Sections and this is the result of all If every Pastor might be a Bishop in his Parish Independent and free from any Superiour to controul him if he may have an arbitrary power if they may be arbitrary in exercise of the power of the Keys without appeal such as he says p. 265. the Jews had where there was a Village of Ten Persons there was a Presbyter that had power of Judging Offenders Then we should be so far says he from using the controversie about the Divine Right of Episcopacy as a distinct Order from Presbyters to any Schisme or injury to the Church as hitherto they have done that we should thankfully contribute our best endeavours to the Concord Peace Safety and Prosperity thereof i. e. they would give the Bishops leave to exercise their Authority in Vtopia having provided that they shall have nothing to do in England But the Magistrates must yield to them also Might we be freed from Swearing Subscribing Declaring and Covenanting unnecessary things which we take not to be true and from some few unnecessary practices which we cannot justify And if they might have power of Ordaining such as they please and of Confirming the Adult not according to the Order of the Church of England for that comes too near to Popery but according to Mr. Baxters or Mr. Hanmers Model that is May the power of altering the Laws in Church and State then and not till then when these necessary terms are granted they will serve the Church so modelled in poverty and raggs But of so great a mercy says he experience hath made our hopes from Men to be very small and the Reason of the thing makes our hopes as small of the happiness of the Church of England till God Unite us on these necessary terms To what great streights do some Men reduce themselves that they cannot live unless they Rob and ruine their neighbours subvert whole Churches and Kingdoms and grasp all Power and Authority over the Bodies and Consciences of their Brethren into their own hands Did ever any Bishop aspire to such Tyranny as this the Pope only excepted is not the King and whole Nation greatly Culpable not to trust themselves with the Ingenuity of this people of whose Loyalty and Charity they have had such experience and is it not pitty that they should be constrained to attempt these things against Law when they so humbly desire to have them established by Law and when the reason of the thing i. e. their resolution to have it so it being their great concern as he calls it makes the hopes of the happiness of the Church of England to be very small which Men so resolved as they are may foretel as Mr. Baxter doth without a Spirit of Prophecy Sect. 2. p. 207. Mr. Baxter proceeds to the second part of Conformity which he calls Re-ordination and says it was either intended as a second Ordination or not If yea it is a thing condemned by the ancient Churches by the Canons called the Apostles c. If not then they take such Mens former Ordination to be Null and consequently all such Churches to be no Churches their Baptizings and Consecration of the Lords Supper c. to be Null Answ Although the Ordination by Presbyters alone especially when it hath been done in opposition to * P. 237. of the five Disputations We Ordain not presente but Spreto Episcopo and Contempt of Bishops hath been ever condemned in the Church and the validity thereof is still questioned yet granting it to be valid a Submission to Episcopal Ordination is no renouncing of that which was performed by Presbyters no more than the submission of the Disciples of John who had been Baptized by him with the Baptism of Repentance to the Baptism of Christ Nor doth the Law any where require them to declare that their former Ordination was Null because then it would have pronounced their Baptizings and other Ministerial Offices to be Null if therefore we did juge as charitably of our Legislators as we ought and Interpret the Laws by the practice we cannot find any such thing as Re-ordination intended For first the word is no where mentioned but the Ordination required is to qualify them for the exercise of their Ministry in the Church of England and to capacitate them for it Thus in the Preface to the Book of Ordination it is said None shall be taken as Ministers of the Church of England but who are so Ordained It denyeth not but they may be Ministers elsewhere and the Act for Vniformity renders them uncapable of any Parsonage Vicaridge c. in the Church of England But the same Act allows of the Ministers Presbyterially Ordained in other Reformed Churches to exercise their Ministry here by His Majesties Authority Yea the same Parliament permits them to meet and exercise many Ministerial duties so that the number above that of their own Families do not exceed Five and Mr. Baxter knows that the most eminent Divines of our Church ever held the Ordination by Presbyters in forraign Churches to be lawful 2. It is Mr. Baxters Opinion that the outward part of Ordination may be repeated Directory l. 3. Q. 21. And that the Ordainer doth