A CATECHISM FOR BISHOPS DEANS PREBENDS DOCTORS VICARS CURATES AND ALL PRELATICALS FOR Them to Read in the Fear of the LORD GOD and with a meek and quiet Spirit By WILLIAM SMITH LONDON Printed in the Year 1662. A Catechism for Bishops Deans Prebends Doctors Vicars Curates and all Prelaticals for Them to Read in the Fear of the Lord God and with a meek and quiet Spirit THere is in man a Corruptible will an Earthly wisdom and a Carnal mind and where these bear rule there is a strong Enmity against God and all things that be good and under these Corruptible Earthly Carnal things the Seed of God is in bondage and groans under their burden and in that state the understanding of all men is darkned and fast closed that the things of God neither are nor can be perceived And this is the ground of Error when the understanding is so darkned that the things of God cannot be perceived and then not being known as they are in the ground they are supposed to be what they are not and so Opinions drawn concerning them and Professions made of them and a Worship and Service set up in them when they have no savour of God nor agreement with the Scriptures of Truth So for Doctrine men set up Traditions which rise from the many Inventions And from this ground is risen all your Profession and Worship which in your Prelatical Power is set up and unto which you would compel a Conformity and impose it upon all Consciences which is a thing of great weight and needful to be truly tryed and examined before it be so eagerly pursued and so wilfully endeavoured to be imposed Therefore admit in coolness of a true Examination and Tryal by the Spirit of Truth and from the Scriptures of Truth and if your Practice and Worship be found to agree in one without adding or diminishing then you will be freely owned without any Law to compel but if your Practice and Worship be found contrary then be not angry because it is denied and testified against for in so doing you will manifest degeneration from reasonable men therefore hear your Examination cooly and quietly and if Truth prevail then own it and submit unto it and cease from your Traditions but if you have any thing against it then bring forth your strong Reasons and prove them from the Scriptures of Truth that it may be manifest to the understandings of people what is Truth and what is Error And for the better understanding of it here followeth a short Catechism which is given forth in love to the Simple and for you to reade and peruse ye Bishops Doctors Vicars Curats and all Prelaticals wherein you may see Tradition and Truth moderately reasoning Tradition I have heard that there is a God and that he is the maker of all things and I have also heard that from Generation to Generation this God hath been worshipped and served and I think it but my reasonable duty to do as others have done before me Truth One onely true wise God there is who is the maker of all things and is over all things but if thou hast no more knowledge of him than by what thou hearest thou art yet without him and a stranger to him and art an ignorant worshipper and dost not know what thou worshippest and what others have done in Generations past will not make thy service accepted though thou mayest worship in the observation and do all things in the custom of it for it is only the present manifestation of God's Spirit in every man in which God is truly served and worshipped and in which the Service and Worship is accepted Trad. But cannot I come to know God by hearing that which is reported of him and cannot I worship him and serve him by observing what others have done and how they have worshipped in Ages past and so following them for my Example Truth God is a Spirit and makes himself manifest in Spirit and that which is truly reported of him is from the Spirit 's manifestation which all the holy men of God were inspired with and made their Report from and worshipped God in and thou mayest hear this Report and reade it but being from the Spirit of God manifest in thee thou canst neither know God nor truly worship him for God's Worship stands not in the observation but in his living power neither canst thou follow the Example of the holy men of God but by the leadings of the same Spirit which they were guided by and lived in Trad. But it is safe for me to minde the Scriptures and that which therein is reported and to endeavour to observe and do it and then I question not but I shall know God and be a true worshipper of him Truth That which all are to minde is the manifestation of God's Spirit for that is his own gift to every man that they might profit and all that turn to it and believe in it their understandings are opened in the power of it and then the Scriptures are truly known and this is safe and will not deceive any but will bring the assurance with it of Eternal Life for as thou standest in the Questioning so also in Doubting and Condemnation and all thy endeavours will not profit thee or bring assurance of Eternal Life unto thee for it is not in him that willeth or in him that runneth but standing still in obedience to the present manifestation of God's Spirit Salvation is seen and shewed in the Mercy of God So thou must lay down thy life in thy observation which stands in thy Tradition and come to Truths present manifestation Trad. But I cannot know the Truth but by the Scripture for it is the Scripture that makes the Truth manifest and from the Scripture do I set up my Worship and there ought to be a Conformity yeelded unto it and such as will not to compel them by a Law Truth The understanding of Truth is by the Spirit of Truth and the Light of Christ in every man's Conscience makes it manifest and this is reported in the Scripture and is the sure Foundation upon which the true Worship stands and all that come to the Spirit and walk in the Spirit they are truly subject to it and bow before it and yeeld all obedience to the manifestation of it and this is the true Worship and the true Worshippers and they that come into this Worship are not brought into it or made conformable to it by any National Law neither do they seek after any such Law to force or compel others that differ from them but commit it to the Power of God And who comes into subjection to God's Power and are made conformable unto that they are the true Worshippers and their service is performed unfeignedly without any deceit or hypocrisie and they appear not so much in an outward Conformity as in Simplicity and godly Sincerity in which they are approved in the sight
