their Salvation and be undoubtedly saved Nothing more Positive than this can be said upon a Matter In the two foregoing Heads something there was to this purpose to say it once should have been enough but twice is too much again to say as if by Baptism the Child had been infallibly adopted c. for our Lord Jesus doth not deny his Grace and Mercy to such Infants this is too positive how can he tell it One may charitably believe it yet not be true the same Caution must be observed in the Exhortation following doubt ye not therefore but do earnestly believe that c. If this was by way of prayer as we beseech thee to regenerate to receive into the Number of thy Children this Child c. or if it was said we charitably believe it would be well but to say so peremptorily that it is certain by the Word of God but no such thing in the Word of God on the contrary this sets up two Popish Errors first Necessity of Baptism to Salvation as if one could not be saved without it hence they exclude from Heaven Children that die without Baptism the second Errour that the visible Sign doth confer the invisible Grace so that whosoever is baptized opere operato is thereby regenerated Whosoever eats the Bread and drinks the Wine eats and drinks the Body and Blood of Christ There are good Rules set in the Rubrick about Matrimony as asking of the Banes three several Sundays c which well observed would prevent abundance of Mischief by unlawful Marriages in the Words and Form it may be well till the Ceremony of the Ring put upon the fourth Finger of the Woman by the Man after it had been laid upon the Book with the Money due to the Minister and Clark indeed amids the Celebration 't is very undecent to bring in Money which might better be done before or after the Blessing but they will make sure of their Fees Then the Words spoken when the Ring is put upon the Finger With this Ring I thee wed with my Body I thee Worship c. are unbecoming that holy and solemn Institution it seems the Ring is made essential to the Marriage then joyning together the right Hands why the right rather than the left called that of the Heart The Minister may pronounce the Words but plighting the Troth and joyning of Hands are idle Ceremonies too much like a Play whether or not they be significant though necessary for the Minister as the Ground of his declaring them Husband and Wife The saying or singing a Psalm when going to the Communion Table then the Answers after it even the Communion at that time is not very proper neither repeating the Prayer after what was said in the Beginning that Marriage signifieth unto us the mystical Union of Christ with his Church All Forms of that Nature must be short full and becoming the Gravity and Majesty of the Ordinance Concerning the Visitation of the sick those Answers at the Beginning do much smell of the Popish Priest who hardly goes about any Part of his Office but always hath with him his Clark to answer at Mass and elsewhere Surely upon this Occasion it should be left to the Prudence of the Minister to use his Gift of Prayer according to the Nature of the Disease to the Shortness or Length of it and the Temper and Condition he finds the Patient in by Discourse and Conversation first with Comfort and Exhortations suitable with that State he finds him in and after with Prayer 't is strange that upon such Occasions a Minister should be only doctus in libro and very sad he can or must not pray comfort a Patient nor hardly preach or execute any other Part of his Ministry without Book then 't is not possible to pen a Prayer that at all times and Places can reach every Patients Case The special Confession required of the Patient is too much like Popery but the following Absolution of the Priest is very strange amongst Protestants specially these Words and by the Authority committed to me I absolve thee from all thy Sins Upon Condition of Repentance a Minister may declare a Sinner absolved but not absolve him these are the very Words used by Popish Priests by Christ's Authority committed to me how hard is it to walk upon the burning Coales and not burn his Feet And though the following Prayer be very good and fit for the Occasion yet after a positive Absolution of all Sins it is preposterous and had been better placed before Now to see a Minister coming into a sick Man's Room with a Book in his Hand is the true Posture of a Popish Priest upon such an occasion stinted to it About the Burial of the Dead We ought upon this account to be very shy not to do any thing seeming to favour Popish Errors about the dead The Truth is what in that and some other things we do we have taken it from them A Sermon is what in such an Occasion may be allowed or a general Discourse about Mortality and Preparation for Death but we exceed and go too far as first for the Minister to meet the Body at 〈◊〉 certain Place then for him and his Clark perfectly after the Popish Way to sing either into the