having once over-run us they expect that we should follow them and be ruled by them and if we do not are ready to censure us as guilty of sinful Compliance and Conformity It greatly concerneth us therefore to keep some from such mistakes to rectifie others to vindicate our selves and clear our Consciences that we tell Men what our Non-conformity is not if we may not tell them what it is I. Our Non-conformity is not in holding that the Scriptures are a particular Rule or Determination of all the Circumstances of Church-Government and Worship as Time Place Utensils Words Methods Metres Tunes Division of the Text into Chapters and Verses Translations helps by Notes Written or Printed Gestures Habits c. But Nature and Scripture give us sufficient General Rules or Laws for all such as that they be done in Unity Charity to edification decently and orderly c. which must be observed II. We hold that when 〈◊〉 un 〈◊〉 etermined Circumstances are lawfully determined 〈◊〉 Authority yea were it but by the Consent and 〈◊〉 of the Churches of Christ or the present Conduct of their Pastors the Assembly should yield Conformable Obedience and avoid unnecessary Singularities III. We hold that if those to whom such Determinations belong should mistake and not do it in the best and profitablest manner yet ordinarily it is the Peoples duty to obey and hold Communion with that Church so be it that nothing sinful 〈◊〉 e commanded them to do and the errour of the Determination be not such as overthroweth the Worship or End it self Of which we have elsewhere fullier opened our sense In our judgment of things Indifferent IV. We are against no Bishops or Church-Government of Gods appointment We all are for an Episcopus Gregis and where there are many Chappels and Curates in a Parish we are far from perswading them to deny such submission to the chief Pastor as the Law requireth and as God himself alloweth Were Ignatius his Episcopacy among us who tells us this as the Note of the Churches Unity that to every Church there is one Altar and one Bishop with his fellow Presbyters and Deacons we should be far from perswading any to separate from it Yea were it Cyprian's Measure of Episcopacy Yea there are some among us who have long professed themselves uncertain whether such a large Episcopacy as is but the same with the ordinary part of the Church-power of the Apostles and Evangelists be not jure divino such as should be still continued because 1. When Christ hath once setled a Form or Order of Government a change must not be charged on him rashly and without proof especially as made so suddenly If the Affirmer prove the settlement the Denyer must prove the Change and Revocation 2. Because Christ promised to be with them to the end of the World Mat. 28. 20. when he appointed them this universal or indefinite Work 3. Because many others as well as Apostles had larger Circuits than particular Churches for their Work as Silas Silvanus Apollo Titus and many more And at their Reformation the Scots Visitors seemed such That Men of extraordinary worth and gravity may Plant many Churches and take the care of many directing exhorting and admonishing the Pastors or particular Bishops not depriving those Pastors and Churches of the Power and Priviledges granted them in Scripture some of us do not deny Government by the Word is an ordinary continuing Ordinance of God But the Apostles extraordinary Work and Office to be Eye-witnesses and Embassadâ—â—rs immediately sent and endued with the extraordinary Measures of the Spirit these we believe they have no Successors in because they were but for a time And those of us that cannot grant so much as is aforesaid and all of us as to an Episcopacy which we think contrary to God's Word can yet submit to much which we dare not approve of and as we take our selves bound to obey all by what Names or Titles soever distinguished or dignified who circa sacra as Officers of the King do exercise any part of that Power of the Sword by his Commission which we acknowledge in the Oath of Supremacy so if any usurp more Power of the Keys than Christ alloweth them we are not thereby disobliged from living peaceably in our places nor allowed to raise Sedition or use any unlawful means to re 〈◊〉 orm it though we cannot make a Vow and Covenant never to do any lawful thing to alter and amend it Much less is it true which M 〈◊〉 n of hard Faces have sometimes said that we are against Bishops because we cannot be Bishops our selves And they that tell Men that every Presbyter would be a Parish Pope do sure think they speak to Men so silly as to be mockt by an undiscerned Contradiction A Pope is the Universal Monarch of the Christian World or all Is a Parish all the World A Diocesan is the Sole Bishop with us of a Multitude of Churches Is a Parish a Multitude of such Churches If a Man be against one Schoolmaster only over a thousand Schools shall he be reproached because he is willing to teach one Is a King in each Kingdom as unreasonable