down in thy Book of Common-Prayer and with mouths and lips so often repeated be thou silent and make no mention of it for thou hast nothing to do with it and though thou hast the words to speak yet thou dost not perform the duty of Prayer being from the Spirit that maketh Intercession with groans that cannot be uttered For Prayer stands not in words but in power and the breathings go forth in secret and the Father that seeth in secret he rewardeth openly and the Babe receives a supply of what it stands in need of and this is performed in the Spirit that knows the need and makes requests with sighs and groans unexpressible and also moves unto words and expressions and here is the unlimited Power which worketh according to the good pleasure of its own Will which thou hast limited in thy set Forms and made Prayers having given forth thy Directions what must be said and how much at a time and people must say no more nor go no further and sometimes thy Minister must say and sometimes the People must say and sometimes the Clerk must say Is not this thy practice in thy Common-Prayer-Book-Worship hast thou not made Epistles and Gospels and Collects and appointed them for their dayes and times and hast thou not made a Letany for thy Priest to say a part and the People to say a part and hast thou not given directions how People must be Married and hast set a Form and made Prayers for the performance of that Service and also how People must be Buried and what is to be said and done in that Service and what the Priest is to say and what the Clerk is to say And hast thou not set a Form and made many Prayers when Bread and Wine is to be received which thou callest a Sacrament and hast thou not set a Form of words for the Priest to say unto the People when he gives it and how it must be received and what words the Priest must speak kneeling and what standing and when he must turn his face to the People and speak with a loud voice and when he must turn his face another way And hast thou not set a Form and made Prayers for Women to be Churched and what the Priest must say and how he must pray in that Service And hast thou not set a Form and made Prayers for Children when they are sprinkled with Water which thou callest Baptizing and hast thou not ordered that there shall be some people provided to undertake for them and hast not thou given them the names of Godfathers and Godmothers and hast thou not ordered that for a Male-Child there must be two Men and one Woman and for a Female two Women and one Man and hast thou not set a Form in words what the Priest must say unto them and what they must say unto the Priest And hast not thou ordered that after all these things performed which thou hast invented then the Priest to pronounce the Peace of God and the Blessing of God upon all the Congregation and then the Service is concluded And is not this thy Common-Prayer-Book-Worship in which thou art limiting the Holy One through thy Tradition and teaching people to ask and pray when the Spirit is not felt to help them And have not people been long asking in thy formed words but have not received neither are they satisfied Oh thou adulterous Tradition what monstrous births hast thou brought forth and what names hast thou given them and how like are thy names unto that which is true Thou hast given thy formed words the name of Prayer and canst say Come let us pray when thou neither feelest the movings of God's Spirit nor his Power but in thy own words which thou hast made and formed canst speak in thy own will and in thy own time and give it the name of Prayer and with thy names hast thou deceived the Nations who have not understood the nature and thy named Church and Preaching and Praying hast thou vailed over with coverings of thy own making which are now rending off from thee and thou canst not hide thy self any longer under the Names for now is the Nature seen in the pure Light of Christ which makes all things manifest and thy Common-Prayer-Book is seen to be conceived in thy adulterous womb and to branch forth from the Pope thy Eldest son and thou art made manifest to be out of the Truth and thy Service and Worship contrary to the Scriptures of Truth and to the Saints Practice who prayed with the Spirit and with the Understanding Trad. But what if my Common-Prayer-Book do not fully agree with the Scriptures and the Saints Practice yet there are many good things in it and many Scripture-sentences which may edifie and comfort Truth That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that is against the Spirit and can neither edifie nor comfort though good words and Scripture-sentences may be spoken for it is not speaking the words of others that doth make a true Prayer or a living Sacrifice but the receiving a measure of the same Spirit of Prayer and Supplication and to feel it poured forth by which Intercession is made and a living Sacrifice performed holy and acceptable which is not in thy Common-Prayer-Book to be found therefore it is made of none effect because thy bowels bring it forth and the Pope gives life and breath unto it and from his loyns it draws its strength and not from the Power of God Trad. I see it