inspect and enquire into your Practices and reprove you where I perceive or believe you to be Mis-lead And I verily hope by your having had your Sacraments oftner last Year than formerly that my publick Discourses in every Parish did contribute to awaken you towards it of which I am heartily glad but Mr. Boyse has nothing to do with you or me and as he interposes himself without any Call or Reason so he Writes either without any or on very partial information I knew these things before but I never design'd to Publish them as looking on them to be apt to give Offence but if you will look over Mr. Boyse's Book you will be convinced that there is now a necessity on me to lay them open in my own Justification and I hope there may be something of Providence in it since it may be a means to open your Eyes and let you see that your Practice in Worshipping God has been such as your very Advocate dares not undertake to defend it but denies the most plain Matters of Fact and that your Ministers have not been so diligent to warn you of these Omissions as might have been expected from them If they had been as careful to keep you to the Scripture Rules and Christ's Institutions as they have been studious to gain and keep you from joining with Us you had not lain under the present Objections which I fear must prove Scandalous to all that profess Christianity I thought here to have Concluded what I intended to say at this time concerning Mr. Boyse's Remarks but I find it may be convenient further to add some few Observations concerning the Method Mr. Boyse has taken to defeat the design of my Book and to hinder you from joining with us in our Ordinary Lord's-day Worship by the new Rules and Exceptions he lays down and by what he objects particularly concerning Our use of the Sign of the Cross in Baptism which he wou'd have you believe that I omitted because I was not able to defend it Before I proceed to these I desire you to consider that it was incumbent on one that would defend your Cause against my Book to have justified your way of Worship by shewing that your manner of performing the several parts of it as distinguisht from ours is warranted by Scripture-Precept or Precedent or by direct consequence from thence For there appears no reason for your absenting your selves from our Worship except your own be more expresly warranted by the Word of God But instead of undertaking this Task Mr. Boyse argues against it and condemns the Rule as common only with wild Sectaries such he calls the Quakers p. 7. But as strict as the Rule appears I have justified all the particular ways of Worship to which I invited you by it And if Mr. Boyse could have done the same for yours he needed not have declined the Rule But he seems conscious that your ways of Worship are not defensible on this principle And therefore he endeavours to furnish you with other principles for your own defence and other objections against your joining in our Worship viz. I. He gives you another Rule for the ordering of God's Service II. He endeavours to perswade you that the greatest Exception you have against joining with us is not the matter of Worship III. And Thirdly He alledges that I have omitted to handle that part of Worship against which you have greatest Exception and that because I could not defend it I desire you to consider a little with me what he says on each of these Heads I. And first As to his new Rule of Worship you will find it p. 7. in these words Modes and Circumstances of Divine Worship tho' necessary in general by divine Precepts yet are left in particular to be determined by Human Prudence For tho' God has commanded Publick Prayers Praises Hearing Celebration of the Lord's-Supper c. yet what time or place we shall Assemble in in what order these parts of Worship shall be performed What particular devout posture we shall use among several equally expressive of our Religious Reverence What Translation of the Bible or Version of the Psalms we shall choose What portion of Scriptures shall be read explained or applyed What Utensils shall be imployed in the Celebration of the Sacraments and a Multitude of such Circumstances and Modes of that kind are left to Human Determination only therein the general Rules of Scripture must be regarded And of this he gives an Example or two p. 9. God has commanded us to pray but he has no where expresly determined whether we shall pray with or without a Set Form of Words both ways of Praying therefore may be Lawful The consequence from which is That Human Prudence must determine which way is to be used This is Mr. Boyse's great Rule which he takes for granted and allows it is only by it that your way of praising God Praying to him Reading the Scriptures Sitting at your Prayers and omitting the constant ordinary Celebration of the Lord's-Supper can be justified I desire you to observe the Rule well and to compare it with your former Opinions in this point and resolve whether you would have easily accepted such a Rule from Me. I desire you further to observe That tho' our way of Ordinary Worship needs not this Rule to justifie it as I have shewed in my Book yet this Rule fully doth it in all the parts mentioned in my Book And I do not find Mr. Boyse denies it or that he condemns any one as absolutely