbaptized Q. 42. How is the Holy Ghost given to Infants in Baptism whether all the Children of true Christians have inward sanctifying Grace c. Answ My judgment agreeth more in this with Davenant's than any others saving that he doth not appropriate the Benefits of Baptism to the Children of true Believers so much as I do And though by a Letter impleading Davenant's Cause I was the occasion of printing good Mr. Gataker's Answer to him yet I am still most inclined to his judgment Not that all the baptized but that all the baptized Seed of true Christians are pardoned justified adopted and have a title to the Spirit and Salvation And we must choose great Inconveniences if this Opinion be forsaken viz. That all Infants must be taken to be out of Covenant with God and to have no promise of Salvation whereas surely the Law of Grace as well as the Covenant of Works included all the Seed in their Capacity Of the Responses Q. 83. May the People bare a Vocal part in Worship and do any more than say Amen Answ The People bare an equal part in singing the Psalms which are Prayer and Praise and Instruction if they may do so in the Psalms in Metre there can be no reason given but they may lawfully do so in Psalms in Prose for saying them and singing them are but modes of Utterance and the ancient Singing was liker our Saying than our Tunes The Primitive Christians were so full of zeal and love to Christ that they would have taken it for an Injury and a quenching of the Spirit to have been wholly restrained from bearing their part in the Praises of the Church The use of the Tongue keepeth awake the Mind and stirreth up God's Graces in his Servants It was the decay of Zeal in the People that first shut out the Responses while they kept up the Ancient Zeal they were inclined to take their part vocally in the Worship And this was seconded by the Pride and Usurpation of the Priests thereupon who thought the People of God too prophane to speak in the Assemblies and meddle so much with Holy things Yet the very remembrance of former zeal caused most Churches to retain many of the words of their predecessors even when they lost the Life and Spirit which should animate them and so the same words came into the Liturgies and were used by too many customarily and in formality which their Ancestors had used in the servour of their Souls And if it were not that a dead-hearted formal People by speaking the Responses carelesly and hypocritically do bring them into disgrace with many that see the necessity of Seriousness I think few good People would be against them now It is here the duty of every Christian to labour to restore the life and spirit to the Words that they may again be used in a serious and holy manner as heretofore Exod. 19. 8. In as solemn an Assembly as any of ours when God gave Moses a form of words to preach to the People all the People answered together and said All that the Lord hath spoken we will do So Exod. 24. 3. and Deuter. 5. 27. which God approved of v. 28 29. See Levit. 9. 24. 2 Kings 23. 2 3. 1 Chron. 1. 35 36. It is a command Psal 67. 3 5. Let all the People praise thee O God c. And he that will limit this to single Persons or say that it must not be vocally in the Church or it must be in metre only and never in prose must prove it lest he be proved one that addeth to God's Word Q. 84. Is it not a Sin for our Clerks to make themselves the mouth of the People Answ The Clerks are not appointed to be the Mouth of the People but each Clerk is one of the
People commanded to do that which all should do lest it should be wholly left undone If all the Congregation will speak all that the Clerk doth it will answer the primary desire of the Church Governors who bid the People do it Of Bowing at the Name Jesus And of Priests Altars c. Q. 86. Is it lawful to bow at the name of Jesus Answ That we may lawfully express our reverence when the names God Jehovah Jesus Christ c. are uttered I have met with few Christians who deny nor know I any reason to deny it If I live and joyn in a Church where it is commanded and peremptorily urged to bow at the Name of Jesus and where my not doing it would be divisive Scandalous or offensive I will bow at the Name of God Jehovah Jesus Christ Lord c. My judgment of standing at the Gospel and kneeling at the Decalogue when it is commanded is the same Q. 122. May the name Priests Sacrifice and Altars be lawfully used Answ The New Testament useth all the Greek names which we Translate Priests Sacrifice and Altars and our Translation is not intolerable if Priest come from Presbyter I need not prove that if it do not yet all Ministers are Subordinate to Christ in his Priestly Office And the word Sacrifice is used of us and our offered Worship 1 Pet. 2. 5. Heb. 13. 15 16. Phil. 4. 18. Eph. 5. 2. Rom. 12. 1. and Heb. 13. 10. saith we have an Altar which word is frequently used in the Revelations in relation to Gospel times We must not therefore be quarrelsome against the bare names unless they be abused to some ill use The Ancient Fathers and Churches did ever use all these words so familiarly without any Question oa Scruple raised by the Orthodox or Hereticks about them that we should be wary how we condemn these words lest we give advantage to the Papists to tell their Followers that all Antiquity is on their side The Lord's Supper is by Protestants truly called a Commemorative Sacrifice Of the Communion-Table c. Q. 123. May the Communion Tables be turned Altarwise and railed in and is it lawful to come up to the Rails to Communicate Answ 1. God hath not given a particular command or prohibition about these Circumstances but only general rules for Edification Unity Decency and Order 2. They that do it out of a design to draw Men to Popery or to incourage Men in it do sin 3. So do they that rail in the Table to signifie that Lay-Christians must not come to it but be kept at a distance 4. But where there are no such ends but only to imitate the Ancients that did thus and to shew reverence to the Table on the account of the Sacrament by keeping away Dogs keeping Boys from sitting on it and the professed Doctrine of the Church condemneth Transubstantiation the real Corporal-presence c. in this case Christians should take these for such as they are indifferent things and not censure or condemn each other for them 5. And to communicate is not only lawful in this case where we cannot prove that the Minister sinneth but even when we suspect an ill design in him which we cannot prove yea or when we can prove that his personal interpretation of the Place Name Scituation and Rail is unsound for we Assemble there to Communicate in and according to the professed Doctrine of Christianity and the Churches and our own open profession and not after every private Opinion and Error of the Minister Whether we shall receive the Lord's Supper at a Table or in our Seats Whether the Table shall be of Wood or Stone Round or Long or Square Whether it shall stand on the East or West side of the Temple or in the middle Whether it shall