heartily desire it and depended upon God for it that he excites their sense of need and their desire and hope of relief and supply by praising and thanking God as if he heartily admired his excellencies and gratefully resented his goodness that he excites their admiration and gratitude that mode of Prayer therefore which is most apt to fix the Ministers attention to these acts of devotion must needs be most apt to excite the devotions of the people Now as for the mode of praying from his own conceptions I really think that it is much more apt to unfix the Ministers attention to these acts than that of praying by a Form because it forces him to attend to other things at the same time viz. the recollection of matter and invention of sutable expressions which must more or less divert him from attending to the inward acts of devotion according as his fancy and tongue are more or less pregnant and voluble it being impossible for him to attend at the same time to several things as closely as he may to one but when he prays by a Form his matter and words are ready before him and so he hath nothing else to do but to attend to his devotion and certainly when a man hath but one thing to do in Prayer he may attend to that more fixedly and closely than when he hath two or three 't is true by being released from attending to the invention of his matter and words his mind is more at leisure to wander and instead of attending as he ought more closely to the acts of devotion by imploying those thoughts which in conceiv'd Prayer he imploys in invention in a closer attention to the acts of devotion he may if he please permit them to rove abroad but if he doth the fault is in himself and not in the Form he prays by the design of his Form is to release his mind from all other business in Prayer but only that of inward devotion which is the life of Prayer that so it may be the more attentive to it but if instead of applying his mind to this design he suffers it to wander abroad he makes an ill use of a good thing and converts that which is in it self a help to devotion into an occasion of indevotion But 't is objected that while his thoughts are imployed in inventing the matter and words of his Prayer they are attending to the duty of Prayer and while they are so they are well imploy'd though they should not be so attentively fixt upon the inward devotion of Prayer as they might be in the use of a Form to which in short I answer That to invent the matter and words of Prayer is not to pray but to study a Prayer and till our Brethren have proved that our inventing the matter and words is a part of our duty of Prayer which is the Question in debate between us we can by no means grant that our attention to it is attending to the duty of Prayer we believe that when we pray devoutly by a Form we discharge the whole duty of Prayer though we do not invent the matter and words our selves and when we see the contrary proved we will not only yield that to attend to inventing is to attend to the duty of Prayer but that it is unlawful to pray by a Form but in the mean time we can yield neither one nor t'other Seeing then that Forms are in themselves more apt to fix the Ministers attention to the inward acts of devotion and seeing that 't is by attending to these acts or at least by seeming to do so that he influences the attention of the people it necessarily follows that in this respect Forms are more advantageous to publick devotion than conceiv'd or extemporary Prayer But then 2. It is pretended that conceiv'd Prayer is in it self more apt to fix the Ministers attention in Prayer than Forms because in conceiv'd Prayer he utters his words immediately from his affections by reason of which his thoughts have not that scope to wander as when he reads them out of a Book to which in short I answer That if he hath devout affections he may utter his words as immediately from his affections in a Form as in a conceiv'd Prayer and therefore this pretence is altogether insignificant for his own invention is as much a medium between his affections and utterance in Praying extempore as the Book in praying by a Form as for instance suppose that in confessing sin he be affected with shame and sorrow he cannot express it in words but by using his own invention or a Form and whether he uses one or t'other he uses a medium to express it and why those words which he reads should not be as immediate to his affections as those which he invents provided they do as fully express them I am not able to apprehend in short therefore if he hath devout affections they will at least as much confine his thoughts from wandering when he prays by Form as when he prays Extempore if he hath not he cannot utter his words from his affections either in the one or t'other 2. We will inquire whether those advantages which our Brethren ascribe to conceiv'd Prayer above Forms as to the raising the Ministers intention in Prayer be real or no first they pretend that in reading a Form his affections follow his words and are raised and excited by them whereas in praying extempore his words follow his affections This I confess is a very curious distinction but I am not able to apprehend either what foundation there is for it or how it is applicable to the matter for first what necessity is there either that his affections should follow his words in a Form more than in a conceiv'd Prayer or that his words should follow his affections in a conceiv'd Prayer more than in a Form why may not a man be devoutly affected with the matter he prays for before he expresses it in a Form of words as well as before he expresses it extempore since if he be acquainted with the Form he cannot but know before-hand what he is to pray for in it and therefore if he be truly devout cannot but be affected with it before he prays for it and so on the other hand why may not a man as well be unaffected with the matter he prays for in conceiv'd Prayer till he hath exprest it as with the matter he prays for in a Form or what reason can be assign'd why the affection may not follow the words and be excited by them in the one as well as in the other may not a man pray inconsiderately and suffer his tongue to run before his heart in both and may not his affections which were before asleep be awakened by the sound of his words in either In short therefore since in praying by a Form a man may know as well at least and hath as much time to consider the
onely oversaw their being dictated rightly in order to their being repeated rightly When therefore Tertullian saith We pray without a Monitor his meaning is not that we pray without a Priest to dictate our Prayers to us whether it were out of a Book or extempore but that we pray without a Custos or Overseer either to admonish our People of their repeating the Prayers falsly or to admonish our Priests of their dictating them falsly in order to the Peoples repeating them rightly Because saith he we pray from our hearts which words may admit of a twofold interpretation first because we do not vocally repeat our Prayers after our Priest but onely joyn our affections with them and send up our hearts and desires after them or 2ly because we can say our Prayers by heart and so are in no great danger of repeating them falsly and consequently have no such need of a Monitor to observe and correct us for it is well known how much Tertullian in all his Writings affects to imitate and express the Greek which renders him oftentimes so very obscure and therefore it 's probable enough as hath been observ'd (p) (p) (p) Thornd Relig. Assem p. 237. that his de pectore here or from the heart may be onely a translation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to say by heart according to which account these words of Tertullian are so far from testifying against the use of Forms that they rather argue the use of them for since he onely denies their having a Monitor he doth in effect grant their having a Priest to read the publick Prayers to them as well as the Heathen and if from the heart be in Tertullian's Language the same with by heart it 's a plain case that they used Forms for otherwise how could they have them by heart That this is the true account of this difficult phrase I will not confidently affirm because it is onely my own single guess but whether it be or no it 's certain it can no more signifie without a Form of Prayer than without a Minister to pray extempore the one being as much a Monitor to the People as the other The last Testimony which our Brethren urge against the Antiquity of Forms of Prayer is that of Sucrates Scholasticus (q) (q) (q) Soc. Hist l. 5. c. 21. whose words they thus translate Everywhere and in all Worships of Prayer there are not two to be found that speak the same words and therefore say they it 's very unlikely they should pray by receiv'd Forms But how far this is from the sence of the Author will evidently appear by considering what he had been before discoursing of In short therefore he had been just before relating the different Customs that were used in several Churches and among the rest he tells us that in Hellas Jerusalem and Thessalia the Prayers were made whilst the Candles were lighting according to the manner of the Novatians at Constantinople and that in Caesarea of Cappadocia and Cyprus the Presbyters and Bishops always interpreted the Scripture on the Saturday and Lord's-day in the evening the Candles being lighted that the Novatians in the Hellespont did not observe the same manner of praying with those of Constantinople but that for the most part they followed the Customs of the chief Churches among them and then he concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. upon the whole every where and among all the Worships of Prayer there are not two to be found that agree in the same thing where by Worships of Prayer it 's plain he means the Ceremonies and Rites of Prayer that were used in several Churches for 't was of these he had been immediately before discoursing and therefore his meaning can be no more than this that among all the constituted Rites and Ceremonies of Prayer that were used in the several Churches there were not two to be found that agreed in the same and how doth it follow that because they did not use the same Rites and Ceremonies of Prayer therefore they did not use Forms of Prayer for even now we see there are different Rites of Prayer among those Churches which do yet agree in using Forms of Prayer And now I proceed to the second thing proposed which was to prove the use of Forms of Prayer in the primitive Ages by a short Historical Account of the Matter of Fact That in the first Age there was a Gift of praying extempore by immediate inspiration seems highly probable both from what the Apostle discourses of praying in unknown Languages 1 Cor. 14. and from what St. Chrysostom asserts concerning it (r) (r) (r) Chrys in Rom. 8. 26. viz. That together with those miraculous Gifts which were then poured out there was a Gift of Praying which was called by the Apostle a Spirit by which he who was endued with it poured out Prayers for all the People and while this Gift continued perhaps which how long it was is very uncertain there might no other Form be used in publick Worship in those places especially where it abounded but onely that of the Lord's Prayer and it may be in imitation of this Gift upon which even in the Apostles time the Christians were apt to over-value themselves some might affect to pray extempore after it was wholly expired but it is highly probable that upon the ceasing or abatement of it it was in most places immediately supplied by Forms of Prayer which were composed either of the words or according to the method and manner of those inspired Prayers by Apostolical persons that heard and remembred them for so as the same St. Chrysostom goes on (s) (s) (s) Chrys ibid. For we being ignorant of many things which are profitable for us do ask many things which are unprofitable and therefore this Gift of Prayer was given to some one person that was there i. e. in the Congregation who ask'd for all that which was profitable for the universal Church and taught others to do so that is to form Prayers according to those inspired Models for though I do not pretend that there were no other Prayers used in publick but onely Forms either in or presently after the Age of the Apostles yet it seems most probable that even from the Apostolical Age some part at least of the publick Worship was perform'd in Forms of Prayer and if so we have all the reason in the world to conclude that these Forms were composed according to the Pattern of those primitive inspired Prayers Now that there were Forms from the Apostolical Age seems highly probable because so far as we can find there never was any dispute among Christians concerning the lawfulness of praying by a Form Had this way of praying been introduc'd after the Primitive Ages it would have been a most observable innovation upon the Primitive Christianity and that in such a publick matter of fact that every Christian could not but take notice
us to observe onely a Feast-Gesture for the due Celebration of it 3. Kneeling is very Comely and Agreeable to the Nature of the Lord's Supper though no Table-Gesture Which I hope will be made evident to every Honest and Unbyassed Mind which Impartially seeks after Truth by these following considerations 1. Kneeling is allowed on all Hands to be a very fit and sutable Gesture for Prayer and Praise and very apt to express our Reverence Humility and Gratitude by and Consequently very fit to be used at the Holy Sacrament and agreeable to its Nature This will appear if we reflect upon what hath been delivered concerning the Nature and Ends of the Lord's Supper For at the Sacrament we express that by Actions as I hinted before which at other times we do by Words and the Lord's Supper is a Solemn Rite of Christian Worship which implyes Prayer and Praise It includes all the Parts of Prayer By partaking of the Signs of his Body broken and Blood shed for our Sins we do Commemorate Represent and Shew forth to God the Father the Sacrifice which his Dearly Beloved Son made upon the Cross we Feast upon the memorials of the great Sin-Offering And in so doing we make an open Confession and Acknowledgment of our Guilt and Unworthiness to God and we plead with him in the Vertue of his Sons Blood which was shed for us for the Pardon and Remission of all our Sins We further Humbly entreat him to be Propitious and Favourable to us and to bestow upon us all those benefits which our Lord purchased with his most Precious Blood We Intercede with him too at the Communion for the whole Church that all our Fellow-Christians and true Members of his Body may Receive Remission of their Sins and all other benefits of his Passion And as Eating and Drinking at his Table is a Visible and Powerful Prayer in the sight of God so it is a Visible Act of Praise and Thanksgiving whereby we let our Heavenly Father see that we retain a deep and lively sense of his Unexpressible Love in sending his onely begotten Son into the World to Dye for us that we might Live through him And that which enlivens our Faith and emboldens our hopes of finding Favour and Acceptance at his Hands at this time above others is this viz. Our Prayers and Praises are not onely put up in the Name of Christ but presented and as it were Writ in his Blood and offered to God over the great Propitiatory Sacrifice All this our Actions signify and speak when we Eat the Consecrated Bread and Drink the Cup of Blessing at the Lord's Table If therefore these things be True and I think no body who understands what he doth when he partakes of the Lord's Supper will gainsay it then Kneeling must be judged as fitting and convenient to be used at such a time when we signify our desires and affections by external Rites and Ceremonies of Gods appointment as when we do it by Words that is when we say our Prayers 2. Our Dissenting Brethren and all good Christians will Grant that our Blessed Saviour ought to be Worshipt and Adored by all worthy Communicants inwardly in their Hearts and Souls when they Receive the Tokens and Pledges of his tender and exceeding great Love in laying down his Life for the Sins of the whole World And if so then whatsoever is very apt and meet to express the inward esteem and veneration of our minds by can't be thought Unsutable and Repugnant to the Nature of the Lord's Supper Because that is a Religious Feast Instituted in Honour of our Lord and is a Solemn Act of Christian Worship performed to our Crucified Saviour Our meeting together at thâ—s Holy Feast in Obedience to his Commands to Commemorate his Death and tell of all his wondrous Works perpetuate the fame of our great Benefactor as much as in us lyes throughout all Ages is an External mark of the Honour and respect we bear towards him in our minds and is properly speaking that which we call Publick Worship Since to Bow our Knees then is allowed to be a proper mode of publick Worship and an External Sign of Reverence why should an adoring posture be thought Unmeet and Unsutable to the Sacrament which in its nature imports Worship and Adoration 3. No good Christian of what Party or Perswasion soever will deny but that to lift our Hands and Eyes to Heaven and to Employ our Tongues in Uttering the Praises of our Blessed Redeemer even in the Act of Receiving is very agreeable to the Nature of the Sacrament why then should Kneeling be thought Unsutable which is no more but onely Glorifying God and our Blessed Saviour with another part of our Body Why should the Gesture be scrupled at more than the Voice or the Bowing of my Knees be esteemed incongruous and unfitting any more than moving my Tongue or raising my Hands and Eyes to Heaven Especially if we consider that the high degree of Honour and Glory to which our Lord is advanced in the Heavens by God the Father as the reward of his Humble and Submissive Obedience here on Earth challenges from us all manner of Respect and Reverence both of Soul and Body He Humbled himself and became Obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name that at the Name of Jesus Phil. 2. 