and him that Ministered Rom. xii And it doth not appear that every Church was furnished with all these Officers The same St. Paul joyned Exhortation and Doctrine with Reading in his Charge to Timothy 1 Tim. iv 13 which shews that they went together but whether indispensibly or no doth not appear tho' it is manifest in the practise of most Churches in the Ages after the Apostles they were all generally exercis'd in the Publick Worship VIII Lastly We find that they had a Summary of the Principal Doctrines of the Gospel which they delivered to the people and by which they ordered their own Discourses and judged of what was delivered by others Thus St. Paul to Timothy 2 Tim. i. 13 Hold fast the Form of sound Words which thou hast heard of me and Chap. ii Vers. 2. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many Witnesses the same commit thou to faithful Men who shall be able to teach others Perhaps this may be that proportion of Faith according to which the Prophets are exhorted to prophesy Rom. xii 6 I think it is not doubted but this Form of sound Words contained the main Fundamentals of Christianity and St. Paul tells us what those were Heb. vi 1 2. Therefore leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on unto perfection not laying again the foundation of Repentance from dead Works and Faith towards God of the Doctrine of Baptisms and of Laying on of Hands and of the Resurrection of the Dead and of Eternal Judgment In all probability therefore the Form of sound Words delivered by St. Paul to Timothy and by him to others contained these six Heads or Principles of Christianity which every Christian was obliged to hear and learn Sect. 2. The Practice of Our Church in Reading and Preaching the word THese are the Rules and Examples the Scriptures propose to us for our feeding the people with the Word of Life and their Hearing it in Publick Let us in the second place compare the Practise of Our Church with them and surely no copy can come nearer the Original 1. For first Our Ministers are expresly oblig'd in their Ordination diligently to read all the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament unto the people Assembled in the Church where they shall be appointed to serve 2. Our Church has disposed the Holy Scriptures in a certain Order and has appointed four or more Chapters to be read every day in the Publick Congregations by which means all the most edifying parts of the Old Testament are Ordered to be read once a year and the New Testament except the Revelations thrice in the same time And some select Chapters of the Revelations are appointed on extraordinary occasions There are indeed some Chapters about one tenth of the Old Testament left out of this Order But then it is to be observed that those which are left out are either Genealogies names of Persons and Places Historical repetitions or some obscure and mystical Prophecies in Ezekiel which are not so proper for an ordinary Assembly for which reasons some part of the Revelations is also left out yet these are not excluded tho' not particularly Commanded The general obligation on every Clergy-Man in his Ordination to read all the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament still allows him to read these and also obliges him to it when he shall perceive that it may be for the edification of the people 3. Besides this Order for the whole Scriptures on every Lords-day and other solemn occasions there are appointed certain select Portions out of the Epistles and Gospels to be read which are adapted to the occasion and contain some great mystery of our Faith or other weighty matter necessary to our Edification 4. For the more solemnity of these readings Our Church joins with each of them Praises Thanksgivings or Confessions according to what we find practised in the Holy Scripture 5. That the people may benefit and be Edified by hearing the word of God a plain Authentick and most excellent Translation is provided by publick Authority in which the Scriptures are read to the People This was the first care of our Church in the Reformation and the generality of Dissenters are forced to be beholden to it for the word of Life and draw all the knowledge that they have from the Fountains which our Bishops opened for them by Translating the word of God and putting it into a Language they understand 6. 'T is ordered in our Church that the Ministers shall explain some part of the Holy Scriptures every Lords-day and exhort their Congregations in a Sermon 7. To inculcate the great Mysteries of our Faith the better our Church has appointed certain solemn times wherein once in the year they are obliged to explain and inculcate every great Mystery of our Faith and most material passages of the Gospel Such are the Conception Birth Passion Resurrection and Ascention of Our Saviour Lastly There is provided a Form of Sound Words in a short and plain Catechism in which are contained the first principles of the Oracles of God this is adapted as it ought to be to the capacity of Children and is indeed sincere Milk without School Notions or hard words And all the six principles which the Apostle mentions Heb. vi 1 2. are briefly explained in it and yet largely enough to make those that attend to it wise to Salvation The Teaching and Explaining these Fundamentals is a part of our Publick Instruction and injoined as a constant Duty on Ministers and People in our solemn Worship The Minister in each Parish being required diligently upon Sundays and Holy-days openly in the Church to instruct and examine so many Children of his Parish sent unto him as he shall think convenient in some part of the Catechism and the people are obliged to come at the time appointed and obediently to hear And by our Twelfth Canon for the better grounding of the people in the principles of Christian Religion 't is ordained That the heads of the Catechism being divided into so many parts as there are Sundays in the year shall be explained to the people in every Parish Church This is the care our Church has taken to Teach the People in their Publick Assemblies and the method is so effectual that 't is scarce conceivable how any one who duly conforms to these Orders should be ignorant of any thing that concerns his Soul And by the blessing of God the effect is such that we may affirm without Vanity or Partiality that our Clergy and Laity especially where we can prevail with them to conform to the Rules of our Church are generally much more knowing modest governable devout and charitable then perhaps may be found in any other Church of which our late contests with the Papists and behaviour under their Government and since the present Revolution are Evident proofs Sect. 3. The Practice of the Dissenters in Hearing and
it is that some people cannot endure our Service but heap up to themselves Teachers that instead of the Praises Prayers and Sermons of God's immediate Appointment will gratifie them every Meeting with a New Prayer without troubling them with such Prayers or Sermons as they think old which are incomparably better only the itching Ears of the People as the Apostle fore-told are pleased with the Novelty and Variety of the one and disgust the Repetition of the other as the Israelites did that of Angels Food Psa. lxxviii 25 Num. xxi 5 xi 6 It is the Duty of all Ministers and the business of the truly Conscientious to check and curb this Humour in the People and notwithstanding all Discouragements the Ministers of Our Church instead of complying with them have constantly reproved them for their Negligence and Levity where they found them guilty But as Aaron to please the Israelites made the Golden Calf so some Ministers tho' contrary to their own Principles have changed God's Institution to please their people and lest out the constant and regular Reading of God's Word because their people grew weary of it But let all Men judge who behave themselves most like the Ministers of Christ We who keep to the Reading God's Word according to His own Institution whether the people will hear or forbear or They that comply with them and lay aside God's Command to oblige and gain them CHAP. IV. Of Bodily Worship Sect. 1. What the Holy Scriptures prescribe concerning it I. THe Fourth part of the Publick Worship of God or Design of Religious Assemblies is Visible or Bodily Adoration such amongst us are Vncovering the Head Bowing Kneeling and other Outward Signs of Reverence and Submission by which we openly acknowledge the Mercy the Justice and Power of God and express the inward sense we have of these Attributes In treating of this Head I will keep my self to the same Method as in the former and consider First The Rules and Examples that the Scriptures afford us for the performance of this Duty Secondly Compare the Practise of Our Church with them Thirdly Examine the Dissenters Practise and the Reasons they alledge for it 1. As to the first of these we find a Positive Command of God for Bodily Worship in Publick Psal. xcv 6 O come let us Worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker The second Verse of this Psalm plainly shews us that this is meant of Publick Worship Let us come before his presence with Thanksgiving And that this bowing or kneeling is to be interpreted literally not figuratively appears from the same Verses where Singing Thanksgiving and Psalms are all litterally to be understood and there is no more reason for understanding bowing and kneeling in a figurative sence than the other II. The same Bodily Worship is required by the Second Commandment which forbids us to bow down to a graven Image by which words we are commanded to bow down to God for it is confessed by all and laid down as a Rule by the Assembly's larger Catechism That the Negative Commandments include in them the contrary Positive that is to say When a Commandment forbids us any thing it requires us to