Church or towards the Grave the Words therein set down then when they are come to the Grave for Priest and Clark to sing another Tune The Word sing is expressed then a third one while the Earth is cast upon the Body afterwards a fourth Scene all too far and beyond the Modesty and Simplicity upon such an Occasion to be used Of churching of Women Upon this Occasion Thanks to God may be returned but not in that Formal Way which we retain from Popery and which they had from the Jewish Purification all which kind of Ceremonies ought to be abstained from That Law lasted until John and in the Time of the Apostles did wear off by degrees but an ill Circumstance is mentionen last of all still there is Money in the Case the Woman must offer accustomed Offerings not to God but to the Minister God must be satisfied with Thanks but the Priest must have Money this indeed is to make a House of Merchandise of the Church I should also have taken notice how in the foregoing Answers Repetitions ought to be avoided things follow one another with little Relation or hardly any Connexion All this was extracted out of a prayer-book printed in 1645 but in that now used which was published in Charles II's Days we find some Alterations yet something more than in the Former In the preface are contained some uncharitable and unjust Reflections against Nonconformists called Men given to Change who always discovered a greater Regard to their own private Fancies and Interests than to that Duty they owe to the publick and at the latter End they are called Men of factious peevish and perverse Spirits a very hard
instead of adorning them as pretended broken Unity under the Notion of settling Uniformity All which mischiefs might easily be prevented if they would be prevailed to lay them aside They are inconvenient conveniency is esteemed when a thing after the consideration of all circumstances is found at least to bring with it more Good than Evil but our Ceremonies by Experience have brought more Evil than Good They can do hurt saith Beza but no good God knows saith Foxe they be the cause of much blindness and strife amongst Men they have been and still are notoriously abused unto Superstition The sum of the second Commandment is that in the Worship of God or Ceremonies thereabouts we are to devise nothing of our own head or borrow any thing of Heathenish or Idolatrous Rites our Ceremonies have an aptness to provoke to Superstition and Idolatry in Popish Countreys the Cross is an Idol Now as God hath forbidden to sowe the Field with mingled Seed Levit. 19.19 so in the Church there ought to be no mixture of Humane Inventions with God's Institutions Ceremonies borrowed from Idolaters such are Papists are vicious and superstitious Worship therefore not to be borrowed of them The Jews by God's Command Levit. 18.3 were not to live according to the Laws and Examples of other Nations The words of Pelicanus upon the place are remarkable God saith he by this one Law would have them cast away and abhor whatsoever in Worship had pleased the Gentiles much more care ought Christians to have of this who being taught to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth ought first and last to have abhorred the idle unreasonable and deceitful Forms and Rites of Idolaters which if the ancient Bishops had well considered the Church had never been pestered with so many prophane Rites and base Ceremonies by which it came to pass that some Christians differ little from Gentiles save in the Names of their Idols This is home and to the purpose this was commanded for detestation of Idolatry because Idolaters did so the Israelites may not do so In Ceremonies we must strictly hold to the Word of God least we transgress either in number or in form And the like Command is given in two several places of the New Testament 2 Cor. 6 14. Rev. 18.4 to shew we are bound to the same under the Gospel as they were under the Law nay God therein looks narrowly into the things that seems the least only that they should not be like the Heathens Ye shall not round the Corners of your Head Levit. 19.27 neither shalt thou mar the Corners of thy Beard We are commanded to keep our selves from Idols 1 John 5.21 and from Idolatry and Appearances of it or to have any thing to do with what hath been or is abused to Idolatry Such as I said before are our Ceremonies and so because unprofitable unnecessary dangerous hurtful and inconvenient ought to be abolished But this is not all they are unlawful because Will-Worship which is so expresly forbidden in the Word of God Deut. 4.2 which we must never add to nor diminish from God commanded Moses Heb. 8.5 See that thou make all things according to the Pattern shewed to thee in the Mount The true Worship is that appointed by God and the false is that not appointed by God for there is but two kinds of Worship First True and Good Secondly False and Evil That is the same which he hath commanded