there promised to do you shall be an able and faithful Minister of the Church of Christ The exhortation runs in these Words YOV have heard Brethren as well in your private Examination as in the Exhortation which was now made to you and in the holy Lessons taken out of the Gospel and the Writings of the Apostles of what Dignity and of how great Importance this Office is whereunto ye are called And now again we exhort you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you have in remembrance into how high a Dignity and to how weighty an Office and Charge ye are called That is to say to be Messengers Watchmen and Stewards of the Lord to teach and to premonish to feed and provide for the Lords Family to seek for Christs Sheep that are dispersed abroad and for his Children who are in the midst of this naughty World that they may be saved through Jesus Christ for ever Have always therefore printed in your remembrance how great a Treasure is committed to your charge For they are the Sheep of Christ which he bought with his Death and for whom he shed his Blood The Church and Congregation whom you must serve is his Spouse and his Body And if it shall happen the same Church òr any Member thereof to take any hurt or hindrance by reason of your negligence ye know the greatness of the fault and also the horrible punishment that will ensue Wherefore consider with your selves the end of your Ministry towards the Children of God towards the Spouse and Body of Christ and see that you never cease your Labour your Care and Diligence until you have done all that lieth in you according to your bounden duty to bring all such as are or shall be committed to your Charge unto that agreement in the Faith and Knowledge of God and to that ripeness and perfectness of age in Christ that there be no place left among you either for Errour in Religion or for Viciousness in Life Forasmuch then as your Office is both of so great excellency and of so great difficulty ye see with how great care and study ye ought to apply your selves as well that ye may shew your selves dutiful and thankful unto that Lord who hath placed you in so high a Dignity as also to beware that neither you your selves offend nor be occasion that others offend Howbeit ye cannot have a mind and will thereto of your selves for that will and ability is given of God alone Therefore ye ought and have need to pray carnestly for his holy Spirit And seeing that you cannot by any other means compass the doing of so weighty a Work pertaining to the Salvation of Man but with Doctrine and Exhortation taken out of the holy Scriptures and with a Life agreeable to the same consider how studious ye ought to be in reading and learning the Scriptures and in framing the Manners both of your selves and of them that specially pertain unto you according to the Rule of the same Scriptures And for this self same cause how ye ought to forsake and set aside as much as you may all Worldly Cares and Studies We have good hope that you have well weighed and pondred these things with your selves long before this time and that you have clearly determined by Gods Grace to give your selves wholly to this Office whereunto it hath pleased God to call you So that as much as lieth in you you will apply your selves wholly to this one thing and draw all your Cares and Studies this way and that you will continually pray to God the Father by the mediation of our only Saviour Jesus Christ for the heavenly Assistance of the Holy Ghost that by daily reading and weighing of the Scriptures ye may wax riper and stronger in your Ministry and that ye may so endeavour your selves from time to time to sanctifie the Lives of you and yours and to fashion them after the Rule and Doctrine of Christ that ye may be wholesom and godly Examples and Patterns for the People to follow Tim. I confess this is very serious and weighty and do acknowledge I never perused or pondered it before Tit. Add to this that daily Prayer at the end of the Confession And grant O most merciful Father for his sake that we may hereafter live a godly righteous and sober life to the glory of thy name Is not the Minister concerned in this as well as the People when he saith and grant that we may c Tim. Yes without doubt and by Gods help hereafter my Practice shall be more conformable to my Prayers Tit. Pray God it may for evil Ministers 't is the phrase used in this Article are most odious to God and injurious to his Church of all others One such impious Wretch by his ungodly life gives such a wound to Religion and the Cause of God as many of his Brethren though exemplary both in life and Doctrine are not able to heal Besides I tremble to think of the Reward of such a Minister in another world and what he will be able to plead for himself to the great Bishop of Souls the Lord Jesus at his general and final Visitation Rev. 22.12 I beseech you therefore Tim. remember the weight and excellency of your Calling and the solemn Promises in the face of the Congregation made to God then when you were admitted to it Not forgetting your Obligation by Baptism which is the subject of the following Article you are next to read Tim. I give you my hearty thanks