but Ministerially invest the person with Power whom the Spirit of God hath qualified for it by the Inward Call now the Inward Call being the Essential part as he accounts and the Ministerial Investiture of the person with power being the outward part P. 311. of the Plea I see no reason why one Ordained by Presbyters may not submit to Episcopal Ordination by his own Argument Yea Mr. Baxter there affirmes That the mutual consent of the people and themselves may suffice to the orderly admittance into the Office especially if the Magistrate consent and the Ordainers should refuse For which see more in his Dispute of Ordination from whence I propose this case suppose a person fitly qualified for Parts and Piety Chosen and Ordained a Minister by an Independent or Anabaptistical people should afterward submit himself to Presbyterial Ordination I doubt not but the Presbyters would think it lawful to Ordain him and I believe they would not admit him into their Churches without such Ordination which may justifie our Superiours in requiring that they who will be admitted Ministers of the Church of England should be Episcopally Ordained For here is nothing repeated but the outward part or Ceremony of Investiture which by Mr. Baxters Confession may be repeated and is no more than the Marriage of such by a Minister who had been Married before by a Justice of Peace Or as he makes another Comparison it is no more than if a person very expert in Physick should practice without a License Upon which he tells you a story of his great success in Physick which he practiced many years gratis and saved the Lives of multitudes p. 78. of the Third part of the way of Concord and yet he there grants that it
is meet for the safety of Mens Health that none practise Physick but a Licensed Physician And until there be a greater want of Divines or Physicians than now there is it is pitty that such as are not Licensed should be permitted The Third part of Conformity begins p. 208. concerning the Renunciation of the Covenant whereof he treats § 11. and 12. Ministers saith he must onely subscribe that there is no Obligation on me or any other person from the Oath c. to endeavour any change or alteration of Government in the Church to which he adds the Oxford Oath That we will never endeavour any alteration And the Articles for Prelacy the Ordination promise and Oath of Canonical Obedience Against all which he Objects that even those Non-conformists that are for the lawfulness yea the need and desireableness of Bishops and Arch-bishops are unsatisfied in these things That some Hundred of Parishes are without any particular appropriate Bishops and consequently are without the Discipline of such Bishops and so are no Churches but only parts of a Diocesan Church that the Bishops have more work than they can do and the Keys are to be exercised by Lay-men Answ I have already shewed Mr. Baxters judgment of Bishops and Lay-Chancellours and shall only add that the Laws which Impower the Ministry with the Exercise of Discipline are so full and exact that if each Minister did faithfully perform his duty there would be no need to complain for want of work or of authority to do it effectually Every Minister is to admonish his Parishioners not to delay the Baptism of their Children whereby they are entred into a Covenant with God and by their Sureties ingaged to Faith Repentance and new Obedience as soon as they come to years of Discretion they are to be instructed out of the Church Catechism every Sunday which Catechism Mr. Baxter himself commends to be better for its Method than most others Then upon their knowledg of the Principles of Religion and owning their Baptismal Vows whereof the Minister is to take cognizance and certify to the Bishop they are to be Confirmed and none but such are to be admitted Communicants and none but Communicants to be admitted as Godfathers c. The Minister ought both publickly and privately to admonish such as are scandalous and to deny them the Communion until they manifest their Repentance which is a kind of Excommunication He is constantly to Celebrate publick Worship to Preach the Word of God and Administer the Holy Sacraments frequently to visit his Parishioners that he may know the State of his Flock to instruct the Ignorant rebuke the Wicked incourage the Good to visit the Sick absolve the Penitent and to strengthen them by the Word of God and the Comforts of the Holy Sacrament against the fear of death If these things were duly done as they might and ought to be there would be no cause to complain either that the Bishop hath too much or the Pastor too little work the fault is not in the Laws or Constitution of Government but in the want of due Execution To omit the many impertinencies in the 12. § there are Three things only on which he grounds his Plea for the Covenant The First is p. 214. Whether when Charles the II. had though injuriously been drawn to take the Covenant it doth not oblige those that took it afterward and