World apostatized from the true only and proper object of all Religious Worship Worship yet they retained this Mode and Medium of it These Sacrifices we are told p. 101. did not owe their Original unto any Divine Institution but were made choice of by good men as a fit way of imitating the gratefull resentments of their minds The Argument alone as far as I can find fixed on to firm this Assertion is that those who teach the contrary and say that this Mode of Worship was commanded do say so without proof or evidence Our Author for the most part sets off his Assertions at no less rate than as such without whose admittance all Order and Government and almost every thing that is Good amongst mankind would be ruined and destroyed But he hath the unhappiness to found them ordinarily not only on Principles and Oâ—â—nions dubious and uncertain but on suâ—â— Paradoxes as have been by sober and learâ—â—ed men generally decried Such is this 〈◊〉 the Original of Sacrifices here insisted oâ— The Divines of the Church of Rome do gâ—â—nerally contend that Religion and Sacrificâ— are so related that the one cannot be withâ—out the other Hence they teach Goâ— would have required Sacriâ—ices in the Stâ— of Innocency had mankind continued therein And though the Instance be ill laid and not proved yet the general Rule applyed unto the Religion of Sinners is noâ— easily to be evicted For as in Christian Religion we have a Sacrifice that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to its Efficacy alwayes newly offered and living so before the Personal Offering of it in the body of Chirst there was no season or Age without a due Representation of it in Sacrifices Typical and of Mystical signification And although there be no express mention in the Scripture of their Institution for these are ancient things yet there is as good warrant for it as for Offering and burning Incense only with Sacred fire taken from the Altar which was of an Heavenly traduction for a neglect whereof the Priests were consumed with fire from before the Lord that is though an express command be not recorded for their Institution and Observation yet enough may be collected from the Scripture that they were of a Divine Extract and Original And if they were arbitrary Inventions of some men I desire to have a rational account given me of their Catholicism in the World and one Instance more of any thing not Natural or Divine that ever prevailed to such an absolute universal acceptance amongst Mankind It is not so safe I suppose to assign an arbitrary Original unto any thing that hath obtained an universal Consent and Suffrage lest men be thought to set their own houses on fire on purpose to consume their Neighbours Besides no tolerable colour can be given to the Assertion that they were the invention of good men The first notice we have of them is in those of Cain and Abel whereof one was a bad man and of the Evil One and yet must be looked on as the principal Inventor of Sacrifices if this fiction be allowed Some of the Antients indeed thought that Adam Sacrificed the Beasts to God whose Skins his first Garments were made of and if so he was very pregnant and sudden in his invention if he had no direction from God But more than all this bloody Sacrifices were Types of Christ from the Foundation of the World and Socinus himself who and his followers are the principal Assertors of this paradox grants that Christ is called the Lamb of God with respect unto the Sacrifices of old even before the Law As He is termed A Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World not only with respect unto the Efficacy of his Sacrifice but to the Typical Representation of it And he that shall deny that the Patriarchs in their Sacrifices had respect unto the promised Seed will endeavour the shaking of a Pillar of the Churches Creed Now I desire to know how men by their own Invention or Authority could assign such an end unto their Sacrifices if they were not of Divine Prescription if not designed of God thereunto Again the Apostle tells us Abel offered his Sacrifice by Faith Heb. 11. 4. And Faith hath respect unto the Testimony or God revealing commanding and promising to accept our duty Wherever any thing is done in Faith there an Assent is included to this that God is True Joh. 3. 33. And what it doth is thereby distinguished from Will-Worship that is resolved into the Commandments and Doctrines of men which whoso rest on make void the Commandment of God Matth. 15. 3 6. And the Faith of Abel as to its general Nature was the Evidence of things not seen and the Substance of things hoped for Heb. 11. 