of those who differ from us As to the Frequency of Celebrating the Lord's-Supper I find many People of opinion that the Scriptures have determined nothing in it that therefore it is intirely left to the discretion of the Ministers how often they will Celebrate it and to the People's how often they will receive it And that on this Account every one is left to judge for himself when he will be a partaker of it as he thinks it most for his Comfort and Edification which makes the Celebration and Receiving it so Arbitrary a thing that many never receive it at all And the Universal neglect of it is become one of the Crying sins of these Kingdoms and a great Objection against the Reformation But if we Consider the Institution of this Sacrament it will help us to pass a right judgment as to the Obligation of the frequency that lies on us I shall endeavour to make this plain in the following particulars 1. Our Saviour when he had blessed broken and delivered the Bread to his Disciples Commanded them to Take Eat and do This that they saw Him do in Rememberance of him and when He had Blessed the Cup and given it to them he Commanded them to Drink all of it and as often as they drink it to do it in Remembrance of him 1 Cor. xi 26 Now I conceive the most Natural Interpretation of these words of our Saviour Do this in Remembrance of Me and This do Ye as often as often as you drink it in Remembrance of Me to be as if he had said We have now Celebrated together the Jewish Passover in Remembrance of our Fore-fathers deliverance out of Egypt But I am about to purchase for you by my Death a much more glorious deliverance from the slavery of Sin and the power of Hell And I order you for the future to do this which you see done by me in Remembrance of Me as what you have hitherto done has been in Remembrance of your Deliverance out of Egypt From this Institution it appears 1. That the Lord's-Supper is substituted in the place of the Passover which was Commanded by the Law to be Celebrated once in the Year and that in a place appointed by God where all Israel were to assemble for it 2. That Our Saviour has confin'd us to no Place or prefixt time for the Celebration of his Supper that succeeds it which makes it much more easy for us to observe it and renders us much more inexcusable if we neglect it 3. Since Our Saviour has taken off the Confinement to Time and Place that made the Passover such a Burthen It follows that they who Celebrate it seldomer then the Jews did their Passover must needs have less regard to the memory of Christ's Death and the deliverance wrought by it then the Jews had to their Deliverance out of Egypt There being no other imaginable reason that can tempt them to neglect purifying themselves for this solemnity of Worship and frequenting it but the deadness of their Hearts towards Christ and the want of Sense Gratitude and Love towards their Master 4. Christ's positive Command to Do this in Remembrance of Him c. must oblige us in some Times and in some Circumstances And there can be no better way of determining when we are obliged to do it then by observing when God in his goodness gives us Opportunity for either we are then obliged to do it or else we may choose whether we will ever do it or no there being no better means of determining the frequency then this of God's giving us the opportunity And the same Rule holding in all other general positive Commands such as in those that oblige us to Charity we may be sure it holds likewise in this Therefore whoever slights or neglects any Opportunity of Receiving which God affords him does sin as certainly as he who being enabled by God to perform an Act of Charity and invited by a fit Object neglects to Relieve him or shuts up his Bowels of Compassion against him concerning whom the Scripture assures us That the Love of God dwells not in him And the Argument is rather stronger against him who neglects this holy Sacrament for how can it be supposed that a Man has a true love for his Saviour or a due sense of his sufferings who refuses or neglects to remember the greatest of all benefits in the easyest manner tho' Commanded to do it by his Redeemer and invited by a a fair opportunity of God's own offering 5. It is manifest that if it be not our own Faults we may have an Opportunity every Lord's Day when we meet together And therefore that Church is guilty of laying aside this Command whose Order of Worship doth not require and provide for this Practice Christ's Command seems to lead us directly to it For Do this in remembrance of Me implies that Christ was to leave them that they were to meet together after he was gone and that he required them to remember him at their Meetings whilst he was absent The very Design of our Publick Meetings on the Lord's Day and not on the Jewish Sabbath is to remember and keep up in our Minds a sense of what Christ did and suffered for us till He come again and this we are obliged to do not in such a manner as our own Invention suggests but by such means as Christ himself has prescribed to us that is by celebrating this Holy Sacrament It seems then probable from the very Institution of this Sacrament that our Saviour designed it should be a part of God's Service in all the solemn Assemblies of Christians as the Passover was in the Yearly Assemblies of the Jews To know therefore how often Christ requires us to celebrate this Feast we have no more to do but to enquire how often Christ requires us to Meet together that is at least every Lord's Day II. And the same is farther manifest in the second place from the Examples of the Apostles and of the Churches of God in the New Testament They cannot be supposed but to have understood what Christ meant by these words Do this in Remembrance of Me and if it appears that they did make this Feast a constant part of their Ordinary Worship we may safely conclude That Christ meant it should be so And here 't is observable That we do not find any solemn stated Meeting of Christians for Worship in the whole New Testament without it At first the Disciples had their Meetings every Day and then they likewise daily received this Sacrament Acts ii 46 And they continued daily with one Accord in the Temple and in breaking Bread from House to House And St. Paul supposes that their Meeting together was on purpose and with express Design to Celebrate this Feast 1 Cor. x. 20 When ye come together therefore into one place this is not to eat the Lord's Supper which intimates That one main Design of their coming