8 9 10 11. every Knee should Bow c. and that every Tongue should Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father 4. The Holy Sacrament was Instituted in Remembrance of our Blessed Saviours Death and Sufferings And therefore I request all our Dissenting Brethren to Consult one place of Scripture concerning our Saviours Bodily Gesture or Deportment in the Heat and Extremity of his Passion wherein he presented himself before his Father in his Agony and Bloody Sweat in the Garden Being in an Agony he offered up this Prayer to his Father If thou be willing remove this Cup from Luke 22. 42 44. me Nevertheless not my Will but thine be done But after what manner or in what Gesture of Body did his perplexed Soul utter these earnest Supplications Why Kneeling or fixing his Knees upon the Earth Now though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 41. we may remember and meditate on our Saviours Sufferings in the Garden when his Soul was so exceeding Sorrowful when he was reduced to such a Weak and low Estate as to stand in need of Comfort and Support from an Angel though I say this may be done Sitting Ver. 43. yet sure no Sober and Considering Mind will say that to Celebrate the Memory of these Sufferings with bended Knees as his were on the Earth is an Improper and Unsutable behaviour to be used at the Sacrament where our proper work is to Commemorate the Death and Sufferings of our Saviour and particularly these among
or leave out of it till all Parties amongst us are satisfied which indeed can never be effected as it doth consist in our becoming more truly Christian in our Lives and Tempers They are our vicious Dispositions more than our different Apprehensions that keep us at such a distance Let the terms of Communion with the Church be what they will yet as long as Men retain the same quarrelsom Mind and industriously seek for Doubts and Scruples and are glad to find them and prefer their own private Opinion and Judgment before the Wisdom and Authority of all their Governours whether Civil or Ecclesiastical it is plain our Divisions and Animosities will not cannot cease But this leads me to the last thing I design'd to discourse of which was to propound to you the best ways and means by which men may get rid of and ease their Minds of such Scruples where I shall especially consider those that relate to our communicating with our Parish-Churches You must not expect that I should descend to and answer the particular Exceptions which hinder men from constant Communion with us but only in general I shall crave leave to advise some few things which would mightily tend to the removing those Doubts and Scruples that yet detain so many in a state of utter Separation from us or at least discourage their total and hearty joyning with us Which charitable Design and Attempt however unsuccessful I may be in it yet cannot I hope be unacceptable to any whose Consciences are pester'd with such Scruples since I endeavour only to deliver them from those Mistakes which beside the disservice they do to Religion and the Protestant Interest do also expose them to trouble and danger from the Publick Laws and Civil Magistrate Of many Rules that might be given in this case I shall insist only on these following 1. We should take great care to beget and cherish in our Minds the most high and worthy and honourable Thoughts of God Almighty This is the Foundation of all Religion and as our Apprehensions of God are such for the most part will be his Worship and Service Accordingly as we conceive of his Nature so shall we judge what things are most pleasing to him as also what they are that are most offensive and distastful to him Now consider I beseech you Can that Man have becoming and excellent Thoughts of the Divine Nature who imagines that God regards any particular Gestures Habits and Postures so far as that the acceptance of our Service and Worship should depend upon such Circumstances of our Religious Actions When with all Humility and true devotion of Heart a sincere Christian prostrates himself at the Throne of God's Grace and with earnest Desire and Affections begs those good things that are according to Gods Mind and Will can we believe that the Father of our Spirits shall refuse and reject his Petition because it is delivered in a certain prescribed form of Words Shall his importunate renewed Requests fail of Success because he still useth the same Expressions and reads his Prayers out of a Book Is God pleased with variety of Words or the copiousness of our Invention or the elegancy of our Phrase and Stile Is it not the Heart and inward frame of Spirit that God principally respects in all our Prayers Or can we think so meanly of God that he should shut his ears against the united Prayers of his People because offended at the colour of the Garment in which the Minister officiates Suppose two Persons both with equal Preparation with true Repentance and Faith to approach the Lord's Table one of them out of a deep sense of his Unworthiness to receive so great Blessings and out of a grateful acknowledgment of the Benefits therein conferr'd upon him takes the Sacrament upon his Knees in the humblest Posture the other sitting or standing can you think that the Sacrament is effectual or beneficial or that God blesses it only to him that sits or that it would not have been of the same advantage to him if he also had received it kneeling To surmise any such thing is surely to dishonour God as if he were a low poor humoursome Being like a Father that should disinherit his Child tho in all Respects most dutiful to him and every way deserving his greatest Kindness only because he did not like his Complexion or the colour of his Hair The wiser and greater any Person is to whom we address our selves the less he will stand upon little Punctilio's Under the Jewish Law the minutest circumstances of Worship were exactly described and determined by God himself and it was not ordinarily lawful for the Priests at all to vary from them But it was necessary then that it should be thus because the Jewish Worship was typical of what was to come hereafter and those many nice Observances that were appointed were not commanded for themselves as if there were any Excellency in them but they were shadows of things to come which are all now done away by the Gospel and the bringing in of everlasting Righteousness the only thing always pleasing to God and agreeable to his Nature It is a spiritual rational Service God now expects from us and delights in and he must look upon God as a very fond and captious Being who can perswade himself that our Prayers and Thanksgivings and other Acts of Worship tho we be most hearty and devout in them yet shall be rejected by him only because of some particular Habits or Gestures we used which were neither dishonourable to God nor unsutable to the nature of those religious Performances Such mean Thoughts of God are the true ground of all Superstition when we think to court and please him by making great Conscience about little things and so it hath been truly observed that there is far more Superstition in conscientious abstaining from that which God hath no where forbid than there is in doing that which God hath not commanded A man may certainly do what God hath not commanded and yet never think to flatter God by it nor place any Religion in it but he may do it only out of obedience to his Superiours for outward Order and Decency for which end our Ceremonies are appointed and so there is no Superstition in them But now a Man cannot out of Conscience refuse to do what God hath not forbid and is by lawful Authority required of him but he must think to please God by such abstaining and in this conceit of pleasing or humouring God by indifferent things consists the true Spirit of Superstition 2. Lay out your great care and zeal about the necessary and substantial duties of Religion and this will make you less concerned about things of an inferiour and indifferent nature As on the one hand our fierce Disputes and Debates about little things and circumstances are apt to eat out the Heart and Life of Religion so on the other side minding those things most in
those affections will be ever a whit the less acceptable to him because they are presented in a form of words and not in extemporary Effusions Sure that Father would be very capricious that should deny Bread to his hungry Child meerly because he askt it to day in the same words that he did yesterday and to imagin that God will dislike or reject the good affections of our Prayer meerly because they are every day express'd in the same form is to suppose him a very captious Being and one that is more taken with our words than with our affections the contrary of which he hath given sufficient proof of in this very particular in that whereas he hath withdrawn from us as I have prov'd at large the inspiration of the words of our Prayer and left them to the composure of our own or other mens invention he still continues to inspire us with the affections of Prayer and to excite them to a due activity For to this among other purposes it is that he hath promised to continue his Holy Spirit to us to enable us to address our selves to him with devout and holy affections thus Gal. 4. 6. Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba father that is by kindling devout and filial affections in your souls inabling you to cry to God with all earnestness and assurance as to a kind and merciful Father and hence also we are said to Pray in or by the Holy Ghost Jude 20. it being by him that those good affections are rais'd in us that we offer up to God in our Prayers and therefore we may well be said to Pray by the Spirit because 't is by the Spirit that we are inspired with those holy affections which are the soul of our Prayer and accordingly the Spirit is said to make intercession for us with sighs and groans which are not to be uttered Rom. 8. 26. which words are far from asserting the inspiration of the matter and words of our Prayer though they are urg'd by our Brethren for that purpose for as for the matter of Prayer here is not the least hint of the Spirits inspiring it for as to that the Christians whom he speaks of were well instructed already by their Christian institution but all that is affirm'd is that the Spirit inabled them to offer up the matter of Prayer to God in a most devout and affectionate manner with sighs and groans that is with earnest and flagrant affections And as for the words of Prayer the Text is so far from implying the inspiration of them that it plainly tells us that those sighs and groans which the Spirit inspired were such as were not to be utter'd or worded And surely to inspire us with affections that are too big for words cannot imply the inspiration of words So that the Spirit 's interceeding for us with sighs and groans that are not to be utter'd can imply no more than his exciting in us the proper affections of Prayer and in this sense he is said in the next Verse to make intercession for the Saints according to the will of God viz. by inabling them to offer up the matter of Prayer to God with such fervent and devout affections as are necessary to render it acceptable to him which is properly to interceed for us for as Christ who is our Advocate in Heaven doth offer up our Prayers to the Father and inforce them with his own intercessions so his Spirit who is our Advocate upon Earth begets in us those affections which render our Prayers prevalent and wings them with fervour and ardency the one pleads with God for us in our own hearts by kindling such desires there as render our Prayers acceptable to him and the other pleads with him for us in Heaven by presenting those desires and soliciting their supply and acceptance And thus you see what that standing and ordinary Operation is which the Scripture attributes to the Spirit in Prayer And now before I proceed to determin the present case I shall only farther inquire what is means by that Phrase of stinting and limiting the Spirit In short therefore to stint or limit the Spirit is a modern Phrase of which there is not the least intimation in Scripture or Antiquity but 't is a term of Art coin'd and invented by our Brethren and appli'd only to the present controversie concerning the lawfulness of Forms of Prayer Which by the way is a plain evidence that this argument against Forms viz. That they stint the Spirit is very new since though Forms of Prayer were used not only in the Scripture Ages as I shall shew hereafter but also in all successive Ages of Christianity yet till very lately we never heard one syllable of stinting or limiting the Spirit by them The meaning of which Phrase is this That by using Forms of Prayer we hinder the Spirit from affording us some assistance in Prayer which otherwise we might reasonably expect from them for so our Brethren explain the Phrase viz. That by confining our selves to a Form of Words we restrain the Spirit from giving us that assistance which he ordinarily vouchsafes in conceiv'd Prayer And now having fully stated the Case the resolution of it will be short and easie It hath been shewn at large that there are two sorts of assistances in Prayer which the Scripture attributes to the Spirit the first extraordinary and temporary viz. the immediate inspiration of the matter and words of Prayer the second ordinary and abiding viz. exciting the devotion and proper affections of Prayer If therefore the Spirit be stinted hinder'd or restrain'd by Forms of Prayer it must be either from inspiring the words and matter or from exciting the affections of Prayer as for the latter to which this Phrase of stinting is never apply'd by our Brethren I shall discourse of it at large in the third Case wherein I shall endeavour to prove that Forms of Prayer are so far from restraining the devotion of it that they very much promote and improve it And as for the former viz. the inspiration of the matter and words of Prayer that I have prov'd was extraordinary and intended only as other miraculous Gifts were for the first propagation of the Gospel and therefore since as to this matter the Spirit hath stinted himself it 's certain that Forms of Prayer cannot stint him for how can that be stinted which is not and if now there be no such thing as immediate inspiration of Prayer how can it be limited by a Form of Prayer In a word if the Spirit of his own accord hath long since withdrawn this Gift of inspiration how can it be now said that he is restrain'd from communicating it by any cause without him Case II. Whether the Vse of Publick Forms be not a sinful neglect of the Ministerial Gift of Prayer In order to the resolution of which Case it would be necessary
