that the Infidel and Impenitent were in a state of Life because he was baptized but that all that truly consent to the Covenant and signifie this by being baptized are saved So the Church of England saith that they receive no detriment by delaying Confirmation but it never said that they received no detriment by their Parents or Responses Infidelity or Hypocrisie or by their want of true Right coram Deo to be baptized Q. 39. What is the true meaning of Sponsors or Godfathers and is it lawful to make use of them Answ My Opinion is that they did both witness the probability of the Parents fidelity and also promised that if they should either apostaize or die they would see that the Children were piously educated If you take them but as the ancient Churches did for such as do attest the Parents fidelity in their perswasion and do promise first to mind you of your Duty and next to take care of their pious Education if you die I know no reason you have to scruple this much yea more it is in your power to agree with the Godfathers that they shall represent your own Persons and speak and promise what they do as your Deputies only in your Names and what have you against this Object When the Church-men mean another thing this is but to juggle with the World Answ How can you prove that the Authority that made or imposed the Liturgy meant any other thing 2. If the Imposers had meant ill in a thing that may be done well you may discharge your Conscience by doing it well and making a sufficient Profession of your better Sense As for the Antiquity of God-fathers the current consent of Historians assures us that Hyginus Bishop of Rome did first ordain God-fathers at the Baptism of Infants He lived but forty years after St John Preface to Infant Baptism Christ Direct p. 116. Part 3. Q. 41. Whether they are really baptized who are baptized according to the English Liturgy and Canons where the Parents seem excluded and those to consent for the Infant who have no power to do it Answ p. 117. That the Parents Consent is supposed though he be absent 2. The Parent is not required to be absent 3. The Reason of that Canon seems to be their jealousie lest any would exclude God-fathers 4. While the Church hath not declared what Person the Sponsors bear nor any farther what they are to do than to speak the Covenanting words and promise to see the pious Education of the Child the Parents may agree that the God-fathers shall do all this as their Deputies primarily and in their steads and secondly as Friends that promise their Assistance 5. While Parents really consent it is not their Silence that nullifieth the Covenant 6. All Parents are supposed and required to be themselves the Choosers of the Sponsors and Sureties and also to give notice to the Ministers before hand by which it appears their Consent is presupposed And though my own Judgment be that they should be the principal Covenanters for the Child expresly yet the want of that expresness will not make the Persons to be unbaptized Q. 42. How is the Holy Ghost given to Infants in Baptism whether all the Children of true Christians have inward sanctifying Grace c. Answ My judgment agreeth more in this with Davenant's than any others saving that he doth not appropriate the Benefits of Baptism to the Children of true Believers so much as I do And though by a Letter impleading Davenant's Cause I was the occasion of printing good Mr. Gataker's Answer to him yet I am still most inclined to his judgment Not that all the baptized but that all the baptized Seed of true Christians are pardoned justified adopted and have a title to the Spirit and Salvation And we must choose great Inconveniences if this Opinion be forsaken viz. That all Infants must be taken to be out of Covenant with God and to have no promise of Salvation whereas surely the Law of Grace as well as the Covenant of Works included all the Seed in their Capacity Of the Responses Q. 83. May the People bare a Vocal part in Worship and do any more than say Amen Answ The People bare an equal part in singing the Psalms which are Prayer and Praise and Instruction if they may do so in the Psalms in Metre there can be no reason given but they may lawfully do so in Psalms in Prose for saying them and singing them are but modes of Utterance and the ancient Singing was liker our Saying than our Tunes The Primitive Christians were so full of zeal and love to Christ that they would have taken it for an Injury and a quenching of the Spirit to have been wholly restrained from bearing their part in the Praises of the Church The use of the Tongue keepeth awake the Mind and stirreth up God's Graces in his Servants It was the decay of Zeal in the People that first shut out the Responses while they kept up the Ancient Zeal they were inclined to take their part vocally in the Worship And this was seconded by the Pride and