A TRIALL OF OVR CHVRCH-FORSAKERS OR A MEDITATION TENDING TO STILL THE passions of unquiet Brownists upon Heb. 10.25 Wherein is Iustified against them that the blessed Church of England 1 Is a true Church 2 Hath a true Ministry 3 Hath a true Worship By ROBERT ABBOT Vicar of Cranbrooke in Kent Mat. 11.19 Wisedome is Justified of her Children Hosea 2.1 Say to your brethren Ammi and to your sisters Ruhamah LONDON Printed by Thomas Payne for Philemon Stephens and Christopher Meredith and are to be sould at their shoppe at the signe of the Golden Lyon in Saint Pauls Church-yard 1639. REverendo in Christo Patri ac Domino Domino Gualtero Episcopo Wintoniensi serenissimae Majestati ab Eleemosynis Aureae Periscelidis Praesuli Clarissimo Domino suo intimè observando Robertus Abbott librum hunc quo Celebritas Anglicanae Ecclesiae ministerij cultus asseritur qui Ecclesiae matri ut pacifici amoris pignus dicatur ad perpetuam observantiae Justae memoriam ut magno in eadem Ecclesia Patri ejusdemque causae Patrono humiliter dat consecrat TO MY DEARE MOTHER THE MVCH HONORED HOLY AND BLESSED CHVRCH of ENGLAND DEare and blessed Mother thou hast been long pestered with undutifull yea unnaturall sons Sometimes they have beene superstitious sometimes prophane and for some yeares some that have professed themselves best to God have beene undutifull to thee It is an ill signe if children acknowledge a father and deny a mother that all hath not beene well Doest thou live in perpetuall adulteries and rebellions that thy children renounce thee Surely thy love is to thy husband alone Though when thy husband knowes of it and hee doth not mislike it nay gives thee generall allowance thou takest some ornaments and Iewels from blessed and good men yet is thy heart to Christ continually yea and all thy carriages are according to his will Many of thy worthy sonnes have vindicated this truth both against Rhemes and Amsterdame They could not indure that their mother should be called whore much lesse prooved so Amongst the rest I thy unworthy sonne have appeared in thy cause renouncing all the bloud in my heart that riseth against Christ and thee his spouse If I appeare of too mild a temper thou hast not begotten me of murthering mettle but of that word which makes us turne speares and swords into mattocks and sythes How soever I look I am sure I am thy child And if I have done thee any honour in this poore service I am glad if not yet I have done the best that I thought fit for these opposers and so with my humble prayers for the flourishing and increase of thy peace and truth I kisse thy hand and rest Thy obedient sonne to his utmost power ROBERT ABBOT TO THE COVRTEOVS AND CHRISTIAN READERS ESPECIALLY TO HIS OWNE Parishioners grace and truth and peace with the Churches of God in CHRIST DEarely beloved I have lived now by Gods gratious dispensation above fifty yeares and in the place of my allotment two and twenty full How unprofitably so ever in the dayes of my vanity when the world the flesh and the Devill bore sway yet through undeserved grace painefully ever since the weight of a peoples care was noticed to my conscience I have had great labours some watchings many strifes and contentions with my selfe and others about truth and godlinesse And though I have earnestly contended that the mouth of the oxe might not be muzled that treadeth out the corne but that J and others of Gods labourers â—ight live honorable of the gospell and at the Altar at which we serve as Christ hath ordained yet with a good conscience I can say as the Apostle I have coveted no mans gold or silver or apparrell I have loved and desired to spend and to be spent though the more I love the lesse I am loved of some few I know that J must lay downe this tabernacle and the time of my dissolution is not farre off Therefore doe I more seriously beginne to thinke of my state and doe set upon it to examine how I am like to be presented before the tribunall seate of God WheÌ„ I thinke of my sinnes and manifold infirmities I feare quake through the sight of the maiesty purity and iustice of God but when I think of Christ the mediator of the new testament and of the infinite value of his bloud offered in the dearenesse of Gods love and applyed rested on by faith which the holy Ghost in a saving measure hath given me I approach with confidence and the lifting up of my head But till that time come I lie under the expectation of flouds of sorrowes streames of temptations and other humane infirmities I pray that J may doe nothing that may dishonour Christ my master and that I may suffer nothing that may drive me from him and his service J know that the wasters of grace are strong and many and that no goodnesse is entayled to us without great care and vigilancy I know that sinnes and afflictions are the two great enemies of perseverance And though sinne be the most powerfull which yet through grace I have learned to trample upon with the constant acts of piety and charity according to my measure yet afflictions are my next care which if they bee slighted will make secret inrodes to hindâ—r peace with God My afflictions have not beene so weighty as millions of Gods deare saints have felt In this Gods grace hath beene marvellous because hee knowes my weakenesse to beare and my unworthinesse to bee a souldier in that warfare yet have they not beene so little as that they have not made me work enough It is grievous to bee slighted of them whom a man dearely loves and to have contempt powred upon that which comes in fulnesse of strength and tendernesse of affection to doe good Jt is hard not once