that God enlightened me in these things on purpose to appear against them and lead others out of them in this Confidence I grew bold and began to preach something publickly that I knew would turn the Congregation against me and so prepare me for my Return to Mr. Iohn Goodwin's from whom I separated about Five Years ago But the Truth is as I began to widen from the Church I relate to my Soul sank into deep Mire where there was no standing into a horrible Pit the Arrows of the Lord stuck fast in me and his Hand pressed me sore the Poyson of them drunk up my Spirit and the Terrors of the Lord set themselves in array against me instead of the Smiles of Christ and the comfortable Testimony of Conscience as to a service pleasing to God and the Lord Jesus Christ I met with hellish Horrors Temptations to dâ—spair of God's Love to me and much ado to keep my Head above Water Whereupon I humbled my self under the mighty Hand of God and stopt my present Prosecutions of my Purposes which was to have burnt my Books to have returned to Mr. Goodwin's again to have provided my Papers with some Additions and a solemn Address to all the Churches under that Form But meeting with this wonderful Opposition from God my Hand hangeth down and my Knee feeble I am in an amaze not knowing what to say think or do But this I have found That as widening from the People I am with brought us great distress so joining with them again assuageth the Waters of my Affliction upon these Terms I stand not daring to stir from them nor do any thing to prejudice my esteem with them But yet not satisfied neither through Fear least by going on the way I am engaged in I should countenance a By-way not pleasing to God And thus by degrees I have opened to you the perfect State of my Case but it was because you would ask me what matter the Enemy if it were the Enemy wrought on to make me so great Affliction upon it one thing was some Thoughts of Heart that I had had concerning my Children That made it indeed a matter desirable to me to be out of this way but my Conscience telleth me the Thoughts was lawful and good and that they had not the least influence in the change of my Judgment Another thing is the way we are in is a very narrow way and we have some Christians my dear and intimate Friends that walk in it that excell in holiness and are gone somewhat farther out of the World with their Hearts through their Faith and Sense of future things than ordinarily Christians go these all frown'd on me And then 3. The way I should return to was more open and the Persons less sensible Oh Sir there is abundance have Knowledge but there is but a few have a rich Sense 4. I should leave the Poor and go among the Rich that minded more the adorning of the outward Man than the glorious Gospel of Christ ordinarily whereas my Spirit is much set against gay Apparel and following of Fashions not but that Mr. Goodwin's Church is as sober as most I think as any But the Truth is it is a Sin in my Apprehension at least that few are sufficiently sensible of 5. My Conscience telleth me that as for Parishes there is no proceedings in Parishes that are worthy the Name of Church-Proceedings ordinarily There is indeed in some few an able Man to Preach and the People go to hear but as for watching visiting and nourishing and such like faithful Proceedings for the Health of Souls there are but few lay any such things to Heart so that the Parishes for the most part are but like a dead Corps without Life The living Stones are gone into one gathered Church or other but I confess I do not find them blessed after 6. Another thing was the Danger that the Souls of our Friends would be in upon my leaving them 7. The making of thousands of Hearts sad who have their Eyes upon me I perceive your Propositions at the end of your Letter Alas for me I shall be fit for nothing except God be pleased to heal my wounded Spirit that is my great Care for the present how to behave my self to obtain the Light of his Countenance If God would go before me and lead me I would do any thing the Joy of the Lord is our Strength but however I thank God that enableth me to hold out waiting I am sure my Soul hungereth and thirsteth after Righteousness more than all Riches and therefore I am under the Promise of being fill'd at last I have indeed covered to serve God and secretly plotted how to cast my Affairs so that I might be free for it I have in order to the Devotion of my Soul to the Word and Prayer wholly taken my self off all Converse with the World and supposing I should not long stay where I am I was considering where I might be useful At last I thought of going into some Country with the leave of Mr. Goodwin's Church where there was much People and no means and there to seat my self having a good Estate of my own by which I could not only serve freely but do much good This I thought would have been pleasing to God I resolved not to meddle with the Point of Baptism one way or other but have striven the Conversion of Souls to Jesus Christ But his late Frowns on me maked me fear he will take no delight in me But however since I call him Father it is fit I should say Thy will be done even so Father let it be Amen Amen If you would draw up such a Model of Agreement as you write of I know not how much it may conduce to the Glory of God I believe some here would subscribe it I hope many I propounded it to Mr. Manton he said he should like such a thing very well The Lord preserve your Life Health and Strength that you may live to do God more Service your Zeal provoketh many I am fully persuaded and I think upon good Grounds that had the Ministers taken the Course that I hear you take at Kidderminster it had prevented Separation The good Lord fill you with his Holy Spirit and enable you to do yet more abundantly Dear Sir I intreat you to use your Interest in Heaven for me that my Faith may be strengthned which the Enemy layeth at daily to enlighten my Understanding to give me good knowledge and good Judgment to deliver my Conscience from unnecessary Scruples to manifest his Love to me and increase my Love to him and if it be his Will to use and comfort me in his Service which he knoweth is Meat and Drink to me who am Your affectionate Friend and Brother in Christ Iesus Tho. Lambe I hope shortly to hear from you Dear Mr. Baxter I Do return my many Thanks for your excellent Letter which I have received with
Assurgency to the attempting of difficult thing and so my Mind may retire to the Root of Christian Principles and also I have often been afraid lest ill-rooting at first and many Temptations afterwards have made it more necessary for me than many others to retire to the Root and secure my Fundamentals But upon much Observation I am afraid lest most others are in no better a Case and that at the first they take it for a granted thing that Christ is the Saviour of the World and that the Soul is Immortal and that there is a Heaven and a Hell c. while they are studying abundance of a Scholastick Superstructures and at last will find cause to study more soundly their Religion it self as well as I have done The better Causes are these 1. I value all things according to their Use and Ends and I find in the daily Practice and Experience of my Soul that the Knowledge of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Truth of Scripture and the Life to come and of a Holy Life is of more use to me than all the most curious Speculations 2. I know that every Man must grow as Trees do downwards and upwards both at once and that the Roots increase as the Bulk and Branches do 3. Being nearer Death and another World I am the more regardful of those things which my Everlasting Life or Death depend on 4. Having most to do with ignorant miserable People I am commanded by my Charity and Reason to treat with them of that which their Salvation lyeth on and not to dispute with them of Formalities and Neceties when the Question is presently to be determined whether they shall dwell for ever in Heaven or in Hell In a Word my Meditations must be most upon the matters of my Practice and my Interest And as the Love of God and the seeking of Everlasting Life is the Matter of my Practice and my Interest so must it be of my Meditation That is the best Doctrine and Study which maketh men better and tendeth to make them happy I abhor the Folly of those unlearned Persons who revile or despise Learning because they know not what it is And I take not any piece of true Learning to be useless And yet my Soul approveth of the Resolution of Holy Paul who determined to know nothing among his Hearers that is comparatively to value and make Oftentation of no other Wisdom but that Knowledge of a Cruchfied Christ to know God in Christ is Life Eternal As the Stock of the Tree affordeth Timber to build Houses and Cities when the small though higher multiâ—arious Branches are but to make a Crowns Nest or a Blaze So the Knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ of Heaven and Holyness doth build up the Soul to endless Blessedness and affordeth it solid Peace and Comfort when