is a very hard matter to be owned and received in this day for I could not have been believed that I should have ever been opposed or my Church Preaching or Praying denied but my Singing which is another part of my Worship that is so plainly manifested to be the Saints Practice that certainly there is none can deny that Truth Singing is owned where it is rightly used and practised and who are raised out of the day of mourning by the Power of God and have a Psalm given them in the Spirit they may sing and make melody in their hearts unto the Lord and this is a Spiritual Song which is put into the mouths of the Babes who sing with the Spirit and with the Understanding but David's words being rimed and then tuned and the mouths of Hypocrites filled with them is such a practice as the Saints never used so that the mouths of all thy Singers must be stopped who have never mourned nor have not learned to sing with the Spirit and with the Understanding Trad. But there may be some that are joyful in the Lord and though all cannot witness that state yet they may sing whose right it is Truth None in the Fall have any right to sing but the Ransomed return with Songs and these Songs are not David's words put into meeter and then tuned and sung with a vain mind but the living Praises of the Lord sounded forth of the Babes
compel any man to pay or part with any of his Increase contrary to his own freedom or else to sue him and imprison his body and spoyl his goods for he himself would not be so done unto So that what thou hast provided for the maintenance of thy Bishops and Ministers is not according to the Truth of God nor answereth not to the Maintenance of Bishops and Ministers in the Primitive times who first gathered people unto the Spirituall before they reaped their Carnall and they had no need to compel the Carnall by a Law after they had gathered them to the Spirituall and brought them to taste of that there was then an openness and a freeness begotten in their hearts to minister their whole Substance and to lay it down at the feet of them that had begotten them into the Truth and laboured amongst them in the Service of God and here was no seâ—â—ing out any part of what was encreased and a Law to compel it either of the Ninth or Tenth or any other part but the whole Substance freely offered and so much taken of it as there was need And this is as truly trusted in the hands of true Bishops and Ministers now and they receive what they need and no more and whether it be the Tenth or Twentieth or Thirtieth part If it supply their need they are truly contented and so they gather Flocks and feed upon the Milk of those they have gathered and plant Vineyards and eat the Fruit of them but do not compell by any outward Law Milk to be given them out of another Flock nor Fruit out of another Vineyard So that thy decent Order which thou speakest of is proved Confusion and Disorder being out of the life and power of Truth and all thy vain Tradition is seen with the pure Light of Christ in which all things are made manifest and with the Light and Truth thou art reproved Trad. Certainly this thing which makes such discoveries of my practices and with such boldness reproves me for them it is of God for it is not in any fear of me or my Power which now is strong and in great authority and unto which I had thought all would have bowed without disputing or questioning but I see there is that risen that appears against me and makes such discoveries of me that I cannot keep hid any longer therefore I shall let it alone and deal with others that I can cause to be subject for the more I deal with this Manifestation of Truth the more is my Tradition discovered and opened unto all People so that it is safest for me to be quiet and let it alone lest by striving to uphold all I come to lose all and so be rejected and disesteemed and all my Honour and Dignity wherein I now stand be laid in the dust and trodden upon And if I had thought that there had been such a thing made manifest in this Age as the Truth I should have been more reserved and retired but I had thought I might have boasted and gloryed in my own handy-work and that it would have passed without being questioned as heretofore it hath done but now I see it is otherwise therefore I shall be silent Truth That which doth discover thee and thy deceitfull practice that is a Manifestation of God and is the Truth of God which was before thou hadst a name and will abide when thy name is lost and it doth boldly reprove thee and is without any fear of thee or thy power and hath opened thee and ript up thy bowels and discovered thy adulterous womb and all the false conceptions that have been conceived therein and it hath made manifest thy first-born and eldest son unto whom thou hast given a name and calls him the Pope of Rome and thy younger Children are also by the Truth discovered and the names which thou hast given them by which thou hast deceived the Nations Now behold ye Arch-Bishops Lord-Bishops Deans Prebends Doctors Vicars Curates and all Prelaticals here is the womb of your conception opened and that made manifest from which you draw your breath and prolong the length of your dayes with all your Service and Worship which you so much esteem and promote and labour to compel a Conformity to It is here discovered in the Power of Truth and you may see by perusing this Catechism in moderation your great degeneration from the Life of the Prophets Christ and the Apostles and how the Names invented and the Worship by you practised differ in the ground from the Practice and Worship that the Saints performed in the Power of God's Spirit Where have you from the Scriptures or the Saints Practice any Precept or President for your builded Church of Wood and Stone your Bells hanging in the end of it and to toul and ring them when you would have people