unlawful in our Ordinary Lords-day Worship And indeed it justifies not only our Ordinary Worship but many other things that I did not touch For First If the determination of Time for Publick Worship be left to Human Prudence you can have no exception against our Holy Days as unlawful for we have in them used our Prudence to determine that God shall be in a particular manner â—â—anked and praised on certain Sett times for the Birth Conception Passion Resurrection of our Saviour c. 2 dly If the determination of Utensils for the Sacraments be left to Human Prudence our Fonts Communion-Table Rails c. are fully warranted 3 dly If we may by our own Prudence determine all circumstances of Worship our Habits are a circumstance and therefore capable of being lawfully determined 4 thly If the determination of Place where we will perform Divine Worship be left to our own Prudence I do not see how you can blame us for determining that the Ordinary Prayers shall be offered in the Desk the Sermon made in the Pulpit and the Communion-Service performed at the Lord's-Table Especially since we have declared that there is no peculiar Holiness or efficacy in any of these and that they are appointed meerly for Order Decency and Edification Now tho' I had reason to suspect that you would never have Received such a Principle from me yet since your Advocate has laid it down
have given the occasion and ground and warrant for this signification of the Cross by expressing our undertaking and owning the Christian Religion by the phrase of taking up the Cross Matt. 16.24 If any Man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me and 1 Cor. 1.17 Preaching the Cross is Preaching the Gospel And in several other Places the Whole of our Religion as Christian is signified by the Cross Therefore to signifie our Professing and Glorying in Christ Crucified by making the Sign of the Cross has better Foundation in Scripture and is much more warranted by universal Custom then uncovering the Head has to signifie Reverence of which there is no Dispute between us but that it is agreeable 6. 'T is very proper at Baptism to make a Profession of our Glorying in the Cross of Christ because we then solemnly engage to take it up that is as before explained to take upon us his whole Religion To make such a Profession by Words of this and of all the Duties we then undertake I think is owned to be lawful by all and we think very requisite and accordingly require it from every one who is Baptised I Add in the 7th place That it is not only warrantable to do it by Words but likewise by Actions This must appear reasonable to you if you reflect on your own Practice in giving your Children Names at your Baptism which as I have already shewed signifies your giving up their Names to Christ and engaging them to be Christ's Servants Your Names therefore are a lasting Badge and Token to you through your whole Lives of your Dedications to Christ's Service and an Obligation on you to behave your Selves accordingly yet this Significant Ceremony added to Baptism has nothing of a Sacrament in it any more then I have shew'd the Sign of the Cross to have and both are equally warranted by Scripture This you ought the rather to observe because the only Question your Directory requires to be put to the Person that offers the Child to Baptism is concerning the Name thereof having left out those Scripture Questions that relate to the Faith and Obligations into which the Child is Baptised I wou'd desire you likewise to reflect on another Ceremony you have added to the other Sacrament I mean giving Tickets to such as are to be admitted to the Lord's-Supper upon offering of which they are admitted to that Priviledge In this Ceremony for so I must call it there is an Outward and Visible Sign a Ticket 2 dly An Inward and Spiritual Grace your Aptitude and Title to the Lord's-Supper and Communion of Saints found on your Examination when you receive the Ticket 3 dly It is a Badge and Token whereby Priviledged Members are distinguished from those that are without Lastly It is a sort of a necessary Term of Communion since those that neglect this Badge shall not be admitted to the Sacrament yet I suppose you reckon this Badge or Symbol of Communion to be Warranted by the general Rules of Scripture tho' it is plain there is no such Ground for it there as for the Use of the Cross. But 8 thly We are not without Scripture-Precedents of signifying the particular Obligations that lye on us in the Sacraments by Actions as well as Words Since our Saviour signified the Humility and Love we ought to bear towards one another by Washing his Disciples Feet at the Institution of the Lord's Supper and St. Peter who refused this significant Ceremony was severely threatened for it Thus dipping intirely under Water in Baptism was a significant Ceremony we find sometimes used as a Token of our being buried with Christ in Baptism to which Signification the Apostle alludes Rom. 6.4 Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into Death And to the same purpose Col. 1.12 There was another Ceremony of Baptism which consisted in the Change of Cloaths and this was likewise Significant and the Apostle alludes to it Gal. 3.27 For as many of you as have been Baptised into Christ have put on