a multitude of Schoolâ—Niceties serve but for vain Janglings and hurtful Diversions and Contentions And yet I would not dissuade my Reader from the perusal of Aquinas Scotus Ockam Arminiensis Durandus or any such Writer for much Good may be gotten from them But I would persuade him to study and live upon the essential Doctrines of Christianity and Godliness incomparably above them all And that he may know that my Testimony is somewhat regardable I presume to say that in this I as much gainsay my natural Inclination to Subtilty and Accurateness in Knowing as he is like to do by his if he obey my Counsel And I think if he lived among Infidels and Enemies of Christ he would find that to make good the Doctrine of Faith and of Life Eternal were not only his noblest and most useful Study but also that which would require the height of all his Parts and the utmost of his Diligence to manage it skilfully to the Satisfaction of himself and others 4. I add therefore that this is Another thing which I am changed in that whereas in my younger Days I never was tempted to doubt of the Truth of Scripture or Christianity but all my Doubts and Fears were exercised at home about my own Sincerity and Interest in Christ and this was it which I called Unbelief since then my soreft Assaults have been on the other side and such they were that had I been void of internal Experience and the Adhesion of Love and the special help of God and had not discerned more Reason for my Religion than I did when I was younger I had certainly Apostatized to Infidelity though for Atheism or Ungodliness my Reason seeth no stronger Arguments than may be brought to prove that there is no Earth or Air or Sun I am now therefore much more Apprehensive than heretofore of the Necessity of well grounding Men in their Religion and especially of the Witness of the indwelling Spirit For I more sensibly perceive that the Spirit is the great Witness of Christ and Christianity to the World And though the Folly of Fanaticks tempted me long to over-look the Strength of this Testimony of the Spirit while they placed it in a certain internal Assertion or enthusiastick Inspiration yet now I see that the Holy Ghost in another manner is the Witness of Christ and his Agent in the World The Spirit in the Prophets was his first Witness and the Spirit by Miracles was the second and the Spirit by Renovation Sanctification Illumination and Consolation assimilating the Soul to Christ and Heaven is the continued Witness to all true Believers And if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. Even as the Rational Soul in the Child is the inherent Witness or Evidence that he is the Child of Rational Parents And therefore ungodly Persons have a great disadvantage in their resisting Temptations to unbelief and it is no wonder if Christ be a stumbling block to the Jews and to the Gentiles foolishness There is many a one that hideth his Temptations to Infidelity because he thinketh it a shame to open them and because it may generate doubts in others but I doubt the imperfection of most mens care of their Salvation and of their diligence and resolution in a holy Life doth come from the imperfection of their belief of Christianity and the Life to come For my part I must profess that when my belief of things Eternal and of the Scripture is most clear and firm all goeth accordingly in my Soul and all Temptations to sinful Compliances Worldliness or Flesh-pleasing do signifie worse to me than an invitation to the Stocks or Bedlam And no Petition seemeth more necessary to me than Lord increase our Faith I Believe help thou my unbelief 5. Among Truths certain in themselves all are not equally certain unto me and even of the Mysteries of the Gospel I must needs say with Mr. Richard Hooker Eccl. Polit. that whatever men may pretend the subjective Certainty cannot go beyond the objective Evidence for it is caused thereby as the print
Heresies of not Truths to seem Errours and putting such odious Constructions on their Opinions and Practices that they do thereby make their godly and peaceable Brethren seem Firebrands or Monsters to be avoided or contemned and so affright Men into disunion and disaffection We yet more honour many who are more free both from active and passive unpeaceableness who yet do satisfie their Consciences with this much but while they exclaim against Divisions do little for the healing them But too small is the number of such as you who are up and doing in this healing work Your Names dear Brethren are doubly precious to us as are your Lives We have many helpers in other Works of Piety but too few in this Indeed we are following on the Work as being conscious of our duty but concerning the Success we are between hope and fear Among our selves in this Country God hath strangely facilitated all and satisfied most of those that seem faithful in this Work on the Terms which we have published We hear also that in many other Counties they are stirred up to Consultations for these Ends and we perceive that the Excellency and Necessity of Unity Peace and some Reformation is a little more observed than it hath been heretofore and that God begins to disgrace Divisions and to put a zeal for Reconciliation into many of his Ministers Also we have made some Attempts with some Brethren of another County where are some Men of great Learning and Piety that are of the Episcopal way and we found them not only much approving the Work but forward to promote it with the rest of their Neighbour Ministers Our godly people also through God's great mercy are almost all very tractable to yea and rejoice in the Work These things give as hope that God is about the Restoring of his People and that he is kindling that Zeal for Unity and Reformation which shall overcome the Fire of Contention that hath been wasting us so long And O that we were as sure that this Work should prosper as we are that it is preceptively of God! For our parts we cannot think that God is building his Church till we see him bring the Materials nearer together and providing Cement for a setled Combination Of which as we have these grounds of hope so have we much cause of trouble and fear both from the backwardness of Pastors and People to the Work For we understand from other parts how heartless some are to such a Work and how averse those are that are deeply engaged already in Parties We hear not of those hearty inclinations to Peace in the party whose aversness you mention as we hoped to have done when we came so near them as we do not crossing that we know of any of their Principles though silencing some They do in some neighbour Counties zealously preach against us and cry alown our way as formal and delusory making the People believe that we make a Parish and a Church all one and that to cast them out of the Church is to cast them out of the Parish and that we take in all that will come be they never so bad Though we have fully told them that we are taking in none but discerning who are in and shall cast out all whom they can prove fit to be cast out Some Brethreâ— alos of sounder Iudgments do stand at a distance and will not come amongst us to tell us the Reasons of it Some in other Counties that are zealous to promote the Work do meet with so much opposition tergiversation and discouragement that we hear it is like to hinder it with them Also we find not that love and peaceable inclination in the exasperated part of the Episcopal Brethren as might be expected from the Sons of Peace But the greatest discouragement with us is from our People for though through the mercy of God divers of us have encouragement yet in most places the Multitude hold off and will not own us And though God so orders it that the worst do generally keep off themselves and few but Men seeming to fear God do joyn with us yet some few of the most zealous of our People in some places do hold off as disliking the broadness of our way We find it is not only in Doctrinals but Practicals that most are for the Extreams and the mean pleaseth few but is censured of both No Party will come to us unless we will reject all other Parties but them It is in those disengaged Christians that are truly Catholick and are the Servants of Christ and not of Men and that love their Brethren as Christians and not chiefly as of their Party that the great hope of our Success doth consist Though smart Experience may possibly recover some of the rest Our hopes depending in this doubtful state we give thanks to God that he addeth somewhat to our encouragement by you We adventured not rashly on what we have done It is near a year and half since we begun our Consultations Our Profession was perused by Bishop Usher and others Our Propositions scand by many for and near and all was altered in them that any of them were offended at Yet it is far from our Expectations that all should joyn only on our Terms Could we get then to Consultations for Unity and Reformation and to hold on till they did succeed we had our desire But indeed we see such exceeding difference in Mens Apprehensions and such addictedness