a thing as a Papal Monarch or a King of Kings and of all the Earth If it be to the gain of Souls that we are deprived of this Parochial Episcopacy we can easily bear it professing that we hold it far easier to be Governed than to Govern V. We judge not all Officers circa sacra unlawful which are made by Man As some Circumstances are not particularly determined in Scripture but left to Men so are many of the Officers that must execute them If the King appoint Church-Magistrates to keep Peace and Order to call Synods and take such cognisance of Causes as belongs to him or do any part of his work as is afore said we will obey them And so of Church-Wardens Door-keepers Sextons and such others as some Churches of old made use of so be it they usurp not any part of the Office which Christ hath appropriated to the Pastors of the Churches VI. We are not for Lay-mens claim or exercise of the Power of the Keys whether they be Lay-Chancellors or Magistrates or Lay-Officers or People But we hold that the Keys of Christs Church that is the Power of receiving in by Baptism and of Guiding the People by holy Doctrine and in holy Worship and of Excommunicating and Absolving are by Christ committed to the Pastors of the Churches Though there is also an admonishing Power in Magistrates and divers sorts of Penalties for sins against God which they may inflict And the voluntary execution of the Pastors judgment by holding or not holding Communion with others is the Peoples part in which as reasonable they have a discerning judgment VII As to the case of Elders we all hold that none should be proper Church Governours by the said Keys which are meerly Lay-men and not Church Officers And many
though we conform not so far as to declare our Assent and Consent to the use of the Calendar Prescript or Directory which requireth them to be read in the Mornings from Septemb. 27. and 28. till Novemb. 24. even Bell and the Dragon Susanna Tobit when as the Vulgar understand not the word Apocrypha sufficiently to distinguish them from the sacred Scriptures when they are equally called the Lessons and read in the same order And we are confirmed in this part of our Non-conformity by the Articles of Religion which discard the Apocrypha and by the Learned Treatise of the late Bishop Cousins who hath fully proved that the ancient Churches received not those Books into the Canon and by many Doctors of the Church of England that charge them with Untruths Some of us have seen the Writing as on good reason is supposed of a present Learned worthy Bishop who sheweth that the words of the Angel in Tobit are a Lye who said that he was the Son of Ananie of the Tribe of Naphtali And that so is his saying that the smoke of a Fishes heart will drive away all Devils that they shall never return when Christ tells us of some that go not out but by Prayer and Fasting XXXVI We are far from designing any abasement of the Clergy nor do we deny or draw others to deny any due Reverence and Obedience to them And though we know that the bare Title and Office will never preserve sufficient respect for the honour of the Clergy and the success of their work without competent qualifications and labours of the persons yet would we rather hide than open or reproach the faults of such as are tolerable in that sacred Office and would do our best for their work sake to promote the esteem even of those that differ from us and of some that persecute us We know that the People are exhorted to know those that labour among them and are over them in the Lord and to esteem them highly in love for their work sake 1 Thess 5. 12 13. And to obey them that have the Rule or Guidance of them and to submit themselves Heb. 13. 17. 24. And that the Elders that Rule well are worthy of double honour especially they that labour in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5. 17. We that take it for our Duty to honour all men and submit our selves to one another would not deny any due honour to any of the Clergie that have any preeminence either in age grace gifts or by the Magistrates appointment as his Officers as aforesaid or any way given them by Christ We take it not for a Priviledge to be from under Government XXXVII Our Non-conformity consisteth not in denying a National Provincial or other Church Form of mans invention and institution On these Suppositions 1. So it be presupposed that there is somewhat of Divine Institution predetermined by Christ and his Spirit in the Apostles that is 1. That there be such Doctrine worship and Discipline as he hath commanded 2. That there be such Pastors to exercise them whose Office he hath described 3. That there be such stated Congregations or Societies in which they shall be used even Neighbour Christians associated for Personal Communion therein 4. That all these Churches enjoy the Priviledges granted them by Christ and live in love peace and concord and hold such just correspondence as is necessary thereto and to the Common End and