baptized in riper years where every person then baptized is said to be regenerated and graffed into the body of Christs Church to be born again and made an heir of everlasting Salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ and to have now by Baptism put on Christ being made a Child of God and of the Light Yet it is not hereby intended to be dogmatically declared that every adult person receiving Baptism is thereby in a certain state of Salvation because true Faith and Repentance which some such persons may possibly want is in them necessary in order to the spiritual efficacy of the Sacraments and is so acknowledged by the Doctrine of our Church Artic. 27. For as our Articles declare that those who receive Baptism rightly are thereby as by an instrument graffed into the Church and obtain remission of sins so they also assert concerning Sacraments Artic. 25. that in such only who worthily receive the same they have a wholesom effect and operation 5. Agreeable hereto are the frequent expressions of the ancient Church in which it was ordinarily and truly delivered that Baptism without true Faith and Repentance cannot avail to the salvation of the adult nor put them into a present justified state And though some words in S. Augustine by way of dispute and inquiry do incline to the contrary yet that that was none of his fixed judgment was sufficiently observed by the Master of the Sentences Sent. l. 4. Dist 4. b. Aug. Cont. Liter Petit l. 1. c. 23. S. Augustine proveth that Baptism is inwardly of no profit to some from the example of Simon Magus and from the same instance S. Hierome concludeth Hier. in Ezek. 16. that he who doth not receive Baptism with a compleat Faith is indeed baptized with water sed nequaquam baptizatus est in salutem but is in no wise baptized unto salvation Cyril Hieros Procatach and Cyrill of Hieru expresseth him who cometh with his body to Baptism and not with his heart to be nothing profited And this must needs be acknowledged for truth because the performance of the conditions of the Covenant of grace by the adult can in no respect be confined to Baptism only 6. Yet these Writers did ordinarily acknowledge both universally concerning all persons baptized and particularly concerning any adult person that they had put on Christ and were made his Members and were regenerated by the Holy Ghost and born again with other such like expressions S. Augustine saith Cont. Donat l. 5. c. 24. Men put on Christ either ad Sacramenti perceptionem so far as concerneth the receiving the Sacrament or usque ad vitae sanctificationem as far as reacheth to the sanctification of life which is admitted by P. Lombard who inferreth thence that all persons who receive Baptism put on Christ Cyril telleth every one of those adult persons who came to be baptized Cyr. Catech 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Ghost will seal your Souls According to the expression of Rabanus any baptized person à Christo Christianus vocatur De instit Cleric l. 1. c. 1. Dei Patris Ecclesiae matris noscitur esse filius is called from Christ a Christian and is known to be a Child of God his Father and of the Church his Mother and Clemens Alexandrinus accounteth all who are admitted into the Church of Christ to be called Members of Christ whose body is the Church and towards them who indulge themselves in Carnal practices and pleasures Strom. l. 7. he indulgeth himself in this fanciful expression to esteem them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. But above all the language which the holy Scripture useth is to be observed which as it oft speaketh of Children of God and such like Phrases concerning them who are inwardly renewed by a divine life which it every where requireth as of absolute necessity so upon account of visible admission to the Church and profession of the Faith it oft applyeth the like expressions towards every person received into the Church So 1. Gal. 3.27 S. Paul declareth as many of you as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ 2. Concerning baptized persons being Members of Christ and graffed into his body the Apostle saith 1. Cor. 12.13 We are all baptized into one body and v. 27. Ye are the body of Christ and Members in particular Which words respect every one in the Church of Corinth who are required from this argument because they are members of Christs body to consult not themselves but the benefit of the whole Church and to consider the different proportions of several Members And when he useth this Argument against Fornication 1. Cor. 6.15 Shall I take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of an Harlot God forbid he doth no doubt thereby disswade every person who had undertaken Christianity from that filthy sin because by his Baptism his body was dedicated to be a Member of Christ And to this may be added what our Saviour speaketh Joh. 15.2 of a branch in him that beareth not fruit 8. V. Sect. 9. n. 5. 3. Concerning the titles of being regenerated born again and being the Children of God we may observe that even those circumcised Members of the Jewish Church who denyed the holy one and the just and killed the Prince of life Act. 3.14 15. Act. 3.25 and who as yet had not repented nor were converted v. 19. were yet called the Children of the Covenant which God made with Abraham And of those Jews for whom the Apostle had great sorrow and continual heaviness and for whom he could wish himself accursed from Christ he saith Rom. 9.4 that to them pertaineth the adoption By which expressions it is meant that they were visibly Children of the Covenant by undertaking it and that they were under the tenders and external priviledges of adoption and under the visible means of the spiritual benefits thereof Under the Christian profession the Apostle expressing to his Galatians the difference between being under the legal Covenant which gendreth to bondage Adv. Marc. l. 5. c. 4. Ch. 4.24 and the Evangelical Covenant which bringeth forth them that are free or between Judaismus and Christianismus as Tertullian speaketh saith that the Jerusalem which is above that is the Covenant of Grace and the Gospel Doctrine as Illyricus rightly glosseth is the Mother of us all Illyr Gloss in Loc. v. 26. and we are the Children of the promise v. 28. Which things are mentioned as titles of priviledge which their undertaking the Gospel profession did receive them unto And when the Apostle telleth them Gal. 3.26 Ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus it is evident from his scope that by faith is there understood the Gospel dispensation of Faith undertaken by them in opposition to the Law and that those who by Baptism are admitted to the profession of the Christian Faith are called the
and affectionately recommended and hath naturally such other dangerous attendants as have been above observed to be the result of the breach or want of the Churches Peace This sin is to the Church what Sedition is to the State the most manifest and direct means to hinder its Government and to destroy that Society which is best preserved in true Vnity and of which as Christ himself hath so every Christian ought to have a tender regard It is to the body of Christ what disjointing is to the body of man it hindreth the actions of the body and the usefulness of the members to each other it weakneth the whole and causeth pain and anxious grief to those other members which are not senseless and is ordinarily accompanied with swelling tumours in the part ill-affected and out of order 12. And as it self is contrary to Gods Commandment so its influence promoteth all manner of sin and is called by Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an original of evils Ign. Ep. ad Smyrn For besides the evils above mentioned which accompany this sin as it includeth a breach of the Churches Peace it is apt to prevail with the Separatist to so much impiety as to place much of his Religion in that which is his sin viz. his unwarrantable separation and it is oft if not ordinarily attended with so great uncharitableness as to be pleased with respect to the interest of their party in hearing if not speaking evil concerning others who withstand them It promoteth prosaneness and disadvantageth Religion in others by rendring censures and admonitions of the Church when they are administred the less efficacious upon the offenders who are the more ready to conclude that it is no great shame or danger to be excluded from that Society of Christians from which many who profess Religion do exclude themselves And upon this and other easily discernable accounts it is a probable occasion of remisness in the exercising discipline which would be more enforced and enlivened by a more general Union whereby also divers obstacles and impediments would be removed Athan. Synops in 1. Ep. ad Cor. Thus Athanasius was of opinion that the Corinthian divisions were the cause why the incestious person was not rejected SECT IV. Some false Conceptions of Schism refuted 1. But because there are some notions or rather misrepresentations of this sin of Schism designed to excuse many from the guilt thereof whom the rules of Christianity do envolve under it I shall endeavour to discover the insufficiency of such Plaisters either to cover or cure so great and dangerous wounds as the deep rents made in the Church to which they are applyed 2. A first false Conception of Schism A first Notion is the natural result of the New-England Independant Principles of Church-Communion They assert expresly Ans to 32. Qu. quo 4. that Baptism neither maketh nor admitteth any to be members of the Church and call it the opinion of Papists and Anabaptists that we enter into the Church by Baptism But they assert the foundation of Church-Society to be laid in their Church-Covenant which is a particular contract among themselves binding themselves to God and one to another to live in Christian Society with that particular Congregation to which they join themselves by this contract Apol. for Chur. Coven p. 3 5 15. And this Church-Covenant is they say the Constitutive form of a Church and joining in it is that which maketh a particular person a member of a Church And from hence it may be easily infered that there can be no duty of holding and therefore no sin of Schism in withdrawing or neglecting Communion where they have not made this engagement by that particular Covenant 3. But this notion of the Vnion and Communion of the Church doth confine it to such strait limits as to exclude in a manner all Christians of all ages from Church Society but themselves and is thereby uncharitable and no stranger to Schism and can not consist with the full and due sense of the Churches Catholicism for the ancient Church did never account the obligation to Christian Communion to be so narrow a thing as only to respect a particular Congregation and therefore never framed any such particular Covenant This is also directly contrary to S. Paul who as an argument to Union and against Schism saith 1 Cor. 12 13. By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body and teacheth us that we are baptized into Christ Rom. 6.3 and thereby are planted together in the likeness of his death v. 5. and that they who are baptized into Christ do put on Christ Gal. 3.27 Which Scriptures do sufficiently express that by our Baptism as we undertake the Christian life so we thereby are admitted to be members of the Church or body of Christ and are engaged as members to Vnity therein and to continue in Communion therewith Whereas if this notion was admitted the grounds for the being and Vnion of the Church which the Scriptures lay down together with the Apostolical and Primitive practice must be accounted as insufficient and the necessary support of its being and Union must be derived from this late invention All which things are sufficient to manifest the errour of this opinion and to shew that there may be a sinful breach of the Vnity of the Church among them who never entred into that Church Covenant 4. A second Notion Dr. Owen of Love Church Peace c. 3. But one of that way of our own Nation treating of Schism and separation acknowledgeth Baptism to give Relation to or entrance into the Catholick Church visible but still owneth a particular contract or joint consent among themselves to be the only bond for external Ecclesiastical Communion in a particular Church or as he expresseth it to be that wherein the Vnion of such a Church doth consist which will be hereafter further considered N. 19 20. Dr. Owen's Review of Schism ch 8 9. And he giveth us this representation of Schism That the sin of Schism doth not consist in the want of or breach of external Vnity by separation but in the want of internal Vnity by needless divisions of judgment in a particular Congregation as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he saith is used 1 Cor. c. 1.11 Hence these assertions are laid down 1. That the departing of any man or men from any particular Church as to the Communion peculiar to such a Church is no where in Scripture called Schism nor is so in the nature of the thing it self 2. One Church refusing to hold that Communion with another which ought to be between them is not Schism properly so called 5. But if we here consider the matter or thing it self we must enquire whether Christian Religion doth allow needless separations in the Christian Church And surely he must have strange thoughts of the earnest commands and frequent arguments for Christian Unity who supposeth them to regard only an inward
Schism or sinful breach of Vnity only because he is void of charity and wanting in due Christian care 23. Nor can it possibly be true that if some thing be enjoined which divers persons who appear to be Religious and are supposed to have considerable abilities of judgment do upon professed enquiry both suspect and condemn that they may lawfully separate and not be guilty of Schism if their judgments herein be erroneous and ungrounded For though diligent enquiry where it is impartially made is in this case an excuse from the degree of the sin or from the precipitant or designed breach of Charity or Vnity yet where it is so ill managed as to take up with an errour and practice upon it it can not render that practice allowable For this would justifie almost every party which in judgment holdeth an errour for separating from that Church who either in her open practice or in her publick service requireth a profession of that truth which they oppose and they must be excused from Schism only because they acknowledge not the right rules of Religion and neither Donatists Novatians or Anabaptists could then be blamed for their distance from the Church provided it be founded in their distance from and disowning of the truth Yea if any persons be Arians Futychians or Nestorians Vbi supra p. 9 10. in opinion all which the author of this notion over-officiously excuseth from all Heresie and saith they were at the worst but Schisms they must also according to his notion stand excused from Schism in separating from the Church which holdeth the true doctrine and openly in her service requireth a profession of it concerning the person of the Mediator 24. This would set up the power of an erring judgment above the will of God to discharge persons from what is Gods command and would else have been their duty viz. Communion and to give them authority to do that as a lawful action which to others who err not is a grievous sin viz. separation from that Church which holdeth the truth meerly because it doth profess it as if the crrour of man could render necessary duties and divine commands to be of no obligation For though their errour may till it be removed entangle them in sin in joining with the Church because this encludeth a practising what they judge unlawful it can not justifie them from sin in separating from it but this errour as all other erroneous judgments do where good and evil are mistaken for each other doth in their practice every way ensnare them under sin until it be cured Lib. 2. c. 2 Sect. 3. But of the principal design of this notion I shall give a further account in considering things under scruples 25. From what hath been hitherto discoursed it appeareth that the consideration of Schism will make it necessary for him who undertaketh separation to be sure that he acteth upon unerring grounds and not upon mistakes because to make separation from a Church which however it be misunderstood and causelesly censured requireth nothing in it self absolutely unlawful to be believed professed practised or joined in is to be guilty of the great sin of Schism SECT V. Of the duty of obedience to Rulers and Governours and the due exercise of the Ministerial function which is in this case concerned 1. The opposing Conformity if managed upon insufficient grounds hath ordinarily involved the person opposing under the sin of disobedience and want of subjection in things lawful to Christian Governours and Rulers and their Laws and Constitutions which ought to be obeyed not only for wrath but for Conscience sake It is their duty in their places to shew themselves the servants of God and to promote his glory and to that end by their power and authoritative commands to take care for the promoting and preserving the Order Peace and Vnity of the Church of God and towards both Ecclesiastical and secular Rulers the divine Precepts do very plainly require our obedience Indeed if any thing any time commanded be really sinful the instructions given in the Church of England will direct us to believe undoubtedly Hom. of Obedience Part. 2. that we may not obey Kings Magistrates or any other though they be our own Fathers if they would command us to do any thing contrary to Gods Commandment But if the things be lawful which they command as in this case I hope to make appear to men of unprejudiced minds it is a sin of no low degree to disobey and the duty of obedience is so considerable that the Compilers of the Strasburgh Confession of Faith Conf. Argent c. 23. expressed it to be Inter primi crdinis bona opera in the highest rank and order of good works 2. Nor can this obedience be thought a matter inconsiderable which was enjoined of old in the first Commandment of the second table Phil. de Leg. Spepiailb and as Philo observed encludeth part of the first table and part of the second having directly a respect both to God in his Vice-gerent and also to man And this is earnestly pressed upon us in the Gospel doctrine as a means whereby we may bring honour to Religion and Christianity by S. Peter 1 Pet. 2.12 15. and as a necessary practice to express true conversion from the state of sin to the life of God by S. Paul Tit. 3.1 5. who also warneth against this sin with respect to the danger of damnation thereby Rom. 13.2 And this obedience to them who are over us in things lawful and under their authority is of so high and necessary a consequence that without it there can be no peace nor any regular and unconfused state in any Family City Realm or Church this being the practice of the grand Maxim for the upholding order in all Societies of the World which is evident by its own light and is a principle of the law of nature 3. Another effect of these disagreements about the established order of our Church hath been this that divers Ministers have declined the orderly regular and publick exercise of their Ministerial sunctions And considering the weightiness of their Commission with the greatness of their charge and account and the exceeding advantage to the Church yea to the honour of Christ and the salvation of men by their labours where they obtain success together with other their own concernments it becometh them to be well assured that they have had a warrantable plea to justifie those proceedings It was not without cause accounted a great miscarriage and default in Novatus Eus Hist Eccless l. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that before he openly became the head of a dividing party he was over-forward for want of a due zeal to Religion to have relinquished the office of Presbyter to which he was ordained and to betake himself to another kind of life 4. The ancient Church shewed its great dislike and distast of any Ministers declining the orderly execution
whom the reversion shall appertain Nor doth the using these two words of assent and consent in the same clause require such a sense of this Declaration in which they must differ from each other since variety of words even in the most soleum acknowledgments is oft used not to express the difference but to determine the certainty of sense according to that Rule Ex Reg. Juris Quae dubitationis tollendae causa inseruntur jus commune non laedunt Thus in the Oath of Obedience or Allegiance I A. B. do truly and sincerely acknowledge profess testifie and declare that our Soveraign Lord is lawful and rightful King Where all these words connected by conjunctive Particles do only serve more expresly to manifest the same thing 12. And since the consideration both of persons and time make it evident that this assent to be given cannot contribute any thing to the authoritative ordering and constitution of these things which were before established by authority its most proper and natural sense must import a consent to or allowing of the use of these things which is the sense unto which the expressions in the Act of Uniformity do also plainly direct Wherefore such things only as are to be used being both contained and prescribed as all the Prayers Hymns directing Rubricks Kalendar and the Whole frame of the Liturgy come within the compass of this Declaration But some things occasionally declared and not prescribed are not contained under it In the Preface For instance these words That this Book as it stood before established by law did not contain in it any thing which a godly man may not with a good Conscience use and submit to though they be true and considerable yet if they were encluded under this Declaration then even such things as were thought fit to be altered must be still in some sort assented unto which is both contrary to the end of such alterations and to the proper sense of the words of this Declaration 13. And even such persons who conceive some things or expressions prescribed either in the Phrases of Common-Prayer it self or in the pointing of the Psalms or in the Translation of the Psalms or other Scriptures not to be suitable to their own desires or apprehensions yet to be free from fin and of such a nature as that the whole remaineth useful to guide the exercises of Piety those persons may safely and with a good Conscience make this Declaration of assent with respect unto other weighty considerations of submission to Authority promoting Peace Order and Unity and the edification of the Church in the united exercise of a right religious worship Even as such learned men who may judge even our last translation of the Bible not to have fitly expressed the sense of some difficult places may yet both unfeignedly assent and earnestly perswade to the diligent use thereof as knowing it to be of excellent advantage to the pious and humble Readers for their profitable learning the Gospel Doctrine and the will of God 14. Wherefore by this Declaration is given such an open vocal approbation of this Book required by Law as agreeth in sense with the subscription enjoined by Canon And the intend thereof is to express such an unfeigned allowance or consent to all things contained and prescribed in the Book of Comon-Prayer with the Psalms as that they may warrantably and with a good Conscience be used as they are established by authority the truth of which will appear more manifest upon a particular enquiry CHAP. IV. Of the Liturgy and the ordinary service appointed therein SECT I. The lawfulness antiquity and expediency of publick forms 1. PVblick Prayer is acknowledged by all Christians to be a chief part of the worship of God who hath said My house shall be called an house of Prayer for all people But since God hath not expresly declared in his word whether the ordinary publick duties of Christian Prayer should be performed with or without a form the determination of the sittest practice in this case must be made not without regard to the authority of Governours by a respect to the rules of order edification and the glory of God and an eye unto approved examples from which considerations I shall produce divers evidences of the requisiteness of a set form for the publick offices of the Church both from Reason and from example and authority 2. The reasons are such as these 1. That hereby a fit true right and well ordered way of worship in addresses to God may be best secured to the Church in its publick service of God that neigher God nor his worship may be dishonoured their being many easily discernable ways of considerable miscarriage in the publick offices of the Church even by them who err not in the doctrines of Religion 2. That needful comprehensive petitions for all common and ordinary spiritual and outward wants of our selves or others with fit thanksgivings may not in the publick supplications of the Church be omitted which considering men as they are can no other way be either so well or at all assured 3. That the affections and hearts of pious and religious men may be more devont and better united in their presenting their service to God where they may consider before-hand what particular Prayers and Thanksgivings they are to offer up and come the more ready and prepared to join in them This is an advantage of which many are deprived by a bad temper of mind either sucked in by prejudice or swallowed down by carelessness 3. 4. That such difficult parts of Church Offices as Baptism and the Lords Supper the matter of which requireth great consideration that they may be clearly and aright expressed as both Conformists and many Non-Conformists acknowledge and is evident from the many disputes about them by men neither of mean parts nor dangerous designs may by a more considerate care in the composure of a form be so framed that men of greatest understandings may with readiest assent entertain them and that they may be sufficiently vindicated against the boldest opposers 5. To be an evidence to other Churches and future times after what way and manner we worship God and that both the matter and expression of our service to him is sound and pious in our general and common worship And this may be a full testimony that such a Church both receiving the true faith and expressing a right way of worship is both a true and in its measure a pure and incorrupt Church 4. The Arguments from example which in general countenance the lawfulness or expediency of a form are two which will require a larger Declaration The first is from the practice and example of Christ who directed his Disciples the use of the Lords Prayer as a set form and that from thence the custom of the Christian Church De Eccles Offic. l. 1. c. 9. in composing and using set forms did take its pattern is reasonably
Corona militis c. 3. Eucharistiae Sacramentum etiam antelucanis caetibus sumimus do intimate that that Sacrament was administred also at other times besides those early Morning Assemblies and S. Cyprian as Pamelius noteth Cyp. Ep. 63. n. 48. expresseth their communicating the that Carthaginian Church both in the Morning and the Evening Socr. Hist Eccl. l 5. c. 21. as Socrates long after relateth the Custom of Evening Communions in the Churches of Egypt and those nigh to Thebais And therefore the Eucharist and Agapae might be and were joined together as is manifest from another place of Tertullians Apology Apol. c. 7 8. 5. And that these things were mutable Rites and no perpetual Laws to the Christian Church is manifest not only from general Ecclesiastical practice but also because the Scriptures give no command for the love Feasts though they mention that practice with approbation and the kiss which was a token of love and friendship according to the Custom of those Countries was thence directed to be observed by those Christians only as a token of their Christian greeting and salutation and a testimony of their Vnity and Communion Yet because these things were used at the time of the holy Communion as outward actions representing part of that Christian duty practice and engagement which was signified by that holy Ordinance it self and undertaken therein they were in this use properly Ecclesiastical Rites and do justifie the use of such external actions in the service or duties of Religion which are useful to excite or promote Christian practice 6. And besides these the Apostles direction for men to pray or prophesie with their heads uncovered 1 Cor. 11.4 was the determining an external Rite for order and decency and not without some respect to the common expressions of Reverence in Greece and other parts of the Roman Empire The Jewish Priests performed their Temple service with their heads covered with their Bonnets as did the High Priest also in his Mitre and it was his honour and dignity that he might not uncover his head Lev. 21.10 he representing hereby the glory and honour of the Messias In the Jewish Synagogue worship their men constantly prayed with their faces vailed V. Hor. Hebr. in 1. Cor. 11.4 in token of shame as is manifest from divers testimonies of the Talmudists agreeably to which Custom the holy Angels in Isaiah's Vision are represented standing before God and worshipping with their faces covered Is 6.1 2 3. The ancient Romans used uncovering the head as an expression of honour to great men but yet from the time of Aeneas Plutarch Prob. Rom. q. 10 11 13. as Plutarch affirmeth they had their heads covered in most of their Religious solemnities The Grecians worshipped with their heads uncovered as did the Romans also in their adoration of Saturn But S. Paul considering the Christians relation and encouragements and the customary use of vailing among women as fitly becoming and expressing their shamefastness modesty and subjection he thence from the consideration of comeliness determineth that the expression of reverence which most befitteth the state of men in their Religious service is to uncover their heads and not to vail them both in praying and in prophesying or praising and glorifying God chiefly under extraordinary or prophetick raptures in which sense the Chaldee Paraphrast oft expoundeth the Phrase of prophesying in the Old Testament and R. D. Kimchi Ch. Par. in 1. Sam. 10.5 6 10 11 13. Ch. 19 20 21 23 24. Drus in 1. Sam. 10.6 also as he is cited by Drusius And the consequence hereof is this that such outward actions as tend to express a comely reverence in the service of God may be filty appointed and used therein under the Gospel dispensation 7. But because I shall in the following Chapter give some other instances of Apostolical practice I forbear in this place to urge any more and therefore shall not insist upon S. Peter submitting to have his feet washed at our Saviours command which some have noted to be a Jewish Paschal Rite then practised under an Evangelical signification nor upon the observations enjoined to the Gentile Christians by the Council at Jerusalem Act. 15. nor upon those other manifestly ancient Rites which are not mentioned in the Scriptures but were by the Fathers of the Primitive Church called Apostolical Rites or Apostolical Traditions But instead of prosecuting what is contained in this last instance I shall observe that it was a current position among the chief Protestant Writers of the Churches beyond the Seas that in points of external rite order and decency some things were appointed by the Apostles in the Churches of Christ which were not recorded in the holy Scriptures Kemnit Exam de Tradit 7 m. Genus Thus Kemnitius asserteth that it is manifest from the Apostles writings that they did ordain and deliver some Rites unto the Church verisimile est quosdam etiam alios externos ritus qui in scriptura annotati non sunt to Apostolis traditos esse And it seemeth true that there were other external Rites delivered by the Apostles which are not mentioned in the Scripture Beza upon those words of S. Paul The rest will I set in order when I come 1 Cor. 11.34 granteth that the Apostle did in that Church detemine other things not mentioned in that Epistle but pertinent ad ordinem Ecclesiasticum non ad dogmata they were not matters of Doctrine but of Ecclesiastical Order And upon the same words he saith that they appointed things referring to order as time place forms of Prayer and such like as times places and persons did require Zanch. Tract de Sacr. Script Qu. 8. Zanchy also citing the same Text by way of Objection in his Treatise of the holy Scripture answereth That concerning matters of order and decency we acknowledge many things to have been appointed in the Churches by the Apostles which are not written Concedimus multa fuisse instituta ab Apostolis in Ecclesiis quae non sunt scripta 8. That command of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done decently and in order doth manifestly suppose a power and command its exercise in the Church of Corinth for the appointing what is requisite to those ends and is to this purpose urged not only in the Church of England but by those other modern Writers who are in high esteem with most Non-Conformists Infst l. 4. c. 10. Sect. 27. Calvin in his institutions from this Scripture asserteth a necessity of laws made by Ecclesiastical Constitutions because order and decency cannot otherwise be kept nisi additis observationibus tanquam vinculis quibusdam and in his Commentaries he thence asserteth In 1. Cor. 14.40 that God hath left external Rites unto our liberty that we might not account his worship to consist in them Zanchy Zanch. Compend Doct. Christianae Loc. 16. considering this Text enquireth what the Apostle