to their Party in too many and such a loathness in others to displease the People or weaken their own Interest in them and hazard part of their maintenance that comes from them that we do expect this Work should go heavily on and if it prove otherwise we shall ascribe it to the meer good pleasure of God and his extraordinary blessing for no doubt but all the force will be raised against it that the interest of Satan in the ungodly the heretical Dividers the dark imperfect Saints can procure But though our greatest Comforts would lye in the Success because we work not for our selves but for God and his Church yet we find very much in our upright Endeavours Indeed we have Experience of much sweetness in the Work Our very Thoughts and Speeches and Consultations of Peace are sweet That our Minds should be hereby occasioned to dwell so much on such a blessed Subject we find a great advantage to our own Souls it much composeth and calmeth our Minds and killeth the contrary Corruptions and disposeth us to love and tenderness to our Brethren So that were we sure to have no other Success we have a plentiful Reward As our studies of Heaven and preaching of it to our People occasioneth such foretasts that are worth our labour a thousand fold so do the studies and attempts for Peace Brethren our hearts desire is that as the Lord hath let fall on you some of the same Spirit of Peace as on us his unworthy
vain If they do then they prove the Duty if not the Necessity of Infant Baptism 3. Ceremonies have not so much laid on them under the Gospel as under the Law Mercy before Sacrifice is the Gospel Canon Ad 2 m 2. That Command Matth. 28. commandeth the baptizing of Disciples I doubt not but it commandeth thereby the baptizing of Infants who are Disciples and made Disciples while proselyted Parents enter them into the Covenant of God according to his express unrepealed Law and Promise 2. But suppose it did not command Infant-Baptism nay suppose it had consequentially forbidden it it proves no more than that it is a sin not a nullity 3. But suppose it had made it a Nullity how are you guilty of other mens omission of Baptism by holding Communion with them when you may at your Enterance declare your dissent from them in that point Your Argument would lead you to avoid Communion with all Churches in the World even the re-baptized that held not all that you take to be the Institutions of Christ because you are bound to hold them But when you have leave to do your own Duty if you will shun all that you think do not theirs you will abhor Catholicism Ad 3 m 1. As to Iohn 3. 5. doubtless that Text speaks of more than the visible Church even the Mystical and the Triumphant And therefore if you will from thence exclude Infants from Baptism and the visible Church you must needs shut them all out of Heaven but Christo dissentiente you shall have none of Christ's consent 2. It is both Water as the sign and the holy Covenant and Cleansing of the Soul as the thing signified that are convincingly meant in the Text. But how one only as a sign and the other as the thing signified and therefore not as equally necessary in point of means though equally commanded Alas how easily understand we such Speeches among Men. If a General say to the Rebels I will spare none of you that will not come and list himself under me every Body will understand that becoming a Soldier and the Military Engagement or Sacrament as the Oath was anciently called is the thing here signified to be absolutely necessary and the Listing or Colours but as a sign for Order and in Cases of Necessity dispensable and regarded but in order unto the thing signified Your Arguments from personal Inconveniencies are none Ad 1 m 1. Do not you startle to hear the Catholick Church called the World and a retirement into its Communion called a Returning to the World I have read Come out from among them that is the World but not Come out of the Catholick Church 2. And do you not startle to hear them call their way Strictness and the other Loosness If they mean a sinful strictness so every Vice or many may have a strictness Malice hath a strictness and Covetousness and Oppression hath a strictness and Superstition hath a strictness But if they mean it of a holy strictness are not they the strictest that are likest to Christ and most conformable to his Will and most accurate in their Obedience And is not Love the new and great Commandment Are not your People loose that are so far from holy Love and Catholick Communion God is Love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God They are strict then in opposing God and the Unity or sweet Communion of the Members of the Lord. Is it an honour to be strict Sinners and Destroyers of the Church and Holy Love Let some take heed least they be too strict to come into Heaven among so many Millions of Souls that never owned any but Infant Baptism which is I think since Christ many hundred to one that is there that never were against Infant Baptism whether do you think Christ or the Phaâ—isees were the stricter when they condemned him for eating with Publicans and Sinners and his Disciples for breaking the ears of Corn and him for Sabbath-breaking c. Sure he more accurately observed his Father's will even the blessed Rule of Love and Mercy though they were more superstitious and strict was it the weak or the strong Christians Rom. 14. 15. that were the stricter about meats and drinks and days The weak superstitiously but the strong did more strictly adhere to the Law of Christ. Do you think that Man that shall say Christ died but for half the Saints themselves to be ever the better for that strict Opinion If you are for such forbidden strictness of Practice why do you not answer it in your Opinions about Grace c. 2. You have cause to be much humbled before the Lord for bringing your People into this Snare and Misconceit and ergo should not be guilty of continuing them in it nor make the fruit of your Sin an Argument to go on Impenitently 3. So great a Truth and Duty as Christian Catholick Love and Communion is not to be bawked for fear of danger Tell you of it plainly and trust God with the Issue It 's doubt those that will turn Quakers that is Infidels or near rather than be reduced to Catholick Love and Communion are never like to come to good if you keep them where they are It 's a fearful thing that any Man should think the better of his Spiritual state because he flieth furthest from the Catholick Love and Communion of Saints that is from the Church from Christ from God from Heaven Ad 2 m Your Communion with differing Saints is not a sinning against your Opinion about Baptism nor a leaving your station You may own your way and yet own Catholick Communion Dear Brother I think the Lord of Love and Peace is laying hands on you and will have you away out of your dangerous Schisms into the Paths of Love and Peace It is Uncharitableness and Separation that hath made the Rebaptized so odious throughout the World Love breedeth Love as Heat breedeth Heat The Christian Charity that appeareth in your Lives I sensibly feel draws out my own Heart in love to you All God's Saints will love you if you will but turn into the way of Love I hear that the Rebaptized in Ireland that grew to the reputation of Turbulent in their height begin now to be thought more peaceable and tolerable than some others there that being lately in the Saddle possessed their Prosperity and unquietness O! if days of Persecution come it will cut your hearts to think how you have refused Communion with your Brethren in days of Peace If we all lay our Heads and Hearts and Hands together for God's Church and Cause it will be too little My motion to you is That you will joyn with us for a Brotherly Agreement between the Men of your mind and ours The Articles shall be but these three 1. That all that can being satisfied in Conscience with their being Rebaptized shall continue loving Communion in the Church 2. That those that cannot be brought