perform the Duty contrary to what is forbidden As for Example When the first Commandment forbids us to have any other Gods before the Lord it requires us to own and worship Him for our only God and after the same manner all other Commands are to be interpreted By which Rule when the Second Commandment Exod. xx 5 forbids us in these words Thou shalt not bow down to them nor serve them it requires us to practice the contrary Duties in our Addresses to God To bow down to Him and serve Him that is to worship Him both with the worship of our Bodies and Minds Therefore as he that either bows or kneels or uses any posture of Reverence to a graven Image breaks the second Commandment so doth he who on occasion of Publick Worship either refuses or neglects to use some such posture to God It being a Contempt of God and contrary to His Commands to pray to Him for instance without some posture of Adoration to Him when we can do it as well as it is a sin to kneel to an Image without praying to it which the Papists pretend to do the one is Idolatry and the other Sacriledge For the Reason why we are not to bow down to an Idol is Because 't is an Act of Worship due to God And whether we give what is due to Him to an Image or refuse to pay it to Himself we are equally Robbers of God we deny him his Honour and are guilty of Sacriledge I wish all concerned may seriously consider and amend their practise in this particular III. But the practise of Holy Men and of the Church of God in Scripture are the best Interpreters of God's Commands and from them we may learn what he requires or approves in his Worship Now through the whole Old Testament we shall never find any one sitting at his Devotions But on all occasions of Worship especially in Publick Assemblies the people of God stood kneeled bowed or prostrated themselves 'T is said indeed 2 Sam. vii 8 That King David then went and sat before the Lord But here the Original Word is capable of another signification and may as well be translated that he remained stayed or abode before the Lord and accordingly it is thus translated in other places of Scripture particularly Gen. xxii 5 xxiv 55 xxix 19 1 Kings xii 2 This place therefore is no Exception against that practise which is so evident through the whole Old Testament that Holy Men worshiped God with their Bodies as well as with their Minds IV. We shall find the same practised by our Saviour and his Apostles in the New T. Our Saviour undoubtedly is the Best Example we can propose to our selves for the worship of God and we ought to imitate what he did and approved Now if we consider the worship he offered to his Father we shall find him addressing himself to him with bowing the Body with Kneeling and Prostration as well as with strong Cries and Tears so Mat. xxvi 39 And he went a little further and fell on his Face and prayed O my Father c. and Luk. xxii 41 He kneeled down and prayed And as he paid this Bodily Worship to God so he accepted the same from Men when he was on Earth Thus the Wise Men worshiped him in his Cradle Mat. ii 11 When they saw the young Child and his Mother Mary they fell down c. Thus they that desired to be Cured by him addressed themselves to him Mark v. 22 VVhen he saw him he fell at his Feet and besought c. And after the same manner those who were Cured by him returned him Thanks Luke xvii 16 Thus his beloved Mary came into his presence John xi 32 And Matth. xxviii 9 They
4 or 3 at the least Communicate with the Priest So where 3 are willing to Receive the Ministers may proceed to the Holy Communion every Lord's-day For our Saviour has promised that Where two or three are met together he will be in the midst of them Three therefore make a Congregation and have a Title to the Ordinances of Christ and there is no reason that the Obstinacy or Negligence of others should hinder such as are willing from Worshiping God according to his Institution and therefore Our Church has taken care to provide for them by Ordering that some part of the Communion-Service be read every Lord's-day both with design to put all people in mind of their Duty and to accommodate such as can be prevail'd on herein to live up to the Rules of Scripture and the practice of the Primitive Church 2. 'T is Ordered That in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches and Colledges where there are many Priests and Deacons they shall all receive the Communion every Sunday at the least 3. That every Parishioner shall Communicate at least three times in the year whereof Easter to be one and surely such as cannot fit themselves so often must in their own Opinion be out of a state of Grace and deserve to be Excommunicated by the Church 4. Lastly As to our Practice we have prevailed so far that Universally the Lord's Supper is Celebrated Thrice every year and where either our Perswasions Arguments or Entreaties can prevail with our People we have Monthly Communions and in Cities and large Towns by the changing the Monthly Days in several Churches people that are devoutly disposed have Opportunities of Receiving Weekly And we have reason to bless God that our Church wants not some and I hope I may say many such 5. Upon the whole it must be confessed That to hold Solemn Assemblies of Christians without Communicating is a corruption of Popery and came in by dissolution of Manners and slackning of the Discipline of the Church and tho' we have not been able to Root-out and Reform this Popish Practice intirely yet we have done our Endeavour and by God's Blessing may say we have made some progress in it insomuch that if we take that for Ordinary which has a constant fixed time for its Observation the Holy Sacrament is an Ordinary part of our publick Service of God And I verily perswade my self That by God's Assistance we should have brought our people before now to the Scripture-Order of constant Weekly Communicating had not the Ill Example and Obstinacy of those that separate from our Church Encouraged them in their Negligence and weakened our Discipline For our Church orders Non-Communicants to be presented and punished and our Ministers do not generally flatter the people in their sin or dissemble their Duty in this point but frequently and earnestly by Sermons Admonitions and Treatises purposely published to this intent press them to it and therefore we are blameless before God and Man Nor is it our Fault that the practice of our people is not Reformed according to the Pattern of the Apostolick Church and the Rules of our Own So that we cannot be accused of laying aside the Commandments of God or of teaching any Doctrine of our own Invention in this particular tho' we are yet too far short of the Primitive Practice and Institution Sect. 3. The Practice of the Dissenters about Frequency of Communicating I. I Come now according to my former Method to You my Friends who Dissent from us and intreat You to Examine with Me your Principles and Practice by these Scripture-Rules and Examples And here first I must observe to you That you have no fixt or set Times for the Administration of this Sacrament on the contrary your Directory orders That the times how often this is to be Celebrated may be considered and determined by the Ministers and other Church-Governours of each Congregation as they shall find most convenient for the Comfort and Edification of the People committed to their charge By which Rule the Lord's Supper is Excluded from being any ordinary constant part of God's Service it being referred to the Discretion of the Ministers and Elders of each Congregation to determine as in other occasional things how often the people shall have the comfort of it It had been as reasonable to refer it to their Discretion how often the people shou'd have the comfort of Hearing the Scriptures read of joyning in the Praises of God or in Prayers to Him which yet they determine they are obliged to every Lord's Day Had they made the same Rule for the holy Communion they had indeed conformed to the Scripture-Precedent and might have pretended to some Reformation But to leave the celebration of this Feast altogether Discretionary I have shewed to be directly against what we find practised in Scripture II. Whereas it is a corruption of Popery to suffer the people to be present at the publick Assemblies for Worship and celebration of the Lords Supper without being obliged to Receive your Teachers instead of endeavouring to reform this Abuse and Innovation have fallen into another practice as unprecedented in Scripture the Excluding this Sacrament intirely from your Ordinary solemn Meetings And truly in this point you seem more inexcusable than the Papists themselves for the Papists order the Elements to be consecrated every Lords Day and distributed to those that desire it But your Teachers neither offer it to the people nor invite them to it nay so far are they from it that they do not so much as afford an Opportunity to those that desire to be constant Receivers Which is plainly to multiply the Abuses introduced by Popery instead of Reforming them III. They rarely press their people to Communicate they have few Sermons or Discourses to that purpose and many of them condemn our Zeal for endeavouring to restore the constant Communion precedented in Scripture I must further make you sensible that your Practice is yet worse than your Principles Your Directory owns that the Communion or Supper of the Lord is frequently to be celebrated c. But it fares with this as with all other indefinite Rules they signifie only that people may do what they please in the case No body can certainly tell what frequently many often or convenient signifie and therefore where only these words are used in a Rule it is little better than to have no Rule at all as appears in this very case For when people were relaxed from the particular and certain Rules of our Church by the first breaking off of those of your Perswasion from us the Lord's Supper was laid aside wholly for several years by some Congregations and at last too many came to look on it as a matter of no constant necessity I appeal to You whether it is not yet reckoned a great thing among many of you if once in a year or two a Communion be celebrated in one of your Meetings Nay among some of
