Holy Scriptures but that we may joyn in a Liturgy or use it if the Form of Words be not from Scripture This is thus proved 1. That which is not directly or consequentially forbidden by God remaineth lawful A stinted Liturgy is not directly or consequentially forbidden of God Therefore it remaineth lawful The major is undoubted because nothing but a prohibition can make a thing unlawful where there is no Law there is no Transgression Yet I have heard very Reverend Men Answer this That it is enough that it is not commanded though not forbidden which is plainly to deny both Scripture and Civil Principles Now for the Minor That a stinted Liturgy is not forbidden we need no other proof than that no Prohibion can be produced The main Body of Non-Conformist Ministers did judge that the Ordinary Liturgy appointed for Publick Worship was such as a good Christian might lawfully joyn in Apol. p. 148. If it be lawful for the People to use a stinted form of Words in Publick Prayer then is it in it self lawful for the Pastors But it is lawful for the People c. For the Pastors Prayer which they must pray over with him and not only hear it is a stinted Form to them even as much as if he had learnt it out of a Book It is lawful to use a Form in Preaching therefore a stinted Liturgy is lawful 1. Because Preaching is a part of that Liturgy 2. Because the reason is the same for Prayer as for that in the main That which hath been the practice of the Church in Scripture times and down to this day and is yet the practice of almost all the Churches of Christ on earth is not like to be unlawful But such is the use of some stinted Forms c. I have shewed that it was so in the Jewish Church That it hath been of ancient use in the Church since Christ and at this day in Africk Asia Europe and the Reformed Churches in France Holland Geneva c. is so well known that I need not stand to prove it And those few that seem to disuse it do yet use it in Psalms and other parts of Worship As for the Common-Prayer it self I never rejected it because it was a Form or thought it simply unlawful because it was such a Form but have made use of it and would do again in the like case Object But if a faulty manner of praying be prescribed and imposed by a Law I know it before-hand and am guilty of it Answ If the thing be sinful either it is 1. Because the Prayers are defective and faulty Or 2. Because they are imposed Or 3. because you knew the Fault before-hand but none of these can prove your joyning with them sinful 1. Not because they are faulty for you may joyn with as faulty Prayers you confess if not imposed 2. Not because imposed for that is an extenuation and not an aggravation For 1. it proveth the Minister less voluntary of the two than those are that do it without any command through the errour of their own Judgments 2. Because though lawful things oft become unlawful when Superiours forbid them yet no reason can be given why a lawful thing should become unlawful because a lawful Superiour doth command it else Superiours might take away all our Christian Liberty and make all things unlawful to us by commanding them You would take it for a wild Conceit in your Children or Servants if they say when you bid them learn a Catechism or use a Form of Prayer It was lawful for us to do it till you commanded us but because you bid us do it it is unlawful If it be a Duty to obey Governours in all lawful things then it is not a Sin to obey them 3. It is not your knowing before hand that makes it unlawful for 1. I know in general before hand that all imperfect Men will do imperfectly and though I know not the particular that maketh it never the lawfuller if fore-knowledge it self did make it unlawful 2. If you know that e. g. an Antinomian or some mistaken Preacher would constantly drop some words for his Errour in praying or preaching that will not make it unlawful in your own Judgment for you to joyn if it be not a flat Heresie 3. It is another Man's Errour or Fault that you foreknow and not your own 4. God himself doth as an Universal Cause of Nature concur with Men in those Acts which he foreknoweth they will sinfully do yet is not the Authour or Approver of the Sin We the Commissioners 1663. all thought a Liturgy lawful and divers Learned and Reverend Nonconformists of London met to consider how far it was their duty or lawful to Communicate with the Parish Churches where they lived in the Liturgy and Sacrament and I proved four Propositions 1. That it is lawful to use a Form 2. That it is lawful to joyn with some Parish Churches in the use of the Liturgy 3. That it is lawful to joyn with some Parish Churches in the Lord's Supper 4. That it is to some a duty to joyn with some Parish Churches three times a year in the Lord's Supper and none of the Brethren seemed to dissent but took the Reasons to be valid Were I in Armenia Abassia or among the Greeks I would joyn in a much more defective Form than our Liturgy rather than none And this is the judgment of many New-England Ministers conform to the old Non-conformists who did some of them read the Common Prayer and the most of them judged it lawful to joyn in it or else Mr. Hildersham Mr. Richard Rogers c. would not write so earnestly for coming to the beginning and preferring it before all private Duties And truly I am not able to bear the thoughts of separating from almost all Christ's Churches upon Earth but he that separates from one or many upon a reason common to almost all doth virtually separate from almost all and he that separates from all among us upon the account of the unlawfulness of our Liturgy and the badness of our Ministry doth separate from them upon a reason common to almost all or the far greatest part as I conceive Those Forms of Liturgy which now are most distasted were brought in by the most zealous religious People at the first The many short Invocations Versicles and Responses which the People use were brought in when the Souls of the Faithful did abound with Zeal and in holy fervors break out in such expressions and could not well endure to be bare Auditors and not vocally to bear their part in the praises of God and prayers of the Church I have shewed at large How far God hath given Men power to prescribe and impose Forms for others and commanded others to obey them when Christ said When ye pray say Our Father c. he bound the Disciples in duty to do as he bid