Christ And to the same allude those Phrases of putting off the Old Man and putting on the New as is confessed by the best Interpreters And the Apostle useth them not only to signifie the Duties and Obligations we undertake at Baptism but likewise to stir us up to perform them The like is observable in the Lord's Supper the particular Duties of which are signified in Scripture by several Ceremonies annexed to the Celebration thereof 'T is a special Duty to lay aside all Hatred and to be in perfect Charity with one another when we come to that Sacrament And this Duty was signified first by an Holy Kiss mentioned Rom. 16.16 and in several other Places of Scripture And 2 dly by Feasts of Charity described 1 Cor. 11. and mentioned Jude 12. both which continued many Years in the Church as Tokens and Badges and Symbols of the Duty of Charity which were profess'd in that Sacrament And yet none of all these particular Ceremonies can be term'd Sacraments from all which I conclude that it is as proper and as agreeable to Scripture to signifie our Obligation in Baptism not to be ashamed of Christ Crucified by making the Sign of the Cross as it was to signifie our Love and Unity by a Kiss or a Feast and by consequence that the use of the Cross in Baptism is Warranted by Scripture To Conclude neither Scripture nor Reason hinder us from using such Signs in Expressing or Professing our Duty to God as properly and by general Consent signifie it On the Contrary they Warrant us to use such Signs as well as Words which Words are Signs themselves made Sgnificant only by Custom whereas many Actions have the ground of their Significancy from Nature But here we must take care not to institute Signs to signifie and oblige God to confer his Favours or Grace on us For that were to limit him and 't is only he by his Institution and Promise can so oblige himself The want of distinguishing between these two sort of Signs seems to me to have occasioned all those Objections against the Sign of the Cross which are commonly urged to us as if we made it a Sacrament That which therefore was incumbent on Mr. Boyse in this Point was to prove by Scripture That it is unlawful to signifie or express the particular Duties we undertake in the Sacrament by Actions that are by general Custom expressive of those Duties Otherwise to declare this to be unlawful is the same Presumption and Offence as to declare some Meats unlawful and is a certain Instance of your Teaching for Doctrine the Commandments of Men. For to say an Action is Unlawful that God has not made so is the same Presumption and Offence as to say certain Meats are Forbidden that are not which is a thing seriously to be considered by you Thus much I have thought needful to lay before you concerning
and your Worship is confessedly indefensible without it I may expect that you will think your selves obliged to stand by it and that you will not judge of your own Worship by one Rule and of ours by another But further since the determination of these things according to Mr. Boyse is left to Human Prudence it is most reasonable that great caution and care should be used in determining these Modes left undetermined by the Scripture and that it should not be trusted with every private Man but be referred to the wisdom of the Church and Kingdom and therefore what the Clergy by their Representatives in Convocation and the Laity by their Representatives in Parliament have determined as prudent concerning these Modes methinks should stand against all private Judgments which in matters of meer Prudence ought to submit to the general Wisdom Especially when what has been so determined has been confirmed by long Custom and the universal Consent of the Churches of God for many Ages Therefore you must not hereafter on this principle ask any proof from Scripture for any thing in our Worship but you must prove it expresly forbidden there or else you must conform to it as being determined by Human Prudence Which in this case by Mr. Boyse's Rule is sufficient I hope by this time you see that it was not interest or design to serve a Party that made me omit this Rule since I might have made so much use of it But to deal ingeniously with you I could not approve of it in the Latitude Mr. Boyse proposes it and I thought my self obliged not to propose any thing to you that I did not approve my self For I can by no means allow that God has left the determination of Time Place Order Circumstances Postures and Utensils in all Cases to Human Prudence He has not only given us general Rules to praise him pray to him hear his Word to Worship him with our Bodies and to receive his Supper but he has likewise given us many particular Rules and Examples concerning each of these to which if we diligently attend and mind the consequences of them and apply them to like Cases we may have sufficient Directions from Scripture to order our Worship without having recourse to Human Prudence which is a very uncertain and infallible Rule in the Worship of God I have collected many of these particular directions and examples in my Book and shewed our Worship to be Justifiable by the strict letter of them and sure 't is a great presumption to lay aside these particular directions and examples and to substitute others in their stead