1. which in this matter it could not be if it had neither Divine Command nor Promise to rest upon It is evident therefore that Sacrifices were of a divine Original and the Instance in them to prove that the Outward Worship of God hath in all Ages been left unto the Prudence and Management of men is feeble and such as will give no countenance unto what it is produced in the Justification of And herewith the whole Discourse of our Author on this Subject falls to the ground where I shall at present let it lye though it might in sundry Particulars be easily crumbled into useless Asseverations and some express Contradictions In the close of this Chapter an Application is made of what hath been before argued or rather dictated unto a particular Controversie about significant Ceremonies I am not willing to engage in any Contests of that Nature seeing to the due handling of them a greater length of Discourse would be necessary than I think meet at present to draw forth this Survey unto Only seeing a very few words may serve to manifest the loosness of what is here Discoursed to that purpose I shall venter on the Patience of the Reader witâ— an addition of them We have therefore in the first place a Reflection on the prodigious Impertinency of the clamour against thâ— Institution of significant Ceremonies when iâ— is the only use of Ceremonies as all other outward Expressions of Religion to be Significanâ— I do somewhat admire at the Temper of this Author who cannot express his disserâ—â— from others in Controverted Points of the Meanest and Lowest concernment but with crying out Prodigies Clamours Impertinencies and the like Expressions of Astonishment in himself and Contempt of others He might reserve some of these great Words for more important occasions But yet I joyn with him thus faâ— in what he pleads that Ceremonies instituted in the Worship of God that art not significant are things very insignificant and such as deserve not the least contention about them He truly also in the next words tells us that all outward Worship is a sign of inward Honour It is so both in Civil things and Sacred All our Questionis How these
and not of this World though exercised in it having their respect only unto Eternity and by their being taken into the sole disposal of the Soveraign Lord of Consciences who hath accompanied His Commands concerning them with His own Promises and Threatnings plainly exempted should have power over the Consciences of men so to lay their Commands upon them in these spiritual things as to back them with Temporal Corporal Restraints and Punishments is a way of Arguing that will not be confined unto any of those Rules of reasoning which hitherto we have been instructed in When the Magistrate hath an Arm like God and can Thunder with a Voice like Him when he judgeth not after the sight of his eyes nor reproveth after the hearing of his ears when he can smile the Earth with the Rod of his Mouth and slay the Wicked with the breath of his Lipps when he is constituted a judge of the Faith Repentance and Obedience of men and of their Efficacy in their Tendency unto the pleasing of God here and the Enjoyment of Him hereafter when Spiritual Things in order to their Eternal Issues and Effects are made subject unto Him in brief when he is Christ let him act as Christ or rather most unlike Him and guide the Consciences of men by Rods Axes and Halters whereunto alone his power can reach who in the mean time have an express command from the Lord Christ Himself not to have their Consciences influenced in the least by the consideration of these things Of the like Complexion is the ensuing Discourse wherein our Author p. 43. having spoken contemptuously of the Spiritual Institutions of the Gospel as altogether insufficient for the Accomplishment of the Ends whereunto they are designed forgeting that they respect only the Consciences of men and are his Institutions who is the Lord of their Consciences and who will give them power and efficacy to attain their Ends when administred in his name and according to his mind and that because they are His would prove the necessity of Temporal coercions and penalties in things Spiritual from the Extraordinary Effects of Excommunication in the primitive times in the Vexation and punishment of persons Excommunicate by the Devil This work the Devil now ceasing to attend unto he would have the Magistrate to take upon him to supply his place and Office by punishments of his own Appointment and Infliction and so at last to be sure of giving him full measure he hath ascribed two Extreams unto him about Religion namely to act the part of God and the Devil But as this Inference is built upon a very uncertain conjecture namely that upon the giving up of persons to Satan in Excommunication there did any visible or Corporal Vexation of them by his power ensue or any other effects but what may yet be justly expected from an Influence of his Terrour on the minds of men who are duly and regularly cast out of the visible Kingdom of Christ by that censure and whereas if there be any truth in it it was confined unto the dayes of the Apostles and is to be reckoned amongst the miraculous Operations granted to them for the first confirmation of the Gospel and the continuance of it all the time the Church wanted the Assistance of the Civil Magistrate is most unduly pretended without any colour of Proof or Instance beyond such as may be evidenced to continue at this day supposing it to be true the Inference made