whether the King having taken it no one person be bound by it p. 143. Answ Mr. Baxter leads me by this Question to consider how His Majesty was dealt with by the Scots in this matter how they tortured him with various temptations of hopes and fears and so affronted him with many horrible Reproaches of his own Sins as well as of the Sins of His Father and Grandfather that he often attempted to leave them what Provocations he met with in private may be guessed at by their publick Actions The Thursday before the Coronation was set apart as a Solemn day of Humiliation throughout the Land for the Sins of the Royal Family Robert Douglas in the Coronation Sermon told the King That His Grandfather King James remembred not the kindness of them who had held the Crown upon his Head yea he persecuted faithfull Ministers he never rested till he had undone Presbyterial Government and Kirk Assemblies setting up Bishops and bringing in Ceremonies In a word he laid the foundation whereupon his Son our late King did build much mischief in Religion all the days of his Life 73. P. 52. He tells the King to his Face That a King abusing his Power to the overthrow of Religion Laws and Liberties which are the fundamentals of that Covenant may be controlled and opposed And if he set himself to overthrow all these by Arms they who have power as the Estates of the Land may and ought I suppose by obligation of the Covenant to resist by Arms because he doth by that opposition break the very Bonds and overthrow the Essentials of this Contract and Covenant This may serve says he to justify the proceedings of this Kingdom against the late King who in a Hostile way set himself to overthrow Religion Parliaments Laws and Liberties Thus was the Kings Crown lined with Thorns and he had Gall and Vinegar given him to drink instead of the Royal Unction which that prophane Scot thus derides p. 34. The Bishops behoved to perform this Rite and the King behoved to be Sworn to them But now by the Blessing of God Popery and Prelacy are removed let the anointing of Kings with Oyl go to the door with them and let them never come in again If the King ought by the Laws of the Kingdom to have been Sworn to the Bishops this may make void the Obligation of the Covenant for the Coronation Oath is a right of the Subject and concerns their interest and security and the King as Heir to the Crown is obliged to that Oath and if any subsequent Oath may violate that in one particular it may also in others and then farewel to Magna Charta the priviledges of Parliament and Liberty of the Subject See more in the Review of the grand Case p. 139. 140. P. 92. He tells the King That God in his Righteous judgments suffereth Subjects to conspire and rebel against their Princes because they rebel against the Covenant made with God and adds I may say freely that a chief cause of the Judgment upon the Kings House hath been the Grandfathers breach of Covenant with God and the Fathers following steps in opposing the work of God and his Kirk within these Kingdoms and probably too many do still think they may rebel again in Defence of the Covenant But I argue from the manner of the Kings taking the Covenant as it is related p. 75. c. that the King is not obliged by it to make any alteration in the Government of our Church for thus it is related That the National Covenant and the
indifferent between God and the Devil P. 20. Some of the Non-conforming Ministers will think these passions of the people needful to check the fierceness of the Afflicters though it do but exasperate and therefore will let them alone Some of the Younger or more injudicious hot-brain'd sort of the Non-conforming Ministers will put them on and make them believe that all Communion with any Conforming Ministers or their Parish Churches is unlawful and their Forms of Worship are sinful and Anti-Christian and that they are all temporizers and betrayers of truth and purity that Communicate or Assemble with them And P. 22 23. They will carry about among themselves viz. the Heretical patty false reports and slanders partly because they think that humane converse bindeth them to believe the reports which those that are accounted good Men utter And partly because that they will think that the upholding of their cause which they think is Gods doth need the suppression of these Mens Credits and Reputation that are against it P. 25 26. The Godly and Peaceable Conformists will get the Love of the Sober by their Holy Doctrine and Lives but will be despised by the Sectaries because they Conform And will be suspected by the Proud and persecuting Clergy as leaning to the dissenters and thereupon will be under continual jealousies and rebukes And perhaps new points of Conformity shall be devised to be imposed on them which it is known their consciences are against that so they also may be forced to be Non-conformists because secret Enemies are more dangerous than open Foes And so part of them will turn down-right Non-conformists and the other