the Ministers pray'd by their own Gifts and Abilities But this hath been so fully answer'd by our learned Doctor Faulkner (b) (b) (b) Libert Eccles 113. that I am apt to think 't will hardly be objected any more for he hath prov'd at large that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie with all his might i. e. with his utmost intention and fervency for so as he shews it must necessarily signifie in another place of his Apology (c) (c) (c) Apol. 2. p. 60. where speaking of the praying of Christians in general at the Eucharist he tells us that they did praise God with Prayers and Thanksgivings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is with all their might which cannot signifie according to their Gifts and Abilities Since whatsoever the Minister might do it 's certain the People did not compose their own Prayers at the Eucharist and therefore it must signifie with their utmost fervour and intention in which sence as he shews the same phrase is used by Nazianzen (d) (d) (d) Nazian Orat. 3. Another Testimony they object against the use of Forms is that of Tertullian who affirms (e) (e) (e) Sine Monitore quia de pectore Oremus Tertul. Apolog. That the Christians did pray without a Monitor or Prompter because they pray'd from their hearts in which words say they he plainly alludes to a Custom of the Heathen who in their publick Worship had a Monitor to direct them in what words and to what God they were to offer up their Prayers When therefore he says that they pray'd without a Monitor his meaning must be say they that they pray'd without any one to direct them what Form of words they were to pray in To which I answer first That supposing he here speaks of the publick Worship as it seems most probable it 's evident that by this phrase without a Monitor he cannot mean without any one to dictate or prescribe a Form of words to them for in their ordinary publick Prayers their Minister was the Mouth of the Congregation and whether he pray'd by Form or Extempore his words were a Form of words to them in which they were obliged to frame and express their Devotions so that either this phrase without a Monitor must import that they had none to dictate and minister to them in their publick Prayers or it cannot import that they had no publick Forms to pray by because if they had any to dictate to them his extempore Prayer would have been as much a Monitor to direct them what words to pray in as if it had been a stated Form of Liturgy Whatever therefore this obscure phrase means it 's certain it cannot mean without a Form unless it be allowed to mean without a Minister too But then 2ly not to take notice of the various guesses which learned men make at the meaning of it and by which it is sufficiently vindicated from meaning without a Form of Prayer it seems to me most probable that without a Monitor here is meant without any one to correct them when either they repeated or the Minister recited the publick Prayers falsly for the Gods of the Heathen being various and having each their various Offices and Provinces allotted them it was the manner of their Priests to begin their publick Sacrifices with a Form of Prayer (f) (f) (f) A. Gellins Noct. Attic. l. 13. c. 21. which began with an Invocation of Janus and Vesta and proceeded with various Invocations of all the greater Deities by name (g) (g) (g) Rosm Antiq Rom. l. 3. c. 33. in which they implored such favours of each Deity as lay within their particular Province to bestow thus for instance when they invocated Bacchus they began thus O Bacchus Son of Semele the bestower of Riches (h) (h) (h) Casaub in Ann. Eccl. Exercit 16. N. 42. when they offer'd the Cake to Janus O Father Janus with this I offer thee my good Prayers that thou wouldest be propitious to me c. (i) (i) (i) Festus in verbor signif So for Jupiter Dapalis With this Cake O Jupiter I offer thee my good Prayers that thou wouldest have mercy on me my House and Family (k) (k) (k) Cato de re Rustic c. 134. and so for Mars I pray thee O Mars to be propitious to me my Field and Corn and Wine and Cattel (l) (l) (l) Ibid. 141. Which several Invocations that there might be none of the names of their greater Gods pretermitted nor none of the Prayers falsly or disorderly recited or repeated were with great care recited by a Priest out of the Ritual and repeated after him by the People (m) (m) (m) Brison de formal l. 1. p. 61. there being another Priest appointed for a publick Monitor for so Pliny tells us (n) (n) (n) Plin. l. 28. cap. 2. Vidimus certis precationibus obsecrasse summos Magistratus ut nequid verborum praetermitatur aut praeposterum dicatur de scripto praeire aliquem rursusque alium custodem dari qui attendat When any of the Chief Magistrates offer certain Prayers lest any of the Sacred Words should be omitted or preposterously pronounc'd they have one to dictate them to them out of a Book and another who is Overseer diligently to attend And accordingly Livy observes (o) (o) (o) Liv. l. 4. Obsecratio itaque a populo duumviris praeeuntibus est facta That Prayer was made by the People two men going before or dictating to them now that this latter of the two whom Pliny calls the Custos or Overseer was the Monitor whom Tertullian alludes to seâ—ms very probable because as Livy observes his business was proeire populo i. e. to dictate to the People after him who according to Pliny's account did de scripto praeire i. e. dictate to them out of the Book and to what other purpose should he dictate to them what had been dictated before but onely to admonish and correct them when they repeated falsly or disorderly especially considering that the reason which Pliny assigns why this Custos was appointed was lest any of the Sacred Words should be omitted or preposterously repeated which was look'd upon as a very ill Omen But how could he prevent this unless it were his Office to admonish and correct either the Priest or People or both when he read or they repeated them falsly This Monitor therefore was not he who read the Prayers or dictated them to the People out of the Book but he whose Office 't was to oversee either that they were rightly dictated or rightly repeated or both and indeed there was more need that he should oversee that they were rightly repeated than that they were rightly dictated because they were dictated out of a Book and so could not be so easily dictated as repeated falsly But suppose his Office were to oversee both yet since they were dictated in order to their being repeated he
among Nonconformists and beget so much Sobriety in you all as to make you think what manner of Spirit you are now of How you come to differ so much from the best of your own way in former dayes This is worth your serious study that you may not offend as many hearers do in a partial and factious estimation they have the Ministers of the Gospel in They are his Words again in another place Lecture LXVI Where he observes this partiality arises from two Grounds First the respect they have to difference of Judgment that is among us in smaller matters which makes them affect such only as are of their own Mind in every thing with the dislike of all others that are of a contrary persuasion And secondly from the respect they have to the difference of Gifts which is among Preachers of which I spake before which moves them to admire some whom they judge to be of excellent gifts though alas their judgment is very small but to dispise and contemn all others And he hath there these two remarkable reflections upon this Humour which I beg of you to observe and remember First that this factious Disposition of the Hearers of Gods Word hath in all ages been the cause of much Confusion in the Church of God and greatly hindred the fruit of the Gospel of Christ Note here This way which you are in is not the means of profiting in Religion but of hindering the growth and increase of it The second is that whereas they in whom this humor reigneth are wont to glory as if they had more Judgment and could discern better of Gifts than other men saying alas poor People who esteem so highly of such a mans Gifts If they had any Judgment or understanding they would count him no body The Apostle tells us it is quite contrary and that this argues rather they have very little Judgment or Grace in them yea this makes them uncapable of profiting by the Word 1 Cor. 3. 1. O that there were an Heart in you to ponder such Profitable Instructions as these which were said on purpose to check that evil Disposition which began then to appear among People inclinable to Non-conformity and is since grown the prevailing humour insomuch that some can settle no where but ramble from one Preacher to another as their uncertain Fancy guides them without becoming one whit the better for any Yes will some say We might be perswaded to come and hear your Preachers and hear them constantly but we ought not to be compelled to it that 's a thing you can never justifie To which so much hath been answered by others that I shall only tell you what that good Man before named saith to it in one of those Lectures which was preached in Parliament-time May 8. 1610. where he takes occasion to stir up the People to pray earnestly for the States of the Realm then assembled that their principal care might be to take order about two things first That an able and conscionable Ministry may be placed every where and secondly that ALL People may be compelled to hear For it is certain saith he upon this second head that where there is a good Ministry established the Magistrate may and ought to compell ALL Subjects to come and hear notwithstanding all pretence of their Consciences to the contrary VII To sum up all then that hath been said in this Business Be pleased to consider What makes a Sermon profitable and What must be done by the People to profit by the Sermon A Sermon is then profitable when it informs the Mind and Judgment aright in Divine Truth when it instructs you in any part of the Christian Duty when it tends to strengthen or awaken your Faith that you may more stedfastly adhere and earnestly apply your selves to what you know and believe certainly to be Gods Mind and Will when it works upon the Will and the Affections to submit intirely to Gods Will that you may bring forth the fruit of a holy Life when it corrects any of your Errors stirs up your Sloth incourages you to Diligence Chearfulness and Perseverance and such like things But the best contrived Sermon in the World for all these ends though it were indited by the Spirit of God it self would have no efficacy at all in it if they that heard it did not attend to it and attend without Prejudice without Passion without Partiality without rash and hasty Judgment without Pride and conceit of themselves and their own Knowledge and Righteousness that is unless they consider and weigh what is delivered though contrary to their present sence unless they will impartially give every thing that is offered to their mind a due regard and allot some time for its further Consideration when it is not to their liking c. For want of which multitudes did not Profit by our Saviour's Sermons but were rather more exasperated by them and at last finally hardned against him and against the Holy Ghost when it came down from Heaven to convince them I doubt not they were ready enough then to lay the blame upon his Sermons which pressed them to many things unto which they had no mind being against their Interest or against some Opinion or Affection to which they were deeply ingaged so that they did not Profit by them But for all this you believe the fault was wholly in themselves who ought to have come better prepared with honest and good Hearts to hear his Word And therefore have reason to consider in your present case that since the most Profitable Sermons that ever were made can do no good unless Men be disposed to Profit by them whether the unprofitableness you complain of under our Ministry do not arise rather for want of what you ought to do to make the most excellent Sermon profitable then from any defect in their Ministry Judg now I say upon the whole if you cannot profit by the publick Ministry where is it most reasonable to think the cause of this unprofitableness lies whether to suspect the cause may lie in your selves or to impute it to their Sermons and conclude them to be unedyfying Pronounce I beseech you righteous Judgment after you have well weighed the matter and give such things as I have here laid before you a just and deliberate Consideration so as hereafter to resolve to lay aside all prejudice and to be perfectly free to hear with Patience and Candor what can be said by any body though against your present persuasion Let not your Passions rise at it or if they do immediately suppress them and require them not to meddle in this matter but to sumbit unto what shall appear to be reason after you have weighed the matter impartially If you cannot do this you ought to think that you have not profited much by all the Sermons you have heard and consequently suspect you are in a wrong way of growing wiser and better And after you
That they thought it altogether unlawful to separate from a Church for the sake of stinted Forms and Liturgies This is not only frequently affirmed by Mr. Ball (g) (g) (g) Trial p. 121 129 140 156. but little less even by Mr. Norton (h) (h) (h) Resp ad Apol c. 13. who saith It is lawful to embrace Communion with Churches where such Forms in Publick Worship are in use neither doth it lie as a Duty on a Believer that he disjoin and separate himself from such a Church And they give this reason for it that then they must separate from all Churches So Mr. Baxter c. Is it not a high degree Sacril desert p. 102. Defence Part 2. p. 65. Balls Trial p. 138. Rogers 7 Tr. p. 224. of Pride to conclude that almost all Christ's Churches in the World for these thirteen hundred Years at least to this day have offered such Worship unto God as that you are obliged to avoid it and that almost all the Catholick Church on Earth this day is below your Communion for using Forms and that even Calvin and the Presbyterians Cartwright Hildersham and the old Non-conformists were unworthy your Communion I know there are several Objections against Forms of Prayer but I know also that these are answered by them But since the most common is that of quenching and stinting the Spirit I shall briefly give their sence of it They say 1. To say that Persons should use no set Form but Roger's 7 Tr. Tr. 3. c. 4. p. 223. Balls Tryal c. 5. p. 83. pray as moved by the Spirit is a fond Error 2. They say that the Spirit instructeth us what to ask not in what phrase of speech It stirreth up in us holy Desires but giveth not ability suddenly and without help to express and lay open our Hearts in a fit method and significant words Ability of Speech is a common Gift of the Spirit which the Lord bestoweth upon good and bad c. 3. That the measure of the Spirit standeth not in Ibid. p. 91. Words and Forms but in fervent Sighs and Groans 4. That there is nothing letteth but that in such Rogers Ibid. Forms the Hearers Hearts may profitably go with the same both to humble to quicken and to comfort And Dr. Owen cannot deny but that they may Disc of Prayer p 222 231 232. be for edification and that Persons in the use of them may have Communion with God 5. They say that the Scriptures insisted upon in this Case are grounded upon Mistakes and are misapplied as Mr. Tombs in particular hath clearly manifested Theodulia p. 164 238. Fourthly I shall consider what their Opinion is as to the English Liturgy or Common-Prayer both as to the Liturgy it self and Communion in it As to the Liturgy it self it 's acknowledged 1. That the Matter for the most part is good sound Bryan's dwelling with God Serm. 6 p. 312. Baxt. Def. pa. t 1. p. 29 59. Crofton Refor no Separ p. 25. T. D. Jerubbaal p 35. and divine and that there is not any Doctrinal Passage in any of the Prayers that may not bear a good construction and so Amen may be said to it as Dr. Bryan with others do maintain 2. That as no Church for this 1400 Years has been without its Publick Forms so ours is the best So the old Non-conformists Compare the Doctrines Leâ—ter of the Minist in Old-Engl p. 12. Prayers Rites at those Times throughout in use in the Churches with ours and in all these blessed be the Name of the Lord we are more pure than they And it 's not much short that we find in Mr. Baxter in the name of Second Plea for Peace p. 101. the present Non-conformists 3. That which is accounted faulty is tolerable and hinders not but that it 's acceptable to God and edifying to pious and well-disposed Persons Tolerable So Mr. Corbet The Worship contained Plea for Lay-Communion p. 2. V. Ball 's Tryal c. 9. p. 58. in the Liturgy may lawfully be partaked in it being sound for substance in the main and the mode thereof being laudable in divers Forms and Orders and passable in the most though in some offensive inconvenient or less perfect Acceptable to God So the old Non-conformists Letter of the Minist in Old-England p. 13. In them that join with the Prayers according to Christ's Command and liberty of absence from Christ hath not been shewed notwithstanding the Corruptions we hold the Prayers to be an holy acceptable Sacrifice to God c. Edifying to well-disposed Persons To this purpose Mr. Hildersham Mr. Rogers c. Treat 3. c. 4. p. 224l And accordingly Mr. Corbet professeth his own experience (a) (a) (a) Corbet Plea p. 3. Though I judg their Form of Worship to be in many respects less perfect than is desired yet I have found my Heart spiritually affected and raised towards God therein and more especially in receiving the Lord's Supper I judg this Form may be used formally by the Formal and spiritually by those that are Spiritual It is my part to make the best of it being the established Form As to Communion in the Liturgy it is granted 1. That there is no cause to renounce it or the Communion of the Church for it and that so to do is a Sin (b) (b) (b) Gifford's plain Declaâ—ation Ball 's Trial c. 7. p. 121. Sacril desert p. 105. 