turbulent Non-conformist I differ from many in several things of considerable moment yet if I should zealously press my judgment on others so as to disturb the Peace of the Church and separate from my Brethren that are contrary minded I should fear lest I should prove a Firebrand in Hell for being a Fire brand in the Church And for all the interest I have in your Judgments and Affections I here charge you that if God should give me up to any Factions Church rending Course against which I daily pray that you forsake me and follow me not a step And for peace with one another follow it with all your might If it be possible as much as in you lieth live peaceably with all men Rom. 12. 18. mark this When you feel any sparks of discontent in your Breasts take them as kindled by the Devil from Hell and take heed you cherish them not If the flames begin to break forth in Censoriousness Reproaches and hard Speeches of others be as speedy and busie in quenching it as if it were Fire in the Thatch of your Houses For why should your Houses be dearer to you than the Church which is the House of God Or your Souls which are the Temples of the Holy Ghost Hath God spoke more against any Sin than Unpeaceableness If ye forgive not Men their trespasses neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you which Lodovicus Crocius says is the measure and essential property of the least degree of true Faith if you love not one another you are not Disciples of Christ Publick Wars and Private Quarrels usually pretend the Reformation of the Church the vindicating of the Truth and the welfare of Souls but they as usually prove in the issue the greatest means to the overthrow of all It is as natural for both Wars and private Contentions to produce Errors Schisms contempt of Magistracy Ministry and Ordinances as it is for a dead Carrion to breed Worms and Vermine Believe it from one that hath too many years experience of it it is as hard a thing to maintain even in your People a sound understanding a tender Conscience a Lively gracious Heavenly frame of Spirit and an upright Life in a way of War and Contention as to keep your Candle lighted in the greatest Storms or under the Waters The like I may say of perverse and fierce Disputings about the Circumstantials of Discipline or other Questions that are far from the Foundation they oftner lose the truth than find it Wo to those Ministers that make unnecessarry Divisions and Parties among the People that so they may get themselves a name and be cryed up by many Followers The way to prosper your labours is to quench all flames of Contention to your power Study the Peace and Unity of your Congregations keep out all occasions of Divisions especially the Doctrine of Separation and popular Church-Government the apparent Seminary of Faction and perpetual Contentions If once the People be taught that it belongs to them to govern themselves and those the Scripture calleth their Guides and Rulers we shall have mad work They that would pluck up the Headge of Government as if the Vineyard could not be fruitful except it lay waste to the pleasure of all the Beasts of the Forest are like the pond that grudged at the Banks and Damm and thought it injurious to be restrained of its liberty and therefore combined with the Winds to raise a Tempest and so assault and beat down the Banks in their rage And now where is that peaceable Association of Waters We feel now how those are mistaken that thought the way for the Churches Unity was to dig up the Banks and let all loose that every Man in Religion might do what he list Wo to those Ministers that make unnecessary Divisions and Parties among the People that so they may get themselves a name and be cried up by many Followers The way to prosper your labours is to quench all Flames of Contention Study the Peace of your Congregations keep out all occasions of Divisions especially the Doctrine of Separation and popular Government the apparent Seminarys of Faction and perpetual Contentions Every tender Conscience should be as tender of Church Divisions and real Schism as of Drunkenness Whoredom and other such enormous Sins James 3. 14 15 16. Reasons for Christ Relig. p. 485. Sect. 34. If it be objected that I preached to separate Congregations my Answer is That I preach'd only to some of many Thousands that cannot come into the Temples many of which never heard a Sermon of many years And what I did was only to preach to such as could not come to our Churches Answ to Letter p. 24. quasi dicerit that where Parish Churches are large enough there Separate Congregations are unlawful They are usually Men least acquainted with a Heavenly Life who are the violent disputers about the Circumstantials of Religion As the body doth languish in consuming Fevers when the native heat abates within and unnatural heat inflaming the external parts succeeds so when the Zeal of a Christian doth leave the Internals of Religion and fly to Ceremonials Externals or Inferior things the Soul must needs consume and languish Of Conformity For Conformity though to Ministers it be another thing by reason of the new impositions than it was to our Predecessors yet to the People Conformity is the same if not easier especially to them that I now speak to for it is the Liturgy Ceremonies and Ministry that most alienate them And the Liturgy is a little amended as to them by the change of the Translation and some little words and by longer Prayers and the Ceremonies are the same and Thirty Years ago there were many bare reading not preaching Ministers for one that is now Therefore our case of Separation being the same as of old I take it to be fully confuted by the ancient Non-conformists and I have so great a Veneration for the worthy Names much more an Estimation of the Reasonings of Mr. Cartwright Egerton Hildersham Dod Amesius Parker Baines Brightman Ball Bradshaw Paget Langley Nicols Herring c. that I shall not think they knew not why they chose this Subject and wrote more against Separation than the Conformists did I am very glad that the pious Lectures of Mr. Hildersham Mr. R. Rogers and such old Non-conformists are in so good esteem among good People where they will read them urging the People not only against Separation but to come to the very beginning of the Publick Worship and preferring it before their Private Duties When I think what holy Learned Men the old Conformists were my heart riseth against the thoughts of separating from them If I had come to their Churches when they used the Common Prayer and Administred the Sacrament could I have departed and said It is not lawful for any Christian here to communicate with you What! to such Men as Mr. Bolton Whateley Fenner Dent
