aforesaid We will therefore and hereby require you the said Dr. Earles c. to supply the place and places of such of the Arch-Bishop and Bishops other then the said Edward Bishop of Norwich as shall by age sickness infirmity or other occasions be hindred from attending the said meeting or consultation that is to say that one of you the said Dr. Earles c. shall from time to time supply the place of each one of them the said Arch-Bishop and Bishops other then the said Edward Bishop of Norwich which shall happen to be hindred or to be absent from the said meetings or consutations and shall and may advise consult and determine and also certifie and execute all and singular the powers and authorities before mentioned in and about the premises as fully and absolutely as such Arch-Bishop and Bishops which shall so happen to be absent should or might do by vertue of these our letters patents or any thing herein contained in case he or they were personally present And whereas in regard of the distance of some the infirmity of others the multitude of constant imployment and other incidental impediments some of you the said Edward Bishop of Norwich c. may be hindred from the constant attendance in the execution of the service aforesaid we therefore will and do hereby require and authorize you the said Thomas Horton c. to supply the place or â—laces of such the Commissioners last above mentioned as shall by the means aforesaid or any other occasion be hindred from the said meeting and consultations that one of you the said Thomas Horton c. shall from time to time supply the places of each one of the said Commissioners last mentioned which shall happen to be hindred or absent from the said meeting and consultations and shall and may advise consult and determine and also certifie and execute all and singular the powers and authorities before mentioned in and about the premises as fully and absolutely as such of the said last mentioned Commissioners which shall so happen to be absent should or might do by vertue of these our Letters patents or any thing therein contained in case he or they were personally present In witness whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made patents witness our self at Westminster the 25 day of March in the thirteenth year of our Reign Per ipsum Regem Barker THE EXCEPTIONS Against the BOOK OF Common-Prayer ACknowledging with all humility and thankfulness His Majesties most Princely Condiscention and Indulgence to very many of his Loyal Subjects as well in His Majesties most gracious Declaration as particularly in this present Commission issued forth in pursuance thereof Wee doubt not but the Right Reverend Bishops and all the rest of His Majesties Commissioners intrusted in this work will in imitation of His Majesties most prudent and Christian Moderation and Clemency judge it their duty what wee finde to bee the Apostles own practice in a special manner to bee tender of the Churches peace to bear with the infirmities of the weak and not to please themselves nor to measure the consciences of other men by the light and latitude of their own but seriously and readily to consider and advise of such expedients as may most conduce to the healing of our breaches and uniting those that differ And albeit wee have an high and honourable esteem of those godly and learned Bishops and others who were the first Compilers of the Publick Liturgy and do look upon it as an excellent and worthy work for that time when the Church of England made her first step out of such a mist of Popish Ignorance and Superstition wherein it formerly was involved Yet considering that all humane works do gradually arrive at their maturity and perfection and this in particular being a work of that nature hath already admitted several Emendations since the first compiling thereof It cannot bee thought any disparagement or derogation either to the work it self or to the Compilers of it or to those who have hitherto used it if after more than an hundred years since its first composure such further â—emendations be now made therein as may bee judged necessary for satisfying the scruples of a multitude of sober persons who cannot at all or very hardly comply with the use of it as now it is and may best sute with the present times after so long an enjoyment of the glorious light of the Gospel and so happy a Reformation Especially considering that many godly and learned men have from the beginning all along earnestly desired the alteration of many things therein and very many of His Majesties pious peaceable and loyal Subjects after so long a discontinuance of it are more averse from it than heretofore The satisfying of whom as far as may bee will very much conduce to that peace and unity which is so much desired by all good men and so much indeavoured by His Most Excellent Majesty And therefore in pursuance of this His Majesties most gracious Commission for the satisfaction of tender consciences and the procuring of peace and unity amongst our selves wee judge meet to propose First That all the Prayers and other materials of the Liturgy may consist of nothing doubtful or questioned amongst pious learned and Orthodox persons inasmuch as the professed end of composing them is for the declaring of the unity and consent of all who joyn in the publick worship it being too evident that the limiting of Church-Communion to things of doubtful disputation hath been in all ages the ground of Schism and Separation according to the saying of a learned person To load our publick forms with the private fancies upon which wee differ is the most Soveraign way to perpetuate Schism to the worlds end Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Reading of the Scriptures and administration of the Sacraments in the plainest and