have Rails or no Rails All these are left to Humane Prudence As for standing at the reading of the Gospel Page 148. he says If I live where Rulers peremtorily command it as a signified consent to the Gospel I would obey them rather than give offence And for kneeling when the Decalogue is read That the thing it self is lawful is past doubt and if it be commanded and the omission would be offensive I would use it though mistaken Persons were present because I cannot disobey nor differ from the whole Assembly without a greater hurt and scandal than seeming to harden the mistaking Person and because I could and would by other means remove that Persons danger as from me by making him know that it is no Prayer And the rather because in our times the Minister may in the Pulpit tell the People the contrary We must not lightly differ from the Churches where we live in such things I like best to kneel in Prayer and Confession of Sins To stand up in Praises to God at Singing and Reading Psalms of Praise and other Hymns to set at Hearing the Word because the body hath necessity of some rest Of the Creed Q. 139. What is the Use and Authority of the Creed Is it of the Apostle framing or not Answ It s use is to be a plain explication of the Faith professed in the Baptismal Covenant And for the satisfation of the Church that Men indeed understand what they did in Baptism and professed to believe 2. It is the Word of God as to the matter of it whatever it be as to the order or Composition of the Words 3. It is not to be doubted but the Apostles did use a Creed commonly in their days which was the same with that now called the Apostles and the Nicene in the main 4. And it is easily probable that Christ composed a Creed when he made his Covenant and instituted Baptism Matth. 28. 19. 5. That the Apostles did cause the baptizable to understand the Three Articles of Christ's own Creed and Covenant and used many explicatory words to make them understand it 6. It is more than probable that the matter opened by them was still the same when the words were not the same 7. And it is also more than probable that they did not needlesly vary the words lest it should teach Men to vary the matter And Lastly No doubt but this practice of the Apostles was imitated by the Churches and that thus the Essentials of Religion were by the Tradition of the Creed and Baptism delivered by themselves as far as Christianity went long before any Book of the New Testament was written And the following Churches using the same Creed might so far well call it the Apostles Creed Of the Apocrypha Q. 150. Is it lawful to read the Apocrypha or Homilies Answ It is lawful so be it they be sound Doctrine and fitted to the Peoples Edification 2. So be it they be not read scandalously without sufficient differencing them from God's Book 3. So they be not read to exclude or hinder the reading of the Scripture or other necessary Church duty 4. So they
great advantages that Satan hath got upon the Church through the Sin of the Pastors in these days is by Division by this he hath promoted all the rest of his Designs Our Divisions gratifie the Papists greatly hazard the Protestant Religion more than most of you seem to regard or believe it advantageth Profaneness and greatly hinders the Success of the Ministers it pleaseth Satan and builds up his Kingdom Preface to Confession The hand of God is apparently gone out against the Separatists you see you do but prepare for a further progress Seekers Ranters Quakers and too many professed Infidels do spring up from among you as if this were the Journeys end and perfection of your Revolt By such fearful Dissertions did God formerly witness his detestation of those that withdrew from the Unity of the Church Parties will arise in the Separate Churches and separate again from them till they are dissolved I beseech you my Brethren to open their Eyes so far as to regard Experience How few separated Churches do now Exist that were in being 100 years ago Can you name any and would you have all the Churches of Christ dissolved Of Communion in the Lord's Supper Q. 2. May we communicate with unworthy persons Answ It is your duty to communicate with that Church which hath a true Pastor and where the denominating part of the Members are capable of Church-Communion though there may some Infidels or Heathen or uncapable Persons violently intrude or scandalous Persons are admitted through the neglect of Discipline in case you have not your choice to hold personal communion with a better Church and in case also you be not guilty of the Corruption but by seasonable and modest professing your dissent do clear your self of the guilt of such intrusion and corruption If we Sin not by omitting our own Duty it will be no Sin of ours to communicate with the Church where Scandalous Sinners or Hereticks are permitted the Pastors and Delinquents Sins are not ours Q. 3. But what if I cannot communicate unless I conform to an imposed gesture as kneeling Answ I never yet heard any thing to prove kneeling unlawful there is no Word of God for or against any gesture Christ's example cannot be proved to oblige us in this and his gesture was not such a sitting as ours The nature of the Ordinance is mixt And if it be lawful to take a Pardon from the King upon our Knees I know not what can make it unlawful to take a Sealed Pardon from Christ by his Ambassador upon our Knees As for this Ceremony of kneeling at the Sacrament especially since the Rubrick is inserted which disclaimeth both all Bread-worship and the bodily Real-presence my judgment was ever for it God having made some gesture necessary and confined us to none but left it to humane determination I shall submit to Magistrates in their proper Work I am not sure that Christ intended the example of himself in this as oligatory but I am sure he hath commanded me obedience and peace Mr. Perkins was for kneeling and Mr. Baines in his Letters writes for it and answers objections against it Pag. 133. of Mr. B' s Life I cannot be so narrow in my Principles of Church Communion as many are who are so much for a Liturgy or so much against it so much for Ceremonies or so much against them that they can hold Communion with no Church that is not of their mind or way If I were among the Greeks the Lutherans the Independants yea the Anabaptists I would hold sometime Communion with them as Christians I cannot be of their Opinion that think God will not accept him that prayeth by the Common-Prayer-Book and that such Forms are a Self-invented Worship which God rejecteth Q. 4. But what if I cannot Communicate but according to the Administration of the Common-Prayer-Book Answ 1. That it is not unlawful to receive according to the Administration of the Common-Prayer-Book because it is a Form needs no proof to any that is Judicious 2. Nor yet for any evil in this particular Form for in this part the Common-Prayer is generally approved 3. Nor yet because it is imposed for a Command maketh not that unlawful to us which is lawful before but