Good All this is of Divine appointment 2. So that these Divine Institutions be not violated by Humane or by the power of man 3. So that Humane Churches be not made equal and co-ordinate to the Divine much less superior and superordinate as if they were to Christs instituted Churches what a Kingdom is to a City or a Regiment to a Troop and Christs Churches were but similar parts of the Humane Churches that must rule them But as the King is Episcopus exterior or the Governour of the Churches so far as the Sword is to be used so circa sacra we have before said that he may make his own Officers and consequently Provinces for them and Orders of their exercise And the Churches in his Dominions may be so called one National Church as he is the exterior Civil Governour of them all by the Sword which indeed is but to be a Religious or Christian Kingdom as also ab accidente as these many Churches are under one Christian yea were he an Infidel King and as hereby they have the advantage of fraternal association and correspondency for concord But proper Denominations are from the Essential Form XXXVIII It is no part of our Non-conformity to be against the due Use or Authority of Councils or Synods of the Clergy We hold that when one is cast out of one Church for a cause belonging to the Cognisance of many many may have occasion to take Cognisance of it And the edification of each other the satisfactory Debate of Difficulties the preservation of mutual Love Peace and Concord may make Synods to be useful But yet we hold that the major Vote of Bishops in a Council are not thereby the proper Governours of the minor dissenting part nor of the absent Bishops but that Councils are for Counsel and Concord and not for direct Regiment of each other though together and asunder the Pastors are all Governours of the Flock And some of us have long ago publickly proved that Councils were called General at first but with respect to the Dominions or Empire of one Prince and not as if they were Universal as to all the Christian World and that absolutely Universal Councils never were or ought or can or ever will be called and that to pretend that a Papal or Imperial General Council is the Universal Law-giver of the World and that they have a promise of Infallibility in what ever they determine and that we receive our Faith in Christ upon their Infallibility given by him and so we must know that Christ maketh them Infallible before we can believe that he is Christ These and such other nonsense cheats which some are now agitating are fit to delude none but the grosly ignorant that are prepared for deceit XXXIX Yet we deny not but that God having first bound us to Unity and Concord as far as we can â—ttain with loving forbearance in the rest when a lawful Synod or Council hath determined of a way of Concord on lawful Terms in matters under their Power there is an Obligation on all the particular Members to forbear breaking that Union and violating those lawful Terms of Concord For where there is not a Governing Law there may be an Obliging Contract or Consent And whereas even the Papists now usually teach that even a Councils Decrees bind not the Churches at least those that had no Delegates till by actual reception they consent be it known to the World that on these Terms the Non-conformists in London seem to have some excuse if it
had opportunity to understand Three sorts we must here justifie our selves against who we know are likely to accuse us upon unjustifiable accounts I. Those that will be angry that we so far undeceive the People as to acquaint them with our judgement and the untruth of what they have believed of us How many soever may be guilty of this it is so diabolical that we suppose few will own it and therefore we need not any farther dispute it than to tell them that worldly interest and wicked means will serve Mens turns but a little while II. Those that will say that we are not all of a mind one thinks more unlawful and another less and therefore we are not to be united or agreed with nor can it be known what will satisfie us all If the Churches Peace Concord depend upon such Heads and Hearts and Principles as this Objection doth imply no wonder if it have no Peace or Concord We are united and agreed with those that differ from us in more than Circumstances We will hold Concord with all in Faith and Love and Communion if they will admit us without our sinning upon the Terms set down by the Holy Ghost and the Apostles Act. 15. 28. who would have nothing but necessary things imposed or such things whoso Determination one way or other is necessary though compared each with other they are indifferent at least not made necessary to Life Liberty Ministry or Communion we have long learnt from Rom. 14. 