for their mutual Instruction and Admonition It was common therefore for one to sing and the rest to hearken for their Instruction and Edification as appears 1 Cor. xiv 31 For ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn and be comforted Prophesying here as we may find from the 26th verse of this Chapter includes Psalms as well as Doctrines Tongues Revelations and Interpretations and the praising God one by one or by turns amounts to praising Him by way of Responses or Answering and tho' these Prophets were inspired yet it is plain they acted in this according to the settled Order of the Church Vers. 33. As in all the Churches of the Saints and these inspired Prophets thus praising God one by one is an unquestionable Precedent that God approves this way in his Praises This Way of praising God by Answering one another is the most Antient we find in Scripture For thus Miriam praised God Exod. xv 21 And Miriam answered them Sing ye to the Lord for He hath Triumphed gloriously c. And the last Song recorded in Scripture is of the same sort Rev. xix as is before mentioned I reckon the songs with which the Women of Israel received Saul 1 Sam. xviii 7 to be Religious and there it is expresly said That they answered one another And Chap. xxi 11 Did they not sing one to another c. But whether these songs were Religious or no it is certain that the Frame and Composition of some Psalms are such as plainly discover that they were designed to be sung in parts and as much is owned by the best Commentators Such are the xxiv and cxviii Psalms It is to be observed that the Law of Moses neither prescribes Psalms in the praises of God nor Singers nor the way of Singing These all therefore are parts of Natural Religion and indeed antienter than the Law as appears by Exod. xv What therefore we find in the Old Testament concerning these is either from the immediate Prescriptions and Revelations of God by his Prophets or from the Dictates of Nature and not any part of the Ceremonial Law And 't is obvious that Natural Necessity will teach any considering Man this way of alternate singing or Answering in parts for if the Songs be long as some of the Psalms are no one Mans Voice can hold out to the end V. The Holy Scriptures recommend to us the use of Instruments in the praises of God the Psalmist frequently uses and recommends them and the whole Book of Psalms is concluded with this advice Psal. cl 3 Praise him with Timbrel praise him with stringed Instruments and Organs c. Thus Religious persons were taught to praise God before the Law Ex. xv 20 And Miriam the Prophetess the sister of Aaron took a Timbrel in her hand and all the Women went after with Timbrels c. And thus the Blessed in Heaven are represented praising God Rev. v. 8 and xiv 2 The Writers of the new Testament recommend to us the Psalms which were the Hymns of the Jewish Church and command us to sing them and 't is observable that the word we render Sing Jam. v. 13 originally implies singing with an Instrument Now if they had not approved the Jewish way of singing them which was with Instruments they would not have used a word that imported it nay it is not to be doubted but they would have cautioned us against it but the use of Instruments as I have shewed before in the case of Miriam being no part of the Ceremonial Law but antecedent to it ought not to cease without some Command or Precept condemning it VI. Lastly The Scripture requires that we understand the praises we sing to God and this warrants our Translating them into the Vulgar Tongue It is a Duty therefore incumbent on the Governours of the Church to procure the Psalms to be Translated for the Use of the people under their Charge and they may expect the Assistance of God's Spirit when they attempt it in Obedience to his Command But if through Human Frailty any mistake not contray to Faith should creep in this ought to be no Exception against the Use of the Translation since there are such Mistakes both in the Syriac Greek and Latin Translations some of which are of great Antiquity and were used by our Saviour himself and his Apostles These are the Directions the Scriptures give us for the performance of this first part of the Worship of God which consists in praises and the manner we find them offer'd to Him by his Saints Sect. 2. The manner of Praising God Publickly which is prescribed and practised by our Church NOw as to the manner of offering Praises in our Church it is to be considered 1. That we are directed to praise glorify and confess to God every day in a certain number of Psalms of his own Appointment out of the Old Testament and then in such Hymns as are recorded in the New And to these there are added such other Hymns Confessions of Faith and Thanksgivings as will appear by and by to be agreeable to the general Directions of Scripture But inasmuch as the Mystery of the holy Trinity is more explicitly revealed to us under the Gospel than it was to those under the Law Therefore our Church has thought fit to require us with every Psalm and Hymn to intermix Glory be to the Father to the Son and to the holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be To signify that we believe that the same God was worshiped by them as by us the same God that is glorified in the Psalms having been from the beginning Father Son and holy Ghost as well as now So that our ascribing this glory expresly to the Three Persons in whose Name we are Baptised ought not to be taxed as any real Addition to the Psalms it being only used as a necessary Expedient to turn the Jewish Psalms into Christian Hymns and to fit them for the Use of the Church now as they were before for the Use of the Synagogue which practice I presume can give cause of Exception to none but Socinians 2. Our Church Orders these Psalms to be either Sung or Said as the people are able to offer them not being willing to lay a greater restraint on them than the Scripture has done In which as I have already shewed we have Examples for both these ways of praising God 3. They are proposed to us in Prose without any other alteration from the Original than what was necessary to make them intelligible in our Language 4. The people are allowed to bear their part in them and either to sing or say them by way of Answering This is according to the Scripture Examples but it is not imposed except in very few Cases 5. Our Church permitteth the Use of some grave Musical Instruments to regulate the Voices of those that sing and to stir up their Affections which are the
Natural Effects of Musick and seem more requisite in Northern Countreys where generally peoples Voices are more harsh and untuneable than in other places but this is not imposed in any Congregation nor doth any Rule of our Church require it and therefore it is at the peoples Choice whether they will use the help of these Instruments or no. 6. This then is the care our Church has taken for the publick performance of the praises of God and if we bring grace in our hearts and an inward sense of the Majesty of God and of his Mercies towards us when we come to joyn in them which is our part and duty to do who can say that God's praises thus celebrated are not according to his Commands and acceptable to Him I think it sufficiently plain that they are agreeable to the holy Scriptures which ought to be our Rule for this and all other parts of God's Worship I think no more necessary therefore on this Head but with all earnestness to beseech you who are of our Communion to consider how great and important a part these praises are of the Worship of God and to apply your selves with all diligence and holy zeal to the performance of it for we never come nearer the Imployment of the Blessed then when our Hearts and Mouths are filled with the praises of our God Sect. 3. The Dissenters manner of Praising God in Publick ANd now as to you my Friends and Brethren who dissent from this Worship of ours give me leave with all calmness to examine how you perform this great work of Praising God and I desire you to compare your own practice in your publick Assemblies with what you find in your Bibles concerning this Duty I. Your Directory determines it to be the duty of Christians to praise God publickly by singing of Psalms together in the Congregation and that in singing Psalms the voice is to be tuneable and gravely ordered and lastly that it is convenient that the Minister or some other fit person appointed by him and the other ruling Officers do read the Psalm line by line before the singing thereof and your common practice is to sing two or three verses of a Psalm in Meetre the Minister or Clerk first reading each line and the people singing it after II. Before I proceed to make any observations on these Rules and Practice to prevent mistakes I desire you to observe 1. That I do not condemn the singing of Psalms in Meetre as unlawful 2. That I take it for granted that the Apostles and Primitive Christians did praise God in Prose and that Meetre and Rhyme are for ought appears purely of Human Invention 3. We must consider that if we take the Psalms as We use them in Prose there is not a more Exalted piece of Poetry in the World nor any thing better fitted to raise in serious and well disposed people the most devout Affections Whereas if we take them as they are commonly used in Rhime the Force the Vigour the Loftiness which are so Extraordinary in the Prose Translation are almost intirely lost in the Verse and tho' several have attempted to Translate them into English Verse yet I cannot find