2. That all the Reformed Churches in Christendom do commonly profess to hold Communion with the English Churches in the Liturgy if they come among us where it is used (c) (c) (c) Mr Baxter's Def. of Cure p. 68. 3. It 's declared on the part of the old Non-conformists That they ordinarily and constantly used the Communion-Book in their Publick Ministrations (d) (d) (d) Ball 's Tryal p. 121. c. 8. p. 155. and that the People generally were in their days satisfied in it (e) (e) (e) Let. of Ministers of Old-Engl p. 14. And for the present it 's declared We can lawfully not only hear Common-Prayer but read it our selves (f) (f) (f) Mr. Mead's Case p. 7. M. Humphry's Healing Paper p. 5. Mr. Baxter's Disp 4. of Church-Gov p. 364. Mr. S. Fairclough's Life p. 157. I shall not trouble the Reader with the several Objections against the Liturgy and the Answers return'd to them by the old and present Non-conformists but shall content my self with that which it seems was much Trial. c. 8. p. 152. insisted upon in the days of Mr. Ball and their Reply to it The Liturgy in the whole Matter and Form thereof is Object too like unto the Mass-Book If the Liturgy be Antichristian it is so either in Answ respect of the Matter or of the Form Not of the Matter for that which properly belonged to Antichrist the foul and gross Errors is purged out Not of the Form for Order and Phrase of
us what they really were for amongst those Saints were found strange immortalities altogether contradictory to the sacredness of their Vocation But does not the Apostle say Christ loved the Church Eph. 5. 25. and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it by the washing of water by the Word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish I answer Holiness in this place must be confest to be meant a real and inward holiness but then by Church is not to be understood the whole complex Body of the Universal Church in this World but either that part of it that in this World is really tho' imperfectly holy and is every day pressing forwards to higher degrees of it or else that Church which shall be in the future state when all the corrupt and unsound Members shall be by death and the final decision of God for ever excommunicated out of it and all the Members that remain in it only such as were in some acceptable degrees holy here and shall then be perfected in holiness Neither is this to make two Churches of Christ as the Donatists objected one in which good and bad are mingled together and another in which there are good alone but only to assign two different states of the same Church the one in this World compos'd of good and bad externally holy in respect of all by vocation and internally holy in respect of some in it by sanctification the other in the next World where there shall be a separation made betwixt the Sheep and the Goats and all remaining in the Church such as shall at once be perfectly holy and compleatly happy This is that Church which Christ shall present to himself glorious not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish This being spupos'd all that will be needful to say in answer to this Question may be comprehended under these three Propositions 1. That an external Profession of the Christian Faith is enough to qualifie a person to be admitted a Member of Christ's Church 2. That every such Member has a right to all the external Priviledges of the Church till by his continuance in some notorious and scandalous sins he has forfeited that right and by the just censures of the Church he be for such behaviour actually excluded from those Priviledges 3. That some corrupt and scandalous Members remaining in the Communion through the want of the du◠exercise of discipline in it or the negligence and connivance of the Governours and Pastors of it gives no such cause to any to Separate from her I begin with the first That an external Profession of the Christian Faith c. This Profession in grown and adult persons is to be made by themselves Thus it was at the first erection of the Christian Church when Persons by the Preaching and Miracles of the Apostles were converted from the Pagan Superstition and Jewish Religion to the Christian Faith they were to believe and with the Eunuch Acts 8. 27. to declare their belief I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God In Infants and Children not grown up to years of discretion by their Parents and those who at the request of their Parents do together with them undertake for them So great an interest and propriety have Parents in their Children so intire an affection and concern for their good and happiness so unquestionable an authority over them so binding and obligatory are all their reasonable commands upon them that we have good grounds to believe that they that are born of Christian Parents will be brought up in the Christian Religion and at years of understanding take upon themselves what their Parents and Sureties promis'd for them and upon this account that profession of Faith made by others at their Baptism in their behalf may in a favourable sense be reckon'd as made by themselves so God accounted it in the Jewish Church upon the account of their Parents being in covenant with God were the Children of the Jews esteem'd an holy Seed and at eight days old admitted by Circumcision into the same Church and Covenant with them And the same reason holds for admitting Children born of Christian Parents into the Christian Church by the Rite of Baptism which is the Sign and Seal of the Covenant under the Gospel as Circumcision was of that under the Law Now that this external profession without any farther signs of saving Grace is ground sufficient for those with whom God hath entrusted the Keys and Government of his Church to admit persons into it will appear from these particulars 1. This is the qualification prescrib'd by our Lord he is the Head and Founder of his Church to him therefore does it appertain to appoint the terms and conditions of admission into it and what these are we may learn from that commission he gave his Apostles when he sent them out to gather a Church under him viz. the becoming his Disciples Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teach all Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Disciple all Nations Now a Disciple is properly one not that has already attain'd to the full Mat. 28. 19. knowledg and saving effects of the Gospel but only understands so much of it as to be willing to be admitted into the Christian Church in order to his being farther taught the one and to have the other more throughly wrought in him Whether men are sincere in their profession of the Christian Faith and in their desires to be admitted Members of Christ's Church and whether this great Priviledg and Blessing of Church-membership will be effectual to produce in them that regeneration and new creature for which it was design'd the Pastors and Governours of the Church cannot know This their bare profession and desire is enough to give them a title to it and qualification for it By this rule the Apostles of Christ walkt as to this particular even when they liv'd with him here on Earth and were under his immediate direction The Pharisees heard that Jesus made and Baptiz'd more Disciples than John tho' Jesus himself did not Baptize John 4. 2. but his Disciples Now if as it was fam'd abroad and is not in the Text contradicted Jesus's Disciples Baptiz'd more than John it follows that they baptiz'd more than were sincere when we read that so few not above an Hundred and Twenty continued with Christ to the last Acts 1. 15. 2. It appears from the Apostles practice afterwards in admitting persons into the Church Nothing but a profess'd willingness to receive the Gospel tho they receiv'd it not from the heart was requir'd by them in order to it The Text tells us that they that gladly receiv'd St. Peter 's words were baptiz'd
and vilifie the person and sufferings of the most holy Jesus his person as one not worthy to be obeyed and followed his blood as a thing of no value and merit And what could such Persons expect but that God would vindicate the honour of his own Son and the infinitely wise contrivance of the redemption of the World by his great undertaking in some remarkable way upon them either in this World by Temporal Judgments for this cause many are weak and sickly amongst you and many sleep or in the next without repentance by 1 Cor. 11. 30. their Eternal Damnation Obj. But the Members of Christ's Body that come to this blessed Sacrament and are destitute of saving grace tho' they make a fair profession and are free from scandalous sins are yet in an unconverted condition and this Sacrament is not a converting but a confirming Ordinance Answ Conversion may be taken in a two-fold sense 1. For turning Men from a state of open infidelity to the poofession of the Christian Faith and indeed till Men are in this sense converted they are not to be admitted to the Sacrament neither Jews nor Turks nor any others in a state of Gentilism till by Baptism they are receiv'd into Christ's Church and make profession of his Name can come to it 2. Taking conversion for the turning of those who are already baptiz'd and do profess Christ's Religion from the Evil of their ways to a serious and hearty practice of Holiness and Virtue and so this Sacrament is a converting Ordinance And indeed I do not know any more forceable Arguments to an Holy Life than what are therein represented to us What can more work upon ingenuous spirits than the discovery of such undeserv'd love and kindness Is it not enough to melt the most frozen heart into Floods of Tears and Joy to behold therein the Blessed Jesus shedding his Blood to reconcile sinners unto God What can more powerfully captivate the most rebellious spirits into obedience than the assurance of a pardon of their past transgressions by that full propitiatory Sacrifice of the Son of God What can more effectually fright Men from sin and folly than the infinite displeasure of God declared therein against all Iniquity How accursed a thing is sin will the considering Communicant say that the blessed Jesus who did but take sin upon him was made a Curse for it What a mighty evil must sin needs be when nothing could be sufficient to expiate it but the Blood of God! What an unspeakable malignity must sin have in it when it laid on the shouldiers of Omnipotency such a load of wrath as made him complain and sweat and grone and die Again Here we repeat our Baptismal Vow to God solemnly engage our selves afresh to be his faithful servants and bind our selves by a new Oath to be true to the Covenant we have made with him and certainly that Man must have a mighty love for Sin and Death that can break through all these Bonds and Obligations to come at it 3. The Third Proposition That some corrupt and scandalous Members remaining in the Communion of the Church through the want of the due exercise of Discipline in it or the negligence and connivance of the Pastors and Governours of it gives no just Cause for any to separate from her Gives no just Cause That which is chiefly pretended is That the viciousness of those Members do derive a stain and defilement on the whole Assembly and pollute the Worship of God to others as well as to themselves Here therefore I shall shew what is to be done by us that we be no way accessary to others sins and then upon that condition that we cannot be polluted by their sinful company Now many things are to be done by good men who are to joyn in mixt Assemblies that the Communion receive no perjudice by the corruption of some of its Members They are frequently to exhort and advise them for this end are we plac'd in the communion of Saints and tho' to instruct the Flock God hath appointed a whole Order of Men on purpose yet is it also the Duty of every private Christian in his place and calling to exhort one another daily whilst it is call'd to day to consider one another to provoke unto love und to good Heb. 3. 13. Heb. 10. 24. works They are prudently and with much affection to admonish and reprove them we must not be so rudely civil as to suffer sin to lie upon them without disturbance so runs the Precept Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart but thou shalt rebuke thy Brother Lev. 19. 17. and not suffer sin to be upon him and if any man be overtaken in a fault says the Apostle ye that are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness Gal. 6. 1. considering that thou also may'st be tempted They are to bewail their sins and to pray for their reformation this is the true spirit and temper of a good man he cannot see God dishhonour'd his Laws trampled upon his Brother wilfully undoing himself but he must be deeply touch'd and affected with it Rivers of water run down my eyes says the Psalmist because Men keep not thy law And when in Ezekiel's time the Jewish Church both Preists and People were very much corrupted the Holy Ghost gives it as the particular mark of the faithful and upright not that they separated but sighed and cryed for all the abominations that were done in her Of the same holy frame and Ezek. 9. 4. disposition of mind was St. Paul he could not mention those in the Church at Philippi who whilst they profest Christianity shew'd themselves by their sensuality and earthly-mindedness to be Enemies to the Cross of Christ without Sorrow and Tears Of whom says he I have told you often and now tell you weeping Phil. 3. 18. that they are Enemies to the Cross of Christ whose God is their Belly c. They are to avoid as much as they can their company especially all familiarity with them and tho' in order to their conviction and reformation and in such cases where necessary business requires it and the publick Worship of God can't be perform'd but in conjunction with such persons I may be in their company without blame yet in all other cases I am to shew my dislike and abhorrence of their sins by shunning their society If any Man obey not our Word by this 2 Thess 3. 14. Epistle note that Man and have no company with him that he may be asham'd Again says the same Apostle I wrote to you in an Epistle not to keep company if any man be a Fornicator or an Idolater or c. with such an one no not to eat If private and often repeated Admonitions by himself or before one or two more will not do they are then to tell the Church of them that by its more publick Reproofs the scandalous