the sense of it and in that respect very inconvenient and is likewise a late invention of our own never used by any Foreign Church either Popish or Reformed for ought I can find to this day and has been taken up to supply the negligence and laziness of people who will not now as formerly be at pains to get Psalms by heart or so much as procure Books or learn to read them 5. Notwithstanding your Directory requires the voice in singing Psalms to be tuneable and gravely ordered yet you have not only refused the Use of Instruments which are a natural means to help the Voice and make it tuneable and are used by most of the Reformed Churches in Europe but have also determined it to be Unlawful I would intreat you to consider that though perhaps it may not be so proper to press the Use of Instruments in the service of God in these parts where so many for want of being used to them have entertained prejudices against them and some are uncapable of being affected by them yet the making them Unlawful is against Nature and Scripture and is on that account a dangerous Superstition and Encroachment on Christian Liberty 6. The same Superstition and Encroachment it is not only to forbear to praise God in singing or saying Psalms and Hymns by way of Responses or Answering of which I have given such Noble Precedents out of Scripture but even to determine it to be Unlawful Lastly I would entreat you to consider That forasmuch as appears you have altogether laid aside the Psalms in Prose and the other Scripture Hymns that are of God's immediate Appointment and for the Use of which we have the Example of our Saviour and his Saints insomuch that they are no where used by you in the Praises of God but in their stead you have substituted as is before observed a few Verses of a Psalm of Human Composure without Scripture-Example or Precedent and sing them in a way that has nothing of Antient Practise much less Scripture for it but is purely and immediately an Invention of Men. IV. The Case then between our Church and you in this point I think impartially stands thus Our Church praises God every day with five or six Psalms besides other Hymns of His Own Appointment and in His own Words and Method and yet is deserted and condemned by you in this very point as Teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men whereas you who only praise Him in a piece of a Psalm of a few Verses and in a Method of your own finding out perswade your selves that you keep the Ordinances of God pure and unmixed from Human Invention This is a thing seriously to be considered by you for as it is easie to think what all unprejudiced Men will judge of it now so we may conclude what God will judge it at the last day If you in earnest lay these things to heart and reflect on them I perswade my self that they will at least prevail with you to be modest in your Censures of us your Brethren and prevent your Judging much less Condemning us or our manner of praising God as Unacceptable to Him CHAP. II. Of Prayer Sect. 1. What the Holy Scriptures prescribe concerning it I. LEt us now proceed to the Second main part of the Worship of God in the Publick Meetings of Christians which I observed was Prayer or Supplication And if we consider what Rules Directions and Examples the Scriptures afford us for the performance of this Duty we shall find That they direct us to offer up our Prayers in a set and prepared Form of Words That we may more clearly judge of this matter it will be fit to consider the several parts of Prayer distinctly by themselves such as Confession Supplication Intercession c. 1. Confession of our own Unworthiness and of God's Mercy to aggravate it is commonly looked on as the first part of Prayer and proper to introduce our Supplications Now in searching the Scriptures we shall find express Command to use a set Form of Words in both these sorts of Confession So Deuteron xxvi 3 Thou shalt go unto the Priest that shall be in those days and say unto him I profess this day unto the Lord thy God that I am come unto the Countrey which the Lord sware unto our fore-Fathers to give us And then the Offerer was to make his Confession vers 5 And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God A Syrian ready to perish was my Father c. Here we have a Form of Confession of the person's Vnworthiness and of God's Goodness and Mercy together with a profession of Obedience and dependance on Him prescribed by God Himself in set prepared words The same appears from Solomon's prescribing a Form of Confession for the penitent Israelites 1 Kings viii 47 which words we find accordingly applied in Psal. cvi 6 and made part of a larger Form of Confession to be used in their Captivity as Solomon designed them which appears from the 47th Verse of the same Psalm taken from the Form prescribed by David 1 Chro. xvi 35 And Daniel in his Form of Confession in Captivity Chap. ix vers 5. uses the same Form of Words From whence