and hope these things will make an impression upon me for good Tit. I shall rejoice to see it Go on ART 27. Tim. Baptism is not only a sign of Profession and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be not Christened but it is also a sign of Regeneration or New Birth whereby as by an Instrument they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church the Promises of the Forgiveness of Sin and of our Adoption to be the Sons of God by the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed Faith is confirmed and Grace increased by vertue of Prayer unto God The Baptism of young Children is in any wise to be retained in the Church as most agreeable with the Institution of Christ Tit. You see here what high and noble priviledges are signified and sealed to us by our Baptism Regeneration Adoption and Remission To which our Church explaining this Article in her Catechism adds Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven What Obligations to an holy Life can there be greater or stronger than these Tim. None surely Tit. Add hereto the Covenant on our part to renounce the Devil and all his Works to believe the Articles of the Christian Faith and obediently to keep Gods Holy Will and Commandments and to walk in the same all the days of our Lives Which Covenant unless we perform and keep we have no right to or benefit by the
much in adding to as in taking from what is contained and prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer for the Act establisheth that and no other the Ceremonies therein contained and no more For your fuller satisfaction read the words of the Act in this point they are these And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid that no form or order of Common-Prayers administration of Sacraments Rites or Ceremonies mark that shall be openly used in any Church Chappel or other publick place of or in any Colledg or Hall in either of the Vniversities c. other than what is prescribed and appointed to be used in and by the said Book note that also And lest once mentioning of this should not be sufficient you have afterwards when the said Book with the Prayers Rites and Ceremonies prescribed and appointed by it is named these words and no other again repeated What think you now Tim Tim. I think bowing towards the Altar and bowing at the name of Jesus are works of supererogation and not at all meritorious For the Act seems not only not to enjoyn them but to forbid them in as much as they are no where contained in the said Book Tit. Thus you give offence and become a scandal to weak brethren where you need not nay in things you ought not Tim. I see it and hope I shall avoid it for the future and shall endeavour my brethren of the Clergy about me may do the same Tit. I wish they may But there is that which is far worse than all this Tim. What should that be brother Titus Tit. Thank you Sir for that friendly title I wish we of the Clergy were all true brethren in heart and deed that we might all speak and do the same things as our Rule requires I am pleased I say with this expression of amity and 't will make me the more free in my talk with you as well as serious Tim. The more free the more grateful for you have gained upon me by your plain dealing and strong arguments Go on brother with what you were about to say was worse than the addition of those Ceremonies Tit. 'T is this brother That many of our publick Preachers some ignorantly some I fear designedly oppose and preach down the very Articles of our Church which they have subscribed and which we all are bound to maintain and keep close to which hath been matter of great grief to me to consider Tim. But surely there are none do this Tit. As sure as you are there too many and if I mistake not you for one and that too oft Tim. I am not conscious to my self I do or ever did Tit. I confess I have so much charity as to think so and that your sin is a sin of ignorance because you said but now you never read the Articles Though I must tell you Tim 't is vincible ignorance for that you have not read them is your own fault Tim. No I profess they are so scarce to be got that I know not where to have them and I withal so short of money that I know not how to purchase them Tit. To remove this obstacle and cure your ignorance in some measure here they are I hope you can read as well as preach Tim. Yes yes I am not so ignorant neither pray let me see them Tit. Hold not without Conditions Tim. What are they Tit. Nay reasonable enough First that you will stay so long here as to read them over deliberately and Secondly admit of a short debate as we pass along upon some of them and then tell me whether I do any wrong to you and many others in saying that your Doctrines and theirs do not admirably well agree with them For I meddle only with those that have subscribed yet do not keep to them Tim. All this is highly reasonable and I readily yeild to it Tit. Begin then and read carefully not hastily Article 1. Tim. There is but one living and true God everlasting without body parts or passions of infinite power wisdom and goodness the maker and preserver of all things both visible and invisible And in unity of this Godhead