scarce to be thanked for constant travels to edifie and save soules It is something to see respects fly abroad in full measure to strangers when nearer relations are forgotten But to bee persecuted by the tongues of those a man deserves well of and to be privily smitten of those from whom best incouragements are due will wound the heart of a David though he be after Gods owne heart J have of long suffered words of diminution and disparagement They have beene my meate drinke and cloathing Though when I have beene downe the wind of weakenes feeblenesse of spirit haâ—â— given advantage for a deepe impression yet blessed be God as strength hath appeared I have kicked at them with chearefulnesse though pride and folly hath sometimes misinterpreted this also I have often looked into the cause Lord what have I done Have I not lived like thy servant though with much sensible weakenesse have I not laboured in thy vineyard with all my strength have J not taught thy truth by taking heede to reading and doctrine yes surely saith my conscience I have
all that came into their communion They would runne into invited and unnecessary dangers This they called martyrdom whether they suffered from themselves or others I am sure also that our forsakers will not owne these for their setters up in all points if for nothing else yet for this they had Bishops Heere was a separation long and irkesom yet surely they will not be of such an episcopall separation Thirdly besides the separatiō of Lucifer who falling at odds with Eusebius Vercellensis about the ordination of honest Paulinus departed in choler from the peace of the church and made a proud breach wee reade about the yeare after Christ three hundred seventy one of one Audeus a Syrian who raised up by the cōmon opinion of his zeal and integrity a company of followers who would not pray with other Christians and Bishops crying these downe as being too rich who also gave this reason of their separation that in the bosome of the church were suffered usurers and impure livers These sometimes dwelt in solitary places by themselves and sometimes in the suburbs of cities They fained also great holinesse and chastity and dreamed God to have mans forme and humane parts But their sect outlived not their persons and I am sure also that our forsakers wil not acknowledge themselves to bee of this condemned breed Fourthly when the thoughts of the best christians were taken up with more weighty matters and the necessity of times had invited them to faith and doctrine or the vaile of darkenesse had covered too many hearts these pettie sidings beganne to vanish and were at last utterly extinct till the light of the Gospel shined upon the church with fuller glorie againe Then as the enemy troubled the wheat with blasted corne our forsakers say they had a church againe In king Henry the eights and Luthers dayes they finde say they some congregations upon their bottome And indeed wee finde in stories that some of their vaine opinions crept into the heads of some right godly persons in other points who were ready to suffer for Christ and did so for it is hard not to fall from one extreamity to another if sound judgement according to the rule given doe not poise the lightnesse of affections But these in Germany were crowned with the name of Anabaptists whose doctrine and practise to overthrow the Church and state are well knowne and as well confuted and condemned by Luther Calvine Zanchius and an whole army of others But our forsakers I am sure will not own these in all points neither will they owne them because they forsake them also in some Fiftly therefore wee must goe lower yet and if wee come to the daies of blessed Queene Elizabeth after divers strugglings for excesses which surely is no friend to the Gospel among variety of judgements which know but in part wee meete with one Browne who first raiseth a new platforme of all the tenets of our forsakers if yet by time and age they have not made them worse This man after hee had infected some by preaching found meanes to poison others by writing of his Estate of true Christians and other pamphlets His conceits within this last age have lived and died by turnes as they have been the objects of discontēted or quiet spirits If humble soules have met with them they have seene in them the poison of peace the renting of the seamelesse coate of Christs church the building upon a covenant of workes and the hindering of the progresse of the Gospell in faith and love But if they have beene cast upon a raging sea of an unquiet and disjointed heart they have bred Barrowes Greenwoods Penries Robinsons Iohnsons Aynsworths and Smiths the onely men so farre as I know of that full straine who have tasted of more or lesse learning ill placed from Christs time downward Seeing therfore Browne is the first full-father of our forsakers who raised up their building to that height they would faine maintaine it at surely they can have no other name of justice then Brownists which they must hold except they can prove that theirs is a newer way Indeed Browne did afterward fall away from them and his owne tenets for the most part But seeing the first authour justly gives the name as that carpenter that builds an house for the building of it though afterward hee burne it down therefore I cannot bee so unjust as to suffer them by mee to bee called by any other then that they received from him in his new christianity If now you aske the issue of this discourse it is to draw to this conclusion that this church of theirs was never heard of till Brownes time and so I argue thus That which