simplest manner were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient Liturgy though nothing either of private Opinion or of Church-pomp of Garments or prescribed gestures of Imagery of Musick of matter concerning the dead of many superfluities which creep into the Church under the name of Order and Decency did interpose it self To charge Churches and Liturgies with things unnecessary was the first beginning of all Superstition and when scruple of conscience began to be made or pretended then Schism began to break in If the special Guides and Fathers of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with superfluities or not over-rigid either in reviving Obsolete Customes or imposing new there would be far less cause of Schism or Superstition and all the inconvenience were likely to ensue would be but this they should in so doing yeeld a little to the imbecillity of their inferiours a thing which St. Paul would never have refused to do Mean while wheresoever false or suspected Opinions are made a peece of Church-Liturgy hee that separates is not the Schismatick for it is alike unlawful
in their Papers The Law for imposing these Ceremonies they would have abrogated for these Reasons Repl. To what you object to intimate your suspicion of us from N. 7. we have before answered We must profess the abatement of Ceremonies with the exclusion of all Prayers and Exhortations besides what 's read will not satisfie us The Liberty which we desired in all the parts of Worship not to add to the Lyturgy or take from it but to interpose upon just occasion such words of Prayer or Exhortation as are requisite and not to be tyed at every time to read the whole we are assured will do much to preserve the Lyturgy and bring it into more profitable use and take off much of mens offence And pardon us while we tell you this certain truth that if once it be known that you have a design to work out all Prayers even those of the Pulpit except such as you prescribe it will make many thousand people fearing God to be averse to that which else they would have submitted to and to distaste both your endeavours and ours as if we were about drawing them into so great a snare And as the Proverb is you may as well think to make a Coat for the Moon as to make a Lyturgy that shall be sufficiently suited to the variety of places times subjects accidents without the liberty of intermixing such Prayers or Exhortations as alterations and diversities require Sect. 2. First It is doubtful whether God hath given power to men to impose such siguificant signs which though they call them significant yet have in them no real goodness in the judgement of the imposers themselves being called by them things indifferent and therefore fall not under St. Pauls Rule of omnia decenter nor are suitable to the simplicity of Gospel-Worship Secondly Because it is a violation of the Royalty of Christ and an impeachment of his Laws as unsufficient and so those that are under the Law of Deut. 12. Whatsoever I command you observe to do you shall take nothing from it nor add any thing to it You do not observe these Thirdly Because sundry Learned Pious and Orthodox men have ever since the Reformation judged them unwarrantable and we ought to be as our Lord was tender of weak Brethren not to offend his little ones nor to lay a stumbling-block before a weak Brother Fourthly Because these Ceremonies have been the Fountain of many evils in this Church and Nation occasioning sad divisions betwixt Minister and Minister betwixt Minister and People exposing many Orthodox Preachers to the displeasure of Rulers and no other fruits than these can be lookt for from the retaining of these Ceremonies Repl. We had rather you had taken our reasons as we laid them down than to have so altered them E. G. having told you that some hold them unlawful and others inconvenient c. and desired that they may not be imposed on such who judge such impositions a violation of the Royalty of Christ c. you seem to take this as our own sense and that of all the Ceremonies of which we there made no mention You refer us to Hooker since whose Writings Ames in his fresh Suit and Bradshaw and Parker and many others have written that against the Ceremonies that never was answered that we know of but deserve your Consideration Sect. 3. Before we give particular Answers to these several Reasons it will be not unnecessary to lay down some certain general Premises or Rules which will be useful in our whole discourse First That God hath not given a Power onely but a Command also of imposing whatsoever shall be truely decent and becoming his Publick Service 1 Cor. 14. After St. Paul had ordered some particular Rules for Praying praising prophesying c. he concludes with this general Canon let all things be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a fit Scheme Habit or Fashion Decently and that there may be Uniformity in those Decent performances let there be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rule or Canon for that purpose Rep. As to your first Rule we answer 1. It is one thing to impose in general that all be done Decently and in Order This Cod himself hath imposed by his Apostle And it s another thing to impose in particular that this or that be used as Decent and Orderly Concerning this we add It is in the Text said let it be done but not let it be imposed yet from other Scriptures we doubt not but more Circumstances of Decency and Order as derermined time place Utensils c. which are common to things Civil and Sacred though not the Symbolical Ceremonies which afterwards we confute may be imposed with the necessary cautions and Limitations afterwards laid down But 1. That if any Usurpers will pretend a Power from Christ to impose such things on the Church though the things