a Subject as he doth in his own Cause when he is a Superiour we believe there would be presently an end of this Controversie For let men talk as gravely as they please about the danger of obeying the Publick Laws with a Doubting Conscience Yet I dare appeal to themselves whether they would not think it very unreasonable for any Domestick of theirs over whom they have Lawful Authority to live in Contradiction to the Private Rules and Orders of their Family upon a pretence of doubting whether those Orders were Lawful or no. If a Parent for Instance should command his Son to sit uncovered before him He would not take it for a good Answer from the young man to say Sir I am doubtful whether it be not unlawful to use any such Ceremonies to Men and therefore I pray excuse me if I do not pay you that Respect you require If a Master should order his Servant to provide Dinner for him on the Lords Day and he should reply I would do it with all my heart but that I am in doubt whether it be not forbidden by Gods Word to do any Work on the Sabbath I am not indeed perswaded that it is forbidden but in the mean time I am not satisfied that it is Lawful and therefore till I be resolved in this Point I pray Sir be pleased to Pardon me Would now a Parent or a Master think these Answers Reasonable would he take them in such good part as to think his Son or his Servant had done nothing but what they were bound to do in thus refusing to obey his Commands No I dare say he would not but on the contrary would tell them you are my Son or my Servant and you must leave it to me to judge what is fit for me to command and for you to do I will take care to command you nothing but what is lawful and justifiable But in the mean time you must not think by your foolish Doubts and Scruples so long as you confess you know nothing unlawful in what I bid you do to control my Orders and Commands that I think neither becomes you to do nor me to suffer I dare say most men would judge this a very fitting and just Reply in such a Case And if so it is a strong Argument that we are all naturally apt to think that in purely Doubtful Cases our Superiour is to be obeyed notwithstanding our Doubt and that if in any Case we think otherwise it is where our own Liberty and Interest are concerned and where consequently we may be justly presumed unequal Judges as being prejudiced in favour of our selves Fifthly Let me add this one Consideration more and I have done If in meerly Doubtful Cases our Superiours have not a Power of Determining us what will their Authority signifie If it be not of weight enough when the Scales hang even to turn the Ballance it is truly the lightest thing in the World Indeed it is worth nothing and there will not be left Power enough in those that are to govern us for the securing in any tolerable degree the Peace and Happiness of the Society they are to govern For I pray consider What can there be so wisely Commanded or Provided for either in a Family in a City or in a Kingdom but may be liable to exception and become a matter of Doubt to some Person or other There is nothing in the whole compass of indifferent things and such chiefly are the Matters of Humane Laws but some Person or other will be found to doubt whether it be fit or lawful And if such a Doubt be a just Reason to deny Obedience to the Law or the Command in what a condition are all Families and Corporations and Societies in the World What will be the Consequence of such a Principle Why certainly nothing but perpetual Jars and Disturbances and Confusions For Instance If whenever a Prince declares War against his Enemies it should be supposed Lawful for any Subject to withdraw his Assistance from his Soveraign in Case he doubts whether that War be a Lawful War or no in what a sad case would that Prince or that Kingdom be that is to be supported and protected upon these Terms Every man is hereby made a Judge of the Merits of a War and though he be never so Ignorant never so Unexperienced never so Ignorant never so Unexperienced never so unable to make a Judgment of these momentous Affairs of the Kingdom yet if some Rumours or uncertain Stories have reached his Ears that make him doubt whether this War was lawfully begun or no Why he is upon this Principle warranted to deny not only his Personal Service but his Contributions towards the Charge of that War But these Consequences are intolerable and therefore the Principle from whence they flow must needs be thought intolerable also III. Having thus given the reasons of our Assertion I come now in the Third place to answer the Arguments that are brought on the other side All the Arguments I have met with against the Doctrine we have been establishing may be reduced to Three and of those three the First I have prevented by my stating the Question the Second I have already answered in my Proofs of our Assertion so that the Third only remains to be spoken to However I will name the two first The First Argument is drawn from the mischievous Consequences of our Doctrine For say they If a man should think himself obliged in every doubtful Case to be determined by the Command of his Superiours it would be the ready way to involve him often times in most grievous sins As for instance if a man should so halt between two opinions as to doubt whether Jehovah or Baal was the true God as the Isralites sometimes did and at the same time as it then happened among them the Chief Ruler should command that Baal should be worshipped Why now in this Case say they according to your way of resolving Doubts the man must be obliged to worship an Idol and to renounce the true God This is the Argument But it is no Argument against us Because in the stating of our Question we have excluded all such Doubts out of it as do proceed from a mans Gross and Criminal Ignorance of his Duty as it is Apparent and Notorious that the Doubt in this Instance doth On the contrary we are as forward to acknowledge as they that if any man do an Action that is plainly contradictory to the Laws of God it is not his Ignorance and much less his Doubtfulness that will excuse him though he do it in obedience to his Governours So that though this Argument would fall heavy enough upon those that plead for an Absolute Blind Obedience to Authority in all things indiscriminately which no man of the Church of England doth Yet it doth not at all touch us who only assert That where we doubt equally whether an Action be Lawful or no
shall endeavour through Gods assistance to lay some things together of which People of ordinary Capacities may make a Judgments and which may afford reasonable satisfaction to those that Doubt It is by some pretended That the Confessions of Sin in our Liturgie are too General and that there are many Particular Sins which ought to have been Distinctly Confessed of which there is no mention Now I desire those that are of this Mind to consider that there is hardly any thing in Publick Worship which requires more Caution and Prudence in the ordering of it than that Confession of Sin which is to be made by the whole Congregation It may be too Loose and General on the one side or it may be too Particular and Distinct on the other And it is not so very easie to avoid both inconveniencies The reason is because it should be framed as all may in good earnest use it notwithstanding the great Difference amongst those that are within the Communion of the Church the Sins of some of them being more in number and greater in kind and more heinously aggravated than the Sins of others There may be this Inconvenience in a Confession very short and General that takes in all that it does not so well serve to excite or to express that due sense of Sin nor to exercise that humility and self abasement wherewith we should always Confess our Sins to God On the other hand the Inconvenience of a very Particular and Distinct Confession of Sins will be this That some Sins with their Aggravations may be Confessed in the Name of the whole Congregation of which it is by no means to be supposed that all are guilty and then they who through the Grace of God have been kept from them cannot in good earnest make such Confession Now I take it that the Confessions of Sin in the Daily and in the Communion Service are so Judiciously framed as to avoid both extreams Since the Expressions have that large meaning as to take in the case of the best of the Congregation who may in good earnest use them and thereby joyn their Confessions with the rest And on the other side though they are General yet they are so affectionately amplified that they may well serve to express that Contrition which they ought to feel who labour under the Conscience of most hemous Sins and if they come duly prepared to excite a godly sorrow for Sin and to exercise a due sense of their own unworthiness of Gods Mercy And I desire those who are made to believe otherwise that they would venture to use their own Judgment in this matter and upon this occasion seriously to read over those two Confessions in our Lyturgie the one that which our daily Worship almost begins with the other in the Communion Office before the Absolution And then let them judge impartially as in the fear of God if I have not said the Truth But besides this the Confession of Sin after the Minister has recited each of the Ten Commandments is not only General enough to take in all sorts of Men but it seems also to be as particular as can reasonably be desired in a Congregation because it goes particularly through the Ten Commandments to which it has been usual to reduce the whole Duty of Man And this Method of Confession makes it easie for all that consider their own ways and endeavour to understand their own state to confess every one of them to God yet more particularly his known Offences in thought word or deed against each Commandment These things being well provided for to find fault with this part of our Service seems to argue want of Modesty or Judgment in those that do so They seem to believe ours to be amiss because they believe themselves could make a better But if for this and such like reasons they think fit to break Communion with us where will be an end of Division and Separation I hope none of our Brethren will say that they are not to make a Confession of their Sins in a way of expression that is possible to be mended lest by this means they should never make any Confession of Sin at all Since it may still remain a Question Whether this had not been better left out or that added after the best care is taken If a Form of Confession of Sins were Composed by the wifest of them I suppose he would pretend no more than that it is so Composed that Gods People might safely and profitably use it And this is that we may confidently say of the Confessions in our Liturgie and if this be truly said it ought to end the Dispute And yet they who Object the Generalness of our Confessions against us would not find it an easie task to give us better and more unexceptionable I may safely say they would not mend the Matter if they could prevail to have them as Particular as they are wont to be in the Prayers of some that separate from us For besides that they Confess against themselves so many particular Sins as many sincere Christians cannot in good earnest acknowledge themselves to be or ever to have been guilty of there is this other great inconvenience in such Confessions that gross Hypocrites and other Carnal Professors are very apt to go away with an opinion that their case is as good as that of the best since by these Confessions of Sin which describe their own case perhaps truly enough it should seem that the rest are no better than themselves We find it needful to warn those of our own Communion against such like mistakes though they are not in so much danger of falling into them We are afraid lest they that live in the Practice of wilful Sins should think the better of themselves because we do all confess that we have erred and strayed from Gods ways like lost sheep and have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts and have offended against the holy Laws of God and have left undone those things which we ought to have done and have done those things which we ought not to have done and that manifold sins and wickedness in thought word and deed have most grievously been committed by us against the Divine Majesty whereby we have provoked most justly his wrath and indignation against us But 't is not hard for us to shew these Men that all this may be truly Confessed by the sincere and godly as well as by Hypocrites that though the Confession does not mention a difference yet it does not imply that there is no difference between them but after all that these are in a state of Impenitence Damnation while those are in a state of Salvation who yet truely confess their Sins in the same General Words with the rest of the Congregation But there is greater danger of this self-flattery we are speaking of where the Common Confession of Sins is so very particular as some
would have ours to be And though there is greater need of Caution against it in such places yet the way of their Confession makes the mistake more difficult to be prevented Indeed we find in the Scripture Examples of Holy Men confessing such Sins as themselves were not guilty of Thus did Jeremiah Nehemiah Ezra c. But this was upon Solemn Humiliation for those known and publick Idolatries of the Nation which had brought Gods heavy Judgments upon them or for Common and Scandalous Transgressions afterward They considered themselves as part of that Community which had provoked God to send them into Captivity and therefore they bore their part in the Common Calamity with such meekness and confessed the Common Sins with such humility as if themselves had offended as greatly in their own Persons as their Countrey-men had done But I conceive there is a great deal of difference between those Confessions of Sin that such extraordinary occasions of Publick Humiliation require and those that are fit for the ordinary Service of God in the constant and stated Assemblies of the Church But it ought not to be forgot that those particular Confessions of Sin which some Men want in our Liturgie are not properly the matter of that Publick Service we are to offer daily unto God in Religious Assemblies but of that Private Devotion which is necessary to be performed in our Closets And if we could be persuaded seriously to enter upon this Work of Examining our selves impartially concerning those Sins which we have more openly or secretly committed and then to humble our selves before God for them with particular Confessions and sutable Prayer for his Grace and Pardon we should then find our Affections prepared to comply with those more General Confessions of Sin which we make with the whole Congregation we should then have less reason to complain that those Confessions are not apt to move us because this way would cure the deadness of our hearts which commonly are most to blame when we find fault with the means that God hath provided for us To conclude this Matter There is great need of Particular Confession of Sins in Religious Assemblies but that of another sort than what I have yet been speaking of and that is the particular and humble Confession which every Scandalous Sinner ought to make in the Congregation for the satisfaction of the Church and the declaration of a true Repentance This is not properly an Act of Worship but of Discipline but alas almost lost in this miserably divided state of the Church a loss never enough to be lamented For so it has fallen out that by quarreling for a Reformation in things of an Indifferent Nature that ought to be left to the Prudence of Governours and the Communion of Christians is broken and the Spiritual Authority which Christ left in his Church is exposed to Contempt which is a Matter of a thousand times more concern then all the Objections against the Book of Common Prayer put together though they were as considerable as our Adversaries seem to believe they are The second Objection I shall take notice of is that against the shortness of the Collects by reason of which it is pretended that the Prayer is often suddenly broken off and then begun again And this is thought not so agreeable to the Gravity wherewith this Duty ought to be performed nor so likely a means of exciting Reverence and Devotion in the People as one continued Form of Prayer that might be as long as all those put together Now in answer to this I say 1. That the meer shortness of a Prayer is not to be found fault