Mr. RICHARD BAXTER's LAST LEGACY IN SELECT ADMONITIONS AND DIRECTIONS TO ALL Sober Dissenters To whom Being dead he yet speaketh LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by E. Whitlock near Stationer's Hall 1697. THE PREFACE TO DISSENTERS THE Instructions here recommended as Mr. Baxter's Legacy were collected out of his own genuine Writings and perused by him in his Life-time and being much for his Reputation with all sober Persons he seemed well pleased with them notwithstanding much obloquy and reproach from divers Dissenters for in the Preface to his Christian Directory he says It was objected that his Writings differing from the common Judgment had already caused offence to the Godly to which he answers If God bless me with opportunity and help I will offend such Men much more by endeavouring farther than ever I have done the quenching of that Fire which they are still blowing up and detecting the Folly and Mischief of those Logomachies by which they militate against Love and Concord and inflame and tear the Church of God And in his Second Admonition to Bagshaw he stiles himself a Long-maligned and resisted endeavourer of the Churches Vnity and Peace and in p. 11. of that Book he thus declares his Christian temper and resolution If Injuries or Interest would excuse any Sin I think their are few Ministers in England who have more inducement to the angry separating way than I have But shall I therefore wrong the Truth God forbid and p. 52. He further tells Bagshaw I repent that I no more discouraged the Spirit of peevish quarrelling with Superiours and Church Orders and though I ever disliked it and opposed it yet that I sometimes did too much encourage such as were of their temper by speaking too sharply against those things which I thought to be Church Corruptions and was too loth to displease the Contentious for fear of being uncapable to do them good meeting with too few Religious Persons that were not too much pleased with such invectives and when Mr. Bagshaw objected that he chose to communicate on Easter-day in a very populous Church purposely that it might be known he answered p. 76. If a Man by many years forbearing all publick Prayers and Sacraments should tempt others to think that he is against them or counts them needless How should he cure that Scandal but by doing that openly and pleading for it which he is supposed to be against Ministers being bound to teach the People by Example as well as Doctrine The Question which he maintained against Mr. Bagshaw was Is it lawful to hold communion with such Christian Churches as have worthy or tollerable Pastors notwithstanding the Parochial order of the Ministers Conformity and use of the Common Prayer-Book And concludes p. 89. That we ought to do so when some special Reasons as from Authority Scandal c. do require it He saith I wrote a Book at the end of my Cain and Abel on purpose to shew the lawfulness of communicating with the Church of England but before it was printed Dr. Owen having heard of it sent me 12 Arguments against joyning with the Church of England which I answered whereupon a swarm of Revilers poured out their keenest Censures upon me one said I was an Apostate another said that my Treatise of Episcopacy fully proved the duty of Separation and I were reported to be a pleader for Baal and Anti-christ in Answer to all which I published a Treatise in defence of Catholick Communion to which I refer you I will tell the World a certain Truth I Preach I Write I frequently and openly talk against Separation and for the lawfulness of joyning with the Church in the use of the Liturgy and to rebuke Mens extreams and censures of the Episcopal Clergy and for an impartial Love of all true Christians I sharply reprove the weak Reasonings of those that are otherwise minded and by this I occasion the true Sectarians every where to speak against me Apol. p. 62. I take it for a duty to Preach against Schism Sedition and Rebellion and all Principles that tend to breed or feed them and to use all Opportunities and Interest in the People to promote their Loyalty and Publick Peace p. 18 19. I did not vary from my most early Opinion concerning these things for in my Epistle to the Saints Rest I gave the same Admonition to my Flock at Kidderminister in these words I charge you in Christ's name as you will answer it when we shall meet at Judgment that you faithfully and constantly practise these Directions Above all see that ye be followers of Peace and Vnity in the Church and among your selves I differ from many in several things of considerable moment yet if I should zealously press my judgment on others so as to disturb the Peace of the Church and separate from my Brethren I should fear least I should prove a Firebrand in Hell for being a Firebrand in the Church And for all the interest I have in your Judgments and Affections I charge you that if God should give me up to any Factious Church-rendring course that you forsake me and follow me not a step believe not those to be Friends of the Church who would cure her by cutting her Throat Vpon writing my Cure of Church Divisions Mr. Bagshaw p. 152. Published other Invectives against me as that one worthy of credit told him that the Learned and Judicious Mr. Herle having read that Book said That it had been better for the Church of God if Mr. Baxter's Friends had never sent him to School and that Mr. Cawdry had a like opinion of that Book and that another Person as knowing in the Mystery of Godliness as either of them told a Friend of his that notwithstanding the noise about Mr. Baxter he would end in Flesh and Blood But Mr. Baxter was well fortified against these obloquies having been surfeited as he says with humane Applause But notwithstanding all these Clamours and vexatious Troubles Mr. Baxter kept a constant course pleading for Concord and Vnity almost in every Book which he set forth and that with such cogent Arguments as the like are scarce to be found on any other Subject which he hath written upon as from the following Admonitions collected out of a few of his many Treatises will appear to the Judicious Reader and many more may be observed in those that are conversant in his Writings wherein although some things accidentally written may seem to be contradictory yet as he told Mr. L'Estrange he was well able to reconcile them And by his distinctions he hath reconciled many seeming Contradictions by help whereof as Mr. Silvester observed in the Preface to his Life as he could speak what he would so he could prove what he spake I am well perswaded that by the following Collections any impartial Separatist may find sufficient Arguments to resolve all his Scruples and Objections against Conformity to the Established Worship for which end they are
Power of the Prince and Patron by his grant Who but Physitians are fit to judge who is meet to be a Licensed Physitian p. 127. Of the 2d Defence § 4. In case of meer different Modes Circumstances and Order of Worship see that you give Authority and the Consent of the Church where you are their due Christian Directory Part. 3. p. 13. § 5. Conform your selves to all the Lawful Customs and Gestures of the Church with which you joyn You come not thither proudly to shew your selves wiser than they in the Circumstances of Worship nor needlesly to differ from them much less to harden Men into a Scorn of strictness by seeing you to place Religion in singularities in lawful and indifferent things but you come to Exercise Peace Love and Concord and with one Mind and Mouth to glorifie God stand when the Church standeth sit when the Church sitteth and kneel when the Church kneeleth in cases where God doth not forbid it Christian Directory p. 71. Part 3. § 6. Temples Utensels Lands devoted and lawfully separated by Man for holy uses are holy as justly related to God by that Separation Every thing should be reverenced according to the measure of its Holiness and this expressed by such Signs and Gestures as are fit to honour God to whom they are related And so to be uncovered in a Church and use reverent Cariage and Gestures there doth tend to preserve due reverence to God and to his Worship 1 Cor. 16. 