Primitive Church as from the Apostles is abundantly sufficient not only to justifie but to commend herein the order of the Church of England which agreeth thereto 4. The use of Confirmation in our Church besides the leaving out things superstitious hath two great advantages in its external administration The first advantage is in the time when it is performed which is when the person is come to some years of discretion and being instructed in the main Principles of the Christian Doctrine doth by his own actual consent and promise renew his baptismal vow and ratifie and confirm it in his own person For the increase and strength of grace which is then implored and the being received to a higher rank of Christian profession doth reasonably suppose a capacity of knowledge and understanding Indeed in the early times of Christianity while Baptism was ordinarily administred to persons adult the Profession of their Faith together with their taking upon them the practice of the Christian life went before their Baptism and thence not only Confirmation but the Lords Supper was soon after administred to them and yet it is not amiss observed by Kemnitius Exam. Conc. Trid. Part. 2. de Confir that before hands were imposed by S. Paul upon the Disciples at Ephesus there was some kind of exploratio fidei or an examining of their Faith into which they were baptized And acknowledged it must be that even in Infants confirmation was anciently in some Churches used soon after Baptism but then the Lords Supper was also received by such Infants which was a blemish in some Churches as ancient as the time of S. Cyprian Cyp. de Laps Aug. de Eccles Dogm c 〈◊〉 Alcu. de Divin 〈◊〉 fic Tet 〈◊〉 Sabâ—◠〈…〉 is oft mentioned by S Augustin and four hundred years after S. Augustins time the administring the Lords Supper to Infants was directed by Alcuinus 5. The Western Church in the later Centuries hath ordinarily required in most of its Offices several days distance between the administration of Baptism and Confirmation Ration l. 6. c. 84. as Durandus declareth who also in the same place is of opinion that the ordinary custom of the more ancient Church required a perfect age or as he expresseth it the age of twelve or fifteen years De Consec dist 5. c. ut Jejuni in them who received confirmation which opinion he groundeth upon the Canon ut jejuni ad confirmationem veniant perfectae aetatis And that persons who receive confirmation should have arrived at some capacity of understanding was judged convenient by Cassander Consult Cas Art 9. de Hymn Eccles who also declareth the consent of divers others of the Romish Communion And herein the Church of Rome since the Protestant Reformation yea since the establishment of the English Liturgie hath receded from her former Rule of confirming Infants and in the first Synod of Millain Conc. Mediol 1. de Confirm Catech. Rom. de Confirm which followed that of Trent and in the Roman Catechism it is required that those who are to be confirmed should be at the least seven years old if not twelve and should be instructed with reference to their confirmation De Ritib lib. 1. c. 20. Sect. 14. and this alteration is approved by Durantus with summa ratione receptum est And herein the after-wit of the Romish Church hath entertained what was with some derision rejected in the sixth Session of the Council of Trent as we are informed in the Hist Conc. Trident lib. 2 p. 194. 6. And somewhat analagous to Confirmation at the years of discretion may be observed from the Jewish Church where when the child came to be thirteen years old Buxt Syn. Jud. c. 3. the Father in a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a sacred Assembly of a compleat number for solemn occasions presenteth the child before them who having been taught both prayers and precepts of duty Aben Ezr. in Gen. 17.14 he then undertaketh to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one who taketh upon himself the obedience to the commands of the Law and prayer is then made for him that he may grow up in good works 7. A second advantage of our confirmation is that here is a reducing the ancient primitive Rite of imposition of hands which for many hundred years hath been extruded from the Romish confirmation by other superstitious Ceremonies Durand ubi supra And though Durandus be so frivolous as to imagine that imposition of hands is contained in the blow upon the cheek which was used in many Romish Churches after confirmation but was not directed at all in the Office secundum usum Sarum and Bellarmine be so vain as to assert it to be contained in Chrysming the forehead Bellarm de Confirm l. 2 c. 2. which is the principal Romish Rite of confirmation wise men might see that there is no more agreement in these things than that the hand is made use of about them all Wherefore this Rite of imposition of hands was no Rite either abused or used under the corruptions of the Church of Rome but was an innocent and useful primitive Rite restored in the Reformation of the Church of England Belarm ibid. c. 2 13. And even the Bishop holding up his hands to pray over them which receive confirmation which the Cardinal would have to include imposition of hands is neither required at all in the Office of Confirmation secundum usum Sarum nor is it mentioned among the present Rites of confirmation by Durantus Dur. de Ritib lib. 1. c. 20. and therefore it may as reasonably be said that Imposition of hands is included in all their prayers as that it is contained in their confirmation 8. Ratio Discip c. 3. Sect. 3. Among the Reformed Churches the Bohemian had confirmation with Imposition of hands which they did account an Apostolical Rite and they much after the manner of the Church of England used therewith invocation of the divine grace and a renewing their baptismal Covenant wherewith they also joyned Absolution And this Comenius both commendeth as the primitive practice Comen Annot. in Rat. Discip and saith that this way of Confirmation is still piously used in some Churches In the Lutheran Churches even they who retained not this use of Confirmation Conf. Sax. de Conf. as in Saxony did yet esteem it when administred with imposition of hands and prayer unto persons who being come to years of understanding did make actual profession of their engaging to Christianity to be agreeable to the purest Antiquity Exam. Conc. Trid. Par. 2. de Confirm and the Apostles practice and to have exceeding great profitableness both for the edification of the Youth and of the whole Church as we may learn from Kemnitius who was one of their chief Writers Calv. Inst l. 4. c. 19. n. 4 13. And Calvin himself expresseth a like approbation of the same declaring withal his desire
any publick worship or service of God can be performed unless some things in those administrations not particularly commanded by God be determined either by publick Authority or by common agreement which makes it necessary for all men either to relinquish this principle or which is more shameful to contradict it in their practice I am not unsensible what rewards such attempts as this commonly meet with from men of distemper'd minds and ungovern'd passions I have carefully avoided all just occasion of offence as hoping that I may the more effectually perswade the less I anger them but if nothing will secure me from Invectives and Calumnies I must be contented with my portion and appeal to the judgment of more candid and impartial Readers and satisfie my self with the Testimony of God and my own Conscience of the honesty of my intentions and design in this work leaving the success of it to the Divine Providence with my hearty and serious Prayers that it may be for the publick benefit of the Church Farewel THE CONTENTS THE FIRST BOOK CHap. 1. The disagreements about Conformity are of great concernment Sect. 1. Of the effects of these Dissentions as to the dispositions of the People Sect. 2. That these Contentions disadvantage Christianity and gratifie Popery and Irreligion Sect. 3. Of the dangerous loss of the Churches Peace and Vnity by this Controversie and of the Sin of Schism Sect. 4. Some false Conceptions of Schism refuted Sect. 5. Of the duty of Obedience to Rulers and Governours and the due Exercise of the Ministerial Function which is herein concerned Sect. 6. A Proposal touching due considerateness and the design of this Treatise manifested Chap. 2. Of the solemn League Covenant Sect. 1. Of an unlawful Oath in it self and that that Oath was such with respect to its Matter and Form and Imposition Sect. 2. That the Covenant cannot oblige any Person to endeavour any alteration of the Government of the Church proved by four Rules Chap. 3. Of the Declaration and Subscription referring to the Liturgy The common use of such acknowledgments c. the true sense of declaring unfeigned assent and consent Chap. 4. Of the Liturgy and the ordinary Service appointed therein Sect. 1. The Lawfulness Antiquity and Expediency of Set-Forms Sect. 2. Objections against Set-Forms answered Sect. 3. Of the Composure of the Prayers in our Liturgie chiefly of Responsals and short Prayers Sect. 4. Of the Doxologie Athanasian Creed and some particular expressions in the Litany Sect. 5. Considerations concerning the publick reading the Apocryphal Chapters Sect. 6. The Objections from the matter of the Apocrypha discussed Sect. 7. Considerations about the Translation of the Psalms used in the Liturgie Sect. 8. Of Holy-days or Festivals Chap. 5. Of the particular Offices in the Liturgy Sect. 1. Of the direction for Communicants receiving the Lords Supper Sect. 2. Of some other things in the Communion Office Sect. 3. Of the saving Regeneration of Infants in Baptism and the grounds upon which it may be asserted Sect. 4. The Doctrine of the ancient and divers Reformed Churches herein observed Sect. 5. The Objections against the saving Regeneration of Infants in Baptism considered Sect. 6. Of the Notion of visible Regeneration in Baptism Sect. 7. Of Sureties and some other things in the Office for Baptism Sect. 8. Of the Office for Confirmation and that for Marriage Sect. 9. Of the Communion of the Sick and the Office for Burial The Second Book Chap. 1. The lawful Use of some Ceremonies in the Christian Church asserted Sect. 1. What we are here to understand by Ceremonies Sect. 2. The first Argument for the lawfulness of Ecclesiastical Rites from the liberty therein allowed to the Jewish Church Sect. 3. Ecclesiastical Constitutions concerning external Rites warranted by the Apostolical Doctrine and Practice Sect. 4. The Practice and Judgment of the Primitive and many Protestant Churches concerning Ceremonies Sect. 5. The ill consequences of denying the lawfulness of all Ecclesiastical Rites and Constitutions in things indifferent Sect. 6. Some Objections from Reason and from the Old Testament examined Sect. 7. Other Objections from the New Testament cleared Chap. 2. Of Ecclesiastical Appointments and Constitutions under some special Considerations Sect. 1. Of external Rites considered as significant Sect. 2. Of Ecclesiastical Appointments considered as imposed and enjoyned Sect. 3. Of Ecclesiastical Constitutions about things scrupled Sect. 4. Of Ecclesiastical Rites which have been abused in any corrupt way of Worship Chap. 3. Of devout and becoming Gestures in the Service of God Sect. 1. Of the Gesture at Prayer Praise and Christian Profession of Faith Sect. 2. Of standing up at the Gospel Sect. 3. Of the fitness of Kneeling at the Communion and the gesture at the Institution of that Sacrament considered Sect. 4. Of the Communion-gesture observed in the Christian Church both in the purer and the more degenerate times thereof Chap. 4. Of other particular Rites appointed in the Church of England Sect 1. Of the Surpless Sect. 2. Of the sign of the Cross in the Office for Baptism Sect. 3. Of laying on hands in Confirmation Sect. 4. Of the Ring in Marriage And the Conclusion Libertas Ecclesiastica The First BOOK CHAP. I. Shewing the disagreements about Conformity to be of great concernment SECT I. Of the effects of these oppositions as to the dispositions of the people 1. THE discerning the weightiness of any matter under present circumstances doth not only depend upon the direct inspection into the thing it self but also upon a more comprehensive view of it as it taketh in all its necessary consequents and attendants If the Sea bank be broken and carried away by an overflowing rage of Waters the loss would be fondly estimated by considering only the value of so much earth as would make it up and it would be some degrees below common folly to imagine that the advantage of respiration in man is a thing wholly inconsiderable because the matter of it is only a little ordinary air for according to that of Damascen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a small matter is then no small matter when it bringeth in a great consequent 2. Nor can we easily find a more full instance hereof than in the present subject of Conformity For the discovering how great the good or evil is which dependeth thereupon is not to be concluded chiefly from the bare eying the things required and appointed many of which are in their own nature things indifferent but from observing its necessary attendants which are of very high consequence and great concernment Wherefore I shall first take an account what great and manifold evils flow from these dissentions and oppositions whereby this will appear to be a matter deserving serious consideration and that the maintaining such dissentions unless they proceed upon necessary and justifiable grounds which I shall examine is upon many weighty accounts utterly disallowable and greatly condemnable 3. From these contentions doth spring much want of
account also apparently hindred because these discords do oft divert many Ministers from the more directly profitable parts of their employment and make it necessary for them to spend much time in satisfying these scruples and answering objections with thoughtfullness of the ill consequents of these dissentions while they have other work enough to do in the worship of God the edifying his Church and the opposing other designs of those Enemies who seek to undermine it This is like the discovery of a fire breaking forth or inward mutinies appearing at that time when there is much necessary work to be done at home and many conflicts to be prepared for both at home and abroad which must needs put some considerable obstructions to those proceedings SECT III. Of the dangerous loss of the Churches Peace and Unity by this controversie and of the sin of Schism 1. That upon matters referring to this controversie the Peace and Concord of our Church doth much depend and that it is and hath been thereby evidently and extreamly hindred is so apparently visible that it needeth no proof and hath been on all hands generally confessed and complained of Now though it be every Christians duty to reject that Peace which is inconsistent with Piety yet there can be no discharge given to these great duties of Peace and Vnity where they may be practised consistently with godliness and truth To be truly Religious is to enjoy a healthful state of a sound mind where there is no lethargick stupidness but an inward and vigorous life which is not attended with distempered heats and inflammations but with a calm and sedate composure of a sober spirit for the fruits of righteousness are sown in peace Jam. 3.18 2. This duty is so considerable that the Holy Ghost seemeth scarce in any thing else so pathetically to command and urge our practical obedience as about the Churches Peace and Christian Vnity If there be any consolation in Christ Phil. 2.1 2. saith the Apostle if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded being of one accord and of one mind Yea so generally is this duty pressed that there is scarce any Book of the holy Scripture chiefly of the new Testament but doth particularly enjoin or recommend it 3. If we value the favour and presence of God even that is no where so much to be found as where Christian Peace and Unity are most pursued Wherefore St. Paul commandeth 2 Cor. 13.11 Be of one mind live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you And the same Apostle declareth that the Church becometh an Holy Temple Eph. 2.21 22. and an habitation of God by being a building joined and united in Christ and fitly framed together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and some have not amiss observed that in the framing of that Greek word there is contained a treble band of Unity The Jewish Doctors observed that the Shecinah or Divine presence did dwell with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meek and quiet spirits but flyeth from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them who were wrathful and angry Nazianz. Orat. 12. Nazianzen maketh it a considerable Character of one who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 near of God and to what is Divine that he is a man who embraceth peace and hateth discord Ign. Ep. ad Eph. p. 20. 25. Edit Voll and Ignatius expresseth the great profitableness of being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in unspoted Vnity that thereby they may always have Communion with God and prevail against the power of the Devil 4. If the true exercise of the Christian life and duty be considered St. Paul declareth the divisions and discords of the Church of Corinth to be an evidence that they were carnal 1 Cor. 3.3 and to be the cause why their assembling to the Lords Supper was not advantageous but hurtful to them Ch. 11.17 18. and that the benefits of true Christian growth and encrease are to be expected in Christian Vnity Cyp. de Vnit Eccl. Eph. 4.16 Ch. 2.21 Col. 2.19 And in those words of our departing Saviour Hil. in Ps 119. Joh. 14.27 Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you the ancient Fathers have conceived the great blessing of peace given by Christ to his Church and the duty of peace required in it to be chiefly contained Basil Mor. Reg. 50. Amb. de Joseph c. 13. To this sense St. Cyprian Hilary Basil Ambrose Chrysostome and Theophylact expound that place some of them including also the tranquillity of the Christian mind and the perfect peace of the life to come And from that Text St. Augustine concludeth Serm. 59. de Verb. Dom. that he cannot come to Gods inheritance who doth not observe Christs Testament and he can have no concord with Christ who will be at discord with a Christian 5. That the want of peace becometh the decay of piety may be also sufficiently confirmed by particular instances Ep. ad Cor. p. 3. Clemens observed concerning the Corinthian Church that while they enjoyed peace they had an unsatiable desire to do good and received a plentiful effusion of the holy Spirit they were religious in their supplications to God and harmless towards one another but upon their discord righteousness and peace was banished far from them they all who embraced divisions forsook the fear of God P. 5. and became dark sighted in the Faith and walked after evil affections And Nazianzen took notice that Religion had one flourished in the Church and calculating the season when its decay began Naz. Orat. 21. he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that from the time this contradicting spirit as a terrible Disease infected the Church thence forward its beauty and glory did decline And there is another Country not unknown to us where like effects may be observed and after peace was lost injustice and unrighteousness like a mighty torrent did at once bear down all before it heretical blasphemies were frequently belched forth against all the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith and all manner of vile affections were professedly served under the ranting and other names of pretendedly Religious Sects 6. Upon this account Christian peace was deservedly esteemed and honoured in the Primitive Church to which purpose the judgment and practice of that excellent spirited man Gr. Nazianzen is above other worthy our observation He disswadeth from that peace which is evil and sinful Orat. 12. but by no means alloweth any discharge to this great duty in other cases and declareth that his little Church where he was Bishop before he went to Constantinople continuing in Unity and concord when discord and much overspread the Christian World was reputed to be as the Ark of Noah which alone escaped the universal deluge and where Religion was intirely preserved Ruff. Prol. in Naz. Orat
apprehensions of other men it is very manifest that unless there be a complyance or submission to such determinations by the members of the Church they can not actually communicate in these administrations unless they could communicate in what they will not yield to join in Yet these things with us are not made the conditions of communion any other way than the submission to lawful determinations of those things which must be one way or other determined is necessary for them who will join in such an orderly Society 11. And they who urge this objection do themselves make their determinations of these things besides some other things peculiar to their way as much a condition of Communion in their Congregations as our determinations are with us They may possibly stamp a divine authority upon those usages of their own which really have it not and urge such things for laws of God which he hath not established but this being much of the same nature with teaching for doctrines the commandments of men can never render their communion the more acceptable And I suppose this following discourse will sufficiently manifest that the divine authority doth neither enjoin their way of service without all forms and other rites nor disapprove of ours And now the arguments brought in that Treatise to make good this exception will concern themselves to answer as well as others and may be easily solved For 1. P. 173. When Christ gave Commission to his Apostles to baptize all Nations and teach them to observe whatsoever he commanded he thereby enjoined all his doctrines and precepts to be received and obeyed of all men and especially of those who imbrace the Christian baptism but he doth not thereby forbid rules of decency and order which are required in the Scripture to be received in the Communion of Christians And 2. Lib. 2. Ch. 1. Sect. 3. Ch. 2. Sect. 2 3. the Apostles practice and 3. their doctrine with a particular consideration of the fourteenth Chapter to the Romans will be evidenced in this Treatise to give both allowance and direction for Ecclesiastical constitutions of order 12. The fourth argument is from this instance of fact P. 191. When Victor Bishop of Rome excommunicated the Asian Churches for not observing Easter at the same time with the Roman Church this his action as fixing new bounds to Church-Communion was then disliked much by others and especially rebuked by one of the most holy and learned men then living which was Irenaeus Ans Well might Victors actions be censured by Irenaeus which was not only a directing and retaining that as a sixed rule of order for his own Church Eus Eccles Hist l. 5. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was then the Roman Custom and practice and which Irenaeus and the French Churches as well as many others did allow and judge requisite in that very Epistle to Victor but it was the obtruding that which was no Apostolical command or institution to be so far Apostolical as to be thereupon a doctrine and practice necessary to be received in all parts of the Christian Church and that all other whole Churches who received it not were not to be owned in the Communion of the Catholick Church Ibid. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and upon this account he undertook to excommunicate the Asian Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being Heterodox or erring from the Faith But our Church can be charged with no such practices as these were for it declareth it self thus B. of Com. Prayer of Ceremonies In these our doings we condemn no other Nations nor prescribe any thing but to our own people only which words with other to the same purpose are prefixed to our Liturgy His fifth argument is P. 194. that hence it would follow that there is no certain rule of Communion amongst Christians fixed and determined by Christ To which I answer that in all doctrines of Christianity nothing can be required as necessary for Communion with any Church but what Christ hath determined yet even here every errour in judgment or miscarriage in practice doth not forfeit the right of Communion and concerning defaults they who have the power of the Keys which is managed with Ecclesiastical Prudence Albasp Observat l. 2. Obs 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. are allowed to consider of times and other circumstances whence the Church of God hath unblameably used sometimes greater and other times less severity about the same crimes But that there should be different prudential rules of external order in the communion of different Churches hath generally been allowed and acknowledged in the ancient Church and pleaded for amongst the reformed Churches 13. P. 171 202. Indeed it is in the same Treatise urged as a thing included under this exception of Vnscriptural conditions of Communion that Ministers are required to express their approbation of the things injoined as the Liturgy Articles and Book of Ordination by their subscription or declaration But besides that these things are not intended for conditions of Christian communion but requisite for regular administrations and the preservation of order it is but reasonable that they who insist on this Plea before they blame us much more before they separate from us upon this account should themselves consider whether they would be willing to receive any persons to be Ministers of their Congregations who do not some way or other express their allowance of their way and order and particularly whether they would entertain him as their Minister who is resolved to perform all ministerial actions according to the order of the Liturgy If they be willing to entertain such a Minister and Ministration they must thereby justifie our way of order and communion by their submitting to the same terms of injoying Church-Communion But if they will admit no person to be a Minister in their Churches as indeed they will not before they are satisfied that he approveth and will continue in the way and order of their Churches while they herein blame our Church they should consider those words of the Apostle Rom. 2.1 Thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest dost the same things 14. But of the lawfulness of things as enjoined in the Church for order sake which is the main thing considerable in this exception and which hath been divers times sufficiently justified Bishop Whitgift Tr. 2. Hccles Folit l. 3. Lib. 2. c. 2. by Bishop Whitgift Mr. Hooker and many others since them I shall treat in another place more particularly and it will be sufficient here to add that God who hath appointed Rulers in his Church to guide and command hath also made it a duty to obey them who have the rule over us 15. Its second Plea Another Plea for separation from the Church of England is That the joining in communion