part will live in displeasure till they see an opportunity to shew it And these are the likeliest to cross and weaken the Worldly persecuting Clergy of any Men. Certainly this was no Prognostication in 1661. but an History of what was done betwixt that and 1680. Concerning Princes he says he will give no other Prognosticks but Christs which yet Christ never applyed to Princes That it will be as hard for a rich Man i. e. for a Prince in his sense to enter into Heaven as for a Camel to go through a Needles Eye P. 34. The Magistrates may guess by this what Charity Mr. Baxter hath for them That this was no Prognostication but a Plot of Mr. Baxters to imbroil the Nation may farther appear by what he writes P. 122 123. Of his Way of Concord where he thus carries on the design He supposeth a Decree that none shall Preach the Gospel but those that subscribe swear promise or profess or do somewhat accounted sinful that strict Laws are made to punish such as disobey lest their Commands be contemned then that the Preachers will be cast out and silenced yet they still believe that God Commands what Man forbids and that it is a damnable Sin no less than Sacriledge and Cruelty to Souls to forsake their calling and duty The Preachers then must be fined imprisoned or banished for Preaching and the people for publick Worshipping but when fined they will go on still nothing can remedy it but either perpetual Imprisonment Banishment or Death When this is done more will arise of the same mind and continue the work And the Prelates that cause this will be taken by the suffering people for Thorns and Thistles and grievous Wolves and the Military Ministers of the Devil The indifferent common people will look on the persecutors as the Enemies of good Men and of publick peace that do all this by Pride and Domination The ungodly rabble of Drunkards Swearers Adulterers and such like hating godliness and strict living will cry up the Prelates and Triumph over the sufferers Thus the Land will be divided the Prelates and other Persecutors with the dirty malignant rabble of the licentious will make one party these will call themselves the Orthodox and the Church the sufferers and those that pitty them will be the other The conjunction of the debauched and malignant rabble with the Prelates will increase sober Mens disaffection to them and make Men take them for Patrons of impiety and how sad a Condition must such Churches be in This Prophesie is the same for substance and I cannot think it much different in the circumstance of time the design of this is the same which in the Title Page of his Prognostick he says is to instruct the Sons of Love and Peace in their duties But how ill doth such Railery become a dying Man or a mortified Christian to defame the present Governours and teach others to do the same If St. James speaks truth This Mans Religion is vain Ch. 1.26 And under this Artifice of pretended Prophesies Mr. Baxter strikes at the Root of all Authority For if Men may be excused from Obeying the Laws by pretending something sinful in them which yet they know not when they know certainly that disobedience is a sin Then on the same grounds that the Presbyterians disobey their Rulers the Independents may disobey them and the Anabaptists both and Children and Servants their Parents and Masters And then any Man as well as Mr. Baxter might Prognosticate that there can be no peace where such Principles and Practices are incouraged And now I appeal to the Christian Reader whether these suggestions were fit Legacies for a dying Man to bequeath to a divided and dying people of which he tells the Reader he was taking his farewel in 1661. but lived to publish them in 1680. that is near Twenty years after when the age was almost ruined by the practice of such unchristian intimations and both sides were preparing for the increase of their fury and extremities and at last for Repentance or ruinous Calamity if they do saith Mr. Baxter p. 31. as I have described And he could not but think that with a great many his Descriptions would go for Prescriptions and be as a Rule and Law for too many to walk by For in the Title Page he says it was published to instruct the Sons of Love and Peace in their duties and expectations These things considered I can have no better esteem of Mr. Baxter's than I had of Lillies Prognostications which were designs to revive and support The good old Cause Having considered the first part of the Prognostication which concerns things that are past there need no reflections on the second part because it concerns things that never shall be I only observe that the evils which he speaks of are generally effected but the good things are Calculated for the golden Age of Love and when that revolution will be if ever it be his Prophetick Spirit cannot discern If ever it be it will be when all Men are of one mind that is of Mr. Baxters mind who is seldom of the same mind with himself and so it is like never to be And therefore I advise the Printer though not for his own profit yet for Mr. Baxters Credit and the publick Welfare to lay up this