be lawful we must take heed how we acknowledge an Usurped Power by formal obedience 2. A just Power may impose them but to just ends as the preservarion and success of the Modified worship or Ordinances And if they really conduce not to those ends they sin in imposing them 3. Yet the Subjects are bound to obey a true Authority in such impositions where the matter belongs to the Cognizance and Office of the Ruler and where the mistake is not so great as to bring greater mischiefs to the Church then the suspending of our Active obedience would do 4. But if these things be determined under pretence of Order and Decency to the plain destruction of the Ordinances Modified and of the intended end they cease to be means and we must not use them 5. Or if under the names of things Decent and of Order men will meddle with things that belong not to their Office as to institute a new worship for God new Sacraments or any thing forbidden in the General Prohibition of adding or diminishing this is an usurpation and not an Act of Authority and we are bound in obedience to God to disobey them 6. Where Governours may command at set times and by proportionable penalties enforce if they command when it will destroy the end or enforce by such penalties as destâ—oy or crosse it they greatly sin by such Commands Thus we have more distinctly given you our sense about the matter of your first Rule Sect. 4. Not Inferiours but Superiours must judge what is convenient and decent They who must order that all be done decently must of necessity first judge what is convenient and decent to be ordered Repl. Your second Rule also is too crudely delivered and therefore we must adde 1. A Judgement is a Sentence in order to some Execution and Judgements are specified from the ends to which they are such means When the question is either what Law shall be made or what penalty shall be exercised the Magistrate is the only judge and not the Bishop or other
Grace and the Canon saith It is an honourable badge whereby the Infant is dedicated to him that dyed on the Cross we are signified with it in token that hereafter we shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified and manfully to fight c. now if a thing may be commanded meerly as a decent Circumstance of Worship yet it is unproved that a thing in its nature as instituted and in the primary intention is thus Sacramentally to dedicate and engage us in Covenant to God by signifying the Grace and Duty of the Covenant be lawfully cammanded by man 1. Decent Circumstances are necessary in genere There must be some fit time place gesture vesture as such utensils c. But that there be some such dedicating ingaging Signs in our Covenanting with God signifying the Grace of the Covenant and our state and duty as Soldiers under Christ besides Gods Sacraments this is not necessary in genere and therefore it is not left to man to determine de specie 2. If there be any reason for this use of the Cross it must be such as was in the Apostles dayes and concerneth the universal Church in all ages and places and then the Apostles would have taken care of it Thus much here in brief of Signes and more anon when you again call us to it Sect. 9. To the second That it is not a violation of Christs Royalty to make such Laws for decency but an exercise of his Power and Authority which he hath given to the Church and the disobedience to such Commands of Superiours is plainly a violation of his Royalty As it is no violation of the Kings Authority when his Magistrates command things according to his Laws but disobedience to the Command of those injunctions of his Deputies is violation of his Authority Again it can be no impeachment of Christs Laws as insufficient to make such Laws for decency since our Saviour as is evident by the Precepts themselves did not intend by them to determine every minute and circumstance of time place manner of performance and the like but only to command in general the substance of those Duties and the right ends that should be aimed at in the performance and then left every man in particular whom for that purpose he made reasonable to guide himself by Rules of reason for private Services and appointed Governours of the Church to determine such particularities for the publick Thus our Lord commanded Prayers Fasting c. But for the times and places of performance he did not determine every of them but left them to be guided as we have said So that it is no impeachment of his Laws as insufficient to make Laws for determining those particulars of decency which himself did not as is plain by his Precepts intend to determine but left us Governours for that purpose to whom he said As my Father sent me even so send I you and let all things be done decently and in order of whom he hath said to us Obey those that have the oversight over you and told us that if we will not hear his Church we must not be accounted as Christians but Heathens and Publicans And yet nevertheless they will not hear it and obey it in so small a matter as a Circumstance of time place habit or the like which she thinks decent and fit and yet will be accounted the best Christians and tell us that it is the very awe of Gods Law Deut. 12. 