This is that which he hath not commanded and certainly Man's Inventions he hath not commanded but forbidden Tertullian saith That is forbidden which is not permitted That is we must account that not to be permitted by the Word against which any reasons out of the Word may be given though there be no particular Word against it Though there were free-will Offerings whence they would set up Will-Worship yet they were to be of such things as were manifestly known to be prescribed by God's revealed Will and so not the Offering but the undertaking of it at such a time or in such a measure was left unto the free Choice of Men according to occasion 'T is no Will-Worship to pray thrice or seven times a day to Preach once twice or thrice on Sabbath-day to Pray and Preach are necessary Duties but how often that comes under the necessary Circumstances of God's Worship as to Time and Place Prayer is expressly allowed by God's Word and the determination of it as to this or that time is to be ruled by Reason and these are the things which fall under that 1 Cor. 14. Such things are allowed as accessary parts of outward Worship but not such as Cross or Surplice Now all Humane Ceremonies imposed and observed as parts of God's Worship are unlawful and this is the true question We must Ceremonise saith Pelicanus only according to God's Word and Vrsin all feigned Worship is forbidden all Worship which is not of God but is set up by Men when Worship or Honour is feigned to be done to the true God in some work which he hath not enjoyned And Zanchi saith We may not Worship God with any other Worship though it be in the kind of External and Ceremonial than that which he hath required in the Holy Scripture to be worshipped by us These Ceremonies are Superstitious and this makes them also unlawful Now saith Vrsin Superstition is that which addeth Humane Inventions to Divine Precept 'T is a Will-Worship which is more than is appointed by the Law of God On Acts 17.4 saith Dr. Fulk And Perkins saith On the second Command Superstition is Worship of God without his Commandment they cannot wipe off the imputation of Superstition seeing they judge them necessary in their use though indifferent in their nature Thus a Minister may not read without a Surplice nor Baptise without the Sign of the Cross but their Superstition appeareth the more in that they make them to be significant Ceremonies which we shall have farther occasion to speak of They divide their Ceremonies into single and double and threefold the former are those whose use is only for Decency and Order the others serve also for Edification by some profitable signification but if all circumstances belonging to Time Place Persons Instruments of sacred Actions be sacred significant Ceremonies then not only the Clock but the leaden Weights of it not only the Ground which they do stand upon but also the Rushes by occasion strewed upon it the Besom the Minister's Black Cap or Perriwig his Beard c. shall be holy significant dumb and speaking Ceremonies dumb because unprofitable speaking idly in such a place When an Image of the blessed Virgin spake to Bernard in the Church Good morrow Bernard good morrow he answered O Madam you forget your Sex it is not lawful for a Woman to speak in the Church Just so should be silenced our idle significant Ceremonies the more because the Gospel is the
Censure so contrary to what Scripture prescribeth in matter of passing a Judgment upon others There is nothing of an healing Spirit which a little before and at the time of the Conferences in Worcester House only to have time to settle their Affairs and amuse others those Men pretended to But in the Head following concerning the Service of the Church are these Words The Service in this Church of England these many Years hath been read in Latin to the People whereby is meaned the Time of Popery so 't is called the same now as it was then namely the Church of England which I think is no great Credit or Honour to the present Church then it implieth the Service now used to be the same as 't was in those Days only with this Difference that then it was in Latin now in English So there is mention made of the Division of the Psalms into several Portions called a Nocturn and the Rules called the Pie which made the turning of the Book so intricate However though it hath suffered some Alterations in Substance 't is the same as it was in times of Popery only put in plainer Order and whereas heretofore there hath been a great Diversity in saying and singing in Churches within this Realm according to the Uses of Salisbury Hereford Bangor York Lincoln henceforth there shall be but one Vse namely the Romish or next to it in Cathedrals Collegial Chappels and the like In the following Rubrick an unnecessary and unrequired Leave is given to say in any Language understood Morning and Evening Prayers by which means the Latin is still continued but all Priests and Deacons 't is