execution of discipline which I have in the former Section noted to be hindred in the effects thereof and not helped by divisions and separations is desireable and would be advantageous to the Church Yet here we must observe 1. That some mens rigour would make the rules of Communion overstrict and severe which was the ground of the Schism of the Novatians and Donatists and as some have anciently related of the Meletians also and it is not desireable that the Churches authority should be acted by such heats 2. That real defects in this particular though they are not to be approved of are no sufficient ground for separation since such blemishes were mixed with the beauty of the Apostolical Churches themselves as is manifest from almost all the Apostolical Epistles and particularly from the first Epistle to the Corinthians in which divers miscarriages were taxed and yet unity was strictly commanded and dividing severely rebuked Yea this very discourse at sometimes will not owne P. 126. that this thing solely of it self is sufficient to justifie a separation and the Congregational Churches in England in the Declaration of their Faith and order affirmed Of Institution and Order of Churches Sect. 21. the Church-members upon offences taken by them having performed their duty private admonition and relating it to the Church ought not to disturb any Church-order or absent themselves from the publick assemblies or the administration of any ordinances upon that pretence but to wait upon Christ in the further proceeding of the Church 19. Last Plea Another thing only touched in that discourse but which is the main ground of mis-apprehensin is that there is saith he no Evangelical obligation to local or external Comunion P. 256 257. with any particular or parochial Church of this Nation because every man may relinquish it by removing his habitation which plea floweth from want of a right sense of the Church Catholick For every Christians obligation to keep Communion with the Church is founded in his being visibly a member of Christs body which includeth his visible fellowship with the whole Church which he entreth upon by Baptism and from hence he standeth obliged to communicate with that regular fixed part of this Church where he resideth and from which he hath no warrantable or necessary cause of separation In this respect our Parochial Assemblies are of like nature with the Jewish Synagogal Assemblies unto which they were not obliged by any special Synagogal-Covenant but partly from Gods general command of their assembling themselves together and partly from their Religious profession and circumcision engaging them to Communion with the whole Church of the Jews and thereby to their Synagogal-Communion Hereupon under that dispensation it was the practice of our Blessed Saviour whose example should not be over-looked by us to attend upon these Synagogal Assemblies and the Religious worship of God celebrated therein as appears Luk. 4.16 At Nazareth where he had been brought up as his custom was he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day 20. And can it enter into the heart of any Christian to imagine that the holy Apostles who in their travells could not be fixed in any particular Congregation did not stand bound by the duty of Christian Vnity to join themselves in Communion with the particular fixed Churches or Assemblies of Christians where they came as S. Peter at Antioch S. Paul at Jerusalem and divers other places though such Churches were founded by some of the other Apostles And upon this account of the Vnity of the body of Christ the Primitive Christians when they went abroad into other Regions and distant parts of the World did with a Religious care seek the Communion of the Churches where they came and not to make separate Assemblies Yea this is a thing so far acknowledged by our English Independants themselves though they can talk at another rate where it serves their interest that in their publick Confession of Faith at the Savoy they say Conf. Ch. 27. Sect. 2. All Saints are bound to maintain an holy fellowship and Communion in the worship of God which communion though especially to be exercised by them in the relations wherein they stand whether of Families or Churches yet as God affordeth opportunity it is to be extended to all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus 21. But the conditions required in any particular fixed Christian Assembly embracing the Christian Faith and Worship in the place of our residence to make it our duty upon the account of the Christian Vnity to join therein are these two 1. That our communicating therein doth not oblige us to join in any action or profession which is sinful This is acknowledged on all hands and needeth no further proof because the Christians duty of keeping in Communion with Christ himself doth require it 2. That the Assembly we join in doth not maintain an unwarrantable separation from the Communion of the established Church for here to join in Communion is to join in separation and is like Barnabas and the other Jews joining with S. Peter Gal. 2.14 who all walked contrary to the truth of the Gospel in withdrawing from the Communion of the Gentiles at Antioch and the communicating with such a separating Assembly would be a breach of that Apostolical command of avoiding them who cause divisions Rom. 16.17 And we may observe that the joining in needless separations being a sin against the commands of Christ which require Christian Unity and Communion can not be warranted by any authority upon earth because that authority can not dispense with the commands of Christ but ought to be subject to them and therefore as S. Peter's practice and countenance Theod. Hift. l. 4. c. 22. Aug. Ep. 166. did not excuse Barnablas and the other Jews so neither could the indulgence of Valons the Emperour or his Predecessor execuse the different Sects by them tolerated from being guilty of Schism and the breach of Christian duty in their divisions and separations 22. Another notion of Schism there is A fourth Notion of Schism which condemneth separation where ever Communion is lawful but assumeth that whereever any thing unlawful or strongly suspected Mr. H. Tract of Schism p. 2 5 8. is required in order to Communion there to hold Communion would be to join in conspiracy and separation is then both lawful and necessary Concerning which notion granting that separation is necessary where any thing unlawful is required in order to Communion I can not admit for truth that if any thing suspected be so required separation becometh lawful thereby For if by suspected be meant whatsoever the person who maketh the separation doth suspect as evil by this rule he who through carelessness of enquiry or prejudice and want of Charity is needlâ—sly suspicious about any form of service or way of Church-Administrations will be allowed to separate and to be therein free from
of his Ministry by determining that if any Bishop Can. Ap. 36. Conc. Antioch c. 17. Presbyter or Deacon being ordained did not undertake his Ministration he must be separated from the Christian Society and deprived of Ecclesiastical Communion And with equal severity they condemned that Minister who refused the regular work and place of his Ministry Can. Ap. 58. and him who undertook the place but minded not the work and duty behaving himself negligently in not attending the care of the people 5. From what I have expressed hitherto we may take a short prospect of the evills flowing from these contentions which are such as these the prejudicing men against the holy administrations of Gods service the promoting wrath and strife and the quenching Christian love the being a stumbling block to the weak hardning the careless and being an occasion of much irreligion grieving the godly and every way gratifying the Churches Enemies and hindring its welsare and the growth of piety the hurtful disturbance of the Churches Peace and endangering the Kingdoms interest and the promoting of dangerous and dreadsul Schisms nor is the disobedience to Magistrates and the deserting the Ministerial charge unconcerned herein And all these things if God in his mercy put not a stop to them by directing mens minds to a right understanding and turning their hearts into a more peaceable and amicable frame and temper may provealso very dangerous and hurtful in the next Generation to the dishonour of God the discredit of Religion and the ruine of many thousand souls which sad consequences plainly enough shew these unhappy contests rather to gratifie the designs of the destroyer than of the Saviour and to be fruits growing from a root of bitterness Ful. Church Hist l. 7. p. 401. In these respects I think he was not far from the mark who called this disagreement about Conformity the saddest difference that ever happened in the Church of England SECT VI. A proposal concerning due considerateness in this Case and the design of this treatise manifested 1. After I have shewed the sad fruits of these dissentions I must still acknowledge that I doubt not but that there are dissenters who act out of true principles of Conscience and design to walk in piety to God and in love and peace towards men to such persons though they be of different judgments yea though some of them too far indulge their passions I profess an hearty respect and brotherly love considering that wise and good men are lyable to mistake and err still retaining this as a testimony of their integrity that they are willing to be informed and in practice to embrace what is their duty when it shall be so evidenced 2. S. Cyprian who was a great promoter of Truth Piety and Peace and wrote some tracts purposely to correct the fierceness of them especially who were of his own opinion viz de bono patientiae Cyp. in Conc. Carth. Epist ad Jubaian de zelo livore for want of better information but with openly avowed dislike of breach of communion lived and for what appeared to S. Austin died also in that errour about baptizing Hereticks Aug. Ep. 48. But had he rightly understood the truth he would no doubt have rejected his errour as those Bishops who were of the same opinion with him are related to have done Eus Hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 3. Hieron adv Lucif Pamel in Vit. Cypr. both in the Eastern Church and in the African whereupon the Church enjoyed peace and was filled with exceeding abundant joy and Pamelius thinketh that S. Cyprian himself lived to do the same 3. And the women who out of love but in their errour came to anoint Jesus designing it as a rite belonging to his burial when they ought according to his doctrine which they did not yet understand to have believed that it was the day of his resurrection meeting with Jesus himself who expressed his favour unto them were forthwith ready to have their mistakes discovered and with joy upon conviction to yield both their judgments and thereupon their practices to be rectified Erring acts from mistake of judgment are herein of the same nature with other infirmities of Christians in that the being of them is consistent with the true nature of Christian life whereas the willful persisting in them and the designed promoting of them against evidence is contrary thereto For that is for men to resolve not to deny themselves or to submit to God but to oppose his mind and will if it be contrary to their own 4. Wherefore I must intreat my Reader if he be a person dissatisfied about the matters treated of in this discourse that he would make a stand and give me leave to propose what his own interest will engage him to admit That before he proceedeth any further he would seriously resolve himself these two things First whether with reflexion upon what hath been said he would not be heartily unwilling to stand charged in the sight of God with being any way sinfully instrumental unto so much hurt as is consequent upon being unwarrantably engaged in these contentions and oppositions Secondly whether he be resolvedly willing to lay aside all prejudice and designed serving any opinion or party and to aim impartially to keep a good conscience and in judgment and practice to entertain all evidences of truth in this enquiry about Conformity 5. If any man should answer either of these two things in the Negative he must be a man of an irreligious Spirit willing to ruine himself and of a pernicious Spirit ready to destroy others and whilst he remaineth thus strongly prepossessed he is never like to be advantaged by this discourse or any other of the same subject but it is most necessary for him to become better instructed in that chief principle of Christian practice to which he is yet a stranger viz. The great necessity in order to salvation of minding uprightness to God and the doing his will above gratifying his own affections or the pleasure of any other men But as to him who answereth these two things in the affirmative I only entreat him to proceed in the remaining part of this discourse with the same frame and temper of Spirit 6. I come now to examine the matters themselves to which Conformity referreth which from the premises appeareth to be of very considerable use and tendeth to the resolving divers cases of Conscience and if God please to vouchsafe so great a mercy to us to promote the Churches peace and Vnity the Ministers comfortable discharge of his duty the common advancement of Christianity and the Protestant profession and the particular edification of Christians In order to the contributing somewhat towards these excellent ends I have undertaken this discourse beseeching the God of wisdom and knowledge to guide and lead me that I may clearly understand and manifest what is truth and that he would so move on the hearts
asserted by Isidorous Hispalonsis That the Lords Prayer was delivered as a form is so manifest that was it not for the violent force offered to mens minds by prejudice and contentious opposition it could never have been questioned And it may be sufficiently proved 1. From the command given by our Saviour Luk. 11.2 When ye pray say Our Father c. and the expression in S. Matthew Mat 6.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pray sc or on this manner is the same with that when the form of Aaronical benediction was enjoined Numb 6.23 On this wise in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall ye bless But the blessing there directed hath been generally acknowledged to be a constant invariable form of Benediction under the law Luth. Tom. 3. f. 10. Prec Eccles Form Genev. and as such was used in the German Reformation by Luther and in that also of Geneva 2. From the ground of the Disciples request Luk. 11.1 Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his Disciples That it was ordinary for the Jewish Teachers to compose forms for their Disciples is observed by Dr. Lightfoot on Mat. 6.9 and the frequent yea constant use of forms in the Jewish Church shall be hereafter manifested and if this be referred to the words of S. Luke now mentioned it is not to be doubted but that John the Baptist according to the custom of the Jews delivered a form of Prayer to his Disciples and that what John did herein was both approved and the like practised by our Saviour who directed the use of the Lords Prayer to his Disciples at two different times 5. 3. From the manner of the composure of the Lords Prayer which is not propounded as a general direction to pray that Gods name may be hallowed and that his Kingdom should come but it is dictated by Christ as it should be expressed by us in our persons Our father hallowed be thy name c. 4. The ancient Christian Church near the times of Christ did acknowledge and use it as a form S. Cyprian is very large to this purpose Cyp. de Orat Domin saith he Christ consulting the salvation of his people etiam orandi formam ipse dedit himself delivered them a form of prayer and then exhorteth that we pray as our master taught us that the father when we pray may owne the words of his Son and saith he when we have Christ an advocate let us express the words of our advocate and how much more effectually shall we obtain what we ask in Christs name if we ask by his Frayer Tertullian before him declared Tertul. de Orat. c. 1. c. 9. Christus novam orationis formam determinavit Christ appointed a new form of prayer and he saith that whilst the Christians used other Prayers this was not omitted praemissa legitima ordinaria oratione quasi fundamento And before both these the words of Lucian in Trajan's time Lucian in Philopat about reciting the Prayer beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth intimate the ordinary use of this Prayer among Christians From these testimonies I suppose it evident that the Lords Prayer was used as a form in the ancient Christian Assemblies and that we have good reason thus far to receive what some hundred years after was delivered by S. Gregory Gr. Ep. l. 7. c. 63. and from him by divers other Writers that the Apostles themselves did always at the Consecration of the Eucharist make use of the Lords Prayer Wherefore the Lords Prayer being thus delivered as a form doth enclude an approbation of the like composures of Prayers among the Jews and an allowance of the same among Christians for whom this was intended And that path where we follow our Saviours steps cannot be the way of errour 6. The other argument from example is from the ordinary practice of the Church both Jewish and Christian Concerning the Jewish Church I might instance in the eighteen Prayers composed for its ordinary use from the time of the Captivity which are oft mentioned by the Jewish Writers and in their forms of Prayer for the Passover De Emendar Tempor l. 6. p. 573. of which Scaliger thinketh that there is as much reason to be confident that the particular Prayers recorded in the Talmud which he calleth their Digests were the ancient forms used by the Jews as that the Roman Digests exhibit to us the true determination of the Roman Lawyers But I shall rather insist on the Jewish Church making use of set forms of Prayer from the very times of Moses and so downwards which is no new opinion but is ordinarily received and it hath been observed by divers learned men that the Samaritan Chronicle speaketh of a Book of Prayers used by the Jews at their Sacrifices from the time of their Legate Moses until that day And besides the testimony of that Author which I urge no further than other proof may be made let these two things be considered 7. First That it is certain from the Scriptures and oft expressed by Philo Judaeus that the Jews did use Prayers with their Sacrifices and oblations The whole multitude were praying without at the time of incense Luk. 1.10 and the Apostles themselves went up to the Temple at the hour of Prayer which was the ninth hour Act. 3.1 Which was the time of the evening Sacrifice Mr. Mede Disc on Ezr. 6.10 and Mr. Mede hath well proved that Sacrifice if self is a rite of supplication And that the use of such Prayers was as ancient as Moses is manifest from Lev. 16.21 Where Aaron was commanded to confess over the live Goat the iniquities of the Children of Israel Secondly That there are plain evidences in the Old Testament of such forms used upon many occasions Besides the forms of Prayers and praises in the Book of Psalms enjoined for constant use unto the Levites by Hezekiah and the Princes 1 Chr. 29 30. and besides divers other Hymns and Songs and such commands for a form of words as Joel 2.17 Hos 14.2 there is an express form of Prayer appointed by God to be used at the Offering the Heifer for expiation of uncertain murder Deut. 8.21 and a form of confession at the offering up their first fruits Deut. 26.3 4 5 6 7. and a form of Prayer at the presenting the third years Tithe Deut. 26.13 14 c. and some other such like Whence it is evident that forms of Prayer were by Gods appointment used from the beginning of the Jewish Church Yet if no such thing could have been proved and if their original had been from John the Baptist and the direction of our Saviour this alone might be sufficient to recommend them unto Christians 8. In considering the general practice of the Christian Church it must be acknowledged that in that extraordinary case which reacheth not the ordinary condition of the Church when the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost were communicated both
who lived many hundred years after is a notion built upon no other foundation but the manifest mis-apprehending the sense of that word Litania 6. Amongst the particular expressions in the Litany disliked by many Non-Conformists the first is where we pray to be delivered from fornication and all other deadly sin But the phrase of deadly sin is sufficiently warranted from these places of Scripture Rom. 6.23 the wages of sin is death Jam. 1.15 Sin when it hath conceived bringeth forth death Jam. 3.8 The tongue is full of deadly poison And the sense of this phrase in this place is this that we here pray to be kept from all such sins as are most destructive and pernicious which is all one with deadly and to be delivered from all sin the nature of all fin encluding a tendency to death and this extensive sense of this phrase is both suitable to the pious desires of a Christian and agreeable to the comprehensiveness of the following words From all the deceits of the World the flesh and the Devil Good Lord deliver us 7. That Petition against sudden death hath also been much excepted against and Drusius seemed to have an eye to this Drus in Job 21.13 writing upon that expression in Job concerning the wicked They spend their days in wealth and in a moment go down to the grave that is saith he they dye cita morte quam aliqui deprecantur sed viderint an recte But if that learned man had any design from this text to censure this Prayer of our Liturgy he hath greatly miscarried in his attempt For if he with others be right in the exposition of that phrase which may well be understood that the life of the wicked was so prosperous that it seemed not to them tedious and long I say if his sense be embraced these words cannot be allowed to contain such blessings as were really advantageous to the wicked and truly desireable for him but only such things at the best as appeared good to them who have their eye no farther than the things of this life unless his being in a moment cut off from all hopes of the time of grace and repentance could be a blessing 8. I doubt not but the intent of praying against sudden death is this that whereas many dangers might daily surprize us and by a sudden stroke end our lives if divine providence did not protect us we here commit our selves to Gods keeping to be preserved by his care from such judgments and dangers And such a sudden death is a dreadful estate to the wicked and to dye as Josiah or Vzzah did is not desirable to the most holy and pious men who according to the example of Jacob David and our blessed Saviour himself by their holy instructions at the time of their death may become useful for the bettering the lives of them who survive 9. But they tell us there may be sudden death in a lawful War or Martyrdom To which I answer 1. That sudden unexpected death is chiefly intended in this Prayer and in this sense Martyrdom is not always a sudden death 2. That the example of our Saviour who prayed with submission to his Fathers will that that Cup might pass from him will warrant the like submissive Prayer in any of his Disciples 3. And chiefly it is upon divers accounts both lawful and fit to pray that we may not be suddenly taken away either by Martyrdom or War For though Christianity tendeth to prepare men to be willing and ready upon just occasions to hazard or lay down their lives yet touching Martyrdom true Christian charity towards all men and sincere love to the Church of God will direct us to pray that the truth of God may ever be so countenanced in the World if God see it good and especially amongst us that the Church of God may be free from persecution and that none in the World may be so wicked as to oppose Religion with design to take away the lives of its Professors and that the true members of the Church of God may be preserved from such cruelties as were exercised in divers horrid measures and were designed in the Gunpowder-treason And so far as concerneth sudden death in lawful Wars the peaceableness of the doctrine of Christianity will not only allow bt excite us to pray that righteousness and love may so far prevail in the World that none may through any injustice pride or inordinate affections promote Wars and that Swords may be turned into Plow-shares rather than sheathed in one anothers bowells 10. However to be preserved in the day of Battel is a mercy which as it deserveth thankful acknowledgment when enjoyed so it may without all blame be desired with submission to the divine will to which purpose there are divers passages in the Book of Psalms If we further consider the state of the most pious man even upon his own account it is acknowledged that it is not considerable ferrum an febris de corpore solverit as S. Aug. expresseth it Aug. Ep. 122. whether he die in his bed or be slain in the field yet even so holy a man as S. Austen himself was did both value and make good use of the time of his sensibly approaching death that he might be found well doing Posid in Vit. Aug. c. 31. and be the better prepared to die by affectionate renewing the exercise of repentance humble confession and lively faith But in short to return to the proper and direct sense of this Petition in the Litany let that man alone who judgeth it unfit to commit himself to the protection of God to be preserved from dangers which may assault his life condemn and reject this petition against sudden death 11. Another Petition which meeteth with opposition is this Fap ◠Com. 〈◊〉 That it may please thee to preserve all that travel by land or by water for this is supposed to enclude the praying for Thieves and Robbers and Pirates and Traitors going on such errands as Faux did But this objection is a violent detorting these words for he is properly a traveller who goeth upon his allowable or ordinary occasions If the meanest man in the Country should hear of an Act of Parliament for secureing the safe passage of all travellers he would never thence conclude that they intended or provided for the safety of Robbers Highway-men and Traitors who are the great disturbers of safety Might not the instances objected be alledged against S. Paul commanding that Prayer be made for all men and against the Geneva form Prec Eccl. Genev. post Conc. in Ca. Dom. commending to Gods care singulos etiam homines all particular men in prison banishment c. as well as against this Phrase in the Litany especially if that comprehensive sense be allowed in this Petition which charity will admit that God would not only preserve the bodies of them that travel from outward danger but their souls
also from sin and their whole man from destruction And in this sense if this Petition should be supposed to enclude which in the proper sense of the words it doth not even Traitors and Robbers can we be blamed to pray even for them that God would preserve them from further sin and so keep them that they may have time and grace for repentance and that thereby they may be preserved from eternal destruction according to Mat. 5.44 12. That Petition that God would have mercy upon all men is condemned by some but is certainly commanded by S. Paul requiring us to make Prayers for all men for nothing can be prayed for which doth not enclude Gods mercy But such light objections which are easily made against the best words that the wisdom and piety of man can devise I think not worthy the further naming but shall now proceed to some other matters of greater moment SECT V. Considerations concerning the publick reading Apocryphal Chapters 1. The reading the Apocryphal Chapters in our Church hath been severely censured as if it was a forsaking the holy Scriptures which are the waters of life to drink of other unwholsom streams but that this matter may be rightly understood without prejudice or mistake it will be requistie to take notice of these following considerations 2. Cons 1. The excellent authority of the Canonical Books of Holy Scripture as they are distinguished from the Apocryphal is fully and clearly acknowledged by this Church in her Articles Art 6. where it declareth concerning the Apocryphal Books that the Church as S. Hierome saith doth read them for example of life and instruction of manners but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine which Article plainly disclaimeth them from being accounted Canonical Books of the Holy Scripture That the Jews do not owne these Books as any part of the Old Testament is manifest from their Bibles which contain them not and the particular evidences from the Jewish Rabbins against every one of those seven Books of the Apocrypha which are forged to be Canonical by the Council of Trent are some of them exhibited by Hollinger Thes Phil. l. 2. c. 2. Sect. 1. And that neither the ancient Church of the Jews before the destruction of Jerusalem nor Christ and his Apostles nor the several Ages of the Christian Church till some late Romish Councils did acknowledge or make use of these Books as Canonical is solidly and learnedly evidenced by the Bishop of Durham Schol. Hist of Can. of Scripture throughout with reference to the sixth Article of this Church Wherefore though it would be injurious to the holy Scriptures that any other Books which are not of divine inspiration should be accounted of equal authority with them yet it is far from being a dishonour either to them or to they holy Spirit who indited them if either these Apocryphal or any other good Books be esteemed useful and profitable and acknowledged to contain things that are true and good 3. Cons 2. It was can usual practice in the ancient Christian Church that some of these Apocryphal Books and other good writings besides the holy Scriptures were publickly read as instructive Lessons in their Assemblies but with such variation as the prudence of every Church thought meet In the second Century both the Fpistle of Clemens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the then ancient Custom In Eus Hist l. 4. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and some other Ecclesiastical Epistles were publickly read even on the Lords days for their instruction as Dionysius of Corinth testifieth And in Euscbius his time as well as before it Ibid. l. 3. c. 15. was the Epistle of Clemens publickly read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the greatest number of Churches Aug. de Civ Dei l. 22. c. 8. Hom. de Sanct. de S. Steph. Ser. 7. In the African Church in S. Augustins time the Histories of the passions of Martyrs v. Hom. 26. inter 50. and accounts of miraculous works by the efficacy of Christian Prayer were read in their Churches which Custom though it was very pious in the beginning was at last intolerably abused to the bringing in legend stories And more particularly the publick reading several Apocryphal Books as Wisdom Ecclesiasticus Tobit Judith and the Maccabees was ordered in one of the Carthaginian Councils in S. Augustins time 3. Carth. c. 47. Cont. Carth. c. 27. and that Canon was taken into their Code and besides what S. Hierom oft speaketh of these Books being read in the Church but distinguished from their Canon Ruffinus his contemporary who was first his friend and then his adversary having given first an acount of the Canonical Books proceedeth to these Books which he saith are not Canonical but Ecclesiastical Ruff. in Symb. as Ecclesiasticus Wisdom Tobit Judith c. and declareth the judgment of the ancient Fathers before his time concerning them quae omnia legi quidem in Ecclesiis voluerunt sed non proferri ad auctoritatem ex his fidei confirmandam that they would have them all to be read in the Churches but not to be produced as of authority to confirm any matters of Faith And that in after Ages these Books were read in the Church Isid de Eccl off l. 1. c. 11 12. Rab. de Inst Cler. l. 2. c. 53. is evident from Isidonss Hispalensis and in the very same words from Rabanus Maurus and might be shewed from very many others if that was needful 4. Cons 3. These Books called the Apocrypha have been greatly esteemed both in the ancient Church and by the chief Protestant Writers as very useful though not divine writings Divers of the ancients have cited them under the title of the holy Scripture using that Phrase in so great a latitude as to signifie only holy writings though not divinely inspired The Council of Carthage above-named doth there call them Canenical Books as doth also S. Augustin who was in that Council De Doct. Christ lib. 2. c. 8. using the word Canonical in a large sense for it is manifest from that and divers places of S. Aug. that they were not esteemed of equal authority with those Books properly called Canonical And therefore Cajetan for the interpretation of the right sense of there words Caj Com. in Esth in fin hath well declared concerning these Books Non sunt Canonici i. e. regulares ad firmandum ea quae sunt fidei possunt tamen dici Canonici hoc est regulares ad aedificationem fidelium or they are not Canonical as containing a rule to direct our faith an belief though they may sometimes be called Canonical as containing rules to better our lives In the Greek Church where they were not at least so much publickly read as in the Latin they were accounted useful for instruction as appeareth besides the Citations of the Greek Fathers from that very Epistle of Athanasius Fragm Epist 39. in