it maketh many things lawful and duties that else would have been unlawful accidentally 4. And the intentions of the Commanders we have little to do with And for the consequents they must be weighed on both sides and the consequents of our refusal will not be found light In general I must here tell the People of God in the bitter sorrow of my Soul that at last it is time for them to discern that temptation that hath in all Ages of the Church almost made this Sacrament of our Union to be the grand occasion or instrument of our Divisions And that true Humility and Acquaintance with our selves and Love to Christ and one another would shew some Men that it was but their Pride and Prejudice and Ignorance that made them think so heinously of other Mens manner of Worship And that on all sides among true Christians the manner of their Worship is not so odious as Prejudice and Faction and Partiality representeth it And that God accepteth that which they reject And they should see how the Devil hath undone the common People by this means by teaching them every one to expect salvation for being of that Party which he taketh to be the right Church and for Worshipping in that manner which he and his Party thinketh best And so wonderful a thing is prejudice that every Party by this is brought to think that ridiculous and vile which the other Party accounteth best But to magnifie any one Church or Party so as to deny due love and communion to the rest is Schism To limit all the Church to your Party and deny all or any of the rest to be Christians and parts of the Universal Church is Schism by a dangerous breach of Charity It is Schism also to condemn unjustly any particular Church as no Church And it is Schism to withdraw your bodily communion from a Church that you were bound to hold communion with upon a false supposition that it is no Church or is not lawfully to be communicated with And it is Schism to make Divisions or Parties in a Church though you divide not from that Church The holiness of the Party that Men adhere to is made a pretence to excuse Schism but this must make but a gradual difference in our esteem and love to some Christians above others If really they are most holy I must love them most and labour to be as holy as they But I must not therefore unjustly deny communion or due respect to other Christians that are less holy nor cleave to them as a Sect or divided Party whom I esteem most holy For the holiest are most Charitable and most against the Divisions among Christians and
now Published by the Collector But I foresee it will be necessary to obviate two Objections that will be made against these Admonitions First That Mr. Baxter hath written plain Contradictions to them and the Separating Brethren will adhere to his First Sentiments which lead them to their Non-conformity to which I Answer That Mr. Baxter gave them this Precaution in one of his first and best Treatises charging them strictly that if God should give him over to any Church-rendring course that they would forsake him and not follow him a step Secondly That what they interpret as Contradictions were in Truth no other then Confessions of his former mis-apprehensions and passionate heats of his intemperate Zeal but these are the Results of his sedate and rational Deliberation The great Apostle St. Paul was not ashamed to record in Holy Writ what enormities a misgrounded Zeal had hurried him into while he was in an estate of Ignorance and Vnbelief 1 Tim. 1. 13. and this doubtless was Mr. Baxter's practice for reflecting upon what he had said or done to countenance the Separating way he saw it had done more hurt than good for which reason he recanted them But these instructions of his are like the Coelestial Bodies which carry light and benign influences with them they are self-evident and speak home to the Judgment and Consciences of all unprejudiced Men who cannot resist the force of that Reason and Demonstration which inspires every part of them with so much Life and Power Beauty and Ornament Consistency and Symmetry as will render them highly Acceptable Amiable and Beneficial to such as shall embrace and practise them As for such Dissenters as have conceived any hard thoughts of Mr. Baxter or these his Admonitions I intreat them to consider whether they can answer or confute them to the satisfaction of their own Consciences and if they cannot then whether it be not rational and pious to walk by these directions which tend so much to the establishment of the publick Peace of this divided Church and Nation and to their own present and eternal welfare 2. Objection It may be said that these Amonitions are now become unseasonable there being a Toleration granted to Men of all Perswasions to Worship God after their several modes Answ To this I say that Schism is a Sin antecedent to all Humane Constitutions as being directly forbid in the Holy Gospel and consequently will continue to be sinful tho' all the Kings and Rulers of the Earth should indulge and tolerate them for the Laws of Men cannot make void the Law of God nor alter the nature of things and justifie or make that to be good which the only Lawgiver of Christians hath condemned as unlawful and as it is said of Poligamy among the Jews that the Law of Moses connived at it for the hardness of their hearts so it is for the hardness and uncharitableness of Mens Spirits that Rulers are constrained for a time to tolerate and bear with many things that are Offensive and Prejudicial to the prosperity of their Government For Toleration far differs from the approbation of a thing and implieth the unlawfulness thereof rather than the Justification of it Besides the present Toleration is far from intending or making an establishment of the Practises which are tolerated to the prejudice of the Church which hath for many Ages and now doth continue in actual possession of all its Powers and Priviledges as in time past So that as the present Schism and Separations is possitively condemned by the Laws of the Gospel so they have not any approbation from the Laws of Men but what the corruptions of Men and their ungovernable Tempers make tolerable on some pressing occasions and unhappy juncture of Affairs I beseech you therefore read the following Admonitions without Prejudice and judge of them by the end for which they were first written by Mr. Baxter and are now published by c. Mr. RICHARD Mr. RICHARD BAXTER's LAST LEGACY TO ALL Sober Dissenters Of the Church IN a Petition drawn by Mr. B. to be presented to the King He makes this a part of the Profession of his Religion I do willingly profess my consent to all the Holy Canonical Scriptures as the Word of God And to the Doctrine of the Church of England professed in the 39 Articles of Religion as in sense agreeable to the Word of God And I renounce all Errors or Heresies contrary to any of these And I do hold that the Book of Common-Prayer and of Bishops Priests and Deacons containeth in it nothing so disagreeable to the Word of God as maketh it unlawful to live in