it appears that they were not left Arbitrarily to Choice or Discretion tho' other Words might be joyned with them when there was occasion to enlarge or vary the Form Many of the Psalms are Forms of Confession and were used and daily Repeated by the Jewish Church Psal. li. was the Form of Confession David prepared and us'd for his Murther and Adultery and he not only used it himself but directed it to the Master of his Choire to be used in the Publick Service as appears from the Title of it Psal. lxxviii is a general Confession for the whole people setting forth at large the Mercies of God to them and their Ingratitude Disobedience and Rebellion and this not as a Pattern but as a set and prepared Form to be used in their publick Service All which shew us that Addresses to God in such Forms are of Divine Institution and are a warrant to us that he approves that our Confession should be made to him in that manner 2. The second part of Prayer is Supplication for good things and in this Case we have likewise the Commandment of God for a Form of Words Deut. xxvi 13 15. Then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God Look down from thy holy Habitation from Heaven and bless thy people Israel and the Land which thou hast given us as thou swarest unto our Fathers c. So Hos. xiv 2 Take with you words and turn to the Lord your God and say unto Him Take away all Iniquity c. Moses in the Wilderness used a set Form of Words to this purpose and recommended it to be used by the Church of God for ever as is manifest from Psal. xc which has this Title A Prayer of Moses
and the mischiefs that each of them have or may hereafter produce It is hardly conceivable that the forbidding the use of some particular Meats should have so many ill effects as the forbidding Forms of prayer has had already Yet it is observable how St. Paul judges of that Doctrine 1 Tim. iv 1 In the latter times saith he some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils Forbidding to Marry and to abstain from Meats which God hath Created to be received with Thanksgiving You see here St. Paul counts it a departure from the Faith and a Doctrine of Devils to forbid as unlawful in it self any sort of Meat which God has Created for the use of Man and if it be so Criminal to Teach any sort of Meat to be unclean when God has not forbidden it then sure to Teach a Form of Prayer to be unlawful when God has commanded it must be a very ill Doctrine And this consideration alone ought to make those who maintain it or any such Doctrine whereby they are obliged to condemn their Brethren as practising unlawful things to examine it carefully and impartially by the word of God lest they be imposed on by Seducing Spirits The great Design of the Devil is to bring us into an intire subjection to his will But when he despairs of this his next Attempt is to share with God in our Obedience and impose new Commands of his Own upon us as if they were God's and so to procure himself to be obey'd This he doth most successfully by giving them an appearance of Religion and of more than ordinary strictness Thus in St. Paul's time under colour of Mortification he forbad Meats and Marriage as Vnlawful which God had allowed speaking Lies in Hypocrisie and under shew of Religion And thus 't is to be feared he has prevailed on some under colour of greater spirituality to abstain from Forms of Prayer as Unlawful which God has enjoyned And here it is very remarkable that where-ever the Devil gains this point with men and brings them to believe a thing to be forbidden by God which he has not forbidden he soon brings a super-added Command of his Own in Competition with some of God's and prevails with them to prefer his Commands to God's and so plungeth them into direct Disobedience which was his Design at first Thus when he had prevailed with Men to abstain from Marriage they soon fell not only to Commit Fornication but even in some cases to Allow it rather than Marriage as the Papists do And by perswading Men to abstain from Forms of Prayer as Unlawful he has deprived them in many places of all opportunity of Publick Worship and made them choose rather not to serve God at all in Publick than with a Form which is the case of many Thousands now in this Kingdom who worship God publickly no where But 3. This Doctrine of the Unlawfulness of praying by Forms is no such indifferent thing that we may safely indulge Men in their own sense about it Since it is very apt to puff them up and make them take false measures in judging of their own Condition and of the influence of God's Spirit upon them We know that all good Men have the Spirit of God and are guided and influenced by it in the whole tenor of their Lives we make no doubt but they are assisted by Him in their prayers but no less in forgiving an Injury or resisting a Temptation and his influence on a good Man's Mind is rather greater and more sensible in these and other Acts of Religion than in Prayer Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance are the Fruits of the Spirit Gal. v. 22 And it is principally by these we ought to conclude that we have that Spirit But the Opinion of the Unlawfulness of Forms of Prayer on a perswasion that the Spirit of God enables every Child of God to conceive with the Heart and express with the Mouth suitable Desires entitles every one to God's Spirit in some measure that is able to express himself in apt and fluent Words tho' without the other Graces of the Spirit and exposes every one to despair that is not able to do this as looking on himself to be destitute of the Spirit tho' otherwise meek humble and charitable and endowed with such Graces as are much wore certain signs of his presence Nay so far are many