32. that keeps them from obedience to the Church in these Commands not well considering that it cannot be any adding to the Word of God to command things for order and decency which the Word of God-commands to be done so as they be not commanded as Gods immediate Word but as the Laws of men but that is undeniable adding to the Word of God to say that Superiours may not command such things which God hath no where forbidden and taking from the Word of God to deny that Power to men which Gods Word hath given them Repl. To make Laws to determine of undetermined Circumstances necessary in genere to be some way determined and left to Magistrates or Ministers de specie and to do this according to the general Rule of Scripture and in order to the main end and not against it is not against the Royalty or Will or Christ but to make new dedicating Covenanting Symbols to signifie the Doctrine of the Covenant of Grace and solemnly engage us unto God and place these in the publick Worship which are not meer Circumstances but substantial Institutions not necessary in genere that there should be any such at all besides Gods Sacraments we fear this is a violation of the Royalty of Christ and a reflection on his Laws as insufficient For 1. If it belong to the Power proper to Christ then it is a violation of his Royalty for any man to exercise it but it belongeth to the Power proper to Christ Ergo c. The Minor is proved thus If it belong to the universal Head or Ruler of the Church as such then it belongs to the Power proper to Christ for we are ready to prove there is now under him no universal Head or Ruler personally or collectively and civilly one But c. If in the Reason of it it should be the matter of an universal Law if any then it should be the work of the universal Law-giver if any But c. If in the Reason of it it be equally useful to the Church universal as to any particular Church or Age then it should according to the reason of it be the matter of an universal Law if of any But c. It hath the same aptitude to engage us to a duty of universal necessity and hath no reason proper to this Age or Place for it but common to all Moreover it is no where committed to the power or care of man Ergo it is proper to the Care and Power of Christ no Text is shewed that giveth man power in such things To do all things decently and orderly and to edification is no giving of power on that pretence to make new Covenanting dedicating Signs To do Gods work decently c. is not to make more such of our own heads it 's but the right modifying of the work already set us And to do all decently orderly and to edification was a duty in Moses time when yet such things as these in question might not be added by any but God when we say by God we mean by his inspired Instruments and when we say by Christ we mean by his inspired Instruments If we should make Laws that every one is publickly to taste Vineger and Gall as a Sign that we are not ashamed of but resolved through all fresh-displeasing diâ—ficulties to follow Christ that did so and thus to engage and dedicate our selves to him this were to do more than to do all things decently and
kept as Holy-dayes but they are useful for the preservation of their memories and for other reasons as for Leases Law-dayes c. Repl. The antiquity of the Translations mentioned is far from being of determinate certainty we rather wish than hope that the Syriack could be proved to be made neer the Apostles times But however the things being confessed of humane Institution and no forreign Power having any authority to command his Majesties Subjects and so the imposition being only by our own Governours we humbly crave that they may be left indifferent and the Unity or Peace of the Church or Liberty of the Ministers not laid upon them Sect. 1. This makes all the Lyturgy void if every Minister may put in and leave out at his discretion Repl. You mistake us we speak not of putting in and leaving out of the Liturgy but of having leave to intermix some Exhortations or Prayers besides to take off the deadness which will follow if there be nothing but the stinted Forms we would avoid both the extream that would have no Forms and the contrary extream that would have nothing but Forms but if we can have nothing but extreams there 's no remedy it 's not our fault And this moderation and mixture which we move for is so far from making all the Lyturgy void that it would do very much to make it attain its end and would heal much of the distemper which it occasioneth and consequently would do much to preserve the reputation of it As for instance if besides the Forms in the Lyturgy the Minister might at Baptism the Lords Supper Marriage c. interpose some suitable Exhortation or Prayer upon special occasion when he finds it needful should you deny this at the visitation of the sick it would seem strange and why may it not be granted at other times It is a matter of far greater trouble to us that you would deny us and all Ministers the Liberty of using any other Prayers besides the Lyturgy than that you impose these Sect. 2. The Gift or rather Spirit of Prayer consists in the inward Graces of the Spirit not in extempore expressions which any man of natural parts having a voluble tongue and audacity may attain to without any special Gift Repl. All inward Graces of the Spirit are not properly called the Spirit of Prayâ—r nor is the Spirit of Prayer that Gift of Prayer which we speak of nor did we call it by the name of a special Gift nor did we deny that ordinary men of natural parts and voluble tongues may attain it But yet we humbly conceive that as there is a Gift of Preaching so also of Prayer which God bestoweth in the use of means diversified much according to mens natural parts and their diligence as other acquired abilities are but also much depending on that Grace that is indeed special which maketh men love and rellish the holy Subjects of such Spiritual studies and the holy exercise of those Graces that are the soul of Prayer and consequently making men follow on such exercises with delight and diligence and therefore with success and also God is free in giving or denying his Blessing to mans endeavours If you think there be no Gift of Preaching you will too dishonourably level the Ministry If reading be all the Gift of Prayer or Preaching there needs no great understanding or learning to