20. Christian Directory Part 3. p. 167. § 7. Plain intelligible Church Musick which occasioneth not Divisions but the Church agreeth in for my part I never doubted but to be lawful For 1. God set it up long after Moses's Ceremonial Law by David Solomon c. 2. It is not meerly an Instituted Ceremony but a Natural help to the Minds alacrity and it is a Duty not a Sin to use the helps of Nature and lawful Art As it is Lawful to use the help of Spectacles in reading the Bible so is it of Musick to exhilerate the Soul to God 3. Jesus Christ joyned with the Jewes that used it and spake not against it 4. No Scripture forbids it 5. Nothing can be said against it but what may be said against Tunes and melody of Voices yea it is not a humane Invention as the last Psalm and many others shew which call us to praise the Lord with Instruments of Musick § 8. Let not prejudice against Melody or Church-Musick possess you with a splenatick disgust of that which should be your most joyful work if you know how much the Incorporate Soul must make use of the Body in harmony and the joyful praises of Jehovah Do not then Quarrel with lawful helps because they are sensible and corporal Christian Direct p. 72. Part. 3. p. 167. Harmony and Melody are so high a Pleasure of the Sense that they are nearest to rational delight if not participating of them and exceedingly fitted to elevate the Mind and Affections unto God We the Ministers who drew up the Worcester Agreement required our People to declare in these Words IAB do consent to be a Member of the particular Church of Christ in D. whereof EF is Teacher and Overseer and to submit to his Teaching and Ministerial guidance and over-sight according to God's Word Of the Doctrine of the Church of England As for the Doctrine of the Church of England the Bishops and their Followers from the first Reformation begun by King Edward the Sixth were sound in Doctrine adhearing to the Augustine method expressed now in the Articles and Homilies they differed not in any considerable point from those whom they called Puritans but it was in the form of Government Liturgy and Ceremonies that the difference lay The Independents as well as the Presbyterians offer to Subscribe the XXXIX Articles as distinct from Prelacy and Ceremony And when I was in the Country I knew not of one Minister to ten that are now silenced that was not in the main of the same Principles with my self Mr. Baxter's Reasons for Obedience in Lawful things Page 483. of his Five Disputations Sect. 1. Lest Men that are apt to run from one extream into another should make an ill use of that which I have before written I shall here annex some Reasons to perswade Men to just Obedience and preserve them from any sinful Nonconformity to the commands of their Governours and the evil effects that are like to follow thereupon § 2. But First I will lay together some Propositions for decision of the Controversie How far we are bound to obey Mens Precepts about Religion Especially in case we doubt of the lawfulness of obeying them And so cannot obey them in Faith § 3. Briefly 1. We must obey both Magistrates and Pastors in all things lawful which belong to their Offices to command 2. It belongs not to their Office to make God a new Worship But to command the Mode and Circumstances of Worship belongeth to their Office for guiding them wherein God hath given them general Rules 3. We must not take the lawful Commands of our Governours to be unlawful 4. If we do through weakness or perversness take Lawful things to be unlawful that will not excuse us in our disobedience Our error is our Sin and one sin will not excuse another Sin Even as on the other side if we judge things unlawful to be lawful that will not excuse us for our disobedience to God in obeying Men. 5. As I have before shewed many things that are miscommanded must be obeyed 6. As an erroneous judgment will not excuse us from Obedience to our Governours so much less will a doubtfulness excuse us 7. As such a doubting erring judgment cannot obey in plenary Faith so much less can he disobey in Faith For it is a known Command of God that we obey them that have the Rule over us but they have no Word of God against the act of Obedience now in quection It is their own erring judgment that intangleth them in a necessity of sinning till it be changed 7. In doubtful Cases it is our duty to use God's means for our Information and one means is to consult with our Teachers and hear their words with teachableness and meekness 8. If upon advising with them we remain in doubt about the lawfulness of some Circumstance of order if it be such as may be dispensed with they should dispence with us if it may not be dispensed without a greater injury to the Church or Cause of God than our dispensation will countervail then is it our duty to obey our Teachers notwithstanding such doubts For it being their Office to Teach us it must be our duty to believe them with a Humane Faith in cases where we have no Evidences to the contrary And the Duty of Obeying them ☞ being certain and the sinfulness of the thing commanded being uncertain and unknown and only suspected we must go on the surer
that the Infidel and Impenitent were in a state of Life because he was baptized but that all that truly consent to the Covenant and signifie this by being baptized are saved So the Church of England saith that they receive no detriment by delaying Confirmation but it never said that they received no detriment by their Parents or Responses Infidelity or Hypocrisie or by their want of true Right coram Deo to be baptized Q. 39. What is the true meaning of Sponsors or Godfathers and is it lawful to make use of them Answ My Opinion is that they did both witness the probability of the Parents fidelity and also promised that if they should either apostaize or die they would see that the Children were piously educated If you take them but as the ancient Churches did for such as do attest the Parents fidelity in their perswasion and do promise first to mind you of your Duty and next to take care of their pious Education if you die I know no reason you have to scruple this much yea more it is in your power to agree with the Godfathers that they shall represent your own Persons and speak and promise what they do as your Deputies only in your Names and what have you against this Object When the Church-men mean another thing this is but to juggle with the World Answ How can you prove that the Authority that made or imposed the Liturgy meant any other thing 2. If the Imposers had meant ill in a thing that may be done well you may discharge