from it as to its consequence on this concession is exceeding weak and feeble For the Argument here amounteth to no more but this God was pleased in the dayes of the Apostles to confirm their Spiritual Censures against Stuborn Sinners Apostates Blasphemers and such like hainous Offenders with extraordinary spiritual Punishments so in their own nature or in the manner or way of their Infliction therefore the Civil Magistrate hath power to appoint things to be observed in the Worship of God and forbid other things which the Light and Consciences of men directed by the Word of God require the observation of upon ordinary standing corporal penalties to be inflicted on the outward man quod erat demonstrandum To wind up this Debate I shall commit the Vmpirage of it to the Church of England and receive her Determination in the words of one who may be supposed to know her sense and Judgement as well as any one who lived in his dayes or since And this is Doctor Bilson Bishop of Winchester a Learned man skilled in the Laws of the Land and a great Adversary unto all that dissented from Church Constitutions This man therefore treating by way of Dialogue in answer to the Jesuites Apologie and Defence in the Third Part p. 293. thus introduceth Theophilus a Protestant Divine arguing with Philander a Jesuite about these matters Theoph. As for the Supream Head of the Church it is certain that Title was first transferred from the Pope to King Henry the eighth by the Bishops of your side not of ours And though the Pastors in King Edwards time might not well dislike much less disswade the style of the Crown by Reason the King was under years and so remained until he dyed yet as soon as it pleased God to place her Majesty in her Fathers Throne the Nobles and Preachers perceiving the words Head of the Church which is Christs proper and peculiar honor to be offensive unto many that had vehemently refelled the same in the Pope besought her Highness the meaning of that word which her Father had used might be expressed in some plainer and apter terms And so was the Prince called Supream Governour of the Realm that is Ruler and Bearer of the Sword with lawful Authority to command and punish answerable to the Word of God in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or Causes as well as in Temporal And no Forreign Prince or Prelate to have any Jurisdiction Superiority Preheminence or Authority to establish prohibit correct and chastise with Publick Laws or Temporal Fains any Crimes or Causes Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within her Realm Philand Calvin saith this is Sacriledge and Blasphemy Look you therefore with what Consciences you take that Oath which your own Master so mightily detesteth Theoph. Nay look you with what faces you alledge Calvin who maketh that style to be sacrilegious and blassphemous as well in the Pope as in the Prince reason therefore you receive or refuse his Judgement in both If it derogate from Christ in the Prince so it doth in the Pope Yet we grant the sense of the word Supream as Calvin perceived it by Stephen Gardiners Answer and behaviour is very blasphemous and injurious to Christ and his Word whether it be Prince or Pope that so shall use it What this sense is he declares in the words of Calvin which are as followeth in his Translation of them That Jugler which after was Chancelor I mean the Bishop of Winchester when he was at Rentzburge neither would
their expression of Gospel Mysteries not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the Holy-Ghost teacheth comparing spiritual things with Spiritual As these things may and will be made evident when particulars shall be instanced in When I say these things are discovered and laid open there will be a composure possibly of those affections and disdainful thoughts which these swelling words may have moved in weak and unexperienced minds It may be also it will appear that upon a due consideration there will be little subject matter remaining to be Enacted in that Law or Act of Parliament which he moves for unless it be from that uncouth motion that men may be obliged to speak sense as well as truth seeing hitherto it hath been supposed that every Proposition that is either true or false hath a proper and determinate sense and if sense it have not it can be neither I shall only crave leave to say that as to the Doctrine which they Preach and the manner of their Preaching or the way of expressing those Doctrines or Truths which they believe and teach the Non-Conformists appeal from the rash false and invidious charge of this Author to the judgement of all learned judicious and pious men in the world and are ready to defend them against himself and whosoever he shall take to be his Patrons or his Associates before any equal competent and impartial Tribunal under Heaven It is far from me to undertake the absolute defence of any party of men or of any man because he is of any party whatever much less shall I do so of all the individual persons of any party and least of all as to all their Expressions