of this Text will discover Divers other instances may be observed such as in the Syriack translation reading Ps 7.11 God is not angry every day to which the Greek agreeth and in the Syriack and Arabick which in the Historical Books translateth from the Syriack expressing 2. Kin. 18.27 That they may not eat their own dung Mr. Thorn Epil l. 1. c. 32. which sense is well allowed by a learned man of our own Nation and in the Septuagint with the vulgar Arabick and Aethiopick who are guided by it rendring Ps 35.20 They spake peace to me and also in the Samaritan translating Gen. 41.16 God will not give answer without me The difference of divers translations may be noted in such places as these Num. 11.25 where some have They did not cease and others They did not proceed and in Job 34.30 Dent. 20.19 and Deut. 21.12 Where some read She shall pare or cut off her nails others She shall nourish her nails or suffer them to grow and our last English Translation doth in the Text embrace the former and in the margent the latter but it would be a great folly thence to conlude that that Translation of the Bible is either useless or hurtful See the like 2. Kin. 19.25 Ps 121.11 Yet the various ways of rendring some particular expressions of Scripture where it may be difficult to determine that sense which must exclude all other is very far from acknowledging the sense of Scriptures ancertain in matters of Faith and Christian life which are frequently and manifestly therein expressed and to which the general consent of the purest times of Christianity and in matters of life the very principles of Reason and Conscience do agree All that can be hence concluded is that there is sufficient matter in divers passages of Scripture for the exercise of the learnedest Criticks and greatest Students as there is abundant plainness of instruction in the most necessary things for the meanest capacities SECT VIII Of Holy-days or Festival-days 1. These days are acknowledged to have no particular divine institution but have been allowed and appointed by the Church of God and are established by the civil Sanctions of our laws 5. 6. Edw. 6.3 The end of their appointment is for the promoting the service of God and Religious exercises Injunct n. 20. Can. 13. as is at large expressed in that Statute by which they were particularly confirmed and in the Queens Injunctions and in the Book of Canons which requireth them to be employed in hearing Gods word read and taught in private and publick Prayers in acknowledging our ofsences to God and amendment of the same in being reconciled to our neighbours where there hath been displeasure in oft receiveing the Communion in visiting the poor and sick persons and using all sober and godly conversation If such fruits of Christian Piety were more plentifully and abundantly brought forth they would by their pleasant sweetness both recommend themselves and those times and seasons the good use of which more especially contributed to their ripeness and maturity 2. Now these Duties being the principal business of the Christian life it must either be asserted that no particular time may be peculiarly set apart thereto unless it can be proved that God hath particularly instituted that time which is an evil Principle whereby men would be taught to reject daily Christian exercises and to live in disobedience to Gods commands and in much impiety and irreligion or else it must be granted which is truth that God having commanded these Duties doth both allow and expect that fit and seasonable times in the whole course of life be allotted to the practice thereof whence some portions of every day and some especial days may be profitably and advantagiously imployed in these Religious exercises And such times may allowably the called Holy hours and days from the holy actions of Gods Service and Religion for which they are reserved and to which they are appointed 2. Kin. 12.18 Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 2. For For that is properly holy which is set apart to God and also according to cl Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that is a holy time in which we receive the knowledge of God but the use of the word Holiday is no more but the ancient English and Saxon word for Church-festivals 3. But whereas many persons mispend these days in vanity and intemperance which by the direction of the Church and the prescription of the Law ought to be and by others are used piously and devoutly these mens miscarriage condemneth their abuse but not the appointment of these times to other good ends and purposes The Jews in Isaiahs time abused their fasting days in hypocrisie and to wicked ends fasting for strife and envy and to smite with the fist of wickedness Isa 58.4 and yet the appointing fasting days to a better end was not only allowed at other times but even in his time also in Isa 22.12 Indeed the corruptions of many men are prone to make a bad improvement of the best things The three solemn Feasts of the Jews Tract Kiddush in which all their Males must appear before the Lord were through their abuse of them acknowledged by their own Talmud to be become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vlcer of the year Buxtorf Lex Rab. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Feasis of Parâ—â—x were religiously appointed though amongst the debauched Spirits of the Jews they were turned into meer Baccanalia or voluptuousness and vanity And the want of care in many persons of the Service of god upon the Lords days hath administred just cause for that great complaint in our Homilies Hom. of time and place of Prayer Part. 1. That God is greatly dishonoured and the Devil served upon that day And in my apprehension it is not improbable that the oposition maintained against the observing these Holidays may have this forcible influence upon many who are easily withheld from good but hardly perswaded ot it to make them the more neglectful therein of Religious exercises 4. It was the practice of the Jewish Church and was in many instances allowed by the holy Scriptures to set apart voluntarily some days for Religious Service which God had not particularly enjoyned I might mention their usual Fasts of the first-born before the Passeover and their Fasts after the days of unleavened bread and after Pentecost The annual Fasts for many years of the fourth fifth seventh and tenth months are mentioned by the Prophet Zechariah Zech. 8.19 We read also of a particular Fast proclaimed by Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 20.3 and of another in Josiahs time Jer. 36.9 and another in Josiahs time Jer. 36.9 and another commanded by Ezar Ezr. 8.21 and of a three days Fast appointed by Esther which the Chaldee Paraphrast with some probability observeth to be kept within the days of unleavened bread See Esth 3.12 with Chap. 4.8 16. Chal. par in Est 4.17
the institutions of Christ which is the first consideration I propound 4. Cons 2. The necessity of being duly qualified for the right receiving the Lords Supper doth not leave men at all excusable in their ordinary forbearing for the danger of performing any Religious duty carelesly is expressed in the holy Scriptures to quicken men unto the greater piety in their attendance upon those services but not to give them any liberty of neglecting them That slothful and wicked servant who hid his talent in a Napkin had at last no comfort by his pretended excuse for his neglect that he looked upon his Lord as an hard man whom he could not please Mat. 25.24 30. but was cast into outer darkness It was no way lawful for the Aaronical Priests to forbear to offer the Sacrifices which God had commanded because he had declared that he would be sanctified in them that come nigh him and had destroyed Nadab and Abihu for their undue approach Though God upbraided the Jews that they did steal and murder and commit adultery c. and come and stand before him in his House which was called by his name yet it was still the duty of every male among them religiously to present themselves there before the Lord three times in the year Deut. 16.16 and they were all enjoined to keep the Passover which encluded a yielding themselves to the Lord. 2. Chr. 30.8 and a preparing their heart to seek God v. 19. And when S. Paul had said 1 Cor 11.27 28 29. that whosoever shall eat his bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord this giveth no allowance to any to neglect this Ordinance but the next verse directeth but let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that Cup and the following words For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords body are laid down as an argument to shew that men ought to examine themselves and so to eat and drink 5. He that heareth or readeth the word of God or knoweth his will or professeth the name of Christ without obedience yielded thereunto doth encrease his sin and condemnation and yet hearing reading knowledge and profession of Christianity are necessary duties but that which it here only available and is every mans indispensable duty is to join the life of Christianity with its knowledge and profession So it is a duty to receive this Sacrament and to be careful not to receive it unworthily or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unsuitably to its nature and institution Wherefore this Ordinance encluding under the Elements of Bread and Wine an Heavenly Communion of the body and blood of Christ whose death is here represented as he offered up himself to God for us and established the New Testament with the assurance of all the blessings and promises thereof the worthy receiving this Sacrament will require that Communion with Christ be both heartily desired and piously embraced that the death and mediation of Christ be acknowledged as the only way of atonement and remission of sins that the Christian Religion established in the New Testament or Covenant be owned as the only true Religion and all others rejected that the promises of eternal life pardon and grace be valued and sought after as the chief objects of desire and hope and that the Christian practice which the New Testament requireth be undertaken and resolved upon with a circumspect care of repentance and amendment of what is amiss and with a peculiar respect to peace and love by reason of this Sacrament of Unity it being noted by S. Augustine De Consecr dist 2. c. Qui manducant that he who receiveth the Sacrament of Vnity and doth not hold the bond of peace doth not receive the Sacrament for his good but as a testimony against himself which was also the Doctrine of S. Paul 1 Cor. 11.17 18. And though there be too many who do not practise according to the necessary rules of Christianity it is absolutely and indispensably necessary for them that their lives be changed and amended that they may not only be fit to receive this holy Sacrament but that they may be fit to partake of the blessing of God and to avoid the dreadful miseries of everlasting torments and to live answerable to their Baptismal Covenant that they may be advantaged by their profession of Christianity And let any man consider whether it be not as unreasonable a Plea in the sight of God for any man to avoid the holy Communion because he is not willing to live according to the Christian rules when both these things are his duty as it would be in the sight of a Prince for a Subject to refuse to take the Oath of Allegiance upon pretence that he is enclined to undertake practices of Rebellion 6. Cons 3. The Doctrine of our Church and its Rules for Communion do not allow that any persons should come to the holy Sacrament otherwise than in a suitable and Religious manner but it jointly urgeth as the holy Scriptures do also the duty of coming and the necessity of coming preparedly Amongst our Writers Bishop Cranmer declared that we ought not unreverently and unadvisedly to approach to the Lords Table but we ought to come to that Board of the Lord with all reverence Def. of Cath. Doctr. of the Sacr. l. 3. c. 14. faith love and charity fear and dread Both Bishop Whitgift and Mr. Hocker in their defence of the Order for the Communion against T. C. allow that there may be cause of present forbearance from this Sacrament because of unfitness but this ought to be amended B. Whitg Tr. 9. c. 6. Tr. 15. c. 2. and that it is not desirable that men persisting in wickedness should be constrained to come to the Lords Supper Eccles Pol. l 5. c. 68. But it is needless to add other testimonies when the Communion Book it self in the first exhortation saith If any of you be a blasphemer of God an hinderer or slanderer of his word an adulterer or be in malice or envy or in any other grievous crime repent you of your sins or else come not to that holy Table lest after the taking of that holy Sacrament the Devil enter into you as he entred into Judas and fill you full of all iniquities and bring you to destruction both of Body and Soul Wherefore it is acknowledged in our Church that the receiving the Holy Communion is not a right Christian action where it is not performed with a Christian spirit and disposition and partly upon this account and partly for the disciplinary discountenancing of wickedness both the twenty sixth Canon and the Rubrick before the Communion do require that no notorious evil liver or malicious man before their amendment be suffered to come to the Lords Table and consistently herewith must that
them but this as some other ways of reserving them as found to be of ill use Hesych in Lev. 8. Hesychius speaketh of a custom of burning them which custom I suppose took its original from those Commands of God whereby he enjoyned the remainder of the Jewish Passcover and of the Sacrifices of thanksgiving and some others to be burnt with fire Exod. 12.10 Lev. 7.15 16 17. The Council of Mascon directed them to be given in the Church Conc. Matisc 2. c. 6. to such Christians as kept their Fasts there on the fourth and sixth days of the week which were the old stationary days The direction in our Rubrick is ordered with as much prudence as any of these if it be not to be preserred before them all for as there is no reason to doubt but that they may be eaten so can there be no reason produced why the Communicants may not as well eat them as any other persons 3. The eating these Elements in the Church by the Communicants out of a reverent respect to the Sacrament for which they were consecrated is allowable and no way blameable Both our Articles and our Rubrick after the Communion Service do acknowledge that the sacramental Bread and Wine even in the Sacrament do remain in their proper substances which with other expressions in our Liturgy sufficiently exclude the Romish corruptions Yet since we believe this Sacrament to be an excellent Gospel Ordinance I suppose that out of respect thereunto devout Christians do generally acknowledge that even the Vessels particularly appointed for the Bread and Wine at the Communion and the Communion Table should not be used at mens ordinary meals and certainly a due respect to Gods Ordinance for which they are set apart will not allow this which was also condemned by the ancient Canons and it appears very reasonable that those Elements which were consecrated for the Sacrament may be used with at least as much reverence as the Communion Cup or Patine De Consc l. 4. c. 31. Sect. 3. And when Amesius truly asserteth that it necessarily followeth from the Religious honour of God that those things which have any respect unto Gods Worship ought to receive from us a privative honour even when they are not used to a holy use as heh instanceth in Bread and Wine left at the Communion which is to be honoured privatively that is care ought to be taken that it be not used contemptibly and sacred Phrases as sacramental words c. not to be used in sport even hence it will follow that they may be used with a relative honour that is so used as to express a reverence to those holy Ordinances to which they bear relation SECT III. Of the saving Regeneration of Infants in Baptism and the grounds upon which it may be asserted 1. THE next Office in the Book of Common Prayer is that of Baptism where that which requireth principal consideration is that every baptized Infant is declared Regenerate and thanks is returned to God after Baptism that he hath regenerated this Infant by his holy Spirit and the beginning of the Catechism declareth that the Child in Baptism was made a Member of Christ a Child of God and an Inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven These expressions have been somewhat differently understood some applying them to a saving Regeneration of every baptized Infant others to a federal Regeneration or a Regeneration Sacramento tenus And I suppose it evident that if it can be certainly proved that every baptized Infant is savingly regenerated or if on the other side all the expressions in the Liturgy can be fairly and probably interpreted of a federal Regeneration which is generally acknowledged there can be then no doubt but all these expressions may be fitly and allowably used shall treat of both these senses because they both plead an allowance in our Church and indeed the latter doth not necessarily destroy but may well consist with the former 2. Beginning with the former I shall first shew what evidence there is that the acknowledging a saving regeneration of every Infant baptized hath been the Doctrine publickly received in this Church ever since the Reformation This is the more probable sense of that Rubrick before the Catechism in the former Book of Common Prayer and that at the end of Baptism in the present Book both which declare that Children baptized are undoubtedly saved that is as the first Book of Edw. VI. and our present Book do express it if they dye in their infancy and before they commit actual sin And our Book of Homilies declareth Hem. of Salvation of Mankind by Christ Part. 1. that Infants being baptized and dying in their infancy are by his Christs Sacrifice washed from their sins brought to Gods favour and made his children and inheritors of his Kingdom of Heaven To these I shall and what Bishop Cranmer who was a great Instrument in our Reformation and Bishop Juell a principal Defender thereof write concerning Baptism complying with the sense here expressed Bishop Cranmer saith Of the Lords Supper lib. 1. c. 12. For this cause Christ ordained Baptism in water that as surely as we see feel and touch water with our bodies so assuredly ought we to believe when we be baptized that Christ is verily present with us and that by him we be new born again spiritually and washed from our sins and graffed in the stock of Christs own body so that as the Devil hath no power against Christ so hath he none against us so long as we remain graffed in that stock Def. of Apol. Part. 2. c. 11. Sect. 3. c. Bishop Juell declareth the Doctrine of the Church of England thus We confess and have evermore taught that in the Sacrament of Baptism by the death and blood of Christ is given remission of all manner of sin and that not in half or in part or by way of imagination or by sancy but whole full and perfect of all together so that now was S. Paul saith There is no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus 3. But it must be here noted that by the saving regeneration of baptized Infants it is not intended that their understandings or wills are guided to an high esteem and love of God and the Christian life which the Infant state is not capable of but this regeneration is mainly relative so that being regenerated by Baptism they are no longer the Children of wrath and under the curse due to original sin but are brought into a new state to be members of the body of Christ and thereby partakers of the favour of God And though some small seeds of gracious disposition may be in Infants who are capable thereof in the same manner as they are of corruption yet that regeneration or renovation of an Infant in Baptism whereby he is received into a state of remission and Salvation is very different from the regeneration of an adult person whereby his
soul and life is moulded according to the form of the Christian Doctrine and brought into a conformity to the Image of God Aug. de Trin. l. 14. c. 17. and so S. Augustine distinguisheth them Renovatio saith he quae fit ad imaginem Dei non momento uno fit sicut momento uno fit illa in baptismo renovatio remissione omnium peccatorum And even this benefit of Infant Baptism is vouchsafed by the Holy Ghost for by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body 1 Cor. 12.13 And it must needs be the work of God and of his Grace to accept an Infant born under Original sin into his favour or as S. Augustine expresseth it Aug. Retract l. 1. c. 13. By the grace of God the guilt of all sins that are past is pardoned in them who are baptized into Christ which is done by the Spirit of Regeneration and in the Adult their will is cured by the Spirit of Faith and Charity 4. Now that all baptized Infants are savingly regenerated is asserted upon such Arguments as these 1. Because Baptism doth evidence every person rightly baptized according to Gods will to be received by the will of God to be under the terms of the Covenant of Grace but he who is rightly received to be under the Covenant of Grace is in the favour of God if the conditions of that Covenant on his part be performed nor doth any thing exclude him from that favour besides the sinning against or the breach of those conditions But Original sin of which alone Infants are guilty was supposed to be the state under which man lay when the Covenant of Grace was tendered to him and so is no breach of the conditions of that Covenant but may be pardoned by the benefits thereof And no condition can be assigned to be performed on mans part by or concerning an Infant born in the Church more than is encluded in its being baptized which I shall further clear when I shall treat of the condition of believing which is generally propounded even as the being circumcised was of old the performing the condition of Gods Covenant by the seed of Abraham Gen. 17.7 10 11 12 14. faith and obedience being also necessary in persons adult But that Baptism doth admit the person baptized aright to be under the terms of the Covenant of Grace is manifest because they are baptized into Christs body 1 Cor. 12.13 They are baptized into Christ and have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 And are baptized into the death of Christ Rom. 6.3 and even Circumcision it self was a seal of the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4.11 5. 2. The Gospel Doctrine and the holy Sacraments do convey saving benefits to them who received them aright and are partakers of them with due qualifications That Infants born in the Church are fitly qualified to receive Baptism is not only manifest from the general practice of the Church from the Apostles times in baptizing Infants but also from the favour of God expressed towards them in the Covenant of Grace and in that Circumcision was administred to Infants which was a Seal of the Covenant of Grace And as the Gospel Doctrine bringeth Salvation to him who rightly receiveth it and the Lords Supper tendereth Christ and remission of sins to the worthy partakers thereof so even Baptism conveyeth saving benefits to them who receive it with due qualification hence S. Paul calleth in the washing of regeneration by which God saved us Tit. 3.5 S. Peter commanded them who were pricked in their hearts to repent and be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins Act. 2.37 38. and Ananias directed Paul to be baptized and wash away his sins Act 22.16 Which places both shew that Baptism doth convey remission of sins to them who are qualified aright to receive it and also that they who were under a due preparation to receive remission of sins by Baptism were not partakers thereof without Baptism And indeed no adult person is ordinarily capable of remission but by joyning inward faith and repentance with outward Baptism as is expressed Mar. 16.16 Act. 2.38 Baptism being the instituted Ordinance wherein they must declare repentance in coming to Christ and profess faith in accepting the Gospel and receive gracious Union with Christ Wherefore since Baptism doth bring the due receiver thereof into a saving estate infants must also be acknowledged due receivers of Baptism and rightly admitted thereto 6. 3. Christ hath appointed his word and Sacraments as the ordinary means of Salvation to the Members of his Church Eph. 5.26 That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word But infants dying in infancy are capable of no other Ordinance of Christ but Baptism and therefore that is to them the only means of Salvation And it seemeth injurious to the grace of God to imagine that he appointeth any only means which is ineffectual to the end though it be complyed with as much as is possible it should be by them who make use thereof but the infant state can admit no more but that they should be passive recipients both of this Ordinance â—â—d of Divine Grace and therefore thereby 〈…〉 obtain Salvation Now that Baptism is designed to be a means of Salvation besides the Scriptures above-mentioned is expressed by S. Peter 1. Pet 3.21 who saith that Baptism now saveth us And whereas that Apostle presently addeth that it is not the putting away the filth of the flesh but that answer of a good Conscience towards God he doth not thereby look off from the Sacrament of Baptism to something else as a means of Salvation but he thereby declareth that this Christian Sacrament is not as the Jewish Purifications only a putting away the filth of the flesh but it is a professed engaging of man to God or to the Covenant of Grace 7. 4. If baptized Infants born in the Church be not in their Baptism in a state of Salvation it will be hard to shew what benefit any Infant dying in his Infancy can enjoy thereby Now to assert that they have no benefit by Baptism would be to render that Ordinance to them useless and of no effect which the Scriptures do declare to be of a saving nature and to enclude a being buried with Christ Col. 2.12 Now if it be said that by Baptism they become members of Christ what advantage can this be to them if this Membership doth not enclude the favour of God and a state of Salvation If it be said that it may be hoped that God will save the baptized infant this indeed may be hoped with confidence if Baptism bring them into a state of salvation but if Baptism supposing always the Grace of God tendred therein do not enstate them in salvation them must they be saved only by Gods extraordinary grace not by the ordinary grace of his promise to them who embrace aright the means of salvation or by the grace
calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be sanctified without any sense or apprehension thereof Wherefore S. Aug. did truly assert De peccat Mer. Remis l. 3. c. 5. that of old the whole Church did firmly hold parvulos fideles originalis peccati remissionem per Christi baptismum consecutos esse that little Children of the Church of Christ do obtain remission of original sin by the Baptism of Christ 3. Among the publick Writings of the Protestants the first Augustan Confession asserteth Conf. Aug. 1530. Art 9. that Children being offered to God in Baptism are received into the favour of God and condemneth the Anabaptists who say that Children may be saved i. e. ordinarily without Baptism to which the larger Confession 1540. addeth that concerning Children baptized in the Church of God Christ said Mat. 18. It is not the will of your Father which is in Heaven that one of these little ones should perish Conf. Saxon de Baptism The Saxon Confession fully expresseth the saving regeneration of baptized Infants and that these words I baptize thee c. are as much as to say By this mersion I testifie thee to be washed from thy sins and to be now received by the true God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath redeemed thee by his Son Jesus Christ and sanctifieth thee by the Holy Ghost and it declareth that at that time Infants are truly received of God and sanctified and to the same purpose is the Confession of Frederick the third the Prince Palatine Conf. Helv. c. 20. And the general expressions of the efficacious saving vertue of Baptism Conf. Gal. c. 35. in the Helvetick French and Scotish Confessions Conf. Scot. Sect. 21. are such that the state of Infants cannot be excluded therefrom And the Geneva Catechism declareth that By baptism we are Cloathed with Christ and receive his Spirit unless by rejecting the promises which are there tendered to us we render them unfruitful to our selves 4. To give an account of the particular judgments of Protestant Writers would be a needless difficult and endless undertaking Divers of them manifestly assert the saving regeneration of all baptized Infants others do embrace another notion of baptismal regeneration which I shall afterward mention and some from the use of different ways of expression and from what they speak with just earnestness against the errors of the Church of Rome are sometimes misunderstood Cath. Orthod Tr. 3. qu. 3. Sect. 1. Rivet averreth that there is no true Protestant who doth not approve that of Aquinas 12ae q. 81. Art 3. That Original sin is done away in Baptism as to the guilt thereof and he there saith that it is most false that Calvin and Beza ever said that some baptized Infants are damned Ibid. Sect. 9. dying in their infancy before they commit any actual sin unrepented of Absters Cal. Calum 7. and the same thing is with much passionate earnestness asserted by Beza himself writing against Tilemannus Heshushius Whit. ad Rat. 8 m Camp And Dr. Whitaker against Campian undertaking herein to declare the Protestant Doctrine saith In baptism we receive remission of sins we are entred into Christs Family we have the Holy Ghost given us we are raised to certain hope of eternal life what hath your Baptism saith he to Campian that ours hath not hath it grace hath it the merits of Christ hath it salvation all these hath ours And against Duraeus in defense of his answer to Campian he saith To the adult Faith is necessary Cont. Duraeum l. 8. that Baptism may be a saving Sacrament but to little ones because they are the Children of believing Parents and are encluded in the Covenant it is the Sacrament of Salvation though they by reason of their age cannot believe where by the Children of believing Parents his foregoing words declare him to mean Children born within the Church in distinction from Turks Jews and Ethnicks These words do express an actual regeneration of baptized Infants by the grace of God and the application of the merits of Christ for remission and Salvation but they are very hardly reconcileable with divers passages in the posthumous Writings of that learned man especially his Praelections de Sacram. Qu. 4. c. 2 3. SECT V. The Objections against the saving regeneration of Infants in Baptism considered 1. Against all baptized Infants being savingly regenerated by their Baptism it may be first objected That the Scriptures declare the general necessity of Faith in order to Salvation and therefore Infants unless they believe cannot be saved by being baptized In answer to this it being a matter of obscurity I shall relate different ways of solution Aug. de pec Mer. rem l. 3. c. 2. 1. Many account Faith the condition for adult persons Aug. Ep. 23. but not for Infants but this is discarded by others both ancient and modern Kemait Exam. Part. 2. de Baptism partly because by the general practice of the Church at Infant-Baptism of which S. Aug. taketh notice it was declared in the Infants name as it is in our Liturgy Credo or I believe and partly because the condition of Faith seemeth so generally expressed in the Gospel that they judge that Infants cannot be thence excluded though the Faith for the infant state cannot be the same with what is required from the adult 2. Divers others as Augustine Bede Hugo de Victore Amalanus and Walafridus Strabo think baptized Infants to be saved by the Faith of the Church into which they are baptized or by the Faith of them who offer them unto Baptism or as many Protestants and also the Catechismus Romanus express it credunt parentum fide by the faith of their Parents as the Syrophaenician Womans Daughter was healed by her Mothers Faith Mat. 15.28 and the sick of the Palsie was Cured by the Faith of them who brought him to Christ Mat. 9.2 But this doth not satisfie Kemnitius and some others partly because it is every ones one Faith which is the Gospel condition for his Salvation though anothers Faith may be instrumental for the procuring of divers blessings and partly because this answer giveth no good account of the Ecclesiastical usage of owning or professing the Creed in the Infants name at the time of his Baptism 3. Others assert that there is some Faith wrought in Infants Inst lib. 4. c. 16. Cath. Orth. Tr. 3. qu. 1. Sect. 12. which Calvin and Rivet say is not the act but the seed of Faith by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and Kemnitius asserteth this operation of the Holy Ghost in Infants to be that they call Faith though they know not what kind of operation it is 2. 4. To these I shall add what I conceive most probable That since Infants are not capable of the Faith of adult persons which cometh by hearing and consisteth in the knowledge and assent of the mind