there be three persons of one substance power and eternity the Father the Son and the holy Ghost Tit. Hold now what think you of this Article Tim. Mighty well sound and good and no body surely but believe and approve it both in part and in whole Tit. I am afraid not how else come you and many others to discourse sometimes against and deride what is contained in it I don't mean the being of a God for tho' some in their works and with David's fool in their hearts say there is no God yet I know you dare not do it in words But that which is next door by they dare and do say Tim. What 's that Tit. That there is no Providence Tim. Admit it wherein doth that cross this Article that hath not a word of Providence in it I don't see but a man may think so and yet safely subscribe this Article Tit. Right 't is what I expected and doubtless there are many of your judgment but what if I prove a Divine Providence governing the world and all that there is and after that prove too that this first Article of our Church plainly asserts it Tim. Then I shall say I never understood it Tit. A worthy satisfaction for your gross wilful ignorance and the great mischief you have thereby done to the Christian Religion and the Church of God established amongst us Tell me what think you of those words of our Saviour Mat. 18.29 30. Not a Sparrow falls to the ground without your father and the hairs of your head are all numbered I think this bids fair to prove a protecting preserving disposing providence and that not only as to the great changes and revolutions in Kingdoms and Nations but even as to smaller matters such as relate to you and me and every man nay to the very beasts and birds And he that shall seriously consider the workings of God now in the world and even in that spot of it which we inhabit and think how the wise and profound Polititians of Rome are baffled in their enterprises and detected in their hellish Plots and Counsels even beyond their expectation or belief must either put out the eye of his Reason or else he must needs see and adore a special hand of Providence acting for us to admiration What prevented the further designed mischief from taking place when London was put in flames if providence did not How came the late as well as former Popish Plot against King the Kingdom our Religion and Lives to light but by providence In a word Tim think then say what was the safeguard of our present gracious Sovereign in many battels when divers fell on his right hand and left in sundry pursuits and in foreign Countries and what restored him to his Rights Crowns and people without
am convinced it had been as well to have let these high points alone Tit. As well and much better had you spent your time and exercised your Talent Tim upon the 10 Commandments Preached down Atheism Idolatry Drunkenness Whoredom Swearing and such immoralities and in Preaching up Faith Repentance Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness you would have done God better service and had more thanks from your Reverend Diocesan than for your yelping against Predestination Election stability in grace c. without measure or reason and as you acknowledge your self without understanding 'T is a miserable reproach to our Church to see Buzards soaring at that which is above the Eagles flight Tim. I shall be more carefull for the time to come and lay out more hours dayly in Reading than ever I have done Tit. 'T is well resolved and to that forget not to add daily and serious praying and it may not be amiss to insert into your private devotions those requests of our Church Lighten our darkness we beseech thee O Lord and forgive us all our sins negligences and ignorances But 't is time we dismiss this and look to the next Article Article 18. Of obtaining eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ Tim. They also are to be had accursed that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth o that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law and the light of nature For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved Tit. What is your judgment touching this Article Tim. My judgment is that our Church is too scanty in her charity to damn the greatest part of the world even many Heathens who have lived admirable good strict and moral lives according to the Religion and light they had and for ought I can see the Patriarchs to boot and all that lived before Christ Tit. Not a word on 't Tim For all that our Church saith in this Article is That the Profession of every Religion cannot save a man live he never so virtuously and that no man ever was or shall be saved but only by the name or Faith of Jesus Christ This doth not condemn the Patriarchs or those before Christ who believed in him to come and whose Faith was every way as beneficial to them as ours believing in him now he is come and the Apostle recounting many of these Heb. 11. saith these all dyed in the Faith Tim. But then what shall become of the poor Heathens Tit. Our Church determines not but wisely saith whosoever among them or any other fort of Mankind are saved are saved by the name or Faith of Jesus Christ and no other And gives you her reason because the holy