yeare of their age for the second at the twelfth for the third at the fourteenth excluding and abhorring private baptisme private communion kneeling in the act of receiving the Supper holy dayes or feasts of Christmas Passion Resurrection Ascension and sending down of the Holy Ghost were brought in at the reformation of religion and enioyed ever since in manner and forme as followes After due tryall and advisement taken of the heads in generall and particular aboue written the whole Church was of one heart and iudgement concerning the same and every man was permitted to heare reasoning and such as would were permitted to reason every man professed himselfe to be perswaded in his own minde The particulars to be embraced and followed and the corruptions to be avoyded were by Ecclesiasticall authority in free full and lawfull generall Assemblies publicke confessions and solemne protestations aduisedly established The estates of Parliament agreeing in iudgement with the Kirk concerning the said matters by their acts ratified and approved the Kirk constitutions and appoynted civill penalties against the transgressors of the same with prouision of order whereby they might be called convicted and punished The sayd unity of iudgement authorized by the constitutions of the Kirk and lawes of the Countrey and the whole particulars established by these bands having been tried by practise and otherwayes haue proved expedient profitable and necessary by the space of fiftie nine yeares and now iustly haue acquired the force of good and commendable custome For our furder confirmation of the sayd religion doctrine and discipline in generall and in the particulars before named all and every one of all estates of this Realme haue solemnly sworn that they shall continue in the obedience of the doctrine and discipline of this Church and shall defend the same according to their vocation and power Notwithstanding of these fiue obligations viz. unity of judgment and opinion Ecclesiastical authoritie reiterated confirmed by many famous Assemblies Many civill lawes Nine and fifty yeares practise and custome universally commended and the sayd solemne oath divers times repeated the pretended assembly holden last at Perth received certain formes formerly excluded and abhorred Queritur if one or moe Preachers or Professours in the sayd Kirk standing to the Kirkes former iudgement and able to defend the same by good reason at least seeing no warrant in the contrary may dispense with the sayd oath or follow the plurality of preachers professors dispensing with the same in the assembly And what power may compell the alteration of iudgement or loose the sayd oath in any case aforesayd Leaving the full answer to the wise and well reformed Christian walking before God and looking for a crown upon the glorious day of our Lord. For present reformation we shall consider the sayd oath first in the persons takers of the same 2. The matter whereto they sweare 3. The forme and manner whereby they are bound 4. The force and effect of that forme for making sure mens particular deeds The persons takers of the oath are all baptised Christians of perfect age able to examine themselues and so to eate of the Lords Supper honoured with callings and all professours of Christian fellowship of Christ the searcher of hearts and of life and iudgement eternall free of madnesse and of all restraint of superiour power in this case understanding periury and the paines thereof at their owne liberty and free of all coaction as at length may be seene in the confessions of faith registred in the Acts of Parliament printed in the booke of Discipline before the Psalmes in meeter the confession of faith subscribed by the Kings Maiesty and his houshold published by open proclamation and yet standing in print And in the covenant celebrated by the generall and provincial Assemblies and by the Presbyteries and particular congregations but more summarily in the heads underwritten acknowledged and confessed by themselues WE all and every one of us after long and due examination of our consciences in matters of true and false religion are now throughly resolved in the truth by the word and Spirit of God Wee beleeve with our hearts confesse with our mouthes subscribe with our hands and constantlie affirme before God and the world that the faith and religion received beleeved and defended by the Kirke of Scotland the Kings Majestie and three Estates of this realme particularly expressed in the confession of our faith established and publickly confirmed by sundry acts of parliament and now of long time hath been openly professed by the Kings Majestie and whole body of this Realme is only the true Christian faith and religion pleasing God and bringing salvation to man To this confession and forme of religion wee willingly agree in our consciences in all points as unto Gods undoubted trueth and verity Wee willing to take away all suspition of hypocrisy and double dealing with God and his Kirke protest and call the searcher of hearts for witnesse that our minds and hearts doe fully agree with this our confession oath and subscription Wee protest that we are not moved with any worldly respect but are persuaded only in our conscience through the knowledg and loue of Gods true religion printed in our hearts by the holy Spirit as wee shall answer to him in the day when the secrets of all hearts shal be disclosed c. Before and at the tyme of their solemne protestations it was well knowen to all the promisers Swearers Subscribers that 1. At Edinburgh the 18. day of Octob. 