never was a true church from Christs time to the daies of Queene Elizabeth was not a true church then nor is a true church now for the gates of hell must not prevaile against it But the Brownists church was never a true church from Christs time to the dayes of Queene Elizabeth Therefore it was not a true church then nor is now as they would have it If they say that some of their opinions were of old I confesse it is true But let them shew but one church which either positively in all points which make their church to them a church or negatively in denying contrary tenets held by the true church and then they shall bee the true church for mee But it may bee they will say that the church of Rome thus disputes against us It is true and so doe wee against them about their church built up by the late councell of Trent affirming confidently that there was never one church but was under the curse of that councel if it had beene of force before But when they plead so against us wee goe to that which made true visible churches in the Apostles dayes and ever since that is professed submission to the rule of faith in the scriptures and a profession of faith in the trinity especially in Jesus Christ our Lord that rocke whereupon the church is built and so long as we have this wee feare not their plea. If they say that they doe thus much to make them a true church also It is true they doe it as wee doe and yet they denie us so doing to be a true church except wee be of their new covenant If therefore they cannot finde a church of that covenant till Brownes daies how can they bee a true church which hath never failed nor ever shall Let them duely consider this issue and God give them understanding in all things SECT 5. Of that name they would have Separatists and how unjustly assumed as a title of honour IT is most true that they are loath to acknowledge the name of Browne their father not sticking to brand him with the livery of a turne-coate if not Apostate and surely deserves to bee soundly
and the sacraments of his covenant rightly administred and thus by degrees wee fall to publicke profession of Christs truth by union of lawes consents and practises What then is the want in our entrance which doth make us no true church The Brownists heere plead foure things 1 All our members entred not upon knowledge 2 They made not a covenant for Christ 3 They were not voluntary professours 4 They were baptized when they were the seede of those that were not members of the visible church by actuall profession That all our members entred not upon knowledge is false were they in planting from no church or in reforming from a corrupt church Surely the knowledge of the doctrine of salvation by the blessed trinitie is sufficient for the receiving in of members For Christ saith Goe teach all nations and baptize them And whâ—t must they bee taught That which they must bee baptized into their faith in the father son and holy Ghost which was Christs first creede that made churches Had not the members of our reforming church this knowledge where was the seede of our many hundreds of Martyrs and where is these mens charities Even the darkest times that our church hath suffered hath preserved this knowledge and the profession of looking to bee saved by Iesus Christ the sonne of the living God which is that Rocke against which the gates of hell shall not prevaile Yea but they say secondly put case they had this knowledge yet they entred not into our visible church by covenant Indeed it is lawfull for christians that have beene disjointed in the service of God to make covenants betwixt themselves to serve him better So Asa and his people entred into a covenant to seeke the Lord God of their fathers yea and they sware unto the Lord. So wee reade of the Princes Levites and Priests that made a sure covenant writ it and sealed it Surely this was a good way to tye up the unruly colts that were among them to Gods service if they had but naturall conscience and the Prophets did not condemn it From whence I conclude that it is lawfull to helpe our selves in the service of God by any meanes not forbidden though it bee not precisely commanded in the word yet is their practise a binding law to us so far as to unchurch us if wee doe it not How many glorious visible churches doe wee reade of in the scriptures which never tooke this course nor were bound unto it and yet entred covenant with Christ too when they were admitted members They were made Christs disciples by teaching and receiving the word which is the word of reconciliation And this word given to his people is Gods covenanting with them and his avouching them to bee his peculiar people and their receiving it is their covenanting with him and taking God to bee their God Then doe they goe to the seales of the covenant the sacraments according to Christs rule which doe knit us rogether in an holy league for the service of Christ to our eternall good if wee doe not deale falsly with God concerning his covenant If therefore they denie not as they cannot that our first members had the true word of God and sacraments neither can they deny that they have entred into the church by covenant Hee that is baptized putteth on Christ and baptisme is Christs seale of the covenant upon them that are baptized as those that were circumcised were said to bee borne to God by covenant which if we breake we renew againe so oft as we come to the supper of the Lord. Yea but they say thirdly put case that they entred covenant with God by baptisme yet were they forced to keepe his covenant in a better way then they had done by the