15. and from that Spirit which indited it not to judge nor to despise each other for things of tolerable difference but to receive each other as Christ receiveth us One Man is not a Church nor a Kingdom And if no Men must be of the same Church or Kingdom that have any difference yea as great as the Objection can reasonably suppose in the Meer Non-conformists we are sure that no two Men in the World can be of the same Church or Kingdom except you will Compose it of such as hold nothing at all unlawful and consequently nothing morally good which is no Church We profess that we love them as our selves and shall not be guilty of imprisoning undoing silencing or excommunicating them who wear not the same Cloaths and use not the same Gesture in singing hearing or reading as we do who differ from us in the sense of many a Text of Scripture who take many things for duty or sin which we do not who will not be tyed to use no Publick Prayers to God but what we or others write them down so they hold one Body one Spirit one Hope one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all and will endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the Bond of Peace Eph. 4. 3 4 5 6. We are not for cutting off every Member that is of different size or shape 1 Cor. 12. God keep us from their mind and guilt and judgment who will hold Love and Communion with none but those in things unnecessary of their own opinion or way or that would ruine and persecute all the rest III. And some Non-conformists that are more than so or differ from us will say that we should not have declared thus our judgment lest by differing from them we seem divided and expose them to the greater Odium and Persecution because they cannot go so far as we But 1. We protest against the persecution of sober godly Christians on the account of such differences and are we then guilty of what we deprecate 2. Did not Mr. Eaton when he wrote that the Oath of Allegiance and the Covenant bind not know that most of us were against his judgement To say nothing of many more that wrote against Episcopacy Presbytery Infant Baptisme Parish Churches c who yet forbore not on any such accounts Did not Mr. Nye and Mr. Tombes when they wrote very well for the Oath of Supremacy know that in Scotland many refuse it as unlawful And did they forbear for fear of bringing Persecution on Dissenters Did not Mr. Nye write to prove it lawful to hear the Parish Ministers and Mr. Tombes write to prove it lawful both to hear and to communicate with them And did the fear of bringing Persecution on others hinder them 3. Hath not this Reason to keep others from Persecution prevailed with us far enough and long enough 4. Would they have us either by speech or silence draw men to believe that we are of all mens minds whom we would save from Persecution Must we tempt men to think that we are Seekers Quakers Separatists Anabaptists lest we expose them to Persecution Is not this such Carnal Policy as if not repented of will perish with the Masters of it Even to do evil and to tempt others to evil and to draw all our Hearers into sin by our Example by making them think that we hold that to be good or evil which we do not and all this on pretense of good yea to cherish the sin of many lest some should suffer 5. The thing is unreasonable and the pretense is apparently vain For it is known by our Superiors that we differ already and yet they who make this Objection have suffered never the more but live a quieter life than we have done 6. If the Objection implyeth as it seems to do that we are of their mind that will bear or live in Communion with none but those that differ not from them as far as the Objectors now suppose we disclaim their dividing Principles and are not of their mind If they are not for loving Christians as Christians and using them accordingly let them not expect that we should not seem to differ from them And that we do not this that we do without reason we must thus shew I. It is sinful when we can help it to let Clergy-men uncontradicted deceive Mens Souls and draw and keep both high and low even many Thousands in sin by perswading them that we are so schismatical and hateful a People that our sufferings are no persecutions because we divide the Church for things indifferent and stick at nothing but Liturgie or Forms of Prayer and Ceremonies and that we hold Rebellious and Seditious Principles or at best have such humours foolish scruples and singularities as render us fitter for the Common Goal than the Church Shall our silence contribute still to their deceit and to the quieting of Mens Consciences in all that is done against us as if it were good service to God and the King Shall we have no pity on Mens guilty Souls II. On the other side we have long by sad experience seen that the misunderstanding of the Case and perhaps partly of some of our judgments hath led many of the People who are against Conformity to over-run moderation and the truth and to run into unsound opinions and singularities and to lay heavier charges on the Liturgy and the Parish Churches than there is cause for And