your Conscience by doing it well and making a sufficient Profession of your better Sense As for the Antiquity of God-fathers the current consent of Historians assures us that Hyginus Bishop of Rome did first ordain God-fathers at the Baptism of Infants He lived but forty years after St John Preface to Infant Baptism Christ Direct p. 116. Part 3. Q. 41. Whether they are really baptized who are baptized according to the English Liturgy and Canons where the Parents seem excluded and those to consent for the Infant who have no power to do it Answ p. 117. That the Parents Consent is supposed though he be absent 2. The Parent is not required to be absent 3. The Reason of that Canon seems to be their jealousie lest any would exclude God-fathers 4. While the Church hath not declared what Person the Sponsors bear nor any farther what they are to do than to speak the Covenanting words and promise to see the pious Education of the Child the Parents may agree that the God-fathers shall do all this as their Deputies primarily and in their steads and secondly as Friends that promise their Assistance 5. While Parents really consent it is not their Silence that nullifieth the Covenant 6. All Parents are supposed and required to be themselves the Choosers of the Sponsors and Sureties and also to give notice to the Ministers before hand by which it appears their Consent is presupposed And though my own Judgment be that they should be the principal Covenanters for the Child expresly yet the want of that expresness will not make the Persons to be unbaptized Q. 42. How is the Holy Ghost given to Infants in Baptism whether all the Children of true Christians have inward sanctifying Grace c. Answ My judgment agreeth more in this with Davenant's than any others saving that he doth not appropriate the Benefits of Baptism to the Children of true Believers so much as I do And though by a Letter impleading Davenant's Cause I was the occasion of printing good Mr. Gataker's Answer to him yet I am still most inclined to his judgment Not that all the baptized but that all the baptized Seed of true Christians are pardoned justified adopted and have a title to the Spirit and Salvation And we must choose great Inconveniences if this Opinion be forsaken viz. That all Infants must be taken to be out of Covenant with God and to have no promise of Salvation whereas surely the Law of Grace as well as the Covenant of Works included all the Seed in their Capacity Of the Responses Q. 83. May the People bare a Vocal part in Worship and do any more than say Amen Answ The People bare an equal part in singing the Psalms which are Prayer and Praise and Instruction if they may do so in the Psalms in Metre there can be no reason given but they may lawfully do so in Psalms in Prose for saying them and singing them are but modes of Utterance and the ancient Singing was liker our Saying than our Tunes The Primitive Christians were so full of zeal and love to Christ that they would have taken it for an Injury and a quenching of the Spirit to have been wholly restrained from bearing their part in the Praises of the Church The use of the Tongue keepeth awake the Mind and stirreth up God's Graces in his Servants It was the decay of Zeal in the People that first shut out the Responses while they kept up the Ancient Zeal they were inclined to take their part vocally in the Worship And this was seconded by the Pride and Usurpation of the Priests thereupon who thought the People of God too prophane to speak in the Assemblies and meddle so much with Holy things Yet the very remembrance of former zeal caused most Churches to retain many of the words of their predecessors even when they lost the Life and Spirit which should animate them and so the same words came into the Liturgies and were used by too many customarily and in formality which their Ancestors had used in the servour of their Souls And if it were not that a dead-hearted formal People by speaking the Responses carelesly and hypocritically do bring them into disgrace with many that see the necessity of Seriousness I think few good People would be against them now It is here the duty of every Christian to labour to restore the life and spirit to the Words that they may again be used in a serious and holy manner as heretofore Exod. 19. 8. In as solemn an Assembly as any of ours when God gave Moses a form of words to preach to the People all the People answered together and said All that the Lord hath spoken we will do So Exod. 24. 3. and Deuter. 5. 27. which God approved of v. 28 29. See Levit. 9. 24. 2 Kings 23. 2 3. 1 Chron. 1. 35 36. It is a command Psal 67. 3 5. Let all the People praise thee O God c. And he that will limit this to single Persons or say that it must not be vocally in the Church or it must be in metre only and never in prose must prove it lest he be proved one that addeth to God's Word Q. 84. Is it not a Sin for our Clerks to make themselves the mouth of the People Answ The Clerks are not appointed to be the Mouth of the People but each Clerk is one of the
be not read read to keep up an ignorant lazy Ministry that can or will do no better 5. And especially if Authority command it and the Churches agreement require it Of the Oath of Canonical Obedience Q. 153. May we lawfully swear obedience in all things lawful and honest either to Usurpers or to our lawful Pastors Answ If the King shall command us it is lawful So the old Non-conformists who thought the English Prelacy an unlawful Office yet maintained that it is lawful to take the Oath of Canonical Obedience because they thought it was imposed by the King and Laws and that we swear them to them not as Officers claming a Divine Right in the Spiritual Government but as Ordinaries or Officers made by the King according to the Oath of Supremacy And if Prelacy were proved never so unlawful no doubt but by the Kings Command we may swear or perform formal Obedience to a Prelate Read Bradshaw against Can concerning this Pag. 181. Christ Direct 2d Edit Of the Holiness of Churches Q. 170. Are Temples Fonts Utensils Church-lands much more Ministers Holy And what reverence is due to them as Holy Answ Temples Utensils Lands c. devoted and lawfully separated by Man for Holy uses are Holy as justly related to God by that lawful separation Ministers are more Holy than Temples Lands or Utensils as being nearlier related to holy things and things separated by God are more Holy than those justly separated by Man And so of Days every thing should be reverenced according to the measure of its Holiness And this expressed by such Signs Gestures Actions as are fittest to Honour God to whom they are related And so to be uncovered in the Church and use reverent Carriage and Gestures there doth tend to preserve due Reverence to God and to his Worship 1 Cor. 16. 