imposed upon to say it thus amongst Papists their Clergymen must say their Breviary which is meritorious Morning and Evening to pray to God is a necessary Duty incumbent upon all but I see no reason why one should always be stinted to such a Form In the proper Lessons is a Feast called Annunciation of our Lady it is not sufficiently expressed by the Name of the blessed Virgin Mary but our Lady Seeing they come upon those Terms they ought to have said which of the Ladies either of Egypt Loretto Monserrat and fifty more without Hyperbole which we could name for they are all Ladies with Churches dedicated to and Days appointed for them The Word Lady is not enough 't is common to so many though in the Word we read of one Lord Jesus Christ but of no Lady she should have been called Queen of Heaven and those great Titles given her in her Litany In a due and decent manner we honour her Memory and call her the most blessed amongst all Women but not in a Popish and Superstitious Way In the Kalender we are taught to reckon the Month after the Roman Way by Nonae Idus and Calend but to what purpose they know best In the manner of ordering of Priests and consecrating of Bishops we have Veni Creator Spiritus for those Words in Latin have a greater Emphasis and Energy than in English but not in ordering of Deacons that is used in the Conclave in the Election of a Pope which brings Infallibility in the Election Acts 24.23 and 1 Tim. 4.14 and 2 Tim. 1.6 when Paul and Barnabas ordered Elders or Ministers in every Church they prayed fasted and laid Hands upon them without any other Ceremony I should have said how their Way of Service in Cathedrals depriveth People of the Comfort of singing Psalms But we must return back to the Kalender there in red Letters we find King Charles Martyr and the 29th of May Observations upon the 30th of January and 29th of May in 1694. but I shall say nothing thereupon one not long ago having published something upon the matter and thus saved me that Trouble only I take notice he is in the 3 d. Collect of Evening Prayer mentioned in this Stile according to the Example of this thy blessed Martyr if a Martyr then of Hierarchy as his Son King James Confessor of Popery in the Morning Prayer 't is said instead of Venite exultemus for we cannot leave off our Latin shall the Psalm following be used called a Psalm a Mixture of broken Parts of Scripture Acts Jonah Lament and Baruch too and this one Verse by the Minister the next by the People so round about and the last Collect of the three the People to repeat it after the Minister The Service for Charles II's Birth and Restoration as to the Occasion Matter and Manner is a fit Match for this all alike I remember one thing I shall mention now we speak of Kings and that 's about Coronation wherein are observed some meerly Popish Fopperies which make Westminster Abbey so much like a Church in Rome or upon such an Occasion any Popish Church elsewhere the manner of laying the Regalia upon the Altar the bowing and cringings c. But I shall only speak of the anointing an idle Ceremony now formerly a Jewish one anointing of Priests Prophets and Kings under the Law were Typical all ended in the Lord Jesus Christ who yet though a Priest a Prophet and a King was not anointed with Oyl but with the Gifts and Graces thereby signified our Ministers or Priests as they call them should also be anointed as well as our Kings in this and that certain Parts of the Body rather than in another it is pity but that to perform so solemn an Action we should also have a miraculous Bottle of Oyl brought down from Heaven or a St. Ampoul that 's never diminished to anoint our Kings as the French pretend to as also till now they imitated them in touching for the King 's Evil however anointing may not be said to be essential to the Coronation Now to the manner of using the Prayer-book Why should the Minister read one Verse and the People with a loud Voice another which is against Decency and St. Paul's Rule not to speak all at once Why should the Doxology Glory be to the Father be repeated so often as well as the Lord's Prayer And why so divided as that the Minister should ever say one Half and the People the other Like Priest and Clark in Popery this to answer for the other Why should the Title of every Psalm be Latin Why is Simeon's Song called the Nunc dimittis The blessed Virgin 's to be known under the Name of Magnificat when we speak of the Rich Man to call him Dives Why Simon rather Magus than the Sorcerer If we be so fond to call things by Names in an unknown Language let it be in Hebrew or in Greek which are the original Tongues of Old and New Testament and not in Latin which with their Decrees is the Language of the Beast if in English we wanted Words to signifie things then there would be Cause to borrow of others but we are not brought to such Streights every one knows how all the Popish Service is in Latin wherein we still