the peaceable Communion of the Church that useth it Mr. Baxters Life Part 3. p. 161. Mr. Baxter in his Reasons for the Christian Religion p. 464. Sect. 2. The Church of Christ being his Body is but one and hath many parts but should have no Parties but Unity and Concord without Division § 3. Therefore no Christian must be of a Party or Sect as such that is as dividing it self from the rest causing Schism or Contention in the Body or making a rent unnecessarily in any particular Church which is a part § 8. Nothing will warrant us to separate from a Church as no Church but the want of something essential to a Church § 11. It is essential to particular Political Churches that they be constituted of true Bishops or Pastors and of Flocks of baptized or professed Christians united for holy Communion in the Worshipping of God and the promoting of the Salvation of the Several Members § 12. It is essential to a true Bishop or Pastor of the Church to be in Office that is in authority and obligation appointed by Christ in Subordination to him in the three parts of his Offices Prophetical Priestly and Kingly That is to teach the People to stand between them and God in Worship and to guide or govern them by the Paternal exercise of the Keys of his Church § 15. If a Church which in all other respects is purest and best will impose any sin upon all that will have any local Communion with it tho' we must not separate from that Church as no Church yet must we not commit that sin but patiently suffer them to exclude us from their Communion § 1. We do not say you are no true Ministers nor Churches nor that it is unlawful to communicate with you Apology p. 82. See also p. 87. 89. § 2. Where Parish Bounds are judged necessary all Persons living in the Parish may be constrained to hear Publick Teaching and to Worship God either in that or in some other approved or tolerated Church within their convenient reach or Neighbourhood Way of Concord Part 3. p. 139. § 3. The People are no Judges who is fit to be and shall be a Minister of Christ the Supream Civil Magistrate is Judge whom he must countenance maintain and tolerate The disposal of the Tithes and Temples is in the
Power of the Prince and Patron by his grant Who but Physitians are fit to judge who is meet to be a Licensed Physitian p. 127. Of the 2d Defence § 4. In case of meer different Modes Circumstances and Order of Worship see that you give Authority and the Consent of the Church where you are their due Christian Directory Part. 3. p. 13. § 5. Conform your selves to all the Lawful Customs and Gestures of the Church with which you joyn You come not thither proudly to shew your selves wiser than they in the Circumstances of Worship nor needlesly to differ from them much less to harden Men into a Scorn of strictness by seeing you to place Religion in singularities in lawful and indifferent things but you come to Exercise Peace Love and Concord and with one Mind and Mouth to glorifie God stand when the Church standeth sit when the Church sitteth and kneel when the Church kneeleth in cases where God doth not forbid it Christian Directory p. 71. Part 3. § 6. Temples Utensels Lands devoted and lawfully separated by Man for holy uses are holy as justly related to God by that Separation Every thing should be reverenced according to the measure of its Holiness and this expressed by such Signs and Gestures as are fit to honour God to whom they are related And so to be uncovered in a Church and use reverent Cariage and Gestures there doth tend to preserve due reverence to God and to his Worship 1 Cor. 16. 20. Christian Directory Part 3. p. 167. § 7. Plain intelligible Church Musick which occasioneth not Divisions but the Church agreeth in for my part I never doubted but to be lawful For 1. God set it up long after Moses's Ceremonial Law by David Solomon c. 2. It is not meerly an Instituted Ceremony but a Natural help to the Minds alacrity and it is a Duty not a Sin to use the helps of Nature and lawful Art As it is Lawful to use the help of Spectacles in reading the Bible so is it of Musick to exhilerate the Soul to God 3. Jesus Christ joyned with the Jewes that used it and spake not against it 4. No Scripture forbids it 5. Nothing can be said against it but what may be said against Tunes and melody of Voices yea it is not a humane Invention as the last Psalm and many others shew which call us to praise the Lord with Instruments of Musick § 8. Let not prejudice against Melody or Church-Musick possess you with a splenatick disgust of that which should be your most joyful work if you know how much the Incorporate Soul must make use of the Body in harmony and the joyful praises of Jehovah Do not then Quarrel with lawful helps because they are sensible and corporal Christian Direct p. 72. Part. 3. p. 167. Harmony and Melody are so high a Pleasure of the Sense that they are nearest to rational delight if not participating of them and exceedingly fitted to elevate the Mind and Affections unto God We the Ministers who drew up the Worcester Agreement required our People to declare in these Words IAB do consent to be a Member of the particular Church of Christ in D. whereof EF is Teacher and Overseer and to submit to his Teaching and Ministerial guidance and over-sight according to God's Word Of the Doctrine of the Church of England As for the Doctrine of the Church of England the Bishops and their Followers from the first Reformation begun by King Edward the Sixth were sound in Doctrine adhearing to the Augustine method expressed now in the Articles and Homilies they differed not in any considerable point from those whom they called Puritans but it was in the form of Government Liturgy and Ceremonies that the difference lay The Independents as well as the Presbyterians offer to Subscribe the XXXIX Articles as distinct from Prelacy and Ceremony And when I was in the Country I knew not of one Minister to ten that are now silenced that was not in the main of the same Principles with my self Mr. Baxter's Reasons for Obedience in Lawful things Page 483. of his Five Disputations Sect. 1. Lest Men that are apt to run from one extream into another should make an ill use of that which I have before written I shall here annex some Reasons to perswade Men to just Obedience and preserve them from any sinful Nonconformity to the commands of their Governours and the evil effects that are like to follow thereupon § 2. But First I will lay together some Propositions for decision of the Controversie How far we are bound to obey Mens Precepts about Religion Especially in case we doubt of the lawfulness of obeying them And so cannot obey them in Faith § 3. Briefly 1. We must obey both Magistrates and Pastors in all things lawful which belong to their Offices to command 2. It belongs not to their Office to make God a new Worship But to command the Mode and Circumstances of Worship belongeth to their Office for guiding them wherein God hath given them general Rules 3. We must not take the lawful Commands of our Governours to