20. Of the Power of the Magistrate in Circumstantials We flatly affirm that the Kings Laws do bind the Mind Soul or Conscience to a conscionable performance of all his lawful commands Apol 4. We are so tender of obeying our Rulers that we will do any thing to obey and please them except disobeying God Page 111. We doubt not but Magistrates may restrain false Teachers from seducing others and drawing them to Sin Of Episcopacy Page 193. Princes and Rulers may for Orders sake distribute their Christian Kingdoms into Parishes which shall be the Ordinary Bounds of particular Churches And such distribution is very Congruous to the ends of the Ministry and Churches and conduceth to Order and Peace Non-confor Plea Pag. 31. When Pastors by Concord or Magistrates by Laws have setled lawful Circumstances or Accidents of Church Order or Worship or Discipline though they be in particular but Humane Institutions it is sinful Disobedience to violate them without necessity as Parochial Order Associations Times Places Ministers Scripture Translations c. Page 49. God's Laws bind us to keep Love and Concord and the Agreement of Councils may determine of the matter in alterable Points and so absent and present Bishops may for Concord sake be obliged by God's Law to keep such Canons and they are matter of Duty Page 266. The true interest of a meer Non-conformist requireth him to live in Loyalty Peace and Patience and in Love and Communion with the Parochial Churches Page 251. N. 11. I deny not but Magistrates may moderately drive Men to hear God's Word and to do the immediate Duties of their Places Of Episcopacy Page 144. Those Modes or Circumstances of Worship which are necessary in genere but left undetermined by God in specie are left by God to humane prudential determination else an impossibility should be necessary It is left to humane determination what Place the Publick Assemblies shall be held in And to determine of the time except where God hath determined already and what Utensils to imploy about the Publick Worship Of the Surplice Some decent Habit is necessary either the Magistrate or the Minister or associated Pastors must determine what I think neither Magistrate nor Synod should do more than hinder indecency if they do and tye all to one habit and suppose it were an indecent habit yet this is but an imprudent use of power it is a thing within the Magistrates reach he doth not 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 secondarily the whiteness be to signifie purity and so it be made a teaching sign yet would I obey And see no reason to scruple the lawfulness of the Ring in Marriage for though the Papists make a Sacrament of Marriage yet we have no reason to take it for any Ordinance of Divine Worship more than the solemnizing a Contract between a Prince and People All things are sanctified and pure to the Pure And for Organs or other Instruments of Musick in God's Worship they being a help partly naturally and partly artificial to the exhilarating the Spirits for the praise of God I know no argument to prove them simply unlawful but what would prove a Cup of Wine unlawful or the Tune and Metre and Melody of Singing unlawful Here therefore we thus conclude Page 423. That every misordering of such great Affairs is the Sin of them that do it yet the Subject is not exempted from Obedience by every such mistake of the Governour And § 67. If the Mischoosing of such Circumstances by the Governors be but an inconvenience and destroy not the Ordinance it self or frustrate the ends of it we are to obey for he the judge of his own Works and not we The thing is not sinful though inconvenient Page 398. Of Five Disputations § 25. Prop. 12. It may be very Sinful to command some Ceremonies which may lawfully yea must in duty be used when they are commanded And Prop. 14. Certain things commonly called Ceremonies may lawfully be used in the Church upon humane imposition and when it is not against the Law of God no Person should disobey the command of their Lawful Governours in such things If the Prince command one thing not contrary to God's Law and the Pastors command the contrary we must obey the Prince before the Pastor We must obey the Magistrate We know not that their Commands are lawful as long as we have no sufficient Reason to believe them unlawful Page 356. of Holy Common-wealth and Page 357. Of Holy-Days The Holy Doctrine Lives and Sufferings of the Martyrs and other Holy Men hath been so great a Mercy to the Church that for any thing I know it is lawful to keep Anniversary Thanksgiving in remembrance of them and to encourage the weak and provoke them to constancy and imitation No Christian should refuse that which is lawful nor to joyn with the Church in Holy Exercises on the days of thankful Commemoration of the Apostles and Martyrs and Excellent
them How Forms may be imposed publickly on the Congregations of Believers and on the Ministers yea though the Forms imposed be worse than the exercise of their own gifts though among us no Man be forbidden to use his own gifts in the Pulpit The Pharisees long Liturgy it is like was in many things worse than ours yet Christ and his Apostles often joyned with them and never condemned them I shall now only add that the Lord's Prayer is a Form directed to God as in the Third Person and not to Man only as a directory for Prayer in the Second Person it is not Pray to God your Father in Heaven that his name may be Hallowed his Kingdom come c. But Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy name c. And it seems by the Disciples words that thus John taught his Disciples to pray Luke 11. 1. and we have in the Scripture the mention of many Set Forms of Service to God which therefore we may well use And I desire the Reader again to Note that though Prayer was corrupted by the Pharisees yet Christ usually joyned in their Synagogues Luke 14. 17. and never medled with our controversie about the lawfulness of Set Forms This Mr. Baxter infers from Calvins note on Matth. 6. before the Preface to the Defence Pag. 76. Of Concord I constantly joyn with my Parish Church in Liturgy and Sacraments and hope so to do while I live I take the Common-Prayer to be better incomparably than the Prayers or Sermons of many that I hear As for the Common Prayer it self I never rejected it because it was a Form or thought it simply unlawful because it was such a Form but have made use of it and would again in the like case He that separates upon the account of the unlawfulness of our Liturgy and the badness of our Ministry doth separate upon a reason common to almost all of the far greatest part of the Churches See the Defence p. 54. The defects of the Liturgy and the faults of those by whom we suffer are easily heightned even beyond desert Defence p. 68. Apology p. 9. Having perused all the Foreign and Antient Liturgies in the Bibliotheca Patrum I doubt not but our own is incomparably better than any that is there That which is not unlawful in it self is not therefore unlawful because it is commanded Obedience to Superiors is our duty and not our sin unless in sinful things p. 152. Christ Direct 2d Edit