with by any understanding Christian since this would be to disparage that Form of Prayer which our Lord taught his Disciples it being not much longer than most of our Collects and not so long as some of them 2. That it will be hard to prove That many of these short Prayers being offer'd up unto God one immediately after another is either not so Grave or not so Edifying as one Continued Form I do not believe the difference to be so great as it is made by those that do not approve our way For the Work of Praying is as much continued all the while as if there were but one Continued Form Indeed in the Book the Printed Prayer breaks off somewhat often and there is a distinction made between the several Collects by a New Title shewing the Matter of the Prayer and by beginning a New Line But I hope our Brethren do not mean that in this there is a defect of Gravity or any hindrance of Devotion and Edification For the abruption of the Printed Forms is by no means an interruption of our Prayer since we still go on in Praying or in giving Thanks to God and without breaking off pass from one Petition or Matter of Invocation to another as immediately as if the Distinct Forms we use together were all brought into the Compass of One. And as there is no Interruption of our Praying caused by the frequent beginning and ending of the Collects so neither can this cause an Interruption of Attention in the People which is rather helped by that frequency of saying Amen which this way requires Nor can it be charged with a tendency to Interrupt that Devout Affection and Godly Disposition of Mind which is the best thing in Prayer But on the other hand this may be kept alive and more effectually secured by calling upon the Name of God and pleading the Merits of Christ so often as we do I know some have said this is done more frequently than is meet But it would be a lamentable thing if there should be any difference about this Matter When the Decence and Convenience of a thing is considered we should attribute much to the Wisdom of Authority and to the Judgment of Prudent and Holy Men such as our first Reformers were and great numbers of Learned Persons since their time were also who thought this manner of Praying to be Grave and Edifying And I believe others would be of the same Mind if they would not altogether dwell upon their Prejudice against our way but attend a little to those considerations that favour it and which discover the advantage and usefulness of it which sort of Equity they that are Wise and Humble will shew to all Men much more to their Governours Now the Invocation of God somewhat often by his Attributes does of it self tend to maintain in our Minds a reverent sense of his Majesty and Presence which we all know is of necessary use to make us Pray unto him as we ought to do I make no question but those that have been blamed for repeating Lord Lord so very often in their Extempore Prayers would think themselves somewhat hardly used if they should not be believed in saying that this was not for want of Matter but for the exciting of a reverent sense of Gods Authority in
Repetitions of the same thing in calling upon God from being Vain and that is That our Desires and Affections should be raised to keep pace with our Expressions But this belongs to us to take care of And if we would endeavour to stir up in our selves that Zeal and Devotion of Heart which should answer that Appearance thereof which these Repetitions make this would satisfie us beyond all other Argument that they are not Vain To Conclude this Matter I desire those who do not yet approve our Repetition of the Lords Prayer and the other short Devotions to consider whether it be so easie to spend the time it takes up more profitably than by joining in good earnest with the Congregation in these Prayers In the next place the Responsals of the Congregation are Matter of Offence to some Persons They do not approve the Peoples saying the Confession and the Lords Prayer after the Minister nor their alternate Reciting some Petitions in the daily Service with the Psalms and Hymns and least of all do they approve that part which the Congregation bears in the Prayers of the Litany Now it were well if they who blame our Prayers upon this account would consider what has often been said to shew the usefulness of this way Namely That it is apt to check a wandring Spirit and to help and relieve Attention and withal that it tends to quicken a lively Forwardness and Zeal in Gods Service whilst we invite and provoke one another to Pray and to give Thanks These things we say not without some experience of their Truth and we think they carry plain Reason along with them and I do not find that they have been Contradicted by the Leaders of the Dissenting Party It is True they have declared their dislike of this way but still without taking notice of what may be said for it If I have observed right the main Reason of their dislike is this That the Minister as they say is appointed for the people in all Publick Services appertaining to God and that the Scripture makes the Minister to be the Mouth of the People to God in Prayer And therefore I shall Examine this Reason in the first place And 1. If it were granted that the Scripture maketh the Minister to be the Mouth of the People to God in Publick Worship yet this must by no means be so Interpreted as to make all Vocal Prayer and Thanksgiving in Religious Assemblies unlawful to the People For then they must not declare their Assent to the Prayers which the Minister utters by saying Amen which yet the Scripture approves and is not disapproved by any of those that Object our way against us Nor must it be so taken as if the People were to be excluded from a Vocal Part in Praising God by Hymns and Spiritual Songs For this also is warranted by Scripture and seems to be confessed by our Dissenting Brethren who allow the People to Sing Psalms with the Minister Now he that audibly says Amen to the Prayers of the Congregation makes a short Responsal to the Minister And moreover they that sing Psalms in which there are Passages of Prayer Confessions or Petitions containing matter of Invocation proper for us as the Psalms often do they pray Vocally So that notwithstanding what is pretended concerning the Ministers being the Peoples Mouth to God it shall still be lawful for the People sometimes to joyn Vocally in Prayer as well as in Praise and not only by saying Amen but by expressing the very words of Confession or Petition But 2ly Where is it said in Scripture that the Minister is the Mouth of the People to God or that no Prayer may be Offered up to God in Religious Assemblies otherwise than by the Mouth of the Minister I doubt these sayings are grown so samiliar amongst some People that they believe them to be the Words or very near the Words of Scripture But there are no such Words nor meaning in the Bible that I can find or that they have found for us It is not good to pretend the Authority of Scripture for a Doctrine that is not to be met with there It is true that the Minister is the Mouth of the People to God in all those Prayers which he utters for them and because these are many more than what the People themselves utter he may be said to be their Mouth to God Comparatively but not Absolutely It will be true also that the Minister is appointed for the People in all Publick Services appertaining to God if this be understood for the most part or of All with little exception Some Publick Services there are which are inclosed in his Office and he is appointed for them in behalf of the People that is for Administring the Sacrament Absolving the Penitent and Blessing the People And therefore Prayers that immediately concern these things are to be pronounced by him only And as for the rest the Order of the Church and the Authority and Dignity of the Ministerial Function makes it fit and decent that the Minister should utter most ever of them that in those wherein the People have their part he should ever go before and lead them and guide the whole performance which is all taken care for in our Liturgie I said before that the Dissenters do not utterly debar the People from all Vocal Prayer and Thanksgiving of their own in God's Solemn Worship And therefore it were great pity that they should keep at a distance from us upon Questions of this Nature And I heartily intreat them to consider whether they may not upon their own Principles come up to the Rules and Customs of our Church in this thing 1. If they grant the Peoples interest in Vocal Praise let them consider whether they have reason to Condemn the Peoples bearing a part in any of the Hymns and Psalms by alternate Responses For the plain End of reciting those Psalms in the Congregation is to Praise and Magnifie God's Name and to excite in our Hearts such like devout affections in doing so as those Holy Men felt in themselves who were assisted by God's Spirit in Composing them And therefore the Dissenters are not obliged to demand that the People be silent all this while I have heard some of them say that if these Psalms and Hymns were Sung the Congregation might then challenge to put in their Voices with the Minister But when they are read as they generally are in our Parish Churches they say this ought to be the Work of the Minister only But I cannot see why singing or not singing should make such a Difference I grant it were better if they were every where sung because this is more suitable to the Design of Psalms than bare reciting is But if they be not sung which is customarily omitted in Parish Churches for want of skill as I conceive the next use of them that is most agreeable to their Nature and Design is not
Jewish Church Or if in a short History of their Mission and Undertaking we should have read that they Circumcised and Baptized as many Proselytes as gladly received their word would this have been an Argument that they did not also Circumcise and Baptize the Infants of those believing Proselytes according to the Laws and Usages of their Mother-Church No certainly such a Commission to Proselyte Strangers to the Jewish Religion could not in reason have been strained to prejudice the customary right of Infants to Circumcision and Baptism and therefore in parity of reason neither could the Apostles so understand their Commission without other Notices as to exclude Infants from Sacramental Initiation into the Church The plain truth is their Commission was a direction how they should proselyte Strangers to Christianity according to the nature of propagating a new Religion in strange Countries as it is set forth by the Apostle Rom. 20. 14. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher And how shall they Preach unless they be sent Accordingly they were sent out to Preach or to Disciple Men and Women by Preaching and to Baptize as many of them as should upon their Preaching Believe and Repent But though the Order of Nature required that they should proceed in this Method with grown Persons as the Jews were wont to do with Proselytes to the Law yet it did not hinder that they who had been born and bred Jews should initiate the Infants of such Proselyted Persons according to the usage of the Jewish Church What need Christ have said more unto them when he sent them out than to bid them Go and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father c. Or to Preach the Gospel to every Creature and tell them that he that would believe the Gospel and be Baptized should be saved But then the respective sence of these words could only concern adult Persons and their qualification for Baptism but could in no reason be construed by them to exclude Infants but only unbelieving Men and Women whereof none were to be admitted into the Church by Baptism before they were taught Christianity and had confessed their Faith and Sins Should God as I said before call twelve Men of any Church where Infant-Baptism had been the constant and undoubted practice and bid them go and Preach the Gospel in the Indies to every creature and to say He that believeth the Doctrine which we Preach and is Baptized with the Baptism which we Administer shall be Saved I appeal to any Dissenter upon the account of Infant-Baptism whether he thinks that these Men bred up to the practice of Infant-Baptism could in probability so interpret this Commission as to think that it was God's intention that they should exclude the Infants of believing Proselytes from Baptismal admission into the Church The Professors against Infant-Baptism put the greatest stress upon these words of our Saviour He that believeth and is baptized shall be Saved But if they would well consider the next words they would find that Infants are not at all concerned in them because it follows but he that believeth not shall be Damned The same want of Faith which here excludes from Baptism excludes also from Salvation and therefore it cannot be understood of Infants unless they will say with the * * * The Petrobusians vid. Cassandri praefat ad Duc. Jul. Cli. praefat advers Anabaptistas Original Anabaptists that the same incapacity of believing which excludes them from Baptism excludes them from Salvation too Wherefore it is plain that the believing and not believing in that Text is only to be understood of such as are in capacity of hearing and believing the Gospel that is of grown Persons just as the words in Joh. 3. 36. He that believeth on the Son of God hath Everlasting Life and he that believeth not shall not see Life but the Wrath of God abideth on him Thus far have I proceeded to shew how inconclusively and absurdly the Anabaptists go about to prove that Infants ought to be excluded from Baptism from the fore-mentioned Texts which speak of the Order of Proselyting grown Persons and their Qualifications for Baptism and as little success have they with some others which they bring to shew how unprofitable Baptism is for Infants as that in 1 Pet. 3. 21. Where the Apostle tells us that external Baptism of putting away the filth of the Flesh of which Infants are only capable signifies nothing but the answer of a good Conscience towards God of which say they Infants are altogether uncapable to which the answer is very easie that another Apostle tells us that external Circumcision of which Infants were only capable profited nothing without keeping the Law which Infants could not keep nay that the outward Circumcision of which Infants were only capable was nothing but that the inward Circumcision of the heart and in the spirit was the true Circumcision and yet Infants remaining Infants were utterly uncapable of that so that their way of arguing from this and such like Texts proves nothing because it proves too much and stretches the words of the Apostles unto undue consequences beyond their just Meaning which was only to let both Jews and Christians know that there was no resting in external Circumcision or Baptism but not that their Infants were unprofitably Circumcised and Baptized So weak and unconcluding are all the Arguments by which the Anabaptists endeavour from Scripture to prove that Christ hath limited the Subject of Baptism unto grown Persons put them all together they do not amount to any tolerable degree of probability much less unto a presumption especially if they be put in the ballance against the early and universal practice of the Catholick Church Had not the Church been always in possession of this practice or could any time be shewed on this side the Apostles when it began Nay could it be proved that any one Church in the World did not Baptize Infants or that any considerable number of Men otherwise Orthodox did decline the Baptizing of them upon the same Principles that these Men do now then I should suspect that their Arguments are better than really they are and that Infant-Baptism might possibly be a deviation from the rule of Christ But since it is so universal and ancient a practice that no body knows when or where it began or how from not being it came to be the practice of the Church since there was never any Church Antient or Modern which did not practise it it must argue a strange partiality to think that it could be any thing less than an Apostolical Practice and Tradition or the Original use of Baptism in its full Latitude under the Gospel which it had under the Law Had the * * * Ecquid verisimise est tot