1581. And from the reformation to that year it was resolued and by common consent concluded that in tyme cōming no sacrament be ministred in priuate houses but solmnely according to the good order hitherto obserued 2. At Edinburgh in Ianu. 1560. it was declared by this Kirk that Christ sat with his disciples at a table whē he instituted the supper and that sitting at table was the most convenient gesture to this holy action 3. That the Popes fiue bastard sacraments whereof Confirmation is one with all rites ceremonies and false doctrines added to the ministration of the sacraments were abhored And that examination of children aftet the maner agreed vpon in the Kirk was sufficient to unite baptized infants with the Kirk in the participation of the Lords Supper 4. That at Edinburgh in Ianuar. 1560. the Kirk judged vtterlie to be abolished from this Realm keeping of holy dayes such as the feast of Christmas c. Imposed vpon the consciences of men without warrant of Gods word and many other things of the like nature condemned by preaching and corrected by publick censures of the Kirk Hence it is euident that no exception can be taken against the persons promising swearing and subscribing for despensing with the said oath The matter whereunto they bind themselues by oath is the religion doctrine and discipline receiued beleeued and defended by the Kirk of Scotland In respect of this matter the oath is partlie assertorie
with greate and dreedfull humilitie of soul and humiliation of body therfore in the act of receauing we must kneel If this argument were good then the Sacraments and sacrifices of the old law should haue been thus worshipped And if we will measure by the sight the sacraments and sacrifices of the old Law were more dreadfull then the sacraments of the new For the slaughter of beasts and Sheding of blood was more dreedfull then the pouring out of wine The auncients held the sight of this Sacrament not only from pagans but also from the Catachumenists they preached darkly they wrote darkly to the same end This doing was not commendable it made the mysterie of this Sacrament both dark and dreadfull Augustine hes already said they may be honored as matters religious but wondred al as matters of marvel they can not But to returne to the purpose to kneel for reverence of the mysteries is nothing els but to worship the mysteries Wheresoeuer the publick intent of a Kirk is to worship the Sacrament every privat man following that intent is formally an Idolater If his priuat intent be divers from the publik yet he is still materially Interpretatiuè an Idolator If a man receiue the Eucharist in the papisticall Kirk on his knees howbeit he kneel not vpon the supposed conceit of transubstantiatiō but his own privat intent he is materially guilty of their grosse Idolatrie Ismenias stouping down before the King of Persia to take up a ring which he let purposly fall was not excused because this stouping in common vse was the adoring of the King of Persia. Kneeling directed to the bread and wine in the hands of the Minister is idolatrie howbeit the inward motion of the minde and affection of the hart be directed only to God or his Son Christ as the only object of adoration This immediate convoy of worship to the principall obiect is nothing else but that finer sort of Idolatry and relatiue worship which Durandus Holcot Mirandula Alphonsus Petrus Cluniacensis and others giue to their images They say Images are not otherwise adored then that before them and about them are exhibite the externall signes of honor the inward affection is directed onely to the principall object as the services done at a funerall show to one emptie coffine as if the corps were present See Bellarmine and Swarez when it is said therfore to varnish this second intent that the elements are not Objectum quod the thing it self that is worshiped nor objectum in quo or per quod in the which or by the which but objectum a quo significativè the obiect or signe moving vs vpon the sight thereof to lift vp our hearts to the spirituall object of faith This kinde of relatiue worship will not be found different from the relatiue worship of Durandus and the rest For Bellarmine and Swarez draw Durandus and the rest from In illa et per illam Imaginem in and by the image to Circum and coram about or before the Image Swarez sayth that the image is neither the formall nor the material the total nor the partial object of adoration in their opinion but that only at the presence of the images the principal called to remembrance by the image is adored that