Of Obedience to our Pastors We are indangered by divisions principally because the self-conceited part of Religious people will not be ruled by their Pastors but must have their way and will needs be rulers of the Church and them But pleasing the ignorant Professors humors is a Sin that shews us to be too humane and carnal and hath always sad effects at last It is a high degree of pride for persons of ordinary understandings to conclude that almost all Christs Churches in the World for Thirteen Hundred Years at least have offered such Worship to God as that you are obliged to avoid it and all their Communion in it and that almost all the Catholick Church on Earth at this day is below your Communion for using Forms Mark Is it not more of the Women and Apprentices that are of this mind than of old experienced Christians I think till we have better taught even our godly People what credit and obedience is due to their Teachers and Spiritual Guides the Church of England shall never have peace or any good or established Order We are broken for want of the knowledge of this truth till this be known we shall never be well bound up and healed The People of the New Separation so much rule their Ministers that many of them have been forced to forsake their own judgments to comply with the violent Labour to maintain the Ordinances and Ministry in esteem The Church is bound to take many a Man as a True Minister to them and receive the Ordinances from him in Faith and expectation of Blessing upon promise who yet before God is a sinful invader an usurper of the Ministry and shall be condemned for it How much more then to respect their lawful Bishops and Pastors Of Lay-Elders For Lay-Elders As far as I understand the greatest part if not three for one of the English Ministers are of this mind That unordained Elders wanting power to Preach or Administer Sacraments are not Officers in the Church of God's appointment Of this number I am one and Mr. Vines was another In the Worcester Agreement Printed 1653. Mr. Baxter declared that neither Scripture nor Antiquity knew of any such Officers as Lay-Elders In the Third Defence p. 58. It was notorious that the Parliament yielded to Presbytery to exclude Episcopacy because they had no other way to uphold their Wars without which they had no way to hold up themselves but by help of the Scots My first Book Viz. the Preface to Saints Rest disclaims Lay-Elders Pag. 109. to Hinckly Of Bishops Page 832. of Mr. Baxter ' s Directory Q. 56. Mr. Baxter tells you in the Margin of those Reasons for a larger Episcopacy That in the Apostles Days there were under Christ in the Universal Church many general Officers that had the care of gathering and over-seeing Churches up and down and were fixed by stated Relation unto none And most Christian Churches think that though the extraordinary Gifts Privileges and Officers cease yet Government being an ordinary part of their Work the same Form of Government which Christ and the Holy Ghost did settle in the first Ages tho' not with the same extraordinary Gifts and Adjuncts were settled for all following Ages 1. Because we read of settling that Form viz. general Officers as well as Particular but never of any Abolition 2. Because if we affirm a Cessation without Proof we seem to accuse God of Mutability as setting a Form of Government for one Age only 3. And we leave room for audacious Wits to question other Gospel-Institutions as Pastors Sacraments c. 4. It was general Officers that Christ promised to be with to the end of the World Matth. 28. 20. And in this Premonition he says he doth not dispute the Lawfulness of Arch-Bishops over Parochial-Bishops as Successors to the Apostles and other general Officers of the first Age in the ordinary continued parts of their Office And in his Plea for Peace p. 263. Some of us incline much to think that Arch-Bishops i. e. Bishops that have over-sight of many Churches with their Pastors are lawful Successors of the Apostles in the ordinary part of their Work So also First Plea p. 35. and of his accepting two parts of Episcopacy not varying the Species in the Preface to the second Plea In Church-History p. 37. and in Plea for Peace p. 66. the Bishops in Cyprian's time had the best ordered Churches in the World
work in comparison of Church-government Take heed of engaging your selves in a Sect or Faction a narrow Sectarian separating mind will make all the Truths of God give place to the opinions of his Party and measure the prosperity of the Gospel by the prosperity of his Party he will not stick to persecute all the rest of the Church of Christ if the interest of his Sect require it Overvalue not any private or singular opinions of your own or others for if once spiritual Pride and Ignorance of your own weakness make you espouse particular opinions as peculiarly your own you will think your conceits more illuminating and necessary than they are as if Mens sincerity lay in the imbracing of them and their Salvation on the receiving of them and think all that are against your Opinion deserve to be cast out as Enemies to Reformation and perhaps Twenty Years after experience may bring you to your wits and make you see the falshood or smalness of all those points which you made so great a matter of and then what comfort will you have of your persecutions O the deceitfulness of the heart of Man Little do the many real Separatists who cry out against Persecution suspect that the same spirit is in them Whence is Persecution but from thinking ill of others and abhorring or not loving them and do not you do so by those whom you causlesly separate from It is one and the same sin in the Persecutor and Divider or Separatist which causeth the one to smite their Brethren and the other to excommunicate them the one to cast them into Prison as Schismaticks and the other to cast them out of the Church as profane the one to account them intolerable in the Land and the other to account them intolerable in the Church the inward thoughts of both are the same that those whom they smite or separate from are bad and unlovely and unfit for better usage But I have observed that Professors of Religion did oppose and deride almost all that Worship of God out of pretended Conscience which others did out of profaneness Saints Rest part 1. c. 7. Sect. 14. It was none of the old cause that the People should have liberty and the Magistrate should have no power in all matters of God's Worship Faith and Conscience And as it is not the old cause so it is not the good cause For first It contradicteth the express revelation of the Will of God in the Holy Scripture Moses as a Magistrate had to do in matters of Religion and so had the Kings of Israel and Judah Law and Providence are both quite changed if Toleration of false Worship and other abuses of Religion tend not to the ruine of the Common-wealth If Magistrates must give liberty for all to propagate a false Religion then so must Parents and Masters also