that any one has done Justice to the Majesty of the Expressions and hardly to the Sense of them III. Having premised these things I intreat you to consider impartially with me how far this your practice agrees with the Scripture Rule 1. Then the Scriptures command us to praise God in Psalms and undoubtedly the first Christians used whole Psalms at a time Sometimes they joyned together in singing them as our Saviour and his Disciples did Matt. xxvi 30 Sometimes one only sung and the rest attended for their Edification as appears from 1 Cor. xiv 26 But the aforesaid method of singing the Meetre Psalms takes up so much time that it is impossible to praise God in whole Psalms after that manner But if we use the Psalms in Prose according to the Order of our Church the Experience of Good Men doth testify that we may easily pass through them in a month with seriousness and attention whether we sing or read them And to well disposed minds no part of God's Service is more agreeable or edifying whereas some years would not serve to that purpose if we should use the new invented way of singing a few verses And I question whether all of them were ever yet sung through in one Meeting place perhaps not in all the Meetings of the Kingdom and yet it must be confessed that every one of them was left to the Church by the Holy Ghost for that use and is profitable when thus used for Doctrine Reproof Correction Instruction and Comfort Which plainly proves that the singing the Psalms in Meetre is not the Scripture Way of Using them 2. Let me mind you that in the time of the late Usurpation Dr. Manton a Man of considerable Reputation among the Dissenters observes in his Comment on the Epistle of St. James Chap. v. vers 13 That several scrupled singing Psalms at all others objected against singing them in verse this he calleth a vaâ—n cavil yet proposeth if the scruple continueth that such may Sing the Reading Psalms as hath been used in Cathedrals and vouches St. Austin and Athanasius for it which is a plain confession from this considerable Person that this way of singing is less lyable to exception then yours 3. I know it is alledged that we ought to have the Psalms in Verse for singing as well as we ought to have them in Prose for Reading But I have shewed already that Christ and his Disciples sung their Hymns in prose and I desire you to consider whether it be necessary to vary from these Precedents We have a Command to Translate them which supposes into prose because the Original is so but none to turn them into Meetre which necessarily requires Paraphrasing Changing the order of the Sentences sometimes adding and leaving out words And on that account seems to give Human Wit too great a Liberty of treating the Word of God as Men please At least we must acknowledge that the Psalms so ordered partake of Human Frailty and are hardly equal to the best meer Human Composures When therefore we use such Psalms we ought to use them as Human Composures only and not as God's Word And thus they are used by our people in our Assemblies not as any main substantial part of the Worship of God but rather as a voluntary entertainment of Devotion and a refreshment to the people between the parts of the Service much less are they allowed by us to justle out the Psalms and Hymns appointed by God 4. As to the manner of singing the Psalms in Meetre at present in use both with you and us in some places that is the Minister or Clerks reading a line and the people singing it after it is a great interruption to the Musick and to the understanding of the Psalm by breaking
to express our Desires in or enables us to make one 't is sufficient and we ought to be thankful 7. In confirmation of this Account of the Spirit of Prayer we may further observe 1. That no Worship is Acceptable to God that is not offer'd to Him in Spirit and Truth John iv 24 and therefore the Scripture recommends to us prayers in and by the Spirit but that praying with the Spirit doth not signifie extemporary unpremeditated prayers or exclude Forms will appear from 1 Cor. xiv 15 I will pray with the Spirit I will pray with the Vnderstanding I will sing with the Spirit I will sing with the Vnderstanding also Here we find singing with the Spirit as well as praying with it and whoever sings otherwise doth not worship God as he ought but tho' we are obliged to sing with the Spirit yet we must and ought to sing in the Congregation with a set Form of Words and therefore for the same reason tho' we pray with the Spirit we may pray by a set and prepared Form of Words The most spiritual Songs consist of a set Form of imposed Words and so may the most spiritual Prayers Praying therefore with the Spirit in this place is so far from meaning or being an Argument for the Use of extemporary unpremeditated prayers that it is rather an Argument against them For either we are obliged by it to sing to God in extemporary Hymns or we are not obliged to pray to Him in extemporary Prayers since it is Unreasonable to interpret singing with the Spirit in one sense and praying with the Spirit in a contrary 2. And to confirm this further we find the most spiritual Persons addressing themselves to God in Forms so did Moses so did David as I observed before and so did our Saviour himself on the Cross when in his Agony he repeated the first Verse of Psal. xxii in Syriack and as some believe the whole Psalm by which Act He recommendeth to us Forms of Prayer in his Dying Breath as the most proper means of expressing our condition to God and as most suitable to the Divine Majesty and therefore praying in the Spirit Ephes. vi 18 Praying in the holy Ghost Jude 20. and with the Spirit 1 Cor. xiv 15 signifie praying with Grace in our Hearts by the Assistance and Motion of the Holy Spirit And a man may as well pray with Grace in his Heart when he prays by a Form as sing with Grace in his Heart when he sings by a Form 3. We have a Promise that God's Spirit will assist us with this Grace in our Hearts but we have no Promise that He will help us to Words without the Use of Forms as will appear from Rom. viii 26 The Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh Intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered those inward motions in the Heart called here groanings are that Grace in the Heart with which we ought to pray and to which the Spirit of God doth and indeed only can help us and to pray with this Grace is to pray in and with the Spirit whether we use words or no and if we do use them whether we reduce them into a Form first or pour them forth as they present themselves to our Minds but we have no Promise that the Holy Ghost will always furnish us with fit words on all occasions and therefore ought not to presume that He will 4. T is certain that he did furnish some with such words for we find both Prayers and Hymns dictated immediately by him of which we have Examples in the Hymns of the Blessed Virgin and Zacharias and in the Song or Prayer of Simeon and in Acts iv 24 But then it is manifest that this was an extraordinary Gift of God and a part of Prophecy and we may not depend on the holy Ghost for this Gift more then for any other Extraordinary Gift till it be made appear that it was to continue alwaies in the Church and to be communicated to All the Children of God Praying and singing the Praises of God are Duties incumbent on all Christians but we are no more obliged to pray Extemporary Prayers from any Example of inspired Men in Scripture than to sing Extemporary Hymns from the like Examples to which yet none I think pretend 5. 'T is very observable that even those who composed their Prayers and Hymns by immediate inspiration did not generally offer them to God in the Congregation till they had first reduced them into a Form Thus David first penned his Psalms and then delivered them to be sung 1. Chron. xvi 7 and 't is probable the Prophets 1. Cor. xiv 26 did the same for they are supposed every one to have a Psalm a Doctrine a Tongue a Revelation c. that is to have them ready and reduced into Form for the use of the Church when they came together That this is the meaning of having a Psalm c. in this place will appear very probable not only from the words which naturally import this and can hardly be otherwise interpreted but likewise from the Apostles making a difference between what these Prophets had prepared and what was revealed immediately at the time of their being together vers 30. If any thing be revealed to another that siteth by let the first hold his peace Which shews that these Psalms c. were to give place to such as were immediately inspired So far were these inspired Men from countenancing an extemporary unpremeditated way of serving God except where there was an immediate Revelation for it and so utterly void of Scripture-proof is this great principle of the Dissenters Worship that the Spirit of prayer is given to every one of the Faithfull to enable them to conceive with the Heart and express with their Tongues their necessities to God without a Form of Prayer 8. It lies therefore my Friends on your Teachers who are of this persuasion to produce plain Scripture for your principles or else to confess that you have laid aside Prayers by Forms commanded by God and practised by holy Men in Scriptures to make room for this way of Praying of Men's own invention But further that place Eccl. v. 1.2 seems to me to afford a strong Argument against such Prayers When thou goest to the House of God Be not rash with thy Mouth and let not thy Heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth Therefore let thy words be few It is hard to say what it is to be rash with our Mouths or hasty to utter any thing before God if it be not rashnesh to trust the expressing all our desires to such uncertain and unpremeditated words as our invention suggests unto us when we come before him which as I have shewed the Scriptures give us no promise of being supplied to us