Infirmities of which many instances may be given And why should we so limit the goodness and Power of God as to think that if he sent an Holy Angel for the Preservation of a good Man which he often did before the coming of Christ he could not bless any means for the effecting of a good end The next passage excepted against by Mr. Baxter is that where the Angel says that he was the Son of Ananias of the Tribe of Nephthali Whereas the Scripture frequently calls Angels by the name of such Men as they represent Gen. 19.12 The Angels sent down to Sodom are called Men the Angels that appeared at the Ascension are called Men in white Apparel besides these names were assumed as significative of the end wherefore the Angel was sent Azarias signifying the help of God and Ananias the Grace and Favour of God But it is farther Objected that it is not appointed that the Priest shall tell the People that those Lessons are Apocryphal or what that word signifyeth Answ Neither is it denyed them to inform the People as oft as such Lessons are to be read And lastly Mr. Baxter thinks that the chief doubt is whether the Calender appointing those Lessons may be consented to which upon supposition that those Lessons contain nothing contrary to Gods Word or sound Doctrine may undoubtedly be done especially in case of Deprivation Mr. Baxter resolves the case thus p. 191. That the Apocrypha is no part of the Book to which we must Profess Assent Approbation and Consent nor to which by the Canon we must ex animo subscribe that there is nothing in it contrary to the Word of God P. 167. Mr. Baxter resumes the business of Godfathers against which he multiplyeth words rather than objections as 1. That no Parent is permitted to be Godfather to his own Child or to speak at his Baptism or Dedicate him or promise in his name or to undertake any part of his Education All which is frivolous for the Godfathers are to be Sureties for the credibility of the Parent as well as for the Child and so the word Surety implyes that the Parent is the principal and who ever thought the Church intended to exclude the Parents Duty to which the Law of God and Nature bind him and from which nothing but death can excuse him Nor did ever any good Man think that his procuring of Godfathers did supersede his duty towards his Child but that it was his duty more especially to do what they promised in behalf of the Parents And though it be not expressed that the Godfather is the Parents Representative yet the contrary is not implyed as Mr. Baxter says because as he there says the Parents are to procure the Godfathers and how can Mr. Baxter tell whether he bespeaks him to be his Representative or not Calvin advised the Parent to bring his Sureties with him Epist 302. And that they should answer to the Interrogatories which was the practice at Geneva and by Beza approved in the Church of England Quis damnare ausit Epist the 8. to Grindal As to his demand whether it be not enough that the Baptized Infant be the Child of a Believing Parent I answer the Church thinks it sufficient in the case of private Baptism where no more is required yet the Church may require witnesses that the Parent is such a one under which notion they do represent him and for the better Assurance the Church requires that the Godfathers themselves be such as have received the Holy Communion i. e. in the Language of the Primitive Church that they be fideles But he makes another Query whether the Godfathers Act be truly the Child 's in Gods account Answ That Infants may be ingaged in a Covenant with God cannot be denyed They were entred into a Covenant by Circumcision under the Law Deut. 29.11.12 And for this reason our Children may be called Holy as entred to a Covenant with God and receiving the Priviledges of Baptism and fit it is they should be early obliged to the Duties of the Covenant And being not capable to do this of themselves it is requisite that some others should do it on their behalf with that solemnity which becomes so great an Ordinance Buxtorf mentions a Susceptor at the Circumcision of Infants under the Law And many Divines think that Custom was practised from Isa 8.2.3 of which see the Notes of Junius and Tremelius in Locum Mr. Calvin to Knox Epist 285. I confess that Stipulation is necessary for nothing is more preposterous than that those should be ingrafted into Christs Body whom we may not hope to be his Disciples wherefore if none of the Kindred appear that may give his Faith to the Church and take charge of Teaching the Child it is but a Lusorious Action and the Baptism is defiled Tertullian among the Ancients speaks of Sureties for Children at Baptism and of the Three Interrogatories concerning their Belief of the Creed Renouncing the Devil and the Christian-Warfare and some think there is an Intimation of the same in the 1 Pet. 3.21 St. Cyprian St. August and many others mention the same