which would be a Crime so horrid in the Nature and Effects of it as I am loth to name with its proper titles The Magistrates will quickly find that the distractions of the Church will breed and feed such distractions in the Common-wealth as may make them wish they had quenched the fire while it was yet quenchable Our unity is not only our strength but their strength and the fire that begun in the Church may if let alone reach the Court. Pag. 423. of his 5 Disputations He lays down this as the summ of what he had said That Man may determine of Modes and Circumstances of Worship necessary and commanded in genere but not determined by God in specie Sect. 65. and then infers Sect. 67. If the mischoosing of such circumstances by Church governors be but an inconvenience and do not destroy the Ordinance it self or frustrate the ends of it we are to obey 1. For he is the Judge in his own work and not we 2. The thing is not sinful though inconvenient 3. Obedience is commanded to our lawful Governors Sect. 70. And when we do obey in a case of miscommanding it is not a doing evil that good may come of it as some do misconceive but it is only a submitting to that which is ill-commanded but not evil in him that doth submit It is the determiner that is the cause of the inconvenience and not the obeyer Nor is it inconvenient for me to obey though it be worse perhaps to him that commandeth while he sinneth in commanding he may make it my duty to obey Pag. 461. Sect. 6. The reasons of this are obvious and clear even because it is the Office of the Governors to determine of such Circumstances It is the Pastor's Office to guide and oversee the Flock and when he determineth these he is but in his own way and doth but his own work and therefore he is therein the Judge if the case be controvertible If none shall obey a Magistrate or Pastor in the works of their own Office as long as they think he did them not the best way all Governours then would be presently overthrown and obedience denyed We are sure that God hath commanded us to obey them that are over us in the Lord 1 Thes 5. 12. Heb. 13. 7. 17 c. And therefore a certain duty may not be forborn on uncertain conjectures or upon every miscarriage of them that we owe it to This would un-church all Churches as they are Political Societies for if Pastors be taken down and the work of Pastors the Church is taken down Sect. 7. And the things in which the Pastor is now supposed to err are not of themselves unlawful but only by such an accident as being over-weighed by another accident shall cease to make them unlawful For instance p. 461. Sect. 4. If of two Translations of Scripture or two Versions of the Psalms the Pastor use the worser so it be tolerable we must obey And Sect. 7. If the Pastor appoint a more imperfect Version of the Psalms to be sung in the Church as is commonly used in England the obeying of him in the use of this will not bring so much hurt to the Church as the disobeying on that account would do For besides the sin of disobedience it self the Church would be in a confusion if they forsake his conduct that preserves the Union and some will be for this and some for that and so the Worship it self will be overthrown And let it still be remembred that we allow both Magistrates and Pastors to see to the execution of God's Laws and to determine of circumstances in order thereto that are necessary in genere p. 482. Sect. 35. but not determined of God in specie p. 422. Sect. 65. It may be very sinful to command some Ceremonies which may lawfully yea must in duty be used by the Subject when they are commanded p. 398. Certain things commonly called Ceremonies may lawfully be used in the Church upon humane imposition and when it is not against the Law of God no Person should disobey the Laws of their lawful Governors in such things If there should be any Pastors of the Churches who instead of concurring to heal the Flock of these dividing Principles shall rather joyn with backbiters and incourage them in their misreports and slanders because it tends to the supposed interest of their party or themselves Let them prepare to Answer such unfaithfulness to their Consciences which will be shortly awakened And to the great Shepherd of the Flock who is at the door and who told even the Devils Agents that A House or Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand but is brought to nought For farther Satisfaction I refer the Reader to Mr. Baxter's Case of Separation in the Appendix to his Life p. 67 to p. 80. where he thus concludes More may be seen in Mr. Nye's Book for hearing the Parish Preachers and in Mr. Tomb's who wrote against Infant Baptism vindicating the lawfulness and duty of joyning in ordinary Communion in Word Prayer and Sacrament with the Parish Churches FINIS In the 3d. Part of his Life p. 169. Preface to 5. Disput p. 6. Defence of Principles of Love p. 64. Preface to Christian Direct ad finem Epistle Dedicatory to Saints Rest Saints Rest p. 551. p. 666. P. 55. P. 57. P. 12 13. Defense p. 89. Christian Directory p. 747. See Christ Direct p. 606. Christ Direct p. 902 P. 807. P. 810. Ibid. P. 812. P. 814. 1st Edit P. 815. P. 856. P. 857. P. 857 P. 〈◊〉 P. 859. P. 882. P. 882. P. 896. P. 901. Christian Directory P. 179. 2d Edit P. 902. P. 915. Five Disp P. 361. P. 401. P. 409. P. 411. P. 412. Christ Direct p. 884 Five Disp P. 412. P. 416. P. 117. See Christ Direct P. 885. P. 418. Confirmation p. 207 220 230. Christ Direct p. 916. Christ Direct p. 49. Christian Directory p. 616. 1st Edit Christ Direct p. 137. 2d Edit Five Disp P. 411. Defense P. 177. Christ Direct p. 607. Christ Direct p. 48. P. 49. Baxter of Confirmation p. 3. Dispute the 4th of Church Government P. 358. P. 359. See Christ Direct P. 874. P. 361. P. 364. Christ Direct p. 748. See Christ Direct p. 848. Defence p. 38. P. 176. P. 54. Cure of Divisions P. 200. P. 174. P. 179. P. 185. Five Disp p. 363. Sacrileg Deserting P. 103. P. 101 102. Baxter against Cramdon p. 83. Cure of Divis p. 393. Saints Rest P. 519. Church Government P. 131. 5. Disput Preface p. 4. Five Disp p. 20. P. 352. Sigonius de Repub. Heb. l. 2. c. 8. * Mr. Baxter Defense P. 65. Christ Direct p. 916. Cure of Divis p. 80. Defence p. 36. Sacrilegious deserting p. 92. Saints Rest P. 518. Preface to Confess Defence p. 17. Epistle to separate Congregagations Defence p. 50. Answ to Exceptions p. 170. Defence P. 68. Defence p. 21. P. 52. Key for Catholicks Baxter's Holy Commonwealth Epistle to separate Congregagations Christ Direct p. 733. Cure of Divisions P. 359. Defence p. 3. Cure of Divis p. 77. p. 282. P. 288. P. 290. P. 292. Christ Direct p. 66. Part. 3. Preface to Cure of Divisions Curâ—… p. 152. P. 24. P. 〈◊〉 P. 188. P. 22. Preface to Confess Christ Direct p. 734. Christian Directory P. 854. p. 36. part the 4th Baxter of Confirmation P. 293. Christ Direct part 4. p. 73. Cure of Divis p. 254. P. 261. Holy Commonwealth Eddit to Pres Prop. Of Confir P. 309. Cure of Divisions P. 253.