edicts lawes and proclamations of princes They were not voluntary servers of Christ as the members of a true visible church should be Put this case to them also yee are the sonnes of your mother who was forced by the authority of her father or guardian to marrie your father will yee say that yee are bastards not lawfull heires or not true members of the family because your mother was not married to your father freely and willingly with what will soever shee was married shee afterward lived in love faithfulnesse and obedience and brought forth much fruit unto him Such may bee the case of a true visible church Shee may come to Christ her husband as a Beare to the stake being forced by conviction and the power of naturall conscience she may bee drawne before shee runne after him yet afterward shee remembring his love more then wine may live in obedient love and bring forth fruit unto God Though this bee a sufficient plea yet let them know that the first members of our church in planting were a willing people for ought they know and for our first members in reforming I answere foure things First that the free acts of the leaders of the people are accounted by God as the acts of all when Moses was bid tell the children of Israel and hee did but tell the elders of Israel and they answered all the people are said to answer together in them So Ioshuah called twelve choise men out of every tribe a man to carry twelve stones and the children of Israel whom they represented are said to do it So Asa tooke away the altars of the strange Gods and brake the idols and cut downe the groves willingly and though hee commanded his people and ruled by power yet they obeying are said to seeke the Lord and to prosper Thus far then our first reformers were willing members they were willing in their guides and leaders who willingly put themselves on to advance the kingdome of Christ Secondly not onely the governours but the people were willing covenanters in generall body It was done by the free proceedings of the house of parliament where Knights and Burgesses were chosen by the free vote of the commons and they being knowne to be able men doe refer themselves to their determination in the Lord. What though some submitted out of feare of power Thus many in Mardocai's time became Iewes for feare yet were so accounted And many in Hezekiahs time were brought by postes as it were by the sound of the trumpet to the passeover and yet their service was accepted Thirdly put case the lawes and proclamations of our Princes forced some to bee members who were willing to doe worse It was not in the first planting of a church where faith is not to be forced the kingdome of heaven suffers violence but faith suffers not compulsion but it was in the reforming of a church and in such a case God did blesse the compulsion of Hezekiah and the people were not rejected as no members though they were not purified according to the purification of the sanctuary Did not Manasseh after hee
the worthy receiver It doth the first as a signe the bread and wine of the Lord these proclaime to all comers that Christ is to bee had in the use of them if they bee so disposed as they should to take him It doth the second as a seale the bread and wine which is the communion of the Lord. These proclaime to the faithfull that they shall not onely have bread and wine but Christ the Lord as that Mannah that came downe from heaven to feede them to eternall life The wicked Christian hath a right unto it as it offers grace which he hath truely offered to him on Gods part in his invitation if hee will take it on Gods condition The same right that Simon Magus had to baptisme have wicked Christians to the supper of the Lord. He professed himselfe to believe in Christ upon Philips preaching and he had a right to baptisme and was baptized It is true that baptisme is a sacrament of our ingraffing into Christ and the Lords supper of our growing into Christ But he that is a baptized Christian and hath understanding to examine and judge himselfe cannot be denyed his right to this sacrament as wel as to that Both are but the seales of one covenant and whosoever receiveth the word of Christ and professeth to accept it by faith hath a right to the offers of the grace of Christ in both the sacraments but not to the exhibiting of it if the barre of impure unbeliefe lyes betwixt God and his soule If secondly you aske what benefit this wicked man can have by this sacrament I answer hee hath the benefit of profession he doth receive Christs liverie of servants and doth submit himselfe to his ordinance and acknowledge his publick authority for the benefit of his church And this is a glorious benefit in it selfe for a christian to weare Christs badge But hee doth not receive the benefit of the body and bloud of Christ with the benefits of them to life For if he did thus eate his flesh and drinke his bloud hee had eternall life He brings his soule to the sacrament without the conditions of the covenant written upon it and so though he accept of the offer of grace in the signe yet hee carries not away the seale of it no more then Iudas did from the passeover His right and benefit therefore will bring little comfort to him at the last when his reckoning comes Thirdly this wicked man having a right to it and a benefit too such as it is to him you aske what separation Gods word will warrant from such communicants I answer that I cannot finde in the word of God that any separation was made in the sacrament by the godly from the wicked not cast out for their unworthinesse All the â—ewes that were circumcised