our Governour and our Benefactor in that he is related to us as our Creator and that therefore we are related to him as his own his Subjects and his Beneficiaries which as they all proceed by undeniable resultancy from our Creation and Nature so thence do our Duties arise which belong to us in those Relations by as undeniable resultancy and that no shew of Reason can be brought by any Infidel in the World to excuse the Rational Creature from Loving his Maker with all his heart and soul and might and devoting himself and all his Faculties to him from whom he did receive them and making him his ultimate End who is his first Efficient Cause So that Godliness is a Duty so undeniably required in the Law of Nature and so discernable by Reason it self that nothing but unreasonableness can contradict it 3. And then it seemed utterly improbable to me that this God should see us to be Losers by our Love and Duty to him and that our Duty should be made to be our Snare or make us the more miserable by how much the more faithfully we perform it And I saw that the very Possibility or Probability of a Life to come would make it the Duty of a Reasonable Creature to seek it though with the loss of all below 4. And I saw by undeniable Experience a strange Universal Enmity between the Heavenly and the Earthly Mind the Godly and the Wicked as fulfilling the Prediction Gen. 3. 15. The War between the Woman's and the Serpent's Seed being the daily Business of all the World And I saw that the wicked and haters of Godliness are so commonly the greatest and most powerful and numerous as well as cruel that ordinarily there is no living according to the Precepts of Nature and undeniable Reason without being made the Derision and Contempt of Men if we can scape so easily 5. And then I saw that there is no other Religion in the World which can stand in competition with Christianity Heathenism and Mahometanism are kept up by Tyranny and Beastly Ignorance and blush to stand at the Bar of Reason And Judaism is but Christianity in the Egg or Bed And meer Deism which is the most plausible Competitor is so turned out of almost all the whole World as if Nature made its own Confession that without a Mediator it cannot come to God 6. And I perceived that all other Religions leave the People in their worldly sensual and ungodly state even their Zeal and Devotion in them being commonly the Servants of their Fleshly Interest And the Nations where Christianity is not being drowned in Ignorance and Earthly mindedness so as to be the shame of Nature 7. And I saw that Christ did bring up all his serious and sincere Disciples to real Holiness and to Heavenly mindedness and made them new Creatures and set their Hearts and Designs and Hopes upon another Life and brought their Sense into subjection to their Reason and taught them to resign themselves to God and to love him above all the World And it is not like that God will make use of a Deceiver for this real visible Recovery and Reformation of the Nature of Man or that any thing but his own Zeal can imprint his Image 8. And here I saw an admirable suitableness in the Office and Design of Christ to the Ends of God and the Felicity of Man and how excellently these Supernatural Revelations do fall in and take their place in subserviency to Natural Verities and how wonderfully Faith is fitted to bring Men to the Love of God when it is nothing else but the beholding of his amiable attractive Love and Goodness in the Face of Christ and the Promises of Heaven as in a Glass till we see his Glory 9. And I had felt much of the Power of his Word and Spirit on my self doing that which Reason now telleth me must be done And shall I question my Physician when he hath done so much of the Cure and recovered my depraved Soul so much to God 10. And as I saw these Assistances to my Faith so I perceived that whatever the Tempter had to say against it was grounded upon the Advantages which he took from my Ignorance and my Distance from the Times and Places of the Matters of the Sacred History and such like things which every Novice meeteth with in almost all other Sciences at the first and which wise well-studied Men can see through § 35. All these Assistances were at hand before I came to the immediate Evidences of Credibility in the Sacred Oracles themselves And when I set my self to search for those I found more in the Doctrine the Predictions the Miracles antecedent concomitant subsequent than ever I before took notice of which I shall not here so far digress as to set down having partly done it in several Treatises as The Saints Rest Part 2. The Unreasonableness of Infidelity A Saint or a Bruit in my Christian Directory and since more fully in a Treatise called The Reasons of the Christian Religion my Life of Faith c. § 36. From this Assault I was forced to take notice that it is our Belief of the Truth of the Word of God and the Life to come which is the Spring that sets all Grace on work and with which it rises or falls flourishes or decays is actuated or stands still And that there is more of this secret Unbelief at the Root than most of us are aware of and that our love of the World our boldness with Sin our neglect of Duty are caused hence◠I observed easily in my self that if at any time Satan did more than at other times weaken my Belief of Scripture and the Life to come my Zeal in every Religious Duty abated with it and I grew more indifferent in Religion than before I was more inclined to Conformity in those Points which I had taken to be sinful and was ready to think why should I be singular and offend the Bishops and other Superiours and make my self contemptible in the World and expose my self to Censures Scorns and Sufferings and all for such little things as these when the Foundations themselves have so great difficulties as I am unable to overcome But when Faith revived then none of the Parts or Concernments of Religion seemed small and then Man seemed nothing and the World a shadow and God was all In the begining I doubted not of the truth of the Holy Scriptures or of the Life to come because I saw not the Difficulties which might cause doubting After that I saw them and I doubted because I saw not that which should satisfie the mind against them Since that having seen both Difficulties and Evidences though I am not so unmolested as at the first yet is my Faith I hope much stronger and far better able to repel the Temptations of Satan and the Sophisms of Infidels than before But yet is my daily Prayer That God would
far meaner thoughts of my own Understanding though I must needs know that it is better furnished than it was them 11. Accordingly I had then a far higher opinion of Learned Persons and Books than I have now for what I wanted my self I thought every Reverend Divine had attained and was familiar acquainted with And what Books I understood not by reason of the strangeness of the Terms or Matter I the moreâ— admired and thought that others understood their worth But now Experience hâ—th constrained me against my will to know that Reverend Learned Men are imperfect and know but little as well as I especially 〈◊〉 that think themselves the wiseâ—â—â— And the better I am acquainted with them the more I perceive that we are all yet in the dark And the 〈◊〉 I am acquainted with holy Men that are all for Heaven and pretend not much to Subtilties the more I value and honour them And when I have studied hard to understand some absâ—ruse admired Book as De Scientia Dei De 〈…〉 Praedeterminatione de Libertâ— to Creature a c. I have but attained the Knowledge of Humane Imperfection and to see that the Author 〈◊〉 but a Man as well as 〈◊〉 12. And at first I tookâ— more upon my Author's Crâ—dit 〈◊〉 now I can doâ— And when an Author was highly commendâ—d to me by 〈◊〉 or pleased me in some part I was ready to entertain the whole whereas now I take and leave in the same Author and dissent in some things fromâ— him that I like best as well as from others 13. At first I was greatly inclined to go with the highest in controversies on one side or other as with Dr. Twisse and Mr. Rutherford and Spanhemiâ—â— de Providentia gratia c. But now I can so easily see what to say against both extreams that I am much more inclinable to reconciling Principles And whereas then I thought that Conciliators were but ignorant men that were willing to please all and would pretend to reconcile the World by Principles which they did not understand themselves I have since perceived that if the amiableness of Peace and Concord had no hand in the business yet greater Light and stronger Judgment usually is with the Reconcilers than with either of the contending Parties as with Davenant Hall Usher Lud. Crocius Bergius Strangius Camero c. But on both accounts their Writings are most acceptable though I know that Moderation may be a pretext of Errors 14. At first the Stile of Authors took as much with me as the Argument and made the Arguments seem more forcible But now I judge not of Truth at all by any such Ornaments or Accidents but by its naked Evidence 15. I now see more Good and more Evil in all Men than heretofore I did I see that Good men are not so good as I once thought they were but have more Imperfections And that nearer approach and fuller trial doth make the best appear more weak and faulty than their Admirers at a distance think And I find that few are so bad as either their malicious Enemies or censorious separating Professors do imagine In some indeed I find that Humane Nature is corrupted into a greater likeness to Devils than I once thought any on Earth had been But even in the wicked usually there is more for grace to make advantage of and more to testifie for God and Holiness than I once believed there had been 16. I less admire Giftes of Utterance and bare Profession of Religion than I once did and have much more Charity for many who by the want of Giâ—ts do make an obscurer Profession than they I once thought that almost all that could pray movingly and fluently and talk well of Religion had been Saints But Experience hath opened to me what odious Crimes may consist with high Profession and I have met with divers obscure