moveth us is that it greatly frustrateth the use of the Keys or Church Discipline by obscuring the use and efficacy of them For who can tell whether they do any thing or nothing to that mans seeming Repentance who must lye in Goal and be undone unless he will say that he repeneth Though the Church must take up with outward Professions as not knowing the heart yet must they be voluntary and credible Professions 6. And thus how unavoidably must the Church be corrupted when its Communicants are such as chuse rather to be in the Church than in the Goal and all those are thought worthy of its Priviledges who had rather say we repent than be made Beggars Whenas in the ancient Churches none had its Communion that did not desire it and beg for it though it cost them dear in the world 7. And thus Christs great and precious Gifts seem exposed to contempt while they are forced upon the Refusers by ways of violence If the Church be made a Prison and men be driven into it and lockt up the Place will hardly prove them Christians 8. And we fear it will misrepresent Christs Laws and Covenant-terms to the world while Christ saith that none can be his Disciples that do not by consent and resolution take up the Cross and forsake all and follow him in hope of a reward in Heaven Luke 14. 26. 29 30. 33 34. And this course seemeth to tell men that if they had but rather be in the Church than among Rogues and Beggars in the Goal they shall have Christ pardon and life eternal given and sealed up to them particularly in the holy Sacrament As if Christ were the Cross-maker and the Cross to be born by his Enemies only and not Christ but sin were served by forsaking temporal felicity 9. And we fear lest it tend to deceive mens Souls by giving them all the sealed Grant of forgiveness and salvation who can but rather endure to take the Sacrament and say I repent than be undone We doubt not but there is a time for just punishment of sinners But we read not that Christ sent men to preach Repentance by any such motives nor to offer his Blood and Mercy on terms so low nor to any but desirous Volunteers And with what confidence or comfort can a Minister deliver the Sacrament to such All which considered we are so far from desiring to subdue Kings and Rulers to be the Executioners of the Clergy and the Servants of their worldly Interest Pride or Passions that we heartily wish that Church Discipline might be left to operate alone valeat quantum val 〈◊〉 re potest and that Church Priviledges might be given to none but desirers and voluntary accepters and none might be cram'd or drencht with the Body and Blood of Christ but all earnestly invited and by loving importunity compelled to come in And that Magistrates may judge and punish Vice in their proper court and proper way X. We hold it not unlawful to take Oaths and make Covenants Subscriptions or Declarations of things lawful when Authority commandeth us yea we hold Oaths of Fidelity to the Soveraign to be needful and are the loather to swear Allegiance to any inferior Officers or to swear never to endeavour any alteration of them lest we seem to make them equally necessary and fixed as the King and to give them any of his Prerogatives when they are his Officers whom he hath power to alter XI We readily subscribe the Doctrine of Faith and Sacraments contained in the 39 Articles and differ not therein from the Church of England that we know of Though our Religion is only objectively Gods Word as to the Essentials the Sacramental Covenant expounded in the Creed the Lords Prayer and Decalogue and integrally the sacred Scriptures and therefore if there be any fault in the 39 Articles it is no fault in our Religion which is confessed to be all true by Papists themselves yet as our Writings and Sermons and Speeches are the expressions of our subjective Religion so the Confessions of Churches are eminently such being useful to satisfie other Churches of our sincerity and to regulate or limit the Teachers that by weakness or errour are apt to deliver their mistakes or to oppose the Truth And though there be some expressions in the Articles the Liturgy yea in the Creed called Athanasius's which we think not accurate but lyable to an ill interpretation yet when our Consciences tell us that it was truth which was intended and words are not natural immutable but arbitrary signs of the Speakers mind we are far from affecting to be peevishly or unreasonably quarrelsome or scrupulous but are willing to overlook infirmity and unfitness of expression when we see that we are not to own Untruths XII We much approve of the Method of the Church Catechism as it first openeth the Essentials of Christianity in the Baptismal Covenant and then the Exposition of it in the Creed Decalogue and Lords Prayer and then the use of the confirming Sacrament the Lords Supper Though we are perswaded that it needeth more explication and some correction XIII We are taught by Christ and his Apostles using of the Septuagint that it is lawful when the Peoples usage and acquaintance with it doth render it most edifying to them to use a defective