deluded by this Opinion that they judge themselves or others Children of God and in his Favour according as they are more or less endowed with this Gift without respect to other Qualifications And I dare appeal to your selves Whether some very Immoral Persons guilty of gross and scandalous Crimes have not been eminent for this Gift of Prayer And whether such persons are not apt to flatter themselves that they are the Children of God and endowed with his Spirit notwithstanding all their Wickedness And it is impossible either to convince these persons of their mistake or to comfort poor ignorant people dejected only for want of this Gift whilst they are possessed with this Opinion of the Unlawfulness of Forms Which in the 4th place ought not to be countenanced or indulged as an indifferent thing because it has been a great hindrance to secret Devotion Every Christian ought at least twice a day to address himself to God in secret prayer but a great part of the World cannot do it without a Form Children and ignorant persons are at a loss for Words and even other people are often not able to find them readily especially when wearied dull or indisposed as is sometimes the condition of the the best Christians this makes secret prayer at least a constant regular course of it uneasie to most that are absolutely against all Use of Forms and it occasions too many to neglect it which otherwise would not And as for Children and ignorant people amongst those of this Perswasion I am well assured many of them never bow their Knees in secret to God and several of those that are grown up are forced to speak aloud or cannot pray at all which is against the nature of secret Prayer and exposes not only the Persons that use it to the censure of Hypocrisy but the Duty to Contempt 'T is on this account that the pious Custom of Training up Young People to a constant course of Devotion in their morning and evening secret Prayers is too universally laid aside among you as I have found by experience and for the truth of the Observation I dare appeal to all of the Dissenters On the contrary I am well assured that there cannot be a more effectual or easy method to revive and continue this regular and constant use of secret prayers than to oblige every one to some certain Forms every Morning and Evening which they may not omit whatever other prayers they use But this can never be done whilst the opinion of
the unlawfulness of forms prevails and therefore all good people are obliged to oppose it as they would retrieve the constant use of secret prayers which shews that this is no indifferent matter as the objection would suggest but of great weight and fit to be contended for I will not mention some other Reasons that are of great moment because they would but exasperate and tend to make the Duty of Prayer when performed extempore ridiculous which ill men might extend as it too often happens to expose Devotion in general such are the indecent Expressions which sometimes fall from persons that pray thus I will only observe to you that Extemporary Prayers of some Preachers have too often given occasion of Offence to serious persons even among your selves 'T is certain that to print some of them as they have been spoken as those that we make use of are printed would not be for the Honour of the Holy Spirit to whom they are ascribed nor much recommend them to serious Men. But I esteem it an ill thing for Men to ridicule one anothers Devotion whatever it is V. There remains yet the Third Opinion of Dissenters which they advance against us in this matter of Prayer to be Examined That the Minister is the Mouth of the Congregation and that the People have nothing to do but to joyn with him in their Hearts An Opinion far from any Authority of Scripture which expresly requires us Rom. xv 6 with one Mind and one Mouth to glorifie God We produce this and many other places and Examples in Scripture for the People's joyning their Voices and bearing a part in their praises and prayers and we are assured there is no Scripture forbids it and therefore when you Condemn it or teach it to be Unlawful we must charge it upon You as an instance of Your Teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men. Which is all I think needful to be said to this Head after what I have shewed before in defence of our contrary practise from Scripture and I think sufficient to induce you seriously to consider it And thus I presume I have faithfully examined the Rules and Examples the Scriptures afford us for the performance of that part of our publick Worship that consists in Prayers and compared the Service of our Church and the Dissenters way of Praying with them and made it appear that our performance of this Duty both as to the Matter and Manner is agreeable to the Commandments of God and to the Examples of Holy Men recorded in Scripture And that the Service the Dissenters have substituted in the room thereof has in many particulars laid aside God's Commands and deserted the Examples of Scripture and is in the main part thereof an immediate Invention of Men. And I intreat you who are of this Persuasion and adhere to these Principles of Worship which I have now mentioned and shewed to be disagreeable to Scripture to consider seriously whether you are not thereby literally guilty of that Sin with which our Saviour taxeth the Jews Mark vii 7 of Teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men And also of that Superstition condemned by St. Paul Col. ii 21 which saith Touch not taste not handle not that is which teaches to forbear those things which God has made Lawful after the Doctrines and Commandments of Men And I beseech God to inlighten your Minds to make a true Judgement in it