and the mischiefs that each of them have or may hereafter produce It is hardly conceivable that the forbidding the use of some particular Meats should have so many ill effects as the forbidding Forms of prayer has had already Yet it is observable how St. Paul judges of that Doctrine 1 Tim. iv 1 In the latter times saith he some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils Forbidding to Marry and to abstain from Meats which God hath Created to be received with Thanksgiving You see here St. Paul counts it a departure from the Faith and a Doctrine of Devils to forbid as unlawful in it self any sort of Meat which God has Created for the use of Man and if it be so Criminal to Teach any sort of Meat to be unclean when God has not forbidden it then sure to Teach a Form of Prayer to be unlawful when God has commanded it must be a very ill Doctrine And this consideration alone ought to make those who maintain it or any such Doctrine whereby they are obliged to condemn their Brethren as practising unlawful things to examine it carefully and impartially by the word of God lest they be imposed on by Seducing Spirits The great Design of the Devil is to bring us into an intire subjection to his will But when he despairs of this his next Attempt is to share with God in our Obedience and impose new Commands of his Own upon us as if they were God's and so to procure himself to be obey'd This he doth most successfully by giving them an appearance of Religion and of more than ordinary strictness Thus in St. Paul's time under colour of Mortification he forbad Meats and Marriage as Vnlawful which God had allowed speaking Lies in Hypocrisie and under shew of Religion And thus 't is to be feared he has prevailed on some under colour of greater spirituality to abstain from Forms of Prayer as Unlawful which God has enjoyned And here it is very remarkable that where-ever the Devil gains this point with men and brings them to believe a thing to be forbidden by God which he has not forbidden he soon brings a super-added Command of his Own in Competition with some of God's and prevails with them to prefer his Commands to God's and so plungeth them into direct Disobedience which was his Design at first Thus when he had prevailed with Men to abstain from Marriage they soon fell not only to Commit Fornication but even in some cases to Allow it rather than Marriage as the Papists do And by perswading Men to abstain from Forms of Prayer as Unlawful he has deprived them in many places of all opportunity of Publick Worship and made them choose rather not to serve God at all in Publick than with a Form which is the case of many Thousands now in this Kingdom who worship God publickly no where But 3. This Doctrine of the Unlawfulness of praying by Forms is no such indifferent thing that we may safely indulge Men in their own sense about it Since it is very apt to puff them up and make them take false measures in judging of their own Condition and of the influence of God's Spirit upon them We know that all good Men have the Spirit of God and are guided and influenced by it in the whole tenor of their Lives we make no doubt but they are assisted by Him in their prayers but no less in forgiving an Injury or resisting a Temptation and his influence on a good Man's Mind is rather greater and more sensible in these and other Acts of Religion than in Prayer Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance are the Fruits of the Spirit Gal. v. 22 And it is principally by these we ought to conclude that we have that Spirit But the Opinion of the Unlawfulness of Forms of Prayer on a perswasion that the Spirit of God enables every Child of God to conceive with the Heart and express with the Mouth suitable Desires entitles every one to God's Spirit in some measure that is able to express himself in apt and fluent Words tho' without the other Graces of the Spirit and exposes every one to despair that is not able to do this as looking on himself to be destitute of the Spirit tho' otherwise meek humble and charitable and endowed with such Graces as are much wore certain signs of his presence Nay so far are many deluded by this Opinion that they judge themselves or others Children of God and in his Favour according as they are more or less endowed with this Gift without respect to other Qualifications And I dare appeal to your selves Whether some very Immoral Persons guilty of gross and scandalous Crimes have not been eminent for this Gift of Prayer And whether such persons are not apt to flatter themselves that they are the Children of God and endowed with his Spirit notwithstanding all their Wickedness And it is impossible either to convince these persons of their mistake or to comfort poor ignorant people dejected only for want of this Gift whilst they are possessed with this Opinion of the Unlawfulness of Forms Which in the 4th place ought not to be countenanced or indulged as an indifferent thing because it has been a great hindrance to secret Devotion Every Christian ought at least twice a day to address himself to God in secret prayer but a great part of the World cannot do it without a Form Children and ignorant persons are at a loss for Words and even other people are often not able to find them readily especially when wearied dull or indisposed as is sometimes the condition of the the best Christians this makes secret prayer at least a constant regular course of it uneasie to most that are absolutely against all Use of Forms and it occasions too many to neglect it which otherwise would not And as for Children and ignorant people amongst those of this Perswasion I am well assured many of them never bow their Knees in secret to God and several of those that are grown up are forced to speak aloud or cannot pray at all which is against the nature of secret Prayer and exposes not only the Persons that use it to the censure of Hypocrisy but the Duty to Contempt 'T is on this account that the pious Custom of Training up Young People to a constant course of Devotion in their morning and evening secret Prayers is too universally laid aside among you as I have found by experience and for the truth of the Observation I dare appeal to all of the Dissenters On the contrary I am well assured that there cannot be a more effectual or easy method to revive and continue this regular and constant use of secret prayers than to oblige every one to some certain Forms every Morning and Evening which they may not omit whatever other prayers they use But this can never be done whilst the opinion of
the unlawfulness of forms prevails and therefore all good people are obliged to oppose it as they would retrieve the constant use of secret prayers which shews that this is no indifferent matter as the objection would suggest but of great weight and fit to be contended for I will not mention some other Reasons that are of great moment because they would but exasperate and tend to make the Duty of Prayer when performed extempore ridiculous which ill men might extend as it too often happens to expose Devotion in general such are the indecent Expressions which sometimes fall from persons that pray thus I will only observe to you that Extemporary Prayers of some Preachers have too often given occasion of Offence to serious persons even among your selves 'T is certain that to print some of them as they have been spoken as those that we make use of are printed would not be for the Honour of the Holy Spirit to whom they are ascribed nor much recommend them to serious Men. But I esteem it an ill thing for Men to ridicule one anothers Devotion whatever it is V. There remains yet the Third Opinion of Dissenters which they advance against us in this matter of Prayer to be Examined That the Minister is the Mouth of the Congregation and that the People have nothing to do but to joyn with him in their Hearts An Opinion far from any Authority of Scripture which expresly requires us Rom. xv 6 with one Mind and one Mouth to glorifie God We produce this and many other places and Examples in Scripture for the People's joyning their Voices and bearing a part in their praises and prayers and we are assured there is no Scripture forbids it and therefore when you Condemn it or teach it to be Unlawful we must charge it upon You as an instance of Your Teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men. Which is all I think needful to be said to this Head after what I have shewed before in defence of our contrary practise from Scripture and I think sufficient to induce you seriously to consider it And thus I presume I have faithfully examined the Rules and Examples the Scriptures afford us for the performance of that part of our publick Worship that consists in Prayers and compared the Service of our Church and the Dissenters way of Praying with them and made it appear that our performance of this Duty both as to the Matter and Manner is agreeable to the Commandments of God and to the Examples of Holy Men recorded in Scripture And that the Service the Dissenters have substituted in the room thereof has in many particulars laid aside God's Commands and deserted the Examples of Scripture and is in the main part thereof an immediate Invention of Men. And I intreat you who are of this Persuasion and adhere to these Principles of Worship which I have now mentioned and shewed to be disagreeable to Scripture to consider seriously whether you are not thereby literally guilty of that Sin with which our Saviour taxeth the Jews Mark vii 7 of Teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men And also of that Superstition condemned by St. Paul Col. ii 21 which saith Touch not taste not handle not that is which teaches to forbear those things which God has made Lawful after the Doctrines and Commandments of Men And I beseech God to inlighten your Minds to make