private Opinions and peculiar ways of declaring them which too much abound among persons of all sorts I know there is no party but have weak men belonging to it nor any men amongst them but have their weaknesses failings and mistakes And if there are none such in the Churcb of England I mean those that universally comply with all the Observances at present used therein I am sure enough that there are so amongst all other parties that dissent from it But such as these are not principally intended in these aspersioâ—s nor would their Adversaries much rejoyce to have them known to be and esteemed of all what they are But it is others whom they aim to expose unto contempt and in the behalf of them not the mistakes misapprehensions or undue expressions of any private persons these things are pleaded But let us see if their Prayers meet with any better entertainment an Account of his thoughts about them he gives us p. 19. It is the most solemn strain of their devotion to vilifie themselves with large Confessions of the hainousest and most aggravated sins They will freely acknowledge their Offences against all the Commands and that with the foulest and most enhancing circumstances they can rake together and confess their injustice uncleanness and extortion and all the Publican and Harlot sins in the world In brief in all their Confessions they stick not to charge themselves with such large Catalogues of sin and to amass together such as heap of Impieties as would make up the compleatest character of lewdness and villany and if their Consciences do really arraign them of all those crimes whereof they so familiarly indite themselves there are no such guilty and unpardonable Wretches as they So that their Confessions are either true or false if false then they fool and trifle with the Almighty if true then I could easily tell them the fittest place to say their prayers in I confess this passage at its first perusal surprized me with some amazement It was unexpected to me that he who designed all along to charge his Adversaries with Pharisaism and to render them like unto them should instance in their Confession of Sin in their prayers when it is even a Characteristical note of the Pharisees that in their prayers they made no confession of sin at all But it was far more strange to me that any man durst undertake the reproaching of poor sinners with the deepest acknowledgement of their sins before the holy God that they are capable to conceive or utter Is this thought I the Spirit of the men with whom the Non-Conformists do contend and upon whose Instance alone they suffer Are these their Apprehensions concerning God sin themselves and others Is this the Spirit wherewith the Children of the Church are acted Are these things suited to the principles Doctrines practices of the Church of England Such reproaches and reflections indeed might have been justly expected from those poor deluded souls who dream themselves perfect and free from sin but to meet with such a Treaty from them who say or sing O God the Father of Heaven have mercy upon us miserable sinners at least three times a Week was some surprizal However I am sure the Non-Conformists need return no other answer to them who reproach them for vilifying themselves in their Confessions to God but that of David to Michal It is before the Lord and we will yet be more vile than thus and will be base in our own sight Our Author makes no small stir with the pretended censures of some whom he opposes namely that they should esteem themselves and their Party to be the Elect of God all others to be reprobates themselves and theirs to be godly and all others ungodly wherein I am satisfied that he unduely chargeth those whom he intends to reflect upon However I am none of them I do not judge any Party to be All the Elect of God or all the Elect of God to be confined unto any Party I judge no man living to be a Reprobate though I doubt not but that there are living men in that condition I confine not holiness or godliness to any Party not to the Church of England nor to any of those who dissent from it but am perswaded that in all Societies of Christians that are under Heaven that hold the head there are some really fearing God working righteousness and accepted with him But yet neither my own judgement nor the Reflections of this Author can restrain me from professing that I fear that he who can thus trample upon men scoff at and deride them for the deepest Confessions of their sins before God which they are capable of making is scarce either well acquainted with the holiness of God the evil of sin or the deceitfulness of his own heart or did not in his so doing take them into sufficient consideration The Church of England it self requires its Children to acknowledge their manifold sins and wickednesses which from time to time they have grievously committed by thought word and deed against the Divine Majesty and what in general others can confess more I know not If men that are through the light of Gods Spirit and Grace brought to an acquaintance with the deceitful workings of sin in their own hearts
