ruin notwithstanding your engagements What now would be the answer of these persons to the Parents of the Child Should we look after him or you whose child is he yours or ours He is your own proper charge notwithstanding our standing at the Font he is a Talent committed to your trust and therefore if he do otherwise than well for lack of your care the blame will be yours and his blood will be upon your head as the only criminal Indeed none in my observation blame the God-fathers and God-mothers if Children be not well disciplin'd and educated neither do they blame themselves nor shew any conscience in this matter though yet it is evident against them that if Covenants be not performed by them to the utmost of their power they have broken their faith Therefore upon the whole matter I judg it far better that such persons should not be called to be Sureties nor such promises required at their hands 2. Again I cannot approve of the Cross in Baptism especially the Sacramental and mystical way and manner of signing with this sign as thus We receive this Child into the congregation of Christs flock and do sign him with the sign of the Cross in token hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified and manfully fight under Christs banner against Sin the World and the Devil c. This word in token I confess to me is a meer riddle and I know not what to make of it and therefore cannot assent and consent to such an expression and the rather because I am apt to believe the generality may much mistake it as if when it is said in token it had been said in vertue and power of this sign the person baptized should not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified but should fight manfully under Christs banner against Sin the World and the Devil surely even such an occasion of a misunderstanding to the vulgar and injudicious should be taken away The baptizing it self of any person in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost ipso facto does oblige the person baptized to confess the Faith of Christ crucified and withal exhibits a virtue and power also to every worthy partaker of it to fight against Sin the World and the Devil and therefore after such a person is baptized such an obligation is upon him and such a vertue and power supposed to be imparted and communicated unto him and consequently if at all next immediately after washing or sprinkling in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost that form of words In token hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified c. would more properly and congruously be used and applied But now to remove them from their due place and reserve them to the sign of the Cross as if baptizing with water were not sussicient of it self but moreover the sign of the Cross needful to bind the Conscience and confer the blessing this I confess seems to me not only preposterous but very dangerous Crossing in this manner is too too like a Sacrament upon a Sacrament the devised Sacrament of man to the instituted Sacrament of God Though Christians in the Primitive times might make use of the sign of the Cross yet the very same reason which might put them upon that use with a reference to the Heathens should now move us wholly to disuse it with a reference to Papists Professors then signed themselves with the sign of the Cross to distinguish themselves from the Pagans who scorned the Cross together with every sign and token of it and with parity of reason we should now forbear so doing to distinguish our selves from the Idolatrous Papists who superstitiously adore the Cross foolishly fondly and wickedly signing themselves with it upon every occasion thinking themselves no good Catholicks without so doing putting no little hope and confidence in it to free and protect them from all evil and to furnish and invest them with all good Now to witness our dislike and detestation of their vanity herein I cannot unfeignedly assent and consent to the sign of the Cross 3. I cannot approve what is annexed in the end of the Sacrament viz. It is certain by Gods word that children which are baptized dying before they commit actual sin are undoubtedly saved I would they had quoted the place for I confess mine own ignorance that I know no such word in Scripture no such word as will give me a certainty of perswasion beyond all possibility of doubting of the Salvation of Infants though baptized and though dying before they have committed actual sin Are not the Children of wicked Parents filthy Whoremongers and Whores living openly in all notorious sin and wholly without God in the world constantly baptized and many of them dying immediately after Baptisim Now are we sure by the Word of God and without doubt that all these go to Heaven Methinks that in the second Commandment gives some scruple to my faith I will punish the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation Suppose a Christian King should conquer a Country of Pagans and Mahometans or Jews and compel all their Infants forthwith to be baptized and some of them immediately expire at least before they have committed actual sin is the Salvation of all such sure and past all doubt and this to be made out and cleared by the Word of God Is it in the power of man to make Infants sure and certain of Salvation It is in the power of man to kill a poor Infant and to chuse his time for doing of it I am sure many Whores murder their Babes before Baptism and they may as well do it after immediately after and so assuredly send their Infants thither whither they shall never come themselves except they repent And so might the foresaid King and Conqueror after by Baptism he had given them their sure and unquestionable pasport for Paradice he might even in charity and kindness immediately cut them off and without any further hazzard give them possession of eternal bliss I had thought no mortal wight had had such power over souls May a Minister since Baptizing gives such an unquestionable title unto Heaven deny or suspend the Ordinance to any Infant whatsoever if he might be permitted to administer it Suppose Turks or Jews should quietly permit him to baptize their Children yea and desire him to do it for them though meerly upon some by-pretence and foreign to Christianity shall he deny them But suppose a true Believer and a good Christian should bring his own Child to the Font and beg there of the Minister to have it baptized but yet either out of weakness or tenderness of conscience scruples God-fathers and God-mothers and the sign of the Cross and dares not admit of them shall therefore the Minister deny his Babe Christendom which according to his own perswasion would give