Scripture doth set it out so to us saying through his Jesus Christs name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Act. 10.43 Act. 4.12 neither is there Salvation in any other for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved So that the charity of our Church in this point is every whit as large as the Scriptures will allow And this is the Faith and Confession of the Reformed Churches d. Confess Helv. 2. ar 10.11 and 2. Ch. 11.13 Basil ar 4. Bohem. c. 4.10 Gall. ar 13.16 17. Belg. ar 17.20 21. and therefore whether your charity Tim or your ignorance be the greater I will not say but this I say to subscribe to such a number of unintelligible Articles unsight and unseen was no Mathematical demonstration of a wonderfull wisdom in you Tim. But it was a sign of the greater Faith Tit. Yes a Popish or implicit Faith by virtue of which if the Imposers honesty had not been of a better stamp than your Faith you might have under-written to the Alcoran or Mass-book as well as the Articles Tim. No hold there Tit. Why what should have hindered nay how do you know you did not since you never lookt what it was Tim. But who could divine but I would Tit. That 's somewhat indeed for I believe they don 't often meet with such blind Believers which may make them as you say somewhat the more wary But if the worst had come to the worst you could have come off tutâ conscientiâ Tim. How so Tit. As you do with the Articles which you believe have subscribed Tim. How is that Tit. Deny them all or many at least of the most considerable of them Tim. What won't go down must come up and there is an end on 't Tit. Then I hope the next will down glibb for I know nothing in it that is the least choaky Try Article 19. Of the Church Tim. The visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful men in the which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duly ministred according to Christs ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same As the Church of Hierusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred So also the Church of Rome hath erred not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith Tit. Well are not my words true there is nothing sticking here Tim. Yes something that sticks with me a little and doth not go so smoothly off as I expected Tit. What should that be you believe such a thing as a visible Church of Christ don't you Tim. Yes but not this description of it Tit. Wherein is it faulty Tim. The fault is this that our Churches charity in my mind is as much too great in this as it is too little in the former Article Tit. How so prithee Tim. Because by this description of a true visible Church she allowes some of the Fanatick Congregations to be true Churches or at least true members of the visible Church of Christ for in some of these Congregations the Word they say is purely preached and the Sacraments be duly administred according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same Tit. And if it be so why should they not be reckoned among those parts that help to make up the whole Tim. What without the Common Prayer and Ceremonies these true Churches or true Members of the visible Church of Christ God deliver me from such Churches Tit. Why the Article doth not tell you these are necessary to the constitution of a Church but only the Preaching of the pure Word and right Administration of the Sacraments Tim. Well they are none of our Church I am sure Tit. True no more are the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas yet parts and members of the visible Church of Christ and our Church is no more But I find Tim. you have a greater kindness for Socrates Plato and other Heathen than for these Dissenters for you could be content even now the former might be saved but for the Salvation of these latter Tim.
aforesaid Priviledges Nay our Baptism will prove but an aggravation of our Condemnation in the day of Judgment and an unbaptized Heathen would not change estates at that day with such a baptized Christian Moreover we who are made Ministers do most solemnly devote and dedicate our selves to God to holy services and gaining of souls as the Deputies of Christ in the day that we enter into holy Orders And if none of all these bonds will hold us certainly we are the worst of men and deserve the highest Censures the Church can inflict upon us And our Church will never be glorious till all such Apostates be either throughly reformed or totally ejected out of her Tim. I hope I do forsake all the Works of the Devil Tit. Except Drunkenness and Swearing Tim. Truly 't is very seldom In a passion perhaps an Oath may slip and when I meet with good Company I am loath to part and apt to be merry but 't is rare And bating these I think I have no fellowship with the Works of darkness Tit. But there is another Vice I know not whether you will allow it a Work of the Devil or not you are almost incurably infected with for 't is Chronical Tim. What 's that Tit. That which I think in a Minister as bad as either of the former Tim. I can't imagine what you mean Tit. I mean Sloth horrible Sloth and Idleness spending little or no time in fitting and improving your self for