faulty Translation of Gods own Word and to call this Gods Word as long as it sufficently expresseth the Doctrine which is the matter and main sense And that we may hold Communion with Churches that publickly and privately use such Translations and that have many other faults in their Doctrine Discipline and Worship though we cannot justifie the least of them by our professed Assent and Consent nor make a Covenant that we will never endeavour to alter or amend them We are apt enough to let sin alone and not to amend any thing amiss in our selves and others so far as sin remaineth in us it being a self-de 〈◊〉 ending evil and therefore are unwilling to adde to our badness nor do we need a Law to bind us never to repent or amend or never to help others in such a case to do it XIV We have in a peculiar Explication of our judgment not only disclaimed but sufficiently depressed that unruly Opinion falsly charged on us by some viz. That Things Lawful or Indifferent become Unlawful when commanded by Lawful Authority Though we hold it unlawful to encourage and strengthen Traytors and Usurpers against Christ or the King by voluntary Swearing or performing such Obedience to them even in licitis honestis as seemeth to own their Usurpation XV. How far we think the Magistrates Laws bind us to things Scandalous or Evil and Hurtful by Accident yea by the Weakness of others we are prepared to open in a distinct Profession by it self XVI We are far from condemning all Forms of Prayer and Publick Liturgies as unlawful of which we have His Majesties Testimony in his Declaration about
Ecclesiastical Affairs much more are we far from condemning all the ancient and present Churches of Christ that have used such or yet use them throughout the Christian world And yet farther are we from separating from them on that account for using Liturgies and from encouraging such a Separation Yea we commonly use a stinted Liturgie our selves at least the Psalms read and sung and we hold it lawful to use such as are invented by men that are no Prophets seeing we are commanded to use Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs which confineth us not only to Scripture words and all men have not the skill to make Hymns ex tempore much less would all the Assembly ex tempore break forth into the same words Therefore those that are used by all must be invented by some And Ministers with us do ordinarily impose their own invented words on all the Congregation who must follow them as our Metres and Tunes of Psalms are imposed XVII We think it not unlawful to use as much of the English Liturgy as we consented to use when by his Majesties Commission some of us treated about the reformation or alteration of it viz. in such Assemblies where the Peoples incapacity maketh not such use of it more hurtful than helpful to their edification and the comly concordant worshipping of God Much less do we think it unlawful for our selves or the People in this case to join in the reverent and serious use of it with others We find that even the old Non-conformists such as Cartwright Hildersham Knewstube Dr. Jo. Reignolds Bradshaw Paget Ball c. petitioned for a Reformation but not an Abolition of it and wrote and preached against separating from it or for it from the Churches that used it and many of them not only used much or most of it themselves but also perswaded to the use of it and answered largely the Separatists Arguments against such use And we join with Mr. Ball and other of them in thanking God that England hath a more reformed Liturgy than most of the Churches in the World and we would not seem to use it when we do not but do it as aforesaid in the serious devotion and fervour of our Souls Nor would we peevishly make any thing in it worse than it is but would put the best construction on each part of it that true Reason will justifie or allow XVIII We are far from judging the Parish Ministers to be no true Ministers of Christ or the Parish Churches no true Churches or judging it unlawful to hold Communion with them But if there be any called Ministers or Priests of these following sorts we take them for no true Ministers of Christ ziz 1. If by insufficiency they are uncapable of Teaching the necessary parts of Christianity and Guiding the Church accordingly in the Publick Worship of God 2. If they are Hereticks denying any of these essential parts 3. If they are malignant Opposers of the practice of them And in a word If they are such through incapacity as are like to do more harm than good XIX In several Customs freely not by constraint used in many ancient Churches and in several practices of several Churches of these Times we find that which we would not by Oaths or Subscriptions or Covenants approve but with they were reformed and that they had never been used when yet we do not for such things dishonour and reproach such Churches nor inveigh against them in our preaching to diminish their due esteem much less disclaim them as no Churches