that you may deliver your Souls CHAP. III. Of Hearing Sect. 1. What the Holy Scriptures prescribe concerning it I. ONE great design of Our Christian Assemblies is Hearing and that which is to be heard is the Word of God I shall proceed in examining this in the same manner as I have done in the former Chapters And consider First What Directions the Scriptures afford us for the publick performance of this Duty Secondly Shall compare our own practice with them And Thirdly That of the Dissenters First then God has positively Commanded us to read His Word in our publick Assemblies So Deut. xxxi 10 In the feast of Tabernacles when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place where the Lord shall choose Thou shalt read this Law before all Israel in their Hearing Gather the people together Men Women and Children and thy Stranger that is within thy gates that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and observe to do all the Words of this Law And 't is observed Jos. viii 35 that there was not a word of all that Moses Commanded which Joshua read not before all the Congregation Neither was this confined to their Solemn Assemblies at Jerusalem It was likewise a constant part of their Sabbath Service in their Synagogues As we may learn from Acts xiii 14 where it is observed that Paul and Barnabas went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and sate down and after the reading of the Law and the Prophets the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto them c. and St. Paul takes notice vers 27. that the Prophets were read every Sabbath day meaning undoubtedly in their Assemblies And St. James Acts xv 21 of Moses his being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day II. This reading the Law was the great and most effectual means God provided for preserving the knowledge of himself amongst his people and where it was omitted the people immediately sunk into Idolatry and the best Reformation began and was carried on by Restoring this Ordinance Thus 't is observed of Josiah 2 Chron. xxxiv 29 that he gathered together all the Elders of Judah and Jerusalem And all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem and the Priâ—sts and the Levites and all the people great and small and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the Covenant that was found in the House of the Lord. The like is observed of Ezra Neh. viii 3 And he read therein before the street that was before the Water-gate from Morning untill Mid-day before the Men and the Women and all that could understand 'T is remarkable that after the Captivity the Jews never fell into Idolatry and the chief reason given by themselves was the strict Observation of this Ordinance of God the Law being constantly read to them afterwards publickly in their Synagogues so powerfully doth God bless his own Ordinances to preserve those that use them from Error and Sin III. From the practice of the Synagogue in reading the Law and the Prophets the like Order was brought into the Christian Church and Reading was made a part of the Office of the Christian Elders as it was before of the Jewish And hence it is that Timothy is Commanded by St. Paul 1 Tim. iv 13 To give attendance to Reading as well as to Exhortation and Doctrine And the inspired Writings of the Apostles were read in the Christian Assemblies as well as the Law and Prophets among the Jews According to St. Paul's Command Col.
iv 16 When this Epistle is read amongst you cause that it also be read in the Church of the Laodiceans and that ye likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea And it was but reason since the Gospel contained the Christian Law that it should be read in the Christian Assemblies as well as the Law of Moses was in the Synagogues And that it was so read in the first Christian Assemblies I might shew by many instances out of the Antient Fathers if there were occasion IV. This publick Reading the Law was of so great Reputation that it is termed Preaching it as we may see from Acts xv 21 For Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day The word Preaching has a peculiar sense in the New Testament and signifies properly to Declare or Proclaim the Word of God as a Herauld or Cryer proclaimes the Laws or Orders of a King Hence only those that Proclaim'd the Gospel to such as had not heard it before or read the Old Testament to the people are said to Preach Preaching is distinguished from Teaching and Exhortation and 't is observable that in the whole New Testament tho' reading the Scriptures is called Preaching yet interpreting them applying them or exhorting the people from them in a Christian Auditory is never called by that name If it be objected that St. Paul is said to preach to the Disciples Acts xx 7 when he only in probability made a Sermon or Exhortation to Believers as is usual now I answer that the Original of this Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is never translated preach in any other place of the New Testament and should not have been here but discours'd disputed spake or reason'd so it is translated in Acts xvii 2 17. xviii 19 xix 8 9. Heb. xii 5 c. for the Original Words which properly signifie preaching are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From all which it is manifest that there are only two ways by which the Word of God is properly preached the first is when it is declared to those that never heard of it before and the second is when the very words of the Scripture are read publickly to the peodle as a Cryer doth a Proclamation which he doth not word himself but reads it in the words in which it is delivered to him In short The Scriptures are Sermons out of the Mouth of God being dictated by