Persons not noted for any extraordinary Profession or forwardness in Religion but only to live a quiet blameless Life whom I have after found to have long lived as far as I could discern a truly godly and sanctified Life only their Prayers and Duties were by accident kept secret from other mens observation yet he that upon this preâ—ence would confound the Godly and the Ungodly may as well go about to lay Heaven and Hell together 17. I am not so narrow in my special Love as heretofore Being less censâ—rious and talking more than I did for Saints it must needs follow that I love more â—s Saints than I did before I think it not lawful to put that Man off with bare Church Communion and such common Love which I must allow the Wicked who professeth himself a true Christian by such a Profession as I cannot disprove 18. I am not too narrow in my Principles of Church Communion as once I was I more plainly perceive the difference between the Church as Congregate or visible and as Regenerate or Mystical and between Sincerity and Profession and that a Credible Profession is proof sufficient of a Man's Title to Church Admission and that the Profession is Credible in foro Ecclesiae which is not disproved I am noâ— for narrowing the Church more than Christ himself alloweth us nor for robbing him of any of his Flock I am more sensible how much it is the Will of Christ thâ—â—t every Man be the chooser or refuser of his own felicity and that it liâ—th most on his own hands whether he will have Communion with the Church or not and that if he be an hypocrite it is himself that will bear the loss 19. Yet am I more apprehensive than ever of the great use and need of Ecclesiastical Discipline and what a sin it is in the Pastors of the Church to make no distinction but by bare Names and Sacraments and to force all the unmeet against their own wills to Church Communion and Sacraments though the ignorant and erroneous may sometime be forced to hear instruction And what a great dishonour to Christ it is when the Church shall be as vicious as Pagan and Mahometan Assemblies and shall differ from them only in Ceremony and Name 20. I am much more sensible of the Evil of Schism and of the Separatingâ— Humour and of gathering Parties and making several Sects in the Church than I was heretofore For the Effects have shewed us more of the mischiefs 21. I am much more sensible how prone many young Professors are to Spiritual Pride and Self-conceitedness and Unruliness and Division and so to prove the Grief of their Teachers and Firebrands in the Church and how much of a Minister's work lieth in preventing this and humbling and confirming such young unexperienced Professors and keeping them in order in their progress in Religion 22. Yet am I more sensible of the Sin and Mischief of using Men cruelly in Matters of Religion and of pretending Mens good and the Order of the Church for Acts of Inhumanity or Uncharitableness Such know not
and the tolerated Churches and that they keep the Peace between these Churches and settle their several priviledges by a Law 2. That the Churches be accounted Tolerable who profess all that is in the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue in Particular and generally all that they shall find to be revealed in the Word of God and hold Communion in Teaching Prayer Praises and the two Sacraments not obstinately preaching any Heresie contrary to the particular Articles which they profess nor seditiously disturbing the Publick Peace And that such Heretical Preaching and such Seditious unpeaceableness or notorious Wickedness of Life do forfeit their Toleration 3. And that those that are further Orthodox in those Particulars which Rulers think fit to impose upon their Subjects have their publick Maintenance and greater Encouragement Yea and this much is become neccessary but upon supposition that Men will still be so self-conceited and uncharitable as not to forbear their unnecessary Impositions Otherwise there would be found but very few who are Tolerable that are not also in their measure to be approved maintained and encouraged And if the Primitive Simplicity in Doctrine Government and Worship might serve turn for the Terms of the Churches Union and Communion all would be well without any more ado supposing that where Christian Magistrates are they keep the Peace and repress the Offenders and exercise all the Coercive Government And hereticks who will subscribe to the Christian Faith must not be punished because they will subscribe to no more but because they are proved to preach or promote Heresie contrary to the Faith which they profess 28. I am farther than ever I was from expecting great matters of Unity Splendor or Prosperity to the Church on Earth or that Saints should dream of a Kingdom of this World or slatter themselves with the Hopes of a Golden Age or reigning over the Ungodly till there be a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness And on the contrary I am more apprehensive that Sufferings must be the Churches most ordinary Lot and Christians indeed must be self-denying Cross-bearers even where there are none but formal nominal Christians to be the Cross-makers And though ordnarily God would have Vicissitudes of Summer and Winter Day and Night that the Church may grow extensively in the Summer of Prosperity and intensively and radicatedly in the Winter of Adversity yet usually their Night is longer than their Day and that Dâ—y its self hath its Storms and Tempests For the Prognosticks are evident in their Causes 1. The Church will be still Imperfect and Sinful and will have those Diseases which need this bitter Remedy 2. Rich Men will be the Rulers of the World and Rich Men will be generally so far from true Godliness that they must come to Heaven as by Human Impossibilities as a Camel through a Needles Eye 3. The Ungodly will ever have an Enmity against the Image of God and he that is born of the Flesh will persecute him that was born after the Spirit and Brotherhood will not keep a Cain from killing an Abel who offereth a more acceptable Sacrifice than himself And the Guilty will still hate the Light and make a Prey to their Pride and Malice of a Conscionable Reprover 4. The Pastors will be still troubling the Church with their Pride and Avarice and Contentions and the worst will be seeking to be the Greatest and they that seek it are likest to attain it 5. He that is highest will be still imposing his Conceits upon those under him and Lording it over God's Heritage and with Diâ—trephes casting out the Brethren and ruling them by constraint and not as Volunteers 6. Those that are truly judicious will still comparatively be few and consequently the Troublers and Dividers will be the Multitude and a judicious Peace-maker and Reconciler will be neglected slighted or hated by both Extreams 7. The Tenour of the Gospel Predictions Precepts Promises and Threatnings are fitted to a People in a suffering State 8. And the Graces of God in a Believer are mostly sured to a State of Suffering 9. Christians must imitate Christ and suffer with him before they reign with him and his Kingdom was not of this World 10. The Observation of God's dealing hitherto with the Church in every Age confirmeth me and his befooling them that have dreamed of glorious Times It was such Dreams that transported the Munster Anabaptists and the Followers of David George in the Low Countries and Campanella and the Illuminati among the Papists and our English Anabaptists and other Fanaticks here both in the Army and the City and Country When they think the Golden Age is come they shew their Dreams in their extravagant Actions And as our Fifth Monarchy Men they are presently upon some unquiet rebellious Attempt to set up Christ in his Kingdom whether he will or not I remember how Abraham Scultetus in Curriculo Vitae suae confesseth the common Vanity of himself and other Protestants in Germany who seeing the Princes in England France Bohemia and many other Countrys to be all at once both Great and Wise and Friends to Reformation did presently expect the Golden Age But within one year either Death or Ruines of War or Back-slidings had exposed all their Expectations to Scorn and laid them lower than before 29. I do not lay so great a Stress upon the external Modes and Formes of Worship as many young Professors do I have suspected my self as perhaps the Reader may do that this is from a cooling and declining from my former Zeal though the truth is I never much complyed with Men of the Mind But I find that Iudgment and Charity are the Causes of it as for as I am able to discover I cannot be so narrow in my Principles of Church-Communion as many are that are so much for a Liturgy or so much against it so much for Ceremonies or so much against them that they can hold Communion with no Church that is not of their Mind and Way If I were among the Greeks the Lutherans the Independants yea the Anabaptists that own no Herisy nor set themselves against Charity and Peace I would hold sometimes occasional Communion with them as Christians if they will give me leave without forcing me to any sinful Subscription or Action Though my most usual Communion should be with that Society which I thought most agreeable to the Word of God if I were free to chuse I cannot be of their Opinion that think God will not accept him that prayeth by the Common-Prayer-Book and that such Forms are a self-invented Worship which God rejecteth Nor yet can I be of their Mind that say the like of extemporary Prayers 30. I am much less regardful of the Approbation of Man and set much lighter by Contempt or Applause than I did long ago I am oft suspicious that this is not only from the increase of Self-denial and Humility but partly from my being glutted and