come together to your Worship your set-time before mid-day and your set-time after mid-day to meet together and perform your Worship your Common-Prayer-Book and your Letany and your Prayers divided and appointed when and how to be said your Preaching in your methods and forms your Text taking and your Doctrines raising with your Uses Reasons Helps Motives Arguments and Applications your Singing in the riming and tuning your Bishopricks and Diocesses your Deanries and Prebendries your Doctors Vicars and Curates your Tithes and set Maintenance your great Livings and lesser Livings your Parishes and places of Settlement your Mattens and Evensong your Organs Rails Altars Fonts Sacraments Crossing Children in their foreheads and sprinkling Water in their faces and calling it Baptism your Anthems and your Singing-men and Boyes to sing them your Hoods Surplices and Tipits with many other things which by you are observed in your Service and Worship that the Lord never commanded nor the Saints ever practised nor any Scripture to prove the lawfulness of them Therefore consider the rise of them and the truth of them before you pursue so eagerly to impose them or compel a Conformity to them for tender people who are come to the least manifestation of Truth they cannot bear such an Imposition upon their Consciences though by Laws and Statutes you may strive to impose them and proceed against them as transgressors if they deny submission to them yet will not your Cruelty bring tender People into a Conformity to your Traditions and if you will but consider coolly and pursue this Catechism soberly you will see that it is not reasonable to compel a Conformity unto those things that you are setting up and practising in your Devotion and Worship or to impose them upon the Consciences of any people but rather leave all to stand in their own liberty and to chuse or refuse as they are perswaded in their own Conscience which is but a reasonable thing to be granted for if you see no further in your selves than that which Tradition hath brought in and set up and you in your Conscience be perswaded of
its lawfulness and perform it as a matter of Conscience would you think it reasonable to be compelled from that unto another thing and have another thing imposed upon your Consciences by any outward power which you do not feel a perswasion in your minds unto And if this seem hard unto you if it should be so done Then is it not the same unto another And will you not do unto others as you would have others do unto you And why cannot you be contented in your own perswasion and your own liberty in it without imposing it upon the Consciences of others who are otherwise perswaded And this is not reasonable in the sight of moderate men therefore leave off exercising Lordship that all people may stand in their Liberty and walk as they are perswaded in their own Conscience and impose not your Observations and your Traditions upon any who are not in themselves perswaded of their lawfulness for that makes many Hypocrites but can never make one Christian So there must be first a perswasion wrought in the Conscience and a belief in the Truth and Lawfulness of what is to be observed or the heart can never stand right unto it though it be in great strictness imposed And this brings people but into an appearance and to make a shew of the thing outwardly when the heart is not after the thing which is imposed upon them and when a Conformity is not yeelded as by your Law is required then to proceed in your Cruelty to imprison and persecute the tender-hearted who cannot for Conscience-sake bow to your Traditions This is not reasonable before moderate men nor approved in the sight of the living God Therefore hear and consider ye Bishops Deans Prebends Doctors Vicars and Curates with all Preâ—â—ticals and let your moderation appear for the Lord is at hand and in his Eternal Power your way he is trying and you must come up to the Bar of his Judgment-Seat and give an account and think it not strange to be catechised for you have need to be taught what the first principle of the pure Religion is and if you will but soberly peruse this Catechism you may know and learn that which your Universities could never give you the knowledge of nor all your Learning and Wisdom could ever teach you And in love to the Simple hath Truth opened it self plainly and simply that you might come to know that which in the darkness hath from your eyes been hid and that you might no longer oppose it and persecute those that walk in it but leave Truth to its operation which brings forth true and perfect Freedom and if you did but know the Truth and the Freedom that is begotten in it you would not be so envious against it and set up your Tradition in opposition to it But this is done that the Scripture might be fulfilled they hated me without a cause And this is your honour and worldly glory which lifts you up in pride which God is staining And now do you believe that your Foundation is right and your Building safe I tell you Nay for God will destroy both it and you if you do not speedily cease from it and repent of it and do not busie and throng your selves so much to promote it and to finish it for God hath determined to overthrow it for ever Oh ye deceived men who have no strength but in your Tradition nor no comfort but from the milk of her breast you have been long drawing and sucking and yet are dry and lean and your immortal Souls receive no refreshing nor satisfaction Why are ye so blinded and so much deceived and cannot otherwise be perswaded but that Tradition is the right way and from that Conclusion endeavour an Imposition upon every Conscience when their Faith stands not in the same thing nor are not so perswaded of it as you are and what have you to do to impose Tradition upon the Consciences of others more than others to