because our own Prudence judges them more for Edification It is not easie for us to agree in the determinations of Human Prudence but we may easily agree in a plain particular direction of Scripture Thus God has determined a 7th Day for our Ordinary Worship and you see we have no dispute about it He has likewise given us Precedents in Scripture to perpetuate the memory of signal Mercies by yearly Solemnities or Festivals but because these are not so particularly determined by Scripture as the other you may observe how difficult 't is for us by Human Prudence to agree in them We ought therefore to be very Thankful to God for his particular directions afforded us in Scripture and to stick to them as close as we can As for Example God has not given us any Precedent of Verse Psalm or Hymn in the New Testament either Originally there or by Translation out of the Old Testament in those portions of the Old Testament Psalms that are Quoted therein but he has given us in the New Testament positive Precedents of Prose Psalms and Hymns both Original and Translated and this ought to teach us what sort of Translation is most proper to be offer'd to God in his Praises God has given us examples of solemn Adorations in his Worship of Kneeling Bowing and Standing before him and this alone is sufficient to bring you and us to uniformity in this point And the like may be said of all those Instances I have given you in my Book where I have laid down the particular Rules and Directions God has given us for performing the several parts of his Worship In all which the letter of the Scripture is clearly on our side and Mr. Boyse has not opposed Scripture to Scripture but has declined the literal sense in many Cases without reason and has preferred the determinations of Human Prudence in others as being more for Edification than the Scripture Examples as is manifest in your manner of Singing Psalms and many other particulars But I remember the Apostles Rule 1 Cor. 1.25 The foolishness of God is wiser than Men the meanest example or precedent in Scripture is to me more conclusive in the Worship of God than the most wise Determination of Human Prudence And therefore I conclude that we cannot have a more clear or certain Rule or more likely to unite us in God's Service than what I have laid down in my Book and I intreat you again to compare your Worship with it and to reform those things that are not contained in Scripture or warranted by Example of Holy Men in it or may not be deduced by clear consequence or parity of reason from them This Rule is plain enough to any capacity and to go about to explain it will only as Mr. Boyse has done make it obscure and uncertain II But 2 dly Mr. Boyse endeavours to perswade you That the greatest exception you have against joyning with us is not the matter of our publick Ordinary Worship Hence in his Preface he tells you that I have taken the greatest pains to maintain the best Fortified parts of our Churches constitution and left the Feeble unguarded and p. 169. he says That I take no notice of Human Inventions in the Discipline of the Church about which he alledges That I know the Contest between the established Church and Dissenters chiefly lyes and upon this he proceeds and makes many proposals or demands But I desire you to observe First That my Discourse was concerning the Inventions of Men in the Worship of God and it is a Subject large enough and to handle it well and in such a Method as may help the Reader to have a clear understanding of it is an useful work and sufficient for one Discourse and for Mr. Boyse to tax me for not writing another on the Inventions of Men in the Discipline of the Church is very unreasonable He is not pleased that I wrote this and yet he would have had me write another on a Subject more apt to give offence for I assure my self if ever I should write on that Subject you would be less pleased with my performance than in this since I must look on the general frame of your whole Constitution at least so far as its conformable to those Heads of Agreement that Mr Boyse owns to be a
other Ordinary Parts of Worship which you might very well do tho' you scrupled Baptising your Children with the Sign of the Cross Especially since in case of necessity our Church had allowed you Baptism for them without it or Godfathers as appears in our Office for private Baptism 2. I found the defects and additions of your Directory so very great in this Office of Baptism that I thought they deserved a Discourse by themselves and am still of the same Opinion First There is no express Covenant ordered in your Directory to be made in the Name of the Child Baptised either by the Parent or any else tho' there be no other known way of engaging a Child that cannot Covenant for it self Secondly There is no profession of the Christian Faith required in the Directory from the Parent or Offerer of any Child Thirdly There is no solemn Recognition of the Vow of Baptism required from Persons Baptised in their Infancy when they come to understand their Duty as it is in Confirmation with us Fourthly The express words of the Covenant are not prescribed out of the Word of God but it is left to the discretion of every Minister to impose what he will on the Baptised and some have been very indiscreet