his Holy Spirit for the Reading of which to the People for their Conviction and Instruction there is a peculiar Command of God and where this Ordinance is duely observed they are sure of the Word of Life and 't is impossible they should be ignorant of their Duty for the Scriptures are sufficient to mak◠them wise to Salvation and the hearing them with Humility and Attention is a means sufficient to beget Faith in the Hearts of those that hear them for they are profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect thorowly furnished to all good Works as we see 1 Tim. iii. 16 17. V. We find in Holy Scripture that the Publick Reading of the Word of God was with great Solemnity 'T is observed Nehem. viii 5 When Ezra opened the Book all the people stood up and Ezra blessed the Lord the great God and all the people answered Amen Amen with lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground and I find it generally agreed that both the Readers and Hearers stood up whilst the Law was read tho' not when other things were read or taught hence it is observed Luke iv 16 that our Saviour stood up for to read and Vers. 20. after closing the Book that he sat down to teach Hence Rev. v. God is represented in allusion to the High-Priest with a Book in his Right Hand containing the Revelations of his Will and the Lamb as his Minister takes it out of his Hand to declare the Contents of it and Vers. 8. When he had taken the Book the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders fell down before the Lamb And they sung a New Song The Angels joyn with them Vers. 11. and the whole Creation Verse 13. From whence we see the Scriptures teach us to receive the Revelations of God's Will out of the Book of Life with Adoration and Praises And therefore we find that at the Reading the Law Confessions and Praises of God were intermixed and succeeded one another Neh. ix 3 And they stood up in their place and read in the Book of the Lord their God one fourth part of the Day and another fourth part they Confessed and Worshiped the Lord their God VI. We find that the Word of God is to be read in such a Language as the People understand After the Captivity the People being Born and Educated in a strange Land their Language was changed and they did not understand at least Universally the pure Hebrew in which the Law was first written therefore when Ezra read in the Law a certain number of the Priests and Levites interpreted the Words of the Law as Ezra read them to the People Neh. viii 7 And they caused the people to understand the Law and the people stood in their place so they read in the Book in the Law of God distinctly and gave the sence and caused them to understand the reading And this Custom continueth among the Jews to this Day first the Hebrew Text is read and then a Translation or Paraphrase in a Language understood by the Hearers And indeed there may be good reason for reading the Originals in Publick Assemblies such a Custom being an effectual means to preserve the knowledge of them but they cannot be useful to the People without a Translation Therefore St. Paul doth not absolutely forbid speaking in Unknown Tongues in the Church but orders 1 Cor. xiv 27 Let one interpret but if there be no Interpreter let him keep silence in the Church VII We find that after reading the Word of God there was sometimes an Enlargement or Comment on some part of it and an Exhortation to the People Thus when our Saviour had read a portion of Scripture He applied it to the people in a Discourse to that purpose But it doth not appear that this was constantly done on the contrary it is rather probable that it was not For had there been a constant Provision for such Enlargement and Exposition of the Law and Exhortation from it there had been no occasion for the Rulers of the Synagogue Acts xiii 15 to send to St. Paul and Barnabas after the reading of the Law and Prophets that Message we find there Ye Men and Brethren if ye have any Word of Exhortation for the People say on St. Paul supposes him who Teaches and him whose Office it was to Exhort distinct from him that Ruled
pray to God praise him and instruct our Families in private and yet God forbid that our doing these privately should banish the use of them from our Publick Assemblies or that any one should think himself excused from Attending on the Publick Performance of them on account of his Private Diligence in them And the same Rule holds for Reading the Holy Scriptures 3. God tells the Children of Israel Deut. vi 6 That these Words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up and thou shalt write them on the posts of thy house Here is as much private diligence in Reading and Teaching the Law required of the Israelites as any Christian can pretend to exercise and yet all this care to preserve the knowledge of the Law by private study and exercise did not make the Reading it in their Synagogues unnecessary or prevent God from requiring them to Use it as part of his publick Worship Deut. xxxi 11 And therefore all your diligence in reading the Scriptures privately or Your Teachers exhorting and requiring You to do it ought not to warrant Their or Your dispensing with the Command of God that appoints the Reading his Word as part of his publick Service But 4. When people are left to themselves in private they may either do or not do a thing as they please And we are assured that there are many who come to Church and hear the Word of God read there that neither can nor ever wou'd be at the pains to read it in private It is therefore a great Temptation to the people to be negligent and a great want of Care in a Church to leave so material a thing as the Reading of the Word of God to private diligence