a true Judgement in it that you may deliver your Souls CHAP. III. Of Hearing Sect. 1. What the Holy Scriptures prescribe concerning it I. ONE great design of Our Christian Assemblies is Hearing and that which is to be heard is the Word of God I shall proceed in examining this in the same manner as I have done in the former Chapters And consider First What Directions the Scriptures afford us for the publick performance of this Duty Secondly Shall compare our own practice with them And Thirdly That of the Dissenters First then God has positively Commanded us to read His Word in our publick Assemblies So Deut. xxxi 10 In the feast of Tabernacles when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place where the Lord shall choose Thou shalt read this Law before all Israel in their Hearing Gather the people together Men Women and Children and thy Stranger that is within thy gates that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and observe to do all the Words of this Law And 't is observed Jos. viii 35 that there was not a word of all that Moses Commanded which Joshua read not before all the Congregation Neither was this confined to their Solemn Assemblies at Jerusalem It was likewise a constant part of their Sabbath Service in their Synagogues As we may learn from Acts xiii 14 where it is observed that Paul and Barnabas went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and sate down and after the reading of the Law and the Prophets the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto them c. and St. Paul takes notice vers 27. that the Prophets were read every Sabbath day meaning undoubtedly in their Assemblies And St. James Acts xv 21 of Moses his being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day II. This reading the Law was the great and most effectual means God provided for preserving the knowledge of himself amongst his people and where it was omitted the people immediately sunk into Idolatry and the best Reformation began and was carried on by Restoring this Ordinance Thus 't is observed of Josiah 2 Chron. xxxiv 29 that he gathered together all the Elders of Judah and Jerusalem And all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem and the Priâ—sts and the Levites and all the people great and small and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the Covenant that was found in the House of the Lord. The like is observed of Ezra Neh. viii 3 And he read therein before the street that was before the Water-gate from Morning untill Mid-day before the Men and the Women and all that could understand 'T is remarkable that after the Captivity the Jews never fell into Idolatry and the chief reason given by themselves was the strict Observation of this Ordinance of God the Law being constantly read to them afterwards publickly in their Synagogues so powerfully doth God bless his own Ordinances to preserve those that use them from Error and Sin III. From the practice of the Synagogue in reading the Law and the Prophets the like Order was brought into the Christian Church and Reading was made a part of the Office of the Christian Elders as it was before of the Jewish And hence it is that Timothy is Commanded by St. Paul 1 Tim. iv 13 To give attendance to Reading as well as to Exhortation and Doctrine And the inspired Writings of the Apostles were read in the Christian Assemblies as well as the Law and Prophets among the Jews According to St. Paul's Command Col.
Reading the Word I Come now to consider with you my Friends who dissent from us how this great Duty of Teaching the people the Law of God is perform'd in your Assemblies and to compare your practice in this point with the Scripture Rules and Examples Which I shall do with the same Candour and Integrity that I have hitherto endeavoured to observe I. And here I must needs say that your Teachers seem to have had very little Regard either to Scripture Rules or Examples in framing this part of your Worship having laid aside all those methods of instruction that the Scriptures recommend to us except it be that of Exposition and Exhortation Which among you is called Preaching in so much that tho' a Man frequent your Meetings all his Life yet he has no security or hardly possibility of learning from your publick Teachings all the great Mysteries of his Religion or the necessary principles of his Faith 1. For first Your Preachers are intirely left to their choice what place of Scripture they will explain or what Subject they will handle And hence it happens that hardly any one Man in his life ever goes through the necessary Articles of Faith or of practice in his Publick Sermons and for the truth of this I appeal to your selves 2. You have no summary of Principles injoined to be either Read or Taught in your Publick Assemblies A Catechism you have but neither your Directory nor Practice make it any part of your Lords-day-Service And besides your Catechism is such that it no ways answers the design of a Form of sound Words I have already shewed that such a Form should contain only the first and necessary principles of the Oracles of God in such Words and Methods as may make it easily apprehended and retained by the weak and unlearned which make up the bulk of the people But your Catechism is full of Hard Words School Terms and Abstruse Notions no wise necessary to be known by the generality of Christians or possible to be understood by Children or unlearned Persons for whose Edification principally a Catechism ought to be contrived Besides all this it is so long and intricate even the Shorter that not one child in ten ever gets it by heart nor one in five hundred retains it as I have found by experience and desire that you would judge of this matter as you find upon trial Lastly After all it is imperfect of some of the principles of the Apostles Catechism being quite left out of it I mean laying on of hands Joined with Baptism Heb. vi 2 a great defect sure in a Catechism to leave out a Fundamental of Christianity II. But the most sad and deplorable defect of your performance of this Duty is your casting out the reading of the Word of God from most of your Publick Assemblies directly contrary to God's Institution and Ordinance for the Instruction of his Church insomuch that in many of your Meetings setting aside a verse or two for a Text or Quotation at the discretion of the Teacher the voice of God is never publickly heard amongst them This is matter of fact and undeniable And in all the Meetings in the North of Ireland in a whole year perhaps there is not so much Scripture read as in one day in our Church by the strictest enquiry which I cou'd make One would think this alone were sufficient to shew the people where the Worship of God is to be found in its Purity and to prove our Assemblies to be the True Church of God against all that come in competition with us whereof some hide the Word of God in a strange Language and others banish it out of their Meetings It being in our Congregations only that the voice of God is heard speaking to his People without cover or gloss Sure it is a sad thing that a Man may go to most Meetings many years and never hear one intire Chapter read in them Now this omission is the more inexcusable in you and must render you manifestly self-condemned 1. First Because you so vehemently press the necessity of Preaching and quote the Holy Scriptures to prove it In which reading the Law as is shewed before is termed Preaching Act xv 21 but interpreting the Scriptures applying them or exhorting the Congregation from them in a fixed Christian Auditory which you count Preaching is never called so in the whole New Testament Therefore by laying aside the reading the Scriptures in your publick Assemblies you have intirely cast aside Preaching in the proper Scripture-sense of it But 2. This must render you self-condemned because you pretend to honour the Holy Scriptures above other Christians Your Mouths Commendably and with just Reason are continually full of the praises of the Holy Bible you own it with the generality of the Reformed Churches for the only sufficient Rule of Faith you appeal to it and seem to found your selves on it And yet your not allowing the Reading of it a constant place in your Religious Assemblies makes it seem as if you had a very low Opinion of it in your hearts If you really value it as you profess why do you banish the Reading of it from your publick Worship to make room for Discourses Lectures and Sermons of your own Teachers Remember of whom it is said Mark vii 6 This People honoureth me with their Lips but their Heart is far from me While you thus justle the Word of God out of your Solemn Meetings to make room for your own Sermons I beseech you to consider whether this be not a laying aside the Commandments of God for Mens Inventions unless you will call your Sermons as some Quakers are said to do as much the Word of God as the Bible III. I look on this as so Material a Point and conceive the Honour of the Holy Scriptures and the Salvation of Christians to be so deeply concerned in it that I think my self obliged to Examine the Pretences I have found to justifie it Tho' I confess they seem to me so weak that I am afraid I shall be almost suspected by indifferent persons not to do Justice in representing them For it is unaccountable that any body should urge so slight Reasons for so considerable an Omission And yet these are all I have ever met with or heard from you The first Reason I have heard urg'd is That the people are obliged to read the Scriptures at home and being thus acquainted with them the Reading of them is not necessary in their publick Meetings But to this I Answer 1. That we see from what has been said That the Reading of the Holy Scriptures is by God's Appointment a part of his solemn publick Worship therefore to leave it out in our Assemblies on any pretence whatsoever is to lay aside his Command and so to corrupt and dismember his Worship 2. The private performance of a Duty ought by no means to interfere with or hinder the publick We must