of Christ but love and honour them and live peaceably under many faults which we cannot reform in the places where we live So be it no sin be put upon our selves we can hold Communion with those that have divers sins or faults in their Ministrations not as with their sin but with their Church in worship notwithstanding the sin so it corrupt not God's worship so far as that he himself rejecteth it For no Man is sinless in his best performance XX. Though the Pastors hold any tolerable errors personally and though such are usually uttered in their Ministration and though they be inserted in their Liturgies so that we may expect to hear them yea uttered as in that Churches name we hold not all this sufficient cause to warrant our separation from that Church For all Churches consist of Men and all Men are faulty and imperfect and such as the Men are such we may expect their works should be notwithstanding the Divine assistance And to separare from all faulty Churches and Worship is to separate from all the World and allow all the World to separate from us XXI If 〈◊〉 true Church deny us Communion unless we will commit some sin or omit some necessary duty though we cannot be locally present in such cases nor approve what they so do yet we shall not therefore renounce them as no Churches but lamenting their sin and their denying us their Communion on just Terms we shall continue the Union and Communion of Faith and Love and be present in spirit though corporally absent desiring a part in their Prayers and owning all that God disowneth not XXII We hold that no Christians must be disjoyned or separated in any of the seven Points of Union required by the Holy Ghost Eph. 4. 3 4 5 6. 1. One Body the Catholick Church headed by Christ 2. One Spirit the Holy Ghost 3. One Hope of our Calling Remission Adoption and the Heavenly Glory 4. One Lord Jesus Christ 5. One Faith the Essentials of Christianity believed 6. One Baptisme or Baptismal Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost 7. One God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in us all of whom and to whom and through whom are all things XXIII Though we are not satisfied of the lawfulness of using the transient Image of the Cross as a Dedicating Sign and Symbol of Christianity so much Sacramental much less to refuse from Baptism and Christendom all Christians Infants unless they will have them so crossed no more than if a Crucifix were so imposed and used yet do we not condemn all use of either Cross or Crucifix Nor do we presume censoriously to reproach and dishonour the ancient Christians who living among Pagans that derided Christ Crucified did shew them by oft using this sign that they were not ashamed of the Cross And though we find that they used more Rites and significant devised Signs and Ceremonies than we think they should have done yet we judge it our Duty to love and honour their Memorial Nor do we take all Rites to be sinful that are significant XXIV We hold not all the use of Images even the Images of holy Persons to be unlawful Historical and memorative use we commonly allow as the English Geneva Bible sheweth by many Pictures We condemn not them that have Scripture Persons and History Painted on their Walls or on the very Bricks that
adorn their Chimnies nor that use a Skelleton or Deaths-head or that by these are minded of Mortality or the Life to come and so make a holy use of them as good Men should do of all lawful things which therefore are pure and sanctified to them XXV We hold not a Gown or other meer distinctive Garment for Ministers to be unlawful in which saith the Canon no holiness is placed any more than to Judges Lawyers or Phylosophers And some of us hold a Surplice rather to be used than the Ministry forsaken And those that think otherwise think not the matter of so much weight as to alienate them from Love or Communion with those that use it For we pretend not to so much perfection as to be all just of a mind and measure of Knowledge in all things of no greater importance than this Nor would we silence faithful Ministers for a Surplice XXVI Though we greatly dislike the common use of God-Fathers as they undertake that as Sole-promisers for the Child which they never signifie credibly the least purpose to perform and the Parents are excluded from entering their own Children into Covenant with God and must not speak one covenanting or promising word no nor be urged to be present c. Yet we refuse not the use of such Sureties or Sponsors in Baptisme as are but Seconds to the Parents and only attest the Parents credibility and undertake to take care of the Childrens Education in case the Parents either apostatize or dye nor yet such as are Adopters of the Children and take them to them as their own and so have the right of disposing of them and covenanting in their names and stead Though yet we conform not to the denying of Christendom to the Children of all godly Parents that either cannot get such God-Fathers or