The Reformed Churches have owned this Practise The Bohemian Geneva Dutch French and many able Divines have defended it And it is resolved by them that the words I Believe I Reneounce c. being a Form of words to express the contract do oblige the Infant which was anciently done alio protestante and therefore the question being asked of the Godfather in the Childs behalf dost thou Believe and Renounce and wilt thou be Baptized It is plain that the answer also is in the Childs name and the Catechism says Infants are Baptized because they Promise Faith and Repentance by their Sureties Now if Children may be ingaged and there be no way of doing it but by some others on their behalf seeing this way of Godfathers hath been used by the Churches of God who can doubt but that their Act may truly be accepted of God as the Act of the Child and when we grant that the Parent joyns in the same Act with the Godfathers whom he procures and may bring with him and signify his Consent and receive the Charge which though it bind the Godfathers to do their honest endeavour yet it is more especially incumbent on the Parent I see no reason but we may Assent to this And thus the 9. Object that Ministers must Assent to all this Exclusion of the Parents and Presentation Profession Promise and undertaking of the Godfathers is answered All this Exclusion is none at all the Liturgy says nothing of it the Canon says only he shall not be urged to be present and the Reason is supposed because in time the ancient Use of Godfathers would be laid aside which all Protestant Churches have carefully continued P. 169. Mr. Baxter excepts against the Rubrick which says It is certain by Gods Word that Children which are Baptized dying before they commit
times are we fallen that our highest Priviledge should be accounted a great Grievance and when all things are prepared and we are Invited in the Name of Christ to come to his Supper we do rather choose Imprisonment and Goals rather than the Table of the Lord The First Christians made this Sacrament their Daily-Bread which Devout Practice was continued for many years till as Devotion waxed colder they Communicated only once a Week or on Sundays and Holydays at most at last they came to once a Year until it was Decreed by some Councils that they should receive at least three times By the Liturgy of Edward the VI. the Clergy in Collegiate Churches and Cathedrals were to receive Daily and by the present Liturgy every Sunday But that Heavenly Ordinance which the Primitive Christians begged on their Knees and which is a most excellent means to Unite us to Christ and to one another is despised and made a ground of Strife and Division And when notwithstanding the pious Provision made by the Church to qualify its Members for a due and frequent Participation of that Blessing and the Penalties provided by Law for such as neglect this duty there is so miserable a neglect of it we may justly fear that if these methods be disused we shall return to the practice of the late times of Reformation where that Sacred Ordinance was in very many Parishes wholly neglected for some years together P. 187. Mr. Baxter excepts against those words in the Office for Burial Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take to himself the Soul of our Dear Brother here departed Which he takes in a strict sense as implying the Salvation of the Deceased when it may be understood only in a larger sense that as the Body returns to the Earth so doth the Soul return to God that gave it to be by him disposed of And therefore the Church says only of the Soul that it is here departed that is gone from the Body unto God the Judge of all Men and when at the Interring of the Body it is said In hope of the Resurrection to Eternal Life it is not said particularly of his Resurrection but more generally that there shall be a Resurrection of our Bodies to Eternal Life in the sense as it is taken by Expositors of the Creed that there shall be a Resurrection of our Bodies to Eternal Life when they that have done well come forth to the Resurrection of the Just and they that have done evil to Condemnation Of this as we express a sure and certain hope for our selves and all that do depart in the true Faith so when we apply it particularly to the party Deceased we say only our hope is that he resteth in Christ And Christian Charity teacheth us to hope the best of all that dye in the Communion of the Church For as those that dye Excommunicate the Office of Burial is denyed to them And seeing Mr. Baxter pleads that some upright Christians in Phrensies Melancholies and Distractions make away themselves of whom he would have us to entertain this hope It would puzle a more charitable Man than he to resolve of any particular Man that dyeth in the Communion of the Church that there is no hope of his Salvation and it is better to err on the right hand in Judging Charitably than through Pride or Malice to condemn a Brother our Saviour forbidding us to Judge that we be