the way of his own appointment and complain of it as dull and tedious so Mal. i. 13 Ye said also what a weariness is it and ye snuffed at it And the reason is because the way of God's appointing is always more Spiritual in respect of that which is of Man 's own Invention and therefore it cannot be so easy or agreable to the Carnal minds of Men. 4. It ought therefore to be considered by you when people complain of being dull and unaffected by meer Hearing the Word of God read whether this do not truly proceed from a Carnal and Wicked Heart estranged from the Spirit of God and whether the reason that Sermons please and affect more then a Chapter out of the Bible be not the novelty and outward Ornaments of them rather than the Spiritualness of the discourse We are sure St. Paul supposeth such as are not affected with the Words of God to be meer Natural or Carnal Men 1 Cor. ii 13 where having taken Notice of speaking Not in Words which Man's Wisdom Teacheth but which the Holy Ghost Teacheth he adds but the Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God For they are foolishness to him neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned From whence it clearly follows that the reason why Men do not understand or receive the things of God delivered to them in the Words of Scripture dictated by the Holy Ghost is because they are meer Natural Men and want the Spirit of God Whoever therefore is more affected or delights more in a Sermon then in a Chapter of the Bible has reason to look into his Heart and examine himself whether he have the Spirit of God Those mentioned in Scripture that had that Spirit delighted in the Law of God It was the joy of their Hearts they preferred it to all things they meditate in it Day and Night And were so far from turning it out of their Publick Assemblies that the Hearing it read was a great part of their Worship Whoever therefore lays aside this practise have reason to suspect that they want that Temper and Spirit with which those Holy Men were inspired and notwithstanding all their pretences to a more then ordinary Spiritualness and Reformation are little advanced above the Natural Men that neither receive or relish the things of God at least not as they ought I find it alledged as a Sixth pretence for not Reading the Word of God in your Meetings That a Child may read them and perform this Duty and then what need it take up the Ministers time To which there needs no other answer then that the Service of God is not less his or the less to be valued because it is easy On the contrary 't is the more sinfull to neglect it the more easy it is Ministers are not set apart for difficult things only which others cannot perform but they are to execute the Office that God has imposed on them whether it be easy or difficult As for Example God has Commanded his Ministers to Baptise In the Name of the Father c. Now to pour on Water in this Form is no such difficult thing but a Child or any else might perform it Neither is there any greater difficulty in the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper as to the Essentials of it Yet I suppose it will be granted by all that it belongs only to the Minister's Office to perform these and that they must not delegate them or any part of them to others or omit them because they are easy And that they have a quite different Sacredness Efficacy and Force when performed by a Person Ordained and Authorized to this purpose then when performed by another and the same Rule holds in offering up our Prayers and in Reading the Scriptures A Man may read them at home a Child may read them in Church but they have not the same assurance of Efficacy and a blessing as when they come from the Mouth of a Person set a-part by God's Ordinance for this purpose I make no doubt but the Experience as I have said of most Christians from what they have felt in their own Hearts in Hearing the Word of God publickly read will attest the Truth of this Now if you my Friends know and own this as I hope the generality of you do you must see the unreasonableness of this pretence If any of you do not know it you must give me leave to say that I fear it is from ignorance and not considering the Scriptures And 't is your Teachers Duty to inform you better Reading the Scripture being allowed by their Directory to be a part of God's Publick Worship We have this Rule there in express words That it is requisite that all the Canonical Books be read over in order that the people may be better acquainted with the whole Body of Scriptures Now if you can shew but one Meeting in the last Age in which this has been duly performed we will not accuse you so generally of violating God's Command in this point but if there be not one such Meeting you ought to consider how you will excuse your selves before God And I think it necessary here to observe to you how insignificant general Rules are without descending to a particular Determination of Circumstances Here we have in your Dirâ—ctory a general Rule such as it is for Reading the Scripture but for want of being particular as the Calender in our Common-Prayer-Book is I question if it yet was ever once observed or indeed that it is Practical to observe it And it is so almost in every other general Rule and therefore to leave the Service of God to be Ordered by such general Rules only is in effect to Teach people to neglect it V. These are all the Reasons that I can possibly think of or have heard urged for Your practice in this point I will not say but others may be pretended but I must profess that I do not remember to have met with them if I had I would have given them a due consideration I am perswaded that they cannot be of greater force than those I have examined And that they can never excuse You in this matter from manifest breach of God's Command in preferring Mens Inventions to his Institutions After all I must profess to You That I look on all these to be only Pretences and that the true Reason of Mens Negligence in this Duty is given us 2 Tim. iv 3 For the time will come saith the Apostle when they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own Lusts shall they heap up to themselves Teachers having itching Ears An itching Ear here can signifie nothing so properly as an Ear that loves Novelty and Variety Because therefore our Church gives the people little that is New in her Prayers or Reading the Scriptures but retains a Form of sound Words in the one and the plain Word of God in the other Hence
it to God For to do so must Naturally tend to extinguish the aw and sense we ought to have of His Majesty and the Belief of his peculiar presence in our Assemblies and it is much to be feared that this proceeds too often from the want of such aw 6. To conclude There is a Language of Gestures rather more significant and moving than that of the Tongue and he must have a peculiar make of Mind that is not more awakened and affected by seeing a whole Congregation on their Knees with their Hands and Eyes lift up to Heaven than to see them sitting or leaning whilst their Petitions are offering up to God Words therefore and Gestures being only different parts of the Language whereby we express and communicate our Thoughts and Affections to one another and Both being Recommended to us by Nature and Commanded by Scripture to be used in the Worship of God he who lays aside Gestures does sin against the Commandment of God as well as he that lays aside Words I heartily wish You and all Dissenters wou'd consider this which if you did I assure my self you wou'd perceive this to be a matter of some moment and neither condemn our Bodily Adorations nor continue your own what I must call Irreverence 3. But thirdly Some alledge for their omiting this part of God's Worship That they do not condemn Bodily Adoration in his service but that to stand up and kneel in the Congregation is so troublesome to them that they judge they are better omitted To which I Answer That I verily believe that these persons do give the true Reason of this Practice For as it has been shewed before 't was of old the Reason of people's Neglecting God's Service and Matter of their Complaint against it That it was a weariness Mal. i. 13 But sure 't is no less a sin to lay aside the Commandments of God for our Ease than to change them for the Traditions of Men. 