of Worship and Obedience so far forth as it is from hâ—m and concerneth those things than any thing that comes from him by express vocal Revelation And this casts out of consideration a vain exception wherewith some men please themselves as though the men of this Opinion denyed the Admittance of what is from God and by the Light of Nature discovered to be his mind and will Let them once prove any thing in contest between them and their Adversaries to be required prescribed exacted or made necessary by the Light of Nature as the Will of God revealed therein and I will assure them that as to my concern there shall be an end of all difference about it But yet thâ—â— I may adde a little farther light into the sense of the Non-Conformists in this matter I say 1. That this inbred Light of Reason guides unto nothing at all in or about the Worship of God but what is more fully clearly and directly taught and declared in the Scripture And this may easily be evinced as from the untoward mixture of darkness and Corruption that is befallen our primigenial iâ—bred Principles of Light and Wisdom by the entrance of sin so also from the end of the Scripture it self which was to restore that knowledge of God and his mind which was lost by sin and which might be as useful to man in his lapsed condition as the other was in his pure and uncorrupted estate At present therefore I shall leave this Assertion in expectation of some instance in matters great or small to the contrary before I suppose it be obnoxious to question or dispute 2. As there can be no Opposition nor contradiction between the Light of Nature and inspired Vocal or Scriptural Revelation because they are both from God So if in any instance there should appear any such thing unto us neither Faith nor Reason can rest in that which is pretended to be natural Light but must betake themselves for their resolution unto express Revelation And the reason hereof is evident because nothing is natural light but what is common to all men and where it is denyed it is frustrated as to its ruling Efficacy Again it is mixed as we said before and it is not every mans work to separate the Chaffe from the Wheat or what God hath implanted in the mind of man when he made him upright and what is since soaked into the Principles of his Nature from his own inventions But this case may possibly very rarely fall out and so shall not much be insisted on 3. Our enquiry in our present contest is solely about Instituted Worship which we believe to depend on supernatural Revelation the light of Nature can no way relieve or guide us in it or about it because it refers universally to things above and beyond that light but only with reference unto those Moral Natural Circumstances which appertain unto those actings or actions of men whereby it is performed which we willingly submit unto its guidance and direction Again Vocal Revelation hath come under two considerations First As it was occasional Secondly As it became stated First As it was occasional For a long time God was pleased to guide his Church in many concerns of his Worship by fresh occasional Revelations even from the giving of the first promise unto Adam unto the solemn giving of the Law by Moses For although men had in process of time many stated Revelations that were preserved by Tradition among them as the first Promise the Institution of Sacrifices and the like yet as to sundry emergencies of his Worship and parts of it God guided them by new Occasional Revelations Now those Revelations being not recorded in the Scripture as being only for present or emergent use we have no way to know them but by what those to whom God was pleased so to reveal himself did practise and which on good testimony found acceptance with him Whatever they so did they had especial Warranty from God for which is the case of the great Institution of Sacrifices it self It is a sufficient Argument that they were Divinely instituted because they were graciously accepted Secondly Vocal Revelation as the Rule of Worship became stated and invariable in and by the giving and writing of the Law From thence with the allowances before mentioned we confine it to the Scripture and so unto all succeeding generations I confess many of our company who kept to us hitherto in granting Divine Revelation to be the sole Principle and Rule of Religious Worship now leave us and betake themselves to paths of their own The Postmisnicall Jews after many attempts made that way by their Predecessors both before and after the Conversation of our Lord Christ in the flesh at length took up a resolution that all obligatory Divine Revelation was not contained in the Scripture but was partly preserved by Orall Tradition For although they added a multitude of Observances unto what were prescribed unto their Fathers by Moses yet they would never plainly forego that Principle nor do to this day that Divine Revelation is the Rule of Divine Worship Wherefore to secure their Principle and practice and to reconcile them