be unlawful 4. If we do through weakness or perversness take Lawful things to be unlawful that will not excuse us in our disobedience Our error is our Sin and one sin will not excuse another Sin Even as on the other side if we judge things unlawful to be lawful that will not excuse us for our disobedience to God in obeying Men. 5. As I have before shewed many things that are miscommanded must be obeyed 6. As an erroneous judgment will not excuse us from Obedience to our Governours so much less will a doubtfulness excuse us 7. As such a doubting erring judgment cannot obey in plenary Faith so much less can he disobey in Faith For it is a known Command of God that we obey them that have the Rule over us but they have no Word of God against the act of Obedience now in quection It is their own erring judgment that intangleth them in a necessity of sinning till it be changed 7. In doubtful Cases it is our duty to use God's means for our Information and one means is to consult with our Teachers and hear their words with teachableness and meekness 8. If upon advising with them we remain in doubt about the lawfulness of some Circumstance of order if it be such as may be dispensed with they should dispence with us if it may not be dispensed without a greater injury to the Church or Cause of God than our dispensation will countervail then is it our duty to obey our Teachers notwithstanding such doubts For it being their Office to Teach us it must be our duty to believe them with a Humane Faith in cases where we have no Evidences to the contrary And the Duty of Obeying them ☞ being certain and the sinfulness of the thing commanded being uncertain and unknown and only suspected we must go on the surer
Family-prayer and ask Where are they bound to pray in their Family Morning and Evening and so keep no constancy in Family-prayer at all under pretence of denying only the Circumstances § 10. Reas 7. By this Disobedience in things lawful the Members of the Church will be involved in contentions and so ingaged in bitter Uncharitableness and Censures and Persecutions and Reproaches of one another which scandalous courses will nourish Vice dishonour God rejoyce the Enemies grieve the Godly that are Peaceable and Judicious and wound the Consciences of the contenders We see the beginning of such Fires are small but whither they tend and what will be the end of them we see not § 11. Reas 8. By these means also Magistrates will be provoked to take Men of tender Consciences for factious unruly and unreasonable Men and to turn their Enemies and use violence against them to the great injury of the Church when they see them so self-conceited and refusing Obedience in lawful Circumstances § 12. Reas 9. By this means also the Conversion and Establishment of Souls will be much hindred and People possessed with Prejudice against the Church and Ordinances when they take us to be but humorous People and see us in such Contentions among our selves To my knowledge our late difference about some such lesser things hath turned off or hindered abundance of People from liking the holy Doctrine and Life which we profess § 13. Reas 10. It will seem to the wisest to savour of no small measure of Pride when People on the account of lawful Circumstances dare set themselves against their Governours and Teachers and quarrel with the Ordinances of God and with the Churches Humble Men would sooner suspect themselves and quarrel with their own Distempers and submit to those that are wiser than themselves and that are set over them for their Guidance by the Lord. There may more dangerous Pride be manifested in these matters than in Apparel and such lower Trifles § 14. Reas 11. Consider also what yielding in things lawful the Scripture recommendeth to us How far yielded Paul when he Circumcised Timothy Acts 16. 3. And when he took the men and purified himself with them in the Temple to signifie the accomplishment of the days of Purification until that an Offering should be offered for every one of them and this for almost seven days Acts 21. 26 27. with the foregoing Verses § 15. So 1 Cor. 9. 19 20. For though I be free from all Men yet have I made my self Servant unto all that I might gain the more And unto the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the Law as under the Law that I might gain them that are under the Law To them that are without Law as without Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that I might gain them that are without Law To the weak I became as weak that I might gain the weak I am made all things to all Men that I might by all means save some and this I do for the Gospels sake c. Study this Example § 16. Read also Rom. 14. and 15. Chapters how much Condescension the Apostle requireth even among Equals about Meats and Days And 1 Cor. 8. 13. the Apostle would tye up himself from eating any flesh while the World standeth rather than make a weak Brother to offend Many other Passages of Scripture require a Condescension in things of this indifferent nature and shew that the Kingdom of God doth not consist in them § 17. And Matthew 12. 1 2 to 9. you find that Hunger justified the Disciples of Christ for plucking and rubbing the Ears of Corn on the Sabbath days And Hunger justified David and those that were with him for entring into the House of God and eating the Shew-bread which was not lawful for him to eat nor for them which were with him but only for the Priests And the Priests in the Temple were blameless for prophaning the Sabbath-day Now if things before accidentally evil may by this much Necessity become lawful and a duty then may the Commands of Magistrates or Pastors and the Unity of the Church and the avoiding of Contention and Offence and other Evils be also sufficient to warrant us in obeying even in convenient Circumstantials of the Worship of God that otherwise could not be justified § 18. Reas 12. Lastly consider how much God hath expressed himself in his Word to be pleased in the Obedience of Believers Not only in their Obedience to Christ immediately but also to him in his Officers 1 Sam. 15. 22. Behold to obey is better than Sacrifice c. Col. 3. 20 22. Children obey your Parents in all things that is all lawful things for this is well-pleasing to the Lord. Servants obey in all things your Masters according to the flesh c. And Obedience to Pastors is as much commanded 1 Thes 5. 12 13. We beseech you Brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly c. Heb. 13. 17. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they must give account c. So Verse 7. and 24. 1 Tim. 5. 