'T is an Effect of our Natural Corruption to desire to serve God with that which costs us nothing and without trouble and most are willing to save their Pains as well as their Money in his Service But this is a certain sign that they have little Heart and Affection to It if they had it would not seem a trouble to them to shew it by all the Outward Demonstrations that the Scriptures recommend to us A devout Heart bows the Body bends the Knees and lifts up the Hands in Prayer without any trouble And they have reason to suspect their own Hearts that find these demonstrations of Reverence to their Creator and Redeemer Uneasie to them This very Pretence ought to shew you That it is the Negligence and Dead-heartedness of People towards God's Service that has banished these Bodily Adorations out of it We think it no Disadvantage to our Church that we are forc'd to acknowledge That your way of VVorship is much Easier than ours to such as are present at it it being much less trouble to a Man that has no value for Religion to come into an Assembly and there sit down and lap his Cloak about him without being obliged to any VVord or Gesture that may disturb his sleep or VVorldly Thoughts than to be under an Obligation every moment to signify his Attention by some Word or Gesture under the Penalty of being remarked by the whole Congregation for his Negligence and Irreverence which is the case in our Assemblies and 't is to be feared is the Reason that some leave us and go where they may be at ease and negligent more securely 4. I confess in the fourth place There are some that excuse themselves more handsomly for not kneeling at their Prayers c. Say they VVe want Conveniency we have no room to kneel To these we Answer That where such a thing is omitted out of Necessity not Negligence or Contempt we believe God will not impute it to them neither do we accuse them for it But then we cannot but observe that this is not the general Reason of omitting this part of God's VVorship among you For First It is not your Custom to kneel in your Publick Worship tho' you have Conveniency as is manifest from the Practice in all your Meetings in which I could never learn that any one kneeled on the contrary you condemn Us who do 2. When you want Conveniency for Kneeling you might Stand at your Prayers which is a Scripture-posture as well as Kneeling you might bow your Bodies when you come into God's presence you might continue Vncovered whilst in it But you omit all these as well as Kneeling and thereby plainly shew that your Neglect in this point is an Effect of Choice not Necessity 3. If Kneeling at Publick Prayers be a Duty we are obliged to provide conveniency for it for it is certainly a sin to suffer any part of God's Service to be omitted for want of care It is as easy to provide conveniency for kneeling as for sitting in Publick Assemblies And if we Consider how carefull most people are to provide Seats for their ease and how negligent to make any provision for kneeling 'T is but too manifest a sign whatever is pretended that they are much more zealous for their ease then for the Service of God But what conveniency is it that Men desire It is easy for them to have as much conveniency as St. Paul and his Congregation had when they kneeled on the Shore Act. xx If they had the Devotion of St. Paul they would not fail to imitate his Example Be ye followers saith he of me as I am of Christ. St. Paul followed the Example of Christ in this particular and surely we ought to follow his except we think our selves grown wiser then He was or prefer our ease to our Duty But the Truth of the matter as it seems to me is That your Neglecting to kneel at the most solemn of all Christian Ordinances the Lord's Supper does harden you against Reverence in the other parts of Divine Worship And it is no wonder it shou'd do so for if Reverence be not thought necessary in that Duty it may well seem unnecessary in any other CHAP. V. Of the Lord's-Supper Sect. 1. What the Holy Scriptures prescribe concerning the frequency of Celebrating it I. THe Fifth Main and Substantial part of the ordinary Worship of God in the Assemblies of Christians is the Celebration of the Lord's-Supper It is not to be expected that I should treat concerning the preparation requisite in the Receivers or any of those other circumstances which are generally agreed on as necessary in this matter and concerning which so many excellent Treatises are extant I shall confine my self to one Point and that is the Frequency of it as a Publick act of Worship and examine First what the Institution and Practice of the Church of God in Scripture Teach us as to this particular Secondly Compare our Practice therewith And Thirdly The Practice
effectually upon you then those carnal and servile motives do on others Let me therefore earnestly encourage and intreat you to do it more and more and that you will endeavour to become all things to all Men and decline none of those Arts which are allowable when applied to gain the people to Truth and Holiness But very wicked when employed to divide and seduce them 5. Let me put you in mind That you are Ministers of the Gospel and not of a Party And therefore it concerns you to mind the common interest of Holiness and Religion more then those differences that are often of little concern in themselves and are insisted on only as the occasions and badges of those people who being resolved to seperate themselves are obliged to take up little differences for a distinction The less you meddle with these disputes it is commonly the better And indeed it is not prudent to mention them till Mens minds be fitted and prepared by a true sense of the great Duties of Religion And then the best way perhaps will be to shew of what little weight they are to cause or justify divisions or quarrels amongst Christians I am well aware that it may be objected to us that whilst we press the great Duties of the first and second Table and spend our pains and diligence in defending our common Christianity against Papists Socinians Deists and Atheists those that are our Adversaries in these lesser points have made their advantage of Our being employed against the common Enemy to undermine us with the people nay that some of them have even joined with those Enemies to pull down Our Constitution But yet I persuade my self that we are in less hazard from them whilst we do our Duty and apply our selves to the great and common Obligations of Our Holy Religion then if we should leave this exposed to the Assaults of Our Common Enemies to guard our selves from the attempts of such back Friends We must therefore have an eye to them But the other the great and common Truths and Duties of the Gospel must be our main business I might add many more Remarks proper to my present subject but I know your own Prudence and Observation are sufficient to suggest them to you I shall only add my Prayers for you that God will encrease your Wisdom and Zeal and effectually turn them to his own Glory To the Dissenting Ministers of Derry BUt as to You My Brethren That disown my Communion and Authority I have reason to fear that what I shall offer to you may receive some prejudices from my Station and Character with which you seem offended Yet reason is reason from whom soever it proceeds and I only desire that you would weigh seriously what I have here offered in defence of the Service of Our Church and if the Arguments do not convince You yet let me pray You to reflect thus far on the matter as to remember that all Mens minds are not of the same make and that it becomes You and all good Men at least to treat Our Service with respect Since we believe and think we have proved That it is clearly founded on the Word of God It will not excuse scurrilous or unseemly Reflections on it to say that we are mistaken For all Men are fallible and You may as well be mistaken as you suppose We are And therefore lest You should be in the wrong it will be the safest way to be modest in censuring No Man ought to take it ill that another proposes Reasons against his Opinion but to scoff at or revile any practice or opinion that another believes to be founded on the Word of God is not only ill manners but is of dangerous consequence being apt to breed Bitterness and Animosities between the Parties And if it should happen in a Case where the Practice or Opinion is really Warranted by the Word of God it would be Blasphemy and Impiety And therefore in all matters of Religion we ought to avoid this manner of treatment and whatever Book uses it we need trouble our selves no further with it for it certainly is written only to serve a Party and not Truth There is another thing that in Justice I think I may request of You which is That in Your Worship and Practice You will not make the difference between us seem greater then really it is To abstain from a thing confessed to be lawful in the Service of God meerly because observed by us is surely very far from a Spirit of Meekness and Moderation And therefore I may hope that you will not Indulge Your People in such affected distances that can serve to no other purpose but to make Parties irreconcilable and must proceed from a greater bitterness of Spirit then a good Man can be guilty of towards any Christian. And that You may understand my mind the better in this matter I will give You a few instances that I hope will be inoffensive and in which we may justly expect Your Complyance 1. The first is in the use of the Lord's Prayer which is owned in Your larger Catechism to be Not only for Direction as a Pattern according to which we are to make other Prayers but may be also used as a Prayer And in your Directory 't is recommended to be used in the Prayers of the Church Yet I am informed that You my Brethren of this Diocess who separate from Our Communion do universally neglect it and thereby confirm Your Hearers in an Opinion too common amongst them that all Forms of Prayer are unlawful And that for no other reason that I can learn but to keep up a difference from us in practice where we really agree in point of Doctrine 2. Your sitting at Publick Prayers may be a second Instance in which we may reasonably expect some Reformation 'T is a very irreverent thing in it self against the Command and Examples of Scripture as I think I have sufficiently shewed and against the Opinion of your best Casuists particularly of Dr. Ames de Conscientia Lib. 4· Cap. 18. Sessio per se non est gestus Orandi quia nullam exprimit reverentiam neque in Scripturis approbatur That is Sitting is not of it self a posture of prayer because it expresses no Reverence neither is it approved in Scripture Yet I understand that this is the general posture in which your people Offer their publick prayers and either because it is for their Ease or because you are unwilling to seem to lay any stress on Outward Performances or lastly lest you shou'd be like us you indulge them in it and some of them are so ignorant that they reckon it a piece of Superstition in us to kneel at our prayers and are averse to our Service amongst other Reasons because this is required at it Which Notions I suppose you your selves do not approve and therefore we may justly expect that you shou'd endeavour to inform your people better and