not Judged His next Exception is against these Words We give thee hearty thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our Brother out of the miseries of this sinful World Now it being certain to us that Death doth put an end to a State of Sin and Misery to which all are subject in this Life we ought doubtless to give God thanks for that which we know to be a Mercy and to leave the Final Determination of his Soul which is a secret unto us to God There was no Sin in Jobs blessing the Name of the Lord when by a severe Providence he took away his Children amidst their Mirth not in another passage which is used also in this Office and spoken by the Apostle concerning the Corinthians Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ and when we see our Friends and Relations peaceably departed we may bless God for his Mercy in delivering them from the evils which they suffered and hope that he hath given them rest in Christ and we do but our duty to God and shew our Charity to our Brother in so doing P. 190. The Surplice is accounted by some Non-Conformists to be unlawful and therefore they cannot Assent to the Use of it For which no reason is given only Mr. Baxter says If a Man mistakingly should take the Use of the Surplice to be sinful he should not therefore be silenced Answ If he do mistake he ought to do it modestly suspecting his own Judgment which he will find to be contrary to that liberty which Christ hath purchased for us that to the pure all things are pure and contrary to the Practice of Primitive times wherein the White Garment was in Use by the Testimonies of St. Hierom Chrysostome and Augustine contrary to the Judgment of the most Learned Protestants and of Mr. Baxter himself In his Five Disputations p. 409. Some decent habit is necessary the Magistrate Ministers or Associated Pastors must determine what if they tye all to one Habit and suppose it were an indecent habit yet this is but an imprudent Vse of Power it is a thing within the Magistrates reach he doth not an Aliene Work but his own Work amiss And therefore the thing in it self being lawful I would Obey him and use that Garment if I could not be dispensed with Yea though secundarily the whiteness be to signify purity and so it be made a Teaching Sign yet would I obey Now if any Man against all this Authority and Arguments of Mr. Baxter and others should still think the Surplice unlawful it is better that he should be silenced than the Churches Peace and Order be disturbed or Ancient Laws abrogated as oft as some mistaking think them unlawful it is disobedience which the Church doth censure and the Law punish The Surplice is but a Ceremony which ought not to weigh down the Duty of Obedience P. 191. Mr. Baxter grants that if the Athanasian Creed be referred to the Doctrine of the Trinity it would not be excepted against For he takes it to be the best Explication of the Mystery of the Sacred Trinity which in so short a Sum is extant in the Church So that by requiring Assent and Consent thereunto the Church of England hath secured her self against any suspition of Socinian or Anti-Trinitarian Doctrin whereof Mr. Baxter and others frequently and falsly accuse the Conformists That which cannot be Assented to is the Damnatory Sentences in that Creed as First Where it is said in
the beginning Whosoever will be saved before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith And the Catholick Faith is this c. And in the end This is the Catholick Faith which except a Man believe faithfully he cannot be saved Answer if our Assent be required only to the Use of this Creed and not to a belief of the Truth of every part of it the controversie will be at an end Secondly The Belief of things as necessary to Salvation is granted by Non-conformists to be not an Assent to the several Phrases and obscure Words but to the general sense contained in them Now the sense of our Church in proposing this Creed may be judged by the Use which she makes of the Apostles Creed not only in the daily Profession of it but in the Office of Baptism as containing all the necessary points of Faith into which we are Baptized And in the Catechism as containing all the Articles of the Christian Faith which doth shew that no more is required as necessary to Salvation than what is contained in the Apostles Creed Thirdly In this Creed some things are propounded as necessary points of Faith which Men of weak judgments may apprehend as that we Worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity Other things are for a clearer explication of that Doctrin and vindication of it from the errors that were then risen in the Church as the Arrians and Nestorians who erred concerning the Divinity of Christ and his two Natures which begin thus For there is one Person of the Father c. After which followeth the necessary Doctrine again So that in all things as is aforesaid the Vnity in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity is to be Worshipped