We find by experience that where no publick effectual care is taken to inform the generality of Men the Knowledge of God's Word sensibly decays and is in a fair way to be lost The Papists read the Scriptures in a Language that the people do not understand and we see into what gross ignorance they are fallen by this means Those of Your Perswasion generally speaking do not read them at all in your Meetings and the consequence of this is That many of your common people are strangers to the very History of the Bible and the First Principles of Christianity as I have found on Tryal to my great trouble and astonishment This pretence therefore of Peoples Reading the Holy Scriptures in private will by no means justifie you for breaking God's Command in omitting the publick Reading them as a part of God's Service in the Congregations The Second Pretence that I have met with for this Omission is That since the penning of the Scriptures and settling of the Church by the Apostles the case is much altered with Christians That Printing was not then known and consequently Copies of the Bible were few and hard to come by Few could then read them if they had them and therefore say some Reading the Scriptures in the Assemblies was then absolutely necessary otherwise the generality must have been strangers to them But now Copies of the Bible by means of Printing are become common and easie to be had and most Families have some in them that can read And therefore the publick Reading them is not now necessary 1. The plain Answer to this is First That the Reading the Scriptures publickly is an Institution of God Therefore to lay it aside on the account of the Invention of Printing is in effect to say That Men have found out a better way to propagate the Knowledge of God's Word than He instituted and plainly to lay aside his Command for Mens own Inventions 2. God has promised that there shall be always Religious Assemblies and has commanded his Word to be read in them which is a certain means to preserve the Knowledge thereof as long as there is a Church but he has no where promised the constant commonness of Bibles nor ability to people to read them at home To omit therefore the Institution of God for Teaching his Word and to rely on peoples procuring and reading Copies of the Bible privately is to leave God's way and presumptuously depend on that which has no Promise annexed to it 3. How easie soever we may imagine the obtaining Copies of the Bible and notwithstanding the number of those that can read there are still many Families even amongst Protestants that can neither compass a Bible or get any to read it if they had one and therefore this Expedient is no waies sufficient to supply the Design of God's Institution in commanding it to be read publickly 4. Let us suppose Bibles to be as common as we can desire and that every one can read them yet who will secure us that they will do it People whilst the first Fervour of a Reformation is on them may perhaps be diligent so long as the Scripture is a Novelty to them or Zeal for a party inspirits them but when this wears off as it generally does in a little time we see by experience that their care of Reading and Meditating in the Scriptures decays with it and there are at this day too many of all Parties that neither read themselves nor hear one Chapter read in a whole Year except at Church And therefore to omit the publick Reading them on presumption that the people will do it themselves since it is so easie for them to do it is the ready way to introduce an Universal Ignorance of God's Word and reduce us again to Popery the most effectual Bar against which is the Bible in our own Language 5. People may be obliged to come to the publick Congregations and hear the Word of God read though they have no inclination to it and when they neglect they may be reproved or punished but this is not practical when the Scriptures are required only to be read in private Families Experience shews us that there is great difference between these two Methods in point of Efficacie We see in England and Wales where publick Reading was practised the people generally embraced the Reformation but in Ireland where the same care was not taken they rejected it Had God's Way been taken and the Scriptures as constantly read to the Native Irish in a Language they understood as it was in England or Wales there is little doubt but the Reformation had succeeded as Universally here as it did there but the want of this has kept them in ignorance to this day which may convince us how ineffectual all our Contrivances are to enlighten Men in respect of God's Institution I am perswaded that if ever the Native Irish be brought to the Knowledge of God's Word it must be by having it read to them publickly in a Language they
together was and ought to have been to eat the Lord's Supper tho' by their misbehaviour they so corrupted the Ordinance that it could not be called His Supper If one should now reprove Christians whom they observe to mis-behave themselves in Church in these words When you come together into one place this is not to hear the Word of God Preached to you for one is Talking and another is Sleeping Wou'd not every Body conclude That in the Opinion of the Reprover the Hearing the Word of God Preached ought to be one End of their coming together And then surely the Apostles saying that when you come together into one place this is not to eat the Lord's Supper c. gives us ground to conclude that in his Opinion Eating the Lords Supper ought to be one constant End of our coming together Which is further manifest from the Advice he gives them Vers. 33. Wherefore my Brethren when ye come together to eat tarry one for another One End