it nor should Coblers and Tinkers be so unfit men for the Ministry as they are thought nor would the reason be very apparent why a Woman mightnot speak by Preaching or Praying in the Church Sect. 3. But if there be any such Gift as is pretended it is to be subject to the Prophets and to the Order of the Church Repl. The Text speaks as Dr. Hammond well shews of a subjection to that Prophet himself who was the Speaker Inspiration excluded not the prudent exercise of Reason but it is a strange ordering that totally excludeth the thing ordered The Gift of Preaching as distinct from Reading is to be orderly and with due subjection exercised but not to be on that pretence extinguished and cast out of the Church And indeed if you should command it you are not to be obeyed whatever we suffer And why then should the Gift of Prayer distinct from Reading be cast out Sect. 4. The mischiefs that come by idle impertinent ridiculous sometimes seditious impious and blasphemous expressions under pretence of the Gift to the dishonour of God and scorn of Religion being far greater than the pretended good of exercising the Gift it is fit that they who desire such liberty in publick devotions should first give the Church security that no private opinions should be put into their Prayers as is desired in the first proposal and that nothing contrary to the Faith should be uttered before God or offered up to him in the Church Repl. The mischiefs which you pretend are inconveniences attending humane imperfeotion which you would cure with a mischief Your Argument from the Abuse against the Use is a palpable fallacy which cast out Physitians in some Countries and rooted up Vines in others and condemneth the reading of the Scriptures in a known tongue among the Papists If the Apostles that complained then so much of divisions and Preaching false doctrine and in envy and strife had thought the way of cure had been in sending Ministers about the world with a Prayer-book or Sermon book and to have tyed them only to read either one or both of these no doubt but they would have been so regardful of the Church as to have composed such a Prayer-book or Sermon book themselves and not left us to the uncertainties of an Authority not infallible nor to the divisions that follow the impositions of a questionable Power or that which unquestionably is not universal and therefore can procure no universal Concord If one man among you draw up a Form of Prayer it is his single conception and why a man as learned and able may not be trusted to conceive a Prayer for the use of a single Congregation without the dangers mentioned by you as one man to conceive a Prayer for all the Churches in a Diocess or a Nation we know not These words that the mischief is greater than the pretended good seem to express an unjust accusation of ordinary conceived Prayer and a great undervaluing of the benefits If you would intimate that the Crimes expressed by you are ordinarily found in Ministers Prayers we that hear such much more frequently than you must profess we have not found it so allowing men their different measures of exactness as you have even in writing Nay to the praise of God we must say that multitudes of private men can ordinarily pray without any such imperfection as should nauseate a sober person and with such seriousness and aptness of expression as is greatly to the benefit and comfort of our selves when we joyn
abler Brethren If there had been a stated Form before imposed on the Churches what room could there be for this course And even this much seems but a caution made newly upon some late abuse of Prayer The same we say de Concil Malevit Can. 12. if they were but a prudentioribus tractatae vel comprobatae in Synodo new Prayers might by any man at any time be brought in which sheweth they had no such stated publick Lyturgy as is now pleaded for and even this seemeth occasioned by Pelagianism which by this caution they would keep out We hope your omission of our eighth Desire for the use of the new Translation intimateth your Grant that it shall be so But we marvel then that we find among your Concessions the alteration of no part but the Epistles and Gospels As they would have no Saints dayes observed by the Church so no Apocriphal Chapter read in the Church but upon such a reason as would exclude all Sermons as well as Apocripha viz. because the holy Scriptures contain in them all things necessary either in Doctrine to be believed or in duty to be practised If so why so many unnecessary Sermons why any more but reading of Scriptures if notwithstanding their sufficiency Sermons be necessary there is no reason why these Apocriphal Chapters should not be as useful most of them containing excellent Discourses and Rules of morality it is heartily to be wished that Sermons were as good if their fear be that by this means those Books may come to be of equal esteem with the Canon they may be secured against that by the title which the Church hath put upon them calling them Apocriphal and it is the Churches Testimony which teacheth us this difference and to leave them out were to cross the Practise of the Church in former Ages Repl. We hoped when our desires were delivered in writing they would have been better observed and understood we asked not that no Apocriphal Chapter may be read in the Church but that none may be read as Lessons For so the Chapters of holy Scripture there read are called in the Booâ— and to read them in the same place under the same Title without any sufficient note of distinction or notice given to the People that they are not Canonical Scripture they being also bound with our Bibles is such a temptation to the vulgar to take them for Gods Word as doth much prevail and is like to do so still And when Papists second it with