17 c. § 19. As the general Commission to a Parent or Master or Magistrate to govern their inferiour Relations doth authorize them to many particular Acts belonging to their Office that were never named in their Commission so your general Command to obey them obligeth you to obey them in the said particulars And so it is also betwixt the Pastors and the Flock in Matters belonging to the Office of a Pastor § 20. If a Child shall ask a Parent Where doth God's Word allow you to command me to learn this Catechism or read this Divine's Writings or repeat this Sermon or write it c. doth not the question deserve to be answered with the Rod The general Commission for Parents to govern their Children is sufficient So if a School-master command his Scholars to come to such a place to School and to take their places in such an order and to learn such Books and do such Exercises c. the general Commission that he hath to Teach and Govern them will allow him to do all this Though it will not allow him to set his Scholars to any Artifice or Manual Operation alien to his Profession So if a Minister determine of the variable Circumstances of Worship as what Place and People shall come to and at what time to be Catechised Examined Instructed c. what Translation or Version of Psalms to use what Utensils to make use of about God's Service or such like he is warranted for this by his General Commission And if he miss it in the Manner by choosing inconvenient Circumstances or by unnecessary Determination of Points that should rather be left undetermined to Liberty
be not read read to keep up an ignorant lazy Ministry that can or will do no better 5. And especially if Authority command it and the Churches agreement require it Of the Oath of Canonical Obedience Q. 153. May we lawfully swear obedience in all things lawful and honest either to Usurpers or to our lawful Pastors Answ If the King shall command us it is lawful So the old Non-conformists who thought the English Prelacy an unlawful Office yet maintained that it is lawful to take the Oath of Canonical Obedience because they thought it was imposed by the King and Laws and that we swear them to them not as Officers claming a Divine Right in the Spiritual Government but as Ordinaries or Officers made by the King according to the Oath of Supremacy And if Prelacy were proved never so unlawful no doubt but by the Kings Command we may swear or perform formal Obedience to a Prelate Read Bradshaw against Can concerning this Pag. 181. Christ Direct 2d Edit Of the Holiness of Churches Q. 170. Are Temples Fonts Utensils Church-lands much more Ministers Holy And what reverence is due to them as Holy Answ Temples Utensils Lands c. devoted and lawfully separated by Man for Holy uses are Holy as justly related to God by that lawful separation Ministers are more Holy than Temples Lands or Utensils as being nearlier related to holy things and things separated by God are more Holy than those justly separated by Man And so of Days every thing should be reverenced according to the measure of its Holiness And this expressed by such Signs Gestures Actions as are fittest to Honour God to whom they are related And so to be uncovered in the Church and use reverent Carriage and Gestures there doth tend to preserve due Reverence to God and to his Worship 1 Cor. 16. 20. Of the Power of the Magistrate in Circumstantials We flatly affirm that the Kings Laws do bind the Mind Soul or Conscience to a conscionable performance of all his lawful commands Apol 4. We are so tender of obeying our Rulers that we will do any thing to obey and please them except disobeying God Page 111. We doubt not but Magistrates may restrain false Teachers from seducing others and drawing them to Sin Of Episcopacy Page 193. Princes and Rulers may for Orders sake distribute their Christian Kingdoms into Parishes which shall be the Ordinary Bounds of particular Churches And such distribution is very Congruous to the ends of the Ministry and Churches and conduceth to Order and Peace Non-confor Plea Pag. 31. When Pastors by Concord or Magistrates by Laws have setled lawful Circumstances or Accidents of Church Order or Worship or Discipline though they be in particular but Humane Institutions it is sinful Disobedience to violate them without necessity as Parochial Order Associations Times Places Ministers Scripture Translations c. Page 49. God's Laws bind us to keep Love and Concord and the Agreement of Councils may determine of the matter in alterable Points and so absent and present Bishops may for Concord sake be obliged by God's Law to keep such Canons and they are matter of Duty Page 266. The true interest of a meer Non-conformist requireth him to live in Loyalty Peace and Patience and in Love and Communion with the Parochial Churches Page 251. N. 11. I deny not but Magistrates may moderately drive Men to hear God's Word and to do the immediate Duties of their Places Of Episcopacy Page 144. Those Modes or Circumstances of Worship which are necessary in genere but left undetermined by God in specie are left by God to humane prudential determination else an impossibility should be necessary It is left to humane determination what Place the Publick Assemblies shall be held in And to determine of the time except where God hath determined already and what Utensils to imploy about the Publick Worship Of the Surplice Some decent Habit is necessary either the Magistrate or the Minister or associated Pastors must determine what I think neither Magistrate nor Synod should do more than hinder indecency if they do and tye all to one habit and suppose it were an indecent habit yet this is but an imprudent use of power it is a thing within the Magistrates reach he doth not aliene work but his own work amiss and therefore the thing in it self being lawful I would obey him and use that garment if I could not be dispensed with Yea though secondarily the whiteness be to signifie purity and so it be made a teaching sign yet would I obey And see no reason to scruple the lawfulness of the Ring in Marriage for though the Papists make a Sacrament of Marriage yet we have no reason to take it for any Ordinance of Divine Worship more than the solemnizing a Contract between a Prince and People All things are sanctified and pure to the Pure And for Organs or other Instruments of Musick in God's Worship they being a help partly naturally and partly artificial to the exhilarating the Spirits for the praise of God I know no argument to prove them simply unlawful but what would prove a Cup of Wine unlawful or the Tune and Metre and Melody of Singing unlawful Here therefore we thus conclude Page 423. That every misordering of such great Affairs is the Sin of them that do it yet the Subject is not exempted from Obedience by every such mistake of the Governour And § 67. If the Mischoosing of such Circumstances by the Governors be but an inconvenience and destroy not the Ordinance it self or frustrate the ends of it we are to obey for he the judge of his own Works and not we The thing is not sinful though inconvenient Page 398. Of Five Disputations § 25. Prop. 12. It may be very Sinful to command some Ceremonies which may lawfully yea must in duty be used when they are commanded And Prop. 14. Certain things commonly called Ceremonies may lawfully be used in the Church upon humane imposition and when it is not against the Law of God no Person should disobey the command of their Lawful Governours in such things If the Prince command one thing not contrary to God's Law and the Pastors command the contrary we must obey the Prince before the Pastor We must obey the Magistrate We know not that their Commands are lawful as long as we have no sufficient Reason to believe them unlawful Page 356. of Holy Common-wealth and Page 357. Of Holy-Days The Holy Doctrine Lives and Sufferings of the Martyrs and other Holy Men hath been so great a Mercy to the Church that for any thing I know it is lawful to keep Anniversary Thanksgiving in remembrance of them and to encourage the weak and provoke them to constancy and imitation No Christian should refuse that which is lawful nor to joyn with the Church in Holy Exercises on the days of thankful Commemoration of the Apostles and Martyrs and Excellent