Usurpation of the Priests thereupon who thought the People of God too prophane to speak in the Assemblies and meddle so much with Holy things Yet the very remembrance of former zeal caused most Churches to retain many of the words of their predecessors even when they lost the Life and Spirit which should animate them and so the same words came into the Liturgies and were used by too many customarily and in formality which their Ancestors had used in the servour of their Souls And if it were not that a dead-hearted formal People by speaking the Responses carelesly and hypocritically do bring them into disgrace with many that see the necessity of Seriousness I think few good People would be against them now It is here the duty of every Christian to labour to restore the life and spirit to the Words that they may again be used in a serious and holy manner as heretofore Exod. 19. 8. In as solemn an Assembly as any of ours when God gave Moses a form of words to preach to the People all the People answered together and said All that the Lord hath spoken we will do So Exod. 24. 3. and Deuter. 5. 27. which God approved of v. 28 29. See Levit. 9. 24. 2 Kings 23. 2 3. 1 Chron. 1. 35 36. It is a command Psal 67. 3 5. Let all the People praise thee O God c. And he that will limit this to single Persons or say that it must not be vocally in the Church or it must be in metre only and never in prose must prove it lest he be proved one that addeth to God's Word Q. 84. Is it not a Sin for our Clerks to make themselves the mouth of the People Answ The Clerks are not appointed to be the Mouth of the People but each Clerk is one of the
Instruments of the Church much less pertulently to work and set open their Shops to the offence of others but rather to perswade others to imitate their Holy Lives to whom they give such honours Chr. Direct p. 167. Part. 3. Nor do I scruple to keep a day in remembrance of any eminent Servant of Christ or Martyr to praise God for their Doctrine or Example and honour their Memorial I am resolved if I live where such Holy-days Christ's Nativity Circumcision Fasting Transfiguration Ascension and such like are observed to censure no Man for observing them But if I lived under a Government that peremprorily commanded it I would observe the outward rest of such a Holy-day and I would Preach on it and joyn with the Assemblies in God's Worship yea I would thus observe the day rather than offend a weak Brother or hinder any Man's Salvation much more rather than I would make any division in the Church Of the Cross in Baptism Of all our Ceremonies there is none that I have more suspected to be simply unlawful than the Cross in Baptism yet I dare not peremptorily say that the Cross in Baptism is unlawful nor will I condemn Ancients or Moderns that use it nor will I make any disturbance in the Church about it more than my own forbearance will make I presume not to censure them that judge it lawful but only give the Reasons that make me doubt and rather think it to be unlawful though still with a suspicion of my own Understanding P. 123. of Christ Direct Q. 49. May one offer his Child to be baptized with the sign of the Cross the use of Crisme and the white Garment Milk and Honey or Exorcism as in the Lutheran Churches Answ 4. When he cannot lawfully have better he may and must offer his Child to them that will so baptize him rather than not at all because Baptism is God's Ordinance and the Sin is the Ministers and not his Another Man 's sinful mode will not justifie the neglect of our Duty else we might not joyn in Prayer or Sacrament in which the Minister modally sinneth i. e. in none Mr. B. grants p. 161. of Christ Direct Edit 2. That it is not unlawful to make an Image to be objectum vel medium excitans ad Cultum Dei an object of our Consideration exciting our Minds to worship God as a Death's-head or Crucifix to stir up in us a worshipping Affection and that it is lawful by the sight of a Crucifix to be provoked to worship God I durst not to have reproved any of the ancient Christians that used the Sign of the Cross meerly as a Professing Sign to shew the Heathen and Jews that they believed in a Crucified Christ and were not ashamed of his Cross Of Church Government p. 404. Mr. Baxter's Judgment concerning Confirmation agreeable to the practice of the Church of England may be seen in a particular Treatise on that Subject Of Conventicles Q. 172. Are all religious and private Meetings forbidden by Rulers unlawful Conventicles Answ 1. It is more to the Honour of the Church and of Religion and of God and more to our Safety and Edification to have God's Worship performed solemnly publickly and in great Assemblies than in a corner secretly and with few 2. It is a great mercy where Rulers allow the Church such Publick Worship 3. Caeteris paribus all Christians should prefer such Publick