together which are indeed at an unspeakable variance they have fancied their Oral Law which they assert to be of no less certain and Divine Original than the Law that is written On this pretence they plead that they keep themselves unto the fore-mentioned Principle under the Superstition of a multitude of self-invented observances The Papists also here leave us but still with a semblance of adhering to that Principle which carryes so great and uncontrollable an evidence with it as that there are very few as was said who have hitherto risen up in a direct and open opposition unto it For whereas they have advanced a double Principle for the Rule of Religious Worship besides the Scripture namely Tradition and the present Determinations of their Church from thence educed they assert the first to be Divine or Apostolical which is all one and the latter to be accompanyed with Infallibility which is the formal Reason of our adherence and submission unto Divine Revelations So that they still adhere in general unto the fore-mentioned Principle however they have debauched it by their advancement of those other Guides But herein also we must do them right that they do not absolutely turn loose those two rude creatures of their own Traditions and present Church determinations upon the whole face of Religion to act therein at their pleasure but they secure them from whatever is determined in the written word affirming them to take place only in those things that are not contrary to the Word or not condemned in it For in such they conâ—ess they ought not nor can take place Which I doubt whether our Author will allow of or no in reference to the power by him asserted By Religious Worship in the Thesis above we understand as was said before instituted
For the Reason of things in matters Civil and Religious are not the same All political Government in theWorld consists in the exercise of Principles of natural Right and their just Application to Times Ages People Occasions and Occurences Whilest this is done Government is acted regularly to its proper end where this is missed it failes There things God hath left unto the prudence of men and their consent wherein they cannot for the most part faile unless they are absolutely given up unto unbridled lusts and the things wherein they may faile are alwaies convenient or inconvenient good and useful or hurrful and destructive not alwaies yea very seldome directly and in themselves morally Good or Evil. In such things mens ease and pofit not their Consciences are concerned In the Worship of God things are quite otherwise It is not Convenience or Inconvenience Advantage or disadvantage as to the things of this life but meerly Good or Evil in reference to the pleasing of God and to Ternity that is in question Particular Applications to the manners customes usages of places times Countreys which is the proper field of humane Authority Liberty and prudence in Civil things because their due useful and regular Administration dâ—â—pends upon them have here no placâ—â— For the things of the Worship of God bâ—â—ing Spiritual are capable of no variatioâ— from temporal earthly varieties amonâ— men have no respect to Climateâ— Customes Formes of Civil Governmenâ— or any thing of that Nature But conâ—sidering men quite under other notions namely of Sinners and Believers with respect utterly unto other ends namely their living spiritually unto God here and the eternal enjoyment of him hereafter are not subject to such prudential Accommodations or Applications The Worship of God is or ought to be the same at all times in all places and amongst all People in all Nations and the order of it is fixt and determined in all particulars that belong unto it And let not men pretend the contrary untill they can give an instance of any such defect in the Institutions of Christ as that the Worship of God cannot be carryed on nor his Church Ruled and Edified without an addition of something of their own for the supply thereof which therefore should and would be necessary to that end antecedent unto its addition and when they have so done I will subscribe unto whatsoever they shall be pleased to add of that or indeed any other kind â—ustomes of Churches and Rules of Decency which our Author here casts under the Magistrates power are ambiguous terms â—nd in no sense express the Hypothesis he â—ath undertaken the defence of In the proper signification of the words the â—hings intended may fall under those natural Circumstances wherein Religious Actions in the Worship of the Church may have their concern as they are Actions and are disposable by humane Authority But he will not I presume so soon desert his fundamental Principle of the Magistrates appointing things in and parts of Religious Worship no where described or determined in the Word of God which alone we have undertaken to oppose The instances he also gives us about Actions in their own nature and use indifferent as going to Law or taking Physick are not in the least to his purpose And yet if I should say that none of these