Errours have divided and distracted the Christian Churches and one would think Experience should save us from them § 53. But the Brethren resolved that they would hold on the way which they had begun And though they were honest and competently judicious Men yet those that managed the Business did want the Judgment and Accurateness which such a Work required though they would think any Man supercilious that should tell them so And the tincture of Faction stuck so upon their Minds that it hindered their Judgment The great doer of all that worded the Articles was Dr. Owen Mr. Nye and Dr. Goodwin and Mr. Syd Sympson were his Assistants and Dr. Cheynell his Scribe Mr. Marshall a sober worthy Man did something the rest sober Orthodox Men said little but suffered the Heat of the rest to carry all § 54. When I saw they would not change their Method I saw also that there was nothing for me and others of my Mind to do but only to hinder them from doing harm and trusting in their own Opinions or crude Conceirs among our Fundamentals And presently Dr. Owen in extolling the Holy Scriptures put in that That no Man could know God to Salvation by any other means I told him that this was neither a Fundamental nor a Truth and that if among the Papists or any others a poor Christian should believe by the teaching of another without ever knowing that there is a Scripture he should be saved because it is promised that whoever believed should be saved He said awhile That there could be no other way of Saving Revelation of Jesus Christ I told him that he was savingly revealed by Preaching many years before the New Testament was written He told us that the Primitive Church was bound to believe no more from the Apostles but what was written before in the Old Testament and proved thence I told him that by that Assertion he subverted the Christian Church and Faith 1. By overthrowing the Material 2. and the Formal Object of our Faith or the medium necessary thereto 1. For the Matter it is not in the Old Testament That this Iesus is the Christ that he is already incarnate conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary fulfilled the Law suffered was crucified buried and rose again ascended into Heaven and is there at the right hand of God in our Nature and therein intercedeth for the Church that he hath instituted the Sacraments sent his Apostles given the Holy Ghost to them to direct them into all Truth c. with more of the like 2. That if Christ and his Apostles were not to be believed for the Image of God appearing on their Doctrine and the Divine Attestation of Miracles confirming it then Moses and the Prophets were not for those Reasons to be believed And consequently not to be believed at all for there was no reason to believe them which Christ also gave us not for the belief of him and his Apostles After a deal of wrangling about these Things because the Doctor was the hotter and better befriended in that Assembly and I was then under great Weakness and Soporous or Scotomatical Ilness of my Head I asked their leave to give them the Reasons of my Opinion in Writing which I brought in and never received any Answer to it And yet if Mr. Vines who came but seldom had not stuck to me when he was there they would have made the World believe as some of them endeavoured that I was Popish and pleaded for the Sufficiency of Tradition to Salvation without the Scripture But Bishop Usher was of the same mind with me and told me that he had said the same to the Iesuits Challenge Cap. de Tradit § 55. Many other such crude and unsound Passages like the Savoy Articles of Justification after put into the Independant Agreement had come into our New Fundamentals And all because the over-Orthodox Doctors Owen and Cheynell took it to be their Duty in all their Fundamentals to put in those words which as they said did obviate the Heresies and Errours of the Divines Whenas I told them they should make the Rule to look no way but strait forward and put in their Rejections after as the Synod of Dort doth as being the Contradictions of the Rule One merry passage I remember occasioned laughter Mr. Sympson caused them to make this a Fundamental That He that alloweth himself or others in any known sin cannot be saved I pleaded against the word allowed and told them that many a Thousand lived in wilful sin which they could not be said to allow themselves in but confessed it to be sin and went on against Conscience and yet were impenitent and in a state of Death And that there seemed a little contradiction between known sin and allowed so far as a Man knoweth that he sinneth he doth not allow that is approve it Other Exceptions there were but they would have their way and my opposition to any thing did but heighten their Resolution At last I told them As stiff as they were in their opinion and way I would force them with one word to change or blot out all that Fundamental I urged them to take my wager and they would not believe me but marvelled what I meant I told them that the Parliament took the Independant way of Separation to be a sin and when this Article came before them they would say By our Brethrens own Judgment we are all damned Men if we allow the Independants or 〈◊〉 other Sectaries in their sin They gave me no Answer but they left out all that Fundamental The Papers which I gave them in were these Without the Knowledge of whom by the Revelation of Scripture there is no Salvation The Words by the Revelation of the Scripture I desired might be either here left out or changed into the Revelation of the Gospel or the Word of God To this you will not consent because it would intimate that there may be another co-ordinate way of Revealing Christ besides the written Word by which there may be Salvation I cannot subscribe to the Article as it stands of which when I have shewed the point of our Difference I shall give you my Reasons 1. Our Difference is not de doctrina tradita but de modo tradendi For I have fully acknowledged that there is no Salvation without the Knowledge of the Essentials of the Christian Faith 2. And that the Light of Nature and Book of the Creatures is insufficient hereunto So far we are agreed as to the way of the Revelation 3. Nor do I doubt of the full Perfection of the Scripture but detest the Popish Doctrines of Traditions or unwritten Verities to supply what is supposed to be wanting in the Scripture as if it were but a part of God's Word for the revealing of these supernatural things I desired rather that you would more fully express the Scriptures Perfection and Infallability 4. Nor is it any doubt
former naughty lives as is partly expressed in the Rubrick and more fully in the Canons Rubrick Exception Then shall the Priest rehearse distinctly all the ten Commandments and the People kneeling shall after every Commandment ask God's mercy for transgressing the same We desire 1. That the Preface prefixed by God himself to the ten Commandments may be restored 2. That the fourth Commandment may be read as in Exod. 20. Deut. 5. He blessed the Sabbath day 3. That neither Minister nor People may be enjoyned to kneel more at the reading of this than of other parts of Scriptures the rather because many ignorant Persons are thereby induced to use the Ten Commandments as a Prayer 4. That instead of those short Prayers of the People intermixed with the several Commandments the Minister after the reading of all may conclude with a suitable Prayer Rubrick Exception After the Creed if there be no Sermon shall follow one of the Homâ—â—â—es already set forth or hereafter to be set forth by common Authority We desire that the Preaching of the Word may be strictly enjoined and not left so indifferent at the Administration of the Sacraments as also that Ministers may not be bound to those things which are are as yet but future and not in being After such Sermon Homily or Exhortation the Curate shall declare c. and earnestly exhort them to remember the Poor saying one or more of these sentences following Two of the Sentences here cited are Apocryphal and four of them more proper to draw out the Peoples Bounty to their Ministers than their Charity to the Poor Then shall the Church-wardens or some other by them appointed gather the Devotion of the People Collection for the Poor may be better made at or a little before the departing of the Communicants Exhortation  We be come together at this time