of the Jews were admitted as effectually into the Covenant and had it as really sealed unto them and were as strongly tyed to perform the Conditions of it when they came to years of understanding as if they had been Circumcised then and at their Circumcision had personally and expresly indented with God Wherefore the same answer which will serve to justifie Infant-Circumcision will justifie Infant-Baptism which succeeds in the place of it and it is this That God of his goodness towards Infant 's was pleased to seal the Covenant of Grace unto Infants upon an implicite and imputative sort of Stipulation which at years of understanding they were bound to own by openly professing the Jewish Religion or if they then renounced it thereupon they became Strangers to the Covenant which in such cases was as void as if it had never been made An implicit Stipulation was sufficient for the Children of Believers though an open Profession and Stipulation was required of Grown Proselytes which shews that Circumcision was an institution of Latitude and that personal and express Restipulation was not a general pre-requisite condition to Circumcision but only to some Persons to be Circumcised In like manner Baptism being an institution of Latitude ordained for Persons under as well as at the years of discretion perssonal and express Stipulation is only required of the former and therefore St. Peter in the Text above cited likely had respect not to all Baptism or Baptism in general but only to the Baptism of Adult Proselytes whom the Minister used to * * * Hence Tertullian de Baptismo calls Baptism Sponsionem Salutis And in St. Cyprian we often read of the interrogation in Baptism interrogate at the time of Baptism much after the same manner as we interrogate Adult Proselytes now Wherefore this Objection like the rest which the Anabaptists make runs upon this presumption that Baptism is a strict institution and that personal and express answering or Restipulation is a pre-requisite condition to all Baptism whereas it is only a personal qualification required of Majors or Adult Persons when they come to be Baptized But as for Children Baptism may be administred unto them upon an implicite and imputative sort of Restipulation as Circumcision was to the Jewish and Baptism now is to agonizing Christian Infants or else it may be administred unto them as Baptism formerly was among the Jews to the Infants and Minors of Proselytes upon a vicarious Restipulation by their Sponsors which seems to have been translated together with the use of Baptism from the Jewish Church It is certain that * * * De Baptismo cap. 18. quid enim necesse est Sponsores etiam periculo ingeri Tertullian makes mention of Sponsors or Sureties for Children at Baptism and very probable that the Apostles made Parents and Major domos stipulate in the name of their †††Praefecturae igitur juridicae quae Baptismo praeerat profitebatur Proselytus ipse Majorennis Masculus qui annum decimum tertium foemina quae duodecim superaverat legem Mosaicam se servaturum Minorum vero nomine idem ipsum profitebatur praefectura ipsa uti in Christianismo susceptores minorennium seu parvulorum saltem si nec parentes adessent qui idem praestare possent Selden de Synedriis Lib. 1. c. 3. And what is here said of the CONSISTORT among the Jews concerning the Baptism of Infants and Minors St. Augustine saith of the Church among Christians accommodat illis mater Ecclesia aliorum pedes ut veniant aliorum cor ut credant aliorum linguam ut fateantur Minors when they Baptized them as the Jews were wont to do and upon this Supposition St. Peter in the Text above cited might also probably allude to all Baptism because Grown Proselytes to the Christan Religion did answer for their Children as well as for themselves at Baptism according to the Custom of the Jewish Church Nay there is little reason to doubt but that the Jewish being the Pattern of the Christian Baptism the Apostles and their Assistants who were Jews or Hellenists did observe this Custom of Vicarious Stipulation at the Baptism of Infants and Minors as well as all the other Particulars in which they resemble one another as the Picture doth the Face whose Picture it is As for Example the Jewish Baptism was administred to Women as well as Men and so is the Christian Secondly It was never reiterated nor repeated no more is the Christian Thirdly It was called Regeneration and a New Birth and Baptized Persons were said to be born again and Regenerated which also holds in Christian Baptism Fourthly Baptized Proselytes among the Jews were bound to leave their nearest Relations if it were necessary and adhere to the Church and so are Baptized Christian Proselytes bound to do the same Fifthly The Infants of Proselytes were Baptized among the Jews as well as the Proselytes themselves and so have I proved that Infants have been always Baptized among the Christians And therefore in the last place since the Jewish Church Baptized Infants upon Vicarious Stipulation why should not we think it sufficient for their entrance into the Covenant and that the Apostles did so too These things and whatsoever else is written in this little Tract I hope will be fairly and candidly confidered by the Dissenters among us upon the account of Infant-Baptism I say the truth in Christ I lye not my Conscience also bearing me Witness in the Holy Ghost who is the Searcher of Hearts that I have great heaviness and almost continual sorrow in my heart for them and that to reconcile them to the Church I could wish in the Apostles Sence that I my self were an Anathema from Christ And because it is a Disease too common among Dissenters and more especially among those with whom I have been a dealing to have minds full of Prejudice Prepossession and sinister Suspitions against what we Speak or Preach or Write I have here subjoined a Letter of that Famous Martyr of Jesus Christ Mr. John Philpot concerning Infant-Baptism which I seriously recommend to their Impartial and diligent perusal hoping that the same Arguments which may perhaps have less effect upon them as they come from me may be better received and make deeper impression upon their Souls as they come from him who like the Primitive Martyrs was Blessed with Heavenly Visions and chearfully suffered for his Redeemer who had suffered for him and thanked God when the time was come that he was to seal the truth of the Protestant Religion with his Blood A Letter of Mr. PHILPOT to a Friend of his Prisoner the same time in Newgate Wherein is debated and discussed the matter or question of Infants to be Baptized THE God of all Light and Understanding lighten Book of Martyrs 3 Vol. p. 606. Col. 2. London 1641. your Heart with all true Knowledge of his Word and make you perfect to the day of our
or their great Modesty and Fear of being out as we speak compells them to keep their Eye constantly upon their Notes as they and others have the forenamed advantages by it so no Man can be in the least prejudiced by it who will but turn his Eyes another way and not look upon the Preacher Then the Sermon will sound as well as if it were all pronounced without Book or if this make it unprofitable by the same reason the Holy Scriptures become unprofitable when they are read out of the Bible and they also must be got without Book to make them edifying Nay this exception will lye also against some of your own Preachers of great note who read every word I am sure they did so heretofore and this was then thought no hindrance to your profiting by them or if it were you heard them when you could not profit by them so as you could by those that did not read And so you may do now by our Preachers of this kind nay so you ought to do when you have nothing to say against them but what they are equally chargeable withal whom you highly commend III. But after all I have some reason to fear that when men complain they cannot profit by our Sermons they mean nothing by profiting but that their affections are not moved in the hearing of them so as they are by the Sermons of Nonconformists Unto which I have many things to say if this Paper would contain them but it will be sufficient to touch only upon these three 1. That Men have several Talents both among you and among us which are all very profitable Some for informing the Judgment others for moving the Affections and others which is most desirable for both you are not able to say that all yours move you so as some do and yet you make such account of all that it hath ever been lookt upon as a very disorderly thing among your selves and worse than that I shall prove by and by for People to run from their own Minister to hear some other though of the same way meerly to have the affections more moved Because 2. This alone is so far from profiting by Sermons that it is very great unprofitableness to be moved by a Sermon and do nothing thereupon but only commend it That is to be tickled and pleased a while but not altered nor changed a whit or to be warmed perhaps a little for the present and then left as cold as a stone without any spiritual life or indeavour to be the better 3. But the great thing of all is this that affections raised meerly by the earnestness of the Preacher at present in the hearing of a Sermon and it is well if the affections which some People speak of be not Motions which they feel meerly from the tone of the voice as from a taking phrase a similitude or some such trifle are nothing comparable to those which we raise by Gods blessing upon our own serious consideration when we reflect upon what we have heard which sort of most excellent affections the Sermons that are preached in our Churches cannot fail to produce if you please but to attend to the matter of them and press them upon your Hearts Nay your Judgments being well informed it would not be hard for you if you would but take a little pains with your selves to excite such affections unto that which you know to be your Duty as would abide and remain when the others that were excited in the hearing of a Sermon are gone and quite vanished and can never be recalled but by your own serious Meditation upon those Divine Truths which entred into your Mind and would have touched nay peirced your Hearts if you would have brought them thither and held them close to your Consciences Which ought to be every Christians care more than I doubt it is in order to their profiting by Sermons and that they may not be barren and unfruitful in the Knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ IV. And now it is time for all those who are concerned in what hath been said to apply it to the present case and going down into themselves to enquire where the fault must necessarily lye if the Sermons preached by our Ministers have proved unprofitable to them which supposeth that they who object this against coming to Church have come heretofore at least to the Sermon but went away and came no more because they reaped no benefit thereby Else how can they pretend that our Sermons are unprofitable if they never heard them Now I have demonstrated that the blame cannot be justly cast upon the Sermons which in themselves are every way fitted to do Men good and therefore we must seek for the cause of this Unprofitableness some where else and where are we so likely to find it as in those that heard the Sermons Whom I beseech in the fear of God by whose Word we must one day be all judged to consider with themselves impartially and to ask their Consciences such Questions as these 1. Quest Had you not some Prejudice in your Mind against the Person of the Minister whom you came to hear either upon the score of his Conformity or of his strictness in it or some other account If you had and carried it along with you there is great Reason to think this made his Pains unprofitable to you because you could not hear him with that indifference which you would have heared another man withal But looking upon him perhaps as a Time-server as the Language of some hath been a Formalist or one who you presumed before-hand had little or nothing of the Spirit in him you minded not so much what was said as who said it and disliked those things which out of another Mouth you would have accepted For if such Prejudices as these be not laid aside they bar the Heart so strongly against the most excellent Instructions that though an Angel from Heaven should deliver to us the most Important Truths yet we taking him for a Minister of Satan it would stop our Ears against him and make his Message ineffectual 2. Quest Or might not this be rhe reason of your reaping no benefit that you came to Church but once or twice and concluded too hastily there was no Good to be got there being willing also perhaps to have this excuse for absenting your self wholly from it whereas if you had constantly attended our Ministry you might have found your selves so much improved thereby as never to have thought of leaving the Church upon this account that you could not profit in it Make a Tryal now for it is not too late I hope if you can shake off all Prejudices and for some time continue diligent Auditors of the Minister of your Parish and that which at first may seem to you dull or hard or obscure will after you are used to it be clear easie and awakning when you are acquainted that
all your Party formerly may prevail with you more than any of ours give me leave to mind you what Mr. Hildersham hath resolved in several cases like to ours particularly about this of Mens leaving their own Pastors to hear others VI. 1. And first he resolves this That it is the Ordinance of God every Pastor should have his own Flock to attend and every one of Gods People should have a Pastor of his own to depend upon From whence he concludes that none of those People may ordinarily and usually leave that Pastor because then he doth not depend upon his Ministry which he proves every one of them is bound to do 2. And that you may not imagine he means any other Pastor than such as ours his second Resolution is this that they who dwell next together should be of the same Congregation whence the name of Paroichia and Parish first came 3. Now thirdly if it happen that he who is the setled Pastor of the place where you dwell is a man whose Gifts are far inferiour to some others his Resolution in this case is That he being a Man whose Gift is approved by Gods Church and who is conscionable in his Place and of an unblameable Life you ought not to leave him at any time with contempt of his Ministry And then you contemn his Ministry when you speak or think thus in your heart Alas he is no Body a good honest Man but he hath no Gifts I cannot profit by him Mind I beseech you these Words which are none of mine but Mr. Hildersham's and I doubt too common Language now among you and mark the Reasons he gives which I shall contract why you may not do this First A Man may be a true Minister though his Gifts be far inferiour to many others and consequently secondly You are bound to love him and reverence him and thank God for him and thirdly Doubtless you may profit by him if the Fault be not in your selves The best Christian that is may profit by the meanest of Christs Servants And I am perswaded saith he There is never a Minister that is of the most excellent Gifts if he have a godly Heart but he can truly say he never heard any faithful Minister in his Life that was so mean but he could discern some Gift in him that was wanting in himself and could receive some profit by him Which is a thing worthy your consideration now for there is none of your Ministers dare say that they cannot profit by the Sermons that are commonly preached in our Churches and therefore so may you if you please to be impartial how meanly soever you may think of any of our Ministers especially if you observe this fourth thing which the same Mr. Hildersham judiciously adds That 4. The Fruit and Profit which is to be received from the Ministry depends not only nor chifely upon the Gifts of the Man that preaches but upon the Blessing that God is pleased to give unto his own Ordinance To which he applies those Words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 5 6 7 8. Who is Paul and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye beleived even as the Lord gave to every Man I have planted Apollo watred but God gave the Increase So then neither is he that planted any thing nor he that watereth but God that giveth the Increase c. And God doth oft give a greater