their confident affirmations that the Apocriphal Books are Canonical well refelled by one of you the R. Reverend Bishop of Durham we should not needlesly help on their success If you cite the Apocripha as you do other human Writings or read them as Homilies when and where there is reason to read such we spake not against it To say that the People are secured by the Churches calling them Apocripha is of no force till experience be proved to be disregardable and till you have proved that the Minister is to tell the People at the reading of ever such Chapter that it is but Apocriphal and that the People all understand Greek so well as to know what Apocriphal signifieth The more sacred and honourable are these Dictates of the holy Ghost recorded in Scripture the greater is the sin by reading the Apocripha without sufficient distinction to make the People believe that the Writings of man are the Revelation and Laws of God And also we speak against the reading of the Apocripha as it excludeth much of the Canonical Scriptures and taketh in such Books in their steads as are commonly reputed fabulous By thus much you may see how you lost your Answer by mistaking us and how much you will sin against God by denying our desires That the Minister should not read the Communion Service at the Communion Table is not reasonable to demand since all the Primitive Church used it and if we do not observe that Golden Rule of the venerable Council of Nice let antient Customs prevail till reason plainly requires the contrary we shall give offence to sober Christians by a causless departure from Catholick usage and a greater advantage to enemies of our Church then our Brethren I hope would willingly grant The Priest standing at the Communion Table seemeth to give us an invitation to the holy Sacrament and minds us of our duty viz. to receive the holy Communion some at least every Sunday and though we neglect our duty it is fit the Church should keep her standing Repl. We doubt not but one place in it self is as lawful as another but when you make such differences as have misleading intimations we desire it may be forborn That all the Primitive Church used when there was no Communion in the Sacrament to say Service at the Communion Table is a crude Assertion that must have better proof before we take it for convincing And it is not probable because they had a Communion every Lords day And if this be not your meaning you say nothing to the purpose To prove they used it when there was a Communion is no proof that they used it when there was none And you your selves disuse many things more Universally practised then this can at all be fairly pretended to have bin The Council of Nice gives no such golden Rule as you mention A Rule is a general applyable to particular Cases The Council onely speakes of one particular Let the ancient Custom continue in Aegypt Lybia and Pentapolis that the Bishop of Alexandria have the Power of them all The Council here confirmeth this particular Custom but doth not determine in general of the Authority of Custom That this should be called a Catholick usage shewes us how partially the word Catholick is sometime taken And that this much cannot be granted us lest we advantage the Enemies of the Church doth make us wonder whom you take for its Enemies and what is that advantage which this will give them But we thank you that here we find our selves called Brethren when before we are not so much as spoken to but your speech is directed to some other we know not whom concerning us Your reason is that which is our reason to the contrary you say the Priest standing at the Communion Table seems to give us an invitation to the Holy Communion c. What! when there is no Sacrament by himself or us intended no warning of any given no Bread and Wine prepared Be not deceived God is not mocked Therefore we desire that there may be no such Service at the Table when no Communion is intended because we would not have such grosse dissimulation used in so Holy things as thereby to seem as you say to invite Guests when the Feast is not prepared and if they came we would turn them empty away Indeed if it were to be a private Masse and the Priest were to receive alone for want of Company
Brethren or hinder that peace healing of the Church For Order is for the thing ordered and not contrarily For example there is much disorder lies in the Common-Prayer-Book yet we would obey it as far as the ends of our calling do require It wouldbe undecent to come without a Band or other handsome Raiment into the Assembly yet would we obey if it were commanded us rather than not worship God at all We are as confident that Surplices and Copes are undecent and kneeling at the Lords Table is disorderly as you are of the contrary And yet if the Magistrate would be advised by us supposing himself addicted against you we would advise him to be more charitable to you than you here advise him to be to us We would have him if your Conscience require it to forbear you in this undecent and disorderly way But to speak more distinctly 1. There are some things decent and orderly when the opposite species is not undecent or disorderly 2. There are some things undecent and disorderly in a small and tollerable degree And some things in a degree intollerable 1. VVhen things decent are commanded whose opposites would not be at all undecent their Charity and Peace and Edification may command a Relaxation or rather should at first restrain from too severe Impositions As it is decent to wear either a Cloak or a Gown a Cassock buttoned or unbuttoned with a Girdle or without to sit stand or kneel in singing of a Psalm to sit or stand in hearing the Word read or preached c. 2. VVhen a Circumstance is undecent or disorderly but in a tolerable degree to an Inconvenience