Worship before Private and no private Meetings should be kept up which are opposite or prejudicial to such publick Meetings And therefore if such Meetings or any that are unnecessary to the ends of the Ministry the Service of God and good of Souls be forbidden by lawful Rulers they must be forborn And it must be remembred that Rulers that are Infidels Papists Hereticks or Persecutors that restrain Church-Meetings to the injury of Men's Souls must be distinguished from pious Princes that only restrain Hereticks and real Schismaticks for the Churches good 2. And that times of Heresie and Schism may make private Meetings more dangerous than quiet times And so even the Scottish Church forbad private Meetings in the Separatists days of late And when they do more hurt than good and are justly forbidden no doubt in that case it is a duty to obey and to forbear them P. 117. of the first Plea If the generality of the Ministry obtain their Liberty by some small tolerable Sin or Errour and the sounder part be few and unnecessary in that Country Prudence bindeth them to go to some other place that needeth them and never to exercise their Ministry in that place where in true Reason it is like to do more hurt than good Holy Common-wealth Thesis 240. It is necessary to the Churches Peace that no private Congregations may be gathered or Anti-Churches erected without approbation or Toleration from the Magistrate If private Assemblies be permitted promiscuously and unlimitedly it will then be impossible to restrain Heresie and Impiety yea they may meet to plot against the Magistrate And no Assemblies whatsoever besides the Parish Churches are to be allowed by the Magistrate It is a dangerous thing to be ensnared in a Sect it will before you are aware possess you with a feaverish sinful Zeal for the Opinions and Interest of that Sect it will make you bold in bitter Invectives and Censures against those that differ from you it will corrupt your Church-communion and fill your very Prayers with Partiality and Human Passions it will secretly bring Malice under the name of Zeal into your minds and words In a word it is a secret but deadly Enemy to Christian Love and Peace Let them that are wiser and more Orthodox and godly than others shew as the Holy Ghost directeth them James 3. 13 14 c. out of a good conversation their works with meekness of wisdom But if ye have bitter envying or zeal and strife in your hearts Glory not and lye not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devillish P. 36. of the Defence The interest of the Protestant Religion must be much kept up by keeping up as much of Truth Piety and Reputation as is possible in the Parish Churches Sacril Desertion p. 92. In Parish-Churches where all may hear the Parish Minister I would not have you without necessity to preach the same hour of the day but at some middle time that you may not seem to vye with him for Auditors nor to draw the People from him but let them go with you to hear him and after come to hear you Saints Rest p. 518. Do not meet together in opposition to the Publick Meeting nor yet to make a groundless Schism or to separate from the Church whereof you are a Member nor to destroy the old that you may gather a new Church out of its ruines as long as it hath the Essentials and there is hope of reforming it The
Holy Scriptures but that we may joyn in a Liturgy or use it if the Form of Words be not from Scripture This is thus proved 1. That which is not directly or consequentially forbidden by God remaineth lawful A stinted Liturgy is not directly or consequentially forbidden of God Therefore it remaineth lawful The major is undoubted because nothing but a prohibition can make a thing unlawful where there is no Law there is no Transgression Yet I have heard very Reverend Men Answer this That it is enough that it is not commanded though not forbidden which is plainly to deny both Scripture and Civil Principles Now for the Minor That a stinted Liturgy is not forbidden we need no other proof than that no Prohibion can be produced The main Body of Non-Conformist Ministers did judge that the Ordinary Liturgy appointed for Publick Worship was such as a good Christian might lawfully joyn in Apol. p. 148. If it be lawful for the People to use a stinted form of Words in Publick Prayer then is it in it self lawful for the Pastors But it is lawful for the People c. For the Pastors Prayer which they must pray over with him and not only hear it is a stinted Form to them even as much as if he had learnt it out of a Book It is lawful to use a Form in Preaching therefore a stinted Liturgy is lawful 1. Because Preaching is a part of that Liturgy 2. Because the reason is the same for Prayer as for that in the main That which hath been the practice of the Church in Scripture times and down to this day and is yet the practice of almost all