the difficult and weighty Duties of your Office And this Vice exposeth you to the rest and all other whatever Besides this makes you so profoundly ignorant that you are not able in any tolerable manner to defend our Religion against Papists and Sectaries and your weak defence of the Truth confirms them in their Errour and makes them cast off all thoughts of reconciliation to our Church Doubtless therefore Idleness in a Minister is a great sin a woful shame and the Mother of many sins And till I see you reform this I shall have small hopes of you as to the rest But this is all I shall hint to you from this Article which puts you in mind of your Priviledges and Obligations by your Baptism Now proceed ART 28. Tim. The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the Love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another but rather it is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christs Death Insomuch that to such as rightly worthily and with Faith receive the same the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ and likewise the Cup of blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ Transubstantiation or the change of the Substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord cannot be proved by Holy Writ but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament and hath given occasion to many Superstitions The Body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper only after an heavenly and spiritual manner And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith The Sacrament of the Lords Supper was not by Christs Ordinance reserved carried about lifted up or worshipped Tit. You may read the two following for they both relate to this ART 29. Tim. The wicked and such as be void of a lively Faith although they do carnally and visibly press with their Teeth as S. Augustin saith the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ yet in no wise are they Partakers of Christ but rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the Sign or Sacrament of so great a thing ART 30. The Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the Lay-people For both the parts of the Lords Sacrament by Christs Ordinance and Commandment ought to be ministred to all Christian men alike Tit. What is your sentiment of these three Coherent Articles and what do you observe from them Tim. I think they contain very sound Doctrine and I observe our Church throws out Transubstantiation and Half Communion Tit. Nothing else Tim. No What Observations do you make from them Tit. Such as I think reprehend both your Practice and Doctrine Tim. Pray what are they Tit. First this Twenty ninth Article which with the rest you have subscribed ex animo to be agreeable to the Word of God declares That wicked persons Vid. Canon 36. void of lively Faith receiving the Sacrament in no wise partake of Christ but rather to their own condemnation And doth not your Conscience tell you you have been oft such a Receiver Tim. I bless God not in the least Tit. I am sorry for it For whoever continues in any known sinful Courses open or secret is a wicked Person Now to omit secret Impieties not observable by Man yet are not by any Coverts to be hid from the notice of God your Swearing and Drunkenness and Ideleness are publick sinful Courses and continuing in these as you do hitherto I cannot learn by this Article how you can be a worthy Communicant at this Sacred Ordinance nay I wonder you do not tremble to think of that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. He that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgment to himself Tim. But before I come to the Sacrament I repent of these miscarriages Tit. What Repentance without Reformation This is new Divinity Repent of Sin and not forsake Sin The Scriptures teach us other manner of Repentance than this Repent and turn Ezek. 18. and Let the wicked forsake his way Esa 55. And our Liturgy will tell you in her Confession That true Repentance consists in sorrowing for Sin sorsaking Sin and living soberly righteonsly and godly for the time to come Besides had you this lively Faith in Christ which our Church saith is necessary to make us worthy Receivers I must tell you it would purifie your heart and reform your life 1 John 3.3 He that hath this hope c. Believe it therefore that Faith and Repentance that consists with the allowed and daily practice of such soul irregularities in the Life will never render you a worthy Receiver at Christs Table on Earth or procure you admittance into his Kingdom in Heaven Often read this Article and take this Reprehension and Warning by it in good part which you must needs do if God give you 〈◊〉 heart to reflect seriously upon your Life and Practice Then 〈◊〉 Another thing the reading of these Articles brings to mind and I would 〈…〉 is this Did not you once instigate your Church warden to present a great part of the Youth of your Parish for not coming to the Sacrament at Easter Tim. I did so V. Canon 112. and 't is agreeable to the Canon which requires all Men and Women of the Age of Sixteen years to receive and to be presented if they neglect it Tit. These are the Words of the Canon I know and I