Obedience or Charity or Edification may commaud us to do it and make it not only lawful but a duty pro hic nunc while the preponderating Accident prevaileth Christs instances goe at least as far as this about the Priests in the Temple breaking the Sabbath blamelesly and David's eating the Shew-bread which was lawful for none to eat ordinarily but the Priests And the Disciples rubbing the ears of Corne I will have mercy and not Sacrifice is a lesson that he sets us to learn when two duties comes together to preserve the greater if we would escape sin And sure to keep an able Preacher in the Church or a private Christian in Communion is a greater duty caeteris paribus than to use a Ceremony which we conceive to be decent It is more orderly to use the better translation of the Scripture than the worse as the Common-prayer-book doth and yet we would have no man cast out for using the worse It is more orderly decent and edifying for the Minister to read all the Psalms than for the people to read each second verse And yet we would not cast out men from the Church or Ministry meerly for that disorder It is more orderly and decent to be uncovered in divine worship than covered And yet rather than a man should take cold we could allow him to hear a Chapter or Sermon covered why not much more rather than he should be cast out But let us come to the Application It is no undecent disorderly worshiping of God to worship him without our Crosse Surplice and kneeling in the reception of the Sacrament 1. If it were then Christ and his Apostles had worshipped undecently and disorderly And the Primitive Church that used not the Surplice nor the transient Image of the Crosse in Baptism but in an unguent yea the Church for many hundred years that received the Sacrament without kneeling 2. Then if the King Parliament and Convocation should change their Ceremonies it seems you would take your selves bound to retain them for you say you must not worship God undecently But that they may be changed by Authority our Articles determine and therefore Charity may well require the Magistrate to change them without any wrong to the worship of God 3. VVe appeal to the common judgement of the Impartial whether in the nature of the thing there by any thing that tels them that it is undecent to pray without Surplice in the reading place and not undecent to pray without in the Pulpit And that it is undecent to Baptize without Crossing and not to receive the Lords Supper without And that it is undecent for the Receiver to take the Lords Supper without kneeling and not for the Minister to give it him standing that prayeth in the delivery Sect. 8. These promised we Answer to your first Reason that those things which we call Indifferent because neither expresly commanded or forbiden by God have in them a real goodness a fitness and decency and for thâ— cause are imposed and may be so by the Rule of St. Paul by which Rule and many others in Scripture a power is given to men to impose Signs which are never the worse surely because they signifie something that is decent and comely and so it is not doubtful whether such power be given It would rather be doubtful whether the Church could impose such ildle Signs if any such there be as signifie nothing Repl. To your first Answer we reply 1. We suppose you speak of a moral Goodness and if they are such indeed as are within their power and really good that is of their own nature fitter than their opposites they may be imposed by just Authority by equal means though not by usurpers nor by penalties that will do more harm than the things will do good 2. Signs that signifie nothing we understand not It is one thing to be decent and another to signifie something that is decent what you mean by that we know not The Cross signifieth our not being ashamed to profess the Faith of Christ crucified c. do you call that something that is decent It is something necessary to Salvation 3. Signes are exceeding various At present we use but two distinctions 1. Some are Signs ex primaria intentione iustitnentis purposed and primarily instituted to signifie as an Escucheon or a Sign at an Inne door in common matters and as the Sacrament and Cross in sacred matters and some are Signs but consequently secondarily and not essentially as intended by the Institutors so Hills and Trees may shew us what a Clock it is and so every Creature signifieth some good of Mercy or Duty and may be an Object of holy Meditation so the colour and shape of our Cloaths may mind us of some good which yet was none of the primary or proper end of the Maker or Wearer 2. Signes are either arbitrary expressions of a mans own mind in a matter where he is left free or they are Covenanting Signes between us and God in the Covenant of Grace to work Grace on us as moral Causes and to engage us Sacramentally to him Such we conceive the Cross in Baptism to be The Preface to the Common Prayer Book saith They are apt to teach and excite c. which is a moral operation of