the image is an occasion amids a signe stirring up a man to adore the principall Their adoration then was also abstract from the object as they pretend theirs to be The bread and wine or any other creature whatsoeuer differeth not in this present case for howsoeuer they were ordained of God to be signes and seals of his graces yet they are not in statu accommodato ad adorandum they haue no such state in the seruice of God as that by them or before them God or his sonne Christ should be adored Next If this kinde of relatiue worship were to be allowed then all the holy signes both in the old and New Testament should haue serued to the same vse Then they who are far distant from the table should kneel for the Elements are to them objectum a quo significatiuè Then at the sight of the sunne or any bewtifull creature we should kneel seeing they put vs in minde of Gods incomprehensible bewtie And seeing many of them doe allow the historicall use of images we may fall down before the Crucifix providing the action of the minde be abstracted from the image Thirdly all the parts of Gods worship ought to be direct and not oblique Perkins sayth it is idolatrie to turne dispose or direct the worship of God or any part thereof to any particular place or creature without the appointment of God and more specially to direct our adoration to the bread or the place where the bread is what is it lesse then Idolatrie Kneeling before the elements referred directly to Christ. is either a gesture signifying the humble submission of the mind in generall whereby we make obeysance as if he were bodily present or else it signifieth more particularly our humiliation In prayer this is but a speciall the former was a generall The like reasons serue against both It is trew we can not kneell to God in prayer but there are many things before us a Kirk a house a wall a tree a starre c. But we set them not before us purposly we are by no direction tyed unto them they stand only before us by casuall position neither can we chuse otherwise to doe It is true likewise that God directed his people under the Law to bend and bow themselues toward the Ark and the Temple wherein the Ark was and the Mountaine whereon the Temple was situate partly least that rude people should turne their worship another way partly because of his promise to heare them when they shold pray toward the Temple or the Ark partly because of his singular maner of presence in the Ark he was said to dwell between the Cherubines the Ark is called his foot-stoole and sometime the face of God the glory of the Lord. It is reason where God is present after an extraordinary maner as when he spake out of the bush and the cloud that odoration be directed to the place of his extraordinary presence The Altars the offerings and other holy things wanted the like presence and the like promise The Ark and the Cherubines upon the Ark were not seene and therefore could not be readily abused to idolatry The Sacramentall elements haue neither the like presence the like promise nor the like commandement Worship is tyed no longer to any certaine thing or place on earth Ioh. 4.21.22 Adoration is tyed in the new Testament to the manhood of Christ the true Ark and propitiatory and is caried to that place in which we certainly know the said manhood to exist substantially sayeth Perkins and therefore it is that wee lift up our eyes to the heavenes where he is and direct our very externall worship unto him It
is objected and said that wee may pray in the act of receaving therefore wee may kneele in the act of receaving Answer This objection insinuates that kneeling is the proper and onely commendable gesture of prayer and therefore the Bishop of Rochester exponeth the standing of the publican Luk. 18.11.13 to haue been kneeling because sayeth he the Iewish custome was to pray kneeling But if he had remembred the Lords owne saying Ierem. 15. though Moses and Samuell stood before me c. he might haue understood that they prayed standing as wel as kneeling Drusius observeth that of old they prayed standing that therfore prayers were called stations or standings And Rabbi Iuda had a saying that the world could not subsist without statioÌ„s or standings And where it is said Abram stood before the lord Manabem an Hebrew Rabine expoundeth it he prayed before the Lord. Next the prayer meant of is either some publicke prayer uttered by the Minister or the mentall prayer of the communicant As for the prayer of the Minister in the act of distribution it is flat against the institution as I haue already sayd The Minister is ordained by the institution to act the person of Christ and pronounce the words of promise This is my body as if Christ himselfe were pronouncing these words and not change the promise into a prayer Fenner in his principles of Religion layeth this down as a ground That in the second commandement we are forbidden the practise and use of any other rite or outward meanes used in the worship or service of God then he hath ordained Ioh. 4.22 2 King 18.4 and that by the contrary we are commanded