tenderest of their Unity and Peace Own the best as best but none as a divided Sect espouse not their dividing interest confine not your especial love to a Party but extend it to all the Members of Christ Deny not local Communion when there is occasion for it to any Church that hath the Substance of True Worship and forceth you not to sin Love them as true Christians and Churches even when they drive you from their Communion I have found that Reformation is to be accomplished more by restoration of Ordinances and Administrations to their Primitive Nature and Use than by utter abolition Mr. Bagshaw objected to Mr. Baxter that he chose to communicate in a very populous Church upon Easter-day purposely that it might be known To this Mr. Baxter Answers p. 76. If a Man by many Years forbearing all Publick Prayer and Sacraments should tempt others to think that he is against them or thinks them needless How should he cure that Scandal but by doing that openly pleading for it which he is supposed to be against Ministers being bound to teach by Example as well as Doctrine Of the Liturgy § 1. Mr. Baxter in the 2d page of his exceptions against the Liturgy urged an Objection of Mr. Hales in these Words To load our Publick Forms with Private Fancies on which we differ is the most soveraign way to perpetuate Schism See also p. 48. The Bishops gave this Answer to the Objection We heartily desire that according to this Proposal great care may be taken to suppress private Conceptions of Prayer lest private Opinions be made matter of Prayer as it hath and will be if private Persons take liberty to make publick Prayers To this I agreed p. 201. Cure of Divisions in these words Every Separatist Anabaptist Antinomian doth too willingly put his Errors into his Prayers The Sense of which Mr. Bagshaw thus expounds p. 7. Of his Antidote by mentioning of Separatists as a distinct body of Men from the Antinomian Anabaptists c. It is evident he can mean no other but his Presbyterian and Congregational-Brethren § 2. That which God prescribed is lawful but God prescribed Forms of Prayer as the Titles and Matter of many of the Psalms prove which were daily used in the Jews Synagogues Christ Direct 2d Edit p. 139. Q. 74. Is it lawful to impose Forms on the Congregation in publick Worship Answ Yes and more than lawful It is the Pastors duty so to do for whether he forethink what to pray or not his Prayer is to them a Form of Words and they are bound to concur with him in Spirit or Desire and to say Amen So that every Minister by Office is daily to impose a Form of Prayer on all the People only some Men impose the same Form many times over or every day and others impose every day a new one pag. 140. Ibid. Pag. 142 143. Mr. Baxter shews the conveniencies and inconveniencies both of see and prescribed Prayers and adds My own judgment is that somewhat of both ways joyned together will best obviate the inconveniencies of both though by this I cross the conceits of prejudiced Men on both extremes I think I cross not the judgment of the Church of England which alloweth free Prayers in the Pulpit and at the Visitation of the Sick Nor of the Famous Non conformists Cartwright Hildersham Greenham Amisius Perkins Bains c. Mr. Cartwright all the time that he lived abroad used the same Form before Sermon and after and read Prayers in the Church and concluded with the Lords Prayer § 4. Pag. 102. Of Mr. Baxter ' s life Part 1. Under pretence of the purity of their Churches the Separatists set themselves against the same Men that the Drunkards and Swearers set against doing what they could to make them odious and put them down only they did it more profanely than the Profane in saying Let the Lord be glorified let the Gospel be propagated abusing Sacred Scripture to their purpose All this began in unwarrantable Separations and too much aggravating the faults of the Churches and Common People and Common-Prayer-Book and Ministry which because they thought they needed amendments it required their obstinate Separation and allowed them to make odious any thing that was amiss and if any Man had rebuked them for making it more faulty than it was they called him a pleader for Antichrist and Baal and every eror in the mode of Worship was Idolatry Popery Antichristianism Superstition Will-worship c. When many of their own Prayers were full of Carnal Passion Faction Disorder vain Repetitions unsound and loathsome Expressions and their Doctrine full of Errors and Confussion § 5. Pag. 169. Part. 3. Of B' s Life I wrote a Book called Cain and Abel intending a third Part to tell Dissenters why I went to the Parish Church and Communicated and why they should not suffer as Separatists least they suffer as Evil doers which a Bookseller importuned me to let him Print but for Reasons then given I delayed it but at last consented to publish the Reasons of my Communicating in the Parish Churches and against Separations But a Manuscript of Dr. Owen's containing Twelve Arguments against joyning with the Liturgy in Publick Churches was sent me which I answered whereupon a swarm of Revilers powred out their keenest Censures whom I answered Another said that my Treatise of Episcopacy fully proved the duty of Separation whereupon I explained that Treatise and all these things together I Published in a Treatise in defence of Catholick Communion to which I refer such as desire farther Satisfaction § 7. I shall name but one Passage more on this Head in his Defence of the Principles of Love pag. 88. The Covenant he saith bindeth us to Reformation according to God's Word and the Example of the best Reformed Churches But to prefer no Publick Worship or a worse before the Liturgy is Deformation and Profaneness and it is greater Reformation to prefer the Liturgy before none than to prefer Extemporate Publick Worship before the Liturgy for all the Reformed Churches in Christendom do commonly profess to hold Communion with the English Churches in the Liturgy if they come among us where it is used so that it seems in Mr. Baxter's Judgment a breach of the Covenant to prefer no Publick Worship before the Liturgy or to refuse Occasional Communion in the use of the Liturgy as if it were unlawful when in Mr. B's as well as in the Judgment of all the Reformed Churches it is to be preferred to Extemporate Publick Worsip My Opinion as to Liturgy in general is 1. That a stinted Liturgy is in it self lawful 2. That a stinted Liturgy in some parts of Publick Service is necessary 3. In the parts where in is not necessary it may not only be submitted to but desired when the peace of the Church requireth it 4. It is not of such necessity to take the matter and words out of the