Actions are indeed indifferent in actu exercito as they speak and in their individual performance but have a Moral good or evil as an inseparable Adjunct attending them arising out of respect to some Rule general or particular of Divine Revelation I know he cannot disâ—prove it and much more is not pleade concerning Religious Worship But this Principle is further charge with mischief equal to its folly which iâ—â—proved by instances in sundry uninstituted Observances both in the Jewish anâ— primitive Christian Churches as also iâ— Protestant Churches abroad I answer that if this Author will consent to Umâ—pire these differences by either the Old or New Testament or by any Protestant Church in the World we shall be nearer an end of them than as far as I can see yet otherwise we are If he will not be bound neither to the Example of the Church of the Jews nor of the Churches of the New-Testament nor of the present Protestant Churches it must he confessed that their names are here made use of only for a pretence and an Advantage Under the Old Testament we find that all that God required of his Church was that they should observe the Law of Moses his Servant which he commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel with his Statutes and Judgements Mal. 4. 4. And when God had given out his Institutions and the whole Order of his Worship it being fixed in the Church accordingly it is added eight or ten times â—n one Chapter that this was done as â—he Lord commanded Moses even so did he Exod. 40. After this God gives them many strict prohibitions from adding any thing to what he had so commanded as Deut. 4. 2. and Chap. 12. 32 Prov. 30. 6. And as he had in the Decalogue rejected any Worship not of his own appointment as such Exod. 20. 4 5. so he made it afterwards the Rule of his acceptation of that People and what they did or his refusal of them and it whether it was by him commanded or no. So in Particular he expresly rejects that which was so added as to dayes and times and places though of the nearest Affinity and Cognation to what was appointed by himself because it was invented by man yea by a King 1 Kings 12. 33. And when in process of time many things of an uncertain original were crept into the observance of the Church and had firmed themselves with the notion of Traditions they were all at once rejected in that word of the blessed Holy One in â—ain do ye Worship me teaching for doctrines that is what is in my Worship to be observed the traditions of men For the Churches of the New Testament the foundation of them is laid iâ— that command of our Saviour Matt 28. 20. go and Teach all Nations teacâ—â—ing them to observe and do all whatsoever command you and so I am with you to thâ— end of the world That they should bâ— taught to do or observe any thing buâ— what he commanded that his presencâ— should accompany them in the teaching oâ— observation of any superadditions of their own we no where find written intimated or exemplified by any practice of theirs Nor however in that juncture of time the like whereunto did never occurt before nor ever shall do again during the expiration and taking down of Mosaical Institutions before they became absolutely unlawful to be observed the Apostles according to the liberty given them by our Lord Jesus Christ and direction of the Holy Ghost did practise some things complyant with both Church-states did they in any one instance impose any thing on the practice of the Churches in the
them in the justification of this principle Infinite certainty on his own part pag. 193. baffled and intolerable impertinencies weak and puny Arguments Cavils of a few hot-headed and brainsick people with other opprobrious expressions of the like nature filling up a great part of his leaves are what he can afford unto those whom he opposeth But yet I am not for all this bluster well satisfied much less infinitely certain that he doth in any competent measure understand aright the Controversie about which he treats with all this wrath and confidence For the summ of all that here he pleads is no more but this that the Circumstances of Actions in particular are various and as they are not so they cannot be determined by the Word of God and therefore must be ordered by humane Prudence and Authority which if he suppose that any men deny I shall the less wonder at his severe Reflections upon them though I shall never judge them necessary or excusable in any case whatever Pag. 198. He imposeth it on others that lye under the power of this perswasion That they are obliged in conscience to act contrary to whatever their Superiours command them in the Worship of God which further sufficiehtly evidenceth that either be understands not the Controversie under debate or that he believes not himself in what he saith which because the harsher imputation I shall avoid the owning of in the least surmise Section 6. From the Concession that the Magistrate may take care that the Laws of Christ be executed that is command and require his Subjects to observe the commands of Christ in