the Churches of Christ on earth is not like to be unlawful But such is the use of some stinted Forms c. I have shewed that it was so in the Jewish Church That it hath been of ancient use in the Church since Christ and at this day in Africk Asia Europe and the Reformed Churches in France Holland Geneva c. is so well known that I need not stand to prove it And those few that seem to disuse it do yet use it in Psalms and other parts of Worship As for the Common-Prayer it self I never rejected it because it was a Form or thought it simply unlawful because it was such a Form but have made use of it and would do again in the like case Object But if a faulty manner of praying be prescribed and imposed by a Law I know it before-hand and am guilty of it Answ If the thing be sinful either it is 1. Because the Prayers are defective and faulty Or 2. Because they are imposed Or 3. because you knew the Fault before-hand but none of these can prove your joyning with them sinful 1. Not because they are faulty for you may joyn with as faulty Prayers you confess if not imposed 2. Not because imposed for that is an extenuation and not an aggravation For 1. it proveth the Minister less voluntary of the two than those are that do it without any command through the errour of their own Judgments 2. Because though lawful things oft become unlawful when Superiours forbid them yet no reason can be given why a lawful thing should become unlawful because a lawful Superiour doth command it else Superiours might take away all our Christian Liberty and make all things unlawful to us by commanding them You would take it for a wild Conceit in your Children or Servants if they say when you bid them learn a Catechism or use a Form of Prayer It was lawful for us to do it till you commanded us but because you bid us do it it is unlawful If it be a Duty to obey Governours in all lawful things then it is not a Sin to obey them 3. It is not your knowing before hand that makes it unlawful for 1. I know in general before hand that all imperfect Men will do imperfectly and though I know not the particular that maketh it never the lawfuller if fore-knowledge it self did make it unlawful 2. If you know that e. g. an Antinomian or some mistaken Preacher would constantly drop some words for his Errour in praying or preaching that will not make it unlawful in your own Judgment for you to joyn if it be not a flat Heresie 3. It is another Man's Errour or Fault that you foreknow and not your own 4. God himself doth as an Universal Cause of Nature concur with Men in those Acts which he foreknoweth they will sinfully do yet is not the Authour or Approver of the Sin We the Commissioners 1663. all thought a Liturgy lawful and divers Learned and Reverend Nonconformists of London met to consider how far it was their duty or lawful to Communicate with the Parish Churches where they lived in the Liturgy and Sacrament and I proved four Propositions 1. That it is lawful to use a Form 2. That it is lawful to joyn with some Parish Churches in the use of the Liturgy 3. That it is lawful to joyn with some Parish Churches in the Lord's Supper 4. That it is to some a duty to joyn with some Parish Churches three times a year in the Lord's Supper and none of the Brethren seemed to dissent but took the Reasons to be valid Were I in Armenia Abassia or among the Greeks I would joyn in a much more defective Form than our Liturgy rather than none And this is the judgment of many New-England Ministers conform to the old Non-conformists who did some of them read the Common Prayer and the most of them judged it lawful to joyn in it or else Mr. Hildersham Mr. Richard Rogers c. would not write so earnestly for coming to the beginning and preferring it before all private Duties And truly I am not able to bear the thoughts of separating from almost all Christ's Churches upon Earth but he that separates from one or many upon a reason common to almost all doth virtually separate from almost all and he that separates from all among us upon the account of the unlawfulness of our Liturgy and the badness of our Ministry doth separate from them upon a reason common to almost all or the far greatest part as I conceive Those Forms of Liturgy which now are most distasted were brought in by the most zealous religious People at the first The many short Invocations Versicles and Responses which the People use were brought in when the Souls of the Faithful did abound with Zeal and in holy fervors break out in such expressions and could not well endure to be bare Auditors and not vocally to bear their part in the praises of God and prayers of the Church I have shewed at large How far God hath given Men power to prescribe and impose Forms for others and commanded others to obey them when Christ said When ye pray say Our Father c. he bound the Disciples in duty to do as he bid