will not but offer to enter their own Children into that Covenant XXVII Many of us hold it lawful to communicate Kneeling in the reception of the Sacramental Body and Blood of Christ And those of us that think so and those of us that think otherwise take it not for such a matter as should hinder Christian Love Concord Unity and Peace or allow Men to despise condemn or excommunicate one another But all detest that cruelty that dare cast out the worthy Members of Christ and his Church from Communion for their difference in that gesture XXVIII We all hold that God must be orderly and decently worshipped with the Body as well as spiritually with the Mind And that reverent gestures and behaviour are fit not only to express mental reverence to God but also to excite it in our selves and others And that such slovenly rude and undecent behaviour as seemeth to signifie prophaneness and contempt or to tempt others thereto is no small sin whatever men intend by it XXIX We all hold that Preaching Prayer or Sacraments should not be made ridiculous or contemptible by the Ministers incongruous light or otherwise unmeet and uncomly words nor by tautologies and such an unmeet stile as tendeth to disaffect the Hearers Though that Curiosity which consisteth in pedantick light and frothy Speech unsuitable to the Hearers edification we dislike And O that God would raise up enow such for his Service in the Church and World as are able to express true wisdom holiness and zeal in words beseeming the most Holy Majesty and the holy Things of which they speak But yet we judge that various Auditories should have various Stiles though none but clear and spiritual and serious As a labouring poor man will chuse a great piece of Brown Bread before a little piece of Manchet when idle tender Persons will chuse otherwise XXX We are so far from holding it unlawful to use the Creed and Commandments and Lords Prayer as some accuse us that we take them to be the Summaries of the Christian Religion as to matter of Belief Desire and Worship which the Church should use and profess accordingly and should never be forgtoten XXXI We are so far from being against Catechizing as some have accused us as that we take it to be a most needful thing and no small part of that work which both Ministers and Parents should perform XXXII We are far from opposing that sort of Confirmation which consisteth in the solemn transition of Persons out of the state of Infant Communion into that of the Adult by their solemn intelligent owning that Covenant with God which they entred into by others in their Infancy The Reasons of which more than one of us have long ago publickly given to the World Mr. Hanmer Mr. Baxter And the want of which we conceive is a great cause of the pollution of the Church and of the increase of Anabaptists who are scandalized at the omission of it and the turning it into a Ceremony or Formality XXXIII We hold it a Duty for all Ministers in their Administrations of Baptism the Lords Supper Absolution and in their Speeches of the dead at Burials to go as far in charitable hopeful expressions as Reason will allow and to speak and judge of men according to their own intelligent Professions not rendred incredible by proved contrary Expressions or notorious contrariety of Practice as being no searchers of mens hearts our selves And where Discipline is truly exercised such words are meet as otherwise are not tolerable So that if we conform not to the Liturgy in our Administration of any of these Ordinances of Christ and if we dare not pronounce of all the open Atheists Infidels Hereticks Schismaticks Rebels Perjured Murderers Thieves Adulterers Drunkards c. who made not away themselves and were not unbaptized or excommunicate that God of his great mercy hath taken to himself the Souls of these dear Brethren nor give thanks for delivering them out of the miseries of this sinful World nor pray to rest in Christ â—is our hope is this our Brother doth c. it is not because we deny any of this before granted but because we dare not renounce the Gospel that saith He that believeth not shall be damned and without holiness none shall see God and Except ye repent ye shall all perish and because we are loath to preach to men all our lives that which we shall contradict at mens burial and tempt the ungodly to presumption and damnation XXXIV Many of us hold it lawful to keep Anniversary Days of Thanksgiving in commemoration of the great Mercies of God to his Church by the Holy Doctrine Labour Miracles Lives and Sufferings of the Apostles and most famous promoters of the Faith so that Superstition and prohibited Creature-worship be sufficiently avoided And those of us that scruple such Days of mans Institution yet take not this for any other than a tolerable difference among us XXXV We are not against such sort of reading the sound parts of the Apocrypha as we may do by other good Books sufficiently distinguished from other Scriptures and used in due time and place