with the engagement to love submission and acceptance of the heart and since there are different degrees of Faith in several adult Christians and different acts of Faith relating to the object thereof in the Jewish and Christian Church it will be sufficient that the Faith which referreth to Infants have only some general agreement in its notion with the Faith of the adult Now since the Faith of the adult is an acceptance of the Covenant of Grace and the Gospel Doctrine with a submission thereunto which in their state requireth an active exercise of the whole Soul Mind and Will when an Infant is said to believe this must consist in such an acceptance of and submission to the Gospel as his State is capable of which is Passively Thus by being baptized he accepteth Christ and the Covenant of Grace being united to and made a Member of that Church which holdeth Christ as the head and the Gospel Covenant as the ground of Hope or if Baptism cannot be obtained its being designed may be here considerable and hereby according to their capacities Infants do enter upon a profession and acceptance of the Christian Faith which their sureties declare and themselves stand obliged to owne when they come to years of understanding To this purpose in S. Aug. Infans vocatur fidelis Aug. Ep. 23. non rem ipsam mente annuendo sed Sacramentum percipiendo and in Gratian Credere est infantibus baptizari or they become believers by being baptized into the Faith and thus S. Aug. giveth an account of the Custom of the Church declaring Infants at their Baptism to believe that is to undertake the profession of the Faith and this he calleth saluberrimae consuetudinis rationem an account of a very good Custom 3. Obj. 2. If Infants be savingly regenerated by being baptized then must Infants dying without Baptism be excluded from Salvation Ans 1. Though it be certain that S. Aug. Fulgentius Prosper Isidoms Hispalensis Alcuinus and the whole stream of later Writers before the reformation do pass a sad sentence upon unbaptized Infants yet even then some and those none of the meanest Cassand de Bapt. Inf. did strive against the stream as Biel Gerson Cajetau with some others noted by Cassander And it hath been ordinarily acknowledged in the Christian Church that where Baptism could not be obtained adult persons exercising Christian Graces Cont. Don. l. 4. c. 22. might obtain Salvation without it even besides the case of Martyrdom this was asserted by S. Augustin largely defended by S. Bernard Bern. Ep. 78. Lib. 4. Dist 4. Amb. de Obit Valent and the Master of the sentences with his School is encluded in S. Ambrose his hopes of Valentinian the Younger who died without that Baptism which he designed and desired and is proved by the instance of the Thief upon the Cross And hence it will follow that though Baptism be an instrument of Salvation yet it is not in all Cases of absolute necessity thereunto 2. There is cause to hope well of those dying Infants who cannot obtain Baptism because the mercy and goodness of God may account them according to their capacity passively to accept of the Covenant of Grace by being born in a Church and of Parents who designed them for Communion with Christ and the embracing Christianity Rivetus ubi supra n. 8 9. Wardi Resp ad Gat. n. 18. Of the happy state of such Infants Rivet and Dr. Ward doubt not though this latter expresseth his less degree of confidence where Baptism is wanting through the neglect or contempt of the Parents yet it must of necessity be acknowledged that there is greater certainty of the Salvation of Infants baptized than of those who dye without Baptism because the Ordinances of Christ ought by no means to be looked upon as useless for salvation and the promise made to Christians and their Seed is upon condition of their acceptance of the Covenant of Grace Act. 2.38 39. as was also the promise to the Seed of Abraham Gen. 17.7 14. 4. Obj. 3. If Infants be savingly regenerated by Baptism it would be an excellent piece of Charity to baptize Pagan Infants and even to murder baptized Infants because many of these do afterwards by irreligion or debauchery expose themselves to eternal damnation but the former is opposite to Christianity and the other to humanity Ans There can be no act of Charity but what is every way conformable to Christian duty and is no way injurious to the interests of men and therefore the actions mentioned in this objection are far from being charitable Because 1. To baptize Pagan Infants continuing with them under their education would be to abuse Gods Ordinance by administring it to subjects not duly qualified according to the will of God and therefore no saving benefit could be expected thereby to such Infants because as Mr. Hooker expresseth it Eccles Pol. l. 5. n. 57. Sacraments are not physical but moral instruments of Salvation which unless we perform as the Author of Grace requireth they are unprofitable 2. To take Pagan Infants from them forcibly and unjustly that they may be baptized and educated in Christianity is no right act of Christian Charity for though those particular persons might obtain that Salvation by embracing the Christian life and doctrine which they cannot enjoy in the pursuance of Pagan Idolatry yet such actions being against the right of their Parents and thereby contrary to that justice and innocency which Christianity recommendeth would greatly tend to the prejudice of the name of Christ in the World 3. Pagan Infants undertaken to be brought up in Christianity and as it were adopted into Christian Families have by reason of that intended education a right to Christian Baptism as Abrahams Servants bought with money had to Circumcision with all others born in his House and if such an Infant dye so soon as it hath received Baptism yet Fulgentius declareth him factum esse haeredem Dei Fulg. de Ver. Praed l. 1. c. 12. cohaeredem Christi that he is made an Heir of God and joint Heir with Christ 5. As to the other part of this Objection Though it be certain whatever we judge of Baptismal regeneration that it had been better for every wicked man never to have lived to commit those hainous sins for which the wrath of God cometh upon the Children of disobedience yet there can be no more horrid and uncharitable action attempted in the World than the murdering baptized Infants which would be a wicked acting against the holy command of God and extreamly opposite to the meekness and goodness of Christianity and such practices would tend to the ruin and extinguishing of the present Church of God and to render Christianity abhorred in the World to the prejudice of many thousands of Souls and to the prejudice of these Infants both in the loss of their lives and in hindring them of the opportunity of exercising pious
and holy lives in the World whereby God might be glorified and themselves qualified through the grace of God to partake of higher degrees of glory in the World to come there being good reason to judge that the Apostles Martyrs and eminent Servants of God in this life have a more excellent glory in the other World where all that enter in have perfect joy 6. Obj. 4. This position placeth a great efficacy in Order to Salvation in an outward action of man baptizing yea rather more than in the Grace of God and Predestination Since it must be supposed that many who were in a state of Salvation by their Baptism do yet finally perish and therefore also all those who assert perseverance in a state of Grace must disown this opinion of Baptismal saving regeneration Tertul. de Bapt. c. 2. Ans 1. That it is certain that some outward actions of men not as they are their actions but as they onclude the tenders of the grace of God and are his institutions or as they bear respect to the Grace and Promise of God may be greatly available to our Salvation such were the Apostles Preaching and such is the due Administration of Sacraments and he who will dispute against the efficacious vertue of these things as means of Grace must oppose also the saving benefits of the Gospel and of the institution of Christ And the advantage by this Ordinance of Baptism is that it is a performance on mans part of what the Covenant of Grace requireth concerning Infants and that it is on Gods part an Ordinance of Grace and therefore the benefits by Baptism do flow from the Grace and Promise of God and ought not to be considered in opposition thereto and even the advantage of baptized Infants dying in their Infancy is the fruit of the grace of God and Predestination Wardi Thes n. 36. 2. The Question about Perseverance is well observed by Dr. Ward to be distinct from this present subject for to persevere in the Infant-regeneration which is chiefly relative is no sufficient qualification for the acceptance of the adult in whom another kind of regeneration by inward real conversion and gracious qualifications and exercises is necessary and of whom the Question of Perseverance is in the same place declared to be understood Thes Salm. de Persever th 39. Ibidem and to the same purpose writeth Amyraldus also And whereas Infant Baptism receiveth the person to be under the Covenant of Grace it is justly asserted by Dr. Ward that even those who after Baptism live in wickedness do continue acquitted and discharged from the Original guilt of the first Covenant and that bringing destruction upon themselves under the Gospel they do perish altogether for the breach of the second Covenant or for not performing the conditions of Christianity which they undertook in Baptism which also was asserted by S. Augustine Thes n. 35. Fulgentius Prosper and the African Synods which are by him there produced SECT VI. Of the notion of visible regeneration in Baptism 1. There is another Notion of Baptismal Regeneration to be considered That Baptism doth certainly admit persons into Communion with the Church of Christ and to visible Membership with him and that every baptized person whether he be adult or Infant hath thereupon such titles belonging to him that he is to be called regenerate a Child of God a Member of Christ upon the account of his being then admitted into the Christian Society and being received by Baptism to the profession of Christianity and under the Covenant of Grace whereby he is visibly such And this opinion as it referreth to the adult doth also acknowledge that Baptism is to them a means of Grace and of Spiritual Regeneration unto Salvation when they come to it duly prepared with those gracious qualifications which are necessary to the receiving the saving benefits of Gods Covenant and also as it is well improved by their future holy exercises of life Indeed there are some men who allow no spiritual efficacy to the Ordinance of Baptism as an instrument of grace but this is an opinion so contrary to the nature of a Sacrament and to the general Doctrine of the Ancients and the Protestant Churches that it deserveth to be earnestly exploded 2. This notion as it is extended to Infants as understanding them in this sense to be regenerated in Baptism was embraced by some in our Church from King Edwards Reign and seemeth probably favoured by some expressions of Bishop Whit-gift Answ to the Appeal c. 12. and is more particularly expressed by Bishop Carlton and divers others Nor doth the entertaining this way of explication necessarily deny the saving Regeneration of all baptized Infants For though some few persons have inconsiderately uttered hard expressions against many dying baptized Infants as that multi infantes damnantur cum baptismo such words do appear at least so unadvised and ungrounded that I presume it will be ordinarily acknowledged by them who embrace this notion to be neither safe nor charitable to imitate them But most others who proceed this way though they come not so far as to embrace it as a Doctrine that all baptized Infants in the Church are in a state of Salvation yet because they know of nothing wanting towards their Salvation they conclude that it is at least very hopeful to God-ward and that the Church by the judgment of Charity must acknowledge them all in a justified estate 3. Bishop Carlton declareth himself to this purpose Vbi supraâ— That young Children baptized are delivered from Original sin we doubt not and if they dye before they come to the practice of actual sins they shall be saved and that Children baptized are put into the state of Salvation I make no doubt of it but saith he this we must believe ex judicio charitatis Which Phrase of believing by the judgment of Charity which some have thought improper is I conceive the same with those words of S. Paul 1 Cor. 13.7 Charity believeth all things that is where there is nothing that can determine us to the contrary Christian Charity requireth us to entertain the most favourable apprehension and to judge and hope the best And that Rubrick That Children baptized dying before they commit actual sins are undoubtedly saved may according to this notion be acknowledged as certainly true of Children indefinitely without denying it to be true universally And they who entertain these apprehensions do acknowledge that all baptized Infants or others are regenerated and justified Sacramento tenus or they are visibly such so far as concerneth their profession and the application of the means of grace and they may be affirmed to be such according to the usual language of the Holy Scriptures concerning Sacraments and the dispensation of the grace of God 4. And this notion as it is very true so it is made use of and manifestly allowed in our Liturgy in the office for them who are
Children of God Ch. 3.26 27. or by way of distinction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sons of God under great external priviledges of Christian freedom and also inwardly Sons and Heirs of life if they live as becometh the profession of Christianity whilst they who were under the Law were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children under age being in bondage under the Elements of the World Gal. 4.1 3. And since all those who by Baptism do enter upon Christianity are entituled Sons of God which Sonship proceedeth not from their natural Generation but from their entrance into the Covenant of God persons baptized may according to the same sense be hence called regenerate and born again and such expressions also are sufficiently allowed and defended from the Scripture speaking of being born again of Water and of the Spirit Joh. 3.5 and calling Baptism the washing of regeneration Tit. 3.5 9. 4. Concerning baptized persons being called Heirs of Everlasting Salvation we may observe that those Members of the Church visible who shall be cast into outer darkness are yet called Children of the Kingdom Mat. 8.12 And they may well be called Heirs to whom the promise referring to the inheritance is confirmed and who are by Baptism received under the Seal of the Covenant of Grace which alone giveth right of inheriting Gal. 4.30 On this account the Gentile Church and every Member embracing the Christian Faith are called Fellow-Heirs and Members of the same body Eph. 3.6 they also being now by the Gospel grace received to be the Children of the Covenant And S. Peter exhorteth Husbands and Wives embracing Christianity to mind their duties as being Heirs together of the grace of life 1 Pet. 3.7 And when S. Paul exhorteth the Thessalonians to walk worthy of him who hath called them unto his Kingdom and Glory it is manifest that he speaketh to them all and even to them who were most negligent of the Christian life to whom such titles of dignity do belong from their Christian profession and being under the Gospel Grace though the inward priviledges exhibited under those Titles are only the portion of those who do perform the Conditions of the Gospel Covenant And upon the same account that baptized persons may be called the Sons of God they may be also thence concluded Heirs of Salvation 10. 5. On the same manner may Christians by Baptism be acknowledged to be regenerated by the Holy Ghost because the entrance into the body of Christ by Baptism is a priviledge obtained by the Grace of God or by the Holy Spirit For in Baptism the Minister acteth in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and therefore as Calvin asserteth Baptism is to be received as from the hand of God Baptismus accipiendus est quasi ex manu Dei Wherefore in like manner as Baptism which is performed in the name of the Holy Ghost hath been shewed to regenerate persons may be properly said to be therein regenerated by the Holy Spirit to which agreeth that Phrase of being born of Water and of the Spirit Joh. 3.5 And as all gifts and diversities of operations in the Christian Church are derived from the Holy Spirit 1 Cor. 12.4 11. So particularly this gift or priviledge of being baptized and received into Membership with the body of Christ is acknowledged by the Apostle to flow from the holy Spirit unto whom all benefits of Divine Grace and favour are ascribed For the Apostle saith concerning every visible member of the Church of Corinth as is manifest from the design of that Chapter 1 Cor. 12.13 By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body to which place Zanchy referring saith Vi Spiritus Sancti baptizamur c. De Trib. Eloh Par. 1. l. 7. c. 5. Sect. 6. By the power of the Holy Ghost we are baptized of the Father into one body of Christ and thereby regenerated as well by the Spirit as by the Father and the Son And again Haec regeneratio seu insitio in Christum fit à patre sed per Spiritum Sanctum And this is agreeable to our Book of Articles Artic. 27. expressing that in Baptism the promise of forgiveness of sins and of adoption to be the Sons of God by the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed 11. Besides these expressions the Scriptures speak of persons baptized being buried with Christ Col. 2.12 and being dead unto sin and buried with Christ by Baptism unto death and being planted together in the likeness of his death Rom. 6.2 4 5. And as Zanchy at large observed Tom. 7. de Persever c. 2. p. 118. 137 138. Notanda est Scripturarum consuetudo c. The usual way of the Scriptures is to be observed they call as many as give up their names to Christ and are baptized into his name persons justified sanctified and the Sons of God And in another place he saith All who are baptized are sealed unto Christ Tom 8. de Relig. Christ Fides De. Baptismo Sect. 1. as being now incorporated into him by the Holy Ghost that they may not be under their own power but under his by whom they are said to be taken into the fellowship of his Covenant and to be made one body with him and all Saints and to be partakers of all spiritual and heavenly good And in his next Paragraph he saith All who are baptized tales esse fieri Sacramentaliter vere dicuntur Sect. 2. are sacramentally and truly said to be such and to be made such 12. But it may be said that according to this sense these expressions of being regenerated born again members of Christ c. have but a low signification not suitable to the excellency and dignity of those names Ans 1. These expressions even as they are used at the Baptism of the adult do enclude a considerable hope and evidence of true spiritual Communion and Membership with Christ and of inward regeneration and a right to Eternal Life which are benefits certainly attained in Baptism by persons duly qualified for the receiving them 2. They declare the very high priviledge of the Christian calling the entrance into which is the way to the Communion with Christ and to the highest enjoyment of the priviledges of the Children and Heirs of God which those persons do enjoy who do neglect the Christian life And the Scriptures usually mention those who are under the tenders of Salvation by terms of great priviledge and dignity not to make them secure in the disregarding true piety but partly to amplify and exalt the Gospel grace and goodness of God whereby so great benefits are set before us partly to manifest our great engagements to exemplary Piety and Obedience from so great encouragements partly to testifie that if we perish by willful neglect of God and disobedience to the Gospel this will be to fall into dreadful misery out of that state which encluded excellent means and great opportunities of obtaining Eternal
speak or declare they believe are baptized alio protestante with another persons making the profession on their behalf and this usage hath been also embraced by divers Protestant Churches Rat. Discip c. 3. Sect. 2. herein following the Bohemian which was the first reformed 5. That the true intent and benefit hereof may be understood we must consider 1. That every person baptized thereby undertaketh to renounce the Devil to embrace the Christian Faith and to become the Servant of God and Disciple of Jesus Christ This is evident from that Command of Christ mat 28.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make them Disciples by baptizing them and from the form of of Baptism in or into the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and from such expressions as these concerning them who have undertaken Baptism That they are dead unto sin so as that they should not live any longer therein that they are baptized into Christ and into the likeness of his death and that they have put on Christ 2. That Infants are capable of being engaged to God and may stand obliged to believe in God and serve him and to reject the ways of sin and wickedness This is manifest from the Circumcision of Children under the Law and from their little ones entring into Covenant with God Deut. 29.11 12 c. and is encluded in the Baptism of Infants which is a dedicating them unto God and layeth an obligation upon them to entertain and persevere in the Christian Life and Faith whether they have any Sureties or no and he that owneth not this obligation from his Baptism doth go far toward the renouncing of Christianity 3. That when the Sureties answer in the Childs name I believe I renounce c. this is a more solemn representation or declaration of what the Child undertaken by his Baptism and hereby as the Master of the sentences determineth Sent. l. 4. Dist 6. g. parvulus hac sponsione tenebitur non sponsor the Child and not the surety standeth bound by this engagement only the Surety is obliged to be careful of admonishing him This explicite Declaration of what the baptized Infant undertaketh is fitly used in Baptism conformably to Antiquity because it tendeth to express clearly a considerable part of the design and end of Christian Baptism and to put all other baptized persons in mind of their engagement that they may live answerably thereto And the matter of this baptismal vow being expressed in the publick Congregation in the Childs name where all who are present may bear witness thereto may be a considerable argument to be urged upon him when he cometh to Age to induce him to the greater diligence in the Christian life And these words of the Sureties I believe c. are not directly words of promise of what they undertake shall be performed but words expressing contract and engagement in the baptismal vow and declaring in what profession and practice this Infant by his Baptism standeth obliged to live and die 6. There is a further advantage by the the use of sureties in that they are as is expressed in the exhortation to them to see that the Child be taught what a solemn vow promise and profession he made in Baptism that he be vertuously brought up And that he be instructed in those points of Christianity which a Christian ought to know and believe to his Souls health and to call upon him to hear Sermons All this which is in our Church required may well be performed by the Surety and imposeth no heavy burden upon him and besides the Parents care which may hereby be quickned it may be of great advantage to the Religious life of the Child The ancient Church either did require more than this from the Sureties Tert. de bapt c. 18. Dionys ubi supra De Cons Dist 4. Vos ante omnia touching their particular ordinary care of the Childs Education or else their sense was over-severely expressed by several particular Writers as Tertullian the Author de Ecclesiastica Hierarchia and some others 7. Having thus far discoursed of the use of Sureties and the intent of the Interrogatories referring to the baptismal engagement it may be further observed that when they are asked Wilt thou be baptized into this Faith and they answer in the Childs name That is my desire the plain meaning thereof is to express that the intent of the Childs being present is to receive Baptism which upon its account and in its right and name they desire for it And when in the Catechism there are these Questions and Answers Q. What is required of persons to be baptized A. Repentance whereby they forsake sin and Faith whereby they stedfastly believe the promises of God made to them in that Sacrament Q. Why then are Infants baptized when by reason of their tender age they cannot perform them A. Because they promise them both by their Sureties which promise when they come to age themselves are bound to perform the sense of the former answer is that he who cometh to Christian Baptism is not left at liberty to lead a loose life but he ought to practise faith and repentance as a previous qualification unto Baptism in the adult and as a consequent duty upon Baptism both in them who are baptized in their Infancy and at riper years And the sense of the latter Question and Answer is That though Infants be not capable of the particular acts of faith and repentance in their present state yet by those expressions of contract whereby their Sureties in their name only declare what their Baptism obligeth them unto it is manifested that they do undertake faith and repentance as much as is possible for the infant state and do stand engaged from their Baptism more particularly to act Faith and Repentance when they come to Age. 8. Another expression in the baptismal Office hath been misunderstood viz. Who by the Baptism of thy wel-beloved Son Jesus Christ didst sanctifie water to the mystical washing away of sin Now we may well say that water is sanctified for Baptism when by divine authority water is selected from all other things and determined to be the proper matter or outward Element of Baptism and that is sanctified which is set apart or determined to such a sacred use to which other common things are not admitted And Christs Commission to his Disciples to baptize all Nations in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost is an Authoritative determination of the form of Baptism or the Sacramental words and of the extent of its use And both from thence and from our Saviours passion doth it receive an efficacious vertue But water was the matter of Christian Baptism for the remission of sins and admission into the number of Christs Disciples before either that Commission or our Saviours Passion And as water was appointed for the Disciples of John by Gods commanding him to baptize with Water so that