and not cast out of their synagogues were to eate the passeover or dye the children that could eat as a sacrifice of thanksgiving and growne persons as a sacrament seale of Gods covenant So all christians that are not infants mad-men fooles and excommunicates who cannot examine and judge themselves or are after conviction notorious offenders and so cast out are not repellable if they come from the sacrament of the Lords supper It is true wee reade much in the writings of men of suspensions from this sacrament even of those that were neither children fooles mad-men demoniacks nor excommunicate persons by private ministers but I would see this for the right of it soundly proved by the undoubted rule of Christ I have read also that the blessed Fathers in the wary discipline fit for their times did not onely proclaime before the sacrament by their Deacons depart ye that are novices possessed and under your penance for your crimes but would not also admit any but the believers and the baptized so much as to see the sacrament I have reade also of the cautelousnesse of those holy men in admitting penitents to the Lords table As they first admitted them into the limits of the church next to lye down as humble suiters to forget scandall at the church porch next to heare but not stay prayers next to heare and stay prayers too next to see the sacrament of the Lords supper but not to receive it and lastly when they were sufficiently humbled and edged to those high mysteries they were admitted to the Lords table These courses had high and excellent use in those times when they were to lift up the honour of the sacrament in the sight of infidels and hold close such christians as played fast and loose with Christ as peace or persecution came And though they had not particular warrant from God yet it being done decently in order and for edification of the body had warrant sufficient from that generall rule As I have reade these things of times past and admire them so I know for the present that it were a glorious and comfortable thing if none but holy persons would draw neere unto this holy table as wee deale withall our communicants by way of exhortation and perswasion from the danger of Iudas This certainely is fullest of joy when Christ meetes with none but his faithfull servants and not one unworthy to trouble the day But if wicked Christians that are not lawfully convicted and are not notorious in law though they bee notorious in fact whether these when they will offer themselves to the sacrament as Christs servants professing his name to their owne hurt be to bee separated from by the word of Christ this is the question I know we may by way of admonition before hand tell them of the danger and by way of perswasion presse them better to prepare themselves but wee may not for their sakes discommon our selves from the table of the Lord. If it were the table of devils away we must goe but being the table of Christ if others abuse themselves at it without our fault wee must accept of Christs love and leave it to Christ to punish him or them that doe dishonour them You know many theeves in this christian common-wealth will you therefore separate your selves from the common-wealth because these theeves are in common body with you No you will leave them to the lawes of it to bee punished and as it lies in your lot doe your best to further it but you will not forsake the common-wealth So must you doe to the table of Jesus Christ The blessed Apostle saith we have received power to edifie not to destroy And if wee should fall out with Christs supper for wicked mens sake and separate from Christs ordinance because wicked men will not use it as they should and breake off from many godly persons because more wicked persons are not excommunicate for any thing I know we may more destroy then edifie But say the Brownists holy things must not bee cast to dogs and swine the childrens bread must not be
the tenth part what therfore else can satisfie conscience that it erre not But they will say that â—thes are Jewish ceremonies which are aboâ—ished It is easie to say so but not so easie to prove For Jewish ceremonies are shadowes of things to come the body whereof is Christ Let them shew from Gods word that tythes are so accounted I am sure than God blames the faulty performance and resting in ceremonies but hee never blameth the neglect of ceremonies as of tythes when hee saith ye are cursed with a curse for yee have robbed me even this whole nation in not paying tythes Yea we never read that ever Christ said so much of any Jewish ceremony as of tythes these things ought ye not to leave undone If it be said that this maintenance cannot be proved out of the new testament I say that this wil trouble any man to prove for when Paul proves out of the law that the ministery of the new testament hath maintenance due doth he not say so hath the Lord ordained that hee that preacheth the Gospel should live of the Gospel and how is that As they of old lived at the altar by tythes so we now Againe doth not the Apostle say that tythes are due to the ministery of Christ that lives because they were due to Melchizedech to whom Abraham payed them as a Priest and tythe-taker and type of Christ who therefore should receive them but those that are in his stead to beseech you to be reconciled unto God The same reason that God gives why Levi should have Gods portion because God is his portion is it not true of ministers whom alone hee hath taken to bee ministers of the new testament It is true they are not Priests after the order of Melchizedech as Christ was yet the