Blessing to weake than to stronger means and therefoer consider saith he the Fault may be rather in thy self than in the Preacher that thou canst not profit And indeed how shouldst thou profit by his Ministry if thou come with Prejudice without any Reverence or Delight unto it and dost scarce acknowledg God's Ordinance in it nor ever seek to God for his Blessing upon it but look wholly at the Man who preaches To conclude this he observes the great want of Judgment that appears in this sort of Christians in the choice they make of their Teachers and the applause they give unto them which shews how necessary it is they should be confined commonly to their own For as some admire and follow another rather than their own Pastor because he can make more ostentation of Eloquence Reading Learning and such like humane Gifts than their own Pastor doth upon which account the Corinthians preferred sundry Teachers before St. Paul himself so there are those who leave their own Pastor and go to others only for Varieties sake Though their own have never such excellent Gifts yet can they not like any one Man long but having itching Ears must have an heap of Teachers And some also prefer others before their own Pastor only because they shew more Zeal mark this in their Voice and Gesture and Phrase of Speech and manner of Delivery though happily the Doctrine it self be nothing so wholsome or powerful or fit to edifie their Consciences as the Doctrine of their own Pastor is Any though these be the best of the three sorts now mentioned and pretend much Love and Zeal yet we may wish them more Knowledg and Judgment I omit other things upon this Subject which you may find in his 58th Lecture upon the 4th of St. John Where he admits indeed that a man may some time go from his own Parish Church to hear another whose gifts he more admires But then like a judicious Divine adds this notable observation to correct and regulate this liberty that it may not prove an evil Humour viz. He only makes right use of the benefit of hearing such as have more excellent Gifts than his own Pastor as learns thereby to like his own Pastor the better and to profit more by him Mark it I most earnestly intreat you together with his Illustration of it by this Example The excellent Gifts God hath bestowed on others in this case may be fitly resembled unto Physick which they use well whose appitite is thereby amended and are made able to rellish and like their ordinary food the better If after men have heard one of excellent Gifts they begin to distaste the Ministry of their ordinary Pastors and can like of none profit by none unless they have rare Gifts they become at length like to those who by accustoming themselves to drink hot and strong Waters bring their Stomacks to that pass that they can find no Relish or Vertue in any Drink or Water be it never so hot or strong Believe it they receive no true profit from the most admired Preacher who learn not by hearing him to profit by any one that delivers to them the wholesome Words of our Lord Jesus and the Doctrine that is according unto Godliness though in the plainest manner imaginable both for Method and Language This I have chosen to write in his Words because there are some I fear that would scarce indure such Doctrine from us which may at least be more reverently received and duly considered proceeding from a Person of such note heretofore
have brought your self to much liberty I doubt not you will find that you are in a wrong way and therefore resolve to alter it and come into the way of the Church Where if you do not meet presently with such advantages for your Spiritual growth as you are told you may receive you have reason to conclude as the forenamed Mr. Hildersham doth to those that said they could not find such Lights such Power such Comfort in the Word as was spoken of First either you have not sought it aright not with earnestness or not with a good Heart or Secundly if you have and do not find it at first yet you shall hereafter if you seek it here with an honest heart VIII And the preaching of Gods holy Word among us would be of greater efficacy upon your Hearts if when you come to partake of it you would remember and observe some Rules delivered by the same Author in another place Lecture XXVI about the Publick Worship of God which now alas are generally neglected and therefore had need to be pressed for the disposing all Mens Hearts to profit by their attendance on it 1. One is that at your coming into the Congregation and during the whole time of your abode there you would behave your selves reverently For we may not come into the place of Gods Worship as we would into a dancing-School or Play-House laughing or toying c. neither may we go out of it as we would out of such a one but in our very coming in and going out and whole outward carriage there we ought to give some signification of the reverence that we bear to this Place and that we do indeed account it the House of God Which serious temper of Mind and awful sense of Gods Presence possessing the Mind would no doubt be an excellent preparation to receive benefit by the whole Service of God as well as by the Sermon For which end 2. Another Rule is that we must all come to the beginning of Gods publick worship and carry till all be done Yea it is the Duty of Gods People saith he to be in Gods House before the beginning For it becomes them to wait for the Minister of God and not to let him wait for them The Reasons he gives for this are two First there is Nothing done in our Assemblies but all may receive profit by it For example by the confession of Sins and Absolution I may add and all other Prayers used in the Congregation a man may receive more profit and comfort than by any other Which is the reason why the Apostles even after Christs Ascention when the typical Honour of the Temple was abolished c. were so delighted to go to the Temple to pray at the times of publick Prayer 1. Act. 3. c. And so he goes on to shew how by hearing the Word read all may profit and by hearing it preached even by the meanest Minister of Christ if the fault be not in themselves How the singing of Psalms also furthers the fruit of the Word in the Hearts of Believers and much more benefit may the faithful receive by the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Nay by being present at the Administration of Baptisme all may receive profit being put in mind there-by of the Covenant God made with them in Baptism c. Lastly by the blessing pronounced by Gods Minister all may receive good and therefore none ought to absent himself from any part of the publick Service of God For which his second Reason is very remarkable that though we could receive no profit by the Exercises used in our Assemblies yet we must be present at them all to do our homage unto God and shew the reverent respect we have to his Ordinances For there is nothing done in Gods publick Worship among us observe this but it is done by the Instruction and Ordinance and Commandment of the Lord. As he shews particularly that it is his ordinance there should be all sorts and kinds of Prayers used yea this is the chief duty to be performed in our assemblies 1 K. 11. 1 2. that in our publick assemblies the Word of God should be read as well as preached the Holy Communion administred c. that is all things should be done as they are now in our Common-Prayer to which it is plain he hath respect And this he repeats again Lecture XXVIII If thou wast sure thou couldst not profit yet must thou come to do thy Homage to God and to shew thy reverence to his Ordinance 3. Another of his general Rules is that when we are present we ought to joyn with the Congregation in all the parts of Gods Worship and do as the Congregation doth For it makes much for the come liness and reverence of Gods Worship that all things be done in good order without confusion And it is a principle part of this good order that should be in the Congregation when they all come together and go together pray together sing together kneel together in a word when every part of Gods Worship is to be performed by the Congregation as if the whole Congregation were but one Man And in several places he reproves with a great deal of Zeal mens great carelessness in this particularly their neglect of kneeling in the Prayers having observed that men who will kneel at their own private prayers can never be seen to kneel at the common and publick Prayer His last general Rule is that we ought to teach our Children and Servants to shew Reverence to the Sanctuary and publick Worship of God For God cannot indure profaneness and contempt of Religion no not in Children And it stands us all upon to use the utmost Authority we have to maintain the Reverence of Gods Sanctuary for the open contempt done by any may bring Gods curse on us all And certainly saith he among other causes of the Plauge and other Judgments of God upon the Land this is not the least that Gods publick Worship is performed among us with so little Reverence and Devotion as it is I am tempted to transcribe a great deal more of these Lectures because by them you may see that if I had moved all that hath been said about our Sermons I might according to the Judgment of this devout and learned man have maintain'd that there wants not sufficient means of profiting in our Congregations if there were none as long as the word of God is there read by which together with the other holy duties all may receive the greatest profit and comfort if they please For it is of far greater excellence authority and certainty than the Sermons of any Preacher in the World First because it comes more immediately from God and though it be translated by men yet is there in it far less mixture of humane Ignorance and Infirmity than in Sermons While the Word is read we are sure we hear God speaking to us and that it is the
did offend which moved him to set out the sins of those Men in several Respects and Considerations Which it would be too long for me to mention nor is it needful if this that I have discoursed already be laid to Heart And if Men will lay nothing close to their Consciences all that can be said or wrote or preached will do them no good but they will be only hearers or readers not doers of the Word deceiving their own Souls Wherefore laying aside as St. Peter speaks I. II. 1. 2. all malice and all guile or deceit and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word or that rational sincere milk the pure food of your mind and understanding and not of your fancy that you may grow thereby As certainly you will when you become of the same disposition with little Children void of hatred of guile of wraths of dissimulation and such like evil affections and are of an humble teachable and submissive Spirit For if every one had but such an increase of grace as to hear meekly Gods Word and to receive it with pure affection they could not easily fail to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit So we pray in our Litany And may it please God as it there follows to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived for Jesus Christ his sake Amen FINIS AN ARGUMENT FOR UNION Taken from the True Interest OF THOSE DISSENTERS in ENGLAND Who Profess and call themselves PROTESTANTS LONDON Printed for Tho. Basset at the George in Fleet-street Benj. Tooke at the Ship in St. Pauls Church-yard and F. Gardiner at the White-Horse in Ludgate-street 1683. THE CONTENTS DIssentions are dangerous to the Church Page 1. If the Church should be dissettled by such means our Dissenters would not obtain their Ends. p. 2. Their First or Subordinate End is the Establishing of themselves p. 3. The first Branch of it is the Establishing themselves as a National Church which cannot be hop'd for either First by all of them p. 4. Or Secondly by the Prevalent Party amongst them p. 5. This is prov'd First from several Reasons p. 5 6. Secondly from the History of our late Revolutions p. 6. to 10. After which it is shewed That if they could not then gain their point they can much less do it now p. 10 c. The second Branch of their Subordinate End is the settling of themselves by mutual Sufferance p. 12. This is proved still more improbable p. 12 13. Also it is shewed that Parties tolerate each other no longer than one gets Power to suppress the rest with publick safety p. 14. to 18. The Second End of the Dissenters is more Principal and the first part of it is the keeping out of Popery p. 18. That this End cannot be obtained by Dissenting from our Church is shewed From Reason p. 18. to p. 25. From the History of the late Times p. 25 c. From the Judgment and Methods of the Papists themselves p. 28 29. The second part of the more Principal End of the Dissenters is the advancing of Pure Religion p. 30. But there are Reasons to perswade us that upon the Dissettlement of this Church Religion would not be advanced but embased p. 30 34. to 37. And the History of the late Troubles sheweth this to have been so in Fact p. 33 34 38 39. By virtue of the Premisses Dissenters are perswaded to consider seriously the state of things in this time of Prosecution and to hold constant Communion with our Church with which the wisest and best of them hold occasional Communion that the blessed Ends of Truth Holiness and Peace may be obtained p. 40 41 42 43. AN ARGUMENT FOR UNION c. I Take it for granted seeing a Truth so very plain The Introduction needs no formal Proof that the ready way to overthrow a Church is first to divide it It is also too manifest that our Dissentions are Divisions properly so called or Publick Ruptures It is true notwithstanding these Ruptures the Church still lives and in some good measure prospers But how Mortal these Breaches may at last prove through their Continuance and Increase a Man who has but a Competency of Judgment may easily fortel It is therefore the business of every Good Man as far as in him lies to disswade with Prudent Zeal from these Divisions which are in their Nature so uncharitable and so perillous in their Consequence Now one way of moving Men to desist from their Undertakings is the shewing of them with calmness of Temper and plainness of Reasoning that their Ends are not likely to be obtain'd As also that by the Means they use they will bring upon themselves those very Evils which they fear and of the removal of which they have Expectation Wherefore I have chosen an Argument of this Nature in order to the persuading of Dissenters to joyn in the Exercise of Constant Communion with the Church of England And I have here endeavoured to make it evident to them that in attempting to pull down this Establish'd Church they unwarily turn their own force against themselves and prepare Materials for the Tombs of their own Parties This Argument is here offer'd to them in the Spirit of Christian Charity and without any design of exposing or exasperating any person who differs in his Notions from the sense of the Writer For he had rather lie at the Feet of the meanest Man who is overtaken with an errour than spurn insolently against him Now in the managing of this Argument it is necessary The Argument itself It s Partition and Method to shew two things First What those Ends are which are proposed by the Dissenters I mean those which seem with any tolerable colour of Reason fit to be proposed and which are designed by the better and wiser of that number Secondly What Reasons may make it manifest that the Ends which they propose can never be procured by the Dissâ—ttlement of the Church of England These things being shewed there shall follow such a Conclusion as is suitable to the Premisses First For the Ends proposed by the more Prudent The Ends of the Dissenters Dissenters they are of two kinds The First End is Subordinate The Second is Principal Or the End to which the former serveth in the quality of the Means The Subordinate End is the Establishing of themselves And it hath two Branches Either the setling themselves First as a National Church Or Secondly as several distinct Churches giving undisturbed Toleration to one another For I am not willing to believe all of them to be given up to such a degree of Infatuation as to be intent only upon beating down without considering what is fit to be set up That is the way of Tempests and not of Builders The Principal is the further Advancement of the Reformed Religion This also hath two parts 1. The Removal