form of words prescribed as well as from his own present or premeditatd conception especially where the things prayed for are not fluctuating and falling under changeable circumstances as the private concerns of particular persons but setled in their own nature and always the same from time to time as the publick concerns of a Nation as the life of the King the prosperity of the Kingdom rain in drought fair weather in harvest wherefore I see no exception why Prayers about these if so commanded should not be made in the very same words so likewise the Word and Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper are always the same without any variety of intention and therefore I judg we may always beg a blessing upon them by a prescribed form without any variety of expression And as I say nothing against a Liturgy or prescribed form of publick Prayers in the general so neither against the main Doctrine contained in the the Prayers of this Book of Common Prayers in particular But withal I look upon it as quite another thing to be bound up to declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything contained in the Book together with those Prayers My reason is this because I cannot but take assent and consent according to the general sense and meaning of those words among all writers and speakers in all Languages viz. That assent with reference to the party assenting relates to his understanding and with reference to the thing assented to that it relates to the truth and rightfulness of it So again that consent with reference to the party consenting relates to his will and with reference to the thing consented to that it relates to the goodness expediency and behoofulness of it Wherefore according to the natural and genuine interpretation of these words assent and consent when I declare my unfeigned assent to all and every thing contain'd and prescribed in and by the Book it is all one as if I had declared That I own and acknowledg profess and witness that all and every thing contained in and prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer is true and right and not the least error in it from top to bottom not in any rite or ceremony not in the form and manner of making ordaining and consecrating Bishops Priests or Deacons no not so much as in pointing the Psalms or in any other tittle or circumstance So again when I declare my unfeigned consent to all and every thing contained in it it is all one as if I had declared That I heartily and cordially close in and chuse every thing mentioned and prescribed in the said Book as good and expedient as most eligible and behooful to be done practised and observed Now that this is the true meaning of the word consent the Law-givers themselves who best understood their own mind and intention make it most evident for in the very body of the same Act speaking of Lectures viz. what these are to do and declare instead of the word consent they put in the word approve as a word equipollent and of the same signification For the Lecturer is bound openly and publickly to declare his assent to and approbation of the said Book and to the use of all the Prayers Rites Ceremonies forms and orders therein contained and prescribed Now taking these words assent and consent this sense and meaning and otherwise I cannot take them to make any found sense of them I dare as soon eat hot fire-coals as declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book of Common-Prayer because several things are therein contained and prescribed which I deem scarce right and true much less good and expedient to be done and embraced And here to omit many things which I scruple I shall pitch only upon two or three which I cannot approve 1. I neither do nor can approve of the Order appointed for the reading of the holy Scripture my reason is this Because many Books of the Apocrypha are commanded to be read for the Lessons of the day as the fabulous Legends of Tobit and his Dog Bell and the Dragon Judith Baruch with the rest and these are not only to be read wholly intirely morning and evening two months together but all of them also under the title and notion of holy Scripture for so in the whole lump together they are stiled in the order and no note of discrimination to make any distinction between one and other But now in the interim in the said order as appears by the Kalender some Books of the Sacred Canon are wholly left out and never to be read some of them within a very little some of them but half to be read and many of them mutilated and curtail'd as to several Chapters contained in them Here I cannot declare my unfeigned assent and consent 2. I neither do nor can approve of the order appointed for the Ministration of Baptism 1. Because of God-fathers and God-mothers 2. Because of the Cross 3. Because of what is annexed at the end of the Sacrament I do not approve of the strict requiring of God-fathers and God-mothers to stand as Sureties and undertakers for the Child to be baptized viz. That he shall renounce the Devil and all his works and constantly believe Gods holy word and