to feed at the Lords Supper unto the which in Gods behalf I bid you all that be here present and beseech you for the Lord Iesus Christ sake that ye will not refuse to come c. If it be intended that these Exhortations should be read at the Communion they seem to us to be unseasonable The way and means thereto is first to examine your Lives and Conversations and if ye shall perceive your offences to be such as be not only against God but also against your Neighbours then ye shall reconcile your seâ—ves unto them and be ready to make Restitution and Satisfaction And because it is requisite that no man should come to the holy Communion but with a full trust in Gods mercy and with a quiet Conscience We fear this may discourage many from coming to the Sacrament who lye under a doubting and troubled Conscience Before the Confession  Then shall this general Confession be made in the name of all those that are minded to receive the holy Communion either by one of them or else by one of the Ministers or by the Priest himself We desire it may be made by the Minister only Before the Confession Exception Then shall the Priest or the Bishop being present stand up and turning himself to the people say thus The Minister turning himself to the People is most convenient throughout the whole Ministration Before the Preface on Christmas day and 7 days after  Because thou didst give Iesus Christ thine only Son to be born as this Day for us c. First We cannot peremptorily fix the Nativity of our Saviour to this or that day particularly Secondly it seems incongruous to affirm the Birth of Christ Upon Whitsunday and six days after and the descending of the Holy Ghost to be on this day for seven or eight days together According to whose most true promise the Holy Ghost came down this day from Heaven  Prayer before that which is at the Consecration  Grant us that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his Body and our Souls washed through his most precious blood We desire that whereas these Words seem to give a greater efficacy to the Blood than to the Body of Christ they may be altered thus That our sinful souls and bodies may be cleansed through his precious Body and Blood Prayer at the Consecration We conceive that the manner of the consecrating of the Elements is not here explicite and distinct enough and the Ministers breaking of the Bread is not so much as mentioned Hear us O merciful Father c. who in the same night that he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and gave to his Disciples saying Take eat c.  Rubrick  Then shall the Minister first receive the Communion in both kinds c. and after deliver it to the people in their hands kneeling and when he delivereth the bread he shall say The Body of our Lord Iesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting Life and take and eat this in Remembrance c. We desire that at the Distribution of the Bread and Wine to the Communicants we may use the Words of our Saviour as near as may be and that the Minister be not required to deliver the Bread and Wine into every particular Communicants hand and to repeat the words to each one in the singular number but that it may suffice to speak them to divers jointly according to our Saviours Example  We also desire that the Kneeling at the Sacrament it being not that Gesture which the Apostles used though Christ was personally present amongst them nor that which was used in the purest and primitive times of the Church may be left free as it was 1. and 2. EDW. As touching Kneeling c. they may be used or left as every Mans Devotion serveth without blame Rubrick Exception And note that every Parishioner shall Communicate at the least three times in the year of which Easter to be one and shall also receive the Sacraments and other Rites according to the Orders in this Book appointed Forasmuch as every Parishioner is not duly qualified for the Lord's Supper and those habitually prepared are not at all times actually disposed but many may be hindered by the Providence of God and some by the Distemper of their own Spirits we desire this Rubrick may be either wholly omitted or thus altered  Every Minister shall be bound to administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper at least thrice a Year provided there be a due number of Communicants manifesting their Desires to receive And we desire that the following Rubrick in the Common-Prayer-Book in 5 and 8 Edw. established by Law as much as any other part of the Common-Prayer-Book may be restored for the vindicating of our Church in the matter of Kneeling at the Sacrament although the Gesture be left indifferent Although no order can be so perfectly devised but it may be of some either for their Ignorance and Infirmity or else of Malice and Obstinacy misconstrued depraved and
Works are concauses with faith in the act of Iustification Dr. Dove also hath given Scandal in that point 3. Some have preached the Works of Penance are satisfactory before God 4. Some have preached that private Consession by particular Enumeration of Sins is necessary to Salvation necessitate medii both those Errours have been questioned at the Consistory at Cambridge 5. Some have maintained that the Absolution which the Priest pronounceth is more than Declaratory 6. Some have published That there is a proper Sacrifice in the Lord's Supper to exhibit Christ's Death in the Postfact as there was a Sacrifice to prefigure in the Old Law in the Antefact and therefore that we have a true Altar and therefore not only metaphorically so called so Dr. Heylin and others in the last Summers Convocation where also some defended that the Oblation of the Elements might hold the Nature of the true Sacrifice others the Consumption of the Elements 7. Some have introduced Prayer for the Dead as Mr. Brown in his printed Sermon and some have coloured the use of it with Questions in Cambridge and disputed that Precespro Defunct is now supponunt Purgatoriuâ— 8. Divers have oppugned the certitude of Salvation 9. Some have maintained the lawfulness of Monastical Vows 10. Some have maintained that the Lord's Day is kept meerly by Ecclesiastical Constitution and that the Day is changeable 11. Some have taught as new and dangerous Doctrine that the Subjects are to pay any Sums of Money imposed upon them though without Law nay contrary to the Laws of the Realm as Dr. Sybthorp and Dr. Manwaring Bishop of St. Davids in their printed Sermons whom many have followed of late years 12. Some have put Scorns upon the two Books of Homilies calling them either Popular Discourses or a Doctrine useful for those Times wherein they were set forth 13. Some have defended the whole gross Substance of Arminianism that Electio eft ex fide praevisa That the Act of Conversion depends upon the Concurrence of Man's Freewill That the justified Man may fall finally and totally from Grace 14. Some have defended Universal Grace as imparted as much to Reprobates as to the Elect and have proceeded usque ad salutem Ethnicorum which the Church of England hath Anathematized 15. Some have absolutely denied Original Sin and so evacuated the Cross of Christ as in a Disputation at Oxon. 16. Some have given excessive Cause of Scandal to the Church as being suspected of Socinianism 17. Some have defended that Concupiscence is no sin either in the habit or first motion 18. Some have broacht out of Socinus a most uncomfortable and desperate Doctrine That late Repentance that is upon the last Bed of Sickness is unfruitful at least to reconcile the Penitent to God Add unto these some dangerous and most reproveable Books 1. The Reconciliation of Sancta Clara to knit the Romish and Protestant in one Memorand That he be caused to produce Bishop Watson's Book of the like Reconciliation which he speaks of 2. A Book called Brevis Disquisitio printed as it is thought in London and vulgarly to be had which impugneth the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the verity of Christ's Body which he took of the Blessed Virgin in Heaven and the verity of our Resurrection 3. A Book called Timotheus Philalethes de Pace Ecclesiae which holds that every Religion will save a Man if he holds the Covenant Innovations in Discipline 1. The turning of the holy Table Altar-wise and most commonly calling it an Altar 2. Bowing towards it or towards the East many times with three Congees but usually in every motion access or recess in the Church 3. Advancing Candlesticks in many Churches upon the Altar so called 4. In making Canopies over the Altar so called with Traverses and Curtains on each side and before it 5. In compelling all Communicants to come up before the Rails and there to Receive 6. In advancing Crucifixes and Images upon the Parafront or Altar-cloth so called 7. In reading some part of the Morning Prayer at the Holy Table when there is no Communion celebrated 8. By the Minister's turning his back to the West and his face to the East when he pronounceth the Creed or reads Prayers 9. By reading the Litany in the midst of the Body of the Church in many of the Parochial Churches 10. By