meaneth by decency and order and saith among other things one end of decency is that while certain Rites are made use of to conciliate reverence to sacred things we should by such helps be the more excited unto piety Illyricus himself declareth this command to be a foundation Gloss Illyrici in Loc. first Frinciple or Rule upon which Church Government and Polity is to be built and according to which it is to be modelled Part. 2. Ch. 4. And the same commandment is produced by the London Ministers in their Jus divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici as giving allowance for the ordering the circumstantials of Church Government And then it must especially warrant the orderly determining things circumstantial concerning Ecclesiastical Assemblies and divine worship which is the special matter about which the Apostle treateth in that Chapter SECT IV. The practice and judgment of the Primitive and many Protestant Churches concerning Ceremonies 1. The third Argument is from the judgment and practice of the Church of God in all Ages both in its Primitive Purity and since the Reformation And as Christian Prudence and Sobriety requireth a reverend esteem of the judgment or the Vniversal Church so Christian Charity Humility and Modesty will forbid the rast censuring the generally received practices in the best times of Christianity In the Primitive times all their Canonical Constitutions of Synods supposed a liberty reserved to the Church of determining things expedient their observation of some Rites appointed by the Apostles is clear enough from the foregoing Section and of their use of the sign of the Cross of distinct Garments in Religious Worship of their gesture at the Communion and of imposition of hands in Confirmation and the Ring in Marriage Ch. 4. I shall give a particular account when I come to consider the particular Rites of our Church And that in the early times of Christianity they stood at Prayer on the Lords Days and from Easter to Whitsunday as professing the hope of the Resurrection that they prayed with their faces to the East while in the Jewish Temple Worship they always worshipped with their faces to the West that they used various impositions of hands on the Penitents and gave some initiatives Symbols as Salt Hony and Milk to the Catechumens and newly baptized persons with others of the like nature is so manifest that no man who hath read the ancient Writers can possibly make any doubt thereof And such Rites as were orderly and fitly established by Ecclesiastical Authority without any divine institution were frequently justified and defended by divers of the Fathers as Tertullian S. Ambrose Basil Austin as their testimonies might be largely produced 2. For instance sake I shall single out S. Austin who though he piously complained of the over-great number of Ceremonies in his time when they were indeed very numerous in his Epistle to Casulanus writing concerning fasting on the Saturday Aug. Ep. 86. he giveth this general Rule that in those things where the divine Scriptures determine nothing certainly the custom of the people of God or the institution of our Ancestors is to be reputed as a Law And afterwards he adviseth to be careful lest the clearness or calmness of Charity be about such things Clouded over with the tempests of contention and disputation Ep. 118. c. 2. And in his Epistle to Januarius after many other things to the same purpose he expresseth the advice of S. Ambrose which he always esteemed as a Divine Oracle that in things which neither opposed Faith nor a holy life every one was to conform to the Observations and Custom of that Church where he had his present abode cum Romae sum jejuno Sabbato cum hic sum non jejuno sic etiam tu ad quam forte Ecclesiam veneris ejus morem serva si cuique non vis esse scandalo nec quenquam tibi Ep. 119. c. 18. and in his next Epistle he giveth a like direction about the same matter which is by him called saluberrima regula And he saith he had oft perceived with grief and sorrow much disturbance of the weak per quorundam fratrum contentiosam obstinationem superstitiosam timiditatem through the contentious obstinacy and superstitious fearfulness of some brethren who stir up such contentious questions about Ecclesiastical Rites of an indifferent nature in particular Churches that they judge nothing right but what themselves do and in the same Epistle Ep. 118. c. 6. he defendeth the Custom of the Church in his time of receiving the Eucharist fasting which Christ instituted after meat but gave no command that it should be afterwards so celebrated 3. Amongst the Protestant Writers Calvin at Geneva Calvin Tom. 7. Ver a Ecclesiae Reform Ratio maketh this formal protestation Lest any man should raise a calumny I would have all pious Readers here to bear me witness that I do not contend about Ceremonies which do serve only for decency and order nor yet against such which are either Symbols of or incitements to that reverence which we bear to God Vrsin Eaepl Catec q. 103. Vrsin in the Palatinate asserteth the Ecclesiastical appointment of some Rites not only to be lawful but to be a duty potest saith he ac debet Ecclesia quasdam Ceremonias instituere Rivet in the Dutch Church saith that in the Church we use Ceremonies Cathol Orth. Tr. 2. q. 37. ut gestibus actionibus solennibus Ceremonies as gestures and actions of solemnity and concerning such things which are appointed for decency and order he declareth his approbation of that Rule of S. Austin above expressed from Ep. 118 c. 2. Among the Lutherans Kemnitius not only asserteth the Churches liberty Exam. Conc. Trid. de Sacram. Can. 13. in appointing adiaphorous Rates but also for order sake he disalloweth all liberty of varying from them Et sane ordinis decori gratia etiam in externis adiaphoris non est cuivis sine Ecclesiae judicio consensu permittendum ut ex petulâ—nlie pro libidine quid vis vel omittat vel permutet Ger. Conf. Cathol Lib. 1. Gener Par. 2. c. 5. de Traditionibus Gerard both acknowledgeth the Authority of the Church for the ordaining samethings about the external part of worship and yieldeth that not only the Church but even the Aposiles themselves did institute in the Church ritus quosdam liberos some free indifferent rites appertaining to order and decency which in specie and in particular are neither written nor imposed by a perpetual Law as necessary for the whole Church And in another place he sheweth that they readily receive these adiaphorous things for order and decency C. 12. de consuetudine Eccles etiamsi sola Ecclesiae consuetudine nitantur though they only depend upon the Custom of the Church Illyr Glos in 1. Cor. 11.16 And Flacius Illyricus himself when he was out of the humour of opposition did at last
in his Gloss published from Strasburgh 1570. upon those words of the Apostle If any man seem to be contentious we have no such Custom nor the Churches of God write thus The Apostle saith he rejecteth morose and contentious answerers shewing that profitable rites received by grave authority ought by no means to be contemned or plucked in pieces though they be not built on solid demonstrations But if any man will be stiff in his opinion the Apostle will not contend any longer with him but will acquiesce in the Custom of Godly and worthy men and of the Churches of God themselves idemque saith he alios omnes pios facere debere and that all pious men ought to do the same is acknowledged there to be an Apostolical direction by Illyricus when he was out of the heat of contention in a cool and calm temper 4. If we view the pulick writings of the Reformed Churches Conf. Bohem Ars. 15. the Bohemian Confession declareth them to teach that humane Traditions Rites and Customs which do not hinder Piety are to be preserved in the publick Christian Assemblies And in their account of the Discipline and Order of their Churches they divide the matters of Religion into three heads the Essentialia which contain the matters of Faith Love and Hope the Minisierialia which enclude the means of Grace as the word of God Rat. Difc Ord. c. 1. the Sacraments and power of the Keys and the Accidentalia by which they say they mean what others call Adiaphora or external Ceremonies and Rites of Religion In these matters Adiaphorous they say they may have some things in use among them which are different from other Churches and yet are they not willing upon any small occasions to allow any alteration therein neque ob leves causus quicquam mutare aequum putamus nemini apud nos licet insuetas ceremonias inahoare Ibid. c. 2. And in their Ordination both of their Bishop and their Consenior who is designed to represent the Chorepiseopus in some ancient Churches whose Office is like that of our Arch Deacon and their Minister and their Deacon those of the same Order give to the person then ordained their right hand of fellowship and those of the inferiour Order when one is ordained to any of the higher degrees give him their right hand in token of subjection testified and assured by that external Rite 5. The Augustane Confession in several expressions asserteth it lawful for the Bishops or Pastors Conf. August de Eccâ—◠〈◊〉 Artâ—â—â— 21 de descrimine cibor to appoint things for Order in the Church and declareth that they do retain many ancient Rites or Ceremonies though they complain also of the abuse of others in the Romish Church as the Church of England doth and it asserteth also ritus illos servandos esse qui sine peccato servari possunt ad tranquillitatem bonum ordinem Ecclesiae conducunt Conf Saxon de Tradition The Saxon Confession treating of Rites appointed in the Church by humane Authority declareth that nothing ought to be appointed against Gods word or in the way of superstition but that some blameless Rites for good order both ought to be and by them are observed ritus aliquos honestos boni ordinis causa factos servamus servandos esse docemus And the Ceremonies most opposed in the Church of England with more besides them are retained both in that and in other Lutherane Churches Conf. Helv. c. 27. The Helvetick Confession asserteth that the Church hath always used a liberty about Rites as being things of a middle or indifferent nature The French Church alloweth that there be singulis locis peculiaria instituta Conf. Gallic c. 32. prout commodum visum fuerit peculiar Constitutions for several places as it shall appear profitable And the Strasburgh Confession discoursing about humane Traditions or external Rites and Observations which conduce to profit though they be not expressed in the Scriptures Conf. Argent c. 14. saith that many such the Church of God at this day doth rightly observe and as there is occasion doth make new ones adding these sharp words quas qui rejecerit is non hominum sed Dei cujus traditio est quaecunque utilis est authoritatem contemnit that whosoever rejecteth these things doth not contemn the authority of men but of God of whom is every profitable Constituion Wherefore he who will yet disclaim all Ceremonial Rites under Christianity and will esteem them to be a pestilential and dangerous Contagion in the Church must undertake to affix both to the ancient and latter most famous Churches a Miserere nostri SECT V. The ill consequences of denying the lawfulness of all Ecclesiastical Rites and Constitutions in things indifferent observed 1. Though the condemning the practice and rule of the Church in all Ages and even in the time of the holy Apostles and Prophets be inconvenience sufficient for any opinion to stand charged with yet besides this which hath been evidenced in the two former Sections the denying the lawfulness of any external Rites 1. Debarreth the Church of what is really advantagious unto it for some fit external Rites of order and decency provided they be not over-numerous do promise solemnity in the service of God and tend to excite a greater degree of seriousness reverence and attentiveness It was S. Austins observation De Curia pro mortuis c. 5. that in Religion the outward actions of bowing the knee stretching forth the hands and falling on the ground though they be not performed without the preceding actions of the Soul do much encrease the inward affections of the heart In the common affairs of the World the boaring his Ear with an Awle who was willing to undertake a perpetual service the giving possession among the Jews by the pulling of the shoe and amongst us by divers other ways of livery and seisin the delivering some ensign of authority at the enstallment of a Magistrate and the giving the hand as a pledge of fidelity have by the common prudence of men been judged useful Rites to render those undertakings and actions the more solemn and observable Nor can there be any reason why some external actions may not obtain the like effect in matters of Religion especially considering that both Prophets and Apostles in delivering their extraordinary Messages from God thought fit frequently to make use of visible representations that their words might thereby take the deeper impression Thus Ezekiel carried out his stuff in their sight and Isaiah walked naked without his ordinary Garments when they denounced Captivity and Agabus foretelling the imprisonment of S. Paul bound himself with his girdle Act. 13.51 Mar. 6.11 and the Apostles according to the commandment of Christ shook of the dust of their feet as a testimony against those Cities who received them not V. Hor. Hebr. in Mat. 10.14 which was a rite
the Jews made use to towards the Cities of the Gentiles to express their defilement and uncleanness 2. 2. The denying the lawful use of external Rites and humane observations in the worship of God is ordinarily attended with partiality of judgment For it is almost generally acknowledged that in taking a Religious Oath some external Ceremony addeth a solemnity and reverence to that sacred action whence when other Ceremonies in publick worship were laid aside there was an Act of Parliament as it was entituled that in taking an Oath it might be lawful for any man either to lay his hand upon the Book or to hold up his right hand which was the way made use of in taking the Covenant And Bishop Saunderson to this purpose judiciously declareth DeJuram Obl. Pral 5. Sec. 12. that he could never receive any satisfaction though he had oft considered with himself and enquired of others why a prescribed form of words and the use of the solemnity of external Rites either ought not as things superstitious to be removed from the Religious use of an Oath or else may not as useful helps of piety be retained in the other parts of Gods worship I know that some have told us that an Oath is not a part of the natural worship of God belonging to the first commandment nor of the instituted worship in the second Commandment but of the revrend use of Gods name in the third Commandment and that the principal use of an Oath is to confirm truth and end strife and therefore it is not primarily an act of worship but secondarily and consequentially But indeed all this is but a plausible mistake For an Oath as it is distinguished from a bare assertion encludeth a direct profession and particular acknowledgment of the Omniscience of God and his searching the heart of man and of the justice of God in the punishing evil and that he is a God of truth and invocateth him as such and this is part of the natural worship of God or of the honour which is due to God as being founded in the nature of God and the natural estate of man And since God hath instituted this way of Religious appeal to himself an Oath must be acknowledged to enclude also part of the instituted worship of God And the Rite of laying the hand upon the Book and kissing it or holding up the hand being designed as a testimony to others of a mans appeal to Gods Omniscience and Justice the end of that Ceremony is primarily to manifest this religious application to God and therefore it is attendant upon an Oath as it is properly an act of worship 3. 3. If no external observations not commanded by God might lawfully be admitted in the worship of God then must the publick exercise thereof cease For God who did expresly determine the time and place for the Jewish Tabernacle and Temple worship hath not prescribed the same circumstances for the Christian service Nor hath he prescribed in all things the method and gesture for our Religious addresses nor the kind of Bread and Wine at the Lords Supper yet these things must necessarily be determined where these Ordinances are celebrated Disp of Humane Cerem c. 2. Wherefore Mr. Baxter acknowledgeth that such things as these and the decent habit for the service of God be left to humane prudence to order and may be determined for order decency and edification But Mr. Rutherford undertaking to fix the right bounds for the Churches authority distinguisheth things moral Introd to Div. Right of Gh. Govern Sec. 1. and Physical circumstances and these latter only he granteth may be determined and ordered by the Church but not the former These Physical circumstances he saith are only eight and there can be no more enumerated viz. time place person name family condition habit gesture Now to omit the examining the terms of that distinction and the considering that most of our Ceremonies as they are called are encluded under habit and gesture it is manifest that he hath pitifully shackled himself in endeavouring the undue confinement of the Churches Power For as there can be no possible account why those eight things and no more can be determined by the Church so it is very obvious to discern how monstrous this enumeration is having needless redundancy in adding as distinct circumstances from the person the name family and condition to which he might with as much reason have added the age stature and complexion of the person and they have likewise a great deficiency since according to his position it is unlawful to determine what version of the Bible shall be read in the Church what Vessels shall be used in administring the Sacraments and in what method Prayers Praises Psalms Sermons and other Offices shall succeed to each other the appointing of which was a chief design of the Directory And some men who undertook to decry every think referring to the worship of God as unlawful unless it was particularly injoined in the Scripture did advance this false position so far In Edw. Gangrena Par. 2. Er. 172. as to assert that the Directory was a breach of the second Commandment and that there was no word of God to warrant the making that Book more than Jeroboam had when he set up two high places the one at Daâ— and the other at Bethel Nor can such a charge be avoided nor Religion be secured from confusion unless it be admitted which is certainly true that some things â—â—ternal may lawfully be appointed about the exercise thereof though may be not particularly enjoined of God 4. The reason why I have in this Section conjoined the inconveniency attending the disallowing Ecclesiastical Constitutions and Observations together with those consequent upon the disclaiming external Rites and Ceremonies is because both these are equally impugned by almost all the arguments produced with special respect to the latter of them SECT VI. Some Objections from Reason and from the Old Testaâ—â—â—â— examined 1. Against the 〈◊〉 use of some Ceremonies in the Christian Church there are mustred up a 〈◊〉 Army of Objections if a weak 〈…〉 be so called a particular answer 〈◊〉 every of which would be tedious and needless For the affirming that such establishments oppose the Soveraignty of Christ or accuse him of negligence or unfaithfulness and that they make men the Masters of our Religion and such like manifestly appear to be false accusations by considering that these external Rites are such things of an indifferent nature that their appointment by humane authority hath been allowed of God both under the Old and New Testament as hath been above evidenced To assert that the allowance of any Ceremonies ordered by Ecclesiastical Prudence V. Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 3. chargeth the Scripture with insufficiency and leaveth us at a loss as some tell us it doth for a Rule of Faith Proceedeth from a gross misunderstanding as if these indifferent things particularly considered were
priviledge but of the bondage of the Jewish church in which the Gospel Church was not designed to be conformable thereto 9. What is usually produced upon this subject from the fourteenth Chapter to the Romans will fall more directly under consideration in the following Chapter where I design to give a particular account of the true sense thereof 10. But what hath been here said can be no pretence of excuse for the Rites of the Romish Church where besides their unreasonable and burdensom number divers of them are evil in their nature many of them being Sacramental and designed to be operative of Grace and spiritual help and others being opposite to plain duties of Religion such are the making images of the Trinity and of the Saints for adoration the suppressing the Cup to the Laity a Rite of Christs appointment in the Eucharist the adoration of the Sacrament as transubstantiated and divers others being manifestly superstitious as might be evidenced in their various consecrations as they account them of Bells Candles Water Salt Chrysm c. Processions and such like CHAP. II. Of external Rites and Constitutions as significant enjoined scrupled or having been abused SECT I. Of external Rites as significant 1. Com. Pray of Ceremonies OUR Liturgy declareth the Ceremonies retained in our Church to serve to a decent order and godly Discipline and to be such as are apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God by some notable and special signification whereby he might be edified Thus kneeling at the Communion is designed to express Humility and Reverence the Cross at Baptism to be a memorative taken of engagement to the Christian Life and the Ministerial Habit to be a testimony of peculiar respect and honour to the worship and service of God And if any from the White Linen take occasion to meditate and think of the purity of Divine Worship and the Christian Life and that as White Linen is changed from its natural greenness and moisture to become useful and comely through much industry washing and the influence of the Sun so the corrupt state of fallen man may become renued unto holiness by the power of divine Grace and serious Christian diligence such considerations as this though not commanded in this Church may well be approved and defended 2. T. C. Repl. p. 136. Linc. Apol. 1605. Alt. Damasc c. 9. p. 522. Mr. Baxt. Disp of Cerem c. 2. Excep of Presb. p. 9. But such external instituted signs which by their signification do either teach any duty or excite to the performance thereof have been generally decryed with some earnestness by the Non-Conformists under the name of Mystical teaching signs sometimes as Jewish Rites and sometimes as new Sacraments Whereas it seemeth very strange that an useful significancy or its conducibleness to promote good should become a crime Surely it is altogether as reasonable that such an Ornament of the body which might otherwise be approved should become utterly intollerable if it be of any advantage for warmth or health as that any appointment for order and decency in matters of Religion should be thought altogether insufferable because of its tendency towards edification or any spiritual benefit Wherefore 3. Consider 1. That the denying all lawfulness of using any external thing not commanded of God as a sign either to help our understandings or excite our affections doth very much tend to the prejudice of Religion and Christianity For this would condemn the use of Parables and Similitudes which our Saviour following the Custom of the Jewish Teachers did frequently express And this would condemn a very useful part of Christian meditation as if he who looketh upon the Earth no otherwise than the Beast doth might be well approved of while he who fixing his eyes thereupon considereth that he was taken out of the Earth and must return thither and thence entreth upon in humble thoughtfulness of his own frailty must be condemned or as if it was a heinous thing for a Christian when he looketh up to Heaven immediately to entertain thoughts thereupon of Christs being ascended thither and how much he is obliged that his affections and conversation should be above 4. Cons 2. The lawful use of some other visible signs besies gestures is necessarily allowed in the right exercise of Christianity I suppose none will condemn our kneeling at Prayer though it be primarily designed to testifie our lowlyness reverence and humility and to owne and acknowledge the Soveraignty and Majesty of God or standing to hear thereby to express or excite Christian attention the lifting up the hands or eyes in Prayer out of true devotion is not therefore blameable because it is a sign of a stedsast hope and confidence in God and of expectation from him nor may the Publican's smiting his hand upon his breast be thought the worse of because it encluded a pathetick and affectionate acknowledgment of his unfeigned humiliation and sorrow for sin Act. 21.40 Ch. 26.1 We often read of the Apostle beckning with his hand to move his Aditors to attention and I suppose few will be so bold as to censure the Custom of the Primitive Christians Tertul. Apol. c. 30. who prayed as Tertullian declareth manibus expansis quia innocuis capite nuclo quia non erubescimus and who frequently stretched out their hands in Prayer composing themselves thereby to a suitableness to Châ—â—â— dying on the Cross Tertul. de Grat. c. 13. Dominica passionâ—â—◠〈◊〉 and having in that posture an 〈◊〉 inteaâ—uess of mind upon our Saviourâ— Passion when his hands were stretched out But dare any undertake to blame that woman whom our Saviour commanded and approved who kissed the feet of our Lord and anointed them with Ointment Luk. 7 38.-50 and who washed them with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head as a testimony of religious reverence honour and vehement love to the Son of God by whom she obtained remission of sins or to condemn her who to a like purpose poured that Ointment of spikenard upon his head concerning which he declared that wherever the Gospel should be preached throughout the whole World that which she had done should be spoken of for a memorial of her Mar. 14.3 9. Wherefore outward voluntary actions designed to signifie some Religiouis thing ought not universally to be disclaimed And it will concern them who condemn external Rites meerly upon account of their signification which might otherwise be admitted to consider how they can allow according to this opinion the use of proper and expressive words in the service of God to be preferred before nonsense and impertinencies since words are properly signs of things as S. Aug. and Rabanus have noted Aug. de Doctr. Christ l. 3. c. 1 2 3. Rab. Maur. de Inst Cler. l 3. c. 8. c. and the particular words appropriated to all parts of Divine worship are not enjoined by God himself
special favour or help from God or to give assurance thereof in his name and such were the Priestly Vnctions under the Law and the anointing of a King by Gods special Commandment the brazen Serpent in the Wilderness and the sign of Gideons Fleece and the shadow going back on the Diall of Ahaz And though these signs were not properly Sacraments they were a kind of Sacramentalia and upon the same account with the former sort of signs these could never be appointed by any power upon Earth 11. Thirdly There are some properly called Mystical teaching signs intended to inform the understanding of man concerning some mystical or spiritual divine truth by Hieroglyphical or visible representations Sacerdotalis Par. 3. de processione in Parasc in die Pasch Thus in the Romish Church to declare the death and resurrection of Christ in a formal Procession on Good Friday the Host is laid in the Sepulchre and the Sepulchre shut and sealed but the Priest on Easter-Day in the Morning with other of the Clergy taketh the Host out of the Sepulchre and leaveth it open whither when the Clergy and people do come in a solemn Procession and find the Sepulchre open and the Host not there their Rector declareth that Christ is risen which they hear with joyfulness But how manifest is it that this procedure is more sitted to confirm the Jewish error that his Disciples came by night and stole him away than to express the glory of the divine power in raising Christ from the dead And some as hath been declared by Balsamon have let fly a Dove Bals in Conc. Trul. c. 82. to represent the coming of the Holy Ghost and dressed a bed to express the ineffable Generation of Jesus Christ but these are such fond and foolish things that besides the great sin of resembling God by an image they are justly called by Bishop Taylor Theatrical gayeties and such things tend to darken and debase the divine Mysteries and to render Religion contemptible by the sordid lowness of such representations Such things as these might justly be exploded by Didoclavius Altare Damasc but it is falsely insinuated that herein he hath matter of controversie with the Church of England as if all significant Rites were of a like nature whereas it neither practiseth nor approveth such irreligious vinity Spiritual Mysteries of Christianity can be fitly exprissed by the words of divine truth but the more spiritual they are in their own nature the more they are adulterated and depraved by visible corporcal representations 12. Fourthly Others are professing and engaging signs Such signs whereby we visibly profess the Christian Faith and Doctrine in general cannot reasonably be disallowed by them who acknowledge the visible profession of Christianity to be a duty And though such a profession is encluded in receiving the Sacraments yet it is not so peculiar thereto that it should not be usefully made in such other outward actions as the lifting up the hands or eyes and bowing the knee to God in the name of Jesus Christ standing at the Creed particular attendance upon a Christian Assembly or where the state of Religion requireth it the yielding to be Confessors or Martyrs for Christianity Nor are such externâ—â— signs condemnable whereby a profession of some particular doctrine of Religion is upon a weighty occasion expressed as the Rite used in an Oath containeth an acknowledgment of the righteousness and Omnisciency of God the imposition of hands frequently used of old towards Penitents encluded a declaring that Christ and the Gospel Doctrine doth graciously receive Sinners upon their hearty and unfeigned repentance and to testifie the same Fus Hist Eccl. l. 2. c. â—â— S. John the Apostle kissed the hand of that Ephesian Penitent of whom we have an account in Eusebius from Clemens Alexandrinus And as outward actions are ordinarily fit with many advantages to give evidence of the mind and profession of men so some Now Conformists have accounted it a thing expedient that those who receive the Holy Sacrament should by their subscription profess their resolution to believe and live as becometh the Gospel and the Author of the Admonition in the first edition thereof In Risâ—â—p Wbâ—â—ft Tr. 15. Ch. 1. did declare sitting 〈◊〉 the Lords Supper to be the more commendable because it signified rest and therefore might enclude a profession of the Ceremonial law being finished and that a perfect work of redemption is wrought which giveth rest for ever Some professing signs have principally expressed the Communion of Christians amongst themselves which must also be allowed lawful such were the love Feasts the kiss of Charity the ancient manner of Christians owning one another as brethren and receiving them as such in their Houses and dismissing them with peace And of this nature were the Symbols anciently given to the Catechumens Albasp Observ l. 2. Obj. 36. which Albas pinns very probably proveth to be taken out of the Oblations of the Christians which encluded an acknowledgment that they though they were not yet compleat Christians had some relation to the Church of Christ as a more full right of Communion was owned among the Fideles by the Feasts of Charity 13. Other professing signs do enclude some solemn engagement of persons either to undertake or to prosecute true Christianity this if we charitably separate it from other attendant mistakes is designed in the way of the Independent Church-Covenant and in the conclusory part of the Presbyterian League and Covenant and some persons have done the like by some particular writing of their own All I shall say concerning these signs is that such a serious engaging profession can be no other way so allowably and usefully pertormed as in attendance upon and with reference unto the Holy Sacraments because they are Gods own institutions because the proper and principal act and work of him who receiveth the Sacrament is to prosess his owning and to engage himself unto the Faith Hope and practice of true Christianity and because divine grace and fellowship with Christ is also in the Gospel Sacraments tendred unto us And it is to the honour of the Church of England that it appointeth no other way of solemn engagement to Christianity besides the use of the two Sacraments of the New Testament and Confirmation which as it is an Apostolical Rite so it containeth a ratifying and confirming the baptismal vow by persons come to some capacities of understanding and therefore it is to be considered with reference unto Baptism so far as concerneth the solemnity of Engagement 14. Fifthly There are exciting signs which should recal to our memories some profitable object or duty and stir up our hearts and affections to a more serious practice of Religion Such was Joshua's stone set up to be a witness or testimony of their profession lest they should deny their God Jos 24.26 27. and the trinal Mension in Baptism was to mind Christians that their