obediently keep his commandments 1. Because it is unscriptural 2. Because in the interim the father of the child is left out if not wholly thrust out I am sure he is not mentioned nor taken notice of at all in that publick stipulation as if he had no concern in it though it must needs be his proper and peculiar Province and place to undertake such a charge for his own child and flesh according to the Law of God and nature Scripture requires not God-fathers but fathers to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 3. Because God-fathers and God mothers are generally brought to the Font to avouch a great untruth and make themselves obnoxious of lying and perjury in the face of God and the Church For experience sheweth that though they solemnly engage in such a promise yet they never or very rarely perform it perhaps some of them never see the child more after the Christning day nor ever enquire more about it Yea though they so solemnly engage on the behalf of the Infant yet they hold themselvs never the more engaged but look upon all as a meer Christning Ceremony and complement For suppose a Parent afterward should challenge his Gossips and say you promised when you stood Sureties for my child at the Font to call upon him to hear Sermons and to see him well instructed in the rudiments and principles of Religion c. but you have not done it and through your neglect he does not hear Sermons he is not Catechised he does not renounce the works of the Devil but is in the high way to
the Babe a certain assurance of Salvation and keep it in the interim under a suspicion of damnation and this also according to his own perswasion for as he denies it Christendom so also he would deny it Christian burial if it die unbaptized though by the way I see no great reason for it nor can I approve of it but so it is appointed viz. That the Office of the Dead shall nor be used for any who die unbaptized And why not used Because they have no sure and certain hope of a Resurrection unto life concerning such a person and therefore the unbaptized in that Order are ranked with self-murderers and excommunicate But now shall a Minister dare to with-hold so much good from and endeavour so much evil to the souls of poor Infants in denying them their Christendom and all meerly upon the account of some accessories and scrupled accidents invented and imposed by man and nothing at all of the essence of Baptisin it self Besides the impiety and irreligion of such a Process the Minister according to his own faith would be most cruel and unmerciful in so doing and deserved if possible to be unchristened himself again and turn'd among Canibals as one more deeply dipt and baptized in their barbarous inhumanity than any of themselves and yet if he be a true Son of the Church and punctually observe his prescribed rule he must not baptize any Infant without God-fathers and God-mothers without signing of it with the sign of the Cross whether it be saved or damned But these things are hard to assent and consent unto and I cannot do it 3. I cannot approve of the order for the burial of the Dead particularly that passage of it Forasmuch as it hath pleased God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear Brother here departed we therefore commit his body to the ground c. My reason is this Because though we be bound to judg according to the utmost Bounds of charity concerning all yea even of those with whom we would not change souls nor be in their condition after death for ten thousand worlds yet positively and peremptorily without all limitation or discrimination to say and avouch concerning every one whom we bury That God in great mercy has taken his soul viz. by death out of the body and taken it to himself this I profess is utterly beyond my faith and of the Gospel also which if I understand aright speaks altogether in another language to impenitent sinners It is past contradiction that thousands are cut off by God in the midst of their sins drunkenness whoring swearing without all signs of repentance from first to last so living and so dying now how can it be said That God took away such persons out of this world by death in mercy in great mercy Inasmuch as at the same instant they were taken away from all possibility of future repentance and amendment of life we may rather fear That God took them away in wrath in great wrath provoked hereunto by the long abuse of his patience and their own impenitency Yet nevertheless the Priest must not only say That God took away all such persons in mercy in great mercy but moreover positively affirm That God took them to himself that is into Heaven if we believe the Lords-Prayer Our Father which art in Heaven there God is said to be in a most eminent manner Scripture saith expresly That neither Adulterers nor Fornicators nor Drunkards shall ever go to Heaven yet in a perfect opposition when I bury a known Adulterer Fornicator Drunkard I must declare and avouch that his soul is assuredly gone thither I dare not thus damn a person while he is living and yet save him when he is dead Nor yet again can I commit his body to the ground in a sure and certain hope of a Resurrection unto eternal life which words must necessarily be spoken with reference to the person then interred inasmuch as they are the continuation of the foregoing declaration viz. God's taking his soul to himself Besides it follows which puts it out of doubt in the last Collect or Prayer That when we shall depart this life we may rest in him viz. Christ as our hope is this our Brother doth Alas I am so far from having any sure and certain hope of his Resurrection unto eternal life and salvation that I rather have a sure and certain fear of his Resurrection unto eternal death and damnation Madam These are some of my Objections against the first Declaration which stop up my way from conforming Your most humble Servant A. B.