to practise all those parts of his worship which he in his word hath commanded and to acknowledge onely the proper use of every rite and outward meanes which the Lord hath ordained Deut. 12.32 2. King 17.26 Further we are forbidden by the second commandement to pray by direction before any creature This publicke prayer is but a pretended cause of kneeling as the Ministers of Lincolne make manifest in their abridgement for no Canon of our neighbour Kirke hath directed any part of this kneeling in the act of receiving to be assigned to the said prayer In populous congregations where there is but one Minister the communicants sit a quarter of an houre before the Minister repaire to them with the sacrament And last the prayer is ended before the delivery of the elements As for our Kirk no such prayer is ordained to be uttered by the Minister therefore no such prayer can be pretended In the late Canon it is sayd That the most reverent and humble gesture of the body in our meditation and lifting up of our hearts best becommeth so divine an action Meditation is not prayer and the heart may be lifted up by the act of faith and contemplation as well as by the action of prayer so that neither publick nor mentall prayer is expressed in our act But let the words be interpreted of mentall prayer even mentall prayer is not the principall exercise of the soule in the act of receiving the sacramentall elements the minde attending on the audible words the visible elements the mysticall actions and making present use of them men should not be diverted from their principall worke and meditation upon the Analogie betwixt the signes and things signified The soule may send up in the meane time some short ejaculations and darts of prayer to heaven to strengthen her owne weaknesse and returne to her principall worke of meditation and application of the benefites represented These short ejaculations of the minde are onely occasionall as a Christian feeleth his owne present estate and are incident to all our actions both civill and religious In the act of receiving our earthly food in going out the way in hearing the word If a man be moved inwardly when he heareth that the word was made flesh shall he kneele as they do in the Romane Kirke If a man should kneele at every inward motion of the minde when he heareth the word what confusion would there be in the congregation A man looking occasionally to a crucifix may remember Christ and send up some ejaculations shall he therefore kneele The three children prayed mentally no doubt when they were brought before the golden Image but lawfully they might not kneele before it Perkins destinguisheth notably betwixt publick private and secret worship the secret and mentall worship must be yeelded to God and the signes thereof concealed from the eyes and hearing of men as Nehemiah when he prayed in presence of the King Nehem. 2.4 In a word the Institution and the second commandement hinder kneeling at this time suppose mentall prayer were the principall exercise of the soule I heare there is alledged a third sort of prayer to wit that the very act of receiving is of it selfe a reall prayer Is not this as much as to say that craving and receiving is all one Bellarmine sayth That prayer of iâ— selfe and of the own proper office doth impetrate and that a sacrifice hath the force and power of obtaining or impetrating because it is Quaedam oratio realis non verbalis a certaine reall prayer not a verball We may forgiue him to say this of the sacrifice of the Masse where there is an offering of a sacrifice to God But Bellarmine was never so absurd as to call the act of receiving from God a reall prayer to God Their other obiection that we may praise God in the act of receiving therefore we may kneele may be answered after the same manner There is no publicke thankesgiving ordained to be made at the delivery of the elements mentall praise therefore must be meant Mentall praise is no more the principall worke of the soule then mentall prayer what was sayd of the ejaculations of the one let it be applied to the short eâ—aculations of the other The name of Eucharist given to this Sacrament helpeth them nothing for it is a name given by Ancients and not by the Scripture Next as it is called Eucharistia so it is called Eulogia for the words he gaue thankes and he blessed are indifferently used by the Evangelists Some parts of this holy celebration stand in thankesgiuing as the beginning and the end and therefore is the whole action denominated from a part saith Causaubon Eulogia Eucharistia utraque vox à parte una totum Domini actionem designat It followeth not that all the parts of this holy ministration are actions of thankesgiving Obiect What we may craue of God upon our knees we may receiue on our knees Ans. It is false I may on my knees Giue us this day our daily bread but I may not receiue it on my knees The people of Israel prayed for food yet they were not esteemed unthankfull for not kneeling when they received the Manna It is again objected that in the act of receauing we receaue