therefore of their coming together was as Children come together in a Family at Meal-time that is to be fed at their Father's Table For what the Apostle called in the former Verse coming together into one place in this Verse he calls coming together to eat intimating that a main end of their coming together into one place was to eat 3. When the Meeting of Christians came to be fixed to the First Day of the Week or the Lord's Day the Breaking of Bread was likewise brought to the same Day So Acts xx 7 And upon the first Day of the Week when the Disciples came together to break Bread Paul preached unto them From which words we may conclude two things First That the First Day of the Week was the Disciples time of Publick Worship Secondly That the Breaking of Bread or celebrating the holy Eucharist was a part of that Worship The Scripture is as plain for the one as the other There have been some Disputes raised about Changing the Day of Worship from the Last to the First Day of the Week and this place is usually produced to justifie the Change And sure the same place is as clear for the Celebration of the Lord's Supper on that Day as for the Observation of the Day it self instead of the Sabbath And therefore whoever wilfully passes the lord's-Lord's-Day without it doth not observe it as the Scriptures from the Practice of the Disciples direct us to do 4. I have endeavoured all along to confine my self to the plain words of Scripture and to use such Arguments only as the meanest persons might be able to judge of from their Bibles Yet in a Controverted place of Scripture concerning the meaning of a Command of Christ relating to some positive Duty I take the constant practice of the Church from the Apostles downward to be a good means of determining the sense of it And as there is not any Example of a stated Assembly for Worship in the New Testament without the Lord's Supper so I think there is not any Example of that Nature in all Antiquity For the truth of which I appeal to those that are skill'd in it The nearer we come to the Apostles we shall still find the Lord's Supper the more punctually observed as a constant part of the Ordinary service of the Church And 't is remarkable that when first some who had been present at the Prayers and Preaching of the Church began to go away from the Publick Assemblies without Receiving which was a corruption that came in about 300 years after Christ it was looked on as so great an Innovation and breach of the Scripture Rule that the Church decreed whosoever was guilty of it should be Excommunicated So particularly the Ninth of those commonly called the Canons of the Apostles and the second Canon of the Council of Antioch Thus the Practice of the Church continued for many Ages And tho' the generality of Men could not be persuaded constantly to partake of the Lord's Supper after the Discipline of the Church was dissolved and the piety of Men began to cool yet still it was Celebrated on the Lord's day according to the first setled Practice of the Church 5. And indeed the corrupt practice of the solitary Masses of the Papists is a further evidence of its being counted Originally a part of the ordinary Worship of God I think it is confessed by all even by the Papists themselves that those Masses had their Original from the universal corruption and negligence of Christians For whilst the People had either Piety or Zeal they communicated with the Bishop or Ministers in every Assembly at least a competent number of them But when Piety and Devotion were in a manner lost in the corrupt Ages of the Church it came to pass that tho' the Minister Consecrated the Elements every Lord's-day according to the Example of the Holy Scriptures and Antiquity yet he could prevail with few or none to receive with him but was often forced to receive alone This was a great corruption and a falling from the Scripture precedent but the Roman Church instead of Reforming the abuse by obliging the people to receive as formerly corrupted her principles as well as practice and decreed it lawful and sufficient for the Priest to receive alone Yet this abuse shews us what should be and what has been the practice and that the Church has constantly reckoned the Lord's-Supper as an Ordinary part of Publick Worship in Christian Assemblies on solemn days and sure then to lay it aside can be termed no less then an Invention of our own Since we can neither in Scripture or in the Church of God for 1400 years together which is a sufficient commentary on the Scripture Text produce one Example of a stated solemn Christian Assembly without it Sect. 2. The Practice of Our Church as to frequent Communions I. HAving thus consider'd the Rules and Examples that the Scriptures afford us in this point let us in the second place compare the Rules and Practices of Our Church with this pattern I will not pretend that they come fully up to it this being the most defective part of the Reformation But I doubt not on view it will appear that Our Church comes nearer the Scripture precedent then perhaps any other 'T was the design of the Reformation to throw out the corruptions of the Church of Rome and to bring things back to what was practised in the Apostles time and in the purer Ages of thâ— Church And as to the present point before us Our Reformers found two corruptions crept in by time The first was That the Priest received the Lord's-Supper alone without the people which destroyed the Nature of this Holy Sacrament as a Communion The second was That the people thought they had sufficiently observed the Lord's-day if they saw Mass without understanding it or receiving Our Church therefore to Reform the first of these Ordains That there shall be no Communion except