pretending for their Innovations the Injunctions and Advertisements of Queen Elizabeth which are not in force but by way of Commentary and Imposition and by putting to the Liturgy printed secundo tertio Edwardi sexti which the Parliament hath Reformed and laid aside 11. By offering of Bread and Wine by the hand of the Churchwardens or others before the Consecration of the Elements 12. By having a Credentia or Side-Table besides the Lord's Table for divers uses in the Lord's Supper 13. By introducing an Offertory before the Communion distant from the giving of Alms to the Poor 14. By prohibiting the Ministers to expound the Catechism at large to their Parishioners 15. By suppressing of Lectures partly on Sundays in the Afternoon partly on Week-days performed as well by Combination as some one Man 16. By prohibiting a direct Prayer before Sermon and bidding or Prayer 17. By singing the Te Deum in Prose after a Cathedral Church way in divers Parochial Churches where the People have no skill in such Musick 18. By introducing Latin-Service in the Communion of late in Oxford and into some Colledges in Cambridge at Morning and Evening Prayer so that some young Students and the Servants of the Colledge do not understand their Prayers 19. By standing up at the Hymns in the Church and always at Gloria Patri 20. By carrying Children from the Baptism to the Altar so called there to offer them up to God 21. By taking down Galleries in Churches or restraining the Building of such Galleries where the Parishes are very populous Memorandum 1. That in all the Cathedral and Collegiate Churches two Sermons be preached every Sunday by the Dean and Prebendaries or by their procurement and likewise every Holy-day and one Lecture at the least to be preached on Working-days every Week all the Year long 2. That the Musick used in God's Holy Service in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches be framed with less Curiosity that it may be more edifying and more intelligible and that no Hymns or Anthems be used where Ditties are framed by private Men but such as are contained in the Sacred Canonical Scriptures or in our Liturgy of Prayers or have publick allowance 3. That the Reading-Desk be placed in the Church where Divine Service may beâ—t be heard of all the People Considerations upon the Book of Common Prayer 1. Whether the Names of some departed Saints and others should not be quire expunged in the Kalender 2. Whether the reading of Psalms Sentences of Scripture concurring in divers places in the Hymns Epistles and Gospel should not be set out in the New Translation 3. Whether
c. After Baptism put Seing this Child is Sacramentally Regenerated And in the Prayer following put it That it hath pleased Thee Sacramentally to Regenerate and Adopt this Infant and to incorporate him into thy Holy Church Instead of the new Rubrick it is certain by God's Word c. put True Christian Parents have no cause to doubt of the Salvation of their Children dedicated to God in Baptism and dying before they commit any actual sin In the Exhortation put it thus Doubt not therefore but earnestly believe That if this Infant be sincerely dedicated to God by those who have that power and trust God will likewise favourably receive him c. Let not Baptism be privately administred but by a lawful Minister and before sufficient Witnesses and when it is evident that any was so Baptized let no part of the Administration be reiterated Add to the Rubrick of Confirmation or the Preface And the tolerable Understanding of the same Points which are necessary to Confirmation with this owning of their baptismal Covenant shall be also required of those that are not confirmed before their admission to the holy Communion Let it be lawful for the Minister to put other Questions besides those in the Catechism to help the Learners to understand and also to tell them the meaning of the Words as he goeth along Alterations in the Catechism or another allowed Q. WHat is your Name A. N. Q. When was this Name given you A. In my Baptism Q. What was done for you in your Baptism A. I was devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and entred into his Holy Covenant and engaged to take him for my only God my reconciled Father my Saviour and my Sanctifier And to believe the Articles of the Christian Faith and keep God's Commandments sincerely all the Days of my Life Renouncing the Devil and all his works the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh. Q. What Mercy did you receive from God in this Covenant of Baptism A. God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as my reconciled Father my Saviour and my Sanctifier did forgive my Original Sin and receive me as a Member of Christ and of his Church and as his Adopted Child and Heir of Heaven Q. Do you think that you are now bound to keep this Covenant and to believe and live according to it A. Yes Verily c. Q. Rehcarse c. A. I Believe c. Q. What c. A. First c. Q. What be the Commandments of God which you have Covenanted to observe A. The Ten Commandments written by God in Stone besides Christ's Precepts in the Gospel Q. Which be the Ten Commandments After the Answer to What is thy Duty towards God add And to keep holy the Day which he separateth for his Worship In the next let to bear no malice c. be put before to be true and just In the Answ. to the Quest. after the Lord's Prayer after all People put that we may Honour and Love him as our God That his Kingdom of Grace may be set up in our Souls and throughout the World and his Kingdom of Glory may come and that God's Law and not Men's sinful Lusts and Wills may be obeyed and Earth may be liker unto Heaven And I Pray c. Q. How many Sacraments of the Covenant of Grace hath Christ Ordained in his Church A. Two only Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Q. What meanest thou c. A. I mean that Solemn Covenanting with God wherein there is an outward visible sign of our giving up our selves to Him and of his giving his Grace in Christ to us being ordained by Christ himself as a means whereby we receive that Grace and a pledge to assure us of it To Q. What is the inward Spiritual Grace A. The pardon of our Sins by the Blood of Christ whose Members we are made and a death unto sin c. Q. Why are Infants Baptized A. Because they are the Children of the Faithful to whom God's Promises are made and are by them devoted unto God to be entered into Covenant with Him by his own appointment which when they come to Age themselves are bound to perform After the next Answer add And for our Communion with Him and with his Church To Q. What are the Benefits c. A. The renewed Pardon of our Sins and our Communion with Christ and his Church by Faith and Love and the strengthening c. In the Visitation of the Sick let the Minister have leave to vary his Prayer as Occasions shall require And let the Absolution be conditional If thou truly believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and truly repentest of thy sins I pronounce thee absolved through the Sacrifice and Merits of Iesus Christ. If any who is to kept from the Communion for Atheism Infidelity Heresie or Impenitency in gross sin shall in sickness desire Absolution or the Communion And if any Minister intrusted with the power of the Keys do perceive no probable sign of true Repentance and therefore dare not in conscience absolve him or give him the Sacrament left he profane God's Ordinance and harden the wicked in presumption and impenitency let not that Minister be forced to that Office against his conscience but let the sick chuse some other as he please And at the Burial of any who were lawfully kept from the Communion for the same causes and not absolved let the Minister be at liberty to change the words thus For asmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take out of this world the soul of this deceased person we commit his body c. believing a Resurrection of the just and unjust some to joy and some to punishment And to leave out in the Prayer We give thee hearty thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world And instead of it put And the souls of tne wicked to wo and miseryâ— We beseech thee to convert us all from sin by true and speedy repentance And teach us to spend this little time in an holy and heavenly conversation that we may be always prepared for Death and Iudgment And And in the next Collect to leave out as our hope is this our brother doth But in the Rubrick before Burial instead of any that die unbaptized put anythat die unbaptized at years of discretion That the Infants of Christian Parents who die unbaptized be not numbered with the Excommunicate and Self-murderers and denied Christian Burial Let the Psalms in the Parish-Churches be read in the last Translation Let the Liturgy either be abbreviated by leaving out the short Versicles and Responses Or else let the Minister have leave to omit them and in times of cold or haste to omit some of the Collects as he seeth cause In Churches where many cannot read let the Minister read all the Psalms himself because the confused