that way and by such means as those commands from the nature of the things themselves and according to the Rule of the Gospel may be commanded and required he infers that he hath himself power of making Laws in Relâ—â—gion But why so And how doth thiâ— follow Why saith he It is apparently imâ—plyed because whoever hath a power to see the Laws be executed cannot be without a powâ—â— to command their execution Very good but the conclusion should have been he cannot be without a power to make Laws is the matter about which he looks to the execution which would be good Doctrine for Justices of the Peace to follow But what is here laid down is nothing but repeating of the same thing in words a little varied as if it had been said He that hath power to see the Laws executed or a power to command their execution he hath power to see the Laws executed or a power to command their execution which is very true And this we acknowledge the Magistrate hath in the way before declared But that because he may do this he may also make Laws of his own in Religion it doth not at all follow from hence whether it be true or no. But this is further confirmed from the nature of the Laws of Christ which have only declared the substance and morality of Religious Worship and therefore must needs have left the ordering of its circumstances to the power and wisdom of lawful Authority The Laws of Christ which are intended are those which he hath given concerning the Worship of God That these have determined the morality of Religious Worship I know not how he can well allow who makes the Law of Nature to be the measure of Morality and all Moral Religious Worship And for the substance of Religious Worship I wish it were well declared what is intended by it For my part I think that whatever is commanded by Christ the Observation of it is of the substance of Religious Worship else I am sure the Sacraments are not so Now do but give men leave as rational creatures to observe those commands of Christ in such a way and manner as the nature of them requires them to be observed as he hath himself in general Rules prescribed as the concurrent actions of many in society make necessary and all this Controversie will be at an end When a duty as to the kind of it is commanded in particular or instituted by Christ in the Worship of God he hath given general Rules to guide us in the individual performance of it as to the circumstances that the actions whereby it is performed will be attended withal For the disposal of those circumstances according to those Rules prudence is to take place and to be used For men who are obliged to act as men in all other things are not to be looked on as Brutes in what is required of them in the Worship of God But to institute Mystical Rites and fixed forms of Sacred Administrations whereof nothing in the like kind doth necessarily attend the acting of instituted Worship it not to determine circumstances but to ordain new parts of Divine Worship and such Injunctions are here confessed by our Author pag. 191. to be new and distinct commands by themselves and to enjoyn something that the Scripture no where commands which when he produceeth a Warranty for he will have made a great progress towards the determining of the present Controversie Page 192. He answers an Objection consisting of two branches as by him proposed whereof the first is that it cannot stand with the love and wisdom of God not to take order himself for all things that immediately concern his own Worship and Kingdom Now though I doubt not at all but that God hath so done yet I do not remember at present that I have read any imposing the necessity hereof upon him in answer to his Love and Wisdom I confess Valerianus Magnus a famous Writer of the Church of Rome tells us that never any one did so foolishly institute or order a Commonwealth as Jesus Christ must be thought to have done if he have not left one Supream Judge to determine the faith and Consciences of men in matters of Religion and Divine Worship And our Author seems not to be remote from that kind of reasoning who without an assignment of a power to that purpose contendeth that all things among men will run into confusion of so little concernment do the Scriptures and the Authority of God in them to some seem to be We do indeed thankfully acknowledge that God out of his Love and Wisdom hath ordered all things belonging to his Worship and Spiritual Kingdom in the world And we do suppose we need no other Argument to evince this Assertion but to challenge all men who are otherwise minded to give an instance of any defect in his Institutions to that purpose And this we are the more confirmed in because those things which men think good to add unto them they dare not contend that they are parts of his Worship or that they are added to supply any defect therein Neither did ever any man yet say that there is a defect in the divine Institutions of Worship which must be supplyed by a Ministers wearing Surplice All then that is intended in this consideration though not urged as is