He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity So that the Doctrine of the Trinity is that Faith which is proposed as necessary to Salvation I know the exception of many against this Creed is in relation to the Heathen who seem by it to be excluded from Salvation In which respect I suppose it is that Mr. Baxter says p. 191. That some R. Reverend Conformists do profess that those Sentences are untrue and not to be approved and he instanceth somewhere in Mr. Chillingworths refusal to subscribe it But if this be the ground of the Exception I conceive that the generality of the Non-conformists who maintain the same Opinion which is consonant to the Scriptures and to the Assemblies Confession of Faith to which Mr. Baxter also hath declared his Assent in this particular will not oppose For in the Assemblies Confession C. 10. Article 4. concerning effectual calling they say That Men not professing the Christian Religion cannot be saved in any way whatsoever be they never so diligent to frame their Lives according to the Light of Nature and the Law of that Religion they do profess and to assert and maintain that they may is very pernicious and to be detested And I know some Non-conformists have lately blamed some Conformists for seeming to incline to the contrary Opinion Which if this be sense of the Creed our Church doth explode yet some Non-conformists think that by holding the Doctrine of the Athanasian Creed they do not judge the Heathen World and that they dobut not but in every nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him so that this obloquie is silenced But it is most probable that Athanasius intended the Explanatory part of the Creed against the Arrians and other Hereticks in the Church who if they denied the Divinity of Christ and dyed in that error who can think they can be saved seeing they make Christ a meer Creature and overthrow the Doctrine of our Redemption by him But that he should condemn all that have a true though but a weak Faith in the Holy Trinity and cannot comprehend the manner of the Eternal Generation of the Son the Procession of the Holy Ghost and the Co-equality of the Trinity cannot be thought to have been the Mind of Athanasius P. 192. N. 20. The Liturgy saith All Priests and Deacons are to say daily the Morning and Evening Prayer privately or openly not being lett by sickness or some other urgent cause c. Answ That the Primitive Christians did meet daily not only for publick Prayers but to receive the Sacrament is believed and that it is our duty to Pray Morning and Evening cannot be denyed and what should hinder but that such as are specially devoted to the Service of God should Pray openly with the people if not reasonably hindred or at least pray privately for them there are many that do their duty herein and if all did it would be better with us because all Men do not perform their Baptismal Vows is it fit that none such should be made we see this duty is performed in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches and in many other places where there is a liberal maintenance provided for the Priests and Deacons where though one only do Officiate yet all those that are present may say the daily Prayers as the Liturgy requires which is another frivolous Objection of Mr. Baxters p. 192. n. 3. The next is a Calumny against the whole Liturgy viz. that the Prayers are disorderly and defective not Formed according to the Order of Matter nor of the Lords Prayer but like an immethodical Sermon which is unsuitable to the High Subjects and Honorable Work of Holy Worship and that the Non-conformists have Offered when it shall be well accepted to give in a Catalogue of the disorders and defects of the Liturgy But all this notwithstanding they think it lawful to Use the Liturgy in Obedience or for Unity or when no better may be Used It is something to go thus far but if they would impartially consider the defects and confusions which were in the Directory as it hath been considered by Doctor Hammond or in Mr. Baxters Eight days exploit for a more correct Nepenthes and shall on the other side read that account which Mr. Comber and others have given of the Methodical order and dependance of the several Prayers and Offices the Grave and Scriptural Phrases and Expressions in the Liturgy he may perceive that this is fitter to guide the Devotion of the Universal Church than those other are for Country Conventicles P. 194. He excepts against the Preface to the Book of Ordination where it is said that It is evident to all Men diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been these Orders in Christs Church Bishops Priests and Deacons as several Offices Answ I shall not trouble my Readers with the Arguments of Learned Men for the Order of Bishops in the Church ever since the Apostles days as distinct from Presbyters much less shall I repeat those uncomely Reflections which Mr. Baxter hath made on Diocesan Bishops in both his late Books It may suffice in Answer to this Objection that Mr. Baxter