you think it not a taking too much upon us to keep away the scandalous if they have their Appeals to you And is it indeed a power too great and arbitrary to have a judicium discretionis about our own Acts and not to be forced to baptize the Children of Heathens against our Consciences who judged for the Baptizers in the primitive Church what persons they should baptize We act but as Engines under you and not as men if we must not use our reason and we are more miserable than brutes or men if we must be forced to go against our Consciences unless you will save us harmless before God O that in a fair debate you would prove to us that such Children as are described are to be baptized and that the Ministers that baptize them must not have power to discern who to baptize But who mean you by the Churches that must present every Infant that Christ may accept them Is every Infant first in the Promise of pardon If so shew us that Promise and then sure God will make good that Promise though Heathen Parents present not their Children to him as your grounds suppose if not then will the sign save those that are not in the Promise But is it the God-fathers that are the Church whoever called them so And if by the Church you mean the Minister and by presenting you meant baptizing them then any Heathens Child that a Minister can catch up and baptize shall be saved which if it could be proved would perswade us to go hunt for Children in Turkie Tartary or America and secretly baptize them in a habit that should not make us known but there is more of fancy than charity in this and Christ never invited any to him but the Children of the Promise to be thus presented and baptized Sect. 2. The time appointed we conceive sufficient Repl. We conjecture the words that conclude your former Subject being misplaced are intended as your Answer to this and if all the Children of any sort in the world that are brought to us must by us be baptized without distinction indeed it is no great matter what time we have notice of it Sect. 3. P. 23. Ans. And then the God-fathers c. It is an erronious doctrine and the ground of many others and of many of your Excâ—ptions that Children have no other right to Baptism than in â—heir Parents right the Churches primitive practice forbids it to be left to the pleasure of the Parents whether there shall be other Sureties or no St. Aug. Ep. 23. It is fit we should observe carefully the practice of venerable Antiquity as they desire Prop. 18. Repl. It seems we differ in Doctrine though we subscribe the same Articles we earnestly desire you distinctly to tell us what is the Infants title to Baptism if it be not to be found in the Parent Assign it and prove it when you have done as well as we prove their right as they are the Seed of Believers dedicated to them by God and then we promise to consent It 's strange to us to hear so much of the Churches primitive practice where so little evidence of it is produced Aug. Ep. 23. talketh not of primitive practice ab initio non fuit sic was it so in the Apostles dayes And afterwards you prove not that it was the judgement of the Catholick Church that bare Sponsers instead of Parents Pro-parents or Owners of the Children might procure to the Children of all Infidels a title to Baptism and its benefits Such Suscepters as became the Owners or Adopters of the Children are to be distinguished from those that proforma stand by for an hour during the baptizing of Children and ever after leave them to their Parents who as they have the natural interest in them and power of their disposal and the Education of them so are fittest to covenant in their names Sect. 4. Ans. The Font usually stands as it did in primitive times at or near the Church door to signifie that Baptism was the entrance into the Church mystical We are all bapâ—ized into one Body 1 Cor. 12. 13. and the People may hear well enough If Jordan and all other waters be not so far sanctified by Christ as to be the matter of Baptism what Authority have we to baptize and sure his Baptism was dedicatio Baptismi Repl. Our lesser difference about the Font and the flood Jordan is almost drowned in the greater before going But to the first we say that we conceive the usual scituation for the Peoples hearing is to be preferred before your Ceremonious position of it And to the second we say that dedicatio Baptismi is an unfiting phrase and yet if it were not what 's that to the sanctification of Jordan and all other waters Did Christ sanctifie all Corn or Bread or Grapes or Wine to an holy use when he administred the Lords Supper Sanctifying is separating to an holy use but the flood Jordan and all other water is not separted to this holy use in any proper sense no more than all mankind is sanctified to the Priestly Office because men were made Priests Sect. 5. Sureties c. P. 24. Ans. It hath been accounted reasonable and allowed by the best Laws that Guardians should Covenant and contract for their Minors to their benefit by the same right the Church hath appointed Sureties to undertake for Children when they enter into Covenant with God by Baptism St. Aug. Ep. 23. And this general practice of the Church is enough to satisfie those that doubt Rep. 1. Who made those Sureties Guardians of the Infants that are neither Parents nor Pro-parents not Owners of them we are not now speaking against Sponsors But you know that the very Original of those Sponsors is a great Controversie And whether they were not at first most properly Sponsors for the Parents that they should perform that part they undertook because many Parents were Deserrors and many proved negligent Sponsors then excluded not Parents from their proper undertaking but joyned with them Godfathers are not the Infants Guardians with us and therefore have not power thus to Covenant and Vow in their names We intreat you to take heed of leaving any Children indeed out of the mutual Covenant that are baptised How are those in the Covenant that cannot consent themselves and do it not by any that truly represent them nor have any Authority to act as in their names The Authority of Parents being most unquestionable who by nature and the Word of God have the power of disposing of their Children and consequently of choosing and covenanting for them Why should it not be preferred at least you may give leave to those Parents that desire it to be the Dedicators of and Covenanters for their own Children and not force others on them whether they will or no. 2. But the question is not of Covenanting but professing present Actual believing forsaking c. In which