High-priest of our profession hath ordained us to live out of his portion which must bee his tythes due to him or else our consciences can never bee setled what it is Let them duely weigh this and when they can salve it up well as in the sight of God then may they heare of much more we hate Judaisme as much as they but we cannot beare that title except it be inflicted by Christ himselfe And thus by the helpe of God I have cleared their second exception upon which they separate because wee are not a true ministery SECT 15. The Brownists last opinion upon which they forsake our Church because wee have not a true worship WE are now come thorough Christs helpe unto their last exception against us which concernes the worship of God amongst us as if wee had not a true but an idolatrous worship of the true God This they doe so much detest and so do we too if they can prove it that they cannot with any good conscience have communion with us in it Doe not wee cleave to the onely true God by knowledge repentance faith feare love confidence joy thankfulnesse patience and adoration Doe wee not know God to bee the onely true God and therefore give him his true worship in spirit and truth according to his word Doe we not pray to him knowingly faithfully zealously penitently and obediently desiring to be made better Doe we not preach and heare his word carefully and reverently desiring to know and doe Doe wee not administer the sacraments of Christ and receive them with a desire and purpose to enter covenant with God to bee his people and keepe it unto our lives end Doe we not in all these lament our defects and others labouring to helpe what we can and what we cannot patiently suffer and lovingly mourne till Christ in the day of judgement fanne away the chaffe Doe we not publickely solemnize the Lords day that in the publicke use of Gods ordinances wee may learne to bee better and doe better till wee come to the full age in Christ Jesus How then can it be imagined that wee should not have a true worship Yes say the Brownists your worship is Ceremonial typical and stinted contrary to Christs will who would have you worship him in spirit and truth First they say it is a ceremonial worship will no worshippe please them but a slovenly one unbecomming the person of that God whom wee worship If our ceremonies were part of the worship as they of the Jewes or proper worship as many are reputed in the Church of Rome then they might talke aloud but when they are but outward accidents for the well and orderly carriage of the worship of God what hurt is in them Will it grieve any man to see Christians to worship their God in an humble comely and reverend way Nay would it not vexe any good soule to see them to doe otherwise They say that Christ was more faithfull in the house of God then Moses If therefore Moses prescribed Gods worship onely according to the patterne given much more doth Christ to which it is wickednesse to us to adde Indeed Christ is more faithfull then Moses for the law was given by Moses but grace and truth by Iesus Christ Moses gave a perfect shadow of our reconciliation under types but Christ gives a perfect body which hath nothing but truth in him and not a shadow of things as the things of Moses But what is this to decent ceremonies which are not types and shadowes of Christ and his but onely documents and signes of our humble and reverend respects to God As faithfull as Moses was yet even then had the Jewes ceremonies of order and comlinesse which were not disallowed by God or reprooved by his Prophets There are two sorts of ceremonies such as corrupt the worship of God and such as doe preserve by advancing the worship of God If they had made any types of Christ which God had not made they had corrupted the worship of God as the Brownists doe who when we tell them of the acts of the kings of Iudah about the worship of God they presently without the warrant of God tell us that they were types of Christ They may 〈◊〉 well say that the kings of other nations were types of Christ too because the Jewes were to have Kings according to other nations But when the devout Jewes did by their owne ceremonies labour to carry the worship of God in the most becomming way in this they did preserve the worship of God by advancing it Thus Salomons peace-offering was commanded but his advancement of that service was permitted to himself when he offered two twenty thousand oxen and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep Did he now goe against the faithfulnesse of Moses when he commanded it not Did hre not likewise honour God with the solemnity of seven dayes and seven daies without particular warrant He was commanded to pray but when hee added this ceremony of his owne fit for that time of jubilation to stand before the Altar