in this point imposing the solemn League and Covenant on persons that brought Children to be Baptised or else refusing them Baptism all which are observed by Mr. Baxter an eminent Man of your Party many years ago in his Infant Baptism Chap. 6. Object 1. where he complains that they were taken away from you when you were in actual Possession of them for the Substance of these saith he was in the Common Prayer and he gives us to understand with regret that these plain Duties were wiped out and the Directory made more defective than the Common-Prayer in this point And besides these defects in matters of so high moment as the Covenant of God there are several Additional Conditions required by your Directory contrary to Scripture Precedents such as in Mr. Boyse's Phrase may be reckoned Stated Appendages of this Sacrament for it is ordered that Baptism is not to be Administred in private places but in the place of publick Worship and in the face of the Congregation A Rule directly contrary to Scripture Precedents and by which many that have had a just Title to Baptism and some that have been very desirous of it without any fault of their own have been denied the benefit of it Christ Commands us to Teach all Nations Baptising them c. and He that repents and believes is Entituled to Baptism whatever his circumstances are but tho' a Man do both these and profess them in the most hearty manner yet if he be not able to go to a Publick Place of Worship or cannot procure a Congregation to be present he shall die without this Sacrament meerly on the account of this rigid ceremoniousness of the Directory and many Children have thus died which in this point is literally that Sin our Saviour taxeth Mark 7.13 Making the Word of God of none effect through your traditions I might instance in some other things as material as these but I hope this may be sufficient to convince you that it was not for want of matter of exception that I deferred imparting my thoughts to you on this part of Gods Worship and indeed I am afraid that now they may not relish well with you but I desire you to consider that I have been forced to do it in my own Justification II. I am now in the Second place to shew you that Mr. Boyse's Arguments against the Cross in Baptism are of no force His great Objection against it is That we make it a new Humane Sacrament and then it must be a Human Invention and he owns that generally all Dissenters have agreed to condemn it on this account as unlawful but I doubt not to make it appear that we ascribe nothing of a Sacramental nature to it and that it is a great Injustice to alledge as he doth that we Teach otherwise I am the more willing to handle this Subject because I find many of you ill Instructed in the nature of Sacraments and hope what I say may be useful to you I desire you therefore to consider that there are Three things necessary to make up a Sacrament First an Outward Visible Sign instituted by God signifying some Spiritual Grace or Benefit which we expect from him 2dly An Obligation on God by some promise of his to grant us that Spiritual grace or benefit when we duly use the visible Sign 3dly Our use of this outward sign For from the other two it follows as a Consequence that if we wilfully omit or neglect the use of that outward or visible Sign appointed by God we must not expect the Spiritual Grace or Benefit Signified by it I think it necessary to prove by Scripture first that each of these belong to a Sacrament And 2 dly To shew that we ascribe none of them to the Cross in Baptism and consequently that it hath nothing of a Sacrament in it The first Sacrament we find in Scripture is Circumcision instituted by God Gen. xvii 11 Ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a token of the Covenant between me and you Here Circumcising the flesh of the forekin is the outward and visible Sign instituted by God and the spiritual grace or benefit is the Covenant whereof it is called a Token and when it was duly observed it laid an obligation on God to be a God to the person so circumcised according to God's promise v. 7. I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee to be a God unto thee and thy seed after thee And lastly whoever wilfully refused or neglected this Sign lost the spritual grace or benefit signifyed by it According to which we find in the 14 v. and The uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised that soul shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my Covenant The like is observable in the institution of the Passover another Sacrament of the old Testament But we are more especially concerned in the Sacraments of the New And therefore I will shew that these three things are to be found in each of them First in the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper the Bread and Wine are appointed by Christ to signifie his Body and Blood Here is the first thing An outward and visible Sign appointed by God to signifie some Spiritual grace or benefit 2 dly The Bread and Wine are declared to be the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ 1. Cor. x 16. The Cup of Blessing which we bless Is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ The bread that we break Is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that One