a laying a burden upon the Churches Act. 15.28 Wherefore when the whole matter of this Decree is in that verse called necessary things we must thereby understand that some things indifferent yea under the Gospel inconvenient in their own nature being judged of use for the avoiding scandal and promoting Peace and Vnity in the Church became necessary to be practised in the Church after that Decree and Injunction And though the end of designing the Unity and encrease of the Church did require that in some things the Gentile Christians should yield a complyance to the Jews yet in what particulars this compliance should consist was determined by the authority of this Apostolical Synod whereby the practice thereof became necessary 3. Obs 2. That Apostolical Decree concerning these matters indifferent was designed to lay an obligation upon the practice of all Gentile Christians in those Apostolical times There are indeed some very learned men who have reputed this Decree to be a local constitution confined to Syria Cilicia and the Territories of Antioch and Jerusalem And if it had extended no further it had been a sufficient instance of an injunction in things indifferent but if it was intended to oblige all the Gentiles it is thereupon to be esteemed a more full and large example Now that this Decree contained in the first Canonical and Apostolical Epistle of the New Testament was of general concernment to the Gentile Christians though its inscription referred 〈◊〉 those places above-mentioned may be concluded because S. James declared it in general to have respect to the believing Gentiles Act. 21.25 because S. Paul Silas and Timotheus delivered this Decree even unto the Cities of Lycaonia Phrygia and Galatia to be observed by them Act. 16.1 3 4 6. and because the Primitive Christians did in all places account themselves bound by this determination of the Apostles to abstain from bloud and things strangled as appeareth from the testimonies of Tertullian Tertul. Apol c. 9. Minut. in Oct. Orig. cont Cels l. 8 Eus Hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 1. Minutius Felix Origen the Epistle from France concerning their Martyrs recorded in Eusebius and the Canon of the Greek Code above-mentioned 4. Obs 3. It is acknowledged upon good grounds and granted by the Presbyterians that this Apostolical Sanction doth evidence a power in the Church of enjoining in lawful things what may be conducible to the good and welfare of the Church both because the successive practice of the Church did thence-forward exercise such a power and because though the Apostles might be inspired extraordinarily after they met together in this Synod yet they did not account a particular divine inspiration necessary to make an Ecclesiastical Constitution but in that great question whether and how far the Gentiles should undertake the Law of Moses they came together to consider of this matter Act. 15.5 6. and proceeded therein by way of disputation v. 7. Hence Gillespy in his assertion of the Government of the Church of Scotland Gillesp Par. 2. Ch. 4. Ch. 8. concludeth the authority of Synodical Assemblies and that they have a diatactick power to make Decrees The London Ministers in their Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici Part. 2. c. 14. declare this Apostolical Synod to be a pattern and platform for others and thence allow a Synodical power of imposing things on the Church which they assert to be encluded in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 15.28 And the Assemblies Consession doth from hence assert a power in Synods to make Decrees and determinations Conf. c. 31. which ought to be received with reverence as from Gods Ordinance and to set down rules and directions for the better ordering the publick worship of God Yet it may be observed that some of that way have in this particular manifested great partiality as Mr. Rutherford Ruth Introd to Div. Right of Ch. Gov. Sect. 5. p. 81. Disp of Candale Libert qu. 5. when he disputes against our Church and against the lawfulness of external Rites he denyeth any power in the Church to prescribe Laws touching things indifferent Plea for Presbyt Ch. 14. p. 199. but in his Plea for Presbytery he asserteth their Synods to have power to make Ecclesiastical Canons and Decrees which tie and bind particular Congregations to observe and obey them 5. Wherefore if the Apostles did make injunctions concerning things indifferent and imposed them upon all the Churches of the Gentiles and accounted their authority of Ecclesiastical Government guided by prudential consideration to be sufficient without extraordinary inspiration to establish such a Sanction then must this power remain in the Church taking in the Princes supremacy where the Authority of Church Government abideth permanent 6. And if we consider the Church under the General Notion of a Society as it is ordinary in all Societies for the Rulers thereof to exercise a power of making Rules and Constitutions not contradictory to any superiour Government for preserving a due order in that Society so this doth especially take place in the Christian Church where there are special divine Laws which require care to be taken for order and decency and command Christians to obey them who have the rule over them And that those who will enjoy the Communion of any particular Church must submit to the Rules of order appointed therein is but the proper result of orderly Constitution and is of general practice insomuch that the French Reformed Churches as hath been observed by Mr. Durell Durelli Vindic. Eccl. Angl. c. 22. in Praf would not suffer Mr. Welch who came thither from Scotland to continue in administring the Sacrament without using the prescribed form of Prayer and admitting the standing gesture according to the order of that Church but he being enjoined Conformity by the Synod at S. Maixant 1609 left that Church and Realm rather than he would embrace it 7. But it is by some pleaded against the lawfulness of Constitutions Ecclesiastical that these are an infringing of Christian liberty But whereas Ecclesiastical Rites and Constitutions are in themselves lawful as hath been proved prudential determinations about such indifferent things can no more incroach upon Christian liberty than do the political Sanctions of Civil Laws and the Domestick commands of Parents and Masters And surely every mans apprehension must needs acknowledge it a gross mistake to imagine that when the Precepts of Christianity do earnestly enjoin the practice of self-denial meekness submission and obedience to superiours it should be the priviledge of Christian liberty to disoblige men from any or these things which would represent our most excellent Religion as contradicting it self But true Christian liberty conveyeth a priviledge of freedom from that which the Christian Doctrine abolisheth the Mosaical Covenant and Ceremonies of the Law from that which its Precepts prohibit and disclaim the life of sin and bondage to the Devil and being under any other as our Soveraign and supreme
Lord besides Jesus Christ and from that from which its promises tend to secure us the curse and wrath to come and thereby from Hell and Death But it was S. Peters Doctrine that we should obey every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake as free Conf. Ch. 20. Sect. 4. 1 Pet. 2.13 16. And it was truly expressed in the Assemblies Confession That they who upon pretence of Christian Liberty shall oppose any lawful power or the lawful exercise of it whether it be Civil or Ecclesiastical resist the Ordinance of God And as for those strange spirited men who account the practising things indifferent to be the worse because they are enjoined they are guided by such dangerous Principles of false imaginary Liberty as would teach Children and Servants that things otherwise lawful are sinfully performed when they are commanded by their Parents and Masters 8. Ruth Introd to Doctr of Scandal But Mr. Rutherford objecteth that the nature of things indifferent are not capable of being enjoined by a Law For saith he what wise man will say the Church may make a law that all men should cast stones into the water or as he in another place instanceth that a man should rub his beard Whether these and other such like words proceeded from gross mistake of the Question about things Indifferent or from wilful misrepresentation thereof to please the humours of scornful men I cannot affirm For things called Indifferent in this Question are not such as can tend to no good but are a mispending time when purposely undertaken as a designed business and enclude also such a levity and vanity as is inconsistent with gravity and seriousness and much more with Religious Devotion But the things here called matters indifferent are such where many things singly taken are in their general nature useful but because no one of them is particularly established by any Divine Law the appointing any one in particular is called the determination of a thing Indifferent because some other might have been lawfully appointed Thus the use of one special form of Prayer prescribed not condemning all others as unlawful is the use of an indifferent thing to an useful end And the ordering some proper Hymns or Psalms of praise for the glorifying God and decent gestures of reverence in Gods service and the appointing a fit translation of the Bible for publick use and a particular visible sign of Christian profession are things of good use but are called Indifferent because these particular things are not so established by Divine Precepts but that some other Prayers Hymns Gestures Translation or token of profession might have been without sin and breach of any particular divine commands chosen and appointed in the Church and the like may be said of other things So that such things as these which may manifestly have a profitable use where they are observed without misunderstanding and prejudice but are no special matters enjoined by any Divine Laws immediately given from God himself are the most proper and most accountable matter for Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions and are fit to be ordered by those who are invested with Power and Authority especially when the particular things so established may be peculiarly recommended upon good considerations of Antiquity or manifest usefulness 9. But some have further Questioned whether things concerning the Church and the order thereof may be established by secular Sanctions the transgression of which is attended with civil penalties This Authority hath been exercised by the most Religious Kings and Rulers of Israel in the Old Testament who were therefore commended in the Holy Scriptures and also by the Christian Emperours as appears by their Laws in the Codex and Novellae and by divers Kings of our own and Foreign Nations in former times it is acknowledged by the Articles of our Church Article 37. and by the Doctrine and practice of the ancient Church is established by our Laws and hath been defended by divers good Writers concerning the Kings Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical But some there are both at home and abroad joining herein with the Spirit of the Anabaptists who have undertaken to deny the lawfulness of any such proceedings under pretence of advancing Christianity thereby and of pleading for due liberty in matters of Religion but their grounds and reasons on which they build are not strong enough to bear the weight they lay upon them 10. For they who tell us that the use of such civil Laws and penalties tendeth to declare that the motives and arguments of the Gospel are weak and insufficient to recommend the Christian truth and preserve the order of the Church without the help of the secular power do seem not to consider that Treasons Murders Adulteries Thefts and Perjuries with other great crimes are vehemently prohibited by the Precepts of Christ and yet are upon good grounds punished by the power of the Sword which is also Gods Authority not because of any insufficiency of the arguments propounded by the Doctrine of Christ but because the corruptness of many mens Spirits is such that divers persons are prone to overlook the most weighty motives and arguments which are of an Heavenly and spiritual nature when they are more affected with sensible things of much less concernment 11. And as for them who say that all temporal laws and penalties about Church matters will never make men truly Religious but may make them Hypocrites and cause them to profess and practice what they do not heartily approve this is manifestly untrue for though I grant that these means have sometimes accidentally this ill effect upon some men yet even Laws ad Penalties rightly dispensed are a proper and effectual means in themselves to make men seriously and rightly Religious Aug. Ep. 48. This effect as S. Augustine upon his own knowledge declareth they obtained both in his own Church and divers other African Churches where many of the Donatists from thence took occasion seriously to consider and embrace the truth and rejoiced that by this means they were brought to the right knowledge thereof And thus all well-ordered Government in a Realm or Family the encouraging what is good and the discountenancing errours prophaneness and all disorders by great men or others may have this accidental ill consequence upon some men that it may occasion them hypocritically to pretend to be better than they are out of affection of applause and designs of advantage yet these things being duties as the Magistrates care to promote Religion is also they ought not to be neglected because they may possibly be abused 12. And whereas some urge that in the Apostolical times which were the best there were no secular sanctions or outward penalties used in matters of Religion they might also have observed that Kings and Emperours were then no countenancers favourers nor yet Professoes of Christianity which is not to be a pattern for succeeding times when it must be esteemed a blessing to the Church
lawful and expedient to be unlawful upon such evidence which they apprehend to be full and sufficient and thereupon cannot yield to practise these things it must be considered that it is but the common attendant of mans being fallible that he should out of respect to a greater good bear some outward inconvenience as the result even of his most innocent errours Thus in secular matters he who meerly mistaketh the right way of legal proceedings about his own cause may suffer some damage thereby and though his case may herein deserve pity yet it is better he should sustain this consequent of his own mistake than that no rules and orders of Law should be observed And the same may be said of matters Ecclesiastical 25. 2. If the Rules above-mentioned be observed they will direct how men may generally practise things lawfully enjoined according to right principles of Conscience But if they be not observed men must either resolve to follow their own imaginations in things they understand not which is a manifest way of errour and walking in the dark or else they must in these things practise according to the directions of those who speak most plausibly and takingly to their affections and are also strict in their lives but this both over-looketh the duty of obedience and the due relation to guides and teachers and is a very probable way to misguide men both in this and in other Cases By following this rule or rather by being taken in this snare many anciently embraced the monstrous positions of manicheism perswaded thereto by Faustus who had eloquium seductorium as S. Aug. ealleth it the enticing eloquence of seducing Aug. Conf. l. 6. c. 3 6 13. and whose words were observed by the same Father to have a more pleasing and delightful sweetness than the eloquence of S. Ambrose which was more learned and substantial Baron ad An. 377. n. 7. and those who embraced that impious Heresie were always talking of God and Christ and the holy Spirit the Comforter And to be guided in opinions or doctrines by such respect to persons can be no safe way of conduct because God hath not directed Christians thereto for as to expression Luther accounted Julian the Pelagian to be a better speaker and Orator than S. Augustine Luther Judicium de Erasmo Tom. 2. and as to practice Nazianzene declared even of the Macedonians who denyed the Divinity of the Holy Spirit Naz. Orat. 44. that they were persons whose lives were to be admired though their Doctrines were not to be allowed And therefore that more ancient rule of Tertullian is of necessary use Non ex personis probamus fidem sed ex fide personas that we are not to examine and esteem the Faith by the persons but the persons by their Faith Therefore the best way to be rightly established is by having a Conscientious regard in the first place to the evidence of manifest truth clearly discerned and in the next place to spiritual guides and teachers it being one end why God appointed Church Officers Eph. 4.11 14. that we be henceforth no more Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine SECT IV. Of Ecclesiastical Rites which have been abused in any corrupt way of worship 1. It is acknowledged that some gesture garment and action though not the same individually but of the like kind or physical nature established in the Church of England hath been ill used in the Church of Rome and this hath been much of old and by some of late objected against these appointments Now we do assert that the worship of God who is a jealous God is to be preserved pure and not mixed with any sinful defilement whatsoever whether of Idolatry or superstition and that things otherwise indifferent which either in the design of them who use them or in their own present tendency do directly promote or propagate such corruptions do in that Case become things unlawful Hence that which was in it self indifferent and was used in the Pagan Idolatry might upon good grounds be disclaimed as unlawful to Christians by Tertullian and other ancient Writers where the present use among Christians might appear to countenance and confirm those Idolatrous practices But that the use of things in themselves lawful and expedient and known to be ordered to a lawful end and purpose should be condemned as sinful because these things or the like are or have been otherwhere sinfully abused is a position by no means to be admitted Concerning which in general besides what shall be added concerning our particular Rites Ch. 4. I shall content my self with these three Observations 2. Obs 1. This position is not consistent with the principles of Christian practice It is a ground of hope in the Gospel Regeneration that those bodies and Souls which were once abused to the service of false Gods and Devils as according to Gr. Nazianzen was once the Case of S. Cyprian Naz. Orat. 18. and according to S. Paul of the Corinthians Thessalonians and others 1 Cor. 12.2 1 Thes 1.9 and to the service of sin as were the members of the Roman Church Rom. 6.17 18 19. may yet find acceptance with God in serving him Surely none can think that S. Pauls tongue was not to be allowed to preach the Gospel because it had been abused to blaspheme nor is it amiss observed by Durandus Dur. Rational l. 1. c. 1. Sect. 33. that among other Scriptures there is a principal use made in the Church of God of what was written by David who was guilty of Adultery S. Matthew who was a Publican and S. Paul who was a persecutor and blasphemer and among the Fathers of S. Augustine who was a Manichee And surely it is much more incredible that through the ill use of some the whole Species of actions gestures and things should become unlawful and unclean Can any possibly imagine that if other men have or do lift up their Eyes to Heaven to adore the Sun or Moon or bow down their knees to give religious worship to an Idol or to Saints and Angels this must render our lifting up our eyes to Heaven in the worshipping of God or bowing our knees in Prayer to him to be sinful Or may not one man lawfully make use of the light of the Sun to read the holy Scriptures because another maketh use of it to commit Villanies or did Judas his Kiss make the kiss of Charity sinful 3. As Sozomen reporteth Sozom. Hist Eccl. l. 6. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 single Mersion in Baptism was used by Eunomius who disowned the Trinity and the threefold Mersion which was the more general ancient Custom was abused in Spain as Walafridus Strabo relateth to express thereby a denyal of one Essence in the three Persons of the Trinity upon which occasion the Council of Toledo enjoined single Mersion in Spain Conc. Tol. 4. c. 5. still declaring according to S.
Amalarius de Eccles Offic. l. 4. c. 3. solemus stare but when they were sometimes sung by one person alone the usage of the Church in such indifferent things not being always the same in the Western Church Cassian Inst l. 2. c. 8. in the time of Cassian they all stood up at the end of the Psalms with joint voices to render glory to God 4. Standing at the Creed is a visible sign or token of the profession of the Faith therein contained which profession is a duty much required in the holy Scripture and is one part of our glorifying God for which Religious Assemblies of Divine Worship are intended In the Creed we professedly acknowledge the three persons in the glorious Trinity to be the only true God and our only Lord and a standing posture well becometh a Servant in his professed owning and attending upon his Master we openly declare every one for our selves I believe c. the ground of our Christian hope and comfort that believing in the Father who made the World in the Son who died rose again ascended and shall judge all men and in the Holy ghost we have expectation in the Church of God and the Communion of Saints of obtaining forgiveness of sins resurrection and everlasting life and do also acknowledge all these Articles of the Christian Faith and a standing gesture is very suitable to any solemn Declaration of our minds in matters of moment and concernment And as the profession of Faith encludeth a stedfast resolution to continue firm in the acknowledgment of the Christian Doctrine this is so properly signified by the standing gesture according to the general apprehensions of the World that both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek which are words expressing the standing gesture are in the holy Scripture used to signifie an asserting with resolution Deut. 25.8 1 Chr. 34.32 1 Cor. 16.13 2 Thes 2.15 and the like Idioms of speech are in some other languages as well as our own designing to express what we resolve to stand to SECT II. Of standing up at the Gospel 1. Standing at the Gospel is appointed in our Liturgy of which a very reasonable true and good account may be given Some Ritualists have told us that the Western Church stood up at the Gospel and not at the Epistle because the Gospel containeth matters of Faith and belief the Epistle consisteth of Rules of life and practice and that the Gospel and not the Epistle expresseth the very words spoken by Christ But I account not these reasons sufficient partly because the Gospels for some days do not contain and the Epistles for some days do contain the points of Christian Faith and the express words of Christ and partly because by insisting on these things alone we can have no reason antecedent to the appointment why standing at the Gospel should be required with us and not at the second Lesson in the Morning Service 2. Wherefore I observe 1. That in the devouter times both of the Jewish and Christian Church it was frequently observed by the people to manifest their reverence unto the holy Scriptures by standing up at the reading thereof When Ezra opened the Book of the Law Salian Annal. Eccles A. M. 3447. n. 16. all the people stood up Neh. 8.5 and the Children of Israel stood up in their places to read the Law of the Lord Neh. 9.3 and our blessed Saviour who according to the Custom of the Jewish Doctors taught sitting stood up to read the words of the Prophet Ecclesiastici lib. 1. c. 4. Luke 4.16 20. Junius observeth this as one thing wherein the practice of the Jewish Synagogue and the Christian Church did agree si verbum Dei ipsum legitur stat erecta Auditorum corona that when the word of God was read the whole Assembly stood up which observation was true concerning sometimes of the Jewish Church and of the principal parts of the Christian Church Sozom. l. 7. c. 19. Wherefore though Sozomen relateth that the Alexandrian Bishop did not stand up at the reading the Gospel yet he noteth it as such a peculiar usage that he had not seen nor heard the like any where else 3. And though in the Jewish Church the people and among them our Saviour Luk. 2.46 usually sat to hear their Doctors and the ancient Christians sometimes heard their Sermons and Exhortations in the same gesture as may be collected from Justin Martyrs second Apology Euseb de Vit. Const l. 4. c. 33. yet Eusebius acquainteth us that Constantine that famous Emperour whose practice doubtless was not singular would not hear a Sermon or Treatise about divine things in a sitting but only in a standing posture as judging it not allowable to do otherwise And that in the African Churches they did even until S. Austens days generally stand Aug. Hom. 26. both at Sermons and all Lessons out of the Scriptures is manifest from what he expresseth to that purpose And such respect was shewed even among barbarous Nations to what was dictated from God that Eglon King of Moab when Ehud told him he had a message from God unto him did arise out of his seat Jud. 3.20 4. Obs 2. Out of tenderness to the weakness and infirmity of many Christians liberty was granted to them that they might hear the longer Lessons or portions of holy Scripture sitting Aug. ibidem but as a testimony of their honour to the whole they were required at the reading other portions of Scripture to stand up S. Austen telleth us how he gave Counsel and in some sort made supplication that those who were infirm and not well able to stand might humbly and attentively hear the longer Lessons sitting but in the same place he maketh complaint that this liberty granted only to the infirm in those African Churches was taken by others more generally than was intended or allowed And to somewhat a like liberty the words of Amalarius in the ninth Century seem to refer Amalar. de Eccles Offic. l. 4. c. 3. who saith in recitatione lectionis sedere solemus aut silendo stare it is our Custom either to sit or to stand with silence when the Lesson is read And whereas in the Christian Church the Law and Prophets with some of the Apocrypha and the Gospels and Epistles were publickly read in their Assemblies as is manifest both from Councils Fathers and Ritual Writers the Latin Church enjoined standing up at the Gospel only which was ordinarily short for many hundred years past Microl. c. 9. the Greek Church as Micrologus relateth stood up also at the Epistle which was likewise short Cassand Liturg. c. 5. and so did also the Churches of Russia as Cassander observeth from the History of Sigismundus Liberus For though a posture of reverent respect to the word of God is very suitable whensoever it is read yet that the Church should allow a liberty to hear the