impose their Opinions and Judgments upon your Consciences And would you judge it reasonable that any should so do unto you And if it belong unto you to do it on your parts more than others to do it on their parts then make it manifest how and from whom you have received that power For moderate men are now satisfied that Schools and Colledges cannot give it you and they are also satisfied that Christ doth not give it you and also that there is no Scripture to warrant you therefore Truth enquires moderately of you from whence and from whom this Imposing Power upon the Consciences of others you receive seeing it is made manifest that you walk by Tradition and not after Christ For Imposition and Persecution are an evident Testimony against you and fully open and make you manifest to be of a contrary spirit unto the Apostles who were hated and persecuted yet they loved and blessed and here they manifested their love unto Him who commanded that they should love their Enemies and do good to those that hated them and they were his Disciples and kept his Commandments And all that truly follow him in this day he begets in them the same mind and they keep his Commandments with joy and dare not persecute any people upon the Earth for their Opinion and Judgment in matters of Religion nor dare they impose any thing upon the Consciences of others by any outward Law but leave it to Him that judgeth righteously who hath the Ruling Power over the Conscience and as he is believed in he works a perswasion in the Conscience unto the Truth as he makes it manifest and then the Truth is joyned unto from a true Perswasion and not from an outward Imposition and you are not to judge in these things for in so doing you take his Right from Him and set up that which is not his and when you have done it then you labour to impose it upon every Conscience And this is a quite contrary thing to the Saints practice who durst not set up any thing that did not stand in the Power of God and when the Power had brought any thing forth they did not impose it upon the Conscience of any by an outward Law that they thereby might compel a Conformity to it but they preached it in the Power and so commended themselves unto every man's Conscience in the sight of God Therefore behold your degeneration and what hath happened unto you in this apostatizing night of darkness in which you have erred from the right way and gone astray from the leadings of God and from the Power of his living Spirit and so have brought forth your own dead works and are serving the living God in them And what you have sought out in your Tradition that you have set up for Doctrine and Worship and would bring all people to bow unto it but now the day declares you and in the Land of Tradition the Light hath found you and the habitation of your dwelling-places is seen under the Groves and green Trees of your own planting and moderate people cannot come unto you nor inhabite with you for your Rest is polluted and sudden destruction is coming upon it Now all Bishops Deans Prebends Doctors Vicars Curates and all Prelaticals turn to the Truth and lay hold upon it and let Tradition go for Truth was before Tradition and the Truth will bring Tradition to an end So your Foundation is not safe nor your Building steadfast but stands in the unstable waters of your own humane Inventions and not upon Christ the Rock of Ages And now Truth hath moderately enquired after you and having found you out of the Life of the Prophets Christ and the Apostles it warns you all to Repentance that the Judgment may be diverted and the hand of Severity stayed which certainly is hastening down upon you without speedy Repentance So escape for your lives that the stroak may not fall upon you and smite you down into the Death for ever Now all you High and Mighty Wise and Learned Ones give ear and hear Truth 's Testimony and see if you can reade the Parable and learn what it means Truth I was a stranger in a far Country and amongst a strange people and under the Government of a strange King I was in great Captivity and a great distance from the Land of my Nativity and I had many heavie Yokes laid upon me and the strange people did evil entreat me and the strange King did sorely oppress me and laid heavie Burdens upon me and when I had any desires towards the Land of my Nativity then did the strange King rise up against me and sorely afflicted me and was cruel towards me I sought how I might get forth of his Country that I might be freed from his Cruelty I sought but I could not find I travelled in sore pain but could not find a man to give me ease Then my sorrow did much encrease and my anguish was sore upon me so that I was near unto fainting and despairing yet a secret hope sometimes rose in me that I should be delivered and set free Then I came into a stillneâ—â— and in quietness stayed and in patience waited though I was desolate and sore afflicted and being brought to stand still add in patience to wait a Deliverer I found near at hand and from the Land of my Nativity a pure Light did shine and in it I see the way opened which passed through the Land and I presently joyned to the Light and it went forward towards the place from whence it came and I followed it diligently Then did the King and People rise to pursue me to have taken and to have kept me but the Light took my part and smote the King with his People and discomfited them and brake the Yoke and removed the Burdens from me it was my guide and led me by the hand and from the wicked King and People it me redeemed Then wâ—s my sorrow turned into joy and my mourning into songs of praises for Deliverance came by an out-stretched Arm and my Freedom was wrought by an invisible living Power unto which my Testimony stands for ever TRVTH In outward Bands at Worcester but inwardly free in the Life of my Well-beloved THE END