the Question in the little Parliament whether all the Ministers of the Parishes of England should be put down at once I have seen how confidently the killing of the King the rebellious demolishing of the Government of the Land the killing of many Thousands of their Brethren the turnings and overturnings of all kind of Rule even that which themselves set up have been committed and justified and profanely fathered upon God these with much more such fruits of love-killing Principles I have seen If you converse with Censorious Separatists you shall hear so many invectives against them that are truly Catholick and sober as will make you think that Love and Peace and Catholick Communion are some sinful and mischievous things The experience of Twenty six Years in this Kingdom may convince the World what crimes may stand with high professions such as the generation springing up will scarce believe What high Professors were the proudest overturners of all Government and resisters and despisers of Ministry and Holy Order in the Churches The most railing Quakers and most filthy blaspheming Ranters to warn the World to take heed of being proud of superficial gifts and high profession and that he that stands in his own conceit should take heed lest he fall I have much ado to forbear naming some high Professors known lately at Worcester Exeter and other places who died Apostate Infidels deriding Christianity and the Immortality of the Soul who once were Separatists And I have heard of some Separatists who when others of a contrary judgment were going to the Churches at London looked in at the Doors saying The Devil choak thee art thou not out of thy pottage yet I commend to all that of the Apostle Phil. 2. 3. Let nothing be done through strife and vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves Read this Verse over on your Knees and beg of God to write it on your Hearts And I would wish all Assemblies of dividers and unwarrantable Separatists to write it over the Doors of their Meeting places and join with it Rom. 12. 10. but especially study James 3. In a word if God would cure the Church of Religious Pride the Pride of Wisdom and the Pride of Piety and Goodness the Church would have fewer Heresies and Contentions and much more Peace true Wisdom and Goodness The forwardness of many to keep open Divisions and to affect communion with none but such as say as they do is a down right mark of a Schismatick And I know that dividing Principles and Dispositions do tend directly to the ruine and damnation of those in whom they do prevail When Men fall into several Parties burning in Zeal against each other abating charity censuring and condemning one another backbiting and reviling each other through envy and strife when they look strangely on each other as being of several sides as if they were not Children of the same Father nor Members of the same Body or as if Christ were divided one being of Paul and another of Apollo c. and every one of a Faction letting out their thoughts in jealousies and evil surmises of each other perverting the words and actions of each to an ugly sense and snatching occasions to present one another as fools or odious to the hearers as if you should plainly say I pray you hate or despise these People whom I hate and despise This is the core of the Plague sore it is Schism in the bud S. 16. When People in the same Church do gather into private Meetings not under the guidance of their Pastors to edifie one another in holy exercises in love and peace but in opposition to their lawful Pastors or to one another to propagate their single opinions and increase their Parties and speak against those that are not on their side Schism is then ready to increase and multiply and the Swarm is ready to come forth and be gon S. 17. When these People actually depart and renounce or forsake the communion of the Church and cast off their faithful Pastors and draw into a separated Body by themselves and choose them Pastors and call themselves a Church and all without any just sufficient cause when thus Churches are gathered out of Churches before the old ones are dissolved or they have any warrant to depart when thus Pastor is set up against Pastor Church against Church and Altar against Altar this is Schism ripe and fruitful the Swarm is gone and hived in another place S. 19. If they shall also judge that Church to be no Church from which they separated and so cut off a part of the Body of Christ by an unrighteous Censure and condemn the innocent and usurp Authority over their Guides this is Disobedience and Uncharitableness with Schism A true Christian that hateth Fornication Drunkenness Lying Perjury because forbidden in the Word of God will hate Divisions also which are so frequently and vehemently forbidden Jo. 17. 21 22. Ro. 14. throughout Ro. 15. 12. 1 Cor. 1. 10. Eph. 4. 1 2 c. 1 Cor. 12. Phil. 3. 15. Ro. 16. 17 18. 1 Tim. 1. 4. James 3. The mischief of Divisions may be seen at large p. 739. Q. May or must a Minister silenced or forbid to preach the Gospel go on still to preach it against the Law Answ He that is silenced by just power though unjustly in a Country that needeth not his Preaching must forbear there and if he can must go into another Country where he may be more serviceable We must do any lawful thing to procure the Magistrates licence to preach in his Dominions How Humane Laws bind the Conscience Q. Whether the Laws of men do bind the Conscience Answ p. 37. Taking Conscience in a stricter sense as including essentially a relation to God's obligation the full sense of the the question is this Whether it be a sin against God to break the laws of man Answ It is a sin against God to break such Laws as Rulers are authorized by God to make First because God commandeth us to obey our Rulers God commandeth us to obey in general and their Law determineth of the particular matter therefore God obligeth us in conscience of his Law to obey them in that particular 2. Because by making them his Officers by his Commission he hath given them a certain beam of Authority which is Divine as derived from God therefore they can command us by a power derived from God therefore to disobey is to sin against a Power derived from God Man being God's Officer First his own Law layeth on us an obligation derivatively Divine for it is no Law which hath no Obligation and it is no Authoritative Obligation which is not derived from God 2. God's own Law bindeth us to obey Man's Laws Rom. 13. And it may be a good reason to perswade Obedience to our Ecclesiastical Governours because Preaching is a cheap and easie