longer Lessons sitting while this particular reverence is expressed only at the reading some shorter portion of the Scripture De Eccl. Offic. l. 3. c. 11. is very allowable because it is well observed by Amalarius that the Apostles themselves did sometimes hear the Scriptures read in the Jewish Synagogue sitting as is evident from Act. 13.14 15 16. Where they entred into the Synagogue and sat down and after the reading the Law and the Prophets Paul stood up 5. Obs 3. Standing at a short portion of the Gospel rather than at any other portion of the Scripture is reasonably chosen to express reverence to the holy word of God because the actions and words of our blessed Saviour are for the most part therein contained In the Primitive Church while the servour of true devotion did continue they heard the Writings of the Apostles read with that high esteem and veneration as if they had then seen the Apostles faces and received those words from their mouths which Tertullian thus expresseth Tertul. de Praescrip c. 36. Authenticae literae eorum sc Apostolorum recitantur sonantes vocem representantes faciem uniuscujusque eorum And in like manner they heard the words of the Gospel as if they had seen Christ himself and received these words from his mouth And though all divine truth be therefore highly valuable because it is from God yet so far as concerneth the deliverer it was requisite and warranted by the Scriptures Mat. 21.37 Heb. 2.1 2 3. Ch. 3.3 that those who lived when Christ was in the flesh should shew the higher respect of the two to Christ himself speaking whose words are ordinarily in the Gospel than to his Apostles who were sent by him Ign. Ep. ad Philadelph Wherefore Ignatius accounteth the Gospel to have this excellency in it viz. the presence of our Saviour Jesus Christ and his suffering and resurrection And out of special respect to our Lord and Saviour it was the Custom of the ancient Greek Church to stand up when ever the Book of the four Evangelists was opened Chrysost de Circo Const Apost l. 2. c. 57. or any Lesson read from thence though the gesture of sitting was allowed at the hearing any other Books of Scripture so that the liberty of sitting even at any Lessons from the Gospel was not there indulged the practice of divers Churches being in these things not alway the same where the same liberty was allowed concerning the other Scriptures 6. Wherefore to shew that outward respect to the holy Scriptures which both the Jewish and Christian Churches have owned and wherein our blessed Lord hath given us an example to stand up at the reading them is reasonable and unblameable And the liberty allowed for sitting at the other Scriptures which for order sake is sit to be used doth not countenance any want of high respect to all Divine truth which is expressed by manifesting this respect to a particular short part thereof and that part is to this purpose chosen wherein the words and actions of our Lord and Master do frequently occur SECT III. Of the fitness of kneeling at the Communion and the gesture at the institution of that Sacrament considered 1. To kneel at the receiving the holy Communion hath been judged a gesture very expedient and commendable upon divers respects 1. Because this Sacrament doth in a special manner exhibit a mystical and spiritual Communion with Christ or the Communion of his body and bloud and the greatest reverence and most humble gesture is very convenient for so solemn an Ordinance and so near an approach to Jesus Christ especially since in this great Ordinance there ought to be a devout religious worship performed unto Christ himself Kneeling therefore is a fit gesture of adoration performed in this Ordinance unto God and Jesus Christ which is the more inoffensively performed because our Church hath openly declared against any adoration either of the Sacramental Bread and Wine Rubr. after Communion or of any corporal presence of Christs natural flesh and bloud therein 2. Because of the greatness of the benefits conveyed in this Ordinance to the worthy receiver such as the Grace of God and remission of sins in the bloud of Christ and if he who receiveth some great gift or some great pardon from his Prince doth fitly receive it kneeling and the Poenitentes in the ancient Church always received Ecclesiastical absolution from the Rulers of the Church upon their knees in token of their submissive humility much more he who cometh unto Christ in this Sacrament to receive from him the remission of his sins tendred in his bloud of the New Testament should appear before him with humility Ibidem To this purpose Kneeling at the Sacrament is in our Liturgy declared to be for a signification of an humble and grateful acknowledgment of the benefits of Christ therein given to all worthy receivers and Mr. Hooker saith very well coming as receivers of inestimable Grace at the hand of God Eccles Pol. l. 5. c. 68. what doth better beseem our bodies at that hour than to be sensible witnesses of minds unfeignedly humbled 2. 3. Kneeling is a suitable gesture for solemn Prayer and humble thanksgiving both which may be sitly exercised at the receiving this Sacrament For religious Prayer becometh him who there affectionately desireth to be made partaker of the benefits of Christs Passion and therefore the Communicant should devoutly join in and in heart say Amen to those Petitions at the delivery of the Elements which peculiarly refer to himself The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy Body and Soul to everlasting life and The bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ c. And humble thanksgiving at the holy Eucharist for the benefits of the New Testament there tendred the love of Christ in his sufferings here remembred and for the means of Communion with the Father and the Son in this Ordinance encluded with reflexion on our own guilt Ans to Admenit Tr. 15. c. 1. div 11. pollution and infirmity is a fit exercise for this Ordinance And upon this consideration Bishop Whitgift declared the kneeling gesture to be very meet for the receiving this Sacrament 3. But against the lawfulness of this gesture divers things are objected 1. That Kneeling is no Table gesture as sitting is nor doth it so properly express our fellowship with Christ Rutherf Divine Right of Ch. Gov. p. 196. and the honour and priviledge of Communion with him as Coheirs Ans 1. As the Lords Supper is no common Feast but a Heavenly Banquet prepared by Jesus Christ which principally consisteth of spiritual graces and benefits and Communion with Christ signified by and tendred under the outward Elements so the administration and participation of this great Ordinance ought not to be guided by the Rules of common Table fellowship but by more religious considerations At other Tables the attendants
Dionysius of Alexandria speaketh of a Communicant in his Church Eus Hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may properly render it standing at the Lords Table and the testimony of Justin Martyr above produced giveth a very probable intimation of the same gesture But when as the ancient Churches had two stationary days in a Week that is the sourth and sixth days with which the seventh day was also joined at Caesaria as is manifest from S. Basil upon which the holy Communion was administred it is probable Basil Ep. ad Caesariam that as upon those days they prayed kneeling so they did in the same gesture receive this Sacrament in attendance upon which they thought an humble gesture of adoration to be very suitable this Sacrament being accounted by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dreadful mysteries 5. Albasp Obs l. 1. Obs 15. Indeed Albaspinus undertaketh to assert without any proof that the chief reason why anciently they stood in their Prayers upon the Lords days and the Pentecost was because upon those days they received the holy Communion and it was requisite they should use none other than a gesture of Joy upon that day in which they communicated in that Sacrament But besides the improbability of supposing daily Communions where we have no testimony thereof from Easter to Whitsunday this observation is very plainly contradicted by Albaspinus himself in his very next observation Obs 16. where he declareth that the Eucharist was constantly celebrated upon the stationary days and yet upon those days he yieldeth that the ancient Christians did pray kneeling Conc. Trul. c. 90. and this his conjecture is also contrary to what is asserted by the sixth general Council by Zonaras and Balsamon upon the twentieth Council of Nice and by S. Hierom Austen Hieron Prooem in lib. 1. Com. in Eph. Basil and other Fathers who unanimously assert that their joyfulness to the wonder of the Gentiles for the Resurrection of Christ and their professing themselves to be risen with him and to expect resurrection by him was the cause of their standing gesture at those times in their Religious Prayers But that the most humble gesture was not thought inconsistent with the Eucharist may appear Gr. Nazianz Orat. in Gorgon Besides the testimonies above produced from what Gregory Nazianzen relateth of his Sister Gorgonia who privately fell down prostrate before the Altar with the Sacrament in her hand 6. Wherefore kneeling at the holy Sacrament or receiving it in a gesture of Prayer and Religious Worship unto God was no way disallowed as unlawful by the Primitive Church but our practice herein is but a building upon their Foundations who themselves used a gesture of Adoration or the same gesture with that of Prayer 7. Obj. 4. Kneeling is a gesture which hath been grosly abused by the Papists in worshipping the Host according to their Doctrine of Transubstantiation and to that end it was enjoined by Honorius the third Ans 1. NO sinful use of any gesture though it be in the most manifest idolatry doth render that gesture unlawful in Religious service to God as was shewed in the former Chapter Though the Israelites sate down to eat and drink when they had offered Sacrifices to the golden Calf Ex. 32.6 it was still allowable in the days of Samuel to sit down to feast upon the Sacrifices of God 1 Sam. 9.13 22. And though the discumbing or reclining gesture was anciently used in Idolatrous Feasts Amos 2.8 Ezek 23.41 and so continued in some places very common till the times of Christ being designed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sit or rather discumb in the Idols Temple 1. Cor. 8.10 Conc. Ancyr Can. 51 and for some hundred years after as appears from the Council of Ancyra yet Christ himself made use of this gesture at the Jewish Passover according to the Custom and Canons of the Jewish Church 8. Ans 2. Though it be true that many Papists but not all do receive and adore the Host kneeling yet the Decree of Honorius so oft insisted upon is herein mistaken and misapplyed That Decree commandeth that the people cum elevatur hostia salutaris se reverenter inclinet Decret Greg. Lib. 3. Tit. 41. c. 10. idem faciens cum eam deferat Presbyter ad infirmum which words speak not the gesture of communicating or at the time of receiving the Sacrament but only concerns their behaviour as spectators when the Host immediately after the Consecration is elevated or when it is carried abroad to the sick And though the old Gloss supposeth that kneeling was thereby at such times enjoined which the practice of many in that Communion cannot admit Espencaeus a more learned man than the Author of the Gloss Espencaeus De Adorat Euch. l. 2. c. 16. accounteth that Decree rather to prohibit kneeling and to direct as the words se reverenter inclinet may import a standing gesture with expression of reverence And Espencaeus telleth us in the same place that in 1555. the kneeling gesture had not obtained in the Church of Lyons and that when some endeavoured to obtrude it upon that Metropolis a stop was put to their proceeding by the Royal Authority and in the same place in that Book purposely written for the adoration of the Sacrament he declareth that it is not much material in what gesture it is performed whether sitting standing lying or kneeling 9. Ans 3. They who will lay aside all gestures grosly abused must upon the same account reject all those which are in this Sacrament ordinarily received in the Protestant Churches both standing and sitting as well as kneeling That standing was a gesture used in the Romish adoration of the Host by many of the ordinary sort of Papists is evident from Espencaeus now cited Sacr. Cerem lib. 1. Sect. 2. Cap. 1. f. 22. And if he who is elected Pope be not Bishop or Priest at his Priestly Ordination he receiveth the Sacrament standing for then as their Book of Ceremonies informs us Ordinator communicat electo stanti in ipso cornu de corpore sanguine Christi Ibid. c. 2. f. 28. and the same gesture is used by him at his Episcopal Ordination Communionem sumet sub utraque specie stans c. and as this is the gesture of the Pope in that great solemnity of the Popes being invested with his Papal dignity V. Durand Rat. l. 4. c. 54. n. 45. so upon the great Mass upon Christmas day if the Pope himself celebrate the Mass the Deacon who attendeth upon him receiveth it at the Popes hand in a standing gesture Diaconus slans inclinato capite ex ejus manibus de Corpore Christi communicat Ibid. Lib. 2. Sect. 1. Cap. 14. calamo slans sanguinis partem sugit and in the same gesture the consicient Priest usually receiveth 10. Sacerdotal Par. 1. Tract 4. c. 35. But because sitting is most
therewith requireth a consent to omit and refuse known duties commanded by Christ P. 216. P. 218.231 For the proof of which he giveth two instances In his first instance he claimeth to every Minister of a particular Congregation by the appointment of Jesus Christ the whole immediate care of the flock so that no part of discipline should be exempted from his office or care p. 219. and this he saith by Consormity they must renounce p. 229. Which Plea for separation or rejecting Communion is as much as to say that no Minister may lawfully communicate and exercise his Ministry in any Church where this kind of Congregational Independency is not the fixed Government or where the Episcopal Power and Authority above Presbyters in all or any publick acts of discipline is preserved An assertion which favours of great rashness in rejecting all those manifest evidences produced by divers on the behalf of this Episcopal Government and Jurisdiction with such an height of confidence as professedly to disclaim the lawsulness of Ecclesiastical Ministration and Communion with those who in practice embrace them Yea this is such a position as would have engaged all Christian Ministers to have renounced the Communion of all the ancient Churches in the Christian World in the times of the most eminent Fathers of the Church by this new way and method of the Churches Peace and Unity And therefore instead of a charge against our Church he hath herein done it this honour to mention that as a chief matter of exception against it in which it is conformable to the purest ages of Christianity 16. Conc Nic. c. 5. Conc. Ant. c. 6. The Councils of Nice and Antioch which are part of the Code of the Universal Church expressing a manifest distinction between Bishops and Presbyters do declare the disciplinary proceedings of Church censures to be under the Bishops ordering and authority and before them S. Cyprian did the same Cyp. Ep. 10 65. both concerning excommunication and publick disciplinary absolution and Ignatius frequently required that nothing should be done without the Bishops Authority to which agree the Scripture expressions concerning Timothy Titus and the Apocalyptick Angels And that the ancient Churches and the authority of their Bishops were not confined to single Congregations as some would have us believe is apparent 1. Conc. Neoc c. 13. Conc. Ant. c. 8. Conc. Sard. c. 6. Athanas Apol. besides the instances from the Roman and other Churches in Scripture 1. From the frequent mention of Country-Presbyters and Religious Assemblies in such places for which no Bishops were appointed 2. From the multitude of Presbyters in one City it not being credible that 46. Presbyters for the City of Rome in Cornelius his time 2. Eus Hist Eccl. l. 6. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Photii Nomo can Yit 1. c. 30. Justin Novel Const ◠60. at Constantinople with a greater number both before and after Justinians Constitution and a numerous Company in other Churches should be designed with a Bishop and many Deacons for the service of God in a single Congregation 3. Because the greatest Cities in the World with the parts adjacent when Christians were most numerous had but one regular Bishop and he who can imagine that in the most flourishing times of Christianity there were never more Christians in those Precincts than made up a single Congregation though divers Churches were built at Jerusalem and other places may as well conceive the same of the present London Diocess And though there be some expressions in some ancient Writers as Tertullian and S. Hierome which many have thought to assert the ancient exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by a Bench of Presbyters of equal authority which would be too large a digression to be here considered yet even that notion also must fall under the heavy censure of this exception 17. The other instance concerneth private Members P. 141.142 and the whole Church being abridged and deprived of that liberty to discharge their duty which by the law of Christ they are to provide for Among these duties he nameth reproof admonition and exhortation as if these things were not allowed in our Church which is an intimation that needeth reproof and also withdrawing from them that walk disorderly and putting such obstinate offenders from among them Now this instance also is built upon the bottom of Independency groundlesly supposed to be a divine institution Decl. of Faith and Ord. of Congr Ch. Par. 2. Se. 4 5 7. Answ to 32. Quest qu. 14. 15. For the Independents allowing the Ministers the principal care about the discipline of the Church do assert an authority and power of Church-Government to be seated in all the members of the church together with their Officers yea that the members of the Church may censure their Officers and some of them as they of New-England express it that the Keys are committed to all believers who shall join together according to the ordinance of Christ And Dr. O. who gives somewhat more authority to Ministers than many others of them do yet declareth his non-admittance of our discipline p. 256. upon this account as one as being in the hands of meerly Ecclesiastical persons or such as are pretended so to be This late device of discipline being exercised by an authoritative power of all the members of the Church is claimed here as necessary for embracing Communion but this is not only contrary to the Church of England Gillespy Gov. of Ch. of Scot. Part. 2. c. 1. Postscript Jus Div. Reg. Eccles Par. 2. c. 10. with the ancient Churches and to the French Dutch and other reformed Churches abroad but it is also directly opposed and refuted by the Presbyterians both of Scotland and England and this also is a general argument for separation from all Christian Assemblies of the Primitive and Reformed Churches except a few of themselves 18. But as under the former instance he insisted much upon the great usefulness of administring Church-discipline which if rightly stated and in its due measures we heartily admit so here he reflecteth upon the defects of exercising discipline among us urging that upon such defects as by the design of his discourse he representeth ours to be P. 244 245. pious men may without the least suspition of the guilt of Schism forsake the Communion of that Church and if they have a due care of their own salvation they will understand it to be a duty But what he intimately chargeth upon the Church of England speaking of the Church where wicked persons are admitted without distinction or discrimination unto the Communion of the Church and tolerated therein without any procedure with them or against them if this be generally understood of all wicked persons as those words without distinction or discrimination to import it is untrue and slanderous But if this be meant only of divers particular persons it is acknowledged that a more vigorous
Christ to the narrow limits of some parts of Africa saying Dost thou call thy self a Christian that thou mayst envy the glory of Christ cujus signum in fronte te portare asseris whose sign thou clarest thy self to bear in thy forehead he thereby sheweth that this sign was accounted to include an engagement or admonition to promote and advance the honour of Christ And that it might be a more plain Memorial of the Christian faith and duty when it was used to the Catechumens Confes l. 1. c. 11. De pec Mer. Remis l. 2. c. 26. Aug. de Symb. l. 2. c 1. some distant time before their Baptism of which S. Austin maketh frequent mention the abrenunciation and profession of faith were then joyned therewith as appeareth from S. Aug. de symbolo ad Catechum the like unto which appeareth in our office of private Baptism and when it was used at the time of the administration of Baptism it immediately followed upon the persons professing to undertake the Christian life Dionys de Hier. Eccl. c. 2. as is expressed by the Author De Hierarchia Ecclesiastica And some dark intimation of this Primitive use of this sign may be discerned remaining in the corruptions of the Papacy but the more clear expression thereof is exhibited in our reformation 7. This sign used in our Church upon any person in the office of Baptism is declared to be in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ Crucified and manfully to fight under his Banner against sin the World and the Devil c. Which words speak this sign to be a token by way of remembrance of his duty to the person baptized and a testimony of engagement upon him and expectation concerning him from the Church Which sense of these words is made more manifest by the Canon Can. 30. which declareth that it is apparent in the Communion Book that the infant baptized is by vertue of Baptism before it be signed with the sign of the Cross received into the Congregation of Christs stock as a perfect member thereof and not by any power ascribed unto the sign of the Cross and it after addeth that this Church accounteth this sign a lawful outward Ceremony and honourable badg whereby the infant is dedicated to the service of him that died upon the Cross Now dedicating a person being an engaging or setting him apart unto God and it being evident from the Canon that this dedicating is wholly distinct from the baptismal dedication to be a Member of Christs Church we must hereby understand the Church to engage this Member upon her account to the service of Christ in like manner as when any Father shall give himself to the Lord as the Macedonians did 2 Cor. 8.5 and with diligent care shall warn and charge his Children to yield and devote themselves to God this is properly called his dedicating himself and his to the service of God And this sense is yet more evident from the office of Baptism where the Minister baptizing acting in the name of God saith in the singular number N. I baptize c. but saith in the plural number We receive this Child and do sign him c. acting herein in the name of the Rulers and other Members of the Catholick Church in Communion with us the whole body desiring and seeking the good of every member So that hereby there is as great an obligation laid upon this person baptized as the members of Christs body and the power of his Church can lay upon him by their relation to him interest in him and authority over him 8. Defence of three Cerem Par. Ch. 2. Sec. 7. With much agreeableness to this sense Bishop Morton declared that the Child is dedicated to God by consecration in Baptism which is a Sacrament of Grace but the dedication which is fignified by the sign of the Cross is not by any proper consecration to God or tender of grace received from God by such a sign made but is a declarative token of duty which afterwards the person baptized ought to perform concerning his constant and visible profession of the Christian Faith Bishop Fern saith Consider of Concernment Gh. 7. n. 7. Eccles Polit l. 5. Sec. 65. it signifieth the duty of the baptized and is to mind him of it and Mr. Hooker termeth it an admonition to glory in the service of Christ and a memorial of duty and a bar or prevention to keep from Apostacy 9. Now besides the Sacraments themselves it is very useful and needful to admit other means of memorial and solemn charge to engage men to the faithful service of God who are too prone to be negligent therein Though all Abrahams Family were circumcised God had a special favour for Abraham because he would command his Children and Houshold after him Gen. 18.18 19. and they would keep the way of the Lord. And though in Joshua's time the Israelites were circumcised Josh 24.22.27 and kept the Passover and had their Sacrifices and publick general Assemblies before the Tabernacle yet Joshua did further solemnly engage them to God and set up a stone as a witness thereof And when S. Paul mentioned the good profession which Timothy made before many witnesses 1 Tim. 6.12 13. he thought fit to add a solemn charge unto Timothy in the sight of God and Jesus Christ which requireth him to answer that profession Wherefore since such a charge is in it self very useful if as members we have that due value we ought to have for the body of Christs Church that engagement charge or expectation which hath a concurrent force and influence both from the Rulers and from multitudes of other members of that body must be thought the most solemn and weighty of all other 10. That in so considerable a Case some significant rite is very expedient to add to the solemnity thereof is sufficiently proved by the common wisdom of Mankind when they commit to others any great charge and by the prudence of the ancient Church in this very particular And this rite of the sign of the Cross is upon many accounts very proper for this purpose because it is apt to suggest to our minds the remembrance of the name of Christ which was anciently signified by chi the first letter of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the old form of which letter was this †as appeareth from an ancient Inscription proâ—â—ced by Scaliger and of the Passion of our blessed Saviour upon the Cross Scalig. Animad in Euseh p. 110 120. and of the nature of Christianity in taking up his Cross and also because it was a sign to this end honourably used by the Primitive Christians And our Church hath taken abundant care to prevent all superstitiousness in the use hereof both by appointing it after the person is baptized and received as both the Office of Baptism and the Canon expresseth and by the
Declaration of its true intent and end which is therewith expressed 11. I know that some persons have asserted as from Irenaeus Iren. adv Haer. l. 1. c. 1. that the Original use of the sign of the Cross was received in the Church from the Valentinians who used it as the fan of Christ to purge away sin but these things are much misrepresented there being nothing at all in Irenaeus to this purpose Only concerning the Valentinians who indeed were no Christians but by a strange medley from names used in Christianity and Gentilisme and from their own fancies they framed a Theogonia of Aeones which they called their Pleroma Irenaeus with whom Tertullian agreeth Tertul. adv Valentin c. 9. saith that the Keeper of this Pleroma was Horus who among other names was also called Stauros or Crux Lytrotes or Redemptor and of him they interpreted those words of S. Matthew his fan is in his hand So that all this referred not to the sign of the Cross but to an imaginary person who was an Idol of Valentinus his brain 12. But though the true original of the Christian use of this sign be above expressed Justin Apol. 2. adv Tryphon Tertul. de Bapt. c 8. Adv. Jud. c. 10. Barnab Ep. p. 136. what is produced by the ancient Writers of this sign being prefigured in the Old Testament by the roasting the Paschal Lamb the Serpent upon the Pole the form of the hands of Jacob in blessing the Sons of Joseph and of Moses hands being lifted up which Barnabas expresseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is far more considerable than the mistaken matter of this objection And whereas the mark upon the forehead Ezek. 9.4 was accounted by Theodotion and by Aquila as Origen relateth by the Vulgar Latin and the ancient latin Version used by Tertullian to be the mark of the Letter Thau which is the word there used in the Hebrew both S. Hierom who himself understood the Samaritan Character which was anciently used by the Jews and Origen from the relation of a converted Jew declare that the old form of 〈…〉 Thau was in the figure of a 〈◊〉 And though Scaliger in his learned â—â—â—â—dversions upon Eusebius averreth Animad v. p. 117. that this was their mistake concerning the Samaritan Character yet the truth of what they asserted may appear from the old Alphabet collected out of their ancient Medals by Bishop Walton which is different from the Vulgar Characters And I may add that the Aaronical Priesthood under the Law which prefigured Christ Kerith f. 5. in Buxt Lex Rab. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 received their Vnction in the form of a Cross or the Greek Chi as both the Talmud and all the Jewish Rabbins do declare those Rabbins who seem to dissent being reconciled to this assertion by the reasonable interpretation of Simeon de Muis. S. de Muis Var. Sacr. in Abarb. in Ex. 30. Sozom. l. 7. c. 15. Baron an 389. n. 99. Just Mart. Apol. 2. Sylburg ibidem And the form or sign of a Cross was an Hieroglyphick of the life to come among the Aegyptians and a character of wisdom among the Platonists And all these things speaking an honourable use of this sign before the time of Christ though they were not chief reasons of the Christians usage might well be providentially ordered for the advantage of Christianity it being particularly related by Sozomen that the Conversion of divers Pagans was occasioned thereby 13. Obj. 2 As for them who would charge this Rite because of its signification with being a new Sacrament I have sufficiently discovered the palpable erroneousness of that conceit in a former Chapter Ch. 2. Se. 1. 14. And whereas some disapprove this sign because it hath been abused by the Church of Rome I have given a sufficient answer to this in the fourth Section of the same Chapter And he who would censure an useful and piously ordered sign of admonition and memorial because a superstitious operative use of the same transient sign is not allowable must condemn things greatly different as if they were the same As if because Gideons Ephod was abused when it was made an Idol the use of an Ephod by Samuel and David for the decent service of God must be also insufferable and because the image of Caesar set up to be worshipped is abominable therefore his image stamped upon the Coin must not be tolerated And there is as much reason to condemn wholesom and profitable words from some persons making an ill use thereof as to condemn useful actions and gestures for the same cause 15. They who censure this Rite because it is used so soon after Baptism it self as an attendant thereupon supposing that no significative rite may be lawfully received so nearly attending upon any Sacrament they also build upon a very false and groundless supposition as if the Love-kiss and the Agapae were not so used in the Apostolical times with reference to the Lords Supper and the trinal mersion in Baptism both in the Primitive and most reformed Churches Yea I would appeal to every indifferent mans Conscience whether if a Father being solicitously careful of the eternal welfare of his Son and having nurtured him in the fear of God and lived to see him receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper should give his Son some token so soon as be cometh from that Sacrament requiring him to keep the same as a memorial of his Fathers charge upon him to mind the service of God and the Christian life and Unity to which he is further obliged by the receiving that Sacrament I say I would appeal to such a man whether he durst condemn this action as sinful meerly because this charge and token hath some reference to the Sacrament And this rite of our Church hath many advantages above this instance both in the higher authority of the Church the greater simplicity of the rite it self and the relation it beareth to the pattern and example of Primitive Christianity 16. Among the Protestants the Lutheran Churches retain not only this but some other Rites in the office of Baptism which are not received in the Church of England And though many other Reformed Churches do not use this sign yet they condemn it not nor do they herein censure either the Church of England or those of the Augustane Confession It hath been observed partly by Mr. Hooker and partly by Mr. Durel Goulart in Ep. 56. Cypr. c. 7. that Goulartius declared this Ceremony to be indifferent in its nature but said it was not necessary now for all Christians to observe it by those words rather modestly defending the practice of Geneva as Mr. Hooker expresseth it in a way of excuse than expressing any dislike of them who without superstition do retain it Exercit. in Bar. 13. n. 33. Isaac Casaubone when he wrote his exercitations expresseth an approbation of this Rite in the Church of England Buc.