Master For hee saith that what he received of the Lord he delivered unto them but he doth not speake one word of the gesture Therefore sitting is no act of Religion the gesture is left to the Church they may kneele or Paul is unfaithfull Lastly if they kneele not they bring juster censures upon themselves then they can give to us that kneele which they are bound to avoid As they be justly charged first to worship God by the will of man and so in vaine For to place a worship of God in sitting or standing rather then in kneeling is a worship of God by the will of man because they have no such warrant from God Secondly they be justly charged to adde to or take from the Word and so to corrupt it For all impositions upon the conscience which God hath not warranted are such additions But such are these new traditions as kneele not but stand or sit touch not taste not which things perish with the using Thirdly they are justly charged to have communion with the worst hereticks For Arrians doe directly deny the Divinity of Christ and to professe themselves to doe it they will not kneele at the Communion of the blessed Body and Bloud of Christ but sit These charges they lay upon us but more justly they lye upon themselves because we make not kneeling an act of worship from men or an addition to the Word but onely an act of good order to witnesse our reverence to God who is plâ—ased to give us such a pledge of his love How they will answer these things to God I know not They either cannot or will not answer them to me onely they put in their plea against kneeling in the act of receiving which I shall now labour to remove They mainly urge the example of Christ that he and his Disciples sat at the supper But all the world is not able to prove that they sat at the delivering and receiving of the Bread and Cup. Hee sate down indeed with them but then hee tooke he blessed hee brake he gave what gesture hee used in blessing they cannot tell Certainely if according to Scripture examples hee either kneeled or stood then whether after his blessing they sate downe againe let them tell me Never let them dreame that hee sate as a shadow of rest in heaven for let them shew that Christs pleasure was to ordaine shadowes in the New Testament when the body was come and Canaan that old shadow was to be cursed or if hee did I le tell them that Paul was an unfaithfull servant that would not teach that shadow to the Corinthians to whom he professeth to deliver what he received But grant that Christ did sit what hee occasionally did is no example to binde us to doe the like but as by occasion hee administred at night after supper with unlevined bread so hee might occasionally sit according to the ceremony of the Jewish Church at the Passeover Besides if they would sit because Christ sate they must sit as hee did or else they doe not imitate Christ but Christ might sit a sacrifice way or lying along and leaning which they doe not observe But put case they sit not in every point like Christ yet they tell us of the fitnesse of this gesture to signifie our fellowship with Christ on earth and in heaven Thâ— they will ordaine a significant ceremony against us but not for us And in truth they dreame so much of fellowship with Christ that they forget him to be their Soveraigne King and Lord and so are too sawcie with him But for the Table gesture will they have all other formalities at a Table fit for the Table of the Lord Iâ— not why must this alone be fit when Christ hath no said so Besides if Table gesture be urged Christs example doth not binde For his was not a common Table gesture but onely used at sacrifices and sacred Feasts when they did discumbe or lye along Had Christ told us that this was the fittest gesture we should have rested in his pleasure but he having left it at liberty and even common understanding judging of it fittest to receive a seale of a pardon upon the knee as the greatest signe of thankfulnesse used for such a favour why wee should not take it up wee cannot yet see Yea but say they we doe not only looke to the fitnesse of sitting but to the beginning of kneeling It was begun by a wicked Pope in honour of the breaden God and therefore not to be continued by us Put case this plea were true yet that which was misapplied to the honour of a creature may I hope be rightly applied to the honour of our God for else no man may sit because the accursed Arrians have brought in this sitting at the Sacrament to dishonour Christ And the Pope seconds them who sits then in state to advance himselfe above all Gods people both Kings and beggars But the truth is that no Pope brought in kneeling in the act of receiving It was brought in by him indeed at the Elevation and when the Sacrament was carried in procession but not as we doe use it They have no Law that I could ever yet read of save onely for the Pope himselfe to receive it sitting but onely the Law of Custome and Convenience to receive it kneeling Put case all this bee true yet say they the use of kneeling stickes with them They doe not know why they should kneele now seeing kneeling is a part of GODS worship or a signe of it It is no part of Gods worship or signe of it in it selfe for then wee might not use it in civill or ordinary things Indeede wee are exhorted to it which shewes the lawfulnesse of it as wee are to praise GOD in the dance and to clap our hands but there is no Precept which bindes it to GOD alone The Servants of GOD have sometimes stood and sometimes sate reverendly before the LORD and sometimes laine along that GOD might have his worship in all gestures left free to the users But why should they speake of worship heere when wee neither require kneeling to worship the consecrated Bread by no nor him that doth administer the Sacrament but to testifye our humble thankefulnesse to GOD for our pardon sealed There remaines now nothing of worth under this head but their readie obedience when GOD shall humble their mindes and quiet their hearts that they may live in peace and worship with us The second and third things that trouble them are in our Baptisme and are the Crosse in Baptisme and the Responâ—es or Answeres of the Godfathers and Godmothers in the childes name As for the Crosse I wondred alwayes that private persons should once name it seeing it concernes the consciences of us that administer not of infants that receive it who by it are made neither better nor worse